True Repentance Series
God's Highway to the Heart
Luke 3:8-14
 
We began last week a series of messages on “true repentance” as defined by John the Baptist in Luke 3. I want to invite you to turn there once again as we continue this study. 
 
We discovered last week that John was a preacher of repentance. It was the centerpiece of his ministry. Matthew tells us in his third chapter that John came and said, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand."
 
Further it was the message of Jesus also. Luke records for us in the fifth chapter that Jesus said He didn't come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance. Repentance is the issue. In the thirteenth chapter of Luke and the third verse and the fifth verse, Jesus said if you don't repent you'll perish.
 
Repentance so often ignored today, so often overlooked and minimized is at the very heart of any biblical gospel ministry.
 
And so when we open to Luke 3,, it is not surprising that we find John preaching about repentance. He was preaching about salvation. And the essence of that preaching is two-fold...you preach repentance from sin and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. That is gospel preaching.
 
 
 
And in very straightforward terms, John spells out the nature of repentance by giving us six characteristics. 
 
We covered the first four last week. So I’ll just review them briefly. 
 
1. True repentance accepts personal responsibility for sin.
 
We looked at verse 5 which says, "Every ravine shall be filled up, every mountain and hill shall be brought low, the crooked shall become straight, the rough road smooth." And there we discovered God’s highway to your heart is repentance. And the heart is prepared for His arrival through repentance. And the first step is recognizing we are sinners. 
 
I didn’t touch on it last week but think about the description that is given here. The ravine is the low and the base and the hidden of the secret shameful things of the heart that have to be brought up to the light. The mountains and hills are the lofty things, the things of pride and self-righteousness and they have to be brought low.
 
Then he mentions the crooked, the bent things that need to be straightened out, the things of deception and dishonesty. And then the rough roads have to be made smooth; all the other bumps, all the little sins and wrongs that litter our life. 
 
And what he’s talking about is taking personal responsibility for the sin in your life. 
 
 
 
2. True repentance realizes there are consequences for that sin.
 
John told them to “flee the wrath to come”.
 
It is in light of the wrath to come, that hell awaits that people are called to repentance.
 
3. True repentance doesn’t rely on good works for salvation.
 
They thought that just because they were baptized everything would be okay. But we don’t escape God’s wrath just because we do religious stuff.
 
And then
 
4. True repentance doesn’t depend upon family connections to be right with God.
 
The salvation of the Jew was not found in being Abraham’s children, and yours is not found in family connections either.
 
Now as I told you last week, I want to slow down a little on the next two and deal with them a little more in-depth. So let’s look at the fifth characteristic today, and then next week we’ll look at the sixth.
 
5. True repentance always expresses itself in spiritual transformation.
 
verse 8
 
 
John says if the repentance is real it will show up in your conduct and behavior. It will show up in your attitudes. It will show up in your actions. The fruit will be evident. 
 
Is your repentance real? Then let's see it manifest in your life. That cannot help but happen. How do I know that? Because if your repentance is real, it is the work of God.
 
Repentance doesn't occur in a vacuum, it occurs in the environment of regeneration so that the Spirit of God is regenerating and the repentance then is reflective of that new life and it shows up in new attitudes and new conduct.
 
When God is doing the work of conversion, transformation, new birth, regeneration, the repentance is going to show up in changed life. True repentance always expresses itself in spiritual transformation. 
 
That means if you claim to have repented of your sin and been saved, and nothing changed in your life, then you’ve not been saved. If there is no spiritual transformation there is no spiritual salvation. 
 
That’s wahy verse 9 is all about. 
 
John says, “I just want to remind you that God is ready to do the judgment. He's already walked out to the orchard, He's already surveyed the trees and He's laid the ax down against one of the trees, He's ready to do the judgment. And if He looks at your tree and there’s not fruit on the tree, then the ax is going to be laid at the root of the tree. 
 
Then what happens? The tree then, having been chopped down, is going to be thrown into the fire and the fire is eternal judgment.
 
And so John just reminds them...Look, either you repent a real true repentance manifested in fruit...and fruit, by the way, is attitudes and actions that are righteous...attitudes and actions that are righteous, that manifest the love of God and obedience to His Word, or you die and go to hell.
 
Now put all that together, and John is saying, it's not enough for you to scramble down here and get through the water and think that your Abrahamic ancestry and your ritual and your remorse about your sin is enough. 
 
There must be a change from the inside out that absolutely transforms your life into a brand new creation. And if it's not there, if the fruits not there, the ax is going to be struck at the root of the tree.
 
The evidence of repentance then is righteous actions and attitudes. 
 
Do you suppose the crowd is getting the seriousness of John’s message?
 
Apparently they have because we are told that many were being baptized. 
 
Now follow what’s happening: His audience is primarily Jewish. That means they’ve worked their way through the list, that they have done some reflecting on their own sin...so much that they're willing to submit themselves to a baptism that confesses their no better than Gentiles.
That was very hard for proud Jews to swallow. And they went so far as to recognize divine wrath and to scramble to escape it because it was all over the prophets of the Old Testament. They also had to reject the ritual as a saving ritual and they had to reject their ancestry from Abraham as any kind of protection from judgment.
 
And now John says they are to live a life that demonstrates this true repentance. That creates some questions.
 
verse 10
 
So here apparently the crowd is saying, “We want to demonstrate our repentance. We don't want the ax to fall. We don't want to be thrown into hell, so what do we do? What does God want to see?
 
