scripture I want to
give attention to today and I want you to
be patient with me because
they are a little bit involved
and the first one is found in Numbers chapter 8
Numbers chapter 8
and the second one
is found in Hebrews chapter 9
You might say well why have we chosen these passages to read this morning
but
I want to make a contrast between
the ministry
of the priest in the Old Testament
and how it was pointing forward to
the redemptive work of our Lord Jesus Christ
when I say the redemptive work I mean the work
of which a sacrifice has been made or a price
has been paid so that we are restored
back to our original owner. Our original owner was always God
He was the one who created us and fearfully made us in our mother's womb
He was the one who
established a glory that was above the angels
for man to
to express. We had a purpose
that was even though it was a little lower than angels for a short time
we were to be exalted, to be far higher than the angels
but now Christ has actually made a
purchase price for us, He fulfilled all that was
spoken of in the Old Testament and He has made redemption. Now His redemption
is a representative to redemption as
our fall was a representative fall
Christ, Adam fell and brought the whole of the human race
and we're in a condition in this state of that fall
now the second Adam, the Lord Jesus Christ
did not fail and
he made redemption for us so don't be scared of that word redemption
it's quite a usual word that we can understand
easy for us to understand
and this is exactly what I want to look at today
now the instruments of this redemption
in the Old Testament as in the New Testament was the priest
and it was said here that he was to be baptized
by the sprinkling of water
and he was to be baptized on his thirtieth year
now in the Levitical course of
the priesthood
it was inherited but Christ was not inherited
He came in the order of Melchizedek, if you can remember
he was not of the same order as Levitical
and Aaronic priesthood
but still our Lord Jesus Christ on his thirtieth year according to the law of the Levi's
came to another priest
to be baptized by him and we see here
to fulfill this law, to fulfill all righteousness
now we see this
not because
he was making a statement about outward baptism
he was making a statement about the baptism that he would undergo
and his baptism would be a baptism that no one else could undergo
that only he could do
but it had a great and powerful effect upon all
that believed upon him
and this is the point I want to raise today
Well as we open our Bibles to the fourth chapter
of Ephesians
we've been entering upon the
a subject of unity and we
we have come to the conclusion
that unity is not something that
we have to obtain but simply
to maintain, we can lose it but we have it
in the Lord Jesus Christ, we must maintain it
and the
the conclusion of our thoughts here
is in verse four, there is one body
and one spirit just as you were called to one hope of your calling
one Lord, one faith which we dealt with last Lord's Day
and today we're going to be looking at one baptism
one God and Father of all who is above all and through all
and in you all
now as we look at this particular passage
obviously that there is some controversy
about baptism within the church
I do not want to inflame that because all of us will
come to some settled
conclusion about where we stand
on the matter of baptism
and having said that
the meaning of baptism must be one
that we understand together
biblically and the application of that baptism
needs also to be understood
biblically together
the one thing that we do want to say
and that we do want to emphasize
that it is interesting that this
this declaration
of the Apostle Paul includes
baptism as being central
as one Lord, one faith
and one baptism, one God and Father of all
its centrality is a matter that must be understood among all
all Christians as being fundamentally
part of our expression
and our commitment
the subject
of the opening ministry
of the Lord Jesus was one of baptism
the heralding of Christ
was around the institution of baptism
the whole of Israel came out to be baptized
by John the Baptist
and it was something that
the Lord Jesus Christ entered into himself
a baptism that was unique to himself
but it was one baptism that he was identifying to
and yet we find that as soon as John the Baptist was taken off the scene
the Lord Jesus Christ and his disciples
entered and continued and completed that ministry
of John the Baptist. So essential
and central was baptism in the mind
of the Lord Jesus Christ. All four Gospels
deal with this matter. There are many parts
of the Gospel that is not dealt with by all four Gospels
but when as all four Gospels deal with this matter
it is regarded very centrally and very importantly
the records
it records its centrality
by the actual opening
of John the Baptist's ministry
all of his ministry
was contained around
this central focus point
and he did nothing else but proclaim
this baptism and
we might say that in Matthew chapter 3
and verses 11 to 17
if we just look at one of the Gospels Matthew
chapter 3 and verses 7
11 to 17
where he says
John the Baptist said these words
after being asked by the Pharisees
whether he was the one and the Sadducees whether he was the one that they were
looking for whether he was the Messiah
and he says these words
his winnowing fan is in his hand
and he will thoroughly cleanse his own threshing
cleanse out his threshing floor
and gather the wheat into
the barn but he will burn
up the chaff with unquenchable fire
then Jesus came from Galilee
to John at the Jordan
to be baptized by him and John tried to prevent him
saying I need to be baptized by you
