But if we could turn in our Bibles to Mark chapter 1, continuing our series in the Gospel of Mark. And this morning I want to preach to you regarding the baptism of our Lord Jesus Christ, the baptism of Christ from verses 9 to 11. And it came to pass in those days that Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized of John in Jordan. And straightway coming up out of the water, he saw the heavens opened and the spirit like a dove descending upon him. And there came a voice from heaven saying, thou art my beloved son. in whom I am well pleased. Well, it was not by design that, my design at least, that this subject came up the day after Derek's baptism, but it's a wonderful, well, let's say it's providential. I would like us today to consider Jesus' baptism by John the Baptist. And there are many aspects of Christ's baptism which we could consider and should consider, but there just simply isn't the time to consider everything. So I want to concentrate really on the significance of Christ's baptism to the whole plan and scheme of redemption of our salvation. really to ask the question, what is going on here in terms of Christ's mission, which of course is summed up in Mark's gospel in Mark 10 verse 45, the controlling verse really of the whole gospel. For even the Son of Man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister and to give his life a ransom for many. Well, last time we We considered the vital importance of John, the baptizer, and his testimony about Jesus, which was in verse 7, that there cometh one mightier than I, the lachet of whose shoes I am not worthy to stoop down and unloose. And John testifies, as we saw, to the superiority of the baptism of the Messiah. I indeed, verse 8, have baptized you with water, but he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost. And we know from John's Gospel that it is recorded that John the Baptist, as he saw the Lord Jesus approaching, said, behold, the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world. So it comes as something of a shock at first reading when we read of Jesus, in the ninth verse, coming from Nazareth of Galilee to be baptized of John in Jordan. We're so familiar with these verses that sometimes we lose the impact. But this is an amazing thing. And I just want to spend a moment considering this amazing statement in verse 9. And it came to pass in those days that Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized of John in Jordan. Jesus the Savior, the Son of God, stood in the same queue, stood in the same line, with sinners awaiting to be baptized in the Jordan River by John the Baptist, the forerunner of Jesus Christ. A baptism, don't forget, which we spoke of last time, which was specifically a baptism of repentance. Specifically a baptism for the remission of sins. Mark records in the fifth verse how huge crowds were baptised in the Jordan. And what were they doing when they were baptised? They were confessing their sins. And now we see the Lord Jesus coming to be baptised along with these others. And we see here, I believe, immediately two things that we should note. Firstly, we see something of the humility of the Lord Jesus Christ. This is the beginning of Christ's public ministry after all those long years of preparation and waiting to be publicly, as it were, the Messiah. All those long hours in the workshop with his family, those years of preparation, and finally now he begins his public ministry as Messiah. It's estimated that he would have been around 30 years of age, as far as it can be worked out. And what is his first act? What is the first thing that Jesus does? His first public act is to enter into a form of humiliation. A form of humiliation. He was washed He was to be washed with the same water that had washed the countless sinners that John the Baptizer had baptized. And we see a great difficulty, don't we? Well, we should do. The same difficulty that John the Baptist saw. In Matthew 3, verse 13 and 14, It says, then cometh Jesus from Galilee to Jordan unto John to be baptised of him. But John forbade him, saying, I have need to be baptised of thee, and comest thou to me. In other words, why does Jesus, who is sinless, who has no need to repent, who has no need to undergo John's baptism, a baptism of repentance? Why is the public inauguration of Jesus as Messiah a water baptism reserved for those Jews who wish to repent and confess their sins? It's obvious that Jesus is not repenting, he's not confessing sin. But his first public act as Messiah demonstrates, doesn't it, that he came into the world to be the saviour of sinners. Jesus came into the world to be the saviour of sinners. Sinclair Ferguson writes of this baptism, He, Jesus, indicates how he will become our saviour by standing in the river in whose waters penitent Jews had symbolically washed away their sins and allowing that water, polluted by those sins, to be poured over his