you'll take your bibles and turn
with me to john chapter three john chapter three ahead and
all these great intentions uh... at great intentions to go through
the remainder of this chapter and then uh... i got stuck in
verse twenty two uh... which is the very next verse
uh... really thought it necessary to
stop and pause here just a second to reflect upon this passage
of Scripture. So we'll be looking at verse
22 this morning, John chapter 3 and verse 22. The Scripture
says, after these things came Jesus and his disciples into
the land of Judea and there he tarried with them And this word
is what got me and baptized. Baptized. The importance of baptism. The importance of baptism is
here reflected in the Lord Jesus' action concerning this ordinance. After these things, after he
was baptized, after the Lord had started his ministry, after
he had went and talked to Nicodemus concerning the new birth, after
these things, him and his disciples went to Judea and baptized. Now, the importance of baptism. In the first chapter of John,
we see that God sent John the Baptist to perform this ordinance,
to perform this ordinance of baptism as a forerunner of Jesus
Christ. What is a forerunner? A forerunner
is someone who goes before a king, one who announces the coming
of a king. A king in this day would not
have just showed up without being announced. He would send messengers. He would send a band of people
with all sorts of music and gifts to prepare the way for the coming
of a king. John the Baptist was the forerunner. The one prophesied in Isaiah
who was to prepare the way. who was a voice crying in the
wilderness, make straight the paths of the Lord. He was to
cry out as a voice telling them that the Messiah was coming. The King of all kings was coming. John was a prophet of God. I
don't know if you know this or not or thought of it because
John was the last prophet in the Old Testament. Now he's mentioned
in the New Testament but John is the last Old Testament prophet
before the Lord begins and enters the ministry. He is the last
prophet and as such he was given a sign of God. He was given a
sign of God like the prophets of old were given and his sign
The sign he was given to announce the coming of the Lord Jesus
Christ was this ordinance of baptism. Go to John chapter 1. Go to John chapter 1 and look
at verse 23. These Pharisees asking John,
he said, why are you doing this? Why are you baptizing? What does
this mean that you're immersing people in water? He said, I am
the voice of one crying in the wilderness, make straight the
way of the Lord, as said of the prophet Isaiah. And they which
were sent were of the Pharisees, and they asked him, Said unto
him why baptizes thou then if thou be not that Christ or Elijah
neither that prophet and John answered and saying said unto
them I baptize with water but notice this there standeth one
among you whom you know not and He it is who coming after me
is preferred before me, whose shoelatches I am not worthy to
unloose." John the prophet said, I'm not the Christ, but I'm the
forerunner of Christ. And baptism was given him of
God. Now John immersed those in water
who believed his gospel. What was his gospel? His message
was repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. Turn from
your sins and believe on the Messiah. Believe my word, the
Messiah is coming. And those who believed, repented
from their sins, were baptized. Why? Because this was a picture
of what the Messiah had come to do. Baptism is a picture of
what the Lord Jesus Christ, the King of glory, should come and
perform. John baptized with water as a
picture of the Lord Jesus who would come and baptize with the
Holy Spirit. Look at John 1 again in verse
29. The next day, after he had told
those Pharisees, the next day John seeth Jesus coming unto
him. And he saith, Behold the Lamb
of God which taketh away the sin of the world. This is he
of whom I said, After me is a man which is preferred before me,
for he was before me, and I knew him not. But that he should be
made manifest to Israel, therefore am I come baptizing with water.
