Good morning. Let's all stand
together. We'll sing hymn number one. Hymn number one. O worship the King, all glorious
above, and gratefully sing His power and His love. Our shield and defender, the
Ancient of Days, O tell of his might, O sing of
his grace, whose road is light. And sweetly distills in the dew
and the rain. Frail children of dust, and feeble
as frail, in thee, dear Be seated. We'll sing hymn number
175. 175 Standing on the promises of Christ
my King Through eternal ages let his praises ring Glory in
the highest I will shout and sing I'm standing on the promises
of God. By the living word of God I shall
preach. Dear God, my Savior, standing,
standing, I'm standing on the promises of God. Standing on the promises of Christ
the Lord Bound to Him eternally by love's strong cord Overcoming
daily with the Spirit I am standing on the promises
of God. Standing on the promises I cannot
fall Listening every moment to the Savior's call Resting in
my Savior as my all in all of God. Standing, standing, standing
on the promises of God my Savior. Standing, ? Standing ? I'm standing on the
promises of God Open your Bibles with me if you
will to Hebrews chapter two. We're so blessed and so Thankful
to have Daniel Parks and his wife Sandy with us. We started supporting you back
in 84, 85, didn't we? 84. And we supported you till
last December, didn't we? I beg your pardon? Till last
December. Yes. And you started pastoring out
in Montana. You know, it stays winter out
there so long, he can't even go out there in May. That's some rough weather out
there. I hope you survive. He's been
out on the islands most of his life, and now he's got to go
out there. I hope he survives. Four months of summer, you can
come see me. Yeah, I want to come in the summer.
Four weeks. Four weeks. I'll come on the middle week
to make sure she's right. All right, Hebrews 2. Therefore we ought to give the
more earnest heed to the things which we have heard, lest at
any time we should let them slip. For if the word spoken by angels
was steadfast, and every transgression of disobedience received a just
recompense of reward, how shall we escape if we neglect so great
a salvation, which at first began to be spoken by the Lord, and
was confirmed unto us by them that heard him? God also bearing
them witness, both with signs and wonders, and with divers
miracles and gifts of the Holy Ghost according to his own will,
For unto the angels hath he not put in subjection the world to
come, whereof we speak. But one in a certain place testified,
saying, What is man, that thou art mindful of him? Or the Son
of man, that thou visitest him? Thou madest him a little lower
than the angels. Thou crown'st him with glory
and honor, and didst set him over the works of thy hands.
Thou hast put all things in subjection under his feet. For in that he
put all in subjection under him, he left nothing that is not put
under him. But now we see not all things
put under him. But this is who we do see. But
we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels, for the
suffering of death, crowned with glory and honor, that he, by
the grace of God, should taste death for every man. For it became
him for whom are all things, and by whom are all things, and
bringing many sons unto glory, to make the captain of their
salvation perfect through sufferings. This is one I want you to see
right here. For both he that's sanctified
and they who are sanctified are all of one, for which cause he
is not ashamed to call them brethren, saying, I will declare thy name
unto my brethren in the midst of the church while I sing praise
unto thee. Again, I will put my trust in
him. Behold, I and the children which
thou hast given me. For our blessed, glorious God
of all grace, Father of mercies, God of delights in mercy, abundant
in grace, and your blessed Son, we give thanks for him who is
full of grace, full of truth, and gives us grace for grace.
