Storms Creek Church 8-27-2023

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Episode Transcript

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Good morning, and welcome to StormStreet Missionary Baptist Church this Sunday morning radio
program. This morning, we'll bejoining Pastor Kenny Hurts because we once again
open descriptions and study God's Way.Okay, We're going to be today in
the Gospel of Luke in chapter three, and I want to be looking this

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morning at verses seven through twenty two, which is quite a lengthy passage.
So I'm not going to read thisas we begin, but we will be
looking at these verses during the messagetoday I've titled the Message for Faithful Witnesses.

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Over the past two thousand years ofChristian history, there have been many
faithful witnesses who have testified on behalfof our Lord Jesus Christ. Lately,
I've been reading a book about someof the English Martyrs, those who lived

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back in the fifteen and sixteen hundreds, and one of the martyrs was a
man by the name of Hugh Latimer. He preached sometime during the fifteen hundreds
in England, and he was well. He was a bold, courageous preacher.
He preached to kings and to thecommon people. In fact, on

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one occasion he preached the message toKing Henry the eighth, And when the
sermon was over, they asked Latimerif he would preach again next Sunday,
not because they enjoyed his message somuch, but because he had offended the
king and they wanted him come backnext week and offer a proper apology.

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Well, the next Sunday, Latimerstood in the pulpit and began his sermon,
but in an unusual way. Insteadof preaching to the King or the
congregation, he began by speaking tohimself. He addressed himself, and here's
what he said, Hugh Latimer,do you know before whom you are to

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speak this day to the High andmighty Monarch of the King's most excellent Majesty,
who can take away your life ifyou offend him. So be careful
of how you speak. Don't sayanything that may offend the King. I've
taken out the old English and kindof put more modern words in here.

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But that's the gist of what Latimersaid as he spoke to himself. Then
he goes on and he says,but consider well, Hugh, who has
sent you and whose message you areto deliver, Even the Great and Mighty
God, who is everywhere present andwho knows all your ways, who is
able to cast into hell. Therefore, take care and deliver your message carefully.

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Then he preached the exact same messagethat he had preached the week before,
only this time with even more zeal. By the way, Hugh Latimer
was later burned at the stake,not by King Henry the Eighth, but

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by Queen Mary, who also wasknown as Bloody Mary. And why was
he killed because of his bold andfaithful preaching of the Word of God.
Latimer reminds me of another faithful servant, one who was bold and who was
courageous in his preaching, whether hewas preaching to kings, or to religious

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leaders, or to a common man. Now, this man we know as
John, John the Baptist, andJohn is one of the four witnesses that
we're going to be looking at thismorning. Now, when we looked at
the first two chapters of this gospel, we talked about several who bore witness

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as to the true identity of Christ. You can go back to chapter one
and you see Gabriel the Angel.You see Elizabeth, who was the mother
of John the Baptist. We seeMary herself, the mother of the Lord
Jesus Christ. You have the angelichost in chapter two, you have the

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shepherds, you have Simeon and Anna, and all of these people who are
prominent in these first two chapters,all in one way or other, bore
a testimony as to who this onewho has called Jesus who he actually was.
Well, now as we make ourway into chapter three, we're going

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to look at four more witnesses.But the witnesses we're going to look at
today are much more reliable, muchmore credible, well even than the witnesses
we looked at in the first twochapters. Now, again we've had the
witness of angels and so forth,but here we have even greater witnesses.

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Who starts out with John the Baptist, who just happens to be the last
prophet of the Old Testament. Andhe's also the one who Jesus himself said
was the greatest of all time thoseborn of women. None have been better
or greater than John. So youhave John, and then you have the
three members of the Trinity, theSon, the Spirit, and the Father.

