Beth Moore - A Memorial In The Middle - Part 3
All right, let me tell you where we’re starting here this morning. We’re starting in Matthew chapter 3 to just set the stage for where we’re going. I want you to hear it. I was gonna just lock in on 5 through 9, but you know what? I just can’t not do it. We’re gonna read a lot of scripture together today. One of the things you will not be able to say when you leave here this afternoon is, «We barely opened our Bibles». That is not going to happen here today. And we’re going to have a lot of scripture under our belts today.
And so I just have to just go ahead and start at verse 1. We’ve got it in us and I’m going to go ahead and read to 17. «In those days John the Baptist came preaching in the wilderness of Judea, 'Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.' For this is he who was spoken of by the prophet Isaiah when he said, 'The voice of one crying in the wilderness: Prepare the way of the Lord; make his path straight.' Now John wore a garment of camel’s hair and a leather belt around his waist, and his food was locusts and wild honey».
You know, that used to be strange to us until we got in the world that we’re in now with all our really natural food. We’re there. We’re there. Honestly, y’all, the first time I had kale set in front of me, I thought, we’re there. We’re there. We’re right there at the locusts and wild honey. «Then Jerusalem,» and I’m gluten free. See, locusts, locusts, you’re not going to get you any gluten in your locusts. You’re there. You were born for such a time as this. «Locusts and wild honey. Then Jerusalem and all Judea and all the region about the Jordan were going out to him, and they were baptized by him in the river».
What does it say, girls? Okay, now listen to me. I wanna tell you a little something. In the scriptures, geography is huge. It’s huge. In fact, Christian archeologists for many, many years have termed the land, and they’re talking about the Holy Land in particular, as the fifth Gospel. In other words, there’s Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, and then there’s the land. Let the land preach to you the gospel of the living Lord Jesus Christ, go and trace his steps down through history. Now part of what caused me, I just got a lump in my throat, thinking about it, that just took my breath away about the brilliance of the Word of God, is seeing the Old Testament prepare for the New, and the New Testament reflect back and complete the Old. It’s just, it’s stunning and it never ends. It never ends.
How he fits it all together and the patience of God over thousands of years, instead of just blurting out his Word from Genesis to Revelation all in one whack. No, he waits patiently with flawed people that he’s going to inspire with his perfect Holy Spirit to pour out the breath of God on the sacred page and over all of these centuries pouring out one chapter after another, one book after another, one gospel after another; the letters, the Epistles, and finally wrapping it up with the Revelation. And it’s this gorgeous blending of the old and then what came with the new covenants.
Now let me tell you something. In the scriptures, scripture is all about person and place and divine presence. The whole thing, geography, from the very beginning, we get no further than the tenth word if you’re just looking in some place like a version like the ESV. We get ten words into Genesis when we see that God created the heavens and the earth, geography; geo, earth, and graphy to graph, to script, to write, to write about the earth. That’s geography. And here’s what happens then, from the very beginning he starts lining out, telling us about, the land that is the garden. We get to hear all this about the rivers and the trees and the garden and what it looks like, all about this geography. And then it begins the geography of them being sent out of the garden. And so then we’re told as early as Genesis chapter 12, geography, he tells Abram he’s going to give him, take him, to a land he does not know.
Genesis 15, he maps that land out. He names it for him and he gives him the perimeters. We go all of this time, the children of Israel go into slavery. Four hundred years later, God raises up Moses and said, «It’s time for me to set my people free». And they’re out in the wilderness. And in order to get into the Promised Land they are on what side of the map…? What’s that side…? They’ve got to go from… to… and they’ve got to do this… in order to get there. That is what’s so gorgeous about the move of God’s people into the place that he wants them. So anytime you have a significant place converge with a significant person, you want to have your eyes wide open in the scriptures, because there’s a history behind the Jordan River.
