Hi, this is the Human Proclaim podcast. These are the messages of John Fawnville. you're listening to season five called two keys to spiritual growth. Here's message number 13 entitled The Centrality of Baptism. a means of judgment.
This brings us to the fifth one this week. If you're to use baptism the way that God intended for you to use it and benefit from it, you have to understand that baptism is also a means of judgment. A crucial but often missing element in discussion of the sacraments and also Holy Communion is that the sacraments are means of judgment. That might sound strange to you, and it might sound contradictory because I just told you that baptism and Holy Communion are means of grace. They are visible gospels.
Baptism is like a neon sign flashing good news, good news, good news. is baptism is the sign of our reception into the eternal favor and covenant of God. Which forever remains sure and valid for us, provided there's faith.
So since baptism is a visible gospel, it is not a legal right. How can it be a means of judgment? We have learned repeatedly here in this church that the two principal parts of the Word of God are one of two things: it is either law or gospel. What is the Word of God? The Word of God is either law or gospel.
And we have learned from the scriptures that the law threatens judgment and eternal death if we do not completely fulfill the contents of every commandment that God has ever given. Listen to the Apostle Paul. He quotes the law in Deuteronomy 27, verse 26, the Mosaic covenant. He says, For as many as are of the works of the law are under a curse. For it is written, Cursed is everyone who does not abide by all things written in the book of the law to do them.
The law is not about faith. The law is about doing. And it is doing to perfection. James chapter 2, verse 10 says that whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles in one point of the law is guilty of the whole law.
So you might be like ivory soap, 99.99% pure. But God's law says 0.1% just defiled your entire being.
So, in contrast to the law, the gospel promises eternal life for Christ's sake. The gospel tells us that God our Father promises to save us freely by his only begotten Son. Paul writes this in Romans chapter 3. He says, Being justified as a gift by his grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus, whom God displayed publicly as a propitiation in his blood through faith, propitiation is that Jesus died on the cross as faithful. Fully exhausted every Of God's wrath and judgment against you forevermore.
The gospel announces this good news. But in the law, God commands works of thought, works of deeds, works of words that are spoken. And when it doesn't conform perfectly to that commandment, he condemns and punishes sin. But the gospel doesn't threaten anything. The gospel is not a revelation of condemnation and punishment.
The gospel announces that good news of salvation in Jesus Christ is free forgiveness for Christ's sake. The power. The indwelling of the Holy Spirit, which is the gift given through the gospel, to do a life of good works that are now pleasing to God. And so the point is this, if baptism is a visible gospel and the gospel threatens nothing of judgment and punishment for sin, how can baptism, which is a means of grace, be a means of judgment? That's what I want to answer with you this morning and show you very clearly from Scripture.
Here's the first answer. Just is the Word of God, the invisible Word, the Word of God that is read in church and preached in church, heard. Just as a word has a double edge, so the sacraments have a double edge to them. Baptism and Holy Communion are visible words. Objective means of revelation that God communicates.
to the people who are present. In baptism and Holy Communion through the signs function in the same manner as the invisible Word of God. Let me give you an example. First of all, from the invisible word of God, the scripture itself. In 2 Corinthians, turn there, chapter 2.
Look at verses 15 and 16. 2 Corinthians chapter 2, verses 15 and 16. And here we have this double edge invisible, this double edge of the invisible word. In 2 Corinthians 2, verses 15 and 16, Paul writes the following concerning this double edge of the invisible word. Listen to what he says, verse 15.
He says, For we. Are the aroma of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing? To one a fragrance from death to death. to the other a fragrance from life to life. And let me ask you a question.
How are we to understand the gospel as a fragrance of death to death? Because the gospel has promised life, not death. But Paul says that the gospel here to some people is a fragrance from death. To death. The answer, and John Calvin's very helpful on this: is that the condemning function of the gospel is accidental.
to its true purpose. God didn't give the gospel to be an aroma of death to anyone. And he says this in his commentary on 2 Corinthians. He says, we have to always distinguish between the proper office of the gospel and the accidental office of the gospel, which must be imputed not to the gospel, listen, but to the depravity of mankind. This condemning function where the gospel is an aroma of death.
He says it's owing to the life that is turned into death that is in them because of unbelief. And he says, So the gospel like the sacraments are double-edged. The difference between the reception of eternal life and blessing and eternal death and judgment depends on the presence or absence of faith in the recipient. Listen carefully. To those without faith, Paul says the gospel will be a fragrance of death.
to death. To those without faith, Paul says that the gospel is a fragrance from death to death. But to those, Paul says, who receive the gospel in faith, the gospel is a fragrance of life from life. And so the proper office of the gospel is for salvation because Jesus himself says that he did not come into the world to condemn the world. Listen to Jesus in John chapter 3, verses 17 and 18.
