This morning we're going to be
baptizing our sister Martha. This is an ordinance of our Lord. It is of Him anytime a sinner
is brought to believe on the Lord Jesus and wants to confess
Him in believers baptism. What is the picture in water
baptism? Why has our Lord ordained this?
What's He ordained it to picture? What's being declared in water
baptism? Well, like the Lord's table,
the purpose of it is to show forth our Lord's death. It's
to show forth our Lord's death, it's to glorify the Lord Jesus
Christ. Water baptism is the believer's
public confession That we believe Christ to be all our salvation. That we're united to him, consecrated
to him, and following him in newness of life. Water baptism
shows forth Christ's baptism. Now get what I said. Water baptism
shows forth Christ's baptism. And I don't mean Christ's water
baptism. Christ's water baptism showed
forth Christ's baptism. It shows forth the immersion
that our Lord Jesus Christ was baptized with in the judgment
of God on the cross. It was an immersion. It was a
burial. It was a death and a burial that
our Lord endured for his people, and then he was resurrected.
Then he came out of the grave. Then he arose to the right hand
of the Father. Water baptism shows how our triune
God in Christ fulfilled all righteousness for his people. It shows how
our Lord Jesus Christ, actually how our triune God in our Lord
Jesus Christ fulfilled all righteousness for his people. That's what water
baptism shows. That's what Christ was accomplishing
on Calvary's cross. So I want us to look at three
things here in this passage this morning. And let's learn from
Christ's baptism. This is his water baptism now.
He's come to John to be baptized. And let's learn from his water
baptism. First of all, let's learn from
the spirit of our Lord. Let's learn from the spirit of
our Lord in him coming to John to be baptized. It says there
in verse 13, then cometh Jesus from Galilee to Jordan unto John
to be baptized of him. Our Lord Jesus Christ walked
three days from Nazareth in Galilee to Jordan. And then here he is,
the Lord from heaven, and he comes and submits to John for
John to baptize him. Now his coming that distance
shows us something of the importance of baptism. He was obeying the
will of the father by submitting to water baptism. This was the
will of the father. And he was obeying the will of
the father. He walked three days from Nazareth of Galilee to Jordan. And he submitted to John to baptize
him. That shows the importance of
water baptism. but it also shows the spirit
of our Lord Jesus. It shows the spirit that he puts
in his child that makes his child believe him and follow him. And
when you behold the Lord Jesus walked three days to be baptized
in water of John. Think of the great journey Christ
took to come down from heaven's glory to this earth to do for
his people what his water baptism typified. Our Lord Jesus Christ
is the Son of God. He is equal with God and he came
down and took the likeness of sinful flesh, was made like unto
his brethren. He came down. He came all the
way down and he came down to be baptized. He came down to
be immersed in the righteous, just judgment of God in place
of his people. That's why he came down. He was
born to die. That's what water baptism is
showing. His death and his burial. He came down for that purpose.
To die on the cross, the death that his people owed to justice. And he entered covenant before
the world was made to be baptized in that fiery judgment. To be
immersed in that fiery judgment for God's elect. And then in
the fullness of time, he came forth, made of a woman, made
under the law to redeem his people from the curse of the law. You
know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. You know the grace of
our Lord Jesus Christ. though he was rich, yet for your
sake he became poor, that we through his poverty might be
rich. You see the spirit of our Lord,
he came down, he came down to do this for his people. And it
was more than a three day walk. He walked for 33 and a half years
knowing what he was facing, knowing it was coming every day, every
step, knowing what he was going to be baptized with. This is the baptism he spoke
of when he said, I have a baptism to be baptized with, and how
am I straightened till it be accomplished? He wasn't talking
about this water baptism. that he was immersed in by John. He's talking about the cross.
He said, I have a baptism to be baptized with and how am I
straightened? How is it pressed upon me until
it be accomplished? but it was the will of the father.