Lord, we thank you and bless you. that you've given us this
privilege to be able to meet together here this morning, together
around the word of God, together with the saints of God, together
at the feet of our Lord Jesus Christ. And Lord, we know if
it be your will, you could bless us abundantly. You could meet
every need of every heart. You could save every sinner that's
not been saved in this building. Everyone under the sound of my
voice, Lord, your will be done, and we pray, Lord, knowing that
you've got the power, knowing that you've got the grace, that,
Lord, we bow to your holy will, and we ask that you'd be merciful
to this congregation, meet our needs, and, Lord, bring glory
to yourself, and we pray for those that are weak and sickly
and frail among us, for Ann and others who are not with us through
the weakness of their body, we pray for them. And again, we
pray for Dee and Christy and their families. Oh, God,
we thank you for them, so faithful for so many years. God bless them, strengthen them,
comfort them. And Lord, they know that your
grace is sufficient. We all do. But Lord, please do
for us and do for them what only you can do. And Lord, we look
to you for all things, trust you for all things, bow to you
in all things. Meet with us today and enable
me to preach the gospel for Christ's sake. Amen. Hymn number 361. 361. Sweet hour
of prayer. Sweet hour of prayer. of care, and bids me add thy
father's throne, make all thy thoughts and wishes known. ? In seasons of distress and
grief ? ? My soul has often found relief ? ? And of this thing
a tear has shed ? ? Sweet hour of prayer ? ? Sweet
hour of prayer ? ? Thy wings shall like the dishes bear ?
? To give peace to the world ? And since he gives me see his
face, believe his word, and trust his grace, I'll cast ? Sweet hour of prayer ? Sweet
hour of prayer ? May I thy consolation share ? May I thy consolation
share We'll stand together and sing
the hymn of the day in the bulletin. Amazing Grace. His goodness, His mercy, He will not fail, no, not ever. Be seated. Now if you will, look back with
me to Mark chapter one. Mark chapter one. Continue our
study in Mark. Last week we preached on the
baptism of the Holy Spirit, baptism of the Holy Ghost. Today we're
gonna deal with the baptism of the Lord Jesus Christ, our Lord's
baptism. There in Mark 1, verse 9, And
it came to pass in those days that Jesus came from Nazareth
of Galilee, and was baptized of John in Jordan. And straightway,
coming up out of the water, he saw the heavens opened. and the
Spirit like a dove descending upon him. And there came a voice
from heaven, saying, Thou art my beloved Son, in whom I am
well pleased." I can understand and see why
I need to be baptized. I can see why you need to be
baptized. And sinners It's never been baptized,
need to be baptized. But the Lord Jesus Christ baptized,
why? Why would the Lord Jesus Christ
Himself go down into the waters of baptism? Why would He do that? What does that mean? What does
that tell us? Well, I'll tell you the first
thing we need to understand is, is what baptism, what it means. The word, of course, it means
immerse, submerge, and emerge. When it was first used, it was
used in the Old Testament to dye garments with. And when you
immersed a garment in to dye, and then you'd bring it out,
and so immersion means for us, or baptism means to submerge
or immerse and then emerge from, emerge from. Now I wanna show
you something over and you keep Mark and look over here with
me in Hebrews chapter six. I want you to look at something
with me together. Hebrews chapter six. You know, first things in the scriptures
That's sometimes hard to be understood. And I'm not embarrassed to say,
even as a preacher, as long as I've been preaching and pastoring,
to say if I don't understand something, I'll tell you. When
I leave it to my opinion or my speculation, I'll tell you, I'll
stop preaching and tell you that. But there are six fundamental
truths here in Hebrews 6. Six fundamental foundational
truths here. And here we are, first one is
leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ. The doctrine
of Christ, that's the first one. Let us go on to perfection, go
on to maturity, let us grow. Don't lay again, let's don't
lay again the foundation of repentance, that's the second one. From dead
works and of faith toward God, three. And listen to this one,
of the doctrine of baptisms, of the laying on of hands, of
the resurrection of the dead, and of eternal judgment. Now,
what does this doctrine of baptism mean? It says doctrines of baptism,
doctrine of baptisms. So there's more than one baptism,
and there's three baptisms, I believe, if you look in the scriptures,
three baptisms that a person goes through if they're one of
God's elect, one of God's dear people. And our first one is
by water. That means that our confession
of the Lord Jesus Christ, our faithful confession, our public
confession. Men in the scriptures were baptized
to make their confession and say that they believed that Jesus
Christ, the Lord of glory, was the Son of God. And they put
their hope in Him. The second baptism is the baptism
of the Holy Ghost. And you know you can't get into
the Body of Christ, you can't be converted, you can't have
a new birth without the Holy Spirit of God, it just can't
be done. The Holy Spirit's the one that brings Christ to us,
the Gospel to us, the Word to us, the power of God to us, and
TEACHES us about the Lord Jesus Christ. And so the Baptism of
the Holy Ghost, and here's the thing about it, most people who
believe in the Baptism of the Holy Ghost, When they preach
it, they mean that they have some kind of evidence. You've
got to have proof that you've been baptized in the Holy Ghost.
