November 28, 2021 - Sunday Service Live Stream

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November 29, 2021

Join the congregation of Ascension Presbyterian Church for our livestream of this week's worship service. This week, Pastor Christopher Brenyo is preaching on Luke 3:1-20. Visit us: https://www.ascensionpresbyterian.com/ Follow us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AscensionPre... Follow us on Gab: https://gab.com/ascensionchurchlongwood

00:09: To the city of the living
03:17: God, the heavenly Jerusalem. To an innumerable company of angels, to the general assembly and church of the firstborn who are registered in heaven.
03:30: To God, the judge of all, to the spirits of just men made perfect. To Jesus, the mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling that speaks better things than that of Abel.
03:44: See that you do not refuse him who speaks. For if they did not escape who refused him who spoke on earth, much more shall we not escape if we turn away from him who speaks from heaven.
03:58: Whose voice then shook the earth, but now he has promised, saying, yet once more
04:04: I shake not only the earth, but also heaven. Now this yet once more indicates the removal of those things that are being shaken as of things that are made, that the things which cannot be shaken may remain.
04:19: Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom which cannot be shaken, let us have grace, by which we may serve
04:27: God acceptably with reverence and godly fear. For our God is a consuming fire.
04:36: Come now, let us worship him. Please pray with me. Our Father in heaven, we have come to worship you and to bow down, to kneel before you,
04:53: Lord our maker. For you are our God, and we are the people of your pasture and the sheep of your hand.
05:01: We come to you in the blessed name of the Lord Jesus Christ, the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.
05:11: He is the only mediator, O God, between you and us.
05:18: We know that he lives to make intercession for us, and in this we rejoice.
05:24: And through him we can come boldly to your throne of grace. In his name we earnestly seek you,
05:31: O Lord. We ask now that you would bow your heavens and come down, and have at the praises of your people.
05:41: Remember your promise, O Spirit of Christ, to be present in the midst of your worshiping people when we gather in your name.
05:49: Condescend to us, grant us the joy of your fellowship, speak to us through your word.
05:57: And be blessed by our praise and adoration. It is in Jesus' name that we pray.
06:04: Amen. Please yield for the corporate confession of sin.
06:09: Let us join together with one voice and confess our sins in one ascent.
06:24: Almighty and most merciful Father, we are thankful that your mercy is higher than the heavens, wider than our wanderings, deeper than all our sin.
06:38: For clear are our careless attitudes toward your purposes, our refusal to relieve the suffering of others, our envy of those who have more than we have, our obsession with creating a life of constant pleasure, our indifference to the treasures of heaven, our neglect of your wise and gracious law.
07:05: Help us to change our way of life so that we may desire what is good, love what you love, and do what you command, through Jesus Christ our
07:17: Lord. Amen. Please stand. In Christ we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins.
07:31: According to the riches of his grace which he made abound toward us in all wisdom and in prudence.
07:40: To all of you who are in Christ, take heart this day. Your sins in him are forgiven.
07:47: Amen. Please take up the hymnal and turn to number 193, the sure mercies of David.
15:01: Indeed, I have given him as a witness to the people, a leader and commander for the people.
15:08: Surely you shall call a nation you do not know, and nations who do not know you shall run to you because of the
15:16: Lord your God and the Holy One of Israel, for he has glorified you.
15:23: Seek the Lord while he may be found. Call upon him while he is near.
15:29: Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts. Let him return to the
15:35: Lord, and he will have mercy on him, and to our God for he will abundantly pardon.
15:43: For my thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways my ways, says the
15:48: Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.
15:57: For as the rain comes down and the snow from heaven, and do not return there but water the earth and make it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower and bread to the eater.
16:11: So shall my word be that goes forth from my mouth. It shall not return to me void, but it shall accomplish what
16:20: I please, and it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it. For you shall go out with joy and be let out with peace.
16:29: The mountains and the hills shall break forth into singing before you, and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands.
16:39: Instead of the thorn shall come up the cypress tree, and instead of the briar shall come up the myrtle tree, and it shall be to the
16:47: Lord for a name, for an everlasting sign shall not be cut off.
16:53: This is the reading of God's word. Let us now confess our faith in the singing of the
17:03: Apostles' Creed. Please take up turn to number one.
26:47: All good counsel and all just works, give to us your servants that peace which the world cannot give, that our hearts may be set to obey your commandments, and also that we, being defended from the fear of our enemies, may live in peace and quietness through the merits of Jesus Christ our
27:13: Savior, who lives and reigns with you in the Holy Spirit, God forever.
27:22: The Lord says, I am the Lord your God. You shall have no other gods before me.
27:29: The Lord, have mercy on us and incline our hearts to keep this your law.
27:42: ...that we'll worship anything besides the true God. And I pray that you would be with your people, that you would help us to keep our identity, that you would help us to worship and serve only you, because you alone are worthy.
27:56: So I pray that you would just keep us from sin, keep us from idolatry, and that you would be glorified in all that we do.
28:05: I pray this in Jesus' name. You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in heaven above, or on the earth beneath, or in the waters below.
28:18: Lord, have mercy on us and incline our hearts to keep this your law.
28:26: Heavenly Father, we are wicked people who always go astray, but remember us in your love.
28:36: God, I pray that we shall always continue to keep our eyes on you and to love you.
28:44: You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain. Have mercy on us and incline our hearts to keep this your law.