It was the will of the father that he be baptized with that
baptism of the cross. That was his father's will. And
so it was his father's will that he be baptized in water to show
forth that baptism on the cross and to institute this ordinance
for his people. Everything our Lord has given
to us, he did it already. And he's the perfection of it. So the son of God humbled himself
and he came down and he took flesh. Then he humbled himself
and he walked these three days to Jordan and he submitted himself
to John, a man who was a sinner that he came to save. Like all
his people he came to save. And he submitted to John to baptize
him. When the Lord came to John, John
forbade him. John objected. And I understand,
don't you? This is the Lord of glory. This is his righteousness. This
is the one he just said is going to baptize with fire and the
Holy Ghost. And he said, John said, I have need of you baptizing
me. You've come to me to baptize
you. I need you to baptize me. But
when the Lord commanded him to obey, John baptized him. When a sinner is born again of
the Spirit of God, when we're born again of God the Spirit,
he makes us behold our Lord Jesus Christ's humility. He makes us
behold how meek and lowly our Lord Jesus is. Our Lord Jesus
is meek and lowly, meek and lowly. He made himself of no reputation.
He came down to serve God for his people. That's what he did. And he gives us a heart. He gives
his child a heart, a new spirit that he puts in you that you
didn't have. It's a new spirit that is a broken
and a contrite spirit. He humbles you by showing you
what he did for you, how he came down for you, how he humbled
himself for you. And he gives you a broken and
contrite spirit and he makes us come down. That's what repentance
is. It's a complete entire change
of mind of who God is and of who we are. We see God exalted,
we see Christ exalted, we see He's holy, holy, holy, that He
demands perfection, and we see we are the sinner. And we take
sides with God against ourselves and we come down, we come down
because we need Christ to save us. The sacrifices of God Now
listen, the sacrifices of God. The Pharisees were running all
over making these sacrifices to God. They were so proud of
all their sacrifices. The sacrifices of God are a broken
spirit. A broken and a contrite heart,
oh God, thou will not despise. God does despise pride because
it's Pride is not trusting God. Pride is not bowing to God. Pride
is not giving him the glory that is his. Pride is thinking ourselves
something when we're nothing. Pride is glorifying, goring in
ourselves. He despises that. But a broken
and a contrite heart is just the opposite. It's trusting God,
it's trusting the Lord Jesus, it's bowing at His feet, it's
believing He's all my salvation and I'm nothing before Him except
He be my all. He does not despise that spirit.
That's the spirit He puts in His people. Seeing our Lord come
and do this and bow, we see a picture of him coming down from glory.
We see a picture of him going to the cross, the humility and
the lowliness and the meekness our Lord exhibited by doing that. And that's the spirit he puts
in his child to make you bow and believe him and trust him
and then submit to this public ordinance of baptism, water baptism,
confessing, confessing all your salvation is what Christ accomplished
by that baptism on the cross. Walk water baptism. is a broken-hearted
sinner submitting to Christ and publicly confessing that Christ
is all our salvation. That's what it is. Now, secondly,
let's learn what water baptism pictures by what Christ said
to John. Let's see what it pictures. Let's
see what Christ accomplished. Let's see what he did for his
people. This is what he said to John. Listen to what he said
here, verse 14. But 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. Then he suffered
him. Now, first of all, the us that
our Lord speaks of here. The us he speaks of here is our
triune God. God the Father, God the Son,
and God the Holy Spirit. We see them all in this text.
Here is the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God. The Spirit of
God descends upon him. in the form of a dove, and God
the Father speaks from heaven and says, this is my beloved
son in whom I am well pleased. Everything that our Lord did,
he was doing for God. He is God in human flesh, the
Son of God, and everything he did is God the Father, God the
Son, and God the Holy Spirit united, saving his people from
our sins. God the Father chose his people
and trusted them with Christ. Christ came forth and redeemed
us, the Son of God, and the Spirit of God reveals Christ in us.
This whole thing of our salvation is all of God. Salvation is of the Lord. And
so, it becometh us, it becometh the triune God in fulfilling
all righteousness for our Lord to be baptized in water, and
then enter his ministry and go his whole life and accomplish
it and finish it by his death at Calvary and his resurrection
from the grave. All things are of God. Get that. Get that. Man, if we could get
that. All things are of God. who hath reconciled us to himself
by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation,
to wit, God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing
their trespasses unto them. He is the fullness of the Godhead
in a body, and if he's called you to believe him, you are complete
in him. You know what that scripture
means in Colossians when it says that? He's the fullness of the
Godhead bodily and you are complete in Him. The word fullness and
the word complete are the same words. And what it's saying is,
is as fully as He is the fullness of the Godhead bodily, that is
how fully complete you are in Him. You don't get more complete. You don't get more God and you
don't get more complete. God was in Christ saving His
people. Now secondly, the us are Christ with all His elect
in Him. Us and all that the Father gave
to Him were in Him. We were in Him from the beginning.
