It's a solemn line, that last
line, if you were paying attention. Love so amazing, so divine, demands
my soul, my life, my all. I've been thinking about these
verses since the last study that we had together in Matthew 3. That was two Sundays ago. I've
been thinking about these verses ever since. There's a great wonder
to be seen here, great glory. I hope you were paying attention
as we read. This is a very, very glorious portion of Scripture and event
that took place here. The Lord's baptism and what took
place there. Now look at verse thirteen. It
says, Then cometh Jesus from Galilee to Jordan unto John. be baptized with him. Jesus comes
to Jordan. Now that caught my attention
when I first read it. One of the many reasons that
I know and am convinced that this is God's Word is how it's so perfectly fits together,
all of it, Old and New Testament. How it all speaks of the Lord
Jesus Christ, all the types and prophecies. The name Jesus, do
you know what Old Testament name that is? Joshua, that's right. This name, they're the very same
name. Jesus is the Greek name for Joshua. which means Jehovah our Savior. Well, this is the first mention
of our Lord's public appearance, other than when he was twelve
years old. When he was twelve years old, he, remember, came
to the temple and asked the the priest and all questions and
were asked questions by him. But this is the first public
appearance by the Lord as a man. He's a 30 year old man now and
that's the age of adulthood for Jewish men 30 years old. They
were not allowed to take part in any public speaking or whatever
until they were 30 years old. Well Our Lord is now thirty years
old. I want you to turn with me to
the book of Joshua. Right before judges you'll find
the book of Joshua. Right after the five books of
Moses is the story of Joshua. Now our Lord has come to begin
his great work of saving his people. The king of the Jews,
the deliverer, has come to Jordan. That caught my eye. Jesus came
to Jordan. At first glance it looks like
that's just a narrative telling us of his travels. But no, every
word is significant. Everything he did, you've heard
me say many times, every step he took was fulfillment of God's
purpose and was written of in the Scripture. Every word he
spoke, everything he did was a fulfillment of the Old Testament
types of the cross. Jesus comes to Jordan. His first
appearance as a man is at Jordan. Look at Joshua 1 with me and
prepare to get a blessing. All right? Joshua 1, verses 1
and 2, after the death of Moses, the servant of the Lord, it came
to pass that the Lord spake unto Joshua, the son of Nun, Moses'
minister, saying, Moses, my servant is dead. Now, therefore, arise,
go over this Jordan. Apparently, Joshua was standing
at the Jordan receiving his orders from the Lord himself. about
taking his people over. This is where Joshua got his
marching orders from God himself. This is where Joshua began his
earthly ministry, and some say he was about 30 years old. Now, in case you have not read
this before, we have been through this together, Joshua. Keep reading
and prepare for more blessing. Verse 3, The Lord says to Joshua,
every place that the sole of your foot shall tread upon, I
have given it to you. Is this talking about Joshua
the man? No, this is talking about the Lord Jesus Christ.
He said all authority is given unto me. God has made him Lord
over all every God Christ owns everything the Lord Jesus Christ
when he walked on this earth it was his earth Psalm twenty-four
says the earth is the Lord and the fullness thereof read on
keep reading it gets better verse five there shall not any man
be able to stand before thee all the days of thy life As I was with Moses, I will be
with thee. I will not fail thee, nor forsake
thee. Be strong and of a good courage,
unto this people shalt thou divide for an inheritance the land."
You're going to divide it up for my people. You're going to
give it. You're going to make sure my people get the land.
