Now, it is a great joy to be able to speak about this matter of baptism, although I do feel that our brother Stephen could have done much better than I. But I will trust the Lord for this time.
I want to read one or two Scriptures. First, Acts 2:41.
They then that received his word were baptized:
and there were added unto them in that day about three thousand souls.
They then that received His word were baptized.
Matthew 28:19-20.
Go ye therefore, and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit:
teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I commanded you:
and lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the age.
And then Romans 6, from verse 3.
Or are ye ignorant that all we who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death?
We were buried therefore with Him through baptism into death:
that like as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we also might walk in newness of life.
For if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, we shall be also in the likeness of His resurrection;
knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away, that so we should no longer be in bondage to sin;
for he that hath died is justified from sin.
And lastly, 2 Corinthians 5:17-18.
Wherefore if any man is in Christ, he is a new creature:
the old things are passed away; behold, they are become new.
But all things are of God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ.
Now, there are just basically three things that I would like to say to those of you who have asked to be baptized—just three matters. We will seek to keep it as simple as possible.
The first thing is this: baptism is a glorious testimony to an inward experience of the salvation of God. It is a glorious testimony to an inward experience of the salvation of God.
You will notice that it says, “They then that received His word were baptized.” Jesus said, “Go ye therefore, and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” Something precedes baptism.
That is why we believe in believers’ baptism—not in adult baptism, certainly not in infant baptism, but in believers’ baptism. The only explicit examples we have of baptism in the New Testament are all after people have been converted. Explicit examples.
Now, people will immediately say, “Well, what about when it says, ‘She and her household,’ ‘He and his household,’ and so on?” But that is not an explicit example. Someone may have a household and every one of them may be grey-haired. It does not necessarily follow that there are little babies in a household.
But our explicit examples—our clear-cut examples—every one of them, are of people who found the Lord and are then baptized. If we wish to believe in infant baptism, we have to find it sort of hidden, inferred, implied. But the explicit examples we have are all people who have been saved by the grace of God and have then testified to that salvation, almost immediately, in the waters of baptism.
Furthermore, we have clear, distinct teaching that those who become disciples should be baptized; that those who believe should be baptized; that those who receive the words of the gospel should be baptized. It is quite clear. There is nothing abstract or vague about it.
There is not a single word in the New Testament that tells us that children, little babies, should be baptized—not even the babies of believing parents. Now, it would take too long to go into all that side of it.
The Scriptures that are used—“Suffer the little children, and forbid them not, for of such is the kingdom of God”—how water ever got mixed up with that statement of the Lord Jesus, I have yet to find out. But it is one that is quoted again and again and again.
And then another one: if you do believe in infant baptism, the only possible ground for it is in the Reformed doctrine of covenant baptism. That is the only possible ground there might be for infant baptism.
And that is simply this: as circumcision was the sign that you were within the covenant circle, so baptism is the sign that you are in the covenant circle. Now, I entirely agree—Colossians 2 says that baptism is related to circumcision. But my great problem is this: we are not in the natural; we are not in the shadow; we are not in the world of type any more. We are in the fulfilment. We are in the substance. Do you understand?
Now, of course, baptism follows birth, just like circumcision follows birth. You could not circumcise someone before they were born. They had to be born to be circumcised. And so baptism certainly follows birth, but not natural birth. It follows spiritual birth. Do you understand? It is so simple.
Well now, we will not say much more about this, except that we have many, many examples and much clear-cut teaching on this matter: that once a person has been born of God, there is nothing that should prevent them from being baptized.
“What doth hinder me to be baptized?” said the Ethiopian eunuch. Why, the man, if we may say it without trying to be funny, the water would hardly dry on him! You know, he was saved before he was in the pool.
Philip would preach to him from Isaiah 53 and preach unto him Jesus. I have often wondered how Philip got baptism into Isaiah 53. But somehow or other the man said, “Well, here, I see water. What hinders me to be baptized?” And they stopped the chariot; there was water over there; down they went into the water, and the man was baptized.
