THE GOSPEL IN CONNECTION WITH BAPTISM
[p. 42] THE GOSPEL IN CONNECTION WITH BAPTISM
I desire to present the gospel, as I understand it and in the measure in which I am able, in connection with baptism. I do not wish to preach baptism, but to show the connection between it and the gospel.
You will observe how it is alluded to here in the passage I have read, in a very remarkable way, as foreshadowed in the deluge, and it is spoken of as a means of salvation. Whilst not emphasising baptism unduly, I would remind you that the Lord said, “He that believes and is baptised shall be saved”, Mark 16:16. Especially as in preaching today we frequently preach to people who are baptised, it becomes an exercise to raise the question in souls as to how far there is correspondence with their baptism. It is a very interesting subject in the Scriptures and one which is largely spoken of; and as each one here has been baptised, it is worthy of consideration as to how far each corresponds to it.
The command which the Lord gave on leaving the apostles was, “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptising them to the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit”, Matthew 28: 19.
Then I would remind you of Peter’s commandment at Caesarea to the gentile believers to be baptised “in the name of the Lord”, Acts 10: 48. What is contained in the Lord’s injunction to the apostles and Peter’s to the gentiles enters into one’s own experience as a baptised person. Another question arises unfortunately the rite is often administered by those who themselves are not in the good of it, so that the true import is not conveyed to the baptised person.
I would cite Philip as one who performed the rite in [p. 43] keeping with the message delivered. Philip was an evangelist; evangelists are not plentiful, yet the spirit of evangelisation was brought in by the Lord, and it has been continued. We should note specially His ministry as recorded by Luke, for Luke presents God drawing near to man in a Man. The first evangelists in Luke are angels; the angel said to the shepherds, “Fear not, for behold, I announce to you glad tidings of great joy, which shall be to all the people”. Then there was a multitude of the heavenly host in complete sympathy with the message given by the angel “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good pleasure in men”. Men are to be brought in under God’s eye for His pleasure; that is the end of evangelisation. It is not only that He should be infinitely delighted in Christ, as He was here, but that He should have pleasure in men. The Lord Jesus took up that, and in Nazareth He stands up to read in the synagogue; what words of grace! “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to preach glad tidings to the poor; he has sent me to preach to captives deliverance, and to the blind sight, to send forth the crushed delivered, to preach the acceptable year of the Lord”, Luke 4: 18, 19. Peter calls attention to Him, and says, “Jesus who was of Nazareth ... God anointed him with the Holy Spirit and with power; who went through all quarters doing good, and healing all that were under the power of the devil, because God was with him”, Acts 10: 38. I wish you to bear that in mind in connection with evangelisation. In a Man you have expressed here the true idea of evangelisation, and that is to be continued in men here.
Philip was an evangelist, and it was, perhaps, the most critical moment in the history of the assembly as attacked from without. The enemy had made a tremendous onslaught in Saul, but Stephen, in the face of fearful opposition against him was able to rise above it and express the spirit of Christ. He says, “Lord,
[p. 44] lay not this sin to their charge”. Think of the power required for that: a man of like passions to our own, facing his persecutors without recrimination, in the spirit of Christ! Stephen dies, but the spirit of evangelisation lives, and Acts 8 testifies to it! Saul would destroy every vestige of the assembly, but the supreme power was vested in the hands of Christ, and His emissaries went everywhere preaching the word. It is in that connection that we find Philip the evangelist, his heart filled with the message, preaching intelligently, preaching suitably to his audience that Jesus is the Christ. The Lord had announced it to the woman of Samaria, and Philip was in accord with that. Then, entirely subject to the Spirit, he leaves his great work, not choosing for himself-another great mark of an evangelist-and goes to the wilderness. There he met the eunuch and preached unto him, not the Messiah, not the Christ, but Jesus. The eunuch needed that; he had no difficulty as to Jerusalem; he had recognised it as God’s appointed place for worship. So, from Isaiah 53 Philip preaches unto him Jesus, the Person. Every evangelist should be acquainted with that scripture. It is the beauty of Christ: “He shall grow up before him as a tender sapling, and as a root out of dry ground”. Where all else was sterile, there was fruitfulness, under the eye of God, though to men there was nothing outwardly attractive. Men look for a military man, a man of outward power and lordliness; the coming man will be all that. There was none of that with Jesus. He appeared not very different from the fishermen around Him.
