The sermon titled 'Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at Hand' by Scott Brown emphasizes the critical message delivered by John the Baptist as he proclaimed repentance in the wilderness of Judea. John serves as a pivotal figure bridging the Old and New Testaments, fulfilling prophecies from Isaiah and Malachi. The sermon highlights that repentance is central to the Christian life, a theme echoed by figures like Martin Luther and the apostles. True repentance is described as a radical, transformative event that reorients one's life toward God, akin to a seismic upheaval. The sermon also contrasts John's water baptism as a symbol of repentance with Jesus' baptism with the Holy Spirit and fire, signifying inward transformation and sanctification. The need for continual repentance throughout one's life is emphasized, as is the role of the Holy Spirit in enabling genuine repentance. Furthermore, the sermon discusses the urgency and gravity of repentance in preparation for the coming kingdom of heaven, encouraging believers to live a life marked by ongoing transformation and alignment with God's will.

Alright, I'll be reading starting at Matthew 3 verse 1. In those days John the Baptist came preaching in the wilderness of Judea and saying, Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. For this is he who was spoken of by the prophet Isaiah, saying, The voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight. Now John himself was clothed in camel's hair with a leather belt around his waist and his food was locusts and wild honey. Then Jerusalem, all Judea and all the region around the Jordan went out to him, and were baptized by him in the Jordan confessing their sins.

But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to his baptism, He said to them, brood of vipers, who warn you to flee from the wrath to come. Therefore bear fruits worthy of repentance, and do not think to say to yourselves, we have Abraham as our father. For I say to you that God is able to raise up children to Abraham from these stones. And even now the axe is laid to the root of the trees. Therefore every tree which does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.

I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance, but he who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing fan is in his hand, and he will thoroughly clean out his threshing floor and gather his wheat into the barn. But he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire." Let's pray. Dear Heavenly Father, I pray that you would be with Scott this morning as he preaches.

May you preach in the power of the Holy Spirit. And may your spirit be with us who are hearing the word to teach us the truths that we need to learn. And above all, may you be glorified. I pray in Jesus' name. Amen.

God has always led his people by his word and so today we have the privilege having him do that again as we consider John the Baptist. You have an outline in front of you. You'll see the man, the mission, the message, the response, the symbol, and the motivation. So we come to John the Baptist and we find him actually standing at the crossroads of the Old and the New Testaments and he's bringing a message that is common to the law, to all the prophets, to Jesus, to the apostles and the church. And the message that he's bringing is the message, repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.

And so when we encounter John in this message, we have to understand that repentance is the heart of the Christian life. When Martin Luther nailed the 95 theses on the Wittenberg door, the very first thesis was about repentance. And in that, he states that to Repent means that the entire life of believers is to be one of repentance. And so from the time of the fall, God has called human beings to repent. William Plummer writing in the 19th century says it in a way so much better than I ever could.

He says this, under all dispensations since our first parents were expelled from the Garden of Eden, God insisted on repentance. Among the patriarchs, Job said, I abhor myself and repent in dust and ashes. Job 42.6. Under the law, David wrote the 32nd and 51st Psalms. John the Baptist cried, repent ye, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.

Matthew 3.2. Christ's account of himself is that he came to call sinners to repentance. Matthew 9.13. Just before his ascension, Christ commanded, quote, that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem, Luke 24, 47. And the apostles taught the same doctrine, testified, quote, to the Jews and also to the Greeks, Acts 20, 21.

That from a book that I so highly recommend that Jeff Pollard edited called God's Gospel of Grace, where he takes all the free grace broadcasters and just it's a power punch of the gospel. I so encourage you to get this book. But here in Matthew chapter 3, John the Baptist is announcing this transformational principle. It really is a radical, cataclysmic, seismic, tsunami change that's supposed to happen in people's lives. And so when God sent John the Baptist into the wilderness, the changes of true Christianity were demonstrated.

They were just earthquakes of the soul. People were fleeing the wrath to come. Some of them like desperate, slithering snakes trying to get out of a fire. Others coming to get into the water to be baptized by John. Some came to hear the preaching, some came because they were faking.

And Jesus, as we'll find later on, exposes them. In Isaiah chapter 40, God himself actually likens what's taking place here as a massive geographic upheaval. As I've read through this this week, I've asked, Lord, help us to understand what repentance is. Today we're talking about repentance. And the nature of it, the effects of it, and especially the cataclysmic quality that is meant for repenters.

And that's why in Isaiah 40, which is a fulfilled prophecy here in this text, we read, every valley shall be exalted and every mountain and hill brought low. The crooked places shall be made straight and the rough places smooth. The glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together." So John is standing guard here over the idea that nobody yawns their way into the kingdom. They come through repentance. And it's like a valley being brought up and a hill being taken down and the crooked place is made straight.