You know what the proof is that you've been baptized in the Holy
Ghost? Is that you know Christ and you can't know Christ apart
from the Holy Spirit being on you and in you. And that's Christ
in you, which is the hope of glory. It can't be done. Now we ain't gonna act a bunch
of fools because we're baptized by the Holy Ghost of God. We're
not gonna get up here speaking a bunch of different languages.
We're not gonna run the aisles. We're not gonna dance in the
aisles. We're not gonna wave our hands, and we're not gonna
clap our hands, and we're not gonna shout. We're not gonna
do those things. That's not what the Holy Spirit's
talking about. And then the third baptism, and
now you need to see this over in Mark chapter 10 now. Let's
go to Mark chapter 10. Here's a baptism. And I never will forget the first
time I realized that when our Lord said, you shall indeed be
baptized. Mark chapter 10, verse 35. Now here's the third baptism. And
James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came unto him, saying, Master,
that thou shouldest do for us whatsoever we shall desire. And
he said unto them, What would you that I should do for you?
They said unto him, Grant unto us that we may set one on thy
right hand, and the other on thy left, in thy glory, when
you come into your kingdom. And Jesus said unto them, You
know not what ye ask. Can you drink of the cup that
I drank of and be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized
with? And they said, we can. Then he
said to them, you shall indeed drink of that cup. And with that
baptism that I'm baptized with, shall you be baptized? Now this
is talking about taking the cup of Christ and the sufferings
and the wrath of God and Christ's death on the cross, being baptized
into that death, into that suffering, being immersed into the sufferings,
immersed into that death, immersed under the wrath of God, immersed
under the judgment of God. And that's what he's talking
about. And every one of these baptisms that I just mentioned
shows our union with the Lord Jesus Christ. Every single one
of them shows our union. He said, you shall drink my cup.
You will. And you'll be baptized with the
baptism I've been baptized with. So there's three baptisms in
the scripture. We need to understand that. And
so this is what we say in baptism, water baptism. When he lived,
I lived. When he died, I died. When he
was buried, I was buried. When he was raised again, we
rose again with him. All he did, we did. Everything
Christ did, we did. And what does union mean? Talking
about we are one with Christ. We have a union with Christ.
He shows us our union with Christ. Well, I read it to you over there
in Hebrews 2, in verse 11. Both he that sanctified and they
who are sanctified are all of one. All of one. He didn't say
that they're closely joined together. It didn't say they want to be
joined together. It says they're one, and when
you're one, that means you're one, one person, and Christ says
He that sanctified them, and He that sanctifies, and they
that are sanctified, they're one! We're one! When God looks
at us, He sees Christ. When God looks at us, He sees
His blessed Son. When God looks at us, He sees
our union with the Lord Jesus Christ. And that's what Paul
meant, you know, and I use this in almost all weddings that I've
ever had, except Bruce, I didn't do it in Bruce Crabtree's because,
you know, I didn't need to go through all that business about
being married and, you know, I just come to say this. Our
Lord Jesus Christ says, Christ loved, husbands love your wives
even as Christ also loved the church and gave himself for it. And he said, these things are
a figure. He said, this is what, when we
talk about Christ, bone of his bone, flesh of his flesh, he
said, as a husband leaves his father and his mother and his
wife, they become one, one. God Almighty looks at us as one. And that's what the marriage
union is. And he's showing us our union with the Lord Jesus
Christ. So this baptism, we gotta know
what it is. And I'll say this, and I believe
it, I believe it with all my heart. Every child of God, every
one of God's elect has been eternally united to the Lord Jesus Christ. Every one of us, we was joined
to Christ before Christ ever come into this world. We were
one of God, we were God's elect. WE WERE CHOSEN IN CHRIST. CHRIST
IS THE HEAD OF THE BODY. AND I TELL YOU WE WERE ETERNALLY
