If you have your Bible with you, you can open the Matthew chapter
3, continuing our sermon series in the Gospel of Matthew titled
The King and this Kingdom. We had started last week, a
little subsection of this we're calling the King's preparation.
So we're going to see a little bit more this morning about the
King's preparation. All right, we came to Matthew
chapter 3 last week. But as we mentioned some last
week, when you come to Matthew 3, the spotlight widens just a
little bit. The years of silence give way to
public revelation, and we begin to see some things about Christ
here publicly. And so John the Baptist, as we
saw last week, appears in the wilderness.
He's preparing the way of the Lord.
He's calling Israel to repentance.
He's pointing forward to one who is greater than himself.
And so the king is no longer hidden, but he has not yet begun
to preach. He's not yet healed anyone.
He's not confronted the powers of darkness in any way that
we've seen before. The king acts publicly.
Matthew shows us something far more foundational, and he's he's
revealing something for us. And that is that the king is
being prepared. He's being commissioned, he's
being confirmed for his ministry.
And so in this passage, Jesus steps forward, but he steps
forward not in a way that he's going to claim a throne
immediately. He's stepping forward to submit
to baptism. He's he's not stepping forward
to display power immediately. He's stepping forward to fulfill
righteousness as he will explain.
And so as he does, heaven itself responds to this moment.
The Spirit descends, the Father speaks, the identity and mission
of Jesus are publicly declared before his ministry ever gets
underway. And so this moment at the Jordan
is, it's not incidental, all right?
It's, it's not happening by accidents or anything like that.
This, this moment at the Jordan is essential.
It's, it's very important. It tells us who Jesus is, it
tells us how he will carry out his mission, and it tells us
from where His authority is coming from.
So it prepares us for what immediately follows in chapter
4, which will be a time of testing and temptation and
opposition in the wilderness. And so with that in mind, if
you're able, would you please stand as we read and hear the
word of the Lord from Matthew 3 verses 13 through 17, Matthew
313 through 17. Then Jesus came from Galilee to
the Jordan to John to be baptized by him.
John would have prevented him, saying, I need to be baptized by
you and do you come to me. But Jesus answered him, let it
be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all
righteousness. Then he consented, and when
Jesus was baptized, immediately he went up from the water, and
behold, the heavens were open to him, and he saw the Spirit of
God descending like a dove and coming to rest on him.
And behold, a voice from heaven said, This is my beloved son,
with whom I am well pleased. This is the word of the Lord.
Thanks be to God, let's pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you
for the for this day that you grant us each week, the Lord's
Day, a time to come and together with the Saints for worship.
Lord, as we sing and as we pray and as we hear your word
preached, as we fellowship before and after God, we know
that you are working in US. You're working through US, and
the the most powerful moments of the whole thing is when we open
up your word to read it and to hear you speak to us directly
from it. And so, Father, we thank you for
the gift of the Word of God and that you have spoken and
revealed yourself to us. We find all that is necessary
for salvation and a life of godliness written here.
And so, Lord, as we read these words today, would you conform
us more and more into the image of Christ your Son?
Would you convict us of sin? Would you help us to see where
we lack dependence? Would you open our eyes and help
us to understand your Word? Father, we're asking that you be
with us in power by your Spirit today as we proclaim your word.
And Lord, we are dependent upon that.
So in the name of Christ, we ask, Amen.
Amen may be seated. So if if you're honest, all
right, look at you're Christian, so hopefully you are all right.
But if you're honest, many of us would confess to being wired to
look for approval after something has been accomplished.
All right, you, you help around the house, men, you do some
dishes, you sweep some floors, something to that effect.
And you immediately want it to be known to your wife that you
helped, right? We look for approval after
something has been accomplished. Often times we expect some sort
of an affirmation once the work is done, once the results are
visible and it can clearly be seen that success can be
measured, right? We, we look for approval in
those settings. Well, that's often how the world
works, all right. That's, that's often how we
think about things in the world. And if we're not careful, we'll
take that lens of the world and apply it to our relationship
with the Lord, and we'll begin to think that God works this way
as well. All right.
