Why We are Baptists (Part 1)

Welcome to the Ruled Church Podcast. 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'll 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 4?

Paul says there is one Lord, one faith, and one baptism. What I want to 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 going to take an opportunity to show you from the Scriptures why I am a Baptist. And you're at a

Baptist church, and so I obviously know and assume most of you are Baptists, but I want to talk about, if not, why you should be.

And so let's read Ephesians chapter 4, verses 4, 5, and 6. 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 going to deal with these very quickly.

But I want you to hear me. Our quickness in them does not mean that they are unimportant.

We're going to 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 going to 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 3 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 5 that there is one Lord, one faith, one baptism.

Paul is serious about orthodoxy here. So an unmistakable 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 going to 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 5.

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 5.

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's 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 going to 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, take

Paul's words of one baptism to mean water baptism.

There is one ordinance of baptism. Verse 5. 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, the 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 underwater.

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 underwater 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 want to 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 going to give you two examples. And then I'm going to give you two more examples of biblical symbolism.

And then we're going to 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 burnt?

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 is 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. And 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. I want to 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 saves 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. That's not what it is. The physical water is not what touches our soul.

In fact, William S. Abrekel 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 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 A .D., it says this, but before the baptism, let the baptizer fast and the baptized and whatever others can.

But thou shalt 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 fasts 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? 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 going to 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 Spilsbury 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 a rising with Him and 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 Spilsbury 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 5, 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 subject, 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 pour. 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 going to 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. Do 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 going to 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 is what I mean.

But I want to say this, that these three and the five that we're going to 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 introduce two baptisms. The 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.

A 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 going to 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.

Who caused our regeneration? Our baptism? No. God caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.

Our hope for regeneration is the grace of God in the Gospel. It's not water baptism.

And yet, we see water baptism as a sign of our regeneration.

That old heart, if you will, is removed and forever buried in the tomb while the new heart is given to us.

That as we are resurrected with Christ, we are a new man and a new woman and we have new attitudes, new affections, new actions.

We are not baptized then in order to be regenerated. Or in hopes that one day we'll be regenerated.

But we're baptized because we've been born again and seek to walk in newness of life and be obedient to our

Lord and Savior's command. Baptism is a sign of resurrection, regeneration. Thirdly, and finally for this morning, and I encourage you to please come back next week because all these truths are important.

But this will be the last one we cover today. Renewal. Baptism is a sign of resurrection, regeneration.

Thirdly, renewal. Paul says there's one Lord, one faith, one baptism. Baptism is a sign of our renewal.

Let me read to you 1 John 1 .7. It says this, The blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin.

That cannot get any plainer, can it? What cleanses us from all sin? The blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin.

Friends, it is not the waters of baptism that cleanse us, but the blood of Jesus.

Again, here is why Paul includes one baptism with one Lord. One Lord, one faith, one baptism.

Because baptism is a symbol of one Lord's blood that is what actually cleans us from our sin.

Friends, I cannot emphasize this enough to you this morning. That it is not the waters of baptism that cleanse us from our sins.

It is Christ. It is not our obedience that cleanses us from our sins. You could never obey enough for God to clean you from your sin.

You never would obey enough for God to clean you from our sin. But God in His grace has given us

Christ. It is the blood of Christ that cleanses us from our sin.

Your obedience doesn't save. Christ saves. And the means by which that blood is taken from the cross and applied to your sin -wretched soul is faith.

It is by grace through faith that you're cleansed by the blood of Christ.

And yet, we need to understand there is a close connection between the cleansing of our souls by the blood of Christ and then the physical symbol of that reality in baptism.

Baptism is a beautiful ordinance because it's symbolizing what Christ has done to us.

He's cleansed us. He's renewed us. A 17th century

Baptist catechism by Hercules Collins. It's called the Orthodox Catechism.

It asks this, where does Christ promise that we are washed with His blood and Spirit as surely as we are washed with the water of baptism?

Answer, in the institution of baptism where He says, therefore, go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the

Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned.

This promise is repeated when Scripture calls baptism the washing or rebirth and the washing away of sins.

So then the follow -up question asks this, does the outward washing with water itself wash away sins?

