Latest / HBCWestminster / 1.19.20 Luke 3:1-6 Pastor Danny Gardner

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1.19.20 Luke 3:1-6 Pastor Danny Gardner · HBCWestminster

• 0:00
  Well, our text this morning is Luke 3, verses 1-6, and I'm going to read it. If you're able to stand in honor of God's Word, I would ask you to do that. Luke 3, verses 1-6, we'll read it, pray, and then take some time to study it. Beginning in verse 1, it says,
• 0:31
  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, every mountain and hill shall be made low.
• 1:00
  The crooked shall become straight. The rough places shall become level ways. And all flesh shall see the salvation of God. And Lord God, you are the creator of all things. You are the true source of light and wisdom. You are a beginning of all that is, even us. We thank you, God, for calling us to faith. We thank you for delivering to us your implanted word.
• 1:33
  We thank you, Father, for delivering us from our sin. Thank you, Lord, for calling us into your service. And now we ask that you give us a passion for your word rightly divided. Give us a passion to share the good news with this lost generation. And God, draw near to us as we draw near to you because we love your presence. And it's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Amen. Thank you. You can be seated. Well, church, have you ever been guilty of drawing?
• 2:06
  faulty conclusions based on limited information. Hallie and I have been married for 20 years. In our first year of marriage, I was confused. Not just over how to be a godly husband. Certainly I was confused by that. There were things about my wife that I had to understand. There were things about myself that I had to learn and understand. Marriage is a sanctifying process. Amen?
• 2:35
  It is, and we rejoice in it, and the Lord rejoices in it. I am thankful for every day that Hallie has been my wife, but that first year I was confused, not only, like I said, over that sanctification, but also because my first year of marriage, I got sick more than I had ever been in my life previously to that. I mean, I was a healthy young man. I was rarely sick, even rarely.
• 2:59
  Having things like colds even. I would go years at a time without being sick. The first year we got married, I felt like I was sick all the time. And my symptoms were weird. I was struggling with fatigue, runny nose, swelled up and red eyes, even rashes breaking out on my body. I couldn't figure it out. It was weird. I go to the doctor, like, what's going on with me? What's wrong with me? I don't know what's wrong with you. He's doing blood tests and whatever. I don't know. Nothing, everything. I don't know what's wrong with you.
• 3:27
  The only conclusion I could draw at the end of that year, and I told Hallie this, I think I might be allergic to you. I can't figure it out. I think I might be allergic to my wife. What's the Bible say about that? Like, I don't know. What did you do to me, Delilah? I used to have long, flowing hair. I don't know. It was so weird. I felt like my strength has been sapped. I was young and virile, and now this first year, I was sick all the time.
• 3:56
  We lived in this apartment complex. It wasn't because we wanted to live there. We lived there because it's where we could afford to live. It was very expensive where we lived our first year of marriage, and it was kind of the apartment that nobody wanted to live in. And even then, it was still expensive for us. We couldn't believe how much they charged. We got this one-bedroom place, one bedroom, one bath, little kitchen, little dining room. After we moved out,
• 4:26
  We got a call from the apartment complex calling us and apologizing. And we thought, well, that's weird. They said, you know, you moved out. We ripped up all the carpet. We're changing the carpet in the apartment. And we're really sorry, but under the carpet was a ton of mold. Oh, that's what I was allergic to. That's what it was. I was sick. It was really weird.
• 4:55
  I was sick that whole time. We couldn't figure it out. We're so sorry. Your apartment was covered in mold. You know, most people only come to church on Christmas and Easter. They come two times a year. We affectionately call them Christers. And because most people only come to church twice a year and are therefore only given a fraction of the gospel story, they are prone to draw conclusions, false conclusions, based on their limited knowledge.
• 5:27
  You know, most Americans know the gist of why Christ came to be the Savior of mankind. Most of them know that He preached, that He did miracles, that He walked on water. They all know those stories. Most know that He died on the cross and rose from the dead. But if that's all they know, if they never actually get to know Christ through the reading and preaching of His Word, it makes sense then how they could be swayed by the critics and even become one of the critics who view Christianity as a fairy tale.
