Exalting Christ
Communion Fellowship Church Podcast
John 3:22-36 (October 13, 2024)
Today I will be reading for you and preaching for you out of John chapter 3 and I will be reading verses 22 through the end of the chapter and for the sake of clarity of this particular passage, I will extend this reading into chapter 4 verse 3. Here now, the very word of God. After this, Jesus and his disciples went into the Judean countryside and he remained there with them and was baptizing. John also was baptizing at a non near Salim because water was plentiful there and people were coming and being baptized, for John had not yet been put in prison. Now, a discussion arose between some of John's disciples and a Jew over purification and they came to John and said to him, "Rabbi, he who was with you across the Jordan, to whom you bore witness, look, he is baptizing and all are going to him." John answered, "A person cannot receive even one thing unless it is given him from heaven. You yourself bear me witness that I said I am not the Christ but I have been sent before him. The one who has the bride is the bridegroom. The friend of the bridegroom who stands and hears him rejoices greatly at the bridegroom's voice. Therefore, this joy of mine is now complete. He must increase, but I must decrease. He who comes from above is above all. He who is of the earth belongs to the earth and speaks in an earthly way. He who comes from heaven is above all. He bears witness to what he has seen and heard, yet no one receives his testimony. Whoever receives his testimony sets his seal to this, that God is true, for he whom God has sent under the words of God, for he gives the Spirit without measure. The Father loves the Son and has given all things into his hand. Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life. Whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him. Now when Jesus learned that the Pharisees had heard that Jesus was making and baptizing more disciples than John, although Jesus himself did not baptize but only his disciples, he left Judea and departed again for Galilee. And thus ends the reading of God's holy and inspired and inerrant word, may he write its internal truth upon all our hearts. You may be seated. I had someone ask me this week if I talk about politics in the pulpit, and I said I don't refrain from it in any kind of way. I'm not held and bound. We're not any kind of by God's appointment or by even the government's appointment. We're not a 501c3. We don't have to abide by the cultural standards to withhold from talking about it. But I do not let it be the spearhead of our preaching and our teaching, especially on our time of worship. I let the passage be the spearhead. So I hope whenever I make reference to politics or anything of that nature, that you understand the context that I'm trying to find them as relations or even somewhat as analogies or illustrations for us in light of what the passage is saying. And I think today's particular illustration that I will give you in the introduction, I believe, is very much interwoven with the heart of what we see in today's passage. One of the things that we see during election years is our election time is that there is often due to people's comments through their going and campaigning. They'll make a statement. Candidates will often, because of their connection to the military or things that they have done in the past, they'll be the accusation of stolen valor. How many of you have ever heard of the concept of a candidate or an individual being someone accused of stolen valor? Do you know what I'm talking about? My wife wasn't sure about that this morning. She may know the contempt, but not the term of that. Stolen valor is when an individual claims to have, typically in the context of some kind of military action, claims to have been involved in some kind of military action or conflict, and in more specific ways, has actually received an award, a reward for that, a medal of sort. And so claiming to have accomplished some sort of valor, a place of honor and valor for doing some kind of action when they had not done so. Sometimes people will accuse people if they're wearing uniform and they have certain medals, they'll come and they'll ask, "Did you really win that?" Or, "Where did that come from?" Or, "Why are you wearing that?" And there'll be all kinds of discussions sometimes about people who might claim to have been there and done that when they had not. And we know that we have certain candidates, even in this particular presidential and vice president election, that there's already been accusations concerning whether or not they're claimed to be in certain military action, is a participation in stolen valor for the purpose of their own personal gain in this election. In fact, this is such a concern that there is a federal law that is in place. It's called the stolen valor act of 2013 that makes it a federal crime to assume that you have won something by wearing something like the Medal of Honor or a distinguished service cross, Navy Cross, Silver Star, Bronze Star, when you had not done so. And if you were doing so, if you were wearing that or claiming to have been involved in that and to have received that reward, if you were doing so for the purpose of financial gain or property or some kind of tangible gain, it's kind of interesting. And before that particular act in 2013, they were laws passed for stolen valor as well, but it didn't have it attached to the tangible component of reward for doing it for that purpose. And