Alright, and as you're being seated, please take out your copy of God's Word and turn with me to the gospel according to Mark.
Last week, some correspondence from the Christian Video Licensing International, which is a good organization, a good thing to do if you're going to use multimedia video clips.
There's copyright issues there, and you have to be legal and appropriate in dealing with those things.
But the front of it, the advertisement here on the front of it to entice you to open it, says,
Plan your upcoming events and sermon illustrations with these new releases in mind.
And then it lists off the clips that are coming out.
Star Trek Into Darkness, Iron Man 3, World War Z, etc.
The Croods, I don't even know what that's all about.
Munster University.
So, I just really brought to mind not any kind of indignation or frustration with churches that tend to do that type of thing.
There's value in good illustration, and I have nothing against people using media to make that point.
But what it did do for me is it brought to my mind how really thankful I am that I don't feel a pressure to do things like this.
That you people just want the Word of God preached to you, and that's a blessing to me.
Certainly, I try to come up with illustrations and to better explain things and do so,
but I'm so glad that I don't have to plan my sermon illustrations around the releases of what's coming out soon.
Movies I haven't even seen.
I'm going to hand that to you, so I don't have to deal with it up here.
So, that being said, I appreciate you.
And let's pray together, and let's thank God for His Word to us.
Father, we thank you so very much for your inspired words that you gave to Mark to pin down.
For the Roman believers that were his intended audience,
and yet, because it is your Word, it has meaning for us this day.
This book, penned so many years ago, has real-life implication for today, for us,
for those who have called on your name.
And I just pray, Father, that it will be instructive in that way,
that you will work by your Spirit to help us understand its meaning,
to give us wisdom as to how we should apply it to our lives.
We pray this in Christ's name. Amen.
So, our text for today, as Mark has been quickly pushing us into this Gospel account,
he says in verse 1, the beginning of the Gospel, the good news,
the proclamation of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.
He's pressing us now to verse 9, to behold the baptism of Jesus.
And this is a major event, a huge event in the life of Christ.
Very, very important to the historical narrative here.
And Mark gives it all of three verses.
And I told you in our very first sermon that he moves and he scoots along through things,
ultimately pressing the readers here to a devotion to being disciples of Christ.
So, he's moving through things quickly to get us to that point, to get us to understand and to realize that.
So, he does it for a very specific reason.
I kind of feel like as we're pausing and preparing, as I'm looking at just three verses this morning,
I kind of feel like Mark sometimes is sitting in the office with me going,
get to it, keep moving, keep moving, hurry up, go, go, go.
And I'm saying, yeah, but we've got to stop.
We have to stop.
These words that you penned are far too precious for us to not reflect on them at some length.
So, remember, last week we talked about John the Baptist, as I called him, John the Baptizer.
This was his significance.
One that was sent as a prophet of God.
God had been silent for 400 years and now was speaking through John the Baptist in the wilderness
as he fulfilled this prophecy about who he would be.
He was in the line of the prophets dressed in camel hair and he was preaching baptism and repentance
in order to prepare the way for the one who would come after him.
And that is Jesus Christ.
The one that he says, I'm not even unworthy to unstrap his sandals.
And it's in these days, these days that John the Baptist is about his ministry in the wilderness
where we see verse 9.
So let's read together verses 9 through 11.
In those days, Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan.
And when he came up out of the water, immediately he saw the heavens being torn open
and the Spirit descending on him like a dove.
And a voice came from heaven,
You are my beloved Son.
With you I am well pleased.
So we see here in these days that John the Baptist is active.
It is proposed, he's been active doing this ministry in the wilderness for about six months at this point.
Traveling up and down the Jordan Valley.
Heralding the coming of Jesus Christ.
We see that all Jerusalem and all Judea, meaning a great multitude of people,
are coming out of the city, coming out to receive this baptism that John was performing.
We saw last week that this was a baptism called proselytite baptism.
For those who were not of Jewish descent, but desired to worship the God of Israel.
They were permitted to come into that family in this way that they would be baptized.
And so it was significant for the Jews to be traveling out to be baptized with a proselytite baptism
because they were saying in doing that, that we are no better than the Gentiles.
We recognize our sinfulness.
Our blood relation is not enough to have us stand rightly before God.
