Love Worth Finding

Adrian Rogers: Do you have to be baptized in order to be saved? Listen to Adrian Rogers.

Now, there are two grave mistakes that are made about baptism. One mistake is that since baptism doesn't save us, it's not important. That is a mistake. The other mistake about baptism is this: there are some who say if you don't get baptized, you can't go to heaven. That's a mistake also.

The truth is neither of those. While baptism is not necessary to salvation, baptism is necessary to obedience. And obedience is necessary to joy and growth and fruitfulness in the Christian life. And we as believers dare not minimize what the Bible has so emphasized.

Guest (Male): Welcome to Love Worth Finding, featuring the powerful, convicting insights from beloved pastor and Bible teacher Adrian Rogers. Now, as we've just heard, there are two common misconceptions people have about baptism: that it's either necessary for our salvation or that it's not important at all.

In order to grow as Christians, as followers of Jesus, we cannot minimize what the Bible has emphasized, which is starting right with believers' baptism. If you have your Bible handy, turn to Acts chapter eight, beginning in verse 35, as Adrian Rogers begins, "Start Right: Believers' Baptism."

Adrian Rogers: Get God's word and turn to Acts chapter eight, would you please? Acts chapter eight. You know how you end up has a lot to do with the way you begin. Certainly, it is true in a race. It's true in your pursuit of education. Many times, it's true in a business. It's certainly true in building a church.

And it is really true in your Christian life. And so, I want to talk to you today about how to start right. And very frankly, some of you have still not yet started right because you have not obeyed what the Bible has to say about believers' baptism.

Now, let me give you the background for this passage of scripture before I read it. God has taken His deacon, evangelist, preacher, Philip, and He's taken him from Samaria where there was a revival crusade going. And the spirit of the Lord said, "Philip, I want you to go down to the desert. I have a special assignment for you there."

And so Philip went down there, and he saw a man riding in a chariot. Now, this man was a man of great authority. He was a man who was a treasurer for Queen Candace of Ethiopia. And he's riding in the chariot, and he has the word of God open, and he is reading the prophet Isaiah.

Now, he has been to Jerusalem to worship, but he still has not found the Lord. And the wells of religion were dry there in Jerusalem. And he's reading—would you know it—he's reading the 53rd chapter of Isaiah, which is the gospel according to Isaiah. It's in the Old Testament. He's reading this.

And the Lord says to Philip, "Philip, that's the one. That's that opportunity on wheels. I want you to go now and witness to this man." And so the Bible says that Philip went, he ran, found the chariot, introduced himself, and found that the man was reading the prophet Isaiah. And the man asked Philip a question. He said, "What does all of this mean?" And Philip said, "What an opportunity. Let me tell you what this means."

And now we break in in the story in verse 35. This is Acts chapter eight, verse 35.

Guest (Male): Then Philip opened his mouth, and began at the same scripture, and preached unto him Jesus. 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?"

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." And I want to say parenthetically, so do I. I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.

And he commanded the chariot to stand still: and they went down both into the water, both Philip and the eunuch; and he baptized him. And when they were come up out of the water, the spirit of the Lord caught away Philip, that the eunuch saw him no more: and he went on his way rejoicing.

Adrian Rogers: I love this. Philip preached unto him Jesus. He didn't preach unto him denomination. He didn't preach unto him race relations. He didn't preach unto him economics. He didn't preach unto him about politics in Ethiopia.

He preached unto him Jesus. And when the man believed on Jesus, as soon as possible, he baptized this man. Now, there are two grave mistakes that are made about baptism. One mistake is since baptism doesn't save us, it's not important. That is a mistake.

The other mistake about baptism is this: where there are some who say if you don't get baptized, you can't go to heaven. That is a mistake also. The truth is neither of those. While baptism is not necessary to salvation, baptism is necessary to obedience. And obedience is necessary to joy and growth and fruitfulness in the Christian life.

And we, as believers, dare not minimize what the Bible has so emphasized. How did Jesus begin His public ministry? Anybody know? Well, you ought to know. He began His public ministry by being baptized.

Jesus began His public ministry by being baptized. How did Jesus conclude His public ministry? By commanding baptism. He began it by being baptized. He only had a ministry of about three and a half years. And He began it by being baptized.

In His baptism, He identified Himself with us. In our baptism, we identify ourselves with the Lord Jesus. But Jesus commenced His ministry by baptism. Jesus concluded His ministry by commanding baptism. And what He has so emphasized, I dare not minimize.

