Now if you have your Bibles open
there to Acts chapter 2, this is the text this morning on the
subject of Believer's Baptism. Believer's Baptism. Now I have
basically, I have two messages that I want to preach on this
subject. And I'll use this text in both messages. But my plan
is today, and the reason I divided this into two messages is today
I want to talk about the word baptism itself. And I want to
show you in the scripture the various passages of scripture.
where the word baptism is used, and that's why I'm using the
slideshow today, because we're going to be turning to quite
a few here, and I know some of you turn faster than others,
so if you can't get to the passage in your Bible, just read it on
the screen and write it down for your own personal study.
But that's what I'm gonna do today. And then next week, I'm
really gonna deal with the subject of the ordinance of Christian
baptism more so than I do today. But I will deal with that today
too. But as you remember, last week we had the Lord's Supper.
And I mentioned last week that there are two New Testament,
New Covenant, Christian ordinances that Christ gave to the church
to be administered for believers. Both of them are for believers.
The Lord's Supper. Who should take the Lord's Supper?
I dealt with that last week. Well, those who believe in the
Lord Jesus Christ. That's not an ordinance for unbelievers.
The Lord's Supper is an act of faith. It's an act of worship. And it's all based upon the merits
of the obedience unto death of Christ, His blood, His righteousness
alone. The elements of the Lord's Supper
typify, picture, symbolize the broken body and the incorruptible
blood of Christ. That's why we don't use grape
juice and crackers. First of all, that's not what
the Lord used. He instituted that Lord's Supper during the
Passover, which they were to use unleavened bread. Leaven
was a type, a symbol of sin. And so we want to symbolize and
typify the broken body of Christ, which was His humanity without
sin. That's His substitutionary work
for His people. He gave Himself as a sinless
sacrifice, having sins imputed, charged, accounted to Him. And
He went under the wrath of God. And so we use unleavened bread
because that properly symbolizes the sinless body of Jesus Christ. There's no salvation, no saving
power in taking the Lord's Supper. It's a memorial of the saving
power which is in Christ. And then we use wine instead
of grape juice because grape juice spoils, wine is incorruptible
and that wine represents, symbolizes the incorruptible blood of Jesus
Christ. He cannot spoil. He cannot diminish. We stand in Him, washed in His
blood, His pure, perfect blood. And that's the payment of the
debt of our sins. That's His righteousness imputed to us.
That's why we do that. Now, the next ordinance is Believer's
Baptism. And look at Acts chapter 2, verse
37. And I emphasize not just baptism
now, but Believer's Baptism. Both of these ordinances, Baptism
and the Lord's Supper, have to be in the context of the true
gospel preached, heard, and understood by the power of the Spirit. So
look at Acts 2. Now I didn't write, I didn't
have this on our slides because this is the text and you're all
going to open to this. You should be open to Acts 2,
37. Alright? And then I'm going to start with
the others. So, verse 37 he says, now when they heard this, now
notice that, when they heard this, what did they hear? They heard the gospel. They heard
Peter preach Christ, crucified, risen again. They heard of righteousness
established, you see, the righteousness of God, how God can be just and
justify the ungodly. And we know they heard it with
the new heart. How do you know? They were pricked
in their heart, said unto Peter and to the rest of the apostles,
men and brethren, what shall we do? And then Peter said to
them, repent and be baptized. Now notice that repentance comes
before baptism. And if repentance is there, salvation
has already come to that person. Because repentance is the following
of faith. We believe in the Lord Jesus
Christ. We come to Christ and repentance means we turn away
from everyone and everything else. You can't come to Christ
and not turn away from yourself, from your works. from everything
and everyone else for salvation. Repent and then be baptized every
one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins.
