Scott Brown's sermon on baptism, based on the Baptist Confession of 1689, explores baptism as a physical ordinance symbolizing spiritual truths. Baptism, along with the Lord's Supper, is one of two New Testament ordinances engaging the senses. Brown highlights baptism's threefold message: it illustrates the past (the historical death and resurrection of Jesus), the present (cleansing and rebirth), and the future (bodily resurrection). Baptism is a visual representation of the gospel, demonstrating fellowship with Christ, engrafting into Him, remission of sins, and a commitment to live a new life. The sermon emphasizes the necessity of immersion in water, following the Great Commission's directive to baptize in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Proper subjects of baptism are those who profess repentance, faith, and obedience to Jesus. The sermon also contrasts believer's baptism with infant baptism, questioning the latter's ability to convey personal faith and repentance.

Well, our focus tonight is the ordinance of baptism in the 29th chapter of the Baptist Confession of 1689, and this, of course, is a physical sign of something. God has put us in a physical world. It's a blessing, isn't it? He's given us eyes to see. He's given us ears to hear.

There are aromas. There's a sense of touch that God has given us, and in all of those things we find our blessings from God. They are acts of kindness and mercy and love toward His creatures. He's put us in a physical world and there are many physical connections that we make. Now we know that God has put in nature, in this physical world, thousands of signs of spiritual things, physical signs of spiritual things.

Lights, doors, rocks, rivers, oceans, clouds, all those things are physical signs that God has put in the world in order to lead us to think about spiritual things and to experience spiritual things. Baptism is one of those physical things. It's a blessing that he has given baptism to us because it's a physical sign of something spiritual. Now the Lord in His kindness has ordained two ordinances for His church. Both of those are physical acts that engage the senses, the sight, the touch, the sense of hearing, and even a sense of smell.

And these two ordinances are baptism and the Lord's Supper, and these are both mandated in the New Testament. This is why F.F. Bruce, the scholar, said this. He said, the idea of an unbaptized Christian is simply not entertained in the New Testament. Baptism ought to be the first priority of a person who becomes a Christian.

Now, we see this in the New Testament. The New Testament is full of remarkable, amazing baptism stories. You think about Lydia. She was a devout, she was an energetic, she was a tender-hearted woman from Philippi, and she was converted down at the river and was baptized, and her whole family came to the Lord as well. Think of the jailer in Philippi, hardened by the realities of military and crime and rebellion and blood.

Not anything like Lydia, who was a refined and tenderhearted and tender-hearted woman. And this man was baptized as a result of an earthquake that took place and prisoners that would not run out of the prison, Paul and Silas. And he was so struck by Jesus that he shared the gospel with his family and all of them were baptized as well, probably the morning after the earthquake. Think of the Ethiopian official. He was on his way home to Ethiopia and to continue to serve his master.

And he was riding along in the chariot. And unbeknownst to him, God had commanded Philip to go and stand by the road. And he saw this man going by in his chariot. And the Lord said, Go up to the chariot. And he found him reading the prophet Isaiah.

He was reading Isaiah 53. And he says, Philip asked him, you know what you're reading? And he said, how could I understand this unless someone explained it to me? And Philip explained it to him, and he looked and he said, well, there's water here, why not be baptized? And he was baptized right away.

Think of the throngs that were baptized by John the Baptist who wanted relief from their guilt and the weight of sin and to change their direction in life. They flock to Him from all over the place out into the desert. Imagine what that must have been like. The Bible is full of really amazing stories of baptism. Think about the 3, 000 that were converted in one day.

Peter was preaching and they said, what must we do? And Peter said, repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit." And they were baptized. And then they went about and they were breaking bread from house to house, rejoicing together, having formed a church. Think of The murderous Saul of Tarsus in Acts chapter 9, who was speaking to Ananias and the scales fell from his eyes, and he got up and he was baptized at the urging of Ananias. Think of that godly and prayerful man, Cornelius, whose whole family believed and was baptized in Acts chapter 10.

