"In your church you hear nothing but sin, sin, and more sin." Have you ever heard a complaint like that? Certainly, we’d all rather be flattered than censured. But when it’s a matter of life and death, flattery doesn’t go far, does it? You wouldn’t appreciate it very much if your doctor would try to make you forget your fever by telling you that your red cheeks improved your natural beauty. You’d tell him, "I’m paying you to cure me, not to flatter me." All the remedies in the world won’t help, if the doctor doesn’t diagnose the problem and apply the right remedy. And if you’re serious about getting help, you want him to give you the straight truth about how bad it is.

John the Baptist was such a man. He knew what was afflicting the people of Israel. He gave them the bad news with both barrels. And he gave them the cure as well. "Prepare the Way for the Lord," he said. Repent and be baptized. Then bring forth fruits in keeping with repentance. Many took the medicine and lived. Our malady is the same. And God still provides us with the same cure. Prepare the Way for the Lord, 1. By Confessing Your Sins, 2. By Remembering Your Baptismal Covenant, and 3. By Bringing Forth Fruits In Keeping With Repentance.

"Repent," John says, "for the Kingdom of heaven is near." True repentance requires honest soul searching. True repentance is not just some generic confession that we’re not perfect. True repentance is acknowledging that of ourselves we are completely sinful and deserve nothing but death. The apostle John wrote, If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. (1 Jn 1:8-9)

Confess your sins. Don’t hide them. God sees them. He knows your every thought. Fall down before him and repent, John told the people. "Prepare The Way For The Lord." Impenitence blocks the road. Sin is an impenetrable dividing wall between God and us. It bends and blocks the road. Without repentance, the road is closed. If we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar and his word has no place in our lives. (1 Jn 1:10)

John’s message was blunt, rude and to the point, still People went out to him from Jerusalem and all Judea and the whole region of the Jordan. Confessing their sins, they were baptized by him in the Jordan River.

Isn’t it something that people were attracted to John? He was what we might call a misfit. At seminary they tell us to be sure and polish our shoes before services each Sunday. But this preacher didn’t even comb his hair—which had never even been cut! He munched locusts for dinner—and still people streamed out to him. He told people they were dreadful sinners, and that unless they confessed, they would have no part in the kingdom of the Messiah. And still they came.

That tells us something about confessing our sins. If I am willing to confess my sins, no characteristic of the preacher is going to prevent me. If I am truly penitent, I am not going to be driven away by the harsh words God uses through his spokesmen to describe my sin and its consequences. On the contrary, those are the words God uses to bring me to repentance.

But not everyone repented. When he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to where he was baptizing, he said to them: "You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath?"

The Pharisees were "too good" to repent. Their lives of hypocrisy had blinded them, whereas the Sadducees were blinded by their sensibility. They were the modern theologians of Jesus’ day who didn’t believe in the resurrection or judgment day. Why should they repent?

John called both groups a "nest of snakes, a brood of vipers" They were spiritually dead, and they were spiritual murderers. They disparagingly observed the masses going down to be baptized, and mocked them. "Just look at the fools, going down into that muddy river to be baptized by that scuzzy man" they thought. "If they want ceremonial washing, let them come to us at the temple."

But what the Pharisees and Sadducees refused to accept, God gave to those who confessed. The gift of forgiveness in baptism.

To those who came, John said "I baptize you with water for repentance. But after me will come one who is more powerful than I, whose sandals I am not fit to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire."

The people whom John baptized were given the gift of faith. You too have been baptized and given the same gift. St. Peter wrote, "In the same way also, baptism now saves us, not by washing dirt from the body but by guaranteeing us a good conscience before God, by the resurrection of Jesus Christ." (1 Pe 3:21, GWN)

Through baptism God adopted us as his children, and guaranteed us the right to stand in his presence. Through baptism our sins were washed away. The salvation that Jesus earned for you on the cross was applied to you personally at your baptism. Through baptism faith was planted in our hearts. That’s why Jesus says, Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved. (Mk 16:16a)

Through baptism we were placed into a covenant relationship with God, by which we, for our part, pledge to keep drowning the Old Adam by daily contrition and repentance. In our baptismal covenant we pledge to continue to let the Spirit pour out on us his fire through the means of grace. And that fire, the real genuine fire of the Holy Spirit burns with noticeable results. When fire touches paper, you can see the results. When the fire of the Spirit touches the heart of the believer, you can also see the results.

The fire of the Holy Spirit, first given to us at baptism, and given to us again and again in Word and Sacrament, enables us Christians to continue to Prepare the Way for the Lord, By Producing Fruit in Keeping with Repentance.

No son of Abraham was ever saved by his Jewishness, as the Pharisees and Sadducees thought. Neither does God save anyone today because mama was a Lutheran, or even because "I’m a Lutheran". Lots of folks think the Gospel gives us a license to do whatever we want. John makes it clear that nothing could be further from the truth. If we claim to be Christians but refuse to do what God says, we’re not fooling anyone, least of all God. Such people need to know: they will be damned.

God saves us through penitent trust in him. God saves us through living faith in Christ, and living faith can’t help producing "fruit in keeping with repentance," i.e. "good works." Good works don’t earn me salvation. Certainly not! But good works are necessary nonetheless. The believer knows that. The prostitute whom Jesus forgave, didn’t go on being a prostitute. The adulteress whom Jesus forgave ceased her adultery. The soldiers who John baptized ceased their raids on villagers. That’s what repentance is all about. That’s what John the Baptist preached. The ax is already at the root of the trees, and every tree that does not produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire.

God doesn’t deal in trade-offs, like "well, God doesn’t mind my refusing to go to church, as long as I pray at home. Or God will overlook my adultery, as long as I say Jesus, forgive me." No bargains will be struck. God isn’t some cheap bookie who can be bought. Nothing less than true penitent faith—faith which produces fruits in keeping with repentance, will do.If we claim to have fellowship with him yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live by the truth. But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin. [1 Jn 1:6-7]

Jesus will thresh and divide, he will punish and he will reward. "His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor, gathering his wheat into the barn and burning up the chaff with unquenchable fire." St. Paul said the same thing, when he wrote: "God "will give to each person according to what he has done." To those who by persistence in doing good seek glory, honor and immortality, he will give eternal life. But for those who are self-seeking and who reject the truth and follow evil, there will be wrath and anger.... (Ro 2:6-8)

Listen to John’s message. Prepare The Way For The Lord. And let us warn those—and you know some of them—who have blocked the Lord’s way. Make straight the road that leads to your heart by confessing our sins, by remembering and remaining in your baptismal covenant, and availing yourself of the means of grace, by which the Holy Spirit continues to baptize us with fire. And never stop producing fruit in keeping with repentance, obeying him who bought you with his blood. Prepare The Way For The Lord, that he may come to you with blessings this Christmas, and with his eternal rewards at his return. Amen.