The Kingdom And The Power Thereof | Matthew 3:1-12 | Pastor Neil McClendon

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Your willingness and my willingness to repent is directly proportional to your understanding of the reason for repentance.

And the reason that God put into the mouth of John the Baptist is real simple.

It's not, hey, you might go to hell when you die, you might get a bad reputation, hey, you might get canceled, your boyfriend may break up with you, your girlfriend may drop you.

All those are puny and and weak compared to this, the one thing that can leverage life, the life of everybody in the world.

And it's simply this the kingdom of heaven, and it's not pie in the sky, sweet by and by.

It is right here, right now.

It's not pie in the sky, it's steak on the plate, and hungry people come flooding from everywhere because they are starving for something that's substantive and real.

Amen.

Amen.

Let's pray together.

Lord Jesus, everything you've done is just an indication.

It's just a foreshadowing of what is to come.

And so we're not a content people.

We're a blessed people, we're a provided-for people, we're a humble people today.

Uh, but we understand that you're not done.

We say uh with the prophet of old, we've heard of your fame, and we stand in awe of your deeds.

And now that we ask you, Lord, because we've seen what you've done, renew them again in our day.

We don't want to live in the shadow of somebody else's story.

We want to taste and see for ourselves that the Lord is good.

And so, Lord, there's people in this room that long to taste of your goodness in different manifestations.

And so I want to pray for the 20-year-old that's like, I'm doing everything right.

I love Jesus, I'm a good girl, and I'm I'm waiting, I'm I'm ready.

He's come.

I just want to say to you, young lady, you gotta be like Michael Jordan.

Don't press, let the game come to you.

He's coming.

God's a God of revelation, so you ain't gotta reach.

Don't reach because you'll give birth to an Ishmael instead of waiting for an Isaac.

And so, Holy Spirit, you're a God of provision, so we're not a people of desperation.

To be desperate in the context of such provision is offensive to your nature and your capacity.

And you're a good father who loves to give good gifts.

And so, Lord, you know the desire, you know, more than important, you know the need of everybody in this room.

If we're getting ready to settle for a bad gift for an Ishmael, take it out of our life.

We want Isaac, we want that which only God can do.

We're not gonna settle, we're not a settling people, we're awaiting, worshiping, believing people of faith.

Increase our capacity for all of that we pray this morning.

From your word and by your spirit, we ask for this in Jesus' name.

And everyone said, Amen.

Amen.

You can have a seat.

If you've got a Bible, I invite you to take it and open up to Matthew chapter 3.

Matthew 3 · chapter mention

Let me introduce myself.

I haven't been with you in a while.

My name is Neil, and I'm your lead pastor.

Uh, if you're visiting today, I don't preach in the month of July because we have a gifted team of pastors here here that can preach and teach.

And so they take the month of July.

Uh, and but today's my first Sunday back, so we'll see if I remember how to do this.

And we're starting, we preach expositorily, which we we go through books of the Bible, but today we're starting the book of Matthew, okay?

And we're starting in chapter three because the first two chapters we're gonna go back and do during Advent in December, uh, because that's the way that the gospel is structured.

So, Matthew chapter three, I'll read the first 12 verses.

Uh, and let me just give you some context uh for the book of Matthew, okay?

Matthew is the first book of the New Testament, it's one of the four Gospels: Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, four different writers who wrote from four different perspectives with four different emphasis.

So sometimes they say the same story, but it's kind of like he he sees it from this over here.

It's like if you and I went and saw a movie and walked out and said, What was your favorite part?

Uh and like this weekend, every time I turned on my TV, there was a Denzel Washington movie on, and he was killing bad people.

That's always my favorite part.

Like this morning, I'm not exaggerating.

Last night it was the equalizer.

This morning at seven o'clock, I turned on the TV and it popped on and it was man on fire.

And I was like, Oh, this is a sign, it's gonna be a good day.

Uh and so, but if we walked out of the movie and I said, What's your favorite part?

You may have one part, I may have a totally different one.

You know, like this morning I heard Denzel say, she said, What are you gonna do?

He goes, I'm gonna kill them.

I'm gonna kill every one of them.

I'm gonna kill it.

Looked on it, profited from it, blah, blah, blah.

And I'm like, oh, this is a good way to start a Sunday right here.

Uh now my wife would go, Oh, I don't like all that violence.

Wouldn't be her favorite part.

The gospel writers emphasize different things about the life and ministry of Jesus.

Let me give you four purposes of Matthew uh so you could just kind of understand as we go through the book of Matthew.

Please don't ask me how long we're gonna be in the book of Matthew, because I don't know.

We're gonna be in it until we get all the way to the end of chapter 28.

And then we're gonna go through a book in the Old Testament, and then we're gonna go through a book in the New Testament, and then we're gonna go through another book in the Old Testament, and by then I'll die.

Don't laugh at that.

Anyway, here's the four purposes of Matthew.

And now I learned this from a guy named Grant Osborne.

He was a professor at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, very smart, brilliant man.

But but he says, here's four purposes of Matthew's gospel.

Number one, to tell the story of Jesus.

To tell the story of Jesus.

Number two, uh, it's apologetic and evangelistic.

It's apologetic and evangelistic.

Apologetic means it kind of builds a case uh for Christianity uh and kind of contends for the truth of Christianity.

It's evangelistic.

Matthew is the most Jewish of all the gospels.

He puts a lot of emphasis on Jesus fulfilling the law.

