Maybe when you joined your local church, an elder or pastor wanted to know if you had been baptized. Why is baptism so important, such a foundational aspect of your life in the church? Find out next on Grace to You. Plenty of churches say that to become a member, you need to first be baptized. And not only that, a lot of churches say you need to be baptized in a certain way. Why is that? What makes baptism such an essential doctrine? Well, John MacArthur looks at what the Bible says about baptism on Today's Grace To You. His message is titled, Understanding Baptism. He's not only going to show you why it's an essential ordinance in the church, he'll also show you what the simple act of being dipped underwater says about your relationship with Christ and your eternal destiny. With that lesson, here's John MacArthur. The Lord has left only two ordinances for the church, the Lord's Table and baptism. We teach much about the Lord's Table because we come to the Lord's Table very often and we speak of its meaning very often. But largely, the subject of baptism is untouched. Frankly, it is somewhat of a non-issue in the church today. We don't hear very much about it. It has been years since anyone has written a book emphasizing baptism. It has been years since I have heard any preacher or any teacher emphasize baptism. radio, television kinds of religious programming give no thought to baptism. It stems from the fact that there seems to be such a wide diversity of opinion about what it means and how important it is that everybody has sort of relegated it to an archaic, antiquated sort of ecclesiastical discussion level, and there's little concern for its spiritual importance. I would even go a step further, not only considering somewhat the rather indifferent attitude toward baptism, but I would say that it is probably true that the greatest number, the majority of people who call themselves Christians have never been baptized according to New Testament baptism. Probably the majority of people who claim to be Christians have not been baptized according to New Testament baptism. I can't necessarily verify that, but that's a perception that I think may well be accurate. I would like to take this thinking a step further and also say that I believe that this failure to take baptism seriously in the church, a failure to follow baptism biblically in the church, is very likely at the root of some of the immense problems in the church. Because it betrays people's unfaithfulness to the simple, direct commands of the Lord. And the bottom line question is, if you cannot be obedient in the matter of the simple act of baptism, which the Lord has specifically commanded every believer to do, is that not indicative of a less than obedient life? which explains a lot of things about the weakness of the church in our day. When Jesus said, go into all the world and make disciples, baptizing them, when He said that, He gave a command to the church to baptize. Clearly, that is the Great Commission. When the Holy Spirit said, repent and be baptized, Acts 2.38, He gave a command to the individual believer to be baptized. Christ commands the church to baptize, the Holy Spirit commands the individual believer to be baptized. And when all 3,000 who believed on the day of Pentecost were immediately baptized, they set the example for the church. So we are under the commanding words of Christ as a church to baptize. We are under the commanding word of the Holy Spirit as individuals to be baptized. And we follow in the line of the pattern and example established on the day the church was born when every believer was immediately baptized. Now as clear, as unmistakable as these scriptures are, there is still a widespread noncompliance to this simple command. Now let's get it down to where it really fits us. There are only five general reasons why a person who professes Christ would not be baptized. Okay? Reason number one, the person is ignorant, does not have the benefit of proper teaching, has been ill-taught about baptism or not taught at all. It is possible that ignorance could be the reason. You just have not been properly taught. A second reason is that some people are proud. It becomes a matter of spiritual pride not to be baptized. You say, how so? Because you have gone so long without a proper New Testament baptism and to be baptized would be a public confession of a long term of disobedience or a long term of ignorance. And such would then be a humbling experience. One would be greatly humbled stepping into the baptismal waters to say, I know I should have been baptized, but I have been disobedient for years. Some people are not willing to be humble and they're not willing to admit their disobedience and they're embarrassed to acknowledge the failure in this area, and it's really a form of spiritual pride. They would rather be ashamed at the judgment seat of Christ than before the church. A third reason why some people would not be baptized is because of indifference. They're indifferent. In other words, they just can't be bothered. They understand it. They're not against it. They may believe in it. It's just not important. It's not a priority. They never get around to it. It just is not a major issue. It's indifference. Ignorant, proud, indifferent. There's a fourth reason why some people don't want to be baptized. Let's