Bible Talk > Sound doctrine

The doctrine of Christ

<< < (2/3) > >>

Isaiah9Six:
Okay, I'm going into the New Testament to talk about baptism, keeping in mind what I have already said about how immersion was done for purification or to be ceremonially cleansed under the Law of Moses. The first person we see baptizing in the New Testament is John.

Luke 3:3 And he came into all the country about Jordan, preaching the baptism of repentance for the remission of sins; 4. As it is written in the book of the words of Esaias the prophet, saying, The voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make his paths straight.

Baptism #1 baptism of repentance; We have previously discussed what repentance is so we know that what John is doing is turning men's heart to the Lord. Those getting baptized were not saved, only the blood of Jesus is effective enough to remove ones sins, but the act of being baptized indicated a heart that was ready to embrace the coming kingdom that John preached about.

John also spoke of other baptisms in Matthew 3:11; I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance: but he that cometh after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear: he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost, and with fire:

Baptism #2 baptism of the Holy Ghost; The person that would immerse with the Holy Ghost is Jesus. We see that fulfilled in Acts 1 and 2. The question always arises asks if Holy Ghost baptism converts a sinner into a saint. Rather than my answer I rather point to scripture and leave it up to the reader.

John 16:13; Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will shew you things to come.
Luke 24:49; And, behold, I send the promise of my Father upon you: but tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem, until ye be endued with power from on high.
Acts 1:8; But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.
Acts 2:4; And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.
Acts 2:17-18; And it shall come to pass in the last days, saith God, I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh: and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams:   And on my servants and on my handmaidens I will pour out in those days of my Spirit; and they shall prophesy:

It seems abundantly clear that being baptized with the Holy Spirit is when a believer in Jesus Christ receives extraordinary power for Christ-exalting ministry.

Baptism #3 baptism of fire; Jesus is the administrator of this baptism also. Matthew 3 gives us the picture of what this baptism is all about. v. 10. And now also the axe is laid unto the root of the trees: therefore every tree which bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire. 11. I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance: but he that cometh after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear: he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost, and with fire: 12. Whose fan is in his hand, and he will thoroughly purge his floor, and gather his wheat into the garner; but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.

Who's talking? John. Who's he talking to? The Pharisees and Sadducees, a representative of the unbelieving Jews. What does the axe and tree represent? The axe is the tool that God will use to cut down the plant that he so carefully wanted to cultivate that it might bear fruit. The axe being the Roman army led by Titus in 70 A.D., the plant being the nation of Israel. The faithful that brought forth fruit by repenting and accepting the Messiah to come (wheat) are gathered in the garner, the unfaithful that didn't produce fruit and were not baptized thus showing they rejected the Messiah (chaff) will be burned in the fire on the last day.

There are still 4 more baptisms in the New Testament to discuss. Baptism #4 is the baptism of suffering that Jesus asked two of his disciples if they were willing to be immersed in. They responded enthusiastically yes, but Jesus warned them that they didn't fully understand what they were asking for. It was a figurative expression to say be baptized with the baptism of suffering, although everyone who wears the name of Christ is expected to suffer for His name, only Jesus could suffer for the sins of mankind.

Baptism #5 Baptism unto Moses; The apostle Paul refers to this baptism in 1 Cor. 10:1-4 Moreover, brethren, I would not that ye should be ignorant, how that all our fathers were under the cloud, and all passed through the sea; 2. And were all baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea; 3. And did all eat the same spiritual meat; 4. And did all drink the same spiritual drink: for they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them: and that Rock was Christ.

The people of God were immersed in water as they passed through the Red Sea. It is a perfect picture of what the people of God under the Messiah experienced when they were baptized into Christ.

First note that in both examples the believers were in bondage, Israel in Egypt and the new Testament believer in sin.

Secondly there is a call from God in both examples to repent. Israel to repent and turn from serving idols. Hosea 11:1-4
1. When Israel was a child, then I loved him, and called my son out of Egypt. 2. As they called them, so they went from them: they sacrificed unto Baalim, and burned incense to graven images. 3. I taught Ephraim also to go, taking them by their arms but they knew not that I healed them. 4. I drew them with cords of a man, with bands of love: and I was to them as they that take off the yoke on their jaws, and I laid meat unto them.
The believer in Christ. Acts 17:30 And the times of this ignorance God winked at; but now commandeth all men everywhere to repent:

Thirdly both examples have the penittit believer putting their faith in the blood to save them from death. Israel by faith put the blood of the lamb over the door. Heb. 11:28. The New Testament believer puts their faith in the message of the gospel. Rom. 1:16-17. For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek. 17. For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith: as it is written, The just shall live by faith.