But here at the Jordan, what happens is, is that thinking is
turned completely on its head. All right.
Jesus has not yet preached a sermon, He's not yet performed a
miracle, He's not yet confronted Satan, healed the sick, or gone
to the cross. So we'll see all those things
throughout this gospel, but he hasn't done those things yet.
And yet before any of that happens, heaven opens to the
Lord, the Spirit descends, the Father speaks words of approval
and delights. And what Matthew wants us to see
is that the public ministry of Jesus is grounded not in self
assertion, right? And it's it's not that Christ
shows up on the same and begins to assert himself.
It's, it's not even granted through some sort of public
achievements, but it's granted in obedience, divine
empowerments and divine approval.
And so the moment that we see here in the text is not about
Jesus becoming something he was not.
It's about the Father publicly declaring to the world who he is
and commissioning him for the work that he sent him to do.
It's the commissioning of Christ.
And that brings us to the heart of the passage and to what I
think might be the main point of the sermon today, which is this.
The the Father affirms and the Spirit anoints the Son as the
King who fulfills all righteousness.
The Father affirms and the Spirit anoints the Son as the
king who fulfills all righteousness.
Now, Matthew's going to show us this truth in three clear
movements. First, we're going to see the
king submitting willingly, obediently, to fulfill all
righteousness. Second, we'll see the King
anointed as the Spirit descends upon him for ministry.
And 3rd, we will hear the King affirmed as the Father declares
his pleasure in his beloved Son. Now this is not only a
revelation of who Jesus is, but it's a reminder of how God
works. That's where it's going to be
important for us. That's where the text presses
home. Kind of an implication or
application for us today. God works through humble
obedience. He works through spirit given
power. He works through integrity or
sorry, an identity grounded in divine approval, right?
So let's walk through the scene carefully.
Let's learn what God is showing us about his King and about life
lived under his king #1 the King submits to fulfill all
righteousness. Look again at verses 13 and 15.
Then Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to John to be
baptized by him. Then John, sorry, John would
have prevented him saying, I need to be baptized by you and
do you come to me. But Jesus answered him, let it
be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all
righteousness. Then John consented, All right,
so Matthew tells us right out of the gate, Jesus came from
Galilee to the Jordan to John to be baptized by him.
Now that simple sentence is loaded with a lot of meaning.
Jesus doesn't stumble into the moment.
It's not accidental. As I said earlier, it's not even
impulsive. He, he comes intentionally.
He, he comes traveling a considerable distance to present
himself for baptism, right? And immediately we get the
tension of the scene. John sees him and John objects.
He knows enough to know that something is off, right?
John has been calling centers, centers to repentance.
He has been warning Pharisees and Sadducees.
He has spoken of one who's coming after him who is mightier
than he, one who will baptize with the Holy Spirit and fire.
And now that one that he's been the forerunner for, that one is
now standing in front of him asking to be baptized.
So you can feel the tension, right?
John's protest is theologically sound.
I need to be baptized by you. And do you come to me for
baptism? Right.
In other words, this is backwards.
I need you to baptize me in the Spirit.
You're the one that I've been pointing forward to.
Why are you coming to me now? If baptism is a sign of
repentance, then John should be the one in the water, not Jesus.
And, and John is right as far as it goes.
Jesus has no sin to confess. He, he has no repentance to
perform. He has he, He does not come to
John because he lacks righteousness.
He's the Son of God. He's fully God, fully man,
right? He comes precisely because he is
committed to fulfilling righteousness.
And so Jesus responds, Let it be so now.
For thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.
Now that word fitting matters. This is not optional.
This is not symbolic theater, right?
This is what obedience requires. Here.
Righteousness does not mean moral improvement as we might
think. Righteousness here means perfect
conformity to the will of the Lord, right?
He's conforming himself to the Father's will.
