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Baptism is such a rich and deep symbol.

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It has such rich and deep symbolism that there are so many things that it illustrates about the saving grace of God and what has taken place in us.

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You could preach a series of sermons and not exhaust this topic, I am pretty sure.

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It is rich in meaning.

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I am going to read three texts.

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I am going to read the text that Jesus gives us in Matthew 28, beginning in verse 18.

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I am going to read Matthew 28, Acts 8, a portion of scripture from there, and a portion of scripture in Romans 5 and 6 to help us in our understanding of the purpose of what we are doing this morning.

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These are the last words of our Lord Jesus that are in Matthew’s Gospel, the very closing words of the Gospel.

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Jesus is meeting with his 11 disciples in Galilee.

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The resurrected Jesus is meeting with them.

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I am going to begin reading verse 18.

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Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth.

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Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”

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If you flip over to the book of Acts, Acts chapter 8.

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Acts chapter 7 and 8 are the ministry of two of the first deacons in the church, Stephen and Philip.

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Acts chapter 7 ends with Stephen’s martyrdom.

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With that martyrdom, in which Saul was agreeing, there was a great persecution that took place in Jerusalem.

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As a result, the church there was scattered.

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The apostles stayed there in Jerusalem, but many people, like these deacons, were scattered.

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That was a blessing.

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It was a blessing of God because, as it says in verse 4, those who had been scattered went about preaching the word.

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The word of God began to spread throughout the region and eventually through Europe.

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This is the ministry of Philip.

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Philip ministers in Samaria.

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Then after Peter and after Simon and James minister there as well, they leave and return.

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That is what verse 25 says, James and Peter returning back to Jerusalem.

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But in verse 26, the angel of the Lord speaks to Philip.

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So we will begin reading there.

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But an angel of the Lord spoke to Philip, saying, “Get up and go south to the road that descends from Jerusalem to Gaza.”

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This is a desert road.

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So he got up and went, and there was an Ethiopian eunuch, a court official of Candace, the queen of Ethiopia, who was in charge of all her treasure.

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And he had come to Jerusalem to worship.

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And he was returning and sitting in his chariot and was reading the prophet Isaiah.

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And the Spirit said to Philip, “Go up and join this chariot.”

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Philip ran up and heard him reading Isaiah the prophet and said, “Do you understand what you are reading?”

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And he said, “Well, how could I unless someone guides me?”

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And he invited Philip to come up and sit with him.

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Now the passage of scripture which he was reading was this: “He was led as a sheep to slaughter; and as a lamb before its shearer is silent, so he does not open his mouth.

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In humiliation his judgment was taken away.

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Who will relate his generation?

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For his life is removed from the earth.”

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The eunuch answered Philip and said, “Please tell me, of whom does this prophet say this?

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Of himself or someone else?”

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Then Philip opened his mouth, and beginning from this scripture, he preached Jesus to him.

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As they went along the road, they came to some water; and the eunuch said, “Look, water!

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What prevents me from being baptized?”

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And Philip said, “If you believe with all your heart, you may.”

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And he answered and said, “I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.”

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And he ordered the chariot to stop; and they both went down into the water, Philip as well as the eunuch; and he baptized him.

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When they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord snatched Philip away; and the eunuch no longer saw him, but he went on his way rejoicing.

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But Philip found himself in Azotus, and as he passed through, he kept preaching the gospel to all the cities until he came to Caesarea.

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God’s word thus far.

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Romans chapter 5, beginning in verse 20.

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Paul is explaining the purpose of the law, the Old Testament.

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I am not going to explain this in the sermon, so let me just mention before we read that what he is saying is that in the coming of the law, because it brings more responsibility, when God reveals his moral responsibility to the world, that means that we are more responsible.

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That results in more sin, practically speaking.

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If we know to do good, we have been taught to do good, and we fail to do it, that results in more sin.

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But Paul is also saying that with the more sin, there is also more grace that is poured out through the gracious work that comes through Christ.

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That is where we are beginning in verse 20.

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The Law came in so that transgression would increase; but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more, so that as sin reigned in death, even so grace would reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

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What shall we say then?

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Are we to continue in sin that grace may increase?

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May it never be!

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How shall we who died to sin still live in it?

