Let's turn again to 1 Peter chapter
3. I titled the message this morning,
The Answer of a Good Conscience. A good conscience is priceless,
isn't it? It's just horrible to live with
a bad conscience. A bad conscience is a guilty
conscience because you've done wrong and that guilty conscience
just never lets up, just constantly reminding you of your guilt,
never letting your mind rest. And a guilty conscience is so
common because sinners are guilty. Everything we've done is wrong.
We ought to have a guilty conscience. Now, the opposite end, an innocent
person. An innocent person has a good conscience because they
didn't do anything wrong. They don't have anything to feel
guilty about. Now, hold your place there. Look over, I should
have told you this first. Hebrews chapter 9, this is where we're
going to start. Hebrews chapter 9. An innocent
person has a good conscience. That's the only person who can
have a good conscience. But do you know it's possible
for a sinner who's never done anything but sin, it's possible
for a sinner to have a good conscience. But only in the Lord Jesus Christ.
Now, it's only in Christ. Religious activity, religious
ceremonies will never give you a good conscience. Hebrews 9,
verse 6. Now when these things were thus
ordained, the priest went always into the first tabernacle, accomplishing
the service of God. But into the second went the
high priest alone, once every year, not without blood, which
he offered for himself and for the heirs of the people. The
Holy Ghost is signifying that the way into the holiest of all
was not yet made manifest while the first tabernacle was yet
standing. which was a figure and it was only a figure for
the time then present in which were offered both gifts and sacrifices,
which could not make him that did the service perfect as pertaining
to the conscience. Going through all that religious
ceremony could not give anybody a perfect conscience, a good,
clear conscience. Baptism is a religious ceremony,
for lack of a better word, And if a person's baptized trying
to get a clear conscience, they're going to be sorely disappointed
because all it is is a religious ceremony. It's only a picture
of how we're cleansed in Christ. It's not going to cleanse the
flesh and cleanse us from sin at all. The water's baptism moment.
A good conscience can only be had in Christ himself, not in
the picture, but in the person. Look at verse 11, Hebrews 9.
But Christ, being come a high priest of good things to come,
by a greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands,
that is to say, not of this building, neither by the blood of goats
and calves, but by his own blood, he entered in once into the holy
place, having obtained eternal redemption for us. For the blood
of bulls and of goats, and the ashes of an heifer, sprinkling
the unclean, sanctifies to the purifying of the flesh. How much
more? to the blood of Christ, who through
the eternal spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your
conscience, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the
living God. Now, a good conscience is a conscience
that's been purged. A good conscience doesn't have
to find a way to make God happy with me by what I do. If you're
trying to make God happy with you by how well you do, how well
you live, how well you obey the law, what a kind, moral person
you are, those things are just dead works. They're going to
lead to death. A good conscience just rests
in Christ, who already did everything that was necessary to save my
soul. He already obeyed the law for me, so I don't have to. He
already put away my sins, so I don't have to. A good conscience
just looks to Christ, just rests in Christ. That's how to have
a good conscience. That trying to follow the law, trying to
find the mandate of the law, will never give you a good conscience.
