Let's open to the Book of John,
Chapter 4. The Gospel of John, Chapter 4. Last week we began to get into
the account of our Lord meeting with and giving living water
to the woman of Samaria. And I want this evening to back
up. I want to go back to the very
beginning of the chapter because as I have been reading this and
rereading it, there were a couple of things that I felt like need
to be dealt with right here at the very beginning of John chapter
4. And this is my subject, Jesus
baptized not. That's what it says in the second
verse, Jesus baptized not. I want you to notice in the first
verse, John chapter 4, when therefore the Lord knew how the Pharisees
said they had a herd that Jesus made and baptized more disciples
than John. I want you to notice the order. It says Jesus made and baptized
more disciples than John. In other words, before He baptized
the disciples, He made them to be. disciples. And that is absolutely
critical that we understand the order. An individual, by the
grace of God, becomes a student of Christ Jesus and worships
the Savior and believes Him as a result of being made made a
believer, made alive by the grace of God. And then after being
made alive, after being made a disciple of Christ Jesus, then
they are baptized. I want you to look over to the
6th chapter of John. You see a real disciple of the
Lord. And we know that the word disciple
means student. or pupil, or we can even say
one who is a follower, one who sits at the feet of a teacher. And we know that there were some
disciples who followed the Lord Jesus who then they ceased to
follow Him. And we find that out at the end
of John chapter 6. But there were some who really
believed Him, who really followed Him. That is, a work of grace
had been done in the heart. And we know this, if God the
Spirit, if He doesn't work within us, if God doesn't work in convincing
and convicting and quickening power, then we may make a profession
of faith, but it won't last. There's got to be the work of
the Lord within the heart. He's got to make us to be His
disciples. So that's very important that
we understand the order. He made and then He baptized
disciples. Disciples are those who learn
of Him. Look here in John chapter 6 and
verse 44. The Savior says, No man can come
to Me. except the Father which hath
sent me drawing, and I will raise him up at the last day. It is
written in the prophets, and they shall all be taught of God. Every man therefore that hath
heard and hath learned of the Father, he cometh unto me." So
back here in John chapter 4 when we see that Jesus made and baptized
disciples, He made disciples by instructing them in the things
of God, in the things of salvation, in the things of everlasting
life. We've got to be instructed by
God. We've got to be taught by God.
Indeed, God does use men. God uses servants. God uses preachers
and teachers to instruct us in the things of the gospel. But he uses us in order to convey
this information that then the Lord must use in mighty power
in quickening grace. He's got to take the gospel and
drive it home to our hearts. And you've often heard it said,
I know, if the only words that you hear are my words, you won't
be any spiritually better off. You've got to hear from Him who
speaks from heaven. You've got to hear from the Lord
Himself. And it says here, Jesus made
disciples. He makes disciples. You see,
those who learn from the Father, And those who are instructed
in the gospel, they're made to be disciples. Disciples don't
decide to be disciples. I'm talking about true disciples
now. They don't just decide to be disciples, they're made disciples. And all to be made one of His
disciples. Not to just profess a few beliefs. but to be the object of God's
quickening power. For the Lord to do a work within
us. We read in Philippians the first
chapter that He who hath begun a good, what's the next word?
Work. A good work within us. He will
perfect it to the day of Jesus Christ. Our Lord Jesus made disciples. And then after making these men
and women His disciples, then they were baptized. That is always
the order. In the Bible you will never find
an illustration of infant baptism. You will never find an unbeliever
being baptized. It is always faith in the Lord
Jesus that comes first. That faith being the result of
the working of the Spirit of God. who brings us to Christ
Jesus, who brings us to believe the blessed Savior, and then
having been brought by almighty, effectual grace to believe on
the Son of God, then we confess our faith in Believers' Baptism. It is well called Believers'
Baptism. It's for believers. You see this
verse doesn't say that Jesus baptized and made disciples. The order is absolutely correct. And it's absolutely vital that
we understand this. You're made to be a disciple.
And then having been effectually made to be a student, a follower
of Jesus Christ the Lord, then you confess your faith in Him
in the waters of baptism. That's always the order in Scripture. Look over in the book of Acts.
