with hymn number 18 in your Spiral
Gospel Hymns hymn book, hymn number 18. And instead of singing
the refrain for each verse, we'll just sing straight through. Sing
the refrain as if it was verse number two. Let's all stand together. God gave his holy inspired word
for only one great end. The prophets and apostles, too,
revealed the sinner's friend. The Bible is a book of Christ,
it only speaks of Him. On every page it shows us Christ,
it only speaks of Him. The prophecies of old record
God's wondrous mighty deeds Those deeds of power and of grace Set
forth the woman's seed The prophets all reveal our Lord
as prophet, priest, and king. The types, the great redemptions
show Christ's blood and grace. Behold the Lamb, the Baptist
said, the sin-atoning One. As it was promised long before,
God's Son as man has come. Our substitute, Obeyed the law,
then died and rose again. And in his word our Savior said,
Rejoice, I come again. Please be seated. I was thinking I don't know who
I feel worse for, you or me. A little of both probably. Me
for not being sufficient and you for having to hear me not
be sufficient. Turn with me please in the word
of God to Romans chapter 10. Romans chapter 10 and we'll start
at verse 13. The Lord is telling us right
here the means he's going to use for the salvation of his
people. And these are the only means
he reveals in this whole book. And that's the preaching of the
gospel. And let us see what the Lord says. Oh, saith the Lord.
Verse 13, for whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord
shall be saved. How then shall they call on him
in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in
him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without
a preacher? And how shall they preach except
they be sent? It is written, how beautiful
are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace. That's the peace with God. It's
not a worldly peace, it's a peace with God. And bring glad tidings
of good things. But they have not all obeyed
the gospel, for Isaiah said, Lord, who hath believed our report? And verse 17, so then faith cometh
by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. I guess what makes just so insufficient
is when you realize how important what we're doing. This is the
salvation of men and women, boys and girls souls. That's what's
at stake. And God says the only way they
can be saved is through the foolishness of preaching, the preaching of
the gospel of God's grace in Christ. And that's why as a believers,
oh, how we desire for our loved ones coming here, because there's
no salvation apart from the preaching of the gospel. This idea you've
heard some people say, well, I was saved in a false gospel
church and that's a lie. That's a lie. The only way the
Lord's gonna save you is the preaching of his gospel. Paul
says the only gospel can save of the glory of Jesus Christ
and his grace towards his people. Oh, how important is this preaching.
How we desire for our lost friends and loved ones to hear this preaching.
And how I desire tonight for the Lord to speak to us. And
it always amazes me that I have to confess. And Robert, we're
gonna try on Sunday to preach and Greg is very good. He'll
give you a couple of months notice. And I'll just tell you it's up
to that last day and I'm still struggling. Well, this time he
called me and said, you got a week and I was already struggling
with the next Sunday. And I said, well, all I can tell
you is I've never felt sufficient, I never will feel sufficient.
Because there's no man that is sufficient. And how we are relying
on God to speak to us. And we are just merely tools
of voice, that's all we are. And if the Lord doesn't speak,
it'll be in vain tonight. There'll be nothing worth. But
if he does speak, it'll be the blessing of our souls unto his
people and to his glory. Let us go to the Lord in prayer
and ask him to bless the services. Lord, we know that you're present
with us. You've promised that. And we desire to see you glorified
and you'd be declared. And we pray, Lord, that you would
speak, speak to us tonight. That you would send your spirit
and give us the faith to believe and rest upon you. And that we
would have not any hope outside of you. and that we would be
comforted, but most of all, Lord, that you would be glorified.
