Good morning everyone. Good to
have you folks with us today. We're in a series of messages
from the book of Luke, Luke's Gospel. And I want to bring before
you this morning a subject that's found over in chapter 3, Luke
chapter 3. Now we're not going through the
book of Luke word by word, verse by verse, so I have the liberty
to jump around when I want to. Last week, or two weeks ago,
when we last came before our visitor was here last week, we
considered the declaration of God's angel when he came to one
of God's messengers, John the Baptist, who would be sent in
the power and the spirit of Elijah to make ready a people prepared
for the Lord. That was the title for our last
message, to make ready a people prepared for the Lord. That was
back in Luke chapter 1, verse 17, if you want to go back and
look at that sometime. Now today we're going to jump forward.
We're going to pick up where this messenger of God is fulfilling
what God's angel had declared that he would do. So if you're
in Luke chapter 3, would you join me in reading verses 3 and
4? And he, speaking of John the
Baptist, came into all the country about Judea, preaching the Baptist
for the remission of sins, as it is written in the book of
the words of Isaiah, the prophet saying, the voice of one crying
in the wilderness, prepare ye the way of the Lord, make his
path straight. Now we know that our Lord says,
all who come to me, all who believe in me, shall have everlasting
life. But he also says, and we know
this too, don't we? He says, well how are you going
to know How are you going to believe in one that you've never
heard of? How are you going to call upon a name that you've
never heard of? How are you going to believe in that name if you've
never heard of it? Now, people say, oh, I've heard
of Jesus. Have you? Have you heard about Jesus of
the Scriptures? There's a lot of people talk
about somebody called Jesus, don't they? A lot of people talk
about a Jesus that has no resemblance to the one that's spoken of about
right here in this Bible, in His Word. How are you going to
call upon one whom you've never heard of? That's what this is
talking about. John the Baptist was sent unto
the people. God had not sent one of His prophets. Obviously, He had been saving
people through the preaching of His Word, but one of His prophets
had not been sent. One that He would speak to personally
to give to people His Word, thus saith the Lord. And here He was
sending a prophet. before the people of Israel to
prepare the way Christ is coming. Now Christ has already come the
first time. So His messengers, His ministers
that He sent into the world today are ones who come about declaring
this. He's coming again. He who came once already and
fulfilled what He said He was going to do is coming again and
going to fulfill everything that is His purpose. John the Baptist
was sent to declare the way of the Lord. To prepare ye the way
of the Lord, make his paths straight. What most men in their carnal
or their natural state do not perceive is that every messenger
sent of God preaches the way of the Lord. That's it. We come before the people of
God and we preach Christ and Him crucified. That's our message. That's every message. Doesn't
matter how you approach it. Doesn't matter what direction
you come from. It's the same message. They all
lead to Christ. Or they're not a message at all.
I was sharing with some who were here for a Friday night Bible
study last week. Not last night, or not this Friday,
the one before that. I brought a special message veered
away from the book of Mark, where we've been, and I brought a message
from Zacharias. No, it wasn't Zacharias. It was one of the other prophets. I'll get it here in just a moment.
Zephanias, right? That's it. And I had heard the
message brought by David Edmondson the week before. And it just
inspired me. In fact, I called him up afterwards.
I said, brother, that was such a great message. I'm going to
have to preach it. So I brought it as a Bible study, which is
like preaching a message, really. That's what Bible studies are.
They all point us to Christ, right? So I brought out how David
Edmondson preached on these two verses, I'm preaching on these
four verses and those two verses, and I'm coming at it in a completely
different direction, but both of us came to the very same subject.
You could have had us both preaching back to back, and you would have
been blessed with the sovereignty of God in sending His Son to
save His people through the precious blood of Christ. It was the same
message. David Edmondson has done it already,
but I bet he's preached that same message this morning from
whatever scripture he came from. All of God's messengers stand
before the people and tell them of who Christ is, what He came
for, what He accomplished, and where He is right now. Isn't
that what we need to hear every day? We come out of this world
for what? Two hours a week? That means
I haven't done the math, but there's a whole lot of hours
you're not in God's Word. There's a whole lot of hours
that you're wandering around in the valley of the shadow of
death, and that's exactly what the world is. And the world don't
care that that's where they are because we didn't care either.