• 5:58
  believed upon only by the ignorant masses to be viewed along the lines of Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty. But the Gospel of Luke, on the contrary, delves into the depths of the Christian story. It is not a surface story, right? The Gospel of Luke provides detail and vision and clarity that let us know that this is no fairy tale.
• 6:25
  The intricacies even of the incarnation we studied last week. The socio-political context of first century Judea. The inner workings of the Roman Empire. And how our God used that empire to promote his purpose. Luke describes the human condition, the vices, the failings that are common to mankind. Many of us are well aware that Christ came to be the king. We know that. We've also probably heard that Christ is our priest. We've heard that phraseology before.
• 6:56
  At some point, we've probably heard that Christ is a prophet. We know that, that he came to fill all of these offices, these mutually exclusive roles. But this morning, our author explains why, and he does it with such vivid details. Look in verse 1, in the 15th year.
• 7:17
  of the reign of Tiberius Caesar. Now, this is a different Caesar than we've talked about before. A month or so ago, we talked about Caesar Augustus and how the Lord used Caesar Augustus in the birth of Christ, Pax Romana and all of that stuff. Now, this is a different Caesar. This Caesar, Tiberius Caesar, succeeded Caesar Augustus. And now this is in the 15th year. So we know that a significant amount of time has passed. What I love about Luke's gospel is he reminds us that this is no story of make-believe.
• 7:48
  We hear fictional stories. We read fairy tales to our kids. We've watched the Disney movies, which begin with once upon a time in a land far away, in a galaxy far, far away, right? These are fairy tale stories. We can enjoy them. There's nothing wrong with fiction, but that's not how the gospel of Luke tells his story. He gives dates, specific dates.
• 8:14
  And then he fills in, in case you don't know when that was, let me tell you everybody else who was in charge. Pontius Pilate, Herod, Philip, Lysanias, all of these guys. Annas, Caiaphas, go back in world history, he would tell us. Go back and read about these guys. When Jesus lived, was born, lived, ministered, did all of these miracles, died and rose from the dead, this was not presented as a fairy tale. It does not end with, and they lived happily ever after.
• 8:45
  That's not how this ends, as has been the case every Sunday. I think there are a million things we could study and enjoy in our text. But our focus will be this morning that the historian Luke, in just a few verses, six verses, describes the need that we have for a new king. We're going to talk about the kingly line and how it was broken. A new priest. We'll talk about the high priesthood, how it had been corrupted. And our need for a new prophet.
• 9:15
  A new prophet, one who would proclaim the Lord's goodness to us. And so let's study first the kings, the Herodian dynasty, the Herods. You continue in verse 1. Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea. Now, we'll talk about him. He is famously the guy, the Roman governor, that crucified Christ. We'll talk about him in greater detail in future weeks. Look at the next guy. Herod. Herod, being tetrarch of Galilee, and his brother Philip.
• 9:45
  of the region of Eteria and Trachonitis. That is like the Decapolis, the other side of the Jordan River. You know, there are five prominent Herods in the New Testament. The confusion comes because all of them at some point are called Herod or King Herod. Right? We know the Herods. We probably most prominently know Herod the Great. He's kind of the daddy of them all.
• 10:14
  Okay, Herod the Great was the guy who famously tried to do what? Kill baby Jesus. Herod the Great was the guy who killed all of the babies born in Bethlehem. He'd heard about this baby that was born king of the Jews. Herod the Great tried to kill them all. Herod reigned over Israel, here are these dates, from 37 BC to 4 BC.
• 10:46
  Now, what does BC stand for? Before Christ. They had a girl, Abigail. Okay. Before Christ. Okay. So Herod the Great, the one who had heard about Jesus being born and tried to kill the infant Jesus, died. And you can fix this date relatively securely. Died in April or so of 4 BC. Herod died four years before Christ. Did you guys catch that? That's a problem. Right?
