May 9, 2021

Baptism is the most beautiful, significant. And meaningful thing that the church on Earth can do. There is nothing that surpasses baptism in its symbolic meaning and in its preciousness to the life of a believer than this ordinance that we call baptism. So, we are privileged this morning to do, to take part in what is the most beautiful.

That is part of the life of the church here on Earth, and that is baptism. We're fortunate to, to pause and be part of that, but also to open God's word and to see the beautiful meaning that is given to us in this ordinance of baptism. Martin Luther, the great reformer, was known to say that the, that no believer has any greater comfort.

Then baptism. It is the greatest comfort that we as believers have. It was known, it was well known about Martin Luther, that when he faced those particularly difficult times of temptation, those times of duress and stress and attacks from the enemy, attacks from Satan himself, it was well known that Martin Luther would strengthen himself by repeating to himself over and over.

I am baptized. I am baptized. I am baptized. He understood the significance behind it, and so, therefore it was a tremendous encouragement to him to remind himself that he is baptized. So, with that being said, let's take a look at our Bibles. Romans chapter six. It's where we are. Actually, I'm in Philippians three.

That's not where we are. So, Romans chapter six, we're going to be looking at verses about three through seven or so. So, Romans chapter six. Let's just begin by reading from verse one down through verse 14, to get a nice context. Beginning from verse one, what shall we say then? Are we too, are we too continuing sin that Grace May abound?

By no means how can we who die to sin still live in it? Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death. We were buried, therefore, with him in, in by baptism into death in order that just as Christ was raised from the dead, by the glory of the. We too might walk in newness of life for if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.

We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so, that we would no longer be enslaved to sin for one who has died has been set free from. Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. We know that Christ being raised from the dead will never die again.

Death no longer has dominion over him for the death he died. He died to sin once for all. But the life he lives, he lives to God. So, you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus. Let not sin, therefore, reign in your mortal bodies to make you obey their passions. Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life for your members to God as instruments.

For righteousness, for sin. We have no dominion. Oh for sin, will have no dominion over. Since you are not under law, but under grace, pray with me now. Heavenly Father, we thank you that we are not under law, but under grace, we thank you Lord, that Jesus has died once for all. We thank you Lord, that in Christ Jesus' death is behind us.

We pray, Lord, that you would open the eyes of our hearts and just cause us to see with great clarity. The beauty and the significance of this ordinance called baptism. And we pray, Lord, that we'd be moved in our spirits to, to love and to adore the one who created such a thing for us. In Jesus' name we pray.

Amen. So, as we begin to talk about baptism, we began by saying that it is an ordinance as the Lord's Supper is an ordinance. There's two ordinances that have been given to us that word ordinance. It just comes from the word order. It just means something that we're given to do something that we're commanded to do.

And so, as we think of this ordinance called baptism, what we're going to use to sort of guide us through this is not only Romans chapter six that I just read, particularly verse three through seven. But we're going to look at that, and I'm not going to preach through those verses as I normally would, but we'll sort of use that as a guide.

And then we're going to use this sentence that I have at the top of your handout, the top of your notes, and we're going to let this just sort of guide our thoughts biblically, to think well about this thing called baptism. It goes like this. The baptism of a believer in Jesus Christ is the obedient expression of repentance.

And. By which the Believer symbolically dies with Christ is buried with Christ and is resurrected to a new life in Christ. So, that sentence is packed with meaning intentionally. So, let's read it again and then we'll just sort of walk through it step by step. The baptism of a believer in Jesus Christ is the obedient expression of repentance.

And. By which the Believer symbolically dies with Christ is buried with Christ and is resurrected to a new life in Christ. So, just one by one. Let's just begin with the word expression, and let's think about expression. I like to think of it as a drama, just as, as the Lord. Supper is a.

So, also, is baptism a drama? It is the drama of salvation. The Lord Supper is the drama of our ongoing life with Christ, and we know what a drama is. It's when people sort of act out a story and they tell a story by showing it with their actions. They act it out. In the same way, the Lord's Supper is the drama of our continued life with Christ.

As we feed upon the bread and the juice, which symbolically represent his body and his blood, we are feeding upon the sacrificial death of Jesus Christ. The supper points us to the cross. And so, as we partake in that, we're partaking in a Christian drama, so, to speak. Every time that we have the supper together, about once a month here we are acting out how it is that the Christian lives the Christian life by feeding upon.

