The Voice in the Wilderness, Part 1

Lord, we are grateful so much that, Lord, you allow us to be together on this day. And we ask that the things that we learn would enable us to better serve you. We pray the things we learn would enable us to see, see our hearts as you see it. That we might always ask you to search our hearts to see if there'd be wickedness in us. And that you'd lead us in the way of righteousness, the way of everlasting life. And pray, God, that you would open our eyes that we might be able to see glorious things out of your law this day that will equip us and enable us to live for you tomorrow and for the rest of our lives.

In Jesus' name, amen. Turn with me in your Bible, if you would, to Luke chapter three. Luke chapter three. Believe it or not, we have covered 30 years in just a few short months by discussing the first two chapters of Luke.

I know it's hard to believe that we've covered the first 30 years of the life of John the Baptist and the life of Christ, but that's exactly what we have done.

We have spent the first several months looking at the first two chapters, helping you understand the identity of the Messiah.

Now as we embark on chapter three, we're going to look at the ministry of the Messiah. And when you think of ministry, you want to think of how successful you can be in ministry. And I came across this this past week and I thought it'd be good for you to hear it because it will help you understand how it is you can guarantee that you are going to have a successful ministry. You know, all kinds of people write books about success in ministry and how to have the go and grow in ministry, the best thing going, so people will come to your church and be a part of your ministry.

But this was the best one I ever read. And so I want to give it to you today because I think that if we follow this, this church will literally explode with people. Here it is. This is a surefire method for a successful ministry. Number one, don't go where the people are.

Make them come to you. Hold meetings outdoors. Let the people sit on the hard dusty ground. And if it starts raining or gets cold, too bad. Number two, deliberately wear stuff that is unattractive.

Smelly camel skin clothing works well. At potlucks, eat insects and honey. Scratch a lot. Don't worry about bad breath. And certainly never get your clothes done. Number three, speak offensively.

Assault and insult listeners. A perfect sermon title might be, what do you think you're doing here, you bunch of lily-livered snakes? Number four, embarrass top-ranking government officials by exposing their shameful private lives. And number five, when crowds finally start coming, send them away to another preacher down the street.

That is a surefire method for a successful ministry. All you got to do is ask John the Baptist, because basically that was the kind of ministry he had. And the Bible says that all those in Jerusalem and all those in Judea were coming down to the Jordan to be baptized by John.

Kind of an unattractive ministry. Kind of a different kind of ministry. Kind of a weird type of ministry. But nonetheless, Jesus said, there has yet to be a man as great as John the Baptist. Never has there been a man born a woman greater than John. And that's the kind of ministry he had. And chapter three helps us understand this man and his ministry. It's been 30 years since we first or last read about John.

In fact, over in verse number 80 of chapter one, it says this, and the child continued to grow and to become strong in spirit. And he lived in the deserts until the day of his public appearance to Israel. When you come to chapter three, this begins his public appearance in Israel. Now remember what was said to Zacharias' father, the priest, by the angel Gabriel. Luke chapter one, verse number 13. But the angel said to him, do not be afraid, Zacharias, for your petition has been heard, and your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you will give him the name John, and you will have joy and gladness.

And many will rejoice at his birth, for he will be great in the sight of the Lord, and he will drink no wine or liquor, and he will be filled with the Holy Spirit while yet in his mother's womb. And he will turn back many of the sons of Israel to the Lord their God. And it is he who will go as a forerunner before him in the spirit and power of Elijah to turn the hearts of the fathers back to their children. And the disobedient to the attitude of the righteous, so as to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.

John the Baptist had a very unique ministry. It was a ministry of preparation and a ministry of presentation. He would prepare the people for the coming of Messiah. And then he would present to the people the Messiah himself. He had a fabulous ministry. Short, yes, but it was a fabulous ministry. And we know virtually nothing about John from verse number 80 till around the age of 30 when we come to Luke chapter 3. Now how do we know he's 30 years of age? Well, the Bible says in verse number 1, now in the 15th year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar.

We know that in 14 AD he began to reign. Okay? So now it's in the 15th year of his reign, so it's been, you know, quite a while. And so now we're beginning to put two and two together to realize what John is about to do. But the thing that amazes me is that this has been a private ministry. This has been a private, private time for the first 30 years.

