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<div><span style="color:#000000;font-family:Arial;font-size:13px;">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; February 8, 1981 (Evening)</span></div>
<div><span style="color:#000000;font-family:Arial;font-size:13px;">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Bethlehem Baptist Church</span></div>
<div><span style="color:#000000;font-family:Arial;font-size:13px;">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; John Piper, Pastor</span></div>
<div><span style="color:#000000;font-family:Arial;font-size:13px;"><br></span></div>
<div><span style="color:#000000;font-family:Arial;font-size:13px;">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span></div>
<div><span style="color:#000000;font-family:Arial;font-size:13px;"> <strong>&nbsp;&nbsp; JOHN THE BAPTIST AND THE BROOD OF VIPERS</strong></span></div>
<div><span style="color:#000000;font-family:Arial;font-size:13px;">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; (Luke 3:1-9)</span></div>
<div><span style="color:#000000;font-family:Arial;font-size:13px;"><br></span></div>
<div><span style="color:#000000;font-family:Arial;font-size:13px;">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span></div>
<div><span style="color:#000000;font-family:Arial;font-size:13px;"><br></span></div>
<div style="margin-left:24px;"><span style="color:#000000;font-family:Arial;font-size:13px;">&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; <em> 1 In the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, Pontius Pilate being governor </em></span></div>
<div style="margin-left:24px;"><span style="color:#000000;font-family:Arial;font-size:13px;"><em>of Judea, and Herod being tetrarch of Galilee, and his brother Philip tetrarch of the </em></span></div>
<div style="margin-left:24px;"><span style="color:#000000;font-family:Arial;font-size:13px;"><em>region of Ituraea and Trachonitis, and Lysanias tetrarch of Abilene, 2 in the high-</em></span></div>
<div style="margin-left:24px;"><span style="color:#000000;font-family:Arial;font-size:13px;"><em>priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God came to John the son of Zechariah </em></span></div>
<div style="margin-left:24px;"><span style="color:#000000;font-family:Arial;font-size:13px;"><em>in the wilderness; 3 and he went into all the region about the Jordan, preaching a </em></span></div>
<div style="margin-left:24px;"><span style="color:#000000;font-family:Arial;font-size:13px;"><em>baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. 4 As it is written in the book of the </em></span></div>
<div style="margin-left:24px;"><span style="color:#000000;font-family:Arial;font-size:13px;"><em>words of Isaiah the prophet, &quot;The voice of one crying in the wilderness: Prepare the way </em></span></div>
<div style="margin-left:24px;"><span style="color:#000000;font-family:Arial;font-size:13px;"><em>of the Lord, make his paths straight. 5 Every valley shall be filled, and every mountain </em></span></div>
<div style="margin-left:24px;"><span style="color:#000000;font-family:Arial;font-size:13px;"><em>and hill shall be brought low, and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough </em></span></div>
<div style="margin-left:24px;"><span style="color:#000000;font-family:Arial;font-size:13px;"><em>ways shall be made smooth; 6and all flesh shall see the salvation of God.&quot;</em></span></div>
<div><span style="color:#000000;font-family:Arial;font-size:13px;"><br></span></div>
<div style="margin-left:24px;"><span style="color:#000000;font-family:Arial;font-size:13px;">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; <em>&nbsp;&nbsp; 7 He said therefore to the multitudes that came out to be baptized by him, &quot;You </em></span></div>
<div style="margin-left:24px;"><span style="color:#000000;font-family:Arial;font-size:13px;"><em>brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? 8 Bear fruits that befit </em></span></div>
<div style="margin-left:24px;"><span style="color:#000000;font-family:Arial;font-size:13px;"><em>repentance, and do not begin to say to yourselves, 'We have Abraham as our father'; for </em></span></div>
<div style="margin-left:24px;"><span style="color:#000000;font-family:Arial;font-size:13px;"><em>I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children to Abraham. 9 Even now </em></span></div>
<div style="margin-left:24px;"><span style="color:#000000;font-family:Arial;font-size:13px;"><em>the ax is laid to the root of the trees; every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is </em></span></div>
<div style="margin-left:24px;"><span style="color:#000000;font-family:Arial;font-size:13px;"><em>cut down and thrown into the fire.&quot;</em></span></div>
<div><span style="color:#000000;font-family:Arial;font-size:13px;"><br></span></div>