It is a glorious testimony to an inward experience—not meaning that you have got to know everything. In the New Testament, they baptized people at the beginning. They could not possibly have told them everything.
Three thousand were saved on the day of Pentecost. How much could they have possibly known? Maybe there are one or two here who say, “Well, I know the Lord has saved me, but I am not sure whether I understand deeply enough, fully enough, whether I understand all that you are saying.”
But you see, the Word of God says that once we have been saved by the Lord, however partial our sight, we are candidates for baptism, because then the Holy Spirit is going to take the rest of our life working out the truth.
Just like a Hebrew boy, a Jewish boy, circumcised on the eighth day, would spend the rest of his life discovering what that covenant into which he had entered really meant, so it is with you. How could an eight-day-old child understand what the covenant means? How could they understand too much about it? But they grew up, you understand, and they spent the rest of their lives discovering and exploring the meaning of that covenant relationship with God.
So it is with us. That is why the apostle Paul is always saying, “Know ye not, that you who were baptized into Christ were baptized into His death?” He is always saying it, as if to say, “Now look here, do you remember? When you were converted, very shortly afterwards you were baptized. Now, do you understand the meaning of your baptism? It is this, and this, and this.”
A glorious testimony to an inward reality—an inward experience of the saving grace of God. That is the first thing.
And then the second thing is this. May I just say one more word? I love to call it a testimony. Some people call it a sacrament. Some people call it an ordinance. Some people call it a command.
You hear people saying, “Why are you being baptized?” “Well,” they say, “the Lord Jesus commanded it.” Well, that is, in one sense, at least minimal ground for getting baptized. If the Lord Jesus said we should get baptized, we should get baptized. But I think we need to go farther than that.
An ordinance is something commanded. Just because it is commanded, it can be very dead. But a testimony has got to be living, has it not? You see, a person who can testify is testifying to something firsthand.
They may not be able to tell you all the mysteries of God. They may not be able to explain all the problems in the Word of God or in life, but they can say, “Whereas I was blind, now I see. Whereas once I was spiritually dead, now, by the grace of God, I am alive to Him. My eyes are open. God has done something in my life. He brought me into an awareness of Himself. He brought me into a tasting of His salvation.”
Now, the second thing is that baptism is the setting forth of Calvary—of Christ crucified. That is why I do not believe in sprinkling. All these old pictures, you see, of jugs of water being poured over the Lord Jesus in the Jordan—I do not know where they get it from.
The testimony of baptism is not sprinkling; it is immersion. We do not bury a person by sprinkling a bit of earth on them. We really put them right under the ground and solidly cover them.
Baptism is a picture of three things: death, burial, and resurrection. Now, do not just speak about death and resurrection. Many people say baptism is a picture of death and resurrection. No, it is death, burial, and resurrection—very important.
The Scripture makes a lot of the burial of the Lord Jesus. It was a real person that was buried, a real person that was put in that rock-hewn sepulchre, because it is very, very important. That is why the old creed says that He was not only dead, but buried, because it is a very important point.
Now, what is the importance of this whole matter? When you are going into the water, it is a picture of your identification with Christ in His death. When you are under the water, that is your identification with Christ in His burial. And when you come up out of the water, that is your identification with Christ in His resurrection, to walk now in newness of life.
Death, burial, resurrection. Wonderful, is it not? When you really begin to see it, it is wonderful. You are going to spend a lifetime finding out the meaning of that.
When I was baptized, I had not got the faintest idea. I only knew that Jesus had commanded me to be baptized. I was fourteen when I got baptized, and I did not know a thing except that I knew Jesus had commanded it. Down I went! But, my dear child of God, I have spent years discovering the meaning of it.
When I first saw it—I think it was about four years after my conversion, four years after my baptism—it knocked me out for a week. I had been baptized, and I never went and said, “Baptize me again. Now I see it.” But, you know, the thrill of living in the truth of baptism—it is wonderful.
