I think that there ought to be a spiritual law that says that every church of Christ must have at least one Ethiopian every month.
By that I mean that sometime during the month when the Word of God is preached,
Especially the gospel.
That there be someone who listens with his ears wide open, who hears with his heart, who responds by faith,
And who commits his entire life to the Lord because God has been so gracious to him.
If there was just one such person in every ministry every once in a while, all of God’s churches would be flourishing and abounding.
But alas!
After this man heard the gospel he asked a very important question: “What doth hinder me to be baptized?”
The fact is, there ARE some hindrances to scriptural baptism,
But if those hindrances are satisfied, then every new believer ought to be baptized immediately .
We need to
hear messages on the subject of baptism, because of there is much
heresy that is linked to it.
For example, there is no more dangerous and Satanic doctrine than the idea that baptism washes away sin.
There is nothing you can do to please Satan any more than be baptized with hopes of cleansing away your sins.
He loves that kind talk more does filthy jokes or rock music lyrics.
Priestly fingers splashing around in fonts of holy water is music to Devil’s ears.
Unfortunately, it is just as probable that rain water will wash away your sin as baptismal water.
Nevertheless, I believe in the importance of baptism,
IF it is truly scriptural baptism.
It is the first step in obedience to our Lord after His saving grace.
It should not be excessively delayed, unless there are special circumstances
“See here is water what doth hinder me to be baptized?”
This scripture teaches us that it is important
not to unnecessarily delay baptism,
BUT it is also important to fully understand the basic meaning behind baptism.
Many people are too flippant with baptism today.
I believe that there things people need to know and understand about baptism.
It seems obvious to me that this
Ethiopian had
some prior training in this regard.
Since baptism was something relatively new in his religious world,
I wonder what he had heard about this ordinance,
Or if it was something that Philip had brought up in the course of his Bible lesson.
His instruction must have been Baptistic, since he knew that there were possible hindrances.
Philip said, “If thou believest with all thine heart thou mayest.”
There are certain things that a person must believe and practice to have scriptural baptism.
The first is that the person being baptized must have a PROPER FAITH in and about Christ Jesus
The undeniable Biblical principle is: “Then they that gladly RECEIVED HIS WORD were baptized.”
The “word,” referred to there in Acts 2 was the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ.
It was the same “word” which Philip had been expounding in the chariot.
The need of the gospel is seen in the wretched depravity and thorough sinfulness of all mankind.
We are all born aliens, separated from God by a gulf of sin that not even the Enterprise can bridge.
We are “dead in trespasses and sins” without ability or desire even to lift our eyes toward glory.
“But God commended his love toward us” and proved His eternal covenant “in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us.”
We are all like the poor crippled man at pool of Bethesda without anyone to help him.
But Christ reaches down to some and says, “Be thou healed and whole; be thou saved from thy sin.”
“Christ has for sin, atonement made, what a wonderful, wonderful Saviour.”
The Bible says that “Jesus came to give his life a ransom for many.”
He came to die, that sinful men might live:
“For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.”
The sinful soul made alive by God’s grace, reaching out by faith to Christ, hating his own sins, is a new Creature in Christ.
That person, according to the Bible, is only one fit for scriptural baptism.
“If thou believest with all thine heart, thou mayest be baptized.”
Philip in Acts 8 and Peter in Acts 2 didn’t preach Jesus as a teacher, example, humanitarian, martyr or any other ordinary or extraordinary man.
They both preached Christ as the “Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of world.“
Here Philip preached Isaiah 53.
“All we like sheep have gone astray but the Lord hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all.
“He was wounded for our transgressions; he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.“
When the right Christ is received in right way, the right baptism ought follow.
“Repent and be baptized everyone of you for the remission of sin and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.”
The baptism that follows repentance and faith acts as testimony that this person has truly accepted Jesus Christ as Lord and Saviour.
The
first hindrance against baptism is
a lack of true faith in Jesus Christ as one’s
personal Redeemer.
