Well, good afternoon. It's a privilege to be able to speak at the Worship of God conference and to be able to open up God's word and teach on the subject of baptism as worship. Would you join me in prayer? Heavenly Father we come to you this afternoon and our hearts are already full. Our cup runneth over of the goodness and the mercy and the grace of God that we have already been bestowed being taught on the glorious subjects of worship.

I pray that you'd help us now as we seek to learn from your word regarding the glorious ordinance of baptism and how we are to follow in obedience in worship of Almighty God through baptism I prayed you'd guide my lips you'd give me clarity of thought and mind and speech you'd be with everyone that is here they might listen with intent and a desire to hear what the scripture has to say pray in Jesus name Amen well I'm thankful that you're here this afternoon and grateful for the privilege to to speak this afternoon I'm speaking on baptism as worship and the culture that we live in if you said baptism and connected the word worship with it most people would not associate the two. They would agree that baptism is something that we practice as part of the Christian faith, but they would not necessarily put it in the category of worship because so many today believe that worship is simply the music of the church that is a wrong understanding of that as we are learning quite thoroughly this weekend baptism is one of the elements of worship that the church is to practice which is clearly seen in the New Testament.

In the London Baptist confession, it says regarding the elements of worship, the reading of the scriptures, preaching, and hearing of the word of God, teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in our hearts to the Lord, also the administration of baptism and the Lord's Supper, are all parts of religious worship of God to be performed in obedience to him with understanding faith reverence and godly fear moreover solemn humiliation with with fastings and thanksgiving upon special occasions ought to be used in a holy and religious manner. This is from the London Baptist Confession Article 32 22 paragraph five on religious worship and the Sabbath day I think it's important that we understand that baptism is one of the elements of worship before we look specifically at baptism though it's important for me to briefly lay out some foundational truths for all of worship in the Church of God my my talk my message is in relation to something specifically that's done as we worship together corporately so we may understand worship includes family worship it includes our private secret devotional life our private worship but my focus is specifically targeted in on as the church assembles together to meet what is it that we do that frames or that that gives us the context for our worship.

First Timothy chapter three we learn of the qualifications for the bishops or the elders and the deacons and in this passage of scripture it concludes with a very strong admonition that until he comes we're to give our attention to something so just following first Timothy chapter 3 verses 1 through 13 verse 14 begins this way these things ry under thee hoping to come unto thee shortly. But if I tarry long, that thou mayest know how thou oughtest to behave thyself in the house of God, Which is the church of the living God the pillar and the ground of the truth? This passage of Scripture reveals that the pastors and deacons the elders and deacons are to continue until Paul arrives to continue in leading rightly the Church of Jesus Christ so that the people and the leaders would know how they ought to behave themselves in the house of God. This is using a picture Old Testament language calling the New Testament Church the house of God the pillar in the ground of the truth we know it's not talking about the building but the assembled people of God as we gather together God meets with us as we heard so eloquently stated last night from Dr.

Moorcraft. We meet together and when we meet together we grow and do in Holy Temple in the Lord in the book of Ephesians in chapter number two a passage of scripture that several years ago just gripped me when I saw the context of this passage. It says in Ephesians chapter 2 and verse number 19, Now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and of the household of God and are built upon a foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief cornerstone. So we are the household of God and even in the year 2013 we're a part of the household of God but we're not building on something new we're building on something very old we're building on Jesus Christ who's the chief cornerstone we're building on the Apostles and Prophets and the foundation that was laid And it says in whom all the building fitly framed together Groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord This is a beautiful picture and again bringing in the Old Testament language and it's saying now the people are the temple of God I know that we all understand in the New Testament it says ye are the temple of the living God and and there are passages scripture that relate the fact that you personally are the the temple of the living God God dwells in you by his spirit.

I think we would all affirm that as believers God's Spirit takes up residence But this passage of Scripture like most of them when it talks about The church being likened unto the temple of God It says ye plural The body this is in whom all the building fitly framed together groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord in Whom you're also builded together for inhabitation of God through the Spirit. This gives a beautiful picture, a beautiful context of how when we gather together for worship, when we assemble together as the people of God, we are an habitation of God and we grow, we are builded together through the Spirit of God and we grow as an holy temple in the Lord it uses the little word un or a it's one of many so there are there are churches that are gathering together that are being built up and a habitation of God through the Spirit all over the world to God be the Glorine we pray all the more in Time ahead. So the church is the house of God The church is where the household of God meets together and they meet together with God.

