1 Peter 3:21 Like Figures | Elder Mike Moseley | 09-13-2026

Certainly continue to pray.

That's a very uh ongoing and active uh function of the church and part of the worship service.

It's something we were to continue in.

Um Paul says pray without ceasing.

That's actually true of all of our life.

Um, not that we are able to pray without uh any ever thinking of anything else, but that all of our life should be filled with a prayerful mindset, but also that we just don't stop praying.

I mean that it means pray without ceasing means don't ever become a person who doesn't pray.

Don't stop being a person that prays.

But in this moment, I'd ask you to pray nonstop, as it were, uh without ceasing uh throughout the service.

Um I would like to look at some scriptures found in 1 Peter.

And particularly, I want to address the 21st verse of the third chapter.

Um the 20, the third chapter of 1 Peter, and the 21st verse, you really can't just start there.

Um I'm trying to figure out where where I actually want to start, but um I'll let's just read the 21st verse, and then maybe it'll make sense exactly why you can't just start there.

1 Peter chapter 3, verse 21 says the like figure whereunto even baptism doth also now save us.

1 Peter 3:21

Not the putting away of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God by the resurrection of Jesus Christ, who is gone into heaven.

That's the 22nd verse, and we'll we'll stop reading just because we want to focus on the 21st verse.

But I want you to notice why you can't just start there.

There's some words that jump out at us that tell us that there's some comparisons being made, and without knowing what it's being compared to, you you don't understand the point.

He says, the like figure.

Now, if something's like something else, then it must have a comparison, right?

Um, and then it says, even baptism doth also now save us.

What also is another word that points out that there's something else in addition to, right?

So he's telling us that baptism is a figure.

And the word figure used in scripture, and there's another some other words, and you probably heard them, and you'll hear them again if you attend church any length of time, you will hear these words.

Type, shadow.

These are words that are used, you'll hear people say types and shadows.

Um, if you have ever heard that and haven't heard it explained, I want to explain that now.

Um now, some of you you're like, I know exactly that, Brother Mike.

I've heard that all my life.

Okay, great.

Some of you haven't.

Um, there are literally people in this room I know have no idea what I'm talking about when I say types and shadows or figures.

So I'm going to explain that.

Um, and if it uh like Peter stirs up your pure mind and way of remembrance, then great.

That's uh an objective that I always desire in preaching.

If you've never heard it before, I intend for you not to go away without this knowledge.

That a type and shadow, what it means is, or a figure, which is what this verse uses, what it means is there is something that literally happened.

It's not figurative.

The word figure doesn't mean figurative here.

Something really happened in the Old Testament that is not a fable, it's not an allegory, but it can be used as an allegory, which Paul talks about in one place.

Um, Sarah and Hagar, which were wives, uh, a wife of Abraham and a handmaid of Sarah's, and they each had a son.

Hagar had Ishmael and Sarah had Isaac.

And Paul talks about them as an allegory.

He doesn't mean that they weren't real, they were real people who, I mean, Sarah was real, Abraham was real, historical people, and they had a son named Isaac, and he was truly born.

But then he is a picture or an allegory or a type of, well, in one case, Jesus Christ himself, the only begotten, the promised son.

Isaac was real, but he was a picture also of Jesus.

And Paul says he was an allegory, but it doesn't mean that he was a fable.

Now, um, there's other types and shadows we talk about a lot when preaching.

Um, the entire children of Abraham, the promised seed of Abraham.

Abraham's promised a family by God.

And then the New Testament will talk about the children of Abraham.

It's not the children that are literally born of his descendancy that are the children of promise, but the children of promise, Paul says, are counted as a seed.

So he's saying that the family of Abraham, which would then be known as the Israelites, because they would come from his grandson Jacob, whose name was changed to Israel, and then all his twelve tribes, the family of the Israelites.

The Israelites become a picture, a type or a shadow, and I'll maybe explain that a little bit more, but a picture of the elect family of God.

He's not saying, and Paul makes this clear, and he's not saying that only the naturally born, like lineage of Abraham, which we nowadays is called the Jews.

I mean, there's a long history of why that is, but it comes from one particular descendant of Abraham named Judah.

Um, but that he's not saying that the only children of the elect family of God, the only people that God has as his people, are able to say that I have the blood of Abraham flowing through my veins.

