Baptism: What It Is and Is Not

Q: What does the Bible say about baptism and salvation?

The Bible teaches that baptism is not salvation, but rather a public confession of faith in Christ. Baptism is an act of obedience where believers publicly confess their faith in Jesus Christ. It is crucial to understand that baptism does not save; rather, it is the faith in Jesus and His finished work on the cross that brings salvation. As stated in Mark 16:15-16, Jesus spoke of preaching the gospel and indicated that belief is the condition for salvation, not baptism. Therefore, while baptism is an important ordinance, it should never be conflated with the act of being saved. It acknowledges that salvation is through grace alone and faith in Christ alone.

Q: Why is believer's baptism important for Christians?

Believer's baptism is important because it publicly signifies a person's commitment to Christ and symbolizes their faith in His work of salvation. Believer's baptism serves as a public confession of one's faith and the transformative work of Christ in the believer's life. It demonstrates the believer's understanding that they are sinners saved by grace and signifies their commitment to follow Christ. As mentioned in Romans 6, baptism symbolizes being buried with Christ in His death and being raised to walk in newness of life. This outward act is a reflection of the inward reality of faith and spiritual regeneration that occurs when one believes in the gospel, affirming their identity in Christ and commitment to His teachings and the community of believers.

Q: How do we know baptism does not save?

We know baptism does not save because salvation is solely by grace through faith in Christ, as outlined in Ephesians 2:8-9. The belief that baptism does not save is rooted in the understanding that salvation is a gift from God, not something that can be earned by any action, including baptism. Ephesians 2:8-9 clearly states that it is by grace through faith that we are saved, not by works, so that no one can boast. Additionally, throughout scripture, such as in Acts 16:31, the emphasis is placed on believing in the Lord Jesus for salvation rather than performing a religious act. Therefore, baptism, while an important ordinance, is a reflection of one's faith rather than a means to attain salvation.

Q: What is the significance of the phrase 'he that believeth and is baptized shall be saved'?

'He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved' signifies that belief in the gospel precedes baptism, which is an outward sign of that inner faith. The phrase 'he that believeth and is baptized shall be saved' emphasizes the order of belief and baptism as critical components in the process of salvation. It highlights that belief in the gospel—the good news of Christ's redemptive work—is the essential prerequisite for salvation. Baptism follows as an outward expression of one’s faith, not the cause of salvation. This understanding preserves the grace-centric message of the gospel, which asserts that salvation comes from faith and is confirmed through the act of baptism, aligning with the teachings of Jesus. Hence, this phrase encapsulates the relationship between faith and obedience in the life of a believer.

Q: What does baptism symbolize for believers?

Baptism symbolizes a believer's identification with Christ's death, burial, and resurrection, signifying new life and commitment. Baptism acts as a profound symbol of a believer's identification with Jesus Christ. It represents an individual's union with Christ in His death, burial, and resurrection, as articulated in Romans 6. When a believer is immersed in water, it symbolizes being buried with Christ in His death, while coming out of the water signifies rising to new life, just as Christ was resurrected. This ordinance publicly affirms the believer's past sins have been dealt with through Christ, and it marks their commitment to living in accordance with their faith. It is a powerful declaration that they have been made new and are committed to following Christ in their lives.

