Why We are Baptists (Part 1)

To the Ruled Church podcast.

Christ the King and the Church’s Mission

This is my beloved son, with whom I am well pleased. He is honored, and I get the glory. And by the way, it's even better, because you see that building in Perryville, Arkansas? You see that one in Pechote, Mexico?

Do you see that one in Tuxla, Guterres, down there in Chiapas? That building has my son's name on it.

The church is not a democracy.

It's a monarchy.

Christ is king.

You can't be Christian without a local church.

You can't do anything better than to bend your knee and bow your heart, turn from your sin and repentance, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and join up with a good Bible-believing church, and spend your life serving Jesus in a local, visible congregation.

Seems like there's always a little bit of controversy surrounding Baptists. I guess that's part of what it means to be a Baptist. But what we wanted to do in these couple of episodes here, this one and the next one, is just lay out a case.

This is a sermon, two sermons preached by our co-host, Alan Nelson, me, on why I am a Baptist. We hope that it's helpful to those who are Baptists. We hope it's helpful to those who are not Baptists, that if you're not convinced, maybe you at least see some things from our perspective.

We hope ultimately it's honoring to our Lord Jesus, and that He would use it for His glory. Let's jump in. So I'm a Baptist because of the Bible. Would you turn in your Bibles to Ephesians chapter four?

Paul says there is one Lord, one faith, and one baptism. What I wanna do today, this morning, is I want us to be immersed in that last word, baptism. And I want to preach this week and next week on this, why I am a Baptist, from this text.

And unless you question my Baptist credentials because I didn't give you three alliterated points a second ago, I'm a Baptist because of God's providential structuring, His perspicuous Scriptures, and finally, His persevering strength.

I'm a Baptist because of God's grace. But since Paul addresses the subject of baptism in our text, I'm gonna take an opportunity to show you from the Scriptures why I'm a Baptist, and you're at a Baptist church, and so I obviously know and assume most of you are Baptists, but I wanna talk about, if not, why you should be.

And so let's read Ephesians chapter four, verses four, five, and six. We're in this great pericope, this paragraph of Paul talking about unity. So Paul says, there is one body and one spirit, just as you were called to, the one hope that belongs to your call, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all who is over all and through all and in all.

One Lord, one faith, one baptism. I am a Baptist. I'm a Baptist because of the Bible. And it's from this book that we must derive our convictions. Friends, if you're a Baptist this morning because your parents were a Baptist or your grandparents were a Baptist, I invite you to come to the Scriptures and to ground your being a Baptist not in the traditions of men, but in the word of God, the Bible.

Now, before we get to baptism, I do need to back up just a moment and I want to address this. So number one in the outline, some matters of orthodoxy. Number one, some matters of orthodoxy. Paul says, there is one Lord, one faith, one baptism.

Now, we talked about this faith last week and I need to start here again. This is the faith that was once delivered to the saints. That is, apart from this body of truth, people are not Christians. And so what I've done is, I've boiled this down to three overarching points and we're just gonna deal with these very quickly.

But I want you to hear me, that our quickness in them does not mean that they are unimportant. We're gonna cover them quickly, but it doesn't mean they're unimportant. But Paul's point here is this is a unified faith.

There are not multiple faiths. You don't get to just believe whatever you want and as long as you mention the name of Jesus, you're gonna make it to heaven. No, there is one faith. So first then, Christian orthodoxy demands an unshakable foundation.

There is one faith. Christian orthodoxy demands an unshakable foundation. What I mean is, the foundation for the faith is the inerrant, infallible, authoritative, clear, necessary, sufficient word of God.

Any group of people who claim to be Christians who abandon the scriptures are ultimately abandoning the faith. Secondly, Christian orthodoxy demands an unquestionable trinity. Number one, an unshakable foundation.

Number two, an unquestionable trinity. That is, a denial of the triune God puts one outside the Christian faith. I do not care if a group of people say that they believe the Word of God. If they deny the trinity, they are outside the Christian faith.

There is one God. We are a monotheistic religion. This one God eternally exists in three co-equal, co-eternal persons. The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. If you deny this, you're not a Christian.

Now, within the trinity, I would also add a proper understanding of Christ is necessary. He is truly God. He is truly man. Two natures. 100 man, 100 God. Two natures in one person. Christian orthodoxy demands an unshakable foundation, an unquestionable trinity, and finally, an unmistakable gospel.

