My message this morning, I've
titled, The Confession of Faith. I don't really have a text, but
I'm going to use 2 Timothy chapter 1 and verse 12. It's as close
as I can come to what it is that I'm going to teach you this morning. Paul was a taken prisoner. He suffered persecution like
no other man. He was a missionary in a strange
land among people who were opposed to the gospel. He was persecuted,
beaten, imprisoned, falsely charged with things. And he said, for the which cause,
verse 12, I also suffered these things. That is because of the gospel
that he preached and believed. Nevertheless, he said, I'm not
ashamed. I'm a prisoner, but I'm not ashamed. I've been mistreated, but I'm
not ashamed. I'm not well accepted, but I'm
not ashamed. For I know whom I had believed. Now listen to what he says again.
I know whom I have believed. And I am persuaded that he is
able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that
day. That is the confession of faith. This man. Now it will be my privilege
this morning I baptized a young man who's been coming here now
for about three years. And I don't mean to embarrass
him, but I remember some of our early conversations when he first
came. And he told me about a very young
profession of faith that he had and an experience. Everybody
has experiences. I used to have them once a month.
when I was growing up, seems like, looking back on it. But
he was just sure that he was saved. He just knew that. And that's what he looked back
to. He looked back to that experience and that profession of faith.
And I didn't say anything to him. I didn't say a word to him
about it. I just tried to encourage him
to look to Christ. And then as time went on, He
began to examine himself in the light of the Gospel and the Word
of God and found himself troubled. That refuge was not near as strong
as it was before he heard the Gospel. And he began to look
at that refuge, and that refuge just didn't look like it would
stand. And he was troubled. He was troubled. And his conversations went from
casual to urgent and serious. We had some serious talks about
the gospel. Some serious talks about man
and sin and what sin is. And then after a while, he began
to seriously and sincerely seek the Lord. To know Him. To know who He is. To listen. To listen. How many times have
I been to church and never listened? Sent through the service, sang
the song, read the bulletins, listened to the prayers, and
went away and didn't hear anything. I didn't listen. I didn't listen. I didn't have a heart to listen.
I didn't have a heart to listen. He wanted to know Him. And what's more, he wanted to
know if he knew Him. How does one know if he knows
Him? These are the questions. This
is how this thing, this is a true experience of grace. Now, I'm
not going to answer for him if it's true or false, but I'm just
telling you this is how a true experience of grace runs. A man has things that he's believed
all of his life, and he comes and he hears and he finds out
that these things are a falsehood. These things are just not in
the Word of God. They're just not there. And then
he begins to look, but he can't get through it. He can't get
through the maze. And so he begins to be shut up. God has to teach him. God has
to open his ears and open his eyes and teach him the truth. Those of you who have spent a
little time studying the Word of God and listening to the Gospel
being taught have discovered that the Gospel is a great mystery. It's not what easy believism
makes it out to be. It's not some mystical experience,
or dream, or vision, or feeling. It's being brought to see who
God is, and who you are in the light of who God is, and how
this sinner, this vile, wretched sinner. I just read to you the
prayer of a man after God's own heart. calling upon God and confessing
who He was. Who He was according to God's
testimony. He said, I'm confessing these
things that you might be just and that your sayings might be
justified concerning me. He poured His heart out before
God. being brought to see who you
are and how this wretched sinner can be reconciled to God in Christ. That's the experience of grace. Now, I'll tell you this. Somebody
accused me here not too long ago, well, they accused grace
preachers in an article, they accused grace preachers of saying
that men have to be theologians to be saved. They have to believe
everything in the Bible to be saved. No, I don't say that.
And I'll be honest with you. I can tell you what you need
to know to be saved in under five minutes. I can. I can state the facts
in less than five minutes, probably in under a minute, if I push
myself. I can use the plain declarations
of the scriptures, but each declaration leaves you with another question.
Huh? Each definition opens a whole
other subject. And then that opens another one.
