Latest / Simply Christ Podcast / The Study of Baptism Part 3 - Simply Christ Podcast
Transcript
- 0:07Welcome back to the Simply Christ podcast hosted by Leon
- 0:11Martin, along with Aaron Keaton, Melvin Martin, Andrew Schrock
- 0:14and Dan Blatz. Let's get right to it.
- 0:18All righty, we are ready to go on this cold Monday night here
- 0:24in Iowa. And very other Bolts of course.
- 0:26So thanks for joining us. We're looking forward to diving
- 0:31into the topic of baptism again tonight as we have very
- 0:37interesting couple of last week's.
- 0:38I don't know if we could get through it tonight or not.
- 0:41I doubt it probably kind of branches out into a lot of
- 0:45different things. So anyway, interesting
- 0:47discussion. Thanks for being on here with
- 0:51us. I will have Aaron open us up
- 0:57with a word of prayer. Our most holy and righteous
- 1:01Father, we are thankful for your word and know that it's a
- 1:06blessing to be able to have it in print, be able to have many
- 1:11copies of it, to be able to look at it freely and not have to
- 1:15hide it or be worried to be caught with it.
- 1:18We're just thankful that we live in a country that we can get on
- 1:20here and study it together and not be again scared to do so.
- 1:26You just realize how blessed we are and just ask your blessing
- 1:29on this study. Praise you be able to.
- 1:32Be led by the Spirit and dig out those things that you would have
- 1:36us to find. We know that the Spirit is a
- 1:39revealer of truth, and we just pray that He would open up the
- 1:42truth to us tonight and help us to see those things that you'd
- 1:45have us to see. Because all those that hear it.
- 1:48That might lead them to your son and that they might have a
- 1:54desire to be a partaker of the death of Christ died in and also
- 2:01the resurrection that he that he did all those years ago.
- 2:06And I'll just prayed all these things in Jesus precious name,
- 2:09Amen. All right, so we had been
- 2:15talking about baptism. How about the relationship
- 2:21between baptism and salvation? How that works?
- 2:24We discussed that a little bit. We discussed about baptism being
- 2:30symbolic, or is it something more?
- 2:33Is it like a command, that type of thing?
- 2:36A lot of stuff. So you can go back and see
- 2:38previous episodes or podcasts on our YouTube channel, Simply
- 2:42Christ Ministries. You can find it there or go to
- 2:45our website, Simply Christ Ministries.
- 2:47There's links to all the social media, podcasts, whatever on
- 2:50there as we record it multiple, but so I think it'd be worth
- 2:55your time. It's some really good, really
- 2:57good stuff there. Tonight we're going to open up
- 3:01with this question and I'll let Andrew go first.
- 3:04The question is when is somebody ready to be baptized?
- 3:08I know this might seem elementary to some people, but
- 3:13there are first time, you know, readers or that that don't know
- 3:18for sure what that means and what it all entails.
- 3:21So can you fill us in on that, Andrew?
- 3:25What was that? The short, quick answer is that
- 3:29you can look at the experience of the unique.
- 3:31Obviously he didn't understand what he was reading and when he
- 3:36found out what he was reading and understood the what Jesus
- 3:39Christ came for to do, when he understood the meaning of and he
- 3:44understood the gospel, he's the one that said, well, why don't I
- 3:48get baptized? And they say, yeah, there's
- 3:51water right there, let's go do it.
- 3:53And so from there, we can learn that if you understand the
- 3:57gospel, you know what it means, you know what you're doing,
- 4:03You're making the decision to be a follower of Jesus Christ and
- 4:07put your faith in him and walk, walk with him the rest of your
- 4:10days. You're ready to be baptized.
- 4:15I know churches had a lot of conditions to it.
- 4:19They had membership, they had commitment to the the
- 4:23confessions. They had a bunch of rules that
- 4:25they tie into with your with your baptism, not confession,
- 4:30but with your baptism. Baptism a lot of times there's a
- 4:36bunch of things connected with your baptism that is are not in
- 4:40the Bible like traditions so that when you leave those
- 4:46traditions, they say that you basically threw away the
- 4:51baptism, your promises before God and everything like they tie
- 4:56all that in with your baptism. And if you're looking in that
- 5:01aspect, whether you're whether you're ready or not, then I
- 5:07think you need to come back to whether you trust Jesus Christ
- 5:10that he took your place on the cross and that he died and rose
- 5:15again, and he wants to baptize you into him and make you one
- 5:19with him. You understand that?
- 5:21Then you're baptized with the baptism of the Holy Ghost.
- 5:24And like in it now, Oh shoot, now I lost a verse in Luke 316,
- 5:38Luke 316. He says that John answers,
- 5:42saying to them all, I I indeed baptize you with water, but one
- 5:46mightier than I cometh cometh the latches of whose shoes I'm
- 5:51not worth it on loose. He shall baptize you with the
- 5:54Holy Ghost. So there's a baptism that is
- 5:58more important than water. We can see there.
- 6:02Like the water is not the key. The key is that you're baptized
- 6:05with the Holy Ghost and the way you do that is to believe the
- 6:07gospel. Another aspect is some people
- 6:10like, well, I don't know for sure if I believe.
- 6:12I don't know if the gospel is mine.
- 6:14I don't know if I'm ready to be baptized.
- 6:16I don't want to get baptized and then find out later I wasn't
- 6:19born again. If that's the case study, search
- 6:26him, seek him until you are resolved and that you're
- 6:30trusting nothing else. A lot of times religious with
- 6:35all the religions that we hear and are surrounded with, makes
- 6:37it hard for us to think, to trust ourselves, whether we
- 6:40actually just believe the gospel or not.
- 6:42And then we sit around trying to figure out if we're ready.
- 6:46But it's very simple. Do you trust anything other than
- 6:48Jesus Christ for your salvation? And if you do, then you need to
- 6:52do some more learning. But if you're resolved from the
- 6:55fact that you have no other hope than Jesus Christ and him
- 6:58crucifying him taking your place, you're ready to get.
- 7:00I mean, that's, that's what a believer is.
- 7:02You know, you're to me, you're ready to be baptized.
- 7:05So. Yeah.
- 7:07No, that's, that's good. And you touched on that briefly.
- 7:11I think sometimes we need to be careful that we don't wait to
- 7:15see if there's a certain amount of fruit or that will you be
- 7:18achieved this level? You know, if you place your
- 7:21faith in Christ, you believe that he is the risen Son of God
- 7:25and that he died, that you could live if you actually believe
- 7:28that that you're ready for baptism in that regard.
- 7:31I mean, there's there's a ton of growing that can still happen
- 7:34there. And I would I would definitely
- 7:38not encourage somebody to wait and see necessarily.
- 7:41Like you're a believer. Let's go, let's go.
- 7:45Let's, let's show ourselves and the world that that this is what
- 7:48we actually got baptized into. But yeah, Melvin, go ahead.
- 7:51What's your thoughts on that? Yeah, so I mean, we were raised
- 7:55that you had to be a certain age, right to to get baptized.
- 8:00It was between 18 and 20 years old.
- 8:04And but that's not what the Scripture says in Acts 16 when
- 8:11Paul and Silas came. Out of the.
