Means of Grace - Baptism

Good morning, turn with me in your bibles to Romans chapter 6.

We’re continuing our means of grace series this morning. So far in this series, we have looked at the word of God and prayer as ordinary means that God uses to shape us and strengthen us.

This week we will look at the first of the two sacraments or ordinances of Christ, being baptism, and next week we will look at the second sacrament, the lords table

Now, when you hear the word sacrament, you might immediately think of roman Catholicism. What rome would say is that the sacraments contain grace in and of themselves that then convey said grace to people.

In light of this, some of the reformers shied away from the word sacrament as to not create any confusion of their stance, and instead chose to use the word ordinance. They chose ordinance because baptism and the table were ordained by Christ.

I use both terms interchangeable but know that when I say sacrament, I am not referring to the Roman catholic position.

In addition to that, it’s important to understand that in the new testament there are only two sacraments, baptism and the lords supper.

Today my aim is for us to ask and answer 3 questions

What Baptism is

What Baptism Declares

Why Baptism Matters

First, What it is

What exactly is baptism?

Baptism is an outward public sign that demonstrates and inward spiritual reality

Sacraments is a visible signs and seals instituted by Christ to his church to display, confirm, and apply the gospel to believers

Or you could say, sacraments are visible words. They are gospel pictures

So as we look to the waters of baptism, or we look to the lords table, we are looking to a visible gospel. And in those signs and seals, we are to receive the grace of Christ in our lives.

I don’t want us to get to distracted or go down to many rabbit holes, but the question that may be looming is, why do we need signs? are visible signs important? I have the words of the gospel, what need is the sign?

While that is a good question, it is important for us to understand that signs are not something new for God.

Do you remember in Genesis how God regrets making mankind because of their wickedness and floods the earth, killing all of mankind except for Noah and his family?

What does God do immediately after that event? He makes a covenant with Noah and promises him that he will never destroy the earth with a flood again.

And after he makes that covenant, he gives a sign. He tells Noah that he will put a rainbow in the sky as a visible reminder of the covenant he has made

Every time it rains, every time you think maybe he is going to wipe out the world again with a flood, you will see that rainbow and be reminded of God’s faithfulness.

It wasn’t our faithfulness (mankind still wicked) but his. (maybe move to later)

There is a sense that these signs we look to, not only display God’s grace, but actually communicate it to us

Marriage illustration

So let me begin our time looking at baptism by asking you the question, have you thought about your baptism this week? When is the last time you thought about your baptism?

We’ll see later why this is an important question

Now when we look at Baptism (and the table for that matter) there are two extremes that we can fall into

The first is overemphasis

Your baptism does not save you.

Nor does it contribute to your salvation

Some would hold that baptism is an essential element for salvation. That without it one cannot be saved

Can I tell you that that is a different gospel.

We can see over and over and over again that we are saved by the shear grace of God alone

Ephesians 2:8 “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God,”

John 3:16 ““For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.”

Titus 3:5 “he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit,”

Romans 3:23–24 “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus,”

If you’re saved by your baptism then you are saved by works

Perhaps you think yourself saved here today because of your baptism. Or any works for that matter

The second ditch we can fall into is underemphasis

Baptism isn’t necessary, you just said it can’t save. Maybe I’ll do it maybe I won’t

Both are errors

Baptism is for every follower of Jesus Christ

Now, while I don’t have the time to unpack all of that, I will say this.

Every baptism we see in the New testament is preceded by faith

Acts 2:41 “So those who received his word were baptized, and there were added that day about three thousand souls.”

Acts 8:12 “But when they believed Philip as he preached good news about the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ, they were baptized, both men and women.”

Great commission -> Go make disciples… baptizing them

The great commission tells us that the first thing we do with a new believer is to baptize them. Baptism is the very first act of obedience to the king.

I believe I heard it from John Macarthur who commented on the paradox it is that the world is full of baptized non-christians and unbaptized Christians

If you’re wondering “did my baptism count” “should I be baptized”, let me make it clear

If you are a follower of Jesus Christ and have not been baptized by immersion AFTER you came to faith, you need to be baptized. And I don’t say that to shame you or guilt you, but rather that you can find a fullness of joy on the other side of obedience

I’d love to talk to you if you have more questions

What it Declares

We can see, even from our primary text this morning, that baptism signifies quite a few things.

We see it signifies

death, burial, resurrection, newness of life, freedom, and even more than that.

But what I want to see first and foremost, is that baptism ultimately is visible sign of our union with Christ.