Look in Acts the second chapter. And this is a portion of Scripture
to which Some denominations who believe in baptismal regeneration,
they run to this. They run to this and they say,
see there, you've got to be baptized in order for your sins to be
put away. Well, wait just a minute. Let's look at what the Scriptures
really say. What do the Scriptures really
say? You know, Peter has brought this message on the day of Pentecost. He has set forth God's own Son
as being crucified by these with their wicked hands, and God raised
Him from the dead, and God has exalted Him. Here's the theme
of his message, the exaltation of the crucified Savior. He says in verse 36, winding
up this message, Acts 2.36, Therefore let all the house of Israel know
assuredly that God hath made that same Jesus, that same Jesus
whom ye have crucified, God has made that same Jesus whom you
have crucified, both Lord and Christ. He's your Lord. He's
your Lord. He's the Christ. Verse 37, Now
when they heard, when they heard this, the word this is italicized,
when they heard, when God gave them ears to hear, When they
heard, when they heard with that ear that God has to give, when
they heard in the heart, when they heard in the soul that Jesus
Christ the Lord had been crucified at their hands and yet God purposed
for it to be done, and that God had raised Him from the dead
and made Him to be both Lord and Christ, when they heard deep
inside of them, where only God can speak. I want God to speak
to us like this. I want to hear from God. I want
to hear from God. Now when they heard, they were
pricked in their heart. They said unto Peter and to the
rest of the apostles, men and brethren, what shall we do? What
shall we do? We've killed the Lord of Glory.
What shall we do? Our hands are dripping with His
blood. What shall we do? What shall
we do? God sent His Son into this world
and we murdered Him. What shall we do? What shall
we do? He's been made both Lord and
Christ to do with us according to His sovereign will and purpose. What shall we do? What shall we do? Peter said unto them, repent. Repent. Repent of your dead works. Repent of your idolatry. There
best be repentance regarding the person and the work of Jesus
Christ the Lord, this one whom you despised, this one whom you
would not believe, this one whom you've rejected. God has exalted
him. Repent of your attitude toward
him. And be baptized every one of
you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, That
little word for. I circled it in my Bible. It
is the word because of that's what it means. Repent and be
baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ because
of the remission of sins. Those who are baptized are baptized
because of the remission of sins. And He says you shall receive
the gift of the Holy Spirit. And if that's not clear enough,
He continues to say this. Look at verse 39. For the promise
is unto you and to your children and to all that are afar off,
even as many as the Lord our God shall call, call effectually,
call irresistibly. Look at verse 40. And with many
other words did he testify and exhort, saying, Save yourselves
from this untoward generation. The word, this word untoward
is skolios. I don't need to give you a Greek
lesson, but somebody's got skoliosis, has got a crooked spine. That's
not good, right? Skoliosis. He is saying, save
yourselves from this religious but crooked generation. And I
say that to you. Save yourselves, deliver yourselves
from this religious generation that is absolutely crooked. The
Word of God is the straight line. We know they are crooked by comparing
what they say with the Word of God. We must be like the Bereans. Search the Scriptures daily and
see if the things that the preacher is saying are so. See if he's
drawing a straight line. Let's keep going. Then look at
verse 41. Then they that gladly received
his word were baptized. There's the order. See, if you
had any question about it, the Spirit of God clarifies it. than
they that gladly received His Word." Have you received the
Word? Have you believed the gospel
of grace? Have you received the message
of salvation conditioned on the obedience of Jesus Christ alone? Have you received the message
of the blood and the righteousness of the Son of God? That salvation
is altogether a work of grace. Those that gladly receive the
Word. We not only receive it, but we
gladly receive it. Because when we hear it's a message
of unconditional grace, that makes us glad. When we hear it's
a message conditioned only upon the obedience, the death, the
blood, the righteousness, the work of the Lord Jesus, that
makes us glad. Makes us happy. It's not dependent
upon me. In no way, shape, or form is
this dependent upon me. It's all dependent upon Him.
That makes me happy. Makes us glad. Those that gladly
received His Word were baptized. And the same day there were added
unto them about 3,000 souls. There's the order. A reception
of the word and then baptism. Just like in John chapter 4.
First he made disciples and then they were baptized. Go over to
Acts chapter 8. Acts chapter 8. And you know this story of Philip
and the Ethiopian eunuch, so I'm not going to go back and
rehearse all of this to you. But Philip is led by the Spirit
of God to come to the chariot where the in which the eunuch
was writing, and he deals with that passage from which the eunuch
was reading in Isaiah chapter 53. And in verse 34, the eunuch
answered Philip, Acts 8.34, I pray thee of whom speaketh this prophet? The prophet this, of himself
or some other man. Don't you love the words of Scripture? Some other man. He is indeed
some other man. There's no man like him. Some
other man. Is he speaking of himself or
some other man? And then Philip opened his mouth
and began at the same Scripture and he preached unto him some
other man. He preached unto him Jesus. And
as they went on their way they came into a certain water. And
the eunuch said, see, here is water. What doth hinder me to
be baptized? And Philip, he didn't take him
down into the water immediately. He said, well, let me ask you
something here. I'll take you down if you believe
with all your heart. Do you believe? If you believe
with all your heart, thou mayest. Belief first, then baptism. And he answered and said, I believe
that the one the prophet is writing about, I believe in my heart
he's the very son of God. He's the son of God. And he commanded
the chariot to stand still. And they went down both into
the water, both Philip and the eunuch, and he baptized him. He baptized him. So this is the order as you go
back to John chapter 4. Here's the order. Disciples are
made, then disciples are baptized. Disciples are made, disciples
are baptized. Now, notice back here in John
chapter 4. It says that Jesus made and baptized
more disciples than John. And then the Spirit of God leads
the Apostle John to give us some necessary information. So it's
put in parentheses. Though Jesus himself baptized
not. but His disciples. That's an
important statement that we must not read over. Jesus baptized
not. His disciples baptized under
His authority because He told them to baptize. In the Great
Commission, He said you go preach the gospel and then baptize them. Baptize them after you've discipled
them. Now this leads me to draw a couple
of conclusions. If Jesus did not baptize, if
Jesus himself did not baptize, and we know he didn't because
the Spirit of God says he didn't, then we must draw this conclusion. Baptism makes no contribution
to salvation. After all, And I said Sunday,
we quote this verse lots of times and we'll continue to do it.
After all, Matthew 1.21 says, And thou shalt call his name
Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sins. Now we
know of an absolute certainty that the reason God's Son was
sent into this world was to save God's covenant people. He was
on a mission of mercy. to save, to rescue those the
Father loved, those that the Father gave Him in the covenant
of grace, to be saved by the sacrifice of Himself on the cross. The Lord Jesus came to rescue,
to rescue His people from the condemnation of the law. He came
to save His people from our sins. He came to save His people from
Satan. He came to save His people from
death. And the means which He uses,
He used then and He uses now, the means that He uses to bring
salvation home to the hearts of His people is through the
preaching of the gospel. We know that. Look back at Mark
chapter 1. Look at Mark chapter 1. Look
at verse 14. The book of Mark chapter 1 verse
14. It says, After our Lord's temptation
he's been baptized, and then he's led of the Spirit of God
into the wilderness to be tempted forty days. And then, and I will
tell you this, between verses 13 and 14, there is a period
of time about six months. Because it says, now after that,
John was put into prison. We've already established the
fact that our Lord's ministry overlapped John's ministry about
six months. So, our Lord has been preaching
six months, during which time John is still preaching, and
then John is arrested. After this, John was put in prison. Then Jesus came into Galilee. What was He doing? Preaching
the gospel. the gospel of the kingdom of
God. And saying, the time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of
God is at hand, repent ye and believe the gospel. Now you know what isn't mentioned?
Baptism. Baptism isn't mentioned. Now
listen, if salvation, if justification is by water baptism, Then I ask
you, why didn't our Lord Jesus baptize anybody? I mean, after
all, it says, He came to seek and to save. Isn't that what
it says? He came to seek and to save that
which was lost. And I hear people say, you've
got to be baptized to be saved. Well, the Lord Jesus came to
save sinners, but He never baptized anybody. I draw this conclusion
then, baptism doesn't have anything to do with salvation. Does it
have anything to do with salvation? Since it is recorded that Jesus
baptized not, then doesn't it stand to reason that the way
God saves sinners, the way salvation is brought home to the hearts
of sinners is not by baptism, but by the preaching of the gospel,
and then the Spirit of God takes that gospel in a miraculous way
in convincing and convicting and quickening power by which
a sinner is brought to repentance toward God? and faith in the
Lord Jesus Christ. Go to 1 Corinthians chapter 1.
