If you would open your Bibles
with me to Acts chapter eight. Acts the eighth chapter. Someone
has read this passage of scripture probably for at least three weeks
in a row here, so I finally thought I'm gonna preach from it. I've titled the message, What
Doth Hinder Me to Be Baptized? Now this is a very special time
for this congregation. For the second Sunday in a row,
we're gonna have a baptismal service. And my heart is just like yours,
just overwhelmed, thankfulness, thank God. And you know, since
we've done this now two weeks in a row, a lot of us have the
ordinance of baptism on our mind. And I know that there are others
here in this congregation who right now are thinking about
being baptized. This matters in their heart,
debating it back and forth. And I want to bring a message
this morning that'll be helpful. That'll be helpful in that regard.
To teach us what baptism is. To teach us the importance of
baptism. And to teach us what a blessing
it is. This message is not just intended for those who are thinking
about baptism and haven't been baptized yet. Although, I believe
we've got something for you. But this is also for all of God's
people. You know, confessing Christ is not a one-time thing,
is it? Oh, we confess Christ publicly and believe it's baptism,
but then we confess Him by the way we live our lives, you know,
the rest of our time here on Earth. So I believe this will
be a comfort and a blessing to you. I hope it will edify you
and teach you something. And if you're interested in reading
a real good article on baptism this afternoon, if you turn to
the back page of the bulletin, there's an outstanding article
by Brother Henry on believers' baptism and the importance of
it. So verse 36 now of Acts chapter 8. As they went on their way, they
came into a certain water, and the eunuch said, See, here's
water. What doth hinder me to be baptized? Now you know this
story well. The eunuch had heard Philip preach
Christ to him. Everything Philip said is not
recorded here, but he preached Christ to this man. And at some
point, Philip had to tell the eunuch, this is how somebody,
this is who Christ is. And this is somebody that believes
him. This is how they confess him publicly in believers baptism,
by immersion in water. So the eunuch, he's heard Christ
praise. He believes him. So he sees this water and he
asked Philip now, is there something that would stop me from being
baptized? Is there a reason I can't be? I want to be baptized, but
Philip, now, I mean, you obviously know more about this than I do.
Is there a reason that I should not be baptized? I want to be,
is there a reason I shouldn't be? Now, you know, that's a good
question. And I'll tell you why it's a
good question, because there are things that would hinder
a person from being baptized. Trusting in your own righteousness,
that hinders you from being baptized. If you think that you've got
some goodness of your own that you can contribute, that you
don't need Christ to do all the saving for you, you don't need
Christ to be all of your righteousness, then your so-called righteousness,
now that hinders you from being baptized. A person that's baptized
is confessing, Christ is all my righteousness. Our Lord said
in Luke 5 verse 32, I came not to call the righteous, I came
to call sinners to repentance. They'll tell you something else
that hinders you, it's your pride. James said in James four, verse six,
God resisted the proud, but he giveth grace to the humble. Now,
we're gonna get rid of our pride to confess Christ in believers
baptism, because that says I'm so sinful, the only way I could
be saved is if the Son of God does all the same for me. Now,
that's gonna insult my fleshly pride, isn't it? But I gotta
get rid of that pride before I can trust Christ. Now let's
tell you something else that would hinder your baptism. It's
trusting in your own human intelligence. The Lord said in his prayer,
Matthew 11, verse 25, I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven
and earth, because thou hast hid these things from the wise
and prudent, and you've veiled them unto babes. If you're wise
and prudent in your own self, that hinders your baptism, and
your unbelief. your obstinate refusal to trust
Christ alone. That hinders you from being baptized.
Hebrews 3 verse 19 says, so we see they could not enter in because
of unbelief. This is believer's baptism. So
your unbelief hinders you from being baptized. All right, now
let me tell you a few things that do not hinder you from being
baptized. Do you know your sin does not
hinder you from being baptized. Christ came to save sinners. I came not to call the righteous.
