The lesson this morning is in
Matthew chapter 3. There's so much in this chapter,
I just briefly touched on these things and then moved on. But here in Matthew chapter 3
and verse 11, this is John the Baptist talking. He said, I indeed baptize you
with water unto repentance. But he that cometh after me is
mightier than I. Whose shoes I am not worthy to
bear, he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with fire."
Now the word baptism, to baptize, John the Baptist You go through
and you look at this word in the New Testament, it always
means immersion. That's what it means. It means
to cover oneself wholly, is what the Strong's Concordance says,
with liquid. To be buried. To bury beneath
the water. And there's nothing in the word,
that is the word baptism. There's nothing in the word.
And there's nothing in the ordinance as it's described in the New
Testament and preached by the apostles and set forth here by
John the Baptist. There's nothing in the ordinance.
And there's nothing in the figure for which the ordinance was given
to show that would even hint that baptism ought to be by sprinkling
or any other method other than immersion. There's nothing there.
This is nothing more than the foolish minds of men who walk
in the vanity of their mind, coming up with these things from
their own wicked heart. That's all this is. There's nothing
in the Word of God anywhere. I've read the Presbyterians'
ideas of baptism and all that. Those things that they give for
a foundation of sprinkling is not even found in the Word of
God and has nothing whatsoever to do with baptism. And there's especially nothing
in the institution of the ordinance to lead anyone to think that
it's meant for anyone other than a repentant sinner who has embraced
the Lord Jesus Christ. There's nothing in this ordinance,
nothing in the giving of it, nothing in the Christ it points
to. This is its beginning right here.
They didn't baptize in the Old Testament. This was its beginning.
And you follow it from this place and follow it all the way through
the Scriptures, and you're not going to find anywhere in there
that even hints that someone other than a man who is saved
by the grace of God, who has embraced the Lord Jesus Christ,
should be immersed in that water or baptized. It's not for children. It's not a dedication service. It's not to dedicate your children
to God or any of those things that religion has when they do
this thing of sprinkling. John the Evangelist was called
the Baptist. First time that word appears
in Scripture. John the Baptist. Called the
Baptist because he preached and practiced believers baptism.
He preached the necessity of baptism. Now listen to this.
Not as a work of man, to bring him into favor with God. He preached
the necessity of baptism, not as a work, but as an answer of
a good conscience toward God. This is your confession of Christ. Your confession of Christ is
baptism. All that listened to John were
baptized. All that followed him were baptized. You can read about it in the
book of Luke. Every man, it said, was baptized of John. All of
them. All his disciples. Everybody
that followed him, everybody that sat under his ministry was
baptized by John. And as you may have guessed by
now, my lesson this morning is about believers' baptism. John preached salvation in Christ
alone. Christ alone. And what John performed
in the ordinance, in figure, he said the Lord Jesus Christ,
who was mightier than him, would perform literally with the Holy
Ghost and fire. I'm going to baptize you in water.
But he that cometh after me, of which this ordinance speaks,
he that cometh after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I'm not worthy
to bear." He's going to baptize you with the Holy Ghost. He's
going to show you what this baptism is all about, with the Holy Ghost
and fire. Now some say this fire is talking
about the passion that would burn within them as the Holy
Ghost revealed these things unto them. I think that's a good definition
of that word fire. Isn't that what they said on
the road to Emmaus? Didn't our heart burn within
us as He opened us to Scriptures along the way? I think that's
a good definition. And then others said it had to
do with the message they preached. which was pictured at Pentecost
as cloven tongues of fire fell upon these men. And they were
heard every man in his own tongue. And they went out, and these
12 men turned the world upside down. I think that's a good definition
of that word, fire. And then yet others say it refers
to the fiery trials, which will try every man's faith that he
confesses in baptism. It's going to try his faith.
