John Prepares The Way

In those days, John the Baptist came preaching in the wilderness of Judah, Judea, repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.

Here, if we go back to Matthew one and two, a key word is fulfilled. Matthew has already been showing us over and over again, this is not something brand new. This is something that's been foretold. There's promises of the old covenant, that are now being fulfilled in the new as Christ has come, as the King is at hand. Jesus is of the right lineage. We can look at the genealogy. He's come to fulfill the very presence of God with his people. And we go from Jesus and the need to escape Herod to coming back to Nazareth. And then we're skipping about 30 years. And then in those days, a new character for Matthew's gospel appears, John the Baptist. Important for all the gospels, this is Jesus' cousin, as we know from Luke. They've known each other, they've grown up with each other. There's some familiarity, but the most significant is how God has called them to fulfill different offices. John here is preaching in the wilderness. He is off the beaten path. He is not like the other religious leaders. In his message, verse two, Repent, for the kingdom of God is at hand. Turn, make sure you're looking the right way. Turn away from sin, turn towards God. The kingdom of God is at hand. It's immediate, it's imminent. That's the reason for repenting. God is coming. God is with us. Repent from sin to turn to God. Important, you can turn over to Matthew 4, 17. This is the same message Jesus preaches.

Repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.

John the Baptist and Jesus proclaim the same message. Turn away from sin and turn to God, the savior. The difference is Jesus is the true king and the son and John is the messenger pointing. He's the sign. Jesus is a substance. Jesus is the reason we can repent. John is simply pointing us to him. So John appears as a significant figure and, well, verse three actually tells us something more significant even about him and his specific unique role in the kingdom. Matthew interprets this for us.

For this is he who was spoken of by the prophet Isaiah when he said, The voice of one crying in the wilderness, prepare the way of the Lord, make his path straight.

We read this earlier in Isaiah 40. There's a way in which God is saying that before the Messiah comes, before the Savior finally comes, there will be one who prepares the way, the path will be straight. And then after Isaiah 40, you've got Isaiah 42. Isaiah 49, Isaiah 50, Isaiah 52. Those are the servant songs. Those are some of the most unique declarations telling you who the promised Savior will be. Isaiah 40 concludes,

the word of the Lord will stand forever.

His promises are sure. God will bring about this great salvation. He will deliver his people from exile. He will deliver us from sin. He will deliver us from death. And then even more, we see in verse four the interesting style and diet of John.

He wore a garment of camel's hair, a leather belt around his waist, and his food was locust and honey.

And similarly, we're seeing he's like Elijah, which Malachi 4 tells us. There is an Elijah to come. He's identified with such great clarity. This is the one coming before the King. This is the one coming to prepare the way. And I've made a significant deal of all promises are yes and amen in Jesus Christ. Except for this one. Because John the Baptist is a fulfillment of this promise. And John the Baptist then points you to Jesus. His whole message is simply the finger towards another. He's pointing constantly. Behold the Lamb. Look, the King. He has a unique role, though. He's the last Old Testament prophet. All the Old Testament prophets kept saying, He's coming. He's coming. He's coming. Keep courage. Be strong. And they would flesh out, they would continue to increase the kind of detail of who the Christ would come. John the Baptist, as the last prophet, doesn't just say he's coming. Behold, he's here. The kingdom of heaven is at hand. A very unique place in the history of salvation in chapter three, right here as the old covenant is coming to an end. And the new covenant is beginning. The one who has been foreshadowed and prophesied by every lamb who's been slaughtered year after year. He's here, but he's not yet crucified and sacrificed. There's a fantastic of tension of things about to be fulfilled in reality and not yet, not yet. John the Baptist, he prepares the way for Jesus by declaring Repent. That is the message of the gospel. Repent of the way you think. That would have been the classical Greek way of calling for repentance. Greek philosophers would have called people to repent of mysticism, of superstition. Repent. Think more sanely. Think more rightly. Think more truly. But it's more than just the way you think. It's what you prioritize. It's how you live. It's what you love, it's what you desire. Repentance is all of life, turning away from self and selfishness and worshiping everything that's not God to knowing the one true God. If you're not a believer this morning, one of the most significant messages I want you to hear is you do not have to and you cannot clean yourself up enough to come to Jesus. It's impossible. It's a fool's error. It's a lie that's too easily and too often believed that I just need to clean myself up enough to come to Jesus. Now, as we were saying earlier, all you need is to see your need of him. You need him to cleanse you. You need him to save you. You need him to make you whole and right again. You need him to forgive you. The message is I believe wrong thoughts. The message is the power of the gospel can give me wisdom. The message of the gospel is confronting us in our sin that we cannot do enough good deeds to outdo our sin. The message of the gospel, Christ died to pay for your sin. Believe in him today. Repentance. That oftentimes doesn't land well with us because it has a necessary implication. When you tell someone to repent, you're necessarily implying there's something wrong. Come to the doctor's office and he says, you need to change your eating habits. He's necessarily implying there's something wrong. The prescription of repentance implies there's something wrong. And the beauty of it is, it's an invitation as well. We can come into what is right. When we hear the message of repentance, it's important we trust the person that tells us this. We trust it's right to tell us there's something wrong with us. It's good to recognize what's wrong so that we can come into more wholeness with God. This is God himself telling us to repent. Christian, the challenge this morning, do you long for repentance? That isn't to come to a saving faith, it's do I think I've arrived somehow and that I don't need to repent anymore? You see, the beauty of repentance as a Christian is that we get to grow closer to God as we repent more of sin. We should actually long more for repentance as we're repenting. Repentance is the message. We have the final Old Testament prophet. He is the last Old Testament prophet. He gets to say who here he is. But now let's look at the two responses of his message. Number two, there's two responses. There's faith with repentance or there's faith that presumes upon grace. There's faith with repentance or there's faith that presumes upon grace. Verse five, then Jerusalem and all Judea and all the region about the Jordan were going out to him, that is John the Baptist, and they were being They were baptized by him in the River Jordan, confessing their sins. That is the right response. Verse 7, but when he, John the Baptist, saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to his baptisms, he said to them,

