If not that I did choose thee Todd's Road Grace Church would
like to invite you to listen to a sermon by our pastor, Todd
Neidert. We are located at 4137 Todd's
Road, two miles outside of Mattawar Boulevard. Sunday services are
at 1030 a.m. and 6 p.m. Bible study is at
945 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 Nyberg. My subject for this morning is
the baptism of Christ. Have you ever wondered why the
Lord Jesus Christ was baptized? Or what does baptism mean in
the first place? I hope we'll have an understanding
of this by the end of this message. My text is found in Matthew chapter
3 beginning in verse 13. Then cometh Jesus from Galilee
to Jordan unto John to be baptized of him. Now, John the Baptist
was baptizing people. He understood the meaning of
baptism, baptism of repentance for the remission of sins. When
people were baptized, they were confessing that they were so
sinful the only way they could be saved is by what baptism signifies. John's baptism was not a different
baptism than that of Christ or Christian baptism. He understood
the Gospel. He knew Christ was the Lamb of
God. He said, Behold the Lamb of God.
He knew, although that Christ was his cousin and was younger
than him, he knew Christ was the eternal Son of God. He knew
exactly who He was. He knew He was the Creator. He
knew He was the only Savior of sinners. So he's baptizing people
and John, was amazed when Christ came to be baptized of him. Look
what John said in verse 14. But John forbade him, saying,
I have need to be baptized of thee, and comest thou to me? Can you imagine how awkward you
would feel if the Son of God, the creator of the universe,
came to you and said, I want you to baptize me? If you have,
or if I have any humility about it, any knowledge of our own
sinfulness and so on, we would feel a hesitancy to do such a
thing. And John felt that way. And Jesus
answering said unto him, Suffer it to be so now, for thus it
becometh us to fulfill all righteousness. So he suffered him and he baptized
him. Now, what is this thing of baptism? By definition, It
means to dip, to immerse, to submerge, and to emerge. It's to submerge, it's to immerse,
to submerge, all the way under, and emerge. The word was first
used and found in Greek language with reference to dyeing a cloth. You would take the cloth and
dip it down immerse it into the dye, submerge it all the way
under the dye, and then emerge it back out of the dye. Baptism,
by definition, means that. It means to immerse, to submerge,
and to emerge. When John baptized people, people
were immersed. They were submerged all the way
under the water. and they emerge from the water,
it pictures the death and burial. We were baptized unto his death,
Paul said in Romans chapter 6. It pictures the death, burial,
and resurrection of Christ and the believer's union with him.
When he lived, I lived. When he died, I died. When he
was raised, I was raised. Now, can you see why sprinkling
is a denial of what baptism represents? When someone dies, you don't
sprinkle dirt on them. You put them all the way under.
That's the only way to be baptized. That's what baptism is. Now,
in Luke chapter 12, verse 49, the Lord Jesus says, I am come
to send fire on the earth. And what will I if it be already
kindled, but I have a baptism to be baptized with? Now, he'd
already been physically baptized, but he's speaking of what baptism
represents. He says, I have a baptism to
be baptized with, and how am I straightened? How is my soul
burdened until it be accomplished? Now what is the fire he's speaking
of when he said, I've come to send fire on their earth? Is
he talking about the fire that burns up wood, combustible, burns
up houses and so on? No. He's talking about that fire
that comes down from heaven, the fire of God's judgment. You remember when God judged
Sodom and Gomorrah, fire was rained down from heaven. How
many times throughout the Old Testament do we read a fire coming
down from heaven? and consuming the sacrifice.
