If you want to turn in your Bibles
to 1 Corinthians chapter 15, that's where our message will
be taken from today. 1 Corinthians chapter 15. 1 Corinthians chapter 15. Now,
we have had several messages from this particular chapter
recently, and we had come to this verse in verse 29. If you recall, in 1 Corinthians
15, the very first thing the apostle does is he reminds the
Corinthians of the gospel. And he does that because there
was an issue in the church at Corinth because some there taught
and held to the fact that there was no resurrection. And to address
that, Paul starts, as he always does, with Christ and him crucified. which is what he covers in the
first four verses. And we looked at all the reasons
why this is so compelling. that there is a resurrection,
not only a resurrection, but a bodily resurrection of every
believer. And of course, that bodily resurrection
of every believer, as this chapter informs us and convinces us,
is because of the resurrection of every believer with the Lord
Jesus Christ in His resurrection. And that resurrection of their
bodies, or our bodies, is the consummation of God's work that
he gave Christ to do when he made him our mediator. In John
chapter 6, in verse 37 through 40, he says this repeatedly,
this is the will of him that sent me, that of all which he
hath given me, I should lose nothing, but should raise it
up again at the last day. So raising us up again at the
last day is what this chapter is doing. It's convincing us
of this, and it's doing that through the gospel, which is
first declared. And then, as I'm just trying
to recall your thoughts from this chapter, what goes next
is that there are many eyewitnesses of the resurrection of Christ.
And these were brethren. Over 500 of them saw Jesus at
one time after he rose from the dead. Of course, all of the apostles
saw him. And lastly, the apostle Paul
saw him, which was very convincing because when he saw Christ, he
had formerly been persecutor of Christ and his church and
he was dragging men and women to stand trial for confessing
and believing Christ and he would have them put to death like he
stood by when Stephen was stoned in Acts chapter 7. But since
he saw Christ, he was so radically converted in his mind and everything
about him that now he was preaching the gospel. In fact, he was made
an apostle by Christ and was now happy to serve the church,
to serve the Lord Jesus Christ in preaching the gospel. And
that grace that was given to him was very convincing also
because it enabled Paul to preach the gospel and it wasn't he who
was laboring so much as it was the grace of God who labored
in him. Now this was all convincing in itself, but then the apostle
looks at the complete absurdities of there being no resurrection.
And he says many things there, one of which is that all preachers
would therefore be false. God sent these preachers, and
if they were false, then the God who sent them would be false.
Christ himself would not have raised from the dead if there's
no resurrection. And therefore, we would still
be in our sins, and many other things are said there. in the
absurdities. But then he segues, he changes,
and he takes on this approach of trying to illustrate now that
from Scripture that Adam was first and then Christ as our
representative. So that when the Lord Jesus Christ
rose from the dead, he didn't rise for himself, but for all
of his people. He says, in Adam all died, but
in Christ all shall be made alive. And so that there was a necessary
progression by the will of God that the first man would fall
in sin and all in him would die. But since death came by a man,
it was God's eternal will that the resurrection and life would
come by another man, the Lord Jesus Christ. So even the evil
that we intended by our sin was turned by God in his eternal
purpose to our salvation. And this is phenomenal. This
is significant beyond proportion. that God would, from eternity,
determine to save a people for himself, and do so out of their
sins, by his Son, taking their nature, becoming man, and as
man, fulfill all that the first Adam failed to do, and we failed
to do in him. So that was the other reason
here that he shows the resurrection had to come. And then he wraps
it up in a big panoramic view by showing that Christ was set
up as the God-man mediator from the beginning and all of time
and history. was given in order for him to
accomplish that will, to save his people from their sins, and
finally to bring them to God in glory in a resurrected body
that was a spiritual body, compatible with their spiritual souls. that they had been joined to
Christ in spirit, now they would be one with Him in body, in that
sense. They would be raised together
as one body at the last day, and this was the work God gave
Him to do and would be completed, and the consummation of that
work would be done when Christ presented them to the Father
in glory. And this work of Christ, of course, was the work of the
Son of God. But the Son of God who had stooped
in our nature and taken our nature as a servant of all of his people
in the greatest stoop of humility. No stoop has ever been made but
this stoop by Christ, who humbled himself, who was God and made
himself lower than even the lowest man. in order to take on the
sins of his people and to answer God in justice and righteousness
in order to save his people from their sins and death. What a
phenomenal gospel we have. And now, in continuing this argument
of the bodily resurrection, the apostle says in verse 29, it's
almost as if he interjects this as sort of a post-it note at
the end. He says in verse 29, Else, what
shall they do which are baptized for the dead, if the dead rise
not at all? Why are they then baptized for
the dead? I don't know how many different
interpretations there are of that scripture, but I imagine
that there are a number. And of course, there's only one
correct one. It's the one God intended. And I like the fact that we can
rest on the fact that whatever God said he meant and whatever
he means, we can go to him as his children and ask him that
for Christ's sake, for his church's sake, his people, his body's
sake, he would reveal these things to us by his spirit. No man knows
the mind of God, according to 1 Corinthians 2, but by the Spirit
of God. But God has given us His Spirit.
that we might know the things which are freely given to us
of God. And so these things obviously
were given in scripture. So it is our warrant by God's
grace to us that he tells us if a child, a son, asks his father
for an egg, will he give him a serpent? No, of course not.
