You want to turn in your Bibles
to the Book of John, the Gospel of John, Chapter 1, please. Brad just read what is probably
my most favorite place in all of Scripture. I say that all
the time about this or that location. How can you listen to that and
not weep when you see the love that Joseph had for his brothers? They sold him as a slave. They were planning to kill him,
but Judah suggested they sell him. And they agreed and sold
Joseph as a slave into Egypt. And after that, of course, God
was with Joseph and brought him through many afflictions. He
was first a slave in the house of Potiphar, and Potiphar's house
was blessed, and Potiphar exalted Joseph to be the steward over
his entire house. But Potiphar's wife lied against
Joseph, and then Joseph was cast into prison. But God was still
with him, even in prison. And God exalted him there and
made him ruler over all the prisoners. And so the prison keeper put
Joseph in charge of the prison. And remember there were two men
there, the baker and the butler, each had a dream and Joseph explained
their dreams to them. And the fulfillment of those
dreams was that the The butler was exalted, and the baker was
killed by Pharaoh. And Joseph was remembered after
a couple of years, and the butler remembered Joseph to Pharaoh,
and Pharaoh brought him out, and Joseph was given an understanding
of Pharaoh's dreams. Pharaoh then exalted Joseph to
be lord over all of Egypt, even over his own household. And then
God, according to the dreams he gave to Pharaoh, sent a famine
in the land eventually. And by that famine brought Israel,
the children of Israel, into the land of Egypt for bread.
And Joseph recognized his brothers who had sold him there years
before. And what you find there in the
exchange between Judah and Joseph is that Judah, who was the son
also of Jacob, Judah made an agreement with his father, Jacob,
that he would take Benjamin, Jacob's youngest son, with him
at the requirement of Joseph. He would bring Benjamin to Egypt,
but he would bring him back. because he promised Jacob, I
will be a surety for him. Now a surety means that he was
a guarantee he would stand in the place of his youngest brother
and give himself in order to make sure his brother came back.
And he was a surety to his father for his youngest brother, Benjamin.
And then, of course, we see the pleadings of Judah with Joseph
there in chapter 44, where Brad just read. And Judah and all
of his brothers have been brought before Joseph, who is essentially
the king. He is governor over all the land
of Egypt by the word of Pharaoh. Everything he wants to do, he
does. And Pharaoh has given him that
authority. So after having experienced all
this affliction because of his brother's hatred of him, having
been delivered into slavery, and then into prison, and then
exalted by the will of God, it's all brought to a point when Judah
stands with his brothers, Judah himself pleading for Benjamin
and all of his brothers, Because Joseph is indicated that he's
going to take Benjamin to be his own personal slave. Judah
cannot have that. He made himself a surety to his
father Jacob for his brother Benjamin. And you heard the pleadings
of Judah for his youngest brother. He said, my father is old. Benjamin is his youngest son.
He's the son of his love and of his old age. And I made myself
a surety to my father for my son, my youngest brother, Benjamin. And so he pleaded his father's
love. He pleaded his own relation to
his youngest brother. He pleaded his own suretyship
engagements with his father, which had preceded his engagements
with Joseph. And then he pleaded himself.
He said, take me instead of the lad. and let the lad go up free
with his brothers back to my father. That's the gospel, isn't
it? And then you saw in chapter 45
where Brad read how that Joseph then made himself known to his
brothers after Judah pleaded with him. He was so pleased he
couldn't contain himself. His love for his brother Benjamin
and all of his brothers and his love for his father, his love
for Judah having giving him up to slavery and to affliction
and now pleading as one for his youngest brother that he loved,
Benjamin, and he couldn't restrain himself any further. And he made
himself known to them and he called them to himself. They
were afraid of him because he was the governor over all the
land. And he said, come near to me and made himself known.
He says, it was not you that sent me here, but it was God.
