I'll ask you, if you will, to
turn in your Bibles with me to 1 Corinthians chapter 1. 1 Corinthians chapter 1. We're
going to study today from verse 17. For Christ sent me not to
baptize, but to preach the gospel, not with the wisdom of words,
lest the cross of Christ should be made of none effect. That's going to be our text,
but let's begin reading in verse 10 and read through verse 21. Now, I beseech you, brethren,
by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you all speak the
same thing. and that there be no divisions
among you, but that you be perfectly joined together in the same mind
and in the same judgment. For it hath been declared unto
me of you, my brethren, by them which are of the house of Chloe,
that there are contentions among you. Now this I say, that every
one of you saith, I am of Paul, and I of Apollos, and I of Cephas,
and I of Christ, Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Or
were you baptized in the name of Paul? I thank God that I baptized
none of you, but Crispus and Gaius, lest any should say that
I had baptized in mine own name. And I baptized also the household
of Stephanus. Besides, I know not whether I
baptized any other. For Christ sent me not to baptize,
but to preach the gospel, not with wisdom of words, lest the
cross of Christ should be made of none effect. For the preaching
of the cross is to them that perish foolishness, but unto
us which are saved, it is the power of God. For it is written,
I will destroy the wisdom of the wise and will bring to nothing
the understanding of the prudent. Where is the wise? Where is the
scribe? Where is the disputer of this
world? Hath not God made foolish the
wisdom of this world? For after that in the wisdom
of God, the world by wisdom knew not God. It pleased God by the
foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. So we're going to thank today,
especially in verse 17, for Christ sent me not to baptize, but to
preach the gospel, not with the wisdom of words, lest the cross
of Christ should be made of none effect. Looking at this text,
I'm going to ask and hopefully answer two questions. The first
question is this, what did Paul mean by saying, for Christ sent
me not to baptize. What did the apostle Paul mean
by that? Was not Paul an apostle? And
did not the Lord Jesus Christ send his apostles to baptize? Well, Paul was an apostle. In
fact, if you notice in verse one of this chapter, we didn't
read it, but he acknowledged there that he is or was an apostle. In fact, in the 13 New Testament
letters that God inspired Paul to write, in all of them except
four, he declared the fact that he was an apostle. So yes, he
was an apostle, and yes, the Lord Jesus Christ did send the
apostles out to baptize. I want you to notice, if you
will, in Matthew, keep your places here, but turn back with me to
Matthew, to a very familiar passage of scripture for most of us,
I believe. But here in Matthew chapter 28,
after the Lord rose from the dead, he appeared
unto his disciples over a period of 40 days. And on one of those
occasions, he gave them this commission, as we call it, the
Great Commission. Let's begin our reading in verse
16. Then the 11 disciples went away
into Galilee, into a mountain where Jesus had appointed them.
And when they saw him, they worshiped him, but some doubted. And Jesus
came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in
heaven and in earth. Go you, therefore, and teach
all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of
the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, Holy Ghost, teaching them to
observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you, and lo,
I'm with you always, even unto the end of the ages. Now, you
see there, the 11 disciples, the 11 apostles of the Lord Jesus
Christ, and Paul also was made an apostle. He was an apostle,
he said himself, born out of due time, because he did not
come to know Christ until after Christ had ascended back into
heaven. And then we know that he was
a great persecutor of the church, that he hated Christ. He hated
everything that the apostles said about Christ, that he was
God. And then Christ revealed himself
unto him that day on the road to Damascus, and Christ communicated,
taught him the gospel. That was one of the requirements
to be an apostle. A man had to have heard the gospel,
had to have learned the gospel from the Lord Jesus Christ himself. That's one reason there are no
apostles of Christ today in the world, and there haven't been
since those 12 apostles passed away. So yes, Paul was an apostle,
and yes, Christ did send his apostles out. to baptize, so
why then did Paul say, for Christ sent me not to baptize? What does he mean by that? Well,
if you notice in this commission here in Matthew, that he said,
first of all, go into all the world and make disciples. In other words, before anyone
is to be baptized, he is to be a disciple. What does the word
disciple mean? It simply means a learner. or
a follower. Before anyone is to be baptized,
he should be, she should be a learner, a follower of the Lord Jesus
Christ. But this shows us by Paul's statement
here, for Christ sent me not to baptize, but to preach the
