We are going to observe the Lord's
Table tonight, and because of how our text is worded, we're going to consider the subject
of baptism along with the Lord's Table. I don't know if I've ever
really talked about the Lord's Table and baptism in the same
message, but we're going to do that tonight. Verse 18 of Matthew
28, it says, And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All
power is given unto me in heaven and earth. Go ye therefore and
teach all nations, baptizing them, In the name of the Father,
and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, teaching them to observe. And that's what we're gonna do
tonight. We're gonna observe. Teaching them to observe all
things whatsoever I have commanded you, and lo, I'm with you always,
even unto the end of the world. Amen. These are among, these
are some of the final words that our Lord gave to his disciples
before he ascended back up to glory. And there are many things
that he said to them, many things that are not written in this
book. Isn't that what it says? He said
many things to them that are not written in this book. But
these things are written in this book and this is what he said. Verse 19, go ye therefore and
teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father
and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost. teaching them to observe
all things whatsoever I have commanded you." What has he commanded
of his people? What has the Lord commanded of
his people? Well, he has commanded us to observe all of the law. He has commanded us to, I started
thinking and writing things down and His commandments are, if
you read them, they're to us. His commandments, He's commanded
us to observe all of the law and As you just think about scriptures
and think about what's written to us, he's commanded us to put
off the old man and put on the new man. We know from Matthew chapter
five, he's commanded us to be poor in spirit. He's commanded us to be meek. He has commanded us to hunger
and thirst after righteousness. He has commanded us to be merciful,
be merciful. He has commanded us to be pure
in heart. He's commanded us to be peacemakers. He has commanded us to love one
another as he has loved us. He has commanded us to turn our
affection to things above and not to the sinful things of this
world. And we could keep going and going and going. But because
we have fallen so short in all of these things, Christ had to
come and do all of that for us. He had to come and do every bit
of that for us. He had to observe and fulfill all of this law for
us. That commandment was to us. And he had to come and observe
and fulfill all of this law for us. He had to be and put on that
new man. He is the new man. Christ is
the new man. He had to be the new man and
put on that new man for us. He had to be poor in spirit. And you think about that. He
had to be humble and meek and lowly in heart for us because
we just couldn't do it. We were so haughty and so proud
and so arrogant and so he did it for us. Aren't you so glad
for that? He had to hunger and thirst after
righteousness for us. He had to be merciful for us
and pure in heart. and God's peacemaker for us. He had to love for us. He had to turn our affection
to things above for us. Christ did all of that for us. Every commandment that God required
of us, Christ came and fulfilled it for us. He observed it to
its fullest degree for us. And because of that, this is
what God's people are left with. This is what God has commanded
us to go and teach all nations, all right? This is what we are
to immerse God's people in. Turn with me over to John 6. John 6 verse 27. Labor not, work not, for the
meat which perisheth, but for that meat which endureth unto
everlasting life, which the Son of Man shall give unto you, for
him hath God the Father sealed. Then said they unto him, what
shall we do that we might work the works of God? Jesus answered
and said unto them, this is the work of God, that you believe
on him whom he hath sent. I thank God for that verse. This
is the work of God. This is now God's commandment
to his people. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. He put away the first and he
established the second. What is it? Believe on the Lord
Jesus Christ. He that believeth on the Son
hath everlasting life. He that believes on the Son,
believes on Christ has everlasting life. Look with me at Acts 16. Acts 16, Paul and Silas here are being persecuted for preaching
Christ. An event happened here, but they're
being persecuted for preaching Christ. And verse 20 says, they
brought Paul and Silas to the magistrates saying, these men
being Jews do exceedingly trouble our city. and teach customs which
are not lawful for us to receive, neither to observe, being Romans.
And the multitude rose up together against them, and the magistrates
rent off their clothes and commanded to beat them. And when they had
laid many stripes upon them, they cast them into prison, charging
the jailer to keep them safely, who having received such a charge,
thrust them into the inner prison and made their feet fast in the
stocks. And at midnight, Paul and Silas
prayed and sang praises unto God. You know, you have to be encouraged
to some degree to do that. Singing praises to God. And the prisoners heard them.
