Why Believer's Baptism? various texts

The Lord Jesus has given many instructions for churches that all churches must follow

If we do not do what he has told us then we cannot call ourselves a church So what is a church supposed to look like I?

Have a book on my shelf titled. What is a healthy church by? Pastor Mark Dever he pastors in Washington, DC In that book he lists nine marks of a healthy church, which

I think are very sound and Here is that list Number one is expositional preaching

What this means is that the heavy diet of your church is? verse by verse preaching through books of the

Bible Many churches are heavy on Topical preaching, but that's not the example we get from Scripture the sermon should be

Saturated with the Word of God if you were to take the Bible out of the sermon the whole sermon would fall apart

That's what my old pastor used to say to me So that's that's one mark of a healthy church a heavy diet of verse by verse preaching through the

Bible The second mark is biblical theology what this means is that you must understand one passage of the

Bible in light of? every other passage of the Bible the Bible does not contradict itself, so we must have a sound understanding of the totality of Scripture not taking things out of context, but understanding everything in Context we must read everything as it is meant to be read

The third mark is that we understand the gospel You might say well doesn't every church understand the gospel.

No they don't Many churches teach a watered -down Gospel for example they will talk about God's love, but not about his justice

But a healthy church preaches the gospel in full The fourth mark is a correct understanding of conversion

One who truly knows Christ experiences a true transformation So that what a

Christian truly is is not once again watered down not all who profess faith in Christ possess faith in Christ's is

I've said and that's another pastor from someone. I know fifth the church evangelizes unbelievers a

Church that is not sharing the gospel with unbelievers is not a healthy church Six is church membership

Membership is a way to keep track of who belongs to the local church When one becomes a member what he or she is doing is submitting to the leadership of the church and this person is also given a voice in decisions that the church makes

The seventh mark is church discipline When a member sins and continues in unrepentance after being confronted that person is disciplined from the church

This is the most controversial one But it is biblical Matthew 18 1st

Corinthians 5 talk about dirt church discipline that this takes place in a local church

The eighth mark of a healthy church is discipleship and growth Discipleship takes place when one person invests in another leading to more spiritual growth

Jesus had three years on the earth and Well, how did he spend his time? How did he spend most of his time?

He spent most of his time with 12 men. He poured himself into them Then when he left the world these 12 men minus Judas changed the world

This is what local churches should look like investing in each other if you're if someone's further along in the faith, they should take someone who's less far along and Tell that person everything that they know and the ninth mark of a healthy church is is a proper understanding of what church leadership looks like with elders and deacons and this comes from 1st

Timothy 3 and Titus 1 we don't decide What the structure of a church looks like with leadership the

Bible tells us what the structure looks like and we follow that But but as we think about what else makes a healthy church there are two other marks that must be present and that is a correct understanding of the

Lord's Supper and baptism Jesus told us to do these in Luke 22 19

Jesus said that his followers are to eat the bread and drink the cup in remembrance of him

This we do the first Sunday of every month Now there is one more mark of a healthy church and I've been building it up to this

Because of what we're going to be doing today and that mark is baptism and There is a certain kind of baptism that should be practiced that I am going to show you today from Scripture The reason we are zeroing in on baptism is of course because we're having a baptism after the service today

But I thought it appropriate to preach on baptism this morning Not only because we are having a baptism today, but also that everyone who has not been baptized

Biblically would consider being baptized three Sundays from now when we go to Sconewood on August 29th following the service

So in this sermon, I'm going to explain to you why baptism is important and why we baptize the way we do

There is a reason we are a Baptist Church And I'm going to show you from Scripture why this is the case so this sermon is

Titled why believers baptism? We're not going to be turning into any specific place in the

Bible today like we normally do. I'm gonna be looking at various texts and You can write those down as we as we go through them

But here's our big idea water baptism is a public display by Believers to show the reality of God's work in one's heart.

