Luke 3:7-17 | "The Forgotten Gospel"

This sermon was recorded at Faith Evangelical Free Church in Grand Forks, North Dakota.

Well, good morning, brothers and sisters.

Delighted to share God's word with you this morning.

But before I get into the message, I want to share with you a little bit of life growing up in South Africa.

So brush fires are a very common thing there, especially during the wintertime when it's very dry.

We call them felt fires.

It's a big thing.

Small sparks cause great devastation.

And one day I was observing a herd of wildebeest and zebras, and there was a fire behind them.

And you know, the fire would creep up right, just about to scorch the hairs on their tails, and they would gallop 20 or 30 feet, and then start lazily walking again.

There's a fire.

And I was wondering why the zebras would do that, and they would just repeat it over and over, and no real rush here.

And I thought, well, they probably say to themselves, we have fire insurance.

We don't need to worry about this.

Now, snakes, on the other hand, tend to be more fearful, and they are a little more cautious than the zebras and the wildebeest.

Needless to say, lots of wildebeests and zebras die every year in feld fires, but vipers and uh snakes alike flee at the first signs of a feld fire.

And they speed towards the roadways to get out of the fire, but then only to be trampled by donkeys, cars, and buses.

Perhaps a vivid picture of what John the Baptist had to preach about.

We have a recorded sermon of John the Baptist in Luke's Gospel in the third chapter.

And if you would like to turn there with me, and he opens up his sermon with a fitting introduction.

Oh, you brood of vipers.

Imagine this was Faith Eevee Free this morning.

Good morning, you brood of vipers.

Let's read there from verse 3.

Uh, yeah, verse 3 and chapter 3.

And I want to just give you a bit of an orientation.

And he went into the region around the Jordan, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.

Now that we know what John was doing, he was preaching, verse 7, we see how and what he preached.

Verse 7.

He said therefore to the crowds that came out to be baptized by a new brood of vipers who warned you to flee from the wrath to come.

Bear fruits in keeping with repentance, and do not begin to say for yourselves, we have Abram as our father.

For I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children for Abram.

And even now the axe is laid to the root of the tree.

Every tree, therefore, that does not bear fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.

And the crowds asked him, What then shall we do?

And he answered them, Whoever has two tunics is to share with the one who is not, and whoever has food is to do likewise.

The tax collectors came to be baptized and said to him, Teacher, what shall we do?

And he said to them, Collect no more than you are authorized to do.

And the soldiers came to him, and we, what shall we do?

And he said to them, Do not extort money from anyone by threats or false accusation, and be content with your wages.

Verse 15.

As the people were in expectation and all were questioning in their hearts concerning John whether he might be the Christ, John answered them all, saying, I baptize you with water, but he who is mightier than I is coming, the strap of whose sandals I'm not worthy to untie.

He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.

His whimming fork is in his hand to clear his threshing floor and to gather the wheat into the barn and the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.

So, with many other exhortations, he preached good news to the people.

This was one of his more uplifting sermons.

As we think of the end of verse 18, and he preached the good news.

What is another word for good news?

The gospel, Evangelion.

As we think of sharing the gospel, the good news with people, isn't it that we fear people more than we fear the wrath of God?

We fear telling people about the wrath of God in fear of offending them.

Perhaps two of the most comp most forgotten components of the gospel is addressed here by John the Baptist.

Wrath and repentance.

And if you ever listened to Alistair Beck or Martin Lloyd Jones, they would say wrath and the repentance, both spelled with Rs.

Wrath and repentance are regretfully absent from today's pulpits.

It's absent in teaching and it's absent in evangelism.

Is it perhaps that it's driven by our fear for offending people that we conveniently forget such a foundational truth to the gospel?

The title of today's message is The Forgotten Gospel.

We must not forget that unsaved people offend God with their lives.

Everything they do, everything they say, even their good works are offensive to God.

24-7, 365 days a year.

How is it that we are so concerned about offending them for a few minutes with the gospel?

As we look here at John the Baptist's sermon, his gospel-centered sermon, in verse 3, it says he was preaching a baptism of repentance for the purpose of the forgiveness of sins.

Everything in John's message here points towards the arrival of the Messiah.

And this is the picture of the Messiah that he paints.

If you look at verse seven, he says, You brood of vipers, who warned you to flee from the wrath to come?

Verse 7 speaking there of the wrath of the coming Messiah.

Verse 9 speaks of the wrath of the Messiah that is ready to axe down any tree that does not bear fruit.

