Boldness & Baptism

(We are trying out a new Transcription Service, so please excuse any typos, run-on sentences, illogical statements, unintentional heresies, etc.)

Oh what a glorious day that will be when the King that God has deemed to rule over this universe returns to earth. There is a King and his name is Jesus Christ. Hallelujah. Today is Sunday June 15th, 2025 and we will be looking at verses 7-8 and nine of Matthew chapter 3. Now your Bible is anything like mine. Our sermon this morning between 2 pages. I like when that happens. People printed out this Bible, consult with me. And all the verses on page. Nevertheless, before we look at verses 7-8 and nine of Matthew 3, I'd like to summarize last week. Help us remember where we were in the text and continue to build on it this morning. So last week we looked at John the Baptizer, his clothing, his food, and everything could be learned from him. And we saw that he was engaging in fanatical self denial, abject nonconformity with his culture, with the people he lived amongst. Through his clothing and through his food. Now, one thing here, all the times we have been referencing back to the Old Testament that Matthew has been referencing back to the Old Testament, yes, they are references. But to put that in the modern vernacular, they're Easter eggs. They're little tidbits of information where if someone has been paying attention enough, someone knows the text enough and go, I get that. I get that reference I know he's talking about. And that same thing applies with J When they're standing beside Jordan would look at him said, I know, I get it. He's just like Elijah. I get that reference when he eats locust and honey, something I understand that he's eating, but the symbol of judgment, he's eating the symbol of blessing and he is foretold by the prophets of old to be the forerunner for him who will bring perfect judgment and perfect blessings, Jesus Christ. And we understood it through John, through his clothing and his diet that that total self exclusion fro Society uses to justify themselves is the way of every Christian. What I mean by that is that our society, our culture uses certain things that teach that they use to teach themselves. I'm OK with God, of course. God's not angry at me and my sin. Look at all of my stuff. Look at all of my wealth, look at all the blessings I have. I fit in with everybody else. And if God was angry at my sin, we wouldn't have all of these things and John the Baptist. Engaged in total fanatical, non conformist self denial with his society. Because that is what God calls us to do. We love the world more than God. If we love our families more than God, then we aren't fit for heaven. But this morning we're going to dive even deeper. John the Baptist is a very controversial figure in the 1st century. And we're going to look at some of that this morning and again next week and the week after that. But for now, please stand with me for the reading of God's Holy Wor We're gonna read Matthew chapter 3 verses one through 12. Focusing on 7 through 9 and my water just splashed all over my glasses. Matthew 3, one through 12 here. Now the words of the living God. In those days, John the Baptist came preaching in the wilderness of Judea and saying repent, for the Kingdom of heaven is at hand. For this is he who was spoken of by the prophet Isaiah saying the voice of one crying in the wilderness, prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight. Now John himself was clothed in camel's hair. The letter belt around his waist, and his food was locusts and wild honey. Then Jerusalem, all Judea, and all the region around Jordan went out to him and were baptized by him in the Jordan confessing their sins. Verse 7 But when he saw many of the Pharisees and sages coming to his baptism, he said to them, Brood of Vipers, who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Therefore bear fruits were the repentance. And do not think to say to yourselves, We have Abraham as our father, for I say to y God is able to raise up children to Abraham from these stones, and even now the axe is laid to the root of the trees. Therefore every tree which is not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance. But he was coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing fan is in his hand, and he will thoroughly clean out his threshing floor and gather his wheat Fire. Thus concludes the reading of God's holy Word. Let's pray together. You're Holy Father, thank you for your word that we have here in front of us. Help us hear your voice clearly and let your words supplant our own. Let your voice be the guiding voice of not only the sermon this morning, but for every action of our life until we see you face to face. In the name of your holy Son, Jesus Christ, Amen. Thank you may be seated. As we are looking at verses 7-8 and 9:00 this morning, you can consider each of them the three points of our sermon. Point number one is for seven point #2 verse 8 and #3 is verse 9. I will be referencing 11 different verses and inviting you to turn your Bibles for four of them. So only four times. All right, now let's do it. Verse 7, point #1 when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sages coming to His baptism, He said to them, brutal Vipers, who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? So we have here in our text the groups of the Pharisees and the Sadducees. These two groups, they're going to play a very big and prominent role throughout the whole New Testament. You keep hearing about these groups, their season series, the season series and we've talked about them a lot about their self righteousness, their