All right, brethren, let's go back here to Luke chapter three. Luke chapter three, let's read it one more time. Luke three, verse 21. Now when all the people were baptized, it came to pass that Jesus also being baptized and praying the heaven was open, and the Holy Ghost descended in a bodily shape like a dove upon him, and a voice came from heaven which said, thou art my beloved son, in thee I am well pleased.

Now the Lord Jesus knew no sin. Everybody else that's been born since Adam was a sinner. He knew no sin. He was not of a man, he was of the Holy Spirit, the God-man, the God-man. He didn't ask John to baptize him because he was a repentant sinner. That's why we request baptism, is we're confessing we're a sinner, that Christ has saved us. He was baptized to identify himself with his people. He was baptized because he was the head of his people, and he's representing his people, and he did it to fulfill all righteousness for his people, the same reason he went to the cross.

If you want to look at this, in Matthew 3, you're familiar with it, but in Matthew 3, John, when he came to John the Baptist, in Matthew 3, 14, it says, John forbade him saying, I have need to be baptized of thee, and comest thou to me? And Jesus answering said unto him, suffer it to be so now, for thus it becometh us to fulfill all righteousness. See there, he said it becometh us. He wasn't doing this as a solitary person just for himself. He was doing this as a public representative, as the head and having all his people in him. And he did it to fulfill all righteousness. And then John baptized him.

And when our Lord was baptized, three things happened. Number one, the heaven was open. Number two, the Holy Spirit descended upon him. And number three, God the Father spoke from heaven. And I wanna look at these three things. This is the witness at Christ's baptism. Here's three witnesses for us. For anybody that has never believed on Christ, here's three witnesses. And for you that have, three testimonies right here to declare he is our Savior.

First of all, the heaven was open. The heaven was open. Something, a dramatic change really took place in the sky, and the heaven was open. The heaven was open. Now, the Lord Jesus is the only one who can open heaven for a sinner. He's the only one. The only one that can open heaven for a sinner like us is Christ. God is holy. He's holy. And if a sinner like us is going to enter into his presence, and heaven be opened to us, It's only gonna be by having Christ as our righteousness and our holiness. That's the only way. The only way.

There are two passages, there are more than this, but there are two in particular I wanna look at that talks about the heaven being open. Now, you're welcome to turn here if you want, but I'm just gonna read just one verse. I'm not gonna read the whole passage. But in Genesis 28, in verse 12, is when Jacob beheld the ladder. And it says in Genesis 28, 12, and he dreamed, and sometimes that's how the Lord would show, reveal things in those times in various ways, and one way was in a vision, in a dream. And he dreamed, and behold, a ladder set up on the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven, and behold, the angels of God ascending and descending on it.

Now, I do want you to turn to John chapter 1 and look at verse 51. We don't have to guess what this latter pictures. John 1 verse 51, And the Lord Jesus said to Nathanael, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Hereafter you shall see heaven opened, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man. He's the latter, Christ Jesus. What's that teaching us? There's one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus. He laid down his life for his people and gave his life a ransom. He paid the ransom and he bought us. and saved us from the curse of the law. And the only way that you and me can have peace with God is in the Lord Jesus, through faith in the Lord Jesus.

Again, it's because God is holy, we're unholy. God is righteous, we're unrighteous. And God will not, he will not yield on this. He will not bend on this. If you're gonna come into his presence, you have to be perfect. And the Lord Jesus is that perfection for his people. That's the only way. It's not a question of will you accept God. It's a question of will God accept you. And you have to come one way, through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. That's the only way we can come into God's presence.

And you're gonna face him. We're gonna face him. We're gonna meet God at the end. And this is urgent. We don't know when the Lord's returning. He said when he returns, it'll be like it was in the days of Noah. People will be eating and drinking and giving in marriage and getting married and giving in marriage. And he said, and the Lord will come. It could be today. And you that believe him, we say come, Lord Jesus. That'd be wonderful. But for folks that don't know him, if the Lord came today, you'd have to meet a holy God and all the imperfection and sin and rebellion that we are by nature. The only way to meet God is in Christ Jesus.

