So when we go through Matthew
3, I want to keep the following things in mind. First of all,
Matthew is the gospel of Jesus Christ. It says in Matthew 1.1,
the beginning of the, I mean the gospel of the generation,
how does it say it? It says, the book of the generation
of Jesus Christ. It's about Jesus Christ. It's
about who He is. And Matthew 1 talks about who
He is. He's the Son of God. He's the
Son of David, the Son of Abraham. He's Emmanuel, God with us. He
was sent by God and He's God dwelling among us. And why He
came is also brought out plainly in Matthew 1. He came to save
His people from their sins. Now, that's what the Bible is
about and that's what Matthew is about. So when you read Matthew,
always look at it as if you're watching the history of the one
who God sent to do something the most amazing and pivotal
and important thing in all of eternity. The redemption of his
people by himself, by his own death, his sufferings and death.
And then his rising again to glory. That's what the gospel
is about. It's about Christ, what he did,
what he accomplished in his death, who he did it for, where he is
now in glory, and the saving of his people and bringing them
to glory, which is the result of all that he did on earth.
And then we saw in Matthew chapter 2 that Christ was born. He was born as a baby. Men were
led to Him, to come to Him, to see Him, to find Him and worship
Him. And they gave Him gifts. Others who knew the Scriptures
were unbelieving and they didn't find Him. They didn't seek for
Him. They didn't worship Him. They didn't give Him gifts. They
didn't know Him. And they became instruments in
the hand of the evil king unwittingly, perhaps, and later they would
turn out to be opposers of Christ. Those were the scribes and the
Pharisees. But King Herod was the evil king. And he did all
that he could to find him and to kill the Lord Jesus Christ.
But God preserved him. Because God would not allow his
son to fail. And Christ could not fail. Wise
men worshipped Him in His weakness. They worshipped Him as God and
King in His weakness. They saw Him with eyes of faith,
even though their physical eyes saw Him with nothing. The scribes
saw Him in Scripture, and they had an accurate understanding
of where He was going to be born and who He was. But they didn't
come, and they didn't worship Him. And the Lord preserved Christ,
and he actually was brought to do what God sent him to do, which
was to save his people from their sins. So when we see in Matthew
3, what we're going to study today, which is the baptism of
John, the baptism of Christ by John, then we're going to see
the same thing. We're going to see the Lord Jesus
Christ coming, doing, accomplishing. And we're going to see those
around him, how they're participating in this in one way or another.
And I really hope that and pray that God would be with us in
this study. So before we get started, let's do that. Let's
ask the Lord to be with us. Father, we pray that you would
open to us your word, that you would speak to our hearts, and
you would teach us of all that Jesus did to save his people
from their sins. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.
You know, I think we ought to close those windows because our
neighbor's working on some woodworking projects. Thank you. Matthew chapter 3, let's just
read through it. It's not that long of a chapter, and we're
going to be focusing on not every verse in the chapter, but just
giving you an overview of it, and then focusing on especially
the baptism of Christ. In those days came John the Baptist,
preaching in the wilderness of Judea, and saying, Repent 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 paths straight. And the same John had his raiment
of camel's hair, and a leather girdle about his loins, and his
meat was locusts and wild honey. Then went out to him Jerusalem,
and all Judea, and all the region about Jordan. You see it at the
outset here. John is not a wimp. He's not
a weak guy. He lives where there's nothing. It's the wilderness. I can't
imagine what was out there. There was a river, Jordan, but
he was living like Elijah, the prophet, who just lived out,
away from people. And he didn't live out there
because he was a hermit. He lived there because he was rejected
and he rejected the religion of his day it was totally false
all of Jerusalem and Judea were in darkness about the truth and
John was sent to point out that and to point to Christ who would
come the truth the way the truth in the life and so when he comes
his first message is to repent and he's in the wilderness god
comes to him and gives him the message to preach there the spirit
of god was on john from his mother's womb he was called by jesus the
greatest prophet that ever lived and and here he is eating uh... wild honey and locusts and wearing
camel's hair and and a leather and and he's the kind of guy
that might be imposing in his appearance but his message is
what was the most important thing. And his message had power in
it. It wasn't like you coming to
hear a lecture or coming to hear a sermon where we fall asleep. This is not the kind of sermon
that John preached. It was partly because of who
he was as a man, but it was all because of what the Holy Spirit
did through John's preaching. It was all about what God was
doing. And so that's why we recognize that when we teach or when we
preach or when we hear the Word of God. It doesn't matter what
the man looks like. He might be odd looking like
John or he might be like Paul who the people saw him and there
was nothing about him. They kind of despised his physical
appearance. Or it might be Jesus who they
found nothing in him to desire. The Word of God pierced the hearts
of those who heard it. And only God can do that. So
it's not within the ability of the preacher to make God's Word
go into your heart. And it's not within your ability
to make it go there. But realize that the only way
God's truth is ever going to penetrate your heart is if you
hear it from His Word and hear it through a preacher. Now that
preacher might have written something that you read, or he may be preaching
to you. But it's God's will and purpose
that through the foolishness of preaching, He would save those
that believe. That's His purpose. And we hear,
we believe by hearing, and we hear in hearing the gospel. And
so gospel preaching is the only way we can be saved, and the
only way we can walk in this life of grace. And the Spirit
of God has to give that to us. So John comes, and I'm just summarizing
now the general principles here. But it says in verse 5, that
then went out to John, Jerusalem and all Judea and all the region
round about Jordan. You can imagine the crowds that
came to this one man. And they were baptized of him
in Jordan, confessing their sins. Do you see that? confessing their
sins. And when he saw many of the Pharisees
and Sadducees come to his baptism, he said to them, O generation of vipers, who hath
warned you to flee from the wrath to come? That is not the way
a preacher talks when he's trying to gain a crowd. He called them
serpents, the serpent's children. and under the wrath of God. He
made it clear. John didn't please men, but he
did please God. Whether he was speaking to an
everyday person like myself or someone who might be well-versed
in scripture and trusted in their works like we can do and like
many do, he spoke the truth. And even though the truth cut
to the heart, He spoke it anyway because that's the only thing
that will do us any good. So He called them what they were.