And there's a purpose for our meeting and we could sum it up with the word worship. The purpose of the worship of God or the purpose of biblical worship is to worship the Lord in spirit and in truth as John's gospel chapter 4 verse 23 and 24 relates as Jesus speaking to the woman at the well of Samaria about true worship And he exhorted her to worship the Father in spirit and in truth. So when we worship, we prostrate ourselves before God and before His Word to desire to worship him in spirit and in truth to worship him with the spirit of God leading us and with the truth of his word guiding us not only is there a purpose of biblical worship but there is a place of biblical worship that we just read from 1st Timothy chapter 3 speaking about the house of God. And as we gather together, we need to understand the primary purpose of the Lord's day when we gather together is to worship God. It is to go up to the heaven and have the heavens come down.

There should be a sense in which the people of God gathering together is a taste of the heavenlies. It is a bit of heaven on earth. You think about the relationships, and I have some of those relationships with people that are here this morning, the relationships that God brings, not just because people have similar personalities or likes and dislikes, but because the worship of Almighty God draws them into unity and love of the brethren. It is something that God does. There is a person of our worship and ultimately that person is the triune God of the universe.

We have no other that we ought to worship the book of Exodus is very clear in the first table of the Ten Commandments in Exodus chapter 20 That we are to worship God and God Alone the Father the Son and through and in the power of the Holy spirit there is an authority of biblical worship as we as we're going towards looking at the specific element of baptism we need to understand that God has given to us an authority to to guide our life by and that is the Word of God I don't want to to seem too obvious but when you think about what is our authority biblical what is our biblical authority well it's the Bible. It's the Bible I know that that might for some seem old fashioned or limited it is not it is exactly what God has given to us his word for to guide us into all of Life and to guide us in particularly to how we worship the God of the universe I love Psalm 40 says I waited patiently for the Lord and he heard my cry and he brought me up also out of an horrible pit not of the miry clay and he set my feet upon a rock and he established my goings that rock is Christ and the establishment of our goings happens because we go to the Word of God and we learn from God's Word how we are to live all of life and as the church it seems obvious that rather than going to the newest manual on how to do church, we ought to go to God's Word.

And we ought to build upon the foundation of Christ as the cornerstone and the apostles and prophets that have been laid before us. The London Baptist Confession again states, the acceptable way of worshiping the true God is instituted by himself and so limited by his own revealed will that he may not be worshiped according to the imaginations and devices of men. You think about in modern-day Christianity, it's all about imaginations. It's all about how we can reinvent things, how we can make things relevant, how we can reach a particular segment of people, how we can make it acceptable. It's all about man's imaginations.

It's all about creativity. I see and I pick up books and I read about who the author is and the last thing on the list is pastor before is like creative artist you know church engineer you know structural architect of the mosaic or something like that and all these clever terms they've come up with and it's just a bunch of hooey it's just a bunch of garbage it's it's meaningless And it's going to end up leading them farther away from God than leading them to God. They're going to the second table. They're going to man to find out how they should worship God rather than going God to say what is it that pleases you? It continues.

And this is where I think the digression happens. According to the imagination, there not be worshiped according to the imaginations and devices of men, nor the suggestions of Satan under any visible representation or any other way not prescribed by in Holy Scripture. The way that we worship God, and that's The second line of Baptist confession on worship the way that we worship God should be according to Scripture We should learn from its truths in the very clear Ten Commandments in Exodus chapter number 20 in the first few verses it says and God spake all these words saying I am the Lord thy God which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt out of the house of bondage thou shalt have no other gods before me thou shalt not make into thee any graven image or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above or that is in the earth beneath or that is in the water under the earth thou shalt not bow down thyself to them nor serve them for I the Lord thy God am a jealous God visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children under the third and the fourth generation of them that hate me, and showing mercy unto thousands of them that love me and keep my commandments.

Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain for the Lord will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain. Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labor and do all thy work. But the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God. In it thou shalt not do any work.

Thou nor thy son nor thy daughter, thy manservant nor thy maidservant nor thy cattle nor thy stranger that was in thy gate. For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, and the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day. Wherefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day, and hallowed it." Here is clear instructions of how we are to worship God. We are to worship God, in essence, God's way. Not according to traditions of men.

