If you have your Bibles to Acts
chapter 10, and also you can follow me in your outline, that
will help you. The title of our message today is Baptism, a Sign
of Salvation Secured. Baptism, a Sign of Salvation
Secured. The reason why we preach or explain
or teach baptism prior to the rite and ordinance of baptism
is in order to be obedient to the scriptures, and that is Those
who apply to the waters of baptism first must have a knowledge of
the gospel. Those who apply to the waters
of baptism first must have a knowledge of the gospel. Baptism is not
a mere ceremonial act or ritual that is performed upon a person
because they happen to go to church. Baptism is not a mere
ritual that takes place because a person's parents desire for
you to be baptized and therefore go through the ritualistic act. Rituals may have no theological
content to them whatsoever. You can go through forms of ritual
and never understand the inherent meaning of the ritual through
which you are going. But that's not what baptism is.
Baptism is a body of truth, a body of theological truth concerning
the person and work of Jesus Christ, of which It is an essential
prerequisite for those who will be baptized. In other words,
when you are baptized, you are baptized because you know the
truth of the gospel. Otherwise, you should not be
baptized. Otherwise, your baptism may be invalid. Otherwise, you
may be baptized in a sense, in a structure that's contrary to
the word of God. So last week, I made an observation
about the nature of the kingdom of God. I said that the kingdom
of God operated in four modes. And I only emphasize two because
we were dealing with that aspect of it. I said God manifested
himself in the beginning of creation through the patriarchal model
from Adam all the way to Abraham. That was what we call the patriarchal
period where the fathers were obligated to know the true and
the living God and thus teach their families what the worship
of the true and the living God was about. Central to the dispersing
or propagation of the message of the kingdom was the family. This is why you saw God working
through families all the way up to Abraham. And then with
Abraham, he moved into a theocratic model where he took Abraham's
12 sons and made them the witness to the world, the nation of Israel,
the witness to the world of God's redemptive plan, anticipating
the coming of Jesus Christ. When Christ came, when Christ
died, when Christ rose again, that model of the representation
of the kingdom of God was transferred from the nation of Israel to
the church. The church of the living God
now becomes the only authorized institution to be the witness
of God in the world. The church is the manifest mode
of God's presence and power in the world. It has been since
the day that Jesus said, I will build my church and the gates
of hell will not prevail. And then he took the nucleus
of that church of which we are about to contemplate some inherent
realities in it today, the 12 apostles, and he sent them forth
to preach the gospel in all the world. Hence, today. 2000 years
after that commission, you and I, who are believers of Jesus
Christ, are confidently believers because we are part of the body
of Christ, of which the spirit of God, having plucked us out
of darkness, brought us into the kingdom of his dear son.
And now we join with that worldwide witness of men and women declaring
that Jesus Christ is Lord. In this glorious work of manifesting
the kingdom of God to the world, what we are called to do is three
things fundamentally. First and foremost, to preach
the gospel. The job of the Church of the
Living God is to preach the gospel. The evidence of the church's
ministry when we are functioning as we ought to is the preaching
of the gospel, the worship of God in the context of the gathering
of the people of God, the ordinances of the Lord's table of which
we will partake today and the exercise of water baptism for
those who come into a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ. In
other words, if you are a part of a church that denies the ordinances
of the Lord's table and the ordinances of baptism, you are part of a
disobedient church or it is not a church of Jesus Christ at all.
Now, I didn't say when I said that If the church is observing
the Lord's table and exercising the ordinance of baptism that
you are necessarily in a faithful church, but a faithful church
will not only proclaim the gospel, but it will observe the standing
ordinance of the Lord's table. And it will be seen exercising
the right of baptism because wherever the gospel is faithfully
preached and proclaimed, wherever the gospel is faithfully preached
and proclaimed, men and women will come to a saving knowledge
of Christ. Wherever they come to a saving
knowledge of Christ, they will submit themselves to the baptismal
waters and they will submit themselves to our Lord's ordinance of the
table by which we testify to the world that Jesus is our only
hope of salvation. Now before us is a very unusual
event, an unusual account that I want us to deal with. Now you
may think you know baptism and what it means and signifies.
Great. Pray for the rest of us who don't know. Those of you
who do know, you know, pray for the rest of us who don't know,
because what we need to do is to reflect again on this glorious
ordinance in preparation for next week. We need to reflect
on why God gave it to us, why Christ gave it to us. And like
everything that Christ has given us in the church, men have taken
and misinterpreted it They have taken it and distorted it. They
have taken it and misrepresented it. So we're going to talk about
baptism again today, but only within the context of a very
unusual text of scripture. Acts chapter 10. Now, again,
the reason why I say baptism is a sign of salvation secured
is because there are folks who would suggest or assert that
unless you are water baptized, you can't be saved. And they
would assert that unless you are water baptized in the way
in which we execute it, you can't be saved. But I would tell you
that if you have a proper God glorifying Christ-centered Bible-based
interpretation of water baptism, water baptism is only a sign
of salvation already secured, already accomplished. already
applied, already realized in the heart of men and women who
have come to know the Lord Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord. In
other words, children of God, water baptism is not a work by
which you become saved, it's a work to testify to the fact
that you have become saved. And so there's some things to
learn in our outline, in our text that are quite remarkable.
