that portion of scripture Joe
read to us in Matthew chapter 3. And I want to talk to you
about our Lord's baptism when Christ is baptized. And of course,
this is recorded in Matthew, briefly in Mark, and then also
in Luke. Look at the last verse of the
second chapter of Matthew, and he came and dwelt in a city called
Nazareth. And it might be fulfilled which
was spoken by the prophets, he shall be called a Nazarene. Our Lord Jesus at that time was
about two years old, and he was living in Nazareth, and that
is where he grew up, in Nazareth, the city in Galilee. Now, look at the next verse,
which is chapter three and verse one, the first few days, in those
days. Maybe you can make a mental note
of this, but between the second chapter and the third chapter,
we're talking about roughly 28 years have passed. Our Lord Jesus
is no longer a little odd one. He is ready to begin his public
ministry. He lived in obscurity for all
of this, these nearly 30 years. With the exception of that which
is recorded in Luke, the second chapter, When our Lord went to
Jerusalem, there in Jerusalem, he spoke with the elders and
the leaders of Judaism, asking questions and amazing them with
his knowledge. But other than that, we don't
know the things that happened during these 30 years, except
we're very sure that he was doing all things according to the perfect
will of God. He was living in obedience unto
the Father, and he had always had a conscious void of offense
toward God and toward me. And here in the third chapter,
we're introduced to John the Baptist. He's presented to us
as that one who who came before our Savior. He is six months
older than the master John the Baptist was. And so he began
his ministry before our Lord did. And we don't actually know
that John the Baptist waited until he was 30 years of age
to begin his ministry. He may possibly have begun much
earlier than that. We really don't know. We know that in the days of Moses,
the age in which a prophet went forth, setting the gospel of
the grace of God, speaking about the things that God had shown
him, the age had been adjusted to 25 years of age, lowered from
30, and there's indication that even a little bit later, the
age of a prophet even was lowered to age, So we don't know how old John
the Baptist was when he began his ministry, but we're introduced
to him now, and he goes into the wilderness preaching. And
we know he was the one who went before our Lord Jesus Christ. He prepared the way for Messiah's
entrance. It was traditional back in these
days whenever a king would enter into a town or a city, he had
the heralds or forerunners to go beforehand into the city to
do things, proclaim the king who's coming and also prepare
the way. They didn't have paved roads
back then, so they had to get rocks out, sticks out of the
road, fill in any potholes, which I wish they'd do around here
sometimes. Especially if there's one right
up here between us and your office, there's a bad one up here. But anyway, they didn't have
those kind of roads, but they still had to make various repairs
on the roads, so there had to be preparation of the roads for
the entrance of the king, but also there was a proclamation
that the king is coming, and you must get ready. You must
be prepared for his entrance. And this was the role of John
the Baptist. He was the one who came to set
forth our Lord Jesus and also prepare the way before him. He
would preach to people, they're sinners. That's needed for preparation. for the entrance of our Lord
Jesus Christ before he comes to us, we're gonna have, our
hearts have gotta be prepared. Many of you are now preparing
your gardens. Maybe you've already got some
things in your garden, but you don't just go out and throw seed
on top of the ground without some preparation. And God's gospel,
the seed of the word of God, it goes forth, but it goes forth
to bring forth the, in the hearts of those who are prepared to
receive it. And the preparation is ultimately
the work of the Spirit of God. This preparation is a convincing
of sin. We're not going to be eager to
meet and receive the Savior unless we know we're sinners. That's
a preparatory work that has to be made. Certainly the preacher
of the gospel, just like John the Baptist, he went through
preaching repentance. This was a baptism of repentance
that he initiated and the baptism of repentance was he baptized
anybody who was repentant of their sinfulness and looked for
and believed in the Messiah. There's a preparatory work that
had to be done in the proclamation of the Savior and the preparation
of the sinner. what John the Baptist did, and
he goes forth preaching the gospel. He would go forth as a herald,
as one who announced, the king is coming. Be prepared. Are you prepared? Do you see
you're a sinner? Do you see that you need God?
