Gooding, David: 11 - Christian Baptism

Four passages of scripture, the first to be found in the Acts of the Apostles, chapter two. Acts of the Apostles, chapter two, Beginning in verse thirty seven. Now, when they heard this, they were pricked in their heart and said unto Peter and to the rest of the apostles, Men and brethren, what shall we do? Then Peter said unto them, Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ, for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. For the promise is unto you and to your children, and to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call. With many other words did he testify and exhort, saying, save your perils from this untoward generation. Then they that gladly received his word were baptized. In chapter, chapter ten of this same book of the Acts of the Apostles. Apocles. Verse forty four: While Peter yet spake these words, the Holy Ghost fell on all them which heard the word. Those of circumcision which believed were astonished, as many as came with Peter, because that on the Gentiles also was poured out the gift of the Holy Ghost, for they heard them speak with tongues and magnify God. Then answered Peter, can any man forbid water that these should not be baptized, which have received the Holy Ghost as well as we? He commanded them to be baptized in the name of the Lord. Then pray they him to tarry certain days. First scripture is one Corinthians. one Corinthians. Chapter ten. One Corinthians chapter ten verse one. For every virgin I would not that she should be ignorant, how that all our fathers were under the cloud, and all passed through the sea, were all baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea. Did all eat the same spiritual meat, and did all drink the same spiritual drink, for they drank of that spiritual rock that followed them, which rock was Christ. But with many of them, God was not well pleased. And finally, from the first epistle by Peter and chapter three. First Peter chapter three and verse eighteen. For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit, by which also he went and preached unto the spirits in prison, which sometime were disobedient, when once the long suffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was a preparing, wherein few, that is, eight souls, were saved by water. Like figure whereunto, even baptism doth also now save us. Not the putting away of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God by the resurrection of Jesus Christ, who is gone into heaven, is at the right hand of God, angels and authorities and powers being made subject unto him. The Lord give us ready hearts to understand and to obey his word. You have asked me to speak this afternoon on the subject of conversion and baptism, that is, on the relation of baptism to salvation. I want to try and do that by considering, first of all, two Old Testament illustrations of baptism, and then two New Testament occasions of baptism. And finally, if we have time, I want to deal with one of the difficulties that people often feel about baptism. And so, first of all, the Old Testament illustrations of baptism. We read together from one Corinthians chapter ten the statement by Paul that all our fathers were baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea. When they stood on the banks of the Red Sea, and Moses lifted up his rod, and they passed through the Red Sea, and was counted by God as being baptized unto Moses. Let us think what was involved. The Jews, as you know, were once slaves in Egypt under the Pharaoh, but God brought them out. He saved them. What part did this baptism of theirs play in this salvation that God gave them? Well, first of all, let us notice that they were saved from two things. God said that one night the destroying angel of his judgment should pass through Egypt, and every house where there was no blood, every house, matter not whether it was Egyptian or Jewish, every house, unless sheltered by the blood, would lose its firstborn son. The Israelites were saved from the wrath of God, and I do ask you to notice that they were not saved from the wrath of God by being baptized unto Moses. They were saved from the wrath and judgment of God by the shedding of the blood of the Passover lamb, by sprinkling that blood on their doorpost and coming behind that blood to shelter there from the wrath of God. So we, we too were once exposed to the wrath and judgment of God. God is no respecter of person, whether Jew or Gentile, Egyptian or Irish. We are all exposed to the wrath of God. There is only one thing that's saved from the wrath and judgment of God, that is the blood of the great Passover Lamb, Christ our Passover, who was sacrificed for us. But the Israelites were not only saved from the wrath of God. Wonderful as that was, they needed salvation further. They needed to be saved from the tyranny and slavery of Pharaoh. Well, how did God save them from that? He saved them by an exhibition of his power. But you remember the occasion. The Israelites, their loins girded, their staff in their hands, their shoes on their feet, had begun to leave Egypt. They had come to the banks of the Red Sea, when Pharaoh repented himself and decided, after all, to