Episode Transcript
Gospel of John chapter 1. So we left off last week in the book of Malachi, if you'll remember, the very last
00:00 --> 00:08
book of the Old Testament, where God through Malachi said he's going to send this special messenger,
00:08 --> 00:19
who's going to prepare the way before him. So the promised Savior is going to come, but before the promised Savior comes,
00:19 --> 00:28
a special messenger will come and prepare the way before him. And the illusion is, back in the day when royalty or
00:28 --> 00:38
some special dignity was going to come, they would be traveling in a chariot or what have you. Well, they would send someone
00:38 --> 00:48
before, an entourage before, and that entourage would make sure that the path that that dignitary was going to be
00:48 --> 00:59
traveling was, you know, no obstacles were in the way and they would clear the way. And probably the best
00:59 --> 01:09
illustration I have for that, bringing it into modern times, would be one of the members of this class, and it's Gabriel.
01:09 --> 01:19
I see you just tuned in. You're watching, Brother Gabriel. Brother Gabriel is a heavy haul driver, very heavy haul truck driver,
01:19 --> 01:29
and he has someone prepare the way before him. So Gabriel, what's the name of that, what's their job? The pilot, I think,
01:29 --> 01:43
is what they're called, a pilot. And so, like a, not like a pilot with an airplane, but a pilot like in drilling a
01:43 --> 01:53
pilot hole before you put the screw in, something that goes in ahead. And so, this person in a pickup truck,
01:53 --> 02:03
or it could be a car, I suppose, a little SUV, they go before the truck driver, making sure the bridges are tall enough,
02:03 --> 02:11
there's no obstacles in the way of the truck, and they go first. Well, this is what this special messenger is going to do.
02:11 --> 02:19
They're going to prepare the way for the promised Savior to come. Not prepare a road made out of dirt and rocks,
02:19 --> 02:29
but prepare hearts that are inside men. They're going to tell them, "Hey, get ready, the promised Savior is coming.
02:29 --> 02:37
Get your heart right. Be prepared to receive his message, because that's what he needs to get his message to you,
02:37 --> 02:46
is your heart to be prepared to receive the truth." And so, let's go ahead and look here now. That's where we left off.
02:46 --> 02:58
And now, this morning, we're going to see that special messenger come, the pilot come, if you would, before the Savior.
02:58 --> 03:07
Look here, if you would, in John chapter 1, and let's look here in verse 15.
03:07 --> 03:21
"John bare witness of him, and cried, saying, 'This was he of whom I spake; he that cometh after me is preferred before me, for he was before me.'"
03:21 --> 03:37
Now, this can be a little confusing, because there's an apostle John that wrote the Gospel of John.
03:37 --> 03:44
There's also the man John the Baptist, and the two Johns are different. They're different people.
03:44 --> 03:50
And so, the John that's bearing witness of the promised Savior is John the Baptist.
03:50 --> 03:57
The Gospel according to St. John, that St. John there, or his name's just John,
03:57 --> 04:04
he is the apostle of Christ, who is writing here about the record of Christ and the special messenger who came before him, who was John the Baptist.
04:04 --> 04:16
Same name, but different people. And so, if you'll look here now, and see what John says in verse 15,
04:16 --> 04:26
John bare witness of him, that means John the Baptist, the special messenger, bare witness of the Savior, and cried, saying,
04:26 --> 04:34
"This was he of whom I spake; he that cometh after me is preferred before me, for he was before me.
04:34 --> 04:42
And of his fullness have we all received in grace for grace. For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ."
04:42 --> 04:53
So, Moses brought the law to the people, but the law could not save them. The law could only show them they were sinners.
04:53 --> 05:03
So, even though Moses gave the people the law and told them what they ought to do,
05:03 --> 05:09
the Savior came not to tell them what they should do, but to make them what they should be.
05:09 --> 05:16
He's going to take away their sin. He's going to deliver them from sin, Satan, death.
05:16 --> 05:22
It'd make them righteous. All right?
05:22 --> 05:25
And so, let's go ahead and look here now in verse 19. And this is the record of John.
05:25 --> 05:33
That is, John the Baptist. "When the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, 'Who aren't thou?'
05:33 --> 05:42
And he confessed and denied, but confessed, 'I am not the Christ.'"
05:42 --> 05:47
So, here's John, the special messenger. He comes preaching his message, preparing people's hearts to receive the Savior.
05:47 --> 05:54
And so, the religious leaders among the Jews start sending an envoy out to him, saying, "Find out who this guy is.
05:54 --> 06:03
Who is this John that's doing all this preaching?"
