Water Baptism: Clothing & Union | Ps Graeme Politanski

Hey, welcome to the City Point Church podcast.

Thanks for joining us. Every day is an opportunity to

take hold of. So we hope this message inspires

you and build your faith that it helps you have more of a God

perspective for your day. Enjoy.

Declare out loud today. My heart is open, my ears are

alert to grow and change and to never be the same.

Amen. Please be seated.

Well, today is water baptism Sunday and I tell you what,

it's, it's such a fun day in the house, water baptisms.

I just want to welcome any family that's here today For

someone that's been baptized. It's so good to have you with us

in the house. And people are making the a

great decision today to establish their faith in Jesus

and to declare it to the world. But also it's an inward

declaration. It's like a solidification of

who I am now as a child of God. So congratulations to those our

next steps. You know, we've got a banner at

the rear of the auditorium where you can scan the QR code for

things like baptisms. And we've had 18 people already

register for baptisms today using the next step QR code.

So well done on that. I have a message that I've

titled Water Baptism Clothing and Union, Clothing and Union.

Now it's established in the Bible in Galatians 327, and it

says this for all of you who were baptized into Christ, into

a spiritual union with the Christ.

The anointed have clothed yourselves with Christ and that

is you have taken on His characteristics and His values.

The first thing that we all need to know here today is that water

baptism brings us into spiritual union with God.

It brings us into a spiritual union with God.

Galatians 517 tells us that there is always tension between

our flesh nature and our spirit nature.

And when I read this scripture many years ago and I realized

what it was actually saying to me, it strengthened me in my

Christian walk because it's completely fine to struggle with

sin. Christians struggle with sin.

Sinners embrace sin. Christians struggle with sin.

It's completely fine that the addictions that you've dealt

with in your life keep knocking on the door of your life.

Now we don't accept them, but it's fine that they do because

we live in a sin bound world and the enemy is going to try

everything possible to take you and I out.

But the reality is, is the flesh wars against the Spirit and the

Spirit wars against the flesh. Now Eddie Christian in the

house, we know who's won the battle ultimately.

Amen. It's Jesus Christ and that was

was what the cross was all about.

But as we are living life, there is a constant tension.

There is a constant that are pulling towards the things of

the world, the relationships of the world, the culture of the

world, and then again to the culture of the Word of God and

the things of the Word of God. It's completely fine to have

this tension in your life. In fact, I say this to people.

The day the enemy actually wins in your life is the day you stop

fighting. But while you stay in the fight,

you are on the winning side. The victory's been won.

But who's in heaven right now? No, no, the newly marrieds might

say that they're in heaven right now, but for the rest of us, we

are down on planet earth at the moment and we realize that a day

is coming and Jesus has won the war.

But your day-to-day life, we rise up every morning and we

say, Holy Spirit, would you strengthen me for today?

I put on the armour of God as I walk into today.

The victory is one with you and so I walk in union with you

today. So Galatians says that there is

a flesh battle and a spirit nature battle.

Our flesh desires sin and our spirit desires righteousness.

So we need a spiritual union with God in order to overcome

the flesh. Amen.

Who's overcome all their desires just without God?

No, no one, right? We need God walking with us

everyday. We read in verse 27 of today's

scripture baptized into Christ, into a spiritual union with

Christ. The anointed water baptism is

the moment where our relationship with God is

solidified. It's a moment of solidification.

We know that God is Father, Son, and Spirit, and baptism now

solidifies us into this relationship.

The Bible teaches this is what spiritual union means.

You now have God's life beating within you to overcome flesh

desires in your life. This is the why the Bible says

that you and I, we are more than conquerors.

We are more than conquerors. In other words, we don't have to

struggle to conquer. We are more than conquerors.

We are in union with Christ. Amen.

So water baptism is more than a symbol, it's an action that

identifies you spiritually as a son and a daughter of God.

So let's look at when Jesus was water baptized in the

Scriptures. In Matthew 316, verses 16 to 17,

it says this. Jesus came up immediately from

the water, and behold, the heavens were open to him, and he

saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove, and a lighting upon

him. And suddenly a voice come from

heaven saying, This is my beloved Son in whom I am well

pleased. I have a theory, if you get

water baptized, the heavens open and someone speaks to you in a

loud voice that everyone can hear, you should pay attention

to that person being baptized right in this imagery through

scripture we see the Father, the Son, and the Spirit all in one

place at one time all together. Listen, when we are baptized, we

are part of this union because scripture tells us that we are

baptized into Christ Jesus. See, the reality is, if you go

back through historical documents, when we receive the

salvation of Jesus Christ, the blood of Jesus washes our sins

away, makes us white as snow. Therefore, Father God sees you

and I believe this as righteousness in all of our

mass, in our imperfections that you and I are walking daily.

