The Mystery of Baptism Part 1

Okay, welcome. How many of you were here last week? How many of you are within the sound of my voice? More of you were here than that. Anyway, okay, what did we talk about last week? We took a trip through the sign of the Son of Man, and at least on one comet, and we looked at different points on that path, and we saw how it corresponded to something in the history of Israel.

Remember what it was? What was the story that this comet tells in the history of Israel? The Exodus. First, they were in Egypt, the land of bondage, and it was at midnight when the angel passed over those who had the blood of the lamb on the doorpost of their house. Then they came out of Egypt, and where did they find themselves next? They went through the wilderness until they got to the Red Sea.

That is represented by this place in the sign where the water crosses into the sign. They came to the Red Sea, and then they were frightened, they didn't know what to do because the Egyptians were behind them, and they couldn't go through the sea. But you know the story, God parted the sea, and they went through.

We're going to spend a little bit more time talking about that today. I think it will be a very interesting study. But just to refresh our minds, then we came to this point here where the two paths cross.

Now I want to show you this live in Stellarium. Let me show it here. There is the sign.

Now let's locate the ... this is where the comet is right now, at the present moment, and hopefully this will work for me now. Yes. Notice where it is, this is now that same crossing, it's at a little bit different angle, but it's that same crossing there.

You notice it's right at that crossing. This is May 26th at 10 o'clock in the morning. But if we put our time to Jerusalem, then we see that it's actually in the evening, just at the end of the 26th.

And that of course, it's about sunset. And in Hebrew thinking, the sunset is when the day begins. So this is really the beginning of what we would call May 27th.

And who can tell me on God's calendar what day May 27th was this year? That was Pentecost. Exactly when the comet was ... now I lost my place here, there we go. Exactly when the comet was at that crossing, was right to the hour even, at the beginning of the day of Pentecost.

And in the history of Israel, what happens on the day of Pentecost? The law was given at Mount Sinai. So therefore, this point represents, this point in the sign of the Son of Man, it points us back to that time in the history of Israel when God was on Mount Sinai with all the drama and the lightning and the thunder, and he gave them the Ten Commandments. That crossing points to that time.

And if that's not amazing enough, then we come a few months later, four months later, let me get back there, and this time, instead of looking at Comet E3, we're going to look at the other comet. This is the path of the Comet K2, and it comes and it makes this tight loop, and right when it is at that day, maybe I can do it this way, here is, you see, Comet 2017 K2, and if I show some markers and some dates, and then we look at that, very close up, and right here at the tip is September 26. So the comet comes here right at the tip of this curve, it's coming up this way, crosses over, and right at the tip is September 26, and that was what day on God's calendar? This was Yom Kippur in the first possibility of the month.

Now Yom Kippur was also a special day in Jewish history, and very connected with the day of Pentecost, because what happened on Yom Kippur? Where did Moses go on Yom Kippur? He also had received two tables of stone on Yom Kippur, he went back up the mountain, this time it was after Israel had sinned and Moses threw the two tables of the stone down, that was at Pentecost, then they received instructions for the tabernacle, and he went back up the mountain, and that was on Yom Kippur, and he received two fresh tables of stone, written with what? They were written with the finger of God, God himself wrote in the stone, and that's very significant, we'll see that again today in our study. So here in the sign of the Son of Man, we see two points, let me just take off these markers, we see two important points, these two crossings here and the tip, that point to Israel's history, precisely at the very day, one with this comet when it crosses exactly on Pentecost, the other with this comet when it reaches that sharp point at the end exactly on the day of Yom Kippur, the beginning of that day. So that is a very impressive lineup of events that this comet points to, these comets, the sign of the Son of Man as a whole, points to this series of events, from the Exodus, the Red Sea crossing, then they were in the wilderness and they received God's law, but they broke it, and then they received it again, and they received his forgiveness, that was the assurance of their forgiveness when they came down, when Moses came down.

