Get Real! | Sunday, March 30, 2025

Then 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? Therefore bear fruits worthy of repentance, and do not begin to say to yourselves, 'We have Abraham as our father.' For I say to you that God is able to raise up children to Abraham from these stones. And even now the ax 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." (Luke 3:7-9)

When John the Baptist greets a hard-traveling crowd with "you bunch of snakes," he reveals that real repentance produces visible fruit—and that the wrath of God is inescapable apart from turning to Him.

A Most Unusual Church Growth Strategy

John the Baptist is one of the most interesting characters in the Bible, and this passage adds to the intrigue. Who would say to a gathered multitude—people who made the hard trek out to the wilderness of Judea by the Jordan River, with no four-wheel vehicles—"You bunch of snakes! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come?" That's his introduction.

This is absolutely contrary to the late-twentieth-century, seeker-sensitive, church-growth model that has influenced so much of American churchianity over the last several generations. The church-growth experts would tell him to get real: you cannot possibly grow a movement if you lambaste people who came all this way to see you. And yet the text tells us multitudes came to him in droves to be baptized.

Why Were They Coming?

The obvious question is, why? There are several answers. There was a heightened anticipation in the first century that Messiah was about to come. The people had been taught from the prophets that the Anointed One would appear during a time of trouble and chaos—and they were living in the midst of trouble and chaos. There was also deep dissatisfaction: with Roman occupation, with Herod's rule, and with the religious administration of Annas and Caiaphas, whom we met last week.

But more than anticipation and dissatisfaction, the deeper reason was this: it was a move of God. The movement of these masses was a demonstration that God was working. As Jesus would later say in John 6, "No one comes to me unless the Father draws him." When someone begins to move toward God, something spiritual is happening; God is moving in their life and heart.

Drawn by God

For many years I've prayed that God would draw people to hear the gospel here at this church—that even as people drive by on a Sunday morning, they'd feel led to pull in without understanding why. I've met many over the years who told me, "I was on my way to Starbucks, and I just felt like I should pull in here. I don't even know why." I know why—because God is drawing you. Jesus said in John 12, "If I be lifted up, I will draw all people to myself." Contextually that speaks of the cross, but there is also this: when Jesus is exalted, He draws people to Himself.

I'm convinced you are here today in part because God drew you. You may say, "No, I'm free; I decided to come; I'm the decider." And in San Diego County you could be doing a lot of other things. But I'm convinced that in some measurable way you are here because God stirred your desire to be here.

Divine Sovereignty and Human Responsibility

I am as convinced as anyone that God has given us free will—free moral agency. I like to say that God has sovereignly decreed that you have free will. That gets into a whole theological discussion that Christians have argued about for a long time and will keep arguing until Jesus clears it up. But Scripture teaches both divine sovereignty and human responsibility, often right next to each other.

This is especially true in my favorite verses, Philippians 2:12-13. Paul writes, "Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling"—that's your responsibility—"for it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure." Who is working, you or God? The answer is yes. I first started thinking deeply about these verses at eighteen or nineteen, and they have become life verses for me, forming the core of what I believe about the will and call of God.

How Do I Discover God's Will?

For more than twenty-five years I've been in pastoral ministry, and one question comes up at every age and stage of life: "God, what do you want me to do?" It's a powerful question, and it leads to point number one: God moves us as He wills us to will to do His will. You'll have to think about that one.

If you've ever asked that question, let me commend you—because it's not the standard way human nature operates. A lot of people live as the captain of their own ship, master of their own destiny, lord of their own life. "I did it my way." "I do it all by myself." That reminds me of a video I showed about ten years ago of my daughter Evangeline insisting, "I do it all by myself." I don't think I taught her that—it's just human nature. We're individualistic, self-willed, self-motivated, selfish, and our culture amplifies that as a core tenet of Americanism.

"Lord, What Do You Want Me to Do?"

One of the greatest indications that a massive internal change has happened is when you begin to ask the question Saul of Tarsus asked after meeting Jesus on the road to Damascus in Acts 9: "Lord, what do You want me to do?" That word Lord marks a seismic shift in his life. Before he was the Apostle Paul who wrote thirteen letters, he was Saul of Tarsus, bent on proving the church was against God. Then he met Jesus.

In our culture, when people hear that someone else gets to make decisions about your life's direction, they say, "Get real—I'm the captain, the master, the lord." But it's been my observation that those who live "I do it all by myself" tend not to have the best outcomes, while those who ask, "God, what do you want me to do?" tend to have the best outcomes.

