Having said that, we'll move
on here in verse 27. In this next verse, Paul describes
the sons of God by faith in Christ as those who have been baptized
into Christ. Verse 27. For as many of you
as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ. Now, the apostle here is not
supposing that some were baptized and some weren't. He's not saying,
well, as many of you have been baptized and the other portion
that haven't. No, that's not what he's saying.
The language here is not assuming that some have been baptized
and others not. He is saying those who truly know
Christ, those who have been baptized in a true sense, He is supposing
that while all have been baptized with water, not all know Christ. How many of you known have been
baptized and yet go away? How many? I've seen many. I've
baptized some that have gone away, that have left the faith. You see, baptism has nothing
to do with a man's salvation. You can have ten baptisms. That
doesn't make you saved. There are many who are baptized
with water who have made a profession of faith that do not know Christ. Now consider all those who believe
baptism has power to save. They don't know Christ. All who
believe in salvation by Christ plus their baptism, these are
the ones that are just like these Galatian believers who believed
in Christ plus circumcision. It's the same as those that believe
Christ plus taking the Lord's Supper, Christ plus joining the
church, Christ plus anything. They don't know Christ. They
do not know Christ. But all who do know Christ and
believe on Him alone, without the deeds of the law, these saints or sons most surely
will be and are baptized as an act of faith and obedience to
Christ, you who do believe. We do not negate the importance
of baptism. Baptism is a very important ordinance
because Christ gave it. Just as important as the Lord's
Supper is, it is a very important ordinance because Christ gave
it. Is there any other reason you
need to have these ordinances other than Christ tells us, commands
us? Yet we know that our baptism
does not put us in the union with Christ." That's not what
Paul's saying. He said, not saying here that baptism, as many of
you have been baptized, into Christ, as though faith puts
this baptism puts you into Christ. We know that's not true. As proof of that, when men are
baptized and go away, that doesn't put them in Christ. But rather, this baptism, what
it does is testifies to everyone that I am in union with Christ. That's what baptism is for. It
is declaring to everyone that I am in union, that I have been
put into union with Christ. through faith in Him. If you
have believed on Christ, if you have been taught by the Holy
Spirit to come to Him, listen, you should be baptized. Everyone
who believes on Christ should be baptized because it is the
only public profession of faith. Now, men, churches make up all
kinds of professions of faith. Come down to the front and make
a profession of faith. Nowhere in Scripture is that
found. You won't find one apostle, one man in Scripture asking men
to come to the front and make a profession of faith. The only
true biblical profession of faith is baptism. That's it. That's
the public profession of faith. And I commend anyone who is a
believer, if you've received Christ and you've not been baptized,
you should. And what a joy it is to the church,
isn't it, when you see God's people come and obey the Lord. That is a glorious sight in God. It's encouraging to God's saints
to see His children come and take their place and confess
their union with Christ through believers' baptism. It is the
only public confession of faith, and to forsake baptism is to
deny Him. Now, let's just be honest. If this is the profession of
your union with Christ, then to neglect baptism is to deny
Him in public. It is to be ashamed of Christ.
That's what it is. If a man will not be baptized,
he's ashamed of Christ. Either that or he's just flat-out
disobedient. So when we are baptized, he said,
we're baptized, listen, in the name of Christ, aren't we? That's
what Peter said, repent and be baptized every one of you in
the name of Jesus Christ. For the remission of sins, you
shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. Now, what does that
mean in the name of? People get all confused about
that. Some people say you'd be baptized in the name of the Father
and Son and the Holy Ghost. Isn't that what the Lord said?