We must repent.
We must believe in the Messiah who is to come.
So it was a radical form of repentance, but it was simply preparatory for the Jesus that would come onto the scene
as we see him here happening.
This is the only record, this account of this baptism that we see of John and Jesus interacting,
in person interacting.
And as I kind of just mused about this this week, just thought about this connection,
it caused me to think about the fact that they were related.
Mary and Elizabeth, Mary's Jesus' mother, Elizabeth, John's mother, were cousins.
So more than likely, depending on the paternal, maternal nature of their relationship,
I don't know if you even understand how the second cousin that wants to remove and all of that works,
but more than likely, more than likely, John and Jesus were second cousins.
It's likely in that way.
And so certainly John knew of Jesus.
He was sent to be the herald before him and knew that this distant relative of his,
this potentially second cousin, Jesus, was that person.
So more than likely, they knew each other as they came together to encounter one another in this way.
I just like to think sometimes outside of the text and just kind of imagine the conversations that are taking place
between Elizabeth and Mary, cousins, as they get together and talk about how their boys are doing,
both of them, and about their 30th year of life.
And Elizabeth says, oh yeah, John, he's out there full of the Spirit,
traveling around, wearing camel hair, doing this baptism.
He's eating locusts and honey.
And how's Jesus doing?
And Mary probably couldn't resist to go, oh, he's perfect.
He's perfect in every way.
I just wonder in my mind, particularly this week with our two, what a perfect baby would be like.
Would be nice.
But certainly though, even if they had not met each other up to this point in this first 30 years,
which I probably would think that the cousins got together and played and did some things together in their early years,
but certainly John knew of Jesus, right?
Don't know if he recognized him or not, but he certainly knew that he was the Messiah.
And we see that Jesus comes, the record here is, from Nazareth of Galilee.
And this Galilee was commonly called the Galilee of the Gentiles.
This was part of the land that was originally conquered by Joshua,
but also part of the land that was conquered by the Assyrians.
And during one of the captivities of Israel, they were carried away.
And guess who came in and replaced them in the land?
Gentiles, right?
The people of the nations, peoples who were not of Israel, came in and occupied this place.
And this is where Jesus comes from.
He comes from Nazareth of Galilee, which was the fulfillment of Old Testament prophecy.
The second half of Isaiah 9.1 says,
In the latter time, he has made glorious the way of the sea, the land beyond the Jordan,
Galilee of the nations, or Galilee of the Gentiles.
And people miss that at every point, all of the prophecies,
all the things that were foretold about who Jesus was, that he fulfilled them perfectly.
People miss this.
An example, John 7, verses 40-42 says,
When they heard these words, Jesus just said some shocking things.
He says,
Some of the people said,
This really is the prophet.
Others said,
This is the Christ.
But some said,
Is the Christ to come from Galilee?
Has not the Scripture said that the Christ comes from the offspring of David,
and comes from Bethlehem, the village where David was?
And here we see Christ perfectly fulfilling all these prophecies
as he was born in the town of Bethlehem.
I hope you're all familiar with that story.
So here we see him perfectly accomplishing this.
Now, this place that he came from,
has some interesting significance,
because it was rather far away from Jerusalem.
And it was understood in these days that the further you got away from Jerusalem,
the less the Israeli population existed.
It was more and more Gentile,
and therefore in their minds, more and more pagan.
So for him to come from Galilee of the Gentiles,
in their minds, in the Jewish mind,
was not a holy place for him to be from.
They would have much preferred their Savior,
their King,
to come from Jerusalem.
Born in the center of town.
That's where they would have liked to have seen him come.
Isn't it amazing that the most significant man
to have ever lived
came from a place that was little
and insignificant?
In fact,
the fact that it records here
that he was from Nazareth of Galilee,
because Nazareth is a totally insignificant town.
Completely insignificant.
It doesn't exist in any historic record outside of the Bible.
Small, dinky town.
Not worth talking about in any other literature at all.
Dahlonega at least has some history
being the side of the first American gold rush, right?
But some of you experienced,
somebody asked,
where are you going to school?
All of you who were in college?
I go to school in North Georgia.
It's in Dahlonega,
in Lumpkin County,
about an hour north of Atlanta, right?
