Morning all. It's good to be
with you this morning. I'm going to open in Hebrews. Let's read from the book of Hebrews
chapter 11 regarding faith. We're just going to read the
first six verses. Hebrews 11 verses 1-6 Now faith is the substance of
things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen, for by it
the elders obtained a good report. Through faith we understand that
the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which
are seen were not made of things which do appear. By faith Abel
offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, by which
he obtained witness that he was righteous, God testifying of
his gifts, his gifts, the Lord's gifts to Abel. And by it he being
dead yet speaketh. By faith Enoch was translated
that he should not see death, and was not found, because God
had translated him. For before his translation he
had this testimony, that he pleased God. But without faith it is
impossible to please him. For he that cometh to God must
believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that
diligently seek him." Let's pray. Our gracious Lord,
Father, we thank You for Your mercy, Your abundance of grace
which is poured out upon us in Your Son, Jesus Christ. Lord,
we thank You for gathering us together here around Your Word,
Lord. Father, that You would bless
your people, that you would bless this hour, that you would bless
your word, making it effectual in the hearts of your chosen,
redeemed, elect children. Though we be sinners in ourselves,
and because we are helpless, Lord, and have no ability to
reconcile ourselves to God, Lord, we depend entirely upon you. and trust Your salvation, Jesus
Christ the Righteous. Lord, we pray that You would
prepare our hearts, prepare our minds with that good soil, that
only You can make good. And Lord, that You would send
forth the seed of Your Word into our hearts, into that good soil
prepared of You, that You would bless your word, bless the seed,
Lord, and water it with your word, and warm it with the sun
of righteousness, Lord, that you would cause it to take root,
and to spring forth and bring forth fruit unto the praise and
glory of your name, some 30, some 60, some 100 fold, and that
Christ's name would be lifted up and exalted in the eyes of
your people, that we would march forward under the banner of Christ,
that we would gladly, with boasting, rejoice in Christ our Savior,
rejoicing and boasting in Him alone. Lord, we pray for your
people now. Lord, that you would protect
them and keep them. Lord, comfort those that are
suffering, those that are sick, those that are weary and troubled,
Lord, comfort Your people with the grace of Christ, that You
would free us, Lord, of the guilt and
condemnation of sin, and cause us to rest in Jesus Christ alone. It's in His name we pray and
give thanks. Amen. So, this morning, we're gonna
be in Mark 16, that'll be our text, Mark 16, and we'll be looking
at verses 15 and 16. Mark 16, verses 15 and 16. Now, as we come to the close
of Mark's gospel, our Lord gives his church a clear purpose, a
clear commandment, that they should go into the world and
preach the gospel to all creatures. And we are to preach this gospel
of Jesus Christ. And we call this the Great Commission,
the Great Commission of our Lord. And that'll be the subject of
our message this morning, because it outlines our calling as a
body and a church. He speaks, it speaks of our ministry,
what we're here, the purpose, why we are here, and what we
are called to do. We're called to preach the gospel
of Jesus Christ. I've titled this message, The
Command to Preach the Gospel. The Command to Preach the Gospel. And we'll have three divisions.