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So these are going to be thefour witnesses, the four credible witnesses
that we're going to look at thismorning. So first witness it's found here
is John the Baptist, verse three. And he came into all the country
about Jordan, preaching the baptism ofrepentance for the remission of sins, as

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it is written in the Book ofthe Words of Isaiah, the prophet saying,
the voice of one crying in thewilderness, prepare you the way of
the Lord, make his paths straight. Now, a couple of weeks ago
we looked at the first six versesof this chapter and we talked about John

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and the greatness of John and whatmade him such a great man. John
was called to well to be theherald, meaning that he was not only
to announce that the king was coming, but he was to prepare the way
for his coming. So he hada tremendous responsibility but also a tremendous privilege.

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All of this was of course predictedin the Old Testament scriptures, that
this one would come who would preparethe way for Messiah. John's message was
very clear, very simple, andvery clear, and that was a message
of repentance in coming judgment. Now, Matthew and Matthew's account in chapter three

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and verse two Matthew simply says thatJohn preached repent for the Kingdom of Heaven
is at hand. In other words, the king is coming and he's going
to judge sin. He's going torule over his people. All men,
all women, regardless of who youare, all need to repent. Now

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you'll notice that there is no mentionin Luke chapter three, or are going
back to Matthew chapter three of Faithor Believing. Well, even though it's
not listed, it's certainly implied.It's implied in the fact that John calls

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people to repent. You see repentanceand faith. Although they are distinct truths,
they always go together. You cannothave one without the other. So
anytime you read of repentance, truebiblical repentance, you can also put in
their faith. For those who trulyrepent are those who truly are going to

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believe in Christ. And when yousee the word believe or faith, you
also can add the word repentance,because those who have faith, who believe,
are also those who have repented.John's message was well, it was
of course a shock to the religiousleaders, to the Jewish people of that

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day and time. Now why doI say that, Well, because they
looked at things as if well,they didn't need to repent, because the
word repent means the change. Theydidn't need to change. Why would they
need to change. They're the childrenof Abraham, they're the descendants of Abraham,

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so they don't need to repent.They're fine, everything's good. Well,
notice what John writes, or whatJohn says here in verse seven through
nine. Then said he to themultitude that came forth to be baptized of
him, O generation of vipers,who's warned youifully from the wrath, to

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come, bring forth therefore fruits worthyof repentance. And begin not to say
within yourselves, we have Abraham toour father. For I say unto you
that God is able of these stonesto raise up children unto Abraham. And
now also the axe is laid intothe root of the trees. Every tree

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therefore, which bringeth not forth goodfruit is hewn down and cast into the
fire. And so what John issaying here is simply this. Being a
jew, being a physical descendant ofAbraham doesn't gain you entrance into Heaven,
does not a passport to heaven,not any more than today you having a

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mother or a father who's a Christian. It doesn't make you a Christian.
Or if you have been baptized,or say that you're a member of a
church, say you're a member ofStorm's Great Church, that in itself doesn't
give you entrance in the heaven.No, those who are going to heaven

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are simply those who have acknowledged,confessed their sins, repented of sin,
and put their faith and trust inChrist. In Christ alone, friends,
those are the ones who are goingto go to heaven. Now, what
you see in verses ten through fourwhich I'm not going to read, but

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what you'll see here is that,well, Luke is going to give us
evidence of those who truly repent.How do you know someone has really repented.
How do you know if someone's reallysaved and put their faith in Christ.
Well, there's certain things that theydo, and that's what he mentions
in verses ten through fourteen. Now, again, the things that he mentions

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there don't save, they're just theevidence of salvation. They do. I
want you to notice in verse fifteen, where we'll pick up now, he
says, and as the people we'rein expectation, and all men used in
their hearts of John, whether hewere the Christ or not, John answered,
saying, under them all, Iindeed baptize you with water. The

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one mightier than I cometh the latchetof whose shoes I'm not worthy to unloose.
He shall baptize you with the HolyGhost and with fire, whose fan
is in his hand. And hewill thoroughly purge his floor, and will
gather the weed into his garner.But the chaff he will burn with fire

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unquenchable. So now it's John movesfrom those things that accompany salvation, that
give an evidence of salvation to theone who actually saves. And the one
is not John. John's clear,it's not me, but it is Jesus,