I came to call sinners to repentance. Christ saved sinners. Christ
died to put away the sin of sinners. That's what baptism is. It's
a public confession. This is how Christ put my sin
away. It's by his death, his burial, his resurrection for
me. Then here's something else. So before I leave your sin, let
me... does not hinder you from these
waters. Your sin doesn't hinder you from coming to Christ. As
a matter of fact, your sin is what makes you a good candidate
for salvation by grace. Your sin is what makes you run
to Christ for mercy, for grace, and for forgiveness. So your
sin doesn't stop you from being baptized. Here's something else
that doesn't hinder you. Oh, I thank God for this. Your
weak faith, your weak faith does not stop you from being baptized. Now there's not a believer anywhere
that will tell you, yeah, I've been at this a long time, I'm
satisfied with the strength of my faith. No believers can tell
you that. Every believer wishes I had stronger
faith. Every believer sees, oh, I've
got no hope in the strength of my faith. Don't you think that
you've got to have stronger faith before you can confess Christ
and believe His baptism. Now, if you trust Christ, you
walk in the light that God's given you. Walk in the light
that you may think it's not much light, but walk in the light
that God's given you. Do what God showed you to do
and be baptized. You confess Christ and believe
His baptism. After that, the Lord will give you more light
to walk in. After that, the Lord will cause you to grow in faith
and grow in knowledge. after you obey his first commandment,
to confess Christ and believe his baptism. And here's something
else that does not hinder you from being baptized. It's your
fear. Your fear. Your fear that you
will one day fall away from Christ. You fear, well, I believe Christ
now. I mean, it's awful weak, but
now I believe him. But I fear one day I won't believe
him. I better not be baptized. Let me tell you this, that struggle,
Lucy, your pop told me this one day long time ago, I remember
it. That struggle of thinking my faith is so weak, I'll fall
away one day. Only a regenerate man or a regenerate
woman can think that way. That's a sign of life that you
know, left to your own devices, you will fall away. Listen, it's
Christ that saves His people. You trust Him to save you? You
trust him, put your sin away. It's Christ that'll keep you
safe, too. You just trust him. You confess him. Walk in the
light that God's given you. And baptism, just like all the
rest of the gospel, is so simple. It's so simple. Every child in
this room, if you've been listening, understands exactly what I've
been saying so far. The gospel's simple. There is
just one requirement for baptism, just one. And it's so simple,
we all understand it. It's faith in Christ. That's
it. There's no other bar. You don't
have to go through a panel of the pastor and a bunch of elders
and prove to them the sincerity of your faith. There's one bar
for baptism. Do you believe Christ? Do you
trust him? Do you trust that he'll save
you? That he's all it takes to save you? Do you trust that the
person of Christ, the work of Christ, Him alone, do you trust
that's all it takes to save you? Do you? That not only should
you be baptized, if you believe Christ that way, you must be
baptized. That's God's commandment to us.
Now I wanna take just a few minutes to look at what leads up. to
a person having faith in Christ, so that they do confess him in
believer's baptism. The first thing is this, salvation
all starts with God. Look back in verse 26 here in
our text, Acts chapter eight. And the angel of the Lord spake
unto Philip, saying, arise and go toward the south under the
way that goeth down from Jerusalem unto Gaza, which is desert. Now
our text has the story of this eunuch beginning with the Lord
sending Philip to go preach to that eunuch. But really, this
eunuch story starts a whole long time before Philip comes on the
scene. Before the foundation of the
world, God the Father chose this eunuch in divine election. He
set his love upon him and he chose to save him by his grace
that's in his son. And now, that time has come,
that time of grace has come for this eunuch. This eunuch, he
didn't know it, but he had experienced what we call provenient grace.
Provenient grace means grace before grace. It's grace before
saving grace. It's grace before regenerating
grace. It's grace that has slowly been leading you to Christ all
along and you didn't even know it. Somehow, I don't know how,
but somehow, down there in Ethiopia, this eunuch, he'd heard something
about the God of Israel. And he had an interest in that.
He wanted to find out more about this God of Israel, Jehovah.
And he traveled, and this is a difficult journey, he traveled
all the way from Ethiopia to come to Israel. He wanted to
learn about this God of Israel. This man came seeking. More than
likely, he had no idea what he was seeking. He just knew he
was seeking something. He needed something he did not
have, and he was seeking it, and the God of Israel. And he
went to the feast, And he just didn't get anything. He didn't find anything. There
was nothing there for him. More than likely, he was kind of disappointed.
