Vipers, Illegitamate Children, and Dead Trees

The time is now, for unbelievers to repent and turn to Jesus, and the time is now for believers to examine themselves to see if they are in the faith, to see if any sin remains in us that we have not confessed. It is always the time for repentance, so long as even a microbe of sin remains in us.

John the Baptist called people to repentance, as a preparation for Jesus, whose ministry would soon begin. And the promise to those who repent is that they will see the salvation of God.

Luke 3:1–14 ESV

In the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, Pontius Pilate being governor of Judea, and Herod being tetrarch of Galilee, and his brother Philip tetrarch of the region of Ituraea and Trachonitis, and Lysanias tetrarch of Abilene, during the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God came to John the son of Zechariah in the wilderness. And he went into all the region around the Jordan, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. As it is written in the book of the words of Isaiah the prophet, “The voice of one crying in the wilderness: ‘Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight. Every valley shall be filled, and every mountain and hill shall be made low, and the crooked shall become straight, and the rough places shall become level ways, and all flesh shall see the salvation of God.’ ” He said therefore to the crowds that came out to be baptized by him, “You 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 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 axe 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.” And the crowds asked him, “What then shall we do?” And he answered them, “Whoever has two tunics is to share with him who has none, and whoever has food is to do likewise.” Tax collectors also 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.” Soldiers also asked him, “And we, what shall we do?” And he said to them, “Do not extort money from anyone by threats or by false accusation, and be content with your wages.”

Big Idea: True salvation must include repentance. True Repentance always bears fruit.

Vipers flee the fire

God’s Children bear His fruit

Dead trees are fuel for the fire

Vipers Flee the Fire

To start out, can you imagine any of those smiling preachers today, who tell everyone life is all roses and their best life can be now, and every day is a Friday, can you imagine any of them starting out a talk, or an interview, and saying to them. “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee the wrath to come?”

People will not pay to hear that man, or pay to buy his books. Not most people. How offensive! How can you call someone a brood of vipers? Whether on a large scale, such as the televangelist, or the small scale, such as a tiny church in a tiny village, the temptation facing every preacher is to be liked and appreciated, and all of that. Just so you know, sometimes we pick on the famous so-called pastors because they are famous and saying unbiblical things. But sadly, what is played out on the TV week by week with some of those is multiplied thousands of times over in much smaller churches, where the local pastor, who knows he will never be as famous as one of those guys, yet feels the wrath of certain people the moment he preaches a difficult passage.

Many pastors, and many Christians, have been convinced that the only way to win the world around them to Christ is to do something other than teach the actual gospel. You see, if you have not addressed the sin problem, the holiness of God and His wrath towards sin, if you have not gotten the attention of the one you are sharing the gospel with to know they have a real problem, that the wrath of God is real, and they must turn to Christ to avoid this wrath, then you really have not shared the gospel at all.

John the Baptist didn’t tell people, there is a guy coming, you should listen and follow him because his teachings will make you happy. He didn’t say, make sure to check out his healing abilities. He didn’t say if you follow the guy coming after me, then all of your personal relationships will be suddenly improved and you will get that promotion you’ve been wanting!

No, John warned of a wrath to come. And when he pointed people directly to Jesus, he did not say, “Look, bring out your blind and the lepers.” He said, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away sin!” You cannot have the gospel, which means good news, without the bad news. Good news is meaningless unless it has to do with some positive change, and not the kind of positive change Joel Osteen preaches, but the change that brings peace with God, and turns his wrath away from guilty sinners, and the kind of change that brings real and true repentance, reliance, and restoration in Jesus Christ.

It is not popular with the world to point out the fact that they have a sin problem. And yet, the most loving thing we can do is alert people to their problem, and to reveal to them how they have been deceived to believe that they are not subject to the wrath of God. If we are thankful to a friend who pulls us aside and says, there is a stain on your shirt, I just wanted you to know. We are thankful because our friend told us about something we needed to fix in order to avoid embarrassment. How much more ought we to thank the one who was willing to tell us of the stain of sin, which, if it continues to be a stain for us, we will be disqualified from eternal life, and much worse, be subject to the wrath of the Holy God.

