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BAPTISM |
1. It is a work of God, not man.
"having been buried with Him in baptism, in which you
were also raised up with
Him through faith in the working of God,
who raised Him from the dead."
(Colossians 2:12)
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2. What does baptism do?
It Saves
"Corresponding to that, baptism now saves you - - not the removal of dirt from
the flesh, but an appeal to God
for a good conscience - - through the
resurrection of Jesus
Christ," (I Peter 3:21)
"He saved us, not on the basis of deeds which we
have done in righteousness,
but according to His mercy, by the
washing of regeneration and renewing by
the Holy Spirit"
(Titus 3:5)
It
Removes sin
"Now why do you delay? Get
up and be baptized, and wash away your sins,
calling on His name
(Acts 22:16;)
"and in Him you were also circumcised with a
circumcision made without hands,
in the removal of the body of the flesh by the circumcision of
Christ"
(Colossians
2:11)
"knowing
this, that our old self was crucified with Him, in order that our body of sin
might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves
to sin;
(Romans 6:6.)
It Gives New Life
"Therefore we have been buried with Him
through baptism into death,
so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father,
so
we too might walk in newness of life." (Romans 6:4)
It Brings us the Holy Spirit.
"Peter said to them, 'Repent, and each of you be baptized in the name of
Jesus Christ
for the forgiveness of your sins; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.'"
(Acts 2:38)
A. Baptism
does this because God said it would. God can use anything
He wants to have
it do whatever He wants.
"Therefore bear fruits in keeping with repentance, and do not begin to say
to yourselves,
'We have Abraham for our father,' for I say to you that from these stones God is
able to
raise up children to Abraham.
(Luke 3:8)
"But Jesus answered, 'I tell you, if these become silent, the stones will
cry out!'"
(Luke 19:40)
B. Remember
our Faith, which is necessary for salvation, is a Gift from
God.
God can give and
does give that faith to children as well as adults.
Faith God has given
"For through the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think
more
highly of
himself than he ought to think; but to think so as to have sound
judgment,
as
God has allotted
to each a measure of faith" (Romans 12:3).
Little ones
believe (Greek for "little ones,"
means a nursing
infant.)
"but whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in Me to stumble,
it would be better for him to have a heavy millstone hung around his neck,
and to be drowned in the
depth of the sea." (Matthew 18:6).
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3. Should children be baptized?
A. Baptism and the gift it brings are
for both adults and their children!
"Peter
said to them, 'Repent, and each of you be baptized in the name of
Jesus Christ for the
forgiveness of your sins; and you will receive the gift
of the Holy Spirit.
For the promise is for you and your children and for all
who are far off, as many as the Lord our God
will call to Himself.""
(Acts 2:38-39).
B. Children are born sinful.
Remember no sin can enter heaven.
"There is none righteous, not even one." (Romans
3: 10)
C. Baptism, by GOD'S
GRACE, will wash that sin away, if faith is present.
"'Now why do you delay?
Get up and be baptized, and wash away your sins,
calling on His
name.'"
(Acts 22:16)
D. Salvation is an act
of GOD'S
GRACE. He can give
that grace to children
as well as adults.
"For by grace you have been
saved through faith; and that not of yourselves,
it is the gift of
God" (Ephesians 2:8)
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4.
Doesn't a child need faith to be saved? Yes!
A. Yes! Scriptures tell us they do believe
and trust in Jesus.
"But if anyone causes one of
these little ones who believe in me to sin,
it would be better for him to
have a large millstone hung around his neck
and to be drowned in the depths of
the sea."
(Matthew 18:6)
"'Do you hear what these children are saying?' they asked Him.
'Yes,'
replied Jesus, 'have you never
read, From the lips of children
and infants you have ordained
praise'?'" (Matthew 21:16)
"Yet you brought me out of the womb; you made me
trust in you even
at my mother's breast." (Psalm 22:9)
B. Since God can also give the gift
of faith,
then they are prepared for
baptism and should be baptized.
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5. Does baptism have to be done by immersion?
A.
No. The words immerse/immersion
are not even in the Bible.
B.
Greek for baptize is
"baptizo" It means to wash. It can mean
to wash the whole body, "to
bathe" or it can mean to wash in part,
they washed their hands.
"But
the Pharisee, noticing that Jesus did not first wash before the meal,
was
surprised." (Luke 11:38)
"When they come from the marketplace they do not eat unless they wash.
And
they observe
many other traditions, such as the washing of cups,
pitchers and
kettles." (Mark
7:4)
C.
Even when one takes a bath they do
not necessarily
submerge
or immerse themselves
under
water. Those who believe this way
say we must immerse because .
. .
(Romans 6:4)
tells us
baptism
is symbolic
of BURIAL
"Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into
death,
so that as Christ was raised
from the dead through the glory of the
Father, so we too might
walk in newness of life."
This may be so,
but it is also symbolic of POURING . . .
