Essential Purpose

Driving home: everything that God has revealed deserves our careful study.

Martin uses the analogy of an object lesson to explain that baptism, like an object lesson, should illustrate and clinch the verbal truth of the gospel, not obscure or contradict it.

of church government, said, though we do not put such matters as church government in the place of cardinal importance, we nonetheless believe that church government, and I would add to that, baptism, is part of the church government. And I would add to that, baptism is part of the church government, and I would add to that, baptism is part of the church government, and I would add to that, baptism is part of that which God has revealed, and everything that God has revealed deserves our careful study. And so it is with no desire to exalt baptism, for those of you who heard the message will kno...

1:49 - 2:31 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: After a brief personal note, Martin transitions to the positive aspect of his instruction: the essential purpose of baptism. He explains that while Acts provides the historical…

He uses the analogy of the Gospels recording Christ's death (history) and the Epistles interpreting its meaning to explain how Acts records baptisms (history) and the Epistles interpret their significance.

And by bringing together the various references to baptism, particularly in the epistles. Now this is the wonderful thing about the doctrine of baptism, as with so many other things. The historical portions of the word of God give us essentially history as it happened. But it is primarily in the epistles that that history is interpreted for us.

12:31 - 12:52 Read in full sermon

Driving home: The essential purpose of baptism is that of underscoring and setting in place in bold relief the fundamental truths proclaimed in the gospel.

Martin uses the analogy of underlining in a book to explain that baptism underscores and sets in bold relief gospel truths, making them stand out without changing their substance.

The essential purpose of baptism is that of underscoring and setting in place in bold relief the fundamental truths proclaimed in the gospel. The purpose of baptism is to underscore. Now what do you do when you underscore in a book? I do it all the time.

15:19 - 15:39 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: The first truth baptism underscores is that Christ alone is the object of the sinner's confidence. Expounding Galatians 3:26-27, Martin explains that baptism into Christ…

He uses the analogy of putting on clothes (pajamas off, Sunday dress on) to illustrate what it means to 'put on Christ' in baptism, symbolizing gospel faith.

Before you came to church tonight, all of you put on the garments, that you're now wearing. Some of you may have put it on this morning. You put off your pajamas and you put on your Sunday dress or your Sunday shirt and your Sunday trousers. You put off and then you put something on.

23:29 - 23:46 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: The second truth is that salvation is confirmed in union with Christ crucified, buried, and risen. Martin expounds Colossians 2:8-12, showing that baptism symbolizes the spiritual…

Martin quotes from Conybeare and Howson's 'The Life and Epistles of St. Paul' to support the historical practice of immersion as representing death to sin and resurrection to righteousness, even from Anglican scholars.

If another great truth of the gospel is that we're saved by the virtue of Christ's death, burial, and resurrection, and only as we come into vital union with him who died and was buried and was raised again, and faith is the bond of that union, then I say this is one of the strongest passages indicating that the immersion of a man or woman is the most vivid demonstration of this gospel truth. When in symbolism there is that temporary burial beneath the waters, that, as it were, temporary death, and then that emergence from the water to walk in newness of life. It's an interesting thing that ve...

36:45 - 37:54 Read in full sermon

Driving home: God says that's what I do with your sins he says I'm telling you in baptism what I'm telling you in the gospel call on his name you're saved

He uses the analogy of physical water instantly cleansing a defiled body to illustrate how God instantly forgives and cleanses a sinner's soul through faith in Christ, as symbolized in baptism.

that men might call on his name and when they called upon his name and experienced forgiveness and cleansing in the virtue of his blood and righteousness then it was not beneath his dignity even in the wee hours of the morning to take the jailer he and all his and baptize them that they might symbolically wash away sin and catch the beauty of it here's a man a woman a boy a girl who's been steeped in uncleanness whose mind is a very faint of iniquity whose thoughts have been thoughts of impurity and pride and lechery and meanness and jealousy and this word of the gospel comes saying you'll be ...

43:58 - 45:28 Read in full sermon

Driving home: God says that's what I do with your sins he says I'm telling you in baptism what I'm telling you in the gospel call on his name you're saved

Martin alludes to Luther's statement about reminding oneself 'I am baptized' when tempted to doubt, using it to emphasize baptism as a visible declaration of God's promise of cleansing.

in a moment God says that's what I do with your sins he says I'm telling you in baptism what I'm telling you in the gospel call on his name you're saved does that mean you just begin to get the sins God begins to make them erode the mountain erode no no if you're a good boy long enough maybe you'll get two inches off the top no no though your sins be as scarlet they shall be as white as snow though they be red like crimson they'll be as wool now that's hard for us to believe God says I'll stoop to your weak faith arise and be baptized washing away thy sins you mean I go beneath the waters defi...

45:28 - 46:55 Read in full sermon

The point: Tell your children they are lost, under condemnation, and need to be born again, as conviction of sin is the first real lesson in true prayer.

He recounts an anecdote about John Bunyan's response to Anglicans asking how children would learn to pray without a prayer book, with Bunyan emphasizing conviction of sin as the true starting point for prayer.

my friend it makes a difference how you deal with your children how you preach I don't think I brought it I meant to I had a choice quote from Bunyan he was dealing with the Anglicans in his day who were preaching up the prayer book and they said to him well Mr. Bunyan if we don't give a prayer book to our children how will they learn to pray? you know what Bunyan's answer was? he says tell your children they're lost they're under condemnation they have hearts that are full of iniquity tell them they need to be born again tell them the wrath of God is over their heads unless they repent and he...

55:50 - 57:19 Read in full sermon

The point: Challenge men to take the New Testament and read every description of the church, recognizing it is made up of true disciples or hypocrites, not those in a halfway station.

Martin quotes Andrew Fuller on baptism's design to draw a line of distinction between Christ's kingdom and Satan's, arguing that maintaining its purity would have prevented a 'stream of corruption' in the church.

who've been effectually called now notice not saints who've been effectually called plus their children whom we hope shall be called when he thinks of the church at Corinth he sees one thing a body of the Hagia those set apart by union with Christ those effectually called by the Father through the Spirit who call upon the name of the Lord Jesus in every place both their Lord and ours and that's the uniform description of the church in the New Testament the New Testament church was made up of true disciples or hypocrites true disciples or hypocrites but in both cases they were confessors who cl...

58:47 - 60:16 Read in full sermon