Well, dear congregation, I invite you to take your Bible classes this morning as we continue to worship our God in the consideration of His Word and turn in them to 1 Peter 3. uh... this morning is we have been spending uh... two weeks so far on first peter chapter three we're gonna come uh... to uh... conclusion of this passage as it culminates in the sacrament of baptism so we're gonna be looking this morning in verses eighteen through twenty two first peter chapter three verses eighteen through twenty two if you're following along in a pew bible uh... you could find that on page one thousand sixteen So let's then give our attention to the reading of God's Word, 1 Peter 3, verses 18-22. The Apostle says, For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God. being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit in which he went and proclaimed to the spirits in prison because they formally did not obey when God's patience waited in the days of Noah while the ark was being prepared in which a few That is, eight persons were brought safely through water. Baptism, which corresponds to this, now saves you, not as a removal of dirt from the body, but as an appeal to God for a good conscience through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, who has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God with angels, authorities, and powers having been subjected to him. As far as the reading of God's word, the grass withers and the flower falls, but the word of our Lord stands forever. Let's give thanks to the Lord for this eternal word this morning. Father God, we are exceedingly grateful this morning for an abundance of blessings that you have showered down on us, even to this congregation, Father, so many things for which we are thankful for. But Father, we gather this morning as the saints of the living God, Primarily thankful that death could not hold your son in our Lord. Thankful father that he rose over death, hell in the grave and thankful that this morning in the sacrament of baptism we can, as it were, exercise our faith union with Jesus Christ through baptism, being reminded once again that we have died with him and we have risen with him. And as your apostle says in Galatians 2.20, it is no longer we who live, but Christ who lives within us. Father, I pray this morning that through the word and sacrament, you would remind us of this vivid union that we have with Jesus Christ. That this morning, Father, though many of us have brought in cares and concerns, all those things would fade and what would rise to prominence in our minds and our hearts is this faith union, Father. A faith union that we pray would eclipse everything else in our life and become the paradigm, the lens through which we view all of life. Not only are we at a time of worship together this morning, but Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, every day that you give us breath, that we might live in Christ, we pray. Give your servant help this morning to unpack this word. In your son's name we pray, amen. Well, as we've mentioned numerous times this morning, we are excited that three of our own are going to go under the waters of judgment and come up to new life in Jesus Christ through baptism. Baptism in the New Testament means a number of things. It's one of those symbols that has a number of different meanings and significations. But Peter in this passage this morning is going to nail down, if you will, three specific things that it means, and we're going to consider those here in a moment. But before we do that, what I'd like to do is just kind of back up and look at this overall passage of verses 18 through 22. Put everything together that we've been studying the last two weeks and then show how baptism naturally comes out of the context of what Peter has been doing. So you'll recall in our study of 1 Peter that Peter is addressing suffering Christians in the seven provinces of Asia Minor. It is in those seven provinces that Christianity is a minority. It's in those seven provinces that many of these Christians are suffering for their faith. They are outnumbered, they are slandered, they are oppressed, they are persecuted. And Peter tells them in verses 13 through 16, he says, on the one hand, if you are zealous for doing what is good, it may just be that these people won't persecute you. But on the other hand, even if they do, you will be blessed if you are worthy to suffer for the name of Christ. But then he goes on to say in verses 13 through 16, particularly in verses 15 and 16, that what you should always be ready to do in the midst and context of suffering and persecution is be ready to give an answer to those who ask you about the hope that is within you. And so he calls us to always be prepared, to always be ready to put on display the majesty and beauty and salvation that come in Jesus Christ. And then in verse 18, which is the beginning of our passage this morning, as a source of encouragement to suffering believers, he puts before them the sufferings of Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ suffered as a faithful servant of God. And he brings this example up in a kind of a twofold way. On the one hand, Jesus' sufferings were unique. What Jesus accomplished through his sufferings is something that we will never