Repentance Validates Baptism

That we call baptism, because baptism is a covenant. It's a covenant with God. Two weeks ago, I spoke on that issue in the sermon that I titled, Opportunity in Christ Comes Through Baptism. Opportunity in Christ Comes Through Baptism. Also, for that contract or that covenant to hold up, it's got to be a valid contract. I had someone call me in recent times who was concerned about a certain contract if it was valid. So I said, well, does it have this? Does it have that? You know, what about these particular details? Okay.

I said, you've got a valid contract. You know, that contract is valid. That contract will hold up. Okay. Baptism, a contract, a covenant with God. We obviously want it to be valid, because an invalid contract would do us no good. The validity of that contract is based on one main thing. One main thing underpins the validity of that contract. And you can find that one main thing in Acts 2 on the Day of Pentecost when the church began. Acts 2, when Peter and the others were preaching, in the crowd, the multitude that was listening to them, there were those that God gave opportunity to understand. He gave them opportunity to be able to respond if they so chose to respond.

And those who were given opportunity who chose to respond responded this way in verse 37, as Peter had laid things out to them. Now, when they heard this, they were pricked in their heart, you know, cut in their conscience, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, men and brethren, what shall we do? What's required of us? What does God expect of us? What do we need to do to be right with God?

And the very first word that came out of Peter's mouth was, in verse 38, repent. You notice there's a progression here. You repent, followed up by baptism, in the name of Jesus Christ, for the remission of sins, and in that clean state before God, you receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. So if you want to receive the gift of the Holy Spirit as the connecting four sinew, you have to be cleansed. You have to have your sins removed. And there's no cleansing them aside from the blood of Jesus Christ, so you have to be baptized into Christ. But all that must be preceded by repentance. Repentance is the requirement for the contract to be valid.

So if you'd like a title, and we usually do like titles, which many times is simply the statement of the subject that's covered or going to be covered, three words. Repentance validates baptism. Repentance validates baptism. Peter didn't say, Be baptized for the remission of sins, and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. He did not leave out repent because repent is the underpinning. That's what grants it the validity. The Compact Oxford English Dictionary defines validate this way. Point one, it says, Check or prove that something is true or valid. Point two, make or declare something to be officially acceptable or legally binding.

Repentance validates baptism. Our repentance validates our personal acceptance of Jesus Christ through baptism. So, to kind of reach back in a sense to a couple of notes on previous, in other words, when a man, when a person, when a woman became convinced that only God's ways were best and would work, that you can't make sin work.

And the world is full of people who think they can make sin work, and sometimes they seem to be able to make sin work for a time. But sin doesn't work, not really. It doesn't take long for a person to find out, even if they don't give it up, that they can't make it work. But anyway, when a person became convinced that only God's ways were best and would work, and that person then turned wholeheartedly and conventionally from his ways, her ways, the ways of sin to God's ways, then the sacrifice of Christ could be applied to him.

That makes sense. Now, the Bible is full of instructive examples. One of those is Matthew 3.8. In Matthew 3, John the Baptist is down at the Jordan, baptizing. And people are coming to him to be baptized. And so, one day, as he's down there, baptizing those who come, and by the way, verse 11 would show you that his baptism was not a baptism into Christ. Over in the book of Acts, you'll find an account of disciples of John the Baptist, who had been baptized by John the Baptist, but had to have the baptism into Jesus Christ. His baptism, as verse 11 says, he says, "...I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance." In other words, his baptism was a forerunner of the baptism into Christ, but the emphasis, his baptism, was to emphasize the absolute need for repentance.

Because, as Peter said in Acts 2.38, repentance has got to be there. And so, when even his disciples would come to the time, ones that would be called on deeper into the understanding of the truth and all of that, and would later be baptized into Christ, the repentance factor that is being emphasized by John would be so necessary.

Now, by his baptizing, he was emphasizing the need for people to recognize the need to repent and to show that they were of a repentant frame of mind. So, you have verse 7, when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees come to his baptism. Now, I want you to think of something. We each know X number of folks. You can see somebody at the grocery store, run into them wherever you run into them. I'm talking about it could be a relative, it could be a coworker.