But if someone walked up and handed you a wet cloth, or a stain remover pen, and did not tell you why, you would have to wonder. I once worked with someone who I think sadly had a condition that made their breath really really bad. Yet no one wanted to tell this coworker about the problem. Instead, they would gossip about it. Can you believe how bad that breath is? Maybe someone should leave a toothbrush and mouthwash in their locker as a hint. No one would tell this person about the problem that they seemed unaware of.

How loving is it, then, when those in the church look at the world around them, shaking their heads, and talking about how terrible the sin in the world is, without telling those who are subject to God’s wrath the bad news? You see, the good news is not meaningful unless the bad news comes first. So John uses what we may consider very harsh language, “You brood of vipers! Who warned you of the wrath to come?”

And who did he say this to? The crowds that came out to be baptized by him. OK, now this seems even more harsh. They made the trip, they went out to heard the man and be baptized by him, and he calls them a brood of vipers. Imagine if we had our greeters, our deacons, or our deaconesses, stand and greet each new face, as they walked in the door for the first time visiting Oasis Church, and instead of a smile and thanks for coming, they shouted at them, “you brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee the wrath to come?”

“Get back in the car honey, I am not going to visit this rude church!” Now, I am not suggesting to do this. However, that should give you a sense of the seriousness of John’s message. He was not at all concerned about calling people out for sinful attitudes. In fact, you may say he lost his head because of it. Herod cut off his head because of the offense of John calling sin sin.

Just like you would find in any church today, among John’s hearers were those who were sincere and those who were not. He had people who were truly concerned about being right with God and probably people who were just trying to do whatever religious thing was the fad at the time. Or they went because that is where their friends are.

He asks the question, “Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come?” The image here is a bit like what happens when snakes flee from a fire. You may recall the Apostle Paul got bit by a viper escaping the fire, and so many of you, if you share your faith, may also find those you are warning to be hostile to you. In fact, I don’t even really need to illustrate this. Every day, on every news report, you can see what happens to those who call sin sin. You are cancelled. You will have your account close. Banks have already done this in our country. The bank does not like the message you preach, so they close your account.

Social media, if you put something offensive to the sinful world, people will report you and you will lose your access. People will boycott and protest churches, businesses, and even show up at people’s houses if they declare they have biblical views on marriage, or if they say abortion is sinful. Not only must you allow the sin to happen, you must cheer it on as well. A case just went all the way to the Supreme Court, all because a lady who was a Christian web designer refused to make a website for someone who was promoting a sinful life style. Thankfully, the court said the lady cannot be compelled to make the website, but these cases will surely keep coming.

Will we fold, and refuse to obey our Lord’s command, to preach his gospel, or will we be bold like John?

God’s Children bear His fruit

Luke 3:8 ESV

Bear fruits in keeping with repentance. And do not begin 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.

Now John says to the people that they must not put too much faith in their heritage. Many Jewish people lived under a delusion, that because they had this lineage, they would eventually all be saved, and John says that it isn’t your physical lineage that matters, it is a spiritual lineage. You see, the people of Israel had an advantage. Paul writes about this advantage in Romans, where he asks the question, “What advantage has the Jew”, and then he answers his own question: Rom3.2

Romans 3:2 ESV

Much in every way. To begin with, the Jews were entrusted with the oracles of God.

Paul goes on to point out that the Jews are advantaged, but he does not say because they are free of sin or free of the wrath of God. Rather, their advantage is that they have the oracles of God. It was through their nation God had revealed himself. Through prophets and through His mighty acts, God had proven himself to Israel. But Paul goes on to say the Jews, though they have this advantage, are not better off: Rom3.9

Romans 3:9 ESV

What then? Are we Jews any better off? No, not at all. For we have already charged that all, both Jews and Greeks, are under sin,

So John is saying to these people that they must bear fruits in keeping with repentance. You see, he knew that not all he baptized had truly repented in their hearts. Just as today, a person could be baptized who was not saved. A person could be in the church, and know the language of the church, and know the doctrines of the church, and know the people of the church, and still not be saved. Now, it isn’t our job to sit and always try to figure out who is and who isn’t really sincere. Jesus gave a parable about wheats and tares, or weeds.