you brood of vipers, who warned you to flee from the wrath to come, bear fruit in keeping with repentance? And do not presume to say to yourselves, we have Abraham as our father. For I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children for Abraham. Even now, the ax is laid to the root of the trees. Every tree, therefore, that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.

The right response is faith with repentance, which is captured there with that word confession. And the contrast is very clear because the problem of the Pharisees that he puts his finger on is that they need to bear fruit that's keeping with repentance. They're coming to this baptism of repentance, but they are not repenting. They're merely confessing. Let's first look at that right response. And the way it's described, verse five, it's everybody, the masses, all people from all the areas. From Jerusalem in the city to Judea, to the outskirts of town, they're all coming to hear John, to, to, to understand what this man is because there's something appealing about his message to repent. Now he he's applying baptism. They were being baptized by him. He is John the Baptist. Baptism wasn't something brand new. There were ceremonial washings called baptisms that folks would do before going up to the temple. If you were a Gentile, there was a baptism that was a marker from you turning from Gentile ways to become a Godfear and be part of the people of God as a Gentile Godfear. What's unique about this baptism is it's being applied to Jews as a one-time application of recognizing there's something to repent of as a Jewish person that changes their direction. It's not entirely new, but it is a New declaration, it's functioning in a new way where he's calling Israel, God's own people who are a people of the promise and a people of the word of God to turn from their wicked ways, to turn from their unrighteousness, their false worship, to turn to God in preparation to be ready to receive his savior. Baptism was a turning point. It included confessing sins. Notice there, the end of verse six, they came being baptized, confessing their sins. They were acknowledging they were wrong. They were acknowledging there was something they could not fix. So they confess their sins and receive that baptism. Now, baptism is a funny word in that it's transliterated. When they were translating the Bible into English, they just took the word baptism from Greek word and made it a new English word. The scope has expanded that it has various meanings and applications, but the most significant central understanding of the word baptism is to plunge. It is to immerse. And with it, it captures also the sense of immersing in a death. See, a ship, a sea that capsizes and is sunk, it's baptized. Baptism isn't just sinking down, My argument here isn't for the mode of baptism particularly, it's to capture that baptism means a death, a burial, an end to what was, so that newness of life might come. John's baptism is one of confessing sins of baptism, saying those sins you're confessing are done, they're dead, they've ended by God's grace, so that you might repent and learn the new way of God. Baptism of repentance, confessing sins means they get to come out of that sin. Now here we have John the Baptist who is preparing the way for Jesus. And well, if we go back to chapter one, remember why Jesus is named Jesus. He's Yahweh who saves. Specifically, he's Yahweh who saves his people from their sins. Jesus has come to save us from our sins. That is his activity, to come to us, to seek and to save sinners. The response is to confess your sins to him alone who can forgive you. But we have to be on guard against this cheap grace that says I simply want to be forgiven of my sin, I don't want to be free from it. I only want to be forgiven of my sin, I don't want to be delivered from it. Here, the assumption, a true confession of sin recognizes as deadly, destructive, and ends in death. I want that to die in baptism so that I might live again. Christian, this is supposed to be the normal pattern of the church in all Christians. There's one baptism. Lord willing, we get to celebrate a baptism next Sunday. That marks somebody who is confessing and saying, I want to follow Christ in the obedience of baptism and I want to have my old man symbolically put to death in him and risen again to his new life. But there's constant confession of sin. We'll also have the Lord's Supper, which is an opportunity to always remember Christ died for sinners so that we can confess our sins. The Christian who stops confessing sin is committed to practicing sin. It's a rule. It's a scary, dangerous rule. I believe we can see it in the passage Matt read earlier from 1 John. The Christian who stops confessing sin commits to practicing sin. The first of Luther's 95 theses begins,

