And we love you too, Lord. Amen. So the question, why do we baptize? Share a story with you, I heard. Once there was a little preschool girl and she was in the congregation, baptism was happening.
She looks up as the baptism’s happening and the pastor takes the candidate for baptism and pushes them down under the water, pulls them back up. She said, daddy, why did he just push that man under the water? They tried to explain it to her quietly, and that didn’t work. So when they got home that night, they tried to give her a full explanation and help her to understand what baptism’s all about. And so they tried to explain about sin and how Jesus makes you clean.
And that after baptism, people will they’ll try to live a better life and and and do things more right. And so the little girl said, well, why didn’t the pastor just spank him? There’s a lot of confusion about baptism. It’s it’s one of those things that most people have heard of baptism. Maybe they know of baptism, but there’s a lot of confusion about baptism and why we even baptize in the first place.
Baptism is something that we regularly do. In fact, today, we will baptize two. Today, just a few weeks ago, we baptized. And so as we baptized throughout the the year, it’s something that we regularly do. But often, baptism is one of those things that is greatly misunderstood.
As a pastor, I can tell you that there are many times when I speak to someone about baptism and they absolutely do not understand what baptism is all about. One of the first things that that, I get when people want to be baptized, I’ll ask them, well, why do you want to be baptized? Why is it that you want to be baptized? And the first thing they say is, well, I want my sins to be washed away. Baptism is very misunderstood, and baptism, does it wash your sins away?
That’s a question. Because people will say, I want to have my sins washed away. That’s why I want to be baptized. I I had someone come to me, and they wanted to be baptized. And I said, well, have you ever been baptized before?
Yeah. I’ve been baptized, like, five times, but it hadn’t worked yet. They’re baptized to wash their sins away. They think that by being dunked under the water and raised up, that their sins have now been magically washed away. Well, I wanna explain to you the water that’s in this baptismal up here is no magic water.
There’s nothing magic about it. It does not wash your sins away. I want you to look with me to first John chapter one and verse seven. First John chapter one and verse seven. If you don’t have your Bible with you, the passage will be on the screen.
First John chapter one and verse seven. It says, but if we walk in the light, as he himself is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his son, cleanses us from all sin. The blood of Jesus cleanses us from all sin. It is not the waters of the baptismal pool that wash the sin away. It’s the blood that Jesus gave on that cross.
It was the death that he suffered on the cross that washes our sins away. That is the only thing that can cleanse us from our sin, because Jesus is the only perfect lamb. He was the only one that was able to atone for our sins. You see, the only way that sin can be forgiven is through the blood, and the blood through Jesus is the only blood worthy of forgiveness of our sins. He died that we might have salvation, that we might have a relationship with our father.
Because up until that point, we had no way to be forgiven for our sins because the penalty for sin is death. Until Jesus died and gave that penalty, paid that penalty for us, we had no way to be forgiven, but now we do. It’s not the water in this baptismal pool that washes the sins away. It’s the blood of Jesus Christ. Jesus is the only one that can do that.
We all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. That’s what the Bible tells us, every single one of us. Nobody is perfect. There was only one perfect, and that was Jesus. Nobody else is perfect.
Often use the example. If you wanna find out whether or not people are born sinful, put two two year olds in a room and toss in one toy and see what happens. Pretty soon, there’s gonna be a scrap. There’s gonna be a fight. There’s gonna be a lot going on.
Somebody might get hit upside the head. There’s gonna be anger. There’s gonna be all kind of things because there’s only one toy. We are born with sin. It’s in us.
And so the only way that we can be forgiven for that is through Jesus Christ. The next question I always get is, well, you know, preacher, you said I I I I gave myself to Jesus. I I came up. I talked to you, and I truly I understand that I did ask Jesus into my life. And I know you told me that the blood of Christ forgives me of all my sins, and so I have accepted Jesus as my Lord and savior, and that’s who I want to follow for the rest of my life.
And I know that I have received that salvation. So the question that I have is this, is baptism really necessary? Is baptism necessary? Can I be saved without being baptized? Is that something that can happen?