We cannot stress this enough – baptism does not save sinful souls.
We must trust Christ and Christ alone for salvation from sin.
Scriptural baptism can only be given to someone who has already been redeemed.
But we can’t stop there in our search for scriptural baptism, as so many people do.
Another hindrance is a lack of sufficient water
“And they went down both into the water, both Philip and the eunuch; and he baptized him.”
You will never find any other baptism in Bible but immersion in water.
You will not find sprinkling, pouring, or baby baptism anywhere in the Word of God.
Philip and this black man went both down into the water.
Philip didn’t get out his water-bottle and pour little of the Jordan River on the man’s head.
Just as it was with Jesus and John, they went into the Jordan, then John plunged the Saviour beneath the gentle waves of the stream.
God intended that baptism depict a burial, and so the body of the new Christian must be immersed.
We could prove the point from the Book of Romans or the Gospels, or from Greek etymology.
But we see it here with our own eyes, and in English, they both got off the chariot and walked into the water of that road-side oasis.
Remember that baptism is ONLY a picture, an illustration, a testimony about the spiritual reality of our salvation.
I have baptized lots of ladies with lots of hair, and I can’t say for sure that I got every strand of hair submersed in the water.
Nor am I sure that I got every finger under the water at the same time that I got every toe.
I once baptized a man weighing well over 300 pounds, and I’m not sure that his feet were under the water at the same time that I got his tummy tucked under.
But I am sure that we adequately illustrated those people’s death, burial and resurrection with Christ.
That is what its all about.
If you have
not been immersed in water you have not been
baptized.
You may have been sprinkled, or you may have been christened, but you were not baptized.
The word “baptism” DEMANDS immersion, without the slightest room for any alternative.
And when that Ethiopian said “baptism” he was thinking of getting wet from head to toe.
A third thing possible hindrance to baptism is a PROPER BAPTIZER or AUTHORITY.
In Matthew 21:25 Jesus asked the Pharisees: “Where did John the Baptist get authority baptize?”
The reasoning behind the question was this: Only God can give that kind of authority.
What happened when Nadab and Abihu decided to offer their unauthorized service to Lord?
They approached the Golden Altar with fire taken from their wives stoves or from their own Bic lighters.
But the command of God was that the only fire acceptable to Him was that which He had ignited.
And Nadab and Abihu died at the hands of God.
That strange fire is exactly like, John Q. Public deciding on his own to baptize someone.
Years ago, singer, Pat Boone decided to baptize his friends in his back-yard swimming pool.
A voice might have boomed down from heaven: “Pat, who gave you authority to baptize?”
It’s a wonder that God didn’t turn that swimming pool into caldron of boiling water.
In Matthew 28 our Lord gave the authority, permission and commission to baptize to His local church.
That is the only Scripture where this authority to baptize has ever been given to anyone.
The Jewish High Priest wasn’t given authority to baptize, nor was the Sanhedrin.
The 120 disciples were not so authorized; nor were the ladies commissioned;
Not a single individual was authorized to baptize, or even the Apostles.
The only person, place or thing ever given authority to baptize beside John the Baptist was Christ’s church.
And Philip baptized this man in desert under authority of First Baptistic Church of Jerusalem of which he was a member, servant and ordained missionary.
That doesn’t mean that
any group of people that
calls themselves a church can
baptize.
Just think about it: are there any “churches” which teach that baptism washes away sin?
There are lots of churches that teach this heresy – from Catholicism to huge parts of Protestantism.
But has Jesus authorized this kind of baptism? No!
Just because an organization calls itself “a church” doesn’t give it authority to baptize.
Has God commissioned the baptism of those who sprinkle or pour water, calling it “baptism”?
Since pouring, sometimes called “affusion,” is not baptism, then God never authorized it.
Just because they call themselves “a church” doesn’t make this error Biblical practice.
Is the organization that teaches that Jesus Christ is but a mere man a true church?
