Sunday School - Teaching On Baptism - Part 2

Thank you, Lord, for your Word, which is powerful and your Word, which is able to transform us from the inside out by being to the inner workings of that Holy Spirit.

We ask, Lord, that you help us to see the meaning of baptism in Scripture. Lord, that we would do that which is according to your

Word, that which is according to your great and pleasing will, that we would find ourselves on that grand day of truth and standing before the

Son of Man. We ask these things in Christ's name. Amen. We're going to recap quickly last week's message because some of you weren't here.

We're going to teach you about baptism. One of the things that's important to realize when we're talking about baptism is that baptism is one of the

Lord's ordinances. It is a command. It is not ours to do as we may or want to do it.

It is a divine command. When we look at baptism, we realize it's not ours. One of the mistakes people make often in baptism, when we're talking about baptism or when we're practicing baptism, is that we treat baptism kind of like the end of the personal

Christian eschaton. Do you know what eschaton means? End times? Yeah, kind of like the end.

The end thing. We kind of put baptism as the end of the Christian eschaton, meaning this.

You probably heard a Christian say, well, I believe in Jesus, but I didn't baptize. Because what?

There's a reason to fear. That's probably the most common reason. I want to get this. This is important for every

Christian. They want to get their life together. They're not ready to say, I don't want to get baptized.

It's not ready. What are you going to say? It's not a big deal.

It's not a big deal. Some people grossly think that. What's the big deal?

Just a little water. What's the big deal about it? Yeah. Now, most

Christians who go all baptism do so because they think they have to come with a certain amount of readiness, a certain amount of preparedness, or perpetual maturity, essentially.

And while it's normal to want to have a certain level of preparedness and readiness and the right attitude to have,

I think it's also important when going to baptism to live with it. Which is also the other extreme that we see in Christian circles, predominantly amongst

Baptists. Sometimes Baptists are a little too eager to get wet. And so as long as they raise their hand during a service, that's good enough communication that that person should not baptize.

What are those two extremes that are dangerous? One extreme that says, well, if we raise your hand during a service, we're going to get to it right now.

And the other extreme that says, well, we're going to wait 20 years until we're ready. And I literally,

I had an experience with you last week. I had a guy in a Christian church, been a Christian for 20 years, was a youth pastor, had never been baptized.

Never been baptized. One of the extremes where it's like, you know, we're eager to get you wet, and so forth.

And so we need to add to your membership that you're not really inviting people properly to the rest of the

Christian church. That's true.

That's very true. Anyone else have any? Lack of importance when it has on baptism.

You know, to speak in regards to the ordering of the church and how they're conducting, the understanding of the significance and importance as well as the power of the church.

You know, the extremes of baptism. Baptizing someone immediately when they raise their hand during a service.

The danger of that is, once you recognize the gravity of what baptism is, what does it signify?

What does baptism signify to the Christian? It's a reenactment of the gospel.

So there's still a lack of matter. What is more important than the gospel? Nothing. And so when we're talking about entrance into God's church, entrance into right covenant relationship with the

Lord, we want to take that seriously. We want to have a right understanding of what that is. And so we don't want to take it flippantly.

We want the person to understand the significance of what it is that they're doing. That's right. Because there's a great grace to describe baptism for us.

And it's listed in Hebrews 6 as an important doctrine. It's one of the fundamental doctrines of the Christian faith. It is baptism.

Therefore, we need to have a right mentality when approaching this doctrine because it is a great proportions to the

Lord and to the church. So we don't want just anyone to get baptized because they raised their hand during a service.

Because what is required in baptism are two things. What is it? Faith and repentance.

Faith and repentance for Christ. So the person just simply raises a hand during a service, like an altar hall, which is very common amongst baptism services.

It is an altar hall. Raises their hand. Makes a biblical profession of Christ.

And then they are baptized right away. There's no – you're going to hear from Jake's message this morning.

That faith and repentance is so important. It needs to be weighed. It needs to be examined. Which is why the process of this church is when we have someone to do membership.

Then you come forward and share testimony. And that testimony is weighed by believers. Right? It's examined.

It is – you know, it's not something that we take casually. It's something that we take absolutely casually.

It's a serious matter. Because it does deal with the gospel. It deals with the re -enactment of the gospel.

The application of the gospel in the Christian life. Jesus put it this way. And this is the Greek mission. You guys should know by now.

Go ye therefore to the earth and then baptize. Okay? Make the disciples baptize them.

Make the fathers of so many Christians. Because they're all like him. And they will love you even to the end of the age.

And so the mission for the Christian is to baptize. So the

Christian has been a Christian for 20 years. He himself is not baptized. What's wrong with that? He doesn't even put the

Greek mission at the end of the church.

Right? And, again, it's this poor mentality of a low view of a baptism that says,

Well, I'm just not ready. I'm just not that important. Because I think with the gentleman by reference, who, by the way, was baptized and, you know, has really grown in the

Lord since then. He's really come a long way. And it shows that proper baptism has a spiritual power.