06:03 --> 06:08
And when they came to him, he said, "Hey, I am not the Christ. I am not him. I'm not the promised Savior."
06:08 --> 06:18
Verse 21, "And they asked him, 'What then?' Or, 'Well, who are you then? Are thou Elias?'
06:18 --> 06:24
And he said, 'I am not. Are thou that prophet?' And he answered, 'No.'"
06:24 --> 06:32
The prophet meaning that the person that Moses said would come, which was the promised Savior.
06:32 --> 06:38
They didn't understand they were one and the same.
06:38 --> 06:41
Elias meaning, "Are you Elijah?" They're supposed to come before the second coming of Christ.
06:41 --> 06:47
He says, "That's not me." Verse 22, "Then said they unto him, 'Who art thou?' Or, 'Who are you?'
06:47 --> 06:54
That we may give an answer to them that sent us. What sayest thou of thyself? Who are you, man?"
06:54 --> 07:01
Verse 23, he said, "I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness. Make straight the way of the Lord, as said the prophet, Isaias."
07:01 --> 07:14
Now, Isaias, when you're looking at Greek instead of Hebrew here, sometimes the prophet's names, the people's names are worded and pronounced differently.
07:14 --> 07:26
If there would be a record of my life in English and you were reading about it, it would say, "Richard."
07:26 --> 07:35
If you were to be in Mexico reading it and it was translated into Spanish, then it would say, "Vricardo."
07:35 --> 07:44
It's the same person. So, Isaias and Isaiah are one and the same person.
07:44 --> 07:52
Elijah and Elias are one and the same person. It's just that one comes from Greek, the other comes from Hebrew.
07:52 --> 07:59
And so, if you'll look here now, he says, "This is who I am. I'm the one that the prophet Isaiah prophesied of saying,
07:59 --> 08:09
'Make straight the way of the Lord, as said the prophet, Isaias.'"
08:09 --> 08:13
In other words, I'm the one coming and preparing that road, making a straight road, moving rocks out of the way
08:13 --> 08:23
and making sure that the special dignitary that's on his way has a nice, straight, clean path to come to his people.
08:23 --> 08:33
And the boulders, the rocks that are moving out of his way are not the physical rocks made of earth.
08:33 --> 08:43
It's the things that impede him coming to the people's hearts.
08:43 --> 08:48
It's their mindset, their sin, their lack of repentance.
08:48 --> 08:53
I'm preparing a road in the people's hearts so they can hear the Savior's message when he comes.
08:53 --> 09:03
Let's go ahead and look here now in verse 24.
09:03 --> 09:06
"And they which were sent were of the Pharisees, and they asked him and said unto him,
09:06 --> 09:11
'Why baptouest thou then, if thou be not that Christ, nor Elias, neither that prophet?'"
09:11 --> 09:18
Now, let's pause right here just a moment now that we're in the New Testament.
09:18 --> 09:22
We have to explain some things.
09:22 --> 09:27
In the New Testament, you have two primary groups of people, and they're just like folks today.
09:27 --> 09:36
You have the Pharisees, the people questioning him now, and you have the what?
09:36 --> 09:43
What's the other group? Anyone remember what? The Sadducees.
09:43 --> 09:47
Now, here's the difference between the Pharisees and the Sadducees.
09:47 --> 09:51
The Pharisees were your right-wing extremist religious group.
09:51 --> 09:57
The Sadducees were your liberal religious group.
09:57 --> 10:02
So today you might have an independent, fundamental person. You might have some church of Christ person
10:02 --> 10:20
or whatever that thinks that they're good enough to work their way into heaven
10:20 --> 10:25
and have all these extra rules. United Pentecostals do the same thing.
10:25 --> 10:30
But you've got folks that carry things to the far, far right.
10:30 --> 10:35
The pendulum swings way to the right, and they're going to make up all these rules
10:35 --> 10:41
for everybody to keep, have some big rules.
10:41 --> 10:44
I was raised up in a church like that. It was an independent, fundamental, Baptist church,
10:44 --> 10:49
and they had a bunch of rules, and they love enforcing these rules on people,
10:49 --> 10:54
and they were obnoxious about it. There's other denominations just like that.
10:54 --> 11:02
But then you have the pendulum swinging back the other way.
11:02 --> 11:06
That's where you have liberals who, like today, say,
11:06 --> 11:12
"Well, we believe that Jesus loved everybody, and no one's going to be condemned,
11:12 --> 11:21
and God's not going to send anyone to hell."
11:21 --> 11:24
They explain away the resurrection and say, "Jesus didn't really arise from the dead."
11:24 --> 11:29
They just explain it all away. That's the way the Sadducees were.
