Alright, let's open our Bibles
to Psalm 113. Psalm 113. Some of you may not
have heard that Debbie Davis's brother passed away this week. The funeral is scheduled for
Tuesday. So let's remember her and her
family at this time. There's also a letter from Brother
Walter Groover, a new letter. I hung it out on the bulletin
board if you care to read it. And if you weren't here Wednesday,
let me pass this along to you. The congregation there in Arkansas
asked me to express their thanks to this congregation for sending
their pastor out there to help their pastor at a time that was
obviously very difficult for him and for them. And we had
an outstanding trip, despite the sad circumstances. It was
an outstanding trip. And they send their thanks to
you. I chose this psalm to read as our opening passage of scripture
this morning, not just because this morning is Abby, a joyful
mother of children, as it says in verse nine, but the church
is the happy mother of children this morning. Let's read this
psalm. Praise ye the Lord. Praise are ye servants of the
Lord. Praise the name of the Lord. Blessed be the name of
the Lord from this time forth and even forevermore. From the
rising of the sun and to the going down of the same, the Lord's
name is to be praised. The Lord is high above all nations
and his glory above the heavens. Who is like unto the Lord our
God, who dwelleth on high, who humbleth himself to behold the
things that are in heaven? He is so high he's got to humble
himself to behold the things that are in heaven and in the
earth. He raiseth up the poor out of
the dust, and lifteth the needy out of the dunghill, that he
may set him with princes, even with the princes of his people.
He maketh the barren woman to keep house and to be a joyful
mother of children. Praise ye the Lord. Let's do
that as Mike leads us in singing our call to worship this morning. Stand and sing page two of Art
Bullock. We take our place with Christ
our God within the watery grave, buried with Him by symbol now,
who died our souls to save. By this confession we proclaim
Our sin and guilt and shame, Our faith in our great substitute,
The Son of God, the Lamb. Arising from the grave, O Christ,
To live and walk with you Our hearts' allegiance now we pledge
Our Lord and King to you Sealed by your spirit, kept by grace
We'll walk the narrow way We hope to serve your cause on earth
in this our serving day. Then when your purpose is fulfilled
and all our work is done, We'll wait your grace to bring us home,
to serve before your throne. Thank you, may be seated. Let's turn now to 212, number
212, and we'll sing the chorus after the first verse and last
verse only. What can wash away my sin? Nothing but the blood of Jesus. What can make me whole again? Nothing but the blood of Jesus. Oh, precious is the flow that
makes me white as snow. No other fount I know, Nothing
but the blood of Jesus. For my pardon this I see, For
my cleansing this I flee, Third verse. Nothing can for sin atone. Not of good that I have done. This is all my hope and peace. This is all my righteousness. Oh, precious is the flow that
makes me white as snow. No other bount I know, nothing
but the blood of Jesus. That's a great song. Let's turn over now to 334. 334. One of our favorites. This song
has great message and words. Be thou my vision, O Lord of
my heart, Not be all else to me, save that thou art, Thou
my best thought, by day or by night. Waking or sleeping, Thy presence
my light. Be Thou my wisdom, and Thou my
true word. I ever with Thee, and Thou with
me. Thou my great Father, I Thy true
Son, Thou in me dwelling, and I with Thee one. Riches I heed not, nor man's
empty praise, Thou mine inheritance now and always, Thou and Thou
only, first in my heart. I, King of heaven, my treasure
thou art. I, King of heaven, my victory
won. May I reach heaven's joys, O
bright heaven's sun. Heart of my own heart, whatever
befall, Still be my vision, O ruler of all. All right, let's open our Bibles
to a very familiar passage of Scripture, Isaiah chapter 53. Isaiah the 53rd chapter. Who hath believed our report?
And to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed? For he shall grow
up before him as a tender plant and as a root out of a dry ground.
He hath no form nor comeliness. And when we shall see him, there's
no beauty that we should desire him. He is despised and rejected
of men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. And we
hid as it were our faces from him. He was despised and we esteemed
him not. Surely he hath borne our griefs
and carried our sorrows. Yet we did esteem him stricken,
smitten of God and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions.
He was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement of our peace
was upon him. And with his stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray.