You always feel like you have to add some qualifiers, right?
To help people understand
where it is that you live, right?
This would have been the case,
and that's what Mark is doing here for us.
He's from Nazareth of Galilee,
a very insignificant place,
and out of that comes much significance.
I hope that's a little bit of encouragement to you,
those of us who live in small towns like Dahlonega.
And as he came,
he was baptized by John in the Jordan.
See this record of that.
Let's look at it also in Matthew 3,
verse 13-15.
Please turn there with me.
Matthew 3, beginning in verse 13.
Then Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to John
to be baptized by him.
Here's some of the interaction between the two of them in this.
John would have prevented him,
saying, I need to be baptized by you,
and do you come to me?
But Jesus answered him,
Let it be so now,
for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.
Then he, being John, consented.
So here we see a little bit of the interaction that takes place.
And the thing I want to get into your mind
is the significance of what Jesus came to do.
Isn't it very interesting
that this day,
as we do baptisms together
in our stock tank on our stage,
that what we're saying
is that there's been a change in our hearts
that we once were sinners.
This was our nature.
Enemies of God.
But because of what Christ has done for us
and our faith in Him,
we are now believers.
We've been buried with Him in baptism.
Raised to walk in newness of life.
It's a symbol of that death
that has come spiritually
and the newness we now have in Christ.
That's the symbol of what this is.
It's what it was designed to do for us.
So how is it that Jesus was baptized?
Was Jesus made new at this point?
Certainly not.
Jesus was without sin.
Did He need to experience radical repentance?
No.
He had nothing to repent for.
So why?
Why?
Did Jesus Christ,
the Son of God,
come to John
to be baptized.
John didn't understand it
until he explained it to him.
And that's where we're going to get to
here in just a moment.
But I want to show you three
significant things
that we can notice,
that we can observe here.
So what is the significance of Jesus' baptism?
Three matters.
And they're all incredibly important,
but they move in level of importance,
the way I'm going to present them to you.
So let me say that to you.
Number one, important.
Number two, a little more important.
Number three, of utmost importance.
So number one,
Jesus set for us an example in baptism.
He didn't need it.
He didn't need to experience this proselyte baptism.
He didn't need to have an outward showing
of repentance as a man set apart.
Right?
The God-man who had lived in perfection
up until this day.
But He did it for us
as an example.
Mark 16.
This is the great commission charge
recorded in Mark.
Jesus says,
whoever believes and is baptized
will be saved,
but whoever does not believe
will be condemned.
So notice,
it's not that baptism saves us,
but whoever believes and is baptized
as evidence of that belief
will be saved.
Because notice,
He doesn't say next,
but whoever does not believe
and is not baptized
will be condemned.
Right?
It's not an equation.
Believing plus baptism equals salvation.
But simply,
believing.
And the obedient outflow
of that being baptism
is the evidence of this belief.
And you will be saved.
So here's the command,
the turning out of that.
For those of us
who now have faith in Christ,
we are to be baptized
as believers.
Right?
We believe in that.
Believer's baptism.
The fancier term for it is
credo baptism.
Right?
We're credo Baptists here
at Christ's Family Church.
Matthew 28.
18-20.
Probably a more familiar
account of the great commission.
And Jesus came and said to them,
All authority in heaven
and on earth
has been given to me.
Go therefore and make disciples
of all nations,
baptizing them in the name
of the Father and the Son
and the Holy Spirit,
teaching them to observe
all that I have commanded you.
And behold,
I am with you always
to the end of the age.
So again, we see here
this process of going
and making disciples
begins faith, repentance, baptism.
Right?
It's the obedient thing
that should be happening
as an outflow
of what God has done for us,
displaying to a community
of believers
what He has done.
It's a beautiful,
beautiful picture.
Symbolic in every way.
What a beautiful picture.
We do baptism
the way we do baptism.
We find it all together
to be biblical
because we see here
that Jesus was baptized.
The Greek is baptizo.
It's where we get this word from.
Which means literally
to immerse or submerge.
It in no way
in any stretch
of the imagination
could possibly ever mean
to sprinkle.
It's impossible.
Right?
Not a,
let's do some work
with the Greek,
let's really wrestle with this.
No, there's no way
this word can be made
to mean that.
