The Way Through Death

Good morning. We have a lot of friends and family here to witness their loved ones getting baptized.

Now I have entitled the message the way through death, not the way around death. That is very key today. Because as the author Hebrews tells us that it is appointed for man to die once and then comes the judgment.

Have you ever wondered why people get baptised in Christianity. I have to qualify that because people get baptised in other religions and cults. But why do we baptise in Christianity?

Some will say well because Jesus Commanded it. Yes that would be true. Certainly that is true. After Jesus got up out of the grave, having put his foot on Satans neck and taking the keys to death and hell. He gave the command of His disciples that is commanded now of all disciples

Matthew 28:19–20 ESV

19 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

Matthew 28

GO

Notice that action word… Go..... Did you know that there is nothing, I mean nothing that can stop the Christian full of the Holy Spirit. Did you know that after the ressurection in the New Testament there is not one hinderance to the gospel being proclaimed with great power. Did you know that God chose 12 men from the bottom of the barrell to change the course of human hiostory. They were persecuted they rejoiced. When they were killed their blood baptised their message that reproduced seed for the gospel. They had the strogest military superpower that the world had ever know, the Roman Empire, which by the way lasted in one form or another for 1500 years.... But you know what the Roman Empire is dead, and the gospel is still gaining steam. Millions of people yearly are coming to faith in Jesus Christ. His Kingdom is an ever lasting Kingdom that infiltrates every other Kingdom of Man. Always have and always will until they are no more!!

Did you know that in the last few years that there have been thousands of Muslims coming to faith in Jesus Christ right in the heart of Iran. One of the stricted countries in the world. Did you know that the ghospel has spread like wildfire in China since the 80’s when there were only a couple hundred maybe in the whole country, and now theere are millions. God is still moving people. And all you have to do is make up your mind who you want to serve, as for me and my House we are going to serve the Lord.

MAKE DISCIPLES

NOW THIS IS THE HARD PART… This is the part that many miss. Don’t confuse attending church every once in a while with being a disciple! Don’t confuse saying God Bless you at the star Bucks drive through as being a disciple. Don’t confuse casual bible reading and saying your repetitive, mindless prayers at night with being a disciple! Don’t confuse being a fan with being a disciple Being a disciple is so much more than this, and so many of God’s promises hinge on you being a disciple. We want the abundant life, but we don’t like taking up the cross. The two are wed in holy matrimony. Through death I find life. But if I try to hold on to life all I will find is death.

Luke 9:23 ESV

23 And he said to all, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.

Luke

Listen what Adrian Rogers wrote about the abundant Life

Now, what is abundant life? Well, abundant life is life where all of your needs are being met. But more than that, abundant life is where you have enough to bless others. Not only do you receive a blessing, but you are a blessing. And the abundant life that Jesus was talking about there was not just life out yonder in the future in the sweet by-and-by. It is abundant life right now in the nasty now-and-now. I mean, everyday, every way, in all things, we are to be having victory in and through the Lord Jesus Christ.

Jesus came to add years to our life, and life to our years—that we might have life and that we might have it abundantly

Adrian Rogers Sermon Archive II. There Is a Price to Pay

There Is a Price to Pay

We all want the abundant life. We all want to be set free… but those promises belong to disciples

John 8:31–32 ESV

31 So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed him, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, 32 and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”

John 8:31

Who do the promises belong too? They belong to the disciples… Abiding in His Word? Whose word? the Word of Jesus Christ, and then Abideing in the Word, showng yourself a disciple, that leads to a knowledge of the truth, and that truth leads to a release, to a freedom… Freedom from what?

Freedom from sin, freedom from fear, freedom from your enemies, freedom from the power of death....

Let me give you 4 markers of a disciple? First

There is a Person to Please

Being a Disciple means pursing a person, and that person is jesus Christ

Luke 9:23–27 ESV

23 And he said to all, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. 24 For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it. 25 For what does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses or forfeits himself? 26 For whoever is ashamed of me and of my words, of him will the Son of Man be ashamed when he comes in his glory and the glory of the Father and of the holy angels. 27 But I tell you truly, there are some standing here who will not taste death until they see the kingdom of God.”

Luke 9:23-

Adrian Rogers Sermon Archive II. There Is a Price to Pay

There Is a Price to Pay

Adrian Rogers Sermon Archive I. There Is a Person to Please

John Calvin, who was the one of the greatest theologians who ever lived, said: “I gave up all for Christ, and what have I found? I have found everything in Christ.”