If he's hungry, he's going to give him what he asks for. And
so the Lord, our God, our great God and Father will give His
children the Holy Spirit if they ask Him. So let's ask that the
Lord would reveal His word to us here. And that's what we,
we need the Spirit of God to make known to us the mind of
God, don't we? We need that, I absolutely need
that. Now, by no accident is Isaiah 40 part of our thoughts
this morning. And I shared Brad's sentiments
about what William Mason had to say about that chapter. If you remember the words in
verse one of Isaiah 40, comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith
your God. Now there's a double comfort
there, isn't there? And he goes on in Isaiah chapter 40, he said,
let me go back to that and just bring this to your remembrance.
Because as I was contemplating how to dive into this 1 Corinthians
15, verse 29, baptism for the dead, I thought of this verse
here in Isaiah 40. Comfort ye, comfort ye, my people,
saith your God. Now, why would I connect that
or how is this in any way connected to 1 Corinthians 15 verse 29
about the baptism for the dead? Well, he goes on, he doubles
the comfort in verse two, speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem and
cry to her that her warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity
is pardoned. See those two things? Warfare
accomplished, iniquity pardoned, for she hath received of the
Lord's hand double for all her sins. Comfort is doubled because
God's provision for their sins and their warfare against Him
has been doubled. And there's many interpretations
of what that means there, the doubling, but I think first and
foremost we should just take what it says in the verse itself.
Our warfare, because of our rebellion against God by our sin, has broken
our relationship, has separated between us and our God. And there's
no peace. And we're at fault. Our mind,
our carnal mind is hostility, enmity with God. And so we have
a problem. We, by nature, are at war with
our creator and our judge. And yet he says here, this gracious,
gracious message is doubled here. Your warfare is accomplished.
God has a warfare. He has a right to bring trouble
on you. The wages of sin is death, and
those wages include not only trouble in this life, but also
eternal death. And so we see this, that God
is just. He will have his due. He will
render to every man according to his deeds. And so that warfare
has to be solved. Something has to be done. We
can't undo our warfare. Our mind is not compatible with
peace with God. We have a different mind than
God. The Lord says in Isaiah 55, my
thoughts are not your thoughts, and my ways are not your ways.
As high as the heaven is above the earth, so high are my thoughts
and my ways above you. And so here he says this, your
warfare is accomplished and your iniquity is pardoned. You see
that doubling? The Lord delights to double this
because in the Lord Jesus Christ, there is a super abundance, a
super abundance. of justification, a satisfaction
made to God in His own blood, which was offered in perfect
righteousness, so that God is propitiated and we are cleansed. That's a doubling. And not only
is God propitiated and we're cleansed, but we're clothed in
that righteousness, that very obedience required of Christ
in His humiliation to make satisfaction to God in His righteousness and
justice for our sins. And then He gives it to us freely.
He not only accomplishes it, but then He gives it to us and
proclaims it to us in these words, Comfort ye, comfort ye my people,
saith your God. And then in verse 3 of the same
chapter, the voice of Him that crieth in the wilderness, What
is this? This is John the Baptist. And he says, prepare ye the way
of the Lord, speaking of Christ, make straight in the desert a
highway for our God. Everything in the way, any impediment,
God himself, the Lord Jesus Christ, our great God and Savior will
remove it. And this would occur when John
the Baptist was sent before him to make straight his way in the
desert, a highway for our God, a highway of grace, a highway
of peace, a highway where the proclamation is sounded from
the mountaintops. That's what he's saying here.
In verse 9, O Zion that bring us good tidings, get thee up
into the high mountain. O Jerusalem that bring us good
tidings, lift up thy voice with strength. Lift it up. Be not
afraid. Don't do it timidly. Say it boldly. Say unto the cities of Judah,
Look, behold, your God, this is Christ. Behold, the Lord God
will come with strong hand in His arm, shall rule for Him.
Behold, His reward is with Him. It's a reward of grace, and His
work is before Him. It's grace to us because of His
work in righteousness, fulfilling God's will. honoring and magnifying
and fulfilling his law and establishing an everlasting righteousness
which he gives freely to his people. And verse 11, he shall
feed his flock like a shepherd, gather them like lambs in his
arms. He'll gather the lambs in his
arms and carry them in his bosom, holding those lambs so dear to
him who are dear to him in his very bosom and gently lead those
that are with young, leading us to Christ. Now that's the
backdrop of what? Of Christ coming, of our comfort.