Unrepentant and unfruitful trees, he will axe down and cast into unquenchable fire.

Verse 16, it speaks of the Messiah who will baptize either with the Holy Spirit or with the fire of wrath.

Verse 17 speaks of Messiah as the harvester of souls, separating wheat from chaff and burning the unrepentant chaff with unquenchable fire.

As we look at John's message here, he connects this concept of wrath.

He establishes the concepts of wrath, and he connects it with repentance.

Look at verse 7.

You brood of vipers, who warned you to flee from the wrath to come, therefore, verse 8.

Every time in the Bible we see therefore, we need to ask, why is it therefore?

And so the question is here, why is he connecting repentance with wrath?

And this is what I'm going to explain to you.

You see, vipers and snakes and other serpents, they possess this natural instinct to flee.

They are quickly spooked.

And any sign of a fire or any other hazard, they flee.

But they often flee not far enough, or they flee from one danger into a greater danger.

And this is one of the very dangers facing the evangelical community today is that Satan does not want people to hear about the wrath of God, but rather people want fire insurance rather than a fire escape.

You see, people often think that fire insurance is enough, but what does fire insurance help you when there is a fire?

If you're going to get consumed in the fire.

And here God's wrath is analogous with fire.

And this is what Thomas Watson, that 17th-century Puritan, said Satan throws a mist, a fog before the eyes of a sinner that he does not see the flaming sword of God's wrath.

If there is no fear of wrath, there is no need for repentance.

You see, repentance has fallen out of vogue in evangelism.

Wrath has fallen out of vogue, and so has repentance.

And this is the very nutshell of John's message here, his gospel message is wrath and repentance.

How does wrath and repentance interact with each other?

And I will show that to you.

But one thing I want to share with you is when I went to seminary, I met people from all over the world.

But what really impressed me, well, at first it kind of irked me a little, I'm honest with you.

The Russians, people who came from uh former Soviet bloc nations, whenever they shared their testimony, they will begin with these words.

On January 8th, 1985, I repented.

There is absolutely no mention of inviting Jesus into your heart or accepting Jesus.

There's no mention of that.

They began their testimonies with, I repented.

Students from other places in the world where there were much less likelihood of being persecuted for your religion, they used words like, uh, I invited Jesus into my heart or I accepted Jesus.

Whatever happened to repentance, whatever happened to wrath, uh, these two go hand in glove.

You see, wrath and repentance we we find somewhat offensive.

And we fearful that we are going to drive people away from God when the exact opposite is true.

You see, with John the Baptist, he preached wrath and repentance, and the people kept coming.

And perhaps John the Baptist remembered something of Psalm 2, verses 11, 12.

Psalms 2:11

Serve the Lord with fear and rejoice with trembling.

Kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and you perish in the way, for his wrath is quickly kindled.

Blessed are those who take refuge in him.

Very interesting.

People who have an understanding of the wrath of God, they do not flee away from God, they take refuge with God.

And that was the very aim of John's sermon.

Don't flee from God, you're not gonna flee from him, you're not gonna escape him, you're certainly not gonna escape his wrath.

Rather, flee to him, take refuge in him.

As we think about the wrath of God, it could be either that we seek fire insurance or we seek a fire escape.

Nevertheless, we need to think about the imminence of God's wrath.

We often think that wrath is something that is coming.

Wrath is way down there in the future.

Wrath is something that happens when I do something really, really bad.

Divine wrath here was applied to the religious folk of the day, the ordinary people.

We see that came to John the Baptist were soldiers, tax collectors, and average folk.

When he says, Oh, you brood of vipers, we think he is speaking to the Pharisees.

No, he is speaking to the religious folk of the day, the churchgoer of that day.

And so divine wrath was not something reserved for those especially Pharisaic people.

No, John the Baptist says in John 3.36, he says, but he does, he who does not obey the Son will not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him.

The indication there is that the wrath of God is already abiding on every soul.

Verse 9 in Luke says, indeed, the axe is already.

If you have the ESV, it says now.

Indeed, the axe is already laid at the root of the trees.

The wrath of God is imminent, it is a looming presence over each and every individual that walks this planet.

John's gospel of wrath and repentance was aimed to drive people not away from God, but to God.

And the crowds were questioning him, saying, Then what shall we do?

You see, repentance is not something we have, repentance is something we do.

It's not like fire insurance where you just have fire insurance.

You do something.

It's like a fire escape.