But while he was in Israel, this man laid his hands on a scroll. He bought a scroll. Those scribes
that hated Christ, that didn't trust Him, that wanted to put
Him away, God used those scribes to write on that scroll the book
of Isaiah. He had that precious scroll in
his hand. The word of God. God arranged
for all that to happen. That's grace before grace. And
that's how the Lord deals with all of his sheep. In some different
manners, but it's all the same. Maybe without any input of your
own, you were born into a home like Lucy was, like young Timothy
was, where you're taught the word. God saved your mama, your
daddy. They teach you the Word. From
this is the time you can understand language. They teach you the
Word. They bring you to those Bible classes. They bring you
to hear the Word preached. They bring you to those Bible
conferences and you're sitting there thinking, oh, do I have
to go to church forever? Will this ever end? But they
keep bringing you. They keep bringing you. They
teach you. Maybe you got a boyfriend or a girlfriend. They bring you
to the service. Young men have come to services
for a whole lot worse reason than to come with a cute girl.
Come find out the Lord saves them. Maybe you've got a friend
who invites you to come to a service. Could be you just stumble on
a message on Sermon Audio. You stumble on a book. You don't
know what you're looking for. Or they tell you, oh, I know
what you want. You want this book by Henry Mahan. You want
this book by Spurgeon. You find a book. Something that
points you to Christ. You know what that is? That's
pervading grace. That's the Lord Bringing you
to the place that he will reveal Christ to you. And he's going
to do it through a preacher. And when he does, you're going
to find out that was all the Lord's doing. I had no idea what
the Lord was doing, but that's what he did. Bringing me to a
place so I could hear the gospel preached. Here's the second thing. If you would have faith in Christ,
you've got to hear the word preached. Somebody's got to preach Christ
to you. Somebody's got to preach the gospel to you so you know
who Christ is. Can't believe on somebody you don't know, can
you? That's what the eunuch did. Look here at verse 27. And he
rose and went and behold, a man of Ethiopia and eunuch of great
authority under Candice, queen of the Ethiopians, who had the
charge of all her treasure, had come to Jerusalem for the worship.
It was returning and sitting in his chariot, read Isaiah the
prophet. Then the spirit said unto Philip,
go near and join thyself to this chariot. And Philip ran thither
to him, and heard him read the prophet Isaiah, and said, Understandest
thou what thou readest? And he said, How can I, except
some man should guide me? And he desired, Philip, that
he would come up and sit with him. The place of the scripture
which he read was this. He was led as a sheep to the
slaughter, and like a lamb done before his shearer, so he opened
not his mouth. In his humiliation his judgment
was taken away, And who shall declare his generation? For his
life is taken from the earth." And the eunuch answered Philip
and said, I pray thee, of whom speaketh the prophet this, of
himself or of some other man? Then Philip opened his mouth
and began at the same scripture and preached unto him, Jesus. Now, I have no doubt this eunuch
was a very intelligent man. I mean, you don't get to be the
queen's treasure and have charge of all her treasure unless you've
got some special intellect and you've got some abilities. But
as intelligent as this man was, he couldn't figure God out. As
intelligent as this man was, he did not understand what he
was reading. You've heard Isaiah preached
to you many times. You understand. Every person in this room at
least has a head knowledge of what Isaiah is saying there, but this
man didn't Nobody ever preached Christ to him before so he couldn't
understand as intelligent as he was he couldn't figure out
what this was saying He needed a preacher Just like all of us
do We need a preacher that opens up the Word of God and says this
is this is how this points to Christ This is what this is saying
about Christ I wish I could impress on you. I wish I could impress on this
whole town on this whole area. I wish I could impress this to
people upon their hearts. The importance of hearing the
gospel preached. There's no life without it. There's
no faith without it. There's no growth in grace without
it. I mean, how's the sheep going to grow if you don't have sheep
food? It's so important. And you've got a lot of other
things in your lives I know that are important. The things that
you've got to do. Responsibilities that God's given you. But I'll
tell you why you're going through your life with all these other
activities and responsibilities. You just always remember this.
There is nothing more important to your soul than what we do
here Sunday mornings and Wednesday nights. The preaching of the
gospel. The preaching of Christ. I just know this is a fact. There's
not one person ever laid on their deathbed and thought, oh, I wish
I had all that time back I wasted here in the gospel church. Not
one. Not one. We need a preacher. Because nobody
can understand how God saves sinners in Christ unless somebody
tells us who He is. Nobody can understand how does
God put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself. We can't figure that
out. Somebody's got to preach Christ
to us and tell us who he is and what he's done for his people.