• 11:16
  Because the Bible says that Jesus was already born when Herod died. Whose fault was it? Did Jesus come early, or did we mess up the calendar? We just messed up the calendar, okay? So we use a calendar that was devised, and you can go through all of these things, Gregorian calendars and all of these other things. We won't get into that nonsense now. But we've been using the same calendar for about 1,400 years. The guy who designed it got it wrong by four years.
• 11:44
  He tried to guess when Jesus came. He wanted to set that date as year one. He got it off by about four years. And this is what's kind of funny about that. You guys who are old enough to remember 1999. That's the year we got married. 1999. Do you guys remember the big deal in 1999? What was going on?
• 12:09
  Y2K. The world will come to an end. Why? Because Steve Jobs and Bill Gates didn't know what to do. When they're designing Microsoft and they're making all of our computers and all of this stuff, like what's going to happen when our computers that were only two digits long for the year 99 go to 00? I think our computers might revert back to 1900. It will be the end of civilization as we know it. Do you guys remember this?
• 12:34
  Y2K ready. One of my favorite bumper stickers I saw during that time was a bumper sticker that said, Jesus is Y2K ready. I thought that was so funny. Don't worry about it. But honestly, if you guys lived then, you remember December 31st. Nobody really believed, but everybody a little bit believed. Will this be the end? Stroke of midnight came and went. What happened? Nothing. Nothing happened. I mean, nothing happened.
• 13:03
  You know what's funny, though? There was a group of people, and it was a growing group of people. It was gaining traction and momentum that really honestly believed Jesus would come back at the stroke of midnight, the millennium stroke of midnight, because it had been exactly 2,000 years since his birth. And the Lord likes nice, round numbers. And so Jesus, being born, in their minds, zero, even though there is no zero.
• 13:29
  right being born 2 000 years later exactly 2 000 years jesus will come back make sure your soul is ready because jesus is coming back listen jesus was born four years before christ if he was going to come back it would have been in 1996 right i mean that was the 2000 year 2000 year mark jesus born in 4 bc herod the great dying
• 13:56
  Now here's what's famous about Herod the Great. He was a brilliant, a brilliant architect. If you go to Israel today, most of studying Israel today is wandering around looking at broke down ruins from Herod the Great. That's it. The guy was an absolutely brilliant architect. He was like the general contractor. He subcontracted out. Only instead of paying his people, he enslaved 10,000 of them.
• 14:24
  broke them in order to build all of that stuff, aqueducts and palaces, Masada, the Temple Mount, the Herodian, all of these now famous places. Herod the Great was unbelievably mean, cruel, and paranoid. He thought that everybody was out to get him. He thought that his own sons were out to get him and take his throne. And so he executed every one of his sons that he could find.
• 14:52
  Three of them survived him. He killed all of his wives, including his favorite, whose name was Mary Omni. And he would wander around in the late watches of the night, wander around screaming her name because he missed her so badly. And I think, well, you probably shouldn't have murdered her then, right? He killed everybody. And so you can imagine when these magi show up from the east and ask, who is the one who has been born king of the Jews? You can imagine him thinking.
• 15:22
  Yeah, tell me more about this guy. Where is he? Oh, Bethlehem. Bethlehem is where he's been born. Kill them all. Kill all the ones in Bethlehem. He was hated by his own people. In fact, he wasn't even technically Jewish. He's from a region called Idumea. By the time you get to the time of Christ, Idumea, Idumea were the Edomites. If you look in your Old Testament history, the Edomites were like sworn enemies of the Jews. But to the Romans who gave Herod his power, they didn't care.
• 15:52
  You act Jewish, you look Jewish, you're kind of from the same place, we'll make you king. You know, I mean, that's what they thought. But he was hated by his people. So much so that Herod the Great, when he was coming near to the end, commanded...