arrogance, their holier than now attitude. We're but right now briefly in .1 we're going to talk who they actually were. The Pharisees and the Sadducees were two political The sand Hedron, if you will. What was the Supreme Court of ancient Israel? They were, they were commanded by God in Exodus 18, Access 24, and #11 they were a group of 70 to 71 individuals selected to rule over their nation. The high priest was the president of the Sanhedrin. Now, when I say they were the Supreme Court of ancient Israel, that analogy kind of gets lost a little bit based on how America operates versus how. Ancient Israel operated, but for the sake of the analogy, it is accurate. The the members of the Sanhedrin, new members were appointed from within or the new, the newest members were based on recommendations from those people were already in it. So if you can think of one group, one political entity that maintains all of the power over the nation that they are ruling, you would imagine the Sanhedrin they met every single day except for the holy festivals, the feasts. The end of the Sabbath. So every single day the Sanhedrin get together to talk about the laws, talk about the goings on, to talk about what was happening in Rome, what was happening in Israel. They could even bring the king to trial. The king of Israel could be called to question by the sand hedron. Now, one of the differences that the Sanhedrin had with our modern Supreme Court is that the same hedron, Well, judge, jury and the legislative branch, they were in charge of fact finding whenever th Come up and say, well, these are things that happened. Other people say no, no, they're wrong and saying he will be in charge of finding out where the truth lied. They would also be in charge of the legal interpretation. So they say, no, that law doesn't mean what you think it means. It means that law doesn't means this. And not only that, they had the power to pronounce a verdict as well. They were both judge and jury. The Sanhedrin held immense power over ancient Israel and they were composed In agencies now, without going too far into the political infrastructure of ancient Israel, veer away from the text in front of us. The Pharisees followed tradition, the Oral Law, all the things that Jesus condemns them for, of adding on and adding on and adding on. All these different idiosyncratic laws that they say, oh, they were handed down to us by tradition. The Pharisees followed tradition and they were loved by the common people, all the people in Israel. That weren't understand, he looked to the Pharisees as their source for understanding what it meant to live a holy life. That's part of the reason why Jesus condemns them so harshly because they were leading people astray. And then we have the satisfies. The Sadies, excuse me, the Sadducees were more politically minded and they were very friendly with Rome. They were the ones that work hand in pocket with the Roman Empire all day long. Now there were some theological differences. The agencies di Not believe in demons. They did not believe in a resurrection. That is why they are sad. You see, I can't preach on Father's Day without throwing a bad joke at you. Now, I know we went through pretty quick, but they are the Supreme Court in charge of judge. They were the judge. The jury pronounced verdicts. They were the ones that held all political and religious power over ancient Israel. There was no power at all except for that which was within the Sanhedrin. There were when they were smaller villages or smaller towns far away from Jerusalem, they had smaller sand hedrons that was composed of the people there. But they all answered to the great Sanhedrin And this great Sanhedrin held all religious and political power. OK, you got. That's very important here. And we read our text that these Supreme Court justices approached John the Baptizer there on the banks of the Jordan, Jordan's stormy banks. The Supreme Court justices came to John the Baptizer and how did he greet them? What did he say? How would you greet the Supreme Court justices if we're all having a church picnic and someone getting baptized and all of a sudden the Supreme Court just s Into our picnic. What would you do? How would you act? Would be overcome? Start fanboying. Ohh, man. No, I hope not. That's not how you respond to them. I hope you would respond how John the Baptizer responds. How do you greet them? Did he give them a title? Did he give them any sort of human born adoration? No. He called them a brood of Vipers. Brood of Vipers, in fact, in Matthew 1234. In Matthew 2333. This is the. Same insult that Jesus gives to them. He calls them a brood of Vipers. That is his greeting. And then what does he say? Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Now the word in Greek, flea. I don't have my notes this morning, but this word flea was used to describe when a snake would run away from fire. You know, they're sneaky, they're deceptive. They weasel their way into every crease in every crack. In fact, living out here in New York. You, most of you here had a campfire or two out behind your house. I know I have stacks behind my house and there was three years ago. We are stacking wood and we find a Garter snake that was wide around as a silver dollar. It was huge. We end up naming, we called him Frank, found around our property several times. And when did that snake appear? As soon as its hiding place was discovered, the wood was picked up and the snake fled away. And this is the same word that both John and Jesus used. To describe the actions of the Pharisees, they ran away as if a snake from fire. Now that's not enough. Stay