so the Supreme Court actually shot it down by saying that it was freedom of speech to claim to have done something that you didn't do if you weren't doing it for any kind of personal gain. Of course, we could extend that whole concept even in these candidates that they may not be getting some kind of financial reward for claiming to have worn a Medal of Honor or have done certain action. But of course, we can see that if they are receiving honor and participating in saying they have this valor when they didn't do it, that they're doing it for the gain of at least getting this office that they're competing to have, we can see that this is a very heinous breaking of the ninth commandment to lie in such a way that steals and breaks the eighth commandment some kind of valor, some kind of honor that belongs to some other people or person and claiming it for yourself. We know that this would be a cowardice thing and we despise circumstances where we hear people claiming any kind of honorable position when they had not actually done this. This particular passage is showing us that John the Baptist continues, as we have seen from the very beginning of the account in the first chapter of the book of Gospel of John, is that John the Baptist is very conscientious that he does not want to receive glory that does not belong to him. And so my main point of this sermon in light of this account here in John chapter three is the exaltation of Jesus Christ. Today's passage particularly focused on the exaltation of Christ in light of baptism, even purification, and really the overall ministry and work of the gospel. And it's in light of the potentiality of stolen valor. You might see this to be somewhat of a stretch here, but we see here that they're in this conflict or in this discussion about purification and baptism, that there's this concern that John is losing disciples going over to Jesus. And John makes a very clear point that the very point of his ministry is for Jesus Christ to be exalted. And for he himself to be lessened, that the very opposite of stolen valor is the very point and purpose of all of ministry. It is to decrease more and more to ourself and to give God the increase of his glory. We know that Jesus Christ is the epitome of valor. He is the epitome of all strength, which is what the word valor ultimately means strength and courage. His work, his person is strength and courage and also interwoven with the word valor is this understanding of true worth and true weight. And we know that Jesus Christ is the epitome of all glory, all worth and all weight. And I want to caution us and to think about the disciples of John here as they are in this particular position, as they are debating about purification and baptism. When they're talking about this particular issue and they're thinking about the overarching discipleship ministry, they are tempted to be focused on having glory given to the ministry really separate from the glory of Jesus Christ. Now it may be somewhat subtle in this particular circumstance exactly what's going on with these particular disciples, what's going on with this particular Jew. But we know from John's response, we know from the context of his response that he is really wanting to teach them that we need to be focusing on the exaltation of Jesus Christ. So as we look at this passage this morning, I also want to use this morning as a time to do a little bit of quick recap of how in the whole chapter of three, or the chapter in the whole chapter of chapter three, that there is the very point in spearheading of the exaltation of Jesus Christ. And I want to do a little bit of kind of taking a side path for just a moment to get a little bit of teaching time into words that sometimes I was not as familiar with when I was younger and in the church. I want to go back and do a summary review of chapter three real quickly by first thinking about the theology of John chapter three. Now theology means the study of God, the study of the person of God, the study of the work of God. If we're going to be talking about the exaltation of Jesus Christ, we obviously want to be thinking about the person and the work of Jesus Christ. And so as we look at this particular narrative account in this last part of this chapter, I want to look at the whole chapter for us to remember the concept of the theology of God in the whole chapter. Everything that we do in ministry, everything that we do involved in our Christian walk should have a very robust and solid theology of God. If we have a weak theology of God, then our Christian walk is going to be weak. If we have a weak theology of God, then our understanding of our salvation is also going to be weak. So I also want us to be looking at, and this is going to be a little bit more complicated. I put it in your in the order of worship today, also want to look at the soteriology of John 3, which is the study of salvation. Soteria is a Latin word, meaning deliverance, or meaning salvation, to be delivered from our sins, to be delivered from the wrath of God, to be delivered from ultimately spiritual death. So when we look at chapter 3, which we mentioned before, that chapter 3, verse 16, is one of the most famous verses in all of Christendom, that for so God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have everlasting life. It is one of the most highlighted verses ever about our salvation. We must have a solid theology so that we can have a solid soteriology as we consider our salvation. And then lastly, as we look at baptism and