Sermon

26 April 2026: What is Water Baptism?

The Way Church Podcast

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  1. Welcome to the podcast of the White Church in Adelaide, South

  2. Australia Just. Jumping straight into it here.

  3. We, we, we talked about the gospel last week.

  4. How does the gospel make you feel like when I hear the gospel

  5. again, it, it stirs the Spirit of God in me.

  6. I'm, I'm reminded of who I am now and what he's done.

  7. And there's such life in that. Like, I don't know, there's, you

  8. know, there's no life outside of the gospel, outside of what

  9. Jesus has done. We spoke about that last week.

  10. So I'm not going to go straight back into that, but we're going

  11. to talk about water baptism this week.

  12. And water baptism is, it's the next thing that happens after

  13. salvation comes. And we're going to talk through

  14. all of that in a moment. But water baptism is like the

  15. representation of what's already happened on the inside at

  16. salvation. And it's such an important thing

  17. for us to understand. And so we want to talk about

  18. that. We want to talk about what we

  19. believe when it comes to water baptism, what it means and you

  20. know, who it's for and these sort of things.

  21. So we feel it's important for us to, you know, have that

  22. foundation there for, you know, for us as a church that we would

  23. understand what water baptism means.

  24. So that for one, you know, we've all been, most of us, I think

  25. have been water baptized. If you haven't been water

  26. baptized, then this is a really good message for you.

  27. But for those that will come and that we were water baptized,

  28. that we can actually rally around these people and

  29. celebrate, you know, baptism is a, is a celebration of what

  30. God's doing. And so we want to understand

  31. what it what it is and what it means so that we can be a part

  32. of that as a church community. Is that OK?

  33. Very good. So if we just start with the

  34. word baptize, the word baptize is translated from the original

  35. Greek word of baptizo, and it simply means to to plunge or

  36. immerse or submerge. You know, if I was to take

  37. something in and put it in a bucket and take it all the way

  38. to the bottom of the water and bring it out, that's the picture

  39. that this word says. It's like submerged in immerse

  40. and so rightly out worked in, you know, according to that

  41. biblical understanding would be to go completely under the water

  42. and it sort of does away with, you know, this sprinkling of the

  43. water on the head and that sort of thing.

  44. You know, I'm I'm trying not to be, you know, I'm not I'm trying

  45. not to be offensive. People believe certain things

  46. can't just say we don't believe that here.

  47. We don't believe that sprinkling, you know, of on on

  48. the head and stuff like that is the same baptism that we read in

  49. the Bible. And we want to be scriptural.

  50. You know, we want to we want to be a church that is just given

  51. over to the word of God, whatever it is in, in any

  52. sphere, like any sort of topic, we want to do things the Bible's

  53. way. So we would we would say that a

  54. baptism is a full immersion in water.

  55. And if we look through the Scripture, we see this, this

  56. picture of immersion, it rings true, right?

  57. So if we look at Matthew 316, you know, I'll go quickly

  58. through these because I'm just, we're not going to sort of see

  59. on these scriptures and talk a lot about it.

  60. But Matthew 316 says simply this, that Jesus came up out of

  61. the water. And so in order to come up out

  62. of the water, my tiny brain thinks that you must have gone

  63. into the water. And Acts 836, you know, we have

  64. Philip here, Philip the evangelist, and he's out

  65. preaching the good news. And he's preaching, he preaches

  66. the gospel to this Ethiopian eunuch.

  67. And when he's finished preaching the gospel, we, we, we can see

  68. that he must have included water baptism as a part of this gospel

  69. that he preached because, because in Acts 836, I'm just

  70. going to read from Acts 836. It says now as they went down

  71. the road, they came to some water.

  72. So he's preached the gospel. They've been coming down the

  73. road and they've seen some water.

  74. And listen to what the eunuch says.

  75. He says, see, here's some water. What hinders me from being

  76. baptized? Do you see?

  77. So like in order for this guy to go, hey, there's some water, I

  78. could be baptized. Now Philip must have mentioned

  79. water baptism as a part of this gospel message that he preached.

  80. And Philip says, if you believe with your heart, you may.

  81. Verse 37. And he answers and said, I

  82. believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.

  83. Verse 38. So he commanded the chariot to

  84. stand still, and both Philip and the eunuch went down into the

  85. water and he baptized him. Now when they came up out of the

  86. water, you see it's the same picture.