First, we'll look at this great commission, which is given to
the church. and then we'll look at the general
call that goes forth in the gospel ministry, and then we'll see
the confession of believers, that believers are brought to
confess Christ and are baptized in Christ's name. All right,
let's begin with the great commission of the church. After our Lord's
resurrection, he appeared, we know that he appeared numerous
times to his disciples to show that he indeed had risen from
the grave in the flesh. that he had been raised from
the dead just as he said. But Mark here is careful to include
the commission of our Lord that he gave to the church, that we
are to go forth and to preach Christ. We are to preach the
gospel of his good news, the salvation of the Lord in the
Lord Jesus Christ. In Mark 16 verse 15, we read
that Christ said unto them, go ye into all the world and preach
the gospel to every creature. Preach the gospel to every creature. Now the reason why the Lord does
this is because we, as Adam's seed, as Adam's corrupt seed
by nature, have a great need. We are corrupt sinners, bound
in darkness, bound in sin, corrupted in sin and iniquity and disobedience
to the Living God. We're in bondage, imprisoned,
and Christ alone is the one who opens the prison door and sets
the prisoner free. Only Christ does this. In our
flesh we are unable to please God by our works. Paul tells us that all have sinned
and come short of the glory of God. That means there's none
accepted. Every one of us is a sinner,
born under the condemnation and the wrath of Almighty God. So, there's no hope of restoring
fellowship with God by our works. We can't reconcile ourselves
or make this right. We can't fix that which we've
destroyed in Adam. We ourselves are sinners, born
under the wrath and the condemnation of God. And so without Christ,
everyone who is yet without Christ is yet in a state of disobedience
to the living God. We are disobedient to God by
nature because we reject his salvation. We reject his word. We don't trust him or believe
him or have any fellowship with the true and living God. The
scriptures describe this as spiritual death. We don't have a spirit
naturally. We're born dead in trespasses
and sins. We're flesh and a soul, but we
have no spirit, no fellowship with the true and living God. And so we're all under a state
of wrath, a state of condemnation by the true and living God. Paul
tells the Colossians, and us as well, that for the sake of
our sins, the wrath of God cometh upon the children of disobedience.
And that's what we are. He's even said that to the Ephesians.
We were naturally the children of wrath, the children of disobedience. And that's what we all are without
Christ, without the Lord Jesus Christ. So we have this great
need. And the church of God has been
given, therefore, a great responsibility. The people of this world have
a great need Well, the church has been given a great responsibility
and privilege to preach this gospel, to declare the glories
of God in his son, Jesus Christ, to declare salvation to sinners
through the Lord Jesus Christ. We are to preach it, to spread
it, to support the gospel going forth. It's in our day that we
do this, right? Every generation, in Christ is
called to preach and to support and to send forth this gospel
to needy sinners. The need never changes. It's true in past generations,
it's true in our generation, and it's true in any future generations
that shall come after us. And so because it's in our day,
we preach the gospel because the gospel is used of God to
put down and to correct errors that rise up. False Christs,
false doctrines, every wind of doctrine that is against the
knowledge of God and his Christ is defeated and destroyed by
the preaching of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Whatever the error
is, preach Christ and he will correct that error in the hearts
of his people. And so we do this, we send forth
the gospel, making use even of the means, the lawful means that
we have to send this gospel forth. There was a time when messages
could only be recorded, written on paper. And they were transcribed
what they heard and sent out in that form, right? Or you had
to be there in person to hear it. And then eventually recordings
happened and we could send forth messages in tapes and on DVDs
and things of that nature. and now we can even stream it
directly over the internet in real time. And so we're thankful
for these means, but this is what the Lord has given us in
our day to make use of, not to the neglect of meeting one another
and being fellowshiping with one another, which we shall do,
I believe very soon. All right, so we have this great
