The Truth About Baptism. What is Baptism? David Bercot

I want to take you back nearly 3,000 years ago. There lived a man named Naaman. I'm sure most of you are familiar with his story. He was actually the commander of apparently all the armies of Syria. So he was a very high official in the Syrian Empire. But he had leprosy, which was just a terrible disease to have back then. We don't know exactly what biblical leprosy was. It's apparently a little different from what we call leprosy today.

But it was something that definitely, if you were an Israelite, it made you unclean. And even a person of another nation, it was a terrible tragedy to have. But he had, or his wife had, a servant girl who was an Israelite who had been captured in one of the raids of the Syrians.

And she had enough love and forgiveness in her heart. You'd think she would be thinking, "Well, I want to pay him back. He's got leprosy. It's what he deserves." But instead, she told her mistress, his wife, that there's a prophet in Israel who could cure my master's leprosy.

So he believed this. He traveled to Israel and eventually made his way to Elisha. And he was expecting Elisha would come out and put his hands over him and all of this. Instead, Elisha didn't even see him personally. He instead sent his attendant out and told Naaman, "Go down to the Jordan River and bathe in it, dip in it seven times, and your leprosy will be cleansed."

Well, Naaman, that really angered him. He thought, "You mean, I've traveled all of this way. The prophet doesn't even come out personally and wants me to go dip in the Jordan River? We've got better rivers back in Syria." And he wasn't going to do it. But one of his servants said, "You know, if he had told you to do something great, you would have done it. And because it's something simple, are you going to refuse?" And so he changed his mind and he went.

He dipped six times in the Jordan. Nothing happened. But the seventh time, the scripture says, "So he went down and dipped seven times in the Jordan according to the saying of the man of God, and his flesh was restored like the flesh of a little child, and he was clean." So because he believed and had faith, his leprosy was cleansed. And he said his skin was not just back to what it was, but like that of a little child. Now, in the Septuagint, the Greek translation of the Old Testament, the word that's used there where it says he dipped seven times is baptizo, which is our word for baptism. So this was one of the early records of baptism way back in the Old Testament.

And the early Christians saw in what happened to Naaman to prefigure what happens to us in Christian baptism.

Now, wouldn't it be wonderful if there were a miracle today by which we could be dipped in water and then restored like a little child? Well, as we're going to see, that is exactly what there is. But it's actually more wonderful. You know, we read that about Naaman and we think, "Wow, what a wonderful miracle. That must have been so exciting." But we have something even more exciting because the miracle of baptism, it doesn't change our skin. I mean, your skin's not going to be different when you come out, but your soul will be. It cleanses our souls, not our outward bodies. Now, our souls aren't unclean with leprosy. They're unclean with sin. And they need to be restored back to the state of a little child.

And this is no matter who you are. Someone who's not raised in a Christian home, yeah, they're going to have maybe all kinds of sins, horrible sins. It varies between people. But even if you're raised in a Christian home and you've lived a fairly godly life, yeah, there's still sin present. Nobody is exempt from that. Everybody needs this cleansing.

And like I say, God has made a provision by which this can actually happen to us. Let's go back to our story. We're going to fast forward in time, 900 years, and we'll find ourselves right back at the Jordan River once again. It was no mistake that Naaman was told to go to the Jordan River because once again, about 900 years later, baptism is taking place again.

But this time, it isn't one man being baptized or dipped. It's thousands of people. We read in Matthew, "In those days, John the Baptist came preaching in the wilderness of Judea and saying, 'Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.'" So if we're going to enter the kingdom of heaven, then we have to repent. That was his message, that no one was ready for the kingdom of heaven without repentance. It didn't matter who they were.

And the account continues. It says, "John told the people, 'I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance, but he who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.'" So John was giving baptism in water, which we still do today. But he said, "Christ will baptize us with Holy Spirit and fire." Now, we talked about this a few Sundays ago. Maybe all of you, well, most of you would not have been present. Probably the baptism of fire is talking about the baptism of judgment, that if we don't walk worthily with Christ, then we can expect a baptism of judgment.

