Matthew chapter 3. I'm sorry,
I said something else. Matthew chapter 3. In this third chapter, we have
John the Baptist preaching. in the wilderness of Judea. And the substance of his preaching
was, Repent ye, for the kingdom of God is at hand. And it says that they went out
to him That is out to John in verse 5. They went out to him,
then went out to him Jerusalem, and all Judea, and all the region
round about Jordan was a great number of the inhabitants who
were Jews through and through. The seed of Abraham. They went out to hear John the
Baptist preach, and they were baptized of him
in the Jordan River. And when he saw many of the Pharisees
and Sadducees come to his baptism, Pharisees and Sadducees, our
Lord came to save sinners. He never had much to say to the
Pharisees and the Sadducees except He denounced them. He has spoken
to them about judgment. And so did John the Baptist. Many of the Pharisees and Sadducees
came to his baptism, where he was baptized. And this is what
he said to these Pharisees and Sadducees, these who were religious in themselves. He said, O generation
of vipers, the generation of snakes, he called them, who hath
warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Bring forth, therefore,
fruits answerable for repentance, or
for repentance, meat for repentance. And think not to say within yourselves,
We have Abraham for our father. For I say unto you that God is
able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham. And now also the axe is laid
unto the root of the trees. Therefore every tree which bringeth
not forth good fruit is hewn down and cast into the fire.
I indeed, John the Baptist said, baptize you with water unto repentance. But he that cometh after me is
mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear. For
he shall baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire, whose
fan is in his hand. He will thoroughly purge his
floor and gather his wheat into the garner, but he will burn
up the chaff with unquenchable fire. Then cometh Jesus from Galilee
to Jordan unto John to be baptized of him. But John forbade him. John was
reluctant. And he said, I have need to be
baptized of thee. That's John speaking to the Lord
Jesus. I have need to be baptized of
thee. And comest thou to me? And Jesus
answering and said unto him, He said, Suffer, or permit, suffer
it to be so now. For thus it becomes us to fulfill
all righteousness. And he suffered him. And Jesus,
when he was baptized, went up straightway out of the water
into the heavens. 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
said, This is my beloved Son. in whom I am well pleased." Well, there are several reasons,
I guess, for being baptized. And one reason is that the Lord
Jesus Christ was baptized by a man called John the Baptist. And John the Baptist was reluctant,
but nevertheless, our Lord Jesus said, He said, It's got to be. We've
got to suffer to fulfill all righteousness. Suffer it to be so now, for thus
it becometh us to fulfill all righteousness. Then he suffered
him, or permitted him. And the Lord God in heaven, a voice from heaven spoke, and
he said, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. And then over here in the latter
part of this fifteenth chapter, the latter part of the book of
Matthew. Now, the beginning of our Lord's
ministry began with John the Baptist. And the end of his ministry,
he had gathered all the disciples, the eleven, eleven disciples,
not twelve, eleven of them, Judas Iscariot, who denied the Lord
for a few pieces of silver, hung himself and went his way. So there are just eleven. And
verse 16 says, Then the eleven disciples, that's the last chapter,
the twenty-eighth chapter, The eleven disciples went away into
Galilee, into a mountain where Jesus had appointed them. He
told them to meet Him there. And when they saw Him, the first
thing they did was worship Him. But some doubted. And Jesus came and spake unto
them, saying, ALL POWER IS GIVEN UNTO ME IN HEAVEN AND IN EARTH. GO YE THEREFORE AND TEACH ALL
NATIONS, BAPTIZING THEM AS JOHN THE BAPTIST
BAPTIZED HIS DISCIPLES, BAPTIZING THEM IN THE NAME OF THE FATHER
AND OF THE SON and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe
all things whatsoever I have commanded you. And lo, I am with
you always, even unto the end of the world. Amen. Well, I said there are several reasons. The first reason was, was the
Lord Jesus Himself, the Captain of our salvation, the sinner's
Savior, the sinner's God, was baptized as a man by John the
Baptist. And He hath commanded that all
of His people, all those that are believers in Him, be obedient
and be baptized. Those who are believers are commanded
by God to be baptized. And the preachers that he sent
out in these eleven disciples, he commanded them to go ye therefore
and teach all nations, baptizing those that THE TESTIMONY CONCERNING
GOD'S SON, THOSE THAT BELIEVE, BAPTIZE THEM IN THE NAME OF THE
FATHER AND THE SON AND THE HOLY SPIRIT, AND TEACH THEM TO OBSERVE
ALL THINGS WHATSOEVER I HAVE COMMANDED YOU." There that I read to you, arise
and be baptized, Paul. He said, what is it that I must
do? He said, well, there's an Ananias
over there, a brother. He'll tell you what to do. When
you see an old Ananias, Ananias said, arise and be baptized. That's a reason why, another
reason why we should be baptized. Another reason is by way of identification. We identify our connection with