He said, thus it becometh us. He's including John there. He's
saying, John, it behooves us to fulfill our righteousness.
In this water baptism, Christ is showing us this picture, what
it pictures. of how he fulfilled all righteousness
and how his people fulfilled all righteousness in him. That's
what water baptism is showing. God's elect were in Christ. When he came into this world,
we were in him. We're in him from eternity. We
were in him. He's our head. We're his body.
We were in him. And everything he did, we did
in him. It's the illustration the Hebrew
writer gives. Levi was in Abraham's loins when
Abraham paid tithes to Melchizedek years and years and years and
years before Levi was ever born. Abraham paid tithes to Melchizedek
and the Hebrew writer says, and Levi paid tithes to Melchizedek
because he was in Abraham. He was in Abraham. We were in our Lord Jesus Christ,
and we did what our Lord Jesus Christ did. John did what our
Lord commanded that day. He baptized him. But John didn't
fulfill righteousness that day. But he did in Christ. Christ
fulfilled all righteousness that day, and John did in him. John did in him. The only one
who fulfilled all righteousness is Christ, and he did it for
us. and the us, all his people did
it in him. Even when the Lord Jesus was
baptized in water, even when he was baptized in water, all
who were in him were baptized in water that day when John baptized
him. Everything he did, we did in
him. Our repentant, believing brother, the thief on the cross,
He didn't, he wasn't able to be baptized in water because
he was nailed to a cross. He would have, if he would have
lived, he would have said, where's water? I want to confess my Lord
in baptism. But he couldn't because he was
nailed to a cross. Everybody that he gives faith
to believe him has a new heart willing to confess him in believers
baptism. We want to publicly confess him.
And that thief would have done that, but he didn't. But he did. He was baptized in water that
day when Christ was baptized in water. And He did it in perfect
righteousness. You see, we're going to baptize
Martha here today, and she, and me, and you who sit here witnessing
it. We're going to have our evil
mixed with everything we do here today. We're not going to do
this in perfect righteousness. Not at all. But in Christ, we
have fulfilled even the ordinance of water baptism in perfect righteousness. It's true of partaking of the
ordinance of the Lord's table. When we take the Lord's table,
we never do it in perfect righteousness. We have sin mixed with it when
we do it every time. This notion of men saying, now,
if you have any unconfessed sin, you can't partake of the table,
then you would never partake of it. Your worthiness to come
to this table ain't you, it's the Lord Jesus. And if you find
some worthiness in you to come to it, you ain't worthy to come
to it. Christ is the worthiness to come to the table. In Christ,
when he partook of that table with his apostles that night,
his people performed that ordinance in perfect righteousness. This
goes for everything else we do in this life. We gather to worship,
to preach, to pray. When we preach, when we pray,
when we hear preaching, when we sing songs, sin is mixed with
everything we do. When I would do good, Paul said,
evil is present with me. But in Christ, when he sang the
psalm, he did it in perfect righteousness. When he worshipped the Father,
he did it in perfect righteousness. When he prayed, he prayed in
perfect righteousness. And we've done everything he
did in perfect righteousness. Don't ever put confidence in
your preaching. Don't put confidence in being
able to hear preaching. Don't put confidence in being
baptized. Don't put confidence in anything you do. You've never
done it in righteousness so that you can come up to God and say,
look, I did all this. God won't have it. His Son did
it in righteousness. His Son did it in perfect righteousness.
And we did it in righteousness in Him. He fulfilled the law
when He walked this earth. He was baptized at eight. circumcised
at eight days old. Paul said, if a man's circumcised,
he's a debtor to do the whole law. And our Lord Jesus Christ
willingly made himself a debtor to do the whole law. He was made
of a woman, made under the law, circumcised the eighth day, and
he kept the entire law. It was not a chore to him. It was natural to him. He is
righteousness. He is perfect love. He did it
perfectly from a holy heart. And all His people did it perfectly
in Him. All His people did it perfectly
in Him. This is what newness of spirit is all about, is to
behold, you are under that burden of the law, you are under that
curse. And here's what that means. You were just trying to do something
to make God receive you. You had a burden on you that,
I have got to do this or God won't receive me. And the Lord
came to you and taught you. By His grace, He taught you.