You know, he's actually pointing out that it's about the promise that was given to Abraham.

That's what is counted.

And the promise that God made before the world even began that he would have his people that he loves with him in glory forevermore.

The promise is God to God about his children.

That's what election is all about.

Is that God said, I love these people and I will have them as my children.

It's not based on who your parents are, it's based on God.

But the picture is that God chose one man.

He chose Abraham, not because of Abraham.

Abraham did nothing in that land of Ur the count when Abraham was living over there, when God came to him and said, Get up out of your country and go to a land I'll show you.

Abraham had not done anything to warrant that.

God just chose him.

And that is a picture of how God chooses every one of his people.

But it really happened.

Abraham was real.

Now, the point of these types and shadows, which again, a type is like, have you ever heard of a typewriter?

I mean, a lot of you have used them, but a lot of you have never even heard.

You might have heard of it.

You're like, I think they have one in the Smithsonian, right?

In the in the museum.

Um, but there was a day before you could text on your phone, before you could type on a keyboard on a computer.

Uh, QWERTY, by the way, Maddie.

I asked Maddie, what is QWERTY?

What does QWERTY mean?

Like, she knew.

She actually said it's the keyboard.

I'm I was surprised she knew.

Do you know why the keyboard on a computer or on your phone looks like it does?

Well, it looks like it does because that's how typewriter keyboards were keys work.

Why are typewriter keys like that?

I don't know, because someone really smart figured out that was the fastest way to learn to type.

I can't type, so I don't actually know that personally.

The point is the keyboard was that way because you push the cue key and it would bring up a little arm that would hit a piece of uh ink and then a paper and it would put a cue on the paper.

Okay?

But the thing that hit the paper was a backwards-looking cue, and that was called a type.

Even before typewriters, you know what they did?

They literally took little squares of letters and they put them on a plate, and then they'd put that plate on a press and they would press it down, and that was what was called the printing press.

Now, I'm not giving you a whole history about uh the technology of the world, but go ride the Disney World uh like Epcot uh space ball thing.

I don't know what it's called, but it it will talk about this.

It's kind of cool actually.

But the point is a type.

A type comes from that uh that's called a typewriter because it puts a type.

It puts an image of the cue that was on the on the type, or it puts an image of the cue that was on the um the type setting when you did the printing press.

It's not the actual cue.

There really is a cue, but it is, it looks just like it, but it's backwards, so it's not perfectly the same.

Now that's why we use the word type.

There are literal events that happened in the Old Testament, and then there is a New Testament thing, a spiritual application, a principle that we need to understand from the from that, that God would have us know not to forget that the old thing really happened, the true event happened, but to see what it is revealing and about who it is revealing.

So, you know how the cue was backwards, and then when it gets on the paper, it's frontwards?

They're not exactly the same, but they're very, very similar.

There's some differences.

Think about shadows.

We say type 10 shadows.

What is a shadow?

A shadow is when the light hits an object, let's say a tree.

The light comes from here, it hits the tree, and then it casts a shadow on the ground.

The shadow does not look exactly like the tree, but it resembles the tree in many ways.

It's not the tree, but it's not the actual thing, but it's an image of the thing, right?

It's the light is hitting the actual thing, and then the shadow is resembles it.

You can look at a tree's shadow and get a good idea of what a tree looks like, but if you look at the tree, you see the fullness.

Now that is what is meant by types of shadows, or a figure.

So this this verse says a figure.

Now, a figure, think about like a figurine or like a little porcelain uh thing.

That looks like something it was made like, but it isn't the actual thing.

There's a lot of differences, but a lot of similarities.

You can learn about an animal from a figure of an animal, but it's not the actual animal.

So if that hasn't beat the dead horse in, that you understand what types, shadows, or figures mean, that there is a real thing that happens in the Old Testament, but there is a more beautiful picture in the spiritual application.

There's something to learn from it, but the real thing actually happened.

Now, this figure, this figure that this is talking about in 1 Peter chapter 3, verse 21, it says it's a like figure.

1 Peter 3:21

It's a figure.

And what is the figure in chapter 21?

It's baptism.

Baptism in this verse is being said called a figure.

But it's it's so what's we got to figure out, we have to figure out.

We have to understand what the figure is of.