But we're guaranteed to start off with a baptism of the Holy Spirit. And notice he says, "He will baptize you." So today, Kevin is going to be the minister of baptism. He's going to baptize you with water. But only Jesus Christ can baptize you with the Holy Spirit. That's not something any human can do. So there's two people who are going to be present today baptizing you. You're going to see Kevin, the physical minister, who's going to be baptizing you in water. But where are you? There you are, Shay. I keep looking for him. But Jesus Christ, he's also the minister of baptism, and he's going to be baptizing you with the Holy Spirit. So that's one of the many exciting things.

As we said, John's baptism was for repentance for sin. It didn't cleanse sin, but it was repentance. It was preparing the way for Jesus Christ. We get to have the real thing. Okay, so that was John's baptism. Now we're going to fast forward this time, just three years. And we find that Jesus, he's been raised from the dead. He's about to return to heaven. And he's giving his apostles his final instructions. This is what he tells them. We all know this passage, Matthew 28:19-20. He said, "Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations." So he wanted them to go out and teach the things Jesus taught so that they could become disciples of Jesus Christ.

There's one reason we don't practice infant baptism in our churches because he said, "The order here is you go out and make disciples." And then he says baptizing them. You don't baptize and then go out and make disciples. So we follow the order that Jesus gave, that first you have to be a disciple of Jesus, and then you're baptized. So it's not like you're approaching this without having known anything. You know, we've met with all three of you several times. And I know that all of you are disciples of Jesus Christ. And that's why we can baptize you in good faith.

He said, "Baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded." So that's why you're going to be immersed today three times.

Sometimes baptism is done by pouring. And again, we pour three times because he said, "In the name of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit."

Now, Mark records the same instructions. He records something Jesus said that Matthew didn't include. He said, "Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. He who believes and is baptized will be saved. But he who does not believe will be condemned." So believing and baptism go hand in hand. And he didn't separate them. He said, "He who believes and is baptized will be saved." Now, we're not going to worry about what if someone believes and they want to get baptized and they die before it happens, something like that. We have a merciful Father, a flexible Father. We also, as Anabaptists, and the early Christians taught this too, we believe in an age of accountability, that if you're five years old and you die, well, yes, you go to be with Christ, that there is an age of accountability.

There's an age of innocence. Now, Augustine, around the year 400, he said, "No, there's no age of accountability. Unless you're baptized as an infant and you die, then you're lost. You can never enter heaven." And unfortunately, too many people believe that. But that is not what the scriptures say. You can't make a disciple out of an infant.

Okay, we're going to fast forward now just about a week after Jesus gave those instructions. It's the day of Pentecost. Peter is preaching to a crowd of Jews. And they had come because of the miracles that were happening. They were speaking in other languages there. And then when they came to see what was happening, Peter preached to them. And he explained who Jesus was. He went through the prophecies of the Old Testament. And then he said, "Let all the house of Israel assuredly know that God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ." It says, "Now when they heard this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, 'Men and brethren, what shall we do?'" Okay, so this was real belief, real repentance.

Well, what did Peter say? Did he say, "Come forward and let's say the sinner's prayer and invite Jesus in your heart"? Is that what he told them to do? No, he said, "Repent and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.

For the promise is to you and your children." Now, listen to this. "And to all who are afar off." That's us. That's us. Peter was looking into the future, looking to the whole world. He said, "This promise is for everyone. It's not just for the ones who were hearing him that day.

As many as the Lord our God will call." So this is for all of us that we can experience the same thing that they did there on the day of Pentecost.

It says, "And with many other words, he testified and exhorted them, saying, 'Be saved from this perverse generation.' Then those who gladly received his word were baptized. And that day, about 3,000 souls were added to them." And you find that all throughout the book of Acts.

The gospel is preached, and then when people believe, they're baptized. You don't go through the book of Acts, you don't find one instance where the apostle says, "All right, let's kneel down and pray the sinner's prayer. Invite Jesus in your heart."

