Well, it is a glorious day, and it is going to get more glorious.
Let us begin with a word of prayer.
Lord, as we come this morning, the One we look to on the throne—as our eyes are opened—we see a Lamb. Oh Lord, how grateful we are, how thankful. The King of kings and the Lord of lords, the great and mighty One, is also the Lamb slain.
Lord Jesus, we worship Thee today. Lord, we thank You personally. Thank You today for Your work on Calvary’s cross, Lord, that You were willing to die on our behalf.
And Lord, we thank You for this table that You have given to us, to remember You, Lord, to share in fellowship with You concerning Your death, burial, and resurrection.
And we thank You today, Lord, for baptism, by which, Lord, we are saved from this world and made disciples of Jesus Christ.
Lord, today we honor Thee and lift Thee up. We only ask, Lord: we cannot hear unless You open our ears. Lord, we can listen so greatly and so intently and still not hear unless You open our ears. Lord, we can look intently, but we honestly cannot see unless You take the scales from our eyes.
Lord, we are on the subject of baptism this morning. For any, Lord, who are in need of baptism, Lord, for what You have called them to, I pray that You will particularly prick their hearts today, that You will make this matter alive. In Jesus Christ’s name, I pray. Amen.
Well, this is the first week in the month, when we share what we call the fundamentals of the faith. We believe that this is needed in order to strengthen our spiritual life, and we ask that the younger and older young folks be with us, that they too might learn of these fundamentals of the faith.
Well, this morning we are talking about baptism. Oh, baptism. Well, what is baptism?
When you look at the Greek, we find that baptism is a transliteration of the word baptizo. It comes from the Greek, and it simply means to immerse. Now, that is just what it means very simply in the Greek.
However, we find out from the Word of God that baptism is very critical to the life of a believer and very important. I pray that the Lord will be able to reveal that as we share from His Word today.
Let us begin by reading some Scriptures. I would like for you to pull out your Bibles and open them to these Scriptures. I want you to look at them because they may actually sound a little strange to you as you read them, and I will explain that in a moment.
Let us begin with the book of Mark, the last chapter in Mark: Mark 16:16.
He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved;
but he that disbelieveth shall be condemned.
He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved, and he that disbelieveth shall be condemned.
Let us turn to Acts 2:36-38.
Let all the house of Israel therefore know assuredly,
that God hath made Him both Lord and Christ,
this Jesus whom ye crucified.
And having heard this, they were pricked in their heart and said to Peter and to the apostles, “What shall we do?”
Repent ye, and be baptized every one of you
in the name of Jesus Christ unto the remission of your sins;
and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.
Turn to Acts 22:16. This is Ananias speaking to Paul. He had already had the Damascus Road experience and had been blinded for three days. Finally, Ananias came and opened his eyes, and Ananias said to Paul:
And now why tarriest thou?
Arise, and be baptized, and wash away thy sins,
calling on His name.
Romans 6:3-6.
Or are ye ignorant that all we who were baptized into Christ Jesus
were baptized into His death?
We were buried therefore with Him through baptism into death:
that like as Christ was raised from the dead
through the glory of the Father,
so we also might walk in newness of life.
For if we have become united with Him
by the likeness of His death,
we shall be also by the likeness of His resurrection.
Now let us turn to Matthew 28:18-20.
And Jesus came to them and spake unto them, saying,
All authority hath been given unto Me in heaven and on earth.
Go ye therefore, and make disciples of all the nations,
baptizing them into the name of the Father
and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
I wanted you particularly to read those. Now I am going to read these for the sake of time. If I read every verse dealing with baptism in the Bible, we would probably spend the whole hour doing that, but I am going to read a few others.
The Word of God says:
Who aforetime were disobedient,
when the longsuffering of God waited in the days of Noah,
while the ark was a preparing,
wherein few, that is, eight souls, were saved through water:
which also after a true likeness doth now save you, even baptism,
not the putting away of the filth of the flesh,
but the interrogation of a good conscience toward God,
through the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
That is 1 Peter 3:21. I wanted you to get the references.
The next one is Colossians 2:12:
Having been buried with Him in baptism,
wherein ye were also raised with Him
through faith in the working of God,
Who raised Him from the dead.
Now Galatians 3:26-27:
For ye are all sons of God, through faith, in Christ Jesus.
