Good morning. Let's open this morning's service
with hymn number two from your hardbacked hymnal, Love Divine.
Number two. Let's all stand together. ? Of divine all loves excelling
? ? Joy of heaven to earth come down ? ? Fix in us thy humble
dwelling ? ? All thy faithful mercies crown ? ? Jesus, thou
art all compassion ? pure unbounded love thou art visit us with thy
salvation enter every trembling ? Breathe, oh breathe, our loving
spirit ? ? Into every troubled breast ? ? Let us all in thee
inherit ? ? Let us find that second rest ? ? Take away our
bed to sinning ? Alpha and omega be, and of faith as its beginning,
set our hearts at liberty. Come almighty to ? Let us all thy life receive ?
? Suddenly return and never ? ? Nevermore thy temples leave ? ? Thee we
would be always blessing ? ? Serve thee as thy hosts above ? ? Pray
and praise thee without ceasing ? ? Glory in thy perfect love
? ? Finish then thy new creation ? ? Pure and spotless let us
be ? ? Let us see thy great salvation ? ? Shored in Thee ? ? Change from
glory into glory ? ? Take our place ? ? Till we cast
our crowns before Thee ? ? Lost in wonder, love, and praise ?
Please be seated. Good morning. What a day that'll
be. Casting our crowns before Him,
lost in His wonder, glory, and praise. It's a good hymn. Let's open our Bibles together
to Colossians chapter two. Colossians chapter two. We'll
continue this morning where we left off. last Sunday. Let's ask the Lord's blessings. Our merciful Heavenly Father, we pray that you would put into
our hearts a longing for that day when we will no longer look
through a glass darkly, No longer will we need faith. Lord, we'll see you in the fullness
of your glory in the person of thy dear son and be made like
him. Lord, we thank you for these
brief opportunities that you give us here in this world. where
we can get a taste of that glory divine. We ask Lord that you would cause
us this hour to have ears to hear, that you would give us
hearts to believe, that you would cause your word to be effectual,
alive. Lord, we would find our rest
and our hope in the Lord Jesus Christ. For it's in his name
we pray, amen. You have your Bibles open to
Colossians chapter two. We'll begin reading at verse
12 and read down through verse 15. Buried with him in baptism, wherein also you are raised with
him through the faith of the operation of God, who hath raised
him from the dead. And you, being dead in your sins
and in the circumcision of your flesh, hath he quickened together
with him, having forgiven you all trespasses. blotting out
the handwriting of ordinances which was contrary to us, and
took it out of the way, nailing it to the cross. And having spoiled
principalities and powers, he made a show of them openly, triumphing
over them in it." I've titled this message, The Baptism, Our
Baptism in Christ. Our Baptism in Christ. Can be no question that baptism
is a significant message in God's Word. When the forerunner John the
Baptist was prophesied both in Isaiah chapter 40 and in Malachi
chapter 4. It was said that he would open
the way for the Christ, the Messiah, and John came baptizing in the
River Jordan, the baptism of repentance. When our Lord began
his public ministry, he went to John and was baptized. The last words that the Lord
Jesus Christ spoke to the disciples when he ascended back into glory
from the Mount of Olives was that they were, that all power
has been given unto me in heaven and in earth. Therefore, therefore
you go into all the world and baptize them, teaching them to
observe all things whatsoever I've commanded you. So our Lord's
ministry began with baptism. It was prophesied that baptism
would be a sign of what was to come. And for 2,000 years now,
the church has been practicing the ordinance of baptism. I fear that it has become like
most religious ceremonies and religious habits. Most people
who practice baptism have no idea. what it means. And this morning, I want us to
look from God's Word and trust the Lord will give us some understanding
of this most significant subject called baptism. Notice with me
again in verse 12, we are buried with him in baptism, wherein
also you are raised with him through the faith of the operation
of God. Now the Lord doesn't say, by
your faith, He says, through the faith of the operation of
God. Now that word operation is the
same word translated work. And this baptism that is being
spoken of is through the work of faith that God does in us. And so apart from this work of
faith performed in us, there is no real understanding of baptism. We're going to look at baptism
from two perspectives. There is physical baptism, which
is what we practice when we immerse a new believer in water, and