What is it that Christ in the New Testament was explicitly opposed to? What is it that Jesus, if you could say, when Jesus wasn't, he was never sinful. We understand that. We know that. But when we perceive jesus as only meek and mild that never like not having a backbone if that's your impression of jesus you need to read again the New Testament.

Especially when it came to confronting those who were Pharisees, those who were elevating the traditions of man to the doctrines of God. Here's what Jesus had to say in Matthew 15 and verse number 7. Ye hypocrites, well did Isaiah prophesy of you, saying, This people draweth nigh unto me with their mouth, and honoureth me with their lips, but their heart is far from me. But in vain they do worship me, empty with emptiness, that do they worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men that's what Christianity is filled with can I just ask you a question honestly when you think about your own life and how you go about doing things your own way and then forgetting like, oh, I should have consulted God on the matter? Proverbs 3, 5, and 6 has been a very important verse in my family's life.

Trust in the Lord with all thine heart and lean not unto thine own understanding in all of thy ways acknowledge him and he shall direct thy paths in all of your ways acknowledge him how about worship What makes us think that our ways would be better than His? I love the book of Isaiah in chapter 55. The prophet Isaiah in Isaiah 55 and verse number 6. It says, Seek ye the Lord while he may be found. Call ye upon him while he is near.

Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts and let him return to the Lord and he will have mercy upon him and to our God for he will abundantly pardon for my thoughts are not your thoughts neither are your ways my ways say the Lord For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts higher than your thoughts. Why don't we go to God? His ways are higher than ours. His thoughts are higher than ours. And we need to obey them.

There is an obedience of worship. Again this is just giving you the idea of how we need to approach all of worship and all of the elements there is an obedience factor to biblical worship. I think for us as men and women we need to understand one of the greatest ways we worship rightly is just with a simple heart of childlike faith and obedience. God says it, that settles it. I want to obey.

1 Samuel chapter 15 22 and 23 says to obey is better than sacrifice and to hearken better than the fat of rams. God wants us to obey with a full heart. He wants us to obey in everything according to his word. You talk about something that is hard to get across in our self-willed day. We are all self-willed.

I remember teaching on obedience versus willfulness and how this is something you're to teach very small children We teach no don't do that All right They learn no before they ever learn yes because we're teaching them to obey and to to prevent them from doing the wrong thing and yet how many of us whether you're in your 30s or 40s or 20s or you're in your teens or you're in your 60s how much how much of life do we really have a hard time still today just obeying like that's what God's Word says I'm gonna do it the route is there's a battle daily with the sinfulness of the old man that we fight against who doesn't want to obey and yet when we yield to the Spirit we obey Him and it pleases the Father. There is a biblical leadership in worship in 1 Timothy 3, we already read that and how the pastors and the deacons or the elders and the deacons are to give guidance to and the elders in leading the deacons and serving are to give guidance to how we ought to behave ourselves in the house of God I think the very fact that it says that you might know how to behave yourself says that there is a right way and a wrong way to behave yourself in the house of God.

Doesn't that seem like a logical conclusion? People don't want to acknowledge that today. Most people when you talk to them about how to worship God rightly like, hey, that's good for you. This is how we do it. Hey, there's no right way, no wrong way.

Just however you feel led. No, it's, it's apparent to me from scripture that there is a way to behave yourself in the house of God, which means there is a way not to behave yourself in the house of God. There is an orderliness in worship in first Corinthians 14 verse 40 it says all things are to be done decently and in order. The word decently means becomingly. It has a grace to it, a dignity, a decorum, a beauty, like Brother Scott talked about, the one thing to behold the beauty of God in Psalm 27 and verse 4.

There's a second word besides beauty. There's a word and that's taxis in the in the Greek and it's it's recorded here in 1st Corinthians 1440 as well as Colossians 2 5 where he he says I have heard the testimony of your order It means your fixed succession your proper procedure your your cadence like a like a military group on on March or on parade doing military exercises with precision there is something powerful and awesome about that it's like that is a group of people not to be messed with. If you see an army in disarray just like running into each other and you think it's like a Laurel Hardy show or something and everybody's bumping each other falling down backwards and or it's the Three Stooges or something like that, you don't look at that army and say what a threat. And I think that's how a lot of people in the world look at Christianity. There's no threat there, but when you see a people of God worshiping together rightly ordered and Beautifully it's powerful.

