as well. Well, if you would this
morning go to Matthew, the Gospel of Matthew, and go to chapter
3. Back to the Scripture that was
read to us a little bit earlier. All four Gospel writers mention
the baptism of our Lord Jesus. Matthew does, and it's fairly
lengthy. Of all of them, this is the longest. Mark does so briefly in Mark
chapter 1. And Luke also mentions his baptism
in Luke chapter three. In the very first chapter of
the Gospel of John, John the Baptist, he makes brief mention
of this, though he doesn't go into nearly the detail that Matthew,
Mark, and Luke does, but he does mention it. Now, for our God
to say something once, it's got to be very important. But if
He has four writers to speak of, to mention our Lord's baptism,
it must be very vital and it must be something here that we
need to learn. Now, I had you turn to Matthew
3, but look at the last verse of Matthew 2. Speaking of our Lord Jesus, and
He came and dwelt in a city called Nazareth, that it might be fulfilled
which was spoken by the prophets He shall be called a Nazarene. And then between Matthew 2 and
verse 23 and chapter 3 verse 1, there are 30 years. You think of that. 30 years go by. Then Matthew
doesn't even mention it. Three decades. And we don't know
what happened with our Lord Jesus during those three decades except
for a mentioning in Luke of our Lord when He was 12 years of
age going to Jerusalem and there He listened to the teachers in
the temple, and he asked them questions, and the scripture
says that they asked him questions, and the answers he gave were
absolutely astonishing to those who heard him. Other than that,
then there's 18 years we don't know anything about what our
Lord Jesus did. There are a lot of a lot of ideas
as to where he went and what he did, but we're only interested
in what the Scripture has to say. Not traditions of the fathers,
and certainly not the indications of those who have no love for
the gospel of God's grace. Now, let me just jump into this
subject real quick. The baptism of our Lord. And I'll begin by saying this.
Let's notice the great importance of baptism. Let me read again
chapter 3, verse 13 of Matthew. Then cometh Jesus from Galilee
to Jordan unto John to be baptized of him. That's about 40 miles
of walking. It took him roughly three days
to walk these 40 miles. And yet he considered this to
be of such a necessity that he went to the trouble of walking
all of this distance in order to be baptized of John. Well, when he gets to the Jordan
River where John the Baptist was baptizing, John said, No! I have need that you baptize
me. What do you come to me for? I'm
not worthy to baptize you. Our Lord Jesus said in verse
15, He said, Suffer it now to be so. That is, you need to do
this. For thus it becometh us to fulfill
all righteousness." And so, John baptized him. Verse 16, And Jesus,
when he was baptized, went up straightway out of the water,
And lo, the heavens were opened. Now whenever the heavens are
opened, God either has something to say or He's going to present
a vision to someone. In this instance, God has something
to say. Lo, the heavens were opened,
the first thing, the Spirit of God descending like a dove like
a dove. I don't know that it was literally
a dove, but the idea is as a dove kind of flies quietly on the
air, through the air, so the Spirit of God came to our Lord
Jesus. Not that He didn't have the Spirit
of God already, but all that He will do, He will do by the
enablement of the Spirit of God. I would remind you that this
is our Lord. He is indeed the Son of God,
as the Father is going to say. Being the Son of God, He has
all of the attributes of deity. He lacks nothing of any of those
characteristics of God. But He laid those abilities aside
And in becoming one like us, a man, he was therefore fully
dependent upon the Spirit of God. He did all of his miracles
by the authority of and by the very power of the Spirit of Grace,
his own spirit. And so now the Spirit of God
comes upon him in some sort of way. I doubt visible, but perhaps
it was a visible dove that lit on him. But it indicated this
man, Jesus of Nazareth, he has the Spirit of God without measure. Without measure. And verse 17, and then a voice
from heaven. And the voice said, this is my
beloved son in whom I am well pleased. You must remember this
is the very height of John's ministry. He's been out preaching,
he's been out baptizing for at least six months, some say a
year. He's out in the wilderness of
Judea. very much an ordinary man, very
plain dresser. His diet was not fancy. He was
a very unusual man, but he had the grace of God and he had the
message of God. He wasn't one who attended their
festivals and their weddings and so forth. He was a man who