11:29 --> 11:33
The Sadducees did not believe in angels. I'm sorry, they did not believe in the resurrection.
11:33 --> 11:42
They did not believe in any type of supernatural things that the Pharisees believed in.
11:42 --> 11:52
The big thing that's said in part was they did not believe in the resurrection.
11:52 --> 11:57
They were the liberals and the fundamentalists, I guess you would say.
11:57 --> 12:07
Let's go ahead and look here now and see in verse 25.
12:07 --> 12:13
"And they asked him, and said unto him, Why baptizeest thou then, if thou be not that Christ,
12:13 --> 12:18
nor Elias, neither that prophet?" Why are you out baptizing people?
12:18 --> 12:22
Now, this is the first time we've heard of baptism.
12:22 --> 12:26
We've been all through the Old Testament, and we haven't seen the word "baptize" yet.
12:26 --> 12:33
But what we have to understand is this word "baptize" basically, it's not translated from the Greek.
12:33 --> 12:41
It's kind of left alone.
12:41 --> 12:44
The word "baptize" here, it has the idea, when you think of baptism,
12:44 --> 12:51
it has the idea of taking something and pushing it all the way down into water
12:51 --> 12:57
and bringing it all the way back out of it.
12:57 --> 13:00
Now, if you could think of the old time, I don't think there's anyone here that has,
13:00 --> 13:08
but maybe when those women used to have their clothes and they had a scrub board,
13:08 --> 13:14
anyone use scrub board wash clothes? Nobody? I hadn't either.
13:14 --> 13:18
But they'd have the scrub board. Y'all seen them, the photos in washing clothes.
13:18 --> 13:22
And they'd have a bucket of water, they'd have their clothes,
13:22 --> 13:25
and they'd scrub and then push those clothes all the way down the water and bring them all the way back out.
13:25 --> 13:31
All right? The idea behind baptism, we'll put "baptize" up here,
13:31 --> 13:43
or "baptism," is to wash, to thoroughly wash something.
13:43 --> 13:53
When you think of the word "baptize" or "baptism," anytime you see the word "baptism,"
13:53 --> 14:00
think of the word "wash," a complete immersion into something.
14:00 --> 14:09
And so what was happening was John the Baptist, he was a Baptist,
14:09 --> 14:15
and no, John the Baptist did not start the Baptist religion.
14:15 --> 14:20
A lot of people think that. I don't know where they got that from.
14:20 --> 14:24
But he was called John the Baptist because he would take people in the river,
14:24 --> 14:34
he would take people here in the Jordan River, it runs down here,
14:34 --> 14:39
and he would get down in the water with them and he would push them all the way into the water,
14:39 --> 14:46
bring them all the way back out, and he was washing them off in that water.
14:46 --> 14:54
And they're saying, "Why are you doing this? Why are you taking people and baptizing them?
14:54 --> 15:00
Why are you washing these people for?"
15:00 --> 15:02
Now, I said in the Old Testament, we never saw the word "baptism,"
15:02 --> 15:06
but we did see "baptisms" in the Old Testament, all right?
15:06 --> 15:10
And even though we didn't cover it in this class because it gets really deep
15:10 --> 15:16
when you get into the priestly system.
15:16 --> 15:19
But in the tabernacle, there's the Most Holy Place here, there's the Holy Place.
15:19 --> 15:35
Out here is the brazen altar where the sacrifice is made,
15:35 --> 15:40
but before you get in, there's a laver or a washing place.
15:40 --> 15:46
And it's got water in it, it's got a pool of water in it.
15:46 --> 15:49
And so what the priests would do, they would come and wash in that water.
15:49 --> 15:53
And that was a baptism, you see?
15:53 --> 15:56
That was their way of getting clean and sanctifying themselves and washing themselves off.
15:56 --> 16:01
And so John the Baptist was coming, and he was giving them a baptism,
16:01 --> 16:06
a complete washing, not in the laver of brass,
16:06 --> 16:10
but a complete dunking down the water and a complete coming back out of that water.
16:10 --> 16:15
They're saying, "Why are you doing this?"
16:15 --> 16:17
Now, let's see what John explains to them if you'll look with me in verse 26.
16:17 --> 16:21
John chapter 1, verse 26, John answered them, saying, "I baptized you with water."
16:21 --> 16:28
He's saying, "I'm washing you, people, with water,
16:28 --> 16:33
but there standeth one among you, whom you know not."
16:33 --> 16:38
In other words, there's someone, the Savior's already here.
16:38 --> 16:41
He's among us, He's already born, He's already here, you just don't know Him.
16:41 --> 16:45
He it is, who coming after Me is preferred before Me.
