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Amazing Facts

Joe Crews

Baptism

A few shocking examples of people who were buried alive has recently come to light in a National Monthly Magazine story.

Countless thousands have been buried alive in recent weeks, and the outrage will continue until religious leaders do something to stop the practice.

Hello, this is Joe Cruz of the Amazing Facts broadcast, facts which affect you.

You know, friends, 1 of the strongest, most positive statements ever made by Jesus is found in John 3, verse 5.

Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.

Now I dare make the assertion today that this little word, except, is going to keep many people on the outside of the kingdom of heaven.

Here we have presented 2 essential steps to getting admission to heaven.

A man must be born of water and then born of the Spirit.

First of all, what does it mean to be born of the Spirit?

The third verse clarifies the meaning for us very well.

Jesus said, except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.

So being born of the Spirit then means literally that spiritual change by which a man is converted, dying to sin, walking in newness of life, all those things that are involved in being born of the Spirit.

Born of the water signifies that outward sign of baptism which is a symbol of that inward spiritual change.

Jesus made it even more emphatic in Mark 16, 16.

He said, He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved, but he that believeth not shall be damned.

Now on the basis of these statements, I do not hesitate to say that any man who has the opportunity to be baptized and refuses to be, cannot possibly enter the kingdom of heaven.

Somebody might say that the thief on the cross proves the opposite, because he was never baptized and yet Jesus told him that he would be saved.

Well, the fact is, of course, that the thief did nothing except repent and receive Christ as his Savior, but that was because he didn't have an opportunity to do anything else.

If he could have come down from that cross, he would have done many things, of course.

He would have been required to do everything in the way of obeying truth in order to remain in that state of grace.

He would have stopped stealing, for example.

You see, God doesn't require the impossible of anybody.

But if we spend the opportunity to obey the commands of Christ and refuse to obey, we surely cannot be saved.

The Bible gives us only 1 example of an exception to this rule about baptism in order that no 1 would be presumptuous in refusing to obey the commandment of Christ to be baptized.

Friends, it's a symbolic ordinance, and it represents something very, very significant for the Christian.

And it is in the significance of the act that we find the answer to many, many questions.

Know ye not that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death?

Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death, that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.

Now let's ask, why is baptism a symbol of death and burial?

The answer is in verse 6, knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin.

Now, friends, listen, who is this old man and this body of sin that Paul is referring to?

Well, of course, it is that old carnal nature of man.

The conversion takes place in an individual, and he is born again of the Spirit of God.

Immediately a tremendous inward spiritual transformation takes place.

The sinful nature that loved to do evil things is now crucified, and a new creature emerges.

And that old man of sin no longer has control, because he is dead, and there is a new life in Christ Jesus.

Now that the old man is dead, he must be buried.

Baptism is actually that burial of the old life of sin, a symbolic act of placing that old carnal nature in a watery grave and rising to live a new life in Christ Jesus.

Now we inquire, friends, how does baptism fulfill that symbol of death, burial, and resurrection?

Why, listen, nothing could meet the type more perfectly than the Bible picture of baptism.

The eyes are closed, the hands folded, the breasts suspended, and the person is lured gently beneath the water.

Now there is 1 point which all must understand on this subject.

The act of being baptized does not work immediately and miraculously a sudden change in the individual.

A man could be baptized 50 times and be just as sinful as before unless his heart had been changed.

It is only when the inward spiritual renewal, the new birth has taken place, that the outward symbol of baptism has any real meaning.

If there had been no death of the old sinful nature, that act of burying the old man in that water would become absolutely without any meaning or without any validity.

It would be just a dead ceremony, a form that signifies nothing.

Now, friends, too many people have been buried alive.

I mean by that that the motions of sin were still strongly influencing their lives.

Religious leaders are going to have to give an answer before the judgment for the crime of burying people in baptism before that death, that spiritual death, has taken place in their lives.

Well, somebody asked, how does a sprinkling of water that's practiced by many churches fit into this meaning of baptism?

And the answer is simply this, friends, it doesn't fit in.

The Bible presents only 1 kind of baptism, and surely that is the 1 we are interested in today.

We can always find the right way by inquiring, What did Jesus do about it?

If we follow His example, we can never be wrong.

So now let's turn to Mark 1, verses 9 and 10.

And it came to pass in those days that Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee, and was baptized of John in Jordan.

And straightway coming up out of the water, he saw the heavens opened and the Spirit like a dove descending upon him.

Now notice that Jesus was not baptized by or near the river Jordan, but in the Jordan.

The text says that he was coming up out of the water.

He set a perfect example of baptism by fulfilling the spiritual symbol of death, burial, and resurrection.

The practice of the disciples was also in perfect harmony with the example Jesus gave.

In Acts 8, the story is told about Philip's contact with that Ethiopian eunuch as he rode along in his chariot.

After giving a Bible study, the eunuch asked for baptism, or after receiving a Bible study from Philip.

And then Philip examined the candidate and agreed to accept him.

And then in verses 38 and 39 we read these words, and he commanded the chariot to stand still.

And they went down both into the water, both Philip and the eunuch, and he baptized him.

And when they were come up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord caught away Philip, that the eunuch saw him no more, and he went on his way rejoicing.

Now here the words are so explicit there can be no question whatsoever.

Notice this expression, they went down both into the water, both fell upon the eunuch.

And then it says they came up out of the water.

In order to perform the ceremony so that it would have meaning, they both got down out of the chariot into the water, and the candidate was immersed there.

Now this agrees perfectly with the method that John the Baptist used in performing baptism.

And John also was baptizing in Enon, near to Salem, because there was much water there, and they came and were baptized.

Now please notice that John could not carry on his ministry except in certain places where there was much water for baptizing the people.

If he had followed some modern customs of just sprinkling a little water, he could have carried a bottle or a jug around with him and baptized people anywhere.

But he preached and met the people only at certain spots.

It says where there was much water, plenty of water.

At Enon they could go down into the water and be immersed because the River Jordan flowed by there.

Now perhaps the most incontestable proof of all lies in the original Greek word for baptized.

The word that Jesus and all the Bible writers used was the Greek word baptizo.

Now, friends, this word has just 1 meaning.

The Greek lexicon of Liddell and Scott gives this meaning, to dip under water.

Other lexicons say to submerge, a rite of sacred immersion commanded by Christ.

But never has the word been used in any other sense than this.

There's no possibility of the meaning to sprinkle with water.

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