We have turned everyone to his own way. And the Lord hath laid
on him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed, and he was
afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth. He is brought as a
lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is
dumb, so he openeth not his mouth. He was taken from prison and
from judgment, and who shall declare his generation? For he
was cut off out of the land of the living, for the transgression
of my people was he stricken. And he made his grave with the
wicked, And with the rich in his death, because or though
he had done no violence, neither was any deceit in his mouth.
Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise him. He had put him to grief. Thou shalt make his soul an offering
for sin. He shall see his seed. He shall
prolong his days and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in
his hand. He shall see of the travail of
his soul and shall be satisfied by his knowledge shall my righteous
servant justify many for he shall bear their iniquities. Therefore,
will I divide him a portion with the great and he shall divide
the spoil with the strong because he had poured out his soul into
death. He was numbered with the transgressors and he bear the
sin of many and he made intercession to the transgressors. Thank God
for his word. Let's bow together in prayer. Our Father, which art in heaven,
holy, reverend, is your matchless name. Lord, we bow before you
in awe, in awe and wonder at your majesty, at who you are,
at your wisdom, your sovereignty, your holiness, your grace, how
you rule over all things, ruling all things well. Father, we bow. And we bow with thankful hearts,
thankful that sinful men and women such as we are can come
boldly before your throne of grace to find grace to help in
time of need. Father, we're thankful that you've
given us another opportunity to meet together and to hear
your gospel preached. How thankful we are to one more
time to being able to worship truly to worship You, who alone
is worthy of our worship, to hear one more time of Christ
the Savior, His glory, His sufficiency, His love and pity for sinners. Father, I pray this morning that
You'd make Your Word go forth in the power of Your Spirit to
bring much glory to Your name. Father, get glory to Your name
in this place. Today and every time the Gospels
preach, get glory to Your Cause the name of the Lord Jesus Christ
to be lifted up and magnified. Father, give your people a hearing
ear and a believing heart. Enable us to hear Christ the
Savior. Enable us to hear Him speak through
the word. Speak to us through your word
to save your people, to comfort and edify and strengthen your
people by feeding them, allowing us to feed upon the Lord Jesus
Christ. Father, we're thankful for this day where you've displayed
your greatest glory in showing mercy to sinners and calling
two of our brethren to come to thee, to confess thee. Father,
we're thankful, thankful for these two young men. Father,
we're thankful for the many, many blessings that you've given
us in this life, how richly you've blessed us. Father, cause us
to keep these things, the things of this life in perspective.
to not try to hoard them up. But Father, enable us to be the
salt of the earth by giving freely, to support your gospel, to cause
your word to go forth. Give us a heart that is pained to see the loss
of this world. And give us the opportunity to
open door to preach Christ to them, we pray. Father, bless
us again. Bless us in this hour. Give us
a heart of true worship and enable us to leave here this morning
rejoicing in Christ our Savior. Of course, in His blessed name,
we pray and give thanks. If you don't mind, I'd like you
to turn to 189 and sing this special with me. I never saw
this song. few days ago, and it goes along
with the occasional testimony. In Jordan's stream the Savior
stood Fulfilling righteousness And like a dove the Spirit came
His heart and life to bless Today we gather in Thy name, and tis
a sacred hour. Bless these who follow in Thy
steps, descend in love and power. Our witness to the world around
of Thy redeeming grace. A witness of our love for Thee,
our hope to see Thy face. Nor would we cease to follow
thee, Content with this alone. On through the garden, Calvary,
Thy law shall be our own. I want us to turn first in our
Bibles this morning to Acts chapter 8. Hold your place if you marked
it in Isaiah 53. We'll come back to that in just
a few moments. You know the story here is Philip
sent by the Spirit to preach to the Ethiopian eunuch. Philip
found that eunuch reading the passage that we just read from
Isaiah chapter 53. Philip asked him, do you understand
what you're reading? And he said, how can I? Except
some man should guide me. And Philip was able to get right
to the point, which is Christ. Look what the eunuch asked him,
verse 34. The eunuch answered Philip and said, I pray thee,
of whom speaketh the prophet this? Of himself or some other
man? Now the issue here It's the man
being written of, isn't it? Eunuch understood that, didn't
he? Do we understand that? This is the issue. Who is this
prophet writing of? He asked about the man. I want
to know him. Well, he teed that right up for
old Philip, didn't he? Philip just did look here, verse
35. Then Philip opened his mouth
and began at the same scripture, and he preached unto him, Jesus. Philip said, I can tell you who
this man is. He's the Lord Jesus Christ. And he preached unto
him Christ. And look at the eunuch's response.
