Baptism

Introduction

Couldn’t help but think what a wonderful song that is to sing before the sermon. Holy to the Lord. Maybe I should begin by saying that is the goal of what we do in this place. The goal of all preaching and teaching, our worship is that all of us would be rendered holy to the Lord. And this morning’s subject is important in that regard. It also points out to me the awesome responsibility that is mine to preach the message of salvation. To make sure that you are equipped with sufficient information that you are stirred sufficiently to want to be holy to the Lord. And I will give my best effort at that today. Tonight, I have a lesson planned that would be particularly helpful to young people who are in the public schools and hear all the time things that are false that are related to the age of the earth.

I don’t believe I’ve ever done a sermon in this vein in 30 years of preaching. How old is the earth? Do you know? We’re going to talk about the age of the earth tonight. I’m a little excited about that lesson, if you can’t tell.

I have noticed it’s different. And you may have noticed that in this new year that the backgrounds, and there’s pictures and things that Tony hasn’t customarily used, but you know, when Terry Slack was here, he had those kinds of backgrounds. And what’s going on with all of that? Well, I subscribe to, like preachers like Terry Slack have done, to a place called Graceway Media. And they put together sermon slides for preaching. Now that will mean I’ll have some better backgrounds to use, but it’s interesting some of the things that I have seen on their website. This is a very denominational based approach to presenting visual aids. And so, in connection with this lesson this morning, and okay, so I was searching the website for backgrounds for this morning’s lesson, and I saw this spring baptism.

Sign up today, and I thought, well, that’s interesting. Here we are at the very first of February. And this is a very common practice in the denominational world, those religious groups that do baptize, but they don’t do it the day that someone might be taught the truth about salvation. It’s you sign up. You sign up today, and then there’s a scheduled service somewhere down the road where there’s going to be a number of baptisms take place. You know, why do it one at a time? Let’s do them all together, maybe five, ten, fifteen, twenty people. They have a baptismal service, and so if you want to be baptized, you sign up, and on that particular day, we’re going to have baptism day. Now, the thing that bothers me about that is where’s the urgency involved?

It’s obviously not an urgent matter because it’s going to happen later this spring, whenever that is, it could be several weeks, it could be a month or two months down the road, we’re going to have baptism Sunday, and everybody that’s signed up is going to be baptized, and there’s no urgency involved in this, obviously. And the second thing that I would draw to your attention is that if you’re in a church that says this, then they’re obviously teaching that you can be saved without baptism. It is not unto salvation. It is because you are already saved. That they’re having this baptism. Because if not, there would be more urgency. If baptism was unto salvation, what if you don’t make it to spring baptism Sunday? Then you’d be lost.

You don’t want to tinker with that or play with being lost. And so they’re obviously teaching in this delay, however long it is, that baptism is not essential to the process of salvation. And so I saw another one. Baptism Sunday. Sign up today, whenever that is springfall, or whenever their baptism sundae is. And so here’s the question is baptism then, as they would obviously teach, just a symbol of salvation already received. Or, as I’m going to teach to you today, baptism is instead every believer’s entrance into Christ. And thus, scriptural baptism according to the New Testament, is essential to our salvation. Thus, there should be no delay when a person is taught the truth and then needs to be baptized for the saving of their soul.

1. When Immersion Is Insufficient

And so I want to take you this morning to a text in Acts chapter 19 to illustrate some of these principles. Acts chapter 19, I don’t believe I’ve ever started here with this as the text of a sermon that I was presenting, but I think it’s very helpful to understand some things about the nature of baptism into Christ for salvation. Acts 19. And it came about that while Apollos was at Corinth, Paul, having passed through the upper country, came to Ephesus and found some disciples. And he said to them, did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed? And they said to him, No, we’ve not even heard whether there is a Holy Spirit.

Into what were you baptized? And they said, into John’s baptism. They had been taught the baptism of John, a baptism of repentance, and they were there for to bring forth fruits worthy of that repentance. But this was not a baptism in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, because Jesus had not yet died on the cross. His ministry was just starting during John’s preaching. And so John’s baptism is all they knew. And so, Paul said, John baptized with the baptism of repentance, telling the people to believe in him who was coming after him. That is in Jesus. And that happens in the early sections of the gospel accounts when, behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, John the Baptist says when he comes.

