Well, good morning. If you would
open your Bibles with me to Mark chapter one. Mark chapter one. Before we begin,
let's bow before our Lord, seek his blessing. Our Father, which art in heaven,
holy, reverent is your matchless name. Father, we very carefully
reverently come into your presence, daring only come pleading the
name, the obedience, the sacrifice of Christ our Savior. And Father,
how thankful we are that sinful men and women like us can come
into your presence accepted in the beloved because of who the
Lord Jesus Christ is and what he's accomplished for us. And
Father, we're thankful. and how I pray this morning that
you would enable us to truly worship you. I pray, Father,
that you'd cause the name of Christ our Savior to be lifted
up and that you give us eyes to behold him and see him, that
you give us faith to trust him. Father, what we pray for ourselves
in our class this morning, we pray for our children's classes
especially. Father, that you'd bless in a
very special way in this hour. We pray you'd be with our teachers,
that you'd give them wisdom and understanding and teaching. Father,
that you would give our children a receptive heart that would
perceive the things that are taught to them, that you would
plant in their hearts this very morning, the seeds of faith that
you'd cause to grow to faith and life in our Lord Jesus Christ.
Father, we're thankful for this congregation that you've given
to us. We're thankful for a people that have a heart of peace and
unity, that have the unified desire to come together and to
hear the gospel preached, to worship our Lord Jesus Christ.
And Father, I pray you continue to bless us, that you continue
to lead and guide, that you not leave us to ourselves now, but
you continue to bless your word for your great namesake. Father,
for your people that you brought into the time of trouble and
trial, we pray for them. We pray you'd be with them in
a healing way. Father, that you would comfort
their hearts, that you would deliver as soon as it could be
thy will. We pray especially for Peg, that
you'd be with her in this healing process. Pray for Barb, and Father,
the other in each especially. Be with them, we pray. And all
these things we ask in that name which is above every name. In
the name of Christ our Savior, amen. Now, I've titled our lesson
this morning, The Baptism of John. You know, many people think
many different things about the baptism of John the Baptist. You know, what was that baptism? What did that baptism mean? And
they've got a lot of ideas. You ask 10 people, you may get
10 different answers. What I want us to learn this
morning, what does the scripture say about the baptism of John? Mark 1 verse 4, John, that's
John the Baptist, did baptize in the wilderness and preach
the baptism of repentance for the remission of sins. And there
went out unto him all the land of Judea and they of Jerusalem,
and were all baptized of him in the river Jordan, confessing
their sins. Now here's the first thing about
the baptism of John. The baptism of John is not a
different baptism. The baptism of John is believer's
baptism. Ephesians 4 verse 5 says there's
one Lord, one faith, and one baptism. So the baptism of John
is the same baptism that we observe today. Every believer is baptized
with the same baptism, the same confession. They're all confessing
Christ. Now when John the Baptist baptized
a person, They were confessing salvation in Christ by the same
way we do today. The only difference is they were
looking forward to it. John told him, told them what's
coming. We look back on it. We look back
on it on a finished work, but we're both confessing faith in
Christ the same way. If you look over in Acts chapter
19, I can show you that. Acts 19, this passage has confused
a lot of people, but I hope I can, clear that confusion up this
morning. Acts 19. Look first at verse three. And
he said unto them, unto what then were you baptized? And they
said unto him, John's baptism. Then said Paul, John barely baptized
with the baptism of repentance saying unto the people that they
should believe on him, which should come after him. See, they're
looking to one who's still yet coming. They should believe on
him. we should come after him, that is on Christ Jesus. When
they heard this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus.
Now here's the confusion here. People think 1 Thessalonians,
when they heard this, they think that means the people that Paul
was talking to were then baptized again. That's not what it means.
Paul is going on saying they were baptized, that they should
believe on Jesus Christ, and when they, when the people who
heard John the Baptist preach Christ, Then they were baptized,
the people that John baptized were baptized in the name of
the Lord Jesus. John's baptism was believers'
baptism. They were just believing, they're
confessing faith in one who was to come. Now back in our text,
verse four, Mark says that John baptized people for the remission
of sins. Now that does not mean that baptism
cleanses anybody of their sins. You're not baptized and now your
sins are forgiven, you have remission of sins. That doesn't mean that
at all. Look back just a couple pages
at Matthew. Matthew chapter 26. This is a
good example of what if you want to understand what the scripture
means, you've got to compare scripture with scripture. Matthew
26 verse 27. And he took the cup and gave
thanks and gave it to them saying, drink ye all of it. For this
is my blood of the New Testament, which is shed for many for the
remission of sins. It's the blood of Christ that
gives us remission of sins. It's the blood of Christ that
washes away our sin. So what does it mean when Mark
says they were baptized for the remission of sins? Well, I looked
this up. I found this very, very helpful.