be able to accomplish in our sufferings. That is, We will not bring a people to God through our sufferings. We will not cover sin through our sufferings. We will not justify people through our sufferings. And in that way, Jesus's example is unique. But on the other hand, there's a sense in which the pattern of Jesus's sufferings becomes the pattern of our sufferings. Just as our faithful head suffered through his life, so we suffer in our life for the sake of the name. And now in verses 19 and 20, and we spent some time last time working through this in the course of speaking of Jesus's work in the course of speaking of Jesus's work. Peter says that Jesus was put to death in the flesh and made alive in the spirit. And I spent some time a few weeks ago explaining that what that means is that he was resurrected to be made alive in the spirit or by the spirit in the New Testament speaks of resurrection. And sometime between his resurrection and his ascension in those 40 days, or perhaps in his ascension, He went and proclaimed victory to the spirits in prison, which we concluded were those disobedient spirits in the time of Noah in Genesis 6, the sons of God who cohabitated with the daughters of men. Those disobedient spirits that were put in prison as a result of not keeping their place. And then through the course of redemptive history, many more spirits were thrown into that prison for their disobedience. Jesus, either in his time after resurrection or in the ascension, proclaims victory to them. And we actually see that in verse 22, don't we? And speaking of his ascension, it says, Jesus, verse 22, who has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God with angels, authorities, and powers having been subjected to him. So this is the context. This is the context. And then as we're thinking about Jesus's victory over death and hell and the grave, as we're thinking about his victory proclamation to those spirits in prison, what we need to be reminded of is his victory came through two things. His victory came through judgment and salvation. judgment and salvation. So now in verses 20 to 21, Peter illustrates judgment and salvation in the example of Noah. And then this is curious how he does this. He connects that example of judgment and salvation in the case of Noah and his family being brought safely through the judgment waters unto salvation. He then connects it to the New Testament ordinance or sacrament of baptism. And we're going to see how that works in just a moment. But here's the big idea that we see. Here's where we come into the story. Baptism folds us into the story of God's redemption. Baptism folds us into the story of how just as Christ was judged and then vindicated or saved, just as Christ went under the watery tomb of judgment and yet came up to new life. So through baptism, we identify with Jesus Christ through faith union, and we likewise go into the waters of judgment signifying our death in Christ, our death to our old life, and yet we come up in new life through the resurrection and coming out of the waters of judgment. So Jesus' victorious new life becomes our victorious new life in the symbol of baptism. And Liam, Anthony, and Elena, You are young in life. You are young even in the faith. And there are many years before you. And in those many years before you, you will endure suffering. You will experience heartache. You will experience disappointment in the midst of all of life's travails. And in the midst of that veil of tears, you will at many points and in many ways in seeking to sort it all out, ultimately come to these questions. Who am I and how does this all turn out? Who am I and what future do I have? Who am I and where is my stand before God? Well, I submit to you that you will find the answers to those questions in what baptism represents. Your union with Christ is your identity. Your union with Christ is your past. your present and your future, your union with Christ through the waters of baptism is the roadmap, if you will, for your new life. You have now given yourself to Christ and it is no longer you who live, but Christ who lives through you. So what I'd like to do this morning, is not only as I address our three baptism candidates, but for all of us, as we hear about baptism and as we will in a moment see it fleshed out before our eyes, I want all of you to think about your baptisms. When was the last time that you thought about your baptism? When is the last time, listen, that you used your baptism as a weapon to withstand temptation and cling to the promises of Christ? You say, golly, I don't think I've ever done that. Can I submit to you that that's one of the things that baptism is there for? One of the reasons that baptism is there is to mark you as one who belongs to Christ. So when the tempter puts his voice out and calls you, your body, your eyes, your ears, your mind, your hands, your heart, to go off and follow, madam, follow, you say, no, I'm not that person anymore. I have died to the old man and I have risen in new life to Christ. I am not that person. My baptism, my baptism reminds me of that. Use your baptism as a tool to fight against sin. Use your baptism as a tool to remind you of what God has in store for you in the new heavens and the new world. So what I would like to do this