I never cease to be amazed at
the reading of that particular passage of Scripture, the revelation
by the Spirit of God of the heart of our blessed Savior. Let's turn to the book of Acts,
chapter 18. Before we begin our study this evening, let's have
a word of prayer. Our Father, it is again in the
name of the Lord Jesus good to approach you by faith, believing
that you are, that you are a rewarder of them that diligently seek
you. Lord, we want to seek you. We want to hear. I'd like to
hear tonight, if you'd allow me to. I'd like to hear of Your
truth, of our hope in Your Son. Bless, I pray, the preaching. Bless our hearing. Lord, I know
unless You bless this Word, unless You bless this message, The words
can be right, but Lord, if you don't bless it, it'll be empty. Ignite our hearts, we pray tonight,
for Christ's sake and our good. Amen. In the book of Acts, chapter
18, I'd like for us to consider a passage
of Scripture. I want to start in verse 24. And I've got some notes prepared. And what we'll do is we'll just
go as far as I think we're able. Because I want to deal tonight
with a subject that I'll be honest with you, I've been looking at
for a while. And I guess I've tried to preach
it in my mind, I don't know how many times. I know I've preached
it to some of you all already, you know. It's concerning the
baptism of John, which I've heard about for years and years and
years, the baptism of John. And I'd like to have some insight
into it, into what it was. I've entitled this message, Why
Was Christ Baptized? Have you ever thought about that? Why was the Lord baptized? Now, I realize that this passage
of Scripture is a passage because all Scripture is given by inspiration
of God. I know that the Spirit of God
moved upon Luke to pen this passage, and it's given for profit. All Scripture is given by inspiration
of God, and it's profitable. It concerns, when we start off,
it concerns a man that later would prove to be a real encouragement
to the church. In verse 24 it says, And a certain
Jew named Apollos, born at Alexandria, here was
a man probably of Jewish parents because he was a Jew. And he
was born, obviously, in Alexandria, Egypt. And the Scripture says
that he was an eloquent man. That is, he was skilled in literature
and speech. He was a good speaker. He knew
how to speak. The Scripture says concerning
this man, he was mighty in the Scriptures. That is to say, he was capable
in the knowledge of the Scriptures, powerful in the use of the Scriptures. He knew the Scriptures, read
the Scriptures, studied the Scriptures. And this man came to Ephesus. Obviously, he came to preach
what he knew. He was a missionary. He came to this place of prominence
probably to honor the God that he knew. And this man in verse
25 was instructed in the way of the Lord. That word instructed
there is indoctrinated. He was taught, thoroughly informed. in the conduct or the way of
the Lord from the Old Testament Scriptures. He knew the Word
of God. This is what it's saying. He
knew the Scriptures. And the Scripture says that being
fervent in the Spirit, that is, he was zealous for what was good.
There's been some good things said about this fellow so far.
I mean, he just, you know what I'm saying. Being fervent in
the Spirit, he spake and taught diligently the things of the
Lord. He held discourse with those
that he preached to in order to instruct them. But I want
you to notice something. Knowing only the baptism of John. You know, the way that is written,
I looked up the word only because when I first read it, what it
did was God You know, all these good things it was saying about
him. But this is what he knew. Only the baptism of John. The
word is merely. He knew merely the baptism of
John. Now, you know, that ought to
kind of stop us for just a second and say, if he knew only the baptism of
John, If somebody said, here's a man preaching and he knew only
Christ, he knew only the gospel of free grace, he knew only,
well, you'd say, OK, we'll go on from there. But here's something
that said he knew only the baptism of John. Well, to understand the baptism
of John, and this is something that I want us to look at, and
I'll tell you right now, this goes right on into Chapter 19,
the first few verses, and so I really don't plan to finish
all of it tonight. I just want to stop because I
want us to think about something that, for me, I've just read
and I just kind of went over it and I just didn't think about
it as much as I should have. But let's just stop for a minute
and just let's stop and think about something. Baptism. All right, well, first
of all, it was John that was baptized. And that's what I know.