Now notice the remission of sins is directly connected to the
name of Jesus Christ, not to baptism. Baptism does not remit
your sins. Water baptism does not wash away
your sins. The blood of Christ cleanses
us from all sin. We confess that in believer's
baptism, and he says you shall receive the gift of the Holy
Ghost. Now I'm gonna come back to that, probably later on this
message, and I'm gonna come back to it next week, when we really
talk about the ordinance of believer's baptism. But first of all, understand
this. To baptize, the word baptize,
It's a New Testament word. What does it mean? It means to
immerse. That's what the word means. It
means to dip. It means to place into. That's why when we baptize, we
don't sprinkle. We don't pour. We don't splash. We immerse. Baptism by, that's
what the word means. Place into. And it is a believer's
confession. The ordinance of believer's baptism
is a believer's confession. One who is already saved by the
grace of God. It's a believer's public identification
and confession of something that has already taken place. And
that is salvation and the new birth. And in being immersed,
he identifies that he or she who is baptized identifies with
the death and the burial going down into the water and the resurrection
coming up out of the water of Jesus Christ. And that's the
way Christ himself was baptized, not for the same reason. We'll
look at that. Now that's what believer's baptism is. But let
me show you about this word, baptism, and how it's used in
various ways. Now, it means the same thing,
basically, but it's used in different contexts for different purposes. And the first one, let's look
at the first one, is called the baptism unto Moses. or the baptism into Moses and
you'll find that in the book of first Corinthians chapter
10 where Paul the Apostle as he was inspired by the Holy Spirit
used this word baptism or baptized in a different way the baptism
unto or into Moses and here's what he says he says moreover
brethren I would not that you should be ignorant how that all
our fathers were under the cloud. Now what he's talking about is
the Jewish or the Hebrew nation that was brought out of Egypt.
They were under the cloud. You remember how God followed
them and protected them in a pillar of a cloud by day which became
a pillar of fire by night? That's the cloud that he's talking
about. And all passed through the sea. Now what sea did they
pass through? They passed through the Red Sea. They came across
dry shod. Remember how God divined the
Red Sea? Look how he puts it, verse 2. They were all baptized
unto or into Moses in the cloud and in the sea. And what that
means is this, this baptism unto Moses, is that the whole Hebrew
nation that was brought out of Egypt by Moses under that cloud
and as they passed through that sea, they were in some way, doctrinally
and physically placed into, that is as a nation now, placed into,
identified and united to Moses. They followed Moses. That's what
that means. And he uses that term baptized
unto or baptized into Moses. Moses was the mediator of the
covenant. Moses was their leader. Moses
was their deliverer. Moses was their law giver. If
you stayed in Egypt, if a Hebrew stayed in Egypt, that Hebrew
was not baptized into, he wasn't united to Moses, that's what
that means. But if you came out with Moses, and you were protected
by that cloud, that God sent, and you passed through the Red
Sea with Moses, you were united to Moses. So the baptism here
is union with Moses. Now the Apostle Paul, in 1 Corinthians
10 there, was using that baptism into Moses as a comparison to
show the identification and union of true believers, of true Christians,
with Christ. That's what he was doing there.
He was showing them that, listen, when God brought you out of the
bondage of sin and legalism and brought you to Christ, united
you to Christ by faith in Him, You see? That's just the same
as when the Hebrew nation was brought out of the bondage of
Egypt and united to Moses. You're one with Christ. If you're
a believer, you're one with Christ. You've been placed into Christ
by faith. You've been identified with Christ
and you're protected by the grace and power and providence of God.
And you're identified with Him, you're united to Christ. So that
is a baptism. It's a spiritual baptism. It's
not a water baptism. Once you're brought by the Holy
Spirit to see and believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, you're
baptized into Him. You're placed into Him. You're
identified with Him. You're united to Him in a spiritual
way. Do you understand that? You understand what I'm talking
about? It's not water baptism. It has nothing to do with the waters
of baptism back here in this bath. There's no water in it
now. It's kind of dry, I think, isn't it, Jim? But when we put
water in it, it has nothing to do with what Paul's talking about.