And to do that for a second, I want to look at what it's like.

Because it's a like figure.

Now, what's it a like figure?

What's it being compared to?

The like figure is above it.

The verse 20.

Verse 20 says, and verse 20 starts weird too.

It says, by which also he went and preached unto the spirits in prison.

And who is he?

It's Christ.

Um, I can't just ignore this verse, so I want to talk about it a little bit, but let's see.

It says, by which sometimes the word disobedient.

Um, or it says, uh, that was verse 19, by which he went and preached to the spirits in prison, which sometimes were disobedient, when once the long-suffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was a preparing, wherein few, that is, eight souls, were saved by water.

Then he says, the like figure whereunto even baptism doth also now save us.

So, baptism is called a figure, which means baptism is a real thing, but it's pointing to a greater and even more beautiful truth.

Okay?

And it says it's like another figure.

There is another figure that is similar.

The figure that he's referring to is Noah and the Ark.

Noah and the Ark was a real event.

It really happened in history.

It is not allegory, it's not fable, it's not a mythical teaching that just points to a truth.

It is a real event that also points to a very beautiful truth.

The real event is recorded for us in Genesis chapter six.

Genesis is not a mythological book in the Bible.

There are different books in the Bible that are of different genres.

You have poetic books like the Psalms.

When you read a poetry, you understand that there's descriptive language in poetry.

There's poetic language.

Sometimes you have to give poetic license, right?

You have to understand that the poetry is teaching, is showing something, but it's not meant to be read as if our God is a high tower.

Doesn't mean that God is a building, right?

God is um, you know, it talks.

Read the Psalms.

You'll see exactly what I said.

Um we are his sheep of his pasture, it says in the Psalms.

We're not actually sheep.

Human beings are human beings, but it's descriptive of the way God cares for us.

Okay, poetry is read like poetry.

Then there are books in the Bible that are prophecies.

Prophecies are very interesting language, and they they are teaching principles, but they're not meant to be taken at face value, visions and pictures, and there's descriptive language that shows something.

When you read Isaiah, some of Isaiah has history and some of it has prophecy.

When you read the prophecies, you have to read it as a prophecy.

Then there's like the Proverbs, which are books are called wisdom books.

They're books admit to be, this is a very wise saying.

It can be teach you a lesson in life, you know, but it doesn't flow like a narrative.

That's what Proverbs is like.

Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, the first five books of the Bible, they are not poetry.

They're not prophecy.

They hold prophecies in them.

And that's what we're going to look at today.

They are not books of just wisdom.

They are history books.

They are historical events.

Y'all know I love history.

History is that's my thing, right?

Um when you read history, first of all, it really happened.

You have to understand that this is people, places, dates, events, history happened.

A lot of uh what you find, especially today in people that study history, is like they don't really care about who or what and when.

They just want to find the big lesson in it all.

Well, that's good.

You need to find a lesson from history.

Uh when we study history, even just our American history, we need to see what lessons can we learn from the failures and the successes of our four people that went before us.

That's why you would study history, but don't forget it really happened.

Okay?

Don't romanticize history to where it becomes a myth, but understand that it really happened.

Now, most myths do come from something historical.

Like I was recently reading about um Robin Hood.

Like, there's a lot of historical evidence that something similar happened in the 1200s in England, but it's all been mythological now.

King Arthur, same way.

There's like probably some tribal king that that's based on, but it got myth mythified.

You know, I don't know if that's a word.

But um Genesis, though, stick with the history and and be uh be uh careful not to mythify it.

Like, okay, there's a lot of people that will read Genesis chapter 6, and then they will go off on the tangent of trying to see things that aren't there.

Genesis 6 · chapter mention

And then there are people that'll read Genesis chapter 6 and will go off on another tangent and think nothing's there.

Genesis 6 · chapter mention

Like it didn't really happen.

It really happened, but stick with the scriptures.

The the stuff about there were giants in the land and and the sons of God saw the daughters of men.

You'll it you're like, what is this?

Well, I have opinions, very strong opinions about it.

We can talk about it later.

But the scripture is not gonna say clearly some of the things you will hear out there in the world.

Like, okay, it and then in Genesis chapter 6, it goes on to say that this is just uh I'm not even on that page.

Genesis 6 · chapter mention

Okay, that the Lord said, verse 3, My spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he is also is flesh, yet his days shall be 120 years.