UNITED TO THE LORD JESUS CHRIST. YOU KNOW WHAT HAPPENS TO PEOPLE
THAT ARE NOT UNITED TO CHRIST FROM ETERNITY? THAT MEANS THAT
WHEN THEY COME INTO THIS WORLD, THEY'RE NOT GOING TO BE JOINED
TO CHRIST. YOU KNOW WHY WE'RE JOINED TO CHRIST NOW? IT'S BECAUSE
GOD CHOSE US IN ETERNITY AND JOINED US TO CHRIST, GAVE US
TO CHRIST, AND GOD ALWAYS CONSIDERED US IN CHRIST. And when Adam was
born and when Adam was created, when Adam was brought out of
the dead, when he was made out of the mud and brought up out
of the mud, standing there an inanimate object till God gave
him life, he never started to exist until God gave him life,
but Christ and His elect have ALWAYS been. If God ever viewed
us outside of Christ, we wouldn't last no time. And I, you know,
I thank God that He chose us in Christ for the foundation
of the world. Now that's, that's, that's, we, we've learned that.
That's that, that's those doctrines, the principles of the doctrines
of Christ. But let me tell you this. Some folks, you know, here's,
here's our experience. Our experience and what we've
learned is two different things. You know, I had a fellow tell
me one time, said, I never have been lost I've always been saved. I said, well, if you've never
been lost, you've never been found. If you've never been without
Christ, you don't know what it is to be with Christ and be one
with Christ. Now, our experience is that we
get lost. God gets us lost. That's how
we know we're eternally united to Him. He gets us lost. We come
under the wrath of God. We come under the judgment of
God. We feel like God's against us, and we know where in the
world we can get right with God, as they say. God is the one that
must, He must make the reconciliation. He must make the, He must be
the one to bring us to Himself. But because he is eternally joined
to Christ, that guarantees everyone for whom he died, everyone that
was given to him in eternity, they're gonna hear the gospel
and believe. Shirley and I was talking about the other day.
I blessed the day. I blessed the day that God crossed
my path with the gospel. I blessed that day. Now, what
day it was, I can't tell you, but I do know that God crossed
my path with the gospel of the grace of God, and I left off
everything that I ever believed up to that time. I had to deny
every act, every work, every deed, every prayer, everything
I ever done, I had to deny it and say, it's dung, it's dirt,
it's trash, it's filth. It's AGAINST GOD HIMSELF! And oh my, but all we have is
eternal union. And water baptism says this,
when we come to be baptized in water, it says our union with
Christ is my hope. That's my hope. When we go in
the water and come up out of the water, that signifies that
Christ is my hope. My union with Christ is my hope. Oh my, baptized by the Holy Spirit,
you know what it tells me? That I've been born again. That
I have a new birth. that have a new nature. We were
born of the flesh, but now we're born of the Spirit. Now we have
a new nature. We're made new creatures in Christ.
And that tells me, beloved, that I'm born from above. When we
have this new birth, when God gives us a new birth, He brings
into existence somebody that wasn't there before. And I tell
you, this flesh, this flesh, this aggravating, miserable,
wretched flesh, it's the most, I get so disgusted with it, I
can't hardly bear it. I get this old stuff going on
in my mind, I say, oh Lord, get that out of there, get that,
but you know it won't go. And as we know, baptism is a
hope, water baptism. Baptism by the Holy Ghost, that's
our new birth. That's our new creation, made
partakers of the divine nature, being born again, not of corruptible
seed, but incorruptible by the word of God. And then baptism
into his sufferings, drinking that cup, drinking that cup. Now what that says, our Lord
Jesus Christ, when he went to that cross, he was immersed immersed
in the sufferings that men gave him. And then he was immersed
when he was on that cross, when he cried out, my God, my God,
why hast thou forsaken me? He was immersed. The wrath of
God came on him and came down on him and covered him. And the
justice of God came down and took the sword of God, the justice
of God, and plunged it into the heart of his darling son. And but our Lord, before He went
to the cross, He had a cup to drink, a cup mingled, the scriptures
tells us, mingled in Revelation, mingled with the wrath of God.