16:45 --> 16:52
In other words, He's coming after Me, I'm coming first, I'm preparing the way for Him,
16:52 --> 16:56
but He's more important than Me. You need to listen to Him.
16:56 --> 17:00
I'm just preparing the way for Him. He says, "Whose shoes latch it, I'm not worthy to unloose."
17:00 --> 17:05
I'm not even worthy to take His shoes off His feet as a servant.
17:05 --> 17:12
Interesting. Let's look here now in verse 29.
17:12 --> 17:17
We're going to move to another book in the Bible here in just a minute, but let's look in verse 29.
17:17 --> 17:21
"The next day John seeth Jesus coming unto Him."
17:21 --> 17:25
So the next day John's out baptizing people, he's out washing people in the Jordan River.
17:25 --> 17:30
He sees Jesus coming, he sees the promised Savior coming, and sayeth, "Behold!"
17:30 --> 17:37
He sees Jesus, he says, "Look, the Lamb of God, which takes away the sin of the world."
17:37 --> 17:44
Look what he's saying now. He's saying, "Hey, you people remember how God slew an animal for Adam and Eve?
17:44 --> 17:54
And covered them with the skins.
17:54 --> 17:57
You people remember when Abel offered an animal in his place, and God forgave him and accepted him.
17:57 --> 18:03
You all remember when there was a ram caught in a thicket by his horns,
18:03 --> 18:08
and Abraham offered that lamb in the place of his son?
18:08 --> 18:15
You remember all the Old Testament sacrifices?
18:15 --> 18:19
You remember the Passover night in Egypt?
18:19 --> 18:22
You remember the blood that was shed to make an atonement for the sins of people in the Old Testament?
18:22 --> 18:29
Well look, here's the true lamb that takes away the sin of the world.
18:29 --> 18:36
Those lambs couldn't take it away.
18:36 --> 18:40
They were only pictures of the Savior who would come that could truly take it away.
18:40 --> 18:46
And there he is. Look people, look at this man Jesus Christ.
18:46 --> 18:51
This is the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world.
18:51 --> 18:56
What does that tell us right there?
18:56 --> 18:59
John didn't say, "Look, there's the lamb that's going to deliver you from the Roman government."
18:59 --> 19:05
"Look, there's the lamb that's going to heal all your diseases and financially prosper you and help you to have every day of Friday."
19:05 --> 19:16
No. John's getting to the heart of the matter.
19:16 --> 19:20
John's been washing people off in the river. Why?
19:20 --> 19:24
Because he's been preaching to them that they, because of their sins, are unclean.
19:24 --> 19:30
And they need their sins washed away.
19:30 --> 19:34
And there's the lamb that will do it. Right there.
19:34 --> 19:38
The lamb will die in your place and his blood will wash your sins away.
19:38 --> 19:44
That's the whole jest of what John is saying.
19:44 --> 19:48
Now look here if you would.
19:48 --> 19:51
In verse 31, John said, "And I knew him not, but that he should be made manifest to Israel."
19:51 --> 19:59
"Therefore am I come baptizing with water."
19:59 --> 20:02
I'm only baptizing in water, preparing your thinking for the one who will come and really wash you clean.
20:02 --> 20:11
Look here now.
20:11 --> 20:13
Verse 32, "And John bare record, saying, 'I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove and an abode on him.'
20:13 --> 20:19
"And I knew him not, but he that sent me to baptize with water the same said unto me,
20:19 --> 20:24
'Upon whom thou shalt see the Spirit descending and remaining on him, the same as he which baptizeth with the Holy Ghost.'"
20:24 --> 20:32
Ah! Now here's something different.
20:32 --> 20:37
We've got a washing.
20:37 --> 20:43
In this laver here they washed it also was water.
20:43 --> 20:52
The laver there at the tabernac was water.
20:52 --> 20:55
John the Baptist washing with baptism, the whole body, was also with water.
20:55 --> 21:03
But the Lamb of God, when he comes, he's going to wash you with something different.
21:03 --> 21:08
He's going to wash you with what?
21:08 --> 21:11
The Holy Ghost.
21:11 --> 21:13
See that?
21:13 --> 21:16
Now the Holy Ghost is God's Spirit.
21:16 --> 21:20
The Spirit of God, he's going to wash you with the Spirit of God and make you clean.
21:20 --> 21:27
We're going to look at that here in just a little bit.
21:27 --> 21:31
Now if you would turn to Matthew chapter 3, turn back to the left.
21:31 --> 21:36
Matthew chapter 3.
21:36 --> 21:56
Matthew chapter 3.
21:56 --> 22:06
Oops.
