Brethren, let's turn in our Bibles to Luke chapter three. Luke chapter three. We're gonna ask our Lord's blessing before we begin. Our Savior, our great God, our substitute, our salvation, Lord, ask you to be merciful to us this morning, to cause us to hear your word, and give us true faith, true reception in our hearts to be instructed to find our all in Christ, to find that you indeed are all our salvation. shut out this world from our minds, make our affection to be solely upon your word and upon our Redeemer. Father, we thank you for giving us your son. We thank you, dear Lord, for laying down your life for us. Thank you for giving us the spirit that we might discern your broken body and your shed blood and believe on you. Help us now, Lord. to worship. In Christ's name we ask it, amen.

All right, let's read these first three verses here in Luke 3. Now in the 15th year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, Pontius Pilate, being governor of Judea, and Herod, being tetrarch of Galilee, and his brother Philip, tetrarch of Atteria and of the region of Trachonitis, and Lysanias the tetrarch of Abilene, Annas and Caiaphas being the high priests, the word of God came unto John, the son of Zacharias, in the wilderness. And he came into all the country about Jordan, preaching the baptism of repentance for the remission of sins.

John the Baptist was a true prophet of God. He was sent by God, by the Lord Jesus. The Lord did not use the governor of Judea. He did not use any of these other civil rulers. He didn't use these high priests. The word of the Lord came to John, came to John. He used John the Baptist. And John wasn't sent into Jerusalem into the seat of organized religion. He was in the wilderness, and the Lord made the people come out to him.

So the word of God, this is, what's significant about this? Well, God has chosen to save his people From the first hour He calls us, until the last, when He calls us home to glory, He's chosen to save us through the foolishness of preaching. 1 Corinthians 1, 21 says, God chose to save through the foolishness of preaching. And it tells us God uses men that have no carnal visual anything about us to make anybody want to follow. God's using men that have nothing to attract them naturally, because the excellency of the powers of God and not of us. We have this treasure in an earthen vessel, just a broken vessel, that the excellency of the power may be of God and not of us.

Now John the Baptist was sent preaching this message right here. Verse three, he came into all the country about Jordan, preaching the baptism of repentance for the remission of sins. Now the Lord declared through Isaiah that this is what he would do, he would send John first. to prepare the way. Verse four, as it's written in the book of the words of Isaiah the prophet, saying the voice of one. That's what Christ's messenger is. The voice of one. The voice of Christ the prophet. And he was crying in the wilderness, prepare ye the way of the Lord, make his paths straight.

Christ is king, and before Christ the king comes into the heart, He sends his crier. They used to send a town crier that went before the king saying, the king is coming, the king is coming. And the Lord sends his preacher, preaching Christ, saying the king is coming. And the king enters the heart and gives a new heart. It says, verse five, every valley shall be filled, and every mountain and hill shall be brought low, and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough way shall be made smooth, and all flesh shall see the salvation of God. That is Christ. He's the one that works all of this. He is the salvation of God.

Now our focus is gonna be mainly verse three. John came preaching the baptism of repentance for the remission of sins.

Now first, let's clear up some misunderstandings. Let's clear up some wrong understanding. Many think that John's message and John's baptism were different than the message we preach and the baptism, our baptism. They think it's different. different than our message today, different than believers' baptisms today. That's not so.

Turn with me to Acts chapter 19. Our Savior was baptized by John the Baptist, representing all his people. You know there's sin mixed with your act of being baptized. The only place that we were baptized with no sin, and we did it in perfect faith, is in Christ our substitute. That's so of all God's elect. And we had so much sin mixed with us when we were baptized. When Christ went to the cross, part of the sins that he put away for his people was our sins. We were thinking, and when we were baptized, probably self-righteous thoughts that were, you know, gloried in ourselves when we were being baptized. Though we believed, though we trusted Christ, sin's always mixed with what we do. But when Christ went to John to be baptized, he said, it behooves us to fulfill our righteousness. He was doing that for us, for his elect. But since he was baptized of John, we know the baptism of John's not different from our baptism. And the message was not different.

Now look here in Acts 19, Paul is speaking to some folks who, believers, who were baptized by John. And I just want to focus on this couple of verses here to show you so you can hear what John preached and hear about his baptism. Listen here, Acts 19, verse 4. Then said Paul, John verily baptized with the baptism of repentance.

