Our Identity | The Operation of God "Baptism"

What does it really mean to be "in Christ"?

In this message from 1 Corinthians 15:22, Pastor Blade explores one of the most foundational questions in Christianity: How is a sinner actually saved?

Many believers can explain that they are saved, but struggle to explain what God actually does to transform someone from being "in Adam"—dead in sin—to being "in Christ"—made alive through His righteousness.

This episode examines the Bible's teaching on baptism, distinguishing between water baptism and the baptism of the Holy Spirit. You'll discover why Scripture speaks of multiple baptisms, why rightly dividing God's Word matters, and how the Spirit of God unites every believer to Christ through faith alone.

Whether you've wondered about baptism, salvation, or your identity in Christ, this study will strengthen your confidence in the gospel and the finished work of Jesus Christ.

Thanks for listening to the Living Faith St. Louis podcast. This episode is part of our weekly sermon ministry from Pastor Blade Sbisa, with occasional guest speakers and special series.
 For more information, visit the LFSTL website.

Transcript

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This series began initially with us considering what it meant that our identification before God was, as the Bible describes, in Adam. This is 1 Corinthians chapter 15 and verse 22, which says, For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive. And we looked at this moniker, this title, this description of how God describes our condition before we are saved. Okay, so you can go to this next slide. I think this is the chart we've been looking at. Apologies for the craziness on the screen. I don't know what's going on. Hopefully our TV's not breaking. Anyway, we're talking about what it means to be in Adam, to be a child of wrath before God under sin. And we saw initially that to be in Adam, as the Bible describes, means that we are condemned before God. We're in a state of condemnation before God. And we're an abomination to God, and we're alienated from God in all the promises of God. And you see there kind of some subpoints that we walked through. We're condemned because we're under sin. This is the, again, the language the scriptures use to describe why you deserve God's wrath. And then we talked about how because we are not righteous at all, that's also what makes us condemned before God. We're enemies, Romans chapter 5 says. And on and on and on and on and on. You can go reference those sermons or ask me, and I'll happily give you my teaching notes. But the Bible's very clear in our condition as completely and utterly lost before God without the gospel. And without the work of Jesus, and ultimately something that we have to do. And not that the thing we do is a work, but it's actually the yielding of works to believe the Lord Jesus Christ by faith. And here it is our condition resolved in everything that Christ has done in the gospel. We're made alive. God moves us from a state of condemnation, and we're justified, forgiven of all sin, completely made one with God, permanent atonement before God. And we're imputed the righteousness of Christ. God gives this great exchange. Your sin for his holiness. I don't know how it gets. I don't know how salvation could get better than that. In a moment that you're willing to yield your self-righteousness to God and say, I want the gift of his righteousness, God says, sure, you can have it. No strings attached, freely given, imputed to you in a moment by the judicial judge of heaven. You are now righteous before my throne because of the blood of my son. I mean, how does it get better than that? I don't know how it gets better than that. So many view the Christian experience as one where they're waiting for salvation. Salvation is something I hope for, future, at the day of my judgment, I man, I think I've lived a good enough life. I hope God accepts me. The Christian message is the opposite of that. Because your salvation is not based on the life that you live or your good works, and if it were, all of your good works would fall short of the glory of God, because there is none righteous, no not one. The Bible says in the Old Testament that our our righteousness are as filthy rags before God. They have no fruit in them, unto holiness. And so, even in our good deeds and our good efforts, as a lost individual, we were offering good things in a host that was corrupted, and God said, I cannot receive that, because it's not holy. It might look better than most of the world, but it's not my righteousness, and that's what God views as something pure and satisfying to him. And so we've talked about these two topics, being in Adam, and then what the gospel gets us, being in Christ, the new condition we have by being made new creatures, where old things pass away and all things are become new. But what we have not answered with clarity is that bridge. You can go and change this slide too. That like flashing purple in the middle was just destroying me. Like I couldn't think. But the the the question or the thought here is how? Not what do we get in the gospel, but how do we go from being in Adam to in Christ? It's like it's great. I I hear the point. I need to be not a sinner, and I need to be a saint. I I need to give up my old life and have a new life. How, how, how, how, how? The demanding question, or the key question that we should be asking, is how am I changed from being in Adam to in Christ? If you see your condition in Adam as condemned and abominable and alienated from God and the promises and the covenants made to Israel, you're you're in the world, a Gentile without hope, you think, God, please save me. My question is how? This question could be also be asked this way, if you go to the next slide. How am I saved? You you ever you ever hear that question in your Christian life, or maybe you've told somebody, hey, you need to get saved. Hey, we need to pray for that person to get saved. Am I saved? You guys hear that language? I hope, I've hope, I hope to God that you've heard that language because it is the thing that you have to wrestle with to make sure you have a right standing before the Lord. But I want to I want to talk about this question because I think a lot of times, though it