Don't miss this, right? Jesus submits the baptism, not
because he needs cleansing, but because the Father has ordained
his path. The Father is directing him.
He identifies publicly with sinners in the water in order to
stand in their place, right? This is the first clear act of
what theologians often call Christ active obedience, right?
Jesus is not only righteous by nature, he is righteous by
actions. And he does that which is right.
And think about it. He's obeying where Adam has
failed, right? He, he's listening to the
Father. He's obeying the Father.
He submits where Israel rebelled in the Old Testament.
He he steps into the waters where sinners stand because he
has come to bear their burden. Remember Matthew chapter 1,
Jesus. He shall call his name Jesus,
for he will save his people from their sins, right?
John Calvin explains it this way, said Christ had not come to
baptism because he needed cleansing, but because he
willingly numbered himself among sinners in order to bear their
sins. This is why Jesus comes.
That's exactly what's happening here.
The King begins his public ministry by standing shoulder to
shoulder with those he has come to redeem, right?
Jesus does not bear sin judicially at this baptism,
right? He he does so substitutionally
and finally at the cross. But his baptism is the beginning
of that sin bearing mission. It's not the completion of it,
and we should not miss how countercultural this is in this
time, even for our time, right? Kings do not normally begin
their reign this way. They ascend Thrones, there's a
lot of pageantry. They assert authority, they
demand loyalty from the people. This King, our King, our Lord,
he bows first, right? He submits himself to the
Father, He obeys the Father. He fulfills righteousness
quietly, humbly, deliberately, right?
There's no voice from heaven yet.
There's no spirit descending like a dove yet.
There's no public affirmation yet.
At this moment, all Jesus has is the Father's will and his own
obedience. And that's enough, right?
That alone should speak powerfully to you and I today.
All right, the Lord commands obedience.
John 15. If you love me, you will obey my
commandments. But how often do we want clarity
before obedience? What's obedience going to cost
me? What's obedience going to do to
my reputation? What benefit is there in
obedience? Because the desires of my own
heart seem pretty pleasant at the moment.
All right. We often want clarity before
obedience. We want affirmation before we
will submit. We want to know how things are
going to turn out before we step forward in faith.
But Jesus shows us another way. He shows us the gospel way.
He shows us the righteous way. He obeys, first trusting the
Father completely. Now for believers in here, this
challenges us to ask a question. Are we willing to obey God
simply because it is fitting to do so?
So if you head nods, Amen. Are we willing to obey God
because it is fitting to do so? What about when obedience is
misunderstood? What about when obedience
humbles you, crushes you? What about when obedience costs
you a reputation or comforts? And for those who are tempted to
see obedience as burdensome or unnecessary, this passage
reminds us that our salvation rests on the perfect obedience
of our Savior. Christ did not merely die for
you, brothers and sisters. He lived for you.
He fulfilled all righteousness on your behalf.
But the story doesn't stop at submission.
Because as soon as Jesus comes up from the water, heaven
responds. Obedience gives way to
empowerments. Submission is followed by
anointing, and that brings us to the next movement in the text,
where we see not only a submissive king, but an anointed
king. Point #2 The king is anointed by
the Spirit for ministry. Verse 16, Right?
So Matthew now moves us from the waters of submission to the
scene of divine action, and he writes this.
And when Jesus was baptized, immediately he went up from the
water, and behold, the heavens were open to him, and he saw the
Spirit of God descending like a dove and coming to rest on him.
Again, this timing matters. When Jesus comes up from the
water after obedience, then heaven opens to him.
Now this is not accidental sequencing.
Matthew wants us to see that the path of submission is followed
by divine commissioning, right? That the opening of the heavens
is biblical shorthand for revelation and divine
initiative. This is not Jesus grasping at
authority. This is heaven acting
decisively. God is making clear what is
happening here is his work done his way according to his plan.
Amen. And then the Spirit descends.
The Spirit comes like a dove. What that means is it doesn't
come violently, it doesn't come chaotically.
It doesn't come in any other way like that.