An absolute impossibility.
It means to immerse
or to submerge.
Notice that Jesus
was baptized by John
in the Jordan.
Not next to it.
It wasn't an ample source
of water for John
to go around and dip from.
They got in the water together.
Verse 10 says,
and when he came up
out of the water.
Right?
Not referring to him
walking out of the Jordan,
but that he actually
was underwater
and he came up
out of the water.
So here's the example
that he's given to us
for how this should be done.
And just think,
if this is meant
to be something
that's symbolic
of our death
and resurrection,
we ought to be immersed
in that case.
I think many of you
have heard me say,
if we change our traditions,
the way we deal
with dead bodies,
right,
where we just simply
lay them on the ground
and throw dirt
on their face
and we walk away,
I might consider,
maybe,
I wouldn't actually
because of the example
given to us in scripture,
but then maybe
we could make some
justification for sprinkling
being the case for baptism.
That's not how people
are taken care of
when they die,
is it?
Right?
They are entombed,
put in the earth
and if they raise again,
they come up out
of the same
and that is what
we're showing forth.
It's a better picture.
To the degree
that it's worth
all the work it takes
to get this thing
in here
and get it filled.
On Friday,
some great guys
stick around
and help me
get it all set up
and then we worked
on filling it
and I said,
you guys take off,
I'll take care of it,
no big deal.
And I went downstairs
and I forgot
that it was filling
again.
This is the second time
this has happened.
This was worse
than the last time.
Those of you
who experienced,
the last one happened
at a college Bible study.
This one,
fortunately,
the homeschool co-op
that meets here,
a couple of the kids
were here a little bit early
and came frantically
running downstairs.
There's water everywhere.
And there was.
I mean,
it was water everywhere
all over the stage.
I had to get a shot
back out
and vacuum it up
and I think I dumped
about 15 gallons
of water out the door
from the shop vac.
If you could just imagine,
hey,
but look,
everything is okay.
Now everything's dry
and managing quite well.
It all got taken care of.
Kim Luttrell rightly
said that we probably
in the budget next year
need to put in
a stage repair line item.
And I said,
why don't we call it
pastor's mistakes?
Let's just go ahead
and designate some dollars
for that kind of thing.
I'd like to say
that I'm a smart man
so I learned from my mistakes
and hopefully it took two
in this case
and it will never happen again.
It was a lot of trouble though.
Let me say to you,
it was a lot of trouble.
Even if we had done it right,
it was a lot of trouble.
But certainly,
having done it wrong
and never once
in all of that time
that I think,
I wish we just did this
a different way.
Man,
wouldn't it be easier
if we just did this
a different way?
It would be wrong,
I believe,
to do it a different way.
This is the way
it should be done
by immersion
to show
what is happening
in the heart.
I hope that as you guys
experience this today
that it's beautiful to you,
that the imagery
means something
to you.
That it's not just like,
oh yeah,
baptism's great,
fine, right?
But that you see
that it actually
is a picture,
something we can kind of
sort of see
and wrap our minds around
what actually happens
in the heart of men
when they believe
in Jesus Christ.
So,
that's the first one.
Jesus set for us
an example
of baptism.
He didn't need to.
We do.
He didn't need to,
but He did it anyway.
Secondly,
Jesus affirmed
His deity
in being baptized.
He affirmed
His deity
in being baptized.
As Wes mentioned earlier,
in verse 10 and 11
we observe
a rare moment
that we can observe
in the Scriptures
when the Father,
the Son,
and the Holy Spirit
are all recorded
as being present,
seen,
heard,
interacting
together.
We see this happening
right here.
There's some debate
about who
experienced it.
You'll notice that
in verse 10
it says,
when He came up
out of the water
immediately He saw
the heavens
being torn open.
This would have been
Jesus that they're
referring to
in this case.
One of the commentators,
a book that I've picked up,
to help me with my study
of Mark,
said that Jesus
was the only one
that experienced this.
He saw the heavens
torn open,
saw the Spirit
descending like a dove.
Jesus was the one
that experienced this.
I disagree.
I disagree entirely
with Him,
in fact.
Because what's happening here
is this fulfillment
of Old Testament prophecy.
It's the confirmation
of who Jesus is.