But that person has a certain connotation to you. Be it good, be it bad, be it poor. Oh, there's old Mrs. Busybody. Oh, there's Mr. Liar. You never can know when he's telling the truth. Or, well, there's a good old soul. They're always helping anybody they can. I'm just saying there's a connotation because like Proverbs says, even a child is known by his doings. People are known. Well, it was no different when John the Baptist looks up. He's down there baptizing with the baptism unto repentance.

And he looks up and sees the Pharisees, a group of them coming down, and Sadducees coming down. And keep in mind, he was familiar with them. His father served at the temple, remember? Zechariah served at the temple in his order and his course. So, he knew them. And the connotation of what he thought of wasn't good. He looks up, he sees the Pharisees, he sees the Sadducees coming to his baptism, which is for repentance or to illustrate a recognition of repentance or the need for it.

And evidently, all he could see was a bunch of snakes, a bunch of vipers. That's what came to mind. And of course, he called it out, called them out for what they were. For a generation of vipers, who has warned you to flee from the wrath to come? I don't care if it's that time, this time. Nobody likes to be called a snake, right? Especially a bad snake. But no snake is a good snake to call somebody a snake. I mean, he was calling it like it was because he knew them.

Notice what he says to them in verse 8. He didn't soft pedal, he didn't tiptoe through the tulips or whatever. He says, bring forth therefore, if you're going to come down here to be baptized, with repentance to the issue, then bring forth therefore fruits, meat, or fitting, that show or that prove that you recognize you have a need for repentance. Which they did not. But it tells us something. Repentance has fruits. There are evidences of it. There are proofs of it. What is God looking for if you had an angelic creation? And at one time, they were all obedient to you. And the time came that you wound up with the reality being that a third of them were no longer obedient.

That a third of them were totally rebellious and totally disobedient. And only two-thirds remained obedient to you. And then, here you're dealing with human beings with the purpose of changing some of them, hopefully a lot of them in due time, into spirit beings to live forever with you.

Obedience is very important to know that they're going to be obedient and remain obedient. God is looking for obedience. So, let's turn back to 1 Samuel 15 and verse 22. 1 Samuel 15 and verse 22. Now, basically, this is the case where Saul has simply disobeyed. He has simply disobeyed. He was supposed to destroy all the livestock. He didn't. He kept the best. And then used the excuse that, well, he kept them so he could sacrifice them to God.

Instead of obeying and doing what God told him to, well, I've got a better idea. I won't do exactly what you told me to. I'll compromise, but I'll make it all okay by taking these good animals, or at least from these good animals, and sacrificing them to you, God. I mean, that was basically his approach.

He did not obey. And so Samuel says to him here in 1 Samuel 15 verse 22, Samuel said, Does the Lord have as great a delight in burnt offerings? Did burnt offerings and sacrifices really delight God more than obeying His voice? Does the Lord have as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as in obeying as He does in obeying the voice of the Lord? And then this statement, Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rims. To obey is better than sacrifice. Well, where does obedience start? Well, obedience starts with...

And some people grasp this, and some don't seem to grasp it. Those who are truly yielding to God's Spirit, we grasp it. But there are those who don't grasp it. And that is this. When you say obedience starts with... They would probably say obedience starts with obedience. And in one sense, obedience starts with obedience. But it's bigger than that. Obedience starts with a spirit of obedience. Let me explain. Obedience starts with a spirit of obedience. The person who might say, well, obedience starts with obedience.

And I have made out this list of what God expects my obedience on. There's 10 points on it. Or maybe someone has 100 points. I have this list of 100 things that's what I'm supposed to obey God on.

And I'm very thankful to God to have the list of where He requires obedience. And I'm really thankful to have the complete list. Where there's a spirit of obedience, you leave room to add on to the list always. Because you know if you're to obey God, you aren't to obey Him on what you currently know to do. But there can be things that you're not aware of that may come to your attention in time with further education and growth and development, or just by inspiration of God. You know that there can be additional things that He expects you to obey Him on. So you don't have a list that you consider in any sense conclusive. You don't have a list, you say, well, what's on it is valid and legitimate and good. And that's what I know at this point, but there's probably some stuff I don't know. And I'm going to realize more as time goes on. So my list does not have a period at the end of it. It's left open. Dot, dot, dot. That's the spirit of obedience. And that's what's necessary. Acts 5. You know, I think actually before I go to Acts 5, I think I'll go to John first, John 4, verses 23 and 24, in light of a spirit of obedience, in light of a listing or a list, so to speak. John 4, verses 23 and 24, where Christ is talking to the Samaritan woman at the well. He says, but the hour comes and now is when the true worshipers, you or I, none of us here, want to be considered false worshipers. We want to be classified by God as true worshipers. Shall worship the Father, and again, incorporating two areas in spirit and in truth, for the Father seeks such to worship Him. God is the Spirit, and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth. Do you know more today regarding truth than you did a year ago? Or let's stretch it further. Or a decade ago, ten years ago. Do you know more truth today than you knew when you were baptized? If any of us say, no, I don't know any more now than I did when I was baptized, then you've not grown.