Fourth both examples the believers are baptized unto he whom God authorized to be the head of the house. Moses for the children of Israel. 1 Cor. 10:1 And were all baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea; Heb. 3:4 For every house is builded by some man; but he that built all things is God. 5. And Moses verily was faithful in all his house, as a servant, for a testimony of those things which were to be spoken after; 6. But Christ as a son over his own house; whose house are we, if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm unto the end.
Jesus for New Testament believers. Matt. 28:19 Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost:

Fifth and last example for now is that in both the enemy is destroyed in the water. For Israel, everyone of the Egyptians were drowned in the sea. Heb. 11:29 By faith they passed through the Red sea as by dry land: which the Egyptians assaying to do were drowned. For the believer in Christ their sins are washed away in the water.  Acts 22:16 And now why tarriest thou? arise, and be baptized, and wash away thy sins, calling on the name of the Lord.

The last two baptisms are the baptism of the Great Commission and baptism for the dead, I'll get to them tomorrow......

Isaiah9Six:
Baptism #6; baptism of the Great Commission; The risen Christ commissioned his apostles in Matthew 28:19-20 Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: 20. Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen.

In Mark 16:15 And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature. 16. He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned.

Luke 24:46 And said unto them, Thus it is written, and thus it behoved Christ to suffer, and to rise from the dead the third day: 47. And that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. 48. And ye are witnesses of these things. 49. And, behold, I send the promise of my Father upon you: but tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem, until ye be endued with power from on high.

John 20.21 Then said Jesus to them again, Peace be unto you: as my Father hath sent me, even so send I you. 22. And when he had said this, he breathed on them, and saith unto them, Receive ye the Holy Ghost: 23. Whose soever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto them; and whose soever sins ye retain, they are retained.

Matthew and Mark's account of the great commission include the command to make disciples by teaching them the gospel first. After a person has heard the good news concerning the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ they have a choice to make. They can continue in unbelief relying upon their own righteousness based on works, or they can have faith in the righteousness God provided which is by faith of Jesus Christ. The way the bible says to demonstrate your faith and say you want the righteousness God provided is to put off or crucify the sinful inner man that resides within every human being in baptism. The death of the sinful inner man is death to sin. The bible says it this way in Rom. 6:6 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. 7. For he that is dead is freed from sin.

The baptism of the great commission is different than the baptism of John or the baptism of the Holy Ghost in that this baptism joins a person to the death of Christ where His blood was shed. Without the shedding of blood there is no remission of sin. Water baptism is the only way the bible says we can be in Christ. John's baptism was unto repentance, and Holy Ghost baptism was for a witness to the truth of God and how the early believers received extraordinary power for Christ-exalting ministry.

Baptism #7 baptism for the dead; a casual reading of the passage in 1 Cor. 15 would make it seem that people were practicing a vicarious baptism by having someone alive baptized for someone that had already died. There is another way to view the passage considering that there is no mention of that practice in scripture and Paul in other places made it clear that every person must give an account of their own actions on the last day (Rom. 14:12).

A more plausible explanation is that there were some believers in the church at Corinth that questioned the apostle Paul concerning why even bother being baptized if the resurrection is not true? Paul's answer; will you be baptized to be numbered among the dead who will never raise?  Of course not!

Seven baptisms are covered, I'm going to leave baptism and move on to the the next sound doctrine of laying on of hands shortly......

Hal:
Just a point that should be made, the reference verses you used in Mark were not written by Mark and were not in any transcripts of the Bible until a thousand years after his death.

Many try to use vs 16 to give salvation  power to baptism. Not so says the rest of the Scriptures.

Isaiah9Six:

--- Quote from: Hal on December 29, 2018, 08:40:44 am ---Many try to use vs 16 to give salvation  power to baptism. Not so says the rest of the Scriptures.

--- End quote ---

I was aware of that but thanks for pointing it out, it's a help to others who may not have known. I know what you mean about some who try to give power to baptism, they call it baptismal regeneration. When I study with them I try to be sure they understand what Rom. 1:16 says....For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek.

A person getting baptized without understanding what God has done through Christ is just getting wet. Unfortunately there are some out there that preach "you have to get baptized in order to be saved" and totally miss what the scriptures are teaching. Here are a few biblical examples of people being taught what Jesus did on the cross to give them faith. And then those same people showing obedience to the faith by being baptized for the remission of sins.

Example #1
The message of the gospel;
Acts 2:22 Ye men of Israel, hear these words; Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved of God among you by miracles and wonders and signs, which God did by him in the midst of you, as ye yourselves also know: 23. Him, being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain: 24. Whom God hath raised up, having loosed the pains of death: because it was not possible that he should be holden of it.

True repentance;
Acts 2:36 Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly, that God hath made that same Jesus, whom ye have crucified, both Lord and Christ. 37. Now when they heard this, they were pricked in their heart, and said unto Peter and to the rest of the apostles, Men and brethren, what shall we do?

Baptism for remission of sins;
Acts 2:41 Then they that gladly received his word were baptized: and the same day there were added unto them about three thousand souls.

Example #2
Preaching about the kingdom of God and Jesus produced faith which led to repentance away from following Simon to following Christ. The believers showed their obedience to the faith by being baptized into Christs death for remission of sins.