That doesn't ever happen. It's always they believe and then they are baptized. I mean, anyone reading the Bible can see that. All right, let's go back there to what happened on the day of Pentecost. There are five different steps. Now, you can read that and maybe not notice it. So we're going to go back over them. Number one, there was preaching of the gospel. And I'm not talking about the gospel of Martin Luther, preaching of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Peter had told his listeners that Jesus had been resurrected from the dead, that he had ascended to heaven, he was the Son of God, that God had made him both Lord and Messiah. Then he said he gave them further exhortations.

We don't know what all of that consisted of, but something that would have caused them to become disciples of Jesus Christ. Now, all of those people were Jews, so they already understood the general commandments of God. But anything additional, they didn't have. So number one, for a proper baptism, you need preaching of the gospel. It doesn't have to be a particular form, but a person needs to understand who Jesus Christ is. They have to believe that he is their Lord, he's the Son of God, and some of the other essential truths of Christianity. And I know all of you believe that.

So the first one was preaching of the gospel. The second, faith and belief. The people believed what Peter had preached to them. They didn't listen and say, "Oh man, that's weird. I mean, he was a criminal. He was crucified.

You know, he can't be up in heaven right now, and he's certainly not our Lord." No, they believed. I mean, that criminal, he was our Messiah. It took faith to believe that. They had faith that Jesus was sitting up in heaven right that moment, that he was their Lord. So unless you have belief, unless you have faith, baptism is pointless. It's worthless. It's not going to do anything for you. It's not something that's magic that you can just take an infant. You can take someone without belief and faith, and somehow it's going to make them a Christian.

Conversion. It says they were cut to the heart. They didn't just say, "I acknowledge I'm a sinner." No, they felt it, that, "Wow, I am guilty and I want to turn around." Convert means you change direction is the literal meaning of the word. So whatever your course of life, and I know the three of you weren't living wicked lives or anything like that, but you all saw a need to give your life to Jesus Christ. And I know you've already done that, that, "Okay, I can't live for myself," which is what how we start off in life. I mean, the best-behaved little toddler lives for himself or herself. I mean, you're not going to find a baby who's thinking about mom and dad, "Oh yeah, I better not cry."

It's the middle of the night. They're trying to get a night's sleep. That's not how we start life off. No, we think about ourselves. We're not living for anyone else but ourselves at the beginning of our life. So we have to change. I'm going to live for Jesus Christ. And that might bring on hardship. It might bring on lots of tests. In many places in the world, even right now, it can easily bring on death being a Christian. So they were cut to the heart. It was real heartfelt repentance, a desire to do something about their situation.

And like I say, there was repentance. When they said, "What do we do?" Peter said, "Repent." They were already in the process of it, or they wouldn't have said, "What should we do?" But he made it clear, "Repent." Now, the Latin, where we get the word repent, literally means rethink. The Greek word metanoia means, how the early Christians explained, it's just a whole change of how you're viewing everything.

Your world is going to be upside down from what it was before. So repentance isn't just saying, "I'm sorry." You need to feel that way. You need to confess your sins before God. But it is, yeah, a total change, very closely related to conversion, where your mind and heart are made over. Some define it as godly sorrow for your sins. Clement of Alexandria said this, "Repentance is the result of faith. For unless a man believes that the thing to which he is addicted is sin, he will not abandon it. He must also believe that salvation belongs to the one who lives according to the commandments. Otherwise, he will not reform."

So people needed to, yeah, really believe. And these men at Pentecost, they were cut to the heart, men and women who were there, that, "Wow, we have sinned. We nailed Jesus to the cross." I doubt any of them personally were involved in any of that. But nevertheless, he died for their sins as well. He died for your sins. Every one of us, in one sense, had a part in nailing Jesus to the cross because he wouldn't have had to do that if it wasn't for our sin. So every one of us should be cut to the heart. Number five, baptism. They said, "What should we do?" Peter didn't say, "Well, okay, if you believed and you've been converted, you repented, okay, that's it.