Okay, that's our big idea Water baptism is a public display by believers to show the reality of God's work in one's heart

At Eureka Baptist one point I want to emphasize is that everything that we do is rooted in the

Word of God to the best of our ability We do not do things because that is the way we've always done it

We don't do things because that is the way others in church history did it we don't do things because it is culturally popular

Rather everything we do comes from the Bible This is our aim

As I've already mentioned the Lord Jesus gave the church to ordinances During his ministry that he expected his church to take part in After he ascended to his father those two ordinances are the

Lord's Supper and baptism And as I mentioned last week, we already observed the

Lord's Supper as it was as it was the first Sunday of the month And we're having two baptisms this month.

So it's a very exciting month at our church And if you have lived long enough, what you already know is that there is a disagreement over baptism within wider

Christianity Some churches baptize in infants while others only baptize one upon profession of faith

For a church to be a Baptist Church What this means is that that church believes one should only be baptized upon profession of faith in Jesus so if you see a

Baptist next to the name, you know that that is what that church believes. I And as I preach this

I realized that in this neck of the woods this topic is controversial right, we all descended from Scandinavia from Europe where different traditions came over here and There's different views on this

When Brianne and I were planning on getting married we looked for a church building near where her parents lived in Wyoming for our wedding

We really liked the Lutheran Church building in Center City Chisago Lakes Lutheran Church, and I think

Amber was married there as well This is the grumpy old men shot a scene there.

In fact in one of their movies We asked the church if we could get married there since of course neither of us were members the lady asked us if we were

Catholic or Baptist and At that time we were not we were a part of an evangelical

Free church, so she said okay, you're good. You can get married here But if we were

Catholic or Baptist we had a problem Little do they know that only a few years down the road.

I was gonna be a Baptist Patrick not too far from there So there is a controversy between different movements in Christianity and The controversy is more than over who puts on a better potluck

One of the main tensions between Lutherans and Baptists is the issue of baptism

We have Lutheran churches Methodist Covenant Reformed and Presbyterian churches that all believe that infants should be baptized

But the fact that this is controversial does not mean that we should avoid the topic It is my commitment as your pastor always to tell you the truth and always to tell you the truth in love as Ephesians 4 15 says

Sometimes telling the truth means entering into difficult conversations If you don't want controversy don't become a pastor

Okay But that is God's calling on Gospel ministers to preach the whole truth in love and those

Christians who hold the infant baptism believe that once a baby is born Into a Christian family the child

Should be sprinkled with water One thing I want to note here is that we have true

Brothers and sisters in Christ who believe this we should respect these people and I'm grateful that they love

Jesus the gospel and the Word Of God, but I think that they are taking part in a practice that is not rooted in Scripture Let me explain why

I Will first present their interpretation of Scripture on this topic and then show why

I think their view is unbiblical Then I will explain why believers baptism is rooted in the

Word of God I'm not going to be really spending a ton of time on all the views of infant baptism Let me briefly say that Lutherans believe that the

Holy Spirit is given to the infant at baptism and that the Spirit remains as long as that person follows as they are older in faith and It is obvious that we do not believe this is biblical because one cannot receive the

Spirit unless one has faith in Christ John 3 says that you are born again upon believing in Jesus But we will be spending more time looking at the general view among Evangelicals that infant baptism brings babies into into the community of believers

So in other words, they don't believe that the Holy Spirit is given to the baby At their infant baptism, but that the child in some significant way enters the community of believers before conversion what we will see is that belief in Jesus and Baptism go hand in hand.

So this makes infant baptism unnecessary and I'm going to be arguing the

Evangelical view because of course we are evangelicals So we will be looking at that their view of infant baptism and this is mostly

Presbyterian Covenant I May be Methodist, but yeah for sure

Covenant Presbyterian reformed groups So, where do they get this where does where does infant baptism come from?

