Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] If you would take your Bible and turn to the book of Matthew, chapter number three.
[00:00:13] Once you get to Matthew, chapter three, please hold your place there. And also go to John, chapter one.
[00:00:22] I want to kind of give you some background. We are in our study in the book of Matthew at the baptism of Jesus.
[00:00:32] And so I want to give you a little bit of background with the order of the events. Before we get into the main thing. We'd like to look at this morning in Matthew, chapter three. I will begin reading in verse number eleven.
[00:00:50] And I'll read down to verse number 17. The Bible says, john speaking, I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance.
[00:00:59] But he that cometh after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear.
[00:01:07] He shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with fire, whose fan is in his hand. And he will throughly purge his floor and gather his wheat into the garner, but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.
[00:01:23] Then Jesus cometh. Then cometh Jesus, rather from Galilee to Jordan unto John to be baptized of him.
[00:01:32] But John forbade him, saying, I have need to be baptized of thee, and comest thou to me.
[00:01:40] And Jesus answering said unto him, suffer it to be so now, for thus it becometh us to fulfill all righteousness.
[00:01:48] Then he suffered him.
[00:01:50] And Jesus, when he was baptized, went up straightway out of the water. And, lo, the heavens were opened unto him. And he saw the spirit of God descending like a dove and lighting upon him.
[00:02:02] And, lo, a voice from heaven saying, this is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased.
[00:02:12] All right, let's pray together.
[00:02:15] Our Lord, we thank you for the Lord Jesus Christ. And this picture here, in which he yielded himself to baptism as a mark of identification.
[00:02:30] And, Lord, we thank you for this. We thank you for the truth that is seen here in this passage. And I pray, Lord, please help me to explain the truths of this passage in a way that helps your people and helps every person here.
[00:02:46] And I pray that you would indeed be the teacher.
[00:02:50] Lord, we just ask you to meet with us. That you would give us hearts and incline our hearts toward your word, toward your will, toward your ways.
[00:03:00] And especially, Lord, we pray that you would help us to see the Lord Jesus Christ more clearly than we've seen him before.
[00:03:08] Lord, help each person here.
[00:03:10] You know what our needs are. You know where we're at spiritually.
[00:03:15] Lord, you know the everything about us. There's nothing hidden from your sight.
[00:03:22] So, Lord, we humbly ask that you would meet with us you would come and as it were, visit with us to stir our hearts, to give us joy, to give us peace, and to help us to understand your word, Lord, especially that we might apply it and do what you have said, Lord, we ask these things in Jesus name. Amen.
[00:03:48] So in our study of the baptism of John, just as a quick review, you remember that in the baptism of John, John's baptism was different than what we do up there. And just as a side note, it is always assumed for some reason, I think it's reasonable. But as we learned in Sunday school this morning, what is reasonable is not always what is true, but it is always assumed that by many, many people, no matter their background, religious background, that being baptized involves the removal of sin, that being baptized involves forgiveness, involves washing sin away, because it's a natural assumption that if you have water, you know, normally you take a bath to wash dirt away. So it makes sense that getting baptized also wash its sins away. And that is not what baptism does. That is not what baptism does.
[00:04:45] Baptism, as we see here, this, as I said, this is the baptism we see here with John, is not christian baptism because christian baptism is for believers in Christ. Already the Lord hasn't even been revealed up to this point, but this is the baptism of repentance. In other words, to prepare the hearts of the people for the Lord Jesus coming after John. And that's what we see today. And so a person would come to John, and John was a hard preacher. Listen, if John would not be accepted in our circles today, that is certain. John nailed the low to the high, the powerful to the. To the powerless. John was unafraid to preach against sin because he knew that as long as sin was present and as long as a person's heart was not repentant of that, their heart was ill prepared for the coming of Christ. And that's true now, right? That's what we've been studying in Sunday school. That's also true now. And so those people that felt the pangs of conviction would come to John and would have, would confess their sin verbally, say what, their dirty deeds. That's not a bad thing. Now, when someone comes to Christ and believes on the Lord Jesus Christ, for them to stand before God's people and say, this is what I've been, been up to and God showed me it's wicked and I need to get right with God and I need to get saved. That's a biblical idea. That's a biblical thing, although you don't see it all that often. I have to admit.
[00:06:18] And after that person would confess in the presence of John. And in the presence of those at his baptism, they would be baptized to indicate their repentance. It's a public, like a public sign of their repentance.