<div><span style="color:#000000;font-family:Arial;font-size:13px;">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; I never have agreed with those people in the history of the church who rejected all fiction </span></div>
<div><span style="color:#000000;font-family:Arial;font-size:13px;">as worthless for Christians to read, since it's not factual but deceptive. It is true that novelists </span></div>
<div><span style="color:#000000;font-family:Arial;font-size:13px;">and poets and short story writers can deceive, but this is not the case with all writers of </span></div>
<div><span style="color:#000000;font-family:Arial;font-size:13px;">fiction. In fact the greatest novelists have their goal not to deceive but to undeceive, that is, to </span></div>
<div><span style="color:#000000;font-family:Arial;font-size:13px;">use the medium of a powerful story to unmask our hypocrisies and follies and drive home a </span></div>
<div><span style="color:#000000;font-family:Arial;font-size:13px;">great truth. Of course it's not the kind of truth you get in a court report: factual data of events </span></div>
<div><span style="color:#000000;font-family:Arial;font-size:13px;">that actually happened. It's moral truth, or truth about human nature.</span></div>
<div><span style="color:#000000;font-family:Arial;font-size:13px;"><br></span></div>
<div><span style="color:#000000;font-family:Arial;font-size:13px;">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; There have been people who want to view the gospels of the New Testament that way. </span></div>
<div><span style="color:#000000;font-family:Arial;font-size:13px;">They say the factual data about events that actually happened are unimportant; what matters </span></div>
<div><span style="color:#000000;font-family:Arial;font-size:13px;">is the moral truth, the insight into human nature, the reflected ideals. That would be an </span></div>
<div><span style="color:#000000;font-family:Arial;font-size:13px;">appropriate view if the authors of our gospels intended to write that way. But you can't read </span></div>
<div><span style="color:#000000;font-family:Arial;font-size:13px;">Luke 3:1 and 2 and miss the point of the author, namely, the people of these accounts were </span></div>
<div><span style="color:#000000;font-family:Arial;font-size:13px;">as real as your next-door neighbor, the time and place of these events are not in my </span></div>
<div><span style="color:#000000;font-family:Arial;font-size:13px;">imagination but in the flow of world history. John the Baptist's ministry has as much reality in </span></div>
<div><span style="color:#000000;font-family:Arial;font-size:13px;">time and space as the rulers you can read about in the history books. It's as if someone were </span></div>
<div><span style="color:#000000;font-family:Arial;font-size:13px;">to say to you in 30 years, John Piper came from Bethel College to Bethlehem Baptist Church </span></div>
<div><span style="color:#000000;font-family:Arial;font-size:13px;">when Jimmy Carter was president of the United States and Al Quie was governor of </span></div>
<div><span style="color:#000000;font-family:Arial;font-size:13px;">Minnesota and Donald Fraser was mayor in Minneapolis and David Durenberger and Rudy </span></div>
<div><span style="color:#000000;font-family:Arial;font-size:13px;">Boschwitz were U.S. Senators from Minnesota and Warren Magnuson was General </span></div>
<div><span style="color:#000000;font-family:Arial;font-size:13px;">Secretary of the Baptist General Conference and Dick Turnwall was the Executive Minister of </span></div>
<div><span style="color:#000000;font-family:Arial;font-size:13px;">the Minnesota Baptist Conference. For most of you that would locate my coming to this </span></div>
<div><span style="color:#000000;font-family:Arial;font-size:13px;">church squarely in real remembered history. And that's what Luke was doing for Theophilus, </span></div>
<div><span style="color:#000000;font-family:Arial;font-size:13px;">himself probably a Roman official.</span></div>
<div><span style="color:#000000;font-family:Arial;font-size:13px;"><br></span></div>
<div><span style="color:#000000;font-family:Arial;font-size:13px;">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; So the time and place of the beginning of John's ministry is fixed for us in relation to </span></div>
<div><span style="color:#000000;font-family:Arial;font-size:13px;">known historical people and places. The fifteenth year of Tiberias' reign was AD 27 or 28 and </span></div>
<div><span style="color:#000000;font-family:Arial;font-size:13px;">the place of John's emergence was out of the wilderness into all the region around the Jordan </span></div>
<div><span style="color:#000000;font-family:Arial;font-size:13px;">River.</span></div>
<div><span style="color:#000000;font-family:Arial;font-size:13px;"><br></span></div>
<div><span style="color:#000000;font-family:Arial;font-size:13px;">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Now what makes this event significant is what we see in the last part of verse 2, &quot;the word </span></div>
