Souls Saved, Lives Changed and Water Baptism

Welcome to the Remsound Church of God podcast.

Wherever you're listening from, we hope you are blessed by

today's message. I want to share with you this

morning a word from the Word of God.

I want to talk about this subject.

I want to talk about soul saved, lives changed, and water

baptism. Our mission is to see soul saved

and lives changed. And a part of that, that lives

change part is water baptism. Now for those of you who are

being baptized today, this really isn't for you because

you've already been to the class and you're ready for water

baptism. What I want to do today is pave

the way for the next water baptism service.

And in the next few months we'll have another sign up and we'll

have another water baptism service.

And so I want to appeal to those of you who've not yet been

baptized, I want to give you some reasons why you should or

why you should not. I want to share that with you.

One thing I have noticed and it has been highlighted in many

areas of our nation, I don't know how many are aware of this,

but there's been let me read this to you a significant

spiritual movement is sweeping US college campuses

characterized by massive worship gatherings and spontaneous large

scale water baptisms. Organizations like Unite Us have

facilitated events at schools like Auburn, Ohio State, Georgia

resulting in hundreds of students publicly baptizing in

lakes, fountains or tubs. This trend represents a major

student LED revival with thousands committing to

Christianity and experiencing baptism, often immediately

following services. And I've seen some of that and

seen some of the pictures and even the backs of pickup trucks

that with liners in them having water baptismal services and

people getting baptized. That's really quite scriptural

when people give their lives to Jesus to be baptized in water.

And we'll talk about that a little bit in this message

today. But I realized, as I, you know,

you study this, obviously, you know, there's always the other

side of the coin. And there will be people who

will say, well, the one thing about revivals we know is they

don't last. Well, I would have to agree with

you and tell you that that's why it's called revival.

They've never lasted forever. Even the Bible revivals, the

people of God would have great revival and they would many

times go into declension. That didn't stop prophets from

praying for another revival, another move of God.

So before we get too critical of revival, and there seems to be a

lot of that today, let's be thankful that there's any move

of God whatsoever that people are coming to the Lord Christ

and people who don't know the Lord and the things of God.

We've got to give them room to grow.

We just need to be able to preach the truth.

This group that I was talking about, I know nothing about

them, but I can tell you that their core values.

Here's what it says this movement, this unite us

salvation for non believers to hear a clear presentation of the

gospel in a welcoming environment.

Acts 1631 freedom for believers to know and experience true

freedom from sin and burdens on their hearts.

Galatians 5 and one and community for students to find

community and discipleship through connection to local

ministries and the local church. They're trying to get people to

serve God, love God and come to church and one of the great

things that's happening right now in America is younger people

are coming back to the House of God.

I want that for Greenstown. I want to see God do great and

mighty things. Ministries like Harvest

International, Greg Laurie. Greg Laurie talked about the

fact that in their crusades, etcetera, in the last 24 months,

he said they had baptized 10,000 people.

Amazing. So while we see all kinds of

crazy things going on in our world and a lot of crazy

religious stuff going on, let us not forget that there is a

genuine heartfelt, spirit LED, word of God oriented move of the

Holy Spirit. And we want it.

I said we want it. Do you want it with me?

So let's read the word of the Lord.

Stand with me. In Mark chapter one in the New

International, it says the beginning of the good news.

That's what the gospel is, right?

Everybody knows that, right? Gospel means good in the

beginning of the good news about Jesus.

Look at your neighbors. Are you going to hear some good

news today? Ah, you're not getting that on

the television, are you? You're going to.

You're getting in the newspaper. No, no, no, not much.

You're not getting a whole lot on social media either.

But there, I've got some good news.

It's about Jesus. It's not about me.

It's not about this church. It's about Jesus.

I'm already excited. I may not even get into the

message, the Messiah, the Son of God as it is written in Isaiah

the prophet. I will send my messenger ahead

of you who will prepare your way, a voice of one calling in

the wilderness. Prepare the way for the Lord,

Make straight paths for him. And so John the Baptist appeared

in the wilderness preaching a baptism of repentance for the

forgiveness of sins. The whole Judean countryside and

all the people of Jerusalem went out to him, notice this,

confessing their sins, confessing their sins, and they

were baptized by him in the Jordan River.

John wore clothing made of camels hair with a leather belt

around his waist, and he ate grasshopper salad.

He ate locusts and wild honey. And this was his message.

After me comes the one more powerful than I, the straps of

whose sandals I'm not worthy to stoop down and untie.

I baptize you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy

Spirit. At that time Jesus came from

Nazareth in Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan.