Acts chapter 10 is a very pivotal point in the ministry of the
early church, whose nucleus was the 12 apostles. And they were
primarily, but not exclusively Jews, but the pillars of the
church were Jews, Peter, James, and John. And Peter is at a real
critical point of ministry of which we're gonna learn some
things about the spirit of God and about baptism here. In Acts
chapter 10, verse 34, We read I'm sorry at chapter 10 verse
45. We read a very interesting response While Peter is preaching
Now notice what this is and I chapter 10 verse 44 and 45 while Peter
yet spake these words the Holy Ghost fell on all them which
heard the word and they of the circumcision which believed these
were the Jews were astonished as many as came with Peter, because
that on the Gentiles also was poured out the gift of the Holy
Ghost. Point number one in your outline,
if you'll follow me, baptism replaces circumcision because
the seed has come. Baptism replaces circumcision
because the seed has come. That proposition is designed
to explain to you what happened and why the Jews were astonished
at what happened. To establish the context, there
are two categories of people in our text, Jews and Gentiles. The Jews are the ones who already
believe that they are saved, they may very well be saved,
they may not. That's what a Jew is, a person who really trusts
in his works, in his lineage, in his ethnicity. These Jews
are coming with Peter into a Gentile's house, of which according to
Jewish law, you never do. But they are coming into this
Gentile's home under the assumption, watch this now, that these Gentiles
are going to submit themselves to certain ceremonial rites that
apply to the Jews, that the Jews are applying to everyone else
as a prerequisite to salvation. In other words, these Jews are
coming with their legalistic rules and regulations and requirements
ready to place them on the shoulders of these Gentiles to bring them
into a state of Judaism. Now, Peter is the pillar. And
so they're going with Peter because Peter was the one that was given
the commission to go to Cornelius' house. Now, if you remember,
Peter struggled with this commission, didn't he? He struggled with
going to this Gentile's house because Peter was still very
Jewish. And even though he had a vision
on the housetop that told him, Peter, rise, slay and eat for
that which I have called clean, do not call unclean. I'm sending
you to a place that you guys have been calling unclean, which
I have made clean. So Peter is actually operating
counterintuitively. He's actually operating against
his nature. He's functioning contrary to
his pedigree, his upbringing, his culture, and his custom.
In fact, when he comes into Cornelius's house, first thing that he says
is this, now you Gentiles know, we Jews, we don't hang out with
y'all. For me to even be in your house,
is a real exercise of grace on my part. So Peter is struggling,
but Peter is being obedient to God because God is going to teach
us something and teach Peter something and teach more specifically
the men that are with him something about the sovereign grace of
God. What he's about to teach these men is what Peter will
have plainly declared, and that's this, that God is no respecter
of persons. that God has a people out of
every nation, kindred, tribe, and tongue who will hear the
gospel of the grace of God and come to Christ in spite of their
ethnicity or their upbringing and that there is no superiority
of one ethnic group over the other ethnic group. Will you
note what is said While Peter preached the word, the spirit
of God fell upon them, and all they of the circumcision which
believed were astonished. Now the literal term astonished
there means that they were outside of themselves. You know what
that means? They had an out of body experience.
And when you, literally that's what the term means. It means
to be standing outside of yourself because the thing that just occurred
was so fantastic that it just dismantled all of your reference
points. What's going on here? Now, it
wasn't that they did not believe that the Gentiles could receive
the Holy Ghost. That wasn't it. They did not
struggle with the fact that the Holy Spirit would be poured out
upon Gentiles. What they struggled with was
the fact that the Spirit of God chose to pour out the Spirit
of God apart from any Jewish regulations or laws or stipulations. God is acting sovereignly in
this situation without asking one of these Jews What door should
these Gentiles go through to get my blessing? They are overwhelmed
with the reality that God is acting sovereignly. And it's
so critical for you and I to know this because the Jews, they
really did believe that all of the Old Testament writings, all
of them were Jewish centered. They were ethnic centered. We
still have that problem today, even with the evangelical church,
thinking that all of the Old Testament passages apply to the
Jews. The promise of the outpouring
of the Holy Spirit was something that was declared by all the
prophets in the Old Testament. You guys know that. I mean, all
of them actually declared that God would send the promise of
the Spirit. This is why when Jesus admonished
Nicodemus in John chapter 3, he said, Nicodemus, you are a
lawyer, you are a Pharisee and a teacher in Israel. Don't you
know these things? They should have known that the
promise of the third person would be the consequence of Christ's
accomplished redemption. They thought, however, that in
order for Gentiles to experience the outpouring of the Spirit
of God, watch this, they would first have to become Jews. This is the thing that astonishes
them in our present text. And here's the thing that I want
you to learn by way of application. There is no formula There is
no methodology. There is no structured system.
There is no technique. There are no sybillis or shibillis
by which the Spirit of God is obligated to come upon people.
You can't set up rules and regulations in your church or in your denomination
or in your system by which you demand that the Spirit of God
works in the life of people. Watch this. The Spirit of God
is sovereign. He is God. He is Lord. And he operates how he chooses. Jesus taught us this in John
chapter 3 verse 8. He said the Spirit blows wherever
it wills. The Spirit functions wherever
it wills. That means his display, his presence,
his invading a particular environment is an act of his own determination,
his own purpose, his own prerogative. And none of us, no human being,
has the capacity to demand the Spirit of God to act. None. None. Now, I want you to see
this because this is part of why the book of Acts is given.
