The Voice in the Wilderness, Part 3

Let's pray together. Father, we come to you once again today realizing that without you, we are nothing and without your wonderful grace and mercy working in our lives, we would not be where we are today. And so we thank you for the wonderful work of salvation and the grace of Almighty God and the mercy that you have shed abroad in our hearts. And we pray, Lord, that what we learn today would enable us to better present the truth of the gospel. In Jesus' name, amen. Today is the most, or in my mind, for me, the greatest Sunday of the year.

And that's even more so than Christmas Sunday or Resurrection Sunday. And I love both of those. And those of you who know me and know that I got my Christmas tree up and we've got the Christmas music going in our house, you know how much I love Christmas. But this Sunday is my favorite Sunday of the year. And it is because 12 years ago this weekend, this church began. And this church and what God has done is an incredible thing. And having said that, it is what it is because what God taught me in my previous pastorate that lasted only 14 months.

But those 14 months were the greatest 14 months of pastoral ministry I've ever experienced. Those 14 months God did an incredible work in my life. In such a way that it transformed everything about ministry for me. You know, everything that seminary can't teach you, experience in the pastorate does teach you. And we begin to realize that seminary can teach you some things you might not know intellectually, but it can never help you prepare you for pastoral ministry. It just doesn't. And what prepares you for pastoral ministry is pastoral ministry.

And so what took place in those 14 months were so significant in my life. I want to be able to share them with you this morning as an introduction to what we're going to talk about in Luke chapter 3. Like Ted West said to me this past week, doesn't God have a sense of humor that what I'm talking about in Luke chapter 3 about the doctrine of repentance is the exact reason this church began. Because it was the doctrine of repentance that the other church did not believe in. And so yes, God does have a little sense of humor and I like to relish in that every once in a while as I'm able to look back on what God has done.

But it was about two years ago that I had lunch with a man who was on staff at my previous church. And he sat down with me and he said to me, he said, if you could do everything all over again, what would you change? I said, nothing. He said, nothing. I said, no, nothing. Nothing at all. I would do it the same way I did it 14 months of that previous ministry. Wouldn't change a thing. And I looked at him and I said, I want to let you know something. And I want to be really honest with you. I believe that the Bible teaches you have to repent to be saved.

If that's not true and I'm wrong, I'm a heretic and I should burn in hell for eternity. But if I'm right, that means you're wrong. And if you're wrong, that means you're the heretic and you should burn in hell for all eternity. Unless, of course, I hate to say it, you repent of your sin. Well, needless to say that lunch ended rather quickly. And I went on my way and he went on his way. All that to say is that what they saw as a crisis, I saw as a cleansing. What they saw as a problem, I saw as a purging.

It all depends on your perspective. It wasn't too long ago that that church celebrated their 90th anniversary. And in that 90th anniversary, they gave out a pamphlet. And in that pamphlet was a picture and a profile of every one of their previous pastors. No, I was in it. Don't say except. I was in it. You know? And in there, they made this statement that with Lance Sparks coming to this church, and I quote, This was the greatest crisis in the history of this church. The greatest crisis. And I was thinking, wow, man, that's just amazing.

The greatest crisis. And yet, what they saw as a crisis was truly God's call for them to repent. And so, I don't say this in any kind of way as vengeful. Because those of you who were with me the night I resigned and my wife and I walked off the stage, she being great with child as she normally is, you know, and we walked off the stage. You know that we had everybody stand and we sang the doxology. And on that night, and even in my letter of resignation, I said, I want to let you know, I want to thank you for the 14 months of pastoral ministry at this church.

They have been, and I said this, the greatest 14 months I could ever imagine. And so, when I wrote my letter of resignation, I said the exact same thing. Had them all stand. We sang the doxology. I took my wife by the hand. We walked out the door. And thus, that was the end of that ministry, but the beginning of this ministry. And I've never shared with you why those 14 months were the greatest. This morning, I'm going to do that. And I'm hoping I can get through them so I can continue on in Luke chapter 3.

But they serve as an introduction as to what John the Baptist said and how he said it in Luke chapter 3. The very first thing that I want to bring to your attention as to why those 14 months were the greatest 14 months of pastoral ministry was that that time, that time solidified my convictions.

