#19 Lu.
Introduction:
In our text last Sunday John the Baptist began to preach in
the wilderness of
come and that men should repent
and get ready for the coming of
the Lord. John further preached that those who did
repent should
come to him for baptism. The baptism was not intended to save
them, but was to intended to
give evidence that they had already
been saved. Some scribes and Pharisees came to John and
wanted
him to baptize them, but John
refused to baptize them. He called
them a generation of vipers and
told them that they should first
show some evidence that they had
repented of their sins and
believed
in the coming Lord and Christ. In other
words, if one is
saved
he should show by the way that he lives that he is saved.
In our text today, that very same idea is
continued. In this text
John tells in greater detail how a
believer in the Christ should
live.
I.
The people coming to John with a question
The opportunity to give this greater detail about godly living
presented
itself to John when many of the people came to him for
baptism
and inquired about how they should live.
V. 10, "And the
people
asked him, saying, What shall we do then?"
The people
heard
John tell the scribes and Pharisees to bring forth fruit
meet for repentance. If they did not hear John tell the
Pharisees, they at least had heard bout
it. Therefore many of
them who came to John to be
baptized asked him, "What about us?
What are we supposed to do? How are we supposed to live our
lives?"
Now in order for us to properly understand this question and
to understand John's answer to
them, we should be aware that John
did not refuse to baptize these. These were people whom John
considered
as having repented of their sins and as having believed
in the coming Christ whom he
preached. Therefore when they came
to him to be baptized John
baptized them. These were not people
who still needed to repent and
trust the coming Lord and be saved.
These were people who had now repented of
their sins. They had
believed
in the coming Lord. They had already
been saved.
So the answer that John gave to them was not instructions in
repentance
and salvation. They were already
saved. The answer
that John gave to them was
instructions in how to live their lives
now that they are saved.
II. The answer that John gave to the well
fixed
The first answer that John gave was directed to those who were
well heeled. They were pretty well off financially. They had
more than enough to be able to
share with others. V. 11, "He
answereth
and saith unto them, He that hath two coats, let him
impart
to him that hath none; and he that hath meat, let him do
likewise." John said that those who are able to share
with others
who are in need should do
so. He said let the man with two coats
share
with one who has none. He said let the
man who has plenty
to eat share with the one who
does not have enough to eat. I dare
say that there are not many
Christians today in our part of the
world
who would be unable to share with others.
Now I want to commend the people of our church for their
generosity
toward those in need. I especially
commend the ladies
of our auxiliary for
contributing such a good food shower to the
storeroom
of the Texas Baptist Institute and Seminary.
They give
their
food and they give their money. And many
of your men folk
have also had a part in
contributing to this worthy cause. If it
were not for people like you
many of the students would not be
able to feed their family and
stay in school.
But we need not wait until our church or an auxiliary of our
church
takes an offering for those who are in need.
Each family
who is able to do so should
look around and find somebody who is
in need and share some of the
good things that God has given to
us. And we need not wait until Thanksgiving time
or Christmas
time to share with others. They have to eat all year long. It
would
not hurt us to share with someone on a regular basis. Now I
am not talking about handing
out to people who are too lazy and
too sorry to work. I am talking about helping those who are in
need. Neither am I talking about taking the tithes
and offerings
that should go to your church
and giving it to the poor and
calling
that tithing. It is not tithing. I am talking about
giving
above your regular tithes and offerings to help those who
are in need.
III. The answer that John gave to the
publicans
In his next answer John was talking to those who were
publicans. That is, they were tax collectors for the
Roman
government. The Roman government placed a tax upon all
the
nations
within her empire. The method which the
Romans used to
collect
taxes for the Caesar made it very easy for the tax
collectors
to abuse the people. For instance, they
would hire
certain
local people to collect the taxes from the rest of the
local
people. These locals who collected taxes
for
called
"publicans." That name is not
to be confused with the
word, Republicans. The word, publican, had to do with the tax
office
that a man held and had nothing to do with his politics.
The Roman government gave these publicans great authority over
the people, but gave the people
no protection whatsoever from the
publicans. They were told by
the government of
allowed
to collect a little extra from the people in order to
provide
themselves a salary. However,
collect
all they thought they could get from the people without
starting
a revolt. Many of the publicans got
fabulously rich off
of the people by charging them
outrageously high taxes. They
collected
all that
John told those whom he baptized not to do that. At least,
they were not to do it any
more. Some of them came to John and
asked
John and John told them. V. 12,
"Then came also publicans
to be baptized, and said unto
him, Master, what shall we do?"