And I think that's a good definition also. And then one man said it
spoke of the judgments of God that would attend those who heard
these men but would not receive their testimony. And that also
might be a good interpretation of this word, fire. I personally
believe he's referring to all of these things. As I said before,
John was called the Baptist because he preached salvation by the
death, burial, and resurrection of the coming Redeemer. And he
preached that the Holy Ghost would in a spiritual and wonderful
way immerse us in a union with His Son and raise us up with
Him to walk in newness of life. Baptism. And this has always
been the doctrine of those who are true Baptists. You can go
through the church history and you can go through all these
men who preach the Gospel, and you'll find that every one of
them baptized by immersion and taught what this baptism symbolizes. All true Baptists are immersers. But there are more than that.
Paul said, God didn't send me to baptize you. Christ didn't
send me to do that. That's not my main purpose in
coming. Paul did baptize. But that wasn't
his main purpose in coming. God sent him to preach the gospel
of which baptism is the confession when it's received in the heart.
John preached salvation in a representative man by way of a spiritual and
eternal union with him. That's what he preached. This
coming man was a representative man in whom the Father had chosen
people. And spiritually and in His everlasting
covenant, united those people to His Son. They're one in His
Son. One in His Son. He chose us in
Him before the foundation of the world. That's what the Scripture
says. He didn't choose us and put us in Him. He chose us in
Him. That's what it says. Those he preached to had no hope
in themselves because John laid the axe to the old family tree.
He laid the axe to the tree, to the root. He cut it down.
And you can look at that as it symbolizes that old Adamic tree,
that old Adam nature, that old Adam fatherhood and covenanthood.
in whom we fell, and sin entered into the world, and death by
sin, and death passed upon all men. You can look at it in that
Adamic fatherhood, or you can look at it in the Abrahamic covenant
also. He was talking here primarily
to Jews. He may have been referring to
that. He might have laid axe to that tree, telling them that
not all of these literal sons are sons of Abraham. That's what
it tells us over in Romans chapter 9, doesn't it? These are not
the children of God. That's what it says. John might
have laid the ax to that root if that's where your hope lies.
And I believe that's what he's talking about here because he
tells these folks up there just a little bit. He said, think
not to say within yourself. Look up there at verse 9. We
have Abraham as our father. For I say unto you that God is
able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham. John
laid the ax to that old root, that bloodline, salvation, that
we're children, we're literal children of Abraham, so therefore
we have favor with God and we're God's children and so on. He left these people with no
hope in that Adamic tree. He cut it down and no hope in
the Abrahamic tree. Their hope was in one vine, one
seed, one tree of the Lord's planting. It was all together.
in Christ. Everything these believers hoped
for, trusted in, and went beneath the water to confess was based
completely on the person and work of Christ as God had chosen
them in Him and sent Him to manifest these things. Man of himself
and left to himself, even... Now, hear me. even with clear
and godly instruction, cannot produce a righteousness acceptable
to God. He can't do it. I don't care
how well he's instructed. I don't care what he has before.
He can have the very law of God before him and read it. You read
the law of God back there. It's not complicated, is it?
It clears a veil. Tells you exactly what you have
to do to be righteous. And man, if left to himself,
Even with clear and godly instruction, he cannot produce a righteousness
acceptable to God. And this is the very thing that
constitutes the ministry of Satan in this world. This idea that
one can, by something he does or thinks or potential in him
or his will or works or ways or anything that has to do with
man, that he can somehow win favor with God. That's of Satan. And that's a lie. And it's the
very thing that constitutes the ministry of Satan in this world.