Mark chapter 16. Mark chapter 16 and verse 15. This is the Lord Jesus speaking.
And He said unto them, to His disciples, He said unto them,
Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. Preach the gospel to every person. That's what this word creature
means, to every man and woman. Preach the gospel. He that believeth,
believes what? Believes the gospel. He that
believeth and is baptized shall be saved. But he that believeth
not shall be damned. Now I want to talk to you tonight
about this subject of baptism, what it is and is not. Some of you have asked me about
believers' baptism, and I don't take those questions lightly
because this thing of baptism is a God-given ordinance, and
I don't take it lightly. So I don't take your questions
lightly. In fact, when it comes to baptism, I'm fearful. When it comes to baptizing somebody
else, I want to be very careful. It makes me fearful. I think
I understand something about what Paul meant when he said,
Christ sent me not to baptize, but to preach the gospel, not
within wisdom of words, lest the cross of Christ should be
made of none effect. Well, didn't Paul have the same
commission that the Lord gave here? Yes, he did. Go into all
the world and preach the gospel. He that believeth and is baptized
shall be saved. He had that same commission and
he did baptize some. He just said that right before
this. What Paul means here is he was fearful. And this is what
I'm fearful of, is playing any part in giving any sinner a false
hope of salvation. Paul had baptized some, but Paul
went about preaching the gospel, not trying to coerce sinners
to do anything, not trying to coerce them into being baptized
and making a profession of faith. He said, my speech and my preaching
was not with enticing words of man's wisdom, but in demonstration
of the spirit and of power that your faith should not stand in
the wisdom of men, but in the power of God. Since the fall
of Adam, since Adam disobeyed God in the garden and men fell
in him and have been born of his corruptible seed, man wants
something, man wants something that some act, something he can
do whereby he can come to God and have some reason to glory
and something he's done to bring him to God. And therefore it's
no great feat to try to persuade and coerce sinners to do something. That's no great task at all.
Sinners are willing to do something. God has to make us willing to
do nothing. That's what sinners are not willing
by nature to do. Sinners are not willing by nature
to do nothing to be accepted of God. but to believe on Christ. They're not willing to do that.
Sinners will do anything you tell them to do as long as that
something gives them just a little bit of room and gives them some
reason to be able to glory in that thing which they have done.
The Lord Jesus rebuked the Pharisees. And he said this in Matthew 23,
15. He said, Woe unto you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For
you can pass sea and land to make one proselyte, and when
he's made, you make him twofold more the child of hell than yourselves."
There's nothing more damning, absolutely nothing more damning
than for a sinner to imagine that by some act, like baptism,
that he's earned salvation. Nothing more damning. So let
me begin by stating this as firmly and as clearly as I can. Baptism is not salvation. Baptism has never saved anybody. Never. Every believer is saved
by the grace of God, by Christ, through faith, through the work
of the Spirit of God within them. Salvation is of the Lord. That's
what we preach. Salvation is of the Lord. Baptism
is an act of obedience to our Lord wherein we are confessing
that our salvation is all accomplished by Christ. That's what we're
confessing in our baptism. There's some necessary things
that have to come before baptism. Look there at our text again.
Verse 15, He said unto them, Go ye in all the world and preach
the gospel to every creature. And he that believeth, he that
believes the gospel, and is baptized shall be saved. But he that believeth
not shall be damned." Before baptism even enters in, God has
to give us life and He's got to give us faith. He's got to
give us repentance. That radical change that God
works in the sinner when He turns us completely about faith and
makes us to repent of everything we once thought about ourselves
and everything we once thought about God. And all this work
is done through the preaching of the gospel. The gospel, truth,
the good news, the truth of Christ and Him crucified. There is another
Jesus being preached in this world. There is another Jesus
that's being preached. Another Jesus who accomplished
absolutely nothing. He didn't accomplish anything
by what He did. That other Jesus entirely depends
upon a sinner to do something for him, to let him do something
for them, to make his blood effectual for them through their act of
believing or through their act of being baptized or something
of that nature. That Jesus Not the Jesus that
I preach to you. That's not the gospel that I'm
proclaiming to you That is another gospel Paul said which is not
a gospel. It's a perversion of the Lord
Jesus Christ. It's deception anything Anything
that makes salvation to hinge upon your will your work what
you've done Something you have to muster up in yourself something
that you have to produce Anything that makes salvation to be contingent
upon any such thing is not true. It's not the gospel. It's not
the truth. That is not baptism at all. Anybody who is baptized to make
that little Jesus' blood effectual, to have some saving efficacy,
has not truly been called of God and has not truly been baptized.
That's free will. That's man's will. That's man's
work. That's man's God. That's man's
Jesus. That's the figment of a corrupt,
depraved mind that man has created in his own image and says, now
this is my God. I'll bow down to Him because
He can't do anything but what I let Him do. That's a lie. The
truth is salvation is of the Lord. Salvation is of the Lord. How then shall they call on Him
in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in
Him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without
a preacher? It's impossible to call on somebody, believe on
somebody that you haven't heard about. It's impossible to call