Now let me show you another place. He opened heaven. I'm gonna give this from Psalm 78. Psalm 78. And here it actually says the heaven was open. Psalm 78. Verse 23 He commanded the clouds from heaven and opened the doors of heaven And he rained down manna upon them to eat and had given them of the corn of heaven Man did eat angels' food. He sent them meat to the fool.

Now, go with me to John chapter six. Our Lord Jesus tells us exactly what this meant. John chapter six. God sustained the children of Israel in the wilderness by giving them manna from heaven. He fed them and gave them bread from heaven. And here in John chapter six, in verse 32, Jesus said unto them, verily, verily, I say unto you, Moses gave you not that bread from heaven, but my Father giveth you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is he which cometh down from heaven, and giveth life unto the world. Then said they unto him, Lord evermore give us this bread. And Jesus said unto them, I am the bread of life. He that cometh to me shall never hunger, and he that believeth on me shall never thirst.

Down in verse 37, he said, all that the Father giveth me shall come to me, and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out. Verse 44, No man can come to me except the Father, which has sent me drawing, and I will raise him up at the last day. It's written in the prophets, they shall be all taught of God. Every man, therefore, that hath heard and hath learned of the Father cometh unto me. Verse 47, verily, verily, I say unto you, he that believeth on me hath everlasting life. I am the bread of life, that manna God opened heaven and he gave them manna in that wilderness. That was for physical hunger, and it just lasted a little while. But God has opened heaven, and Christ came, and he's the bread of life, and when he gives you faith to trust him, and you're taught of the Father, and he draws you to him, and you believe on Christ, you have eternal life. Not just life for one meal, or life for a brief time, you have eternal life. because he is the life. He's our full provision of wisdom and righteousness and sanctification and redemption. When you have him, you'll never hunger and you'll never thirst for any of these things. He is all.

Now, our Lord is there being baptized because he wasn't just there by himself representing himself. He was there representing his people. That's how he's the bread from heaven. He gave his life He said the bread that he will give is his life, his body, the flesh is his body, his broken body and his blood.

Now, I want to see believers be comforted that you know him, that you're his, and I want to see folks that don't know him be brought to faith in Christ. That's why we preach the gospel, to comfort his people And we know that this is how the Lord's gonna call out his people. And I'm telling you, what the Lord said right there, he said, if you believe on me, you'll never hunger and you'll never thirst. You'll never be found wanting when you face God. You'll have that eternal life and that righteousness and that holiness. That's who he is to us.

Now, so that's the first thing, the heaven open. If the heaven's gonna open and you're gonna be able to come to God, it's only gonna be through faith in the Lord Jesus. He said, I'm the way, the truth, and the life. No man comes to the Father but by me.

All right, secondly, the Holy Spirit descended on the Lord Jesus in the form of a dove. Now, the Holy Spirit is God. That's God. Now, I said to you in the first message, here we see the Trinity. You got the third person, the Holy Spirit, you have the Son of God here, and then you have God the Father speak from heaven, the Trinity. It's not that the Lord Jesus didn't already have the Holy Spirit, he's one with the Holy Spirit as God, he's God. It's not like he didn't already have the Spirit. Somebody asked me that recently. No, he's God, he's one with the Holy Spirit. But this is God anointing him for his Public earthly ministry. This is when he's entering it the next verse says he's 30 about 30 years old and the Lord is entering his public ministry right here Isaiah 61 1 he said the spirit of the Lord God is upon me because the Lord hath anointed me To preach good tidings to the meek. This was his anointing this that's what was taking place and Luke 4 verse And verse one says, and Jesus being full of the Holy Ghost. Absolutely full. The Greek word translated full right here means filled up, covered in every part, thoroughly permeated with. He's one with the Holy Spirit without measure. Without measure.

And you know, let's look at Isaiah 11, verse two. This was all for his public ministry. He's depending on the Father, depending on the Spirit, just like His people do, because He has to be perfectly faithful, and He's perfectly dependent on the Father and the Spirit, just like His people do. Hebrews 11, verse 1 says, There'll come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a branch shall grow out of his roots. Christ came through Jesse, through David, and he's this branch, and it says, and the spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord, and shall make him of quick understanding in the fear of the Lord, and he shall not judge after the sight of the eyes, his eyes neither reprove after the hearing of his ears, but with righteousness shall he judge the poor and reproved with equity for the meek of the earth. And he shall smite the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips shall he slay the wicked. Righteousness shall be the girdle of his loins, and faithfulness the girdle of his reins.