He says, for God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world. but that the world through him might be saved. He who believes in him is not condemned, but he who does not believe is condemned already. Because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. It is not the gospel that condemns, they condemn themselves through their lack of belief in Christ.
And so, because there is a lack of faith in the recipient. of the invisible word, the gospel becomes a fragrance of death to death. Second, let's look at the double edge of the visible word. We see this double edge of the sacraments clearly in 1 Corinthians 11.
So turn there, 1 Corinthians chapter 11. In 1 Corinthians chapter 11, verses 27 through 30, Paul shows us clearly how the Lord's Supper functions as a means of judgment. In the church. In 1 Corinthians 11, verses 27 through 30, Paul says that the sacrament of Holy Communion, the Lord's Supper, Is a means of judgment when he warns the Corinthians that some of them listen, eat and drink judgment to themselves. They eat and drink judgment to themselves because they have failed to rightly recognize the body of Christ in the sacrament.
And so consequently, Paul says, listen to this: that judgment resulted in, listen, many. Look at that descriptive word that he uses here. Many. among the Corinthians have become weak and sick. And then he says, literally, a relatively large number of them have died for eating and drinking the Lord's Supper.
Let us note very well that this is not an ordinary meal. This is not Uh family time and Mo's. The Lord's Supper is not just a mere memorial where nothing is happening, where we just recollect on something 2,000 years ago and remember Jesus dying for our sins. That's not all that's going on here. Literally, there's more going on in the Lord's Supper than meets the eye.
If nothing happened at this meal, then why were many being weak and sick and dying? We have to understand, listen to this carefully, there are no neutral encounters with Jesus Christ. The scriptures teach That Jesus is not only the cornerstone for those who are trusting in him, but he is the stone of offense and stumbling. to unbelief. Two things were crucified with Christ, right?
Which is what we have up here on the back of our church wall, we have the two thieves cross.
So you remember, you're not the centerpiece. We have one cross that is lit up as the centerpiece. Two thieves were crucified with Christ. One believed and was saved. The other thief did not believe the gospel, who was a person, and he was condemned.
And so, like the Eucharist, baptism, listen, not only redemption but also judgment is bound up with the sacrament of baptism. To see more clearly how baptism serves as a means of judgment, we have to go to the Old Testament. Because the Old Testament provides the necessary background to the New Testament passages that make reference to baptism. That's why, when Andy Stanley a couple weeks ago came out and said we need to quote, unhitch ourselves from the Old Testament and discard two-thirds of the Bible. He was simply repeating a second century heresy called Martianism.
Because you can't understand the New Testament without the Old Testament. You understand? And so we have to understand baptism in its New Testament, its Old Testament background because New Testament constantly refers to the Old Testament to get its meaning of baptism from there.
So, the Old Testament provides the necessary background to show us how baptism is a means of judgment. Here's the first one. How many of you have heard of Noah's flood? Right? Genesis chapters 6 through 9 in the Old Testament.
In 1 Peter 3, verses 18 through 20, the Apostle Peter compares baptism with Noah's flood.
So look up here for a moment. Does everybody see this picture? Can everybody see this? That's Noah's flood. This is the ark with the dove coming out of the new creation, bringing the olive leaf into the new creation.
Has everything to do with baptism. That's why that's up there every week. And I can tell you that when we sing, I'm looking at that going, Lord, thank you for carrying me through these floodwaters of judgment safely in Christ, who's my ark. Peter identifies baptism as an anti-type to the flood, which is the flood was a type. What is a type?
A type is just simply symbolic pictures of the reality. And so in 1 Peter chapter 3, listen to the apostle. He says, For Christ also died for sins once for all, the just for the unjust, so that he might bring us to God, having been put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit, in which also he went and made proclamation to the spirits now in prison. Who were once disobedient when the patience of God kept waiting in the days of Noah. During the construction of the ark, in which a few, that is eight persons, were brought safely through the water.
Listen carefully. Peter says, everybody on that day in the great flood were baptized. But all that were baptized were not saved. The same flood through which Noah and his family were delivered through God's covenant brought judgment on the entire unbelieving world. Peter says, only eight were saved through the waters of judgment.