responsibility in our day. And so because we have this need,
And because we have this great responsibility, our God has been
faithful to bless us with a great message. A great message concerning
the salvation that God has provided for his people in grace and in
mercy. looking to His Son, Jesus Christ,
and effecting that grace, that faith in our hearts by creating
faith, by creating life and giving light in the face of Jesus Christ
in the hearts of His people to behold the salvation of God in
the face of Jesus Christ, the righteousness of God. And so
our God has commanded His church, commanded His people to preach
this word, to preach this word and to declare this great message
which God has sent forth to call and to gather in His beloved
children. chosen in Christ before the foundation
of the world." Now, the Lord even instructed, in the Old Testament
we see this, that the Lord instructed Aaron and the priesthood, that
they were to bless the people in the name of the Lord. And
he said, through Moses, in number 627, that they shall put my name my name upon the children of
Israel and I will bless them." God blesses his people in the
name of Jesus Christ. And we see that in Ephesians
1 3 that God has blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly
places in Christ Jesus. So the name that we preach and
declare is Jesus Christ. That's the name that we bless
the people with. That's the name that we preach
and exalt, because Christ is the whole counsel of God. Christ Jesus is the whole counsel
of God. Paul would say, as he was describing
this whole counsel of God to the Corinthians, right, he said
that he spoke of the whole counsel of God to the Ephesians. Do you
think that he therefore neglected to preach the whole counsel of
God to the Corinthians when he said, for I determined not to
know anything among you save Jesus Christ and him crucified? 1 Corinthians 2.2, in no wise,
he declared the whole counsel of God in declaring nothing but
Jesus Christ and Him crucified. And the reason is because Christ
is the whole of our salvation. Everything necessary that a sinner
needs to stand faultless before the throne of God and to be accepted
of Him in the day of judgment is the righteousness of Jesus
Christ. To be standing in Christ and
Christ alone, having no righteousness of our own, having no confidence
in anything of this flesh, but resting, believing, trusting
Jesus Christ, that He alone is sufficient to save us to the
uttermost. You see, we lost everything in
Adam, and we're never, by our works, through our skill, through
our wisdom, through our self-made righteousness, we shall never
be able to restore that which we lost in Adam. We can never
restore the fellowship that we had with God before Adam fell. Christ, and Christ alone, was
sent of God to redeem his people. to deliver them from the wrath
of God, to deliver them from the condemnation that rests upon
the children of disobedience in Adam. He delivered us from
that and put us in Christ, entrusting us to Christ the faithful and
the righteousness of God, because Christ is sufficient to save. He and he alone is our salvation. So our God faithfully to deliver
us from wrath and condemnation sent his faithful son to do that
for us which we cannot do for ourselves. To be our faithful
substitute. To sacrifice himself to put away
our sins. To make us righteous before God. to put away the guilt and the
condemnation that we have earned for ourselves due to the accumulation
of debt, the debt of righteousness, which we could never pay, because
all we are is sin. All we do is that which is disobedient
to the true and living God. So Christ is the very means of
our grace, the means of our acceptance with God, the means of our salvation. He is the ordained means that
God chose and that God provided to deliver sinners, helpless
sinners, from their guilt and condemnation to be able to stand
before God in confidence that He is pleased with them and accepts
them. That's only in the Lord Jesus
Christ by Jesus Christ. That's why we glory and rejoice
in him and speak of his name and declare Christ and walk under
his banner of love and why we're so confident because when we
look to ourselves and we look at our works and examine ourselves,
if we're honest, we'll be afraid and terrified because all we
see is when I would do good, evil is right there with me And
so we're wretched men and have nothing apart from Christ. Christ alone is the one who saves
us from our guilt and condemnation. Now a man or woman may have an
understanding of creation. There's a lot of people that
do believe God's account of how he created the heavens and the
earth. And how he ordered and ordained all things that we see.