on them to save someone to save you whom you've not heard about.
It's impossible. It just can't be done. So first
of all, baptism is not salvation. Baptism doesn't make Christ blood
effectual any more than faith does. It does not. Baptism is
not the putting away of our sin. Christ by himself purged the
sins of his people. Baptism is not how we're born
again. It's not how we're dedicated.
It's not how we're rededicated or anything of that nature. Baptism
is not any of those things. So what is baptism? I'll give
you three headings here that'll be our divisions for tonight.
First of all, baptism is the public confession of our sins. Secondly, baptism is the public
confession that we believe Christ has accomplished our salvation. And thirdly, baptism is a public
avowed commitment to Christ. Now, let's look at those three
things. First of all, baptism is a public confession that all
I am is a sinner. Turn with me to Matthew chapter
3. Hold your place in Mark 16. Let's look back now at Matthew
3 verse 5. This is speaking of John the
Baptist when he came preaching the gospel. Look at what it says, Matthew
3, 5. Matthew 3, 5. Then went out to him Jerusalem,
and all Judea, and all the region round about Jordan, and were
baptized of him in Jordan, confessing their sins. You see that? They were baptized of Him, confessing
their sin. Now there's no doubt that they
confessed they were sinners to God before they were baptized
and that they stopped boasting in anything that they were doing
or anything that commended them to God or anything that would
cause salvation to be based on some merit in them. There's no
doubt they did that before they were baptized. But when they
were being baptized, they were confessing publicly before everybody
their sins, their absolute their absolute inability to come to
God, to do anything for themselves. Now, the gospel that we believe,
it says, go preach the gospel, and him that believeth and is
baptized shall be saved. Now, the gospel we preach declares
this first. All flesh is grass. All flesh is grass. The gospel
declares that in my flesh dwells no good thing. My flesh is what
I am by my first birth in my father Adam, from my father Adam.
And in my flesh, it doesn't matter if I'm baptized. It doesn't matter
if I walk on crushed glass. It don't matter if I pass through
the fire and cause my children to go through fire. It does not
matter. Nothing I can do in this flesh
will please God. Absolutely nothing. We're not
confessing that by being baptized, we're regenerating ourselves.
That's not what we're confessing. We don't preach baptismal regeneration. Some people do. We don't preach
that. We don't preach that we're being
regenerated by our baptism. Baptism is not even a picture
of regeneration. Circumcision is the Old Testament
picture of regeneration. Circumcision. But we're confessing
that we are such sinners. You want to know what baptism
is? We're confessing our sins. We're confessing we're such sinners
that the Spirit of God had to first create life in us. That's
what we're confessing. In water baptism, the believer
confesses that we're so sinful that it's through the Gospel
that the Holy Spirit has entered into us and given us life where
there was no life before. Look at John chapter 3, verse
3. John 3, verse 3. The Lord Jesus Christ told Nicodemus
plainly. He told him clearly. John 3,
verse 3. Nicodemus was a man who was steeped
in religion. He was a man who was a master
in religion. He was teaching. He was a man
who people looked to to lead him. He was, as the Lord would
describe him, he was a blind leader of the blind. That's what
he was. And he came to the Lord, speaking commendable things to
the Lord, and the Lord stopped him in his tracks and said, you
can't even see the kingdom of God unless you've been born of
the Spirit. We know the Lord knows who's been born of the
Spirit. He's the second person in the Trinity. He's God the
Son. He knows who's been born of His Spirit. And He made this
statement to Nicodemus, verse 3, Jesus answered and said unto
him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, except a man be born again,
he cannot see the kingdom of God. So, we're confessing. Look at John 6, verse 63. John 6, verse 63. We're confessing,
we're agreeing with Christ in the confession of our sins when
we are baptized. We're saying publicly to everyone
in that water baptism what the Lord said right here in John
6, verse 63. It is the spirit that quickeneth,
the flesh profiteth nothing. The words that I speak unto you,
their spirit and their life. That's what we're confessing.
We're confessing that we did not choose God. We didn't even
have any ability within ourselves to choose God. That's how deep,
dark, and dead we were. We didn't choose God. We're confessing
He chose us. And He came and preached the
Gospel to us. And He revealed Christ in us
by His Spirit. And our flesh profited nothing
in the whole matter. That's what we're confessing.
In John chapter 5 there, in verse 40, John chapter 5 and verse
40. Now look at verse 39. He told them that He knew His
Word had no place in them. And He said, for whom He hath
sent, whom God hath sent, you don't believe. They didn't believe
on Christ. That's how He knew. And that's
how we know. You don't believe this true and
living God. Now here's what they would do. He said, search the
Scriptures. That's a good thing to do. Search
the Scriptures. That is a good thing to do. But
now listen to what He teaches them. For in them you think you
have eternal life." That's what most men search these scriptures
for. Looking for something they can do to bring themselves to
God by themselves so they can glory in themselves and have
some reason to say, I had a part in salvation. Search the scriptures. For in them you think you have
eternal life. That's what he told them. And
he said, and they are they which testify of me. This whole book,
cover to cover, God's gonna have one preeminent before his people. And that one's not me, and that
one's not you. That one is his son, the Lord
Jesus Christ. These are the scriptures that
testify of me. From Adam all the way to John
writing Revelation. This book's about Christ. It's
about him throughout the whole book. He says, verse 40, "...and
you will not come to Me that you might have life." Do you