For as many of you as were baptized into Christ
did put on Christ.
The next one is Acts 8:36-39. Now, as they went down the road, they came to some water, and the eunuch said, “See, here is water. What doth hinder me to be baptized?”
Then Philip said, “If thou believest with all thy heart, thou mayest.” And he answered and said, “I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.” So he commanded the chariot to stand still, and both Philip and the eunuch went down into the water, and he baptized him.
Those are just some more verses that I wanted to read, and there are more in the Word of God.
The issue with baptism is very difficult because there are so many divergent views on what baptism is, what it means, and what it does for the believer.
Some believe that our salvation comes through believing only—believing in the Lord Jesus Christ—and that baptism is just an affirmation of what has happened to you in the spirit. Some believe that the act of water baptism actually saves you. Some believe that the act of water baptism washes away your sins.
Some baptize infants to assure that they are saved and will not go to hell. Some believe that you can get forgiveness for the dead by having a proxy baptism.
All of these different views, of course, can justify their position through the Scriptures. It is one of the most controversial issues in the Word of God.
Many, actually, when they think of baptism, say, “Well, it is just an affirmation. What has happened really has happened in the spirit; therefore, baptism is really not that critical.” I mean, you know, they do not consider it that essential.
However, others feel like it is absolutely essential to be baptized in water. Regardless of the controversy of all these different views, there are a few things that do stand out as being universal.
First of all, Jesus Himself said that they were to go and disciple the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. This one verse alone should tell us that baptism is important.
Why would the Lord connect discipling the nations with baptism if baptism was not important? Basically, it is a command of the Lord Jesus that those who believe and those who want to follow Him be baptized.
Also, you always find this word baptism connected with the word salvation or forgiveness and, in some cases, our death and resurrection in Christ. All are in agreement with that, for the most part.
Is there a key that can clarify this, so that all these different verses in the Bible that seem to contradict—some seeming to indicate that you have to be baptized to be saved, and others saying you have to believe to be saved—can be understood? Is there a key for understanding? I think that there is.
Let us look back at Mark 16:16. That is easy to remember.
In Mark 16:16, it states that if you believe and are baptized, you shall be saved. Then it goes on to say, “But he that disbelieveth is condemned.” In the second part there is no mention of baptism.
Believing would then indicate that if we believe, we are not condemned. We are not condemned because we have accepted the Lord Jesus as our Savior. We have received eternal life and forgiveness for our sins, and therefore we are not condemned.
So, in this particular verse, as we look at it, it indicates that believing is the critical matter as far as being saved goes, as far as being born again—as our brother Kenny shared on. As far as having your own spirit quickened by the Holy Spirit, that is the new birth.
But this word baptism is also in there. He says you need to be baptized as well. Well, what does all of that mean?
Basically, it means that you have received eternal life if you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. But there is also an indication here that your salvation depends on baptism.
Well, the real key to understanding these verses on baptism, I think, and to help us understand what the Lord is after in baptism, is the word salvation.
Because in all of these various views, as I look at them and at the scholars who teach on them, everybody is looking at and viewing this word salvation as meaning new birth—to be saved, to be born again. Well, that is when the Spirit quickens your spirit.
But, brothers and sisters, salvation—and this is the real key—is much more than just being born again. That is the beginning of your salvation.
That is salvation in the sense that you are saved from hell. If you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, you have received His life, and you are saved from hell.
But the Lord is not interested in just saving us from hell, is He? He is interested in saving us from the world, from the power of sin, from the power of the flesh, and from the power of the devil.
So salvation is much broader than just what we consider most of the time when we use the word saved. We are usually thinking of that initial salvation when we accept the Lord Jesus Christ.
But as you read these Scriptures, you begin to see, in the context of a full salvation, that baptism is very much needed for this full salvation. Yes, you have been saved from hell, but the Lord desires to save you from much more than that.
And that provision has been made—I want to be very clear about that—by the work of Jesus on the cross.
Let me say it a little differently. John the Baptist, when he was baptizing, said, “I baptize you with water, but there is One coming Who will baptize you with the Holy Spirit,” speaking of our Lord Jesus.
When you accept the Lord Jesus Christ, you need to be clear on this: you are actually baptized into Christ by the Holy Spirit. There is a spiritual transaction that takes place, and the Word says that of God are you in Christ.