It's just like the Lord's table. We don't believe in just a memorial to a table where the table is just a representative of Christ's death.

We're not that there is a spiritual power to communicate. The table is a spiritual reality, baptism, that we are partaking in when we do so.

Right. Any questions so far? Any questions from last week's message on baptism?

Just to go over that real quickly for those who weren't here last week. Baptism is when a believer is received, Christ is fully immersed in the

Lord, resembling the Lord's death and resurrection. It's definitely. Scripture. Romans 6 specifically.

Let's turn here for a moment. To verse 2.

Verse 3. Paul says, Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus, were baptized into his death?

I love that imagery. Into. We were baptized into Christ Jesus and into his death.

Which means, you know, I believe the New Testament, there's a very simple Greek word. I'm not sure if it's spelled too well. We would translate that in English for us.

In. Transliterated. In English it would be in. And in Christ.

You see this phrase a lot. In Christ. You are in Christ. You are sealing

Christ. You are saving Christ. You are setting apart Christ. All these phrases in the New Testament. That puts our position as Christians.

In Christ. Not next to. Not above. Not below. In Christ.

When you look. When you. When you learn. In a seminary like the New Testament in Greek. They give you this diagram. Of all the.

Propositions and positions that exist in Greek. And so. One of the diagrams show, you know.

What the Greek word for above is. And through. And in is one of the most.

Intimate words that's used. In the Greek to describe a relational. Truth about us in Christ.

We're not all around Christ. We're not. We are through Christ. But Christ for us.

And so. But we are positionally. Relationally in Christ. And baptism. Is one of the ways.

One of the. Methods. In which we are. In. Because we are. We receive. Obviously.

The down payment. Of our salvation. When we leave. We repent of our sins. So we're not. Saved by baptism.

We don't believe. In baptismal regeneration. That teaches that. You need to be baptized. In order to save.

But we do believe. However. That there is a. True spiritual. Power.

That is. In baptism. And that. Positionally. You are in Christ.

In particular. In the body of Christ. And that's really important.

Because in the Bible. Christ's body. Is a reference to what? The church.

The church. So when we're talking about. That we are in Christ. We're not just talking about. That personal relationship.

With Jesus. That one -on -one relationship. With Jesus. We're also talking about. We are in Christ's. Body.

Which is what we're going to be. What we're going to be. This morning. And so.

It says. In the clear text. Of scripture. That we were buried. With him. In verse four. We were buried.

Therefore. With him. By baptism. Into death. In order. That Jesus Christ.

Was raised from the dead. By the word of the Father. We need to walk. Into his flesh. So we are again. In Christ.

We are baptized. Into his death. Into his death. Which meant. In the

Bible. Water. Often. Represents the grave. Represents. Um. Being separate.

Life. And so.

When we're baptized. We're baptized. Into Christ's death. This is. Again. A sharing. In our healing.

Of Christ. Sharing. Of his. Um. Power. Of the gospel. Walking. Into his. Life. Where it says.

Again. Uh. That uh. We were. We were. Uh. Buried with him. In baptism. Into death.

In order that. Just as Christ was raised. From the Father. By the glory of the Father. Uh. We need to walk.

Into his flesh. Into his flesh.

We need to. Notice our. Any questions so far?

Especially. Revelation. Right? Revelation. You see. Uh. For instance. The beast. Rises.

From the abyss. Of water. Rises. From water. You have the beast. That has. Authority over land and water.

You know. There's a lot of. Powerful imagery there. That relates to. To death.

And water. And land. So. When we come to. The water. Again. The proper mode. It is us.

Going. Into the water. And. Identifying. In Christ's death.

That's why again. The only proper mode. Of baptism. Uh. Should be what?

Full immersion. You know. You're not. Sprinkling yourself. With death. You are being immersed.

In it. You are immersed. In it. So. When we don't practice. The proper mode. Of baptism. What ends up.

Inevitably happening. Is that. We're stripping. The ordinance. Of it's.

Meaning. And. Again. Whose ordinance is it? It's ours. It's not ours.

It's Christ's ordinance. It's the Lord's ordinance. Therefore. Who has the authority. To regulate it? The Lord.

We don't have that authority. To change. That which Christ. Has ordained. That which. Which Christ.

Has specifically. Prescribed. As baptism. How do we know that Christ. Prescribed this. Particular manner.

Of baptism. As full immersion. How do we know that? He did it.

He did it. Yes. Amen. So. He did it. He showed us. The pattern. By which we are to follow it.

He sets the pattern. For all righteousness. We are to follow. In his footsteps. Then we see. Not only. How Christ.

Was baptized. Obviously. In the halls of Jordan. Full immersion. By John the Baptist. What do we see. In the New Testament church?

Do they. Follow the same mode. Or do they. Have flexibility. In changing it. Anywhere in the New Testament.