Don't be angry with yourselves, God sent me here before you to
preserve life. Now that's the gospel, isn't
it? And that's what we're going to see, because that's the message
of all of scripture. The surety-ship engagement of
the Lord Jesus Christ, before the world began, to be a surety
to his father for his little brother, Benjamin. That's all
of God's elect, as Brad said in his prayer. What a wonderful
message. We could stop right there, couldn't
we? But I've entitled today's message, The Lamb of God, The
Mystery of Baptism. Now this is what we're going
to see here, and that's really the the sum and substance of
this message, and if you get that, I don't have any more mysteries
to unfold to you, because the title explains the truth that's
revealed here in Scripture. But I hadn't seen it before,
the connection, until I was reading this in John chapter 1, and I
want you to see that with me. John chapter 1, We're gonna begin
reading from verse 24. They which were sent were of
the Pharisees. Sent to John the Baptist to ask him this, verse
25. The Pharisees asked him, those
sent by the Pharisees, asked John and said to him, why baptizes
thou then if thou be not that Christ nor Elijah, neither that
prophet? The prophet he's speaking of
is the one Moses said would come. John answered them saying, I
baptize with water, but there stands one among you whom you
know not. He, it is, who coming after me
is preferred before me, whose shoes latch it, I am not worthy
to unloose. These things were done in Bethabara,
beyond Jordan, where John was baptizing. The next day, in verse 29, The
next day John seeth Jesus coming to him and saith, Behold, the
Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world. This is
he, of whom I said, After me cometh a man, which is preferred
before me, for he was before me. And I knew him not, but that
he should be made manifest to Israel. Therefore am I come baptizing
with water. And John bear record, saying,
I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and it abode,
it remained upon him. And I knew him not, but he that
sent me to baptize with water, the same said unto me, upon whom
thou shalt see the Spirit descending and remaining on him, the same
as he which baptizeth with the Holy Spirit, or the Holy Ghost. And I saw and bear record that
this is the Son of God. Again, the next day after, John
stood and two of his disciples, now John is standing with two
disciples and looking upon Jesus as he walked, he said to these
two disciples, behold, the Lamb of God. Amazing, amazing. Here is a man
whose entire life had one purpose, to point out and to direct God's
people to the Lamb of God. Now think about that. You were
born, you wonder why was I, why am I here? What is my life? Will I be, will I get married? Will I have children? Will I
be a carpenter? Whatever, all these thoughts.
Will I go to college? How long will I live? All these
things. John had one purpose. He was
foretold to be the voice crying in the wilderness to prepare
the way of the Lord, to make straight his paths, to level
every mountain, to exalt every valley, to declare Christ. And to comfort God's people in
doing so, that the warfare was accomplished, they had received
the Lord's hand double for all their sins. He was not only foretold in scripture,
but he was sent with that message, that message. He came baptizing
and he preached the baptism of repentance And in Acts 19, chapter
19, verse 4, he says there, the apostle Paul, that John preached
that men should believe on him who was to come, on the Lord
Jesus Christ. You can read that in Acts 19,
verse 4. So his entire purpose was to
prepare the way of the Lord, the Lord God, the Lamb of God. And the messengers from the Pharisees
came and said, why are you baptizing if you're not Christ or Elijah
or the prophet that Moses said would come? And he said, he answered
and said, I baptize you with water, but there stands one among
you that you don't know. And he, it is, who's coming after
me is preferred before me. I'm not worthy to even do the
lowest servant task to unloose his shoe. He was before me."
And then he goes on, and he was obviously baptizing. John was
baptizing those who came to him. Why are you baptizing? Why are
you baptizing? That's the question. Why did
John baptize? What did it mean when he baptized? What did it mean to those people
who came to him to be baptized? They were sinners. It says in
Matthew, later on in chapter 11, that the publicans and sinners
came to him to be baptized by John. So John was baptizing sinners. How could God accept and approve
of sinners, publicans and sinners? And why was he baptizing? What
did that mean? And so those questions. And then Jesus himself came to
John to be baptized by John. And John said, I have need to
be baptized of you. And Jesus said, allow this now,
don't protest, suffer it to be so now. He said, thus it becometh
us to fulfill all righteousness. And you can read that in Matthew
chapter three. So when John baptized Jesus,
what did that mean? Why did Jesus come to John to
be baptized? Have you ever wondered about
that? Why did Jesus come to be baptized by John? And all these
things are to, these questions that arise in our mind are really
all answered in this response of John to these men sent by
the Pharisees. He saw Jesus coming and he said,
behold, the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.
So the answer to their question, the answer why John came baptizing,
he said, was to make him known to Israel. And his baptism actually
was saying the same thing. That was why he was sent. As
what he said to them, behold the Lamb of God, which takes
away the sin of the world. Because the act of baptism is
the same message as what John said, the Lamb of God which takes
away the sin of the world. Baptism signified the taking
away of the sins of God's people in the substitution of the Lord
Jesus Christ with their sins under the wrath of God. Just
like Judah stood for Benjamin before Joseph and pleaded with
him, the Lord Jesus Christ stood before God in his justice, bearing
what he had agreed to bear as surety for his people, the sins
of his people, and also bear all that justice required, the
judgment of God against him, and so bearing that judgment,
taking away their sins, taking away their sins from before God.
