Baptism - What, Why, When and How - Part 1

Hello, this is Mike Kennedy with the Living in Victory Broadcast. We're going to start a new series today, a new topic, one that I've never taught on, but it's regarding a topic or a situation where I've been through many services, I've performed these services, and I had very little light on the topic based on some of the studies I've recently accomplished, recently been doing, and some of them caught me off guard because I had some beliefs based on things that I learned as a child, things that I assumed that I really didn't have scripture for, and there's been a lot of misunderstanding in this topic, a lot of churches that have ideas or have assumed things but don't really have backing with the word of God. What am I talking about? Well, I'm going to tell you it's regarding baptism, water baptism. You may say, "Ah, I understand all that. I was baptized." Well, let's check everything we believe against the word of God. Amen? Join your faith with me, Heavenly Father. We come to you asking you for understanding that we see the truth in your word. We ask you for light, direction. Father, I ask you to help me express what your word says, not to manipulate it, but to decipher it, specifically share what your word says, back everything up with your word, Lord. Father, we thank you for it. In the name of Jesus, amen. As I said, there's been a lot of misunderstanding regarding baptism in water. So, to get started, we want to know a few things.

Where is the Scripture? Amen? I shared how I learned a lot studying this. It challenged me in a few areas because I believed what my grandmother said, what a church doctrine told me, or pieces of the word of God. Now, a lot of my understanding was correct, there were areas of it that I knew weren't correct, but I didn't know why. And now I've got clarity. There were things that I didn't know that I have understanding about now. And I'm thankful to the Lord for giving me revelation in these areas that I can share some of it with you. Amen? Every belief we have, everyone needs a Scripture. We need to read the whole context of the Scripture, not a piece of a piece of a verse and develop a doctrine or a belief about it. A lot of false doctrines have been because people piecemeal different scriptures together, or they take it out of context. We need to understand the context of the Scripture, amen? And understand what it's saying, what we should do, and how to apply it to our lives. Let's start off with Deuteronomy chapter 4 verse 2. It says, "You shall not add to the word which I command you, nor take from it, that you may keep the commandments of the Lord your God which I command you." So, in other words, don't take a piece or a partial Scripture and try to deceive people in it, or be deceived by only reading a part of a Scripture. Amen? If your intent is correct, it can be confusion, it can be misleading. We want to know what God said and what He meant, amen? We want to know the truth of the Word, because the truth sets us free. Well,

if we believe lies, even if it may be a portion of a Scripture out of context, that's can be deceptive, it can be manipulative, even if it's not intentional be a lie, it can be something that's not true and we base false ideas on it. And then that will give us blind about truth, it will bind us up about truth. We want the truth that sets us free, amen? Deuteronomy chapter 12 verse 32. "Whatever I command you, be careful to observe it. You shall not add so many false beliefs in churches today, we want to make sure we have the Scripture. And I'm sharing with you why we want to make sure we have the Scripture. Jesus warned us about it. In Revelations chapter 22, verse 18 says, "For I testify to everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book. If anyone adds to these things, God will add to him the plagues that are written in this book. And if anyone takes away from the words of this book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part from the book of life, from the holy city and from the things which are written in the book. I don't want to take a piece of the Bible and manipulate it, take it out of context. I want to know what he said. Not add to it. Not take away from it. Not assume. Not make opinions. Amen. Mark chapter 7 verse 13 says, "Making the word of God of no effect through your traditions, which you have handed down in such things you do." In other words, if we take a piece of a Scripture and we make assumptions based on it, or take a piece of a Scripture and we make a doctrine out of that that's not based on the right context, we can make a tradition out of it that we do based on a tradition, a man, and there is no power in it. Then why are we doing it? It's a waste of time. Amen? The Amplified Bible in Mark 7, 13 says, "Thus you are nullifying and making void end of no effect the authority of the word of God through your tradition, which you in turn hand on, and in many things of this kind you are doing." I don't want tradition. I want the power of the word of God. If there's no power in it, why am I doing it? Why am I going to church? Why am I spending time reading the Bible? I want the power of the living God. Amen? The traditions of man make the power and word of God of no effect in their lives that believe it, that teach it. I want the power. Amen? I don't want some worthless, meaningless religion. I want truth of the power of God. Don't accept anything less than the word of God. We just talked about in a previous series about the goodness of God. Don't accept people saying that God is a bad God, or he didn't