  87. It's like they went down into the water.

  88. They came up out of the water. That's an amazing story if you

  89. want to go read there. I'm not going to read on, but

  90. some pretty crazy things happened in that story if you

  91. want to check that out later. So another case for this full

  92. immersion in water would be John 323.

  93. It says now John also was baptizing in Anon near Salem.

  94. Catch this because there was much water there and they came

  95. and they were baptized. So in order to be baptized, they

  96. had to go to the place where there was much water.

  97. OK. And so they had water in their

  98. homes. You know, they would get it from

  99. the well and they would bring it back to their homes.

  100. And so they could have done this little sprinkle of water they

  101. could have done, but they went where there was much water.

  102. So that suggests to me that they're going to a place where

  103. they can immerse in the in the waters, as we read in other

  104. places. But can I say that baptism is an

  105. act of obedience to God in 2 Kings 514?

  106. I'm just going to give you the recap of this story.

  107. You don't need to turn there. But 2 Kings 514, we have the

  108. king of Syria here and he hears the God of Israel has authority

  109. and power over sickness, and he sends the commander of his army

  110. naman to be healed of this skin disease that he has.

  111. And Naaman is told by God, by God's prophet to dip in the

  112. Jordan River 7 times. Go, OK, if you want to be

  113. healed, just go into the Jordan River and dip in there seven

  114. times. And Naaman's angry now.

  115. He's just like, I've come all of this way and you're telling me

  116. just to go wash in a river? Like I could have just done that

  117. back in my own river. We've got better rivers back

  118. home than you guys have. I could have just done that

  119. here. So he's angry.

  120. And so, but God was testing, God was testing his humility and his

  121. obedience. And so finally Naaman is

  122. obedient to what God says and he's healed.

  123. And it's like, don't just dip once.

  124. You know, the prophet says, he says 7 times.

  125. Can you imagine like 123 like 7 times just to get the point like

  126. you got, I just do it 7 times and then he's healed.

  127. Now, we're already asked to do this one time, but it's still an

  128. act of obedience from us to follow what the Scripture says

  129. and what we're commanded to do. And again, I mentioned that

  130. baptism is the first act of obedience.

  131. If we can't be humble to submit to God from the very start,

  132. we're going to have a hard time following Him in the life that

  133. we live from beyond that point. Do you see my point?

  134. We've got to be obedient to the, what the Lord says ties, doesn't

  135. it? You got to take off your jeans

  136. and like, you don't have to. You could go straight in.

  137. But you know, if it takes humility to stand before God and

  138. to stand in front of people and to go down into the water and to

  139. come out, it's a, it takes a humble heart to do that.

  140. It's just, it seems odd, seems like a strange thing, a strange

  141. request to do. And This is why it takes

  142. humility and trust that we just do what God's asking us to do.

  143. So you know this question of is water baptism required of

  144. believers? My answer is yes.

  145. You know, our answer as leaders in the church here is yes, it is

  146. required of believers. Jesus himself was baptized.

  147. Jesus said, come and follow me. Now you know what?

  148. That's enough for me, that there is enough for me that Jesus was

  149. baptized. And he said, come and follow me.

  150. All right? I mean, I will, I will humble

  151. myself. I will follow you, Lord, if you

  152. were baptized, I'm going to get baptized too.

  153. Do you see it? That's enough for me.

  154. But in case that's not enough for you, let's continue on, OK,

  155. Matthew 2819, What does it say here?

  156. Jesus commands it. Matthew 928, verse 9/19.

  157. He says, go, therefore make disciples of all nations.

  158. Then what does it say? Baptize them in the name of the

  159. Father and the Son of the Holy Spirit.

  160. Is that a command? Is the Great Commission a

  161. command? Of course it is this, that

  162. again, I just go, all right, that's enough for me.

  163. But we keep going, right? It's a command.

  164. Jesus commands it. When God speaks, when God says

  165. something, you got to go, yeah, your way is better.

  166. That's where the humility part comes in, that if God spoken, if

  167. God says it, I just go, whatever Lord, you know better than me,

  168. I'm going to do things your way. But the apostles also commanded

  169. this in Acts 1048. We read and he and he commanded,

  170. this is Peter, and he commanded them to be baptized in the name

  171. of the Lord. Then they asked him to stay for

  172. a few days. So Peter, off the back of what

  173. Jesus commanded, they go now and now they're commanding that's, I

  174. mean, it's as clear as they, the apostles commanded that they

  175. were baptized. So the, the, the apostles just

  176. get on with what whatever it is that Jesus commanded them to do.