Private for John, basically no one knew much about the man. He was in the desert being trained by God Himself. And how about Jesus? We know nothing about Jesus except for what we read in Luke chapter 2 concerning the episode of the temple that took place when He was 12 years of age. But outside of that, we know nothing. Nothing at all. It wasn't like Gabriel went to Nazareth and said to the people of Nazareth, guess what? The Messiah is in your town, so beware. It wasn't like the people of Nazareth knew who Jesus was because when they come to the fourth chapter of Luke, they're baffled by what He says and how He presents Himself.

And I guess the most startling thing for me is Mary, His mother. Knowing how mothers are about their children and how proud they are of their children and how they want everybody to know how great their children are. Moms are that way. My child's an all-star or my child hit the home run or my child's on the dean's list. My child's an A student. He's just such a sweet little boy. Can you imagine the temptation of Mary? This is my son Jesus. He's the Messiah. He's the king of the world. Look at Him.

He's perfect. He never sins. He's amazing. Look at Him. He's great. But nothing like that ever happened, at least not that we know of. And I doubt that it did because Mary was a very humble person. So, Jesus basically grew up in obscurity in the quiet town of Nazareth. No one knew who He was until His ministry would begin about six months after John's would begin. And John was in the priesthood. I mean, his family was in the line of priests. We study that in Luke chapter 1, right? His dad wore the garments of the priest.

His dad was a great man. And yet John was going to be uninfluenced, uninfluenced by the modern religious system. He was going to be unaffected by materialism. His life was completely committed to doing what God had prescribed for him, that he would prepare the way of the Lord. Every king who came had a forerunner that would go before them and prepare the way. And John was specifically designed to do that. And so, when Luke begins the third chapter, he helps us understand a couple of things.

We're just going to cover the first three verses this morning. I want you to see, number one, the conditions surrounding that voice that would cry in the wilderness.

And then we want you to see the commissioning of that voice. And then we want you to see the composition of the message that that voice proclaimed, because that helps us unfold or Luke helps us see what kind of ministry John the Baptist would have and how it would unfold in the land of Israel. So, let me read to you just those first three verses.

Now, in the 15th year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, when Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea, and Herod was tetrarch of Galilee, and his brother Philip was tetrarch of the region of Iteria, and Trachonitis, and Lysanias was tetrarch of Babylon. In the high priesthood of Annas, and Caiaphas, the Word of God came to John, the son of Zacharias, in the wilderness. And he came into all the district around the Jordan, preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. That's where we'll end this morning.

First of all, the conditions. It's important for us to know that. Now, I'm not going to go into a great detail concerning the historical background and the cultural background of what was happening there. You can read that on your own. That's pretty easy to get in the history books. But you need to understand there are five Gentile names, and there are two Jewish names that Luke gives us, because those names tell us the condition of Israel. They tell us about what has taken place in the land of Israel.

Remember, Israel was pretty much out of idolatry by this time. I mean, they were cured of that through the Babylonian captivity. And so now they're kind of out of that, but yet they're ruled by those pagan Gentiles who are committed to idol worship. And so they have over them a political structure that totally goes against their way of thinking. It goes against their theological background. It goes against what they believe. But yet they're ruled by a man by the name of Pilate. And Pilate, of course, was over Jerusalem and Judea.

There was a man named Lysanias who was someplace in Abilene, which is up near Damascus, which is now Syria. There's also the man Herod, as well as the other man named Philip. They were rulers living in that land. They were corrupt rulers. And they had oppressed the people of God. They had caused there to be a dark cloud over the land of Israel. Remember, this is the holy land. It was ruled by unholy people. And it helps you understand Galatians chapter 4, verse number 4, when it says, that in the fullness of time God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law.

It was at the right time. It was at the fullness of time. It was at the exact moment that God had designed for His Son to come. And this helps us understand what kind of moment it was. It was a time where Israel was ruled by pagan, idolatrous worshippers. And so these people who had been longing and looking for the fulfillment of Abrahamic covenant, knowing that they had a land, and they had the right to that land, and yet it truly wasn't their land, promise of Davidic covenant, but there would be a king who would rule and peace would encompass the land.