You are a generation of vipers. He says in verse 8, Bring forth
therefore fruits, meat, for repentance. That means show by what you do
that the repentance has occurred inside of you. Because repentance
Repentance, true repentance, is on the inside, but it bears
fruit on the outside. Verse 9, 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 unto
Abraham. And now, also, the axe is laid
unto the root of the trees. Therefore, every tree which bringeth
not forth good fruit is hewn down and cast into the fire.
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 chaff
with unquenchable fire. So at this point, there are several
questions that come, and I would hope that you would make a note
somehow, mentally or otherwise, of your questions, and we can
talk about those later, because I'm not going to have time to
go through this to answer every question, and I won't anticipate
them all either. But one of the questions comes
up here is, what is this fire? What is this fire? And it's clear
from the context, it has to do with purging his floor. Some
in his floor, which would be like a floor where they threshed
wheat. Some would be wheat and gathered in. Some would be chaff
and burnt up. And so being, having to do with
fire here is the judgment of God against those who do not
receive Christ. who do not receive His word.
The Lord Jesus Christ will purge His floor. He's the one and He
only can baptize with the Holy Spirit and He's the only one
who can baptize in fire. And the fire here has to do with
the judgment. against those who don't believe
him so he says here in verse 13 this and this is very significant
the next few verses and probably where I will spend most of our
time then cometh Jesus from Galilee to Jordan unto John to be baptized
of him 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 in other words Let's do, allow this to
happen, permit this to happen now as I've asked. Let's baptize
me as I've asked, he says. For thus it becometh us to fulfill
all righteousness. That's a very, very significant
statement of Christ here. Understanding this will help
us understand the whole meaning of baptism. He says, Thus it
becometh us to fulfill all righteousness. Then he suffered him. That is,
John the Baptist allowed him to baptize Jesus. And Jesus,
when he was baptized, went up straightway out of the water. And, lo, the heavens were opened
unto him, and he saw the Spirit of God. He, John, saw the Spirit
of God descending like a dove and lighting upon him. And lo,
a voice from heaven, saying, This is my beloved Son, in whom
I am well pleased. And so there you have the whole
chapter, Matthew chapter 3. I want to summarize this chapter
for you because a lot of times, I don't know about you, but when
I read the scripture, sometimes it just feels like a patchwork
of things, and I don't see how it's connected. But these things
are all very closely connected, and they're all there for a purpose,
and that purpose is to point us to Christ, that we might be
saved. First of all, what you see here
is there were a lot of people that came to John to be baptized. And John came, he was sent of
God. He didn't come of himself, God
sent him. And God sent him with a purpose. And you don't see
the full purpose of why he came in this particular chapter. But
I'll refer you to a couple of verses so that we get the full
picture. First thing, he came preaching the baptism of repentance. He came baptizing and preaching
the baptism of repentance for the remission of sins. And secondly,
he came to reveal the Lord Jesus Christ. That's the primary reason
why John came. In fact, his baptism was a supporting
purpose in that bigger purpose, which was to reveal the Lord
Jesus Christ. And then, like all the prophets,
why were the prophets given? Why did the prophets speak? Why
did God have the prophets act out in their lives the very message
they also spoke with their words? Why did God do that? Luke 24 25 through 27 all the
prophets all the law all the Psalms spoke of the sufferings
of Christ and the glory that should follow so what John did
and what he said all revealed Christ and didn't just reveal
him oh here he is but revealed who he was and especially what
he came to do that's the purpose of Matthew isn't it He came to
save His people from their sins. His name shall be called Jesus.
Jehovah is salvation. He came to save His people from
their sins. I've taken classes where they
teach you how to write. I've never really learned how
to write very well, but one of the things they tell you is,
say, I mean, tell the reader what you're going to say. Say
what you're going to say, and then tell them what you said.
Sounds pretty simple, right? It's kind of a boring way to
write, but that's what happens in Matthew He says this is what
I'm going to say the generation of Jesus Christ Jesus, He came
to save His people from their sins. And then He says what He
came to say, all about Jesus. And then He tells you what He
said at the end. That's what the book is about.
That's what the Bible is about. It's about Christ. So when we
read Matthew 3, we're reading what God gave Matthew to say
about what Jesus came to do. And it's the same thing with
John. He came to tell and to act out
what Jesus would do and all that he was. So take a look at the
Gospel of John chapter 1 and we'll see this. Because I want
you to see this for yourself. He says in John chapter 1 In verse 19 it says, this is
the record of John when the Jews sent priests and Levites from
Jerusalem to ask him, who art thou? And he confessed and denied
not, but confessed, I am not the Christ. And they asked him,
what then? Are you Elijah? And he said, I am not. Are you
that prophet? And he answered, no. Then they
said to him, Who art thou, that we may give an answer to them
that sent us? What sayest thou of thyself?