It solidified my convictions. Jesus said in Luke 24, 47 that repentance for the remission of sins is to be preached beginning in Jerusalem and to all the nations. I'm convinced that that is true today as it was then. Acts 17.30 says that God is demanding that all men everywhere repent. Christ said unless you repent, you will likewise perish. I believe that. I am convinced and I have a deep conviction that without repentance, there is no remission. And the only way a person is born again is when he turns from his sins to God.

As 1 Thessalonians 1.9 describes those in Thessalonica who turned from idols to serve the true and living God. And they were truly born again. Paul said, I am not ashamed of the gospel. Romans 1.16. For it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone who believes, the Jew first and also to the Greek.

And so what happened to me was that God solidified my convictions about repentance. You see, a conviction is something you're willing to die for. A conviction is something you're willing to lose your job for. A conviction is something you will never back down from because you know that that's exactly what God said. And I was willing to lose my job because I believed that repentance was absolutely essential to salvation. Just as faith is, just as belief in God is, just as grace is. All that is essential to being born again.

So it solidified my convictions. Number two, it intensified my commitment. It intensified my commitment. And that is to preach the word without compromise. Paul said, preach the word in season and out of season. Reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and patience. We are to hold forth, hold fast the word of life without compromise. And so it intensified my commitment. It caused me to more, to be more energized about preaching the gospel and sharing the truth so people would truly understand what it means to be born again.

The Bible says, you know it very well. I quoted it to you often. It is my favorite verse, Isaiah 66 verse number two.

To this man will I look, to him who is broken and of a contrite heart and who trembles at my word, who will shake uncontrollably under the authority of God's holy word. And my commitment became even stronger. We read it last week, Ezekiel 33 verses 7 to 11 where God called Ezekiel a watchman and he needed to warn people of impending judgment. And if he didn't do that and those people died in their iniquity, he'd be held responsible. But if he did it and they still died in their iniquity, he would be set free from that responsibility.

And so it intensified my commitment. And I want to be faithful to the purity of the gospel and faithful to the truth that's there. It solidified my convictions. It intensified my commitment. And number three, it purified my character.

It purified my character. What God did was do a work in my own life personally. To help me understand that vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord. I can recall that on the Sunday evenings before my resignation, I would go up to the church because they would have church meetings on Sunday evenings. And all the different elders that were there would write papers and letters concerning why I was preaching heresy. And they would misquote my sermons. They would take things out of context. They would put them in their papers and say that I was preaching a works-based salvation.

And I sat in the back and I listened to that. And everything within me wanted to stand up and scream and yell and say that's not true, that's not the way it is. But God kept me in my seat and said just listen.

And I'm reminded of the words of Peter when he described our Lord in 1 Peter chapter 2. When he never opened his mouth, but he kept entrusting himself to him who judges righteously. I don't have to defend myself. God does that for me. God deals with those kinds of issues. And God was doing a work in my life as he was purging my own life and getting me to look at my own life to make sure that when I preached on Sundays, because I kept preaching on Sundays even though all this was happening, to make sure that I preached with a pure heart that was committed to the gospel.

And not to seek revenge, but to listen to the voice of the Lord through the word of God to make sure that I did the things that were true. So it began to purify my character. It intensified my commitment. It solidified my convictions. And number three, it fortified.

Number four, thank you. You're paying attention, that's good. I'm proud of you guys. Number four, it fortified my creed. That is it fortified everything I believed. If you were to go out there in the back and get that little doctrinal statement, what we believe, you open that baby up, it's long. It's got tons of Scripture references in it. Because what took place caused the leadership of this church to make sure that we were able to put on paper what it is we believe and why. You can't come to this church and read that statement and not know what it is we believe.

You can go to many churches and they'll have a doctrinal statement. One sentence here, one sentence there, no verses, and you're not quite sure what it is they believe. But if you read what has been put into print, you're able to understand this is what we believe about repentance, what we believe about faith, what we believe about salvation, what we believe about Christ, the triune nature of God, what we believe about the second coming of Christ, what we believe about Christian commitment, what we believe about sin, what we believe about man's responsibility, because of that sin, it just goes in great detail.