And you find yourself just being, all of a sudden, it's a mystery. It's a mystery. What you thought
was A, B, C, 1, 2, 3, now it's a mystery. It's a mystery. Let me give you some examples.
Romans chapter 10, Whosoever shall call upon the name of the
Lord shall be saved. That's pretty simple, isn't it?
Huh? But what is his name? What is his name? What does his
name imply? How do you define the name of
God? Huh? You see what I'm saying?
This is just a simple statement of fact, and it's true. Whosoever
shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. But Peter,
preaching to those Jews, said, there's only one name given among
men under heaven, whereby a man must be saved. But what is that
name? What is that name? What does that name entail? What
does that name imply? Well, the very next verse in
that text there in Romans chapter 10 supposes the difficulty. And
it says, How then shall you call on Him in whom you had not believed? You are going to have to be taught
some things. Taught some things. And how shall you believe in
Him of whom you had not heard? You are going to have to hear
some things. Somebody said, well, just believe
on Jesus. And my immediate reaction to
that is, which one? Which one? I was in a conversation
with a man one time, and he was a preacher. And we talked for
about 15 or 20 minutes. And he said, we just need to
stop, because you and I are talking about two different gods. Two different gods. Yes, and
we preach two different Jesuses too. Which one? Which one are you going to call
on? Paul said somebody at Galatia had bewitched them with another
gospel, didn't he? There is another gospel out there.
He warned the Corinthians that men would come preaching another
gospel, another Jesus, by another spirit. Do we call on poor little Jesus
boy, the defeated reformer who tried to save but couldn't because
men wouldn't let him? Is that the one we call on? Do
we call on the frustrated Jesus whose whole work of redemption
rests on man's decisions and acceptance? Do we call on the
universal Jesus who has his heart set on saving the world and cares
nothing for the holy perfections of the Godhead? What Jesus have
we called on? Which Jesus do we call on? Do we call on that mystical Jesus
who is whatever an individual wants him to be? Who do we call on? I want you
to listen to this. John said, Whosoever transgresseth
and abideth not in the doctrine of Christ hath not God. So there's some definitions involved
in this thing. There's some explanations involved
in this thing. There's some declarations about
who God is involved in these things. And if I don't abide
in those things, if I don't believe those things, I don't have God.
I don't have God. And then the other half of that
verse reads like this, he that abideth in the doctrines of Christ,
he hath both the Father and the Son. He hath the Trinity. But what is the doctrine of Christ?
Do you see what I'm saying? Each declaration opens a whole
other thing, a whole other subject. Gullible, ignorant, unconverted
men will swallow anything they're told. But when God gets hold
of a man, it's a different story. He begins to work in him. And
that man, the first sign of that is that this man is now interested
in the truth. He don't want your opinion. He
don't want to know what seems right to somebody else. He wants
to know what God says about these things. He wants to know the
truth. Over in the book of John, there
was a bunch of Jews who heard what the Lord had to say about
His going to the cross and His death. And they believed. That's
what it says. They believed. They believed. But Christ said to those who
profess to believe in him, if you continue in my word, then
are you my disciples indeed, and you shall know the truth,
and the truth shall set you free. That's what true saving faith
is. It wants to know what God said,
and it ain't going to quit until it knows. Paul wrote to the church of Corinth,
and he said, we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the
hidden wisdom which God ordained before the world unto our glory. What is this wisdom? Well, he
tells you up there in chapter 1, verse 30. He said, but of
Him are we in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom. But this Christ who's made unto
us wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption, He's hidden in
a mystery. He's hidden in this book of prophecy. God commands us to believe on
Jesus Christ, and He will not leave us to our own understanding
to figure out who He is. He's going to reveal Him to us.
Christ is the key that unlocks all the mysteries of God, the
mysteries of the Gentiles, and the mystery of godliness. All
of these great mysteries are unlocked, and Christ is the key. He is God come into the flesh.
