Requirements #5: Discipleship Baptism Part 3

Recap: The Duty of Discipleship Baptism

0:03 The following sermon was delivered on Sunday evening, May 13, 2001, at the Trinity Baptist Church in Montville, New Jersey. Now those of you who were with us this morning will know that tonight's study in the scriptures will be the further unfolding of the subject that we were dealing with this morning, namely the third requirement for church membership as it is set out in our Constitution, and we believe it is there in our Constitution because it is fundamentally there in the scriptures. We have considered the requirement of age or maturity in our first message on the requirements for membership in a biblically ordered church, and then secondly the requirement of gospel knowledge. We have considered the requirement of age, profession, and experience, and now tonight we complete our study of the third requirement, namely discipleship baptism, or what our Constitution says is one who has been baptized upon profession of his faith. And I have been asserting that the duty of discipleship baptism is set before us in three major categories in the witness,

1:27 the first is the clear command of the Lord Jesus Christ himself, Matthew 28, 18-20, and then secondly the consistent pattern of apostolic practice. And we completed this morning a careful study of the nine instances in the book of Acts in which the Spirit of God has recorded for us baptismal activity. We have considered the requirement of age, profession, and experience, and now tonight we will be dealing with the third requirement, which is to be baptized under the direct hand or guidance and influence of the apostles. And we saw that that pattern of apostolic practice accords perfectly with the commission of the Lord Jesus. They made disciples by preaching, and when there was a faith repentance response to preaching, those disciples were baptized, and those baptized disciples were then found, and those baptized disciples were then found, and those baptized disciples were then found, and those baptized disciples were then found, and in gatherings of such disciples being taught the word of God. The third category of the New Testament witness is what I have called the common assumption of the apostolic letters.

2:45 So there is the clear command of Christ, the consistent pattern of the apostolic practice, and then thirdly, the common assumption of the apostolic letters. And I'm not going to open up the passages. I'll simply cite them. And I cite them for this very simple reason, that when we pick up the letters of the New Testament, written to churches, we will find no fewer than six explicit passages in those letters, in which the writers of the letters could assume that all who heard the letters read to them in the various churches, whether the church at Rome or at Corinth or the churches of Galatia or the churches in Asia Minor to whom Peter wrote, they argue from the common experience of their baptism to some very practical dimension of the Christian life. For example, in one of the passages that I cite, 1 Corinthians 1, verses 10 to 17, as Paul is addressing the problem of division within the church at Corinth, different ones lining up behind their favorite preacher or apostle. As the apostle begins to show them that this is a contradiction of what they profess to be as the children of God,

4:11 he does so in this way, 1 Corinthians 1, verse 12. Now this I mean that each one of you says, I am of Paul, I of Apollos. I of Cephas and I of Christ. Is Christ divided?

4:25 He says you all believed upon one Christ. Why are you chopping him up? The focal point of your allegiance was one Christ. Since when has Christ been divided?

4:38 Was Paul crucified for you? I thought you were lined up with a crucified Savior who is Jesus of Nazareth. Then he goes on to say, Or were you baptized? Into the name of Paul.

4:53 Assuming they had all been baptized, not into identification with Paul, but with Jesus Christ and the triune God. And this kind of practical appeal to a common experience of baptism is found throughout the New Testament epistles. I cite some of the more patent references and then pass on. Romans 6, verses 1 to 11.

5:22 1 Corinthians 1, verses 10 through 17. Galatians chapter 3 and verse 27. Ephesians chapter 4, verses 1 to 5. Colossians chapter 2, verses 8 to 12.

5:36 And 1 Peter 3 and verse 21. And in all of those instances, reference is made to a common experience of baptism assumed by the biblical writer. And therefore they can reason from that common experience in every area from an appeal to unity under Christ and in relationship to Christ to the fact that all of the barriers that separate men in the world in Christ are done away with to unity to...

6:13 Well, you look at the passages and you'll see that every one of them is set forth in some practical relationship to the life of the people of God. So then those constitute the three categories of the New Testament witness to discipleship baptism. The clear command of Christ. Secondly, the consistent practice of the apostles.

The Principle: Ordinances Illustrate Spiritual Realities

6:38 And thirdly, this common assumption in the apostolic letters. Now then, we move tonight, as I indicated we would do this morning, from this broad perspective, from the category of the duty of discipleship baptism to the significance of discipleship baptism. Having sought to establish the duty, now we come to consider together the significance of baptism. And as we do, I want to introduce this aspect of our subject by highlighting a very important principle which I trust will help us not only to understand the significance of baptism, but also to understand the significance of baptism.

7:20 But also to persuade us why we must jealously guard the biblical teaching concerning the subjects and the significance of baptism as well as of the Lord's Supper. Now here's the principle. Put on your thinking cap and follow with me. If you get hold of this, then it will act like ballast in your hole as you try to see the Lord.

7:50 But if you do it, then it will act like a ballast in your hole as you try to sail through some rather turbulent waters in terms of all of the various opinions and perspectives on the subject of baptism and the Lord's Supper. Here's the principle. The physical, visual, and tangible ordinances instituted by Christ are intended to illustrate and reinforce the spiritual, invisible, and non-materialist, material realities set forth in the saving truth of Christ. Now, let me break that down.

