We never get past the blood, the atonement for our soul. Turn back to Matthew chapter
3. I titled the message, Why Was
Jesus Christ Baptized? Why was the Son of God, who knew
no sin, baptized? We'll look at that in a minute.
Last week we left off with John the Baptist
preaching in the wilderness, preaching the gospel of the kingdom,
proclaiming that Christ has come, the Messiah has come. And John preached for about six
months before the Lord revealed himself, before he came to John
to be baptized. John had been preaching about
six months in the wilderness, and his message was this, repent for the kingdom of heaven. We
could say it this way, for the king of heaven has come. The king of heaven has come.
He's at hand. He's about to be revealed. And John kept his message simple.
He never complicated his message. He kept it simple. He kept it
centered on the Lamb of God. He kept it centered on the Lord
Jesus Christ, the One who is to be revealed, the King of Heaven.
John kept the message simple. He never altered his message
at all that time. No matter which crowd showed
up, whether it was the common people out there in the wilderness,
in those cities out there, or the Pharisees and Scribes and
Sadducees, he did not alter his message. Not at all. Sinners
are sinners, no matter the dress. It doesn't matter if they're
wearing broad phylacteries, or just a common dress of poor people. The message is the same, isn't
it? You know why? Because the need is the same.
And the Lord is the same. The salvation is the same. It
never changes. It does not change. It does not
matter how long or how much longer this world will stand. The gospel
message will never change. Sinners will always be sinners.
No matter how educated they may become, they're still just sinners
in need of mercy. And we need to keep it simple.
Keep to the message. Keep to the message that God
gave concerning His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. Just stay
with that. Stay with that. And at this time, at about the
end of six months, Christ was about to enter upon His public
ministry. But I thought as I was sitting
there, here John is preaching. The King of Heaven is at hand.
He's about to show up. He preached the Gospel of the
Kingdom. He preached the truth. He preached repentance. And then
the Lord revealed Himself. Isn't that how it is? The man
stands and proclaims the Gospel. Takes the Word of God and proclaims
the truth. He preaches Christ. And then
the Lord reveals Himself to a sinner. And this is how it happened here.
John preached for six months to these people. Preached from
the Word of God. I have no doubt he took the Word
of God and preached from it. This is the Messiah. This is
the one that is spoken of in the Old Testament. And then he's
revealed. Here he comes. And like the priest of old, we'll
see this in a little bit, like the priest of old back in Exodus
29, who consecrated themselves to God by washing with water. That was one of the things they
were to do. They were to wash with water. So our great high priest
began his great work which he came to do by consecrating himself
to God by being baptized. The refiner spoken of in this
chapter is come. He's come to burn up the dross.
He's come to burn up the wheat. The refiner has come, whose fan
is in his hand. The winnower has come to separate
the sheep from the goats. And he's still doing that. He's
still doing that. That's his business. He's going
to separate the sheep from the goats, the wheat from the tares.
As Spurgeon said, the great woodsman has come to lay the axe to the
root and cut down, fell all false professions. He's here. He's here. We're not wondering,
and we do not have to wonder, who is this person spoken of
here? It's the Lord Jesus Christ. It's
the one from Nazareth. He's the Son of God. Now it says
in verse 13, Then cometh Jesus from Galilee to Jordan to be
baptized of him, of John. This shows us here that our Lord
placed great honor upon this ordinance of baptism. And he did so by publicly being
baptized by John. And there were many there who
witnessed this. who saw this. And it says here, he came from
Galilee, lived in Nazareth. You know how far that is? That is a three days hard journey
from Nazareth to Jordan. For three days he traveled from
Nazareth to Jordan to be baptized. Not to perform a miracle, not
at that time, not to perform a miracle, not even to preach
a sermon, but to be baptized by John. Three days. And this shows us the importance
of what our Lord said. He that believeth and is baptized
shall be saved. He gave us this ordinance to
follow. and to keep, just as he did the
Lord's Supper. Those two ordinances are to be
kept by the church until he comes. And he came to John. What condescending grace! What
humility! Our Lord exemplified here by
coming to John. John recognized this man. John
recognized his greatness. And yet our Lord, true to His
character, meek and lowly, He never got out of character. He
was always true to His character, meek and lowly. He came to John. He came to John. He came to a
sinner. That's what happened. He came
to a sinner to be baptized. The greater came to the lesser. Oh, how humbling this was for
John. And what true humility and grace this shows on the part
of our Lord Jesus Christ. He came to John. I'll tell you something else
it shows here. I thought about this last night and wrote it down.