And he created these things out of nothing. Men and women can
have a consciousness of God, and they do. And men and women
have a sense of what is right and what is wrong. And there's
many that even worship God or try to worship God in religious
services, various religions, even religions called Christianity. And yet none of those things
save us. None of our works, none of this
knowledge can save us. It doesn't do anything for us
in recommending us to God and in putting away our sins. Christ and Christ alone is the
salvation that God has provided for his people. Listen to some
of these scriptures. In Romans 1 16 we're told that
the gospel of Christ is the power of God unto salvation to everyone
that believe it. Why? He told the Corinthians
that it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that
believe. In whom, Ephesians, in whom ye
also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel
of your salvation, in whom We're speaking of a person, we're speaking
of Christ, in whom also, after that ye believed Christ, after
that ye believed Him, ye were sealed with that Holy Spirit
of promise. Why? Because God, 2 Thessalonians
2.13, because God hath from the beginning chosen you unto salvation
through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth. whereunto he called you by our
gospel to the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. And he did this through the preaching
of the gospel. Now, the Spirit of Christ attends
that word in the time of love for his people. He attends that
word and he gives light and he gives life so that we hear that
word. He makes us born again and hearing
that word, he creates faith in his people and creates life by
the spiritual seed of Jesus Christ. We call that regeneration. We
were dead in Adam, Now we are alive in Jesus Christ and he
is our husband, he is our father, he is our faithful God and Savior
whereby we are now accepted in the Godhead through Jesus Christ. And the Lord does this through
his irresistible effectual power and grace working in the heart
of chosen sinners. He makes this word effectual
in us so that we hear it and believe it. And therefore, we
go with confidence preaching this gospel, preaching the word
of our Savior, knowing that God the Father will save his elect
that he committed to the care of his son, Jesus Christ. He
does this, and he does it when he wills. A person may hear this
numerous times and never get it, Never hear it until the time
of their appointed until their appointed time, chosen by God,
when they should hear it, when that word will be made effectual
in their hearts, and they shall hear it, receive it, and believe
Christ. And so we're called to tell this
gospel, to declare this gospel to sinners of what God has done
for his people in Christ. And we do this in the day in
which we live, because there's a never-ending flow and stream
of sinners. All right, now, let's speak about
the general call, the general call that goes out. We're called
to preach this gospel to all. And we know that the Spirit is
the one who makes this word effectual in the hearts of his people.
But this is done through the general call of the gospel, right? We're preaching this word. I
don't even know who's on the other side of this live stream
of the gospel going over the internet right now. I don't know
who's listening or who's hearing it for the first time. We preach
this word and it's heard by many different people. And so we're
called to preach this word to whosoever, to whosoever is there
to hear it. We're called to preach this word.
And the reason why we preach it indiscriminately in this manner
to all who are gathered, right? We preach the same message to
all who are gathered is because we don't know who the elect are. We don't know whom the spirit
is stirring the hearts of, whom the spirit is stirring the hearts
of. We trust that that he's making his word effectual and that his
word is going forth as it purposes and pleases God, and that the
fruits He's bearing is according to His will and purpose in them. And we do this also because we're
commanded to preach to all. We're commanded to preach this
word to all. He said in verse 15 again, go
ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature,
to every creature. The other thing that we see in
this, we're to preach this word indiscriminately, but we preach
this word knowing that it carries with it all the faithful promises
of God to his children in Christ, right? There's the promise of
his grace is revealed in the gospel. There's the promise of
his salvation revealed in the gospel. There's the promise of
eternal life revealed to us in the gospel, to all who trust
Jesus Christ, that He indeed saves them just as He said, just
as He promised to save them, so He works salvation in their
hearts. And verse 16 tells us at the
beginning of it, in Mark 16, 16, He that believeth and is
baptized shall be saved. They shall be saved. So, The
way that sinners make their calling and election sure is through
faith. We believe Christ. That is making
your calling and election sure. Because without Christ, we miss
all the Word of God, without Christ. And our faith is the
very proof that what we cannot see is so. We believe God, we
believe Him, we trust Him, knowing that it's not by our works, it's
not by anything that we've done. And that's why in Hebrews, the
Hebrew writer said, without faith, it's impossible to please God,
because faith is not of the flesh, not true faith. not true faith. The faith of God which is fixed
in the Lord Jesus Christ is of the Spirit. It's a spiritual
gift, it's a spiritual grace that he affects in his people
through his power, through his glory, to his praise and honor. So the Lord does this. And without
faith in Christ, we miss the entire Word of God. We don't
understand or know what it's saying. Christ is the one thing
needful. When we miss Christ, we miss
the whole Word. There's many out there who who study the Word, who see good
stories in the Word, and see morality in the Word, and they
teach these stories, and they teach morality, as though these
things affect salvation, as though these things make good people,
as though these things make us to be Christian. or to be people
in the church and to be Christians in the church and in our community
and in the world. But it's not the Bible. It's
not the study of religion that saves anyone or makes anyone
righteous. It's Jesus Christ alone and he
is the whole focus, he is the whole counsel of God. He is everything needful and
necessary for salvation. As our Lord said to the Jews,
ye search the scriptures, for in them ye think ye have eternal
life, and they are they which testify of me. It's John 5 39,
I believe. So he showed them that that you
could be very religious you could have Spent your whole life in
the church and be religious and be a good person in the eyes
and esteem of other men But that's nothing with God God the only
one that is anything to God is Christ, and those who come before
God in Christ. Those are the ones whom He receives
and blesses and rejoices in, because we rejoice in the testimony
of our God. We rejoice in His Son, Jesus
Christ. And so, Christ is the one thing
needful, and we see that in verse 16 at the end. He said, for he
that believeth not, shall be damned. All right, they shall
be damned because they're condemned already. He told that to Nicodemus
in John 3. They believe not because they're
already condemned. They're in darkness and they
can't hear this or receive this word. Left to ourselves and Adam,
we'll never hear the word. We'll never believe the word.