They follow the same mode. They follow the exact. Same mode. Of baptism. Full immersion.

There are. Six examples. Of this. In the book of Acts. Of baptism. In this same mode.

So. We don't have the luxury. To change. What the Lord. Has prescribed for us. In Holy Scripture.

In regard. To the mode. Of baptism. To me. It's always been strange. You know. You know.

Strengthening. Has always been. A strange one. To me. Because it's just not. Been. It's just not. In the scriptures. And I get that.

One could make. A fairly interesting. Argument. From church history. But you can make.

An interesting argument. From church history. With a lot. Of crazy things. With a lot. Of interesting things.

The church fathers. I always liken them. To. Especially. The pre -Nicene. Fathers. I liken them.

To. A conversation. On YouTube. Right. If you go. To a theological video.

You go to a conversation. On YouTube. You're going to find. A hundred different people. Saying a hundred different things. In a hundred different ways. And that's exactly.

What was happening. In the early church. In the pre -Nicene. Fathers. You can have a lot. Of just messy. Theology.

A lot of messy. Practice. A lot. To be honest. A lot of. In the early church.

Greek philosophy. Greek thinking. And so. You see pretty early on. Which is why.

The new test providers. Warn us. Of such things. That. We are to.

Guard ourselves. From the false teacher. The false doctrine. Because it had. Already happened. At that point. In infiltrating the church.

And not only. Was the. Call for. Doctor. But it was also.

A call to. Purity. In relation to. The practices. Of the church. You know.

Paul wanted us. To guard. The practices of the church. To tell us the truth. It was not going to be one of the things. That were written. For that reason.

He wanted to guard. Not only. The faith. But practice. Of the new test. Of the church. Any questions so far?

How would you say. Sort of. I can. Awareness. Of some of the.

Curses. That were. You know.

The. The. The. The.

The. The. The. The.

The. The. The. The. The.

The. The. The. The. The.

The experience. The. Now these issues.

More. Intense. Give way. For, For.

And we can't. Do it. but we can't access it, it's better to do things rightly than to change what

God has set forth for you, right? This reminds me a lot of the debate from yesterday, because that's what happened during the pandemic.

Oh, we can't meet in person, you know, can we still meet online and call that church? And, you know, doesn't the extremities of the situation warrant this?

And if, yeah, Christ has ordained us only in gathering that we have for you to make such declarations about who his people are, et cetera, then, you know, there's just not that important.

That's exactly right, we don't have that flexibility and luxury to change what we're doing.

That's why it's important to take to Scripture as the authority of the standard, and as we look at today's teaching,

I got a question from last week's teaching, and I want to make one thing clear, is that we're not saved, we're not saved by means of baptism, we're saved by grace or faith alone, by the church for Christ, but it is baptism that we follow in the

Christian apostolic way, the right of that ordinance, and it should be the beginning of the

Christian life, not the end, right, so we should prolong it, as many Christians do, we prolong baptism because we think that we need to be at a certain level of spiritual duality.

That's not how it ought to be. I would ask you to be born again in repentance and sin, give a testimony to the little church, and then be baptized.

Now, if you look at today's lesson, I want you to turn to Galatians chapter three.

In today's discussion, it's more of the, not just the meaning of baptism, but the association of baptism with church membership.

I want you to start with verse 26. Again, notice the position.

For in Christ Jesus, you are all sons of God, through faith, right, so here's the good news, brothers and sisters, we're not saved again by baptism.

We're saved through faith in Jesus Christ. You'd be compelled as son of God, born again here, ventured into God's family, ventured into God's kingdom through faith in Jesus Christ.

That's a pretty crystal clear, right? No one can contend with this, especially when you read Galatians, Galatians is so strong in rebuking the heresy of works, faiths, salvation, and it's not even the word about baptism.

Notice what it says on the next verse. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ's, in baptism we're looting ourselves with what, with Christ right now.

In baptism we're looting ourselves with Christ. This idea of looting ourselves.

So we are, in the previous verse, we're already in Christ, we're in him already. But notice what baptism is accomplishing.

It's accomplishing an outward work, isn't it? So there's an inner work that precedes the outward work.

The inner would be faith in Jesus Christ. You were saved by grace through faith in you.

You were saved not by works, so no man may boast. But that inward work results in an outward expression.

Namely, the putting on of Christ through baptism, okay? So what is internal, the internal must precede the external.

That which comes by faith comes first, faith comes by hearing, hearing by the word of Christ, and then we do exactly what we're seeing in Ephesians chapter two, verse eight,

I've also seen it by grace through faith, but we're saved onto the works of God in terms of them walking in before him, okay?

And so we're not saved by works, but we're saved onto the works. One of the first good works that Christians ought to be doing is through baptism.

That should be the first thing, remember, we don't put it at the end of the Christian eschatology, we put it at the beginning, it's the beginning, right?

It's again, it'd be very strange, for instance, if you got married and it didn't constitute marriage, or you didn't exchange wedding rings, or you delayed something for a very strange reason.