perfect being. or the good news for sinners. The good news for lost sinners is that Jesus was prepared to stand where sinners stood and receive what they deserve, what we deserve, and in return give us forgiveness of sins and peace with God. This was why it was necessary for Jesus to be baptised with John's baptism. Even though it was a very specific baptism, in some ways it foreshadows Christian baptism, but it's very different from Christian baptism. It's not specified or required in the Torah, in the law of Moses. It was a unique baptism, John's baptism, a baptism of repentance. in preparation for the Messiah. And Mark simply records the fact in stark terms that Jesus was baptised of John. We really have to turn to Matthew's Gospel where we have recorded Jesus' explanation to John as to why he must be baptised. And that explanation is in Matthew 3, verse 15. Remember John said, no, I'm not going to baptize you, Jesus. I need to be baptized by you. And this is the Lord's explanation as to why he must be baptized by John. Matthew 3, 15, and Jesus answering said unto him, Suffer it to be so now, for thus it becometh us, to fulfil all righteousness. Then he suffered him. This must be done, John. This must be done, John, Jesus says. You have your role to fulfil as the forerunner, and I have my role to fulfil as the Messiah. I know and you know that I have no sins to repent of, but this is the only way to fulfil all righteousness. So how are we to understand this explanation of Jesus? Well, we need to think more broadly in terms of what the Bible teaches really to understand Jesus' explanation. What we have to understand, and often this is not understood, is that the Messiah, Jesus, his whole life and death, his life and his death, is vicarious, is substitutionary. We all know, and every Christian will say, that Jesus died for us. but he also lived for us. This is what we need to understand, and this is really uniquely, well, not so uniquely, but more prominently emphasized in the Reformed tradition, that Jesus not only died for us, he lived for us. He lived and died on our behalf. You see, in order for Jesus to qualify as our Redeemer, it was not enough for him to go to the cross and be crucified. And if your total understanding of being saved is that Jesus died on the cross for your sins, then you've only gotten hold of half of the Gospel. Let me put it this way. If all that the Gospel involves is Jesus taking the punishment for our sins and us being forgiven of our sins, that's a wonderful thing. That would be amazing in itself. But it wouldn't be enough. All it would be like is... Sometimes things like this go wrong, don't they? You try and fix the problem, but sometimes it's beyond you and what you do is you go into settings and you choose an option, restore factory settings. Do it on a computer too. And all it does is it takes you back to the beginning. It resets you. And if all that we ever had was forgiveness of sins, we would just, it'd be like God pressing the reset button. it would take us back to square one. But forgiveness of sins alone leaves us with no positive righteousness to bring before God. You see, Jesus not only had to die, he had to live. He had to live a life of perfect obedience to the Father. He had to live vicariously, that is, on our behalf, as well as to die on our behalf. This is often not understood. He had to live a life of perfect obedience to God. And this righteousness, which he merits as the perfect Messiah, is credited or transferred or imputed to all who put their trust in Him. This is the wonderful thing we learn here, even in Christ's baptism. This was necessary to fulfil all righteousness. The full gospel, the real gospel, is this really, that my sins are transferred to Jesus on the cross when I put my faith in Him. and his righteousness is credited to me, to my life in the sight of God. The reformed theologians call it double imputation. My sins to him, his righteousness to me. And don't dismiss this as academic or just kind of theologizing. This is urgently practical. Why is this practical? Because each one of us will have to face God one day in judgment. Each one of us will have to face the God of the universe and give an account of our lives. I hope everyone understands that even after we die we'll face God and there'll be an immediate judgment as to whether we spend eternity in hell or heaven. And then there's a great day of final judgment. And we will have to face God and give an account of our lives. And his judgment will determine our eternal destination, either eternal bliss or eternal punishment. And for a sinner to stand before God, two things are necessary. First, his iniquities must be forgiven. And second, he must possess a righteousness that will meet the requirements of God's justice. We need both. And to have both, Jesus had to die and to live. for us. I want us to be clear, because many are not clear today, it