Our KJV says that they addressed John as
their Master. That is,
they addressed him as their
teacher. The Greek word that here is
translated
"Master" means "teacher."
The most of these Publicans,
probably
all of them, had been dishonest with the people. They
had taken advantage of them
simply because they had the power and
authority
to do so. They were making themselves
fabulously rich
at the expense of the
people. Oh, it was perfectly legal. All
the Roman government cared
about was getting their taxes. They
did not care how much the
publicans got over and above that. I
think
it highly commendable of these men that they would come to
John, now that they are saved, and ask
John, "What about it, John?
What are we supposed to do now?" At least they showed a
willingness
to change.
John did not hesitate to tell them.
V. 13, "And he said unto
them, Exact no more than that
which is appointed you." Collect
only that which you are supposed
to exact for
is allowed to you for a
salary. Stop charging the people more
than what is just and fair. Stop being selfish. Stop being
dishonest
in your dealing with others.
Now so far as I know, there are not many Christians who are
occupied
as tax collectors for Uncle Sam or for the state of
applies. If John were here to talk to the business
people, to the
doctors,
to the lawyers and other professional men of our area,
John would say, "Charge a fair price
for your merchandise or for
your services. Do not take advantage of the people just
because
you have them over a barrel and
they have to buy your products or
have to have your services. When one has invested his time, money
and energies in going to school
and learning a trade, he is due to
make a fair profit or a fair
wage for his services. But I am
convinced
that John would tell a lot of doctors, lawyers,
plumbers,
and a lot of other people today to stop trying to get
fabulously
rich off of the people. Stop taking
unfair advantage
of them.
IV. The answer that John gave to the
soldiers
What is surprising to me is that Luke says that even some
soldiers
came to John to be baptized of him and they, too, wanted
to know, "What about
us? What are we to do?" V. 14, "And the
soldiers
likewise demanded of him, saying, And what shall we do?
And he said unto them, Do violence to no
man, neither accuse any
falsely;
and be content with your wages." It
is highly probable
that these soldiers had become
proselyte Jews. Luke does not say.
Some have speculated that they might even
be of Hebrew blood and
just hired out to the Romans to
do police work in
could
be, but I think not likely. At any rate
they were in the
Roman army and they came to John to hear
him preach. Then after
hearing
him preach, they decided that they believed his message
about
the coming Christ. They repented of
their sin, trusted in
the Christ and were baptized by
John. Now they wanted to know
what special instructions he had
for them to live by.
John gave the soldiers three special rules to follow. First
of all, they were to do no
violence to any man. That is, they
were not to take advantage of
the power of their position and just
rough
people up unnecessarily. Perhaps in the
course of doing
their
duty as a soldier they would be forced to hurt somebody, but
that is not what John was
talking about. They were not to allow
themselves
to get blood-thirsty and to abuse their power and to
hurt people unnecessarily.
Secondly, John told the soldiers not to accuse any man
falsely. In that day, the chief reason that this might
be done by
soldiers
was in order to confiscate their property.
John says,
"Don't do it. Do not accuse a man falsely. Do not try to
confiscate
his property."
Thirdly, John told the soldiers to be content with their
wages. In that day, it was common for soldiers,
especially those
who were serving in a foreign
land, to do much like the tax
collectors
did. If their own government did not pay
them as much
as they wanted they would use
their power to get more. They would
often
just take that which they saw and wanted.
They would often
force
the people to pay them wages in addition to what salary they
already
got from the Roman government. This was
especially true
of high ranking officers. John said, "Stop doing that. Learn to
live within your wages. Learn to be content with them. Learn
that the real joy of living is
not in seeing just how much money
you can earn. There is a lot more to life than just money.
In our day, John's advice could well apply not only to
soldiers
but to officers of the law. Yet in some
respect it would
apply
to us all. For example: Do not abuse
your power and
authority
and hurt other people unnecessarily.
That applies to
Christians of our day who are in the
military, especially those
who are abroad. A soldier can well abuse his power, but the
Christian is not to allow himself to do
so.
The admonition to not abuse one's power and authority could
well apply to the Christian law
officer in our day. He is
certainly
in a position to abuse his power if he choses to do
so
and at lease some of them do
chose to do so. But the Christian is
not to live that kind of
life. He is to use his power and
authority
to uphold law and order and for the good of the people.
He is not to use it as a means of abusing
people.
