Repentance - Part 2

You know, between Malachi and Matthew you've got 400 years of darkness without any prophetic light. And then like Haley's comet streaking over the sky at black midnight, a rugged, ragged man came. He was an awkward man, he was a Baptist, but anyhow. There's some Baptists here tonight. Okay, don't tell your pastor I said that. You see, the amazing thing is the first man that ever preached the baptism of the Holy Ghost was a Baptist. Why don't they keep up with it? Huh? And why do the Pentecostals run their flag up? They're years behind. The Baptists preach it long before the Pentecostals were ever born. You see, truth is nobody's property. Isn't that great? No man has a monopoly of wisdom. I'm getting there bit by bit, but anyhow. I've been looking for it for over seven, somebody asked me out today, how long have you been saved? I think about 65, what, 65 years, nearly 65 years. But you know, I still feel I'm an amateur. I still feel I'm groping. I still think I'm in waters to the ankles, not to the knees or the loins or waters to swim in. You know, the Word of God is like an ocean, somebody said. It's so beautiful, a lamb can splash in the water here and an elephant can swim in it up there. Some of the most intellectual men I know, I know two of them, they're the humblest of men. Oh, I love the hymn we sang tonight, O Worship the King. His wisdoms, when you sing, his robe is the light and his canopy space. Our scientists are too proud to believe in eternity. They do believe in infinity. They shot a tin can up there two or three years ago into space. It's already done 250 million miles. Isn't it silly that wise men down in Houston sit down and talk to a tin can up there and tell it turn right, turn left? If I did that, they'd say, he's got religious mania. But they're scientists, they're wise, you see. But there's no wisdom beyond the wisdom of this book. I told somebody today, I do, I think what one of our sons has done for years, learn the new proverb every week. And you'll be smart if you, at the end of the year, you've got 52 proverbs. The most amazing book of wisdom may be in the world. Jesus came into the place where it said, you're a den of thieves. He walked into the midst of it and it says they wanted to kill him. Now it says in verse 19, did not Moses give you the law? And yet none of you keep the law. Isn't that a nice insult? Huh? Looking right in the eye of the most learned men in religion in the world, Moses gave you the law, not one of you keeps it. So he's getting a real scorecard, isn't he? He's kicked the money chambers out of the place, he's called them a den of thieves. Again, I say right after that 400 years of stillness, there came this amazing man John the Baptist. He shocked their culture, he upset their theology. Nobody's going to church, why? They're all going to hear a man out in the wilderness. What's he doing? Raising the dead? No he isn't, he's raising hell. Did he raise the dead? No, he didn't raise a dead man, he raised a dead nation. Dear Lord, we could do with a John Baptist in every city in the nation tonight. Some of you now are taking it easy, you say we'll relax and be raptured now we've got Mr. Reagan in. Reagan can't do much for us. Oh, the issue of politics that we went through just now. People say it wasn't politics, it was something moral, it wasn't something moral, it was something spiritual. We could have a nation full of Nicodemuses and they'd still be lost. Did not Moses, verse 19, did not Moses give you the law and yet none of you keepeth the law? Why go ye about to kill me? Verse 25, Then said some of them in Jerusalem, It is not this of whom they seek to kill, but he speaketh boldly. And they say nothing. Now come on, this place, this marvelous temple, there's no little room like this, this wouldn't even go on the platform. It held at least 6,000 people. There was a day when there was a riot, one of the priests tripped up and spilled the holy water and there was a stampede and fighting broke out and it's estimated that nearly 2,000 people were either seriously injured or killed. Now Jesus goes up into the midst of the feast with the eyes of everybody, those frowning Pharisees and those dumb, what were the others, Sadducees. Oh the Pharisees liked him because he raised the dead and the Sadducees said there isn't such a thing as a resurrection. That's why they were Sadducees. Thank you, I thought the penny might drop after a while. Oh they loved to hear him because he believed and not only believed it but he actually raised the dead. The trouble with our theology is all on the blackboard. Our theology is all in textbooks. It has no life, it has no breath, it has no power, it has no authority. How in the world did Jesus stand in the middle of that crowd of angry people? He'd antagonize them, he'd reveal their spiritual bankruptcy. They were just getting over the shock of John Baptist standing there in the wilderness. They couldn't fathom it. Why are people going? Read the third chapter of Luke when you go home. Even the Roman soldiers went. Macefield would call them the lesser breeds outside of the law. They were fascinated when they heard him. Nothing like this in Rome. Caesar has nothing like this. Here's a little strange man with a leather girdle around his loins and old camel skin around his neck and people are swarming from everywhere. What does he say? Read the four laws. He uses that word nobody likes, repent. Repent. Not only confess your sin, forsake your sin, repent, run away from it. Then Jesus comes up afterwards. I don't know where all the order is in this but you know I was reading today the last verses of the 20th chapter and the 21st. Somebody has estimated that if you could take all the events that are mentioned in the gospel recorded by John and put them in a line, they would only give you 21 days out of the three and a half years that Jesus ministered. I'll go further than that. I say if you took Matthew, Mark, Luke and John and take all these historic events like this miracle that upset the whole town. Don't you think when the next day after he turned water into wine that everywhere they were saying, did you hear what he did? They ran out of wine last night and he turned water into wine. This is the man that tosses people out to the synagogue. This is the man that kicks over the extortionist. This is the man that says to learned men you're the enemies of God. He's merciless. You know we're preaching an acceptable gospel today. Make it as painless as we can and all we do is give people a shock to put them to sleep so they'll get to hell quicker. We need some hellfire preaching on repentance.