the work in the ministry of John the Baptist and the work in the ministry ultimately of Jesus Christ, I want us to have a strong ecclesiology of John chapter 3, which is the study of the ministry of the church. So I know this is a little bit more than what we would normally put into a Sunday morning sermon, but I think that as we think about what John is trying to teach to the disciples here, is that he's telling them that as you're talking about baptism, as you're talking about my particular ministry, as you're talking about everything that's going on right here and now, you must understand that Jesus Christ is calling his church in light of what he has done. So it first starts with thinking about the exaltation of Jesus Christ. And as we think about the exaltation of the work in person of Jesus Christ, you're going to be obviously thinking about how he has come to save us, to redeem us, who he is and light of us, and what he has done for us, which is the contemplation of our salvation. Then we can get to a place in understanding what baptism and what ministry is all about. We can't turn that upside down. You can't turn upside down and focus on our ministry and what we're doing without going back and dwelling upon the person in the work of Jesus Christ. So here in John chapter three verse 22, let's take a look at what's going on with those things in our mind and we'll come back and we'll do a recap of the whole chapter, but let's first look at what's going on here. Here in John chapter three verse 22, we see that says after this, Jesus and his disciples went into the Judean countryside and he remained there with them and was baptizing. John also was baptizing at Aeneon near Salim because the water was plentiful there and people were coming and being baptized, where John had not yet been put into prison. Now a discussion arose among some of John's disciples and a Jew over purification. And they came to John and said to him, "Rabbi, who was with you across the Jordan to whom you bore witness? Look, he is baptizing and all are going to him." So the context of what's going on here is that we see a split of people that are going to baptism services. We know that Jesus and his disciples are involved in baptizing separate from the work that John is doing with his disciples in baptizing. Now we do have this note in chapter four and that's why I read it in verse two, that Jesus himself was not baptizing. So I think it's important for us as we let scripture interpret scripture that what John is saying here in this part in chapter three, when he says that Jesus is baptizing, he's saying that Jesus' ministry, Jesus' discipleship ministry is also involved in baptizing, but he himself is not involved in baptizing. So that's the way to interpret scripture with scripture because if you read that you're thinking, "Oh, wow, Jesus is actually doing the baptism," but for some reason in the providence and the power of God's Word, we are being clarified here that Jesus himself was not doing baptizing, but that his disciples were. And I think that's a very important thing for us to highlight and to remember in light of the ministry of the church. We also see here that there is a discussion that a Jew shows up and is having some kind of discussion with John the Baptist's disciples about purification. We don't have any real deep insight to exactly what the conversation was about, but we can imagine that a Jew who is throughout the whole Old Covenant has been focused a lot about purification, that he's trying to understand what is John the Baptist doing with this baptizing in light of what God has commanded in the Old Testament. We can at least know that there was some kind of conversation about that, whether it was a heated debate or whether it was a heated dispute, we're not sure. Commentators kind of go all over the place here. We just know that it is likely that the Jew has an understanding of Old Testament purification and maybe even the additional traditions of the Jews on purification, and he's trying to see how that jives with what John the Baptist is doing. So it's likely there is at least some kind of concern, if not conflict, about how all this is being put together. This helps us to know that when we look at baptism, that there's enough close relation, as I've mentioned in the past, that the act of baptizing is a ceremonial action to highlight the need of cleansing, the need of purification. And it's so important for us when we think about baptism, to have that as in our mindset, that the Old Covenant, that everything that we know in the scriptures before this point, everything that's pointing to Jesus, has to do about the necessity for there to be purification before you can dwell in the worship of God. And so that's got to be the backdrop, just knowing that in light of the conversation with this particular Jew. But then the conversation morphs over into the sectarian concern of us versus them when John the disciples see that they're losing disciples to go to Jesus. And so they bring this concern to John the Baptist, and John the Baptist in essence basically says exactly. That's exactly my whole point. That's what I'm here for. My whole point in coming before Jesus is to point to Jesus, point others to Jesus. My whole goal in ministry is to exalt him. Now I could stop the sermon here right now, and I think there's enough here for us to go on, because everything in our ministry, everything that we see going on has anything to do with church. And I would say anything and everything, because we see