8:28 When the gospel is preached, what is a preacher doing if he's worthy of the name? He is proclaiming what the scriptures say concerning marvelous, wonderful, spiritual, invisible, non-material realities in the person and work of Jesus Christ. Proclaiming that in Christ there is full pardon for one's sin. Proclaiming that in Christ and in virtue of union with Christ, the dominion of sin can be broken. One can have a just and righteous title to heaven. But these are spiritual, invisible, non-material realities that we proclaim. We proclaim in the gospel. But our Lord Jesus has instituted two physical, visual, tangible ordinances. And what is his purpose in instituting those ordinances? It is that they should illustrate

9:32 and reinforce the invisible, the intangible, the spiritual realities set forth in the gospel. In other words, God accomplishes. God accommodates himself to our weakness as creatures of touch, sight, smell, and taste. And he has done so not to distort the word preached in the gospel, not to cancel the word preached in the gospel, not to confuse the word preached in the gospel, but to illustrate and to enforce it so that with these, to object lessons of the gospel before our eyes, in our mouths, in the case of the Lord's Supper, for our smell, for our touch, we might not move from that gospel by which alone men are saved.

10:32 Let me try to illustrate it this way. Suppose I had some commodities here on the shelf in the pulpit. And I told you they are wonderful things. They are wonderful things.

10:45 They are wonderful things. They are things necessary for your life and your sustenance. And I lay before you this persuasive case that you desperately need these commodities. But I say, you can't see them.

10:59 I can see them. You can't. But I have a large mirror. And I'm able to place the mirror with a light on those realities in such a way that the image is reflected up on this mirror, like the mirror in an old single-lens reflex camera that some of us still use, all right?

11:17 And you, looking into that mirror, could see, visibly represented, the invisible commodities which I've been setting before you. Now that's what our Lord Jesus Christ has done with baptism and the Lord's Supper. In the gospel, God says that our only hope of life and salvation is in a crucified Savior. Christ died objectively, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God.

11:46 Christ died objectively, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God. He shed his blood, an innocent victim, impaled upon a cross, under the wrath of God for our sins. And God calls us to appropriate Christ to ourselves by faith. To take with the mouth of the soul and eat of Christ, and to drink of Christ, and with the eyes of the soul to look to Christ, and with the arms of the soul to receive Christ.

12:14 But you see, that's setting forth invisible. But you see, that's setting forth invisible. But you see, that's setting forth invisible. Spiritual realities in the word of the gospel.

12:19 Spiritual realities in the word of the gospel. Spiritual realities in the word of the gospel. Now the Lord comes and says, let me position the mirror. Now the Lord comes and says, let me position the mirror.

12:23 Now the Lord comes and says, let me position the mirror. Now the Lord comes and says, let me position the mirror. And I'll let you see those invisible, intangible spiritual realities by taking bread and telling you that bread stands for my body. And I'll let you see those invisible, intangible spiritual realities by taking bread and telling you that bread stands for my body.

12:27 And I'll let you see those invisible, intangible spiritual realities by taking bread and telling you that bread stands for my body. invisible, intangible spiritual realities by taking bread and telling you that bread stands for my body. Bread is the staff of life. Without bread you die.

12:41 Looking at bread will do you no good. You must eat the bread. The Lord Jesus is telling us in this object lesson that to believe is to eat of Christ, to feed upon Christ. This cup is the new covenant in my blood.

12:59 As surely as the grape is pressed and the fruit of the vine flows out, so Christ upon the cross pours out His blood. And He is saying, faith must take into itself the virtue of that blood. Why did He give the Lord's Supper? To give us a different gospel?

13:20 To confuse us about the preached gospel? To distort it? No! But to give us this visible, tangible, touchable, tasteable, wonderful object lesson of exactly the same truth that is preached in the gospel.

13:39 Alright? Now same with baptism. We don't have a different gospel. Our gospel says your only hope of life and salvation is in Jesus Christ crucified.

13:51 Casting yourself upon Him, your sins will be pardoned. You will be purified and cleansed from your sin. In union, with Christ, you will have the dominion of sin broken. The virtue of His death, burial and resurrection will be experienced in you existentially and really.

14:11 And we say, how can I grasp that? God says, I hope you. Here's the mirror. And He's given us baptism.

14:17 For what purpose? Not to obscure the gospel. Not to come along with a different gospel. But to reinforce and to make visible and tangible before our eyes, the same gospel preached on the basis of the Word of God.

14:35 What is that gospel? Paul tells us. Brethren, 1 Corinthians 15, I remind you of that gospel I preached unto you, by which you are saved if you continue to hold to it. Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures.

14:50 And He was buried. And He was raised again the third day according to the Scriptures. That's the gospel we preach. Christ says, now let me give you an ordinance.

15:02 Let me give you a watery ritual that will underscore that all of your hope for life and salvation is in a crucified, buried, and risen Savior. And in your relationship to that Savior and His death, burial, and resurrection. The gospel proclaims that this Christ and all the virtue of His saving work is received by faith alone. Not on the basis of our works, but on the basis of faith alone.

15:35 And in those two ordinances, God underscores those realities. Have I made the principle clear to you? It's absolutely critical that we grasp that. And when we do,

15:49 then we have a very good yardstick by which to measure any teaching and preaching and practice about baptism and the Lord's Supper. We ask, we ask ourselves, does it vividly illustrate and underscore and exemplify what is preached in the gospel? And what is preached in the gospel? That we are all sinners under the wrath of God.