then there is spiritual baptism. And what the Lord is speaking
of here is that spiritual baptism, our union with the Lord Jesus
Christ. Ephesians chapter 3 verse 2 says,
in whom we have boldness and access through the faith of Him. For by grace are you saved. through
faith, and that faith is not of yourselves. It is a gift of
God, not of our works, lest any man should boast. So this burial
in baptism with Christ is done by the work that God does both
in the faithfulness of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the faith
that he gives to us to rest our hope in the person and work of
the Lord Jesus Christ. This matter of faith, Paul said,
I am, speaking of his union with Christ, he said, I am crucified
with Christ. Nevertheless I live, yet not
I, but Christ liveth in me. The life that I now live in the
flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me and
died for me." So the operation of faith or the work of faith
is a work of grace that God must do in order for us to understand
this subject and truth and salvation
of baptism. We looked Wednesday night from
the book of Ruth in Ruth chapter 3 where Boaz says to her, I will do to you that which thou
requirest. He didn't say to Ruth, I will
do for you what you requested as if to respond to her request,
but I will do to you what you require. What is it that we require? We require faith. And in order
for us to have faith, God has to do a work to us. That is the
operation of God. That's what's being spoken of
here. So this baptism with Christ. Buried with him in baptism, wherein
he has risen him through the faith of the work of God. Faith is not a choice. It's not
a decision that we make. Faith comes by hearing and hearing
comes by the word of God. And child of God, one day you
found yourself to be a believer. You were listening to the gospel
of God's free grace and the glorious person and finished work of the
Lord Jesus Christ. And the spirit of God did a work
of grace in your heart. And he caused you to believe.
And you've not been able to not believe since. That is the operation
of the work of God. That is the faith that God gives
to rest the hope of our salvation in the faithfulness of the Lord
Jesus Christ. Salvation is not determined by
a decision, it's not determined by our faithfulness. If the hope
of our salvation was determined by our faithfulness, what hope
would we have? What hope would we have? How
faithful are you? How faithful does God require
you to be? He requires perfect faith. That's
what God demands. And perfect faith is seen in
perfect faithfulness. And there's only one who met
that qualification. Only one. So this union that
we have in Christ which is symbolized or illustrated
by baptism and is the operation of the work of God by grace in
the heart. Now I mentioned that there's
two baptisms spoken of. There is physical baptism, which
is but an outward sign or token or demonstration of spiritual
baptism. Spiritual baptism is the baptism
of the Holy Spirit. It is the new birth. Physical
baptism is when one goes through the waters of baptism to testify. That's what physical baptism
is. It is a testimony. And what are we testifying to?
We're testifying to the fact that when Christ died, I died. I was crucified with him. When
he rose from the dead, I rose from the dead. He was raised
having put sin away. The hope of my salvation is that
the Lord Jesus Christ bore all my sins in his body upon that
tree and put them away once and for all by the sacrifice of himself. That's physical baptism. The only... Many religious groups
practice baptism, what they refer to as baptism, in baptizing infants. And that is a total, absolute
denial of what baptism is. They don't really baptize, they
just sprinkle the infant with a little water. And it's, it's
contrary to the gospel. Completely contrary to the gospel.
It ruins, it destroys the very meaning of baptism. The only
baptism that's valid baptism is baptism that's practiced by
immersion as its mode and on believers as its subject. So physical baptism is for believers
through immersion to publicly testify. I don't know how to
make this more clear and more simple to publicly testify that
that person is trusting their union with Christ as the hope
of their salvation. That when he lived his life of
perfect faith, I was found in him, not having my own righteousness,
which is of the law, but that righteousness, which is by the
faith of Jesus Christ. There's my hope. That when he
died, I died in him. That when he was raised from
the dead, I was raised from the dead in him. When he ascended
into glory, I ascended into glory in him. Baptism is a picture
of our union with Christ, our union with the Lord Jesus Christ.