You're saved." No, he said, "Repent and be baptized for the forgiveness of sins." Now. But the message we read in Acts everywhere, even if it's in the middle of the night, boy, Paul baptizes them or Peter or Philip, whoever it is. I mean, right then and there, they baptize the person. It's not, "Okay, you got saved. Now, yeah, when you get around to it, go and get baptized." It was part of the salvation process.

Now, he wasn't telling them to do something that was just an empty symbol, like, "Okay, it's all done, but go ahead and get baptized." I don't know why, but, you know, Jesus said to do this, so it doesn't mean anything, but you should go ahead and do it. No, baptism isn't just an empty symbol. Wonderful things happen in Christ's baptism, more wonderful than what happened to Naaman when he was baptized. And so wonderful things, the three of you, are going to be happening today. I mean, this is an exciting day. We're going to be talking about it. So let's just go over these. We're going to enumerate them. What happens in baptism? It's a lot of things.

And again, this is assuming a proper baptism that has been preceded by preaching, by belief, by faith, by conversion, by repentance. Without all of those things, then baptism doesn't accomplish anything. Okay, number one, remission of sins. Remission means forgiveness, cleansing.

Peter said, "Repent and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ." Why? Did he say as a symbol? No, he said for the remission of sins. So in baptism today, your past sins are forgiven, not your future ones.

There are a lot of churches that want to say, "All your past sins and every sin you're going to commit ever in the future, they're already forgiven right now." No, that is not the historic faith.

Some years later, it was Paul's turn to get baptized. He had been persecuting the church. Jesus had appeared to him. And then later, God sent Ananias. This isn't the high priest. This is a godly Christian. And Ananias told Paul, he said, "The God of our fathers has chosen you, for you will be his witness to all men of what you have seen and heard.

And now, why are you waiting? Arise and be baptized and wash away your sins, calling on the name of the Lord." So this is the message in the New Testament that it's in baptism that our sins are washed away.

Now, you might be thinking, "Well, wait a minute, David. I thought it was the blood of Christ that washes away our sins." Well, it is. It's not water by itself, can't take away your sins. It is the blood of Christ. But this is the means by which Jesus has chosen. It's not something we came up with as humans. Jesus chose this as the means to apply his blood to you. This is when he applies his blood to cleanse you from your sins.

I mean, every church believes there is a moment in time where Jesus has applied his blood. And for some reason, they reject the very means he said to be baptized, to believe and be baptized. They said, "Well, no, let's have an altar call. Come forward and say a prayer. Now, Jesus' blood has been applied to you." Well, Jesus never said to do that. You don't see that anywhere in the New Testament. No, it's always, "Go forward and be baptized." But again, it's not water. It is where Jesus' blood is being applied to you.

It's the same thing with Naaman. It wasn't the water in the Jordan River that cured his leprosy. Otherwise, every Israelite who got leprosy could just go down to the Jordan, dip seven times, and they would all have been cleansed. No, it was a miracle of God. What's going to be happening today is a miracle of God. But that was a method that God chose. He told Naaman to dip seven times. If he had said no, or if he had said six times, "Wait a minute, nothing's happened. Let's go home," well, he would have gone home a leper. You know, you have to follow God's instructions.

Okay, we're talking about what all happens in baptism. What's going to be happening to you today? Okay, so number one was forgiveness of sin. Number two is receiving the Holy Spirit. It doesn't mean the Holy Spirit hasn't been operating in your life, but the indwelling, the being filled with the Holy Spirit happens after baptism or at the time of it. Now, in the New Testament, usually it's the apostles or someone else laying hands on the person. That's the normal method. But it wasn't always. God is never bound by any particular method. And you will be filled with the Holy Spirit.

Peter told them, "Let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit." So that is number two, what happens, what you'll be experiencing. Number three is salvation. These people had already believed and repented, but their salvation was not complete until they got baptized. It says, "And with many other words, he testified and exhorted them, saying, 'Be saved from this perverse generation.' Then those who gladly received his word were baptized. And that day, about 3,000 souls were added to them." So no one was called or designated as being saved until they were baptized.