  177. So who needs to be baptized? And when, as we've read someone

  178. that comes becomes a disciple or a follower of, of Jesus, you

  179. know, they repent and they are baptized.

  180. So it's it's a believer, it's a disciple.

  181. It's it's again like Jesus was baptized.

  182. He said, follow me, I'm going to be baptized because he was

  183. baptized. Followers of Jesus are baptized

  184. in water. I don't think we need to say too

  185. much more like that's that's if you're saved.

  186. The next step of obedience. The first step of obedience is

  187. to be baptized in water. What about children?

  188. Are children baptized? Well, we don't find any age

  189. requirement in the Scripture for baptism.

  190. There's a lot of thoughts on this, but this is we, this is

  191. where we stand that there is no age requirement.

  192. Salvation is a personal choice. You choose to receive Jesus as

  193. your Lord and Savior. Is that true?

  194. We choose that. It is a choice.

  195. And so we would say that if you're old enough to know your

  196. need for a savior, you are old enough to be baptized.

  197. I don't know how old that could be.

  198. I don't know. You know, we're going through

  199. this with our oldest son at the moment.

  200. It's just like if he understands his need for a savior and he

  201. puts his faith in Jesus, now it's time now it's time to go

  202. and be baptized. And so it's a straight away

  203. thing. Once you receive Jesus and the

  204. good news, you should be baptized straight away after

  205. that. And we we see this pattern in

  206. the scripture. We read about, we read about

  207. Philip and the eunuch. There's some water.

  208. Can I be baptized? And that's like in the same

  209. little conversation that they're having, there's some water, can

  210. I be baptized? And he says, do you believe that

  211. Jesus is your Savior? Yes, I do.

  212. All right, let's go. That's do you see the picture?

  213. It's like straight away whenever we can.

  214. You know, there's other examples of this that you know, when

  215. Peter's preaching and stuff like that, that they're saved.

  216. The Holy Spirit comes in there and all right, who would forbid

  217. water? It's time for water baptism.

  218. Paul baptizes 12 guys in Ephesus straight away after they hear

  219. and believe about Jesus. We'll talk about that one in a

  220. moment. So we've established that

  221. baptism is it's full immersion in water.

  222. Water baptism is a command for all believers and water, sorry,

  223. a believer should be water baptized as soon as possible

  224. straight away. Let's talk about the meaning of

  225. water baptism. What does it actually mean?

  226. Water baptism is it's a symbolize.

  227. It symbolizes the death and resurrection of Jesus.

  228. And so when we go down into the water, it represents Jesus

  229. dying. And when he, when we come out

  230. out of the water, it's a representation of the

  231. resurrection. He's, he's come into new life.

  232. It's like the death and, and the resurrection.

  233. Why in water? Water symbolizes cleaning and

  234. washing in the scripture. There's many scriptures that

  235. that say that Ephesians 526 is a good one.

  236. This is it says that he this is Jesus that he might sanctify and

  237. cleanse her talking about his bride, talking about those that

  238. are saved with the washing of the water by the word.

  239. So Jesus washes his bride by the the by the word, which is the

  240. water. Do you see the picture?

  241. It's the water is a is a symbol of washing in the in the

  242. Scripture and we see that all through the Old Testament as

  243. well. But water is also a

  244. representation of God's judgment.

  245. You know, we talked about the gospel last week.

  246. We talked about the the need for the God's judgment to be a part

  247. of the gospel. That's what we're saved from.

  248. And so water in the Scripture, in the Scripture represents

  249. God's judgment. You just have to think of like

  250. things like the great flood, right?

  251. God floods the whole earth. It was God's judgment poured out

  252. on the whole earth. And so God took Noah and his

  253. family through the waters of judgment.

  254. They were safe inside the ark. He seals the family safely in

  255. the ark and they go through the waters.

  256. He doesn't lift them up out of the earth and destroy the earth.

  257. They're on the earth and they're see they're on the waters and

  258. they go through the water and they're saved.