In other words, when you accept Christ, you are put into Christ. God sees you as no longer in Adam, the man you were born with a natural life, but now you are in Christ.
Let me read some Scriptures:
Romans 6:6: Our old man was crucified with Him.
Galatians 2:20: I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I that live, but Christ liveth in me.
Galatians 5:24: They that are of Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with the passions and the lusts thereof.
Galatians 6:14: The world hath been crucified unto me, and I unto the world.
When you accepted the Lord Jesus Christ, you received eternal life. It is a spiritual reality. But the Lord has done much more, as you read these verses that I have just read in Galatians and Romans.
We see that He is determined to set us totally free, as our brother shared with us this morning: not just being saved from hell, but being saved from sin, from the power of sin; being saved from the world and its draw upon you; being saved from Satan; being saved from yourself.
Salvation is so great, brothers and sisters. We should not just limit the word saved to this matter of getting your ticket to heaven and avoiding hell.
I have to say, however, that the way I found the Lord Jesus was because my dear mother caught me in sin. Actually, basically, I was telling some lies.
And she said, “Jerry, you are wrong with God. You have offended me, but more than that, you have offended God. And you are going to hell.” It was that simple: “You are going to hell.”
Some people might say, “Well, that is not a very good way to be saved.” But you know what? I was concerned. I did not want to go to hell. I saw the look on my mother’s face, and I figured if hell was any worse than the look on her face, I did not want to go there.
But in reality, that thought—that I had offended God—really touched my heart, and so did the idea that I might go to hell.
After my mother left the room, I got down on my knees and, in tears, asked the Lord to forgive me of my sins. And the Lord touched my heart.
At the time, I did not know enough about Christianity, because we did not go to church very much. I did not know anything about this plan of salvation, but the Lord saved me that night.
I did not even know that I had been saved. But He saved me, touched my heart, filled my life, and changed me. I am thankful and grateful.
So yes, praise the Lord, you can be saved from hell through belief, but salvation is so much greater.
The issue is this, and it brings in this matter of salvation and baptism. Once you have made this transaction with the Lord, and He has saved you from the consequences of your sins, brought you salvation in the sense that we have always understood it, and you have been born again, He calls you to be His disciple.
He calls you to be His disciple. Not to be satisfied with just being saved from hell. He wants you to come into His full salvation, to walk this earth as His disciple, and to follow Him.
All of this work of salvation that He accomplished on Calvary is to be practically worked out in your life. You need to be saved from hell; that is the beginning point. But you also need to follow Christ.
When the Lord first saves you, when you first come into that newborn experience with the Lord, I think there is something in your spirit that says you want to follow the Lord. Something has changed.
This thought that you are now a stranger and pilgrim in this world touches you. In other words, you suddenly realize that you are not going to be able to live your life like you used to.
The things of this world are attractive, but the Lord is more attractive. I think in that initial love for the Lord, there is that automatic response and knowing in your heart that something has changed.
You are no longer really a part of this world, but you are to be a stranger and pilgrim, and, as it was prayed this morning, to walk at our Lord’s side with Him.
You are now to seek Christ, not the fame and fortune and pleasures of this world and of this life. You have now been altered and changed. Your whole future is different than it used to be once you accept the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior.
The problem is, you want to follow the Lord. You want to be His disciple. But frankly, the world still lays its claim to you. The world still says, “You are mine.” The world still has its temptations. It still has its chains upon you.
You can accept the Lord Jesus Christ and go back to school, back into your workplace, or even back with your family. If you do not say anything, if they do not know you are a Christian now, they will expect you to be the same as you were before.
The crowds that you hung out with will still want you to do the things they did. Some of these things are probably sinful. Some of the things do not honor the Lord.
Yet, if you say, “Well, I do not think I should do that,” they will not understand. They will still say, “Hey, come on. We do it. It is okay.”
The world still clings to you. The world still has its hold and claim. How can this hold be finally broken? How can this hold be broken in such a young Christian’s life, so that you can truly follow the Lord?
Well, this is where all these Scriptures begin to make sense. You may have been saved from hell, but you need to be saved from the grips of the world, from the pull of the world on your life.
I remember a story that was told of a Bible school teacher who was teaching some children. She was sharing the story of the rich man and Lazarus.