Now that does not mean that God was saying, from now on, man won't live more than 120 years.

That's not what it's saying, because you can prove that's not true if you keep reading.

Abraham lived longer than that.

Um so that's not what he's saying here.

What he's saying is God was saying, as of this moment, from now, 120 years from now, I'm gonna destroy the world, the all flesh.

He gave a probationary period, like this was going to be from now, the flood's gonna come in 120 years from now.

That's what it's saying there.

And then God is going to, this is the remember what our text said that when uh God waited while the ark was up preparing.

Okay, so God says, these people are evil continually.

That's what Genesis 6 says.

That the every thought and every imagination of humanity was just evil continually.

And then he said, God says, I'm not gonna deal with this forever.

I 120 years from now, I'm gonna end this thing, right?

That he says, um, then it talks about the giants and the sons of God.

That's the part where I'm like, that don't let that become some myth for you.

Um I have a very strong opinion about what's talked about there, but it is not some of the fantasy things that people say.

Then chapterse 5 says, And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination and thoughts of his heart were only evil continually.

And it repented the Lord that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him and Heart.

And the Lord said, I will destroy man who I have created from the face of the earth, both man and beast and creeping things and fowls of the air, for it repenteth me that I have made them.

The next verse says, But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord.

And the entire story of Noah starts here.

The whole ark starts here.

We have to understand that everything that happened in the history of the world did not get written down.

Right?

That's obvious.

So what we have written, Scripture tells us in the New Testament, what was written aforetime was written for our learning.

Okay?

That we should, through patience and comfort of the scriptures, might have hope.

What I mean is everything that happened wasn't written down, but what was written down has a learning purpose, has something for us to learn.

And it's not just what was written, and it means what was not written wasn't for our learning.

There are things that weren't written.

Don't go looking for the white space.

Don't go looking for the lessons to be found in what God did not write.

Because that's where we go off into fantasy lands and we make up all sorts of stories that end up teaching you the wrong things.

Okay?

So what was written was written for our learning.

And how it was written was written for our learning.

Now there's an order in which God describes this event.

And the order matters greatly.

Later in the verses, or the next thing that happens is God describes the children that are born to Noah.

And in verse 12 it says, God looked, and behold, the earth was corrupt, which we already know.

And then it says God speaks to Noah and he tells him what he's going to do, and he tells Noah what to do.

Later it will say, and I'll find the verse where it says this.

Like it's in the next chapter, I think, when it talks about Noah did all that God commanded.

Later in the verse, it talks about how, or that it says that Noah obeyed God.

Okay.

Verse 22, it says, Thus did Noah according to all that God commanded him.

So we have Noah obeying God's commandment.

Notice how late that is in the story.

What's the first thing we hear about Noah?

Is it that Noah is so good, or Noah is upright.

Noah walks pleasing God.

None of that is written first.

The first thing that is written is that Noah found grace.

And actually, the first thing that's written is but a contrast word.

A word that distinguishes what comes next from what he just said.

And what he just said was every thought of everybody was only evil continually.

But, he said, he doesn't say, but Noah was really good.

Or but Noah was the exception.

Or but Noah was uh his thoughts were pure.

Does not say that.

What it says is, but Noah found grace.

My friends, that is so key to understanding why Noah of all the earth would be the one God chose to save from this destroying of all the world.

It wasn't something about Noah, it was something about God.

God bestowed grace.

Noah found it.

Okay?

Noah didn't go seeking grace.

He found it because God gave it to him.

Grace is unmerited favor.

It always means, grace always means it is undeserved.

There's no such thing as deserved grace.

That's an oxymoron.

That is a word definition that just doesn't work.

Okay.

If someone found grace, they did not deserve it by definition.

Noah was not the only good guy on earth.

Noah was a depraved sinner just like everyone else.

Noah was one God chose to bestow his grace on.

And God chose him and did this thing that would be a figure of something else.

Okay?

So what it goes on, God does tell Noah to do some things.

God does tell him to build an ark.

He tells him to build it to specific specification.

He does not give Noah free reign on how to build it, but he does tell Noah to build it.

The picture here is not in Noah doing it.

The picture is in God telling him to do it.

The picture is in God's action, not Noah's action.