You take it.

And so for John, repentance was a fire escape.

But people just wanted to get top-up fire insurance, so they came out in the droves to be baptized.

He does not make baptism easy for them because they were obviously cut to the heart by his message.

Their response, what shall we do, is something to think about.

Now look at verse 18.

I know I'm jumping back and forth here a little bit, but I just want to show you that John's message was not shy of the gospel.

It was not, this wasn't preaching of wrath and repentance, and then on the other side, preaching about gospel and grace.

He is preaching the gospel.

Verse 18 of Luke chapter 3.

Luke 3 · chapter mention

So, with many other exhortations, he preached the gospel to the people.

Now you might say, well, John the Baptist was a Baptist.

Those Baptists just preach wrath.

Right?

But how what about Jesus?

What about Jesus?

Turn to Luke chapter 11.

Luke 11 · chapter mention

Luke chapter 11, verse 32.

Luke 11:32

John has faded into the background.

He made way for Messiah now.

And Messiah is also a preacher of wrath and repentance.

Look at verse 32.

Then the men of Nineveh will rise up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, for they did what?

Repent it at the preaching of Jonah, and behold, something greater than Jonah is here.

When God was about to destroy the city of Nineveh, he sent this fiery preacher, but he was a reluctant preacher named Jonah.

And Jonah preached one of the shortest and most concise sermon in all of history, but it was the most potent sermon ever preached.

Because so many repented at that message.

Look at Jonah chapter 3, verse 4.

Jonah 3:4

I have to slide up there so you don't need to turn there.

Yet 40 days and Nineveh be destroyed.

Who wouldn't like the pastor to preach such a short message?

In response to this very bad news that Jonah preached, from the smallest to the greatest were pierced to the heart.

They were remorseful, they were sorrowful, and they were bearing all the fruits evident of repentance.

Now the Assyrians there, the Ninevehites, were somewhat unclear of what their outcome would be.

What would happen here if we repented?

If we repent.

Well, no, let's just repent.

Let's just repent.

Maybe, maybe God will do something.

Look at verse 9 and verse 10.

Who knows?

God may turn and relent and withdraw his burning anger so that we will not perish.

They are merely assuming if they repent, God would take his wrath and turn it the other way and not destroy them.

Verse 10.

When God saw their deeds, that they turned, and that word in Hebrew is shuv, that word turned, and that is commonly translated as repentance or repented.

So when God saw that they repented from their wicked ways, then God relented.

And that word there is shuv, that God has turned his wrath the other way.

Then God relented concerning the calamity which he declared he would bring upon them.

And he did not do it.

When Jesus preached in Luke 11 32, he turned to Jonah and he taught them the message of Jonah that repentance is one sure way to escape from the wrath of God.

One sure way to take that fire escape from the wrath.

Of God is to repent.

The message of Jonah is absolutely crystal clear, that there is a relationship between God's wrath and human repentance.

Repentance was the sure fire way to escape from the fire wrath of God.

Let's look at 2 Peter.

Our response to wrath, present wrath, and coming wrath can be informed by what we see in 2 Peter chapter 3.

2 Peter 3 · chapter mention

Let's look at verse 7.

But by the same word, the heavens and the earth that now exist are stored up for fire, judgment, wrath, being kept until the day of judgment and destruction of the ungodly.

Verse 9.

The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient towards you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.

Can you see the relationship here?

Peter caught on what Jesus was preaching here, that one sure way to escape from the wrath of God is this thing called repentance.

And it's God's desire.

God truly desires for all people to repent.

That is God's desire.

Wrath and repentance.

Here again is juxtaposed.

The same as in Luke 13.3 and Luke 13.5, where Jesus said, I tell you, no, but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.

We keep hearing this word perish.

We hear the word perish in Jonah's message.

We hear the word perish in 2 Peter.

We hear the word perish in Jesus' preaching in Luke 3.

And it all talks about this utter destruction of those who are under the who are the recipients of God's wrath.

It's a very strong word, that word perish.

The Greek word is apolumi, which means utter destruction.

God does not desire for anyone to be at the receiving end of his wrath.

That's not God's desire.

God does not desire to pour his wrath upon people.

Instead, God is utterly desirous of people to repent and turn to him.

As we look at the scriptural evidence, we have Jonah as an example, we have John the Baptist, Jesus, Peter, and later on, if we look at Paul's sermons on Mars Hill preached to the Gentiles, there again we see this relationship between wrath and repentance.

