Why Baptism and the Laying On of Hands?

Well, I have been thinking a lot about baptism lately. We've had some individuals in our congregation who are interested in baptism, and we've had some sessions and some other people, individuals talking to me about potentially being baptized. So that's always very encouraging. I think it's one of the most favored things that pastors get to do, and it's a very important doctrine that the Church of God has. We believe in the significance of baptism and the laying on of hands to receive God's Holy Spirit. In theological terms, this is called baptismal regeneration. That's what the phrase is used in people who study theology regarding baptism and regarding receiving the Holy Spirit. And the reason I want to talk about this subject today is that many churches, many Protestant churches, no longer believe that baptism is necessary. Others, perhaps even the majority of them, don't perform the laying on of hands to receive God's Holy Spirit. Many believe that one immediately receives the Holy Spirit when they have faith in Jesus, wherever and whenever that happens, when they have faith in Jesus, that they suddenly receive the Holy Spirit. I wanted to read to you some parts of an article that was written in 1993, and I realized it's almost 30 years ago. I was once part of a church serving as an elder, and there was a publication called the Pastor General's Report that ministers received, and there was a supplement to it called Reviews You Can Use. And this was, again, a ministerial publication I received until the mid-1990s.

It was written about two years before the organization just blew the pieces and disrupted the lives of 100,000-plus people. It was information like this that I was receiving that got my attention and helped prepare me for what I could see coming on down the line regarding that particular church. The reason I want to quote from this article is not to ridicule my former association. It's dead and gone, not to ridicule the author, but because it clearly and succinctly presents a common Protestant view of the importance of baptism from their perspective. They were turning Protestant, and so what I'm going to read in a few different places in this sermon from this article is traditional Protestant thinking regarding baptism.

So here I'm going to read, first of all, the conclusion. Here's what the article said when it was concluded. And again, this was sent to all of the ministry in the pastor general's report as a supplement in 1993. Quote, "...should a person be baptized? Certainly whenever possible. But sins may be forgiven and salvation given before the actual baptism is performed.

Baptism is an outward sign of what the grace of God has already done in a person's life." Now, that may have startled you when I said, should a person be baptized certainly when possible. Maybe that startled you a little bit, especially if some, maybe some scriptures, some New Testament scriptures are coming to your mind. So let's take a look at a few scriptures because I want to get to the root of this error, this biblical error that they had and reinforce why we have such a serious commitment to understanding what baptism is and encouraging people to get baptized and as a result of repentance and their faith in Jesus Christ, just why it's so important to us.

So let's begin by going to Acts chapter 8 and verse 14. Acts chapter 8 verse 14, an interesting event that occurred after the day of Pentecost. Acts chapter 8 verse 14, it says, "...now when the apostles who were at Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received the word of God, so Samaria heard the gospel message being preached, they sent Peter and John to them, who when they had come down prayed for them that they might receive the Holy Spirit. For as yet he had fallen upon none of them. They had only been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus.

Then they laid hands on them, and they received the Holy Spirit. And when Simon saw that through the laying on of the apostles' hands the Holy Spirit was given, he offered them money, saying, Give me this power also, that anyone on whom I lay hands may receive the Holy Spirit. But Peter said to him, Your money perish with you because you thought that the gift of God could be purchased with money. You have neither part nor portion in this matter, for your heart is not right in the sight of God." So we see here in this particular event in Scriptures that Simon observed that baptism was being performed by the apostles, and he observed that when hands were placed on the individual's head that the Holy Spirit was given to the believer.

And after reading this Scripture, I think it's fair for us to ask this question. If one receives the Holy Spirit at the time of faith in Christ, why had it not entered those who had been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ? Now the conclusion of the article was that you received the Holy Spirit when you had faith.

Well, they obviously had faith. They had been baptized in the name of Jesus Christ. But yet, they didn't receive the Holy Spirit until the disciples showed up and they'd laid hands on them. Let's take a look at another example. Acts 19 and verse 1. Let's take a look at this Scripture. This is even a little bit more unique, I think. Acts 19 and verse 1.

