It is not that I did choose thee,
Lord, Todd's Road Grace Church would
like to invite you to listen to a sermon by our pastor, Todd
Niver. We are located at 4137 Todd's
Road, two miles outside of Manowar Boulevard. Sunday services are
at 10.30 a.m. and 6 p.m. Bible study is at
9.45 a.m. Wednesday services are at 7 p.m. Nursery is provided for all services.
For more information, visit our website at toddsroadgracechurch.com. Now here's our pastor, Todd Nyvert. Have you ever wondered about
this thing of baptism? Why in the Bible are Christ's
disciples commanded to baptize people? What does it mean? Does baptism wash away sins? Why does one go under the water
and come back up? I hope I can answer that question
with this message. I've entitled this message, The
Baptism of Christ. We read in Matthew 3, beginning
in verse 13, Then cometh Jesus from Galilee to Jordan unto John
to be baptized of him. Christ Himself, the Son of God,
came to John the Baptist to be baptized, to be immersed by John
the Baptist. Verse 14, But John forbade him,
saying, I have need to be baptized of thee, and comest thou to me? Now, we totally understand how
John felt. He knew who the Lord Jesus Christ
was. He knew this is the eternal Son
of God. This is the Lamb of God. Why
would He come to me for me to baptize Him? I need to be baptized
of Him. And you can understand why he
felt such awkwardness in this thing of baptizing the Lord Jesus
Christ. He knew exactly who He was, though
not many other people did. And Jesus answering said unto
him, Suffer it to be so now, for thus it becometh us to fulfill
all righteousness. Then he suffered him, and Jesus,
when he was baptized, went up straightway out of the water,
and, lo, the heavens were opened to him, and he saw the Spirit
of God descending like a dove and lighting upon him, and lo,
a voice from heaven, saying, This is my beloved Son, in whom
I am well pleased." Now, baptism, the very fact that
Christ was baptized, tells us something of its importance.
And the fact that Christ was baptized tells us that baptism
doesn't wash away sins because Christ had no sins to be washed
away. He knew no sin. He did no sin. And so when he
was baptized, it wasn't to wash away sin. So that lets us know
right off the bat that the act of baptism does not wash away
sin. It's symbolic of something. Now, by definition, the word
baptized means to immerse, not to sprinkle, but to immerse. to immerse in, to submerge under,
and to emerge from. The word was first used in the
Greek language with reference to dyeing pieces of cloth. They
would take a piece of cloth and submerge it under the dye and
bring it back up from the dye. You completely submerge in baptism. When John baptized, people were
immersed. They were emerged under and they
emerge from the water. And sprinkling is a denial of
what baptism represents in the first place. When people die,
we don't sprinkle dirt on them. They're buried. And baptism represents
the life, the death, the burial, and the resurrection of the Lord
Jesus Christ. Baptism is to teach us something. We read in Hebrews 6 of the doctrine
of baptisms. It's part of the great six fundamentals
of the faith that the writer to the Hebrews mentions in Hebrews
6, 1 and 2. One of those things is the doctrine
of baptisms. Baptism teaches something specific. Now I'd like to read a passage
of scripture in Luke chapter 12 where the Lord says, beginning
in verse 49, I am come to send fire on the earth And what will
I if it be already kindled? That fire has already begun.
But I have a baptism to be baptized with, and how am I straightened
till it be accomplished?" Now, the Lord had already gone through
water baptism at this time, but He says, I have a baptism to
be baptized with. Oh, I'm so straightened. I'm
stressed until it's actually accomplished. Now what is he
talking about when he talks about I've come to send fire on the
earth, the baptism of fire? What this is a reference to is
judgment, the fire of God coming down upon him, the wrath of God
coming down upon him. We have many instances in the
scriptures of fire coming down from heaven. Now this is not
the kind of fire that is that starts combustion the way we
know it. This is fire that came down from heaven that signified
God's judgment. You remember how God rained fire
and brimstone down upon Sodom and Gomorrah. You can remember
the fire coming down several times in the scriptures to ignite,
burn up, and accept the sacrifice. This is a reference to the fire
of God's judgment. The Lord Jesus Christ, when he
said, my soul is straightened, he was talking about when he
was going to be emerged in, submerged in, and emerge from the wrath
of God, the fire of God's justice. Why is there such a thing as
the wrath of God? because that's part of who he
is. He hates sin. And his wrath is
not like our wrath. It's a perfectly just holy wrath. And the reason for the wrath
of God is because of God's hatred of sin. Now, God took the sins
of his people. He took the sins of his elect,
and he put him on and in the Lord Jesus Christ. 1 Peter says,
He bare our sins in His own body on the tree. The sins of God's
elect became His sins, and He was guilty, and the fire of God's
wrath came down upon Him. When He cried out, My God, My
God, why hast Thou forsaken Me? It wasn't because He didn't know.
