I invite you this morning to
turn with me to Luke chapter 3. The gospel according to Luke chapter
3. I want us to read together verses
21 through 23. Luke chapter 3 verse 21. Now when all the people were
baptized, it came to pass that Jesus also being baptized and
praying, the heavens were opened and the Holy Ghost descended
in a bodily shape like a dove upon him. And a voice came from
heaven which said, thou art my beloved son, In thee I am well
pleased. And Jesus himself began to be
about 30 years of age, being as was supposed the son of Joseph. Now Luke is not like the other
writers. The closest writer to him perhaps
was Matthew. But Luke takes his time and he
He's lengthy in his statements and his declarations, and it's
nearly impossible to do a verse-by-verse study in the book of Luke. Sometimes
he'll say something brief, and you can, but most of the time,
you have to take the subjects as he comes to them in his explanations,
and that's what I intend to do this morning. And my subject
this morning is baptism. We've been looking at a man called
John the Baptist, or as it's sometimes stated, John Baptist. His baptism was so much a part
of his ministry that it becomes synonymous with his name. He
was the first to baptize. He was the first prophet commanded
of God to baptize. He alone was instructed to set
the standard, which he did. And he alone, by his illustration,
tells us something of what baptism is. I have three things for us to
consider about baptism as it's set forth in our text. First
of all, John's baptism. and then our Lord's baptism,
and our baptism. So let's begin this morning with
John's baptism. He was the first of the New Testament
ministers to baptize believers, and actually we're told not very
much about how John come to introduce this ordinance to the church,
except to say that John was a prophet And as such, he got his instructions
from the Lord directly. He was a prophet. Men and women
today pretend to have this ability and tell folks that the Lord
tells them things directly, but you can't show me that in scripture.
He did his apostles, and he did his prophets, and on rare occasion,
he spoke to Moses, to Abraham, and a few others. But as a rule,
he doesn't speak directly to men. And then secondly, I know that
this ordinance was given by God because our Lord himself submitted
to it. If this were not of God, if baptism
were not of God, were it not the commandment of God, our Lord
would never have submitted to it. He didn't submit to the any
of the prerequisites of the Jews, they all demanded that you go
to their seminary. They all demanded that you, you
had to fulfill all their expectations of you, and then they would say,
okay, now you're a rabbi. Same way religion does today.
You go to seminary, and if you graduate, then they'll say, okay,
he's a minister. He's a minister. One lady quit
coming here, because she said, I didn't go to seminary. But that's the way it is, and
that's the way it was in the days of John and in the days
of Christ. But I know that this was given
of God because our Lord Himself submitted to it, and in so doing,
He ratified it and declared it to be sanctioned by God, not
only by His personal submission to it, but also by commanding
His disciples to baptize. to include it in the Great Commission. When he sent him forth to preach,
he said, he that believeth and is baptized shall be saved. So our Lord confirms this thing
of baptism. And there's some people that
say, some of the writers, that John's baptism was different
than the baptism of the disciples. But if you carefully examine
the scriptures, and if you can find an example of it, where
the scripture says that it was different, I wanna see it, because
I can't find it. I can't find it. His baptism
was no different than ours. And furthermore, I know that
our Lord was baptized of John, and I know that Andrew, Simon
Peter's brother, was a disciple of John, and therefore John had
no disciples that weren't baptized. So he was baptized by John, and
I believe that they all were. properly baptized by John the
Baptist. In John 1.33, the prophet, or apostle John said, yes, the prophet John, I'm getting
my Johns mixed up. He said this, talking about Christ. I knew him not. But he that sent
me to baptize with water, the same said unto me, upon whom
thou shalt see the Spirit descending and remaining on him, the same
as he which baptizes with the Holy Ghost. God himself instructed
John to baptize. That's what he says here. He
sent me to baptize with water. John was sent to preach the gospel
of Jesus Christ and to make his way clear and plain and so to
introduce to the church the ordinance of baptism which pictures those
very things. It was an ordinance to declare
one's repentance brought about by his remission of sins. Baptism in no way has anything
to do with your sins as far as putting away your sins. Baptism,
that's not what baptism is. But it's because of the remission
of your sins, and this is what you're professing in baptism.
