April 7, 2002

What Saves Us? Who Saves Us?

Do you ever feel like you need to stop and take a deep breath? Back up and regroup? Some times I do. There is so much of the Bible that needs teaching, I only get a small amount of time up here each week, and it is so easy to get distracted away from what is most important.
Lately there has been a question that has come up a couple times from several different directions, I felt like I needed to deal with it, and at the same time, today is communion Sunday, and I really wanted to do a sermon that would help us to appreciate the wonder and excellence of Jesus. It seemed to be a real challenge, and a little frustrating. But God is faithful, and God can turn challenges into opportunities.

If you have your Bibles with you today, and I hope you do, turn to Revelation 2:1. "Unto the angel of the church of Ephesus write; These things saith he that holdeth the seven stars in his right hand, who walketh in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks;
:2 I know thy works, and thy labour, and thy patience, and how thou canst not bear them which are evil: and thou hast tried them which say they are apostles, and are not, and hast found them liars:
:3 And hast borne, and hast patience, and for my name's sake hast laboured, and hast not fainted.
:4 Nevertheless I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy first love.
:5 Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen, and repent, and do the first works; or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will remove thy candlestick out of his place, except thou repent.
:6 But this thou hast, that thou hatest the deeds of the Nicolaitanes, which I also hate.
:7 He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches; To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God."

I don't want to take the time this morning to get into the history of the 7 churches in Revelation, we have done that before, briefly the Lord Jesus is speaking to a specific church in Asia Minor, the church at Ephesus. The situation at this church was typical of a specific problem within Christianity during the time from 70 AD to about 150 AD. Just as we have been reading about on Wednesday night in 1st John, there were false teachers trying to work their way into the church. It's still true today. These teachers were called gnostics. Their doctrines were similar to modern day Mormonism, Freemasonry, or the Rosicrucians. The early church would not tolerate them, it struggled against them, and it ran them off.

Unfortunately, in the process, the early church got distracted from it's first love. And that was: being preoccupied with the person and work of Jesus Christ, and telling everybody they met about Him. The early church had a love for Jesus and what He did that was incredible. They were blown away just knowing that the Son of God had taken away their sins. He was the focus of their lives, and they lived and acted in a way that made others sit up and take notice. They loved the Lord, they talked the talk, they walked the walk, and they turned their world upside down.

But along the way, they had to stop and take time to deal with false teachers in the church, they had to stop and deal with false doctrine, and in the process, they took their eyes off the Lord, and focused on contending for the faith, fighting for the truth, dealing with troublemakers.

It would be like one of us having a wonderful relationship with our spouse, and suddenly, someone tries to poison our spouse. If something like that happened, we would all get really focused on dealing with whoever it was trying to hurt our spouse, no question about it. But what if, in the process, we forgot to spend time with our spouse, be around them, enjoy them, love them, appreciate them; in the process of defending them, we let the relationship go by the wayside: then we have messed up. We should have done both. That is what Jesus is saying here.

Lately there have been several people that have asked me questions about baptism. What is the proper way to be baptized, do you have to come up out of the water speaking in tongues to be really saved, does it make a big difference if you are baptized in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, or should it be only in the name of Jesus Christ, or what?

We all know that this part of the country is called the Bible Belt, you can't go more than 2 or 3 miles in any direction without finding a church, and I'm glad. I have been in other parts of the country where you can't hardly find a church unless you've got at least a quarter tank of gas. Seriously. On the other hand, that also means that around here you won't have to go more than 2 or 3 miles to find somebody with some sort of Bible doctrine that you will disagree with. Especially when it comes to baptism.

Today I'm going to save you that trouble. You won't have to go 2 or 3 miles, because I'm going to talk about baptism right here, and whoever wants to can disagree with me all you like, but when you get done, I hope your focus is not on baptism, I hope your focus is on Jesus. Because baptism won't save you, but Jesus will.

Turn over to 1st Corinthians chapter 1 & verse 10. A problem had come up in the Corinthian church about baptism, how to be baptized, and what it meant. Maybe this will help us get it sorted out.