Go you into all the world and baptize them in the name of the
Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost. Well, is this confusing? Absolutely not. All it means
is authority. He says, I'm baptizing you in
the name or by the authority of Christ, in the name of the
Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. So that's what it means
to be baptized in His name, to be baptized under His authority,
by His command, according to His doctrine, and in obedience
to that command, because of His grace to give us life. Now listen,
if you're not a believer, you don't need to be baptized. If
you don't believe, don't do it. Don't do it! It's not for unbelievers. Baptism
is for believers And that was he told the Ethiopian eunuch
He said what doth hinder me to be baptized. He said if thou
believest With all thine heart Jesus is the Son of God you may
And he said I believe and he baptized and he baptized him
according to the command of Christ. And all who are baptized into
Christ, listen, we are baptized into His body and in hope of
resurrection. That is, we are brought not into
union with Him, but rather communion with Him and His church. This is how one makes their profession
among the church and becomes in communion with the saints. Is through this ordinance of
baptism when I see someone baptized, what do I what do I immediately
say brother? This is my brother Why because
now we we see this we are in union together And that baptism
didn't put us in union. It just testified to me that
we are in union And we're in union We're in union not just
together, but mainly we're in union with Christ. So all who
are truly baptized, listen, we have put on Christ. Now listen,
in truth, I've put on Christ before I was baptized. When we believe, isn't that what
believing is, putting on Christ? It's taking His robe of righteousness. that He has merited and receiving
it to ourselves. Before we were baptized, we put
on the righteousness of Christ by faith. And as we receive Him,
and when we are baptized, we put on Christ by our public profession
and submission and union with Him as our King. In other words,
I am kneeling. be when I was baptized, I was
in submission to Him, testifying to you that I have put on Christ,
testifying to you that I have union with Him. The illusion
here is to the priest. You remember the priest as he
He would come in from his daily routine. He didn't wear those
robes all the time. He'd come in, and he would get
ready for his service. He would take off those common
clothes, wash himself, and put on the priestly garment. That's
exactly what Paul's talking about, putting on Christ. Even so, we who have come to
Christ confessing faith, we've put off our filthy garments,
And we have been given faith whereby we put on his righteous
garments. And listen, they are my righteous
garments. Wow. His garments are now my
garments. He made them. He gave them. And by grace, through faith,
we have put on this robe. Go to Revelation 19. Read this
with me. I love this passage of Scripture.
What a wonderful picture it is. Revelation 19, verse 6. The Scripture says, And I heard,
as it were, a voice of a great multitude, and as a voice of
many waters, and a voice of mighty thundering, saying, Hallelujah!
Praise the Lord! For this reason, for the Lord
God Omnipotent reigneth. Now who's reigning? Who's the
center of all worship and praise here? It is Jehovah. It is God
that reigneth. Let us be glad and rejoice and
give honor to him. Him. For the marriage of the
lamb is come. And listen, and his wife has
made herself ready. Now, how could that be? How could
we make ourself ready for such a thing? Well. Because the Omnipotent One that
reigneth," look at verse 8, "...and to her it was granted." Now,
how could she make herself ready? Because the Omnipotent God had
granted her, granted her that she should be arrayed in fine
linen, clean and white, for the linen, the fine linen, listen,
is the righteousness of who? The omnipotent God has decreed
a wedding for His Son, has betrothed to Him a bride, and the Son hath
paid the ransom price for the bride, had paid the bride's price,
His blood. By His own hands He had sewn
together the fine linen of His own righteousness, and by His
omnipotent, sovereign grace He gave it to His people. By which
strength they have from Him, they put it on. Now listen, I
received this passively. By the grace of God, the Spirit
of God, I received Him passively. But as the Spirit moved me, I
actively received Christ. This righteousness, I put on
willingly, most willing. Anybody here not willing to put
on this robe? Anybody here not willing to put
on Christ? If you've been born again, you know you're willing.
Why? You have been made willing in
the day of His power. We have put on Christ. This gorgeous
apparel was given to us of free and sovereign grace. And all that the bride carries
with her to heaven is given to her. Isn't that right? Everything you bring to heaven
is given to you. All that the bride wears is given
to her. She brings nothing of her own.
She wears nothing of her own. In fact, she is there altogether
by the grant of heaven. The garment she wears is the
righteousness of the saints." Now, you know, the word here
should be plural, righteousnesses of the saints. Why? Because Christ's single righteousness
is so magnificent. It can't be just singular. It
has to be so much. It's so abounding. His righteousness
is given to us. And so we, by nature, having
those filthy garments, surely have put these off. And that's
what baptism confesses, isn't it? And so then, the teaching
of Scripture is not that the act of water baptism puts us
in union with Christ, but it does teach us that those who
are rightly baptized as believers in Christ have symbolically professed
their union with Christ and by grace have put on Christ. We identify in baptism with His
death. His burial and His resurrection. In other words, when I am standing
in the water, I am identifying with Christ's life, that His
life was my life. When I am submerged, immersed
into the water, I identify with His death, that He was submerged
under the wrath and justice of God for my sins, and as He was
buried And then, as we come about, what happens? We identify with
His resurrection. We identify with His resurrection. And by faith we have put on Christ,
in obedience to the ordinance of Christ, publicly professed
Him in union, our union with Him. And now, being one with
Him, we are all joined into one body. Baptism is a wonderful
thing, and it testifies not only our union with Christ, but each
other in this one body, in this one body, the Church. Paul now shows us the end of
our faith, namely our union with Christ in the church. Look at
the next verse. Go back to your text and look at the next verse.