run after them and bring them back into bondage. And there was Pharaoh coming with all his tanks as hard as he could up the road behind them, to bring them back under his grip, to bring them back to slavery. In front, that's the Red Sea. What do they do? It was just here that God taught them again. He said to Moses, lift up your hand and your rod over the sea, and when you lift it up, I will cause the waters to divide. And they stood on an end, so to speak, towering above the people's head. And the message went forth that anybody that wished now to be saved from the tyranny and slavery of Pharaoh must be prepared to pass through these waters at Moses' direction. Those who pass through the waters at Moses' direction were saying that from now on, as they faced the uncharted wilderness in front of them, they were accepting Moses as the captain of their salvation, as the leader of their host. God meant it to be that way. You see, God didn't just save them from bondage to Pharaoh, from serving Pharaoh, to let them live as they pleased. God pointed them this practical lesson that the only way to escape the lordship of Pharaoh was to accept the lordship of Moses. We today need to be saved not only from the wrath of God, we need to be saved from the tyranny of sin and Satan. And still today, there is only one way to be saved from the tyranny of sin and Satan and self. There's only one way, and that is to accept the lordship of Christ. There is no such a salvation in all God's world as a salvation from the consequences and guilt of sin that lets me thereafter go and do as I please. There isn't. Oh, God is going to save us, he's going to save us from his wrath by the blood of Christ and his death. He's going to save us from bondage to Satan and sin and hell. How? By asking us to accept the lordship, the captaincy of Christ. And that's what we profess in our baptism. However much or however little we understand of the symbolism of baptism, and baptism is a very symbol. Yet this much we all of us can see right from the very beginning, that to be baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus is our public profession that we have accepted his lordship. He has become the captain of our salvation. Now I ask you to use your imagination just a little bit. Can you picture these Israelites standing on the banks of the Red Sea. And when Moses lifted up his rod, and the waters parted, and Moses gave out the command that all who wish to be saved must follow him through the waters of the Red Sea. Can you imagine some Israelites saying, ah no, no, no, I don't see I'm not going to do that. I mean, I wanted to be saved from the destroying angel, but I don't intend, Moses, to, um, follow you through that red sea there. Looks a bit dangerous to me, where water piled up. I mean, I'm not sure that it might collapse on top of me or something. Anyway, I'm not going there, Moses. Where are you going, Moses? You're going to Canaan? Well, I thought it would be nice to go up to Syria myself. I wasn't intending to go to Canaan. I want to go somewhere else. No. No. They There want. wasn't any salvation for folks like that. You see, this salvation is in two parts, so to speak, but they are inseparably joined together. You can't have forgiveness and deliverance from the wrath of God without accepting the lordship of Christ. The terms of salvation run like this, that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth Jesus as Lord, believe in thine heart that God has raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. How does somebody say, I can accept to obey the Lord Jesus as Lord without being baptized, can't I? Surely there are more important things for Christians to do than to be baptized. What good does it do to be baptized anyway? But if you don't mind my so saying, I wouldn't care just for the moment what good that sin does at all. Suppose it doesn't do any good. It is a thing enjoined upon us by the Lord himself, but forgive me a moment. Suppose it was the silliest thing in all the earth, the emptiest performance, the most nonsensical right that was ever invented, and I don't care. The point is this, here stand I, I need to escape from the wrath of God, and I come and take the cleansing of the blood of Christ, and at the same time Christ says to me, and the terms of these, that you accept me as Lord, and I say, yes, I do accept you as Lord. Very good, says Christ, get that tithe. And I say, oh no. Don't see the point in it. What's it matter where I see the point in it? I have just professed that I have taken Christ as Lord, and in his gracious wisdom, he sees the need to have a test. They are waiting me the very moment the words come out of my mouth. You accept me as Lord? Very good. And it sounds odd, I submit to you, very odd. For me, one moment to say, yes, I accept him as Lord, and the next moment to say, oh, but I don't intend to do what he says. I think it's silly. But now you see the Christian who confesses that Jesus is Lord isn't asked to comment and tell the Lord that something he lays down is silly, or even if we think it is silly. Accepting him as Lord means that we forsake our own thoughts and our own way, and we bow to what he says. Isn't that fair? The