This very intelligent man didn't understand. But he didn't let
his pride stand in the way. Remember I told you about pride
being a hindrance to baptism? He didn't let his pride stand
in the way. He was humble enough to say, I don't understand. Can
you tell me? Can somebody guide me to Christ?
Can somebody teach me what this passage of scripture means? He
figured the lamb being talked about here is a man, he thinks
it's a man, because he says who's the prophet writing about it?
Of himself or some other man? He knew this had to be talking
about a man, but he didn't know who it was. So Philip said, boy,
I'm glad you asked. I mean, wouldn't you love to
find somebody saying, open their Bible, Isaiah 53, and say, can
you tell me what that means? Philip said, I'm glad you asked,
let me tell you. And he began at that very same scripture,
and he preached Christ to that man. Philip told this brother
who the Lord Jesus Christ is. He told him how he accomplished
the redemption of his people. He did it by the sacrifice of
himself. Now that's what preaching is. is not stringing together a bunch
of Calvinistic catchphrases, you know, stringing them together.
That's what a politician does. A politician takes the catchphrases
of his party and just, you know, strings them all out there and
gets the bass fired up, you know. That's not preaching. Preaching
is taking a passage of scripture and say, here's the glory of
Christ in this scripture. Here's this facet of the glory
of Christ in this scripture. Preaching is telling how does
this passage of scripture point us to Christ and telling us to
trust Him. Just like our Lord told that
poor leper that He healed. He said, now you go home and
you tell your friends and your family and your neighbors what
great things God has done for you. Preaching is taking a passage
of scripture and saying, oh my, here's what God did for me. Here's
what God, he'll do that for you. He does that for his people.
It's by his grace. Somebody's got to preach Christ
to us. And we do it by taking every passage of scripture and
doing exactly what Philip did, beginning at that very scripture
and preaching Christ. All right, here's the third thing. If you would be baptized, your
faith must be in Christ. Now, verse 36 says, as they were
on their way and they came into a certain water, the eunuch said,
see, Here's water, what doth hinder me to be baptized? And
Philip said, if thou believest with all thine heart, thou mayest. Now, I love what Philip didn't
ask. I like what he didn't ask because
it takes all the pressure off. Philip did not ask the eunuch,
do you think you're saved? Well, sometimes I do, sometimes
I don't, you know. I start looking at myself too
closely. No, I don't think I'm saved. Do you feel saved? You convinced me not to feel
saved pretty easily. I'm rotten. Philip didn't ask
the eunuch, do you think you're one of the elect? If I could help any of you young
people that's grown up under the gospel and help you from
not suffering what I suffered, I wish you'd listen to me. I
wasted years trying to figure out, am I one of God's elect?
Do you notice that's not what Philip said here? The only way
you know you're one of the elect is do you believe Christ? Do
you believe Christ? Philip said, do you believe? Do you believe in your heart?
Faith is the only requirement for baptism. Our Lord made baptism
so simple People like you and me cannot mess it up. Do you
believe? Now look at the eunuch's answer. Verse 37, he answered and said,
I believe that Jesus Christ is the son of God. I believe that.
And boy, Philip, that was all he needed to hear. Verse 38,
he commanded the chariot to stand still, and they went down both
into the water. Both Philip and the eunuch, and
he baptized And when they were come up out of the water, the
spirit of the Lord caught away Philip and the eunuch saw him
no more. And he went on his way rejoicing. Before, before somebody
preached Christ to him, this eunuch, he was confused. He was
bum-fuzzled. He didn't know what he was reading.
He didn't know what was going on. And Philip came and preached
Christ to him. And that eunuch walked in the
light that God had given him and said, see, here's water.
What does it mean to be baptized? Philip baptized him. Now he's
rejoicing. Now he went on his way rejoicing.
Now he can start reading Isaiah and start getting some pretty
good clues of who Isaiah is talking about. He went on his way rejoicing.
When he heard that confession of faith, Philip commanded the
chariot stand still. He said, you should be baptized.