[00:06:34] And so Jesus comes, and I want to pick up in verse number eleven, because Jesus is coming in verse eleven. But back in John chapter one, where I asked you to look, John says, in verse eleven of Matthew three, I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance. But he that cometh after me is mightier than I who shoos I am not worthy to bear. He shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with fire. Now, if you go back, hold your place there and go back to John chapter one.
[00:07:02] Now, what's interesting about John chapter one is Jesus has already been revealed. So Matthew chapter three. In John chapter one, everything in Matthew three has already happened. By the time you get to John chapter one. You'll see what I mean in just a minute.
[00:07:19] But they come to John in verse number 19 and to ask him, who art thou? Here's this guy. He's dressed in skin. Leather, basically. That's what he's dressed in. Leather, fur. He has a leather belt on. He eats bugs and honey.
[00:07:36] That's what we saw last week, right? Or the week before last. Brother Burgess preached last week.
[00:07:42] He's a weird dude.
[00:07:45] And so they want to know. They're curious. What are you doing? Why are you doing this? And John said, verse 20. And he confessed and denied not but confessed, I am not the Christ. I am not the chosen, the anointed of God. I am not him. I'm just a regular guy.
[00:08:00] And they asked him, what then art thou? Elias asked Elijah, he saith, I am nothing. Art thou that prophet? He answered, no.
[00:08:09] Then said they unto him, who art thou? That we may give an answer to them that sent us. What sayest thou of thyself? And he said. He said, I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness.
[00:08:19] Make straight the way of the Lord. As said the prophet Esaias. We already looked at that a couple of weeks ago. And when and they which were sentence were of the Pharisees. And they asked him and said unto him, why baptizest thou then if thou be not that Christ or Elias? Neither that prophet. Now, if you just. I don't know if you have both passages open. You look back at Matthew 311. John says, I indeed baptize with water unto repentance. But he that cometh after me. And he goes on to describe that verse 26 of John.
[00:08:56] John answered them, saying, I baptize you with water, but there standeth one among you whom ye know not. He it is whose coming after me is preferred before me, whose shoe latchet I am not worthy to unloose. So it's the same idea. Now, here's what's happened.
[00:09:12] John has said in Matthew 311, John has said, I baptize you with water, but there's coming one after me. In response to a question as to his identity, John, who are you? You are a weird guy. You're doing weird stuff. You don't seem to be afraid of Herod. He's going to nail Herod because Herod took his brother's wife to be his wife. John is going to nail it. You say, well, I don't know if you don't judge. Not. Well, John judged, and he was right. John judged. Not only did John judge it, he said it in front of everyone.
[00:09:52] So he exposed it. Indeed. So, I mean, that should tell us something about the ministry of the prophets, right?
[00:10:03] And so John was this man who was. They were very curious about, who are you?
[00:10:12] And he says, I'm nobody. Later on in John three, he says, or, yeah, I think it's John three. He must increase, but I must decrease.
[00:10:22] So John says in response to the question, who are you? He said, I indeed baptize you with water, but you should be paying attention to who's coming after me. Now, if you would go back to Matthew, and of course, what we read in John happened after. And John basically says, behold the lamb of God. Somehow the Lord revealed to John who Jesus was, and then he baptized him. And then the Lord put this stamp. His stamp at the baptism is when the father stamped his seal of genuineness on the Lord Jesus Christ. And we're gonna look at that as well.
[00:11:01] And then from that time, it was multiple times that John, during his repentance preaching, he would look at the crowd, and Jesus was apparently spending time there. In fact, if you follow the chronology, what I think happened is not perfectly clear. But what I think happened is Jesus came and met John. Apparently they. Even though they were related, right. They were distant relatives. Even though they were related and born around the same time. They apparently did not really know each other as adults. Okay. Because John didn't recognize him. He says that in John, chapter one.
[00:11:37] And so Jesus comes, however, the Lord revealed to him that this is the one who will baptize with the Holy Ghost. John baptized him. That's what we're reading here in Matthew three.
[00:11:49] And then after his baptism, apparently Jesus goes straight into the wilderness because the place of the baptism in the river Jordan was near the desert. The Jordan is like, cuts through the desert. So Jesus goes out into the wilderness for 40 days and is tempted of the devil. That's Matthew, chapter four. We're gonna look at that later.
[00:12:10] And then he comes back apparently after his temptation and spends some time with John and in his ministry, because that's when you have behold the lamb of God and you have. John says that one time and people look at Jesus and then they start to follow him. And then Jesus leaves the wilderness and goes into Galilee for the first leg of his ministry. So that's kind of the. The timeline.