We ask this in the name of your Son, your Son, Lord Jesus Christ,
amen. Number 354 in the hardbacked
hymnal, 354, what a friend we have in Jesus. Let's all stand
together. What a friend we have in Jesus,
all our sins and griefs to bear. What a privilege to carry everything
to God in prayer. Oh, what peace we often forfeit. Oh, what needless pain we bear. All because we do not carry everything
to God in prayer. Have we trials and temptations? Is there trouble anywhere? We should never be discouraged. Take it to the Lord in prayer. Can we find a friend so faithful? Who will all our sorrows share? Jesus knows our every weakness. Take it to the Lord in prayer. Are we weak and heavy laden,
Cumbered with a load of care? Precious Savior, still our refuge,
Take it to the Lord in prayer. Do thy friends despise forsake
thee? Take it to the Lord in prayer. In his arms he'll take and shield
thee. Thou will find a solace there. Please be seated. please turn with me in God's
word to Matthew chapter 3. Matthew chapter 3. You know,
it's always been this way. It was true in the word of God.
We are thankful for the men that God sends to preach the gospel.
But they're just servants. All they do and what they should
do, and I pray the Lord enable me to do, as they point them
to Christ. In religion, they follow the
men. You hear them, well, Billy Graham was preaching to save
me. Pick whoever you want, James Cole, whoever you want, any flavor
of religion. But God's people follow Christ.
And that's what I want to talk about this morning in chapter
three. And I was, although we're thankful for them, We pray for them, because they're
not sufficient either. But one of the things in my life
I count as a great blessing, the Lord in his good providence
has allowed me to hear several gospel preachers. One that I
think very highly of, and I think about him often, is Brother Henry
Mahan. I don't know I've ever met a
man that was more faithful to the gospel and yet did it with
compassion as he had. Some of you may have never had
that experience, but I can tell you he's been responsible for
a lot of gospel preachers that came out from under his preaching.
One time we were together and Brother Henry was sharing with
a group there, a small group, about when God called him. and saved him. Now, some may
not have known it, but Brother Henry started out as an associate
pastor in a traditional Southern Baptist Church, Free Will Baptist
Church in Ashland, Kentucky. And he was very happy there,
and the people loved Brother Henry, and he, Doris, loved them.
And I hate to use the phrase, but it's just a phrase. They
were fat, dumb, and happy. You ever heard that about somebody?
That's how they were. They were content in religion.
Well, Brother Henry was telling, he said that every year they
would have a revival. And that's just like man's religion.
We're gonna set a date for a revival and God will respond. That's
man and religion, but they'd have a revival. He said it was
more like a county fair or a carnival than it was a church service.
They'd have balloon rides eat this and jump in booths and all
those things, ride a pony, anything they could do to draw people
into the church for that revival. Well, Brother Henry says, one
year I was put in charge of getting the preacher. He said, we got
closer to that date and it was about two weeks out and the senior
pastor said, well, Henry, who'd you get to come and preach for
a revival? And we said, oh my, I had forgot, he said. I ran
to my study, and I called a man that taught at a Bible college
in North Carolina. And I called him, I said, Dr.
Charlie, please help me. He said, I'm going to fix. He
said, we're having a revival in two weeks, and I forgot to
get a preacher. He said, do you know anybody
that could come and preach? Because you preach for all week.
anybody could come and preach for us in such short notice and
stay the whole week. And the president of the college
said, well, I do. He said, we got a man right here
that teaches school and he's a great preacher. Brother Henry
said, well, would you ask him to come? Tell me. Sure enough,
the man agreed to come. Brother Henry didn't know the
man, know anything about him. But God did. And that man came. Brother Henry said, the church
was packed. He said, I sat right up front,
you know, right in the middle. And he said, that man hadn't
preached but about a minute and I knew something was different.
Said he got up and he didn't say, I'm glad to be here. Thank
you for, he didn't say, he said, open your Bibles too. And he
began preaching. And Henry said, I never heard
a man preach like this man preached. He said, every word he used pierced
my heart. Now this is a so-called preacher.
My heart was pierced. He said, the more that man preached,
I realized if what he's saying is true, I'm not a gospel preacher. In fact, I'm not even saved.
And he said, the man kept preaching. And he said, I didn't know it. And he said, people got mad.