seems simple, uh, we actually don't do a good job explaining it. And so really think about it. How does salvation work in God's economy of justice and grace? For example, what is taking place that allows you to suddenly be accepted by God when you were in a moment prior his enemy and a child of wrath? What is actually taking place? How does it happen? How is the eternal God able to put down his anvil of justice and mercy somehow at the same time? But functionally, is it just God saying, Ah, I see that you you feel bad enough about your sin, I guess I'll accept you. Is that it? That can't be it. Too often we answer the question, How am I saved? with another vague Christian idiom that doesn't give us any more insight. Okay, so just follow with me here for a moment. Tongue in cheek a little bit, but not really. We say things like getting saved means to be born again. See, to be you need to be saved. Well, what does that mean? It means you need to be born again, brother. Well, well, okay, great. I need to be born again. Tell me, what does it mean to be born again? Well, it means to have a second chance. Okay, that's great. I want a second chance. Tell me about that second chance. How do I get a second chance? Will you get your sins forgiven? Great, I want my sins forgiven. How how do I get my sins forgiven? Well, you believe on Jesus. That's how you get saved. Okay, what does it mean to believe on Jesus? I thought, you know, the Bible says that the devils believe and tremble. Are the devils saved? No, the devils. I mean, it's not just believing that Jesus was a historical figure. Yeah, that was my first question. What does it mean to be saved? Well, it means, brother, to be reconciled to God. What does that mean? Well, it means to receive Jesus into your heart. You just need to be born again. You need to receive Jesus. What does that mean? Pray? Do I need to cry? Is that the mode of proving to God that I've received him? Do you see what we do? We don't actually ever answer the question. How does God save us? What what is actually happening? Well, you just need to ask him to come in your heart and save you. That's what I hear so often. I think we do ourselves a disservice when we do that big circle of describing salvation with other Christian terms that are relatively vague, or we just don't explain them to people. How am I saved? The answer is ultimately that God must do something. That's how I'm saved. God must do something. He must operate on me because I can't provide the solution in and of myself and my sin nature. So I must yield the to the only power in the universe that's able to change my my position from in Adam to in Christ. Again, I know I have to explain to you how that gets done, but my point here is in answering how am I saved, we must first respond, God must do something. I mean, just think about the condition. Being seen before God as a child of wrath, and then being brought and being seen as the righteousness of his dear son. There is no way I could possibly accomplish any of that on my own, and so God has to do something on my behalf. Well, what is the thing that he does? Moreover, the answer to this question, how am I saved, could be appropriately answered with the response to be baptized. Does baptism save? A resounding and irrevocable, yes, baptism saves. Okay, but pause. You may see this in your notes. Go to the next slide real quick. I don't know if it's the right one. Yeah. Baptism is much broader than the idea of being baptized into water. And so, yes, baptism saves you, but not the baptism, probably that you're thinking about. Usually, when this word is used in Christian circles, most people's mind immediately go to the idea of water baptism. And they say you need to be saved by baptism into the baptismal tanks of some baptistry, which we have here right behind the stage. Or some stock tank. Maybe you've been to a church, you've seen a stock tank, or it's a blow-up pool on a lawn, or who knows. You need the water to baptize. Well, we do ourselves a great disservice in trying to understand the doctrines of baptism if we isolate it to the small o and narrow idea of water. Because the word baptism itself simply comes from a Greek word that means to be immersed or submerged into something. Baptizo, or however you might pronounce that. When you look at a strong concordance and you look at the way that this word is used, it simply translates to being brought into something or to sink into, to dress, or to clothe, just as you might be clothed in Christ's righteousness. It means to be furnished or to be supplied or ended with power. There has to be some power that overtakes you or you're enveloped in to be able to be delivered from bondage. It means to be surrounded by or to be encompassed by, to have power and authority over. Okay, so baptism. God uses this word, yes, to describe water baptism sometimes. But other times he's describing what those water baptisms were actually pointing to, and that is a more true baptism of the Holy Spirit. And so here in your handout, you can see this seven distinct or unique baptisms outlined for us in the scriptures. Again, I just want to articulate we do ourselves a mighty disservice trying to make every mention of the word baptism related to water. Over the last few months to try to just get some ideas of what people are thinking about regarding this topic that are from different Christian heritages. Uh, I've been online just kind of poking around on different, you know, videos and interacting with people in comments to see what are the arguments that are against our position. And I'll tell you that most people are making unbiblical arguments based on church history and making arguments ultimately that surround every mention of baptism having to be about water. It's just not. The language does not allow that in the Bible. And so we're gonna talk about that. There's a unique context for the seven baptisms, and for sake of time and a short message this morning, we're just gonna briefly talk about these and survey them, really just looking at some of the list, and then we're gonna kind of backtrack and I'm gonna make some arguments to you from a few of the cross references you see in your notes. The seven unique baptisms of the scriptures. The first is that of Moses and the Red Sea. You can find that in 