Yes, that's a good point, the lightning and thunder, all that volcanic activity that was connected with the law is also seen in the 7th trumpet that we talked about last week, I won't reference that again today, but in the 7th trumpet it talks about seeing and hearing the lightnings and the thunderings and a great earthquake just like it was at Mount Sinai, and here again when he received the law for the second time, it reflects or it has a relationship to that time when God thundered with lightnings and an earthquake and there was even a sound of a great trumpet when they received the law. The difference between these two points is here they received the law but it wasn't in their hearts, whereas at Yom Kippur it points to a time when the law would be written in the heart, this was in the case of Israel, though in their experience it hadn't yet been written in their heart, but it pointed forward to that time, and it represented God's forgiveness for their sin that they committed in creating the golden calf earlier. So then they have the wilderness wandering where, and here it passes right by the throne, this is, these three belt stars of Orion represent the throne of God, interesting that there are three stars because there are three persons through the Godhead, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, and then at the end they finally were to cross the Jordan into the promised land.

So that points to the time when we can expect to cross the heavenly Jordan that separates us from God. So the whole process from the exodus of Egypt to the crossing into the promised land is all represented in the key points that God brought the children of Israel through, and we talked about the entry point with the clock before, so yeah, we talked about the clock a couple weeks ago, and entering into Christ's rest in the symbolic form, just as Jesus said, I give you rest. Now let's look at the next part of this series, and this is when they crossed the Red Sea.

Now I want to look at what Paul says about this. First Corinthians chapter 10 in verse 2, he talks about the children of Israel going through, and in verse 2 he says, they were all baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea. Now that's kind of interesting.

He points out that they were under the cloud and they all passed through the sea. Now the sea was parted, and they went through, and the sea was like a wall of water on either side, and they had the cloud over the top of them, so they were surrounded in water. So Paul connects that with baptism, and he says they were all baptized, and then he says something kind of strange.

They were baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea. What does that mean? Are some baptized into Moses, and others are baptized, I thought were baptized into Christ, right? So why does he say some were baptized into Moses? Well, let's go back to the first person who baptized people. Who was that? Who originated baptism? It was John the Baptist, right? So what did John the Baptist say about baptism? If we look at Mark chapter 1 verse 8, this is talking about when John the Baptist was baptizing, and he says, I indeed have baptized you with water.

He was in the Jordan River. He baptized the people in the water, and then he said, but he, and he's talking about one who is mightier than he who comes after him. He's speaking of Jesus.

Jesus shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost. So John's baptism and Jesus's baptism. So now we have three baptisms.

John, Jesus, and Moses. How do we make sense of all of this? Well, it's very interesting when we consider what happened at Jesus's baptism. Let's look at Matthew chapter 3 and verse 11.

This is the same event that we just read about in Mark, but it's described a little bit differently. But I want to look at a different verse here. Just after he speaks of Jesus's coming, that he would baptize with the Holy Spirit, then Jesus came to him.

In verse 13 it says, Then cometh Jesus from Galilee to Jordan unto John to be baptized of him. But John forbade him and said, I have need to be baptized of thee, and comest thou to me? And Jesus answering said unto him, Suffer it to be so now, for thus it becometh us to fulfill all righteousness. And then he suffered him.

And it says, And Jesus, when he was baptized, went up straightway out of the water, and lo, the heavens were opened. That's always an interesting expression. When we see the heavens opened, hmm, what do we see in the heavens that relates to that event? The heavens were opened unto him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and lighting upon him.

He saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and lighting upon him. And lo, a voice from heaven saying, This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased. Okay.

Now let's start to put the pieces together. And we can do that when we look at the sign of the Son of Man. What do you see in the middle? We see a person here in the river being baptized.

And we see the dove coming down. So whose baptism is this? This is Jesus' baptism. And that's logical, because this is the sign of the Son of Man, the sign of Jesus.

So it represents Jesus' baptism. But that's not all that is there, because we have different symbols here. What does the dove represent? We just read it.

The Holy Spirit. It said the Holy Spirit came down like a dove upon him. So here we have a representation of the Holy Spirit.

And what about this? If this is whose baptism? It's the baptism of Jesus. And who baptized Jesus? John the Baptist. John baptized with what? With water.

And Jesus baptized with? With the Holy Spirit. So we see John's baptism of Jesus, but it was when John baptized him in water. That's this part.