It's a cataclysmic, geographical upheaval that this thing called repentance is likened unto. And the magnitude of the moment here in the wilderness, I think is, in many ways, it's supercharged because this is the first time in 400 years that a prophet has spoken after Malachi. And so now John breaks the silence and he's like the first breach in the dam. The dam of repenting and the baptismal waters. Then Christ will come And then his apostles will come.

And then those whom Christ has delegated his work to us have also come. So this work that begins here in the desert is something that's exemplified in the desert. It's something that goes way back. It's pictured here, but it goes on. And it goes on in the church.

It's for us. What is here in many ways is for us. And so Matthew is continuing to do what he's been doing In almost every paragraph of the Gospel so far, he's saying, this is that. And so when John the Baptist comes, he's saying, this is that. Just like earlier, when you see the wise men, this is that that was prophesied.

When you see the star, this is that. It was prophesied. When Joseph comes out of Egypt, you say, this is that. Out of Egypt, I shall call my son. So John, or Matthew, is just continuing to move through this descriptive pattern to establish that what was prophesied in the Old Testament is happening right now.

So let's begin with the text. The man. The man. So a new character is breaking on the scene. In those days, John the Baptist came.

I think those are critical words to understand. They introduce a new character into the story that we've not seen. And so this new character has a name. His name is John. Now I know that there are a number of people here, including two of my children, who are crying out to God to help them understand what to name their children that will be born here in the next maybe days or months or something like that.

And because names mean something. And like the Lord Jesus Christ, John was given a name that was expressly given by God. And his name means Jehovah is a gracious giver. So this man, John, actually has a name. What a beautiful name.

You know, it's such a blessing to see parents choose blessed names that speak of glorious things, and that's what John's parents did. Of course, they were under divine order to name him that. So John in his name, but I want you to notice the timeline here. So From chapter 2 to chapter 3, we advance in time. We advance from Jesus' infancy to John's infancy and his adulthood, and the same with Jesus as well.

In those days. Now, in Luke chapter 3, verse 1, we learn when this happened. In the 15th year of Tiberius Caesar, Pontius Pilate being governor of Judah, Judea, Herod being tetrarch of Galilee. And so this happens perhaps in 25 or 26 AD or maybe you know 27 to 29 AD. There's kind of a complicated way of considering how to determine the exact date of John's ministry, but John now is older.

But Luke tells us that John actually grew up in the desert. Did you know that? Luke chapter 1 verse 80 says, So the child grew and became strong in spirit and was in the deserts till the day of his manifestation to Israel. So here's this young man, he's born into his father's house, He's filled with the Spirit from his mother's womb. And here, Luke chapter 1 verse 8 says that he was in the deserts from the time of his childhood.

And what must it have been like to grow up in the desert? I don't know where you grew up, but John grew up in a desert. And he, because he was filled with the Spirit from his mother's womb, we know of the blessedness that must have been life in the desert. The satisfying life is found in the Spirit of God. And so we know that from his youth up, that he saw the world through the eyes of the Lord.

And this is the best way to live. You know children learn to live from John the Baptist. Would you be like him? How would you be like him? And The secret is found in his spirit wherever you happen to grow up whatever home you are in the secret of life is That you're filled with the Spirit of God Luke 1 13 tells us that the angel Gabriel appeared to John's father and And said to him Your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you shall call his 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 shall drink neither wine nor strong drink. He will also be filled with the Holy Spirit, even from his mother's womb. And he will turn many of the children of Israel to the Lord their God. He will also go before Him in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of fathers to the children and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just, to make ready a people prepared for the Lord." So what a wonderful childhood it must have been in the desert.

But what type of ministry was it? In those days John of Athens came preaching. So it was it was a ministry of preaching and the term here is kairouso. It's a common word used in Scripture for this act of heralding or proclaiming with authority the Word of God. And so this is what John was doing.

He was preaching. And I know that those who are true believers here today understand how preaching can change your life. How it can completely, cataclysmically change the course of your life. And it was meant for that. It was meant to be a herald.

It was meant for authority and for a proclamation of the glory and the goodness of God. And so we'll always continue preaching. And it just doesn't happen in places like this behind this podium. In fact, when Jesus begins His preaching ministry, He begins in a house. So preaching in houses, preaching in deserts, preaching in the public squares, preaching everywhere.

That's what John is doing here. It was open air preaching. I know there are some here who love open air preaching, and that's why you have to love John the Baptist here. Because he is doing that. He's like Whitefield, with this exception.

Whitefield seemed to, and most open air preachers, go where the people are. John went where the people weren't. Go figure. It was a very very different technique. He went out into he was out in the wilderness.