see that? This is what we're confessing
when we come to the Lord. Look at John 6.44. This is the
sins we're confessing in water baptism. We're confessing John
6.44, "...No man can come to Me except the Father which has
sent Me to draw him, and I will raise him up at the last day."
That's what we're confessing. When Paul was born of Christ,
you might want to look at this in Acts 22. Acts 22. I'm going
to have you turn to these scriptures tonight because I want you to
see these things. Acts 22. Whenever Paul was born of Christ
and he was truly converted, the Lord sent Ananias to him with
this gospel. Acts 22 and verse 14. He said, Verse 14, this is what Ananias
told him. The God of our fathers hath chosen
thee. See who did the choosing? The
God of our fathers has chosen you, Paul, that you should know
His will, His will in redemption, His will in His counsel to honor
His Son and to bring honor and praise and glory to His name
through the redemption that's in His Son. And to see that just
one, See, He's turned him completely away from Him. He's saying, you
haven't done any choosing, Paul. God of our fathers chosen you.
And He said that you should know His will. No longer be boasting
in your will, and that you should see that just one, the Lord Jesus
Christ. and should hear the voice of
His mouth. So there's no merit in us. And
we're confessing. This is what we're confessing.
2 Thessalonians 2.13. This is what we're confessing. True believer's baptism. 2 Thessalonians 2.13. We're confessing
this, of ourselves, is what we're saying about ourselves. We're
bound to give thanks always to God, because We're brethren beloved
of the Lord. He beloved us. He loved us before. Because God hath from the beginning
chosen us to salvation. That's what we're confessing.
He chose me. I didn't choose Him. He did it
through sanctification of the Spirit. He had to come and give
me life and set me apart by His Holy Spirit and make me to see
Him. And belief of the truth. He did it through His Gospel
that declared the truth. Whereunto He called me by that
Gospel. By that gospel, that good news,
to the obtaining of the glory of my Lord Jesus Christ. You
see, we're confessing, I'm nothing but sin. I'm nothing but sin. He's done the entire whole work. Well, but don't we repent, we
believe the Lord? We do. But even then, you know
what we're confessing? We're saying we have repented
and believed on Christ for this reason. Look at Acts 5.31. For
this reason. Because all my days, and this can be
said of you and I, all my days I've been crucifying Him afresh
by rejecting Him, by not believing on Him, by hating Him in my heart
of hearts, being enmity against God. But He says, but Him hath
God exalted with His right hand, a Prince and a Savior. And here's
why I repented. for to give repentance to Israel. He gave it to me. He gave me
repentance and forgiveness of sins. You see, when the Spirit
of God comes, He convinces us of our sins. He makes us mourn
our sins. He makes us see there's nothing
good in us. He makes us to confess to God
our sins and stop our boasting in ourselves of what we've done
for God. And he makes us to start glorying in what God has done
for us. This is what's involved in confessing
our sins. Well, didn't you believe on him?
Yes, but even as Paul said, by grace are you saved through faith,
and that not of yourselves. It's the gift of God, not of
works, lest any man should boast. For we're his workmanship, created
in Christ Jesus unto good works, which he has before ordained
that we should walk in them. This is what we're confessing
when we confess our sin. Somebody say, well, when I believed
the Lord and I confessed Him in baptism, I didn't know all
that. All I knew was, I'm a sinner. You didn't know all this. You
may know it better now because you've been taught the word.
You may be able to even articulate it better now than before. All you could do is smite upon
your breast and say, God have mercy on me, the sinner. But
you knew when you heard this word preached, declared to you
that there's no good in you and that salvation is by the work
of God. God the Father, God the Son,
and God the Holy Spirit, through Christ Jesus, God, man, mediator. You said amen, that's how I was
saved. So in this ordinance of water
baptism, this ordinance in itself, just as we confess to God our
sin and we no longer boast to men about what we are, what we've
done, we're confessing publicly that we're sinners and that life
and repentance and faith and forgiveness of sin is the gift
the triune God has given to us in Christ by his grace. So first
of all, Nobody is truly baptized and nobody can truly be admitted
to this ordinance who has not first acknowledged their sins
before God. Not truly, you see, you remember
when they came to John, there was some Pharisees, different
ones came out, and he said, you brought forth no fruits for repentance.
They had none of them renounced the fact that they thought they
were the elect of God because they were the sons of Abraham,
the natural children of Abraham. They hadn't renounced the fact
that they thought they were sons of God because of all their washings
and their ceremonies and all the things they had gone through
and all the things they had done by their hand. They in no way
would bow to Christ and say, He's all my salvation, A to Z. And in that, they didn't confess
their sins. They wouldn't confess their sin.
That's what the Lord does for us. He makes us to confess our
sins. Secondly, let's look at the next thing. Romans chapter
6. Romans chapter 6. This is what
our Gospel declares. This is what our Gospel declares.
First of all, we're sinners. None of this is due to anything
that we've accomplished. Nothing. But here's secondly,
water baptism is the public confession that we believe that our salvation
is in Christ by His finished work. By His finished work that
He accomplished for us. Look at Romans 6 verse 3. Know
ye not that so many of us as were baptized unto Jesus Christ,
would probably be better, unto Jesus Christ, were baptized unto
His death. What does that mean? It means,
therefore, we're buried with Him by baptism unto death. That's what we're confessing.
That we're buried with Him by baptism unto death. That we're
buried with Him. Buried with Him unto death. Buried with Him unto death. Now,