So we don't want to delay more than we have to obedience on putting on Christ through baptism.

Any questions on that verse, on that concept? We put on Christ through baptism, which is again, outward, but it's like,

I don't like this analogy too much, but I'll use it. I've heard it said that it's like baptism is like putting on the jersey.

And that's very simplistic, but for the purposes of this discussion, it helps. It is a sense, like if you're putting on Christ, you're like a part of team

Jesus, right? Like I signed the contract, right, you're an NFL player, you signed the contract, and now the next thing you do is you get your jersey, you put on the jersey, and it shows you're associated now with Christ's kingdom.

I think it's very simplistic, but the imagery helps. So we put on Christ through baptism. The analogy is like a wedding ring, right?

It's like a wedding ring. It is a sign of covenant between you and God, between you and Christ.

And so, and again, that's also a little bit simplistic, but it still gives kind of a helpful imagery of the importance of baptism.

And I want to emphasize one thing here in verse 28. For there is neither a Jew nor a

Greek, there is neither a slave nor a free, there is no male or female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.

Notice the language that Paul is incorporating here. He's talking about the uniqueness of and also the diversity of the body of Christ.

He's not talking about the church, he's not talking about the outside world, he's talking about church, right? He's saying there's

Jew, Greek, there's female, but really we're all one there. What position were we one in?

In Christ. Now what does that, that has implication for baptism in church membership.

Why? Because what are we being baptized into? Into? Into Christ.

Particularly as a mom, which is why there is no either male or female, Greek or slave,

Greek or barbarian, we are all one in Christ Jesus. This refers to the church, to the body of Christ.

We're all one in Christ, in his body. There is those distinctions melt away in a sense.

And it does so by means of what precedes that, which is baptism. Baptism being a requirement for church membership.

Do you see this? It's not like, just make this up, it's actually pretty clear here in the text, and it's very implicit in the text of Scripture.

Now to look at another example of this, let's turn to 1 Corinthians chapter 12. In this discussion, the way that you have a boss who is with the gospel, you belong to him.

And we're having this debate, it was years ago when Christ was back in Canada, and he asked, are you willing to baptize the believers that you need to baptize a number of church members?

Absolutely. He said, ah, you baptize us, we're all crazy. And it's not that crazy,

I mean, it's pretty clearly laid out here, for instance, this is 1 Corinthians chapter 12. But it's 1 Corinthians chapter 12, let's look at verse 12.

It says, for just as the body is one and has many members, what body are we to baptize here? The church.

And it says, as all the members of the body, though many are one body, so it is with Christ.

For in one spirit, we're all baptized into what? One body, it's the church.

Jews or Greeks, slaves, or even in this language, what we just read from Galatians chapter three, a very similar use of the language, we're all made to drink of one spirit.

Verse 14, for the body does not consist of one member, but many, it's clear that Paul's talking about the church.

And when we were baptized, what were we baptized into? Into the body, okay?

So Paul is laying it out very strongly here. And I love the fact that he uses the term members, obviously it matters, when he's using verse 12, he's talking about what members represent here.

Body parts, that's right. And so he goes on to say that everyone's a foot, everyone's the eye, everyone's the hand, and there are different functions of the body, yet we are all one body.

And this is a clear, clear reference to the church. And so, Paul says that we're all baptized into one body, which is right there, and that one body is the church.

Again, to reread that text, verse 12, for just as the body is one, it has many members, and all the members of the body, though many.

So it's not using members in the same way we would refer to membership, in terms of church membership, but it's still very closely related to the concept, the idea that is being poured here.

So it is with Christ, for in one spirit, we're all baptized into one body, okay?

So baptism is linked as a prerequisite for membership into the one body.

And in baptism, again, there's a spiritual truth and a spiritual presence that is accompanied in baptism, similarly to the

Lord's Table, where you are made to drink of the one spirit. Interestingly enough, when we encounter baptism in the book of Acts, I think it's chapter eight, or 19, actually, where you have

John, the disciples of Christ, and they encounter the disciples of John. You remember that, do you recall that interaction?

And John's disciples had been baptized, okay?

But what had they not yet received? The Holy Spirit, okay?

They had received the word, they had repented, they had not yet received the Holy Spirit, right?

They had not yet been baptized into Christ. They had not yet been baptized into the

Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. They had not followed into Christ's baptism. So they were baptized, and then with the laying on of hands, they received the

Holy Ghost, okay? That's of great interest, that scenario.

And I don't, there's a lot of questions that I have in my mind as to that scenario that I'm necessarily apprehensive to.

One of the things that is relevant to this discussion is that it was only after their

Christian baptism that they received the Spirit, and that they were no longer just considered

John's disciples, but now Christ's disciples, okay? That's a very important distinction.

And so they're no longer just John's disciples under the baptism of repentance. Now they've received the baptism that was promised, the baptism of fire, even though it's a one.