Do you see that you need righteousness? I'm preaching that the Spirit
of God has got to prepare you and really He will enable you
to be prepared for the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. The
good seed of the gospel has to be sowed, but it's only sowed
in ground that has been prepared. Oh God, prepare our hearts to
receive the gospel of your grace. The scripture says that he's
a voice. It says that in the third verse,
the voice of one crying in the wilderness. He's the voice, and
the voice was speaking of the word. He was speaking of that
incarnate Word of God, even the Lord Jesus Christ. Now you'll
notice there in the first verse it says, in those days, the next
word is came. And actually there's a pretty
deep meaning to that word because it means the entrance of a person
who is of great importance and significance. Let me tell you
something, the ministry of John, the entrance of John, that John
came, John the Baptist came preaching, that was very significant. He
was a very important person. Because you see, Messiah wasn't
going to come until John the Baptist had himself come and
announced the coming of the Redeemer. This was his mission. And you can read Isaiah chapter
40 on that. In fact, some of the words of
the third verse are taken right out of Isaiah chapter 40. And
here comes John the Baptist. He came. This is the entrance
of one who was very important. The person who comes preaching
the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, the grace of God to sinners
through the blessed Savior. That man has an important ministry. And such was this man, John the
Baptist. He came. He's an official representative. He goes before the Son of God
announcing he's coming. He's coming. And in John chapter
1 in verse 29, we hear this same man saying, Behold the Lamb of
God that taketh away the sin of the world. John saw him walking
down by the River Jordan. And he said, there he is, there's
God's lamb, there's God's sacrifice for sin. John's ministry was
very important. And it's all encased in that
little four-letter word, Cain. This is the official entrance
of a dignitary. And you know it's interesting,
you drop down to verse 13, then cometh Jesus. It's exactly the
same word in the original. Because here is the dignitary
coming. Then cometh Jesus, and the reason
it has an ETH is because he's always been coming. He's been
coming into this world. He's been coming to go to the
cross of Calvary to lay down His life for His sheep. He's
been coming, really, since the covenant of grace. And He is
the most important one who has ever come. We're thankful for
the John the Baptist of this world that God has used to announce
the Christ of God, the Savior, the Redeemer, the only one who's
the mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus. We're
thankful for the preachers, but oh, none of God's preachers are
worthy to be set alongside of the Son of God. And he says,
Then cometh the dignitary of all dignitaries, the official
of all officials, the Savior of poor sinners like you and
me. Then cometh Jesus. And he came
from Galilee. You see, John came in his official
capacity. And our Lord Jesus, he came in
his official capacity also as the only one who could save sinners. Now keep in mind that our Lord
Jesus lived in virtual obscurity for the first 30 years of his
life, with the exception of that passage I mentioned in Luke,
the second chapter, when he was 12 years old. We don't know anything
about the rest of our Lord's upbringing, We know that Joseph
must have taught him to be a carpenter. He was a worker. He was indeed
the perfect child. I know when our children are
born, we look at them in the hospital, we say, it's a perfect
child. And then you discover a little
bit later, I may have made that statement in error. They're not perfect at all. But
our Lord Jesus was. And the thing of it is, He grew
up in every way like other babies did back then. He had to be fed. He had to be nourished. He had to be protected. He had
to be looked after. While Harry put a ransom out,
as it were, on his life, and the Spirit of God told Joseph,
you take Mary and the babe into Egypt for protection. He had
to be protected. He was a real, real little baby,
a real toddler, a real young boy growing up in the household. And we know this about him, he
was obedient to his parents, and he was obedient to God. But
he lived a life that was virtually unknown. People didn't know who
he was. And then, when he turns about
30 years of age, that was when it was time for
him to begin his public ministry. Now, he lived in Nazareth. This
place where John the Baptist was baptizing was about 60 miles
away, 60 to 70 miles away. Authorities, commentators differ
on that, but at least 60 miles, three-day, four-day journey.
He walked pretty fast and kept at it. And remember, he had no
followers yet. He didn't have any disciples
with him. And there's no indication that his earthly mother traveled
with him, apparently just went by himself. And I'm sure he told
if Joseph was still living, and there's some question about that,
but I'm sure he told his mother, Mom, I've got a journey to make.