28:59: Our gracious God and Father, as we consider this commandment, do not take your name in vain.
29:05: Father, we often think of misappropriate use of your name, which is commonly called swearing.
29:11: But Lord, how often do we defame your name by not living as Christians ought to live?
29:18: We have your name placed upon us. We are in your family, adopted as children.
29:23: We pray, Father, that you would give us the grace that whatever name that we go by, that you are also called by, whether that be husband, father, and so forth,
29:33: Lord, that we would live our lives and quit ourselves according to your command, through your grace.
29:39: We ask this in Christ's name. Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy.
29:46: Lord, have mercy on us and incline our hearts to keep this your law.
29:55: Thank you for the gift of the Sabbath, for this day of rest and worship. We pray,
30:02: Father, that as we go about our day today and all Sabbath days from here on, that we would remember you and what you have done for us.
30:13: That we would dedicate the day to glorifying your name and edifying one another.
30:23: Help us to rest well from our labors and find comfort and peace in you this glorious day.
30:33: And help us through the remainder of this service to worship you in spirit and truth. And that come time for the sermon, that we would be attentive to the teaching of your word, that you would give
30:46: Pastor Breno wisdom in the words that he says, that he would speak your truth to us, and that we would be receptive to it.
30:56: We pray all these things in your son's name. Honor your father and your mother.
31:04: Lord, have mercy on us and incline our hearts to keep this your law.
31:12: Dear Heavenly Father, we pray over this commandment of yours to honor our father and our mothers. We pray that for the children here that they would see this commandment and they would glory in it and love in it and know that it is the commandment that has a promise also given to them.
31:33: That it will go well with them and they will be blessed. We pray that we as parents would show the example to our children to honor our fathers and mothers by honoring their grandparents and to honor each other as husband and wife.
31:47: Husband and wives. And we pray that through this work and through this way of living that you have commanded to us that your son's name,
31:59: Jesus Christ, would be glorified. We pray that we would have hearts set upon this law and to obey it.
32:08: And we pray that you would give us that grace by your Holy Spirit in your son's name. You shall not kill.
32:17: Lord, have mercy on us, and incline our hearts to keep this your law.
33:10: You shall not commit adultery. Lord, have mercy on us, and incline our hearts to keep this your law.
33:40: You shall not steal. Lord, have mercy on us, and incline our hearts to keep this your law.
33:49: Father, I pray this day that you would make us people of generous hearts.
34:02: That we would not in any way steal from our neighbor or desire that which does not belong to us, but that we would be people who would be thankful for what you have given us.
34:21: And people who seek always the betterment of one another and seek to serve one another rather than being self -seeking or selfish.
34:35: So be with us, Father. Help us to love each other with a selfless love. In Jesus' name we pray. You shall not give false testimony against your neighbor.
34:47: Lord, have mercy on us, and incline our hearts to keep this your law.
34:53: Heavenly Father, we ask that you would help us to never slander against our neighbor. To live uprightly with integrity in slandering tongue.
35:21: You shall not covet. Have mercy on us, and incline our hearts to keep this your law.
35:34: We desire things to better our lives, and we desire what we define as the good life of our
35:40: Lord. I pray today that in all things we would set our eyes upon you, and from all things we would define our lives as a result of your son on that cross.
35:50: And from there to fall in your sleep, and to love those around us.
35:59: You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and soul, mind, and strength.
36:17: Our gracious Heavenly Father, your Son, our Savior Jesus Christ, we ask what would your neighbor as yourself.
36:23: Lord, we pray for the grace to do these things, and show our love for you.
36:29: And we ask this in his name. Amen. Please stand and turn to the insert, the back side that says 198A in the left corner.
36:48: This is our Psalm of the Month, Psalm 104. Tiberius Caesar, Pontius Pilate being governor of Judea, Herod being
42:47: Tetrarch, his brother Philip, Tetrarch of Aeturia in the region of Trachonitis, and Licinius, Tetrarch of Abilene.
43:02: While Annas and Caiaphas were high priests, the word of God came to John, the son of Zacharias in the wilderness.
43:11: And he went into all the region around the Jordan, preaching a baptism of repentance for the remission of sins.
43:19: As it is written in the book of the words of Isaiah, the prophet saying, the voice of one crying in the wilderness, prepare the way of the
43:31: Lord, make his paths straight. Every valley shall be filled, and every mountain and hill brought low.
43:41: The crooked places shall be made straight, and the rough ways smooth.
43:47: And all flesh shall see the salvation of God. And he said to the multitudes that came out to be baptized by him, brood of vipers who warned you to flee from the wrath to come.
44:03: Therefore, bear fruits worthy of repentance. And do not begin to say to yourselves, we have
44:10: Abraham as our father. For I say to you that God is able to raise up children to Abraham from these stones.
44:20: And even now the axe is laid to the root of the trees. Therefore, every tree which does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.
44:32: So the people asked him saying, what shall we do then? He answered and said to them, he who has two tunics, let him give to him who has none.
44:44: And he who has food, let him do likewise. Then tax collectors also came to be baptized and said to him, teacher, what shall we do?
44:54: And he said to them, collect no more than what is appointed for you. Likewise, the soldiers asked him saying, and what shall we do?
45:05: And he said to them, do not intimidate anyone or accuse falsely and be content with your wages.
45:14: Now, as the people were in expectation and all reasoned in their hearts about John, whether he was the
45:19: Christ or not, John answered, saying to all, I indeed baptize you with water.