That's our Lord Jesus, brethren. That's him representing his people. That's how, that's why everything that's true of him is true of his people in him.

In the Bible, A dove represents purity and innocence and peace and gentleness. And that's Christ's very nature. That's his spirit as he walked this earth. And he is truly our purity and our holiness and our innocence. He is everything to his people. He knew no sin. And then he went to the cross and put away the sin of his people. So we have his righteousness. He's our wisdom. There you see how wise he is. He's our wisdom. He's gentle with his people. He never quenches the smoking flax. That's us, brethren. We often don't understand something, and we're just like smoking flax that's irritating and stinks, but he doesn't come and quench the fire. He doesn't do it. He's our peace with God. Just like a dove is the symbol of peace, he's our peace with God, Christ is.

And the Lord Jesus lived the only perfect life, the only perfect life as a man. Adam started out full grown in a perfect world. The Lord Jesus started out in the womb in a world of sin with all the multitude of laws that God had given. and opposition from sinners, and the devil, and fallen angels, and yet he lived a perfect life before God, and he's the only righteousness we have. He's one with the Father, he's one with the Holy Spirit, and in him, we're one with God in him. You saw that in John 17, he prayed that we'd be one even as he and the Father are one, and we're one in him.

And this is how John the Baptist knew he was the Christ. This shows you something about how righteous the Lord was. When John said, I have need to be baptized of you, John at that time didn't know he was the Christ. That was his cousin, as far as John knew. But what John recognized was, my cousin does not sin. He'd known him that whole time. And that's why he said that.

But the Lord said in John 1.32, it says, John, bear record, saying, I saw the spirit descending from heaven like a dove and an abode upon him, and I knew him not. But he that sent me to baptize with water, the same said to me, upon whom thou shalt see the spirit descending and remaining on him, the same is he which baptizeth with the Holy Ghost. And I saw, and bear record, This is the Son of God.

So that's how it was revealed to John. And it's gonna be by Christ sending us the Spirit that we know Him. That's the only way we know Him. Just like the Spirit descended on Christ, that's how John saw Him and knew Him. Well, it's gonna take the Lord giving us the Spirit inwardly to make us know Him.

The first mention of Dove in the Old Testament. And, you know, let me say this, too, because some people would say, why are you attributing all this to Christ rather than attributing these things to the Spirit? Because the Lord said when the Spirit comes, He will not glorify Himself. He'll glorify Christ. He'll exalt Christ. He'll speak of Christ. He'll take the things that God gives, and He will speak of Christ. we're not here to glorify the Spirit. If I started speaking of the Spirit and preaching the Holy Spirit and glorifying the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit would not want that. The Holy Spirit is willing for his people to glorify Christ.

And so the first mention of a dove, and the reason the Spirit came in the form of a dove is so John could see him But it's also so we can understand that the Holy Spirit's not just some force and just some inanimate force, you know. The Spirit is a person. The Holy Spirit's a person. But his office is to glorify the Lord Jesus.

And when he first, when the dove is first mentioned is when Noah sent the dove out after the flood and he sent that that dove out and that dove returned to him carrying an olive leaf, meaning peace. Well, brethren, when the Lord sends the Spirit to us and causes you to see Christ, that's when you, it's revealed to you that judgment, God's judgment is settled. God's been satisfied. That's what that dove returning to Noah told Noah. Judgment's satisfied. God's not gonna destroy the world with water again.

Well, when he sends the spirit to you, he makes you to know Christ Jesus satisfied divine judgment for his people. And he makes you know he did it for you personally. And that dove brought that olive leaf, peace. You know, you hear people use that saying, I tried to extend an olive branch to him or an olive leaf to him. That's a symbol of peace. And when the Lord makes you know that Christ satisfied divine justice for his people, He makes you know. He's brought you into a relationship of peace with God. And that's when he makes you to be reconciled to him. You stop fighting against God, and you believe him, and you trust the Lord Jesus.

