"7 But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming for baptism, he said to them, “You brood of vipers, who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? 8 Therefore bear fruit in keeping with repentance; 9 and do not suppose that you can say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham for our father’; for I say to you that from these stones God is able to raise up children to Abraham. 10 The axe is already laid at the root of the trees; therefore every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.
11 “As for me, I baptize you with water for repentance, but He who is coming after me is mightier than I, and I am not fit to remove His sandals; He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. 12 His winnowing fork is in His hand, and He will thoroughly clear His threshing floor; and He will gather His wheat into the barn, but He will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire."
Good Morning my beloved,
We welcome you to worship
in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. It is my privilege to have you
here with us today. We are especially grateful for those of you who have
been sharing the ministry website with all of your family and friends.
Your faithfulness and commitment to share God's Word with others
continues to bring about tremendous results. People are responding to
God's Word! This is all so amazing. We ask you to pray that God will
continue to give us boldness to speak the truth in ministry in the face
of adversity in the coming days! As you may have noticed, it's becoming
more and more challenging in the day in which we live.
I want to let all of you know how grateful I am for all of you. We are so thankful your prayers and continue to pray for all of you. Prayer is such a powerful tool, and a mighty weapon against the adversary. And through your sharing, God continues to bring a number of people to faith in Jesus Christ. Praise God! May He continue to use you and this ministry mightily to effect change in even more lives. Let's give God some praise for all He has done!
Tragically, the subjects of sin and repentance is omitted in much of the preaching today, in an effort to make the gospel more palatable. People are coming to Christ, believing they do not need to forsake anything. Salvation,therefore, must include the call to repentance, as well as to faith. These are not contradictory elements of salvation, but rather are two sides of the same coin. Repentance prepares us for grace by revealing the weight of our sin to a holy God, and the impossibility of pleasing God on our own. It is acknowledging we do not deserve salvation, and cannot obtain it apart from God's grace, and faith in Christ.
In contrast, many people believe their work for the church, their Sunday morning attendance or their large
financial contribution is what is maintaining their link to God will lead to salvation and gain them entrance to Heaven. I want to be very clear, we cannot earn our way into heaven! I know this is a humbling reality for some of you. Is your relationship with God characterized by humility, or pride?
Many Christians feel that the sins they commit are individually small enough for them to excuse. After all, they didn't murder anybody! When we come to understand the point of repentance, we realize our sins are not excusable, not even the smallest ones. We are in much worse shape than we think.
John the Baptizer, was the last of the Old Testament prophets, his message was never God is OK with your sin, just say this simple prayer. But rather confess your sins and trust in the Messiah who was coming to save them. John's message was one of urgency, we must rid ourselves of the sin in our lives. Not someday, but today.
If men are to be saved, they must first see the reality of sin, their own spiritual condition before God, and that they are condemned because they are sinners, desperately in need of God's grace and forgiveness. Repentance isn’t the end, it’s the beginning of a right relationship with God. Repentance will get you right with God, but it is the indwelling Holy Spirit that will help you stay right with God.
Let us pray
Heavenly Father,
Father, we thank You for Your Word. Thank You for these clear truths about repentance. Lord, I ask that You would touch the hearts of those for whom this message is desperately needed. Those whose lives have never brought forth the fruit of repentance. Convict the hearts of those who appear to be something that they are not. Those who turn away from Christ, turning toward their sin. I pray that today, You would do a mighty in their hearts, that they might truly be converted to saving faith in Your Son, Jesus Christ. May His name be lifted up and exalted before all men throughout all nations. For Christ's sake and for Your glory.
We ask and pray this in Christ's name
Amen
Today's Message: Bear Fruits Of Repentance
Many Christians claim that it's not about religion, rather it’s about relationship. Therefore, we claim to have a personal relationship with God through Jesus Christ, is the most powerful being in the entire universe. You would think if we have had an encounter with the single most
powerful being in the universe that we would walk away from that encounter, very different people. Yet, many Christians today, live unaltered lives. We've been deceived into believing that you can be a "Christian" even with absolutely no evidence of that in your life.There is virtually no difference between the lives of those who claim no affiliation with Christ and those who profess to be born again Christians.
The Bible knows nothing of a faith that does not lead to transformation, a changed life. In John 14:23, Jesus said "If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word." An essential part of salvation is genuine repentance, an essential part of genuine repentance, is that it leads to a changed life. If we have experienced genuine repentance, we should certainly see the fruits of repentance in our lives.