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the Christ. You see, forcenturies the Jewish people had longed for
a Messiah that was promised to come. You know, when John appeared on
the scenes, that's why some mistakenlytook him for the Messiah. Now again,
you got to keep in mind theend of the Old Testament. When

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it ends, you have then fourhundred years of silence until John come on
the scene. Now, the OldTestament ended with the promise of the coming
of Messiah, the promise of theforerunner, but no one knew exactly when
that was going to be, Sowe know that it was about four hundred
years. That's a long time.That's a lot longer than we've even been

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a nation here. You know,today we are also looking for the Messiah
to come back, the King toreturn. We have that promise, and
we're expecting that to happen. Thething is, though we don't know when
that's going to be. We don'tknow the date of his return. So

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just like the Jews of the firstcentury who were looking for the coming Messiah,
we're looking for him to come asecond time, to rule and to
reign. But see John lets thepeople know that he is only a prophet.
Now he's the greatest of all men, according to the Lord Jesus Christ
in regard to man. But Johnwas only a mere man. John the

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Baptist. He baptized well, hebaptized with water. He baptized all those
who confessed and repented of sin.But as he says in verse sixteen,
that he wasn't worthy to untie thelatchet of the sandals of the Lord Jesus

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Christ, that means he wasn't evenworthy to perform the most menial task that
a slave would be given John's baptismwas a preparatory baptism. It didn't save
anyone. It was just looking tothe one who was going to save.

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Well, baptism today doesn't save anyone. No, baptism only pictures the fact
that one has been saved. Andnow we are a new creature, and
we're going to now give our allegiance. We're going to be devoted to Christ.
Do you notice that John says thatthe Messiah, He's going to baptize

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you at the end of verse sixteenwith the Holy Ghost and with fire.
Now these are two supernatural acts thatcan only be performed by God. Now
there is some debate on what ismeant by fire. Now there's no question
what he means when he says baptizedwith the Holy Spirit. We can understand
that. But the fire he mentionsis there's some people who differ on just

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what this means. I believe whathe's saying is is that he gives the
Holy Spirit to all those who repent, and then he's going to judge with
fire all those who don't repent.And I get that because especially what he
had said back in verses nine andten, where he talks about the acts
being laid to the root of thetrees and so forth. You know,

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it's a time of judgment. Sowith the coming of Christ, he is
going to be the one who's goingto provide salvation for those who repent.
But those who don't, well,they're going to be judged eternally. They're
going to suffer eternally because they didn'trepent, they didn't look to him.
Notice verse eighteen and many other thingsin his exhortation preached he under the people,

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but Herod the tea church being reprovedby him, for Herodius, his
brother Philip's wife, and for allthe evils which Herod had done. Added
yet this above all that he shutup John in prison. Now we really
see John's boldness. It's evidenced bynot just simply what he preached, but

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also who he preached to. Justlike Hugh Latimer, you know, he
preached the King Henry the eighth amessage that he would preach to the most
common man in England. Well,this is what John is doing. He's
preaching the truth. He preaches thetruth to kings, to the religious leaders
and to the common man. Andwhat you notice here is is that he

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rebukes herod. He rebukes him forhis sin. He rebukes him for his
adultery. He is in a relationshipwith his brother Philip's wife. He's committing
an adultery. That's a sin.Well, John doesn't let that go by.
He confronts the king. He tellshim this. Well, the result
is is that he ends up beinglocked in prison and eventually he know he's

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going to have his head chopped off. But when you think about John and
we read about his preaching and whathe did, all I can say is
that we need men like John today, those who will be bold, those
who will be faithful to preach thetruth, to preach the word of God.
Every God called preacher is called towarn people of the danger of sin,

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of making a false profession. Thatsalvation is found in none other than
Christ and Christ alone. It's forall those who confess their sin. It's
for those who repent of sin.And see this, my friends, this
is the message that John preached,and it's the message that we are called
upon to preach. Those of uswho stand behind the pulpit, we are