gospel. This shows us that baptism is
not part of the gospel. Baptism is not part of the gospel. Although, I could name a number
of so-called Christian denominations today that teach that a baby,
when sprinkled, is born of the Spirit of God. In other words,
they believe. In fact, the largest, let me
just make it clear, the Roman Catholic Church, the largest
so-called Christian denomination in the world, they teach, their
doctrine is that in Baptism, sprinkling they call it, baptism,
that a baby is born again, born of water and of the Spirit. That's their official doctrine. Paul very clearly shows here
that baptism is not part of the gospel. Go into all the world
and make disciples, that's first. Later in 1 Corinthians chapter
15, in this same letter, he tells them the gospel that he had preached
unto them. The gospel by which, he said,
you are saved if you keep in memory. In other words, it's
not just walking down a church aisle and making a profession
of faith, but when a person is born again of the Spirit of God,
there's a truth of perseverance. If you keep in mind, if you remember,
you don't just get saved as people say today. That's bad terminology. Someone said, I got saved. Why
don't you say, if you are saved, the Lord saved me. I got saved. No, the Lord saved you if you're
saved. But it's a work that's not for
a day or for a week or for a year, but it is for the rest of your
life. And Paul says, here's the gospel
that I preached unto you. To these same people that he
is writing this text to, he said, how that Christ died for our
sins according to the scriptures. That's number one. How that Christ
died for our sins. Someone said, well, Christ is
our example. He is our example, but listen,
He didn't die to be an example. He died for our sins according
to the scriptures. In other words, He is that one
propitiation, that one sacrifice that does effectually put away
sin. For Christ died for our sins
according to the Scriptures, and was buried, and rose again
the third day according to the Scriptures." And it's very important
that you see Paul said, according to the Scriptures. He died according
to the Scriptures. Now the Scriptures at that time
was the Old Testament. In other words, all those types
and pictures that had been proclaiming from way back to Adam's day,
and Abel, that someone's coming, someone's coming. The seed of
the woman who shall bruise the head of the serpent. Thou, and
God said at that time to Satan, you shall bruise his heel. He was wounded, but Satan was
crushed. So according to the scriptures,
all the Old Testament scriptures, a great day of atonement. I mean,
I could just go through these, but I don't have time, but you
know them. The scapegoat, isn't that a beautiful
picture? I love, I can't hardly pass this
one by. The scapegoat, after blood had
been taken in there and placed on the mercy seat, the blood
of the sin offering, Then the high priest comes out and puts
his hands on the head of that live goat and confesses all the
sins and all the transgressions and all the iniquities of the
nation of Israel. And then that goat is led out
never ever to be seen again. What is that a picture of? How
that Christ in his own body bore our sins on the tree. and buried
them in the grave. And when he came out, those sins
are gone forever. They're gone forever. This shows
us by Paul here stating, for Christ sent me not to baptize,
but to preach the gospel, that baptism is not part of the gospel. Now let me say a few words about
baptism. First of all, what does baptism
picture? I believe it pictures three things. First of all, baptism pictures
the gospel. It pictures the death, the burial,
and the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. In this way, when
a person goes into the water, When a person who is being baptized
goes into the water, it pictures the sufferings unto death of
the Lord Jesus Christ. If you keep your place here in
1 Corinthians, but look again to Luke chapter 12. Luke chapter 12 and verse 50, our Lord speaking, said, I have,
but I have a baptism to be baptized with. And how am I straightened
till it be accomplished? And when the Lord spoke these
words, he was not talking about his baptism by John in the river,
Jordan, that had already taken place. He began his public ministry
by being baptized of John. But now in this text, when he
speaks of having a baptism to be baptized with, he's speaking
of his sufferings which would end in his death, and he speaks
of them under this figure of baptism. As you go into the water, the
Lord Jesus Christ, his sufferings, and this is one of the many reasons
I could never accept sprinkling as baptism. I just couldn't do
that. Why? Because to do that, I would
have to believe that the sufferings of the Lord Jesus Christ was
like a few drops of water. No, no. That won't picture it.
That won't do. Just won't do. No, He was plunged. He was engulfed in the water,
the sufferings that God had ordained for him as our savior, as a sin
sacrifice. One writer said, the only thing
baptized when an infant is sprinkled is the minister's fingers. The only thing baptized when
an infant is sprinkled is the minister's fingers, when he puts
them in the water. and then sprinkles a few drops.