Crucified with Christ. The most helpful way I have ever heard it explained or unfolded was when Miss Fishbarker was with us in Richmond, quite a few years ago now. It could have been about 1954 or 1955, round about then.
She explained it to some of us—some of the folks who were going to get baptized. They were just sitting down talking, and she used an illustration that Brother Nee had used, that she remembered very well.
She said, “You see, this little piece of paper is you, and this Bible is Christ. And God took you—not now, but thousands of years ago—and put you in Christ. Now you cannot see you; you can only see the Bible. There is a piece of paper in the Bible.
“Now, if I put the Bible there, where is the piece of paper? On the table. If I put the Bible there, what has happened to the piece of paper? It is on the floor. If I take this and put it over here, what has happened to the piece of paper? It is on the chair. But you cannot see the piece of paper. How do you know? Because it is in the Bible. Have you got it? Have you got it?”
You see, God lives always in the eternal present. He knew that you were going to come, and He put you in Him. And when Christ was crucified, you were crucified. You do not have to try to be crucified. You are crucified. You have been crucified.
Let us just try and find, “Now I must put that old man down. Maybe if I get baptized, it will happen.” The point is this: your baptism is a testimony to the fact that you have been crucified with Christ. You have died with Christ and been buried with Christ.
Some people do not know what it is, because there was not just a death with Christ; they go around with the dead body all the time. They are crucified, but all the time they are letting other people know what a tough life, a life of suffering!
What do we do when we bury somebody? We put them out of sight, out of mind. And when Christ was dead, you were buried in Him. But then, thank God, when Christ was raised, you were raised. You were raised to walk in newness of life.
How do you begin to understand the meaning of your conversion? Many of us, you see, make such a great dichotomy. Do you understand that word? We split into two things so beautifully, and we say, “Now here is salvation, and here is holiness.” Or, “Here is salvation, and here is an experience of the indwelling and empowering of the Holy Spirit,” whatever else people say. We like to make a great division.
But you know, the apostle Paul does not. Just listen to him:
I have been crucified with Christ;
yet I live; and yet no longer I, but Christ liveth in me:
and that life which I now live in the flesh
I live in faith, the faith which is in the Son of God,
who loved me, and gave Himself up for me.
You see, he brings the whole two together. Christ died for you. Christ died as you.
He died for you that you might have forgiveness, that you might be covered, that you might be justified, that you might have a standing before God forever, clothed with the garments of His salvation. And then He died as you, that you might know freedom from the power of sin—freedom from the self-life.
Now, that has to be revealed. But do not worry. Enough for you to know that it is the meaning of your baptism. When you go into those waters, it is as if you are saying, “Lord, I take my position with Christ in His death, in His burial, and in His resurrection. I have died with Christ. I have been buried, but I have been raised with Christ.”
And then there is a third thing about baptism. Now, this may be the deepest, but it is in fact the heart of the whole matter. You may have to go some years with the Lord before you really begin to see it, but I am just going to mention it.
It is summed up in those wonderful words in 2 Corinthians 5:17:
Wherefore if any man is in Christ, he is a new creature:
the old things are passed away; behold, they are become new.
Now, of course, the old version says, “Wherefore, if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature.” And, of course, people get terribly upset at that, because they are always looking to see this new creature. “Where is this new creature?”
I think it is much better the way this is put in the margin: “There is a new creation.” If any man be in Christ, there is a new creation. The new creation is in Christ. Our old man has been done away with. The new creation is in Christ, and we are in Christ and abide in Christ. That is where we find the new creation: new source of life, new foundation, new power, new energy, new everything—a new heart, a new spirit. Oh, walking in newness of life.
You see, this world is essentially—listen—a spiritual world. We think of it as a physical world, but everything which you see is the expression of unseen reality. And this whole world belongs to a fallen order: an old creation, an old man, an old Adam—however you like to put it.