He knew that he was the sin-bearing substitute and that God cannot
accept sin. And for people like me and you
to be saved, our sin was going to have to become his sin so
that he became guilty of it. But he could do something you
and I couldn't do. He could satisfy God. He could make a payment
for that sin. And that's exactly what he did
on Calvary's tree. He accomplished something by
his death. He accomplished the complete
salvation of everybody for whom he died. But oh, how his soul
was straightened till it be accomplished. I couldn't help but think of
Elijah when he was having that contest, as it were, with the
prophets of Baal, 400 of them calling on their God and Elijah
calling on Jehovah. And he said, the God that answers
by fire, he is God. And so the prophets of Baal started
leaping, doing pagan rituals, trying to get the fire to come
down from heaven to consume their sacrifice. Nothing happened. Then Elijah prayed for the Lord
to send down fire. He doused the sacrifice first
with water. He dug ditches and had three
barrels of water poured upon the sacrifice. And then he prayed
for the Lord to hear him and to send fire down from heaven
and answer by fire. And all the people witnessed
as fire came down from heaven and consumed the sacrifice and
it consumed the altar that it was sitting on and the stones
and the dust, it licked up the water and all of a sudden there
was nothing left. The sacrifice was completely
consumed. Now, in the sacrifice we're talking
about, the sacrifice of Christ, something totally different took
place. When the fire of God's wrath
came down upon him, The fire didn't consume the sacrifice.
The sacrifice consumed the fire. He paid the debt. He completely satisfied God's
justice, and he satisfied God's justice for everybody that was
in him, that he represented, who was one with him. He's the
only one to emerge from the fire. And that's what baptism signifies
when you go under and you come up. He was raised from the dead,
and our hope is that we were in Him, and we were raised in
Him. Now, in Matthew chapter 3, once
again, verse 15, Jesus Answering to John the Baptist
regarding this thing of Baptizing him and we understand why John
felt so hesitant about this I want us I want us to notice the language
But John verbatim saying I've need to be baptized of thee and
cometh out of me and Jesus answering said unto him Suffer it to be
so now for thus it becometh us. I to fulfill all righteousness. He says to John the Baptist,
here is why I'm allowing you to baptize me. It becomes us,
not me. He didn't say it becomes me to
fulfill all righteousness and this is part of what I must do
in order to fulfill all righteousness. He says, thus it becometh us
to fulfill all righteousness. You see, what the Lord Jesus
Christ did He did as an us. He did it for those who are united
to him. He did it for those who believe. Now, what baptism signifies is
union with the Lord Jesus Christ. That's the doctrine, that's the
teaching of baptism, union with the Lord Jesus Christ. When I
was baptized, I confessed, this is my hope of being saved, that
when he lived, I was in him and I lived as well. When he fulfilled
all righteousness, I fulfilled all righteousness. When he says
this to John the Baptist, thus it becometh us to fulfill all
righteousness. He's just not talking about himself
and John. He's talking about himself and
all of God's elect, all of those who will believe, all of those
for whom he died. Thus it becometh us to fulfill
all righteousness. When he went under when He died. When I go under the water, I'm
confessing, here's my only hope, that when He died, I died. When He paid for sin, my sin
was paid for. And here's my only hope of being
accepted by God when He was raised from the dead God raised him
from the dead because he was satisfied with what he did. All
the sins of all those that he bore, they're put away. Perfect
righteousness is given to them. And when he was raised from the
dead, I'm confessing, this is my hope, when he was raised,
I was raised as well. And so we're all of God's people.
