Let's come before the Lord in prayer of illumination as we ask that he would open our hearts so that we may understand his word. Let us pray. Heavenly Father, we are very grateful that you have invited us to come into your presence this morning. Thank you for the call of worship. Thank you for the pastor, the elders, the deacons who have been faithful, Lord, in order to gather us together. Thank you for all the parents and every person that's here that have Heeded the call to come into the presence of God and to hear his word. Lord, we thank you that you are God who is worthy to be worshipped. We thank you, Lord, that you are glorious and that you do not share your glory with anyone. Not any government, not any nation, not any religion, not any church, not any person or anything, but that you receive all the glory. And this morning, Lord, we want to give you all the glory. So humbly receive us, Lord, we pray. We thank you, Heavenly Father, that we can come together here with brothers and sisters in the Lord and that we can praise your name, that we can confess our sins, that we can receive the pardon that we received by the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. Thank you for that. And we also thank you, Lord, that as we approach your word, that you have given us the Bible, that we have the Bible in our language and we have several versions of it. and we can study it and we can have our personal Bibles as well. Thank you for the time of devotions that we've had during the week past and help us now as we begin this new week on this, the first day, help us to truly hear your words so that we can go with that word into this week, that we can share it with others and that we indeed can glorify you by being obedient to it. Heavenly Father, be with your servant as he preaches. Help him to be clear in the message from the scriptures. Help his mind and his thoughts to always conform to the word of God, knowing that the word of God is the revelation that we need, not the opinions of men. We would ask, Heavenly Father, that you would continue to bless all those churches that are preaching your word this morning throughout the world. We glorify your name, Lord, knowing that the gospel is extended to every known nation of this globe. And we are very grateful, Lord, that you are raising up men in order to preach your word and that you are raising up people to hear it and to obey it. And through the preaching of the word, the word of the Lord this week will go forth into all areas of life, into every nation of this world, all tribes and nation, Lord. Be with those who continue to translate scripture, those who continue to raise up churches in people groups that have not heard, that do not have the word of God. Lord, may we see the day when, indeed, the whole earth will be covered with the knowledge of the Lord. For we work and we pray towards that end, and we pray, Lord, that we may have a part in that as well. So we thank you, Lord, for this worship service, and we thank you that we now can read your word and listen to it, open our hearts and our ears and help us to obey it in Jesus name. Amen. Our scripture reading, we have already read from Isaiah 42, so we will read from Matthew three. This morning, we're speaking about the baptism of Jesus. And we'll read from the verses 1 through 17. We'll read the whole chapter. The chapter begins with John the Baptist, who's preparing the way of the Lord, and then Jesus comes and is baptized by John. In those days, John the Baptist came preaching in the wilderness of Judea and saying, Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. For this is he who was spoken of by the prophet Isaiah, saying, The voice of one crying in the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord, make his path straight. Now John himself was clothed in camel's hair and with a leather belt around his waist, and his food was locust and wild honey. Then Jerusalem, all Judea and all the region around the Jordan went out to him and were baptized by him in the Jordan, confessing their sins. But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to his baptism, he said to them, brood of vipers, who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Therefore, bear fruits worth of repentance, and do not think to say to yourself, We have Abraham as our father. For I say to you that God is able to raise up children to Abraham from these stones. And even now the axe is laid to the root of the trees. Therefore, every tree which does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance. But he who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing fan is in his hand, and he will thoroughly clean out his threshing floor and gather his weed into the barn, and he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire. Then Jesus came from Galilee to John at the Jordan to be baptized by him, and John tried to prevent him, saying, I need to be baptized by you. And are you coming to me? But Jesus answered and said to him, and this is the words of our text, Permit it to be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness. Then he allowed him. And when he had been baptized, Jesus came up immediately from the water. And behold, the heavens were open to him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting upon him. And suddenly a voice came from heaven, saying, This is my beloved son, in whom I am well pleased. congregation of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. It is amazing this morning that we read that the beloved Son of God, in whom the Father is well pleased, had to be baptized. Admittedly, we ask the question, why would Jesus have to be baptized? And the answer comes from the Lord himself when he said it in verse 15. It is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness. The reason why Jesus was baptized was to display visibly that the righteousness of God was with him and could only come from him. We will