"A Voice Crying For Repentance”

The brother of Jesus, wrote: “if anyone considers himself religious and yet does not keep a tight rein on his tongue he deceives himself and his religion is worthless.” Do your friends and co workers hear curse words or dirty jokes and yet they know you attend church on Sunday. Then your religion is not winning anyone to Christ.

John warns that the axe is laid to the root of the trees. Axes cut things down. The imagery is terrifying. The judgment of God is waiting for the right time to swing the axe and cut you down if you are trusting in yourself, or your grandmother’s faith. No one knows when that axe will swing. God’s mercy is currently being shown toward those who are opposing Him. But that mercy will be removed, and all of those who are not saved will be cut down and thrown in the fire - meaning the Lake of Fire or Hell when Jesus returns.

John’s baptism for the forgiveness of sins was new. Leon Morris historian, writes that Jews to whom John was preaching were aware of baptism…but only for Gentiles who wanted to adopt the Jewish faith. They were giving up their false worship, thus making their paths straight living a moral life based on the commandments. John is applying baptism to Jews….who need to repent and receive forgiveness.

On our recent trip to Portugal there are hardly any straight highways. Every hill side is steep, terraced in order to fill the hills with grape vines, and olive trees. Through the centuries the Douro river has cut a deep valley through the hills. Between 1963 and 1987 5 locks were built on the raging Douro River, and it became a quiet, smooth river. One of the locks we went through was 5 stories high. That my friends is leveling the mountains and making the rough smooth.

At first glance John’s world and ours look very different. John didn’t have to navigate social media, the internet, or any of the other complexities of modern life. And most of us don’t live in the wilderness, and no one I know lives on locusts and wild honey.

But for all the obvious differences, the human heart has not changed. We have mountains of pride. We often display unrighteous behavior. What does a farmer do? He prepares the soil, plants the seed, pulls out the weeds, and waters the ground. Then he waits. If there is fruit, he harvests it. If there is no fruit, he cuts down the tree and burns it.

What do you call a farmer who doesn’t care about the harvest? You call him broke! Soon you call him bankrupt. A farmer feeds his family from the fruit of the trees he plants.

No fruit, no harvest, no crop, no money, no food.

Israel and Jerusalem were like a barren tree that produced no harvest.

There was no fruit! This is why Jesus cursed the fig tree on his way to the temple after His Palm Sunday victory parade. In Jewish culture the “fig tree” represented peace and security in Jerusalem. There was no fruit! This is why Jesus cleansed the temple They had ritual without hearts of love and law without justice and righteousness.

John reminded the people that God doesn’t accept your birth certificate as the entrance into heaven. “The price of repentance is very, very painful. True repentance is honest before God.” “Be merciful to me a sinner. J. I. Packer says, The problem in our American culture is that “The subject of divine wrath has become taboo in modern society, and Christians by and large have accepted the taboo and conditioned themselves never to raise the matter.” Thus confession and repentance has been removed from many a worship service.