<div><span style="color:#000000;font-family:Arial;font-size:13px;">of God came to John.&quot; Like all the prophets of the Old Testament, John's authority and power </span></div>
<div><span style="color:#000000;font-family:Arial;font-size:13px;">came not from himself but from God. Luke 1:15 said he was filled with the Spirit from his </span></div>
<div><span style="color:#000000;font-family:Arial;font-size:13px;">mother's womb. And so now he comes to preach with a word from God and in the power of </span></div>
<div><span style="color:#000000;font-family:Arial;font-size:13px;">God's Spirit. That .means that even though we live 2000 years later we had better listen to </span></div>
<div><span style="color:#000000;font-family:Arial;font-size:13px;">John's message because it is God's message and there is nothing we need more than a </span></div>
<div><span style="color:#000000;font-family:Arial;font-size:13px;">clear Word from God for our souls.</span></div>
<div><span style="color:#000000;font-family:Arial;font-size:13px;"><br></span></div>
<div><span style="color:#000000;font-family:Arial;font-size:13px;">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; In verse 3 John's preaching is described as a &quot;baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of </span></div>
<div><span style="color:#000000;font-family:Arial;font-size:13px;">sins.&quot; Back in chapter one the angel Gabriel had told Zechariah what John's ministry would </span></div>
<div><span style="color:#000000;font-family:Arial;font-size:13px;">be and his words explain what Luke means by repentance in 3:3. &quot;He will turn many of the </span></div>
<div><span style="color:#000000;font-family:Arial;font-size:13px;">sons of Israel to the Lord their God and he will go before him in the spirit and power of Elijah </span></div>
<div><span style="color:#000000;font-family:Arial;font-size:13px;">to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just.&quot; </span></div>
<div><span style="color:#000000;font-family:Arial;font-size:13px;">(Luke 1:16, 17) Notice the repetition of the word turn: he will turn many of the Israelites to the </span></div>
<div><span style="color:#000000;font-family:Arial;font-size:13px;">Lord their God. He will turn the hearts of the fathers and turn the disobedient. This is the </span></div>
<div><span style="color:#000000;font-family:Arial;font-size:13px;">meaning of repentance: a turning of the direction of our life and the affections of our heart so </span></div>
<div><span style="color:#000000;font-family:Arial;font-size:13px;">that we become oriented on God and love the things He loves. John promises the people </span></div>
<div><span style="color:#000000;font-family:Arial;font-size:13px;">&quot;forgiveness of sins&quot; in response to their repentance, their turning to God, but he calls them </span></div>
<div><span style="color:#000000;font-family:Arial;font-size:13px;">to demonstrate the seriousness of their turning by accepting baptism in the Jordan.</span></div>
<div><span style="color:#000000;font-family:Arial;font-size:13px;"><br></span></div>
<div><span style="color:#000000;font-family:Arial;font-size:13px;">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; This was a remarkable demand of John on his Jewish kinsmen. In the context in which </span></div>
<div><span style="color:#000000;font-family:Arial;font-size:13px;">John lived baptism had one main significance among the Jews: it was the symbolic rite that </span></div>
<div><span style="color:#000000;font-family:Arial;font-size:13px;">proselytes had to go through to become Jewish. This made John's baptism very offensive. It </span></div>
<div><span style="color:#000000;font-family:Arial;font-size:13px;">implied that unless the Jews were willing to repent they were not really Jews and could not </span></div>
<div><span style="color:#000000;font-family:Arial;font-size:13px;">count on the promised blessings God had made to his chosen people. Or to put it another </span></div>
<div><span style="color:#000000;font-family:Arial;font-size:13px;">way, in calling Jews to accept a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins John was </span></div>
<div><span style="color:#000000;font-family:Arial;font-size:13px;">telling them that they cannot rely on their Jewishness for salvation; they have to be changed </span></div>
<div><span style="color:#000000;font-family:Arial;font-size:13px;">in their heart toward God.</span></div>
<div><span style="color:#000000;font-family:Arial;font-size:13px;"><br></span></div>
<div><span style="color:#000000;font-family:Arial;font-size:13px;">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; And Luke's understanding of John's baptism is that it implied that the way was open for </span></div>
<div><span style="color:#000000;font-family:Arial;font-size:13px;">Gentiles to repent and be forgiven. If Jewishness does not save, then Gentilishness does not </span></div>