I hope you will too. This is the definition of the
word for. but Strong's Concordance gives
for the remission of sins. It says for could have two meanings. If you saw a poster saying Jesse
James wanted for robbery, for could mean Jesse is wanted so
he can commit a robbery, or Jesse is wanted because he has committed
a robbery. The latter sense is the correct
one. So too in this passage, the word for signifies an action
in the past. Otherwise it would violate the
entire tenor of the New Testament teaching on salvation by grace
and not by works. So this word for Mark uses, John
baptized for the remission of sins. He baptized people because
they were confessing. Their sin was put away in the
blood of Christ. Now it would be put away in the
blood of Christ when he's crucified, but they have remission of sins
in the Lamb slain before the foundation of the world. Their
sins are remitted, washed away in the blood of Christ. Now,
by faith, they were looking forward to that sacrifice the same way
we look back on that sacrifice. It's by faith, by faith. Trusting
his blood is all it takes to wash away my sin. And I know
beyond a shadow of a doubt, I mean, Paul already told us that in
the book of Acts. This is a believer's baptism.
They were confessing Christ. I know that because of John's
message. Now, what was John's message?
Well, you know, we don't have a lot of outlines. We don't have
a lot of history of John's different messages that he preached, but
I do know his message. I know the tenor of John's message.
It was Christ. Behold, the Lamb of God, which
taketh away the sin of the world. There's one coming after me.
I'm not worthy to untie his shoe. You look to him. You go to him.
That was the tenor of John's message. John the Baptist, knew
exactly who the Lord Jesus Christ was. He's the last Old Testament
prophet. He knew exactly who Christ was
and what Christ came to do. John knew that Christ would come
to be the sacrifice for the sin of his people. That's why John
identified him as a lamb of God. You know, the people, you gotta
remember, who was it John was preaching to? What did they use
lambs for? They used names for sacrifices. They knew exactly what John was
saying. This man is the sacrifice for sin. John preached who Christ
is and what Christ came to do. He came to be the sacrifice for
the sin of his people, and John knew he'd be successful, that
he'd put away all of the sin of all of his people. Not one
of them could ever be found guilty of sin because Christ would die
as their sacrifice. His blood would atone for their
sin. John identified Christ as the
sacrifice who would take away sin. He said that the sin of
the world, and you know that doesn't mean the sin of everybody
that ever lived, it means sinners from all over the world. All
walks of life, I don't care who they are, I don't care how bad
we think their sin is, I don't care how open their sin is, they
don't just have to be a religious Jew. Sinners from all over the
world receive remission of sins in the blood of Christ. And people
heard that message, and they were baptized, confessing their
faith in that Christ. That Christ, that Savior is the
only way I can be saved. That's what they are confessing.
That was true then, and it's true now. We're baptized today,
we're confessing faith in the same Savior, that His blood put
away our sin. So John preached Christ. And
the way that a person confesses faith in Christ, once they hear
him preached, is believer's baptism. All right, number two. Let me
tell you what baptism is, and I guess what it's not, too. There's a lot of confusion about
that, too, isn't there? What baptism is. Confessing Christ
in baptism, all it is, it's a picture. It's a type. Just like the Old
Testament types and pictures we like to read and study and
hear preached from today, baptism is a type. Just like the Lord's
table is a type, right? The wine is a type, a picture
of the blood. Brad is a picture of Christ's
broken body. Baptism is a type, that's what it is. Now the type
doesn't save. The type doesn't wash away sin.
Christ saves. Christ washes away sin. Baptism
pictures what it took for the Lord Jesus Christ to save me.
