SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 8/6/2017
6:50 AM
My Worship Time Focus:
PT-5 “The Appeal”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference:
Acts 2:37-40
Message of the
verses: “37 Now when they heard this, they were pierced to the heart, and
said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, "Brethren, what shall we
do?" 38 Peter said to them, "Repent, and each of you be baptized in
the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins; and you will receive
the gift of the Holy Spirit. 39
"For the promise is for you and your children and for all who are
far off, as many as the Lord our God will call to Himself." 40 And with
many other words he solemnly testified and kept on exhorting them, saying,
"Be saved from this perverse generation!"”
In our last SD we were looking at reasons why baptismal
regeneration is a false doctrine, and we looked at three reasons. Today we want
to begin our SD by looking at the fourth and that is that “this interpretation
is not true to the facts of Scripture.”
One of the things that false teachers try to do is to isolate a verse in
Scripture that seems to go for the cause they want to promote and then not look
at certain other Scriptures that teach the truth on the subject. I am not saying that Scripture contradicts Scripture
at all, for that would be a false statement as Scripture never goes against
itself. People who take verse 38 as a
verse that describes baptismal regeneration have not dug into the true meaning
of the verse or they would understand that it is not teaching this false
doctrine. Now as we look at different
verses from the book of Acts we find that forgiveness is linked to repentance
and not linked to baptism. “"Therefore
repent and return, so that your sins may be wiped away, in order that times of
refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord (Acts 3:19).” “"He is the one whom God exalted to His
right hand as a Prince and a Savior, to grant repentance to Israel, and
forgiveness of sins (Acts 5:31).” “but
kept declaring both to those of Damascus first, and also at Jerusalem and then
throughout all the region of Judea, and even to the Gentiles, that they should
repent and turn to God, performing deeds appropriate to repentance (Acts
26:20).” John MacArthur writes that “the
Bible records that some who were baptized were not saved.” “Even Simon himself believed; and after being
baptized, he continued on with Philip, and as he observed signs and great
miracles taking place, he was constantly amazed (Acts 8:13). “21 “You have no part or portion in this
matter, for your heart is not right before God. 22 “Therefore repent of this
wickedness of yours, and pray the Lord that, if possible, the intention of your
heart may be forgiven you. 23 “For I see that you are in the gall of bitterness
and in the bondage of iniquity’ (Acts 8:21-23).”
The Bible also records that some were saved without the
mention of baptism (Luke 7:37-50; Matthew 9:2; Luke 18:13-14). Later we will study the conversion of
Cornelius and his friends in Acts chapter ten and this will show us the
relationship of baptism to salvation.
Baptism happened only after they were saved, as shown by their receiving
the Holy Spirit, that they were baptized (Acts 10:44-48). Peter did not allow them to be baptized until
he recognized that they had received the Holy Spirit. Now remember that this was the first Gentile
convert to Christianity, and this was early in the church age and so that is
why when someone was saved that they received the Holy Spirit the way it
happened in Acts chapter two. God was
doing this to confirm they were true believers.
John MacArthur writes “In 1 Corinthians 15:1-4, the apostle
Paul summarizes the gospel he preached and by which the Corinthians had been
saved. There is no mention of
baptism. Further, in 1 Corinthians
except Crispus, Gaius, and the household of Stephanas. That statement is inexplicable if baptism is
necessary for salvation. Paul would then
in effect be saying he was thankful that only those few were saved under his
ministry. The apostle clearly
distinguishes baptism from the gospel in 1 Corinthians 1:17, where he says that
‘Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel.’ How could Paul have made such a statement if
baptism was necessary for salvation?
“While the preposition eis (‘for’) can mean ‘for the purpose of,’ it can also mean ‘because
of,’ or ‘on the occasion of’ (A. T. Robertson, Word Pictures in the New Testament)
“The order is clear.
Repentance is for forgiveness.
Baptism follows that forgiveness; it does not cause it (cf. 8:12, 34-39;
10:34-48; 16:31-33). It is the public sign
or symbol of what has taken place on the inside. It is an important step of obedience for all
believers, and should closely follow conversion. In fact, in the early church it was
inseparable from salvation, so that Paul referred to salvation as being related
to ‘one Lord, faith, one baptism’ (Eph 4:5).”
I hope that this rather long section that has included
our last two Spiritual Diaries has cleared up anything that was unclear about
what baptism is and when it is to happen in the life of a believer. In many churches today after a person is
saved the will then meet with the deacons of the church to go over exactly what
has happened to them, making sure as best they can that there was genuine
salvation that has taken place and then move onto the step of baptism.
We will continue in our next SD with part six of “The
Appeal.”
Answer to yesterday’s Bible
question: “That God would deliver the
children of Israel out of Egypt” (Exodus 3, 18-10).
Today’s Bible
question: “What word did Paul use to
describe idols?”
Answer in our next SD.
8/6/2017 7:28 AM
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