This shows that the one baptizing adds nothing to the ordinance.
John added nothing to him. Just like you said in that song,
we've given nothing to him. When the scripture says, give
unto him the glory due his name, that's acknowledge. That is to
recognize the glory and the honor that's due unto his name. But
we don't give God anything. We add nothing to him. But yet
he came to John. And he came to John to be baptized. He came to John out of obedience
to his father. And we see here John's humility,
the servant's humility. But John, it says, forbade him.
This is not a show and this is not rebellion. This is not rebellion
on John's part. This, I believe, is a true show
of humility. This is a true show of understanding. John preached there for six months.
He knew, even though he didn't know him personally. But he knew
him through the Word of God. This is the King. This one who
showed up to be baptized, this is the King. This is the Messiah. This is my Savior. This is my
Lord. This is my God. This is the Creator
of heaven and earth coming to me. John objected. to baptizing our
Lord. He just couldn't think of it. The thought of it. He said, John
forbade him. But then John obeyed him. It's
like Peter. He said, Lord, you'll never wash
my feet. No, you're not. Peter wasn't
being rebellious. He just had that much awe and
admiration for his Lord. And he said, you're not going
to wash my feet? He said, if I don't wash you, you'll have
no part with me. He obeyed. He said, Lord, wash me. Wash
me all over. He said, well, that doesn't need to be done a second
time. I've already done that. You just need to wash your feet. It's one thing to do this out
of true humility, but then obey the Lord. He obeyed him. He obeyed. John was truly humbled. He was
truly humbled in His presence. As I believe every sinner who
truly meets Him, who truly sees Him, is humbled, humbled in His
presence. Who am I? And what is my house? John had great reverence for
his Lord. Oh, it's unlike what we see today,
isn't it? So much flippancy going on, so much irreverence. John had great reverence for
him. John knew that he was indeed
the Christ. He's the Christ. He's the promised
Messiah. He's the King of Kings. coming
to me. He's my Savior. John, like every sinner whom
the Lord saves, knew that he was the one in need of mercy
and in need of baptizing. He said, I'm the one who needs
to be baptized. I need to be baptized in you.
He knew that he needed to be baptized in Him, for he said
so. John knew that he was born of a corrupt seed, even though
he was filled with the Holy Spirit from his mother's womb. Yet,
he had the same nature you and I have. John the Baptist was
born of the same sinful nature, sinful seed, his father Zacharias. We know who his father is. And he knew, by experience, in
his heart, out there in that desert, God taught him Out there
in that desert, that wilderness, John learned, even though we
don't know a whole lot about what went on out there, John
learned he was a sinner. John learned he was in need of
mercy. God taught him that he's a sinner in need of mercy. And
when he saw Christ, he said, I'm the one that needs mercy.
I'm the one that needs washing. I'm the one that needs cleansing.
He knew his need of Him. I tell you, that's what happens
when God brings a sinner. When he brings a sinner to Christ,
when he brings a sinner under conviction, that sinner learns
his need of Christ. Not my need to be religious and
go to church every Sunday and Wednesday, but my need of Him. My need of the blood. My need
of righteousness. My need of the Son of God. My
need of Him. John knew this. He knew he needed
His redemption. He knew he needed that. We need
to be redeemed. I need to be redeemed. I know
that. You know that. Many of you know
that. We need that. And for a man to preach with
such power on repentance, he has to know something about himself.