So we now see that Jesus was baptized and just as Jesus was

coming up out of the water, he saw heaven being torn open and

the Spirit descending on him like a dove, and a voice came

from heaven. You are my son whom I love with

you. I am well pleased.

Let's pray. Father, thank you for the word.

And Lord, we know today, God, as we share the good news of Jesus,

there's some heavy hearts, God today and families, Lord, in, in

Sandy's family, God, and then Anthony's family, God.

And I pray for them. I pray for each and every family

member, each and every close friend, relative, wherever they

might be, that the comfort of the presence of the Holy Spirit

will be theirs. And I pray God that you will

anoint us to share your word and make this time valuable to the

Kingdom of God, the work of God, the souls being saved and lives

being changed. I pray this in Jesus name, Amen.

You may be seated. So I want to talk to those of

you who have not been baptized, not to condemn you, not to

criticize you, but to tell you that a part of your experience

with God includes water baptism. Jesus who never sinned.

Think about this for a moment. Because all the people that came

to John and he baptized them, they were confessing their sins.

Jesus had no sin and yet He set an example.

And how many ever heard? You don't need to raise your

hand, but you've probably heard the statement being made.

They are following the Lord in water baptism.

I've heard that all my life. You need to follow the Lord in

water baptism. Well, that's what this means.

It means that our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ was baptized

in water and the Bible says that when he went into the water, the

Bible tells us, and this is very clear.

I said this earlier to brother Rob back here.

I said we're going to have baptism outside today because it

was the cats and dogs of rain where everywhere we just had

everybody. The truth of the matter is that

Jesus showed us how baptism ought to be done.

The Bible says he when he was baptized that he came up out of

the water. Now you can't come up out of the

water if you don't go down into the water right now.

This is what Jesus did, and since he's our example, it's

probably a good idea to follow his example.

Actually, the Greek word for baptized is the word baptizo,

and it means to immerse. It means to submerge it.

It's actually used of a vessel that has sunk.

And that's all about what this represents.

Jesus Christ went into the water and begin his ministry.

Actually, the first thing that we see Jesus do before he goes

into the wilderness and fast the 40 days and starts that ministry

is he is baptized. Now let me say this and make it

very clear to you that we understand that sometimes

physical conditions are such that people can't be immersed.

We'll have, we've had a couple of occasions here.

We'll have 1:00 today where a person who's been in an

accident, who's had surgery and is not able physically to be

able to actually be submerged forward or backward or whatever,

but they're still coming into the water because they can do

that. And there will pour.

We'll, we're going to pour. We're going to do the very best

that we can because we know that that person wants to follow

Jesus in water baptism. And of course, if we had someone

that couldn't get in at all, we would do whatever we could do to

make it happen. But I won't tell you to

understand. For most of us, we can be

baptized, we can be immersed. So when Jesus was baptized, he

was, shall we say, buried in the water and raised again.

When Jesus came back out, if you think about it, He actually by

following his Father's wish to be baptized, even though he had

no sin, He didn't confess any sin because He had none.

He was perfect and He was baptized anyway.

And He was actually showing us in that baptism what He was

going to do for us, because He showed us that He was going to

come and die for us, come back to life, to live through us, to

give us eternal life. So He has showed us by the

baptism in water what He was about to to do for us.

Now listen, when Jesus was crucified and afterwards

revealed Himself to the disciples of the Lord, the Bible

says in Matthew 2816, before he ascended back to the Father, It

says then the 11 disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain

where Jesus had told him to go. When they saw him, they

worshipped him. But some doubted.

They still do. Then Jesus came to them and

said, All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to

me. Therefore go and make disciples

of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of

the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey

everything that I've commanded you.

And surely I'm with you always to the very end of the age.

So when when souls are saved and lives are changed, water baptism

follows. I said in in that order.

Souls are saved, lives are changed, and there is water

baptism. The Bible is full of it.

In fact, on the day of Pentecost, after that great

outpouring of the Holy Spirit, 120 believers and the spiritual

miraculous manifestation of the Holy Spirit, Simon Peter stood

up and preached A marvelous message.

And the Bible tells us when he had done in Acts 237.

When the people heard this, they cried.

They were cut to the heart and said to Peter and the other

apostles, Brothers, what shall we do?

And Peter replied, repent and be baptized.

Notice that what comes first, repent and be baptized everyone

of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of

your sins, and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.

The promise is for you and your children and for all who are far

off, for all whom the Lord our God will call.

And if you go down to verses later, it said those that gladly

received his word were baptized and that day 3000 souls came to

Jesus Christ. So mass baptisms are not new.