And he said, I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness.
Make straight the way of the Lord, as said the prophet Isaiah. And that's in Isaiah 40. And
in Malachi 3. And they which were sent were
of the Pharisees. And they asked him, and said
to him, Why baptizest thou then, if thou be not that Christ, nor
Elijah, neither that prophet? And they were referring to the
prophet that Moses promised that would come, which was Christ
also. And John answered them, saying, I baptize with water. But this is where he does it.
He immediately says, yeah, this is what I came to do to baptize
with water. And he immediately points to Christ. But there stands
one among you whom you know not. He it is who coming after me
is preferred before me. whose shoes latched, I am not
worthy to unloose." And these things were done in Bethabara,
beyond Jordan, where John was baptized. And the next day, John
seeth Jesus coming to him, and he said, Behold the Lamb of God,
which taketh away the sin of the world. This is He of whom
I said, After me cometh 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 then he gives a record again
of what the baptism of Christ was. Do you see that? John was sent to tell of Christ. His baptism of Christ spoke of
Christ. That was the acting out of the
prophet. His words spoke of Christ. Behold the Lamb of God. He's
preferred before me. He was before me. He's the Son
of God. And he bare record to what God
said. When God sends his messenger,
what we see in Matthew 3, and this is, take a step back now
and look at the chapter 3. We've read it. Think about what
you've heard. The people came to John. They
came to John because he was in the wilderness preaching, and
he was preaching the baptism of repentance for the remission
of sins. I'm just saying it like it says it in the New Testament. When God sends his messenger,
his people hear, and the first thing that happens is that they
are convicted of their sin. If you're, every time God speaks, when God
speaks, I'm not talking about when I speak, but when God speaks,
it's different. It's not the same as when a man
speaks. He speaks to your heart. I've heard, I think about how
in the book of Acts, every man heard what was preached in their
own native language. Have you ever thought about that?
In your mother tongue. They didn't have to have a translator
and they didn't have to work hard to just convert what they
were hearing into their own language. God spoke it in the language
they were born with. And that's the way the gospel
comes to us when God speaks. God speaks to us in our heart
so we can understand it. And the first thing he does is
he convinces us of sin. I took classes in college and
in high school just like you. One of the questions people ask
you is, what are you studying? What subjects are you studying?
Well, you bring out the books. You say math, and science, and
physics, and chemistry, and all these things, biology, whatever
it might be. And you study the books, don't you? You study the
textbooks. After a while, you study them
really hard, and you master the material, don't you? The Bible
is not a textbook that we study. The Bible, according to Hebrews
4.12, is living. The Word of God is living. The
reason I say that is because when we study a textbook, we
master the material. But when we read the Bible and
God speaks to us, the Bible, the Word of God, studies us. The Word of God causes us to
come under as the subject of God's study. And we feel it. We feel the light of God's truth
penetrating our hearts. And so when John came preaching,
the first thing he says was, repent ye. Repentance points
out the fact that you are a sinner. And when the people were baptized,
we saw that they confessed their sins. The first thing God did
in John's baptizing was to cause men and women to take their place
as sinners before God. In the waters of baptism, they
confessed their sins. And they said, I'm worthy of
God's judgment. John said to the scribes and
Pharisees, who warned you to flee, the wrath to come? These
people knew they were deserving of wrath and so they were baptized
confessing their sins for the remission of their sins. They
needed forgiveness. They needed their sins to be
taken from them. To be washed away. And so they
came to be baptized. And that's what God does to us.
His Word rises up alive and divides and discerns between our thoughts
and intents of our heart. And exposes us and makes us naked
before the eyes of Him with whom we have to do. When Adam Had
sinned and God spoke to him in the garden the voice of God Walked
in the garden in the cool of the day, and he spoke to Adam
and Adam heard him he hid Because he was exposed by God's Word
the Word is living Jesus Christ is called the Word of God And
we need God to speak to us from this place, from every place
of scripture. It must happen or we cannot be
saved. If God doesn't speak to us, we'll
remain like Ezekiel's dead bones, dry, very dry, and nothing, just
disconnected. And I say that because we often
read things like the account of John the Baptist, and we quickly
just read through it. Repent ye for the kingdom of
heaven is at hand. They came and were baptized, confessing
their sins. And we get to the next verse, and we've missed
what the issue was. These people had come under the
solemn conviction of their sins, and they knew it. And they needed
help, and they knew it. And so the first thing that the
teaching of repentance does is it forces us to take our place
as sinners. Secondly, it doesn't leave us
as it finds us. It humbles us. Look at this verse
in James chapter 1. chapter 1, it's verse 9. I've
been thinking about this for a few weeks. James says this. It's a strange thing that he
says, but James is right after the book of Hebrews. I'm telling
myself so I can find it quickly. He says in James 1, verse 9, let the brother of low
degree rejoice in that he is exalted. But the rich in that
he is made low, because as the flower of the grass he shall
pass away." The Word of God does both of those things. He kills
and he makes alive. He says, if you're a brother
of low degree, and God has given you grace to see the Lord Jesus
Christ, faith in Him, and you see you're standing in Him, rejoice,
you've been exalted. But also, the same brother, or
a different brother perhaps, because both of these things
apply to each one of us. If God has spoken to us. When
God speaks to us, both occur. But the rich, in that He's made
low. We're rich, naturally, because
we don't think we need anything. That's what rich people do. They
don't have any needs, do they? We don't realize our need. When
the Gospel comes to us, the Word of God comes to us in power,
it exposes our total barrenness, our nakedness, our need before
God. And so He says, rejoice when
that happens, because that's God's work. And what that means
is that the Lord, and know this, that the Lord dwells with him
that is a contrite and humble spirit, like David said in Psalm
51. Remember what happened to David
in Psalm 51? He sinned, he committed adultery,
he murdered, and he covered it up. And God came to him and spoke
to him. And what did he do? He was immediately
sorry for what he had done. And he confessed his sins. And
he prayed several things. Look at that song. He asked God
for mercy. He asked God to blot out his
sins. He asked God to give him a new heart. He asked God to
cover... to free him from blood guiltiness
and all these things according to his righteousness. He prayed
all these things because God touched him. And when God touches
us, we come to him confessing our sins, seeking mercy, and
we can only find that mercy in his way. Remission of sins can
only be done by God, and God has to do it in his way. And
so, that's what repentance does. It brings us low. It brings us
to our need, taking our place before God as a sinner, guilty,
condemned, corrupt. And repentance, it demands of
us, doesn't it? Don't you feel immediately the
demand upon you, imposing a demand upon you when you hear someone
say, repent? Immediately, it's like you put up your shields,
like, my shield's come up. I have to defend myself. Because
why do we do that? Why do we say, you know why I
think it bothers? I'm speaking personally. It bothers
us because, number one, we don't like to own the fact that we
are a dead dog sinner. And number two, and I think this
is the most painful part, and I can't do anything about it.
