Well, I just really want to thank the Lord this morning. I feel that, with the sharing of the testimonies, nothing else needs to be said.
They announced I only have thirty minutes to share, so I was afraid. But now most of the message has been shared, so we’ll be okay.
I hope still we can just have a heart-to-heart this morning on baptism—just share something I feel from the Lord’s heart, mainly on an area that we do not talk about too much with baptism, even a Scripture we do not use a lot of times.
We want to talk about baptism as a response to the Lord. The Scripture I want to read is in 1 Peter 3:20-21.
It starts somewhat mid-sentence, but we’ll read it, even though it is awkward.
Which aforetime were disobedient, when the longsuffering of God waited in the days of Noah,
while the ark was a preparing, wherein few, that is, eight souls, were saved through water:
which also after a true likeness doth now save you, even baptism,
not the putting away of the filth of the flesh,
but the interrogation of a good conscience toward God,
through the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
I am going to read this last part again:
Not the putting away of the filth of the flesh,
but the interrogation of a good conscience toward God,
through the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
Let’s pray.
Dear Lord, You know our hearts are just full of joy this morning. First, we are able to come and remember You at Your table, and just to come as those sinners saved by grace, those who appreciate You so much.
And Lord, then we can hear these sharings from these four souls that are being baptized, of what great things the Lord has done. We can see their response, and Lord, it really touches our hearts.
I just thank You that we can have these baptisms today, even looking back at our own baptisms and just remembering You and wanting to go forward and follow You. Lord, we thank You. We thank You for Your Word. Pray You would break it open and feed us with Your Word this morning. We pray You would scatter it and multiply. In Jesus’ name, amen.
Well, in the beginning of these verses, it is talking about Noah and the ark and the flood. Then it says this is a figure—or, in other translations, it is a type; it is a picture.
As far as simplifying baptism, I hope that if everything I say is confusing, we can at least remember the picture of baptism that is given here. It is a very good picture. The picture of baptism here is Noah and the ark and the flood.
Sometimes, when you are learning a language—or as a little kid when you are learning English—we use flashcards. With a flashcard, you write the word boat at the bottom: B-O-A-T. They are learning to read, but at the top of the card it has a picture of a boat, right?
So when they see the flashcard, they see a boat, and underneath it they say, “B-O-A-T.” Through much training and learning, they start out, “Buh, buh, buh—boat,” and they learn how to say boat; they learn how to read boat. We use a picture and the word.
So this time God puts before us a picture and the word. He gives us a picture: at the top of a flashcard is the story of Noah and the ark and the flood, and at the bottom it says, “Baptism.” So we have this big flashcard right now.
On this flashcard, there are four aspects to this picture of Noah and the flood and the ark. We see Noah and his family—these eight souls, these eight people. We also see the boat, the ark. We see the waters that come down, the flood, the great flood that flooded the whole earth. And we see everyone who was left behind in that water: the whole world.
The whole world was against God. God sent the flood because the world deserved the flood. It was a judgment of God. The waters were the judgment waters of God.
The people had become so corrupt. Every thought of their hearts was on evil all the day, it said. They were out of order and rebellious toward God. God sent down the flood, but Noah, the righteous man, and his family would be saved—and also a lot of animals—all on the boat.
They made a very large boat, and everyone inside the boat went through the water. Baptized inside that boat, they came out of the water. But everybody got wet. Everybody got baptized, but some stayed in the water. The world stayed in the water, but the ark came up. If you are in the ark, you come out of the water.
So there is the ark, there is the water, there is the world, and there are those people who were baptized. Now, the same is true today. When we go out there for baptism, we can remember this picture. But you are going to ask, “Where is the boat?”
Actually, we will see people and we will see water. The water is just like the water there with Noah. The water is the water of judgment. This water does not help; this water judges. This water does not save anybody; this water buries.
But also, these people being baptized—it is not just them. When they are baptized, we baptize unto Christ. The ark actually is a picture of Christ.