Union with the Lord Jesus Christ. Now there's several things in
the scripture that gives us some idea as to what this, how close
this union is. Hebrews 2.11 says, both he that
sanctifies and they who are sanctified are all of one. They're not close,
they're one. That's what union with Christ
means. It means one with Christ. John put it this way in 1 John
4, verse 17, as he is, so are we in this world. Is he perfectly
righteous? So are we if we're in him, if
we're united to him. Is he altogether lovely? So are
we if we're united to him. Illustrations the Bible gives,
first of all, would be marriage. When Paul's talking about marriage,
he talks about the two becoming one flesh. He says, I give a
great mystery, but I speak concerning Christ in the church. I'm not
just talking about the institution of marriage. The institution
of marriage pictures union with the Lord Jesus Christ. When it
says, he that loveth his wife loveth himself, Well, when Christ
loved his wife, when Christ loved his bride, he was loving himself
because his bride is united to him, one with him. When Paul
quotes that song in 2 Timothy chapter 2, if we believe not,
he abideth faithful, he cannot deny himself. For him to deny
any one of his body, any true believer would be for him to
deny himself. I love that scripture in Hebrews
chapter 7 verse 9 where it says that Levi paid tithes in Abraham. Now Levi wasn't yet born. He
was in the loins of his great-grandfather Abraham. But when Abraham paid
those tithes to Melchizedek, Levi did too. Whatever Christ
does, the believer does. And that's what baptism depicts. Union with the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, I love to think of our Lord
being baptized and coming back up out of the water, and the
scripture says, when He did this, and Jesus went His way and was
baptized and went up straightway out of the water. See, He went
up out of the water. There wasn't any sprinkling going
on. He came up out of the water. And, lo, the heavens were opened
unto Him. And my dear friend, the only
way the heavens will be open to you or me is as we're united
to Him and the heavens were open to Him. Now, what is the evidence
of being united to Him? Not everybody is united to Him.
What is the evidence of being united to Him? I want to know
so I can know if I'm united to Him, if I'm allowed to believe
on Him, if I could be baptized. Now, before I make these comments
about who should be baptized, I want to give you a story within
the story. Now, on the very day that the
Lord Jesus was to have this baptism of fire with the wrath of God
coming down upon him. There was another man who was
scheduled to be crucified that day. He was a wicked man. The
scripture says he was an insurrectionist and a murderer. He was a rebel. He was a wicked man and he had
been found guilty and he was to be crucified that day. Barabbas. Can you imagine how he must have
felt when he woke up that day knowing that very soon nails
were going to be driven into his hands and in his feet. He's
going to be crucified, nailed to a cross and left there to
die. Who knows how long it would take.
And I'm sure that he was so stressed and troubled at this time. I
don't know what all was going on in his mind, but I'm sure
of this, he was stressed and he was troubled. And then when
he heard the guards coming in and the jail door being opened,
I can imagine the dread that must have poured over him. And
then he hears those guards say, you've been set free. You've
been released. Now, do you remember what had
happened? Pilate said it's the custom to let somebody go. There's
a notable prisoner named Barabbas. Now, do you want Barabbas let
go, or would you like Jesus let go? And they said, not this man.
Let him be crucified. Release to us Barabbas. Christ
took Barabbas' place. In this sense, Barabbas, the
guilty, was set free. And Christ, the innocent one,
was condemned. But understand this, because
of what Christ was doing, it wasn't the guilty going free
and the innocent being condemned. Christ was guilty. My sin became his sin, and he
was guilty. and his righteousness became
Barabbas's, or everybody that he died for, so that they are
not guilty. This is not a case of the innocent
being punished and the guilty going free. This is a case of
the guilty being punished and the innocent going free. That's
what Christ actually accomplished by his death. that is what we're
confessing in believers baptism and I love the way it says the
heavens were open to him and lo he saw the spirit of God descending
like a dove and lighting upon him and lo a voice from heaven
saying this is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased if
I'm in him He didn't say, with whom I'm well pleased, although
he was well pleased with him and is well pleased with him.
He said, in whom I am well pleased. Once again, union with the Lord
Jesus Christ. Now, the next time we read of
baptism is on the great day of Pentecost when Peter preached
and After saying, God hath made this same Jesus whom you crucified,
both Lord and Christ, he was preaching to the literal murderers
of Christ. They were pricked in their heart.
God the Holy Spirit pricked them. And they said, men and brethren,
what shall we do? We're in a mess, what are we
to do? Peter said, repent, change your mind. and be baptized in
the name of Christ for the remission of sins. 3,000 people on that day were
baptized. They were saved by the grace
of God and they confessed Christ in believer's baptism. Now the
next time that we read of baptism is when the Lord sent Philip
to the Ethiopian eunuch. He was returning from Jerusalem.
He'd been at the Passover. He didn't know Christ. He was
seeking the Lord, though. He was reading the prophet Isaiah.
You know, it's always a good thing to read the Bible. He was
reading the prophet Isaiah, and he was reading Isaiah chapter
53, that great chapter regarding the substitutionary death of
Christ. He was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised
for our iniquities. The Lord hath laid on him the
iniquity of us all. And he said to Philip, of whom
speaketh the prophet this, himself or some other man? And the scripture
says that Philip at that same scripture opened his mouth and
preached unto him Jesus. He preached unto him the gospel.
He showed how that Isaiah 53 is a reference to the Lamb of
God that would come and put away sin. Now, while they were listening,
evidently at some point, Philip made a reference to baptism because
the Ethiopian eunuch said, see, here's water. What hinders me
from being baptized? I want to know if there's something
I need to do or if there's something I need to be in order to be baptized.