- 8:14Prison, When the prison doors came falling down and they
- 8:17walked out of prison and then the prison keeper was going to
- 8:20kill himself. And he said in Acts 1630 he said
- 8:25to Paul and Silas, he brought them out and said, Sirs, what
- 8:28must I do to be saved? And in verse 31 of Acts 16 it
- 8:33says, and they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou
- 8:37should be saved, and thy house, that's important in thy house.
- 8:42And they spake unto him the word of the Lord, and to all that
- 8:46were in his house. And then it says that he took
- 8:50them the same hour of the night and washed their stripes, and
- 8:53was baptized He and all his straight away so.
- 8:58According to the scriptures, there's.
- 8:59Other scriptures that back that up as well.
- 9:02And I just picked that one out. But like you guys already
- 9:07brought out that it's when you believe and, and can understand
- 9:13what Christ and only Christ has done for my sins.
- 9:18And you believe that by faith and have been, you know, at that
- 9:23moment you get baptized by the Holy Ghost, like Andrew said,
- 9:25and then you're ready for water baptism.
- 9:28So it's not so much about age. I like what Lien said.
- 9:32That's kind of the way I see it when you get baptized.
- 9:36That's another thing that I hear a lot and I trump churches and
- 9:41other people. They say, well, we want to see,
- 9:44you know, if you actually truly believe, like we want to see
- 9:47fruit first or whatever, but that's not really what the Bible
- 9:51says. The Bible says they got saved,
- 9:53they believe and they got baptized immediately straight
- 9:57away. And so that's kind of the way I
- 10:01see it. And it's just it, like I said
- 10:05before, it's a public declaration that I am all in for
- 10:10Christ, not only to those around you and the other believers, but
- 10:14also for yourself. So.
- 10:18Yeah, that's, that's good stuff. Eric, what's your thoughts on
- 10:20that? Yeah, similar to what Melvin was
- 10:23saying. I, like I said, personal
- 10:25experience. I had baptized all my kids that
- 10:31are over 10, all of them before they were 10, probably because
- 10:37they desired it like they wanted to.
- 10:40And I think that what Leon read there is a great example of that
- 10:44because he, he goes to that house and you could say the
- 10:47jailer had some work, right? He he takes them out, he washes
- 10:51the stripes, but the rest of the house doesn't have any time.
- 10:55All they did is hear a message. So there was nothing like the
- 10:59way I read that verse. They baptized him and all his
- 11:02all those of these house. I have no idea how old there
- 11:05was, how many kids he had, but I think everybody that confessed
- 11:09to believe that story was baptized.
- 11:11And I think that that's, you know, that wasn't my experience.
- 11:14I know you all kind of had the experience that you would have
- 11:16had to went through a class or went through some kind of, you
- 11:20know, teaching to get you there. That's not the way I was raised
- 11:24and that's not the way I have done is it's always been you
- 11:29believe the message as Andrew read do what's you know, like he
- 11:32didn't say this exactly, but that's what the eunuch said.
- 11:35What would hinder me, you know, like the obvious question is
- 11:38what's holding me back? And Philip did not say, well,
- 11:44let's see, let's have a little Bible trivia and see how much
- 11:47you know about the Bible. He just said, do you believe
- 11:49that Jesus Christ, the Son of God?
- 11:51The guy said yes. And he says, OK, let's baptize.
- 11:54It's it's not like there's some amount of knowledge or some
- 11:59level of understanding or you know, like you don't have to
- 12:03have a certain IQ. You don't have to have a certain
- 12:06maturity level. Like it's not.
- 12:08It is simply do you believe just like the guy was told in Acts
- 12:12chapter 16, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.
- 12:15That's the only real restriction.
- 12:16Do you believe that or not? So I think that that would be
- 12:20that would cover in other words, I said that to say it covers
- 12:24age, IQ, understand you know what I mean, It that covers all
- 12:29that. The question, that one question
- 12:31covers all of those. Aspects yeah, which is which is
- 12:35a good segue into kind of. I just wanted to, you know, kind
- 12:39of back up here a little bit. So what about where would you
- 12:42put, you know, there's a lot of children that get baptized as
- 12:47babies, you know, without their consent or, you know, complain.
- 12:53It really So is in that case, how would you how would you
- 12:58handle that? Well, Velvet touched on it too.
- 13:01You know, like, like knowing, realizing what you're what it is
- 13:05about, you know, that would play some some role there.
- 13:08Wouldn't let her like what what I guess kind of my question is
- 13:11what validates, you know, a yeah, go ahead from from an
- 13:15elder or from somebody that's, you know, someone comes to you
- 13:18and says he's 10 years old. He says I was baptized as a
- 13:22baby. You know, would you recommend
- 13:25that I would get baptized now that I believe that Christ is is
- 13:29the son of God and that he died that I could live kind of thing
- 13:32Andrew or anybody really, I guess kind of open here.
- 13:35I've got a thought on it. But yeah, go ahead.
- 13:41I would say that the the keyword for me anyway, I'm not saying I
- 13:46have a perfect verse for this, but but I have a several
- 13:50examples of this. The perfect example is desire,
- 13:54right? It's it's not restricted by age.
- 13:56Understanding all that. To me, the keyword here is
- 14:00desire. And I feel like that's not if I
- 14:02was going to argue why it's not necessary, I wouldn't say it's a
- 14:07sin to baptize a baby necessarily, but the reason I
- 14:10would argue that there's not a reason to is there's no desire
- 14:14there, right? You're you're, you're doing
- 14:16something that the person has no desire.
- 14:18Every time you see someone someone baptized in the Bible,
- 14:22it is because of desire. Right, like.
- 14:24I desire they are desiring for this action to be on them.
- 14:28So that would be my thought on that is I would, I would always
- 14:33personally not not I just would because now they have the
- 14:37desire, right? I'm not going to say I don't
- 14:39worry about it. You know, you don't use baptized
- 14:42when you use an infant. I would just say, yeah, you've
- 14:43got the desire. Let's do that.
- 14:46The desire is that. Which a scripture that kind of
- 14:49actually brings that out is what you were talking about.
- 14:51The eunuch there like he immediately some somewhere
- 14:55within he immediately desired to be baptized after he had heard
- 15:00the the teachings about this Christ from the Old Testament,
- 15:02right. I mean, that's basically what he
- 15:04heard. And he was like, well, why?
- 15:07Why would I get baptized? Kind of, you know?
- 15:09And I'll say this. I.
- 15:12Don't know. I have seen.
- 15:15I have seen people and I don't know what's going on in any of
- 15:20these people's hearts, but I have seen people watch someone
- 15:24else confess faith in Christ and be baptized and that pushes them
- 15:30over the edge to do that. And I think that's what you're
- 15:32seeing in these people's houses, right?
- 15:34The the Cornelius or the jailer or whatever.
- 15:38He does something and it stirs a desire in the rest of the
- 15:43family. Like, I don't know, I may be
- 15:45wrong about that, but that's the way I kind of see that.
- 15:47Like I think they see that example of, of faith and they
- 15:52move on that example. But I don't know, that's my
- 15:55thoughts. Like in my mind, I don't know of
- 15:59the verse that says it's wrong necessarily to baptize infants
- 16:03in my mind. But so if according to the
- 16:06scriptures with its understanding or knowledge of of
- 16:13the Gospel, like you, if you can't understand that, like a
- 16:17infant can't understand that, he can't comprehend that, so why?