here in this passage that Jesus Christ is above all, is for the very point and purpose of drawing people to the glory and exaltation of Jesus Christ. That means everything. That means my family, my whole point in raising and discipling my children is so that they would see less of me and more of Jesus. And everything in your life, whether it's a relationship in work, whether it's a relationship with another community member, particularly your relationship with your own marriage and your own family and your extended family. And of course the ministry of the church is for people to see more of Jesus than to see you. Isn't that an interesting thing? That the end of your life, it would be okay if they forgot you if they will remember Jesus more. I want to say this as a declaration. I wish my wife was in here that I don't want you to ever, and I can't imagine that I ever do anything honorable enough to want to have this kind of valor myself. I don't want you to ever name anything in ministry after me. I don't even think it would happen, but if I accidentally did something so great that people would want to remember that, don't name it after me. I just don't want that. And I think we all should want that. We should all say, please don't. I mean, you can warp my grave so you can know that that's where my particular body is buried. That's fine. I want to don't mind having my children named after me as I think there's a proper association with that, but I don't want the ministry of Jesus Christ to ever be named after me. And we should never want that. We would want people to forget us if it means doing more to remember him. But let's look at some basic stuff really quickly just to take care of some business because there's interesting comments here that I feel like that we ought to at least make highlight of. The basic stuff is that baptism is done with water. That's an important thing for us to highlight because sometimes people can get really wonky when they start thinking about the sacraments churches. We have the ability and we see this in the Old Testament and we can see it just by flipping through the internet that people get really wonky when it comes to worshiping God and they want to come up with all these new creative ways to do things. And some people have actually contemplated the idea of baptizing without using water. It's like, hey, maybe we should use the wine or maybe we should do something else, you know, that's something that's got some kind of creative thing. It doesn't happen a lot, but people do that kind of crazy stuff. It's really important for us that we know here that we're to use water. The second thing that we can note here in this particular passage is that John was at a particular location where the water was plentiful. Now keeping this in mind in light of what the Jew was talking to them about with purification, baptism, ceremonial activity has to do with the replication of being cleansed. Now, again, I made this reference last week, you know, when we were out of water and not being able to use a lot of water, when it comes really sparse, it's difficult and nobody really likes to take a bath and just wet wipes, right? People want to use water. They want to use warm water. They want to use a lot of water. We want to have soap. We want to, we've got all kinds of bath oils and stuff that we can use. We get really crazy with bathing, but we like having the abundance of water. Well, if you're going to do a ceremonial activity that's replicating cleansing, you need to have water. And so it teaches us at least a little bit that baptism should replicate cleansing. It's not just a squirt guy, not just something where you can just dab it on your head. It's something to do with cleansing. I don't think that that passage alone should tell us that it needs to be full immersion. Don't think the passage is saying that. Don't think the passage is saying anything other than that John was given to being at a place where water was abundant. So in light of the purification rituals and what baptism means, we can know that there should be some water that's really doing something to replicate cleansing. We also see something here which is very important and participates in where the church historically has gone that baptism is being administered by a person who is leading disciples. That it's a leadership role. We see here that people aren't just baptizing themselves. You see here that people aren't just going into the water and baptizing themselves. They're being baptized by people so much that John highlights in chapter four that Jesus himself did not baptize, but his appointed disciples, his discipleship leadership team, was the ones who were doing the baptism. We see that the administration of baptism is closely associated with with those who are leading disciples. That's just some basic stuff to put on the shelf for us as we think about going as we go further into the New Testament and we read the epistles and we read about how the church came together. We take that kind of stuff with us to help us understand how we'll have a proper ecclesiology, practice of the church, the thinking of the church, the organization of the church, when we go about the understanding of administering baptism. But it's the big stuff that I really want to focus on here. We see here that the number one thing is the exaltation of Jesus Christ, particularly in baptism and in the ministry of the work of church. We see here that it's to glorify what Christ has done and it is to glorify his worship. We also