It says, And it happened while Apollos was in Corinth. He was a charismatic, gifted preacher who, occasionally, like Paul, would help out the Corinthian congregation. Apollos was at Corinth that Paul, having passed through the upper regions, came to Ephesus and finding some disciples. Now I want to highlight that right there. These people are disciples.

So aside from the fact that they were baptized with John, that's John the Baptist, baptism, when he preached repentance, I might add, aside from the fact that they were only baptized with the baptism of John the Baptist and had not received the laying out of hands, they are still considered disciples. After all, somewhere along the line, after their baptism from John, they heard about Jesus Christ as the Messiah and they accepted Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior.

That's why they can be called disciples here. And finding some disciples, he said to them, did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed, when you had faith? Did you receive the Holy Spirit at that time? So they said to him, we have not so much as heard whether there is a Holy Spirit. And he said to them, into what then were you baptized? And they said, into John's baptism. Then Paul said, John indeed baptized with the baptism of repentance, saying to the people that they should believe on him who should come after him, that is, on Christ Jesus.

Verse 5. When they heard this, they were baptized. In this case, we could say they were rebaptized. They were baptized into the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. And when Paul had laid hands on them, the Holy Spirit came upon them, and they spoke with tongues and prophesied. Now the men were about twelve in all. So this is a very interesting experience. Paul comes across disciples here in Ephesus. These are believers in Jesus who had faith in him, who had previously been baptized in the John's baptism, which is a baptism of repentance. Yet as believers, they had not yet even heard of the Holy Spirit or received it.

So again, going back to that original statement from this article, should a person be baptized certainly whenever possible, but sins may be forgiven and salvation given before the actual baptism is performed, baptism is the outward sign of what the grace of God has already done in a person's life. So again, I want to ask this question. If one receives the Holy Spirit at the time of faith in Christ, why had it not entered these disciples who had been baptized in repentance?

And it earlier had accepted Jesus Christ as the Messiah, as the Lord and Savior. Now we could go through a lot of scriptures today. Through the four Gospels, we could read where Jesus was baptized and immediately the Spirit of God descended upon him. We could read other scriptures where the disciples were sent out to baptize, and they did. But can we find any examples in the New Testament where the Holy Spirit descended first before baptism? Well, the answer to that question is yes, we can. But I think it's important for us to understand there's a reason for that. The usual method that the scriptures reveal are someone is baptized, immersed in water, and then they're followed within the same ceremony, the laying out of hands.

And sometimes that is just both acts are referred to as baptism, but that is the usual procedure. But are there times when, in contrast to that, the Holy Spirit descended first before baptism? And again, the answer is yes, there are times, and we're going to take a look at those.

But I want to caution all of us to be very careful regarding things that we read, exceptions in Scripture, not to think that all the time we are an exception to the rule. I've met a lot of religious people in my life who are always, they believe they're the exception to every rule. It reminds me of the old story of W.C. Fields. I probably told you this before, if you heard it, be kind. Laugh anyway. But W.C. Fields was an atheist, and his atheism was hardened when a neighbor boy next door there was a pond between his house and his neighbor, and a little neighbor boy got outside and was playing and drowned in the pond.

And that really hurt W.C. Fields, and he was rather vocal about being an atheist. Well, near the end of his life, a friend came over to his house, and he was reading the Bible. And his friend said, W.C., I don't get this. You keep telling us you're an atheist, yet you've got the Bible open. Why are you reading the Bible? And W.C. Fields said, looking for loopholes. And I've known a lot of religious people who every time there's a rule or a standard in the Bible, they're always looking for loopholes.

And I encourage you not to be a person who's always the exception to every rule, because that is not healthy spiritually. But indeed, there are examples in the Scripture where the Holy Spirit descended before people were baptized and immersed in a water baptism. Let's go to Acts 9 and verse 17. Acts 9 and verse 17 Here's one such example. We know that Paul was on his way to arrest the brethren, and Jesus Christ had other plans for the Apostle Paul. He was struck down. He was on his road to Damascus.