The rich man lived greatly during this life. He had all the pleasures of this world, and he enjoyed his riches. But later, once he died, he was, of course, tormented in perdition.
Lazarus, who was a beggar and very poor and had a tough time while living on this earth, knew the Lord and was found to be with the Lord, enjoying Christ and enjoying his life after death.
So, of course, she wanted to make the point with the children. “Now look: what would you rather do? Would you rather live for the pleasure of this world now, be rich now, and enjoy this life, but be tormented forever without Christ?”
“Or would you rather give yourself to the Lord, even though you may live a poor life on this earth and have troubles and problems, but in the end be rewarded by being with Christ and able to enjoy life?”
Well, as usual, children always come up with an answer we do not expect. One young lady stood up—a little girl—and said, “Look, I want to be like the rich man while I am alive, but I want to be like Lazarus when I am dead.”
I mean, that is honesty for you.
Now, brothers and sisters, I think if we are all honest with one another, this little child probably thought a lot like we probably think. Certainly unbelievers would think that way: “I want to enjoy all the world, but I would like some guarantee that once I pass away, I would be able to enjoy life after death.”
But you know, as Christians, brothers and sisters, we know that in order to follow the Lord, we are going to have to give up the world. We are going to have to really seek the Lord and not the things of this world. I think that is critical.
You need to know that even though you have accepted Christ, the world still has a chain upon you. But if you are to be the Lord’s disciple, if you truly want to follow the Lord, you must deal with that chain.
Let me say this: it is very abnormal for somebody to come to Christ and not want to follow Him—to wait years later to make Him Lord of their life. That is abnormal.
However, unfortunately, it has become the normal thing in Christianity today. People accept the Lord: “I have got my ticket to heaven. I am satisfied. I am going to live the best life I can right now, enjoy it, and I have already got a guarantee to go to heaven.”
Well, I have to say that is a poor birth that you have experienced, if that is the way you feel. If there has been a good birth taking place in Christ, that new birth taking place, a healthy birth, there should automatically be that desire in your heart to become a stranger, a sojourner on this earth, and to follow the Lord in discipleship.
The call to discipleship is immediately given upon your salvation. The call to discipleship by the Holy Spirit does not come years later. It comes immediately upon accepting the Lord Jesus Christ.
However, some do not listen to that call until years later, and some never listen to it. What a tragedy. What a loss.
If you are to be His disciple, you have to renounce your membership in this world. You have to rescind it. You need to be taken off the membership roll of this world, is another way to put it.
You need to testify that you now belong to Christ and not the world. You need to say, “I will live for Christ and not for the world or for myself.”
How is this done? How is this salvation from the world achieved?
It says that in Christ we have been crucified to the world, and the world to us, and we should have no part in it. But we do find that its chains are there.
Well, the Lord God, in His wisdom, just as He provided the table for us as a remembrance to keep our hearts fresh before the Lord, has provided this matter of baptism that we might cut the world off with a definite act.
That act is the act of water baptism.
The picture that we see in the Old Testament is when the Lord delivered the nation of Israel out of Egypt. Egypt had all the riches of the world at that time. It represented the world.
The Lord called them out, and they responded. That would be the same today as gaining your salvation in Christ, as being born again.
But the Lord did something amazing. He did not have to take them through the Red Sea. He could have taken another route. But He chose to lead them right through the Red Sea.
Now, why did He do that? He did that to cut them off from Egypt so that they could not return there. It was a definite outward act.
Brothers and sisters, that is what baptism does for the Christian. It is a very practical step that those who want to be the disciples of the Lord Jesus need to take.
They need to be able to renounce their membership in this world and say, “I belong to Christ. I am His disciple, and I am called to follow Him.”
“I enter these waters of baptism as a testimony to the fact that I no longer belong to the world, but I belong to Christ.”
With that definite act, you are affirming that you have been crucified to the world and the world to you.
Now, what does that mean? If you are dead to the world, if you have been crucified, it means you really have no communication with it. I am going to say it another way, maybe: it is something that you really do not care about that much anymore. It is dead to you, and you are dead to it.
In other words, your desire for the things of the world is being cut off. You are cutting off that desire for the things of the world.
This testimony of baptism is vital to break the hold that the world has upon you. Baptism is needed to strengthen you to walk the walk of a disciple.