Now here's what it is. He said unto the people that they should believe on him which should come after him, that is, on Christ Jesus. This phrase, baptism of repentance, it's like us saying we preach believer's baptism. Only ones that should be baptized are believers. Those that discern by God's Spirit, they have discernment and are given faith to believe. It's repentant, it's the penitent's baptism. Only those that repent should be baptized. Only those that believe should be baptized. John's baptism was believer's baptism. It was penitent's baptism, the repentant man's baptism. He preached Christ, that was his message. Just like we do, just like all God's true preachers that he sends, he preached Christ and him crucified. He preached salvation and no other but the Lord Jesus. He declared that Christ is the Lamb of God, that takes away the sins of the world. That is, the sins of his elect scattered throughout the world. Not all men without exception. His elect, the sheep, but they're in all parts of the world. They're from all kinds of people, all kinds of backgrounds. Christ redeemed us. He paid the price. He bought his people. That's what John preached. He preached Christ.

Paul is Still speaking now, he's still speaking about the folks that heard John preach and what they did when they were regenerated and given faith and repentance. Here's what the people did that heard John preach, verse five. When they heard, when the Spirit gave them ears to hear, when the Spirit regenerated them and gave them faith in Christ and repentance from dead works, when they heard, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. He's not saying, that's one quotation. Verse four and verse five are one quotation.

Paul said, John preached Christ and him crucified. John preached Christ. He baptized with the baptism of repentance saying unto the people that they should believe on him which should come after him, that is on Christ Jesus. And when they heard, when those people heard the gospel, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus.

He's not saying that, it's not saying the people that Paul was speaking to, when they heard about John's baptism, then they were re-baptized. That's not what he's saying. It's one quote. He's saying when John preached, he preached Christ. And he preached baptism for the remission of sin. And when they heard, and were given faith, those folks were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus.

So John's baptism was the same as believers' baptism, and he preached Christ.

Now, second thing to clear up is this. Back in Luke 3, 3, and he came into all the country about Jordan, preaching the baptism of repentance for the remission of sins. For means because of. He preached the baptism of repentance because of the remission of sins.

See, the gospel of the Lord Jesus declares that Christ by himself, by his precious blood, remitted the sins of his people. He purged our sins. He made atonement for the sins of his people. and God remitted the sins of his people.

In Hebrews 9.22, it says, almost all things are by the law purged with blood, and without the shedding of blood is no remission. Now, once in the end of the world, Christ came to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. And when the Lord gives you faith, and makes you behold what Christ accomplished, and you believe on Christ, God speaks into the heart through the Holy Spirit, and he says, there's sins and iniquities will I remember no more.

Now where remission of these is, there is no more offering for sin. He's not saying that by baptism you put away your sins. or by baptism you cleanse yourself, or by baptism you remit your sin. That's not what it's saying. We're baptized publicly confessing that Christ Jesus alone put away our sin. He remitted our sin by his precious blood. That's what Peter preached.

You know you were not redeemed with corruptible things such as silver and gold, that you received from the tradition of your father's vain tradition, but with the precious blood of Christ as of a lamb without spot and without blemish, who was verily foreordained before the foundation of the world, but manifest in these last times for you. And it's by him, who by him do believe in God, that your faith and hope might be in God.

So it does not mean that you put away your sin by being baptized. Baptism is not a sacrament. Neither is the Lord's table, the blood and the wine. A sacrament is something that actually does something in you. Baptism is not doing something in you. Baptism is a public profession, a public acknowledging and confession that Christ put away our sin.

When he died, we died. When he was buried, our old man was buried. When he came out of that grave, we arose anew. That's the picture in baptism, and that's what it is. It's a symbolic picture of what really happened in Christ Jesus. And the Lord's table, you're not, God's not giving you something or working a work in you by you eating the bread and the wine. The Lord said simply, this do in remembrance of me. The Lord uses it to show forth his death until he come. It is whereby we remember, we discern by the spirit of the Lord. We discern by Christ teaching us. We discern that he broke his body for his people and he shed his blood and put away the sin of his people. And this is to help us remember him. That's what the Lord's Table is.

So, our Lord said, except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. This is another thing about baptism. It does not regenerate you. Baptism does not give a sinner spiritual life. Our Lord said, except you be born again, you can't see the kingdom of God. And he said, I say unto you, except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. Some take that word water to mean baptism. No, the water is the word. You have to be born of the incorruptible seed, the washing of the water by the word. It's through the preaching of the gospel and the Holy Spirit given life.

So water baptism does not give you life. There is a whole denomination, the Campbellites, following Alexander Campbell, they call themselves the Church of Christ, that preached that when you are baptized, you are regenerated by that. No, mm-mm, no. We're baptized because of the remission of sin, because Christ has put our sins away. Go to Acts chapter two. Acts chapter two. Peter, this is another place where they get this notion of baptismal regeneration. Acts two, verse 38. Peter preached Christ to them, declaring that he that he's both Lord and Christ, he's the salvation of his people. Acts 2.38 says, and then Peter said unto them, repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for, because of the remission of sin. Because Christ has put your sins away. And you shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost for the promise is unto you and to your children and to all that are far off, and he qualifies who that is, even as many as the Lord our God shall call.