the Lord Jesus Christ. When He died on Calvary's tree,
Calvary's cross, when He gave up the spirit, He died. He died. And he went into the grave and
stayed there for three days and came forward. And when he died,
the believer died. You and I who are believers and
who follow after him, he so, in vital union, joined himself
to us and God put us in Christ. God has made unto us righteousness
and so forth, that we twain become one. We are like the vine or
the branches in the vine. The branches cannot live apart
from the vine. The branches get their fruit
and their strength from the vine, yet they're both one. And so
we are one with Jesus Christ. He became a man and took upon
himself myself, my humanity. And in my humanity, though he
was tried and tempted in every form, shape, and manner, yet
our Lord Jesus Christ knew no sin, knew no sin. His only association with sin
was my sin when it was laid on Him. And when my sin was laid
on Him, then I have no sin. No sin because all of my sin
was taken and laid on the Son of God. And He made an end of
my sin forever because I am in Him. And He was buried. And when He was buried, I died
with him, and I was buried. And when he came forth from the
grave, I came forth with him. Now, that's another reason why
we follow our Lord in baptism, to identify ourselves with him,
with his death, with his burial, and with his resurrection. could be said, I'm sure, on this
subject. Well, a whole lot more. But I
don't know that that all is necessary here this morning. I want you to turn with me now in the book of Exodus. Well, let's go to the book of
Genesis, chapter 12, I think. No, that's not where I want it.
Hold on. I'll tell you what I'm looking
for here in the book of Exodus. I'm looking for, when I see the blood, I will pass
over you. Now, I know it's here in the twelfth chapter. of the
book of Exodus. I said the book of Genesis. I
meant the twelfth chapter of the book of Exodus. In that third verse, look at
that. The Lord here speaks unto Moses
and his brother Aaron, and they are in the land of Egypt. They've got to get out of the
land of Egypt. That's the land of death. They've
got to cross the Jordan into the land of milk and honey. And
it says, he spoke unto them in the land of Egypt, and that's
what he said. He said, This month shall be unto you the beginnings
of month. It shall be the first month of
the year to you. Speak ye unto all the congregation
of Israel." They're in captivity now. They're
down in Egypt, been down there for 400 years. They thought that God had forgotten
them, and they had forgotten God and was accustomed to the
Egyptians and their religion. But they've been down there 400,
think of that, 400 years. Two or three days is a long time
to us. A couple of hours is a long time
sometimes. But 400 years, can you imagine
several million people being slaves and captives of these
Egyptians working day and night as slaves to this ungodly nation, Egypt. Speak unto the congregation of
Israel, not unto the Egyptians, saying, The tenth day of this
month they shall take unto them every man a lamb according to
the house of their father. and lamb for a house. And if
the household be too little for the lamb, let him and his neighbors
next to his house take it according to the number of souls. Every
man according to his eating shall make your count for the lamb.
Your lamb shall be without blemish." Well, let me say first off that
this lamb is the lamb that John the Baptist talked about. When
he looked off into the distance, he saw the Lord Jesus Christ,
and he pointed to him. He was there baptizing and preaching
to this crowd, and this one showed up on the horizon. And John stopped
everything and said, Behold, the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the
world. Behold, here is a man, God in the form of a man. And John looked upon him as the
Lamb, the sacrificial Lamb. Now, your lamb shall be without
blemish. Our Lord was without blemish,
without spot, without fault, without speck, without stain,
without sin. Our Lord knew nothing about sin, pure and spotless. He was without blemish. A male of the first year, take
it out from the sheep or from the goats. Ye shall keep it until
the fourteenth day of the same month. Well, you know the story. I'll not read it all. But they
shall take the blood of that lamb and strike it on the two
side posts and on the upper door posts of the houses wherein they
shall eat it. And he goes on down. 12th verse,
and he says, For I, God, will pass through the land of Egypt
this night, and I'll smite all the firstborn in the land of
Egypt, both man and beast, and against all the gods of Egypt
will I execute judgment. And the blood shall be to you
for a sign or a token upon the houses where ye are, and when
I see the blood, I will pass over you." Now, the blood on
the lintel secured Israel's peace. He said, when I see the blood,
the blood overhead and on the side posts of the door. When
I see that blood, I will pass over you." There was nothing
more required in order for these Israelites to enjoy a settled
peace inside the earth, nothing more required than to look To have the blood, the blood
secured them, the blood shut them in. Nothing else was required. And when the God of Israel passed
over, he would see the blood and pass over them. Now, death
had to do its work in every house. throughout the land of Egypt.