It was just, it was the will of God. He's doing everything
according to what God had ordained for him to do. And he kissed
her goodbye, and she said, let me pack you lunch. Here's your
canteen full of water. I mean, all the preparation that
moms would do for their sons. But remember, he's 30 years of
age. The script says about 30 years of age. And he sets off,
apparently, walking. And he goes to where John is
baptized. And he goes there specifically
for this reason. Look at verse 13. Then cometh
this official dignitary. He is somebody. He is the son
of God. Then cometh Jesus from Galilee
to Jordan unto John for this specific reason. to be baptized
of him. Writers have noted that when
a Jewish priest was to begin his ministry as a priest, he
was consecrated to the Lord at the age of 30. And our great
high priest, before he will enter into the work that he came into
this world to accomplish, He will be consecrated unto our
Lord by his baptism. And I'll show you just a few
things here briefly. Number one, he placed great importance
upon baptism. And I know there are a lot of
people who say baptism is insignificant, it is unimportant, it's non-essential. Well, I tell you, the Son of
God, the Son of Man, thought it was so important, he walked
60 miles just to be baptized. How many miles did you drive
to get up here? 396. Okay. 396. But you didn't
have to walk them. You had a lot of horses pulling
the way. He traveled a great distance
to get here just to be baptized. And I'm sure there would be a
lot of people who would say, Ethan, you mean you traveled
nearly 400 miles just to be baptized? Well, yes. Yes, because this
is how he publicly identifies with the Lord Jesus Christ. This
is him being obedient to the revealed will of God. This is
how he notes. He makes notice to everybody
or gives notice to everybody that he's not ashamed of the
gospel of Christ. He's not ashamed of this preacher,
his grandfather who preaches the gospel. I've been preaching
the gospel to him since his knee high to a grasshopper. And I've
been preaching the gospel to several others here a long time
too. He felt it was so important to make this journey to be here
to be baptized, and our Lord Jesus walked. He walked 60 miles
just to be baptized. Don't tell me it is insignificant. Don't tell me it isn't important. You see, here is the head of
the church. If he thought it right to be
baptized, well, shouldn't his followers? Think it's important
to be baptized as well? You see, the reason I baptized
Ethan this morning and I baptized several of you is because of
divine commandment. The disciples were sent forth
teaching them, teaching them the things that I've taught you.
Teach them about redemption. Teach them about righteousness.
Teach them about salvation. Teach them about believing on
the Lord Jesus Christ. Teach them about turning away
from evil and turning to the God of salvation through the
Lord Jesus Christ. He said, go forth teaching and
then baptizing those who are taught. That is, those who say,
I believe the gospel, we believe Christ, we trust the Savior,
we believe the message that you're declaring to us. John went forth
preaching and baptizing, and our Lord went forth preaching.
And notice this, by the way, our Lord never baptized anybody. He never baptized anybody. The
disciples did the baptizing when somebody wanted to be baptized.
But he was obedient to it because it pictured death. His death. And our death in him when he
died upon the cross of Calvary. When I put Ethan under the water,
That's a picture. It's a picture of our Lord's
sacrifice that He really died. He was buried in the grave. Like
I buried Ethan for just a couple of seconds beneath a watery grave. So our Lord Jesus was buried
in a tomb signifying He really died. He died so that God could
be just and justify the ungodly. He died because sin deserves
death. That's why Christ died. And baptism
pictures the death of our Savior. It also pictures that when He
died, we died in Him. The Savior died a violent death. But when He died that violent
death, all of His elect, all of His sheep, all of His people,
we were in Him, having been put in Him in old eternity in the
covenant of grace. And when our Lord Jesus Christ
laid down His life for sinners, you died in Him. And your baptism
is a picture of that. And then in bringing Ethan up
out of the water, that pictures our Lord's resurrection. He triumphed
over sin, over Satan, over death, over the grave. And when He triumphed,
you triumphed. When He triumphed, all of God's
people triumphed. If you're a believer this morning,
you have triumphed in Christ Jesus through His death and through
His burial and resurrecting, resurrection. When He arose,
you arose with Him. When He ascended back to heaven,
really, we ascended to heaven too. That's what it says in Ephesians,
the second chapter. So yes, baptism is important
because of what it pictures. Now be careful with this. It
is not a sacrament. It conveys no grace. That's what
the word sacrament means. You see, Satan is oh so clever. He will even take a biblical
ordinance. You say, what's the reason you
refer to the Lord's Supper and baptism as an ordinance? Because
it's a command. It's a command from God. It is a command, but it doesn't
convey any grace. I say Satan is very clever. He
will even take an ordinance like baptism, and he will and instill
in the hearts of many people this idea that when I'm baptized,
it'll wash my sins away. We were watching some program
a few weeks ago, and this mother said, I want my two children
to be baptized, because I want them to go to heaven when they
die. So I want them to be baptized and wash their sins away. No. There's not enough soap in the
world to be putting ivory soap, remember, at floats. I guess it still does, I don't
know. But we could fill the tub full of ivory soap that floats
all over the place. Well, we could take a bath in
there, but you can't bathe your soul. Only thing wash away sin
is the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. It's the grace of God that purifies
us. through Christ. Baptism's not
the way to heaven, but Satan, he's so clever. He's so shrewd. He's so subtle. He'll even take
something like the Lord's Supper or even baptism or the Lord's
Supper, and he'll convince you that in some way this improves
your standing before God. It does not. The scripture says the blood
of the Lord Jesus Christ cleanseth us from all sin. The blood only,
that's what we believe. The blood of the Son of God.