seems even in evangelical circles, of what we mean. As a Christian, any righteousness you have gained as a result of walking with the Lord, Any righteousness you've gained through sanctification, maybe over many years, maybe even faithful service and close obedience, that kind of righteousness, which is called inherent righteousness or personal righteousness, that righteousness will not enable you to stand before the judge of all the earth. Why? Because it will be imperfect. It will be mixed with unrighteousness. It will be mixed with compromise. It will be mixed with sin. Even our great evangelical heroes that we look up to, if we do the reading on them, we find they're full of flaws, full of weaknesses, as we all are. No, it is a heresy, as some evangelicals are now saying, that covenant faithfulness on our part contributes to our final justification on the day of judgment. The only righteousness that will enable us to stand in that day and that enables us to be saved this day is the imputed righteousness of Jesus Christ. And that's what we need to be clear about. And that is received by or through faith alone. The only righteousness that has justifying power, in other words, is the righteousness of Christ. I hope you understand that. And how you, particularly if you're not a Christian this morning, how you need this. If you're away from Christ, if you're apart from Christ, you need this. You see, not because of anything in me, and every Christian here this morning can say the same, but I have assurance from the Word of God and I have the witness in myself by and from the Holy Spirit that when I stand before God on that final day of judgment, when all the secrets of men will be exposed, God will look on me and see Jesus and his perfect righteousness. And his righteousness, imputed to my life on the very day I became a Christian, will cover all my sins. I'll be covered. And it's vitally important that each one of us know that. Count Zinzendorf As translated by Wesley into English, wrote this hymn, Jesus, thy blood and righteousness, my beauty are, my glorious dress, midst flaming worlds in these arrayed. With joy shall I lift up my head. Bold shall I stand in that great day. for who ought to my charge shall lay fully absolved through these I am from sin and fear and guilt and shame. Can you say that? Can you say and know that in your heart by the witness of the Holy Spirit that you will bold in that day, that you'll stand and that Jesus' righteousness will cover you? Dear friends, this is why Jesus says to John, I have to do this because my mission is to be the servant king, to submit myself to every requirement God gives to his people through the law. I am their vicar in the real truest sense of a vicar. I am their substitute. I am not a sinner, but I identify with sinful people, even in their baptism. Why? To fulfill righteousness. And so John ascends and Jesus is submerged under the water of the River Jordan. It's a wonderful thing. And this baptism was the beginning, as I say, of Christ's public messianic life. of total obedience which culminates in the supreme act of obedience upon the cross where Jesus gives his life. But here is the thing I want us to understand this morning. Christ's whole life and death as one was substitutionary, sacrificial and atoning. The Bible presents Christ's ministry as one continuous, progressive, developing life of obedience. And it's this obedience of Christ that saves us from our sins and justifies us in the sight of God. And his baptism is the public inauguration of his messianic obedience. That's why in Mark, Jesus is presented as the servant. That's the theme of Mark. Jesus is the servant. Because obedience is the primary role of a servant. The servant is called to do, to be obedient. Even the Son of Man came not to be ministered unto but to minister and to give his life a ransom for many. You see there's two elements there even in that verse. He came to minister and to give his life a ransom for many. Isaiah 53 describes the life and death of Messiah as the servant And the Lord Jesus had this mindset of a servant the whole time, didn't he? John 6, verse 38, for I came down from heaven not to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent me. By the way, this is an aside. It's not really the theme of the sermon, but this mind of Christ, which is really the attitude, the stance that Christ took to others, This mind of Christ is the same mind or attitude that we as Christians are called upon to have. Paul says this in Philippians 2 verse 5, let this mind, this attitude be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus, who being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God, but made himself of no reputation and took upon him the form of a servant. There's nothing wrong with being a servant. That's what we're called to be, to take the lowest place, not to try and always be, to hog the attention