Jesus will say things like you've heard of old, but verily, verily I say unto you, and he he's kind of because Jewish people were all about keeping the law, and Matthew's like, hey, Jesus kept the law.

He's not some rebel uh rousing upstart.

Uh he but here's the thing about Matthew: he wants to evangelize the Jewish people, not just prove them wrong.

Might want to keep that in mind when you when you try to share the gospel with somebody.

Uh, he wants to evangelize the Jews, not just prove them wrong.

Uh here's the the the I think the third one is to explore the reality of the kingdom.

Put a start by this.

It's gonna be all through Matthew's gospel.

The word kingdom, kingdom of God, kingdom of heaven, appears 55 times in Matthew's gospel.

We'll talk about the parables of the kingdom.

Matter of fact, our theme for for for Matthew is king and kingdom.

Because it's all about that.

And we'll talk about that this morning, even.

So uh and here's the the last one, the fourth one.

Big word, it's catechetical.

It's catechetical, which is the big seminary word.

It just means to teach the truths of Christianity and their ethical implications.

To teach the truth.

The book of Matthew is all about.

Matthew records this under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.

The Bible's not just written by men.

People say, Oh, it didn't Bible, men write the Bible, men are flawed, therefore the Bible's flawed.

No, your logic is flawed because you don't understand inspiration.

The Bible says of itself that it is the divinely breathed out word of God.

Men spoke as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.

So this is not Matthew's take on Jesus.

This is Matthew, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, saying, You guys are not gonna believe.

This is how it went down, okay?

If you're gonna start Matthew 3, because we'll read here in just a minute in those days, John the Baptist came preaching in the wilderness, saying, Repent for the kingdom of God is at hand.

And if you're a hip-hop person, you should hear DMX, Rough Riders going stop, drop, shut it down, and open up shop.

Because this is exactly what happens in Matthew 3.

He says the kingdom is here, it's now, and it's open, and everyone can get in on this.

And that was huge.

This is why you're gonna hear a lot about the kingdom as we go through Matthew.

So now keep in mind, let me say this last thing and then we'll read.

It's been 400 years of silence since God has spoken.

The Old Testament closed and it closed on a pretty shrill note.

You ever read the guys the back of the Old Testament, the minor prophets, Malachi, Habakkuk, Nahum, all those guys, and you just go, man, these guys are angry.

Yeah, because what happened was God's people were not listening.

And so God turns up the volume on his voice to get his people's attention.

And so they got they just uh continue in their sin.

And God says, You're not gonna listen?

Okay, I'm not talking for my benefit.

I stand in the solitude of myself, sufficient for myself.

If I'm not sufficient for you, I just stop talking.

So it's been 400 years of silence.

Get that in your head.

And then Matthew, in chapter, first few chapters, he records the birth narrative of Jesus, and then you jump to John the Baptist.

Matthew chapter three.

Now, John the Baptist, let me just say a few things about him.

He wears camel's hair and a leather belt.

He looks like he just won alone, okay?

He eats locust and wild honey, locusts like big grasshoppers.

Uh this was the food of the poor.

You couldn't buy him off, you couldn't pay him off, you couldn't bribe him, you couldn't cancel him, you couldn't shut him up, and you couldn't get him to stop.

And so you had to respond.

He was a fork in the road.

When you met John the Baptist, you had to make a decision about Jesus.

He was shrill, and people, as you'll see in Matthew chapter 3, people came from all over to hear him talk because after 400 years of silence, it would be like your college sweetheart broke up with you, left you at sent you a dear John text, and you never saw her.

Matthew 3 · chapter mention

And five years later, 15 years later, you get a text and it says, I don't know if this is still your number, but if it is, can you meet me Friday at 7 at our favorite restaurant?

You'd be like, ah, dang, here we go.

I still feel something.

They still feel something because something's gnawing at them because empty religion cannot satisfy.

And John the Baptist picks up in John chapter 3, verse 1 with these words In those days John the Baptist came preaching in the wilderness of Judea.

John 3:1

Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.

For this is he who was spoken of by the prophet Isaiah when he said, the voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare the way of the Lord, make his path straight.

Now John wore a garment of camel's hair and a leather belt around his waist, and his food was locusts and wild honey.

And then Jerusalem and all Judea and all the region about the Jordan were going out to him, and they were baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins.

But when he saw many of the Pharisees and the Sadducees coming to his baptism, he said to them, You brood of vipers, who warned you to flee from the wrath that is to come?

Bear fruit in keeping with repentance, and do not presume to say to yourselves, We have Abraham as our father.

I tell you what, God is able from these stones to raise up children of Abraham.

Even now the axe is laid to the root of the trees, and every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.

I baptize I baptize you with water for repentance, but he who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry.

He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.

His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor and gather his wheat into the barn, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.

This is the message that people came from all around to hear because they'd sat in so many church services, just like listening to Charlie Brown's teacher.

And all of a sudden their soul is cooked, and they're like, Oh my gosh, this is this is happening.

We've heard that someone was gonna come before the Messiah and kind of prepare the way, like a holy road grader, just scraping the ground fresh and clean.

And we think this is the guy.

I want to talk to you this morning about the kingdom and the power thereof.

There's three things in the text I want us to see this morning and understand.

The first one is right there in verse one, and it's the proportion the proportionality of repentance.

The proportionality of repentance.

You say, Well, what do you mean?

Uh he's actually it's in verse two.

He says, Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.

Repent for Greek word gar, repent for the kingdom is at hand.

The proportionality of repentance is like it sounds like this.

Your willingness and my willingness to repent is directly proportional to your understanding of the reason for repentance.