When He brought you to trust Christ, He taught you, you've
done it all in my Son, perfectly. You talk about taking a burden
off of you. You talk about taking that fear and that burden off. So that now, in newness of spirit,
you know God receives me. He receives everything I do.
in the righteousness of His Son. That's how you serve Him in newness
of spirit. That's why whenever you fail
and when you sin, the Lord will chasten you and He will convict
you in your heart and it hurts you, it makes you sorrowful that
you've done it. But the reason is because you
know Christ redeemed you from that sin already. That's why
it hurts. But that's also what makes you
not fall away and pine away over your sin, because you know the
Lord turns you again and teaches you, you shall not die. Your
sin's forgiven. You're righteous in my son. This
is the strength. that keeps his people believing
and trusting him. And in Christ, we died under
the justice of God. All the sins that we owed, we
died. That's what this water baptism
is picturing. When the Lord laid on him the
iniquity of all his people, our Lord Jesus Christ justly faced
God the judge. The substitute for his people
faced God the judge, and God the judge immersed him in judgment
on Calvary's cross. It was pictured in Noah's ark.
That ark, if you saw that ark, that ark would resemble, on a
miniature scale, it'd be about like a two-by-four in the water.
It wasn't like a boat. It wasn't a bass boat. It was
just a square thing. And that water came up from the
deep, water came down from above, the water was on all sides, and
that thing was immersed in water. And that's the immersion, that's
the death Christ died on Calvary's cross when he was immersed in
the judgment of God, when he suffered the second death his
people owe in that wrath and fiery justice of God on the cross. And He put away all the sins
of His people. All our sins. He put away all
our sins. He put away all our sins before
we converted. He put away all our sins after
we were converted. He put away all our sins that
we commit when we were baptized in water and when we observed
the Lord's table. He put away all our sins when
we preach and hear the gospel preached. He put away all our
sins when we pray. The nature of our old man of
sin he destroyed. The nature, now not the nature
enough, but that old body of sin, that old man before God,
before the law was destroyed, crucified, died, and all our
many offenses that we know and that we don't know, he put them
away. He took all the sins of all his
elect people and he put them all away. That's the good news. We see in Christ that God's willing
to forgive, but not willing to allow his law to be dishonored. That's what we see. He gave his
only begotten son to die the shameful death of the cross,
and the Lord Jesus Christ was baptized on that cross. He was
immersed on that cross. And he rendered to justice perfect
obedience so that rebels like you and me can be shown mercy,
justly. And he accomplished it. Thus
it behooved us to fulfill all righteousness. As it behooved
us. What we're confessing in this
water baptism, Martha's going to be confessing this today publicly. You know the Lord's gracious
to give us something like this because God saves poor, uneducated
people. He saves people that might not
be able to articulate everything Christ did for them to satisfy
other men. But this right here shows it
perfectly. It shows it perfectly. And this
is what we're confessing. We're confessing that our old
man of sin was crucified with Christ, that our body of sin
was destroyed. Our old man died and was buried
in Christ. Now, baptism does not remit your
sin. That's not what Peter meant on
the day of Pentecost when he said, be baptized for the remittance
of sin. He was saying, be baptized because
Christ has remitted your sin. If you believe him, that's why
you're baptized, because he remitted your sin. Baptism doesn't wash
away our sins. Christ did. Baptism is not an
act by which we're made righteous. The very love of Christ that
made him lay down his life for God and for his people is the
righteousness that he gives to us through faith. That's the
love by which we're made righteous. That's the righteousness of the
Lord. All right, lastly, let's learn what water baptism pictures
by what happened when he was baptized. We see his spirit. It's a spirit of humility. spirit
of humility. We can't believe on Christ and
be proud of ourselves at the same time. We have to come down
to his feet and trust him. Secondly, we can't believe on
Christ to be trusting our own righteousness. The very act of
water baptism is pictures to show we died in Christ. He's
our righteousness. He's our righteousness. All right,
lastly, Let's see what this pictures by what happened when he was
baptized. Verse 16, and Jesus, when he was baptized, went up
straightway out of the water. The Lord Jesus didn't stay in
the water that day. He went straight up, straightway
out of that watery grave. This right here When you look
at this right here, when we go to baptize Martha, you look at
this just like you would look at a hole in the ground in a
cemetery over here, a grave. That's what this picture is,
a grave. And our Lord, when he accomplished satisfying justice
and said it's finished, they took his lifeless body and they
laid it in a tomb. They laid it in a grave. That's
what going with this thing of baptism. The word actually means
immersion. It means to bury. But it's not
just a matter of semantics. It's not just a matter of, well,
you baptize, we sprinkle. That's not the point. We baptize,
we immerse because Christ didn't just sprinkle us with some dust
and bury us like that. No, he thoroughly, totally died
and thoroughly, totally was buried and we died in him and were buried
in him. Our old man died and was buried
in him that day. It's a burial. But when that
was accomplished, our Lord came out of that grave. Martha's not
going to stay under the water. She's coming out of this water.