This fire represents the fire of God's judgment. Now, this baptism that he speaks
of, I have a baptism to be baptized with and how is my soul straightened
until it be accomplished? He's talking about the baptism
of fire when he himself would be immersed in the fire of God's
judgment. the wrath of God, and he would
be completely submerged in and under the wrath of God, and he
would emerge from it. That's what he did when he was
raised from the dead. But how heavily this lay on his
mind. He said, how am I straightened
until it be accomplished? It was so heavy. All his life,
he knew that he would one day suffer all the horror of hell. Now, if you know for sure that
you were going to suffer all the horror of hell, you couldn't
take it. As a man, he's called the man
of sorrows because he knew that is what was waiting him, to be
baptized in the fire of God's wrath. Now, somebody may say,
why? Why was he baptized into the
fire of God's wrath. He never sinned. He's the only
good man to ever live. Why was he to be submerged under
the wrath of God? Well, the wrath of God, hell,
has one reason. Sin. God's judgment against sin. Now, while the Lord Jesus Christ
never sinned in his person, he knew no sin, the only perfectly
obedient man to ever live. Yet the sins of God's elect were
imputed to him so that he became guilty of them. And when he cried,
My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? When he cried that
from the cross, it was not because he did not know the answer. As
a matter of fact, if you read where that's quoted from in Psalm
22, He gives the answer, Thou art holy. The reason God poured
His wrath upon His Son is because God is holy. He will by no means
clear the guilty. And the sins of God's elect became
His sins. God imputed the sins of His people
to Him and He became guilty of them and He suffered the just
wrath of God. He was immersed in the wrath
of God. I believe that immersion took
place in Gethsemane's garden when he started sweating great
drops of blood saying, if it be possible, let this cup pass
from me. He was submerged under the wrath
of God on the cross. That's why he cried, my God,
my God. He couldn't even call him Father
at this time. Why hast thou forsaken me? where
he forsook him because of sin. We read in Psalm 37, David said,
I've been old, young, and now I'm old, and I've never seen
the righteous forsaken. Well, the Lord Jesus Christ on Calvary's
tree was made sin, and that's why he was submerged under the
wrath of God. But he did something no one else
has ever done. He emerged from it having satisfied
the wrath of God. God's justice can ask no more. He paid the debt. And he said, how is my soul straightened
till it be accomplished? You see, he accomplished something
by his baptism in fire. What did he accomplish? Luke
9, 31, when Moses and Elijah were speaking to him on the Mount
of Transfiguration, they spake of the decease which he should
accomplish. You see, when he said, it is
finished, The salvation of everybody he died for was accomplished. That's the same word. It is finished. It is accomplished. The salvation
of everybody he died for was accomplished. My sins were paid
for. My salvation was secured. It was caused by what he did.
His death was an accomplishment. Now, do you remember the story
of Elijah? in 1 Kings chapter 18 in the
prophets of Baal. There were 400 prophets of Baal
and there was one prophet of God, Elijah. And Elijah had confronted
the children of Israel about their Baal worship. He said,
if God be God, serve him. If Baal, serve him, but don't
halt between two opinions. And then he said, here's what
we're going to do. We're going to have the prophets of Baal
and they're going to set up a sacrifice and we're going to have the scriptural
sacrifice that I'm going to offer up to the Lord as God's priest.
And the God that answers by fire, fire coming down from heaven
and consuming the sacrifice, the God that answers by fire,
He is the living God. And everybody seemed agreeable
to that, so the 400 prophets of Baal took their ox, slew it,
started dancing around, praying, Baal, hear us, let fire come
down from heaven. But nothing happened. As a matter
of fact, Elijah started making fun of them. Where is your God?
Is he asleep? Is he on a journey? Can't he
hear? He was making fun of them, and they were leaping around,
cutting themselves. Hear us! Nothing happened. And
then at the time when the evening sacrifice was to take place,
Elijah took his book, and he dressed it according to the Scriptures,
and set it upon the altar of stones, and he prayed for the
Lord to send fire down from heaven so that they would know that
He's God. And the Scripture says, with all the people watching,
fire came down from heaven. Can you imagine seeing that?
Fire came down from heaven and consumed the sacrifice. And remember,
Elijah doused it with water three times. It was filled with water
to make sure no trickery was involved. And fire came down
from heaven and consumed the sacrifice. so that there was
nothing left. It consumed the water. It consumed
the stones. It consumed the dust. There was
absolutely nothing left. They looked and they said, the
Lord, He is God. They saw when they saw the fire
come down from heaven and consume the sacrifice. Now, when our
Lord was hanging on the cross, the fire of God's justice and
wrath came down upon Him. But there's something different
that took place. The sacrifice was not consumed. The sacrifice
consumed the fire. The Lord Jesus Christ drank the
wrath of God dry. God's justice was satisfied. God said, I can ask no more. That's why Christ was raised
from the dead. Now that's what His baptism accomplished. Now let's go on reading in Matthew
chapter 3. John forbade him, saying, I have need to baptize
to thee, and comest thou to me? And Jesus answering said unto
him, Suffer it to be so now, for thus it becometh us to fulfill
all righteousness." Now, the Lord says to John the Baptist,
Suffer it to be so now, in the time of my humiliation when I'm
a man, the days of His incarnation. He's still incarnate. He's still
God. He's seated on a throne now, though. He's not walking
on this earth. He said, "...suffer to be so
now, for thus it becometh us to fulfill all righteousness."