was very much a loner. He stayed off to Himself. And
if you wanted to hear Him preach, He wasn't preaching in the synagogues. He wasn't preaching at the temple
in Jerusalem. He was out in the wilderness
preaching. And His message was that of the Lamb of God. He spoke to the people who listened
to Him of that One who was coming into the world to save sinners. And he identified him as being
the sacrifice for sin, that being God's appointed sacrifice, that
is, God's Lamb. And of course, we know something
of the history of all the lambs that died through the Old Testament,
going all the way back to Abel's lamb. And all of them that were
sacrificed, they all pointed to this, the Lamb of God, who
would give His life a ransom for His people. He would redeem
His people, this Lamb, the Lamb of God. John then pointed him
out to people. He said, behold the Lamb of God. Look to Him. Don't look to me. Don't look to baptism. Look to
God's Lamb for salvation. He's the Savior. He's the Redeemer. He's the only one who can help
you. Look to the Lamb of God. John indeed preached the Lord
Jesus, the Lamb of God. Notice the master did not. He didn't send for John the Baptist. He didn't send a messenger to
John the Baptist and said to him, you come over here and baptize
me. Our Lord is the servant of Jehovah. He made himself of no reputation. He goes the distance of 40-some-odd
miles. He walks through this trail,
back roads leading from Nazareth to Bethabara and there by the
Jordan. And he does this to be baptized
by John. Now keep in mind, our Lord Jesus
had not yet started with his public ministry. In fact, his
baptism, here's kind of a good way to think of it, it will launch
his public ministry. Up till now, I've already said,
we don't know what he's been doing. No doubt he's been working
in a carpenter shop, at least that's what most people think.
A good many people think that Joseph had passed away when the
Lord Jesus was 12 or 13 years of age. And if that's factual,
we don't know it from the Word of God, but that's what Jewish
historians say, then our Lord took it as his responsibility,
the firstborn in the family, to take care of his mother and
his brothers and his sisters. And perhaps, perhaps, he went
to work as a carpenter. We suspect that. A lot of people
believe that he went to work for Joseph of Arimathea, who
was a very wealthy man, and who at the end of our Lord's ministry,
three years from now, a little more than three years from now,
it is of course Joseph of Arimathea who had the the tomb where our
Lord would be buried, and he showed such kindness to our Savior's
body, which was crucified for not only Joseph of Arimathea,
but for all of his Josephs, for all of the Josephs of our Lord.
And so our Lord Jesus makes his way to John the Baptist, who's
preaching. Look with me, if you would, over
in Luke chapter 3. Luke chapter 3. It says here in Luke chapter
3, and thinking about John the Baptist
now, Luke chapter 3, verse 3. And he came into all the country
about Jordan, and he was preaching the baptism of repentance for
the remission of sins. And the word, that word, F-O-R,
for, could be better translated, on account of, or because of,
the remission of sins. Baptism is not the way sins are
forgiven. The remission of sins, the forgiveness
of sins is due to our Lord Jesus having paid for them by His bloody
sacrifice upon the cross of Calvary. And John comes forth preaching
baptism of repentance as an indication that you have repented of your
turn from every wicked way, you've turned away from idolatry, you've
forsaken all false religion, and you have embraced the Lord
Jesus in salvation in, through, and by Him and by God's grace. And so John the Baptist, he's
out there baptizing lots of people. And many people came to be baptized
of him. Now go further down, and I don't
have time to elaborate upon this whole passage, but look at chapter
3, verse 21. And when all the people were
baptized, it came to pass that Jesus, also being baptized and
praying, the heaven was opened and the Holy Ghost descended
in a bodily shape like a dove upon Him, and a voice came from
heaven which said, Thou art my beloved Son, in Thee I am well
pleased." Notice it says, when all the
people were baptized. Our Lord Jesus, He comes where
John is baptized. He wore no clerical vestments
to set Him apart from anybody else. There wasn't a halo about
His head to differentiate Him from all the other people that
were there. He just looks like an ordinary
man. And here all these people lined
up at the River Jordan, a muddy river, and John the Baptist is
baptizing them one by one. And our Lord Jesus, after all
of those people were baptized, He had them gotten at the end
of the line. After everybody else had been
