Promise and Plan
Matthew 3:1-6
Blackness… cold silent darkness… hopeless and lifeless darkness
That is the only way to describe the condition of Palestine… the Holy Land… as the calendar changed from BC to AD.
It was a “period of silence” … God had turned away… withdrawn His messengers and did not send any revelation for 400 years.
Why? SIN! The people of God had turned a deaf ear on Him and had turned to idolatry and spiritual adultery. God had warned and warned and now God decided to stop warning.
So for 400 years… 13 generations… God’s people had cried out to God for a word, a sign, for Him to shine His face on them. And God had not.
To say it was a time of silence, that God did not speak does not mean it was an insignificant period. Many very important things happened during this time to prepare for the New Testament.
MINI HISTORY LESSON:
One nation under Saul, David and Solomon
After Solomon died, divided kingdom: Israel and Judah
Up and down spiritually, series of good and bad kings
Israel, more sinful, defeated by Assyrians in 733 BC
Judah, eventually judged, defeated by Babylonians in 587 BC
Babylon defeated by Medio-Persians
Persia defeated by Alexander the Great in 332 BC
With Alexander the Great's acquisition of the Holy Land, a new and more insidious threat to Israel emerged.
Alexander was committed to the creation of a world united by Greek language and culture, a policy followed by his successors. This policy, called Hellenization, had a dramatic impact on the Jews.
Tried to take away the Jewishness and make them like cookie-cutter clones
One language, one government, one overarching philosophy, one currency, etc
In 175 BC, Antiochus IV Epiphanes (whose title means "God made manifest") changed that when he instituted a policy of radical Hellenization.
He passed laws that made it illegal to
1 observe the Sabbath day,
2 the act of circumcision and
3 to own or possess the scripture
They were Capital Crimes… for which they could be put to death
And if that were not bad enough, around 167 B.C., he overthrew the rightful line of the priesthood and desecrated the temple, defiling it by offering a pig as a sacrifice and erecting a pagan altar to himself.
This was the religious equivalent of rape… scripture calls it the “desolation of desecration.”
The Jewish distinctives… temple worship, circumcision of the flesh, The Torah, and animal sacrifice were all taken away and Hellenistic (Greek) thinking, philosophy, education, were being forced on the Jews and they were losing their faith.
Through a revolt led by the Macabees and Roman governors courting Jewish favor… Israel got back many of the things it had lost… some political power to rule itself and a new temple in which to worship.
So the 400 year, intertestamental period, ends with the temple rebuilt and animal sacrifice restored but Judaism is watered down, politicized, and Hellenized.
The problems of Malachi’s day are still present… the people are offering polluted sacrifices.
But into that blackness and hopelessness and lost-ness God sends a Promise…
21 And she will bring forth a Son, and you shall call His name JESUS, for He will save His people from their sins.”
22 So all this was done that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the Lord through the prophet, saying: 23 “Behold, the virgin shall be with child, and bear a Son, and they shall call His name Immanuel,” which is translated, “God with us.”
Did you hear that? God is with us… He has not forsaken us… he has not given up on us. Despite the 400 years of silence… God is still WITH us. AND God is going to save us from our sin and restore us to right relationship.
What a great promise… FOR US …even when we sin… even when He has to punish… GOD STILL LOVES US and God will still forgive us.
BUT… yes I have to mess up a good thing.
It is not my intention to mess it up… I just have to give you the other side of the coin.
In 3:1-2 In those days John the Baptist came, preaching in the wilderness of Judea 2 and saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.”
First God gave us His great promise… God loves you and wants to save you from your sins.
Now God reveals His plan for forgiving us… REPENTANCE
Now, you already know that the word repent means to turn around and go in a different direction.
Essentially: to do a spiritual U-Turn
BUT we know from other scriptures
like: Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved
and 9 If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved.
And Produce fruit in keeping with repentance
And 2 Corinthians 5:17 Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.
And Philippians 2:12 Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed--not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence--continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling,
That repentance, which leads to salvation, includes other things than just a change of mind.
It includes
CONFESSING YOUR SINS
Acts 2:38 And Peter said to them, “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.
1 John 1:9 9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
Proverbs 28:13 Whoever conceals his transgressions will not prosper, but he who confesses and forsakes them will obtain mercy.