Now, is this talking about Joshua or Jesus? Well, the true Joshua. Our brother, Mike, read in a
study tonight, and I was so pleased to hear him read that. In Hebrews
4, it says, If Joshua had given them rest, they would not have
spoken of another day. In other words, the Old Testament
Joshua, if he had really led them into the promised land,
it wouldn't be speaking of another. But our Joshua has, the Lord
Jesus. Look at verse 7. Be strong, courageous. You're going to do that you may
observe to do according to all the law. You're going to keep
the law. You're going to keep the law. Verse 8. This book of the law
shall not depart out of thy mouth. Verse 9. I've commanded thee,
be strong and of a good courage. Be not afraid. And this is where
we sing that song. Be thou dismayed, for the Lord
thy God is with thee, and with us as however thou goest." Joshua, our Savior, has come
to Jordan. All right, go back there. Every
jot and tittle of God's Word is significant if we only had
eyes to see it. That's one way, one of many,
that I know this is God's Word. It's too marvelous, it's too
intricately woven together, that men in a million years could
not have concocted this. It's too perfect. All right,
Joshua was waiting. As Joshua was waiting on his
appointed time, so was the Lord Jesus Christ. He was in his teens
capable of ruling this world. Wasn't I? And came as a 12-year-old
boy and was confounding the priests and so forth in the temple. He
could have ruled this world as a five-year-old. Can you believe
that? He was in full control of his
faculties as a five-year-old. What about a twenty-year-old
man? Could he not have done great things? Twenty-five? Twenty-seven,
twenty-eight? No, he waited. Now, this is important
to note this. He waited patiently on the Father's
will. for him. He could have done all things
at an earlier age, but didn't. He waited on the Father's good
time. We can do nothing, so we better wait on the Lord. What does this say to us about
patience? Do you get what I'm trying to say here? The Lord
for many years could have done great things, but there's absolutely
no record of Him doing anything. But staying in his appointed
place waiting for the appointed time. How about a. Faithful a few things doesn't
the scripture say he is faithful a few things should be ruler
over men. He subjected himself to his parents. He worked as
a man. That we believe as a carpenter
hard working man and then in the fullness of time when God
made it clear. Again. What a lesson that is
to us. And he first comes to be baptized. All right? This is his first...
Stay with me now. This is... This builds up to
a... You read it. An impossible-to-preach climax. Would you give me your attention?
He first comes to be baptized. And John is puzzled. John doesn't
understand why the Lord came to him to be baptized. Look at
it again, verse 13. He comes to John to be baptized
of him, but verse 14, John forbade him. Say, I have need to be baptized
of thee, and you come thou to me. I need you to baptize me,
and you want me to baptize you? I got to thinking about this thing
of baptism anyway. If you ever wondered why John
was baptized, I started asking myself that
question. Why was he baptized? You and I know what baptism is.
When we're baptized, what are we confessing? Christ crucified,
buried with him, dead, buried, risen again to walk in fullness
of life. It's a picture of Christ crucified,
buried, and risen. John's baptized. Think about. Why well in Chapter
two. Of Matthew verse six it says
the people came confessing their sin baptized of John confessing
their sin apparently the Lord gave John this commandment or
he wouldn't be doing it with the Lord gave John this commandment
to baptize for the remission of for the confession of sin
baptism unto repent you remember reading that repent and it is
a good confession public confession because when we're baptized what
we're saying is the wages of sin is that all have sinned and
come short of the glory of God. This is what every center is
going to get six feet in the ground. And when you come to
be baptized they came to John confessing their sins before
God. God you're holy and righteous
I'm a sinner I deserve to be killed for my sin and buried
and put out of sight. That's what they were confessing.
Repentance. Confessing their sin. And that's
a good way to do it. And I'm not making light of it.
Had they fulfilled the type they would have stayed under the water. Baptism really only has its true
meaning in Christ, does it not? Because we come up out of the
water, come up out, risen with him. And so it's only as we see
Christ risen. But why was Christ, that's just
a little footnote, OK, about baptism, John's baptism. Why
was Christ baptized? He had no sin. He had no sin. He didn't need to be baptized,
confessing his sin. Well, he answers it for us. Look
at it, verse 15. John was puzzled too, but Jesus
answering said unto him, Suffer it to be so now. Let's do this
now, he said. Right now, let's do this. For
thus it becometh us to fulfill all righteousness. So John I'm
not sure John fully understood when I went ahead and did it. Now listen to this. Here's the
gospel right here. For those of you who know it, Christ said,
it becometh us, it behooveth us, it's required of us, it's
needful for us to fulfill all righteousness. That means to
keep the law. to fulfill all righteousness,
to keep God's perfect law perfectly, thought, word, and meek, to please
God. It behooves us as His creatures,
as His, we call ourselves His children. He's our Father. Then it behooves us to be obedient
children, to fulfill His law, to please God. We ought to please
God if He's truly our Father and we're His children, and not
children of wrath even as others. We ought to please God. We ought
to do what He says. That's what Christ is saying.