- 16:23Why would you, right. So it's just what comes to my
- 16:27mind, but. You're muted, Andrew.
- 16:31You're muted, Andrew. Our ancestors got persecuted for
- 16:36getting baptized again because they were baptized as infants.
- 16:42And the argument back then was, is that they wanted to be
- 16:45baptized as a believer, A believer's baptism, and that
- 16:50caused a big ruckus. So there's something significant
- 16:53to that just in that fact. But I wanted to make another
- 16:57comment on the first question. There was something that I
- 17:01struggled with a lot, and that is the desire to be baptized and
- 17:06move on with Jesus Christ extremely strong.
- 17:10It was just I didn't know whether I had it and my life
- 17:16told me I didn't too many times. So my experience, I was looking
- 17:23for a changed life, a changed person to justify me getting
- 17:27baptized. And I think a lot of people are
- 17:30in that trap more than we think. And so I thought I would touch
- 17:35on that a little bit. And one thing that will clear it
- 17:37up for you is God says He so loved the world that he gave his
- 17:41only begotten sound, that whosoever believeth on him
- 17:43should not perish, whatever everlasting life, unless your
- 17:48life hasn't changed, right? Doesn't say that.
- 17:53Yeah, but unless you can't prove it, unless you haven't stopped
- 18:01sinning, or unless this doesn't mean he doesn't deal with sin.
- 18:05It's just that's not the gospel. The gospel is not that you have
- 18:11to prove it. The gospel of Jesus Christ is
- 18:14that he died for you and gave his life for you, completely
- 18:19separated from you. It's not up to you whether it's
- 18:23true or not. Your experience, your life, you.
- 18:26Stopping sin, stopping certain habits does not make the gospel
- 18:30true. The blood of Jesus Christ
- 18:34cleanses you whether you stopped or did or did not do something.
- 18:41So when you're waiting for your life to get better to prove that
- 18:45you believe the gospel is actually unbelievable, that's
- 18:48not that's not the gospel. The gospel is not that the
- 18:51gospel is that Jesus took your place.
- 18:53That's the gospel. And in that Gospel, being
- 18:57baptized in Holy Ghost, you can believe the effects of the
- 19:00gospel afterwards. You can believe that you're dead
- 19:04and free from sin and live according to that faith.
- 19:07But that has nothing to do with whether you should get baptized.
- 19:10Or not. That's right, the.
- 19:11Reason you get baptized is for believing that he took your
- 19:13place. That's.
- 19:16Right. Yeah, that's good.
- 19:17I I appreciate that that recap there, that's good.
- 19:21But yeah, it's 100% what So the answer that I hear from you guys
- 19:27and I agree with this. So when somebody is ready to be
- 19:30baptized upon the confession of faith in Christ, that's that's
- 19:36basically what it boils down to. So that automatically kind of
- 19:40invalidates infant baptism. It also validates A believer's
- 19:45baptism, you know, for some that were baptized prior to, because
- 19:51that was like, for me, it was something that I had to do if I
- 19:53wanted to, you know, get married or whatever.
- 19:55Go on. You know, that I didn't have a
- 19:59desire to be baptized whatsoever.
- 20:00Matter of fact, the idea was kind of dreadful.
- 20:02You know, I did that day at all. And second day, I was pumped.
- 20:07I wanted to get baptized. It was deep within me to do
- 20:10that. So yeah.
- 20:11Yeah. No, that's that's real good
- 20:12stuff. All right, we're going to switch
- 20:14gears just a little bit. Yeah.
- 20:16And again, this, some of this stuff is kind of elementary, but
- 20:18it makes good discussion. I like hearing this, Melvin.
- 20:22So does the way that somebody is baptized matter biblically
- 20:26speaking, Like I'm talking about being sprinkled or, you know,
- 20:31dogged or, you know, like it is, is that important?
- 20:34Because again, there's a lot of people in this world that you
- 20:38know, have been sprinkled or have been, I don't know what
- 20:42poured on that kind of thing. So what's what's your thoughts
- 20:46on that, biblically speaking? Well, yeah, I mean, I'm going to
- 20:50first of all say if you look up the word, that word baptized or
- 20:54baptized or baptism in Bible, it this is what it says.
- 20:59It says to immerse or to submerge.
- 21:03And so that is pretty clear to me.
- 21:06And that I guess the other thing is, is that when I look at the
- 21:12account of the eunuch, you know, they were driving along in there
- 21:17in the carriage, right? And eunuchs like.
- 21:21Hey, look, there's. Water like he wasn't like to me
- 21:25when he says that I in my mind, it's like a river or a lake or
- 21:30something, right? It wasn't like just a water
- 21:33spigot beside the road necessarily.
- 21:36So I was sprinkled when I initially was baptized into the
- 21:41Mennonite Church. And I, I guess when I got saved
- 21:48and baptized into Christ and then I started reading the
- 21:51Bible, actually I was like, wait a minute, The Bible says, you
- 21:55know, according to the Bible, we should be immersed or submerged.
- 22:00So I wanted to get dunked in the, in the, you know, river or
- 22:05whatever. It doesn't.
- 22:07Yeah, to me. I remember Leon, do you remember
- 22:09that time we baptized that couple in, it was freezing cold
- 22:15in the winter time and we baptized that couple in the pool
- 22:19in a, in a motel or a hotel. We went into the hotel and said,
- 22:23hey, can we use your pool for a little bit, right.
- 22:26And they're like, hey, sure, go ahead.
- 22:28And it was like 0° outside, right.
- 22:31So as far as that part, I don't see it being, you know, a
- 22:36difference necessary, but according to the scripture it
- 22:41should be immersed or submerged. Yeah, yeah.
- 22:51I'm going to. I would point to.
- 22:55I know, I understand that most people would not or a lot of
- 23:00people would would be pointing this to be in the baptism or the
- 23:06circumcision without hands, you know, the baptism, the Holy
- 23:09Ghost. But I'm going to point to Romans
- 23:116 as a reference because he says in Romans 6, know ye not that so
- 23:19many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ or baptized into
- 23:23his death, Therefore we buried with him by baptism into death.
- 23:29That like as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of
- 23:32the Father, Even so we also should walk in newness of life.
- 23:36For if we have been planted together in the likeness, like
- 23:40in the likeness like, you know, you're doing something in a, you
- 23:44know, in a similitude, in a like manner, in the likeness of his
- 23:47death, we shall also be in the likeness of his resurrection,
- 23:51knowing this, that our old man was crucified with him, that the
- 23:54body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not
- 23:57serve sin. So to me, because this was never
- 24:01again, this was not a part of my struggle growing up.
- 24:04Everybody that was baptized was immersed.
- 24:07So I almost scoffed at the people that thought you could do
- 24:12anything but that, you know, like that was so far from our
- 24:14thoughts and it but it was because of this verse.
- 24:17I mean, it was because we understood that it was in the
- 24:20similitude of death. And I, I know this is kind of
- 24:23silly, but I've heard preachers say, have you ever seen babe
- 24:27buried with just their heads sticking out?
- 24:29Or you ever seen babe buried with their legs sticking out?
- 24:31You know, like they were, they were making a joke.
- 24:32But but the point was if it's a similitude of birth of a death,
- 24:37that's you bury somebody completely, right?