45:27: But one mightier than I is coming, whose sandal strap I am not worthy to lose.
45:34: He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing fan is in his hand, and he will thoroughly clean out his threshing floor and gather the wheat into his barn.
45:49: But the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire. With many other exhortations, he preached to the people.
45:58: But Herod the Tetrarch, being rebuked by him concerning Herodias, his brother
46:03: Philip's wife, and for all the evils which Herod had done, also added this above all, that he shut
46:12: John up in prison. May the Lord be pleased with our consideration of his word.
46:19: May the Holy Spirit provide illumination and unction to the message.
46:26: Please pray with me. O Lord, your name is majestic over all the earth.
46:36: We thank you for the long seasons of preparation, waiting, anticipating, waiting for the revealing of the sons of God, waiting to see the
46:52: Messiah who would come to save, waiting even for the ordinary things that we long for in life.
46:59: O Lord, we thank you for the time of preparation. I pray that you would prepare our hearts that we might receive you.
47:09: We ask these things in Jesus' name. Amen. Please be seated.
47:15: I would like your notes today to have one word, and I would like you to compile your thoughts, if that's what you're inclined to do, under just this one word, preparation.
47:34: The title of the message today is Prepare the Way of the Lord. Preparation. This is considered to be
47:45: Advent Sunday. This is the first Sunday of the Advent season, which we are now pressing toward the arrival of the
47:55: Messiah, born of a virgin. Advent season now is upon us.
48:02: This is actually the first day of the church year. It is a time of prayer, expectancy, fasting, and preparation.
48:15: For the American living in our country, the Westerners on this side of the globe, particularly in our country, this is a season of endless feasting.
48:28: And we had that last week. We have a feast day in our church, self -appointed, according to the
48:34: Westminster standards. It's okay. Last Sunday is our church's Thanksgiving Sunday.
48:39: We have a big meal and fellowship, an extended time of what we do every Sunday. And then on Thursday, we commemorated
48:46: God's goodness to us as a people, individually, as a family, as a nation, and we celebrated
48:51: Thanksgiving. For most of us in America, this now enters a season of endless feasting.
49:00: But it's actually a time of preparation. It should be a time of weeping and mourning and repenting and longing for the realization that Christ has come.
49:17: In Advent, we remember both the incarnation and we look to the future, to the second coming of Christ.
49:26: Today, I have decided to preach on John the Baptist's ministry of preparation.
49:34: In light of last week and this time of feasting, it's good to enter now into a season of fasting, prayer, and preparation.
49:46: In our text today, Isaiah 40 is quoted, and it's realized and we've learned that this is really about John the
49:53: Baptist. It's also true that the last prophetic utterance that came from the prophet Malachi is about John the
50:01: Baptist. 400 years of silence have cracked open with a loud voice.
50:08: The person, the preparer, the one who says, make straight the way, John the
50:14: Baptist arrives on the scene to announce the coming of the
50:19: Lord, that he would come to deliver his people from bondage.
50:27: Back in Isaiah, when the people heard the message of Isaiah 40, they were looking and anticipating and delighting in the prospect of deliverance from Babylonian captivity.
50:40: And they would be released from captivity. But there was something bigger in view, and that bigger something was none other than the
50:50: Lord Jesus Christ. And there is a man, the greatest of men, who preached.
50:57: His whole life was given to preparation, to make way for the
51:04: Lord. In Malachi, it says, behold,
51:11: I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great day, dreadful day of the
51:20: Lord. There is both hope and judgment in John's message. Repent, he says.
51:28: Judgment is coming. He also says the son of righteousness is arising with healing in his wings.
51:37: He would say, behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.
51:46: We forget that the arrival of Jesus at the incarnation is not just a celebration.
51:54: It's the arrival of God's judgment. You see,
52:01: Jesus baptizes with the Holy Spirit and with fire. He brings communion with himself, the triune
52:09: God, on the one hand, and he brings judgment and condemnation to all who fail to believe in him on the other.
52:19: You and I need to be the kind of people when the hot fires of judgment blow upon us, the dross goes away, all the impurities go away, and that which is pure and built on faith, faithfulness, obedience to Christ, all of that will remain.
52:38: So today we enter into a season as a church, not of feasting, but of mourning.
52:46: Mourning over our sin. We enter into a time of circumspection.
52:52: We enter into a time of repentance. We have set before us the hope, the realization of the person and work of Christ.
53:01: But we have to declutter our hearts to make him room. Let's consider now the son of Zacharias, John the
53:13: Baptist. Turn back with me to Luke chapter one. Luke chapter one.
53:21: I'm going to read three sections from Luke one to help us.
53:27: The occasion of John the Baptist's birth is miraculous. And one thing
53:34: I want you to point out in this idea of preparation, the most time allotted for our life and our pursuits is given to preparation.
53:45: Think about it. When you're a child, you are raised in your home and you are being prepared to be a faithful, productive citizen of the kingdom of heaven.
53:59: That lasts for at least, let's say, 18 to 20 years. The mother who is now pregnant with child, as we have here in our congregation, a couple.
54:12: We think about the months that lead up to that amazing moment of birth, nine months of preparation.
54:22: The baby is growing and being nurtured and being made ready for birth.
54:29: Moses was 80 years old when his real ministry kicks into gear.
54:35: That's a long time. Abraham was an old man living in Ur of the
54:42: Calvians before he was called of God to go out to fulfill his purpose as the patriarch of the patriarchs.
