Sermon Tone Analysis

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

“This life was not intended to be the place of our perfection, but the preparation for it.”

-Richard Baxter

Introduction: Last week: The way of repentance

John was the one Isaiah prophesied, “ the voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight.”

A Time for repentance

A Call to repentance

A Promise of repentance

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.

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

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

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

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.