And John bare record, saying, I saw the Spirit descending from
heaven like a dove, and it abode on him, and I knew him not. But he that sent me to baptize
with water, the same said unto 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 that
this is the Son of God. God gave this ordinance of baptism
to John to testify of Jesus Christ. whom he would know by the descending
of the Spirit of God, by a sign from God. You know, that's amazing
to me that John the Baptist was the cousin of the Lord Jesus
Christ, and here it had been 33 years that they had known
each other. And He says twice in this passage
that I knew Him not. Isn't that something? And He
did not know that He was the One until the Spirit of God descended
on Him. Until the Spirit of God opened
His eyes to see that this was the Messiah. And that Spirit of God descended
on Him remained on Him. And it was at the baptism of
Jesus that the Holy God was clearly seen in the Trinity of His persons. If you go back and look in Matthew's
Gospel, you see the three persons of the Holy Trinity manifest
there at this baptism of Jesus that it was nowhere manifest
like this before. God had not revealed Himself
so clearly in the Trinity of His persons as He did at the
baptism of the Lord Jesus Christ. This was a very important event. You remember at the baptism of
Jesus, you had the Son of God standing in the water, being
baptized. The Holy Spirit descending like
a dove and lighting upon Him. And then you have the voice of
the Holy Father. saying, this is my beloved Son
in whom I am well pleased. There's no place that God is
more revealed than at the baptism of the Lord Jesus Christ in the
Trinity of His persons. The Son of God was at this baptism
and from this time forth We begin to see, the Lord begins to reveal
to us who are His church, we see the importance of baptism
from that time that the Lord Jesus, that John instituted it,
from that time that the Lord Jesus Christ was baptized, from
then on we see the importance and the place of baptism in the
church of God. We begin to see the place of
this ordinance. even because Jesus Himself, here
in our text, Jesus Himself instructed His disciples in this ordinance
of baptism. And as they went and preached
the gospel in Judea, the Lord and His disciples that were with
Him baptized those who believe. Now if you'll notice in John
4, look over just a couple, just over into the next chapter, but
you'll see this, that Jesus himself never baptized anyone. Look at
verse 1, "...and when therefore the Lord knew how the Pharisees
had heard that Jesus made and baptized more disciples than
John, though Jesus Himself baptized not but His disciples." Do you
see that this is an ordinance that the Lord Jesus Christ has
passed on to His preachers, His apostles, to baptize. This is a command that He gives
to all who preach His gospel. to baptize. But Jesus Himself
did not baptize. But by the authority of His command,
He commands us who are His disciples. And even after His death, burial,
and resurrection, I wanted to see that baptism is still mentioned. It's not just mentioned during
His ministry, during His life, But it's also after His death
and resurrection. Go to Matthew chapter 28. This has left to us His church. Matthew 28 and verse 19. The
scripture says, Go ye therefore, because all power is given to
me, go you therefore. and teach all nations, baptizing
them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy
Ghost, teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have
commanded you. And lo, I am with you always,
even to the end of the world." Go over to Mark chapter 16. Mark chapter 16 and verse 15 the Lord Jesus gives this commandment
again go you into all the world and preach the gospel to every
creature notice this he that believeth and is baptized shall
be saved but he that believeth not shall be damned the Lord gives commandment to
give those to suffer those who believe to be baptized that this
is his commandment if you believed on the Lord Jesus Christ his
commandment to you is to be baptized this we preach even as Peter
on the day of Pentecost repent Let's go over there. I want to
read Acts chapter 2. Go over to Acts chapter 2. This is the
Apostle Peter obeying the Lord's commandment of baptism. Acts chapter 2 and verse 38. Peter said unto them, repent
and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ
for the remission of sins and you shall receive the gift of
the Holy Ghost. Even today we preach the same
gospel that these men preached. We witness to everyone and say
to you To every one of you who are sinners, repent, believe
on Jesus Christ. This is our message. This is
the witness of all the church that you are sinners in need
of a Savior. And we tell you that Jesus is
the only Savior. There is no other Savior. He
is the only one. We say, Behold, like John did,
the Lamb of God which taketh away the sins of the world. I like that. He's taken away
my sins. Behold Him who shed His blood
for the remission of sins, and all who believe on Him should
obey Him. Is that not reasonable? That's
just reasonable, isn't it? You who believe, is it just not
reasonable for us to obey Him? To God I could obey Him as fully
as I want to. I want to obey Him in every way. I want to serve Him in every
way possible. Now is this a very difficult
ordinance to follow? Did He give us something too
much to do? Matter of fact, in baptism, it's
pretty much a passive thing. You know, you've got to hold
your breath, I think, because you don't get water in your nose,
but it's really just something you're not even doing. It's something
you're submitting to. It's something that's being done
for you. And so we who believe on Jesus
Christ We follow our Lord in baptism because, listen to me,
this is the only way to confess your faith in Christ. I know today they've got many
ways to confess. They think that they've got many
ways. They say, well, come up here and confess the Lord in
front of everybody. If you feel like the Lord's saving
you, won't you raise your hand? That's not confessing the Lord. There is nowhere in Scripture
that that is mentioned as a confession of faith. The only confession
of faith is baptism. That's it. This is the only ordinance
God has given. Baptism. But I tell you, being baptized
does not save you. Baptism has nothing to do with
your salvation or forgiveness of sins. The water does not cleanse
you from sin. The water does not save you. Baptism is a confession. It's a confession of what has
already been done for you spiritually, inside. You see, faith must be
first. Don't go get baptized and then
believe. No, believe and then be baptized. Jesus said, "...he that believeth
and is baptized shall be saved." Notice this, "...he that believeth
not shall be damned." It's not, "...he believeth not and is baptized
not shall be damned." Baptism is not in that. Baptism is not
necessary for salvation, but I tell you that we who believe
hold it necessary. We do believe it's necessary
because our Lord commands it. And I want us to see an example.
