A Brief Summary of John's Ministry

Introduction and Prayer for Understanding

0:03 This sermon was preached on Sunday morning, August 14, 1983, at the Trinity Baptist Church in Montville, New Jersey. Now may I urge you to follow in your own Bibles as I read Mark's Gospel, chapter 1, verses 1 through 8, and then a very brief portion from the fifth chapter of the Gospel of John. Mark's Gospel, chapter 1, verses 1 through 8.

1:09 John came, who baptized in the wilderness, and preached the baptism of repentance unto remission of sins. And there went out unto him all the country of Judea, and all they of Jerusalem, and they were baptized of him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins. And John was clothed with camel's hair, and had a leather girdle about his loins, and did eat locusts and wild honey. And he preached.

1:40 Saying, There comes after me he that is mightier than I, the latchet of whose shoes I am not worthy to stoop down and unloose. I baptized you in water, but he shall baptize you in the Holy Spirit. And now John's Gospel, chapter 5, verses 33 to 35. These are words of our Lord Jesus speaking with reference to John the Baptist.

2:10 John 5, verse 33. You have sent unto John, and he has borne witness unto the truth. But the witness which I receive is not from man, albeit I say these things that you may be saved. He, referring to John, was the lamp that burns and shines, and you were willing to rejoice for a season in his light.

2:40 Now turning back. Back to Mark's Gospel, chapter 1. Let us again seek the face of God in prayer for his blessing upon the opening up of his Holy Word. Our Father, we do indeed desire rightly to read and to mark your Holy Word.

3:09 We do desire to receive its truth with meekness. We do desire to have our lives framed by its precepts. We are confident that the vast majority of men and women and boys and girls who sit here this morning have not come to be entertained, have not come to have their ears tickled, have not come merely to fill up another dimension of religious ritual, but they are gathered because they do desire with meekness to receive your truth and carefully to regulate all of life. by its precepts.

3:53 But, O Lord, we acknowledge we can do neither of these things unless Your Spirit comes and helps us. So we come in all of our felt need and pray by the Spirit, give us understanding, and by the Spirit incline our hearts to do what Your Word commands. Hear us and answer our prayer through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

The Old Testament Roots and Purpose of John's Ministry

4:27 Now, it should be evident to those of you who have not even been with us for our previous studies in Mark's Gospel that Mark very obviously begins his record of the life and sayings of our Lord Jesus by a concentrated block of material that points us to the ministry of John the Baptist. He calls the beginning of the Gospel of Jesus Christ God's Son the appearance of this man, John the Baptist. And though the Gospel concerns Jesus Christ, that is, He is the focal point of the Gospel, Jesus the Messiah,

5:12 Jesus, God's only and true Son, God the Son, yet the ministry of John the Baptist dominates these opening words of Mark's Gospel. And in our study, verses 2 and 3, last Lord's Day, we saw why Mark begins as he does. We considered these verses under the heading of the Old Testament roots of the ministry of John the Baptist. And the verses from Malachi and the prophet Isaiah clearly indicate that when true Messiah would appear, He would not appear apart from the ministry of one who went before Him as a herald before Him.

5:57 He would appear before a king announcing the coming of the king and demanding that a highway be prepared for His appearance. And so our study of verses 2 and 3 concentrated upon this Old Testament root system of the ministry of John which constitute an assertion by Mark of the essential unity between the Old and the New Testaments and then articulate a fundamental, principal of Christian experience, namely, that God's ordinary way of making Christ precious to men is first of all to plow up their complacent, smug hearts

A Brief Summary of John's Major Activities (Mark 1:4)

6:41 and to make them long for the ministry of the Redeemer. Now we come this morning to concentrate our attention upon verses 4 and 5 in this opening paragraph. If verses 2 and 3 can be used to explain and rightly be described as marks setting forth the Old Testament roots of John's ministry, verses 4 and 5 constitute a brief summary of the ministry of John the Baptist. In verse 4, this summary focuses upon the major activities of John.

7:22 John came, baptized, and preached. And then verse 5, the general response to John's ministry, there went out unto him people from Judea and Jerusalem were baptized of him, confessing their sins. So verses 4 and 5 then constitute a brief summary of the ministry of John the Baptist. And it is that summary that we will attempt to open up this morning and then to apply in some of its major activities or areas of relevance.