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Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into his death?

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Therefore we have been buried with him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in the newness of life.

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Let us ask the Lord to bless the reading of his holy and inerrant word.

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Father, we thank you for the preciousness of your holy word.

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We thank you for this instruction and these examples that have to do with, as we have just read, the saving grace of God that immerses us into the body of Christ, into the person of Christ, and our identification with Christ that comes to us through salvation.

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Father, for the practice of baptism, which symbolizes what takes place in our salvation.

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Help us, Father, to see this and grow us in it, we pray this morning.

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In Christ’s name we pray.

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Amen.

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Just a few points about baptism that you should always say whenever you are going to be able to practice, see this in practice, so that we know how to especially praise God for what is taking place.

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First of all, baptism does not save.

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I think I need to make that clear.

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Water baptism is a public proclamation of our identity with Christ, with his church, but it is not a means of saving grace that brings about salvation.

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We are saved when we put our trust in the Lord Jesus as our Savior and Lord.

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At the point of faith, a person who is said to be saved.

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It tells us in Acts 16:31 that the Philippian jailer asked, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?”

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And the answer is, “Believe in the Lord Jesus and you will be saved.”

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You are given eternal life.

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Who has eternal life in John 3:16?

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The passage that says, “For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son.”

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Who has eternal life?

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“Whoever believes in him.”

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So becoming a child of God is a matter of faith.

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John 1:12 says, “But as many as received him, to them he gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in his name.”

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It is the same thing in Galatians 3:26, “For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus.”

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Salvation comes through faith in Christ Jesus.

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Through faith, one passes from death to life.

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John 5:24 says, “Truly, truly, I say to you, he who hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and does not come into judgment, but has passed from death into life.”

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Romans 3:28 tells us that a person is justified by faith apart from the law.

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Our justification, us being made right before God, comes about through faith.

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It comes about when we express our trust in the work of Christ for us.

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Romans 4:3 and 5, “Now to the one who works, his wages are not credited as favor, but what is due.

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But the one who does not work, but believes in him who justified the ungodly, his faith is credited as righteousness.”

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So a person, it does not come obviously through the baptism, it comes through the expression of faith.

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There are people who teach that baptism is necessary for salvation.

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That is the doctrinal position of baptismal regeneration, the idea that we come to life through the practice of water baptism, or that they all teach that faith is necessary, but baptism is also necessary, and the way you live is usually also necessary.

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But the Bible is pretty clear that salvation comes to us through faith.

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By the way, it is very clear in scripture that baptism is not part of the gospel message, the good news that brings salvation.

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It is important, I am not going to minimize it, it is crucially important for the Christian life, but it is not part of the gospel.

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First Corinthians, Paul said, “For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel.”

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Preaching the gospel is something different than baptizing.

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So it is pretty clear that it is something separate.

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The gospel in 1 Corinthians 15 has to do with the death and the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

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So the gospel is the power of God unto salvation, and it has to do with Christ’s own death and resurrection.

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When we use the word baptism, the last time, I do not have to do too much today, I hope.

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The last time we talked about baptism a few weeks ago, we pointed out that really, if we did not use the word baptism and always used the word immersion, we would have a much clearer understanding of the New Testament and these doctrines.

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Because there are times in the Bible when it is talking about the immersion, the place, our saving, when we are regenerated, we are immersed or placed into the body of Christ.

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We are identified with in a powerful and unique way, the person of the Lord Jesus.

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That happens to us when we are saved.

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That immersion, it is the baptism of the Holy Spirit, that takes place when a person puts their trust in Christ.

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That happens at the same time.

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When we are thinking about this, we need to recognize that, and I will explain a little more about the passages we have read, but let us just give it a little thought.

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Immersion, being placed into or identified with Christ, is the crucial idea.

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The idea is us being identified completely with him.

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There are other meanings.

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There is the idea of being washed from our sins.

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That is not, that is not there.

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It is just that that is not the main thing.

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There is that idea.

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There is the figure of what took place with us in our salvation of being identified with the Lord Jesus Christ on the cross through death, burial, and resurrection.

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We will talk about that in just a moment.

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But the thing is, identification, placed into, being identified with.

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You were saved and now you are in Christ.