Go over to Acts chapter 8. Acts chapter 8. Because this
man, the Ethiopian eunuch, This wealthy man, this man who had
all the treasure of Ethiopia, at this time Ethiopia was very
wealthy and rich, and this man was a servant of that Queen Candace,
and she had massive amounts of wealth, and this man was traveling
to Jerusalem to worship. He was a proselyte. And the fact is he had a copy
of Isaiah. Now look at your Bible. Look
at this. Look at all of the books that you have. Do you realize
how rich you would have to be in order to have a copy of one
of these books? This man was a very wealthy man
and that's the only reason he could afford one translation
of this book. And he had it in his carriage
and he was coming back from Jerusalem having received nothing from
them. He comes back and he's reading
this book of Isaiah and he doesn't understand. But God has something for this
man. God having loved this man, sent him a preacher. Send him a preacher. I think
this is necessary at times for me to see. Do you realize that
when that Ethiopian eunuch was in Jerusalem, the apostles were
there? Why didn't God send the apostles? Why is it that he sent Philip
all the way to the desert to meet this guy? Because Philip
was the man for that man. Philip was the chosen man for
that man. And every one of God's people
has a man that preached to them the gospel and by which they
believed the gospel. And so if anyone is to believe,
first of all, there must be a preacher. There must be a preacher. This
man had the scriptures and he read them, but he could not understand
unless someone showed him. Look at this in verse 30. And
Philip, being called of God to meet this guy there in the desert,
ran thither to him and heard him read the prophet Isaiah.
and said, Understandest what thou readest? And he said, How
can I, except some man should guide me? And he desired Philip
that he would come up and sit with him. And the place of the
scripture which he read was, he was led as a sheep to the
slaughter, like a lamb is dumb before her shearer, so he opened
not his mouth. In his humiliation his judgment
was taken away, and who shall declare his generation? For his
life is taken from the earth. And the eunuch answered and said,
Philip, I pray thee, of whom speaketh the prophet? Of himself
or some other man?" And Philip opened his mouth and began at
the same scripture. And what did he do? Did he tell
him all the history of this scripture? Did he go back and tell them
about the Jews and how they had tribulation and trouble? No.
He began at the same place and did what? Preach Jesus. This
is what we're sent to do. I was telling a guy this week,
I only have one string on my guitar. Jesus Christ and Him
crucified. I don't have anything else to
say. Now that may not be entertaining to this world, but that's not
my purpose. I'm not here as an entertainer.
I'm here to preach to you one man, Jesus Christ. I'm here to
exalt Him and to tell you what God says. That's it. That's all
my purpose. That's all Phyllis' purpose was,
to preach Jesus. Believers pray for preachers. I know you pray for me. I know
you do. Pray for other of God's men,
too. Let us not neglect to pray for all of God's men who preach
the gospel, because in our day there are very few. There are
very few. In this wicked generation we
live in, people think that there is no need for preachers. They
do. Today, men believe that everyone
knows about Jesus. Which one of you have ever asked
anyone, have you heard of Jesus? And then they say, oh yeah, I've
heard of that. This generation thinks that everybody
knows. And so what's the use of a preacher
if everyone knows? The truth is they don't know.