It behooves us. It becometh us as sons to do what our Dad says. Not like the world. They are
not God's children. But we can. I mean, we try, but
we can't perfectly. And Christ was already righteous.
When He came here, He's already righteous. He was righteous before
He got here. He didn't have to come down here
and keep a law to be made righteous, did He? He's already righteous
before He got here. He's the Holy One of Israel.
He doesn't have to keep the law to be righteous. He's born righteous. Then why is He doing it? What's
He talking about? Us. He is our righteous representative. He is our covenant head. He is
our substitute. He came to do it for us, and
we're so connected to Him. We're so vitally connected to
Him. Scripture says salvation is to be in Him, found in Him,
not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that
righteousness which is by faith of Christ. Christ said, We're
going to keep the law. It behooves us to keep it. I
can't. But you're in me, so when I keep
it, it's us keeping it. Anybody get a hold of that? Christ
said that whatever He does, we get the credit for it. He said,
John, we're going to keep the law. We're going to fulfill all
righteousness. Me? Well, you and me. You're not going to do one out
of it. I'm going to do it all, but I'm going to give you the
credit for it. Isn't that what we were talking about today? Oh, my. That's called imputed
righteousness, and it's more than a doctrine. It's just glorious. He says on our behalf, we are
keeping the law. We are keeping the law, fulfilling
all righteousness. We don't have a part in it. People
that profess to have some kind of part, remind me of that mouse
riding on the back of that elephant across that swinging bridge. That little mouse on the back
of that elephant across that bridge who said, didn't we really
shake that bridge? Yeah, we really shook that bridge. Yeah, you didn't have one hand.
You didn't wiggle your finger. You don't even weigh in the balance.
That's what the Scripture says about us, doesn't it? The balance
of God's justice and law, if we're put on it, we've got to
be equal. That's what equity means. Iniquities, that's what
that means. You've got to be equal to the
law of God. Our iniquities, unequal. We put on the scale of God's
justice, here's God's law. We've got to measure up. We put
on a scale that said lighter than the dust of the balance.
Dust on it. It doesn't even measure up. It
doesn't even get to me. Christ steps on it. Listen to this. We're talking
about fulfilling all righteousness. I want you to turn. Isaiah 42.
You've seen this so many times. Turn. You've got to see it. I began thinking today about
this thing of preaching, reading God's Word, and so forth. You
need to read God's Word for yourself. You sure do. But the most effective thing
is to hear somebody else read it out loud to you. And I advise
you sometime while you're reading it to read it out loud to yourself.
There's something about the spoken word. Your thoughts can't interfere
when you're articulating words. You understand what I'm saying?
Your thoughts can't interfere when you're speaking. You're
very conscious of how you're saying it. Does that make sense
to you? I do it all the time. It's good
advice. When there are distractions and
I really want to hone in on it, start reading it out loud. Do you get a blessing when we're
here together and somebody's reading it for you or in a study
or whatever? Do you get more of a blessing
sometimes, most of the time? Case in point. All right. And then I started to read this
to you. I'm going to do that. I want
you to look at it. And there's something, there's a correlation
between the eyes and the ears. And you see it written. This
is the way God did things. He wrote it, but yet it pleased
God by the foolishness of preaching it. And if you look at it, the
eyes, I've heard of you, now mine eyes see it there. All right,
look at this. This is a fulfillment of what
we were just talking about, what Scripture says. in whom my soul delighted. I
have, now remember this, I have put my spirit upon him. He shall
bring forth judgment to the Gentiles. That means righteous dealing
to the Gentiles. Verse 4, he shall not fail nor
be discouraged till he hath set judgment in the earth. Everybody's
going to wait for his love. Verse 21, read down here. The
Lord is well pleased for His righteousness sake. He will magnify
the law and make it honorable. Is all this coming together now?
You've seen that many times. But in conjunction with what
Christ said, it behooves us to fulfill all righteousness. Well,
you're in me, and I'm doing it for you. And the Lord is going
to be well pleased for my righteousness and since you're in me. You're going to be accepted.
Wait God's going to give his audible approval. All right and
and over you don't have to turn but over and Isaiah 26. This
is some of you who know the scripture it says this. Thou wilt ordain
peace for us, Lord, for Thou hast wrought all our works for
us." Don't you like that verse, y'all?