man and woman who said, I accept Jesus Christ as Lord, but I don't intend to get baptized, seems to me to be contradicting the one statement with the other. Who would say somebody how they have never commanded it? I just beg leave to differ there. So we went together the plain straight words of scripture. Our Lord commanded his apostles to baptize. When Peter came to Cornelius's house, we read he commanded them to be baptized. If you had Peter here this afternoon, my dear fellow Christian, if you were not baptized, would you allow me to tell you, if you had Peter here this afternoon, he wouldn't suggest it to you. Peter would command you to be baptized. If the words of our Lord stand to this day about his apostles, he that receiveth you receiveth me, and he that doesn't receive you doesn't receive me. If Peter commands us to be baptized, and we disobey Peter's command, we are in fact disobeying the commandment of the Lord. So then, this Old Testament illustration reminds us that baptism is our profession, that we accept Jesus Christ as Lord. But then there's another illustration taken from the Old Testament. We read it in one Peter chapter three, where baptism is illustrated by Noah and his ark. Noah was saved and brought through the judgment of the flood by the ark that was provided him as he came out to the other shore. And the Bible says the likes people after their even baptism, but also now, and I ask you to notice the word, not serve us, as some people read it, but save us. So it's in the New Testament that baptism saves us. We no need to try and explain it away, have we? There it stands, inspired by the Holy Spirit, that baptism saves us. We shall have to be careful to understand what it means, nonetheless, and we shall see at once that baptism doesn't save us in the sense that it washes away our sins. It doesn't wash away their guilt, I mean. It doesn't even wash our skin. For the same verse tells us that baptism is not the putting away of the filth of the flesh, that is, he doesn't wash our skins. In the Old Testament, the Jews came frequently and went through ceremonial baptisms and washings. They were directed towards washing their skin. If you touched a dead bone or a carcass, for instance, then you were held to be unclean, and you had to be bathed all over, and it was to cleanse your skin. Now, Christian baptism doesn't, uh, isn't directed towards washing your skin. Much less can it wash away the stain and guilt of sin. How does it say that? Well, let us see what the verse actually says in its positive. It says it is not the putting away of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God. The answer of a good conscience toward God. Now here may, let me make a little confession to you, that the word in, uh, the Bible, as Peter wrote it in his Greek Bible, that is here translated answer, is a little difficult to translate into English. You may gather that because here in the authorized version it is translated answer. If you read the revised version, it is translated the very opposite, it is an appeal to God or request to God. That comes about because this is, strictly speaking, a legal term. If, for instance, two parties, uh, had some dispute together and they were going to come into court, the magistrate would have them meet privately before the official court, and to establish the evidence, they would question each other. They would formally put a question to the other man, and the other man would reply. This question and answer business that formally established the evidence is the word that Peter uses here. If people were going to enter into a contract before the magistrate with no dispute, because it was going to be a contract, then the one party would formally put the question to the other party, and the other party would formally reply, and that's the thing would be established by formal and official question and answer. Notice, Peter, that's just like baptism does. Baptism is your public, your formal response to God. As God, so to speak, asks you publicly, do you receive my Son as Savior? Do you receive him as your only trust and your only hope? Are you repentant of sin? Do you wish to be saved? Do you receive Christ as Lord? Baptism is our public and formal answer to God. That we have received the Savior, that our conscience has been cleansed by his blood. We do now publicly and formally before God make our response. Baptisms are happy, but they're fun occasions. They're not just a demonstration to all that are around. It is God's appointed way of making our official response to him. Look, said somebody, I don't think there's any need to do that. You see, I made my response to the Lord a while ago. I was in the gospel meeting, and the preacher preached, and I saw salvation. I received the faith, and I told the Lord in my heart. I already told him, he already knows. What do I need to to tell him again for? Ah. I I think I see the point of that, but let me use another modern illustration, if you don't mind. We use this form still of question and answer in order officially to establish the evidence, don't we? In one very notable and very frequent occasion. I refer to the public ceremony of wedding. You know, when the two parties stand