Upon that confession of faith, you should be baptized. All right. I want to spend just a few minutes
looking at this eunuch's profession of faith. He said, I believe
that Jesus Christ is the son of God. I believe that, from
my heart I believe that. Now believing that Jesus Christ
is the son of God, that doesn't mean that you just believe I
know who the father of Jesus Christ is, he's got the father.
Every person in this room knows that. You've been here often
enough, you know that the father of Jesus Christ is God the father.
But that's not believing that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.
Believing that Jesus Christ is the Son of God means I believe
that Jesus Christ is the only Savior of sinners. Jesus Christ
is the Father's appointed Savior of an appointed people. I can
show you that from looking at Philip's text that day. Look
back at Isaiah chapter 53. This is the text that Philip
used to preach Jesus to this eunuch. Let's look at it briefly
and see Jesus Christ, the son of God. Verse one, who hath believed
our report? Who's believed our preaching?
And to whom is the arm, the saving arm, the power of the Lord revealed? Well, our report is our message.
It's our message of Christ and him crucified Now who's gonna
believe that report? It's the only message we got.
Christ and Him crucified. Who's gonna believe that? Everybody
that God is pleased to reveal Christ to. They're gonna believe
that message. If the Holy Spirit is pleased
to reveal Christ to you, here's who you will believe. You'll
believe that the Lord Jesus Christ, Jesus of Nazareth, is the Son
of God. He's fully equal. with God the
Father, yet he became a real man, so he could be the representative
of his people. Verse two says, for he should
grow up before him as a tender plant, as a root out of a dry
ground. He got no form nor comeliness.
There's nothing special about his bodily appearance. And when
we see him, there's no beauty that we should desire him. The
Lord Jesus was a real man. He didn't look different than
any other Jewish man anybody else knew. When the Christ child
was born, he was a real baby. His life could have been snuffed
out just as easily as you could snuff out just a little sprig
of corn or whatever, you know, your beans, whatever it is you're
growing. Just that little sprig when it first comes up, how easy
it would be to just step on it and kill it. That was the baby,
Jesus Christ. He was a real baby. His life
could have been snuffed out He was completely dependent on his
mother to keep him alive. But at the same time, that baby
is the eternal father. That's what Isaiah said about
him. He's the eternal father. He couldn't be snuffed out because
he's God. Yet his flesh and life could
be because he's a baby. The God man. Isn't that amazing? If the Holy Spirit is pleased
to reveal Christ to you, here's the next thing you'll see. You'll
see your sin. Verse 3 says, he despised and
rejected of men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. And
we hid as it were our faces from him. He was despised and we esteemed
him not. Now you think of God's purpose,
his gracious, glorious purpose of redemption for his people.
The son of God was made flesh. He humiliated himself to be made
flesh so that He could come where sinners are and He could save
them from their sin. By taking their sin away from
them into His own body upon the tree, by putting that sin away
by the sacrifice of Himself. Oh, how glorious, how gracious,
how loving He is. And you and I are so sinful that
by nature we hate Him. We despise Him. We turn our face
from Him. Some preacher comes along and
tells us, look to Christ and we turn our face from Him. Instead
of looking to Him, we turn our face from Him. We despise Him. By nature, we hate God and we
hate the Lord Jesus Christ, the God of this book. The gospel
message always declares this, the sinfulness of man, the total
depravity of man. Brother Henry made this statement.
He said, there's no use in preaching and offering for sin until we
know we're sinners. Somebody's got to offend our
pride and tell us that we're sinners. The gospel message always
tells of man's sin. I want you and me to be real
clear what I'm saying. When I say the gospel declares
man's sin, what I'm saying is the gospel declares my sin. I'm the problem, my sin. and
your sin. I'm not talking about men in
general that are out there that, you know, want to sleep in on
a Sunday morning and they would never even think about coming
to a church service or like you good people, you know, you all
dress up, you come in here, you know, you're looking real good.
Our sin. Our sin. And the greatest evidence
of our sin nature is this. We don't believe Christ when
we hear him preached. That's our greatest sin. That's
who we are. And if the Holy Spirit is ever
pleased to reveal Christ to me, I will see I desperately need
a Savior. And I'll see I desperately need
a Savior when God makes me a sinner, when he reveals my sin to me.