And why is that mentioned here with regard to John the Baptist?
Well, look at Matthew chapter three. Matthew chapter three,
this is the beginning of the gospel where the Lord Jesus Christ
came by the appointment of God. By the appointment, God gave
him to do this. He says in Matthew chapter three,
in those days came John the Baptist preaching in the wilderness of
Judea saying, repent ye for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.
For this is he that was spoken of by the prophet Isaiah saying,
the voice of one crying in the wilderness, prepare ye the way
of the Lord, make his path straight." So you see, this is God himself
explaining Isaiah 40 to us. This is when John would come
baptizing in the wilderness to make the path of Christ straight
for his people. Notice what happens here in verse
4. And the same John had his raiment of camel's hair and a
leather and girdle about his loins, and his meat was locusts
and wild honey. Then went out to him Jerusalem
and all Judea and all the region round about Jordan. And they
were baptized of him in Jordan, confessing their sins, confessing
their sins. This is so essential that we
understand the way God saves us. He brings us first and foremost
to see our utter sinfulness, our guilt before Him, and our
corruption of our nature, of our mind, that we're guilty,
and God's justice demands payment, and we're corrupt. We cannot
bring forth a good thought or a good action. There's no sense
in flogging the log, as they say. There's no sense in beating
ourselves about the head and shoulders and trying to bring
up tears and sorrow to remove our sins. It won't remove anything.
It'll be motivated out of a motive that is not aligned with God's
will and purpose and His justice and righteousness. So there we
are in our guilt and in our corruption and we can do nothing about it.
And what happens first is the gospel of Christ comes to us
and convinces us first of our sin. And that's why they came
to Jordan, the river, to be baptized, and they had to confess their
sins. In verse 7, but when John saw many of the Pharisees and
Sadducees come to his baptism, he said to them, O generation
of vipers, you poisonous snakes, who has warned you to flee from
the wrath to come? Bring forth therefore fruits
meet for repentance, and think not to say within yourselves,
we have Abraham to our father. For I say to you, God is able
of these stones to raise up children to Abraham." See what he does? He takes out every trust of self-righteous,
proud religion. He says, I'm going to cut that
off. You're standing, you think you have a root, a reason by
which you can be comforted and come to God, a basis that God
would accept you because you're physically descended from Abraham. No, no. God can raise up stones
to Abraham, and stones have nothing to do with children to Abraham. So now the axe is laid to the
root of the trees, therefore every tree that brings not forth
good fruit is hewn down and cast into the fire. And we're gonna
see this good fruit here. He says in verse 11, I indeed
baptize you with water unto repentance, but he that comes after me, this
is the one, the Lord, whose way he makes straight, is mightier
than I, whose shoes I'm not worthy to bear. He shall baptize you
with the Holy Ghost and with fire. whose fan is in his hand
and will thoroughly purge his floor. In other words, like someone
in the harvest, they would take the threshing instruments and
the instruments used to separate the chaff from the wheat itself
that they would use then to grind up. And that was the picture
of this fan. He's removing the chaff from
his wheat. the false from the true, those
who were the unbeliever from his believing elect people. And
he says, he'll gather his weed into the garner, but he will
burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire. So that corresponds to
what he said before. He would baptize with fire. Then
cometh Jesus from Galilee. Notice, here's the Lord now.
This is the one whose way John is preparing. Galilee to Jordan,
unto John to be baptized of him. But John forbade him. He said,
no, no. I have need to be baptized of
thee, John told Jesus. And comest thou to me? I can
imagine how John felt. He knew he was the Lamb of God,
the Son of God, and he's nothing before him. And he says, I need
to be baptized of you. And Jesus answered and said to
him, suffer it to be so. Now, allow this. Notice what
Jesus says in verse 15. For thus it becometh us to fulfill
all righteousness. Then he suffered him. John allowed
him. And Jesus, when he was baptized, went up straightway out of the
water. And, lo, the heavens were opened to him, and he saw the
Spirit of God descending like a dove and lighting upon him.