Only those God's called and regenerated, he's regenerated you, he's called you, he's granted you faith and repentance, only those are to be baptized. That's why we're confessing Christ remitted our sins.

The gift of the Holy Ghost is not regeneration. Not be baptized and then you'll get the gift of the Holy Ghost and be regenerated. No, no, no. We're regenerated first by the Spirit. That's how we know the Lord. It's through the gospel, the washing of the water. And then, because we see our sins were remitted by Christ, we publicly confess Him.

And the gift of the Holy Ghost, Paul said in Ephesians 1, is to be sealed by that Holy Spirit of promise. God makes you know in your heart, this right here, he said, I will make an everlasting covenant with them, that I will not turn away from them to do them good. I will put my fear in their hearts and they shall not depart from me. That's the gift of the Spirit. It's the promise that God makes in the heart saying, I'll never leave you, I'll never forsake you. You've been justified by Christ, I'll keep you, I'm gonna bring you home, justice demands it.

And that gift of the Holy Ghost also refers to, at that time, they had some special gifts given to them. Peter was preaching in languages he had never learned. The people heard him knew it was their language, but they said, we hear them in our own language, We hear them speaking the wonderful works of God. That's the gift of tongues, is to stay priest in a language they had never learned, a real language. One of those languages that God gave the people when he divided the people at the Tower of Babel and gave them all new languages so that they could no longer try to build a tower to heaven.

He gave his apostles that day on the day of Pentecost the ability to speak in those tongues. so that the men heard the gospel in their own language. But that gift's no longer now because the New Testament's written, and the only ones that could pass that gift on were the apostles, and when they died, there was no more of those gifts passed on. We don't need them. We have the full word of God. We're looking to Christ only, walking by faith.

So John preached Christ and him crucified. This is our message. God the Father chose his people in Christ before the foundation of the world. Everything is in Christ. Everything is to point his people to Christ, to give the Lord Jesus, the Son of God, all the glory in salvation. This is God's purpose, to manifest his righteousness. Christ Jesus, the righteousness of God, the righteousness God provided for his people.

And when the Lord Jesus went to that cross, He said, I lay down my life for the sheep. He laid down His life for those the Father gave Him in divine election. And He accomplished justifying His people. He made His people the righteousness of God in Him. And because of His blood putting away our sin, our sins have been remitted. And when the Spirit of God gives you life, through this gospel, you're born of the incorruptible seed, the word of God, which by the gospel is preached unto you, and he gives you faith and repentance, you believe Christ, and Christ commanded that if you believe him, then you publicly confess him in believers in the penitence baptism, confessing, I'm trusting Christ only, he alone, is my righteousness. He alone is my holiness. He alone put my sins away.

And this is the message our Savior preached. Matthew said, the Lord Jesus began to preach and to say, repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. He said, I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. Now, what is repentance? What is it? Well, first of all, It's the gift given from our Savior, the same as faith. We do not make ourselves believe and we don't make ourselves repent. God gets the glory.

The God of our fathers raised up Jesus, whom you slew and hanged on a tree. Him hath God exalted with his right hand to be a prince and a Savior, for to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sin. Christ gives repentance and forgiveness of sin. God the Father gives repentance. He said, I'll take you from among the heathen. I'll gather you out of all countries. I'll bring you into your own land, then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and you shall be clean. From all your filthiness, from all your idols, will I cleanse you.

A new heart also will I give you, a new spirit will I put within you, and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you a heart of flesh, and I will put my spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes and you shall keep my judgments and do them. The statutes he causes us to walk in is we walk by faith in the Lord Jesus. We stop looking to ourselves and our works. That's repentance. We turn from everything about self and we repent to God. We believe on Christ. We walk by faith. and he causes us to love one another. He causes us to be merciful and forgiving and generous to one another because we see how generous God has been in giving grace to us to save us. We see how that for Christ's sake, God forgives his people. He's merciful to us for his sake and that makes us love one another and be merciful and forgiving to one another for Christ's sake.

He causes you to walk by faith, not by sight. He causes you to keep his judgments by making you take sides with God against yourself. You justify God when he says you are the sinner. You can by no means put away your sin. You can by no means fulfill the law. You must die. That's what the law demands. And you say, yes, it was a just thing. that I die in Christ, that's the only way the law could be honored, the only way. And he said, the only way I could be made righteous was by the obedience of Christ, and repentance is by the Holy Spirit. It's by the Son of God, Christ Jesus, by God the Father, by the Holy Spirit.

