THE ministry of John the Baptist was full and honest. There are two things here that bear this out. We have already seen that he was faithful in calling people to repentance and to seeing their need of salvation. Now, in his attitude and action towards the Pharisees and Sadducees, we find him faithful. Then in his pointing people to Christ as the answer to their need due to sin, he showed real ministry and caring. The two cornerstones of saving religion, repentance towards God, and faith in Jesus Christ, John the Baptist was clear and faithful in declaring.

The Pharisees and Sadducees were coming to John. John was a spiritual success story. People were flocking to his ministry. The religious leaders did not want to be left out of this. They wanted to benefit from it, and probably had the idea that it would advance their image in the community. John saw that they were not sincere in their attendance on his ministry, and with true faithfulness exposed their hypocrisy. There was not idea of scoring points over them in this, but a genuine pastor’s love which knows the danger of false spirituality which does not save the soul but hardens the heart.

He speaks to them of the wrath to come. May be they had some consciousness of the wrath of God against sin, and wanted to escape it. John saw into their hearts and saw that they only wanted escape from the wrath and had no real repentance in their hearts. They were still clinging to their self righteousness, and lordship over the religious life of the people.

John warns them of three things. The reality of the wrath of God against sin. The danger of hypocrisy before God. The folly of depending on their heritage as Jews descending from Abraham for their acceptance before God. Let us look at each of these things in turn.

Firstly, whatever is said today within the church and outside it, the wrath of God against sin is real. God reveals himself as a holy God, and that nothing that defiles this holiness can abide in his presence. He has revealed from Adam onwards that sin has to be punished, and as Paul puts it in Romans 1:18 “The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men...” We are all sinners who deserve the wrath of God to be poured out upon us, with the dread consequence of death and hell as a result. It is not an act of love towards perishing souls to hide that they are perishing because they have sinned against a holy God. The fact of the wrath of God will not go away by denying it. We do not show the love of God by pretending that he has no wrath against sinners. God being holy and just must pour out his wrath against sin. If he did not he would not be holy and just. The love of God is not seen in denying his wrath, but in his infinite love in preparing to take upon himself in the person of Jesus Christ all the punishment due on account of sin, and visiting his wrath on his Son, that those who believe on Jesus may be saved from his wrath. John was expressing real concern for the souls of the Pharisees by speaking to them of the wrath of God which was against them unless they repented.

The next thing is the is the danger of hypocrisy. The Pharisees pretended to be repentant. They came outwardly going through the motions of repentance, but inside they had no sorrow for their sin at all. In fact they did not even admit that they were sinners, for they were those who prided themselves before God on their righteousness. However, as John saw clearly, the righteousness they were so proud of was simply external. It was only conformity to outward rules and religious standards, which they kept meticulously. John saw that their inner being was not changed, and that they had no recognition of the corruption of their hearts. They felt they had no real need for repentance, and this was seen in the fact that there was no change in the way they lived, thought or acted. True repentance comes from within. It is a heart action and a deep sorrow for the corruption within which produces so much evil in action and thought. If this is the attitude of heart then it will produce fruit in the life - that is actions which show a hate of the things repented of. It is when this happens that genuine repentance is seen. The Pharisees did not have this genuine repentance. It is often true that we can deceive ourselves and others that we have true repentance, but God sees into the heart and he knows what is genuine and what is not. If we are to be saved from God’s wrath then we must be honest before God and ourselves, and have true sorrow for sin.

The third thing that John warned the Pharisees about was on their false hope. They trusted in the fact that their pedigree as Jews was solid. They could trace their ancestry back to Abraham, and because of this they relied on the promise God gave to Abraham of blessing. They thought that simply because they were a Jews and so members of the chosen people of God, that God’s favour automatically was upon them. John pointed out the folly of this thinking. To the Pharisees and Sadducees God saved Jews because they were Jews, and everyone else were lost. John’s words about God being able to raise up children to Abraham from the stones on the ground was his way of pointing out to them that their understanding of what it meant to be a child of Abraham was totally wrong.

This is important. To be a child of Abraham was not to be a child physically by human generation. No! The true child of Abraham was and is the person who has the same faith as Abraham. This faith is faith in the true seed of Abraham, Jesus Christ, whom God promised to Abraham he would send into the world, and that through this seed, Jesus Christ, blessing would come into the world. When Abraham believed the promise he was believing in the promised seed, even in Jesus Christ, who God sent to save us from our sins. The Pharisees did not accept this or understand it, and this was seen in their final rejection of the promised Saviour and their work in bring about his death.