Basically, Jesus taught that in the church there would indeed be false Christians. Yet, we are not to try and root them out, unless some visible sign of their error is clear. A person who lives in unrepentant or public sin, a person who teaches a false doctrine, those types scripture tells us clearly we are to deal with, and scripture guides us on how to deal with those things.

And we don’t see that John is giving long interviews to those who come to be baptized in this repentant act, but he gives a clear warning. If we love people, we warn them of dangers they are facing or may be facing. Paul likewise warned people who would take communion in an unworthy manner. We owe it to people to give fair warning. People may be baptized who are not truly saved. They may take communion and not be saved. We cannot see into their hearts. God judges the hearts, and all we can judge is what our senses provide to us. We can observe what someone says, the confession they make. We can observe the actions they do.

Do they bear fruits in keeping with repentance? What are these fruits? The fruit of the Spirit, the outward evidences. Yet even a person who shows good works may not be a truly repentant person. Even secular people do nice things. They have charities and they are kind sometimes to neighbors. John says to bear fruits in keeping with repentance. It isn’t that any actions we have will save us, but a truly repentant person will show evidences. As Luther said, we are saved by faith alone, but it is not a lonely faith. Those who are in the faith will show fruits because it is impossible for them not to, if they are truly in Christ.

These fruits are displayed in different ways and Christians are matured at different speeds. You may have noticed. But we must be careful we do not get frustrated with the one whose fruit seems to be slow in coming, or not quite ripe when we would like it to be. Instead, we must water with the Word, and prune, and this is why we think it is so important to preach and teach the Word of God, because not only is it life and salvation for those who are brought from being dead in sin to being alive in Christ, but also that once made alive in Christ, we want every believer to thrive in Christ, and this can only happen when God’s Word penetrates our Hearts, and His Spirit, who inspired the Word, works in us, to continually cleanse us of our sins.

Only when this happens can we be transformed by the renewing of our minds. Yet some say, “I don’t need all these doctrines, I don’t need to spend all that time reading the Bible, I just have Jesus, and He is enough.” Yet Jesus said, “if you love me, you will keep my commands”. How can you keep his commands if you do not know what they are? And this word, that is a lamp unto our feet and a light unto our path, we have access to, more than any other generation in history. Everyone of us has easy access to God’s Word.

Paul said the Jews were advantaged because they have the oracles of God. How much more, then, are we without excuse, when we have his Word at ready access? Let us never presume we know it well enough. Some of you got perfect grades in Algebra, yet if you are now 20 years or more past high school and have never done algebra since then, could you possibly sit down and work the formulas without help now? Why then, would any Christian believe that they once learned the basics, so no further study of the Word is needed? Bear fruits in keeping with repentance. And do not think because your parents had the faith, or you attend or are even a member in the church, that somehow this is where your salvation lies.

“John struck a mighty blow at the common delusion that connection with righteous people will save our souls. Thousands in every age have believed that association with the godly will make them acceptable to God. But faith in blood ties or church membership has led whole generations to destruction. Those in the church, where so many are related to someone who works in Christian service, are especially susceptible to such deception. But all a prominent name will get you, apart from God’s grace, is greater judgment.” - Kent Henry

Dead Trees are fuel for fire

The fire spoken here is the terrible wrath of God. The wrath of God’s fury. Paul said it has already begun. Heb12.29

Hebrews 12:29 ESV

for our God is a consuming fire.

John is warning about wrath, and it is coming soon or has already begun. The axe is laid to the root of the trees. Some translators have this as the axe is laid at the root of the trees. In that case, the view is like a worker preparing to cut the tree down. He lays down his axe, and it is resting at the roots of the tree, and in moments he will pick up that axe and start swinging.

The other view of this has been taken to mean the axe is already at the roots, and has begun to cut, and the fruitless tree is already being brought down. In either case, there is a great sense of urgency in John’s message. Throughout the whole bible, we see illustrations that use agriculture to make a point. I think this is why people who are farmers or who do gardening sometimes resonate so well with scripture, and particularly the parables of Jesus.