That's the location, the wilderness of Judea at the end of verse 1. This is about 20 miles away from Jerusalem and the terminology here communicates remoteness and it was also of course the place where Jesus was tempted. It was a place of tempering and trials and privation. It was a depopulated region So he was not going for the most strategic location, in the heart of the population center. It was west of the Dead Sea, most probably where the Jordan River flowed into the Dead Sea.

The wilderness is a place of new beginnings. And when Jeremiah speaks of it, he speaks of the youth going out to the desert to seek the Lord. They were holiness to the Lord. He said, I love that imagery in Jeremiah chapter 2 verses 2 and 3. In Hosea chapter 2 verses 14 and 15 we read this, therefore I will allure her, will bring her into the wilderness and speak comfort to her." This is a picture of wayward Israel, the wife who's abandoned the love of her youth and is lured into the wilderness so that God would speak words of comfort.

That's exactly what John the Baptist was doing. His words of repentance were absolutely words of comfort. There is no comfort without repentance. In Isaiah 41, we read, I will plant in the wilderness a cedar. In Isaiah 35, the desert shall rejoice.

In Isaiah 32, the wilderness will be a fruitful field. Well that's what was happening. Though it was like a desert, it was like a garden of the heart there. And so the Word of God came to him in the wilderness. Now this is significant.

Why is it significant that Matthew brings it up? There are probably a number of reasons, but one reason I believe is that when the hearers hear this about the wilderness, they're automatically starting to think of the children of Israel in the wilderness. And they're being led into the wilderness and then out of the wilderness, into the promised land. And then we learn actually about his appearance and his diet. That's not very common.

You don't read very much about the diet and the apparel of God's people. But here what we find is John was clothed in camel's hair with a leather belt around his waist and his food was locusts and wild honey. You'll find that in verse 4. And so his clothing was ordained by God. He dressed his part.

I don't think John stood in the front of the wardrobe thinking of how he would so creatively array himself with clothing. He actually clothed himself in order to fulfill Scripture. His clothing was actually carrying out something that God had spoken beforehand. And we are no different. We do not dress ourselves for success.

We don't dress ourselves for allurements, but for the glory of God, we dress our part. All of our clothing is meant to declare the glory of God, To declare for women the glory of the Gospel. For men and women for the fact that we've been clothed in righteousness. When man sinned, he was unclothed and God clothed him. And clothing has a function.

It's really meant to declare the glory of God. Your clothing has nothing to do with projecting your image or looking the way you want to look. Your clothing really has only one purpose. And that is to declare the glory of God. And so when you look in that mirror, you ought to think, how does this glorify God?

How does it point to Christ? How does it point to purity? How does it point to the fact that I'm a sinner that has been forgiven and redeemed? But John here is wearing this clothing. And it was perhaps quite practical, but plain clothing that fit his station in life and also his role in life as a prophet.

Some indicate that actually the language here means that he was hairy, extremely hairy, like clothed in hair. There are some people like that. If you're like that, welcome to the club. Welcome to the prophetic club of John the Baptist. But he came either eating or drinking, and he ate insects.

He actually ate insects. R.T. France, the commentator, says this. This insect was highly prized as nourishment, either in water and salt like our prawns, or dried in the sun and preserved in honey and vinegar, or powdered and mixed with wheat flour into a pancake. Insect pancakes.

But John's attire was like Elijah's, we read in 2 Kings 1 verse 8. So John the man. Let's leave the man, let's go to the mission. John's mission in verse 3, for this is he who was spoken of by the prophet Isaiah, saying, the voice of one crying in the wilderness, prepare the way of the Lord. Make his paths straight.

So John's purpose, his mission, was to fulfill prophecy. And in this passage, like the other passages that we have considered so far in our studies in the Gospel of Matthew, there are two here in this passage that one is implied and the other is actually quoted. But the significance of this moment is found really in his relationship to Christ. Prepare the way of the Lord. Make his path straight.

That's his mission, is to make his path straight for the Lord. And let me say, while this was John's mission, this also is our mission as well. As evangelists, as disciple makers, as we're going out into this world to make disciples of all the nations. We're preparing the way through repentance, through the preaching of the gospel. And so Isaiah 40 is quoted here.

And next week, we will spend most of our time in Isaiah 40 to understand how Matthew uses Isaiah 40 as a fulfillment text for the storyline here. But it's very, I'll just say a couple things about this just to give you sort of a preview. Isaiah 40 begins the last division of the book of Isaiah. The book of Isaiah is broken up into two sections. And in chapters 1 through 39, Isaiah is talking about the present judgment, and he's speaking about the coming captivity.