Do you expect to know more truth a year from now, or five years from now, than you do now? I do.

You do too. The point being that at any given time, there is truth that you know, that you are to obey on. But there's also truth that God is aware of that you either are not aware of as part of truth, or it's truth you have, but you don't yet realize the depth of that truth, or the breadth of that truth, like it truly is. Well, as long as you have a spirit of obedience, you will continue to expand in that knowledge of the truth. You will grow. You will develop.

You will increase. Grow in the grace and knowledge, Peter said, of Jesus Christ. There in 2 Peter 3.18. Now, let's go to Acts 5 and verse 29. Part of our foundation of repentance incorporates this, and it is talking about our foundation.

Since repentance is a foundation of validity, then Peter and the other apostles, Acts 5.29, then Peter and the other apostles answered and said, We ought to obey God rather than men. What is hard to comprehend about that?

I don't think anything is, but I think the challenge is sometimes to be able to do it.

There are many things that a human being can ask us to do, tell us to do, require us to do that don't contradict God, that don't contradict His will, His Word, His ways.

And where that's the case, yes, we're fine. Yes, ma'am, I'm fine.

But where what a man, a woman, a human being, someone tells us to do, that we know contradicts God, then we have to say, No, sir. No, ma'am. Sorry. Can't do that.

We have to draw the line there because the bottom line is we ought to obey God rather than men.

Why is that absolutely so important? How many of you called yourself to the truth? I don't want to see any hands. Can't put mine up either.

We didn't call ourselves to the truth. We didn't give ourselves the opportunity to be able to understand God's knowledge. And that was God's mercy extended to us at this time in this age.

How many of us have the idea, God, I can do this on my own. I'm strong. I'm a big boy.

I read and see what I'm supposed to become. I see what you expect of me.

Just stand aside, God. Just watch. Watch how good I do. Watch how well I can stand. Watch how well I can spiritually run. Just watch me accomplish what you say has got to be accomplished in me.

Now, I'm being totally facetious as we all know because we all realize when we enter the battle, when we truly enter the battle, we realize my armor, my weaponry, my physical abilities, my intelligence, whatever, is just not enough of itself to get it done. In fact, when sometimes we feel like we are too much on our own and God's not there with us like we really need Him, we kind of get discouraged and dispensed, depressed because we realize this is not doable without God. I've got to make an effort. I've got to give God something to bless. I've got to do what's within my power. But doing all of that is just not going to get it done. It's discouraging. There's not enough strength here. There's not enough in me and of me to accomplish what's got to be accomplished. It can't be done. See, verse 29 is so crucial because of verse 32. What is the result that comes from obeying God out of the spirit of obedience? Verse 32, we are His witnesses of these things, and so is also the Holy Spirit, the holy power, the holy energy, the life of God, His strength, whom God has given to those who practice verse 29.

When you practice verse 29, obeying God, then you can truly bank on God supplying you with His Spirit. That spirit of obedience allows God to apply the sacrifice of Jesus Christ to us along with the opportunity and power that goes with it.

Notice Romans 2.13.

And see, I need the power. You need the power. We need the power. Romans 2.13.

For not the hearers of the law are just before God. I mean, they're not the ones that are made right.

They're not the ones that are justified before God. But the doers of the law. A doer is the person who is actively obeying the things of God's law of His way.

See, it does not say here that doing the law automatically makes you claim.

Because only the blood of Christ can claim your record. But what it says, the doers of the law, what is a doer of the law? That's an obedient son. That's an obedient daughter. That's one who obeys so that God can give them His Spirit, can forgive them, cleanse them, and give them the power for a difference to truly be made. And that Spirit of obedience is what is produced through real repentance. Real repentance contains a Spirit of obedience. If a Spirit of obedience is not there, there is not true, real, bona fide repentance.

