In his sermon titled 'Of Baptism, 1689 SLBC Chapter 29, Par. 3,' Nate Wikman addresses the key aspects of baptism, structured into three sections: the means and method of baptism, the symbol and reality of baptism, and the Trinity in baptism. Baptism is described as an act performed through immersion, symbolizing the believer's union with Christ in His death and resurrection. The method of immersion is argued to accurately represent the reality that baptism signifies. The sermon emphasizes the symbolic nature of baptism as a reflection of heavenly realities and a union with Christ at conversion. Wikman highlights the involvement of the Trinity in baptism, noting that it is performed in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, each playing a role in salvation. The sermon concludes with a call to seek the Lord and a warning about the eternal consequences for the soul, urging preparation for the afterlife.

My apologies, I'm a little confused just because we had, I had paragraph 3, it looks like it says paragraph 4 here, but we were doing paragraph 3. Okay, alright, sorry about that. The verses, the men read, I guess it has the wrong verses here, but I'll read Matthew 28, 19, and then Acts 838, go with paragraph 3. Matthew 28, 19, 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. And then Acts 838, so he commanded the chariot to stand still and both Philip and the eunuch went down into the water and he baptized him.

I broke this out into three sections. First the means and the method of baptism, the symbol and the reality of baptism, and then the Trinity in baptism. So starting with the means and the method, I think it's clear to everyone that baptism is accomplished with water. In Acts 10 47 says can anyone forbid water that these should not be baptized who have received the Holy Spirit just as we have? And then Acts 8 36 and 38 and the eunuch said here is water what hinders me from being baptized?

And both Philip and the eunuch went down into the water and he baptized him. So that's pretty straightforward, I'm not going to spend any more time on that. But as far as the method of baptism, baptism is accomplished through immersion. There are two different Greek words for baptism that the New Testament uses. The first one is bapto, which is used four times in the New Testament.

That word means to dip, to dip into, or to immerse, or as it was commonly used in reference to dipping a cloth into dye. That word isn't as strong as the second word, which is baptism. In that stronger form the word occurs 112 times in the New Testament in means to submerge or to dip under. Immersion accurately paints a picture of the reality that baptism expresses. I have a quote here from John MacArthur where he writes, only immersion fits the reality of which baptism is the picture.

The reality is that the believer at salvation is united with Christ in his death and resurrection. Only immersion symbolizes death, burial into the water, and resurrection of the new life coming out. Only immersion maintains the picture, the image of the reality that baptism signifies." End quote. So that leads right into the next section, the symbol reality of baptism. So what does baptism symbolize?

All through the Old Testament, God has given us earthly images to teach us heavenly realities. You can think of the institution of the Passover, the building of a monument of rock after the Israelites crossed over the Jordan, the sacrificial system, the sacrificing of a lamb without blemish, sending the scapegoat out into the wilderness. All these things God has given to his people as pictures to teach us and remind us of the truths from his word. Baptism is a picture to the people witnessing of the union of Christ with the believer, the union that we experience at conversion. Union in his death, burial, and resurrection.

I've got a few verses here. Romans 6, 3 through 4, 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. And then skipping to verse 6, knowing this that our old man was crucified with him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin. Galatians 2.20, I have been crucified with Christ, it is no longer I who live but Christ lives in me.

In the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. And then Colossians 2.12, buried with him in baptism, in which you also were raised with him through faith in the working of God who raised him from the dead." So I know a couple weeks ago Levi had focused on what I referred to here as the method of baptism. How we teach that that's accomplished through immersion. I won't spend really any more time on that, but I did kind of want to focus here on the symbol and the reality of baptism, that spiritual reality it's picturing that happens in us at conversion is we often say is the you witness a baptism buried with him and raised again. As the verses I read just showed, all true believers have been crucified with Christ, buried with him, and we will be raised again.

Looking at the Trinity in the baptism, as Acts 28-19 mentions, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. I kind of looked at that as baptizing the name as baptizing in the authority of the Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit. I think that's, we're commanded to do that just as all three persons of the Trinity are involved in the salvation of a soul. So in 1st John 4 14 we see the Father's sending of the Son and we have seen and testify that the Father has sent the Son as the Savior of the world. Then in 1st Peter 2 24, Christ dying, who himself bore our sins in his own body on the tree that we having died to sins might live for righteousness by whose stripes you were healed.

And then Romans 5 8 also, but God demonstrates his own love towards us in that while we are still sinners Christ died for us. So we have the Father's sending of the Son, Christ dying, and then the Spirit's quickening. And I have Ephesians 2-1, and you he made alive, or as the old King James says, quickened. And you he made alive who are dead in trespasses and sins. So in summary, means and method of baptism.

Baptism is accomplished through the immersion into water. The symbol and reality of baptism. Immersion paints an accurate picture of our immersion into Christ, our union with Christ at conversion, and then the Trinity in baptism. Just as all three persons of the Trinity are working together in the salvation of a soul, we're commanded to baptize believers in the name and on the authority of all three persons of the triune God. Taking an application from this, in the words of an old spiritual, Were you there?

Were you there when they crucified my Lord? Were you there when they nailed him to the tree? Were you there when they laid him in the tomb? And were you there when he rose up from the grave? I was reading Thomas Watson recently where he says, the soul being so precious and salvation so glorious, it's the highest point of prudence to make preparations for another world.

Hell is as much of a certainty for the unbelieving churchgoer as for the Muslim who's never heard the gospel. Every man has an immortal soul that will either spend eternity with God and Christ or an eternity in hell. And then paraphrasing Watson again, every man will either die a death which ever lives or live a life which never dies. So I'll just close with Isaiah 55 6 through 7. Seek the Lord while he may be found, call upon him while he is near, Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts.

Let him return to the Lord and he will have mercy on him and to our God for he will abundantly pardon."