Baptism

The Foundation of Christian Baptism

Acts chapter 2 from verse 37:

Now when they heard this, they were pricked in their heart and said unto Peter and the rest of the apostles, brethren, what shall we do? And Peter said unto them, Repent ye and be baptised, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ, unto the remission of your sins: and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For to you is the promise, and to your children, to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call unto Him. And with many other words he testified and exhorted them, saying, save yourselves from this crooked generation. They then that received his word were baptised, and there were added unto them in that day about 3,000 souls. And they continued steadfastly in the apostles' teaching and fellowship, in the breaking of bread and of prayers.

And then if you will turn to Romans 6, Romans 6:1:

What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? God forbid. We who died to sin, how shall we any longer live therein?

Or are ye ignorant? As all who were baptised into Christ Jesus were baptised into His death, we were buried therefore with Him through baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we also might walk in newness of life. For if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, we shall be also in the likeness of His resurrection. Knowing this that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away, that so we should no longer be in bondage to sin, for he that hath died is justified from sin. But if we died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him, knowing that Christ being raised from the dead, dieth no more death, no more hath dominion over Him. For the death that He died, He died unto sin once, but the life that He liveth, He liveth unto God. Even so, reckon ye also yourselves to be dead unto sin, but alive unto God in Christ Jesus.

Now, in very briefly saying a few words about the meaning and significance of baptism, I will not say anything in the way of introduction to save time. There are just three things about baptism that I'd just like to share with you, and especially those who are going to be baptised.

Baptism as Public Testimony to Personal Experience

First of all, baptism is a glorious and public testimony to an inward and personal experience of the Lord Jesus. I'll say that again. Baptism is a glorious and public testimony to an inward and personal experience.

The Biblical Pattern of Believers' Baptism

Now, of course, we live in a kind of society which certainly on our side of the Atlantic, a large number have been christened or baptised as babies and therefore believe that they have been baptised. Now all I want to say is this, that taking the Word of God, we cannot find one single example, clear cut example of a baby being baptised. In fact, we cannot find a single clear cut example of the baptism that the apostles and early church practised to do with anyone who was not saved.

There is no such thing as I see it in the Word of God as baptism by proxy. In other words, you baptise a child in faith that that child will become a believer. There are many varieties of teaching about child baptism and it will take us far too long to go into it. There is the one teaching that by baptising children they are saved, they are actually born again through being baptised. And then there is a second teaching which has a lot more to be said for it and is a little more difficult to answer, that the children of Christian parents by baptism are introduced into the covenant circle of God's people.

Now all I can say is this. In the short few moments we have, we have no clear cut example, not a single clear cut example of anyone being baptised before they had come to a personal knowledge of the Lord Jesus. Nor have we got a single command, even a statement of the Word of God which is explicit in referring to children that they should be baptised. In other words, the practice has to be based upon inference.

We have to say that when the Philippian jailer was baptised and all his household, there must have been little babies there. When Lydia was baptised and the household, there must have been babies there. We have to somehow do, in my estimation, injustice to the Scripture and take this thing about the promise being to you and to your children and somehow from this infer that the promise to the children means that if the grown ups are baptised, the children should be baptised as well, because they're the children of the grown ups, you understand?

New Testament Evidence for Confession-Based Baptism

Now on the other hand, let us be quite clear about this. We have many examples of the baptism of those who've had a saving experience of the Lord Jesus. In fact, we can be on very strong clear ground here. Everywhere we look in the New Testament where we find people being baptised, they have come to know the Lord Jesus and almost immediately they're baptised on profession of their faith. 3,000 here. We have Lydia, whose heart the Lord opened. We have the Philippian jailer and his family who were so gloriously saved. We have many other examples of those who once they came to saving faith in the Lord Jesus Christ were baptised.

In other words, it is those who've been born again who are able in the waters of baptism to give glorious and public testimony, not only to the world, but to the invisible world, that they have come to saving faith in the Lord Jesus. Now, it doesn't matter how ignorant you are, how poor you are, how weak you are, how unworthy you are, if you have had a saving experience, and it is an if, if you have had a saving experience of the Lord Jesus Christ, you are qualified for baptism.