Because we see this we see this happen Where does this come from and I hope we can have a clarity of that as we leave today proponents of infant baptism see the

New Testament ordinance of baptism as equivalent to circumcision in the

Old Testament Just as a male Israelite was circumcised on the eighth day as a sign of joining the covenant community of God So baby is born into Christian homes are to be baptized as a sign

To be ushered into a covenant with God's people which in the New Testament era is the church

The passage that is appealed to is Colossians chapter 2 verses 11 and 12 which reads in him also you were circumcised with a circumcision made without hands

Putting off the body of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ having been buried with him in baptism in Which you were also raised with him through faith in the powerful working of God who raised him from the dead circumcision and Baptism are mentioned in these four in these verses and proponents of infant baptism argue that a connection between the two is

Being made by the Apostle Paul The problem is that really no connection exists between circumcision and baptism in this text in this text

Paul describes that believers are circumcised spiritually and Those spiritually circumcised are baptized with Christ being buried and raised with him in this text

Paul describes I'm sorry in the text Paul uses an

Old Testament analogy and Old Testament illustration describing the inward spiritual life of God's people

They are those that are made alive spiritually This is what physical circumcision in the

Old Testament symbolized it symbolized Spiritual circumcision is spiritualized that you were alive that you were a follower of God Paul explains that the spiritual circumcision that every believer has is put in new language in The New Testament because of what

Christ did That language is that every every believer dies and rises with Christ the use of Old Covenant language circumcision and New Covenant language baptism does not mean that circumcision and baptism are equivalent if a connection exists between physical circumcision and infant baptism

Then why is Colossians chapter 2 verses 11 and 12 focusing only on what happens?

spiritually If Paul were instructing churches to baptize infants, he would have said

Just as male infants are circumcised in the Old Covenant So you should sprinkle physical water on your infants in the

New Covenant But what Paul is saying is that just as physical

Circumcision was a symbol of spiritual circumcision in the Old Testament So water baptism is a symbol in the

New Covenant. Okay, so these are two symbols of People who belong to God who are spiritually alive.

It is appropriate to say that we believers are spiritually circumcised What spiritual circumcision means is that you are born again

It's the new birth You are made alive through the Holy Spirit What you will notice also is that in Colossians chapter 2 verses 11 and 12

Paul does not explain the method of baptism But that comes clearly in other places

So Colossians chapter 2 verses 11 and 12 does not support the view that just as an Israelite male

Infants were circumcised. So Christian infants are to be baptized Proponents of infant baptism are drawing a conclusion.

That is not there Secondly Christians who hold the infant baptism go to the household passages in the book of Acts to argue

Their support for infant baptism and what they conclude is this as Some believed when they heard the good news of Jesus as the gospel was being preached to them by the

Apostles So the infants in the household were baptized along with the ones who believed we see this in the book of Acts The gospel is preached and it says whole households are baptized

So is that support for infant baptism Acts chapter 16 verse 14 during Paul's missionary journey.

He came across a woman named Lydia Paul shared the gospel with her and she believed and was baptized

What the text tells us is that the household was baptized along with her But there is no mention of babies being baptized just others in the household

This is the same for every text that is like this in the book of Acts Therefore this is not a strong argument

At best proponents of infant baptism can say that infants being baptized is implied

So the whole house will be baptized. There must have been infants there, right? We don't know text doesn't say that When your argument is built on that which is implied and not what is explicit

Which what it was clearly there It's not a strong argument What is interesting is that the strongest argument for infant baptism does not come from the

Bible it comes from church history The dominant view from the 2nd century to the 15th century is the infant baptism position

You can see the power of tradition We've always done it this way let's keep doing it and then let's try to find the

Bible to support that view This is something that proponents of believers baptism have to contend with we do

Much of church history. They did not baptize the way that we do Those who hold the baptism upon profession of faith like we do

Need to ask the question is the mainstream view over a period of 1 ,300 years from the 2nd century to the 15th century really wrong

It was not until the Anabaptists in the 16th century

That believers baptism started to have a large following and they met a ton of opposition from those infant

Baptist proponents Our movement the Baptist movement started in 1609 and this rich history has continued strong ever since But as I mentioned from the 2nd century to the 15th century infant baptism was the dominant view among Christians Now it is true that Christians should value the views of those who have gone before us

If you hold a position that no one else in church history holds to you're probably wrong That should be concerning The Bible is written to be understood.