This is a powerful Savior, Jesus Christ, we are talking about. The key is that we must recognize our need to depend on Him and trust in His strength. Humility should characterize our relationship with God.
It is my honor and great privilege to minister the Word of God to you today. Open your Bibles with me to the Gospel of Matthew, chapter 3. Matthew 3 verses seven through twelve. I believe that our text, is a fascinating illustration of John message, his courage, boldness and power. In fact, I believe it's one of the clearest presentations of genuine saving repentance in all of the New Testament. The preaching of John the Baptist underscores the importance of Christians who truly repented were baptized. Baptism was an outward sign that symbolized inward repentance and faith. It still does today.
I invite you to follow along with me as I read, to set the text in our
minds, as we prepare our hearts for the Spirit of God is saying to each
of us. Matthew 3:7-12. Listen for the voice of our Lord.
"But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming for baptism, he said to them, “You brood of vipers, who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Therefore bear fruit in keeping with repentance; and do not suppose that you can say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham for our father’; for I say to you that from these stones God is able to raise up children to Abraham. The axe is already laid at the root of the trees; therefore every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.
"As for me, I baptize you with water for repentance, but He who is coming after me is mightier than I, and I am not fit to remove His sandals; He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing fork is in His hand, and He will thoroughly clear His threshing floor; and He will gather His wheat into the barn, but He will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire."
If you will remember, in verses 5 and 6, people were coming from all over, getting baptized and confessing their sins. They were excited about the coming of Messiah and they wanted to get their lives right with God. In chapter 3, Luke calls to our attention to the fact that words were heard by the entire multitude of people. In other words, the entire multitude heard everything John said.
Here, in verse 7, we are introduced to the congregation."But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming for baptism, he said to them, "You brood of vipers, who warned you to flee from the wrath to come?" The whole multitude heard what John said, but singled out by the Holy Spirit, are the Pharisees and Sadducees, who were very religious but very distant from God. They came for the purpose of being baptized. In John's response, he is questioning the legitimacy of their desires.
The Pharisees were the largest in number, and the most familiar to us. The Sadducees, we know very little about them from the New Testament, then there were the Essenes, because they lived out in the desert, they were kind of like hermits, we don't know much about them, except it was their copying of the Scriptures that left us with the Dead Sea Scrolls. So, you have the Pharisee, the Sadducees and the Essenes. Those were the most well known sects or groups within Judaism. The Pharisees and the Sadducees, were the most important in the gospel record, they were they most mainstream in the Jewish life. They were the successors to the Hasidim. In Hebrew, Hasidim means "the pious."
Now, if you will remember I told you that there was 400-year period, a period of prophetic silence, between the Old Testament and the New Testament, called the inter-testamental period. Because of some books that were written during that period, called the Apocrypha, we have a lot of information about that period of history. They are not included in the Bible, because they're not inspired books. But they do give us quite a bit of information.
During that 400 year period of time was the great Greek Empire. A man named Antiochus Epiphanes, who was a horrible guy, was the Greek ruler in Israel. He slaughtered a pig on the alter and shoved it down the priests throat. The Bible had forbidden them to eat pork, so he made a mockery of it. So, arose in Judaism a group called the Hasidim. They were a pious, dedicated, devout, consecrated, spiritual group, who despised Greek culture. In fact, they aided and abetted the Maccabean Revolution, started by Judas Maccabeus and his sons.
Later, the Maccabean Revolution got a new leader by the name of John Hyrcanus, who perverted the original motive and it became political. The Hasidim pulled out right away and violently opposed the descendants of those they once supported. Most scholars believe the Pharisees are the descendants of Hasidim. The word Pharisee, is plural of pərīshā literally, and means separated. In fact, they separated themselves from everyone who wasn't what they were. Because they separated themselves from sinners, they tried to condemn Jesus for even going near sinners. And, we know Jesus said they were nothing but shameful hypocrites. In fact, they were the only group of people He really condemned with scathing words. He really let them have it.
The Sadducees were the opposite of the Pharisees, they were the compromisers. They even courted Rome to get everything they could out of it, so they played the political game to get into the seats of power. They had a get it while you can attitude. They were extremely wealthy and few in number. They turned the temple into a lucrative business., which they ran. People who came to the temple from out of town, would first of all have to exchange their money to trade in Jerusalem, so they charged an exorbitant interest to change the money.
And, they would find fault in the animals they brought for sacrifices, so they paid incredible prices for the animals they would have to purchase at the temple. The result was the Sadducees got wealthier and wealthier. They took the money and bought more animals to keep their shameful business going. That's why Jesus went into the temple with a whip and cleaned them out. They hated Him for the rest of His life and eventually they got Him to the cross and crucified Him.