Because when I try to repent, when I try to change my mind,
my nature, who I am, because that's what repentance is. It's
a fundamental change in the inside. Look at Isaiah 55. Isaiah 55. I'm just giving you a broad brush
stroke of repentance here. It's a big subject. We could
study it. But he says in Isaiah 55, after he pleads with us,
to hear his word and to come to him and eat and drink without
money and without price. He says in verse 7, let the wicked
forsake his way. And I was studying that yesterday
and I made special note of the fact that it's not a plural,
ways. It's his way. This is your nature. This is who you are. And God
commands you, let the wicked forsake his way. And the unrighteous
man, his thoughts, his thoughts, do you see that? That's repentance.
A fundamental change on the inside that works its way out on the
outside. But where does repentance come
from? And you know the answer if you've studied the Bible at
all. And this is the blessed news
about repentance. Even though it puts demands on
us to change, and even though we feel the pain and the sorrow
of our guilt and our helplessness to make a fundamental difference,
How do you change your mind? It says in Jeremiah 13, 23, can
the Ethiopian change his skin? Can the leopard change his spots?
No. Then no more can you do good who are accustomed to doing evil.
That's us. We cannot change. But throughout
scripture, the blessed news comes. He says in Psalm 80, turn us
again, Lord God of hosts. Cause thy face to shine, and
we shall be saved. Over and over again, scripture
reveals that until God turns us, we cannot be turned. In the
book of Acts, it says that Jesus was exalted to the right hand
of God to give repentance to Israel. And he gave that repentance
to the Gentiles in the book of Acts. So over and over again,
repentance is the work of God. In Romans chapter 2, it says
that it's the goodness of God that leadeth thee to repentance.
It's because God is so good that He would do that. But it's not
just because He's good and that's why He does it, but it's also
true that The object of our confidence, the object of our hope is that
because God is good, He will turn us. In Isaiah it says, God
brings an accusation against the people and He says, they
do not seek Him that smiteth them. I think that's in Isaiah. I can't remember. I'll look it
up later if you're interested. They do not seek Him that smiteth
them. This is what God does when His
Word comes to us. His Word is like a sword, and
it cuts, and we're exposed. And like Adam, we want to hide
because it's painful. And then God comes later, and
He clothes Adam. He clothes Eve. And it's His
goodness. We see His goodness. And that's
what breaks our hearts. That's what breaks our hearts.
When we see the goodness of God toward us, when we were sinners,
guilty, condemned, corrupt, couldn't do anything about it, and God
in mercy turned us. And that's why in Psalm 51, David
prays. He says, Create in me a clean
heart, O God. God has to do that. He has to
turn us. He has to create that heart that's different, fundamentally
different. We see things differently. We
forsake our way and our thoughts and we turn to the Lord. God
humbles us. He brings us low and then He
exalts us by looking to Christ. And that's the message of the
Gospel. So in Matthew 3, what you see here is that all these
people heard John preach, they were convicted of sin. They came
to him seeking remission of sins, and he baptized them unto repentance
and remission of sins. Fundamentally, he was saying
they had, they thought incorrectly about God, about themselves,
and about how God saves. They needed to change the way
they thought about themselves and how they could come to God
and how God saves. That's what they were. And now
when the scribes and Pharisees heard about John, they didn't
come out to John to be saved. They came for a different reason.
They came as spies. Remember we just read in John
1, they were sent. You don't. You're not. I might
suggest you go to the conference, but I don't send you to the conference
to learn about what the preacher is saying, so you can bring me
back a report and we can lay it out and see if he's telling
the truth. I will not get anything out of it that way. That's exactly
what these men were doing. They were coming to John to find
out what he was saying, so they could take it apart, lay it on
the table. They were theologians. They wanted to understand. Let's
lay this doctrine by this doctrine and we'll see what's right and
what's wrong. Unfortunately, that doesn't lead us to Christ. If you don't come as a dead dog
sinner in need of salvation, looking to God to save you, and
see His salvation, which is the Lord Jesus Christ, then you won't
see Him. God has to open our eyes. He
has to bring us to that. And when we come as a scribe
and a Pharisee, we'll go away in our sins. And so He tells
them, O generation of vipers, who has warned you to flee from
the wrath to come. We're all under the wrath of
God. by nature. We're all children of wrath by
nature. And left to ourselves, we are
just the serpent's children. We're a generation of vipers.