1 Corinthians chapter 10 and verses 1 through 2, and we'll read that here in a moment. And you see that historically play out in Exodus chapter 14. This is the baptism of the Red Sea. Again, we'll describe the details in a moment. Secondly, John's baptism. This is the baptism that Jesus partook in in Matthew chapter 3, right before his temptation. This is that scene where John's like, no, no, no, no, no, I'm not going to baptize Jesus, and Jesus is like, too bad. Yes, you are. He's like, okay, fine. And then, you know, the Holy Spirit descends upon the Lord as a dove, and um, the Lord obviously shows himself uh in his triune nature there in John chapter 3. Some cross-references that you can observe as well. Acts chapter 18 and verses 24 through 26 will actually see this baptism, John's baptism, John the Baptist, uh, described in the book of Acts as the leader, Apollos, is actually corrected on his misunderstanding of baptism. The third baptism that you can see is the baptism of death. The baptism of death, or a baptism into the sufferings that uh involve death or the or sufferings unto death. And so an example of this is Philippians chapter 3. Philippians chapter 3. This baptism is associated with the cup that Jesus takes in. Peter's baptism, Acts chapter 2 and verse 38, one of the most confusing verses on baptism if you don't consider the context. Okay. Peter preaches in Acts chapter 2 that everyone needs to be baptized for the remission of sins. Now we don't teach that people need to be water baptized for the remission of sins, but there was a unique baptism that Peter's preaching there at the beginning of Acts on a Jewish festival, on a Jewish feast day with a Jewish audience. The day was Pentecost. This was a Jewish nation who needed to repent because they did not receive Jesus Christ as being king of the Jews. This was Israel and the leaders and the rulers of Israel needing to repent because they just killed the Messiah. The Apostle Paul has not been saved. His name is Saul, he's killing Christians. The mystery of the church and what God is doing with Christianity has not even come into being yet. None of the epistles are written yet, and all the apostles know is what they would have seen John the Baptist doing water baptism in the Jordan River. And so it is Peter looking back at John's ministry and saying, This is what God calls us to do when we repent. We could get into the details of that. We will not this morning, but reserve that for our week coming, next Sunday, or the following, I think, when we talk about a biblical timeline and kind of make sense of all this stuff. The fifth one I want to express to you is Gentile baptism, baptism by um by water, and this specifically in reference to the house of Cornelius. And so Acts chapter 10 and verses 44 through 48, and then Acts chapter 11 and verses 15 through 17. This is the same baptism that we read about in Matthew 28. Okay, this is baptism in the local church. This is baptism by water. Baptism by fire, Matthew chapter 3, and verses 11 through 12. 11 through 12. Can we look at this? I actually don't think. Uh grab your Bibles. Go and go ahead and turn to Matthew chapter 3 and verses 11 through 12. There's so much in this discussion, and uh this could easily be taught for three hours. My goal this morning is not to give you a three-hour sermon. I've gone too long the last couple times I've preached. It's just to give you an overview and an argument regarding what it means to be saved. Okay, so we're just we're high level, we're flying the plane over the field and seeing what's happening. Matthew chapter 3, starting in verse 11, it says, This is John. He says, I indeed baptize you with water unto repent 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. In this these couple verses alone, eleven here, we'll read twelve here in a moment, we find John's water baptism. We also find the baptism of the Holy Ghost and the baptism with fire. Verse 12 it says, referencing Jeremiah chapter 15, here a prophetic reference to a future day of judgment on the earth, verse 12, whose fan is in his hand, and he will thoroughly purge his floor and will gather his wheat into the garner, but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire. Does that sound like the Christian experience? God burning up the chaff with unquenquenchable fire. In charismatic churches or charismatic circ circles, Pentecostal uh churches, um, the list could go on and on here. There is a description of the baptism of fire in reference to John's baptism in Acts chapter 2, when the Holy Spirit gives little cloven tongues of fire above the apostle's head, and they say, see, this is the baptism by fire that that the Bible talks to us about. The problem is the language of Acts chapter 2 says it's like as of cloven tongues of fire. There's a description of likeness, but not not it's not the same thing. And so when you go to study out these texts, what you find is God's actually giving us different doctrines pertaining baptism. I I know it's somewhat confusing, but we're going to continue and I hope to bring some clarity. Okay? With some some basic arguments from the scriptures. So Moses' baptism, John's baptism, baptism into suffering, you know, Philippians chapter 3 says that we can fellowship with the Lord in his suffering, that we might know the power of his resurrection being made conformable unto his death. And so in the Christian life, through suffering, you can actually be baptized into that with Christ and then experience resurrection, which is what baptism is all pointing us to: a death, a burial, through suffering and a resurrection. Okay? Peter's baptism, a gentile baptism, as the gospel moves from a Jewish economy to a Gentile one, God begins to invite Gentiles into water baptism like Cornelius. In Acts chapter 10, we learn about the fire, the baptism of fire, and Matthew chapter 3, as John the Baptist references, Jeremiah chapter 15, a prophecy relating to Israel's judgment and the judgment of the earth, a future thing. The baptism of fire has not come yet. It will at the second coming of the Lord. And then lastly, here is the one I want to talk to you about, because it is the baptism that saves you. Does baptism save you? Yes. An irrevocable irrevocable, resounding, yes. Baptism saves you. Which one? The baptism of the