8:00 First of all then, the major activities of John the Baptist given to us in verse 4. And you will notice that those major activities center around three verbs. John came, and then we have two participles, who baptized in the wilderness and preached the baptism of repentance unto remission of sins. So the major verbs are John came, and when he came he was found continually doing two things, baptizing and preaching.

8:38 It's very evident in the text. You don't need to know any Greek to see it. It's there in any accurate English translation. But now let's seek to unpack the significance of those words in the next moments.

8:52 First of all, we are told that John came. And the suddenness, with which Mark introduces John, reminds us very much of that one of whom John bears, or to whom John bears great resemblance in the purpose of God. You will remember that in the prophecy that preceded John, it was said that he would go before him in the spirit and in the power of Elijah, the Old Testament prophet. And with the same kind of suddenness with which Elijah the prophet burst upon the scene of Israel in the state of its decadence,

9:34 so this Elijah-like prophet John, it says of him, John came. And suddenly in the wilderness of Judea, this strange man dressed in strange garb, eating strange food and preaching a strange message appears. But we ask the question, what was it that precipitously precipitated his coming? Mark tells us, John came.

10:03 Now when did he come? Did he come when there was some kind of consensus amongst his peers that he ought to begin to do a little preaching? Did he come when he was invited by the local ministerial council to hold a crusade out in the wilderness? Well, we know that John came when, according to Luke 3 and verse 2, the word of the Lord, first of all, came to him.

10:32 Notice the close conjunction of these things in the parallel account in Luke's gospel. Luke chapter 3 and verse 2.

10:43 The latter part of the verse says, identifying the precise time, the word of God came unto John, the son of Zacharias, in the wilderness, and he came into, all the region round about Jordan. You see, John did not come until first of all the word of God had come to him. So that which drove John to the place of prominence and into this activity of preaching was nothing less than the revelatory activity of God. He was a prophet and a prophet did not speak

11:27 out of his own musings. The prophet, the prophet did not speak out of the fruit of his own study. The prophet spoke when the word of God by direct revelation came to him. And he became, as it were, the mouthpiece of God himself.

11:44 When in the language of Jeremiah, thy word was in my heart as a fire shut up within my bones, and I was weary with forbearing and I could not stay. Then I spoke with my mouth. And so John comes because he is under the constraint of the word of God. He came because the word of God had come to him.

12:09 And though there were many indications prior to this time that the hand of God was upon John in a unique way, he was conceived under unique circumstances. There were unique prophecies attending both his conception or just prior to his conception. Unique prophecies attending his birth. There was a unique development being raised in the wilderness.

12:34 Probably his ancient parents, his aged parents having died. There was much that was unique about John. But with all of that unique past history, direct revelation by way of prophecy attending his conception and birth, unique dealings with God in the wilderness, none of these things in themselves would have been adequate to give him his place in the purpose of God if the word of God had not come to him. Sovereignly, at the precise time of God's appointment, the word of God came to John and John came into the wilderness of Judea.

John's Baptizing and Preaching of Repentance Unto Remission of Sins

13:16 Now, when he came, what were the two activities in which he constantly engaged? And you Greek students will know why I say constantly. We have forms of the verb which speak of continuous, action. Notice what the first one was.

13:33 John came who was baptizing in the wilderness and was preaching the baptism of repentance. He came baptizing in the wilderness. He was found causing men and women to undergo a watery rite of ritual cleansing. And, all agree that the ordinary meaning of the word baptize is to dip, to plunge, to immerse.

14:09 And even people who bitterly oppose any assertion that immersion is the proper mode of Christian baptism admit, admit that the ordinary usage of this word does indeed signify to immerse, to dip, to plunge, to overwhelm. And so, this man, John, when he came, was found constantly engaged in an activity in the wilderness near Jordan and in Jordan itself, as the passage tells us, causing men and women to undergo this watery rite of a ritual cleansing.

14:54 Mark tells us that this was being done in the wilderness. Matthew tells us, chapter 3, verse 1, it was the wilderness of Judea. And Luke 3, 3 says, all the region round about the Jordan. So we know that it was the wilderness area on either side of the Jordan River.