[00:12:37] So go back to Matthew, chapter three, verse 13.
[00:12:42] Then comes Jesus from Galilee to Jordan unto John to be baptized of him. So the question I want to pose you is, why was Jesus, our Lord, baptized?
[00:12:57] Why was Jesus baptized? Let's just mark something off. Remember the baptism of John. What was it about? It was about repentance. You could only be a candidate.
[00:13:10] Now think about this. How many members of our church would we have if this was requirements to join our church? This was the requirement to be baptized by John. You had to confess your sins publicly, openly. That kind of make it hard, right?
[00:13:27] That would thin our numbers probably a little bit.
[00:13:32] So Jesus is not then a candidate for John's baptism.
[00:13:37] What sins does Jesus have to confess?
[00:13:40] What repentance does he have that's necessary? He has no sin. That's what we're going to look at today. He has no sin. So the question then is we know that Jesus was not baptized because he was repenting like the others. He had no sin to repent from. So that tells us this.
[00:14:02] Obviously, the Lord was being baptized because he was directly told to do so by the father, even though it's not written in scripture.
[00:14:13] So Jesus baptism was unique.
[00:14:16] He was not baptized because he was repenting. He was not baptized like we were baptized as believers after we're saved.
[00:14:24] His baptism was unique because he was sinless. So that tells us this. Why was Jesus, our Lord, baptized?
[00:14:33] For a different reason than everybody else was baptized. That's what I want to show you.
[00:14:39] And so you read in verse 14. And John forbade him, saying, I have need to be baptized of thee and comest thou to me. I love John's humility. Listen, a bold preacher or a bold Christian does not have to be an arrogant preacher or an arrogant Christian.
[00:15:00] Arrogance is wrong no matter where it comes up.
[00:15:04] Right? So if you hear it from a pulpit, my advice, tear it off.
[00:15:11] Tear it off. Pride in any form, in any way, wicked John was a man. Look at John's humility again. He's going to say, he must increase, but I must decrease. And that, remember, what context is that? We probably won't cover it in our study in Matthew because that's in John. But he said that in the context of those that are being baptized by Jesus, disciples that are leaving John, listen now, John has these crowds and hordes of people from Judea and Jerusalem that are coming to his, his baptism. They're confessing he has his own disciples, right? He has disciples himself. And Jesus comes along and steals all his thunder.
[00:15:51] Jesus comes along and they start leaving John to where? John's just toward the end of his ministry during, when he's imprisoned, that he just has a few disciples around him.
[00:16:04] That doesn't bother him.
[00:16:06] John is meek.
[00:16:08] He is bold as a lion, but he is as meek as a little lamb.
[00:16:14] Those two things can exist at the same time. And John is an example. He said, that's fine. They go after you. That's why I'm here. He must increase, I must decrease. That's why I've come. That's my purpose.
[00:16:29] Just listen. Be very careful when you hear arrogance either in yourself or definitely in a preacher.
[00:16:35] Just be careful because that does not have, you don't have to be bold. You don't have to be arrogant to be bold. And John was an example of that. John was bolder than I am and no doubt a lot more meek than I am.
[00:16:49] Verse number 15. And Jesus answering said unto him, suffer it to be so now, for thus it becometh us to fulfill all righteousness. What does that mean, suffer it to be so now, in other words. And he says, then he suffered him. That just means he, he allowed it. In other words, he went along with it. John didn't want to baptize Jesus because obviously this was, he didn't realize it at the time, but this was a unique baptism. This was not a standard one. And of course, he said in verse eleven, Jesus is mightier than I. I'm not worthy to bear his shoes. I'm not worthy to unlatch his shoes.
[00:17:26] So John, obviously, he sees that this is different than every other baptism where he's been preaching. Someone responded to his preaching and came and confessed, repented, and was baptized afterward.
[00:17:37] So John went along with it.
[00:17:41] Now, so the question I want to answer, I want to look at several verses, is this, why was Jesus, our Lord, baptized? We know it wasn't because he was repenting. Because his baptism was unique.
[00:17:54] But there's a few reasons we can find in other parts of the Bible that will help us to understand. So hold your place here and look at Matthew, chapter 21.
[00:18:03] Matthew 21.
[00:18:17] This is much later in the Lord's ministry, verse number 25. The Lord puts forth a question to the Pharisees, the chief priests. Chief priests and elders. I'm sorry, chief priests and elders. By what authority does thou these things? Who gave thee this authority? He answers. Verse 25. Matthew 21 25. The baptism of John. Whence was it? From heaven or of men? Now I want to ask you a question. Was the baptism of John a God thing or just a man thing?
