we've been talking about the
baptism of john which was the baptism of repentance and john
made the statement here in verse eleven matthew three inverse
eleven he said i indeed baptize you with water under repentance
and obviously he's talking about the ordinance of water baptism
he'd stated clearly that that those who are truly saved by
the grace of God will bear the fruits worthy of repentance.
And that's kind of gonna be the theme of our worship this morning,
because I'm gonna preach on, later on, on true faith and repentance. But as I said last week, faith
and repentance, they're both gifts from God. They're not natural
to any of us. Nobody believes and repents out
of their own natural abilities. And of course that's sad, but
that's what people, most people teach today. That you have that
capacity to choose the right way. But we don't. By nature,
we're born spiritually dead. We fell in Adam. This is what
the scripture teaches now. And I know people don't like
to hear this. I say this on our TV program all the time. I'll
get into some doctrine like this and I'll say, I know people don't
like to hear this, but this is what the Bible teaches. And that's
what we're gonna preach. And that's what we're gonna believe.
But the Bible teaches that we all fell into a state of sin
and death and depravity in Adam. and that were born spiritually
dead in trespasses and sins. And that means with no spiritual
ability to believe God. And that's what, when you go
to passages like Romans 3 and verse 10, there's none righteous,
no not one. There's none good, no not one.
There's none that seek after God, no not one. That's what
that means. And faith and repentance are
both gifts from God, They come together. You can't have one
without the other. You can't turn to Christ in saving
faith and not turn away from sin and self. You understand
what I'm saying? You can't go between there. So
faith, and we arrive at repentance through faith in Christ. I'm
gonna talk about that in the messages today and next week,
Lord willing. But the Bible says that if anybody
receives Christ by God-given faith, that it's the result of
having been born of God, born from above. That's what Christ
told Nicodemus, you must be born again. And the reason that that's
so is because we don't have spiritual eyes and ears. Remember he told
the disciples in Matthew chapter 13, he said the reason that he
spoke in parables, because of those who rejected him, he says,
seeing they see not, hearing they hear not. Now what does
that mean? It means they have physical eyes. They could see
Jesus of Nazareth walking around. They could see him performing
miracles. But they had no spiritual sight to see the glory of God. in the face of Jesus Christ.
That's salvation that glorifies God. And when they heard the
gospel, they heard the words and probably understood what
he was saying because it exposed their depravity. That's why they
hated it. I know that's what we all were
by nature. I remember being there, blind. You know, the blind man in, what
is it, John chapter nine, I think. He said, I was blind, but now
I see. Well, what was he blind to? Well,
he had physical blindness. And Christ did heal him physically
of physical blindness. But that was a token, an emblem,
of spiritual blindness being turned into spiritual sight.
And so when Christ said, seeing they see not, hearing they hear
not, he told his disciples, he said, but blessed are your eyes,
for they see. Blessed are your ears, for they
hear." So if you have faith, it's a gift from God, God-given
faith and repentance, do you realize how blessed of God we
are to have that faith and that repentance? It's amazing. The natural man doesn't have
it. I quote this all the time on TV. The natural man receiveth
not the things of the Spirit of God, neither can he know them.
They're spiritually discerned. And you realize now, all of us,
we realize that the reason that we see and hear and understand
has nothing to do with any worthiness in ourselves or any merit or
any ability. It is totally, totally a work
of God's sovereign mercy. He said, I'll have mercy on whom
I will have mercy. I'll be gracious to whom I will
be gracious. It's not of him that willeth.
It's not of him that runneth. It's of God that showeth mercy. And that's all in Christ. So
here in verse 11, John admits, he said, I baptize you with water
unto repentance. John's baptism was the baptism
of repentance. Sinners realizing their sins
and realizing their only hope was in the Messiah to come. That's
what that is. When I baptize in water back
here, that's what I'm doing. I'm baptizing with water. But
I had nothing to do with their salvation. as far as the power
of God and the salvation. Now, I preached the gospel to
them. I'm like John the Baptist in that sense. I was preparing
the way, pointing to Christ, behold the Lamb of God, which
beareth away the sins of the world. I did that. But I had
no ability to give them new spiritual life, spiritual eyes, spiritual
ears, a new heart, or anything like that. So John says, I indeed
baptize with water under repentance. But he that cometh after me,
now he's talking about the Messiah, talking about Christ, is mightier
than I, whose shoes I'm not worthy to bear. John readily admits
that he himself has no worthiness. And here's a man, as far as religion
is concerned, he had more impressive credentials than anybody you
could imagine. I mean, you know, he could point
to scriptures that say, in the book of Malachi, and he could
say, that's talking about me. He could have honestly said that.