We'll never receive the word. And the Lord proves that over
and over again. And that's why the gospel goes out indiscriminately
to all. And the Lord's gonna show how
many millions and billions have heard the word, but in their
own strength and power, they would not receive it or believe
it, because that's how spiritually dead Adam and his seed is. They're spiritually dead. So
our concern, my concern and your concern should be, do I have
faith in Christ? Do I believe Christ? Do I trust
that God has sent Him, that He is the salvation that God has
provided for His people, that all who look to Him and call
upon Him shall be saved and never be ashamed of trusting in Him? Do you believe the testimony
that God has given concerning His Son Jesus Christ, that He
is the Christ, that He is the salvation of all who call upon
Him and trust in Him, all who believe Him, all who lean upon
Him and rest in Him and have no other hope of righteousness
in themselves? It's not what we believe about
Christ. But that we believe Christ, and
trust Him. Do you believe Jesus Christ,
that God sent Him and He effectually has put away, washed away the
sins of His people through the death of Himself? As our sacrifice,
He gave up the ghost, shedding His blood to put away, to make
atonement for our sins and to make us accepted with the Father. He's able, He is able. Do you have any other hope of
salvation? If you have no other hope of
salvation, but have heard Christ and believe Him, then rest in
Him, believe Him, trust Him. All right, believe that God has
sent His Son to save helpless sinners who cannot save themselves. were told by the Apostle John
in 1 John 5, verses 10 through 13. He says, he that believeth
on the Son of God hath the witness in himself. He that believeth
not God hath made God a liar. Those that don't believe Christ,
that don't believe that he's the Savior, that don't believe
that he is sufficient to save his people, they're calling God
a liar. Those that trust in their righteousness,
those that think that their religious service either saves them or
adds and improves upon what Christ has done, are calling God a liar. Because they're not resting in
the righteousness of God, which is Jesus Christ. Because he believeth
not the record, the reason why he's calling God a liar is because
he believeth not the record that God gave of his son. This is my beloved son, hear
ye him. Hear him, look to Christ and
Christ alone. So this is the record that God,
verse 11, hath given to us eternal life and this life is in his
son. He that hath the son hath life,
And he that hath not the Son of God hath not life. These things,
John says, have I written unto you that believe on the name
of the Son of God, that ye may know that ye have eternal life."
All who believe Christ, all who trust Him, all who cast their
care, their soul upon Him to save them, trusting Him that
He will save them, that He has, not trying to figure out whether
they're the elect or whether it can somehow be made effectual
for them. Trust him, cast yourself upon Christ, believe him, cry
out to him, call upon him, help me, Lord, save me, have mercy
upon me. All who cast their soul upon
him have eternal life. And that's what John's saying
there. And that ye may believe on the name of the Son of God. Trust him. Believe Him. He's not playing games with you.