Immediacy of Baptism in the Early Church

In the early church, they baptised them almost immediately. They had no sooner received the Lord Jesus than they were sort of in the water being baptised. A little later on in the church, they were taking a little more time, probably because they found it was better to have a little bit of instruction. And indeed, by the end of the first century, we find from tradition, church tradition, that incredible things were asked of those who were being baptised. Before they were baptised, they had to be ready publicly to declare that they were prepared to be martyred. They were prepared to lay down their lives for the Lord Jesus Christ. And it was on that profession that they were baptised.

But the point is that it is a glorious and public testimony of an inward and personal experience of the Lord Jesus. Now, if you've had that, if you've only just tasted Him, you've only just put your trust in Him. Your eyes have only just been open to Him. You don't see everything. You just see a little. Well, you are qualified for baptism. Don't wait or you'll wait forever.

The Ongoing Significance of Baptismal Testimony

I wish I could be baptised again. Oh, I'd join those, all those folks. I'd love to get back in the waters of baptism again. I feel now I know something, but it's very silly. When I was baptised, the only reason I got baptised was that I understood it was a command of the Lord Jesus, and I wanted to obey Him. And that's all I knew about baptism. In actual fact, it meant infinitely more than I could have possibly understood at that point. But I got that done. Since then, by the grace of God, step by step, stage by stage, I've come into an understanding of what my baptism means. So I understand when the Apostle Paul says, know you not that all of you who were baptised were baptised [into Christ]? I think, oh, I didn't know, but I do now.

You understand? In other words, when you get baptised, you are really giving testimony to what is going to be a lifetime of experience. You are giving testimony to something which goes right back 2,000 years and goes right on into eternity. You are really giving testimony to something which is cosmic, universal in its significance. And by the grace of God, you've been brought into it. Isn't that wonderful?

Now, if you say, well, I must wait until I know the Lord better, I can tell you this. The nearer you get to the Lord, the more you will feel you don't know Him. So if you say, I'll wait till I get to know the Lord better, you're going to wait a long, long time. You know, the apostle Paul wrote a letter some years before he was martyred, and he called himself the least of all saints. But just before he died, he wrote another letter and he called himself the chief of all sinners. So isn't that interesting? He went so far with the Lord and said, I'm the least of all saints. He went a good deal farther, right near to seeing the Lord, and he said, I'm the chief of all sinners. Though I think there's a slight difference between being the least of all saints and the chief of all sinners. But isn't that interesting that the nearer he got to the Lord and the more he saw of the Lord, the more he pressed on with the Lord, the more he knew that he was unworthy and that really he had so little understanding of the Lord. So don't wait till you understand the Lord very fully and well before you get baptised. You get baptised because you have tasted of the salvation of God.

Circumcision and Baptism—The Relationship

That's the first thing. Now, one other little point on this, very quickly. People sometimes say about covenant baptism, that is, those who had Christian parents, who had them christened or baptised, sprinkled when they were babies, that it corresponds to Colossians, chapter 2, verse 11 and 12:

In whom ye were also circumcised with a circumcision not made with hands, in the putting off of the body of the flesh in the circumcision of Christ, having been buried with Him in baptism, wherein you were also raised with Him through faith in the working of God, who raised Him from the dead.

Now, they say that baptism corresponds to circumcision. And circumcision was a boy was circumcised eight days after he was born under the old covenant. So they say babies of Christians should be baptised. And in the good old days they used to do it eight days after they were born, as soon afterwards as possible.

But you see, this is a misunderstanding. You see, circumcision follows birth into the family of God, and baptism follows birth into the family of God. Now do you get it? See? Just as one was a physical birth into a physical covenant people, so the other is a spiritual birth into the spiritual and eternal family of God. So baptism does follow birth, but it doesn't follow your natural birth. It follows your spiritual birth. If you've been born again, then you are qualified to be baptised.

Baptism as Testimony to Calvary

Now the second thing about baptism is this. It is perfectly true, it is an obedience to a command. But I think it's very sad if we think of baptism simply as a rite. It is a rite. I mean, it's no good saying it's not a rite. There's a bit of ritual in it. Everyone is baptised the same way, or should be. I mean, they all go under the water and come up from under the water. Do you understand? That's a little bit of ritual. We don't put someone in head first and take them out, or put them in horizontally. I mean, there's a certain little bit of ceremony or ritual. So it is a rite. But if it is only a rite, it's very sad. Now it is an ordinance. What is an ordinance? An ordinance is something ordered, something commanded. But if it is only something ordered, it's very sad. It's a testimony. Now you can only give a testimony if it's inside of you. Got it?

