Luke chapter 3 Luke 3.1 Now in the fifteenth
year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar Pontius Pilate being governor
of Judea and Herod being tetrarch of Galilee and his brother Philip,
Tetrarch of Aturea, and of the region of Trachonatus and Lysanias,
the Tetrarch of Abilene, Annas and Caiaphas, being the high
priests, the word of God came unto John, the son of Zacharias,
in the wilderness. Now these various leaders' names
who are mentioned, all these men were known to be very corrupt
and evil men, unworthy to lead anything, much
less the most powerful empire in the world at that time, but
such is the way of men. Through deals and favors and
bribes and threats, men appoint themselves authority in this
world. Governments of men are always corrupt, full of corrupt people that do
corrupt business. The leader of the free world
right now, as he's called, won the presidency on the promise
of draining the swamp. And some have some hope that
he will, to some extent, do that. But it's still a swamp. And it's
the best there is in this world. And it's a swamp. And I suspect it'll always be
a swamp. But in the midst of business
as usual in this world, God sent his word. Isn't that beautiful? God sent his word to an inconspicuous
place, to an unlikely person. He didn't send his word to one
of these great leaders or influential men. John was not born into an
influential family at all, nor recognized by men to be great
in any way. But God made him truly great
and called him so. And we've looked into the reason
before, recently, why John was great. Why God called him the greatest
man born of a woman. And it simply amounts to this.
He preached Christ. He debased himself. He went around
preaching the kingdom of God, which is Christ. He said, there's
God's lamb that takes away sin. He said, there's coming one after
me which is preferred before me. He preached Christ and he
debased himself. He said, I'm not worthy to unlatch
his shoes. Everybody was kind of getting
excited about John, you know, because of his authority and
the way that he spoke. the power that God had given
him, and he said, I'm nothing. You need to know that I'm nothing
and nobody from nowhere. He was very careful to point
that out. I'm just a friend of the bridegroom. He said, I must decrease while
he's exalted. And he acknowledged that nothingness
and declared the truth regarding God's Son, that he's the Lamb
of God. The Lamb of God. A lot of people
knew what that meant. What's a lamb for? Well, that's
what you sacrifice. It's the blood of the Lamb that
makes atonement for sins before God. And John said, there is
the one Lamb. Paul said in Hebrews, The blood
of bulls and of goats and animals can never take away sin, but
John said that one will. That one's blood will. He made sure that everyone knew
that Jesus of Nazareth was the Son of God whose shoes latcheth.
We are not worthy to unloose. Now you think about that statement.
You're not worthy to unloose his shoes. In other words, to
be his servant is so great an honor. To be his bond slave is
such a privilege and honor that we could never even aspire to
it, if not for his grace. We wouldn't even be allowed to
take his shoes off, except for his grace. And John
is an example of that. All of the so-called great leaders
were just losers with a title. Snakes, swamp creatures with
a title, that's all they were. But the truly great man of God
was unknown, with no authority in earthly matters. But what
all of those so-called powerful leaders were doing, I think about
that, all the hierarchy of government among men. Always doing some
kind of business, always signing something, always making some
kind of a decree. It amounts to absolutely nothing. It amounts
to a hill of beans. While God was accomplishing by the preaching of his son,
by sending his word to an unknown man from nowhere, nobody, God accomplished through the
preaching of his word by that man, by sending his word to that
man who delivered it. And it says all things that John
spoke of Christ was true. And by those means God accomplished
the only thing of any consequence in the world. All these great
leaders are supposedly doing great things, it amounts to nothing. The only thing that matters is
that God sent his word to John. And everything that God's doing
is accomplished that way, by the preaching of that word. What these great leaders are
doing, who even knows? You only know what they want
you to know. God chooses the foolish to confound
the wise though. He chooses the weak to confound
the mighty, the things that are not to bring to naught the things
that are, Why? So that no flesh shall glory
in his presence. So if you ever find yourself
glorying in yourself, if you ever trust yourself, if
you ever exalt yourself in anything, you are running directly counter
to the God of heaven and earth. You are at cross purposes with
him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will.