And our Lord Jesus Christ took that cup and He said, Father,
if it be possible, let it pass from me. This cup, this cup of
sin, this cup of wrath, This cup of justice, this cup of shame,
this cup of guilt. Oh God, if it's possible, let
it pass from me. But nevertheless, not my will,
but thine be done. And he took it from his father.
And he drank that cup, that cup of wrath, that cup mingled with
wrath, that cup that was full of our corruption and our sin
and everything that was bad, everything that was wrong with
us and was right with him. And oh my, when our Lord Jesus
Christ drunk that cup, he said, we's gonna drink it too. Is the wrath of God ever gonna
come on us again? Are we ever gonna have to go
under the wrath of God again? Are we gonna have to go under
the judgment of God again? Are we gonna have to face God
in judgment and answer for what we've done? No, no. And when Christ was baptized
under that wrath of God, oh my, oh my. And I'll tell you why
with Christ. Why would our Lord Jesus Christ
go to the cross? Why would He go under the wrath
of God? Why would He let the justice
of God slay Him? Why would He do that? Because
of our union with Him. He said there's no way that I
could let any one of my children, anyone for whom I was given to
me, anyone who is with me from eternity, I cannot possibly,
it's impossible for me not to bear everything that's against
them in my own body on that tree. When Christ was forsaken of God,
that's the only time we was ever forsaken of God. When Christ
died on the cross, that's the only time we died. And you know what he died to?
He died to sin. You know what he died to? He
put away death. Death was destroyed by the Lord
Jesus Christ. God's wrath was emptied on the
Lord Jesus Christ. God's justice, when he come out
and brought out of his heart, wiped the blood off of it, and
said, I'm satisfied, and put it back in his sheep, never to
be roused out again. Oh, my. Why did he do that? Because of our union, we're one
with him. What he did, this, I can't say,
I can't stress this enough, and I, we're so united with him,
that it's just us and him. Huh? You know, when you're part
of a person's body, then you're one with that person. Is that
not right? I've got two arms, two legs,
two eyes, two ears, mouth, teeth, tongue, and I'm
just one. I'm one. My body's one. Lots
of members, and that's the way it is with Christ. We're all
so united to Christ, but He's the body, and we're just members
in it. And I don't care what member
I am. That don't make any difference to me as long as I'm there. That's all I care about. Oh,
my. Go back here to Mark, chapter
1. Mark, chapter 1. And look what it says, it came to
pass. Wherever God said it came to pass, that means it happened.
Without a shadow of a doubt, it happened. One of these days,
we're going to hear it said, it came to pass. It came to pass. And it came to pass. that Jesus
came from Nazareth to Galilee to be baptized of John. Straightway,
coming up out of the water, he saw the heavens open, the Spirit
descending like a dove. And there came from heaven, saying,
Thou art my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. Now I tell
you what, to really look at this, I want us to go to Matthew chapter
three. Matthew chapter three, verse 13. You know, Here he talks about Matthew 3.13,
our Lord's water baptism. Why was he baptized? It says here in verse 13, then
cometh Jesus from Galilee, comes to Jordan. He had to go a little
ways. comes to the river Jordan. John
stayed in one place. He stayed out there in the wilderness.
And people would come. Soldiers would come. People would
come. Common people would come. They'd
line up to be baptized of John. And it was a baptism of repentance.
But they'd line up to be baptized of... You know the only people
who didn't come to be baptized of John? Pharisees. Folks already had everything,
they already knew everything, and they was already fixed up.