Paul tells them: "Now I beseech you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you; but that ye be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment.
:11 For it hath been declared unto me of you, my brethren, by them which are of the house of Chloe, that there are contentions among you.
:12 Now this I say, that every one of you saith, I am of Paul; and I of Apollos; and I of Cephas; and I of Christ. - you can see the beginning of different church denominations here, can't you?- so Paul asks the question:
Verse 13: Is Christ divided? was Paul crucified for you? or were ye baptized in the name of Paul?
:14 I thank God that I baptized none of you, but Crispus and Gaius;
:15 Lest any should say that I had baptized in mine own name.
:16 And I baptized also the household of Stephanas: besides, I know not whether I baptized any other." Apparently he doesn't remember, and he doesn't care. Why? Verse 17:
"For Christ sent me not to baptize, but to preach the gospel: not with wisdom of words, lest the cross of Christ should be made of none effect.
:18 For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God."

Look where Paul puts the emphasis here: not on baptism, or whose name a person was baptized in, or who baptized them or how, or any other details, the emphasis is on the gospel and preaching it. It is the cross of Christ that is important, it is the cross of Christ that saves, not who or how or what kind of baptism you have. If the method of baptism made that much difference, if the details of it were vital to our salvation, I think this would have been a great opportunity for the apostle to tell us, but instead, he downplays the details of baptism and elevates the cross of Christ.

He treats emphasizing the details of baptism as unimportant, and says that he doesn't even remember who he baptized, and he's glad that he didn't baptize all that many people, because that is not his priority. If it was any kind of priority, this would have been the time and place to tell us, but he fluffs it off. You suppose that means anything?

Over in Acts 2:38, we read "Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost." As a result of that verse, some churches teach that when a person is baptized, unless they are baptized strictly in the name of Jesus Christ only, then the Holy Spirit does not indwell them, and they are not saved.

Really? Then I guess that instead of the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ on our behalf being what saves us, it is getting the details right on what we do. Or what the preacher says when he dunks us.
Let me phrase that another way. It is no longer His work on the cross that saves us, it is our work in the lake that saves us. Or the works of the person who does the baptizing. Because they said the right words.
We have taken the focus off of Jesus and what He did, and now we have put it on us and what we do. Or say. Or don't say. Horsefeathers!

Let me take this whole thing a step further. In all the various kinds of magic, conjuring spells and wizardry, whether or not the spell works depends on whether or not you use the right magic words and cast the spell correctly. Is Christianity no better than magic, so that our salvation is not effective if we fail to use the right magic words as we perform the ritual? If you had the bad luck to get baptized by a preacher with a speech impediment, you might drown before you got saved, is that it?

In other words, a person could trust Jesus Christ as their Savior, they receive Christ as their atonement for sin, seek to be obedient to the Lord by getting baptized, but because someone didn't say the right magic words when they got dunked, then they go to hell anyway? That will make the preacher cuss. The word gospel means good news. That kind of a salvation is not good news, that is jumping through hoops. That is hogwash.

On the other hand, over in Matthew 28:19, Jesus Himself tells us: " Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost." That's interesting.

What is God the father's name? Yahweh. Jehovah. And what is the name of Christ the Messiah? Jesus. Y'shua. The Father's name is not Jesus. The Son's name is not Yehweh. Do not confuse or confound the names of God. Or the persons of the godhead.

That person sitting over there is my son. He is a Pike. I am a Pike. He is Dale, I am Richard. He is not Richard, I am not Dale. There is no reason to get us confused. So why would we want to get the persons of the godhead confused? The Father is not the Son, the Son is not the Father.

Isaiah 9:6 tells us: "For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace." Our God is Father, Son & Holy Spirit, a Trinity. Our God is not three Gods, our God is one, and Jesus Christ is of the same substance and godhead as the Father, but He is His own personality, and He has His own name.

Philippians 2:9 tells us: "Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name:
:10 That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth." God the Father has His own name, Yahweh or Jehovah. God the Son has his own name, Y'shua or Jesus, and to the best of my knowledge, the scripture never uses a personal name for the Holy Spirit.

There is a large collection of writings from the early church about how the Christians back in the first and second century did things, and most of them baptized in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, but some of them baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Some dunked, some sprinkled, some poured. Each felt their way was better, some times they fell out over it, and in the process they distracted themselves away from winning people to Jesus. They lost their first love.

How about the question as to whether or not a person needs to come up out of the water speaking in tongues when they are baptized in order to be saved? Question: if that was the case, how come none of the scriptures tell us that plainly? The gospel is very plain, if speaking in tongues at our baptism is what gets us saved, why is it not very plainly spelled out in the Bible?

What does the Bible say about tongues? What were they originally for? Paul dealt with that in the passage in 1st Corinthians that we were in earlier. 1st Corinthians 1:19 tells us about that: "For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and will bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent."