I want to know what hinders me. Do I need to know? Tell me what
hinders me. And I love the way Peter answered
or Philip answered. He said, Philip answered, if
you believe with all your heart, you may. That's all that's required
for baptism. Faith. And I love the way he
answered. He said, I believe. I want to,
I want to point out what he didn't say. He didn't say, I believe
I'm a Christian. He didn't say, I believe that Christ died for
my sins. He didn't say, I believe I'm one of the elect. He didn't
say, I believe that I've been born from above. He said, I believe. that Jesus Christ is the Son
of God. I believe that this man, Christ
Jesus, is nobody less than the eternal God, the second person
of the blessed Trinity, and believing he's God, I believe he must be
successful in whatever he does. And Philip baptized him. Philip baptized him. What hinders
me from being baptized and confessing Christ? Well, if you believe
you are to be baptized, to not do so is disobedience to Christ. This is the believer's public
confession of Christ. I confess by this act of baptism,
going under the water and coming back up, that all my hope is
found in the life, the death, the burial, and the resurrection
of Christ, that I was in Him. I was in him. And let me say
this, if you think everybody was in him, then you think everybody
would be saved. But the scripture doesn't teach
anything like that. There is a place called hell.
You can't say that everybody was in Christ and he was living
for everybody and he was dying for everybody and he was being
raised for everybody because he wasn't. He was doing this
for his elect. He was doing this for those who
believe. And everybody he did it for must be saved. That's
the good news of this. Now, the next time we read of
baptism in the book of Acts, it's with regard to the apostle
Paul. Paul was an evil man. He hated Christ. He hated Christians. Wherever he could find a Christian,
he would bind them up. getting him into the prison cell.
He had letters from the chief priests that he was allowed to
do that. He was the one who hated Stephen and he held the coats
of the people that stoned him. They laid their coats at his
feet. He was giving a sin to the death of Stephen. He hated
Christ, he hated Christians. And Christ met him on the road
to Damascus. And he came as a great light
and he knocked him off his horse Paul said, Who art thou, Lord?
He said, I am Jesus, whom thou persecutest. It's hard for thee
to kick against the bricks. What would you have me do? Well,
he was led back to Damascus in Ananias. The Lord sent him a
preacher, Ananias. And he comes to him with this
message, the God of our fathers hath chosen thee. First thing
he heard about was election. The God of our fathers hath chosen
thee, that thou shouldst know his will, and see that just one,
and hear the voice of his mouth, for thou shalt be his witness
unto all men of what you've seen and what you've heard. And then
next, Anne and I said, why tarryest thou? What are you waiting on? What is causing you to hesitate? Why tarryest thou? Arise and
be baptized. Now, what would make Paul tarry? Well, I'm sure that he had the
murder of these people fresh on his mind and thought, am I
worthy of something like this? Maybe he thought he should go
through some kind of probationary period or to prove that he really
did believe, maybe he thought that his life ought to be better
or improve or something like that. But let me tell you this,
my dear friend. If you believe that Christ is
the Son of God, there's nothing for you to tarry. There's no
requirements you need to meet. There's nothing you need to straighten
out or do before you can be baptized. There's no kind of work that
you need to do in order to make you fit for baptism. You are
commanded to be baptized right now, because baptism is the believer's
public confession of Christ. Do you remember where it says
when John the Baptist was baptized, it says they were baptized of
him confessing their sins? That doesn't mean they made some
kind of public confession of their sins to other people. You
should never confess your sins to a man. He can't do anything
for you. The only person you confess your sins to is God himself.
But in this act of baptism, they were confessing, I am so sinful. That the only way I can be saved
is if I'm united to Christ and He does everything for me. And that is what we confess in
Believer's Baptism. It's so beautiful. It's so simple. When Jesus Christ kept the law,
I kept the law. When Jesus Christ rendered perfect
obedience, I rendered perfect obedience. When Jesus Christ
died, I died. Paul said, I'm crucified with
Christ. My sins were paid for by what
he did. When he was raised again, he
was raised because the father was satisfied with what he did
and raised him up because he had justified everybody he died
for. And when he was raised, I was
raised as well. And as a matter of fact, this
union is so close that the scripture says we're seated together in
the heavenlies with Christ. If Christ is in heaven, and He
is, all of God's elect are right there with Him, united to their
great head. Thank God for Christian baptism. Now we have this message on DVD
and CD. If you call the church, write
or email, we'll send you a copy. This is Todd Nyberg praying that
God will be pleased to make Himself known to you.