just say they're defiant. They just flatly refuse. They rebel. Usually it's connected with the fact that if they did it, it would be hypocrisy and they know that. They rebel against baptism because they're courting sin in their life and they're not about to get up in front of a congregation of people and publicly acknowledge their submission to the Lordship of Jesus Christ and the joy of knowing Him when they're harboring sin in their life. It's their hypocrisy that makes them defy the command to be baptized. And when you see a person who refuses to be baptized, It is either ignorance, pride, it is indifference, or it is defiance. Or there's one other possibility. They're unregenerate. They're not really a Christian at all, and so there's no moving of the Spirit of God to compel them to obedience. They have no desire to make a public confession, they just want to hang around the church, be thought of as Christians, but that's not genuine. and they're not about to stand up in a public place and affirm the reality of their faith in Christ, which is not a reality at all. So if you have not been baptized, you fit into one of these categories or another. And you need to ask yourself the question, if I have not been baptized, is it because I don't understand its importance? Am I indifferent to its importance? Am I proud? Am I being defiant because of sin in my life, obstinate toward God, unwilling to obey? Or is the truth that I'm not really a Christian at all and I have no particular desire to be baptized because I have no particular compulsion to confess Jesus publicly? Now to help us understand what we need to understand about baptism, I want to pose several questions and then endeavor to answer them from the Word of God, all right? Question number one, what is baptism? When we talk about baptism, what are we talking about? Let's assume we don't even know what we're talking about. Let's start at square one. What is baptism? Simply this, from a physical viewpoint, it is a ceremony by which a person is immersed, dunked or submerged into water. That's what it is. It is a ceremony by which a person is immersed, dunked, or submerged into water. That's what baptism is. That's the physical act of baptism. Now, there are two verbs in the New Testament which affirm this simple definition of baptism. And we're only talking about the actual act or ceremony itself, not its meaning. We'll get to that in a moment. The two verbs that are used in the New Testament are bapto and baptizo. Bapto is only used four times. It always means to dip, to dip into, to dip into, to die, D-Y-E. And so, in all those cases, it means to submerge or immerse, to dip into. A stronger word than bapto, an intensive form of bapto, is baptizo, from which we get baptized. Baptizo is used many, many times in contrast to the four times that bapto is used. The more intensive word is used many, many, many times. It always means to dip completely and is the word to drown. totally submerging, immersing, dunking into water. The noun that is used is baptismos, and baptismos always in the book of Acts refers to a Christian being immersed into water. So linguistically, the terminology always refers to immersion or submerging in water. In fact, And baptism became a technical term for immersion so that it was transliterated rather than translated. To translate means to give the meaning. To transliterate means to take the pronunciation of a word from one language to another without giving its meaning. In other words, baptizo became baptize. That doesn't give it the meaning. The meaning is immerse. And you can take every use of bapto, baptizo, baptizmos and translate it immerse or immersion because that's its meaning. But because it has become a technical term for the ceremony of immersion, they transliterated it out of the original and left it baptize. Even in English, that word has come to mean immerse or plunge into water. You could go through the entire New Testament and wherever you found the word baptized, translate it immerse and you would have the meaning properly understood. So every New Testament use of these terms, bapto, baptizo, baptizmos, either requires, demands or permits a translation of immerse or immersion. In fact, this is so obvious and so airtight that even John Calvin who really is at the heart of the Presbyterian church that sprinkles rather than immerses. Even John Calvin said the word baptized means to immerse, I'm quoting, it is certain that immersion was the practice of the early church. That's what the word means, that's what they did. Further, it is interesting to understand that the verbs bapto and baptizo are never used in the passive sense. never used in the passive sense. In other words, water is never said to be baptized on someone. Did you get that? Always someone is baptized into water. Never is water baptized on someone. such as sprinkling, pouring, or putting water on your finger and dabbing it on someone's head. Never is water baptized on someone. Always someone is baptized into water. Baptism always means an immersing, submerging, dunking into water. Now the New Testament occasions on which baptism occurs support this very obvious meaning. Let me give you a few illustrations. In verse 6 we see the ministry of John the Baptist, and we'll say more about it a little later. But talking about John the