Get a Grip - against Backsliding

• Treacherous driveway requires clearing, good tires

• Preparing God’s way requires forgiveness of sin, grip of Holy Spirit

Wild for God: A ‘Spiritual Sasquatch’

• Old Testament closed anticipating Messiah (Mal 4:1,5f)

• John’s dress, diet, discourse unconventional (4,6)

• Preaching / repentance foreign in ‘Enlightenment’ worldview

• “Sin” assumes moral accountability to Supreme Being

• our wickedness suppresses the truth about God (Rom 1:20f)

A Wave of Yearning for God’s Cleansing

• Whole countryside responded, were baptized (5)

• Conscience inner gauge of morality (Rom 2:15)

• React to photos of Holocaust, infant abuse

• Yet so easy to dismiss disturbing news of atrocities in other countries today

Prepare the Way, Make Straight the Path

• Repent not ‘sorry’ but ‘turn around’

• Agree with God about my desperate spiritual state / stink

• Appreciate how worthy Jesus is (7; Jn 1:29,36, 3:29)

• Seek Holy Spirit’s reform (8; Acts 2:38)

• ‘godly sorrow’ produces earnestness, indignation, longing, desire for justice / innocence (2Cor 7:9ff)

The Master’s Grace Overcomes Our Mistakes

• Concert of liar redeemed by Master’s intervention