You can’t just come to Jesus and think you can forget what went behind you will just start now to be obedient… you must CONFESS that you have sinned.
Confession is STEP 1
What do you confess?
Not each individual sin… sinfulness. You confess God I am a man of sin, I come from a background of sin… I inherited a sin nature from my father Adam, and I have acted sinfully by my own choice. My thoughts are sinful and my actions are sinful and my words are sinful.
THERE IS NOTHING GOOD IN ME and I cannot be good. I don’t have the power.
I commit sins because I have this sin nature and I ask you to save me from this nature, take away my sinful nature and make me a new creature in Christ.
This is to recognize that you don’t have the power to do good.
You don’t even have the power to WANT TO do good.
You don’t have the power to say no. You are a prisoner of the power and consequences of your sin.
Apart from the deliverance by God, apart from His saving grace… you will continue in your sin and you will become more and more bound.
Confession is the first step because confession leads to the deliverance, lifting you out of the quagmire of sin, putting you on the right road.
So… REPENTING includes CONFESSION
BUT it also includes BELIEVING…….. ON JESUS
Not IN Jesus… existence/acts but believing ON --- Placing your trust on him.
Illustration “Get in the wheel barrow”
Feeling broken over your sin, feeling guilty and admitting your sinfulness is not enough.
You must BELIEVE WITH ALL OF YOUR HEART that Jesus died on the cross to pay for YOUR sins.
9 If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved.
You must believe in the death burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
The scripture is clear… believing is absolutely necessary.
Salvation DOES NOT happen apart from believing
a. You are a sinner
b. Your sin separates you from God
c. There is nothing you can do to take away your sin or merit salvation
d. Jesus Christ died on the cross to pay for your sins
e. He was buried three days in the tomb
f. He rose on the third day to gain victory over death and the grave
It is through believing these things that you are justified.
So Repenting includes CONFESSION of your sin
BELIEVING in Saving work of Jesus
And Repentance includes PROFESSION/DECLARATION
“It is with the mouth (the words) that you are saved.”
Verse 9 says declare it with your mouth and verse 10 says profess it
YOU MUST MAKE A PROFESSION OF FAITH
Jesus, I believe that you died to pay for my sins and to give me eternal life. I ask you to forgive me and wash my sins in your blood.
And repentance includes BEARING FRUIT
Matthew 3:8 “Produce fruit in keeping with repentance”
Is this a works theology? NO
Are works necessary for salvation? NO
James said “Faith without works is dead.”
Faith that is all words IS DEAD
Faith based on some words you said somewhere sometime IS DEAD
This is not to say you are saved by the fruits or works.
It is to say IF you are genuinely saved--- there will be fruit/works/deeds that confirm your salvation.
If you say you are saved but don’t have any fruit then you had better check your salvation
That is why in 2 Corinthians 13:5 Paul says, “Test yourself to see if you are in the faith.”
If you are in the faith… there will be fruit
If you are not in the faith… there will be none
What are you checking for?
Continued sin—1 John 3 is clear that the child of God cannot continue in sin… continued sin is proof that you are not saved, not repented
Check for CORRECTION
When you sin, what happens… in you?
Does anything happen?
The scripture says of those who are truly repentant and saved…
5 And ye have forgotten the exhortation which speaketh unto you as unto children, My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of him:
6 For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth.
7 If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons; for what son is he whom the father chasteneth not?
8 But if ye be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then are ye bastards, and not sons.
And Heb 12:9-11 agrees with it
Our earthly fathers used to discipline us and we treated them with respect, and shall we not be still more submissive to the Father of our spirits, and live? It is true that they disciplined us for a few years according as they thought fit; but He does it for our certain good, in order that we may become sharers in His own holy character. Now, at the time, discipline seems to be a matter not for joy, but for grief; yet it afterwards yields to those who have passed through its training a result full of peace--namely, righteousness.
IF YOU CAN SIN AND GET AWAY WITH IT…. In your spirit, not convicted, not broken, not miserable… YOU HAVE NOT REPENTED
HAVE YOU REPENTED?
Have you CONFESSED your sin?
Have you BELIEVED on Jesus as your only hope?
Have you PROFESSED your faith in Jesus Christ?
Are you BEARING FRUIT in keeping with repentance?