16:15 That Christ alone can atone for our sins. And that our relationship to Christ is not based upon bloodlines or external associations or privileges and opportunities. It is based upon what? Faith and faith alone.

16:32 For by grace are you saved through faith and that not of yourselves. It is the gift of God, not of works, that no man should boast. So any view then of baptism that says, well, baptism somehow is an indication I've got the right bloodlines. I say, no, no, no.

16:50 No. Baptism is to declare I've got a right relationship to a crucified Savior by faith alone. Any view of the Lord's Supper that in any way obscures, distorts, negates any principle of the gospel has got to be wrong. For if God through the apostle Paul pronounces a curse on anyone who tampers with the gospel, Galatians 1, verses 8 and 9, I say unto you, though we or an angel from heaven preach any other gospel than that which we preached unto you, let it be anathema.

17:30 As I said, before, so I say again, Paul says, let it be anathema. A curse is pronounced on anyone who will add to or subtract from the biblical gospel. Paul is thinking particularly of what the Judaizers were teaching. What must God feel when people distort the gospel in its God-ordained, visible, demonstrable illustration in baptism in the Lord's Supper?

17:59 Are you jealous to maintain the purity of the gospel in your own soul and in this church? Then you must be jealous to maintain the simplicity and the biblical perspectives concerning those two visible representations of the gospel, baptism, and the Lord's Supper. Do you see the principle? Yea or nay?

18:27 I trust you do. And if that gets hold of you, then you're willing to say, with all due respect to my spiritual forefathers, for some of you, with all due respect to my earthly mother and father who brought me into the world, who prayed for me, who nourished me in gospel truth, but in a distorted view of the ordinance of baptism had me done at the front of a church, you can reject what they did without being nasty to their persons, or unappreciative of the motives which may have led them to do it. But the question is, is that what Jesus meant by a baptism that illustrates and underscores and enforces the truth that the only way to get rightly related to God is in a crucified risen Savior and the only way to get related to Him is by faith, not by bloodlines. The same holds true with the Lord's Supper. Well then, having, I hope, not beat the thing thin at the edges, when we turn to the New Testament with this question, what is the significance of baptism? If this principle is deeply embedded in our minds and hearts,

Significance of Baptism: Purification

19:53 whatever it is, it will illustrate, it will enforce, it will underscore the gospel, and that it does. And there are many ways to approach it, when you're preaching topically. You have to organize the material under certain headings. Often you use your own words, so I claim no special inspiration, but I believe these three words capture the major, the bulk of the New Testament witness to the significance of baptism.

20:25 And here are the three words. Purification, identification, and consecration. P-I-T. Purification.

20:36 C. Pick without a K. Purification, identification, and consecration. First of all, purification.

20:49 Is there any significance that baptism is a watery ordinance? Well, of course there is. Since God introduces baptism into the New Covenant community by means of the baptism of John in a setting that is thoroughly soaked in all of its root system in Old Testament Jewish connotations and rituals, in the Old Testament directives that God gave, or the directives God gave in the Old Testament for the worship of His people. There were all kinds of watery rituals of purification.

21:28 Purification for the priest, they had to wash and bathe, and purification of instruments used in worship, purification of the Bible, of the worshiper so wherever you turn there was water being used in conjunction with purification and so it should not surprise us that when all of that to which these things pointed when that to which all of these things pointed which is christ and the blood of christ which alone will inwardly really purify from sin that christ should institute a watery ritual that points to deep real inward purification from sin and when we turn to a passage such as acts 22 and verse 16 we see the purification element of baptism highlighted here in conjunction with the conversion of saul of tarsus here is a here is paul giving his account or giving the account of his conversion before his people in a roman court setting and we read in acts 22 and verse well let's back up to verse 12

22:46 in one ananias a devout man according to the law well reported of by all the jews that dwelt there came unto me and standing by me said to me brother saul receive your sight in In that very hour I looked up on him, and he said, The God of our fathers has appointed you to know his will, and to see the righteous one, and to hear a voice from his mouth. For you shall be a witness for him unto all men of what things you have seen and heard. And now, why are you tarrying? Arise and be baptized, and wash away your sins, calling on his name.

23:26 Arise, be baptized, washing away your sins, calling upon his name. Saul, arise, be baptized, wash away your sins symbolically in the bath of baptism. Wash away your sins really and efficaciously by calling upon the Lord. There is no washing of the sins symbolically.

23:58 That has any significance unless there is a washing away really and efficaciously. And how are sins washed away? The blood of Jesus Christ, God's Son, cleanses us from all sin. But it cleanses no one automatically.

24:17 Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. Why are you tarrying, Paul? Arise, be baptized, wash away your sins symbolically. Symbolically in baptism, efficaciously and really by calling upon the Lord.

24:36 And here in this passage, more than in any other baptismal passage, the concept of purification lying at the heart of the significance of baptism is set before us. And it is in the light of this that when we pick up the epistles, we find these references to God's people, being a washed people. For example, in 1 Corinthians 6 and verse 11, Paul has described various lifestyles that are inconsistent with being a member of the kingdom of God. He describes some of the grosser forms of lawlessness and immorality.