15:17 Now one of the commentators who visited the Holy Land describes this geographical area in the following words. John was preaching in the wilderness. The wilderness. of Judea, a term indicating the rolling badlands between the hill country of Judea to the west and the Dead Sea and lower Jordan to the east, stretching northward to about the point where the Brook Jabbok flows into the Jordan. It is indeed a desolation, a vast, undulating expanse

15:53 of barren, chalky soil covered with pebbles, broken stones, and rocks. Here and there a bit of brushwood appears, with snakes crawling underneath. It is clear, however, from Matthew 3.5 and John 1.28 that the terrain of John's activity extended even to the east bank of the

16:16 Jordan. So try to get the picture, a most unlikely place for profuse religious activity, a most unlikely place for profuse religious activity. So try to get the picture, a most unlikely place for profuse religious activity, far away from the temple in Jerusalem, the center of all the Jewish ritual and the priestly sacrifice and all the Levitical trappings, far away from the place where the official teachers, the scribes and Pharisees held court and expounded the law, far away from all formal, identifiable religious service, out in the barren, howling wastelands of Judea by the River Jordan,

16:54 John comes and is found engaging in calling men to submit to this watery rite, this ritual cleansing of baptism. Now this was his first activity, baptizing in the wilderness. But then joined to that activity, and never separate from it, he was found, according to the text, preaching the baptism of God. And he was found, according to the text, preaching the baptism of God.

17:24 Baptism of repentance unto remission of sins. And here you have a coordinating conjunction, joining the baptizing with the preaching. So that John was never found baptizing without preaching, he was never found preaching without baptizing. John came, and the John who came was always baptizing and always preaching. Never preaching without baptizing,

17:54 never baptizing without preaching. And he was never found baptizing without preaching. And Mark describes his preaching with the word that means he stood as a town crier. He came as a herald. He came as an officially designated messenger of the living God. And what did he

18:14 preach? Constantly joining this demand that men submit to this watery ritual cleansing, he preached, according to Mark, a baptism of repentance unto remission of sins. Now you see, Mark has used dense verbal shorthand. For each one of these words is pregnant with significance. And if we pass over them

18:40 carelessly, we will never understand the tremendous significance of John's ministry in conjunction with the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. Mark begins here, we must begin here, and carelessness or shoddiness in our understanding at this point will influence and affect all that follows in our exposition. So we must spare no pains to understand precisely what John was preaching. Look at the text. He was preaching a baptism of repentance. In other words, he was

19:18 preaching a demand to this watery ritual cleansing that focused on the baptism of repentance. And in this, we see how it was focused upon the spiritual exercise of repentance. And what does repentance mean? Well, fundamentally and etymologically, the word itself means a change of mind. But in its usage in the word of God, it means more than just a change of mind. We say,

19:44 well, I was planning to go see my Uncle Henry, but at three o'clock in the afternoon, I changed my mind and I went to see my cousin George. Well, it doesn't mean a change of mind. It means a change of mind. It means a change of mind. It means a change of mind. It means a change of mind. It means a

19:54 mind in that sense. It is nothing less than a change of mind and heart resulting in a totally transformed lifestyle. So when anyone came out to John's baptism and professed to repent, what did John tell them? He would say to them, bring forth therefore fruits worthy of your professed repentance. You see, in John's mind, repentance was not a surface readjustment of a few notions.

20:30 It was a fundamental and radical readjustment of the deepest springs of the heart, the mind, the affections, and the will, resulting in a total transformation of perspective and of lifestyle. So as John was sent before Christ to prepare a people for him, to begin to establish his faith, he was sent to prepare a people for him, to begin to establish his faith, to begin to establish his faith, to begin to establish his faith, to begin to establish his faith, to begin to establish the new community of God's people, the new Israel. His preaching made it plain that bloodlines were not enough. He made it plain that mere external formal identification with Abraham was not enough. So when the scribes and Pharisees came and he preached repentance,

21:15 and they said, oh well, we're repenting, he said, I don't believe you. Until there are fruits meet for repentance, there is no true repentance. He said, I don't believe you. Until there are fruits meet for repentance, there is no true repentance. And then he anticipated their objection. Ah, but we be

21:26 Abraham's seed. We have the covenant sign in our flesh. And he says to them, think not to say within yourself we have Abraham to our father, for God is able to raise up of these very stones children unto Abraham. It may have been enough for you to have proper bloodlines and the sign of God's covenant with national Israel to be included in the Israel of God as a nation. But ah,

21:52 the covenant with national Israel to be included in the Israel of God as a nation. The new people that my king is to establish, this one who is coming to usher in his kingdom, all who enter that kingdom must enter by a deep, pervasive, radical, spiritual upheaval, which John called repentance. He preached a baptism of repentance. And notice this repentance was unto or into or with reference to nothing less than remission of the kingdom of God.