The one faith includes the life, death, burial, and resurrection of Christ for our sins. But even beyond that, we also see that the only way a person is justified is by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone.

To deny any of this is to depart from the Christian faith. Friends, we are not saved by faith plus works. You are not justified by your faith plus your subsequent baptism. You are not justified by your faith and your participating in the Lord's Supper.

We are saved by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone. Listen, to deny any of this, all of the above that I've just said, is ultimately to introduce disunity into the body of Christ. And Paul is preaching about, or teaching, sorry, about unity.

He says in verse three that we're to be eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. And so he tells us in verse five that there is one Lord, one faith, one baptism. Paul is serious about orthodoxy here.

So an unmistakable, or sorry, an unshakable foundation, an unquestionable trinity, an unmistakable gospel, the scriptures, the trinity, the gospel. If these are abandoned, Christianity is abandoned. So why do I begin here?

I begin here this morning because I want to say in the strongest words possible that one does not have to be a Baptist in order to get to heaven. Now, when you get to heaven, you're gonna be a Baptist.

Let the hearer understand, right? But the point is that there are certainly various denominations out there that affirm these truths, this Christian orthodoxy, the scriptures, the trinity, and the gospel, but they get it wrong in verse five, one Lord, one faith, one baptism.

Friends, there are men that I love and that I appreciate in the present and in church history that are wrong when it comes to baptism, but we'll still see them in heaven. I am grateful they are truly born again.

I am grateful that they hold firm the faith once for all delivered to the saints. Now, why am I a Baptist though? If you could be wrong about baptism but still make it to heaven, then why am I a Baptist?

Well, I'm a Baptist first of all because Baptists affirm these orthodox truths that I just gave you. If Baptists did not affirm these truths but got it right about baptism, we should abandon being a Baptist.

But we affirm these truths. We affirm the Scriptures, the inerrant, infallible, authoritative, sufficient, clear, necessary Word of God. We affirm the trinity. There is one God in three persons. We affirm the gospel.

And we affirm justification is by grace alone through faith alone. But I'm also a Baptist because only Baptists get it right. Listen, I'm not trying to come across arrogant, but I believe what I believe because it's what the Scriptures say and only Baptists get it right when it comes to verse five.

There's one Lord, one faith, one baptism. And it is not enough for me to just get it right here or there. To the best of my ability, I long to get all of the Scriptures right and to live a life pleasing to God.

And I invite you to do that with me. You should have that mentality too. Furthermore, I would also argue that when we get something wrong in our theology, it ultimately has an adverse effect in several practical places.

So it is our responsibility then to humbly study the Scriptures, to see them brought to bear in all of our theology and in the way that we understand salvation and the church and the ordinances. So with that being said, we move now to where we left off last week and we pick up the subject of number 2 .2, believers, baptism.

Paul says there is one Lord, one faith, one baptism. We had several points last week on baptism. And so just a quick review. We had four points and I'm just gonna quickly mention them in review. First, we said a discussion.

So John Dagg writes, Paul says one Lord, one faith and one baptism as he uses the words Lord and faith in their literal senses. So he uses the word baptism in its literal sense. In other words, most commentators, John Dagg, for example, John MacArthur, R .C. Sproul, John Calvin, John Gill, will take Paul's words of one baptism to mean water baptism.

There is one ordinance of baptism, verse five. Secondly, we talked about a distinctive. All true Christians understand baptism as an ordinance of Christ and as a distinctive way that God's people are to be outwardly identified.

Thirdly, we talked about a directive. Why do we baptize? We baptize because Christ commanded it. Do you know whose ordinance baptism is? It's Christ. This is Christ's ordinance. Fourthly, we talked about a defense.

All Christians should take baptism seriously and as a Baptist church, we should especially take baptism seriously. We should know what we believe about baptism and why. So now that brings us to this morning's fifth point, a definition.

One Lord, one faith, one baptism. So what is baptism? Well, our church here, Perryville Second Baptist Church, we cooperate with the Southern Baptist Convention. We have a statement of faith our church has adopted known as the Baptist Faith and Message 2000.

In that document, our statement of faith says this. Here's how we define baptism. Christian baptism is the immersion of a believer in water in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. It is an act of obedience, symbolizing the believer's faith in a crucified, buried, and risen Savior.