And then we'll see this, that Savior is the Lord Jesus Christ,
the Son of God, verse four. Surely he hath borne our griefs,
and carried our sorrows. See, if God's gonna accept me,
my sin has to be taken away from me. God can't accept me in my
sin, God's holy. He can't accept me in my sin.
That's what God, God's son in the flesh, came to do for his
people. He took the sin of his people
and he carried it for them. He was made sin for them. Verse
six says, All we like sheep have gone astray, we've turned everyone
to his own way, and the Lord, the Father, hath laid on him,
on Christ, the iniquity of us all. Christ was made sin for
his people, and he carried it away so that our sin cannot condemn
us anymore. You know why your sin can't condemn
you? Because Christ was condemned in your place. That's why. If the Holy Spirit's pleased
to reveal Christ, the Son of God to you, you're gonna see
something. You're gonna see how not just
the mercy of God, not just the grace of God, not just the love
of God, you're gonna see the justice of God. You're gonna
see how Christ satisfied God's justice for you. The death of
Christ made it right for God to be merciful to you. Look at
verse four again. Surely he hath borne our griefs,
and carried our sorrows. Yet we did esteem him stricken,
smitten of God and afflicted, but he was wounded for our transgressions. He is bruised for our iniquities.
The chastisement of our peace was upon him, and with his stripes
we are healed. When the father made his son
sin for his people, you know what the father did? His son,
he spoke from heaven, said, this is my beloved son whom I'm well
pleased. He didn't say that about any other man ever. He did about
his son. He said, I've loved my son from
eternity. But when the father made his
son sin for his people, the father slaughtered his son. He slaughtered
him. He didn't just make his body
an offering for sin, that's horrible enough. He made his soul an offering
for sin. The father plunged the sword
of justice into the soul, into the heart of his son, because
that's what God's justice demands. It demands death perceived. Don't
ever think that at Calvary, there are two guilty men and one innocent
man put to death. I think that wouldn't be just,
would it? To put an innocent man to death. At Calvary, three
guilty men were put to death. The father made his son guilty.
of all of the sin of all of his people, even though he never
committed a sin. The Father made him sin for his
people, yet Christ is always the sinless sacrifice. I don't
have to understand that, I just believe it because that's what
God said. The only way the death of Christ could satisfy justice
for the sin of all of God's people is this, if Christ was made guilty. Christ was made guilty So his
people are made not guilty. By his stripes, we're healed. Peace is made. By his stripes,
we're saved. Verse eight says, he was taken
from prison and from judgment. Who shall declare his generation?
He was cut off out of the land of his people. He truly died.
For the transgression of my people was he stricken. He made his
grave with the wicked and with the rich and his debt. because
or though he had done no violence, neither was any deceit in his
mouth. That's Christ being made guilty
and dying to satisfy God's justice. Now here's something that's very,
very, very important. If we believe that Jesus Christ
is the son of God, then I have to believe he's successful in
everything that he did. If he's God, he's got the power
to bring his will to pass. If he's God, he cannot do something
and fail at it. He can't because he's God. Now
listen to me carefully. The Lord Jesus Christ did not
offer a sacrifice to you and me. He didn't offer a sacrifice
trying to save as many people as someday might decide to accept
him. Christ died for God's elect and
he died only for God's elect. And all of those people, without
any doubt, shall be saved. They shall be saved. See the
are, and the we, and the us, that's all the way through this
chapter 53. You know who that is? That's God's elect. And they
cannot perish. They cannot. Because the death
of Christ took away every reason for them to perish. The only
reason you or I will perish in hell is our sin. If Christ took
my sin away when he was condemned for me, there's no reason that
God would make me perish. God's justice won't allow it. The justice that demanded Christ
die on that center cross at Calvary when he was made sin, that same
justice demands I have eternal life and never perish because
Christ took my sin away. Who shall lay anything to the
charge of God's left? It's God that justifies. Now,
if God justifies you, you can never perish because of what
Christ did for you. If the Holy Spirit reveals Christ
to you, you see Christ as the Son of God, you'll see he's the
sovereign, successful Savior. Verse 10, yet it pleased the
Lord to bruise him. He hath put him to grieve. and
thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin. He'll be successful,
he shall see his seed. He shall prolong his days and
the pleasure of the Lord, the pleasure of the Lord to save
all of his people by the doing and dying of Christ, that shall
prosper in his hand. He shall see of the travail of
his soul. He's not gonna travail in birth
and have a stillborn child that perishes. He shall see the travail
of his soul. and he shall be satisfied. By
his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many, for he
shall bear their iniquities. Therefore will I divide him a
portion with the great, and he shall divide the spoiled with
the strong, because he hath poured out his soul unto death. And
he was numbered with the transgressors, and he bear the sin of many,
and made intercession for the transgressors. See, Christ can't
fail. He can't fail to save one that
the Father gave him to save. they're all gonna come to Him
and find their rest in Him. Now, like I said earlier, anybody
who believes Christ that way, they must be baptized. Not just
you should, you must. See, baptism is the way that
our Lord has commanded us to publicly confess our faith in
Him. And baptism is beautiful. It's beautiful in its simplicity.