Baptist, it says the people were coming out to him, verse 6, and they were being baptized by him in the Jordan River. They were being baptized in the river. In fact, he was way out in the wilderness by the river as the place that was necessary for baptism. Obviously if they were baptized in the river, they had to be immersed. You don't need a river if you're just going to dab a dot of water on someone's forehead or pour a little on them in some way. Verse 16, it says, after the baptism of Jesus, after being baptized, verse 16, Jesus went up immediately from or out from the water. Jesus had been down in, He went out from. And so again we know that John baptized in a river. Jesus was in that river and came out of that river. Now the gospel of Mark, chapter 1. speaks further regarding the ministry of John and says the same thing. All the country of Judea, Mark 1.5, were going out to Him and all the people of Jerusalem and they were being baptized by Him in the Jordan River. You don't need to be in the river if all you're doing is sprinkling. John's gospel, chapter 3. And verse 23, here again referring to the ministry of John the Baptist, a very important statement, John 3.23, it says, and John was also baptizing in Anon near Salem, which is along the Jordan River, because there was much water there. Why did he need much water? Because he had multitudes of people who needed to be submerged into water. Much water was essential for baptism. Then we go to the book of Acts chapter 8, a familiar story of Philip and the eunuch. Philip preached Christ, the eunuch believed. And as a result of his faith, he said, what prevents me from being baptized? Down into verse 38, after his confession of faith, Philip ordered the chariot to stop. They both went down into the water. Philip as well as the eunuch and he baptized him. He immersed him, he submerged him. He dipped him into the water. And when they came up out of the water, there again the implication is absolutely crystal clear that this is a submerging ceremony in which a person goes down into the water, is then dipped into the water, dunked into the water, immersed into the water, lifted back out. Now, one other note on this technical matter of what is baptism is this, only immersion fits the reality of which baptism is the picture. Only immersion fits the reality of which baptism is the picture. The reality is that the believer at salvation is united with Christ in His death and resurrection. Only immersion symbolizes death, burial into the water and resurrection of new life coming out. Only immersion maintains the picture, the image of the reality baptism signifies. Just as a footnote, there are some baptisms in Scripture that we're not going to talk about. One is the baptism with the Holy Spirit into the body of Christ, 1 Corinthians 12 tells about it. Another is the baptism of fire, the fiery judgment of God on unbelievers, Revelation 20, 15 tells about it. And by the way, John the Baptist in Matthew 3, 11 and 12 prophesied both of those when he said that there was one coming greater than him who would baptize with the Holy Spirit and with fire. And we're not going to talk about spirit baptism, we're not going to talk about fire baptism in judgment, all we want to focus on is water baptism, this wonderful ordinance. Now water immersion is commanded of every believer and it is very important not only for its own sake because it demonstrates one's obedient heart, but because of the picture that it presents. You see, baptism is a teaching aid. Baptism is an object lesson. Baptism is a physical analogy of a profound spiritual reality. And any student of Scripture knows that God likes to teach with symbols, pictures, illustrations, parables, and analogies. In fact, you go back to the Old Testament. Follow my thought on this because it's very important. You go back to the Old Testament and you will note that God gave them many pictures, many ceremonies, many object lessons. All the major events, for example, of the history of Israel were commemorated by some kind of object lesson, some kind of memorial. And all of the major spiritual truths were basically illustrated by some kind of symbol, some kind of analogy, some kind of picture. And these basically were for teaching aides. For example, let's say you have a couple of little children in a family. They're ages 5, 6 or whatever. They have a little brother. On the eighth day after that little brother has been born, it is time for the family to circumcise the little brother. And so, their little brother is circumcised and the older brother and sister say, Daddy, why do you do that? That is precisely the purpose of that ceremony, to pass on spiritual truth to the next generation. And the spiritual truth is this. There is innate in us sin. It is in our nature. And all we can do is procreate sinners. And so man, at the very point of his procreative organ, must recognize that he produces wickedness and is in desperate need of a spiritual cutting-away cleansing. And so what you have, you say to your children, is a demonstration of how the heart and the soul of man needs desperately the cleansing from sin. When a little child would go with mother and father to the temple and see the bloody animals being sacrificed, they might say, mother, why do they do that? To which the mother would reply, well, you see, our