with me. That is not enough to insult the Supreme Court justices to call them a snake running away from fire. It gets deeper still. Here is one of those Easter eggs I mentioned before. We before we read the word together. The word brewed in Greek is used to describe not just a group of people or a group of things, but it is used to describe a group of things that all is related to one ano Are all related to one another. In fact, if you read from the King James Version this morning, you would see you generation of Vipers and help us understand more what this word means. It is the offspring, the progeny, that which came forth from one common ancestor is a brood. And John calls them a brood or a generation or the offspring or the seed of a Viper. And therein is an Easter egg for us. Turn with me if you will, all the way back. Genesis 3 back to the garden. Some of you may know exactly where this is going. In Genesis 314 and 15, right immediately after the fall, Adam and Eve hide from God approaches and says, what are you doing? How you guys know that you're naked? Instead of owning up to their sins, they displace blame. Adam blames his wife. Eve blames the snake. And what does God say in Genesis 314 and 15? So the Lord God said to the serpent. The double, because you've done this, you are cursed more than all cattle and more than every piece of the field on your belly. You shall go, and you shall eat dust all the days of your life. Now listen to this. Genesis 315 And I will put enmity, meaning hatred. I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed. He shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel. These Supreme Court justices would have known exactly. What John was calling You are the seed of the devil. You are the seed of Satan, you brood of Vipers. Who warned you? In fact, Jesus himself outright says this to them in John 844. You are of your Father the devil. Can you imagine the Supreme Court justices with their well honed and well starched black robes approaching a Christian in 2025 America in the Christian saying, you son of Satan, who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? That stands in stark contrast to the majority of evangelical Christendom in our world today, where everyone is afraid of making waves, everyone's afraid of speaking out. The squeaky wheel gets the grease, remember, So just smile and move along. Jesus never said anything mean to anyone says those people have opened their Bible in years. And when you confront them with the truth that both Jesus and John the Baptizer, Analiza and Paul and people through all of Scripture have insulted and. Thing called the people in political authority. That's happening. What they're doing is being absolutely bold. John's talking to the Supreme Court, and because we see this example in Scripture, we know that it is a godly example. We can have brothers and sisters. We can have unfettered, unhinged boldness and confronting evil. We don't have to sit back and cower in fear. The people in this world that hate our God are somehow going to do anything to us that God has already seen and planned for and in fact allowed them to do, if in fact He does allow them to do it. We don't need to. In fact, we shouldn't ever value the praise of people. You know, if I start calling me Supreme Court justices, these politicians, these fake pastors, these fake Christians, if I start confronting them in their evil, in their sin, then people gonna think bad about me. People, are people going to ostracize me from the culture? So who cares? Do you really want to be accepted by a culture that has been castrated into cowardness? Might not want to be part of that culture. In fact, if we were, then Jesus would say to us the same words he said to the Supreme Court Justice of ancient Israel in John 1243. When he says that you love the praise of men more than the glory of God, Do you, brothers and sisters, do you love the praise of man more than the glory of God? When you see evil, when you see sin, do you just shove it deep down inside and keep your mouth shut? No, that's going to upset so many people. That's gonna that's gonna make so many ways. I don't know how to react to it. In fact, if I did confront that evil, I don't know. I have the time of day to unpack the amount of lies that swing. Don't do that. However, this is not an excuse to be a jerk. Ohh, Jesus insulted people so I'm just gonna let my mouth fly. No, no, not at all. When we confront evil. When we are offensive, When we are offensive on purpose to use the serrated edge of the Word of God that we just read this morning. Cuts between soul and spirit bone and Marilyn discerns the thoughts of the heart when we wield this shining silver sword of Christ. The evil that He has providentially ordained for us to live amongst, we do so with abject boldness and abject humility, both of them in our hands at all times, never compromising the word of Scripture and never backing down from a fight. We can put everything in our life on the line for God. Everything, everything. You know, Pastor, I hear you say everything. But if I start confronting evil in my workplace, I'm going to get fired. But if I get fired, I can't feed my family, OK? It's OK to be hungry. It's OK to be homeless. It's OK to not have new clothes, new toys, new stuff, new things. You know, it's not OK not fighting evil. It's not OK to bow your knee to a wicked evil culture, a wicked evil Supreme Court Justice, a wicked evil boss, a wicked evil family member. What's the worst that could happen? We see when we get there it's going to be very exciting. I can't wait. We see the worst that can happen because John the Baptizer