- 24:39You know, you're putting them completely in that, which is not
- 24:42a bad point, right? I mean, if it's if it's in the
- 24:45similitude of his death and his burial and his resurrection,
- 24:49then it ought to be like it. And there's nothing about
- 24:51sprinkling or pouring that is like it.
- 24:55It's just not just not the same. Very good point, Andrew.
- 25:02He's muted. I don't know what dot really if
- 25:07he has a big deal about it or not, but it sprinkling and
- 25:10crawling is definitely not the definition of baptism.
- 25:14So I we do all immersion. But again, the water baptism is
- 25:22not what saves you. So I guess I wouldn't make too
- 25:26big of a deal except for the fact if you want to represent
- 25:30the idea of baptism going down into the grave and coming back
- 25:34up out a new creature, I want to go all the way.
- 25:38I don't want any part of this old man to still be out of the
- 25:41ground and just sprinkle on top a little bit.
- 25:44I want to be completely immersed in Christ and come out a brand
- 25:48new man, not just not just the top of my baldness.
- 25:55Yeah, that's, that's good. And you know, so if you if you
- 25:59think about, you know, as a baptism valid like I need to
- 26:03really get down to the bones about it though that someone
- 26:05comes to you and says they were sprinkled post baptism.
- 26:09What's your advice? Go get baptized, you know, yeah,
- 26:13yeah, you know, and I really I don't want to I'm going to go to
- 26:16Scripture in Colossians 2 here he's making the point about
- 26:21being in Christ. He says for your completed him,
- 26:25which is the head of all principality and power, that in
- 26:27verse 12 he says buried with him in baptism, wherein also ye are
- 26:30risen with him through the faith of the operation of God who has
- 26:34raised him from the dead. That comes across a lot of the
- 26:36same exactly what Aaron was saying.
- 26:38Like if you claimed for it to be a representation of you in
- 26:42Christ, then let's make it a representation of you in Christ,
- 26:45right. I mean, that's I think I think
- 26:47that I think the Scriptures actually rock solid on that.
- 26:49We tend to want to excuse it some way or another, maybe a
- 26:51little bit. Yeah.
- 26:53That's funny because one of the guys that we baptized, evidently
- 26:58he, well, he does read his Bible.
- 27:00It was actually Evan Amston and he goes out so many times when
- 27:04they baptize. Not everything goes completely
- 27:08down and he's like, I want to make sure you guys get me all
- 27:12the way like he was. So I remember I remember going
- 27:16down and sure enough, like part of his wrist didn't quite.
- 27:20So I actually just made and I'm like pushed all.
- 27:24So it was like. It was like a little bit of a
- 27:27like a delay. Maybe they don't know that he
- 27:28yanked down and stuff, but I just it matched.
- 27:32It meant a lot to him. It's like he wants to be fully
- 27:35immersed in Jesus Christ like that his, that was his faith and
- 27:38believe is that Jesus Christ fully swallowed us up into the
- 27:44victory basically. So that was kind of funny.
- 27:47Yeah, that that's a good story, you know, and so earlier we
- 27:51talked a little bit maybe the first week that we were doing
- 27:54about whether, you know, it's symbolic or if it's something
- 27:57more. I think it's a lot more than
- 27:59just symbolic, but it is also symbolic though, because that's
- 28:02actually it is representing the water baptism is representing
- 28:08something else. So it is actually a symbolic
- 28:11thing. So if the symbol is important
- 28:14that it isn't symbolic, then it's important that we hold the
- 28:17symbol, right? I mean, that's that mean.
- 28:19That's true the whole way through, doesn't it?
- 28:21Yeah, no, I agree. Yeah.
- 28:23If I would just do put it this way, if I would just believe in
- 28:26sprinkling or water baptism, I wouldn't get baptized at all.
- 28:29You know, that's not what baptism is.
- 28:32I would just, but I'm not saying you're not a believer.
- 28:35I'm just saying you weren't baptized.
- 28:37You were. That's right.
- 28:38You were sprinkled. Yeah, demonstrated.
- 28:41Absolutely. All right, Aaron, I'll let you
- 28:44go on this one. What does baptism say about a
- 28:47believer's identity in Christ? And I guess to clarify that
- 28:51question a little bit, we often see that baptism is synonymous
- 28:59with being born again or being in the faith, I should say.
- 29:04Because if you ask somebody if they're a believer or a child of
- 29:07God, you know, you could watch like Ray Comfort St. preaching
- 29:12videos, a lot of stuff like similar to that.
- 29:15And one of the first things that a lot of people will, well, I
- 29:18lived a good life or why was baptized.
- 29:22So what does the baptism actually do to a believer's
- 29:26identity? Is there some correlation there?
- 29:30I mean, I think we already addressed this a little.
- 29:32I think somebody, I think Andrew said this and I agree with it.
- 29:36I think somebody could in right in a moment of faith, like have
- 29:43a like they could really put their faith in as that act is
- 29:48done. Now I'm not saying it's tied to
- 29:50it, but but I would say this, this may not answer your
- 29:54question exactly, but this was my thought when I before you
- 29:57clarified it. But before you clarified the
- 30:00question, I was thinking that that actually I was going to
- 30:05want to read the same verse I read for the other question
- 30:08there in Romans, because it does to me.
- 30:13If if it is a if it's in the similitude or in a likeness of a
- 30:17death, then that's what it says about the person.
- 30:20It's kind of like what Evan Amazon wanted to do.
- 30:23He wanted to say I am covered in Christ, right.
- 30:26I mean, you know that that's what verse is it in?
- 30:30What's it in Colossians when he says your life is hid with God
- 30:34in Christ, You know, like you are.
- 30:37In other words, I could also turn to Hebrews and say that he
- 30:41says that he so Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many
- 30:46through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all
- 30:49offered one sacrifice for sin forever.
- 30:51So like it does it is showing that it is showing that this
- 30:57it's not life. Actually, I think again, Andrew
- 31:00said that it's not like that that death with Christ took care
- 31:06of part of your sins or from the neck down sins or whatever like
- 31:11that death in Christ covered all your sins, right.
- 31:16So I think that that is and again I would I would point you
- 31:21to that Romans 6 when he says that therefore we are buried
- 31:24with him by baptism into death that like as Christ was raised
- 31:28from the dead up from the dead by the glory of the Father.
- 31:31Even so we also should walk in newness of life like it is it is
- 31:35a putting a complete killing of the old man and a birthright of
- 31:43a new man. That is what it that to me, that
- 31:47is what it is saying. I'm not, don't, don't say that.
- 31:50I'm not saying that that's the moment it happens, though it may
- 31:54be for somebody that is the moment they really have faith
- 31:57that is possible, but it's not like it's contingent upon the
- 32:00action happening. But it is that is what it
- 32:05identifies with. Like I think that is what it's
- 32:07showing, that that person died and raised up a new man.
- 32:11So if I hear you right now, I'll let you go.
- 32:13Andrew, it is still faith that places us into Christ, it's
- 32:19true. But it could be a preacher or a
- 32:21brother or somebody that places you into the water as a
- 32:24representation of that. Oh yeah, no, it's true.
- 32:27Well, because that's what I guess that's when I read the
- 32:30question, what does baptism say about a person's identity?
- 32:34I was, I was thinking of it, of what is the message that someone
- 32:38would get from watching it happen?