He knew only John's baptism. Well, John. Who was who was John? Well, he was I knew that he was
the forerunner, the announcer of the Lord Jesus Christ. This
is what I know about John. He knew merely. And the reason
that I want us to stop for a minute and and Take a look at this.
It's remember that the Lord was baptized of John. Now, if the
Lord wasn't baptized of John, that'd be one thing. But if the
Lord Jesus Christ was baptized of John, we may want to stop
and think about this for just a minute. John, turn with me to Luke 1. We're going to look at a few
passages of Scripture here. Luke chapter 1, this is what
I know about John the Baptist. His father is named Zacharias. Luke 1, looking at verse 5, there was
in the days of Herod, the king of Judea, a certain priest named
Zacharias. So I know that John's daddy was
a priest of the course of Abiah, and his wife was of the daughters
of Aaron. Aaron, you know Aaron, who Aaron
was? He was the high priest. He came
down, and her name was Elizabeth. Now, so here's the thing. John
didn't come from just comely parents. They were both righteous
before God, walking in all the commandments and ordinances of
the Lord. They were blameless. I just I don't need to comment.
Everything that it says there concerning who they were and
what they knew and just take it for face value. I don't have
to go over the words. It means just exactly what they were.
They had no child because that Elizabeth was barren and they
Both were now well stricken in years. It came to pass that while
he executed the priest's office before God in the order of his
course, according to the custom of the priest's office, his lot
was to burn incense when he went into the temple of the Lord.
He had a job. Zacharias was a priest, and this is what he did. He went
in and he burned incense in the temple. And the whole multitude
of the people were praying without at the time of incense, and there
appeared unto him, unto Zacharias, an angel of the Lord, standing
on the right side of the altar of incense." Now, he's inside
the tabernacle, and here's the altar of incense, and here's
an angel standing there. And when Zacharias saw him, he
was troubled and feared. fell upon him, but the angel
said unto him, Fear not, Zacharias, for thy prayer is heard, and
thy wife Elizabeth shall bear thee a son, and thou shalt call
his name John." Now, the Lord sent an angel to tell Zacharias,
your wife, who is barren, is going to have a boy, and you're
going to call him John. Now, same chapter, Luke 1, turn
over to verse 35, his birth took place six months before the birth
of our Lord. Luke 1.35, the angel answered
and said unto her, The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the
power," that's speaking of Mary here, the highest, "...shall
overshadow thee, and therefore also that holy thing which shall
be born of thee shall be called the Son of God. And behold, thy
cousin Elizabeth, she hath also conceived a son in her old age."
This is the six months with her who was called barren. So John
was conceived in the womb of Elizabeth six months before the
Lord Jesus Christ was conceived in the womb by the Holy Spirit
in the womb of Mary. Now Zacharias, John's daddy,
had his speech removed from him before John was born And that
was a sign that John was going to be the forerunner, the announcer
of the Lord Jesus Christ and that he must be named John. Same book, Luke 1, verse 57. Now Elizabeth's full time came
that she should be delivered. And she brought forth a son.
And her neighbors and her cousins heard how the Lord had shown
great mercy upon her. And they rejoiced with her, and
it came to pass that on the eighth day they came to circumcise the
child, and they called him Zacharias after the name of his father.