see this morning that the baptism of the Son of God and the Son of Man shows God's imputed righteousness, the righteousness that is given to us. We will see that it fulfills the righteousness as displayed in the Old Testament and that also the baptism of Jesus leads eventually to the baptism of the Holy Spirit. It was in the year 30. Jordan River. John the Baptist was preparing the way of the Lord. The people were responding. There was a sense that they needed and had knowledge that they needed to repent. And so they came in order to be baptized by John. The baptism of John is different than the Christian baptism. However, when Jesus was baptized. We see that the baptism of Jesus indeed is a Christian baptism because we have the presence of the Father. We hear his voice from heaven, the presence of the Son. We see him in the water and the Holy Spirit came in the form of a dove. And so it was a Trinitarian baptism in that sense. The baptism of Jesus is a Christian baptism. But we ask the question, why would Jesus have to be baptized? He was perfect. Well, Jesus had to be baptized because before the foundations of the world, before the existence of time and matter, before the angels and humans were created, before anything existed except God, there was God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. And it was God's plan to create man, but God knew that man would fall. God knows everything. There's no surprises for God. And so in God's decree, in God's eternal plan, The plan was that Jesus would become incarnate. He would become a human being, 100% God and 100% man. Indeed, he was born and he lived for 30 years. And then at the age of 30, he presents himself to be baptized by John. Not only is Jesus the son of God, the second person of the Trinity, but in his incarnation, we see that he's also the son of man. He represents all men before God. As the Son of God, He represents God to men. But as the Son of Man, He represents man before God. And so, taking the place of man, He is baptized. This is called the great exchange, where the perfect comes for the imperfect, where the innocent comes for the guilty, where God takes our place through the Son of Man, He takes our place and he takes upon himself the burden of our sins. Martin Luther called this an alien righteousness. The fact that this righteousness that God demands of us, which is shown in baptism, is not something that we can accomplish. It's only God who can accomplish this. And it's only through Jesus Christ that we can have righteousness. It is an imputed righteousness. It's a righteousness that is given to us. As we contemplate baptism this morning and as we see that Jesus was baptized for us, we are again reminded that our righteousness is only in God. We can never use and we should never use our baptism as a righteousness before God. We are baptized by the grace of God. not to prove that we are right with God. Our righteousness lies only to that which baptism points to, and that is the baptism of Jesus, the righteousness of Christ. You know, some of you might ask, what's one of the most difficult issues that we have to deal with when we're working in missions worldwide? And it might come as a surprise to you, but the whole question of baptism becomes an issue. There are churches that baptize believers only, and there are churches that baptize believers and their children. And so who's right? Well, the good news is none of us are right. The only true baptism, the only righteous baptism is the baptism of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's the one that counts. And all of our baptisms, whether that is as children or as adults, believers or as unbelievers, for even adults are baptized as unbelievers, all of our baptisms, point to the great baptism, which is the baptism of Jesus. And that's where we should. That's where we should have our emphasis in working with Reverend Bill Green and and clear the Latin American Reform Council of Churches. We work with reformed churches throughout Latin America, and there we gather together with the Presbyterians, reformed Baptist and all who embrace the doctrines of grace, all those who will look to Jesus as their only righteousness. And so we with our Baptist brothers and sisters, we remind them that, you know, there is only one baptism and that the baptism that really counts is the baptism of Jesus. And our baptisms need to conform to the baptism of Jesus. And so we should respect each other. We should respect each other and work in order to bring Christ to the nations. Now, the baptism of Jesus fulfills righteousness as displayed in the Old Testament. And as we go to the beginning of the book of Matthew, it's interesting how Matthew one, verse one identifies the theme of the book. And as we interpret this gospel, we need to be mindful of that. Matthew one, one, the book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham. And so in really, there's A variety of ways we can talk about how the baptism of Jesus is fulfilling the righteousness of the Old Testament, but I will use Adam, Noah, Abraham, and David as examples. Jesus was baptized as the second Adam. Through the first Adam, sin came into the world, and sin came to all men. Now, through the second Adam, Jesus Christ, salvation comes into the world. It's one of the reasons why we are called, in the work of missions, to call all people, regardless of whether they're Buddhist, Muslim, or whoever. They could be pagan, they could be animist, whatever. We call all people to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and to be baptized. And we do that because Jesus is the second Adam. Jesus is the second Adam. It is amazing that in the 30 years that the United Reformed Church has been in existence, it's amazing that our missionaries are involved in over 70 countries. There is something that takes this small church, a small denomination of less than 100 congregations, and has taken us into so