  259. And one one Peter 3 verse 21 gives reference to the flood.

  260. It says that there there is also an antitype which now saves us

  261. baptism, not the removal of the filth of the flesh, but the

  262. answer of a good conscience towards God through the

  263. resurrection of Jesus Christ. So he makes the link there

  264. between the flood and you know, the gospel message being saved

  265. through Christ, God also leads Israel out of Egypt and takes

  266. them through the sea. But you know before he does that

  267. the Lamb is slain. So the, the story goes something

  268. like this, that they, they sacrifice the lamb and, and each

  269. household sacrifices the lamb and they put the blood of the

  270. lamb on their, on the lentil and the doorposts of the house that

  271. they're going to be staying in that night.

  272. And God's judgments poured out there.

  273. And that Angel of death overlooks that house that has

  274. the blood of the lamb. This is, this is Jesus.

  275. This is the, the sacrifice that Jesus made.

  276. He is the Lamb of God. This is a picture of the

  277. sacrifice, that Jesus shed his blood for you and I and we're

  278. saved, that the destroyer would move on.

  279. So that had to happen first in Egypt.

  280. Think about our salvation. What's the next thing that

  281. happens? Well, God leads them when he

  282. leads them out of Egypt. He takes them through the Red

  283. Sea and he parts the waters and Israel go through the sea and

  284. the saved. And then God judges the enemy.

  285. God judges Pharaoh and the army with water.

  286. The water closes back on them and they die.

  287. This is God's judgement. So.

  288. So God's people are saved through the water and then God

  289. judges with the water. Do you see?

  290. It's the same picture. We're saved out of the water

  291. through resurrection life in Jesus.

  292. And those that just stay dead, they stay in the water.

  293. God's judgement is there. There's no resurrect.

  294. There's no life in Jesus for those that don't know him.

  295. So that's the picture here in for baptism.

  296. So is baptism a private thing or is it a corporate thing in, in

  297. terms of can you just do that on your own or should we do it

  298. together? Just talk about that for a

  299. moment. Our salvation shouldn't be

  300. hidden. You know, we are when we're

  301. saved, you know, we're, we're told to go and and share that

  302. with others. So this is not something that

  303. happens, you know, behind closed doors or, or away from, from

  304. everyone in your life. We want to, we want to do this

  305. out in the open and we want to celebrate and express and make

  306. known what has happened in here that, that, that God has made us

  307. alive through Christ. And so ideally we would want to

  308. do that with our church family. You know, the, the scripture

  309. says that we've been baptized by 1 Spirit into one body.

  310. That means that we've been baptized into his body, the

  311. church. And so we would like to do that

  312. together, to celebrate together, to celebrate that you've become

  313. a part of the body of Christ. Now, we read that Philip

  314. baptized this eunuch on their own.

  315. That's OK too. He was about to head home like

  316. this. It's so it's not like it's not

  317. law. It's not like we have to be

  318. baptized together. You could be, you could hear the

  319. gospel, someone could preach the gospel to you in the same way

  320. that Philip did, and you could be baptized in the moment.

  321. And that would be fun. What you couldn't do is be

  322. baptized on your own. You couldn't baptize yourself.

  323. We have no scriptural grounds for that.

  324. Like you couldn't just, you know, have AII don't believe.

  325. I mean, God can do whatever he wants, right?

  326. So, but from a scriptural, from what I see in Scripture, people

  327. are baptized by someone else. So you couldn't have an

  328. encounter with God at the end of the jetty and then just jump off

  329. and go, I've been baptized. It's not, it's not the, it's not

  330. the way that the Scripture outlines this, right?

  331. So, and again, we want to do this God's way.

  332. It's very simple, right? We'll do it God's way.

  333. Can't baptize yourself. You would have to be baptized by

  334. someone who is a believer. You couldn't get your

  335. unbelieving friend, Hey, I've just believed in Jesus.

  336. Can you just dunk me in the water?

  337. It's just again, it's just not, it's not the pattern from

  338. Scripture. You know, I baptize you in the

  339. name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.

  340. It's just like these are just words of that he just repeat

  341. these words for me. Can you and just dunk me in the

  342. water? It's that's a ridiculous thing,

  343. right? We can agree on that.

  344. So we have to be baptized from someone that knows him.

  345. Can I just say that, you know, Justin sort of mentioned this

  346. when we were talking about this together.

  347. He said. How many people do you want at

  348. your funeral, right? And I think that's really cool.

  349. It's just like if I have a funeral and no one shows up,

  350. like I'll be dead anyway. But if I went to a funeral and

  351. no one was there, I'd be pretty disappointed for the person,

  352. right. And baptism is a symbol of this

  353. death that you've died in Christ.