When I was reading that yesterday and going over it, I thought,
For him to preach repentance and the power of God's Spirit
like he was preaching it, he sure had to know something about
it. He had to know something about it. Men, no matter how high they
rise, even in the ministry, even in the gospel, they're still
just men at best. We never rise above that, do
we? We're still just men at best. Sinful men. Sinful men at best. Sinful men and women at best. That's all. John knew it. He knew it. And I would to God that we would
know it and continue to know it until he comes. John said
there in verse 14, I have need to be baptized of thee, if comest
thou To me? Are you coming to me? Oh, I just see him. Lord, you're coming to me to
be baptized. I need to be baptized in you.
But I thought of this last night. Salvation is Christ coming to
you. It's Christ coming to you. It's Christ cleansing you. It's
Christ pardoning you. Is Christ calling you, saving
you, and doing everything for you? That's so. But he says to John, but suffer
the order to be reversed right now. Suffer to be so now. John, just submit and obey. Suffer this to be so now. Salvation
is truly Christ coming to us, calling us, saving us, redeeming
us. But in this particular situation, he said you suffer to be so now.
And here we have the necessity of Christ's baptism. Why was
our Lord baptized? Why? He knew no sin. The scripture says He knew no
sin. He had no sins to confess. Everyone whom John baptized,
confessing their sins. He had no sins to confess. He
had no iniquity to wash away. Then why was He Well, our Lord
first gives the answer. He says to fulfill all righteousness. He did nothing out of show. Everything He did through His
earthly ministry was in fulfilling all righteousness. It was ordained
of God. Now listen, it was ordained of
God, the Father, that as a man, as a man, he should be baptized. He's the substitute. He's taking
our place. And it was ordained of the Father
before the world began that he should be baptized at this time
by John the Baptist. You remember he was circumcised
the eighth day. because the law required it.
He grew up under the authority of his parents. He kept every
precept of the law as our representative. He did that for us. And he was
baptized as the law required. Look over in Exodus chapter 29.
Exodus chapter 29. Is he not our high priest? You know through the word of
God that the Lord Jesus Christ, especially when we read the book
of Hebrews, is our high priest. Now it says in Exodus 29 verse
4, and Aaron and his sons, they were the priesthood there, thou
shalt bring them to the door of the tabernacle of the congregation,
where everyone can see, and shalt wash them with water. Wash them with water. When our
Lord did this, when he did this, he showed,
he showed how he would fulfill all righteousness as our sin
atoning sacrifice for subsistence. He showed us right there how
he was going to redeem us, how he would save us by his death,
burial, and resurrection. Baptism is a picture of His death,
burial, and resurrection. It says in Romans 4 that He was
delivered for our offenses and raised again for our justification. And all those who believe the
gospel, all those who believe on the Lord Jesus Christ are
to follow Him, follow His command in being baptized. And I boldly
say this, not to do it is rank rebellion. It is absolute rebellion
Not to do it. Because He said to do it. Not
because it adds to salvation. Not because it makes you more
saved. But because the Lord said so. And that's all we need on
it, isn't it? We need nothing else other than
this. Thus saith the Lord. That's it. He said to keep the
table. And we do it. The bread and the
wine. They don't make us more saved.
That wine doesn't turn into his blood and that bread doesn't
turn into his body. He said, do this in remembrance
of me. It's an ordinance that he gave.
Just as he gave this ordinance of baptism. And not to do it
is just break rebellion. But at the same time, at the
same time, we don't want to become superstitious about it. as some
churches have, and place it for salvation. Christ alone is salvation. Christ is my salvation. When
I stand before God, and you stand before God, our only hope is
Jesus Christ Himself. If there's anything that I want
to make plain to these young children growing up is that Jesus
Christ himself is the salvation of his people. But there are some things he
said to do and we do it. We do it. And one of them is to be
baptized. Now the method, I think we even
have the method here of baptism. And Jesus, verse 16, when he
was baptized, Went straight away out of the water. John didn't
sprinkle him. I was watching a program on TV
some time ago. I caught it as I was flipping
through. And it was one of those Bible stories of Jesus. And he went down to John in the
water there to be baptized. And he took his hand. John took
his hand. Cuffed it, got some water in
it, took it, put it on his head, and then he walked out. When someone dies, it's a picture
of death, burial, and resurrection. When someone dies, you sprinkle
dirt in their face. You bury them out of sight. And that's what baptism represents. Death. Buried out of sight. Under
that water. And you've risen to newness of
life. Peter's death with him, our identification with him.