The only thing baptized, the only thing immersed, that's what
the word means, are the fingers of the minister. The largeness,
the abundance of the Savior's sufferings unto death cannot
be pictured by a few drops of water. So first of all, baptism
pictures the death, but it also pictures the burial. When the
person being baptized, when he goes under the water for just
a second or two, it pictures the burial of the Lord Jesus
Christ. A corpse is not buried by sprinkling
dirt upon him. A corpse is buried by covering
him over with dirt. The Lord Jesus, his body, lay
in the tomb. But on the third day, he came
forth. And that's pictured when a person
comes up out of the water. It pictures the resurrection
of the Lord Jesus Christ. Death could not hold him. It's held all these millions
of people who have walked on the face of God's earth over
the millenniums. It's held each and every one
of them. in their tombs, their bodies turning to dust. But death
could not hold the Lord of glory. He came forth. And that's pictured
when a person comes up out of the water in baptism. And so
I said it pictures three things. It pictures, first of all, the
gospel. Secondly, it pictures the union
that believers have with Christ. Every child of God here today
is in union with Christ. And that's pictured to us by
baptism. If you look over in 1 Corinthians
12, just a moment, 1 Corinthians 12 and verse 13, The apostle says, for by one
spirit are we all baptized into one body. What body is that? That's the body of Christ. That's
the church. Not one local church, but the
universal church. God's children all over this
world. Everyone who's ever been saved. We're all baptized by
one spirit into one body. whether we be Jews or Gentiles,
whether we be slaves or free, and have been all made to drink
into one spirit, that is the Holy Spirit. So that's the second
thing that baptism pictures. And third, baptism pictures what's
happened in your life. If you are being baptized, then
you should be able to say, give this testimony, I've died. And I've been raised. I've died
to that old life. And I've been raised to walk
in newness of life. I'm a new creature in Christ
Jesus. My life has changed. He's changed
it. And now by the grace of God,
my desire is to walk with him and to serve him and to honor
him. A new life, new life. So that's the first question,
what does baptism picture? My second question would be this,
who should be baptized? Who should be baptized? Well,
there's no warrant in the word of God to baptize infants. Only
those should be baptized who have received, as the Apostle
John says, an unction from the Holy Spirit and know all things. What does that mean? Received
an unction from the Holy Spirit and know all things. That certainly
doesn't mean that you know all knowledge, all sciences that's
in this world. It doesn't mean that at all.
But it does mean this, that by the Spirit of God, the birth,
the new birth, you have come to see the sinfulness of sin. You've come to see that. You
know that. Sin. Sin's sinful. Sin's against
God. God hates sin. And you've come
to see that there's one, you know this, there's one Savior.
There's only one. There's not two. There's not
three. There's one name under heaven given among men whereby
we must be saved. That's the name of Jesus Christ
our Lord. You know that if you have this
anointing of the Lord. And you, by the grace of God,
look to Him. By faith, you look to Him and
are saved. Our Lord said, Go ye into all
the world and preach the gospel to every creature. He that believeth
and is baptized shall be saved. Look at another place here. Who
should be saved? Look in Acts chapter 8. This
is a very familiar passage of Scripture, but In this chapter
we have Philip and God sends him out into the desert. God's going to find his people.
He really is. The Son of Man has come to seek
and save that which is lost. He found Zacchaeus up in a tree. I don't know where he found you,
where he found me, but he found this man in the midst of the
desert, crossing the desert. And think about this, if you're
crossing a desert, there's one thing you want to take with you,
water, a canteen of water. So here's this Ethiopian eunuch
in his chariot. He was a prestigious man. He
was a treasurer. for the Queen of Ethiopia, I
believe it is. He was an important man. Paul
said, not many, not many mighty, not many great. He didn't say
not any. Here's one. He's crossing the
desert. He's been up to Jerusalem to
worship, evidently was a proselyte to Judaism. He's going home just
like he came, empty. Empty. Empty. But he's got the scripture, part
of the scripture at least, with him. He's got the scripture of
Isaiah. And he's reading the 53rd chapter
of Isaiah. God told Philip, you run, you
run up to that chariot. You run alongside that chariot.