That is, it's simple enough. It's what is set out in the scriptures. This is the method Jesus chose. It's not something humans chose. We go a little further in Acts. It says, "So continuing daily with one accord in the temple, praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to the church daily those who were being saved." So they were baptizing, baptizing. People were being added, were being saved.

Now, years later, this same Peter, the same Peter who preached there on the day of Pentecost, he wrote a letter to all of the body of Christ throughout the world. And he brought up again the subject of baptism. This is what he said. He said, "There is also an antitype," that means a fulfillment, "which now saves us, baptism, not the removal of the filth of the flesh." When you go in water, now probably all of you took a nice bath today and shower. You're going to go in the water clean. You're probably going to come out a little dirtier because it's a pond. But back then, yeah, people didn't necessarily take daily baths depending where they lived.

And so, yeah, when they went in the water, maybe they came out a little bit cleaner. He said, "That doesn't have any effect. That's not the issue. It's the answer of a good conscience toward God. So you all have prayed to God already. I know that you've given your life to him. Now, this is the answer. You're going to have a good conscience because your sins have been forgiven.

You're going to come out with a soul that's like that of a newborn baby." And all this is made possible through the resurrection of Christ. Mark 16 again. He said to them, "Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. He who believes and is baptized will be saved."

Okay, we're going through again what happens in baptism. We've listed three things. Number four, you become a member of Christ's church. Today, you're going to be a member of Christ's church. It said back there in Acts, "Praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to the church daily those who were being saved." So that's something the Lord does. I can't add you to Christ's church. Kevin can't do that. No human can. The Lord adds you to his church if you've been baptized properly. So that is going to happen today. You are going to be a member of Christ's church. It isn't about becoming a member of Chambersburg Christian Fellowship. Now, that will also be something open to you, but you're going to become a member of Christ's church.

So even if a person doesn't join our church, which of course we invite you to, you become a member of Christ's church, and that's the ultimate thing. And that's why our church, I mean, normally someone who's baptized here joins our church, but we don't restrict it to that because you're not being baptized into Chambersburg Christian Fellowship. If you go to some other church, you don't have to get baptized again. You're being added into Christ's church today.

At the same time, you can't become a member of our church unless you're a member of Christ's church. You first have to be a member of his church, and then you can be a member of our local fellowship or another local fellowship.

So this is a special day. All kinds of wonderful things are going to be happening to you in just a short time.

We'll go back through them. Your past sins will be washed away. You're going to receive the Holy Spirit. You're going to be saved. You're going to become a member of Christ's church. Today is the most important day of your life. It's more important than your birthday because there's a lot of people who've been born, but they're not going to have eternal life. There's not a whole lot of point being born if you're not going to have eternal life with God.

Today, you enter into eternal life. That's why it's more important than the day of your natural birth. None of you are married, but when you do get married, this is going to be more important than your anniversary. You're going to keep your anniversary every year. I mean, that's going to be a very big important event in your life. But the day of your baptism is more important than the date of your wedding even.

So make sure you remember this date, July 12th, 2020. So be a year. I don't think any of us will forget this year, the year of COVID. So that's going to make it a little easier. If you picked another year, okay, David, 1997, I don't think I could tell you what happened that year, but I think everyone's going to remember 2020.

This is also what Jesus was talking about to Nicodemus in John 3:3-5. Nicodemus had come to him in the middle of the night or during the night anyway and said to him, "Jesus told him, 'Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.'" Of course, Nicodemus was really puzzled. Born again? And he said, "How can a man be born when he's old? Can he enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born?" Jesus answered, "Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God."

So the new birth is through water and the Spirit. Water alone cannot give you the new birth. It's the baptism of water and the baptism of the Holy Spirit that you have to have both to be born again before you can enter the kingdom of God.

So we can add two more wonderful things that take place in baptism. We've listed four. Number five is the new birth. Number six is today you become a citizen of God's kingdom. You're still a citizen of the United States. They don't take that away from you when you become a citizen of the kingdom of God. But it's your citizenship in the kingdom of God that comes first in your life. If the government of this country tells you to do something that disobeys Christ, then you have to not obey Caesar. You obey Jesus as your ultimate commander.