- 32:40And I think that that's the message that the person should
- 32:43get, is it? It is a showing of what happened
- 32:48already to the person, a death, a burial and resurrection,
- 32:51right? I mean, I think that's the
- 32:53saying they should identify with that action.
- 32:57Andrew. Yeah, I had read our thing in
- 33:01our first session in in Acts. There were some got baptized and
- 33:06received the Holy Ghost while they got baptized and they
- 33:10started speaking in tongues and whatever.
- 33:12And then some were baptized but it didn't get the Holy Spirit.
- 33:17And later people laid hands on them, they got the Holy Spirit.
- 33:21Some were baptized with the baptism of John and then later
- 33:24got baptized in the Christ like a spiritual baptism happened.
- 33:29So it's it's either. It can be either way.
- 33:35But one thing that is true and clear and sure is that getting
- 33:43baptized outside of believing and trusting and resting in
- 33:48Jesus Christ will not save you whether you believe it then or
- 33:55while you get baptized or before you got baptized or after you
- 33:58get baptized. Bottom line is do you believe?
- 34:02And I don't know that it's important when based on your
- 34:08baptism necessary. If you believe beforehand is
- 34:15none of the way it goes. You believe the gospel and then
- 34:18you have a desire to be baptized.
- 34:19Now, some have a desire to be baptized because they're tired
- 34:24of feeling like they're not part of the body of Christ.
- 34:27And maybe there's benefits in the church by being baptized, by
- 34:29getting married and stuff you guys have mentioned and stuff.
- 34:31So some people just get baptized because it makes their life
- 34:35easier. It's not that they fall in love
- 34:37with Jesus Christ. So I don't really know what else
- 34:41to say about that. And it's just kind of maybe a
- 34:44little. Bit of a of a weird.
- 34:47Question. But it is a weird question that
- 34:49we deal with, I guess. Yeah, but you read the Bible,
- 34:54you'll know that understanding the gospel and believing it is
- 34:58what saves you. Yep, for sure now with any
- 35:01thoughts additional. Yeah, I, I don't have a whole
- 35:05lot of thoughts. You guys pretty much covered it,
- 35:06but yeah, it definitely like you guys were saying.
- 35:09I would agree with 100% that, you know, it's not you're
- 35:15necessarily an identity or your identity in Christ is not being
- 35:19baptized. Your identity in Christ is what
- 35:23Christ has done for you. And and you should be rejoicing
- 35:28about that, right? And in that rejoicing, you're
- 35:32going to have a, you know, do water baptism.
- 35:36So I that's my thought on but. Yeah, go ahead.
- 35:42Now I was just going to say I don't know who said I guess
- 35:46Andrew said something. Remind me this, you know, Mark
- 35:491616 says he that believeth is baptized shall be saved, but he
- 35:53that believeth not shall be damned.
- 35:56And I personal experience, I saw people growing up that I feel
- 36:00like we're pressured or talked into being baptized and that did
- 36:08them no good, right? I mean, if I didn't believe the
- 36:11message, it was pointless. Now the the preacher that talked
- 36:15him into it, maybe the whole congregation there felt some
- 36:18kind of relief or some kind of joy in that.
- 36:22But what was the point? If you just if you just convince
- 36:26them that this is an act, please let me do this act to you.
- 36:28Please let me do this act to you.
- 36:30You've missed it, right? You've missed it there.
- 36:33So that it is not, it is not an, it's not an identification that
- 36:41comes in other words, there's no point in it.
- 36:43There's no identity in it if there's no belief in it, right?
- 36:47Yeah. Yeah.
- 36:48I think actually that identity identity kind of precedes
- 36:53baptism oftentimes because so we're we're actually where we
- 36:58become saved. We understand what Christ did
- 37:00for us. We'd be we understand that we're
- 37:02in him. We already know our identity.
- 37:04We already know where we stand in regards to Christ.
- 37:07We just want to now show it off, you know, like, and and maybe it
- 37:12does something. Yeah, I, I wouldn't, I wouldn't
- 37:14say that it doesn't do something for us, though in like, you
- 37:18know, put that stake in the ground and saying this, you know
- 37:21it to me. And I've said that before.
- 37:23Like looking back now, at the time I didn't really think about
- 37:26it. But now looking back, it's like,
- 37:28yeah, it was, it was a precious time.
- 37:30It was a time that when I think of my salvation story, I think
- 37:33of my baptism. It's, it's there.
- 37:35It's it's like that, that that spot in my memory.
- 37:40Yeah. Because.
- 37:41I can I say this, I'll say this. It's.
- 37:43Like. It's like a it's like a walk by
- 37:48faith. You know, sometimes all you
- 37:50really do is believe. And then when you act on that
- 37:54belief, something happens, you know, like something positive
- 37:58happens. And I think that that could be
- 38:00the same way. I think that the person could
- 38:02already believe the right thing, but when they do the ACT it, it
- 38:06might become more real to them. They may like, you know, I mean,
- 38:11I don't know you, you, you may, you may think about it more
- 38:17like, wow, I mean, I, I have went through a death, not that
- 38:20the death happened there, but it may make the individual actually
- 38:24think about it in the moment. Like, wow, this is, you know,
- 38:27this is really what has happened to me in Christ.
- 38:30And like I said, not at the moment.
- 38:32I'm just saying a recognition, like a like a step of faith,
- 38:36like you believe this is the gospel and you believe you ought
- 38:39to do this, you do this and then it makes it very real to the
- 38:42person, you know, like the action made it made it real.
- 38:45They saw, they physically saw something, you know, like they
- 38:49saw it in another person or it happened to them and they
- 38:52experienced this dirt, you know, burial and coming back about
- 38:56that. So like I said, not not
- 38:58effectual necessarily in God's eyes, but I'm just saying it
- 39:01can, you know, can make it real to a person really.
- 39:06Yeah, yeah, I agree with that. OK, Andrew, did you have the
- 39:12sheets or what the questions are in front of you?
- 39:16It doesn't matter. I just wondered if you knew if
- 39:18you were kind of geared up for this next question.
- 39:20I might because we kind of hit it already.
- 39:21So I'm going to jump to 9. And that question is how should
- 39:26the church approach baptism today?
- 39:30And when I think of that question, like what, what is the
- 39:37church's responsibility? Like I, I mean, a local group of
- 39:40believers, what is their responsibility regarding the
- 39:44idea of baptism is, you know, is it something that we should, you
- 39:51know, teach and expect, or is it something that we, you know, we
- 39:55teach it, whether it comes up in Scripture where you're doing
- 39:57your verse by verse, you know, what, what's your idea?
- 40:00What? What kind of authority should
- 40:02the Church have in this matter? Or responsibility, I should say.
- 40:05What kind of responsibility should the Church have in this
- 40:07matter? I think the responsibility that
- 40:11we need to have is that the people that get baptized and
- 40:16that come out of our churches, when they're asked if they're
- 40:19going to heaven or not, they're not going to say, yeah, because
- 40:23I was baptized. They're going to say, yeah,
- 40:27because Jesus took my place and he died and rose again and he
- 40:31made me a new creature in him. And baptism is not the first
- 40:37thing I think about when I somebody challenged me.
- 40:40I hardly ever think about it. So I think we need to keep it
- 40:43that way because we don't want to put faith in our baptism.