We take the book of Acts and we cut it up into doctrinal formulas
to justify our theological positions in the church. But the reality
is that you really can't do that if you are honest with the book
of Acts and you read it and allow it to teach you. its whole integrated
form this truth will come to bear that when you see the places
in which the Spirit of God manifested himself as the fulfillment of
the promise that Jesus said in Acts chapter 1 verse 8 what you
will find out is that the Spirit of God manifested himself in
uniquely different ways to affirm this very truth he acts sovereignly
and he acts determined upon his own will for instance you and
I are We can't make the Spirit of God come into our life by
prayer. Now, I know that when we read
Acts chapter 1, it tells us that the disciples stayed in the upper
room and they prayed and prayed and prayed, and then one day
the Spirit of God fell on them, right? But do you know Jesus
didn't say, go to Jerusalem and pray until the Spirit of God
come upon you? You know what he said? Wait until
the Spirit of God come upon you. In other words, what I want you
to get is God was not obligated to send the Spirit because they
prayed. You know, a whole bunch of y'all
been waiting to speak until you've been praying all your life. You
still ain't got the Holy Ghost in that sense. Now, follow me now. The reason
why the Spirit of God came upon that nucleus of 120 in the upper
room was because Jesus, who is the Lord of all, went back to
his throne in glory and waited until the day of Pentecost to
intentionally and deliberately send the Spirit of God to fulfill
that which was typically understood in the Pentecost feast of the
Old Testament. That God would have an elect
people from all sorts of nations who would be that wave loaf that
the priest would offer up to God in preparation for the full
harvest so that in Acts chapter 1 you have 17 nations who show
up on Pentecost and they get a revelation of the gospel of
Jesus Christ in the presence of the Holy Ghost in the life
of the Jews in that context he came on a certain day because
that was part of his purpose plan that was irregardless or
apart from the fact that the disciples prayed so you and I
may pray for the Spirit of God but he's not obligated to come
in that manner more than that while we may see the Spirit of
God act for instance in Acts chapter 8 where Philip has preached
the gospel to the Samaritans. And they have believed the gospel
and they have even been baptized. The Spirit of God did not come
upon them merely because they were baptized or merely because
they believed the message of the gospel. You guys remember
that? Acts chapter 8. And Philip knew that it was necessary
for him to call to the apostles up in Jerusalem to let them know
that God was working among the people But until Peter came down,
I want you to hear this now, Acts chapter 8, until Peter came
down and laid hands on those disciples in Samaria, they did
not experience the outpouring of the Holy Ghost. Acts chapter
8 tells us this. Look in Acts chapter 8. I just
want you to see it for yourself. Acts chapter 8 tells us that
it was the laying on of hands of Peter that brought about that
experience. In Acts chapter 8, Now notice what it says over
in verse 15, who when they were come down as Peter, James, and
John prayed for them that they might receive the Holy Ghost
for none of them for as yet he was falling upon none of them,
only they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. Then
laid they their hands on them and they what? Received the Holy
Spirit. Ah, pastor, there you go. A formula
for the receiving of the Holy Ghost. Ah, hold on. Our original text. Displays the
outpouring of the Holy Ghost Without Peter laying hands on
them. Are you following me? Acts chapter 1 is a display of
the pouring out of the Holy Ghost Without the Apostles laying hands
on them. Are you hearing what I'm saying? it's very important
for you to understand that you don't take one text of Scripture
and build a whole body of theology out of it because it will be
contradicted by another text of Scripture and It's very critical
for you to understand that what's going on here is that God is
teaching us that the pouring out of the Spirit of God is a
function of the sovereign choice of the triune God. Yea, more
particularly a function of the sovereign choice of the Lord
Jesus Christ. For when we take the language
as it is in the book of Acts, he was poured out. How was he
poured out? He was poured out by Jesus Christ
as Christ said He would do. I will send the Comforter to
you. He didn't just jump out of the
Godhead and willy-nilly come upon people. The Spirit of God
comes to a designated people as He is commissioned by Jesus
Christ. Therefore, Jesus is the one who
dispatches the Spirit of God to a designated group of people
to experience the reality of salvation by the presence and
power of the Spirit. So we are not to assume that
the Spirit of God works through prayer. We are not to assume
that the Spirit of God works through the laying on of hands. But what we may understand is
that, and we are not to assume that the Spirit of God works
or functions through formulas, terms and phrases. We are so
ritualistic and so pagan in our Christian churches with these
kinds of taboos, asserting that God is bound by your terminology,
your phraseology. Our text teaches us this. Remember,
while Peter preaching the Spirit of God falls on everybody in
the house you talking about interrupting the service and what the Spirit
of God does is not even let Peter finish his preaching so that
Peter would say you know how the Holy Ghost comes by a well-crafted
message that when it comes to its end the Holy Ghost now must
operate no the Spirit of God just broke in on his preaching
In fact, the next chapter where Peter has to tell the Jewish
leaders about what happened, because they're still pretty
miffed about the fact that some Jews have went down to some Gentiles
and they have had fellowship because they were still struggling
with this ethnic issue. Peter says, now, I got to tell
you, fellas, I'm just going to tell you what happened. While
I was in the middle of my message, in the midst of preaching Christ,
the Spirit of God had his way. What was I to stop God from doing
what God would do? And so what our message will
teach you and I is don't fall prey to denominational qualifications
and traps and gins and snares by which they would assert they
know how to get you filled with the Holy Ghost. I don't have
time today, but I want to make a distinction for those of you
who like to be careful about doctrine. There's a difference
between being filled with the Spirit of God and having the
outpouring of the Spirit of God take place. There's a radical
difference between being filled with the Spirit of God and having
the outpouring of the Holy Ghost take place. Let me go on to develop
that here while we are in the book of Acts and understanding
some lessons. If you are careful to note that
the Spirit of God was said to have been poured out upon the
people only four times in the book of Acts. Not five, not seven,
only four times. And the places in which the Spirit
of God was poured out were deliberate. Jesus said, go ye into all the
world, preach the gospel. Begin at Jerusalem, and then
Judea, and then Samaria, and then the uttermost parts of the
ethnos, the Gentile world. Those are four specific categories
of people to whom the preaching was to go. Are you guys following
me? So now watch how this works. If we were to insist that there
were certain prerequisites for the Spirit of God to operate,
here are the two prerequisites that are essential, at least
they are evident in the book of Acts. First, The Spirit of
God operates where the gospel of Jesus Christ is preached. You don't see in any text of
the book of Acts where he just operates because somebody sung
a wonderful song. Where they just got into their
gyrations because they were praying and getting down, sweating and
snotting. The Holy Ghost came where Christ
was preached. And what I mean by the preaching
of Christ, I'm talking about the full orb, the proclamation
of the gospel, a full presentation of the person and work of Jesus
Christ, not sound bites, not tidbits, not alluring hooks. We're talking about a proclamation
of the glory of God in Jesus Christ through the scriptures
where you teach who he is, where you teach where he came from,
where you teach why he came, where you teach what he did,
where you teach what he accomplished, who he accomplished it for, and
where he is now. That is a full-orbed preaching
which has as its central message the person of Jesus Christ. The
Spirit of God is obligated to do one thing, glorify Jesus,
affirm the reality of Christ, affirm the Lordship of Christ.