22:06 --> 22:09
First book of the New Testament, chapter 3.
22:09 --> 22:13
Now let's look at another record of John the Baptist.
22:13 --> 22:18
In those days came John the Baptist preaching in the wilderness of Judea and saying, "Repent ye, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand."
22:18 --> 22:27
John was preaching a message of repentance.
22:27 --> 22:30
The Gospel of John doesn't tell us about that, but Matthew does.
22:30 --> 22:35
He was preaching a message of repentance.
22:35 --> 22:37
Now here we go.
22:37 --> 22:41
Let me get back up here.
22:41 --> 22:43
Get us some room on this board.
22:43 --> 22:53
Repentance.
22:53 --> 22:58
The word repentance is made up basically of two different words.
22:58 --> 23:01
It's kind of a compound.
23:01 --> 23:04
Metano-eo, if I remember the Greek properly.
23:04 --> 23:09
The first compound, the first part of the word repentance basically means to change, to turn around.
23:09 --> 23:23
In the others, the mind.
23:23 --> 23:28
It means to change your mind for your thinking to turn around and think differently.
23:28 --> 23:35
This message of repentance is how John the Baptist was preparing people for the coming Savior.
23:35 --> 23:46
You see, if Jesus is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world,
23:46 --> 23:52
the only way he can take away my sin, and I can accept him as my Savior to have my sin removed,
23:52 --> 24:00
is if I change my mind and agree with him that I am a sinner.
24:00 --> 24:10
If you're standing before a judge in a courtroom, and the judge says,
24:10 --> 24:18
"If you plead guilty, then we will give you deferred adjudication."
24:18 --> 24:26
They do that a lot, you know.
24:26 --> 24:30
"Don't go to trial. No use having a jury trial. Just plead guilty.
24:30 --> 24:34
We'll give you deferred adjudication, which means if you don't get any trouble for six months or a year or however long,
24:34 --> 24:41
then we'll just dismiss the case completely."
24:41 --> 24:45
And so a lot of people do that. They'll plead guilty. They'll get deferred adjudication.
24:45 --> 24:49
So what if the judge, and you're the one who's been arrested,
24:49 --> 24:54
you're the one standing before the judge, and you've been arrested for whatever charge,
24:54 --> 24:59
for theft, let's say, or drunk driving or something like that, or assault,
24:59 --> 25:04
and the judge says, "Look, we'll offer you deferred adjudication if you'll plead guilty and accept these terms."
25:04 --> 25:12
And you say, "Guilty to what? I haven't done anything wrong."
25:12 --> 25:17
Well, then you end up going to court, and the jury finds you guilty, and now you're really in trouble.
25:17 --> 25:23
The only way you can accept the judge's lenient proposal is if you agree that you are, in fact, guilty.
25:23 --> 25:34
You can't plead guilty to a crime you don't believe you committed.
25:34 --> 25:38
You can't accept a savior unless you agree in your mind that there's something you need to be saved from, you see.
25:38 --> 25:49
The only way that I'm going to go to a doctor and take the medicine that doctor prescribes me
25:49 --> 25:59
is if I agree with the doctor that I am sick.
25:59 --> 26:04
If I have that agreement with the doctor, I'm going to take the doctor's prescription.
26:04 --> 26:10
The sickness that people have is sin. The doctor's prescription was the savior, the Lamb of God,
26:10 --> 26:16
who came to take away the sins of the world.
26:16 --> 26:19
John was telling them, "Repent, you are sinners."
26:19 --> 26:22
So when they came to John to be baptized by him in the Jordan River,
26:22 --> 26:28
their coming to John to be washed in the Jordan River was their admission, their confession,
26:28 --> 26:35
that they agreed in their mind that they were sinners needing a savior.
26:35 --> 26:39
So let's go ahead and look here in Matthew 3 again, verse 2,
26:39 --> 26:43
"Repent, you, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. For this is he that was spoken of by the prophet Isaias,
26:43 --> 26:50
saying, 'The voice of one crying in the wilderness, 'Prepare you the way the Lord, make his path straight.'
26:50 --> 26:55
And the same John had his raiment of camel's hair and a leathern girdle about his loins and his meat,
26:55 --> 27:02
or his food was locust in wild honey."
27:02 --> 27:04
Now how about that for all the rich health and wealth prosperity preachers out there, man.
27:04 --> 27:10
No one would have followed John the Baptist that goes to them.
27:10 --> 27:14
"Then went out to Jerusalem in all Judea and all the region round about Jordan,
27:14 --> 27:20
and were baptized of him in Jordan."
27:20 --> 27:23
Look here now, confessing their sins.