That's the message of the Lamb of God. And the Lamb of God is
really the theme or the message of all of Scripture. Just as
John was foretold and was born and came and given one thing
to do in his life, behold the Lamb of God. In his baptism,
in his words, in his preaching, he made those people coming to
him, he said, you must believe on him who is to come. You have
to change, your mind has to be completely changed. That's repentance. The change of our mind, the change
of our heart, the way we think about ourselves and about God
and how we can be saved. All of that has to be radically
changed and God has to do it. But in that, then you come believing
Christ, and by John they were baptized, and that baptism signified
what he was preaching. the removal of our sins in the
substitute, the surety, answering the judge, answering the governor
according to an eternal agreement with his father to make sure
that youngest brother to bring him back again and to do so when
he offered himself for that son of his father, for the sons,
for his brethren. For those who couldn't answer
for themselves, he answered, and the answer he gave was himself. Take me instead of the lad. And
so the Lord Jesus Christ. And so this is the message of
all of scripture. In the very beginning, in the
very beginning of Scripture, the very beginning of the revelation
of God, we see the Lamb of God. In the very end of Scripture,
in the very last part of the Bible, we see the Lamb of God. In the middle, in the announcement
that John brought, the preparing of the way of God's Son coming
to fulfill all that God had determined from eternity in His life and
death, we hear the message. God is saying, behold the Lamb
of God. He's the Alpha, the beginning,
and the Omega, the end, the first and the last, and everything
in between, the Lamb of God. Sometimes when I was a kid, and
I've told you this many times before, I would wonder, what
is the Bible about? Look how thick it is. It's intimidating,
isn't it? It's very intimidating. And when
you read through the Old Testament especially, and you see all of
the details of how to construct a tabernacle, and the pieces
of the service of the temple there, the tabernacle, and the
service of the priests, and what the priests were to do, how they
themselves were to be clothed, and all this stuff. What does
it all mean? And then you read in John chapter
one, he tabernacled among us. Oh, there it is. It's the Lord
Jesus Christ being pictured through all the details of the Old Testament,
all brought to a simple declaration. It's him. And it's him crucified
for sinners, according to the will of God to save them, according
to the will of God from their sins. God required it. Now, when we see this, it should
allow us to see the complete clarity of all of the Bible as
if the light of God was shining with the brightest intensity
so that you can see it. I can see it. It's clear. I didn't
see it before, but now I see it. It's the Lamb of God. God is saying to every person,
behold, look upon, consider the Lamb of God. He doesn't ask us
to do anything, to bring something, look, look. And that's what the
word behold here means. In Revelation chapter 13, in
verse eight, it says, he is the Lamb slain. The Lamb slain. He's called the Lamb of God because
he was offered. He was sacrificed. He was killed. He was slaughtered. The Lamb
of God freshly slaughtered. That's what it means in the book
of Revelation. He was slain from the foundation
of the world. Revelation 13, 8. The Lamb of
God slain from the foundation of the world. What does that
mean? Well, it means before the world
ever was, before God had created anything, something occurred. The very first thing that is
recorded in Scripture that God did, His work, God's work, the
Lamb slain. The reason God created all that
He created was because of that first work, so that He could
bring that work into history. The Lamb slain. The Lamb slain. And as I said, all of Scripture
testifies to the Lamb of God. When Adam and Eve were created,
God created Adam and then took a rib from Adam and made Eve
and put them in the Garden of Eden and created everything and
gave them everything. And he said, you can eat of all
the trees of the garden except that one, the tree of knowledge
of good and evil. And then they failed, they disobeyed
God, they sinned against God. And when they did, then the Lord
God, it says in Genesis chapter three, they heard the voice of
the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day. What
is the word of God? The Lord Jesus Christ. He is
what? The word made flesh. Who then
is the voice of God walking in the garden in the cool of the
day? But the word of God, the Lord Jesus Christ. And when Adam
heard the voice of the Lord God walking in the garden in the
cool of the day, what did he do? He hid. He tried to hide
his nakedness. He got behind the trees. That's
what it says in the garden. And so they knew they were naked. They sowed themselves fig leaves. To hide their nakedness. Their
sin made them ashamed, made them guilty. They knew they were naked.