This is the very first message of Christ. The very first message
of grace this man ever heard. And look what he says here in
verse 36. As they went on their way, they
came into a certain water. And the eunuch said, See, here's
water. What doth hinder me to be baptized?
Now the eunuch have been given faith in Christ. Look at Philip's
answer here, verse 37. And Philip said, If thou believest
with all thine heart, thou mayest. And he answered and said, I believe
that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. This man believed Christ. God had given him faith in Christ. I believe this one, this man
who you told me about, Jesus Christ, is the Son of God. So of course, Philip baptized
him, of course he did. Because the issue is this man,
Christ, the Lord Jesus Christ. Verse 38, he commanded the chariot
to stand still and they went down both into the water, both
Philip and the eunuch, and he baptized him. Now that is, I
read that story and I often think, boy, I would have liked to have
sat in and heard Philip preach that day, wouldn't you? I would
have liked to have heard the message that caused this brother
to desire to confess Christ after hearing just one message, one
gospel message. Well, we don't have Philip's
outline, but we do have his text. Look back in Isaiah 53. We do
have his text. And I want us to look at this
text one more time this morning before two more of our brothers
confess Christ in baptism. Isaiah 53 verse 1, who hath believed
our report? And to whom is the arm of the
Lord revealed? Isaiah asked the question every
gospel preacher asked. Who believes the gospel that
I preach? This report is the gospel we
preach, our message. Who believed it? Well, the answer
is everybody. God's given faith in Christ.
That's who believes this. They if God gives faith in Christ,
they believe this gospel. They may not understand it all
and they don't. But they believe it when they
hear it. They believe Christ when they hear it. Because the
issue, the message is Christ. Christ is the arm of the Lord. When God saves a sinner, He reveals
His mighty arm. Christ the Savior. Christ is
the right arm of God's power. Sent to do all the work of the
redemption of God's elect. And Christ is revealed. His right
arm is revealed through the preaching of the gospel. And everybody
who sees Christ believes him. Everybody who believes Christ
is eternally saved. Well, how can I know? How can
I know if I'm saved? Well, the only evidence that
any sinner has that God has chosen us and that Christ died for us
is faith in Christ. It's the only evidence. You can't
find an experience. You can't find a change in your
behavior. You can't find a change in the way that you think. The
only evidence we have that Almighty God chose us and the Son of God
died for us is faith. God the Holy Spirit gives faith
to everyone the Father chose and everyone for whom the Son
died. And only those people are given faith in Christ. Do you
believe Christ? I want you to answer that question
right now in your heart. Do you believe Him? If you do,
Christ died for you. See, the gospel is the declaration
of Christ. The gospel tells us who Christ
is. What did Christ do? This is an
important one. Why did he do it? Why did he
do it? And where is he now? Now, I want
us to look at the Christ, the Christ, this eunuch confessed.
He confessed that Christ was preached to him. Here he is.
It's the same Christ that Isaac and Brady are going to confess
in just a few minutes. It's the same Christ every saved
person, I don't care where you find them. This is the Christ
they confess. Number one, baptism is a confession
that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh to be my representative. But here at verse two, for he
should grow up before him as a tender plant and as a root
out of a dry ground. He hath no form nor comeliness.
And when we shall see him, there's no beauty that we should desire
him. Now the Lord Jesus Christ, is
a real man. Just like you and me, he's a
real man. He started out as a baby, just like we did. He was a tender
plant, just barely springing up out of that dry ground. And
he could have been killed as easily as just that shoot of
corn just barely comes up out of the ground. You could have
killed that so easily, just step on it and it's done. Just like
you and me. So helpless babies, The Savior
came into the world the exact same way. He came into this world
as a real man. But now listen, the important
thing about confessing that Jesus Christ has come into flesh. Apostle
John told us every preacher preaching the true gospel, every believer
confesses that Jesus Christ has come into flesh. But confessing
that is a whole lot more than saying the Lord Jesus became
a man. The important thing is why. Why
did he come as a man? God's son took on him flesh to
be the representative of his people who were in the flesh.
