Domains for Sale -

The text for this letter is Matthew 3:10. John the Baptist was commissioned by the Lord and empowered by the Holy Spirit (Matthew 3:1) to preach the baptism of repentance and forgiveness to Israel. Apparently, John particularly despised the Pharisees and Sadducees (and not without reason (Matthew 3:7)), and was quite critical of their self confidence (Matthew 3:9) as they put their hope in their ancestry, and not in God. Incidentally, we often hear the pagan world loosely using the phrase “self confidence”, meaning believing in one’s own abilities. However, the Bible declares such people to be fools (Proverbs 28:26). Probably, the Pharisees and Sadducees had more confidence in their PhD’s than in this illiterate, locust eating preacher!

It is to such hardened religious bigots that John the Baptist spoke those searing words “bear fruit in keeping with repentance (Matthew 3:8).” We seer Christians often times truly feeling sorry for their sins, but falling back into the same trap. They convince themselves that as long they are “trying sincerely”, everything will be ok. There also those who believe that it impossible to be free from sin in this life. They are deluded in their thinking, as they insult the Almighty God who can indeed set them free (1 John 3:9, John 8:36). They have already decided in their minds that even God can’t deliver them from their sorry state, and thus commit outright blasphemy against the Holy Spirit, much like the Pharisees who murdered the Son of God.

The Bible, however, takes a different view of our struggle with sin (Hebrews 12:4). True repentance means that one is not only truly sorry for their sins, but also makes an about face, and walks away from their previous life style. Many Christians have convinced themselves that everything is just fine between them and God, thinking that as they have been saved once, nothing will remove them from the kingdom of God. May I remind you that this is exactly the kind of thinking that deluded the Pharisees who thought their place in heaven was guaranteed as they were the sons of Abraham (Matthew 3:9). The sifting of the wheat from the chaff (Luke 3:17), or the sheep from the goats (Matthew 25:31-46), is already being done by the Holy Ax, i.e., our Lord Jesus. He cuts down every tree, every theory, imagination, doctrine or philosophy that doesn’t glorify our Heavenly Father, or produce the fruit of the Spirit in our lives that God so eagerly desires (Gal 5:22, Hebrews 11:6, Romans 8:29), and not to mention those that refuse to shoulder the burden of saving the world (Ephesians 2:10, Mark 16:15).