Our Father in Heaven sees you and I as righteous, not because

we are righteous, but because Jesus is righteous and we are in

Him. Does this make sense?

We are in Jesus, so #1 is water baptism brings us into spiritual

union with God. The second thing we need to know

is that water baptism clothes us.

It clothes us today in Galatians 327.

It said clothe yourself with Christ.

That is that you are taking on his characteristics and his

values. You have taken on his

characteristics. Where are the characteristics

and the values of God held? They are held in our word, in

our Scriptures. And so when we are baptized

today, we are clothing ourselves with characteristics and values

of heaven from Jesus Christ. When we come out of the water,

we are clothed, clothed with a new set of characteristics and

values. So baptism is a symbol of our

flesh and our sinful life dying with Jesus Christ.

However, Jesus didn't stay dead under the ground.

Thank goodness for that. And we don't stay dead under the

water either. We will lift you out of the

water today, I promise you that. We rise again just as Christ

rose again. This is what salvation.

I'll get that word. Salvation is actually about just

as Jesus went into the grave and then he.

He broke the chains that sometimes ensnare our lives.

He broke the addictions in its power that wants to ensnare our

lives. He broke your past for you so

that you and I can rise up with Christ into a brand new day.

Let me tell you, church, this is what it means to be born again.

Amen. We are born again with and in

Jesus Christ. The power of baptism isn't in

the dying. The power today is in the rising

out of the waters again to put on the new nature.

As we rise out of the water, we are clothed with the

characteristics and the values of God.

These are illuminated on our hearts.

These are more the more we participate in the union with

God through prayer, through fasting, you need to join the

Monday night prayer meetings here at the church with Pastor

Rachel. The more we do this in our union

with through prayer, through fasting, through Bible reading

and Sunday fellowship. This is why all these things are

such important practices for a a a believer in Christ, a

follower. The more we are clothed with

God's characteristics and values.

What am I saying by that? Because I can see the mechanics

of this some people might be struggling with this morning.

The reality is, is we are coming to a spiritual God and we can't

define God by our human understanding.

It's impossible to do that. If we could do that, we might be

sitting right next to God. We can't.

His ways are higher than our ways.

Amen. Thank goodness for that.

And So what we have to understand is we are in a

spiritual world as well. And when we come to Jesus Christ

and get water baptized, we join into the spiritual union through

Jesus Christ. It's the only way to enter.

You make a covenant with. You either make a covenant with

the world, meaning the devil and his ways, or you make a covenant

with Christ and his ways. And so when we make a covenant

with Christ in salvation, we get water baptized and we come out

and we clothe ourselves with the characteristics and the values

of the Word of God. But how does that actually apply

in our lives? Well, firstly, we learn them

through the Word of God at the and we, we allow our spiritual

union to grow through things like fasting, through prayer,

learning how to pray well without what I call like surface

prayers, but pray real spiritual prayers.

It's very simple. But you do need to understand

that you that when I come to, to prayer, I am entering into a

spiritual zone. And the more I understand what

I'm entering into, the more power and authority I have in

that place. And so some people just pray at

the dinner table and things like that.

I love that that's a good ritual to have in your life.

But you can't say to me, Pastor, I do pray because when I, when

I, when I hear someone say pray, what I am assuming is that they

are moving into the inner courts of heaven and that they are part

of a battle in a spiritual realm.

And you and I are conduits. This is where the beauty and the

power of prayer, when we get into some serious prayer, we

become conduits for planet earth and where you and I start to

conduct our lives and we walk around the presence and the

power of God is on our lives and coming out of who we are.

And so the characteristics of heaven start to become our

characteristics as well. Does this make sense?

And so the more we get into prayer and with Sunday

gatherings with the Saints and hearing the word into life

groups in your, in your demographics and, and we Start

learning, we are clothing ourselves with the

characteristics and the values of heaven.

Amen. And so #1 water baptism brings

us into spiritual union with God, and #2 water baptism close

us now. I have two questions this

morning, two questions that I'm assuming that you might ask.

So let's see if I'm right. Why full immersion?

And what's the value of water with baptism And so immersion in

the Bible, Jesus himself, as our standard, was baptized by full

immersion in water. In fact, every baptism in the

Bible was full immersion. The word baptism comes to us

from the Greek word baptizo. This literally means to dip,

immerse, or submerge. So I'm not in any way making

mockery by my next comments. But sprinkling and baptizing

babies is not the Bible teaching of water baptisms.

