Harvest New Beginnings Podcast
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Harvest New Beginnings Podcast
Glory Among Us: Baptism is a Big Deal (John 3:22-23)
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Service opening video: https://www.worshiphousemedia.com/mini-movies/60596/baptism-by-water
Harvest. New Beginnings Church is located in Oswego, Illinois. We exist for God's glory alone, encouraging each other to have a deep love for God and a sincere love for people. This message is brought to you by pastor Scott Poling,
Speaker 2[ Video ] .
Speaker 3Baptism is a big deal. It is one of two ordinances in the local church and it is very important to God and it needs to be very important to us. The word is used 89 times in the new testament or sorry, 98 times in the New Testament, 81 of those. It refers to water baptism. One of those places we're going to see this morning is in the gospel of John Chapter Three if you have your bibles, I want you to turn to John Chapter Three. We've started this series in the book of John. We're working our way verse by verse, passage by passage chapter by chapter,
Speaker 4and I want you to understand in John Chapter three we come to this conversation between Jesus and Nicodemus and that conversation has now ended. Jesus has been talking to this religious leader who came to him at night this Pharisee, and Jesus calls him the teacher in Israel. He's a very important, very powerful, very religious man, but he needed some very important truths. And so Jesus enlightens him. And as he does that, he enlightens us and he him, you must be born again or you cannot and will not see the Kingdom of God.
Speaker 3And that truth is true for you and for me. You must be born again. I must be born again. He taught him that God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son.
Speaker 4He told this religious leader that he had to believe in places, faith in the son in order to have eternal life or he would not have eternal life.
Speaker 3He told him that the son of God has come not to judge the world,
Speaker 4but that the world might be saved through him. And so John Three is filled with these powerful and these important truths. And after this
Speaker 3conversation, the scene changes and we pick up the passage in verse 22 of John Chapter three, Lee read along with me, John Three starting in verse 22 after these things, Jesus and his disciples came into the land of Judea.
Speaker 4There is spending time with them in baptizing and John was also baptizing in a non near Seleme
Speaker 3because there's much water there and people were coming and were being baptized. So after this important conversation on salvation comes this important practice of baptism. Baptism is a big deal.
Speaker 4As a matter of fact, number one, anybody who is anybody is baptizing somebody say that with me. Anybody who is , anybody is baptizing somebody because you have the two most spiritual, prominent, godly people in all of the world.
Speaker 3Jesus, the son of God and John that the preparer of the way, baptizing people, promoting baptism. First you have Jesus.
Speaker 4He's the virgin born son of God , second person of the Trinity, creator of all John One tells us all things came into being through him and apart from him, nothing has come into being that has come into being. Jesus is
Speaker 3creator.
Speaker 4He's the judge of all. Later in John Five we're told he's given judgment to his son. All judgment, he's been declared the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, the true light coming into the world and lightening every man. So baptism is a big deal to Jesus and Jesus is pretty important.
Speaker 3Next you have John John, whose birth was announced to his father in the temple by Gabriel, who can say that listen to the words of the angel in Luke one for he that is John will be great in the sight of the Lord. This guy is special. He'll be filled with the holy spirit, yet in his mother's womb, it is he
Speaker 4who will go as a four runner before him in the spirit and power of Elijah. And in Matthew Chapter 11 Jesus would say, would you go out to see a prophet?
Speaker 3Yes, he's a prophet. But I tell you one that's much more than a prophet.