By His grace, we have been brought to see the light of our Savior
in the face of His Son, the Lord Jesus. Prepare ye the way of
the Lord, Men don't understand. They don't perceive that God's
messengers all preach that very thing. Moses preached that. Did
you know that? Did you know Moses preached that? Over in the book
of Luke, chapter 24, verse 27, our Lord was on the road with
two of His disciples. They didn't even know who He
was yet. He hadn't even revealed to them who He was. They had
walked with Him before He died. Now He had arose from the dead. all things concerning himself.
He said this over in verse 27, And beginning in Moses and all
the prophets, he expounded unto them in all scriptures the things
concerning himself. When God dressed Adam and Eve
in the righteousness of Christ, that's what that was. When he
took skins from Adam, when he shed first blood, The first picture
of our Savior was right there. Our Savior Jesus Christ was pictured
in that very thing. Now do you think Moses, do you
think he just sat in a little room and wrote those words about
Adam and Eve all by himself, or do you think he preached them?
What did we just read? Beginning of Moses, and all the
prophets he expanded unto them the scriptures of things concerning
himself. Moses preached Christ when he wrote the very words,
when he penned the words of Adam and Eve being clothed in the
righteousness of Christ, the only salvation for sin. We know that because Adam had
to teach his two boys, didn't he? He had to teach his two boys,
Cain and Abel. Cain wouldn't have any of what
his dad taught him, though, did he? He had to go bring the works
of his own hands. Just like Adam and Eve were trying
to clothe themselves in their own righteousness. They took
leaves and tried to cover their nakedness. That didn't work.
It's not good enough. God deserves perfection. He cannot be in the presence
of sin. The perfect substitute had to
be provided. And that's what Abel brought,
was a substitute. A substitute that pointed to
the perfect Lamb of God, the spotless Lamb of God, Jesus Christ
our Lord. Moses preached the grace of God
that is only found in our Savior, just as men preach today. He
wrote the story of Noah. Did you know Noah was a preacher
of righteousness? He wrote the story of Noah. and how his family
was saved in an ark. A picture of God's salvation
in his Son, Jesus Christ. It says that as Moses lifted
up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of God be lifted
up. I've shared this with you once before, but maybe you've
forgotten. You take the whole world, round as it is, and it's
round, just in case there's any flat earthers here listening,
You take that whole world and you cover it with water. Water
is a natural balancer. It's a natural leveler. And there's one thing that is
sitting above all the waves. There's one thing that is raised
above everything else. The one thing that saved Noah
and his family. The ark. A picture of Christ,
our Savior. Noah preached the salvation of
Christ in the ark of Noah's day. Joseph. You know the story of
Joseph. His brothers sold him. He was
taken down into Egypt. He was thrown in prison in Egypt.
He deciphered a dream the Pharaoh was having. The Pharaoh put him
above all else in the kingdom. Put him above everyone else in
the kingdom other than Pharaoh himself. Joseph was placed in
the palace of a king. a picture of Christ in his intercessory
position as our High Priest in the salvation of the people of
God when famine would come into their land. The message of all
of God's ministers is always the same. Saved by grace. You are saved by grace. Through faith, through belief,
through the God-given belief in His Son, the Lord Jesus. Not
of the works of man. Otherwise, we'd boast about it,
wouldn't we? Doesn't that Scripture just apply to your heart every
time you think about it? Don't you just think, yep, that
would be me! Thank God for grace! This was the message of John
the Baptist as well. Look with me again, if you would,
at verse 3. This time we'll read through
verse 8. And he, speaking of John the Baptist, came into all
the country about Jordan, preaching the baptism of repentance for
the remission of sins. As it is written in the book
of Isaiah, the prophet saying, the voice of one crying in the
wilderness, prepare ye the way of You know, there are those who
come before people preaching their interpretation of their
little Jesus, the one that looks like man, waiting for man to
make his decision, waiting for man to do what he has to do.
They say, you gotta come down here to the front of the aisle.
You know, to some folks, that could be a pretty big hill. That
might be a pretty windy path. Oh, I may not go down there today,
maybe I'll go down there next week. Oh, you know, I just don't
want to, I don't want to be embarrassed. Or maybe you like the attention
that it gives you. Maybe it's a windy path that
you've got to tread so that you get the attention that you might
feel you need from those around you. They went down to the front
today and got blessed. I know churches that brag on
that. 25 people came down to the front of the church today
and turned their lives over to Christ. Yeah, I know, we invited
them in to eat food and they don't have any food at home,
so yeah, they're here for that too. But yeah, they turned it
over to Christ. I brought this out Friday night.