He was blinded. Acts chapter 9 and verse 17, God says to a man named Ananias, I want you to go and lay hands and talk to this man named Saul. And his initial reaction in verses 13 and 14 is, no way! This man's a persecutor of the faith. No way am I going to go with this man who has arrested Christians.

He hates us. He might be a spy. I don't trust him. And God says, no. And Ananias does. So, picking up here in verse 17, Ananias went his way, and he had entered the house. And laying his hands on him, he said, Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus, who appeared to you on the road as you came, has sent me that you may receive your sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit.

And immediately there fell from his eyes something like scales of blindness, something that had just blocked out his ability to see, fell away, and now his eyesight is restored, something like scales. And he received his sight at once, and he arose and was baptized. So this is an example of where the laying out of hands appears to precede baptism. And again, why? Well, Ananias was reluctant to do this. He was skeptical of this persecutor of the church.

And again, that's verses 13 and 14. However, the obvious presence of the Holy Spirit, as it fell upon Saul, gave Ananias confidence that this is okay.

I can do this. I can serve this man. I can be his teacher. I can baptize him. God is obviously working through him, because I've seen this public and obvious display of the Holy Spirit fall on him and his blindness being removed. But again, I want to notice, and I want to emphasize, that the activity of baptism by immersion and the laying out of hands work together hand in hand.

Usually baptism first, but as we saw here in this example, not always. It's up to God. We don't question God. God can do whatever he wants to do. That's why he gets the title God. And let's take a look at another example. Acts chapter 2 and verse 1. Acts chapter 2 and verse 1.

We're very familiar with this. We read this scripture just a few weeks ago on the day of Pentecost and preparing for it. Acts chapter 2 and verse 1. This is when the day of Pentecost had fully come. They were all with one accord in one place, and suddenly there came a sound from heaven as a rushing mighty wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting.

And there appeared to them divided tongues as of fire and sat on each one of them, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance. Now during this biblical event, the Holy Spirit descends upon the 120 who are gathered there at the instruction of Jesus Christ, and they appear not to have been baptized, or maybe they had been baptized earlier, perhaps sometime during Jesus's ministry. There's no mention of the laying on of hands in this Pentecost experience. Why? Well, this was a unique, miraculous public witness from God to sanctify those that God was setting apart and chosen for his church. The purpose of this astonishing occurrence was to openly impress everyone else who heard the thunderous noise and who saw the dramatic public display of the Holy Spirit and the tongues that was all designed to impress and get the attention of people. That's why this happened this way on this unique day, and it worked. Let's say what Peter says here, going down now to verse 36. Therefore, let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God has made this Jesus whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ, so he's more than just the Messiah, he's also God.

Now when they had heard this, they were cut to the heart, and said to Peter, and the rest of the apostles, men and brethren, what shall we do? Then Peter said to them, repent and let every one of you be baptized whenever possible in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins. I'm sorry, I'm being sarcastic. He did not say whenever possible. As the article said, he makes it as a stark dogmatic statement. Repent and be baptized. He doesn't say repent and be baptized if possible.

If it's not inconvenient to your schedule, if it works out with your complex lifestyle, no, that's not what Peter says. Repent and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit, for the promise is to you and to your children, all who are afar off. That includes us. As many as the Lord our God will call, and with many other words he testified and exhorted them, saying, be saved from this perverse generation. Boy, what would he think about the world in the 21st century? He thought that was a perverse generation. The those who gladly received his word were baptized, and that day about 3,000 souls were added to them. So that's why God did this in a unique way in the day of Pentecost. The Holy Spirit is visible, visible through something that appears to be like tongues of flames coming down and touching upon each one. The people weren't baptized beforehand when this happened. Again, it's possible they had been baptized earlier at another time before, or during, I should say, during the ministry of Jesus Christ. Peter, who himself was part of this Pentecost miracle, encourages all the witnesses to be baptized and then receive the Holy Spirit.