want that goodness for you. No, just because you haven't experienced it doesn't mean that's not his will, that's not his plan. Find out what you're doing wrong. Get in the word, build your faith up and experience it. Amen? Build your faith on the word of God, not on experiences that are not based on the word of God. Amen? Don't water down the word of God, the good news of God, because you haven't experienced it. Amen? I was recently praising the Lord, and I said, I trust you, Lord. Remember I said that there were some areas where the Lord corrected me? Well, this is one where I got a wake up call in some areas, and I was praising the Lord. I trust you, Lord. I worship you. Now there's nothing wrong with that. We should do that, right? But I kept saying, I trust you, Lord. And I got a question from God. He asked me a question, and it startled me. It caught me off guard. From this question, I could have got offended. I could have ignored the question. When God asks you a question in the word or in your heart, he expects an honest answer. Don't ignore it. Amen? He expects you to be honest with him, and truthful with yourself. He knows the truth. Amen? You might just come clean and tell him. If he says your name twice, like Martha, Martha, just get on your knees and start repenting. Just say, Lord, have mercy on me, amen? God said to me, he said, okay, so you keep saying, I trust you, Lord. That's good, but he said, are you a man that I can trust? God asked me this question, and at first it kind of stirred me. I'm like, well, God, but oh, I had to repent because I was kind of like, what? And there are areas that he revealed to me that I have not been trustworthy into the level that I should have. I didn't say that I was falling into major sin. I said there were areas in my life that I could be more trustworthy, more honest, more pure, more holy. Amen? See, the more I am trustworthy, the more he can trust me, the more he can give to me, the more favor he can give to me finances. Amen? Whenever I'm willing to do things his way. not to be seen. Amen? There was something that came up and it was on my heart to do something for somebody. And a man is in a very high place in a world we're now in ministry. And my wife asked me something and I'm like woman. First didn't annoyed me, but I had to check myself.

She said, are you asking and offering to do that because you want to be seen or because God wants you to do it. And I'm like, but she was right. Man, she can read me like a book. I had to repent, get right. No, I'm not perfect. Don't tell my wife that though. Anyway, I had to repent of a few things. I asked God for mercy and help and I'm making changes. Amen, to be a man that God can trust in every area of my life. Amen, 'cause I don't want to be a preacher of the Word of God that won't take my own medicine, that won't take the medicine and correction of the Word of God, a hypocrite that preaches the Word and judges others. So every one of us, I don't care who we are. There's only one perfect man and that was Jesus. Think of King David, the places God took him. What he did for God, a man after God's own heart, but yet he committed adultery. He had his best friend killed over the situation. Amen, Abraham, he missed it. He listened to his wife, Sarah, and slept with the maid certain. There's things that occurred in mighty men of God's life that were not right. We should always look at ourselves and say,

what are areas I need to change, Lord? Help me see it. And endeavor to come up, there's always more. Amen, let's be doers of the Word, living in the blessings of God. That means that we, to be a doer that requires us to know the Word, get our hands in the Word, read the Word, listen to the Word, have our mind renewed by the washing of the Word. Amen, and then do it and make changes where necessary. In this series, we're gonna cover four items regarding baptism, water baptism. What is water baptism? Why do it when and how? Four areas, what, why, when and how? What is baptism? Why get baptized, when to get baptized, and how to baptize or be baptized? Amen, we need to base baptism on the Word of God, not on traditions, not on church doctrines or beliefs, not on feelings, not on what granny told us, but the Word of God. Now I'm not saying all these churches have false doctrines, wrong doctrines, you know, there can be, you can get on either side of a road into a ditch. There's a ditch on both sides. We want to know the Word and be in it. Amen? What is baptism, water baptism? That's the first thing.