None of that had happened. In fact, it had been over 430 years since the last prophet Malachi spoke. And John the Baptist would come into the scene. And what Luke wants us to understand is that this man, this man, falls in line with all the other Old Testament prophets. We'll see that in a moment. But outside of those pagan, Gentile, idolatrous worshippers, there were two other Jewish men in leadership, Annas and Caiaphas. Annas, the father-in-law of Caiaphas, Caiaphas more the upfront guy, Annas behind the scenes pulling the strings, but both of them were corrupt.

Both of them were liberal. They were hypocrites. They were legalists. And so the religious condition of the day was to burden the people with the legalistic system that these men would spearhead. It was a bad day for Israel. It wasn't a good day, but it was the right time for Messiah to come. It was the right time for John the Baptist to come and burst on the scene proclaiming the gospel and Christ to follow Him because He would be the forerunner to the Messiah. It would be in that setting that the gospel would come and the gospel would be preached.

You know, this is good news for us because, you know, when the political system is at its worst and the religious system is at its worst, it always tells us that what is needed is the gospel of Jesus Christ our Lord. That solves everything because the real issue in people's life is not political or religious, it's spiritual. It's the issue of sin and how to deal with sin because that's the problem of society. It's a problem of man. And John the Baptist's emphasis would be on how men could get right with God and how man needed to deal with sin in his life.

And so we go from the conditions to number two, the commission. The Bible says that the word of the Lord came to John.

Which John is that? Well, the John who was the son of Zacharias. So Luke clarifies that this John is the same John in Luke chapter 1, the son of Zacharias, the one who didn't believe when the angel Gabriel came to him that his wife would conceive in her old age and bear a son. So he was mute for nine months while his wife was pregnant. But he gave forth a great prophecy, his great song in the end of chapter 1 to declare the good news about the coming of Messiah and how his son would be the forerunner to that Messiah.

This is that son, John, he's now an adult. He's been in the desert. He's been in the wilderness. Now, if you understand the wilderness, then you need to understand that it is an area at the north end of the Dead Sea. It runs up toward the Galilee, the east of the hill country of Judea. It's a barren wasteland. Every time we go to Israel, we take that bus trip down from Galilee on our way to Jerusalem. We would go through the Judean wilderness. It's a barren place. And I always conjure up ideas in my mind about John the Baptist and how he must have been and where he went and how he slept and what he ate and how he dressed and how he would come in contact with people.

You know, you only get one chance to make a first impression, right? Just once. One chance to make a first impression.

And you can imagine the kind of impression John must have made upon people. I like what it says in John chapter 1 when the religious establishment asked him, who are you? Where did you come from? Who are you? It's almost as if, you know, you don't belong with us. And you know what? That's the way Christianity is. You don't belong with the world. You got to be so utterly different than the world that they ask the question, who are you? Where did you come from? Because we live a life and give a message that is totally contrary to the world.

That's what John the Baptist models for us. And he was a man who on the backside of the desert would wait for the Word of the Lord to come. Now, that phrase, the Word of the Lord, is important because there are two words in the Greek for Word. There's logos and there's rhema. Logos is just a general concept of the Word in its entirety. But logos is a specific statement in the Word. Okay? So there was a specific statement given to John by God that said, John, now's the time. Now you got to go. So the Word of the Lord came to John.

It was a divine call. It was an actual divine call from God to John that says, you know what, John? Now you got to go preach. Now you're ready. Now it's time. And John would respond. It's the exact same phrase used way back in Genesis chapter 15, verse number 1, where it says, and the Word of the Lord came to Abraham. In fact, that's the first time that phrase is used in the Bible, Genesis 15, verse number 1.

And so the Word of the Lord came to Abraham because God spoke to Abraham and he moved him. The phrase is also used over in 1 Samuel 15.10, which says, and the Word of the Lord came to Samuel. Over in 2 Samuel 7.4, and the Word of the Lord came to Nathan. 1 Kings 17, and the Word of the Lord came to Elijah. You can read about it in Ezekiel 1.3, Hosea 1.1, Joel 1.1, Haggai 1.3, Zechariah 1.1, Malachi 1.1, Jonah 1.1, Micah 1.1. Why do I tell you that? It's because Luke wants you to know that John the Baptist is in line with all the other Old Testament prophets.