54:53: We spend a lot of time waiting and preparing.
55:00: Let's look at Luke chapter one, beginning at verse five. There was in the days of Herod, the king of Judea, a certain priest named
55:13: Zacharias of the division of Abijah. His wife was of the daughters of Aaron and her name was
55:21: Elizabeth. And they were both righteous before God, walking in all the commandments and ordinance of the
55:31: Lord, blameless. I should pause here because we are living in a time, maybe like no other.
55:38: This is very common to human, the human condition. But we live in a time of urgency, of now, of no waiting.
55:48: We can have food in an instant. We can hit a couple of keys on our phones and food will show up at our houses.
55:55: We're not used to waiting. But the Christian, the faithful ones, as we're going to learn about Zacharias and Elizabeth, they are older people who have given their lives to service of our
56:09: God. They were both, it says in verse six, righteous before God, walking in the commandments and ordinance of the
56:17: Lord, blameless. That's who we need to be. We need to prepare ourselves that we might be used of God, that we might be a sharp instrument in his hand.
56:27: We're not waiting for something miraculous to happen in the future. We're preparing for the miraculous to occur.
56:35: We are laboring to be the faithful ones that God may use for some good purpose.
56:43: It says in verse seven, they had no child because Elizabeth was barren and they were both well advanced in years.
56:54: This must have been very difficult for a priest, for a faithful couple, because they would have viewed this barrenness as a curse in some way on their lives.
57:09: They had to wait. They were unknowingly being prepared to receive
57:16: John the Baptist into their family. Look at verse eight. It says, so it was that while he was serving as priest before God in the order of his division,
57:28: Zacharias is faithfully discharging his duties. You and I need to faithfully discharge all of our duties, whatever those may be, faithfully engage in the work that God has given us to do.
57:41: On this day, his lot fell to burn incense when he went into the temple of the
57:46: Lord. And the whole multitude of the people was praying outside at the hour of incense.
57:54: Then an angel of the Lord appeared to him, standing on the right side of the altar of incense. And when
58:00: Zacharias saw him, he was troubled and fear fell upon him.
58:07: Now, children, I want you to listen, because we're not going to read Luke chapter two this week.
58:13: We don't get to do that because we're waiting. We're preparing. But there's miraculous things at work in the birth of John the
58:23: Baptist. Angel appears to Zacharias and says, do not be, he says, do not be afraid,
58:30: Zacharias. For your prayer is heard and your wife, Elizabeth will bear you a son and you shall call his name
58:37: John. And you will have joy and gladness and many will rejoice at his birth.
58:46: For he will be great in the sight of the Lord and shall drink neither wine nor strong drink.
58:52: He will also be filled with the Holy Spirit. Even from his mother's womb.
59:02: And he will turn many of the children of Israel to the Lord, their God. He will go before him in the spirit and power of Elijah and quoting the verses that end the last prophecy given in Malachi four to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just.
59:25: And here it is to make ready a people prepared for the
59:31: Lord. And that's what we need to be. We need to be a people prepared for the
59:40: Lord. Now, what's hard for us to see here is we see this as history only.
59:49: Oh, yeah, that's what happened with John the Baptist. Oh, yeah, Jesus was born of a virgin, those kinds of things. You and I need to step back into the redemptive account.
01:00:01: We need to understand that this cycle that happens with Zacharias and Elizabeth and John the
01:00:07: Baptist, that cycle is still at work in the world today. You and I, when we were born again into the kingdom of God, we entered into kind of a blissful period of our lives where we were just rejoicing that the shackles had come off and we realized that we belong to Christ.
01:00:26: And then our prosperity turned into a sense of complacency.
01:00:34: And that early zeal begins to peter out in that new convert. And then maybe that new convert falls down into sin again, and then they come to their senses and they cry out to God for deliverance.
01:00:52: In Isaiah 40, the people found themselves again in captivity in Babylon because they were wicked.
01:01:00: And God says, I'm going to deliver you again and I'm going to deliver you again and I'm going to deliver you again.
01:01:10: So you and I need to prepare for the coming of Christ, a coming which we know is certain on Christmas Day.
01:01:22: We need to prepare now. We need to open our hearts for the incarnation of Christ.
01:01:28: He's not being reborn and coming again in 2021, but we need to step back and realize the nation, the world, all of creation has been preparing for the revealing of the sons of God.
01:01:44: All of history is waiting for God to step out of heaven and condescend and come down and pitch his tent among the people whom he would save.
01:01:57: Verse 18 of Luke 1 says, And Zechariah said to the angel, How shall
01:02:04: I know this? For I am an old man and my wife is well advanced in years.
01:02:14: And the angel answered and said to him, I am Gabriel, who stands in the presence of God.
01:02:22: Can we pause here for a moment? What an awesome statement this is.
01:02:28: This archangel who stands in the presence of God has left the presence of God to come to speak to Zacharias.
01:02:41: And I've come to bring you these glad tidings. But behold, you'll be mute and not able to speak until the day these things take place because you did not believe my words, which will be fulfilled in their own time.
01:03:03: So Zacharias is in the temple. He's in there for a long time. The people waited for Zacharias and marveled that he lingered there so long.
01:03:13: But when he came out, he could not speak to them. And they perceived that he had seen a vision in the temple, for he beckoned to them and remained speechless.