They happened on the day of Pentecost and they are still

happening today. People are following the Lord in

water baptism. Now I will tell you that in your

fleshly self you may be sitting there and see saying well this

just seems so silly. It just seems what I would, I

would just suggest to you that many times what God tells us to

do doesn't seem to make a lot of logical sense to to our carnal

mind. But I would tell you this, if

you will simply obey him, if you will simply say God, I don't

care how foolish I look, I will obey the word of the Lord.

There is a blessing in that obedience that you won't find

any other way. So quit trying to outsmart God

and just accept what He says and say I'm going to be obedient.

Now, as I told you, I'm preaching for the next water

baptism service, not for this one.

We've already got these folks. And I'm not going to ask you to

jump into the pool with all your Sunday clothes on, OK?

But I want you to pray about and think about this step because

it's an important step, right? It is a key to the beginning of

a process called discipleship, becoming a disciple of the Lord.

So what is the meaning then? What is the meaning of water

baptism? We know that according to the

Word of God that the believer is agreeing with and identifying

with the death and the burial and the resurrection of Jesus

Christ as it is taught in the book of Romans chapter 6.

Romans 6 · chapter mention

And we'll get there in just a moment.

As I said earlier, and I don't want you to miss this, Jesus

himself was baptized in war. Jesus himself went out into the

Jordan River. They was not sprinkled.

If you want to be sprinkled, you can be, but that's sprinkling.

That's not baptism. Baptism by definition, is

immersion. And Jesus went out in the water.

Why are you so quiet on me here today?

I hope you're learning something.

That's what it is. I I, but I want you to know, and

I'm not going to argue or fuss with anybody says, well, I did

it. You can do whatever you want.

I'm just going to give you the word of God, OK, and just tell

you what I believe. Is that the thing that God, I'm

not telling you, you're not saved.

I'm not telling you you're not going to heaven.

I'm not going to throw a fit. If you've been washed in the

blood of the Lamb, if you've been forgiven your sin, I accept

you. You're my brother, you're my

sister. I hope you'll accept me because

as cantankerous as I can be, I'm still your brother, Amen.

I'm still in the family, Amen. And all my bad days, I'm still

in the family, Amen. Have been there.

Glad you're in the family of God on your bad day and on your good

day. But when we think about it, it's

actually a three-step process process.

Let's read what it says in Romans 64.

We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death

in order that just as Christ was raised from the dead through the

glory of the Father, we too may have a or live a new life.

OK, so let's look at the three steps step #1 the believer going

down under the water. When you are, when we, when we

do immerse, when we do lean someone into the water, it is a

symbol that they are publicly renouncing the sinful nature

that has dominated them all their life.

But we don't leave them down. And I think that's what gets

some people. They think if the pastor doesn't

like someone or they haven't given enough money, he's just

going to hold them down there. We've never done that.

We've never done that. So there, there is this, this

death to sin that this represents.

It's already happened when you got saved.

This is a this is a symbol. This is a process of

discipleship that agrees outwardly, publicly with what's

happened to you inwardly. And then when that person is

brought back up, they're acknowledging a new life, a new

life soul. The person going down signifies

a death to the old sinful life. A coming back up is a a

testimony about a new and different life.

But it doesn't end there because the people that walk into the

baptistery, once they're baptized, they walk out the

other side, they walk out. You don't.

Jesus didn't stay in the Jordan River.

He could have said, hey, it feels pretty nice in here.

I think I'll swim a while. No, when the job was done, he

walked out because there's a life to live.

So when that person is immersed in water, raised up, they walk

out. And when they walk out, it's a

symbol of a different life that they're now living because of

what Jesus has done in their soul.

And aren't you thankful for that today?

Give God the praise. The Bible says in Colossians 3.

One. Since then you've been raised

with Christ. Set your heart on things above,

where Christ is seated at the right hand of God.

Set your mind on things above, not on earthly things.

For you died and your life is now hidden with Christ in God.

When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will

appear with him in glory. So we walk out the other side,

and we say, I'm on my way. Thank God I'm on my way.

And then as follow up, Romans 613 says, do not offer any part

of yourself to sin as an instrument of wickedness, but

rather offer yourselves to God as those who've been brought

from death to life, and offer every part of yourself to Him as

an instrument of righteousness. In other words, give yourself

completely to God. Were you dead?

The old nature, but now you have a new life.

So baptism is actually explained by two actions.

The 1st is to believe and the second is the ACT itself of

being baptized. Baptism states first, and this

is important, I believe, I believe that Jesus Christ is the

Son of God. I believe that Jesus Christ is

my Savior. That's important.