[00:18:52] It was a God thing. God called John to do that. That weird work that he was doing to be the forerunner for Christ to announce him. It was a God thing. That's what Jesus is saying. And they reasoned with themselves, saying, if we shall say from heaven, he will say unto us, why then? Why did you not then believe him? If we shall say of men, we fear the people. For I'll hold John as a prophet. And they answered Jesus and said, we cannot tell. And he said unto them, neither tell I you by what authority I do these things. So Jesus believed that John, his ministry was of heaven, was from God, that God had sent John, obviously, and the way he showed it is by being baptized.
[00:19:38] The Lord was baptized to approve of and identify with John's ministry by the Lord being baptized by John. He affirms that John was sentence from God. And that what he was doing was exactly what God had told him to do. He was identifying. And really, to this day, believers, baptism is a form of identification. You know what it is? It's a form of identification. Yes, it's a lot of things. But one thing it does is it identifies us with the kooks that believe you're born again.
[00:20:16] Oh, you're one of those kind. That's what it is. Yeah. See, because you're baptized in the presence of a group of believers who have the same testimony as your bearing. I knew I was a sinner, and I knew I was condemned, and I knew I needed a savior. And I trusted solely in Jesus and his blood. And he saved me. Now I'm going to show that in the presence of these people who have that common faith, that's the identification part. That's what Jesus is doing here. It's a little different. But Jesus is identifying, saying John's work is of God. Okay.
[00:20:55] But not only that, if you look at, we're going to just go to a few verses. So hang with me. Luke, chapter seven. I want to show you this. Some of this we've already covered. But it won't hurt us to look at it again briefly. Luke, chapter seven, verse 29.
[00:21:22] So the Lord says, and we'll cover this later in Matthew. But the Lord says, among those that are born of women. There is not a greater prophet than John the Baptist. So the Lord gives just a glowing opinion, if you will, of John the Baptist. He thinks very highly of John.
[00:21:44] And then verse 29 of Luke seven says this. And all the people notice who it is that heard him. And the what publicans justified God being baptized with the baptism of John?
[00:21:58] See that?
[00:22:00] But the Pharisees and lawyers rejected the counsel of God. Against themselves being not baptized of him. So to with whom is the Lord Jesus identifying when he's being baptized? In addition to John and his ministry. He's also being identified with the publicans and the sinners.
[00:22:22] Now, we've already talked about that. Those are the people who received it. Because they were the ones who were aware of their sin.
[00:22:28] Our Lord not only ate with them, as we saw before.
[00:22:31] But he identified with the publicans and sinners.
[00:22:37] There's only a couple places in the gospels. Where you see Jesus identifying it all with a Pharisee. One is Zacchaeus, the wee little man. Right. Well, Zacchaeus was a. Yeah, he was a publican, wasn't he? Okay, I'm confused. He had another meal with a pharisee in a Pharisees house. But even that wasn't a pleasant experience. He wasn't exactly a welcome guest. Remember, he said, you gave me no kiss. And this lady had wiped my feet with her hair. Remember that? That was in the Pharisees house.
[00:23:06] So you don't see Jesus identifying with the Pharisees and the scribes. But you do see him identifying with sinners. One of the ways is in his baptism.
[00:23:15] They had all been baptized also in this same water.
[00:23:21] Isn't that a blessing to know that the Lord identifies with you and me. Just regular rotten sinners?
[00:23:29] That's just all we are.
[00:23:32] He's not afraid to get into that dirty old water with us. And the Jordan is dirty. It's dirty. It's always been dirty.
[00:23:43] But also the Lord is not identifying with the Pharisees. Because of where their heart is.
[00:23:50] They refused to have anything to do with John.
[00:23:53] Not only so, you have. He was baptized to approve of and identify with John's ministry. He was baptized to identify with the publicans and sinners. Who also came to be baptized by John. But he was also baptized as a means to be officially revealed as the Son of God by John.
[00:24:14] And this was John's ultimate purpose. Take a peek back at John, chapter one, if you would.
[00:24:19] John, chapter one, verse number 31.
[00:24:38] We read it in Matthew just a minute ago. What happened after Jesus came out of the water?
[00:24:44] The Bible says, the heavens were open and the Holy Spirit descended as a dove, right. And landed on him, lighted on him.
[00:24:53] And then there was a voice saying, this is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased. Remember that.