So keep that in mind, and let's look together in the passage and other passages today about believers' baptism. How to start right. Because listen very carefully: there are some of you who have never yet been baptized, and you need to be. There are some of you who have been Christians for 30 and 40 years, but you've been baptized, really not baptized the right way, for the right reason.

So I want you to listen very carefully. Now, I'm not going to talk to you about what Baptists believe about baptism. What Baptists believe about baptism has nothing to do with it. I want you to see what the Bible teaches.

And if the Bible teaches it, then I expect you to agree with it. If the Bible doesn't teach it, I don't expect you to agree with it. We're not talking about some denominational preference here. We're going to be looking into the word of God. So get your Bible out, a piece of paper to make some notes on, and let's look at it.

The very first thing I want you to see, therefore, is the biblical method of baptism. What is the biblical method of baptism? Look in verses 36 and following. "And as they went on their way, they came unto a certain water." Now, it takes water. "And the eunuch said, 'See, here is water; what doth hinder me to be baptized?'"

The word "baptizo," as we're going to see, means immerse. "What doth hinder me to be immersed?" 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."

And he commanded the chariot to stand still. Now watch it. "And they went down both into the water, both Philip and the eunuch, and he baptized him." That is, he immersed him. "And when they were come up out of the water, the spirit of the Lord caught away Philip, that the eunuch saw him no more: and he went on his way rejoicing."

Now, it is incredibly obvious that the Bible method of baptism is by immersion—placing a person under the water and bringing them out of the water. The scripture says they both went down into the water.

It was the same way with the baptism of the Lord Jesus. This was not an incidental way or an optional way. I want you to see how Jesus was baptized. Now, put your bookmark there in Acts chapter eight and turn to Mark chapter one. Mark chapter one.

And if you don't turn, then put this verse in your margin so you can refer to it later. Mark chapter one, beginning in verse nine. Now, this is the baptism of the Lord Jesus. Now, we're to walk as Jesus walked.

Guest (Male): Mark one, verse nine. "And it came to pass in those days, that Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee, and was baptized of John in"—what? "Jordan."

Adrian Rogers: Now, Jordan is a river. Doesn't say He was baptized near Jordan. It says He was baptized in Jordan. Doesn't say He was baptized with Jordan. It says He was baptized in Jordan. And the Greek preposition "in" literally means "into" Jordan.

And look in verse 10.

Guest (Male): "And straightway coming up out of the water, he saw the heavens opened."

Adrian Rogers: Now, if He came up out of the water, you tell me where He was. He was down in the water. He came up out of the water. He saw the heavens open and the spirit like a dove descending upon Him.

Jesus was baptized by John the Baptist in the river Jordan. He was baptized by immersion. Now, Jesus was not baptized by immersion because it was convenient for Him. As a matter of fact, it wasn't convenient. It was about a 60-mile trip one way that Jesus took to be baptized by John.

You see, why did he go to the river Jordan? Because there was a lot of water there. It takes a lot of water to baptize. Now, I want you to put this verse also in your margin. And this is one of the clincher verses. There are some verses that just make it extremely clear.

This one is in John three, verse 23. And it also refers to the baptism of Jesus. Now, I want you to listen to it. This is John three, verse 23. And it says, "And John"—now listen—"And John was also baptizing in Aenon near to Salim."

And then he gives the reason. "Because"—now I want you to look at your Bible and see what the reason is. Because of the beautiful scenery? Isn't what it says. Because it just happened to be convenient? That isn't what it says.

Why did John go all the way down to the river Jordan out there in the wilderness? He was baptizing in Aenon near to Salim for one reason. Why? Because there was much water there. Much water there.

Now, John could have baptized everybody in Jerusalem with a 55-gallon tank of water if it were by sprinkling or pouring. But John went to this place because, friend, it takes water, and it takes a lot of water.

There can be no mistaking about it. It takes a lot of water to baptize. You can't baptize somebody the biblical way with a few drops of water coming off a rose petal somewhere. John was baptizing in Aenon near to Salim because there was much water there.

I visited our wonderful missionaries in Kenya, Jim and Peggy Hooton. And Jim took me out there in his Land Rover. And we went on the hard road, and then we got on the gravel road, and then we got on no road. And then we kept on going further and further out there to the foot of Kilimanjaro, there in the Masai country where those great, tall, magnificent Masai warriors are.

