Turn together to Luke chapter
3. Luke chapter 3. We'll begin reading at verse
21. Now when all the people were baptized, immersed, it came to
pass that Jesus also, being baptized and praying, the heaven was open. 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. And Jesus himself began to be
about thirty years of age, being as was supposed the son of Joseph. which was the son of Heli, which
was the son of Mephet, which was the son of Levi, which was
the son of Melchi, which was the son of Jena, which was the
son of Joseph, which was the son of Matthias, which was the
son of Amos, which was the son of Nahum, which was the son of
Elsi, which was the son of Negi, which was the son of Meah, which
was the son of Matthias, or Mattathias, which was the son of Shimei,
which was the son of Joseph, which was the son of Judah, which
was the son of Joanna, which was the son of Resha, which was
the son of Zerubbabel, which was the son of Salathiel, which
was the son of Neri, which was the son of Milchai, which was
the son of Addi, which was the son of Kosem, which was the son
of Elmodam, which was the son of Ur, which was the son of Joseph,
which was the son of Eleazar, which was the son of Joram, which
was the son of Mephat, which was the son of Levi, which was
the son of Simeon, which was the son of Judah, which was the
son of Joseph, which was the son of Jonan, which was the son
of Eliakim, which was the son of Mele, which was the son of
Menan, which was the son of Bathitha, which was the son of Nathan,
which was the son of David, which was the son of Jesse, which was
the son of Obed, which was the son of Boaz, which was the son
of Salmon, which was the son of Nathan, which was the son
of Amminadab, which was the son of Aram, which was the son of
Eshram, which was the son of Phares, which was the son of
Judah, which was the son of Jacob, which was the son of Isaac, which
was the son of Abraham, which was the son of Thera, which was
the son of Nacor, which was the son of Saruk, which was the son
of Raga, which was the son of Phalek, which was the son of
Heber, which was the son of Selah. which was the son of Canaan,
which was the son of Arphaxad, which was the son of Siham, which
was the son of Noah, which was the son of Lamech, which was
the son of Methuselah, which was the son of Enoch, which was
the son of Jared, which was the son of Melileo, which was the
son of Canaan, which was the son of Enos, which was the son
of Seth, which was the son of Adam, which was the son of God. I have read that long list of
names, our Lord's genealogy, for a purpose. We know virtually
nothing about our Savior's childhood, his youth, his teenage years,
or his early adulthood. About all we know concerning
the early life of the Son of God as a man in this world is
the fact that as a man he was born at Bethlehem. And sometime
when he was about two years old, his father Joseph, because of
Herod's slaughter of the innocents, fled with him and his mother
into Egypt, where they stayed until Herod was dead. And then
they came back to Nazareth. And our Lord later was found
in the temple as they went up to worship God at the appointed
time. He was found in the temple when he was 12 years old. talking
with the learned doctors, the leaders of the temple, the religious
leaders of the day, talking with them about the things of God
revealed in Holy Scripture. And beyond that we know nothing
from 12 years old until he is 30 years old. We hear nothing
about the Son of God, nothing about his existence, nothing
about his education, nothing about his training. All three
of the Synoptic Gospels, Matthew, Mark, and Luke, begin their history
of the Lord's life and ministry as a man in exactly the same
way. All three begin with his baptism
by the hands of John the Baptist. Now that fact alone makes his
baptism and ours, makes the ordinance of baptism, a matter of tremendous
importance and significance. So tonight, as we look at these
last verses of Luke 3, I want to show you four important lessons
from the Master's baptism and genealogy. First, there is a
lesson here about baptism and faith. Now mark this down. Baptism and faith always go hand
in hand. Nowhere in the New Testament
Do you find anyone being baptized apart from a profession of faith
in the Lord Jesus Christ, a profession of faith in the Lord God? Baptism
is distinctly an ordinance of the New Testament. There was
nothing about it, nothing picturing it, nothing representing it,
nothing like it, nothing symbolizing it, nothing pointing to it in
the Old Testament. Now there are many who have the
notion that John the Baptist's baptism was somehow different
from our Lord's baptism, somehow different from the baptism of
the apostles, somehow different from what is called Christian
baptism, different from our baptism. But there's not a shred of evidence
anywhere in the New Testament for that. There is no evidence
that any of our Lord's disciples were baptized by anyone except
John the Baptist. John's baptism, like ours, according
to verse 3 of this third chapter, was a baptism of repentance because
of the remission of sins. That is, it was an act by which
men acknowledged their repentance and by which they confessed faith
in the Lamb of God through whom the remission of sins is accomplished. John's baptism, like ours, was
the symbolic fulfillment of all righteousness. Now I want you
to turn, if you will, to Matthew chapter 3, and let's look for
a moment at Matthew's account of our Lord's baptism. It's a
little more detailed than the account given here, or the account
given in Mark's gospel. John's baptism was a picture
of redemption, a picture of the gospel. Baptism is not, is not
now, never has been, never can be, a picture of cleansing. It
is not a picture of regeneration, but rather it is a picture of
pardon. It is a picture of redemption. It is a picture of the accomplishment
of God's justice being satisfied by a sacrifice. Look in Matthew
3, verse 13. Then cometh Jesus from Galilee
to Jordan. That's a pretty good walk. He
comes unto John to be baptized of him. But John forbade him,
saying, I have need to be baptized of thee, and comest thou to me.