The biggest difference between the Pharisees and the Sadducees was the Pharisee literally lived for the resurrection. The Sadducees didn't even believe in the resurrection. In Acts 23:6, "But perceiving that one group were Sadducees and the other Pharisees, Paul began crying out in the Council, “Brethren, I am a Pharisee, a son of Pharisees; I am on trial for the hope and resurrection of the dead!" Paul really nailed it because the Pharisees were big on the resurrection , living against rule after rule, hoping to make it in the next world. That's why verse 7 says "As he said this, there occurred a dissension between the Pharisees and Sadducees, and the assembly was divided." They differed over eternity.
They also had a different view of Scripture. The Pharisees recognized two standards of divine truth, the Old Testament and oral tradition. In that sense, they we very much like the Roman Catholic Church. They added to the Scripture oral tradition from rabbis through the centuries and made up their own laws and codes. The Sadducees believed only the Scripture, they rejected all oral tradition. In fact, they believed that only the five books of Moses were superior. They put the Pentateuch over the rest of the Old Testament.
The Essenes were the hardline in their view of sovereignty and free will, no freedoms, you don't have any choice. The Pharisees believed in divine decree and man's freedom. The Sadducees, not at all. So, that gives you some distinction on the differences between the groups. They only thing they all had in common was their hate for Jesus. In fact, that's what got them all together. Jesus exposed the Pharisees for their externalism. As a footnote, the Sadducees faded from existence in 70 AD, when the destruction of the temple came. And, He confronted the Sadducees and threw them out of the temple.
I believe today, in a sense, we have Pharisees and Sadducees in the church. Rationalists and Ritualists. The rationalists, the liberals, who say you have to just kind of feel God in your own personal way. And the ritualists, who think that if we just do what is required by the religious ceremonies on the outside, we're all right. Either way, it's a religion of man's effort.
Forgive me, I guess I got a little sidetracked here, we had ought to go back to Matthew 3, since it is our text. SO, Matthew tells us the Pharisees were coming to be baptized. I believe it was because they were intimated by everyone thinking John was a prophet of God, and they didn't want to be left out. It was more of we have to find out about this guy., afraid that people would know something they didn't know. I believe there's a lot of that in Christianity today. A lot of people going to church who aren't really Christians. I believe that Satan really moves in the hearts of these people. We should really watch out for people who want to come in to the church and take over. They are willing to stoop to conquer. There's no real confession of sin, no real repentance, they are there for all the wrong reasons. To get something out of God. There's no real search for God, they believe they should be the great exalted ones, not Christ. To put it bluntly, they are self deceived hypocrites.
So, John confronts them, "he said to them, “You brood of vipers, who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Therefore bear fruit in keeping with repentance; and do not suppose that you can say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham for our father’; for I say to you that from these stones God is able to raise up children to Abraham." You know, I believe that Jesus must have liked that title for them because He used it a lot. Man, in Matthew chapters 12 and 23, Jesus really exposes them in one expression the great and fatal sin that marked them. Religious phonies!
The word viper, in the original language is the word "echidna," a poisonous snake, that was so deceitful, it looked like a dead branch, it would stay very still, until someone was gathering wood. That's what happened in Acts 28 to Paul on Malta. Here it is being used to suggest the venomous desire to reverse what is true for what is false. They were poisoning a whole nation with their fatal deception. It was very fitting to call them vipers. Satan, is nothing more than a viper himself. So he blasts them with the indictment, "You phonies; who sent you to do this?"
In verse 8, he's saying there had ought to be a change in your lifestyle! "Therefore bear fruit in keeping with repentance." You'll never prove true repentance until there's the fruit of repentance the visible work of repentance. True repentance will always manifest a changed life. So John it really nailing them, if you're coming here with genuine repentance, let's see the proof of it in your life. Stop doing what you used to do. I believe that's just as true today, people claim to be saved, but there's no evidence of change in their lives. They're still sinning just as they did before. There has to be a change in moral conduct, eliminating sin and in attitude. God evaluates repentance by it's fruit. No fruit, no true repentance! It starts inside and then it works its way outside, in your works.
That's why James says in chapter 2, "But someone may well say, "You have faith and I have works; show me your faith without the works, and I will show you my faith by my works." You believe that God is one. You do well; the demons also believe, and shudder."