Adrian Rogers Sermon Archive I. There Is a Person to Please

John Calvin, who was the one of the greatest theologians who ever lived, said: “I gave up all for Christ, and what have I found? I have found everything in Christ.”

There Is a Price to Pay

We are living in a microwave ready type of society and

The Cost

But, friend, there is a Gethsemane. And if you’re looking for a cheap way; if you’re looking for an easy way; if you’re looking for a lazy way to serve the Lord Jesus Christ, forget it. The sainted Samuel Rutherford said this: “It is folly to think that we shall steal to heaven with a whole skin”—“It is folly to think that we shall steal to heaven with a whole skin.”

A missionary was asked, “Do you like this work that you’re doing?” And do you know what the missionary said? He said, “No, I don’t like the work I’m doing. My wife and I don’t like dirt. We have reasonably refined sensibilities. We don’t like crawling into vile huts through goat refuse. We don’t like associating with ignorant, filthy, and brutish people.” But then the missionary said this: “Is a man to do nothing for Christ that he does not like? God pity such a one. Liking or disliking has nothing to do with it. We have orders to go, and therefore we must go. Love constrains us.”

Adrian Rogers Sermon Archive C. He Forsook Possessions

Wilbur Chapman, who was a strong and a godly evangelist, was holding a conversation with William Booth, who was the founder of the Salvation Army. And Wilbur Chapman looked into the piercing eyes and rugged face of this giant for God, General Booth. And he said, “General Booth, what is the secret of your power? And what is the secret of your success?” And brushing the hair from his brow that revealed those furrows that were put there through years of toil and years of battles and trials and victories, General Booth said to Wilbur Chapman, “I will tell you the secret: God has had all there was of me to have. There have been men of greater opportunity, but from the day I caught a vision of what Jesus Christ could do, I gave all to Him.”

There is a Program to Pursue

Now are you ready for the meat and Potatoes. Can I give you some meat

The Importance of Baptism

Rogers, A. (2017). The Design for Discipleship. In Adrian Rogers Sermon Archive (). Signal Hill, CA: Rogers Family Trust.

Rogers, A. (2017). The Design for Discipleship. In Adrian Rogers Sermon Archive (). Signal Hill, CA: Rogers Family Trust.

elements of the Sermon

Matthew 28:19–20 ESV

19 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

Matthew 28

Now here Jesus commands us to Baptise in the Name of the Father, the Son, And the Holy Spirit. Not names of the Father the Son and the holy Spirit. But name of The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. You see because this God we serve is one. One in Essence, one in heart, one is power. But what is it about baptism? I mean do we just do it because we need something to do? Like level two commitment stuff after a person gets saved?

And the Second person of this Triune God, this God that is 3 in persons but one in life, one in essence was sent on a rescue mission. God always had a plan, Even when He knew that sin would dominate his entire universe. He had a plan, to prove His love once and for all to a race of people that were woefully lost and blinded by their Sin.

IT PICTURES THE GOSPEL

Why is Baptism so important? Because it is a picture of the Gospel. What is the Gospel? The gospel is the Son of God became a part of His own creation. He became 100% man

English Standard Version Chapter 2

14 Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook of the same things, that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil, 15 and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery

The He in this passage is Jesus . Jesus partook of the same things, what the infinite, Almighty, All powerful only begotten Son, took up residence in a body of flesh and blood.

Second part of the Gospel… He died? Why because that was the end of the road for all of us. Because sin leads to death.. Back to verse 14.... That through death He might destroy the one who had the power of death, the devil.

How did He do that. He took the venom of sin on the cross. Died, but then ressurectted from the dead. And that is what baptism pictures. It pictures the death burial and ressurection of Jesus Christ.

The water is a picture of the grave. It is a picture of the flow of deadly judgment that has flowed to every one since Adam. All in Adam die.

wATER IS OFTEN USED AS A SYMBOL OF JUDGEMENT. IN NOAH'S TIME THE WATERS THAT FLOODED THE EARTH WERE JUDGMENT WATERS. WHEN ISRAEL CAME OUT OF EGYPT, GOD SPLIT THE RED SEA, BUT THE EGYPTIIANS WHO WERE TRAILING THEM WERE DESTROYED BY WATER.

LAST WEEK WE STUDIED THE BOOK OF JOSHUA 3

WHICH IS ALSO A PICTURE OF THE WORK OF CHRIST.