It's warfare. It says don't mess with that in a right sense so that's what I have have to frame that in my mind and frame that for us today before we see the pattern of biblical worship with regards to anything Scripture or preaching or singing or prayer or giving or baptism of the Lord's Supper and specifically for us we're looking at baptism. How is it then is it that we fulfill these things that we just looked at How is it that we can walk in obedience to the authority of God's Word to do things decently in order and to to obey God And everything to honor him as we follow the Lord in baptism in Baptism I want to give you several ways in which we worship God in baptism. First of all, we worship in obedience to Prostrate oneself down before Almighty God is to humble yourself It's to say I want to obey you in everything that you ask of me You are the sovereign You are the Lord of the universe. What you ask of me, that will I do.

And to every believer, God says to be baptized. He commands us to be baptized. But do you know how God Graciously set forth this command to be baptized. He set forth the example by having his Son be baptized. To me that's just awesome.

The perfect sinless spotless Lamb. The one whom John declared when he came to the river Jordan, Behold the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world. That one, Jesus, the perfect one came to John in Matthew chapter number three and the Gospel of Matthew if you would turn there if you have your Bibles Matthew chapter number three and verse number 13 says Then cometh Jesus from Galilee to Jordan unto John to be baptized of him. I won't belabor the point, but there was a, there was a biblical, a biblically authorized person to baptize. It was John and he, Jesus went all the way to the River Jordan to be baptized of God's sent one who was the authorized person to baptize.

Okay? It was John the Baptist. But John forbade him saying, I have need to be baptized of thee and comest thou to me See what John preached was was was repentance and belief on on the Lord Jesus Christ who was to come John had a right understanding of his theology. He had a right understanding of who was coming to him. It was the Lamb of God, the one whom he had been proclaiming would come.

And he says, I have need to be baptized of you, which was true. Because Jesus was the one whom John said, there come with one after me, he will baptize you with the Holy Ghost. Not many days hence a greater baptism than the water baptism that symbolized what would be to come and symbolizes what has already happened in our day. He says, But John forbade him, saying, I have need to be baptized of thee and comest out to me and Jesus answering said unto him Suffer it to be so now let it be done For thus it becometh us to fulfill all Righteousness He was doing it because it was right to do. He was not sinful.

He did not have to repent to be baptized. He was coming to show forth a picture of obedience to the will and word of God. To fulfill all righteousness. And then John couldn't stop but to obey the word who was before him. It's a powerful picture.

Then he suffered him. He baptized him. And Jesus, when he was baptized, went up straight way out of the water. And lo, the heavens were opened unto him and saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and lighting upon him. And lo, a voice from heaven saying, this is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased.

Why is a father pleased with his son? He's pleased when his son is obedient. And the heavenly Father was pleased with the obedience of Jesus Christ, His only begotten Son that He has sent into the world. And He's pleased with His willingness to obey Him in everything. To fulfill all righteousness according to the Word of God.

Something gloriously beautiful about the Word who became flesh walking in obedience to the Word that had been written. The Word that had been given. Who are we to not obey when the Word Himself obeyed the Word. When I read in the New Testament Jesus Christ walking with His disciples and speaking unto them the Word of God from the Old Testament and they said, did not our hearts burn within us? Jesus wasn't using something new.

He went back to the Word and the Word declared the Word that He had already given. The same Word which we declare, to obey is to glorify the Father. That's worship. When you have believed the Gospel, when you have been born again, and you submit to baptism, you are walking in obedience to the will of the Father, and you are glorifying Him through following the example of the Son. One of the things that happened here when we talk about heaven coming down in worship one of the things that happened visibly at the baptism of Jesus is that the heavens opened and I I don't believe that We should be waiting in church for the heavens to physically open when we're baptized.

But I believe this, that when we walk in obedience in our worship in baptism, that the heavens do open, that God is well pleased, that He does bless in our time of obedience. That's what worship does when it's done in obedience to the Word and will of God the Spirit descended upon him and we don't believe I don't believe that the Spirit of God comes into you when you are baptized I believe the Spirit should be in you when you are baptized because you have been born again but the Spirit is well pleased the Spirit I believe is is honored and not grieved and The scripture warns us not to grieve the Holy Spirit of God and what grieves the Holy Spirit of God is walking in disobedience to his word. The Father was well pleased. I love these words And for you as a father understand this step aside from baptism just for a minute and understand the depth of your words to your sons and to your daughters. To say this is my beloved daughter, this is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased.