Speaker 4This is the one about whom it is written. Behold, I send my messenger ahead of you who will repair the way before you. So is the last of the Old Testament prophets, but more than a prophet. He's the messenger of God preparing the way for the Messiah and even more special. John is the greatest man on earth, says who says Jesus? Matthew 1111 Jesus said, truly, truly, truly, I say to you, among those born of women, there is not a risen anyone greater than John the baptist. So baptism is a big deal to Jesus and Jesus is a pretty special person. And baptism is a big deal to John and John is a pretty special person and anybody who is anybody is baptizing somebody. And we have two very special anybodies who believe in baptism. And not only that, you have dual locations, two major baptism stations in the nation of Israel at the time. Look again at John Three 22 Jesus and his disciples come into the land of Judea. They're spending time with them, he is and then baptizing. And then the next verse, 23 and John is also baptizing where in a non near Salem because there's much water there and people are coming and being baptized. And here's the map of these two locations. Two major baptism stations in the land of Israel. Jesus is in the south. He and his disciples have left Jerusalem, left the city, and now they're in the countryside baptizing. And John has now moved north. He's near Samarria. A non is transliterated, the Semitic word meaning springs . So there's a lot of water there. And I want you to understand the baptism business is booming in Israel. You have Jesus and his disciples baptizing you of John the Baptist baptizing. And you might say, well, how many people are being baptized? We're told in Matthew three, five and six about John the baptist. When he was down south Jerusalem, all Jerusalem was going out to him and all Judea and all the district around the Jordan, and they're being baptized by him in the Jordan River as they confessed their sins . So, so literally, there could be thousands and thousands of people, all the district and all the Judea and the and Jerusalem are flocking out to be baptized by John. Oh , but if you just take your bibles and look at John Chapter four verse one it says, Jesus and his disciples were baptizing more than John. Baptism is a big deal. It's a big deal to Jesus and it's a big deal to John. Now what I want to do is I want to take a look at Jesus first. Let's look at Jesus. Verse 22
Speaker 5okay .
Speaker 4After these things, after what things? Well, after nick at night, okay, remember Nica Demas has come by night . Alright . Alright . So after nick and night, and he's not watching the show, he's been talking to a guy. All right? And , and this discussion of salvation with this religious leader and teacher. So after all these things, and what do we see? Jesus and his disciples baptizing you , spending time with them and he's baptizing. What is Jesus really doing? The baptism.
Speaker 3The next chapter clarifies this John Four one and two. Therefore, when Jesus knew that the Pharisees had heard that Jesus was making and baptizing more disciples than John, although Jesus himself, what was not baptizing, but his disciples were,
Speaker 4the disciples were , Jesus is agents of baptism. And I want you to think about this. He's got 12 guys at different times and rivers or bodies of waters, baptizing people.
Speaker 3What we learn here is something about Jesus as leadership. He's not afraid to delegate responsibility.
Speaker 4He doesn't have to do everything. He doesn't have to baptize everyone . He doesn't have to baptize anyone. He is overseeing baptism. This is what Jesus baptizing means. He's overseeing it, he's approving it, he's sanctioning it. He is encouraging it,
Speaker 3and there's a lot of people being baptized. He's baptizing his disciples more than John's and John's were Jerusalem, all Judea and all the district around the chorten . Now, how important is baptism to Jesus? While we see him practicing it, oh , we also see them practicing it. In another way, activism was so important to Jesus. He is baptized. Luke chapter three verse 21 now when all the people were baptized, Jesus also was what? Baptized.
Speaker 4And while he's praying, the heavens were opened. The Holy Spirit descends upon him in bodily form like a dove and a voice out of heaven. You're my beloved son in whom I'm well pleased. And when he began his ministry, Jesus himself was about 30 years of age. So Jesus is baptized at the beginning of his ministry.
Speaker 3Jesus gives us a personal example of being baptized. He didn't have to be baptized.
Speaker 4There was no repentance of sin. He's not. He's never committed a sin. He is identifying with humanity as human, fully God, yet fully man. And by the way, he practices it about the age of what. He's about 30 years of age.