many different nations. That is because the Lord is fulfilling his word. Indeed, the law, the word, the gospel will go to all nations. And we, as part of the body of Christ, are drawn into that. With the ministry that I'm involved with, which is the Miami International Seminary, the Lord has us working in 67 countries with over 550 study groups and more than 13,000 students, most of them in Latin America, over 10,000 students in Latin America. And so the word of God goes forth through radio and through Internet and CDs and literatures and Bible distributions and church plantings. And we are drawn as a small denomination. We are drawn into the whole world with this message that we are to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and be baptized. We are to identify with the Lord Jesus Christ in our baptism. Even more than that, we know that this world that we are evangelizing in is a world that's under judgment. It's already under condemnation. The waters of baptism, according to Peter, represent the judgment of God. I point you to 1 Peter 3, if you have your scriptures, verse 18, and follow. We see how baptism points to God's judgment on the world. It says here, For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the Spirit. Verse 19, in which he went and proclaimed to the spirits in prison, in times of Noah, through the preaching of Noah, because they formerly did not obey when God's patience waited in the days of Noah while the ark was being prepared, in which a few, that is, eight persons, were brought safely through water. Baptism, which corresponds to this, now saves you, not as a removal of dirt from the body, but as an appeal to God for a good conscience through the resurrection of Jesus Christ. who has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God with angels and authorities and powers having been subjected to him. Our world, like in the days of Noah, is a world that is fast moving towards its judgment. We see that in the decisions that are being made, not only by the government, by the way. You know, the decisions that our government is making as far as abortion and as far as homosexuality and as far as All the perversions that we see in our nation today, all these things that are permitted, you know, they all started in the church. First of all, you can trace them back to the liberal churches who were tolerating and allowing this type of behavior. And so we are fast moving towards the day of judgment. However, baptism. Baptism and all of us, I would assume here this morning have been baptized, have been baptized, baptism. is the sign that God is with Noah and his family. God is with his people. God's going to be with his people in the time of judgment. And Noah and his family were saved, as Peter would use that word. And so we, in the midst of our world, in the midst of all that's happening, and some societies are much more advanced in reprobation and judgment as other societies, The church is called to be like Noah and his family. We are called to present the gospel. One of the finest examples that I see in the United Reformed Church of this is through a ministry by Karen Bolcher. Karen is a single lady. About 17 years ago, she bought a one way ticket to Haiti in order to help the poor. I happen to to know about that because she was the she was a member of a church that I pastored in London, Ontario. I try to visit her when I go to Haiti, and what you see is amazing. In the midst of a society, she lives in a sort of a poor section of town, in the midst of a society that is definitely under condemnation, where there's a lot of spiritism, there's a lot of corruption, there's a lot of poverty, and you say, wow, talk about a society that's dying. But yet, in the midst of a society like that, you see rays of hope, and certainly her work is one of them. She has about 14 orphans there. She gathers them off the street, mostly men, young boys that are homeless. She has a school. Some of these guys go to a school, but she also has classes on campus where she lives. They have medical work, dental work, advocacy. She works with children, hydrocephalic children with what we say, waterheads. And she takes on the most challenging situations. I'm just amazed to see that. But that's the work of God in her life. There we see that in the midst of judgment, God shows his mercy. He shows his compassion and shows how He continues to work towards his goal. He definitely will gather in his people, his elect. And in fact, his project will be completed at the end of time. And so baptism points to the need to be baptized because we have to be identified with the second Adam. It points to the surviving of the day of judgment. But it also, as the son of Abraham, it points to living in Christ, being baptized in Christ. Abraham is what we call the father of faith. And when John spoke to the Pharisees and Sadducees, he really called them out. He said, you know, you say that you're sons of Abraham, but you don't produce the fruit of repentance. You're not people of faith. You're rejecting the Messiah. They were Israelites, but they were not true Israelites. A true Israelite is someone who depends upon the coming of the Messiah, and when the Messiah comes, they believe in the Messiah, and they follow Him. And so, the faith that you and I are to have as we are baptized, the faith that baptism points to, is a faith in which we are baptized into Christ. We are to die to sin, and live in the resurrection power. What shall we say then? Are we to continue to sin that grace may abound? By no means. How can we who die to sin still live in it? Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried, therefore, with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. And here comes that struggle, and I call that living out your baptism. We know that our old self was crucified with him, in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. Being baptized into the death of Jesus Christ means that our old self was crucified so that the body of sin, our human body, would come to nothing as far as sin is concerned. That is, we can die to sin and we can live in the righteousness of Jesus Christ. We are no longer to be enslaved to sin. For one who has died has been set free from sin. Now, if we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him. We know that Christ being raised from the dead will never die again. Death no longer has dominion over him. I was at a funeral this week, or last week then, last week, Friday night, of a 12-year-old girl who died of cancer. She was a student in my wife's class at Westminster Christian School. And it was amazing, really, to see how the Lord, in those 12 years of her life, had used her in order to bring the love of God to so many people. The church was filled. It was probably a thousand people. It's a large church. And the testimony was that this girl had just come to Westminster Christian School that year, had come to know Christ, and was a living witness to Christ, and the Lord used her. And so we mourn because our loved ones pass away, but we rejoice in the fact that God continues. God will continue forever, and his people will continue with him forever, and this is but a small beginning. So you also, verse 11, consider yourself dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus. Let not, therefore, Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal bodies to make you obey their passions. Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourself to God as those who have been brought from death to life and your members to God as instruments for righteousness. The Pharisees were confronted by John the Baptist because their faith, which they did not have, did not produce the fruit of repentance, living in the power of the Messiah. And so you and I, all of us have been baptized, but are we living out our baptism? Are we spiritually dying to sin? The Puritans of old used to say that the Christian should attend his his funeral, his spiritual funeral every day. Every day we are to die to sin. But every day we are to live in the marriage feast of the Lamb. Every day we live in newness of life. Every day, by faith in Jesus Christ, by the resurrection power of Christ, our baptism signifies that we are to live by faith in the righteousness of Christ. Our justice does not come from ourselves. Our justice does not come from our government, from our religion, from our culture. Our justice comes from the Lord Jesus Christ. And we are God's response to the injustices in this world. And so we live by the justice of Christ, by the righteousness of Christ. And so we have newness of life. That, too, is all part of our baptism as we are baptized into the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. In the same vein, Paul speaks in Colossians 2, verse 11, "...in him also you were circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ, having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the powerful working of God, who raised him from the dead. And you who were dead in your trespasses, and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him." having forgiven us all our trespasses. Congregation, baptism means that we who were spiritually dead in our trespasses and who had hearts that were not circumcised, that is, who were not shattered by the power and the holiness of the Holy Spirit, now have been made alive by the Holy Spirit, having forgiven us all of our trespasses. The guilt that we carry around with. The guilt of our past. And all of us have guilt of our past. And if you don't, take a good look at your past. Compare it to the law of God and you will see that we all have guilt. But we have been forgiven. We have been forgiven of all of our trespasses. Verse 14, by cancelling the record of debt that stood against us. You know, if our life was like a computer screen, I'm sure the devil, our accuser, would write all of our sins on that computer screen, and it would be a long, long read. But God, through Christ and the righteousness of Christ, has canceled the record of death that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross. Congregation, that's what your baptism means. Your baptism is a sign and seal that the gospel is true, that it is real, that your sins are forgiven. They are really forgiven. And you are not even to speak about your sins of the past, because if God has forgiven you, then you must also forget. That's what your baptism means. As baptized people, we are baptized into Christ. And we are to live out our baptism. I say in jest to my Baptist friends, you know, if you're a true Baptist, you would be dying to sin and living to Christ because that's what it's all about. That is living out our baptism. And so we come to Jesus, who was baptized also as the son of David. Jesus is the greater King. He will usher in the kingdom of God and he will rule over us. He will be our Lord. He was killed as the King of the Jews, but He was raised, Matthew 28, as the King of kings, the Lord of lords. And all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Him. And do you know how He exercises His authority? He exercises authority by saying, Go and make disciples, followers of the Lord Jesus Christ. And those who are disciples are to be baptized, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. And so Jesus as Lord comes to us. And He calls us to follow Him and to be baptized in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. And He commands all of His disciples to be baptized, all young and old, male or female, Jew or Gentile. There is no age distinction here. All those who are being discipled, those who are being taught, all that Christ has commanded, need to receive the sign of baptism. And not just us and our children, for the promise is unto us and to our children, but to all whom the Lord will call. We must also work in order to support those who are reaching out to the