So you might say the cup out of which the Holy Ghost is poured
is Christ and Him crucified. You might say the vehicle or
vessel by which the Holy Ghost is poured out. And I like that
verb. It's in our text. It is implied
and it's spoken in Psalm Isaiah 44, Isaiah 32, Joel chapter two,
verse 28. After those days shall the Lord
pour out his spirit upon all flesh. Your sons and your daughters
shall prophesy. Your men shall dream dreams and
your sons and daughters shall prophesy. They shall see visions
and prophesy. That is what Peter talked about
in Acts chapter two, right? This is that which joe the prophet
spoke of the outpouring of the holy ghost, but how is he outpoured?
In acts chapter 2 he was outpoured as peter preached christ In acts
chapter 10 here. He's outpoured While christ is
preached. Let me help you The spirit of
god is not going to work through a nice sermon about how you can
overcome your enemies The Spirit of God is not obligated to manifest
His glory while you are hearing a methodological sermon of pragmatism
on how you can become wealthy and prosperous. The Spirit of
God is not going to operate where the teaching is about you, or
about them, or about the way in which we can use our faith
to get our blessing. The Spirit of God has one prerogative
and one job to affirm the gospel and to glorify Christ. You can
be sure of this. Where Christ is not preached,
the Spirit of God is not working. Pastor, then what is that thing
that's running through the room knocking people down? That's
another message for another day. Let me go on to develop this
while we are sitting in our text in Acts chapter 10 because it's
crucial. But you see that Peter has come
down from Jerusalem into the presence of these Samaritans.
Having already had the Spirit of God bearing record at Jerusalem
and Judea in axis in Acts chapters 1 through Acts chapter 6 The
Spirit of God geographically is has already come to Jerusalem
He's already come to Judea the vast majority of the believers
at Pentecost and subsequent are Jewish believers He is now moving
out of the regions of Judea into Samaria. Are you guys following
me? but The Spirit of God has chosen not only to affirm the
reality of God's elect amongst these Samaritans who are a hybrid
of Jews and Gentiles through the preaching of the gospel,
which Philip did, he has chosen to, and I want you to follow
this, he has chosen to, in the book of Acts, only manifest himself
where the presence of the apostles were. So when you read the book
of Acts, you don't read anywhere where the Spirit of God falls
upon a group of people where there's not first the preaching
of the gospel or the presence of the apostles. Are you hearing
me? The preaching of the gospel and
the presence of the apostles is always prerequisite in the
book of Acts as the grounds upon which the Spirit of God now flows. Why? Because it was the apostles
who were told to go into all the world with the gospel. Why?
Because the apostles were uniquely and cheaply qualified to be the
agents and vicar of Jesus Christ. Why? Because it was necessary
for those of us who are careful in our Bible studies not to take
patterns that were exclusive to the men that God raised up
and think we can own it to ourselves. So, you know, folks will run
around laying hands on you, telling you there's this special anointed
one of God so you can get filled with the Holy Ghost. These are often megalomaniacs
with Messiah complexes who fail to submit themselves to biblical
truth. Please listen to me. We talked about this in our men's
meeting. If you're going to be a faithful student, a faithful
teacher, a faithful proclaimer of the word of God, your job
is not to exalt yourself or your office or your title or your
position so that people are really depending on you. Your job is
to proclaim the truth of the word of God and let the word
of God be the vehicle by which people experience the grace of
God. But God's not going to work through
you where you violate the clear sound teaching of scripture because
you want to gain a following. I mean, everybody on planet Earth
want to have four or five people in the corner of their house
or in their garage worshiping them as the prophet, priest,
bishop, prophetess. Are you hearing me? And some
of y'all been through that, haven't you? To wake up one day realizing
this person is a fool, leading you straight to hell. Now, you
know what it was? You finally either heard a faithful
preacher of the gospel help you understand that you weren't being
careful with the Word of God, or you started actually reading
the Bible for once and started seeing that, wait a minute, what
this book is saying is not what she said. So we got problems
here. Either I'm going to be subject
to the authority of scripture, or I'm going to be a pagan and
be subject to the authority of that person that's persuading
me with their teaching. Am I making some sense? This
is the problem with our present generation of wannabe bishops
and priests and prelates and pastors and right reverends and
all of these things. It's a real problem. But what
we have in the book of Acts is a very clear, intentional, Decisive
purpose on the part of the Spirit of God to see to it that God's
people Receive the gospel in every nation. So in Acts chapter
10 going back to our text Let me show you a couple more things
before we just reiterate what baptism is and wrap this up In
Acts chapter 10, you'll notice that when the Spirit of God fell
on Cornelius in his house Which was a group of Gentiles. They
weren't thousands and might have been 10, 20, 30 of them. Just
a handful of people. How gracious is our infinite,
sovereign, lofty, glorious, transcending God to dwell with a handful of
needy sinners in a house in obscurity. Isn't that what the Bible says?
