We begin now our study of the sacraments. The Heidelberg Catechism devotes a rather lengthy section to the sacraments, of which there are two--baptism and the Lord's Supper. The sacraments were introduced to us in L.D. 25, as you recall. There was set forth the means of grace--sacraments being one of those means. But there in L.D. 25 was also set forth the relationship between the sacraments and preaching. Preaching is, without question, the chief means of grace. It is so because God has ordained preaching, that which unbelieving man calls foolishness, as the instrument by which salvation is worked in the consciousness of His elect people. The Holy Spirit works faith in our hearts by the preaching of the gospel. So that, two weeks ago, in our consideration of L.D. 25, the emphasis of our sermon fell upon the preaching of the Word, its importance and significance to our salvation.
Sacraments are signs and seals which God has instituted in His church to accompany the preaching of the gospel, and to be visible signs of the truth of the gospel. The sacraments, therefore, serve to confirm our faith. God is pleased to give to His church signs and seals to strengthen the faith that the preaching has aroused, and to use such visible elements to direct our attention to the spiritual realities which we cannot see with our natural eyes. Our Catechism explains it this way in the 66th answer: "The sacraments are holy visible signs and seals, appointed of God for this end, that by the use thereof, he may the more fully declare and seal to us the promise of the gospel, namely, that he grants us freely the remission of sin, and life eternal, for the sake of that one sacrifice of Christ, accomplished on the cross."
The sacrament to which we turn our attention this morning is that of baptism. Because baptism is a means which God has instituted to bestow upon us His people the grace which is in Christ Jesus, strengthening our faith, baptism is important. There are always those who refuse to acknowledge the spiritual value of baptism. There are others who fail to understand its importance. There are still others who corrupt the doctrine of baptism to such a degree that it has no meaning. So we take the time to consider in some length over the next two weeks the matter of baptism. This morning we consider its essential place in the church. We do so under the theme:
BAPTISM INTO CHRIST
Noticing:
I. THE DIVINE INSTITUTION
II. THE MEANINGFUL SIGN
III. THE PRACTICAL SIGNIFICANCE
I. BAPTISM IS AN ORDINANCE INSTITUTED BY CHRIST TO BE OBSERVED BY HIS CHURCH AND
ADMINISTERED AS A MEANS OF GRACE.
THE CATECHISM CALLS ATTENTION TO THAT IN Q & A 71.
"Where has Christ promised us, that He will as certainly wash us by His blood and Spirit, as we are washed with the water of baptism? In the institution of baptism, which is thus expressed: Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost; He that believeth and is baptized, shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned. This promise is also repeated, where the Scripture calls baptism the washing of regeneration and the washing away of sins" (Q & A 71). The Catechism refers to Matthew 28:19 as well as Mark 16:16, where Jesus gave His disciples charge concerning their calling, shortly before He departed from them in the Ascension. And then there is also reference to Titus 3:5, where baptism is called the washing of regeneration, as well as Acts 22:16, where baptism is spoken of in terms of the washing away of sins.
Now bear in mind how the sacraments were defined for us in L.D. 25. The term sacraments is not itself a biblical term. So we have to remember what the true meaning of that term is. "The sacraments are holy visible signs and seals, appointed of God for this end, that by the use thereof He may the more fully declare and seal to us the promise of the gospel, namely, that He grants us freely the remission of sin and life eternal for the sake of that one sacrifice of Christ accomplished on the cross" (Q & A 66). It should be evident, and the church has always recognized it as such, that Christ has indeed given baptism to the Church as His holy ordinance. He has instituted baptism as a sign and seal of His covenant of grace, that which confirms the promise of the gospel to all who believe.
IN CONNECTION WITH THIS DIVINE INSTITUTION OF HOLY BAPTISM THERE ARE A COUPLE MATTERS WHICH CALL FOR OUR ATTENTION.
In the first place, Christ instituted baptism with a very specific formula. I refer to the fact that He calls us to baptize "in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit." Now, in Matthew 28:19 we read literally the calling to baptize "into the name of...." We baptize into the name of the Triune God. What does that mean? Well, remember now that we stand in a relationship to the Triune God. If we review just briefly that truth of the Trinity which we considered a few months ago in L.D. 8, then we shall remember the fact that God is Triune reveals to us that He is the God Who has life within Himself. Among the three Persons of the Divine Being there is a perfect and holy bond of fellowship and love. And because we understand from Scripture that such a bond of fellowship and love between two or more persons is denoted in Scripture by the term covenant, God reveals Himself therefore as the Covenant God. Still more, the beauty of the Christian faith is that we know this covenant God as One Who takes us into His own covenant life of fellowship and love.