Because I wanna make sure, and then others will say, well, I got saved, but I wanna be baptized, like, today because I don’t wanna wait. What if something happens between now and next week, and I haven’t completed the process? I don’t want that to happen. So baptism, is it necessary? Is it not necessary for salvation?
That’s a big question. A lot of people wanna know that. They don’t understand, and so they ask that question. And and, you know, as I said, baptism is one of those things that we know, especially in a Baptist church, that we put a lot of emphasis on baptism. And as we do that, sometimes it gets confusing.
So, again, what does the Bible say? Is baptism necessary for salvation? Look with me to Luke chapter 23 and verse 43. Luke chapter 23 and verse 43. And there you will find this passage.
And he said to him, truly I say to you, today you shall be with me in paradise. Now that passage is Jesus speaking to the thief on the cross. This is a thief on the cross who recognized Jesus as savior. And when he said to the other thief, do you not understand who this is? He recognized who Jesus was.
He accepted Jesus, and Jesus said, today, you will be of me in paradise. You don’t have to come down off the cross and go be baptized in order to be with me. He said, today, you will be with me. There was no baptism required at that point. So baptism is not required for salvation.
Baptism is something that we do after salvation. It’s not part of the salvation. So when people ask the question, well, is baptism necessary for salvation? The answer is, no. It’s not necessary for salvation.
However, it is something that Jesus told us to do. And so, therefore, we follow in that. So the next thing that people will say after that is, well, then what is the purpose of being baptized? What is the purpose? If I if it’s not necessary for salvation, it doesn’t wash away my sins, then what is the whole purpose of being baptized?
Why do we even do it? If if it’s not necessary and it doesn’t wash away sin, it doesn’t do anything, why then are we baptized? Why do we do that? Why do we even follow along in that? Well, what is the purpose of being baptized?
Here’s the very first thing I wanna tell you. The purpose of baptism is it is your very first public witness of the change that has occurred in your life. It is the very first public witness to share with those that are in the congregation about the change that happened in your life. Because understand, the picture of baptism is buried with him in baptism, raised to walk in the newness of life. And what you’re saying to those that are watching is that the old self, the old me, is no longer here.
I gave my life to Christ, and that old self has been put away. My sins have been cast as far as the East is from the West, and I am now a new creation because I took part in the burial of Jesus Christ and in the resurrection of Jesus Christ, and now I’m a new creation. The Bible tells us that we are new creations in Christ once we have accepted him. So when we have baptism, it is a picture of what’s already happened in our life. The old you has passed away and buried, and the new you has risen to walk in the newness of life.
You are a brand new creation. So the purpose of being baptized, it doesn’t do anything to you per se. The purpose of being baptized is to show the rest of the world what has already happened in your life. It is a witness from you to everyone else that you have changed. You are not the same person that you once were.
So after we answer the the questions, all these previous questions about baptism and all of those that have been answered, I want to do this. I want to give you three reasons for a believer to be baptized. Three reasons that a believer should be baptized. Okay? So I’m gonna look at several verses of scripture.
Today’s kind of a bible drill, so follow along. Several verses of scripture, and I wanna talk to you about the reasons. Look with me in Mark chapter one verse nine. Mark chapter one and verse nine. It says, in those days, Jesus came from Nazareth in Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan.
Jesus came and was baptized by John in the Jordan. So we see in verse Mark verse chapter one verse nine, Jesus was baptized. So why should we be baptized? To follow Jesus’ example. Because he told us to be baptized.
He showed us by being baptized. Listen. Jesus had no sin. Jesus had no sin in his life. Jesus was god in the flesh walking in the world, and yet he was still baptized.
The purpose for him being baptized was to set an example for us to show us. In fact, when he was baptized, the heavens opened and a voice from heaven said, this is my son in whom I am well pleased. And so we know that Jesus set that example for us to be baptized. He came and he did that. He set examples for us in all that he did.
He showed us how you can live and not sin. He showed us how to forgive even when people treat you badly. He showed us how to love even those who don’t seem very lovable. He showed us how to follow follow the father even when it’s hard. He showed us everything there is that we need to know even including he showed us that we should be baptized just like he was.