Christ said, when he's come, he will convince you, he will prove the world that is his people scattered all around the world, he'll come to you personally and he'll approve you of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment. Of sin, because they believe not on me, Christ said. Of righteousness, because I go to my Father and you see me no more. You know why Christ is seated at God's right hand? Because he's, God's pleased with him. He's pleased with his obedience. He represented his people and made his people righteous. And he said, and he'll convince you of judgment because the prince of this world's cast out. Christ Jesus settled the judgment of his people on Calvary's cross. He settled it. He settled it. There is therefore now no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus. He crushed the devil's head who kept us in bondage and he delivered us. Christ Jesus.

And this repentance and faith, it's not of the preacher. It's not of the preacher. It's of God. The three persons in the Godhead get the glory. A preacher cannot give repentance. We cannot purge sins. We cannot pronounce a person's sins to be remitted, absolved. We cannot do anything for the sinner. That's why Paul told Timothy, Preacher has to be patient. He must not strive. He must be gentle. He must preach the gospel and pray. Peradventure, God will grant repentance. Peradventure, God will give repentance to save the sinner out of his bondage. Only the Lord does that.

That's why we don't resort to the message that the world preaches. I'm going to preach this book, I'm going to go verse by verse, and I'm going to show you this book glorifies the salvation that God has ordained in His Son, Christ Jesus. Because I want you to see Him. I want Him to have the glory. And we don't resort to the methods this world uses. I'm not trying to appeal to you emotionally and strike fear into you or make some vain promise to you and get you to make a decision for Christ. No. I'm preaching this gospel and praying to the Lord to work and waiting on Him to work because He alone can do it. He alone can do it. And He will. He's predestinated His people to the adoption of children by Jesus Christ. He did that. He did it according to to His own purpose. He works all things after His own will. And the Lord, He predestinated each one that He chose, each one Christ redeemed. He has set the time. He will call you to repentance and faith. He will do that if you're His.

Repentance is a reversal. It's a complete, total change of mind complete and total change of mind from everything about yourself. Before, you thought you saved by your praying, thought you saved by your church attendance, thought you saved by your good works and your morality, and the Lord grants your repentance because they're all dead works. When a man's putting his confidence in something he has done to contribute in the least to his salvation, it is a dead work. And the Lord grants you repentance from yourself, a complete and total change of mind about yourself.

You see, by God's grace, that all you are is the sinner. That's it, ruined, vile, ungodly, without strength. incapable of knowing God, will not, cannot, entirely of no use whatsoever. That's your flesh and mind. David, when you're granted repentance, you're gonna say what David said. David said, wash me throughly from mine iniquity and cleanse me from my sin. He took sides with God. He said, for I acknowledge my transgressions, my sin as ever before me, against thee and thee only have I sinned and done this evil in thy sight, that thou mightest be justified when thou speakest and clear when thou judgest.

And listen, it's not only repentance from what you've done, it's repentance from what you are. He said, Behold, I was shapen in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me. When that seed of your father fertilized that egg in your mother's womb, that life started right there, and it was entirely sin, nothing but sin. That's what we were in our mother's womb. So we came out speaking lies. God desires truth in the inward parts. In the hidden part, he makes his people know wisdom. He creates a new man and he purges you with the blood of Christ. He washes you with his gospel. He washes you with his word, applies the blood of Christ. He makes you see Christ and makes you know Christ has put away the sin of his people. He makes you know it about yourself personally.

And so you repent from trusting yourself. You have a total change of mind about yourself. You are going this direction and he turns you and you go a complete 180. And you look only to Christ. Trust only Christ. And you don't ever stop. It's commitment. You don't stop repenting. You continually are uncommitted to yourself, you repent from yourself, and you continue committed to Christ. And it's a continuation all the way to the end. You don't draw back. Brother Henry used to say, it's a change of mind, it's a change of masters, it's a change of motives, and it's a change of manners. You become gracious. You love, you're merciful. Because you see, you don't deserve anything It's all of God's mercy and grace in Christ.

I pray that'll help you. We'll look more at that next time.

Father, thank you for your word. Thank you for your gospel. Thank you for Christ. Thank you for giving us faith and repentance. Lord, we pray today that you'd be pleased to grant some dead sinner life and faith and repentance. and bring them to trust Christ. Keep us, Lord, please keep us looking only to him. Make us continually repent of ourselves, from ourselves, from our works, from this world, from our sins, and make us believe and walk by faith in our righteousness, Christ Jesus. Thank you, Lord, for your mercy and your grace. In his glorious name, the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, Christ Jesus, we ask it. Amen.