sins demand death. And so someone, something must die for sin. And God has graciously permitted us to offer an animal to die in our place. And so, this is a picture of the substitute. And then that parent could say, and someday God is going to send the real lamb, the final substitute, and all these other sacrifices will be over with. But sin is so bad that it brings death, bloody death. A little child standing in the temple would literally be shocked at the hundreds and thousands of animals being slaughtered and would get a vivid picture of the sinful sin of one's life and the ramifications of that sin. God established the Passover. A little child would say, why do we do this? The father would say to remember that God is our great deliverer and that he delivered us from Egypt. Everything they did was a teaching tool to produce a godly generation. That's how spiritual truth was passed on in vivid terms. Beloved, all of those ceremonies are gone. With the ending of the Old Covenant, all those pictures are gone, and the Lord only left us with two, the Lord's table and baptism. They must be His two most important pictures. The Lord's Table is a physical picture of the death and sacrifice of Christ, and baptism is a physical picture of the death and burial of the new birth that occurs when one puts his faith in the Savior. It is an object lesson. It is a visual representation of a spiritual reality. That is the meaning of baptism. You're listening to Grace To You, as John MacArthur explains why being baptized shows the world that you belong to Christ. What you heard today is a part of a message titled Understanding Baptism. Along with teaching here on Radio Daily, John serves as president of the Master's College and Seminary. John, you pointed out how clear Scripture is on this issue. Only believers should be baptized. But I'm wondering, what about young people, children who profess Christ? What should churches do about baptizing them? Well, certainly young people should be baptized and children should be baptized whose profession of Christ is genuine and for whom there is evidence of transformation in their lives. We at Grace Community Church are very, very concerned to begin to think about baptism for kids when they get to the age of, say, 11 or 12. You know, in the Jewish culture of biblical times, you would be a son of the law when you reach that age. You would be responsible for your own behavior. any younger than that, and there might not be genuine saving faith and transformation. But by the time they get to the age of 11 or 12, they need to be seriously thinking about receiving Christ, not just following the patterns established by their parents. So we're very eager in our children's division when kids get to that age to begin to talk to them about baptism, and if they profess Christ, to interview them on a personal basis and chat with them and find out if they understand the meaning of salvation and if they have demonstration in their life of its genuineness, and even encourage the parents, of course, who need to be involved in that discussion. They see the kids in a day-to-day environment to weigh in on whether this salvation is evident to them as well. Churches need to take a far more intentional role in this. They need to confront the kids who claim to be Christians at about that age and make sure that they are led to obedience in being baptized and work with parents to bring that about. Obviously, the faith that children affirm needs to be evident in their lives, and the parents are the ones who would give you the best testimony on that reality. Well, thanks, John. Now, friend, if you have questions about baptism, or the Lord's Supper, or any other aspect of the church, let me encourage you to pick up John's book titled The Master's Plan for the Church. This is a helpful resource that will show you God's design for the church and help you know your role in it. To order a copy of The Master's Plan for the Church, contact us here today. This is available in soft cover for $13 and shipping is free. To get a copy, call our toll-free number 1-800-55-GRACE or visit our website gty.org. The title, again, The Master's Plan for the Church. Order this helpful book when you call 800-55-GRACE or visit gty.org. And if John MacArthur's verse-by-verse teaching, like you heard today in the lesson about understanding baptism, well, if these messages have encouraged you, remember, this teaching is on the air in your neighborhood because of the support of listeners like you. In fact, when you support Grace to You financially, you help take John's Bible teaching to folks around the world, on radio, through our website, and in thousands of free books and CDs. To become a partner with Grace to You, mail your tax-deductible donation to Grace to You, Post Office Box 4000, Panorama City, California, 91412. You can also make your donation online at gty.org, or when you call, 800-55-GRACE. Now, on behalf of John MacArthur, our broadcast engineer, Kai Burns, and our entire staff, this is your host, Carl Miller, thanking you for tuning in today. Join us again tomorrow for another 30 minutes of unleashing God's truth, one verse at a time, on Grace To You. Most churchgoers would agree that baptism is important, but is it required for salvation? John MacArthur answers the vital question on Tomorrow's Grace To You.