• 16:10
  his military to go around israel and all over from every prominent village he told them take two men from each village the more prominent upstanding men grab two men from every village in israel 600 of them all together imprison them and on the day i die execute them all kill all of them and that way we can ensure there will be mourning on the day of my death
• 16:39
  He knew the people would rejoice when he was finally out of the picture. And so he gives this wicked command to kill all of 600 Jewish men to ensure that his death day would be a somber and solemn occasion. The day came where Herod died. His soldiers go into those 600 imprisoned men and release them all and said, go home. The king is bonkers. I mean, he was absolutely bonkers. That's Herod. Three of his sons survived.
• 17:07
  One's name was Herod Archelaus. Herod Archelaus was given Judea. And he was the Herod in charge during the youth of Jesus. Not much is said about him because not much of the youth of Jesus is chronicled in the Bible. But he is the one that Joseph and Mary were warned about in a dream by the angel. Do you remember this? When they're going back to Jerusalem, they're going to go back to Judea. An angel comes and says, don't go to Judea. Herod is in charge. Different Herod. It's not Herod the Great. It's his son.
• 17:38
  The second son that survived him was named Philip. Philip the Tetrarch, he's mentioned in our text. He was one of the best Herods. And of all of the history books you read, you typically will read that Philip, of all of the Herods, Philip was the best. The only reason he's mentioned as the best was because he was not a murderous psychopath. He just kind of lived and ruled and did his thing. I mean, he didn't execute anybody. There was no massive genocide under his rule. And so I guess by default, he was a good king.
• 18:07
  The third, and this is the famous one, and this is the one that's talked about in our text today, Herod. Herod, being Tetrarch of Galilee, the third was Herod Antipas. Herod Antipas is the Herod that Jesus was passed back and forth to during his trial. Everybody remember that? Pontius Pilate, right? I don't want him. He sends him over to Herod. Herod says, well, I don't want him. He sends him back to Pontius Pilate. I don't want him. Sends him back to Herod, King Herod.
• 18:34
  Throughout the New Testament, when you see King Herod during the life of Christ, it's this guy, Herod Antipas. Herod Antipas is the guy who wouldn't tolerate the preaching of truth. John the Baptist preached against his stealing his brother's wife, right? And preached against that. And so Herod Antipas is the guy that beheads John the Baptist. That's this Herod.
• 19:01
  The two other famous Herods were Herod Agrippa I and Herod Agrippa II. Herod Agrippa I was the grandson of Herod the Great. He's the guy who in Acts 12 says, it just says King Herod, he's the guy who has the distinguished honor of martyring the first of the apostles. James, the son of Zebedee, one of the sons of Thunder, one of Jesus' best friends, was murdered by Herod Agrippa I. Everybody following?
• 19:31
  Acts chapter 12, it says he was stabbed and he stabbed him with a sword and killed him. Herod Agrippa II was the great grandson of Herod the Great. He's talked about in Acts chapter 26. So now we're four generations out. In Acts chapter 26, the apostle Paul stands before Herod Agrippa II, King Herod, and tries to convince him to believe the gospel. It says that he...
• 19:54
  defends the truth of the gospel to King Herod. And at the end of Paul's sermon, he looks at King Herod, he points at him and says, I know you know the prophet's king. I know you know this story, and I think you want to believe. And Herod, a grip of the second, says, do you think that in such a short time you can convince me to believe like you do? And the apostle Paul basically says, yes, that's exactly what I'm trying to do. Why do you think I'm here?
• 20:23
  He preaches this message of salvation to the king, and at the end of it, the king considers it and does not believe. You say, well, Pastor Danny, why do you bring all of that up? Number one, because I don't want you to be confused when you're reading your New Testament. It's not the same guy. There are five of them. But number two, and this is more important, number two, notice what a mess this family was. Look at the mess Herod the Great made. He set an example for his sons of brutality.
• 20:52
  of wickedness, of selfishness, of paranoia. And what did his sons do? They followed in their father's footsteps. Who set an example for their sons? Who followed in their father's footsteps? Who set an example for their sons? Who followed in their father's footsteps? And can I encourage us parents and grandparents in the room? Your parenting matters. Your sin matters, not just for you, but for the legacy that you will leave behind you.
