Greetings …

On Sunday, March 21, we will be having a baptism service to allow those who desire to follow in obedience to our Lord’s command that we be baptized. There is much that should be understood regarding baptism and for the next few days I want to give you an opportunity to read from two differing perspectives, and then finally I’ll summarize our teaching and practice at Grace. I encourage you to take the time to read and understand this very important matter regarding your faith practice.

- Pastor Steve

The following is reprinted in part from a message delivered by John MacArthur Jr., of Grace Community Church. It was transcribed from the tape: GC80-190. A copy of the tape can be obtained by calling toll free 1-800-55-GRACE.

Baptism: A Matter of Obedience

By John MacArthur

Copyright 1998

I was flying across the country this week—a long flight—all the way to the east coast and the Lord always makes things serendipitous, always has a surprise or two; I was sitting next to a man who eventually took out a Bible and started reading it and as he was reading it, I said to him, "That’s a Bible you’ve got there." He said, "It is," and I said, "Do you understand what you’re reading?" I thought I’d just play Philip for a while. I said, "Do you understand what you’re reading?" and he said, "Well, some of it. I know one thing: that there are many ways to God." I said, "Keep reading. You’re not done yet." He said, "Well, It’s kind of hard to understand." I said, "Well, would you like to be able to understand the Bible?" and he said, "I really want to be able to understand the Bible—I really do." So, I took out my MacArthur Study Bible and I opened this thing and he said, "This has all the answers!" Anyway, I had the opportunity to expose him to the gospel and I’m going to send him one of those Bibles.

But, what a wonderful thing the Lord does in just kind of placing the right people in the right place at the right time and I’m always grateful for that. This is the right place and the right time for you, this morning, because I have a word from the Lord for you—it’s from the Scriptures and it’s on the subject of baptism. Now, as a faithful pastor, I am duty-bound to speak on this subject; if I don’t, I’d be unfaithful to the Lord who commands us to be baptized and if we are to be faithful under-shepherds, we have to bring the issue to the people. It’s been a number of years since I addressed the subject; it’s been—in fact—somewhere between 5 and 10 years since I’ve addressed this subject. I confess to a certain amount of unfaithfulness in that regard.

This is not something that we can overlook or pass by lightly. It is not a particularly popular subject today—it’s not of great interest in the evangelical community; it’s been years since I’ve seen any new book written on baptism or any book emphasizing baptism or any series of messages or any preacher or teacher emphasizing baptism. I never hear about it on the radio—I never hear about it on Christian radio, Christian television programs, I never see a baptism on Christian television programs, though you have a lot of services, you rarely, if ever, see a baptismal service. The interest in baptism has sort of gone away—sad to say, in many cases.

And, we have a largely unbaptized church which includes some of you. I don’t mean this church, I mean the church in general. It’s amazing how many people who proclaim Christ and confess Christ, have never been properly baptized. Now, probably the greatest number of people who call themselves Christians have never been baptized, according to New Testament baptism. It may well be that the majority of those who call themselves Christians have not been properly baptized. It’s not as if it’s not clear about what baptism is and how it is to be done—it is clear. It’s just that there has been a sort of an indifference to that very, very important matter. I would like to, if I can, put an end to that indifference this morning, if that, in fact, is the case.

There are, no doubt, many of you here this morning who have confessed Christ as Lord and Savior and believe in your heart God raised Him from the dead, but you’ve never been baptized. There are some of you, who maybe have never seen a baptismal service. We have one here every Sunday night, but you’re here in the morning and not at night and you may not have seen one or maybe only a few. May I be so bold as to suggest that a failure to be obedient in the matter of baptism, to take baptism seriously is at the root of some of the immense problems in people’s lives and in the church in general because it allows the church to fill up with people who are unfaithful to the simplest commands of the Lord and of His Word and that’s serious.

When Jesus said, "Go unto all the world and make disciples, baptizing them…," He was giving a command to the apostles and to the church, saying: go out there, evangelize, make disciples, baptizing them, and teaching them to observe whatsoever things I have commanded you. The church then, is commissioned, in the great commission, to do the work of baptizing. It’s amazing to me, you see massive evangelistic crusades—these massive crowds of people, these huge crowds of people, and, supposedly, people coming to Christ—never do you see a baptism. Never is there a baptism at such events. And yet, on the day of Pentecost, three thousand people believed and three thousand people were baptized, when the church began. When the Holy Spirit spoke in Acts 2:38, speaking through Peter, "Repent and be baptized," He gave a command there to the individual who repents and believes.

So, the church is commanded to baptize—the individual is commanded to be baptized. There is really no lack of clarity with regard to this. In fact, in each of the cases where the great commission is given, in Matthew, Mark, and Luke, there’s an emphasis on baptism. In spite of this, there is widespread noncompliance with what is a very simple command. In many ways, it’s sort of the easiest act of obedience as a Christian you can do because all the rest have to do with sorting out the stuff that’s in your mind and heart, for the most part. This simple act , when obediently done, demonstrates a heart that seeks to honor the Word of the Lord. When not done, it betrays several possible motivations.

A person who claims to be a Christian and has not been baptized, fits into the following categories.

1. One, ignorance—that is, they’ve never been taught about baptism and that’s very possible in many, many places. From time to time, we have people baptized here who were converted years ago but never were taught the significance of baptism. And, some have been taught wrong. They have been taught that if they were baptized or if they were immersed or christened as a baby, that’s sufficient. So, it’s possible that some people are unbaptized in the church because of ignorance.

2. Secondly, pride is an issue. People who have allowed a long period of time to go since their conversion—they’ve named the name of Christ for a long time, they are involved with the church, they are known as Christian people, they have never been baptized—it’s a little bit embarrassing to acknowledge that failure and that disobedience for such a long time and so they’re not willing to humble themselves, admit they’ve been disobedient, and be baptized. So, it could be ignorance, it could be pride.

3. It could be indifference. There are plenty of people who just can’t be bothered—they can’t find a spot in their daytimer for it, it doesn’t fit into their schedule, it’s not a priority. They know it’s commanded in the Bible, but obedience isn’t the main thing with them—they have other priorities. That’s a sad situation—to be apathetic toward a specific command, to be indifferent toward a very direct command from our Lord, Himself, which brings honor to Him and blessing to the one who is obedient. But, there are people who are just indifferent—they just can’t get around to it, "I’ve been planning to do it, I’ve thought about it; it just doesn’t fit on the priority list."

4. And, then fourthly, could be the defiant people—those who basically aren’t baptized because they are just rebellious—they refuse to obey. Usually those kinds of people are sinning…they’re in a pattern of sin and it would just sort of elevate their hypocrisy if they were to have to come up and give a testimony of their faith in Jesus Christ and celebrate His wonderful redemption on their behalf. So, people who are defiant and rebellious and just won’t be baptized, generally are in a pattern of sinning.