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to preach the truth. We're notto preach what people want to hear.
We don't We're not the fear offendingmen. No, I have more of
a fear of offending God. Andso may we be faithful, but not
just those of us who preach,all of us who are saved. Whenever
we have the opportunity to talk tosomeone about salvation, as we have the
opportunity to preach the truth of them, to proclaim Christ to them, may

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we be like John and be boldand courageous in our testimony. Well that's
the first witness, and we'll movequickly through the other ones. The next
is Christ. The Sun says inverse twenty one. Now when all the
people were baptized, it came topass that Jesus also being baptized. Now

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in Matthew's account, in Matthew threeand verse thirteen, he says, then
come Jesus from Galilee to Jordan,unto John, to be baptized of him.
But John forbade him, saying Ihave need to be baptized of thee,
and comes now to me. AndJesus answering, said unto him,
suffer it to be so now,for thus it becometh us to fulfill all

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righteousness that he suffered him. AndJesus when he was baptized, So we'll
stop there. Jesus when he wasbaptized. After years of living in obscurity,
Jesus now appears publicly. Remember fromthe time he was born until he's

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thirty, we only know of oneincident in his life. It's the one
we looked at at the end ofchapter two in Luke's Gospel, and that's
when Jesus was twelve and he wentto Jerusalem to celebrate Passover with his family,
when now he's ready to fulfill hispurpose for coming into this world.
Luke writes that all were baptized.Now doesn't mean that the entire nation was

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baptized, or that everybody that wasout there at the Jordan River that day
was baptized, because we know hedidn't baptize the scribes in the Pharisees.
But it's all those who received John'spreaching they were baptized, and all Luke
says is Jesus was baptized. Matthewtells us that John forbade him. He
believed it was inappropriate for Jesus towell to receive a baptism that was designed

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for sinners. In fact, Johnsays, Jesus, you ought to be
baptized in me. Well, Jesusknow it has to be this way.
So the question is why did Jesuscome to John to be baptized. Well,
there's a very simple reason. Thatis to set an example for others
to follow. See, friends,baptism is not something that's optional. It's

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not something that we are called uponto consider doing. It's a command of
God. Those who are saved,those who are made disciples are to be
baptized. Jesus did things that hedidn't have to do. He paid the
taxes, He paid the temple tax, even though as a son of God
he was exempt. Why in orderto set an example of obedience. That's

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a simple explanation. The more importantone is is that he did it to
identify himself as the Messiah and identifywith those that he came to save.
Remember, baptism is a person's publicprofession of faith in Christ, their testimony
to the world that they are afollower of Christ. Well with Jesus,
his baptism was his testimony to theworld that he came to die for sinners,

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to be buried and to be raisedon the third Day. So Jesus
testifies that he is the anointed one. He is the son of God.
He's the one who must fulfill allrighteousness. And how does he do that
by living a perfect sinless life andby submitting to pay the penalty for the
sins of his people. See Baptismlooks back to the cross. Jesus' baptism

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was looking forward to the cross.He was picturing what he was soon going
to do to save his people.So not only does John testify to who
Jesus is, but so does Jesushimself. And that leads to the third
witness, and that is the HolySpirit, says it in the verse twenty
one. And it came to pastthat Jesus, also being baptized and praying,

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the heaven was open, and theHoly Ghost descended in a body shape
like a dove upon him. InJohn chapter one and verse thirty two,
it says in John bare record saying, I saw the Spirit descending from heaven
like a dove, and it abodeupon him. And I knew him not,
But he that sent me to baptizewith water. The same said it
to me. Upon whom thou shaltsee the Spirit descending and remaining on him.

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The same is he which Baptizeth withthe Holy Ghost. And I saw
in bare record that this is theSun of God. The heavens opened,
and Jesus came out of the water, and the Spirit descended upon him in
the form of a dove, nota shining, brighty, bright light,

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not a bolt of lightning, buta gentle, peaceful, pure dove.
So John says that the Spirit heredescended upon him, and not only did
it descend upon him, it remainedon him. Now the question is is
why does the Son of God,why does he need the anointing of the

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Holy Spirit. Well, because ofwho he is. Remember, he is
not only is he fully God,but he's also fully man, and he
has chosen to set aside his divineattributes and live here as a man.
It was a man who, well, who lost the right standing with God.