John recognized who he was. He said, what am I going to do,
baptize you? And the Lord Jesus answering
said unto him, Suffer it to be so now. Now look at this. For
thus it becometh us to fulfill all righteousness. For what on
earth did our Lord's baptism have to do with him fulfilling
righteousness? There's nothing about it in the
law. There's nothing about it in the commandments. There's
nothing about it in the types and ceremonies of the Old Testament.
Well, what did it have to do with the fulfilling of righteousness?
By picture, that's all. It is a picture of how righteousness
is at last fulfilled by Christ's obedience unto death, even the
death of the cross, so that he, being our substitute, suffered
the wrath of God, was buried in the heart of the earth, and
rose again the third day according to the scriptures, declaring
justification accomplished, righteousness fulfilled, our sins put away. John suffered him, verse 16.
And Jesus, when he was baptized, went up straightway out of the
water. Now, regrettably, some otherwise
good commentators, otherwise good men, when they get hold
of something that they've got to defend, will bend the scriptures
and make it mold to their notions. Matthew Henry, in commenting
on this passage of scripture, makes this suggestion. He says
that John the Baptist and the Lord Jesus went out about knee-deep
into the water in Jordan River, and he got a cup of water and
poured it over his head. That seems to me to be an awful
awkward way to sprinkle somebody. An awfully awkward way to pour
a little water over their head. But there's no indication of
that at all. Rather, they went out into the water, the Lord
Jesus was immersed of John, and he came up straightway out of
the water. And, lo, the heavens were opened
unto him, and he saw the Spirit of God, that is, John saw the
Spirit of God descending like a dove, and lighting upon the
Savior. And, lo, a voice from heaven
saying, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. John's
baptism then, like ours, was a picture of righteousness accomplished
through Christ our substitute. And John's baptism, like ours,
was an act by which men and women publicly renounced their former
religion and publicly identified themselves with Christ and his
people and the gospel of God's grace in him who is the Lamb
of God. Our Lord treated this blessed
ordinance of the gospel as a matter of highest esteem. He gave it
the place of highest honor and placed great importance upon
it. As I've already pointed out, he walked a long ways from Galilee
to the Jordan River in order to be baptized by John the Baptist.
Now, baptism, therefore, must not be regarded by us as a point
of indifference, a matter of slight importance. This is the
ordinance of Christ, an ordinance of divine worship which our Master
commands us to keep. It is the believer's first act
of obedience to Jesus Christ as Lord and King. Now I recognize
and let me emphasize that many, many people place far too much
importance on baptism, making it to be a means of grace, making
it to be a means whereby sins are washed away, making it to
be a means whereby we finally obtain God's salvation. That's
to make an idol out of the ordinance, and that's totally contrary to
Scripture. And yet we must not consider this thing to be light,
insignificant, or something about which we can just agree to differ
with folks. I'll say no more about this ordinance tonight
than is specifically set before us in the verses here in Luke
chapter 3. And here there are certain things
specifically told about baptism which ought to always weigh heavily
upon our minds as we consider this ordinance. Now I have no
creed to defend. No denomination to uphold, no
tradition to maintain. I make no effort whatsoever to
mold this book to any confession of faith. Believers never mold
the scriptures to their faith. Never. Rather we mold our faith
to the word of God. That's what believers do. We
do not mold the scriptures to what we think the scriptures
ought to teach or what we think the scriptures must teach, but
rather we mold our thinking and our faith to that which is plainly
revealed in Holy Scripture. Our doctrine, our practices must
arise directly from the Word of God, otherwise we show contempt
for the Word of God. All right, now here are five
things plainly taught in Luke chapter 3 about baptism. Baptism
is an ordinance of worship. It is not a sacrament. And folks
say, well, you're making a big deal out of nothing. What difference
does it make whether we say sacrament or ordinance? Just this. An ordinance
is that which is set forth as a law or a rule of worship. A
sacrament is that by which men obtain grace. Baptism does not
confer grace upon anyone. Baptism is not a means of grace. Baptism is not a means whereby
grace may come to men. Baptism is an ordinance of the
gospel. Our Lord Jesus had no grace conferred
upon him when he was baptized. He had no sins washed away when
he was baptized, and yet his baptism of all baptisms is exemplary
of what baptism is. So baptism is an ordinance of
worship, not a sacrament. Number two, baptism is immersion. Now, this is so very important, so
very important. To practice baptism by what's
called sprinkling or pouring is to deny the very basic principle
of what baptism is. The word baptize means to immerse. Baptism means immersion. Baptism
is performed only by immersion. Immersion is not a mode of baptism. It is not the mode of baptism.