And all that came about because of what God was doing in my life. It fortified my creed. It bolstered what it is I believe in. And that's why as we go through and talk about like verse like 1 Timothy 3.15, where it says that the church is the pillar and foundation of the truth. Folks, listen, if we don't stand on the truth, as Jude says, contend earnestly for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints. If we don't do that, who will? Someone has to. And so I realized that during those 14 months God was doing His work.

He was solidifying my convictions. He was intensifying my commitment to preach the Word without compromise, without reservation. He was purifying my character. He was fortifying my creed. And all the while, listen to this, He edified my children. He edified my children. He began to build character in the lives of my children. I was able to see and watch. My children had to sit in Sunday school classes where Sunday school teachers spoke against the senior pastor. And they sat and listened to what those Sunday school teachers would say about how their pastor, my children's father, was wrong.

And they sat back and they watched. They watched. And one thing I've learned over the years is that when you don't compromise as a parent, your children are very courageous. When you compromise, your children are really weak. If you stand strong in the truth and not compromise, it affects your children. My parents are here today and I watch my father stand strong in the truth through thick and thin at our church through many, many years. He's been in the same church for over 35 years. How many years have you been in the church?

36 years. Think about it. 36 years, same church. Wow, he's been there longer than all the pastors have been there. And yet, you see, as I watch my parents stand strong, I begin to develop strength in my life. And now I've seen this take place in the lives of my children as they become stronger and stronger. That causes my one son, Kate, when he was seven, to be able to sit in the church and say, You know, this guy's not preaching the truth, is he, Dad? He was seven years of age. This man doesn't preach the truth.

He preaches differently than what our church preaches. And to be able to have children that stand strong on their convictions, it happens because, 1 Timothy 4, 12, we need to be an example, right? In our faith, our love, our conduct, our speech. As we set the example, remember what Paul said in Acts 20, verse number 32, I think it was, to the Ephesian elders? He says, I commend you to God and the word of His grace which is able to build you up. There's only one thing that strengthens an individual, that solidifies their position, and that's the word of God.

And when you stand on the word of God, those around you are affected by it. And I saw something happening in the life of my children. And we only had four at the time. I think we only had four. How many did we have? Where's my wife? I don't know how many we had. I can't remember now.

We got so many of them, I don't know when they were born. But the other, the previous ones, now the ones that have followed that, yeah, the ones that have followed, and the other four have picked up on the same kinds of convictions. You see, it just kind of permeates the whole family. And so I saw what God was doing, and He edified my children. And there was something else that happened. God clarified for me my course of action. He clarified for me my course. I knew what I was supposed to do, and that nothing would turn me from that.

And I love what Paul says over in the book of Acts, the 20th chapter. When he talked to the Ephesian elders, he said this. He said, And now behold, bound in spirit, I am on my way to Jerusalem, not knowing what will happen to me there, except that the Holy Spirit solemnly testifies to me in every city, saying that bonds and afflictions await me. But I do not consider my life of any account as dear to myself, in order that I may finish my course and the ministry which I receive from the Lord Jesus, to testify solemnly of the gospel of the grace of God.

Paul said, you know what? I know what's ahead of me. I know what the Holy Spirit of God has told me. I know that bonds and afflictions await me, but you know what? I'm going anyway, because that's what God has called me to do. And when I read that, I realized that God clarified for me my course. It doesn't make a difference what anybody else thinks or says or does to me. I will solemnly testify of the grace of God. I will go and preach repentance and faith toward Jesus Christ my Lord, no matter what befalls me.

And I didn't know what would happen next. I didn't know what my wife and I were going to do. We had no idea. We just knew that we had to leave. It was time. We had done all that we could, and it was just time to leave. So God clarified my course. You know, the Bible says, trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not unto your own understanding.

In all your ways acknowledge Him and He will direct your paths. He'll do it, but you can't lean on your own understanding. Can't think about what you're going to do. You've got to think about what God says you need to do, and God will direct your paths.