The Symbolism of Death, Burial, and Resurrection

Now what is it a testimony of? Here's the second thing. It is a setting forth of Calvary. We have that in Romans, chapter six, Death, burial, resurrection. And those waters of baptism are a symbol of death. And when a person goes down into the waters and they are baptised into the water, that is, they go into the water. That is a picture of being crucified with Christ, dying with Christ. And when they're under the water, that is a picture that they are buried with Christ. And when they're raised from the water, that is a picture that they've been raised with Christ.

Satan's Opposition to Baptism

So you see you have the most wonderful testament. No wonder the devil hates baptism. No wonder. I remember that in Egypt when the Muslims used to find the Lord, the one thing the devil hated, they could find the Lord Jesus and be saved and even talk about Him, and they were accepted. But the moment they were baptised, they were poisoned or murdered. Of all those who found the Lord when I was in Egypt for two years, I think just under two thirds, just over half were murdered.

There is one boy to this day who is in a mental home in Shabin al Karnata, brilliant young man in university in Cairo whose parents put poison into his food to destroy his mind when he got that baptised. They would rather him be mental and be able to say, well, he was going mental when the Christians got him. You cannot believe the hatred of Satan for baptism.

The Power of Baptismal Testimony

Why? Why does he hate a bit of water? There's nothing magical in the water. It was Charles Haddon Spurgeon, that great Baptist preacher, who said, you can be baptised all the way from Land's End to New England, right across the Atlantic. And all that will happen, if you haven't got saving faith, is you'll get wet. There's nothing magical about the water. So what is it that Satan hates? Does he hate the fact of something being said in the name of Jesus? But sometimes the name of Jesus can be given to a number of things that don't mean anything. And it doesn't bother Satan.

What is it that Satan hates? He hates real baptism. Because real baptism is a testimony to Calvary. And Calvary is the end of Satan and his power. And the moment he sees those waters of baptism and a real testimony in those waters of those who found the Lord Jesus being, as it were, baptised, going into the water, under the water, out of the water. And he knows very well that it is a testimony to the fact that they are dead with Christ, buried with Christ and raised with Christ. He hates it.

The Exclusive Way of Salvation

Now, it is a marvellous thing. There is no other way apart from Christ to really get to know the salvation of God. Isn't that true? There was no other way for you to be saved. No other way for me to be saved. The only way I could be saved was through the death and burial and resurrection of the Lord Jesus. Right?

And if He is your salvation, then you give testimony. But you give testimony for much more than that. It's not just that you got forgiveness of sins. There was no other way for you to have forgiveness of sins than by His death and burial and resurrection. There was no other way for you to know union with Him than by His death and burial and resurrection. And there is no other way for you to be glorified than by His death and burial and resurrection. Do you understand?

The Parable of the Buried Cat

A sister told me such a funny story this morning. I suppose I shouldn't really tell you, but it comes right into this. She once heard a brother preach that when he was a boy, he had a favourite cat. It was a pet cat. He loved this cat. And the cat died. And so he said that he would bury his cat. He wouldn't let anyone else bury his cat. And he went off to bury his cat and he loved the cat so much that when he buried the cat, he buried it with its tail out of the ground. And then every day he went down and pulled it up.

Now, it's a horrifying story, isn't it? Because every day the cat stunk a bit more. And this old brother said, this is what we do. You know, we've not really seen that we're crucified with Christ, but it really is done. So we try to be, but every day we go to pull up the old man to see how he's doing. You know what I mean? We have a look at him and he looks more dead than ever, but he's half dead, if you know what I mean. He's not gone, he's not been buried.

The Completeness of God's Work

Now, when you bury something, you put it out of sight, so the Lord has really done this job properly. We're not only crucified with Christ, but we're buried with Christ. Now what do you do when you bury something? You put them out of sight. Tail and all, the whole lot is underground. They're gone. They're finished. They're out of sight. They're buried. But here is the wonderful thing. We are raised to walk in newness of life.