So one of the purposes, one of the reasons that we need to be baptized is to follow Jesus’ example. Well, maybe that’s not enough. Okay. You want me to follow Jesus’ example, but is there anything else? Well, I’m glad you asked.
Matthew chapter 28 verse nineteen and twenty. Matthew 28 verses nineteen and twenty. This is what it says. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the father and of the son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you, and lo, I am with you always even until the end of the age. Jesus commanded it.
He set the example, and he said we should be baptized based off his example. Then it was also commanded. He said to go and make disciples, baptizing them in the name of the father and the son and the holy spirit. Make disciples means go and share the gospel, that they would come to know Jesus and be a disciple of Jesus and baptize them just as he was in the name of the father, the son, and the Holy Spirit, that they too would be baptized. So not only is it an example that Jesus gave us, but it’s also a command.
He gave us an example, and then he commanded that we should also be baptized. And so when we’re looking at this baptism, it’s one of those things that so many people look at it, and some will say, well, you know, I need to be baptized, but I’m not sure if I want to. Others will say, well, you know, I’m I’m good. I don’t have to be baptized. I know that that I can be saved without baptism.
And and then there are a lot of different questions. And then some that think that baptism is washing their sins away, and they come and wanna be baptized four and five times because, well, the first ones didn’t take. Well, they didn’t take because you were never saved. You never gave your life to Christ. You were trying to put baptism before salvation.
It doesn’t work that way. And so when we look at this and we try to figure out why, well, Jesus set the example. He also gave us a command, and then look at Acts chapter two and verse 41. Acts chapter two and verse 41. So then those who had received his word were baptized, and that day, there were added about 3,000 souls.
They received his word and followed in believers baptism, because he set the example, because it was commanded that we go and tell. These people, once they accepted Jesus Christ on that day, they wanted to immediately follow in believer’s baptism, and about 3,000 were baptized on that day. What an amazing picture to just think about that. Baptism after baptism after baptism because the all of those people had received Jesus as Lord and savior. You know, probably the the closest thing I can think of to maybe even that picture is, a crusade where thousands of people come and receive Jesus in at one, service where Jesus was taught and preached and salvation was was explained, and so many came and gave their life.
We we preach every Sunday in churches all over the land. All over this country, the gospel is being preached every Sunday. And every Sunday, as the gospel is preached and we have an a time of invitation and invite people to come and accept Jesus, come and share with us the things that they want in their life, to give their life to the Lord. We invite that, and yet nobody comes. There are so many churches that we don’t see people come and accept Jesus as Lord and savior.
We don’t see those salvations. Part of the reason we don’t see those salvations is because that’s the only time they heard it. Most of us are hard headed. Takes us more than once. Sometimes we have to hear it a lot.
Sometimes somebody needs to come to your house. We’re going out in a few weeks, knock on doors, tell people about Jesus. We need to tell people that we work with. We need to share Jesus in all the ways that we live our lives. We need to be disciples for Christ and to share Jesus.
And when we do and we share Jesus and they come to know him as lord and savior, then that’s not just the, oh, they got saved. Now that’s that. Now we need to help them learn and to grow. And one of the ways is to help them understand baptism in the very first place. So even those who had received his word on that day and at at Pentecost, three thousand souls received baptism on that day.
There’s also a question about, well, why why do we immerse people instead of any other method? Baptists are based our beliefs and faith on what Jesus did, and Jesus was baptized by immersion. Why do we do that? That’s why. Because Jesus was baptized by immersion.
I also wanna tell you something else on that is this. Look at Romans chapter six verse three and four. Romans chapter six verse three and four. Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into his death? So one of the reasons that we baptize by immersion is the picture.
It’s the picture of death, burial under the water, and resurrection raised in the newness of life. So when we talk about baptism and we talk about immersion, why do we do that? That is one of the very reasons that we baptize by immersion, because of the very picture itself showing that we have been baptized into his death, and through his resurrection, we walk in a new life. And so as we live in in our lives and we go through things and we accept Jesus Christ as Lord and savior, we have to understand that through this process of baptism, it is our first public witness. It is the first thing that people see.