or to be first. There's great blessing in being second. There's a great blessing in preferring others before yourself. And Jesus had that servant mindset. Praise God this morning for the obedience of Jesus in life and death. He began his public ministry in full obedience to the Father and in his humanity through many trials and tests, even things like the stupidity of his own disciples at times. Hebrews says that he learned, Jesus learned obedience from the things which he suffered. And being made perfect, became the author of eternal salvation to all them that obey him. Hebrews 5, 18. Many stumble at that verse. What does it mean that Jesus learned obedience and was made perfect. You see, Jesus had to become the perfect Christ. He had to become the perfect Messiah. He had to become the perfect Savior. And he had to learn this through obedience. Of course, in his nature, he was perfect. He was sinless. But in his role as saviour, he had to become perfect. He had to become complete. And this was made possible through his life of suffering. And finally he was able to author eternal salvation to be the perfect sacrifice upon the cross. His obedience was a learned obedience. He learned obedience in the furnace of temptation and suffering. And this culminated in his obedience even unto death upon the cross. You see, obedience is not obedience until it's tested, is it? Obedience is not obedience until it is tested obedience. And Jesus had to face things in his humanity, situations and trials and tests he had never experienced before. And thus through a process of trial and obedience, trial and obedience, success after success, victory after victory, he becomes at last the perfect saviour of sinners. and obedience foreshadowed by his water baptism, for it was a baptism unto death and resurrection unto life. His life of humiliation and obedience exemplified in the baptism of John made him perfect as the captain of our salvation. Dear friends, I want to say this to you, particularly if you're not a Christian this morning. The obedience of Christ secures our salvation. And if you come to him and accept the Lord Jesus Christ as your Lord and Saviour, you will be joined with him and all the benefits of his obedient life and death will flow to you, just like the sap from a vine flows to the branches, all the benefits of Christ's obedience will flow into your life. It's more than just, Lord, sorry, I've been a bad boy, or a bad girl, and I want to be made good. It's so much more than that. Being a Christian means that all that Christ has won, all his merit, all his obedience, is transferred to your life. Romans 5.19, for as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous. Do you want to be made righteous this morning? You'll never do it by yourself. There's only one way to be righteous in the sight of God now, and when you stand before him in that final day, you can only be righteous through the righteousness of Jesus Christ being transferred to you. And once we're made righteous in this legal, objective sense, the great work of God begins in our lives, whereby he works personal righteousness into us. The great, progressive, gradual work of sanctification begins. We learn obedience. We learn to be obedient. It takes me a lot longer than most, but we gradually learn obedience. And how do we? How do we learn obedience? For the most part, in the same way that Jesus did, through the things that we suffer. One of the main ways the Christian learns obedience is through suffering, testing, temptation. Just think of all those Christians. There they are, worshipping, meeting in the catacombs. They're waiting. They will be the first readers of this Gospel of Mark. And here they are, meeting secretly, enduring a great persecution. Peter in his first epistle acknowledges that the Christian church is undergoing a great season of heaviness, of persecution. But why? Why is the church, why are Christians going through this period of suffering and trial? Well, he says in 1 Peter 1, 7, this is the reason, that the trial of your faith, being much more precious than gold that perisheth. Though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honor and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ. Do you know, well we do know, not a question we know, that a number among us in our church, and all of us probably, well it'll happen to all of us at some point, are going through hard seasons, hard trials. Are these random events? Is this just bad luck? No, these are trials, opportunities, tests of our obedience. And you know, tested obedience. Proven obedience is more precious than gold, Peter says. It cannot be taken away from you. Even if it's a small thing, and you've been obedient in your life as a Christian, that is gold in your life. It cannot be destroyed, Peter says. And what's more, Peter says it will form part of the final glory Jesus will receive when he comes the second