Let me say that again.

Your willingness and my willingness to repent is directly proportional to your understanding of the reason for repentance.

And the reason that God put into the mouth of John the Baptist is real simple.

It's not, hey, you might go to hell when you die, you might get a bad reputation, hey, you might get canceled, your boyfriend may break up with you, your girlfriend may drop you.

All those are puny and and weak compared to this, the one thing that can leverage life, the life of everybody in the world, and it's simply this the kingdom of heaven, and it's not pie in the sky, sweet by and by.

It is right here, right now.

It's not pie in the sky, it's steak on the plate, and hungry people come flooding from everywhere because they are starving for something that's substantive and real.

When I say the proportionality of repentance, you should ask yourself, what am I going to experience if I repent?

And what will I fail to experience?

What will I miss out on if I don't repent?

This is what John the Baptist says.

Repent.

For, because the kingdom of heaven is at hand.

And look at verse 5.

The Bible makes it very clear.

Then then Jerusalem, the whole city, then Jerusalem.

Can you imagine hearing about something going on next Friday night and they go, Sugarland?

You'd be like, I missed out on something.

I'm here to announce to you this morning that if you don't understand the kingdom, you're gonna spend the rest of your life missing out.

You're gonna see pictures on social media and go, that looks incredible.

Yes, yes.

Jerusalem, all Judea, and all the region about the Jordan were going out to him and they were baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins.

We'll get to that in a minute because that's just crazy beautiful language right there.

But I just want us to understand the proportionality of repentance.

The most life-altering, motivating thing known to man was not money or prestige or popularity or sex.

The thing that really leveraged life and kind of said, Oh, oh my gosh, was this news that the kingdom of heaven was here and it was available?

Repent for.

For I mentioned it a minute ago.

It's the Greek word gar, G-A-R.

Not something you gig in a creek in a small East Texas town, uh uh, but but but but it's a primary particle.

And here's why I'm telling you this its function is to assign a reason for what precedes it.

So when he says repent, for it's like, hey, this for is telling you why you and I should repent.

And here's the simple reason: the kingdom of heaven is right here and it's right now.

You're like, okay, thanks.

Great.

What is that?

It appears 55 times in the gospel.

That's what you told us.

It's called the kingdom of God or the kingdom of heaven.

What's such a big deal?

If you understand anything, understand this this morning.

The kingdom of heaven, the kingdom of God is best understood by two words.

Two simple words.

The first one is rain.

Rain, not rain like comes down from the sky, but rain like R-E-I-G-N, rule, authority.

Rain says this that God has the right to rule over me in all circumstances and situations.

Rain means that God has the right to rule over me in all circumstances and situations.

Years ago, a friend of mine wrote a great worship song.

I was on a fishing trip at Lake Fork in Quitman, Texas, and he pulled out his guitar and he said, I think the Lord gave me a song.

And he starts singing this song.

And me and some other guys are in the room, and he starts singing this song, and the chorus says, You are my king.

You are my king.

Amazing love.

How can it be that you, my king, would die for me?

And I'm looking around, and guys in the room are weeping, and I'm like, Okay, y'all are all worship leaders.

This spills to my spirit like it's a big deal.

And the name of the song was You Are My King.

And then my friend Billy Foote sent it in to get published, and they said, Oh my gosh, this thing is incredible.

But we need to change the name.

Wait for it.

You are my king.

It's a little harsh.

So we're gonna call it amazing love.

Welcome to America.

I don't want to be rained though.

You're my king?

That means I live in glad submission to you.

And I this is the gospel, beloved.

Amazing love.

You've heard that your whole life.

This is why we have churches full of people who profess one thing and live another.

You gotta understand the first and essential thing about the kingdom of God, the kingdom of heaven, is rain.

And you say, What do you mean?

It's most on display in the Garden of Gethsemane where Jesus praised these words.

If it be possible, let this cup pass from me.

But nevertheless, not my will but yours be done.

This is my desire.

But let's be clear: my desire is subject and subjected to and submission to your authority over my life.

My will is subject to your will.

If you don't understand that the kingdom of God is about God reigning over you, He purchased you with His own blood, and so of course He rules over you.

And if He doesn't, you're not gonna, you're not a part of the kingdom.

You're standing outside trying to negotiate the terms of your surrender.

And I would just say to you in love that love does not negotiate the terms of its surrender, it just doesn't.

It just does not.

I remember when I was dating my wife, she was helping me clean my house one Saturday, and she said, Your phone's ringing.

This is how long ago it was.

I had an answer machine.

Remember that?

Yeah, this is Neil, blah blah blah, beep, leave a message, beep, and I said, let the machine pick up.

And I'm back in the back, in the back of that, she's in the kitchen, and the phone answer machine's right there on the shelf.

And I come up to the living room and I'm standing there across the room from her, and the voice comes on and says, Oh, I'll change the name.

Hello, Neil.

This is Susie.

I'm back in Fort Worth.

I don't know if you're dating anybody.

I don't want to be forward, but if you're not dating anybody, I would love to see if there's anything left between you and I.

And I'm like, Oh, that's a girl too.

And Marcia's like, shh, she's still going.

And I'm like, Oh, we dated two, she's still going.

Oh, anyway, my new number is 817, but hung up.

And I said, That's a girl I dated two years ago.

And Marcia's just standing there, just cleaning stuff off the table.

And she goes, Oh, oh, clearly she enjoyed dating you.

I mean, I ain't saying anything, but uh holler at a player when you see him on the street.