But in chapter 40, the captivity has already happened, and now the message is, God has not forgotten you, He's going to save you. That's the message which is prophetic of the future that is located in chapter 40 on. So There are two divisions here, and 40 through 66 pictures of the coming of the Messiah. And it starts with the gospel, starts of the voice crying in the wilderness in Isaiah 40, verse 3. And it concludes with the new heavens and the new earth in Isaiah 66, verse 22.

So it's a prophetic section that speaks of the coming of Christ and the gospel. And The message in this section is that God keeps His promises and He speaks comfort to His people and He gathers them into His barns. And so, this is... And then also there's The whole imagery of Malachi, chapter 3 verse 1, I will send My messenger. Remember Malachi, the last prophet of the Old Testament, prophesies that Elijah will come and that God will send his messenger.

Now, was John the Baptist Elijah himself? No. He wasn't physical Elijah. That would actually be reincarnation. But this is not reincarnation.

2 Kings 2-11 says that Elijah actually went straight to heaven and he's not here on the earth. But we find imagery here of the entire book of Malachi. In fact, If you go back and reread Malachi, as we did last summer, almost about this time of the year, you'll see that there are so many parallels in Malachi that there are, in particularly this chapter of Matthew, There are many of the same principles, the language is the same in many places, and and so this is the testimony that's being played out here. The theme of Malachi is that God will judge his people, and then he'll restore them, and he will send a prophet, a forerunner. And the problem is people have slipped into sin after their return from Babylon.

They doubted God's love. They were offering sacrifices, but they weren't offering themselves. They had a form of religion, but no love for God. And God is coming to them in Malachi and saying, either repent or be like Edom. I will strike the earth with a curse.

I'll strike the land with a curse. And so Malachi is saying, this is that day. John is saying now this is that day of restoration. And you see this in each chapter of the book of Malachi. In chapter one you find the priests who despise God's name and they say, well how have we despised your name?

This is exactly what Jesus does with the Pharisees. This is exactly what John does in this chapter as well of Matthew. In chapter two, there are specific sins that Israel has committed. And they're not bearing, they're not bringing forth the fruits of repentance. And they're divorcing, and they're idolatry, And they're faking their worship by doing the deeds but having no heart.

This is mirrored in the ministry of John the Baptist. And in chapter 3, verse 1, where he would behold, I will send my messenger, and he will prepare the way before me. So here, the terminology is carried over by Matthew in this chapter. And there's the refiner's fire. And there's the purifier of silver that's implied here in the language of Matthew chapter 3 as well.

In chapter 4 verse 1 we read in Malachi, For the day is coming, burning like an oven, and all the proud, yes all who do wickedly will be stubble. For the day which is coming shall burn them up, says the Lord of hosts. They will leave them neither root nor branch." This is the same kind of language. The axe is being laid to the tree. And then in chapter 4 verses 5 and 6, behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord, and he will turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the hearts of the children to their fathers, lest I come and strike the earth with a curse." So this, what Matthew is saying is this is that, okay?

This is that which is prophesied by the by the prophet Malachi. And then we come to the message and here is where we'll linger the message that John the Baptist is bringing is, repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. And so how do you define repentance? There's much to say about it here in this passage, much to learn about what repentance actually looks like. Notice that John uses a verb, metanoeo, to turn, to change, to repent.

In this sense, John has a turning ministry. And in many ways, we have that same kind of ministry. We have a turning ministry. Our job is to go out into the world and turn to call for repentance, to call for turning. Because repentance is turning.

Turning from either an intentional lifestyle of irreverent, God-hating wickedness or just from religious religiosity and moral fakery. Those are the two kinds of people that were actually out coming to John in the wilderness. And is repentance, is it feeling sorry? Is it self-condemnation? Is it remorse?

Well, is it like what Judas repented, didn't he? He had remorse. Is that what he's talking about here? No. No, that's not what John is talking about here.

So to repent is to return. It indicates polar opposites. You're going one direction, and then you start going the other direction. It's a radical shift. I said earlier you don't yawn your way into the kingdom.

You turn around and you run toward God. That's the kind of repentance that John is speaking about here. It's renouncing your former way of life and living a new life. So it's not an attitude adjustment. It's an attitude revolution.

It's not a lifestyle modification. It's a complete makeover. That's what God does with His people. He makes them over. Of course, there is initial repentance at salvation, and then there's this continual repentance that Martin Luther spoke of, that it's just the normal part of the Christian life.

And so, it is a radical seismic transformation. Just like Isaiah said, every valley will be exalted, every hill will be brought low, and the crooked places will be made straight. So true repentance is like an earthquake of the soul that changes the configuration of your life. And it's like the restructuring of the earth happens when the hills are brought down and the valleys are brought up. So there's a radical restructuring of life that is true Christianity.