But God did one more thing. He sanctified this church. He sanctified this church. The word sanctify means to be set apart. He set apart this church, and there were a certain group of people who met together and decided that they wanted to meet, and they wanted to have a church that honored and glorified the Lord, that preached the gospel of repentance and faith toward Jesus Christ our Lord. And so this church was set apart, and this church is unique. It is a unique church. It's different. It's not the same.

It's not like every other church down the pike, and for those of you who have been with us for any length of time, you realize that this church is different. It's not like other churches. I'm reminded of the people who come during our second service, and they've lived in San Clemente for 10 years, and they just couldn't find a church.

Ten years they searched for a church, couldn't find one, and they found themselves in a church, but were dissatisfied, and finally one day they were listening on the radio to the Living Word broadcast, and the man had his wife tuning with him, and he said, you know, this is where we need to be.

This is where we're going next Sunday. So they got in the car and drove up here from San Clemente, sat in the service, called me up this past week and said, I want to have lunch with you. I want to talk to you. He goes, this is the church we want to be in. This is the place we want to go. You know, it's a long way away, but we have found nothing in our area. We are dying on the vine spiritually. There is no place to go. There is no place that preaches the Word of God, and we are absolutely famished.

We heard you on the radio. We thought, that's where we need to be. He goes, really, how far is an hour when you're starving to death? It's not that far, he said. So his wife, they come, they drive motorcycles, they come up every week. You know, they sit right over there, and they are here every week. And you know, they realize, they are so hungry spiritually. They needed to be fed. What God did was sanctify this church. He set it apart. And you know, God did a great work. You know, the Lord says, I will build my church.

The gates of hell shall not prevail against it. So those seven things are what God taught me in those 14 months of ministry that will always be with me, that have been the foundation of Christ Community Church, and what it is we believe, and why we believe it. But you know, it was 70 years ago, 70 years ago, that Harry Ironside fought the same, the same kind of battle about repentance. He wrote a book entitled, Unless You Repent. And in it, he says these words concerning repentance. He says that the doctrine, the biblical doctrine of repentance was being diluted by ministers of the gospel who wanted to exclude it from the gospel presentation.

This is what he says. The doctrine of repentance is the missing note in many otherwise orthodox and fundamentally sound circles today. He spoke of professed preachers of grace who like the antinomians of old decry the necessity of repentance lest it seem to invalidate the freedom of grace. Dr. Ironside, who was a dispensationalist, he denounced the teaching of extreme dispensationalists who taught that repentance was for another age. He said these words, and I quote, Our Lord's solemn words except you repent, you shall all likewise perish, are as important today as when first uttered.

No dispensational distinctions important as these are in understanding and interpreting God's ways with man can alter this truth. He went on to say this, Shallow preaching that does not grapple with the terrible fact of man's sinfulness and guilt, calling on all men everywhere to repent, results in shallow conversions and so we have myriads of glib-tongued professors today who give no evidence of regeneration whatsoever. Pratting of salvation by grace, they manifest no grace in their lives. Loudly declaring they are justified by faith alone, they fail to remember that faith without works is dead.

And that justification by works before men is not to be ignored as though it were in contradiction to justification by faith before God. End quote. He made it very clear that the people who are proponents of grace and grace only for salvation, that's all about the grace of God. There is no repentance required that it really truly is a disgrace because Titus 2 11 says that the grace of God teaches you to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts and to live righteously and soberly and godly in this present age.

If God's grace does not teach you that then God's grace is ineffective. Those who have experienced the grace of God demonstrate a transformation of life because that grace resides in them. Those who do not manifest a change of life and cry about the grace of God only have never truly experienced that grace because their lives have not been transformed. Their lives are not being taught by that grace to live righteously, soberly and godly in this present age. It was A.W. Tozer who wrote these words.

The promise of pardon and cleansing is always associated in the scripture with the command to repent. The widely used text in Isaiah 1 16-18 Though your sins be as scarlet they shall be as white as snow though they be red like crimson they shall be as wool is organically united to the verses that preceded. Wash yourselves. Make yourselves clean. Put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes. Cease to do evil. Learn to do well. Seek judgment. Relieve the oppressed. Judge the fatherless. Plead for the widow.