To me, it's very obvious and it's very clear. Let's look at another event when a group of disciples actually received the Holy Spirit shortly before baptism. This is actually going to be a parallel to what happened on the day of Pentecost. And again, that's why it's done in this particular way. This is a milestone for the church. Like, Pentecost was a milestone for the church of God.

For the birth of the church of God, God gave his Holy Spirit to the original believers and disciples of Jesus, starting out with 120. What we're about to read here was another milestone in the church of God. And that's why it parallels what happened on the day of Pentecost. And that's why the Holy Spirit is given before water baptism. Acts chapter 10 verse 1, if you'll turn there with me, Acts chapter 10 and verse 1. This is the calling of the Gentile, Cornelius, who was a Roman soldier, Roman officer, we could say. Acts chapter 10 and verse 1.

There was a certain man in Caesarea called Cornelius, a centurion of what was called the Italian regiment, a devout man and one who feared God with all his household, who gave alms generously to the people and prayed to God always. About the ninth hour of the day, he saw clearly in a vision an angel of God coming in and saying to him, Cornelius. And when he observed him, he was afraid and he said, what is it, Lord? So he said to him, your prayers and your alms have come up as a memorial before God. Your prayers and your alms and these good things that you're doing are like an offering to me. God remembers the good things that you do. And just like he remembers the good things that Cornelius did, God remembers the good things that you do.

Now send men to Joppa and send for Simon, whose surname is Peter. He is lodging with Simon a tanner whose house is by the sea and he will tell you what you must do. So here we see that Cornelius is a Gentile who believed and feared God. God was pleased with his attitude and God desired to call him even though he was a Gentile. This was difficult for the early church because it was only composed of Jews at this time and Jewish law, that's rabbinical law, not anything from the Old Testament, forbid them to associate with Gentiles. God would need to perform a prominent public miracle to convince the Jewish believers who were there that God would be calling Gentiles.

This would be, as we say today, a tough nut to crack because their whole upbringing is bigotry. Their whole upbringing, these are the Jews from the oral law and from rabbinical tradition, our Gentiles are foul, dirty, unclean human beings. You have nothing to do with them.

That's what they were taught. So he chose to use the Apostle Peter for this task, beginning with a series of three visions. And you remember, may remember it in the scriptures. This sheet comes down three times and has all kinds of unclean animals on it and it says, kill and eat. Peter says, no, I'm not going to do this. I'm not going to do this. It happens three times. But Peter agrees to go and visit Cornelius. He's still trying to figure out what this vision means. So he's still struggling with that. He agrees to visit Cornelius. His godly fear, this is Cornelius' godly fear and prayers and alms showed God that God could give a Gentile, could give a man like this his Holy Spirit and he would not disregard the Spirit within him. Verse 28.

So this is Peter talking. Then he said to them, you know how unlawful it is for a Jewish man to keep company with or go to one of another nation. But God has shown me that I should not call any man common or unclean. He finally, after meeting Cornelius and having a discussion, he finally figures out what this vision was all about. As a side note, Peter did not believe it was now acceptable to eat biblically unclean foods. The vision revealed to him is that he, Peter, should not view any person as unclean. It was a lesson in Peter overcoming bigotry, in which he felt that Gentiles were inferior and God could not call them. All right, verses 38. Let's go down here to verse 38. This is Cornelius speaking. So I sent to you immediately, and you have done well to come. Now therefore, we are all present before God to hear all the things commanded you by God. Then Peter opened his mouth and he said. Great chance for Peter to give a little mini sermon, what we would call maybe a sermon at the day, and that's exactly what he does. So he's going to begin. In truth, I perceive that God shows no partiality. God's calling Jews, God's calling Gentiles, he's calling anyone with a willing heart who submits to God and who is responding to God's calling. But in every nation, every nation on earth, every continent on earth, whoever fears him and works righteousness is accepted by him. Fears him is just another way of someone who believes in him, who has faith in him, and works righteousness is accepted by him.

The word which God sent to the children of Israel preaching peace through Jesus Christ, he is Lord of all. He's not just the Lord of the Jews, he's the Lord of every human being on earth.