I've got a big check for that. You have wrought all our works
in us for us. And then David said this in Psalm
92, verse 4, Lord, Thou hast made me glad through Thy work. I will triumph in the work of
Thy hand. We're going to fulfill all rights. Fulfill all rights. Yes, we are.
So John baptized the Lord Jesus. Now what happens next is just,
just, you ought to be taking your shoes off. We ought to take
our shoes off right here. This is holy ground. What happens
next is heaven breaks loose. Oh, heaven breaks loose. Not
hell. Heaven breaks loose right here.
Look at verse 16 in our text, Matthew 3. It says, when he came
up straightway out of the water, the heavens were opened unto
him. The sky parted, kind of like
a veil. The sky opened up. When Christ
came up out of the water, the skies opened, parted. At the revelation or the revealing
of Christ as the man on the earth, The way to God was clearly revealed. Where's God? In the heavens.
When Christ came up, the heavens opened up. That's the way to
God. The mysterious things of God. Heavens are mysterious,
aren't they? You can look into the sky, at
night time especially, it's a deep, deep dark blue. It's mysterious.
It goes on for trillions of miles. It's the most mysterious thing
we can Think of it, when Christ was revealed, when Christ is revealed, the mysterious things are made
clear. The mystery, isn't the gospel
called a mystery? It's kept hid from the foundation
of the world, but in Christ, the mystery is revealed. Psalm 24 says this. Listen to
this, Psalm 24. It says, Who shall ascend unto
the holy hill of the Lord? One of my favorite psalms. Who shall stand in his holy place?
How are we going to get to heaven? Another one. Well, he that hath
clean hands and hath a pure heart. I mean, it's hands that have
never sinned. A pure heart. No sin ever been in that heart.
Never lifted up his soul unto vanity, that is, his soul, his
whole being has been for God's glory and not after anything
vanity on the earth, because vanity of vanity, all flesh is
vanity. This soul has been only for God
and God alone, his glory. Nor sworn deceitfully, never
spoken a word but for praise and honor and glory to God Almighty
and the good of his fellow man. Who's going to get better? Sounds
like it's a barred place to us, doesn't it? Doesn't it sound
like the gates are barred to us? I kid you not. This is what that said. Who's
going to get there? He shall receive the blessing
from the Lord, listen, and righteousness from the God of his salvation.
That's what it said. Whoever can do this. Listen,
I'm going to keep reading. Lift up your heads, you gates.
In other words, start opening the gates. We lift up the everlasting
doors open the door. Somebody's walking through. There's
a man coming through. Who is it? Who is this? It's
the King of Glory. The Lord Jesus Christ. The only
one who ever had heaven open. He said, come on in. We've earned
it. We've earned the way. Isaiah
6 says, there's a train behind me. You know that bride, she
walks down the aisle and she has that train? That's scripture.
Although I despise those things, it's scriptural. So does the
husband who's getting married. He hates that. He's praying on
triple. But that scripture, what's that
a picture of? Why does a bride... Where'd that
ever come from? This big veil, this train following
behind her. Where'd that come from? The Lord
Jesus Christ, whose train fills the temple. What's that? It's
a multitude of people following Him. He's leading him. Tied to him. The head. They're going in. Why? Because
they're with him. They're with him. That boy gets better. He gets better. Going back to
the text. Matthew 3. Matthew 3. And then it says,
so the heavens parted at the revelation of the Lord Jesus
Christ. And then it says, now look at
this, verse 16, the Spirit of God, the Holy Spirit of God,
descending like a dove and lighting upon him, the heavens parted.