Christ's sacrifice with its opportunity and its power can only be applied where there is real repentance and it can only remain with real repentance. Because Christ's sacrifice saves us.

And as far as saves us, let's look at the way it's worded. Matthew 1, 21. Matthew 1, Joseph was very concerned.

The woman, the young woman he is engaged to, betrothed to, she's pregnant. He has not been with her sexually. He married her as the virgin, yet here she's pregnant. He knows there's really only one way to get pregnant. And he's bothered and he's trying to figure out what to do.

He doesn't want to make a public example of her.

He's basically planning on putting her away privately. And while he's weighing all of this, Gabriel appears to him. And Gabriel tells him, you know, she's not thin.

And what this pregnancy is by the power of the Holy Spirit, because she's carrying God in her womb.

Verse 21, And she shall bring forth the Son, and you shall call His name Savior.

Jesus, Savior. That's what Jesus means. He means Savior.

For He shall save His people. Now, this is a four-letter word.

And there's another word that's a two-letter word. They're both small words, but there's a tremendous world of difference in their applications.

Jesus, for He shall save His people from their sins, not in their sins.

Those who want to come to Jesus thinking, well, you know, I'm in the Lord now, so I can go right on in whatever I'm doing. It doesn't matter. I'm saved in Jesus.

So, you know, I can stay in the same situations, the same way of thinking, the same way, same way. I stay in my sins because Christ is bigger than my sins, so therefore I can stay in them.

Gabriel said He shall save His people from their sins.

Their sins. Along that line, Romans 3, 25.

Romans 3.

And verse 25, it says, For whom God has set forth to be a propitiation or a stand-in, through faith in His blood, to declare His righteousness for what?

The remission, or passing over, as it can be rendered, the remission of sins, what kind of sins?

Sins that are past.

Sins that are past. Sins that you've turned your back on. Sins that you've rejected. Sins that you've fought. Sins that you don't want to do anymore.

Sins that you have put a distance between you and those sins in your thinking, in your operation, and that you're fighting to put a distance between you and them.

In other words, you're trying not to walk in those sins that you've come to recognize their sins. And I don't want to walk in them, and I don't want to live in them. I can't remove them from the record.

I have no power to remove them from the record, but I don't want to walk in them anymore.

I reject them.

Of course, Christ can wash those off your records and cleanse you.

Sins that are past, He shall save them from their sins.

Major difference.

You know, when I say that March the 26th, this March the 26th that we just had recently, that I had been baptized 54 years.

I don't say that in any sense as some kind of badge of honor.

Give myself a gold star. I don't mean it that way.

I recognize that all 54 years can go for naught if I don't continue on like I should continue on.

Because the same requirement of me as anyone that wants to attain to the Kingdom, you've got to go to your last breath as a human, faithful to God.

Whether that last breath leaves you and you go into the grave, or that last breath ceases because you're changed to spirit to make Christ returning.

When I was baptized 54 years ago, I wanted my baptism to count.

I did not want to go into the watery grave, being baptized into Christ, and then come out of that grave and think, well, I know I just got wet because I didn't mean it.

I didn't repent. I have no intention of repenting.

Now, I understood and knew that it was so crucial that I understood repentance, what defines it, what it's talking about, and that I have put that down as a foundation.

I wanted my baptism to count.

Guess what? Again, it's been over 54 years.

I wanted it to keep on counting. I never wanted the time to come that it no longer counted.

And as I stand before you today, I can say present tense, I want it to keep on counting. I want it to keep on counting because the promise of eternal life applies to those who are in Christ and those who remain or stay in Christ. I could never say, well, God, I stayed in Christ for 54 years. Yeah, you did. Why did you quit staying in Him?

Those last two years of your life, or the last ten years of your life, you didn't stay in Him.

You gave up your repentance. You didn't stay in Him.

But God, doesn't 54 outweigh 2 or outweigh 10 or whatever?

He says, sorry, you read the Scripture back in Ezekiel. If a righteous man turns from his righteousness, etc., you knew the Scriptures. Yeah, I know the Scriptures.

And I know that I have to stay in Christ. I know that repentance validates my baptism.

It continues to validate it.

You know, the spirit of obedience.