up at the front there, and whoever it is that is performing the marriage service, he turns to the gentleman and he says, now will thou, William, uh, our Boothmark Maximilian or whatever, will thou take this woman, Frieda, uh, and so on, to be thy wedded wife. Now, I tell you, though I'm no expert, but I can tell you this, that when he says, yes, I will, and she says, yes, I will, that isn't the first time they've said I will. Now, that's why you don't find the bar returning now saying, well, I'm told that before, now shall I or shall I? No. No, it's been settled, in fact, or no telling how long ago. Uh, you know, perhaps, uh, well, I'm certainly partly, you know, when nobody else knew and all that, and uh, so forth and so on. Uh, it was settled. It was a personal private affair. Of course, yes. Well, now, saying that, so what do we have to have weddings for? We'll put it to the ladies, shall we, we'll scrap weddings after this. No need, because you said I hear all down that country lane or, eh, you know, in the lines there that night, and there's a lot to say, so we can't leave our wedding anymore. And the city isn't saying it twice. You don't think the ladies would be convinced somehow? No? There is the private side, of course, but there has to be that public side, doesn't there? Where before all, before God and before men, the thing is done officially. There is the private side, of course, but there has to be that public side, doesn't there? Where before all, before God and before men, the thing is done officially. Shall we say that baptism is not necessary? God says, now I know you've told me privately. I want it done publicly and officially. God told Noah that there was going to be a flood. Noah didn't want to get drowned. And Noah believed, not when he saw the rain coming, no. Noah believed years and years ago, before the flood ever came. He believed. And because he believed, he made the ark. There came a day, however, when God said, no, Noah get in this ark. Noah got in, in front of all. It would have sounded comical, wouldn't it, that when the ark was built and God said to Noah, you know, now good, now's the time to get in. And Noah said, no thank you, I'm not getting in there. If I told you I believed what you said a long while ago, I'm not getting into this ark. That would have sounded silly, wouldn't it? God asked us just as publicly to be baptized. What's the good of our saying we believe? If we are not prepared publicly to own our faith. Two illustrations then from the Old Testament. Now I want to consider with you two instances from the New Testament. I've chosen these instances because on surface they appear to contradict themselves. I read you from the occurrences of the day of Pentecost, that when the Jews listening to Peter's preaching were convicted at their heart, and they said, men and brethren, what shall we do? Peter said, this is what you'll do. If you want to be forgiven, if you want to receive the Holy Spirit, you will repent and be baptized unto the forgiveness of sins. And if you repent and are baptized, you will receive forgiveness of sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. So on that occasion, being baptized came before receiving forgiveness and the Holy. But then I read you what happened in Cornelius's house. And on that occasion, we read that as Peter was preaching the gospel, he hadn't got to the end of the psalm even. The Holy Ghost fell on them that heard the word. They were baptized in the Holy Ghost. So now they already had forgiveness, they already had the Holy Spirit. Said Peter, can any man forbid water that they should not be baptized who have received the Holy Ghost, even as we? So on this occasion, it was the opposite way round. They received the Holy Spirit first, forgiveness and eternal life, and then they were baptized. How shall we explain that apparent contradiction? Well, now there are some very noble, good, godly theologians who explain it like this, that the incident in Cornelius's house was a time when Gentiles got converted. The occasion on the day of Pentecost were that Jews got converted. We are Gentiles, and we fit into the Gentile occasion, and what happened to the Jews is none of our business. Ah. Well, now I will go as far along that road as this, that they on the day of Pentecost were Jews, and a little bit further too, and they were somewhat special, but I'm inclined to think that it is some of our business nevertheless. Let us think of those, uh, Jews just for a moment. They were special. For these were the very people who a few weeks before had publicly stood around the cross of Jesus, and they said, away with him! Publicly, and yelled their heads off. When the soldiers planted the crown of thorns and pushed it onto his brow, they'd laugh like anything. When the high priest went by and said he saves others himself he cannot save, they thought it was a fine joke. It was those people. Their hands, so to speak, literally stained with the blood of Christ. Said he wasn't God's son. They said he was an imposter, and he was rightly crucified. Now, on the day of Pentecost, the Holy Spirit came down from heaven. His power was so manifest that these men began to quake in their shoes. They