This, so that God's promise of the serpent crusher, Genesis 3:15, might in the fullness of time bring forth this serpent crusher, Jesus. To save us from our sins. But whereas he says, eight were saved through the waters of judgment, what happened to the rest of mankind? The rest of mankind perished in the waters of judgment. Where else do we see this baptismal motif in the Old Testament?
Here's the second one. The Red Sea Crossing. Exodus chapter 14. Where do we have this in the New Testament? 1 Corinthians 10, verses 1 through 4.
We see the same pattern again in Israel's Red Sea crossing, where Paul in 1 Corinthians 10, verses 1 through 4, compares Israel's Red Sea crossing to being baptized. Listen to what the apostle says. He says, For I do not want you to be unaware, brethren, that our fathers were all under the cloud and passed through the sea. Listen, and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea. All were baptized in the sea.
And all ate of the same spiritual food, and all ate, and all drank the same spiritual drink, for they were drinking from a spiritual rock. which followed them, and the rock was Christ. Paul says that the Red Sea crossing. had a double edge to it. Paul says that the Red Sea was a baptism deliverance for Israel, but that the Red Sea crossing was a baptism judgment for Pharaoh and his army.
Who went safely through the waters of judgment in the Red Sea and passed safely to the other side? And who was consumed? Submerged and drowned in the waters of judgment at the Red Sea crossing. Both were baptized that day, and only one was saved. One only emerged safely from the sea.
And then, third and finally, to see more clearly how baptism serves as a means of judgment, we must finally look. to the cross of Christ. We learned this last week that by submitting to John's baptism, Jesus affirms his willingness to take upon himself our sins. By going down into the Jordan River. And submitting to John's baptism, Jesus was being numbered with the transgressors.
Isaiah 53, verse 12. And here's how one New Testament scholar puts it: Here is Jesus, who has done no sin, identifying himself with sinful men and women in the waters of baptism as a picture of what he had come to do. And listen, and what would be worked out in blood and tears on that terrible cross just a few years later? And then, indeed, as we continue to read the Gospels, that later in Mark chapter 10, verses 35 through 37, we find James and John. Right?
requesting for Jesus to give them a place of honor in his kingdom. They still didn't get it. And so listen to what they asked Jesus. They said, Jesus, grant that we may sit one on your right and one on your left in your glory. When you throw off the Roman yoke.
And when you get rid of all the enemies in the land, Let us sit in the highest place in the land on the left and right of you. Exalt us and glorify us, they were saying. In response to their foolish, glory-seeking request, listen to what Jesus asks them. He says, you do not know what you're asking. Are you able to drink the cup that I drink or to be baptized with the baptism with which I am baptized?
In Luke chapter 12, verse 50, Jesus says to his disciples, I have a baptism to be baptized with, and how distressed I am until it is accomplished. In both instances, Jesus is referring, he's calling his crucifixion a baptism. And he began his public ministry by telling everybody in the Jordan River, I will be submerged into the wrath of God for sinners. on the cross. I will be baptized by virtue of his substitutionary death on the cross for our sins.
Jesus was drowned in his crucifixion baptism into the wrath of God. And so in Galatians chapter 3, verse 13, as Paul quotes the law in Deuteronomy 21, verse 23, he tells us this explicitly. Paul says in Galatians 3:13 that Jesus' crucifixion baptism was the suffering of the curse of the covenant. And he suffered this curse of the covenant, he says, because it was a means of judgment for him on the cross. But what was a means of judgment for Jesus, being baptized into the wrath of God on the cross, it became for us a means of redemption and salvation.
Listen to what Paul says. Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law. having become a curse For us. You see, the gospel doesn't announce Jesus died on the cross. The gospel doesn't announce that Christ Made redemption possible.
No, he redeemed us. He did it. And the gospel announces that Christ redeemed us and became a curse. Listen. For us.
And then he quotes the law that says, cursed is everyone who is hung on a tree. And so, Jesus submerged in the waters of judgment on the cross. The good news the gospel announces is that three days later, he emerged from these. Judgment Waters Victorious. He was submerged to death and drowned in wrath, and yet he emerged the third day victorious over it.
And this is why the Apostle Paul says in Romans chapter 6, verses 1 through 4, that Jesus' crucifixion and baptism is now the source of our new creation and life. Listen to what the Apostle Paul says. It says, do you not know that all of us have been baptized into Christ Jesus, have been baptized into his death? Therefore, we having been buried with him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so too we might walk. and newness of life.
And so, what was the means of judgment for Jesus? Has become a means of salvation and grace for us, for those who trust in him and believe. That's good news, isn't it?