To see Him is to see the Father. To know Him is to know the Father. To fellowship with Him is to
fellowship with the Father. To observe Him and study Him
is to study and observe the living God. He's the promised seed of
redemption. He's the covenant head of God's
elect. He's the surety and testator
of the everlasting covenant of grace. He's the one mediator
between God and man. He's the high priest, king, and
prophet of Israel. And true saving faith is the
revelation of Jesus Christ in the hearts of chosen sinners.
That's what it is. That's what it is. He discovers
who Christ is. He thought he knew, but he didn't.
And he discovers His majesty, His sovereignty, His lordship. He's not at all the Jesus that
he's heard all his life. This Jesus is Lord. This Jesus
created the worlds. This Jesus rules providence. This Jesus unlocks the seals
of God's everlasting predestination and causes these things to come
to pass by His own authority. Our Lord said, blessed are your
eyes, for they see. Do they? Have you got blessed eyes? Can
you see Him? In the light of His glory, can
you see it? If you can, blessed are your
eyes. Blessed, He said, are your ears,
for they hear. Do they? Do they hear? Do they pick up on that glorious
message of Christ? Do they hang on the words? Do
they set it home and thirst for it? Can you hear the gospel as it
is taught and proclaimed? Can you enter into the glory
of it, the joy of it, the peace of it? Israel believed in a Messiah.
They sure did. They believed in a Messiah. They
believed in a Christ. They believed that a prophet
would come like unto Moses. They believed a king like David
was on his way. They believed in a Redeemer,
a kinsman Redeemer. But everything they believed
about Him was wrong. And they missed Him. They missed
Him. He stood before them. Proclaimed
Himself to them. And they wouldn't believe. They
wouldn't have Him. They missed the Lord's Christ. Spiritual
Israel, those who truly believe, know who He is. They know why
He came. They know what He did. And they
know where He's at right now. They know Him. Paul said, I know
whom I have believed. I know Him. And he preached Christ in you,
the hope of glory. He's preeminent in their hearts,
in their worship, in their faith, and in their lives. And it's
this eternal union decreed by God who put us in Christ, made
us righteous in Christ, put away our sins in Christ, justified
us in His resurrection. And from His holy throne in glory
sent us the gospel and made it effectual through the gift of
His Holy Spirit. And He did all of this that we
might have this glorious gift of faith. Turn with me to 1 Corinthians
chapter 1. Let me show you something here
that you probably never paid much attention to. You read through
this book. You read Paul's introduction.
And it's much the same to every church he writes to. It's pretty
much his signature of the book was his introduction and his
letters. But I'm going to show you something
here that I'd wager that you you haven't paid much attention
to it. It's one of those things you just read over without thinking
about it. And it's right here at the beginning
of his letter, beginning up here in verse 4. I thank my God always on your
behalf for the grace of God which is given you by Jesus Christ,
that in everything you are enriched by Him in all utterance and in
all knowledge. Even as, now watch this, the
testimony of Christ was confirmed in you. How was it confirmed? How was it confirmed? In power
and demonstration of the Spirit. That's how. It become effectual
to you. It wasn't effectual to the one
sitting next to you, it was effectual to you. By your acknowledgement of the
truth, it was confirmed. By a holy submission to God and
His Preacher, it was confirmed. By a rejoicing in your heart
over what you heard, it was confirmed. By a strong desire for others
to hear it, it is confirmed. And by an effectual turning of
yourself to the truth, it's confirmed. By a motivation to live and honor
the Lord in all that you do, it's confirmed. By a patient
waiting upon the Lord. When you find out salvation is
of the Lord, you'll wait on the Lord. You'll know what that means.
You'll learn what that means, to wait on Him. I can't change
anything. I can't make anything better.