Brothers and sisters, have no doubt about it: God always intended that anyone who came to Him and accepted Him as their Savior and was born again should follow Him and be His disciple.
It was not His intention that we just accept this free gift, get our ticket to heaven and protection from hell, be satisfied, and just go back to the world and live the way we did. That is not the Lord’s way.
There should be something in you saying, “This is wrong.”
We need to have this vital testimony of baptism. Baptism should be a defining moment in your life.
When you accepted Jesus Christ, a tremendous revolution occurred in your life, whether you realized it or not, because you have been born again. You are now a new person in Christ, a new creation in Christ. You are born not of man, but of God. God has put His life in you, and you are now born of Him.
Out of that, you have a desire to follow this One Who loved you so much and died for your sins, and you want to be His disciple. The Lord says, “Be baptized. You need to cut the chains of the world. You need to testify publicly that you are His.”
In John 12:27, it says many Jews believed on Christ, but they would not confess Him for fear of being put out of the synagogue. Many believed on Him but would not confess Him, for fear of being put out of the synagogue.
I am afraid there are many like that today.
You cannot be the disciple of Christ and remain a member of this world. You just cannot. You can be saved from hell, but you will not be a disciple of the Lord until you renounce your membership, until you are able to testify publicly that you belong to Him.
Testimony is critical in the life of a young Christian, particularly.
In Romans 10:9, it says—listen to this:
If thou shalt confess with thy mouth Jesus as Lord,
and shalt believe in thy heart
that God raised Him from the dead,
thou shalt be saved.
Romans 10:10:
For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness;
and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.
In other words, your sins are forgiven and you are made just before God. You receive eternal life when you believe in your heart. You are justified.
With the mouth, you confess and are saved—saved from your old life, saved from the world, saved from the bondage of the world.
Confession and testimony are critical to a strong, healthy Christian disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Some people have asked us, “Why, when people want to be baptized, is it necessary that they give a testimony?” Well, I think these Scriptures answer that.
You could be baptized; baptism in itself is a testimony. But how much better to be able to publicly stand before the whole world and say, “I am a Christian. I belong to Jesus Christ. I do not want to follow the ways of the world any longer. I want to follow Him.”
That strengthens your faith. Baptism is so critical for a Christian. If you want to be His disciple, baptism becomes necessary.
Once you are baptized, if you are tempted to go back into the world and the ways of the world—you go back and start listening to dirty jokes, you start entering into the things that you used to do with your friends, things that you know the Lord would not have you do—you know what?
The world no longer accepts you once you are baptized. They now call you a hypocrite, because you have testified that you are the Lord’s. You have made that public testimony, and now you are living a life contrary to that, and they know it.
Now you are viewed as a hypocrite. And that is what we are.
Once you are baptized and you want to become a disciple of Jesus, there is no turning back. The Lord says, “No man, having put his hand to the plow, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God.”
Brothers and sisters, the only way to be saved from hell is to accept the Lord Jesus Christ. The way we enter into the reality of being crucified to the world and having the world cut off is through baptism.
You are saved from the world, from its hold on you, through baptism. Baptism is a separation. It is a renouncing of your membership in this world and the ways of the world.
It is a testimony that you belong to Christ, that you are not only not going to hell, but that you belong to Him, and it is your intention to follow Him.
I hope that will clarify some of these Scriptures I read, like Acts 2:38. That was the one where Peter told the crowd, “Repent and be baptized in the name of Jesus unto remission of sins.” He does not say anything about believing.
But if you read that Scripture, you realize they were pricked in their heart. Let me explain this to you. This crowd of people he was preaching to were the ones who, fifty days before, had said, “Crucify Him! Away with Him! Take Him to the cross! Kill Him!”
That sin lay heavy on their hearts when the Lord pricked their conscience. He said, “This One Whom you crucified is both Lord and Christ.” Their conscience was pricked, praise the Lord, and this sin lay heavy on them.
They had to disassociate themselves with that crowd that had crucified Christ. Before, they were willing members of that club that said, “Away with Him.” Now they were saying, “I no longer want to be in that club. I have sinned in killing the Lord Jesus, in calling for His death. I want to belong to Him now.”