What does this teach about radical reformation of life before there can be any expectation of pardon? To divorce the words from each other is to do violence to the scriptures and to convict ourselves of deceitfully handling the truth. I think there is little doubt that the teaching of salvation without repentance has lowered the moral standards of the church and produced a multitude of deceived religious professors who erroneously believe themselves to be saved when in fact they are still in the gall of bitterness and the bond of iniquity.

Now think about that. What he says is so profound. We have deceived ourselves into thinking that repentance is necessary for salvation and while we do that we forget that we are still in the bond of our iniquity. We are still enslaved to our sin. Why? Because we haven't turned from our sin. And God produces that transforming turning because the spirit of God does the convicting. It's God's word that does that. You see? So all that comes together. And that's why it was said by Martin Lord Jones these words, repentance means that you realize that you are guilty, vile sinner in the presence of God.

That you deserve the wrath and punishment of God. That you are hell bound. It means that you begin to realize that this thing called sin is in you. That you long to get rid of it. And that you turn your back on it in every shape and form. You renounce the world, whatever the cost. The world and its mind and outlook as well as its practice. And you deny yourself. Take up your cross and go after Christ. Your nearest and dearest. And the whole world may call you a fool. Or say you have religious mania.

You may have to suffer financially. But to you it makes no difference. That is repentance. That is repentance. That's true. And John the Baptist comes on the scene. And what does he say? He says, repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. He came preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. And what Luke does is show you the condition of the times. That's in the first couple of verses.

Where he shows you that politically it was out of sync. That spiritually it was out of sync. It was in desperate need of someone to show the way. So Luke presents to us the condition of the day. And then he gives us the commission of the voice. That is the word of the Lord came to John in the wilderness. That God actually commissioned John to preach the gospel. And then we looked at point number three.

And that was the composition of the voice. What was the message he preached? It was a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. He came to tell the Jewish people listen you got everything right externally but you have nothing right internally. Therefore you must be baptized. In other words he is saying you must be like the Gentile proselytes. You must realize that although you are in the line of Abraham and although you are part of the chosen quote race and although you are circumcised and although you are in the right tribe you have all those externals but God is concerned about the inner part your heart.

And therefore if you want to receive the Messiah you've got to come and renounce all your externals. You've got to say you know all those things mean nothing. I am a sinner. I am no better than a pagan Gentile. I am worthless. I am sinful. And I need a savior. And therefore John was a radical man. Think about John. He goes against the modern church growth movement. Think about it. Because in the modern church growth movement you have to be culturally relevant and you have to be socially savvy. He was nothing of the sort.

He was so out of touch with his culture. He came out of the wilderness with all this camel skin on and you know the long hair and the beard and preaching the gospel of repentance eating locusts and honey. He was totally contrary to his culture. See we think well you know we've got to be like him in order to win him. Let me tell you something.

If you're like him you ain't going to win him. You've got to be completely different than them. That's why the bible calls us aliens and strangers in a foreign land. John the Baptist was an alien. He was nothing like his contemporaries. He was so left wing. He was so out of sorts than everybody else that when he came on the scene people were absolutely astonished at his message. This man was out of line with the religious establishment of his day. He was nothing like them. He was a true picture of what an alien truly was.

Listen if you read the bible every true prophet of God has never been called to find a common ground with his culture. Think about it. We live in a world today you go to church growth seminars, you go to leadership seminars you know you've got to find the common ground. You've got to find the common denominator. You've got to be like him in order to win him. No you don't. No you don't. You've got to be so distinct that they look at you and say you are weird.

You are so different. You are so out of sorts. That's the way we need to be right? And that's the message that he preached. It was completely contrary to every message they had ever heard before. And that tells you something doesn't it? You see we are so used to listening to error that when someone comes on the scene and preaches truth we think they're in error. Because we are so accustomed to erroneous teaching that when someone comes on the scene and says thus saith the lord this is what he said we think wait he's got to be wrong.