Show some, put some respect on my name, woman.

No, I was like, no, that was the girl we we and she got a job out of state, and I said, let's speak of adults, this isn't gonna work long distance, blah, blah, blah.

Well, clearly she enjoyed it and she's open to getting back with you.

And then there was this pivotal moment where I understood, I'm not dating a girl, I'm dating a woman.

Where she looked at me and said, Oh, you can call her.

Three, two, one.

But if you do, don't ever call me again.

And I wasn't like, you tell me what to do.

What she was saying was, here's the terms if you're gonna be in a relationship with me.

I'm gonna have some authority over you.

If you're saying yes to me, you're saying no to all the other women in the world.

And if they don't get down with you, then you ain't getting down with me.

And I wasn't offended, I wasn't like, we're not married, I ain't got no ring on it.

I was like, you are a grown young woman.

I think I've been dating girls my whole life.

Best thing ever happened to me.

Let me say it again.

Can you feel what's happening in this room right now?

Some of you are looking at your little sidekick like we're gonna have a talk after church.

Hey, by the way, if you don't respect yourself, ladies, he never will.

My roommate got home.

I told him about it, and he looked at me and said, That's a woman, that's not a girl.

Uh, yeah, yeah.

Reign.

Second word, uh, that helps get our head around the kingdom is realm.

Realm.

Realm is the place where what God wants done gets done.

People who are living under the reign of the king are the ones who expand the realm of the king.

We'll get to Matthew chapter six here in a couple of months, and it says, Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as is in heaven.

We just prayed it a few minutes ago, okay?

People who've submitted to God's reign over their lives, they are the medium, okay, through which God's will find expression.

Let me say that again.

People who submit to God's reign over their life, here's why you should submit to King Jesus as soon as possible.

Because when you submit to his reign, his authoritative rule over you, you are my king.

I don't need to tell you again, thank you for loving me.

I've been marinating in that my whole life, and it's made me inconsequential and passive.

I'm here to say, you're my king.

And people that submit to the reign of King Jesus over their lives, they are the medium through which God's realm finds expression.

The will of God finds expression in the lives of people who submit to the reign of God.

Now you may be thinking, man, that sounds great.

What's keep what keeps people from submitting to the reign of God and expanding the realm of God's kingdom?

It's very simple.

We think our kingdom is better.

You think what you got going on is more satisfying.

If you got a lie, cheat, steal.

Well, I see, what, what, what?

What it was, see, that wasn't, you know, uh, you know, my favorite man lie I heard this summer was yeah, a man told his girlfriend, uh, yeah, yeah, yeah, I got Tinder on my phone.

That's not for me, that's for my friends, because their girlfriends don't want them to have it on their phone.

Men, you gotta become better liars.

I just shook my head and looked at him and I said, You should not take his number out of your phone.

She said, Well, I'm trying to break up with him, but he won't let me.

Give me that phone, I'll show you how it's done.

That's that's abusive, but I ain't got time for that.

Here's the second thing we see in the text.

First of all, the proportionality of the kingdom.

Repent.

Why?

Because the kingdom of heaven is here.

It's what you were created for.

Christianity is not about you going to heaven when you die and just trying harder in the meantime.

No, it's I'm bringing the kingdom of heaven to bear on earth.

I'm the medium through which this kingdom finds expression only if you submit to the reign of King Jesus.

Otherwise, you're stuck in the smallness and insufficiency of your little you-centered kingdom.

Second thing we see in the text is the requirement of baptism.

The requirement of baptism.

Let me just start reading verse 4.

Now John wore a garment of camel's hair and a leather belt around his waist, and his food was locust and wild honey.

Then Jerusalem and all Judea and all the region about Jordan were going out to him, and they were baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins.

That's the first requirement of baptism.

There's three things the baptism requires of us.

Number one is confession, right there in verse six.

Confessing their sins now.

Not confession of sin.

When I say confession of sin, I mean acknowledging openly and joyfully as a result of conversion, not each individual sin that you've sinned along the way, but just, hey, I'm confessing that I've sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.

But I will tell you, I was on a mission trip in Mexico, like not down to the border to get conscious of for white people, but like three and a half hours into the country in the middle of nowhere.

And I said, Hey, is there even law out here?

And they said, Not really.

That's not comforting to the gringo, okay?

We go to a church service and they gave the invitation, and the Mexican pastor insisted, he said, I don't want you people, you bolillos, giving the invitation.

Because we don't do it like you do down here.

And I was like, you ain't gotta call me names.

What's bolillo mean?

Oh, white bread?

Okay, that's me.

Uh and people came to the altar and knelt down.

And he had a microphone on a cord.

He didn't have a headset, had a cord.

And he walked, and I was like, What is he doing?

And he just walked over and stuck it in people's face, and they renounced and confessed their sins to the congregation.

And then he said, in the translator, I got I walked over the translator and said, What's going on?

Well, they're confessing their sins so that the whole church can know what to expect them to not do anymore.

Yeah.

All the white people were just like backing up, like, ah, ha ha.

No.

Now that's not what he's saying.

He's not saying, hey, come and recite all your sins.

We ain't got that much time for Wade Burgess.

But anyway, the requirement of baptism is that you confess.

It's like years ago there was a famous, I mean not famous, he was just an evangelist.

His name was Eddie Martin.

He was always known for just being hardcore.

He was just honest.

The lady came forward during an invitation.

She was beautifully coiffed, had her dress and everything, had all her jewelry on.

And she said, He said, Why'd you come forward?

