Introduction

When it comes to Bible study, we often emphasize what we can do after reading. If we don't know what to do after reading, then the way we read the Bible must be wrong. We must know that reading the scriptures is for ourselves, not for others. When examining each chapter of the Bible, we should consider what we should do and what God's will is for us. This is to hear the word of God and put it into practice.

It is a good habit to relate things to oneself. Scriptures are a high-level summary of the internal laws of the development of things, and arguments are the experience and summary of applying internal laws. Our Bible study is basically about argumentation.

The theme of Chapter 3 is: Prepare the way for the Lord, make his paths straight. Many people wonder, does God still need people to prepare the way for him? Many people especially honor God's sovereignty. Can't God prepare the way himself? God can! But this sentence reflects something we value very much, that is, our God is a God who works with people. Without us, God would still accomplish his work, but when we do this, we are walking with God and working with God.

Repentance is the First Door

As it is written in the book of the words of Isaiah the prophet: “A voice of one calling in the wilderness, ‘Prepare the way for the Lord, make his paths straight. Every valley shall be filled in, every mountain and hill made low. The crooked roads shall become straight, the rough ways smooth. And all people will see God’s salvation.’” (Luke 3:4-6)

The first half of this chapter records John the Baptist baptizing Jesus Christ, and the second half records the genealogy of Jesus Christ. Preparing the way for the Lord and making his paths straight is to allow us, who are flesh and blood, to see God's salvation. What does this mean? John the Baptist opened a door of repentance and preached the baptism of repentance. Later, when Jesus ascended to heaven, there were still people preaching repentance.

Is repentance right? You have to enter the first door. If you don't enter the first door, how can you pass through the second door behind it? Do you have the ability to walk through walls? You are flesh and blood, and all those with flesh and blood cannot walk through walls. Some people say: I can burrow into the ground, enter here, and come out in Canada. These people still need to apply for visas and rely on taking planes to these countries.

All flesh shall see God's salvation, and need to enter the first door, which is to prepare the way for the Lord and make his paths straight. Entering the door of repentance is not that God needs us to prepare the way for him, but that we need God's salvation to come upon us. If God is over there and we are over here, how can we let God come to us? And how can we come to God and walk with God? It is through the first door, repentance.

Repentance is the most prerequisite condition. If a person does not repent and feels that he is not wrong, then why do you need God? John the Baptist preached a doctrine of repentance, which is to prepare the way for the Lord to come to us.

John said to the crowds coming out to be baptized by him, “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath? Produce fruit in keeping with repentance. And do not begin to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ For I tell you that out of these stones God can raise up children for Abraham. 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.” (Luke 3:8-9)

Even if you are a descendant of Abraham's bloodline, it is useless, because you have not repented! Abraham walked his own path, but you are walking a path that runs counter to Abraham's path, which is troublesome! Many Christians do not walk the way of the Lord, and have not even repented, let alone changed. Why should people repent? Because they have gone the wrong way. A few days ago, I led a prayer, and there were many symptoms of illness, but later they were all prayed for. But you still have to repent, because you went the wrong way, so you got sick. You must repent, otherwise how can you see God's salvation?

We must produce fruit in keeping with repentance. Every tree that does not produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire. What will happen if people do not repent? Running wildly towards the logical system of the world will result in being cut down and thrown into the fire. Those who do not prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight, and think they are all good, and run wildly towards the logical system of the world, will be cut down and thrown into the fire. This has been repeated several times.

Someone asked John if he was the Christ who was to come? John said he was not, but he said that one who is more powerful than he is coming. This John should be powerful, performing many miracles that made people believe, but the Bible does not record what John the Baptist did, only what Jesus did.

John said, “I baptize you with water, but one who is more powerful than I will come, the straps of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing fork is in his hand to clear his threshing floor and to gather the wheat into his barn, but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.” (Luke 3:16-17)

In God's eyes, repentance is the first door. Repentance and non-repentance form a sharp contrast. Repentance without change is the same as no repentance. We regret that we have gone the wrong way and suffered enough sins, and today we decide to take a new path. Once we repent, we divide people into two types: those who repent and those who do not repent.