That is a religious act. It's a procedure that is created

by humankind. But the reality is the Word of

God talks about full immersion, just like our example.

Jesus Christ was baptized fully. Amen.

So today we are seeing why the Bible standard of water baptism

through full immersion is required.

Let me read to you Romans 6 verses 3 to 4.

Romans 6:3–4

It says, or do you not know that as many of of us as were

baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death,

therefore we were buried with him through baptism into death.

That just as Christ was raised from the depth dead by the glory

of the Father, Even so we also should walk in the newness of

life. When someone dies, we don't bury

a portion of the body. Come on.

That deserves way more than that.

That's what my my wife would call a dad joke or being

accidentally funny. Sometimes it works, sometimes it

doesn't. The whole body goes into the

grave and the whole body rises again.

I am grateful that when Jesus rises me again from the grave,

it's not just my arm. OK, take 2 was a bit better.

That's great. We want to be, we want to be

fully dead. I don't want to be partly dead

from this world. I want to be fully dead from

this world. And I want to fully rise into my

new life, Amen, into my new beginnings.

Just as the whole body should go under the water, the whole body

should rise again in its new self.

Baptism is identifying ourselves in the burial and the

resurrection of Jesus Christ. So what's the value of water in

baptism? At the very beginning, before

land, before animals, and before sin, Water was Genesis 1/2 and

the earth. Earth was without form and void

and darkness was over the the face of the deep and the Spirit

of God was hovering over the face of the waters.

Water doesn't experience decay, not even after sin entered the

world. Water does not experience decay.

Being baptized with water represents a return to that

original purity, pre decay existence.

A return to a pre sin condition. Baptism is a submerging into the

purity that existed before sin came.

I return to coexisting with God without decay or sin.

Who says that that is good news this morning?

Listen to this great scripture, 2nd Corinthians 517.

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, there's the words again.

He is a new creation. Old things have passed away and

behold, all things have become new.

Let me tell you, if you're in this place today and you don't

classify yourself as a Christian, let me tell you

something about that verse I just read is we can obviously

read that as the eternal realm, right?

That eventually all things will become you.

But let me tell you this, when you give your life to Jesus

Christ, we give our life to him because he is the Son of God.

And he did. We went through the death and

the resurrection as God in flesh.

He has the power and He has the authority to make yours and my

life brand new right here and right now.

This is the power of our salvation.

Well, what do I mean by that? Because when I go home, drugs

are still on the table, or when I go home, I still have this

world around me. What?

What do you mean, Pastor Grey? My life is new.

Well, let me tell you this. When you go home, you go home

with a weapon you've never had before, and it's called the

Spirit of God who's now living inside you.

What that means is all things are new.

You now have the power to overcome every situation in your

world and the things God does not expect a human to give their

lives to God. And literally in a moment,

everything is perfect and rosy. You know what I mean?

Like finances are all sorted out, drug addiction just gone.

I don't smoke anymore. You know, I don't speed when I

drive to church on Sunday mornings.

You know, that's just for the Christians.

It's because they're always the. Late ones, it's you know what

God doesn't, God doesn't do that, but what he does is he

gives us the power to overcome. You know, I still have arguments

with my wife. I think the last one was about

10, maybe 15 years ago. And, and I remember back then

when I had an argument with that, like, I can barely

remember. It was so, so much in our past.

But, but I remember back then being in my car, really, really

angry. Now, I was a Christian.

I was probably even a pastor. And I was crazy angry.

You know, the angry where you're trying to punch your steering

wheel, but you're kind of really conscious at the same time,

you're about to cause an accident.

I was like that. But you know what I had in my

car? The Holy Spirit.

And you know who I directed my frustration to?

Not at him, but sue him. God, I can't handle this.

I don't have the capacity. I don't understand the female

gender. I don't.

I don't. You made them.

You must, must know the answer, right?

It's like this is this is the era where I learned the the the

best prayer that we could all have.

And it's God. Give me the key to unlock.

Yeah, because I I did definitely did not have the key to unlock

my wife. Now what I didn't realize is God

had to give her the key to unlock her husband.

But yeah, so now I'm balancing this a little bit.

And so the problem back then 15 ish years ago was actually me.

And it's anyway you didn't get that.

So the problem, the problem was all me.

And and so my prayer just ended up into God.

You are the Lord God. And the things I don't

understand, I know that you understand.

So God, would you give my wife the key so she can work out her

husband and teach me how to behave.

That ended up my prayer at the end.

And all the women said, Amen, Amen.

And I just taught all the husbands how to be a good

husband. So all the men in the church

said, thank you, pastor, go, yeah, humble yourself and asked

that the Lord would give the wife the key anyway, new

creation. That's what I was talking about.