His faith and His faithfulness and His redemptive work. So this
is the, this is the operation. This word, this word operation,
you see it in verse 12. It's the word ergon from which
we get our word ergonomics, which has to do with work. How does
something work? And, and it's the, it's the work
of God. It's His work. I mentioned earlier John the
Baptist coming as the forerunner of the Lord Jesus Christ to pave
the way for him. And when the Lord appeared at
the River Jordan to be baptized by John, The scripture says in
Matthew chapter 3 that John said, I baptize you with water. I baptize you with water. But
there is one who comes after me who will baptize you with
the Holy Ghost and with fire. One whose shoes I'm not worthy
to unloose. And so John was saying, my baptism
is not your salvation. It is but a picture of what the
Lord Jesus would do when he baptizes you with the Holy Spirit and
with fire. My baptism is but an outward
sign of the physical baptism that you are needing in order
to be saved. What is the baptism of the Holy
Spirit? Well, the Lord tells us if we
have not the Spirit of God, we're none of His. It is the Holy Spirit
that births us into the kingdom of God. It is the Spirit of God
that does the work of faith in us, that regenerates us, that
opens the eyes of our understanding. It is the Spirit of God that
reveals to us the glorious person and finished work of the Lord
Jesus Christ. And so being baptized by the
Holy Spirit is the new birth. It is the new birth. The Lord
said to Nicodemus that he had to be born of the Spirit. And
he went on to say that it is the Spirit that gives life. And the Spirit is like the wind.
You don't know where he's coming from or where he's going. He
listeth whithersoever he wills. You don't control the Spirit
of God any more than you control the Son of God or God the Father. He's sovereign and he must come
and breathe life into our spiritually sin dead souls. That's what he told Nicodemus,
you've got to be born from above. You've got to be born of the
Spirit of God. So this baptism of the Holy Spirit that John
spoke of when he said, there's one that cometh after me, whose
shoes I'm not worthy to unloose, who he will baptize you with
the Holy Spirit and with fire. He's speaking of that spiritual
birth. And before the Lord Jesus Christ
went to the cross, he said to us, it is expedient for you that
I go away. For if I go not away, the Comforter
will not come. The Holy Spirit will not come.
That's what happened on the day of Pentecost and here again we
see at the beginning of the church in Acts chapter 2 when the Spirit
of God came on the day of Pentecost that 3,000 people were saved
and were baptized. So they experienced water baptism
as a testimony of that spiritual baptism that God had done for
them as they listened to the gospel preached and were brought
by the spirit of God to believe on Christ. And that's what our Lord was
referring to when he said, it is expedient for you that I go
away, for if I go not away, the spirit, the comforter will not
come. But when he comes, when he comes, here's what he's gonna
do. He's going to convict the world of sin. Now, has the Holy
Spirit convicted the entire world of sin? No. No. He's talking about those who
are in the world. He's talking about He's going
to take out of the world and convict the world, worldlings,
men of the world who would not understand This is the law of
sin. We saw that last Sunday in the
circumcision that's done without hands. This is the new heart
that God gives to the believer. I will convict the world of sin. This is a faithful saying and
worthy of all acceptation. Christ Jesus came into the world
to save sinners of whom I am chief. He saves every sinner.