morning, very briefly, is consider three marks of baptism that Peter lays out for us. Three marks of baptism which ground our identity as Christians in this life and point to our hope in the next life. So consider the first one. Baptism is an external sign of an internal reality. Let me repeat that. Very important. Baptism is an external sign of an internal reality. Look at verses 20c and 21. I'll just read 20 and 21. Speaking of the spirits in prison, they formally did not obey when God's patience waited in the days of Noah while the ark was being prepared in which a few, that is eight persons, were brought safely through water. Baptism, which corresponds to this, now saves you. Here's what Peter's doing here. Just as the ark saved the eight members of Noah's family through the judgment waters, Peter says that baptism now corresponds to that. Now, follow me here. He uses a word in the Greek from which we get our word antitype. The word in the Greek is actually antitupon. An anti-type is the fulfillment of the type, or it is the correspondence to the type. What is a type? A type is a picture. A type is a symbol that it points to something beyond itself. So to give you a few examples of what types are in the Old Covenant, the animal sacrifices were a type. They were a picture of something greater. As that animal's throat was slit and blood came out, that blood symbolized a covering or an atonement of sin. But the book of Hebrews tells us that the blood of bulls and goats could never take away the sins of man and clear his conscience. And so the blood of those lambs represented a greater lamb that was to come. And when Jesus Christ comes on the scene, what does John the Baptist say as he sees Jesus walking down the dusty banks of the Jordan River? He says, behold, the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. John is pointing to Christ as the anti type, the fulfillment of the types. So also in the Old Testament, we had circumcision, the mark which was put on the people of God. That was a type. And the anti type is baptism. Now the mark that is put on the new covenant people of God. These are all types. And so the Ark. and the people that were in it represented something that now corresponds to the people of God in the New Testament. Peter says, baptism is the correspondence to the ark coming through the waters of judgment. And he says, baptism saves. Now, if we just read there and didn't read any further, we would think that the sign itself The sign of baptism itself was necessary for salvation. But Peter goes on to clarify what he means by saying the waters themselves are simply a sign. He says baptism saves you not as a removal of dirt from the body, but an appeal to God for a good conscience through the resurrection of Jesus Christ. If I could do this, look in the text, I wanna do something for you. If you look at verse 21, and strip out all the extra material and just get down to the basic thought of Peter, it would be this. Baptism now saves you through the resurrection of Jesus Christ. That gives clarity to what Peter is getting at. The baptism waters are a symbol of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. So what really saves us is what these baptism waters point to. They point to Christ having died and being raised, and through that objective historical reality, and listen, my faith in it, where is faith? An appeal to God for a good conscience. My subject of faith and that object of reality, which is symbolized in the waters of baptism, that is what saves us. And so we always say the sacrament of baptism or the ordinance of baptism is an external sign, something that we do externally to our bodies, which represents an internal reality of faith. So let me just make it abundantly clear. These waters, apart from faith, will do nothing for you. These waters, apart from faith, rather than serving as a symbol of your justification, will actually serve as a symbol of your condemnation if you have not faith in the objective reality of what these waters represent. So baptism is an external sign of an internal reality. Jesus Christ is the greater ark. He is the greater ark, and by faith we are putting ourselves in that ark and coming through these waters of baptism in salvation. But now, I want you to notice secondly, baptism is a promise from God. Baptism is a promise from God. This is very, very important. I've already drawn your attention to verse 21, baptism, which now saves you through the resurrection of Jesus Christ. I want you to notice, you know, I've been throwing this word around, sacrament, and some of you may or may not be comfortable with that. The fact of the matter is the church has used that word for a number of years, pretty much all of her existence. We also use the term ordinance, which is very simply means command. But you know where sacrament comes from? Sacramentum is a Latin word which described a military oath that soldiers made to keep their commitment to the kingdom. It is an oath. And a sacramentum or a sacrament of baptism is an oath which plays out on two different levels. One of the levels is an objective oath from God to us. It is an oath from God to us. So as you undergo the waters of baptism, you are symbolizing or God is symbolizing to you his oath and his covenant to bring you through judgment. And