Jesus Christ, specifically the sacrificial death of Jesus Christ on the cross in our place. In a similar way, the baptismal service is a drama, but it's not a drama of our ongoing life with Christ. It is the drama of salvation. It is the drama of entering into new life with Christ If the supper represents the continued life with.

Then the baptism represents the introduction, the initiation into our new life with Christ. And so, that's what baptism is. It is a drama that is acting out what happens to us during salvation or at the point of salvation or conversion or regeneration or new birth. It is an acting out of that. Oftentimes, I think, I hear Christians that, that think that baptism is a symbolic washing away of sins, and it's not.

The scriptures don't teach us that baptism represents the washing away of sins. Instead, the scriptures teach us, emphatically what Paul just said here, that baptism represents a dying, a being buried in a being resurrected back to. So, here's how that works. The waters, the baptismal waters are symbolically a place of death.

We can't live under the water. If we were to go under the water, we would be dying. We'd be going into a place of death. So, symbolically, as we are lowered into the water, then we are being lowered into a place of. And we're being lowered into a tomb. So, Paul says here that just as Christ has died and been buried, we are baptized into his death and into his burial.

So, the baptismal waters are a symbolic pudding of the believer under the water into a place in which life cannot be sustained into a tomb, if you will. And then raising the believer back out of that place of death or that tomb back, as Paul says, to walk in a new life looking to our res resurrection.

And so, that's the drama. Of south of, of the, of the baptism. We often are familiar, I think with the words, with this ring id with everybody are, is kind of familiar with those words. Those maybe are getting a little bit antiquated. antiquated. Is that, did I sound that right? Antiquated. There you go. so, maybe they're a little bit out of date, but we still are familiar with those words.

With this ring Id, with what that represents is a point in a covenant ceremony during which. It is made known that a covenant has been made. So, someone who says, with this ring id, wed it. It's not like that moment they became covenant married, but it is an expression of the ceremony that is taking place.

So, think of baptism in this way in the covenant ceremony of marriage. We might say with this ring, I the, we think of baptism as God saying with this baptism iv. Except, and that is a helpful way to look at baptism. It is. It is a covenant ceremony. And which God says to us with this baptism IV, accept. It's not as though that the baptism except itself was what saved.

It is a covenant ceremony that is acting out or showing or displaying, just like the ring that goes on the finger. It's showing something that has taken place. It's an acting out of that salvation. Now the supper, again, is a acting out of our ongoing life with Christ. And the supper specifically takes place within the context of the church.

We said when we talked about the supper, that it's not appropriate for the supper to be, engaged in on at least not a regular basis in any sort of setting. That's not the entire church. It's the Supper's. Not really meant to be a small group thing or a group of friends. There are certain times where that's appropriate.

Maybe a sick or shut in person, but the supper is intended for the whole church to come together as one and participate as one. Now, let's compare that to baptism, which is not necessarily, at least not primarily a corporate church activity. We're going to talk a little bit about the fact that all of us, everyone who is part of the Disciples Fellowship, will have a part in the baptism service.

But we'll get to that a little bit later, and that's not the primary. That's not the primary thing that's going on. Primarily what's going on is there is one individual, one individual in the baptism waters and, and the ceremony, the acting out. The drama is all about what has happened to that individual.

That individual has had God invade their heart and raised them from spiritual death to spiritual. And has given them spiritual life in Christ Jesus. And so, the baptism is an individual acting out of what God has done to that person, the one doing the baptizing, in this case, me, the Baptizer. I am playing the role of God.

Not that I am God, of course, but I am playing out the role of. The one in the baptismal waters is playing out the role of themself, and we're acting out what God has done to their heart. So, in the same way that the person being baptized does nothing, I often tell people that, that I'm about to baptize. We sort of have that, you know, that little conversation ahead of time.

Here's what you do. Basically what I say is you do. You know, because sometimes you, think that maybe you got to sort of help the person get you up out of the water or, or sort of help the baptizing person out. And so, we that do the baptizing, we're careful to say, no, don't do anything to help me.

I'll do everything myself Right. In a meaningful way. That is what is happening. That is a display, that's a drama, an acting out of what has happened to that person. That person was dead in their sins. They were a spiritual corpse. And God acted upon their heart and just as I will take the, the, Samuel to be baptized and I will put him under the water and I will bring him out of the water.

So, also did God act upon our hearts to put us into Christ. Therefore baptized into his. And into his resurrection to new life. It's a drama. It's an acting out of that salve, salvific moment. So, that's the first thing that we see. It's an expression, but it's an expression of something very specific. It's an expression of both faith and repentance.