The Bible says it's appointed unto man once to die. Death must
do its work. But God, in his great mercy,
in his great love, according to his great wisdom, he found
an unblemished substitute for Israel whom he loved. and which the sentence of death
was executed. So God's claims and Israel's
needs were met by one and the same thing, which was the blood
of this lamb without spot and without blemish. Now, the blood
outside proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that all was perfectly
and divinely settled. That is, the judgment that was
due them was fallen upon a divinely appointed sacrifice, which was
the Lamb. Now, he said, when I see the
blood, the blood of this spotless Lamb, on your doorpost, I will
pass over you." Now, that was enough. That's all he needed
to say. When I see the blood, I will
pass over you. Now, it was not a question of
personal worthiness. It was not that self in any major
shape or form had anything to do with it. It was the blood
on the lintel and the side posts of the door that brought about
safety, security, and settled peace to those that were inside. Now, the lamb here was taken
on the tenth day and shut up for four more days. And on the
fourteenth day, by that time, these Israelites had time to
observe the Lamb, had time to look that Lamb over from its
head to its tail, from its underneath and from its legs and its ears. Every part of that Lamb, must
be without spot and without blemish, because it shows us that Christ,
our Lamb, was foreordained of God from eternity past, but manifests unto us here in
time, the Lord Jesus. Now, God's eternal purpose in
Christ becomes the foundation of the believing sinner's peace. All that were under the blood
were safe. They were not merely in a savable
state. I want you to see that. All that was under the blood
were safe. from the wrath of the avenging
angel of God who was about to come over them. They were safe
if they were under the blood. Now, they were not just merely
in a savable state. They were actually saved. They were not hoping and praying
to be saved, they were saved. Those inside were not in a savable
state. They didn't spend their time
praying and hoping that God would save them. They were saved, and
it was the blood on the outside that saved them. It was when God would see the
blood. I'll pass over you." Now, those
on the inside, they knew this as an assured fact on the authority
of that Word which shall endure when this world is on fire, who
cannot lie, the Word of God Himself. Moreover, they were not partly
saved or partly exposed to judgment. They were wholly saved. They were saved. All that could
be saved of them was saved and saved for time and eternity. They were under the blood. And
God said, When I see that blood, The blood is the sign of your
safety and your security. When the blood, when I see it,
I'll pass over you. Now, if just one hair of an Israelite's
head could be touched, it would have proved beyond a shadow of
a doubt that God's Word was void and the blood of the lamb was
valueless. Now, the Israelites, they did
not merely know that there was safety in the blood. They just
didn't have a vague understanding of that. They knew that they
were safe And the reason that they were safe, they knew, was
because of the blood. The blood on that little post. Without the blood, they were
gone justice. Was it because of anything that
they had done or said or felt or thought that made them safe? No, by no means. It was the blood
and the blood alone that secured their safety, not how they felt,
not what they thought, or nothing that they had done. It was because
that God had said, when I see the blood, I will pass over you. So they rested, you see, in God's
testimony and they set their seal that God was true and they
believed God. It was not by the Israelites'
own thoughts or feelings or experiences respecting the blood that they
rested on. It would have been a poor foundation,
wouldn't it, to rest upon your feelings or your expectations
or your experiences. That's a foundation like our
Lord spoke of in the New Testament when the fellow built his house
upon the sand. And when the floods and the rain
and the wind came, down went the house. because the foundation
was built on sand. If a man builds the foundation
of salvation on his experiences or on his thoughts or what he
does or does not do, it is a poor foundation. It's a foundation
of sand. this man inside and his family,
they had some thoughts, I'm sure, and some feelings. They might
have had some deep thoughts, and they might have had some
shallow thoughts and shallow feelings. But deep or shallow
makes no difference. They had nothing to do with the
ground of their peace. Whatever they thought in the
inside was not going to change that which was on the outside.
And that was the blood. And that was their settled peace,
right? They knew they were safe because the blood was out there.