see here that John is highlighting the work of the Spirit once again, that these things coming to us for us to have this understanding, for us to have faith and to follow after him, for people to lead John the Baptist in his ministry to go directly to Jesus that that had to be because the Holy Spirit is working in those people and drawing them to him. That's how he answers that question. When they bring up the concern, look, you're losing disciples and they're going to Jesus and he's like, that's because of something going on from heaven. God is doing this work. That is what I'm here to do. And then we hear and see here that there is this concept of everything going on in baptism is a sign and a seal of the work of what Jesus is doing and what the Holy Spirit is doing and that ultimately in light of the whole context of what baptism is all about is so that God's people may dwell with him and that we have a responsibility to respond to what God is doing by obeying him in doing the very things that he calls us to do. Sinclair Ferguson says when he's talking about baptism, and I've said this many times in other ways also before, it says too many Christians think about baptism the wrong way around. If you ask them what baptism means, the first thing they do is talk about themselves rather than talk about Jesus Christ. The central meaning of baptism is that it points us to the Lord Jesus first, not to ourselves. Like the gospel on which it is a sign, it is about him first and foremost. All the biblical signs that we sometimes call sacraments first and foremost, they are reassurances to us of what the Lord has done. It is so important when we think about ministry, when we think about church ecclesiology that we do not have stolen valor in our ministries. When we think about soteriology, when we think about our salvation and we think about baptism in light of that, which is really the merger of our salvation with the church, there cannot be stolen valor by highlighting ourselves in what we are doing over and above what Jesus is doing. That is the very point of baptism in ministry is to highlight Jesus Christ. And this is getting us to having a faithful understanding of theology, which is an understanding of God. The Westminster Confession of Faith and the London Baptist Confession of Faith gives us a really good chunk of understanding this exaltation of Jesus Christ. When you look at the differences and the unity of their wording and their confessions of faith, as I've mentioned before, those confessions are faith are about 80%, 80%, 85% identical. And then they have some deviations here and there based upon the application of baptism. But one thing you get for certain is that in their confession of faith, as they are interpreting what scripture says, they're wanting to highlight more than anything else, the work of Jesus Christ. I'll read the first point of the chapter on baptism in the Westminster Confession of Faith. It says baptism is a sacrament of the New Testament ordained by Jesus Christ, not only for the Solomon mission of the party baptized, excuse me, not only for the Solomon mission of the party baptized into the visible church, but also unto him a sign and a seal of covenant grace, of his engrafting into Christ, of regeneration, of remission of sins, and of his giving up unto God through Jesus Christ to walk in the newness of life, which sacrament is by Christ's own appointment to be continued in his church until the end of the world. Now I know this kind of language is a little bit more complex for us in today's language, but we can see here that this is a sacrament, a sacred ordinance, which the London Baptist Confession of faith uses the word ordinance that is ordained by Jesus Christ, that it is foremost commanded by Jesus Christ. Those words are consistent in both confessions. And we see here in the consistency of it that it has to do with the cleansing of sins, the remission of sins through Jesus Christ. And it is to highlight the newness of life in walking with him. Those are all consistent terminologies between the two. Now there are some distinctions. There are some distinctions here that are interesting because the Westminster Confession of faith highlights the regeneration that it is pointing to regeneration. It's not mentioned in the London Baptist, but it's not that it's apart from it. It's just that it's not highlighted in it and of such. Now because they add the word regeneration in the Westminster Confession of faith, that it says that you are not being regenerated by it, but here in point five, when we just read it, it says, "Although it may be a great sin to condemn or neglect this ordinance, yet grace and salvation are not so in separately annexed unto it, that no person can be regenerated or saved without it, or that all the baptized or undoubtedly regenerated." So what it was saying here, if you combine those two, the Westminster Confession of faith is saying, the scripture is pointing to regeneration, pointing to the necessity of the remission of sins. It is pointing to the work that the Holy Spirit is doing to God's people, but it does not mean that it is a part of the regenerative work in of itself, that it is a sign and a seal pointing to the work of Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit. So in the very Confessions of faith, even as they're trying to wrestle through, we see that it's highlighting this is not saving you, this action is not saving you, but it is the work and the ultimate baptism of Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit that saves you, not the water, not this ordinance, not this sacrament, and this is something that they are in unity about. Now there are some distinctions, and there's a distinction concerning whether or not infants should be baptized, and it would be wrong just to ignore that, but it's important for us to understand the unity so there's not confusion about the differences. Another way to look at this is to consider our salvation in light of its order. It's another Latin word that's commonly used in the Reformation. It's the ordo salutus, the order of our salvation, and what that particular study is is focusing on the Acts of God and then our response to the Acts of God. We see in the Scriptures, particularly in Romans, we see that God calls us and that he produces regeneration in us. And we respond to his transformation of us with repentance, with faith, and obedience. And there's a dispute between the London Baptist and the Westminster folks, between whether or not baptism should occur before public repentance, or if it can occur before that with the children being baptized in covenant homes. But there is no dispute in either camp that neither one of these are saying that the act of baptism is what is saving you. They're all pointing to the work and the act of God. This could be a whole other study some other time, but we must remember that the call of the gospel is given to everyone, to repent and to believe. And ultimately, we see in Romans 10, it says, because if you confess with your mouth that the Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised them from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified and with the mouth one confesses and is saved. That our way of understanding people who are truly Christians is one that in their heart, they do need to have repentance and faith. And if we are considering our own salvation, we can look at Romans 10 and we can say, I know that God's work, that Jesus's work, the Holy Spirit is working in me because I believe in my heart that Jesus is raised from the dead for my sins. And then it interacts with the church, but if this is for with the heart one believes and is justified, but with the mouth one confesses and is saved, we can know that it is among them by their confession of faith. That's why in this particular church, regardless of whether you're baptized when you're an infant or whether you're baptized as an older child or whether you're baptized when you're 75, we encourage people to stand before the congregation and make a confession of their personal faith in Jesus Christ. Because we're not pointing to whether the momentary act of baptism as an infant, and we're not even pointing to the act of someone being baptized if they're an older person, because that is not the thing that baptism is for. That person participating in baptism is not saying that because I have done this, or because this was done to me, this particular ordinance, I am therefore saved, the ordinance in of itself is saying that one, people need to be cleansed and purified and that purification can only be in Jesus Christ. It is a pointer and a sign to the work of Jesus Christ. Now I want to go real quickly, and this is a little bit of a, I want you to put it on your quiz hats, okay? So earlier in the introduction to the sermon, just so that I can maybe really nail the point here and bring it home, but what John the Baptist is telling us the cycles, I want us to categorize different scriptures on what's being highlighted, and I want us to go really quickly if you would turn into your Bibles to the beginning of chapter three, and I want you to remember that I said there's three things that I want you to see highlighted. One is the theology of God in chapter three, the soteriology of chapter three, in the ecclesiology of chapter three. Now we know that theology is the study of God, what is soteriology the study of? Salvation, and what is it, ecclesiology the study of? The church, the church in the ministry of the church. So really quickly, looking at verse two where it says that where even Nicodemus is getting something right here, he says that you come from God and that God is with you, what particular theology is that concerning? Theology, I kind of let it slip there, so it has to do with who God is. So we've seen that Jesus is come from God and God is with him, but Jesus says I'm beyond that. Let me tell you more and we'll get to that in just a minute. Then when we look at verse three, in when Jesus responds and he says unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God, and then in verse five where he reiterates that and he says, unless one is born of water and of the spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. Whatology is that pertaining to? Soteriology has to do with our salvation, in verse eight where it says the wind blows where it wishes and then ends with, so it is with everyone who is born of the spirit, what does that have to do with? Whatology is that? What's that? Soteriology has to do with our salvation. This has to do with, yes, the theology of God, sometimes they overlap, but this has to do with that the spirit is going to move wherever it wishes to move. It tells, Jesus is telling the cademus that this work of salvation, this work of being born again, is going to be of the work of the spirit. It's not even going to be of you. It's going to be of the spirit. Looking down at verse 13 where it says, no one has ascended into heaven except he who has descended from heaven, the son of