27:23 --> 27:26
The word confession means to say the same thing.
27:26 --> 27:31
So John was saying, "You're a sinner, and by being baptized and being washed in the Jordan River,
27:31 --> 27:40
they were agreeing with John, 'Yes, we are. We need someone to wash our sins away.'"
27:40 --> 27:47
Look here in verse 7, "But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees,"
27:47 --> 27:51
that's those two groups, remember the liberals and the right-wing extremists,
27:51 --> 27:59
"come to his baptism. He said unto them, O generation of vipers,
27:59 --> 28:03
who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come?"
28:03 --> 28:06
In other words, there's wrath coming.
28:06 --> 28:08
God's judgment is coming upon people's sin.
28:08 --> 28:11
You're coming out to me, but you're just a generation of vipers.
28:11 --> 28:15
Now, what is he talking about?
28:15 --> 28:18
Go back to the book of Genesis.
28:18 --> 28:21
Remember, God said to the devil, who was a serpent, who came in the form of a serpent.
28:21 --> 28:28
He said, "I'll put enmity between you and the woman, between your seed and her seed.
28:28 --> 28:34
They were a generation of vipers. They were a generation of serpents.
28:34 --> 28:38
John the Baptist is telling them, 'You are of your father the devil.
28:38 --> 28:43
You are that generation of serpents that are against the promise Savior in his seed.'"
28:43 --> 28:50
The children of God.
28:50 --> 28:52
So let's go ahead and look here now.
28:52 --> 28:54
"Who has warned you to flee from wrath to come?
28:54 --> 28:56
Therefore, fruits meet for repentance, and think not to say within yourselves,
28:56 --> 28:59
'We have Abraham to our father, for I say unto you that God is able of these stones
28:59 --> 29:03
to raise up children unto Abraham.'
29:03 --> 29:06
And now also the axe is laid into the root of the trees.
29:06 --> 29:10
Therefore every tree which bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down,
29:10 --> 29:13
and cast into the fire.
29:13 --> 29:16
I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance.
29:16 --> 29:21
But he that cometh after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear.
29:21 --> 29:27
He shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with fire."
29:27 --> 29:31
Now let's pause right there and listen to what John is telling these people.
29:31 --> 29:35
He's saying, "Look, don't think that you're okay just because you descended from Abraham."
29:35 --> 29:42
That's not good enough.
29:42 --> 29:45
Abraham was a sinner.
29:45 --> 29:47
Isaac was a sinner.
29:47 --> 29:48
Jacob was a sinner.
29:48 --> 29:50
You need to understand that you're a sinner too.
29:50 --> 29:53
And so that's not going to get you anywhere.
29:53 --> 29:57
He says, "You need to repent of your sin."
29:57 --> 30:02
And in other words, agree that you're a sinner, and that you're wrong, and that God's right.
30:02 --> 30:08
It's just when we say repent of sin, it basically means to plead guilty as charged.
30:08 --> 30:15
That's all.
30:15 --> 30:17
It doesn't mean quit sinning because nobody can quit sinning, right?
30:17 --> 30:22
We're all sinners.
30:22 --> 30:24
I don't want to sin.
30:24 --> 30:26
I try not to sin.
30:26 --> 30:28
I shouldn't sin.
30:28 --> 30:30
But when we're talking about repentance, again, we're not talking about a change of lifestyle.
30:30 --> 30:34
We're talking about a change of mind.
30:34 --> 30:36
We need to get to the point, John says, where you agree that you are a sinner and you need a savior.
30:36 --> 30:43
That God is right and you are wrong.
30:43 --> 30:45
But he says here that the savior is going to come.
30:45 --> 30:49
He's not going to baptize you with water.
30:49 --> 30:51
He's going to baptize you with two things, the Holy Ghost and with fire.
30:51 --> 30:54
All right?
30:54 --> 30:55
Now let's break this down here because this is very important
30:55 --> 31:00
and highly misunderstood in a lot of churches, false churches.
31:00 --> 31:10
When John baptizes people with water, what part of that person is getting clean?
31:10 --> 31:18
Just the outside.
31:18 --> 31:21
Just the outside.
31:21 --> 31:23
So water only cleans the outside.
31:23 --> 31:34
Now where is sin? Is sin outside or is sin on the inside in our heart?
31:34 --> 31:40
Sin is on the inside.
31:40 --> 31:43
John is saying, "Look, I'm only washing you with water on the outside."
31:43 --> 31:48
But Jesus is the Lamb that takes away the sin of the world
31:48 --> 31:52
and that means man doesn't need to be clean on the outside to stand before God.