To me, it gives that connection as you, the candidate, are being pushed under the water and raised up in a new life that it puts you so close to recognizing it’s because of the death, the burial, and the resurrection that you can have life and and have it abundantly. Look at Matthew chapter three verse 16. Matthew chapter three and verse 16, and it says this, after being baptized, Jesus came up immediately from the water. And behold, the heavens were opened, and he saw the spirit of God descending on him as a dove and lighting on him. Descending as a dove and lighting on him.
After Jesus was baptized, he came up immediately from the water. And so we see based off this example that Jesus was immersed. He was buried in baptism and raised up. He was pushed under the water and raised up. He was immersed and raised up.
He said, follow in baptism. He said, go and baptize. The example we have is immersion, so that’s why we immerse. Also, the word baptize literally means to dip under the water. That’s what it means.
So why do we immerse? That’s why we immerse. So today, there are lots of questions that we’ve we’ve asked, and there’s lots of things that we have shared. Does baptism wash away your sins? No.
Only Jesus’ blood washes away your sin. Do you have to be baptized to complete the salvation? No. But we’re baptized because Jesus commanded him. Why are we immersed?
Because Jesus was immersed, and because of the picture that it shows of the death and the burial and the resurrection. And so these things are important things that we share. Why today am I sharing this? You came today and you said the preacher’s given a lesson on baptism. He’s really not telling us all about the gospel.
Well, if you listened, I told you that the only reason that we can have salvation is because of the son of God. God so loved the world that he gave his only son, that’s Jesus, that whoever believes in him will not perish but have everlasting life. And as Jesus came, he suffered at the hands of our sin. See, we we think, oh, Jesus was crucified by the Romans. He was, but he was crucified for our sin.
That’s why he was crucified. Jesus gave his life. He was buried. He was crucified. He was buried, and then he was resurrected on the third day.
And because of that, we now can have salvation if we call upon him, and we accept him as our lord and our savior. We give our life to him. The old life is gone. The new life has come. And then because of that, we recognize that through baptism.
Buried and raised in a newness of life. See, there’s really not much more important that a pastor would have to say to a congregation than number one, let me tell you how you can know Jesus as lord and savior. And I’ve told you that today. The second thing is, if you know Jesus as lord and savior, then don’t keep that to yourself. You need to tell other people about it, and the first way you can do that is through baptism.
The very first way is through baptism. So very important things that you need to hear. Important things because the world gets confused, and we hear all kinds of things about it out in the world. We hear people that come and they say, I wanna be baptized, but they’ve never given their life to Christ. We see people that come and say, well, I got baptized one time, but it didn’t work.
I need to be baptized again. We have people that say, well, I don’t really need to be baptized. The reality is that it’s something that Jesus gave us an example and he commanded us to do. So we should do that if we’re at all able. I shared Jesus Christ with someone in a hospital bed.
Wasn’t very long taking their last breath. They accepted Jesus as their Lord and savior. And they said, I don’t know if I’m gonna be well enough to get out of this bed and be baptized. And I shared with them that they could take comfort in knowing that their salvation was secure, whether they were baptized or not. But it was very important.
They wanted to be baptized. So, well, there’s no way we can get them out of this bed and baptize them. They had hoses and wires, and there was nothing that we could do. So we were able to turn them sideways on the bed and literally take a pan of water and push their head down in the water and back out. And we explain through the same process of the death, burial, and resurrection.
And the smile that came across their face was just incredible because they wanted to follow in baptism, and they were afraid they weren’t able to, yet we were still able to do it. Did we completely immerse them? No. We weren’t able to. But we did the very best we could at the time, and absolutely, I know that they were so excited about that.
And they passed a few days later. But you see, the important thing is they received Jesus as their Lord and savior. That’s number one. I have shared the gospel with people who passed before they could be baptized. They’re no less in heaven today than than anybody that was baptized.
But for us to follow in that, it is a very important thing. If for no other reason that others can see the picture of what God has done for you and what God has given his life. People come to be baptized, and sometimes when they come to be baptized, family comes and they don’t regularly attend anywhere, or maybe some of them don’t know Jesus. This is the first time they’ve heard about it. Sometimes they have friends that come that that don’t know Jesus.