And they had God's Word for them that He would pass over them. It is not said here in anywhere
that I know of in the experience of these Israelites in this type
of redemption. It's not said to you Israelites,
when you see the blood, now they couldn't see the blood because
there's inside and the blood was on the outside. So it's not
said here, when you see the blood, And when you value this blood
as it ought to be valued, then I will pass over you. Now that's
not what's said. Whether they had thoughts or
feelings, deep or shallow, nowhere does it indicate or say that
when you have the right thoughts about this blood, I'll pass over
you. It was nothing but the blood. You know we sing that hymn, nothing
but the blood of Jesus, nothing but the blood. Our works don't,
our thoughts, our feelings, our spirit doesn't have anything
to do with it, it's the blood and the blood alone. Can't add
anything to the blood. You can't imagine them Israelites
coming out of that cabin that they was in and adding something
to the blood. Nothing's to be added to the
blood, it's the blood alone. So it was not said, when you
Israelites see the blood, I'll pass over you. They couldn't
see the blood, they was inside. What gave peace to these Israelites
was the fact that it was God's eye that rested on the blood. Not their eye, but God's eye. It's God that must be satisfied. And the blood of the Lamb, which
is a type of the Lord Jesus Christ, satisfies God. And He said, I'll
pass over you. I'm satisfied. That done the
job. That turned the trick. That turned
everything around. There's your safety, it's in
the blood. This guy, this Israelite, patriarch
of the family, he couldn't possibly see the blood, he was in the
inside. But bless God, God saw it and
that was enough. God saw the blood and that was
enough. God was satisfied. Now, listen
to me and I'll quit. The application of what I just
said, of this particular experience in the book of Exodus chapter
12, the application of this to the question of a sinner's peace
is plain. Now, the Lord, having shed his
precious blood, the Lord Jesus Christ, whom God sent, God sent
him, he was appointed by God, anointed by God, he was the Messiah. He was God's only begotten Son. He thought it not robbery to
be equal with God. There's not three gods, there's
one God. One God. One and three and three
and one. And God the Son. God the Son. He sent God the Son. And He shed
His precious blood. That is, He died. You shed your
blood, you're going to die. When the blood runs out of you
and you have no more blood, then you're two seconds from dying. So He shed His blood, He died. And his precious blood is referred
to in the Bible, precious blood, made a perfect atonement for
sin. That is, done away with sin,
made an end of it. He shed his precious blood for
a perfect atonement. And he took that blood into the
presence of God and sprinkled it upon the altar. And God's
testimony assures the believing sinner that everything now is
settled on his behalf by the Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ,
who shed his blood on behalf of the believing sinner and took
his blood and sprinkled it on the altar in the presence When
I see the blood, I will pass over you." Now, this
is settled not according to the estimate of the blood. Now, we can have high and lofty
estimates of the precious blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, but
it's not according to our estimate of the blood how precious it
was, but our security and safety is based on the blood itself,
not on our estimation of the value of that blood. We could
have a high opinion or a low opinion. We have high opinions,
We believe it's the precious blood, but our safety doesn't
depend on our evaluation of it. It depends upon the blood itself. You see what I'm saying? On the
blood itself outside. He was inside the family. He couldn't see the blood. The
blood was on the... He certainly had a high estimation
and value of the blood, but that had nothing to do with it. It's
the blood painted on the doorpost. When God's eye rests upon the
blood upon that house, the occupants inside the house are absolutely
safe. And when you and I come to God
in Christ, we're safe in the blood of Christ. that assures
us of a home in God's heaven, that entitles us to heaven and
all of its blessings, we're under the blood. And when we come to
see that and trust in him and his righteousness and his shed
blood, then the question is, what shall I do? Well, it would
be like Ananias. Ananias said, Arise and be baptized. That's a command to God. Every
believer wants to follow God's command. Arise and be baptized. Well, let me say again then,
this settled peace that the fellow had inside is not by his estimate
of the blood, but by the blood itself. which God estimates so
highly. It's God's estimate of the blood,
not your estimate of it. It's the blood of Satan. Well,
he can, on the account of this blood, he can righteously forgive
us of all of our sins on the account of this blood. The blood
speaks of death. The lamb. Caught up, examined for four
days, has no blemish, no spot, no wrinkle, which pictures the
Lord Jesus Christ. Can't add anything to it. The
Lord Jesus Christ, you can't add anything to it, to his person
or to his work. When he says it's finished, it's
finished. All the work. and the requirements
of God on behalf of a sinner is finished. And when I see the
blood, I'll pass over you. And he can righteously forgive
us of our sins and give us a settled peace and
a good hope and adopt us into his family.