There's more you can say than there's more additional than just the spirit of obedience, but boy, does it have to be there. But if it is truly there, because it will be in real repentance, you could make this statement. You could say, The heart and core of real repentance is a humble and teachable attitude yielded in a spirit of obedience that produces lasting results. You can expand upon that. The heart and core, you could say, the heart and core of real repentance is a humble and a teachable attitude yielded in a spirit of obedience that produces lasting results.

Something that I have seen in the congregations I've served previous to these three, and I've seen it in these three. I know what happens in Atlanta.

I know what happens in Nashville.

We will have over a stretch of time any number of people who will come in the door to be with us, one Sabbath or one month, maybe longer. And of course, with various reasons to be here, and I'm talking about those who don't stick after one time a year or six times a year or whatever.

And again, it's a mixed bag of reasons. They don't all fall under the same label. But here is a, if you want to call it a label or description that fits some of them.

What I have seen over time and still continue to see is there will be those who come in who do not come in humble and teachable. They don't come here to learn. They come here to case the congregation. They come here to see, well, is the congregation God's congregation? Is it a congregation of God? They've already decided what is right and wrong, and they come in here to check it out. And if they find, well, this is the congregation that believes what I believe, so I know it's the right congregation, it's a congregation of God, then I might just hang around for a while. I might just stick, and too many times, along with that, they've got their own ideas they want to teach others.

It's like one man that I had email communication with.

I keep this Sabbath every day. He attended up in Chattanooga one Sabbath, and I think it was just the following week when I was up there. I wasn't up there the day he attended, but I believe it was the following week that I gave a sermon on the validity of the Sabbath day. Sabbath. Well, he came and visited with us one time, and on his way out after services that day, and like I said, I wasn't there that day. I'd had communication with him by email.

But he told one of the members as he went out, he said, I keep the Sabbath every day.

And the member just fired back at him, which day do you work?

If you keep the Sabbath seven days a week, when do you work?

That person wasn't there to learn, and we see that. And is the person today a Sabbath keeper? No, he's not. Hopefully, in time, he will be. Even in this age, it would be nice if he studied out with an open objective mind. But if he had come to me and said, I want you to baptize me, I'd have had to say, I can't do it. Well, why not? Because you're not repentant. Well, why not? Because you don't have a spirit of obedience. You've got your list, but you don't have God's list. You're approach. It's interesting. 2 Corinthians 7, verses 10 and 11. Where there is a humble, unteachable attitude yielded in a spirit of obedience to God that produces lasting results, you have proof of real repentance.

2 Corinthians 7, Paul said here in verse 10, he says, For godly sorrow works repentance to salvation, not to be repented of. In other words, if you have godly sorrow, the sorrow that is truly godly, it works true repentance, real repentance, which results in salvation. And you don't have to be sorry for that, because you're glad for the results that it puts you on the road to salvation.

It gets you to salvation, and you don't have to regret being on that road of repentance to salvation because you had godly sorrow. Bottom line is, you get the right result.

But the sorrow of the world works death.

Last night, across this land, for instance, the Alabama-Georgia line right over here on Highway 9, I'll come in tonight from Gaston. It'll be late. And when I get to the Alabama-Georgia line, immediately, as I leave Alabama, and my front tires, you know, they're in Georgia, and my rear tires are in Alabama.

Right there on my right is a bar, a joint. And I mean, it is so packed out. The other Saturday, two weeks ago, when I came through there, I thought, they don't have any more parking spaces left. I gotta keep going. I can't pull in. No, I didn't think that. But I thought, they don't have any more parking. They're packed out. I guarantee it was packed out last night. And I can guarantee you, there were some guys and gals this morning that got it with splitting headaches and cotton mouths and holding their heads and didn't want anything jarring them and all thinking, oh, why did I do that? Why did I pull that last night? Why not? I am never going to do that again until tonight. And I go right back to it. Because that's the way worldly sorrow is. It doesn't work real change. But Paul said, for behold this stuff, same thing, that you sorrowed after a godly sort.

What carefulness it wrought in you, yes, what clearing of yourselves. What indignation, yes, what fear, what vehement desire, what zeal, and revenge. You know, revenge on the old man, revenge on sin, revenge on all that. And all things you have approved yourselves to be clear in this matter. We go through a self-examining process each year, especially at this time now. Frankly, that process should be ongoing 365 and then a leap year, 366. But obviously, we put more of a focus on it at this time of the years we're coming up on Passover to really examine ourselves. And as I said, don't anybody ever call me and say, could you please come over? I'd like for you to do an examination of me. Nope. I refuse. You can do it yourself, of yourself, for yourself.