And another thing is, is under that old covenant, God told the poor people that they could sacrifice a dove. They could come to God by sacrificing a dove. Well, who are the poor people? It's me and you and everybody that God saves. Everybody that God chose by his free grace are the poor people. And our sacrifice that we come before God with is the Lord Jesus alone. The Lord Jesus alone. All God's elect are poor, and the only way we're made rich is in Christ. Him being our righteousness.

Now, that day, When the Holy Spirit came upon Christ, all his people, all God's elect were in Christ. We were in Christ. And it's from Christ that the oil of the Spirit is given to us. And it's due to him that the Spirit's given to us. That's how we have unity with the Father, and that's how we have unity with each other. And that unity is in Christ.

Listen to Psalm 133.1.

Behold how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity. It's like the precious ointment. That special oil was made. That's what the Spirit is compared to oil. And that special oil was made and they poured it on Aaron's head. Christ is our head. And that oil of the Spirit was on him first. The oil ran down Aaron's beard, it says, and went down to the skirts of his garments. That oil went down and it went over all his members. Well, we're members of Christ's body. He's our head, and we're his body, and all the elect are members of his body. And just like the oil was upon him, he sends the Spirit upon you. Each of his members are going to be born again of the Lord Jesus. He satisfied justice, we have to be given faith to trust Him. So we're all, and this is our unity. Our unity with the Father is through Christ's blood and through this anointing of the Spirit. That's our unity with Christ, and it's our unity with one another is in Him. He said, as the doer of harm and as the doer that descended upon the mountains of Zion, for there the Lord commanded the blessing, even life forevermore. It's all in Christ.

Now here's the last thing. Then the Lord God, God the Father, spoke from heaven. And listen to what he said now, Luke 3, 22. And the Holy Ghost descended in a bodily shape like a dove upon him, and a voice came from heaven which said, Thou art my beloved Son, in thee I am well pleased. That was the God the Father speaking from heaven.

We have the Son of God here, you have the Holy Spirit, and you have God speaking from heaven. And here's God's testimony. Thou art my beloved Son, in thee I am well pleased. And in Matthew's account, I believe it's Matthew's account, he says it of Christ. This is my beloved Son. Here he says it to Christ. But at any rate, it amounts to the same.

Here's what I want you to get from this. God's not pleased with any sinner outside of Christ. There's no sinner God's pleased with outside of Christ. Now, due to our nature, we're sin in our nature, we've broken all the law of God, so our very best works If we try to come to God under law, our very best works are vanity. They're filthy rags. And the only way God's pleased with his people is because it's in his beloved son in whom he's well pleased.

This is what I want to say to every sinner that hears this. Stop trying to work for righteousness. Stop trying to keep the law to make yourself righteous or holy. Don't think that by attending a church building and doing these works that you're going to be accepted of God. Come hear the gospel preached, but look to Christ and believe him and repent. Repentance is not just from your vile sin. Repentance is from your very best works. Your mind has to be changed that these are not gonna save me. The Spirit has to give you repentance and purge your conscience from dead works. That's not just vile sin. That's the best works you could do. They're all dead works if it's from a heart of trying to make yourself accepted with God.

Believe on Christ. There's never been a time God was not pleased with His Son. Whenever He chose a people by His grace and gave them to His Son before He created the world, and Christ entered covenant to come and save His people, God was pleased with His Son. He was pleased with His Son. Here at His baptism, He's entering His ministry, He's lived on this earth for 30 years, and at His baptism, the Lord says, I'm pleased. God said, I'm pleased with Him. I'm well pleased with Him.

And then we saw there when he was in that mount being transfigured. Go back there with me one more time. Matthew 17. Look at this. Peter, I'm so glad for Peter that he says and does things he did because we learn a lot from Peter. We can't be too rough on him though. We're like him. saying the wrong thing, doing the wrong thing. But Peter wanted to build an altar to, he saw Moses and Ezekiel speaking with the Lord, and he wanted to build an altar to Moses, Ezekiel, and to the Lord.

And look here in Matthew 17, and look here at verse five. I said Ezekiel, Elias, Elias. But look here, Matthew 17 in verse five. While he yet spake, behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them, and behold, a voice out of the cloud which said, this is my beloved son, in whom I am well pleased, hear ye him. And when the disciples heard it, they fell on their face and were sore afraid, and Jesus came and touched them and said, Be not afraid. And when they had lifted up their eyes, they saw no man but Jesus only.