- 40:46We put faith in Jesus Christ and a lot of people put their faith
- 40:51in baptism, which gets really rocky.
- 40:53So when their life is a mess, they always hang out while I was
- 40:57baptized. Well, I don't really care that
- 40:58we're baptized, you know, I care whether you believe the gospel
- 41:02or not. So I think the churches could
- 41:06repent in a lot of ways to the point where people actually put
- 41:10their faith in Christ instead of so much that they did all the
- 41:13things that the church asked them to do.
- 41:16Churches are really good, ministers are really good, which
- 41:18I understand the temptation. That's very real.
- 41:20I deal with it all the time. You want so bad for people to be
- 41:24delivered. You want so bad for people's
- 41:26life to be better. You hate to see them struggle.
- 41:29So if there's anything you can do and if you could think, well,
- 41:31maybe if they would get baptized, maybe the Holy Spirit
- 41:33would come, they would finally have something that where they
- 41:36put that stake in the ground and now they're committed, They're
- 41:38convinced it. There's a lot of temptation to
- 41:42try to make up the mind of people, you know, to help them
- 41:45make up their mind and pressure them.
- 41:47And to Aaron's point, I don't think it's good for churches to
- 41:50pressure the people to be baptized if it if you're not
- 41:53persuaded and if there's not that desire there on your own
- 41:56and you don't see it and it's not just kind of a fruit of a
- 42:01believer that you want to get, do that next step.
- 42:05I don't think the church should be the ones trying to guilt
- 42:08trick somebody or or maybe even make it even to where there's a
- 42:12bunch of benefits in the church if you're baptized or it makes
- 42:17you look less judged or more, more judged or whatever.
- 42:21Like, yeah, yeah, it should be pretty clean.
- 42:24I think it should be pretty clean.
- 42:26Well, you guys give good answers, no?
- 42:31Well, it seems. According to the scripture.
- 42:34Again, it we should be as the church or as the body of Christ,
- 42:39we should be talking about Jesus and sharing the gospel.
- 42:44That should be our focus, talking about Jesus and the
- 42:48goodness of God through Jesus and what Jesus has done for us.
- 42:54I'm not talking about necessarily just the preacher.
- 42:56I'm saying everybody in the body as a whole, if you're excited
- 43:02about Christ and you're talking about Christ and what he has
- 43:07done in the goodness of him and like, what is the gospel?
- 43:11The gospel is the definition of the gospel is good news, right?
- 43:16And so if you're giving someone good news, you're not scaring
- 43:21them into getting saved. And I see that happen so many
- 43:25times where preachers are like you were saying, Andrew, they so
- 43:28much want people to get delivered and it but they try
- 43:33and scare you into heaven. And and that I don't think is a
- 43:37good thing. I think if we are just just
- 43:42organically on fire for Christ and that is our focus.
- 43:48And then when people get saved and get baptized into Christ,
- 43:54right, that we then baptize them.
- 43:56Like in other words, we should be showing them to me.
- 43:59I don't think we should necessarily be teaching it all
- 44:03the time. We should be talking and
- 44:04teaching about Christ and them and people are getting saved.
- 44:08We should be baptizing them and it's like we're showing them.
- 44:12Yeah, that's good. That's a good point.
- 44:14And to be sure that we actually tell them what we are
- 44:18representing by this baptism. Like, what are we hoping to
- 44:21accomplish by baptized, by by baptizing you, are we hoping to
- 44:24convert you? No.
- 44:26Are we hoping to make you live a better life?
- 44:27No. We are simply showing what
- 44:30happened to to you in a very literal, physical form here.
- 44:34Yeah, I appreciate that. That's good, Aaron.
- 44:38Yeah, I guess I would. I would say that it is, I don't
- 44:43know if I said this on here, but I know I've said this to some of
- 44:46you all that I don't I actually, because I do preach, I do
- 44:52struggle with this. And because of my background,
- 44:54because of the people putting their trust in the baptism, I do
- 44:58struggle with this. I feel like I have went long
- 45:01streets in which I didn't even mention water baptism like at
- 45:06all, like just didn't mention it.
- 45:07And and I feel like that's not exactly right either.
- 45:11We just talked about the relevance of it and how, you
- 45:13know, like all the examples of it.
- 45:16So I know it's I know it should be talked about it.
- 45:19I mean, I know it that, you know, if you look at all these
- 45:21people that you know, if you look at the jailer, there's not
- 45:25necessarily any indication he has some prior understanding and
- 45:29he baptized that night. You look at the eunuch, he's
- 45:31riding a long reason Isaiah that says nothing about water and he
- 45:35wants to be baptized. So it was mingled in there.
- 45:39I gave this stat there last week, maybe I don't even know if
- 45:42it doesn't on there. But if you look in the book of
- 45:44Acts, there was notable circumstances where people was
- 45:51baptized. There was four times that the
- 45:54that either the apostles or Philip or Peter baptize
- 45:58somebody. Then it was Paul being baptized
- 46:00by Ananias. And then there's 4 examples of
- 46:04Paul baptizing people. So it was obviously talked
- 46:10about, right? It was taught on.
- 46:12They did mention it. So I don't know.
- 46:15I still struggle with how to balance that out because you
- 46:18have you can't. I don't think the answer is to
- 46:20just pretend it's not a thing or to ignore it.
- 46:23Like I don't think that's the right answer.
- 46:25But I do agree with what you all were saying.
- 46:29You, you cannot teach it in a way in which you indicate to the
- 46:33people that they should trust in it or that they should think
- 46:36that's the moment that something happened or whatever.
- 46:39Like you can't do that. But I also don't think we can go
- 46:41without, you know, like just act like it's not a thing, Act like
- 46:45it's not in the Bible. So I don't, I'm not saying I
- 46:48have the great answer for that. I'm just saying I do think, I do
- 46:52think we, we should, you know, personally, every one of us in
- 46:58our own situations think about it and consider how, how can we
- 47:03teach on it correctly and yet not avoid it and act like it's,
- 47:09you know, you know, not worth mentioning.
- 47:14I I think my own experience regarding that is that the, the
- 47:19Church actually takes almost too much responsibility.
- 47:22And they promised things like I was, I was deeply disappointed
- 47:26when I woke up on Monday morning and I felt just like I did the
- 47:29day before I got baptized because I was well, if if not
- 47:34actually told I was surely expecting things from this
- 47:38baptism that the Bible doesn't teach and that I didn't
- 47:40experience as well, you know, So in, in my own mind, you know,
- 47:45regarding the question about how should the church approach the
- 47:47baptism, please approach, approach it truthfully, like say
- 47:52it what it is and then stop there.
- 47:54We don't need to be adding to to that.
- 47:56Like, you know, church membership is one thing, but I
- 47:58mean, it could be small things like, well, you know, if you'd
- 48:02show obedience, then, then you just have much better power over
- 48:05sin or something like that, you know, that's been pushed out
- 48:08there and stuff. And.
- 48:10Yeah, that's no, I agree. Yeah, don't tie something to it
- 48:13other than it's a thing. Let's let it stand for what it
- 48:16actually is in the Bible. That's the biggest favor we can
- 48:20do any unbeliever or believer is to teach them the truth and stop
- 48:24with the truth, because adding is much just as much of A sin as
- 48:27not saying the whole truth, you know?