He's faithful, loving, kind, and gracious to all who call
upon Him. To all helpless sinners who have
no other means of righteousness, trust Him. Believe Him. It's His word to you. God is
not a liar. All who call upon Him shall be
saved. shall be saved. Take all your
former religion and all the nonsense you've heard telling you of these
works and putting up roadblocks and stones of stumbling before
you, cast them aside, have nothing to do with them, trust God. He's not a liar. All who believe
on the name of the Son of God shall be saved, shall be saved. So we preach this great message
to all because we are preaching to eternity bound sinners. knowing
that there is no other name under heaven given among men whereby
we must be saved. But there are some that don't
believe. They really don't believe. They don't believe that Christ
is real or they don't believe that he is who he says he is.
They don't trust God or believe God. They can't imagine that
salvation has no part of their works in the equation. They don't
believe God. They're trusting in things that
they themselves are doing. They don't think Christ is sufficient
to save to the uttermost. Moses even said, oh, that they
were wise, that they understood this, that they would consider
their latter end. Because God says, all who do
not believe are condemned already. The wrath of God abideth on them. And there is no hope for them.
There's no help for them because they rejected the salvation of
God in His Son, Jesus Christ. So, don't be foolish. Seek the
Lord. Trust Him. Cast yourself upon
Him. Fall upon Him with having no
other hope. Trust Him. Stop trusting in yourself. Stop
waiting to figure something out and to find something that clicks
or works for you. Trust Jesus Christ. Believe Him. Believe His Word to you. Let's look at this confession
of believers now. We're told in the Great Commission
what the confession of believers is. Look at verse 16 with me
again, Mark 16, 16. He that believeth and is baptized
shall be saved, but he that believeth not shall be damned. It's Christ here that has joined
these things together, meaning these things are important. Faith
and baptism are important. Now, I want to be clear. Baptism
does not save anyone. Baptism does not wash away your
sins. The blood of Christ alone is
all that can wash away the stain and guilt of our sin. Baptism
does not convey grace, meaning that there are some who would
be baptized hoping and thinking that that might affect some special
feeling or give them a little juice from God to become more
righteous and feel like they're more saved than they're feeling
now. Baptism doesn't do that. It doesn't
convey grace or any special feeling upon us. It does not regenerate
persons. That's the work of the Spirit
of God. Baptism doesn't contribute anything
to our salvation, as a matter of fact. And it doesn't add or
make us more saved or more savable by God. Christ alone is the salvation
of our souls. He's the salvation of His people
perfectly. But faith in Christ and baptism
are intimately connected by Christ himself. He's the one that speaks
to them together here. So he's speaking of believers'
baptism. baptism that believers, they're
already believers, they're already in Christ. And he's speaking
of believers baptism because baptism is one of the first outward
acts of those that believe Christ. It's one of the first outward
acts that we do in obedience to our Lord because of what he's
already done in us and effected in our hearts. You think of James,
who would say in James 2.26, as the body without the spirit
is dead, right? And that's what we are in Adam,
we're a body and a soul, but we have no spiritual life. We
have no spirit, we have no spirit in us. The body without the spirit
is dead, and we're dead in religion without the spirit of Christ.
So faith without works is dead. So faith without works is dead. In other words, it's a testimony.
Our baptism in obedience to Christ is a testimony of what the Spirit
has born in us, that he's born life in us, that he's given us
faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. So if you believe Christ, if
he's your hope, then obey Christ who said to be baptized in his
name. confess your sins, calling upon
the name of Christ, trusting and believing that he has saved
you by the death of himself. Now, let me give you a few remarks
on believer's baptism. If you're now thinking of being
baptized or have wondered about baptism and are considering baptism,
whether or not you should be baptized. Well, some wrestle
over the fact that they are told by their parents that they were
baptized as infants or baptized as children, and they're wondering,
well, should I be baptized then in believer's baptism? Should
I obey Christ and as a believer be baptized? Well, first of all,
the infant baptism isn't Believer's Baptism. It's a religious ritual
that man has created to feel, probably mostly to feel better
about himself and if their children should expire prematurely before
they might confess Christ. But that's got no part in the
body of Christ. That's not why We're not to baptize
our children. It's for believers, believers
in Christ. And baptism follows faith in
Christ. It comes after faith in Christ,
not before. It doesn't precede faith in Christ. If baptism were to come before
our faith in Christ, then we're making baptism a hollow, meaningless,
dead-letter religious activity. It means nothing. It's just dead-letter
religion. It doesn't affect or work salvation
in his people. And so it does nothing for us. And so it becomes, by baptizing
children or being baptized prior to faith in Christ, It's just
a meaningless religious activity. That's all that it is. It's no
purpose. It serves no purpose, but really
to seal one in their condemnation, to seal one up in their condemnation.