That's what the Lord's gonna... Don't go back to Moses and the law, and don't think that, you know, men will say, well, see, he didn't fulfill the law and the prophets. He didn't come to destroy them. He came to fulfill them. That means he came to take that out of our hands, fulfill it full, And if you can't fulfill the law, if you think you can't fulfill the law, that means you're gonna have to fulfill the prophets too. No, it's all fulfilled by Christ.

This is what he does when he gives you the spirit. He makes you behold none but him. God said, hear him, hear him, follow him, look to him, find the acceptance of God in him only, in him only.

Go with me now to John 12, when our Lord was Going to the cross, John 12, verse 27. He said, now is my soul troubled, and what shall I say? Father, save me from this hour, but for this cause came I unto this hour. Father, glorify thy name. Then came there a voice from heaven, saying, I have both glorified it and will glorify it again. And the people therefore that stood by and heard it said that it thundered. Others said an angel spoke to him.

Jesus answered and said, this voice came not because of me, but for your sakes. Now is the judgment of this world. Now shall the prince of darkness, now shall the prince of darkness Now shall the prince of this world be cast out, and if I, if I be lifted up from this earth, will draw all unto me, this he said signifying what death he should die.

Our Lord Jesus Christ satisfied the law so thoroughly that he promised, when I'm lifted up, I will draw all to me, and that's what he's doing right now. He's sending this gospel forth and drawing all his people to him. Everybody he redeemed he's drawing them to him look now look here at the rest of what he said right here He said verse 35 I don't know, verse 34. The people answered him, we've heard out of the law that Christ abides forever. How sayest thou the Son of Man must be lifted up? Who is this Son of Man? Then Jesus said unto them, yet a little while is the light with you. Walk while you have the light, lest darkness come upon you. For he that walketh in darkness knoweth not whether he goeth. While you have light, believe in the light, that you may be the children of light, These things spake Jesus and departed and did hide himself from them.

Now, do you hear God speak from heaven? You say, well, I don't hear him like they heard him. If you hear him, you're gonna hear him through this preaching of this gospel. And you're gonna hear him in the heart, through the spirit of God. And if you hear him, well, here's what he commands. He says, this is my beloved son, hear him, hear him. Look to him, stop looking to Moses and the law and your works and look only to Christ.

Do you hear the Spirit declare, this is the Lord Jesus, this is the anointed Messiah, this is the one who is wisdom and righteousness and holiness and redemption, the only salvation there is that God's provided for his people. Do you hear Christ command you? He says, yet a little while is the light with you. Walk while you have the light, lest darkness come upon you. For he that walketh in darkness knoweth not where there he goeth. Listen, man that's walking in darkness right now, looking to his works and thinking he's saved by his works, he doesn't know where he's going. That man's gonna end up in judgment cast out into outer darkness. Believe on Christ while it's light right now. While you have the light, believe in the light, that you might be children of light.

Now, for you that have never believed, Jesus said to them, this is the work of God that you believe on him whom he has sent. And for you that do believe, go to 1 John 5. I'm preaching this to you for the same reason that John wrote this epistle right here.

And I could read more here because right before this, he says, he talks about the three witnesses. Well, we've seen the three witnesses. We've seen the Father, the Son, and the Spirit. We've seen the Word. We've heard about the blood. Now look here what he says to you, 1 John 5, 10. He that believeth on the Son of God hath the witness in himself. He that believeth not God hath made him a liar, because he believeth not the record that God gave of his Son.

And this is the record. This is the record that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. He that hath the Son hath life. And he that hath not the Son of God hath not life. These things I have written to you, these things I'm preaching to you that believe on the name of the Son of God that you may know that you have eternal life and that you may believe on the name of the Son of God.

I'm preaching to you this message that you might know that He really is the Savior. You have life in Him. that through the message, he might increase your faith, and you might keep believing on him. That's the only application I, that's the only, men will say, give me something practical. I don't know what's more practical. Believe on him, and keep believing on him, and keep looking to him only.

All right. Brother Greg.