It comes gently and visibly. The language is careful.
Matthew doesn't say that the Spirit was a dove, as we might
often misunderstand, but that it descended on Christ like a dove.
The image here communicates peace.
It communicates purity. It communicates divine presence.
If you're familiar with the Old Testament, it also calls to mind
earlier moments in redemptive history.
If you think back to creation, Genesis chapter 1, we see there
that the Spirit hovered over the waters before creation.
If you think about the flood, and after the flood waters begin
to subside, the dove comes to Noah and signals a new
beginning. Now here again, a new chapter is
beginning. It's God's saving work through
Christ the King. But we must be clear about what
this annoying anointing is and what it is not.
This is not the moment when Jesus becomes divine, all right.
He's always been the eternal Son of God.
He's always shared divinity with the Father and the Spirit.
This also is not the first time the Spirit has been active in
his life. All right from conception, where
he was conceived by the Spirit, Jesus has lived in perfect
fellowship with the Spirit. So what is happening here?
Well, this is a public anointing for public ministry, right?
In the Old Testament, kings and prophets and priests were
anointed with oil to signify define us appointments.
I hear the true and final anointed. 1 The Messiah receives
not oil, but the Spirit himself. This is the fulfillment of
promises that we find in Isaiah chapter 42.
Behold my servants, whom I behold my chosen, and whom my
soul delights. I have put my Spirit upon him.
So Jesus is being commissioned as the Spirit anointed King, and
we shouldn't miss the the, the, the profound humility of this
moment. Jesus is fully divine.
And though he's fully divine, Jesus chooses to carry out his
ministry in dependence upon the Spirit of God.
He does not bypass human weakness by divine prerogative.
He does not minister independently of the Spirit.
He submits himself to the Father's will and relies upon
the Spirit's power. Again, Calvin is helpful.
He explains this. He says Christ did not lack
power in himself, but willingly carried out his ministry.
Independence upon the Spirit, teaching us that God's work is
accomplished by God's power. So everything that flows well
before we get there, we want to understand that this insight is
deeply pastoral. Jesus models us for us what
faithful obedience looks like. It's not self-reliance, it's God
dependence. All right.
He's dependent upon the Father. And so everything that follows
in Jesus's ministry from this point, his teaching, his
miracles, his compassion, his endurance and suffering, and so
many other things, those things are carried out in the power of
the Spirit of God, all right, Even his temptation in the
wilderness, which we'll look at next week, all right, He will be
faced as one who is full of the Holy Spirit.
Again, the application is encouraging and humbling for us.
Maybe you find yourself engaged in ministry.
Maybe you find yourself in leadership.
Maybe you're married, Maybe you're parents, you're a church
member. All right, some other form of
faithful living going on in your life, right?
This passage reminds us that God's work must be done in God's
strength, that it must be spirit empowered work that we engage
in. It must be dependent upon the
Spirit of God in every way, in everything that he calls us to.
Why? Why is that important?
You say, Well, I'm I'm zealous. A zeal without dependence leads
to burnout, right? You will flame out if your zeal
is not tethered to dependence upon Christ and the Spirit of
God. Maybe you have a lot of skills.
The Lord has gifted you in many ways.
Well, skill without dependence on the Spirit leads to pride.
We become like King Uzziah, gifted in many, many ways, yet
we begin to convince ourselves that this work belongs to us,
but become prideful, and so we crash.
Any sort of spiritual activity, any good works without prayer
will lead to emptiness. It must be dependent upon the
Spirit of God through prayer, that we don't find ourselves
empty as we labor and toil and keep our hand to the plow,
right? And maybe you're a weary
believer, You're tired. If you're a weary believer, this
is really good news for you, right?
The same Spirit who anointed Christ, we're told Ephesians,
one now indwells his people. We're not called to obedience in
our own strength. No, we're called the faithful
dependence upon the Spirit of God who freely gives, right.
As we work faithfully, as we commit ourselves to be faithful
men and women and boys and girls of the Lord, we can trust that
the Spirit helps us freely. He's a comforter.
