Morality and Religion.
I. As far as we know of the preaching of John the Baptist, it consisted in what we should call the enforcement of moral duties. Soon after, our Lord Himself began His own ministry, and His public teaching opened with the great discourse which ever since all Christians have known as the Sermon on the Mount. And what is the general tenour of this sermon? Again it consists in the enforcement of what we should call moral duties. And still, through our Lord's teaching to the very end, the same principle ever returns, that whatever else may be needed to be His servant, this, at any rate, is indispensable, that you shall do God's will, that your life's action shall be governed by God's laws, that you shall bring forth good fruits.
II. In order to make it easier to reflect seriously on our lives, and on the true character of them, let us, as it were, gather them up under their chief heads: Principle and Temper. (1) Now we all mean by principle that strong sense of duty which keeps us straight in all cases in which we are not taken by surprise, or misled by mistake, and even in those cases never lets us wander far, but quickly checks the straying feet, and calls us to the path. The characteristic of principle is trustworthiness. The man of principle will live in secret as he lives in public, and will not gratify a wish when it cannot be known, which he would not gratify if it could be known. The man of principle is emphatically the man who loves the light, and comes to the light. Apply this to our own lives. See how much of our lives is right by a sort of happy accident, by absence of temptation, by presence of all manner of aids. See how fitful, uncertain, untrustworthy, we often are. Look to this, and you will assuredly find much to mend. (2) It is quite possible to have right principles, and yet to spoil all by want of control of temper. High principles must of course stand above disciplined temper; but let not any Christian dream that to leave temper unchecked is a light sin in the eyes of the God of love. Not even high principle can be retained for ever against the effect of self-indulged temper on the soul.
Bishop Temple, Rugby Sermons,2nd series, p. 234.
I. Consider the character, office, and ministry of the Baptist, as preparatory to the setting up of the Gospel Kingdom. He was all ardour, and courage, and uncompromising fidelity. He respected no persons, he spared no vices, he regarded no consequences. We cannot fail to observe the sectional character of John's preaching, the skill with which he addressed himself to the exposure of class errors and class sins. The ministry of the Baptist was, so to speak, a type of the dispensation of the Spirit. Just as it is the twofold office of the Comforter, first to convince of sin, and then to take of the things of Christ and show the way of propitiation; so it was the twofold office of John, first to alarm the conscience by saying, "Repent ye: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand," and then to kindle faith by saying, "Behold the Lamb of God, that taketh away the sins of the world."
II. Observe the appropriate connection between evangelical repentance and any part or lot in the kingdom of heaven; between spiritual conviction of sin and the realized advent of Him who is to deliver us from its guilt and power. "Repent ye: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand." As the ministry of John generally was to prepare for the coming of Christ, so we should expect the chief object of that ministry would be to prepare men's hearts for the receiving of Christ. And these requisitions are met in that first trumpet-blast which the Baptist sounded in the ears of a slumbering world, "Repent, repent."
III. Then look at some of the resulting fruits of such preaching, as they actually followed on the stern wilderness message. First we see there were, among those who came to him, deep and humiliating convictions of sin; and these expressed openly, aloud, in the face of their friends and of the whole world. Here we find excited in the heart the very first pre-requisite for bringing Christ within reach, the very condition which disposes to appreciate the great Physician's medicines, as well as to become the subjects of an effectual cure. John's preaching exhibited the moral order of the soul's conversion. His first care was to ensure conviction of sins. No love of Christ, and no professed care about Christ, could be of any avail without that. This done, however, then may Christ be held up; and just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness did the Baptist direct all eyes to the Crucified, and proclaim to those smitten with a sense of sin, and trembling with a consciousness of their soul's danger, "Behold the Lamb of God."
D. Moore, Penny Pulpit,No. 3,219.
I. Repentance is not a formal or technical thing. It is simply an operation of the human mind in regard to evil things putting spurs to the zeal of men, in going away from evil and towards good. Repentance, therefore, is merely an abandonment of evil things, in order that one may reach after better and higher things. The degree of repentance essential is just that which is necessary to make you let go of mischief and evil. Just as soon as you know enough of the evil of sin to let it alone, or to turn away from it with your whole strength, you have repentance enough. Deep and abundant convictions are beneficial in certain natures, because in these natures only such sensuous and wrestling experiences will avail, since they are coarse-fibred, since they rank low morally, and since, therefore, they need rasping. But if they are more nobly strong, if their moral nature is more sensitive, if they can turn from evil on a slighter suggestion, is it not better? For men ought to repent easily. It is a sin and a shame for them to repent reluctantly and grudgingly.
II. The highest form of repentance is a turning away from bad to good on account of the love which we bear to others; in other words, on account of that imperfect love which belongs to us in our physical and earthly relations; for we seldom find men who have the pure and spiritual impulse of love toward God so strong as to act as a dissuasion from evil and a persuasion toward good until they have actually been drawn into a divine life.
III. Repentance may be, as it respects either single actions or courses of action, a secondary impulse for some special intent or struggle, or it may become a dominant influence, acting through long periods, and renewing and refreshing itself continually.
IV. From this great law no one can escape. There is not a man who does not need this primary experience, this turning to a higher life from the animal life; and there is no man who has a power of reasoning so high, no man who was born with such qualities, with such a balance of all the attributes of the soul, that he stands disengaged from the great law of repentance of everything that is evil, and of aspiration toward all that is good.
H. W. Beecher, Christian World Pulpit,vol. x., p. 100.
References: Matthew 3:1; Matthew 3:2. J. C. Jones, Studies in St. Matthew,p. 53; F. D. Maurice, Sermons in Country Churches,p. 110. Matthew 3:1-3. New Outlines of Sermons on the New Testament,p. 6. Matthew 3:1-6. Parker, Inner Life of Christ,vol. i., p. 70. Matthew 3:1-12. Homiletic Magazine,vol. vi., p. 25; vol. x., p. 99.