But the truth is Noah did it.

Noah obeyed God.

Okay?

Noah did right.

And in doing so, Noah declared something that God is right.

He preached.

Now, 2 Peter called Peter's gonna say in his second epistle, and we won't turn to read it, but if you go and read 2 Peter, you're gonna find that Peter talks about Noah again, and he calls Noah a preacher of righteousness.

A lot of people have then taken that and they write their own little story, the fan fiction, if you'll let me say it that way.

They'll write their story about how Noah spent the hundred years working on the Ark and going out and telling everybody they need to get right.

They need to get on the Ark.

You know, Noah was preaching.

That's not in the book, it's not in the text.

Okay, that's fan fiction, that's people writing their own story.

But it does say Noah was a preacher of righteousness.

How then?

If he wasn't saying words, how was he preaching?

Every time Noah put his hammer to a nail, I don't know if you use nails and hammers, but understand the picture.

Every single act that Noah did in obedience to God, what he told him to do, declared by action that God was right.

He preached righteousness in his obedience.

The text, the historical text does not tell us about Noah telling anybody to get on the ark.

And in fact, I would dare say to you that if Noah even did go out and tell anybody that they needed to come get on this ark with him, he would actually be saying God was wrong.

Because God said, I'm gonna put you and your kids on the ark, you, your wife, and your sons and your sons' wives on the ark.

Eight souls, eight people.

God said, I'm putting you on the ark.

I'm build this ark for you and your family.

Nowhere did God tell Noah to go get other people.

God didn't tell him that.

So if Noah was telling other people to join, Noah would be contradicting God.

And that would not be a preacher of righteousness.

So who chose who goes on the ark?

God chose.

Who chose how to build the ark?

God chose.

Everything about this was God's choice.

And then they, when you read on in chapter 7, that, and it talks about the animals coming, there's a lot of you know jokes that'll get made about the animals coming, and you know, well, the unicorns didn't get on, that's why there's no unicorns.

I mean, that's all jokes and or or maybe not jokes, myths or fantasies.

It's not in the text.

You know who gets on there?

Every single animal that not that Noah could round up.

Noah didn't roundup, they didn't do a big roundup.

They came to the ark because God brought them there.

Again, whose choice is everything?

God's.

God does all of this.

And then in verse uh nine of chapter seven, it says, there went in two and two unto Noah, unto Noah.

They went unto Noah into the ark, the Melope, as God had commanded Noah.

Um and then I'm gonna skip to the rain.

The rains are starting to come, and then invert in verse uh 15, um, and they went in unto Noah in the ark two and two of all flesh, wherein is the breath of life?

And they that went in went in, male and female of all flesh, as God had commanded him, and then this next verse, so important.

And the Lord shut him in.

Who shut the door?

Noah didn't pull the door tight.

It says the Lord shut him in.

The Lord chose Noah by grace, the Lord told him how to build it exactly, the Lord told him who goes on the ark, the Lord brought everyone to the ark, the Lord shut him in.

Now what we find is the ark will then be the way by which they are delivered from the death that reigns over the entire earth.

Everything that breathes air to live died.

Every animal, every person, everything, except for the eight souls.

That's human beings, by the way, and every animal that was on the ark that God chose to be on there.

Then they were delivered from the death that was everywhere around them.

They were delivered from that which cleansed the earth of that sinfulness and everything.

But notice the ark did not take away their sins because the ark was a natural event.

But the great picture will do better than that.

Okay.

But the figure, the figure is the ark.

It was real, it happened.

Um, but how it happened is so important, and the way it was written is so important for us to learn about the truth.

Now it says the like figure where unto baptism.

So baptism is also a figure.

What is baptism?

Baptism, the first thing you probably think of is water.

The first thing you probably think of is this baptistry behind me, is where we do a baptism here.

But that that is what Peter's talking about is the baptism that will happen underwater.

The real thing, and it's a real event, and it should be done.

It is something that is obedience to God, but it is a figure of something God did.

Okay.

Baptism means the word baptism means immersion.

So, first of all, like the word means to immerse, overwhelm, to completely cover.

We're primitive Baptists.

We're Baptist because we're primitive Baptists because we're Baptists.

We're Baptists because we believe in baptizing.

The John was a Baptist because he baptized.