Acts 17, verse 30.

Acts 17:30

I'm not sure if I got a slide for that one.

No, I don't.

Acts 17, verse 30 and 31.

Acts 17:30

The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent.

This is how it goes today.

The times of ignorance God overlooked.

But now he commands all people.

No, no, he doesn't command.

He asks if you will invite him into your heart and accept him.

God commands all people everywhere to repent because he has fixed a day in which he will judge the world.

Here again, wrath and repentance are juxtaposed.

In the teaching of Jonah, John the Baptist, Jesus, and the apostles, we learned that repentance is not just top-up fire insurance, but instead it is a fire escape.

How many people who burned up in the twin twelve hours of 9-11 had fire insurance?

Probably everybody had some form of life insurance, and that didn't help them.

Instead, we need a fire escape from the wrath of God, and a surefire way to escape the fires of God's wrath is to repent.

We can certainly preach and teach and evangelize, talking about God's wrath.

But if we don't bring in repentance, we offer people no solution.

And then this is a gospel of condemnation, not a gospel of salvation.

Our gospel is a gospel of salvation, though condemnation is part of it.

Luke 3, verse 3.

Luke 3:3

And he went into all the regions around Jordan proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.

What is repentance?

If repentance is such a powerful thing, what is it?

It's essentially a change of mind.

The Greek word there is meta-noe, which really speaks about a shift, a paradigm shift that takes place in the mind.

A person is one moment in a state of rebellious pride, and the next moment the mind is all about humility and submission.

Repentance is a change of mind from evil to good or from good to better.

Nevertheless, repentance is a powerful thing because it procures forgiveness.

He proclaimed a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.

Is it the baptism that washes away our sins, or is it the repentance?

The forgiveness of sins is procured not through baptism, but repentance which is representative of what takes place inside.

Baptism is an outward expression of an inward transformation that has taken place.

Verse eight.

John the Baptist says repentance is not just something that is in the mind.

It originates in the mind, but it goes outward into action.

Bear fruits in keeping with repentance.

Verse 10.

They clearly understood that repentance is not only just a change of mind, but logically, from right thinking comes right actions.

And repentance, thus, is not just about thinking about sin, it is actually turning away from sin and doing something else in place.

There is a replacement for old wicked behavior.

Look at verse 10.

The crowds, the crowds, everyone said, What shall we do?

What shall we do?

They clearly understood that repentance requires a change of mind, but also a change of behavior and attitude.

You see, the initial turning away from self-reliance, self-worship, and self-governance makes way for submission to God as the prime object of reliance, the prime object of worship, and the prime object of governance.

Governance.

I can already see somebody sending me an email tomorrow morning.

Like, who's this from?

Christians often grapple with this idea, is it faith or repentance?

Is it both?

Is it which one comes first?

But we drive this false dichotomy between repentance and faith.

The Bible does not drive a dichotomy.

It's not like faith is all about grace and repentance is all about works.

That's false.

Well, people might even say, well, if there's repentance in my salvation, they may not say it like Martin Lloyd Jones, but they might say, you know, if if you're telling me that repentance is right there in salvation, then this will be not grace but works.

And I'm like, where do you see that in the Bible?

Just show me where the Bible says you got grace here and repentance here, and the two are absolutely separate from each other.

The one has no bearing on the other.

But let me show you this false dichotomy that we draw.

And what is a dichotomy?

It's splitting things apart and showing them that they are opposites.

Let me show you here in John's preaching.

Verse 18.

It's very clear in Luke 3.18 that John was preaching gospel.

He was preaching gospel.

So repentance and wrath is not in opposition to the gospel.

It is the gospel.

It is the gospel.

And if you preach anything to people that does not have wrath and repentance, it's not a gospel.

It's actually a false gospel.

It's a gospel that will, without a doubt, condemn people.

Let me show you what Paul says in 2 Corinthians 7.10.

For the sorrow that is according to the will of God produces a repentance without regret, leading to what?

Salvation.

Repentance leading to salvation.

It's not in contrast, it's not in composition, it's not in the way of salvation, but it actually pivots, it's pivotal, and it catapults someone towards salvation.

Thomas Watson, that Puritan, would say moist tears of repentance dry up sin and quench the wrath of God.

Repentance is the cherisher of piety and the procurer of mercy.

Love it.

Just love it.

The moist tears of repentance dry up sin.

It's the procurer of mercy.