God Changes Our Desires

So how do I discover God's will for my life? I believe God moves us into His will first by changing our desires. As you accept His rule and yield to His lordship, He transforms what you want. The New Living Translation of Philippians 2:13 says, "God is working in you, giving you the desire and the power to do what pleases Him." How does that work? I'm not entirely sure—I just know it does. The desires I had when I was captain of my own ship shifted massively when I started to say, "Lord, what do you want me to do?"

Psalm 37:4 says, "Delight yourself in the Lord, and He shall give you the desires of your heart." One way to read it is that He'll give me whatever I want; I haven't experienced that. But I have experienced something different: as the focus of my life shifted from myself to God, my desires were reoriented. I began to desire what the Lord desires.

Not My Will, but Yours

Then we are presented with a choice—His will or yours—and that human pull toward "my way" is strong. Even in the humanity of Jesus we see it in Gethsemane: "Not my will, but yours be done." If you've lived in that tension, you know the struggle. God, who sovereignly chose to give you free will, wants you to partner with Him, but you've got to work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. As the New Living Translation puts it, "Work hard to show the results of your salvation, obeying God with deep reverence and fear."

What's amazing is the connection between Paul's words in Philippians 2:12 and John's words in Luke 3. "Work hard to show the results of your salvation" is basically equivalent to "bear fruits worthy of repentance." That brings us to point number two: repentance and faith are internal changes that produce external evidence, and that external evidence is the inevitable outcome of the internal change.

What Is Repentance?

What is repentance? It is a turning—a from-to turning. It is not merely being sorry or sad. Hebrews illustrates this with Esau, who sought the blessing with tears but found no place for repentance. Feeling bad for what you've done is not the same thing. Repentance begins as an internal change but inevitably produces external evidence; it is seen in some way.

For some people this causes great consternation, because they object—rightly, with the Bible, which is the best way to object. Doesn't Paul say in Ephesians 2 that "by grace are you saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast"? So is salvation all of God's grace, or is human work involved? This debate has divided entire church movements for hundreds of years, and I will not clear it all up today.

Two Sides of One Coin

The Western mind loves a perfectly logical white paper explaining exactly how this works together. That paper doesn't exist. God has sovereignly decided to give you free will and responsibility, and these things seem paradoxically opposed, yet they sit in the Bible right next to each other like conjoined, inseparable twins.

Salvation is all of God's grace—you cannot work to earn it. And yet James says in James 2, "Faith without works is dead." Martin Luther, one of the most important figures of the Reformation, had a real problem with James. But there is no true conflict; these are two sides of the same coin. We are saved by grace through faith without works, but saving and working faith produces good works. That's exactly Ephesians 2:8-10: saved by grace, not of works, "for we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them." In the Greek it's one long sentence—God working and us working joined together with no separation.

Who Warned You to Flee?

Notice I skipped over something important. John said, "Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come?" The modern church-growth experts would say skip right over that. Many in the twenty-first-century American church don't like to talk about the wrath of God because it's disturbing. But if there is such a thing, you should very much want to flee from it. The desire to get away from it has led many to pretend it isn't there—the ostrich with its head in the sand.

Yet the Bible speaks quite a bit about the wrath of God. If you're going to talk about the Bible, it's hard to avoid it. And if you avoid it, you'll have to get rid of much of the Old Testament, which is probably why so many in our nation don't talk much about the Old Testament. The challenging reality is that the Bible makes clear: the wrath of God is inescapable apart from repentance and faith.

The Only Refuge

Here's the hard part. If I'm trying to flee the wrath of God, I don't want to turn toward Him—I want to run away. But if I turn away and run, I stay on the path I was already on, headed right for His wrath. So the Bible says turn from the path you're on and turn to God. That turning is repentance.

Paul says in Romans 1:18, "For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of those who suppress the truth in unrighteousness." That verb is future and certain—the wrath of God is going to come upon all ungodliness. That is the bad news, and it makes the good news of the gospel glorious.

Scoffers in the Last Days

I don't know when His wrath will come, and neither do you. I can tell you it hasn't happened yet. Over the years some have set dates, the dates passed, and people concluded it won't happen at all. That's exactly what Peter foretold in 2 Peter 3: "Scoffers will come in the last days... saying, 'Where is the promise of His coming? For since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of creation.'"

But Peter says they willfully forget that by the word of God the heavens existed of old, and the world that then was perished, flooded with water—Noah's flood. The heavens and earth that now exist are reserved for fire, not another flood; that's what the rainbow was about. And remember, "with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day." To God, who is outside of time, it hasn't been very long.