And then the Spirit of God descended on Jesus Christ, the Lord Jesus
Christ, and lighted on him like a dove, not a literal dove, but
like a dove. Okay, nobody knows what this
apparition was, what this actually was, but like a dove, I believe
it's spiritually speaking. And what we have here is the
fulfillment of what John said, the three that bear record in
heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost. Well, the
Word has been made flesh, right there He is, within the Spirit
of God, and God the Father come down on earth. They're all three,
immediately. and the Holy Spirit lights or
lands arrests on the Lord Jesus Christ. Now listen to this. This
is what John said, and incidentally, this story of his baptism is
in all four Gospels. That makes it mighty important. One time it's important, but
all four Gospels record this special But listen, John is preaching
in John chapter 3, listen, in verses 34 through 6. He whom
God hath sent speaks the words of God, for God giveth not the
Spirit by measure unto him. You and I have to be given the
Spirit, don't we? We pray that. Lord, give
us your Spirit. Lord, David said, take not thy
Holy Spirit from us. by your Spirit, help me this,
help me that." He hath not the Spirit by measure. It says, "...the Father loves
his sons, giving all things into his hand. He that believeth on
the Son hath everlasting life. He that believeth not the Son
shall not see life, but the wrath of God abided on him." John 3,
36. The wrath of God. The Holy Spirit descended on
the Lord Jesus Christ, and Christ said later on in John 16, listen,
He said, He shall glorify me. Speaking of the Holy Spirit,
He shall glorify me. That's what He's all about. Now stay with
me. This is what the Holy Spirit's
all about, and He came down to bear witness of, this is the
one. The Holy Spirit never came and descended from heaven upon
any human being, but this one, he did. He came down. Because Christ said, He shall
glorify me. Now here's something I want you
to carefully consider, and I want you to remember. This will be
a revelation to you. I called up one of the preacher
brethren, discussed it with him, and he said, I never And this is concerning Christ.
Nobody saw this happen but John. Nobody. I looked it up in all four Gospels.
John said, I saw. John said, I heard. Boy, nobody. Nobody saw this. The voice that
we're going to hear about in a moment, but John. What's the point? John was God's chosen disciple,
was he not? The heavens were open for John
to see. There's another John smiling
in here. The heavens were opened for His chosen disciples to see
God's glory. The Holy Spirit descended on
Christ and pointed to Christ and Christ alone for John's sake. Nobody else saw it. They may be talking about the
Spirit, but they don't have a clue. But the Holy Spirit, when He
descends, lights on Christ every time. And who sees it? Who knows
that? His chosen disciples. Absolutely. Nobody saw this but
John. I always thought, well, everybody
saw this happening. No, they didn't. They did not
see the heavens parted. They did not see the Holy Spirit.
And they didn't hear a voice. Man has never heard a voice from
heaven, never. No human being but the prophets
and the apostles has ever heard a voice speaking from heaven,
ever. It's not in the Bible. God never
spoke out loud since the beginning of creation. When in creation
God Almighty said, He did not speak again out loud. Hebrews 1 says, God, who at sundered
times and divers manners spake unto the fathers half by the
prophets, hath in these last days spoken half by the Son. The Son. I just read that to you. John
said, the son, he's passed the father's word. He's the one doing
the speaking. God's not going to speak to anybody.
He has nothing to say to anybody but one thing. But one thing. Let's look at it. And you know,
this was the same at the transfiguration. The transfiguration, who saw
his Lord? the ones Christ chose to take
up their deceitful. He was part of the transfigured,
like the heavens open. Who saw it? His chosen disciple.
Who heard the voice? God has spoken three times, and
all three times were concerning his son. Not since creation did
God speak from heaven. That's a fact. And all three
times were when Christ was on this earth, and two of them were
to him And one was to his disciple on the mountain, and it's all
concerning him. And as I said, it was the same
at the Transfiguration. The disciples, they were the
only ones who saw this and heard this, saw his glory, heard the
voice from heaven. And Christ on his way, the last
time God spoke out loud, when Christ was on the way to the
cross Our Lord was on the way to the
cross, and that's when he said, Father, if it be possible, and
no, that's when he said, this cut, what did he say? He
said, what shall I pray? Father, deliver me from this
hour, for this hour came I into this world. And then he said,
Father, glorify thy name. He prayed to God on the way to
the cross, thinking about it. What shall I say? What shall
I ask? Did he deliver me from it? This is why I came here."