25:19 And then he says in verse 11 of these Corinthians, Such were some of you, but you were washed. You were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God. When they came into the realm of Paul's gospel preaching, which according to chapter 2, verses 1 to 5, focused upon Christ and Him crucified, when they were brought to faith and repentance, Paul says they entered into the dynamics, the realities of new covenant salvation, in which they were washed, they were sanctified, that is, set apart unto God, they were justified, declared righteous, because they had come into vital relationship to two things. Justified in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that is, in the revelation of God's way of saving sinners in the person and work of Jesus Christ the Lord, and in the realm of the mighty operation of the Spirit of God, who by His regenerating work purifies the heart. Christ by His blood cleanses us from our sins. And therefore, baptism accords beautifully with the spoken message of the gospel.

26:47 What do I preach to every and any unconverted, unsaved man or woman in this place tonight? I dare to tell you that if you in penitent faith will embrace Jesus Christ, all of your sins, even the ones you don't know, but the eye of God discerns, can be fully washed away. You can be purified and cleansed in the blood of Christ. How?

27:14 By filling up that tank with water and plunging you? No! A thousand times no! The gospel is not do something in an external ritual to be purified.

27:26 The gospel says, lay hold of Christ, trust in Christ, turn from your sin and cast yourself in unreserved self-abandonment to Jesus Christ who died and rose again from the dead and who sends His Spirit as the great gift of God to all who embrace the salvation offered in Himself. So purification is a note that the apostle can sound with these Corinthians and many of the commentators see immediately that there is at least an allusion to their baptism and that they would instinctively think, yes, we have been washed and that washing inwardly and efficaciously through the work of Christ in the Spirit was born witness to us when we took the watery plunge and we were raised up out of it, cleansed, not by the waters of baptism, but by the virtue of Jesus and by the gracious work of the Holy Spirit. Hebrews chapter 10, a similar passage writing to these Hebrew Christians.

28:45 The writer urges them in verse 19, having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holy place by the blood of Jesus, by the way which He dedicated for us, a new and living way through the veil, so that is to say His flesh, having a great high priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in fullness of faith, now notice, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience. Now how does the heart get sprinkled from an evil conscience? Not by any external contact with water, but by a believing approach, appropriation of the virtue of the death of Christ, the great high priest of His people. And what was symbolized in the Old Testament ritual when the blood of a sacrifice was sprinkled on the book of the law and on the people, God was saying symbolically the virtue of this innocent sacrifice, this sacrifice that has been offered up in its innocence on behalf of you, the guilty, that virtue is being symbolically applied as it was sprinkled upon them. Now the reality is this, we have our hearts sprinkled.

30:10 That's not a physical, tangible, visual sprinkling, it's an internal, real, spiritual sprinkling. But then He goes on to say, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and having our body washed with pure water. Our body, not our souls. Our body, having our body washed with pure water.

30:35 What's He doing? He's making an allusion to their baptism. The washing of the body with the water symbolized the purification from an evil conscience by the application of the blood of Christ, the great high priest. And then 1 Peter 3.21, notice what Peter says, seeking to comfort these suffering Christians. And he has this very complicated argument. Some of you remember, when I tried to walk you through that when we were preaching through 1 Peter. But notice what Peter says in verse 21, which after a true likeness doth now save you, even baptism, not the putting away of the filth of the flesh.

31:22 What happens in baptism? You put away the filth of the flesh. That's what happens physically, externally. But internally, baptism saves in this way.

31:31 If the internal spiritual exercise of faith has laid hold of Christ, that to which you bear witness in your physical baptism, notice what he says, baptism saves not the putting away of the filth of the flesh, but the interrogation or the answer of a good conscience toward God through the resurrection of Jesus Christ. He says you get a good conscience when you lay hold of the significance that Christ was raised from the dead. Though he was delivered up for our offenses, we know that the debt of sin was fully paid because God raised him from the dead. And when by faith and internal spiritual exercise we lay hold of a perfected Savior, we are saved. And in our baptism, we bear witness to that, not in the mere putting away of the filth of the flesh, but the putting away of the filth of the heart, a conscience cleansed through the virtue of the blood of Jesus Christ. Well, again, I don't want to beat a thing thin, but I want the two or three witnesses of Scripture. What is the symbolism of baptism?

32:48 It symbolizes purification. It's a constant reminder every time people are baptized that we should ask, am I purified from my sin? The question should not be, have I been baptized? But do, do I have in my experience that to which baptism points?

33:08 That's the mirror saying, you're a sinner, you're defiled, you need to be purified. There's only one way to be purified. It's through the virtue of the work of Jesus Christ and by the mighty operation of the Holy Spirit. Purification.

Significance of Baptism: Identification with Christ's Death, Burial, and Resurrection

33:25 Second word is identification.

33:29 And here I struggle because it's really identification through union. The most significant function of the phrase in the New Testament epistles, particularly the epistles of Paul, is the phrase, in Christ, in him, which means union with him. And trying to illustrate identification by union, I didn't ask my wife's permission to do this. I usually do if I'm going to use her in an illustration.

33:52 But dear, it's too late to divorce me. It'll be 45 years in a month. On June 30th, 1956, that's American ancient history for many of you. A Miss Marilyn K. Hart, who couldn't say Marilyn K. Hart, who said Marilyn K. Hat. She was a Vermonter, couldn't pronounce her Rs.

34:15 She stood at the front of a church in Concord, New Hampshire. And she said some words that went something like this. I, Marilyn, take you, Albert, to be my lawfully wedded husband. Then she made some promises.

34:29 And that day, she relinquished the name that's on her birth certificate. No longer would she be Marilyn K. Hart, but Marilyn K. Hart.