Speaker 3Now, sometimes when we think of baptism, some people think, well it's for little kids. I I'm too old to be baptized. Let let kids be baptized. Can I just say something? You are never too old to be baptized now. Now I'd here . Three weeks ago we had a, we had a baptism at the Fox river, right downtown Oswego. We had 27 people baptized . Let me show you some of the kids that were baptized here. Here's the first one. Aga . Aga is 77 year old kid and he decided to follow the Lord here. Here's this wife Glenda. Look at this kid. 70 years old following the Lord in Baptism. Here's another kid, Conchita Hernandez 89 [inaudible]
Speaker 489 she was that . She just turned 90 this past week and not awesome. She's 80 she's 90 now. I don't know what kind of vitamins that woman's taken, but I want them . Okay, that's all. That's all I'm saying. You are never too old to be baptized. You are never too old to live for God. You are never too old to make a commitment to God. You are never too old to live in obedience to your [inaudible]
Speaker 3God by the way, God the son , practice it. God the spirit blesses it.
Speaker 4It says the Holy Spirit of death, send it upon him in bodily form like a dove. This is the you nog duration of the Ministry of the son of the living God on earth with power and authority from on high and I want you to notice submission to the will of God will always have the blessing of the spirit of God. Submission to the will of God will always have the blessing of the spirit of God. There may be an area in your life where you are not submitting to God. You're just missing out on the work of God in your life.
Speaker 3You know it's this or you know it's something else. I just want to encourage you to submit to God. You'll always have the blessing of God when you submit to God. Don't miss that blessing.
Speaker 4God the son, practice his baptism. God, the spirit blesses brandism baptism in God. The father approves the baptism. Luke three 22 this voice out of heaven. You are my beloved son in you. I am . What? Well pleased so the son's baptism pleases the father and by the way, your baptism pleases your heavenly father.
Speaker 3God is always pleased with submission to the will of heaven and there's public demonstration of our gratitude to God. How can God not be pleased with that? Don't ever be ashamed to publicly acknowledge you are a follower of Jesus Christ. We live in a world where we're, we're trying that people are trying to shame us as Christians. Listen, there's no shame in being a child of God.
Speaker 4There's no shame. I'm not ashamed of the Gospel for it's the power of God unto salvation to everyone who believes to the Jew first and also to the Greek there . Shame and the things of this world. Plenty of shame. There is never shame in being a follower of God. Never be ashamed to be known and named as a follower of God. Now , now notice baptism is not about impressing people. It's about [inaudible]
Speaker 3pressing God. God is pleased in you. I am well pleased sometimes. Sometimes we worry way too much what people think and not enough what got things we need to be people that are more concerned about what does God think of this? Not, not what is my neighbor gonna think, not, not what are my classmates gonna think. [inaudible]
Speaker 4what are my coworker know ? What is God going to think? That's all that matters. What does God, what does God think? And , and for some of us, we worry about it when it comes to baptism. We worry well and am I abandoning my upbringing? Am I forsaking the denomination or the tradition that I was raised in and am I , am I hurting my parents or my grandparents feelings? Cause cause they they, they chose to have me baptized as a baby. Baptism
Speaker 3is not about pleasing people. It's about pleasing your God. That's what baptism is all about. And and notice here it's about pleasing our triune God.
Speaker 4God the son practices baptism. God, the spirit blesses baptism. God, the Father Approves Baptism. Baptism is a really big deal when God, the father, son and Holy Spirit are involved in it. This is really important stuff. By the way, Jesus not only is baptized at the beginning of his ministry, he commands baptism
Speaker 3at the end of his ministry. It's known as the Great Commission. Matthew 28
Speaker 4go there and make disciples of all nations. Say it with me, baptizing them in the name of the father and the son and the Holy Spirit,
Speaker 3baptizing them. Jesus, I want you to get the context of Jesus's command. He has just died for the sins of the world. He stayed for all of your sins and mine. He just rose from the grave guaranteeing our eternal life. That's awesome and he's about to ascend to the right hand of the father where he will make intercession for you and for me
Speaker 4and he gives us one last command and an includes baptism. Last command before sending to heaven includes baptism. Baptism is a big deal and notice once again the presence of the trinity.