The admonition not to falsely accuse anyone could certainly
apply
to the law officer of our day. The
Christian worker on the
job should likewise heed this
counsel----and the Christian at
church---or
at home ---or at play. This is an
admonition that
could
well apply to all of us in all situations.
Likewise the admonition to be content with what we have would
well apply to us all. This does not mean that we should not plan
and provide for the future. Nor
does it mean that we are never to
seek to advance ourselves in any
way. What it does mean is that
we should not become greedy
and always after more, more, more,
more. Or, to put it in the terms of one of the Ten
Commandments,
"Thou shalt not covet."
V.
Other groups that could be cited
Now, brethren, I hope that you can see that Luke has not
attempted
to cover the entire field. There were
people of many
different
walks of life that came to John and wanted to know how
to live their lives other than
just tax collectors and soldiers.
Luke was just using these two groups to
teach us a lesson that all
Christians are to live godly lives.
We could certainly cite others as examples. For example,
preachers
are to live godly lives. From the things
we hear on the
news today, you would think that
preachers of our day need to have
a good talk with John and let
John instruct them in some things to
do and some things not to
do. A Baptist preacher was arrested
here in the
collection
of books out of a library right here in
Methodist preacher in
They still haven't pinned it on him yet,
but they are still
trying. Several different Catholic priests have been
in the news
lately
accused of having affairs with nuns and even with teenage
boys. The Jim Jones, Jim Baker, and Jimmy Swaggart scandals have
shocked
our nation. The Garner Ted Armstrong
affair has not
altogether
been forgotten. Let me tell you that
there is no
excuse
for anyone who claims to be called of God to preach God's
word to get involved in that
kind of living. God has called all
Christians to live godly lives and He
especially calls upon those
who really are His preachers to
set an example.
Other church officers should likewise listen to John.
Deacons, youth workers, song leaders,
pianists, soloists, church
choir
members, and teachers should live godly lives.
We should
not allow ourselves to get
absorbed in the affairs of the world
and attracted by the sins of the
world to get involved in the
ungodly
ways of the world. Oh, the Devil is
sharp and he could
outsmart
us all and re us all into his trap if it were not for the
help of God. But we should live close to God and depend of
the
help of God to live godly lives.
Let me go ahead and toss in a few other choice bits of advice
to Christians that I think
John would give us if he were here
today. Housewives, do not
go hankpanking around with some other
man. Be true to your husbands. Husbands, the same goes for you.
Do not go messing around with some other
woman. Young people, do
not even one time get involved
in the use of liquor or drugs.
Stay off the booze bottle. Stay away from the honky-tonks. Say
"No" not only to drugs and
liquor, but say "No" to premarital sex.
Both young and old should avoid shacking
up with somebody. Oh, I
know, they don't call it
"shacking up" any more. They
call it
having
a "live-in." Let me say to you
that it is just as sinful
and just as wicked for an older
person to have a live-in as it is
for a young person to have
one. It is worse. They surely ought
to know better.
Let me say to you that it is high time that those who claim to
be Christians to stop that
kind of living. God will not put with
whoremongering
around, popping the pills, sniffing whatever there
is to be sniffed, gambling,
boozing, cussing and in general living
like the Devil. You might get by for a little while. You might
think,
"I am grown and nobody can stop me."
Don't count on that.
God can stop you and sooner or later He
will.
Nobody, but nobody ---saved or unsaved---nobody gets by with
living
that kind of life. The Christian
especially is not going
to get by very long. God is going to lay the lash on his hide.
The unsaved will get his eventually. It may not be until he is in
the fires of hell, but you can
be sure that he will not get by
with his ungodly sins. He will rue his sins forever.
Conclusion:
Let me ask you if you are saved.
I do not need to ask you if
you are a sinner. I know the answer to that. I know that I have
sinned
and I know that you have, too. I do not
need to know what
you have done to know that you
have sinned. I know that you have
sinned
because the Bible says that all have sinned.
So the
question
is not, "Have you ever sinned?" but "Have you ever called
on Jesus Christ and asked Him
to save you from your sins?" If you
are not sure that Jesus has
saved your soul then you had better
make sure. You can make sure by talking to Him about it
and
asking
Him to take care of your soul.
If you are saved, I want to tell you that you will be a lot
better
off in life if you will yield your life to God than you
will if you bow your neck and
deliberately go against God's will
for your life. What I am going to ask you to do is to get
your
life straightened out with God
and ask God to help you to keep it
that way.