and you come to me but Jesus
answered and said to him permitted to be
so now for thus it is fitting
for us to to fulfill all righteousness
then he allowed him when he had been baptized
Jesus came immediately from the water
and behold the heavens were opened
to him and he saw the Spirit descending
like a dove and a lighting upon him
and a voice and suddenly a voice came from heaven
saying this is my beloved Son
in whom I'm well pleased
now all four Gospels have similar
words and record this event
with varying detail but all regard it
as central to
the ministry of the John the Baptist
and of the one that came after him
which John the Baptist was pointing to the Lord Jesus Christ himself
and
here we find that this whole
ministry as we see it
unfold as we see the meaning of this
baptism unfolding as through
the disclosure of the four Gospels
and also in the letters the Apostle Paul
and the other apostles we find that this baptism
actually is representative of the Gospel
itself. The statement we find within
in Ephesians could easily have been translated
but it was not correctly to be translated this way but
it could have easily been said one Lord
one faith and one Gospel. It could have been stated that way
it wasn't stated that way for a specific purpose
and we find that this purpose
is that this baptism is
embodying the whole message
and the broader message not just of the
of the Gospel that we find in various details
within the Scriptures but is saying in all encompassing
that this baptism is representing the whole
work of God in Christ
and it is represented there
in baptism. It's a matter that has been often
missed within the church. In the Billy Graham Crusades we had introduced
not baptism as a sign of somebody coming to know the Lord
or the sign of the Gospel. It was a kind of decisionism
I decide for Christ and that this was the occasion
that we would get baptized. Baptism is far broader
far more all-encompassing and far
a far more important
statement about a person's life
and about the work of Jesus Christ. There's mere
decisionism. We find that baptism in evangelism
has been left out of the church's message largely
except some kind of add-on at
a point of time within the ministry
of a believer.
We not only see this but also we see that baptism
somehow is a
crowning capstone of all that was
spoken of in the Old Testament.
How is it that baptism somehow
comes on the scene with the
beginning of the ministry of the New Testament with John the Baptist?
Well it was actually a conclusion. John the Baptist was regarded as the
conclusion of all
the ministry of the prophets and we find
that there was some prior knowledge
of the expectation of Israel
as they are coming to the conclusion
of the Old Testament period. Not that they fully understood all that
but baptism as it were was a capstone
that encompassed everything that the Old Testament
was talking about. It is as it were
a fulfillment of Old Testament revelation
and we find that it was illustrative
of this culmination that everything
that the Old Testament was yet unfulfilled in
would find its fulfillment in this
work of one baptism.
Indeed we find this
in 1 Corinthians chapter 15
and 45
where it says in these words
and so it is written that the first man
Adam being a living being
and the last Adam became
a life-giving spirit
and so it proceeds through that.
However the spiritual is not
first but the natural
and afterwards the spiritual and the first man
was of the earth
made of dust. The second man
is the Lord from heaven.
As was the man of dust
so also are those who are made of dust
and as is the heavenly man
so also are those
who are heavenly and
as we have borne the image of the man
of dust we shall also
bear the image of the heavenly man.
Though baptism is not mentioned there we see that Christ
has come to be the
the capstone of the Old Testament revelation
and he sees centrally
that baptism is his major job
that is going to complete
and conclude the work
of his work.
Now it's also being
handed on to us in the Great Commission.
The Great Commission at the end of his ministry makes
baptism central as well. Something that is
often not fully understood
by the Christian evangelists
and the ministry of the church.
He says in Matthew
chapter 28
and verse 19 he says go therefore
make disciples of all the nations
baptizing them in the name
of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit
teaching them to observe all things
and have commanded you and lo
I am with you always even to the end of the age.
See here we find that the
idea of the baptism is
central to the ministry
of the ongoing work of the church
where we have been commissioned to preach the gospel
and the symbol of that gospel,
the substance of that gospel
is the baptism of that one baptism
the baptism of Christ, the redemptive work
of Christ done on our behalf but more than that
how it is actually applied to all those
that believe in spirit and in truth.
Now that's the first thing I want to say.
We should not underestimate as this is being
baptism is matter of second importance.
Baptism is of no real importance
within the church. It's a secondary issue. The major issues
are other issues we say but really baptism is a gospel issue.
Now I'm not talking about the
the mode of baptism at this point. I'm not talking about
whether we are Baptist or whether we're Presbyterians or whether we
are of another denomination that does not have
the great importance here. The important thing
is that the reality of baptism,
the focus of baptism
is Christ and his gospel, his work
and through his work on the basis of his work
that the work of the Holy Spirit applies that gospel to us
which brings us to the meaning of baptism.