We saw the news about this gigantic earthquake in Japan. The coastline of Japan moved 13 feet, and it tilted the Earth's axis by 10 inches. The Earth changed. Several years ago, there was a gigantic earthquake in Chile and the entire city of Concepcion moved 10 feet to the west and Santiago moved as well. So this kind of geographical revolution is part of the picture of repentance.

What happens in this kind of repentance, we see this happening in the wilderness with John. I mean, if you take the imagery of an earthquake, you know, how do earthquakes happen? Well, earthquakes happen because there are tectonic plates that are pressing up against one another, you know, like so. And they press and they grind against one another. Well, what happened in Japan is out in the ocean, the plates were pressing against each other and they started to slip.

And then finally, wham, they slipped and this gigantic tsunami washed 28, 000 lives away. Well, that's the kind of imagery that Isaiah is saying is what repentance is all about. And it was the kind of repentance that was happening in the wilderness. And so I'm praying for us that we are not yawning our way to heaven, but that we are repenting people. That we cry out to God that He would show us how we ought to repent.

And in this room here today, those who aren't converted would feel the tension. Maybe this would be the day when you pop and you change and the earth, The whole landscape of your life changes. What you do with your eyes, what you do with your time, what you do with the meditations of your heart, what you do with your relationships, what you do with your clothing, what you do with your car, what you do with your house, what you do with your money. That's what John is talking about here. This is the stuff of the Christian life.

This is true Christianity. And there's so many examples of this even in the parallel narrative in Luke. If you go to Luke chapter 3, you find more detail about this because different kinds of people are coming to John and saying, What should we do? That's the question. How will my valley be raised up?

How will my hill be taken down? How will my way be made straight? Because it's so crooked. The people were coming. They were coming to John saying, what do we do, John?

And in Luke 3, verse 10, first of all, the people came. The people came and they said, what shall we do then? And he answered and said to them, he who has two tunics, Let him give to him who has none. He who has food, let him do likewise." This was sort of the general populace. And he was saying, give.

Give out of the abundance that God has given you. But I think Calvin rightly says, John is not saying it's illegal to own two coats. That's not the point. The point is that whatever you have should be in play. You should give out of the abundance of what God has given you, whatever He's given you.

Maybe all you have is the clothing on your back. Therefore, glorify God with it. No one can stand before God and say, I don't know what to do, because He's given us everything. Every moment, every breath is meant for the glory of God. So the people said, what do we do?

Then the tax gatherers came in verses 12 and 13. And they said, they came to be baptized. And they said, what, teacher, what shall we do? And he said, collect no more than what is appointed to you. In other words, don't be greedy.

Glorify God in your work, in your collecting of taxes. Now, I don't know how you can glorify God in collecting taxes, exacting people's hard-earned cash, you know, that was theirs in the first place. But you can. You can. If you're a tax collector, you can glorify God and collect only what is owed you.

And then the soldiers came in verse 14. And they said, and what shall we do? And so he said to them, do not intimidate anyone or accuse falsely, and be content with your wages. So these are the kind of earthquakes of the soul, the kinds of pressure points that are on people's lives. What do I do with the things that God has given me?

Repent. Let the landscape change. What do I do with my job? Repent. Let the landscape change.

Repent in every area of life. And there's such urgency here in this text. The urgency is it's now or it's never. And we find the same message that Jesus brings, and then the same message that the Apostles bring, and then the same message that the Church is to bring into the world, to repent. For the kingdom of heaven is at hand.

There's always an ongoing need for repentance. Yes, it is. No one enters the kingdom of heaven without repentance. When we interview people for church membership here, we always ask them, could you please explain the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ? Often people leave out repentance.

Often it's because they just weren't as aware of exactly how to carefully explain the gospel. But this is a very critical aspect of the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. That there is repentance. But there's an ongoing need. And that's why when Paul was addressing the elders of the Ephesian Church in Acts chapter 20, verse 21, He reminds them that when He was with them, He was always testifying repentance toward God and faith toward the Lord Jesus Christ.

And so repentance breaks the desire for sin and the bondage to sin, and then it moves one along in the Christian life. I've been thinking about repentance in our own church, and I was just recounting the many people who are repenting of their former ways of life here. Some repenting entering in the kingdom of heaven. And then many others, after having done that, repenting of dead works, repenting of things that they did not understand. God is convicting them of their hearts.

We've seen astonishing, earth-shaking, seismic shifts in people's lives. And brothers and sisters, that's the way it ought to be. That's true Christianity. Preaching without repentance is not biblical preaching. You read about this kind of repentance in the Corinthian church.