He could say, I'm prophesied in the Old Testament. He could
say this, he could say, I'm the last of the Old Testament prophets. John the Baptist could say that.
All in the line. And then he could say after this
event here, he said, I'm the one who baptized the Messiah.
And he could say this, the Messiah said of me that there's none
greater. He could have said all that.
What impressive credentials. But what did he say? He said,
I'm not even worthy to tie his shoes or untie him. He said,
I'm not worthy to bear, to carry his shoes. I must decrease, he
must increase. And here's the point. He says,
he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with fire. Now, what I believe he's talking
about here is the new birth. Now, some commentators say that
he's speaking of the special outpouring of the Holy Spirit
that happened at Pentecost. And that is part of the baptism
of the Holy Spirit, and I think I'm gonna preach a message on
that pretty soon. I was gonna show you how that
plays out in prophecy and everything. But I believe that John's talking
about the new birth here, and he's simply saying I can baptize
you in water, but I can't give you a new heart. I can't give
you spiritual life. That word fire means power, with
the Holy Ghost and power. You know, the gospel is the power
of God unto salvation to everyone that believe it, to the Jew first
and the Greek afterward. But he that's coming after me,
John says, he has the ability to give life from the dead. He
has the ability to bring forth righteousness that we must have
where our life comes from. comes out of him, the Lord our
righteous. He has ability to give you eyes to see and ears
to hear, the abilities that I don't have. He's mightier than I, John
said. He better than me, he's before
me. Well, you know, our Lord gave two ordinance to the New
Testament church. Baptism, that's the confession
of baptism that John was doing here, and that Christ taught
his disciples. that those who are brought to
faith in Christ are to confess what God has done for us by believer's
baptism. That's a confession. Baptism,
and of course the next ordinance is what we're gonna do today
after the message. We're gonna take the Lord's Supper. Baptism
is a confession, an ordinance of confession. The Lord's Supper
is an ordinance of memorial. It's a memorial ordinance. There's
no saving power in being baptized or taking the Lord's Supper.
What we do when we're baptized, we're confessing before men and
women what God has already done for us in power. He's already
saved me by His grace. He's already given me a new heart. I'm born again by the Spirit
before I ever get in the water. And if you get in that water
without all of that, you're just going for a little swim. As one
preacher said, you're just being dunked. And that doesn't mean
anything. And of course we know there are
people who've done that. I did it when I was a child.
I didn't have any idea what I was doing. I just knew it was the
thing to do. It's become kind of like a rite
of passage now. But that's what it is. And the
Lord's Supper, there's no saving power in the wine or the bread.
Those are symbols. And what we're doing is we're
having a memorial, a remembrance of what Christ has done for us
in giving of himself for our sins, shedding his blood unto
death to make us righteous in him. So John, he was baptizing
sinners who were confessing their sinfulness and their need of
salvation by God's grace through the promised Messiah. That's
what John's baptism. And let me say this before we
go on. Baptism is by immersion. It is not by sprinkling or pouring. The word baptism itself, literally
baptism means placed into. Sometimes we say it means immersion,
but that's what immersion is. You're placed into something,
you're immersed. And it's a picture of the gospel. the death, the burial, and the
resurrection of Christ. And those who do it otherwise,
without immersion, they're not portraying the gospel right.
You see, we need to be immersed in Jesus Christ. And that's what
the Bible talks about when we're baptized into Christ. And that's
another subject we won't get into, but that's our union with
Christ. But when he died on the cross, he died as our surety,
our substitute, our redeemer, and he did it for his sheep. So that it's like this, symbolically
and legally and really, not pretend, but really, when Christ died,
if you're one of his sheep, you die. When he was buried, you
were buried. When he arose again, you arose
again. And that's what you're confessing
in the immersion of baptism. Not sprinkling or pouring or
anything like that. And we'll see later on when the
Lord was baptized in his baptism, which is different now. And I'll
show you what it is. He came up straightway out of
the water. Now what does that mean? That means he went way
down under the water. His baptism was by immersion.
And so there's no doubt about this. And let me say this too.
Baptism in the Bible was always for believers. It was never infants. It was never just a rite of passage,
even adults who didn't believe. It was always those who believed.