And, lo, a voice from heaven saying, This is my beloved Son,
in whom I am well pleased. All right, that's the background
here. That's Isaiah 40 unfolded to us. This is the comfort. How
does this comfort us? Well, Isaiah 40 tells us, because
the Lord said we would receive double for all our sins. And
this is what John is doing here in the baptism of Christ. This
is what he was sent to do. The Lord Jesus was sent to accomplish
this. It seems mysterious to us, doesn't
it? What does this mean? Why did Jesus, why was Jesus
baptized? What did his baptism mean? Why
did God require him to be baptized? Why did John come baptizing anyway? Why were the people coming to
John to be baptized by him in the River Jordan? Why were they
confessing their sins? These are questions that relate
to this matter of baptism. 1 Corinthians 15, 29 says, else
what would they do? Which are baptized for the dead
if the dead rise not. So somehow baptism is a baptism
for the dead, and it has to do with the dead rising up, being
resurrected in their bodies. How does this fit? How does it
all go together? What does it mean? Well, that's
what we want to talk about here today. Baptism for the dead and
this matter of baptism. Now, I want to give you some
scripture here that in some sense starts at the end and works back
to the beginning so we can see these things in scripture. And
I don't want to make this complicated. I heard one time when I was young
that the preacher's wife told him, on a note, kiss. And by that, K-I-S-S, she meant
keep it short, stupid. I'm often encouraged to keep
it simple. And my wife told me this morning,
make sure you make it clear. So I want to do that at the outset.
I want to make this clear. But I want to give you this simple
statement in order that we might see as
this unfolds the magnitude of the revelation here and the profound
implications, the significance that this has for us. Okay, we're
not talking about baptism because I want to argue about baptism
or because I want to make some theological stance. I'm talking
about this because Isaiah says, comfort ye, comfort ye my people. saith your God, speak ye comfortably
to Jerusalem, and cry unto her that their warfare is accomplished,
their sins are pardoned, they've received double, you see, from
the Lord. This satisfaction, this propitiation,
this washing of their sins, the reconciling of themselves between
God with whom they formerly had this warfare because of the hostility
of their sinful corrupt minds. And because they had offended
Him in transgressing His law. How can this warfare be accomplished?
How can their sins be pardoned? Twice over and a double comfort.
Well, first of all, realize that God is the God of all comfort.
We can't be comforted unless God comforts us. And he comforts
us in the Lord Jesus Christ by the Spirit of God. So let's first
just answer the simple question here. 1 Corinthians 15, 29. What
does it mean? What did the apostle mean? To
be baptized for the dead. And why is this helping the argument,
which is that the believers' bodies will be raised? at the
last day when Christ raises them in the consummate act of all
that God gave him to do as our mediator and all that he did
as the second and last Adam. How is this baptism factor into
that? Well, the simple answer is this.
To be baptized here in this verse in 1 Corinthians 29 is the baptism
of water believers submit to the baptism of water, in water,
when they are baptized, and they, being given faith by God in Christ,
see their death, their burial, and their resurrection with Christ
in His death, burial, and resurrection, and they look forward in hope
now, because of their union with Christ in that, that their bodies
will be raised up on the last day. Because Christ rose, having
paid for our sins, made satisfaction to God, and fulfilled all righteousness
for us in His life, sufferings, and in His death and resurrection,
therefore, in our baptism, we confess that in Christ, we also
died to our sins. Our sins were buried and put
out of God's mind forever, and we were raised, justified with
Christ, raised to life. And therefore, because we were
joined to Christ in his death and resurrection, therefore we
not only spiritually live, but our bodies will be raised up
again at the last day. Our bodies, according to Romans
chapter 8 and verse 10, are dead because of sin. And so to be
baptized in water, we're confessing, this is our hope by the gospel,
that with Christ we died, with Christ we rose, therefore with
Christ our bodies also shall be raised up on the last day.
Does that make sense? So that's a simple explanation
of what this verse is talking about. Now, it could also be
argued that is talking about a overwhelming persecution that
comes on those who are bringing the gospel. Rather than water
baptism, this is talking about this flood of persecution that
comes over and overwhelms those who bring the gospel, and there
would be no reason for them to preach the gospel if there was
no resurrection of their bodies. Why would they submit themselves
or subject themselves to preaching the gospel at the cost of their
life and all the persecution that comes from it by this overwhelming
baptism of persecution and death if there was no resurrection?
And that's what is said in the next few verses. Verse 30, he
says, and why stand we in jeopardy every hour? I protest by your
rejoicing which I have in Christ Jesus. Our Lord, I die daily. See, that's the death he's saying. Life comes out of death. I die
daily. If after the manner of men, I fought with beasts at
Ephesus, In other words, there's probably some kind of a Colosseum
event there where Paul doesn't say in Scripture, but there must
have been an event where Paul had to be, as it were, thrown
to the lions or something and fought with beasts at Ephesus.
What advantage is it me if the dead rise not? Let us eat and
drink, for tomorrow we die. We might as well just live like
the heathen. You see? And then he goes on.