here's the first thing we're confessing in baptism. You have
that pool. And it is a grave. That's the
picture. It's a picture of a grave. And
so whenever we go into that watery grave and we're buried in it,
we go down under that water and we're buried in that grave. We're
confessing that we were crucified and that we died when Christ
was crucified and when he died. That's what we're confessing.
You see, we became sinners by the disobedience of one. And
believers, God's elect, those He's chosen and given to Christ,
they are made righteous by the obedience of one. Now, look back
with me at Romans 5 and look at verse 19. For as by one man's disobedience,
Many were made sinners. That one is Adam. By his disobedience,
everyone he represented became a sinner. So by the obedience
of one, shall many be made righteous. And that one is Christ. Moreover,
the law entered. Why did it enter? Why did the
law come in? That the offense might abound, that we might see
how truly we fell in Adam, how deplorable our sin is, how awful
our condition is, how we cannot possibly save ourselves by our
own obedience. But where sin did abound, grace
did much more abound. That as sin hath reigned unto
death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal
life by Jesus Christ our Lord. That's the one who is the obedience
we gotta have. What do you mean by that? I mean
that from the time that our Lord was born into this world, He
was not conceived in sin like we are. So He's holy from the
womb, in the womb, that holy thing. And He comes forth out
of that womb. This is God the Son, the second
person of the Trinity, the Son of God. He came forth and took
our flesh and He walked as a man, as the Son of Man. The Son of
God walked this earth. God man, all God and all man,
he walked this earth obedient to the Father under the law as
our representative from his birth all the way to his death. Even
the death of the cross, Paul told the Philippians. His obedience
is the obedience we have to have. His obedience is the obedience
whereby God's people are made righteous. Now, He obeyed in
everything that He did. And He was that spotless Lamb
of God. You remember how the Lamb that
made atonement, that Lamb had to be perfectly spotless in the
Old Testament. It could have no blemish in it.
It had to be thoroughly, totally spotless. Christ, and they put
that lamb up, and they looked at Him, and they examined Him,
and they made sure that that lamb was spotless. Over and over
as our Lord walked, the Pharisees examined Him, the Sadducees examined
Him, the Herodians examined Him. He was brought before Pilate,
and Pilate examined Him. He was brought before all this
council of men, and they couldn't find any sin in Him at all. He was spotless. And being that
spotless Lamb of God, He's a fit one, a fit man, the just one,
to be made what His people are. Just as that Lamb was brought
and they put their hand on the head of that Lamb and they confessed
all of their transgressions and put their transgressions and
the sins that they had committed on that Lamb, so Christ was made
sin for us. He had to be because God's declaring
His righteousness by what He's doing. He's declaring He will
by no means clear the guilty. He's declaring that and God will
by no means condemn the just. So Christ has made sin. He's
made what we are. He bore our sins in His own body
on the tree and having been made sin for us. Now God, in righteous
judgment, in righteous just judgment, poured out all of His wrath of
judgment upon Christ Jesus. For the transgression of God's
people that now were made to be His, He was justly stricken
by God. And when He did that, this is
the solemn thing that that strikes our hearts and puts the fear
of our God in our hearts when he reveals Christ in us. When
he did that, when Christ did that, this was a baptism. He described it as that. He said,
I have a baptism to be baptized with and how am I straightened
until it be accomplished. This is that baptism we're talking
about. He went to that cross and His baptism, in that baptism,
He was immersed. He was immersed in the righteous
judgment of God. In the fiery, just judgment of
God Almighty. It flooded Him. It flooded Him
completely. I want to give you some scripture.
Psalm 69, in verse 1. Psalm 69, verse 1. If you read the Psalms, if you
really want to get the blessing out of the Psalms, read the Psalms
as David being a picture of Christ. David, read these Psalms as Christ
speaking with the Father and the Father speaking with Christ.
And you'll get a lot more out of these Psalms. Psalm 69-1. This is the Lord Jesus Christ
speaking. Save me, O God. For the waters
are come in unto my soul. I sink in deep mire, where there
is no standing. I am come into deep waters, where
the floods overflow me." This is justice. He's standing in
the room instead of His people, as the substitute of His people,
getting what His people justly deserve. He's getting it now
in strict justice and righteousness. Look at Psalm 18, verse 4. Psalm
18, verse 4. The sorrows of death come past
me. And the floods of ungodly men
made me afraid. The floods of Belial made me
afraid. In Lamentations 3.54, you can
look at Psalm 42. Look at Psalm 42. Let me read
this to you from Lamentations 3.54. Waters flowed over mine
head, then I said, I am cut off. Remember that's what he said
in Isaiah 53? He was cut off out of the land
of the living. He bore that flood of judgment,
immersed in the flood of judgment on behalf of his people. You
remember the ark in Noah's day? Peter tells us that that ark's
a picture of Christ and that it's a picture of baptism. And
he said whenever that ark was sitting there, that ark was there
and Noah entered that ark. And he entered that ark, and
God shut the door. And He shut him up in that ark.
When he did that, God broke up the water spouts of the deep.
It started flooding from the ground up. And God opened up
the heavens, and it started raining from above. So that that ark
is completely immersed, top and bottom, all the way around, in
the flood of judgment that comes upon it. Psalm 42, 7. This is
our Lord Jesus Christ. This says, Psalm 42, 7, "...Deep
calleth unto deep at the noise of thy waterspouts. All thy waves
