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BAPTISM

 

The other day while I was writing, sitting in my car, a man who was admiring my car came up to my window to talk to me. As he looked in he noticed my open Bible (a closed Bible doesn’t do much for me) and quickly exclaimed, “read Acts 2:38. After a sharing of God’s Word with him I looked at the verse he mentioned, it says, ‘And Peter said to them, “Repent, and let each one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit”.

 

Many people believe that baptism is a necessary ingredient for salvation. Many believe that a person should be fully immersed in water and others believe in partial immersion and/or the sprinkling on of water. There is a great deal of confusion about baptism. I once heard J. Vernon McGee (a truly great child of God say in jest, “do it all, be sprinkled, pour it on, be wholly or partially immersed, it really doesn’t make any difference”).

 

As with any point being made it is always best to go to the source of the information, in this case, Jesus. He said, “Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me hath everlasting life.” (John 6:47) There are many verses supporting that salvation comes from believing in Jesus, however, to the best of my knowledge there are no verses supporting that baptism is necessary for salvation. In the Gospel of Matthew 3:11, John the Baptist said, “I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance, but He who  cometh after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear; he shall baptize you with the Holy Spirit, and with fire.” When a person acknowledges sin and accepts Jesus as Savior, then and only then is the gift of the Holy Spirit bestowed upon that person. To repent is to merely express sorrow for sin. To believe is to accept. This is a dramatic difference.

 

Can we say anymore about baptism? Absolutely, to be baptized is to outwardly express to everyone that you knew you were lost (separated from God forever) because of sin and now you are publicly proclaiming your acceptance of Jesus Christ as your personal Savior. Amen! When Jesus was baptized by John it was to identify Himself with John’s message of righteousness (because He was sinless He needed no cleansing from sin).

 

As long as man has a brain and a mouth there will always be controversy, therefore it behooves us to seek the truth for ourselves. I have said before and I will say it again the Bible is not a book of  mystery, it is God speaking to anyone who is truly interested in his or hers eternal future. I don’t know if this is fitting here, but for some reason I am reminded of a man who set out to prove the Bible was wrong. Following an exhaustive study he concluded that the Bible was absolutely correct in every sense of  the word, but he said “I still don’t believe it.” How sad, but it was his choice. He lacked one essential ingredient…FAITH…”Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” Hebrews 11:1

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Psalm 139:2, 3&4, “You know me when I sit and when I rise; you perceive my thoughts from afar. You discern my going out and my lying down; you are familiar with all my ways. Before a word is on my tongue you know it completely, oh Lord.” Psalm 139:15, 16 says, “My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place. When I was woven together in the depths of the earth, your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.” Every time I read this scripture I am stunned by the amazing power of God.

 

Jeremiah 1:5, “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you a prophet to the nations.” Can you just imagine that God knew each one of us before we were born and He not only knows the number of our days on this earth, He even wrote them in His book.

 

If we can keep this simple, but yet, profound truth in the forefront of our thoughts each day, I believe we will live a life quite different then we now do. We should live in the comfort of knowing the Lord and enjoy the peace that He has graciously and lovingly given to us. The family of God is well provided for as mentioned in Acts 17:26, “From one man he made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live.” We should enjoy each day and not allow ourselves to be trapped and focused on the meaningless things that life can sometimes bring to our doorstep. The Bible is replete with scripture supporting what I have just written.  He even made the earth for us. I pray that we all agree that nothing is left to chance. God planned it, God did it, and He will carry out His plan in His time. And I just love Romans 11:29, “for God’s gifts and call are irrevocable.”

 

Jesus said, “Love the Lord…” and H e also said we should love one another as we love ourselves. That does not mean selective loving but rather, everyone. In fact in John 13:34 Jesus expands on His meaning of our loving one another when He says, “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.” Remember the love of God is unconditional.  Loving the Lord means focusing on Him every day of our lives. I am not advocating that we should be on our knees or singing praises to the Lord every minute of every day. We certainly should pray daily. A simple thought of thanks from time to time would be wonderful. He loves to hear from us. We can communicate with Him directly by reading His Word on a daily basis, even if it is only one verse of scripture on which you can meditate. Remember the Bible is HIS/STORY. This will please Him and that will give us a peace we do not ordinarily experience. Someday I’ll write about the personal experiences and blessings that God has so mightily and bountifully given to me.

 

Jesus was on the earth; read the gospel of John. Jesus did not die on the cross for the mighty and the righteous (holier than thou). He died for those that need Him (sinners) and accept the fact that He died on the cross for the sin of mankind (and womankind). Matthew 9:13 says, “But go and learn what this means: I desire mercy, not sacrifice. For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.: John 17:3 says. “Now this is eternal life; that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.”

 

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I want to thank you all for the kind words and encouragement expressed to me. One of my readers is forwarding my message to six of his friends. I praise the Lord for that. This leads me to ask you to send me the e-mail addresses of anyone you think might benefit from the message. Don’t hesitate to send the names and addresses of anyone you know that might not have a computer.

 

This message is going to address a subject I’ve thought about in past times. It is about each person’s eternal future. I believe that one of three possible events will occur to each person born of a woman, at the exact second of our last breath:

 

1)     Our body will simply stop functioning and there will be nothing after that.