That is why the emphasis is on baptism, because they needed to make that public testimony before everybody else: “We were in that crowd. I no longer belong to this crowd. I have changed my heart.”
The same with Paul. When Ananias went to Paul, he said, “Paul, arise and be baptized, washing away thy sins, calling on His name.” Same thing.
Paul was part of the crowd. Not only was he part of the crowd; he was the leader. He was so adamant in his hatred for Christianity that he had gotten permission from the high council to put these people in prison and have them killed. He was responsible for the stoning of Stephen.
A heavy sin. He had to renounce his membership in that religious world that crucified our Lord, and that was done through baptism.
Baptism does not give you eternal life. I want to be clear. Nor does it give you forgiveness for sins. God is the only One Who can forgive your sins. God is the only One Who can give you eternal life.
And He does it because His Son took your place in death for your sin on Calvary’s cross.
I think a good illustration of this is the thief on the cross.
The thief on the cross at first rebuked our Lord, but then one of the thieves said, “Wait a minute.” Somehow God touched him, and he said, “Wait a minute. Do you not realize Who this is?”
Then he said, “Lord, remember me when Thou comest into Thy kingdom.”
The Lord did not say, “Well, wait a minute. Somehow you are going to have to get off this cross and be baptized.” He did not say that.
He said, “Today shalt thou be with Me in paradise.”
His salvation was assured. It did not require baptism. Unfortunately, this man had no opportunity to be a disciple of the Lord Jesus upon this earth.
If he had known and realized Who Christ was before he was taken to the cross, he would have been called to baptism. But of course, he could not.
Baptism is not only for separation. It is not only for testimony. It is not only for renouncing the world and the ways of the world. It is also a burial and a resurrection.
Now, in the Old Testament, you might want to reread their crossing of the Jordan. That represents, of course, being cut off from the world.
Well, what does Jordan represent? Remember when they got to Jordan, the Lord told them to take twelve rocks and put them into the Jordan River, and then take twelve rocks out of the Jordan River?
The Jordan River was at its full when they got there. It represented death and all the powers of hell trying to keep them from crossing. Of course, the Lord opened the way.
But in opening a way, He said, first of all, you need to do something: put twelve rocks in, and then take twelve rocks out.
The water covered the rocks that were put in. Those rocks represented their old way of life. Those rocks represented the old man. They were covered with water, buried forever, never to be seen again.
The twelve rocks taken out and put in a pillar were a testimony that they were now in resurrection life. They were living a new life.
Their crossing of those two rivers sums up what baptism is. Baptism is a burial and a resurrection.
We know that the Word says, as I read in Galatians, that the old man has been crucified. That old man that loves to live the old life has been crucified.
But how do you make this spiritual reality practical in your life? Once again, it is by deliberately burying the old man. The only way you can do that is through baptism.
In baptism, not only do you recognize that the old man has been crucified in Christ, you say, “Well, I need to bury him, and I am going to perform an act to do that.”
That act is water baptism, and I am burying the old man with the old way of life. Hallelujah.
You know, when you accept Christ and He becomes your Savior, you begin, a little while later, to smell a stench in your life. I do not know if you have ever picked up that stench, or have you gotten used to the stench?
The stench is the old man. He is dead in Christ. A dead man stinks—really bad, let me tell you. It is a stench.
So once you accept Christ, it should not be long before you begin to realize that in your life there is a stench. The old man—the old man that the Lord crucified—is still there, and you need to get rid of him.
How do you do that? You bury him. That is what baptism is: it is a burial of that old man.
What has happened spiritually needs to happen in your life practically, and the Lord said it is through baptism. The smell of the stench is taken away once you bury the old man.
You know, one of the Romans’ punishments for criminals was to take a dead body and lash it to the criminal while he was alive. Of course, that dead body would deteriorate and become infectious, and that infection would enter the pores and the life of the man who was alive. Eventually, it would kill him.
Well, brothers and sisters, if you do not bury this old man through baptism, he is going to be lashed to you for the rest of your life. That infectious old man will eventually destroy your spiritual life. He will destroy your spiritual life.
So you need to get rid of him. You need to realize that this old man needs to be taken care of and buried. That is what baptism is all about.
In faith, you enter the watery grave. You go into the watery grave, and you take the old man down there with you. You are completely covered in the water. It is the grave for the old man.