Now, that's not to say I won't counsel with somebody if they want to counsel about something that they're dealing with or wrestling with. That's fine, but I'm talking about, no, I don't want to come over and do your examining for you. You do that. But here's some of the questions that in the examining process we could ask ourselves that tell us a lot about, have we got godly sorrow or maybe still too much worldly sorrow?

Where and how are we illustrating our obedience? Nobody has to tell us, give us the answer to that.

These are questions we can answer ourselves. Where and how am I illustrating my obedience?

In what have I made and am I making lasting changes?

And I think one of the most important questions we can ask ourselves is this, am I obedient in what I do know to do?

Am I acting on what I do know? Because you put God in a position that He can be thinking, if you won't do what I have shown you, then why should I show you more? Or there's no need for me to show you more until you at least address what I have shown you. So are we obedient in what we do know to do? Now true repentance does start in the mind. It's a frame of mind, obviously. You know, fingers, hands, arms, legs, feet, the whole body is servant of the mind. The real you is your mind. The real you is that that's in your skull. That's the real you. And everything else is servant to that. Frame of mind, changing one's mind, being broken up, turning from one's ways to God's ways. And again, sometimes when we talk about looking for fruits of real repentance and we talk about frame of mind and the condition of the mind and perspectives and realizations and concepts and all of that, we'll focus on words like right attitude.

Psalm 51, man after God's own heart, blew it big time. That one time in his life, big time, big time.

Hadn't blown it like that before. Didn't blow it like that afterwards.

And wasn't allowed off the hook either. But in the prayer of repentance that's recorded in Psalm 51 after the sordid and tragic and horrific affair with Bathsheba and Uriah, what David did, he acknowledged his wrongs. He acknowledged how far off base he had gotten. He acknowledged, and he bitterly and deeply repented. And he says in verse 10, Create in me a clean heart. Oh God! He had had a clean heart. He knew what a clean heart was like. He knew the benefits of it. He treasured it. He wanted it. And he had slipped away from that.

Please create in me a clean heart. And notice, renew a right spirit.

Renew a right spirit.

Send me. This is the man who knew what a right spirit was.

Samuel, I'm tired of Saul. I'm rejecting him. He's rejected me.

You know, I rejected him from being king. You go to Jesse. Among his sons is the next king. Samuel shows up at Jesse's place.

When the firstborn, who was evidently a big, tall, striking, handsome man, stood before him, Samuel says in his mind, Surely this is the Lord's anointed before me. This is the one to be the next king. And God says to Samuel in his mind, He says to him, Uh-uh, he's not the one. Man looks on the appearance. I look on the heart.

Went through all the sons. Is this it, Jesse? Well, there's one more.

Squirt, he's out there with the sheep, the young one, he's out there with the sheep. Bring him in. David brought in Samuel. This is the one. Annointing.

David knew what a right spirit was. He wanted to be restored in that. And God did restore him. But he had his desire to get back on track. And he bitterly fasted and repented.

In real repentance, one comes to see, and don't we experience this?

Don't we come to see how righteous and holy God truly is? Like James, the half-sibling of Christ said, every good gift is from Him and there's no shadow of turning in Him.

And don't we come to see just how holy and righteous and just His law is?

And we bring it down to how wonderful a community could be, a nation could be.

If people would just practice the Ten Commandments just in the letter alone, even if they just practiced it in the letter, the absolute difference it would make in this world.

We come to have that statement that Paul did in Romans 7 and verse 12.

This comes to be our view of the law of God. Romans 7 and verse 12, wherefore the law is holy and the commandment holy and just and good. And you do not find that approach to the law in the Protestant world or the Catholic world. It's not there.

And a person comes to see themself for what they are, not just what they've done. I mean, none of us are born holy or righteous. We're not born wicked. We're not born corrupt. We're born neutral. But we're not born holy or righteous. And long before we ever come to realize the full size of the reality of our stealth and sin and all of that, we have neglected God to some degree. And generally what happens, the more we age into our growing up and into life, the more and more that in one form, fashion, way or another God is neglected.

