Ron:
Water, baptism supposed to be an experience. You are immersed, baptized into the death of Christ. You come up out of that, risen as a new person actually having an experience of it. Baptism is supposed to be another part of a person's walk with God, another experience in Christ. The sacraments that people use as religious things, they don't realize that they're actual so major milestones in a walk with God major milestones of experiences. Yep. If that's the way they think, if they, if they're thinking they're a religious thing that you just do because, well first, you know, I accept Jesus is my savior. Okay, next, you know, I do this and next I do that, they're missing the whole point.
Debbie:
I'm not sure people actually all the time do that on purpose. I think that they, that they have been taught that way and they have been raised that way, and they know nothing else. When the Holy Spirit brings it alive, makes it real to you, then you have a responsibility to move into the fullness of the Lord.
Dale:
What we're talking about here is major experiences in our life. If you're going from one level to the next, major advances in your walk with God.
Ron:
As you grow in a relationship with the Lord, then these things like water baptism mean a lot more to you. Can you be baptized one time, two times, three times, four times, five times six?
Yes. You can be baptized as many times as the Lord leads you to be baptized because you are expressing and you're entering into a new level of relationship with the Lord. Baptism is basically, it's your expression. It's just like communion or just like different sacraments that the Lord's given us.
They're not something that we do. And say, oh yes, I was baptized. Okay, so what happened in it? When you were a kid maybe nothing, maybe something, I don't know. Maybe nothing, because you weren't really at that point in your relationship with the Lord, but as you grow on the Lord, then you approach it different first off.
You're not approaching it as just a thing to do because you're a Christian or it's a sacrament. You're approaching with faith and with an anticipation 'cause you're expecting an experience with the Lord. And I think that grows. We all know that it grows, our faith grows, our anticipation grows, our expectation grows, and therefore the experience grows.
Dale:
Baptism is a celebration of a large step in your walk with God. It's a launching pad and it's a commemoration. You can recognize Acts 2 38, repent and let each one of you be immersed in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of sin. Then we look at the baptism as the washing away. Another step in salvation is that realization, and the baptism is a way of washing away. What it also does is it puts us into that place of forgiveness. And that's where baptism becomes a, an action of forgiveness of sins.
Ron:
We can use baptism as a cleansing from sin, a forgiveness from sin, like the blood of Christ too. It's just, that's just another thing, another provision the Lord's given us. But we can also, as we progress in the Lord go, I want more than forgiveness. I want the eradication of the sin nature. There's another experience you can enter into baptism. By faith, I'm being baptized for the eradication o f the sin nature. Not just the forgiveness of sin, but the literal eradication of the very nature of sin within me. Believe that when I come out of that water, my sin nature has been crucified.
Dale:
As we make major steps forward in our walk with God, water baptism seems to be an order. Christ's baptism in water. He came up out of the water and the Father said, this is my son, and who am I well pleased. But the evidence of the importance of baptism and the Holy Spirit comes out right there.
Ron:
Christ, He was a fulfillment of the Word. And He was fulfilling everything that the Word said to fulfill. He was fulfilling, actually fulfilling it. When he came to John the Baptist and John, and He wanted John the Baptist to baptize Him, john the Baptist says, you want me to baptize you? You should baptize me. And he goes, no, we need to fulfill. Righteousness, in other words, fulfilled the law. So He did that. He had a tremendous experience when He was baptized in water.
And like Dale was saying, He comes out of the water, the Father speaks to Him from heaven, and He was filled with the Holy Spirit without measure. And that is the only way He was able to go into the wilderness and be able to resist. It wasn't some fortitude that Christ had. It was the fullness of the Holy Spirit within Him through His obedience to righteousness.
Dale:
Mark 1:8, I indeed immersed you in water, but He shall immerse you in the Holy Spirit. The word baptism gives way to immersion. That it gives us an experience that repeats itself on every level, spirit, soul, and body. Immersion means that I'm totally in it and I love that. I'm totally in His life. I'm totally in His death. I'm totally in His resurrection. Each thing that we're talking about. Salvation Immersion. All this is being baptized into Jesus.