Not a good place to be. While powerful men were making
decrees that didn't amount to anything and no doubt thought
they were running the world, God sovereignly decreed and executed
that which would turn the world upside down. He gave his gospel
to somebody. And they said the world itself
testified they're turning the world upside down with this gospel. His word came to a nobody from
nowhere. Reconsider what is consequential
in your life this morning. Reconsider what is important.
Let's reconsider our priorities. What matters? The business of
this world? or the business of God in this
world. What is really of any consequence?
What the presidents and governors and all the leaders of this world
are doing or what God's doing? In sending his word to sinners. What God's doing is unnoticed
by the world at large But what do you want in on? The
affairs of this life? Or the business that God has
given us to do? You know, despite the way things
look and these names of men with great authority, supposedly,
the government, the government rests upon the shoulders of Christ.
Isaiah said it a long time ago, the government shall be upon
his shoulders. Nobody is aware of it. Are we
aware of that this morning? That the government that supersedes
all government, the government of the universe, of which the
petty governments of men are just a small part, rests upon
the shoulders of Christ, the Lord Jesus Christ. government
is on him. He's running things. He's running
the ones that are running things, or think they are. And while
the world goes on about its evil business, the word of God is
still coming. God's still sending his word
to sinners in me. He may send his word this morning
to somebody that's never had it before. He sends it and he says in Isaiah
55 that where and when he sends it, it will accomplish exactly
the purpose that he sent it to accomplish. And as we've said already, we
know how men come to power. We know how they promote themselves
and finagle their way into positions that they want. They do so through briberies
and threats and all kinds of crooked ways. Influence. Favors. Sinful things. John became the greatest man
ever born of a woman because of something God did. God came
where he was and gave him the word of God. It came to him. You see that
in the text? It came to him in the wilderness. He wasn't even,
he's out in the wilderness. He's not even in on the things
going on in this world. But he's in on what God's doing.
Now he is. Because God said so. Isn't it
good to be in on it? Isn't it good to be in on what's
really important? What really matters? He didn't decide to be a preacher.
He wasn't looking for some kind of position. It wasn't according
to ambition of some kind in him. God did something and man received
it. Man submitted to it. What a blessing
of his almighty grace that God would send his word to anybody. Through this one man God gave
his word to many. John, after many, many, many
years, many decades, centuries of silence from God, God sent his word to John. And this is what we need now.
This is what we need in this world. We need his word. I've told you many times. It's
my advice for everything, everything, everything. I don't care what
your problem is. I don't care what your situation
is. I don't care what it is. You know what you need to do?
Hear the Word of God. You're not going to have the
right perspective on anything. You're not going to ever be able
to make, you're not going to be in a position to make any
decision with any virtue at all, with any wisdom whatsoever, unless
you hear the Word of God. And hear it often because you're
going to forget it. You're going to forget it. Hear it and keep
hearing it. What are we going to do without
His Word? What relationship is ever going
to work or mean anything if we don't have His Word? What purpose
is there in life if we don't have His Word? This is what we
need. Men are sitting on thrones and
making decrees. Men are governing and judging
and legislating and campaigning. And what do they say? What do
they always say, whether it's true or not? And it's usually
not. I'm doing this to make a difference. But what's really going to make
a difference in this world? The word of the Lord. That's
what nothing else is going to make any difference. How different would be the affairs
of men, how different our families, how different our communities,
how different our churches, so-called in this world, our cities, our
country, if anybody gave two hoots about what God said. Can
you imagine the difference? Can you even fathom it? If we did anything according
to the word of the Lord, how different it would be. But it's not really even about
that ultimately. It's really not. It's not about
communities and cities and governments and countries. It's about you. The word of the Lord came to
John. And it's going to come to you
or it's not going to come to you. It doesn't come to governments. It comes to individual sinners
like you. And that's what matters. You
know, people arguing and fussing and fighting and debating over
whether God loves everybody or not. Does God love? God loves everybody. Oh no, He
don't. Do you believe God? God said
He hated Esau. But you know what? The question is not whether God
loves everybody or not. Did you know that? Even if you
know, by the grace of God, that the answer to that is He does
not. Even if you know that, that God
doesn't love everybody. You may know that as well as
you know your name. What good is that going to do you in hell,
to know that? The question is, does God love
you? Does He love you? That's what you need to find
out. That's what that leper wanted
to know. He said, Lord, I know you can't, but will you have
mercy on me? Do you care anything about me? Would you do something for me,
even though I'm unworthy? Can I get a crumb, even though
I'm a dog? What about me? That's the question now. The word of the Lord is not given
to make the world a better place. It's about remission of sins.