That's what baptism pictures. It's a picture of the death,
the burial, and the resurrection of Christ. So when a person is
baptized, that's what they're confessing. Christ died the death
that I deserve. The reason Christ died is my
sin. My sin demanded his death, and
when Christ died, I died in him. When a person's baptized, they're
confessing when Christ was buried, his body lay in the tomb lifeless
for three days, he truly died. That wasn't just a pretend thing. He died for my sin. And since he died, I don't have
to fear the justice of God sending me to hell. Sin demands death. Christ already died that death
that I deserve. I don't have to fear the justice
of God sending me to hell. I already died in Christ. When
Christ died, I died in him. And then when a person's baptized,
they're confessing my hope of justification, my hope of the
remission, the forgiveness of my sins is the resurrection of
Christ. You know, when, When a person
is baptized, confessed in Christ, that is such a joy to the church. It's a joy to that person, it's
a joy to the whole church. It wouldn't be a joy if we dunked
that person under water and held them there till they drowned,
would it? There wouldn't be any joy in that at all. There was,
years and years ago, Brother Henry was getting ready to baptize
a woman and he was talking about this is death. This is death. And she had a little boy, five
years old. And this boy, by the time Henry
baptized his mama, he was boo-hoo sobbing. He thought Henry was
gonna drown his mama. He thought his mama was gonna
die. There would be no joy in that whatsoever. There would
be no joy in the death of Christ if he stayed dead, would there? The joy we have in the death
of Christ is he was raised again from the dead. Christ died for
my sin and he arose again. because my sin was paid for by
his blood, put away by his precious sin atoning blood. He was delivered
for our offenses. And when a person's baptized,
they're not just saying Christ was delivered for our offenses,
he delivered for my offenses. He was raised again for my justification.
Raised again is the evidence his death justified me from all
of my sin. And I have spiritual life now,
I've risen in Christ. I have spiritual eternal life
because when Christ arose, I arose in Him. Now that's what baptism
is. That's what a person is confessing
in baptism. Now since that's so, there's
some things that we know baptism is not. Spiritual, believer's
baptism is immersion in water. Complete immersion in water.
Sprinkling water on somebody, that's not baptism. It's not. Baptism pictures a burial, doesn't
it? A person confessing Christ is
buried under the water, completely under the surface of the water,
just like our Savior was buried in the earth out of sight after
he died. When we bury somebody, you don't
throw a handful of dirt in their face and walk off and say, the
job's done. No, we bury them, don't we? So that's what baptism
is. It's a picture of the burial
of Christ. It's immersion. That's what we confess when we're
baptized. So here's another thing that
that means. Baptism is a confession. This is what I believe. This
is what I confess. This is my hope. That means baptism
is not for babies. Baptism is for somebody who's
old enough to know whom I have believed. That's who baptism's
for. That could be a child. That could be an adult. That
could be an old person. But it's somebody who's old enough
to know whom they have believed. There's no age limit on it. You
just have to be old enough to know whom that you've believed. Now I go back to where I started
on this point about what baptism is. Baptism doesn't give us the
remission of sins. It doesn't wash away our sins.
Don't make a work out of baptism. Don't say somebody is not saved
until they're baptized. Don't say that. The thief on
the cross was never baptized. We can't say that. If we're saying
somebody can't be saved until they're baptized, you know what
we've done? We made a work out of baptism. We made a work out
of it. Salvation is by grace alone.
I mean grace alone, without any work done on our part. It's not
even something that I do to ratify Christ's sacrifice. It's not
even something that I do to make his sacrifice effectual for me.
That's a work. The salvation of God's elect
accomplished I Mean our Savior minute when he cried from the
cross it is finished Brother it was finished the work is finished
and Baptism is a public confession It's a confession of what Christ
has already done what he's done for me what he's done in me.
That's what baptism is All right third now John's baptism is believers
baptism So what does it mean when it says this is a baptism
of repentance? Well, repentance, first we have
to understand what repentance is. Repentance is not turning
from your sin and not sinning anymore. I saw a sign recently
said, repent and quit sinning. If that's what repentance is,
there's not one son of Adam's ever been saved. Not one. Now
you have to, There's no point in being dishonest and putting
this religious veneer up in front of everybody is there. Let's
be honest. You who know Christ, we don't
sin less than we did before, do we? No, no, not at all. We've got a nature that all it
is is sin. Repentance has to do with the
turning. It's not quitting sin, it's a
turning. It's turning away from what I
used to trust in and turning to trust Christ. That's what
repentance is. Repentance is not turning away
from the things that I say, oh, you know, that's awful, open
sin. I shouldn't be doing that. I
shouldn't say that. That's not what repentance is.