But he calls it baptism. So right away, we know this,
that just because the word baptized or baptism is used doesn't mean
it's talking about the ordinance of believer's baptism. Now, when
Peter told those men and women who were pricked in their heart,
That is, they were regenerated by the Holy Spirit to repent
and be baptized. He's talking about water baptism,
the ordinance. When Christ told the disciples
to go out in all the world, we read that in Matthew 28. When
he told them to go out in all the world and preach the gospel
and baptize, he was talking about the confession of water baptism,
the ordinance. Not to be saved. You see, Salvation
has always been and will always be by grace through the righteousness
of the Lord Jesus Christ. But when we're brought to believe
in Him, we're united in Him. Now let's look at the second
passage. And it's talking about the baptism
of John. John the Baptist. He was called
John the Baptist. Why? Because he baptized. And
we'll look at it. It's in the book of Matthew chapter
3. Now we'll refer to this passage several times. The baptism of
John. It says in Matthew 3 and verse
5, it says, Then went out to him Jerusalem, and all Judea,
and all the region around about Jordan. Incidentally, does that
mean that every individual without exception that lived in those
regions went out to John? No. What he's doing, he's using
this to describe a great multitude of people who went out into the
wilderness to hear this man who became famous around that area
named John the Baptist. He was a different kind of guy,
wasn't he? He wasn't like the Pharisees or the scribes. He
didn't dress well. He didn't eat gourmet food. And he preached. He preached
Christ, preached the gospel. He preached against sin. And
even the scribes and the Pharisees and the Sadducees went out to
see him. So verse 5, then went out to him Jerusalem, all Judea,
and all the region round about Jordan. And verse 6, and were
baptized of him in Jordan, confessing their sins. There's John's baptism. Now John's baptism was a water
baptism. It was in a pool of water or
a pond or whatever, a river, the River Jordan maybe. I mean,
he probably baptized in different places, but there was water enough
for a human being to go down into and come up out of. That's
what John was doing. But now John's baptism, being
a water baptism, by which the ones who he baptized evidenced
repentance. In fact, it's called the baptism
of repentance. Look at Mark chapter 1. verse
4. It says here that John did baptize
in the wilderness and preach the baptism of repentance for
the remission of sins. The book of Luke chapter 3 and
verse 3 says basically the same thing. And then in Acts chapter
13, in Acts chapter 13 the Apostle Paul encountered Some believers,
and it says in verse 24 of Acts chapter 13, that when John had
first preached before his coming a baptism of repentance to all
the people of Israel, there it's called the baptism of repentance. And then in the book of Acts
chapter 19, when Paul It said Paul's been preaching. It says,
then said Paul, John verily baptized with the baptism of repentance,
saying unto the people that they should believe on him which should
come after him, and that is on Christ. Now a lot of people argue
and debate over, well, what was the difference between the baptism
of John and believer's baptism? Some say it's the same thing.
I believe there is a difference. I believe that John's baptism
was a baptism of repentance in which those who were baptized
publicly confessed their sins and their need of God's grace
through the promised Messiah who was yet to come. The Messiah
had not come. Now, I know Christ had already
been born by this time, but he had not yet come on the scene
in his public ministry. And so the baptism of John is
called the baptism of repentance. It's confession of sins. It's
a person saying, I need a savior. I need a righteousness I can't
produce. And it was the baptism of one who was looking forward
to the coming of the Messiah, but who had not yet seen him
in the flesh yet. And I believe that's a difference,
but that's John's baptism. Later on, Christ instituted and
commanded the ordinance of believer's baptism for the church. But now,
if you disagree with me on that, that's okay. You have the right
to be wrong. I've always told you that, on
those issues, not on the gospel now. As long as we agree on the
gospel, we're fine, all right? But somebody said, well, then
I can disagree with you on what believer's baptism is, you know,
dipping, pouring, all that. No, you just haven't been baptized. If you're a believer now, And
you were sprinkled, poured, or baptized as a baby. You really
weren't baptized, but we'll get to that next week more, okay?