The Bible expresses water baptism as a symbolic act. It's a symbolic act. We're gonna get into what that act is, how to do it at the end. But let's focus on it being a symbolic act. In the Word, we see that something happens when someone is baptized, something changes in the spiritual realm. We discuss the spiritual realm in the last few messages of the goodness of God series when we discussed ministering spirits or angelic beings. When you are saved, you become a new creature in Christ Jesus, hallelujah. Second Corinthians 5, 17. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. Old things have passed away, behold. All things have become new, glory to God. When you are born again and receive Jesus as your Lord and savior, your spirit becomes a new creation that receives the spiritual identity of Christ. In the inheritance that Jesus left us, eternal life. Glory to God. You say, well, I thought we were talking about baptism. We are. Keeps that, stay hooked with me. Hey man, there's a lot of foundation we need to cover to get into these four areas. As we think about the importance of baptism,

it's good to remember the distinction between the visible and the invisible things, okay? Water baptism, yeah, there's water involved, fact that you're a new creature, that you died in Christ and you are a new creation. Amen? This is the way God sees it. The way that we can see it is the same that God sees it if we look at it from a spiritual perspective. So as we think about the importance of baptism, remember the distinction between visible and invisible things. Amen? Recently, Sharon and I had the opportunity to baptize a 1% outlaw biker. He'd been in the outlaw world. Man, the dude was known throughout the country. He was a thug, but he got right with God, received Jesus as his Lord and Savior. Hallelujah. His son did, his wife, glory to God, their servant God, and he asked me if I would perform this service for him. So I told those that join in us, that this was a holy act of obedience. And that I remembered about his background, some of the things he has done, which we can't explain, and because it's all washed and clean, gone under the blood. But it's also not my place. But I let the crowd, the few people that were there, let them know, don't be concerned if the water turned black. You may say, what do you mean? Well, I was joking, but on the same token, this man that used to be a thug had done some dark things. So, but when he comes out of the water, it's going to testify of God's cleanliness, how the water washes him. Now, we're washed by the blood, but it's a testify of God's goodness and how the work of Jesus on the cross cleansed him and made him a new creature. Well, they all laugh whenever I said the water may turn black. But I also told them, told him, I looked at him, I said, brother, take a deep breath. I may need to hold you down for a while. Then he looked at me as I got big. I said, well, I want to make sure that it proves the fact that the man that you really were before this is dead and that you really want to live for Christ. He started laughing. You know, you can't be religious. Don't be religious and all bound up. Jesus had fun. Little kids ran to him. Little kids don't run to people that are all stodgy and mean and religious. He had fun. Well, this guy laughed. He enjoyed it, had a good time, amen? So, what is baptism? What water baptism is an outward testimony of the inward change in a believer's life? It includes the immersion in water, but more important, it is a symbolic act of becoming a new creature and Christ Jesus. Hallelujah, amen. Well, let's get on to the next topic. Why get baptized? In Acts chapter 2, Peter was finishing his sermon with an exposition of Psalms 110,

proving that Jesus of Nazareth, the descendant of King David, was now reigning at the right hand of his father in heaven. He pressed this point home. He said, "Let all the house of Israel, therefore, know assuredly that God has made him both both, Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified." That's an Acts chapter 2 verses 14 through 36. And some of those who were around, it shocked them. It stunned them. In verse 37 of Acts chapter 2, it says, "Convicting of the truth that they were in serious danger," they said, "Breadren, what shall we do?" That's a good question. You should ask yourself, "Lord, what should I do? How can I get this right? What else steps do I need to take to walk in the goodness of God, to walk in the blessings of God? Whenever God told me, ask me, am I a man he can trust?" I had to ask him, "Well, Lord, show me. Show me some areas where I need to change." And he showed me, "Hey, man, this is not a bad question." Peter encouraged them to cease their rebellion and bow their knees to Jesus, publicly acknowledge him as Israel's true king, their Lord, and their Savior. If you haven't done that, I encourage you to do it because that is where this all begins. Acts chapter 2 verse 38 says, "Then Peter said to them, "Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and you shall receive put it on the shelf and ask the Lord to show you. Amen. Never mock a gift of God that you don't understand. So Peter mentioned three steps, repenting from sins, being baptized in water for the forgiveness of sins. Okay, I just read that. Repent and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus for the remission of sins. It's for the remission. Now your cleansing is already done by the blood. We're going to get into the Scriptures regarding this. Every word that we believe should be backed up by Scripture for the remission of sins and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. Amen. So there's three steps, repenting, being baptized and receiving the Holy Spirit. Acts chapter two verse 33. It's clear that many things are related to baptism, including the forgiveness of sins. Now I didn't say baptism forgave your sins. It's a sign of the remission of sins that you have been cleaned. You went underwater. You came back up. That dead man in the sin with it is gone. You've been cleaned by the blood. Amen. Baptism is a sign that we are one with Christ. Born again just as Christ went to the pits of hell and rose again into eternal life. A public demonstration of your salvation. Amen. A public demonstration that you are born again by Christ Jesus because Jesus went to the pits of hell and rose again and He has eternal life and you have received your eternal life because of what He did. Amen.