And that's the picture how that our Lord Jesus Christ came. He
conquered sin, death, and hell. The grave had no claim on Him
because the strength of death is sin and the strength of sin
is the law. And He satisfied it and put away
the sin of His people. And He came out of the grave
because the death could not hold Him. It has no more dominion
over Him. And because His people were in Christ, death has no
more dominion over you either. Get that? It has no more dominion
over you. What our Lord said is so. If
you believe Him and you die today, you not died, you have life. You have it right now. If you're
born of His Spirit, you have it right now. Scripture says
He was delivered for our offenses, buried, and raised again for
our justification. When we're buried in this water
he gave, and then come out of that water, we're confessing,
as Romans 6, 5 says, we've been planted together in the likeness
of his death, and we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection. We know that Christ being raised
from the dead dieth no more. Death has no more dominion over
him, for in that he died, he died unto sin once, but in that
he liveth, he liveth unto God. Likewise, God says, reckon ye
yourselves also to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God
through Jesus Christ our Lord. That's the only way sin will
not have dominion over you. If you're trying to come to God
by anything that you've done, by the fact you've put away some
sins or any of that, you're trying to come to God by that. Sin has
dominion over you that is that is what Paul called all manner
of concupiscence that the law wrought in him That's dominion, that's the sins
dominion Paul says but that sin won't have dominion over his
people anymore because you're not under the law now You're
under grace and God's gonna keep you knowing you are risen and
justified in Christ so that You won't run headlong into sin,
but also when you do sin, you won't fall away without hope
and think it's all undone. You know Christ is your justification. He's your life. He's your life. He opened heaven for His people. That's what He did and gave us
acceptance with God. Verse 16, lo the heavens were
opened unto Him. Our entrance into God's presence
is Christ. He opened heaven that day when
He was baptized. That's what He did when He finished
the work of redemption. He opened heaven. The heavens
were opened unto Him. He's the way to the Father. And
when He opened the gates of righteousness and entered in, all His people
entered in and sat down at God's right hand. He raised us up together
and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. You're
already seated there, child of God. Already. Luke says the Lord Jesus was
praying as he was baptized. He includes something Matthew
doesn't. He was praying as he was baptized. And then verse
16, Matthew says, and John saw the Spirit of God descending
like a dove and lighting upon him. Now put all this together.
Lord Jesus, through His death, burial, and resurrection, He's
risen, and like He was praying that day, He's our intercessor
with the Father. And He prays to the Father, and
because of His blood and His righteousness, the Father sends
the Spirit of God to descend upon His people like a dove.
