Who Should Be Baptized

Mat 3:7 But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees come to his baptism, he said unto them, O generation of vipers, who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come?

Mat 3:8 Bring forth therefore fruits meet for repentance:

John the Baptist required from people fruits meet for repentance BEFORE he would baptize them.

Salvation comes first and then baptism.

Joh 4:1 When therefore the Lord knew how the Pharisees had heard that Jesus made and baptized more disciples than John,

Joh 4:2 (Though Jesus himself baptized not, but his disciples,)

Notice the words made and baptized. This denotes two separate events. First the disciples were made and then they were baptized.

First they were saved and then they got baptized.

This order is again shown in Acts 2:41 Then they that gladly received his word were baptized: and the same day there were added [unto them] about three thousand souls.

First they gladly received his word. They got saved. Then they were baptized. Can a baby gladly receive the Word of God? No he cannot even understand what you are saying let alone comprehend what it means to be a sinner in need of a savior.

Salvation comes first and then baptism.

The order is again the same in Acts 8:12. But when they believed Philip preaching the things concerning the kingdom of God, and the name of Jesus Christ, they were baptized, both men and women.

First they believed Philip’s preaching about salvation, and then they were baptized.

Being saved is a condition that must be met before baptism.

Act 8:36 And as they went on [their] way, they came unto a certain water: and the eunuch said, See, [here is] water; what doth hinder me to be baptized?

Act 8:37 And Philip said, If thou believest with all thine heart, thou mayest. And he answered and said, I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.

In verse 36 he asks “what doth hinder me to be baptized?”

And I love Philip’s clear answer, “If thou believest with all thine heart, thou mayest.”

That is pretty clear. You may get baptized if you believe. The eunuch then answers, “I believe”. And only after that did Philip baptize him.

Act 10:47 Can any man forbid water, that these should not be baptized, which have received the Holy Ghost as well as we?

The people mentioned in Acts 10:47 have already received the Holy Ghost. This is important to understanding this text.  You receive the Holy Ghost at salvation

Eph 1:13 In whom ye also [trusted], after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise,

Rom 8:9 But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his.

So if these people have already received the Holy Spirit, then they are already saved. Acts 10:47 is teaching that baptism is not to be forbidden to saved people.

Act 16:14 And a certain woman named Lydia, a seller of purple, of the city of Thyatira, which worshipped God, heard [us]: whose heart the Lord opened, that she attended unto the things which were spoken of Paul.

Act 16:15 And when she was baptized, and her household, she besought [us], saying, If ye have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come into my house, and abide [there]. And she constrained us.

It is important to notice what the Lord had done with Lydia before she was baptized? He opened her heart. Then she attended to the things that Paul spoke. Paul was preaching salvation. So her heart was opened and then she attended to (or in other words she acted upon what Paul preached). Lydia got saved in verse 14 and then in verse 15 she was baptized.

Act 18:8 And Crispus, the chief ruler of the synagogue, believed on the Lord with all his house; and many of the Corinthians hearing believed, and were baptized.

Notice the order once again. He believed, everyone in his house believed, and then they were baptized.

And look at the order of the Corinthians. First they heard, then they believed, and only after that were they baptized.

The order of salvation and then baptism is again shown in

Act 16:30 And brought them out, and said, Sirs, what must I do to be saved?

Act 16:31 And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house.

The jailer asks in verse 30, “what must I do to be saved?”

In verse 31 they give him a straight answer, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved”

That is a pretty clear answer.

Joh 3:36 He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him.

If salvation was by works, or if salvation was by baptism, then they would have had to answer differently.

Some people make a big deal out of the end of verse 31.

Act 16:31 And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house.

All that means is that the offer to be saved by believing in Jesus is not only extended to you but the offer is extended to everyone in your house also. He was saying that you can be saved by faith, and your entire household can be saved the same way.

Rom 10:12 For there is no difference between the Jew and the Greek: for the same Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon him.