This is how he blinds men's minds to the truth. This is how he
causes men to hope in a false refuge. And this is how he satisfies
a guilty conscience and sends men to hell believing they're
not condemned. What do you mean? What do you
mean we're not children of God? We've done many wonderful works
in thy name. Why would they say that if they
didn't believe it? Huh? My friend, you can't find a believer
that talks about his wonderful works. He knows, I'm telling
you, God in the Gospel, so far as a believer is concerned, cuts
his tree down. He no longer has any hope in
his righteousness, in his potential, in something he says, feels,
does, or wants to feel someday. There's no hope in him. It's
an empty box. And that's what John did. But
that's how Satan, he causes men to hope in this false refuge,
and he satisfies that guilty conscience, and he sends men
to hell believing they're not condemned. That's free will works
religion. Put any kind of denominational
name you want to on it, that's what it is. They all preach the
same. Their only difference, if you
go and look at their church covenants and things, their only difference
is just a few differences in how the church is to be governed
and a few differences on the mode of baptism and a few differences
here and there. Their main doctrines are the
same. I don't care if they're Catholic or Baptist. Their doctrines
are the same. It works. But I don't care what
you call it, it's Antichrist. And Paul said the whole nation
of Israel, as a religion, was lost and didn't know God. And
their chief representative, our Lord called the children of the
devil, whose whole ministry lay in fulfilling the lust of their
father, Satan. Now that's what he told them.
And I'm telling you that this thing of righteousness, this
thing of of somehow winning favor with God by something you do
is satanic doctrine. It's a lie out of hell. And they
were ignorant. These Jews were ignorant of God's
righteousness and going about to establish their own righteousness
and therefore would not submit themselves unto the righteousness
of God. To believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ is to submit yourself 100% Did you hear me? 100% to His
righteousness alone. If you never do another good
work from now to the time you die, your hope better be in His
righteousness. Whether you feel that peace or
whether you don't, your hope is in His righteousness. And that's really the only peace
there is. That's the only piece there is.
Not one hymn you sing, not one prayer you pray, not one good
feeling you ever had, not one good deed, not one decision you
ever made. It's to see all your righteousnesses. Not your sins. Everybody knows
their sins. But not everybody understands
that all their righteousnesses are as filthy rags. The believer
understands that. He understands, as Isaiah declared,
we are all together an unclean thing. All together. Everything. He alone is all my righteousness
before God. It's to see his suffering and
death as sufficient before God to put away all my sin. All of
it. I've known people in my lifetime
who so-called accepted the Lord Jesus Christ as their personal
Savior and so on, and all their life worried over that one sin. They saw that one thing as standing
between them and God. Somehow, like somehow, this terrible
sin that I committed, His blood was sufficient to put all this
away, but not that. I'm talking about all your sins,
past, present, and future sins, sins of pride and presumption,
sins of your youth, sins of your old age, sins of anger and greed
and jealousy and envy, bold sins, secret sins, and sins that you
didn't even know were sins. That's what he called under the
law, sins of ignorance. They sinned and didn't even know
them. When did we do that? We didn't even know that was
a sin. It's still a sin, whether you know it or not. Sin, sin. One time he said, in the end
of the world hath he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice
of himself. Did he do it? That's where the believer stands.
See, it's not just believing that Christ died for sins. I
don't know anybody that don't believe that. But it's standing
in that alone. Not in my works. Not in my decisions. Not in anything I can ever produce. But just standing on that hope
alone that His blood, His death, His suffering put away my sins. Period. No matter what I did before.
And no matter what I do now, I'll put you, you went too far,
did I? You better study David a little bit. Find out if I'm
telling you the truth. Now, here's the question. What's
your hope? Huh? What's your hope? When you stand before God in
that day, your heart and soul stripped, and left bare before
Him who can discern the very thoughts and intents of your
heart and you stand there before Him and He can see you like you
can't even see you. He can see you and discern your
very heart. What's going to be your hope
then? His blood and His righteousness
is the only hope that will save your soul. I'm telling you the
truth. You better not mix anything with
it. It's Christ alone. That's what John preached. He
didn't preach Christ plus the law. Paul said, Who hath bewitched
you? Those people were saved. They
were clean delivered from those things. And he left them there,
and he came back, and now here they are, these Jews come down
and said, well, we'll go along with that. Christ, He's the Messiah. He came. He put away your sins.