Speaker 3At Jesus's baptism he was baptized. The spirit descends. The father approves now with the command of baptism at the end, Matthew 28 eight 19 go there for make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the father and the son and the Holy Spirit. The presence of the trinity is present at Jesus's baptism
Speaker 4and the presence of the trinity is named at my baptism and you are baptism in every baptized child of God. Since then, baptism is a big deal. You may say, well, I don't understand. Why is the trinity mentioned? Why are we to be baptized in the name of the father and the son and the Holy Spirit? Why is that so important?
Speaker 3Let me tell you why. Ephesians chapter one gives the answer. I'm going to read some select verses. Ephesians one is such a rich doctrinal passage with deep truths , blessed it'd be the God and who. Father. Verse four
Speaker 4just as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world in love, he predestined us to adoption as sons through who ? Jesus Christ. Verse seven in Him, we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses according to the riches of His grace, which he lavished on us in verse 13 in him, you also, after listening to the Gospel of truth, the Gospel, or listening to the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation, having also believed you were sealed in him with who? The Holy Spirit father, son sealed in the holy spirit of promise, who is given as a pledge of our inheritance with a view to the redemption of God's own possession, to the praise of his glory. Guess who was involved in [inaudible]
Speaker 3fingers , soul, the triune God. I want you to get this. Your baptism points to the work of your God in saving you and your baptism glorifies the God who saved you.
Speaker 4We're baptized in the name of the father because he is the one that has orchestrated and planned our salvation before the foundation of the world. We're baptized in the name of the son because he is the one who purchased our salvation, dying for all of your six sins and my six sins on the cross, redeeming our sinful souls so that we could be saved. We're baptized in the name of the spirit because he is the one that we read earlier, that he's convicted us of us , serve our sins, and here he has eternally sealed us as a pledge of our inheritance. We have eternal life waiting for
Speaker 3us. That's why we're baptized in the name of the father and the name of the son and the name of the Holy Spirit
Speaker 4because baptism is all about the work of God. You are a work of [inaudible]
Speaker 3God. If you've been saved, you're a war
Speaker 4of God. God planned your salvation. He purchased your salvation. He has sealed you for salvation. You're a work of God. And so baptism is a work of God all about the work of God and baptism is all for the glory of God because I had nothing to do with it
Speaker 3and neither did you. The father planned, the son purchased it and the spirit has sealed it. You're a work of God, the father, son and spirit, and so our baptism brings great glory to our great God. That's what it does.
Speaker 4Baptism screams, look what God has done. Look how God saved us.
Speaker 3Look how God has done and changed us. By the way, next week is our next baptism and I want to encourage you to give glory to God. Give glory to God. Be Baptized in the name of the father and the son and the Holy Spirit. We'll have baptisms at each service. We'll do it at nine o'clock 10 45 as well as five 45 at night. And as I was studying this, I was wrestling with this and I was like, okay, God will do it. Three o'clock in the afternoon. Anybody who wants to be baptized at Hudson Park, I'll baptize you in the Fox river. Let's do it. So whether you want to do it here or you want to do it down there, it doesn't matter where you do it. Just get baptized and glorify your God and you would say, I'm ready. Sign up at the mic . What's the MC ministry information center right out there. Or you can go right online@harvest.church. Just go under events. Sign up where you want to be baptized, you know, and just follow, follow everything there. But if you've not been baptized now it's a time. It doesn't matter your age. It's all about the glory of God and what he has done in your life. Baptism is a big deal. We've looked at Jesus. Now Look at John, verse 23 John also was baptizing in a non near saline because there was much water there and people were coming and being baptized. Now we've seen John the Baptist already baptizing people. We've seen it in chapter one. The priests and the Levis didn't like John and so they send some farracies out. Okay. Or are the priests and Levites were sent to him by some pharisees. And here's some select verses in John Chapter One we see John, they asked them and said, why then are you baptizing? You're not the Christ nor Elijah nor the prophet. And John answered