Do you see that in the text?

we were baptized “into christ jesus”

Into his death

buried with him

just as he was raised, we might walk in newness of life

United with him in death

United with him in resurrection

Our baptism declares to us and the world that you belong to someone else and he belongs to you. Remember Christian, remember your union with him

Let’s look now at some of the specific pictures we see of this union with Christ

First, we see death

Look with me at verse 3. “baptized into his death”

v4 buried with him into death

United with him in death

Died with christ

There is a sense in which when we look at the waters of baptism, we are attending a funeral.

No one dies at their own funeral, they have already died and their funeral is a ceremony that recognizes that reality. So it is with a baptism, the brother or sister that we are looking upon has already experienced a spiritual death, and we now are viewing this funeral

What does it mean that we have been baptized into his death?

It means a few things.

For starters, it means that we have died to the power and penalty of sin

Romans 6:6 “We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin.”

Romans 6:7 “For one who has died has been set free from sin.”

In your union with Christ, you have died to sin

Your old self was a slave to sin, your old self did not want the things of God but rather was enslaved to the power of sin.

There were sin chains wrapped around you and at the cross, Christ has severed those chains

Do you realize you are free not to sin anymore?

Thats pauls whole argument in this section

And one day we will share in a physical death. And at our physical death, we will be free from the presence of sin. Here we struggle and toil and fall but like cancer, when we pass from here to glory, there is no longer a host for sin to have any presence

The second thing it means is that Christ bore the judgement and wrath reserved for you and me.

In the Bible, water is often used as a motif for Gods wrath and judgement.

Perhaps the most famous, that I mentioned earlier, is the flood. God used water as a means of his judgment on the world.

Yet, he provides a way for salvation through the ark. Those who were secure in the ark are safely brought through the waters of God’s wrath.

That salvation that is found in that ark, while true and historical, ultimately points us forward to the better ark, Jesus Christ. It is through safe passage in him that you can find salvation from the waters of God’s wrath. Left to yourself you will drown, try to make your own boat and it will sink. There is one, sovereignly appointed vessel that will keep you dry from those waters and that is the king of glory.

Peter tells us that this event corresponds to our baptism. Not that our baptism saves us but that in our baptism we see a visible demonstration of an inward reality that we are laid down under the waters of Gods wrath, but we are not left there. We are raised back up to show that in christ we have made safe passage through the waters.

Like the rainbow in the sky to demonstrate God’s faithfulness and his covenant promises, we too look to baptism as a sign to show us that we are safe from the destruction of God’s wrath

Do you know what’s interesting about the rainbow?

God makes that promise to Noah not because of the future faithfulness of mankind.

In fact, he says in Gen 8:21

Genesis 8:21 “And when the Lord smelled the pleasing aroma, the Lord said in his heart, “I will never again curse the ground because of man, for the intention of man’s heart is evil from his youth. Neither will I ever again strike down every living creature as I have done.”

No, the symbol of the rainbow ought to drive us to remember God’s faithfulness

Likewise, when we look to baptism, our confidence of this sign is not in our faithfulness after it. It is not, remember your baptism so you can recall your commitment, remember your baptism so you can recall your devotion, remember your baptism so you can recount your faithfulness.

No church, we look to baptism and remember our baptism not as a sign of our faithfulness but rather as a sign of God’s faithfulness. (MOVE TO END?)

So the first picture we see in baptism is death, the next picture we see is cleansing

Acts 2:38 says

Acts 2:38 “And Peter said to them, “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness(remission) of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.”

Keep a finger here in Romans but turn with me to Matthew chapter 3.

At the end of chapter 3 we see the baptism of Jesus.

READ 13-17

It’s important to understand the context of Jesus’s baptism. Jesus comes to John who is baptising people in the Jordan. And what he was doing was symbolically washing away their sins into the Jordan. People who were covered in filthy sin were dunked into the Jordan to be cleaned.

This is why John tries to stop Jesus from being baptized in the first place. Jesus is the one who’s sandals he is not worthy to carry because he is the spotless lamb who takes away the sins of the world.

And yet, that is exactly why Jesus goes into the Jordan.

The one who is so perfectly clean. The one who is spotless. The one who has no trace of filth on him. Lays himself down as it were, into the cesspool of sin that the Jordan was filled with. Lays his clean body into the sin stained waters to take on the sins of the people.

And in a scandal of grace, church, we see our savior is made filthy in the picture of his baptism so that we are made clean in the picture of ours.

See it is not water that ultimately makes you clean. In a beautiful paradox, it is christ going into the waters that makes him dirty and it is us covered in his blood that makes us clean

His baptism points forward to the reality of him becoming sin on the cross

And in our baptisms, we see this beautiful picture of the washing away of our sins.

And you need to understand that this cleansing does not simply give us a clean conscience, but peter tells us it give us a good conscience. Do you know why that is? because of verse 17

Matthew 3:17 “and behold, a voice from heaven said, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.””