The high and the lofty God that sits on the circuits of the universe
and feels heaven and earth is pleased to dwell with the broken
and the contrite and the humble to revive the spirit of the humble.
Here is a little band of Gentiles stirred up by one man, a centurion
soldier. who was seeking to know God,
submitting themselves to the revelation of God as laid out
in the Jewish theology, never yet coming to the reality of
what the Jewish teaching was all about, which is Jesus. And
an angel tells him, I'm getting ready to send my servant, who
by the words he will tell you, will bring you into salvation.
And on this day, while Peter is preaching Christ, the spirit
of God falls on them. He falls on them. Now watch this.
When they experienced the presence and power of the falling of the
Spirit of God on us, the Greek term, it fell upon them, epipypto,
it fell on them, it seized them, it overtook them. They didn't
fall all over the ground after food. They didn't slob and fall
at the mouth. They weren't indecent. They spoke in languages. Not babble. Languages. Now watch this. And the Jews
heard them. And the Jews understood what
they said. Because the sign of the Spirit
of God being poured out with the gift of tongues was to let
the Jewish people know that salvation is of the Lord and is not confined
to Judaism. They were astonished because
what God had did in Cornelius' house is the same thing that
God had did in Acts chapter 1 and 2 in the upper room when the
nucleus were Jewish people. Let's reverse it. In Acts chapter
1 and 2, it was Jews who received the Holy Ghost. And when they
received the Holy Ghost, remember, they spake in tongues. But what
was it that they spake? They spake in the languages of
the 17 nations that were there, all Gentile nations who were
proselytes, who were amazed at the fact that this group of Jewish
Galilean brethren has spoken each man in his own language
the wonderful works of God. What's absent in Acts 1 and absent
in Acts 10 is babble and confusion. It's absent. What's present is
the breakthrough gift of the Holy Ghost letting the Jewish
church know whether you obey me or not, I'm going to the Gentiles. And there was no problem between
our brothers in the upper room in Acts chapter 1 receiving the
gift of the Holy Ghost and speaking in the languages of those 17
nations because they were obedient to the gospel. The problem was
with those Jewish brethren who had come along because the noise
was noise abroad and they were like, what's going on here now?
What's going on here? How come y'all didn't let us
know? We're the supervisors of the church. And they couldn't
understand what was going on. And Peter explained to them what
was going on. It's interesting in Acts chapter
10 where we are, that the Holy Ghost only fell on the Gentiles
and not on the Jewish brethren. The Holy Ghost did not fall on
Peter. It didn't fall on those that were with him. Only on the
Gentiles. You see how deliberate he is?
You see how particular he is? Discriminating is what is he
doing? He's teaching the Jews something He's teaching the Jews
That the Gentiles are part of the Commonwealth of the true
Israel of God in spite of you Jews He's teaching them that
salvation is through Jesus Christ not through circumcision That
the Jews are not the stewards of the gospel. They're simply
beneficiaries of the gospel if they submit to that reality But
god's gonna have his way Are you guys hearing what i'm saying?
Very important for you to understand that is it's very clear The text
is very clear now say this not only happened in acts chapter
2 This also acts happened in acts chapter 8 where uh, philip
has preached and and peter has come up It's happening here in
acts chapter 10 and it will happen one more time in acts chapter
19 And we are now in acts 19 in the furthest regions of asia
minor the city of Ephesus. So the gospel is being preached
in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and now where? The uttermost
parts of the known world, the Ephesian Asia minor area where
Gentiles were. Out of Acts 19 comes the book
of Ephesus where Paul said, you guys used to be Gentiles in the
flesh. You used to be without God. You
used to not know God. You were not part of the commonwealth.
You were carnal. You were uncircumcised in your
nature until Christ brought you to himself and made peace with
you through the blood of his cross. These are Gentiles in
Acts 19 who were disciples of John the Baptist who did not
understand that Christ had come and died. And Paul said, you
guys have an insufficient gospel, by the way. If a man or woman
does not have a proper understanding of the gospel, no matter what
baptism you were baptized by, your baptism was invalid. That's
what Acts 19 would teach us. To what then were you baptized?
Well, you know, I forgot, man. I really did forget. I was 18,
19 years old, you know, just kind of feeling guilty. I went
to the worship service and, you know, I got emotionally moved
and came to the altar. Pastor said a few things. I don't
know what he really said, but I was moved to get in the water.