Holy Spirit. First Corinthians chapter twelve and verse thirteen. We'll read that here in a moment. Here's the heckler. Here is somebody coming against this position, which I believe is biblical. And that is, but brother, what about Ephesians chapter four and verse five, which tells us there is only one baptism? Look, Ephesians 4 and verse 5, it says there is one Lord, and one faith, and one baptism, and one God, and the Father of us all, who is above all and through all and in you all. See, there's just one baptism. Not seven. Look at you, you're crazy. What are you doing? Dividing the Bible up like that. Well, I'm dividing the Bible because the Bible tells me to divide it. In 2 Timothy chapter 2, and verse 2 and verse 15, it says, study to show yourself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. I divide the Bible because the Bible tells me to make those distinctions so that I'm not left confused or forcing things together. And so, you know, oh see, there's not seven. The Bible clearly says there's one. If, here's my point to that comment, that type of comment. If you want to try to connect every baptism to the unique internal context of Ephesians 4, expressing that Ephesians chapter 4, when Paul's writing to the churches of Ephesus and he describes one baptism that he's also referring to all other baptisms, then you're going to cause four main issues, and you're going to have to explain some things as you do that. The first is that you're going to be left confused when you read verses that contradict just two chapters before this. If you remember in Ephesians 2, it says salvation is by grace through faith, not of works. It is the gift of God. Okay, but but if baptism is required for salvation, as Acts chapter 2 and verse 38 says, be baptized for the remission of your sins, okay, then you have a contradiction in your Bible. And so you're going to have to begin forcing the language to work for your baptismal water regeneration argument. I get it, this stuff is confusing. I hope you're sticking with me. Here's my four responses. First, the individual that tries to make every mention of baptism about water is going to be left confused, thus forcing generic similarities between passages. There's the first. You're going to be left trying to take the variant baptisms and making them one. Secondly, you're going to have to reconcile passages in the Bible that explicitly teach you that there are different doctrines of baptisms plural. Look at Hebrews chapter 6 and verses 1 through 2. It says, Therefore, leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ, let us go unto perfection, not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works, and of faith toward God, of the doctrine of that one baptism of Ephesians chapter 4. No baptisms. And of laying on of hands, and of the resurrection of the dead, and of eternal judgment. Okay? So if you say the one baptism of Ephesians 4 is a statement that encompasses all baptisms, then you're going to have to explain Hebrews chapter 6, which tells you there are doctrines pertaining other baptisms. Okay, thirdly, you will also, in taking this position, expressing that baptism always means water baptism, you will have to reveal why passages describe distinctions that aren't actually there. You will have to describe, or reveal, or expose from the Bible, why the distinctions that are being made in the Bible aren't actually distinctions to be considered. Take, for example, Acts chapter 18 and verses 24 through 26. It says, And a certain Jew named Apollos, born at Alexandria, an eloquent man, and mighty in the scriptures. Look at that description. There's a guy who knows the scriptures. He sounds like he's got everything worked out in the Bible. Really makes sense of the text. He came to Ephesus. And this man was instructed in the way of the Lord, and being fervent in spirit, he spake and taught diligently the things of the Lord, knowing only the baptism of John, implying that there are others. Verse 26, and he spake, and he began to speak boldly in the synagogue, whom when Aquila and Priscilla had heard, this couple, they had heard his preaching, they took him unto them, they took him aside, and they expounded unto him the way of God more perfectly. This was a man who knew the scriptures. He was mighty indeed. He was a diligent man, he was respected, he was a teacher of God's word. He made sense. He just made sense according to John's baptism. He didn't know. And so he had to be taken aside and instructed by someone who knew the way of God a little bit more perfectly. And so back to my main point. If you make baptism all about water, and you you think Ephesians 4 is describing an all-encompassing doctrine saying there's one baptism, that's it, you're going to have to describe why in Acts chapter 18 the language is knowing only the baptism of John. Because it goes on in Acts chapter 19 to describe to us the baptism of the Holy Spirit and its results. Okay, fourthly, you are going to have to explain some of the baptisms in the Bible that have nothing to do with water at all. For example, the baptism of fire that we just read about in Matthew chapter 3. Secondly, the baptism of suffering and death, as I described in Philippians 3. And thirdly, the baptism of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is not water, y'all. And the Bible says that you can be baptized by the Holy Spirit. Okay, so that that is what saves you. Not baptism into water or some tank, but baptism into the Spirit of God. You think, how does that get done? So here is what the argument is. It is that there are different baptisms throughout Scripture, and that we have to study and compare Scripture with Scripture to understand properly which ones apply to us directly and which ones do not. I read to you this verse just a moment ago, but 2 Timothy chapter 2 and verse 15 says we are to study to show ourselves approved unto God, workmen that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. Okay, two points here. This text explicitly tells us that we have to divide the Bible. So at some point you've got to begin doing that. It also tells you that it can be done rightly, implying that there's a wrong way to do it. Okay? So we study to make sure that we're not ashamed, because it is possible to begin cutting up the scriptures and