Think of Crispus, the ruler of the synagogue, a religious man, an administrator. He went to the home of Prisca and Aquila, and what did they do? They explained the gospel to him in their home, and he was converted and he was baptized, as recorded in Acts chapter 18. Think of the 25 disciples of John the Baptist who finally understood the power of the resurrection, and they were saved in Acts 19, 1 through 4. Think of the joy it was for those to experience the resurrection as Paul explained it to the Christians in Rome where he said, or do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?

Therefore we were buried with him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father even so we also should walk in newness of life or think about the Corinthians who had who recognized that they had been baptized into one body They had been living in that corrupt Corinthian city and they had a new family and they were baptized into the body of Christ. You know, I can recall my own baptism when I was 17 years old. We were just talking about it tonight. I was 17 that same night, Deborah was 9, and we were baptized the same night and so was my sister. And when I was baptized, the imagery, the physical imagery of that act, It really overwhelmed me.

And you might think it's strange. The reason, probably, it did, it was during those years I was in the Pacific Ocean a lot, surfing. And the whole idea of water washing over you was something I was very familiar with, and it was such a refreshing thing. And I'll never forget sitting in the back of the church waiting to go up to be baptized, and I could just picture a wave washing over me and the cleansing flood of water coming over my body that I'd felt, you know, probably thousands of times in the Pacific Ocean. That physical, that physical ordinance meant something to me.

It meant refreshment. It meant cleansing to me just because of my own experience with the water. So the Bible is full of remarkable baptism stories. I don't know what your baptism story is, but it's this physical act that bears witness to a spiritual reality. Now, just by introduction, baptism holds a threefold message, and it is an illustration of the past, it's an illustration of the present, and it's an illustration of the future.

And that's very critical that we understand that. Baptism illustrates the past, that it illustrates the historical death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. And the person being baptized is explicitly affirming the historicity of Jesus Christ's life, death, and resurrection. So it's an illustration of the past. It's also an illustration of the present.

It illustrates the experience of being born again. As water is useful for cleansing, you know, so baptism pictures the cleansing of the blood of Jesus Christ. And it pictures the death and the burial of the Lord Jesus Christ and the Christian, and the resurrection of Jesus Christ and the believer with him in his resurrection. And it also represents the future. It illustrates the future bodily resurrection of the believer.

So baptism has a threefold message, past, present, and future. So in short, you know, baptism is the gospel displayed in visual form. And so let's move into the confession now. And there are four paragraphs that will walk through the language. And in the first paragraph, we learn what is baptism.

That's the very first item that is addressed. What is baptism? And I'll read the paragraph. Baptism is an ordinance of the New Testament ordained by Jesus Christ to be unto the party baptized a sign of his fellowship with him in his death and resurrection of his being engrafted into him of remission of sins and of giving up into God through Jesus Christ to live and walk in newness of life. Now in this first paragraph is the answer to the question, what is baptism?

First, what's the origin of baptism? The origin of baptism is this. Baptism is an ordinance of the New Testament ordained by Jesus Christ to be unto the party baptized. So our Lord Jesus Christ, the Good shepherd, the light of the world, the living bread, the door, the resurrection, and the life has called for baptism. And the Lord Himself commanded His disciples to baptize.

We read about that in Matthew 28 verses 18 through 20. This is of course the Great Commission. The biblical basis for this statement is Matthew 28 18 through 20, and Jesus came and spoke to them saying, All authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you and lo I am with you always even to the end of the age." So first, the origin of baptism is Jesus. Second, what does baptism mean or why should you get baptized and our confession offers four points of clarification about the meaning of baptism all of them speak about how baptism is a sign so follow these phrases with me first of all it's a sign of fellowship and that's why you read these words, a sign of his fellowship with him in his death and resurrection.

So it's a sign of fellowship that the believer has with Jesus who was buried and who rose again. It's a sign of fellowship with Him, such a close fellowship that you would die with Him and He and He would raise you up with him. It's a sign of that kind of close fellowship. He takes you where he goes. What a beautiful picture of fellowship.