The believer's death to sin, the burial of the old life, and the resurrection to walk in newness of life in Christ Jesus. It is a testimony to his faith in the final resurrection of the dead. Being a church ordinance, it is a prerequisite to the privileges of church membership and to the Lord's supper.

That's how we define baptism. That's a good, helpful, succinct statement. I want you to know that it is a statement that is in line with the Scriptures, and it is a statement in a line of a long line of Baptist people.

The 1644, for example, the 1644 First London Baptist Confession of Faith says this about baptism. Baptism is an ordinance of the New Testament given by Christ to be dispensed only upon persons professing faith.

The way and manner of the dispensing of this ordinance, the Scripture holds out to be plunging the whole body under water. It being a sign must answer the things signified, which are these, first, the washing of the whole soul in the blood of Christ.

Secondly, that the interest the saints have in the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ. Thirdly, together with a confirmation of our faith that as certainly as the body is buried under water and rises again, so certainly shall the bodies of the saints be raised by the power of Christ in the day of the resurrection to reign with Christ.

What you hear from both of those definitions is this. Baptists understand baptism as a sign and as a symbol. Water baptism is a visible sign. We've put it this way in a very succinct way. Water baptism is an outward sign of an inward reality.

Paul says there is one Lord, one faith, one baptism. We understand baptism as symbolic. Now, what I wanna do is to give you two real world analogies of symbolism. So if you say, oh, I have a hard time understanding symbolism.

No, you don't because we use symbolism all the time. I'm gonna give you two examples and then I'm gonna give you two more examples of biblical symbolism and then we're gonna get to baptism. So let me give you the first example to understand how baptism is a sign and a symbol.

Let me give you an example of symbolism in our day. When I say the word home, when I say the word home, what do you think of? Some of you, I bet, most of you probably, when I say the word home, you think of a house.

A house is a physical symbol of a home. But let's be careful. A house and a home aren't necessarily the same thing, right? You can have a physical structure called a house but not really have a home. And let's say if a tornado came through and took your house away, you could still have a home but not necessarily have a physical house.

Similarly, baptism is a physical symbol. Okay, let me give you another real world analogy. When someone burns an American flag in protest, why do you get upset? Do you get upset because you love cloth so much and you hate fire so much that you can't stand to see a flag burned?

Okay, so for example, if someone were to take out an old, if someone took an American flag and then someone else right next to them took an old cut-up T-shirt and they both burned the pieces of cloth, you wouldn't be upset by the person that burned the T-shirt, right?

It's just a piece of cloth. But the flag is just a piece of cloth too, right? I mean, if you took the flag to a lab and you tested it, there's nothing American that's gonna come out of the test, right?

It's going to test as a piece of fabric. So why do you get upset? You get upset because the flag symbolizes basically our country for all time. That flag, it's a piece of cloth, yes, but it is a symbol of freedom, of liberty, of our foundations as a country.

It's a physical symbol of something so much more. Similarly, water baptism is a physical symbol. Yes, you test it in the lab, it's H2O, but it means so much more symbolically. Now, let me give you two biblical examples of symbolism and then we'll move to baptism.

So you say, okay, yeah, there's symbolism in my day. Okay, I understand. House, home, flag, okay, I understand that. But is there any symbolism in the Bible? Yes, there are. So first, let's talk about Old Testament circumcision.

Old Testament circumcision was a physical reality, but it was also a symbol of more. I'll just name three ways real quick. First, Old Testament circumcision pointed to the reality that Abraham had a circumcised heart and that a circumcised heart was needed by all.

Secondly, circumcision was a tangible way that the physical people of God were set apart, symbolizing that they were owned by God. God had set them apart. Thirdly, it was a reminder that whoever did not keep the whole law would be cut off.

And ultimately, it reminded people, that's Genesis 17, by the way, ultimately, it reminded people of the need for a perfect seed of Abraham to redeem God's people. So we have in the Bible symbolism. We have it in circumcision.

Secondly, here's another physical symbol in the Bible. This one's a lot closer to home for our church, and that is the Lord's Supper. Here in the Lord's Supper is where we have the symbolism of the body and blood of Christ.

And here actually is where I have an issue with those who want to say baptism actually brings about our regeneration, particularly in the church of Christ set up. Because Jesus says to his disciples, this is my body.