For as many of you have been baptized into Christ, have put
on Christ, and what do you find there? That you are in union
with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek.
There is neither bond nor free. There is neither male nor female,
for you are all one in Christ Jesus. You're all one in Christ
Jesus. Because you are sons, adopted
sons, purchased sons, called sons, who have been given faith
and publicly professed Christ, now then, there is no distinction
among you. That's what Paul's saying here.
There is no distinction among you. We who are baptized into Christ Here I've put on Christ, we testify
that we are all one body and the body is Christ and the head
is Christ. And we all being one body have
one head, one cause, the glory of Christ, one purpose, the furtherance
of the gospel. Isn't that why we're here? We're
here as one body. We have one mind. Your mind as
being here was to be what tonight? To be fed. to be instructed,
to be reproved, rebuked, exhorted, whatever the Lord had wanted
for you, that was our purpose here. We have one mind, one purpose. We all desire the lost to be
saved. We desire the elect to come and
hear the gospel. We desire others to be baptized. We all have one cause, and all
for who? The glory of God. That's our
cause as a church, as a body. And so then, in Christ, I want
you to see this, there are no social, economic, racial barriers
to those who are in Christ. All those things are dissolved.
All those things that mattered so much before don't matter at
all right now. All those things that matter
so much to the world do not matter to the church. Do you realize,
I do not care if you are black or white. I do not care if you
are male or female. I do not care if you're rich
or you're poor. Do I not preach the same gospel
to all of you? It doesn't matter. Why? Because
you are just as much a part of the body of Christ as I am. And what I need, you need. What
you need, I need. Why? We're all one body. We have
one purpose, one goal, one aim. Christ. One hope. One Lord. One faith. One baptism. In Christ
is the only place this truly, the dissolving of all distinctions
can take place. Paul said this in the next verse,
if you be in Christ. Listen, if you be in Christ,
nothing else matters. What else really matters? Will
it not all dissolve? Will it not all soon end? Relationships,
the dearest of relationships will soon end. At death it will end. Recently my father passed away.
My mother and father have been married for 61 years. You realize
now he is no longer her husband. He will never be her husband
again. And that day when the Lord comes
and takes her, guess what? She will not be his wife ever
again. There won't be any such relationships anymore. So all
that thing that they really thought mattered, the only thing that
matters is being in Christ. In Christ. If you be in Christ,
those things make no distinction. In Christ we are all made partakers. of the same calling, the same
election, the same salvation, the same faith, the same inheritance.
If you belong to the Father in election, if you were redeemed
by the blood of the Son, if you were quickened by the Holy Spirit,
listen, you are Abraham's seed. Isn't that what he called Christ
in verse 16? He said this. He said, not to seeds as many,
but as to one, to thy seed, which is what? Christ. If you be Abraham's
seed, if you be in Christ, guess what? You are so in union with
Christ that you're the seed, just like He is. You're called
the seed, too. Isn't that what Isaiah did when
he said this? He said, in that day he shall be called the Lord
our righteousness. And then over in the next place,
think of Jeremiah, he said, in the next place he said, and they
shall be called. What? The Lord our righteousness,
the same name. The church and Christ have the
same name. Why? Because we share the same
space. We are his body. He is our head. That's how in union we are with
him. So if you be Abraham's seed, what does these distinctions
matter? You are made the righteousness of God in Christ. Therefore,
we are all heirs according not to our merit, not according to
our race, not according to our gender or works of religion,
but according to the promise of God. Now, how difficult is
it, men, to do away with distinctions? Is it not horrendously difficult
for them to do away with distinctions of race and gender It is. Even professing believers. How many professing believers
still have some sentimental turn to the Jewish nation, as though
they have some better thing over there in Palestine? Didn't Paul
just tell you? He just said it in our text.