And then there's Jesus' baptism, who baptizes with the Holy Spirit. Is that all that's there? There was a voice from heaven. We'll get to that.

There's also this tool kind of strangely left there, as though somebody didn't pick up their tools in the workshop. What is this tool that's here between these two symbols of the baptism? It's called the caelum. It's a Latin term.

It's a chisel. It's actually a sculptor's chisel. Somebody who makes an image, a carved image or a sculpture, they use this kind of a chisel to form the shape.

Now that might seem a little bit strange in this context, but I think it will become clear when we consider what that really points to. And to see that, let's look at something else. The Old Testament sanctuary was a path.

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You would enter in through one door into the courtyard. And in the courtyard, there was the altar of sacrifice and the laver. The laver represents baptism, water.

They would clean themselves before they would go through the second door into the sanctuary. And then once a year, they would even go into the third part, through the third door, into the most holy place. Now, I want you to see something.

In Matthew chapter 3, verse 11, John explains his baptism. He says, I indeed baptize you with water unto what? Unto repentance. Okay.

Unto repentance. Now, let's look back at this picture. When the children of Israel recognized that they had sinned, they would bring a lamb.

And when they came through that first door, it represented their repentance. They offered the lamb as a sign of their repentance. They would actually confess their sin on the head of the animal, and it would be then slain and burned on the altar.

So when they would enter, they came in with an attitude of repentance. And that corresponds with John's baptism. John baptized with water unto repentance.

And we know that Jesus identified himself with the doors. Remember he said, I am the door. And we talked about this before, where these three doors have names.

What are the names? The name of the first door is the way. Second door was the truth. The third door was the life.

So Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life. He said that of himself. And John baptized to repentance and brought people through that first door, the baptism of water unto repentance.

But Jesus had a different baptism. It was the baptism of the Holy Spirit. And where is the Holy Spirit in the sanctuary? Where is he represented? In what? Furniture.

In the lamp. The Holy Spirit, you can see it there, in the seven-branched candlestick inside the second compartment of the sanctuary. In here was the bread, the lamp, and then right next to the third door was the altar of incense.

Now when you would cross into that second door, cross through, what would you see? You would see the lamp, the table of showbread, and you would see the altar. And how would you see that? This was all closed in. No, we would see it by faith, the priest, when he would walk in, he could see it.

And how did he see it? With his eyes. And what illuminated it? The light of the candles. This was the light that shined inside the sanctuary.

And that represents the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit shines inside. So as soon as you walk in, immediately you're surrounded by the light of the Holy Spirit.

It's all over. You know that the walls, they were made from wood, but over the wood, they were covered with what? With gold on the roof, with skin. But the walls were covered with gold.

Now is gold dull or shiny? It's shiny. It would reflect the light. So there was light.

It was like being in a mirrored room. There's light shining around everywhere from that one candlestick. So literally when the priest would enter into the sanctuary, he's completely surrounded by these, the lights reflecting around all over.

It's like he's bathed in light. And this represents that second baptism, the baptism that Jesus baptized with the Holy Spirit. When you would go through this door, you're baptized with the Holy Spirit because when you walk through, you're immediately in the presence, surrounded and bathed in that light.

Yes. Amen. It's the light of truth and the Holy Spirit leads us into all truth.

So John's baptism led through the first door to repentance. The door is still Christ. We come to Christ with our repentance.

He is represented by the lamb that is slain. The second door is Christ's baptism. When the baptism that he baptizes us with which is that of the Holy Spirit, he baptizes us in the Holy Spirit.

Every believer, when you first come to Christ, you're cleansed. That's a one-time thing that you become, we say, justified. And that means you're counted righteous.

You're now in the camp of God's people. But then when we come into the second baptism with the Holy Spirit, I want to use my words carefully. It's not really the second baptism, but it's Christ's baptism with the Holy Spirit.

And he gives us the Holy Spirit, just like it was illustrated in the lives of the apostles after Christ's death and resurrection. He sent the Holy Spirit and it was given to them and they had tongues of fire on their head, much like the candlestick has fire on the top. That was the symbol of their baptism with the Holy Spirit.

So we see this process. And I should add that in this compartment of the sanctuary, you have the bread, the table of the Lord, where we commune with God in the light of the Holy Spirit. He's in us.