and said, I baptized in water among you stands one whom you do not know. In verse 28 these things took place in Bethany beyond the Jordan where John was baptizing. And in verse 31 I came baptizing in water. In verse 33 he was sent me to baptize and water said to me, he, upon whom you see the spirit descending and remaining upon him, this is the one who baptizes in the Holy Spirit. And so baptism is nothing new for this guy. Nothing new for John [inaudible] . Baptism is a part of his life. It's a part of his ministry. By the way, it's a part of his name. If you didn't notice Matthew 1111 Jesus said there's not a risen anyone greater than who John the baptist. So Jesus calls him the baptist. I love this. He calls Peter the rock. He calls James and John Funder heads , sons of thunder, and he calls John the Baptist or the baptizer. Now we learned some things about baptism from this passage. It's just one verse. But look what we learned. He's near Anan Anan Saline because there was what much water there? So this points to the mode. This points to the type of baptism, how to baptize. You need a lot of water. So in other words, they're not sprinkling, they're not pouring water. We're talking about full immersion. And yes, I know there's, there's some that believe differently, but it's hard to get away from scripture. And what Bible clearly teaches us, and we need to be people that believe based on what we see in the Bible, not traditions, not how we were raised, not the people we love and appreciate who , who might feel differently than us. We have to take the Bible and say, let's let the Bible teach us. And so that's what we're doing. Now we also need to understand the meaning of the word, the meaning of the word baptize. The word in the Greek is Baccto and Baptizo Baptizo and Baptizo. Two Greek verbs, both meaning dip or immerse. Now, I've used this before, but it's a great illustration of teaching us the meaning of this word. His name was in the candor. He was a Greek poet and a Greek philosopher. Okay. And he lived in 200 BC nicander . He wrote about a recipe for making pickles. That's really helpful. And I have no idea if they tasted good. Okay? But because he uses both of these words, Baptisto and baptist . Zelle , this is what he says. In order to make a pickle, the vegetables should first be dipped bap dough into boiling water and then baptized Baptizo baptized in vinegar solution. So both of these verbs show full immersion . He's baptizing pickles, he's fully immersing immersion of pickles. Guess what? We fully immersed , not pickles, but paypal . Why? Because that's the meaning of the word. Now Baccto is also used in the context of a black Smith tempering a piece of iron. You ever seen a picture of a black Smith and he's got a horseshoe and it's red hot and he's got a bucket of water. What does he do? He takes water and he sprinkles it. No, he does not. What does he do? He pours it. No. What does he do? Boom. He dunks that thing. That's baptism. He baptizes bap toe . That deed . Zo Immerses is the picture here. Now there's a place of much water, the meaning of the word. Here's some other passages that help us. Matthew three 16 after being baptized, Jesus, what came up immediately from the water in acts eight we have Philip and the Ethiopian Eunuch and he orders the chariot to stop and they both go [inaudible]
Speaker 4down into the water. Phillip as well as a unit and he baptized him and then they what came up out of the water. So you have the place with much water. You have the meaning of the word. You have other passages in scripture. You have early church history, archeology, ancient baptist streets. This one dates back to the first century Church in Memphis, not Tennessee. Okay. This is Memphis. Israel. First century
Speaker 3that is an immersion baptistry in the shape of a cross where they would go down into the water. Here's another one, dating back to the Byzantine area of two 50 to 600 also in Israel in the Negev it's is the areas of.is what is there. And so you've got the place with much water, the meaning of the word tod , another passages , early church history, probably one of the most important things is the powerful illustration we have of the death, burial and resurrection of our Lord. Baptism is pictured in the burial in chapter two 12 having been buried with him in baptism in which you were also raised up with him through faith in the working of God who raised him. From what? From the dead. You bury a body in the ground. Romans six four therefore we have been buried with him through baptism into death. So that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the father, say this with me. So we too might walk in newness
Speaker 4of life, baptism, pictures what Jesus has done for us. We have died with him. And , and , and reason with him in new life. I want you understand you have resurrection life , uh, residing in you. Do you understand that