This is my body. Take and eat. Well, you can't get any more literal than that. And yet, the church of Christ rightly understands that the bread represents the body of Christ. And the fruit of the vine represents the blood of Christ.

So the Lord's Supper is symbolic of the body and the blood of Christ. So there you have some real world symbolism. There you have some biblical symbolism. So what you need to understand is that baptism is symbolic.

It does not produce salvation. It is a symbol. And I would actually argue that both the ordinances are designed to be visible. They're designed to be touched, to be felt, to be seen. In the case of the Lord's Supper, to be tasted.

One Lord, one faith, one baptism. So we understand signs and symbols from our everyday. We understand them from the Scriptures. Baptism is not what brings about the new birth or what ultimately saves.

Baptism is a sign and symbol for believers. Now, if you want to turn in your Bibles real quick to 1 Peter 3, that's where I'm going to read from. Wanna consider 1 Peter 3, verse 21 for just a moment. 1 Peter 3, verse 21.

Peter writes this. Baptism, which corresponds to this, and he's talking about the flood and Noah and the eight people in the ark being saved. 1 Peter 3, verse 21. Baptism, which corresponds to this, now saves you.

A lot of people use this to say, see, baptism is what literally washes away our sins. But here's what Peter says. Read the whole verse. Understand it in context. Baptism, which corresponds to this, now saves you.

Not as a removal of dirt from the body, but as an appeal to God for a good conscience through the resurrection of Jesus Christ. If somebody says, well, if you're a Baptist, what do you do with 1 Peter 3, verse 21?

I say, I'm a Baptist because of verses like 1 Peter 3, verse 21, right? This is the exact Baptist position. Baptism is not about removal of dirt from the body. As if removal of dirt from the body could save us.

It cannot.

It's not about the act of the physical washing that saved you. Peter says it is the internal appeal to God. It is the internal appeal to God that we know is by His grace through the Gospel, through, Peter says, the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Thus water baptism is not what washes away one's sins and brings about the regenerating work of the Holy Spirit. And I have to say very publicly to the theologian, Cary Underwood, there is not anything in the water, right?

It's not in the water, right? That's not what it is. The physical water is not what touches our soul. In fact, William S. Breckle says it this way, a physical object cannot interact with the soul. If you think the physical object of water can cleanse your soul, you don't understand your predicament.

Your soul before God is unrighteous and filthy and depraved. And the best that we can do before God is filthy rags. And so to think that somehow dipping yourself in the physical water.

And then coming back out.

Is going to touch your soul is foolish. We need something much greater than physical water. My friend, Jeff Johnson, also talked about 1 Peter 3 .21 this way, and I thought it was a very good illustration.

I'm probably adapting it just a little bit. But suppose there's a young lady who's been captured. She lives in a foreign country. She's been captured by some wicked regime. And so we send the military over and a group of military saves her, rescues her.

And then later a reporter interviews her and says, who saved you? And she doesn't speak English very well. And she looks around and she looks at the embassy and there on top of the embassy is an American flag.

And she realizes, she remembers when she was rescued, those soldiers, they had a patch on their arm and it had the same flag that they see, that she sees above the embassy. And so when they say, who saved you?

She points to the flag. Now, does she mean that that flag came down off the embassy, went into the godless regime and pulled her out? No, that's not what she means. She points to the flag as what saved her because the flag represents the people that saved her.

Similarly, we see this in the ordinance of baptism. We also see here in 1 Peter 3, 21, that baptism is not for infants, but believers, right? Baptism, which corresponds to this now saved you not as a removal of dirt from the body, but as an appeal to God for a good conscience.

How many infants do you know making an appeal to God for a good conscience? I'll tell you right now, zero. Baptism is designed to be a sign and symbol for those born again. I would actually argue, from the Scriptures and church history, this was the early church's position.

In the Didache, which is a document, it's not Scripture, but it's a document written around 100 AD, it says this, but before the baptism, let the baptizer fast and the baptized and whatever others can.

But thou shall order the baptized to fast one or two days before. In other words, what's the teaching? It says, well, before you get baptized, make sure the one that's about to get baptized fast for a day or two before.

You're not telling infants to fast, right? So we see believers exhorted to fast before baptism, which I would also argue the early church understood, although this is debatable with some historical records, but I believe that the early church understood immersing the whole person in water as baptism.

