Does Baptism Save You?

1. 0:00Heidelberg Catechism, Lord’s Day 26.
2. 0:13How does holy baptism remind and assure you that Christ's one sacrifice on the cross benefits you personally?
3. 0:20personally.
4. 0:21In this way, Christ instituted this outward washing and with it promised that as surely as water washes away the dirt from the body, so certainly his blood and his spirit wash
5. 0:32away my soul's impurity, that is, all my sins.
6. 0:36What does it mean to be washed with Christ's blood and spirit?
7. 0:40To be washed with Christ's blood means that God, by grace, has forgiven our sins because of Christ's blood poured out for us in his sacrifice on the cross.
8. 0:49To be washed with Christ's Spirit means that the Holy Spirit has renewed and sanctified us to be members of Christ so that more and more we die to sin and live holy and blameless lives.
9. 1:00Where does Christ promise that we are washed with his blood and spirit as surely as we are washed with the waters of baptism?
10. 1:08In the institution of baptism where he says, "Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,
11. 1:20believes and is baptized will be saved and whoever does not believe will be condemned. The promise is repeated when Scripture calls baptism the washing of
12. 1:28regeneration and the washing away of sins." So we learned in the previous Lord's Day, Lord’s Day 25, that it is the Spirit who works faith in the hearts of
13. 1:39God's people. He kindles this faith by the preaching of the gospel and then he confirms that faith by the use of holy sacraments. Lord’s Day 26 is then going
14. 1:50to begin to work out those two sacraments that are instituted by our Lord Jesus Christ that is holy baptism in Lord’s Day 26 and Lord’s Day 27 and and then the Lord's Supper and Lord’s Day 28.
15. 2:03So Lord’s Day 26 is really wanting to break open for us how exactly is baptism that sign and seal that reminds us and also assures us.
16. 2:13So I think that language is really important in question and answer 69, that baptism is a reminder but it's also an assurance and we can take great hope in the very fact that just as water washes dirt from the body,
17. 2:27so too does the blood of Christ cleanse us from all of our sins.
18. 2:32It is Christ himself who institutes this outward washing and we see in that outward washing the signification of our inward sins, our souls being cleansed by His precious blood that He shed for the sake of His people.
19. 2:49So what the Sacrament of Baptism does is it takes our eyes off ourself and it fixes them on the crucified and risen Savior who is given to us.
20. 2:59his body broken, his blood shed, which is all coming out for us in this outward sign of baptism.
21. 3:06Our catechism then goes into asking an important question: What does it exactly mean to be washed with Christ's blood and his spirit?
22. 3:14It means that by God's grace we have been forgiven of our sins because of of the blood of Christ, not because of our own actions, our own works, for our works would not be able to merit God's favor.
23. 3:27However, it's the work of Christ that merits God's favor for us.
24. 3:31And it's him who humbled himself to the point of death, even death on a cross, that he would be exalted to the right hand of the Father.
25. 3:39Father. To be washed by the Spirit of Christ means that the Spirit renews us. He calls us and he gives this powerful renewal by changing our hearts and he sets us apart as members
26. 3:54of Christ and he gives us this sign of our being set apart in baptism.
27. 3:59we are then called as believers to improve on our baptism.
28. 4:03That is, that we remember.
29. 4:05Anytime you see a baptism in your context of worship, you should be remembering that just as that person, that child or that adult convert is receiving the mark of baptism, you should remember that God has placed his
30. 4:19mark of baptism on you. And as you see the waters flood down the person's forehead, know that just as Christ has cleansed their sins, he also has cleansed yours, just as the water is washing the
31. 4:33dirt from their body in baptism. That we would more and more then, as we remember God's covenant sign, that we would more and more die to our sin and live a holy life as we've been welcomed into
32. 4:44God's covenant community. Where has he instituted this? Well, it's in the Great Commission that we learn that Christ is commanding his disciples to go and to
33. 4:55make disciples of all nations, to baptize them in the name of the Father and and the Son and the Holy Spirit.
34. 5:01That's really important as well because there is much in a name.
35. 5:04We've been named by God and that's signified in baptism, which means that we are from Him.
36. 5:11He is ours and we are His, and that means He cares about how our life looks.
37. 5:16We live holy and obedient lives as we've been set apart to Him, and that comes with great assurance that we've received a salvation that is by grace through faith.
38. 5:25Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved.
39. 5:29They'll be saved because of the name of Jesus Christ who was given for them.
40. 5:33And this promise is repeated when Scripture calls baptism the washing of regeneration and the washing away of sins.
41. 5:39the next Lord’s Day, we're going to be able to get into that language more specifically.
42. 5:44But notice first how the scriptures speak.
43. 5:48Our catechism references the book of Titus chapter 3.
44. 5:52I'm going to begin reading in verse 4 of chapter 3 in Titus, which says, "But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior
45. 5:59He saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit. Our catechism also references Acts 22,
46. 6:13and in Acts 22 the Apostle Paul is recounting this conversion experience that he has as God meets him on the road to Damascus. "And now why do you wait? Rise and be baptized and wash away
47. 6:25your sins, calling on his name." So Ananias is calling the Apostle Paul to be baptized as our Lord Jesus Christ instituted the sign of baptism. And notice how Acts 22 is saying, "Rise and be baptized,
48. 6:39wash away your sins." So it's tying this washing away of sins to the outward sign of baptism that the apostle Paul, who was previously Saul, is being commissioned and that he would know that
49. 6:51just as water washes dirt from the body, so too the blood of Christ cleanses his soul from his sins.
50. 6:59you

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