And he did. And he asked the man, do you
understand what you're reading? The man said, How can I, except
some man, explain it? God uses men to preach the gospel,
doesn't he? He uses weak men. We have this
treasure in an earthen vessel, just a clay pot, that's all it
is. But oh, the treasure, the gospel, oh, the treasure. And
so Philip gets up into the chariot with him and begins at that very
scripture, which was Isaiah, he is led as a lamb to the slaughter. He asked, is the prophet speaking
of himself or is he talking about somebody else? And Philip said,
he's talking about Jesus, Jesus Christ of Nazareth. And he preached
unto him, Jesus. And as they're on their way,
they came to a certain water, it says, I guess it was like
a, a pool, a tank, or something. And he asked Philip, he said,
what hinders me from being baptized? What did Philip, he said, well,
if thou believest with all thine heart. And the eunuch answered
and he said, I believe that Jesus Christ is the son of God. Stop,
stop the chariot. Stop the chariot, let's go down
into the water. And they both came up out of
the water, and God caught Philip away. And the eunuch went on
his way rejoicing. Who, who should be baptized? Those who can answer the same
way that this eunuch answered, I believe that Jesus Christ is
the Son of God. Why? Here's another question.
Why should a believer be baptized? Well, here are three reasons.
First of all, the Lord's example. He was baptized. He was baptized
by John. And you know, John didn't want
to baptize him at first. John recognized, I have need
to be baptized of thee, and comest thou to me? Suffer it to be so
for now, that we might fulfill all righteousness. You see, it
was by Christ being baptized that he identified with you and
I. He identified with his people
in baptism. So first of all, because we have
his example. Second, because he commanded
it. It's his command. He that loveth me is he that
hath my commandments and keepeth them, he said. And third, as
Peter says, for a good conscience. For a good conscience. And by
that, when a person is conscious, yes, baptism is for believers. And yes, I am a believer. I believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. than to profess faith in baptism
that gives you a good conscience. If you know you should, that
you do believe, but you haven't been baptized, then your conscience
bothers you. There's some of you here today,
I have no doubt. Your conscience is bothering
you because you know that you believe in Christ, but you have
never confessed Him in baptism. Would you have a good conscience?
Be baptized. Follow the Lord in baptism. And fourth, when should a believer
be baptized? Just as fast as you can. Just as quickly as possible.
When you're able to say, I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son
of God. And you tell the preacher, you
tell the pastor, and we'll fill this baptistry up. That's one
of the blessings. I love to hear that water flowing
into that baptistry. Because I know it's someone,
someone, who's going to confess Christ in baptism. I tell you,
it rejoices the pastor, it rejoices the whole congregation, doesn't
it? When we hear someone or see someone be baptized, what do
we say? We say, thank the Lord. Thank the Lord. We don't say,
thank the preacher. We don't say, thank some program
or something. No, thank the Lord. Why? Because salvation is of the Lord. Thank the Lord. All right, here's
the second question of the two big questions. First of all,
What did Paul mean by saying, Christ sent me to preach the
gospel, not with the wisdom of words, lest the cross of Christ
should be made of none effect? In answering this question, first
of all, we should say that preaching the gospel and preaching the
cross are synonymous terms. When we preach the cross, we
preach the gospel. When we preach the gospel, we
preach the cross. These are synonymous terms here,
the preaching of the cross, to preach the gospel. Well, let
me give us this morning five things about the preaching of
the cross, not with the wisdom of words, not with the wisdom
of words, lest the cross of Christ should be made of none effect.
First of all, to preach the cross, is to declare in the simplest
manner who died on the cross. For me to preach the cross, to
preach the gospel, I must declare in the simplest manner, the smallest
words, the one-syllable, the two-syllable words, if possible. Make it as plain, make it as
clear, make it as simple as possible who died on the cross. And to tell you, it was Jesus
Christ our Lord. It was God manifest in the flesh. That's who died on the cross.
If you still have your Bible open to 1 Corinthians and you
look in chapter 2 and verse 8, Paul calls this one the Lord
of glory. the Lord of Glory. He said, which
none of the princes of this world knew, for had they known it,
they would not have crucified the Lord of Glory. Who died on
the cross? The Lord of Glory. Let that sink
in. The Lord of Glory. You see, all
of heaven, all of earth, who has the glory? Who is the glory
given to? God is purposed that His Son
have the preeminence in all things. Who is it that died on the cross? It is the God-man. It is He who
is both God and man, Jesus Christ of Nazareth. That's who died,
the Lord of glory. And secondly, it is to declare
in the simplest manner why the Lord of glory died on the cross. Well, Peter tells us on the day
of Pentecost that it was because of God's purpose. God's purpose. He said it like this. Him, that
is Christ, being delivered Now listen, by the determinate counsel
and foreknowledge of God, you have taken and by wicked hands
have crucified and slain. To declare in the simplest manner
why the Lord of glory died on the cross. It was God's purpose. Remember, In John chapter 10,
he said, no man taketh my life from me. No man taketh my life from me.