Jim Hooton had a tent out there. That was his church, and he was telling those warriors about the Lord Jesus. And then he said, "Come over here, I want to show you this." And he had dug a pit in the ground. It looked so much like the graves that I have stood beside so many times when I would preach funerals.

He had lined that pit with plastic, and he had brought water on his Land Rover and filled that pit with water. And there he was baptizing those Masai in that grave there. It looked like a grave because indeed, that's what the baptistry is. It is a liquid tomb, as we're going to see later on.

I thought of the difficulty sometimes that we go through in baptism. You know, it would be so much simpler if we could just do it the easy way. I mean, if we just sprinkle folks or pour a little water on people's heads.

The first church I pastored was the First Baptist Church of Fellsmere, Florida. Now, don't let the impressive title impress you because it was the first church, the last church, and the only Baptist church in that little town. About as many people in the town as are in the choir up here, maybe a few more.

And I went to talk to Miss Willie Verene. Her first name was Willie. Sweet lady. Somebody told me that she was interested in the things of God. I went and visited her, and I tried to tell Willie about Jesus. She said, "But I know what you say is true, but how do you believe?" I said, "Just believe." She said, "But how do you trust Him?" I said, "Just trust Him."

And I was so frustrated because I wanted to say, "Oh, Willie, just trust the Lord." She never could seem to quite get it. And I said, "Well, let me pray for you." And I prayed for her and left, and she had this burden on her face.

When I saw her the next morning when she came in the church, she had a face that was shining like the noonday sun. And she said, "Oh, pastor, I got saved last night. I trusted Jesus after you left. I trusted Him. He saved me."

And so I had to baptize Willie. Got to baptize her. We didn't have a baptistry in that church. We didn't have any running water in that church. We didn't have even restrooms in that church. A little church building there.

I was just a 19-year-old boy pastoring that church. First lady I'd ever baptized. I didn't know where to grab hold. I didn't know what to do. I said, "Oh, I wish I'd watched my pastor a little more." I said, "Well, I'm going to baptize. Where are we going to baptize her? Well, we'll baptize her in a canal out there by Fellsmere where they drain those sugarcane fields."

And I remember that day. Went down there, went down that slippery bank, and there was a little swimming hole there where the kids would swim. The bulrushes were there, and the flags and the frogs and all of those things there. And it was, for Florida, it was kind of chilly. I think it was a February.

And we went down that bank, and I remember when Miss Verene, when she put her feet in that water, she said, "Shh!" It was like ice. But oh, the joy of baptizing that woman as a believer in Jesus Christ. We could have done it so much more simply, but oh, we could not have done it more biblically as to baptize her.

I remember one time I advertised in another church I was pastoring, "We're going to have a baptismal service." And the people came. It was Sunday afternoon, and there was no water in the baptistry. We had a pipe that went into that baptistry about as big as my thumb. It looked like it would take 40 years to fill that thing up. Actually took all afternoon.

And there was no water, and the people were there, and the people were ready to get baptized. I said, "Oh, God, give me wisdom. What shall I do?" Had an idea. I called the fire department. I said, "I have got an emergency."

"What is it?"

I said, "I've got to have some water and in a hurry." They sent a pumper truck over there and put that big hose in there. And in no time, we had that baptistry filled with rusty water, and I got those folks baptized.

Now, I want to tell you folks, it would have been a lot simpler just simply to sprinkle a few drops of water upon somebody's head, but it would not have been biblical. They need much water. They went down into the water. They came up out of the water.

That is the biblical method. The word "baptizo" means to immerse. There's another word for sprinkle, "rantizo." There's another word for pour, "louo." But the word "baptizo" literally means to immerse. It was an ordinary word, not necessarily a religious word.

Two little boys would be out swimming. One of them would say, "I'm going to dunk you." But if he were speaking Greek, he'd say, "I'm going to baptize you." Nothing to do with religion. A woman washing her dishes, she might say to her daughter, "Baptize those dishes." That is, put them under the water. It's just the word itself. The literal meaning of the word means to immerse.

Did you know that when you pick up your Bible and read the word "baptism," that it's still basically an untranslated word? What happened is this: King James of England, when he was going to take the Bible and have it translated into the language of the people from Greek to English, he got some scholars and said, "We want you to translate the Bible."

In 1611, we got the Authorized Version, the King James Version of the scripture, the one that I preach from. I love it. I think it is beautiful. It has the lilt, the poetry, the symmetry. I just love the King James Version of the Bible, and I preach out of the King James Version of the Bible.