You see, God can't be my representative any more than a bullet or a lamb
can be my representative. We got different natures, but
a man can be my representative. So almighty God took on him flesh
and became a man so he could be my representative, the representative
of his people in the flesh. You see, sin came by one man's
disobedience, didn't it? Well, righteousness has to come
by another man's obedience. See, Adam, he was a real man
just like us, too. Adam was my representative. I
was in Adam when he was there in the garden. And I did what
Adam did because I was in him. But when Adam sinned, I became
guilty because I did what he did. I sinned in Adam. It's not
just his guilt was transferred to me. I did what Adam did. That's why I'm guilty. He's my
representative. Well, God's son became a real
man. He's the second Adam. He's the representative of his
people. And just like I was in Adam,
I was in Christ and I did what Christ did when Christ obeyed
the law. I became righteous. It's not
just that his righteousness was transferred to me. I became righteous
because I obeyed the law in my representative. See, I didn't
do anything to make myself a sinner, did I? I sinned in Adam. Well,
I didn't do anything to make myself righteous either. I did
that in Christ. Christ accomplished that for
me. That's the gospel of representation. And so Christ coming into flesh
means this, that Christ is my only hope of being righteous. is all my righteousness. I tell
you this all the time. Righteousness is not a thing.
Righteousness is a person. Christ is all my righteousness. He is Jehovah Sidkenu, the Lord,
my righteousness. He's the only way I can be made
righteous. And that's who we confess in
believers baptism. And I can show you the proof
how we became sinners in Adam and the proof that we need Christ
to be our righteousness is this. We came into the world hating
God, despising, hating God's son, the Savior. Verse three,
he is despised and rejected of men, a man of sorrows and acquainted
with grief. And we hid as it were our faces
from him. He was despised and we esteemed
him not. I remember a time I did not see
the beauty of Christ. Do you remember a time like that?
I didn't desire him. And I can tell you why I didn't
desire him. I thought I was right for him own self. I didn't see
his beauty. I didn't see any need for his
beauty. I despised and rejected the son of God because I didn't
esteem him. I didn't see any value in him. Now that's what sin is. We need
to remember that sin is not all the sinful acts that we think
about. All those sinful acts are just
symptoms of the disease. Sin is a nature that hates God
in a nature that refuses to believe upon the Lord Jesus Christ. That's
the way I came into the world with that nature. By God's grace,
through the preaching of the gospel, through the preaching
of this man, God has showed me who and what I am. You know,
when we know who and what we are, when we see Christ, we see
him, our beauty is going to fade into nothing. Our righteousness
is going to be seen as filthy rags. We're going to see ourselves
as who we are when we see Christ. And God's revealed Christ to
my heart. And like the song says, at one
time Jehovah Sidkenu meant nothing to me, but now he means all things
to me. That's who we're confessing in
believer's baptism. Christ come in the flesh. Number two, baptism is a confession.
that the Lord Jesus Christ bore my sin away from me by suffering
and dying for my sin. Verse four. Surely he hath borne
our griefs and carried our sorrows. Yet we did esteem him stricken,
smitten of God and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions,
he was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement of our peace
was upon him and with his stripes we are healed. Now baptism is
a confession. that the only way my sin could
be put away is by the suffering of Christ, His death, burial
and resurrection for me. Christ took my sin away from
me and He took it and He made it His. He was made sin and the
Father smote Him in justice for my sin laid on Him. So now I
can go free in justice because Christ paid for all of my sin. by His suffering and by His death.
He satisfied justice so I go free in justice. Now that's so. But salvation is a whole lot
more than just a legal transaction that transfers my sin to Christ
and He paid the debt, now the debt's paid not to worry about
it anymore. The Spirit here talks of healing. Healing. Sin is a sin sickness. Sin is
a deadly disease. And this disease of sin will
damn everyone who's not trusting in Christ. When Christ took the
sin of his people away from them, he healed all their sin sicknesses
by washing them in his blood, by washing them in the blood
and the water that flowed from his side. And baptism is a confession
that I'm so sinful. I'm so defiled by sin. Sin is such a disease that's
gone all through me that the death, the burial, and the resurrection
of Christ is the one and only way my sin could be taken away. And I put all my trust in Him.