[00:25:00] Notice what John says of that event, which, of course, he didn't know was going to happen when it happened. But verse 31.
[00:25:09] And I knew him nothing but that he should be made manifest to Israel. Therefore, notice what he says. Therefore am I come baptizing with water.
[00:25:19] The whole purpose of that was to reveal manifest Jesus. It was Jesus, basically, his introduction to Israel.
[00:25:29] This is the first time, listen, this is the first time Jesus is introducing himself to the people publicly by this announcement, this baptism which follows this heavenly announcement. Right?
[00:25:45] And think of it. It wasn't in some well known place. It was in the middle of nowhere, literally in the desert in the middle. God loves to use small things and insignificant things. He always uses small and insignificant things, things that are nondescript, things that are unimportant, things that you would pass by and not ever think about. That's the thing God always is using. And that is a theme, a ribbon that goes throughout all of the scripture.
[00:26:12] And then you go on reading it. Verse number 32 in John Bare record and saying, I saw the spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and it abode upon him. And I knew him not, but he that sent me to baptize with water, the same said unto me, upon whom thou shalt see the spirit descending and remaining on him. The same is he which baptizeth with the Holy Ghost. And I saw and bear record that this is the son of God. The mark of that was after the Lord's baptism, the spirit descending on him. And that voice from heaven. That's how John knew Jesus is the son of God. And it's recorded for us in John, chapter one, so that it's preserved for us in that way.
[00:26:57] So this is one reason Jesus was baptized, so that he could be revealed after his baptism as the son of God. Officially, that was John's purpose.
[00:27:10] Now go back to Matthew, and I want to get to the last one.
[00:27:16] Why was Jesus, our Lord, baptized? Verse number 15.
[00:27:29] And Jesus answering, said unto him, suffer it to be so. Now notice this. For thus it becometh us.
[00:27:39] That means this is right, this is proper.
[00:27:42] Thus it becometh us to fulfill all righteousness, the last reason Jesus was baptized. And this is not only the final reason, but this is the ultimate reason he was baptized, to fulfill all righteousness. What does that mean?
[00:28:01] What does that mean? Now, let me give you a little bit of background.
[00:28:08] We often think of sin coming up in church, right?
[00:28:13] We think of sin especially from the Ten Commandments as an example. Somebody give me some of the ten Commandments. Just name some.
[00:28:22] Thou shalt not kill.
[00:28:24] Thou shalt not bear false witness.
[00:28:31] Thy father and thy mother. Of course he says that. I forgot to welcome my dad, you know, as a visitor. Yeah, but he's a been here before. Visitor. What are the others?
[00:28:42] Thou shalt not commit adultery. Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain. You forgot the most important two.
[00:28:49] Thou shalt have no other gods before me. Just the first one. Thou shalt not make unto thee an engraved image. We could go on and on, covet, you know? Listen, of the ten, eight of them are what are called prohibitive commands. Thou shalt not.
[00:29:09] And there's many more besides the decalogue. The ten Commandments. There's many, many more commands in the scripture, both in the law and in the New Testament. There's a lot of other commands, okay? But those are called the thou shalt nots are what we would call prohibitive or negative commands. Right?
[00:29:25] There are two of the ten which are, remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy and honor thy Father and thy mother that are prescriptive. What does that mean? Prescriptive means this is something God wants us to do not do, but something he commands us to actually do.
[00:29:49] So of the ten, eight are prohibitive, and two are prescriptive. Okay? You got that?
[00:29:59] Now, here's the thing. Ask yourself in your mind, sin. Generally speaking, we think of sin in terms of things we can't do, do we not?
[00:30:13] Right? Think about it.
[00:30:15] And the ten commandments reveals that kind of. In fact, probably the ten Commandments informs that. Why we think that way, because there are eight prohibitive and only two prescriptive. But we think like, of course you can't commit idolatry. You can't commit adultery, and you can't lie and you can't kill. And Jesus added that you can't hate. Right? Can't lust, can't covet. Right? Don't do those things. Well, don't gossip and, you know, don't steal and don't cheat on your taxes. This is how we view sin, right? Is it not? This is how we understand sin of all the things that God tells us not to do.
[00:31:03] But let me remind you of something.
[00:31:07] Not doing evil is not good.
[00:31:14] Not doing evil is not equal to good. You're just not doing evil, right?
[00:31:26] Like, for instance, if you, if you had money and you were going to spend money and you say, well, this is the classic, you know, husband and wife discussion. I went to the store and saved us a bunch of money.