I can't do anything about anything. I've come to see that I have
to wait on Him. Wait on Him. Paul said in 2 Timothy
1 verse 12, I know whom I have believed. Now all those who truly believe
are commanded to confess Him in believers' baptism. Our Lord does not merely suggest
it. Let that settle in. This is not
His suggestion to you, to be baptized. It's not His recommendation
to you. He's not saying to you, you'd
be better off if you were baptized. This is His command. This is his command. When Peter
preached to those Gentiles at Caesarea, it said he commanded
them to be baptized. He doesn't put this thing of
baptism as an option, but he commands it to be done. And I've
heard all the arguments about the thief on the cross and all
these other kinds of things. You won't go out here and find
the one thing that seems to say something a little different,
and then that's what you want to use as the basis. No. No. You want to listen to the commandment
of the Lord. That's what you want to do. But
I'm telling you this, after our Lord's ascension into glory,
there's not one case of a believer not being baptized. Not a single
case. Read through the Word of God
for yourself. What is baptism? Well, the word means to immerse
or be buried beneath the water. If you were sprinkled, you've
never been baptized. Baptism is immersing. If a priest
took a little bit of water and rubbed it on your forehead when
you was a baby in the fashion of a cross, you've never been
baptized. Baptism is for believers. It's for believers, and it's
by immersion. Baptism is to be buried beneath
the water. Now very briefly, let me go over
some things about baptism. I'm going to spend a lot of time
on them, but I'm going to give you a few things here. Some of
them I know you've heard before, and maybe some you've never even
considered before. First of all, I want to point
out to you that the very forerunner of Christ was called the Baptist. Have you ever thought about that? This great prophet, this last
of the prophets that He is going to send into the world, the very
forerunner of Christ, came in and He brought in with Him an
ordinance unlike anything that Israel had ever heard of. this
immersion beneath the water. And so they called him John the
Baptist. He baptized. He baptized. He directed all his disciples
to be baptized. Most likely, baptism was given
to him to define his ministry because of the great plainness
with which he preached Christ. His ministry was to make plain
the way. Now some of you have read the
Old Testament and some of you haven't. But in the Old Testament,
there were cities of refuge. You know what the cities of refuge
were. There were so many around and they were designated. And
if the manslayer, somebody has killed somebody, an axe head
flew off and killed somebody, and here comes the manslayer
behind him, he is going to take a life for a life. The only way
that man can save his life is to get to that city of refuge.
The only way he can escape death is to get to that city of refuge.
Now once he entered that city, nobody could touch him. Nobody
could touch him. The Lord decreed that that place
was a refuge for these men. And they could go there and be
protected. But the way to the city was to
be, you read in the Old Testament, I know we get bogged down in
there, but every now and then you read something, and then
in time it comes to light. And it'll help you. But they
were to clear that way. There was to be no obstacles
on that way. No stumbling blocks on that way.
That way was to be clear. There'd be no holes, no bushes,
no grass, no vines, nothing to obstruct that man from getting
to that refuge. That was the ministry of John
the Baptist. He was to come and make the way
plain. Make the way plain. It was to
be, well, it was to have signs on it directing men to those
cities. And most likely that's why baptism,
what is a more clear picture of the hope of the believer than
baptism? I don't know of anything. I've never heard an illustration
more clear than that which baptism shows in a picture. Buried with
Him, Paul said, by baptism into death, that like as Christ was
raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we should
walk in newness of life. And then secondly, let me point
this out to you, that Christ Himself was baptized. You ever thought about that?
I bet you never thought about that. I know that you know that
He was. And John didn't want to do it. He said, I'm not worthy
to unloose your shoe latchet, let alone baptize you. I need to be baptized of you.
But he was baptized. The Lord was baptized. Why? Well,
first to consecrate baptism in His own body that we might have
it in common union with Him. I'm buried with Him in baptism. I'm raised with Him in baptism. And by this one act of baptism,
he consecrates this in his own body that I might have common
union with him in my baptism. Secondly, to show us that he
himself died and was raised from the dead. He demonstrated his
work. He had to die, be buried, and
then rose, raised from the dead. And then thirdly, to sanction
the ordinance so that nobody could reject it. is not being
the will of God and the commandment of God to all. And then finally,
to fulfill the righteousness of God. This was the righteous
will of God. And that's what he told John.