Baptism of the Holy Spirit. So they were baptized rightly, and then they received the anointing of the

Holy Spirit. Okay, very important. Now again,

I'll open it up to you guys. Do you have any questions so far? Because I've got questions, and I don't necessarily have answers to.

So, one question, yeah. Somebody gave an opposition to 1

Corinthians 12, the verse we just went over. It says that in one spirit, we're all baptized into one house, and we're all made to drink from one spirit.

Somebody would say, what is it to be referred to the baptism of the Holy Spirit that brings you to the spiritual body of Christ and not water baptism, right?

How would you respond to that? Which is why I brought up the scenario of John's disciples, right, because John's disciples had been baptized in water, but not under Christ.

They weren't baptized into Christ, which is again what the text is talking about. The text that we just read over, both in Galatians and 1

Corinthians, is talking about being baptized into Christ, right? And so, the disciples of John were baptized, but not into Christ, and they had not yet received the

Holy Spirit, right? The anointing of the Spirit had not yet come upon them until after the baptism of Christ and laying on of hands by elders.

And so, as far as I understand this text, and one could make an argument that the reference for in one

Spirit, we were all baptized into one body, this is talking about regeneration, and I wouldn't disagree to some extent, actually, that this has implications and reference to regeneration, which comes through faith and repentance in Christ.

But ultimately, notice again what it says in verse 12, for just as the body is one, has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ, so the church being that one body, for in one

Spirit, Ephesians four comes to mind, verses four, five, and six, that says, for there is one faith, one

Lord, one baptism, one Godfather of all. So when Paul says there's one baptism, he doesn't separate baptism of the

Spirit and baptism of water, he doesn't separate them. He says there's one baptism, right?

And so when Paul goes on elsewhere to refer to baptism in this context,

I believe he's referring to the one baptism, okay? And so we're baptized into one body, the body of Christ, Jew or Greek, slaves, and the context is really important here because he's talking about church membership, and he's talking about our differences,

Jew, Greek, male, female, slave, freak, he's talking about all of our differences and how all of our differences serve a greater function in the body, in the church, right?

So not everyone is the eye, not everyone's the foot, not everyone's the hand. So to me, when we look at the context of what

Paul's trying to communicate here, there's no doubt he's talking about the one baptism and its importance in relation to church membership and the function of church membership in the greater context of 1

Corinthians 12. Pastor Conley, do you wanna add to that? Yeah. Ha! I'm asking you back up here.

Well, I mean, I have a slightly different take on some of these things. Go for it. Well, so yeah,

I mean, I don't wanna contradict you, but yeah, if you look at what John Calvin says about the baptism of John, I think it's very important that Jesus shares the same baptism that we have, and he had

John's baptism, so his interpretation of that situation in Acts, which I would agree with, is that John's disciples didn't receive the second water baptism, they actually received the baptism of the

Holy Spirit, and that was... So they had it when he did the water baptism? No, they had by John, and that was enough.

So when they, that second baptism they received was not, it's not describing a water baptism, it's just describing when the

Holy Spirit came on them. I'll bring the Holy Spirit. And the major theological thing is, if you say that John's baptism wasn't the same, then

Jesus doesn't share the same baptism with us. Right. It's a baptism of repentance. Christ did not have to repent, obviously, but he set a model for us by which we have to, that we ourselves have to follow him.

And so, but in reference to his question about... Right, but whether or not you need to be baptized to be a member, yeah,

I mean, you know, we live in this physical, visible world, and there are signs that God has given us to attach to, you know, this administration membership.

And so, yeah, I don't disagree that someone who's been baptized by the Spirit and not yet been water baptized is a member of the new covenant,

I don't deny that. But as far as, you know, our administration of church membership, you know, this is a physical, visible thing, and we've got physical, visible signs that Jesus has given us.

That's right. This is why, again, notice where it says in verse 26 of 1 Corinthians 12.

He says, if one member suffers, all suffer together. If one member is honored, all rejoice together.

So he's talking about the unity of the church, where one suffers, all suffers, where one is honored, all is honored. And there is, it's not just talking about the invisible aspect of the church, right?

So when you are born again, you enter into the invisible church, you're part of the universal church. But he's not simply talking about the implications of the invisible church.

There's implications for the physical church, when we're together in a gathering. And that mark, that sign, is baptism.

Now, again, there's one baptism, but baptism has two signs. Baptism of water, baptism of spirit.

But there's one baptism overall. Yes? Yeah, I got a question, and I think you kind of answered it a little bit.

So this is going back to the baptism of repentance. So on Acts, just last time

I was reading this, Acts 19, it was talking about Paul and Bruce Forreston, that John baptized him in baptism of repentance, right?

And then he said, you must believe who was to come after him. And they would say, who,

Jesus? And then he said, and when they heard this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus.

And then he laid hands, and then they were baptized in speaking in tongues and in prophecy. So they didn't get baptized in?