And they need to hear that when they walk in obedience They need to be blessed in that way, but I digress a little bit The father was well pleased with the son This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased." Can you imagine being there that day at the baptism of Jesus? Can you imagine the banks of the Jordan were filled with people as John was baptizing? The Scripture records that there were people that were there they heard the voice of God from heaven they knew it was pleasing to God you need to know as you have believed in Lord Jesus Christ to walk in obedience and baptism that you are pleasing the Father. This is worship rightly given and lovingly and pleasingly and joyfully received by God. Don't you want your worship in every element in every area to be well pleasing to the Father?

Don't you want to be a sweet saver in the nostrils of God? Don't you want your life as a living sacrifice holy and obedient to him and everything don't you want your life to be a cause of joy in the heart of God walk in obedience This is something that I think is is seen in a really glorious picture of baptism in Philip when he's ministering to Ethiopia and Eunuch. It's simple obedience in the book of Acts and chapter number eight. Acts chapter number eight. The scripture says, and the angel the Lord spake unto Philip saying arise verse 26 and go toward the south under the way that goeth down from Jerusalem unto Gaza, which is desert.

And he rose and went and behold a man of Ethiopia, a eunuch of great authority under Candace, queen of the Ethiopians, who had the charge of all her treasure and had come to Jerusalem for to worship and was returning and sitting in his chariot read Isaiah as the prophet then the spirit said unto Philip go near and join thyself to this chariot and Philip ran thither to him and heard him read the prophet Isaiah's and said understandest thou what thou readest? He's reading the book of Isaiah and he said how can I accept some man should guide me? There's the need for a preacher. There is a need for somebody to unpack the scriptures to exposit the Word of God and he desired Philip that he would come up and sit with him you say well that's the Holy Spirit how does he do it faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the Word of God And how is it that the Word of God is proclaimed? How shall they hear without a preacher?

And the place of the Scripture which he read was this. He was led as a sheep to the slaughter, and like a lamb dumb before his shearer, so he opened not his mouth. What was it that John was proclaiming? Behold the Lamb of God. And here he's reading in Isaiah this passage talking about the Lamb of God.

And in his humiliation his judgment was taken away and who shall declare his generation for this for his life is taken from the earth and the eunuch answered Philip and said I pray thee of whom speakest the Prophet this of himself or some other man then Philip opened his mouth and began to the same Scripture to preach unto him, Jesus. And as they went on their way, they came unto a certain water, and the eunuch said, See, here is water. What doth hinder me to be baptized? Why is it that he would be asking that? It is very obvious that in Jerusalem, when he was there seeking, he was seeing people being baptized.

And Philip said, If thou believeth with all thine heart, thou mayest. What was the prerequisite to baptism biblically? It was believing in thine heart. And he answered and said, I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. He declared Jesus to be God manifest in the flesh.

And He commanded the chariot to stand still. And they went down both into the water, both Philip and the eunuch, and He baptized him. And when they were come up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord caught away Philip that the eunuch saw him no more and he went on his way rejoicing. Why? Because he had worshiped the Lord.

He had believed on the Lord and he had responded in obedience to the Lord and beloved just like a son or a daughter or any of us, walk in obedience to an authority, it leaves us with the sense of rejoicing, even if it was a hard decision to make, even if it was going against our flesh in a strong way. Once we have obeyed, Boy, it causes us to rejoice. Here is a beautiful picture of somebody following the example of Jesus, and He was from far away Ethiopia, and the Gospel began to spread, and he had believed and had been baptized. When we obey as believers and are baptized we likewise please the Father. In baptism we also worship in mercy.

There's a lot about mercy when we read scriptures in the Old Testament about worshiping God. That is mercy endureth forever. When we're baptized as worship to the Lord We're baptized in mercy. Knowing that we have been forgiven. That's one of the things that baptism represents.

Here is a sinner cleansed by God. Forgiven. Sins remitted. Sins removed. They're as far as the east is from the west.

He remembers them no more. Forever. And the water of baptism is the symbolic place where that sin is shown to be washed away. That our sins have been covered. Mark in the Gospel of Mark in chapter 1.

Mark 1 in verse 4 it says, and John did baptize in the wilderness and preach the baptism of repentance for the remission of sins. Some people get hung up here because they try to isolate. They do eisegesis rather than exegesis with the rest of scripture. As we understand scripture rightly, we always see a pattern of baptism. Even though it says repent and be baptized for the remission of sins, it follows along in context of, and they had believed and were baptized.