He's not way out there someplace. He's just like all the other ones. There was just a big gap between Malachi and J.B., okay? We're going to call him J.B., John the Baptist, because that's who he is. And just because there was a 430 year gap between the two, between him and those in the Old Testament, it doesn't mean that he was different, or he preached a different message. He preached the exact same message. And Luke wants to let you know that as the Word of the Lord came to those great Old Testament prophets, so now the Word of the Lord comes to John the Baptist.

And now he begins his ministry. He launches the ministry of Christ by preaching the gospel in the district of Judea, in the wilderness of Judea. He begins to preach the truth. And what began privately with a small, small influence, after 30 years will automatically explode around the region. In fact, Paul would say this to Agrippa in Acts 26, verse number 26. Paul said, For the king knows about these matters, that is, the matters of Christ and His coming and His life, His death, His burial, His resurrection.

He says, For the king knows about these matters, that I speak to him also with confidence, since I am persuaded that none of these things escape his notice, for this has not been done in a corner.

Paul says, None of this escapes your notice, because you know about this. Everybody knows about this, because it has spread all over the world. And what began with an angel coming to Zacharias and Elizabeth, and an angel then coming to Joseph and Mary, in the privacy of their lives, all of a sudden became extremely public. And all of a sudden, you will see as we go through the book of Luke, how all of a sudden this ministry just explodes all around the land of Israel. And the commissioning would come to John, it's time.

It's time to go. And John, because he was obedient, because he was consecrated to God, he would do this thing. And he was different than everybody else. And God would use him in a great way. And I think so many times of John the Baptist, and I think, you know, if we want to be used by God, then we must look at this man, of whom it was said he was the greatest man born of a woman, because he would actually point to the identity of the Messiah.

He was the first prophet to actually say, not only is He coming, that's who He is. And this man did it in an old-fashioned style. This man did it like nobody else could do it, that nobody else would do it. But he was obedient to God, and God used him in a great way. And that leads us to point number three, the composition of his message.

It's very simple. It includes the forgiveness of sins, repentance, and baptism. That's it. But I want you to know something, and you need to hear this very clearly, that every true preacher of the gospel preaches the exact same message that John the Baptist preached. Because what John the Baptist preached, Jesus preached. If you go to a church that doesn't preach what John the Baptist and Jesus preached, you're in the wrong church, because you're not going to get the gospel. It's not going to get it.

Previous church I happened to be the senior pastor at, I began my ministry going through the book of Mark, Mark chapter 1. You don't get too far into Mark chapter 1 when you start reading about John the Baptist and what John the Baptist preached. And so as being true to the Word, I preached the same message John the Baptist preached. I couldn't have found out the leadership of that church did not believe in the message that John the Baptist preached. And I said, well, you got to believe in the message John the Baptist preached.

I mean, it's in the Bible. Well, no, we don't believe that because, you see, he was an Old Testament prophet, and so he preached under the law. Now that we're under grace, we don't preach the same message. I said, well, wait a minute. Are you telling me that you're saved differently in the Old Testament than you are in the New Testament? Know what they said? Yes. I said, you've got to be kidding me. How are you saved differently from the Old Testament to the New Testament? And they said in the Old Testament, you're saved by keeping the law.

In the New Testament, you're saved by grace. And I'm scratching my head thinking, how did I ever get to this church? How did that happen? You have got to be kidding me. They said, no, we don't believe that repentance should be preached. I said, you don't? What do you do with Acts 1730 that God demands and commands all men everywhere to repent? Well, that was a transitional book. The book of Acts is kind of transitional between what happened in the Old Testament and what's going to happen in the New Testament.

I said, man, you guys have an answer for everything. I said, this is amazing to me. And we need to realize, listen carefully, that there are many people in churches just like that one who really think they're saved, yet they've never repented of their sins. Folks, that's a tragedy. That's an absolute tragedy. How do people get there? What happens? That is absolutely the most amazing thing, that people can go to church and they hear a different gospel. The funny thing about it is that they branded me a heretic because I preached repentance.

They thought I was a heretic. I said, well, then if I'm a heretic, J.B.'s a heretic. Very interesting that the last sermon I preached was the death of John the Baptist, the death of a preacher. How he got beheaded because he preached repentance and how he died because he stood firm for the gospel. That was the last message I preached at that church. Kind of God's humor on the whole situation. But you see, you must understand. You must understand. In fact, one day we had a staff meeting, and we had a number of staff at that time, and we were going around the room.