You know, this Scripture here in Romans, it's one of those that paints everybody with the same brush. Every human is painted with the same brush. Romans 3, 23. Because it's comprehensive. God dips the brush in the paint and He paints it across every single one of us as a human being, for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God, period. One of the most common meanings of sin is to miss the mark. And whether you miss it by an inch or a foot or a mile, a miss is a miss.

But also one comes to see what human nature is. The nature that we have, and when I say the ugliness of it, I'm talking about what it's capable of, the potential of what that nature is capable of.

It is a nature that can be formed in fashion to have any level of animosity towards God from just passive resistance to outright rebellion. To have a little bit of hostility and animosity to loads and bucketfuls of it. It's the kind of nature that, depending on what the forces and factors are that are put upon a little baby boy or baby girl, can determine what kind of human being that little baby boy or girl will be. I was born to parents who had strong moral compasses.

I was born to parents who were hardworking, parents with values. I was born with parents who provided. I did not have to grow up worrying about a roof over my head. I did not have to grow up worrying about food on the table or clothes on my back. We weren't rich. We weren't, as some people would say, well off in that stance. But we weren't poor either. We were blessed of God.

And correspondingly, there were those of my own age and all that I knew that were born to shipless fathers, alcoholic fathers, men who, if they did work and drew a paycheck, they spent most of it at the local bar on the way home. I had those I saw born into forces and factors that were positive and good and turned out to be solid assets of society.

And then I saw those born to parents that were abusive, wasteful, and too many of them turned out just like their parents.

The nature that we are is subject to forces and factors put upon it.

And if we were so blessed to be formed and fashioned by good solid forces, that's something to be thankful for. It's something to be thankful for.

But it doesn't deny that the nature that we have put under the wrong forces can severely corrupt. I want you to think about something. This is a point of truth. It's reality.

When God said to Noah, I'm going to destroy all mankind because, as it says in Genesis 6, 5, their thoughts are only evil continually. And God drowned every single one of them, except Noah and his family, eight people that he saved on the ark.

Every one of those people that were drowned started out as a sweet, cuddly little baby boy or baby girl.

Just as sweet and cuddly as any little sweet and cuddly babies are today. Your grandchildren, your great-grands, your children.

But by the time they got grown, they were so corrupted by the forces and factors around them that they were just part of the corruption and God had to drown them. It says a lot about the kind of nature that we have that, depending on what forces it's put under, and my point is there is a certain issue of repenting of what we are, not just of what we've done. And that's the concept that, and of course when I say that, repenting of it, it means if we recognize the potential for going the wrong way, we'll fight even harder not to go the wrong way, which again is part of repentance. First, years ago, Jeremiah 17.9 became locked into my memory. The heart is deceitful above all things, and that's really wicked. Who can know it?

It's amazing how that people can trick themselves into justifying what they want to do, no matter how wrong it is, they can find a way to justify why it's okay for me to do that.

Even David justified himself with Bathsheba and Uriah.

But boy, when he was knocked back into his senses and he realized what he had truly done, he bitterly repented.

When we're baptized, I'm going to wrap this up.

When we are baptized, God allows us to see enough about ourselves to get the ball rolling.

I think we can say, if we've been baptized, let's just say five years, let's use that, or ten years.

We're kind of glad that we didn't see everything at the time we were baptized that we now see.

It could have been overwhelming. God knows what He's doing.

But He lets us see enough to really know if we're truly repentant or not.

He lets us see enough to get the ball rolling.

I mean, look at Job, righteous man.

Job 42, verses 5 and 6.

I really see myself now, God. I understand You, and I really see myself, and I abhor myself in repenting dust and ashes.

And Paul talking about, to the Hebrews, in Hebrews 6, about not laying again the foundation of repentance. In other words, repentance is a foundation. Keep it in place so you don't find yourself having to try to put it back into place.

But if you have let it slip, do go to the effort to get it back into place. Yes.

But He lets us see enough to get the ball rolling. He lets us see enough to do what? To get down the solid foundation that makes our baptism valid.

He makes it valid.

As long as we continue to practice true repentance, as long as we draw breath, our baptism will remain valid.

And every time we commemorate having been baptized into Christ, into His death, with the Passover service, it will be done properly, worthily, reverently, and with the effect that it's supposed to have, because repentance validates our baptism. And it keeps on validating our baptism.