It's a public demonstration of your salvation. A statement that you are a Christian. It resembles the washing and cleansing of sins. A new creature in Christ. You are saved and cleansed by the blood of the land. This here is nothing more. I shouldn't say nothing more. This is a testimony of the remission of sins that you have been cleansed by the blood and that you received Jesus and that you are a new creature. Amen. Baptism does not save you. John 3 16 says, "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. Faith in Jesus. Faith in what He did in receiving Him, asking Him into your heart." That's what saves you. Baptism is just as it's a symbolization of the burial just like Christ died for us. He rose from the dead. We also rise from the water into eternal life. Amen. Glory to God. We are saved by the blood. Amen. Ephesians chapter 2 8 says, "For by grace it's God's grace. You have been saved through faith, not through baptism. You have been saved through faith that not of yourselves. It is a gift of God, not as a result of works so that no one may boast." Amen. Nowhere in the Bible does it teach the idea that mere baptism washes away people's sins. You know there's a Latin word and I'm not from the Latin expert but it's ex second word, opareo, o-p-e-r-e, operato, ex-opareo, operato, by the work having been performed. Okay. It's a Latin expression meaning by work, work, or from the work of the work itself. No, we are washed by the blood, not by works. We just read in Ephesians 2 9 not as a result of works. Baptism does not save you. Amen. The blood spilled as a sacrifice by Jesus ensures we're forgiven and we are redeemed by His blood for our sins. That's what saves us, not baptism. Now we are commanded to be baptized but we want to understand what it is, what it represents. Amen. The blood of God reconciles us to God, Colossians 1 20 and give this direct access to God, the most holy place, Hebrews 10 19, without need for an intermediary priest. We don't need some priest at a church to intermead for us or to reconcile us. No Jesus, the high priest has done that. We don't need to go to a priest and commit and admit our sins. We go to God through Jesus and the name of Jesus Amen? We'll get more into this as we go with Ephesians 1-7, Caussians 1-20, Hebrews 10-19. But I want you to understand, baptism is not what saves you.

It's the blood of Jesus by the work he did, dying on a cross, going to hell, paying the price, and we receive him as our Lord and Savior. That's what saves us. Baptism, the reason we do it is because we're commanded to and it is a demonstration and a symbolic act that we receive what Jesus did. That the old man is dead, we go underwater, we come out and it's a symbol of the new creation of who we are in Christ. You know, the biggest thing we need to do in this life is receive Jesus as our Lord and Savior. I read John 3-16 to you. That's what it's based on. For God so loved you that he gave his only son Jesus. His only son Jesus who went to the cross, he was beat, he became sin and paid the price for your sin and my sin. He went to the pits of hell and rose from the grave, paying your price and my price for our sins so that we don't have to go and go to hell and pay for our sins. It's already been paid for. We just receive it by faith. If you don't know Jesus as your Lord and Savior, I encourage you to repeat this after me. Say heavenly Father, I believe that you sent your son Jesus according to John 3-16. He died on the cross. He went to hell and paid for my sins.

He paid the price for my sins. He rose from the dead on the third day and is seated in heavenly places with you. Lord, I ask you to be my Lord and Savior, to come into my heart. Save me from my sins. I receive it by faith. Father, your word says my name will be written in the Lamb's Book of Life as a child of God with eternal salvation. I receive it, I thank you for it. I praise you for it and I declare Jesus is Lord of my life. Amen. (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music)