And here's the amazing thing about this. Christ is the willing
Savior. Not only did He willingly suffer
for all the sins of my people, of His people, He willingly suffered He did this on purpose. Verse
six, all we like sheep have gone astray. We've turned everyone
to his own way, and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity
of us all. He was oppressed and he was afflicted,
yet he opened not his mouth. He is brought as a lamb to the
slaughter, and as a sheep before his shearers is done, so he openeth
not his mouth. You see, baptism is a confession.
that Christ suffered everything He suffered for me, for my sin. Like, just like I was the only
one He was redeeming. I know you do too. Christ redeemed
a number no man can number. But if I was the only one He
was redeeming, He would have had to suffer everything He suffered.
It wouldn't have been lessened in not one teeny tiny degree. He still had to suffer everything
he suffered. That's what my sin deserves. And Christ willingly suffered
that for me. And nobody's twisting my arm.
I willingly confess Him as my Savior. I can willingly confess
He is my all. When Christ died, He died for
me. He died for a specific people. God's elect. And He only died
for God's elect. Look here at verse 8. He was
taken from prison and from judgment. And who shall declare his generation?
For he was cut off out of the land of the living. For the transgression
of my people was he stricken. Now, who did Christ die for?
He tells us here, my people, the ones that the father gave
me to say. And baptism is a confession.
Christ died for me. I know he died for a lot of other
people, but this is my confession. Christ died for me. He is my
Savior. The only way I could be saved.
And like I said a minute ago, how do I know that Christ died
for me? It's faith in Christ. And if
you believe that Christ is your only hope of salvation, if you
believe that all it takes for God Almighty to save you is Christ,
if you believe that, if you can trust your eternal soul to Him,
It's Christ alone. Without any of my works, without
any of my morality, without any of my whatever. It's Christ alone.
If you can trust your eternal soul to Christ alone without
anything you do, then Christ died for you. That's God-given
faith. And that's what baptism is confessing. Christ took all of my sin away
and put it away forever. And thank God He did it on purpose. If that isn't love, the ocean's
dry. All right. Thirdly, baptism is
a confession. That I died to the law and justice
in Christ. Verse nine. And he made his grave
with the wicked and with the rich in his death because or
though he had done no violence, neither was any deceit in his
mouth. Now remember our first point,
Christ came in the flesh. He is my representative. That's
why he came in the flesh. So I did everything that Christ
did. Just like I did what Adam did,
I did everything that Christ did because He's my representative.
Well, Christ did no sin. He did no violence. He didn't
die for any sin of His own. He did no sin. He knew no sin.
There was no guile found in His mouth. So why did He die? For
my sin. For my sin laid upon Him. And He had to die. When my sin
became Christ's sin, you know what that meant? He's got to
die. He got to. He had to die to satisfy
the law's demand there be death for sin. Christ died. They took a dead corpse down
from that cross and laid a dead corpse in the tomb. He died.
And when he died, I died in him. Since Christ died, now I'm dead
to the law. The law demands death for sin.
There's been death. The law doesn't require many
deaths for sin, it demands one, doesn't it? Christ died, I died
for the law. The law has no claim on me anymore. The law has no claim on you if
Christ died for you. And I don't feel compelled to
keep the law at all. Not at all. Thank God I'm free
from that. I kept it in Christ. I've already
done it. I don't feel compelled to keep the law. So God will
be happy with me. God's already happy with me.
He's accepted me in Christ. I'll tell you what I do feel
compelled to do. I do feel compelled to obey God. Now how do we obey God? By believing
on His Son, you see. We obey God by resting in Christ
and quit trying to earn God's favor with all of our morality
and religious doings and all the law keeping, and just resting
in Christ who already did it all. That's how we obey God.
And the believer obeys God, is just compelled to obey the Savior's
commandment to follow Him, confess Him in believer's baptism. And
that's why this pool is full of water this morning. Because
Isaac and Brady are compelled to obey the Savior and confess
Him in believer's baptism. The Lord brought them to the
place they can't do anything else. I've got to confess Him
so I can go on. We're compelled to obey Him.
And since Christ died, I don't fear justice anymore either.