When we baptize, they are not going through the water by themselves. We even tell them, “We baptize unto Christ.” In Romans 6:3, which was read earlier, it says that we were baptized unto Christ. In Acts, they were baptized in the name of Jesus. In Matthew 28:19, they were baptized unto the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.
You see, this baptism is not just going through water. This is going through water inside of the ark, inside of Christ. First in Christ, and then they go through the water. Without the ark, you will not be saved. Without the ark, you will not go through the water; you stay in the water. But only that which is in Christ comes out of the water.
There is also something else we do not see, but spiritually there is a reality. There is something real spiritually. Nobody is really being buried out there. We have two strong men who are going to lift them back up out of the water when they baptize. But the world stays in the water.
Now, we are talking about the spiritual world. We are not talking about a flood upon the physical earth, but spiritually, this rebellious way of the world that wants to take us away from God, that wants to take us into rebellion against God—this is what stays buried in the water.
I hope we see this picture. These four souls we have today, these four people being baptized, each time are in Christ. Each time they are baptized unto Christ, and they come through.
We still have four aspects going on out there. We have our picture, our flashcard: baptism at the bottom, Noah’s story at the top. We have the people who are in the ark—those who have trusted in the Lord Jesus, those who have been saved, those who have been bought by His blood, those who have been born again.
They have been put in the ark, and now the waters are coming upon this whole world to judge this world. They want to stand on the other side of those waters. The waters are there. You are either on one side or the other.
If you are on the side outside of the ark, you have the judgment of the world upon you, and you stand with the world against God. But if you hide yourself in Christ and are baptized in obedience to Christ, you come out on the other side.
From then on, you can stand in that stance, like Galatians 6:14:
I have been crucified unto the world, and the world hath been crucified unto me.
There is a water in between us. It is just like another picture in the Bible: the Israelites being baptized. In 1 Corinthians 10:1-2, it says this also is a picture of baptism, when they went through the Red Sea.
They went all the way through the Red Sea. They were baptized unto Moses. Noah was baptized unto the ark; they were baptized unto Moses. But they went through because they were with Moses. Moses took his staff, the waters split, there was a cloud above them and waters on the side. They were immersed in water, because the cloud is water too. So they went through, fully immersed in the water, but they all came out.
But another aspect was baptized there too: Pharaoh and his army. Egypt represents the world. They came into the waters too, but they all got buried by the waters. They did not come out. This is what happens at baptism.
In this baptism, there is nothing happening as far as cleaning up a physical body. It says there is no putting away of the filth of the flesh. There is not dirt getting washed off from them. They are already pretty clean. Plus, we are not scrubbing.
When they go through, they just go under and come back up. You have seen them before. When they come back up, this is not that now physically something has happened. No, this is water. But spiritually, there is something real happening, before the unseen and the seen. This is a declaration.
There is a demand upon the conscience. There is a response happening. The filth of the body is not being cleansed, but, in a sense, before the world they cleanse themselves from all that filth of the world.
They come out saying, “I am no longer a part of what I was before. I am no longer a part of this world that is against God. I am no longer a part of this world that crucified my Lord Jesus. I am no longer a part of that world. Now I stand on the other side. I am cleansed from all that.”
You know, when Paul was saved, three days later Ananias said to him, “Why do you wait? Rise up, be baptized, and have your sins washed away.”
Now, we know the song: “What can wash away our sins?” That is right: nothing but the blood of Jesus. But the Scripture said it right there. He said, “Have your sins washed away at baptism.”
Now, it is true: nothing can wash away your sins but the blood of Jesus. But Paul, outwardly before men, had been persecuting the church. He had been basically murdering Christians. He had sins before men.
As far as before God, he was already saved three days ago. But three days later, for baptism, he said, “Be baptized. Have that filth of all those sins you have done before men washed away.”
Before God, you believe in the Lord Jesus, and your sins are washed away. It says in 1 John 1:7 that the blood of Jesus Christ, His Son, cleanses us from every sin. That is what cleanses you from your sins before God. To be a Christian before God, God sees Christ, and that is it.