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You are not just in Christ, but you are in the body of Christ, his church.

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That takes place, that immersion takes place when you are saved.

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That is what we symbolize with baptism.

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Last time I mentioned briefly John’s baptism, which is different from the baptism of Jesus, but it was a baptism of repentance.

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I called attention to the fact that when John was baptizing in the wilderness, and the hosts of Israel were going out to be baptized, they were being baptized because Jesus is coming.

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The Savior is coming, the Christ is coming.

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They were going to prepare for that.

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So it was a baptism, the Bible clearly says it is a baptism of repentance.

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“Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand,” was John’s message.

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Jesus comes to be baptized of John.

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That is a baptism of repentance of sin.

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Jesus, the sinless Son of God, comes to John to be baptized.

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So why does he do that?

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Why is Jesus at the very, and this is the very first thing that happens at the beginning of his ministry, the baptism of John.

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Why does he do that?

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I have an illustration that I am going to read for you.

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It is a little silly, I have to say.

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I did not write it.

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The reason I am going to read it is because it is a very helpful illustration.

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Lots of people have benefited from it in explaining and understanding Jesus’ baptism and our baptism.

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This is an illustration that came from a sermon on repentance by Gordon MacDonald some years ago, and I am just going to read this whole thing for us.

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He says, “Imagine John’s baptism.

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There are thousands, literally thousands of people coming to be baptized, and it is a confusing thing, all these people coming.

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There are some organizational type people that decided to smooth things along.

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So he says, ‘We are standing around there, and we understand that a thing like this has to be organized.

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So we make a plan.’

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One of them says, ‘When you decide to come and repent, folks, we want you to register.

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We will get your names down on a mailing list and we will give you a name tag so that the baptizers can get more personal with you.

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Just step forward, tell us your first name and your most awful sin.’

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Up to this table, Bob steps up and he says, and they say, ‘Name?’

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He says, ‘Bob.’

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‘What is your most awful sin, Bob?’

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‘I stole some money from my boss once.’

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The person takes a marker and writes, ‘Bob, embezzler.’

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Takes the name tag and sticks it on Bob.

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The next person, ‘Name?’

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‘Mary.’

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‘Mary, what is your most awful sin?’

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‘I slandered some people.

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I said things that were not true.

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I just did not like them.’

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So the person writes, ‘Mary, slanderer.’

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‘Name?’

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‘George.’

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‘What is your most awful sin?’

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‘I have been coveting my neighbor’s Corvette.’

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‘George, coveter.’

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‘Name?’

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‘Gordon.’

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‘Gordon, your most awful sin?’

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‘Adultery.’

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‘Gordon, adulterer.’

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The person with some degree of gloating slaps the name tag on the chest of each person.

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Then all these people with their name tags and their most awful sins line up by the river, waiting to be baptized in repentance.

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Up to the table comes Jesus.

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‘Jesus, most awful sin?’

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Well, there is not any.

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So Jesus starts walking down the line.

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He steps up to Bob and says, ‘Bob, give me your name tag,’ and he puts it on himself.

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‘Mary, give me your name tag,’ and he puts it on himself.

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‘George, give me your name tag,’ and he goes on himself.

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‘Gordon, give me your name tag,’ and soon the Son of God is covered with name tags and awful sins.

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Someone comes up and gently says to Jesus, ‘You know, it is a nice thing you are doing.

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If you have to do this though, couldn’t you just take off a few of the worst ones?

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If you are going to start a Messianic movement, you have to be above reproach.

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Why don’t you take off the tag that says murderer?

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Take off the adulterer tag too.

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Those are too despicable.

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We are talking about nines and tens here.’

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Jesus says, ‘You do not realize.

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I am the Son of David.

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David had to wear these name tags.

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I will not write him off, for I have forgiven him.’

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He goes on to say, ‘In my vision I see Jesus going in the water to present himself for baptism to John.’

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At the risk of being trite, in my vision, the people who had the markers did not buy indelible ink.

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When Jesus comes up, all the ink has been washed away.

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It is going down the river, and I recall the words, ‘As far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us.'”

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That is really true.

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When Jesus began his ministry, the first thing that he did was identify with us.

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He identified with us.