The word though, Baptist is a it's literally a Greek word that's just been transliterated.

And transliterated is not translated.

It means they took the same word, like enchilada, and they made it an English word, enchilada.

It's not translated.

Okay.

Um baptism, baptizo, baptize means to immerse.

That means if you if you don't immerse, you didn't baptize, you did something else by definition.

But why is it, why do we call it baptism?

And is every time the word baptize or baptism used in scripture, is it always talking about water baptism that you will agree to go through?

No, it's not.

I'm gonna prove that quickly.

Uh in Matt, in Mark chapter 10, um disciples came to Jesus and said, like, let us sit on your right hand and your left hand in the kingdom.

Mark 10 · chapter mention

I mean, they were, Jesus is like, these people, I know.

Um, but Jesus asked them a question.

And he says, uh, this is Mark chapter 10, just so you can check me out on this, verse 38.

Mark 10 · chapter mention

When they said, We want to sit on your right hand and your left hand, Jesus says unto them, Ye know not what you ask.

Can ye drink of the cup that I drink of and be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with?

And they said, We can, and he goes, You will indeed be, you will indeed be baptized with the baptism I'm baptized with.

He's not talking about the baptism he had in Jordan when John baptized him.

He's talking about one that was coming that hadn't happened yet.

He's talking about being immersed in something that they also would get immersed in.

Okay.

But he's saying, Are you able to do that?

Well, that's not talking about water baptism, right?

In Luke chapter uh 12, the Lord says, Um, verse 49, I am come to send fire on the earth, and what will I if it be already kindled?

But I have a baptism to be baptized with, and how I am straightened till it be accomplished.

In other words, Jesus, who had already been baptized in Jordan under the water, was saying, I have a baptism to be baptized with coming, and it's really tough.

Like I'm straightened till I get it done.

I am, I can't go any other way, I have to go this way.

There was something coming that Jesus had to be immersed in.

It's baptism does not always mean going under the water as a profession of your faith.

In 1 Peter, it is.

Our text is saying that baptism doth also now save us.

But it's not talking, or it is talking about you being water baptized, but it's a figure of something else, right?

Because it's a like figure.

And it's just like the ark.

It's a figure of the same thing the ark was a figure of.

So baptism is a real thing you should really do.

And the way that once we know what it's a figure of, we can see how it saves us now.

Okay?

It saves us now.

It doesn't save us to heaven, it saves us now.

But what's it a figure of?

Well, what was the ark a figure of?

The ark was a figure of people who don't deserve to be saved, people who deserve to die in the flood, but that God chose them and God put them in a place, and God shut them in there, and they were delivered from what they would have otherwise suffered, what they deserved.

Right?

That's grace, that's the art, that's what it's what really happened, but it's what the picture is.

Likewise, baptism is a figure of something.

Now, what it's a figure of, we can find in Colossians chapter 3.

Colossians 3 · chapter mention

And I'm gonna go to verse um, I'm gonna start with verse uh 10.

And ye are complete in him, you're complete in Christ, which is the head of all principality and power, in whom also ye are circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, in putting off the body of the sin of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ.

Now that's another figure that I absolutely don't have time to talk about, but I'll just say this.

Like the next verse, the circumcision he's talking about here harkens back, it points to the physical circumcision that was a symbol of the people of God being the people of God.

But it's not talking about that, it's talking about what that pointed to, which is something God does to you.

Um it does something anyway.

I don't have time to talk about the circumcision, but it's made without hands, and it's talking about the one God did to you, not the one that people could do to you.

Then he says, verse 12, buried, though you are buried with him, with Christ, in baptism, wherein also ye are risen with him, through the faith of the operation of God who hath raised him from the dead, and you being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of the flesh, hath he quickened together with him, having forgiven you all trespasses.

Now I'm submitting to you that this baptism, this word baptism, is not talking about you physically going under water.

This baptism is talking about something God did to you, which when you profess belief and are baptized in water, you are doing the figure of it.

You're doing the picture of it.

But the real thing is what God did.

You were buried with Christ by baptism.

What does that mean?

It means you were immersed, you were covered by, you were in, completely in Jesus Christ.

When he died on the cross, you were in him completely.

When he was buried in the ground, you were in him.

Not just like he thought about you.

You were in him for real.

You were placed in him.