And his mother answered and said, Not so, he should be called John. And they said unto her, There
is none of thy kindred that is called by this name. They made
signs to his father how he would have him called, and he asked
for a writing table. and wrote, saying, His name is
John. And they marveled all. And his mouth was opened immediately,
and his tongue loosed, and he spake, and praised God." Now,
same book, Luke 1, turn over to verse 80. Now, this is the
last verse that's written concerning John, verse 80. It says, And
the child grew and waxed strong in spirit, and was in the deserts
till the day of his showing unto Israel." Now, that verse right
there, there was nothing else written about John the Baptist
until 30 years later. John the Baptist grew up. He was a man. He grew up in the
wilderness, surrounding areas. Scripture says, had camel hair
for his garments, and his diet was locusts and honey. Turn over to the Gospel of John
chapter 1. When the time was accomplished,
the Spirit of God brought this man, John the Baptist, into public
view. Now John 1 verse 6, it says,
There was a man sent from God whose name was John. And the
same came for a witness to bear witness of the light that all
men through him might believe. He was not that light, but was
sent to bear witness of that light. So this is what we know
about John the Baptist so far. We looked at some Scriptures
and found out how he came into being and when he was born in
relationship to the Lord Jesus Christ. how long he was obscure,
and then there he is. He was sent by God so we know
that his message, what he preached, and his baptism was inspired
of the Lord. It was of God. The Lord sent
him. He bore witness of the Lord Jesus
Christ. Now, this man John, it was from
his lips Being prophesied of John saying this, he was a voice. They came to him. They said,
Who are you? Are you the Messiah? He said,
I'm not the Messiah. Are you that prophet that we've
heard about? No. Who are you? It's what John said, I'm a voice. I'm a voice. A voice in the wilderness. And this is what this voice says.
Make straight. the way of the Lord. Our Lord,
turn over to the book of Mark. I know we're turning a lot, but
this is important. This is very important. Mark,
and thinking about John the Baptist, his baptism, and the Lord being
baptized of John, and build a foundation here and find out why. Why? Mark chapter 1, verse 1,
the beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God,
as it is written in the prophets. Now, what we just read is desperately
important. The beginning of the gospel of
Jesus Christ. Remember, John is the forerunner. John is the announcer. It was
not that Israel didn't know that a Messiah was coming. It wasn't
that they didn't know that one was coming. They just didn't
know who He was. They just didn't know when He
was. John was the forerunner, the
announcer. Now here we go. The beginning
of the gospel of Jesus Christ. the beginning of the revelation
of the good news of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, as it is written
in the Prophets, Behold, I send my messenger before thy face,
which shall prepare thy way before thee, the voice of one crying
in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make his
path straight. John did baptize in the wilderness
and preach The baptism of repentance for the remission of sins. Now,
the baptism he was preaching, the baptism of repentance. Now, I stopped right there for
a minute and I thought, he was preaching the baptism of repentance. What is that? Now you stop and
think about it. Somebody would say, oh, he was
preaching the baptism of repentance. Okay. What does that mean? Here
he was, the forerunner, son of God, preaching the baptism of
repentance. This is what he was saying. The
baptism. When you see that word, he was...
John did baptize, and it actually means to put in. John did baptize
in the wilderness, but preaching the need of cleansing. He did
baptize, but he was preaching the baptism. There are two different
words there. He was doing something. He was
putting them under the water, but he was preaching the need
of repentance for God's forgiveness of sins. What he was saying was
this, without a different way of thinking, repentance, and
that's what that means. Without a different way of thinking,
there must be, John was saying, a change of mind from the dead
works of the ceremonial law for forgiveness to be found. Not
by the works of the law. Not by the works of the law.
They went through the ceremonies and John was preaching The baptism
of there must be a cleansing. For God to show mercy and to
forgive a sinner, there's got to be cleansing. It's got to
be clean. Now, in the baptism of John,
what was being said? Now, you know John was out there.
The baptism. Now, turn over to Matthew 3.