And I think about Philip and the Ethiopian out in the desert. When Philip preached the gospel
to the Ethiopian. They came by a body of water. And the Ethiopian, I've got this
in your lesson, remember what he said? He said, there's much
water here. Well, now if he's gonna pour
him and sprinkle him, why would he need much water? Why wouldn't
he just get a cup out of the water bag and just, no, he said,
there's much water here. And the Ethiopian said, what
doth hinder me to be baptized? And you know what Philip's question
was? He said, if you believe, you may. If you believe. And that believing's the gift
of God that's given to a justified sinner in the new birth, bringing
him to faith in Christ and repentance. Well, verse 12 says, this one
who baptizes with the Holy Ghost and with fire, whose fan is in
his hand and he will thoroughly purge his floor, gather his weed
into the garner, but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable
fire. And this is Christ as the judge
of all people. The Lord Jesus will be the judge
of all men at the final judgment. Scripture teaches that. We won't
turn to these scriptures, but you can look at them in John
5 and Matthew 25. There's another point, though,
about this judgment that is very important that we need to see.
Not only is Christ himself the judge, but he is the standard
by whom and by which all people will be judged. In other words,
what is the measure, what is the mark that we must meet at
judgment to hear the Lord say, well done thou good and faithful
servant. And that mark is the righteousness of the law, the
perfection of the law that can only be found in Christ. And
how many times we quote Acts 1731 where it says in verse 30,
God has commanded all men everywhere to repent because he has appointed
a day in the which he will judge the world in righteousness by
that man whom he hath ordained and that he had given assurance
unto all men that he had raised him from the dead. I've got to
be as righteous as Christ. And there's no way that I can
claim that by my works. No way at all. It's not by works
of righteousness which we've done. There's only one way that
we can have his righteousness, and that's by the Lord God imputing,
charging, accounting the righteousness of Christ to us. And the evidence
that he's done that is faith and repentance. Has God, is Christ my representative? Is he my surety? Is he my substitute? Did he die for me on that cross?
Is he my redeemer? How can I know that? Well, all
whom he died for and was buried and rose again will be born again
by the Spirit. They will be given the gifts
of faith and repentance. They'll believe in him as he's
identified in this word. And so now we come to the baptism
of Jesus. Now why is that significant?
Look at verse 13. Then cometh Jesus from Galilee
to Jordan unto John to be baptized of him. The Lord Jesus, Jesus
of Nazareth, the Messiah, the very righteousness of God is
coming to John to be baptized. And so Matthew writes of it here.
Now, It says here in verse 14 that John forbade him, saying,
I have need to be baptized of thee and comest thou to me. Again, John recognized his own
sinfulness, his own unworthiness. I don't have any reason to baptize
you, but you've got every reason to baptize me. I'm a sinner. But you're not a sinner. Well,
First of all, recognize this is God's appointed time for Christ
to begin his public ministry here on earth. He was about 30,
some say 29, around 30 years old at this time. So he'd lived
on this earth 29 years, 30 years before this time. And we know,
I think I mentioned either last week or the week before, that
we don't have much revealed in the scripture about his youth,
his young manhood, or anything like that. Luke gives us some
information on it. But we know that he was doing
the will of his father. He told his parents that. Remember
in the temple when he was 12 years old, he said, I must be
about my father's business. And he was talking about him
as the son of God, the father. God the Father and him as the
Son of God. So his baptism marked the great work that he publicly
began on earth at 30 years old. And when John saw him, John knew
who he was. He said, oh no, I can't baptize
you, you need to baptize me. I'm not worthy to baptize the
Lord of glory. And I believe, and of course
this is brought down through the Old Testament scriptures,
the revelation. John was aware of his own sinfulness,
but he knew this one coming to him, the Messiah, had no sin. And John had been baptizing the
baptizing of repentance. Well, what did Jesus of Nazareth
have to repent of? Nothing. He knew no sin. Jesus Christ had nothing of which
to repent. So his baptism was not the baptism
of repentance. He was and is and always will
be the sinless one. Perfect in himself, holy, harmless,
undefiled, separate from sinners in every way. You may have heard this term
that he is impeccable. And that means he was incapable
of sinning. A lot of people don't believe
that. But my friend, this is God manifest
in the flesh. How in the world could he be
capable of sinning? Can God sin? You know, I heard
a preacher say one time God could sin if he wanted to. That's crazy. That's just human rationalization
that comes from the gutter of false religion. No, he was incapable
of sinning. Now, the Bible says he was made
sin. In 2 Corinthians 5, 21, boy,
we've been wrestling that since what, 2007? People perverting
that. Yes, he was made sin, but how? Only by the imputation of our
sins to him. God made him our surety. That
means he became legally accountable to pay the debt of the sins of
his people. But that didn't contaminate him.