Rom 10:13 For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.

Now after looking at all of these verses who would you say is a proper candidate for baptism? Babies, just any sincere person, or believers?

You will never find anyone in the Bible being baptized before salvation. You will not find infant baptism in the Bible.

And the early church understood this. There is NO evidence of infant baptism to be found in the first couple of centuries of church history.

The first recorded instance of infant baptism was when the Roman Emperor Valens insisted his dying son be baptized in the year 370 A.D.

Then in 416 A.D. the Catholic Council of Mela made infant baptism law. It was from this point that the intense persecution of true believers began by the Catholic Church.

To have scriptural baptism

To have scriptural baptism you must have a proper candidate and the only proper candidate is a believer.

Secondly to have scriptural baptism you must use the right mode, and the only correct mode of baptism is immersion.

Third you must have the right meaning, and that is a picture.

And the forth requirement for scriptural baptism is that you must have the right authority.

Who Has The Authority to Baptize?

The authority to baptize was given to New Testament churches. Just before Jesus ascended back to Heaven, He gave His church their marching orders. These orders are commonly referred to as the Great Commission.

Mat 28:19 Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost:

Mat 28:20 Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, [even] unto the end of the world. Amen.

The Lord told His church to baptize. This can be said of no other institution on the face of the earth.  Some will object and say that the Lord was only speaking to the disciples that were currently present. If that is the case, then the command no longer applies because they are all long dead.

The Lord gave the Great Commission to His disciples institutionally and not individually. His command to go, win, baptize and teach all nations was given to His Church. His disciples made up the first church.

Since the command to baptize is contained in the Great Commission, then the authority to baptize has been given to New Testament churches and not to individuals or man made religious organizations.

Having the right authority in baptism is important to God.

A great example of that is that Jesus walked 60 miles from Galilee to Judea to receive baptism from the right authority. If all there was to baptism was that you had enough water, then Jesus could have saved himself the 60 mile walk and been dunked in Galilee.

It is obvious that Jesus considered the authority in baptism to be important.

The authority to baptize at that time was given to John the Baptist by God.

Mar 11:28 And say unto him, By what authority doest thou these things? and who gave thee this authority to do these things?

Mar 11:29 And Jesus answered and said unto them, I will also ask of you one question, and answer me, and I will tell you by what authority I do these things.

Mar 11:30 The baptism of John, was [it] from heaven, or of men? answer me.

There are only two ways to answer that question of Jesus.  Either his authority to baptize came from heaven or from men. It is a rhetorical question. It was not asked because Jesus needed an answer to the question. He already knew.  It was asked to convict their hearts to the obvious truth.

The obvious implied answer is that the baptism of John was from heaven.

Mar 11:31 And they reasoned with themselves, saying, If we shall say, From heaven; he will say, Why then did ye not believe him?

They definitely did not want to answer that way.

Mar 11:32 But if we shall say, Of men; they feared the people: for all [men] counted John, that he was a prophet indeed.

Mar 11:33 And they answered and said unto Jesus, We cannot tell. And Jesus answering saith unto them, Neither do I tell you by what authority I do these things.

Notice they said we cannot tell. They did not say we cannot know. They just were not going to answer because they did not want to admit that John’s authority to baptize came from heaven because John said that Jesus was the Lamb of God that taketh away the sins of the world.

Jesus was baptized with the right authority.  It was important to Him.  Having the right authority in baptism is important. And that authority has been given to His New Testament Church.

This is one of the reasons that we do not accept just any baptism. I don’t know if any of you remember years ago when Pat Boone went around baptizing people in their swimming pools. His baptism is not biblical because it was not done under the authority of the Church.

Everyone who is baptized into this church are baptized on the authority of this church. Even though the pastor actually performs the act, he does so on behalf of the church body.

That is why our associate pastor Paul can also baptize as he did a while back. The authority does not belong to a man but to the church.