To be a Christian before men, though, men also have to see Christ. So, to be a Christian before men, we begin by being baptized. All that we used to sin in this world, all that we used to associate ourselves with in this world, we have washed away. I leave it at the waters. Have those sins washed away before men.
Even in this passage we read, it says, “This figure also now saves you, even baptism.” Now, this may sound strange to our ears, right? Because when we use the word saved, we usually only mean saved from hell. But in the Bible, there are different usages.
Just like in 2 Timothy, Paul says, “I was saved from the lion’s mouth.” Now, the lion’s mouth there is not hell. No, he is just saying he was delivered from the lion’s mouth. Throughout the Bible, there are different usages of that word salvation, and here is even one of the usages.
One thing the Lord delivers us from—He does deliver us from hell. He does save us eternally. That is by believing on the Lord Jesus. What must I do to be saved? In Acts 16:31, they answered that question:
Believe on the Lord Jesus, and thou shalt be saved.
And in Ephesians 2:8, it says we are saved by grace through faith—just belief. So I want to keep that clear. If you are talking about eternal life, you are saved by believing in the Lord Jesus. Do not get confused.
But if we are talking about deliverance from this world—from Pharaoh and his army trying to keep you trapped, trying to keep you serving Satan, trying to keep you serving against God, trying to keep you in bondage—if we are talking about that kind of deliverance, it begins at baptism.
It says you are saved at baptism. You are delivered at baptism. Why is that? Because at baptism, you take your stance and respond to God and say, “I do not want the world. I do not love the world. I love the Lord Jesus.”
Baptism is your declaration before this world, saying, “No longer me and the world. Now it is me and the Lord. I leave that world behind.”
In Mark 16:16, it says:
He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved;
but he that disbelieveth shall be condemned.
If you look at the formula there, the second part of the sentence says that he who disbelieves will be condemned. Remember, unbelief alone is enough for condemnation for eternity. If you do not believe in the Lord Jesus, you are condemned.
But in the Bible, they do not like to separate your walk with God from your walk before men. They do not like to separate your going to heaven from walking as His disciple here on earth. The Bible does not like to separate it. So what God has joined together, let man not separate.
In Mark 16:16, when it says, “He that believes and is baptized shall be saved,” it is talking about a fuller picture. He that believes shall be saved from eternal damnation. But he that believes and is baptized shall not only be saved from that, but also saved here in this world to walk freely as a Christian, to stand as a disciple of Christ, fully saved from the grip of the world.
Sometimes we do not think of the world rightly. We have to remember: I am not talking about the physical earth, and we are not talking about the mere souls of people. We do not hate people.
What we are talking about is this system that tries to keep you away from God, this system in the world that tries to distract you. If we want to know what the world is, we can look at Pharaoh and Egypt.
God said, “Let My people go, that they may worship Me.” Pharaoh said, “No, I will not let them go.” That is what the world does. You sometimes wonder, “What is the world? Am I worldly? Am I doing something worldly?” Just ask: can you worship God in what you are doing, or are you held back from worshiping Him? Do you feel uncomfortable worshiping God with what you are doing?
Another thing God said was, “Let My people go, that they may serve Me.” That is another question. When we look at something before us, am I serving the Lord Jesus, or am I distracted?
Satan does not need you to bow at his feet and worship him. He only needs to distract you from worshiping the Lord. He is not after only absolute worship of himself. If he can get you away from worship of God, that is enough.
Now, with God, it is all or nothing. But with Satan, it is not like that. He would rather just distract you and still make you feel good, and not even let you know that he has got you trapped.
With Satan, with Pharaoh, he will give them a good life. The Israelites in Egypt had a good life. Remember, they had onions and garlic. It is a great life—but they were in bondage. Sometimes they did not even know it. This is the way of the world.
Now, at baptism, we respond and we say, “No more.”
Here at the end of this verse, it says it is a demand before God of a good conscience. Just like we said, salvation before God is by faith. Actually, to get a good conscience, to maintain a good conscience before God, we confess our sins.
