Baptism and Cleansing

Excerpt:
Though I normally preach through the scriptures line-by-line, because we’ve come to a difficult passage in I Peter 3, actually on baptism, we’ve seized the opportunity to progress through a short series on the covenant, the sign of the covenant, the sacraments, and on baptism. So, while I’ll be reading this text, we won’t deal with the text in detail here. Allow me to use this simply as a spring-off point for a topical sermon on the issue of baptism, and just so you know, I’m not going to say all that I want to say this morning. The next sermon will also teach on baptism. That the Lord might speak to us, listen to I Peter 3, beginning with verse 18. “For Christ also died, once for sins, once for all, the just for the unjust, in order 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 once were 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. Corresponding to that, baptism now saves you, not the removal of dirt from the flesh, but an appeal to God for a good conscience through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, who is at the right hand of God, having gone into heaven after angels, and authorities, and powers had been subjected to him.”