And there’s something extremely important about John the Baptizer, because he is the forerunner of the living Lord Jesus Christ, the Messiah. So I want you to understand with me, by the time you get a significant place with a significant person, you got some layers there you don’t wanna miss. Then when significant place meets significant person, meets the divine presence, it is what everything in the Scriptures was about. That there would be a place for people and divine presence. I need somebody just go there with me a second. I mean, just that’s what everything’s after. And it begins right there in the garden, only they get thrown out of the garden because of the Fall of man, and it ends up Revelation, three-fold convergence. We got us some people, we got us place, and we got us some divine presence.
I’m going to just let you have a minute. I don’t know. That kind of stuff just does me in. Anybody? That just, that kind of stuff just does me in. That’s what we see in Matthew chapter 3 because we’ve got a significant person. He’s come to a very significant place and then come walking in, in just a minute, is gonna be the very divine presence. Now watch what happens here. He’s baptizing in the River Jordan and they’re confessing their sins. «They were baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins». So they’re in the same river, everybody say, «The same river,» and they’re being baptized, so they’re confessing.
Would you just imagine, would you just imagine? Lies, falsehoods, coveting, lust. I mean, they’re naming their sins, confessing their sins. They’re preparing the way for the Messiah. And so John the Baptizer is dunking them under the water of this same river. Don’t forget that for a single moment. And then it says this: «Then Jerusalem and all Judea and all the region around the Jordan were going out to him, and they were baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins. But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to his baptism, he said to them, 'You brood of vipers! '» This is just the kind of greeting you want when you go to a gathering, isn’t it? «Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Bear fruit in keeping with repentance».
There is always fruit of repentance. Always. I say this to you because there are a lot of people, including Jonah from the Old Testament, that don’t appreciate the grace of God to forgive anything. I mean it bugs them, it bugs them. Those kinds of people think that the grace of God only is stretched out to the length of their sins. One quarter inch past where they themselves have sinned is too much sin and God should not forgive them. Anybody know what I’m talking about? But see, Jesus has scandalous grace, absolutely scandalous grace. And when we’re resistant to him restoring someone, and I’m not talking about, I don’t even want to get into the discussion of restoring to positions.
Listen, that’s all per person. God sees the heart and God gives evidences of that heart. But what I am going to say that if you are resistant to someone who has made the biggest idiot of himself, biggest idiot of herself, I mean just like sinned heinously, done everything under the sun, and suddenly they’re showing up at church and, like, singing their songs and you’re going, «They should have been ashamed a lot longer at home…» then you misunderstand the grace of Jesus Christ. There is nothing he cannot forgive and completely purify us from. I need someone to hear completely, completely, like nothing left on you whatsoever, like no matter what you’ve done, complete forgiveness. «If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to purify us,» make us pure, make us pure. Somebody say, «Make us pure».
Listen, maybe that doesn’t mean a lot to you who have never been particularly impure; it means a lot to me. It means a lot to me, to know I am made pure. Don’t you put any of my old stuff on me because I have been made pure. I have an old friend that cannot forget my old sins. I went to her at a time when I really needed someone, and I guess we connected and bonded in that. She’s not doing it to condemn me. I think she just thinks it was our peak moment of closeness, and every time we’re together, she has to bring it up. I want to say, «Do you know, you do know that that was decades ago»? Anybody know what I’m talking about?
I don’t know why, you know what? You know, it makes me not even want to be with her, because I’m gonna have to put it all back on again. I feel like I may have to say I’m sorry all over again. I said I’m sorry 45,000 times. Forty-five thousand times. I’ve been made pure. There are times I’ve had to just say to Jesus, «Listen, no matter what anybody’s saying in my ear and no matter what I’m seeing in somebody’s eyes, I’ve got to know, I’ve got to know, I’ve got to know because I cannot live if I am not cleansed from that».
So listen, there may be only five people in this room that get that with me today, but I need you to know something: It means everything to me. Everything to me. Everything to me. But listen here, because somebody needs to know this, because you’ve had someone who’s betrayed you. You’ve had someone that was really, I mean a spiritual figure that just did the stupidest things and you don’t know whether to believe them or not. Listen carefully to what the Word of God just said in Matthew chapter 3. «Repentance bears fruit».