and thy billows are gone over me." This is what Christ endured. And at last, when it was all
finished, and He said, it is finished, and He gave up the
ghost, at last His lifeless body was taken and was buried in a
tomb. Buried in a tomb. We're confessing
in water baptism that we were spiritually in Christ, and when
He was baptized unto death, and we were baptized into that death
and buried with Him. That's what we're saying. Romans
6.3, Know ye not that as many of us as were baptized unto Jesus
Christ were baptized unto His death? We're declaring that I'm
a sinner. That's all I am. I'm confessing
in water, but I'm a sinner. That's all I am. But I'm confessing
that when he lived obediently, his obedience is my obedience.
I'm confessing. I believe that when he was immersed
in the judgment of God and crucified and even unto death, I was too. And I'm confessing when he was
buried, I was buried right there. We don't sprinkle and we don't
pour because neither one of them is baptism. The word baptism
means immersion. That's what the word means. It
means immersion. We're saying we were buried. When he was buried in judgment,
we were buried. That's what we're saying. When
he was buried in that flood of judgment, we were buried. And
because sprinkling and pouring and those things, they don't
at all declare what he did, what he bore, what he endured. That's why we go down under the
water in a grave and we're buried into that, immersed in that water.
And we're not saying that we're washing away our sins and that
we're remitting our sins by that. When Peter said, be baptized
for the remission of sins, that word for is the same as if you
would say because. For, because. We're baptized
because our sins have been remitted. We're baptized because when He
did that, He put away our sins Himself. He purged our sins. And that's what we're confessing.
We're confessing that we believe by His death, He accomplished
the purging of our sins by Himself. Romans 6.6, look there again. Knowing this, that our old man,
that man we are in Adam, is crucified with him, that the body of sin
might be destroyed. You know what happens when a
body goes in the grave? It's destroyed. Our body of sin
has been destroyed that we henceforth should not serve sin, for he
that is dead is freed from sin. You know what that means? That
man that's dead, the law's got nothing else to say to him. The
law, that man that's dead, he's freed from sin. The word means
freed there means justified. I'm cleared of everything that
God, all charges, everything the law has to say against me.
I'm freed from all charges because Christ bore in His body everything
that I deserve. Knowing that ark. When they went
into that ark and that flood came upon that ark, in type,
in picture, Everybody in that ark died just like everybody
outside of that ark died. You know what the difference
was? Those that were in the ark, the
ark bore that flood for them, and they live because of that.
But those outside of that ark died in the flood of judgment. Brethren, that's what we're confessing.
Therefore, we're buried with Him by baptism unto death. And then secondly, we're confessing
this too. We don't stay in that water though. And our Lord didn't
stay in that tomb. Our Lord, three days later, He
came out of that tomb. He came out and He ascended to
the Father and they watched Him go up to the Father. Very well. He went up, ascended, and they
watched Him. They stood there and watched Him go up to the
Father. And this is what the verse says, verse 4. We're confessing
publicly that we arose from the grave to heaven's glory when
He arose. Verse 4. We're buried with Him by baptism
into death, that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by
the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness
of life. Why? Because if we've been planted
together in the likeness of His death, we shall be also in the
likeness of His resurrection. We have been. We were quickened
together with Him. When He arose, we arose, 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. For
he that's dead is free from sin. Now, if we be dead with Christ,
We believe, and this is what we're confessing about baptism.
When we come out of that watery grave, we believe we shall also
live with Him. Knowing that Christ being raised
from the dead, He dies no more. Death has no more dominion over
Him. It did, but it don't now. For in that he died, he died
unto sin once. He did die unto sin, but he's
not anymore. But in that he liveth, he lives
unto God. Likewise, reckon ye also yourselves
to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus
Christ our Lord." That's what I'm confessing. That's what I'm
confessing in Believer's Baptism. I'm confessing in Believer's
Baptism that my old man, everything I am, all the sin and corruption
that you see and all the things that might offend you about me
and everything that I am, that man's dead. Before God, I'm dead. I've been crucified with Christ.
My whole body of sin has been destroyed. Judgment's been passed
upon me. I've died. I've gone in the grave.
I've suffered the eternal, just suffering that must be met to
declare me absolutely just with God. It's all been done. And
now I'm raised and I'm alive unto God through Jesus Christ
my Lord, seated with Him at the right hand of God. That's where
my life is with Him. I'm not of this world. I'm not
even in this world. I'm there with Him right now.
It's a done deal. It's accomplished and it can't
be unaccomplished. It's settled and it will never
be unsettled. It is done and it will never
be undone. That's what I'm confessing when
I go into the water of grave. There is therefore now no condemnation
to them which are in Christ Jesus who walk not after the flesh
but after the Spirit. That's what I'm confessing. So
first of all, I'm confessing I'm sin, that's all I am. Secondly,
I'm confessing that when he lived, I lived. When he died, I died.
When he was buried, I was buried. And when he arose, I arose. And
then here's the third thing. In believer's baptism, we're
confessing that we're committed to Christ, walking in newness
of life. You went in that grave, an old
sinner. And you're coming out of that
grave confessing, I'm walking anew. I'm a new creature. I'm a new man. Baptism is our
public avowed commitment to Christ, to His gospel, and to our brethren,