Romans 6, 3, and 4 is the biblical basis for this. Or do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death. Therefore we were buried with him through baptism into death that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father even so we should walk in newness of life just as he died and rose again so we die and rise again with him that's fellowship eternal fellowship he takes you with him what a blessing The second sign is the sign of receiving him, and we read these words, of his being engrafted into him. So this is a picture of being engrafted into him to be in him and to literally to be in Christ. And Galatians chapter 3 verses 26 to 29 are the biblical basis for this.

For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus, for as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. So it's a sign of engrafting in him. And then thirdly, it's a sign of forgiveness. You see the words of remission of sins? That's the language of forgiveness.

Colossians 2, 11 through 15 is the biblical basis for this. We read that we were buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the working of God who raised him from the dead, and you, being dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, has made alive together with him having forgiven you all trespasses, having wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against us, which was contrary to us, and he has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross, having disarmed the principalities and powers, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them in it." The Lord Jesus Christ has determined that baptism would be a picture of remission of sins, literally the nailing of your transgressions to the cross and wiping them out and and thereby, you know, befuddling and frustrating the powers of darkness that desire to destroy you and to condemn you. Because Jesus wants to say, there is therefore no condemnation. Who shall bring a charge against God's elect? That's the Lord Jesus Christ.

The devil wants to nail your transgressions to your body and let them hang there forever. But Jesus Christ has nothing of that. So thirdly, it's a sign of forgiveness, of remission of sins. In Mark chapter 1, verses 1 through 9, we find the very same principle that's there. Number four, it's a sign of giving up all and following Him.

Do you see these words? And of giving up into God through Jesus Christ to live and walk in newness of life. So the fourth sign of baptism is a sign of giving up everything and following Him. And the biblical basis for This is in Acts chapter 22, and I'll just focus on verse 16. And here, this is a record of the apostle Paul's baptism.

And Ananias says to Paul, and now why are you waiting? Arise and be baptized and wash away your sins, calling on the name of the Lord. Why are you waiting? Don't wait. Go be baptized.

And he, because this is to call on the name of the Lord. And so, these four things in this first paragraph, it's a sign of fellowship, it's a sign of receiving Him and being, or literally being engrafted into Him. Fourthly, it's a sign of forgiveness, or thirdly, it's a sign of forgiveness. And fourthly, it's a sign of giving up all and following Him. Now, I'm not here to debate the Pato Baptist position here, but just one question in that, can an infant claim these four things?

Can an infant absolutely claim these things? Can they experience these elements with certainty and can anyone actually certify that? And the answer is no, they cannot. Okay, so paragraph 2. Now we've covered one, now we go to paragraph 2, and here we have a description of who should be baptized.

And paragraph 2 reads like this, those who do actually profess repentance towards God, faith in, and obedience to our Lord Jesus Christ are the only proper subjects of this ordinance. So who should be baptized? Well it's stated really very clearly. Now there are three central matters in this paragraph. Who first?

Those who profess repentance towards God. Those who have said that they've repented of their sins. One of the great dangers that exists in evangelicalism today is that people preach a gospel without repentance. It's very dangerous to preach a gospel without repentance. And then the second element of who should be baptized is they profess faith in, faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.

And Acts chapter 8 verse 37 is the biblical basis for this in the narrative of the Ethiopian eunuch. Then Philip said, if you believe with all your heart, the word believe is also the word for faith. Belief and faith are the same thing in the Bible. If you believe with all your heart, you may. And he answered and said, I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.

He had faith, he was resting his entire weight on Jesus. You find the same biblical basis in the faith of Crispus, who was baptized recorded in Acts chapter 18, and we read in after chapter 18 verse 8, then Crispus, the ruler of the synagogue, believed on the Lord with all his household, and many of the Corinthians hearing, believed, and were baptized. So this matter of believing, having faith is critical. And then thirdly, to profess obedience to. So those who should be baptized are those who also profess that they desire to obey Jesus.

