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Wednesday, April 26, 2023

I Don’t Have to be Baptized – Lies of the Enemy #15– Purity 1027


I Don’t Have to be Baptized  – Lies of the Enemy #15– Purity 1027

Purity 1027 04/26/2023 Purity 1027 Podcast

Purity 1027 on YouTube: 



Good morning,

Today’s photo of Kinderhook Creek from the vantage point of the Hudson Avenue Bridge comes to us from yours truly as I looked back in my photo archives to “share something!” and came across this scene that I captured back on August 22, 2020 while I was visiting nearby Stuyvesant Falls Park.  During those days I had not only dreamed the impossible dream of getting a new home for my children and I, I had followed the Lord’s guidance and accomplished it! Although I was basking in the glory of a new chapter of my life, I was still working two jobs and was intentional to use what little leisure time that I had to “do something” and spent that summer exploring the parks and nature trails near my new home before having to go into work.   

Well, Its” hump day, and even though no mountain is pictured today, I thought this photo from the “middle” of the Hudson Avenue Bridge was good enough to serve as a visual representation of our arrival at mid-week, may be not, but oh well here it is.  Yeah, maybe its not perfect but I guess I share it intentionally to demonstrate that our walk of faith is not about perfection, it’s about progress and our ability to find peace and joy in “what is” rather than lamenting over what we don’t have and how we “haven’t arrive yet”. 

This past weekend I was reminded by my wife that sometimes there can be peace found in the journey but if we are traveling with someone whose expectations are to “get somewhere” we may discover that our efforts to “stop and smell the roses” can cause contention.   Just because we both know where we are going doesn’t mean we fully are in agreement with how we get there or share the same “spirit”. 

My photo reminds me of this because in those days my time was limited and while I could have spent time driving around “enjoying the countryside” before going to these little slices of appreciation, if I did that there would be even less time to enjoy them.  These solo trips were constrained by time but I was free to go and see what I wanted to see and to abruptly leave the moment I felt that “time was up” or I had “enough”.  But when we are traveling with someone else, they don’t necessarily know what we are thinking and may not realize that our expectations are not the same.  

Similarly in our walk of faith, there are varying opinions about following the Lord and what is expected of us.   One of those expectations – a sacrament – is baptism.  And while this may ruffle some denominational or doctrinal feathers it is the topic for today’s Lie of the enemy.  

Our current series is an examination of some of the common lies, sometimes sneakily whispered into our minds as “first person” statements, that enemy tells us to cause us to doubt our faith, lose our peace, cause division, or influence us to not follow the Lord with the way we live our lives.   So today’s big lie is:  

Lie #15: “I Don’t Have to be Baptized!”

Whether you were infant baptized or not baptized at all, baptism is commonly taught to be an outward expression of an inward decision to make Jesus our Lord and Savior and to surrender our lives to following Him.   It should be a beautiful moment in a believer’s life where they have “decided to follow Jesus” in newness of life as the baptismal waters represent our death and resurrection with Christ.  

This is reflected in:

 

Romans 6:3-4 (NKJV) which tells us:
3  Or do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? 4  Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.

Baptism can be a definitive moment in our walk of faith that marks our death to our old life and our decision to live the new life in Christ.   Being baptized in public or telling the testimony of our baptism should be a sign that we are Christians and we are going live like a Christian.  

Of course, just “getting wet” doesn’t make you a disciple of Christ anymore than hanging out in a garage makes you a car, but for those who follow the Lord in spirit and in truth, baptism is a right of passage to walking in the Spirit – applying God’s wisdom and ways to the way we live.

Personally, I don’t care if you were baptized or not. Rather than looking atyour ‘splash down”, I’ll watch what happens afterwards in your life to see if the fruit of the spirit grows from that “watering” or not.   

But the enemy loves to tempt “believers” with noncompliance to this basic ordinance of our faith by proclaiming “I don’t have to be baptized!” because of infant baptism ( I was baptized – I even have my white baby baptismal gown!) or because it isn’t specifically required (What about the thief on the cross?).  

Granted, we are “baptized” into God’s kingdom by faith. The testimony of the thief on the cross is an extreme example of someone who put their faith Jesus, wasn’t baptized (because he died), and was still welcomed into the paradise of God’s kingdom.

However, I  am sharing a link to Open Bible.info’s “100 verses about baptism” for those who want to get a quick look at what scripture has to say about it. (https://www.openbible.info/topics/baptism).  I give you the warning that verse may convict you to be baptized  and provide some of the verses from that list that will indicate that (unless you die before you can) we are commanded to be baptized.  

Mark 16:16 (NKJV) – Jesus’ words say:
16  He who believes and is baptized will be saved; but he who does not believe will be condemned.    

In Matthew 28:19-20 (NKJV)  Jesus tells us to:  
19  Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,
20  teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age." Amen.

The implication is that if you are a disciple you would be baptized.   And for those who would stand on baptism as “by faith alone”, Jesus said:

John 3:5 (NKJV)
5  … "Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.

Oh and Jesus Himself was water baptized:

Matthew 3:13-17 (NKJV)  tells us
13  Then Jesus came from Galilee to John at the Jordan to be baptized by him.
14  And John tried to prevent Him, saying, "I need to be baptized by You, and are You coming to me?"  15  But Jesus answered and said to him, "Permit it to be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness." Then he allowed Him.
16  When He had been baptized, Jesus came up immediately from the water; and behold, the heavens were opened to Him, and He saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting upon Him.
17  And suddenly a voice came from heaven, saying, "This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased."

Sounds like God the Father was pleased by Jesus’ baptism, so I have to believe He would be pleased by our baptism too.   