Hebrews 10 verse 1. For the law, having a shadow
of good things to come, and not the very image of the things,
can never, with those sacrifices which they offered year by year
continually, make the comers thereunto perfect. For then,
if those sacrifices made them perfect, then will they not have
ceased to be offered? because that the worshippers
once purged should have had no more conscience of sins. But
they did have conscience of sins because in those sacrifices,
there's a remembrance again made of sins every year where it's
not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take
away sin. Following all those mandates
of the law will never give anybody a good conscience. You try to
follow the mandates of the law in order to have a good conscience,
all the law is going to do is give you bad conscience. It's
going to continually remind you of your sin. But Christ, he gives
his people a good conscience by making them perfect. Verse
14. For by one offering, he hath
perfected forever them that are sanctified. Christ gives his
people a good conscience by taking all their sin away. They got
nothing to feel guilty about. And it's the sacrifice of Christ
that let us draw near to God with a good conscience. We come
before God, almighty, holy God who sees everything, who knows
everything. We can come before him with a
good conscience in the sacrifice of Christ because his sacrifice
cleanses from all sin. Verse 19, having therefore brethren
boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, by new
and living way, which he had consecrated for us through the
veil. That is to say his flesh, and having a high priest over
the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart and full
assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil
conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. We're washed
in the blood of Christ. We have a good conscience that
gives us boldness to come before God. All right, now back to our
text. This is what I want us to see
this morning. The only way that a sinner can have a good conscience
is by looking to Christ, by being washed in his blood, by being
made righteous in his obedience, not in my obedience. And Peter
here gives us, this is the Christ. This is the gospel that gives
a good conscience. This is the Christ. This is the
gospel that a good conscience will always confess. Verse 18
of 1 Peter chapter 3. For Christ also has once suffered
for sins, the just for the unjust. that he might bring us to God,
being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the spirit.
Now, first, the gospel tells us how Christ suffered for sins. How did Christ suffer for sin?
Really, a better question is this. Everybody knows he suffered
for sin, right? Well, this is the question. Whose
sin? Whose sin caused him to suffer
like that? Well, it wasn't his own sin, was it? No, he's the
only perfect man to ever live. Christ is the sinless sacrifice
that enables his blood to put away the sin of his people. Christ
suffered for the elect. He suffered for the sins of his
people, those people who are the unjust. Christ, the just
one, suffered for the sins of his people, and he suffered for
all of their sin, all of it. Now, this is a miracle of God's
grace. The father made his son sin for
his people so that his people would be made the righteousness
of God in Christ. And when a person is baptizing,
this is what they're confessing. They're confessing, I'm a sinner.
I need a savior. All I do is sin. I cannot save
myself. I can't make myself righteous.
I am the unjust that Peter's talking about here. But this
is what they're also confessing. I'm a sinner, but Christ suffered
for my sin. Christ died for my sin to satisfy
God's justice for me. When a person is baptized, this
is what they're confessing. I am so sinful. The only way
that I can be saved, the only way my sin can be cleansed is
if the son of God himself died in my place to put my sin away.
Second, the gospel declares this. Christ is the successful Savior. Let me ask you this question.
Christ is the successful Savior. He shall not fail. That's what
Scripture says. All right. Well, then did Christ
die for everybody? Did He give everybody a chance
to be saved? Now did He? Did Christ die for everyone and
they'll be saved if they just decide to let Jesus be the King
of their heart? They just decide to accept Jesus as their personal
Savior. Is that so? Is that so according
to Scripture? No, it's not. If that was so,
Christ died for everybody, gave everybody a chance to be saved.
If they just choose him, that would mean Christ is a failure
as a Savior. He's a mighty poor Savior because
hell is full of people. If he died for somebody still
in hell, why wouldn't he be my Savior for? There's no sure thing
there. I'm thankful Christ died for his people. The salvation
of my soul is not up to me. In any way, it's not up to me.
is up to God. Salvation is God's choosing,
and I'm thankful. I never, ever would have chosen
God unless He chose me first. God chose to save sinners. That's
the only way I could be saved. And I'm thankful that the success
of Christ's sacrifice does not depend upon me deciding to accept
it, but that He is going to cross my will He'll give me a new heart
and a new will that will believe Him, that will love Him. But
that's His doing, not mine. I'm thankful the success of Christ's
sacrifice does not depend upon me living well enough to keep
it. Because if I was so, I'd lose it in a heartbeat, and so
would you. The success of the sacrifice of Christ depends upon
Him, upon His power to save, upon His power to call, upon
His power to give the new birth, upon His power to keep, and to
bring us to the Father. It all depends upon the person
of the Lord Jesus Christ. And the gospel declares that
the Lord Jesus Christ is the successful Savior. He died to
bring his people to God. To bring them to God. He's not
waiting on them to come. He's going to bring them to God.
Now I know that Peter says here that he might bring us to God.