we see this in the text. Baptism saves you through the resurrection of Jesus Christ. And further in verse 18, we read all about the objective work of Jesus Christ. Verse 18, Jesus suffered his whole life on the cross. He atoned for us and brought us to God. And then he resurrected, verse 18 and verse 22, and he ascended, verse 22. All of those objective historical realities is God's promise to you in the sacrament of baptism that he will save you. God is making you a promise. So it is an objective promise. But now thirdly and finally, here's the other side of the sacramentum, the other side of the oath. We are giving an oath. Thirdly, baptism is the Christian's appeal for and commitment to a good conscience. We've seen God's promise in the sign of baptism, but God's promise without the reception of faith means nothing to someone. That promise must be received through faith, and Peter now focuses, in verse 21, on your part. Faith is described as an appeal to God for a good conscience. So baptism symbolizes your reception of salvation. The fact of the matter is there came a point in each and every one of our lives who have believed in Jesus Christ, where we realized that we didn't have a clear conscience. We knew God as creator, in whose image we were created, but we did not know him as redeemer. We had strayed from God. And as creator God, he commanded us to be perfect. Yes, you know that God created you and commanded you to be perfect. He demanded that you give him personal, perpetual, and perfect obedience. But you broke that law, didn't you? And in breaking that law, maybe for a time, you did not think much of it. Maybe as a child, you didn't think much of it. Or maybe on the other hand, as a child, your conscience was pricked by the fact that you were not perfect. It was pricked by the fact that God was not your friend, but God was your enemy. Whether it was young in life or later in life, there came a point in your life when you realized you had blood on your hands. And really, that blood was the blood of Jesus Christ because, my friend, it was you, it was we who nailed Him to the cross. It was we whose sins He paid for in going to the cross. So we had guilt in our heart, we had broken God's law, and we realized that we needed our consciences to be cleared. So in the sacrament of baptism, what we are doing is we are publicly symbolizing our passage from a guilty conscience, which condemns us, to a good conscience. And how do you get that clear conscience? Verse 21, baptism is an appeal to God for a good conscience. This is the clearest verse in the Bible regarding baptism with respect to the subjects of baptism. Who is appealing to God for a good conscience here? is the person who is undergoing the waters of baptism. And what are they doing? They are appealing to God that through what the baptism waters represent in salvation, God would clear their conscience. Through the work, the person and work of Jesus Christ, that their sins would be covered and they would be given a righteousness from Christ that would make them stand. This is why we firmly believe that the only true subjects of baptism are those who have the cognitive ability and awareness to make that decision. to profess faith in Jesus Christ. This is why we don't baptize babies. Babies don't appeal to God for a good conscience with clarity of mind. It is something that must be done as a work of grace in the heart of a person, which manifests itself in repentance and faith, and as Peter says here, on appeal to God for a good conscience through the resurrection of Jesus Christ. So this morning, Liam and Anthony and Elena, you are publicly displaying your union with Jesus Christ through baptism. Just as he went under the judgment waters of God and was raised to new life, so you are going down into the judgment waters of death and raising to new life. God is giving you a clear and good conscience through Jesus Christ. And you are saying, as Paul said in Galatians 20, it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me, Christ who lives through me. Listen, teenagers, Christ who lives in me when my parents tell me to clean my room. Christ who lives in me when my friends try to get me to go off and get drunk, or my friends try to tempt me into sexual profligate lifestyles, my friends who try to tell me to redefine manhood and redefine womanhood, my friends and the culture who try to get me to say there is no absolute truth. No, it is Christ who lives in me. Christ said I'm the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father but through me, and it is that head That covenant mediator with whom I am identified, you remember that as you undergo these waters of baptism. You're not living your own life anymore. You're not calling the shots anymore. Jesus Christ, your covenant head, He calls the shots. He tells you who you are. He tells you how to be made right with Him. He tells you how to walk in holiness. He tells you how to love and respect and honor your parents. He tells you how to obey the government. He tells you how to deal with leaders in your life. Jesus Christ is your life. And like Noah, I want you to picture for a moment, as Noah and his family were perched on the top of Mount Ararat and that door of the ark opened, they came into a whole new world, a world that had