Yeah, I had probably misremembered this encounter as another encounter in the book of Acts.

I'm not sure which chapter it is, where it seems like others got baptized upon the confession of Christ. But so I probably conflated the two.

But in this one, I think, yeah, Conley's right. The persons here mentioned are, they received

John's baptism, but they are anointed by, I think, the name of the answer, right? Right. Verse six, and Paul laid his hands on them, and the

Holy Spirit came upon them. They began speaking in tongues and prophesying, and there were about 12 men in all. And so the baptism of repentance, water baptism, was administered by John, and then through the apostles, the outpouring of the

Holy Spirit comes, which actually shows the one baptism, right? So you have this, obviously, the sign of water, but also the outpouring of the

Holy Ghost upon the believer. Now, these two are inseparable in a sense, and they're incomplete if one of them is missing, one of these components is missing.

You know, so the person just gets baptized. And this, I don't, there's some implications here I don't know how to answer, to be honest, because if I were just a straight reading of this, would seem to indicate, then, that people could be baptized and not born again, or what does it mean to receive the

Holy Spirit? Is this just a reference to an anointing, a particular anointing, or a regenerational anointing?

Maybe Mr. Conley has the answer. Yeah, I mean, there was something different about the Holy Spirit's activity before Pentecost, right?

He still involved believers in the Old Testament, but there's something special that happened at that outpouring, so that now, you know, we're a kingdom of priests, rather than before, where only certain people were especially going to be priests or kings, et cetera.

Yeah, now we're a nation of priests. Right, right, we're a royal priesthood. So yeah, that special outpouring, that special work of the

Holy Spirit, it's not that they weren't regenerated and had the Holy Spirit indwelling in them, but whatever that outpouring consists of, they didn't have yet.

And is there an application for us today, or is it just different? I suppose there's a lot of applications.

But yeah, I mean, that was certainly a special period in time where people had been being baptized before Pentecost, right?

Now that people are getting baptized after Pentecost, we don't have the same. And that's a good distinction to understand is that, you know,

I firmly believe, I don't like using this term because it's so misapplied, but I firmly believe we're in the same dispensation of the

New Testament church. We're in the same dispensation as the apostles. So it's not like a change in eon or eschaton.

I think we're in that same eschaton. But what's unique about that is that there is this 40 -year period where you have this overlap between the

Old Covenant and the New Covenant and its establishment. It's kind of like the 40 years in the wilderness, 40 days in the wilderness for Christ.

That's a significant number. And so in that period of time, you do have, okay, kind of the spillover of John's baptism, the

Old Covenant age, and kind of the institution of the New Covenant and the

New Covenant age, prior to the destruction of the temple in 70 AD. So there are unique circumstances that the apostles had to deal with that we don't have to in hindsight.

And this is what is referred to kind of by the reformers as the maturity of the church, right? So we venture into the maturity of the church.

We're no longer in the infant church, the infant church being that 40 -year period, essentially, between Christ's resurrection, ascension, and the destruction of the temple in Jerusalem.

So John's disciples believed the gospel. They believed that Christ was a king. And so that's indicative.

That seems to be indicative, right? And it seems like they, at least these particular disciples, certainly, were believing on Christ.

But they had not yet heard of the Holy Spirit, which was interesting, right? So they didn't know that there was a

Holy Spirit to begin with, which actually shows something of interest here, right? So you don't have to have everything ironclad in your theology in order to be baptized.

These guys didn't even know the Holy Spirit was a thing. And so, I mean, but they were taught, obviously, here.

It was proclaimed to them, they received it, they believed it, and with simple faith, were able to receive the

Holy Spirit through laying on the hands of the apostles. So does that help you with your question?

Yeah, a bit, it does. But also, as well, too, in the matter of Acts 19, it looks to be the case in where it's just like, these disciples of John didn't really have the full message of Jesus also, you know?

Because that's kind of how I began to really understand it, as I went over this passage. They didn't have Christian baptism here.

They only had John's baptism. And it looks to be the case, okay, they only have so much information that John gave them.

But everybody's like, John, I don't even believe in the Messiah, they didn't know about Jesus' death, burial, and resurrection. They didn't know about anything of the story of God, except what it is that comes from the full gospel.

It's why they never received that baptism. But once they received that gospel, then they got baptized with that.

It was through the adoring of the Spirit. Would you call this thing as like a pillar, or was it, they took the

Messiah and explained about it?

I didn't hear, sorry. Oh, with Priscilla, somebody was proclaiming the gospel, and they took him aside.

Apollos. Yeah, they said, you know, you're not, and they explained it more. Holy, yeah.

Is that what he's talking about, when he said that maybe they didn't understand all of the, you know,

Christ's creation and all that? Yeah, even if you look at like the Ethiopian eunuch, right, it doesn't give us a lot of information as to what his beliefs were.

Or what his convictions were on every little thing, right?