Be not deceived. Evil communications corrupt good
manners. If you associate with, if you
listen to, if you take in, and as it were, drink in the falsehood
of these who claim there's no resurrection, then your good
manners, you're going to be deceived by that. And your good manners
following Christ are going to be corrupted. So you see these
two things? Baptism for the dead, I really
believe in this verse, verse 29, is referring to the water
baptism to which all believers submit. And that baptism is their
confession that with Christ they died, were buried, and rose in
justification to eternal life. And therefore, since they're
joined to Christ, and He lives in them by His Spirit, they also
shall rise in their body at the last day. Why would they be baptized,
knowing the risks? of being persecuted and even
put to death for that baptism if there was no resurrection
for the dead. Why would they confess this hope
in the resurrection of their dead bodies at the last day if
there was no resurrection with Christ or death to sin in His
baptism? All right? And then there's the
subsequent verses which also argue that the apostles and all
those who preach the gospel would not be willing to endure this
martyr death or this persecution if there was no resurrection
because we might as well just live today for today. We're going
to just die and that'll be it tomorrow. And the warning then,
you will be deceived if you listen to those who preach this false
doctrine, which is a general lesson. Don't associate with
and don't fellowship with those who preach a false gospel. You'll be corrupted. That's what
he's saying here. That's why it's so essential
that we meet together with God's people and don't turn away from
the gospel of Christ. So I've given you the entire
message now, except for the meat of it, which is in the details. So I want to give you some of
that. And in order to do that, I want to take you to a couple
of verses, because these things really bring home the sweetness
of the comfort that's spoken of in Isaiah chapter 40. Look
at John, the Gospel of John, chapter 6. And I want to start
here. The Gospel of John chapter 6
and verse 56. And notice here, what we're going
to look at here is the fact of our relation to Christ of those who believe on him.
Those who believe on Christ, what is the truth of their relationship
to the Lord Jesus Christ in John chapter 6 and verse 56? Jesus
says, he that eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood. And he's
not talking about a physical consumption of his real body.
He's talking about a spiritual feeding upon Christ crucified,
both his body and his blood, as we looked at last week. That person who by faith is living
upon Christ crucified, he says, dwelleth in me and I in him. So the believer dwells in Christ,
and Christ dwells in the believer. In other words, they're one.
Do you see that? They're one. The fact behind faith is that
those who believe Christ and depend upon Him as all of the
cleansing of their sins before God, and all of the forgiveness
of their sins, and the making of themselves holy before God,
and taking away their sins, and giving them righteousness before
God, and redeeming them, and making remission for their sins,
and propitiation, and sanctification, and justification, and redemption,
and all these things by the blood of Christ. They who look to Christ
and Him only for all of these things from God are those who
are one with the Lord Jesus Christ. They're in Him and He is in them.
And faith is the evidence of that. Okay, so that's the first
truth I want you to see. Believers are one with Christ.
Now, being one with Christ, he died. Why did he die? Well,
he died for our sins. It says in 1 Peter 2, verse 24,
who his own self bear our sins in his own body on the tree. That we, being dead to sins,
How? We didn't die. Oh, we did because
we were in Him. We, being dead to sins, should
live unto righteousness by whose stripes we were healed. Now that's
1 Peter 2.24. And what he's saying is that
Christ carried our sins like a body, a sinful body, on His
own body, joined to Him, given, laid upon Him, owned by Him as
His own sins. And with those sins was nailed
to the tree, and our body of sins was put to death, crucified
with him. And then his body was taken and
put in the grave, and that body of sins was buried. And for that
reason, God says, forgotten, as a dead man, out of mind, I
will remember their sins no more. And this was the promise of the
new covenant, wasn't it? By the Lord Jesus Christ, our
sins were fully remitted. The accounting of it was fully
set clear that there was nothing on the accounts where God owed
us a wage of death and we owed him a debt of our sins. None
of that. All was remitted by the blood
of Jesus. Now, having done that, what happened
to our Savior? Well, He rose from the dead,
didn't He? Having satisfied, it says in
Romans 4.25, He was delivered because of our offenses, and
He was raised again because of our justification. You see, for
our offenses, He was delivered unto death. And He was raised
again for our justification or because of our justification. So when He was raised from the
dead, what happened to our sins? Well, they were gone. Those sins
are no more. And He rose without sin. Without
sin, he put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. This is the gospel,
isn't it? He died for our sins according
to the scriptures. He was buried and he rose again
the third day according to the scriptures. The sins were put
away. Now, this is significant that
Christ rose. Because those who believe in
Christ, according to John 6, 56, are in him and he is in them. And if he is alive and he's in
them, then what are they? They're alive with him. They're
alive with him. Notice in John chapter 6, the
same chapter, verse 47. Notice verse 47. Verily, verily,
I say unto you, he that believeth on me hath, what? Everlasting life. Well, does
that mean that we don't have it yet, but someday we're going
to get it? No, it's a hath. In other words, it's a present
possession. And since it's everlasting, it
can never die, you can never die. And Jesus said this in John
11, verse 26, when he said that he was the resurrection and the
life, he said, whosoever, John 11, 26, whosoever liveth and
believeth in me shall never die. That's the same thing. He has
eternal life. Believe as thou this. You see,
faith in Christ is God's work in us that enables us to lay
hold and apprehend with persuasion by God. God-given persuasion
to embrace and trust that Christ is everything in all of our salvation. There's nothing needed by us,
and faith empties itself of all merit and lays hold on Christ
as everything before God. And so, in Hebrews 10, 19, it
says, now we have boldness to come into the holiest, into the
presence of God in all of His holiness. How? How can we possibly,
who are sinners, or even men without sin, but as men, come
into the presence of God in all of His holiness? By the blood
of Jesus, he says. You see, it's all Christ. He
doesn't say, and this, and that. He says, no, it's all by Him.