• 21:22
  Be the parents and grandparents. And here's, I mean, how do you apply something like this? Be the parents who are the most influential people in your kids' lives. Really, genuinely pass on the praiseworthy deeds of the Lord. I am a parent of two teenage boys. My youngest son will turn 10 in a couple of months. And so I understand that there are a million.
• 21:51
  different things vying for our kids' attention. There are a million influences. I get it. I mean, I'm the dad who says, hey, let me have your phone. And I open it, and I look through all of the text messages. I do. I read them. I know all of the sites that they've been to. I look at all of it. I want to know who they're hanging out with, who they're talking to. I'm the dad who limits screen time.
• 22:20
  Right, kids? It's not just your parents. It's my boy's parent too. I'm the guy. I mean, yeah. How long were you on your phone? Two and a half hours. How do you have two and a half hours? What are you talking about two and a half hours? That's way too long. You know, don't tell me you don't have time for piano practice. It's 15 minutes. Take it out of your phone time. You know, like I'm that dad. Why? It's not just because I want to keep good things from my sons. That's not why I do that.
• 22:48
  It's because I want us to be the biggest influence in their lives. I want us to dictate, to determine the path for them. I want them to see it. This is the direction that we need to go. Grandparents, you can have the same kind of influence. Now listen, on the flip side, if you're a kid, and maybe you're a grown kid, but you're a kid who had just a gnarly upbringing, maybe you didn't grow up in a Christian home.
• 23:14
  Maybe your testimony doesn't begin with, well, my parents shared the gospel with me. And maybe your parents didn't know the Lord and didn't train you in the Lord and didn't teach you in the Lord. And maybe you grew up in one of those homes that was just a mess. Can I encourage you? You can be the one to break that cycle. You can be the one to determine and say, I will not walk down that road. Any one of those Herods could have put a stop to it. Great-grandson could have said, I'm done.
• 23:42
  All of those things my great-grandpa was known for, not me. I'm a different kind of Herod. Any one of them could have done that. We are not bound, listen, we are not bound by our parents' sin. I can remember the day, and I won't go into the details of this, but I can remember hearing my dad.
• 24:04
  explaining to another young man at our church. My dad was a good man. He was a godly man. He loved the Lord. He loved our family. He parented me well. But I can remember my dad explaining generational type sin to a young man at our church who had asked. Generational sin that had been passed down to him. And I can remember him telling him. I remember the words. I decided I would be the guy to break the cycle.
• 24:30
  I'm not going to live the same way. There are some things about my parents that were great. I'm going to keep. There are some things I'm going to do differently. Let me encourage you. If you grew up in a home like that, be the one to break that cycle of sin. That's first. The kings were a mess. They were a mess. We needed a new king. Notice second, the high priests, Annas and Caiaphas. You continue in verse two. It was during the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas.
• 24:57
  Annas and Caiaphas were a father and son-in-law. They are often named together because it's kind of thought that they maybe ruled together. Annas was the former high priest, but kind of ruled through his son-in-law, Caiaphas. And now they were great politicians, but they were also notoriously greedy. Annas was the high priest who devised the money-making scheme off of the sacrificial system.
• 25:27
  Now imagine this for a high priest. You guys can recall last week, every year, once a year, Passover, every Jewish man is required to come down and offer a sacrifice, right? Passover lamb. You would take your lamb without blemish from your flock, your best lamb, you're going to go and offer to the Lord for the sins of your own heart and for the sins of your family. And so you get your best one. If you don't have a lamb, maybe you're a farmer.
• 25:51
  Or a fisherman. So you save your money, you go buy a spotless lamb. And for the weeks leading into the Passover, you would bring that lamb into your home. You'd treat it as one of your own kids with honor and respect. You even feed it from the table. You allow your kids to name it. The thing even sleeps inside. Maybe even in the bed of your kids. All of that is intentional. Grow an emotional attachment to the lamb. Why? Because daddy's going to go kill it. And sin hurts.
• 26:20
  There are consequences. You can imagine when that Jewish father would take that lamb in his arms and say, I'm going to walk down to Jerusalem. I'll be back, but the lamb won't. You can imagine the weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth that would ensue. The little girl saying, bring back Bubsy the lamb. What do you mean he's not coming back? No, this is sin. This is what sin does. Sin causes death.