Those Who Truly Repent Are Treasures in God's Eyes

John said, “I baptize you with water, but one who is more powerful than I will come, the straps of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing fork is in his hand to clear his threshing floor and to gather the wheat into his barn, but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.” (Luke 3:16-17)

This passage is cruel, but it is true. God must be willing to gather the wheat into the barn and discard the chaff, so we must be wheat and be treasures in God's eyes. Don't think: I am a Christian, I am a devout Pharisee, I just made a sacrifice in the temple, I am a descendant of Abraham... These things are useless! Even if you are Jesus Christ's own brother, that does not guarantee that you can walk with God. Only one thing can guarantee this, and that is to produce fruit in keeping with repentance. What is the fruit of repentance? It is to prepare the way of the Lord and make his paths straight.

Make Sense of Living

People like to come up with many tricks: making money, taking advantage, abusing people, and extorting people. If you collect the tricks of deceiving people, you can write a complete book. If people are unscrupulous for the sake of worldly gains and losses, for buying houses, saving money, and making money, they will not consider others. Why should people repent? Because we find that people suffer a lot of sins and hardships in the world; seeing people living and then dying, there is an unspeakable feeling in their hearts, and then they will think that one day they will be the same as them. Then you will find that a person's life is not very long, and we must understand the things of the world.

When my parents came to Singapore, they were my age, and in the blink of an eye, I am also at their age. Time passes quickly, and in the blink of an eye, my father has been dead for more than ten years. If I can live for more than ten years, it will be the age when my father passed away. More than ten years is not long, about three to five thousand days. A person's life is very short. Looking back on the past, the past three or four decades have passed in the blink of an eye! What can we get? We got nothing, we came empty-handed, and we left empty-handed!

Repentance is to understand things, but what is the fruit of repentance?

The crowd asked, “What should we do, then?” John answered, “Anyone who has two shirts should share with the one who has none, and anyone who has food should do the same.” Tax collectors also came to be baptized. “Teacher,” they asked, “what should we do?” “Don’t collect any more than you are required to,” he told them. Then some soldiers asked him, “And what should we do?” He replied, “Don’t extort money and don’t accuse people falsely—be content with your pay.” (Luke 3:10-14)

John the Baptist's teachings are very practical and down-to-earth. Why do people blackmail people? To make more money; why do people abuse people? To make more money; why do tax collectors collect more taxes? To take it for themselves. But people who have two clothes are not willing to give one to others when they see people who have no clothes, but want to keep them for themselves.

People who have food are not willing to share their food with others when they see hungry people, because they are afraid that if they share it with others, they will have nothing to eat. People do this for the sake of living. However, the more you live like this, the more problems there are, and the more serious they become. People suffer a lot of sins, because the foundation of people is to live. One day you and I will die, so what is the use of keeping your clothes for yourself and preparing for survival? It is of no use at all.

In the past few years, most of the money my mother spent was given by me, because her pension was really not enough. I gave her a lot of money, but she still felt uneasy. My mother said to my sister: Fish help water and water helps fish. Because she expected my sister to help her, but in the end she did not get any help. If people put living in these worldly expectations, what will eventually be brought about is a fundamental fallacy.

We don't need to work hard for the sake of living. Living is already very hard. If you worry about all aspects, you will live even harder. So the Bible teaches us to start repenting and start trusting God. Because we cannot rely on ourselves, and it is useless to arrange everything for ourselves. In the past, my mother arranged so many things, but none of them were useful. Fortunately, she had a filial son like me.

Did we take living as our goal in the past? Did we take living as our foundation? You must know that these cannot stop us from leaving this world one day. If so, let us happily walk in the world and trust our God well.

I do not live by two clothes, food and money, because our God can provide for us. The birds of the air do not sow or reap, yet God feeds them. Therefore, how precious are we in God's eyes! We often say: Heaven never cuts off all means of livelihood. God still feeds those who are not pleasing to God in the world. Prepare the way for the Lord and make his paths straight, so that we who are flesh and blood, who cannot walk through walls, and who live in the flesh, can see God's salvation. To see God's salvation, we need to repent. What is repentance?

As it is written in the book of the words of Isaiah the prophet: “A voice of one calling in the wilderness, ‘Prepare the way for the Lord, make his paths straight. Every valley shall be filled in, every mountain and hill made low. The crooked roads shall become straight, the rough ways smooth. And all people will see God’s salvation.’” (Luke 3:4-6)

In a person's life, they like to do some uneven things, and there are many crooked things inside. You can see such people almost every day, just like what my mother said to my sister: Fish help water and water helps fish, these are crooked things. Trusting our God can solve the problem. People plan and plan all their lives, but all in vain. The road a person walks in his life is turbulent and almost uncontrollable, but we must change that distorted mind and thought.