It's a confession. of union with Christ. When a
person's baptized, they're confessing, I am such a great sinner. The
only way I can be saved is by the Son of God. The Son of God
in the flesh, that's the only way I can be saved. When Christ
was made sin for me, He died. He died for my sin. And when
He died, I died in Him. He's my representative. I did
everything He did. When He died, I died in Him.
When Christ died so that God's law and God's justice were satisfied
with Him, God's law and God's justice were satisfied with me
too, because I was in Him. When Christ was buried, He truly
died. He's buried, I was buried in
Him. When He rose from the dead because all that sin laid on
Him was gone, I arose too. I arose to new life in Him because
my sin's gone. That's what baptism means. That's
what baptism is confessing. We're not confessing the strength
of our faith. We're not confessing, oh, you know, I sinned less than
I used to, and I'm a super Christian now. This is what we're confessing.
I'm a low-down, rotten, no-good sinner. But the death, the burial,
and the resurrection of the Son of God justify it. That's beautiful,
isn't it? That's beautiful. In just a few
minutes, that's what Lucy's going to confess in Believer's Baptism. And we're going to rejoice with
you. Shawn, you come lead us in a
closing hymn, and we'll get ready for a baptismal service. Okay, if you would, turn in your
hymnals to song number 340. Song number 340, and stand as
we sing nearer, still nearer. Nearer, still nearer, close to
thy heart. Draw me, my Savior, so precious
thou art. Fold me, oh, fold me close to
thy breast. Shelter me safe in that haven
of rest. Shelter me safe in that haven
of rest. Nearer, still nearer, nothing
I bring, not as an offering to Jesus my King. Only my sinful, now contrite
heart Grant me the cleansing Thy blood doth impart. Grant me the cleansing thy blood
doth impart. Nearer, still nearer, Lord, to
be thine. Sin with its follies I gladly
resign. All of its pleasures, pomp and
its pride, Give me but Jesus, my Lord, crucified. Give me but Jesus, my Lord, crucified. Nearer, still nearer, while life
shall last. Till, safe in glory, my anger
is cast through endless ages ever to be. Just like I said last week, I'm so thankful, staying amazed
in God's presence. When he calls any of his elect
to come confess Christ in baptism, it's always very, very joyous.
But when one we've seen born and seen raised here, it's just
emotionally very, very special. Lucy's been, like many of us
have in the past, she'd been struggling with this issue of
baptism for quite some time. And I could see it in her eyes
when I was preaching, just like Ken did last week. I could see
it in her eyes. I told Lucy, her pop gave me
some advice years ago about my daughters that I followed in
her case as well. Pop said, don't say a word. Don't
even go. And I didn't. And Lucy came to
me. And Lucy, now you know. Now you
know about something somebody else did. It's faith God put
in your heart. And Lucy told me, she said, I've
been struggling with this because if God saved me, how come I don't trust Him more?
How come my faith's so weak if God saved me? How do I keep wanting
to trust in my own words? That's a regenerate person. Only
a regenerate person has that struggle. And Lucy told me now,
when I see my sin, weak faith, I see wanting to trust in my
own righteousness is just the worst. Now make me learn to cry. Now what does anger hurt? Be
baptized. Not one thing. And Lucy, we rejoice
with you. So Lucy Lee, upon your profession
and faith in Christ our Savior and obedience to his divine command,
I baptize you, my sister, in the name of the Father, of the
Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Thank you.