baptized, then He would be baptized. And don't you see how he identified
with sinful people like us? Right from the very beginning
of his public ministry. He said, I'll submit to the same
ordinance that I command you to submit to. Now, he had no sins to be repentant
of. but he is identifying himself
with his people. After all, he's going to later
give a command to his disciples to go ye into all the world and
preach the gospel, teaching all nations and baptizing them in
the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,
just as I baptized Mary a while ago. And he who issued the command
later He follows His own command. And
He is the example. Like I say, there was nothing
visibly about Him to set Him apart from the other men who
were in line to be baptized by John the Baptist. No holy glow. No backward collar. He just dressed
like all the other men dressed. Our Savior made Himself of no
reputation, it says in Philippians chapter 2. He was ever the meek and lowly
one. He was born in a manger, not
in a palace. when he made his triumphant entry
into Jerusalem. He didn't come riding in on a
white Charger. He rode on an ass. He's meek. He's lowly in heart. When he begins his public ministry, it's not going to begin with
great pageantry. You know, if it had been one
of the modern day preachers, they would announce to John the
Baptist, don't you know who I am? I'm going to be a mighty evangelist.
Our Lord didn't do that. The scripture says over in Isaiah
42, he won't lift up his voice. His sole interest is magnifying
and glorifying God. And here he is, and it's such
an act of humility. He gets at the back of the line. And after everybody else has
been baptized, he steps forward to John the Baptist. We know that John the Baptist
and our Savior were distant, distant cousins because their
mothers, Elizabeth and Mary, were cousins. So there's some
distant relationship between John the Baptist and our Lord
Jesus. But there is no indication in
the scriptures that they have ever met before this. You say, well, if they were distant
cousins, maybe a family reunion or something? Maybe. Scriptures
don't say that. After all, John grew up in the
wilderness of Judea. And our Lord grew up in Nazareth
of Galilee. That's quite a distance away.
and the means of traveling back then weren't anywhere near what
we have today. And on top of that, our Lord
was born into a poor family. They had very inexpensive things
and most likely didn't have the ability to travel long distances
except except to go to Jerusalem for those appointed feasts that
the males had to go to. It is assumed that he went with
Joseph and with his mother Mary and probably all the rest of
his brothers and sisters, half-brothers and sisters, that they went to
Jerusalem for the feasts. But there's no indication that
during any of those feasts where there were hundreds of thousands
of people in Jerusalem, there is no indication that our Lord
Jesus and John the Baptist ever met. According to the Scriptures,
taking only the Word of God now, this is their first meeting.
This is their first meeting. And if you'll go over with me
to the gospel of John chapter one. Here we see John speaks of our
Lord Jesus. He speaks of this one whom he
preaches. And he says in John chapter one, verse, I'll even read verse 28. These things were done in Bethabara. near Bethany, beyond Jordan where John was
baptizing. The next day, John seeth Jesus
coming unto him and said, Behold the Lamb of God which taketh
away the sin of the world. This is he, now he's speaking
to the people, John is preaching, this is he of whom I said, after
me cometh a man which is preferred before me, for he was before
me. Well, how far before John was
the Son of God, the Lamb of God? From all eternity. He was before
me and not only before him in terms of time, but in terms of
rank. He's the Son of God. He's the
Lamb of God. He's one of the Trinity. Now, notice in verse 31, this
important statement, and I knew him not. Now, I believe and I'm confident
he knew him spiritually because he'd been brought to believe
him and thus our Lord Jesus, he's his subject. But as far
as knowing what he looked like, John said, I knew him not. I wouldn't recognize him if I
saw him on the street. He said, but this, watch this,
but that he should be made manifest to Israel. He's going to reveal
himself to his people. Therefore, I might come baptizing
with water. And John bear record saying,
I saw the spirit descending from heaven like a dove in an abode
upon him, verse 33 again. And I knew him not, not till
then. He knew him by faith, even as
we know him by faith. And we know him because we are
known of him, right? He's always known His people. He's always loved His people.