  354. Like so I would want, you know, people to be there to celebrate

  355. with me. That would seem right to me.

  356. We want to we want people at our funeral because it is a picture

  357. of this, this death that we've died and this new life that

  358. we're going to be leading. All right, so we're going to

  359. talk about re baptism. If you were baptized in another

  360. church, can I just say that you don't need to be baptized again

  361. into this church, right? No, you don't.

  362. There is one church. Jesus is building 1 church.

  363. There is one body. There is one church.

  364. If you've been baptized into the body already, you don't need to

  365. join this church and go, OK, now you're going to have to be

  366. baptized our way so that you can be a part of our thing.

  367. You know, this is a thing guys like people with some movements

  368. and stuff would say that if you haven't been baptized into this

  369. denomination, we're going to have to just do it again just to

  370. be sure it's not scriptural, right?

  371. Like we are baptized into his body.

  372. He has one body. That's it.

  373. We're we're done now. You don't need to be re baptized

  374. into the way church. That sounds stupid for me to

  375. even say, but it's out there. OK, so we just we're setting a

  376. foundation here. We're baptized into his body.

  377. So reasons why someone might feel to be baptized a second

  378. time. Maybe you weren't baptized

  379. according to this biblical pattern.

  380. Maybe you were sprinkled, maybe it wasn't full immersion.

  381. Maybe you, you've got some doubt here.

  382. And so you know, again, maybe that was you that just jumped

  383. off a jetty. I've been baptized.

  384. Have you? No, I haven't.

  385. So there might be a reason why you feel to be baptized again.

  386. And I would say that like if it's, if you're, if you're in

  387. doubt and you're just going, I don't think that it was

  388. according to the Scripture. I don't think that it was done

  389. rightly. I, I think that that would be

  390. grounds for me. I'd be OK with that if someone

  391. came to me and said, you know, when I was baptized, it just, it

  392. wasn't really what I see in Scripture.

  393. So I want to do this properly. I'd say, sure we can, we could

  394. baptize, right. So there might be some reasons

  395. why maybe you've only just heard the true gospel now, maybe the,

  396. the message of the gospel that you heard originally just fell

  397. short of, of, of what you know, you might have heard the gospel

  398. preached again and just gone. Oh gosh, I don't even know if

  399. I'd received the gospel before. If this seems very different to

  400. the gospel that I, I believed I was saved into, that might be a

  401. reason for you to go. I'm not I'm not, I'm just going

  402. to, I'm going to go through this again.

  403. I'm going to be baptized again. I feel like I've just received

  404. something that I never had before.

  405. That would be OK. That would be a maybe a reason

  406. why you would want to be baptized again.

  407. I think for, for Daniel, you were baptized as a, as a young

  408. guy and later on when God really gripped his heart and, and he

  409. started running, he felt that the need to do that again.

  410. So there's, it's, it's really what's going on in your own

  411. heart and you're in conviction before the Lord in that.

  412. But you know, and even just in that, I think that, you know, I,

  413. I alluded to Paul baptizing these guys in Ephesus before

  414. this is in Acts 19. And I'll just, I'll give you

  415. the, the, what happens here. Paul goes to Ephesus and he

  416. meets these 12 guys and it turns out that these guys are

  417. disciples of John the Baptist. So that disciples of John the

  418. Baptist were looking for Jesus. They were, they were looking for

  419. the Messiah to come. They, they were baptized into

  420. this baptism of repentance, you know, looking for the Messiah to

  421. come. But Paul, Paul talks with him

  422. and he realizes who they are and he preaches Jesus.

  423. He says, no, no, no, Jesus has come.

  424. The Messiah is here and he effectively preaches the gospel

  425. to them. They get saved in, in Jesus in

  426. the, in the finished work of the cross and Paul takes them and

  427. baptizes them in water again. Right.

  428. So this sort of like it's kind of aligns with, you know, this.

  429. I thought, I, I thought I knew the gospel, but it, it seemed

  430. like another gospel. It wasn't really.

  431. And I and I realized that there was nothing wrong with what John

  432. was doing and that's God's work in John and all those things.

  433. So it's not really the same thing, but it just means that

  434. like if you're, if you haven't received Christ yet and then you

  435. felt that you did, now is the time to be baptized.

  436. It's all about our salvation. It's all about that, that moment

  437. of coming alive in Christ. Amen.