That's what the tree of knowledge of good and evil does. Makes
us know our guilt before God. So they try to cover it. Just
like all of us do by nature. We try to cover up our sin. We
try to produce a righteousness God can accept. And they were
naked still, even with that clothing. So he hid. And then it says in
Genesis 3 verse 21 that the Lord God clothed them with skins. In other words, God himself sacrificed
an innocent animal and clothed their nakedness with the skins
of that animal. Again, this is the message of
God. which is the Lamb of God slain from the foundation of
the world. When God clothed them with skins, it was a picture. It was prefiguring the message
of all of Scripture that God's own Son would come and He would
be slain by God in order to clothe the nakedness of His people to
cover their sins and to give them a perfect righteousness
in His own righteousness. So the Lamb of God is portrayed
in Genesis, the very beginning. In Revelation 13, 8, the very
end, he points back to God's eternal will. His foreordained
purpose to slay his son in order to bring his children. Children
chosen by God. If you look at Ephesians chapter
one, I want you to see this. The Lamb of God. That's what
John the Baptist pointed out. He said, look, behold him. And
that's His command. That's God's command to me. And
that's God's command to you. And those who look to the Lamb
of God have life. Their names are written in the
Lamb's Book of Life. In Ephesians chapter 1, notice
it says in verse 3, Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord
Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings
in heavenly places in Christ. See how God chose his people
in the Lord Jesus Christ, having chosen him to be the head, the
covenant, the one who would stand with God as an equal with God
and yet assume our responsibilities and obligations and take our
nature to himself in order to fulfill those obligations, Christ,
and he chose us in him to give us everything, everything in
heaven with Him, all spiritual blessings in Him. Verse four,
according as He has chosen us in Him before the foundation
of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before
Him in love. What did He choose us to be?
Holy, how? In Christ. Having predestinated
us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to Himself, to
bring many sons to glory, according to the good pleasure of His will,
to the praise of the glory of His grace, not our works, wherein
He has made us accepted in the Beloved, the Lord Jesus Christ.
Verse seven, now notice, the Lamb slain, in whom, in Christ,
the Beloved, we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness
of sins, according to the riches of His grace. You see that? All of this was done before the
foundation of the world. According to the good pleasure
of the will of God the Father, in order to the praise of the
glory of His grace, He made us accepted in Christ the Beloved
One, and in him we have redemption. The liberty of those set free
from bondage and guilt and condemnation. Judah said to Joseph, take me
instead of the lad and let the lad go up with his brethren to
my father. That's freedom, that's liberty. To be released from Joseph's
demands to stay with him as his slave guilty. No, let him go. Take me and let him go free. That's what Jesus said in John
18, eight. If you seek me, then let these go their way. And Paul
said it in the book of Philemon. He said, if you count me a partner,
then receive him as myself. Receive him as me. That's what
the Lord Jesus Christ did. Doesn't it give, doesn't it make
the hair on your head and your neck and your arms stand up and
tingle at the possibility that God's Word would be so true and
gracious that He would say to His, that the Lord Jesus Christ,
according to the eternal will of His Father, would say to His
Father, consistent with that will, receive them. Receive him, every sinner for
whom Christ died, as me. Amazing grace. Take me instead
of the lad. And he gave himself to God, an
offering in sacrifice of blood, a substitute, making satisfaction
for our sins. And this is represented in baptism.
When John baptized those publicans and sinners under the water,
they came to John, they stepped into the water, they were immersed
underwater. And some people wonder, this
is an aside really, it's not the main part of the message.
Some people say, should you be baptized by sprinkling? How about
pouring or immersion? The word baptism, the word baptism
historically Over 200 years before the New Testament was written,
the word baptism was used in the Greek literature. And there was a quotation of
this. And in that quotation, the writer,
the poet who was using the word baptism, He talked about it as
you baptize, you dunk vegetables, you fully immerse them first
in water and then in vinegar, and then they're going to be
pickled. The word baptism is the Greek word that means immersion. It's not like, well, should you
be baptized this way or that way? That's like asking, should
you be immersed this way or that way? Because that's what the
word means. But in the New Testament, the word isn't translated, it
was just used as is. It's like when we say amigo in
the Spanish language, we just mean friend. Instead of saying
friend, they just put the word amigo in there. Here, the word's
Baptist. They should have put immersion, but they didn't. And
so there's all this wrangling over, well, should it be sprinkling
or pouring or immersion? There is no baptism unless it's
by immersion. The reason it's by immersion
is because the Lord Jesus Christ was fully submerged. He came under the flood of God's
wrath. If he didn't, then he couldn't
make satisfaction for our sins. And so baptism, when those came
to John to be baptized, they went down into the water and
they came up out of the water. It wasn't like he could have
sprinkled them with some water from any vessel, but he didn't.