lived into it. You guys head chopped off. That is so amazing. I can't wait to meet John the Baptizer. Have your head chopped off for confronting the evil of your culture. What a fantastic testimony. American Christians are soft, castrated, cowardly. Do not be like them. Brothers and sisters, confront. Everywhere you see it, be bold and be humble. Point #2 verse 8, He's all connected. Stay with me here. After insulting the Supreme Court, what does he say to them in verse 8? Therefore, bear fruits worthy of repentance. If you read from the USB or the USB this morning, you will read in keeping with repentance, bear fruit. In keeping with repentance, bear fruit worthy of repentance. Now fruit. This is a very common illustration of God. Because all the time for Scripture, fruit is that which is produced by something living, regardless of if it's a vegetable does not matter. Fruit is something produced by something that is alive. We are going to read in Galatians 5 the fruits of the Spirit. Some of us here might have them already memorized, Galatians 5 starting at verse 19. But before we read them out, I will ask you, brothers and sisters, what does your life? Reduce what's coming out of your life, Anything. Is it just that which you need to maintain the status quo of the comfortable life that you've built? Are you producing anything godly with your words, with your actions, with your hands? What is your life? Produce Galatians 5 starting at verse 19. Now the works of the flesh are evident, which are adultery, fornication. Uncleanness, lewdness, idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries and the like of which I tell you beforehand, just as I also told you in time past, that those who practice such things will not inherit the Kingdom of God. How bold is Paul being there if you practice adultery, fornication, drunkenness, envy, murder if you practice these? You don't go to heaven. Verse 22. He contrasts the works of the flesh with the fruit of the spirit. But the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering or patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law. So is your life producing gentleness. Those patients get produced by your words, by your beliefs, by your hands. Are you producing kindness? Are you producing joy? Are you producing faithfulness and self-control? Is that what is coming out of your life, brothers and sisters? Because as John tells us in Matthew 3, they're worthy of repentance. As the US translates it, they are keeping with repentance, meaning that fruit is evidence of repentance. How do you know an apple tree is an apple tree? Because of the fruit that it produces. Some of us here in Wayne County, the amount of apple trees in our county alone produces and ships all over the planet. We know an apple tree just by looking at it. But if you were to go up during harvest time and see something else hanging from those gnarled branches. Ohh, I thought this thought this was an apple tree. I guess it's not. So how do you know if someone in your life, someone in your family, someone in your work, how do you know if you yourself have repented? Do you see fruit the phrase this another way and make it even harder to come to terms with How do you know if God's living in your heart? Let's make it harder. How do you know if God loves you? How do you know if God is working in your life? How do you know if God's hand is on you, guiding and directing you? Do we just have to sit down here on earth playing guesswork with the Bible, throwing darts at it, hoping it lands on a verse that makes me feel good inside? If you don't see fruit worthy of repentance, if you don't see fruit in keeping with repentance in your life, you should be questioning your salvation. If you don't see growth. You should be asking yourself very hard. It's very hard question because the only things that don't grow are dead things. There's no life in that which is dead. That which is dead doesn't always come to life unless God does something. And when God does something, when God gives you a new heart, it will produce something in your life. It will. OK, pass. Right. That's kind of hard. That's kind of deep. I'm not. I don't know what to do with that kind of information. I get the principle behind it. We just reading through the spirit Galatians and it does make sense. I know my God use the illustration of fruit being produced by something. What am I supposed to do? Do I just sit back and say, all right, guys, go make me produce fruit? We just sit on our hands. Do we just keep our Bibles closed? We just keep our heart closed when we have an opportunity to say a prayer to God, but instead we open up our favorite app or turn on our favorite TV show. No, no, no. It's all I gotta do something. That's why I can scroll for hours and hours and throughout my day. No, God's gonna produce something in me. That's why I don't need to read my Bible. Sure, I've got the Bible of the verse that pops up on my phone, like, oh, that's nice swipe. Do you hate your sin? We all have it. We all have sin in us. And what do you do when you are confronted with when you see it, when you do something, when you say something, when you think something that you know is not in the Bible, What do you do? You hate it? Do you hate it? The laziness or lust that you see in your own heart, in your own life, Do you hate it? Do you hate the idolatry that you seen yourself perform? Do you hate the indecision? Do you hate the indulgence comes out of your heart? Do you hate pride? The pride that you know is inside of you? Do you hate the premarital sex you've engaged in? Do you hate the *********** that you viewed? Do you hate the