Baptism doesn't wash your sins away, but it is the answer of
a good conscience toward God. And I really believe it aids
in assurance. The voice came from heaven, the
voice of God said when Christ was baptized and the spirit of
God landed upon him like a dove, the symbol of a dove, the symbol
of peace and anointing. And the father said, this is
my beloved son in whom I'm well pleased. And we're assured of
sonship. And we're children of God. And
that's packed into baptism. Baptism doesn't save us, but
it aids in assurance. It shows you're one of the children
of God, and you're not afraid to say, Christ is my elder brother. He's my savior. God's my father. I want all of y'all to know it. So don't dishonor this ordinance. by saying that it adds grace
to you, it does not. And then don't change the form
either. Baptism is immersion and only
immersion. Our Lord came up out of the water. If baptism was by pouring a little
water on his head, he could have had that done back in Nazareth
of Galilee. No, he went to be immersed. Because
you say, well, I don't see anything wrong with sprinkling, preacher.
I don't think you see anything wrong with pouring. It doesn't
picture death. That does not picture death. This pictures death, going under
the water. It pictures the death of the
Savior that was necessary to give us life. Pouring doesn't
do that. Neither does sprinkling. John 3.23 says, and John also
was baptizing in Emon, near Salem, because there was much water. Buried with him in baptism is
what we read. And then behold the humility
of our Savior. He's submitted to be baptized. There's a verse, and you can
jot it down if you want to. the book of Luke chapter 3. But
lots of people were there to be baptized by John the Baptist. There's a big long line of people. They were lined up to be baptized. And as you look over that line
of people, look all the way to the end. Who is that at the end
of the line? It's the Lord Jesus Christ. Behold his humility. He didn't
say, you folks need to know who I am. I'm going to the front
of the line. No, he goes to the back of the
line. Because he said, I am among you
as one who serves, not as one to be served. The master, the
master, He humbles himself. And by submitting to baptism,
he really validated John's ministry. John's ministry was preaching
and then administering the baptism of repentance or the baptism
because of repentance. Because of a turning away from
sin, turning to the Savior, turning away from things of death to
things of life, from turning away from false religion to true
godliness and the true gospel of the grace of God. He validated
John's ministry and he submitted to this because it was the will
of God. The Father sent him. And it was necessary for him
to fulfill all righteousness, he said that. So in being baptized,
he associated with sinners, though himself, he didn't have any sin. But you know what? There in that
long line, I can see it in my mind, can't you see? All him
people lined up. be baptized. He looks just like
the rest of them because he's not ashamed to call us brethren. He takes his place alongside
sinners. One of the things that aggravated
the Pharisees was this. He's the friend of sinners. Yes,
he is. And I see that in his baptism. He's not ashamed of us. The scripture
talks about in Isaiah chapter 53, how that he was associated
with transgressors. He died with transgressors. He
was numbered with transgressors. When he hung on the cross of
Calvary, on either side, there's a thief on either side, a sinner
on either side. And one of them cried, saved
by his omnipotent grace. Christ said this is how he fulfilled
all righteousness. And I'll tell you, if it behooved
the Savior to be baptized, don't be ashamed to be associated
with him. Many years ago up in Almonte,
If I called this brother's name, Jay would remember him, and maybe
Chris would, and Susanna would. But he was several years older
than I was. He had been a Sunday school teacher
in another church. He was very faithful. I loved
him dearly. Came to me one day, came to the
office, said, Brother Jim, I'm troubled about something. His first name was Richard. And I said, what's your trouble
about, Brother Dick? He said, I'm troubled about my
baptism. I said, what are you troubled
about? He said, I really didn't know the gospel of God's free
and sovereign grace back then. He said, I don't think my baptism's
any good. I said, well. What are you prepared
to do about it? He said, well, I'm prepared to
ask you. Would you baptize me? I said, sure. And so I took him
in the waters of baptism, quite a bit older than I was. And afterwards,
he hugged me and said, this has burdened my heart for years.