He's a helper. But Matthew isn't finished yet,
right? There's an as extraordinary as
the Spirit's descension is, it's not the climax of the scene by
any means. Heaven has opened, but now
heaven will speak, right? And that, that brings us to this
final, most probably the most intimate moment of this passage,
where the king is not only anointed, but he's affirmed.
The king is affirmed by the Father as his beloved Son.
Point #3 So Matthew now brings us to the climax of the scene.
After the King submits in the spirit the sins, we hear the
Father speak. And what does he say?
He says and behold, Or Matthew writes and behold, a voice from
heaven said, This is my beloved Son with whom I am well pleased.
I want you to understand Jesus didn't get some private
impression. There wasn't some inward feeling
here. This is an audible public
decoration from heaven itself. God the Father speaks, and when
God speaks here, he tells us exactly how we are to understand
everything that has just taken place.
So we must notice, what does the Father say?
Well, first he begins with the declaration.
This is my Son. He's not merely A servant.
He's not merely a prophet, a priest, or a king.
He doesn't come as those who have come before him.
This is the Son, the unique, eternal Son of God.
And the language here, this is my son.
It echoes Psalm 2, which is a great royal Psalm, but it's
Messianic in its purpose. We read, there you are my son.
Today I have begotten you. So Matthew wants us to see that
Jesus is not assuming kingship. He's being declared as the
rightful king. Then the Father adds, he says,
this is my son, my beloved son. This is the language of deep
affection and delight. The word beloved does not merely
describe relationship, it it expresses pleasure and love.
I I can't love my sons with a perfect love, but I, I do see
them as my beloved sons. I'm pleased by them and I love
them ferociously. This is not reluctant approval.
This is joyful affirmation from the father to his son for the
public to hear. And then the father goes
further, with whom I am well pleased.
Just a side note, Dad's in the room today.
How often do you tell your kids I love you and I'm pleased with
you or I'm proud of you? However often it is, it isn't
often enough. Say it often.
Our children need to hear this from their Father often.
But the phrase with whom I'm well pleased is doing enormous
theological work. Again, it draws us to Isaiah 42,
which I read earlier. Behold my Servant, whom I uphold
my chosen, and whom my soul delights.
In one sentence the Father unites sonship and servanthood.
He brings them together in one sentence.
In one sentence He's showing us kingship and suffering,
authority and obedience, and he's bringing them together and
he's saying, this is my son, my beloved son, with whom I'm well
pleased. But again, don't miss the timing
of the statement. Jesus has not yet preached He.
He's not yet healed. He's not yet confronted Satan or
endured the cross. Yet the Father is already well
pleased with his Son. This tells us something
essential about Jesus, and it's really again, it's deeply
pastoral for you and me. The Father's approval rests upon
the Son before public success, visible fruit, or costly
suffering. The Father's approval rests upon
the Son before those things. The pleasure of God is grounded
in who Jesus is and in His perfect obedience, not in
measurable outcomes. John Calvin again commenting on
this passage. He notes this.
Don't miss it. The Father's declaration was
given not because Christ needed assurance, but so that we might
know with certainty who Christ is and how firmly God delights
in His Son. You understand this voice from
heaven is not for Jesus insecurity.
He's sure of who he is. He's sure of what the Father has
called him to do. He's walking obediently.
It's not for his insecurity, it's for our confidence that
Christ is the Messiah and he's the Savior.
He's the Lord, He's God's anointed king.
This is where the gospel begins. The Gospel of Mark Matthew
begins to press in on us. So many people live under this
quiet burden of needing approval, needing to prove
themselves to others, to God, to people around them, even to
themselves. And it's a burden that cannot be
cast off. But approval is chased through
performance. It's chased through
productivity. How productive can I be?
How many things can I get my hands?
And how many people can I make sure see my work right?
It's it's tied to visible success.
But here at the Jordan with Christ, we are shown a different
order. Identity precedes activity.