When we talk about repentance, repentance is a turning. And
this turning is demonstrated first by the believer's submission
to God's commandment for him to be baptized. That's your profession
of faith. It's the first commandment of
God and it's to be obeyed. Believers come with a broken
and contrite heart and they come overwhelmed by the goodness and
grace of God that has revealed Christ to them. And they're led
by the goodness of God to repentance. It's the goodness of God, that's
what he said, that leadeth thee to repentance. And John's baptism
was the same as ours. It pictured the death, burial,
and resurrection of Christ, and then ours by union with him. When he died, we died. When he
was judged, we were judged. When God raised him from the
dead and justified him, he justified us. And the scripture goes even
further. It said we ascended with him
and are seated with him in glory. Now that's John's baptism. Now
let's consider the baptism of Jesus Christ. Why must the Son
of God submit to baptism? He had no sin. He had no sin. Why must he submit
to baptism? Why must he be baptized? And
John himself had a question very similar to this. In Matthew 3
verse 13, It said, then cometh Jesus from Galilee to Jordan
unto John to be baptized of him. But John forbade him, saying,
I have need to be baptized of thee, and comest thou to me. Why are you being baptized? I'm
the one who needs to be baptized, and you need to baptize me. And thou comest to me. And Jesus
answering said unto him, suffer it to be so for now. For thus it becometh us to fulfill
all righteousness. And John suffered him. When Jesus
Christ was baptized of John, it was in connection with his
obedience unto death, which constitutes our righteousness. That's our
righteousness. Our righteousness is based on
His obedience, not ours. Whenever fear arises in the faith
of God's elect, that fear comes because you're looking at something
you did not do or something you did do, don't you? But our salvation
and our righteousness doesn't rest on what we do or don't do.
It rests on His obedience. His obedience. And that's what
he told John. It becometh us, he said. It was in connection with his
obedience unto death, which constitutes our righteousness before God.
His loyalty was not in question, nor his willingness to submit
to the will of God. But as our holy representative,
Christ must submit to baptism. You keep that in mind whenever
you're reading about Christ. This is our representative. We're
in him. God put us in a holy union with
him, a covenant union before the foundation of the world,
and we're considered one with him. Our holy representative, he must
obey God and submit to this ordinance for our sake. And what a word
the Holy Ghost uses to describe this baptism of John. Listen to this. He said, suffer
it to be so for now. When we think suffering, we don't
think about that, do we? But that's the word he uses.
There's a holy suffering when we do such things which are are
necessary, yet things of which we're not worthy to do. John
told everybody, he said, I'm not the Christ. I'm not even
worthy to unloose his shoelaces. Don't compare me to him. He's
way above me. I'm just a friend of the bridegroom.
He's the groom. I just stand by him and rejoice
when he speaks. And here's John, and he understood
what Christ was saying. He's a prophet of God. He understood
what he was saying. But he still had to do it. Can
you imagine, Winston, if the Lord come to you and said, I
want you to baptize me, huh? I feel that way sometimes when
I stand to preach. I ought to feel that way all
the time. I'm not worthy to do it. to do these things. Preaching is a necessary thing,
yet it's a thing for which none are worthy. Paul said in 2 Corinthians
3, 5, not that we're sufficient of ourselves to think anything
of ourselves, but our sufficiency is of God. But we suffer it,
we suffer it to be so for now. by God's arranged providence
and his working in John as the holy minister of God, he must
and did baptize our Lord. And I'll tell you something else.
Our Lord walked, and you need to look at this on a map sometime. Our Lord walked from Galilee
to where John was baptizing in Jordan to be baptized. He walked. He didn't get in a
car and drive down there. And I'm telling you, it'll look
to me like nearly a day's journey out to Salem where John was baptizing. And this in itself shows us the
importance of keeping this ordinance. If our Lord thought it was important
enough to walk a day's journey for nothing else except to be
baptized, then we ought to realize how important it is. Now let's consider this, let's
consider our baptism. Luke 3.21, he said, now when
all the people were baptized, there were no disciples of John
who were not baptized. He sent some away, told them
to bring back fruits for repentance and then he'd baptize them. But
he didn't have any disciples who were not baptized. Disciples are followers of Christ. Christ was baptized. His apostles
were baptized. They baptized in turn all the
believers who were converted under their message. There were no disciples of John
who were not baptized. All right, so what is this baptism?
Well, first and foremost, it's the commandment of God. Now, if God told you to jump,
a voice came out of nowhere to tell you to jump, you're going
to stand here and go back and forth, well, I don't really understand
why I need to jump. Is that how you're going to converse
with God? God says jump, you just jump.
I learned that in the military. If that man over me tells me
to jump, jump. If he tells you to duck, duck.