to walk with Christ as a resurrected people in the newness of life.
Look at verse 12, Romans 6, 12. Let not sin, therefore, reign
in your mortal body. Reign, that's a key word. that
you should obey it in the lust thereof, neither yield ye your
members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin." Don't yield unto that
master anymore, but yield yourselves unto God as those that are alive
from the dead and your members as instruments of righteousness
unto God. That's what believers do. And
that sin won't ever again reign over us so that we can somehow
be separated from God because that new man is born within.
He does not sin. He's born of God and His seed
remains in us so that we can't ever stop believing God and we
can't ever be turned and separated from the love of God in Christ.
We have this assurance that that will never happen. Look at verse
14. For sin shall not have dominion over you, for you're not under
the law but under grace. Grace. Grace. Paul said, I'm crucified with
Christ, nevertheless I live, yet not I. That's hard talk,
isn't it? That throws people for a loop.
What do you mean, you live, but yet not you? The life that I
now live, he said, but Christ liveth in me. And the life which
I now live in the flesh, I live. by the faith of, he's not saying
faith in, although he lived by faith in Christ, he walked by
faith in Christ, but he's saying I live now, and I'm kept now,
and I'm preserved now, and the law and sin shall have no more
dominion over me now because I live now by the faithfulness
of the Son of God. That same One who loved me and
gave Himself for me dwells in me, and now by His hand of grace
upon me, He upholds me, and He carries me, and He strengthens
me in that inner man, and He makes it so I can never again
be separated from Him forever. That's how I live. For as many
of you have been baptized unto Christ, this is what we've done. We've put on Christ. We robed
in His righteousness. Any man be in Christ, he's a
new creature. Old things are passed away. Behold,
all things are become new. And all things are of God, who
has reconciled us unto Himself by His Son, Christ Jesus. That's
2 Corinthians 5, 19 and 20. That's what it's saying. Look
at Paul. Galatians 6.14. So am I going
to turn back to the law and start saying, well, now by that law
I'm going to sanctify myself? Oh, having begun in the Spirit,
are you now made perfect by the flesh? The flesh profits nothing,
brethren. We're not going to turn back
to Him. That's what we're saying. I've committed to Christ now. I'm
following Christ. I'm led of the Spirit of Christ.
I'm walking after Him. I'm walking by faith. And He
faithfully keeps me. Look at Galatians 6.14. But God forbid, he's saying there,
let's go back up, verse 12, as many as desire to make a fair
show in the flesh, they constrain you to be circumcised. They want
to bring you back under the law. back under the law. You ever
had a preacher do that? Ever had a preacher tell you, now
all that's fine, and you can say that you're saved by grace,
through faith in Christ and everything, but now, except you keep the
law. Now you've got to go back to
that law, Mount Sinai, start keeping that law if you're going
to be sanctified. Why does he say that? Why would a man teach
that? Why would a man bring you back in bondage under the law?
Paul said this is why the Galatians were doing it. He said, only
lest they should suffer persecution for the cross of Christ. For
neither they themselves who are circumcised keep the law, but
desire to have you circumcised that they may glory in your flesh."
The next time somebody tries to tell you, yeah, but you've
got to keep the law of God, I'll tell you what you can tell them,
believer. I have kept it. I have kept it in every jot and
tittle. My righteousness exceeds the
righteousness of the scribes and the Pharisees. I have fulfilled
the law through faith in Christ. His obedience is all my obedience. I'm as righteous as God is righteous
in my substitute and representative. But this is what Paul said. This
is commitment to Christ. But God forbid that I should
glory save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ by whom the
world is crucified unto me and I unto the world. For in Christ
Jesus neither circumcision avails anything nor uncircumcision but
a new creature. Now you want a rule to walk by?
You want a rule to walk by? All the believers are under the
rule of the law. This is what Paul said, as many as walk according
to this rule, the rule I just gave you. He said, peace be on
them and mercy upon the Israel of God. Well, Peter called this
the answer of a good conscience toward God. And I don't think
I'm going to have time to cover that with you, but let's go back
now to our text, Mark 16, 15. A believer walks before God desiring
to do what's right, to do what's in well-doing. That's what we
desire. And we'd rather suffer for well-doing
than evil-doing because we know that Christ also suffered for
sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God
quickened by the Spirit. And so we know that as Christ
has suffered for us in the flesh, And we arm ourselves with the
same mind, because He's risen. He's gone to the right hand of
the Father, and angels and authorities and powers have been made subject
unto Him, so that we're not going to be brought back under the
power of any. He's not going to allow it. And
so we arm ourselves with the same mind, because He that has
suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin, that He no longer should
live the rest of His time in the flesh to the lusts of men,
but to the will of God. This is the will of God that
you believe on Him whom He hath sent. This is My beloved Son
in whom I am well pleased. Hear ye Him. Follow Him. Walk after Him. Hear Him. Is
it that the law of God is bad? No. The law of God is holy and
just and good. And we delight in the law of
God after the inward man. The problem is, I can't keep
it. That's the problem. That's why Christ came. That's
why Christ came. So back in our text. Now, He
said to them, Mark 16, 15, Go into all the world and preach
the gospel to every creature. Now this is the gospel we preach.
This is the gospel. He that believeth. He that believeth. Do you believe that your sin,