Matthew 3. Matthew chapter 3, beginning
in verse 1, Matthew 3, 1, In those days came John the Baptist,
preaching in the wilderness of Judea, and saying, Repent ye,
for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. For this is he which
was spoken of by the prophet Isaiah, saying, The voice of
one crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord,
make his path straight. John had his raiment of camel's
hair and a leather girdle about his loins. His meat was locusts
and wild honey. Then went out to him Jerusalem,
all Judea, all the region round about Jordan, and were baptized
of him in Jordan, confessing their sins. But when he saw many
of the Pharisees and Sadducees come to his baptism, he said
unto them, O generation of vipers, who hath warned you to flee from
the wrath to come? Bring forth Therefore, fruits
meet for repentance. Now, look at verse 6. The baptism of John. What was
it? It says in verse 6, they were
baptized of him in Jordan, confessing their sins. This is what John's
baptism symbolized. Now, I want you to understand
something. A lot of people were baptized
of John. But as we go through this passage of Scripture in
the book of Acts, and it says he knew only the baptism of John,
he knew merely the baptism of John, that should throw a red
flag and say, what was John's baptism? And as I've said before,
get to the heart of why Christ was baptized, and you'll find
out. If you find out why was the Lord
Jesus Christ baptized, then we'll understand it. Lord willing,
we're getting there. I'll hurry. John's baptism was
a symbolic. Now, get this in your mind. It
was a symbolic acknowledgement or an agreement fully with God
that I'm guilty. It was a baptism unto repentance. It was a confessing of my sins,
I'm guilty. You know, there's a great difference
in admitting I'm guilty and finding forgiveness. You understand? God reveals that I'm guilty,
but my admittance of guilt doesn't take away my sin. I can come
and stab you in the heart, Brother Scott, but if I say, you know
what? I did it. I'm sorry, do you know
you were still stabbed? It didn't take away the guilt
of it. It takes the blood of Christ
to take away my guilt. The baptism of John. John came
on the scene. Now, John's message was a message
that declared our need, our necessity of repentance. Turn over to Malachi. I tell you what, we will know
where some books are before we are done here. Malachi chapter
4, Malachi 4, 4, Remember ye the
law of Moses, my servant, which I commanded unto him in Horeb
for all Israel with the statutes and judgments. Behold, I will
send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful
day of the Lord. He shall turn the heart of the fathers to the
children and the heart of the children to their fathers, lest
I should come and smite the earth with a curse." Now, what was
the last word? What was the last word? What
was the last word? The book of Malachi is the last
of the Old Testament prophets. The book of Malachi. What was
the last thing that God told him? Because I'm going to just
remind you of something in just a minute. After the book of Malachi,
after the prophet Malachi, there was 400 years that God didn't
say anything. What was the last thing that
God told him? Remember the law of Moses, my
servant. Remember, remember the law. John was a forerunner of the
Lord Jesus Christ. His ministry was the arouser. It was a baptism unto repentance. Repentance. Why? Because men
are guilty. They're guilty. They're guilty
and in need of a Savior. I cannot save myself. I cannot
do anything for myself. John's ministry was a preparation
of the coming forth of God's Messiah. John's baptism was not
the same message that was proclaimed in the law. The Scripture says
the law and the prophets was until John. I read that passage of Scripture
and you know what I wanted to know, which word meant what? The word until. Did the word Until does that
mean that John was included in the law or that it was John and
the law and the prophets was until John or did it mean that
John was included? It means until it stopped. The
law and the prophets was until John John came forth. I hope I hope I'm not being too. Is this understandable? OK. God
told the children of Israel last last last word. Don't you forget. It's like me telling one of my
kids, you know, now you be careful. Y'all going out here. Where y'all
going? What time you going to be back? 1130? Okay. You be careful. What was the
last thing I just told you? You be careful. What was the
last thing that God told the nation of Israel? Remember the
law of Moses. Guilty. Guilty. How do I know
what the law of Moses did. The Scripture says, Romans 3.24,
by the law is the knowledge of sin. I know that I am a sinner
because God told me I was. Not because I maybe feel raunchy,
but because God told me that I am so. Remember the law. Remember the law. preaching and
baptism was a setting forth of the need of a cleansing. I need cleansing. I need a Savior. Now, this baptism that John baptized,
this was the first word from God in 400 years. Malachi ended
And 400 years go by, and God doesn't send a prophet. God does
not do anything. And the Levitical priesthood
had degenerated to a hodgepodge of disrespect. You say, how do
you know that? How many times do you find in
the Gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, whenever the scribes and
the Pharisees and the high priest how they stood in rebellion against
the Lord Jesus Christ. They were going through the motions.