That the word you know, which was proclaimed throughout all Judea and began from Galilee after the baptism which John preached, how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power who went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with him. And we are witnesses of all things which he both did in the land of the Jews and in Jerusalem, whom they killed by hanging on a tree. So again, he's explaining to Cornelius in his household, who never heard any of this, a little bit of background about who and what Jesus Christ was.

Continuing him, God raised on the third day and showed him openly, not to all the people, but to witnesses chosen before by God, even to us who ate and drank with him after he arose from the dead. And he commanded us to preach to the people and to testify that it is he who was ordained by God to be judged the living and the dead. To him, all the prophets witness that through his name, whoever believes in him will receive the remission of sins. While Peter was still speaking these words, the Holy Spirit fell upon all who heard the word and those of the circumcision, those Jews who went with Peter, who were disciples, who went with them, who believed and were astonished as many as came with Peter because the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured on the Gentiles also. And for us, we don't realize how shocking, how astonishing that was considering the attitude the Jews had towards the Gentiles at that time in history. For they heard them speak with tongues and magnify God. Then Peter answered, Can anyone forbid water that these should not be baptized, who would receive the Holy Spirit just as we have? And he commanded them to be baptized in the name of the Lord, and they asked them to stay a few days. So here again is a parallel to the Day of Pentecost.

We see this example of the household of Cornelius openly receiving the Holy Spirit before baptism, which again is unusual. It's not the way it usually happens. Just like on that Day of Pentecost, this was a miraculous public witness to those Jews who accompanied Peter that God had now chosen Gentiles as part of his church. The purpose of this event was to openly get a message to Peter and his skeptical Jewish associates that God was absolutely, without question, positively offering salvation to Gentiles and bringing them into his church. Undeniable because of the way that God did it here. The manner in which the Holy Spirit readily descended could not be disputed. It couldn't be argued away. And why couldn't it be argued away? Because they saw the parallel between that and the Day of Pentecost. And we'll read about that in a minute, Peter's statement to the other Jews when he goes back home. So again, in Acts 11, verse 12, if you'll move over to there, Peter does go home. And you know what he gets from his fellow Jewish disciples? When he says, hey, the good news is we now have Gentiles. And he gets all kinds of who do you think you are? He gets all kinds of grief and criticism. So he has to explain what in the world happened. Then the Spirit told me to go with them, doubting nothing. Moreover, these six brethren accompanied me. So it's not just me who saw this. It's six other disciples who were also Jewish, who were also there with me at this visit to Cornelius. And we entered the man's house and he told us how he had seen the angel standing in his house, who sent men to Joppa and called for Simon, whose surname is Peter, who will tell you words by which you and all your household will be saved. And as I began to speak, the Holy Spirit fell upon them as upon us at the beginning.

Just like what happened to us on Pentecost, the same thing happened to these Gentiles.

We can't deny the message that God is giving us here. Then I remembered the Word of the Lord, how he said, John indeed baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit. If therefore God gave them the same gift as he gave us when we believed on the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I that I could withstand God? And when they heard these things, they became silent. They're stunned. They need a minute to process hearing something that's against everything they were ever taught, growing up in the Jewish community. They became silent while they processed it, but then they come around. And they glorified God, saying then God has also granted the Gentiles repentance to life. So much like on the dead Pentecost, we see here that the open and public descending of the Holy Spirit that convinced Peter and the other disciples with him was proof that God was calling the Gentiles. And I might also add that in these cases, when the Holy Spirit descends upon a group of believers before baptism, it's always immediately followed by the combination of receiving the Holy Spirit and then immediately being baptized. They go hand in hand. For most of us, the ceremony will include first baptism by immersion, because that is the way that the Scripture shows it's usually done, followed by the laying on of hands. Yet there are exceptions, but again, be careful that you don't believe that you happen to be the exception for every rule.

All right, so the author of this article, going back to 1991, I'm going to allow him to explain away the Scriptures that we just read. Quote, many refer to the book of Acts to establish doctrine. However, Acts is actually what it says it is. Acts. How deep.