• 26:44
  The dad would go down to Jerusalem. He'd walk up those temple steps onto the temple mount, go into the temple precincts, and he would hand over that lamb on behalf of him and his family. The priest would look at it, inspect it. He'd look at it and say, yes, this is a lamb without blemish. Or no, this thing's all messed up. Don't bring God your second best. He'd hand it back. Well, what Annas had done was devised a scheme of skimming off the top. He figured out that he could make money using the sacrificial system.
• 27:14
  So he'd have these corrupt priests under him. A father would hand that lamb over. The lamb is perfectly fine. The priest would look at it and say, no, this lamb is not without blemish. I found one brown hair in its wool. It's not without blemish. Well, I can't see it. Well, just trust me, it's there. I've got a trained eye. So this lamb is worthless. I'll buy it from you on pennies on the dollar. We offer a trade-in system. You can trade that one in.
• 27:43
  I'll give you 10 cents for it. You can buy one of these pre-approved lambs over here in the pen for 100 bucks. Well, what choice do I have? It's the sin of my family. I mean, I'm not going to not make an offering. It's up to you. You don't have to make an offering this year, I guess. Good luck in the judgment. Well, I guess I have to do that. You buy the new lamb. The priest takes that.
• 28:07
  you know unapproved lamb he goes and throws it in the pre-approved pile and sells it to somebody else and they were making an unbelievable amount of money doing this you can remember jesus making a whip walking up to the temple courts and cleaning house you've made it a den of thieves how dare you turn my father's house into this how dare you do you're shearing the sheep
• 28:31
  How dare you do this? That is not what this is for. This was meant to be a house of prayer for all nations, and you have turned it into a den of robbers and thieves. And he cleared the place out. He started flipping over tables, releasing animals, beating people out of the temple. That was Annas. They say, well, how dare they erect an obstacle between people and the Lord? I agree. Are there ever times when we do the same? The scriptures say that Jesus is a stumbling block.
• 29:03
  But brothers and sisters, he's meant to be the only stumbling block. May it never be true of us that we would erect a barrier that people must cross in order to get to Jesus. You say, well, Danny, I don't do that. I do by my words, by my actions, by my attitudes, by my prejudices. Man, even, you know, you guys, I know it's 2020. It's election year. We're all going to get more and more annoyed.
• 29:37
  as we draw nearer to November. I know that that's coming. The same thing happens to me. I get kind of the hackles up, and I get annoyed and angry, and I start shouting about things that just for the sake of the gospel don't matter. Is it possible to erect obstacles between people and the Lord? I believe that it is. May we not pick up the torch of these wicked high priests. That's the high priesthood. Notice a third, and with this we'll be done. Notice the herald.
• 30:06
  John the Baptist, the prophet. So the kings were wrecked. The priests were wrecked. What about the prophet? The prophet, you say, well, you can't say John the Baptist was a bad prophet. No, he was a great prophet. The problem was one of those wicked Herods put him to death. We needed a new prophet. Look at verse three. And he went into, oh no, verse two. It was during this reign of Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God came to John, the son of Zechariah in the wilderness. John the Baptist more than likely was orphaned at a young age, right?
• 30:36
  His parents were very old. And so John the Baptist more than likely was an orphan. He went out into the wilderness. There was a group, a sect of Judaism called the Essenes, who were known for taking in and raising orphans. Probably where he was. He grew up very poor. In fact, Mark 1 says that he wore a cloak made of camel hair and he ate bugs. Makes sense. He was extremely poor.
• 30:59
  And he went into all the region around the Jordan, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. I love this. The kings are broken, the priests are broken, and so God finds the man who is the furthest removed from that system. Fine, I don't even need that system. He grabs this guy, an orphan, living out in the desert. The guy eats grasshoppers, okay? I'll use that guy. Man, don't tell me you can't be used in the kingdom. If you eat grasshoppers, that's a weird thing.