How could God get us out of that into a new creation, into a new man, into a new order? How? If we lived a thousand years, we could not get out of the old man. We could not get out of the old creation.
Poor Noah. The only way he got out of the old creation was in an ark made according to the Word of God. And in that ark, he came out of an old creation into a new creation. That is what answers to baptism. You see, Peter says, “which also after a true likeness doth now save you, even baptism.” That is what it is.
Because what has happened is this. Here you and I are on this side; we cannot get over there. There is no way over. Supposing we said it like this: here is the old creation.
All have sinned, and fall short of the glory of God.
There is no difference. All of us—not one—has managed to get over into a new creation. Not one. We are all trapped there. Not if we lived for a thousand years, prayed every day, wept every day, read the Bible every day, or did good works. We still could not get out of there into the new creation, because none of us can come up to the standard of the Lord Jesus Christ. Do you understand?
And the only way God could get us out of the old creation into the new is by Christ’s death, burial, and resurrection. Have you got it?
That was the only way He could get you who were there. You had to go by Christ’s death into His burial, through His resurrection, and out into the new creation. Think of that.
And that is what baptism testifies to. Every time a person is baptized, that is what the devil sees. He sees a reenactment of Calvary, and that is why Satan hates that person.
No doubt there are others here who can say much more than I about this matter of baptism. But in my experience, I found this: when we were in Egypt, a Muslim could believe in Christ. No one bothered him if he was a believer in Jesus. He could be saved; he could hold the experience to himself. But the moment he got baptized, he was murdered.
It did not matter who it was. Many, many of those dear ones in Ismailia, in the company, laid down their lives—some were poisoned, some were sent mad by something put into their food.
And I used to say, “Why, why, why, why, why do they just hate this matter of baptism?” If we sprinkled something, they would not get hated; but as soon as they get immersed, it is as if all hell is let loose.
And I have come to the conclusion that every time you have a real baptism, it is like a bell tolling for Satan. It is as if he sees it is not just one little soul out. It is the whole thing: an old order finished; a new order has begun.
An old man finished, vetoed, put away; a new man born. An old creation destroyed; a new creation begun.
Of course, the wonderful thing is that although we are born and we are in this new creation, we do not see a new heaven and a new earth yet. Still, Satan is all around, and all the powers of darkness are all around. But thank God, we are in Christ, and we are heralds of a new day.
And that is really the testimony of baptism. Now, you may not fully understand all that. I do not myself.
I mean, I have told you what I have been able to tell you, but every day, every week, I see something more in this amazing thing about being taken out of the old into the new. I know that I could not get out of the old myself. I know that I could not get out of old Adam. It was impossible.
But He did it by His death, when He died as Adam and put away that whole old man; and His burial, when He was put out of sight, so that God does not all the time have to drag it up and say, “Now then, just you remember what you were—this, and this, and this, and this.”
Thank God, all He sees is Christ. When He looks at you, Jesus Christ. That is a glorious reality, is it not? That means we can go on with the Lord, through His purpose, into what He wants.
I hope that someone does not say, “Well, I am a little afraid. I could not give them all that. I am not sure I should be baptized. I had no idea that was the meaning of baptism. I just thought that now I have become a Christian, I ought to get baptized.”
Of course. Do you know that the apostles had hardly finished speaking when they started baptizing the three thousand, so it seems? And, you know, it must have taken some time. There was not that amount of water available in Jerusalem. They must have queued up—talk about the dinner queue here! They must have gone right down the whole campus.
I mean, three thousand people only knew one thing: they had heard the Word of God, they had believed on the Lamb of God, and they had received Him into their lives. That is all they knew.
And somehow now they were coming and saying, “Lord, I want to be identified. I want to openly, publicly confess Jesus as Lord and Saviour.” And so they were baptized. Then they spent the rest of their days discovering it.