And I tell you that the way I see it
is clearly that
even though that the work of baptism is central
at the opening of the New Testament and all the gospels record that,
it is something that
is bound up in
in the baptism of Jesus Christ himself.
Now we find that this
this passage that we find, let's take John's gospel for instance
and chapter 1 and verse 29.
And we find that he records a similar sort of thing.
He says, the next day John saw Jesus coming toward him
and said, Behold the Lamb of God
who takes away the sin of the world. See the centrality
is Christ in this matter. And he says,
This is he whom I said
after me comes a man who is preferred before me
for he was before me.
I did not know him, but that he
should be revealed in Israel.
Therefore I came baptising with water.
And John bore witness and saw the Spirit
descending from heaven
as a dove and remain upon him.
I did not know him, but he who sent me
to baptise with water said to me,
Upon whom you see the Spirit descending
and remain upon him, this is he
who baptises you with the Spirit.
And I saw and testified
that this is the Son of God.
Now really the baptism
that John was applying was not
to the outside world. It was to the
Old Testament community Israel.
And it was to represent their repentance. It was a cleansing from their sin.
And all of Israel went out to him to be baptised
by John. And when it says all of Israel
it seems that basically Israel was going out to him.
It didn't mean to say every individual was going out to him, because obviously
that there were people that did not get baptised by him.
I don't think the high priest ever got baptised by him.
But when it said all of Israel went out to be baptised,
but it was a baptism under repentance.
And then we saw the baptism of Jesus.
And it wasn't a baptism of true repentance. Jesus needed no repentance.
He was perfect in every way. And John recognised that.
He said, I need to be baptised by you.
You are the perfect one. He perceived him to be something
far greater than he.
And he said, do this to fulfil all righteousness.
Now we read in the Old Testament law of Numbers
that a priest who was to be ordained into the priesthood
must be ordained by another priest.
And although it says 25 within Numbers, it says Numbers 4 and verse 3,
that he must be 30 years old when he was to be ordained.
Now whether it was 25 that he went into the order to be trained for that work.
And on the 30th year, he was to be sprinkled clean with water
as an ordination rite.
And we find that here that Jesus submitted to the law.
And he submitted to every part of the law.
If he didn't, he would be a sinner.
And he had to submit as a priest because his role was not only as a prophet,
not only as a king, as a king of kings and the Lord of lords,
but also he had to submit as a priest.
And Hebrews 9 takes that to the extent where he was to be the high priest,
the priest of all priests, that he would fulfil all the priesthood.
And he himself would bring not the blood of bulls and goats,
but he'd bring his own blood and sprinkle upon the conscience
of those who came to him.
He would be the Lamb of God that would be sacrificed for the sins of mankind.
He would be that second Adam that would be sacrificed
as an atoning sacrifice on the cross of Calvary.
Now we know that story, do we not?
And that was basically what he was looking to when he was being baptised.
It was a baptism that no one else could take on.
It was a baptism that was a fulfilling baptism of the Old Testament priesthood.
And we find that third baptism that is spoken of here as well.
He would baptise you with the Holy Spirit.
Now that baptism we cannot do without,
as we cannot do without the baptism of Jesus Christ either done on our behalf.
The baptism of the Holy Spirit has to regenerate our souls,
give us eternal life.
We are, as it were, to be circumcised on the inward paths,
and that we are to be new creatures in Christ.
Now that can only ever happen on the basis of what Christ has done in his own baptism.
The baptism upon the cross of Calvary.
Now if you are a little bit concerned that I'm taking this too far,
let's go to Matthew chapter 20 and verse 23.
Where there was a dispute among the disciples.
Where they were trying to be on the right hand of the Son in the last day.
And they asked him concerning the kingdom and so on.
And he says in verse 22,
And Jesus answered and said to them,
You do not know what you ask.
Are you able to drink from the cup that I am about to drink?
Referring to the cup of the blood of the lamb.
And he says,
And to be baptised with the baptism that I am baptised with.
And they said to him,
Yes, we are able.
Not fully understanding what was all involved.
But it's interesting his answer at this point.
And he said to them,
You indeed will drink of my cup.
Not because you're able to drink,
but because I will give this cup to you to drink from.
Really it's a reference to the Lord's Supper in many ways.
And he says,
But to be baptised with the baptism that I am baptised with.
And to be baptised with the baptism that I will be baptised with.
Now what does he refer to this?
Only one person can make the death attainment for the sins of mankind.
Is that right?
That's right.
But at the right hand of my Father,
that's saying prepared for my Father to give.
That's the only one.
In other words, he is saying that we will participate.
Souls.
That baptism only Jesus can drink of.