They had to go to the river, Jordan, into the river and back
up out of the river. And when they did that, they
were signifying, they were proclaiming in their baptism What? They were believing on him who
was to come. That was the message of John. And what was John's
message? Behold the Lamb, the one sacrificed according to the
will of God from eternity to take the sins of his people and
answer God for them, to stand before the judge on their behalf
and offer himself to God according to the will of God, by God's
provision. and to God's approval and God's
acceptance. And on account of that, we were
set free, we were redeemed by the precious blood of Christ
as of a lamb. And so in Genesis, the voice
of the Lord God walking in the cool of the garden, that's the
lamb. And then the skins of the animal covering the nakedness
of Adam and Eve and their guilt, that's the lamb. Abel offered
a lamb, the firstlings of his flock. He offered the lamb by
faith. He was looking to Christ, crucified,
who would bear his own sins. And he came to God by the blood
of the lamb. And God had respect to Abel and
to his offering. That's from Hebrews chapter 11
with Genesis chapter 4. But then also we see the Lamb
later on. We see the Lamb in Exodus chapter
12. God brought nine of the 10 plagues
on Egypt, and the children of Israel were the target of God's
love. They were his people. He had
set his name upon them. He was going to bring them out
of Egypt by strong hand and judgments. He judged, he destroyed Egypt. And the last plague he brought
bringing out his people was what? The Passover lamb. He said, I
want you to take a lamb, every household, a lamb for a house,
and you kill it in the evening, and you sprinkle its blood on
the doorpost, and you go inside, and you stay there in the house
where the blood of the lamb was sprinkled. And God said in Exodus
chapter 12, verse 13, when I see the blood, I'll pass over you. And every one, that night, in
every house in the land of Egypt, the firstborn died, except where
God saw the blood, the blood of the Lamb. Christ, according
to 1 Corinthians 5, 7, Christ, our Passover, is sacrificed for
us. The Lamb. And it goes on throughout
scripture. The lamb was the one offered
on the day of atonement in Leviticus. All of the law could be summarized
as this. What God requires of us for obedience
and what God requires to take away our sins. All of the Levitical
priesthood is about how God would make provision and make satisfaction
for the sins of his people through the offering up of the blood
of the lamb. And so in Leviticus 16, the high
priest takes that goat, and he lays his hands on the head of
that goat, and the high priest confesses on the head of that
goat, transferring the sins of Israel onto that goat, and then
sends the goat out into the wilderness to a land uninhabited. That's
the Lord Jesus Christ, our high priest, confessing our sins over
his own head, and then he himself being sent out under the wrath
of God, forever forgotten. with our sins, our sins put away,
the Lamb of God. And Isaiah, look at this in Isaiah
53 with me, Isaiah chapter 53, the Lamb of God, behold, God
says to each of us, behold, today, he's saying it to you, throughout
our lives, John's purpose was to proclaim, behold, the Lamb
of God, in what he said, in what he did as a Baptist. Our purpose
is to obey in faith, and to see the Lamb, and to worship God
in the Lamb of God, to be brought by Him to God, to be with Him,
and to behold His face in righteousness. Isaiah 53, notice in verse 6,
Isaiah 53, 6, all we like sheep have gone astray. And if you
know anything about sheep, you can watch them on YouTube, the
stupidity of sheep to get themselves into the worst possible situation
to their own destruction. And the picture that came into
my mind is one I saw where a sheep stuck its head down a hole and
only his back feet were sticking out. He couldn't get out. Stupid
sheep. That's what we are. We're like
sheep. We've gone astray. We have turned everyone, each
one of us, to his own way. We have this proclivity to go
our own stupid, sinful way. And the Lord hath laid on Him,
the Lord Jesus, the iniquity of us all." When God uses the
word us in Scripture, He's talking about His people. Notice in verse
7, He was oppressed, He was afflicted, yet He opened not His mouth.