People got up and walked out behind me, walked out of the
church where this man was preaching. Brother Henry said, I sat there
for an hour and I listened to this man. And he said, when he's
got done, I couldn't wait to get to my study. And he said,
I made a beeline to my study. And in that hour, it took him
to preach and five minutes to get there, said in an hour and
five minutes, when I opened my Bible, God had rewrote my Bible. It wasn't the same Bible that
I came in there. Because he said, that man preached that salvation
was by the will of God and not the will of man. And he kept
saying, God-willed, God-purposed, God-ordained. And Brother Henry
said, it wasn't just a verse here and a verse there. He said,
everywhere I looked, but I'd never seen it before. And he said, I trembled. I knew
this man was preaching. That's the first time, he said,
I ever heard the gospel. He said, well, when I was done,
he said, you better come in here, Henry. The men had all gathered
after the services. There was a large group of men
in the room. And he said, they were fighting mad and they were
arguing back and forth. Because the most of them were
saying, we'll not have this man preach another sermon in this
church. He's bringing division in this church. He's causing
people to doubt their salvation. But there was a handful that
said, we're rejoicing what he's preaching. We believe what he's
preaching. We want him to stay. And they
kept going back and forth, back and forth. And finally, this
is, I've said all that to say my favorite part. He said one
of the most respected men in the congregation stood up, and here's what he said. He says,
gentlemen, John the Baptist has come to Ashland, Kentucky, and
Ashland, Kentucky will never be the same. And brethren, it
wasn't. That's the title of this message.
has John the Baptist come to you and to me? Because if he
has, John's the gospel preacher. If he has, your life will never
be the same. And that's what I want to look
at tonight. What did John preach? What did John preach? Both Matthew
and Luke both say, upon earth there was none greater than John.
They both said he was the greatest preacher that they'd ever heard,
except the Lord Jesus Christ. But what did John preach? Because
I fear that today, John, his preaching wouldn't
be recognized. They wouldn't even know what
he's talking about. But oh, God, give us more John the Baptist.
We have a John the Baptist here. God, give us John the Baptist
to come and declare the gospel to us. Because when that happens,
that's when he saves his people. Oh, quote, years ago, Some of
you may know it. He said, when the gospel of God's
grace in Christ is preached, believers get glad, unbelievers
get mad, and Pharisees get confused. And that's how it goes. We see
that here sometimes, don't we? People can't, I gotta get out
of here. I ain't gonna listen. But know when the child of God
hears it, when John the Baptist comes, their life will never
be the same. So let us look in Matthew chapter
three. And it says, in those days came
John the Baptist preaching in the wilderness of Judea. I got news for you. You're in
the wilderness. This is the wilderness. We're
all in the wilderness. People don't know God. They have
no fear of God. We're just beast roaming this
earth. And John says, he was preached in the wilderness. Every
gospel preacher that preached was preached in the wilderness.
And verse two, he's saying, and John says, repent ye for the
kingdom of heaven is at hand. Robert and I was talking about
that repentance. Can you think the last time you
heard someone say repent? You need to repent. means you
need to have your mind changed. And it's not something you can
do. That's the difference between religion and gospel. Religion
says you need to change your mind and you can do it. The gospel
says you need to have your mind changed and you can't do it.
You need God to do it for you. And if God doesn't do it, it's
not gonna get done. But I need my mind changed. And
why do I need my mind changed? of God says I came into this
world at enmity, an enemy of God because of the sin of our
father Adam. We come into the world as enemies
of God. You know, you hear people today
and you ask them, well, you probably heard them before, I've never
hated God. Well, if you can say that, that
reason is because you still hate God. We come to this world as
God-haters, and we need God to change our mind, because he says
our mind, when we come to this world, and our heart is infinitely
wicked. Who can trust it? We can't. Evil
continuously, that's what he says about us. But God needs
to give us repentance. He needs to change our mind about
God. He needs to change our mind about Christ. He needs to change
our mind about salvation. and he needs to change our mind
about ourselves. If God will do that for you,
when John the Baptist comes, your life will never be the same.
I promise you that. When we look at it, what does
he need to change our mind about God? If you ask most religious
folks, do you believe God is sovereign? Their answer will
be, yes, we believe God's sovereign. But, but, his sovereignty can
only go so far. Sovereign's one of those, it's
like pregnant. You either are or you aren't. There's no in
between. There's not an almost. It's either
you're sovereign or you're not. That's how, my doctor told me,
Tom, you'll like this one. I said, well, you're a pre-diabetic.