Into the covenant fellowship of the Triune God we His children are baptized. Into the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. That name of God is His revelation of Himself to His people. The invisible God has chosen to reveal Himself so that He may be known by the creature that He created. He reveals Himself by His names. We have considered each of those names, and God's revelation to us in each of those names, in previous studies of these Bible truths. But the highest and most glorious revelation of God is seen in Jesus Christ His Son, Who came into our flesh to suffer and die as the atoning sacrifice for us, and Who, having accomplished that purpose, has risen from the dead and is now glorified at God's right hand. Christ reveals this Triune God to us as the God of our salvation! The Son of God is Him in Whom we see and know God as our Father. And that knowledge, and in fact our place within the covenant fellowship of God, is given us through the Holy Spirit and His work in us. So the idea of baptism, according to its very institution by Christ, is that we are incorporated into the fellowship of the Triune God. We are united with Him. Or, according to the words of the inspired Apostle Peter in II Peter 1:4—astounding words at that: We are made partakers of the divine nature! Through Jesus Christ and by the operation of the Holy Spirit. Baptism signifies salvation for us, being made partakers of the covenant life of the infinitely holy and ever-blessed God!
The other matter that calls for our attention in connection with formula of baptism as instituted by Christ is the fact that we enter that covenant of God only through Jesus Christ and by faith. God does not establish His covenant with all the world. He doesn't establish His covenant even with all who are in the church outwardly. He establishes His covenant with those whom He has chosen from before the foundation of the world, with those who are in Christ Jesus and for whom Christ died. He establishes His covenant with His elect, the true spiritual seed of Abraham. That is emphasized in such a passage as Galatians 3. There we read in verse 16: "Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He saith not, And to seeds, as of many; but as of one, And to thy seed, which is Christ." And then he goes on to point out the proper understanding of the relationship between the establishment of the covenant and the realization of the promise to the children of Abraham, concluding in verse 29: "And if ye be Christ's, then are ye Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise."
And this union with Christ is established by faith. For as the
Catechism points us to Mark 16:16, so we read: "He that believeth and is baptized
shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned." And although that
text in Mark 16 speaks with reference to the Apostle's calling to preach the gospel, and
therefore concerns particularly adults; and although the act of believing is only one
aspect of what Scripture denotes as faith, it is clear that faith and baptism are
inseparable. For faith is the only way of incorporation into Christ. And Christ is the
only One in Whom we may find fellowship with the Triune covenant God. (I'll have more to
say later in this sermon about that matter of faith as it relates to baptism, and probably
also in L.D. 27 as it relates to the baptism of infants.)
II. THIS BAPTISM IS A MEANINGFUL SIGN.
IT IS A SIGN OF THE REAL BAPTISM, WHICH IS THE WASHING AWAY OF SINS BY THE BLOOD OF JESUS CHRIST.
The outward sign is water. As the Catechism immediately points out, Christ appointed this external washing with water as the sign of baptism. It is a sign of the cleansing that is accomplished in Jesus' blood. Why water? The only answer to that is that it pleased God to appoint water as the sign. But it is a fitting sign too, as you can clearly see. Water washes. Water is that means by which we clean dirt from our skin and from our clothes. And the symbolic significance is that as the filth of our bodies is washed away with water, so the spiritual filth of our souls is washed away by the blood of Jesus Christ. That is the sign.
In most churches that water of baptism is sprinkled upon the head of the one who is baptized as the baptism formula is spoken. Some churches maintain that baptism must be done by immersion, so that the person being baptized is completely submerged in water. They maintain that, because the word baptize means literally to immerse. What do we say to that? We say this: When we speak of true baptism, i.e., the real baptism that is only signified by the sacrament, then indeed one must be thoroughly cleansed by the blood of Christ. And don't forget, there is no partial cleansing when it comes to the blood of Christ. One either is completely cleansed and his sins completely forgiven and washed away, or he is yet in his sins. There is no other way of salvation. But we don't have to immerse in order to signify that cleansing. There is no definite objection to immersion. But since the sacrament is a sign, sprinkling is certain sufficient. To be sprinkled with water is a sign of being cleansed by the blood of Christ or, to use the words of Romans 6, of being "buried with him in baptism." That is the sign.