But there's no might about it. So I look that up. I want to
know, what does this word might mean? And I am certainly no Greek
scholar at all. But if you look up in Strong's,
each word has a little number by it, a Strong's number. You
look that number up, and it tells you what the word means. Well,
the word might doesn't have a little number by it. In the Greek, the
word might bring is one word. And it means to bring. It means
to lead to. There's no might about it. There's
no maybe. There's no possibility about
it. Christ died to bring his people, to lead his people to
God. No one for whom Christ died will
ever perish because he's the successful savior. There's no
reason that God would condemn anyone for whom Christ died.
Not one single solitary reason, because Christ made him sinless.
That's what justified means. made sinless, made so that we
have never sinned, because the blood of Christ cleanses us from
what? All sin. All sin, so that we're
justified in Him. There's no reason for God to
condemn anyone for whom Christ died. And the proof that Christ
is a successful Savior, that He did indeed save all of His
people from their sin, He was put to death in the flesh. Christ
actually died. They took a dead body down from
that tree, wrapped it up, did whatever they did to it, and
put it in a tomb and rolled a stone in front of it. They put a dead
body in there because the law demands death for sin. Christ
is going to be our substitute. He must die in the flesh. But
brethren, He didn't stay dead. He rose again. He was quickened
by the Spirit. Christ rose again. There's no
reason for Him to stay dead. Death could not keep hold upon
him, because all the sin charged to him at Calvary is gone under
his blood. There's no reason for him to
stay dead. Romans chapter 5. Christ was put to death in the
flesh, but quickened by the Spirit. That declares him to be the successful
Savior. He saved everyone for whom he
died. I said Romans 5, Romans 4, Romans
4 verse 25, who was delivered for our offenses, delivered for
the offenses of his people and raised again for our justification. The resurrection of Christ is
the proof he justified all of his people from their sin. That's
the gospel that we preach. In just a nutshell, that is the
gospel that we preach. is in the Lord Jesus Christ.
Salvation is the Lord Jesus Christ. And the success of that salvation
completely depends upon Christ. I work right hard every week
on messages to bring to you. I work hard to find God's will,
to find His message for His people. I work hard begging God to show
me Christ in the text. that I might preach Christ to
you. I work hard at that. I go over my notes. I did it
again this morning. Went over my notes and looked at every
word. I want every word to be clear. I want every word to be
something the smallest child in here can understand. I don't
want you to leave here not believing Christ because you didn't understand
what I said. I said something that sounded like a great theologian,
but you had no idea what I said. I work hard at that. But this
is my rest. I could just rest in this. It
doesn't depend upon me. I want to be the best preacher
I can be, but it don't depend on me. It all depends upon Christ
Himself. He is the one that comes and
speaks to the hearts of His people. You hear me to your dying day,
not do you any good, but when Christ speaks to your heart,
you'll have life. It all depends upon Him. And
he knows his lost sheep. He knows where they're at. He
knows what they need, and he comes to them. And what does
he do? He brings them to God. The success
of our preaching depends upon Christ. Look at verse 19. He's
quickened by the Spirit, by which, by that Spirit also, he went
and preached unto the spirits in prison. Christ is the one
who goes and speaks to the hearts of his people. They're in the
prison. of sin. They're in the prison
of the law. They're in prison of darkness. But Christ comes
and he speaks to their hearts. And when Christ speaks to the
heart, he sets his people free. He sets them free from the bondage
of the law. He says, come on, mean rest.
He sets them free from that awful, horrible prison of sin by putting
their sin away. He sets them free from their
darkness by being their light. When Christ speaks to the heart,
his people live, his people go free. And that's where salvation
has always and only ever been. It's only ever been in Christ. I know the Old Testament is full
of the law and ceremonies and people following those things,
but salvation was never obtained through the law, through the
ceremonies, through men keeping it. The law and the ceremonies
were only given for this one reason. The only reason we have
the law, the only reason we have the ceremonies, the only reason
we have all those Old Testament pictures and types and stories.