No, you're either diabetic or you're not. He said, it's that
simple. He said, you say you're pre-diabetic
because you're diabetic, don't want to admit it. That's what
it means. But God, we say that God is sovereign.
That means he's over everything. God's word said the Lord Jesus
Christ is over heaven and earth and he's over everything. You asked them, we had a horrific
storm, you know, a hurricane here and it was devastating. Was God behind that? If he's
sovereign, the answer is yes. Yes, he is behind that. And as
believers, we know he is. We may not understand everything
God does, but we know he is sovereign. And when we take confidence in,
this is, you know, somebody asked me one time, well, you mean if,
what about somebody don't hear the preaching of the gospel?
What about a little baby? I said, all I can tell you is
that's what God has said. And God has said this, the judge
of all the earth shall do right. Where God has spoken, I can speak.
Where God has not spoken, I need to be silent. He's spoken that
he's gonna do through the preaching of the gospel. And anything outside
of that, all I know is God said he's gonna do right. And I believe
that. That's what repenting is. I believe God. He has to change
our mind about God. They say God loves everybody.
That's not what the Word of God says. God said He hates the works
of iniquity all the day long. Iniquity is like, what does it
say? It's like a water, it flows out of us. God loves Christ, He loves righteousness,
and He loves those who are in Christ. And everybody outside
of Christ, He hates with a holy hatred. And God is sovereign
over all. He needs to change our mind about
Christ. to say that Christ died for everybody
and that Christ cannot save anybody unless man's will allows him
that. That's a denial of who Christ
is. You know, our mind let's think, well, God, he should love
everybody. Christ should die for everybody.
That makes everybody feel warm and fuzzy, but that's just not
the truth. That's a lie. God loves his son. Christ is
the only one that can save us. That's what John was preaching.
You need to have your mind changed about Christ. He's the only one
that can save you. All your salvation's in Him.
And if He doesn't do all the work, He hasn't done any of the
work. Oh, the natural man always wants
to add to the works of Christ, don't they? That's what religion's
famous for, add to the works of Christ. We know that salvation, God needs
to change our mind about it. Because the world today, what
they hold to is, and this is what they teach, God loves everybody, Christ died
for everybody, God wants to save everybody. And you have Christ
in your hands, and you can either accept his offer of salvation
or you can reject it. works religion teaches isn't
it? Free will religion. And I will say this, everything
outside of the Gospel is free will religion. The truth of the
matter is we are in Christ's hands. And His holiness demands
that He either save us or He cast us down into the pit of
hell and it is His decision not ours. And the best I can do is
plead for Him to have mercy on me. Now that will cause you to
repent if God ever gives you the faith to believe that. Oh,
and self. The Lord says, in my flesh, Paul
says, in my flesh there is no good thing. Do you believe that
about yourself? You didn't come into the world
believing that. You thought you was, well, I have some flaws,
but I'm not, everything about me is not evil. That's not true. God needs to
change our mind about that. That we are sin. Sin is who we
are. Sin's not what we do. That we are totally sinners.
And we can do nothing for ourself. I think Brother Tom was there.
Brian, you were there. Some others. When John the Baptist
came to Orlando, Florida, in the name of Todd Nyberg. And
guess what? He brought the sword of the gospel.