misunderstanding or misapplying things out of context. Right? You can't run anywhere in the Bible and begin to just say, I mean, this sounds good. I kind of like this verse for me today, but the one right next to it, no, that doesn't make any sense. I like the way that this one kind of frames God. That's the God I want to worship. No, it doesn't work like that. We have to understand the context of the Bible so that the Bible can teach us about who God is, and we can get in line with that absolute standard, right? It's a lot of work, y'all. There's three mentions of the word study in the scriptures. One tells you you're to study to be quiet. The other one studies, describing it as labor. And the last one in Ecclesiastes chapter 12 says you're that with much studies weariness to the flesh. It's a lot of work. It's labor. But we do it that we might understand, that we might live and worship and glorify God with everything that we have. The argument here, the simple argument, I want you to just I want to plant a seed in your head this morning. There are different baptisms described in the scriptures. You don't need to know the details, you don't need to understand all of them. I just want you to know water baptism is not the only thing that exists. And so when you're reading a passage and you think, man, it kind of sounds like to be water baptized is to be saved. I'm just telling you, hey, if that's how you think it's reading, it's probably not teaching you that because in the New Testament that's nowhere to be found. The Apostle Paul in the first chapter, as he writes to Corinth, he says, I came not to baptize, but to preach the gospel. The verse right before that, he says, Hey, but I baptize some of you. What? What are you talking about, Paul? You baptize some people, meaning by water, but that's not why you came? Correct. I came to preach the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ that you might have the baptism of the Holy Spirit. And oh, by the way, and this little congregation in the house of this gentleman, I baptized him because he understood what was actually being accomplished. He wasn't getting baptized because he was of Paul or of Cephas or of this apostle or that apostle. He understood he was baptized into Christ in his name. And so I'm thankful that I didn't baptize any of you but this guy. And there it is, there's the point. God is trying to help us understand that as we rightly divide, there are two of the seven baptisms that do apply to the church. There's one true baptism, as described in Ephesians 4, talking to us about what unifies the body of Christ. It's a very unique context in Ephesians 4. But there is also that physical water baptism we do as a representation of that spiritual work. Let me give you an example of right division by using the Apostle Paul as he divides the scriptures to do this himself as he teaches Corinth. Did that make any sense? I hope it did. 1 Corinthians chapter 10, Paul is writing to Christians in Corinth, and he actually references the baptism of Moses to make devotional points about their Christian life, not to teach them that they need to go back through the Red Sea. Look at with me. 1 Corinthians chapter 10 and verses 1 through 2. It says, Moreover, brethren, I would not that ye should be ignorant how that our fathers were under the cloud, by the way, clouds are made of water, and all passed through the sea. Exodus chapter 14 describes how water was surrounding them, the cloud above, the seas to the side, they were immersed. And Paul uses this text, using this illustration of Israel being delivered from the bondage of Egypt to teach them about the rebellion as their fathers would wander through the wilderness. Verse 2 says, And, and were all baptized. There's the word. Paul uses to describe that event a baptism unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea. I'm just not just making up stuff. The Bible tells you that the Red Sea and the cloud were a baptism for Israel, for the nation as a whole. God baptized them and brought them through the Red Sea. Paul doesn't tell them to get baptized by going back to the Red Sea. That has nothing to do with 1 Corinthians chapter 10. Paul is not saying, you know how your fathers were delivered from Egypt and then they walked through the Red Sea with a cloud above them? If you want to be saved, you need to go back and be in bondage to Egypt and then go back through that whole process if you really want to make sure that gets worked out in your life. No. He's just helping them see what was done. And he's taking the physical life that the nation of Israel went through to describe spiritual realities to this church and these Christians. And so let's just look here in a brief snapshot, some picture types of what actually is playing out in the Old Testament. Okay, so Egypt, as we we might know it, is a type or picture of the world. And so Israel's in bondage to the world, and they're under the prince of the power of the air in the New Testament application, Pharaoh, a type of the Antichrist or Satan. And Moses is this type of deliverer. He's actually given that name. And is a type, therefore, of Christ, who leads the nation out of bondage. How does he do that? Well, he instructs them with the word of God to make a blood sacrifice and to strike that blood upon the doorpost of their house, to pass through a door, John chapter 10, Jesus Christ is the door, and to put blood on the left and right side and on the top of that doorpost, as to signify future tense, a foreshadowing of the cross of Christ. And they would be delivered that night to escape quickly or hastily from their homes through a door by the blood of the Lamb. And then they would be immediately following that salvation brought before baptism. And through the baptismal waters of the Red Sea, with walls on both sides and a cloud over them, they would typify that resurrection life walking on the other side as the walls would collapse and crush the armies of the enemy. The Egyptian army is a type and picture of death unto death, or God's judgment over sin, complete and final. Obviously, every pick every picture breaks down at some level, but what I want you to see is that description in 1 Corinthians chapter 10 and verse 2, which describes this event as them being baptized into the Red Sea. The point