34:38 Marilyn K. Martin. And from that moment till now, her life has been a life lived in identification with me. Works the other way, mine with her as well.

34:54 But for the sake of illustration, she's no longer Miss Marilyn Hart. She's Mrs. Albert N. Marilyn K. Martin.

35:03 So that that identification has been effected by a union. And so it is with salvation. We become Christians when we are identified with Christ by union to Christ. If any man be in Christ, he is a new creation.

35:27 The old has passed. The new has come. 1 Corinthians 1.30 But of him, that is, by God's work are you in Christ, who of God is made unto us.

35:38 Wisdom. Sanctification, righteousness, and redemption. In Christ, it is identification through union. Now, when someone receives disciple baptism, it symbolizes and declares this mutual identification.

36:00 Christ's identification with the disciple who is baptized, the disciple who is being baptized, identified with Christ. And that identification moves in two realms. They're not separate, they overlap, but for the sake of opening up the scriptures, I want us to think of two realms. First of all, baptism symbolizes the disciple's identification with Christ, now follow, in the virtue of his death, his burial, and his resurrection.

36:36 Baptism symbolizes the disciple's identification with Christ in the virtue of Christ's death, burial, and resurrection. What is the gospel of salvation we preach? I can't explain it, but I delight to preach it, and I bless God I know the reality of it. When sin comes as a usurper that has no legal right over me to say to someone, sin, I died to your dominion in union with Christ.

37:12 That's what I declared when I was plunged under the water, raised up out of the water. I was declaring outwardly and symbolically what is mine inwardly and really and spiritually, union with Christ, in which the virtue of his death for sin and to sin is my death to sin. His resurrection to life, is my resurrection to newness of life in him. And then Paul goes on to give the exhortation of what we are to do in the light of that reality, presenting the members of our bodies, instruments of righteousness unto God, as those who are alive from the dead.

37:56 And that's the same emphasis he gives in Colossians chapter two, another passage in which baptism is mentioned. Colossians chapter two.

38:07 And by the way, for those of you who have read some of the literature, trying to make a one-to-one equivalence between the circumcision of children, male children under the old covenant, and the baptism, the christening of children under the new covenant, saying the initiatory ordinance in the old covenant was circumcision, the initiatory ordinance in the new covenant is baptism, circumcision was for the male children, under the new covenant baptism is for male and female children. Very simple. No, it's not that simple. Because here in Colossians two, notice what Paul says.

38:45 He's deeply concerned that these Colossians are seeking some measure of spiritual light and understanding outside of Christ. And so they have these different intermediaries in the false teaching that was floating around. And furthermore, with that, there was a doctrine of asceticism, man-made rules, don't touch this, don't taste that. And these are the ways you'll be holy.

39:10 Christ is not enough for justification. Christ and his word is not enough for sanctification. And Paul wants to cut to the heart of that teaching and notice how he does it at this part in Colossians chapter two,

39:25 verse ten. And in him, there we are, union with Christ, you are made full, who is the head of all principality and power, in whom, in union with Christ, you were circumcised with a circumcision, not made with hands, in the putting off of the body of the flesh, in the circumcision of Christ. What is the New Testament counterpart of Old Testament circumcision? It is circumcision of the heart.

39:55 It is the putting off of the body of the sins of the flesh. Putting off the body of the flesh in the circumcision of Christ. And how does one bear witness to that? Verse twelve, having been buried with him in baptism, wherein you were raised with him through faith in the working of God, who raised him from the dead.

40:22 When you were brought to a faith response to the gospel, you experienced new covenant circumcision. In union with Christ, the dominion of sin was broken. What is described in Romans six, as in union with Christ, we were put to death with him, buried with him, raised with him. Paul here says, in the putting off of the body of the flesh, in the circumcision of Christ, and that's what you bore witness to in your baptism.

40:55 You bore witness to this reality, that in union with Christ, you were buried. You don't bury live people, you bury dead people. You were buried with him, wherein you were raised with him through the mighty operation of God in the context of faith. So to take circumcision and baptism and rip away the context of faith is to butcher the Bible.

41:21 I hate to state it so bluntly, but somebody's got to say it. There is no reference to circumcision out of the context of faith. Not the faith of the parents, the faith of the believer, who in identification by union puts off the body of the sins of the flesh. And that's what he bears witness to in his baptism.

41:46 He is not only declaring the objective truth, that Christ, dying, buried, raised, is my only hope of life and salvation, the only ground of purification, but in faith union with Christ. I have died to sin in Christ. I have been buried with Christ. I have been raised to newness of life in Christ.

42:13 And in union with Christ, abiding in Christ, laying hold of the strength of Christ, I live and walk as a new man, a new woman. Not a perfect new man, not a perfect new woman, but a real new man and a real new woman. That's why Paul can say in Ephesians chapter 4, you have put on the new man, this being renewed unto knowledge after the image of him that created him. Identification.

42:46 And the first pivot of that identification is identification with Christ in the virtue of his death, burial, and resurrection. The person being baptized is declaring, my only hope of salvation is in the crucified, buried, and risen Savior. And in a faith union with that Savior, I have died to sin's dominion. I have been raised to newness of life and I glory in my new identity.