Be it John the Baptist was commissioned by God to preach the truth. He did. And he wasn't culturally relevant. He'd been called to bring the pure uninfluenced word of God to confront the culture by preaching repentance for the forgiveness of sins. And that brings us to our fourth point. And that is the connection. And this is important. Because Luke has to establish that what John is doing was all prophesied years earlier. In fact 700 years earlier it was prophesied by Isaiah the prophet. And so what Luke does is he connects the voice of John with a voice crying in the wilderness as prophesied by Isaiah in Isaiah chapter 40 verse number 3.

And this becomes extremely important because this brings in the context. This helps you understand what the Jews were thinking and what the Jews would think about what John said to them. Go back to Isaiah 40 for a moment. Isaiah chapter 40. Verse number 1 Comfort O comfort my people. Now you might read that and think okay God wants to comfort His people. Isn't God good? Let me tell you something.

The first 39 chapters of Isaiah are all about warning and all about judgment upon Israel because of their sin.

The northern kingdom has gone into captivity and is never to return again. Judah, the southern kingdom is about to go into captivity. They do in 586 BC. And it's 39 chapters of judgment of warning pointing out the sin of Israel that they are far from God. They are not close to God. And then all of a sudden you come to chapter 40 and 40 through 66 are all about the comfort of God. Why? Because something is going to change. Listen to what it says. Comfort O comfort my people says your God. Speak kindly to Jerusalem and call out to her that her warfare has ended.

That her iniquity has been removed. That she has received the Lord's hand double for all her sins. Folks, that's the message for Israel. Comfort. Comfort my people. Tell them their warfare has ended. Tell them that her iniquity has been removed. So wait a minute. In the first 39 chapters you condemned them because of their iniquity and now you're going to tell them that their iniquity is removed.

What happened? What changed between chapter 39 and chapter 40? Did they find out that they had to do enough good deeds to offset the bad deeds so their iniquities are removed? Did all of a sudden God just overlook sin and say you know what? It's okay. It's okay. You can receive comfort now.

No. Something happens. Something happens that will produce comfort in Israel. Listen to verse 3. That's what's quoted in Luke chapter 3. There's a voice that's crying out. Then it says in verse 6, a voice says, call out. Then he answered, what shall I call out? All flesh is grass and all its loveliness is like the flower of the field. The grass withers, the flower fades. When the breath of the Lord blows upon it, surely the people are grass. The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God stands forever.

What am I going to say? This is what you tell them. Everything fades away. The grass fades away. People die. All flesh dies, but there's something that lasts forever and that is the word of almighty God. And God said, comfort my people. Comfort them. Tell them that their iniquity has been removed. Tell them that their warfare has ended. Tell them that they are no longer enemies of God. Well, how can that happen? Well, you've got to read on. Verse 9. Get yourself up on a high mountain, O Zion, bearer of good news.

Lift up your voice mightily, O Jerusalem, bearer of good news. Lift it up. Do not fear. Say to the cities of Judah, Here is your God. Verse 10. Behold, the Lord God will come with might, with His arm ruling for Him. Behold, His reward is with Him, and His record bends before Him. Like a shepherd, He will tend His flock. In His arm, He will gather the lambs and carry them in His bosom. He will gently lead the nursing ewes. You tell them God has come. Why is it Israel can be comforted? Because God has come.

When you speak to Israel today, you tell them what? Comfort. Comfort is yours because God has come. Not that God is going to come, because He's already been here. He's going to come again, but He has come. And the coming of God is important because without His coming there is no substitution for your sin. Now here's the point. Luke says, if you go back to Luke 3, these words. Verse 4. As it is written in the book of the words of Isaiah the prophet, the voice of one crying in the wilderness, Make ready the way of the Lord.

Make His path straight. Every ravine shall be filled up, and every mountain and hill shall be brought low, and the crooked shall become straight, and the rough road smooth, and all flesh shall see the salvation of God. Now folks, what this is, is an analogy about repentance. He comes preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins and then Luke gives us the famous analogy that was prophesied 700 years ago to bring the connection together to show you that John is the forerunner and Jesus is the Messiah.