We were talking about the issues of repentance and what was happening in the church. And one lady said to me, she goes, I have a question. She goes, I've never repented of my sins, but I know I'm saved. I said, excuse me? She said, yes, I've never repented of my sins, but I know I'm saved because Jesus loves me, and I love Jesus. And I said, in all due respect, you're not saved if you haven't repented of your sin. She goes, I just can't believe that. I just can't believe that you would tell me that I'm not saved because I don't believe in repentance.

I said, if you haven't repented of your sin, you're still in your sin. You're still in it. And if you're still in it, you're not saved from it. And if you're not saved from it, you're not going to go to heaven. But that was the belief, and still is to this day at that church, that repentance is not necessary, nor is it essential for salvation. So John the Baptist comes on a scene. Now here's a unique thing. John the Baptist comes on a scene in Israel. He's talking to the people of God. He's talking to the people of God.

These are religious people. And you'd think that if John's going to preach a message of forgiveness of sins and repentance and baptism, that he'd go to a Greek city. He'd go to a Roman city. He'd go to a pagan city. You've got to go to the pagan people and tell them they've got to repent. But instead, he goes to the people of God, which begs the question, why would he go to the people of God and tell them that they need to repent? Well, when you think about it, think about Jesus. Think about Jesus and how He preached repentance and how on the Sermon on the Mount, He confronted the religious establishment of His day.

See, Jesus, when He came in, said, you know, you in Israel, you guys are doing a really good job. I mean, you're really striving to keep the law. I commend you for that. In fact, you've added a couple of more laws to my law, so that's probably pretty good. I thank you for that. And you know, you're trying, but you need to try just a little bit harder. So He gives a motivational speech. He gives an encouragement kind of speech, you know, to try to rally the troops and get them on target and try to get them going.

That's not what Jesus did. It wasn't about encouraging them down the same path they were going because they were going down the wrong path. And here was Israel thinking, you know, we are covenant-keeping people. We've been circumcised. We are from the loins of Abraham. We're in the right family. We're in the right nation. We're in the right land. We got the right name. I mean, we are assured of eternal life with God. And if we just keep going down the right path, just keep doing the same amount of things we've been doing, just maybe try a little bit harder, then the Abrahamic covenant will be fulfilled.

The Davidic covenant will be fulfilled. The new covenant will come upon us. We'll have to forget the sins, and everything will be okay. But Jesus said, I want to let you know something. You guys are completely off base because your foundation's wrong. In fact, if you read the Sermon on the Mount, he says, your foundation's built on sand. It's going to crumble. It's not built on the rock. He told him, your prayers are all wrong. Your fasting, it's all wrong. Your sacrificial system, it's all wrong.

And that's why they were astonished at what he said, because he confronted their religious establishment. He said, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you'll never enter the kingdom of God. And they're thinking, huh, you got to be kidding me. The scribes, the Pharisees, they're the religious elite. I mean, they're always in church. They're in church seven days a week. I mean, they're always telling us how to do church. I mean, those guys, if they don't make it to heaven, we're not going to make it to heaven.

And then you say to us that our righteousness must exceed that of the scribes and Pharisees? Jesus said, you're bankrupt. You've got a hunger and thirst for righteousness that you cannot attain. It must be given to you by God himself. So he began to preach to them the truth. Folks, let me tell you something.

Here was the problem with Israel. Israel knew about repentance. They knew the Old Testament. They knew about forgiveness. Here's the point. The point was, they didn't think that they were the ones who needed to repent. That was the problem. They were the ones who thought they were truly righteous. I mean, after all, they did all in their mind the right things. In fact, turn over to Romans chapter 2 for a moment with me. Romans chapter 2. Paul explains to us what Israel's problem was and is to this day.

Listen to this. Romans chapter 2, verse number 17. But if you bear the name Jew, which they did, and rely upon the law, which they did, and boast in God, which of course they did, and know his will, and approve the things that are essential, being instructed out of the law, and are confident that you yourselves are a guide to the blind, a light to those who are in darkness. And they were. I mean, that was their job. I mean, the land of Israel, the people of Israel were to be guides to those who were blind.

They were to shed light to those who were in darkness. That was their responsibility. That's why God chose Israel. And that's why they went to the land of Canaan. And they were to pave the way for people to have a relationship with the living God. And they were to be lights, and they were to guide those who were blind. And then it says, verse 20, a corrector of the foolish, a teacher of the immature, having in the law the embodiment of the knowledge of the truth. You guys have the law. And in that law is the truth.