But the only people that come to John was people who is in
need of repentance. They come to confess. And oh, listen, he came to be
baptized of John. You know, let me, y'all remember
the story. It's over in Luke. When Mary
found out she was with child, she has a, I don't know if it was his aunt
or maybe even her sister. I don't know. But anyway, John the Baptist
and Christ was cousins, but Elizabeth had never had a child and she
got pregnant. God come and told her, you're
going to have a child. So they went up in the wild,
up in Judea, north in the mountains of Judea. And she got up there
and she was three or four months along and her husband, Zechariah,
God struck him dumb until it come time and said, now what's
this child's name going to be? And he wrote on the thing, John,
John. And so Mary, when she found out
she was going to have child, she went up there to visit Elizabeth. And when she went up there to
visit Elizabeth, She said, hell, she told her what happened. And
Elizabeth, John the Baptist, the scripture said, leaped when
she heard that Mary was going to bear the Christ child, the
Son of God, that John the Baptist leaped in his mother's womb.
And it says he was baptized by the Holy Spirit in his mother's
womb. You know what that tells me?
He was saved and regenerated in his mother's womb. He had to be. People worry about
babies and infants and all that. Listen, John the Baptist was
regenerated when he was in his mother's womb. And that's what
Elizabeth said, Mary, the mother of my Lord has come to me. And
when the child heard it, he leaped for joy. That's what she said,
that child in her womb. He was regenerated from his mother's
womb. Oh my, and our Lord went to see
John into the wilderness. He had to go where John was.
And oh my, look how John spoke to him. Oh my, you think anybody
would talk to Christ this way? Oh yeah, Simon Peter did a couple
of times. But look what he said, John forbade
him. Lord, no, no, no, no, no, no,
no. You ain't going to baptize me.
I mean, I'm not going to baptize you. I'm not going to do it.
I'm just not going to do it. He said, Lord, no, I'm not going
to do this. I'm just not not going to do
it. Forbade it said, no, no, I'm
not going to baptize you. Oh, no, no, I'm not going to
do it. He said, I have need. I'm the one with the need. I'm
the one that's got the need. You don't have a need. I have
a need. I'm the one in need. I have need. And you know what? I have need. I have need to be
joined to you. I have need to be baptized of
you. I need you to do something for
me. I need you because I'm the one in need. And I'll tell you
what, beloved, once you ever have a need of Christ, you never,
ever get over that need. Never. I need him now as much
as I ever needed him, ain't don't you? Huh? Oh, I need him. I'll tell you what, I can't understand
people not needing Christ. I can't understand people not
needing him all the time. I can't understand that. Oh my,
but John the Baptist said, I have need of you. I have need of you. And listen to what he said here.
And you come to me? You come to me? I ain't nobody. I'm just a voice. That's all
I am. I'm just a voice. I've got no power. All I'm doing is baptizing people
to repentance. And you said, I have need of
you. And you come to me. You come to me. And there's people
who honestly think they can command the Lord Jesus Christ to do things.
They can command him. Oh, they'll say, we command you
in the name of Jesus Christ. I was a fellow that left Henry
Mahan's church years and years ago, went to England and went
over there and started pastoring a church. And the church just
wouldn't start going down, start going down. So he became a charismatic,
charismatic, had charismatics in there. And I heard him say myself, he
said, listen, God told me, God told me if I could get 300 people
praying, we could change God's mind. John didn't feel that way. I've
got need of you. And you're coming to me. Don't
you feel that way? What is man? I read it to you
today. What is man? What is he? What is he? Tell
me what he is. What is he? God said he's a worm. God said he's a grasshopper. God said he s CORRUPT! God said
he s UNCLEAN! God said he s got a HARD HEART! God said he s LOST! God said
he s a SINNER! God said all those things! And the Scriptures tell us that
He, since we were partakers of flesh and blood, He likewise
took part of the same. Why did he take part of the same?
Because to be identified with us and because of our union with
him. Oh no, John said, I have need of you and you come to me.