of all of this, the reason why God brought Israel through all of these Old Testament histories, these real stories, are because God has preserved, not only brought them through those stories, but preserved those specific events to help us see that there's a better spiritual reality being offered to the whole world through Christ. So the physical thing happened that God might record it, preserve it, and then teach the spiritual principle or reality. Thus, the baptism of the Holy Spirit is the true or the one baptism that brings everyone together in Christ. And what happened in the Old Testament as a distinct baptism is a foreshadowing of that. And that happens over and over again. That is John the Baptist crying out in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord. Behold, the Lamb of God which taketh away the sins of the world. John is there as the forerunner of Jesus Christ, saying, There is one coming after me who's mightier than I, whose sandals I'm not worthy to latch. He's the one coming. He's the true fulfillment of the law and the prophets. And it is there in that baptism of the Spirit we all get born again. It is the baptism of the Spirit that allows us to be separated from our flesh. And so the act of salvation is God by operation of his hand bringing you into Christ and giving you a new identity in his Holy Spirit. You actually get sealed, Ephesians chapter 1 and verse 13, by his spirit, and now you have a new identity before God, righteous before him in his son, yet living in a body of death. And so somehow I live in a life that's kind of twofolded. I live in a body that desires sin and hates the things of God. By nature, I'm really at enmity with God. I live contrary to God, I don't want the things of God, my mind and my natural way of thinking, reasons contrary to the Word of God, and God yet is willing to identify identify with me according to his righteousness, because he came in and he surrounded me or immersed me into the Spirit of Christ. And so what baptisms apply to the church today? Ultimately number five and number seven. We are Gentiles. In other words, we are not Jewish. We are all the other nations. And that water baptism has extended to us via the Great Commission and the Apostles to be a representation or a picture, a physical illustration in the church to represent that truer baptism, just like it was for Israel. Israel was given a physical baptism, not only in the Red Sea, but in John, to foreshadow or point towards the true baptism of the Holy Spirit. Now today, what we do is we accept Christ and we get baptized into Christ, being moved or translated from a kingdom of darkness in Adam into the kingdom of his dear son in Christ. And then, after we by faith get that imputed righteousness, we say before a local congregation, hey, that's a decision that I've made, and I want to physically illustrate what spiritually has happened with me by going underwater. I just I want to get wet to show you guys that I've made a decision to die with Christ, to let my sin be buried with Christ, and to rise again and to live for him. And it is an opportunity for a Christian to testify of what the Holy Spirit has done in them. It's a pretty cool thing. It's an amazing thing. And it confuses so many people. You could never work your way to salvation. God needs to operate on you to give you new life. Okay. How do I get saved? Well, I get saved by baptism, not necessarily baptism by water, because water will never save us. But one thing I have to ask is what then will hinder me to be baptized? There's a passage that actually tells us which one has to come first. Does water baptism and the Holy Spirit baptism happen at the same time? Has God kind of made a great mystery of the thing? Or are they separate? The Bible says they're separate. Acts chapter 8 and verse 36 and verse 37 and then eight, it says, And as they went on their way, they came unto certain water, and the eunuch said, See here is water. What doth hinder me to be baptized? Okay, so pretty clear, this baptism is one of water. And this is Philip the Evangelist's response to him. And he answered and said, I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, 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. The requirement for water baptism is you first getting baptized by the Holy Spirit, which is you believing on the name of the Son of God for salvation and eternal life. If you were to read the context of Acts chapter 8, Philip had just preached to this eunuch, Isaiah chapter 53, regarding the crucifixion and the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. He says, I can't understand this Old Testament passage, I don't know what it means. And it says, Philip turns to him and says, Uh, let me preach unto you Jesus. And that's what he does. And they come up against water, and the Ethiopian eunuch saying, What's going to hinder me to be baptized in this water? Well, you gotta believe. Water's not gonna do anything for you. But if you believe that Jesus Christ became your sin who knew no sin, that you might be made the righteousness of God in him, God's willing to impute you that righteousness. As a gift. You don't have to do anything for it. What an amazing, amazing thing. You and I are baptized spiritually into the body of Christ, globally speaking, via the work of the Holy Spirit, and then you were invited into the physical body of a local church for water baptism to exercise or testify of the newfound liberty that you found in his spirit. So first Corinthians chapter twelve and verses twelve through fourteen it says, For as the body is one and hath many members, and all the members of that one body being many are one body, so also is Christ. For by one spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be be bond or free, and have all been made to drink and to one spirit, for the body is not one member, but many. And so, in verse thirteen it's pretty explicit, for by one spirit are we all baptized into one body. Everyone. And that is a baptism that's global. And we can find that there in the context even of the next two chapters, thirteen and fourteen. Okay, so so then, we are baptized by the Spirit into one body, that is the spiritual global body of Christ, and then after that we testify or display of that spiritual work through a physical location