Significance of Baptism: Identification with the Triune God

43:19 But then, the identification has a second pivot and that grows out of Matthew 28, the baptismal directive that the Lord Jesus gives as recorded in Matthew 28. Now there's been a great debate in the history of the church as to whether or not the Lord intended this to actually be a formula to be used in baptizing or whether it is a general directive. And as far as I'm concerned, that debate, I wouldn't be concerned on which side of the coin someone came down on. But this much is clear.

44:00 When Jesus gave the commission, he said, make disciples of all the nations. And we know how they are to make disciples, by the preaching of the gospel. And assumed in that is there can be no accurate preaching of the gospel unless it's Trinitarian preaching. Because he says, when people come forward declaring they've embraced the message, now you are to put them into this watery ritual, you are to baptize them into the name, singular, into the name, not names, the name of the Father and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.

44:43 In other words, in their baptism, they are declaring not only a faith union with Christ in the virtue of his death, burial, and resurrection, but they are declaring a faith union with the Triune God in the revelation of himself in the plan of salvation. You see, God has always been Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The Son has not always been the incarnate. Son, the Word made flesh, but he's the eternal Son.

45:16 God has never existed except in the mystery of his own inner Trinitarian life. That's why God didn't make you and me because he was lonely. God had God to feed every need of his holy, infinite soul. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God.

45:37 And the Father can drink in all of the love, reciprocated to him from the Spirit in the Son, and the Spirit from the Son in the Father. God has always been Triune, but the revelation of his being Father, Son, and Holy Spirit in its fullness awaited the second person of the Godhead taking flesh. And it is only in the incarnation and in the subsequent gift of the Spirit that the understanding of the people of God concerning God being the three in one and the one in three. He is both unity in diversity and diversity in unity.

46:22 That awaited the coming of Christ and the descent of the Spirit and the full revelation given to us in the New Testament Scriptures. But our Lord assumes that when these disciples after Pentecost go out and preach, they will preach the gospel in such a way that people do not respond and become part of a Jesus-only cult. That they would preach God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son. Behind the love of Jesus is the love of the Father, the Father so loved.

47:01 Jesus does not turn away the wrath of an unloving God. No, Jesus reveals the heart of God here in his love. Not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. And our Lord is assuming that where there is sound gospel preaching, there will be sufficient declaration of the reality of God being Father, Son, and Holy Spirit that when a disciple is identified in this watery ordinance, he is being baptized into the name with reference to this one God who is Father, who is Son, and who is Holy Spirit. So that when the people thus identified with the Triune God in their initial profession are gathered in the service and one of the elders says, hey, we've got a new letter from the apostle, and they read 2 Corinthians, and they come then to the closing words, and now, may the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God the Father and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all. Amen. I wouldn't have people sitting there scratching their heads saying, whoa, whoa, whoa, wait, wait, wait, wait a minute.

48:26 I thought only Jesus was God. No, he assumes that they would welcome a benediction coming down from this God who has revealed himself in saving mercy as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. So when an elder would stand up in the church at Ephesus and begin to read the first chapter, verse 3, blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenlies in Christ Jesus according as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, he points to the Father in his electing grace, the Son in his redeeming grace, right through to verse 14, the Holy Spirit in his sealing grace. He blesses God for a triune salvation. As Ashiel Blaise was wont to say, it takes the whole Trinity to save one sinner. That's right, it does. And you see, that's not something that the apostle figures will send people scratching their heads.

49:29 Why? Because they were baptized into the name of that one God who is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

49:38 Would we then knowingly baptize anyone who denied the doctrine of the Trinity? No. Because any other God is an idol. It's not just a skewed view of God, it is an idol.

49:55 Would we baptize anyone who says that Jesus is not God, he's God's first creation long before he created anything else, Allah, Arius, Allah, the Jehovah's Witness, the Russellites? There was a time when the word was not. We say there never was a time when the word was not. If we say God, we say the word.

50:15 If we say God and the word, we say the Holy Spirit. One God, indivisible, eternal in his being and existence. And you see, if baptism is set forth this way, then you're not going to knowingly welcome into your midst people who deny the Trinity, deny the deity of Christ, deny the deity and personality and the efficacy of the work of the Holy Spirit. They will know that they are coming in that ordinance to a public identification with this God who is Father, who is Son, and who is Holy Spirit.

Significance of Baptism: Consecration to Christ

50:53 Now thirdly and most briefly, baptism is not only to symbolize purification, secondly, identification, but consecration. To consecrate oneself is to devote oneself entirely to someone or something. We might say of someone at age eight, he consecrated himself to the piano. What do we mean by that?

51:22 Well, from age eight onward, every spare moment was spent seeking to master the techniques of being a brilliant piano player. We might say of someone else, he or she dedicated, consecrated himself, herself to the environmental cause. What do we mean? Well, we mean that the latest pronouncements environmentalists would be their mantra and would be the thing for which they live.

51:47 To consecrate is to devote oneself entirely to someone or something. And God has intended that baptism is a formal, visible, and ordinarily, I'm not going to say inevitably, because who was there to see the eunuch baptized in the road? Down to home, out in the desert. There may have been some other people in the chariot, but it doesn't tell us.

52:15 And there weren't a lot of people gathered around in the wee hours of the morning when Paul baptized the Philippian jailer in his household. So I'm not prepared to say baptism must be as a fixed rule, an open, public thing. No, but it does become a formal, visible, and ordinarily a public or open declaration that I am constrained by the grace of God to give myself entirely to Jesus Christ. It is not a consecration of your children to God and of yourself to seek to set a godly example and to nurture them and to catechize them and to pray for them. God have mercy if you need to put water on your kid's forehead to be committed to those Biblical duties as a parent. God have mercy on any parent who feels he's got to have water on Willie to do what is his fundamental duty as a Christian parent. Before that child comes out of the womb, we dedicate them unto God.