22:23 He preached a baptism of repentance. He preached a baptism of repentance. He preached a baptism of sins. Now this word remit means to send away. The very word used in the Old Testament ritual in

22:30 Leviticus 16 in the Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible when it is said that the sins were pronounced over the live goat and he was sent away into the wilderness. That's the word that becomes a standard word for forgiveness of sins. It is God sending away our sins into the wilderness of his kingdom. of his own forgetfulness and what John preached you see was a repentance that was unto that was found in connection with the forgiveness the sending away the blotting out the removal of

23:08 sin so of course the basis of that removal of sin was not their repentance it was the work of Jesus Christ John himself as we'll see in our study God willing next Lord's day was continually pointing to Christ pointing men to believe on him to behold him who was the Lamb of God the basis on which sins are sent away is not the repentance of the sinner it is the work of Jesus Christ the one whom we shall see identifies himself with sinners in the ordinance of baptism formally and publicly lets the world know that he has come to be identified with us to live the perfect life we might

23:53 live then to undergo the awful baptism of Golgotha and be accursed of God that's the basis of the sending away of sin but John along with all of the prophets and apostles in our Lord lets his hearers know that the way of forgiveness is the way of true repentance the basis is the work of Christ but the way is the way of repentance and it's very very interesting for any who would say that John's preaching was legal preaching low preaching not gospel preaching it's very

24:32 significant that when Jesus gives the great Commission in Luke's gospel and I want you to turn there he has shed his blood he has risen from the dead he is now about to commission his own to preach the gospel to the ends of the earth notice what he tells them is to constitute the heart of their message. Luke 24, 46. And he said unto them, thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and rise again from the dead the third day. Now notice. And that repentance and, or better

25:14 translated, repentance unto remission of sin should be preached in his name among all the nations. Now this little phrase, repentance unto remission of sins, apart from the case of the word repentance, is an exact replica of the language of Mark 1. John preached a baptism, here's the language, of repentance unto remission of sins. When Jesus gives the great commission, he says to his own, preach unto me.

25:54 Among all the nations, repentance unto remission of sins. So John's preaching was not legal law preaching, it was gospel preaching. John preached repentance unto remission of sins, telling people to believe on him who was to come. We preach repentance unto remission of sins, telling them to believe on the one who has.

26:27 And there's the only difference. It is repentance unto remission of sins. For John's disciples, faith in the one who was to come. We preach the same message, saying, believe on him who has already come. And therefore on the day of Pentecost, what does Peter tell people

26:51 to do? Acts 2 and verse 38. Look at it. The first sermon preached after the descent of the Spirit.

26:58 On the day of Pentecost, and notice how this formula again greets us in all of its clarity and vigor. Sirs, what shall we do? They are smitten in their hearts as Peter preaches. And Peter responds in Acts 2.38, repent ye and be baptized every one of you in the name

27:23 of Jesus Christ unto the remission of sins. Love your sins and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. Repent, be baptized unto the remission of your sins. The language sound familiar? John preached a baptism of

27:46 repentance unto remission of sins. The language sound familiar? So you see, any efforts radically to sever John's ministry and message from the Holy Spirit is a sin. And if you don't believe in Jesus Christ, do the following.

28:04 And the Bible tells us that Peter's submission to the Holy Spirit is the sight that ceaseless hope and faith for the work of God. The Scripture. The Bible tells us that the Gospel of Jesus Christ has been given to one by Christ as the doctrine of His right hand to the world, the law of the earth, and the law of the earth. It is God's gospel and the gospel of the Holy Spirit.

28:26 The Gospel of Christ is not just the revelation as we know it in its full blown revelation. It is not only a contradiction of what Mark tells us. The beginning of the Gospel of Jesus given in that specimen sermon on the day of Pentecost. So when John came, he came baptizing, but he also came preaching. And what did he preach? He preached repentance unto the remission

The General Response to John's Ministry (Mark 1:5)

28:45 of sins. Well, so much then for that brief summary of the activities of John. He came, he was preaching, he was baptizing. Now, much more briefly, notice verse 5, the general response to the ministry of John. What was the general response to the ministry of John? Well, it's

29:07 given to us in two categories. It's right here in the text. Look at it. There went out unto him all the country of Judea. So we have a widespread resorting to the person and ministry of John.