called a local church. And we get to actually begin exercising all of that spiritual life that God gifted us the first day of our salvation. And so in a moment, you believe the gospel, and God gives you all of the spiritual blessings that you need in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. All of it at once. You have it, spiritually speaking. And then he says, Hey, now I want to invite you into a community in a physical place and begin learning how to reconcile all of those things to be true that you might exercise them unto godliness. That's an amazing thing. Given it all at once, spiritually, in Christ Jesus in heavenly places, Ephesians chapter 1. I'm quoting the Bible there. And then God's like, okay, now put it to work. Learn how to love one another. Learn how to forbear and forgive. Learn how to exercise your new life. You know, I know you feel dead in the flesh and you struggle with sin, but the gospel, power of resurrection by my spirit is actually able to operate in your physical body if you're willing to yield it over and mortify the deeds of your flesh and be quickened to walk in newness of life. Are you willing? God's like, I'm inviting you into experience the power of my spirit. It's not just Christian language, y'all. It's real Bible doctrine that can come alive inside of you, and you can actually begin to live and serve the Lord in newness of life. Alright. I get excited about this stuff because I think when it began when I began to see it in the scriptures, all my questions kind of began to fizzle out, and I I began to see like, okay, this is how God wants me to walk, and how I can please him with my life. I praise the Lord that we do have, you know, water baptism, uh, but it is not the thing that I celebrate most. The thing I celebrate most is that distinct baptism that separates me from my old dead nature in Adam and brings me into a new righteous identity with Christ. Okay, so my responsibility, this is your blank and your handout. My my responsibility. And I know I'm uh needing to press here. My responsibility is to put my faith in the gospel of the grace of God for imputed righteousness, plus nothing. Plus nothing. I don't think I have a slide for this. But I want you to see what your responsibility before the Lord is to get saved. How is it that God does the operation that He's intended? Without hands, um in my life. Well, I believe the gospel, and then God imputes righteousness to me, and then I do nothing else. It is not grace if I do any works. Romans chapter four and verse five, and then Romans chapter four and verse twenty-four to describe the imputed righteousness, it says, But to him that worketh not, is it clear enough yet? But believeth on him that justifieth justifieth the ungodly, his faith, that ungodly man who did no works but believed, his faith is counted for righteousness. Okay. If we believe what? A few verses later, in verse twenty-four, it says, But for us also to whom it shall be imputed, in reference to Abraham's life, by believing that God could bring him life from his his wife's womb when in her old age. It says, To whom it shall be imputed if we believe on him that raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead. That's what we do. We believe on him who raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead. My responsibility is believe the gospel and do nothing. God's responsibility is to immerse me into Christ by his Spirit. Into Christ by His Spirit. Look it with me, Colossians chapter two. Colossians chapter two. This is kind of the main text for the title of our message this morning. It is pulled from this pa passage or this text. Colossians chapter two. Oh man. Can't find it. And look it with me in verse uh 11 through 12. 10 says you are complete in him, referring to Jesus, which is the head of all principality and power. In whom also ye are circumcised with the circumcision made without hands. God has cut you away from your flesh, putting off the body of the f uh sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ. This is not a physical circumcision. God is saying, Spiritually, I've cut you off from your flesh. You are now no more a servant of sin. Romans chapter 6 says you are dead to sin. It's not that sin is dead, it's that you're dead to it. God has cut you off from the flesh, given you a new identity inside of your flesh. Twelve, okay, look. Buried with him in baptism, wherein also ye are risen with him through the faith of the operation of God, who hath raised him from the dead. Okay, if you make water of baptism here in verse twelve water, then you're going to have to explain why God then changes the context to a spiritual doctrine and the very next phrase. Now, this is a spiritual baptism into Christ's death, buried with him in the likeness of his death, and then spiritually also raised by the faith of the operation of God, or the faithfulness of the operation of God who hath raised Jesus from the dead. Verse 13 says, And you, being dead in your sins, and the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath he quickened or raised together with him, having forgiven you all trespasses. So you believe, you get imputed righteousness, God gives you new life and makes you alive unto him. All right. God's responsibility is to immerse us into Christ. But really, what does that baptism into Jesus Christ really accomplish in me? Well, there's three main things, and I hope they're pretty obvious, but as we read the scriptures, what we find is that because we are baptized or by operation of God we're brought into Christ, that also means by faith we get to eternally experience what was accomplished through what Christ did. In other words, check out Galatians chapter 2 and verse 20, which says, I am crucified with Christ, present tense. Nevertheless I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me, and the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. In other words, by being baptized into Christ, by operation of God who accomplishes that when I believe the gospel, I get to be crucified. My old man gets to be crucified with Christ. Allowing me to say, I am present tense, crucified with Christ. My old man is dead. I am dead. Because I have died with Christ through crucif crucifixion is your blank. Through crucifixion. Secondly, I am, your blank is