  438. Very good. What about if I've stepped away

  439. from God for a period of time and God had lived my life in sin

  440. for a season and, and you know, just stepped off and just gone

  441. and lived a life for myself. Do I need to be re baptized

  442. then? Well again, it's like only you

  443. can know. Only you can know whether you

  444. were really saved or whether you've just stepped and whether

  445. you were really saved and stepped away from God or whether

  446. you never knew him in the beginning.

  447. Do I need to be re baptized? Can I say that if I had to be re

  448. baptized every time I sinned, I'm ready.

  449. Let's go. Like you're going to take me

  450. now. We'll, we'll go and get re

  451. baptized Now there's enough stuff that's going on since I

  452. was baptized, you know, probably the day after I was baptized,

  453. got to get baptized again. It's not about sinning.

  454. It's not about falling short of the glory of God.

  455. We are, we are sinners, we sin. I realize that we've been made

  456. alive in Christ and we are the righteousness and we are Saints,

  457. but we do sin from time to time and so I don't need to be

  458. baptized every time I sin. When John 19 says if we confess

  459. our sins, He is faithful to and just to forgive our sins and to

  460. cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

  461. I'm not cleansed by water baptism.

  462. I'm cleansed by my repentance to the Lord and He is faithful to

  463. wash away my sins. Do you see it comes through

  464. repentance is comes through, you know, coming to the Lord my

  465. Savior, and so you don't need to be re baptized if you've stepped

  466. away from God for a season and and stepped away from him if you

  467. were truly saved. You know, my story is is a

  468. little different. I was never baptized when I was

  469. young, but I was, I was in a church when I was, you know, up

  470. until I was sort of early teenage years.

  471. And I pray, I remember praying like, Lord, forgive me, like I

  472. don't want to go to hell. I want to be saved.

  473. And I would pray that all the time.

  474. I remember I was just like, Lord, please help me, you know,

  475. and, and so I from that point, I went and lived, you know, I'm

  476. that guy that walked away from God and lived a whole life just

  477. doing my own thing and sinning and all of the stuff, right?

  478. And so it wasn't until much later in, you know, later in

  479. life, like in my 30s when God just gripped me again.

  480. And it was like I, I was told to be baptized for one, because I

  481. hadn't been warned baptized. But if you had have said to me,

  482. you know, when were you saved? When, when God really got a hold

  483. of me and, and I started running for him again in my 30s, I would

  484. have said to you at that moment, I always said, yeah, I was

  485. saved. Now, I was never saved before,

  486. but I was saved now. I don't know.

  487. I honestly don't know because I, I prayed and when I was young

  488. and I, I believe I meant it and he's faithful and he never left

  489. me. He never left me guys, in all of

  490. the stuff that I was doing in the whole life that I lived, He

  491. never left me. He was always there when I fell

  492. down, he was there to pick me back up again.

  493. He was with me. He never left me and so I

  494. couldn't even today I just go, I don't know.

  495. I don't know when that moment of salvation happened.

  496. I know when I decided that I was going to give my life to him and

  497. like live my life for him. But that moment of salvation I'm

  498. unsure of. You know what I am sure of the

  499. moment that I was baptized. I know when I went down into the

  500. water and I know when I came back up again.

  501. So I have a point of reference that my life, I died for Him,

  502. whether on that day or another day.

  503. But I can tell you a day when from that day on, I'm living for

  504. the King. And again, I have made many

  505. mistakes since that time, but I've repented.

  506. And he is faithful and he's held me because he's a good God.

  507. Amen. Gosh, he's so good.

  508. And so, you know, again, like we said it after, and maybe you

  509. were too young to understand, maybe your life, life never

  510. changed again. Like you're not saved by

  511. baptism. We are saved by grace alone.

  512. Ephesians 2 says by grace you have been saved through faith,

  513. not of yourselves. It is a gift of God.

  514. So it's not the act of baptism. I am repeating myself yet, but

  515. it's through faith in Jesus alone that we're saved.

  516. So if you've got any doubts that you have been saved or you were

  517. saved, just if there's doubt there, just be sure.

  518. I would say just be sure, be baptized and go.

  519. I've got that day where I'm certain that you know that I'm

  520. not, not that I became a Christian on that day, but I'm

  521. certain that I've outwardly expressed my willingness to live

  522. for him on that day. So, you know, I've sort of

  523. answered that question of do I need to be baptized to be saved?