Well, these were good scholars who were translating. But when they came to the word "baptizo," they had a problem. Because the Greek meaning of the word is to immerse. But the king did not practice immersion. The church that he was a member of did not immerse.

Now, why didn't they immerse? Well, they learned it from the traditions of men rather than the word of God. And these scholars said, "Now, we have a problem. We're between a rock and a hard place. If we translate this word 'immerse,' it'll be embarrassing for the king. But if we translate it anything but 'immerse,' anyone who knows Greek would laugh us out of the kingdom."

So you know what they said? "We just won't translate it. We won't translate it at all." So rather than translating the word, they transliterated the word. What is transliteration? That means to take a word from one language and put it into another language.

And every time you read the word "baptize" in your Bible, it's still to be translated. It has not yet been translated. It's just simply been transliterated. It is a Greek word jammed into English because those fellows didn't have the courage to make it say what it literally says.

But you go get any Greek dictionary and look it up, and you're going to find out that the word itself means to immerse. So every time you read that, you can just put in there, "to immerse." That's what the word itself means.

And early Christians practiced baptism by immersion. All of them did. As a matter of fact, if you go to the cathedrals sometimes when you go to Europe, if you go to those cathedrals that were built back before the 13th century, you'll find they have baptistries in them like this one. You can—I've gone and stood in those baptistries.

They have baptistries just like we have baptistries where they baptized those people in obedience to the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Now, that's the method of baptism. Well, you say, "Big deal. Who cares about the method?" I care about the method. Why?

I'll tell you why I care about the method: because the method is wrapped up in the meaning. The method and the meaning are inextricably interwoven, and you cannot change the method without destroying the meaning. Now, what is the meaning of baptism? Well, baptism speaks about what God did for you when He saved you.

I want you to take and turn to another passage of scripture. I want you to turn to Romans chapter six. This is a key passage. And you're in Acts, just fast-forward to Romans, chapter six. And I want you to begin reading with me in verse one.

Guest (Male): What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein?

Adrian Rogers: Now, that's the key to the whole passage. When we get saved, we die to sin. That's the old way. And being saved is dying to the old way. And God forbid that we who have been saved should continue to live sinful lives. That's what he's saying.

And then he explains it in verse three.

Guest (Male): Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death? Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death.

Adrian Rogers: We're talking about the meaning of baptism now. "Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life."

Now look in verse five. "For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection." Now, here is your biography, so pay attention to it. Here is pictured your past, your present, and your future.

Now, what is your past? Well, here it is right here, verse four. "We are buried with him by baptism into death." When you get baptized, that pictures that the old person you used to be died.

There was a teenage boy lived in West Palm Beach. He gave his heart to Jesus Christ. And when he did, that teenage boy died. His name was Adrian Rogers. And the old Adrian died. When did he die? Well, he actually died, not as a teenage boy, but he died 2,000 years ago when Jesus died on that cross.

Because His death had my name on it. He took my sins. He carried my sins to the cross. He was hung up there for me. He suffered, bled, and died in agony for me. And He bore my sins in His body on the cross. He paid my sin debt. He paid it in full.

And when He died, because of faith in Him, I died with Him. And that's so wonderful because you see, look in verse six, "Knowing this, that our old man"—that's the old Adrian—"is crucified with him." I was crucified with Him. When He died, I died. "That the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin."

When Jesus died, hallelujah, I died. And so, when I got baptized, they put me beneath the water. You know what that was? That was my funeral. What do you do with a dead man? You bury him. "We are buried in baptism." Isn't that what it says? Look in verse four. "Therefore we are buried with him."

Now, if I died physically and you drug me out to the graveyard and put a few grains of sand on my head and said, "We buried the preacher," that'd be a disgrace. Leave me out there to bake in the sun. At least put me under.

We are buried with Him by baptism. That was my funeral. The only mourner there was the devil. He hated to see me die. Now, that spoke of my past. Thank God, listen, hallelujah, my sin is in the grave of God's forgetfulness. Isn't that wonderful?

Guest (Male): Maybe today you have questions about who Jesus is or what He means to you, how to begin a relationship with God through Christ. We'd love for you to go to our Discover Jesus page. It's at lwf.org/radio. There you'll find resources and materials that will answer questions you may have about your faith. Again, find the Discover Jesus page at lwf.org/radio.

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