buried. I am crucified, I am buried with Christ in the grave. Buried with Christ in the grave. This is something that spiritually happened. God's able to actually acknowledge this as a present reality in my life today because he did an operation spiritually by allowing me to have my old man identified in Adam. Some 2,000 years ago. I get to retroactively benefit from that because I died in him that day. Only God can do that work. Look it with me, Romans chapter six. A few verses will be on the screen if you want to see the full text. Look it with me, uh, Romans chapter six and verses three through eleven. Right? Starting in verse three, it says, Know ye not that so many of us as were baptized, what, into water? No, into Jesus Christ, were baptized into water? No, into his death. Therefore we are buried with him by baptism where? Into death. That we, like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we should walk in newness of life. For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall also be in the likeness of his resurrection, knowing this that our old man is crucified with him. Present tense, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should serve not serve sin. For he that is is dead, is freed from sin. Now, if we be dead with Christ, that's a condition. It's it's saying we can have the opportunity to be dead with Christ, crucified. I am crucified. We believe that we shall also live with him. Verse 9, knowing that Christ, being raised from the dead, dieth no more, death, hath no more dominion over him. For in that he died, he died unto sin once, but in that he liveth, he liveth unto God likewise. Reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord. There it is, you can see the doctrine once again. Crucified with Christ, present tense, dead with him, my life hidden, Christ in God, buried, my old man also buried with him, so that when Christ rises again from the grave, my old identity can be done. Left there. And I can presently claim I am forgiven, I am righteous, I am beloved, I am clean, I am washed. I sound like Joel Olstein. I'm not claiming those things on the basis of trying to get something from God. I'm claiming them because the Bible declares those things to be true of me by reality. Let me be very clear here for any visitor. Joel Olstein is a heretic, okay? He's a prosperity preacher who says if you sow your money to his ministry, then you get special favor with God. That's nonsense. You don't ever have to give money, and you can have a right relationship with God, okay? Uh God wants our money, obviously, because our hearts attached to it, but listen, y'all, that will never be my message here at Living Faith. It is not about money. It is about us accepting what the Bible says is true of our identity. We can be crucified with Christ, buried with him, and listen, risen with him indeed. Risen with him indeed. Ephesians chapter 2 and verses 5 through 6. Look at this on the screen real quick. Maybe you've already read it to yourself. It says, even when we are dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, by grace are ye saved, and hath raised us up together and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. All of this language in the scriptures is present tense. This is something that you've already been given, already quickened, already raised to new life, already saved, already made to sit in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. They're present tense realities. And now, as we learned in Romans chapter 6, we have a responsibility. Reckon them to be true. We're not just like happy go lucky, hoping to believe them so they make us feel better. No, they're real. They're realities that we can actually believe and take hold of, and when we do, those things can actually become actualized in our Christian experience. Colossians chapter 3 and verses 1 through 4. This is the last few verses I'll share with you this morning. It says, If ye then be risen with Christ, if this is true, if you've been crucified, buried, and risen with him, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God, set your affection on things above and not on the things of the earth. For ye are dead. Present tense. And your life is hid with Christ in God. When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then ye shall appear with him in glory. By summary here, I just want to tell you your only responsibility in this life is to believe the gospel of the grace of God for salvation and to receive imputed righteousness. This decision to believe the gospel is to believe that Jesus Christ became your sin and did something about it, and he conquered death. And that if you put your faith in that, it is ultimately the only non-meritorious decision you can make in life. Believing the gospel is the only thing that you can do that actually frees you from offering corrupted works to God. And it is what allows God to enter in and by operation of his Holy Spirit baptize you into the person of Christ so that spiritually you can identify by being dead with him, buried with him, and risen again. We get all of those blessings on the front end of accepting the gospel. We get all of the actuality and the reality of those manifested, as Romans 8 says, in a day to come when the glory of the sufferings of this present time will be revealed at the manifestations of the sons of God. This language, this I know it's Bible talk, has to go beyond just spiritual words. These are specific words. God has preserved every single word of the scripture, and the words have meaning. They're not just general, fluffy, flowery language trying to get you excited about what God has done. Hasn't He loved you? He's loved you so much, He has. I'm not arguing with that. I'm arguing with you. There are some really deep spiritual realities setting out for us in the Scriptures, and if we're willing to dig them up, like a miner would dig for treasure, we will find great gems. Great ones. And we will be able to find the reward of that not only in this life, but the one to come. Let's pray, let's worship the Lord together. If you have any questions about this morning's message, I'd be happy to field them and answer them, talk through them. It's a big topic that I don't understand, y'all, but I pray that there's some clarity brought this morning to the discussion.