And suddenly there was a great earthquake so that the foundations
of the prisons were shaken and immediately all the doors were
opened and everyone's bands were loosed. You know, that's what
the gospel does to bound sinners, bound to sin. Bound to the bondage
of works. The gospel goes out. Call it
praying to God, calling on God, would you do this? You get the
glory for this work. And all that happens in true
preaching is God is praised. It's all that happens. All David
had to write in the Psalms was praise you the Lord and the truth
of the gospel went out. And when a sinner hears that
and the spirit applies it to the soul, all of a sudden there's
a shaking of that person. And bands are loosed. If you
ever come to know the truth, the truth will make you free. Verse 27, and the keeper of the
prison, awaking out of his sleep and seeing the prison doors open,
he drew out his sword and would have killed himself, supposing
the prisoners had been fled. But Paul cried with a loud voice
saying, do thyself no harm. We're all here. The law hadn't
been broken in this transaction. The law's being kept. Then he called for a light and
sprang in and came trembling and fell down before Paul and
Silas and brought them out and said, sirs, what must I do to
be saved? And they said, believe on the
Lord Jesus Christ. and thou shalt be saved in the
house. And they spake unto him the word
of the Lord and to all that were in his house. And he took them
the same hour of the night and washed their stripes and was
baptized, he and all his, straightway. And when he had brought them
into his house, he said, meet before them and rejoiced, believing
in God with all his house. Boy, that's a blessed man. That's
a blessed man. What must I do to be saved? Believe
on him. Believe on him. Believe on the
one that the Father sent to do this. Believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ. What do God's people believe
when they believe on the Lord Jesus Christ? You tell somebody,
believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. What do God's people believe
when they believe on the Lord Jesus Christ? Well, They believe
every word that has proceeded out of the mouth of God concerning
him. Every word. They believe that
he is all. They believe Christ is all. He's not a big part of this.
He's all of it. There's nothing else. He's all
of it. Who he is and what he did, that's
all of it. They believe with Thomas that he is Lord and God. God Almighty manifest in the
flesh, the sovereign king and ruler. They believe he is alpha
and omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last,
the author and the finisher of what? Everything. Everything. He's the end of the law for righteousness. He's the end of everything that
has to be done. He is the finisher of the work that his father sent
him to do, the work of saving his people from their sins. He
is the only way. He is the only truth. He is the only life that there
is. They believe salvation is in no other. There is one Savior,
there's one gospel, there's one message, one declaration. There's one need. One thing needful, Him. One man, Him alone. They believe
He is precious. They believe He is so precious.
They believe His blood is precious. They believe his righteousness
is precious. They believe his sacrifice is
precious. They believe his word is precious. They believe his intercession
is precious. They believe his substitution
is precious. They believe he's altogether
lovely. He's our hope. He is our life. He is heaven. He is heaven. He's earned all the glory, all
the honor, all the praise. It's because he alone is worthy. That's what God's people believe. Worthy is the lamb that was slain. That's who is worthy. Worthy is the lamb that was slain.
Slain because of my sin. Slain because of my sin. I entered
into that. I added that last part there,
oh, about an hour or so before this service. I had written,
worthy is the lamb that was slain. And I put, because of my sin. And I entered into that. And
I'm entering into it right now. He was slain because of my sin. You know what that means? It's
gone. It's done, it's over, it's dealt
with. That's what God's people teach.
You go unto every nation in this world and teach. This is what
God's people teach. This is what God's people believe. This is what they observe. This
is what they confess. And we confess it in every way
that our Lord has commanded us to confess it. We confess this
to God and we confess it to ourselves in our own hearts, inside our
own hearts. With the heart man believeth
unto righteousness. This thing starts in the heart.