He said, I feel so much better now. He said, I got a clean conscience
toward God. And the Bible says that baptism
is the answer of a good conscience toward God. If you're troubled
about your baptism, listen, I baptized my mother. My mother had been
put under the water believing an Armenian gospel that is no
gospel at all. And I went there preaching the
gospel of God's free and sovereign grace. She came up to me and
she said, Jimmy? She could get by with calling
me Jimmy. She said, I want you to baptize me. I said, why do
you want me to baptize you, Mom? She said, Mom, because I didn't
know the gospel. I didn't know how God's safe
centered back in those days. I said, well, I didn't either.
That's the reason I asked Tim James to baptize me. She said,
will you baptize me, son? I said, I'll be honored to. If
you're troubled about your baptism, there's a way to fix that, a
way to repair that. Christ said he can't fulfill
all righteousness. And let me give you this in closing.
Behold the Trinity. Well, something happened. Something
happened after our Lord was baptized. Of course, John was reluctant
to baptize. I mean, I understand that. John
said, I need you to baptize me. I don't need to be baptizing
you. Jesus answered in verse 15, suffer
it to be so now. This has got to be done, John.
For thus it becometh us, you and me, to fulfill all righteousness. He said, I'll baptize you. Two
times that I can think of in the New Testament when somebody
told our Lord not to do something. Two men who loved him. Peter,
when our Lord announced that he was going to the cross to
die, Peter said, it's not going to happen under my watch. The Lord said, now hang on now. You don't appreciate the things
of the kingdom of God. Our Lord rebuked him. And first
of all, John the Baptist, and I can understand, you can understand
this. He said, Lord, I'm not worthy
to baptize you. If anything, you ought to baptize
me. Lord said, thus it becometh us
to fulfill all righteousness. A little rebuke in there. John can't tell me what to do
and what not to do. And I'll tell you what, he wasn't
like Simon Peter. He said, let's do it. Let's take
care of it. And when he was baptized, no
fanfare, no robes with crosses on them. Stuff like that. Just took him and baptized him. Put him under the water like
I put Ethan under the water. And he went up straight away
out of the water. And lo, something happened. Everybody
started looking up. The heavens opened. And the Spirit of God descended
like a dove. And it set on our Lord Jesus
Christ. Then a voice spoke from heaven,
and the voice said, this is my beloved son, in whom, not with
whom, but in whom. I'm pleased with him, and I'm
pleased in everything that's in him, his obedience, his heart,
his motivation. His submission to my will, in
whom I'm well pleased. And that's God the Father speaking. And thus you have the Trinity
at the baptism of our Lord Jesus Christ. He fulfilled all righteousness. And John, in being the baptizer
of our Lord Jesus, He fulfilled all righteousness too. You see,
our Lord's life was a life of obedience. And by His obedience
up unto and including death, He established righteousness
for His people. Gotta be righteous in the Lord
Jesus Christ, who is the Lord, our righteousness. Well, let's
get our psalm books, turn to hymn number 190. Hymn number 190, we bless the
name of Christ. Hymn number 190, I think you'll
recognize the tune. Stand please, 190. I think you'll
recognize the tune to it once David plays for you. the name of Christ the Lord. We bless him for his holy word,
who loved to do his Father's will. and all his righteousness
fulfilled. Baptized in God the Father, Son,
and Holy Spirit, three in one, With conscience free, we rest
in God, in love and peace through Jesus' blood. Before we sing this last stanza,
I want you to come down here and greet him. I'm going to have
him come over here. Come give him the right hand
of fellowship, that traditional take it right out of the book
of Acts, for the saints of God to give the right hand of fellowship
to those who have newly joined the group. So we'll sing the
last stanza and he'll be right down here for you to come in
greeting and wishing well and telling you pray for him and
be thankful for him. Okay, fourth stanza. Praise ye
ever, Father God. Thy grace, the comforter of sky. And for thy grace, our hope shall
be. to their only glory.