It is baptism. You can't have baptism without
dipping, without plunging, without immersion, without a burial.
You've got to have that. That's what the word means. It's
as rudimentary as ABCs. Baptism then is that by which
men and women are buried. Buried. You see, in order to
be saved, you don't just get cleansed. In order to be saved,
you don't just have something sprinkled on you. In order to
have God's salvation, you don't just go through a ceremony. If
you have God's salvation, you've got to die under the wrath of
God for the satisfaction of justice. And that's what baptism represents,
death and burial as one who is dead. Thirdly, baptism is for
adults only. I realize a lot of my friends
around the country are going to get this tape. A lot of them
are pedo-baptists, that is they baptize babies or take their
babies to have them baptized. I hope they'll hear me. Our Lord
was 30 years old when he was baptized. Well, reckon why that
was written? For a reason. For a reason. Baptism in the New Testament.
has always been, in every place, an ordinance performed upon grown
men and women. Not something performed upon
children, not something that is done by someone to someone,
but that which men and women voluntarily, freely, acknowledging
Christ as Lord, submit to for the glory of God. And baptism,
fourthly, is for believers only. Not believers in their children,
not believers in their sons and daughters, not believers in those
who may be in their households, but believers only. When the
scripture talks about folks in a household being converted and
being baptized, it is not merely talking about them going through
the ceremony, but those who were baptized were themselves adults
and they were themselves believers. You remember when the Ethiopian
eunuch was had instruction given from Isaiah 53. Philip expanded
to him who the Lord Jesus Christ is and what he had done. Said
something to him about baptism and confessing Christ. I don't
know where, but he said something about it. Because that eunuch,
when they came to water, said, well, here's water. What doth
hinder me to be baptized? And Philip said one thing to
him. You remember what he said? He said, if you believe with
all your heart, you may. That's what baptism is. It's
not something parents decide for their children. I have on
occasion had parents come to me and ask me, my son, my daughter
wants to be baptized. I say, send the son or daughter
to me. No, no, it's not something parents decide for their children.
This is something men as believers themselves put themselves in
subjection to Christ being baptized. The necessary prerequisite then
is faith. We are specifically told here
that our Savior was baptized, and as he was baptized, he was
praying. He was worshiping God. He walked
before God and was baptized as a believer. You say, well, you
mean the Lord Jesus was a believer? A perfect believer. A perfect
believer. He believed God perfectly as
a man, though he was himself God and is himself God. Now again
I stress, the practice of sprinkling, of pouring of infant baptism
is as foreign to the scriptures as rosary beads. Several years
ago I was preaching, for some reason folks called me and asked
me to preach at Presbyterian Church up in Louisville, and
some of the pedo-baptist fellows were kind of poking fun at baptism
and laughing at this thing a little bit, you know. I'd already made
up my mind what I was going to preach beforehand, and I said
to them, I said, we claim this book is our only rule of faith
and practice, right? This is what we believe, this
is what we do. I said, now if you fellas can show me anywhere
in this book, anywhere, where anybody ever sloshed a little
water on somebody's face and called it baptism, I'll start
sloshing water tomorrow. If you can show me anywhere in
this book where anybody took a baby and sprinkled some water
on his face and baptized it, I'll go home and baptize every
baby in our congregation. Do it tomorrow. The thing got
kind of quiet. I said, now if you can't show
me, you ought to quit. That's exactly right. Sprinkling. The baptism of babies is as fallen
to scriptures as rosary beads and comes from the same place.
It's just a remnant of papacy in Protestant churches. If we
would worship God, now listen carefully. If we would worship
God, as I tried to show you this morning, we must worship God
according to the order laid down in scripture. We dare not add
to the word of God and we dare not alter the word of God anywhere
for any reason. One-fifth thing about baptism.