We're like Corinth, brothers and sisters. Let's not think that we are so different than Corinth. The Apostle Paul was speaking to them, and he said, you know, the unrighteous cannot enter the kingdom of heaven. Neither fornicators nor idolaters nor covetous nor drunkers nor revilers nor extortioners will inherit the kingdom of heaven. But he says, but such were some of you.

But you were washed, but you were cleansed. You were sanctified. You were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ by the Spirit of our God. Brothers and sisters, let's continue the work of repentance. Let's don't yawn our way into glory.

But let's seek the areas that God would have us repent and be a repenting church. Luke 15 says that there is joy in the presence of the angels over one sinner that repents. Why is repentance necessary? It's because there is no one who does good, but there is no one living righteous, so says the psalmist in Psalm 143. Proverbs 20 verse 9 says, Who can say, I have made my heart clean?

No one can say that. If the Lord would mark our iniquities, we could not stand because they're so great. And that appeals to us of the importance of our repentance. How is repentance possible? It's only possible one way.

No one can repent unless the Spirit of God allows him to repent. In the confession of our church, the 2nd of 11th Baptist Confession, we read, saving repentance is an evangelical grace. In other words, it's something that God grants. A person being by the Holy Spirit made sensible of the manifold evils of his sin does by faith in Christ humble himself for it with Godly sorrow, detestation of it, and self-adhorrence, praying for pardon and strength of grace. This is a work of the Spirit of God.

No one can repent unless God helps them to repent. That's why in Zechariah we read, I will pour on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem the spirit of grace and supplication. Then they will look on me whom they have pierced. Yes, they will mourn for him as one who mourns for his only son, and grieve for him as one grieves for a firstborn." Here Zechariah is saying is that true repentance is like grieving for the death of your firstborn son. Now compare yourselves with that brothers and sisters as I compare my own self with it.

Do you grieve for your sin the way you would grieve if your own son had died? It's also important to point out the specific nature of repentance. That it's our duty to repent of known sins, which brings us into a lifetime of repentance. Again, our confession says, as repentance is to be continued through the whole course of our lives, so it is in every man's duty to repent of His particular known sins particularly. Of His particular known sins particularly.

In other words, it's faking often when we are so general. But there are particular sins that need to be repented of particularly, to name them. It's so much easier to say something general when actually there is a poison that has a name, and it should be named in repentance. I'd like to give you some wisdom from Thomas Watson on the whole matter of repentance. Thomas Watson gives six ingredients of repentance, and by the way, they're in this book as well.

Thomas Watson defines repentance like this. Repentance is a grace of God's Spirit whereby a sinner is inwardly humbled and visibly reformed. That's a really good definition. Ingredient number one. Six ingredients of repentance.

Ingredient number one. Sight of sin. The prodigal son came to himself. He saw that seeing that sin is a plague, it's an enemy. If you can't see your sin, you cannot repent Thomas Watson Likens this as a falconer who takes a hawk and puts blinders on him.

Have you ever seen that? And he says that this is like the devil who blinds his children and takes them to hell. If you can't see them, you can't repent. So pray for illumination that you'd be able to see your sins. That's the first ingredient, sight of sin.

The second ingredient is sorrow for sin. They will look on Him whom they have pierced. This is inward sorrow, genuine sorrow. It's mixed with faith. It's great sorrow joined with restitution.

It's abiding. He likens it to the imposter that is like dew falling on a leaf, but it doesn't soak into the root. So there's sorrow for sin. Thirdly, the third ingredient is confession of sin. True confession particularizes sin.

The fourth ingredient, shame for sin. When the heart has been made black with sin, grace makes the face red with blushing." Quotes Ezra 9, 6, I am ashamed and blush to lift my face. So the fourth ingredient is shame for sin. The fifth ingredient is hatred of sin. Ezekiel 36, 31, you shall loathe yourselves for your iniquities." This is the heart set against all forms of sin.

And the sixth ingredient, turning from sin. As Isaiah 55, 7, forsaking sin. In the eyes and the ears and the feet and the heart to turn from sin. John Gill says, it's not just the grosser sins, but the lesser ones that need to be repented of. Not only of public, but private sins are to be repented of.

Sins both of commission and omission should be repented of. Sins that are committed in the most solemn and serious and holy performances of God's people should be repented of. The sins of daily life and not only the actual sins in transgressions, but sins in thought should be repented of, and even of indwelling sin and original sin. So repentance has particular ways about it. And then from John we learn why.

Why should we repent? And the answer is the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand. We repent because of kingdoms. We repent because there are rulers. There's the kingdom of God and there's the kingdom of the devil.

And we repent to serve a different king. God's kingdom is a good kingdom. You enter and you enter into it through repentance. He says the kingdom of heaven is at hand. Not only are you choosing kings when you repent, But there's a reality that John is saying, the kingdom of heaven is at hand.