He knows you. The Lord knoweth them that are
His. He's known us from all eternity. He knows everything about us
and He loves us and He saved us. He has brought us into His
family. But we haven't seen Him physically. And that's what John is saying.
I knew him not. And the Spirit of God has the
writer of this book, John, not John the Baptist, but John the
Apostle. He has him recorded two times.
Two times John the Baptist said, I knew him not. I knew him not. but that he sent, but watch verse
33, and I knew him not, but he that sent me to baptize with
water, the same said unto me, upon whom thou shalt see the
Spirit descending and remaining on him, that's the Son of God. The same as he which baptizes
with the Holy Ghost. And then John the Baptist says,
I saw, I saw him. And I bear record, this is the Son of God. So there's
no indication that they met physically before this, but they had met
spiritually. And I would ask you, have you
met the Savior? Have you met the Lord Jesus?
Oh, that He would introduce Himself to you by His mighty, omnipotent,
sovereign grace to reveal to you who He is in all of His glory,
in all of His beauty. And those things that He did
for us, His life of obedience and His death of suffering, his
death of substitution, his death that satisfied God, that death
in which he really died bearing the sins of his people, and he
was raised again because of our justification. Well, Let me say this about baptism. Number one, don't ever attach
some superstition to baptism. The water is just water. That's all it is. The muddy waters
of the Jordan River where our Lord Jesus submitted to baptism,
it was just water. When He stepped into the water,
it didn't become miraculously clear. It was still muddy water. Neyman mentioned that back in
the Old Testament when he was told to dip seven times in the
Jordan River. He said, there are rivers a whole
lot cleaner than that river. More sparkling waters. No, that
river, that river. Don't attach superstition to
baptism. Most denominations would say
and do say that baptism and the Lord's Supper are sacraments. Now if by that you mean these
are ordinances that a holy God has appointed for his people,
I agree with you. But that's not the understanding
of most people. If you look it up in a dictionary,
Google it if you want to. A sacrament, most religions believe,
is those things which are channels of grace. That is, that's the
way grace comes to you. I read one author I got so mad
at him, I was ready to throw his book across the room. It
wouldn't have hurt him, he's been dead a long time. But he
said, people receive different measures of grace from baptism. It all depends upon your attitude.
Listen, there is only one channel of the grace of God. That's Christ
Jesus the Lord. You understand that? It's not
baptism. Baptism conveys no grace. The Lord's Supper conveys no
grace. It doesn't make you more holy. Your holiness is found in the
one who's seated at the right hand of God. He is our holiness. He is our sanctification. You're
not more sanctified when you take the Lord's Supper or when
you're baptized. So don't attach some kind of
a superstitious belief to baptism. The Word of God is our only basis
for faith and practice. You say, but some of the early
church fathers say, I dismiss as being absolutely accurate
what all of the church fathers say, because they were sinful
men just like us. We don't go by the traditions
of men, and I really wish that we would lay aside all of man's
creeds, all of man's confessions of faith. We're Baptists. He said, well, do you adhere
to the New Hampshire Confession of Faith or the Philadelphia
Baptist Confession of Faith, if you happen to be a Presbyterian,
the Westminster Confession of Faith? I adhere to one creed,
that's the Word of God. You say, well, that's oversimplifying
things. I don't think so. I'll tell you
the creed I believe. I believe the Apostles' Creed
in Acts chapter 15. When they were arguing about,
do the Gentiles need to be under the law to really be saved? And Peter stood up and said,
we believe all now we're going to get the Apostles' Creed. We believe that we shall be saved
as they're saved by the grace of God through our Lord Jesus
Christ. That's the Apostles' Creed. That's
what we believe. Not going to add anything to
that. All that matters is what our Lord Jesus says. Those of
you who have some knowledge of church history, religious history. You have the
Nicene Creed. That's read in the Catholic Church,
Presbyterian Church, Methodist Church, any number of churches.