time. This is what he says, that though it be tried with fire might be found and to praise and honor and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ. I don't think this is often understood. That every time we're obedient, every time we obey, we resist sin, every time we are faithful, we produce gold. And that gold is not for us. That gold is gold for Jesus. at His final appearing, it will form part of His glory, not our glory. So when we obey, we're not just obeying for ourselves, we're obeying for Him. Well, that should be the main reason anyway. It will form part of that final glory that Jesus will receive. So this is why Jesus insists on John baptising him, he came to fulfil all righteousness. He came to live the life that we cannot live and to die the death we cannot die. And there's no hope of salvation without the obedience of Christ. And then quickly turning to verses 10 and 11, we read, and straightway coming up out of the water, He saw the heavens opened and the spirit like a dove descending upon him and there came a voice from heaven saying, thou art my beloved son in whom I am well pleased. So as our Lord comes out of the water, probably much warmer water than Derek and Lee endured yesterday, He saw the heavens being opened like a torn curtain and the Holy Spirit descending in avian form upon him. And our Lord Jesus publicly commits to the task of Messiahship. And as he does so, he receives Two things that we read of here. Firstly, he receives the Father's spiritual provision for his ministry, the blessed Holy Spirit, in whose power and strength alone he would fulfil his ministry. You see, the Father equipped the Lord Jesus in his humanity to be our Redeemer. The Lord Jesus was totally dependent upon the Holy Spirit in life and death. Why? Because he became a real man and he achieved our salvation in his human nature. The Lord Jesus gives us a little glimpse of what things could have been if he'd become our saviour in the power of his divine nature alone in the Garden of Gethsemane when Peter decided to take matters into his own hand with a sword. Jesus says, thinkest thou that I cannot now pray to my father and he shall presently give me more than 12 legions of angels. But Jesus didn't do it like that. Jesus was the son of man. He was the representative man. He was the second Adam to the fight. And in that capacity, the Father equips Jesus with a mighty anointing of the Holy Spirit. John is recorded as saying in John's Gospel, and I knew him not, but that he that sent me to baptise with water, the same said unto me, upon whom thou shalt see the Spirit descending and remaining on him. The same is he which baptiseth with the Holy Ghost. Jesus completed his ministry in the power of the Holy Spirit. He was dependent and reliant upon him and submissive to his guidance. And we read this in the next verse, which we'll talk about next time, where it says in verse 12, and immediately the Spirit drove him into the wilderness. And this spirit-filled life is especially clear in Luke's Gospel, where we read such verses as Jesus being full of the Holy Ghost, returning from Jordan, and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness. And in the synagogue in Nazareth, he says, the Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me. And Jesus even relies on the Holy Spirit to die, his death upon the cross. Hebrews 9.14, how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God. Jesus didn't do anything, didn't achieve anything in life or death without the power of the Holy Spirit. Well if Jesus constantly needed the Holy Spirit as he worked on our behalf for our salvation, how much more ought you and I as Christians to be constantly seeking the Holy Spirit in our lives? The third person of the Trinity, God over all. Do you know the Holy Spirit? The Puritans I might talk about this one day, that the Puritans often talk about how we should have a distinct relationship with each person of the Trinity, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Do you have a relationship with the Holy Spirit? Do you know Him in your life? Are you filled with Him? Are you dependent upon Him, led by Him, empowered for service by Him? It's the extraordinary indwelling and powerful ministry of the Holy Spirit that is one of the main reasons why the new covenant is a better covenant than the old covenant. Something we perhaps ought to go through carefully one day. This is the age of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit's been poured out from heaven. And so often we're rummaging around in our own strength, trying to do things for God, in our own puny strength, when we need to do it in the anointing and power and ministry of the Holy Spirit, because Jesus didn't do anything without the Holy Spirit. But not only did Jesus come up out of the water, not only as Jesus came up out of the water, did Jesus receive this spiritual provision, he also