God's word came to John and what did he say? He talked about the
remission of sin. Do you see that in the next part?
Let's look at it, verse 2 of chapter 3. Annas and Kephas being
the hymn, we saw that verse 3. And he came unto all the country
about Jordan preaching the baptism of repentance for the remission
of sins. What he was preaching and what
he was doing, baptizing, regarded the remission of sins, repentance
concerning the remission of sins. Now think with me this morning.
What is sin? Well, there's a whole lot of
different ways to define sin. Sin is disobedience to God. It's not doing what God said.
It's rebelling against God. It's breaking the law of God.
But it's more than just the act of it. Sin is a nature. Sin is
you. There's no sin without a sinner.
People think of sin as some disease that's floating around out here
that, oh, I don't want it to get into me. You are the sin. The sin is us. Christ had to
become what we are in order to make us what He is, the righteousness
of God in Him. He had to take our place. We're not sinners because we
sin. We sin because we're sinners. But bless God, there is such
a thing as remission of sins. And John preached the baptism
of repentance for the remission of sins. So let's take that in
order. Baptism. What is baptism? The word means
immersion. There's nothing to debate about
it. It means to go under. That's what the word means. It means literally to be submerged. And baptism is a symbol. It's
one of the ordinances that God gave to his church, like the
Lord's table. When sinners are baptized, they
are confessing that the remission of their sins is by the death
of Christ and the life of Christ. His death, his burial, his resurrection. When they confess this, that
indicates a change of mind. Thus the word repentance. A change of mind with regard
to how sins are remitted. When you're baptized, in other
words, you're saying, I've changed my mind about how
sins are remitted. Well, how are you thinking they're
remitted now? Somebody got to die. But he's also got to live. I've
got to die, and yet I've got to live. But I can't do that,
but he can, and he did. Christ, and as he is, so are
we. If we're buried with him in baptism,
we're also raised with him in newness of life, Paul said. It's
a picture of that. And that, when you picture that,
when you submit to that ordinance, to that picture, you're confessing
I don't think that I can do good anymore. I don't think my good
can outweigh my bad anymore. I don't think I'm a good person
anymore. I know that I'm sinful and wretched and my only hope
is if Christ died for me and raised, took up his life again
for me and for my justification. That's my only hope. Repentance
is simply a change of mind. People think repentance means
being sorry for your sins and Of course it includes that because
that's a change, isn't it? That's a change in thinking.
I wasn't much sorry for him before. Didn't really know I much had
any. Just kind of believed, well, yeah, I'm a sinner. I've done
some bad things. I didn't even know what that was. So that's
part of the change of mind. But the word repent simply means
a change of mind. In other words, you don't believe
what you used to believe anymore. You believe something else. So the baptism of repentance
for the remission of sins doesn't mean that you are baptized because
that is how sins are remitted. It means that your mind has been
changed regarding how sins are remitted and you want everybody
to know it. You want everybody to know this
is how my sins are gone. They're washed away in the blood
of Christ. Christ died for my sins according
to the scriptures. Do you see that? You're being submerged underwater
and coming out of it again, symbolizing the death and burial and resurrection
of the Lord Jesus Christ. What do you believe about the
remission of sins, Chris? Well, the most beautiful and
simple way to show you It's what happens in that baptistery.