That sprinkling with water is sufficient as a sign is indicated in Scripture with the occasion of the footwashing at the last Passover celebrated by Jesus with His disciples. You will recall that at that last Supper, Jesus began by taking a basin of water and a towel and washing His disciples' feet. As soon as Peter saw what was happening, he objected. "Lord, you will never wash my feet!" Jesus answered him, "Peter, if I don't wash you, you have no part with me." Peter was stunned! "Lord, not my feet only, but also my hands and my head!" Do you remember what the Lord said? We read it in John 13:10: "Jesus saith to him, He that is washed needeth not save to wash his feet, but is clean every whit: and ye are clean, but not all." That last phrase is a reference to Judas Iscariot. But notice, "If I wash your feet, you are entirely clean." That same principle holds with respect to the sign of baptism.
To be sprinkled with water, therefore, is a sign of being completely cleansed by the perfect satisfaction of Jesus' blood. So we read in Romans 6: "Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death? Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death...." The water of baptism is a sign of entering into the very death and burial of our Lord! In baptism—the real baptism, of which the sacrament is a sign and seal—we enter into the death and burial of Jesus Christ. But there is more. For if we are buried with Him, we also rise again with Him. And so the text continues: "Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. For if we have been planted therefore in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection" (Romans 6:4,5).
FOR THAT REASON, WHAT IS SIGNIFIED IN BAPTISM IS ALL THE RICHES OF THE CROSS, ALL THE BLESSINGS OF SALVATION THAT ARE OURS IN CHRIST JESUS.
Before being cleansed by the blood of Christ, we are all in our sins. All the sins that belong to us by nature stain and blot our souls and make us filthy before God. We are enemies of God, who lust after the things of this earth and who serve the will of our spiritual father, the devil. But baptism is a sign of how God takes us through a bath of blood—the blood of Jesus. He shed that blood because He stood in our place and paid the price that we owed for our sin and guilt. He shed that blood in perfect obedience to the will of God, so that He accomplished that for which He came. And having made the sacrifice by the shedding of His blood, He went to the grave in order to rise again the Victor over death. Baptism is a sign that we also are partakers of His death and of His victory. We, by baptism, are immersed in His blood which He shed upon the cross. We are sprinkled with His blood, to the cleansing of our guilty souls. All those stains of sin and guilt, have been washed away by the precious blood of Jesus. So that by faith we confess, as our Catechism puts it, that we are not only forgiven, but also "renewed by the Holy Spirit, and sanctified to be members of Christ, that so we may more and more die unto sin, and lead holy and unblamable lives. By the Spirit of our exalted Lord Christ we are sanctified and renewed, daily enabled to walk more and more according to all the demands of God's covenant and law. And that is our desire now too! We are separated from the world, so that we can fight the good fight of faith and fix our attention on the things above, where Christ sits at God's right hand. All the riches of our salvation are signified in holy baptism. The sacrament is a sign and seal of that real cleansing that has taken place in our hearts and souls.
There were especially two types in the Old Testament which pointed to this truth.
The first was that of the Flood. That is strikingly set forth in I Peter 3:20,21, where we are pointed to Noah and his family and told that those eight souls "were saved by water. The like figure whereunto even baptism doth also now save us by the resurrection of Jesus Christ." That is the main thought there. Notice that. It wasn't the ark which saved Noah and his family, the Church. They were saved in the ark, that is true. But we read that they were saved by water, the like figure whereunto even baptism also now saves us. As the Flood saved the Church, by separating her from the filth of the world and the total destruction that must come upon the world that stands at enmity against God, so this salvation becomes a reality by the death and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. And that is what is signified in baptism.
The other Old Testament type which pointed to the truth of baptism is
seen in the salvation of the Church through the Red Sea. Paul writes concerning that truth
in I Corinthians 10:1,2. There we read: "Moreover, brethren, I would not that ye
should be ignorant, how that all our fathers were under the cloud, and all passed through
the sea; And were all baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea." Now, how
must we understand that? Well, remember that Egypt was a type of the bondage of sin and
fellowship with the world. Remember as well that Moses was a type of Christ, one who stood
as an Old Testament picture of the Mediator Who was yet to come. The passage through the
Red Sea, therefore, was a type of the true deliverance of the Church from the bondage of
sin and death, through Christ as the Mediator of Covenant. By that baptism, as it were,
God set His people apart and delivered them from the damnation of Pharaoh and all his
hosts. And so He sets us apart and saves us through the cleansing blood of Christ.