They didn't quit the motions. But it had just degenerated to
where God's blessing was silent. He said nothing to them. Four
hundred years. Can you imagine? Man, I don't
want to go three days without meeting together and hearing
from the Lord. Four hundred years. They didn't hear anything. Nothing. And then four hundred years later,
a man comes on the scene and he's out in the desert and he's
baptizing. They'd never seen baptism before.
No record whatsoever of baptism ever taking place before John.
Why baptism? Why baptism? Where did that come from? God
sent Him. But why? Why the baptism of John? These people were out there being
baptized. Now, I'm going to get to the
heart of this thing, and we're going to stop. after this, after
I tell you this. And Lord willing, we're going
to pick this up the next week. I've got a bunch of notes here,
but we don't have as much time. The Lord Jesus Christ was baptized
of John. Why? Why was John baptizing? If I want to know that, Find out why he was baptized.
Turn with me to the book of Matthew, chapter 3. Matthew 3, verse 13. Matthew 3, 13. Then cometh Jesus
from Galilee to Jordan unto John to be baptized of him. Boy, now
that interested me. Because I'll be honest with you,
I kept looking, and I can look up all the words, the baptism. He was preaching the baptism
of John. He was baptizing. They were being baptized of John,
confessing their sins. What they were doing, they said,
we're sinners. We're sinners. Admitting that
you're a sinner is not conversion. Oh, it's tied in. Believe me,
you'll know you're a sinner, but I'm telling you, salvation
is a revelation by God Almighty, an impartation of life that God
reveals to you, I saved you. I have imputed righteousness
to you. A criminal can admit he's a criminal
and he's still a criminal. But for him to be not a criminal
anymore and have no record of ever being a criminal, that man
has to be made brand new. He has to be a brand new creature.
one that has never found any act of rebellion before. That's
justification. The Lord Jesus Christ cometh
from Galilee to Jordan unto John to be baptized of him. But John
forbade him, saying, I have need to be baptized of thee, and thou
comest to me. I think that's such an honorable
approach for John to take. I think, you know, Boy, John,
you did. I mean, call it wisdom, call
it humility, call it whatever you want to, but I'm going to
tell you something. I think John had an indication
of what was going on here. He said, I have need to be baptized
of thee, and thou comest to me. And Jesus answering said unto
him, Suffer it to be so now, for thus it becometh us to fulfill
all righteousness. Then he suffered him. I listen to those words while
you're listening to what I'm about to say. Turn over to Exodus
30. The Lord Jesus Christ came to John. Lord willing, after we come to
why Christ was baptized, then we'll find out why men were being
baptized of John. But I think we need to establish
this fact first. The Lord Jesus Christ came to
John and he told him, he said, I need
to be baptized of you. John says, Lord, no, no, I need
to be baptized of you. And the Lord says, all it suffereth
us, not the Lord Jesus Christ and John, but the Father, the
Son and the Spirit. it suffereth us." The triune
God, the one God, it suffereth us. It is needful for us to fulfill
all righteousness. And John baptized Him. Why? In Exodus chapter 30 verse 17,
the Lord spake unto Moses saying, Thou shalt also make a labor
of brass, and his foot also of brass to wash withal. And thou
shalt put it between the tabernacle of the congregation and the altar,
and thou shalt put water therein." Let me tell you where that labor
was. The altar was inside that congregation, that tabernacle
of congregation. It wasn't where they where the
priest went in in the Holy of Holies. But it was in that little
outer place. There was a showbread. There
was a candlestick. And there was a laver there. And that laver was filled with
water. And this is what the Lord told
Moses to tell Aaron. For Aaron and his sons shall
wash their hands and their feet thereat before the priest. could begin their ministry. They
had to go through a ceremonial washing. Now what were they doing? They were setting forth in type,
in picture, the cleanness, the purity, the cleansingness of
the Lord Jesus Christ. They were a picture of Christ
Himself. For Aaron, verse 19, and his
son shall wash their hands and their feet When they go into
the tabernacle of the congregation, they shall wash with water that
they die not. Or when they come near to the
altar to minister, to burn offering made by fire unto the Lord, so
shall they wash their hands and their feet that they die not.