You have that. And because you have all that, and because you are Jews, because you have the right name, you have all these things. You boast in God. You know the will of God. You know all those things. And then it says this, verse 21, you therefore teach another. Do you not teach yourself? You who preach that one should not steal. Do you steal? You who say that one should not commit adultery, do you commit adultery? You who abhor idols, do you rob temples? You who boast in the law through your breaking the law, do you dishonor God?

For the name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you. Wow. What an indictment. Here you are. You have everything given to you by God. You are the chosen people of God. You have the law of God. You know the truth of God. You know the will of God. You have all this, but you have not personalized it. You have not made it a part of your life. Therefore, you blaspheme the name of God among the Gentiles. The Gentiles look at you and they see not God.

They see not the truth. And therefore, they are being led astray. In fact, if you go down and read verse number 28, it says, for he is not a Jew who is one outwardly. You see, they did everything outwardly. Neither is circumcision, that which is outward in the flesh, but he is a Jew who is one inwardly. See, he gets it right in the head. It's the heart. There hasn't been a heart change. You do everything external. You do everything on the outside. You do everything really kind of good on the outside, but because there's been no heart change, your whole motive is wrong.

You're doing all these things on the outside because if you just buckle your belt a little tighter and you pull yourself up by your bootstraps, you can do enough good things and God will really like you, and God will be pleased with you, and you'll be happy, and God will be happy, and everybody's going to be happy. But that's not how it works. Your whole motive is wrong. It's to please God, to gain acceptance with Him. It's a self-righteous system. And the Jews were self-righteous people. And John the Baptist comes on a scene and says, you know what?

You've got to repent, or you're not going to receive the forgiveness of sins, and you've got to be baptized to show that you're making a public confession to all those around you that just because you're in the right family doesn't mean you're truly in the right relationship with God. That's important. Turn over to Matthew 23 for a moment. Matthew 23, listen to what Jesus says.

Verse 13, but woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, because you shut off the kingdom of heaven from men, for you do not enter in yourselves, nor do you allow those who are entering to go in. I can't think of anything worse than shutting off the kingdom of God from people, number one, because I'm not in, and number two, because I don't want them in.

But Christ is saying to them, you are cursed because you have shut off the kingdom of God to people. Let me tell you something, folks.

If you don't preach repentance, you are shutting off the kingdom to other people. You're keeping them out of the kingdom because they're not going to hear the truth. And by shutting off the kingdom to them, it's because, listen, listen carefully, it's because you have not entered into that kingdom. Did you get what I said? When you don't preach repentance, you are shutting the gospel off to people who want to get in. Can you think of anything more tragic than someone saying, I got to get to heaven, I got to get to heaven?

Well, I just got to believe in Jesus. Okay, well, I believe in Jesus. You're going. It's got to be more than just believing in Jesus, because the demons believe in Jesus, Mormons believe in Jesus, everybody I know believes in Jesus. But it's got to be about repentance. And people wanting to get in, you're shutting off the kingdom. And why are you shutting off the kingdom? And why is it you don't preach repentance? It's because you yourselves have not yet repented of your sin. You're outside the kingdom.

Folks, let me tell you something, this is more pronounced than you'll ever know in modern evangelicalism, that people don't preach the true gospel, because they know if they do, it'll offend people.

You think John the Baptist offended people? Well, yeah, sort of. You think Jesus offended people? You bet. You bet. And I think that we need to stand strong on the truth of the gospel. John MacArthur wrote a book many years ago called The Gospel According to Jesus, the most controversial book he ever wrote. It's because, listen, I'm going to tell you, listen carefully, it's because he separated those who wanted people to get in the kingdom and those who were shutting people out of the kingdom. That's what the real issue was.