The New Testament emphatically. And with great regularity connects together believers baptism with both faith and repentance. Here's just a few instances. Matthew three 11, I baptize you with water. Four. Repentance. Acts two, verse 38. Peter said to them, repent and be baptized or Acts eight, verse 12. When they believed Philip, they were baptized both men.

Or Colossians two, verse 11, 12. Look closely at this one. In Him, in meaning in Jesus. Also, you were circumcised with the circumcision, not ma made without hands. We just talked about that, didn't we? A couple weeks ago, you were circumcised with the circumcision made without hands by putting off the body of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ, having been buried with him in baptism, in which you also were raised with.

Through faith. Those are the two key words that Paul says there. Through faith in the powerful working of God, there's nothing magical about the water. There's nothing magical about the person doing the baptism. There's nothing magical about the ceremony. It is faith. It is an expression of faith. It is an acting out of the.

That has been the vehicle through which God has brought to you this salvation that you're acting out in the baptism of waters or Galatians three, verse 26 and 27, in Christ Jesus, you are all sons of God through faith. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ, have put on Christ. So, what Paul says there to the to the Galatians is essentially this in Paul's mind, someone who has been baptized.

Is also someone who has faith. And someone who has faith is also someone who has been baptized. They're one in the same two ways to describe the same person through faith, as many of you as we're baptized into Christ, have put on Christ. So, it is an expression of faith, and one thing is for certain, you cannot express something that you don't have.

So, it is an expression of faith that is only meant for those who have. And it is only meant for those who have been given the gift of repentance because it, it is an expression of repentance and faith,

and it also symbolizes our death and our burial. Look at, one Corinthians chapter five 15 in verse 55. Paul, of course, in this familiar passage, he says, death, where is your sting? death? Where is your victory? Death? Where is your sting? Okay, so, when we talk about the supper, the supper again is the acting out of our continued life in Christ in which we symbolically feed upon his sacrificial body and.

That points us to one thing that points us to the cross. However, baptism doesn't point us just to the cross. The back baptism points us to the cross. It points us to the tomb and it points us to the empty tomb because baptism is not just an acting out of our feeding upon the sacrificial death of Jesus on the cross.

It's an acting out. Not only of that sacrificial death and are joining together with Christ in that death, but it's also an acting out of his burial and an acting out of his resurrection. So, you see just how much fuller and how much richer baptism is, what a blessing the supper is for us to engage in on a regular basis.

But what an incredible blessing. What a colossal blessing it. For the Church of Jesus Christ to gather around the baptism waters and watch and partake as the entire sacrifices acted out, the death, the burial, the resurrection, and not just of Jesus, but the one being baptized as, as he or she is joined together with Jesus in that death, that burial and that resurrection.

So, John three 16 or first John three 16, we know. By this we know love that he laid down his life for us. He lays down his life and he himself is laid into the tomb. He himself is raised from the tomb so, that our baptism symbolically acts out our uniting together with Jesus in his death. Now, here's why that's important, because everyone who enters into the baptismal waters, when they come out of those waters, that person, if they are expressing faith and repent, That person can rightly say, death is now behind me.

That is so, significant. When we come out of the baptismal waters, we say, death is now behind us. Why is it behind us? Because I've been united with Christ. That's what I've just acted out. I've been united with Christ in his death. And as Paul said to the Romans, he dies once to. After that, he lives to God.

We are baptized together with him in his death and raised together with him to newness of life. Hebrews nine, verse 27 says this, it's appointed on demand, wants to die. Now we are fallen people and the fact that we are all sinful people means that death for us is not just one thing. It's. We undergo something called physical death, and we also undergo something called spiritual death.

And the two of those things aren't the same thing. Physical death is when the soul is separated from the body. Spiritual death is when the soul is separated from God. So, the sinful person is doomed to undergo both physical death and spiritual. However, Jesus died our spiritual death for us, so, that when we come out of those waters, we are saying that death is not in my future.

That death is in my past because Jesus did it for me. Now we will still undergo physical death, and physical death is unpleasant. It's uncomfortable, it's unnatural. And it's oftentimes painful, but physical death is a shell of what physical death and spiritual death together are. When the believer experiences physical death, they experience the most horrible thing imaginable.

They experience not only the separation of the soul from the body, but they experienced the, the eternal separation of the soul from God. However, Jesus experienced that for us so, that when we come out of those baptismal waters, we are rightly saying that death is not me. That's not mine. That's not in my future.