He only saves sinners, but he has to make you to be a sinner.
or to become aware of your sinfulness. And that's exactly what the Spirit
of God does. He comes, convicts the world
of sin. Now, what is that sin that he
convicts us of? The Lord goes on to say, because
they believe not on me. You know, The natural man thinks
sin is just some sort of bad behavior that they're ashamed
of and have to repent of occasionally. But all of our acts of sin are
committed because we are sinners. And we're sinners because of
our unbelief. The sin, the sin that doth so
easily beset us is the sin of unbelief. The natural man cannot
believe. He cannot believe. And he won't
believe. And all of our problems, child
of God, unregenerate, friend who may be hearing the gospel
here and wondering what we're talking about, all of our problems,
are because of our unbelief. That's the root cause of our
sin. If we could believe God as we
ought, oh, nothing would bother us,
nothing in the world would bother us. Everything would be perfect. Well, that's exactly how it was
for the Lord Jesus Christ, for he had perfect faith. And we
don't. We believe by God's grace, but
we have so much unbelief. Now, what that man say, oh Lord,
I believe, help thou mine unbelief. That's always the believers cry.
Lord, it's my unbelief that causes my problems. Lord, send your
spirit, convict me of my sin. That's what I need. This is spiritual
baptism. He will convict the world of
sin because they believe not on me, of righteousness because
I go to my Father. Now we have a righteous advocate. Child of God, you have a righteous
advocate. One who has satisfied all the
demands of God's holy law. One who has performed everything
necessary for the salvation of God's people, seated at the right
hand of the majesty on high. My little children, John wrote,
I write this unto you that you sin not, but if any man sin,
here's the good news. We have an advocate with the
father, Jesus Christ, the righteous one. And the Lord said, I'm going
to send my spirit to convict the world of sin because they
believe not on me. of righteousness because I go
to my Father. You see, the natural man goes
about trying to establish his own righteousness, doesn't he?
They may have a zeal for God, but without knowledge, being
ignorant of God's righteousness, they go about trying to establish
their own righteousness. For Christ is the end of the
law for righteousness to everyone that believe it. So here's baptism. This is the baptism of the Holy
Spirit. Baptism of the Holy Spirit and
the baptism of fire that John said the Lord Jesus would perform
is not some sort of fleshly manifestation of silly behavior that men call
the filling of the Spirit of God. speak in tongues and they do
all sorts of stupid stuff in order to prove that they've been
baptized by the Holy Spirit. This baptism of the Holy Spirit
is done quietly and secretly in the heart. And the testimony of it is not
some sort of Extraordinary gift of the Spirit of God enables
you to speak in a foreign language or speak in some sort of gibberish
or perform some sort of miraculous healing. No, that's not the baptism
of the Holy Spirit. Baptism of the Holy Spirit is
to convict you of your sin because of your unbelief. That's the root cause of all
your sin. The natural man has a conscience. All men have the
law of God written upon their hearts. Romans chapter 1 makes
that absolutely clear. They all have it written on their
hearts. And that law, that moral code that all men have from birth
convicts their conscience whenever they violate that law severe
enough to where, you know, they know they've done wrong. That's
not the conviction of sin. That's just the conviction of
the conscience. The conviction of sin is, Lord,
I've got a problem. I can't believe unless you give
me faith to believe. I don't have the ability to believe
you as I ought. I need to be buried with Him
in baptism. I need the faith of the Lord
Jesus Christ. I need the faithfulness of the
Lord Jesus Christ to stand in my stead before God as all my
righteousness before God. I have no righteousness of my
own. Of righteousness because I go to my Father. Child of God, you've been baptized
by the Spirit of God. The Holy Spirit has brought you
to know that you have no standing before God based on anything
that you've ever been able to do or not do. That if God, child of God, do
you believe this? I know you do. If God judged you based on the
most virtuous thing that you ever did in your whole life,