She said, Well, I came forward because I want to become a Christian.

He goes, Okay, God's provoked your heart.

Yes, okay.

Pray with me.

Okay.

She goes, I don't know what to say.

He said, I'll lead you in just a simple prayer.

He said, Okay, dear Lord, dear Lord, I confess, I confess that I'm a filthy, wicked, rotten sinner.

She looked up and said, What'd you say?

You're a filthy, wicked.

I am not.

Go back to your seat.

She went back to her seat.

Other people were coming.

Remember old school invitation?

Go on for 45 minutes.

Just as I am.

The buses away.

You in the back.

Come on down.

People were streaming down.

He's dealing with people a few minutes later.

She comes back up.

She says, Okay, I'm ready to say it.

He said, All right, pray with me, dear Lord, dear Lord.

I confess, I confess.

I'm a filthy, wicked, rotten sinner.

I'm a filthy, wicked, rotten sinner.

And then he said this, and I deserve to go to hell.

She said, What'd you say?

You deserve hell.

That's all you deserve.

You don't deserve heaven.

None of us do.

I do not deserve hell.

Go back to your seat.

She goes back to her seat a second time.

More people are coming down.

Two minutes later, she comes back.

He said, I reached out for her hand and she just grabbed my hand with both hands and said, Oh Lord, I'm a filthy, wicked, rotten sinner, and I deserve hell.

Please have mercy on me.

That's confession.

That is, you know, like, oh, are you trying to embarrass people?

No.

I'm just get you to understand.

And when he says they come out to the River Jordan confessing their sins, uh, what I mean is that it's one thing for you to come and say, oh, well, I've kind of sinned and done some bad stuff I'm not proud of.

It's another thing for you to understand that conversion involves forgiveness for sin, but also freedom from sin.

Now, if you don't sense this freedom, you might not you might want to go back and check and see, did I experience conversion or just confusion?

Did they talk about something so so simply and so easily accessible?

I didn't need the Holy Spirit to regenerate my cold dead heart.

Here's how you know you've never felt a sense of freedom from sin.

You've always just felt, ah man, hope my wife doesn't find out.

Oh man, I got to keep this on the down low.

You spend so much energy being secretive that you can't face the risk of being known.

This is the requirement of baptism.

The first one is confession, second one's demonstration.

It's verse 7 to 9.

Demonstration.

But when he saw many of the Pharisees and the Sadducees coming to his baptism, he said to them, You brood of vipers, you bucket of snakes, who want you to flee from the wrath to come?

You bear fruit and keep of repentance, and do not presume to say to yourselves, We have Abraham as our father.

Translation, we're good Jews.

My granddaddy was a Baptist preacher.

But I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children of Abraham.

Even now, the axe is laid to the root of the trees.

Every tree that does not bear fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.

Demonstration.

What do you mean, demonstration?

Baptism says you demonstrate the fruit of repentance and then we baptize you.

The church in America would do well.

By the way, let me just put my cards on the table.

I'm not a fan of these preachers that go around.

There's preachers in Texas that go to college campuses in Georgia, speak once and have a big baptism rally and baptize 400 people and put it on social media.

And people go, What do you think about this?

I think that man clamors for popularity.

You don't know those kids.

You're using those kids to get on CNN.

Why don't you go back and pastor your church and let them be enough for you?

And stop standing on the heads of non-discerning college kids, many of who have been baptized three or four times.

Are you kidding me?

Oh man, you're kind of old school McClendon.

Is that what you call the Bible?

The Bible says, go and bring forth fruit, not just to Pharisees, but to all of us.

Go and bring forth fruit and keep it with repentance, and then we'll baptize you.

The church has to protect the ordinances of the church, or we cease to be the church.

We're just like the dairy queen.

You pull over the remember a long time ago, the little drive thing, ding, ding, little bell, you pull over, and we trot out and go, what would you like?

Communion or baptism?

Which one make you feel better?

It's our responsibility to fence the Lord's table and to protect the ordinances so they don't get consumed upon the lust of a generation.

Well, I I pledge the sorority and it was a rough semester.

I want to get baptized.

It's not the purpose of baptism.

What are you demonstrating?

Desperation, not identification.

He says, I baptize you with water for repentance.

Verse 11, let's be clear.

The Greek word for is ice, E-I-S.

And it indicates a point reached or entered as a result of.

So what John the Baptist is saying here is because you've repented, I baptize you.

Baptism is not, it doesn't have efficacy.

Now, I'm not trying to be harsh, but some of you grew up in a denomination that taught you that, oh, you're baptized as an infant and that washes away original sin.

Baptism has no efficacy, it is a is a recognition.

Because if you could get baptized by the church as a baby and it washes away original sin, then why do you need Jesus to die on the cross for your original sin?

You've elevated and ordered to the church above the atonement.

And that beloved is not biblical.

It just babies don't wear wedding rings.

That woman who told me you can call her anytime you want, but if you do, don't ever call me.

She put a ring on this finger on January the 9th, 1993.

She didn't put a ring on my finger that day in my kitchen and go, just so she'll know you're in a relationship.

Because I was in a relationship, but I wasn't married.

Baptism symbolizes that you're in a relationship.

And it happens after the relationship begins.

Does that make sense to anybody but me?

Okay.

Because we got to be careful because the church tries to control you.

Oh, we baptize you now, you gotta listen to us.

It's baptism is about demonstration.

You demonstrate the fruit of repentance.

So it behooves us to understand repentance.

What do I mean?