We see that in the book of Acts as well. But here there is a connection between baptism as a declaration of the remission of sins. Your sins are forgiven. London Baptist Confession again says, baptism is an ordinance of the New Testament ordered by Jesus Christ to be unto the party baptized a sign of the fellowship with him in his death and resurrection of his being engrafted in him of remission of sins and giving up unto God through Jesus Christ to live and walk in newness of life. I love the day of Pentecost in the beautiful picture.

Here is Peter the man with a foot-shaped mouth. The one who had many times rebuked the Lord. He had denied the Lord three times and yet here God in his grace restores him to a place of prominence and preaching the Word of God Amongst the apostles. In verse number 37 it says, after he had preached, and what did he preach? He preached the Old Testament, the whole story of the gospel.

Now when they heard this, they were pricked in their heart, Holy Spirit, and said unto Peter and to the rest of the apostles men and brethren what shall we do then Peter said unto them Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins And ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost for the promise is unto you and to your children and do all that are afar off even as many as the Lord our God shall call and with many other words that he testify and exhort saying save yourself from this untoward generation that many other words and testify and exhort it just shows he was a preacher I could even pick on myself and say he was a Baptist preacher right Then they that gladly received his word were baptized and the same day there were added unto them about 3, 000 souls in Baptism we worship in mercy We worship in the And the blessed fact that we are forgiven. Our sins have been remitted. We are cleansed. But in baptism we also worship in victory. In victory.

See it doesn't just end with your sins are forgiven. It begins with something new. Baptism doesn't just picture something that ended the old man, it pictures something that begins that is a new man. That is the new life that we have in Christ. In baptism, we worship in victory as people who are born again and forgiven of our sins completely and utterly forgiven.

And our life is made brand new. That we can declare as Paul does in 2 Corinthians 5. In 2 Corinthians 5 and verse number 17, this glorious truth, therefore if any man be in Christ, He is a new creature. Old things are passed away. Behold, all things are become new.

Baptism is a declaration to the world. And it's a declaration to the church at the same time. The old man that I used to be is not the man who God has made me and now I publicly declare that truth to the world, to all of my old friends, to all the people who know me, to family, to enemies alike And I declare to the people of God of whom I'm joining together, of whom I am being recognized and identified with a body of believers as baptism of the Spirit identifies us with the heavenly assembly. Baptism in water identifies us with a local visible body of believers. And we're declaring both to the world and to the church, we belong to another.

We identify with Christ in baptism. Romans chapter 6. Romans in chapter number 6. Paul writing to the church at Rome says, what shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound?

Should we continue in the old life so that we can exemplify grace? God forbid. How shall we that are dead to sin live any longer therein? Know ye not that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into His death? Therefore we are buried with Him by baptism and the death, that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.

For if we have been planted together in the likeness of His death, we shall be also in the likeness of His resurrection. Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin. Baptism is an identification of a new life in victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. We are identifying in baptism That we died with Christ. And not only did we die with Christ, but we are raised to walk with Christ in newness of life.

We have been given victory over Satan, sin, and death. There is no more sting. There is no more victory because we have overcome through Christ. And it is the ordinance of baptism that we acknowledge this victory before the world. We acknowledge this victory before the people of God that God has wrought in our life.

It is a glorious emblem, it is a glorious symbol of the truth of our God. In baptism we worship in union with Christ. Union with Christ union with Christ we are one with him we follow his example he is the Christos exemplar he's more than that but he is that Jesus set forth an example And why did he set forth the example? We read it in Matthew 3. To fulfill all righteousness.

Why is it that we should follow in baptism, worshiping the Lord, to fulfill all righteousness because it is right. Christ, our great high priest, our elder brother, our Savior and Lord, took upon Himself flesh. Philippians 2. Philippians 2. Verse 4 says, Look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others.

Let this mind be anew, which was also in Christ Jesus, who being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God, but made Himself of no reputation, and took upon Him the form of a servant and was made in the likeness of men. And being found in fashion as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. Wherefore, God also hath highly exalted Him and given Him a name which is above every name. Through obedience, God exalts His Son. That at the name of Jesus, every knee should bow of things in heaven and things on earth and things under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father in baptism we are in union with the one who created all things the one who John's gospel records spoke all things into existence and whom in his words contained life.