He says, there is neither Jew nor Greek. And yet men still
have trouble letting that go. This is saying that none of us
are above another in spiritual inheritance. All have the same
grace, the same love of God, the same righteousness of Christ,
the same eternal life. Now, Paul is not saying that
when a man believes in Christ, he ceases to be a man or a woman
ceases to be a woman. Now, there's some people that
try to hold that. You'll find some of those weirdos that say,
ah, see, now we can be transgender because there's no difference,
right? No, you don't cease to be what you are. You are what
God made you to be. In this life, you're a woman
or a man. You're black, you're white. You don't cease to be
these things. You don't become rich when you
believe, and you don't automatically become poor when you believe.
So these things have no bearing on this. But what it does teach is this,
that these things that naturally separate us no longer matter
in this matter of our inheritance. We are all one in Christ, all
children of God and heirs of the promise, equal, equal in
the sight of God. So in Christ, matters of salvation
and inheritance, there are no social distinctions. And he also
is showing this because in the law there were many social distinctions.
How wonderful was this to the Gentile nation, right? Remember,
they had to stay on the outer court. They couldn't come in.
They couldn't do all these things that the Jews had. And how mad
this made the Jews, because now they lost all their privileges.
They had no special privileges being Jews. Oh, what a wonderful
leveler this is. It brings us to this point. We
are all sinners saved by grace. You see, that way the slave and
the master can sit in the same church. That way the rich man
and the poor man can have communion together. That way the black
and the white, the Jew, the Gentile can all meet together and not
look down or up at either one of them. Why? Because there is
no distinctions here. You're all in Christ. You're
Abraham's seed and heirs according to the promise. I want to say this in closing.
Let's go to see this in Ephesians. Go over to Ephesians chapter
4. Paul is saying this very same thing in Ephesians 4. I'm going
to read through a few verses here and kind of tie this in
because we understand that there are still distinctions of Offices
things that we are called to do and you know he in another
place. He uses the body and illustration
He said the mouth is not the foot. The foot is not the mouth.
The hand is not the the foot Everyone has their place in this
body and no one place is greater than any other place It's just
a different place. It's just a different function
and So let's read this here. He says in verse 4, there's one
body, one spirit, even as you're called in one hope of your calling,
one Lord, one faith, one baptism. One God and Father of all is
above all and through all, and listen, in you all. Isn't that
wonderful? But unto every one of us is given
grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ. Wherefore
he saith, when he ascendeth on high, he led captivity captive,
and gave gifts unto men. Verse 11, And he gave some apostles,
some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors, teachers. For for
the perfecting of the Saints for the work of the ministry
for the edifying of the body of Christ till all come in the
unity of the faith and of some and of the knowledge of the Son
of God under the perfect man under the measure the statue
of the fullness of Christ see there are distinctions in offices
here there are Distinctions made by Christ. He gives certain gifts
and measures of faith to each of us For what? so that it all
works together for the calling of the elect so that until he
brings us all in unity. These are necessary offices and
we're in duties that must be performed. Verse 16, from whom
the whole body fitly joined together and compacted. by that which
every joint supplieth, according to the effectual working of the
measure of every part, maketh increase of the body into the
edifying of itself in love. Every joint and marrow, every
cell, everything in your body works for the good of your body. It's working to live. That's
what the church does. We work together in unity. And
recognizing this, if you sweep the floors or if you preach the
gospel, that doesn't change your inheritance. It's the same inheritance. It's just a different function.
And no, women cannot preach. They cannot be called to preach.
That's not given to them. Yet their inheritance is still
the same, so why are they complaining? It doesn't matter what you're
doing. Whatever you're doing, whatever God gives us as a church
to do, remember, we are all one working for the same cause, the
glory of Christ. It's what Paul's teaching here.
So they're not rising up. So the Gentiles are not saying,
ah, I told you so. Or the Jews are not having to
hang their heads down here. Why? Because we're all the same.
We're one. We're baptized with the same
baptism. We believe in the same Christ
and we are all sons of the same Father. unity. Oh, how far superior the covenant
of grace is to the covenant of works. Far superior, in every
way superior. Praise God for this grace that
unifies the church, that edifies the church. And Lord, keep us
from seeking preeminence. Matter of fact, let us all seek
to be servants one to another. That surely is imitating Christ,
isn't it? May God keep us. I stand be dismissed
in prayer.