Turn with me, if you would, to
1 John chapter four. 1 John chapter four. Every time
I think about the ordinance of baptism, it becomes more clear
to me what it is that we are confessing. We are confessing union with
Christ. That's what we're confessing.
We are not confessing a decision. We are not confessing a resolve. We are not confessing a commitment
to morality. All right, from this point on,
we're not doing that. We are not confessing a work
of any kind. We are confessing union with
the Lord Jesus Christ. This union stemmed from a love
that God had for his people. That's where it all started. This union began with love in
the heart of God Almighty. That's where it started. In the
heart of God Almighty. For a particular people, A people that he knew before
the foundation of the world, before he ever even made them,
he knew that they would fall into the ruin of sin. He knew
that. But he loved them. That's the key, he loved them.
With an everlasting love, he loved them. Before he formed them in the
belly, he loved them. Though ruined, though fallen,
though, as the scripture says, ungodly, though dead, he loved them. His love truly was and it truly
is an everlasting love. It's an everlasting love. He
said, I will never leave you. Don't you like hearing that? Don't you love knowing that the
God who cannot lie said, I'll never leave you? While we were yet sinners, God
commended His eternal, unchangeable, amazing love toward us. And this is how He did it. Verse
John 4, verse 9, it says, In this was manifested the love
of God toward us. because that God sent his only
begotten son into the world that we might live through him. Herein
is love, not that we love God, but that he loved us and sent
his son to be the propitiation for our sins. John said, in this,
in this, in this right here. Do we want to see the greatest
display of God's love and his affection for his people that
could ever be seen? If we want to see it, all we
have to do is look to the cross. Just look to the cross. Look
to where he chose to administer the penalty. where he chose to, the penalty
had to come. And if we want to see his love,
look to where he chose to administer the penalty to his people for
breaking his law. Look to how he chose to bring
judgment down on them. A man, a brother, his name was,
is, Ed Hale. He passed away years ago, but
he's still living. He wrote a song, and the song
is called, Oh, How Merciful. And the first line of that song
says, when I was lost in sin and shame, how thou let me take
the blame. Blessed Lord, how merciful that
was to me. the way that you allowed me to
be punished for what I'd done. John said, in this was manifested
the love of God toward us. Toward us. Not toward all, but
toward us. Who are the us? Who are we? Who are we? Sinners. That's who we are. While we were
yet sinners, he said, I didn't come for the righteous. I did
not set my love and my affection on the self-righteous. This is
a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation that Christ
Jesus, God's Son, the Son of God, came into the world to save
sinners. God's Son. You think about that. God's Son. Verse 9 says, In this was manifested
the love of God toward us, because that God sent His only begotten
Son. His only begotten Son. He hung
there with your sin on Him. He hung there with my sin on
Him. He hung there in agony and torture
and shame, crying, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? God's own Son, His only begotten
Son. My God, my God, why hast thou
forsaken me? Love. That's why, love. Oh, the love that drew salvation's
plan. Oh, the grace that brought it
down to man. Oh, the mighty gulf that God
did span at Calvary. Why? Love. It's all about love. Having loved
his own, he loved them to the end. Who loved him to the end? Jesus Christ loved him to the
end. Well, I thought you said God loved him to the end. I did. The desire of the Father was
the desire of the Son. Our Lord Jesus Christ said, greater
love hath no man than this, that he lay down his own life for
his friends. They mocked our Lord while he
hung there and this is what they said. Save yourself if you're
God. Let's see, prove it. Save yourself. You come down from the cross
if you're God. Physically, could he have? You
better believe it. He said, no man takes my life
from me. But did he? Ed Hale wrote another song that
says, I'll be looking for scars up in heaven. Scars that love
held on the tree. Scars that turned judgment to
mercy for a hell-deserving sinner like me. I believe that man knew
the gospel. I believe he was a true gospel preacher. Verse 9, in this was manifested
the love of God toward us because that God sent his only begotten
son into the world that we might live through him. Herein is love,
not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his son
to be the propitiation for our sins. The word propitiation means
the appeasement, the atonement. It means the bloody victim. And if you'll notice those two
words, to be in verse 10, those are italicized words. They were
added by the translators. And they can make it sound like
Christ came to become the covering, the protection of His people,
but that's not so. Christ came because He was the
covering. He was the protection. Before
the foundation of the world, He already was the bloody victim
for His people. He already was. Let's read that
again without those two italicized words. Verse 10 says, Herein
is love, Not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent
His Son, the propitiation for our sins. He didn't come to be
united with us. He came because He was united
with us. And think about this. He confessed
that in water baptism. He confessed that union in water
baptism. He came to John the Baptist,
and he expressed his desire to confess his union with his people. He said, my Father has already
united me to them. I'm already united. Before the
foundation of the world, I was united with them. This is not
about to unite us. This is because we're united. But I want everybody to know
it. I want to be identified with my people. And John didn't want
to do it. And I get it. John said, I have
need of being baptized of you. And you're coming to me. You're
going to come to me. The Lord commanded him to do
it. He said, suffer it to be so.
Because. He said we, but what he meant
was I am about to fulfill all righteousness. Can you imagine John the Baptist
baptizing him? Can you imagine? Here John is standing with him
to baptize somebody. You have to be this close. Here John stands. And he says,
I baptize you in the name of. Your father. And I baptize you in the name
of your own holy name. And I baptize you in the name
of your own spirit. And coming up out of the water,
the spirit descended like a dove. And God the Father cried out
loud, well done. Well done. I'm so pleased. I'm
so pleased with what you've done. I gave you the work, and you
finished it, and you did it well. Start to finish. Well done. Thank God for the love of God. Thank God for the love of God
which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. That love, His love, produces
something in return. You come and tell us about it.