Even at salvation, if you have been saved, if you have been born again, if you have received Jesus as your Lord, you have a good conscience. The blood has washed away your sins. That is what a good conscience is.
An evil conscience is when there is sin on your conscience. You are convicted of evil, of some sin. But a good conscience is when you have been forgiven of your sins.
Paul said in Acts 24:16 that he kept a good conscience before God and before men. I feel probably, in this area of baptism, we have to say that to begin the good conscience before men, it begins at baptism.
Before God, your conscience is good if you have been saved, if you have believed in the Lord Jesus. But before men, that good conscience on the inside before God wants to respond. It wants to express, “I have been saved. I have been forgiven of my sins. I am away from all of that now.”
This conscience is actually an answer back to God. God has given to you so much. Now you answer back to Him.
Actually, this word demand is a question. It is strange. A lot of the translations, in their notes, say this is one of the hardest things to translate. It is a question because it has both sides to it. That is why it is hard to translate. You wonder, what side are we on? Is somebody asking us a question, or are we responding to the question?
I do not think we need to worry. I think we can say both are happening. God has put a question before you: “What will you do with what I have given to you? What will you do with My beloved Son, who has purchased you and saved you and redeemed you? Now, what will you do?”
Then a believer with that good conscience, deep within, the Lord speaks in the heart and you just know that your response—there is a demand set upon you. There is a response in your heart: “Baptize me. I must be baptized.”
Baptism expresses on the outside what has happened on the inside. That is what is going on. It is real spiritually. You are expressing what has happened.
Now, sometimes there are some excuses for not being baptized, and I just want to bring some of them up. If we say, “I am not ready to be baptized,” I just want to add some sentences to it, so that way we can know why we are not ready for baptism.
There are really three reasons not to be ready for baptism.
One reason you are not ready for baptism is if you are not born again. If you have not had your conscience cleansed from all your sins by faith in the Lord Jesus, you are not ready for baptism.
So the Lord’s word for you, if you do not know if you are saved, is this day: repent from your sins and be saved. Be saved not only from hell, but be saved from this perverse world.
That is what Peter’s gospel was in Acts 2. He said, “Repent and be baptized.” He continued preaching, “Be saved from this perverse generation.”
If you do not know the Lord Jesus, if you do not know Jesus as your Lord, watching this baptism, you see what is on the outside of these souls. But I am just telling you, what you see on the outside has already happened on the inside.
You will be ready for baptism, even this day. You can be ready for baptism. There is no need to wait. You may not even have tomorrow. If you would decide today to turn from your sins, to believe in the Lord Jesus, and trust Him for salvation, you can be ready.
There is the one excuse for not being ready for baptism. So if you are saying to somebody, “I am just not ready for baptism,” maybe add that sentence: “I am not ready for baptism because I am not yet saved.” That would be more proper.
Another reason for not being baptized: in the New Testament, there is somebody who was saved who did not get baptized, and he did fine. It was the thief on the cross.
If you are dying today, you do not need to be baptized, because baptism has to do with your walk in this world now. Baptism saves you from the world keeping you down from following the Lord Jesus.
If you are not going to be in this world, you are already crucified to the world, as he was on the cross. If you are dying today, you do not need to be baptized. So we know that baptism does not save you from hell, because Jesus told the thief on the cross, “Today thou shalt be with Me in paradise.”
Now, I hope nobody uses that as an excuse: “See, I do not need to be baptized because the thief on the cross, he was fine. He did not get baptized.” That is because he was dying that day. If you are dying today, you do not need to be baptized.
So you can also say, “I am not ready for baptism because today I am dying.” We have two reasons now. Okay? I am just saying these are the biblical, legitimate reasons not to be baptized.
Now there is a third reason not to be baptized. “I am not ready for baptism.” This reason, I wonder if this one comes up more often.
Remember that in 1 John 2, He says:
Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world.
If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him.
If someone loves the world, they cannot love God at the same time. If you love the world instead of loving the Lord, you are not ready for baptism.