I want you to turn to Romans chapter 6. Our baptism as believers, as
followers of Christ, is a reflection of our Lord's baptism as our
substitute. Here in Romans chapter 6, the
Apostle Paul, having declared our free justification by the
grace of God through the redemption that's in Christ Jesus, begins
to deal with our experience of grace and sanctification as we
walk before God in a brightness of heart. And it tells us in
chapter 6 verse 3, Know you not that so many of us as were baptized
into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death? I don't know,
I think perhaps, Gary, you were the last person baptized here.
When you were immersed in this watery grave, it wasn't just
in this tent. It was being baptized into the
death of Christ symbolically. Not literally, not literally,
oh no, but symbolically. What you did was you identified
yourself as one represented by Christ, dead with him, crucified
with him, slain with him, punished in him, buried with him. All
right, now then, therefore, since that's what baptism represents,
therefore, we are buried with him in baptism. How? Buried. Buried. Kind of tough to do that
with a few sprinkles of sand. Buried with him in baptism. By
baptism unto death. With reference to death. That
like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of
the Father, even so we also should walk with him in the newness
of life. This is what I said. 33, nearly 34 years ago. When
I confessed Christ in Believer's Baptism. And I try my best to
remind myself of it daily. I try my best to remind myself
of it every time we take the bread and wine at the Lord's
table, every time we celebrate baptism with another. I said
to God Almighty, I said to the world, I said to God's church,
I'm yours. I'm yours. Lock, stock and barrel,
I'm yours. To walk with you. In the newness
of life in Christ, I'm yours. I'm yours. I've lifted my hand
to God. Now you might take that lightly.
God doesn't. God doesn't. But you don't. For
if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death,
We shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection. That is,
we walk now before God Almighty as men and women dead to the
world, alive to God in hope of resurrection glory, knowing this,
that our old man's crucified with Christ, that the body of
sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve
sin. All right? There is also in this
passage a lesson about the Trinity and redemption. When our Lord
Jesus was baptized, all three persons in the Godhead displayed
a manifest concern in the affair of our redemption. God the Son
is there being baptized. God the Holy Spirit descends
upon him in the form of a dove and lights and abides upon him. God the Father spoke from heaven
and said this is my beloved son. In you are my beloved son, in
you I am well pleased. Now throughout the New Testament
we see this fact. that God Almighty is a triune
God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. It is hinted at and revealed
in many places in the Old Testament, but it is plainly stated and
plainly taught throughout the New Testament. And all three
persons in the Godhead, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, are divine
persons engaged equally in the affair of our salvation. I like
what John Trapp said, I read it just a little bit ago before
anybody got here. He said, when I am not asked about what God
is, I think I know very well. But as soon as I'm asked, I realize
I don't know anything. And I'm telling you, when we
talk about the Trinity, we're talking about something indescribably
beyond our comprehension. It's pointless to even try to
illustrate it. This is what the book says. There are three that
bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost,
and these three are one. That's the doctrine of the Trinity.
God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit are not
three different names for one person, but rather they are three
distinct persons in one Godhead, co-eternal, equal in all things,
in wisdom, power, grace, and glory forever. God the Son assumed
human flesh. God the Father said, this is
my beloved Son. God the Holy Spirit was given
to him without measure. We see this in the baptismal
formula. Men and women are baptized as believers in the name of the
Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. In the benedictions
of grace, we see this given throughout the New Testament. Listen to
this one. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of
God, and the communion of the Holy Ghost be with you all. Amen. And throughout the epistles,
especially the Apostle Paul and Peter as well, when they describe
God's grace, they describe it like this. Our salvation was
planned, purposed, and predestined by God the Father. Our salvation
was purchased for us by the shed blood of Jesus Christ, God's
dear Son, and our salvation is performed in us, preserved and
kept in us, and we are preserved and kept in it by the power and
grace of God the Holy Spirit. You see that clearly in Ephesians
chapter 1, 2 Thessalonians 2, and 1 Peter chapter 1. Now thirdly,
here's a lesson about grace and mediation. We have before us
here a marvelous display of our Lord's covenant office as the
God-man, our mediator. The voice which spoke from heaven
said this, Thou art my beloved son in thee. I'm so glad he put it just that
way. Not with thee, in thee, in thee. I am well pleased, well
pleased. You see, were God speaking to