I wonder how many of those came back the next Sunday and did
the same thing. Maybe they were hungry. What a windy path. What an uphill, downhill path
the world for those to be saved. Prepare ye the way of the Lord. Our Lord says, take my yoke upon
you. It's easy. You who labor and are heavy laden
with whatever it is, it's laid upon your heart this day. Whatever
burdens God has allowed you to have in your life this day, take
the yoke of Christ. What is that yoke? The yoke of
rest. The Yokov, it is done. The Yokov,
there's nothing for you to do. I have done it all. What a God,
to provide everything that He requires so that you and I would
be with Him for eternity. What a God. Back in our text
again, we read, 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. Then he said to the multitude
that came forth to be baptized of him, O generation of vipers,
who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Bring forth
therefore fruits worthy of repentance. and begin not to say within yourselves,
we have Abraham to our father. For I say unto you that God is
able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham." Israel
was banking on the fact that we're sons of Abraham. That's
why we're children of God. My bloodline can be traced right
back to Abraham, the friend of God. I know I'm saved because
of that. Begin not to say within yourselves,
we have Abraham to our father. Let's leave Luke now and go over
to Matthew chapter 3. I want to read the same event,
the same account that Matthew gives us. He gives us a little
more detail to it. And I just want to share this
with you. I've got very little in my notes, to be honest with
you today, folks. I came to this pulpit empty. If God is blessing
His Word today, as it is every Sunday, it's His blessing. Look
over at Matthew chapter 3. Let's read the same account that
Matthew gives of this. In those days, verse 1, chapter
3, verse 1. In those days came John the Baptist
preaching in the wilderness of Judea. Now think about that for
a moment. Folks, there's not another Sovereign
Grace Church that I know of anywhere near here other than over in
Yuma City, Marysville. There's a pretty big space between us.
You go back to Tennessee and Kentucky, there may be three
hours in some places between churches out there. But God's
churches are spread out. There's a big wilderness between
here and there. Right here, this little place
in Rescue, what a wilderness that surrounds us. And I'm not
talking about the woods. I'm talking about dryness. When
the Lord talks about the wilderness, He's talking about a desert place.
One where there is no water. One where there is no food. Where
nothing grows. That's the valley of the shadow
of death that we have to go through every day. John came out into
the wilderness. Gene Harmon came out into the
wilderness to preach the gospel of Christ and Him crucified.
To bring living water. to bring the bread of life to
His people. He went out preaching in the
wilderness of Judea, saying, Repent ye, turn ye, for the kingdom
of heaven is at hand. For this is He that was spoken
of by the prophet Isaiah, saying, The voice of one crying in the
wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make his path straight. And the same John had his remnant
in camel's hair, and a leather girdle about his loins, and his
meat was locust and wild honey. Do you understand the difference
between the ministers of God and religious people of the world?
In that day, the religious folk wore fine linen, fine purple. They had gold wrapped around
their, they had so much gold being coming into the church,
they wrapped it around their necks. Isn't that what they do
today? They get in airplanes and they
fly all over the country. They have 2,000 people. I was
watching a show about the first TV evangelist. I can't think
of his name now. Oral Roberts. In Memphis, Tennessee,
there's a building with no windows on it at all. Did I share this
with you guys already? Good. OK. Good. It's a new story.