III. FINALLY, I CALL YOUR ATTENTION TO THE PRACTICAL SIGNIFICANCE OF HOLY BAPTISM.
IN THE FIRST PLACE, THE SIGNIFICANCE OF BAPTISM IS APPLICABLE ONLY TO THE ELECT PEOPLE OF GOD, TRUE BELIEVERS AND THEIR SPIRITUAL SEED.
For this all takes place by faith. The reality that is signified in baptism is a reality that takes place by faith alone. Faith alone is the power by which we are buried with Christ into His death and raised again with His life. And I ask you to remember once again that biblical definition of faith. Faith is not merely the act of believing. It isn't even first the act of believing. But faith is the power which God Himself implants in our hearts which unites us with or grafts us into Christ. It is by this bond of faith that the elect people of God are planted into Christ as a tree is planted into the soil. It is by this faith that all the elect become members of the body of Christ and live in Christ, to receive all the blessings of salvation from Him. It is by means of this faith that they are baptized into the name of the Triune God through Jesus Christ our Lord. And God in His mercy calls that faith to activity by the preaching of the gospel.
The blessings of baptism are not for all. They are only for the elect. Baptism speaks emphatically of the fact that God is the Author of all our salvation sovereignly and perfectly from beginning to end. God sent Christ into the world. God has prepared all these blessings of salvation in Christ that they might be ours. It is all of God. God has instituted a sign and seal of this very truth. Baptism declares that salvation is all of God, none of us. And it is God Who also realizes all these blessings in the hearts of His people. He does so sovereignly, efficaciously, according to His own will and good pleasure.
So that in baptism God works in the same way as He does in the preaching, that chief means of grace. Jesus says of the preaching of His Word, "Many are called, but few are chosen." With baptism you have the same thing. All who are born and raised in the church come under the sign of baptism. The number of those who are baptized is far greater than those who are saved. But God works in baptism the same way in which He works in the preaching of the gospel. That Word is a sweet savor unto God, according to the last part of II Corinthians 2. It is a savor of life unto life in all who believe. But at the same time, that same preaching is a savor of death unto death according to the sovereign purpose of the sovereign God. In baptism you have the same thing, the very same thing.
That is a painful thing for us who are flesh. That is humbling. God will be God. Not only is that humbling, and calls for us to be still and know that He is God, but that is often painful. One of the great sorrows of the ministry is to labor and labor with the youth of the church and to pray for them fervently and repeatedly, only to see that the Word of God that we bring is serving to harden them. What grief! And parents experience the same thing. But we don't give up. So long as we have opportunity, we labor. We labor according to the Word of God. Because God must work His work. The Holy Spirit uses even weakest means to perform His will. And according to the will of God, the Holy Spirit seals the sign of baptism upon our hearts, separating us from the world and burying us with Christ. The mere outward sign can't do that. The Holy Spirit alone does that. He works through the Word, but also through the sacraments, through baptism, a savor of life unto life in all those who are saved.
BUT THE SIGN OF BAPTISM IS CLEAR, AND CERTAINLY HAS AN AFFECT UPON OUR WHOLE LIFE'S PERSPECTIVE.
When the sign of baptism is given in the Church of Christ, then you who believe lay hold of Christ by faith. You see with your eyes the sign which God has instituted and ordained as the sign of so great salvation that is ours in Christ Jesus. And in the midst of all the unrest of sin in the world and in your own flesh, you lay hold of the cross of Christ as the rock of your salvation. All the blessings of salvation are yours as signified and sealed by baptism. Christ has washed you in His blood. God has worked His work in you, and continues to do so. That is your assurance too. For the work that He has once begun shall by His grace be fully done.
And with that salvation as our assurance and the new life of Christ as our perspective, we also assume our obligations toward God. Oh yes, baptism lays obligations upon us. We can never shake that sign of baptism. But when Spirit has wrought His work in our hearts, we receive those covenant obligations as the privileges God has given us as His covenant people. We bear the mark of distinction, the uniform, if you will, of Jesus Christ our Savior. We stand as His representatives in the world, soldiers of the cross. And so we live, striving to keep our garments clean, fighting the good fight of faith, striving daily with the weaknesses even of our own sinful flesh, and clinging to our God in Christ. That is our life, is it not? We are God's handiwork. And so we confidently expect the final victory. That is His work of grace, proclaimed to us in the water of baptism.
Amen.
Preached:1) Randolph PRC 4/13/97 (am)
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