We need to know one thing, repentance is to change the crooked things inside us from the heart. We need to fill our inside with the word of God, with God's word of justice and righteousness. If we cannot let go of those crooked things inside us, like the TV series Empresses in the Palace, and those palace dramas with intrigue, scheming, and fighting to the death, what is the use in the end? It is of no great use.

Like Empress Lv, Empress Dowager Cixi, and Wu Zetian in Chinese history, they were once powerful in this world, but they could not stop death. What is the use? It is of no use. It is because people do not see far enough, do not think long enough, and feel that living is very real, but it all becomes vain. If a person cannot be used by the Lord, he is a waste, a garbage that is thrown into the fire to be burned; if a person does not desire to be a vessel of God, nor hopes to grow with wisdom and stature from God, and a heart that pleases God, he will also be a waste in the end.

The greatest tragedy of our lives is that we put all our hopes in this world, and then pursue them bitterly. It is so painful to pursue them! The richest man yesterday became the poorest man today. What can people get from pursuing these vain things all their lives? In fact, they really get nothing. So everyone must know that according to God's perspective, you will find that he will use his way to clear his threshing floor with a winnowing fork, gather the wheat into his barn, and burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.

God wants to separate people, some like Abraham, walking with Abraham; some like Isaac, walking with Isaac; some like Jacob and Joseph, walking with Jacob and Joseph. Their ends are the ends of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. There are also some people like Esau, then the road he walks is the road of Esau, and in the end he becomes a model of being cursed.

So we need to start knowing that we do not have many choices in this world. It is better to carefully choose this and carefully choose that in this world than to carefully understand the things of living and then thoroughly repent. I am very emotional inside. I have seen people being born and dying, and I have seen how helpless people are when they leave this world.

Some people say, aren't you very good at healing and deliverance? I am very good at healing and deliverance, but there is one thing I cannot do, that is, when a person's death is approaching. If a person's death is approaching, you can't do anything, and neither can I. If God reveals to me that this person's death is approaching, I will not pray, but comfort him and let him see through birth and death as soon as possible, and that's it.

Birth and death are so helpless, you can't do anything. If people do not know that their days in this world are not long, and they still plan for worldly trivial matters, it is painful to watch and feels foolish. Some people doubt: If you have said so, why do I see you busy, living so steadily and realistically every day? Why? It is precisely because I have seen through it that I have done many things. In fact, everything I do has a beginning and an end. I do everything well. Am I tired? Yes! But living like this is also living, and living like that is also living, so I will live well and seriously. In fact, this is also called the fruit of repentance.

What can control me? Nothing can control me. If you ask me, can money control me? Money cannot control me; can houses control me? Houses cannot control me; can career control me? Career cannot control me. Because I have understood these things in the world, I am a very serious repentant person. Therefore, I encourage everyone to know that repentance is the first door to prepare the way for the Lord and make his paths straight.

Bearing Fruits Worthy of Repentance

It is quite interesting in the Bible that some people claim to have repented, but repentance is merely the first door. There are many more doors to go through. The first door is repentance; the second is accepting Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior; the third is being baptized in the name of Jesus Christ; and the fourth is receiving the baptism of the Holy Spirit and fire. Then there are many other doors. Repentance is just a beginning. If every truth is a door, then there are many doors, layer upon layer.

Have you seen Tiananmen? Tiananmen is the main gate of the Imperial City, and there are also Duanmen, Wu Men, and many other gates. When I was a child, I often drew Tiananmen, but I had never been there. I was very envious when I saw someone take a picture in front of Tiananmen! Later, I finally went to Beijing and walked through Tiananmen. My legs became thinner after walking around inside. There are more than nine thousand rooms when you walk out of the Forbidden City!

Try walking through all the doors! More than nine thousand doors are too scary. I don't want to wander around anymore. The next time I go, I will go straight from the front gate to the back gate. The back gate is Jingshan Park, and outside Jingshan Park, there is an old crooked neck tree, which is a memorial, the old crooked neck tree where Emperor Chongzhen committed suicide.

A person's life is probably like this, walking around in this world, but still unable to see clearly. If you can't see clearly, suffer a little sin and hardship, and you will understand. Some people get ankylosing spondylitis, and after the pain goes away, they go back to the old road. They forget the pain after the scar heals, and they don't repent. If you can't pass the first door, then you might as well forget it. You can't walk this road, let alone receive the baptism of the Holy Spirit and fire.