Luke wants to connect the thoughts and connect the phrase to show you that John is who He says He is and therefore Jesus is who He says He is. There's a voice that will come crying to the wilderness. Make your paths straight. Now this is an analogy because you see when the king came to any city there would be a forerunner who would go to tell them about what they needed to do to make the city ready for the king. Simple enough right? So there were many cities that didn't have roads so you had to make a road to get to the city so the king could get there with ease.

You didn't want him trouncing through the shrubs. You didn't want him to have to crawl over the rocks. You wanted to make the pathway smooth for the king to enter. And so he uses an analogy that every Jew would be familiar with about a king coming to their city and what you had to do to prepare your city to receive that king to show you that the voice that would come crying to the wilderness was the voice of preparation. Remember we told you John had a two-fold ministry. One of preparation, one of presentation.

This is his preparation. He comes to say the king is coming. You got to prepare your hearts to receive the king. If there's no repentance there'll be no reception of the redeemer when he arrives. So that's why the ministry of Jesus fell right on the heels of John the Baptist because he would come and prepare people's hearts to receive the king so that when the king showed up they would open their hearts and receive him and say yes, this is my king. This is my lord. This is my god. So what does it mean?

What's the spiritual analogy? It's not that difficult to understand. Very simply this. The wilderness is the heart of a man and the path that makes it straight is the pathway of repentance. And repentance, listen, involves, involves the ravines of our lives being filled up. The dark places, the deep places, the sinful places being raised up. When you repent of your sins, remember we talked to you about last week, 2 Corinthians chapter 7 verses 9 and 10 about how there's a longing for vindication?

It's one in the depths of our lives, the hidden sins raised up and exposed so that they can be dealt with. And so what is happening is John is saying you've got to prepare your hearts. The way you do that is to repent. What does that mean? It means that you dig down deep and deal with the sin that's there. You bring it up. You expose it. You confess it. You forsake it. And every mountain and hill shall be brought low. That is the high place. It deals with a man's arrogance, his pride. But one aspect deals with the depths of sin.

This deals with the devilishness of sin. Because at the core of every sin is pride and arrogance. And you've got to make the high places low. We've got to bring it down. Our arrogance and our pride keep us from seeing God for who He is. So he says you've got to dig down deep and you've got to bring up the sin that's there. You've got to take care of your pride and you've got to bring it down. You've got to bring it down. He says and the crooked shall become straight. The word crooked is the word skolios which deals with that which is out of whack.

And it talks about the perversion of our lives. The deceitfulness of our lives. The deviousness of our lives. You've got to deal honestly with God. Remember God said you honor me with your lips but your hearts are far from me. And here were a bunch of religious people who honored God outwardly who honored God with their lips but their hearts weren't there. And so John comes. He's that voice crying in the wilderness. The voice that speaks in the heart of a man. Make the path straight. How do I do that?

You repent of your sin. What does that mean? You dig down deep and you bring out those things that keep you from being what God wants you to be. You bring yourself low. You humble yourself in the sight of God and He will lift you up because God resists the proud but He gives grace to the humble. The arrogant receive no grace. That's why Christ said blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Right? Blessed are those who mourn over the sin for they shall be comforted. They shall be comforted.

And then it says in the rough roads smooth. All those things on the road of your life that distract you from repentance, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, the pride of life, the way of the world, the love of self, all those things, all those things on the road of life that keep you from seeing God as He truly is, those things must be renounced. And then He says, what? And all flesh shall see the salvation of God. You see in a national setting John says, listen, if you do this individually and you do this personally, your king will come to you nationally.

You have a king. That's why Christ said in Matthew 11, if you would have received John and his message, you would have received me and then John would have been in the fulfillment of what it says by the prophets of old, Elijah will come. John the Baptist would have been Elijah. But because you did not receive his message, you did not receive my message, the kingdom has been postponed. Hasn't been counseled, it's been postponed. See, the king came. The king came. And they had to spiritually prepare themselves to receive that king.

How does that happen? By a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. It's to realize, you know what? I cannot get to heaven on my own. I cannot get to heaven because I'm in the right family. I cannot get to heaven because I'm in the right church. I can't get to heaven because I do enough good things. I can't get there that way. All the things that I've learned from my youth are all wrong and the only way to get to heaven is to fall on my knees before God and repent of my sins and plead to him, God, be merciful unto me, a sinner.