Now, when did that happen?

Well, Ephesians chapter 1 tells us the when.

Ephesians 1 · chapter mention

According as he, God, hath chosen us in him in Christ before the foundation of the world.

In other words, God did the choosing.

God chose those that he loved.

And that's another thing.

I have like 10 minutes.

I don't have time to go through this, but um, you are elect, Peter says in his first, his opening of his letter, first letter, elect according to the foreknowledge of God, which means he loved you first.

And because he loved you, he chose you.

He didn't choose people and then decide to love those people.

He loved people and then so he chose those people.

He chose them in Christ.

In other words, he placed you in him.

He didn't tell you to come to him.

He didn't, he told Noah to build the ark.

Yes.

But but once Noah did that, it was God that chose Noah, it was God that brought everything to the ark, it was God that placed them in, and God shut them in.

And that's going to show us something about the duration of this thing.

That God didn't just do a choosing, he also did a preserving.

God did a shutting in.

God kept them in the ark.

Okay, He did the delivering, all of God.

The uh baptism that we do in the water is a real thing.

It has real benefit to us now, but it is a figure or a picture of something far greater that God has done.

And this verse tells us that God baptized you into Christ.

He put you in Christ before the world began.

So when he was buried, you were buried with him.

And thanks being to God.

The beauty of that is that when he rose, you rose with him as well.

Ephesians chapter 1 into chapter 2 will tell us that plainly: that there is a power to usward who believe according to the working of his mighty power, which he wrought in Christ when he raised him from the dead and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places.

Ephesians 1 · chapter mention

And then in the second chapter, he'll say, And you have he quickened who were dead in trespasses and in sins.

But he'll go on to say that he did that to you really.

Like you were born again, you were made alive when you were really dead, but it was based on the legal work that he did when he raised Christ from the dead, and you have he quickened together with Christ and raised us up together and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus.

That's the same thing that's being said in cultural.

Chapter 2, that you were buried with Christ, and you are also risen with him, and it's through the faith of the operation of God, not through the your faith in the operation of God, it's by the faithful working of God who does what he says he will do, and he raised Christ from the ground, from the grave.

When he raised Christ, you were raised.

And you were raised from the dead in him, and you being dead in your sins, he is quickened together with him and took all your sins, it says, blot all that stuff that was against us, and nailed it to his cross.

In Romans chapter 6, it's going to also use the word baptism here.

Romans 6 · chapter mention

Romans chapter 6 says, What shall we say then?

Romans 6 · chapter mention

Verse 1, how shall we continue and shall we continue in sin that grace may abound?

God forbid.

How shall we that are dead to sin live any longer therein?

Now, how did you how are you dead to sin?

You're still alive and you still sin, right?

So how are you dead to that?

Is this talking about something I haven't yet accomplished?

Well, not by myself I haven't.

But Paul will say it this way in Galatians chapter 3.

Galatians 3 · chapter mention

He'll say, I am crucified with Christ.

It says, Nevertheless, I live.

But I'm crucified with Christ.

How is Paul crucified with Christ?

Because he was in Christ Jesus when Christ was crucified.

Guess what?

You were also crucified.

You are crucified with Christ.

Nevertheless, you live.

Paul says, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me.

And the life that I now live, Galatians chapter 3, still, the life that I now live, I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.

Galatians 3 · chapter mention

In other words, it's not my faith in God that keeps me, that I live by.

It's the faith of the Son of God.

And what is that?

That is his death on the cross.

That was the faith of Christ is his faithful accomplishing the will of God.

That he loved me and gave himself for me.

I am crucified with Christ.

I am dead to sin.

You are dead to sin.

It's not that you're no longer dead in sin.

You have the quickened who were dead in sins.

But see, now you're dead to sin, and that doesn't mean you never sinned.

It means that that soul in you, sin can't touch it anymore.

It's been that's where circumcision comes in, right?

That God has cleansed your inner man, that he has sealed it, that it's his, he knows it, he knows them that are his.

Nothing I do on the outer is going to affect that, what God has done.

God has shut you in to Christ.

Nothing can touch you in Christ.

The things that do touch us in this life don't affect what Jesus did.

And he goes, but how shall we live that way?

Then, in that case, then why should we live that way?

Well, I do, but I shouldn't.