And so infant baptism is more of a hindrance than it is a help.
Because oftentimes, along with that infant baptism, you're teaching
your children that they're already Christian. You're training them
up and saying, you've been baptized, you're already a Christian, this
is your faith, this is your hope, these are your people, you're
Christian, you've been baptized as a Christian, go walk in that,
trust that. And they're not trusting Christ,
they're trusting some work that their parents did for them when
they were children and they grew up in this church and so this
is their hope. So it's just a false dead hope. The reality is we're to teach
our kids, ye must be born again. There's no hope for you outside
of Christ. You must be born again. and we
preach and declare Jesus Christ faithfully to him and what he
has done for sinners in the hopes that God would have mercy upon
our children. That's why we bring our children
to hear, praying, Lord, help them to hear. Help them to sit
still. Help them to listen. But we bring
them in the hopes that God would pour out his spirit upon them
as he's poured out his spirits upon us. the Spirit upon us.
We're hoping and trusting that he will affect life in them through
Jesus Christ. And so, the same way we were
brought into the kingdom, through grace worked in our hearts by
the preaching of the gospel, so we know and trust that God
shall work faith and grace in the hearts of all his children.
And oh, how we pray that he affect that and our own children whom
we love and desire to see come to faith in Christ. Second, baptism
is obedience to Christ. Baptism is obedience to Christ.
Peter would say, baptism doth also now save us, not the putting
away of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience
toward God by the resurrection of Jesus Christ. You know, an
infant or a young child, when you bring them to be sprinkled
or however they administer the baptism or the sprinkling, they're
not answering God in a good conscience. This has nothing to do with them.
This paedo-baptism and infant sprinkling has to do with the
parents. It's what they think and what
they're hoping in will help or communicate some grace to their
children. There's a great variety of things,
but none of them help or save the child or do anything for
them. Believers, when they're baptized, when they go and are
baptized, it's because their conscience and their conscience,
they know, I have no hope but Christ. I have no hope of salvation,
but the salvation God has provided in his son, Jesus Christ. And so believers are baptized
because it's an answer of a good conscience toward God. Yes, Lord,
you're true in what you said. You're faithful. Thank you, Lord,
for providing your salvation in your son, Jesus Christ. And
so we are baptized in a good conscience because it's faith
that the Spirit has worked in us, in each individual believer. All right, now third, baptism
is the means by which believers first confess faith in Christ
publicly. So believers who confess Christ
are publicly confessing Christ in baptism. Now baptism pictures
Christ, it's a picture of Christ's death, burial, and resurrection. Just as it's a picture of our
death, burial, and resurrection, and being represented in Christ
himself. We died with Christ. Paul wrote
to the Romans in Romans 6, 3 and 4, he said, he asked, know ye
not that so many of us as were baptized, put down under the
water, baptized into Jesus Christ, were baptized into his death?