And when it did, those were there, you know, it caused, Brian, you're
saying, it caused some anger and some hurt feeling, didn't
it? People were mad. I remember when he preached,
he preached, I'll never forget, he preached on the leper, that
the leper couldn't be declared clean until every inch of their
skin was covered in leprosy. That's a picture of us and our
sin. I remember after he got done and left, the people gathered
around and said, well, you know, that sermon was okay, but I don't
know why he preached it here. We're all believers. And they
believed it. But the good news, John the Baptist
had come, and there was some lost sheep in that room. And when those lost sheep heard
that, that sovereignty is by the will of God and not the will
of man. They rejoiced, didn't they? They rejoiced. They were comforted. You couldn't
hear enough, could you? Tell it to me again. I want to
hear it again. You know, that's how I got grandkids. I don't
know how they do it. They'll watch a movie. Let's
watch it again. Oh my gosh, we just spent two hours watching
that. Let's do it again, right there. That's what the believer
says when John the Baptist comes to them. and the gospel's priest
and God is pleased to send his spirit to give them the faith
to repent and believe. They'll want to hear more. You
never get tired of it. I'm old, old, old, he's been
dead many years, said we'll never outgrow the ABC's of the gospel. And we never will. But John came,
repent, repent, the kingdom of heaven is at hand not tomorrow. There's no guarantees tomorrow,
is there? This, for all I know, this may be, you know, this may
be the last night we see some of us. I hate to say it, but I'm looking
forward to that. I hope you don't see me. Robert, I hope you have
to preach both sermons on Sunday. I really do. We want to be with Christ. Christ
is our hope. He's our resting place, and we
want to be with him. And John said, the kingdom of
heaven, it's here right now. It's here right now. Not like
the religious believed. You know, I don't know of anything
more evil than to speak peace to someone where God has not
spoken peace. And that's what religion is famous
for. You folks know what I'm talking about. Oh, you can leave
here tonight knowing whether you're going to heaven or hell.
Let me just do this prayer and you can know you're going to
heaven. And you walk out of that room thinking you have peace,
but you don't have peace with God. There's no repentance, no
faith. Did God change you? No, I just
accept, no, I need God to change me. I can't change on my own. I need him to change everything
about me. I always like Brother Greg said, I don't need my heart
fixed, I need a new heart. I need a new heart. John says,
repent you for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. Verse three,
for this is what that was spoken of by the prophet Isaiah saying,
the voice of one crying in the wilderness, prepare you the way
of the Lord, make his path straight. declare the gospel clearly and
concisely. We don't need to mix in anything
else because God says straight. That's Christ. Christ didn't
say, Christ made the straight ways. He is the straight way.
Everything else is crooked. And the same John, verse four,
and Raymond of camel's hair and a leather girl about his loins
and his meat was locust and wild honey. What this is telling us,
there was nothing special about John the Baptist, other than
what Christ made him special. He was a common man. Nothing
we know of says he was well-educated. He's out in the wilderness preaching
the gospel, but he was a common man. The Lord uses, that's who
the Lord uses to preach his gospel. I don't care how many, I don't
ever hear a sermon from Dr. So-and-so. I just don't want
to hear it. As soon as they said, well, you need to hear Dr. Song,
no, no, no, no, no need there. I need to hear from John the
Baptist, a common man who God's speaking through. I don't want
to hear who God's speaking through. I don't care what school you
went to, what degrees you have. I want to hear him because they're
going to preach the gospel of my salvation. That's what I need
to hear. Then went out to him, Jerusalem and all Judea and all
the region around Jordan. Verse six, and were baptized
of him in Jordan, confessing their sins. The false, false religious always
tell you, you need to confess your sins to God. If I started
right now, till my last breath was gone, I couldn't even begin
to cover all my sins. That's not what this means. I
need, confess means to grieve, I need to grieve with God when
He says, in me there is no good thing, in my flesh that is. That
I have no righteousness. All I have is sin and everything
I do is sin. Sin is who I am, it's not what
I do. I sin because I am sin, that's
just my nature. And I need God. I need God to
do for me what I can't do for myself. give me the ability to
change my mind and repent and give me the faith to rest in
the Lord Jesus Christ. And the Lord has to give them
both to me. I can't do either one on my own. Baptizing. Verse 7, And when he saw many
of the Pharisees and Sadducees come to his baptism, he said
unto them, Boy, I sure am glad to see you guys. Glad you come
out to join us. Old generation of vipers. Well,
that wasn't very friendly, was it? Well, just that John the
Baptist, they said he wasn't that friendly either. He was
more concerned about preaching the gospel than making friends.