when our Lord and Master Jesus Christ said, repent, he willed the entire life of believers to be one of repentance.

Believer, what a joy and a blessing it is that we aren't enslaved to always sin. Repentance is a good message. It's confrontational, but it's a good message. In repentance, our sin is being confronted, but we're being invited. We're being invited out of it. We're being invited out of what's destructive and enslavering and overwhelming and confusing and foolish and deceptive. We're being invited into blessing, life, wisdom, truth. call us as believers who love each other enough to call each other to repentance, let's be clear. The call to repentance is, by definition, confrontational, but it must always be invitational. If all you're doing is telling somebody they're a sinner, you're a spiritual bully. The confrontation of the Christian is to invite them out to Jesus. We talk to people of their sin, not to put them in their place, but to bring them into the proper place of rejoicing fully in Jesus Christ, who's at the right hand of the Father. Repentance is inviting people out of sin into Jesus. Harsh criticism is just evidence of an immature believer who doesn't yet get what repentance truly means. That's the right response. Confessing their sins, repenting of them, turning away, Having been baptized, putting them to death. Well, now verse seven shows us the contrast, but, and we see two groups put together that I think the original authors would say, who? Cause these two folks, they don't, they don't like each other. They don't get along with each other except for when they have a common enemy, Jesus Christ. These two groups are there. They're there. John the Baptist sees them and well, he addresses them. They come up. to his baptism, and it's not clear if they're coming to observe or coming to him to be baptized. It seems to be the latter. But is that, he addresses them, you brood of vipers. Now, that greeting is not listed in my copy of How to Win Friends and Influence People. John the Baptist is confrontational. You brood of vipers. He might be going all the way back to Genesis 3.15 and associating them with Satan. He is certainly wanting to let others hear this warning because he is addressing them in the midst of the whole crowd. And notice the question he asks, who told you? You Brutal Vipers, who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? And I think this is rhetorical. They're coming wanting to escape the consequences of sin, the wrath, but as we'll see, they don't want to truly escape sin. They're seeking to escape the wrath without repentance. We see this in verse eight. Bear fruit in keeping with repentance. That's the prescription. That's worth your memorization. If you're gonna memorize something from this passage, it's that. That is a central, key aspect of what we gotta really wrestle with today. Bear fruit in keeping with repentance. Bear fruit in keeping with repentance. Say it with me. Bear fruit in keeping with repentance. To bear fruit means to produce. You know a tree bites fruit? A tree will only, by definition, produce the fruit it was designed to produce when it is healthy. I have planted many trees. Most of them are bad trees, so they produce bad fruit. I've never planted a cherry tree that produced a lemon. The principle is true at all times and all places, and here, spiritually, it's significant. The fruit shows the root. The fruit shows the nature of the tree. Luther's 95 theses go on to say true repentance has a visible demonstration, there's an internal change and a visible demonstration and he's challenging them, he's warning them. There's not fruit that keeps the repentance. You're confessing but not repenting. You're confessing but there's no change. It seems the danger is they want to confess sin to have forgiveness but not deliverance. They want to avoid the consequence of sin and yet still practice that sin. We tend to oversimplify things. We tend to want cheap grace. For instance, we're willing to say I forgive you, but we're not willing to turn towards the person and pursue a renewed relationship. We treat forgiveness as it's a mere legal declaration that doesn't truly change the way we're going to approach them. We confess sin. but we don't turn away from it. It's a mere sentiment or regret of what it has produced. When we confess into God, we're confessing, we're unfaithful. We've been worshiping all the wrong gods in all the wrong ways, and we're confessing to you, oh God, that you would give us the grace to be forgiven and grace to know you and worship you truly. Now a challenge for us, In our own strength, we cannot bear the right fruit. It is only by God's grace that we can bear this. It is only by God's grace that he changes who we are and the nature of our tree from a bad tree that's dying to a living tree because of Jesus Christ. It is only because the Holy Spirit comes and dwells us that we can produce the fruit of the Spirit. I encourage you, there's a book. You can find it online for free. Thomas Watson, The Doctrine of Repentance. And he says,