THE ARK REPRESENTED CHRIST, AND AS SOON AS THE ARK HIT THE WATERS OF THE JORDAN, IT SAYS THAT THE WATERS THAT FLOWED TO DEATH, THE DEAD SEA WERE CUT OFF, AND BECAUSE RIVERS FLOW ONE WAY, THE WATERS ROSE IN A HIGH HEAP ALL THE WAY BACK TO THE CITY OF ADAM. FRIEND THE FLOW OF JUDGMENT AND CONDEMNATION HAS FLOWED VERY STRONG SINCE ADAM, BUT IN CHRIST THEY ARE CUT OFF AT THE VERY SOURCE

If you were here last week We were in Joshua chapter 3 when the children of Israel are about to enbter into the promised Land, but the problem was there was a rivewr that was standing in their way. And they had to cross this river with probably millions of people, all their belonging. And God gives them a crazy pan. He tells the priests to take the Ark of the Covenant, which I showed you last week was a picture , a symbol of Jesus Christ. From its contents to its construction it was a symbol of the Lord jesus Christ.

And the river also had a deeper meaning. It separated God’s people from their Promised Land. And as the author of Hebrews tells us, that that Promised Land is a symbol of the abundant life of Jesus Christ.

Joshua 3:16 ESV

16 the waters coming down from above stood and rose up in a heap very far away, at Adam, the city that is beside Zarethan, and those flowing down toward the Sea of the Arabah, the Salt Sea, were completely cut off. And the people passed over opposite Jericho.

John 3:16 ESV

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.

Matthew 3:13–17 ESV

13 Then Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to John, to be baptized by him. 14 John would have prevented him, saying, “I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?” 15 But Jesus answered him, “Let it be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.” Then he consented. 16 And when Jesus was baptized, immediately he went up from the water, and behold, the heavens were opened to him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and coming to rest on him; 17 and behold, a voice from heaven said, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.”

Matthew 3

Now question why was Jesus baptised. Many think that baptism washes the sins of people off. Theres actually a denomination that teaches that. But why would Jesus be baptised? he was baptised, because he was identifying with his own people.

What does Baptism Picture? It is a picture of the gospel.

What does Baptism Picture? It is a picture of the gospel.

WHY BAPTISM? BECAUSE IT PICTURES THE GOSPEL. THAT IN ADAM ALL DIE. BUT IN CHRIST WE SHALL LIVE. NOT ONLY IN THE SWEET BY AND BY, BUT IN THE NASTY NOW AND NOW. JESUS SAVES AND HE SAVES COMPLETELY

That in Adam we are all going to die. Not only physically but spiritually everyone is born into this world a spiritual stillborn. Man was created with glory in the begining, but that glory was turned to shame when Adam transgressed God’s command. But the Bible speaks of another Adam.

Romans 6:4 ESV

4 We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.

AND I TOLD YOU LAST WEEK THAT THE EXACT PLACE WHERE ISRAEL CROSSED OVER THE JORDAN INTO THEIR PROMISED LAND, WAS THE EXACT SAME PLACE WHERE JESUS WOULD BE BAPTISED.

Now think about this? Why was Jesus baptised? He did not need cleasing from sin. John the Baptist, the one how baptised Jesus was confused by his baptism too. Let me tell you why? He was so becoming identifyed with His people. That before he went to the cross he gave us this symbolic example.

hAVE YOU EVER WONDERED WHY JESUS WAS BAPTISED

And when Jesus went into that river of death, he went in for us.

Crossing the Jordan River- At the very place that Jesus was baptised

Why was Jesus baptised?

Wasn’t for the washing a way of sins

if the River symbolized judgment. Remember it was flowing from Adam all the way to death, the dead sea.

The condemnation that flowed from the veins of Adam to the grave.. Jesus was the one that stopped that judgment

Chew on this thing of Jesus being made perfect through suffering, being made a perfect high priest, and the fact that the Priests were the ones that entered into the water

English Standard Version Chapter 2

14 Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook of the same things, that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil, 15 and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery. 16 For surely it is not angels that he helps, but he helps the offspring of Abraham. 17 Therefore he had to be made like his brothers in every respect, so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people. 18 For because he himself has suffered when tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted.

English Standard Version Chapter 10

10 For since the law has but a shadow of the good things to come instead of the true form of these realities, it can never, by the same sacrifices that are continually offered every year, make perfect those who draw near. 2 Otherwise, would they not have ceased to be offered, since the worshipers, having once been cleansed, would no longer have any consciousness of sins? 3 But in these sacrifices there is a reminder of sins every year. 4 For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.