I wasn't real clear on that. That's called ritualism. Ceremonialism. That's a vain, empty word that
has nothing to do with what I'm getting ready to talk to you
about, which is the fact that when the gospel is comprehended
and a man or woman applies to the waters of baptism, you are
telling the world something you know. You're not just going through
a ceremony. Are you guys hearing what I'm
saying? Critically important to the process. So, There were
the four manifestations of the presence of the Spirit, Jerusalem,
Judea, Samaria, Ephesus, the uttermost parts of the world.
It's important for you and I to understand that the sign of tongues,
particularly in the book of Acts, was a sign that was given to
the Jews to help them understand that they don't have a corner
on the market of the gospel by which they can force the Jews
into Judaism before they receive Christ. Finally, they had to
resolve this in the book of Acts chapter 15. Peter comes up there,
Paul comes up there to the Jewish brother and say, listen, fellas,
I don't care what you want to do. God has already been saving
hundreds and hundreds and thousands of Jews. You might as well live
with it. And James said, OK, then we we we will submit to
that reality. As Peter said, we have recognized
that God had given them the same gift that he has given us. The
Gentiles are saved by grace, just like we are saved by grace. But here's the other truth that
you need to know, which is gonna run us through our seven, four or
five brief points on baptism. That wherever the spirit of God
in the book of Acts was poured out, the ordinance of baptism took
place either prior or after it. Because wherever the spirit of
God was poured out, God claimed his elect. Wherever the spirit
of God was poured out, he claimed his elect. His elect experienced
the reality of the atoning work of Jesus Christ on Calvary Street
and it's accomplished redemption. And the evidence that God had
claimed them and brought them into a saving knowledge of Jesus
Christ was that they believed the gospel and they submitted
to the waters of baptism. Are you guys following me? Let
me keep working. If you say you are a believer
in Christ, And the gospel has been revealed to your heart so
that you understand who Jesus Christ is, what he did, why he
did it, where he is now, and who you are in him. And yet you
say, well, I don't think I want to be baptized. You are denying
your profession. Are you hearing me? So let's
go to work a little bit. This is important. Baptism, what
it is in your outline, point number five. Getting ready to
run through a few things here. What is baptism? Baptism is first
and foremost, ladies and gentlemen, A confession of faith. Baptism
is a confession of faith. In other words, it's an open
declaration that you agree with God on the terms of God as to
how a sinner is actually saved. When you are baptized in the
ordinance of water baptism, you are telling all who view you
that you agree with the message of the gospel. Are you hearing
me? It's a confession. Matthew chapter
3, go there. Matthew chapter 3 in Matthew
chapter 3 we see this practice of baptism taking place by the
cousin of the Lord Jesus in the in the ministry of John the Baptist
and we are clearly advised here as to what's going on here with
regards to this we are clearly advised in Matthew 3 verse 6
this way I'll start at verse verse 5 then went out to him
and Jerusalem and all Judea. You know who these people are,
saints? These are circumcised Jews and Jewish people. And all
the region round about Jordan, and watch this, and were baptized
of him in Jordan, doing what? Confessing their sins. You got
it? In other words, they weren't being subjected to the ordinance
of baptism, ignorant of what baptism teaches. They did it
because they understood this, that even though they were circumcised,
even though that they were Jewish, even though that their lineage
was from the roots of Abraham, that they were not ready to meet
Jesus Christ, because they were still unsaved, even though they
were religious. And under the ministry of John
the Baptist, as he preached Christ to them, the coming of Christ,
the spirit of God broke their heart. And John says, get ready.
That's what the water baptism was. Get ready for the coming
of Christ. So baptism is a confession. When
you see folks get baptized next week, for those of you who will
be being baptized next week, one of the reasons we encourage
you to bring your family members out is that People get to see
in the visible form how it is that God saves a sinner when
they see the sinner Placed in the water which represents their
union with Christ in his death They get to see it a visible
picture You're believing that the reason that you are saved
is because when Christ died You died When he was buried you were
buried And when he was raised, you were raised. It's a confession.