And so here's a conglomeration of a bunch of people's big words.

I try to boil it down about repentance.

Repentance is a change of mind and actions wherein we cease our approval of wickedness in others.

You should ask yourself, does my musical playlist demonstrate that I cease the approval of wickedness and justification of bad behavior in myself?

It is foremost a decisive reorientation of one's life away from self and towards the Lord.

But this subsequent repentance flows from and confirms the initial act wherein we realize our desperate state, admit our need and pardon, our need of pardon, and come to Jesus in a childlike manner.

When John the Baptist says to these guys, they're like, hey man, everyone's getting baptized.

Ah, I saw socials, my socials are blowing up.

Oh, we're baptizing 500 college students in a bed of pickup trucks.

That's awesome.

No, it's not.

Baptism belongs to the church, not to the parking lot.

And I wish somebody would tell him.

Because I don't want to be that kid when you stand before God and go, yeah, I pimped baptism to boost my socials.

Not impressed with you, son.

Not impressed.

Third thing about baptism that it requires is sanctification.

Verse 10.

Don't miss this.

Even now, the axe is laid at the root of the trees, and every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.

Understand this.

The Bible cannot fathom a non-fruit-bearing Christian.

Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.

That's a metaphor of judgment.

That's people that go to hell and they die.

That's people we'll get to in chapter 7 who say, Lord, Lord, do we not perform any miracles?

In your name, and Jesus says, Depart from me, you workers of iniquity.

I never knew you.

Are you kidding me?

That wasn't miracles.

That was just your budget on display.

What I mean by sanctification, verse 10, we keep bearing fruit because sanctification is demonstrated by the fruit of the Spirit being manifested in our lives.

Let me say that again.

Please understand this.

What do you mean, sanctification?

Sanctification means we keep bearing fruit because sanctification is demonstrated.

The sanctification, let me give you Wayne Grudum's great definition from his big blue book, Systematic Theology.

He says sanctification is a progressive work of God and man.

Underline those two words and man.

Your conversion is immediate because it's all God.

Your sanctification, this progressive work of God and man that makes us more and more free from sin and like Christ in our actual lives.

It's a work of God and man.

You participate in your sanctification through obedience.

You say, Well, man, I've been a Christian 18 years.

Why am I not more spiritually mature?

That's all about you and nothing to do with God, my man.

Because you are sanctified.

I'm sanctified.

I become more and more like Christ and less and less like my old self because I submit to the reign of King Jesus in my life.

I don't go around going, Amazing love, how can it be?

I go around going, You are my king, and you rule over me.

With your blood, you purchase men for God.

I have a will, I have a desire, but nevertheless, not my will, but your will be done.

And I'm okay with that and I'm better for it.

Sanctification.

The Bible says, you say, Well, what do you mean?

We keep bearing fruit.

Uh Galatians 5, verse 22.

Galatians 5:22

This is what I mean.

Fruit is an outward evidence of this inward reality.

And the Bible gives us a picture of what it looks like.

It says the fruit of the Spirit.

That's the outward evidence of this inward reality that the Spirit of God lives in you.

The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, and gentleness, self-control.

Against such things, there is no law.

And verse 24 says, And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.

Against such, there is no law.

Now, to be a Christian is not to deny the passions and desires of the flesh.

Does that make sense?

To be a Christian, like being tempted is not a sin.

So being a Christian is not like, oh, I have no passions or desires of my flesh.

Every once in a while I'll ask the staff, especially the guys here, hey, what sins crouching at your door these days wants to have its way with you?

Well, uh, what exactly did you mean when you said, Yeah.

Yes.

Again, being a believer doesn't mean we we deny that we live, that we live in a world that and sometimes our passions and the desires of our flesh, uh, but but it is this: it's the experience of having crucified them so that the fruit of the spirit is demonstrated in your life.

Not by effort, but because of intimacy.

They no longer have power over you.

You're more loving, you're more joyful, you're more patient, you're more kind, you're you're you're you're you're more good.

The English on that's terrible.

Uh you're you're more faithful, you're more gentle.

Men ask your wives this hey, when I lose my temper, is it any different from when I was an unbeliever?

I continue to see a lot of men who, when you lose your temper, you just think, all right, I get to rule the world.

You point your finger at people and you yell at them, and I just think, man, where's the fruit of self-control in you?

You're more gentle and you're self-controlled.

There's no law, Galatians 5 says there's no law that can stop these realities from being manifested in the life of a Christian.

Likewise, there is no law, no curriculum, no book, no sermon, no formula.

Listen to me, that can produce this fruit in your life.

It's not gonna happen.

It's called the fruit of the spirit.

The spirit of God produces these realities in the people of God.

Does that make sense?

Say amen.

It's not about you trying.

It's not about, oh man, I want to be more loving.

I want to read a book on being loving.

No.

Walk in the spirit and you'll become a more loving person.

Understand biblical repentance.

John Calvin said this.

He said, repentance is an inward matter which has its seat in the heart and soul, but afterwards it yields its fruit in a change of life.

It's an inward matter, but it yields its fruit in a changed life.

Here's the third thing we see in the text today: the mourness of Jesus' baptism.

The mourness of Jesus' baptism.

Now look at me, I want you to listen very carefully.

Don't check out.

All right, this is the last point, but I want you to get this.

When I understood this, it was super helpful to me in my Christian life.

When I say the more, what do you mean the mourness of verse 11, John the Baptist is trying to get people like, hey, I'm not the deal, okay?

There's one coming after me.