It is the recorded history of the acts of God inspired among us people at specific times and for specific reasons. God may not choose to inspire the church today to repeat every act that occurred in the first century church. Many beliefs and practices we would not endorse from speaking in tongues to snake handling have developed from an incorrect understanding of the purpose of Acts. Acts is primarily historical, not doctrinal. Although inspired and profitable for doctrinal instruction, we need to consider the context and original purpose of the passage. All right, so I'm going to cut to the chase here. We don't like those scriptures you just read. They don't fit our theology. They don't fit what we want to believe, so we don't like them.

And we're going to find a loophole, Mr. Fields. We're going to find a loophole to avoid believing what the scripture says. It just stuns me that they say Acts is actually what it says it is, acts. Well, an action, aren't you leaving an example when you do an action? It isn't the book written so that we can see the example of the earliest New Testament church and emulate their example. For example, when they had doctrinal error in 49 A.D., how they met together and they overcome a misunderstood teaching on circumcision, the example of their faith and zeal and dedication.

Now, I want to understand the reasoning correctly because they said many beliefs and practices we would not endorse from speaking in tongues to snake handling have developed from an incorrect understanding of the purpose of Acts. I want to understand this correctly. We should not view the book of Acts as doctrinal because many wrong beliefs and practices have developed because of people's incorrect understanding of it. Well, if I follow this path of reasoning, we may just as well throw the entire Bible in the trash can because people read Genesis and they do the same thing and Exodus and do the same thing and Revelation and do the same thing. So if that's the reasoning we're going to use, well, we can't use that as doctrine because historically people have read that book and come up with poor doctrine. But that's the kind of reasoning, unfortunately, that is within this entire article. If you can't trust the book of Acts for doctrine, what other writing can you rely upon to know what the earliest people did in the Church of God? There are no other writings. Now, after you get to 100 A.D., you can start looking at some of the so-called earliest Church Fathers who were all Gentile and many of them believed in Greek philosophies, and they don't have a Hebrew background, and they weren't there. They didn't walk and talk with Jesus. They had no experience with Jesus Christ himself. Well, sure, you can go and look to them for doctrine because that's all that's left. If you take the book of Acts and you say, we can't count this as doctrine, it's history. So we can't really believe anything that it says.

A few paragraphs later, the article says, quote, if we want a clearer understanding of doctrine, the didactic, that's one of the things that you do.

If you're a theological scholar, you learn more and more about less and less until you know everything about nothing. So you can't use a word that 99% of English speakers would understand. You have to use a word like didactic just to impress everybody with how smart you are. It means morally instructive, something that gives you instruction morally. If you want a clearer understanding of doctrine, the didactic portions of the Scripture are a better place to look than Acts is. God seems to have especially inspired Paul with doctrinal truths. Oh, I get it. All right, we don't want to believe anything in the book of Acts, but Paul, because he wrote rather complicated, and sometimes he wrote in paragraphs rather than sentences and concepts, it took a paragraph to get through, it's easier to distort what Paul said. So God seems to have especially inspired Paul with doctrinal truths. But of course, Luke, who in the book of Acts records the travels and journeys of Paul, you can't trust what he says about Paul apparently, because it's in the book of Acts. Do you see this circular reasoning, how ridiculous it all is?

It amazes me that someone would actually question the actions of the early church to establish doctrine. It's as if one wants to purposely ignore the lives and ministry and beliefs that the early New Testament church is like. They want to erase it. They want a form of ethnic cleansing to get rid of any Jewish or Hebrew roots within the early church of God at all. And referring to Paul's writings as being more appropriate for doctrine, let's remember that Paul said in Second Timothy chapter 3 16, all scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, and for instruction in righteousness. And yes, I'm fully aware that in context he's referring to the Old Testament when he wrote that in the book of Timothy. But for almost 2,000 years, the entire New Testament, including the book of Acts, has been recognized as inspired and profitable for doctrine. Something else they say here. Quote, I'm going to read from this article once again, no form of works, whether baptism or any other act of obedience, can produce nor be an essential prerequisite for salvation. The instrument or means by which we accept God's gift is faith, and even saving faith is included in God's gift. Good works such as baptism follow salvation.