"He saved us, not because of righteous things we had
done, but because of His
mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy
Spirit, whom He
poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Savior,"
(Titus
3:5-6)
WASHING
"And now what are you waiting
for? Get up, be baptized and wash your sins
away, calling
on His name." (Acts 22:16)
SPRINKLING
"let us draw near to God with a
sincere heart in full assurance of faith,
having our
hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and
having our bodies
washed with pure water."
(Hebrews 10:22)
So which
should we choose? Lutherans believe all three ways
are proper as long
as the Word and
the water are
used according
to God's command. We choose sprinkling because that was used
in many Old
Testament covenant ceremonies to finalize a covenant.
"Moses then took the blood, sprinkled it on the
people and said,
'This is the blood of the covenant
that the LORD has made with you
in accordance with all these words."
(Exodus 24:8)
Baptism is the "new covenant"
"For this reason He is the mediator of a new covenant, so
that,
since a death has taken place for the redemption of the transgressions
that were committed under the first covenant, those who have been
called may receive the promise of the eternal inheritance."
(Hebrews 9:15)
Which replaces the old covenant of circumcision
"
(Colossians 2:11-12)
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6. Is Baptism
permanent?
A. Yes. Its is a work God does and He does not
make mistakes!
B. Just as parents brought their children to
God in the Old Testament,
"I will establish My covenant between Me and you
and your descendants after
you throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be God
to you
and to your descendants after you. I will
give to you and to your descendants
after you, the land of your sojournings, all the land of Canaan, for an
everlasting
possession; and I will be their God." 9God
said further to Abraham, "Now as for you,
you shall keep My covenant, you and your descendants after you
throughout their
generations. This is My covenant, which you shall keep, between Me
and you and
your descendants after you: every male among you shall be circumcised. And
you
shall be circumcised in the flesh of your foreskin, and it shall be the
sign of the
covenant between Me and you. And every male among you who is )eight
days old
shall be circumcised throughout your generations, a servant who is born
in the
house or who is bought with money from any foreigner, who is not of your
descendants. A servant who is born in your house or who is bought
with your
money shall surely be circumcised; thus shall My covenant be in your
flesh for an
everlasting covenant. But an uncircumcised male who is not
circumcised in the
flesh of his foreskin, that person shall be cut off from his people; he
has broken My
covenant." (Genesis 17:7-14)
We do through baptism in the New Testament.
"and in Him you were also circumcised
with a circumcision made without hands,
in the removal of the body of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ;
having been
buried with Him in baptism, in which you were also raised up with Him
through
faith in the working of God, who raised Him from the dead."
(Colossians 2:11-12)
However, like the Israelites our children may walk away from God.
"For I do not want you to be ignorant of the fact,
brothers, that our
forefathers were all under the
cloud and that they all passed through the sea.
They were all baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea. They all ate the
same spiritual food and
drank the same spiritual drink; fort hey drank
from the
spiritual rock that accompanied them, and that rock was Christ.
Nevertheless,
God was
not pleased with most of them; their bodies were scattered over the
desert. Now
these things occurred as examples to keep us from setting our
hearts on evil things as they did." (1 Corinthians 10:1-6)
So we must be careful to teach them the way of the
Lord.
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7. The Power of
conversion is of God and His Word,
not our ability in thought or
deed. The Word is the power.
"For I am not ashamed of the
gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation
to everyone who
believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek."
(Romans 1:16)
God can put that power into many
different vehicles. A sermon,
personal testimony, creation and
even baptism.
"Corresponding to that, baptism now saves you--not
the removal of dirt from
the flesh, but an appeal to God for a good
conscience--through the resurrection
of Jesus Christ," (1 Peter 3:21)
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8. Salvation is a work of GOD not man!
"For by grace you have been
saved through faith; and that not of yourselves,
it is the gift of
God;" (Ephesians 2:8)
A.
The Holy Spirit works conviction, desire for salvation, faith, even the
ability to call upon Jesus for salvation.
B.
There is NOTHING we can do, no work at all, toward our salvation.
Unfortunately
some
people make faith into a good work.
They think
they develop faith to believe based on what they can
understand and
learn. If
that were true then the mentally retarded would have no hope
of
salvation. However, faith is not a good work based on our intellect.
It is a GIFT from, God.
Whether
we use or neglect to use that gift will
determine our eternal destination.
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9. Finally, the fact that God has
provided a tool (baptism)
to deal with sin in
the life of an infant or adult who is unable to
consciously evaluate sin in their life
does not in any way exempt the
normal adult from the need of coming to a
conscious decision to accept
Christ. This is the usual or normal order
of salvation. This is why we
teach that every person, baptized
or not, must come to a point in their
lives where they consciously,
knowingly, receive Jesus Christ into their
hearts and lives.
"Whoever will call on the name of the Lord will
be saved." (Romans 10:13)
"But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to
become children of God,
even to those who believe in His name
" (John 1:12) |
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