He's on the road, picks up this guy, and Philip begins to preach the gospel to him, he's reading scripture, and Philip begins to exegete the scripture to him, and begins to show him that Christ, it was necessary that Christ would suffer, and he shares the gospel with men and receives it by faith.

He says, here's water, what prevents me from being baptized? He gets baptized. And so the, we don't need to have everything 100%.

Now, the beauty of the way we do church membership is that, you know, we have some luxuries that they didn't have back then, and so we do want people to have at least a pretty formal basis understanding of the gospel and of the scriptures before baptism, and I think that the scripture gives us that flexibility, obviously, to teach and preach, and so that when a person enters into church membership, they have a fairly good grasp.

Also because, you know, it's like, you know, the analogy between marriage and baptism has been used a lot, maybe overplayed to some extent, but you kind of want to know before you get married what you're getting into, don't you?

Wouldn't that be wise? The implications of it and the type of lives you ought to lead in marriage, this is why we, you know, ask that people do premarital counseling.

And it's not necessarily that you absolutely have to have premarital counseling in America, I mean, people still get married a lot, but it certainly is for your good and benefit should you do premarital counseling, yeah.

You say we have luxuries they didn't have then. Another way of thinking about those, they have a luxury that we don't have now, which is a lot of miraculous works of the spirit that indicate that, you know, this person really has been regenerate, you know.

You've got people with tons of fire on their head, there's just all kinds of things happening that where the

Holy Spirit was demonstrating that, you know, he was working, he was converting. Nowadays, you have people who've grown up in Christianity or nominal believers, there's a lot more you have to do to discern whether or not someone is truly in Christ before baptizing.

Before baptizing, so that's another way of thinking about it but, Harry, your original question was about someone who says

I don't need to be baptized, I should be able to be a church member apart from baptism, is that right? Yeah, that's basically what it is because, of course, we're just trying to say something like the

Holy Spirit baptism and not baptism by water. So you'd be like, I already have the spirit, I'm already in the church, why do

I need to be baptized before I'm in your church? You know, basically. Yeah, so one of the analogies

I like, and usually this is about church membership, but it works for baptism too, is passports, man, we've thrown out so many analogies here, but another one, passports, right?

You can be an American citizen without a passport but you can't expect people to recognize you as an

American citizen without a passport, right, without documentation. And so if Christ said go baptize and make disciples and baptism is the way that he gave of recognizing who a disciple is, why would anyone expect a church,

Jesus having said that, to recognize discipleship apart from baptism, just like you wouldn't expect a foreign country or an embassy to recognize your citizenship apart from having a passport.

Let's turn to Colossians chapter two for a moment. So next week,

Pastor Colley's gonna teach on this too, so come prepared for that. Colossians chapter two, let's look at verse 11 and 12.

Notice the, there's no short for analogies that can be made on baptism, but notice the analogies that Paul uses here.

He says, in him also you were circumcised with a circumcision made without hands by putting off the body of 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.

This is such an important text because of what it teaches in relation. Okay, so the sign of the covenant in the

Old Testament was circumcision. The sign of the new covenant, outward sign is baptism.

Direct correlation here. But notice what it doesn't do. For our paedo -baptist friends who believe in sprinkling and who also believe in baptizing infants, notice kind of the prerequisite.

So as an infant, on the eighth day of your boy, you're to be circumcised. He had no choice in the matter. It was a sign of the covenant, a blood covenant, a blood oath that's made for all the generations of the sons of Israel.

And so the New Testament folks, the Presbyterian folks who say, well, the circumcision is almost an equal to baptism in the

New Testament. So the Old Testament circumcision is almost a direct equal to New Testament baptism. And so therefore, we have to administer this to infants, to babies.

Problem with that is notice what the text does in this in verse 13. He says, having been buried with baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the powerful working of God.

Notice the image right here. Down in the water, dead, coming out of the water in the unison of life. That's not practicing infant baptism or paedo -baptism.

And then it says, with him through what?

Faith, faith, through requisite here. Having been raised with him through faith in the powerful working of God, we raise him from the dead.

And so what is required is faith. Can an infant express faith?

No, an infant can't express faith, but you can.

And it's a requirement. You must have faith in Jesus Christ to be baptized. And so you have this direct correlation here.

The circumcision, there's a circumcision that we receive, but it's not made up of hands. It's not the removal of flesh, but the removal of dirt.

And it's not just removal of dirt in the external, but in the inward. It's that one baptism that we're talking about, inward, with an outward component, right?

The baptism of the spirit where you're regenerated, but then also when you complete this, essentially the ceremony, the process of baptism, you remove also the dirt from the flesh.

Peter uses the same language in 1 Peter 3. Let's turn there for a moment. So just in case you're following the notes, in baptism we share in Christ's burial, but raised by faith.

So baptism is where we associate with Christ's burial, with death, burial, and resurrection in particular.

But we're raised in terms of being born again and our eventual resurrection of ourselves is through faith.