All right, here's the third one. The baptism of Jesus Christ. You know, Christ himself was
baptized. This is water baptism. Look at Matthew chapter three
again. The same passage we read earlier. Here in verse 13. Now, a lot
of people argue about this. Why was Christ baptized? What
did it mean, all that? Well, I'll show you exactly what
it is. Matthew 3.13. It says, Then cometh Jesus from
Galilee to Jordan unto John to be baptized of him. Now, this
is the beginning of Christ's public ministry on earth. His
public ministry, where he preached and called out his disciples
and did the miracles, lasted about three and a half years.
He was crucified when he was 33 and a half years old, just
about. So he initiated his public ministry by appearing unto John
the Baptist in that crowd and being baptized himself. He was
immersed in water. Listen to verse 14. He says,
But John forbade him, saying, I have need to be baptized of
thee, and comest thou to me. John recognized that Christ is
not the sinner. What is a believer's baptism
is a sinner saved by grace, confessing his or her faith in Christ and
his or her identification with Christ. And John's baptism was
the baptism of repentance. Somebody confessing their sins.
And he knew that Jesus of Nazareth, who is the Messiah whom he recognized,
and I believe he recognized him by the power of the Holy Spirit.
He knew that this person didn't need to confess his sins. So
he says he forbade him. He said, I ought to be baptized
by you. I need to confess my sins. Well, verse 15. Now listen to this. And Jesus
answering said unto him, Suffer, or allow it to be so now. Now
here's the purpose of Christ's baptism. For thus it becometh
us. And I don't believe he's talking
about him and John the Baptist. I think he's talking about him
as the second person of the Trinity. God the Father, God the Son,
and God the Holy Ghost. Us to do what? To fulfill all
righteousness. All right? And look at verse
six, it said, then John suffered him, John did it. Verse 16, now
hold on to that thought. Jesus, when he was baptized,
he went up straightway out of the water. That means he was
immersed, he went down under the water, he went up straightway
out of the water, and lo, the heavens were open unto him, the
way into heaven was open to him, and he saw the Spirit of God
descending like a dove, lighting up on him, landing on him, and
lo, a voice from heaven saying, this is my beloved son in whom
I am well pleased. He said, baptize me, John. John
said, well, you don't have any sins. He said, it behooves us. That's what he's talking about.
He says, it becometh us to fulfill all rights. Now, let me ask you
a question. We've got to interpret Scripture with Scripture here.
Did Christ being baptized in water, did that fulfill all righteousness? Did it? What fulfilled righteousness? His death on the cross. So why
does He equate fulfilling all righteousness with His baptism? It's a picture. It's a lesson. It's a symbol of His ministry
and what He is going to do in His death, burial, and resurrection
for His people. In other words, in His own baptism,
He was showing these people, this is what I'm here for, this
is what I must do, this is what I'm going to accomplish in my
death, my burial, and my resurrection. That's why He was baptized in
water. He wasn't baptized in water for the same reason you
and I are. He was baptized in water showing
forth His death, burial, and resurrection. When we're baptized
in water as a believer, we're identifying with Him who fulfilled
all righteousness in His death, burial, and resurrection. And
that's why he was baptized. He said to fulfill all rights,
to set forth in picture his own death, his own burial, his own
resurrection for the redemption of his people and the establishment
of righteousness for their justification before God. Christ is the Lord,
our righteousness. What did he do to fulfill all
righteousness? He obeyed unto death for the
sins of his people imputed to him. and his death equals his
righteousness which is imputed unto us." That's what he did. And that's why he was baptized.