Jesus did that for me. I still will face physical death and no one really wants to face that. But physical death is a shadow of what? Death as a whole really. That's why Paul will say to the Corinthians. First Corinthians 15:55: death, your victory is gone. Your sting is gone. Yes, we will still dread it. We will still be very uncomfortable with it.

It is very, very unnatural for anyone to have their soul and their body separated. However, what we will face is a mere empty shell of what the believer faces in physical. For the unbeliever. Physical death is the most horrible thing that can happen for the believer in Jesus Christ. What the baptismal waters are saying is that for the believer in Jesus Christ, physical death is a gateway into true life.

We begin living after physical death. That is when true life really begins. So, we are united to him with him in his death. Death is now behind us. And also, we are symbolically uniting together with him in his resurrection. Look at John 11, verse 25 and 26. Jesus says to, Mary, I am the resurrection in the life.

Whoever believes in me, though he die. Meaning physical death, yet shall he live, meaning spiritual life. And everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. That's Jesus's way of saying yes. Death will touch you in this shallow shell sort of, shadowy way. But death will not touch you in the horrific spiritual death kind of way.

Why? Because we are now united with Christ, both in his death and his resurrection. And that's what this, the, baptism is symbolizing. Look at one Peter chapter three, verse 18. For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he may bring us to God being put to death in the flesh, but made.

In the in the spirit, baptism is the most beautiful thing that happens in the life of a believer outside of the moment when that believer steps into the presence of their Lord and begins where the scriptures speak of as glorification outside of that moment, the moment when the believer steps from this short life into the next one.

Outside of that, The moment that the believer comes out of the water is the, is the most beautiful moment of their life. Because, because what that is showing is that is showing that this person is united to Jesus in his resurrection. His resurrection is now theirs. Now, when Paul speaks about resurrection, he's speaking about two different things.

Let's sort of take a look at this. So, let's look at, the next point. That we are also symbolizing not only death with Christ, resurrection with Christ, but also new life. We are symbolically die with Christ. We symbolic are symbolically, are buried with Christ, and then we are resurrected to a new life.

We come up out of the water and Paul says to the Romans specifically, that you are raised to walk in newness of life. He says this in verse, let’s look at verse three, four. We have all been united with him in a death like. We shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so, that we would no longer be enslaved to sin.

For one who has died has been set free from sin. Now, if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. We know that Christ being raised from the dead will never die again. Death no longer has dominion over him for the death he died. He died to sin once for all. But the life he lives, he lives to God.

So, you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God. So, the believer is united together with Jesus, both in his death and his burial and his resurrection, and that resurrection is a resurrection to new life. Galatians two 20. Paul says, I've been crucified with Christ. It's no longer I who I'm doing the living, but Christ lives in me and the life.

Paul lives now in the flesh. He lives through faith in the son of God who loved him in, died for him. Or take a look at, Colossians two verse 12. Again, having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the powerful working of God or. How can we forget John three 16?

For God so, loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life. Second Corinthians five 17. If anyone is a, is in Christ. He is a new creation. The old is gone. The new has come. John five verse 24, 1 Peter two, verse 24. He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree that we might die to sin and live to righteousness.

So, when we are raised with Christ symbolically in that way, Paul has two things in mind here. Let's take a look at what he has first. He has a present resurrection in. We were buried together with him in baptism into death in order that just as Christ was raised from the dead, by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.

So, Paul is speaking there about a present resurrection. He's speaking about a walking in newness of life now, and that's what he's talking to the Galatians about in Galatians two 20. Again, I've been crucified with. It's no longer I who lived, but Christ is living in me. He's speaking there of a newness of life, of being raised to walk in a new life.

When we go into the baptismal waters, the old self stays there. It's dead. It stays under the water. It's gone. And when we come out of the baptismal waters, it's like we're saying I'm a new me. I'm a new creature in Christ. The old is gone. The new has come. So, there's a newness of life there is. A, a new deadness to sin.

Not that sin no longer tempts us. Not that sin no longer causes us to stumble, but there is a certain deadness to sin that begins to grow in us. There is a certain resilience, there's a certain passion for God that continues to grow in us. That's the newness of life that Paul talks about. But Paul's also talking about not only that, but he's also talking about a future re resurrection for if we have been united with him in a death like his, is, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.

He's speaking there of a future resurrection, the resurrection of the body. When we look to that time in which those of us who. Died physical death. Our bodies have been put into the ground. Jesus returns, and all of our physical bodies are then resurrected back to life, reunited together with our soul, and then we live an eternal existence in a sinless body.