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Adam so is a man who mustregain right standing with God. And
that's where Christ comes in. Inorder for him to do this, he
had to have the Holy Spirit.He had to be anointed by the Spirit.
In fact, he had to havethe fullness of the Spirit. You
know, friends, the same istrue for each and every one of us

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today who are saved. We needthe Holy Spirit in order to fulfill our
duty to do the work that wehave each been given to do. So,
the Spirit of God bears witness thatJesus is truly the Messiah. And
then the last witness, and probablythe most most important witness, is the
Father himself verse twenty two. Andthe Holy Ghost descended in a body's shape

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like a dove upon him. Thounotice, And a voice came from heaven,
which said, thou art my belovedson in thee. I am well
pleased. The Father identifies the one, this one. He's my son.
He's the beloved son. He isthe Messiah. No prophet, no priest,
no king, no angel, Noteven John the Baptist was ever called

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the son of God my beloved son. Only Jesus can claim this title.
Notice that the Father says of him, not just that he's pleased. Oh,
no, he is well pleased.I think this is the Father's way
of saying, my son is perfect. I find no fault in him.
There is no sin in him.If he had committed just one sin,

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the Father could not say that hewas well pleased with his son. You
know, in Genesis chapter one,at creation, we see all three members
of the Trinity all involved in creation. And when creation was finished, we
see the father, well, theFather declaring that what he had made was

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not just good. Oh no,he says, it is very good.
Well, now at Christ's baptism wesee once again all three members of the
Trinity present. The son has comeout of the water after being baptized.

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He's coming to this world not tocreate again, but to recreate, to
recreate a people for his father.And once again you notice that the Father
says of him, I am wellpleased. Now in three years, we're
going to see that the father isgoing to be pleased to bruise him,
to put him to grief. Andwe asked the question why I would this

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be? Does the son no longerplease his father as something changed in the
relationship, though he is pleased withhis son even when he is on the
cross. He's especially pleased with him, even though he forsook him for a
brief moment, because his son wasoffering himself as a sacrifice for sin and

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friends. This greatly pleased the father. That's why he says he was pleased
to bruise him to put him togrief. So, having looked at these
four witnesses, I ask you,how do you view Christ? Can you
say what the Father says of him, that you are pleased with him?

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If you've trusted him as your lordand savior, then you certainly are pleased
with him. And by the way, that's the way the Father look looks
at us today who are saved,the same way he looked at his son.
He looks at us and he says, I am well pleased. Now
that doesn't mean that in ourselves thatwe please him, because we know so

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often we don't. But he doesn'tsee us in ourself. He sees us
in his son, and in hisson he is well pleased with us.
The friends, if you're not saved, if you've never put your faith in
trust in Christ, I must warnyou that the Father, the Father,
is not well pleased with you.Now you're under his wrath, you're under

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judgment. You need to look tohim and trust him, and when you
do that, then things will changeand you will be well pleasing to the
Father. So today, friends,I plead with you, confess your sin,
repent of your sin, and lookat Christ and receive him. We'd

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like to thank you for listening toour program this morning. We pray that
God has used this message to drawyou closer to Him. Storms Creek Missionary
Baptist Church would like to take thisopportunity to invite you to any of its
services. We have a Sunday Schoolwhich starts at nine thirty am, Sunday
Morning Worship ten fifteen, and ourSunday Evening service starts at six pm.

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We also have a Wednesday Night BibleStudy which starts at seven point thirty pm.
Storms Creek Missionary Baptist Church is alsoon the internet under Sermonaudio dot com.
You can go to www dot sermonAudio, look for Storms Creek Missionary
Baptist Church and listen to any ofour sermons in full length audio at the

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side. Again, we'd like tothank you for listening this morning, and
may God bless you throughout the week.