It's a coronation ceremony,
so to speak,
of Him becoming
the King.
He already was,
but this is like
the crown is being placed
upon His head now
to confirm
who He is.
Why would God deny that
for the people observing?
Why would they not
experience this
to be true?
Isaiah 64.1
Isaiah has been
prophesying
of the coming
of the Messiah
all along,
and then in 64.1
he prays,
Oh,
that you would
rend the heavens
and come down.
After this 400 years
of prophetic silence,
God finally did
just that.
Pour the heavens
open.
The Greek here,
schismo,
our word schism
comes from that.
The heavens were
ripped open
as Isaiah
had prayed for,
and the Spirit
descended
like a dove.
Right?
So we see this picture
of this rather
graphic thing happening.
I have no idea
how to even describe
what that might have
looked like to you.
The heavens being
torn open,
and the Spirit
descending.
So this
almost violent thing,
and then this
very gentle thing.
Right?
The text does not read
that the Spirit
descended as a dove.
Most of us have
probably seen
some photo,
or painting,
I shouldn't say photo,
painting somewhere
of Jesus coming
out of the water,
and a dove.
Right?
It's usually got
some light lines
around it
coming down.
It does not say
that the Spirit
descended as a dove,
but rather like a dove.
And I think that the
picture we're meant
to see here is that
it came down gently,
and rested on Christ.
Again,
some commentators
have tried to do
some interesting things
with this.
They've tried to relate
this to the dove
with Noah,
and the ark
that Noah sent out.
Nope.
Right?
That was just a dove
that brought back
an olive branch.
That's the significance
there.
It was an animal
that he sent away.
Certainly,
we know that doves
are very gentle.
Right?
This is the description
that's happening here.
Right?
We know that John
saw it.
In the Gospel of John,
chapter 132,
it says,
and John bore witness.
I saw the Spirit
descend from heaven
like a dove,
and it remained
on him.
Right?
There's a record.
John the Baptist
saw this
as well.
This is so key
and so important
that the Spirit
came down
and descended
and rested
and remained
upon him
because,
remember the point,
Jesus affirmed
his deity
in being baptized.
Again,
the book of Isaiah,
chapter 11,
verses 1 and 2.
There shall come forth
a shoot from the stump
of Jesse,
and a branch from his root
shall bear fruit.
This is his Davidic line.
And the Spirit
of the Lord
shall rest upon him,
the Spirit of wisdom
and understanding,
the Spirit of counsel
and might,
the Spirit of knowledge
and the fear
of the Lord.
Right?
This fulfillment here
of this prophecy,
the Spirit of the Lord
shall rest upon him.
Who is he talking about?
They're talking about
the Messiah,
the Christ,
Jesus,
the Son of God.
Again,
Isaiah 42,
1.
Behold my servant
whom I uphold,
my chosen,
in whom my soul
delights.
I have put my Spirit
upon him.
He will bring forth
justice to the nations.
So here we see
this fulfillment,
this confirmation
of Jesus' deity.
It's said to the observers,
this is the Christ.
A coronation ceremony,
so to speak.
And the people there,
if they knew their Bibles,
knew this was
the Son of God.
So,
firstly,
Jesus was baptized.
Significant.
Sets for us an example.
Secondly,
he affirmed his deity
in being baptized.
And remember,
moving in levels
of importance.
I would say to you,
number three,
is the most
important thing
for you to hear
and to grasp
and to wrap your mind
around this morning.
The third one,
Jesus maintained
a perfect obedience
in being baptized.
Jesus maintained
a perfect obedience
in being baptized.
Do you remember
what he said to John?
His response to John?
The thing that we see
recorded for us
in Matthew
that causes John,
the simple record
of Matthew,
is that then he consented.
Then John consented.
Jesus answered him,
said,
Let it be so now,
for thus it is fitting
for us to fulfill
all righteousness.
So here is Jesus,
the man,
the only man
who ever didn't need
to repent,
who was perfect
to this time,
had no need of it
whatsoever,
but because God
had commanded
the baptism of repentance.
Isn't that what
John was preaching?
Mark records for us,
that was John
was traveling around
and preaching
that very thing.
As a prophet
sent by God,
he was teaching people
that they ought
to be baptized
to show repentance.