I don't fear facing God in judgment at all. I mean, I don't. Not as long as Christ is my only
plea. I don't fear facing God in judgment
at all. Because in Christ, I've already been judged. In Christ,
I've already been condemned and justice is satisfied. The father
is already well pleased with Christ. And he's well pleased
with me. So I don't fear facing him at
all. Verse 10. Yet it pleased the
Lord to bruise him. He hath put him to grief. And
thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin. He shall see his sin. He shall prolong his days and
the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand. Now, why? Why did it please the father? It pleased him to crucify his
son. In verse five, the word wounded
there means tormented. Why did it please the father,
the holy, perfect father, to torment his son and put his son
to death? Why did it please the father
to see his son die? I mean, that's a weighty thing.
We've been talking about this recently, Janet and I, looking
back over the time when we were parents of little children. She and I were the firmest believers
in spanking ever was. Disciplinarians. Janet was going
to have discipline in her home. She was going to order in her
home. But never one time ever Did it please us to spank our
daughters? Not once did it. Not one time
ever. It always made me cry. It made me just, God, I'm hating
this. But it had to be done. But it
brought me no pleasure at all. And I'm so imperfect, I'm so
full of sin. Well, how can the perfect holy
father find pleasure in tormenting and killing his only son? Here's
why. because the death of Christ satisfied
God's holiness. It satisfied his justice. And I tell you what else the
death of Christ satisfied. It satisfied God's mercy and
God's grace. It satisfied his love. Now God can be merciful to sinners
in justice, not because he ignored their sin, but because he punished
it. Now God can freely show his love and his mercy and his grace
to his people because his son died for their sin. Now the father
can speak peace to the hearts of his children and take them
in his arms and comfort them because that sin that separated
us from God is gone. He brings his children right
up to his bosom. The death of Christ satisfied
God's every attribute. His holiness and his justice,
yes. But don't ever leave out His mercy and grace. It's satisfied
that too. Now God can be both just and justified. The Father
is well pleased with the sacrifice of Christ. We know that because
He raised Him from the dead, didn't He? He had Him ascend
on high and said, sit down here at my right hand. God make your
enemies your footstool. He's well pleased with the sacrifice
of Christ. Well, baptism is a confession
that I am too. I'm so satisfied with Christ.
I wouldn't have salvation any other way. That's what baptism
is. It's a joy to confess in that
way. Right. Fourthly, baptism is a confession
in Christ, the successful Savior. Verse 11. He shall see of the
travail of his soul and shall be satisfied by his knowledge
of my righteous servant, justify many for he shall. bear their
iniquities. And here the suffering of Christ
is described as travail. We think of it as birth pains.
And the word, I looked it up, means a grievous misery. Grievous misery. The suffering
of Christ is untold. We just, we can't imagine what
he suffered. Not only physically, but in his
soul. He made his soul an offering
for sin. The torment of that. But we know
this, he didn't suffer in vain. He shall see his seed. He shall see every last one of
his people in glory. Everyone for whom he died is
justified. The father is so well pleased
with Christ and his sacrifice that his death will prosper.
It will prosper so much, it will prosper to the eternal glory
of all of his people. See, the father accepted the
sacrifice of Christ. There's no question about that,
is there? Then he accepted everyone for whom Christ died. They will
all live. Christ suffered these birth pains,
this travail. And there's no stillborn children
in God's house. None. A dear friend of mine recently,
his daughter was pregnant. And my dear friend, for nine
months was utterly miserable. I mean, he was in misery. Every
moment, just thinking, what happens if something happens to that
baby? How am I ever going to live with myself? Something happens
to my dear daughter. He was in misery. That baby was
born healthy and strong, and now my friends as happy as they
can be. But he was so worried about this child and the dangers
of childbirth. Well, you don't have to worry
about that in God's house. You just preach Christ. He shall
see his seed. There'll be no stillborn children
in God's house. They're all going to be given
a life and ultimately they'll be brought to glory. Not one
of them can perish. It's impossible that they perish
because Christ justified them. That's what he says here. He,
he shall, my righteous servant shall justify many. Christ made
his people without sin. That's what justified means,
without sin. His blood washed it all away.