And it shall be a statute forever to them, even to him and to his
seed throughout their generations." Now, what was happening here?
There was a labor. There was some water. And whenever
that priest's son would come in before they could begin their
ministry, before they could begin doing what they do in the tabernacle. They would go to that labor and
they would wash and that set forth the purity of the Lord
Jesus Christ who is the great high priest. All of those ceremonies
It never changed. That was a statute that was set
down from the beginning. And they were to wash, and they
were to wash, and they were to wash, and they were to wash.
They were setting forth in type, in symbol, in shadow, the purity
of Christ. He's clean. He's clean. He's
clean. He's holy. No guile. Obedient. Pure. Pure. Pure. The law. Turn back now to Matthew 3, and
we're going to stop for tonight, but I want to read this. Matthew
3, verse 16, the Lord has come to John and John is the forerunner
of Christ and he comes on the scene and he's setting forth
the need, the need of repentance, the need, I need, I need, I need
a substitute. I need one. And the Scripture
says that the Lord Jesus Christ came to John and He said, John,
I need to be baptized of you. John said, no, Lord, not no.
No, I need new. The Lord says, it suffereth us
to fulfill all righteousness. Righteousness, what? The fulfillment
of all the law. All the law has got to be. You need a righteousness. I am
your righteousness. And the Scripture says that he
baptized the Lord Jesus Christ in verse 16. And Jesus, when
He was baptized, went up straightway out of the water. What was being
set forth in type of that water when those priests would wash
and they'd go in and they'd clean their feet and their hands and
wash and they set forth. Four hundred years, God said
nothing to Israel. Nothing to them. And then on
the appearance of John the Baptist, he came forth as the forerunner
of the one who was the fulfillment of all that those shadows and
types sent forth. And there was one more washing
to take place. One more. And John the Baptist
was approached by the Lord Jesus Christ, and the Lord told him,
he said, it is now time to fulfill. Everything that has been pictured
by that washing, and John baptized him. And when he put him in that
water and brought him out, there was the last washing that would
ever take place. That was it. That was the end
of the law right there. All those other priests were
washed ceremonially, ceremonially, ceremonially, and then the Lord
Jesus Christ came on. And the Scripture says when 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. And, lo,
a voice from heaven sang, This is my beloved Son, in whom I
am well pleased. All of those priests pictured
him. All of those priests were washed until him. And when he
came to John, John baptized him. And John was told by the Lord
Jesus Christ, It suffereth us to fulfill all righteousness.
What was the baptism of John? For the Lord Jesus Christ It
was a setting forth, I am He, of whom all of these types were
a picture. These that were being baptized
of John, what they were saying, confessing their sins is, I need
a substitute. I need a Savior. I'm lost. The Lord did it because He said,
I am He. The baptism of the Lord Jesus
Christ. Why was He baptized? It was a
setting forth that He had come. on the scene. We're going to
stop tonight. And Lord willing, I'll pick up.
We'll pick up back where it says in Apollos, he knew merely the
baptism of John. And Lord willing, God might be
pleased to give us some insight into this baptism of John. What
was it? What was set forth? How was it
fulfilled? All right, Gary, would you come
and lead us in a closing?