So Jesus
was baptized
to be fully obedient
to the commands
of the Father.
He didn't need to be.
A unique person
in this case.
The only person
that stood
on those grounds,
but
he was baptized
anyway
to show forth
a perfect
obedience.
And here we see
the heavens have been
ripped open,
and the Spirit of God
has descended
like a dove
and rested upon him.
And then we hear
the voice of the Father
from heaven say,
You are my beloved Son.
With you
I am well pleased.
Which is a composite
Scripture citation
of Psalm 2-7
and Isaiah 42-1.
It's God's Word.
He can do with it
what He pleases.
Right?
You are my beloved Son.
With you
I am well pleased.
Because
Jesus
was bringing Himself
into conformity.
Lived in that state
of perfect obedience
to the Father.
And we get the blessing
of God then
on Christ
for the ministry
He was about to start.
Right?
Jesus Christ
was perfect
in every sense
of the word.
Right?
Mary was proper
to boast
in her Son.
He was perfect.
The only way,
this is the only way,
God could have made
a way for us
back to Him
as we are completely
imperfect
in our sin.
In every way,
without faith,
everything we do,
even the good things
by the world's terms
that we do
are still
filthy.
All of our own effort,
all of our righteousness,
all of it
is utterly
filthy
before God.
He can have nothing
to do with it.
But because God
is just,
He must
punish sin.
Hear me carefully.
It's not that when
you believe in Christ,
God just forgives
your sin
the way we would
think of forgiveness.
It's not that God goes,
yeah,
I was offended by that,
but it's okay.
God can't do that.
God is
all the things
He is
all the time.
He's in no way
split personality.
And so if God
is wrath
and justice
pours that out
on sin,
He must
punish our sin.
And so who did
He punish it in?
Christ.
The perfect,
the spotless
Lamb.
The only
one
that was
without
flaw.
He poured out
His wrath
on Christ
for you.
And in a sense,
our sins are forgiven,
just not the way
we typically think of it.
We are now
justified
before God
because of that.
You often get a picture
of justification
of standing in a courtroom
before a judge
of a crime
you are absolutely
guilty of.
And the judge
knows it full well.
The evidence is there.
They've played the video.
They've seen you do it.
You paused
and stared at the camera.
They know
it's you.
You held up your license.
You said,
hey,
my name is Nathan.
Without a doubt,
you committed the crime.
And the judge says,
you know what?
I'm going to pardon you
for this crime.
We get an idea of that.
That is a sense
of what justification
looks like.
But more than that,
more than that,
there was a man
sitting in the courtroom
that's innocent
and the judge says,
I'm going to pardon you
for the crime
and I'm going to punish
him instead.
He's going to take
your punishment.
And this is the way
God must act.
And so,
Christ being completely
obedient
in every way
is good for us.
Because God
is pleased
with Jesus Christ.
With His
perfect obedience.
For those of us
who have placed
our faith in Christ,
He is also
pleased
with us.
For those of us
who have believed
in Christ,
Christ's perfection
has been given
to us.
Imputed is the
big fancy term
for that.
Martin Luther
called it
the great exchange.
Jesus Christ
gave us
His righteousness
and He took
our sin.
He swapped it
with us.
So when God
sees us now
in Christ,
in the Beloved,
He sees
Christ.
Ah!
If you
don't know
this Christ,
God sees you
and He sees
your sin
and because
He's perfect
and holy
and just,
He must
punish that
sin.
You deserve it
to be clear.
Don't place
that blame
on God.
You've rejected
His ways.
He gave you
a conscience.
He gave you
evidence of
Himself
and the nature.
You're fully
guilty of the
things that
you've done
against Him.
Don't blame it
on Him
and His character.
His character
is perfect
and holy.
You are utterly
sinful.
For those of us
who do know
Christ,
we get to
stand before
Him justified.
He sees
us as He
sees Jesus.
This is a
massive blessing
because we
are not
perfect.
The faith
we have
wasn't even
ours to
begin with.
Don't think
you're better
than anybody
else.
God gave
it to you
as a
gift.
So as we
struggle in
this life,
as we've
experienced
these great
gospel truths
and yet we
live in
contradiction
to them
all the
time,
we can
go back
to God.