Speaker 3we've died to sin and be raised to walk in newness of life here? Here's a diagram illustrating the truth. Death, the cross, the old life, unsaved burial, the grave, the waters of baptism raised to walk in newness of life. The empty tomb. Salvation in Jesus. Here, here's an illustrator illustrated three weeks ago. This is Robert Godell . Robert was one of the men. I had the privilege of baptizing. Here we are just standing, hearing his testimony, and then he was buried. And then three days later , no, it wasn't three days, three seconds later. What res to walk in news life. And then the last picture,
Speaker 4we're just celebrating. We're celebrating new life and what God has done in his life. That's so,
Speaker 3but even today, pastors must be careful of fake news. Someone sent this to me. Breaking news man spot a drowning man in river. I'd never tried that . Anybody ? Okay? Never. Not at all. So now what I want you to understand is a couple of things here. We've seen that the place as much water, the meaning of the word taught in other passages, early church history. Okay. We also see back to our verse 23 of John Three it's a personal choice. Baptism, it says, and people were coming and were being baptized. So baptism is not something we force on people. It's not something we manipulate them to do. This is a personal decision between them and God. It's not a pressured decision. We're not baptized because mom and dad had been pressuring us or friends have been hounding us or we just want to do what all our relatives are doing or friends are doing. No , no, no, no, no, no. Now there's nothing wrong with encouragement and that's what I'm doing here today. If you have not been baptized, I'm encouraging you to be baptized because of what we clearly see in the Bible because it glorifies God. It's a step of obedience, but, but nobody here is pressuring you to do it. You need to follow the Lord because the Lord is leading you and you now understand it. And we get baptized because it's obedience to his command because of the work of God and gratitude to him, and it glorifies the father and the son and the Holy Spirit. But I want you to notice this personal choice is for those old enough to understand how old was Jesus when he was baptized? Bout 30 you don't have to wait that long. You can be baptized at any age before or after, but, but I do want to say this, I do not believe infant baptism is taught in scripture. I do not believe infant baptism should be practiced. Why? Because it's nowhere in the Bible and the Bible is our foundation. And that's not the takeaway from anyone that you, one of your relatives or someone that loved you and encouraged you or whatever as you were a baby. But understand this is a personal decision after salvation. We never see a baby baptized or christened in the Bible. And some people jump to, well, it's the new circumcision. It's a new covenant. And so it's no longer circumcision. It's baptism that's not in scripture. Friends, you can study it. That's an awful big jump that you got to take to make that, to make that assumption. Now, the closest thing we have mentioning this is household with the jail or in his household and acts chapter 16 let's look at this passage. Acts 16 they said, believe in the Lord Jesus to this jailer and
Speaker 4you'll be saved you and your what household? And they spoke the word of the Lord to him together with all who are in his house. He took them that very hour the night, washed their wounds, and immediately he was baptized. He in his what household and he brought them into his house and set food before them. Rejoice greatly, having believed in God with his whole watt , his whole household. There's gotta be a baby in that household. Pastor Scott. Not necessarily.
Speaker 3It could mean family, it could mean servants or relatives. It could mean guests staying there. But what you have to do is you have to look at this passage again and look at another very, very important word. Let's look at the passage again. Acts 1631 they said what? Believe in the Lord Jesus and you'll be saved you and your household . So you've got to be old enough to understand what belief is. And they spoke to the ,
Speaker 4the word of the Lord to him together with all who were in his house. And they took them that very hour the night and washed his wounds. And immediately he was baptized, he and all his household and he brought them into the house and set food before them and rejoice greatly. Having what?
Speaker 3Believed in God with his whole household. So it's very important that we understand who was actually baptized, those who are old enough to believe those who are old enough to put their faith in Jesus for salvation. So I want you to understand, I don't look into a crib at a baby and say, have you believed, have you repented and come to faith in Christ?