Now, when God reveals this—and I don't know whether He has, for those of you who've been baptised, but surely if you go on with Him, He will—you will begin to see this glorious thing. One of these days the Holy Spirit will shine into your heart and you will see, I am crucified with Christ. When He died, I died. When He was buried, I was buried. And when He was raised, I was raised with Him to walk in newness of life. Praise God.

The Foundation of All Spiritual Life

That's the second thing about baptism. And oh, it's wonderful when we see it like that, it is the basis of all God's dealings with you, of all the operations of His Spirit, of all His fullness and power in your life, of every gift that He will give you to exercise. The basis of all God's dealings with us, individually and corporately, is the death, burial and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. And it is our tremendous privilege in the waters of baptism to very simply give testimony to that fact.

Baptism as Testimony to the New Creation

Now, the third thing is this. It is far, far more than even that. In 2 Corinthians 5:17, we read:

Wherefore if any man is in Christ, he is a new creature: old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.

Now, that's the way this version, the American Standard Version of 1901 reads. I like the marginal variation. Wherefore, if any man is in Christ, there is a new creation. And because it is quite correct to the original, it's quite possible to say there is a new creation as much as he is a new creature.

From Introspection to Position in Christ

Now, why I like "there is a new creation" is because it stops you sort of being egocentric. You see, what happens so often is we who've found the Lord and know the Lord, we're always looking inside, where's this new creature? Bob Mumford once said a very funny thing about dying with Christ. He said in testimony, you know, I thought I had died with Christ, but I found I had only fainted.

Now, we look inside so very often, we try to reckon ourselves dead, as if it's a play acting, as if somehow or other we've got to kid ourselves, we've got to deceive ourselves, we've got to somehow impose something about something. Now you are dead, Lance, you are dead. But all the time I look in and I see, where's this new creature? I can't see him. But you know, it's a marvellous thing, If any man be in Christ, there is a new creation. In Christ, there is a new creation.

God's Division—Two Creations, Two Men

Now, you see, God divides this world into two. There is an old creation and a new creation. There is an old man and a new man. There is an old nature and a new nature. There is an old life and there's a new life. You got it? There is Adam and Christ. Now, we can't, we haven't time to go through all the scriptures, but the whole New Testament is full of it when you begin to see it.

And the wonderful thing is, if you have believed in the Lord Jesus Christ and been saved, then your position is this: you're out of the old creation and in the new creation. You're out of Adam, and you are in Christ. You are out of the old man, and you are in the new man. But you see, how did it happen? I tell you how it happened. The Lord Jesus took the old creation, the old nature, the old man, Adam, into the cross. And when He was crucified, it was crucified. And when He was buried, it was buried. And when He was raised, he was raised the new man.

The Great Transference

So when you go into the waters of baptism, you are really saying to those principalities and powers, I don't belong to the powers of darkness. I've been delivered from the powers of darkness and transferred into the kingdom of God's dear Son. A glorious transference has taken place. I've been transferred. My citizenship has been transferred. I am no longer someone that belongs to the old creation. I am in the new creation. I am no longer an inhabitant of this world. I am a sojourner and a pilgrim in this world. My citizenship is in heaven.

Now, when you go into the waters of baptism, though you may not fully understand it now, that's what you're bearing testimony to. And that's what the devil hates. And that is why the apostle Peter referred to it as being like Noah's Ark. He said baptism corresponds to Noah's Ark in which eight people were saved.

The Ark as Type of Christ

What was Noah's Ark? It was an ark that was carrying eight people from an old creation to a new creation, from an old world to a new world, from an old man to a new man. From one order that was under judgement, to one order that was under blessing. Are you in that ark? The ark is the Lord Jesus. Blessed be God. He is the ark of God. And in Him we have gone into death. And in Him we have been buried. And in Him we've been raised to walk in newness of life.

Conclusion—The Eternal Significance of Baptism

Now you understand what I mean? That baptism is really a testimony to a lifetime experience, something God did some 2,000 years ago in His Son, and which is eternal in its influence and significance. And here you are, a little bit of clay. And here I am, a little bit of clay, living in the 20th century. And we go into those waters so simple, so somehow in many ways, seemingly insignificant. And what we're really doing is we're bearing testimony to something which lies at the centre of the whole of this universe. The death and burial and resurrection of the Lord Jesus. Praise God.

You won't understand all that when you get baptised, but at least you do know that you belong to Him and you're in Him and you're with Him, blessed be His name.