Now, don't miss that word, us. What the Lord did, He did as
an us. When He fulfilled righteousness,
John the Baptist fulfilled righteousness, Todd Nyberg fulfilled righteousness,
Every believer, everybody that he represented fulfilled all
righteousness. You see, what baptism signifies
is union with the Lord Jesus Christ. Here's my hope, that
when he lived, I was in him, so that I lived. When he kept
the law, I kept the law because I'm united to him. When he died
under the wrath of God, I died under the wrath of God in him,
united to him, in him. When He was raised from the dead,
I was raised from the dead because I was in Him. When He was raised,
I was too because I was in Him. As He's in heaven right now,
I'm there too. You say, I see you. That's impossible. I'm looking at you. Ephesians
2, 6 says, We're seated together in the heavenlies in Christ Jesus.
If Christ is in heaven, I am too because I'm united to Him.
That's what baptism signifies. That's what we confess when we
confess Christ in believers' baptism. Thus it becometh us
to fulfill all righteousness. And now every believer, I don't
care who they are, I don't care how bad they are in and of themselves,
Every believer is righteous before God, truly righteous. It's not
just some kind of forensic declaration. No, they are all together righteous
before God. Every believer having the very
righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, when the Lord went
under the water and came back up, he knew exactly what water
baptism represented. Now, when we confess Christ in
believer's baptism, we're confessing Our only hope is being united
to Him. But when He was baptized, same
baptism, He's saying, they're united to Me. I'm doing what
I'm doing as in us. He's talking about the eternal
union of Himself with every believer. Both He that sanctifies and they
who are sanctified are all of one, for the which cause He's
not ashamed to call them brethren. Now, He goes under the water. and comes back up, and we read
in verse 16, and Jesus, when He was baptized, went up straightway
out of the water, and, lo, the heavens were opened to Him. Now, I love to think about this.
I don't understand it, but when our Lord came out of the water,
all of a sudden heaven was opened. And what that lets us know is
that heaven is opened by the baptism of the Lord Jesus Christ.
And I'm not talking about his water baptism. I'm talking about
his baptism by fire as the sinner's substitute. Because of what he
did, because of what baptism signifies, heaven is opened to
the believer. There's one reason why I can
be saved. It's because of the baptism of
the Lord Jesus Christ, he did what he did as a representative
and opened heaven for his people. I want to read a passage of scripture
to you from Matthew chapter 20, beginning in verse 20. Then came
to him the mother of Zebedee's children with her sons worshiping
him and desiring a certain thing of him. And he said unto her,
What wilt thou? She said unto him, Grant that
these my two sons may sit the one on thy right hand and the
other on thy left in thy kingdom. Now if you can imagine how the
other ten got upset, they did, but my mom would do the same
thing, yours would too. She wanted her boys to be seated
at the right hand of the Lord Jesus Christ when he comes in
his kingdom. And look how he answers her,
verse 22. But Jesus answered and said, You know not what ye
ask. Are you able to drink of the
cup that I shall drink of? And to be baptized with the baptism
that I'm baptized with? Can you do that? Now he's talking
about drinking the cup of God's wrath. He's talking about being
immersed and submerged and emerging from the wrath of God. Are you
able to do that? Now look at their answer. They
said unto him, we're able. They had no idea what they were
talking about. They're saying, we're up to the task. They didn't even
know what the Lord was talking about when they said this. This
was incredibly arrogant, naive, dumb. Just go on down the line. There wasn't anything right about
what they were saying to think that they were able to do what
the Lord did. But look how the Lord answered them. He didn't
correct them. He said in verse 23, and he saith
unto them, you shall drink indeed of my cup. and be baptized with
the baptism that I'm baptized with. You shall drink of that
cup of wrath, and you will be baptized with the baptism I'm
baptized with. How? Because they were united
to Him. That's how they could do it. Now, because of His baptism,
as soon as He came out of the water, the heavens were opened. You see, heaven would be closed
to us And an eternal hell would be our portion if it were not
for the baptism of the Lord Jesus Christ and its accomplishments.
Now let's go on reading. 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 sang, This is my beloved Son. in whom I am well pleased."
Now, let me illustrate how heaven is opened. I want to tell you
a story within that story. On the same day as the baptism
of Christ, the baptism by fire, the crucifixion, on that very
same day there was another man who was scheduled to be crucified. He was a wicked man. He was a
murderer. He was a thief. He was an insurrectionist,
a rebel, a very wicked man by the name of Barabbas. And he
had been sentenced to die by crucifixion. He was to die on
that very day, and the Scripture says he lay bound in the cell. There's no way he could get away.