It's interesting when you find some of the early churches, they'll discover a church, right? And they'll do an excavation and they'll find this pool, if you will, in the middle of the room for baptizing.

Listen, if you're gonna sprinkle people, you don't need a big pool, right? So I would say that baptism, even in the early church was understood, certainly in the Scriptures, but also in the early church, understood as for believers.

17th century Baptist, John Spillsbury says this, to baptize infants makes the holy ordinance of God a lying sign. Now that's strong words, but listen to what he says. To baptize infants makes the holy ordinance of God a lying sign, because none of those things can be expected in an infant, which the said ordinance holds forth or signifies in the administration thereof, which is the party's regeneration and spiritual new birth, a dying and bearing with Christ in respect of sin and arising with him in a new life to God and a confirmation of faith in the death and resurrection of Christ and a free remission of sin by the same.

None of all which can be expected in an infant. In other words, 17th century John Spillsbury says, if you try to baptize infants, you completely distort what baptism is supposed to be symbolic of, because baptism is a sign for those in the new covenant.

Again, don't forget Paul's context. Verse five, one Lord, one faith, one baptism. What is the context here? The context here is unity. Paul is teaching us here about unity, that those in the new covenant are unified because we share all these things together, but how does one get into the new covenant?

Friends, one gets into the new covenant not by a physical birth. Children, listen to this real quick. You are not in the new covenant just because you're here at church. You're not in the new covenant just because your parents are believers.

You're not in the new covenant. New covenant is not by physical birth. Rather, you enter into the new covenant by spiritual rebirth. Jeremiah, for example, says about the new covenant in Jeremiah 31, 34, and no longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, know the Lord, for they shall all know me.

Again, what? They shall all know me. Every person in the new covenant knows the Lord. There's unity there. They shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the Lord, for I will forgive their iniquity and I will remember their sin no more.

If you are in the new covenant, it means you know the Lord personally and your sins have been forgiven. In the old covenant, that was entered into by physical birth. And circumcision was a reminder of the law and its necessity of being kept.

Circumcision pointed to something that needed to happen. But in the new covenant, it's entered in by spiritual birth. And baptism is a sign and symbol pointing back to something that has already happened.

We have been born again. We have been cleansed from our sins. We know the Lord. Baptism is not a promise that maybe one day you will know the Lord. Baptism is a sign for those in the new covenant because we have come to know the Lord.

So those who sprinkle infants or those who try to use water baptism as a means of regeneration, both completely miss the point of this beautiful ordinance that the Lord has given to us. The question here for you is, are you in the new covenant?

Children, adults, you can't get there by physical birth. You can't get into the new covenant by water baptism. You must look to Christ in faith and you must trust Him. You must be born again. There is one Lord, Paul says, back in Ephesians 4, 5, one Lord, one faith, one baptism.

John Gill says of this verse, there is but one baptism, literally and properly so called, which is water baptism, and which is to be administered in one and the same way by immersion in water and on one and the same subjects, believers in Christ, and in one and the same name, the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, and to be performed but once when rightly administered.

The word baptism in our text, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, the word literally means immersion. It does not mean sprinkle and it does not mean poor. So I think that's important that this word means that.

However, let me push this too. I also think that we ought to baptize by immersion not only because literally that's what the word means, but that's a strong argument, right? That is a strong argument, this is what the word means.

So I think that we should do it because this is what the word means, but I also think that we should do it because the immersion of the whole body under the water is what shows forth the fullness of the sign and symbol of baptism.

For example, you don't show forth the symbolism of the resurrection with sprinkling. So baptism then is for those who have already received the Holy Spirit, and it's not what affects or brings about our regeneration.

Rather, baptism is something that the regenerate do. That is, those already, I'm sorry, we're not gonna baptize you. I know she's upset. I've made her upset because I've said baptism is only for believers and now I feel bad.

Baptism is for those already born again. Baptism is for those who desire to follow the Lord in believer's baptism because baptism, in the words of Sam Waldron, says that he or she is in union with Christ, is forgiven, and has cleansed them.

So think about it this way. Baptism is a dramatization of both the Gospel and our response to it. So some people think sometimes, hey, you know what we should do at church? We should watch a video. We should watch a video of Jesus dying on the cross and raising again for our sins.