He says, take this cup away from me.
But thy will be done, he says.
He is referring to his own death of redemptive work.
Only he could do it.
But we find in Romans chapter six,
that we will participate in the baptism of Jesus.
In chapter six of Romans,
we find that we will be actually identifying with the baptism of Jesus.
And these are very strong gospel connections here.
He says in verse three,
Or do you not know, as he says in chapter six of Romans,
that as many of us as were baptised into Jesus Christ,
were baptised into his death.
So we become partakers of it.
We are drinking of that cup, as it were.
We are going to participate in the baptism of Jesus Christ.
But he is a forerunner into that baptism.
He says, he goes on,
Therefore we were buried with him through baptism into death,
and not into water, but into death,
that just as Jesus was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father,
even so we should walk in the newness of life.
And he goes on, he says,
For if we have been united together in the likeness of his death,
certainly we shall also be the likeness of his resurrection.
And so it proceeds.
Now, my understanding of this is that we are to identify with this baptism
by being united to Christ in his death and resurrection.
We are to be united to Christ,
even as Israel was united to Moses in the baptism of Moses.
They went through the Red Sea,
although they were very dry as they went through,
they went through the Red Sea and they came out of it
as they were facing death, certain death,
God provided a way through that only God could provide,
which for us is only Christ's provision,
the provision of Christ on our behalf,
only God could provide that.
And we went into him and through him,
and we were raised with him in his baptism,
in his gospel, in his redemption,
in his atonement that he's made for us.
And so we are united to Christ, we are baptised into Christ.
And this Christ, this baptism of Christ is the basis of our salvation,
because we've been redeemed with Christ.
Now, if we are to be united to Christ,
we are to be merged with him, we are brought into him.
This union with Christ is a central understanding
of true Christian salvation.
Now, that leads us to the point, now, how do we receive this?
How do we, who does it?
Who does this?
Well, we have to conclude from these passages,
it's God that does it.
It's not the minister or a priest, it's God that does it in Christ.
Christ does it quite sovereignly.
He says it quite clearly here, that it's not we who do it,
it's something we receive.
We receive, he says, one God and Father,
who is above all, through all, and in you all.
There is a sovereignty of God's work in this work of baptism.
There is a sovereignty of God's grace in this work of baptism.
And it is according, yes, it is according to the covenant of God,
it's according to the promises that God has given to us through covenant.
And that's why the whole of the Old Testament and New Testament
is a book of the covenant.
Testament simply means covenant.
And you can't get away from it, it's central to the entire Bible,
this work of God's covenant.
If he's promised he's going to do it, he will do it.
And he's done it for us.
So baptism is a sign, outward baptism is a sign of that covenant.
It's not a sign for our decisionism.
It's not a sign that we are some kind of inherited.
It's a sign of the covenant.
And the seal of that covenant is the work of the Holy Spirit
bringing all that which the covenant is describing in the Jesus Christ,
who was the, what Christ did, his last will and testament for us
upon the cross of Calvary.
He now is able to freely apply that.
And who does he apply it by?
It's by the Holy Spirit.
Christ accomplished redemption.
The Holy Spirit applies that redemption to our souls.
No wonder we should be baptised,
because it illustrates not only the baptism of Christ,
but also it illustrates the baptism of the Holy Spirit.
He applies our election to our souls.
He applies, the Holy Spirit applies
and effectually calls us out of darkness into life.
The Holy Spirit declares to us that we have been now justified and set free.
The Holy Spirit gives us a spirit of adoption whereby we cry up,
Abba, our Father, because we've been adopted into the family of God.
The Holy Spirit sanctifies us where we die more and more to self
and live more and more in the likeness of Christ.
We are given strength to live day by day by God the Holy Spirit,
that we might walk by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ
and in this gospel of baptism.
And he will bring us to that final conclusion,
God the Holy Spirit will unite us to Christ on that last day
where the body that lies in the grave will be raised again from the dead
and we'll be not those who'll be disembodied spirits any longer,
but we'll be those that will have our body and soul
brought together to be with Christ
in a incomprehensible body that has no bounds.
So God, the baptism of the Spirit and the baptism of Christ
is coordinating together to give not only the gospel accomplished for us,
but also the gospel applied to us.
It's by the Holy Spirit we begin to live by faith and repent of our sin.
Now much could be said about this
and I tell you there's volumes of books that would fill this house on the subject,
but I hope that this will at least lead us to one thing.
There's not the outward sign of baptism that counts.
It's what Christ has done in his baptism on our behalf that counts.
And it's what God the Holy Spirit has done in his baptism
that counts of which we cannot be saved if we do not have the Spirit of Christ.
Amen.