I'm not worthy to bend down and tie his shoe, okay?

I can't even be a slave to this cat.

He's so much bigger and better than me.

He says in verse 11, I baptize you with water for repentance, but he who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I'm not worthy to carry.

He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.

His winnowing fork is in his hand.

He will clear his threshing floor.

It gathers wheat into the barn, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.

What do you mean a winnowing fork?

They had grain on the ground.

And they had like a pitchfork, they'd stick it under there.

Now the grain was heavier than the husk that was on the outside of it.

And they'd take a like a pitchfork, put it in there, and they'd throw it up when the wind was blowing, and the wind would blow the chaff, the husk away, but the heavy grain would fall back to the ground.

And they would gather the grain up and put it in the barn.

And they'd get this chaff over here and just burn it in the fire because it was just trash, it was debris.

And the Bible says this is what it's going to be like.

This is what God's going to do.

He's going to just toss you up in the air.

And people that, kingdom people have a weight on their life.

People that are not there in their own kingdom, there's a weightlessness to them.

Yeah, you want to have dinner with them, you want to meet them for drinks, they're cool to vacation with, but you never go to them for advice.

You never say, hey man, I want you to talk to me about your marriage because your marriage looks really satisfying because they're just blown away, tossed to and fro by every wind of doctrine, everywhere, all over the place.

What do I mean when I say the mourness of Jesus' baptism?

It's where he says, I baptize you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.

The Holy Spirit and fire.

Now listen very carefully.

This has caused more confusion in the church because people have consumed it upon their theological preferences, all right?

Now understand this.

This simply means that the Holy Spirit comes to live inside of a believer at conversion.

Now I have charismatic friends, they're like, oh brother, after you come to faith, you got to receive the Holy Spirit, be baptized in the Holy Spirit, have a second feeling, blah, blah, blah.

And I just let them talk when they're done.

I go, that's not biblical.

That's not biblical.

That's not biblical.

Now, the Baptists, us, we're like, no charismatics, they got all that.

That's why the Trinity and the Baptist churches, God the Father, God the Son, the Holy Bible.

But we like information.

We don't like intimacy.

The Holy Spirit is about intimacy.

And John the Baptist says he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire.

You, in other words, when you become a Christian, the Spirit of God comes to live inside of you.

All right?

That's what he means when you say baptized.

It's not like, oh, I gotta do something to get this extra power.

No.

Way back in the Old Testament, God said, don't turn there.

But in Ezekiel 36, God said, This is the way it's gonna happen, okay?

I'll take out your heart of stone, I'll put in you a heart of flesh, I'll put my spirit in you, that's the Holy Spirit, and I will move you to follow my decrees.

If you're trying to live the Christian life without the Holy Spirit, under the control, walking in the Spirit, then you are what the Bible calls living in the flesh.

And the flesh will never cannot accomplish what only the spirit can accomplish.

Does that make sense to anybody but me?

Say amen.

It just can't.

Now I'm not mad at you.

Some of you, the light bulbs should be going off in your head this morning, like, oh my gosh, that's me.

I have appeased my flesh my entire life.

And by the way, we live in a culture that says, oh, Jesus is a God, God's a God of love.

He would never tell you to say no to your flesh.

You love who you want to love.

God's a God of love.

They're lying to you, they're just increasing your bondage to your flesh.

The mourners of Jesus' baptism, what do you mean?

Uh, what I mean is when the Bible says way back, I'll take out your heart of stone, put in a heart of flesh, put my spirit in you.

God promised this.

The New Testament teaches the same thing.

Uh, hear these words from Romans chapter 8, starting in verse 9.

Romans 8 · chapter mention

He says, You, however, are not in the flesh, but in the spirit.

If in fact the spirit of God dwells in you, hear this.

Anyone who does not have the spirit of Christ does not belong to him.

Because here's why.

Because the spirit of God is what regenerates your cold, dead heart.

That's how you become a Christian.

If you don't have the spirit of Christ, you do not belong to Christ.

Verse 10, but if Christ is in you, although the body of dead because of sin, the spirit of life is life because of righteousness.

Now stop right there.

You're smart people.

That doesn't make sense, does it?

Look at it right there on the screen.

But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the spirit, it should say the spirit is alive because of righteousness.

But it doesn't.

It says the body is dead because of sin.

That's you and your flesh, me and my flesh.

The spirit is life because of righteousness, because of the righteousness of Jesus.

Don't miss this.

There's a life that you and I get to live that is only experienced in the power of the Spirit.

It's not alive.

If you say, Oh, well, the Spirit is alive, the Spirit never died.

We wish it would say, Well, the Spirit is alive, because then that would be a statement about the Spirit.

But it's not, it's a statement about you and me.

Because of the righteousness of Jesus, there's a life available to you that you cannot get to in your flesh and because of your flesh.

You can only get to it in and under the leadership of the Holy Spirit.

The Spirit is life because of righteousness.

Verse 11.

If the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give will also give life.

Give life, this fuller, robust existence.

Christianity is not just forgiveness for your life, it's the experience of the life that Jesus promised.

When he says, I'll baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire.

Now don't back away from that and let the charismatics have that, all right?

Like, oh, Holy Spirit and fire, that's scary.

What do you mean?

The Holy Spirit, here's how you should think about it.

The Holy Spirit is the person of God.

Fire is the power of God.

The Holy Spirit is the person of God.

Fire is the power of God.

He said, I give life to your mortal bodies through the Spirit who dwells in you.

Does it make sense when I say the Holy Spirit?