That would be awesome, but I would say this, God is way ahead of you. God has given us a visible dramatization of the Gospel. You know what that is? Well, it's two ways. The Lord's Supper is one too, but we're talking about baptism.

Baptism is a visible dramatization of the Gospel.

How so?

Because in the baptism, you die.

You're buried.

You raise again. That's a picture of Christ, and it's a picture of your commitment to following Christ as your King. Okay, all of this gets me to this moment. I have eight truths about the symbolic nature of baptism, but we're not gonna get to all of them today.

But I do want us to get through three today. We'll leave the last five for tomorrow. No, next week. But you can come tomorrow and we can go through them, but next week's what I mean. But I wanna say this, that these three and the five that we're gonna do next week are crucial.

And all of this truth is why I am a Baptist. And all of this truth is why you and I both ought to care about this precious ordinance that the Lord Jesus has given us. One Lord, one faith, one baptism.

So first, resurrection. Baptism signifies resurrection. Paul says there's one Lord, one faith, one baptism. Paul connects baptism to Christ because it's intricately connected with the work and ministry of Christ.

There is one Lord. Baptism is His ordinance, but also baptism shows forth what Christ has done for us. For example, Paul says in Romans 6, 3 and 4, do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death?

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. So James Bannerman says this, the immersion in water of the person of those who are baptized is set forth as their burial with Christ in His grave because of sin.

And they're being raised again out of the water in their resurrection with Christ in His rising again from the dead because of their justification. That is an excellent statement on baptism. And James Bannerman is a paedo-baptist, or he's passed on, meaning he baptized infants.

Meaning I believe with all my heart that paedo-baptists have completely misunderstood this. In one sense, they're right about what I just read. That's right, we believe that. But then they go forth and they also try to baptize infants as members of the covenant.

What they've done is introduced two baptisms. Text says there's one baptism. Water baptism is a symbol of resurrection. Friends, just as Christ was dead and buried and raised again, so too does the Christian die to sin and self and is baptized into Christ by the Holy Spirit first, including His death and burial and resurrection.

And then how beautiful a picture the water baptism is. When the believers lay down all the way under, right? We make sure they go all the way under, why? Because they're being buried, as it were, submerged underneath the waters into his or her tomb.

And they're brought back up, showing forth the sign of a new man, new woman. Have you died to sin? Has the Holy Spirit taken you and baptized you spiritually into Christ? Placed you into Christ? Are you raised with Christ?

Our one baptism is a symbol of these great truths. John Dagg again writes, water baptism as a Christian rite is not administered to cleanse the flesh, either literally or ceremonially. It figuratively represents the burial and resurrection of Christ on which the believer relies for salvation.

Do you stake your hope this morning on the resurrection of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ? Baptism indicates that you do. Baptism is a sign of resurrection. Secondly, baptism is a symbol of regeneration, symbol of regeneration.

Paul says there's one Lord, one faith, one baptism. John MacArthur rightly says, water baptism is an external demonstration of what has already occurred in the heart through the regenerating power of the Holy Spirit.

And you say, you're just making that up. That's just Baptist language. You're just completely making that up. No, Titus 3 .5 says this, God 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.

That is, the Holy Spirit has internally washed us and regenerated us. God didn't save us because of our works done by righteousness. God didn't save us because of our obedience. God saved us by His grace.

Listen, the washing of regeneration is not something that we can accomplish by committing ourselves to baptism. It's not that I give myself to baptism and in exchange, here God, I give you this baptism, I give you this obedience, and in exchange, you give me regeneration.

What is that? It's so obvious. That's works. God, I give you this, and in exchange for what I've done, you give me that. We're not saved by works done by us. Those who think that baptism regenerates us are really unaware of the reality of human depravity.

What we need is a new heart. And this is what God gives us in the Gospel. I'm gonna flip back to Ephesians 2 real quick. It's so important. Remember what Ephesians 2, 4 says? But God, but God, being rich in mercy because of the great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ.

By your water baptism, you have been saved. No, by grace. By grace, you have been saved. Do you suppose that someone enters the baptistry dead in their sins and trespasses, and then because they have decided to be plunged into the water, that at some point in that transaction, somewhere in there, God gives them a new heart?

Of course not. Absolutely not. Friends, God makes us alive by His grace. Not because we made some decision. God moves first. And we respond. That's how it works. For example, 1 Peter 1, 3 says, according to His great mercy, God has caused us to be born again.