You don't have to be a rocket scientist to understand Most passages are very clear

So people present and people from a long ago should largely come away with the same or two interpretations of Scripture But while we do value the views of others it comes down to what is the plain meaning of the text

If the majority from church history missed the plain meaning and a minority sought

You go with the minority it's interesting human nature to want to go with the crowd, you know, it's that it's human nature

We see that right now. Don't we in our in our country? People want to go with the crowd and what you will find is

That if you really want to know the truth if the truth really Matters to you that much the whole truth

Then holding to certain positions will lead you to a minority position The truth is that people are only largely comfortable with truth if it's convenient

If it's not convenient then people are willing to not believe the truth But the moment that the truth leads you to uncomfortable places, that's when people jump ship

Just because the majority believes something does not mean it is true The theologian

Paul Copin has said this very powerful quote

Truth is true Even if no one knows it Even if no one admits it even if no one agrees with it

Even if no one follows it Even if no one by God grasps it fully as American Christians.

There's a good word for us to hear right now truth Will often lead you to uncomfortable places

Truth will often Lead you to be in the minority Not the majority people

Jump on the bandwagon if it's comfortable But that's not what

God calls us to do God calls us to be people of integrity He calls us to believe the right thing and do the right thing even when it's not popular

And when it comes to infant baptism down through church history more people have believed that than what we hold to Today it might be equal.

There are quite a few Baptist churches out there, but historically this was not the case First Thessalonians 521 tells us that we must test everything with God's Word It is

God's Word that has the final word and sometimes this will leave you in a minority position

But that is where you must go Can you imagine being in a room full of people who? Who believe something false and you just hold up the

Bible and you say what you say is? Different than what this says it doesn't matter that 99 people in this room to say that this is true

What matters is what does this say now at this time?

I'm going to explain to you why the New Testament supports believers baptism, and I think it's going to be very compelling the clear pattern of the

New Testament is People being baptized upon believing in Jesus, and let me say that again the clear pattern

Of the New Testament is people being baptized upon believing in Jesus as we think about this it is important to stress what happens before a

True biblical baptism takes place what happens is that the gospel is preached to a sinner

Matthew 28 19 make disciples of all nations then what do you do Baptize but something must happen before the baptism takes place

The person must experience something with God before the baptism takes place the gospel means good news

Is only good news because there's first bad news The bad news is that we are sinners

Romans 3 23 says for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God Romans 6 23 tells us what our sin deserves the wages of sin is

Death What this means is that we are deserving of death because of our sins

God is just and a just judge gives us the sentence that we deserve

This is not just physical physical death. This is spiritual death. This is eternal death

That's what our sins deserve But God sent Jesus to save us as John 3 16 says for God's to love the world that he gave his only son that whoever

Believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life a Few weeks back in our sermon series through Matthew.

I explained That it is only the repentant who will inherit the kingdom of God Matthew 5 3 calls the repentant the poor in spirit

It is the poor and spirits who will be residents in the kingdom of God the ones who recognize their sin

The ones who are sorrowful for their sin The Apostle Paul gives us a good definition of what repentance is in 2nd

Corinthians chapter 7 verse 10 Godly grief produces repentance that leads to salvation without regret

When a person realizes his or her sin and how it offends a holy God This is how one comes into a relationship with God But there's good news

There is the gospel Jesus went to the cross and rose from the dead to save sinners

The ones who are qualified To be baptized are the ones who realize this

It is God's design that water baptism takes place upon a true profession of faith in Jesus Christ Baptism upon profession of faith is the clear pattern in the

New Testament For what baptism is supposed to be? Let's look at this in Acts chapter 2 verse 41

Peter preached a sermon and the text says those who received his word were baptized

In x8 12 when Philip preached the gospel in Samaria the text says that both men and women were baptized when they believed in x10

Peter preached the gospel to the household of Cornelius and in verse 44 of that chapter

We learned that the Holy Spirit fell upon them The moment the Spirit fell upon them was the moment

Cornelius and his household became born again in verse 47

Peter responded to the reception by saying Can anyone withhold water for baptizing these people?