He does not

tolerate his son

he does not put up with his son

he is not irritated with his son

No, he is pleased with his son

And in our union with him, he is pleased with us

He does not just tolerate us

He does not just put up with us

He is not irritated with us

He doesn’t withhold his affections for you until you get your act together

He doesn’t love you more because you had a “good day”

He doesn’t love you less because you had a “bad day”

He loves you and he is pleased with you because he loves and is pleased with his son!

Your baptism doesn’t serve to show you a reminder of your righteousness but rather it serves to show as a reminder of HIS righteousness

The final picture I want us to see today in baptism is the picture of resurrection

Back to Romans 6

Romans 6:5 “For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.”

Not only future physical resurrection but now to walk in newness of life

We see that we have been cleansed from all of our sins and been given a good conscience.

And we see that we have died and have been buried

But we also see pictured in our baptism, that we don’t stay buried

Of the great glorious things we have seen of Christ thus far…

His perfect righteous life

His taking on of our sin and washing us by his blood

His sacrificial death

All of it is for nothing if he stays dead.

Paul says we(christians) of all people should be pitied if he did not raise.

He says our faith is in vain and our preaching in vain if Christ has not been raised

But praise be to God, church that Jesus Christ is risen from the grave

That tomb is empty

Sin has been defeated

Death has died

The serpent has been crushed

Christ is raised in Glory!

And our baptism, church, displays this beautiful reality.

That while you were sitting in those waters. You were taken down under the water. You stopped breathing. Your eyes closed. You heard nothing. Those who looked on from the crowd lost sight of you

Like Christ, you were slid into the tomb

But then there was someone who had a hold of you. who had your had and pulled you up out of those waters

Your union with Christ by faith means that his victory over the grave is your victory over the grave. That his resurrection is your resurrection.

That sin has been defeated

That death has died

That the serpent has been crushed

And that you will be raised in victory to behold the wonders of this glorious savior one day

Finally, it is a picture that in your union with Christ God has adopted you

The great commission Jesus tells us to make disciples, baptizing them in the name of the father, son, holy spirit

See your baptism is actually a naming ceremony. When you are baptized into the name of the father son and spirit, it is your public declaration of adoption into a new family.

Going into the waters of baptism in the name of God is actually God’s declaration over you. It is his declaring to the world “that one is mine”

And God can stamp his name on you and declare ownership over you without taking his own name in vain because of the work of Christ. Left to yourself, God would not associate himself with evil, yet in Christ’s righteousness, he delights to adopt you, to claim you, and to speak over you as he did Jesus, This is mine, who I am well pleased

And what God has claimed to be his, he will never let go. His will hold you, he will keep you. We remember our baptism to remember that God has brought us into his family and calls us sons

Why this matters

Yes baptism is an act of obedience to Christ

Yes baptism is a public display and entry into the visible church

But let us not forget that baptism is a means of grace in our lives

I asked you how often you thought about your baptism, and the reason I did that is because the NT writers seem to continually remind us of ours. And they do that to show us how it is that God pours out his grace on us through the sacrament of baptism

This matters because baptism will encourage us and remind us of God’s faithfulness

To remember ours and witness others will do a work to stir our affections and strengthen our faith

On our wedding day, we say our vows and place a ring as a symbol of love and commitment on our fingers. And then life happens, and what was a glorious day has been beat down by the waves of life into a distant memory. But it is on reflecting on that day, that you can remember the great joy that it was and remember your covenant.

In a similar way, we can recall our baptism. Where perhaps we have grown stagnant, the sediment of our hearts has settled. We have experienced loss and disappointment and heartbreak and in it we have forgotten our first love Jesus Christ. Remember your baptism, remember what it signifies, and God’s grace can stir your affections for him and strengthen your faith in times of trouble

Give us assurance

Our assurance is not based on anything of our own doing but on all of Christs doing

Christ has died

Christ has been buried

Christ has risen victoriously

Our baptism is a reminder that in God’s raising of his son he will raise us on the last day

Points us to Christ

We are not the main characters in our baptism. Jesus is

We have been baptized into Christ Jesus

Into HIS death

buried WITH him

As CHRIST was raised

United WITH HIM

Crucified WITH HIM

Died WITH CHRIST

live WITH HIM

So Church, remember your baptism, not to remember you and what you have done, but to see Jesus Christ

To see a visible gospel picture

That we have died with Christ

That we have been buried with Christ

That have been raised with Christ

That we have been cleansed by Christ

That we have been named by Christ

That we will be kept by Christ

So when trials call your name

When temptation comes looking

When your heart has grown cold

When you feel you dont have the strength

Remember those waters, not because they can save your help you.

But because they point to the one who has and who will