He said it. Somebody said, well, how do you
get all that? Well, right there it is. Look at it again. Suffer it to
be so for us to fulfill all righteousness. What did he have to do? He was
embarking upon his obedience, his whole ministry, public ministry,
showing forth what he came to do He was sent forth from the
Father to fulfill all righteousness. Now you see why Believer's Baptism,
which is an identification with Him, is a gospel ordinance. Not to attain or maintain salvation. If you're baptized, if you enter
into the ordinance of even Believer's Baptism in the right way, and
you think it saves you or makes you righteous or recommends you
unto God, you're denying the one who fulfilled all righteousness,
Christ himself and Christ alone. We'll look at the fourth one.
Now here's the fourth way baptism is used. It's in the book of
Mark, Mark chapter 10. And it's what we can call the
baptism of the cross for Christ the surety. Listen to it. Or since I've got the slide up,
read it. Mark 10, 35. James and John, the sons of Zebedee,
come unto him, saying, Master, we would that thou shouldest
do for us whatsoever we desire. Give me what I want. Sounds like
a child, doesn't it? Verse 36. He said unto them,
what would you that I should do for you? What do you want?
Verse 37. Listen to this. They said unto him, grant unto
us that we may sit one on thy right hand and the other on thy
left hand in thy glory. Boy, I tell you, you think when
God saves a sinner, he knocks all the selfishness out of him?
No. Well, I'm not going into their
little tirade there because that's not what the subject of the message
is today. I can do that later, but look
at verse 38. But Jesus said unto them, you know not what you ask.
Can you drink of the cup that I drink of? And be baptized with
the baptism that I'm baptized with? Now first of all, who has the
preeminence in the kingdom of God? Only Christ. There's no
believer. There's no preacher. There's
no religious hierarchy that can have any preeminence over another
believer in the kingdom of God. Do you believe that? I often
use the example of Paul the Apostle as compared with the thief on
the cross. Do you reckon Paul, who was used of God probably
more than just about any other believer, You reckon he has a
higher seat in glory than the thief on the cross? And the answer's
no. You know why both of them are
there? Because of the grace of God based on the righteousness
of another, the Lord Jesus Christ. So when you're talking about
who's having preeminence, who's gonna sit on the right hand,
left hand, who's gonna, let me tell you something. That can
only be an earned right. And you know what? When it comes
to our relationship with God and our position as citizens
in the kingdom of heaven, we do not earn anything. It's grace, grace, grace. So he asked him, you think you
can drink of the cup that I'm going to drink of? What was that
cup? The cup of the wrath of his father. Remember in the garden, he said,
if it be possible, let this cup pass from. You think you can
be baptized with the baptism that I'm baptized with? Every
one of us who are believers, who have followed the Lord's
command, we were baptized in water, weren't we? But do you
think we could be baptized with the baptism that Christ was baptized
with? Now look at verse 39, they said
unto him, we can. And Jesus said to them, you shall
indeed drink of that cup that I drink of, and with the baptism
that I'm baptized with, with all shall you be baptized. Now,
how is that possible? What baptism is he talking about?
He's talking about his suffering unto death on the cross of Calvary
for the sins of his people. How is it possible for us to
be baptized with that baptism? Only in Christ. Only in Christ. And that takes
us to the fifth use of baptism. Turn to Romans 6. It's the baptism
of the cross for the elect. In the book of Romans chapter
6. You see, here's what I'm saying.
Now, there is a baptism of suffering for believers. There is. But
it's not for righteousness. It's not for salvation. We'll
suffer, the scripture says that. In the world you'll have tribulation,
but be of good cheer, I've overcome the world. We'll have trouble,
and some say that's what he's referring to back there in Mark
10. That could be part of it, but
here's the thing. None, no believer has ever or
ever will suffer like our Lord suffered on the cross, and for
the same reason. His suffering was to save us. Our suffering is because He saved
us. You see the difference? But look
at Romans chapter six, verse one. He says, what shall we say
then? Shall we continue in sin that
grace may abound? God forbid, how shall we that
are dead to sin live any longer therein? How are we dead to sin?