They’ve never, experienced that, but they come to the baptism because their friends are being baptized. And through that, they have an opportunity to hear the gospel. Today, we’re going to observe the ordinance of baptism. We’re going to observe the ordinance of baptism. Today, we have two young men that separately came to me, but close time frame together, and said, I know Jesus Christ, but I haven’t been baptized, and I want to be baptized.
I spent some time speaking with them and confirmed that they professed Jesus as Lord and savior and said we would love to do that, and we set it up for today. So you’re here today, many of you, to celebrate with this and to bear witness to what god has already done in their lives. As we celebrate this ordinance of baptism today, I have a question for you, those that are here. Question is this, do you know Jesus? Do you know Jesus?
Has there been a time in your life this is for everyone that’s here. I don’t know personally your heart. I can’t know personally your heart. Only you know. Some may have been a member for years and years and years, but do you know Jesus?
Have you ever actually given your life to Jesus? Because you see church membership doesn’t save you. Coming to church every week doesn’t save you. Being a good person doesn’t save you. Do you know Jesus?
Have you ever given your life to the one who gave his life for you? Do you know Jesus? That’s a question for each person to examine their own self and answer. Do you know him? Do you know him?
Have you given your life to him today? The next question I wanna ask you today is this. Have you been baptized? Some people got saved at a, maybe some, revival event, or they got saved at, even at a school, or they got saved somewhere else and, when the opportunity to be baptized when that happened. And time went by, and they never got baptized.
I’ve had people come to me that have been saved for years and years and years and say, well, I never got baptized. Well, the Ethiopian eunuch who had accepted Jesus Christ, and he’s traveling along in the chariot. He’s asking about baptism. And he said, well, if you know Jesus, you can. He said, look.
There’s water. What’s stopping me from being baptized right now? Nothing. He got baptized right then. Have you been baptized?
Is it something that you put off for some reason? Is it something that you would like to do? There’s water. What’s stopping you? Today, we’re going to celebrate that.
I want to say this today. The most important thing for every single one of us in our life is to ask the question. Have I ever given my life to Jesus? The question is, if you pass away today, if you walked out of this church today, are you a % certain that you your salvation is secure and that you would wake up in heaven with Jesus? Are you certain about that?
I didn’t ask if you’re a church member and I didn’t ask if you ever, you know, walk down an aisle and talk to somebody. What I asked is, are you certain about your salvation? Are you sure? You see, there’s so many different things that happen and people accept it but never give their life to Christ. I have spoken to so many people that as little children, they went to a vacation bible school, and their friend, little Tommy, went down the aisle and they decided to follow little Tommy.
They didn’t know why. The preacher said some words and they repeated them, and that’s all they know. They never really gave their life to Jesus. But because of that, they were declared saved. And so for the rest of their life, they thought everything’s good, but they never made that decision on their own.
They never gave their life to Christ. I’ve spoken to people that are in their twilight years of life, and they’ve been in church their whole life but never given their life to Christ and finally did. Do you know Jesus? That is the number one thing that you need to know. Right now, today, not next week, not a year from now, but today, you need to know that.
Do I know him? And if the answer is no, then my question is, do you want to know him? Do you want to give your life to him? If the answer is yes, then my next question is, have you told anybody that? Have you shared Jesus with anybody?
Do you live your life in a way that others can see Jesus in you? Because every single day, we come in contact with people that are probably lost, and they may not have another day. See, we are not promised however many years, we’re not promised another moment in life. And if we put off till tomorrow, tomorrow may never come. So today, if you need to give your life to Jesus and you wanna do that today, I’ll be glad to talk to you about how to do that.
We’re gonna have a time of invitation in just a moment. If you wanna come talk to me about it, come on up. If you’ve accepted Jesus but never been baptized, you wanna come talk to me about that, come on up. Perhaps you don’t wanna talk to me about anything, but you’d like to come to the altar and talk to the lord. It’s open.
You can come. Spend that time talking to him. But whatever God puts on your heart, I would ask you to do it during this time of invitation. Let’s pray.