53:30 And when we walk by their cribs, when they're fast asleep without a care in the world, we cry to God that the never-dying life God gave will be lived to God's praise. We don't need a public ritual to dedicate our children to God or to dedicate ourselves to the task of being the parents we ought to be. We just need to be converted. That's the instinct of a converted man or woman.

54:03 Is it not? Did anyone need to give you a great lesson on how you ought to view those precious lives committed to you? No, baptism is intended to be the consecration, visibly and publicly, of that one who has been constrained by grace. Give himself to Jesus.

54:28 Lock, stock, and barrel. That's why I am using the term discipleship baptism. What did Jesus say we're to go out into the world and make? He didn't say going there for get decisions, He said make disciples.

54:47 Well, where do you learn the terms of discipleship? You listen to the Lord Jesus as He's making disciples. And when He's making disciples, what does He say? Look with me at several passages.

54:59 I want you to get them through the eye gate as well as the ear gate. In Luke chapter 9, we find the Lord Jesus speaking, having just declared that He's going to procure salvation by His own death. Verse 22, The Son of Man must suffer many things, and be rejected of the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and the third day be raised up. And He said unto all, If any man would come after Me, let him deny himself, take up his cross daily, and follow Me.

55:40 For whosoever would save his life shall lose it. But whosoever shall lose his life for My sake, the same shall save it. For what is a man profited if he gain the whole world and lose or forfeit his own life? For whosoever shall be ashamed of Me and of My words, of him shall the Son of Man be ashamed when He comes in His own glory and the glory of the Father and of the holy angels.

56:13 See what Jesus is saying? You want to be My disciple? I'm on My way to die. I'm going to carry My cross on which I will die, the just for the unjust.

56:26 A cross on which I will drink into My soul the unleashed fury of My Father's wrath against the sins of you men now in My presence. You want to come after Me? You take up your cross. You have a cross on which you will die for the sins of other or die for your own sins.

56:50 But the cross was the symbol of being on the outside. Utter rejection. A man carrying a cross was a condemned felon. He had no plans of his own.

57:03 If he had, they've all been changed. He's on his way to die. And in dying to his own plans he is now alive to the plans of another. Let him take up his cross and follow Me.

57:18 And what will that mean? He says it'll mean you'll lose your life. What life? The self-centered life.

57:23 The self-willed life. The self-planned. The self-regulated. The life in which you are at the center.

57:30 Lose that life or you'll forfeit eternal life. You lose your life in utter consecration to Me. Constrained not by fear and dread but by a Spirit-wrought understanding of what I have done for sinners. And in losing your life you'll save it.

57:58 Chapter 14 of Luke. It was a time when it didn't cost too much to be found in the crowds that were pressing around Jesus. The Lord did not want people to be deceived that current popularity and going with the flow was an indication of real inward grace. Verse 25.

58:19 There went with Him great multitudes He turned and said to them if any man comes to Me and here He uses a common Hebraism an absolute for the relative if any man come to Me and hates not his own father He doesn't mean you must have a negative ugly disposition to the ones He names. No, He's saying there must be a loving less by comparison no rival to your love for Me. Whoever comes to Me and hates not his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters yes and his own life also He cannot be My disciple. Going therefore make disciples of all the nations. What are you to tell would-be disciples? You're to tell them exactly what Jesus told would-be disciples.

59:17 You come to Him do you see in Christ the one altogether loving? Altogether worthy of the supreme devotion of your heart? Are you prepared to consecrate yourself utterly unto Him? So that from henceforth the motto of your life can be reduced into a very simple statement Philippians 1 For to Me to live is Christ.

59:45 Paul profound theologian penetrating mind tell us if you can in a few paragraphs your philosophy of life. He said I don't need a few paragraphs I don't even need a compound sentence I'll give it to you for to Me to live is Christ. Anything else? Oh yes to die is gain.

60:13 You want your death to be gain? It'll only be gain if you can say for you to live is Christ. You live for anything else and your death will be your eternal loss. You want to say death is gain?

60:28 You must be able to say in truth for me to live is Christ. Just that simple folks. Make disciples. Preach the word.

60:38 Lay before them the beauties and the loveliness of Christ. The ugliness and the horror of human sin. Lay before them God's glorious indicative. Tell them what God has done in Christ for sinners.

60:53 Then set before them the magisterial imperatives they must repent and believe. And when they inquire what does it mean to truly repent and believe set before them the terms of discipleship. I met this week with a young woman in this assembly who believes God may have wrought a saving work in her heart and she's concerned about baptism and church membership. And as we talked there were many things that greatly encouraged me that perhaps Christ has indeed become in his language the pearl of great price to her and the treasure in the field.

61:29 You know what passages I wrote down and said you go home and you read and pray over the passages. These are the ones that I'm quoting to you now. Count the cost. Jesus went on to say the king who goes out to war without thinking of the logistics of the number of his soldiers against the number of the soldiers in the other army and the man who builds without calculating do I have enough to finish is like the person who says oh yeah I'm for Jesus.