The only reason we have is this one reason. They all point to
Christ. Boy, the law does that, doesn't
it? When you read the law, can you possibly imagine that you
can keep that? Of course not. So what does the
law do then? It points you to Christ who did
keep it. See that? That's what that Christ
has always been, God's Savior of His people. And Peter makes
that very clear to us. He gives us two examples, two
pictures that show us that salvation is in Christ. The first one he
gives us is from the Old Testament to show us salvation wasn't in
the law. Salvation's always been in Christ.
He gives us a picture of that. Then he gives us an example,
a picture from the New Testament to show us that Christ is our
only hope of salvation. Now the Old Testament example
that Peter uses is Noah. Look at verse 20, where sometime
were disobedient. When once the long suffering
of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was a preparing
were in few, that is eight souls were saved by water. I look over
at second Peter chapter two. You know, we all think of Noah,
we think of Noah and the ark, but you know, Noah was a whole
lot more than a boat builder. Noah was a preacher. Second Peter
two verse five. and spared not the old world,
but saved Noah, the eighth person, a preacher of righteousness,
bringing in the flood upon the world of the ungodly." Noah was
a preacher of righteousness. All of the time, Noah was building
that ark. He was preaching righteousness.
He was preaching righteousness in Christ. He was preaching salvation,
redemption in Christ. All the time, he was building
that ark. I don't know how much he said, Sounds to me like he
preached and said, this thing's in Christ. But you know what?
When Noah got done building that ark, you know what he built?
He built a picture of Christ, a picture you cannot mistake.
When that ark was finished, animals were called in. Those animals
just came to that ark. Why'd he make them do that? He
made them come to that ark. All the animals were in the ark.
And God said, now Noah, go in the ark. Noah and his family
went in and God shut the door. Not one drop of rain fell upon
the earth until Noah was safe from that ark. Because that rain,
I was going to say it's a picture, but that rain was God's wrath
on sin, wasn't it? God rained upon the earth. He
caused those floods waters to come up because of sin on the
earth. And not one drop of God's wrath for sin fell upon Noah. Now Noah was a sinful man, but
not one drop of God's wrath fell upon Noah. God didn't hold back his wrath
against Noah. God poured out all of his wrath upon Noah's
sin upon the earth, but not one drop of it hit Noah. It all fell
upon the ark. Noah was saved from God's wrath
by being in the ark. That is the message that Noah
preached, that salvation is in God's ark, the Lord Jesus Christ. The wrath of God fell upon the
sins of His people, but it all fell upon Christ, our ark. God's
elect are saved from wrath in Him, in Christ. But you know,
this business of being in the ark lasted longer than 40 days,
didn't it? After the rain quit, water was still upon the face
of the earth for many days. If Noah hadn't been in the ark,
it wouldn't rain anymore. The waters weren't going up anymore.
But if Noah wasn't in that ark, he'd be out there treading water.
He'd have died before that water went down. Noah was kept safe. Why? Because he was in the ark. In the ark. Floating on top of
those flood waters. Floating upon the top of God's
wrath against sin on this earth. That's a picture of Christ saving
his people. and then keeping His people saved,
keeping them in Him, and bring all of them to glory. See, that's
a picture, isn't it? Salvation's all in Christ from
beginning to end. Salvation is in the Lord Jesus
Christ. Now, is there anybody here this
morning that knows they're lost? Now, there are lost people here,
but is there anybody here that knows they're lost? Is there
anybody here that desires to be saved? Do you desire to be
saved from your sin? I have such a simple answer for
you. Get in Christ. Just get to Christ. Just be like that woman with
the issue of blood. Don't let anything stop you from
getting to Him. You just get in Christ and you
will be saved. Are you a sinner that deserves
God's wrath? Then run to Christ for refuge
and you will be saved. If you're in Christ, you will
be saved because Christ already bore all of the wrath, all of
the death, all of the condemnation that you deserve. Just get in
Christ. That's where salvation is found.