He dwells in us. And that is represented there in those symbols. But there's a third door.

And that third door is interesting. It's not typically recognized by modern Christianity, at least not in the way that it is shown to us here. So we see the water baptism through the first door.

There's the baptism of the Spirit through the second door of the sanctuary. Could it be that this tool has something to do with the third door in some kind of a third baptism? Again, I want to be careful. It's not a first, a second, and a third baptism, but it is three aspects to our baptism.

We're baptized into Christ, and when we're baptized into Christ, you know, he is the door, but he's the way, the truth, and the life. He's all three doors. So we're baptized into Christ.

Through Christ, we have access all the way to the most holy place in the sanctuary. All three doors represent Christ. So it's not three baptisms.

It's one baptism with three different aspects, three perspectives. Now let's look at that sculpting tool, because this one has to do with that third compartment to the sanctuary. Okay, so in this third door, it's very interesting.

The priest would only go there one time, one day out of the whole year, and there's a whole chapter in the Bible dedicated just to the procedures that the priest would have to do on that day. That was the day of Yom Kippur, and when he would go into the most holy, I want you to see what the Bible says he would do, and notice what altar is that here. This is the altar of incense that was right there at the door of that most holy place.

All right, so let's look at the Bible back in Leviticus chapter 16 and verse 12. These are the laws that the priest would have to follow on the day of atonement, and when he would go into the most holy place, it says he would take, he shall take a censer full of burning coals of fire from off the altar, so he would take that from the altar of burnt offering. He would take a scoop of coals from the altar before the Lord and his hands full of sweet incense, beaten small.

So he had a handful of incense and bring it within the veil. The veil is that third door. So he had hot coals, a handful of incense, and he would come through that third door.

What did he do? In verse 13, he shall put the incense upon the fire, the coals, before the Lord that the cloud of the incense may cover the mercy seat that is upon the testimony that he die not. So get the picture. He's coming in, he has the coals in the censer, and he puts a handful of incense on it.

So that's quite a bit of incense on these hot coals, and immediately a big cloud of smoke is produced, a pleasant smelling smoke, and he would enter with this cloud of smoke. And then in the most holy place, there was the the Ark of the Covenant with the mercy seat. So whenever that one time when he did enter the most holy place, it was completely surrounded with this cloud of smoke from the incense.

What is that like? Yeah, it is. It's a lot like the cloud. It reminds us of the cloud that was over Moses and the children of Israel.

And remember, the word baptism simply means immersion. That's all it means. It just means you're immersed.

So John immersed in water. Jesus immersed the people, the believers in the Holy Spirit. And here, when the priest went into the third place of the sanctuary, the most holy place, he was immersed in this cloud of incense.

So it's also a baptism or another aspect, again, of our baptism into Christ, a baptism in incense. Now what does incense represent? Let's see what the Bible speaks about incense and what it is connected with. Psalms 141 verse 2. David says, Let my prayer be set forth before thee as incense, and the lifting up of my hands as the evening sacrifice.

Prayer as incense. What does that mean? And then let's look at Luke chapter 1 and verse 9. It speaks of the time when Zacharias was, the angel came to Zacharias to announce that he would beget a son who was John the Baptist. And Zacharias was the priest.

And so according to the custom of the priest's office, his lot was to burn incense when he went into the temple of the Lord. And the whole multitude of the people were praying without, outside the temple, at the time of incense. So he was burning incense inside the temple, and all the people were outside praying.

So prayer is represented by the incense. So what does it mean when we have a baptism into or with prayer? Revelation chapter 8 and verse 4. And the smoke of the incense, which came with the prayers of the saints, ascended up before God out of the angel's hand. So what prayer is this talking about? There's the prayers of the saints that are represented with this incense that comes up before God.

Now remember, in the sign of the Son of Man, this represents what part of Israel's history? The crossing of the Red Sea, which Paul connected to a baptism, a baptism unto Moses. So what did he mean, a baptism unto Moses? What was Moses representing that Paul was trying to connect that to? And I think we can find the answer when we look at Moses's prayer. Yeah, now let's look at Exodus chapter 32 and verse 32.