<div><span style="color:#000000;font-family:Arial;font-size:13px;">necessarily condemn: the issue is repentance toward God. The way Luke shows us that </span></div>
<div><span style="color:#000000;font-family:Arial;font-size:13px;">John's baptism and preaching had this significance is in the quotation he cites from Isaiah in </span></div>
<div><span style="color:#000000;font-family:Arial;font-size:13px;">verses 4-6. One of the ways to find out what the special point is that Luke wants to make is </span></div>
<div><span style="color:#000000;font-family:Arial;font-size:13px;">to compare his account with Matthew's and Mark's and see what Luke adds or omits. All </span></div>
<div><span style="color:#000000;font-family:Arial;font-size:13px;">three, Matthew, Mark and Luke, quote Isaiah 40:3 as a description of John's ministry: &quot;The </span></div>
<div><span style="color:#000000;font-family:Arial;font-size:13px;">voice of one crying in the wilderness: prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight </span></div>
<div><span style="color:#000000;font-family:Arial;font-size:13px;">(cf. Matt. 3:3, Mark 1:3). But Luke is the only one who goes on to quote Isaiah 40:4,5, &quot;Every </span></div>
<div><span style="color:#000000;font-family:Arial;font-size:13px;">valley shall be filled and every mountain shall be brought low, and the crooked shall be made </span></div>
<div><span style="color:#000000;font-family:Arial;font-size:13px;">straight, and the rough ways shall be made smooth and all flesh shall see the salvation of </span></div>
<div><span style="color:#000000;font-family:Arial;font-size:13px;">God.&quot; Why did Luke go on to quote Isaiah 40:4 and 5? I think the reason was to point out </span></div>
<div><span style="color:#000000;font-family:Arial;font-size:13px;">that the repentance John was beginning to preach and the salvation that Jesus will bring is for </span></div>
<div><span style="color:#000000;font-family:Arial;font-size:13px;">all flesh not just for Israel. The mountains are lowered, the crooked ways are straightened, </span></div>
<div><span style="color:#000000;font-family:Arial;font-size:13px;">the rough ways are smoothed so that all flesh, all people might see and have access to </span></div>
<div><span style="color:#000000;font-family:Arial;font-size:13px;">salvation.</span></div>
<div><span style="color:#000000;font-family:Arial;font-size:13px;"><br></span></div>
<div><span style="color:#000000;font-family:Arial;font-size:13px;">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; There is a really interesting confirmation that this is just what Luke is trying to get across </span></div>
<div><span style="color:#000000;font-family:Arial;font-size:13px;">here. The Greek word for salvation in Luke 3:6 is not the more common one but a rare one </span></div>
<div><span style="color:#000000;font-family:Arial;font-size:13px;">that occurs in Luke's two volumes, Luke-Acts, only three times: here, in 2:30 and in Acts </span></div>
<div><span style="color:#000000;font-family:Arial;font-size:13px;">28:28. Notice that the point in each place is to stress that now salvation is being made </span></div>
<div><span style="color:#000000;font-family:Arial;font-size:13px;">clearly available for Gentiles as well as Jews. In Luke 2:30,31 Simeon says of the baby </span></div>
<div><span style="color:#000000;font-family:Arial;font-size:13px;">Jesus, &quot;My eyes have seen thy salvation which thou hast prepared in the presence of all </span></div>
<div><span style="color:#000000;font-family:Arial;font-size:13px;">peoples, a light for revelation to the Gentiles. . . .&quot; And in Acts 28:28 Paul says to the Jews </span></div>
<div><span style="color:#000000;font-family:Arial;font-size:13px;">who rejected the Gospel, &quot;Let it be known to you that this salvation of God has been sent to </span></div>
<div><span style="color:#000000;font-family:Arial;font-size:13px;">the Gentiles; they will listen.&quot; So Luke begins and ends his big two-volume work with this </span></div>
<div><span style="color:#000000;font-family:Arial;font-size:13px;">emphasis: the salvation Jesus brings is for all men and any attempt to limit its proclamation </span></div>
<div><span style="color:#000000;font-family:Arial;font-size:13px;">or effect to any ethnic group or groups is wrong.</span></div>
<div><span style="color:#000000;font-family:Arial;font-size:13px;"><br></span></div>
<div><span style="color:#000000;font-family:Arial;font-size:13px;">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; So I think Luke confirms for us that John's baptism implies both that Jewishness is no </span></div>
<div><span style="color:#000000;font-family:Arial;font-size:13px;">guarantee of salvation and that non-Jewishness is no hindrance from salvation; what matters </span></div>