And John says, if you do that, let me tell you something, when the king gets here, you'll receive him.

You'll want him. You'll fall down and you'll worship him. You'll adore him and the kingdom will come. But when the king came, they didn't want that kind of king. See? Because of the pride of the Jewish nation. They wanted that ruler that would overthrow that government that had oppressed them for years. They didn't want to deal with things spiritually. They wanted to deal with things politically. They wanted to deal with things organizationally. But they wanted to deal with things spiritually. But see, that's what they needed.

They needed it because their hearts were wicked, vile, wretched, and thus separate from God. And so Luke connects for us this voice of John and the voice that was prophesied 700 years ago. And that's how you know Israel knew that the king was on his way. They knew. They knew Messiah was coming. That's why the Bible says all those in Jerusalem and all those in Judea were all going down to the Jordan to be baptized because they were anticipating the king.

They were ready. So they thought. A lot of people think they're ready. A lot of people do a semblance of repentance. But when the king arrives they want nothing to do with that king. And that's what happened with Jesus in the ministry of John. The Bible says all flesh shall see God.

They didn't see God. They missed Him. And the Bible says Christ said, See God. See it's a hard issue. If you want to see God you've got to deal with the hard things. You've got to deal with what's on the inside of man. That's how you see God. That's the only way to see Him. And all flesh shall see, as Isaiah says, the glory of the Lord. But the glory of the Lord is the salvation of God. And take it two ways. Unless your heart's prepared to receive Him you'll never see Him. Or after you've received Him and you've seen Him it affects everyone else who sees you that they too might see God in you.

See a true repentant life reveals the Redeemer. It reveals the Redeemer so all get a clear grasp of who He is and what He's done. See that's what, I really thought that we go a lot faster through Luke chapter 3 than we did through Luke 1 and 2. I was wrong. I was so wrong. Because there's so much there that we need to understand and get a hold of. And we need to be able to tie it all together and bring it all together to realize that what John did is that he wanted to pave the way so you could see God.

And as it was then so it was 700 years ago in Isaiah's time so it is today 2,000 years later. If you want to see God if you want to see God you've got to repent of your sins. So what does that mean? You've got to dig down deep and bring all those things out that are in the dark. You've got to bring down low all those things that you think are up high because of your pride, your arrogance, that you're unwilling to give up. Renounce those things. You've got to make sure that the perverse things, the crooked things are removed and renounced.

And all the distractions on the road are taken away. You say, well, I can't do that. You're right, you can't. You can't do that. But God can. And when God calls a man, listen, when God calls a man that's exactly what you want to do. Because salvation is the work of God. And the Spirit of God convicts of what? Sin. Did you think the Spirit of God didn't convict people of sin in the Old Testament? Of course He did. The Spirit of God is on the present. The Spirit of God has always been around. And the Spirit of God in the Old Testament convicted man of a sin just like He does in the New Testament.

And without that Spirit of God convicting a man, convicting a man, He doesn't want to bring up the dark things. He doesn't want to deal with the rough things. He doesn't want to even face, face the fact that He might be arrogant and prideful. But the man that the Spirit convicts says, Lord, I can't do it. I can't. But, Lord, You can. And this is what I want. I want the salvation of God. Lord, I want to see only You. So, Lord, do whatever You have to so my eyes can clearly see the glory of the Lord.

Let's pray. Father God, we thank You for today. I know we've gone extra into overtime, but I just thank You, Lord, for just the truth of Your Word and the opportunity You give us to study it week in and week out. I do thank You, Lord, for the truth that's there. And I pray that every man, woman, boy, and girl in this room today would know that Jesus Christ is the Savior and Lord of their life. Please, Lord, don't let anybody leave in an unrepentant state. I pray that Your Spirit would work so deep in the heart of each person, that Lord, we would look at You and see You in a way, in a way that You want to be seen.

And therefore, Lord, that would mean that we'd have to see ourselves in all of our sinfulness and beg for mercy and because of Your grace You'd grant it and we'd be saved from our sin. I pray that in Jesus' name. Amen.