There's nothing he could do to deliver himself. There he is
in chains. waiting to be crucified. He hears
Roman soldiers coming and I can imagine the dread that he felt,
scared to death of what was getting ready to take place. They're
coming to get me, to nail me to a cross. Can you imagine how
afraid he was at this time? And they opened the door of the
cell and said, you've been set free. Can you imagine how amazed
he was? You've been set free. Now why
was Barabbas set free? The guilty was set free because
the innocent was condemned. There's one reason why Barabbas
was set free. The Lord took his place. Now, when I said the guilty is
set free and the innocent is condemned, if that's all I said,
I'm not really telling the story. You see, the only reason Barabbas
was set free was because he was innocent. And the only reason
Christ was condemned was because he was guilty. You say, how can
that be? Because the sins of God's people
were placed upon Christ and he became guilty. Christ's righteousness is given
to every believer, and they're now innocent. I will enter into
heaven, not simply for mercy, but because the justice of God
demands my salvation, I'm innocent. You see, Christ bore my sin and
put it away. It is no more. Now that's why
Barabbas was set free. because someone took his place. Now, that's what opened up heaven
to people like me and Barabbas, the baptism of the Lord Jesus
Christ. And Jesus, when he was baptized,
went up straightway out of the water, and, lo, the heavens were
opened to him. And he, John the Baptist, saw
the Spirit of God descending like a dove, lighting upon him.
And, lo, a voice from heaven, saying, This is my beloved Son,
in whom I'm well pleased. Now, Here we have the Trinity. We hear the Father speak from
heaven. This is one of three times He spoke from heaven. This
is the Son of my love, in whom I am well pleased. Do you want
to know how the Father can be pleased with you? Being in the
Son. If you're in the Son, if you're
united to Him, God is well pleased with you. The scripture says,
as He is, 1 John 4, 17, as He is, so are we in this world. Is He well-pleasing to the Father?
So are we, every believer. Is He accepted by the Father?
So are we. Is He lovely to the Father? So
are we, as we are in Him. This is my beloved Son, in whom
I'm well pleased. Hear ye Him. He said the same
thing on the Mount of Transfiguration, when they saw the Lord speaking
to Moses and Elijah. And Peter foolishly said, let's
make three tabernacles, one for thee, one for Moses, one for
Elijah. And then a great cloud overshadowed them, and a voice
came from heaven. and said, this is my beloved Son in whom I'm
well pleased. Hear ye Him. And then when our
Lord, at the thought of being crucified, knowing His time was
come, He said, Father, glorify Thy name. And the Father said,
I've both glorified it and will glorify it again. Oh, the words
of God from heaven. Hello, a voice from heaven saying,
this is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased. Now, our Lord was baptized. In this baptism, he's confessing.
He's united to every believer, but our Lord was baptized. And
then we read in Acts chapter 2, when Peter preached on the
day of Pentecost, we read where 3,000 people confessed Christ
in believers' baptism after he preached that message. 3,000
people. Repent and be baptized, Peter
said, when they were pricked in their hearts and said, men
and brethren, what shall we do? Repent and be baptized, every
one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ, for the remission of
sins, and you shall receive the Holy Ghost. Now, the next baptism
we read of is when in Ethiopian Munich, the Lord had sent Philip
to that Munich, and Philip preached the gospel to him. And after
he heard the gospel, and after he heard Philip preach, he said,
see, here's water, what hinders me from being baptized. I want
to know if there's a reason why I shouldn't be baptized, and
I'm sure he Perhaps was thinking of all kinds of reasons he shouldn't.
I'm too sinful. I don't know enough. What hinders
me from being baptized? Philip said, if you believe with
all your heart, you may. He answered, I believe. Not that
Christ died for me. Not that I'm a Christian. Not
that I'm born again. He said, I believe that Jesus
Christ is the Son of God. And Philip baptized him. And
then the next baptism we read of in the book of Acts is where
after Paul heard the gospel from Ananias, he said, why tarryest
thou? Arise and be baptized. And perhaps
Paul just thought, I'm not fit. I'm not fit. Well, I can understand
him thinking that way, but when are you fit? Let not conscience
make you linger, nor a fitness fondly dream. The only fitness
he requires is to have a need of him. Now every believer is
called upon to confess Christ by believer's baptism. Believer's
baptism. You believe the gospel. You believe
the gospel of God's grace. Have God save sinners by Christ.
The only requirement for baptism is faith. Do you believe the
gospel? Then you ought to confess Christ
in believer's baptism. Our Lord, the Lord Jesus Christ,
was baptized. And we have this message on CD
and DVD. If you call the church, ride
or email, we'll send you a copy. We'd like to invite you to services
at Todd's Rugged Grace Church. Bible study begins at 945. morning
service at 1030 and tonight at 6. This is Todd Knight, praying
God will be pleased to make a settlement with you. God bless. Amen. To request a copy of the sermon
you have just heard, send your requests and messages at ToddsRoadGraceChurch.com
or you may write or call the church at the information provided
on the screen. is not that I did