Say someone comes and wants to join our church. The first thing that we would ask is if they are saved. And the guy says, yep I am saved. I have been saved by the blood of the lamb. I put my faith in Jesus Christ and Him alone.  I am saved by grace thru faith and not of works.  Amen.

Then we would ask if they have been baptized. And the guy says yep I got baptized right away.

Then we would ask how they were baptized. They might say I was baptized by immersion in my swimming pool. Great that is the right mode.

Then we would make sure that they knew what baptism meant. That it is picture.

Then we would ask who baptized them.

If he says some guy lead me to Christ and then baptized me in my swimming pool and there was no church present, then we would have to tell them that their baptism was not scriptural and therefore they need to be baptized to join our church.

We have learned that baptism is a picture of the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus. It is the first act of obedience of a new believer. Baptism is a way of showing forth to the world that you have personally identified with the Gospel, that you are now saved, and want to follow Christ.

But baptism also does something else that is also very important.

Act 2:41 Then they that gladly received his word were baptized: and the same day there were added [unto them] about three thousand souls.

Notice what happened here. First they got saved, then they were baptized, and the result was that they were added to the church.

It is baptism that adds you to the local assembly of believers.

So if you were baptized in a Church of Christ then that makes you a Church of Christ member. If you were baptized by the Methodist, then you are a Methodist.

We are all Baptists here because we were all baptized into a Baptist church. Either here or in another Baptist Church of like faith and practice.

If someone comes here and wants to join our church who has been baptized in the Church of Christ.  We will not accept their Baptism. They will have to get baptized under our authority if they want to be in this church.

If we did accept their baptism then at that moment we cease being a Baptist church. We would no longer be a bunch of Baptists. We would be some Baptists and Church of Christ. Now what you have is an interdenominational church.

If you let a Church of Christ in, then you have to let a Mormon in, and so on.

When they got baptized by the Church of Christ then they accepted what they teach and they willing joined the Church of Christ.

Now they come here. They need to get baptized a Baptist. They need to renounce the false Church of Christ teaching that baptism saves and works saves.  They need to reject that false doctrine and identify with our doctrine. They need to quit being a Church of Christ member and start being a Baptist.

Remember that baptism is what adds you to the church. Therefore the only way for them to become a Baptist and join with us is to be baptized a Baptist.

You might be thinking is re-baptizing biblical. Is it in the Bible.

Act 19:1 And it came to pass, that, while Apollos was at Corinth, Paul having passed through the upper coasts came to Ephesus: and finding certain disciples,

Act 19:2 He said unto them, Have ye received the Holy Ghost since ye believed? And they said unto him, We have not so much as heard whether there be any Holy Ghost.

Now right away Paul suspects their salvation.  It is in question now.  Because a saved person receives the Holy Ghost at salvation.

Rom 8:9 “...Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his.”

So Paul then asks about their baptism.

Act 19:3 And he said unto them, Unto what then were ye baptized? And they said, Unto John's baptism.

Paul is then going to explain John’s baptism.

Act 19:4 Then said Paul, John verily baptized with the baptism of repentance, saying unto the people, that they should believe on him which should come after him, that is, on Christ Jesus.

Paul told them that John taught that they should believe on Jesus Christ.  Paul explained to them the gospel.

Act 19:5 When they heard [this], they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus.

In verse 5 Paul baptizes them again. This time the baptism counts because it is scriptural. The first one was not scriptural because they were not saved.

Re-baptizing people who had unscriptural baptism is Biblical.

Baptism is for saved people.

Baptism is a way of showing forth that you have decided to follow Jesus.

Baptism is the first act of obedience for a new believer.

And Baptism adds you to a local assembly of believers.

Baptism is like a guard at the entrance to the church. It keeps people who believe that salvation is by works from joining the church. It helps keep out the wolves.

To have scriptural baptism you must have:

1 The right candidate - a saved person.

2 The right mode - by immersion

3 The right meaning - baptism does not save it is a picture.

4 The right authority - a New Testament church.