Look what our Lord said to him now. Verse 15. Suffer it. That word suffer,
Jesus said, answering, said unto him. He didn't deny anything,
said John. Never denied anything he said,
but Jesus answering said unto him, suffer it to be so now. Permit it, let it be so. Let
it be so now. And let it be so now, right now. Our Lord did not need to be baptized. He did not need to be baptized.
He didn't need to be. He had no sin. He had no sin of his own. He
didn't need to be baptized to be made righteous. He said, for
thus it becometh us to feel all righteousness. Then he done it. And he said it becomes us. He
didn't be baptized to be made righteous, he's already righteous.
He didn't be baptized because he's a sinner, because he was
holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners. He said it becomes
us. Do you see that? Becomes us.
He's not talking about him and John. Who's us? Us is us. Me and me, all of God's
love becomes us to fulfill all righteousness. He does not say,
listen to this now, I'm telling you, old Scott Rich, you say
this all the time. We don't have a passion on righteousness. Some
people look at it just as a legal, a legal act. But our Lord doesn't
say here, I need to fulfill all righteousness and credit it to
your account so you might be viewed as righteous. No, no,
no. We need righteousness, He didn't. And when our Lord said it becomes
us to fulfill our righteousness, this is our Lord identifying
us with us. He was righteous from eternity. HE WAS RIGHTEOUS WHILE HE LIVED
HERE. HE WAS RIGHTEOUS WHEN HE WAS ON THE CROSS. HE WAS RIGHTEOUS
WHEN HE WENT TO THE GRAVE. HE WAS RIGHTEOUS WHEN HE ROSE
FROM THE DEAD. HE WAS RIGHTEOUS WHEN HE ENTERED
INTO GLORY. HE WAS RIGHTEOUS WHEN HE SITTED
ON THE RIGHT HAND OF THE SON OF GOD. AND I LORD JESUS CHRIST
HE SAID IT BECOMES US TO FULFILL ALL RIGHTEOUSNESS. WHO FULFILLS
RIGHTEOUSNESS? HE DID AND IN HIM WE DO. HUH? How many times have I told
you that we will not be more righteous when we get to heaven
than we are right now? Do you reckon God will let anybody
that's not as righteous as He is in His presence? We're in
His presence right now, and the only people that can be in His
presence are people that are righteous, accepted. You can't be in His presence
unless you're righteous and holy. Where do we get that at? He so
identified with us? Oh, my. He was righteous. He was holy, undefiled, separate
from sinners. And then look what it says. Then
He suffered him, you know, and fulfilled all righteousness. You know, righteousness means
doing everything absolutely right. God is righteous in everything
He does. It's perfect and exactly right.
Righteousness means doing every, absolutely everything right. Thinking right, acting right,
looking right, doing right. With your hands, with your feet,
with everything about you, doing it. Well, I'll tell you what,
in Christ, we did. Oh, bless this holy name. Oh,
I'm so thankful, I'm so thankful. That's why, that's why it's just, our poor little old weak brains
can't grasp some of this stuff, you know, and we hear it over
and over and over again, and still yet, it just, it overwhelms
you, it just overwhelms you. And then, as he is, that's why
we're like he is, and then look what it says. and Jesus when
he's baptized. Do you know what it says? Went
up straight way out of the water. That means that John the Baptist
took the Lord Jesus Christ and put him all the way down in the
water. And when he rose up, when he rose up, our Lord was wet. He'd just been baptized. He didn't
get him out in the water and splash water in his face. He
didn't get him a handful of water and dump it over his head. No,
no. He put him under. And oh, my. And look what he
said. And he went up straightway out
of the water. Oh, my. Now, these fellas, you
know, and here we have the Trinity. Here we have the Trinity. The
Son, the Spirit, the Father, all are involved in our salvation
and our righteousness. And John and everyone that's
gathered that day, they were entered into a dimension that
you and I have never entered into, but they did. Look what
it says. The heavens were opened. Opened
to who? Opened to Christ. Can you imagine standing there?