Acts 8:9 But there was a certain man, called Simon, which beforetime in the same city used sorcery, and bewitched the people of Samaria, giving out that himself was some great one: 10. To whom they all gave heed, from the least to the greatest, saying, This man is the great power of God. 11. And to him they had regard, because that of long time he had bewitched them with sorceries. 12. But when they believed Philip preaching the things concerning the kingdom of God, and the name of Jesus Christ, they were baptized, both men and women.

Example #3
The message of the gospel;
Acts 8:34 And the eunuch answered Philip, and said, I pray thee, of whom speaketh the prophet this? of himself, or of some other man? 35. Then Philip opened his mouth, and began at the same scripture, and preached unto him Jesus.

True repentance;
Acts 8:37 And Philip said, If thou believest with all thine heart, thou mayest. And he answered and said, I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.

Baptism for remission of sins;
Acts 8:38 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. 39. 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.

There are more but I believe these give the picture of conversion in the New Testament

Isaiah9Six:
I want to resume talking about sound doctrine. I'm using the text from Heb. 6:1-3 as I believe it covers the "first principles" of the doctrine of Christ and should be considered therefore sound doctrine. I have been going through them one by one and have now reached the topic of laying on of hands. The first instance under the reign of the Messiah is found here;
Acts 6:5 And the saying pleased the whole multitude: and they chose Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Ghost, and Philip, and Prochorus, and Nicanor, and Timon, and Parmenas, and Nicolas a proselyte of Antioch: 6. Whom they set before the apostles: and when they had prayed, they laid their hands on them. 7. And the word of God increased; and the number of the disciples multiplied in Jerusalem greatly; and a great company of the priests were obedient to the faith.

There was a crisis developing in the church that needed to be addressed. The widows of the Jews and Greeks had a dispute over the daily ministrations, so the apostles (whose primary responsibility was to preach) chose 6 men that they could put over the work, thus freeing them of the responsibility of doing it. The church was in its infancy, and knowledge about how to function in the different ministries was unknown to the disciples. God's way of equipping the church with what she needed to function and operate under the new covenant was to miraculously empower individuals with spiritual gifts through the laying on of hands.

The ability to do it was given to the apostles at Pentecost when they received the baptism of the Holy Ghost. The writer of Hebrews confirms this in Heb. 2:3 How shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation; which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord, and was confirmed unto us by them that heard him; 4. God also bearing them witness, both with signs and wonders, and with divers miracles, and gifts of the Holy Ghost, according to his own will?

It's important to make a distinction here. The Holy Spirit was the administrator of the spiritual gifts, not the apostles. The apostles merely served as the vehicle by which the Spirit could do his work of organizing the church. It was like that in the beginning when there was chaos the Spirit hovered over what was unorganized and put it in order.

Another place we see the laying on of hands is in Acts 8:14 Now when the apostles which were at Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received the word of God, they sent unto them Peter and John: 15. Who, when they were come down, prayed for them, that they might receive the Holy Ghost: 16. (For as yet he was fallen upon none of them: only they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus.) 17. Then laid they their hands on them, and they received the Holy Ghost.

Philip (who was one of the deacons in chapter 6) went down to Samaria to preach the gospel. When they heard the truth concerning the kingdom of God and Jesus they were obedient to the terms of the covenant and became followers of Christ. The apostles Peter and John had to go down to Samaria since an apostle was the only one who could administer the spiritual gifts through the laying on of hands. Philip had the gift given to him but he could not continue to pass it on to others. only an apostle could do that.

Through the laying on of hands different gifts were given as spoken of by Paul in 1 Cor. 12:4 Now there are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit. 5. And there are differences of administrations, but the same Lord. 6. And there are diversities of operations, but it is the same God which worketh all in all. 7. But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit withal. 8. For to one is given by the Spirit the word of wisdom; to another the word of knowledge by the same Spirit; 9. To another faith by the same Spirit; to another the gifts of healing by the same Spirit;  10. To another the working of miracles; to another prophecy; to another discerning of spirits; to another divers kinds of tongues; to another the interpretation of tongues: 11. But all these worketh that one and the selfsame Spirit, dividing to every man severally as he will.

Take note that the Spirit is the administrator of the gifts. The majority of the miraculous gifts served to give information pertaining to God's will (wisdom, knowledge, prophecy, tongues, interpretation of tongues) the others served to confirm that what was being said was truly from God (faith, healing,working of miracles, discerning of spirits)

One last place that speaks about the laying on of hands is in 2 Tim. 1:6 Wherefore I put thee in remembrance that thou stir up the gift of God, which is in thee by the putting on of my hands.

Paul is encouraging his son in the faith to not let the gift of preaching that was given to him through the laying on of his hands go to waste but rather stir it up and use it.

If it's the Lord's will I will get to the topic of the resurrection from the dead this afternoon.......

Navigation

[0] Message Index

[#] Next page

[*] Previous page