We're dead to sin's power to condemn us. We're still sinners. saved by
the grace of God. But in Christ, washed in his
blood and covered in his righteousness imputed, there is therefore now
no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus, who walk
not according to the flesh, but after the Spirit. So he says
in verse three, know ye not that so many of us as were baptized
into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death? placed into Christ,
united to Christ, immersed into Christ. When? When he died. How do you know? Verse four.
Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death. When he died, I died. That's
a legal, objective death for me. It was one that he actually
experienced in his body on the tree. He suffered, he bled, he
died. And he did it not as a private
person, but as the representative, the federal head, the surety,
the substitute of his elect. So much so that when he died,
we died. When he was buried, we were buried.
Baptism into death, verse four, that like as Christ was raised
up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also
should walk in newness of life. Verse five, for if we have been
planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also
in the likeness of his resurrection. When he died, I died. When he
was buried, I was buried. When he arose again, I arose
again. He's seated at the right hand of the Father, ever living
to do what? To make intercession for his people. It's on the merits
of what he suffered for us as our surety. It's on the merits
of his righteousness, which is imputed, charged, accounted to
his people. So verse six, knowing this, that
our old man is crucified with him, put to death at association
with Adam, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth
we should not serve sin. And so we follow him. Here's
the sixth one. Matthew chapter three again. It's called the
baptism of the Holy Spirit and the baptism with fire. You might
be able to divide this up into two, but it doesn't matter. Look
at Matthew three. It's John the Baptist again. He said in verse 11, I indeed
baptize you with water unto repentance. Now we've talked about that.
But he that cometh after me, now that's Christ, is mightier
than I, whose shoes I'm not worthy to bear. He shall baptize you
with the Holy Ghost and with fire. Verse 12. whose fan is in his hand, and
he will thoroughly purge his floor and gather his weed into
the garner, and he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable
fire." He's talking about a baptism
that applies, a spiritual baptism here, that applies both to, that
applies to believers in their new birth by the Holy Spirit,
And he's talking about a baptism of wrath for unbelievers here. Look at it. For believers, it
says, the baptism of the Holy Ghost, he will gather his wheat
into the garner. That's Christ gathering his people
unto himself by the power of the Holy Spirit. That's when
the Holy Spirit in power gives them spiritual life, a new heart,
new ears, new eyes. That's the new birth, that's
regeneration, that's called a baptism of the Holy Ghost. If you want
to talk about the baptism of the Holy Spirit, that's it, it's
the new birth. Being brought to Christ, gathered
into the garden, the new birth in which God's elect, redeemed
people are untied, are united to Christ by spiritual birth,
by faith and brought to repentance. Paul called that a baptism in
1 Corinthians 12. We won't turn there. But the
Holy Spirit there is compared to fire. He's powerful. The invincible
calling of the Spirit. But now for unbelievers, what
does he say there? He says, but he will burn up
the chaff with unquenchable fire. That's the judgment of God in
wrath against those who are found without Christ. Baptized into
wrath, united to, placed into wrath. Now, let me give you the
last one. This is the seventh one, the
ordinance of baptism for believers. Matthew 28, now this is what
I'm gonna deal with next week. Believer's baptism, the ordinance.
In the ordinance of baptism for believers, It's a public confession,
an identification, a sinner born again, brought to faith in Christ,
who follows the Lord's command to confess Christ in believer's
baptism. I read about it in Matthew chapter
28, verse 18, where Christ came before his disciples and before
he ascended into glory, he came and he spoke to them saying,
all power is given unto me in heaven and earth. Now he had,
as God absolutely considered, he had all power. But this is
his earned power because of his work finished, his righteousness
established. And he says, go ye therefore,
because he has all power. Don't go in your own power. That
won't work. It won't do anything. But because
he's been given all power, go ye therefore and teach all nations,
baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the
Holy Ghost, 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. That's Believer's Baptism,
and we'll go into that next week. All right.