Why God Delays

Why are we still here two thousand years after Peter? Verse 9: "The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance." Why has God delayed His wrath? Because He is gracious and wants as many as possible to come to repentance—because repentance is the only refuge from His wrath.

But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, the heavens passing away with a great noise, the elements melting with fervent heat. Therefore, Peter asks, "What manner of persons ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness?" He's saying the same thing Paul and John said: knowing this is coming, bear fruits worthy of repentance.

Inescapable as Amos Describes

The prophet Amos describes the inescapable nature of the day of the Lord. In Amos 5 he says it will be as if you fled from a lion and a bear got you, and then you entered the house, closed the door, leaned your hand on the wall, and a serpent bit you. God's wrath, when poured out, is inescapable—a dark day from which you cannot run. So as the multitudes fled to John in the wilderness, he says: prove by the way you live that you have repented and turned to God, because turning to God is the only shelter from His wrath.

Heritage Cannot Save You

Then comes a sobering continuation: "Do not begin to say to yourselves, 'We have Abraham as our father.' For I say to you that God is able to raise up children to Abraham from these stones." This leads to point number three: saving faith and faithful repentance are not genetically transferred to future generations.

Don't think you're okay because you're a pastor's kid, or because your grandparents were missionaries, or because Billy Graham was your uncle. That's not going to help. God doesn't look at the family tree. "The ax is laid to the root of the trees." He's looking for fruit, "and every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire." When I was writing this on Friday with my office door open, tree trimmers were feeding palm branches into a chipper—a frightening machine. I worked for a tree trimmer one summer at fifteen, carrying branches to that thing, and it scared me half to death. That's the fire.

"What Shall We Do?"

The multitudes respond well in verse 10: "What shall we do?" If having Abraham as your father won't spare you, what should we do? John answers practically, addressing three groups. To the general crowd: "He who has two tunics, let him give to him who has none; and he who has food, let him do likewise." To the tax collectors: "Collect no more than what is appointed for you." To the soldiers: "Do not intimidate anyone or accuse falsely, and be content with your wages."

You might say, "He didn't address me, so I'm fine." Not so fast. This shows that the fruit God seeks is specific to a specific tree. Generally, people are selfish, greedy, and prone to hoard, so He addresses that. Tax collectors were Jewish citizens employed by Rome; they had a wholesale rate they owed Rome and a retail rate they charged the people, and the margin was their profit—so the temptation was to set it a little higher. They were seen as traitors growing rich off common people.

Integrity Where No One Else Has It

The soldiers were probably not Romans but Jewish conscripts or Herod's detachment. John tells them not to intimidate, not to bear false witness, and to be content with their pay. Many of you served in the military and know the concept of core values and a code of justice. Throughout most of history, the one with the sword used his power however he wanted. John says: not so for you. This will be different.

In every sphere—the common people, tax collectors, soldiers, and every one of us—there are things on the margins, things maybe a little unethical or wrong, that everybody does and everybody overlooks. So we adopt a consequentialist, situational, or consensus ethic: everybody's doing it, so it must not be wrong. John says no. God is calling you to be different.

That's point number four: repentance looks like doing what is right when no one else does and everyone else doesn't. People say, "Get real—everybody fudges their expense reports, everybody uses ChatGPT for their tests, everybody uses work time for personal things." Consensus ethic says it's okay; God says it's not. We might summarize this in one word: integrity. God is looking for wholeness of heart.

Not to Be Saved, but Because I'm Saved

Will that integrity save you? No—it's an indication that you've been saved, that God's grace and power are working in you, "for it is God who works in you to desire and do what's pleasing to Him." Am I working or is He? Yes—you're working out your salvation with fear and trembling, and it's God working in you to will. It's an indication that you've partnered with God and He is working in you.

Here's the frightening reality: the ax is in the hand, and the inspector is looking for fruit. Who's the inspector? Jesus answers in John 15: "I am the vine, you are the branches, and my Father is the vinedresser." He's looking for fruit. God, would You make my life fruitful by Your grace and power? What does fruit look like? Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, self-control, and many other virtues—the demonstration of God's Spirit at work in me. God, make my life fruitful, not so that I can be saved, but because I am saved.

Closing Prayer

Lord, this is when Your word gets real—not just an intellectual exercise of committing things to heart and mind, but when it challenges us in the way we live day to day. God, would You by Your Spirit work in us to help us bear much fruit? Would You prune away anything in my life that is not bearing fruit so that I could be more fruitful for Your name's sake? And I pray that that fruit—love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, self-control—would be evident to me and evident to others as well, and that when You look, You would find much fruit. Make me, make us, make Your church fruitful in these days. We pray this in Jesus' name, and all those who agreed said amen.