With a sinless soul in the presence of Jesus Christ for eternity. That's the resurrection that Paul looks to. So, the coming up out of the water is symbolically both of those. It's coming up out of the deadness of our old self, leaving our old self in the water, but it's also representing that coming up out of the ground or that coming up out of the grave that will happen one.

And Paul is looking to both of those. We are raised to walk in newness of life now, but we are also raised to look towards that which is coming, that resurrection, that physical resurrection that is coming. So, the newness of life now, the resurrection that's coming, we get that, but the newness of life. Now here's one more point to make about that.

Miss this. I said earlier that all who gather around the baptismal waters, if you are in, in Christ Jesus, whenever a church gathers around the baptismal waters to watch another act out what God has done to their heart, all of us have a part to play. And the part is this, the newness of life is a corporate.

That's a church thing. The entire New Testament teaches us that we follow Christ in the context of his church in the context of his body. There's no such thing as an obedient Christian who is living their life outside. The context of the body of Christ doesn't exist unless you're a Christian on Mars.

But if we are living our life in obedience to Christ, we are doing it in the context of his church. So, whoever enters into the baptismal waters is covenanting with God to live in that newness of life. But whoever watches the one going into the baptismal waters is also covenanting with that person and with God.

To be part of their newness of life, to disciple them, to pray for them. As Samuel enters the baptismal waters, we will all covenant with him to pray for him regularly. To encourage him, to mentor him, to reprove and rebuke, to train, to teach, to raise him up. That is part of, as we've talked about before, discipling each other.

Our role in life is to make disciples of ourselves and one another, and as one enters into the baptismal waters, it is covenanting with God and covenanting with his church. That we will endeavor to disciple this person just as they endeavor to disciple themself in this newness of life. So, that's what we see here.

We are symbolically dying with Christ, symbolically being buried with Christ, symbolically being raised to walk in newness of life now and looking to the full newness of life that is to come. Now, let's go back to the beginning of the sentence and let's catch one, a couple things that we left earlier. first, let's take a look.

This word obedient. The baptism of the believer in Jesus Christ is the obedient expression of repentance and faith. So, number six, the unbaptized believer is living in disobedience.

This is a command of Jesus. Of course, we're, I'm speaking of Matthew 28, 19 and 20 a place in scripture We know well as the Great Commission: Go, therefore into all the world baptizing all nations. Teaching them to observe everything that I've commanded, or I'm sorry, go, therefore, into all nations making disciples of all people baptizing the name of the Father, son, and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I've commanded you and behold on with you always to the end of the age.

Okay? So, this is our mandate. This is our directive in life to make disciples. That's why we're here to make disciples. That's why we named ourself the Disciples Fellowship, because that's our, that's what we. We are here to be made disciples of, and we're here to make disciples of one another because that's the mandate that's given to us.

But within this mandate, Jesus gives two descriptive, participles, make disciples, and two descriptive ways. He says to do that is teaching them to observe all things and baptizing in the name of the father's son, holy. So, those two descriptors are what described for us, what Jesus has in mind, as he says to us, make disciples of all people.

So, this command of Jesus to be baptized in the name of the Father of the Son and Holy Spirit is one of the clearest commands of scripture. It, it is not clouded in any sort of difficulty to interpret or difficulty to understand. It's pretty straightforward, Jesus. If, if you are a believer, if God has acted upon your heart, if you've received new life in His name, then you are to be baptized in the name of the Father Son, holy Spirit.

So, those who are receivers of repentance in faith and new life in Christ who have not entered the baptismal waters, are living in open disobedience to his. And that is, a dangerous place to be. it is a serious thing for a believer to not enter the baptismal waters because it is commanded for us.

And not only is it commanded in such a clear way, it's one of the easiest commands to obey is it not, doesn't particularly require great amount of willpower. We don't have to defeat some sort of besetting sin. It might be something that's not real comfortable. It might be a little. embarrassing, maybe particularly if we are a follower of Jesus Christ, a disciple of Jesus Christ, who has never entered the baptismal waters.

And now, now people have known us for 20, 30, 40 years and we've always been a follower of Jesus Christ, but we've never done that. And so, it might be a little bit embarrassing, but it's one of the easiest things to obey that Jesus gives to us. So, it is a command, we called it an ordinance before ordinance.

You can hear it in the word order. We're ordered. It's a command. It's something that we are to do. The believer in Jesus Christ who has not entered the baptismal waters as an expression of faith and repentance is a believer that is not living in obedience to Jesus. But then lastly, let's take a look at the last thing.