repentance is a grace of God's spirit whereby a sinner is inwardly humbled and outwardly reformed. Repentance is spiritual medicine that consists of six ingredients. Sight of sin, sorrow for sin, confession of sin.

I'll repeat those three again for you. Sight of sin, sorrow of sin, confession of sin. Shame of sin, hatred of sin, turning from sin. Sight, sorrow, confession, shame, hatred, turning. Here, the primary challenge is that these Pharisees and Sadducees, they've stopped at three. They've merely confessed it. They've not gone all the way to turn from it. I worry about the folks who stop at four right here in this room. I'm worried about those of you who feel the shame of sin but have not yet hated it and turned from it. There's a right way in which you're supposed to feel the shame of sin, but God does not bring you into shame to keep you there. He brings you into shame to bring you into blessing and joy. If you feel shame of sin, that's not where God designed his salvation to keep you. hate that sin, turn from that sin. All six ingredients, I believe Thomas Watson rightfully prescribes as necessary for true repentance. See the sin, have sorrow for it, confess it. There is a right place of shame and then that is hatred of sin and then we turn from it. Repentance is a full change of who we are. away from sin and into God's blessing. Now notice we see a further diagnosis of the problem in verse nine. They're wanting to escape wrath without repentance, and now we see something a little bit further diagnosis, another diagnosis that goes along with this, kind of a problem behind it.

And do not presume to say to yourselves, We have Abraham as our father, for I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children for Abraham.

They're presuming upon grace. You see, the promise to Abraham is grace. Abraham represents grace. They're presuming that since they've been born into the promised people of God by birth, there's some presumption that a grace is given to them that means they have an excuse not to repent. Now, there is a great benefit to anyone who was born of the people of Abraham. Romans tells us what those two blessings are very clearly. They have the oracles of God. The people of God, of Abraham, were given the law of God, the written word of God. That is a huge benefit to have that kind of exposure constantly to God's truth. And two, they know from whom the Savior will be born, and that goes back to the genealogy of Matthew 1. The problem with the Pharisees and Sadducees, they will easily look around and see the Greek, the barbarian, the Scythian, oh, woe be to them, they're not born of the right family. This is a distortion of God's grace. Because it's a distortion of God's grace, it excuses sin. It's like the problem Judah addresses, where

ungodly people who pervert the grace of God into sensuality and deny our only master and Lord Jesus Christ.