- 48:28Yeah. Probably the biggest, probably
- 48:31the biggest problem is that the churches do is they don't.
- 48:36They're not like you were saying.
- 48:37They're not honest about the distinction between water
- 48:41baptism and being baptized into Christ.
- 48:45They try to make a connection with water in every instance of
- 48:49baptism. Can you imagine reading Romans 6
- 48:54and thinking water? I mean, Yikes.
- 48:57That's where there's a lot of false doctrines come from.
- 49:01Yeah, but I just thought, well, you're talking another perfect
- 49:04example of what I what we're all talking about is if you put an
- 49:07age limit on it or a a certain age where you get baptized, that
- 49:12is when it becomes no longer pure.
- 49:16The person that is at a certain age now the whole church is
- 49:19expecting, hey, what's going on with him?
- 49:21Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah.
- 49:22Like why is he not getting baptized?
- 49:25Or is there something wrong? You know, all of a sudden
- 49:27there's that whole thing that's just something that should be
- 49:29there. Well.
- 49:33Like in my experience, and that's why I said what I said,
- 49:35we, we were taught or went through lessons about baptism
- 49:40for three months before we got baptized.
- 49:42Like that's all we talked about. And to me it's like, you know,
- 49:45why are, why are you talking about it?
- 49:47If I would have been able to actually see someone that got
- 49:51saved and actually get baptized the way we do now, I would have
- 49:56made would have made me think differently about baptism for
- 49:59sure. Yeah, that's good.
- 50:03Hey, I'm going to, I'm going to dive into this last question.
- 50:06We might have to go a little bit longer to kind of wrap it up
- 50:08here, but this is the last question that I really have.
- 50:11I know there's probably a lot of other ways we could go out on
- 50:13this yet, but so Melvin, I guess I'll direct this to you to start
- 50:18off with. But So what would you say to
- 50:20someone that is obviously a believer but hasn't been
- 50:24baptized yet? And when I asked that question,
- 50:26I'm thinking about like, how could you encourage obedience
- 50:31without pressuring? You know, we kind of we kind of
- 50:34talked about that a little bit. I think they already touched on
- 50:36that. So, So what would you say?
- 50:39What would, what would you counsel somebody that's for
- 50:42whatever reason been reluctant about it?
- 50:44What can we say to that guy? Well, I would first of all ask
- 50:48him some questions, right? I mean like you know what what
- 50:51is your meant or your block with getting baptized.
- 50:56You know, it could be many things.
- 50:58Some people, you know, like you said earlier, it could be that
- 51:02maybe you were taught that you need to see fruit or you need
- 51:06some sort of evidence that you're saved for sure before you
- 51:11got baptized or, or what is it that is holding you back?
- 51:16And we talked earlier about desire.
- 51:19I mean, why, you know, why you're not desiring to be
- 51:24baptized? I guess that'd be the biggest
- 51:26thing in my mind would be asking questions and then, you know,
- 51:30just showing the Scriptures. I guess for myself, I have seen
- 51:39some people that have went long, like years probably that did not
- 51:45get baptized and, and it, it was kind of a question in my mind.
- 51:50Why would you not? But because of Scripture is
- 51:56pretty clear. I mean, I guess I would take him
- 51:58to Scripture as well and show him that, you know, that this is
- 52:02what the Bible says that you get baptized immediately or or very
- 52:08soon after. It doesn't have to be like the
- 52:10day of in my mind necessarily. Like it's not a sin if you
- 52:14don't, you know, you don't read anywhere in the Bible that it's
- 52:17not a sin necessarily of not getting baptized.
- 52:21But it is a but yeah to to it would just matter be scripture
- 52:27in my mind would be the biggest thing in asking questions.
- 52:31Yeah, I, you know, you're, you're doing your, your fellow
- 52:34believers a disservice by by during that part for for sure.
- 52:38Here now I agree with Melvin I think some questions would have
- 52:43to be asked, but I do think it would be a perfect opportunity
- 52:49as we we touched on this earlier, but I think it'd be a
- 52:51perfect opportunity to say this is not you know it's it's not
- 52:57like God is withholding salvation for to you go through
- 53:04the class till you bear enough fruit till you read your Bible
- 53:08enough all these things. I think it'd be a perfect segue
- 53:11to say what you know, like what, what are you waiting on?
- 53:14You know why Terry, is that what what what are you waiting on?
- 53:18Because if you truly believe this gospel, there's nothing to
- 53:21wait on. You know what I mean?
- 53:23Like that would be my approach is what And I guess ask it in a
- 53:27question. What are you waiting on?
- 53:28Because there is nothing. It's it's not like God put some
- 53:33kind of he that believeth and is a Christian for six months and
- 53:40has done this thing. You know, he just said he that
- 53:43believes and is and is baptized, you know, like it's just
- 53:46something that follows it. Like Melvin said there, if you
- 53:50want to look at the example, there's never a delay.
- 53:52As far as example goes, there's never a delay.
- 53:55It's not like they had to come to a better understanding.
- 53:57If they simply believe that Jesus was the Christ, then it
- 54:02was good enough. And that's that's kind of the
- 54:04way I would approach what are you waiting on?
- 54:05Like don't doubt that there's something you got to prove or
- 54:09got to do or got to learn. Just if you believe it, what are
- 54:14you waiting on? Leave and receive right?
- 54:25He's me. You're still beuted.
- 54:28It comes back to the eunuch in my mind, when he was reading
- 54:33Isaiah and understood it, not even reading Paul.
- 54:36He wasn't reading Romans, that's right.
- 54:38And he understood it. He asked Philip what hindereth
- 54:43me to be baptized. And Philip, Philip couldn't
- 54:48think of anything, right? You know, I guess nothing, you
- 54:55know, So when something is hindering you, then you need I
- 55:02would have questions of what your definition of the gospel is
- 55:04that I'd also have questions like it.
- 55:08And I think most thing most thing that is hindering people
- 55:11again is that they're looking at themselves to see if they're
- 55:15ready to be baptized. That's true.
- 55:17They don't understand that Jesus Christ was ready to baptize you
- 55:20and him while you were yet sinners.
- 55:23So that's about all I have is just, yeah, I don't know what
- 55:32hindered you. Like, you know, like what?
- 55:36Like, according to the Bible, there's nothing that should
- 55:40hinder us from doing that. And if something is hindering
- 55:42you, then you're not understanding the gospel
- 55:44clearly. I did have an additional thought
- 55:47that when you were talking to Andrew there, that it would be
- 55:51probably a good idea to ask that person if they understand the
- 55:55difference between water baptism and being baptized into Christ,
- 55:59right? There you go.
- 55:59I think that's a confusing thing to a lot of people, right?
- 56:03The difference? Between those two.
- 56:08Yeah. Speaking of fully immersion, I
- 56:10was also thinking about in Romans or a little bit further
- 56:17from where Anne was reading it talks about how that our Mensch
- 56:21members are now instruments of righteousness who were sown in
- 56:25corruption were raised in glory. So even our hands, our fingers,
- 56:29our our whole body was to glorify like, you know, it was
- 56:34all changed. He said now our members should
- 56:35operate differently. Those members that you used to
- 56:38sin with now you used to do good things like, so that was not
- 56:42just you didn't just glorify a couple hair on top and this part
- 56:48of the scalp. He glorify like he swallows up,
- 56:51man. You know, all of our members are
- 56:53now affected by that Batman. Sure, so get your wrist under
- 56:58that water. So I.