Verse 11
 
Now the word “tunic” there refers to an undergarment, and you only wore one of those at a time, so if you had two you had a spare. So if somebody has two of those then share with the person who doesn't have any and whoever has food, do the same."
 
What an amazing reply. In essence there question is, “What is the fruit of repentance?”
 
And John’s response is ”Share your underwear.”
 
Now to be honest with you, I’m a little unprepared for that answer. I would have expected, preach the gospel, read the word, pray, tithe, all kinds of things.”
But share your underwear? Is this the fruit of righteousness?
 
Sure because the first great commandment is to love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength. But the second great commandment is to love your neighbor as yourself.
 
Now that's straightforward. The Jews knew that very well. They knew Leviticus 19:18 because Leviticus 19:18 says you shall love your neighbor as yourself, that was reiterated all through the Old Testament.
 
They knew they were to love their neighbors. They knew they were to sacrifice for their neighbors. They would show their love for God by how they loved their neighbors.
 
And they would show a transformed heart by being unselfish and generous with their neighbors. And that follows all the way through the whole New Testament where we're told we fulfill the whole law of God when we love God and love our neighbors.
 
So he's saying just what Jesus said when He said to His disciples in John 13, "All men will know that you're My disciples if you have love for one another."
 
How do you show that love? You wash each other's feet. You share a garment with each other. You provide food for each other. In fact, in 1 John 3 he says if you see your brother has need and you don't meet it, how does the love of God dwell in you? And if the love of God doesn't dwell in you, then we might assume that you're not God's children.
 
So, this is much more profound than it appears on the surface because there was a general selfishness, there always is, in unregenerate minds.
 
And the evidence of true repentance and God’s salvation is found in selflessness and in love for one another.
 
So if you have two tunics and somebody has none, then you give him yours. And if you have more food than you need, then you give that other person what food you have.
 
Then another group came and Luke uses them to illustrate the point in verse 12. 
 
This time it’s the tax collectors, and they come with the same question: What do we do? 
 
Now you need to know a little about them. They were the most hated people in the country because they were Jews who were collecting taxes for Romans. Usually wealthy Romans would buy a tax franchise for a certain area of Palestine. They would hire traitor Jews who would then go collect taxes from their countrymen and they were exorbitant,. 
 
There was tremendous abuse and extortion. All the worst possible things as well as representing a Gentile idolatrous government and taking for them money from God's people Israel, that was the traitor of all traitors. That's why the worst that could be said about somebody was you would treat him like a tax collector, a total outcast.
 
 
So here come the tax collectors and they want to know what to do.
 
verse 13
 
Now there was a law had been written and developed by the Roman senate and then put upon the people, but it never was adhered to. These tax collectors inflated the rates and kept it for themselves. 
 
So John says, if you’ve realy been saved, then the fruit of your repentance will be that you don't take anymore than the law requires. That's a one-hundred-and-eighty-degree move for the tax collectors. Just take what you're supposed to take, that's all, don't take anymore.
 
So what fruit do we find here? Honesty and fairness
 
That's a beautiful characteristic of God.
 
Then there's a third group here. The soldiers come asking, “What shall we do?”
 
Verse 14
 
Those are the three major pit falls for people in authority, people who carry the sword, people who carry weapons, police, soldiers. Those are the three most obvious ways that they can pervert their authority.
 
The first one, "Do not take money from anyone by force." The Greek verb literally means "to shake down." Don't shake down people. How do you shake down somebody?
By intimidation, by threat, you shake them down by force. And soldiers did that. They robbed people. That was the pattern for them. They would rob people. They had authority. They had power. They had weapons and they would shake down people and take whatever they wanted.
 
Now the second thing he says to the soldiers is, "Don't accuse anyone falsely."
 
And the third thing he says, "Be content with your wages."
 
So these are the issues that they deal with, with people in positions of authority like soldiers.
 
And altogether, he's simply saying...Hey, honesty, integrity, justice, fairness, love, let it be that that's manifest out of your life. This is contrary to how unforgiven, untransformed, unregenerate people act.
 
And really it all boils down to love. It all shows justice, honesty, contentment. Those are righteous virtues that evidence a changed life.
 
And so, John is saying...Look, have you really repented? Have you reflected on your personal sin? Recognized the wrath to come? Rejected ritual? Renounced ancestry as a protection from divine judgment? And is there evidence of a change in your life’s attitudes and actions?
 
I think about Zaccheus, remember, when he was converted. Immediately he returned to everybody four-fold what he had stolen. Remember that? That's an illustration of that.
 
Now up to this point we have a clear compelling understanding of true repentance. This is the real deal. The genuine repenter does a real honest inventory of the reality of his personal transgression. He understands that no religious ritual and no heritage can bring about escape or protection from divine judgment. That he must have a heart transformation that results in a righteous life that manifests love and justice and honesty and those virtues that are characteristic of God Himself. And all that is good.
 
There's one other thing missing. And the one thing missing is the sixth and final element in a true gospel preacher's arsenal is this...he must receive the true Messiah...he must receive the true Messiah. All the rest is insufficient without the true Messiah so that you repent but you also put your faith in the Lord Jesus Christ because Acts 4:12 says, "There is not salvation in any other name." Right? That's John's theme in verses 15 to 17, and that's my theme next week.
 
Let's pray.