You don't need to know why. We can talk about why some other
time. Baptism is the commandment of
God. Now, I know we found an example
in the scripture. The man dying on the cross, here
he is, he's either nailed or tied off to a cross, and he's
dying on this cross, and in the last minutes of his life, the
Lord saves him. And they say, well, see, he wasn't
baptized. Find me another example. You won't find one. You won't
find one anywhere in the New Testament. Baptism is a commandment of God.
He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved. That's not my
words. That's not the words of the church
council. That's the word of God. That's
what our Lord told his disciples. Go into all the world, preach
the gospel. He that believeth and is baptized
shall be saved. Were you saying baptism's necessary? I'm telling you it's necessary
to obey God. That's what I'm telling you.
Faith obeys God. Now you wanna argue about it,
argue with somebody else. I ain't gonna argue with you.
I'm telling you what the word of God says, and that's what
it says. He that believeth and is baptized
shall be saved. And it's not an option, it's
not a suggestion, and it ain't a recommendation. It's the commandment
of the Lord. And then secondly, baptism is
for believers. Believers alone are led to repentance. Believers alone have been conquered
by God. He's arrested them. He's turning
them. They're willing to submit. They
shall be willing in the day of His power. You don't have to
put him on the spot. You don't have to butt and hold
him in the back of the church. You don't have to go over to
his house and say, now, look, you've been coming here a while.
You ain't been baptized. You don't have to do that with
a believer. As soon as the Ethiopian eunuch heard the gospel, his
next question was, there's water. What does hinder me from being
baptized? Well, you see, old Philip, he
was That man was reading out of Isaiah. There was no New Testament
yet. How in the world he get baptism
out of there? Because Philip preached it to him, that's how. Baptism is for believers. Unbelievers
are commanded to believe and repent and come to Christ. But
baptism is for believers. It's believer's baptism. And
then thirdly, baptism is a confession of faith. How does faith confess
itself? Through baptism. Through baptism. They don't get a... I forget what that thing says
that these religious people got. They got a little something.
It's a little pin or a button or something in there. I profess faith, or something
like that, or I believe. Baptism, that's how you profess
faith. Baptism. It's a picture of the
gospel as it sets forth the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ
and our union with him. Do you have another hope? Is
your hope based on something that you might do sometime in
the future? Your hope built on your willingness
What is your hope? You wake up tomorrow morning,
you died in your sleep, and now you're standing before God. What's
your hope? My hope is my union with Christ. If God has not put me in Christ,
if he's not led me to Christ and gave me faith to believe
in Christ, I'm a goner. I don't care how much church
going you do. I don't care how much aisle walking you do. I
don't care how holy you live the rest of your life. Salvation
is to be in Christ. That's what it is. All of it.
All of it. People are being pushed to make
decisions. They're being pushed to do this
and do that. It's not laying hold of something,
it's turning loose. It's turning loose of everything.
If there's any laying hold to do, we lay hold to Christ. But
you can't do that without him. It's all of him. Baptism is a
confession of faith. Somehow, we've got this thing
turned around in our generation, but the scripture says salvation's
of the Lord. He saved sinners. Chosen sinners. Sinners he chose in his son before
the foundation of the world. And he put us into a covenant
union with his son. And when a man and a woman marry,
there's a covenant union formed and they become one. That's what
the scripture said. They too shall be one flesh.
They're one. She bears his name. And I'll
tell you right now, I don't care who it offends, this whole thing
in marriage now where you retain your name and you don't take
your husband's name, you're not married. I'm sorry. The woman
bears his name. Are you ashamed to bear Christ's
name? We're married to him. We're the
bride of Christ. We're gonna take his name? Are
we ashamed of it? He said, if you're ashamed of
me here, I'll be ashamed of you there. Salvation's of the Lord. People marry, she takes to herself
his name and she bears his name and he assumes her debt and becomes
her provider, becomes her provision. In much the same way, our Lord
uses this relationship to define our relationship with him. Husbands,
love your wives, now listen, as Christ loved the church. But how'd he show that love?
He gave himself for it. That's what he did. He held nothing back, he spared
nothing. He that spared not his own son,
how shall he not also with him freely give us all that? Paul said, he quoted back in
Genesis, he said, for this cause shall a man leave his father
and mother and shall be joined unto his wife and they too shall
be one flesh. He said, this is a great mystery.