31:52 --> 31:57
He needs to be clean on the inside.
31:57 --> 31:59
And to do that, you can't wash someone with water
31:59 --> 32:04
and wash their sins away on the inside.
32:04 --> 32:08
So the washing with water was a picture of these being people washed clean
32:08 --> 32:16
by the Holy Ghost on the inside, which John did not have the power to do,
32:16 --> 32:25
but Jesus did, washed them clean on the inside.
32:25 --> 32:29
Now there's another form of baptism that Jesus was going to do,
32:29 --> 32:33
another form of washing that Jesus would do
32:33 --> 32:35
and that would not be with the Holy Ghost, it would be with what? Fire.
32:35 --> 32:41
Those who repented and believed the message of John
32:41 --> 32:51
that they were guilty of sin and Jesus was the Lamb of God to take their sin away,
32:51 --> 32:57
they would be washed by the Holy Ghost clean on the inside.
32:57 --> 33:01
Those who rejected the message of John and the Savior that came,
33:01 --> 33:06
they would be washed with fire.
33:06 --> 33:09
And they would be washed with fire completely and eternally.
33:09 --> 33:18
So let's look and see what he says.
33:18 --> 33:21
He says, verse 12, "Whose fan is in his hand,
33:21 --> 33:26
and he will thoroughly purge his floor,
33:26 --> 33:29
and shall gather his wheat into the garner,
33:29 --> 33:31
and he will burn the chaff with unquenchable fire."
33:31 --> 33:34
Here's the idea, that doesn't make sense to us in our day, but here's what happens.
33:34 --> 33:38
I've done this before with wheat I've grown myself.
33:38 --> 33:41
So they would harvest their wheat and the wheat berries come in a hole called chaff.
33:41 --> 33:51
If you eat a pecan you've got to get the hole away.
33:51 --> 33:54
If you eat wheat you have to take the hole away.
33:54 --> 33:57
And so they would thresh the wheat to separate the wheat from the hole, the chaff.
33:57 --> 34:06
And back then they would have these winnowing fans,
34:06 --> 34:10
and they would take the wheat, throw them up in the air just like this, and fan them.
34:10 --> 34:17
And as they fanned that wheat, the chaff being light would get driven away by the wind
34:17 --> 34:22
and separated from the wheat.
34:22 --> 34:24
So, John says, "He'll baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with fire.
34:24 --> 34:29
His fan is in his hand. He'll thoroughly clean or purge his floor."
34:29 --> 34:36
That means the threshing floor with the wheat and the chaff.
34:36 --> 34:40
"He'll gather the wheat into the barn for safekeeping."
34:40 --> 34:49
But the chaff, he's going to burn with fire.
34:49 --> 34:53
Why? It's not good for anything. You just burn it up.
34:53 --> 34:58
And so it would just be like you're out cleaning your yard,
34:58 --> 35:02
or you're cleaning your garden out or whatever,
35:02 --> 35:05
and you harvest it up and the rest of the stuff that's left over that you can't use,
35:05 --> 35:09
you can't eat, you just burn, turn back into ash,
35:09 --> 35:11
plow it back up into the field or whatever you're going to do with it.
35:11 --> 35:14
And so those who change their mind, agree with John,
35:14 --> 35:19
they would be clean on the inside by the Holy Spirit.
35:19 --> 35:22
Those who did not agree with John except the Savior who came,
35:22 --> 35:27
they would be consumed completely with fire.
35:27 --> 35:30
While the others, the wheat, the believers would be gathered in nice and safe.
35:30 --> 35:38
Let's go ahead and look here now and we're going to start to close here in just a moment.
35:38 --> 35:44
Verse 13, "Then cometh Jesus from Galilee to Jordan unto John to be baptized of him."
35:44 --> 35:51
Now this is confusing to people.
35:51 --> 35:53
Now Jesus, the Lamb of God who takes away this in the world,
35:53 --> 35:56
he comes to the River Jordan so John can baptize him,
35:56 --> 36:00
so John can wash him in water.
36:00 --> 36:02
Well that confused John.
36:02 --> 36:04
It confused his people today.
36:04 --> 36:05
Look at verse 14, "But John forbade him or forbade him,
36:05 --> 36:08
saying, 'I have need to be baptized of thee.
36:08 --> 36:11
You need to be washing me on the inside.
36:11 --> 36:13
I don't need to be washing you on the outside.
36:13 --> 36:15
What's this all about?'"
36:15 --> 36:17
Verse 15, "And Jesus answering, said unto him,
36:17 --> 36:20
'I have suffered to be so now, for thus it be cometh us to fulfill all righteousness.'"