began to see that they had been wrong. They had committed a ghastly error. They had murdered God's own son. They were personally responsible. Now they had evidence that he was risen from the dead and gone back to heaven, and they said to Peter in their alarm, what shall we do? How shall we get out of this muddle? We've murdered God's son, and and now he's alive again. Whatever shall we do? And Peter said, you'll repent, that's what you'll do. You'll change your mind. And know before God, you alone, that you were wrong, terribly wrong. But Christ was right. And, says Peter, laying it on thick and heavy. You want to be forgiven? If you want God to recognize you as genuine men, that you have really repented, now let me tell you, you publicly in this city put Christ to a cross, didn't you? Well, now if you say you repent, you will publicly in this city be baptized in his name. And says Peter, in the name of God, if you are not prepared to be baptized in this city publicly, God is not prepared to regard you as genuine men. Who said some might be afraid to be baptized? Oh, well, very good. But you weren't afraid to stand by that cross, were you? And shall crucify him? Can't help it if you're afraid. If you want to be clear of having crucified God's son, and you did that publicly, you will make your repentance publicly, you'll be baptized. Because God will do it publicly. You stood with the Jewish nation, didn't you? Joined hands with them to crucify Christ. Now you will publicly renounce that nation and save yourself from it. How? How? Well, you won't do that by trusting the Lord in your bedroom and saying nothing to anybody, will you? No, you will publicly tell that nation that they were wrong and that you were wrong and that you're having no more to do with it. You will be baptized. Fair? Fair? Or If they they want weren't earning earning. salvation, there's nothing that can earn forgiveness. But there's no forgiveness for the man that doesn't repent. What would you think of a man that came up to you and said, hey, look, I want to be saved, only I stole five hundred thousand pounds the other week, uh, and I don't intend to give it back. I want to be saved. You'd say, well, you better think again then. You better think again. There isn't any salvation for people that intend to go on sinning. We didn't stand around the cross, did we? We didn't shout away with it. Our case is different. I submit to you the principle is the same. Baptism is our public confession of repentance. How would you say there remains that case, doesn't there, in Cornelius's house, where while they were listening to the preaching, the Holy Spirit fell on them? Yes, so, and normally it does with us Gentiles, that way round. For we weren't publicly involved like the Jews in the murder of Christ, and therefore, as we sit before God and hear his word and believe and trust the Savior, God can give us forgiveness and his Holy Spirit. But notice that the Apostle Peter says, well, now you have received the Holy Spirit, now that's the reason why you ought to be baptized. I have heard it argued, haven't you? That after all, there are two baptisms. There is the baptism of the Holy Ghost, and there is baptism in water. And if the God, if we have the baptism of the Holy Ghost, well, that's a big thing. Surely we don't need the small thing, baptism in water, if we've already got the baptism of the Holy Ghost. After all, the baptism of the Holy Ghost is the real thing. Baptism in water at best is a symbol. Well, I grant you that. Baptism in i- in water is only a symbol. The water doesn't cleanse us, as I have already said. It's only old tap water or sea water or pond water or whatever you, it isn't even holy water. Has no magical value. It's only a symbol. It's a symbol that we have died with Christ, been buried with him, and we rise with him. And if it isn't true of us spiritually, then to go through the symbol is to act a lie, isn't it? And acting a symbol will never make it come true. Oh, well then, says somebody, I see, look, baptism in water is just a symbol. Now I've got the reality, you see. I have been baptized with the Holy Spirit. I have received forgiveness. I know that I died with Christ, and I'm risen with Christ, and I share the life of the risen Lord. I got the real thing. Why do I need the symbol? Well, why not have the symbol as well? That's funny how we argue differently at different, uh, levels of experiences. Would you mind my coming back to my illustration? Our secretary got, uh, engaged a year ago in our department. I don't know if you know if you've ever noticed this with people that get engaged. For a week or so after she got engaged, you know, every time she handed us a sheet of type things that, uh, was, uh, what's this name of it? Yeah, uh, the stuff she typed for us and that came like that, so that even such as I couldn't help saying that, is it three diamonds or what is it to know? Yes. It was only a symbol, of course. Just you imagine a girl standing there in front of the minister, now getting married, and he says, now where's the ring? And the good husband produces the ring, or the best man does, and she says, oh, I don't want that. I've got you, you see, I don't want that. That's