Speaker 4I don't say, have you been born again? I haven't eaten, just been born. Leave me alone. So I want you to understand something. You've got to be of age to understand what it means, that you are a sinner in need of God's saving grace. And that Jesus took your place on the cross to save you from your sin.
Speaker 3That's why we don't baptize babies. That's why we don't baptize infants because they must come to that place of belief is what needs to take place. Now we do baptize children and sometimes they're young children and we have a class that those who are baptized go through just a brief time of sitting down and understanding cause we want to make sure people understand and we hear their testimonies as well. And um , and if you've been at our church for any length of time,
Speaker 4w every once in awhile , not very often we'll have a child that comes down into the water to be baptized and they have the deer in the headlights look
Speaker 3and you can tell they're not ready to be baptized. So Pastor Scott, what do you do at that moment? No, I don't. Okay. I very graciously say, you know what? Little Johnny here is not ready to be baptized. And that's okay. And so we're going to do this when he's ready and we don't embarrass him or embarrass the family. But we want people to understand what it means. We don't just baptize people to baptize people. And I would say this to you who are parents don't pressure those real little ones to get baptized. They need to fully understand. They need to get it. You don't want them pressured into it now. It's not forced or manipulated. They gotta be old enough to understand. I want you to notice that it's a personal choice. After salvation, baptism comes after salvation, not for salvation. Getting in some water does not wash away my sins. Only the blood of Jesus shed on the cross. Does that. So here's some important verses, Titus Two oh, and let me just say this. This is very important. One of the greatest illustrations we have is the thief on the cross. He came to faith in Jesus and Jesus said, today you will be with me. Where in paradise was the thief on the cross baptized to answer no. So baptism is not necessary for salvation, but it's a sign of obedience to God that you have come to salvation. Titus three five and seven he saved us not on the basis of deeds like baptism, which we've done in righteousness, but according to his word , his mercy by the washing of regeneration. That's forgiveness, not the washing of water in baptism by the renewing, by the Holy Spirit whom he poured out upon us richly through Jesus Christ, our savior, so that being justified by His grace, it's grace, it's faith. We would be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life. Ephesians two eight nine well-known verses for by grace you've been saved through faith and that not of yourselves. It's a gift of God, not as a result of works like baptism so that no one may boast. You may say, well, I have some friends who are part of different churches and they talk that you have to be baptized in order to be saved and there are a few misunderstood passages out there used to teach what we call baptismal regeneration. You must be baptized in order to be saved. This is a serious theological flaw because if I think I can do anything to save me, that's heresy.
Speaker 6All right ?
Speaker 3It was Jesus and Jesus alone. Who Saves. It's the father who plan my salvation, the son who purchased my salvation, the spirit who sealed myself vacation. And it's not by any good works. So this is the problem. We need to be careful because if somebody is believing they're going to heaven because they're a good person or they've done a good work, my friend, they're not going to heaven. Their faith must be in Jesus and Jesus alone. And so there's a couple of verses here. So I want to get into a teaching time just briefly because you need to be grounded in what you believe and why you believe it. So here's the first passage. It's Anand Ayas who is sent by God to Saul, saw the persecutor of the church who's come to faith and his name is going to be changed to Paul. And this is after his conversion. Acts Chapter 22 verse 16 and Nis , Oh, why do you delay? Get up and be baptized. Wash away your sins, calling on his name. [inaudible] get up and be baptized. Wash away your sins. Look at that verse. See some people take that, get up and be baptized and connected with wash away your sins. When wash away, your sin should be connected to what? Calling on his name. The connection is calling on his name. Okay, wash away. Your sin is connected to calling on his name. Sins are not washed away by baptism. They're washed away by the name of Jesus. Here is a literal translation of the verse in Greek. Arise. Get yourself baptized and your sins washed away. Having called upon his name. That is the actual literal translation of the verse. Please understand the importance of this verse that washing away your sins is connected to calling on his name. Paul's already called on the name of the Lord. Paul has been saying from his sins by calling on the name of the Lord. Here's another passage. Peter's words at Pentecost in acts chapter two verse 38 Acts Two 38 Peter said, repent. And each of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. Notice the first word that is mentioned here is what repent. Repent is mentioned first. Baptism is proof of genuine repentance. Please understand the meaning of this first. Baptism is proof of one's genuine repentance. And here's one more passage that people confuse. It's Mark 1616 he who has believed and has been baptized, shall be saved. He who has disbelieved shall be condemned. Understand, believed, describes the inward work of the gospel of faith. Believe describes the inward work. Baptized describes the outward testimony of my faith, so
Speaker 4understand that the inward work is believed. The outward testimony is baptized, and now look at the second part of it. The first part of the verses this he who is believed in been baptized shall be saved. If baptism is that important salvation, it should be here, but he who has disbelieved and not been baptized shall be condemned. Is it there?