nations so that others too may be baptized. And so the baptism that Jesus underwent has much meaning. It's amazing that he took our place in the waters of Jordan. It's amazing that as the second Adam, he calls all people to be baptized as the son of Noah. He is with us in times of judgment as the son of Abraham. He calls us to live, to by faith, repent and believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, live out our baptism by faith. And he calls us as the son of David to submit to his command. He commands us to be baptized. He commands us to be baptized in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. It's not optional. Some people say, well, I was only baptized in the name of Christ. Well, what we do in that situation, we do have that situation in the work of missions. We say, well, do you believe in God, the Father, Son and Holy Spirit? Yes. Amen. OK, then it's valid. But don't come less than the Great Commission. In the Great Commission, it says, that we are to be baptized. It's not the great permission. It's not the great persuasion. It's the great commission. It's a command. We, all of us, are to be baptized in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. And as our Lord, he wants our children to be baptized too. They're disciples. There are situations where in church history, for example, if you go back, if you like church history, 1618 and 1619, the Synod of Dort, where we have the five points of Calvinism, Won't speak about that now, but very important. But at that Senate also, there was a decision that was made, and I think it was an erroneous decision. A decision was made as far as the East Indies Company in Indonesia, whether or not slaves and servants in the household of the reformed families could be baptized. And they decided no. I think that was an error. They decided, no, that slaves and servants could not be baptized on the basis of the testimony of the slaves and servants' mothers and fathers or even of the master of the home. Later that changed. That changed in the 20th century when the whole question came up whether children who are adopted could be baptized. And of course, children of who are adopted must be baptized. Why? Because they're being disciples. They're disciples and the disciples are to be baptized. And so we see that even in our own tradition, we don't fully appreciate the breadth and the depth of what the baptism of Jesus really means to us. We had a situation in our family where, as missionaries, I baptized my son at home in the Dominican Republic, because at that time the church did not baptize children. Later on, they did, and so my two daughters were baptized in the Christian Reformed Church in the Dominican Republic. Well, some time ago, about a good year ago, my son phoned me, and he's 32 right now, and him and his wife have a baby, but they're attending a Baptist church in Alabama. And so the minister, he's a very good minister. John had asked him if he would baptize, and the guy says, I'm a Baptist. We don't baptize children. They said, well, we respect your infant baptism, but we don't practice it ourselves. OK, so he phoned me. He says, Dad, can you baptize Ella Kate? I said, well, let me speak to my my church, my calling church, which is in Cape Coral. And I phoned him up and I asked the pastor, Stephen, What more if I could do that because I'm an associate pastor of that church? He says, no, that's not going to be possible because your son's name was dropped from the list four years ago. I said, well, why didn't you tell me? And so, OK, so I went. It wasn't possible to baptize him in the in the United Reformed Church. So we are attending the Presbyterian to PCA Church because there's no United Reformed Church in Miami. We're attending PCA Church in Miami. I talked with Pastor Clark and I said, Pastor Clark, how are we going to baptize my grandchild? He says, well, your son or his wife have to be a member of our church in order to baptize them. I says, well, don't you believe in the universal church? I says, you know, I work with congregations, but I also work in all these different nations and In fact, I had to baptize my son when the church at that time did not baptize him and explain the situation. He said, well, you might have a point. Let me talk to what they call the session or what we call consistory. Came back, he says, well, if they come to Miami, then we will baptize your granddaughter. So I phoned John. John says, well, I don't think I want to come to Miami. All right. I didn't know what to do. But you know what's interesting? If it's God's will, it's going to happen. So what happened was, his wife Amy says, you know, my grandmother is Presbyterian and her grandmother is like the matriarch of their family in the true sense of the word. And she said, let me ask her if the pastor of the Presbyterian Church in El Paso, Texas would baptize her. And sure enough, grandma spoke with the pastor and the pastor says, yes, I will. And we'll do it at the grandma's home. as long as you promise that this child will be raised in the fear and admonition of the Lord. And so we all trek down to El Paso, Texas, in order to have Ella Kate baptized. You see, if you believe something, you've got to practice it. Even if it's awkward. Even if it's very difficult. And you know what? God's going to honor it. Ella Kate today is being taught in the fear and admonition of the Lord. She's a covenant child via her grandma, and she's also being discipled by her parents. And we praise God for that. But you know what? At the end of the day, it doesn't matter where you're baptized, who baptized you. The most important thing is that you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you live your baptism. Because your water baptism will not grant you status of righteousness in order to inherit the kingdom of heaven. But Jesus Christ will. His baptism is the baptism that counts. So in the last place, we talk about the baptism