So there's no reason they should perish, is there? Sin is what
causes death. If Christ removed our sin, we
could never die. And in baptism, this is what
we're confessing. I have eternal life through the
death, the burial, and the resurrection of Christ. If in a few moments
I take break and I dunk him under the water and I hold him there
Well, there's no joy in that, is there? No. If Christ died
and was buried and that's the end of the story, there's no
joy in that. Brethren, he was resurrected. You know why he
was resurrected? As the evidence, his sacrifice,
put away the sin of his people. He was delivered for our offenses
and raised again for what? Our justification. As the evidence,
his death, his burial, put away the sin of his people. All right,
lastly, baptism is a confession in the victorious reigning Savior.
Verse 12, therefore, while I divide him a portion with the great
and he should divide the spoil with the strong because he had
poured out his soul unto death. He was numbered with the transgressors
and he bear the sin of many and made intercession for the transgressors. Even as he suffered and died,
he made intercession for the transgressors, didn't he? They
know not what they did. And you know why he could make
intercession for them? The blood he was shedding, the suffering
he was going through and the death he was about to go through
when he gave up the ghost. He made intercession by his sacrifice. Now, Christ humbled himself to
be a man, to be a servant for a while. But now he's not a servant
anymore. Now he's the king on the throne. And when He comes back, nobody's
going to see Him as a servant. It's as the King. Christ suffered
and He died for my sin. Thank God He's not dead anymore.
He lives. He lives. And after He was resurrected
for our justification, He ascended back on high to sit on the throne
of heaven, ruling and reigning to ensure His will is carried
out, that all of His people will be brought to salvation, brought
to glory. And He sits there as the sovereign
Savior, the victorious Savior, dividing the spoiled with the
strong. You know, conquering kings would
go out and they'd conquer, you know, some kingdom, and they'd
take all the riches of that kingdom. That was a spoil. And they'd
bring it back. And I would just imagine they
kept most of that spoil for themselves. They might have gave some a little
bit to the general, some a little bit to somebody else. Most of
it, I bet you, they kept for themselves. Christ has a spoil. from his victory at Calvary. And he gives it all to his people,
every bit of it. Those people, the strong, Isaiah
talks about here, are those who have been made strong in Christ.
And he gives them everything he won in his victory at Calvary. He gives them grace. He gives
them eternal life. He gives them forgiveness of
sin. He gives them peace in the heart. He said, my peace I give
you. He gives them fellowship with
God. He gives it all to his people. Baptism is a confession that
Christ is my savior. And he's my Lord, my master. He's my king. And this new life
that I now live, I live following him and serving him. See, the
first step in obeying and following Christ is his commandment, following
his commandment to believe and be baptized. Last week or however
long ago it was, I met Janet at Savannah's house there in
Clark's house in Lexington and told her we need to leave a day
early for our trip to Arkansas. Let's pack up and go. And she's
doing what women do, you know, packing everything and checking
everything twice. And I kept telling her, honey, we're never
going to get there if we don't get off this block. We've got
to take the first step before we can take the rest of it. That's
following Christ. You've got to take the first
step. You obey his first commandment before you can take the second. And you see that, I hope I've
made this so clear. The gospel is all a person. This is who
Philip preached, this person, the man, the Lord Jesus Christ.
And baptism is a confession of that person. Now some will always
ask, people wonder this, well do you have to be baptized in
order to be saved? And the obvious answer is of
course you don't. Baptism does not save, Christ
saves. Baptism doesn't wash away sin,
Christ's blood does that. Baptism is a confession of Christ
the Savior. So of course you don't have to
be baptized in order to be saved, but why would you want to? Why
wouldn't, if God saved you, why wouldn't you want to confess
Christ? If it's physically possible, why would you not want to confess
Him? What a glorious way our Savior has given us to confess
Him publicly. Such a clear picture of salvation. that Christ lived, He died, He
was buried, and He rose again for me to save the likes of me. That's what we're going to do
here in just a few moments after Mike leads us in singing a closing
song. Mike, you come and lead us. Let's stand and sing 190. 190. We bless the name of Christ the
Lord, we bless him for his holy word, who loved to do his Father's
will. and all his righteousness fulfilled. We follow him with pure delight
to sanctify his sacred And thus our faith with water still, To
prove obedience that we feel. Baptized in God, the Father,
Son, and Holy Spirit, three in one, with conscience free, we
rest in God. In love and peace through Jesus'
blood. By grace we have a father cry,
By grace the comforter comes nigh, And for thy grace our love
shall be. Forever only Lord for Thee. Let's sing that third verse again.