No wonder He says, comfort ye, comfort ye my people. So the
believer is joined to Christ. Christ is in him. He is in Christ. And this faith now is evidence
of an eternal life as a present possession given to us. And where does this life come
from? Well, it comes from the Lord Himself. Look at John 6,
verse 63. It is the Spirit that quickeneth,
gives life. The Spirit that gives life. The
flesh, that's what we are by nature, profits nothing. It doesn't
matter who you were born to. It doesn't matter how good you
feel. It doesn't matter how many tears or sorrow, how much sorrow
you have concerning your sin. or how much you stop doing one
thing and start doing something else. None of those things make
a hill of beans difference. He says the flesh profits nothing. He says in verse 63, the words
that I speak unto you, they are spirit and they are life. God who spoke all things into
existence now, in the Lord Jesus Christ, who has accomplished
our salvation, preaches the Gospel, and His Spirit gives life to
the sinner in the preaching of that Gospel, and that life now
is life in them. This is Christ in us, and it
comes by the preaching of His Word concerning Himself, who
was broken and His blood poured out for our salvation. So he's
directing us back again to what Isaiah said, that you'll receive
double. You've received double for all
your sins, all your sins. The warfare has ended. Pardon
has been obtained by the blood of Jesus. All right, so now I
want you to turn to 1 Corinthians 6. 1 Corinthians 6. Again, we're trying to understand
why baptism? Why was the Lord baptized? What
did his baptism mean? Why did God require it? And why
was John baptizing in the first place? Why were the people coming
to him? And what is our own baptism?
Why are we baptized? All these things. So he says
here in 1 Corinthians 6 and verse 17, notice, very simple verse.
He that is joined to the Lord is one spirit. You see that?
Joined to the Lord. That's what John 6, 56 said,
isn't it? If we believe Christ, living
upon by faith what God has declared that His body broken and His
blood shed for us is all of our propitiation and reconciliation
and redemption and remission and justification and sanctification,
whatever it is, all of it is obtained by the blood of Jesus. It says in Romans 5, 9 that His
blood is How we're justified, being now
justified by His blood, which means His blood is our righteousness. He fulfilled the law in shedding
his blood. It was an obedience of sacrifice
of love that more than fulfilled the law. Superabundance of merit
in Christ. And here he's saying, now that
one who believe in Christ is joined to him, is joined by the
Spirit of God. He's joined in spirit. Look at
same book, 1 Corinthians chapter 12. 1 Corinthians chapter 12 and verse
12. He says in 1 Corinthians 12,
12, for as the body is one and has many members, and all the
members of that one body being many are one body, so also is
Christ. He's talking about every believer.
Notice verse 13, for by one spirit, all we I'm sorry, by one spirit
are we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles,
whether we be bond slaves or free, and have been all made
to drink into one spirit. All right, so this is saying
then that the spirit of God has baptized his people, Christ's
people, into the body of Christ, into the church. Isn't that what
that says? And he said in the verse we just read, 1 Corinthians
6, 17, that he that is joined to the Lord is one spirit. So
you see then that what we started with in John 6 is that the believer
is believing Christ as his Savior and all of his salvation as a
result of something which was done by the Spirit of God through
the preaching of the gospel. He gave us life, now we have
eternal life, and faith is the evidence of eternal life and
the evidence of our union with Christ. And that's what I wanted
to illustrate to you from the scriptures here. See that the
scriptures prove to us that life is necessary for faith, faith
in Christ is the evidence of that life, and faith in Christ
and that life is the evidence of our union with Christ. Look
at Galatians chapter 2. In chapter 2 of Galatians, he
says in verse 20, the apostle had said in verse 19 actually,
he says, for I through the law am dead to the law that I might
live to God. I am crucified with Christ. The
law required my death. Christ took me into union with
himself by eternal election. I went to death and into the
grave and rose again with Christ in his death, burial, and resurrection.