That's the person of God.

The Holy Spirit's not the junior executive of the Godhead.

When Jesus was wrapping up his earthly ministry, getting ready to leave, the disciples were like, dude, what are you doing?

Well, you're gonna abandon us?

I got abandonment issues.

Come on, man.

And Jesus is like, hey, it's necessary I go.

So that the comforter, the paraclete, The Holy Spirit will come and He'll lead you into all truth.

They're like, okay, you can go.

This is why the Bible says things like walk in the Spirit and you will not fulfill the desires of the flesh.

It's not determination, it's identity.

Does that make sense?

It's not, I'm gonna just white knuckle it and buckle down and try harder.

We'll get to the Matthew, to the end of Matthew chapter, about verse chapter 24.

Jesus says this because of lawlessness.

Listen to this and we're done.

You still with me?

Y'all are like, you haven't preached in a while.

It just excites me.

That's all.

I don't want to overwhelm you, but I don't want to cheat you.

Uh uh, Matthew 24, Jesus says, but this is happening right now today.

Because of lawlessness, the love of most will grow cold.

You ever watch the news and just think, what's the use?

Gee, whiz, I can't take any more negativity.

Every time I turn around, somebody's getting killed, they're getting away with it, and bad stuff is happening.

Oh my God, why even believe?

Because it's the truth.

And people that submit to the reign of King Jesus expand the realm of King Jesus here on this earth.

That's how the kingdom comes and his will gets done here on earth as it is in heaven.

That's how.

I don't know what you're saying right now.

You're kind of, there's a morness.

It's not just, oh, you didn't just get wet with a preacher when you got baptized.

When you were converted, you received the Holy Spirit, the person of God, and fire, the power of God.

There's a mathematician named Blaise Pascal.

Uh he was a pagan, smart guy.

He's like, I'm super smart.

And he had an experience on November the 23rd, 1654, that went from 10:30 at night to 1230 in the morning.

You say, How do you know about that?

I'll tell you in a minute.

It was called, he referred to it as Blaise Pascal's night of fire.

It's when he was converted.

You say, I uh uh how do you know all this?

Because when he died, look at me.

He was wearing a jacket, and this night of fire was so impactful that he wrote about it and he had it sewn in the inner lining of his jacket so he would never forget it.

This is just an excerpt from it.

I'll close with this today.

Fire, God of Abraham, God of Isaac, God of Jacob, not the philosophers and of the learned.

Certitude, certitude, feeling, joy, peace, God of Jesus Christ, my God and your God.

Your God will be my God.

Forgetfulness of the world and of everything except God.

He is only found by the ways taught in the gospel, grandeur of the human soul, righteous father, the world has not known you, but I have known you.

Joy, joy, joy, tears of joy.

People say, Why did he keep it in his jacket?

And some of his closest friends would say, Oh, Blaze never wanted to forget it.

That doesn't mean every day he was on fire for the Lord.

It means when he came to faith, it was a powerful encounter.

So when John the Baptist says to these people in Matthew chapter 3, hey, hey, by the way, guys, I baptize you with what I baptize you with water, but there's one coming after me.

Matthew 3 · chapter mention

He's gonna baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.

In other words, look, don't miss this.

You're gonna get what you need to do this.

He's not gonna cheat you.

He's not gonna say, hey, here's a pep talk, go out there and get them.

No, he says, I'm not gonna leave you as orphaned.

I'll come live inside of you and I will move you to follow my decrees.

This is the promise of God.

And this, beloved, is why people came from Jerusalem and all of Judea and all the region about the Jordan, and they were going out to this madman in the wilderness to be baptized by him in the River Jordan and gladly confessing that they'd sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.

I just want to ask you this morning, I'm done.

Is that a have you ever had that experience?

Or maybe you've been in church your whole life and going through the motions, never experiencing the person of God and the power of God in your own life.

Just trying harder and falling and apologizing and trying harder than harder.

That's religion.

This is Christianity.

It is the Holy Spirit and fire.

Let's pray together.

If you're a guest, just relax.

We'd like to teach the Bible and give you some soul space to think about it.

So questions come up on the screen.

That's for you to think about.

We'll talk about it in our community groups.

And talking about them over lunch.

But just right now, just be still and ask the Holy Spirit, what had your name on it today?

Lord, what had my name on it?

What do you want me to walk away and think about on Thursday when I'm driving to work?

I gotta I gotta think digestively about that.

That was thought-provoking.

I want more of that.

Just ask the Lord to press on you whatever's necessary, let everything else fall to the ground.

Lord, thank you for your word.

Thank you for the truth of it, that it has power.

It's like fire itself.

It burns away all the chaff of our opinions and our explanations, and it invites us to this juicy, satisfying, life-leveraging reality called the kingdom of God.

The kingdom of me is too small.

The kingdom of God is ever expanding.

The world in which I can control everything is small and it's getting smaller.

The world in which King Jesus, sovereign God of the universe, controls everything, it is big and it's getting bigger.

Every day it's getting bigger.

And it's saying to all of us with its big windmill arms of grace, alley alley and free.

Come out, come out wherever you are.

We're not counting anybody in the youth group.

God knows.

We're just huffing and puffing.

There's no spirit and there's no fire.

I pray, God, we just get tired of trying to manufacture what you freely provide.

And we just start saying, Lord, I want the Holy Spirit and fire in my life.

That's what we were made for.

That's what we'll be shaped by.

This is our prayer, God.

Make it our experience.

We pray in Jesus' name.

And everyone said, Amen.