If God doesn't make us his sons, we'll stay the children of this
world, the children of the prince of darkness. He has to birth
us into His kingdom. And He does that for everyone
that He chose to adopt in eternity. So what we see here is that the
people come to John. John tells them you need to make
a fundamental change on the inside about your sin. and about how
God saves you from your sin. You think low things about God's
law. God's law is not just, do this
and do that, and don't do this and don't do that. And if you
don't, if you, the spirit of God's law is not, don't do this
and do do that, otherwise you're going to be punished. That's
not what the spirit of the law, the spirit of the law is this,
you've already broken it. In every part, if you've done,
James says it this way in James 2.10, he says, if you offended
one thing, you've broken the whole law. And what is it to
offend in one thing? It's to break the whole law.
And that says you don't love God. To not love God is to hate
God. It's to despise God. You are
a hater of God, an enemy of God. The law goes well below the surface
of don't commit adultery and don't kill. It says, love your
neighbor. It says, don't look on a woman
with lust. It goes right to the heart of
what you think. Because God looks on the inside,
man looks on the outside. And so John's message was, you're
thinking low thoughts of God's law, and therefore low thoughts
of God, and you need to be brought down. And not only that, but
you do not understand how God remits sin. And you need to change
your mind fundamentally about God's salvation. The scribes
came. They didn't see any of this.
They came to examine John, just like a theologian would examine
another place, another book, or something on his shelf. to
look at Scripture from the perspective of trying to find out how much
they could learn so that they would have confidence in their
knowledge of the Scripture rather than confidence in the God of
Scripture. It's just entirely different. It's entirely different.
We can know a lot about Jesus, but until Jesus knows us, we
don't know anything about Him, do we? And that's the problem. I find myself falling into the
camp of the hypocrite. Don't you? Don't you find yourself
taking God's word casually or maybe taking it out to examine
it so that you can master it instead of coming under it and
having it master you? Don't you feel humbled by God's
word when he tells you he finds nothing in you? He searched.
throughout all time in history at every man who ever lived and
he found that there was none righteous, no not one. That means
he looked at my heart and my actions and my words and everything
I want to do and he found that it was all together vanity. Man at his best state is all
together vanity. The very best we do is filthy
rags. And so, He tells us that, and
it humbles us. And He tells these scribes and
Pharisees the same thing. So, fundamentally, the scribes
and Pharisees opposed the message. They didn't know they were sinners.
They didn't admit it, at least. And they didn't know how God
saves. Neither do we, naturally. We have to be brought to that.
God has to bring us to that. so now when john was baptizing
he was teaching people he was teaching them through his words
and what he was going to do next about how god saves and who would
do the saving so let's look at this he says after verse 9 through
12 telling them don't trust to the fact that you were born to
Abraham and know this that God is going to put the axe to the
root of the tree is going to chop down everyone who trusts
in their own works and their own heritage and then he says
the Lord Jesus Christ himself is going to baptize with the
Holy Spirit and that he is going to purge his floor and then it
says in verse 13 Then cometh Jesus from Galilee
to Jordan unto John to be baptized of him. 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 now, suffer it
to be so now, for thus it becometh us to fulfill all righteousness. Why did Jesus, why was Jesus
baptized of John? Why did he get baptized? It says
it right here in verse 15, to fulfill all righteousness. Do you see that? Does my baptism
fulfill righteousness? No. Does John's baptizing Jesus
fulfill all righteousness? When Jesus was baptized by John,
did he fulfill all righteousness? Did he fulfill part of that righteousness? And the answer to those questions
is, no, but. Because what John did in baptizing
Jesus was, as I said, what the prophets always do. They not
only say with their words what the message is, but they show
that message with what they do. Remember what Elijah did? John
the Baptist came in the spirit and the power of Elijah. Elijah came to the people on
Mount Carmel all the prophets of Baal and all of Israel and
he said he prayed to God he said Lord turn the hearts of these people
back again and he repaired the altar and he said he prayed in his
prayer Lord In fact, let's go back and look at that prayer,
because it's so significant. 1 Kings 18. I just want to read
this prayer of Elijah to you, because this reveals his heart,
and this is the heart of John as well. And he's going to follow
Elijah's pattern in what he does here. 1 Kings 18. It says, In verse 36, it came to pass
at the time of the offering of the evening sacrifice that Elijah
the prophet came near and said, Lord God of Abraham, Isaac of
Israel, let it be known Let it be known this day that thou art
God in Israel, and that I am thy servant, and that I have
done all these things at thy word." God sent John, God sent
Elijah, and Elijah just wants the people to know, I'm here
because God sent me doing this, because God said to do this.
And this is what Elijah wanted the people to know, that thou
art God in Israel. hear me oh Lord hear me that
this people may know that thou art the Lord God and that thou
has turned their heart back again you see that Elijah's prayer
was that the people would be turned by God and that they would
be turned to know that he was God in Israel And then the fire
of the Lord fell, and you know, it burnt up the sacrifice, it
burnt up the wood, the stones, the dust, licked up the water
that was in the trench, and the people saw it. And they cried
out, the Lord, He is God. Remember? What was the one issue? What was the one thing that Elijah
wanted? He wanted them to know the Lord was God. How did God
do that? By consuming the sacrifice. In
consuming the sacrifice, he received from Elijah the offering. He accepted the sacrifice. Why did God turn the people?