He will baptize you with the Spirit and with fire, he says about Jesus. And so it says in verse 5, and when they heard this, now here are people who have been immersed, they have been submerged, they have been immersed in John’s baptism, and yet he says, and when they heard this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. Now, I want you to mark verse 5 in your Bible, in your mind, because that is the immersion that saves. That’s the baptism that saves. And what we need to think about if we have, in fact, been baptized at some point in the past, was our baptism in the name of the Lord Jesus, because that’s the baptism that saves. That’s the baptism that came into effect when Jesus Christ rose from the dead and the sermon was preached on the day of Pentecost.

Verse 6. And when, okay, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus, and when Paul had laid his hands upon them. Now I want you to notice that unlike the apostles in Acts 2, unlike Cornelius in Acts 10, the Holy Spirit was not administered directly from heaven. In the case of Cornelius, when the Holy Spirit came directly from heaven without the intervention of an apostle, when it came directly from heaven, he was still ordered to be baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. Even though he had already received the Holy Spirit, and that’s Acts chapter 10, verse 48. He was ordered to be baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. He also had received directly from heaven the Holy Spirit and spoke in tongues as a result.

Now, in this occasion, it was not administered from heaven, it was administered by the apostle laying on his hands, like in Acts chapter 8. When in Samaria, Philip was teaching in baptism, not Philip the Apostle, but Philip the one who was appointed to take care of the widows in Acts 6. Philip is preaching in Samaria, and they’re believing and coming into the kingdom of God, they’re being baptized, but the Holy Spirit hadn’t fallen on any of them yet. Because Philip’s not an apostle. And so he calls for Peter and John, two apostles, and they come down to Samaria and they lay their hands on them. And like this case in Acts 19, the Holy Spirit or the gifts of the Holy Spirit are imparted to them.

And notice this, just like Acts chapter 8, just like Acts chapter 10, when it’s administered directly from heaven, they began speaking with tongues and prophesying, and there were in all about twelve men. This text demonstrates that just because one is immersed, and remember, sometimes in the religious world, people don’t even get that right. They believe sprinkling is an acceptable form of baptism in the name of the Lord Jesus, and that’s not taught in the New Testament. Or they believe some administration of water, a pouring, like somebody pours some water over your head or puts a more substantial amount than sprinkling on you. Some believe in pouring, but what is taught routinely and consistently in the New Testament is that proper baptism is immersion. But even when someone is submerged, and we’ll talk more about that in a minute about immersion, even when someone is submerged, even if it has something to do with people in the New Testament, like John the Baptist, for instance.

Even if someone might say it’s in relation to Christ, we can say a lot of things are associated with Christ, and it still not be in the name of Christ. So here is an example of even though the act or mode is correct, it is not unto salvation. They were submerged into John’s baptism. So here is a case when even immersion is insufficient. And that gets us to this significant question of Acts 19. Into what? That matters.

2. When Immersion Is Sufficient: In the Name of Jesus

In salvation and in how baptism plays a role in our salvation, into what we are baptized, is significant. And we see that here in Acts 19. When immersion is insufficient, actually, I’ve made a mistake in the slides. Okay, forget that. Take that I in off of there. I can fix that later. I want to talk to you about when immersion is sufficient. When immersion is sufficient, it is in the name of the Lord Jesus. That’s my mistake this morning, Gary. Okay, so when it is sufficient, it is in the name of the Lord Jesus. As we see here in Acts chapter 19. And that’s consistent with other passages. Matthew 28, Matthew 28 and verse 19. Have you ever proofread something and you couldn’t see the error that was there?

That’s what happened to me. Alright, Matthew 28, 19. As Jesus’ final words to his disciples before he ascends shortly, all authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth. And that has something to do with in the name of the Lord Jesus. But he says, go therefore and make disciples of all the nations. Okay, now how are those disciples going to come about? Baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. You see, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit all work in concert. It is all based on the authority of God, period. But specifically, it relates to Jesus Christ because of his work at Calvary. And so when you have a scriptural baptism when immersion is sufficient, it is baptism in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, but specifically Jesus, because of what baptism conveys.