We can
continue to
return to
Him because
we've been
given
Christ's
righteousness.
Charles Spurgeon
once said
in similar
words,
God is so
boundlessly
pleased with
Jesus that
in Him
He is
altogether
pleased with
us.
Let me
read that to
you again.
God is so
boundlessly
pleased with
Jesus that
in Him
He is
altogether
pleased
with us.
Ephesians 1
6 in the
ESV translation,
which is what
I'm using and
I know many of
you use.
It says that
He, being
God, has
blessed us in
the Beloved,
Jesus Christ.
King James, I
really like the
way it renders
that.
He hath made
us accepted
in the Beloved.
We are
accepted in
the Beloved
for all the
reasons that I
just said to
you.
If you've
placed your
faith in
Christ,
God sees
Jesus when
He sees
you.
1 John 3,
1-3,
John writes
this letter.
It says,
See what kind
of love the
Father has
given to
us, that
we should
be called
children of
God, and
so we
are.
The reason
why the
world does
not know
us is
that it
did not
know Him.
Now here,
listen carefully
to this.
Verse 2,
Beloved,
we are
God's
children now,
and what
we will be
has not yet
appeared, but
we know
that when
He appears,
we shall
be like
Him, because
we shall
see Him
as He
is.
And
everyone
who thus
hopes in
Him purifies
himself as
He is
pure.
Notice what
John does.
The language
that he uses
here.
Verse 2.
I think this
is so good.
I have heard
people preach
from the book
of 1 John
and talk about
how John
was very
old at this
point that he's
writing, and
so he had
the right to
call everybody
children.
That was the
explanation that
was given for
that.
Oh no.
What he's doing
is he's helping
believers understand
their identity.
He's calling us
children because
we are children
of the Most
High God.
That's why he's
using this
language, and I
think we see
this best at the
beginning of verse
2 of 1 John
chapter 3.
Beloved, there's
that word,
beloved.
Like, in your
mind when you
read that, I
hope that you're
hearing God
from heaven saying
to Jesus Christ,
you are my
beloved son.
With you I am
well pleased.
This is a title
that God gives
to Jesus, and
here John on the
inspiration of the
Spirit gives it to
us.
Have you ever
wondered in my
preaching why
sometimes I refer
to you all as
beloved?
I'm not talking
about my love for
you, although I do
love you very much.
I'm giving you the
title that God has
given you in
Christ.
Beloved, we are
God's children
now.
And the rest of
that verse, verse
2, just talks
about how we've
yet to come into
perfection.
We're not quite
there yet, this is
what I was just
saying, but we're
on our way in that
direction.
We're moving that
way to be like
Christ.
I'll read to you
another quote from
Charles Spurgeon.
I should try not to
quote the same guy
twice in a sermon,
but this was way
too good.
I believe that
when we have been
in heaven 10,000
years, this will
still be a subject
of rapture and
surprise, that he
should ever have
found anything in
us which he could
take delight.
That he should
ever have found
anything in us
which he could
take delight.
To pity us, to
show mercy to us,
that I can
understand, but to
love us?
The big heart
of God to love
a creeping thing
like man.
The infinite soul
of the Most High
to pour itself out
on such a mean,
worthless creature
as man.
The everlasting
God who fills all
in all to
concentrate as it
were the powers
of a spirit and
set the whole
upon a creature
that his own
hands have made.
A creature that
had revolted and
rebelled and at
the best is still
worthless.
At the best is
still worthless.
Oh, sing of this,
you spirits before
the throne.
We cannot speak of
it today as we
should.
Hear what he's
saying.
There's no way we
can even comprehend
now.
There's no way we
could possibly sing
the praises of God
for what he's done
for us in Christ
now.
And he's saying
that even when
we've been in
heaven for 10,000
years, he thinks
that this will
still be a subject
of rapture and
surprise.
To think that God,
a merciful, holy
God, perfect in
every way, would
condescend to
show love to
man.
Charles Spurgeon
says that he
could get maybe
mercy, but to
love us the way
he loves the
Son.
As he said to
the Son, you
are my beloved.
With you I am
well pleased.
Someday he will
say to us, because
if we have placed
our faith in
him, he sees
us as he sees
Jesus.