man, as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the son of man be lifted up. Whatology is this pertaining to? No, maybe a little bit, but not that's not where I was going. Well, when he's calling himself the son of man, what is the son of man? What is that about? Theology. It's about who he is. He's referencing himself in light of the prophecies of Daniel that he is going to be the son of man, but we also see here that when Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, that the son of man is also going to have to be lifted up, so it has to do with the work of Jesus Christ and being the redeemer of his people. Now that's where we're starting to get a crisscross over because we're seeing there that in light of that there is even also soteriology for his people, which is ultimately the church, you're right. But in verse 15, it says, whoever believes in him may have eternal life. Whatology is that? Soteriology, verse 16, for so God loved the world, that he gave his only son, that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life. Of course, that has to do with our salvation, but our salvation is by the only son. It is focusing on the theology in light of our soteriology. In verse 18, it says, whoever believe in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already. Now we fast forward to 19 there. It says, for people love the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. For everyone who does wicked things hates the light. We see here something very interesting that would be soteriology. It has to do with our salvation, but we see here that Jesus was not sent to condemned. Why was he not sent to condemn? Because we're already condemned. It's showing us a condition of mankind in why we need salvation. This is very important because you will hear today all over the place that man is generally good in that certain things that were taught racism were taught this thing or were taught breed were taught all these things. What this particular verse is telling us or these verses are telling us is that before Jesus was sent we were condemned already because of our own sin and our own wickedness going all the way back to Adam and Eve that mankind needs redemption. Mankind needs a Savior. He did not have to come to condemn because we're condemned already. And we see that highlighted again in verse 36 where it says that whoever does not obey the sun shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him. The wrath of God is already placed on all of mankind. We must understand that in light of our soteriology to understand that we need a Savior, period. Don't let Satan convince you that you've done enough good things in your life that you don't need Jesus Christ. That would be the epitome of stolen valor to think that your righteousness pleases God by itself. That you don't need Jesus' righteousness. That would be the stolen valor that would be greater than any kind of federal penalty that could be placed on you. It would be an eternal penalty of damnation. But it says but whosoever does this in verse 21 does what is true comes to the light so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God. That is definitely soteriology that focuses on the very work and theology of Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit. I wanted to highlight those things because those particular popular verses are sometimes taken out of context and just think, well, you know, if I just believe this and that's going to be the thing that saves me, that even my belief is saving me. But this whole chapter is so thick with saying that one, you couldn't do it yourself even if you tried. That that's a gift from God that your faith, that your believing has to come to you because of the work of the Holy Spirit that comes from the life and the work of Jesus Christ. And so when we get to the ecclesiology that is being laid out here in the rest of this chapter, we are bringing all of that other with us. Then we can understand baptism a little bit better. That baptism is highlighting that for you to be able to dwell with God, for you to be able to even enter into his worship is what the Jew is going to be. If he's a good Jew, that's what he's going to be focusing on is how can you even be in the worship of God if you have not been purified. The whole point of baptism is to point out one, the need for cleansing and number two, the cleansing that comes only from Jesus Christ. And so when John responds to his disciples, he's like, this is what it's all about is them going to Jesus, them dwelling with Jesus. That's the whole point of my ministry is so that people can dwell with Jesus. Why are you so concerned that we're losing people to Jesus? It's because we're idolatrous. We want the stolen valor of our own little kingdoms. We have to let go. We have to let go on a personal level to not use something like baptism as some kind of medal of honor that you have accomplished. When you are wearing the mark and the sign and the seal of baptism, it has nothing to do with you other than the highlighting of your need for God's cleansing. That's the only part of the sign and seal of baptism that you contribute to, which is the inability to save yourself. So those who have the mark of baptism is immediately, or immediately, on all ways and continually throughout their life, pointing to the glory of Jesus Christ. In verse 31, it says, "He who comes from all is above all." This is highlighting that Jesus reigns over his church. He calls the shots because he who comes from heaven is above all. Our response