He is brought as a lamb. to the slaughter, and as a sheep
before his shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth.
He was taken from prison and from judgment, and who shall
declare his generation? For he was cut off out of the
land of the living for the transgression of my people was he stricken."
Is that clear? Do I even need to comment on
that? For whom was Christ cut off for the transgression of
my people? Who did Judah stand for when
he stood before Joseph? He didn't stand for Ishmael,
did he? He wasn't standing for Ishmael.
He wasn't standing for Esau, that was Jacob's brother, their
father's brother, their uncle, Esau. Judah was standing for
Benjamin, and he pleaded with Joseph. The Lord Jesus Christ
was cut off. God's wrath came upon Him because
our sin was laid on Him, as it just said. He bore our sin. The
iniquity of us all was laid on Him. Therefore, the wrath of
God, He was stricken. Sin laid on Christ. The wrath
of God poured out on Christ. for the transgression of his
people. He offered what? Did he offer money? Did he offer
the world? No, he offered himself to God
in sacrifice of himself for our sins, because our sins deserved
the eternal punishment of God. He's the Lamb of God, what a
blessed scripture. Notice what happens, because
he sacrificed himself for the sins of his people. Look at verse
10 of Isaiah 53. Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise
him. It pleased God in justice. It
pleased God because in doing so he set forth his own name. Remember what it says in Matthew
chapter 28? Jesus tells his disciples, go ye into all the world. To
do what? Preach the gospel. And he says,
teaching them, making disciples, to observe all things whatsoever
I've commanded you, baptizing them in the name of the Father
and the Son and the Holy Spirit. The name. We're baptized to point
to the Lamb of God who was slain for our redemption, and the Lamb
of God slain for our redemption, having accomplished it, has the
approval and acceptance and the blessing of God, and that's how
God shows His name. By His authority, by His will,
it's His work, and it's to His glory for the salvation of His
people. So verse 10, it pleased the Lord.
It pleased the Lord to bruise him. It was his will from the
foundation before the world's foundations were laid. He hath
put him to grief when thou shalt make his soul an offering for
sin. That's suffering at the deepest
level in his soul. He shall see his seed, Christ
would see those he died for. He shall prolong his days, God
would prosper him, give him everlasting life. He earned it, and the pleasure
of the Lord shall prosper in his hand. Everything God wanted
done would be done by what Christ did. God and the Lord Jesus shall
see the travail of his soul and shall be satisfied. God who is
holy, who can't look upon evil, when he sees something and is
pleased with it, is because it is very good. The Lord Jesus
Christ looks upon his own work and he is satisfied. Remember he told his disciples
when they were away, he was talking to the woman at the well, they
come back, you need to eat. No, I have meat to eat that you
know not of. He was satisfied. The father
was satisfied, this is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased. And the Holy Spirit of God is
seen in his baptism coming down from heaven and abiding, remaining
on him. The blessing of the triune God,
the proclamation of the triune God is seen here. Satisfied by
his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many, for he
shall bear their iniquities. He knew what it took to bring
us to God, and he alone did. Like it says in Revelation 5,
he took the book out of the hand of him who was on the throne,
and he fulfilled it. He opened the seals of it. Therefore
will I divide him a portion with the great, he shall divide the
spoil with the strong, because he hath poured out his soul to
death. He was numbered with the transgressors, accounted among
them, and he bare the sin of many, and made intercession for
the transgressors." Just like Judah did for his little brother,
Benjamin. The Lamb of God, the message
and the mystery of baptism. What was the first mention of
baptism in the Bible? I wonder if you can think about
that for just a moment before I give you the answer. Well,
it actually says in 1 Peter 3 that the flood of Noah's day was a
figure of baptism. A figure, you can read about
that in 1 Peter chapter 3. The like figure where unto baptism
does also now save us. Not the putting away of the filth
of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God.
What was the flood of Noah's day? Remember there were, how
many people were there on earth when Noah built the ark and God
told Noah to take his wife and his three sons and their wives,
eight people into the ark. The rest of the world was destroyed
in the flood. What was the message of that?
Well, first of all, it was the message of God's judgment on
the earth. The judgment of his wrath. He poured out water from
heaven. The whole earth was covered.