It's picturing our death in Christ. Therefore, we are buried with
him by baptism, immersed, submerged under the water fully into death. Just like you put a dead body
in the ground fully. You don't just sprinkle dirt
on it. You put it completely under the ground. So 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. So when you confess Christ and
are baptized into Christ, you're identifying yourself with Christ
and his people. And that will likely mean that
you will suffer the shame and the ire, the disgust of other
people, right? Maybe your parents who trusted
in the sprinkling that they gave you as a child, they may not
like it or agree with it, and they may have a few choice words
for you, but it doesn't matter. You're willing to accept that
because you love Christ. and you know that, you know what,
this is the answer of a good conscience toward God. Lord,
you're my savior, you're my God, not them, not their opinion. I don't want them to be disappointed
in me, but Lord, I love you and I have no other hope of salvation
but you, Lord. Father, have mercy upon me and
your Son, Jesus Christ. So those things may come our
way, the shame and the hatred and the despising of others may
come, but that's okay, if that's what God has purposed. We've
identified ourselves with Christ and his people. Remember all
the promises of God given to us in his Son, Jesus Christ,
to those who believe him. Again, it's not that our baptism
saves us, but it is a line of separation between us and all
our former, dead, false, phony religious works. And it is saying
to those who are yet trusting in those things, that's false,
and I have no part in that, and I would that you would have no
part in that. And I'm standing with Christ,
I believe Him, I trust his word and believe him and have cast
myself fully upon his mercy and grace that he's promised to all
who have no hope in themselves but trust in him. And it's a
testimony to them that Christ in Christ alone saves and not
your upbringing or your former dead works of religion. So it's a line of separation
between you and this world's religion. They're dead works
trusting in the flesh. All right, so you're confessing
your commitment to Christ and that the faith which he's given
you in him, fixed in him, that he is your salvation and your
salvation alone. And you're confessing that, Lord,
I believe that you are coming again and that you shall raise
me from the dead in that final day. All right, we're trusting
him. So baptism, I bring this up because,
well, the Lord put it with the Great Commission. Baptism is
part of the church's Great Commission because it shows, it witnesses
and testifies that we've heard the gospel, that we've heard
the gospel and that our God has worked faith in us, that he's
worked life in us in his son, Jesus Christ, and that we ourselves
have been made obedient to Christ, that he's our Lord. There's many
people that like the promises of God in Christ, but have no
obedience to Christ, that make excuses and just have no obedience
to Christ, and they're more confident in their own wisdom and what
they have to say about obedience to Christ and trusting in Him
than just hearing Christ and believing Him and obeying His
words. And so, Baptism is obedience
to our Lord Jesus Christ, both in our confessing Him to be our
salvation of faith, and we witness that He is our God and Savior,
that He is our Lord, our King, our Husband, our All, in public
baptism. It's witnessed there in public
baptism. So if you love Christ, and you've not been baptized
as a believer of the Gospel, Many of us were baptized in false
dead religion, whether as a baby or even as an adult who didn't
know the truth. If you've never been baptized,
believing Christ and his gospel, be baptized. Be baptized for
the first time in the Lord Jesus Christ, trusting that he alone
is your salvation and forsake your fear of man and what man
will say or do or what they care about. Confess Christ in believer's
baptism in obedience to your Lord and Savior. I pray the Lord
would bless that message to his people that he's gathered into
his kingdom of light and his dear son. I pray the Lord will
bless your hearts and keep you. Amen. All right, let's close in prayer.
Our gracious God, we thank you. We thank you, Lord, for your
salvation in Christ, for your word of promise, that you save
all who call upon the name of Christ, all who trust Him and
believe Him and have no hope in themselves or in their flesh
or their works or their former religion or former religious
activities, Lord, Father, have mercy upon us. Make this word
effectual in our hearts. Help us to hear and to believe
and gather us in together into the kingdom of your dear Son,
our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Father, we pray that you would
indeed help all those that are suffering and hurting, those
with questions, those who need answers. Oh, Lord, that you would
settle us in Christ. Father, we pray Again, that you
would unite us together, that you would bring us together in
fellowship under the gospel of our Savior. And Lord, may this
indeed be a reminder of how precious the gospel is, how precious it
is to be with your people in fellowship and in love with one
another. In the name of our Savior, Jesus
Christ, we pray, amen.