Good works such as baptism follow salvation. All right, let's break this apart a little bit. There's a lot in here. One of the first problems in New Reasoning is that they declare the ceremony of baptism as a work. And since it's a work, it must not be necessary since we're not saved by works. That's their reference to Ephesians chapter 2 verses 8 through 10. But it's not a work. No more than repentance is a work. No more than belief in Jesus Christ is a work. None of these responses of the human consciousness are a work that provides one with salvation. They are a spiritual reaction or byproduct of a living faith. The Father calls us. We accept His calling, and as a result of that, we repent and we pray and we desire to study His Word. Those aren't works. Those are a natural reaction to responding to an act of faith that we believe God exists and we believe His Son, Jesus Christ, is our Savior. But this false concept that good works follow salvation is also biblically unsound. Now we went through Acts. We already covered Acts 10 a little bit earlier.

So I'm going to read you. You don't have to turn. I'm going to read you Acts chapter 10 and verse 1.

And then, dear students of the Bible, I'm going to ask you a simple question. Are you ready for this?

Acts chapter 10 verse 1. There was a certain man in Caesarea called Cornelius, a centurion of what was called the Italian regiment, a devout man and one who feared God with all his household, who gave alms generously to the people and prayed to God always. Now that's before he's baptized.

So did Cornelius give alms generously to the people and pray to God always before or after he was baptized? Well, obviously before he was baptized. So this idea that good works follow salvation is poor theology. Good works leads us to salvation. It was the things that he did that got God's attention to God that I can call him. He's a wonderful man. He loves me. He gives money to people who need it. He prays to me. So I can use him. I can call him. All of those so-called works occurred before he was baptized and received the Holy Spirit.

So let me read. This is the final part of this article that I will read. So when does a believer receive the Holy Spirit? Paul tells us in a recording from Ephesians 1.13, and we'll turn there. So if you'd like to turn there now, that would be fine. So when does a believer receive the Holy Spirit? Paul tells us, and you also were included in Christ when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, having believed you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit. End of quote. And again, they're quoting Ephesians chapter 1 and verse 13. So let's turn there, and I'll read this from the New King James Version. This is their answer to when a believer receives the Holy Spirit. Ephesians 1.13, in him you also trusted after you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, in whom also having believed you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise. Wonderful Scripture and inspiring, but you know what? It does not address the moment when the Ephesians received the Holy Spirit. It doesn't answer the question. It's a dodge to say, all right, here's the question. When do we receive the Holy Spirit? The answer, word salad. Something that doesn't even answer the question. The Scripture does not address the moment the Ephesians received the Holy Spirit. Paul simply states that when they trusted and believed in Christ, their promised future was sealed with the Holy Spirit, obviously, as long as they continued to believe and walk into faith. So let me ask a question. How did these brethren express or demonstrate their belief or faith in Christ? So how would they demonstrate that? Well, Paul gives us the answer in the very same book in Ephesians chapter 4 verse 4. Let's allow Paul to answer this. Ephesians chapter 4 verse 4.