Who is baptism for the baptism of a believer in Jesus? Look at Acts chapter eight, verse 36. As they were going along the road, they came to some water and the eunuch said, see, here's water. What prevents me from being baptized? The eunuch was the receiver, the recipient of new life in Christ. And right there he says, well, what's going to prevent me from entering the baptismal waters?

So, who is it that is to be baptized, the believer in Jesus Christ, the one expressing faith and repent. If you don't have faith and repentance to express, then the baptismal waters aren't for you. But who is it that is to be baptized? The scriptures, the New Testament has no indication whatsoever. Not one single example of an infant ever entering the baptism waters.

It's only those who are capable of expressing faith and expressing repentance that enter the baptism waters. So, baptism isn't for infants, but let me say it this way. Let me say it in a really confusing, sort of provocative way, and then I'll explain what I. At Disciples Fellowship, we don't baptize infants At Disciples Fellowship, we enthusiastically baptize infants.

What in the world is that all about?

Baptism is not for the physical infant, and oftentimes as people grow up in the context of a church and the context of the gospel. They never really sort of have that time in life in which they're actively disbelieving. They just sort of grow into faith. And we often struggle with, you know, how young is too young?

At what age do we really need to be to baptize a, a, a, a young person? And the scriptures give us no real help there other than to say it is an expression of faith and repentance. And so, what must happen is there must be a credible, believable expression of faith. Now here's what often happens. Is those expressions of faith.

Two year olds, three year olds, four year olds can often just express a belief in Jesus and a trust in Jesus. It's a natural thing when they grow up within the context of the gospel being taught and lived out in home, and so,, It requires some discernment there, of course, but again, we don't want to baptize physical infants, but as we said earlier, we do baptize spiritual infants.

In fact, that is what baptism is for. Baptism is intended for spiritual infants. Now, here's where I'm going with that. Whenever I preach on baptism, inevitably, here's what always happens. Someone comes and they say, you know, I've, I've never understood what baptism was about. I was baptized at a young age and I didn't understand all that stuff.

I think I need to be baptized now that I understand all that. And the answer that the scriptures, I think will give us is, no, you don't. Baptism has no prerequisite of a minimum amount of understanding. Of what the baptism symbolizes. Again, typically those being baptized are spiritual infants who are going to be characteristically without a lot of understanding about theological things, and so, it is normal for a believer to express faith and repentance and enter the baptism of waters without having a great deal of understanding about what they're doing.

That's normative. But what often happens is, and I went through this myself, I think I've shared with, with some, just a time in which, I too sort of felt like, you know, I was baptized at a young age. I was eight. I mean, I barely, barely remember. Even happening, and I certainly didn't understand what all that was about.

And so, there was a time where I was struggling, you know, should I do this again? I even planned to do it again. And there was a baptismal service and um, it was on an Easter Sunday. And, just by the grace of God, there was just a colossal snowstorm and I physically couldn't get to the church the next morning.

And just never really followed through with it after that. Praise God. Because here's why. The only time a believer, we were talking about this earlier, the only time a believer should ever consider entering the baptism of waters a second time is if they know for a fact that they went in the first time and it was false.

That they weren't believing that they were just doing it because their friend did it. They were just doing it because the other youth people in the youth group did it. They were just doing it just because if you know, that you entered the baptismal waters as an believer, then you should submit to, to obedience and baptism.

If, however, you just think, boy, I, I mean, I was just so, young. I don't really even think I understood really much about what salvation was about. Certainly not what baptism was about. Certainly not what the Christian life was about. Maybe I just need to do this again now that I have a fuller understanding.

I think God's answer to us would be, that's how it's supposed. And so, if, if we have reached a fuller understanding in our life with Christ about what baptism signifies, then our part is to take joy in that as we see other spiritual infants enter into the baptism waters. Now again, sometimes it's the case where, where a person has been a follower of Jesus Christ for much of their life and found that, well, maybe they were baptized as a.

Maybe that first time when they, they were an infant or whatever, and so, now they need to obey in that way. But typically that's what baptism is for, is for the spiritual infant who is just introduced into the, into the new life with Christ, to act out what God has done for them. And then for the rest of us in God's body, we look upon that.

And we marvel with great joy because that is what God did for us. That is what God did to us maybe so, long ago that I barely remember it. Maybe I barely even remember what I was like before that. Maybe I barely even remember the day that I got dumped. But we look upon that and we say that right there.

That's what God did for me.