And because I was crucified with Christ by that God-made union
before I was born, he says I am crucified with Christ, nevertheless,
I live. Though I died on the cross in
my sins, yet I live to God now, not in my sins, But, he goes
on, yet not I, I live, but not I, Christ lives in me. You see? The believer is a walking
resurrection. In spirit, we've been raised. This is what Ephesians 2 is talking
about. You who were dead in sins and
trespasses, in your minds, by wicked works, you were like everyone
else, by nature, children of wrath. Yet God, who is rich in
mercy for his great love wherewith he loved us, even when we were
dead in sins, has raised us up together with Christ. That's
what he's talking about. We experience the resurrection
in our spirit because we died with Christ on the cross. I'm
crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live, yet not I, but Christ
liveth in me, he is my life, and the life which I now live
in the flesh, this body, I live by the faith of the Son of God.
What does this life do? This life of Christ in me, what
does it enable me to do? To live by the faith of the Son
of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. And in verse
21, I do not frustrate the grace of God, I don't, I don't, go
against this revelation, if righteousness come by the law, my own personal
obedience to what God requires from me, then Christ died for
nothing. That's what he's saying here.
If Christ didn't die for nothing, then obviously his death did
justify me before God, because my works can't do it. I'm a sinner.
The law can only condemn a sinner. All of my labors are full of
sin. There's no possibility of earning righteousness. A sinner
can't earn righteousness from God. let alone earn anything
else from God. The creature can't earn. God
gives. Every good gift and perfect gift
comes down from the Father of lights. There's no variableness
with Him. And so Christ did justify His
people in His death because it's impossible that He would die
for nothing. And therefore, as a believer,
I don't frustrate God's grace that's working in me. I don't
fight against it. I join with it. And I say, the
life that I now live, I live by the faith of the Son of God.
So we see then again. The life of Christ in us is because
Christ died for us, and that life now in us, which is Christ
living in us, enables us to trust Him, to see Him, to understand
with persuasion, and to live in hope of the resurrection of
our dead bodies, which are dead because of sin. But our spirit
is life because of His righteousness. And that's essential that we
understand that. Okay, so why do we labor so hard in order
to see this? It's essential that we see that
a believer has been raised. A believer has been raised from
the dead in their spirit. The spirit is life, Romans 8.10,
because of righteousness. And Ephesians 2, you were dead
in sins, you've been quickened, you've been made alive together
with Christ. And that this life we now have
is not only a life from death, but it is a life of Christ living
in us. He is our life, Colossians 3
verse 4. And this life of Christ in us
enables us to trust Him, to see Him, and to walk with this faith
that pierces through the clouds of all of the darkness that our
own sinful, tainted minds would put between us and God, and pierces
through those clouds and lays hold of God's Word in the Gospel
that's sure and eternal, and teaches us, yes, we're flesh,
we're grass, our flesh is grass, But the word of the Lord endures
forever, and so we lay hold on that. Comfort ye, comfort ye,
my people. And so we see that because we
believe, we live. We live because Christ lives
in us. He lives in us because he rose from the dead. and he
rose from the dead because he bore our sins. So we're working
backward, aren't we? Through the gospel explanation
to see that everything comes down on the foundation of Christ
and him crucified. Now, go back to Matthew chapter
three, and I'll see if I can get to this. Matthew chapter
three. Why was the Lord Jesus baptized
then in Matthew chapter three? Why was he baptized? John was
surprised. Why did you come to me to be
baptized? I should be baptized by you. No, the Lord says, look
at verse 15. Jesus answering John and said
to him, allow it, suffer it to be so now for, here's the reason,
thus it becometh, is necessary, becometh us, to fulfill all righteousness. And then he was baptized. So
what he's saying here, it's necessary. God has appointed me to do this.
This is part of his will. I will be baptized by you. And
he says, it's becometh us. There's not just Christ by himself,
but John with Christ, us, to fulfill all righteousness. Somehow, in this act of baptism,
there is a fulfilling of righteousness. And it includes us. Do you see
that? In Christ's baptism, he is identifying
himself with his people. whose nature he had taken into
union with his divine nature. But not just their nature, as
it says in Hebrews chapter 2, he took not on angels, he took
on the seed of Abraham. He didn't come to save angels,
he came to save the promised elect seed of Abraham. And so
he takes them on with himself. And in his baptism, he's saying,
I am doing this. for my people, with my people,
and they're with me in this. And in his baptism, John takes
the Lord Jesus Christ and plunges him under the water, immerses
and submerges him in that water of the River Jordan. And when
he comes up out of the water, that's when he sees the Spirit
of God descending upon him like a dove and the Father speaking
from heaven, this is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased. Righteousness is being fulfilled
before our very eyes, but in the act of this water baptism,
even this act of Christ, given by God for him to do is part
of a future baptism, which would actually fulfill all righteousness,
and his water baptism is pointing forward to that. But in this
water baptism, he's identifying himself with his people, and
they are going under the water with him, because they will go
under what he will be baptized in shortly. And that is spoken
of in Matthew chapter 20. Matthew 20, verse 20, James and
John, the children of their mother, they were called Zebedee's children,
she comes worshiping Christ, she wanted to ask Jesus something. In verse 21 of Matthew 20, Jesus
said to her, what wilt thou? What do you want? She said to
him, grant that these, my two sons, may sit, the one on thy
right hand, the other on thy left, in thy kingdom. And Jesus
said, you know not what you ask. Are you able, notice, to drink
of the cup that I shall drink of and to be baptized with a
baptism that I am baptized with? And they said, yes, we are. And he said, you shall drink
indeed of my cup and be baptized with the baptism that I'm baptized
with, but to sit on my right hand and on my left is not mine
to give, but it shall be given to them for whom it is prepared
of my father. So here the Lord Jesus is speaking
of something, a cup, a cup he would drink. And in drinking
this cup, it would be a baptism. And the word baptism, if you
read the Greek dictionary, Strong's and Thayer's, they say the word
actually, the word in our Bibles is baptism. And baptized comes
from another word that means to immerse. In fact, it comes
from a primary word called bapto. It means to dip. Like Jesus dipped
his finger, and I mean, Lazarus asked Abraham, I'm sorry, the
rich man in hell asked Abraham to send Lazarus and dip his finger.