Is the organization which teaches that man is saved from sin by works or generosity a true church?
Is the baptism of an heretical church like these valid baptism in the sight of God?
If the Lord Jesus started the first church and commissioned it to duplicate itself through missions,
What should we think about those churches and denominations which pride themselves on their human founders?
What about those churches founded by Martin Luther, John Knox, John Wesley and Henry VIII?
If they were founded by men where did they get authority to baptize?
Didn’t that authority come from their founders as well?
If a church can’t trace its
history and doctrine to the New Testament then it has no authority to baptize
I believe that this then limits scriptural baptism to scriptural Baptist churches – ALONE.
We do not accept any baptism but Baptist baptism, and we do so because this is what Bible teaches.
Furthermore we don’t agree that every church that calls itself “Baptist” is one of the Lord’s churches.
The
only institution authorized to baptize is a scriptural, New Testament church
That means that any church which claims to be a Protestant Church has no authority to baptize people,
Because by their own definition they declare themselves to be children of Roman Catholic corruption.
God’s true churches have been in existence in every generation since the days of the Lord Jesus.
And only those church have God’s authority to administer the ordinances.
It is important to believe correctly and practice properly baptism’s administrator
.
Another hindrance to baptism is confusion about its MEANING.
As I’ve suggested already, baptism is
a picture of the
death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
This is why only immersion in water is the acceptable mode and method.
How can a little water dumped on the head illustrate Jesus’ burial or death?
When a person is scripturally baptized they declare to world that they believe that their salvation from sin is directly tied to the death and new life of Christ.
But that is not all that is pictured in baptism
Too many churches stop there and fail to declare the rest of the illustration.
Baptism pictures the sinner’s union with Christ in that death, burial and resurrection – Romans 6:4-6
” 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.
For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection.
This is the point: the candidate for baptism is now dead with Christ.
He is dead to sin, dead to his old vices, and dead to old ways of life.
He has buried his old way of life and is now a new creature in Christ.
How much sin has Christ committed since His death and resurrection?
How much sin is there in the grave? In Heaven?
In the same way the baptized believer is not to live in sin any longer.
It is important to scriptural baptism to realize that
by baptism we are
declaring :
“I am dead to sin, crucified with Christ and henceforth will not serve sin and Satan.”
This doesn’t mean that we must, or even can, live sinlessly perfect prior to or following baptism.
If that was true, no one every baptized or enter gates of splendor.
But in baptism we show that this desire is in our hearts.
Notice what Paul says in verses 11-13
“Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof.
Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrtns unto sin: but yield yourselves unto God,
As those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of rtns unto God.”
The candidate for baptism says: “My heart is yours Lord, I reckon myself dead to sin, and with your blessing I will not wilfully sin against my Saviour.”
How many people realize that when they are immersed in average Baptist church?
How many of us forget that through the years after our baptism?
The Christian living in open sin and rebellion makes a mockery of his baptism.
That is why the sinful Christian needs to be put out of the Lord’s church.
No Christian should enter the baptistry still carrying an intention to carry on in his sin.
No Christian should be baptized when they have no intention serve the Lord who saved them
There is in fact still a very real doubt about that person’s salvation.
What doth hinder me to be baptized?
Well, Mr. Ethiopian, do you understand the
meaning of baptism?
“Yes, I am united to the living Christ, and I am now dead to sin, but alive unto the Lord.”
And what do you believe about
the administrator of that Baptism?
“Well, you are a missionary of the Lord’s church aren’t you?”.
He had no problem about the scriptural mode of baptism, because “baptizo” means immersion.
And did he have the right faith in the Saviour?
“I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.
He died for me, and I have repented of my sin and put my faith in Him.
I publicly declare that I accept Him as my Lord and Saviour.”
Have YOU ever been scripturally baptized?
More importantly, have YOU ever repented of your sin, receiving Jesus Christ as your Lord and Saviour?