<div><span style="color:#000000;font-family:Arial;font-size:13px;">is repentance unto the forgiveness of sins.</span></div>
<div><span style="color:#000000;font-family:Arial;font-size:13px;"><br></span></div>
<div><span style="color:#000000;font-family:Arial;font-size:13px;">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Now notice that John hasn't even spoken yet. Everything so far has been Luke's </span></div>
<div><span style="color:#000000;font-family:Arial;font-size:13px;">description and interpretation of John's ministry. Now he lets John speak. And what we hear </span></div>
<div><span style="color:#000000;font-family:Arial;font-size:13px;">is a confirmation of what we have heard already from Luke. Verse 7: &quot;He said therefore to the </span></div>
<div><span style="color:#000000;font-family:Arial;font-size:13px;">multitudes that came out to be baptized by him, 'You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee </span></div>
<div><span style="color:#000000;font-family:Arial;font-size:13px;">from the wrath to come?&quot;' With this first sentence John does four things. First, he very bluntly </span></div>
<div><span style="color:#000000;font-family:Arial;font-size:13px;">tells the whole crowd that they are in a rotten condition. You are a brood of vipers. What does </span></div>
<div><span style="color:#000000;font-family:Arial;font-size:13px;">that mean to Jews schooled in the Old Testament? In Genesis 3 Satan is pictured as a </span></div>
<div><span style="color:#000000;font-family:Arial;font-size:13px;">serpent or a viper, and God says to the serpent, &quot;I will put enmity between . . . your seed and </span></div>
<div><span style="color:#000000;font-family:Arial;font-size:13px;">her seed&quot; (Genesis 3:15). So when anybody said you were the seed or the brood of a viper, it </span></div>
<div><span style="color:#000000;font-family:Arial;font-size:13px;">was the same as saying you were sons of the devil. That's exactly what Jesus said in John </span></div>
<div><span style="color:#000000;font-family:Arial;font-size:13px;">8:43f to another crowd, &quot;Why do you not understand what I say. It is because you cannot </span></div>
<div><span style="color:#000000;font-family:Arial;font-size:13px;">bear to hear my word. You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father's </span></div>
<div><span style="color:#000000;font-family:Arial;font-size:13px;">desires.&quot; So John's first word is an indictment of his listeners: you are people in Satan's grip. </span></div>
<div><span style="color:#000000;font-family:Arial;font-size:13px;">You are his children, with his nature.</span></div>
<div><span style="color:#000000;font-family:Arial;font-size:13px;"><br></span></div>
<div><span style="color:#000000;font-family:Arial;font-size:13px;">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Second, John warns that there is wrath on the way. God will bring judgment upon Satan </span></div>
<div><span style="color:#000000;font-family:Arial;font-size:13px;">and all his allies. In verse 17 John pictures the Messiah's coming like this, &quot;His winnowing </span></div>
<div><span style="color:#000000;font-family:Arial;font-size:13px;">fork is in his hand, to clear his threshing floor and to gather the wheat into his granary, but </span></div>
<div><span style="color:#000000;font-family:Arial;font-size:13px;">the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.&quot; There is wheat and there is chaff. There are </span></div>
<div><span style="color:#000000;font-family:Arial;font-size:13px;">sons of God and sons of the viper and the one will be gathered into the barn of heaven and </span></div>
<div><span style="color:#000000;font-family:Arial;font-size:13px;">the other thrown into the fire of hell. So John warns that there is a coming wrath which makes </span></div>
<div><span style="color:#000000;font-family:Arial;font-size:13px;">the plight of vipers extremely precarious.</span></div>
<div><span style="color:#000000;font-family:Arial;font-size:13px;"><br></span></div>
<div><span style="color:#000000;font-family:Arial;font-size:13px;">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Third, John mentions that there is an escape from wrath. You can flee from it and the </span></div>
<div><span style="color:#000000;font-family:Arial;font-size:13px;">vipers are fleeing in the right direction, namely to the baptism of repentance for the </span></div>
<div><span style="color:#000000;font-family:Arial;font-size:13px;">forgiveness of sins. When God forgives sins it is the same as removing his wrath. There is no </span></div>
<div><span style="color:#000000;font-family:Arial;font-size:13px;">more condemnation for those who repent and receive forgiveness.</span></div>
<div><span style="color:#000000;font-family:Arial;font-size:13px;"><br></span></div>
<div><span style="color:#000000;font-family:Arial;font-size:13px;">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Finally, John hints by his question that the crowd's decision to come to him in search of </span></div>