In other words, believing comes before baptism.

You know, this is something we really have to get to people and

let people understand that because some people think, well,

I never was baptized, so I'm not going to heaven as if though

just because they go down in the water, come up, they're going to

heaven. And we have to understand that's

not the purpose. We have to understand that it's

a, it's a symbol, but we've got to, we've got to come to Christ

first. If you don't do that, all you do

is you, you go, you go down a dry center and you come up a wet

center or worse than that, you come up a wet hypocrite.

None of you. I'm just, I'm just telling you

that we have to understand that believing comes first.

I'll give you scripture for it in just a moment.

Believing comes first, believing on the Lord Jesus Christ.

And again, for those of you, maybe you've never been

baptized, nobody's ever really shared this with you like I am.

Again, no condemnation. We're here to encourage you, but

I want you to be encouraged to follow the Lord in water baptism

if it's possible for you to do so.

The Bible speaks of John the Baptist this way.

In Matthew 35, it says people went out to him from Jerusalem

and all Judea and the whole region of the Jordan confessing

their sins. They were baptized by Him in the

Jordan River. Notice the order confessing

their sins. They were baptized by Him in the

Jordan River. But when he saw many of the

Pharisees and Sadducees coming to where he was baptizing, he

said this to them. Hard to believe it, huh?

You brood of Vipers, you bunch of snakes, said you Vipers, who

warned you to flee from the coming wrath?

And then he said, this produce fruit in keeping with repair.

So you get to understand when all these people are getting

baptized, these Pharisees and Sadducees who are the most

critical people in the world, nobody's right but them.

You know, they, they've got it all down pat and they're not

really right at all, but they think they are.

And so they're better than everybody else.

So they come along and, and John is saying, hey, hey, what are

you coming here to be baptized for?

You want to be baptized? Show me something that tells me

you've repented. Show me that your life is

different. Show me that God has done

something inside of you because the other people that were

coming were saying we know we need the Lord forgive us God for

our sins, but these people were coming.

We're OK, We just won't be baptized, John said I'm not

baptizing you if you can't produce some fruit.

You can't tell me what's changed in your life.

Is that OK? That's that's good, isn't it?

So when Peter proclaimed the gospel in Jerusalem the day of

Pentecost, remember he said repent and be baptized.

Every one of you and those that accepted his message were

baptized. When Philip in the 8th chapter

of the book of Acts, when he went down to Samaria, a world,

not a worldwide but a citywide revival broke out and the Bible

says the people that believed what he preached were baptized.

The apostle Paul, when he visited Greece, he proclaimed

the gospel of Jesus Christ and Corinth, and many of those

Corinthians believed and were baptized.

Listen to what it says in Acts 18-8.

Christmas the synagogue leader. Think about this Christmas, the

synagogue leader, the pastor, shall we say, and his entire

household believed on the Lord and many of the Corinthians who

heard Paul believe and were baptized.

So he even got the preacher saved, Amen.

And they got baptized. See how normal this was?

See how this was just a, a part of, of the whole experience of

coming to know the Lord. And, and what happened is they,

they're actually, they're sealing the deal.

You know, I'm going to tell you this real quickly and move on.

I'm, I'm almost finished when I went to what Pastor Henson, when

he and I went back in the, whatever the 1980s, I know it

was when the Challenger accident happened, because we were there

when it happened, whatever year that was.

And we preached that convention there, that Church of God

convention in Kakinada, Andhra Pradesh, at the conclusion of

the week and all the people that had gotten saved, etcetera in

the past, they had a water baptism service there in the

river, but we were not allowed to baptize anyone.

We could preach and teach and do what we did, but they wouldn't

let us baptize. And they said the reason was,

was because for the Hindus, I don't know if it's true of all

sects or not, but there's so many of them and they have

3,000,000 gods. Baptism is the final straw and

there's no going back and you could be in some serious trouble

if you baptize. Let us do it.

Think about that. Now we just baptize and don't

think anything about it. But in that case they were

saying it's going to be trouble for you if you try to let us do

the baptizing. Because for them, if you got

baptized in water in the name of the Father, Son, the Holy

Spirit, that meant you were done with three million gods and you

were worshiping 1. It was a sealing of the deal.

I want to just read this little account to you again.

We'll go to the 8th chapter of Acts again.

And the story is unfolds that in Samaria where Philip was having

that great revival, an Angel of the Lord spoke to him and said,

you got to leave here. And I want you to go down to on

the road that goes to Gaza, a desert Rd.