So as we think this morning about baptism, We have seen that apart from this spirit-wrought faith in Christ, the sacrament of baptism, just as the sacrament of Holy Communion is not a means of grace, it is a means of judgment. And so if we are to use our baptism the way God intends for us to use it so that we can benefit and grow thereby, we must not direct our faith to the sacrament. We don't trust in the water. We don't trust in the bread and in the wine. We don't look to the sign, but we look to what the sign signifies to the reality, which is Christ.
And so it's not the water in baptism that saves us. Baptism, as I said, is a visible gospel which is intended to direct our faith to the one sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the cross as the only ground for our salvation. And so, through the gospel, through the invisible word. The Holy Spirit teaches us and creates faith. And by baptism, the visible word, the Holy Spirit, takes that water, connected to the invisible word of the gospel, and assures our hearts.
That our whole salvation is secure, that we've been received into the favor of our Father for Christ's sake. because of the one sacrifice that Christ has made for us on the cross. And so what do we do? Every time we pass by the baptismal font, I can't tell you how thankful I am that we now have that baptismal font at the back door, which is the front entrance to the church.
So that I have to walk past it every single time I come to church now. And I find such great comfort through that because it is witnessing to me as a sign, not of judgment, but of salvation. Trust Christ. Look to Christ. Look to his blood that has washed away the pollution of your sin.
Look to the regeneration, washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit who has sanctified you and purified your life from all this pollution. Walk past that baptismal fountain and rejoice in Christ every time you pass by it. And then just two weeks ago, we witnessed a baptism. In the corporate gathering of the church. And that corporate baptism that we witnessed was either a sign of judgment or it was a sign of salvation held out to everybody present.
Listen to this very carefully. Both baptism water And bread and wine in the Eucharist are eschatological signs of God's impending judgment that is coming upon this world. Let me say it like this: when you see that water. When you witness a baptism, when you see the signs of bread and wine, Those are God's signs saying to you: if you don't. Trust Jesus now.
Judgment is coming. And it is saying it loud and clear. And so, when you walk into church week after week in a properly decorated church. Centered around word and sacrament. witnesses either judgment or salvation.
Depending upon the presence or absence of faith in the recipient.
So, to ensure that baptism does not become a means of judgment but serves as a means of grace. How do you use it to benefit? This is what it's saying to you. This is what the sacraments are telling you. Listen carefully.
This is so simple. Keep your eyes on Jesus and His saving work for you, and don't look anywhere else. When you witness a baptism in church, focus your faith upon the mercy of God revealed in the saving work of His Son. Don't ever think that the water has done the work. Don't ever think that you're saved because you've been washed with water.
What matters is faith in Christ alone. And so baptism points us like a laser beam right on the bullseye to the saving work of Christ and to the washing of regeneration and renewal of the sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit. And so let baptism teach you that the pollution of your soul, all your sins, had been washed with Christ's blood. Let baptism teach you that the Holy Spirit is sanctifying you, cleansing you daily, presenting you one day spotless before the Father, where it would be a joyful day, a day of vindication, not a day of fear when he returns. And so, this is why Article 27 in the 39 article says this about baptism.
It says, baptism will serve as a sign of regeneration or new birth through which, as through an instrument, those who receive baptism in the right manner. How do we receive baptism in the right manner? Faith in Christ. When we receive Faith. in Christ alone.
And then receive the sacrament, the sacrament becomes a sign and seal to us that we have been grafted into the church. That we have the promise of the forgiveness of all our sins. That we receive adoption as sons, welcomed into the family of God. That by the Holy Spirit, He confirms our faith and assures us of the grace we have received, and He increases our virtue. and helps us in our prayers to God.
great benefit through baptism. And so we receive baptism in the right manner, which is Christ. Look to faith in Christ. And baptism will not be a means of judgment, it will be a means of great grace to you. Let's pray.
Father, we thank you for the gift of baptism. We thank you for Christ. We thank you that He has safely led us through the waters of judgment in His life, death, burial, and resurrection, ascension, intercession. for us. We come trusting in Christ alone today.
I pray that every person present would be able to make great use of their baptism as you have intended. Not trusting in the waters, but looking to the reality that those waters signify to us, which is Christ. the cleansing of His death for our sins. In the washing of regeneration and renewal by the Holy Spirit, direct our faith. To that good news this morning, I pray in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.
Amen. Thanks for listening to the Hymn We Proclaim podcast with John Fawnville. Hymn We Proclaim is a ministry of John Fawnville of Fairmount Church in Jacksonville, Florida. You can check out his church at paramountchurch.com. We look forward to next time.