In faith, you say, “Lord, I go into this water, and I am leaving the old man there. That old stench will be washed away.”
And I come up—hopefully you come up. And when you do, it is the new man in Christ. It is the new man that is raised. It is a resurrection.
So baptism is not only a cutting off of the world and its hold on you, and a testimony that you are the Lord’s. It is a funeral for the old man, but it is a celebration in life for the new man in Christ who comes out. It should be viewed that way.
So, who should be baptized?
Be very clear: only believers should be baptized, and those who desire to be His disciples. You have to be a believer, or you do not have His life.
Once again, let me say: it is abnormal to accept Jesus Christ and not want to follow Him and be His disciple. If you are in that condition, ask the Lord to forgive you and restore you, because you are meant to be His disciple. That is normal.
If you were baptized as a baby, an infant, or as a child, and later you actually accepted the Lord Jesus—you believed in your heart on the Lord Jesus and received Him as your Savior—that old baptism is not real. It is not effective. It is not believer’s baptism.
I guess you could call it an unbeliever’s baptism, but it has no value to it. You need to be baptized.
You need to say, “Look, that baptism was not real. It was done before I believed on the Lord, and it is not real. I want to follow Him. I want to be His disciple. I need the chains of this world cut loose. I need to testify that I am going to follow Him, and I do that in baptism.”
Just think about it. An unbeliever cannot follow Christ, cannot be a disciple. An unbeliever still loves the world. He does not want the chains of the world cut from him. There is no testimony of Christ in his life to give.
And the old man is still there, very active, very alive. He is not dead yet. He is still alive. You cannot baptize an unbeliever. You can, but it is of no value.
Let me just say this thing about why you should not really baptize infants. That came about through a misunderstanding of the Scriptures.
As I have already said, many interpret baptism to mean that your sins are forgiven through the act of water baptism, that your sins are remitted, that you are given your ticket to heaven, and that you will not go to hell.
Concerned parents, being told this and believing this, had their children baptized. Why not? “I can guarantee that my child will go to heaven through water baptism.”
Now, us more fundamental believers, of course, have not accepted that. But, brothers and sisters, a major portion of Christian society does. I think the Methodist Church does that.
I was sprinkled as a child and baptized in that way. Of course, I did not know anything. I found out later that I was not saved. I was not a believer at that point.
Once the Lord convicted me of that, I did go, and I was baptized by immersion as the Lord has instructed us to do.
Babies and small children, brothers and sisters, do not need to be baptized to protect them.
I am going to give you a couple of Scriptures. I will not go into them much, but look at 2 Samuel 12:22-23. David lost his first son that was born by Bathsheba. The Lord took that first son that he had.
David, after his son had died, was asked why he was not still crying. He said that before he died, it was possible that the Lord might spare him. But now that he was dead, David said, “I shall go to him, but he shall not return to me.”
That is just a hint. The Bible does not say much about it, but our children and our babies are protected by the Lord. The Lord said, “Suffer the little children, and forbid them not, to come unto Me,” did He not? Bring the children.
Another verse you might want to read is Matthew 18:10, talking about the angels holding the children before the face of God. Read that. I think that might be a help.
So what is the right time? What is the right age for baptism? Particularly, I think, for those who have children who accept Christ when they are very young—and I am talking about children who really accept Christ when they are very young.
These are a few things. Some are biblical, and some are things that, I think, are needful to consider.
First of all, in order to be baptized, you need to have accepted Christ as your Savior. You need to want Him to be Lord of your life. There should be some desire in your heart that you want to follow Christ, that you want to be His disciple.
You want to be baptized because the Lord has asked you to, and not just because your parents desire you to be baptized, or because your friends are doing it and you are a little afraid and would rather do it with a group than by yourself.
Well, it is a testimony to the life of Christ that overcomes everything, even our fears. So that should not be your motive, just to please someone else.
There should be a sense that they are willing to follow the Lord and willing not to follow the ways of the world. In other words, there is that sense that they truly want to follow the Lord and are not caught up with just doing everything their friends want them to do—that they are willing to back off.
I think that is an indication that they may be ready. They should be willing to publicly testify of the Lord and even tell their friends that they are the Lord’s, that they have been saved.
And how should baptism be done? Well, the Greek word, as I have already said, means immersion.