Not only is it a confession of faith, but baptism serves as
a type and testimony of our salvation in Christ. Go with me in Romans
chapter six once again. I know you've read these passages
before, but you need to see it again. And for those of you who
don't know, regard highly what we are saying today. that when
you are privileged to see the ordinance of baptism take place,
what you are privileged to see is not the mere, empty, repetitive
work of a ritual ordinance. You are privileged to see in
symbolism and in a type this mystery of the love of God in
the sacrifice of Jesus Christ for the salvation of those who
trust Him. Romans 6, verses 1-4, mark this, What shall we say
then shall we continue in sin that grace may abound God forbid? How shall we that are dead to
sin live any longer therein? Do you not what know? That so
many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into
his death Therefore we are buried with him. See that little phrase
with him. That's called union. I We were buried with him by
baptism into what? Death. That life as Christ was
raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we should
walk in newness of life. Baptism is a type and testimony
of our salvation in Christ and it teaches how God justifies
the sinner by placing the sinner in Christ and allowing the sinner
to die with Christ under the wrath of God so that when Christ
died and put away the sins that were placed on him and thus accomplished
God's justice, that sinner can receive the accruing benefits
of Christ's death on their behalf so that when Christ died, they
died and God views them as dead. And when Christ rose again from
the dead, when he rose again from the dead, they rose with
him. and in that they rose with him
they are not only justified but they are sanctified and they
are guaranteed glorification because where Christ is in glory
positionally they are there too. Are you guys hearing me? All
that is seen in the going in and the coming out and it is
a visible picture of what men and women see when they sit in
the ordinance. This is why Paul said in Acts
chapter Romans chapter 6 verse 17 look at chapter verse 17 in
Acts Romans 6 17 He said this but God be thanked That you were
the slaves of sin. See the little word were as past
tense, but you have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine
which was delivered you what was that form of doctrine the
gospel of of the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
When you hear the gospel, you are hearing a message concerning
what Christ did to put away your sins. And it is visibly seen
when you submit to the water. In other words, you are replicating
the fact that you understand who he is, what he did, why he
did it, and who he did it for. I'm repeating this for newer
people here, because one of the things I've come to understand
is a lot of people do not understand basic Bible doctrine. because
our churches do not emphasize these things. They do not preach
these things clearly enough. And I want to make sure that
next week, when we once again have the privilege of baptizing
men and women, that we are doing it with a full understanding
of what it implies. Then and only then does it glorify
God. One more significant point that
I want to call to your attention, and that's point number seven
in your outline. The response of the conscience to the message. Turn in your Bible to 1 Peter
chapter 3 verse 18 through 21. What is baptism? Baptism is many
things, but baptism is a confession of faith. That means you and
I are declaring something. We are declaring that we agree
with God as to how God saves a sinner. Baptism is a type and
testimony of our salvation in Christ. It means that those who
are observing our baptism are observing in typical and symbolic
form how it is that the sinner is brought from death to life
in his union with Jesus Christ. That's the object lesson for
those that are watching. It becomes for us a witness to
them that there's only one way of salvation and that's through
Jesus Christ. But this one here that we're getting ready to deal
with and close with now, this text here, this is about you and how the message of the gospel
affects you. I want you to hear it clearly. We'll close with this. In 1 Peter
3, verse 18, Peter is explaining to the scattered abroad churches
the goodness of God in Christ's purpose to redeem them for himself. Verse 18, for Christ also hath
once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust. You guys got
that? That's our union doctrine, you got that? The just, who is
the just? Christ. For the unjust, who is
the unjust? Me. That he might bring me to
God. How did I get to God? Christ
brought me to God. How did I get to God? By being
placed in Christ, the just one, so that I can be made just, who
was unjust, in order that the just one can bring me to God.
I don't get to God on my own. Christ brings me to God. This
here verse here can be explained, too, with all of its grammatical
implications. It's a beautiful truth. When
God saves a sinner, He saves them totally. When Christ chooses
to be your substitute, He's going to bring you all the way to glory.
The just for the unjust that he might bring us to God being
put to death in the flesh but quickened by the spirit That's
your death burial and resurrection by the which he also went and
preached unto the spirits in prison which sometime were disobedient
when Once the long-suffering of God waited in the days of
Noah while the ark was in preparing wherein few That is eight souls
were saved by water Do you remember that magnanimous event? Genesis
chapter 6 through 9. We'll close with this illustration
and try to make an impact on you. God was tired of the world. You know what the scripture says?
He relented that he had made man on the earth. God was tired
of man's rebellion against God by their collective obstinacy
against the witness of his spirit. Remember what he said my spirit
will not always strive with man He was saying I'm gonna take
my spirit away from the human race and wherever the Spirit
of God is not present restraining sin and Containing the passions
of our nature. We act like animals We are beasts
This is our concern for our present generation. You don't see people
acting the kind of outrageous sinful lifestyle that you see
unless the Spirit of God has removed itself. You see, the
only thing that keeps you and I from acting hell-boundish,
hellish, is the grace of God and the restraining work of the
Spirit of God. The Holy Ghost has to umpire. He has to referee, control, put
parameters and boundaries on the behavior, not only of individuals,
but nations. The Holy Ghost has to restrain
nations. But there's a time when the Spirit of God says, I'm through
because my witness is done. You know what he had done? He
had given them 120 year probation. 120 years shall man's days be.
You know what that means? He had one family who believed
God in the whole world. Don't tell me God's in the numbers.
He can save with many or few. And sometimes he ain't saving,
he's just witnessing. You're talking 120 years of the
witness of the gospel through the prophet Noah. And that magnanimous
work of building an ark the size of any football stadium. Everybody
in the world heard about it. It represents the universality
of the preaching of the gospel. so that everybody was without
excuse. No one could say, I didn't know. Everybody was talking about
that nut, Noah. Building an ark for a day in
which it would rain, and it had never rained before. Just like
people arrogantly boast against gospel preaching, warning that
there's a day of judgment where in Jesus Christ the righteous
will judge both the living and the dead at his appearing. They
mock it. Why? Because it has never occurred.
But more because they are unbelievers. But every day the ark is being
built. You know what that ark is? The
church of Jesus Christ. The person of Christ. The gospel
of Christ. And on a certain day, God told
Noah, His three boys, their wives and Noah's wife said, let's go.
Do you know on that day, God didn't tell anybody else but
Noah, his three boys, their wives, let's go. Do you know why? Because he had been telling the
whole world for 120 years, let's go. And the whole world continued
reneging and not submitting to the righteousness of God in Christ.