He became man so that we could experience union with Him. Hebrews chapter 2. Hebrews chapter 2. Hebrews chapter 2 and verse number 17 says, Wherefore in all things it behooved Him that He might be a merciful to be made like unto His brethren." Jesus, to be made like unto His brethren. That He might be a merciful and faithful High Priest in things pertaining to God to make reconciliation for the sins of the people.

He was made like His brethren so that we could be made like Him. So that we could be in union with Him. I was pondering this, and I thought what an amazing truth. He was made like us so that we could be made like Him. What is it that pictures this union?

It's baptism. It's the outward symbol, the outward picture of this union with Christ is baptism. It's saying, I belong to him. In baptism, we declare the gospel. We worship Him by declaring the gospel.

The very act of baptism declares the gospel in a picture. The death, the burial, and the resurrection that we read about in Romans chapter 6 and verse number 4 it says there and we were buried with him and by baptism into death that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father even so we also should walk in newness of life there is a picture in immersion baptism of somebody dying and somebody who is buried and raising from the dead Even in relation in his comments on the passage of scripture of Jesus and his baptism, even Calvin, who was not a believer's baptism believer, declared that he went down and was immersed in water. It is the biblical form of baptism I believe clearly taught in the scriptures, though I love my brothers who are wrong. Though I love my brother brothers who are wrong baptism preaches worship includes preaching does it not the preaching of the word declares baptism declares the gospel It declares the Gospel in this vivid picture. Why would somebody stand there and be pushed under the water, to be buried under the water, and then to be brought back victorious to life because it is a picture of what Christ has done for us through His death, burial, and resurrection.

1 Corinthians 15 speaks of the Gospel in a nutshell, I call it, in 1 Corinthians 15. Verse number 1 says, Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the Gospel, the good news which I preached unto you which also you have received and wherein you stand by which also you're saved if you keep in memory what I preached unto you unless you have believed in vain you've believed with emptiness false belief For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures. You do not preach the Gospel if you do not preach the death of Christ. And that He was buried. And that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures.

And beyond that, it was witnessed, it was verified before two or three witnesses and many more. This is the Gospel. And that is what baptism declares. There is one last thing that I believe is so preeminently important about baptism. It's seen, it's been seen already in the passages we've looked at, but in baptism we worship the triune God in a very clear and a distinct way.

Think about when Jesus was baptized. Who did it represent? Well the Father well pleased in the Son who was willing to walk in obedience. And the Spirit of God descending like a dove and lighting upon Him. Father, Son, and Spirit declared in the baptism of Jesus.

And we are commanded, we are commissioned as New Testament believers in the Gospel of Matthew in chapter number 28 in the Great Commission amongst other places. But this very clearly teaches us that we are given power and authority to do something very specific It says in verse number 18 and Jesus came and spake unto them saying all power is given unto me in heaven and in earth He says go ye therefore and teach all nations. What is it that we are to declare amongst the nations? That the Lord reigneth. That Jesus Christ is the way, the truth, and the life, and no man comes to the Father but by Him.

We are to declare the Gospel. And when people have believed the Gospel, when we have taught all nations, what are we supposed to do? Baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost, or the Holy Spirit. We worship the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit as one God. Three persons.

Baptism is a clear declaration even in the pronouncement of I baptize you in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost. Clear declaration in the belief of a triune God. The God who is one and three. What a glorious way to worship God through baptism. I implore you, if you have believed on the Lord Jesus Christ ask the question that the Ethiopian eunuch did what death hinder me to be baptized says does thou believe with all thine heart I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God if you have believed in the Lord what hinders you to be baptized if you have not when you get home to your local church adult young person seeking the counsel and guidance of your parents and the elders why don't you submit in a glorious worshipful obedient baptism.

Maybe today you have been baptized. I think there's a beauty in the charge, remember your baptism. Remember what it symbolized. Remember that you came to God dirty and vile and He washed you. Remember that He raised you clean and a newness of life victorious.

In baptism we see a glorious response of obedience to the grace of God which has been bestowed by faith through the hearing of the word and the quickening work of the Holy Spirit I ask you today have you believed the gospel and have you been baptized? If not, I implore you repent and be baptized. And for us who have believed, I hope that today we are encouraged, you are encouraged, in the glorious element of worship baptism, Christian baptism according to the Word of God. Thank you for your attention. For more messages, articles, and videos on the subject of conforming the church and the family to the Word of God, and for more information about the National Center for Family Integrated Churches, where you can search our online network to find family integrated churches in your area, log on to our website ncfic.org.