So when you say, “I am not ready for baptism, just not yet,” just say, “I am not ready for baptism because I do not love the Lord Jesus. I love the world.”
If you are not ready to follow the Lord Jesus, and instead you would rather follow Satan, just say that instead: “I am not ready for baptism. Right now, I would rather follow Satan than follow Jesus.” There is the third reason not to be baptized.
According to the Word of God, there is no other reason to wait. If you are born again, everyone in the New Testament was just baptized immediately. The longest wait we can see is three days with Paul, because he was waiting for another believer to come.
We do not know how long other people waited, but most of the accounts that told us the time say it was even the same day. I am not saying some formula, like it has to be this day or three days at the most. I am not saying that.
What I am saying is, you see nobody lingering. Nobody is waiting. Nobody is waiting around until they get stirred up emotionally and say, “Now is my time. Okay, now I get it.” Or until they have had enough fun in the world, and then they will be a disciple of Jesus Christ.
If you are born again and you are going to live tomorrow—you think; I mean, you are not in ICU or anything—if that is your case and you are not ready, it is because you do not love the Lord Jesus and you love Satan instead.
I just feel this is on the Lord’s heart today: that there is a response for all believers. There is a demand on our conscience. There is a demand set before us: “How will you respond to what My Son has done?”
How will you respond to those pierced hands, to that pierced brow, to the whips on His back, to the spear in His side, to the feet that were pierced? How will you respond to Him who loved you so much that He died for you?
Will you not rise up and say, “I love Him too”? You would just rise up and say, “Lord Jesus, I give You my life. Lord Jesus, this day, no longer the world. This day I will follow You. This is the day of my rejoicing, because He has given me so much. I give Him my all.”
This is our response at baptism. This is why this is such a joyful day. This is a joyful day because, as you hear these testimonies, as you see these people stand up, they are saying, “I have decided to follow the Lord Jesus. I do not want the world. I want Christ. I will follow Him as my Lord and as my Savior.”
So I believe all of us here today, in our hearts, are all glad. You know, as believers who have been baptized, every time we see a baptism, we remember: “I have been baptized. I am crucified to the world. The world is crucified to me.”
I believe the Lord will bring some things to our hearts. If there is something where we have been in the wilderness and said, “Oh, for those onions and garlic,” if we have been trying to go back, one thing is true: at baptism, the army of Egypt was broken.
But the love for Egypt can still tempt you. So you may take a stance against the world and say, “I was baptized.” Romans 6 says we do not go on sinning. Do you not know you were baptized unto Christ? That is the stance we can take: “I am crucified to the world.”
You can always take that stance. Mark the day of your baptism. You might not remember the day; it is a good thing to remember the day if you can. But mark it and say, when the world tempts you, “I have been baptized.”
What that means is, the grip of the world is already broken. Now you just need to stand in the good of it. As believers, we just take our stance: “No, I am a baptized person. I am crucified to the world.”
Even though there are onions over there, I am crucified to the world. All those distractions, all those things—I am crucified to it.
I hope we will all take some encouragement. As we see these dear ones being baptized, we can also stand in the good of the fact that the power of the world has no power over us. There is power in baptism that broke the grip of the army of the world.
Today, if there are any things where we have been leaning that way, we just confess our sins. We turn back to the Lord and say, “No more. I am crucified to the world. The world is crucified to me.”
Well, may we all rejoice this day with our brothers and sisters who are being baptized. Let’s pray.
Dear Lord, we come and lay our hearts bare before You. This is the day that You have made.
In these baptisms we are about to have, Lord, You have warmed our hearts and You have even spoken to us from the testimonies they have given.
Lord, in each of our cases, we do not know where everyone is at, but You know where we are all at. Wherever we are at, we pray this day You would meet us.
We pray that this living spiritual testimony we are about to see would witness to each of us. Lord, we pray that this would be a day of going forward, following the Lord, and leaving the world behind with all of us here. In Jesus’ name, amen.