Speaker 3It is not. So it is disbelief that brings condemnation, not disbelief and not being baptized. Please understand the importance of what we call systematic theology.
Speaker 4Not taking a verse here and ripping it out of context or a verse here and ripping it out of context. Systematic theology looks at the whole of scripture and how the word baptism applies all over the place and how our understanding of of what's going on is all of it taken together. Not One verse here, not one verse there. This is why it's so important for you to be in the word of God on your own. This is why it's so important for you to read the word of God every day and study the word of God every day and not just real . Just rely on a Sunday morning every other week or every week,
Speaker 3okay ?
Speaker 4You got to be in the word every day or you're going to be ignorant. God wants you grounded in your faith to be like those in acts 1711 write that verse down. Acts 1711 says this, these were more noble minded than those in fessel. Annika. He's talking about the Berean believers. They were more noble minded than those in Thessaloniki. What made these Christians better than other Christians? And do you want to be better than other churches and better than other Christians? He says they're more noble knighted than those intestinal Anika for they received the word with great eagerness. You know what makes your noble minded? You come in here,
Speaker 3sorry for the word of God
Speaker 4hungry . I want to hear the word of God. I want to learn the word of God. I want to hear the truths of God. And then it says this, they received the word of God with great eagerness, examining the scriptures daily to see whether these things were so. So in other words, you go home after this message, get your Bible out and see if pastor Scott was lying.
Speaker 3See where pastor Scott was confused.
Speaker 4There is nothing wrong with you studying the word of God on your own. As a matter of fact,
Speaker 3it's healthy. It's healthy.
Speaker 4So read the Bible everyday . Study the Bible every day . Get out commentaries. Grow in your understanding of God's holy word. It's only good for us is what it is. Eh ? People this, this is, some people have put it this way
Speaker 3and I love this phrase, scripture interprets scripture. You've got to know the scriptures and use scripture to interpret scripture. Here's another one. No passage when correctly interpreted will teach something contrary to the rest of scripture. No passage
Speaker 4when correctly interpreted. We'll teach something contrary to the rest of scripture. So the more Bible you know, the better off you will be at recognizing truth as well as recognizing error. It, it's the old counterfeit bill. Illustration. How do these people recognize a counterfeit? Because they know the real thing so well
Speaker 3and you win . You know the real thing so well you recognize the counter fit . So
Speaker 4taking the whole of scripture, not isolated verses and in light of the rest of scripture, the whole of scripture clearly teaches salvation is by faith
Speaker 3alone,
Speaker 4without any works and to , and in light of the rest of scripture, the whole of scripture teaches very clearly.
Speaker 3Baptism is a big deal. Baptism was a big deal for Jesus and a big deal for John. And guess what? It needs to be a big deal for you. And a big deal for me and it's amazing that these two little verses, God just highlights the importance of baptism.
Speaker 7If you'd been prompted by this message and are in need of a new beginning or would like more information about harvest, new beginnings, visit@harvest.church.