That word, that's what it meant, bapto, bapto. And so Jesus dipped
the sop and gave it to Judas, and Judas took it and betrayed
Christ. But this dipping was the root, the primary word, but
the word actually means to immerse and to submerge. And for some
reason, the King James translators didn't write the meaning in English. Instead, they just carried the
word over and plopped it there on the page and says, we're just
going to re-spell it as baptism and baptize instead of baptiza
or whatever, baptizo. It's a strange transliteration
of the word. and makes you wonder why they
did that. And we have our suspicions why they did that. But the point
is here is the word to be baptized, as Jesus is using it here, means
to be overwhelmed. It means to be completely submerged
under whatever was being poured out by his father, which was
represented by him as taking a cup and drinking it in the
Garden of Gethsemane. He says, I have a cup. I have
to drink it. In John chapter 12, he says,
I, you know, I'm going to this hour, and he prays his father,
and he says, what shall I say? Save me from this hour? No, this
is the reason I came to this hour. And then John chapter 18,
and I'll read this one to you, in John chapter 18, talking about
this cup, he says, In John chapter 18, Jesus is in the garden of
Gethsemane, and Judas comes with a band of men. And he asked them,
whom do you seek? And they said, Jesus of Nazareth.
And of course, you remember, they fell backward with Judas
on the ground. And he asked them again, whom
do you seek? And they said, Jesus of Nazareth.
And he says in verse 8, I told you, I am. If therefore you seek
me, then let these go their way. This is the point here. If you
seek me, let these go their way. You see, Christ is going to be
baptized. We are going to go free. And he says in verse 9, that
the same might be fulfilled which he spake of them which thou has
given me, I have lost none. Then Simon Peter, having a sword,
drew it and smote the high priest's servant and cut off his right
ear. The servant's name was Malchus. Then said Jesus to Peter, put
up your sword and your sheath. Notice, the cup which my father
has given me, shall I not drink it? You see, this is what he
was talking about. There's no ambiguity. We don't
have to guess. Christ's baptism was the pouring
out of God's judgment upon Him for our sins, because of our
sins laid on Him and owned by Him. He was guilty because He
took our sins as His very own. And therefore, the wages of sin
was brought upon Him. That was His death. That's how
he was baptized. And his water baptism, signified
by the overwhelming submerging, immersion under water, signified
this overwhelming pouring out of God's wrath upon the Lord
Jesus Christ. And that's why in Psalm 69, and
Psalm 88, and Jonah, and other places in the Old Testament,
it talks about this overwhelming outpouring of God's wrath upon
the Lord Jesus Christ in a figure. But even in the flood of Noah,
even in the flood of Noah, this is talked about. And I wanted
to finish this, but I won't be able to. I'll have to finish
it next week because we've run far out of time. I hope you get
some appreciation of the fact that our faith in Christ crucified
for us is the evidence of life. That life is the result of Christ
living in us. And that life of Christ in us
is the result of Christ having died for us and risen again.
And because he died for us and we rose with him then, we also
died with him and were buried. And therefore, when we are baptized
in water, we are expressing exactly the same thing that he did in
his resurrection. Our union with him as he did
when he was baptized, his union with us. What a wonderful picture
God has given us. And we'll try to finish this
next time. Let's pray. Father, thank you for your great
mercy. This salvation is far beyond
our ability to express in its comprehensive greatness. and
it's wonder that you would so be pleased to glorify yourself
in the salvation of sinners as we are. Thank you for Christ,
Lord Jesus. Thank you for your love and the
gift of yourself and the sacrifice of yourself for bearing our sins
and answering every jot and tittle of the law and rising again in
justification of us. and giving us this life, help
us, Lord, to submit in all things to you in faith with this delight
that we would be enabled and have this great privilege to
walk with you day by day. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.