Approval precedes suffering. Sonship precedes service.
And for believers, this is profoundly comforting because if
we are united to Christ by faith, then the Father's
pleasure in the Son becomes the ground for your acceptance.
As Romans 8 says, we no longer cry out in fear.
We don't have to cower in fear of God.
We cry ABBA Father. He's our Father because of the
work of Christ, because of the work of the Spirit in us to
regenerate us and give us new life and a right spirit with
God, a desire for righteousness. Still at war with the flesh,
absolutely. But walking set free in our
minds to walk in the Spirit of God freely.
And we can think because we're at war with the flesh, that
anytime our flesh wins and we commit sins, that the Father
disapproves of us, that he's casting us out, that we are now
condemned. You have to understand, it's the
most freeing thing you can understand that the approval we
receive, the reconciliation we have with God is not tethered to
our obedience, but to Christ. He obeyed perfectly.
And so if you're united to Christ by faith, then the
pleasure that the Father shows and the Son becomes your ground
for acceptance. You're not accepted because your
obedience is perfect, Brothers and sisters, you're accepted
because Christ obedience is perfect.
And again, for those Christians among us, myself, at times you
feel like you're in the wilderness.
You're thirsty and hungry. You you're weary, you're
discouraged. You're tempted to believe that
God is only pleased with you when you are doing well.
This passage presses gently but firmly to correct that lie.
The Christian life has lived from God's approval in Christ,
not for God's approval. And so Matthew is preparing us
for what comes next, because the very next scene will take this
affirmed Son into the wilderness to be tempted and tried.
The voice of the Father will be followed by the voice of the
tempter. And when Satan questions Jesus's
identity, if you are the Son of God, Jesus will stand firm,
anchored, and what He is what has already been declared about
him. And this is where the scene
leaves us. The King has submitted in
obedience. The King has been anointed by
the Spirit. The King has been affirmed by
the Father. He's ready to face the
wilderness. He's ready to begin his public
ministry. He's ready to go to the cross
and endure the suffering and shame of it.
He's ready to suffer death for us and to be raised to life.
He's ready not because he lacks weakness.
We're going to see Christ suffer.
He's ready because he rests securely in the Father's will
and in the Father's pleasure. And it's from that place of
divine approval that he will now go forward into the wilderness.
And so as we step back from the waters of the Jordan, we step
away from the scene just a little bit, we can see the
picture that Matthew has been carefully painting for us.
We we've seen the king. Well, first we saw his
miraculous birthright. We've seen the ways in which God
worked to bring him into the world, but also to protect him
from those who would seek to harm him.
And now we have seen the King submits, not because he lacked
righteousness, but because he came to fulfill it.
We've seen the King anointed not because he lacked power, but
because he would carry out his mission, independence upon the
spirits. And we have heard the King
affirmed by the Father, not after success or sacrifice,
those things are coming, but before them as the beloved Son
in whom the Father is well pleased.
And all of this presses home this great truth of the passage.
The Father affirms and the Spirit anoints the Son as the
King who fulfills all righteousness.
Now this moment is not merely a beautiful Trinitarian scene when
we see all the members of the Godhead at work.
It is a public confirmation of Jesus identity and mission.
The King is ready, the path is set.
The work of redemption is about to unfold in the rest of the
gospel. And now the question is
unavoidable for you and I. What will you do with this king?
For believers, this passage
calls us back to the pattern of the Christian life.
We're tempted again to reverse the order, to seek affirmation
before obedience, to seek power before submission, and to seek
clarity before faithfulness. But Christ shows us the better
way. He shows us that the life, that
the life that honors God, is marked by humble obedience,
dependent trust, and a rest in God's approval through Christ.
So believing brother or sister, let me ask you plainly, are you
obeying God where he has already clearly spoken?
Not, not where it's easy, not where it's celebrated the most
and the platform builds. Are you serving God where it is
costly? Where it's quiet and often
unseen. I I don't want you to wait for a
sign from heaven before you obey.