The Pharisees and Sadducees knew what repentance was and they knew there were phonies. Verse 8, then, is actually an invitation and it's an indictment at the same time. The doors of repentance are never closed. God will forgive a man in private, even if what he has done was public. Aren't we glad of that? The opportunity for true repentance was extended to them. John knew exactly what they were thinking.
Look at verse 9, "And do not suppose that you can say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham for our father’; for I say to you that from these stones God is able to raise up children to Abraham." Big deal! An evil son cannot plead the merits of a saintly father. The Pharisees and the Sadducees were headed for hell, relying on their external security, their descent from Abraham. By turning their hearts to stone, they were resisting God's grace.
In verse 10, he says "The axe is already laid at the root of the trees; therefore every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire." That's the same illustration Jesus used in John 15, "If anyone does not abide in Me, he is thrown away as a branch and dries up; and they gather them, and cast them into the fire and they are burned." John pictures God coming to find the fruitful tree, and where He doesn't find it, He lays an axe at the root. John is indicating the judgment of God. A tree without the fruits of repentance is cut down and burned. Judgment is imminent, it's now!
John's preaching the Old Testament was connected with the coming of the Messiah. They didn't see a gap in it at all. Messiah will come for salvation, and He will come for judgment, they believed it was all one. They didn't see that there would be a gap in between. There is always imminent judgment when you die without Jesus Christ, at that very moment! I'm not speaking about the great white throne judgment, that's different. Your decision regarding Christ determines whether He's the Savior or the Judge. As far as we know, the Pharisees and the Sadducees didn't say anything. There's absolutely no reaction from the Pharisees and the Sadducees, we see that in Luke 3.
Jesus took it even further when He said "If you were Abraham's children, you would do the works of Abraham. But now you seek to kill Me. You are of your father the devil."
Then, in verse 11, John says "As for me, I baptize you with water for repentance, but He who is coming after me is mightier than I, and I am not fit to remove His sandals; He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire." I'd like you to notice something, verse 10 ends with "fire." Verse 11, ends with "fire." Verse 12, ends with "unquenchable fire." All of that destruction comes in response to the condemnation. Fire is frequently a biblical symbol of divine judgment. We won't go into to all of them, so look at Deuteronomy 32:22 "For a fire is kindled in My anger, and burns to the lowest part of Sheol, and consumes the earth with its yield, and sets on fire the foundations of the mountains."
And Matthew 5:22, "But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother shall be guilty before the court; and whoever says to his brother, ‘You good-for-nothing,’ shall be guilty before the supreme court; and whoever says, ‘You fool,’ shall be guilty enough to go into the fiery hell."
When God's upset, there's gonna be fire. Nobody gets a pass and no one escapes His judgement, unless they are protected in Christ. If Satan can't escape it, as clever as he is, what's makes anyone else think that they will escape Hell? That kind of explains why He's going to destroy the earth with fire doesn't it? You know He cannot be pleased with this world today!
That brings us to verse 12, "His winnowing fork is in His hand, and He will thoroughly clear His threshing floor; and He will gather His wheat into the barn, but He will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire." That's very fascinating imagery! It pictures a threshing floor. When the harvest was done, they would take the bunches of grain, or whatever it was, and throw it onto the thrashing floor. Then, there would be an ox or a team of oxen, that would walk around the threshing floor dragging great heavy pieces of wood to separate the kernel from all the rest of the straw and the dirt, until finally, the hard kernel would be left. The "winnowing fork," is an agricultural reference to the harvest. It was a tool used by the farmer to throw the mix from his shredded pile of grain and
straw into the air to let the wind carry the straw and chaff away and
the grain fall back for collection. Only the grain would fall.
The Great Harvest, is actually carried out by angels, and Christ oversees the whole project. We will study that later in the book of Matthew. So what we see this fearful picture of Judgement. I want to make very clear before we close, this same message stands today.
In Closing..
Jesus Christ IS going to come again literally, and physically. Your response to Him will determine whether He is your Savior or your Judge. Whether He comes offering blessing or curse!
If you have not yet done so, I urge you to call upon the Lord Jesus Christ, ask Him to change you from the way you have been, to bring forth the fruits of true repentance in your life. Today, salvation is offered, there is still hope in the age of grace. From the moment that we are saved, God has granted in Jesus Christ that we are a gift. And to every one who believes, the Son grants the Spirit.
Everyone else will face fiery divine Judgement! I assure you, Jesus Christ is coming!
May it be so..
the Lord make His face shine upon you,
And be gracious to you;
The Lord lift up His countenance upon you,
And give you peace.
Now and forever, in Jesus' name
Amen
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