Because he had accepted the sacrifice in answer to Elijah's prayer.
John the Baptist came preaching the baptism of repentance. Repentance
is to turn back again, isn't it? It's to turn to the Lord.
How is God going to do that? In the same pattern that Elijah
did. John, in baptizing Christ, was
showing God has to receive the sacrifice. Here he is. And he baptized him in water. Because by baptizing Christ in
water, symbolically, He was showing that through the suffering and
the death of the Lord Jesus Christ, He would go under the wrath of
God for His people. And in doing that, God could
remit their sins. And in doing that, He would fulfill
all righteousness. You see, the baptism of Christ
didn't in and of itself fulfill all righteousness. But it prefigured,
because John was a prophet, speaking of the sufferings of Christ and
the glory that would follow, it prefigured what was coming
in the baptism of Christ. Look at Luke chapter 12, if you
would. Luke chapter 12, Jesus himself
speaks of his death in this way. He says in Luke 12, in verse
50 of Luke chapter 12, He says, I have a baptism to
be baptized with, and how am I straightened till it be accomplished? You see that? He was going to
actually accomplish his baptism. But wait a minute. He was baptized
by John. Wasn't that the baptism? No. That was just pointing forward,
anticipating the baptism that Christ would be baptized with.
Look at Matthew chapter 20. Matthew chapter 20, he says this, in verse 21, the mother of James and John,
the sons of Zebedee, came to him and asked him If he would
do something for her, and verse 21, he said to her, what wilt
thou? And she said to him, grant that these my two sons may sit,
the one on thy right hand and the other on thy left, on the
left, in thy kingdom. Like a mom. Her boys had already
been chosen by Christ, but she wants them right there, you know.
She didn't say anything about herself either, just her boys.
But Jesus answered and said, you know not what you ask. Are
you able to drink of the cup that I shall drink of? What cup?
Remember what Jesus prayed in the garden? Lord, Father, if
it be possible, take this cup from me. It was the cup of the
wrath of God, the cup of his indignation. Christ drank it. It was a cup without mixture
because there was no kindness in it. It was all judgment. He
says, are you able to drink of the cup that I shall drink of
and to be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with? They
said to him, like we would ignorantly, presumptuously, yeah, we're able.
And he said to them, you shall indeed, you shall drink indeed
of my cup and be baptized with the baptism that I'm baptized
with. But to sit on my right hand and
on my left is not mine to give, but it shall be given to them
for whom it is prepared of my father. You see what he's saying
to James and John and to all of his people? Are you able to
be baptized with my baptism? Drink of my cup? And the answer,
of course, is absolutely not. Not in myself. But they didn't
know what they were talking about. They said, sure. And he said,
you shall be indeed. Because in the baptism of Christ,
the baptism of Christ his people were baptized with him I'm talking
about the actual the fulfillment of his baptism not when he was
baptized by John not when he went into the water that only
foreshadowed the true baptism baptism that Jesus underwent
was a baptism under the wrath of God in suffering and death
and a burial in the grave. And this is typified in the Old
Testament by several figures. We just read two here in the
New Testament where it plainly declares that Christ's suffering
and death was His baptism. But in the Old Testament this
is revealed in several ways and I just want to first tell you
about them. And then we'll go to a couple of them. Remember
what it says in 1 Corinthians 10? It says, they were all baptized
unto Moses in the sea and in the cloud. Remember that? All
of Israel came out of Egypt. And when they came out of Egypt,
they were stuck. The Red Sea was before them,
and Pharaoh and his army behind them. And Moses said, what did
he say? Stand still and see the salvation of the Lord. And then
the sea opened up. He held out his rod, the sea
opened up, and what did they do? They all followed Moses into
the sea. That was being baptized into
the sea with Moses. You see, Moses was the mediator. Moses was the deliverer. Moses
was the one sent of God to bring them out of Egypt. By following
Moses into the sea, they were baptized unto Moses. Christ delivered
us from Egypt. Christ is our mediator between
us and God. And by his baptism, we're delivered
out of Egypt. We're delivered from sin and
from Satan. Pharaoh and his army followed
them into the sea and were destroyed in the water. When Christ was
baptized under the wrath of God, enduring God's just wrath against
him for our sins, our enemies were buried. And that's the meaning
of that type. It says that they were baptized
into Moses in the sea. Then again, think of the other
type, the one that you probably think of first, is the flood
of Noah's day. In 1 Peter 3, 21, and we'll read
that in a minute, it says that that was a figure, a baptism.
Noah and his family were in the ark. It says in Genesis 7 that
the windows of heaven were opened, and the springs of the earth,
or however it says it, the fountains of the deep were opened up. So
the water above and the water underneath, and it bore up the
ark, and the ark was completely deluged with water. It was a
flood, and the ark was completely covered in water from above and
from beneath. And Noah and his family were
in the ark. And because they were in the
ark, when the ark underwent the full outpouring of the flood
of God on the wicked, because they were in the ark, they were
spared. Just so it is with us in Christ's baptism. We're baptized
into death with Him. When we're in Christ, the wrath
of God falls on Him. He makes atonement for our sin.