Who have received the Holy Spirit just as we have Then the author

Luke wrote in verse 48 that Peter commanded them to be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ These three accounts

I just explained to you present a clear pattern People believe in Christ and they are baptized

I already mentioned that infant baptism proponents argue that household baptisms support their view

But in reality each of these instances better supports the believers baptism position this is so because in each case one person in the house is mentioned as believing and Then it says that each household was baptized each text zeros in on one person without mentioning the others and So if something is implied it makes more sense

That the rest of the household Believed Just like the one the text zeroed in on Believed like Cornelius as he believes his whole household believes and they're all baptized.

I Mentioned Lydia above as an example that is used arguing infant baptism because the whole household was baptized

But the clearest example that the whole households being baptized are not infants is the

Philippian jailer in Acts Chapter 16 verses 31 to 33 in that text the jailer and his whole family

The text says all his whole family Heard the message and were baptized

Okay, so that that text actually says everyone in the household believed and were baptized

It is right to assume that this was the case in all the other households as well That is that they heard the gospel believed and were baptized in water as we have seen

The pattern of the New Testament is clear people believe the gospel and people were immersed in water

Biblical baptism always comes after conversion One needs to be old enough to believe to experience this biblical baptism

Now there are some heretical movements out there that say that one needs to be baptized in order to be saved in other words

If someone believes in Christ But on the way they hit had it were caught in a head -on collision and they died

There's people who believe you go to hell because you have to be in the water to be saved But that's not what the

Bible teaches Keith Johnson and I were talking about this a couple weeks back and he brought up the example of the thief on the cross

Which is a great example Can you imagine talking to the thief in heaven? I heard a pastor talk about this recently

So when was your baptism didn't have one? Where'd you go to church didn't go to church?

Did you ever read your Bible? Nope. Did you ever pray once at the end of my life, maybe?

And we can talk about someone who has less of a testimony He's in heaven because he believed

But he didn't have time to be baptized because he died, but he's in heaven So that blows up that the heretical view right there in The accounts in Matthew Mark and Luke this this thief is presented as one who's in heaven without baptism

Baptism is instructed by Christ though It's very important and it's instructed by Christ to officially bring one into the body of Christ the

Greek word for baptism to baptize is Baptizo, which literally means for one to be immersed in Water to be immersed in water

So the sprinkling stuff the word doesn't support the sprinkling because because you're not immersed in water when you're sprinkled you have to go into the water and then come out and this emergence symbolizes something very important it

Symbolizes a spiritual reality that is very important. It symbolizes what happens to a person when he or she believes

It's one of my professors once said baptism is an outward sign of an inward reality an outward sign of an inward reality

Infants cannot have this inward reality because they are not yet of age to believe

Paul says in Galatians 2 or 3 27 that as many as you were baptized into Christ have put on Christ Only those who have put on Christ the saved are to be baptized

Maybe the best passes that symbolizes what baptism represents comes from Romans chapter 6 Verses 3 and 4 where Paul writes

Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?

We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death In order that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the

Father. We too might walk in newness of life Paul is describing that when one comes to faith in Christ that person dies

Okay, not physically, of course but spiritually there's a spiritual death that takes place and this person is

Buried with Christ dies it with Christ is buried with Christ and rises with Christ when you come to faith in Christ a

Spiritual death happens and it is a good spiritual death The grip that sin and Satan and the world once had on you is gone

They no longer have dominion over you Christ has dominion over you This evil that was upon you is forever gone.

And when Jesus conquered sin when he when he took it upon himself at the cross he died and victoriously rose from the dead

At the cross and through his resurrection Jesus defeated sin and every believer along with him is victorious over sin

Believers not only do not have to pay the penalty for their sin, but they also are no longer under sins authority sins dominion water baptism symbolizes

Christ's victory over sin and as we are buried and come alive with him it

Symbolizes our victory over sin. Can I hear an amen?