One of the scholars that I read said it actually related to when they used to dip cloth into dye and change the color of the cloth. In other words, it is full immersion.
You have got to bury this thing. I have never seen anybody buried with their head sticking out. I mean, come on.
You cannot throw a shovel full of dirt on a dead body and say it is buried. It has got to be buried out of sight.
So if we are going to affirm what the Spirit has really done in our lives, if the old man is dead, we need to thoroughly see that he is buried. That is through immersion.
I think it is time that we transact with the Lord.
For those who were baptized as an infant or whatever, and you have since come to the Lord Jesus, you need to really consider if the Lord is calling you to be His disciple and to follow and obey Him in baptism, because that baptism is not valid.
If you have accepted Christ but have not been baptized, I would ask you today—I think the Lord would ask you—do you really want Him to be Lord of your life?
If you do not, it is abnormal. There is an issue. You need to get straight with the Lord. Once you do, you should make that testimony in baptism before the Lord.
If you have always thought, “I have accepted Christ, and that is sufficient. Baptism is not really needed because I have already got my ticket to heaven,” that is a totally wrong way to look at it.
You need to be His disciple. You need to follow Him. You need to cut the strings of the world, be willing to bury that old man, and testify that you belong to the Lord in baptism.
What if you have accepted the Lord and been baptized, but you have turned back? You took your hand off the plow. The Lord says you are not worthy of My kingdom.
But that does not mean you are rejected. If you are in that condition, you need to confess to the Lord that you failed. You need to confess, “Lord, I am not worthy because I did take my hand off the plow. I have turned back to the world. I am not worthy.”
You need to confess that before Him and ask Him to forgive you, restore you, and return the joy of your salvation. Then walk after Him.
You do not need to be rebaptized, because the Lord holds that covenant of baptism with you.
When you did it, it was done in sincerity, and the Lord took that sincere act—an oath with Him that you are to be His disciple and follow Him—and He holds you to it.
That is why, if you have not been following Him, your heart should be pricked. You just need to return.
Humble yourself under His mighty hand. He may discipline you in some way; I do not know. But He wants you to be restored. He wants you to get back on the path of discipleship and follow Him.
You may be here today and have never accepted the Lord Jesus as your Savior. I can only say:
For what shall it profit a man,
if he shall gain the whole world,
and forfeit his life?
What value is it to own that five-hundred-thousand-dollar home and that Mercedes, have all your children through college, and lose your own soul?
You need to accept the Lord Jesus as your Savior and as your Lord, and say, “Lord, I want to be Your disciple. I want to follow You,” and then be baptized.
Say, “Lord, my philosophy of life stinks. My grabbing for the things of this world has not brought me any happiness.”
You know, I see it in the news every day. I see these movie stars with all the riches that you could really want. They have gone out and bought everything they could possibly want.
One of them breaks my heart because she has basically given up her children. What has she gained? All she has gained is hell. Lost her soul. May the Lord have mercy on her soul.
Well, brothers and sisters, baptism has to do with being saved from the world. It has to do with cutting off the hold that the world has on you.
It is not just that it is being cut; it is saying, “Okay, I do not want anything to do with that anymore”—that old way of life.
It is a testimony that you belong to the Lord and that you are now His disciple. It is also saying, “Look, I have got to bury this old man. He stinks. If he keeps hanging on to me, he is going to kill me, and I need to bury him, get rid of him.”
But I also know that I cannot live this Christian life. I cannot be a disciple trying to follow Him in the old life. I have to do it in the life that He has given me—this new life in Christ, this life that the new birth gave me.
That is the one that is going to follow Christ, and that is the one that can make it out of the water when you are risen. So you see, baptism is critical and is a major part of a Christian life.
Lord, we just come to Thee today. We are so thankful that You have made every provision that we can be totally set free, as our brother spoke of in the beginning.
Lord, You have given us baptism. It is so controversial, but Lord, as we see what Your Word says, as we understand what Your salvation is meant to be, we see how great and wonderful this matter of baptism is.
I pray, Lord, that those who need to be baptized, You would touch their conscience, that You would bring them through to a decision.
I pray, Lord, for those who are still hanging on to a baptism that was not real, that You will personally reveal to them their need for baptism.
Lord, I pray for those who may not know You, that they will finally give up and accept You. I pray in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.