01:03:22: So it was as soon as the days of his service were completed that he departed to his own house. Now, after those days, his wife,
01:03:31: Elizabeth, conceived and she hid herself five months saying, Thus, the
01:03:36: Lord has dealt with me in the days when he looked on me to take away my reproach among people.
01:03:45: You see, Zacharias and Elizabeth prayed. They continued to be faithful.
01:03:52: And God blessed them beyond their wildest imaginations. I'll skip down to verse 36.
01:04:01: We don't want to read too much about Mary today. She's instructed and told that her cousin,
01:04:09: Elizabeth, is pregnant. Look at verse 36. Indeed, Elizabeth, your relative, has also conceived a son in her old age.
01:04:18: And now this is the sixth month for her, who was called barren. For with God, nothing will be impossible.
01:04:27: So that puts a date, John the Baptist, six months older than Jesus, roughly. And Mary said,
01:04:35: Behold, the maidservant of the Lord, let it be to me according to your word.
01:04:41: And the angel departed from her. And Mary arose in those days and went into the hill country with haste to a city of Judah and entered the house of Zacharias and greeted
01:04:51: Elizabeth. And it happened when Elizabeth heard the greeting of Mary, children pay close attention.
01:04:58: This is a baby. It's a big baby. Inside the womb of Elizabeth, Mary enters the room greeting
01:05:07: Elizabeth and the baby, John the Baptist, leaped in her womb.
01:05:14: And Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. And she spoke out with a loud voice and said,
01:05:23: Blessed are you among women. And blessed is the fruit of your womb.
01:05:29: But why is this granted to me that the mother of my Lord should come to me?
01:05:36: This is utterly astounding. An older relative of Mary is six months or so pregnant with child.
01:05:47: Mary enters into the room and she's just conceived of the Holy Spirit, the
01:05:52: Lord Jesus Christ. The baby, John the Baptist, knows that Jesus is the
01:05:59: Christ and he knows that he's standing in the presence. And this event also leads to Elizabeth being filled with the
01:06:07: Holy Spirit and uttering words that she could have never fathomed in her own strength. Why is this granted to me that the mother of my
01:06:20: Lord should come to me? For indeed, as soon as the voice of your greeting sounded in my ears, the babe leaped in my womb for joy.
01:06:34: Blessed is she who believed, for there will be a fulfillment of those things which are told from the
01:06:42: Lord. We can't go into Mary's great section there. We have to skip over to verse 57.
01:06:48: Turn over to 57. Now Elizabeth's full time came for her to be delivered and she brought forth a son.
01:07:00: When her neighbors and relatives heard how the Lord had shown great mercy to her, they rejoiced with her.
01:07:07: So it was on the eighth day that they came to circumcise the child, that they would have called him by the name of his father,
01:07:14: Zacharias. His mother said, no, he shall be called John. They said to her, there is no one among your relatives who was called by this name.
01:07:24: So they made signs to his father, what he would have called, have him called. And he asked for a writing tablet and wrote, saying, his name is
01:07:35: John. So they all marveled. And immediately his mouth was opened and his tongue loosed and he spoke, praising
01:07:45: God. Then fear came on all who dwelt around them and all these sayings were discussed throughout all the hill country of Judea.
01:07:54: And all who heard these things kept them in their hearts, saying, what kind of child will this be?
01:08:01: And the hand of the Lord was with him. Something powerful about Elizabeth and Zacharias and John the
01:08:14: Baptist. They are filled with the Holy Spirit. You and I on this day should ask the
01:08:25: Lord to fill us with the Holy Spirit. That we might be able to be used of him in a special way.
01:08:37: His father now, his tongue has been muted by his disobedience, his unbelief in that moment when he spoke with Gabriel.
01:08:45: Now it's loosed. He's filled with the Spirit. And this is what he says about his son,
01:08:50: John. Blessed is the Lord God of Israel, for he has visited and redeemed his people and has raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant,
01:09:05: David. And he's referring, of course, to the deliverance of Jesus, which
01:09:11: John is the forerunner of. And he spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets who have been since the world began that we should be saved from our enemies and from the hand of all who hate us to perform the mercy promised to our fathers and to remember his holy covenant, the oath which he swore to our father
01:09:31: Abraham to grant us that we, being delivered from the hand of our enemies, might serve him without fear and holiness and righteousness for him all the days of his life, of our life.
01:09:48: And you, child, will be called the prophet of the highest, for you will go before the face of the
01:09:57: Lord to prepare his ways, to give knowledge of salvation to his people by the remission of their sins, through the tender mercy of our
01:10:08: God, with which the dayspring came from on high and has visited us, to give light to those who sit in darkness and the shadow of death, to guide our feet into a way of peace.
01:10:24: Now I want you to listen very carefully to verse 80. So the child grew and became strong in spirit and was in the deserts till the day of his manifestation to Israel.
01:10:44: Let's turn over to chapter 3. John the
01:10:50: Baptist lives nearly 30 years of his life in obscurity.
01:11:04: He's out in the wilds. The people think he's a wild man. This wilderness is not like the wilderness that we think of.
01:11:11: This is a desert. He's living out in a place that looks like Death Valley in California, the
01:11:20: Sahara, or over there by the Dead Sea. He's living in a barren place.
01:11:27: And for his entire life, we don't hear much about what he's doing, but he's getting prepared.
01:11:32: He's getting ready for the work he is going to do. On average, seminarians spend three years of their lives getting ready to serve the church for the rest of their lives.