I want you to go down that road and you're going to meet

somebody there. So he left a citywide revival

and he met up on a an Ethiopian eunuch.

My you know what? God wanted the gospel to get to

Ethiopia. Don't you think He ran upon an

Ethiopian eunuch who was sitting in a chariot reading from the

scroll of Isaiah? And Philip walked up to him and

to his chair and said, Sir, do you understand what you're

reading? He said, how can I understand?

I don't have anybody to help me, So what are you reading?

And he said, this is the passage I'm reading.

He said, who's he speaking about?

And Philip took the very Scripture in Isaiah and preached

Christ to him. And something happened in a

man's heart. And let's read what took place

in Acts 836. Now, as they went down the road,

they came to some water. And the eunuch said, see, here

is water What hinders me from being baptized?

That's the question. What would stop me from being

baptized? Am I good enough?

Am I worthy enough? What I got to do here?

What would stop me from being baptized?

And Phillip said, if you believe with all your heart, you may.

I want to say that again, if you believe with all your heart, you

may. And he answered and said, I

believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.

So he commanded the chariot to stand still, and both Philip and

the eunuch went down into the water and he baptized him.

Think about that. He left a citywide revival, met

one Ethiopian eunuch who served under the queen, explained

salvation to him, at least enough that he could grasp it.

The man believes on the Lord Jesus Christ, and he himself

says, hey, look at all this water right here.

Is there anything that would stop me from being baptized?

You can be baptized if you believe.

How many of you believe today? Now, believing is more than just

saying it, right? So water baptism is a sign of

being buried to sin, resurrected to new life.

Jesus was buried and resurrected physically 2000 years ago.

We are buried with him. We are buried with him in a

spiritual sense, When we receive Christ, when we come to the

cross, we die to our old way of living.

So we can have a new, a resurrected life that God has

promised him. And if anybody wants to be

worthy, we saying it, it's only by the blood.

Hallelujah. If anybody wants to be holy,

it's only by the blood, and that's why we baptize.

And then there is finally the after effects of water baptism,

because something changes. It's already happened.

You get what I'm saying? This is a symbol.

Those people who are being baptized today have already

received Christ as their Lord and Savior, and a number of them

are teenagers. And I'm so happy to see that I

really AM. So if something changes in us,

we go back to Romans again. Chapter 6.

Let's see how life is now to be lived.

Verse one. What shall we say then?

Shall we go on sinning that grace may increase?

What's the answer? By no means we are those who

have died to sin. How can we live in it any

longer? Or don't you know that all of us

who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his

death? We were therefore buried with

Him through baptism into death in order that just as Christ was

raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may

live a new life. And if you think that person

sitting by is not the nicest person in the world, you should

have met him before they got saved.

They're so much better today. You can't believe the change in

their life. You hear what I'm saying?

I said if that person, you said whatever, I just think how much

worse they would be if they weren't saved.

There's always a way to make it positive, folks.

Think about it, think about it. Amen.

But we've been united with him in a death like his.

We'll certainly also be united with Him in a resurrection like

His, for we know that our old self was crucified with Him so

that the body ruled by sin might be done away with, that we

should no longer be slaves to sin.

Slaves to sin. Nobody is saying that we

couldn't or wouldn't ever again sin, but that's not our nature.

And when we do sin, we have an advocate with the Father, We go

to God, we say, Lord, we've offended you.

We know that that's a change in our life.

We used to do anything and never feel anything.

But now we have a new life and suddenly we feel the conviction

of the Holy Spirit, which is the best thing that could ever

happen to our lives. Not condemnation, but the

conviction to draw us back to where God saved us, to where we

were with him. So there, this water baptism is

a symbol of a cleansing of the heart of the believer.

It is going to be in just a few short moments, a public

declaration. Somebody will be baptized and

they'll be saying I've turned from sin to serve Jesus Christ

as Lord. This act shows that I have died

to sin and I am alive to Christ. In conclusion, baptism outward

symbol of an inward experience. Alone it means nothing.

But if you had the inward experience and most important,

baptism in water is important because the Lord in his Word

commands us to be baptized and we want to be obedient to Him,

right? We're not trying to have some

pastor get it over on us, but if Jesus commanded it and didn't

just suggest it says I want you to do this, that's a good reason

for us to do it, isn't it? It's just a good reason to do it

because Jesus said. And to add to that, he set the

example because he himself was baptized.

Thanks for joining us today. If you'd like to connect, visit

us at Rheem Sound churchofgod.org, follow us on

Facebook and Instagram, and subscribe to this podcast so you

never miss an episode.