This comes at the time when Israel had made the golden calf. They sinned, and Moses was in the mountain with God, and God said, they've sinned, let me destroy them, wipe them off the face of the earth, and I'll make of you another nation. And Moses, he went, he made a plea with the Lord.

In verse 31, Exodus chapter 32 verse 31, and Moses returned unto the Lord and said, oh, this people have sinned a great sin and have made them gods of gold. Yet now, if thou wilt, forgive their sin, and if not, blot me, I pray thee, out of thy book which thou hast written. That's Moses's prayer.

He was praying to God, they have sinned, but forgive their sin, and if you don't forgive their sin, blot me out. That was the desire of Moses's heart. He didn't take God's offer to say, okay, blot them out and make me into a great nation.

We see that blotting out even represented like an X over this constellation showing that blotting out. Somebody would be blotted out because of their sin. Either the people, God said, the people would be blotted out, and I'll make a great nation out of you, Moses.

Moses said, no, no, no, blot me out instead. Don't blot them out, blot me out. And what did God respond to that? The Lord said unto Moses in verse 33, whosoever hath sinned against me, him will I blot out of my book.

So it was either the children of Israel who would be blotted out, or as Moses proposed, it would be himself. Lord, let me be blotted out instead of them. Whose character did he reflect in that prayer? He reflected Jesus's character.

And who actually was blotted out? No, Jesus. Of course, the unbelieving, they are blotted out as well. But those who believe of Israel, they believed in Christ, because Christ is the one who is blotted out on our behalf.

And Moses, in his prayer, reflected that character that Christ demonstrated. Christ had the same prayer. He said, blot me out, and not them, while he was on the cross.

He said, Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do. And he took the burden of our sin on himself, and God did blot him out. He saw in Christ.

Though Christ never sinned, he said, let him who has sinned against me, let him be blotted out. It shows us when Christ was on the cross, God didn't see Christ, but like Paul says, he became sin for us. He saw us.

He saw our sin instead of his own son, and therefore he blotted out his son. Christ took upon himself the death that was due to each of us who have sinned. But that character, that willingness to sacrifice ourselves for the sake of others, that is the prayer of Moses that we are baptized into.

That is the incense that rises to God as a sweet smelling savor. Let's look back at Psalm 141 that we saw, because David says two things. Let my prayer be set forth before thee as incense, and the lifting up of my hands as the evening sacrifice.

He connects sacrifice with the prayer. You know, you can imagine him praying to God with his hands lifted up, and he's connecting this with the smoke that would rise from the sanctuary. There was smoke from the incense, his prayer, and there was also smoke from the sacrifice itself, the burnt offering, and that smoke would rise up to God.

Now let me ask you a question. Who lifted up his hands for us? Jesus did. So this baptism that we see, this baptism into the incense, the prayer of Moses, is it a different baptism, or is it also the baptism into Christ? It's all in Christ.

This is the baptism into Christ's character, where we can take our cross like Jesus did, lift up our hands, and our prayer can be like it was with Jesus. Forgive them, and let me take the penalty instead. It's about the character.

Now God didn't didn't take up Moses on that offer, because that's Jesus's role, but the character, the willingness to be able to do that, the willingness to to say, I would rather that I myself am blotted out. You know, when we're blotted out of God's book, that means forever. It's an eternal blotting out, and it would be better that we are eternally blotted out of God's book than to see others, to see his people blotted out instead for their own sin, and therefore this prayer is the prayer of forgiveness.

Forgive them. Let me take the burden. Let Christ take that burden.

That is the third element to the prayer, to the baptism rather. We have the baptism of water that John baptized into repentance from sin, that first part of the sanctuary. There's the baptism of the Holy Spirit that Jesus did.

He gave the apostles the Holy Spirit, not just the apostles, but they were the forerunners, the first ones of Christianity, but throughout the Christian history. When we come into the body of Christ, we receive the Holy Spirit. Now what does this tool have to do with Moses' baptism into prayer, or our baptism into the prayer of Moses would be a better way to say that.

Remember, this is a sculptor's chisel making an image, and the Bible says that in Genesis chapter 1 and verse 27, so God created man in his own image. So who's the sculptor? God is the sculptor. We're not talking about human sculpting.