It is written: Paul is referencing the Old Testament. Skip to 22:
:22 For the Jews require a sign, and the Greeks seek after wisdom:
:23 But we preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews a stumblingblock, and unto the Greeks foolishness;
:24 But unto them which are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God, and the wisdom of God."
Notice that phrase in verse 22; the Jews require a sign. Remember all the times in the gospels when the Jews asked Jesus to give them a sign? Hold that thought and turn to 1st Corinthians 14 and verse 21. Chapter 14 is all about speaking in tongues, and look what Paul tells them here:
:21 "In the law - in the Old Testament- it is written, With men of other tongues and other lips will I speak unto this people; -the Jews- and yet for all that will they not hear me, saith the LORD.
:22 Wherefore tongues are for a sign, not to them that believe, -Christians- but to them that believe not: - particularly unbelieving Jews-but prophesying serveth not for them that believe not, but for them which believe."

Remember how on the day of Pentecost, when the Apostles were speaking in other tongues all the languages of the surrounding nations, Peter told all the Jews that what they were seeing was what the Prophet Joel had prophesied in the Old Testament? The primary purpose for people speaking in tongues was to be for a sign to Israel, the Jews- that the prophecy in the Old Testament book of Joel had come to pass, that the Holy Spirit has now been poured out on God's people, and things were changing. The Old Testament way of doing things was being replaced with a new thing, the church.

So if someone tells you that when you get baptized you need to come up out of the water speaking in tongues, first look around and see who is there: If you come up out of the water speaking Hebrew; and if you are surrounded by Jews who have not yet believed on Jesus as their Messiah: cool. Praise God. You are on scriptural ground, go for it. Otherwise, don't worry about it. Are you with me here? OK.

The Bible tells all believers to be baptized. Baptism is for believers. If you claim to be a follower of Jesus Christ, if you profess to be saved, then you ought to want to do what He tells you, and He tells you to be baptized. Why? What is the point of it? Does baptism save you?

Baptism is very symbolic of dying with Christ, being buried with Christ, and being raised to newness of life with Christ. Going under the water is symbolic of dying. Being submerged under the water is symbolic of Jesus lying in the tomb. Coming up out of the water is symbolic of how Jesus rose from the dead in power, and we are to walk, live, act in resurrection power if we are saved.

Over in 1st Peter, Peter tells us how there was a time when God covered the whole earth with water, and only eight people came out of it in the ark. And then he says in verse 21: "The like figure -illustration, symbol- whereunto even baptism doth also now save us (not the putting away of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God,) by the resurrection of Jesus Christ:" How is your conscience toward Jesus?

Christ has died for your sins, He has been buried, and risen from the dead. You identify with that. You identify that He did that for you. You identify with Him in what He did for you. You believe that for your salvation, and then you obediently become a follower of Him. He wants you to identify yourself with Him, and with how He saved you; so you get baptized.

Will you be obedient? Will you do as your told? Will you have a good conscience toward Him? Or is it all just lip service and a bad conscience? Jesus asks the question: "Why do you call me Lord, Lord, and you don't do what I say?" I can answer that one: because you probably aren't saved.

Does baptism save you? No, The death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ saves you. Baptism is a symbol of who you belong to and why. And if you refuse to participate in it, if you won't obey Jesus, then there is no reason to think that you belong to Jesus.

What is our main priority today? How to be baptized? How not to be baptized? What is true and what's false? All those things are important, but no matter what else we need to do, our first priority is to love Jesus.

Do you remember how when you first got saved, you thought about Jesus all the time? You wanted to know more about Him, what He was like, what He did, when is He coming back, all those things. That was the time of your first love for Him; how are things now? Are you so busy doing things for Jesus or because of Jesus that you have forgotten what it was like to just love and appreciate and enjoy Jesus?
What does it meant to still have Jesus for our first love?

When we started out today, we read some verses from Revelation 2, and verse 7 said: "To the one who overcomes, I will give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God." What Adam and Eve lost, Jesus will give to you. Adam and Eve had it all; innocence, intimacy with God, a perfect relationship with God and everything around them, God's presence as a Father, a friend, a companion, everything you could ask for. Adam and Eve lost it, but it's not gone, it's still waiting - a gift for the one who loves Jesus more than anything else.

That is the prize to be won, it goes to the person who makes Jesus their first love. Will any of us win it? Will you win it? Will I? Jesus wants you to. He wants me to. Will we? Let's pray.