The figure here is pretty easy to grasp, even if you don’t have a green thumb. A tree that does not bear good fruit will be cut down. It is wasting space where a more productive plant could be. I have a hibiscus tree that takes a lot of work. There have been times I could not get any flowers to bloom, and there have been times where I have had dozens of new blooms every day. When it is not blooming, I am tempted to just get it out of there.

The little pests come back and attack the flowers, and I have to deal with that. It either has too much or too little water. The leaves turn yellow sometimes. And yet, when I am ready to cut it down, I remember how beautiful it looks when it is full of blooms, and so I give it a little more time, a little more care. I go and prune it. I get something for the bugs. And eventually it blooms again.

But if it went for an entire year with no blooms, or two years for sure, I would pull it out and put it to the curb. I couldn’’t burn it, because they don’t allow that in my neighborhood, but figuratively, that would be the case. So it is, John says, that the tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Notice he does not even say the the tree that does not bear any fruit. He wants not just fruit, but good fruit. And that is the fruit that is in keeping with repentance.

Big Idea: True salvation must include repentance. True Repentance always bears fruit.

Vipers flee the fire

God’s Children bear His fruit

Dead trees are fuel for the fire

Now, we will hopefully get next week to the question next asked of John, “What then shall we do?” and we will see his answers to the people of Israel he spoke to. However, since I always delight to share the good news, and since this sermon may have seemed particularly bleak, since we have called sinners vipers, and talked of the wrath to come, and spoken of trees that are worthless and need to be burned down, let us then end on a note of rejoicing in the good news of the gospel. You see, all of what John warned of is true. God’s wrath is coming. Our God is a consuming fire. And Jesus is the only One who can save us from the wrath to come.

Romans 5:8–9 ESV

but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God.

Ephesians 5:6 ESV

Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience.

If you would follow Christ, you would turn from being a son or daughter of disobedience and become a child of God, one who walks not in the flesh but by the spirit.

Colossians 3:6 ESV

On account of these the wrath of God is coming.

1 Thessalonians 1:10 ESV

and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, Jesus who delivers us from the wrath to come.

Jesus delivers us from the wrath to come. He is our propitiation. One of my favorite preachers, Alistair Begg, says often “you are Christians now. You need to learn some big words”. Propitiation is one of those words.Propitiation is a gift or payment that turns away someone’s wrath. Jacob sent presents ahead of him to turn away the wrath of Esau. That is propitiation. Jesus is our propitiation, the one who turns God’s wrath away from us.

1 John 4:10 ESV

In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.

Big Idea: True salvation must include repentance. True Repentance always bears fruit.

Vipers flee the fire

God’s Children bear His fruit

Dead trees are fuel for the fire

All of this leads right into our time of communion, since, just as John the Baptist cared enough to warn those who put their faith in their identity with Israel, so Paul warns those who identify with Christ, but have not examined themselves, or who would take communion in an unworthy manner.

1 Corinthians 11:17–34 ESV

But in the following instructions I do not commend you, because when you come together it is not for the better but for the worse. For, in the first place, when you come together as a church, I hear that there are divisions among you. And I believe it in part, for there must be factions among you in order that those who are genuine among you may be recognized. When you come together, it is not the Lord’s supper that you eat. For in eating, each one goes ahead with his own meal. One goes hungry, another gets drunk. What! Do you not have houses to eat and drink in? Or do you despise the church of God and humiliate those who have nothing? What shall I say to you? Shall I commend you in this? No, I will not. For I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it, and said, “This is my body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” In the same way also he took the cup, after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.” For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes. Whoever, therefore, eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty concerning the body and blood of the Lord. Let a person examine himself, then, and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup. For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks judgment on himself. That is why many of you are weak and ill, and some have died. But if we judged ourselves truly, we would not be judged. But when we are judged by the Lord, we are disciplined so that we may not be condemned along with the world. So then, my brothers, when you come together to eat, wait for one another— if anyone is hungry, let him eat at home—so that when you come together it will not be for judgment. About the other things I will give directions when I come.

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Vipers, Illegitamate Children, and Dead Trees

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Vipers Flee the Fire

God’s Children bear His fruit

Dead Trees are fuel for fire