<div><span style="color:#000000;font-family:Arial;font-size:13px;">salvation that the crowd's decision to come to him in search of salvation was not something </span></div>
<div><span style="color:#000000;font-family:Arial;font-size:13px;">they came to on their own. Someone showed them they needed to repent. I understand </span></div>
<div><span style="color:#000000;font-family:Arial;font-size:13px;">John's question to mean something like this: &quot;Well of all things, the sons of the devil are </span></div>
<div><span style="color:#000000;font-family:Arial;font-size:13px;">fleeing the impending wrath. Who could have possibly made it plain to you that you needed </span></div>
<div><span style="color:#000000;font-family:Arial;font-size:13px;">to repent?&quot; John is amazed, I think, that they have really been made aware of their need to </span></div>
<div><span style="color:#000000;font-family:Arial;font-size:13px;">flee God's wrath. It was no small thing for a Jew to admit he was under the wrath of God and </span></div>
<div><span style="color:#000000;font-family:Arial;font-size:13px;">liable to be burned like chaff in unquenchable fire. But here they were offering themselves for </span></div>
<div><span style="color:#000000;font-family:Arial;font-size:13px;">John's baptism. And John is amazed. If we could ask John, What is the answer to your </span></div>
<div><span style="color:#000000;font-family:Arial;font-size:13px;">question: Who did warn them to flee?, what would he have said? I think he would have said, </span></div>
<div><span style="color:#000000;font-family:Arial;font-size:13px;">God warned them. If Jesus said, &quot;No one can come to me unless the Father draw him,&quot; then </span></div>
<div><span style="color:#000000;font-family:Arial;font-size:13px;">surely it would be true earlier that no son of the Viper can come to repentance unless God </span></div>
<div><span style="color:#000000;font-family:Arial;font-size:13px;">draw him. So in an indirect way John's question was giving tribute to the grace of God for </span></div>
<div><span style="color:#000000;font-family:Arial;font-size:13px;">impressing on these people their need of salvation.</span></div>
<div><span style="color:#000000;font-family:Arial;font-size:13px;"><br></span></div>
<div><span style="color:#000000;font-family:Arial;font-size:13px;">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Now in verse 8 John tries to give these former vipers a new image of what they are. You </span></div>
<div><span style="color:#000000;font-family:Arial;font-size:13px;">are no longer poisonous snakes now that you are repenting, you are fruitful trees. There is </span></div>
<div><span style="color:#000000;font-family:Arial;font-size:13px;">fruit that comes from genuine repentance. Start bearing that fruit as a witness to others and </span></div>
<div><span style="color:#000000;font-family:Arial;font-size:13px;">to your own conscience that you have truly turned to God. He spells out some of what that </span></div>
<div><span style="color:#000000;font-family:Arial;font-size:13px;">fruit is in verses 10-14, but first he gives a warning. It's this warning in verse 8 that confirms to </span></div>
<div><span style="color:#000000;font-family:Arial;font-size:13px;">us Luke's earlier explanation of John's baptism, namely that Jewishness is no guarantee of </span></div>
<div><span style="color:#000000;font-family:Arial;font-size:13px;">salvation and non-Jewishness is no hindrance from salvation.</span></div>
<div><span style="color:#000000;font-family:Arial;font-size:13px;"><br></span></div>
<div><span style="color:#000000;font-family:Arial;font-size:13px;">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; John says in verse 8, &quot;Do not begin to say to yourselves, 'We have Abraham as our </span></div>
<div><span style="color:#000000;font-family:Arial;font-size:13px;">father.&quot;' Don't let the old serpent sow the deceptive seed in your mind: &quot;Hey! What am I doing </span></div>
<div><span style="color:#000000;font-family:Arial;font-size:13px;">here in this river getting baptized like a common Gentile! Who does this guy think he is </span></div>
<div><span style="color:#000000;font-family:Arial;font-size:13px;">telling sons of Abraham that we are in the same boat with the rest of the world and under </span></div>
<div><span style="color:#000000;font-family:Arial;font-size:13px;">God's wrath. Why, haven't we learned from the time we were little the word of God to </span></div>
<div><span style="color:#000000;font-family:Arial;font-size:13px;">Abraham in Genesis 17:7 and 8, &quot;I will establish my covenant between me and you and your </span></div>
<div><span style="color:#000000;font-family:Arial;font-size:13px;">descendants after you throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be God to </span></div>