Here's another reason why I think we drive a dichotomy here between wrath and repentance and grace and faith.

We think of Hebrews chapter six.

We think often that repentance is optional.

You get saved, and then somewhere along the line you can choose whether you want to repent.

Repentance is like top-up fire insurance, it's like an umbrella program at your insurance company.

It's optional.

But look at Hebrews 6.1.

I have it on the screen there.

Not laying again the foundation of repentance and faith.

Foundational to the gospel is repentance.

It's not optional, it's foundational.

Watson would say, whether faith or repentance goes first, I don't know.

However, I'm sure that repentance is of such great importance that there can be no salvation without it.

Well stated, Mr.

Watson.

Fourth false dichotomy is it's misleading to say that repentance is a work of man and it's apart from sovereign grace and divine intervention.

Romans 2.4 speaks clearly that repentance is a work of grace.

Romans 2.4.

Oh, do you think lightly of the riches of the kindness of God and restraint and patience?

Not knowing that the kindness of God leads you to repentance.

The kindness of God leads you to repentance.

But because of your hard and impenitent, your unrepentant heart, you are storing up wrath.

Clearly, the unrepentant state is a state that is still under the looming wrath of God.

Second Timothy 2 25, Paul says, with gentleness, correcting those who are in opposition, opposition to the gospel, if perhaps, if perhaps God may grant them repentance, leading to the knowledge of the truth.

Repentance is not something that you you just conjure up by your own strength.

It's granted to you.

It's a work of sovereign grace, as Watson would say.

Repentance is a grace required under the gospel.

Some think it legalism, but the first sermon that Jesus Christ preached, indeed, the first word of his sermon was repent, Matthew 4, 17.

Very powerful.

The very first sermon that Jesus preached, the very first word was repent.

So what is what am I saying here?

True and genuine repentance is not acquiring fire insurance.

But rather, it's more than that, it's a surefire way to escape the consuming fire of God's wrath.

Fire insurance is great, but it cannot protect you against fire, right?

Those who came out to the wilderness to be baptized with water by John, most of them, most of them came only to receive fire insurance because they were saying, well, we're pretty religious, you know.

We uh we Jews, we pretty committed Jews, we got Abram as our father.

We belong to this and this congregation, and we go to church pretty regularly, mostly.

And we're good people.

I mean, what do you what are you asking here?

We'll get baptized.

Let's just get baptized and then we just got maybe extra coverage here, right?

While fire insurance might have given them a false sense of peace of mind, their souls will not escape from Messiah's baptism by fire.

In fact, J.C.

Ryle, that Bishop of England, once said, Yet of all the crowds who came to his baptism and heard his preaching, how few, it may be feared, were converted.

Some, we may hope, like Andrew, were guided by John to Christ.

But the vast majority in all probability died in their sins.

Religion can be a dangerous thing, dear brothers and sisters.

Because it often is like fire insurance.

But what would it do for you on the day of wrath?

What would it do for you on the day of wrath?

Are you gonna say to God, well, I belong to this and this church for 30, 40 years?

I donated to this and this charity, I did good things, I invited Jesus into my heart.

Or is the question going to be answered?

Have you repented?

Have you repented?

Let us ask that God give us great mercy to not be forgetful of these wonderful truths that has to be part and part, part and parcel of the gospel we believe and the gospel we preach.

Let us pray that God gives us much grace, Lord, and much mercy, knowing that your kindness is what leads us to repentance.

I pray, God, that you will allow us to have the boldness and the gentleness, the love and the grace, but also the commitment to speak of a gospel that will condemn the unrepentant, but will forgive the sins of the repentant.

Lord, we know that these things are works of your grace.

That's no man boast about his repentance.

No man will be in heaven boasting about the day that they repented.

The day that they repented, turning away from sin and turning towards Jesus.

No man will boast, for it's all grace.

We also know, Lord, that we are justified by our faith in Jesus Christ.

But the basis of our salvation is the complete and perfect work of Jesus Christ on the cross and the perfect life he lived on our behalf.

Well, tempted like us, he was without sin.

He was obedient in all things, obedient even to the point of death on a cross, so that he may justify us.

He was raised because of our justification.

And yet we know, Lord, in all these graces, that we are called to obediently repent, turn away from our sins and towards Christ on the road to glory in Jesus' name.

We pray.

Amen.

That concludes this sermon from Faith Evangelical Free Church.

Our mission is to declare the Word of God and disciple believers into mature, devoted followers of Jesus.

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