There we go. I don't usually do that, but I just felt like But this can only be true of those who believe

Therefore baptism is a simple symbol for those who have experienced this inward change upon believing in Christ once one believes that person is united to Christ in his death and resurrection as One is baptized physically in the water.

This spiritual reality must be on one's mind and This is why we're a

Baptist Church To be a Baptist Church is to believe in this form of baptism the

Bible supports it and scripture is our sole authority as We think about baptism my prayer and desire is that we would have a church full of baptized

Believers and that your baptism would be upon profession of faith as I have just showed you from scripture

This is the only biblical baptism there is I know it's it's it's controversial to say that it might be offensive for me to say

That but but I my goal here once again is to speak the truth in love. That's what the Bible teaches once you come to faith in Christ his plan is for you to follow him and to be baptized is

Designed as a first step of obedience for the Christian Now you may be here today and have been a

Christian for many years and you've never been baptized For you then baptism would not be a first step

But rather a much later step, but baptism is still something that Christ calls you to take pardon

To be baptized is a command in scripture in acts 238 the Apostle Peter told those to whom he was preaching to repent and be baptized

Every one of you in the name of the Lord Jesus It's a command When scripture makes a command we are disobeying if we do not follow that command

And our greatest aim should be to please the Lord in everything

Okay. So here's my friendly charge to our congregation And I love you all and I hope that you know that but I just want to sometimes you sometimes you know people you know, and you think that they know that you love them and And in actions do speak louder than words, right but but it's still good to say words and I love you guys

I hope you know that as I say all of this my encouragement to you is to be baptized if you have faith in Christ and have never gone into the waters to take part in this symbol of dying and rising with Christ Once again, it may have been many years ago when you believed

Right baptism. You don't have to be water baptized to go to heaven But it is a step of obedience that should be done

Maybe you were baptized as an infant, but you were never baptized when you came to faith in Christ on the authority of Scripture It is

God's design that you will be baptized When you are baptized what you are telling everyone is

God has saved me and I want to publicly make this known

Baptism is a very public event You're telling the whole world I Belong to Jesus.

So water baptism is a public display by believers To show the reality of God's work in one's heart

And what we are going to do after the service is head down to Twin Lake and baptize Cassie Johnson but as I mentioned earlier, we are having another baptism in three

Sundays and My encouragement to you is to think and pray about this if you have already been baptized

Remember think back to your baptism. Think about what that meant think about what it's meant to symbolize and may that encourage you in your walk with the

Lord to as you Realize that sin no longer has dominion over you You have power to grow in holiness as you live out the

Christian faith You also may be hearing this and I've never truly believed in Christ Jesus went to the cross to die for your sins and he rose from the dead gloriously

He faced hell for you so that you don't have to and so my encouragement to you is believe in the

Lord Jesus and then be baptized If you are interested in baptized baptism, you can talk to me you can talk to mark

We'd be glad to get you on that track Lord willing to be baptized three weeks from now in and Come down to the

Twin Lake to and watch that baptism because that's gonna be a really a neat experience and you can see What it'll look like Now next

Sunday, I will be gone In my place you will hear from Carl Johnson and Carl is such a wonderful Wise man of God who has had a huge impact on my life.

He's a he's a mentor of mine you won't want to miss hearing from him and When I am back the following week we will resume in our sermon series in Matthew at the end of chapter 13

But at this time, let's bow our heads in prayer father in heaven, what a wonderful God you are and Lord you give us these pictures of the gospel the

Lord's Supper the body of Christ and the blood of Christ baptism the death

Burial and resurrection of Christ you give us these symbols To be reminded of what

Christ has done on our behalf and thank you for giving us these symbols Thank you for what Jesus did for us when he went to the cross 2 ,000 years ago.

Thank you for the new life That he gives us in him And Lord my prayers that you would apply this this sermon today to everyone right where they are at and that They would listen to your voice