Topic
Baptism
66 sermons · All topics
The Pattern, Mandate, and Context of Baptism
Believers' baptism by immersion rests not on ecclesiastical tradition but on a conspicuous New Testament pattern, an explicit dominical mandate, and the covenantal logic of Jeremiah 31 as expounded in Hebrews 8. Working through the baptism narratives of Acts, the Great Commission of Matthew 28, and the new covenant promises of Hebrews 8, this sermon argues that the proper subjects of baptism are those who have repented and believed — the new covenant community defined by internalized law, experiential knowledge of God, and the forgiveness of sins. The case for credo-baptism is grounded not in a rejection of covenant theology but in a distinctively Reformed Baptist appropriation of it: the new covenant differs from the old precisely in that all its members know the Lord. Baptism is commended not as optional piety but as a commanded ordinance of positive institution carrying ongoing significance as a means of grace.
The Blessing of Christian Baptism
Baptism is an ordinance of the New Testament instituted by Jesus Christ, and this sermon examines what it means, who its proper subjects are, and why it is necessary. Working from Matthew 28:18-20 and the 1689 London Baptist Confession chapter 29, the sermon argues that baptism is a nonverbal proclamation of the gospel, signifying union with Christ in his death and resurrection, the forgiveness of sins through his blood, and the believer's public consecration to walk in newness of life. Against both baptismal regeneration and indiscriminate administration, the sermon grounds believers' baptism in the New Covenant community described in Jeremiah 31 and demonstrated throughout the book of Acts, where profession of faith consistently precedes the ordinance. The sermon closes by urging baptized believers to recall their baptism as a summons to holiness, and by calling the unbaptized to trust in Christ alone, in whom every spiritual blessing is secured.
The Salvation of an Ethiopian Eunuch
Acts 8:26–40 records the sovereign calling, gospel instruction, and baptism of an Ethiopian eunuch — a Gentile and a eunuch, doubly excluded from full participation in Israel's assembly, yet brought to Christ through the preaching of Philip from Isaiah 53. The sermon exposits three movements in the narrative: the Spirit's sovereign direction of Philip to the eunuch, the necessity of the proclaimed gospel for salvation, and the eunuch's believing response expressed in baptism. The occasion of eight baptisms frames the exposition as a demonstration that God saves sinners of every kind through the hearing of the gospel — the substitutionary death and resurrection of Christ — and that believer's baptism by immersion is the proper public confession of that saving faith.
Christ's Circumcision
Colossians 2:11–12 is frequently marshalled by paedobaptists to argue that baptism has replaced circumcision as the covenant sign and therefore ought to be administered to infants, but the passage cannot bear that weight. This sermon works through three preliminary observations — the structure of covenant theology, the relationship between circumcision and baptism, and the actual point of the passage — before exegeting verses 11–12 directly. The circumcision Paul describes is spiritual regeneration performed by Christ without hands, and baptism is its retrospective public sign, not a parallel to the prospective sign of physical circumcision given to Abraham's infant sons. The sermon closes with a sharp warning against any gospel that supplements Christ's finished work, insisting that justification is an alien, forensic righteousness imputed to the believer by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone.
The Great Commission
Matthew 28:18–20, the Great Commission, grounds the church's evangelistic and discipleship mandate not in human strategy but in the universal authority of the enthroned Christ. The sermon traces three interlocking realities: the authority behind the commission (Christ's sovereign rule over all things), the activity the commission requires (making, baptizing, and teaching disciples), and the active agent who sustains it (Christ himself present with his people to the end of the age). Believers' baptism is expounded as a visible sign of union with Christ, remission of sins, and public covenant commitment — an ordinance reserved for disciples, not infants — and the entire commission is set within a robustly Calvinist framework in which God alone adds to his church by sovereign grace.
The Foundation for Christian Baptism
Baptism is grounded not in the merit or decision of the one being baptized, but in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, who was himself 'baptized' — overwhelmed unto death — as a substitute for sinners. The sermon works through Mark 10:32–45 to show that Christ's language of drinking the cup and being baptized with his baptism refers to his substitutionary suffering at Calvary, not his water baptism by John. Baptism is therefore an act of obedience that publicly declares the believer's identification with the triune God and union with Christ in his death, burial, and resurrection, while picturing — though not providing — the forgiveness of sins.