Everybody was saying it's gonna be all right as it was in the
days of our father. So it is today That's a very
scary proposition as I told you last week 300 to 500,000 people
die every day You ain't guaranteed to be here tomorrow So here's what Peter says listen
to what he says He says the like figure whereunto even our Baptism
doth also now save us. Do you see that? The word is
like figure. Baptism is represented in a type
of that ark that went through that deluge and that flood in
Noah's day, where the waters broke down from the heavens on
the top of the ark, where the mountains broke up and the oceans
overwhelmed the ark, so that the ark was overwhelmed deluged
by the waters. The waters came upon the ark,
beat upon the ark for 40 days. Noah and his family are on the
inside of the ark, safe while the world has perished in the
flood. Do you know what they were saying
on the inside of that ark? Saved by grace, saved by the
mercy of God. He brought me, He sought me,
and brought me to the fold. I'm in Christ, redeemed by the
blood of the Lamb. Thank you God, you know, they
worship for 40 days while that boat rock all over Timbuktu You
know, they were worshiping God and you know, they were repenting
too because you know to preach the gospel for 120 years in the
midst of hell-bound sinners You know, you can get weary you can
get tired You know that Noah's family even Noah was having some
days where he said now Lord, you know, did I actually hear
you, right? right until He woke up that morning walking toward
the ark with his cup of coffee and he felt the first raindrop
on his forehead. He looked up and the Lord said,
yep, go get your family, it's time to go. Without faith, it's impossible
to please God. He that comes unto God must believe
that he is and a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.
So let me help you understand how the early church comprehended
this. This is very important. How did they deal with the idea
of 1st Peter 3 18 through 21? Notice what it says in verse
21. It is the life figure where unto now baptism death also save
us not the putting away of the what filth of the flesh the water
Doesn't cleanse your soul No more than the water cleansed
Noah's soul You're getting in the water may wash the outwardness
of the flesh, but it doesn't change the corruption and filth
of the soul. It only points to the spirit
that changes the corruption and filth of the soul by the death
of Jesus Christ on Calvary Street. Are you following that? But oh,
Spirit of God, help my people now. Help them now. Because I told you that what
Peter is talking about is the response of the sinner. who hears the gospel and the
proposition to come to Christ, he's the only way, the truth
and the life, and no one will come unto the Father but by Him.
It is a response of the conscience of the believer, as we read in
the latter part of verse 21, but the answer of a good conscience
toward God. Do you see that? But the answer
of a good conscience toward God by the resurrection of Jesus
Christ. When the gospel is preached to
you, and the message of Christ is expounded and explained to
you, you are under obligation to respond to that message. So
the person hearing the gospel and is ready to submit to the
ordinance of baptism is asked several questions in order for
his conscious to be able to testify to the reality of the claims
of the gospel That's the answer of a good conscious because we
believe that when Christ rose from the dead He forever put
away our sins by the sacrifice of himself and That God has secured
by the death of Christ my justification He has affirmed by the resurrection
of Christ my justification in my glory because Christ rose
I know I have eternal life now watch the language here it is
and the baptism of the conscience, the conscience being informed
of the terms of justification, the death of Christ, the evidence
of justification, the resurrection of Christ, can now rest in the
fact that God has forgiven his sins on the basis of the objective
evidence of Christ's resurrection. In other words, I know God has
forgiven my sins because Christ is risen. But literally, the
conscience is inquired of As to what do you believe? So you're
getting ready to be tested here. What do you believe? What is Christ's death to you? What did his work on Calvary's
tree accomplish for you? Why are you applying to the waters
of baptism? What are the doctrinal grounds
of your now public profession? Do you see yourself as Noah? Do you see yourself as Noah's
family? Do you see yourself as Noah and their family? As distinguished
from the whole world by a salvation in Jesus Christ that has delivered
you from your sins from this old world system, from the sin
and rebellion of your fallen nature, from a world that is
condemned to death. Do you see yourself as Noah called
by grace into a relationship with Jesus Christ by his death? Do you see as Noah that you are
brought into union with Jesus Christ in the same way that Noah
and his family were brought into the ark? Do you see yourself
that way? Do you see yourself as seeing Jesus as your escape
from the wrath of God? Do you see yourself in Christ
as the grounds of the putting away of your old man, the body
of sin that's gonna send you to hell? Do you see in Christ
your resurrection and deliverance from this old, wicked, vile world
that's under the wrath of God today? Do you see yourself in
Christ waiting for the transformation, for the day when you will be
separated from all sin, all rebellion, all temptations, all trials by
the work of Christ? Do you see yourself as Noah and
his family or as the children of Israel? and their families
when they pass through the Red Sea, to look back and see the
old world destroyed, Pharaoh and his horsemen, and them entering
into a newness of life. Do you see yourself being separated
from the world unto God? See, that's what happened to
them. They were brought out of the world system into a relationship
with God. Reckon ye yourselves dead to
sin and alive to God. Do you see yourself as that way?
Do you see your deliverance in Christ from this world system? Do you see yourself on your way
to glory? Do you see yourself being led
by Christ to glory? Are you willing to tell the world
that you have died to the world and you are alive to Christ and
your job now is to give him glory? every part of your life until
you see him face to face if you're not ready to say it you don't
understand baptism look at the God of glory look
at him hanging on Calvary's tree calling sinners to himself come
unto me all you that labor and are heavy laden and I will give
you rest Look at the God of glory bearing the wrath of God for
the sins of those who would look to Him and find their salvation
in Him. Look at the God of glory rising
again from the dead to take His seat on His throne in glory and
call sinners by the gospel to Himself, to freely believe what
Christ has done to find faith and life in Him. Look at the
God of glory. Isn't He glorious? Isn't he glorious? A salvation full and free, received
only by faith, to make you a son of the living God, a daughter
of the living God, for all eternity, to escape the horrible, horrible,
horrible wrath of God, duly just for our sins. Look at God. Isn't he good? Amen.