So rather than standing on your liberty, I invite those who have not taken the plunge of water baptism to consider making it your next step of faith to demonstrate to God and all the world that you Christian whose heart is set on following Jesus.  

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For those who want more evidence for Christianity than my simple apologetic will provide, I offer apologist, Frank Turek’s website, https://crossexamined.org/ .

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Today’s Bible verse comes to us from “The NLT Bible Promise Book for Men”.

This morning’s meditation verses :

Romans 8:35-37 (NLT2)
35  Can anything ever separate us from Christ’s love? Does it mean he no longer loves us if we have trouble or calamity, or are persecuted, or hungry, or destitute, or in danger, or threatened with death?
36  (As the Scriptures say, “For your sake we are killed every day; we are being slaughtered like sheep.”)
37  No, despite all these things, overwhelming victory is ours through Christ, who loved us.

 

Today’s verses encourage us that nothing can separate those who put their faith in Jesus from the love of God.   Except for not being baptized – just kidding or may be I’m not kidding. Me? I got baptized on the day of Boston bombings in 2013 – April 15th while on work in New York City at Hillsong Church NYC. They just happen to be doing baptism that day and I had signed up the Sunday before because even though I was born again in 2010 – I stubbornly refused it – until the Lord put it on my heart to do it.  That day NYC was a veritable police state because of the terrorist attack and as I traveled by subway to the midtown hotel pool where I would take the plunge I got a real sense that I was officially leaving the world behind as I was going to commit my life fully and publicly to following Jesus.  It was a positively wonder and electric experience as I was awestruck and filled with joy in the community of saints and left the hotel into the evening air still wet and a wash in the bright light of time square knowing that I had entered into a new dimension of my faith.  And that declaration, and experience of faith, was just another piece of evidence that the Lord did indeed save me and the words of Romans 8:35-37 really were true about me.  

 

I was His, I am God’s child – baptized and adopted in His family by water and the Spirit  and there is nothing that can separate me from His love. 

 

This is true for all of us who put our faith in Christ – so believe it – rejoice over it – and endeavor to share that love with others.

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As always, I invite all to go to mt4christ.org where I always share insights from prominent Christian theologians and counselors to assist my brothers and sisters in Christ with their walk.

Today we continue sharing from A.W. Pink’s “The Sovereignty of God.”

As always, I share this information for educational purposes and encourage all to purchase A.W. Pink’s books for your own private study and to support his work.  This resource is available on many websites for less than $20.00.

THE SOVEREIGNTY OF GOD

By  ARTHUR W. PINK

APPENDIX III

THE MEANING OF “KOSMOS” (“WORLD”) IN JOHN 3:16 concludes

5. “Kosmos” is used of humanity minus believers: John 15:18; Rom. 3:6: “If the world hate you, ye know that it hated Me before it hated you.” Believers do not “hate” Christ, so that “the world” here must signify the world of unbelievers in contrast from believers who love Christ. “God forbid: for then shall God judge the the world.” Here is another passage where “the world” cannot mean “you, me, and everybody,” for believers will not be “judged” by God, see John 5:24. So that here, too, it must be the world of unbelievers which is in view.

6. “Kosmos” is used of Gentiles in contrast from Jews: Rom 11:12 etc.: “Now if the fall of them (Israel) be the riches of the world, and the diminishing of them (Israel) the riches of the Gentiles; how much more their (Israel’s) fulness.” Note how the first clause in italics is defined by the latter clause in italics. Here, again, “the world” cannot signify all humanity for it excludes Israel!

7. “Kosmos” is used of believers only: John 1:29; 3:16, 17; 6:33; 12:47; 1 Cor. 4:9; 2 Cor. 5:19. We leave our readers to turn to these passages, asking them to note, carefully, exactly what is said and predicated of “the world” in each place.

Thus it will be seen that “kosmos” has at least seven clearly defined different meanings in the New Testament. It may be asked, Has then God used a word thus to confuse and confound those who read the Scriptures? We answer, No! nor has He written His Word for lazy people who are too dilitary, or too busy with the things of this world, or, like Martha, so much occupied with “serving,” they have no time and no heart to “search” and “study” Holy Writ! Should it be asked further, But how is a searcher of the Scriptures to know which of the above meanings the term “world” has in any given passage? The answer is: This may be ascertained by careful study of the context, by diligently noting what is predicated of “the world” in each passage, and by prayerfully consulting other parallel passages to the one being studied.

The principal subject of John 3:16 is Christ as the Gift of God. The first clause tells us what moved God to “give” His only begotten Son, and that was His great “love”; the second clause informs us for whom God “gave” His Son, and that is for, “whosoever (or, better, ‘everyone’) believeth”; while the last clause makes known why God “gave” His Son (His purpose), and that is, that everyone that believeth “should not perish but have everlasting life.”

That “the world” in John 3:16 refers to the world of believers (God’s elect), in contradistinction from “the world of the ungodly” (2 Pet. 2:5), is established, unequivocally established, by a comparison of the other passages which speaks of God’s “love.” “God commendeth His love toward US”—the saints, Rom. 5:8. “Whom the Lord loveth He chasteneth”—every son, Heb. 12:6. “We love Him, because He first loved US”—believers, 1 John 4:19. The wicked, God “pities” (see Matt. 18:33). Unto the unthankful and evil God is “kind” (See Luke 6:35). The vessels of wrath He endures “with much long-suffering” (see Rom. 9:22.) But “His own” God “loves”!![1]

---------------------------more tomorrow------------------------

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Encouragement for the Path of Christian Discipleship



[1] Arthur W. Pink, The Sovereignty of God (Swengel, PA: Bible Truth Depot, 1949), 266–269.

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