It don't get much simpler and clearer than that. It's like
the Lord's table. Bread is broken. And we remember,
because it's in little pieces, we see that and we remember that
he said, I've broken my body for you. I lay my life down of
myself. He broke it himself and handed
it to them. And when we see that broken bread,
the little fragments of it, we think about that. And we take Him, we receive Him
as such, as the Son of God made flesh and dwelt among us, God
with us, Jehovah's Savior. He's God with us and His name
is, He's going to save us from our sins. And that's how He's
going to do it. by the breaking of his body and
the shedding of his precious blood. I partake of that. I receive
him that way as my atonement, as my sin offering, as my righteousness,
as my cleansing before God, as my redemption, as my atonement. When I was baptized, I showed
everybody who was interested how my sins were remitted. My Savior died and death is the
wages of sin. If I die for my sin, they're
not remitted. But he never sinned. He had no
sin. My Savior died and paid the wages
of sin, but he didn't know until he took my death, until he took
my guilt, my sin into his own body on the tree. I owed it. I was guilty. I was the sinner
before God. But he took my place. He died
for my sins according to the scriptures. But he didn't stay
dead. He said, I'll lay down my life and I'll take it up again.
And he did. He did. He took it up again. And because
he did, now I'm dead to sin but alive unto God through Jesus
Christ my Lord. Turn to Romans chapter 6 with
me. This is so beautifully preached here, taught here. Romans 6, 4. Romans 6, 4, Therefore we are
buried with him by baptism into death, that like as Christ was
raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so
we also should walk in newness of life. We walk in his life. Christ in you the hope of glory,
not I, but Christ dwelleth in me. I live this life by the faith
of Christ. For if we have been planted together,
in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness
of his resurrection. Knowing this, that our old man
is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed
that henceforth we should not serve sin, for he that is dead
is freed from sin. Now if we be dead with Christ,
we believe that we shall also live with him. Knowing that Christ,
being raised from the dead, dieth no more, death hath no more dominion
over him. For in that he died, he died
unto sin once, but in that he liveth, he liveth unto God. Likewise
reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin. but
alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord. Isn't that simple
and beautiful? Beautiful. John put it this way
in Revelation 1.5. The Apostle John said this, Revelation
1.5, And from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness and the
first begotten of the dead, and the prince of the kings of the
earth, unto him that loved us and washed us from our sins,
in his own precious blood. When we think of washing something,
what do we think of? What do we wash things with?
Water. Baptism symbolizes a washing.
It's an apt symbol of washing because we usually wash with
water. But when we're baptized, it's not the water that's washing
us. It's what's pictured by the baptism itself. We are submerged under the water,
the death of Christ and His life, which death is in turn symbolized
and said this way, His precious blood. His precious blood. It's His death. It's Christ crucified
that cleanses us from all sin. Our text calls it the baptism
of repentance. for the remission of sins. The baptism of repentance for
the remission of sins. So I'm changing my mind about
how sins are remitted by God's grace. I don't think the way
I used to. God has changed my mind. He's given me a right mind. Put me in my right mind. And
that right mind, what does it think about the remission of
sins? Our Lord said, this is my blood of the new covenant
which is shed for many for the remission of sins. That's how I think now. And when
I'm baptized, I'm confessing that. Romans 3.25, whom God hath set
forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood to declare
his righteousness for the remission of sin through faith. I believe
in his blood because God is declaring his righteousness for the remission
of sins. God can be right and remit my
sins. How? I believe in his blood. I believe his blood made that
happen. For the remission of sins that are passed through
the forbearance of God. Hebrews 9.22, almost all things are by
the law purged with blood. And without the shedding of blood
there's no what? No remission of sin. So we're not being baptized in
order to have our sins remitted by that act of baptism. It's
the baptism of repentance for the remission of sins. It's the
baptism that shows my thinking, my faith now, my belief now,
Regarding how sins are remitted is that Christ must die. Christ must need to suffer and
rise again. You see that? This is what I
repent regarding. My mind is changed regarding
how my sins can be taken away. I no longer believe that I can
make up for my sins by anything I do. Do you believe that? Then
may I by God's grace preach unto you the baptism of repentance
for the remission of sins. You need to quit thinking that. I know now by the grace of God
because his word has come to me. John was able to preach this
because the word of God came to him. And you're going to be
able to believe it. Your mind will be changed. Regarding
how sins are put away when the word of the Lord comes to you
The word of the Lord has come to me and now I know by his grace
Because somebody preached it to me God sent his word to a
preacher like John And he preached it to me and he sent his word
to my heart And now I know that the only way I can stand before
God sinless the only way I can be accepted of God Is if Christ
pays my sin debt with his own precious blood if he makes his
own soul and offering for my sin if he suffers the consequences
of my guilt in my place in Calvary. It is enough that Jesus died
and that he died for me. That's what I believe regarding
the remission of sin. And it's the only thing that's
enough. When I was baptized, that's what
I was saying. And by God's grace, I was saying
it God's way by a simple, clear, unmistakable picture. Just as at the Lord's table we
do show the Lord's death till he come, that's what we're showing in
the other ordinance he ordained too. We're showing his death.