to give you life, to give you faith, to point you to Him and
show you what Christ has accomplished on your behalf. We're not baptized
by, we're not, I mean, we're not regenerated by baptism. We're
regenerated because Christ went through that baptism of the cross,
went to the Father, praised the Father, interceded for us, and
the Father sends the Spirit of God upon His people. And when we believe, some people
use this to say, see there, when you believe and are baptized,
then you're regenerated. The spirit came upon the Lord
at that point. He already had the spirit. This was to show
he's entering into his public ministry. In a sense, our Lord
began walking in newness of life. In this sense, not that he was
saved from his sin like we are, but in this sense, he left his
mother and his father, He left his carpenter shop, he left all
the former way of life, and he entered into his public ministry
as the Messiah, doing for his people what we couldn't do for
ourselves. And when he calls you by his Spirit, he brings
you to begin walking in newness of life. And here's why, it's
what the Spirit bears witness of in our heart. Verse 17, lo
a voice from heaven said, this is my beloved Son in whom I am
well pleased. This is what newness of spirit's
all about. We thought God was going to be
well pleased with us. God makes you know, I am well
pleased with my son. I was well pleased with him in
eternity. I've been well pleased with him at all points in his
life in this earth. I'm well pleased with what he
accomplished on Calvary's cross. I'm well pleased with him seated
right here at my right hand. And the only way I'm well pleased
with you is if you trust him to save you. He is the fulfillment of all
righteousness. It's by Christ that we must be
saved. It's not your being baptized that can save you, it's Christ
being baptized for you when he poured out his soul unto death
and arose to live forever. It's not your suffering, it's
his suffering that avails for your salvation. It's not your
doing, it's his doing which we depend on for everything. Trust
in Christ Jesus and you'll find salvation in Him. Believe on
Him and you will hear God the Father by the Spirit of God bearing
witness when He's purged your conscience. He makes you to know,
I'm well pleased with my son and I'm well pleased with you
and my son. There's no more offering for sin. And from that day forward,
our Lord walked in newness of life. He left his father, his
mother, he entered his public ministry. And by our baptism,
it's an answer of a good conscience toward God, a conscience purged
by the Lord Jesus through the Spirit of God, so that we see
Christ is truly all our salvation. And we're confessing our salvation
is not of us in any degree, it's of our Lord Jesus and what he
accomplished by his baptism. We're confessing by the faithful
operation of God which raised Christ from the dead. He raised
us from the dead and we sat down with him at God's right hand.
You mean you confess all that by simply getting in a pool of
water and going under and coming out? Simple as that. The Lord knows we're simple creatures.
He just gave us a simple illustration right here. All of that is pictured
right here. After the Father spoke from heaven,
I want you to notice one more thing. We're not going to get
into this, but after the Father spoke from heaven and all this
took place, that's when the temptation came for our Lord. Our Lord was
40 days in the wilderness tempted of the devil. The devil tried
to put doubt in his mind. God had just spoke to him and
said, I'm well pleased. This is my beloved son in whom
I'm well pleased. The devil came to him and said,
if you're really the son of God, now, it's going to be the Father's
testimony from heaven speaking into your heart by the Spirit.
It's going to keep you knowing you're a son of God. And that
he's pleased with you in his only son. Because the devil's
going to try He's got a lot of different ways of doing it. He's
going to try to question you and make you question yourself.
Am I really his child? But he'll keep bearing witness
in your heart. Soon we're going to find out our sinful nature
is still with us. We start out in newness of life,
but we find out soon our sinful nature is still with us. But
the Spirit keeps bearing witness with our spirit that we are the
children of God. Christ is our bread from heaven,
it strengthens us. We feed upon his word. Christ
kept saying, it's written, it's written, it's written. He's the
strength for our 40 days through the temptation of this wilderness.
And when the Lord tries you, he'll send strength, he'll sustain
you. And remember this now, I'm speaking this to Martha, but
I'm reminding each of us here too. The life of faith is not
a sprint. It's a marathon. Falling? Yes, we're gonna fall. But we'll
rise again by the Lord Jesus Christ. We'll keep looking to
Him. We'll learn of Him. We'll grow
up into Him. We'll keep pressing on toward
Christ, endeavoring to know Him more, endeavoring to please Him
more. And we don't ever expect perfection
in this life. It ain't gonna happen. But we continue looking to Christ
alone. Growth in grace is really learning
more and more that Christ is all and Christ alone. That's
really what it's about. That's really what it's about.
So we keep putting one foot in front of the other so that we
might win the prize. The prize is Christ himself.
and we found in him having his righteousness. I've used this
illustration so many times. Those that have been here from
the beginning have heard it over and over and over, but it's so, it's
so. We start out in the life of faith
and we're like a man sitting at a desk and he's just covered
over in books. All these valuable books that
are important, all of them are important, he needs them all,
but right here he's got the Bible, but he's got all these other
books he needs. And as you go through life, the desk gets smaller
and smaller and smaller, and the books just start falling
off. They just start falling off. And you get to the end,
and it's just as wide as that one book. When we get to the
end, we're going to find the gate is just as wide as Christ
the gate. He was the one thing we needed
the whole time. That's what growing in grace
is. is finding out he's everything and him only. All right, we're
going to sing a hymn. Are you ready Martha? Okay, we'll
sing a hymn. John and Adam will get the top
off the baptistery.