It really is Your Choice

Matthew 3:3-12

As we pick-up the story of John the Baptist in verses 3-13, it becomes apparent to this writer that John came into history at a time that was not that good for many a Jew, they were under the thumb of Rome, and maybe some were looking for an answer to the social and political woes that came with that system.  In that it is my belief that Scripture should awaken each of us who follow Christ as to how or what this should teach me, and then come away with some application.  So once more I will ask the Spirit of God to open my eyes to what you and I can put into practice from these verses.

Verse three, begins with a quote from Isaiah the prophet written in about 760 BC  “The voice of one crying in the wilderness: ‘Prepare the way of the Lord, make his path straight.’”  It is in verse four that we learn about John’s designer clothing, “a garment of camel’s hair and a leather belt around his waist.”  Now that might appeal to the culture we live in, but then Matthew begins to address what he is eating, “his food was locusts and wild honey,” now I’m not sure if many went out to dine with John?  As we look past his clothing and food and we see that John is somewhat a rock star in his time.  Verse five, and six, “Then Jerusalem and all Judea and all the region about the Jordan were going out to him, and they were baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins.”  I always thought we were talking about a few people, I envisioned maybe one hundred people come out to see the sight and maybe some listen and hear the message and came and confess and were baptized, but that is a false belief.  You may be wondering why so many came out to see John, and it could be that the rumor was going around that the prophet Elijah had returned, and for good reason.  In the HCSB Study Bible, on page 1613 and footnote 3:4 the author gives this account: “John’s garment was similar to Elijah’s (2k 1:8) and his ministry and lifestyle paralleled Elijah’s also, including his residence in the Judean wilderness, his austere diet, his call for Israel to repent, and his confrontation with an evil king and his wife.”

As I read the footnotes, I came across this fact; the Jews required Gentiles to be immersed in water in order to convert from paganism to Judaism, but John required that repentant Jews to be baptized as well.  Growing up under Southern Baptist teaching in small churches I adopted an attitude that we just might have a little closer handle on truth than others who were of other Christian faiths.  But we Baptist could not hold a light to a Pharisees and or Sadducees for they saw no need to confess sins, because they were the descent from Abraham, and that was a pass they wrongly thought; from God’s wrath.

And it is very clear that John the Baptist saw these religious leaders were only doing what look good but they were not coming for true repentance, and so he addressed them as “You brood of vipers!  Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come?  As we look at verse 10, “Even now the axe is laid to the root of the trees. Every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.”  John is making it clear to all, judgment is what will come to all who do not repent of sin.  But in verse 11, he shares with them about Jesus and Jesus’ baptizing will be from the Holy Spirit.  But in verse twelve John the Baptist makes sure we understand it is an eternal fire.  Now it may not have played well in John time and place but I can guarantee you it’s not acceptable in today’s culture.  One small problem, it was not John the Baptist words but the Spirit of God who spoke through him, so buyer be warned. 

If you look at both Heaven and hell in the Scripture you will find a lot of ink on both, and my dear friend Carroll Ray Jr. who has a very clear view of heaven in that he ejected from his earth suit and is basking in the presence of the Father and our Lord Jesus, once wrote a fiction account of hell he called “Regions Below.”  In his story he made this claim, the characters and events in the story are fictitious, but the concepts are taken from the Holy Bible.  According to the Bible, Hades is a real place where real people are in real torment.  Remember that “Regions Below is from Carroll’s mind but he saw many regions and each was not a place anyone would want but each had to do with the life styles of the person while on earth.   I will give you one example of what the small book addressed, but first let’s identify two of the people in the story, Jim Avery a writer at the Boston Herald and his tour guide Juno, a small and shriveled creature, who reeked of body odor, as Jim entered the regions below after his heart attack.  It begins with Jim asking a question of Juno: “What is region six?”  “The region of neglect.  Earth people who neglected important things on earth are assigned here until the judgment.”  “Until the judgment?  I thought this was the judgment.”  “This is Hades, dummy.  Do you know anything?  You’re only assigned here until the judgment.  Then it’s all she wrote.  Lake-of-fire time, baby.”  “The lake of fire?  You mean hell?”  “You got it.  Why do you think the floors are so hot in this place?  Hades is located right over the lake of fire.  The whole place will sink into the lake of fire after the great white throne judgment.”  That is from the mind of a man I loved, and who had some great insights into many of the teaching of Scriptures.  But it is not Carroll’s fiction that you should look to, but what our Lord said, for He is truth, and He came to give you a choice, it really is your choice, heaven or hell.

Form the Back Porch,

Bob Rice