Answer, no. Only Jesus Christ's blood and the

Holy Spirit cleanse us from all sins.

In other words, baptism's connection with the washing is symbolic outwardly of what has inwardly taken place by faith through the blood of Christ.

That's why we sing, not are you washed in the baptistry. First of all, that would be very hard to sing.

And I'm not sure very many words that would rhyme with baptistry. But we don't just sing, are you washed in the blood because it fits better in a song.

We sing, are you washed in the blood because this is what needs to happen to every soul.

You don't need more education. You don't need more money. You don't need more popularity. I'm not saying that those things are wrong in and of themselves, but you can have all of those things and spend an eternity in hell.

What has to happen to your soul is it must be plunged in the healing stream of the blood of our

Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. You need Christ. Baptism then is a symbol of our washing and renewal in the blood of Christ.

The blood saves, and the water is a picture of the cleansing and renewal of the soul.

So resurrection, regeneration, renewal. What glorious realities does baptism point us to?

Listen, Christ is our home. And baptism, if you will, is our house.

Christ is our citizenship. And baptism, if you will, is our flag.

What a picture the Lord has given us in this precious ordinance. And these things simply cannot be signified by anything other than the immersion of a believer in the water.

There is one Lord, one faith, one baptism. This matters.

And so I close with this. First, are you appreciating

Christ's ordinance of believer's baptism? Listen, you ought to be a

Baptist. Again, I'm preaching at a Baptist church. You ought to be a Baptist because of this biblical teaching.

Not simply because your grandparents were Baptists. Praise God, if they were Baptists, they were good grandparents then, right?

What I'm saying though is we ought to be Baptists because it's what the Bible teaches us. And you appreciate baptism, first of all, by following the

Lord in baptism. For example, how can you say that you are willing to be persecuted for the sake of Christ?

You're willing to follow Jesus to the ends of the earth. You're willing to make a name for Christ in your life, but you won't follow

Him in believer's baptism? That says something not about your outward actions.

That says something about your heart. Before you follow the Lord in believer's baptism, it requires that you're a believer.

Have you come to know the Lord? Those who know the Lord are in the new covenant. Have you turned from your sins and your rebellion and trusted our good and gracious Lord Jesus by faith?

Have you looked upon His life and His death and His burial and His resurrection for your sins as your only hope of salvation?

Are you in Christ? Are your sins forgiven?

Listen, if I thought that there was some strange way that if I could trick you into getting to the baptistry, it would save you, well,

I would do it. Hey, come look down here. There's candy. Boom! That's not how it works.

You must own your rebellion. You must own your sin. And you must go to Christ.

But then I will say, if you love the Lord Jesus, you follow

Him in believer's baptism. That is baptism by immersion.

Not for salvation, but because of it. Have you done this?

If you haven't, you must not delay. This symbol is God's gift to you. Think about that. God has given you this ordinance of baptism.

It is a gift to you. It is a gift to you. It is a glorious sign for you to strengthen and encourage your faith.

And it also edifies the church. Hey, I want to see a dramatization of the Gospel again, right?

That's what happens when we witness a baptism. I'm seeing something that's better than a movie. I'm seeing an ordinance that Christ has given us.

And I'm seeing Christ die again and be buried again and raise again a picture of that. And then I'm seeing that person, that believer,

I'm seeing outwardly what has happened inwardly, dying to Christ and being raised again to new life.

Next, you appreciate this ordinance by living out your baptism, as it were.

What I mean by that is, are you raised with Christ? Are you resurrected with Christ?

Then live for your King. Are you raised with Christ? Are you born again? Has your soul been cleansed?

That's what baptism pictures. If that is true, then you appreciate baptism by living out these realities before a watching world.

As we've seen all series in Ephesians, be who you are in Christ. There's one

Lord, one faith, one baptism. Paul's exhorting us to unity and so I can exhort you to be who you are in Christ.

Live the resurrection life. Live the regenerate life. Live the sin -cleansed life.

Live for Christ. Rest in His Gospel. Go out and see the world changed by your sharing of the

Gospel and your life that lives for Christ as you share.

If you really believe the church is the building, the church is the house, the church is what

God's doing. This is His work. If we really believe what Ephesians says, we are the hoemas, the masterpiece of God.