01:11:46: John the Baptist, he spends his entire life in preparation to say, here comes
01:11:52: Jesus. His entire life. I'm not the one.
01:11:58: Repent. Turn from your sins. Make straight the past. Let the mountains sink into the ground.
01:12:04: Let the valleys be exalted. Let the stony places of your heart be uncovered and smoothed out.
01:12:10: Christ is coming. And this short little life of ministry makes him one of the greatest men who've ever lived.
01:12:22: Let's look again at our text. In the historicity of Israel, there were wicked rulers, both
01:12:30: Roman and Jewish, and they're listed in our section. The message of the
01:12:36: Messiah's imminent appearance arrives in a time of great darkness.
01:12:41: I don't know if you've known this, but our religious leaders and our civil magistrate leaders, there are a lot of wicked men.
01:12:51: It's a time of great darkness. But we have to be prepared. We have to be ready.
01:12:57: What the Lord has for us. Look at verse three of our section.
01:13:06: It says, and he went into all the region around the Jordan, preaching a baptism for the repentance of repentance, for the remission of sins.
01:13:17: Fulfilling the words of Isaiah, a prophet, which I've already alluded to a couple of times, prepare the way of the
01:13:26: Lord. One of these Sundays coming up, I don't know which one it is.
01:13:32: We'll sing joy to the world. The Lord has come.
01:13:41: Let every heart prepare him room. That is an ongoing activity of the people of God.
01:13:53: We need to open our hearts to God. We need to set off the sin that so easily entangles us.
01:14:04: We need to turn away from all those things that are contrary to our new transformed nature in Christ that we might receive on Sunday morning.
01:14:16: Every Sunday we come and we receive him in communion. So this isn't just an advent thing, but we need to go through the process.
01:14:25: We need to rehearse the events that happened in history. We need to go back and see we are in desperate need of deliverance, a deliverance that's greater than that deliverance that happened in Egypt or from a
01:14:38: Syrian or Babylonian bondage. We are captive to sin and to Satan and to death.
01:14:45: Oh, Lord, deliver us. And we are so filled with hope because we know how the story ends.
01:14:50: Messiah is coming. The forerunner has come in John the Baptist. So we know right behind him, the one whom
01:14:58: John says, I'm not even worthy to untie his sandal strap.
01:15:07: So Advent is a time of preparation. Look down at verse seven.
01:15:16: I wonder how this preaching would be received. These are people who, of their own volition, are coming out to the
01:15:23: Jordan to repent of their sins. Listen to the hard edge of John's preaching, brood of vipers who warned you to flee from the wrath to come.
01:15:34: I remember that in connection with the Pharisees, but I'd forgotten that he says it to all of them who are coming.
01:15:42: Who warns you to flee the wrath to come? This is serious business. You see, the
01:15:48: Jews are all about this baptism. They want to do all the prescribed rituals and anything they can do for that external righteousness.
01:15:56: They want it. And he says these are matters of the heart. Verse eight, therefore, bear fruits worthy of repentance.
01:16:11: Immediately, you can imagine them saying, we're Abraham's children. Jesus incurred heard this before himself, too, in his ministry.
01:16:21: And John says, I say to you that God is able to raise up children to Abraham from these stones.
01:16:30: You see a picture of this region. There are stones everywhere. But I wonder if he's baptizing in the
01:16:37: Jordan. By Joshua's memorial stones, he looks back at the stones and says,
01:16:45: God remembers his promise. God is going to deliver. There are those who are going to perish in the wilderness.
01:16:54: It's even interesting that the John is out in the desert to picture like in a very tangible way, the barrenness of the souls, the hearts of the people in Israel and to wash them in the
01:17:10: Jordan. But their sins may be cleansed. In verse nine, it says, even now the axe is laid to the root of the trees.
01:17:21: I remember a very comical time in my childhood. I was probably eight to 10 years old.
01:17:32: And I took an axe and I swung it at a very healthy, very green tree.
01:17:39: And the axe bounced back and almost got me. And my dad,
01:17:44: I believe at that point, stopped letting me play with axes when he saw what I did. I'm not sure what
01:17:51: I think about this. I was climbing a tree and trying to not so long ago and with one arm cut with a chainsaw.
01:17:58: And my dad says, I really don't think you should be playing with chainsaws. He doesn't think much of my tree cutting ability, apparently.
01:18:08: But you see, the axe is being swung by our Lord. And you want to be a tree that the axe bounces off of because of green and life.
01:18:20: The dead tree, it's going to fall. It's going to be easy, tender. It's going to drop to the ground.
01:18:27: Even now, the axe is laid to the root of the trees. And every tree which does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.
01:18:38: Everybody's thinking about presents and family under the Christmas tree. And oh, what a good time it will be.
01:18:44: How many people are wondering and looking at their lives and saying, am I bearing good fruit?
01:18:53: That's what we should be doing in this Advent season. We should be looking at ourselves and saying and asking the question, am
01:19:00: I prepared to receive the Lord? And it's interesting, the reason
01:19:07: I chose Luke's account is because of this section that's coming up here. It says in verse 10, what shall we do then?
01:19:16: You see, repentance, living this kind of life, preparing the way of the Lord, making his path straight.
01:19:24: There's something very ethical and very tangible about it. They're brought under this heavy conviction.
01:19:30: I can say to you, oh, let's go out now and repent. Everybody goes, amen, we're all going to repent. But we have to repent specifically.