It's a mystery. People been writing about it
since the beginning of time. It's a great mystery. But he
said, I speak concerning Christ and the church. God put us in Christ before he
ever created the first man or woman. Did you know that? Men and women weren't even created
yet. There was no garden, there was no earth, there was no universe,
there was nothing there. When he talks about darkness
was upon the face of the deep, he's talking about eternity.
In all eternity, there's no light, there's nothing that manifests
the presence of God. There's nothing out here. God
can't be known. His solitariness, he's one with
himself. And then the Spirit of God moved
upon the face of the deep. And God said, let there be light.
He wasn't talking about putting the sun in the heaven. He's talking
about making a light to manifest his person and his glory. That's
what he's talking about. Then he created the sun and then
he created men. Then he created the animals and
the earth and the universe. God put us in Christ before he
ever created the first man or woman. Listen to this in Romans
6 verse 3. He said, know ye not that so
many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into
his death? When that preacher told you and
takes you down to that water, that's what's going on. That's
what's being pictured. You're union with him when he
was buried. And then not of your power, but
of God's power, you're raised up out of that water. And you're
raised up to walk in newness of life. Therefore we're buried with him
by baptism unto death, 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. Faith confesses a divine union
in Christ our Savior and pictures the very heart of that faith
in his death, burial, and resurrection. And then baptism, I want to say
this, is by immersion. Don't let some wise man start
giving you definitions and details of how sprinkling is baptism. Sprinkling in no way pictures
the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ. And especially if
you start sprinkling babies. The scripture said John baptized
in Enon near Salem because there was much water there. Luke, you don't need much water
to sprinkle. In ignorance, I had my daughter
go to a Trinity Lutheran Church, because that's where her grandmother
attended, and had my oldest daughter baptized, and he took a little
bit of water from this little vessel, and he sprinkled it on
Mrs. Hayden. I didn't know any better
back in the day. Didn't know any better. Babies
aren't commanded to be baptized anywhere in the scripture, just
believers. Just believers. But you don't need a lot of water
to sprinkle. He had enough in a cup. I dare
say that Ethiopian eunuch that was going through the wilderness,
though it was a dry place, he had water. He was a man of substance,
he had water. And all he had to do was pour
a little on his hand and sprinkle it, Philip, and he could have
baptized the eunuch. Sprinkling is not baptism. John
baptized in Enon near Salem because there was much water there. It says this, after Christ was
baptized, he came straight way up out of the water. If you sprinkle
somebody, they can't come out of the water because they've
never been in the water. They just stand in there and you sprinkle
some water on them. He was out in the water. And
there's no significance of a man walking out in the water just
to be sprinkled with it. I fear that the reason there's
so much controversy over baptism is because there's so much ignorance
about how God saves sinners. God saves sinners by, in, and
through the Lord Jesus Christ. And He saves us by satisfying
the justice of God. and providing us with a righteous
salvation. He saves us by the accomplished
redemption of his son, and then he reveals it all to all for
whom he died. He's gonna bring them to see
that, and they're gonna confess it, and they're gonna confess
it in the way God told them to confess it. There's no way you can picture
that, but Franklin, done by divine union, by substitution, and so
this ordinance was ordained by God to picture that very thing.
And then I want to say this and I'll close. Baptism is an act. It's a public act by which believers renounce
their former religion. They're going out in public.
That's the one thing I've got against baptism in the churches.
We're baptizing in here behind closed doors. We're gonna have
a baptistry, we oughta have it right out here in the front.
We oughta put some kind of little small pool or baptismal pool
or something out there that we can use so that everybody driving
by can see it. Baptism is a public profession
of Christ. They took those men and women
and they had a big crowd there and they took them right down
into the river and baptized them. It's a public act. And our Lord
treated this ordinance with the highest esteem, both by example
and by his inclusion in the gospel commission. And therefore, you
and I should never regard baptism with indifference or as a matter
of little importance. Well, we just want to get the
important back. Well, you better not skip over
baptism then, because it's important. And as our Lord's baptism marked
his future suffering, so it is with ours. It's our public profession
of Christ that begins to bring on the onslaught of suffering. It's putting on, Barnard said,
it's putting on the uniform of the kingdom of God, so much so
that he speaks of baptizing some for the dead. 1 Corinthians 15. And what's he talking about there?
He's talking about baptizing them to martyrdom. I'm telling
you, in some of those countries, to go out there to that river
and be baptized was to mark you out for death. So don't you think they'd been
better off not to do it? Ask one of them. They all did
it. May the Lord teach us something
about his blessed ordinance. Thank you.