God has spoken. There's your sign.
Christ obeyed first, and heaven responded.
And for those of you who are not in Christ, you're unbelievers,
whether young or old, this passage presses a more urgent
call on you. The same Jesus who stands in the
waters today will one day stand as judge.
The King who is submitting himself now to the Father's will
will one day return in glory. And the righteousness that he
fulfilled is the righteousness that you do not have, but you
desperately need it. And the good news is this.
The King who fulfilled all righteousness did so for
sinners. He did so for those who were
once far off. He lived the life you could not
live. He went to the cross that you
deserved. And He now calls you not to fix
yourself. He calls you to repent of your
sins, to believe that Christ is Lord, to confess it with your
mouth, and to bow to him as King.
And so I urge you, do not delay, Do not harden your heart.
God has spoken clearly about His Son, and so to reject Him is not
neutrality any longer. For you it's rebellion.
You understand that today all of us, believers, unbelievers, we
must hear the voice of the Father.
We must look to the obedience of His Son.
We must trust in the work that He has done, and we must respond
with repentance and faith and joyful obedience.
The King has been revealed to us.
Now the question is no longer who he is, but whether we will
obey him. Would you bow with me in prayer?
Heavenly Father, we thank you greatly, deeply for your word.
We thank you for what we see of Christ here, His obedience, His
submission, His anointing, His affirm, His affirmation.
God, you are clearly revealing in this passage who your Son is.
We see that He's the Savior of all who will call upon His name,
of all who will submit themselves to His rule.
And so, Father, I ask 1st for my fellow believers, the church
here, would you help us to obey Christ?
Would you help us to joyfully submit our lives to him?
Would you help us to look into every area of our life, whether
it's again as a churchman, a father, a husband, a wife, a
mother, whether it's as an employee, whether it's as a a
citizen? What if it says a friend,
whatever it may be? Would you help us to look into
every area of our lives and to be honest in our evaluation of
those areas as we ask the question, Am I submitting myself
fully to the Lord? Is he Lord of my thoughts?
Is he Lord of my words? Is he Lord of my actions?
Is he Lord of my heart and my mind and my soul and all my
strength? And Lord, where we find fault,
will we find that we have come up short of righteousness?
Would you help us to be quick to repent and depend upon the Lord
and the Father? Would you fill each of us with
your Spirit that we might walk by faith, that we might walk in
the Spirit each day, that we might put to death the deeds of
the flesh, that we might glorify Your great name and to do and do
good to those around us? Father, I pray for any
unbelievers in here again, whether they're young or old.
I ask the Father that you would open their eyes, open their
heart to see Christ, to see their need for a Saviour, to see
that they're guilty of sin, they're guilty of rebellion to a
holy, just, perfect, loving, gracious, merciful God.
And would you help them repent and to have faith?
Would you grant them faith in Christ?
Would you call them to yourself and let nothing hinder them from
coming to you? Would you reconcile them, Father
by Christ, by his work, by his life and death and resurrection?
Would you reconcile them by washing them with the Spirit,
granting them new life so that they might walk with Christ?
I'm going to give you a moment now there in your seat to spend
a moment in prayer, reflect on the message, the sermon, the
text, and to respond in faith and repentance and obedience
this morning. Heavenly Father, we thank you
for the fullness of your mercy and your grace and your truth
and your glory that we have received in Christ Jesus.
And though the text today was short, it declares so much about
who Christ is and what he has come to do.
And it's an example to us for our own obedience.
And so would you kill any pride in US?
Would you? Would you kill any desire to be
seen by others that we might have?
Would you kill this idea that we have to work for your approval?
God help us to see that we work from your approval, that you
have approved your Son. This work is good, it's
complete, it's finished, and on the cross he took our
unrighteousness upon himself so that he might give to us his own
righteousness to make us coheirs with Himself, to reconcile us to
the Father, to God. We stand in that redemption.
God help us to realize that as we live for you.
It's in the name of Christ I pray.
Amen. Amen.