And even though that same wrath is going to come on the world,
God has delivered us from the wrath to come. 1 Thessalonians
1 10. And he shall deliver us from
wrath. Romans 5 10. So the ark tells us that those
who are in Christ are delivered from wrath. through Him, through
His being baptized into death. They were baptized with Him,
but their baptism into death, like Jesus told James and John,
you shall be baptized. But their baptism, they didn't
experience it in their own person, but they endured it in their
head, in their surety in Christ. And then one more Old Testament
type of baptism is in Jonah, the book of Jonah. Look at Jonah
chapter 2. And this one is, it's more touching
because it touches the, and this is the way God's word does. He
didn't write it as just a sterile set of formulas, theorems. He wrote it, it says in Hosea,
I will draw them with the bands of love, with the bands of a
man. When God speaks to us, He speaks to us as a man in language
that we can understand, that touches the springs of our emotions. and what we know about ourselves
and so when we read about jonah understand this is the words
of our lord jesus christ which jonah spoken prophecy uh... jesus
said in the book of matthew i think it's from chapter twelve as jonah
was three days and three nights in the heart of the earth even
so the son of man shall be three days in three i'm sorry in the
belly of the fish even so the son of man shall be three days
and three nights in the heart of the earth that was his baptism
buried with him in baptism. Look at Jonah chapter 2. Jonah
prayed unto the Lord his God. Remember the story? Jonah ran. He fled in the opposite direction
when God said to him, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry against
it. Jonah knew that if he did, God
would spare Nineveh. And he didn't want Nineveh to
be spared. They were Gentiles. It was the king. It was the city,
the capital city of Assyria, the enemies of Israel. Why would
He want any mercy for them? God sent Him and He turned the
other way. He got in the boat. He hid in
the boat. The men, I mean, God poured out His flood. On the
sea, the men were terrified. They all cried to their God.
They finally discovered Jonah sleeping in the bottom of the
boat. They said, what are you doing here? Cry to your God. Who are you? Where are you from?
What's your mission? And he tells them, I'm a Hebrew. I serve the
Lord. I fear God, the God of heaven,
who created heaven and earth. And they were afraid even more
then. What shall we do? They cried. And Jonah said, cast
me overboard. And they said, no, no. So they
rode harder and rode harder, and they couldn't escape the
storm. And they cried, and they said,
Lord, do not hold us guilty for this man's blood. And they cast
Jonah overboard, and immediately the storm, the sea, was calm.
the sea was calm because they threw Jonah overboard that is
Christ going under the wrath of God for his people and peace
being established between us and God because of him and now
this is the experience of our Lord Jesus himself in prophecy
in chapter two he says this listen to the language and hear how
Christ's suffering and and under the wrath of God was a baptism
he says In verse 1, Jonah prayed unto the Lord his God out of
the fish's belly. He said, I cried by reason of mine affliction.
You see the word? Unto the Lord, and he heard me.
Out of the belly of hell, cried I. And thou heardest my voice,
for thou hast cast me into the deep, in the midst of the seas,
and the floods compassed me about. All thy billows and thy waves
passed over me." Nothing left. God didn't spare his son, did
he? He did not spare his own son, but delivered him up for
us all. All of God's wrath was poured
out on him. Then I said, I am cast out of
thy sight. Remember Psalm 42? My God, my God, why hast thou
forsaken me? I'm cast out of thy sight. Yet
will I look again toward thy holy temple. The waters compassed
me about, even to the soul. The depth closed me about. The
weeds were wrapped about my head. I went down to the bottoms of
the mountains. The earth with her bars was about
me forever. Yet hast thou brought up my life
from corruption, O Lord my God." Do you see that? He was buried
and he was raised again. His soul endured the affliction. Look at Psalm chapter 69. Psalm 69, it does the same thing
throughout the scripture. It teaches us what Christ endured,
and it's called a baptism. He says in verse 1, Save me,
O God, for the waters are come in unto my soul. I sink in deep
mire. where there is no standing. I
am come into deep waters where the floods overflow me. I am
weary of my crying. My throat is dried. My eyes fail
while I wait for my God. He's separated from God. He's
waiting for his salvation. His only hope is that God would
deliver him. Though he slay me, Job said,
yet will I trust him. And that's what Christ did. He
never stopped trusting his God. He's the only one who could or
would save him. They that hate me without a cause are more than
the hairs of mine head. They that would destroy me, being
mine enemies, wrongfully, are mighty. Then I restored that
which I took not away. In Christ's death, He redeemed
His people. He restored to them their inheritance.
O God, Thou knowest my foolishness, and my sins are not hid from
Thee." What a statement. God hath made him to be sin for
us, who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness
of God in him. And then let's look at Psalm
88, one more, and then we'll go back to the New Testament.
He says in Psalm 88, Verse 1, O Lord God of my salvation, I
have cried day and night before Thee. Verse 2, let my prayer
come before Thee. Incline Thine ear unto my cry.
Verse 3, for my soul is full of troubles, and my life draweth
nigh unto the grave. I am counted with them that go
down into the pit. I am as a man that hath no strength. Free among the dead, like the
slain that lie in the grave, whom thou rememberest no more."
You see what the grave is? A land of forgetfulness. Isn't
that what the scapegoat was? Sent into the land where there's
no memory? No man. And then he says, and
they are cut off they're cut off the dead are cut off from
thine hand from thy hand thou hast laid me in the lowest pit
in darkness in the deeps thy wrath lieth hard upon me thou
hast afflicted me with all thy waves you see that that is baptism
unto death and now turn back to the New Testament remember
I said that Christ's baptism is what actually fulfilled all
righteousness. Now we can look at many scriptures
about this, but in Romans chapter 3, he brings out that the righteousness
of God is now revealed in chapter 3, 21 through 26, and he says
the righteousness of God is manifested. And he tells us what that is.