[00:31:40] Really? Well, why do I have less than I started with? Right? That's the classic kind of joke. But it's kind of, it's kind of like this. Wherever I. If just because we don't, we avoid the prohibitive commands and we obey those, that is, we don't sin in doing the things God has forbidden. That doesn't mean we're doing good. It just means we're not doing evil.
[00:32:02] You follow me?
[00:32:04] So. But a lot of people think this. Please, please hear me. A lot of people think, well, I don't do this, and I've heard this with my own ears, okay? And you probably have, too. I don't do this. I don't do that. I don't do this. I don't do that. I don't do this. I'm good.
[00:32:21] That doesn't make you good. That doesn't make anybody good.
[00:32:25] Now, the reality is, of those five things we might say, there's 500 others that we fail to point out lest we incriminate ourselves, just the truth be known. Right?
[00:32:42] But that's the way we think. If I don't do ABCD and E, I'm good.
[00:32:50] But that doesn't make you good.
[00:32:53] Here's why. Because there's an entire, an entirely different category of commandments of God that are prescriptive, where God commands us to do things like honor thy father and thy mother, where if we do not do those things, that is also sin. So this is what you have. You probably have all heard of this. These are called sins of commission and sins of omission.
[00:33:22] Doing good, just like doing evil. Doing evil is transgressing God's law, right? We've discussed that before. But what is doing good? How can that be defined? Well, it's the reverse. Doing good is obeying God's prescriptive commands, the things he tells us to do.
[00:33:42] So the idea that I don't do bad things, which is false, but that's beside the point. I don't do bad things. So I'm good. That's false. Doing good is obedience to God's prescriptive commands. So let me ask you a question of the things that God has commanded you and commanded me to do. Do you do them?
[00:34:02] Let me show you a verse, and this might throw you for a loop. But hold your place here and go to Romans chapter two.
[00:34:31] Romans two seven.
[00:34:33] Or verse number six as an example. Now listen, take the verses at face value, okay? Take the verses at face value. These are going to say stuff that's going to knock you for a loop, but just take them at face value, okay? Romans chapter two, verse six. I didn't make this up. I didn't write this. It's been there all the time. Right.
[00:34:53] Who God will render to every man according to his deeds. We don't have a problem with that.
[00:34:58] Here's what God says to them who by patient continuance in well doing, seek for glory and honor and immortality, eternal life.
[00:35:13] But unto them that are contentious and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, indignation and wrath, tribulation and anguish upon every soul of man that doeth evil, of the jew first and also of the gentile.
[00:35:26] Verse number seven says, if you and I patiently continue in well doing, we will get eternal life. That's what the verse says. That's what it says. Now, what is this well doing in verse seven? Notice what it says. Patient continuance in well doing. How do we define that? Well doing a is obeying God's prescriptive commandments what God tells us to do. Now, all you have to do to get to the bottom of this verse is ask yourself one question.
[00:35:56] Who has done it?
[00:36:00] Who has done not avoided the things he forbids, but who has obeyed all that God has told us to do?
[00:36:12] Have you?
[00:36:14] Then verse number seven doesn't apply to you. I'm sorry.
[00:36:22] So for those that think, well, if I just stop sinning, then I'll go to heaven, I'll have eternal life. Well, first of all, you haven't done that. But secondly, you forgot about the other category.
[00:36:34] You forgot about the commands that God tells you to do.
[00:36:39] And then we get to these verses, and they really.
[00:36:42] They really mess us up. And, in fact, let's look at them. Deuteronomy. Deuteronomy, chapter 27. If you would look at that. We are coming back to Matthew. I promise. I want to show you something. But look at deuteronomy very quickly. We will be here, and then we'll go to another verse.
[00:36:58] Deuteronomy 27.
[00:37:09] This is also a place that you don't hear a lot about. It's kind of kind of icky, you know, not popular in churches, not very soft on the ears.
[00:37:21] But this is New Testament. Listen, this is New Testament doctrine because this stuff is quoted in the New Testament too, in the epistles, in fact. Verse 15 cursed be the man that maketh any graven image. 16. Cursed be he that setteth light by his father or his mother. 17. Cursed be he that removeth his neighbor's landmark. 18. Cursed be he that maketh the blind wander out of the way. 19. Cursed be he that perverteth the judgment and the stranger. 20. Cursed be he that lieth with his father's wife. 21 cursed be he that lieth with any man or beast. 22. Cursed be he that lieth with his sister, the daughter of his father. 23 cursed be he that lieth with his mother in law. 24. Cursed be he that smiteth with his neighbor. Smiteth his neighbor secretly. Verse 25 cursed be he that taketh reward to slay an innocent person. Notice most of those, if not all, are prohibitive.