01:19:39: And it says here, verse 11, he answers them to this question, responding, he who has two tunics, let him give to him who has none.
01:19:51: And he who has food, let him do likewise. Maybe this Christmas we should be a little less extravagant in our giving to ourselves.
01:20:01: And maybe we should give what we have away to give to someone who doesn't have what we have.
01:20:10: You can imagine the argument and opposition to this idea. Well, what if my first tunic gets dirty?
01:20:17: What if mine gets frayed? What will I do? I have two of these. And it's kind of a backup plan. And John says, give the one away to the one who doesn't have any.
01:20:28: Apparently, very powerfully somewhere, this is a long time ago, a pastor up in the north part of the country fell under great conviction about the materialism in his church.
01:20:40: And there was apparently a local shelter that was seeking jackets. And he took off his coat, his heavy jacket, snowing outside, and laid it down on the altar.
01:20:51: And all the people of the church took off all of their coats. And they walked out into the snow and got in their cars cold and went home because they came under this deep conviction that they had not thought rightly about these things.
01:21:06: That's Advent. That kind of thinking is how we should be thinking in Advent.
01:21:13: So you and I now have to look at this list. And we have to decide and figure out what are we called to do?
01:21:21: What are those fruits that are worthy of repentance? What are those things that reflect that we are bearing good fruit?
01:21:28: The tax collectors come and ask him, saying, teacher, what shall we do? Well, their particular sin was they like to collect more than what was owed for their own enrichment.
01:21:39: He says, collect no more than what is appointed to you. And the soldiers asked him.
01:21:46: We forget the Roman army is in some ways occupied by a lot of Jews. They started working for those guys when they came in and took over.
01:21:55: So we have soldiers, Jewish soldiers, working for Rome. And John doesn't say quit the
01:22:01: Roman army. He doesn't say that. He says, do not intimidate anyone.
01:22:10: They would go and shake people down because they had the power of the sword. And be content with your wages.
01:22:19: You and I have to search out and find out what we're to do.
01:22:25: Keeping with the spirit of John's message. Now, quickly,
01:22:31: I'm going to conclude here. The people are in expectation and they all reasoned in their hearts about John.
01:22:38: And he says, I am not that one. I baptize with water.
01:22:44: But one mightier than I is coming whose sandal strap I am not worthy to loose. He will baptize you with the
01:22:50: Holy Spirit and fire. We sang in two different ways.
01:22:59: There was imprecation in both of our songs today. You see, the arrival and the announcement of the arrival of Jesus.
01:23:10: It's not only salvation, it's judgment. What if we don't prepare our hearts and make him room?
01:23:18: What if we're not eager to repent and turn away from our sins? That would be reflective of a heart of unbelief.
01:23:24: And we would be subject to judgment. His winnowing fan is in his hand.
01:23:33: He will thoroughly clean out his threshing floor. Think about the cleansing of the temple.
01:23:39: All the things he did to forcefully assert his kingship, his authority.
01:23:46: He's going to gather his wheat into his barn. And he's going to take his winnowing fork.
01:23:51: And he's going to throw the wheat up into the air. And the chaff is going to be blown away.
01:23:58: And all that is his is going to fall and remain. You and I need to be those who are there, the wheat that remain.
01:24:09: The chaff is going to burn with an unquenchable fire. And finally,
01:24:16: John went about preaching. And we don't know a lot about the details of this, but we do know that he found fault with Herod and his dealings with Herodias, his brother's wife.
01:24:32: And for all the evils which Herod had done, he preached against. Maybe this is part of what we should be doing in Advent.
01:24:39: We love Governor Ron DeSantis in Florida, right? Why hasn't he abolished abortion in Florida, forced the session, said something, executed some kind of executive order?
01:24:52: Maybe we should say this is a good man. He's done good things. Maybe we should say, do something righteous. Not just conservative, righteous.
01:25:00: Governor, abolish human abortion in Florida. Do it. Show us your courage.
01:25:09: But if he did that, he wouldn't be able to run on that every year. He wouldn't be able to use that as an issue anymore.
01:25:17: It's a time for us to be sober. It's costly to be someone who follows
01:25:24: Christ. John the Baptist lives 30 years preparing.
01:25:32: He has a short window of very productive ministry at the Jordan. He's baptizing, he's preaching, but he speaks against Herod.
01:25:42: And he ends up in jail, and he ends up beheaded, and he ends up dead.
01:25:50: But I think John wouldn't have it any other way. He would say, he must increase,
01:25:57: I must decrease. You and I, during this season, need to decrease, that Christ may be exalted in us.
01:26:09: Today, the message is one of preparation.
01:26:17: Are you preparing your hearts to make him room? What about your sin?
01:26:27: What about your unbelief? What about your lawlessness? What are you doing about that?
01:26:33: Today is a day of preparation. Now, in closing, I want you to think about this.
01:26:43: We are passively standing by as the years go by. And I think we need to be more wise about our use of time and energy.
01:26:55: I think we need to spend more time preparing ourselves in the faithful discharge of our duties, whatever those may be, as Mark prayed, as a father, as a husband, as an employee, as a businessman, whatever it is.
01:27:09: We need to faithfully execute our responsibilities with an eye, a hopeful eye toward the future.
01:27:19: One of the things that sustains me in my ministry, among you, really the same ministry for 15, 16 years here, is
01:27:28: I believe that God is going to bless us. And I've been waiting for 16 years.