- 57:04Never got anything partially. Oh, that's good.
- 57:09So one of my follow up questions regarding this, you know, how
- 57:14to, you know, one of them was, you know, how to encourage
- 57:17obedience without like pressuring or making somebody in
- 57:20there, which you guys answered that really good.
- 57:22You know, basically tell them the truth about what happened
- 57:24and what this baptism represents or whatever.
- 57:28And which is the second thing that I was thinking about
- 57:31asking, which again, you kind of covered, but why does baptism
- 57:33still matter? Like what is it?
- 57:35Why is that important that we do?
- 57:37But again, it's it's just to remind us, remind us bring back
- 57:41to memory what actually happened in the physical right.
- 57:45I mean, we could read that and know that.
- 57:47But to see something in action, like that's why a lot of
- 57:52children pastors or you know, or or even other teachers, they use
- 57:57some kind of an object lesson. Just it sticks in your mind
- 58:00better when you see something brought out there in a in a
- 58:03good, I remember really good long time.
- 58:05It was Melvin. You might remember this.
- 58:08You know, someone talked about had a kids lesson on He had a
- 58:11stick cut out of the woods that had a vine wrapped around and
- 58:15the stick was all bent and curled up.
- 58:16And he made a big old story about I don't even remember
- 58:18exactly what he was trying to prove by it, but I do remember
- 58:20the stick of the and the thing and it just it's something I
- 58:23don't remember. What if he would have just said
- 58:25that exact same thing without that visual representation of
- 58:29what Sid he was talking about? What Sid does to your life, like
- 58:31it wraps you up or it causes you to be distorted and stuff, which
- 58:35is true, but I would not remember that hadn't it not been
- 58:38for that. So, you know, in that way,
- 58:40that's one of the reasons that baptism is, I think, very
- 58:43important to them. I got another thing that I think
- 58:46is important is because what we've also touched for in the
- 58:49past episodes was it sends a message to the people that don't
- 58:56believe or it sends a message to the persecutors.
- 59:01Like if you're not willing to be baptized, then somebody could
- 59:05make the argument that you're afraid of the persecution or
- 59:07you're afraid of what comes with it.
- 59:09And I know that's a real thing. I know there are people that
- 59:11don't get baptized. They don't want to get the
- 59:13Flack. They still want to be able to go
- 59:15visit their parents or they still want to go be able to
- 59:17visit their friends or they don't want to be chased down.
- 59:21And for someone in in Iraq and Iran and Africa to get baptized
- 59:27is a pretty big deal to me that that is very significant.
- 59:32And most of the time I, I would encourage someone like that is
- 59:37you're asking about would you confront someone that is not
- 59:43getting baptized? And I would say there's some
- 59:46spiritual significance to it. And I think for you, not getting
- 59:49baptized is a little bit of a coward.
- 59:54Show me by your works that you're putting your faith in
- 59:56people's Christ. I don't know I will well, and I
- 1:00:01would say this too. It's like I know he doesn't say
- 1:00:03the exact same thing and I'm not trying to put him in the same
- 1:00:06exact boat, but when it talks about communion says Jesus says
- 1:00:11as OFT as you do this, do it in remembrance me like.
- 1:00:14You're you're. Seeing something that would
- 1:00:17resemble blood, you're seeing, you know, a loaf that resembles
- 1:00:23a body or flesh. So you are being put in mind of
- 1:00:27that. And I think that that's to me,
- 1:00:29that's why I, that's why I would, I would connect Romans 6
- 1:00:34with in the only in the sense that you're seeing a death,
- 1:00:38burial, resurrection, right? I mean you are seeing that in
- 1:00:42other. Words.
- 1:00:44I'm not saying I'm not trying to prove that Romans six is talking
- 1:00:47about water. I'm just saying if you watch a
- 1:00:49water baptism, I think about Romans 6.
- 1:00:52I mean like I think about what he's.
- 1:00:54So I'm saying it is a it is something that shows or reminds
- 1:01:00you of a reality that's already happened.
- 1:01:04And that is so powerful. I love watching baptisms.
- 1:01:08I I love it. I just did always invigorating
- 1:01:11and and brings a tear to my eye because of seeing that actual
- 1:01:16representation of what happened in the spirit when you believed
- 1:01:20on God. I mean, that is the sweetest
- 1:01:22story ever read ever will be read.
- 1:01:25It's just the sweetest thing in the world to see and especially
- 1:01:28to see a new believer step into that with enthusiasm and, and
- 1:01:32just, oh man, that's good. Briggs shows up with that list
- 1:01:35by just thinking about it. And one of good baptism around
- 1:01:37here again. One of our camps, we had one
- 1:01:40that did grew up in a, in a, in that culture we've mentioned
- 1:01:44before where they don't believe water baptism is a thing
- 1:01:47anymore. And man, he got baptized with
- 1:01:49everybody crying, I think. I mean, he, he was it, it was
- 1:01:54powerful. He was like, I am out here and I
- 1:01:57am going to I'm going to go down with Jesus in in the water and
- 1:02:04I'm going to rise again. And in that he understood the
- 1:02:08gospel and he was doing it in that, in that light.
- 1:02:13And it was an emotional time. I mean, it was powerful.
- 1:02:17Yeah. Well, I was trying to decide
- 1:02:19when we were getting ready to go on here tonight.
- 1:02:21What is my most favorite thing, a wedding or a baptism?
- 1:02:24And I'm still not sure. Which one I?
- 1:02:25Like the best, but. They're both.
- 1:02:27In a pretty Racine category in my mind.
- 1:02:30I like it both, just at separate times.
- 1:02:32Yeah, Yeah, that's right. Yeah.
- 1:02:35Sure. All right, I guess we'll kind of
- 1:02:38quit there. We'll discuss amongst ourselves
- 1:02:41sometime this week on whether you know, to continue a little
- 1:02:44bit more on the the Holy Spirit side of things or Holy Ghost
- 1:02:47side of things or not or, or switch topics.
- 1:02:50But if you have any input on that, be feel free to reach out
- 1:02:53to one of us and let your feelings be known about that or
- 1:02:56thoughts. If you are personally wanting to
- 1:03:01know more about the subject, you know, read, read, you know,
- 1:03:08books like Romans, Romans 6, you know that that gives a really
- 1:03:11good illustration there. Colossians 2, like I read
- 1:03:14they're really good illustration.
- 1:03:15Course, you can read Acts there, the story about the eunuch and
- 1:03:18and different places like that. There's a lot quite a bit.
- 1:03:22I mean, there's not a huge amount of scripture regarding
- 1:03:24baptism in the Bible, but it's I think it's pretty clear we don't
- 1:03:27have to guess. So anyway, this was good for me
- 1:03:31for sure. And just want to thank you all
- 1:03:34for hanging out with us. We'll be back next week with
- 1:03:37come Wild Idea. We'll figure it out.
- 1:03:39So anyway, yeah, thanks for watching guys.
- 1:03:41We will be back next week. Same time, same place, different
- 1:03:45subject probably or maybe some follow up stuff on this and then
- 1:03:48into a next subject. So once again, God bless you
- 1:03:51guys. Thanks for hanging with us.
- 1:03:52We'll see you next week.