See, the ark was not salvation, was it? The ark was just a picture
of salvation. Christ is salvation. You know,
people spend a lot of time, I see it every once in a while on TV,
they're trying to find, they've been trying to do it for years
and years and years, trying to find that ark. They think that they've
seen in a mountain, you know, somewhere covered with ice, they
think the ark is there and if they could just get to it, you
know, but the terrorists who control the area won't let them
get to it. Let me tell you what, they're never going to find that
ark. Never going to find it, ever. Now, first of all, whatever
it is under that ice, I'd just bet you anything it's not the
ark. When Noah got off that ark, he used that wood for fire. He
used that wood to build him a house. I don't think the ark exists
anymore. But if it is there under that ice, I can promise you this,
no son of Adam is ever going to find it. Because if we do,
what's going to happen? We're going to make an idol out
of it. Somebody built one in Kentucky. You know, just make
an idol out of it. Salvation is not intangible thing. Salvation is not in trinkets.
The same thing is true about the Ark of the Covenant, the
cross that Christ died upon. Nobody's ever going to find it
because we make an isle out of it. But I'll tell you where you'll
find salvation. In this book. This book that
reveals the Lord Jesus Christ. Christ is the real McCoy. He is salvation. Now you get
in here. Salvation's in here. That's the
Old Testament illustration. And to show us that Christ is
the message of all the scripture, Peter gives us a New Testament
picture that shows us that salvation is found by being in Christ. And the New Testament picture
he uses is baptism. Verse 21. The like figure whereunto
even baptism doth also now save us, not to put away the filth
of the flesh. The waters of baptism don't wash
away any sin on our flesh. But baptism is the answer of
a good conscience toward God by the resurrection of Jesus
Christ. Now, baptism does not save. If
you want to be saved, don't be baptized in order to be saved.
It's not the putting away the filth of the flesh. If you try
to be saved by being baptized, what did Brother Henry tell us
so many years? All we're going to have in our hands is a wet
sin. It's not going to make any difference. What is baptism? Baptism is a picture. It's just
like the Lord's table. It's a picture. Like I said in
the lesson this morning, the bread and the wine we're going
to take Wednesday night, that's not going to turn into the body
of Christ and the blood of Christ. It's a picture. How we're saved
through the sacrifice of Christ. His body broken for us. His precious,
pure blood shed for us. That's how we're saved. Well,
baptism is the same thing. It's a picture of how we're saved
through the death and the burial and the resurrection of Christ,
our substitute. Baptism is a picture that we're
saved by being in Christ. Christ died for the sin of his
people. And he really died. That's why
he was buried in a tomb. And that's what we picture in
salvation. We take a person, we dunk them under the water.
We put them all the way under the water. That's a picture of
a burial. Baptism's not sprinkling. Baptism is dunking. It's immersion
under the water to picture a burial. You know, we have a dead corpse.
If I loved him, we don't dig a hole and put him down on the
ground and just throw some dirt in their face and walk away. No,
you've got to bury that body. That's the person being baptized.
Christ died for my sin. He actually died. He had to be
buried. But baptism is not taking that person under the water and
then holding them down, is it? That wouldn't be a very joyous
thing. We take that person, we don't hold them under the water
very long. We bring it right back up because it's a picture
of redemption in Christ. Christ died for our sin, but
he was resurrected from the grave because he put the sin of his
people away. When a person is baptized, this is what they're
confessing. They're confessing that when
Christ died, he died for me. For me, he died for sin. He died for my sin. I've, as long as I can remember,
I've always known Christ died for a people. He died for a multitude
no man can number. I mean, it's easy to teach any
human mind, but it's another matter altogether, a matter of
divine revelation. I know Christ died for a multitude,
but I'm baptized. This is what I'm confessing.
He died for me. He died for my sins. Christ is
all of my salvation. He's my only hope of salvation.
And I'm baptized in obedience to Him. Obedience. Because this
is the way the Savior commanded for us to publicly confess Him.
