What is Baptism?

It's so, so good to be among you all and even better to see the way God is growing this church under the leadership of the pastors and the elders and the deacons and all of the members. I give him praise and I give him thanks. Pastor Keith asked me to bring an evangelistic talk on baptism. So, beginning at the beginning, let me say that sin, with its terrible consequences, is an unprecedented universal catastrophe. God warned Adam and Eve, saying, In the day you eat the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you shall surely die. And tragically, they disobeyed God and brought the curse of both physical and spiritual death upon themselves and all their posterity. But God, who is rich in mercy, sent His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ, to rescue us from the penalty, the power, and ultimately the presence of sin itself. But to do this, the Son of God had to become a man and live a sinless life. and then offer that sinless life as an atoning sacrifice upon the cross of Calvary for our sin. And what it cost God the Son to do this, you and I will never be able to comprehend, not in this life, nor in the life to come. Great as His physical suffering was, for crucifixion was the most painful execution ever devised by the human mind. Great as that physical suffering was, it was as nothing in comparison to the spiritual suffering in which he bore our damnation. The torment you and I deserved to suffer in hell. Moreover, because of the infinite dignity of His divine human person, it was a sacrifice of infinite value to cover all the sins of every person who would believe in Him as their Savior. As John Owen says, if all the planets in the universe were populated with believers, that one single sacrifice would be sufficient to cover all of their sins. So when Peter preached the first Christian sermon in Acts chapter 2, and the people were cut to their heart and cried out, what shall we do? Peter replied, repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. Now elsewhere in the New Testament the command is repent and believe in Christ or believe in the gospel. That is, Turn from your life of sin and put your trust in Christ to save you from the consequences of that sin. Why then did Peter say, repent and be baptized? Was he saying that baptism is essential and necessary in order to be saved as some churches teach? No, he isn't. The penitent thief died on the cross and went to heaven before he had a chance to be baptized. Again, Cornelius and his entire household received the gift of the Holy Spirit in the middle of Peter's sermon. before they had a chance to be baptized. Baptism, I say, is not necessary for salvation, though it is the command of Jesus Christ. Why then did Peter command these seekers to repent and be baptized? And the simple answer is that faith and baptism are two sides of the same coin. You see, the first stage of faith is that personal, private commitment of our life to Jesus Christ. The second stage is the public, visible confession of that faith in the act of baptism. Both halves are necessary in order to express our faith in Jesus Christ. The same thing happens, of course, when two people decide to marry. First comes the engagement ceremony, and then it is followed by the wedding ceremony. Moreover, baptism is a most fitting portrayal of what it means to be saved from sin. Supremely, it illustrates the uniting of a believing sinner to Jesus Christ, and in particular, to Jesus Christ crucified and risen. As we go down into the water, we proclaim our union with the Christ who died as our sin-bearer. And as we rise from the water, We confess our faith in Christ risen, who rose again to enable us to live a new life by the power of his resurrection. So supremely, baptism illustrates the union of a believing sinner to Christ crucified and risen. Not only that, baptism is a declaration that our sins have been forgiven. Peter says, repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ, for the forgiveness of your sins. Now all religious water rituals in the Old Testament were purification ceremonies. They symbolized the cleansing of the sinner of their sin. And baptism in the New Testament is no exception. Of course, baptism itself, the act of baptism, does not wash away any person's sins. It should be obvious that water applied to the human body cannot remove the guilt of sin from their soul. Only faith in the shed blood of Christ can remove the defilement and the guilt of sin. And so Ananias, when Saul of Tarsus was converted on the Damascus Road and God sent him to minister to Saul of Tarsus, he said to him, arise and be baptized and wash away your sins, calling on the name of the Lord. In other words, no one's sins can be washed away unless we call on the name of the Lord Jesus to do it. Thirdly, baptism is a fitting symbol because it signifies the gift of God's Holy Spirit to those who believe in Christ. So Peter goes on to tell the crowd Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ, for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. Friends, as I bring this to an end, let me remind you that salvation is a big word. We must never minimize it. It is not only justification, the acquittal of our sins, it is also regeneration, the changing and the transforming of our spiritual lives. It is not only cleansing from sin's guilt, but it is also the enabling of God's Spirit, who lives now in our hearts, to live a holy life. The candidate is therefore raised out of the water to show that, united to Jesus Christ, he is or she is now living a new life in the power of the Holy Spirit, who is also called in the New Testament the Spirit of Jesus Christ. So if God is speaking to someone here this morning, and I am sure He is, And you are wondering, like those people on the day of Pentecost, what shall I do? Here is Peter's command. Repent and believe. Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. God bless the testimonies you will now hear.