When they came to arrest him that night in the garden, one
of his disciples pulled out his sword and cut off the ear of
one of those men. Our Lord healed the man. And he said, don't you realize
that I could pray the Father and he would send 10 legions
of angels? They had no power. In fact, when
he said, whom seek ye? They all fell backwards. They all fell. This is the Lord
of glory. They all fell back. They had
no power over him. To crucify him except that which
was given them by the Father. He told Pilate, you know Pilate
was one of these politicians that thought he was somebody.
He was somebody and I guess he was. But not when the Lord Jesus
Christ came in his presence. Father said, don't you realize? You're not answering me. You're
not speaking to me. Don't you realize I have power
to release you? I have power to crucify you.
You could have no power at all, except it were given you of my
Father. No man taketh my life for me,
I lay it down of myself. For this commandment have I received
of my father, both to lay it down and to take it again. Why did he die? Why did the Lord
of glory die on the cross? Because this was God's purpose. This was God's purpose in saving
sinners. And third, it is to declare in
the simplest manner for whom the Lord of glory died on the
cross. He died for his sheep. He died
for his sheep. In John chapter 17, read it sometime
and just look how many times in his prayer does he mention
the fact that he was given a people. He begins that prayer by saying,
Father, I thank Thee that Thou hast given me, the Son of Man,
power over all flesh. That's you. That's every person
on the top side of God's earth. He has power. He has authority
over. And why does he say he was given
that power? to give eternal life to as many
as the Father had given Him. It is to declare in the simplest
manner for whom the Lord of glory died on the cross. You say, well,
preacher, you don't believe there are people in hell that Christ
died for? Not at all. Not at all. I wouldn't, no, no. If there are people in hell for
whom Christ died, how could you have any assurance that you won't
go to hell? How could you? It'd be false
assurance if you had any. Wouldn't be in the death of Christ. It is to declare in the simplest
manner that the Lord of glory accomplished what he accomplished
by his death on the cross. He got the job done. That's the
simplest way to put it, isn't it? He got the job done. I remember one of our men here
praying recently when they came to take up the offering and he
said something to that effect in his prayer. He got the job
done. He did. He got the job done. He accomplished God's purpose. That's what it is to preach the
gospel. It is to declare that there's
no salvation apart from Him and when He said, it is finished. Only He didn't say it like that.
He cried with a loud voice, it is finished. What? The work which the Father had
given Him to do. To give His life a ransom for
many. To save His people. When He had
by Himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the
Majesty on high. You know there's a verse in Revelation
1 and verse 5. who loved us, speaking of Christ,
who loved us, and in the King James translation it is, and
washed us from our sins in His own blood. But I'm told a better
translation is, who loved us and loosed us, loosed us from
our sins in His own blood. He delivers us, delivers us from
sin, from its penalty, from its power and thank God one day from
its presence. He loosed us from our sins. And lastly, it is to declare
in the simplest manner the results of the Lord of glory crucified
on the cross. The result in this life is to
redeem for himself a special people a special people who are
zealous of good works. And number two, in heaven, the
result in eternity was that Christ might present his bride faultless
before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy. Oh, when that day comes, that
blessed day when Christ at the head of all of those people for
whom he shed his blood presents us to himself, the scripture
says, without fault. Without fault. He's able. He's able. I think about that King Darius,
when he put Daniel in the lion's den, you remember the story.
He came back and he said, Daniel, was your God able to deliver
you? I'm here. Everything's OK. I'm here. Yes, my God. My God is able to deliver me
from the lion's den. And I tell you something, my
God, the Lord Jesus Christ, the one who died in my stead and
in my place, he's able to deliver me from sin and all of its penalty. Amen? And to present me, to present
you faultless before his glory. He's able. I pray the Lord would
bless this word to all of us here today. And if you, if you
are a believer and you've never confessed the Lord in baptism,
don't you think it's about time? Don't you? You say, well, I'm
not old enough. How old do you have to be? How
old do you have to be? I don't read here in the scripture
where there's any certain age. It's not a matter of how old
you are, it is do you believe? Do you believe? That's the question. Well, I pray the Lord will bless
this word and we will see