Believer's baptism. Now, when Matt asked me to baptize
him, this is what he told me. This is what all brought me to
this text this morning. He told me, he said, this is
not something that I have to do. I don't have to do this in
order to be saved. This is something that I want
to do. I want to confess the Savior.
I want to follow Him. I want to confess Christ. Matt
told me he was baptized as a young boy. But he said, I didn't know
I was a young boy. He was baptized in false religion.
He said, I was dead. What people had in their hands
was a wet sinner. Just a religious ceremony. But he said, now I
believe Christ. I want to be baptized. And I
thought, I got my message for Sunday. That is the answer of
a good conscience. That you would have a good conscience.
I told you to open the service. A good conscience is priceless. Would you have a good conscience?
Would you get rid of your bad conscience that's always reminding
you how guilty you are? Well, if you would have a good
conscience, my friend, you've got to quit. You've got to quit
looking to anything that you've done or anything that you're
doing right now. Every believer says this every
single day. How can I do that? Well, what if you didn't do that?
Whatever it was you did, what if you didn't do that? Would
you have a good conscience? You ought not. If you would have
a good conscience, don't look to how well you're living. If
you do that, if you look to how well am I living, how well am
I doing, how well am I stacking up to the law, you'll always
have a bad conscience. Unless your conscience is serious,
you'll always have a bad conscience. If you would have a good conscience,
look to Christ. If you would have a good conscience,
just rest in Christ. His obedience to the law is all
it took to make you righteous. His sacrifice, the blood of his
sacrifice, is all it took to wash you from all of your sin.
If Christ has washed you in his blood, what have you got to be
guilty of? You know what God said? Because of the sacrifice
of Christ, their sins and their iniquities, I remember no more. The only explanation for me trying
to go find my sin and see how well I stack up against the law
is a dead fallen nature. If God said there's sin and iniquity,
why remember no more? Because he looks to Christ. And
why don't I, if I would have a pure conscience, all I've got
to do is rest in Christ. When the father says he looks
at his son and he says, that's enough. Good conscience does the same
thing. Looks to Christ and says, that's enough. That's all it
takes to save me and make me perfect. In closing, let me give
you three ways that baptism is an answer of a good conscience.
Number one, the answer of a good conscience is that the life of
Christ is all it took to make me righteous. Now my life is
full of sin. Sin is all that I do. In verse
20, when Peter talked about those disobedient ones, sometimes we're
disobedient. That's me. I was all the time
disobedient. But I don't have to try to do something to make
that up to God. I have a good conscience. Because
Christ is my life. His obedience that He lived and
had as a life as a man is enough. That's all it takes to make me
righteous. Because I was in Christ. What He did, I did. So I'm perfect
in him. So I have a good conscience.
The answer of a good conscience is nothing bothers me because
I'm in Christ. His life is my life. Second,
the answer of a good conscience is the death of Christ. It's
all it takes to justify me, to satisfy justice. Now again, all
I do is sin. I have to do something to even
those scales up a little bit so God will be happy with me.
If Christ died for me, My conscience is satisfied because justice
has been satisfied through the death of Christ. I don't have
to fear the death of this body and fear going to face God in
judgment because Christ was already judged for me. He already satisfied
justice for me. So I've got nothing to fear.
The confidence of my salvation is not in seeing that I sin less
than I used to. You'll find no confidence there.
Confidence in salvation is seen in Christ by righteousness. He
made me righteous by obeying the law for me. By his death,
washed away all my sin. That's what a good conscience
says. And thirdly, the answer of a good conscience is that
the resurrection of Christ guarantees eternal life for me. I was in
Christ. When Christ lived and he obeyed
the law, I did too. When Christ died, it satisfied
justice for me. When He died, I died in Him.
And when Christ arose again, without any sin, I arose in Him. I did too. So now I have life. I have spiritual life. I have
a life of faith in Christ. I have a life following Christ
and serving Him in love. Serving Him, I have a thankful
heart. Not because I have to. Not because I'm trying to earn
something from Him. But I have a loving, thankful heart. A heart
of faith. And that life, cannot be lost. It's eternal life. I live because
Christ lived. Christ was raised from the dead.
