From Salvation To Water Baptism

From Salvation To Water Baptism

A Biblical Foundation

THE GREATEST DECISION YOU WILL EVER MAKE

The greatest decision you will ever make is your decision to return to God. Jesus parable of prodigal son who asked his father for his inheritance so He could move far away from his home and live his life the way He wanted gives us the awesome picture of our existence living far away from God, and living our life the way we want. After the son came to his senses he recognized his depravity and made the greatest decision he could ever make. The son made the decision to return Home. On his way home he realized the mistakes he had made and determined in his heart to ask his Father for forgiveness. This is the very step each one of us have made when we decided to turn away (repentance) from our mistakes, turn back (return) to God, and make our heart right (reconcile) with God.

If you are a new believer then some time in your life you heard the gospel message. Maybe your heard the message as a child in Sunday school, or maybe a co-worker spoke to you, or maybe you heard a message from a preacher. No matter how we heard the gospel message what is more important is that we made the decision to respond to God. The gospel message revealed to us that we all have sinned in the very sight of God, and we all have been living our lives separated from God.  We came to our senses and recognized in our hearts that all our deeds, all our words, all our action, and our behavior has been done in the sight of God. When this penetrated our hearts we turned toward God and we made the greatest decision we can ever make. We Gave Our Heart to God.

THE GREATEST MIRACLE IN WORLD

The greatest miracle in the world is the miracle of the new birth. All new believers must be Born Again. No one is physically born just because they said so and it happened. Physical birth was not your decision but was produced through the conception between man and a woman. Spiritual birth is produced in your life much the same way. No one can be born again apart from the work and power of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit cannot do this work unless you first have approached Jesus Christ. The moment we open our heart to God, believe that Jesus Christ was resurrected from the dead and personally commit our hearts and lives to the Lord Jesus Christ, God works the greatest miracle in the world. He takes us and creates in us a whole new life through the power and presence of the Holy Spirit. From this moment forward you are aware that you have are now living your new life in the Spirit and with the presence of God.

Why Be Water Baptized?

A Biblical Foundation

All new born again believers must not approach this decision to be water baptized lightly.

Why? Because we must understand that we are making this decision in the sight of God.  There is a reason that God has established water baptism. First, God has instituted the act of water to serve as a symbol of our decision to die to our old sinful life, to resemble the new life God has given us, and to remind us of the gift of eternal life that God has promised to give every believer. Second, water baptism serves as an opportunity to take our first step in obedience to God. Remember God loves us more than we can imagine. Throughout our new life God will give us the opportunity to respond to what He is doing in our lives and what He is asking us to do. Water Baptism is one of the first acts in our new life before God where we have the opportunity to respond to God.

1.     Jesus Commands Us:        Our First Step of Obedience

Matt 28:18-20 18 And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, "All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. 19 "Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 "teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age." Amen. (NKJ)

2.     Our Heart Response to the Message:  Our First Response Toward God

Acts 2:36-41 36 "Therefore let all the house of

Israel

know assuredly that God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ." 37 Now when they heard this, they were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, "Men and brethren, what shall we do?" 38 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 the gift of the Holy Spirit. 39 "For the promise is to you and to your children, and to all who are afar off, as many as the Lord our God will call." 40 And with many other words he testified and exhorted them, saying, "Be saved from this perverse generation." 41 Then those who gladly received his word were baptized; and that day about three thousand souls were added to them. (NKJ)

3.     The Symbol of the Decision We Have Made In Our Lives:  You Died To Your Old Life, Raised By God With A New Life, and Receiving God’s promise of eternal Life.

Rom 6:1-14 1 What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? 2 Certainly not! How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it? 3 Or do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4 Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. 5 For if we have been united together in the likeness of his death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of his resurrection, 6 knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin. 7 For he who has died has been freed from sin. 8 Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him, 9 knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, dies no more. Death no longer has dominion over Him. 10 For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God.  11 Likewise you also, reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord. 12 Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in its lusts. 13 And do not present your members as instruments of unrighteousness to sin, but present yourselves to God as being alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God. 14 For sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under law but under grace. (NKJ)

4.     The Symbol Of The Work Of God In Our Lives: You Died With Christ, You Are Raised With Christ, You Have Received Christ Our Eternal Life.

Col

2:11-15 11 In Him you were also circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the sins of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ, 12 buried with Him in baptism, in which you also were raised with Him through faith in the working of God, who raised Him from the dead. 13 And you, being dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He has made alive together with Him, having forgiven you all trespasses, 14 having wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against us, which was contrary to us. And He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross. (NKJ)

5.     Water Baptism Unites Believers:  Through Our Faith in Christ Jesus

Gal 3:26-28 26 For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus.27 For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. 28 There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus. (NKJ)