We identify with him. We identify with him and identify
with the Lord's people. We're not ashamed to identify
with him. My soul. He came to John. John
said, you're coming to me. He wasn't ashamed to identify
with us and we're not ashamed to identify with him. Oh, my
soul. Matthew, under the inspiration
of the Holy Spirit. makes mention of this. He went
up out of the water straightway. Straightway out of the water.
To show us that baptism is by immersion and no other way. No other way. It represents his
death, burial and resurrection. And to change this. We are not at liberty to change
the Word of God. We are not at liberty To say,
well, let's do it this way now. That was then. We're not at liberty
to take any part of the Word of God and change it. At all. To change the Scripture is to
pervert the Scripture. Is to pervert it. We never take the two ordinances
that the Lord gave the church lightly. Lightly. and to alter them, to make them
more acceptable. Maybe not as offensive to some. Never to change it. Do as the
Lord said to do. Old Naaman, Elijah said, go down
to the river there and dip seven times. He said, I'm not going
to do that. Did that water make him, did that water, even Naaman
knew that, and he said, there's no difference in that water than
the water where I live. It wasn't in the water. Obedience is better than sacrifice,
Scripture says. Just do what you're told to do.
Just do it. I think sometimes people wait
for signs and feelings and everything to just do what you're told to
do. Ain't you parents like that? Just do what I told you. How
hard is it to get your children when they're young to do what
you tell them to do? Just do it. My, what happens when you just
do it? Obedience is better than sacrifice. It took me a while
to learn that at home. It was better to obey than sacrifice
my backside. And that's all it is. It's just
obeying the Lord. You see, here's what it shows
to me and to a believer. It shows that he really believes
God. God said to do it, so I'm going
to do it. If He said go dip seven times down there, then go do
it. And what happened when Naaman was obedient to God's servant? Which is being obedient to God.
Because Elijah was God's prophet. And what he was saying was coming
from God. He was healed. He was healed. Oh, obedience
is something, I tell you, hard. Rebels just can't do it, can
they? Rebels just can't not be obedient. But believers are. Those born of God, they are obedient
children. We have to be chastened. We still
have our off days, if you want to call it that. We still have
to be chastened. We're not perfect in this world
as far as our walk, conduct, but we are obedient. The tenor
of a believer's life is one of obedience. It really is. Now notice, the heavens were
open to him when this happened. When our Lord, obediently, at
this appointed time, for three days walked to Jordan to be baptized. Heavens opened to him. When I read that, I immediately
thought, of that ladder Dan spoke of Wednesday night. Heaven opened. Heaven opened again. When Adam
fell, heaven was shut to man. To sinful man, heaven was shut.