So there's no windows on this building at all. And they went
about showing how the inside of it was built up. Of course, they've got to build
up all the drama to it and everything. But once they got to the meat
of the subject, this was a place of worship. This is where the
first televised evangelism was put together by him. And he had
thousands, millions of people sitting. They had a room bigger
than this room here, where they took all the dollar bills. They had their own bank right
there. They had an office. Actually, I don't think the room
was this big. I think their office was this size. Their office was this
size with all kinds of tables and people answering phones and
taking donations over the phone, stuff like that. They had thousands
of dollars coming in. Oral Roberts, he had whatever
he wanted. God's ministers are a little
different. I'm not saying we should eat locusts. and wild
honey, although that doesn't sound too bad, actually. Better
for you than pie, I would imagine. I'm not saying you shouldn't
dress nicely, but there comes a point when we waste. As humans,
we waste what we have. The difference between what John
the Baptist is being portrayed here and the difference of what
the religious people were at that time is stark. It's obvious. Not just in what they wear, but
in what they preach. Verse 5, Then went out to him
Jerusalem, and all of Judea, and all the region round about
Jordan, and were baptized of him in the Jordan, confessing
their sins. But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees
coming to his baptism, he said unto them, O generation of vipers,
who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Bring forth
therefore fruits suitable Put away those stains. Turn from
those things that you trust in. Bring forth fruits that are suitable
for repentance. And think not to say within yourselves,
we have Abraham to our father, for I say unto you that God is
able of these stones to raise up children under Abraham. And
now also the ax is laid unto the root of the trees. Remember,
he's talking to the Pharisees now. I guarantee you those Pharisees
knew exactly who he's talking about here. He's talking about
false religions. He's talking about religions
that glorify man. And now also the axe is laid
upon the root of the trees, therefore every tree which bringeth not
forth good fruit is hewn down and cast into the fire. And then
he says this. I indeed baptize you with water
unto repentance, but he that cometh after me is mightier than
I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear. He shall baptize you
with the Holy Ghost and with fire, whose fan is in his hand,
and he will thoroughly purge his floor and gather his wheat
into the garner, but he will burn up the shaft with unquenchable
fire. Every minister of God is sent
to bring one message, a message of hope to sinners. Saturday
night, for those of you who couldn't be here, Brother Larry brought
this out. He quoted another minister. I'm
not sure which one. I don't remember which one it
was. He said, this is, I'm here to preach to sinners. Sinners
are hard to find. Many say, oh, I'm not a sinner
anymore. I'm saved now. Few will say,
no, I'm still a sinner. A sinner, yes, saved by grace,
yet still a sinner. Every minister brings one message,
a message that brings hope to poor sinners. He says, repent
of your ways, repent of your self-righteous works, and rest
in His works, and know this, that your repentance is of God. Psalms 80 verse 3, it says this,
turn us again, that's the word repent, turn us again, O God,
and cause thy face to shine, and we shall be saved. Lamentations 5 verse 21, turn
thou us unto thee, O Lord, and we shall be turned. Turn me from
my ways, O Lord, from my imaginary self-righteousness. Turn me to
the perfect righteousness of my Lord. Who has warned you from
the wrath to come? This is our message. Wrath is
coming. God's wrath is coming. Will you
stand before Him in your own righteousness? Or will you stand
before God and the righteousness of His Son, Christ Jesus? Folks,
I plead with you. I plead with you this morning.
There is no hope in your works. But John, I'm not a bad person. I quit doing all those bad things.
See, there's a saved person right there, isn't there? There's one
who's forgotten that they're still a sinner. One who has never
been shown that they are still a sinner. I plead with you this
morning, there is no hope in your works. There is no hope
in what you may think is your goodness. Our only hope is that
we are the wheat of God, that he will gather us into his house. If we are left to ourselves,
we will receive our just reward. But if we are in his son, if
we are the they, if we are the they that is spoken of as those
he has loved with an everlasting love, If you are one of those,
Roger, who He has loved with an everlasting love, He has taken
your just reward. He has taken what we have earned. He stood in our stead when the
Lord poured His wrath out upon His Son. He stood in our stead
when He killed His Son because of sin. Not His sin. Christ never sinned. That must
be made clear. Did he go to the cross with sin
as his own? Yes. But it wasn't his, it was
ours. Now the scriptures talk about
imputation, and I've said this before, I don't understand that.
That's bigger than this little lion can handle. But I know this,
when my Lord stood in my place and hung on my place on that
cross and died, He died in my stead. How do I know that? His
Word tells me. And I believe His Word. If you're
in the Lord Jesus Christ, if you're one for whom He has declared
that He is love from everlasting to everlasting, He has taken
our just reward in our stead. He has justified His chosen people
before the Father. He is the God-Man. Folks, do
you understand that God can't die? God in the Spirit cannot
die. And our spirit isn't going to
die. We're either going to put this flesh off, and this flesh
is going to die from us, and we're going to spend eternity
in damnation, or we're going to spend eternity in the bliss
of heaven with our Lord and Savior. There's only two places. Every
soul will live forever in one of those two places. God had
to provide a way that you and I could be saved and the only
way to do that was to manifest Himself in the flesh like men. That's why we call Him the God-Man.