There is fruit of repentance. It comes out. It comes out. You will know over time. Give it time because anything that becomes fruit has to be a seed first. It has to take time for it to sprout under the ground and then it begins to grow to the surface. But with every truly repentant person, am I speaking anybody’s language because you’re wondering whether to believe that somebody really has repented or not. You know what? I’ve got great news for you today. There is fruit of repentance. You will see it. Until then, you just keep praying. Until then, you keep outpouring grace. But you will know when someone could be restored into a particular position or possession or when they’re ready then to return back to ministering.
If we’re thinking nobody gets to minister after failure, what gospels are we reading? What gospels are we reading? But here’s what we can do. I am going to look for fruit of repentance. Fruit of repentance is not one shred of entitlement, not one. Fruit of repentance is humility to the bone. You will see it. If you see entitlement and you see pride, there is not yet the full work of repentance. If you’re understanding what I’m saying, I need you to raise your hand. So you know what, don’t stress. Think and listen, God sees something we don’t see and we don’t know what to do here. Oh, you’ll see it, you’ll see it. You’ll see it. And you celebrate when you do. And you don’t be smug about it because next time it could be you. Forgive me for saying that. Forgive me for saying that. Take heed, lest when we think we stand, we fall.
Fruit of repentance is humility to the bone. You will see it. If you see entitlement and you see pride, there is not yet the full work of repentance. If you’re understanding what I’m saying, I need you to raise your hand. So you know what, don’t stress. Think and listen, God sees something we don’t see and we don’t know what to do here. Oh, you’ll see it, you’ll see it, You’ll see it. And you celebrate when you do. And you don’t be smug about it, because next time it could be you. Forgive me for saying that. Forgive me for saying that. But take heed, lest when we think we stand, we fall.
Verse 9: «And do not presume to say to yourself,» he’s talking there to the Pharisees and Sadducees that have come. All they’re there doing is just spying and he knows that when they walk up. And you know, John the Baptist, he just, you know, his brain stem is his tongue. If he thinks it, he just says it. He just says, you’ve got loved ones like that, don’t you? And he’s just like, «What are you doing here? Bear fruit in keeping with repentance, and we’ll talk about baptism». «Do not presume to say to yourselves,» he said, «'We have Abraham as our father, ' for I tell you, God is able», stay with me, girls. Oh, I love the scriptures. Somebody say out loud, «I love me some scriptures». Oh, yeah, say it one more time. «I love me some scriptures». That’s what you want.
Listen, if I have to say Nevada, you have to say, «I love me some scripture». That’s just fair, it’s just fair. «'We have Abraham as our father, ' for I tell you, God is able from these,» what? Oh, please tell me again. «God is able from these stones to raise up children for Abraham». It’s crazy, isn’t it? Okay, so maybe, you know, it’s been centuries and centuries and centuries and centuries. Then all likelihood the same pile may not be there. We know it was there when they wrote it because it says, «It’s there to this day». I love that, I love that. We don’t know, but I’m going to tell you this. You’ve got a significant place, you’ve got a significant person, and then you’ve got a significant object. All of a sudden, we’ve got this man standing in the Jordan talking about stones. You wanna hear something gorgeous?
What we can’t hear in our English is that there’s a play on words between stones and children. I want you to see them. I brought it for you so that you can see it. I’m not, if I had my daughter Melissa here, she could say it beautifully in the Aramaic or beautifully in the Hebrew. I myself will not butcher it for you, but I do want you to see that the wordplay, and I mean he’s meaning it because the words would be so similar in the way they’re popping off his tongue in those syllables. You can see the very little difference between the Hebrew and Aramaic words for children and stones. And he’s saying, I’m going to tell you something, he could take stones.
So probably not a pile of them, but he’s looking at stones and stones around at Jordan are a very, very big deal. And it is a beautiful, beautiful moment in the scriptures. And he says in verse 10: «Even now the axe is laid to the root of the trees. Every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. 'I baptize you with water for 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 fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor and gather his wheat into the barn, but the chaff will burn with unquenchable fire».