And what John means is that when the gospel is preached, when Jesus Christ's power, when His kingship is expressed on the earth, the kingdom has come. But it also means the kingdom that will come at the same time. The kingdom is actually two things. It exists in the heart. And it exists forever in all of eternity.

And So what's happening here is the people are coming out of the wilderness and they're changed. They're like the coastline of Japan. It's moved of ten feet. And their valleys have come up and their hills are being pressed down, and they're coming out of the wilderness differently. There are people that perhaps you've known, and they never change.

They walk down an aisle, they make a confession of faith, and the hills are just like the old hills and the valleys are just like the old valleys Brothers and sisters, it's a sign that there was no true repentance Because true repentance is cataclysmic it's seismic it's tsunami It makes a difference. It changes things. That's why the Apostle Paul said, let your progress be evident to all. And then we read of the response in verses 5 through 10. The response, first of all there's the geographical scale of the response.

Then Jerusalem and all Judea and all the region around the Jordan went out to him. So the people are flocking from a fairly wide region. And then they're being baptized in the Jordan River. And what kind of baptism Is this? Well, let me say we will develop this in two weeks.

Next week will be in Isaiah 40. The following week, we'll speak extensively on the whole subject of baptism. Because we come into the baptism of Jesus in the second half of chapter 3. So I'll reserve extensive comments about baptism for that time. But here John was baptizing in a deep river that had been flowing for thousands of years, and Jesus was coming out of the water as were the other people there.

We could talk about Jewish proselyte baptism and all kinds of other things. But what we understand here is that John was baptizing these people. And I just want to suggest, you know, it was a picture of the baptism that Jesus would commission His disciples to perform in Matthew chapter 28. Go into all the world and make disciples, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. So what's happening here is a prefigurement of what will be commissioned.

Many of the meanings are the same, but there's something different happening here. This baptism is different than Jesus' baptism and is different than the coming baptism. And then there's confrontation in verses 7 through 10. When he saw many of the Pharisees and the Sadducees coming to His baptism, He said to them, Brutal vipers, who warned you to flee from the wrath to come?" And so Jesus here is, He's picturing snakes slithering out of a fire to try to get away from the wrath to come. And Jesus is confronting fakers here, those who are just coming out.

He's confronting those with no fruit. He says therefore bear fruits worthy of repentance. He's really articulating the doctrine of salvation, that repentance always issues in fruits. And the fruits are being born in life. Thankfully, God does not cut us off for our early fruits, but He continues to work to help us to bear fruit all of our lives.

He's confronting them of having no faith. They're saying to themselves, we have Abraham as our father. And he says, for I say to you that God is able to raise up children to Abraham from these stones. So they were, instead of faith, they were trusting in family. They were trusting in their traditions.

They did not have real, genuine saving faith. And John is saying the stones are more likely to become followers of God than you are. That's why Matthew Henry says, don't rock yourselves to sleep with this or flatter yourselves into a fool's paradise, thinking that because you have a father who is godly that you can be godly or you have some kind of heritage or tradition the only thing that saves is faith faith and repentance And then he speaks of the coming judgment in verse 10. Even now the lax is laid to the root of the trees, therefore every tree which does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. It is cut down, there is finality.

Some of you have been aware of a recent book that's received lots of press. Rob Bell's book, love wins. When it says here, every tree is cut down and thrown into the fire, the book is deconstructed because it is final judgment that he's speaking of. And then there is the symbol of this repentance in verse 11. Indeed, I baptize you with water unto repentance, but he who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry.

He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire." So there are two baptisms here. There's water baptism and there is spirit baptism here. John's baptism is an outward sign. Jesus' baptism is an inward reality. It's an infilling of the Holy Spirit.

It's being raised up with Christ, who is our life. This is an infusion of spiritual life that he's speaking of. This marks the difference between Old Testament and New Testament saints. New Testament saints are filled with the Spirit while the Old Testament saints were often endued with power by the Holy Spirit. And that marks a line of distinction, a help, extra help from heaven that God gives us.

That when sin's power is broken by the Holy Spirit, it means that you have an enabling, first of all, that you never had before, but you also have an enabling that Old Testament saints did not have in the same way. Because you've been actually baptized by the Spirit. I believe it was Dan Horn on Tuesday morning said that in this way, you can't always just look at the Old Testament saints and say, look how bad they were. Isn't that okay that I am just like them? Because they had a different endowment of power.

They were different. There's a new covenant. And there's an old covenant. And God is pouring out His grace upon His church. He's giving us more help inwardly in a way that Old Testament saints did not have.