of Jesus leads to the baptism of the Holy Spirit. John Calvin, in his commentary on Acts 1, says that the baptism of water points to the greater baptism, the baptism of the Holy Spirit. And what's interesting to see is that Jesus, who's God, the Son of God, needs to be baptized by the Holy Spirit. This afternoon we're going to speak about that in more length. But He has to be baptized by the Holy Spirit because He's the Son of Man. He's representing man, but He also represents how God is going to work with man. And God is going to work with man through the baptism of the Holy Spirit. To be sure, He was not baptized or with the spirit before his water baptism. That is, it was not a requisite for him to have spirit baptism before he was baptized in water. He was not baptized by the Holy Spirit during the water baptism. That is, the Holy Spirit doesn't come through the water, doesn't come through like in the Holy Supper, it doesn't come through the bread and the wine. No, the Holy Spirit came after the water baptism. And so Jesus came out of the water, And he received the baptism of the Holy Spirit, the very power of God, in order that he would minister, as we will see this afternoon, as prophet, priest and king during his ministry. But we mentioned this congregation because this is the promise that's been given to us. In Acts 2, verse 39, the people are called to repent. Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and be baptized for the pardon of their sin, and they will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. Our baptism, even as children, doesn't mean that automatically we receive the baptism of the Holy Spirit. The baptism of the Holy Spirit will come in God's appointed time. And God's appointed time is related to God's appointed work for you, how you will serve him. And so, Jesus, when he was baptized by the Spirit, Then he rose up and had to face the temptation of Satan, and he started his ministry, his three years of ministry. And so we are encouraged that as we are baptized, that God is going to baptize us as well with the Holy Spirit. It is God who's going to work in us. You see, congregation, only God is good. You're not good. I'm not good. Only God is good. And if only God is good, then good works can only be accomplished by God. Then anything that's good has to conform to God's goodness, the good news. We can never separate goodness from the good news. And so it is God who needs to work in us. Only God is righteous. Only God is love. Only God is holy. Only God is merciful and kind. And all this comes from God. And how we participate in that is through the power of the Holy Spirit. It's called the fruit of the Spirit. It's the working of God in us. And so all good works accomplished by the Church in you is the workings of a good God working through you. And that by the power of the Holy Spirit. The baptism of the Holy Spirit is not a special experience. It's the normal experience of the Christian as we confess Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. As he equips us by his fruit and the gifts in order to work in the church and talents in order to bring the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ in every single vocation, every single part of life. This week we go forth, congregation, to live out our baptism. This week we go forth in order to die to sin and that our faith would produce the fruit of repentance. This week we go forth in the newness of the gospel, in the newness of the resurrection power. This week we go forth in order to obey the command of our King, to make disciples, to disciple our children, and to disciple others and to bring the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ to whatever part of the world he would have us take it to. We give him the glory. Let us pray. Lord, it's good just to reflect upon your baptism as we see us fumbling and fooling around and trying to understand what water baptism is all about. And we see how the church is split over this matter. Yet we are humbled by the fact that there is only one mortar baptism. There is only one spirit, one faith, one baptism. And that you hold it all together. And that it is because of your baptism that we have righteousness and not because of our baptisms. Lord, we thank you that on this morning, as we have gathered before you and we are people who are baptized, we pray, Lord, that we may live out our baptism, that we would truly this week die to sin. and live to Christ, that we give you the praise for the righteousness that you have granted to us, that we would praise you, Lord, that you are the God of mercy and the God of justice and the God of truth, that in you both praise and justice will embrace. We ask, Lord, that we would also be mindful that the gospel needs to be brought throughout the whole world, that we continue to support the work of world missions And thank you for the faithfulness of this congregation. Thank you that you have also send people from this church into various places of the world. And thank you for the prayers and the financial support that is given as well for the work of missions. We thank you, Lord, for United Reformed Churches. We thank you that with these few congregations that we have in our association, yet you have done great things, that you have brought us into so many different nations. And we see you, Lord, that that you are accomplishing your work, that you are winning the battle, that you are indeed the great missionary, the supreme apostle. And we thank you for that, Lord, and thank you for the role of this congregation in that. And do bless us as we speak about it after the service. Help us to be encouraged that indeed you are at work and that you are fulfilling. your word and that you are fulfilling the baptism of your son, your precious son, your beloved son. And we praise you for that. In Jesus' name, Amen. Our hymn of response is number 373, Beautiful Savior. Let's sing all the stances.