received the Father's seal of approval. Verse 11, and there came a voice from heaven saying, thou art my beloved son, in whom I am well pleased. There was a visual element. The heavens were torn open. The Holy Spirit came like a dove. No one's really sure whether, as in actually looking like a dove or came like a dove comes. Not really sure what it means, but it came, the scripture simply says it came like a dove. in avian form. There's this visual element, but then there's this audible element comes. A voice spoke from heaven, the voice of the Father who bears witness to Jesus' identity. Thou art my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. Jesus was beloved and highly favoured by God. God is pleased with Jesus. Pleased with his birth. Pleased with his childhood. Pleased with his baptism. Pleased with his person. My beloved Son in whom I am well pleased. Now there's a real sense in which those words are unique to Jesus as the only begotten Son of God. I think there's a big element where we could say that those words the Father gave only really relate to the Lord Jesus in that context. But there's another sense in which God the Father, you know, says the same to you and I. If we are in Christ, then we are also in the Beloved. And we're highly favoured by the Father. We are the righteousness of God in him. We are, Paul says in Ephesians 1, 5 and 6, predestined unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will, to the praise of the glory of his grace, and this is it, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved. Jesus is the Beloved One, and all those in the Beloved One are accepted by the Father. He has made us accepted in His Beloved Son, if you're a Christian. I want you to grasp that this morning, that you and I, if we're Christians, are highly favoured, the Greek word really means highly graced In Christ, in Jesus, God is well pleased with you and I, not for works that we have done, but because we are in Jesus Christ, the one who bore all our sins and fulfilled the law on our behalf. So as we close, I want to say this to you that, I don't know, maybe even this week, as you think of the baptism of Christ, as you think of all these things. Remind yourself in the midst of your trials and suffering that you are God's beloved. Remind yourselves if you've fallen into sin and failed that you are accounted worthy because you're in Christ. Remind yourself, if you're anxious and scared and fearful, that you are highly favoured by the Father. Why? Because you're in the beloved Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, in whom he's well pleased. And all those who are in him, with whom the Father is well pleased, he's well pleased with them as well, because we're in Christ. I hope you understand that. You are highly favoured, if you're a Christian, by the Father. So, in closing, we should mark the point that this account of Christ's baptism demonstrates that our salvation is the work of the whole Trinity. All three persons, the Father is here, isn't he? And the Son and the Spirit. but it is Jesus who is the Messiah. Salvation is in Jesus' name. Salvation is won by His obedience, by His blood, and by His cursed death. The Father declares Jesus to be the Son of God with power. When by the Holy Spirit He was raised from death, Jesus lives in heaven now as Lord and Head of his body the church and through his church he calls sinners to salvation, to justification by faith, to forgiveness of sins and everlasting life in him. The beloved son calls you today to himself. He humbled himself to the depths even of the Jordan in his humiliation to save you. But he's not going to force you. He's not going to treat you like a robot. You must come to Him. You have to come to Him willingly to repent and repent of your sins and trust in Christ and be baptised. That's it. You must seek his glorious salvation. You must confess your sins to him and turn from your sins and turn to him and begin a life of obedience. Ask for forgiveness on the basis of the cross of Jesus Christ. And ask for righteousness on the basis of the life and obedience and death of Christ. Plead the cross. plead Christ. Jesus died for sinners. Jesus lived for sinners. Say to the Lord, I am a sinner. Your son came to save sinners. Save me. And he will. save you because he never turns away a prayer like that. Not if it's sincerely meant. If you just say it as some kind of rote or some kind of formula, it means nothing. But if from your heart you repent and turn to Christ and put the whole weight of your eternal soul upon him, you will be saved. He never turns anyone away. Thank Jesus for living and dying for you and turn to the only saviour of sinners today. Amen. Feel free to contact us at Sovereign Grace Church in Tiverton. Email us at grace2seekers at gmail.com. That's grace2seekers at gmail.com. Alternatively, you can visit our website at www.sovereigngracereformedchurch.co.uk.