Repentance is turning away from all the good things that I've
done. Repentance is turning away from the very best things I've
ever done that I think would make God happy with me. I don't
trust those things anymore. Now I trust Christ. That's what
repentance is. Repentance is turning away from
my rags of righteousness because now I trust Christ. He's my righteousness. He's my robe, my covering of
righteousness. And that's what John preached.
Now remember who it was he was preaching to. He was preaching
to Jews. I mean, these people were steeped
in the Jewish law. They were steeped in the ceremonies. I mean, the life of a Jew at
that time, It's different than what it is today. I mean, their
life seven days a week revolved around this thing of the law
and the ceremonies and all these things, you know, and they trusted
their salvation to the fact that they were Jews. They descended
physically from Adam, but from Abraham. They trusted their salvation
to the fact they followed these laws and they observed these
ceremonies. Well, they wouldn't dare miss a Passover. They wouldn't
dare miss a day of atonement, you know. Their sacrifices, everything
went on in life and they were offering those sacrifices, you
know. Now John came to those people and preached Christ to
them. He preached salvation by grace.
He preached salvation by the obedience of Christ, not their
obedience. And when they believed, they believed Christ, they were
baptized. It's a baptism of repentance.
Publicly confessing, I don't trust those things anymore. Now
I trust Christ. I don't trust anything about
that works religion anymore. I trust Christ. I trust him.
His life, his death, his burial, his resurrection to put away
my sin. That's where I'm putting all my hope of salvation. When
we're baptized today, aren't we confessing the same thing?
It's a baptism of repentance. We're publicly confessing. I
don't trust what I used to trust in. I trust Christ. I trust the doing and dying of
Christ to be all it takes to save me. I trust Him, what He
did for me. When I'm baptized, I'm confessing,
I trust Him, and everything I trusted before is out the window. That's
what baptism is. Repentance is a turning, but
it's also a changing. A changing. You know, when we
turn in repentance, there's a change. I mean, we turn 180 degrees. I believe the opposite, the polar
opposite of what I used to believe in. So I used to believe in myself,
now I believe in Christ. I used to trust my works, now
I trust Christ. It's a change. I'll give you
a real good example of this from the scripture, from this word
repent. Psalm 110 verse four. The Lord has sworn and will not
repent. Thou art a priest forever after
the order of Melchizedek. This is what the Lord's saying.
Salvation is in Christ. It's in Christ. It's by the sacrifice
he offered as our high priest. And God will never change from
that. He'll never turn from that. Salvation is in Christ. God's
not going to repent. Well, when the Lord saves his
people, he doesn't change, but we sure do, don't we? No, we
change. We change our mind. I change
my mind about who God is. God cannot accept me as I am. God does not accept me, cannot
accept me, because I go to a congregation where the right doctrine is preached,
where the right gospel is preached. They're not preaching another
Jesus, they're preaching the Lord Jesus Christ. I'm not saved just
because I attend there. God cannot accept me that as
holiness. He can't accept that as righteousness
because God's holy. He can't pretend like something's
holy when it's not. And I changed my mind by who
I am. I'm a sinner. And I have absolutely no hope
in myself. I told you all this before, I
say it all the time. You know how I grew up. I've been a Calvinist as long
as I can remember. I just believe those things were
true. It's obvious those things are
true. And we'll just start with T, total depravity. What I always
believed about total depravity is all mankind is totally depraved.
And to me, that meant all you all. You're all totally depraved.
It's a white horse of another color, but God shows me I'm totally
depraved. God be merciful to me, the sinner. When I repent, I change my mind
about myself. I mean, I'm worthless, I'm undone.
What I deserve is for God to send me to hell for who I am.
I changed my mind about myself. I quit thinking I'm such hot
stuff, you know. Now, I see myself as I changed
my mind. And I changed my mind about Christ the Savior. This
thing of Christ the Savior is not, you know, a doctrinal, legal
matter. I changed my mind about Christ
the Savior. I don't just trust what he did. I don't trust the message that
tells me what he did. Jonathan, I trust him. See that? I trust Him. I changed my mind
about this. Christ saves. I changed my mind about this.
