Sermon Tone Analysis

/For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith — and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God — not by works, so that no one can boast.

For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do/.

Baptists are Baptist because…?

Is there an answer to be found for that question?

Do you know what makes us Baptists?

What distinguishes us from all other denominations?

If we say we are Baptist because we immerse, what shall we say of many other denominations and movements which also baptise by immersion.

Jehovah’s Witnesses baptise by immersion, as do most other cults, many evangelical movements of recent vintage, and most Pentecostal groups.

Even Luther and Calvin acknowledge that immersion was the ancient mode of baptism and did not speak vigorously against the practise.

Obviously, logic would lead us to say that baptism by immersion is not the distinguishing mark of Baptist people.

Perhaps it is our insistence upon believer’s baptism which distinguishes us?

However, virtually all churches which require or practise baptism by immersion, with the possible exception of Orthodox churches, require a credible verbal confession acceptable to the particular religious group from those who would be baptised.

Again, virtually all ecclesiastical historians are in agreement that the ancient church restricted baptism to those individuals of mature age.

There must be a doctrine which distinguishes.

Catholics are generally distinguished by allegiance to papal authority, but they are especially marked out by their allegiance to the ever-evolving traditions of that church.

Anglicans are distinguished by their claim to apostolic succession through the English churches.

Presbyterians are distinguished by their insistence upon adherence to the Westminster Confession, especially as it develops around covenant theology and their great cry of Sola Fides and Sola Scriptura.

Methodists trace their roots to the Anglican Church and distinguish themselves by the methodical study of Scripture.

All contemporary denominations, save one, would accept that they have roots within Mother Church – the Roman Catholic Organisation.

Baptists stand alone in insisting that throughout history are found churches which, regardless of name assigned, held to one great doctrine which distinguished them from the hierarchical connection to Rome.

I sometimes remind people that in the Gospels they will meet John the Baptist.

You will never read of John the Anglican.

You will never read of John the Presbyterian, John the Catholic, or John the Methodist.

John was identified by an action, but it was a doctrine which distinguished him.

We who wear His name do so by accident and not by design, though we, like him, are identified by an act and distinguished by a truth.

We Baptists did not choose the name we wear; it was given us by those fundamentally opposed to our insistence upon one great doctrine.

Just as the first saints were called /Christians/ in derision [cf.

*Acts 11:26*], so Baptists received their name in mockery.

Those pædobaptists associated with the various European State religions – Catholics, Lutherans, Presbyterians and Anglicans, were enemies of those who refused to receive an imposed salvation.

Because they were said to rebaptise, the pædobaptists called them rebaptisers – Anabaptists.

They did not actually rebaptise – they baptised.

Anabaptist was in time shortened to Baptist, the name by which we are now known.

No one should ever apologise for holding to Baptist convictions.

The name we bear is an honourable one distinguished by adherence to biblical truth.

By the same token, I caution that no one should assume that the name *Baptist* is divine … that somehow there is merit in bearing that honourable name.

It is not the name which is important; the doctrine which distinguishes is vital, however, for it is that doctrine which is central to the Faith once delivered to the saints.

*/Statement of the Doctrine/* — In theological terms, the doctrine which distinguishes us as Baptists is usually referred to as the */Priesthood of the Believer/*.

Properly understood, this doctrine imposes responsibility and accountability before God upon each person.

Remember that in Old Testament theology and under the Law of Moses, the priests of God were responsible for the services in the Tabernacle and in the Temple.

Those priests fulfilled two great functions – representing man to God and representing God to man.

They fulfilled these tasks through the presentation of prayers and offerings to fulfil the Law and through presenting the Word of the Lord to worshippers.

The priests functioned as a bridge between man and God.

This is the role of a priest.

We have each no doubt read Peter’s words concerning our ministry which are presented in his first epistle general.

We acknowledge that those words must be true and inspired of God, but we are likely to be uncomfortable with the responsibility imposed by those same words.

The reason for our discomfort is that the heart of the doctrine of the */Priesthood of the Believer/* is imposed upon us through those stunning words.

Consider again the words which are written in *1 Peter 2:4-10*.

/As you come to him, the living Stone — rejected by men but chosen by God and precious to him — you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.

For in Scripture it says/:

/“See, I lay a stone in Zion,/

/a chosen and precious cornerstone,/

/and the one who trusts in him/

/will never be put to shame.”/

/Now to you who believe, this stone is precious.

But to those who do not believe,/

/“The stone the builders rejected/

/has become the capstone,”/

/and,/

/“A stone that causes men to stumble/

/and a rock that makes them fall.”/

/They stumble because they disobey the message — which is also what they were destined for/.

/But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.

Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy/.

There is no division of the people of God when it comes to the divine designation.

We are each divinely designated as priests of God.

This is tragically taken by some who are given to self-glorification to mean that we may each be set apart to holy orders.

The point is not that we are each liable to ordination, but it does mean that each Christian stands complete before God to plead for mankind and to answer for himself or herself.

Each Christian is capable of offering /to God a sacrifice of praise —/ /the fruit of lips that confess His Name/ [*Hebrews 13:15*].

Among the Psalms is one which exemplifies this sacrifice which is so pleasing to the Lord our God.

Turn to *Psalm 54:6,7* and read.

/I will sacrifice a freewill offering to you; /

/I will praise your name, O LORD, /

/for it is good.

/

/For he has delivered me from all my troubles, /

/and my eyes have looked in triumph on my foes/.

The Psalmist is saying that his sacrifice to God is praise to His Name.

It was a freewill offering presented because God has delivered him from all his troubles.

In the same way, we, when we confess His goodness and His glory, are functioning as priests of God to offer a sacrifice of praise.

Having received mercy and having become a people marked out as belonging to God, we are now responsible to represent His interests in the world in which we live.

This is precisely the argument which the Apostle Paul presents in *2 Corinthians 5:11-21*.

/Since, then, we know what it is to fear the Lord, we try to persuade men.

What we are is plain to God, and I hope it is also plain to your conscience.

We are not trying to commend ourselves to you again, but are giving you an opportunity to take pride in us, so that you can answer those who take pride in what is seen rather than in what is in the heart.

If we are out of our mind, it is for the sake of God; if we are in our right mind, it is for you.

For Christ’s love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died.

And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again/.

/So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view.

Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer.

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!

All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men’s sins against them.

And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation.

We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us.

We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God.  God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God/.

So we are priests of God and each believer has part in this priesthood.

We also know something of the role we are responsible to play as priests of God.

This all began at the cross where an amazing event transpired which is altogether too easily ignored.

The Gospels present the fact that the curtain of the Temple was torn in two.

Read *Matthew 27:50,51* with me.

/When Jesus had cried out again in a loud voice, he gave up his spirit/.

/At that moment the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom/.