These people in modern-day Christianity who were shutting people out of the kingdom, because they didn't believe in the gospel of repentance, and that's the ones who got upset. And those are the ones who wrote the books against his book, because they were shutting people out of the kingdom, because they themselves had not yet repented of the gospel. I know it's a hard statement, but folks, I believe that. I believe that. Why else would you preach against that? Why would you preach against what J.B.

preached and what Jesus Christ Himself preached, unless you had not yet repented of your sins? So here was John the Baptist. He preaches the gospel about the forgiveness of sins. Do you think the Jews knew about forgiveness of sins? You bet. Do you think that they knew about the New Covenant? They knew about the New Covenant, but all these laws were being heaped upon them, and they couldn't keep them. The moral law, the civil law, the ceremonial law, I mean, they were like burdens upon their backs, and that's why Christ said in Matthew 11, coming to me all you that labor and heavy laden, I'll give you rest.

Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am meek and lowly of heart. See, Christ wants to remove all those burdens, because, see, they were being weighed down because they had to keep this law, and they had to keep that law, and they had to be here, and they had to be there, and they just couldn't be everywhere, and they just couldn't do it all, and they were just falling short of the standard, and they knew they couldn't receive the forgiveness of sins. They knew about forgiveness, but they didn't obtain forgiveness, and so the guilt was crushing them.

It was weighing them down, and they could not bear it any longer. So John the Baptist comes preaching a gospel of repentance for the forgiveness of sins, and the whole community was coming out to that. Oh, man, you're going to give us forgiveness of sins? You're going to tell us how our sins can be removed? Oh, we've got to have that, because we are under the weight of all this guilt. Oh, please, John, tell us what it is. John begins to preach that gospel, and that's what people wanted. Now, it's interesting to know that of all those people who came to be baptized based on repentance for the forgiveness of sins were not truly, truly converts, as we will see as we go through the book of Luke, but the message was what they needed to hear, and they knew about the new covenant.

They knew about Jeremiah chapter 31, when the Lord says these words, "'Behold, the days are coming,' declares the Lord, "'when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah. Not like the covenant which I made with their fathers in the day I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant which they broke, although I was a husband to them,' declares the Lord, ''but this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel. After those days,' declares the Lord, ''I will put My law within them, and on their heart I will write it, and I will be their God, and they shall be My people.

And they shall not teach again each man his neighbor, and each man his brother, saying, Know the Lord, for they shall all know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them,' declares the Lord, ''for I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more.'" And that's what every Jew longed for, a forgiveness of sins, a freedom from the guilt that suppressed them, because that's the issue in man's life, sin that needs to be forgiven, and only Christ can do that. They knew what Micah 7 says, where the Lord God says that He separates us from our sins as far as the east is from the west.

You know Psalm 103, verse number 12, where God forgives us of our sins and remembers them no more. That's the way God is. They knew those verses, so they knew about the forgiveness of sins, they just didn't have it. Did they know about repentance? Of course they did. Of course they did. All you got to do is go back to Isaiah, Isaiah chapter 55, it says this in verse number 5. Every Jew knew these verses. Verse 6, "'Seek the Lord while He may be found. Call upon Him while He is near. Let the wicked forsake His way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts.

And let him return to the Lord, and He will have compassion on him, and to our God, for He will abundantly pardon.'" They knew about repentance. They knew about turning from the wickedness of their ways. They knew about turning from the idols that they worshiped. They knew about all that stuff. They knew about what the Bible said concerning repentance because the Old Testament prophets spoke about it. Ezekiel chapter 18, verse number 30, says it this way, "'Therefore I will judge you, O house of Israel, each according to his conduct,' declares the Lord God, "'Repent, and turn away from all your transgressions, so that iniquity may not become a stumbling block to you.

Cast away from you all your transgressions which you have committed, and make yourselves a new heart and a new spirit. For why will you die, O house of Israel? For I have no pleasure in the death of anyone who dies,' declares the Lord God. Therefore, repent and live.'" Folks, that has always been the gospel from the very beginning. Repent and live. No repentance, no life. Repentance, life. That's always been the message. And these Jews, they knew it. They knew about the Day of Atonement. They knew about the scapegoat, when the high priest would take his bloody hands, and after having confessed the sins of Israel, and put his bloody hands on that goat, and that goat was led off into the wilderness, called the scapegoat, never to be brought back again because sin would be removed from the presence of God.

They knew about that because every year on the Day of Atonement it happened. They knew those things. So, here comes John, like a locomotive out of the desert, steaming right for Jerusalem, preaching repentance for the forgiveness of sins. He also preached that baptism, a unique baptism, not one like we have today. This was a different kind of baptism. We'll talk about it next week, but to understand exactly what he was saying and what he was doing. But it was a public confession. You see, here's the sad thing.