He said, Suffer it to be so for now, for it behooveth us to fulfill
all righteousness. And then thirdly, baptism is
an ordinance given to the church to be taught and observed. And
you can speak lightly about it or think lightly about it if
you want to, but baptism is no joke. It's no joke. And I tell you, I get tired of
religious jokes. If you want to tell a joke, talk
about a farmer or something. Talk about fishing. Leave these
things of God out of it. Just leave them out of it. And
then fourthly, baptism is an answer of a good conscience toward
God, a purged conscience, a sinner who sees and rejoices in the
full free justification of God's grace in Christ. In 1 Peter 3,
he talks about the gospel being preached to those spirits in
prison. That's just talking about unbelievers.
That's what that's talking about. We're all captive spirits before
the Lord converted us. And this gospel was preached
to them before the flood of Noah wherein eight souls were saved
by water. That is, they were brought safely
through the water. They went into the water and
were delivered back out of the water without peril. And they were preserved through
the deluge. Verse 21, the like figure whereunto
even baptism doth also now save us, not the putting away of the
filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God
by the resurrection of Jesus Christ. The ark was a picture
of Christ. Those who truly believed that
ark to be sent of God, designed of God, built of God, brought
there for their salvation, brought there to preserve them through
the judgment of God, sent of God and sufficient to withstand
the judgment of God. They all went in the ark. How do I know when a man believes?
He enters into Christ. And that's where he stands. That's
where he stands. He don't stand next to the ark. He don't hang on the side of
the ark. He goes in. He goes in. That's what baptism confesses,
the sufficiency of Christ to save us to the uttermost by His
death, burial, and resurrection. And then fifthly, baptism is
the believer's public confession of faith. Brother Barnard used
to say it's the putting on of the uniform of Christ. You ever
heard his message on baptism? It's worth listening to. It's
the putting on of the uniform of Christ. You go into a foreign
country somewhere, visiting around. And once you see what they're
wearing and you buy you some clothes like them, nobody's the
wiser. They don't know that you're not
already, they don't know you wasn't born in France. They don't
know. But I tell you, when you go over
there wearing a uniform of the military of the United States,
you go over there and put that uniform on and you march around,
everybody that sees you knows where you stand. Don't they? They know to whom your allegiance
has been sworn. They know that. That's what baptism
is. It's the confession of faith.
It's the putting on of the uniform. And Paul uses this over in 1
Corinthians 15 in his argument about the resurrection. I just
read to you there what he had to say about that resurrection.
over there. It's an answer of good conscience
toward God by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.
And Paul argues that over in 1 Corinthians 15, talking about
those who were baptized for the dead or marked out for martyrdom. Sixthly, baptism confesses a
divine union with Christ. It tells me that we're buried
with Him, risen with Him. It confesses a divine union,
a union of faith. In that article I talked to you
about here a few weeks ago, the writer made this statement. He
said, good works defines a Christian. I beg your pardon. Union with
Christ, that describes the Christian. He's united with Christ. The
union with Christ defines a Christian, thus the name, Christian. It's not good works being confessed
in baptism, though he should certainly walk in newness of
life as one raised from the dead. But union with Christ is confessed,
without which there is no resurrection. They know being grafted into
the vine and therefore know fruit of eternal life. And then here
is the seventh thing. Baptism is a declaration of submission
to Christ. We baptize in accordance with
His divine command. It's not merely church tradition
or custom. It's included in our commission.
Go ye into all nations and preach the gospel to all men and baptize
them. Ain't that what he said? You
better not take that out of the commission. That's in the commission. And then lastly, baptism acknowledges
the work of the Trinity. I bet you never thought about
that. How did you get in Christ? How'd this union come to be?
Of Him are we in Christ Jesus. That's what the Scripture said.
Of who? Of the Father, who chose us in Him, who decreed this everlasting
union. And Christ the Son, who come
and manifested, accomplished that salvation, accomplished
our redemption, accomplished our righteousness. And the Holy
Spirit, who comes into our hearts and reveals it and confirms it
in us.