Old generation of vipers, who hath warned you to flee from
the wrath to come? You're coming out here and you
want to participate in baptism as some religious ceremony. No,
you need repentance and you need faith in Christ. Baptism has
never saved a single soul. Never has, never will. And I'll
say on the same time, everyone whom God's given repentance and
faith to, they will want to be baptized. You can't stop them
from being baptized. It's our public profession of
our union with Christ that we're making in front of other believers
who's made that same profession. It's not a religious ceremony.
I know, I participated, I went through a religious ceremony.
I was, gosh, I hate to say this now, I was probably 40-something
years old. And I went through a religious ceremony. I was no
more saved than, I was as lost as could be. I knew some truths,
but I didn't know the truth. Like Margaret always, I've quoted
Margaret too many times. I was doctrinally sound and Christless. Does that make any sense to you?
I knew doctrine, but I didn't know Christ. I wouldn't baptize. I just went
through a religious ceremony. Then when John the Baptist came
to me, and the gospel was declared, and God's Spirit was pleased
to give me, change my mind about everything, and give me the faith
to rest in Christ, you couldn't stop me from being baptized.
I knew right then, I'd never had a baptism. What's the Lord
say? He said, one faith, one Lord, one baptism. All I did was put myself underwater. They put me underwater, have
everybody shake my hand. No, that wasn't a baptism. That's
what these men came for. They come for a religious ceremony,
a religious ceremony. And he sent them away. In verse
eight, he said, bring forth therefore fruits, meat, for repentance.
Somebody says, I want to be baptized. Oh, what do you believe about?
Say about Christ and God. There's people who say, well
you know, I've always believed that about God. Or I've always
believed that about Christ. I've always believed that about
salvation. I've always believed that about
myself. I have great fear for them. Because if you've always
believed it, it means you still believe it. You're still lost. And here's what he tells me.
Look what he tells me in verse 9. And don't you dare say with yourselves,
we have Abraham our father. You know what? The Jews still
believe that. I worked with a Jewish man. They still believe that.
Abraham's my father. That's my hope of salvation.
For I say to you that God is able of these stones to raise
up children unto Abraham. I always, I must say, I'm always
concerned about our young people. I can say this right, I hope.
It is, I can't tell you the blessing it is, no matter what age, to
be where the gospel is preached. I will tell you from personal,
I always encourage parents, they hear a whole lot more than you
think they do. I remember things when I was
four or five years old. I can still hear that preacher standing
up there saying, we're all hell bound and hell deserving unless
God intervenes. I was four or five years old.
I didn't know it, but I remember it. So it's a great blessing
to grow up. But that's not salvation. They
still need repentance and they still need faith. And without
it, it's either a greater judgment on them for hearing the truth
and not repenting and believing. And how we, I just tell you,
I can't, I always tell them they don't know, they don't know the
prayers that's went up for them, pleading with God for their souls.
I know we do. Verse 10, and now also the ax
is laid unto the root of the trees. Therefore, every tree
which bringeth forth not good fruit is honed down. It's going
to be cast in the fire. The day of the kingdom of the
Lord is now. Judgment is coming. Judgment is coming. God, who has promised judgment,
will not break that promise. Judgment is coming. And John
says, I indeed baptize you with water and repentance. And this
is what every John the Baptist does. He points him to Christ.
But he that cometh after me is mightier than I, whose shoes
I am not worthy to bear. And he shall baptize you with
the Holy Ghost and with fire. When Christ baptize you, he sends
his spirit to you and gives you the faith to repent and to believe.
And when you're baptized, you are truly expressing your union.
You're saying, all my hope of salvation. That's what baptism,
all my hope of salvation is on Christ. That's all my hope. That's all the hope I got. That's
all the hope I want. That's the only hope I need. I certainly
don't have any hope in me. I disappoint me. There's no way. That's the comfort. That's the
comfort of our salvation, isn't it? That it's all in Christ.