[00:38:16] Don't do it. But you do it. Cursed. Right?
[00:38:21] Everybody follow me. And then you get to the last one, and the last one's really, really a tall order.
[00:38:28] Cursed be he that confirmeth not all the words of this law to do them.
[00:38:38] And all the people shall say, amen.
[00:38:41] These are not just the thou shalt nots, these are the thou shalts. And the curse is applied not only to the thou shalt nots, but to the thou shalts also.
[00:38:52] And this is quoted in the New Testament to show we are all under a curse because there's not one among us who has confirmed to do all the things that God has told us to do. So we might be able to stay clean, maybe the way we were raised, whatever we might be able to. Maybe we're afraid of the punishment, afraid of the outcome, whatever we might be able to stay clean from the thou shalt nothing.
[00:39:18] But when you get to the New Testament and Jesus said, thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul and with all thy mind.
[00:39:35] And then he says, thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.
[00:39:44] How many of you have done that?
[00:39:47] I dare not raise my hand.
[00:39:50] And yet the whole law can be summarized in those two verses. That's what Jesus said.
[00:39:57] This is what God has told us to do.
[00:40:04] Told us to do. Look at romans seven.
[00:40:08] We're jumping all over the place today. That's okay. Romans chapter seven. I want to show you this first.
[00:40:14] I think this will resonate with you as it does with me. Romans seven.
[00:40:31] Romans seven, verse number 19. Of course, if you're familiar with Romans chapter seven, you know, this is the big struggle verse where Paul talks about the struggle. The great apostle Paul, Saint Paul, struggles with sin, right?
[00:40:49] But notice how he puts it in verse 19. I was just going to pick up here. Follow it carefully. Okay. Follow it carefully.
[00:40:56] Verse 19. Paul says, for the good that I would or want. That means want for the good that I would, I do not.
[00:41:10] But the evil, which I would not, don't want to do that I do.
[00:41:16] You see, this is both the prohibitive and prescriptive. Here's what I mean. The good. What is the good? You know what the good is? The good is thou shalt honor thy father and thy mother. Thou shalt love the Lord, thy God with all thy heart. Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. Thou shalt love thy wife. Thou shalt submit to thy husband. Thou shalt. And you can fill it in with any number of things that God prescribes he tells us to do. And Paul says, that's the good stuff, and I have a hard time doing it.
[00:41:50] And then the opposite side he says, but the evil. What's the evil? The evil are the things that God prohibits.
[00:41:57] And yet those, he says, I don't want to do them, but I do those.
[00:42:03] Paul was no better than us.
[00:42:05] He was a man of like passions, just like you and I bet, like you and like me, he struggled not only with avoiding the things God says not to do, but doing the things God tells us to do.
[00:42:23] Let us not deceive ourselves. First of all, if you don't know the Lord Jesus Christ for certain and you don't have eternal life, please don't think that if you can avoid a certain short list of sins that you've made that somehow that makes you good. There's a whole category of sin where God has commanded you to do things that you and I haven't done. We're not righteous, and we saw in deuteronomy there's a curse attached to not doing it.
[00:42:51] But secondly, if you're a believer, if you're a believer, I just wonder, are you doing the things you know you should be doing that God has told you to do?
[00:43:07] Do you give the gospel to your neighbors?
[00:43:11] Do you read the word of God faithfully? Do you spend time in prayer? Do you rejoice? That's a command, right?
[00:43:24] Do you take your burdens to God or bear them yourself. These are all prescriptive. These are things the Lord tells his people to do.
[00:43:34] See, here's the thing. We all know the things that we should be doing, and this is where we often faltered. Galatians six nine, listen to this.
[00:43:45] Be not weary in. What's it say?
[00:43:51] Well, doing. You know what that is?
[00:43:54] That's the things that God is telling us to do, not the things he's forbidding so much as the things he says to do. But yet, do we not get so weary and we slip? And the things that we should be doing are, we're neglecting.
[00:44:15] Sometimes that gets us more than the obvious big, prohibitive sins, does it not? I know. Listen, this is me. The reason I'm saying this is because I feel this, okay? Not because I see stuff in you, but I see stuff in me. And I figure, if it's in me, it's probably in other people, too.
[00:44:34] But I want to end with this. Go back to Matthew, chapter three, verse 16.