Christ the God-man only as an individual man, this is the language
he would have used. He would have said, Thou art
my beloved Son, with you I am well pleased. But he speaks of
him not as an individual man, but as a representative covenant
head. And he says, you're my beloved
son, in you I am well pleased. You see, the Lord Jesus Christ
is the mediator, the only mediator there is between God and men. Now he who is the God-man mediator
is himself God and man fully and perfectly. He is a man with
whom God is well pleased. Well-pleased with his nature,
for he's without sin and holy. Well-pleased with his life, for
he is fully obedient even unto death. Well-pleased with his
death. But more than that, well-pleased
with the merit of his life, his death, and his being as our mediator
and representative. So that God Almighty is well-pleased
with you and me in his Son all the time. Oh, my soul, what comfort there
is here! The Lord God is that one of whom
Balaam spoke, and he said, God hath not beheld iniquity in Jacob,
neither hath he seen perverseness in Israel. The Lord God looks
on us in his Son, always in his Son, and smiles. Can you get hold of that? God
looks on us perpetually as righteous perpetually as being without
sin perpetually as being forever perfect because in Jesus Christ
we are without sin righteous and perfect forever made so by
him not by our merit not by what we do not experimentally but
in Christ representatively this is how God beholds us so that
in the last day When the Lord God sits in judgment over all
men, and he brings us at last into heaven's glory, skip if
we stand before God, accepted in eternity, it'll be because
we deserve to be accepted. Deserve it. That's right. Listen
to what he says. In those days, and at that time,
saith the Lord, the iniquity of Israel shall be sought for,
and there shall be none. The sins of Judah, and they shall
not be. He'll find no spot of sin on
us, for we're accepted in his son. Bold shall I stand in that
great day, for who ought to my charge shall lay, for through
Christ's blood absolved I am from sin's tremendous guilt and
blame. Now then, one last thing. Here's
a lesson about humanity and death. As you read verses 23 through
38, you have a long, long list of names. Now anyone who reads
the scriptures carefully will notice quickly that the genealogies
given by Luke and the genealogy given by Matthew seem to have
a contradiction, a great contradiction. If you read the genealogies from
Abraham to David, they're the same genealogies. But from David
to Joseph, except for David's name and Joseph's name, they're
totally different, totally different. Well, how do you account for
that? Someone made a mistake. Well, it looks as though you're
reading two different family trees, doesn't it? That's because
you are. That's exactly right. You see,
the genealogy given by Luke is the genealogy, obviously, of
Mary's family tree, of whom Joseph is named because he was married
to Mary. And that makes Mary's father
his father as well by marriage. But there's more important things
here than that. Here we see these men, all of them, 75 of them
are named. As I looked at the list several
times this week, these 75 men, I thought these men, like us,
once lived upon this earth. They had the same joys we have,
the same sorrows we have, the same griefs, the same trials,
the same troubles. You see, there's no temptation
taking you. No trial, Bobby Estes, you'll
ever face, except what's common to men. That's just the lot of
sinful men in this world. And these men, all 75 of them,
like us, died and are buried in the earth. They're gone. Who remembers them? Who remembers
them? Were the names not written here,
they'd be passed away into oblivion. Who knows where they lived? What
kind of house they had? Who knows what possessions they
had? Who knows how rich or how poor
they were? Who knows what they achieved
in the world or didn't achieve? Who cares? Who cares? And I want to tell you something.
That's the way it's going to be with us. We're soon going
to be gone, buried in the earth to rot and go back to the dust. Each of these 75 men has now
gone to his own place. And we too are passing away.
We soon must be gone. Let us forever bless God and
give thanks to him that in this dying world we have a living
Savior. Let us make it our one great
concern to be joined to him who is the resurrection and the life,
and take these words for our daily comfort. Let not your heart
be troubled. You believe in God, believe also
in me. In my Father's house are many
mansions. If it were not so, I would have
told you. I go to prepare a place for you,
and if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and
receive you unto myself, that where I am, there you may be
also." Now then, as we live by faith
in Christ in this world, in hope of the resurrection, oh, may
God give us grace to live as dying men every day. I keep asking God to teach me
to live every day as if it were my last, my last. Let me cherish nothing more than
I will cherish it when I have to say goodbye to it. Let me
deal with you right now, today, think of you right now, today,
as I would if I knew I would never speak to you again on this
earth. Let me serve God today as if
I knew I would never, ever have the privilege as a man to serve
him again. Let me speak to you as one who
might never speak to you again. As such, this will be my last
word. Believe on the Son of God and
live forever. Amen. All right, Linda, you come lead
us in a hymn, please.