This is God's sculpture. God is creating us in his image. He did that in the beginning.

He created man in his own image. In the image of God, created he him, male and female, created he them. Interesting that it's connected with the male and female, something that is greatly confused in today's generation, but the sculptor's chisel is not a chisel that any man can use, because it's in heaven.

Only God can use these tools. This is God's sculpting chisel. He is the one that writes his character in our heart, and that's the baptism into the prayer of Moses.

That's the baptism into the character of the Father. Yes? Yes. Amen.

Amen. It's an engraver's chisel also, you know, like he would write in stone, and who wrote in stone? God with his finger, and what did he write? He wrote the law, and when that law is written in our hearts, that's included in the baptism. All three of these symbols are part of our baptism into Christ.

Unfortunately, Christianity focuses on the water baptism and on the spirit baptism, but too many have forgotten that there's also that time when this is effectively the finger of God writing his law in our hearts. That's also part of our baptism. It's a process, a process of going through the sanctuary.

We have the justification. We have the sanctification where God takes away the things that are wrong in our character, and then in the end, there is the final step where his law is written in our hearts. It's a new creation.

That's the glorification step. Amen. When Jesus was lifted up in his prayer, he spoke of, he asked the Father to show his glory, and that was when he, that was shown in his sacrifice on the cross, when he was also under the cloud.

Remember at the cross, there was the dark cloud that overshadowed the cross, and then we have the cloud of incense. There's the cloud that the children of Israel went through in the crossing of the Red Sea. Isn't that amazing? Yes.

Paul, who made reference to Moses, he himself said, I wish I would be accursed for my people. This isn't the sacrifice like many in our generation might make. Oh, I will give anything to have my dream job, or my dream house, or whatever.

That's a selfish sacrifice. This is a sacrifice for others. That's the character of Christ, and that's the complete picture of baptism.

It's one baptism in three parts, but we have access even to the most holy through Christ, because Christ is the way, the truth, and the life. Right. At each step, that's why it's a door.

At each step, you can either go through the door or stay outside. If you don't come to Christ, if you don't accept him and come through the door with repentance, that's the repentance aspect of baptism that John baptized with, then you're not in the body of Christ. But if you don't come through the second door and allow him to change your heart as we commune with him in the word, as we observe ourselves, our own hearts through the light of his spirit, we do those things to let him cleanse us.

That's that process, that lifelong process of constantly taking away the wrong things. If we don't enter that door, then we're in the camp of once saved, always saved. Yes.

It's said that we are to be refined as gold tried in the fire, and in this compartment of the sanctuary, there's the gold that reflects the Holy Spirit, and through that, we can see any impurities and let God refine us through the fire of his spirit. And then there's the final door that we also have to make that choice to enter by faith with the priest. You know, all the people were outside.

All they did was pray. It was a prayer. But they, by faith, followed the priest into the most holy place, and they knew that he was making the atonement for their sin as he entered there.

And so they went by faith with him into that most holy place of the sanctuary. Amen. This is the baptism scene is represented there in the middle of the sign.

It's like a pillar, if you will. There's more that we can say about that, and I think I want to continue on this theme next week because there are other very interesting aspects. Okay.

So yes, this is the central part of the sign of the Son of Man. Baptism into Christ is the very core and essence of Christianity, and you can see why because it represents the entire process of our reunion with God. So let's conclude with a prayer.

Dear Father in heaven, we thank you for the mystery of baptism that you have presented in the sign of the Son of Man. We thank you for revealing these things through your Word and your Spirit, and connecting the different baptisms that we see in the Bible all in Christ. We just praise you for your marvelous works, how you have packaged all of these things together into one sign, the sign of the Son of Man, and we want to be in the body of Christ, baptized into his character, receiving that character in our own hearts that is willing to sacrifice ourselves for the benefit of others.

And as you write that character in our hearts, we pray that many will be touched by your Spirit to enter the fullness of your baptism into the body of Christ and into the character of Christ, receiving your law written in our hearts. That many may be saved as a result. We thank you.

We love you. We look forward to all that you have in store for us in these coming days. Amen.

Thank you, and we'll see you next week.