More on that in a moment. Teaching them to observe all things. Once one has been baptized unto God, or into a relationship with Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I’ve commanded you. And lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age. Now, Acts 22. Quickly flip over there. This is the second telling of Saul’s conversion to the Lord. Remember when the Lord appears to Saul on the road to Damascus? You’re persecuting me. And he says, What shall I do, Lord? Some people say Saul was saved on the road to Damascus. That was not the case. Because when he asked, What shall I do, Lord? He said, Go into Damascus, and it will be told you what you must do.

And then he encounters whom? The prophet Ananias. And I got another whole sermon about that, about Ananias. I’ll preach sometime. And Ananias says to Paul in Acts 22, 16, familiar words to many of you, arise and be baptized and wash away your sins. But what did he say before that? Why do you delay? There is an urgency here. And I want you to catch that. We’re not talking about Saul, Paul, who’s now going to be the Apostle Paul. Hey, down the road we’re going to have a spring baptism, and you need to sign up. That’s not what we read in Acts 22. He says, and now why do you delay? Arise and be baptized, and what’s going to happen in that act? And wash away your sins.

Calling upon the name of the Lord. And that gets us back to this in the name of the Lord Jesus, baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit. It is this act of baptism where we call upon the Lord Jesus. Some people want to see prayer in that last phrase in Acts 22 and 16. That’s not what that’s talking about. That’s talking about doing the things that this authority, God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit have instructed us to do for salvation. And when we do that, we call upon God to do what He has promised. Further evidence of that. I want to go to 1 Peter 3 21 first. 1 Peter 3 21. That again, a familiar passage to many in this audience, but important.

3. Baptism Now Saves You

And corresponding to that. Baptism now saves you. Not the removal of dirt from the flesh. Oh, by the way, people that want to make baptism an afterthought in the process of salvation. What are you going to do with that first phrase? Baptism saves you. Sounds like it’s important and crucial, doesn’t it? Okay, baptism doth also now save you, not the removal of dirt from the flesh. It’s not just that this water is going to give us a bath and cleanse our flesh. Not the removal of dirt from the flesh, but here’s what baptism is the baptism that saves. It is an appeal to God. Calling on the name of the Lord. It is an appeal to God for a good conscience. That’s a cleansed inner man.

Our conscience accuses us of sin. I’m guilty. I’m convicted. And so it’s an appeal to God to have that accusing conscience cleansed. That’s why when people come up out of the waters of baptism, they’re relieved and joyous because their conscience isn’t accusing them anymore. They know they’ve received forgiveness and salvation in Christ. And notice this through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. Well, how does that, how does that get involved in this? We know from Romans 6, which I could have put on this slide, that in baptism, we’re imitating something. What are we imitating? The death, burial, and resurrection of Christ. Just as we believe, you have to believe in the resurrection. If you don’t believe in the resurrection, any kind of submerging is not going to be good enough.

Even if you get the right mode, if you don’t believe in the resurrection, because baptism is about the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ. And in Romans 6, what? We rise to walk in newness of life. And so we know we have this good, clean conscience now, because just as Jesus was raised, God is raising us from spiritual death unto life. Colossians 2, that teaches that as well as Romans 6. Colossians 2, 12 and 13. As he’s talking about the circumcision that is in Christ versus the circumcision under the law, a circumcision that can be received by both Jew and Gentile. That’s the context. He says in verse 12, and this is a very powerful verse, folks. Having been buried with him in baptism. Again, they’re talking about submerging here, immersion.

Having been buried with him in baptism. Now, how significant is baptism? I have underscored my Bible, and if you haven’t, I’ve told you to do this before. Underscore those next words. In the New American Standard, it says, in which having been buried with him in baptism, in which. See, remember what Peter said through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, in which you were also raised up with him through faith in the working of God who raised him from the dead. Again, why are people so excited and happy and joyous? Because they know they’ve been raised up as Christ was raised from the dead. I put that old man of sin to death, Romans 6, and I’m rising to walk in newness of life. He says, You were dead.