And so the reality is is when when we give our lives to Jesus

Christians, I'm talking to you right now, we don't need to

complain to someone else. We don't need to get frustrated

with the situation. You know the preaching on

Sunday. He's talking about all this

baptism stuff. I don't understand.

I've been saved for 15 years. You don't have to call a friend.

You can say Holy Spirit, I don't understand that stuff.

I don't understand my spouse. I don't understand my workplace.

I don't understand the world around me.

But you and I, as new creatures in Christ, we have the power to

overcome. Behold, all things are new for

you and I Amen received that this morning.

So being in Christ through water baptism means that you are a new

creation. It means a return to coexisting

with God before decay. In other words, even though you

and I struggle with our sin, we are still washed by the blood of

Jesus. And the reason why that can be

so is because the blood of Jesus was eternal and is eternal

blood. And so when he died for you and

I on the cross and washed our sins, He washed our sins

eternally. Amen.

Is that good? And so a return to this

coexisting with God without decay of sin, a reminder that we

will one day be returned to the wholeness and the purity of our

God. This is why some scriptures say

that we must be baptized. Now, listen, even though

salvation doesn't rely on baptism, I'm teaching you some

doctrine right now. Salvation does not rely on

baptism. You got to read the rest of the

Bible. There is significant power and

value in being baptized today, and I say congratulations to

everyone that's making such a great declaration today.

People are entering a spiritual union with God like none other.

They are being clothed with the characteristics and the values

of God illuminated in their hearts today, no longer stuck in

the state of decay, but rather the joy of the Lord is set

before you because your future is a heavenly future.

And they are acknowledging that they are new creations today in

Jesus Christ. They are not only acknowledging

that before all the men and women in this great church

today, not only acknowledging that to themselves and

solidifying their faith, but in the spiritual realm, they are

entering into a new realm and they are starting their fight in

the spiritual fight by declaring I am covered by the blood of

Jesus and I am a son or a daughter of God today.

So this is the clothing and the union of water baptisms.

Now this morning I've spoken a lot about what this means to be

to come into union and and being washed and clothed through our

union with Jesus Christ through water baptisms.

But I've also talked a lot about the power of the cross, what

Jesus Christ has made available for all humanity.

Today I have shared with us all in this room that no matter the

level of our sin, no matter our past, the assignments that have

been against our life, where you feel like you can't move forward

in life, like there's this ceiling hovering over you.

The reality is, is no matter your past, no matter your

present, no matter your fleshly desires, because we all have

them, Jesus died for every single one of us and he can wipe

the worst away. This is what I love, you know,

Jamie and Eden was up here and he got partially healed even

more so for those who saw that he got on platform half healed,

he left home. We prayed even more in the foyer

and he went home like 3/4 healed.

It's interesting, but it is what it is.

But I said to him, I said, Jay, you're going to be 100% healed.

Like it's an amazing miracles what's has happened.

I said, can I ask one thing? Don't ask that your scars

disappear. And he's like pastor great.

That's what I've been praying for that God won't take my scars

away. Let me tell you this about

scars. Every scar that you have in your

life, God wants to use that for someone else's life.

See the Bible teaches something so amazing.

It says for those who believe and place their faith in Jesus

Christ, He will turn all things together for good.

Your past might be whatever it is.

Things have been done to you without your permission.

Your your past is just whatever it is and it still remains

though. But when we give our life to

God, he can't magically go into the past and change that because

everything of the past is a result of people's decisions,

not always yours, but someone's. But what he does do is it comes

and he heals the past. And the Bible says that sin has

no sting on me. In other words, you see the

scar, but he will restore you. So the scars, the pain, the

suffering will no longer have a sting on your life.

But in other words, in other in place of that, it'll be your

testimony for life. And the reality is, is every

pastor, they reckon that the greatest, the greatest pastors

are the ones with the most scars.

And here's the reason why is I can't walk someone to a place

I've never been myself or from a place that I've never

experienced myself. And so we have a pastoral team

with all our own pains and experiences and we work together

as a team to help our church walk through things into their

future. Let me tell you everything till

today God is going to use for His glory and for yours and my

good, and this is what God does when we give our lives to Him.

The other option, if you don't choose option A, you will walk

with what you've always walked with.

You will continue to never have the answer or the key that

you've never had. There isn't a magical thing out

there because there is only one God and His name is Jesus

Christ. The Bible says that there is

only one way to the Father and it's through Jesus Christ, which

simply means placing our faith in Him and acknowledge that he

died and rose for you and for I and so that.