And then it says in verse 13: «Then Jesus». Somebody say, «Then Jesus». Listen, I don’t know if there are two prettier words in all of the Gospels. All this was up. It was right in the middle. «Then Jesus». «Then Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to John, to be baptized by him. Well, John would have prevented him, saying, 'I need to be baptized by you. Why do you come to me? ' But Jesus answered him, 'Let it be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.' And then he consented. And when Jesus was baptized, immediately he went up from the water, and behold, the heavens opened to him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and coming to rest on him; and behold, a voice from heaven: 'This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.'»
It’s just too much. It’s just too much. Now when we let scripture teach scripture to us and compare scripture to scripture, this is the beauty of four Gospels, we would find out that in John 1, you can jot this down, John 1:28, we get a little insight on where John the Baptist is baptizing because it says, and I will read it to you, John 1, verse 28, listen up for a moment. He said the same thing, «'The one who is coming after me, whose strap of his sandal I’m not worthy to untie.' These things took place,» it says in verse 28, «across the Jordan, where John was baptizing…» «took place in Bethany across the Jordan, where John was baptizing».
Okay, listen carefully to me. John, when there is a reference of the people of God, remember geography is so important. When there is a reference to the people of God that are in their land across the Jordan, it’s not going to be on the… what direction am I? It’s going to be over here. Tell me again, it’s not going to be… It’s going to be over here… Okay, so this area is where John the Baptizer is baptizing. So we’re not exactly positive, but it’s not too terribly far in all likelihood from where the children of Israel crossed over on dry ground in the River Jordan and we know that it’s exactly the same river. It is the Jordan.
So he’s on we… and Bethany just in case any of you are really, really familiar with Bethany that’s nearer to Jerusalem. They’re not the same Bethany. That’s why they call it Bethany on the other side of the Jordan, because there is a Bethany that is not very far from Jerusalem. Jerusalem’s right there. Bethany’s right there. That is where Lazarus was raised from the dead. This is on the other side of the Jordan. So in all likelihood, Jesus has come down. Remember, now the Jordan goes up like this. Galilee, the Sea of Galilee, is up here, Jesus has somehow, most likely, since he comes to John, and John’s on the other side of the Jordan, he’s come over here.
Now, I’m not saying that this was all scripted in here and on purpose thinking about Joshua chapter 4. I’m just saying, ain’t it a beautiful thing, that he comes right over here where the children of Israel would have been positioned before they went over into the Promised Land because he’s gonna take them to the Promised Land all right. And it’s gonna be through Jesus, through Jesus. And you wanna hear something wonderful? Because he comes in, he comes in, all this water, of course, is together.
Let me put it together so you can get the idea. Jesus comes in it, tells John, no, this is right. This is right for us to do to fulfill all righteousness. He comes in it and instead of the water splitting, don’t you know when the water saw him coming, it was like… Because remember, y’all, remember that it was God that went before them, that it was just like, I mean, that water didn’t just like do this… God was going through. In other words, it split as it went. It didn’t go like this… It went like this… You understanding with me? Because I mean, he’s coming through it.
So it’s not this… it’s going like this… Well, Jesus steps into it, and the waters have to remain still. And everybody’s been confessing their sins, confessing their sins, and all of those sins have been dunked in that water. And the Son of God is submerged under that water, filled with sin, where it’s all been washed off to prepare them for the Messiah. You want to hear something even crazier? The waters don’t split. When he comes up, the heavens do. Wide open. «This,» this, this and no other. «This is my beloved Son. In him I am well pleased».
In those waters, the Son of God represents everything we need to make it from the east to the west. That water will go right back over that place where you transitioned from what was one season of your life to another, even if you didn’t want it there. The waters will come back over those rocks of remembrance. But I want to tell you something, and I don’t want you to forget this. If you have stored it up in your heart and you have recorded it somewhere for you to keep forever, nobody else will even know those stones were ever there, but you will. You will.