29:21 There went out. Unto him all the country of Judea and of Jerusalem, and they were baptized of him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins. There was a widespread compliance with his message. So you see it. The general response to the ministry of John is given in two statements. First of all,

29:43 the widespread resorting to the person and ministry of John. There went out unto him all the country of Judea and of Jerusalem, and they were baptized of him in the river Jordan, all the country of Judea and literally all the Jerusalemites. Now, does that mean that every last single individual who dwelt in Judea in general and Jerusalem in particular, put on his sandals and made a trek out to the Jordan? Well, of course, it doesn't mean that at all. That would be ridiculous.

30:15 There's nothing to indicate that that would even be possible. You had cripples and bedridden people. But what it is saying is, is that there was this widespread resorting to John. Now think of this.

30:29 Here the word begins to spread in the centers of population that a strange-looking man preaching an unusual message, dressed in unusual garb and eating unusual food, is preaching a radical message. He's telling covenant people that they're filthy. He's telling people who are of the nation of Israel that they need to undergo a watery ritual of cleansing and that to be Abraham's seed is not enough, that they are to undergo a radical spiritual upheaval. And again, the form of the verbs that Mark uses, it's the picture of people continually coming out from all parts of Judea,

31:12 coming out to John. You notice the emphasis is upon resorting to his person. Perhaps Mark is indicating that there was a magnetism, not only in the spiritual energy of this man, but the sheer novelty of this man. Try to relive this.

31:28 Suppose you began to hear in your neighborhood that someone near a nearby dump was preaching from three o'clock in the morning until seven in the evening. I mean, you couldn't hear that for long without saying, hey, honey, I just got to go hear what this character is saying. I mean, the uniqueness of it all was such as to create a climate that was almost irresistible. And so Mark...

31:52 Mark tells us there was this widespread resorting to the person and to the ministry of John. But then we read that there was a widespread compliance with the message of John, that they were being baptized of him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins. Now notice the strict parallel between his message and their compliance. What did he preach?

32:18 He preached a baptism of repentance unto remission. What were they doing? Being baptized and confessing their sins. That is manifesting that they had indeed embraced his message.

32:31 They were not simply going through a formal external compliance. They were going down into the waters of baptism and in the very act of their being baptized, they were confessing their sins. They were acknowledging that in spite of all of their heritage and all of their privileges and all...

32:51 All of the rites and the ceremonies they had previously known, that they were filthy, they were unclean, they were defiled, they were sinners, they needed to repent, they needed forgiveness, and they were being baptized in the intelligent spiritual comprehension of what that watery rite signified. That as surely as they were plunged beneath the waters of Jordan, so they were now in their souls being plunged beneath the cleansing of God's mercy to rise in newness of life, to become identified with this new community of the coming King,

33:32 a community of those who have taken their posture as hopeless, helpless, vile, filthy sinners in need of the mercy and grace of God. Now does Mark mean to infer, that every single person who was baptized and confessed his sins was a true believer? Of course not. That's why I read from John chapter 5.

34:00 Just as Jesus had many temporary disciples who went back and walked no more, Jesus said to the Jews of his day, you were willing for a time to rejoice in the light that came out from John. And no doubt there were people who went merely through the...

34:17 Oh, who were caught up in the enthusiasm of this great crowd and massive movement, but giving all due allowance for hypocrites and insincere, and people who were simply caught along with the crowd of the activity. This much is plain, that John's ministry had a profound impact upon all Judea, and also upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem. So that as we read later on, in Mark's gospel of our Lord's ministry, we must not assume that the first time they had any contact with his emphasis upon heart religion,

34:58 the first time they ever heard of the necessity of repentance was from the lips of Jesus. Many of them would have heard from John the Baptist, and had undergone that watery rite, identifying themselves as sinners, unclean, undone, and looking to the coming one who was promised, in the very ministry of John. Well, so much then for the opening up of those two verses in which we have set before us the major activities of John. Do you see them in the text?

Application: God's Method for Advancing His Kingdom

35:29 He came, main verb, two participles, baptizing, preaching. After he came, these were his two great activities, continually baptizing, continually preaching. And then the general response to his ministry, widespread resorting to the person, and ministry of John, they went out to him. And may I say by an aside, that always happens in seasons of revival and quickening.