And in that it says, I believe in baptism for the remission
of sins. Well, I don't believe that. I'm
not going to say that. I'm not going to read that. But
many do, and even some people who profess to believe sovereign
grace. We need to toss those things
aside. And let's find out what God has
to say. By grace, by grace, by grace. The Word of God couldn't be clearer
than that. So don't attach some superstitious
I did the baptism, but on the other hand, don't dismiss it
as being unimportant. It was not unimportant to our
Savior. He walked 40 miles to be baptized. We can't hardly drive 5 miles
to come and worship. He walked 3 days! 3 days! You know, it's estimated, I'll
throw this out to you. In studying, you pick up these
things from various sources. It's estimated he walked 35,000
steps. I think that's what he said.
No, 3,500 miles during his ministry on earth. Well, he labored indeed
abundantly. But he felt it necessary to walk
all this distance to be baptized. It's not a mere ritual. It's very important. And I'll get to that definition,
more of a definition of it in just a little bit, who should
be baptized, what it means. But notice this, the method of
baptism. It is only immersion. The Scripture says our Lord came
up out of the water. Those of you who read John Gill, he said you can't come up out
of the water unless you've been down under the water. Oh! That's brilliant! That's brilliant! I don't want to... I wouldn't want to offend anybody
on purpose, but let me tell you something. If you've been sprinkled,
that is not baptism. That is not baptism. In the Word
of God, allow me to lead you in reading a couple of passages. First of all, Romans chapter
6. So why do you insist upon immersion? Well, that's what the word baptized
means, to be immersed, to go under. I was reading one Presbyterian
writer who I enjoy reading from time to time, but he said that
when our Lord got to the Jordan River, He put his feet in the
water and John dipped a cup down and took some water and poured
it on his head and baptized him. It's amazing how far-fetched
men's imaginations will go in order to justify what they believe. What is the manner of baptism?
What is the method? It is immersion. Well, the question
then is asked, why is baptism by immersion? Here's the reason. It pictures our Lord's death
and burial. It's a gospel, gospel witness. When Mary went into the water
a little bit ago, and I put her under the water, that pictures
the death and burial of our Lord Jesus. And it also pictures that
when our Savior died, we died in Him. And when He was buried,
we were buried in Him. I didn't leave Mary under the
water. I brought her up. That's resurrection. You see
here, look at Romans chapter 6 and verse 3. See if this isn't
what you get out of this. Romans 6.3, Know ye not that
so many of us as were baptized, placed into Jesus Christ, were
baptized into His death? Therefore we are buried. buried with Him by baptism into
death, that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the
glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness
of life. For if we had been..." What's
the word? Planted. Go under. Planted. "...together
in the likeness of His death, we shall be also in the likeness
of His resurrection." And one more reference, though I don't
need to go to this, Colossians chapter 2 and verse 12. Colossians chapter 2 and verse
12. And here we have this word again,
buried with him in baptism. Colossians chapter 2 and verse
12. buried with him in baptism, wherein
also ye are risen with him through the faith of the operation of
God, who hath raised him from the dead." What happens when someone dies? We bury them. And for those, if there's anybody
here, anybody watching who thinks that baptism is like sprinkling,
When we bury somebody, we don't just put dirt on their head.
We don't call that burial. We call that foolishness. We bury them because it's a picture
of our Lord's death. You see, if those who do insist
upon sprinkling, they ruin the picture. That's what they do,
they ruin the picture. And it's really a perversion
of the gospel of grace. Because the gospel is how that
Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures and was buried
and raised again according to the scriptures. This was a picture of our Lord's
death, burial, and resurrection. The Lord's Supper we're going
to take in just a few minutes. It's a picture of our Lord who
suffered for us, who bled for us, who died for us. It's a Gospel
ordinance. Well then, quickly, who should
be baptized? Believers. Now, like I said, I don't want
to purposefully offend anybody, but if you were sprinkled, christened
when you were a baby, it wasn't baptism that didn't convey any
grace to you. In fact, when you were informed
as you got older, it actually did you harm. Because then you
put some kind of place, some kind of assurance of your safety
in being sprinkled. In the Bible, those who submitted
to baptism were people who believed the gospel of the Lord Jesus
Christ. The eunuch, Acts chapter 8. Here is water, what doth hinder
me to be baptized? If you believe Jesus Christ is
the Son of God, if you believe Him, you may. And the eunuch
said, I believe Him to be the Son of God. Philip said, I'll
baptize. Now, if baptism is by sprinkling,
I'm sure the Ethiopian eunuch had water in his water bottle,
in his water bag, and he could have stopped at any point poured
some water in Philip's hand and then Philip sprinkled it. No,
had water. So that he, both of them went
into the water, both of them came out. A little later, Acts
chapter 10, Cornelius, he was baptized because he believed
the gospel in people in his household. A little later, Acts chapter
16, the Philippian jailer, he and his family believed the gospel
of our Lord Jesus Christ. Paul and Silas said, believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ, thou shalt be saved. And with many
other words, they preached to them the truth of God to him
and his house. And those who believed were baptized.