So again, it's not the baptism that saves us, it's faith that saves us. Yet baptism serves an integral part of that process.

And now in 1 Peter 3 .20, it says, because they formerly did not obey when

God's patience waited in the days of Noah while the ark was being prepared, in which a few, that is eight persons, were brought safely through water.

Verse 21, baptism, which corresponds to this, now saves you, not as a removal of dirt from the body, but as an appeal to God for a good conscience through the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Now, a lot of folks who believe in baptismal regeneration love this text because it says, now baptism saves you.

But notice again what we've already kind of established of what baptism is. There's one baptism that has a component of regeneration, obviously of the

Holy Spirit, but also has a component of water, right? So that's what

Jesus says, you're gonna be born of water and spirit. One baptism, two components. Paul teaches this in the

New Testament as well, very clearly. And yet, this baptism now saves you, not by the removal of dirt from the flesh.

So it's not the physical act of baptism that saves you. Rather, it's the impartation of the

Holy Ghost upon the believer, Ephesians 1 .3, which comes by faith, which comes through the outworking of God's spirit as he puts the deposit, and you're chosen as the son of God by faith.

And yet, the baptism doesn't save you because of the removal of dirt from the flesh, but rather because it gives you a clean conscience through the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

So what's the basis for our salvation? Is it baptism or resurrection? It's Christ's resurrection.

That's what saves you. That's how baptism saves you. It's through being in Christ.

You're baptized into Christ, and in baptism you drink of the one spirit. This is talking about where you're born again, but then also, you act this out.

There's an external component to it when you're physically baptized, right? The physical component is when it's internal and when it's physical.

Right, so one faith, one baptism, and of course, this baptism begins as the work of God through the spirit.

And we kind of, not that we complete it or seal it, but the physical component to this is very important because it helps mark us as members of the physical body of Christ, which is the church.

So the church being the divisible representation of Christ, the church being.

So he comes back if you've already believed and are saved. Yeah, you're gonna be saved by baptism.

You're not gonna go to hell because you weren't baptized. Now, if you had an opportunity to be baptized, and you didn't do it, he'll chastise you.

He'll be disappointed, but you don't lose your salvation. It's not an issue.

Because again, we were all baptized into Christ's church, but this is not the physical commandment of the church.

We don't have to completely. It's just like we're all made to drink of one spirit. In fact, I've also similarly received those as a member of the

Eucharistic Union as well. Does that mean that we should take communion? Clearly, we ought to take communion.

Why? Because this scripture commands us to do so. So, for the last part, baptism is worship of entrance into Noah's Ark.

You see that correlation between Noah's Ark. It says that there was salvation that came by water, from the water of destruction in Noah's days to the ark.

And for us, salvation is associated with the resurrection of Jesus Christ. And so, this baptism of faith in Jesus saves us through the resurrection of Christ.

Any questions on that? Does that make sense? So, remember that in Noah's days, there were those who saw the ark.

Noah was a preacher of righteousness. And yet, he said, well, I'm gonna take my chances out here.

I'm gonna take my chances out here. Christ is the ark of our salvation today. I went to this

Noah's Ark encounter in Tahiti several years ago. It was awesome. We ended up going to Disney World, Universal Studios, and that same summer, and my island was still in Noah's Ark.

It was way better than Disney World. And they had a really, the ark is like two specifications of the

Bible, as best as they could. And it was actually built by Amish, by the Amish. And so, the

Amish don't use electrical tools. So, the whole ark frame was literally made by Amish just to show that it could be done, right?

And so, in the ark, there's this massive door. And likely, you can see the cross on it.

Like, there's an image, or like the shadow of the cross is hovering over the door.

And it's such a beautiful image of Christ. Christ today is the ark of our salvation. We're saved in Christ.

But when you're in Christ, you're also into his body, and we are baptized into his body.

It's a component. We want to be in Christ, we're found in Christ, we're paid for Jesus, but we also want that physical form, that passport -like concept, that demonstrates that, yes,

I'm a child of God. Yes, I'm a member of the church. Yes, I want to obey my master.

And so, yeah, what a beautiful dream that is. Let me pray for us, and then we'll get ready for service.

Father, we thank you, Lord, for the ark of our salvation, Jesus Christ, through whom we have now access by faith into this grace in which we now stand, and we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God, that through baptism, that through our regeneration, and our joining together with you in death, fear, and resurrection, that through each of us, in the eternal way of glory, by the power of grace, all the rest.

So, Lord, we pray, God, that you help us see the importance of baptism, that we see it rightly as you have commanded us, and as you have laid out in scripture.

Lord, that we would not make this ordinance something that would not be pleasing to you, but,

Lord, that we would graciously follow in your footsteps as you have baptized. Lord, that we would follow in your footsteps and in your obedience, and that we, too, would take part in this exciting work of heaven, in the disciples of all nations.

Baptize them, in the name of the one true triune God, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. This is your near and dear, we pray, amen.