35:56 Men are drawn to the man upon whom God lays his hand. And it's not a personality cult, it's God's way of working through a man. And then there was widespread compliance with his message. Now then, you say, so, I see, pastor, that you've been honest with the text.

36:16 It seems very straightforward. Why in the world? That should take you hours. I don't know.

36:19 I think I could have got that together in 20 minutes. Well, try it sometime.

36:27 And be sure that you're giving due emphasis where God has given it. But now, what's the relevance of all of this to us? And in the time that remains, I want to draw out several lines of application. This passage, these words, are filled with tremendous implications in so many directions, I literally feel embarrassed by the riches of the passage, and so in the light of the time that remains, let me draw out several of these riches.

36:59 First of all, these words illustrate a vital principle pertaining to the advancement of the kingdom of Christ. The words we've studied this morning contain and illustrate a vital principle pertaining to the advancement of the kingdom of Christ. When God was about to do a new thing, what did He do? He sent a man.

37:27 John came. God is about to break into history in the person of His Son and in the subsequent descent of the Spirit to fulfill all of the promises that have gone before for centuries to constitute the new humanity in Christ. He's going to fulfill all the ancient prophecies that His people would be found among all the nations, among all the nations of the earth. And as God is about to break into history and do this new thing, Mark tells us in beautiful simplicity, John came.

38:07 Or in the language of the Gospel of John, there came a man sent from God. And that's always God's method. God's method is a man. When God would open His heart and manifest His mercy, either in turning His people away from certain destruction that will follow in the heels of their apostasy, or when He has come on an errand of mercy to set before men the gracious provisions of His grace, His method is a man.

38:44 You remember that in that situation in Israel in which there was almost total apostasy and one would wonder if indeed there were any nation in covenant with God, God's method was a man. Elijah the Tishbite appears on the scene, throws down the gauntlet, tells King Ahab, the heavens are shut up, and he sticks the key in his pocket and walks away.

39:09 And after three and a half years, the whole nation is bowed upon Mount Carmel, crying out, Jehovah, He is God. God's method was a man then. God's method was a man. When He is about to bring His only Son into public ministry to validate, to follow all of His claims and to accomplish His work, John, a mere man, John came, but a man who knew God, a man full of the Spirit, a man emptied of self, a man whose spirit is literally impregnated with the Word, bold, fear-flinching, humble and gracious.

39:51 At the height of His popularity, when so many were coming out, they were actually coming to Him and saying, Are you the Christ? Are you the Christ? Are you the Christ? Are you the prophet?

40:05 Who are you? You remember His answer? He said, I'm a voice. I'm just a voice.

40:11 Just a voice. And my voice points to another whose shoes I'm unworthy to unload. He must increase, I must decrease, but I'm a voice. And what a beautiful, archetypal picture of a Gospel preacher.

40:28 And when God would bless communities, and nations, when God would bless villages and hamlets in our own country, in the Philippines, in India, Sri Lanka, it matters not where it is, what does God do? He gets a man, impregnates his heart with the word of God, and by a strange and custom-made discipline teaches that man humility.

40:56 No man is fit to open his mouth in the name of a God who's not been taught that grace. He teaches him humility, makes him jealous for the honor and glory of his Savior, fills him at least in some measure with the spirit of boldness and fearlessness, and when such a man comes, it's the harbinger of grace and of blessing. If you have any concern for this poor, sin-sick generation, my friend, pray that God will mold and shape His men.

Application: The Heart of the Message of Salvation

41:33 Send them. But then in the second place, these words contain a distillation of the heart of the message of salvation. They contain a distillation of the very heart of the message of salvation. If you and I would be saved, what must we do?

41:55 Well, we must take the heart, the very message that John preached. What did he preach? A baptism of repentance unto remission of sins. He said to the people of his own generation, I don't care what you know, what you've done, where you've been, what rituals have been performed upon you or by you, all external privileges and rituals and performances are not enough.

42:21 If you would enter the kingdom of the coming one, you must take the place of a guilty, vile, helpless, polluted sinner who deserves the wrath of God. And you must be prepared to confess your sins. Not to sin. Some priest, John was not a priest by the river, setting up a little booth and asking people to come in and whisper their sins into his ears.

42:46 They were confessing their sins to God, but so broken they didn't care who else heard.

42:55 They weren't just sneaking out a little reluctant acknowledgement. Oh, I haven't done everything I should.