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All the things that Jesus did throughout his life, every, everything, including baptism, he worked every work of righteousness.

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His good works, all of them, are given over to us because of that identification with us.

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Jesus was baptized to be identified with us.

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When we are baptized, we are expressing what has taken place in our salvation and our identity with him.

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So we find forgiveness and justification and identification with Christ through baptism.

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Baptism symbolizes what has taken place in salvation, in the spiritual baptism that we have received.

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John the Baptist said that God sent him to baptize with water.

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Jesus would baptize with the Holy Spirit.

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Coming to faith in Jesus Christ is that baptism of the Holy Spirit that washes us from our sins.

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We read Romans 6:3-4 again.

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We looked at that a few weeks ago, but we read it again today because that is expressing spiritual immersion into Christ.

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It is what happens to us when we are saved.

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It illustrates, and when we are being baptized, we are illustrating what has taken place to us when we are saved.

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When it says in John 3:4, “Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized,” all of us who have been immersed into Christ Jesus, identified with Christ Jesus in that way, “into Christ Jesus” are the words, “have been immersed into his death.”

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We have been identified with his death.

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“Therefore, we have been buried with him through immersion into death, in order that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in the newness of life.”

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He is saying that we are to live a godly life because our old person under the judgment of God has died, is dead in Jesus Christ.

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Is dead, identified with Christ’s death.

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The wages of sin is death, eternal death.

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Jesus Christ took our place on the cross, identified with us, paid that debt on the cross, paid the debt of eternal death for us.

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We are identified with that.

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How can we any longer walk in sin, Paul says?

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Shouldn’t we hate that?

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Shouldn’t we want to love him and serve him with our life?

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That is the idea because that is our salvation.

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We have been identified with him.

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We have been identified him with, our old past should be buried, and we are raised into newness of life in Jesus Christ.

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So that is what we celebrate in celebrating baptism.

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That is the main picture.

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There are a few other things.

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Back in the passage, there is clearly an identification with Jesus in our baptism.

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We are doing the formula that Jesus gave us when we are baptized, being baptized in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

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When John baptized, the people who were baptized by John became disciples of John.

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You see that little issue coming up in John’s Gospel.

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You see it coming up again somewhere around Acts 18, I think, somewhere in Acts when they are proclaiming the gospel to a group of people who had formerly been John’s disciples.

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So there is that idea.

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But when Jesus’ disciples baptized, they were being baptized as Jesus’ disciples.

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When we are baptized, Matthew 28 says, “Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit and teaching them to obey.”

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“In the name of.”

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We are being baptized, immersed into Christ.

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The idea when we are saved is that Christ owns us.

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He belongs to us.

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He is our Lord.

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We are to obey him.

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We are to be taught obedience because he is our Lord.

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So that is, these are all pictures that baptism shows.

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That identification with Christ, that immersion into Christ, and being baptized.

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So baptism is only for believers, only for people who have put their trust in Jesus Christ, them alone.

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It expresses that one-time event of salvation.

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That is what we are going to do this morning.

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Let me pray for us.

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Father, we are so grateful for this provision of abundant grace, salvation in Jesus Christ, your great love for us, that you saw us in our misery of sin, helpless.

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None of us could do anything but ultimately suffer the eternal wrath of God because of our sinfulness.

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Yet you had mercy on us.

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You showed us abundant mercy and grace in Christ Jesus.

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We thank you that he identified with us, not just when he was baptized, but he identified with us when he was on the cross, that he identified with us when, and that is the very reason that he suffered there.

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That is the reason that he died for us and experienced the very wrath of God in our place.

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That is why he was buried and lay in the tomb for three days.

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That is why when he is risen from the dead, we are risen with him in newness of life.

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We thank you for this rich and wonderful gospel.

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We thank you, Father, that we can express that through a public testimony, through our baptism.

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We pray that you bless this baptism this morning.

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I pray that each person commits themselves to you in a true way, and that this, Father, would be a powerful reminder to them and to us of you as our Lord and our Savior, and our need to be disciples of yours.

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Thank you, Lord, for this opportunity.

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Thank you for this blessing for our church to see these young people express their faith in Christ today.

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We pray for your blessing in Christ’s name.

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Amen.