gluttony that you take it into your own hands? Do you hate the greed that you practice? Do you hate it, Not understand it's wrong and I'm gonna do what I can to stay away from it. But hate. Abject, total, uninhibited, unhinged hate. Do you hate your Sinner? And if you do, no, not. There you go. If you don't, what are you gonna do about it? Should should I be hating my sister Like you yelled a lot. I saw vein pop out on your head. You said 15 times. Should I hate it that much? Yes, you should hate your sin more than anything else you ever had in your entire life. You should hate it. Are you Gollum or are you Frodo? Both of them Carried the ring one called it precious and killed to keep it. One hated that it came to him and did everything he could to bring to the shores of mount doom. If you don't hate your sin, what are you gonna do about it? And I have the same question. What are you going to do if you do hate your Sin? Yes pastor, Yes, I hate my sin. I hate it. In fact, I hate it so much that it has caused me to question my salvation. I hate it so much that's made me think wrong things about God and I hate the wrong things I think about God. I hate myself even more for thinking and I don't know what to do. I hate my sins so much. So what are you going to do? Are you going to work against your sin? What I mean is literally make it hard to give in to temptation. Make it inconvenient for you, uproot your entire life if need be. Make life altering choices doing whatever you need to do to put 1000 miles of broken glass between you and your ability to give in to sin and take your shoes off when you think about it. Why wouldn't you? Why is the light that you've built right now so comfortable, so nice, so safe? But yeah, there's sitting there. The question if God's ever done a work in your heart? If you aren't making choices to keep the ability to give into temptation away from you if you refuse. Then you should be questioning if God loves you at all. No, no, my life is too good right now. My life is too short. I got all my ducks in a row. I've got everything figured out. I got everything in my hands. I know how my life should be lived. I'm going to live how I think I should. But if I sprinkle up Bible verses on top of it, and that should take away the fact that I don't hate my sin or I'm not going away from me. So what are you talking about, pastor? John has some harsh words. If that is your mentality. Unquenchable fire axe is laid to the root. In fact, verse 10, as I will talk about next week, every tree which does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. What is your life produce? Is it worthy of repentance? Is it in keeping with repentance? Point #3 verse 9. Where's 9 John confronts these Supreme Court justices by already calling out their their response to him and do not think to yourselves, we have Abraham as our father, right say to the God is able to raise up children to Abraham from these stones. He knows what the argument is going to be and he reveals to them before they even open their mouths. So what we have been doing last week and right now for a little bit, .3 and as we keep going through the rest of Chapter 3, we are building a doctrine, verse by verse, sermon by sermon, Sunday by Sunday. We are getting all these different pieces of the doctrine of baptism, what it means to be baptized. What is it? Well, who can be baptized? Who should be baptized? What does it mean once I am already baptized? We're building a doctrine. And the first Sunday in July. We will briefly step outside of this verse by verse preaching we have been going through and we will just be studying the single doctrine of baptism. Last week we saw as John was baptizing people in verse 6, we saw that confession of sins accompanies baptism, repentance accompanies baptism. And this week we see another thing, another practice, another thought, another piece of the doctrine. Will of baptism in Luke's Gospel telling the same story that I was telling us in fact the same chapter 3 Matthew 3IN Luke's Gospel chapter 3 verse 7, it says that people John the people that John called the of Vipers came out to be baptized by him and we see in Matthew 3 the people he called a brutal Vipers, the Pharisees and satisfies so we can understand these Pharisees and sages. These Supreme Court justices came out to John with the intention of being baptized and how does. That was John respond. We already talked about he insults them and refuses to baptize them. Why? Because they did not bear fruits in keeping with repentance. And then we have even more here this morning. Do not think to say we have Abraham as our father. The activated route, the trees get cut down. He's gonna burn up challengeable fire. We can see the interconnectedness of salvation and judgment with baptism. And John tells us that the wrath more sins have earned cannot be satisfied based on who your parents are. I'm not gonna baptize you, Pharisee. It doesn't matter who your parents are. You still earn the wrath of God and have not repented of it. You've got Christian parents. So what? Repent. You've got a Christian family going back generation after generation after generation. I don't care. Repent, and then I'll baptize you the choices of your parents. Don't convey to you any merit with God. They don't. No, I didn't include this and it's not in my notes. Quick time out here. It's hard as I'm going to hit this nail over and over and over again. That does not negate the the godliness of being a good parent. That does not negate the godliness of being a good child. God gave us families and families are the building blocks of any organized society. Families are