Isn't it pretty clear, isn't it? His death. He's buried. And
he rose again. At the table we're showing that
our communion and fellowship with God is in and by the Lord's
death and resurrection, by his precious blood. And in baptism
we're showing that our salvation, the remission of our sins, is
by the precious blood of the Lamb. So in closing, we'll look at, we were Really
verses one through six go together, but we'll have to look at the
next part of that next time. When a believer is baptized,
he is publicly confessing that the remission of his sins is
by the death of God's Son. It's that simple. Which is to
say that they believe the message of the gospel. They believe the
word of the Lord that he sent. That he sends to particular sinners.
And by those, he sends it to others. They believe that message and
they confess the Christ that is preached. What do we preach?
Christ crucified. What is baptism? It's the confession of faith
in that message. Very clearly. And this confession is a show
of repentance. Because we hadn't always thought
that way. We hadn't always believed that. We believed it when he
sent his word to us. Because it's by the foolishness
of preaching that God saves them that believe. And those that
he saves confess him. I used to think that I could
do good or make a decision and God would
save me. That I could do something to get saved. I used to think
that. And really, before, I didn't
even know that much that I needed to be saved, because I was pretty
good already. But God changed my mind. God
sent his word. And now I don't see things the
way I used to. By his almighty grace, by his
wonderful, gracious providence and power upon me and toward
me and in me, I see things His way. I see that Christ is the
way, that He is the life and the truth. I know now that I'm
a wretched sinner before God, and my only hope is the precious
blood of God's Lamb, shed by Him freely to atone for my sins. And I know that my only righteousness
before God is the risen Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, whose
obedience unto death is my spotless robe. This is the baptism of repentance
for the remission of sins. Have you been baptized as a show of repentance, as a
confession of how your sins are remitted before God? All those
who know Christ in this way should show Christ in this way. confessing your sins and confessing
Him as the Redeemer of your sins. I remember when the Ethiopian
eunuch was reading in Isaiah chapter 53 and the Holy Spirit
of God sent Philip and said, go join yourself to that chariot. And as Philip approached, he
heard the man reading Isaiah 53. He was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities.
The chastisement of our peace was upon him with his stripes
were healed. And he said to him, do you understand
what you're reading? And he said, how can I? Unless
some man should guide me. Unless God sends his, that's
the way God sends his word, did you know that? By a man. An angel
appeared to Cornelius. and said, go get Peter to preach
to you. Wait a minute, there's an angel of God. Surely he can
tell me what God said. No, the angel said, go get Peter. Foolish, fickle, impetuous. Peter had some trouble controlling
his anger, didn't he? We talked about that this morning.
Our Lord had to tell him, put your sword up, Peter. but it
suffered to be so. How can I accept some man should
guide me? And Philip began at that same
passage of scripture and preached unto him, Jesus, the word of
the Lord concerns his son. And God sent his word to another
man to whom he had sent his word, to that Ethiopian eunuch. And
you know what he said? Here is water. What doth hinder
me to be baptized? That's a pretty good question,
isn't it? Here is water. Right there. Here's water. What doth hinder you to be baptized? If you believe with all your
heart. Has the word of God come to you?
Do you believe God with all your heart? Then you may.