36:20 --> 36:28
He said, "I am doing what's right right now.
36:28 --> 36:32
The whole world's supposed to come to you to be baptized,
36:32 --> 36:35
to accept your message, and I as a man am coming to you to be baptized
36:35 --> 36:41
and accept your message, and this is something that needs to be done."
36:41 --> 36:45
Then he suffered him, or that is he allowed Jesus.
36:45 --> 36:48
Now watch this, this is very important.
36:48 --> 36:50
Verse 16, "And Jesus, when he was baptized,
36:50 --> 36:53
went up immediately or straightway out of the water,
36:53 --> 36:56
and lo, the heavens were opened unto him, and he saw the Spirit of God."
36:56 --> 37:02
That's the Spirit he's going to wash with.
37:02 --> 37:05
He saw the Spirit of God,
37:05 --> 37:09
"descending like a dove and lighting upon him,
37:09 --> 37:12
and lo, a voice from heaven, saying,
37:12 --> 37:14
'This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.'"
37:14 --> 37:21
This is big.
37:21 --> 37:24
What we see here are all three persons in the Godhead,
37:24 --> 37:28
the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit at one time.
37:28 --> 37:32
Distinct people, one God, the Spirit descending,
37:32 --> 37:38
the Son standing in the water, the Father, God the Father,
37:38 --> 37:42
speaking from heaven.
37:42 --> 37:44
And all these people came to John,
37:44 --> 37:48
confessing their sins, getting washed in this water,
37:48 --> 37:52
saying, "We need someone to wash us clean on the inside."
37:52 --> 37:55
Here comes Jesus.
37:55 --> 37:57
He never said he was a sinner, but he comes to John.
37:57 --> 38:00
He says, "John, you baptize me now.
38:00 --> 38:03
God wants you to baptize me.
38:03 --> 38:06
This is right that we do this."
38:06 --> 38:09
John says, "Okay, I don't understand it, but okay,
38:09 --> 38:12
I'll wash you in water,
38:12 --> 38:14
just like you was a sinner like everybody else."
38:14 --> 38:16
He then washes Jesus in water.
38:16 --> 38:18
When he comes back up, God the Father says,
38:18 --> 38:21
"Now I want you all to understand something.
38:21 --> 38:25
This is my beloved Son, in whom I'm well pleased.
38:25 --> 38:29
He doesn't need to be clean. He came to clean you."
38:29 --> 38:33
And God the Father testifies,
38:33 --> 38:36
"I am well pleased with him."
38:36 --> 38:40
And now as we go into chapter 4,
38:40 --> 38:42
this is where we'll end today.
38:42 --> 38:45
And let's thank Jesus for something.
38:45 --> 38:47
Chapter 4, "Then was Jesus led up of the Spirit."
38:47 --> 38:50
Watch this now.
38:50 --> 38:51
"The Holy Spirit is going to wash us clean.
38:51 --> 38:54
He now leads Jesus into the wilderness."
38:54 --> 38:58
Look here now.
38:58 --> 38:59
To be what?
38:59 --> 39:01
Tempted of the devil.
39:01 --> 39:04
"The Holy Spirit that is descended on Jesus
39:04 --> 39:10
is now leading Jesus into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil."
39:10 --> 39:14
How come the Holy Ghost isn't going around washing people's sins away?
39:14 --> 39:19
Because he's not going to wash them away mysteriously.
39:19 --> 39:23
He's going to wash them away vicariously.
39:23 --> 39:27
He's going to wash them away by doing this,
39:27 --> 39:31
by having Jesus tempted just like everybody else in the world.
39:31 --> 39:38
Tempted like Adam was, tempted like you are,
39:38 --> 39:42
tempted like I am.
39:42 --> 39:44
Jesus is going to be tempted of the devil himself.
39:44 --> 39:50
But he'll never sin.
39:50 --> 39:53
In every temptation,
39:53 --> 39:55
Jesus will still be the Son in whom the Heavenly Father is well placed.
39:55 --> 40:02
And by living the perfect life for me and you that we could not live,
40:02 --> 40:10
he, through the Holy Ghost, living that perfect life,
40:10 --> 40:14
will be able to wash our sin away,
40:14 --> 40:17
as if we've never sinned at all.
40:17 --> 40:19
And we'll understand that more as we continue through here.
40:19 --> 40:22
Lord willing, we'll take back up in Matthew chapter 4 next week
40:22 --> 40:27
and explain how the Holy Spirit washes our sins away
40:27 --> 40:32
by driving him into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil.
40:32 --> 40:41
All right.
40:41 --> 40:44
God willing, we'll see you all next lesson.
40:44 --> 40:47