43:01 They were baptized of him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins. You read in Luke that they cried out. What should we do to show that? We've truly repented of our sins.

43:12 And John didn't fool around with them. You talk about pointed, specific application. He said, you tax collectors, you crooked bunch, this is what you do. And you soldiers, you're known to be this.

43:22 This is what you do. He didn't fool around with them.

43:27 And there's a beautiful exemplification of the very heart of the gospel message. And that message is you must own your sinfulness. You must turn your back upon your pride and self-sufficiency and acknowledge that in you there is no good. There is no good.

43:41 There is no good. There is nothing that can command you to God and be prepared openly to acknowledge yourself a sinner in need of God's saving mercy in Jesus Christ. There must be a transformation of life flowing out of that repentance and that faith. And so in a very real sense, the words we've examined this morning contain a distillation of the very heart of the message of salvation, though with the coming of our Lord in his actual dying and being buried and raised from the dead.

44:14 The message is more fulsome now as to the fulfillment of historical events. John did not stand by Jordan and say Christ died for our sins. Christ was buried. Christ was raised.

44:30 John said, behold, the lamb who's taking away the sin of the world. Behold, the coming one, the son of God, the one who will impart the spirit. Yes, there. There has been a more fulsome ingredient to the gospel we now preach, but it's the same gospel.

Application: The Framework for All Baptismal Practice and Theology

44:49 The heart of the gospel is in these words. Repent unto the remission of your sins. And then in the third place, these words constitute the framework for all baptismal practice and theology.

45:07 And I ask you to hear me carefully. These words constitute the framework. Not an exhaustive statement, but the framework for all baptismal practice and theology. Baptism is an ordinance of the New Testament.

45:28 So says our confession. So says the Presbyterian confession, the Westminster confession of faith. The first mention of baptism is in conjunction with John's baptism. According to Scripture, there is a continuity.

45:43 And a conjunction between John's baptism and Christian baptism, John chapter 4, verses 1 and 2, make this abundantly clear. And what are the major ingredients of John's baptism? Number one, it was always attended with preaching. He came baptizing and preaching.

46:06 Continually baptizing, continually preaching. What do we learn from that? We learn from that that baptism is never to be ignored. It is to be administered as some kind of a superstitious, undefined, unexegeted ritual.

46:20 The Word stands over the sacrament to give its significance. He preached as he baptized. Preaching was always joined to baptizing and baptizing to preaching. That's the first great lesson we learn about the framework of baptismal practice and theology.

46:43 And whenever you see a reverend, or a priest, baptizing, who does not open the Word of God and from the Word of God runs the plague itself.

46:59 It's an empty ritual.

47:03 People go to hell clinging to the superstition of their baptism.

47:10 John came and baptized. And it is the Word that opens up the significance of the sacrament. And the sacrament only has significance as it stands under the direction, the perspective, and categories of the Word. The second thing under this heading.

47:31 Inseparably joined to repentance and confession of sin and entrance into the new community of God's people. Baptism was inseparably joined to repentance. He preached a baptism of repentance. Baptism is never to be ignored.

47:58 Not properly administered in any other context but that of repentance. And until we are prepared to say that infants in arms are penitent, they have no right or claim to baptism. This is the category God established, not baptism. God has spoken to us in His Word.

48:26 The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, Son of God. John came preaching and baptizing. Preaching a baptism of repentance. And there is not one text in the rest of the New Testament that gives us any other category for baptism but a category of conscious repentance.

48:49 Not one! That's why the great theologian and exegete, albeit a Presbyterian, Warfield, says the New Testament is silent on the practice of infant baptism. He knew his New Testament well and was honest. Now, dear people, that's not being nasty.

49:09 It's being biblical. And if God established this framework for baptism, woe be unto us if we alter it! For He established it that the new community that He is forming might never be blurred. And that's been one of the curses of infant baptism.

49:28 It has blurred the nature of the new covenant. You don't come into it by blood. You are born into it from above. Not of blood.

49:39 Not of the will of the flesh. Not of the will of man. But of God. And until the new birth is manifested in repentance and faith, there is to be no watery ritual of any kind.

49:55 Baptism is always to be joined to preaching. Baptism is inseparably joined to repentance. And I say no later revelation cancels out that fundamental framework. But then my final point about baptism.