In other words, he goes, how should we that are dead to sin live any longer therein?

He goes, know ye not that so many of us of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death, therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death.

Again, these baptisms are not water baptism.

This is the true baptism that put you in Christ, so that when he died, you died.

When he was buried, you were buried, and when he rose from the dead, you rose from the dead.

This is the working of God.

This is what God has done.

But because of what God has done, there's some things we should do.

Right?

So to sum up, this figure of baptism is something we should do.

It's just something we should do.

If you believe that Jesus Christ died for you, then you're called on by the gospel to believe that he did it because of his grace, not your works.

If you believe Jesus died for you, then the scriptures tell us he did so because God loved you before the world began.

He did it because God placed you in Jesus Christ before the world began.

That when he died, you were in him, and it legally affected you completely, that you died to sin.

And now you rose from the grave because he rose from the grave, you rose from your sins.

You're not under the power of sin anymore.

That has actually happened to you by the grace of God.

Now, what he says here is goes on to say basically we should live that way.

That's what he's saying.

The figure of baptism, how does it save us now?

How does baptism now save us?

Well, it doesn't put us in Christ.

God did that.

So what it does is it declares, it preaches in action, like Noah did, not with words, but with actions, that God is right.

It preaches righteousness, it preaches that God loved me.

If I, when I was baptized, I was saying God loved me and that he chose me and he placed me in Christ.

I was saying a whole lot of things, right?

Like a whole hour worth of sermon in one quick motion, saying God loved me and he chose me and he died for me and I rose with Christ and I'm alive in Christ.

I'm crucified with Christ.

And nevertheless, I live.

And I live by the faith of Jesus Christ who loved me and gave himself for me.

I'm no longer dead in sins.

That's what it's saying.

I'm you're saying that.

You're not making it happen, but you're pointing out a picture, it's like an action sermon.

You're preaching that what God did for you, you believe is true.

And like the ark, baptism is a picture of what God did when he placed you in Christ, preserved you in him, delivered you from death, and that you are now alive.

You come out, they came out of the ark to a world cleansed.

You come out, you are alive in Christ, and you are cleansed.

And when you come out of baptism, you don't come out perfect.

It doesn't put away the filth of the flesh, Peter says.

It's an answer of a good conscience toward God.

It's saying that God has done something for me.

And you come out not physically cleansed and not purified from your sins, because God did that.

You come out with a conscience that's been washed.

You come out with something saying, I have obeyed God.

Now, it's the first step, it's not the last step.

We have to live that way to the best of our abilities, remembering that we are alive in Christ.

And so the rest of Romans chapter 6 will say this.

Romans 6 · chapter mention

Knowing that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might not be destroyed, not this body, but the whole power of sin, that henceforth we should not serve sin.

For he that is dead is freed from sin.

Now, if we be dead with Christ, we believe we shall live with him.

And he's going to go on to say, knowing that Christ being raised from the dead, he dieth no more.

Death hath no more dominion over him.

For he died, he died unto sin once.

He liveth, he liveth unto God.

Likewise, reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive unto God.

Like, let not sin, verse 12 says, Therefore reign in your mortal body.

You have the ability to live in a way that pleases God, because God has given that to you.

He's saying, Don't let sin reign, because it no longer has the right to.

Okay, it's been destroyed, but sometimes I give it power it doesn't deserve.

I'm gonna close with that just because that's a whole like hour worth of talking.

But I want to come back and summarize this idea that, first of all, hopefully you you'll take that and learn from any other time that some old Baptist preacher says types and shadows and stuff, you'll be like, oh yeah, Brother Mike talked about when it's a type, it's a real thing, but it points to something greater that God did.

A shadow is an image of something, but the real thing is more beautiful.

But also that you'll understand that God has done something to you you could not have done for yourself, just like he did for Noah when he chose Noah.

Noah didn't choose to be the person that builds the ark.

Noah chose God.

I mean, God chose Noah.

Likewise, when you're baptized, you don't put yourself in Christ.

You say that you already are.

Both of those are a picture of what God did for you when he loved you and gave himself for you in Jesus Christ.

Uh we'll stand and sing a hymn.

If anyone wishes to join Grace Church, you have that opportunity.

Um come forward and let me know.

Brother Owen, what's the number?

86.

Number eighty-six.