It's the redemption that's in Christ Jesus, the propitiation
by His blood. That's the righteousness of God.
In other words, God, Christ established righteousness by his death. This is so significant. We should never lose sight of
this. This should always be our confidence and trust before God.
All of our coming to God is that all that Jesus did in his death
is all my righteousness before God. And I was thinking about
that word righteousness. You know what righteousness is?
It's an obedience that earns favor from God. An obedience
that earns favor from God. Look at Galatians chapter 2 and
chapter 3. I want to point out these familiar
verses so you can see that what Christ did in his death established
everlasting righteousness, a complete and perfect righteousness for
his people. Galatians chapter 2, and you
can probably think of other verses. He says here in chapter 2, verse
21, I do not frustrate the grace of God. For if righteousness
come by the law, that means something I can do to keep God's law, anything,
whatever it is, small or great, then Christ died in vain. Do
you see that? It was for no purpose. Why would
God have his son die if righteousness could have come by something
you do? Doesn't that completely negate all attempts on our part
to try to satisfy God by what we do? It lays us low. We're already sinners. We've
already been brought to own our sin by the conviction of God's
Spirit. We know we're supposed to repent,
yet we can't do it. We're totally dependent upon
God taking an action for us. And what action does He take?
He fulfills all righteousness. He cleanses us of all of our
sin. He says, I do not frustrate the grace of God. If righteousness
come by the law, then Christ died in vain. Therefore, righteousness
comes by Christ's death. You see that? And then in chapter
3, look at that. Galatians 3, 21. Is the law then
against the promises of God? God forbid. For if there had
been a law given, which could have given life, verily righteousness
should have been by the law you see life is the reward of righteousness
if there could have been a law that could have given life righteousness
would have been by that law there was no law that could do that
Christ fulfilled righteousness And what does it say in the scripture?
That because He fulfilled that righteousness, He gives eternal
life to as many as God gave Him. Look at Romans chapter 5. Just
a couple of verses along these lines to draw out these truths
to your heart and bring them to your memory so that you will
be convinced that this is the truth of God. Look at Romans
chapter 5, 21. As sin hath reigned unto death,
even so might grace reign in sin's place." I love it. Through
righteousness unto eternal life. Where does eternal life come
from? It comes through righteousness.
Where did that righteousness come from? By Jesus Christ, our
Lord. You see the verse? Grace reigns
through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord. That righteousness is His. Look
at verse 19 of the same chapter. For as by one man's disobedience
many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many
be made righteous. Righteousness earns life. Our
obedience could never earn righteousness. Deuteronomy 6.25 says if we keep
the law it will be for our righteousness. But Luke 17.10 says if you've
done everything that's required of you, you're nothing but an
unprofitable servant. And yet Christ who has infinite
merit in his obedience to God in his death in his death suffering
under the wrath of God as a substitute for his people did what it says
in second Corinthians 521 he was made sin for us and having
been made sin for us endured all sins punishment and in enduring
all sins punishment He fulfilled all righteousness. And so it
says, as God has made Him to be sin for us, that we might
be made the righteousness of God in Him. It was in His suffering,
in His death, that He fulfilled all righteousness. And so go
back to Luke chapter, I'm sorry, Matthew chapter 3. Matthew chapter
3. He says, When he baptized Jesus, he went
up straightway out of the water. And, lo, the heavens were opened
to him. And he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove
and lighting upon him. And, lo, a voice from heaven
saying, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. God the Father opened heaven
and spoke directly so that... Not only Jesus, but John heard
it. And John says what he heard.
He says, God said, I'm well pleased with him. It was an anticipatory
announcement that all that Christ did in his dying to fulfill the
will of God in saving his people, God would receive and would be
well pleased with him. That's the issue. Is the sacrifice
accepted? If it is, then God will turn
the hearts of the people. And notice, then the Spirit of
God also descends upon him like a dove and stays upon him and
abides upon him. What is the Spirit of God coming?
Announcing, this is God's Son. What He's doing is what the Spirit
of God testifies to. When God saves us, what does
He do? He convinces us that in the baptism of Christ, He has
fulfilled all righteousness for His people. He's put away their
sin and He's established perfect obedience. He's perfected forever
them that are sanctified, given to Him given eternal life by
his death, his baptism. Isn't it glorious? Here we're
faced with our sin, and our wickedness, and our inability to do anything
about it. And here the Lord Jesus Christ
comes, fulfilling all righteousness, to put away our sin. And the
Spirit of God comes, and he convinces us of our sin, and then he points
us to Christ, and he says, find in him everything that you need
to God for righteousness and don't look anywhere else because
to look somewhere else is idolatry. Amen. Let's pray. Lord, thank you that you have
sent the Lord Jesus Christ, that he fulfilled all righteousness
and he did it in his death and rose again because you were satisfied. It pleased you to bruise him.
but it pleased you to exalt him because he fulfilled all righteousness. And you have awarded him and
his people with him with eternal life and glory. And all we can
do, Lord, is lay our hand upon our mouth and say, Lord, how
could you be so merciful, so great to deal with our sin so
thoroughly? When we were so wicked and perverse
and enemies of God, deserving of your wrath, Lord, be gracious
to us. Speak to our hearts. Don't let
us go away from these words. Take them home into our hearts.
Turn us again, Lord God of hosts. Cause your face to shine in Christ.
And so we shall be saved. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.