Baptized in God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, three in one,
with conscience free, we rest in God. in love and peace through
Jesus' blood. Before I went to Arkansas, Brady
came and talked to me and told me, he said, I've been thinking
about being baptized for a long time. And I said, I know that,
I can see it. And I said, the gospel has been
preached. He said, I think the Lord's done something for me.
He said that I keep wondering, how can I think the things that
I think? How can I do the things that
I do? Because that's how I'm formed.
Ain't been tortured. And then he said, I realized
that's not it. He said, it's not looking at
me. It's looking at Christ. I believe it. I won't be baptized. And I said, I'll be my God to
do that. I'll be my God. And I told him, unfortunately,
this won't be the last time you think, how could I put it that
way? How could I do that? It's more than so important.
But that's the civil war that goes on inside every community.
And the Lord uses that to keep us humble and to keep us at the
very feet of doing what he said right now. Praise the Lord, upon
your confession of faith in Christ our Savior, in obedience to his
divine commandment, I baptize you, my brethren, in the name
of your Father, After I got back from Arkansas,
I just came back. We talked, we had a good talk.
He said, I've been just like you for, I've been thinking about
this a long time. And I said, I know, I know, I've
seen it, I can see it in your face. And how I've been praying
for you. And he said, but how can I know
Christ died for you? And I told him, well, I can send
a message to somebody today. And I said, now Isaac, I'm gonna
tell you what to do. I love you too much to tell you
what to do. Now once you're getting to be 55 years old and looking
back and thinking, well, this is something that Frank taught
me to do, this is something, this spirit of it, I said, I'm
going to tell you what to do. And he just looked. I said, OK, well,
let's do it. He said, well, I said, let's
just go home and you pray about this, and I'll keep praying about
this, and we'll wait on the Lord to leave. He just shut up. And
it wasn't very long at all. No, I wasn't going to do it.
He said, if I told you, I'm not going to do it. Not surprising,
they're just celebrating. And it wasn't very long at all.
I said, you know what? We'll play about this the rest of your
life. We'll play about this. We'll avoid each other. It wasn't
very long at all. He called me this day. I didn't
know what to do. I didn't know what to do that
night. I thought, this is my day. And I'm glad that it happened
that way. Because I said to him, this is
the answer for being conscious of God. Not something the pastor
and your parents taught you. This is the answer of the good
news. I'm going to say this, just seeing
you boys standing there together. When they were young, there were
times that maybe they disagreed with each other. And they'd be
brought into the living room and sat on the couch together. And Abby would look at them. And she would say, she would
say this, she would say, you're brothers. You love each other. You'll always be brothers. And
I can't help but think, God chose you. Christ died for you. The Spirit of God called you
to Himself. You're kept by the power of God. And boy, we can
say, like we've never said before, you'll always be brothers. I want to read just one passage
of Scripture. Jeremiah said this in Lamentations.
He said, It's good that a man should both hope and quietly
wait for the salvation of the Lord. It's good. It's good that he bear his young. Let's pray. Our God and Father in heaven,
Lord, how we thank you for this day. Oh, how we truly thank you
for this day. Lord, to see these young men
confess Christ. Lord, we thank you for your mercy.
How we thank you Lord, You've seen fit to save sinners. Lord, what a blessing for us
to witness this. Lord, to see Your work. Lord, this is all of Thy hand.
Lord, how we give thanks that salvation is of the Lord. Lord, I pray for Isaac and Brady. to be with them in the days to
come, or that You'd lead them and guide them, direct them,
or that You would cause them to continually look to Thee and
rest in Thee. And Lord, help us as their brothers
and sisters in Christ, Lord, to be an encouragement, Lord,
to be a support to them, Lord, But Lord, in all things, teach
us to look to Thee, our hope, our salvation, Christ, for Christ
alone. Again, we thank You for Your
many blessings, and we pray that You'd continue to call out Your
sheep, that You would continue to reveal Yourself. And Lord, for those who, Lord,
have yet to confess Thee, Lord, we pray that they'd not rest.
They would not rest until you brought them to yourself. Lord,
bless us this day. Continue to watch over, protect,
and keep us. Forgive us our sins. We pray
thee for Christ.