There is one body, Paul says, one Spirit, just as you've recalled in one hope of your calling, one Lord, one faith, one baptism whenever possible. I'm sorry, he doesn't say that. He says dogmatically that there's one body, one Spirit, one hope of your calling, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all who is above all and through all and in you all. I want you to notice, and it's interesting, how Paul describes our calling with all of these necessary ingredients. One ingredient is our calling that comes from the Father who draws us to the faith. One Lord being our Savior Jesus Christ, one faith from God to instill hope and to give us a new purpose in our existence. One baptism being the spiritual response to that calling. If baptism should be performed whenever possible, why would Paul place it in the same framework as hope, faith and one Lord? Because Paul didn't believe that you should be baptized whenever possible. He believed that baptism was a natural expression of our calling and our dedication to God. And then he says one God and Father, the very one who calls and draws us to the faith. So should these all be responses whenever possible? Should we have one calling whenever possible? One Lord whenever possible? One faith whenever possible? One God and Father when it works for us? One is convenient for us? Of course not. This is silly. This epistle of Paul endorses the significant importance of baptism. Of course we realize that salvation comes from our repentance and the shed blood of Jesus Christ and baptism is a natural part of that process. Our final scripture, Romans chapter 6 and verse 1. Let's see how much time Paul spends in Romans chapter 6 about baptism. He spends a lot of time here about something if it should be done whenever possible. Paul spends an unusual amount of time discussing it here in the early part of Romans chapter 6. Let's read what it says. Paul says, what shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? So there were some, and it still kind of exists today, in some flavors of Protestantism, that God loves to give grace. So the bigger the sinner you are, the more grace God has to give you. And that's a wonderful thing, because God likes to give you lots and lots of grace. And it's a mindset. It's a mentality. He says, so what shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that there's just more and more grace? And that's a wonderful thing? Certainly not. How shall we, who died to sin, live any longer in it? Now, of course, we're all human. We make mistakes. We say things we shouldn't say. We think things we shouldn't think. We do things with our hands and feet, and sometimes we run into misjudges and we sin. He understands that. Paul struggled with his own humanity as well. What he's talking about is having an addictive lifestyle. There should be no sin that is part of our routine lifestyle that has become an addiction to us. Or do you not know that as many of us, as we're baptized into Christ Jesus, we're baptized into his death? So we go down in that water and it represents going into the grave like Jesus Christ that he was in the grave three days and three nights. And when we're baptized, we go under that water and that is symbolic of the death of Jesus Christ. We were baptized to his death. Therefore, we were buried with him through baptism into death. And again, that's being plunged into the water.

That just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so, we also should walk in the newness of life. So Jesus came out of that tomb. We come out of that baptismal tank, a new creature, because all of our sins are forgiven. And we come out with a new life, a new purpose, a new spiritual dimension being added to us, and something that's totally new and wonderful in our life. Again, all pictured by baptism. For if we have been united together in the likeness of his death, and when we were under that water, we were united with him, symbolically, in the likeness of his death, he died, we died under that water. Certainly, we shall also be in the likeness of his resurrection. He ascended to the Father, we get up out of that water, and we step out of that baptismal tank or that pond or pool or wherever we were demonstrating symbolically the likeness of his resurrection, knowing this, that our old man was crucified with him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin. For he who has died has been freed from sin. Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him. So if we went in that baptismal tank and we symbolically died with Jesus Christ, you did walk out of that water, didn't you? I mean, you're here. You did walk out of that pool or walk out of that pond or walk out of that ocean, in the case of some. So then you also believe that you shall live with him, knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, dies no more. Death no longer has dominion over him. For the death that he died, he died to sin once for all, but the life that he lives, he lives to God. And now that we're out of that baptismal tank symbolically, likewise, you also reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God and Christ Jesus, our Lord. Therefore, do not let sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in its lusts.

So again, this is a very beautiful symbolism, beautiful imagery by the Apostle Paul regarding baptism. Does this sound like a man who believed that you should be baptized whenever possible?

If you can fit it in your busy schedule? If it's convenient for you?

Does that sound like this is what Paul is teaching here in his writings? I think not.

So, brethren, the Church of God believes water baptism by immersion, and we do practice that, and we believe in that. And laying on of hands, we believe that those are biblically ordained acts of faith demonstrated by believers. Certainly, God can choose to give his Holy Spirit to anyone at any time that he desires, because he's God. However, the Bible is clear on how and why believers should be baptized. It's important and an essential act of faith of a believer in Jesus Christ. As Paul stated in Galatians chapter 3 verses 26 and 27, for you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus, for as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ.

So, let's not allow ourselves to be confused or deluded about the importance of baptism.

Let's not allow ourselves to think that some parts of God's Word are not important or not, shouldn't be looked at as doctrinal because they don't fit a particular agenda or belief system of some. Let's believe that God has inspired all Scripture for our benefit and for doctrine and for reproof, and then help us all grow towards righteousness. Have a wonderful Sabbath day.