He spent about 40 days here on the earth, and then he ascended
back to the Father, where he sits ever living, making intercession
for the sin of his people. I live because he lives. And really, the only answer that
a good conscience can give is believer's baptism. A good conscience
does not have to give a wonderful, great theological thesis on salvation. The only answer a good conscience
can give is the simple command of our Lord, Believer's Baptism.
That I was in Him, through His death, His burial, and His resurrection. I have a good conscience because
Christ put all of my sin away. Now you remember the eunuch.
All of you all know the story of Philip and the eunuch very
well. Philip appeared to that eunuch. I can just imagine That
man, he must have been a brilliant man. I mean, all of what he was
in charge of for the queen must have been a brilliant man. He
got hold of a copy of Isaiah 53, one of the clearest passages
in all of God's word. And he's reading it. He didn't
understand it. He knows it's talking about somebody, but he
don't know who. And he's reading it. And Philip
comes up to him and asks him, you understand what you're reading?
He said, how can I, except some man should guide me. Somebody
got to show me. Somebody got to tell me. Philip said, you
want me to tell you what that means? He said, come up here
in this chair with me. And Philip began to write that
very text where he was, Isaiah 53. And he preached Christ to
him. And they were going along, and the eunuch said, stop everything,
stop everything. He said, here's water. What doth hinder me to
be baptized? And Philip said, if you believe
with all of your heart, you may. If you believe Christ, you may
be baptized. The only qualification for believer's
baptism is to believe. It's faith. Actually, if you
believe Christ with all of your heart, you must be baptized. Because that's the only answer
your new good conscience can give, is to confess Christ in
believer's baptism. And that's what we're going to
do right now. Brother Matt Basden is going
to come confess His Lord and believers baptism that we rejoice. Mike's going to lead us in singing
a song and then we'll have our baptism service. Let's stand and Sing 190, 1-9-0. Bless the name of Christ the
Lord. We bless the name of Christ the
Lord, we bless him for his holy word, who loved to do his Father's
will and all his righteousness. We follow Him with pure delight
To sanctify His sacred right And thus our faith with water
still, To prove obedience that we feel. Baptized in God the Father, Son,
And Holy Spirit, three in one, With conscience free we rest
in God, In love and peace through Jesus' blood. ? By grace we have a father cry
? By grace the comforter comes nigh ? And for thy grace our
love shall be ? Forever only, Lord for ever Let's sing the third one again.
Baptized in God, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, three in
one, with conscience free, we rest in God, in love and peace
through Jesus' blood. Matt came to us a little over
a year ago, a year and a half ago. And I was delighted when
I first met him, a delightful young man and his family. And
I could tell right off that he knew the doctrine. He'd had some
good teaching. But it didn't seem like very
long. And I felt like that Matt had
met the person. It makes all the difference in
the world. And I'm just delighted, so thankful in God's mercy to
his people. I don't care where they're at,
what it is that they're doing, God's going to call out his sheep.
If you can cross their path with the gospel, He's going to give
them faith to believe Him and to follow Him. And we delight
with our brother, Matt. Matt Bateman, in obedience to
the divine commandment of Christ our Savior, and upon your profession
of faith in Him, I baptize you, my brother, in the name of the
Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. Matthew, come stand down here. Dan, would you lead us in prayer?
And after Dan leads us in prayer, y'all come down here and greet
our Father. Let's pray. Our Heavenly Father, we thank
you for the mercy you've shown. upon sinners. We are so so blessed. To be a part of you calling your
sheep into your fold. Father, we pray that you would
continue to bless this work here. That you would. Send your spirit
to be among us that you would anoint the word. Delivered by your your pastor. Lord, leave us not alone, but
cause us in all things to look to our Lord Jesus Christ. To
confess daily. We are dead. Buried. And risen again to new life in
our Lord Jesus Christ. Thank you for your mercy. Continue
to bless. Continue to glorify the name
of our Lord Jesus Christ. We ask all these things in His
name.