that's all y'all? Do you believe that Christ is
the end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believes? Do
you believe that of God you are in Christ? And of God Christ
is made unto us wisdom and righteousness and sanctification and redemption,
so that you glory only in the Lord? Do you believe, or are
you persuaded now by what He's done for you and you believe
and trust Him and follow Him and are committed unto Him? Well,
that's what the Gospel declares God does through the Word. And
God does it as it's being preached through the Word. And we believe
Him. And when we believe Him, And we're baptized. All those three things is what
we confess in baptism. And we shall be saved. Now, if
somebody says, well, I don't believe that. Well, he that believeth
not shall be damned. It's just that simple. He that
believeth not shall be damned. It doesn't say he that is not
baptized. You see, there's many that will
say, I don't believe what you just preached. That's been baptized.
Maybe been baptized umpteen times. But they ain't never been baptized
the first time if God hadn't called them and birthed them
by His Spirit and made them to see Christ as all and they're
nothing. So that's what we've seen. Now
you got it? Water baptism. Water baptism. It's a public confession. that
I believe the gospel of Christ in my heart. I believe that I
am sin, nothing but sin. That's all I've ever done. That's
all I'll ever do. The Spirit's given me life, repentance,
faith. It's all of God. I'm confessing
Christ is all my salvation. He's all my salvation. I lived
in Him, I died in Him, I was buried in Him, and I'm risen
in newness of life in Him. And we're confessing that we're
committed to Him, to His gospel, to His people, to walk in newness
of life. Now, I want to give you one last
word. Do not be baptized simply because you had never been baptized. Don't be baptized because you
feel guilty that you ought to be baptized. Don't be baptized
because someone else is being baptized. None of those are reasons
to be baptized. Don't be baptized to please somebody
else. The person who's pressing upon
you in that way to be baptized is probably in bad air themselves,
may need to be baptized themselves. Don't be baptized for anybody
else. Faith is personal. Faith is personal. And this confessing Christ in
believer's baptism must be because you believe on Christ. It's not
because somebody forces you to. Whatsoever is not of faith is
sin. Let me give you this one last thing. If you want to look
at it, Acts 8.36. Whenever the Lord sent Philip
to that Ethiopian unit, He preached the Gospel to him. And it says
in Acts 36, And as they went on their way, they came unto
a certain water. And the eunuch said, See, here
is water. What doth hinder me to be baptized?
Now listen to Philip's answer. And Philip said, If thou believest... Let me give you time to get there.
Acts 8, 36. As they rode along, they saw
some water. certain water. You think it was an accident
they came to that water right at that time when whenever Philip
was finishing up his sermon and the Spirit had come into that
eunuch and given him life and faith to believe. You think it
was an accident they came to that water. It was a certain
water. They came right there by God's predestinated appointment.
And that eunuch said, see here's water. What does hinder me to
be baptized? And Philip said, here's what he said. Listen to
this now. If thou believest with all thine heart thou mayest."
And he answered and said, I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son
of God. You know what he just said? I
believe He's all my salvation. I believe He is A to Z, the fullness
of all that's required, and I'm complete in Him. That's what
He said. And Philip commanded that chariot
to stand still, and they went down both into the water, both
Philip and the eunuch, and he baptized him. So don't be, that's
the prerequisite to be baptized. Go preach this gospel, and he
that believeth That's the prerequisite to believe God. Now, one thing,
if God has called you, if He has called you, and you believe
that all your salvation is the resurrected Lord Jesus Christ,
then confess Him in believers' baptism. It's the Lord's will. He's commanded it. It's the ordinance
of God, even as the Lord's table is. He's commanded it. Whenever
Ananias came to Philip, to Paul, and preached to him what God
had done for him, When he finished, he said, why tarryest thou? What
you sittin' around thinkin' about, Paul? You sittin' around thinkin'
about all you've done in direct contradiction against Christ?
You sittin' around thinkin' about all your sin and all your rebellion
and how all these so-called works of righteousness has been nothin'
but vile, God-hating rebellion? Is that what's stoppin' ya? It's
all washed away, he said. Why are you tarryin'? Get up
and be baptized, he said. That's what he said. And this
is what the Lord said. Whosoever shall confess Me before
men, him shall the Son of Man also confess before the angels
of God. But he that denieth Me before
men, he that's ashamed of Me, he that's offended in Me, he
that says, no, I don't believe all that about... I don't believe
I'm all that dead. And I don't believe he's all
that all. Well, He says, if you deny Me before men, He says,
you shall be denied before the angels of God. One way to come
to Christ is to come to Him as a mercy beggar, desiring for
Him to be all your salvation. You'll have it if you come that
way. You'll have salvation. You'll have all. Christ, our
all. Amen.

Baptism: What It Is and Is Not

What does the Bible say about baptism and salvation?

Why is believer's baptism important for Christians?

How do we know baptism does not save?

What is the significance of the phrase 'he that believeth and is baptized shall be saved'?

What does baptism symbolize for believers?

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Baptism: What It Is and Is Not

What does the Bible say about baptism and salvation?

Why is believer's baptism important for Christians?

How do we know baptism does not save?

What is the significance of the phrase 'he that believeth and is baptized shall be saved'?

What does baptism symbolize for believers?

Sermon Transcript

About Clay Curtis

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