you'd go to hell for it. Because you did it, it had sin
in it. If God judged you for what you're
doing right now, for what I'm doing right now, we'd go to hell
for it. It's just the truth. He will
convict the world of sin because they believe not on me, of righteousness
because I go to my Father, and of judgment because the Prince
of this world has been judged. This is the baptism of the Holy
Spirit. You've been baptized with the Holy Spirit and with
fire. That fire is a picture of judgment. It's the fiery wrath of God's
justice that fell upon the Lord Jesus Christ as our sin bearer, as our substitute. God's justice
had to be satisfied. This is the fire. Remember when
Elijah built the altar on Mount Carmel and the fire of God fell
upon that altar and consumed the altar and as the altar was
consumed, the fire was quenched. And so it is with the fire of
God's wrath. It fell upon the Lord Jesus Christ
on Calvary's cross, and His justice was satisfied. The Prince of
this world has been judged. There's nothing more that you
can do than what He has done. There's no need to try to add
to what the Lord Jesus Christ accomplished on Calvary's cross
is to take away from its accomplishment. We dare not try
to add anything. Why? Because we've been baptized
by the Holy Spirit. We've been buried with Christ
in baptism. We've been raised with Christ. We've been baptized by the Holy
Ghost and with fire. And we've given testimony of
that baptism in water baptism because God has made us to believe
by the operation of the faith of God, He has made us to be
believers. This is what baptism is. It's not just a ceremony. It's
not a tradition. It's not a sacrament. A lot of
churches call baptism a sacrament because they believe that the
act of physical baptism somehow conveys grace. That's why they
baptize babies. They think that somehow in this
ceremony of baptism that the grace of God is given. No! The
grace of God is given in the new birth. That's done in the
heart. I pray that it'd be done in someone's
heart right now, this morning, and that He would renew this
grace in our hearts as we hear more and more about who Christ
is and what He's accomplished. Turn with me to Romans 8. Romans
8. Look with me at verse 15. For
you have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear. What is the spirit of bondage
to fear? God is requiring something from
you in order for him to be able to save you. He's requiring for you to make
a decision. He's requiring for you to live
a certain way. He's requiring something from
you in order for you to be saved. Now that is the spirit of bondage
to fear. Because if you're, I mean, you
can be a liar like most religious people are and pretend to be
doing it in such a way as to have merited God's grace and
his salvation. That's what religious people
do. But if you're an honest person,
being put under the law, being told that there's something you
have to do in order for God to be able to save you is the bondage
of fear. It is nothing but bondage. And
what does the Lord say? You have not received. This is
not, the spirit of God would never put you under the bondage
of fear. The spirit of God would not put
you under the law. No, you've received the spirit
of adoption whereby we cry, Abba, Father. The spirit itself bearing
witness with our spirit that we are the children of God. And if children, then heirs,
heirs of God, and join heirs with Christ. If so, that we suffer
with him that also may be glorified together with him." This is a life of suffering. We're almost
ashamed to speak of suffering for Christ compared to what many
have had to endure over the years. But child of God, you do suffer.
The biggest suffering that you experience is the conflict between
your spirit and your flesh. And every day you're wrestling
and struggling and trying to find your hope in Christ and
being torn by the things of this world and by your own desires
and your own fleshly things. And that's never going to go
away. Never going to go away, child of God. Matter of fact,
as you grow in grace and the knowledge of Christ, you're going
to become more and more aware of how sinful you are, and that
struggle will continue. But here's the hope. Where the
Spirit of God is, there is liberty. There is liberty. For the old
man drives the new man again and again into Christ, doesn't
he? The elder, the older shall serve the younger. Turn to me back to Galatians
chapter six, Romans chapter six, I'm sorry, Romans chapter six. Look with me at verse three.