If you're a believer, you believe this gospel, It is for you to submit to baptism. Because your Lord did. How could
anybody refuse to be identified with the crucified, buried, risen
Savior and still say you love Him and believe Him? If He submitted
to it, you should submit to it. Not for salvation though. But as a step in obedience. As
one of the Lord's children. But what was the purpose of Christ's
baptism? And my time's about gone. What
was the purpose? He said, to fulfill all righteousness. What do you mean by that? His baptism was a picture of
that work he would do some three years later. His sacrifice upon
the cross of Calvary by which he would establish righteousness. This is a picture of what He
was going to do and how He was going to bring in righteousness. Three things about the death
of Christ you should always remember. It was substitutionary. He died
for our sins. Number two was satisfying to
the Father. How do you know God raised Him
from the dead? And number three, a declaration
of the Father's approval. God said, this is My beloved
Son. This one right here. All those
other people lined up before John the Baptist and were baptized,
the heavens weren't open for any of them. But when our Lord Jesus was baptized,
He came up out of the water, the heavens split open. The Spirit
of God came down. And then God the Father pierced
the silence of the day. This is my beloved Son, in whom
I am well pleased. And let me tell you something,
He's well pleased with all who are in Christ too. That's the
only way He can be well pleased with you. Here's the Trinity. And make no mistake about it,
all of the Trinity is involved in our salvation. The Father
in its purpose. The Son of God in its purchase
of His people. The Spirit of God in His powerful,
effectual grace when He works in us and He creates faith to
believe the Son of God. This is a most glorious meeting
of the Trinity. This should encourage us. This
should encourage us that all three persons of the Trinity
are involved in our salvation. You say, you know, preacher,
we have great enemies. Yes, we do. Our flesh, The devil
and the world. Kind of an unholy trinity. But we have our triune God who
is infinitely greater, infinitely greater than our enemies. I jotted a verse down, Ecclesiastes
4.12. A threefold cord is not quickly
broken. And I tell you what, the threefold
cord of the Father and the Son and the Spirit, it cannot be
broken. This is a salvation that's all
of God. And you who are the Lord's people,
remember, all of the authority and all of the power of the great
Trinity is engaged for your salvation. That's why it's sure. That's
why it's sure. We're going to have the Lord's
supper. At this time, the men are going to wait on you. There's
the bread that speaks of our Lord's body broken for us. There is the wine that will follow
that speaks of our Lord's blood. Flesh and blood. That's our Savior. Flesh and blood. And these men
are going to serve you, first of all, the bread. Wait until
all are served. And if you're visiting with us
and you believe the gospel of God's grace, of course you're
welcome. This is not the church's ordinance, it's the Lord's ordinance.
And that's why we call it the Lord's Supper. You know, our Lord Jesus, first
instituted the Lord's Supper at the Passover, the last Passover,
and Judas was there. Our Lord did not refuse to serve
him, even though he knew his heart. Nobody's going to refuse
to serve you today. This is a time for self-examination,
and the examination involves on whom is your foundation dependent
for salvation. Who are you building your hopes
on? My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness. I dare not trust the sweetest
frame, but wholly lean on Jesus' name. And if that's the way you
are, then you take the bread when it's passed before you,
and then we'll eat together, and then you take the wine when
it's passed before you. Okay, brother.