Out of the heart are the issues of life. Philip told the Ethiopian
eunuch, he said, if you believe with all your heart, you may
confess Christ. Can I confess Christ? Could I
be included? You believe on him with all your
heart. What am I supposed to believe? Every word that proceeds
out of the mouth of God concerning him, that he is all. He alone
is worthy. He did all the work. He gets
all the glory. He's your only hope. He's life
itself. He is the prize. You believe with all your heart,
you may confess Christ. A person who does not believe
on Christ with all their heart should not observe these ordinances. A person who does not believe
on Christ with all their heart should not observe these ordinances. If there's no real inward confession,
there's no real outward confession. This all starts in the heart,
every bit of it. And then it travels to the mouth. Out of the heart, the mouth will
speak. With the heart man believeth
unto righteousness and with the mouth confession is made unto
salvation. Everything that we believe in
our hearts, it'll get out on us. Everything that God's people
believe in their hearts, it'll get out on them. You can't hold it in. So we confess him with our hearts,
we confess him with our mouths, we confess him with our actions. We come to his house. Why do
we come here? Why are we here right now? Because
we believe on him. We come to his house. We gather
together with his saints in the place where he's chosen to put
his name there. And we pray to him. We sing to
him. We declare the glorious news
of who he is and what he did for his ruined, sinful people.
And we not only declare it, we show it. In the two ordinances
that he gave to us, we show it. He said, in this you do show.
We believe on the Lord's death. We speak of the Lord's death. We show the Lord's death through
baptism, through his table. Turn with me to Luke 22. Luke 22, verse 14. And when the hour was come, he
sat down and the 12 apostles with him, and he said unto them,
with desire I have desired to eat this Passover with you before
I suffer. For I say unto you, I will not
any more eat thereof until it be fulfilled in the kingdom of
God. And he took the cup and gave thanks and said, take this
and divide it among yourselves. For I say unto you, I will not
drink of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God shall
come. And he took bread and gave thanks
and break it and gave unto them saying, This is my body which
is given for you. This do, do this in remembrance
of me. Likewise also the cup after supper
saying this cup is the New Testament in my blood which is shed for
you. The night that he was betrayed
he said to his disciples I want you to do this. I want you to
observe this ordinance in remembrance of me." He said, I'm giving you
something to remember me by. He said, this bread is a reminder
of my body which was broken under the judgment and condemnation
of God for you. He said, this is a reminder that
my body suffered the wrath of God for you in your place, in
your stead. And he said, this wine is a reminder
that my blood was poured out paying the remission payment
of sin for you. Without the shedding of blood,
there was no remission. So I shed my blood. I was joined
to your death. He said, observe this ordinance
as a reminder of that. That's what he commanded. just
before he entered into that death. And after he arose from that
death, he commanded this. Turn with me to Mark 16. Mark 16, this is our Lord's resurrection. He's now appeared to his disciples
and verse 15, he said unto them, go ye into all the world and
preach the gospel to every creature. He that believeth and is baptized
shall be saved. That word baptized means immersed. He that believes and is immersed
by the choosing of the Father, by the hand of the Spirit, into
the person of the Son. You know, we believe, believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ. We believe by the work of the
Spirit, by the work of the Holy Spirit of God, giving faith causing
God's people to believe. We believe by the work of the
Spirit. We are baptized by the work of
the Spirit. That's a spiritual work. True
baptism is a spiritual immersion. God's people are plunged into
Christ. And that spiritual immersion
is openly and outwardly confessed to everybody in water. Again, that Ethiopian eunuch
said, see, here is water, what does hinder me to be baptized?
What hinders me from confessing openly and outwardly what Christ
has done for me inwardly? That water is not the true immersion,
it's confession of the immersion, it's confession of a joined union
with Christ, that's what it is. And our Lord told us to confess
that union in these two ways. In baptism, we are confessing
the fact that we are in Him. We are in Him. We get inside
that water, we lay down, that water comes up and engulfs us. It just covers us. And that is
a picture of the fact that we are in Christ. We died in Him. As He hung on that cross, we
hung on that cross in Him. We were buried in him, we arose
in him. God's people are in him. And in the Lord's table, we are
confessing that he is in us. We live in him and he lives in
us. He provides life. in us, union with Christ, that's
our hope, that's our salvation, that's what we believe. That's what we're confessing
tonight, salvation through union with Christ. We look to him,
our hope is in him, it's in who he is and what he did for us,
that's where every ounce of it is. We give thanks, we teach,
we observe, we pray the Lord a blessing.