That didn't impart sins to him or imbue sins to him. It didn't
corrupt him even in his human nature. It didn't contaminate
him. He still remained the perfect
sinless God-man, but he was truly made sin legally by imputation. And don't let anybody ever tell
you that that's like God pretending or it's fake or it's unreal because
it's not. If I have a debt to pay and I
can't pay it and one of you all stepped in and say, put it on
my account, I'll repay it, that debt becomes yours if you sign
on it as surety. and now you're responsible to
pay it. And that's what he did. He went to the cross to suffer
and bleed and die for the sins that he had no part in committing.
All right? So understand that. Well look,
why was he baptized then? Okay, look at verse 15. Here's
the answer. Jesus answering said unto John, suffer it to be so,
allow it to be so, for thus it becometh us. to fulfill all righteousness. That's why. And then John suffered
him. Why was he baptized? Well, as
our baptism is a confession of repentance, faith in Christ and
repentance of our dead works, Christ's baptism was a confession
of truth symbolizing his work that he came to do on earth.
And he says, suffer it to be so, for thus it becometh us.
Now some people believe the us there is John and Christ. I believe he's talking about
the Trinity. God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy
Spirit, all involved in this, and that's because of the verses
that follow after, but we'll get into that. But here's the
point. The reason Christ was baptized
is he was showing forth in his baptism what he would do on earth
to accomplish the righteousness of God, whereby God has justified
all of his people. What would he do? He would die
and be buried and be raised again. That's what his baptism symbolized. So he wasn't confessing his sinfulness. He was confessing what he would
do on the cross and in his death, burial, and resurrection to remove
our sinfulness. This is the beginning of his
public ministry, and how does he describe his work? Suffer
it to be so, for thus it becometh us to fulfill all righteousness. How in the world can anybody
say that we preach righteousness too much? That's what he said
he came to do at the very beginning of this. I've come to fulfill
all righteousness. How are you gonna do it? By keeping
the law, dying under the justice and judgment of God for the sins
of his people imputed to him, be buried and raised again the
third day because of our justification. He is the Lord, our righteousness. That's what it's all about. He
did this work on earth and this is the merit of his whole work
of redemption as the substitute and the surety and the redeemer
of his people. That's what his baptism meant.
Now again, ours is the baptism of confession. We confess our
sins, but Christ's baptism was the baptism of him of truth,
confessing truth, confessing his work. The baptism, you might
say it this way, the baptism of righteousness. because that's
what he was doing. I'm gonna show you what I come
to do. And that's what his baptism symbolized. Well, look here,
look at verse 16. It says, and Jesus, when he was
baptized, went straight up, went up straight way out. Oh, here's
what I was trying to think of earlier. You remember he told
his disciples, he said, I have a baptism to suffer that you
cannot do. That's what he was talking about.
He's gotta go to the cross, die, be buried and raised again. Okay,
verse 16, and Jesus, when he was baptized, went up straightway
out of the water. He wasn't poured or sprinkled.
And lo, the heavens were opened unto him, and he saw the Spirit
of God descending like a dove and lighting upon him. This is
the testimony of the Spirit. Here's the Father, the Son, and
the Holy Spirit. The Son testifying of Himself
in His baptism as the righteousness of His people and what He would
have to do to accomplish that. The Spirit descending on Him
like a dove. He had the Spirit without measure.
The Spirit testifies of Christ. If you want to know the work
of the Spirit, It's to point sinners to Christ. It's to show
us our sins and point sinners to Christ. And then verse 17,
lo a voice from heaven saying, this is my beloved son in whom
I'm well pleased. That's the testimony of the father. Right here at the baptism of
Christ, the baptism of righteousness. Yes, he was confessing something.
We confess our sins and our salvation in him. He confessed his righteousness
given for his people. And the father said, this is
my beloved son. And this was a voice from heaven.
And notice what he said, in whom I am well pleased. The only way
the father can be well pleased with any of us is as we stand
before him in the sun, washed in his blood and clothed in his
righteousness. OK.