• 31:29
  But you can still be used. This is good news. And notice it says that he proclaims a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sin. And this same message is meant to be proclaimed by every true believer and follower of Jesus. This is the message of the gospel that a lost and dying world needs. I watched, I'm sure that many of you did too, I watched this last week's Democratic debate. You know, the six or seven candidates that the Democratic Party is putting forward.
• 31:58
  to represent them. And one of them will win their nomination, will win their primaries, will represent their party for the president. And listen, I was struck, and this is not meant to be a castigation against them or anything. I'm not trying to defame them in any way, and you'll notice I won't. But I was struck by what our current and future leaders think are our greatest problems. The greatest problem today is, you know, what Americans need today is, I was also struck and honestly a little bit confused about
• 32:31
  what they think will solve those problems. I don't mean to any disrespect by this, but I do agree with some of their conclusions. I do not think that our greatest problem is healthcare reform. I think it's a problem. I just don't think it's our greatest problem. I don't think our...
• 32:53
  greatest problem is foreign policy. It's a problem. It's just not our greatest problem. I don't think the greatest problem we face as a people is Iranian disturbance, disruption. It's a problem. It's just not the biggest problem. I don't think it's climate change. I don't think, and if you've been paying attention, this will make sense. I don't think our greatest problem is whether you believe a woman can be president or not. A couple of them, I mean, are just going at it. They are chewing on each other over that.
• 33:24
  It's a problem. I just don't think it's our greatest problem. Our greatest problem is sin. That's our biggest problem. Scripture says that every one of us has sinned. Every one of us has missed the mark. We've fallen short of the glory of God. And if you search your heart, you'll know that to be true. Nobody in here is going to stand up and say, I'm perfect. I've never made a mistake. I've never misstepped. I've never misspoken. I'm the perfect man. Nobody will say that because it can so easily be proven false. Nobody who's married.
• 33:55
  We'll say that. Because your spouse will stand up and say. You know, Scripture says that the penalty of that sin is eternal death. That the wage, the payment that we've earned for our sin is eternal punishment and eternal separation from the grace and kindness of God. But God, and praise God, but God, the Scriptures go on to say, gave us a gift. It says the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. That.
• 34:25
  is forgiveness of sins. And that is the nail that John the Baptist hit on the head. And can I ask you, church, why would we proclaim anything different? That's it. That's what we should be most passionate about. It's not what candidates believe, and it's not what they believe they think will solve it or anything. It's sin, and the solution is Jesus. Amen? Amen. Notice last, his job was, John the Baptist's job, the prophet's job was to prepare the way. Notice in verse 4, as it is written in the book of the words of Isaiah the prophet,
• 34:56
  The voice of one crying in the wilderness, prepare the way of the Lord. Now, a herald's job was to go before the king and make straight the path. The king is coming. I'm going to fill in potholes. I'm going to remove speed bumps. I'm going to make crooked paths straight. I'm going to remove all of the obstacles. I'm going to prepare his path. And notice that's exactly how it's described in verse 5. Every valley, every pothole will be filled.
• 35:20
  Every mountain and hill shall be made low. All of the speed bumps removed. The crooked shall become straight. The rough places shall become level ways. Why? Because I want it to become as easy as possible for all flesh to see the salvation of God. And that is exactly what John the Baptist did. Brothers and sisters, don't be a creaster. As you pursue the Savior, consider the fullness of who he is. Consider what he came to do.
• 35:50
  he's our king and not in the likeness of those wicked predecessors he broke the cycles of sin that had occupied the throne before him and he's our priest he offers the free grace of god for the forgiveness of sin no strings attached he's our prophet he's our herald of truth he promises that all who come to him will by no means be cast out let me pray god thank you for this message thank you god for how you prepared the way for the lord to come and lord we know
• 36:20
  John the Baptist prepared for your first coming. Lord, it is up to us now to prepare people's hearts for your second coming. Lord, we love you. We are in awe of you. God, as we sing now, may it be with grateful hearts because you are a faithful God. That is who you are. And it's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen.