Let's open our Bibles to the
book of Acts chapter 2. Acts chapter 2. And we're going to begin at verse
37 of Acts chapter 2. Now the subject today is Believer's
Baptism. We're going to talk about Believer's
Baptism. I spoke on this subject last
week, but what I did last week, if you were here and as you recall,
was I basically went through several passages of scripture
where the word baptism is used to show what it means, what the
baptism means. It does not always mean water
baptism, that's what I'm going to talk about this morning, the
ordinance. of believers baptism, but sometimes it does. Now you
turn to Acts chapter 2, but I want to begin by reading a passage
out of Matthew 28. This is the great commission
that the Lord gave to his disciples before he ascended into glory. And he says in Matthew 28 verse
18, this is a verse I mentioned last week, And incidentally,
several of you told me, said there was a lot of information
in that message last week. Well, it was intended, that's
why I used the screen. And like I said, going through
the scriptures to show you the word baptism and how it's used. But today what I'm gonna do is
just, I'm gonna preach this message and I'm gonna ask six questions
and answer them from the scripture. Six questions. But look here,
and just like I said, I'll be coming to Acts chapter two, my
main text. But in Matthew verse 28, verse
18, It says, Jesus came and spake
unto them, his disciples, saying, all power is given unto me in
heaven and in earth. And then he issues forth this
commandment, verse 19, the great commission, go ye therefore and
teach all nations. Go therefore and literally that
says make disciples. of all nations. Now, that doesn't
mean that we who preach can make disciples in the sense that we
can enact the new birth or we can save anybody, but we're the
instruments of the Word of God preached, which is the power
of God unto salvation. And he says, baptizing them in
the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. There's water
baptism, that's the ordinance of baptism. Verse 20, teaching
them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you, and lo,
I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. Amen. Now, over in Acts chapter 2,
that's the Great Commission. That's a commandment. And incidentally,
let me emphasize at the very beginning that when the Lord
issues a commandment, He's not making a suggestion. You understand
what I mean? A commandment is law. Now, some
people don't like to call it law because they can't get out
of their heads any time you say the word law. It means the Ten
Commandments or the Law of Moses. But the scriptures teach that
New Testament believers are under the Law of Christ. We're not under the Old Covenant.
If you think you're under the Old Covenant, just come and talk
to me. I've got 622 laws that I want to read to you. All right? And we'll see if you're keeping
those, which you're not, you know you're not. We're under
the law, the old covenant's been fulfilled. Remember what happened
when Christ said it's finished and he gave up the ghost? The
veil was rent in two, from top to bottom in the temple. The
old covenant's abolished. That which is old waxeth away,
waxeth old is done away with. And we're under the new covenant
law. Now, in Acts chapter two, here's the apostle Peter, in
Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost, that day which was, that was
a feast of the Jews, but this particular day was prophesied
in the Old Testament by, we think of specifically the prophet Joel,
who talked about this, where there would be a great outpouring
of the Holy Spirit, and many would be brought to Christ. This
is the, some people say this is the inauguration of the Old
Covenant. Christ established the old covenant
on the cross. It's finished, he said. And that's
the end of it all, and that is the establishment of righteousness
for his people, the righteousness of God revealed in the gospel.
Well, here's the inauguration of the church in the new covenant
on the day of Pentecost, which was 50 days after Atonement,
wasn't it? The day of Atonement, I think.
That's why they called it Pentecost. But look here, he preached the
gospel of Christ. That's what Peter did. We won't
read the whole message, but do that sometime. He preached the
death, burial, and resurrection of Christ. Now listen to me carefully
here. He didn't preach the death, burial,
and resurrection of Christ simply as historical facts. He preached
them as the fulfillment of the righteousness of God in the gospel.
Now there's a difference. There's a difference. You know,
somebody says, well, I believe in the death, burial, and resurrection
of Christ. So does the devil. Did you know that? The devil
believes that Christ died, was buried, and arose again. He knows
that, but he doesn't believe the gospel. He doesn't believe
righteousness. He's not submitted to the righteousness
of God established by the obedience unto death of Christ, evidenced
by the resurrection of Christ. See, the resurrection of Christ
is not just the miracle of life from the dead. God creates life,
all life, physical life, spiritual life. The miracle of the resurrection
is the establishment of a righteousness that enables God to be just to
justify his people by which they can stand before God and be accepted
and blessed and eternally glorified. A righteousness that God imputes,
charges, accounts to them, the merits of Christ. That's the
miracle of resurrection. And that's what Peter preached.
And what he told these people is, look, nothing in man or from
man, no matter how good man thinks it is, or religious or sincere,
can save him. He told these people who were
Jews, he says, your Jewishness cannot save you. Your physical
connection with Abraham cannot make you righteous, cannot wash
away your sins. And there were Gentiles there.
How do we know that? Because by a miracle of God's
power, they all heard Peter preach the gospel in their own language.
Peter was only speaking one language from him, but they heard it in
their own language. And they heard the gospel. They
didn't hear any heavenly gibberish. They heard the gospel. They heard
the good news of how God can save sinners through the merits
of His Son, the grace of God. That's what they heard. They
heard about the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ. And
what happened here, look at verse 37. It says, now when they heard
this, now underscore that. Now when they what? Heard. This, not another message, not
a lie. He says, they were pricked in
their heart. Now who did that? Who pricked them in their heart?
That's conviction. The Holy Spirit did. And they
said unto Peter and to the rest of the apostles, men and brethren,
what shall we do? Then Peter said unto them, repent.
That's a change of mind. What I used to think was my salvation,
I don't think that anymore, I look to Christ now, that's repentance.
I repent of my dead works, my idolatry, my religion, all my
works, and I turn to Christ. And be baptized, he says, every
one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ, for the remission of
sins. Now, baptism is not for the remission
of sins. Notice what it says. And word
order in the original Greek text is very important. Be baptized
every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission
of sin. It's Jesus Christ who is our
remission. His blood, see. And being baptized
in his name for the remission of sins and you will receive
the gift of the Holy Ghost, that's the gift of ministry. And he
says in verse 39, for the promise is unto you. Now there's the
promise. Remember when they heard this? When they heard this? Now,
what did they hear? They heard the promise. And what
was the promise? It was the promise of salvation
by grace through the blood and righteousness of Christ. This
promise is unto you and to your children and to all that are
far off. And who's this promise to? Even as many as the Lord
our God shall call. Now, how do I know if the Lord's
called me? Well, are you pricked in your heart? to know that you
have no hope of salvation, no hope of righteousness, no hope
of heaven, but God's grace in Christ. Where's your hope? You say, I'm bothered by my sin.
Where do you find relief? Well, I'll join the church. Your
salvation is not in the church, friend. It's in Christ, the head
of the church. You see the difference? And he
says in verse 40, with many other words did he testify and exhort
saying, save or separate yourselves from this untoward evil generation. Don't stay with this false religion
now. Don't stay with the world. Somebody
says, well, that means we're not to be immoral people. Well,
don't stay with the immoral. But my friend, don't stay with
the false religionist either. Separate yourself. Come out from
among them. Verse 41. Then they that gladly,"
now look here now. They that what? Gladly received
his word. Now his word wasn't gladly received
by everybody. Bible says in John chapter 3
that the world hates the light. The light of Christ, the light
of God's truth, because it exposes their false refuges, exposes
their deeds to be. But they that gladly received
his word, it says, were baptized. Now who was baptized? Those who
received his word gladly. And the same day there were added
about 3,000 souls. God had saved 3,000. Boy, wouldn't
you like to see something like that today? That'd be something,
wouldn't it? Six questions. Number one, what
is Believer's Baptism? Well, it's an ordinance of God.
I said this a couple of weeks ago when I preached on the Lord's
Supper. There's two New Testament, New Covenant church ordinances,
and only two, the Lord's Supper being one. We talked about that. I'm not going into that this
morning. If you don't get that message, if you want to hear
that. And then Believer's Baptism. two church ordinances. And this
ordinance of believer's baptism is given as a public confession
of faith. You want to confess Christ before
men. The first step in that is believer's baptism. It's a public
confession of faith in Christ. It's a public identification
of Christ. It's a symbol. It is not salvation. It is a symbol of salvation by
the grace of God through the death, burial, and resurrection
of Christ. Be baptized in the name of the
Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. It is not a sacrament. A sacrament has some kind of
a saving efficacy, saving power. Baptism, believers, water baptism,
has no saving power. We talked about this last week.
The word baptism means immersion. It means to dip. It means to
place into, submerse. That's what it means. It has
nothing to do with pouring or sprinkling or anything like that.
It's not a sacrament. It's not a rite of passage. Listen,
you who have little children, it's not something that you need
to get your children to buy into quickly. Now, bring them to hear the gospel.
Pray for their salvation. Teach them the truth. Discipline
them. But don't work hard to get them
down an aisle and into the baptistry. That's not what this is about.
It's not a rite of passage. In fact, baptism, believers'
baptism has been so abused and misunderstood and perverted because
one of the main things because of that. Some people who are true believers
sit around and wonder whether or not they've been baptized
because they've been coerced as children. And it's not right. I'm telling you. Do I want my
children to be saved? Of course I do. My grandchildren?
Yes. But I don't want to establish in their minds a false profession
of faith. I don't want them going through
a false ritual just because it pleases grandpa and grandma or
mom and dad. I don't want that. And I'm not
just being critical. It's not a rite of passage. It's
not a confession of religious outward moral reformation. Now
in salvation, many people do go through moral reformations,
but that's not what baptism is. Listen to this, it is not joining
the church. No, sir. When God brings a sinner
from a lie to the truth to believe the gospel, that's when that
person's added to the church. brought out of the world. Church
means called out ones, doesn't mean baptized ones. Those who
were baptized were already added to the church. And so believer's
baptism is a believer, one who has heard the word and been brought
to believe it, brought to faith in Christ and repentance of dead
works, confessing that in the ordinance publicly confessing
in that ordinance his or her belief in the Lord Jesus Christ,
his or her identification with Christ, saying that when Christ
died, he died for me. When he was buried, he was buried
for me. When he arose again, he arose again for me. And that's
why we go down into the water and come up out of the water.
That's what it symbolizes. That's the way Christ did it.
That's what he commanded. Now we have no right to tweak
or change or add to or take away from his commandment. So that's
what believer's baptism is. Second question, who is to be
baptized? Believers. Again, baptism is a public confession
of the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ. What we read here
in our text, verse 37 of Acts 2, now when they heard this,
they heard the gospel, Baptism under the preaching of
a lie is not believer's baptism. If you believe a lie, what are
you? An unbeliever. Is there anywhere in the Bible
that talks about unbeliever's baptism? No. Baptism is for when they heard
this, they were pricked in their heart. Verse 38, then Peter said
to them, repent and be baptized. The only way you and I are going
to be brought to repentance is under the preaching of the gospel
of God's grace in Christ. That gospel shows us, reveals
to us by the power of the Holy Spirit, how Christ is our whole
salvation, how Christ is our righteousness. We have no righteousness
but Him. While I believed otherwise, I
was an unbeliever. When I was brought to Christ,
I repented of that and clung to Him. Believer's baptism. And it's Christ's death, burial,
and resurrection, but His death, burial, and resurrection, according
to the scripture, is not just historical facts, but the salvation
that flows to God's people freely from the righteousness of Christ
established at His death that has been imputed to His people. You see, the validity of any
ordinance, whether it's the Lord's Supper or baptism, must be founded
in and judged by the gospel truth. Somebody says, well, I did this
when I was 12, I was baptized, was it really bad? Well, what
was the gospel that you heard? That's how you judge it. What
did you believe? Look back over there in the passage
that Randy read, Acts chapter eight. Philip, an evangelist,
a true gospel preacher, was let out on the backside of a desert
to meet an Ethiopian, a man who held high office in the court
of a queen. He was the treasurer. He'd been
to Jerusalem. And apparently, he had a religious
bent. He was seeking truth. And providentially,
God brought him down to Jerusalem, but you know what? He didn't
find the truth there. Now we can assume from that he
either heard Peter's message and didn't believe it at that
time, or he didn't hear it at all. But God sent, God sent Philip
out there, and the man was stopped in his chariot, taking a break,
and he had a scroll, Isaiah the prophet. Now that tells you he
was a rich man. Back then they didn't have books.
They didn't have a books a million. If you owned personally any scroll
of scripture, that means you were kind of well off. And he was reading. And what
was he reading? We were told specifically, as
Randy pointed out, Isaiah 53. You ever read Isaiah 53? What
a beautiful gospel prophecy of the person and work of the Lord
Jesus Christ on behalf of God's chosen people. I tell you, it's
something, isn't it? And this man read it, but he
didn't understand it. It says in verse 30 that Philip
ran to him, heard him reading this, and Philip asked him, do
you understand what you're reading? You know, the Bible, you know,
somebody, people today, they kind of, they kind of indicate,
well, salvation's not about the understanding. You know, you
just come not knowing anything, just, just throwing yourself
at the mercy of the wind or whatever. The Bible says in 1 John 5 that
the Son of God hath come and given us what? an understanding
that we may know him. And you say, well, you're saying
you've got to be a genius to be... No. It has nothing to do
with the adequacy of our intellect. It has to do with the power of
the teacher. And that's God. That's Christ,
the master teacher. He can take the dumbest and tell
them in preaching Teach them the gospel. And beside that,
how many geniuses do you know that believe the gospel? Most of the grand intellectuals
of our world are unbelievers. Aren't they? So he says, understand
what you read. Verse 31, the man said, how can
I except some man should guide me? Some man sent of God, preaching
the gospel. And he desired that Philip come
up and then He read to Philip what he was reading there out
of Isaiah 53, talking about the Messiah, the suffering surety
and substitute of his people. And it says that Philip, in verse
35, began at that same scripture and preached unto him Jesus.
You know what Jesus means, don't you? That means God our Savior,
salvation. Well, we're not told everything
that Philip said here. It's not recorded. This is one
of the historical passages. But after preaching the gospel
to him, Philip must have said something about baptism, didn't
he? How do you know? Look at verse 36. They went on
their way, they came into a certain water, and the eunuch said, Sea,
water! That's what he said. The here
is is in italics. Added by the translation. Sea,
water! He said. What does hinder me to be baptized? What stops me from confessing
in baptism what I believe now? And Philip said, verse 37, now
notice Philip's question. If thou believest with all thine
heart, thou mayest. He didn't say, now, if you've
been born into a believing family, you should have been baptized
when you were an infant. No, he didn't say that. He said, if
you believe, believe what? Believe the gospel of God's grace
through the Lord Jesus Christ, submitted to His righteousness.
Christ's righteousness is the only ground of salvation. That
was the requirement. Do you believe? Who's to be baptized
believers? Not infants. There's nothing
in this book about infants. I know people surmise from the
historical accounts in some places in Acts that when it talks about
a person believing and their household, how it was baptism,
and they'll say things like, well, now you know there had
to be infants in that household. Well, first of all, I don't know
that. And secondly, even if there were, there's nothing in any
other scripture that we could compare this with, and we do
interpret scripture with scripture, that would say an infant was
baptized. That's the concoction of man.
It was institutionalized by the Catholic Church, the false church,
in order to gain control over people. It was a political move
and not a religious move. It was said to wash away original
sin. Oh no, Christ took care of our
original sin. Daniel chapter 9, 24 says he
finished the transgression. That's our fall in Adam. Then
he made an end of sins. Sin cannot be charged to God's
people. Why? Because we're washed in the blood.
We're clothed in the righteousness of Christ. Has nothing to do
with being washed in the waters of baptism. Many promote infant baptism as
the New Testament replacement for Old Testament circumcision.
But Old Testament circumcision was never a type or symbol of baptism. It was a type or
symbol of the new birth, regeneration, circumcision of the heart. Third
question, why should all believers in the New Testament be baptized?
Short answer, because Christ said to do it. Enough said, it's
a commandment. He didn't say do it to be saved.
He didn't say, do it to wash away your sins. He didn't say,
do it in order to be made righteous. He said, do it to confess him
before me. And that's what it is. It's the
public confession. Question four, when should believers
be baptized? Well, ideally they should be
baptized immediately after they come to faith in Christ. Sinners
born again, brought to faith in Christ. What did it say back
in our text? They were pricked in their heart and they cried
out, what shall we do? He's brought to faith in Christ,
brought to repentance of dead works, then follows the Lord's
command to confess Christ in believer's baptism. The problem
we have in our day is baptism in our culture has been so perverted
that even believers are confused about it. but study it from the scripture.
Fifth question, how should believers be baptized? As I said, the word
baptized is not a complicated word. It means to immerse. It means to dip. It means to
plunge into. So immersion is the only mode
of baptism. This was the method used by the
Lord himself when he was baptized, symbolizing his death, burial,
and resurrection to fulfill all righteousness. We read about
that last week in Matthew 3. It's the method used by the apostles,
and it properly symbolizes his death, his burial, his resurrection. A believer's death, burial, and
resurrection with Christ. Sixth question. I've already
answered this, but let me just draw it to a conclusion. Is baptism
necessary for salvation? Short answer, no. If baptism
were necessary for salvation, then no Old Testament believer
would be saved, would they? This is a new covenant ordinance.
You know, there were ordinances given under the old covenant.
There was an ordinance given before the old covenant. Abraham
had the ordinance of circumcision, the circumcision of the males
of his descendants, indicating their connection with him. In
the old covenant, there were a lot of ordinances. There were
a lot of washings, a lot of baptisms in that sense. This is a new
covenant ordinance, but it's not necessary for salvation.
Some argue, well, it wasn't necessary for the old covenant believers,
but it is necessary for us. Well, where do you find that
in scripture? It's not there. The only thing necessary for
our salvation is the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, which
is his righteousness imputed. That's what's necessary for salvation.
Water baptism does not wash away our sins. It does not apply the
work of Christ to us. The Holy Spirit does that in
the regeneration. It does not empower His work.
It does not facilitate His work. It confesses our identification
with Christ and it confesses that we've been born again with
Him. Water baptism does not make us righteous before God. It does not attain salvation. Now, turn to 1 Corinthians. Let
me close with this. If water baptism were necessary
for a sinner to be saved, then why would God the Holy Spirit
inspire Paul to write these words that I'm about to read to you? I know there are verses that
people raise up, but you've got to look at those in context.
I don't have time to go through all those this morning. But you
know there were divisions in the Corinthian church. And one
of the divisions was over preachers. Gospel preachers. Look at verse
12, or verse 11 rather, of 1 Corinthians 1. For it hath been declared
unto me of you, my brethren, by them which are of the house
of Chloe, that there are contentions, divisions among you. Now this
I say, that every one of you saith, I'm of Paul, and I of
Apollos, and I of Cephas, that's Peter, and I of Christ. Some
say I'm gonna follow Paul, I'm gonna follow Peter. Some say
I'm just gonna follow Christ, not follow any man. Well listen,
he says in verse 13, here's how you combat that. Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Or
were you baptized in the name of Paul? Well the answer to all
those are no. I thank God that I baptized none
of you but Crispus and Gaius." There's two men in this church
that he baptized. And he says, "...lest any of
you should say I baptized in mine own name. And I baptized
also the household of Stephanas. Besides, I know not whether I
baptized any other." Verse 17, "...for Christ sent me not to
baptize." That's not my mission. My mission is not to see how
many I can get down an aisle and get in the baptistry. Now I'll baptize anybody who
believes the gospel in obedience to the commandment of our Savior,
but that's not our mission, he says, for Christ sent me not
to baptize, but to preach the gospel. Not with wisdom of words,
lest the cross of Christ should be made of none effect. For the
preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness,
but unto us which are saved it is the power of God." Baptism
isn't the power of God into salvation, the gospel is. The gospel empowered
by the Holy Spirit to reveal to sinners who God is in his
justice and in his mercy and in his grace, and to reveal to
sinners who we are, sinners in need of salvation by grace who
have nothing to recommend us unto God, and sinners to whom
God reveals Christ as their salvation, their righteousness before God.
Somebody says, what doth hinder me to be baptized? You believe
with all your heart? Are you submitted to Christ?
Submitted to Him who is your righteousness and your only one
before God? And you may. That's the issue. All right.