They've been presumed upon grace that says we were born of the promised people. Therefore we have a special excuse not to repent. Now, part of this, who's the child of Abraham? Let's, let's just make sure we understand this. There's, there's a significant question here. Who's the child of Abraham? All right. The physical descendants who were circumcised and were born of the genealogy of Abraham. There's another way in which scripture emphasizes who a true child of Abraham is. It's someone who believes in the same God Abraham believed in. That has to be in view here because stones can become children of Abraham. And let's not forget, this is similar to when Jesus is on the triumphal entry, and whenever he's told, stop them from praising you, if they do not, stones will cry out. It's our job, human beings, to believe in God, the one true God, and it's our job, human beings, to worship him. Here, the emphasis is that to be a true child of Abraham You know the Savior. It doesn't matter if you're born as a person in the line of Abraham, of Judea. The point is that you believe. You follow him in faith. Let's try to apply this. Parents, your children are not saved by your faith. Your children are not even saved by your works and your efforts. Some days I have this notion that I wish I could have security of their salvation over what I do, but on my most sane days, I praise God it is not dependent on me because I'd fail them. God is generous and patient as the one true savior. He is sovereign and generous in his grace. Parents, pray for your children to believe. Parents, your job is to proclaim the gospel so that they would believe. and not confuse them about the gospel with your behavior. They can only be saved by God's grace through faith, just like you. They can only be saved, just like you, by God's grace through faith. Believe in the God who saves you. Believe in the God whose grace will save your children by faith. A simple principle, God does not have grandchildren. He only has children who believe in him. Children, children, look up. Put down the coloring, whatever you're doing. You're not saved by your parents' faith. God's grace is sufficient for you. Believe in Jesus today. You haven't honored your parents. You've told fibs, you've not been nice to your siblings. We go on and on, a long list of how sinful we are, but let's just make it clear. Christ died once for all to save everyone who calls upon him. Call upon him. Call upon him. God does not have grandchildren. Church, our children's ministry boiled down is all believers walking alongside all the parents seeking to be a faithful witness to the children. That's what I need most from you, to be a faithful witness alongside of my children. That's what every parent here needs. Everyone, do not presume to say to yourselves, are we taking control of what we put on our record player, what you say to yourself? Are we taking control of the lies we are so tempted to tell ourselves? And the lies go two different ways. One would be, oh, I lie to myself and that I have an excuse for this sin. I've got this sin under control. It's not as dangerous to me. I understand what's going on. I've got it. Or the other is you just beat yourself up because of sin. You accuse yourself rather than excuse yourself. These are two lies that believers must learn how to put off. Christian, you need to have gospel, easy load ammunition, messages of comfort that know Christ came to save you. God loves you as a, even while a sinner. And we're in passages of correction, like verse eight, bear fruit in keeping with repentance. Let's look at verse 10, just in case we miss how significant this teaching is or the importance of it. Even now, again, there's an immediacy, there's an imminent danger.

Even now, the ax is laid to the root of the trees. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.

There is a significant warning here to avoid the wrath of God, which is what they've come to do. They want to avoid the wrath of God, and he's telling them, if you do not repent, there is no avoiding it. There is a cutting down and it will be burned with fire and destroyed. The last section, the Messiah. The last section, the Messiah, the Savior who comes to baptize us with his spirit, Jesus Christ. Verse 11, hear the contrast.

I baptize you with water for repentance but, He who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing fork is in his hand. He will clear his threshing floor and gather his wheat into the barn. For the chaff we burn, he will burn with unquenchable fire.