1 Corinthians chapter 1. Here in this, his first letter
to the church at Corinth, Paul is writing to these saints, He
says this to them in 1 Corinthians 1, 16 and 17. He said, and I
baptized, in fact let me back up to verse 14 because you know
of the divisions, the schisms that existed in the church at
Corinth because some were saying, I was saved under Paul's ministry. Well, I was saved under Apollos'
ministry. I was saved under the ministry
of Cephas. And then others said, well, I
was saved under the preaching of the Lord Jesus himself. And
then dividing up like that, you know, and fussing among them,
that's an awful thing for God's people to do. And he says in
verse 13, 1 Corinthians 1, he says, is Christ divided? Was
Paul crucified for you? Or were you baptized in the name
of Paul? He said, I thank God I baptized
none of you but Crispus and Gaius, lest any should say that I had
baptized in mine own name. And I baptized also the household
of Stephanus. Besides, I know not whether I
baptized any other. If salvation is by baptism, I
expect he'd have kept a list of everybody he baptized. Because
I can't even remember who else I did baptize. He says 4, verse 17, because. Christ sent me not to baptize. Now I'm going to show you in
a little bit, baptism is important. But that's not the theme of our
ministry. Christ sent me not to baptize,
but to do what? To do the same thing the Master
did. That we read back over there
in Mark chapter 1. Preach the gospel. Preach the
gospel. And not to do it with wisdom
of words, lest the cross of Christ should be made of none effect. Now listen, those who preach
baptismal regeneration, that's Catholicism, that's Episcopalian,
they teach that, the Church of Christ, many in the Christian
church, other denominations as well. Those who preach baptismal
regeneration, they make the cross of Christ of none effect. Now
let me define that for you. What does made of none effect
mean? It means to cause a thing to
be viewed as empty, vain, and useless. You see, if salvation
is by baptism, if that's how you wash your sins away, Let
me take you back here in the baptistry and baptize you and
wash your sins away. If salvation is by being immersed
in water, if that washes your sins away, then the suffering
and the bleeding and the dying of our blessed Savior on the
cross was absolutely unnecessary. See, this is how serious this
is. It makes it useless. Needless. Let me give you another reference.
Look at Galatians the second chapter. Galatians the second
chapter in the last two verses. Here the Apostle Paul says Galatians
2 and verse 20. He says, I am crucified with
Christ. Nevertheless, I live. Yet, not
I, but Christ liveth in me. He's my life in me. He's your
life. You don't have any life apart
from Jesus Christ. Apart from the Savior, you're
dead. He's our life. He's our all. Yet not I, but
Christ liveth in me. And the life which I now live
in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me
and gave himself for me." There's substitution. Now look at the
next verse. I do not frustrate the grace
of God. Frustrate, violate. That's what
the word means. Violate or to do away with. Or
set it aside. I'm not going to set aside the
grace of God. I'm not going to violate the
grace of God. I'm not going to do away with
the grace of God. For or because. If righteousness,
and that's what you, you've got to be righteous. You just got
to be right. A righteous God demands righteousness. If righteousness come by the
law, the law of obedience of the Ten Commandments, or the
law of going into baptistry, or the law of doing anything
else, if righteousness, if justification, If everlasting acceptance and
salvation and the forgiveness of sins, a right standing with
God, if righteousness come by the law, then Christ is dead
in vain. And the word vain has the same
meaning and is the original word I tell you what, hold your place
right here because I want you to look. Go back to John chapter
15. John chapter 15. And look at verse 25. And hold your place there in
Galatians. John chapter 15 verse 25. But this cometh to pass, talking
to his disciples. But this cometh to pass, that
the word might be fulfilled which is written, They hated me without
a cause." Now what I'm stressing in this verse is the words, without
a cause. Without a cause. Because that's
the same in the original language, and I wouldn't get technical
into Greek or anything like that, but the word vain, In Galatians
chapter 2 and verse 21, it is exactly the same as this translated
without a cause. So remembering the words without
a cause, go back to Galatians chapter 2. Here is what it is
saying, if righteousness come by the law, then Christ is dead
without a cause, without a reason. In other words, it was unnecessary.
It was unnecessary for him to die. If you can obtain salvation,
righteousness, justification, forgiveness of all of your sins
by anything that you do, then the Lord Jesus died without
a cause, without a reason. You've just butchered the gospel.
And I'm saying, And you know this is the truth. Anybody who
teaches salvation by any other way save Jesus Christ and Him
crucified, they're lying to people. And we're surrounded by liars.
We're surrounded by false prophets. Because they've got people doing
things. It's not by doing. You see, salvation's
done. It's done. The Savior's already
done it. He said, it is finished. You see, why would God subject
His only begotten Son to all the horrors of crucifixion, and
then to bear His infinite wrath in His soul, if sin could be
put away by just immersing somebody in the water? That's a horrible
charge again. That's charging God with lack
of wisdom. You see, men make the cross of
Christ to be of none effect when they make the very principle
part of their ministry and the principle part of their message
to be baptism. Baptism. Why didn't the Savior
baptize somebody? Why didn't the Apostle Paul baptize
more than just a handful? If salvation is conditioned upon
baptism. We'll go back to my text and
let me give you something else here and then we'll go home. Now, though baptism, and I've
I think I've driven this nail in and clenched it on the other
side already. But though baptism has no part
in our justification before God, has nothing to do with our righteous
standing before the Lord, baptism is still important. As is evident
by the fact that our Lord commissioned His disciples to baptize. To baptize. You see it says here,
that Jesus made and baptized. Made and baptized, and then in
the second verse, he didn't baptize, but his disciples did. And what
he told them was, when these people believe the gospel, you
baptize them. Baptize them. Baptism as an ordinance
is ordained and taught by our God. It's taught in the scriptures.
And it's an honorable ordinance. And it's not to be lightly esteemed. You see, our Lord has given us,
I know the Old Testament types and pictures and figures of the
death of our Lord Jesus Christ, they were all fulfilled. But
when our Savior, when He left, He left us two more illustrations
of His death. Baptism and the Lord's Supper. He left those, he said, now these
are pictures of what I did. And we take somebody into the
baptistery, put them under the water, pictures his death. Come up out of the water, his
resurrection. Just as eating the Lord's Supper,
the bread and drinking the wine, pictures his body broken for
us and his blood shed for us. It's a gospel picture. A gospel
picture. He told his disciples, he said,
All power is given unto me in heaven and in 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
all things whatsoever I have commanded you. And lo, I am with
you even unto the end of the world. Amen. Baptism is taught by our Lord. When the gospel is faithfully
preached, both of these ordinances, baptism in the Lord's Supper,
they will not be undervalued if we preach the gospel correctly.
We'll value them because our Lord taught them. You see, baptism
It pictures our Lord's death. It's an answer of a good conscience
toward God. It's a public identification
with the gospel, with the gospel of Jesus Christ, with the people
of God, with the preacher of God. And it's how we profess
our faith publicly before folks, before our friends, and before
our family. Baptism. You say, well, if it doesn't have
anything to do with salvation, then why submit to it? Because
he said so. That's good enough, isn't it?
He don't have to give you a reason. He said, he made disciples and
he baptized them. Go through the book of Acts,
some might believe the word of the Lord, then they were baptized. And every once in a while I'll
run across somebody who says to me, well, I believe but I'm
not going to be baptized. That kind of attitude bothers
me because it reveals a rebellious spirit. It reveals a heart that is not
in subjection to King Jesus. Saul of Tarsus, God dealt with
him, and he said, Lord, what will you have me to do? What
will you have me to do? And I tell you, when God deals
with us in saving grace, and he opens up our blinded eyes,
and he brings us to the Lord Jesus Christ, here's what we
say, what will you have me to do? You're my Lord. Dear my Lord,
what will you have me to do? Be baptized. Confess me before
men. Publicly identify with my gospel. Publicly identify with my despised
church. He first of all made disciples
and they're baptized. And if he's made you to be a
disciple, if he's made a believer out of you, Here's the thing
to do, confess him in believer's baptism. Well, let's sing the
closing song. Grace is a charming sound number
219.