Now you have to keep the law to keep the favor of God. Whoo! That's just as damning as it
was before. And Paul said, you better know
this. You switch that hope over to the law, you better keep it
all front to back. Because if you just do one thing,
if you so much as be circumcised, then you're obligated to keep
that whole law. And you've made Christ's death, insomuch as you're
concerned, vanity. Is the righteousness and shed
blood of Christ sufficient to satisfy God concerning you who
stand before Him, or does He yet require something more from
your hand? When you boil it all down, there
are just two religions in this world, works and grace. Works
is a religion that preaches and teaches that man has to do certain
things to win the approval and favor of God. Grace preaches
and teaches the presence and favor of God, the eternal and
sovereign gift of God's grace. That's what it preaches. Free
Will Works religion contends that Christ's life and death
were not fully meritorious and sufficient to save your soul.
You still have to make your decision and accept what he did to make
it effectual. Free Grace preaches not only
the sufficiency of Christ's life and death to save us, but that
this was God's eternal design forever. He never had another
design. This was it forever. God has saved us, Paul said,
and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but
according to His own purpose and grace given to us in Christ
Jesus before the world began. All right, what's all that got
to do with baptism? Baptism is the ordained confession
of all that believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. And it stands in
figure of how God saved his worthless soul. That's what it says. You
was buried with him. Huh? Was he buried? Was Christ buried? Who was he
buried for? Who was in him? Why would the
eternal Son of God become a man, come down to this earth and submit
himself to death and burial? apart from the fact that he represented
a people. There's no reason for it. You
see what I'm saying? When he was buried, I was buried. When he was killed, I was killed.
When he was raised, I was raised. That's what Paul said. By an eternal covenant union,
he chose them in his Son and appointed his Son as the substitute
and representative of his church. And by this eternal surety, they'll
stand or fall. That's right. They're going to
stand or fall in Christ alone. Did Christ come forth from the
grave? So did His church, because they were all in Him. Who's going to be raised from
this spiritual death? Huh? All that come forth with
Him. That's right. Because He bought
them the right to become sons of men. And they see themselves
being raised on the third day, ascending up into glory. And
Paul said, seated with full benefits and honors with Him, fully restored,
fully redeemed, fully accepted. Baptism confesses our union with
Christ alone. Christ alone. We're buried with
Him in baptism, Paul said, wherein also we are risen with Him through
the faith of the operation of God who raised Him from the dead. That's our hope. That's my hope. I don't have any other hope.
That's it. And there ain't no way you can
picture that with a cup of water sticking your fingers in it and
sprinkling a baby. All that does is confess your
ignorance. It's for believers who see their only hope of life
as being one for whom the Lord appeared, lived, died, and was
raised from the dead. But preacher, how do we know
if we're one for whom He died? Huh? How do we know that? How do I know I was with Him
in that eternal union? How do I know God put me in Him? Well, that's my message this
morning after I get done with the Sunday school lesson, and
I don't want to preach it before I get there. But how do we know
if we're one for whom Christ came, died, and rose from the
grave? Well, in John 6, verse 40, it
says, this is what our Lord said, it was the will of His eternal
Father. Now, listen to me. We don't know
anything about that eternal will except what God reveals to us
about it in Christ. And this is Christ speaking here.
In John chapter 6, He said that His eternal Father, this is the
will of Him that sent Me, that every one which seeth the Son
see him how? As God said even more. Everyone that seeth the Son and
believeth on Him, that's his hope. He's stripped of all other
hope. That's his hope. He sees the
Son as God set Him forth and embraces Him. That's my hope. I don't have
any other hope. That's the only hope there is. And he embraces
Him. That man, it says, by the will of the Father, everlasting
life. And he said, I will raise Him
up at the last day. He sees Him in His eternal appointments,
and He sees Him in His representative life. He sees Him in His substitutionary
death. He sees Him in His justifying
resurrection. And He sees Him in His ascended
glory, the sitting King of kings and Lord of lords, and blessed
and only potentate, ruling all things to that end. There's no marks that's going
to suddenly appear in your forehead, no strange or supernatural experiences,
no visions, no evidence of supernatural power. God's elect were revealed
in Egyptian darkness by God putting a light in their house. That's
how they knew it. God put a light in their house.