61:58 And then you begin to find the price you pay is social ostracization. And the smile of your friends means more than the smile of Christ. And then it may mean the loneliness and the pain of singleness far beyond anything you had planned and so you'll capitulate for an engagement ring. Count the cost dear young people.

62:18 And if you're prepared to say as best I know my heart what God has shown me through the gospel and by the spirit I've come to see Christ not only as worthy of my unreserved trust as my savior but my unreserved allegiance as my Lord and my Master. And it's all over with me. I'm done. Have you come to that place?

62:52 Read the passages where Jesus sets out the terms of discipleship and consecration is at the heart of them. One other passage in 2 Corinthians 5 expressed in different language but it's the same truth and that's why I keep saying constrained by the revelation of God's mercy and grace not by fear and dread. Paul says in 2 Corinthians 5 verse 14 the love of Christ constrains us not restrains us constrains us it holds us in its vice like grip and he says behind that it's not an undefinable and undescribable influence of Christ no he says the love of Christ constrains us because we thus judge his love finds a conduit through my brain and what I'm thinking about reality and this is what he thinks he says the love of Christ constrains us because we thus judge that one died for all therefore all died if Christ died for all who are in him by the Father's eternal choice and plan therefore all died in him so if Christ died for all then all for whom he died died with him and he died for all in order that they that live

64:21 that is who have life from his death should no longer live unto themselves but unto him who for their sakes died and rose again wherefore henceforth know we know man after the flesh and then he leads into that statement if any man be in Christ what is it that brings us to say here Lord I give myself away it is all that I can do is it primarily the dread of hell if I don't know the dread of hell may start start you moving toward Christ but it will never bring you to the foot of Christ in utter absolute consecration it will be the love of Christ the love of God in Christ that I'm not right now roasting in hell here Lord I give myself away baptism is the open declaration to God to men that that's my identity from henceforth until I die now do you need to be a theologian to grasp that basic symbolism identification arise be baptized wash away thy sins calling on the name

Application: Embrace Christ and Obey Baptism

65:49 of the Lord identification objectively with the virtue of Christ's death burial and resurrection personally existentially in union with Christ I died to sin I rise to newness of life in him I am identified with the triune God who is revealed in the proclamation of the gospel the one who loves and comes and dies the spirit who loves and patiently applies an understanding of ourselves and of the work of Christ and then takes out the heart of stone implants the heart of flesh and comes himself to dwell within us and then it is consecration to this God yes but to this God with a focus upon the Redeemer who calls us to the fellowship of the cross and of the lost life he calls us to the fellowship of the cross and to the lost life well again you've been patient I won't be troubling you with hour and ten minute sermons for two weeks we'll be in Florida God willing next week and the following week I'll be at the singles conference up in Ballston Lake but as I close may I just bring these two words of application and you're not a disciple what is the great

67:18 yearning of my heart why have I preached my guts out to you I'll tell you why I'll give you the words of the Apostle Paul we beseech you in Christ's stead be reconciled to God we want you to know internally in your own experience the blessing of this salvation that will purify you from all of your sins think of it every single one of them the blood of Jesus God's son cleanses you from all sin we don't want you to come to the water we want you to go to Christ and to the virtue of his blood we want you to give yourself to Christ to be joined to him by faith and to experience the sin liberating power of being united to Christ being indwelt by the Holy Spirit we want to see you give yourself to Christ we're not asking you for money we're not asking you for slaps on the back we're asking you to embrace Christ and for you who sit there and say well I believe if that's what baptism signifies that's the external visible physical mirror of the internal by the grace of God I have experienced the internal then I ask you why do you tarry there may be good reasons it may be the reason of maturity it's one of the great problems

68:47 of the second generation and I'm not fully aware of it but I do know this when I read my Bible I don't see anyone called a disciple who was not a non-minor I don't see anyone described as being added to the church who could not be called a young man a young woman God knows I don't feel I have the last answer but I do have my Bible and I want to be shown from my Bible and if you are in that category where all that we preached of the spiritual realities of the Lord you've done that for me Lord Jesus I am yours you may be six, seven, eight, ten twelve years old don't trouble yourself that the Lord is going to look upon you as disobedient if you don't ask the elders to baptize you the Lord knows you are not stiff-arming His demand that you be baptized but you're waiting God's time same way a young man who's struggling with impure thoughts he's come into puberty and he reads in 1 Corinthians 7 avoid fornication and let each man have his own wife and he comes to his dad and says dad I found the answer to my troubles with a filthy mind I'm going to go get a wife and he says son not now everything in his own time alright well in the same way with baptism but don't be reluctant to share with us

70:16 what God has done in your soul you may not be disobedient if all these things are true of you and you're not baptized it may be the part of discretion in regard to age and maturity for some understanding but for some of you I do believe you're being disobedient if what you say you believe you are by the grace of God is true then you ought to be lined up at that tank saying I want to nail my flag to the mast I'm not going to give myself some room to negotiate Christ didn't leave any room to negotiate when he went to the cross for me sink or swim live or die irrevocably I belong to Christ and I want all to know it put me under not to get it but to declare it well I'm done let's pray Father we're so thankful for your word we pray that you would write it upon our hearts bring good from the preaching of your word this day and oh Lord may we see the ranks of those who unashamedly declare themselves to belong to Jesus may those ranks swell not with temporary enthusiasm but with solid prayerful reflective

71:45 commitment unto you and to your son seal then your word we pray