I used to think He tried to save folks. Now I know this. He saves. He saves. He doesn't offer salvation
to anybody. He gives it. He gives it freely. Christ is the Savior. Salvation
is not an offer. Salvation is an act of God's
grace that's already been accomplished. And since it's done, The Lord
Jesus Christ is the successful Savior of sinners. Everybody
that He died for is gonna appear with Him in glory. He'll not
lose one. He's the successful Savior. And I love Him. See, when I'm
baptized, I'm confessing Him. I'm not confessing His work,
I'm confessing Him. And I'm in love with Him. I'm in love with Him. I don't really think it's parsing
words to say there's a difference in saying I trust the work of
Christ on the cross. No, I trust Christ. I trust him because of who he
is, his death on the cross, his burial, his resurrection can
save even me. I trust him, I believe him, I'm
confessing him. So when I'm baptized, that's
what I'm confessing, that God has turned me to trust Christ
and not my works. Now let me give you this last. We've seen a whole, what baptism
is. Well, who should be baptized?
Some baptized a lot of people. Who should be baptized? Well,
that's a simple one. Now, there's some questions that
are really difficult, you know, to answer, but there's some that
are easy. This is a simple one. Who should
be baptized? Everybody that believes Christ.
Everybody believes Him. If you believe that the Lord
Jesus Christ is your only hope of salvation, it's the only way
that you could ever be saved is He sacrificed Himself to put
your sin away, then you should confess Him and believe His baptism.
If you believe that all it takes to put your sin away is the blood
of Christ, you don't have to help out by doing anything. All
it takes to put your sin away is the blood of Christ. All it
takes for your sin to be forgiven, for the Father to look at you
as justified, as having no sin, if all it takes to accomplish
that is the blood of Christ, then you should be baptized.
If you believe the only way you can have eternal life is if Christ
died the death that you deserve, then you should confess him and
believe his baptism. Now listen, and I'm not trying to talk you
by and doing anything, but I'm just telling you this is the
truth. Not only should, if you believe that, you believe Christ
that way, not only should you be baptized, you must, you must. It's the Lord's commandment that
everybody that believes to confess him and believe his baptism,
it's his commandment. You're just not gonna continue
to grow in grace and knowledge of Christ till you obey the first
commandment, to confess Him in believers baptism. Now this is
a commandment, but our Lord's commandments are not grievous,
are they? They're not grievous at all. What a joy, what a joy
to be able to publicly confess Christ is my Savior. What a joy
to be able to publicly confess When Christ died, he died for
me. He sacrificed himself for me. He rose again for me. That's
a joy. That's a joy. Now, listen, a
person can know and trust Christ. They can be saved. They can die
and be taken straight into the presence of God Almighty in glory
without ever being baptized. But that doesn't mean baptism
is unimportant. It won't save you. If you're
baptized, if you want to be baptized in order to be saved so that
God will accept you, don't, because it won't work. But that does
not mean baptism is not important. Our Lord wouldn't have commanded
his children to do it if it wasn't important, would he? Baptism
does not make anybody save. But I'll tell you this, for what
it's worth category, I would not give a plug nickel for anybody's
profession of faith that was never baptized. I just wouldn't
do it. I mean, if they're not going to confess Christ publicly,
I mean, I got some questions. But if you truly trust Christ,
do you trust him? How can you not confess him?
How can you not confess him? It's our joy. It's our joy to
do it. But you know what? When a person
is baptized, they believe Christ, and they're baptized. They're
not somebody that the Lord's ever going to enable to preach. I have the great joy of getting
to spend my week studying the Scriptures, studying Christ,
finding Him, and then telling you about the Savior. That's
such a joy, and you think, well, everybody didn't have that opportunity.
Well, you're right. You're right. But baptism is not the last opportunity
that you have to confess Christ. It's not. Every Sunday morning
and every Wednesday night, when you show up here to hear the
gospel, you're confessing Christ. You're confessing your faith.
I've come, I need to hear by Him. This thing of this confession,
it's not a once for all thing, is it? If that was true, we'd
wanna get baptized every Sunday. But the life that a believer
lives, looking to Christ and trusting him and being with his
people and helping his people and looking to serve, it's a
constant confession of him, isn't it? But the first step of that
believer's baptism, the baptism of John's. Hope I'll help you
maybe clear some of these misunderstandings of John's baptism. All right,
Lord bless you.