And they could see. They could see. That's it. Nobody else sees, honey. Nobody
else hears. I preach. You all have brought
relatives and friends and neighbors a long time that trust you and
respect you, and you bring them over here, and they hear one
time, they don't come back. Why? Because they don't hear, and
they don't see. God put a light in Israel's house
down in Egypt, and as the only ones had light, the only ones
could see. Those who see Christ as God has
set Him forth and believe on Him as is set forth in this book
are God's eternal sheep. And His sheep, He said, are known
by two things. They hear His voice and they
follow Him. How do you follow Him? It starts with believer's
baptism. That's right. You follow Him
in baptism. Is baptism necessary? Well, consider
this, Matthew 3, verse 13. It's what John preached. John
preached Christ, and he baptized all his ears. He told them this
is a necessary ordinance. Necessary ordinance. And he baptized
them, even though baptism had never been heard of before the
ministry of John. And those people submitted to
it. It made perfect sense to them. It showed exactly what
they believed. Those things had been open to
them. They could see them, and they submitted themselves to
baptism. And John baptized. Now watch this, Matthew 3, verse
13, Then cometh Jesus from Galilee to Jordan unto John to be baptized
of him. But John forbade him and said,
I have need to be baptized of thee, and comest thou to me?
And Jesus answering said unto him, Suffer to be so now, for
thus it becometh us to fulfill all righteousness. Then he suffered
him. Now, there was no Old Testament
law commanding baptism. But Christ said, I must be baptized,
and you must suffer it to be so that we fulfill all righteousness. What was that all about? Huh? That was Christ sanctioning this
ordinance of baptism. That's what that was all about.
This was a righteous commandment of God. And that better be the
way you look at baptism. If it wasn't absolutely necessary,
I guarantee you Christ would not have submitted himself to
that man to be baptized. He didn't fulfill foolish ceremonies,
did he? No, he didn't. And he made a
big deal out of this. You read the account in Luke,
it talks about all the people being baptized and then him being
baptized. And he sanctioned that baptism. And there's something else here
that I believe needs to be said. After his baptism, what happened? The Holy Ghost descended on him
from heaven in the bodily form of a dove, he said. And everybody
saw it. Everybody saw it. And then what
happened? And then he heard a voice from
the Father saying, this is my beloved Son in whom I am well
pleased. Now, these things are true in
the baptism of all true believers. Baptism is not only the confession
of His death and burial, but of His resurrection to walk in
newness of life. Listen to this, Romans 6, verse
1. 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? Now watch this. Know
you not that so many of us who were baptized into Jesus Christ
were baptized into His death? Therefore, we're buried with
Him by baptism into death, that like as Christ was raised from
the dead by the glory of the Father. Ain't that what that
says? By the glory of the Father. That is in perfect harmony with His glory and character. That's how God raised Him. And
that's how He raises you. That's right. Even so, we also
should walk in newness of life. And baptism answering a good
conscience toward God is the Father's declaration of His true
Son and His good pleasure satisfied in Him. Brother Barnard brought
a message one time years ago in which he likened baptism to
putting on the uniform of Christ. Christ did that too. He submitted
to John's baptism. And what did he do by that? He
said, I sanction what this man preaches. Not only sanctioned
the baptism, but he sanctioned the minister and his ministry. He put on the uniform. It was
a fulfillment of the righteous sanction of John's message and
baptism. And in public baptism, we not
only profess faith, but we publicly sanction and identify ourselves
with the ministry of that person who baptizes us. And I fear that
most of the time, most people that I've talked to over the
years, they didn't profess anything. They didn't identify themselves
with anything. And they go back to that old
baptism, wherever it was, down there in the old Nazarene church,
or down there in the old Brush Arbor meeting, or down there
wherever it was, they go back to that wife that time. I've
been, what do you confess? You can't confess what you never
had anymore. You can come back from somewhere
you've never been.