And you're John the Baptist and all those folks getting baptized,
you look up and the heaven opens up. It's opened up. You stand there
looking up, the heavens opened up. That's what happened when
our Lord Jesus went back to glory. You know, He went up. They said,
You men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing? The same Jesus that
went back like that, He's going to come back the same way. But
the heavens were opened. The heavens were opened. Oh,
they were seeing and experiencing something that, oh my. And then look what else they
saw. And they saw the Spirit of God, the Holy Ghost of God,
the Spirit of God descending, coming down. And I tell you,
it was, I don't know if it was a dove, but it said it's like
a dove. Now it very well may have been a dove, but I know
it said it's like a dove. And when it come down, and look
what it says, it lighted on him. Lighted on him. Do you know our
Lord Jesus Christ, He's the only person who ever had the Spirit
without measure. And all lighting on Him, and
then look what He said. And then there was a voice. Not
only did they see the heavens open, but there was a voice.
A voice. And it came from heaven too.
You know, God spoke three times from heaven. Do you know what?
And every one of them had to do with his son. Spoke three
times. Here's the first time. Then his
second time was on the Sermon on the Mount. Hear him. And the
third time our Lord prayed and said, Father, glorify thou me
with the glory I had with you before the world. He said, I
have glorified it and I will glorify it. Spoke three times.
And here's this voice. Here's the first time he spoke.
And then they not only saw the heavens open, but they heard
this voice. Now, I'll tell you what, it wasn't like Moses in
the Ten Commandments, that voice that spoke out of that bush,
it wasn't like that kind of voice, I guarantee you that. I don't
know what kind of voice it was, but I'll tell you what, you know
it was God's voice. And we know it's God's voice
when we hear it now. And he said, listen, this, this is my beloved
son. Oh, I love my son. He's the son
of my love. He's my darling son. Oh, he's
my darling son. And then look what he said, in
whom, in whom, not by whom, or I thank you, this is my beloved
son in whom. I'm well pleased. I'm well pleased. The father spoke from heaven
and here we have The Spirit of God descending like a dove, God
speaking from Heaven, the Holy Spirit, and the Son, there's
your Trinity right there, the Spirit, the Son, and the Father,
all three of them involved. And let me show you this, and
then I'm going to wind this thing up. I hope I haven't preached
too long. Go with me over to John chapter 3, verse 31. And then, you know what our Lord
Jesus Christ said when he prayed to the Father
one time? He said, Father, I will. He said, thou hast loved them
as thou hast loved me. That's what he said. But look
what he said here in John 3.31. This is John the Baptist's piece.
John's speaking here now. Or John, the man who wrote this
book. He that cometh from above is
above all. He that is of the earth is earthly,
and speaketh of the earth. He that cometh from heaven is
above all. And what he hath seen and heard,
that he testifieth, and no man receiveth his testimony. He that
received his testimony hath set to his seal that God is true. For whom God hath sent speak
the words of God and God giveth not the spirit by measure unto
him. The father loves the son and
gives everything into his hands. And you know one of the things
given into his hands? He said, no man's ever plucked
them out of my hand, so I'm in his hand. Oh, our blessed Savior, thank
you for meeting with us today. Thank you for your precious gospel.
Thank you for the truth as it is in Christ. Lord, we We need you, we want
you, we desire you. And create in us a greater love
for you, a greater love for one another. Work in us, oh Lord,
to do your will. Work in us to be a loving, kind,
gracious, tenderhearted, forgiving, merciful people to the glory
of your blessed son. Oh, Lord, thank you for teaching
us these precious, precious truths of our union with you and how
you so identified with us. Thank you, Lord. Blessed be your
holy name. Amen. Amen. He's the Savior of
my soul. Jesus, my Jesus. He's the Savior of my soul. He's the Savior of my soul. Jesus, Jesus. He's the Savior of my soul. He's the Savior of my soul. See you tonight, six o'clock,
God willing. th th