That’s the past. You were dead in your transgressions. You don’t want to stay there. And the uncircumcision of your flesh, it doesn’t matter whether you were circumcised literally or physically or not, you haven’t received the circumcision of Christ. You were dead in the uncircumcision of your flesh, but not anymore. Because you were buried with him and you rose up, he has made you alive together with him, having forgiven us all our transgressions. So I’ve said all of that to say, going back to Acts 19. The purpose of our submerging, the purpose of our immersion matters. If baptism is not in the name of the Lord Jesus, if it is not unto the forgiveness of sins, if it is not seen as a raising up with Christ, it is of no effect.

Just like John’s baptism was insufficient to save those folks in Acts 19, those 12 men. They had to be baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. And so if somebody is saying, yeah, baptism is important, it’s a good spiritual Christian thing to do. But you don’t need to do it until baptism Sunday. You don’t need to do it until the spring when we have a service that’s all about baptism. I want to tell you something. That’s red flag. They are not teaching you. You have not been taught the truth that saves, if that’s the case. And notice in these in this context of both Acts 19 and some of the other texts, Acts 10 that we’ve looked at, and in the case of Corneas that actually came before.

4. This All Happens Immediately

But in the case of Acts 19, the Holy Spirit came after. And I just bring that point to your attention to say that the baptism that saves is not Holy Spirit baptism, as is taught by the Pentecostal movement or the charismatic movement. They want to see the baptism that is saving someone is a submerging in the Holy Spirit. That’s just not the truth. That’s not consistent with what the New Testament teaches. And furthermore, the submerging that they’re touting is not like the submerging of the Holy Spirit that we see in the New Testament. It’s not even the same in kind as what we’ve read about in Acts chapter 8 and in Acts chapter 19. Alright. So the significance here that I want to point you to is that this all happens immediately.

Those 12 men, it doesn’t say, well, now we’re going to have a baptism Sunday or a spring baptism a few weeks down the road, and then you’re all going to be baptized. This all happens immediately. Just like in the case of Acts 16. In Acts 16, the Philippian jailer, remember when the doors are miraculously thrown open. Paul and Silas are in prison singing hymns at midnight to God, and the doors swing open, and the jailer who’s responsible for all these prisoners is going to kill himself. Because if he doesn’t kill himself, his government’s going to kill it for letting those prisoners go. And what does Saul say? The apostle Paul says, Do yourself no harm, for we are all here. And so he comes in. This is this is extraordinary.

Nothing like this has ever happened during his watch at night. This is something unique. He’s obviously heard Paul and Silas singing hymns and probably already thought this doesn’t happen with very many criminals. This man may have the answers that I need. And so he comes in trembling before Paul and Silas, and he says, Sirs, what must I do to be saved? And they said, believe in the Lord Jesus. And you shall be saved, you and your household. Of course, to properly understand what belief involves, you might want to go to the Gospel of John, like we’ve been studying, that demonstrates what true belief is. It’s hearing the word of God, it’s embracing the word of God. It’s more than just a simple belief. Well, I believe Jesus is a Savior.

It’s more than that. But anyway, it says, and they spoke the word of the Lord to him together with all who were in his house. And that would imply that his household involved older people who could actually hear this message. And he took them that very hour of the night, that very hour of the night, and washed their wounds, it says, and immediately he was baptized. He and all his household. And as a result of that baptism into Christ, I might add. And he brought them into his house and set food before them and rejoiced greatly. Why was he so excited? Because he had believed in God. You can’t say, I have believed in God to salvation until you are baptized into Christ. And that gets us back again to our original question this morning.

5. Into What Were You Baptized?

And this is significant. All baptism that heaven recognizes that saves a person into what? Were you baptized? Here’s what essential. First, truth must be taught. If you’re not taught what is truth, you can’t be submerged correctly for the remission of sins, because it is the truth that sets free. Jesus says in John 8, verse 32, many other texts imply that. The gospel must be believed. So truth is taught. Then an individual believes, as the jailer did in Acts 16, believes and obeys, baptism doth also now save you. Repent and be baptized. Acts 2 and verse 38, all of those things are involved. And that person to whom truth is taught, who believes and obeys and reacts with some urgency. Because the soul is at stake, the eternal well-being of the soul.