God in the flesh. The only way, the perfect Holiness
of God could be manifest was to have him made of a virgin.
Have him born of a virgin. Not with the seed of Adam in
him. The seed of Adam is all sin. So the perfect Son of God
came into this world. Walked perfectly. Establishing
a perfect righteousness. Everything he did, everything
he did, satisfied his Father. The day that he laid down his
life. And that's what he did. He laid down his life. He says,
I lay down my life, no man taketh it from me. He laid down his
life and shed his own blood. The power of God was in that
blood. If the power of God is in that
blood, it perfectly did everything it was purposed to do. Wouldn't
that be the common sense? That's exactly so. perfect blood
of God was shed upon that cross, washing, washing and bringing
the sins of His people into remission. And then of course, death could
not hold Him. No, He sits today on His throne
of glory, making intercession out for all of His people. This
is the picture we see in baptism. We see His death, death and being
buried in the water. That's why you can't do sprinkling.
That's why sprinkling can't be called baptism. You gotta be
submersed. You gotta be buried. And then
brought up a picture of our Lord and Savior laying down His life.
Dying, being buried, and raised again. Turn over to Colossians
chapter 2 and we'll bring this to a close. Being baptized in
the Spirit simply means this, folks. It means that our spirit
The one which was bound in trespasses and sin has been put to death. When our great Lord died, we
died in Him. Our sin nature was buried in
Him. It was buried in Christ Jesus
the Lord. When He was buried in the belly
of the earth, our sins were buried with Him. And when He arose victor
over all His enemies, we arose in Him. having been brought to
a living state that worships Him in spirit and in truth. Are
you with me? In Colossians chapter 2. I'd
like to begin at verse 6 and we're going to read a lengthy
part here. As ye have therefore received
Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in Him. Rooted. Rooted. Like a tree. as he had been taught, abounding
therein with thanksgiving. Folks, it doesn't matter what
Lord brings our way. If we're in Christ, even our
troubles, we can be thankful for. Maybe not at the time, maybe
not at the time, but there'll be a time when we look back on
everything we've gone through and say, thank you, Lord, for
bringing me closer to you. Beware, verse 8, lest any man
spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition
of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ. For in Him, in Christ, willeth
all the fullness of the Godhead bodily, and ye are complete in
Him. You're complete in Him. Everything
you need is in Him. And then it goes on to say, which
is the head of all principality and power. He is the head of
all principality and power. All power in heaven and earth
belong to Him. Verse 11, in whom also we are
circumcised with the circumcision made without hands. That's the
new birth. That's the cutting away the old
stony heart. That's what circumcision is.
Cutting away the stone, leaving nothing but the flesh. and putting
off the body of sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ,
verse 12, buried with him in baptism, wherein also ye are
risen with him through the faith of the operation of God, who
hath raised him from the dead. And you, being dead in your sins
and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, Half he quickened."
That means be made alive. Together with Him, having forgiven
you all trespasses. Boy, the Gospel just keeps getting
better and better when we read it, doesn't it? Blotting out,
verse 14, the handwriting of the ordinances that was against
us. That's the law. The law taught us what sin was.
We see grace. We live by the love of God now.
Grace, blotting out the handwriting of ordinances against us, which
was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it
to His cross. And having spoiled principalities
and powers, He made a show of them openly, triumphing over
them in it. Now, verse 24 of 20. Wherefore, if ye be dead with
Christ from the rudiments of the world, why, as though living
in the world, are ye subject to the ordinances? Touch me not,
touch not, taste not, handle not, which are all to perish
with the using after the commandments of the doctrines of men. Which
things have indeed a show of wisdom in willed worship. Did
you see that? They have a wisdom in the worship of will, of your
own self-will. and humility in neglecting the
body, but not in any honor to the satisfying of the flesh.
If ye then be, chapter 3, verse 1, if ye then be risen with Christ,
seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right
hand of God. Set your affection on the things
above, not on the things of the earth, for ye are dead, and your
life is hid,