Many do not know who Jesus is. Therefore, we live in a time
where there are few preachers of the gospel of God's free grace
and many false teachers of freewill works religion. We live in a
day where there are many so-called preachers, but they are not sent
of God if they are preaching works religion. And I tell you by the Word of
God that God is pleased to save men only by using men who preach
his gospel. You think you'll be saved any
other place? Is there any other place you think you'll be that
all of a sudden you'll get this vision from heaven? I hope no
one thinks that because that's not going to happen. God has
ordained by the foolishness of preaching. This is the only means
by which God saves sinners. Go to 1 Corinthians. 1 Corinthians
chapter 1. The Apostle says, I like this,
in verse 17, For Christ sent me not to baptize, Isn't that something? Baptism
is important, but I'll tell you, without faith, baptism is nothing.
Now Paul did baptize, but he said, "...I was first sent to
preach the gospel, not with the wisdom of words, lest the cross
of Christ should be made of none effect. For the preaching of
the cross is to them that perish foolishness." Is preaching foolishness
to you? Well, it's because you're dying,
because you're dead, because you're perishing in your sins.
That's what God says. But unto us which are saved. What is preaching? To us who are saved it is the
power of God. Look at verse 21. For after that
in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God. it pleased
God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe." Only
by this preaching, only by preaching of Jesus Christ can a person
be saved. This is the means God has chosen. Why? To confound the wisdom of
the world. The wisdom of the world says,
you don't need preachers, you can do it yourself. God says,
no, you can't. This Ethiopian eunuch said, I
can't. I can't know this unless some
man guide me. Go to Romans 10. Romans chapter 10, verse 13. For whosoever shall call upon
the name of the Lord shall be saved. How then shall they call
on him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they
believe on Him in whom they have not heard? And how shall they
hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach except
they be sent? Do you see the follow the Apostles reasoning
here? How can you call on Jesus to
save you if you don't believe Jesus is a Savior? And how can you know Jesus is
a Savior unless someone tell you, preach it to you. And how can someone preach it
to you unless they've been sent? You see, you need a man sent
of God to preach to you the gospel. This is God's means of salvation. And secondly, all who hear, all
who hear the gospel by the grace and power of God will believe.
This is assuring to me because I know I have failures as a preacher. I know that I am not as good
as a preacher as I want to be. I want to be a better preacher,
I do. But I know this, it's not in my ability that causes someone
to hear the gospel. It's the Spirit of God in power. This is the reason you who believe,
when you're fed by my messages, and you come up to me and you
say, well man, that was a good message. I have no idea what
you're talking about. I don't ever think they're good
enough. But that's okay. Because I know this, when the
Spirit of God calls a man, he will hear and will believe. Because
this is all the power of God. This Ethiopian eunuch, When he
heard that gospel, he believed that gospel. He says in Acts
chapter 8, let me flip back over there here. Acts chapter 8, he
said in verse 37, I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. Do you believe that Jesus is
the Christ, the Son of God. When the gospel is declared,
God's people will hear it and they will believe it and they will confess it. Notice
this. This man, he says in verse 36,
what does hinder me from being baptized? They were driving by
and they saw a pool of water. They saw a a pond or some lake
of water. And he says, there's some water.
What does hinder me from following Christ in baptism? What hinders
me from serving Christ, from identifying with Him? And the
apostle said, if thou believest with all thine heart, thou mayest. Isn't that a wonderful requirement?
The apostle didn't say, well, what you have to do is you have
to have a certain amount of church attendance. or you have to have
this, this, you've got to reach a certain level of Christianity
then. No. He said, "...if thou believest
with all thine heart thou mayest." Isn't that a simple requirement?
One, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you may confess Him
in baptism. This man was sent to preach the
gospel. and he preached the gospel to
this Ethiopian eunuch, and this man said, I believe. Sinners, I tell you to behold
the Lamb of God. Believe on Christ. Would to God
that everyone here would believe on the Son of God and be saved. Isn't that The highest prayer
that I can pray for you is that you would be saved, that God
would cause you to believe. Friends, I'm not asking you to
accept Jesus as your Savior. Oh, no. Jesus offered Himself to God
and God accepted Him. Never in Scripture does He ask
you to accept Him. or His sacrifice. We are told and said to receive
the gospel. There's a great difference. The
word receive means to seize upon. Say you were starving to death
and somebody held out a piece of bread to you. Would you not
seize upon it? Would you speculate about the
bread? Well, what kind of bread is it?
I don't know. You know, I'm allergic. You know,
does it have gluten? Is this gluten-free bread? Because
I'm really hungry, but you know, I don't know if I want to accept
that kind of bread. You see, acceptance has something
to do with being superior. But when you are a beggar, When
you are starving to death, you don't care what kind of bread
it is. You'll grab it, you'll seize
it, and you'll feast on it as though it was the best bread.
That's how sinners come to Christ. They come to Christ as starving.
They come to Christ as hungry for righteousness. And they eat
Christ's flesh and drink His blood by faith. They receive
it as a gracious offering, a gift. can't be refused. They receive
it in great haste. Altogether, a difference between
accepting Jesus and receiving Him. We who have sinned against God,
He is the offended party. And I tell you, He's already
accepted an offering. He's already accepted a sacrifice. Sinner, receive it. Believe it. Trust it. God has provided an acceptable
offering for sin. And we who believe on Him will be baptized. We will be
baptized because, first of all, our king commands us. Let me ask you, when a king commands
something, is that an option? Not for the servant of the king. The rebel sees it as an option. The servant sees it as a command. Our King says be baptized and
so we are baptized in obedience to Jesus. And as our Lord suffered,
do you realize that being baptized He suffered? He had to be submissive
to a man He had to subject himself to obedience to God and men. And John says, hey, I need to
be baptized of you. And he said, suffer it to be
so now. We must fulfill all righteousness. Jesus said, if you look in Lamentations,
you can see it later, Lamentations. He says, is there any sorrow
like unto my sorrow? When Jesus Christ was baptized,
He was telling us what He was going to do. He was going to
die for our sins. And when He died for our sins,
He buried them in His tomb and separated them from us. And when
He rose again out of the water, He was testifying that He was
going to be raised again for our justification. Therefore,
He commands us to do the same. to give the same example that
when we are baptized, we are saying, You, Lord Jesus, You
are our King. You are our King. We are Your
servants. And when You died, we died. When
You were buried, we were buried. And when You rose again, we rose
again. Therefore, the Apostle says,
Do you not that when You were baptized, You were baptized into
His death? that you were buried with Him,
and even as He rose again from the dead, even so you who believe
ought to walk in newness of life. I know this. When I believed, either the world
changed or I changed, but something changed. If you say you believe and nothing
changes, I'll tell you what, you've not believed. My whole outlook on the world
changed. It did. I saw myself for what
I was. Sinner. Wretch. And I saw Him
for who He was, the glorious Savior Jesus Christ. And I followed
Him in baptism. And I tell you, this man, this
Ethiopian eunuch, he obeyed. He stopped that chariot. And
he got out of his high chariot and got down into that water,
and he was baptized in obedience to his master. He confessed to
all of his servants that were around him, to this preacher,
Philip. He confessed that Jesus is the
Christ, the Son of God. And he was baptized, and he came
up rejoicing. because now we who are dead with
Christ are dead to sin. We who are dead with Christ are
dead to the law. The law has no more jurisdiction
over a dead man. What can the law say to a dead
man? Nothing. You know what the law says to
me? Nothing. In Christ I've satisfied the
law. I'm free. And just as the water
cleanses, so the blood of Christ cleanses me from all sin. I pray
that God would give you grace. If you don't believe, believe
now. Obey Christ and follow Him in baptism, even as our Lord
Jesus commanded you. May God bless this to your hearts.