Application: The Nature of the New Israel of God

50:12 My final point of application is this. These words demonstrate the nature of the new Israel of God. You see, John was the forerunner to begin to prepare a people for the Lord Jesus. The people that would eventually be known as His church in all of the glory of that New Testament use of the word.

50:36 And John is the forerunner. John in his ministry demonstrates the nature of the new Israel of God. The new covenant community composed of only those who have experienced repentance unto life. Those who in spite of what their past has been, religious or irreligious, moral or immoral, all come to the same watery rite in which they stand together as foul and unclean.

51:09 They are clean and needing the mercy and cleansing of God. So that publicans who were almost regarded as non-Jews. Remember Jesus said, let him be to thee as a heathen and a what? Publican?

51:23 So even publicans regarded as almost non-Jews would go down in the same watery rite as that Pharisee who was a Jew of the Jews. And what were they saying? They were saying in spite of all the external differences that mark us, we are one in our sinnerhood. One in our lostness.

51:43 One in our need of a changed heart. One in our need of divine grace through the coming Redeemer. And oh may God grant that in our generation we shall see again as I believe we've begun to see communities of such people who meet as we meet this morning and began our worship how? With the reading of Psalm 38.

52:07 Acknowledging that many a time we come and our hearts are bowed down with the sense of our sin. We sit here this morning in a community of felt undone-ness. Do we not? I preach to you as one who is in community with you in my felt undone-ness.

52:28 Would to God that I could look back over the past week and say that I had no sins that need to be washed in the blood of Christ. I have no failures that need to be purged away. I have no stingings of conscience for words and thoughts and deeds contrary to the law of God. But I cannot take that posture.

52:50 So I with you have drawn near to God confessing our sin, acknowledging our lostness. What about our precious children? Well, they're lost too. Yes, they're lost.

53:04 That's why we pray for them and instruct them. But are they part of this community that having seen its lostness has in the way of God's appointment openly declared the acceptance of God's indictment against us? Confessed that in union with Christ our sins are blotted out. We have died with Him to sin into the world and risen to newness of life.

53:30 Are our children by virtue of being born in our family entitled to be marked with the sign of that community? No! They have no title to this community until they manifest that by grace they're a part of this community. Does that mean we don't love them?

54:04 If we don't love them, why do we dress them and carry them to Sunday school? Why have we worked with them all week to teach them Bible verses and catechism and pray with them? Away with that! That's a straw man!

54:17 That's a straw man! Because we won't include them in the community and give them the sign of entrance, we don't love them! That's not true. That's bearing false witness.

54:30 We love them too much to deceive them into thinking because they came from our human. They have a right to that community. We love them enough to tell them that they're lost. They're lost and undone.

54:47 And they're outside that new community. Until by repentance unto remission of sins, they come in. And that's what John began to announce. That's the nature of the new covenant community.

55:06 Are you a part of that community? Have you owned your sin? Confessed it to God? Looked for His mercy through Christ?

55:17 If so, then declare it in the way of His appointment. Come not to the wilderness of Judea and to the water of Jordan. But come. Just come to any place where there's enough water.

55:31 And come and acknowledge yourself to be lost and undone whose only hope of mercy is in Christ. And we welcome you into that community as God, through Jesus Christ, welcomes you in the Gospel. The beginning of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, Son of God. And then we see the Old Testament roots of John's ministry this morning.

Conclusion and Prayer

55:57 This basic, simple summary of John's ministry. His major activities. He came baptizing and preaching. The response to his ministry.

56:09 Widespread resorting to his person. And then widespread response to his message. May God write upon our hearts the vital lessons coming from this portion of his word. That we may, as we sang at the beginning, at the beginning of the ministry of the word, mark and heed his holy word.

56:32 Let us pray. Our Father, we thank you for your grace in laying hold of this man, John. Even from his mother's womb, working in him mightily and powerfully in that most unusual way. Early drawing him into an intimate knowledge of yourself.

57:02 Disciplining him in the loneliness of that Judean wilderness. And then causing your word to come to him at the proper time. We thank you that our Lord could say of him, of those born of woman, there is none greater than John the Baptist. We thank you for his fearlessness, his faithfulness, his humility.

57:24 And we pray that we may learn from his message and ministry, those lessons that are so vital to us as a community of your people. Lord, use your word. Write it upon all of our hearts. May the blessings of your grace rest upon us as we leave this building.

57:45 We ask for the sake of our Savior and for the good of our own souls. Amen.