What an opening for an evangelist! How much happier to be entirely under the Lord’s hand than marking out one’s own course as a servant. Philip, it says, “beginning from that scripture, announced the glad tidings of Jesus to him”. He went a step further; he completely won the eunuch’s heart for Christ! Is your heart won for Christ? You require two things [p. 45] first, to know Jesus as the Person, the One in whom is every divine beauty, and then to know Him officially, for God has a system of His own, and He has anointed Jesus to carry out all His will. As attracted to Jesus, you are delighted with every official position He fills. The eunuch says, “Behold water; what hinders my being baptised?”. Virtually he is saying, ‘I want to die’. Then it says, “And they went down both to the water”. That may be where the difficulty lies with many, for baptism signifies your death with Christ, your complete severance from this world. Young people complain of want of companionship, and the cry is raised that there is not sufficient provision made for the young. But the Lord is extraordinarily interested in young people, and has omitted nothing for their happiness. He has not overlooked them; but the question is, Is your heart really won for Christ? If so, baptism has a place; you regard it as a necessity. The eunuch says, “Behold water; what hinders my being baptised?”. He was thinking of Jesus; His life was taken from the earth, and he virtually says, ‘I want to die, I want to be in correspondence with that Man’. He was like Ruth, who said, “Where thou diest will I die, and there will I be buried”, Ruth 1: 17. Philip and the eunuch went down, both of them together. Philip had doubtless been there before, for no man is fit to be an evangelist if he has not tasted death; it is inconsistent of him to baptise another, unless he has done so. You remember Marah; the waters there were bitter (see Exodus 15: 23). It means that the judgment of God rests upon you as born in this world, and you must accept it. Philip had accepted that, and more, the waters had been made sweet for him. The wood cast into the water speaks of Christ as having borne the judgment, which the taste of the waters suggested. The waters were no terror to Philip, and he went into them with the eunuch, who was baptised and then went on his way [p. 46] rejoicing. That narrative is set in Scripture for our learning and comfort, if we desire to take up the place of discipleship. The eunuch went on his way happily; I do not suppose he relinquished his high position in Ethiopia. You may not need to relinquish your position but, as a baptised person, you will fulfil your duties the better. Think of the change in the eunuch, in his spirit and demeanour! What a testimony he would be! He had doubtless plenty of companions in his high position, but they were no longer of any value to him for he had found Christ. He had been attracted to Him and had accepted the death of Jesus, and then had gone on his way rejoicing.
Philip had no official position; the keys had not been entrusted to him. He was simply a deacon, but he exceeded his office, spiritually, and was caught away by the Spirit of the Lord. Peter was an official; his commission was to baptise. In Matthew 16 the Lord raised the question with the disciples as to who He was, and Peter makes his remarkable confession “Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God”. That man, you might assume, is the great vessel to be used in building the assembly. If the truth of the assembly is opened up, it must have a universal bearing. Israel was limited by divinely-set bounds; and the gentiles were prohibited by these same bounds. Now, the Lord commits to Peter the keys; He intended Peter to be the vessel by which these restrictions should be removed from the gentiles. The Lord said to Peter, “I will give to thee the keys of the kingdom of the heavens”. Virtually the Lord is saying, ‘Now the light of the assembly is out, every restriction must be removed, and removed by divine authority’, and in Acts, Peter is taken up by God in that connection. He preached to Cornelius and his company, and, while he was preaching, the Holy Spirit fell upon all those who were hearing the word-a most remarkable thing!