Know ye not that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ
were baptized into his death? Is he not talking about water
baptism here, is he? Water baptism is just the outward
expression of this baptism of the Spirit of God. You've been buried with Him by
baptism into death, that like as Christ was raised up from
the dead by the glory of God the Father, even so we also should
walk in newness of life. For if we've been planted together
in the likeness of His death, when did that happen? 2,000 years
ago. We shall also be in the likeness
of his resurrection. When did that happen? 2,000 years
ago. Christ died, I died. When Christ
was risen, I was risen. I am looking to the death, burial
and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ for all of my hope
of salvation and all my acceptance before God. Now that's a work
of the spirit of God. Knowing this, that our old man
is crucified with him, that the body of sin, now we looked at
this last Sunday from the circumcision that's done by the Spirit of
God in the heart, from Colossians chapter two, verse 11, the body
of sin. He's not talking about the sins
that you commit in your body. He's talking about the whole
body of sins, the whole sum total of all of our sin. What happened
on Calvary's cross 2,000 years ago, the Lord Jesus Christ bore
all the sins of all of God's people and put them away once
and for all. And so he says, here's our baptism,
knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the
body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not
serve sin. Was the body of sin? Again, we're not talking about
the sins you commit in your body. Every sin you commit is in your
body. It's in your mind, it's in your body, it's in your actions. The body of sins was destroyed
by the crucifixion of the Lord Jesus Christ. And if there's
anything that motivates a child of God to not serve sin, it's
not the law, it's grace. It's grace. The disciples were very... They were... Immaturely, fleshly
arguing about who was going to be on the right hand and on the
left hand of the Lord Jesus Christ when he assumed his rightful
place on the throne of David in the kingdom of God, thinking
that the kingdom of God was a physical kingdom. They still fought. I mean, even after the crucifixion,
when the Lord Jesus was about to ascend back into glory from
Mount of Olives in Acts chapter one, what did they say? Lord,
is it time now for you to establish your kingdom? You see, it wasn't
until after Pentecost that the baptism of the Holy Spirit and
that tongue of fire that came on the day of Pentecost enabled
them to understand, oh, this kingdom of God is not an earthly
kingdom. It's a spiritual kingdom. It's the rule and reign of the
Lord Jesus Christ and the hearts of his people as they rest their
hope in him for their salvation. But they still thought that it
was an earthly kingdom and John and James or they went to their
mother and they said, go to the Lord. and see if you can get
him to agree to let me and James sit at his right and left hand
when he gets on his throne. And the Lord listened to that. And he said this, he said, are
you able to drink from the cup that I'm going to drink from?
Are you able to be baptized with the baptism that I'm going to
be baptized with? What'd they say? Oh yeah, Lord,
we're able. We can do it. Whatever you can
do, we can do. And the Lord said to them, you
will. You're going to drink from the
cup that I drink from. And you're going to be baptized
with the baptism that I'm baptized with. But it's going to be in me. It's going to be in me. You're
going to be crucified when I'm crucified. You're going to be
buried when I'm buried. You're going to be raised again
when I'm raised again. The cup that the Lord Jesus would
drink from was the cup of sin. It's the cup that he prayed when
he was in the garden. Father, if there be any way this
cup can pass from me, let it be. Nevertheless, not my will,
but thy will be done. And there was no way for that
cup of sin to be emptied down to its bitter dregs, apart from
the Lord Jesus Christ drinking it himself. Are you able to drink
from the cup that I'm gonna drink from? Oh no, Lord. But if you'll
drink from it, I look to you, and I'll have hope that God's
satisfied in what you did to drink damnation dry. Are you able to be baptized with
the baptism that I'm going to be baptized with? What was that
baptism? It was the baptism of fire. And you will. And we were. And there's our hope. There's
our hope. Let's close by reading our text
one more time. Colossians chapter two, verse
12, buried with him in baptism, wherein also you are risen with
him through the faith of the operation of God who hath raised
him from the dead and you being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision
of your flesh, hath he quickened together with him, having forgiven
you all trespasses, blotting out the handwriting of ordinances
that were against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out
of the way, nailing it to the cross, and having spoiled principalities
and powers, he made a show of them openly. triumphantly over
them in it. What a successful Savior. That
is baptism. And those who God has given faith
to rest their hope in Christ, gladly, joyfully testify of their faith. in water
baptism. And I can say with John, I baptize
you with water, but he baptizes with the Holy Spirit and with
fire. All right, let's take a break. Okay.