Then he says, Oh, Father, glorify thy name. And God spoke immediately. I have both glorified it and
will glorify it again concerning the glory of God's name. And
isn't that significant? The last time God spoke was something
about His name. And all this wicked and adulterous
generation has to do is take God's name on their filthy, vile
lips. Now for the small children, the
old men ready to meet Him, God's name—this is one reason I know
God is right at the door. This generation has got His name
on their lips, and God, the last time He spoke, said, I'm going
to glorify My name. And I'm only going to be seen
and heard by those who are interested in the glory of My name, not
those taking My name on their lips. The zeal of God's house eaten
me up. I remember back in 9-11, when all that was happening,
some idiotic fellow called himself a priest, actually said these
words. Listen to this. I saw him on
TV. He actually said this. This is
how stupid the religious leaders of our day are. He said, I believe
there are lots of people calling on God now because of him. Because
everywhere I hear people saying, Oh my God. Oh, my God. Little children are
saying that. It's the exclamation of things
like every human being I hear today. Oh, my God. Young people,
don't you dare take God's name on your lips. Old people, don't
ever say, Lordy, or Lord of mercy. Don't say it. God said, I'm jealous
of my name. Christ, on His way to the cross,
On his way to the cross, dying for the glory of God's name,
said, Father, glorify thy name. God said, I have both glorified
it, and I will glorify it again. And God's going to glorify his
name in the damnation of every person that's got his name on
their letter. That's how he's going to glorify it. That's that
serious. Well, some said it thundered. God spoke out loud about His
glory, about His name, and some said, I just thought, I just
thought. You get the, you hear the irony
of all that? How blind and, but caught mind
is that God has hid this thing. And I want you, you remember
that, don't you? I want you every time the thunder
rolls in the heaven, I want you to thank God for glorifying His
name. He's revealing that to me right
now. It's glory. Every time you see a dove, I want you to think about this.
Hey, he's revealing to me the Christ in a dove's eyes. Like a dove to a gentleman. A
dove, you know, interestingly enough, a dove is one of the
birds you see on the ground most of the time. That's by design. Christ spent
a great deal of time. He whose wings we show, bear
up on, spent a lot of time with, like a dove. And Noah, here's
something interesting. Go back and study this for yourself
in Genesis 8. It's deep water, but it's wonderful. Noah, in order to find out if
God's wrath was appeased, that the overflowing scourge of God's
wrath was over. What did Noah send out? A dove. Three times. It went out to him.
It went out to him. It went out to him. The last
time it came with an olive branch in its teeth. What's an olive
branch? We think a piece. And Christ
came, went, came, went, came back, we ascended, when he arose
the last time came to his disciples, what's the first thing he said? Peace I give unto you, my peace
I leave unto you. And he went back, says, Noah
sent the dove out, it didn't come back. The last time he sent the dove
out, it didn't come back. It's not going to lie to him.
And Christ's feet is not going to touch this vile soil again. First Thessalonians 4 says that
we're going to rise to meet him in the air. He's not coming to
this vile place. He's going to burn it up, create
a new one, and he's going to sit there and dwell there forever. Oh, my. Below, a voice from heaven
in conclusion and the climax. Our Lord the Baptist a voice
from heaven saying this is my beloved son in whom I am well
pleased never before never before until now never before and as we said three
times God spoke while Christ was here and it must be important
he hadn't spoken before and all three times is about his son,
his glory. The glory of his name. This is my beloved son, a voice
from heaven. Have you heard a voice from heaven?
I remember. Nobody heard this but John. What John? You got a good name. Nobody saw the heavens
open. The way to God concerning Christ.
Nobody saw the dove descending, the Holy Spirit bearing witness
of Christ. Christ alone. It landed on one
person, didn't it? And that's it. It never happened
again. I never will. It's all pointed
to Christ. And God heard a voice. Nobody
heard this voice from heaven concerning God's Son, but God's
children. How about you? I'm out. We're blessed people. Blessed
people. I'm ready to die now. Okay, stay
with me. And I'm going to leave it there. I'm going to do a lot more work
with it. I don't know. It's very hard work. It's kind
of a work. It's kind of a film. It's kind of a project. I don't
know. I mean, the whole experience is kind of the same. It's kind
of the same idea. It's the same kind of thing. It's kind of the same thing.
So that's the work. This is the project. of our national
program, the Academy of Arts and Sciences, the University
of California, the University of New York, the University of
New York, the University of Maryland, the College of Arts and Sciences,
the University of Utah, the College of Arts and Sciences, the College
of Arts and Sciences, the Department of Humanities, the Department
of Humanities,