To prepare the way of the Lord and make his paths straight is the responsibility of each of us, not just John the Baptist's responsibility. Each of us must be prepared so that God's salvation can come upon us, so that God's power can come upon us, and so that God's grace can come upon us. So that the power of Jesus Christ's resurrection from the dead can come upon us, which means that all flesh, as long as you repent, can see God's salvation. That is to say, we must see through the matters of life and death in this life, and it will be good if we see through.

If you see through it and bear fruits worthy of repentance, even if you lived four thousand years ago, you would be Abraham of that time; if you lived three thousand years ago, you would be David of that generation; if you lived two thousand years ago, you would be John the Baptist of that generation. So later, we see the Holy Spirit descending on Jesus, and there is a voice from heaven saying: This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased! Are you someone God is pleased with? This is a very crucial matter.

Imitating the Figures in the Genealogy of Jesus

Today we will start entering the door of repentance and continue to move forward. Luke chapter 3, verses 23 to 38, talks about the genealogy of Jesus Christ. The author Luke starts from Jesus being the son of Joseph, and Joseph being the son of Heli, and writes all the way down to Adam. Among them, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Judah, and others are people we know, and some people we don't know. The entire Old Testament records the stories of the people in the genealogy of Jesus Christ, all of whom are people who prepared the way of the Lord and made his paths straight.

These people prepared the way of the Lord and made his paths straight so that God's salvation could come upon us. From Adam and Eve to Abraham, there are two thousand years, from Abraham to Jesus Christ, there are two thousand years, and from Jesus Christ to us, there are two thousand years. Some people will say, don't archaeologists say that the earliest humans are millions or millions of years away from us? In fact, no one can say these things clearly, and there are many assumptions in archaeology.

We are talking about the people recorded in the genealogy of Jesus Christ in the Old Testament. From a physical point of view, Joseph is the father of Jesus Christ, that is, the husband of Mary. These people are all people who prepared the way of the Lord and made his paths straight. Seth begat Enosh, and Enosh called on the name of God. In the days of Noah, only Noah's family of eight remained, and the rest were washed away by the flood.

Today's generation is descended from Noah. From Noah to Abraham, if we want to imitate, we should imitate the people we know in the genealogy of Jesus Christ, such as Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. They all have a common characteristic: they fear God, trust God, seek God, and know that everything in this world is vanity of vanities.

They know that they are of flesh and blood and need God's salvation. After seeking God's salvation, they remove the crooked thoughts and intentions from their hearts, and remove the high and low, distorted paths from within themselves. We all need God's salvation so that we can come safely before God and receive God's praise. Everyone must know that in this world, even if you are King Herod or the Jewish governor Pilate, it is useless. They are just of flesh and blood.

We see people in this world fighting bitterly, striving for worldly interests. Whether it is China first, or the United States, Germany, or Russia first, it is all for the sake of interests. People are fighting for these interests in vain because they have not seen through. People have not seen through and have not repented, and may not even have entered the first door.

There are many Christians who have not passed through this door because they have not borne the fruit of repentance. How to prepare the way of the Lord and make his paths straight is to repent, recognize what it means to live, and imitate people like Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and David. Joseph was sold into slavery in Egypt, but he still had hope in faith. He knew that it was nothing in this world. He looked up to the God in heaven in faith, and God exalted him to be the prime minister of Egypt.

It is impossible for a person to love God if he loves worldly money; it is impossible for a person to love God if he loves worldly people and things. We can live well with God. If we have God, will we lack clothes? If we give one of two clothes to others, God will add to us. The old woman put two copper coins into the offering box, and God provided for her the next day as well. She went from her sixties to her seventies, and then to her eighties, spending her days relying on offerings, and God did not fail her.

If we knew how great God's power is, we would truly repent. We would truly prepare the way of the Lord and make his paths straight, welcoming him to be Lord and King in our lives. Open your heart today and invite the Lord Jesus into your heart to be your Lord and to control your life, and you will not lack anything in your life.

Those who trust in the Lord and seek the Lord lack nothing good. What a wonderful thing this is! Let God's promises in Jesus Christ come upon us, that is the most wonderful thing in our lives! So stop arranging for worldly things, but arrange for the Lord to enter our lives. Prepare the way of the Lord and make his paths straight, removing the crooked things in our lives, and let God's word cleanse our minds and thoughts, so that we can become righteous, upright, full of grace and mercy, and live out God's glory in our lives.

May God bless you all!