And it's a baptism of the Spirit and of fire. And so this is fire that purifies, like gold is purified. This is progressive sanctification. And then there's the motivation. The motivation in verse 12.

His winnowing fan is in his hand. This is why we should all repent. He will thoroughly clean out His threshing floor and gather His wheat into the barn. But He will burn up the chaff with an unquenchable fire." Now, the threshing floor is the visible church. And God is cleaning up His church.

He is separating the wheat from the chaff. There are two kinds of people here. There is the chaff that will be burned up with unquenchable fire. These are under God's wrath and condemnation, and they'll be subjected to everlasting damnation unless they repent. And then there is the wheat, the wheat that's brought into the barn.

God brings his children into his barn. He takes the wheat and he puts them there. You know, you've heard the terms like a horse going to the barn. You know, a horse wants to go to the barn because there's food there. That's where he's taken care of.

That's where there's shelter. It's a wonderful place. The barn is a wonderful place. Maybe someday, maybe someday all of us will have the opportunity to actually live in a barn. God's barn.

The barn in heaven where that contains all of the wheat. The place where all those who are hungry want to go and find shelter from the storms and to find food for their souls. That's the kind of barn that God has. So this passage ends with unquenchable fire on the one hand but also a barn and God's children being gathered into one of his dwelling places that he's been preparing for his children. That's why he said, the Lord Jesus did, let not your heart be troubled.

Believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father's house are many dwelling places. And so you've seen the man, you've seen the mission to prepare the way, the message to repent, the response, both confession and fakery, the symbol of baptism, and the motivation, a barn or unquenchable fire. I want to leave you with two thoughts. The first has to do with the intensity of our repentance, the intensity of the activity that we invest in repentance.

There's something that seismologists call induced seismicity. Got that induced seismicity. Seismicity is induced, it's brought about by something And the term is used to speak of there are things that may increase earthquake activity. And earthquakes, more earthquakes often happen where there's been drilling or excavating. Like if there's a mine and billions of tons of rock have been removed, it changes the way the plates are interacting with one another.

And it can happen with storing large amounts of water behind a dam and changing the way the plates are operating together and increases the odds of an earthquake. And there's also what seismologists called earthquake swarms and earthquake storms and they're that touch off sequences of earth earthquakes in in areas You know rapidly in a period of time So so I want us to consider the intensity of our activity in this business of repentance to to increase to increase our seismicity in a way, to increase the change, to increase the rate of change of the hill of your life that's been sticking out there forever in your marriage with your children, that hill of sin that needs to be pushed down, that valley, that depth of, maybe it's despair, maybe it's something that you just fall into all the time. It's the pit in which you fall. Increase the seismicity so that the activity of repentance increases so that the hills are made lower faster and the valleys are brought up. So that we're not falling into the same pits over and over again.

And again, who is fit for this? Only the Spirit of God can help us to do that. Let's be a people crying out for help from the Spirit of God. And with this incomprehensible interchange of man's will and God's sovereignty, We engage this. We do whatever we can to repent.

We confess our sins to one another in the church. We are confessing of our sins particularly with specificity. That's what increases the seismicity in the human heart and in a church like ours. Here we are. And let's not yawn our way to our heavenly home, that wonderful barn that God has for us.

And so that's the first thought. How can we, in our hearts, before God, with sincerity and truth, cry out for a mighty work of the Spirit of God to bring down every hill and bring every valley up in our lives. Now I look forward to the days when we'll just see more and more of this. The tension builds and you can take it no more. And finally, bam!

You go! And everything has changed. There will be so much more of that in our church. I know it. What a blessing it'll be to live out the years of life here.

You know, when we were going through the book of Deuteronomy, there was seismicity in all of us. We read things that were very disturbing about ourselves. And that's seismicity. Seismicity is a work of the Holy Spirit by the Word of God. But it takes a heart for it as well.

So that's the first thing. The second thing I want to leave you with. And that is to just consider our work. Like John the Baptist, we have a turning ministry in one another's lives, and in the lives of those who have never ever repented of their sins. They might have felt sorry.

They might have got stung by their sin, but they didn't break and change. And so consider our own activity in this community as agents of spiritual seismicity here. How blessed is that people who are not only daily repenting, but who are also calling for repentance. This is the work that we do as we prepare for heaven. The kingdom of heaven is at hand.

The barn is ready and it's fully furnished to receive the humble and confessing broken people like those who met John the Baptist, who'd been so hurt by sin, and they came out confessing their sins. This was a humble people that were coming out into the wilderness. A humble and broken people recognizing that their only hope was repentance toward God and faith toward the Lord Jesus Christ. Let's pray. Lord, again, we thank You for words of life here on this page of Scripture, we recognize only Your Spirit can make them work in us.

We pray that You would do that in this place. Amen.