They want to quit obeying the ruler of this world, the flesh, and their impulses, and their background, and they want to obey the gospel of Jesus Christ. And the biblical basis for this is in Mark chapter 16 verses 15 and 16 where Jesus said, go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. He who believes and is baptized will be saved but he who does not believe will be condemned." And then in Acts 2 as well you find a testimony of those who gladly received his word and were baptized and they steadfastly devoted themselves to the Apostles doctrine to fellowship in the breaking of bread and in prayers. In other words, they were obedient. They turned to the Lord and they wanted to do what he wanted them to do, and they obeyed.

So, three things that defines who should be baptized. First, those who profess repentance toward God. Second, those who profess faith in God. And third, those who profess obedience to. Okay, that's paragraph two.

Now let's move on to paragraph three. Now when you get to paragraphs three and four, we'll just camp on three first, but paragraphs three and four speak about how baptism is to be practiced. And in these two paragraphs are the physical nuts and bolts of baptism. And so that's why you read, the outward element to be used in this ordinance is water, wherein the party is to be baptized in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. So, how does it work?

Well, you've got to have water. That's critical. And the biblical basis of this, I'll identify two biblical bases. First of all, John the Baptist recorded in John chapter 3 verses 22 and 23. So here in this passage, John is baptizing and verse 23 read, now John also was baptizing in Anan near Salim because there was much water there and they came and were baptized.

They needed much water because it takes much water to be baptized. That's the deal, okay? Is there any particular instance of sprinkling in the New Testament? No, there is not. There is evidence of much water.

Also in the baptism of Philip, we find the same thing in Acts chapter 8, and in verse 38, we read that Philip commanded the chariot to stand still, and both Philip and the eunuch went down into the water and he baptized them. Now when they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord caught Philip away. So they went down into the water and they came back out of the water. That's the universal testimony of the methodology for baptism. That's why we use the terms baptism by immersion.

We immerse, we don't sprinkle. It's simply because of these things that are there. And then the confession not only addresses what medium should be used, and that is water. There's also the words that are used. The very words that are to be used in baptism are described here in the confession.

The word, these are the words, and they're right there in the text of the confession in paragraph three, in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. So this is the language that one should use in baptism. And of course, this is derived from Matthew 28 verse 19 where the Lord Jesus says, Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. So this is the the baptismal formula. And there's a there's a there's a Baptist catechism that was written in 1659 that gives some clarification of this.

I want to read you some of the words there. The words read like this, What is it to baptize in the name of the Father, Son, and the Holy Ghost? Now listen carefully. It is not to baptize only with the naming of these three persons, but to the profession of the Father, Son, and the Holy Ghost as our Master or Teacher as appears by the words of Paul in 1st Corinthians 1.13. Now what he's saying is these words are not physical words but that it's not enough to say the words but they must be said by professing allegiance to the Father, to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit.

So we're not using a mantra, We're actually expressing a true feeling from the heart of allegiance to the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. We're baptizing in His name, in allegiance to everything that His name implies. So then we go to paragraph chapter four and we read these words, immersion or dipping of the person in water is necessary to the due administration of this ordinance. So again there's just further clarification that dipping or immersion, that there needs to be lots of water involved. It's not an act of sprinkling.

So we here in our church wouldn't, we wouldn't feel comfortable sprinkling someone. You know it's it's possible if someone had a very serious medical issue or something like that we may use less water rather than more but we would try to fulfill the the requirements that that we see in Scripture and see in our confession. So there it is. Baptism is a picture of the gospel. It's visual theology.

It is a physical act that bears witness to a spiritual reality. Now, you know, when you think about baptism, you know, I don't know who you relate with the most about those who were baptized in the Bible? Do you relate more to Lydia or the Philippian jailer or the Ethiopian eunuch or the throngs that were baptized or Saul of Tarsus or Cornelius or any of those people? But think of the joy it is to experience this ordinance, to engage all of your senses, to demonstrate a glory of Jesus Christ that his gospel has afforded. You know, think of the blessing it is to be baptized into his death, to be buried with him, and to be raised up to eternal life, clean, clean forever, justified, and then sanctified by the Lord Jesus Christ.

It really, it pictures the sweetest thing that one can ever experience. New life, clean. So there it is. There's the doctrine of baptism from the Baptist confession of 1689.