[00:44:49] It says this. And Jesus, when he was baptized, went up straightway out of the water, and, lo, the heavens were opened unto him, and he saw the spirit of God descending like a dove and lighting upon him. And, lo, a voice from heaven saying, this is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased. Listen, this is the way you're going to hear this. This is the way generic Christianity teaches it. Well, Jesus, the father, was pleased with Jesus, so you need to live. So the Father is pleased with you. No, no, no. That's the wrong way to think about it. That's the wrong way to think about it. This is unique.
[00:45:20] This is a unique one time statement of the sinlessness of Christ.
[00:45:28] You, no matter how hard you try, the Lord is not saying this to you in the same way that he said it to Jesus.
[00:45:35] He was unique.
[00:45:37] When the father said this to Jesus, he was saying, you not only have avoided all the things I prohibit as a jew under the law, which Jesus was, but you have also done fully what I have told you to do.
[00:45:57] Jesus loved God with all of his heart and soul and mind and strength, and he loved his neighbor as himself at every moment of his life.
[00:46:09] Never one time did he violate something God prohibited or fail to do the thing that God told him to do. That is not you and me. That is not you and me.
[00:46:28] He did everything that the father required of him on our best day. We can never claim this statement.
[00:46:40] Now, listen to these few verses. I want to read these to you.
[00:46:47] Behold, my servant.
[00:46:49] This is Isaiah 40, 42, verse one. Behold my servant, whom I uphold, mine elect. In fact, I just want to look at these. Just bear with me. Look at Isaiah, chapter 42.
[00:47:00] I feel like we're almost finished, and we need to see the verses.
[00:47:04] Isaiah 42, verse number one.
[00:47:17] Behold my servant, whom I uphold, mine elect, in whom my soul delighteth. I have put my spirit upon him. He shall bring forth judgment to the gentiles. This servant, same servant of Isaiah, chapter 52 and three. The servant of the Lord. This is Jesus. Drop down to verse number 21 about the servant.
[00:47:37] The Lord is well pleased for his notice the word righteousness sake.
[00:47:46] See that. And he will magnify the law and make it honorable. See that the Lord, when the Lord spoke from heaven, he was fulfilling verse 21. He said, thou art my beloved son. Indeed, I am well pleased because of his righteousness.
[00:48:09] All right, notice. Remember the word righteousness. Now go to Luke 23. This will be our last verse.
[00:48:16] Luke 23, verse number 41.
[00:48:33] There's a lot of other verses we could look at, but I thought this one would be probably sum it up best. Luke 23 41. One of the thieves on the cross says this, and we indeed justly, for we receive the due reward of our deeds. But this man hath done nothing.
[00:48:58] See that amiss. You know what that means? He has not broken any laws that God prohibited.
[00:49:04] That's not all.
[00:49:07] This is what the thief says.
[00:49:10] Now there's another testimony of an unbeliever down in verse number 47.
[00:49:16] Now when this now when the centurion saw what was done, he glorified God, saying, certainly this was a righteous man. Listen, this is a statement. Not only that Jesus did nothing amiss, but that Jesus fulfilled everything that he was told to do.
[00:49:35] Now you go back to we won't look at it again, but you go back to Matthew three.
[00:49:41] You know what you find.
[00:49:44] Suffer it to be so now, for thus it becometh us to fulfill all righteousness. Why was Jesus baptized? He was baptized because the father wanted him to be, and it was his duty. And he would, without fail, do every single thing the father told him to do. And one of those things was baptism. Now, why does that matter?
[00:50:13] Because the Lord Jesus Christ, not only by avoiding the things God prohibited, but by doing the things that God commanded, he made himself acceptable to bear our sins. Because our sins are not just sins that God prohibited, that we commit, but also sins that we fail to do, that we neglected. The Lord perfectly fulfilled that he became our substitute. In both cases, his life lived perfectly, is what qualified him to die for sinners.
[00:50:57] You understand? He perfectly fulfilled it. One Peter 222 who he did no sin. Both kinds.
[00:51:07] And so our Lord was qualified in full measure to be our substitute.
[00:51:14] So we can rightly say, Brother David says this sometimes when he gives testimonies that Jesus lived his life for us, perfect life for us. You know what? That's true.
[00:51:25] He not only died for us, the only reason he could die for us is because he lived perfectly for us.
[00:51:34] Have you put your faith in the Lord Jesus Christ?
[00:51:38] Are you trusting in his righteousness or your own?
[00:51:42] Let's pray.