<div><span style="color:#000000;font-family:Arial;font-size:13px;">you and to your descendants after you. And I will give to you and to your descendants after </span></div>
<div><span style="color:#000000;font-family:Arial;font-size:13px;">you the land of your sojournings, all the land of Canaan for an everlasting possession; and I </span></div>
<div><span style="color:#000000;font-family:Arial;font-size:13px;">will be their God.&quot; Now how can a son of Abraham then ever worry about being swept away </span></div>
<div><span style="color:#000000;font-family:Arial;font-size:13px;">like chaff by the wrath of God?&quot; John is warning the Jews that such a line of reasoning is a </span></div>
<div><span style="color:#000000;font-family:Arial;font-size:13px;">great mistake. A person should never think that any merely human distinctive (like </span></div>
<div><span style="color:#000000;font-family:Arial;font-size:13px;">Jewishness) can obligate God to bless. The Jews are a great lesson book to all of us who </span></div>
<div><span style="color:#000000;font-family:Arial;font-size:13px;">tend to rely on anything for salvation other than the mercy of God.</span></div>
<div><span style="color:#000000;font-family:Arial;font-size:13px;"><br></span></div>
<div><span style="color:#000000;font-family:Arial;font-size:13px;">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; John gives the reason why Jews shouldn't rely on their Jewishness: &quot;for I tell you God is </span></div>
<div><span style="color:#000000;font-family:Arial;font-size:13px;">able to raise up from these stones children to Abraham.&quot; This is a tremendously revealing </span></div>
<div><span style="color:#000000;font-family:Arial;font-size:13px;">statement. The first thing it reveals is that John and the Jews agree on something. They </span></div>
<div><span style="color:#000000;font-family:Arial;font-size:13px;">agree that there must be children of Abraham to inherit the promises, otherwise God's word </span></div>
<div><span style="color:#000000;font-family:Arial;font-size:13px;">would fail. They agree that God's word will never fail and that there will always be children of </span></div>
<div><span style="color:#000000;font-family:Arial;font-size:13px;">Abraham to inherit the promises.</span></div>
<div><span style="color:#000000;font-family:Arial;font-size:13px;"><br></span></div>
<div><span style="color:#000000;font-family:Arial;font-size:13px;">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; But the second thing John's statement reveals is a profound disagreement with the Jews if </span></div>
<div><span style="color:#000000;font-family:Arial;font-size:13px;">they start to rely on their Jewishness. They disagree about the freedom and the power of </span></div>
<div><span style="color:#000000;font-family:Arial;font-size:13px;">God. Some of the Jews think that by virtue of their physical Jewishness they've got God in a </span></div>
<div><span style="color:#000000;font-family:Arial;font-size:13px;">corner. He must bless them. He can't pour out wrath on them, because he always keeps his </span></div>
<div><span style="color:#000000;font-family:Arial;font-size:13px;">word. So it does not matter finally if they are repentant or not. They are relying not on God's </span></div>
<div><span style="color:#000000;font-family:Arial;font-size:13px;">mercy but on their own ethnic human distinctive. What they fail to see and what John shows </span></div>
<div><span style="color:#000000;font-family:Arial;font-size:13px;">them is that God is not as boxed in as they think. He is able both to keep his promises to </span></div>
<div><span style="color:#000000;font-family:Arial;font-size:13px;">Abraham and to put a stop to their boasting in their physical descent from Abraham. How? </span></div>
<div><span style="color:#000000;font-family:Arial;font-size:13px;">He can wipe them out in his wrath and raise up out of nothing a new people for himself who </span></div>
<div><span style="color:#000000;font-family:Arial;font-size:13px;">will bear the fruits of repentance and trust not themselves but in God's free mercy alone.</span></div>
<div><span style="color:#000000;font-family:Arial;font-size:13px;"><br></span></div>
<div><span style="color:#000000;font-family:Arial;font-size:13px;">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; What these Jews had forgotten--and it's what all people forget when they try to obligate </span></div>
<div><span style="color:#000000;font-family:Arial;font-size:13px;">God by any of their human distinctives or human efforts--they forgot the freedom of God to </span></div>
<div><span style="color:#000000;font-family:Arial;font-size:13px;">have mercy on whomever he wills. They forgot the power of God who can always find a way </span></div>
<div><span style="color:#000000;font-family:Arial;font-size:13px;">to rebuke human self-reliance while keeping his promises. So verse 9 repeats the warning </span></div>