In Acts 2 Peter preached a model sermon, and in answer to their question, “What shall we do ... ?” (it is a good thing to raise questions) replies, “Repent, and be baptised, each one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ, for remission of sins, and ye will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit”. There Peter puts believing before the gift of the Spirit. That was essential to the Jew; but to the gentile, God acts. They said nothing, though there may have been much said in the heart. Heart movements are for God; He takes account of them. In the burnt-offering, typically the more the light shone upon the inwards, the more were the infinite perfections of Christ disclosed. But when God looks in upon your heart and mine, what does He see? “The word of God is living and operative, and sharper than any two-edged sword, and penetrating to the division of soul and spirit, both of joints and marrow, and a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart”, Hebrews 4: 12. If there is a movement towards Him, He takes account of that. It says in Romans 10, “With the heart is believed to righteousness”. The gospel is addressed to the heart, but you must confess with the mouth, otherwise you are never saved. You must raise your standard where the opposition is. The congregation at Caesarea did not speak; it was not for them to speak, but God spoke to them through Peter. And not only did He speak, but He acted; the Holy Spirit fell upon them. Now Peter acted at once. God had done something; now he must do something. He was divinely commissioned to remove the restrictions from the gentiles; and he commanded them to be baptised. It is a question of commandment, and in the name of the Lord. The meaning of being baptised “to the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit” is that you are introduced formally, into the full light of God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, just as a Jewish proselyte was introduced into the Jewish economy. Think of what you are introduced into, the revelation of God! Do not talk [p. 48] of lack of companions! You are introduced into that sphere where the full light of God is; you are baptised to that.
Peter commanded them to be baptised “in the name of the Lord”, Acts 10: 48. I understand by that, that in removing the restrictions, he brought them under the wing of the Lord; the “name of the Lord” signifies that you are supported by all His power. You are introduced into the full light of the revelation and entitled to claim all the power the Lord Jesus wields. Prove it! It is worth proving! Prove that the Lord has power, for it says, “Every one whosoever, who shall call on the name of the Lord, shall be saved”. Prove that in your daily life! The point is to raise up the standard of Christ, to give notice publicly that you are on that side. The Lord is then (I say it reverently) morally obliged to support you.
It is a wonderful thing to be consciously under the wing of Christ in your daily life-that One who has attracted your heart in the gospel! Under His wing there is nothing to fear. “Jehovah is for me, I will not fear; what can man do unto me?”, Psalm 118:6.
It is in that connection that Peter refers to baptism in this passage (1 Peter 3). He says, “Christ indeed has once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God”. It is a very poor thing if christians have to suffer for sins-”being put to death in flesh, but made alive in the Spirit”. In the gospel all stands on a spiritual platform, in the power of the Spirit-”in which also going he preached to the spirits which are in prison, heretofore disobedient, when the longsuffering of God waited in the days of Noah while the ark was preparing, into which few, that is, eight souls, were saved through water: which figure also now saves you, even baptism, not a putting away of the filth of flesh, but the demand as before God of a good conscience, by the resurrection of Jesus Christ”. A good conscience demands it. Baptism is negative; there is no power required for that, but salvation requires power. Hence it goes on: “Who is at the right hand of God, gone into heaven, angels and authorities and powers being subjected to him”.
That is the position in which we stand; we have accepted death here with Christ. That means you sever your connection with the world; it is essential to salvation to have a true estimate of the world. John says, “The whole world lies in the wicked one” (1 John 5: 19); every element of it is evil. John also says, “Love not the world, nor the things in the world ... because all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world”, 1 John 2: 15, 16. If you judge it thus, you accept baptism and come into the good of the Lord’s present place.
Peter exults in the thought, “Gone into heaven”. It is more than what he saw in Acts 1. In Acts 2 he says, “Having therefore been exalted by the right hand of God”, but in the epistle he says, “Who is at the right hand of God, gone into heaven, angels and authorities and powers being subjected to him”. Now you come into the good of all that, and, as a baptised person, it is a question of putting to the test what Christ can be to you. The Lord has salvation, and “Whosoever, who shall call on the name of the Lord, shall be saved”. You want to do that! No better advice can I give, in having to do with a world that hates Christ, than to count upon the Lord’s word in little things as in great.
Then in connection with the testimony, if you are exercised, the Lord will support you. Paul could say, “The Lord stood with me, and gave me power”,
2 Timothy 4: 17. It is an immense thing to put the Lord to the test, and prove how He will support you. The Lord make us to know the power which is at our disposal!