been cleansed from sin. And so as you come up from the waters of baptism, you also are coming into a whole new world, a new world that Christ has obtained through His blood. And make no mistake, you're going to mess that world up. You're gonna continue to sin. You're gonna continue to fall. But keep in mind, sin no longer has dominion over you. You no longer have to sin. You may sin, you will sin, but Christ is your power, Christ is your dominion, and here's the beautiful thing, whereas before you had to sin and there was no atonement, no covering, no forgiveness, now you do sin and there is covering and atonement and forgiveness. We have peace with God through the blood of Jesus Christ. You will ever and always, as you sin, come back to a faithful God who extends his mercy and extends his grace to you and says, come to me all who thirst and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. You have perpetual rest in this new world into which you've entered. But let me say finally under this head, like Noah and like Jesus, you are a minority. You know that Noah and his family preached for some 120 years? 120 years. 100, 120 years telling people flee from the wrath to come. Flee from the wrath to come. Get in this big boat that we're making and bleh is gonna come down. They didn't know what rain was. There was just a canopy up there. They had never seen rain, never experienced it. They said flee from the wrath to come because bleh is coming. They didn't know. But you know, Noah and his family, they believed that blah was coming, despite the fact that they never experienced it. Why? Because they trusted the word of God. They were a minority in trusting the word of God. And you know what? 100, 120 years, that message was preached, not one convert. Not one convert. And yet they're held up as emblems and examples of righteousness. Noah himself is called a herald of righteousness. And you may find also in your life that you are a minority. You may find in your school, you may find in your career, you may find maybe even at times in your family that you may be a minority, but God has called you to be a minority in this world. He has called you to be faithful. He has called you to trust him. He has called you to go even to death if it be necessary. So you, like Noah and like Jesus, are a minority, and one day, despite the scoffings of Noah's enemies, one day, despite the scoffings and ridicules of your enemies, you will be vindicated. So this morning, dear congregation, as we witness this sacrament of baptism, may we all, with one heart, be reminded of how God has saved us from our sin. The gospel is represented in the waters of baptism. And there are some of you this morning that are sitting here in your chair who have never been saved by Jesus Christ. And can I tell you something? God put a promise in the sky after he flooded the earth. It was a bow. And that bow was symbolic in ancient Near Eastern thought. It was his bow that he used to inflict judgment on the earth, the judgment of floodwaters. But after the flood, he hung that bow up and he said, no longer will I flood this world with water. But one day, he will bring judgment to the earth, not with water, but with fire. And here's the question I have for you, unbeliever, this morning. If you do not believe in Jesus Christ, if you do not turn from your sins, that judgment is coming for you. If you do not run for refuge to Jesus Christ, then there is a sense in which you will also undergo a baptism, but you will go under the waters of judgment and you will never come up. You will never come up. The fire of baptism will overtake you, and you want to know why? Because you have no advocate to stand in your place before God Almighty and say, my blood has covered them. My righteousness I give to them. Through faith I have given them my obedience. Through faith I have given them my sin atoning death. And therefore, Father, when you look at them, you see me. That is the gospel. And this morning, if you have not Jesus as an advocate, you will undergo the judgment of fire and you will never come up. Oh, dear friend, why would you die? Why would you die? God stands ready this morning. He has given you the gospel through his word. He's gonna display the gospel before you in the waters. Why would you go on in your insanity in not believing? Jesus Christ stands ready this morning to baptize you. He stands ready this morning to give you His righteousness and His covering for sin. Turn from your sins this morning and believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved. Let's pray. Father God, we thank you for your Son, Jesus Christ. We thank you that because He has undergone the judgment of God, your wrath, we will never have to experience it. And Father, now as we will experience and watch before our very eyes, these young people undergo the waters of baptism, I pray, dear Father, that we would not only rejoice with them, but that you would seal to their hearts the reality and seriousness of this, the joy of this, the pleasure that one day Even after coming into a new world spiritually without sin, one day we will come into a world that has literally been cleansed of sin with fire. The new heavens and the new earth. Father, help us to anticipate it greatly this morning we pray. In Christ's name, Amen.