I hope that
you are with me
in wanting that
to be true.
In recognizing
that if that's
not true,
eternal damnation
is your place.
Destruction
forever.
I can't even
comprehend how
very horrible
that will be.
Separated
eternally from
God.
Thrown into a
place of fire
and weeping
and gnashing of
teeth.
Right?
And again,
don't blame that
on God.
That is not
his fault.
You bought it.
You were told
the way you
ought to live,
which we fail
at every point.
You were told
to believe in
Christ.
You're accountable
for that.
And yet you
rejected him.
You deserve
eternal punishment.
I hope that you
don't want to
experience that.
I hope this
morning that
there's a
pricking in
your heart
if you've
never placed
faith in
Christ to
respond in
faith today.
The simple
call of the
gospel is to
repent and
believe.
Turn from
your sin and
turn towards
God.
Recognize that
your sufficiency
comes from
him.
And so I
just have
three questions
for you just
to kind of
filter some
of that.
Are you
found in
Christ?
When God
looks upon you
this morning,
can he say
of you that
you're his
beloved?
Does he see
Christ when he
sees you?
And so just
three questions
for you to
ponder.
Firstly,
do you depend
on the
beloved?
Do you depend
on Christ
for your
salvation?
Is he
your salvation?
Or is it
some manner
of works?
Being a
member of a
particular church
or denomination?
Or is it
Christ that
is your
salvation?
Do you
bear fruit
as one who
is dependent
on the
beloved?
Do you
live as you
should live?
We saw in
1 John 3
there that
this is
something that
we do
because of
what God
has done
for us?
Not that
our works
earn us
our salvation
but our
works are
evidence
of what
we've done.
That's what
baptism is.
It's an
obedient act
of response
to what
God has
done for
us in
Christ.
Do you
do bear
fruit in
that way?
And thirdly,
do you
love the
beloved?
Do you
love
Christ?
Christ
should be
the most
attractive
thing to
a regenerate
heart?
His
person
and his
work.
Knowing,
reflecting
upon,
understanding
what he
has done
for us,
he ought
to be
the most
valuable
thing
to us.
Do you
love
the beloved
or do you
love the
things of
the world?
These things
are said
in contradiction
to one
another.
We should
be ever
increasing
as we're
growing in
grace,
our love
for Christ
and our
disdain
for the
world.
I'm not
saying that
you don't
enjoy your
family,
that you
don't enjoy
having a
home,
I'm not
saying any
of that.
What I'm
saying to
you is
in comparison
to Christ,
all things
in the words
of Paul
are rubbish,
trash,
vile,
in comparison
to knowing
Jesus Christ
as Lord.
So do
you
love him?
I'm going
to close
today as
we come
to the end
of that point,
which I hope
you understand
why I believe
that's so
drastically
important as
we look at
this short
record,
these three
verses of
Jesus being
baptized.
I came
across a
hymn that
was new
to me,
written in
1930,
called In
the Beloved
by a woman
named
Sevilla
Martin.
I just
want you
to listen
to these
words.
Wes is
going to
try to
put these
to music
for us
soon.
In the
beloved,
accepted I
am,
risen,
ascended,
and seated
on high,
saved from
all sin
through his
infinite grace,
with the
redeemed
ones,
accorded a
place.
In the
beloved,
God's
marvelous
grace
calls me
to dwell
in this
wonderful
place.
God sees
my Savior
and then
he sees
me.
In the
beloved,
accepted
and free.
In the
beloved,
how safe
my retreat.
In the
beloved,
accounted
complete.
Who can
condemn me?
In him
I am
free.
Savior
and keeper
forever
is he.
In the
beloved,
God's
marvelous
grace
calls me
to dwell
in this
wonderful
place.
God
sees my
Savior
and then
he sees
me.
In the
beloved,
accepted
and free.
In the
beloved,
I went
to the
tree.
There
in his
person
by faith
I may
see.
Infinite
wrath
rolling
over
his
head,
infinite
grace,
for he
died
in my
stead.
In the
beloved,
God's
marvelous
grace
calls me
to dwell
in this
wonderful
place.
God
sees
my
Savior
and then
he
sees
me.
In
the
beloved,
accepted
and
free.
Let's
pray
together.