<div><span style="color:#000000;font-family:Arial;font-size:13px;">implicit in verse 7. &quot;Even now the axe is laid to the root of the trees; every tree therefore that </span></div>
<div><span style="color:#000000;font-family:Arial;font-size:13px;">does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.&quot; Don't trust in the kind of tree </span></div>
<div><span style="color:#000000;font-family:Arial;font-size:13px;">you are. If there is no fruit that accords with repentance you will be destroyed. It doesn't </span></div>
<div><span style="color:#000000;font-family:Arial;font-size:13px;">matter if the tree is Jewish or Gentile, what matters is repentance and its fruit.</span></div>
<div><span style="color:#000000;font-family:Arial;font-size:13px;"><br></span></div>
<div><span style="color:#000000;font-family:Arial;font-size:13px;">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Let me conclude by defining repentance afresh now that we have seen in a new way what </span></div>
<div><span style="color:#000000;font-family:Arial;font-size:13px;">the Jews were being called to turn away from and what they were being called to turn to. It </span></div>
<div><span style="color:#000000;font-family:Arial;font-size:13px;">should make us tremble to think that a people who had such a strong God consciousness </span></div>
<div><span style="color:#000000;font-family:Arial;font-size:13px;">and who believed that God would keep his promises could nevertheless be called a &quot;brood of </span></div>
<div><span style="color:#000000;font-family:Arial;font-size:13px;">vipers&quot; and be threatened with hell fire. Are there not religious people today who don't believe </span></div>
<div><span style="color:#000000;font-family:Arial;font-size:13px;">this much but feel secure? We must look very carefully to see what repentance is here that </span></div>
<div><span style="color:#000000;font-family:Arial;font-size:13px;">we too might flee the coming wrath. In view of what we have seen in John's warning, I would </span></div>
<div><span style="color:#000000;font-family:Arial;font-size:13px;">define repentance like this: Repentance is turning away from any and all reliance upon what I </span></div>
<div><span style="color:#000000;font-family:Arial;font-size:13px;">am by birth (like Jewish or Gentile) or what I have done by my own effort and turning to the </span></div>
<div><span style="color:#000000;font-family:Arial;font-size:13px;">absolutely free mercy of God for the hope of salvation. Mercy by its very nature cannot be </span></div>
<div><span style="color:#000000;font-family:Arial;font-size:13px;">constrained or obligated by human distinctives or efforts. As Paul says in Romans 9:15,16, </span></div>
<div><span style="color:#000000;font-family:Arial;font-size:13px;">&quot;God says 'I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I </span></div>
<div><span style="color:#000000;font-family:Arial;font-size:13px;">have compassion.' So it depends not on man's will or exertion, but upon God's mercy.&quot; But </span></div>
<div><span style="color:#000000;font-family:Arial;font-size:13px;">for our comfort and assurance God has revealed that there is one thing that always receives </span></div>
<div><span style="color:#000000;font-family:Arial;font-size:13px;">mercy and that is reliance on mercy, which is what the New Testament means by faith.</span></div>
<div><span style="color:#000000;font-family:Arial;font-size:13px;"><br></span></div>
<div><span style="color:#000000;font-family:Arial;font-size:13px;">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Repentance, therefore, is the altering of what we rely on in life, what we hope in, what we </span></div>
<div><span style="color:#000000;font-family:Arial;font-size:13px;">are counting on for salvation in the age to come and for help now. The repentance that leads </span></div>
<div><span style="color:#000000;font-family:Arial;font-size:13px;">to forgiveness of sins is turning away from what we are by birth or achieve by effort to rely </span></div>
<div><span style="color:#000000;font-family:Arial;font-size:13px;">wholly on mercy, God's free and sovereign grace.</span></div>
<div><span style="color:#000000;font-family:Arial;font-size:13px;"><br></span></div>
<div><span style="color:#000000;font-family:Arial;font-size:13px;">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; There is a lifestyle that follows such repentance just as surely as cats have kittens and </span></div>
<div><span style="color:#000000;font-family:Arial;font-size:13px;">dogs have puppies. But we will talk about that next week from verses 10-14.</span></div>
<div><span style="color:#000000;font-family:Arial;font-size:13px;"><br></span></div>
<div><span style="color:#000000;font-family:Arial;font-size:13px;">� COPYRIGHT John Piper</span></div>
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