" You see, John does what John always does. He points to Jesus. This is John the Baptist, he's constantly pointing to Jesus. He makes it clear, I'm not the Messiah, I'm not the Savior, I'm a prophet. One coming after me is greater. Here, it's mightier. He contrasts himself in two different ways. He makes it clear, I'm not worthy to carry his sandals, and his baptism is different. So we need to look at both of those separately. The first contrast, John the Baptist says, I am not worthy to carry his sandals. And this can get lost on us because, well, I'm picking up my children's sandals all the time and trying to put them in the right place. Right? We aren't so disgusted by picking up or touching someone's shoes. Well, this is an agricultural people. Roads were traveled by humans and animals, and these sandals had very, thin soles and they're open-toed and that's gross. Jesus washing his disciples' feet and then saying, go and do likewise, captures how countercultural this was. A servant wasn't expected to wash his master's feet. John is saying, I'm not worthy to do the most lowly task that anyone would even dare imagine. I'm not worthy of carrying his sandals. John has humility. He thinks sanely. He realizes how great Jesus is who's coming after me. He realizes he is his creator and his savior as a right recognition of the relationship. Humility that honors and strengthens. And let's not forget, a few chapters later, I believe it's Matthew 11, Jesus is gonna say, John the Baptist is the greatest of all who have lived so far. What's incredible is John recognizes, I'm not worthy, he is mightier, he is greater. I am beneath him as a creature, he is my creator. And what Jesus does with this might, And this greatness is lift up John. That's what the Savior does. The second contrast, I baptize you with water for repentance, and he baptizes you with the Holy Spirit and fire. Well, water baptism for repentance is a marker. It's symbolic. There was nothing of that water that truly cleansed the people of the sin they were confessing and repenting of. It's preparing the people to be ready to see the Savior and believe in him. Jesus, he baptizes in a way that truly transforms us. It's not mere water baptism. It's the Holy Spirit who comes into the people. It's a picture of complete change that's demonstrated in confession and repentance. Now, here we are, John the Baptist is declaring he's gonna baptize in the Holy Spirit. Let's just make sure we understand what the Holy Spirit has been understood to be and who he is so far in the Old Testament. In Genesis 1, he's bringing order to creation, hovering over God's created earth. The Holy Spirit anointed certain leaders to have the power and strength and wisdom to lead God's people. Significantly here, I think, is the Holy Spirit was promised in Ezekiel as part of the new covenant. The Holy Spirit would be within God's people and would give them a new heart. And that new heart means they will then walk according to the ways and statutes of God. But that's the kind of cleansing and change I believe John the Baptist is pointing toward in Jesus Christ. We have the declaration, the Holy Spirit will come after Jesus Christ. The Spirit baptizes us as a continuation of the work of Christ. The Spirit renews us with a heart that Christ came to redeem. The Holy Spirit regenerates us with the very risen life of Jesus Christ. The Holy Spirit seals us with the sonship of Jesus Christ so that the Holy Spirit is telling us we are children of God and allowing us to call God Father. The Holy Spirit is bringing about an absolute true transformation that forgives us and changes us. The Spirit puts to death that old man and gives us new life. Secondly, he baptizes with fire. So it's a water repentance of washing and symbolic turn that God is forgiving and changing. But Jesus, he's going to baptize us with the Holy Spirit and fire. Well, the two other places that have fire are judgment and wrath. That's verse 10, we just looked at, and verse 12, about to. But Christian, when the Holy Spirit overcomes you, when the Holy Spirit baptizes you, when the Holy Spirit, you're submerged, you're immersed, you're overcome, the Holy Spirit takes over, there's a way in which the Holy Spirit convicts. The Holy Spirit's fire for you, Christian, is refining, showing you where sin is that still needs to be removed. It burns up what ought not to be. The Holy Spirit convicts us to grow closer to God by burning up that sin and the sinful practices that remain. Baptism of the Spirit is bringing about a new life by putting to death our old man constantly. That's what the baptism of fire means for a Christian, but if not a Christian, Jesus says in John 16, the Spirit comes to convict the world of sin and judgment, to come because the world has not believed in Jesus. That baptism of fire that the Spirit is going to bring upon those who do not believe in Jesus is judgment and wrath. The only thing for you to do is believe in Jesus. The only thing for you to do is ask Jesus to help your unbelief, to help you see who he is when you take up his word and read Matthew this afternoon. And when you ask somebody next to you, will you tell me more about who Jesus is? Your faith must be in Jesus. He is the only one who can save you to bring you new life, and he will be the one who judges you if you do not believe in him. We see this with the last warning of verse 12. His, that is Jesus,

his winnowing fork is in hand. He will clear his threshing floor and gather his wheat into the barn, but the chaff will burn with unquenchable fire.

His winning fork, it's at hand, it's imminent. The winning fork was a way to separate the useless part of the stalk and was holding the grain and make sure that the grain falls. Notice there, Christian, he gathers the grain. There's a wonderful, powerful protection for those who have believed in him. But the judgment for evil is certain. Those who remain unfaithful. Those who remain in sin, they will be identified and there will be unquenchable fire. We conclude that there's only two ways to live. Believing in Jesus, following Jesus, gathered and protected, or rejecting Jesus, denying Jesus, and that will end with judgment and punishment. The invitation this morning is repent. Believe in Jesus, who cleanses you of sin, believer, who saves you from sin if you're not a believer. Do not presume upon a time of prayer of faith long ago if you're a Christian. Do not presume upon God's patience and generosity. Pray that God would bless you to bear the fruit in keeping with repentance. Will you pray with me? Father, we thank you that you never lie. And that you've never told us things are gonna be all right and okay when they're not. You're kind to tell us who you are and what your righteous law requires so that we can see how we fall so short. And then we can see your grace and that you sent your son to do all that we've refused to do and to die for the sins we've committed so that we can be forgiven. We can turn away from that sin. It dies when we believe so that we might live. Well, for anyone here who does not know Jesus, may they hear the invitation to escape the wrath of God, to escape the sin that enslaves, bring them to yourself by faith. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.