churches. And microscopic form that's what families are there are leaders, there are those that can't leave because of the way God ordained families and churches to function. Families are vital. In fact, Bible says if you do not provide for your family, you're worse than an unbeliever. So all of that is still true. We have to love and honor our families. They're beloved. They're the most important thing in our life now time back in. Even though that's true, you can't hide behind your family. You can't tuck your favorite sins inside of the darkest closet your family has built. You can only hide behind the cross. This is the only place where the eyes of God stop. You cannot reach the glowing white throne of judgment on the day of your death and say to him, I was raised in a Christian family, Your honor. My parents raised me every single Sunday. They even baptized me when I was a baby. My grandparents, those people you probably know, probably up here, Grandma, Grandpa, you guys back there, you can't hide behind your family. You can only hide behind the cross. Is this gets deeper, You aren't part of the covenant people of God simply because of who your parents are, Even if that parent is Abraham, the father of the faith. That's what John is saying here. It doesn't matter what Abraham is your father. You are a child of Abraham. You are not a child of the promise. You are not a child of the covenant just because of who your parents are. Turn with me to John 8, verse 31. 31 through 47 it's a longer section. Yes, let's stay with this because the temptation to hide behind our families choices there to make us think that we're OK with God is unbelievably prevalent in our world. But God says this in John 8 starting verse 31. Then Jesus said to those Jews who believed him, if you abide in my word, you are my disciples indeed, and you shall know the truth will make you free. They answered him we are. Abraham's descendants and we've never been in ******* to anyone. How can you say you will be made free? Jesus answered most assuredly. I say to you, whoever commits sin is a slave of sin, and slave is not Biden house. Everybody son abides forever. Therefore, if the son makes you free, you shall be free indeed. I know that you are Abraham's sentence, but you seek to kill me because my word has no place in you. I speak what I've seen with my Father. You do, and you do what you have seen with your Answered him, Abraham is our father. Jesus said if you were Abraham's children, you would do the works of Abraham. But now you seek to kill me, a man who's told you the truth, which I heard from God, From God. Abraham did not do this. You do the deeds of your father. Then they said to him, we were not born of fornication. We have one father God. Pause. Did you hear what they just said to Jesus, what they just called his mom? We weren't born of fornication unpause verse 42 Jesus said to them, If God were your father, you would love me, for I proceeded forth and came from God. Nor have I come of myself, but he sent me. Why you not understand my speech? Because you're not able to my word. You are of your father the devil in the desires of your father you want to do. He was a murderer from the beginning and does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own resourc But he is a liar, and the father of it. Because I tell the truth, you do not believe me. Which of you convicts me of sin? And if I tell the truth, why do you not believe me? He who is of God hears God's words. Therefore you do not hear, because you are not of God. You are not of God simply because you came from people who were of God. Romans 96. Romans Chapter 9, verses 6 through 8, just a few verses. Romans 9/6 through 8. But it is not the word of God has taken no effect. For they are not all Israel who are of Israel, nor are they all children, because they are the seed of Abraham. But in Isaac your seed shall be called. That is, those are the children of the flesh. These are not the children of God, but the children of the promise are counted as the seed. For this is the word of promise. Not to stop there. You are not the children of God simply because your parents are, is only the children of promise that are they're counted as the seed. Our lineage does not grant us entrance into covenant with God, only those who stone hearts. As John said in Matthew 38, God can raise up children to Abraham from stones. And you, brothers and sisters, your hearts were stones that were raised up by God. Your lineage doesn't grant you entrance into the covenant of God only. Your heart being replaced makes you a child of the covenant, a child of God. Those who have repented their sins come into Christ and His righteousness accounted to us. Not because we earned it, not because our parents were Christians, not because it was the most holiest Christian family that God has ever potentially created in the history of humanity. No, But it is my God raising stone hearts back to life for His reasons, for His purpose, for His glory, and then causing those dead hearts to come After causing those dead hearts to come back to life, planting the seed of faith within it, then he adopts them into his covenant, into his family. That is what it means to to repent. That's what it means to be baptized. It is an outward acknowledgement of what God has done in your heart. That is why John denied baptism to the Pharisees and seduces. And then when we do, when our heart, when our hearts are made new, is when and only when we can engage. And that that that unfettered boldness that we saw in John the Baptizer because nothing would ever do, could ever touch a child of God. Please stand for the doxology.