Every living thing was destroyed. He saw the wickedness of man,
that it was great on the earth, and that every imagination or
the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And God
said, I'm going to destroy the world. I'm going to destroy the
earth. But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord and God
told Noah, build an ark. And he told him, you get in the
ark. One of the things he told him
to do about building the ark was to put pitch on the ark,
tar. And the word pitch there in Genesis
and throughout the Old Testament meant atonement. That meant a
propitiation by satisfaction so that there was an appeasement
to God's wrath. And so the pitch was put on the
ark to keep the water out, but the people inside didn't drown
because the pitch was there. The judgment came on the earth
and on the ark, but the ark was lifted up and the people inside
were lifted up in the ark. And God says in 1 Peter 3, that's
like baptism. The ark and those in it, the
ark was Christ, the pitch was His atoning work, and those in
it are those saved by the blood of the Lamb. And the judgment
of God was poured out on the ark like, well, it was water,
obviously, rain, and it flooded the earth. But that judgment,
when it fell on Christ, lifted up his people. He and they were
delivered. God justified them because of
his blood. So the Ark was the first mention
of baptism in that sense that God mentions in the New Testament,
but there was another case too. A little later on, when the Israelites,
after they were delivered from Egypt through the blood of the
Passover lamb, what happened? They came to the wilderness,
and the Egyptians decided, we can't let them go. Pharaoh, with
his armies, chased after them. They came to the Red Sea, and
there was nowhere to go. The whole sea was in front of
them, and the Egyptian armies behind them. And they're like,
what are we gonna do now? And God told Moses, He said,
you go forward, hold out your rod. And God divided the sea,
and the nation of Israel, who were redeemed by the blood of
the Passover lamb, walked through that sea on dry ground. And the
water was like a wall on either side of them. They walked through
the sea, and God says in 1 Corinthians chapter 10, they were baptized
into Moses and into the sea. immersion. They were under the
judgment, but in the judgment they were spared because they
had been redeemed and God opened the judgment for them so that
there was no judgment at all. They were delivered from judgment
because God had redeemed them. But what happened to the armies
of Egypt with Pharaoh and his armies? As soon as Israel came
through, the Egyptian armies came into the Red Sea chasing
after them, and God folded the waters right on top of the Egyptian
army. That judgment came upon them
because they had no blood. That judgment that saved us also
destroyed our enemies. The Lamb of God. The Lamb of
God is the salvation for his people, but he's the judge also. It says in Revelation that the
people on earth will flee and be afraid of the wrath of the
Lamb. So the message of baptism. Noah,
baptized in the ark, lifted up by the judgment of God that fell
because he was in the ark with his family. People of Israel,
baptized in the sea, they were saved through that judgment because
of the redeeming blood of Christ, pictured by the Passover lamb.
And this is throughout scripture. In the Psalms, we hear the Lord
Jesus Christ praying as one who is under the flood of God's wrath. And I'm gonna take you to a couple
of those and then we'll have to quit now because of time.
But look at this in Psalm first, in 69, Psalm 69. In Psalm 69,
this is about Christ. I can show you this very clearly
in this Psalm, there's no question. This is the prayer of the Lord
Jesus spoken in prophecy here in Psalm 69. He says in verse
1, save me, God. For what? The waters are come
in unto my soul. Didn't we just read in Isaiah
53 how his soul was made an offering for sin? What does God use metaphorically
to refer to his soul being made an offering for sin? 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. You see that? That's baptism.
That's the baptism of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, the
Lamb of God. Look at verse 15 of the same
chapter. He says, In verse 14, deliver
me out of the mire, and let me not sink. Let me be delivered
from them that hate me, and out of the deep waters. Let not the
water flood overflow me, neither let the deep swallow me up, and
let not the pit shut her mouth upon me. Okay, you see this? This is God pouring out his wrath
on his son, and that wrath was seen in part by the hatred of
his enemies, the kingdom of Satan, which crucified the Lord Jesus
Christ. Now look at Psalm 88. Psalm 88,
we'll see the same thing. In Psalm 88, we could read the
whole psalm here, but it's just picking these things out so you
can see that baptism was an emblem, a picture, It was seen in the baptism of
the people who came to John, and in Christ's own baptism,
and in our baptism, the Lamb of God slain. He says here, under
the wrath of God for his people. Psalm 88, verse one. O Lord God
of my salvation, I have cried day and night before thee. Let
my prayer come before thee. Incline thine ear to my cry,
for my soul is full of troubles, and my life draweth nigh unto
the grave. I'm counted with them that go
down into the pit. I am as a man that has no strength,
free among the dead, like the slain that lie in the grave,
whom thou rememberest no more, and they are cut off from thy
hand. Remember the goat sent out into
the wilderness to be remembered no more with our sins. Christ
was buried in the grave and our sins, the body of our sins were
buried with him. And God remembers our sins no
more. because he was forsaken with
our sins. Verse six. Thou hast laid me
in the lowest pit, in darkness, in the deeps. Thy wrath lieth
hard upon me, and thou hast afflicted me with all thy waves. Thou hast put away mine acquaintance
from me. Thou hast made me an abomination
to them. I am shut up. I cannot come forth.