Acts with urgency. That person then comes into Christ. Now what that means. Some people think of baptism. I was baptized into, and they mention a church, and they’re thinking denominationally about that. I was baptized into the church of God. I was baptized into the church of Christ. Well, if you have the scriptural terminology, the only thing you’re baptized into is the Lord’s body of saved people. You’re baptized into the Lord’s church, his body of saved people. And you would think that those people would call themselves something scriptural and appropriate, like, you know, we’re the church that belongs to Jesus Christ. Church of God. I don’t know about you, but I was baptized into the church of God. Were you? Not the denomination by that name. They don’t teach the truth about baptism.

I was baptized into the real church that belongs to God because I did what the truth said I needed to do to be saved. And so when that happens, the Lord said, He’s mine. Or she’s mine. And he adds you. It’s not something we do. The Decrepery Church, we add you to a membership roster as we regard you as a saved individual who wants to work and worship and carry out other New Testament commands with us, but I’m not the one that makes that determination. The Lord does. The Lord adds you to the body of the saved. And unfortunately, people say things like, I was baptized in the church of Christ. Which is true if that’s properly defined and properly understood. But some people are thinking denominationally about all of that.

They think church of Christ as opposed to church of God. And I’ll tell you not, everybody who claims to be church of Christ is sound. And there’s going to come a time if it’s not already here where some who claim to be church of Christ don’t believe baptism is essential to salvation. Some are having fellowship with those who don’t believe that it’s essential to salvation. And so when you say something like, I was baptized in the church of Christ, you better clarify it. Because people think denominationally. And that’s why it’s just better to say, I was baptized into Christ. I was baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus on the basis of all that he is and all that he’s taught. That’s what I was baptized into.

Conclusion

That’s my trust and my confidence. It’s not in necessarily a particular group of people somewhere. Though we should associate and work and worship and fellowship with those that we believe have been baptized into the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. And that takes me to the conclusion in Ephesians chapter 4. In Ephesians chapter 4 and verse 5. How important is this message that I taught to you this morning? In the Lord’s way, there is one body. One. You’re baptized into that one body of saved people throughout the whole world. There is one body and one Spirit, one Holy Spirit, just as you were called in one hope of your calling. And there’s one Lord, Jesus Christ. There is one faith, the message of the New Testament.

There is one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all. So, what is the one baptism we’ve read about this morning? Holy Spirit baptism. Or baptism in water in the name of Jesus Christ. You need that baptism if there is sin on your account. If your sin has not been cleansed and washed in the blood of Jesus Christ. Remember, baptism is a burial where we identify with Jesus’ death. We’re released from our sins by the blood of Christ. Revelation chapter 1 and verse 5. When we’re baptized into Him, the blood of Christ, we’re buried with Him in death. The blood of Christ cleanses us. That’s why we rise to walk in newness of life after Jesus’ resurrection.

The reason why we’re still here today, as I talked a couple weeks ago. It’s because the Lord is awaiting more folks to be baptized in the name of Jesus.

It’s not heard in churches where there’s baptism Sunday and spring baptism. It’s not even heard very often in some who claim to be churches of Christ. This kind of preaching marks who and what we’re all about. And everything that follows our baptism needs to be about the name of Jesus Christ. What he has instructed, the way that we have learned Christ, Ephesians chapter 4, verses 22 and following, the putting off of an old man, being renewed in the spirit of our minds, trying to learn what is pleasing to the Lord, Ephesians chapter 5 and verse 10. That’s what heaven is looking for. And this is urgent. Because there can be no salvation without it. There can be no cleansing from our sins. And we need this kind of distinctive preaching, even if you’ve heard it a hundred times.

And doesn’t it bolster your faith to see that what you did that day when you heard the word and you felt that sense of urgency and you obeyed the gospel, doesn’t it bolster your faith to know that what I did was right? It’s right out of the Bible.

And now as a result of that, there’s this new life to which I was called that is still calling me to learn and grow in the likeness of my Savior, Jesus Christ. Baptism Sunday could be your baptism Sunday. But I’ll tell you, if you call me at 1201 tonight and say, Tony, I need to be baptized, we’ll have baptism Monday. Or Tuesday. This is not confined to any day of the week. It is when the urgent call is received. And you need to be saved for the remission of your sins. And if you’re subject to that call this morning, we urge you to respond while we stand and see.