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Baptisms

LESSON TEN: Baptism in Water (continued)
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I. HOW THE BIBLE TEACHES WE ARE TO BE BAPTIZED

Ga. 3:27 "For as many of you as have been ________________ have put on ___________________."

Notice carefully Romans 6: 3,4. "Know ye not, that so many of us as were____________________ were BAPTIZED ______________________________?

Therefore, we are ______________________________________________________.

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."

Baptism is not an empty experience; it is a spiritual event. It is meant to be a milestone in the life of faith on the part of every repentant sinner who receives the Lord Jesus Christ as personal Savior. The Lord Jesus Christ is the PATTERN SON. When He was baptized, the heavens were opened; the Holy Spirit in the form of a dove came down and lighted upon Him. When believers were baptized in the days of the early church, the heavens likewise were opened and the gift of the Holy Spirit was imparted. Thus we have learned that, in the beginning, when repentant believing sinners received the Lord Jesus Christ, they were baptized "the same day," "when they believed," "the same hour."

Water baptism was an accepted fact and practice of normal New Testament faith and life. Repenting sinners "believed and were baptized." Repentance, faith, and water baptism should never be separated. They were not in the beginning. As we have already implied, there was a Divine response when the sinner repented, believed, and was baptized in water. There was the PASSING AWAY OF THE OLD and the EMERGING OF THE NEW. "If any man be IN CHRIST, he is a new creature: OLD THINGS ARE PASSED AWAY; and, Behold, all things are become NEW" (II Cor 5:17).

Baptism speaks of death and burial. But it also speaks of resurrection. When we are buried with Him in baptism into death we can and should expect the same thing to happen to us that happened to Him: namely, the descent of the Father’s glory. Notice: "LIKE AS CHRIST WAS RAISED UP from the dead BY THE GLORY OF THE FATHER, EVEN SO WE...!"

II. IN WATER WE OWN AND ACKNOWLEDGE THE LORDSHIP OF JESUS CHRIST.

I Cor. 10:1,2 "Moreover, brethren, I would not that ye should be ignorant, how that ______ our fathers were under the cloud, and _______ passed through the sea; and were _________________________________________________ in the cloud, and in the sea."

We learn in this chapter that, "Those things happened as examples (types) for us..." (vs. 6). Moses is a type of our Lord Jesus Christ. Notice the baptism in the cloud and in the sea; water and Spirit. Through this baptism they were committed to the leadership and authority of Moses. So we in our water baptism and receiving of the Holy Spirit declare and accept Jesus Christ as Lord and we follow Him in the fight, in the fullness and in the fellowship of the land of rest!

III. WATER BAPTISM IS LINKED WITH CIRCUMCISION

Col. 2:11,12 "In whom also ye are _________________ with the circumcision made without hands, in putting off the body of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ; ___________________________________ wherein ye are risen with Him through the faith of the operation of God, who hath raised Him from the dead."

What was God’s covenant in Gen. 17:10, 11? ________________________________________

At the very beginning of life, circumcision marked that life as deserving of death. By the mutilation it practices on the organ of generation, it points to corruption in its sources as adhering to the very being and birth of men. Israel was to be a people cut off from sin and pollution. The rite of circumcision was intended to be a permanent sermon declaring God’s desire that Israel be His peculiar and holy people. Moses and the prophets understand this and so urged it upon the people.

Deut. 10:16 "__________________, therefore, the ______________________________ and be no more stiff-necked."

Deut. 30:6 "And the Lord thy God will _______________________________, and the heart of thy seed. TO __________________________________________, and with all thy soul, that thou mayest live."

Jer 4:4 "____________________________________________________________ and _________________________________________________________________, ye men of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem, lest My fury come forth like fire and burn that none can quench it, because of the _______________________________________________."

Paul said that outward circumcision alone did not make a Jew a "real Jew." It must be an inward token of a heart attitude toward sin and God.

Romans 2:28,29: "For he is HOT A JEW, which is one OUTWARDLY; neither is that circumcision, which is OUTWARD IN THE FLESH: but ______________________ which is one ________________; and CIRCUMCISION IS __________________, ___________________, AND NOT IN THE FLESH; whose praise is not that of men, but of God."

Rather than physical circumcision, the important thing is _______________________________________________. I Cor 7:19

What is the important thing in the following verses?

Gal 5:6 _________________________________________________________________

Gal 6:15 ________________________________________________________________

In beginning his life in God, the repentant, believing sinner does not submit to the physical rite of circumcision. He does, however, experience a "circumcision not made with hands, "which involves "putting off the body of the sins of the flesh." This circumcision or "cutting off" of the old life and burial in baptism are spoken of together. Thus you were buried with Him in your baptism.

IV. BAPTISM IN WATER DEMONSTRATES THE OBEDIENCE OF A GOOD CONSCIENCE.

I Peter 3:20b, 21: "...in the days of Noah, while the ark was a preparing, wherein few, that is, eight souls ________________________________________________________.

The like figure whereunto even ____________________ doth also now save us (not the putting away of the filth of the flesh, but _______________________________________

___________________ toward God) by the resurrection of Jesus Christ."