All right, do you see that? Look at verse 15. I am afflicted
and ready to die from my youth up while I suffer thy terrors.
I'm distracted. Thy fierce wrath goeth over me. Thy terrors have cut me off.
They came round about me daily like water. They compassed me
about together. This is the Lamb slain. Do you
see it? John. baptized and his act of baptizing
immersing people in water and bringing them back up out of
the water signified the coming Lamb of God who was then baptized
also to signify his own death as our substitute according to
the will of God to redeem us from our sins and to deliver
us from the judgment that our sins deserve. And Jonah is another example,
I won't read Jonah, you're familiar with that. All thy billows and
waves are gone over me, Jonah prayed, out of the belly of the
fish. And Jesus said that was because the Lord Jesus Christ
would be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.
One more text of scripture, look at Romans chapter six, so that
we tie this all together. The mystery of baptism, the Lamb
of God. The meaning of baptism, the Lamb
of God. The message of John, the Lamb
of God. The act of John, baptism, pointing
to the Lamb of God. The reason Jesus was baptized,
to show us, I'm going to fulfill all righteousness in my life,
death, resurrection. Romans chapter 6 and verse 3. Know ye not that so many of us
as were baptized into Jesus Christ, notice, were baptized into his
death. There's no sprinkling here, not
flinging water in your face or pouring it on your head. This
is a submersion, an immersion into the death with Christ in
his death. The body of our sins was crucified
with him, as it says elsewhere. Therefore, we are 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 also we should
walk in newness of life. We live because we were raised
with him. If we have been planted together
in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness
of his resurrection. 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 is dead
is justified," it should say, justified from sin. Now, if we
be dead with Christ, notice, dead with Christ, what he did,
we did. When he died, we died. When he
was buried, we were buried. Because he rose, we are risen. We believe we shall also live
with him, knowing that Christ, being raised from the dead, dieth
no more. Death has no more dominion over him." He answered God in
justice. He suffered the wrath of God.
Death has no more dominion. He's conquered it. Verse 10,
For in that he died, he died into sin once, but in that he
liveth, he liveth unto God. Likewise, this is to every believer. Reckon ye also yourselves to
be dead indeed unto sin, but alive to God through Jesus Christ
our Lord." I wasn't there. I wasn't even born. God tells
me God did this. He made him our substitute. For
the transgression of my people was he stricken. And John says,
behold him. Look, Jesus says in Isaiah 45,
look unto me and be ye saved all the ends of the earth. Looking
unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith. I said, behold me, behold me
unto a nation that was not called by my name. All those who were
bitten by the serpent in the wilderness were told by Moses,
look to that uplifted serpent on the pole. Jesus told Nicodemus,
whoever looks to the son of man crucified has everlasting life. Look and live. Let's pray. Father,
we pray according to your eternal will and for the glory of your
holy name, for the name and glory of your son, and the glory of
your Holy Spirit who tells us about Him that we would see and
we would look upon in faith trusting in the Lord
Jesus Christ who bore our sins and bore the wrath of God for
them that we might live by Him. He was given as the propitiation
for our sins. What phenomenal, unspeakable,
inexpressible love. The only way we can know it is
if you give us life and open our eyes with faith. Put your
spirit in us to know these things. Help us to hear the message of
heaven, the message of scripture, the message of John the Baptist,
the theme of all of your eternal will and your word and your work
and your glory All that God has done from eternity past to eternity
future will be seen in the Lamb on the throne, having redeemed
us from our sins and washed us and clothed us in his own righteousness
because of his blood. In his name we pray and we come
to you by him alone. Thank you for him. Praise his
holy name. Amen.