to that is a gift we've already seen in that chapter in verse 33. It says, "Whoever receives his testimony senses seal to this that God is true, not that we are true, that we are good, that we have done well, but everything in our response to saying God's promises are true." And we see this as in line of verse 34, "For he whom God has sent utters the words of God, for he gives the spirit without measure." If we could mentally come to conclude this on our own, just by his hearing just the testimony in of itself, we would not need the Holy Spirit. But as the words of God are being uttered to us, they are being enlivened by the regeneration of the Holy Spirit. We must understand this, that for those who are walking in their mark of the baptism, whether it was done when they were in infant, or whether you did it when you were seven, or whether you did it when you were 18, you must be evaluating whether you truly rest in him. And whether God is true, not whether you are true. It says in verse 36, "Whoever believes in the sun has eternal life, but whoever does not obey the sun shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him." How is this interrelated with ecclesiology? Well, we know that in verse 17 through 20 of Colossians 1, that it is highlighted that Jesus Christ is the head of the body, the church, this authority that is being highlighted in John chapter 3, that he is above all, that the thing that he is most particularly above all, the most the pinnacle relationship or the pinnacle institution of his authority. Even though all of his authority is covering all things, his particular most special relationship has to do with his authority in the church. And if you're wearing your baptism in a way that is separate from the salvation of the church, that is a type of stolen valor saying that Jesus Christ died particularly for you apart from his bride. It makes no sense. His salvation and his authority, his reign, his work, his person, everything about Jesus Christ is for the redemption of the church, the assembly, the corporate plurality of God's people. You cannot even claim your baptism apart from being identified to the very point of what it's doing, which is talking about the salvation of the church by Jesus Christ. This is where it all comes to a head because in Revelation 21 verse 2 through 3, we see that the church is being adorned for her husband. God is working in the church for the glory of Jesus Christ. And then it says, "Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God." The place in which our baptism is pointing and preparing us for is that we are being purified, we are being cleansed, we are being regenerated so that we can dwell with God as his people. If we claim a baptism that does not incorporate us with the bride, it is a type of stolen valor that will bring no reward. In Revelation 19, it highlights that it is the marriage of the lamb has come, and his bride has been made ready. These are the true words of God because in Ephesians 2, it says that we are members of the household of God, a dwelling place for God by the Spirit. Verse 36 of chapter 3 of this highlight today is that if we are those who believe, we will obey the authority over the church. We will obey and be the church. We will live out those fruits of his righteousness as the church. The very highlighting and point of baptism is that we are a part of Christ's church, being purified for the blood of Jesus Christ and the work of the Holy Spirit. So when you think about your life, when you think about the church, when you think about worship, when you think about all things, make sure you have a good theology. Make sure you have sound so tearyology and live that out in faithful ecclesiology. Our worship is about him. The very last chapter of the Bible says the Spirit and the bride say, "Come." Let's think about that. The Spirit and the bride say, "Come." The Spirit is working with the church and it's calling people to come. To come to who? To come to Jesus. And let the one who hears say, "Come." And let the one who is thirsty, "Come." But the one who desires to take the water of life without price. The very point of John the Baptist's ministry is to disappear and fade in with the rest of the church, Christian. Sometimes wonder when we get to heaven. I'm often wondering, "Oh, I'll get to talk to Moses. I'll get to talk to this person." When we get to heaven, I sometimes actually am beginning to wonder, will it really matter other than talking to Jesus Christ? That we all will just be so finally centered on Jesus Christ where we're supposed to be. It is interesting how God operates and how he administers this authority and work unto his church. So much that probably for the sake of the lack of confusion, he didn't even baptize people himself. He wanted it to be done within the church through the leadership of the church. That's the only thing we can ascertain. We see that Paul even has this concern that people put Paul on such a pedestal. He was like, "You know, I don't even really remember who I'll baptize." There's only a couple people. I didn't baptize most of you. It doesn't really matter. He's not focusing on that. He didn't want the glory to be coming to him. He didn't want the glory to go to a palace. He didn't want the glory to go to Christmas. He wanted the glory to go to Christ Jesus, period. And that is all. May it be that as you walk out your Christian faith that you let it be the exaltation of Jesus Christ and all that you say and do. Let us pray. Our Heavenly Father, we thank you.