  524. The answer is no, I am not saved through being water baptized.

  525. Think of the thief on the cross. Was the thief on the cross

  526. baptized in water? No.

  527. Was he saved? I believe he was.

  528. Remember Me, Lord, when you come into your Kingdom, what is he

  529. doing? He's putting his trust in Jesus.

  530. The other thing that the thief on thief on the cross says, he

  531. says like to the other thief, he says, mate, we believe we belong

  532. here. We should be here.

  533. He shouldn't be here. What is that?

  534. That's that is confession, that is repentance.

  535. That's going weird where hey, we don't we deserve death.

  536. He doesn't Lord Remember Me when you come into your Kingdom, you

  537. see the picture. This man was saved.

  538. He was not baptized in water, but he Jesus said that you will

  539. be with me in paradise again. That's enough for me.

  540. You don't need to be water baptized to be saved baptized

  541. baptism in water. It's not necessary to be saved,

  542. but it is necessary for obedience and to follow him.

  543. It is necessary. Mark 1616 is one of these

  544. scriptures that comes up when we talk about this.

  545. He who believes and is baptized will be saved, but he who does

  546. not believe will be condemned because people will go see.

  547. He who believes and is baptized, those people are saved.

  548. But you got to like take that whole verse, you know, for

  549. everything that it says, it says that that he who does not

  550. believe will be condemned. So it's just saying if you don't

  551. believe, you're condemned, it doesn't put in the baptism

  552. there. It doesn't say if you don't

  553. believe and you're not baptized, then you're condemned.

  554. You see, you got to like it. It gives you a clear indication

  555. that it is salvation and through the whole rest of the Scripture,

  556. right, salvation and baptism that the person that does those

  557. things will be saved. But a person who just doesn't

  558. believe they will not be saved. So it it tells us clearly it's

  559. not through baptism that we're saved.

  560. So baptism in water, it's integral to a follower of Jesus,

  561. but it's not essential for salvation.

  562. And I think that's important. I think that that that could

  563. free some of us, you know, because we need to live free.

  564. So as I bring this to a close, like for us as believers, for us

  565. that have been baptized and what is the benefit for us?

  566. Like what do we benefit from baptism?

  567. Well, obviously in that it's a picture of what's already

  568. happened. Well, we're saved and we've

  569. outwardly expressed the fact that we're saved.

  570. So that's a that's a big benefit for me because you're not water

  571. baptized unless you're saved. So yeah, we're saved.

  572. Big benefit. It's pretty good.

  573. But God bless his obedience, doesn't he?

  574. He does. His scripture teaches that that

  575. those that obey me belong to me and these sort of things.

  576. So when we step out in obedience, when we're faithful

  577. for what he says, we, we live in, you know, God's blessing,

  578. God blesses those who have been in.

  579. But the joy of a public confession is something very

  580. rich that we can draw out of when we're, when we're baptized,

  581. the joy of standing before people and saying, I'm the, I'm

  582. the son of God now. You know, it's, it's joy for

  583. you, but it's joy for those that that are a part of his family as

  584. well. It's like a, it's the body

  585. rejoices. The body is knit together in a

  586. greater way. It's it's such an amazing thing.

  587. There's a witness that we have to our friends and family that

  588. don't know him. You know that when when you

  589. stand up publicly and you know, in front of your unbelieving

  590. friends and you say I've died and I'm a new person now and I'm

  591. going to live for the King. You know that they're watching.

  592. You know that they watch the life that you live from that

  593. point and they can clearly see, you know, those that are

  594. following Jesus and there's fruit in their life and the

  595. spirits leading them. Your life is is changed

  596. radically right People that are looking at you from that point

  597. on, they this is bearing witness that Jesus is who he says he is

  598. points to look back to. It's a witness to our friends

  599. and family. It joins us to his body in a

  600. greater way and there's the blessing of walking in

  601. obedience. So I guess my question in

  602. closing for us in this place, like I don't know everyone's

  603. position on this and what they believe and what, you know, what

  604. they've done with this. If you haven't been warned,

  605. baptized, I would ask you why. And that's just a question for

  606. you guys to answer. If you have any questions,

  607. please come and talk to us. We would love to talk more about

  608. it. And hopefully this has given us

  609. a pretty clear understanding of what it is and and why it's

  610. necessary. Is that OK?

  611. Thank you for joining us for today's message.

  612. For more information about The Way Church, please visit

  613. Have a blessed day.