Israel has the law of God. The law of God helps us understand God, but they had no relationship with God. See, that's the difference between religion and a relationship. There are a lot of people today who got religion. They go to church. They do all the church things. It's all external, but nothing moves them from the inside because the law of God has not been written on the hearts that moves them to obedience. Why? It's because there hasn't been repentance. You see, Israel, they were the good guys.

They weren't the pagans. They weren't the idol worshippers. They were the good guys. They were the chosen nation. They were the people of God. Why do we have to repent? And the classic illustration is Luke chapter 18. In a few years, we'll get there. But in Luke chapter 18, you've got that whole scenario about that religious man who goes to the temple and says, Oh God, I thank you that I'm not like that castgatherer over there in the corner. I thank you, Lord, that I'm not like those prostitutes and those drunkards and those immoral people.

I thank you that I'm not like those people, God. You get the publican in the corner would beat upon his breasts and cry out to his God, Oh God, be merciful unto me, a sinner. And Jesus says, that's the one who went out justified, not the guy who thought it was religious and thought it was good.

And folks, our churches are filled with people saying, you know, I'm not as bad as that guy down there. My marriage isn't as bad as their marriage. My life is more together than their life is. I'm pretty good. If I just tighten up a little bit better and keep things in order just a little longer, I'll be okay. And yet, no repentance. Repentance is that radical turning from my sin to a Savior. Repentance is a recognition of my sinfulness and a realization that I cannot get right with God on my own.

And I cry out to him, Oh God, be merciful unto me, a sinner. Oh God, save me from my sin because there is nothing in me that causes God to save me. It's all about God's mercy and grace and love that chooses to save me from my sin. And God does that. And that's why Christ said, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the religious establishment, you're never going to get into the kingdom. Because theirs was a self-righteousness. It was a righteousness that came because of human achievement, not because of divine accomplishment.

And that's the difference. What Jesus did is a divine accomplishment. What you do is human achievement, and that will never grant you entrance into heaven. And so, when John the Baptist came on the scene, he confronted that. He condemned the religious establishment. He didn't preach the average message that everybody else preached. He didn't preach what everybody else was saying. He did it completely different. He did it just like the book says to do it. That is the Bible, the Word of God, the Old Testament.

And now the New Testament reverberates with the same message, reiterates the same message. Repent, Christ says, or you perish.

That's the only answer. We preach the gospel. We don't preach the gospel to give you a better marriage. We don't preach the gospel to give you a happier life. We preach the gospel so that you understand how to get saved from your sin. That's the issue in life. It's the sin that keeps us from God. And unless we understand that only God can forgive sin, then we can only enter a relationship with Him through His Son, Jesus Christ. And that relationship enables me to make it through this life in a way that pleases and honors my God so that I enter into eternal life with Him in glory forever and ever and ever.

Folks, please listen. Don't think for one moment that what you're doing is going to gain you entrance into heaven. Don't think for one moment that you can do enough good things that God will say, you made it. Good job. He's not going to do that. There's only one way to heaven. It's through His Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord. He did all the work. It's called Calvary's Cross. And that's the way to eternal life. Can you imagine having the law, knowing the law, but not knowing the Lord of the law? That's Israel.

Then and now. And you know what? It's many people today in churches. They know the law, but they don't know the Lord of the law. They refuse to repent of their sins and get right with God. And my prayer for all of us is that we would understand the message of repentance. And this week we'll go into great detail about the forgiveness of sins, repentance, and the baptism that John preached because it was a radical message. It was a message that came upon the people in such a way that it paved the way for Messiah to come.

Preach the same message. And both of them died because of that message. Both of them did because it was the truth. And therefore we praise the Lord that He opens the eyes of the blind, that we might see and behold in His law the Lord of the law. And when seeing Him, we see the magnitude of our sin, fall on our knees before Him, and repent and say, Oh God, be merciful unto me, a sinner. Let's pray. Father, we thank You for this day and the opportunity You've given to us to look into the Word of the Lord.

And I pray that You would enable us all to see You in the text. And Father, You are a God of grace and mercy who takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked, who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. And I pray that no man, no woman, boy or girl would leave this room today without knowing the Lord of the law in a personal, intimate way because their sins have been forgiven. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.