01:27:34: And I'm going to come up here every week. And I'm going to preach. And I'm going to pray. And I'm going to study.
01:27:39: I'm going to try to shepherd. I'm going to disciple you, believing that someday we'll meet in our own stone building.
01:27:46: That someday we'll have 10 elders. That someday we'll have a covenant school.
01:27:52: And someday our children and our children's children will take the mantle of leadership from us and perform all of these functions better than we ever imagined we could do.
01:28:08: Zacharias, Elizabeth were faithful believers in the one true
01:28:14: God. They were going about their business. And suddenly they were filled with the
01:28:20: Holy Spirit. John the Baptist, without any conscious awareness of his own conception, the scripture says, was filled with the
01:28:31: Holy Spirit from the womb. And he lived an exemplary short life.
01:28:43: He lived a life of preparation to say, look upon Jesus.
01:28:50: Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. Anna, Simeon, whose song we sing, they live their whole lives waiting for the consolation of Israel.
01:29:04: And they get to see Jesus. They go, I've seen him. Now I can die. They lived a fruitful life of preparation.
01:29:13: May it be said of us that we have prepared the way of the Lord, that we have made his path straight.
01:29:21: Let's pray together. The Lord, we thank you for the message of preparation.
01:29:32: I thank you that you've used these very ordinary, it seems, people to do extraordinary things.
01:29:41: And Lord, we can be great like John the Baptist, not in exactly the same way, but we can be great in your kingdom because we call all those around us to look upon Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith.
01:29:57: We also live righteous and upright lives that reflect gospel grace.
01:30:04: Oh Lord, I pray that during the season, when we think about your birth, that we'd be repenting, that we'd be preparing.
01:30:14: Let earth receive you, oh Lord, our King. Amen. Let's continue our worship through the presentation of tithes and offerings.
01:30:50: Please stand and let's pray together. Oh Lord, we thank you for the work you've given us to do.
01:31:03: We thank you for the time that we have been allotted. And Lord, I pray that we would prepare ourselves to be used of you both now and in the future.
01:31:14: I pray for our young people to not to squander these years, that they may be doing things that would make them better husbands and wives and fathers and children and pastors and businessmen and whatever calling you've called them to, oh
01:31:29: Lord. Help us not to squander the time, but to redeem the days, to make them profitable in preparation for all that you're going to do through us.
01:31:39: We ask that you would bless us as we offer our gifts to you. It's in Jesus' name that we pray.
01:31:46: Amen. Let us now sing the Gloria Patri.
01:31:52: Lift up your hearts.
01:32:44: Let us give thanks to the Lord. It is right and a good and joyful thing that we should at all times and in all places give thanks to you, oh holy
01:32:58: Lord, father almighty everlasting God. Because you sent your beloved son to redeem us from sin and death and to make us heirs in him of everlasting life.
01:33:11: That when he shall come again in power and great triumph to judge the world, we may without shame or fear rejoice to behold his appearing.
01:33:21: Therefore with angels and archangels and with all the company of heaven, we praise and magnify your glorious name evermore praising you and singing.
01:33:33: Let's pray together.
01:35:11: Oh God, you are the father of all mercies, the God of consolation. We ask that you would grant your gracious presence and the effectual working of your spirit in us and so sanctify these elements of bread and wine.
01:35:27: And bless your own sacrament that we may receive by faith the body and blood of Jesus Christ crucified for us and that we may feed upon him that he may be one with us and we one with him that he may live in us and we in him that we might live for him who loved us and gave himself for us.
01:35:54: It's in Jesus name that we pray, amen. Our Lord Jesus on the night in which he was betrayed took bread, blessed, and broke it and gave it to his disciples saying, take this is my body.
01:36:12: Likewise, he took the cup after supper saying, this cup is the new covenant in my blood, drink from it all of you for as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the
01:36:22: Lord's death until he comes. Therefore we proclaim the faith.
01:36:29: Christ has died, Christ is risen, Christ will come again.
01:36:36: Let's pray together in unison as we approach the table now. We do not presume to come to this your table,
01:36:45: O merciful Lord, trusting in our own righteousness but in your manifold and great mercies.
01:36:53: We are not worthy so much as to gather up the crumbs under your table but you are the same
01:36:59: Lord who always shows mercy. Grant us therefore, gracious Lord, so to eat the flesh of your dear son
01:37:08: Jesus Christ and to drink of his blood that our sinful bodies may be made clean by his body and our souls washed through his most precious blood and that we may evermore dwell in him and he in us.
01:37:27: Christ our Passover was sacrificed for us. Therefore let us keep the gifts of God for the people of God.
01:37:36: Thanks be to the Lord. Almighty and ever -living
01:44:03: God, we thank you for feeding us with the spiritual food of the most precious body and blood of your
01:44:12: Son, our Savior Jesus Christ, and for assuring us in these holy mysteries that we are living members of the body of your
01:44:22: Son and heirs of your eternal kingdom. And O Lord, grant us this other benefit that you will never allow us to forget these things but having them imprinted on our hearts may we grow and increase daily in the faith which has worked in every good deed.
01:44:42: And now, Father, send us out to do the work you have given us to do, to love and serve you as faithful witnesses of Christ our
01:44:51: Lord. To him, to you, and to the Holy Spirit, the honor and glory, now and forever.
01:44:58: Amen. Please stand. Himself may be preserved blameless at the coming of our
01:45:52: Lord Jesus Christ. For he who calls you is faithful who will also do it.