2)     Our body will simply stop functioning and our spirit will forever be separated from God. This could be defined as hell.

3)     Our body will simply stop functioning and we will forever be in the presence of God. This could be defined as Heaven.

 

For those who believe in the first event, I encourage you to ask God to show you the truth. I will pray for you and pray Lord will open your heart. For those who do not have a relationship with Jesus, the Bible says you will suffer death, which means you will be eternally separated from God. See Mathew 25:32. For those who have a relationship with Jesus, you will be with Him for eternity. Mt.25:32: “All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats.”

 

There you have it; nothing, or eternal separation from God, or eternal bliss with God.

Which one is for you? Please, please take the time to meditate on these probable events. You can be assured that one of these events will happen to you.

 

For those who believe in Heaven and hell, I have some thoughts for your consideration. The difference between 2 and 3 above is a relationship with Jesus Christ. If you believe in one of these two alternatives, doesn’t it make sense to investigate the possibilities for yourself? After all it is your future, not mine, not your friends, not your priests, not your minister, not anyone but yourself. Each one of us will stand before the Judgment seat of God. Hebrews 9:27, 28, “Just as man is destined to die once, and after that to face judgment. So Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many people; and he will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for him.” Therefore it would seem to me, as it did many years ago, to make it a number one priority in one’s life. After all eternity isn’t going to be for a specified period of time, IT IS FOREVER.

 

Why you should investigate yourself should be obvious. If you listen to another person, such as me, you might be getting a distorted view. This is the very reason that I reference the Bible whenever I make a point that is Scriptural. If it isn’t in the Bible don’t believe it, but if it is you should seriously consider it. I once heard that there were eight two letter words that could change one’s life…IF IT IS TO BE IT IS UP TO ME. I would prefer to change one word to: IF IT IS TO BE IT IS UP TO HE. I began to read the Bible. It is not a book of mystery. If you are serious with the Lord and you really want to know the truth, the Bible is the source; in reality it is the source of life eternal. Remember the Bible is the inspired word of God. Hebrews 4:12, “For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow, it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart,” God wants to talk to you and He does talk to you in His Word; Romans 10:17, “Consequently, faith comes from hearing the message and he message is heard through the word of Christ.” Please remember that living is not the only reason we are here. We were born to be born again (see John3:5, “born again”), to live with God in eternity.(see John.3:16 “whoever believes in him.”). The Gospel of John is my favorite book; it is a great place to begin reading the Bible.

 

 

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BORN AGAIN… I’m sure you are not a stranger to this expression. Is it Biblical? Is it someone’s idea? Born again is simply the spiritual state of someone who has accepted Jesus as their personal Savior. It does not represent their state of maturity. A new born again Christian is usually very emotional and excited and in their attempt to ‘convert’ everyone, could very well unintentionally hurt or insult someone. It is going to take time and learning to realize we are to plant the seed of true Christianity and pray for them. Be examples and pray for them. A revelation is not perfection (no one can claim perfection). I remember very clearly my early days of accepting Jesus as my Savior and how I tried to convert the world until I realized I couldn’t do it my way. Today, I am like the farmer who plows the land, plants the seed, and waters the crop. And I pray, pray and pray for them.

 

Today I would like to discuss the words of Jesus. One night Jesus was approached by a Jewish ruler, Nicodemus (The Gospel of John, Chapter 3) who admitted to Jesus that He  had come from God; his reason being, that anyone doing the signs that He did had to come from God. Jesus said to him that ‘unless a person is born again he cannot enter the Kingdom of God,’ (John 3:3). Nicodemus, being a highly religious member of the Sanhedrin, asked Him how this could be?  “How can a man be born when he is old? He cannot enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born, can he?” In John 4:4 Jesus answered and said, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.” (John 3:5, 6) I believe that Jesus could not have explained it in more simple terms, Let’s examine these two simple requirements:

 

1)     Born of water means a person must experience a physical birth, that is, conceived and growing inside the mother’s womb, (so much for clones).

2)     Born of the Spirit means, born from above, that is, born of God. Putting it another way is simply inviting Jesus into your life as your Savior.

 

Many people refer to this passage to mean a person must be baptized. I find this extremely difficult to believe after what Jesus told Nicodemus. “That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.” Think about that, physical birth is first and a requirement and Spiritual birth is second and a requirement. Jesus never erred when He spoke, as He is omniscient.

 

Therein lies the way to Heaven. Think about it; we don’t have to do anything else, according to Jesus, but be BORN AGAIN. This phrase today is maligned, misunderstood, and abused. What is really important to each of us is what Jesus said in the gospel of John including one of the most quoted verses in scripture; John 3: 16, which says and I quote Jesus, “For God so, loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life.” My interpretation of John 3: 16 is that the believer will not die but will live forever with God in the eternal kingdom. The period following eternal life means precisely that, no strings attached, no additional requirements and no way to lose one’s salvation. Because of what Jesus said I live in the peace and joy knowing that my last breath on this earth will be my first in Heaven to spend eternity. Where will you spend eternity? Please do not make the mistake in believing that there is no eternity.

 

Our servant and friend, Nick                                                                              Number 2