Chapter # 3 Paragraph # 3 Study # 1
April 2, 2006
Lincolnton, N.C.
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<238> Thesis:  Though man's misunderstanding is enormous, God's grace is up to the task. Introduction:  We have been considering Luke's record of John's "message" to the people of Judea. At the root of this message are two extremely fundamental issues. On the one hand, we have John being deliberately named "John" by the requirement of Yahweh. This is a signal of a very significant "T"heological issue. It signals a significant problem in man as he thinks about God. On the other hand, we have John deliberately telling everyone who came out to hear his preaching that humanity is in a corruption so great that the only way men can even begin to grasp it is through the analogy of a massive nest of vipers. This is a signal of a very significant "a"nthropological issue. It signals a significant problem in man as he thinks about himself. Now, given the fact that Luke has recorded these two major problems, we need to give some thought to the issue of how they are to be resolved. The greatest danger that we will face as we attempt to resolve it is the danger of ignoring the words of God and attempting to solve the problems ourselves. If we do this we will do two things simultaneously: we will reduce the true glory of God and we will reduce the truth about our own condition. We will do these two things in order for it to "make sense" to us that we can have a relationship of acceptance with God. In order to escape this danger, we are going to seriously consider the words of God so that He may lead us into the reality of a relationship of acceptance without that relationship being diminished by the corruption of false conclusions. The words we are going to consider this morning are those written by Luke in 3:15-16. We are going to ask ourselves, "How could the people have been so wrong about John?"