Adam was driven, Adam and Eve, they were driven out of the garden
and not allowed back in. They were driven out. Get out
of here. But now it's open. Through the
Lord Jesus Christ, heaven is open. Open unto Him. Look over in Hebrews chapter
6. Hebrews 6. Look here in verse 17. wherein God, willing more abundantly
to show unto the heirs of promise the immutability of his counsel,
the unchangeableness of his counsel, confirmed it by an oath that
by two immutable things in which it was impossible for God to
lie, we might have a strong consolation who have fled for refuge to lay
hold upon the hope set before us. which hope we have as an
anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast, and which entereth
into that within the veil. Whether the forerunner is for
us entered, the forerunner, even Jesus, even Jesus of Nazareth,
made a high priest forever after the order of Melchizedek. The
very presence of God, the very throne of God is now open to
us. At any time a believer, though
a sinner, has access to the presence of God. If we ever realized that,
we would not have a bad day. I mean really realize it. I know
we realize it to an extent because, as I said before, we know it
in part. But my soul, if we could just lay hold of it more and
more as we grow older. What boldness. What boldness. Let the economy go wherever it's
going to go. I'm not saying be careless, but
it gives you boldness. And it helps drive away anxiety. over what's going to happen. We have access to the throne
of God because heaven was open to Him and to us in Him. If it's open
to Him, it's open to us in Him. And also notice here, and I'll
wind this up, Notice the interest that the
Trinity has in our redemption. Notice the Trinity's here. The
whole Godhead is here at this baptism. The Spirit of God says, descending
like a dove and lighting upon him, which shows, first of all, his
real person. He didn't come in the form of
a man because that belonged to the Son of God. He was made in
the likeness of sinful flesh. He became a man. He is God incarnate. But the Holy Spirit came in the
form and likeness of a dove. And it lit upon Him. Showing His approval. Showing
this is the one. What a witness they had. Of course,
we have all his work. But those people, this was not
a private session. This was not something done in
private where they did it at night or something. This was
done publicly. And this dove descended upon
him publicly. Heaven was open and a voice was
heard. It's a fit emblem for the Holy
Spirit to take the form of a dove. Is there any more peaceful bird
than that? Not the form of an eagle, which
is a bird of prey, but one of a dove. One of a dove. You know that that's the only
bird that was used in offering as a sacrifice? Two turtle doves. What bird was it on the ark that flew out and
brought glad tidings back, brought that olive leaf back? It was
a dove. So what a fit emblem for him
to come down in the form of a dove. And the Father spoke from heaven.
The Holy Spirit descended on him. The whole trinity was there.
The whole trinity was there as one in our redemption. The whole Godhead is behind saving
the sinner. How can that be defeated? It
can't. It can't. The Father planned it. The Son
purchased it. And the Holy Spirit performs
it in us. It's a work of all three. Now listen to the voice of the
Father from heaven. And lo, a voice from heaven saying, This is my
beloved Son in whom I am well pleased. God the Father acknowledges verbally,
audibly, acknowledges This Jesus of Nazareth, this common looking
man, this man, there was no beauty that we should desire in him.
He was not dressed up like a king. He said the king is at hand.
The kingdom of heaven is at hand, the king is at hand. He's not
dressed, there's no crown on his head. And the heavens opened up and a voice
said, this is my son. This is the Redeemer. This is
the Messiah. The long awaited Messiah that
Israel has been looking for. This is Him. This is Him. This is God incarnate. This is
who this is. Therefore, God the Father said,
in whom I am well pleased. In whom I delight. In whom I
delight. He delighted in His person as
His Son. He delighted in His work because
it was perfect. It was absolutely perfect. He
delighted in His sacrifice because His sacrifice was perfect. Everything
about God's Son. Everything about this man. Everything. God says, I'm well pleased. Are
you? I am. And I know you are too. Well pleased with the One whom
God provided to save us. Well pleased. Therefore, because
of all the above, God the Father is pleased with all that are
in His Son. You know, you don't feel that,
do you? As you get older, you feel less. You feel rotten. You think, how can anybody be
pleased with me? As you get older, you realize
that. You realize more of who you are than what you are. But
in Christ, God couldn't be any more pleased with you. He could
not be any more pleased with you than He is now, in His Son. We are accepted in His Son. He
hath made us accepted in the Beloved. Over in Ephesians chapter
1. We are reconciled in His Son.
God was in Christ. Reconciled the world to Himself.
We are justified in His Son. We are made righteous in His
Son. We are made heirs of heaven in His Son. I can go on and on
with that, can't I? Oh, He said, this is My Son in
whom I am well pleased. And He's well pleased with everybody.
What are we seeing here? Here's what we see. We see that
the Godhead is leading over our redemption and Christ is acknowledged
as the Savior, the Messiah, the King of Heaven. The Trinity completely won in
saving our souls. Don't let this seem passed so
quickly today, meditate and think upon it. May God help us to worship
Him.