only a symbol. Oh, I got the real thing. I don't want the ring. No, we don't, do we? What? Then why do we suddenly take to arguing that way around when it comes to the Lord? We tell the Lord we want him, we can't be saved without him, and as a tremendous, incalculable price he's given us salvation, but we tell him we don't want this simple thing. What? That sounds very funny up in heaven. And you can tell your Lord if you'd like, it's a cheap old something that doesn't mean anything, and it's a silly thing. But you want to be careful and measure the words before you swear. I don't know what the husband would think of the girl who threw the ring back, you. So it's only a symbol. You baptize? So finally, to my difficulty, somebody says, yes, I believe all that, but I don't think I'm good enough. I'm good enough. I couldn't keep it up. I'm sympathetic, I must say, with that attitude. I know many people feel like that, that to be baptized you have to be very good Christian. Not enough to be just a Christian, you need to be a very good Christian. And they feel that until they can become very good Christians, they oughtn't to be baptized. They're too honest to get baptized and then go on living a failing life, they feel, so that they, they must wait until they're good enough. Let me tell you that you'll never be good enough to be baptized. And that for the reason not that you won't improve, by God's gracious help, you'll improve. The reason is that the qualification for being baptized is being bad enough. Not good enough. Qualification for being baptized is being bad enough. How bad are you? You see, being baptized, that's a symbol that we have died. We're baptized so that we should be buried and put out of sight. Why that? Well, you see, the answer is that God says we are so bad we couldn't save ourselves. So bad that God's law had to be executed upon. Another was found to take our place, and Christ suffered and died under God's holy law. And those who trust him are counted as if they too had died, and they died and were buried because they were hopelessly bad. Every man or woman that goes down into waters to be baptized is saying to the world, not look how good I am, but look how incurably bad I was. And God had to end me and finish me. You bad enough to be baptized? Or you've still got a lot of pride left that thinks that you're, well, you're not that bad. You hope by improvement to prove you're pretty good. Ah, then it might do you good to get baptized to show what God thinks and everybody else knows, that you're so hopelessly bad you'll never save yourself. The only way of salvation is to admit you're utterly corrupt. Accept the sentence of God and trust Christ who died under that sentence for your sake. Again, baptism, you see, I'll tell you one more thing about baptism, and we'll come to the end of our sermon. Baptism is that we are buried under those waters like this Christ was buried, that we should rise together with Christ. And the secret of living a Christian life as it should be lived is this, a constant conquest, an increasing deliverance from sin's power by learning to recognize not I, but Christ living in me. That's not fanciful doctrine, you know, that's not just a certain feeling in our study, that's meant to be put into daily practice. Not I, but Christ. You willing for that? Not I. Not I. I guess Christ will have the first, the first practical lesson here. Get that time is, who says I didn't want to do that? Yes, I know, says Christ. But you see, now it's going to be a question with you, isn't it? Not I anymore. Not Christ. You can keep your arguments up until they reach the sun, and a whole lot of them be powerfully logical. But if you just read that book and ask Christ his opinion, my friend, there's nothing clearer in all God's universe. Christ says get baptized. If you honestly say today, now I've got Christ. You're not yet baptized. You'll be baptized as soon as you can possibly get it done. I'm not saying your arguments aren't logical, but I'm facing you with this challenge, is it going to be you or Christ? But it'll help us if we've not faced it before, to face it and say yes to him. God help us who have been baptized to go on as we thought, and so demonstrate that the reward, the reality of that salvation, and symbolically we were portrayed by being baptized. Shall we pray? Lord, now we bring thy word to thee. We pray that thou will save us from regarding this thing as the Pharisees regarded their law as some hard commandment to be followed out of sheer willpower, to the aggrandissement of our egos and to making us feel that we are better than other people. Grant us, O Lord, to see its spiritual significance, that we may thereby stand by our confession that we are sinful and undone, that we have salvation in none other but in Christ thy Son. Our baptism may be our wholehearted and willing and glad submission to him and to his Lordship. We thank thee for the delights of his love and his self-giving towards us. We pray it may be our delight, honestly, to accept this symbol from him and publicly to perform it, that we might declare our allegiance to him. Let us then to this end, and thy word that we have read, for his name's sake. Amen.