And He cannot fail. Why? Because we know He's changed
our mind and we know He's sovereign. Whatever He ordains is going
to come to pass. Whatever He wills is going to
come to pass. And I know he has given me the faith to believe
that my salvation is by the will of God and not my will. That's
my comfort. That's something you can, as
they say, hang your hat on. Verse 12, Christ, who's the fan
in his hand, he will thoroughly purge his floor, and he's gonna
gather his weed into the garner, but he will burn up the chaff
with unquenchable fire. I hope Sunday to talk about there's
two kinds of people in this world. And the Lord, several ways he
calls them. One is wheat and the other is tares. One is sheep
and the other is goats. And God decides which, all mankind
falls into one of those two groups and God decides which is the
one you fall into. Then cometh Jesus from Galilee
to Jordan unto John, Here's God coming to John to be baptized,
and John forbade him. You know, Robert, can you imagine
that? Christ come to you and said, I'd like you to baptize
me. Oh, no, Lord. I'm blaspheming enough. I certainly
don't want to do that. But John forbade him, saying,
I have need to be baptized of thee. John needed to be baptized
by Christ. And comest thou to me? Why are
you coming to me? I'm just one in the wilderness.
I'm nothing but sin. You're the Savior. You're the
Creator. I'm the creature. Verse 15, and
Jesus' answer said to him, Suffer to be so now, for thus it becometh
us, it becometh, you see what it said to us? He's not talking
just about himself. He's saying it called us to fulfill
all righteousness. I don't know, I kept thinking,
why did Christ need to be baptized? Well, yeah, he did trust in God
the Father, that's true. But I thought of a sermon a few weeks
back, Robert preached, and I prayed God would give us the ability
to understand this. When God the Father, in the covenant
of grace, I'm trying to use this, certain people. That's biblical,
isn't it? Certain day, certain man. We
need to use that word more often. Certain people. And he took those
certain people and he gave them to the Lord Jesus Christ. He
put them, right, Robert? That's what Robert preached.
He put them in Christ. And everything the Lord Jesus
Christ done, they done. That's why the Lord was baptized.
for those who are in Christ. He says, we was with Him in His,
what, was with Him on Calvary? We was with Him in the Ascension?
We was with Him in His Baptism. And Jesus, when He was baptized,
went up straightway out of the water, and, lo, the heavens were
opened unto Him, and He saw the Spirit of God descending like
a dove and lighting upon Him. You don't see this anywhere else
in the Scripture. Verse 17, And lo, a voice from heaven, God
the Father, saying, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well
pleased. Well, if God is pleased with
His Son, He's also pleased with who else? Those who are in His
Son. That's the only way God can be
pleased with you and me, is that we be found in Christ. He's not pleased with those outside
of Christ. That's my only hope, that I'm
in Christ. Because I know God's pleased.
He's pleased with His Son. He's pleased with me. Because
everything His Son did, I did. Those who are in Christ, we did
everything Christ did. And John walked away. I pray that God would give us
more John the Baptist. John's a picture of the gospel
preacher to preach the gospel of God's grace in Christ. But
brethren, we plead with him to give us repentance. We need you
to change our minds. If you don't change our minds,
we'll keep going just like we always were. We'll never, we'll
never change. And we need you give us faith
to rest in Christ. for everything. I'll close, I've
said this before, but I always, I don't know why, I guess it's
a flaw in me. But I'm not a very bright man,
so I'm a simple man. I remember, he's dead now, gospel
preacher, Brother Maurice Montgomery. I don't know if you've ever heard
of him, he's in Kentucky. You've heard of Brother Maurice,
Brother Maurice, he stood right here in this pulpit, and this
is what he did. He said, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah. He said, you see what I'm doing?
I remember sitting right back up, and I thought, well, yeah,
he's breathing. And he said, and I'm dependent
on the Lord Jesus Christ for the very next one. That's how
dependent we are. Everything. Everything. May God
bless us. May God be glorified. Amen. We'll close with hymn number
233. We'll just sing the first three verses. Just the first
three verses. 233. ? Depth of mercy can there be ?
? Mercy still reserved for me ? ? Can my God his wrath forbear
? ? Me the chief of sinners spare ? I have long withstood His grace,
Long provoked Him to His face, Would not hearken to His calls,
Grieved Him by a thousand falls. Now incline me to repent. Let me now my sin lament. Now my foul revolt deplore. Weep, believe, and sin no more.