Now, as quite a few people testified earlier, this is only the beginning of a wonderful relationship with your Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. This isn't the end today. It's the beginning. You can look forward to a lifelong, obedient, love-faced relationship with Jesus and his Father. And it's a good thing. It's a wonderful thing.

It brings trials. It can be harder sometimes than walking in the world. And yet, I know I would speak for, I think, every one of us here who are born again. There's no way we would want to go back to our old life. It might be easier to the flesh, but, oh, I would never want to go back there ever again.

At the same time, this is only part one of salvation. The scriptures speak of salvation in two tenses, past and future. And this is the past part of it. That is, your past sins are washed away, are forgiven in baptism. Now, don't misunderstand me when I say it's part one. When you come out of the water and receive the Spirit, you are completely saved. If anyone asks you this afternoon, tomorrow, "Have you been saved?" Well, you can confidently say, "Yes, I have been saved."

You aren't half saved. You aren't partially saved. You aren't hoping to be saved. You are completely saved after your baptism and reception of the Holy Spirit.

I don't think this is going to happen, but if you come out of the water and if a plane was to crash down from the sky and land on you, you would be assured of going to paradise. I mean, you don't have to do something more in order to get saved. You are saved when you come out of the water. And I guess we'll be laying hands on you to receive the Holy Spirit.

But there is a future part. After baptism, another thing we could add that happens today is you become one of the branches on the vine of Christ, which is a wonderful privilege. Yet Jesus warns, "If anyone does not abide in me, he is cast out as a branch and is withered. And they gather them and throw them into the fire, and they are burned." Now, abide means to live. So in other words, you have to live now with Jesus Christ. He's going to live inside you, and you have to walk with him and maintain your residence with Jesus Christ.

And if you cease to abide with him, this isn't some just little deviation, but it's like, "Okay, I've moved away. That's no longer my address." Then he says, "You will be cast out as a branch." So there is that future aspect. And it's why Jesus said, "He who endures to the end will be saved." So there's a past part. You have been saved. There's a future part. If you endure to the end, you will be saved.

Yet so long as you abide in Christ and bear fruit, you can be confident of your future salvation. In other words, it's not a, "Wow, I sure hope so" or that. No, you should be confident. I am abiding in Christ. People testify they see godly fruit in my life. I'm confident of my future salvation. We don't want to be overconfident. We don't want to be presumptuous about it. There are a lot of people just totally disobeying in Christ, living in serious sin, who quote, "No, they're going to go to heaven the minute they die."

And I'm afraid there's literally millions of people who are going to be in for a very big shock. In fact, Jesus tells us that in the Sermon on the Mount that on that day, all these people are going to say, "Well, Lord, Lord, you know, in your name, we did this, that, and whatever." And he said, "I never knew you. You workers of lawlessness." So if you're going to live lawlessly, if you're not going to live in Jesus' commandments, then yeah, all of that is going to be presumption.

I want to close by reading to you the account of one of the early Christians, what he wrote about his baptism. His name was Cyprian. He was baptized about the year 240, so a long, long time ago. And I remember reading this for the first time. I was about 34 years old. And it has stuck with me since then. I looked it up and found what he said, and I want to just read it to you. It's not very long.

He wrote, "Now he was pagan. He did not grow up in a Christian home. Once I lay in darkness and in the depths of night and was tossed to and fro in the waves of the turbulent world, uncertain of the correct way to go, ignorant of my true life and a stranger to the light of truth. At that time and on account of the life that I then led, it seemed difficult to believe what divine mercy promised for my salvation, namely that someone could be born again to a new life by being immersed in the healing water of baptism. It was difficult to believe that though I would remain the same man in bodily form, my heart and mind would be transformed.

How was it possible, I thought, that a change could be great enough to strip away in a single moment the innate hardness of our nature? How could the habits acquired over the course of many years disappear since these are so deeply rooted within us? If someone is used to fine feasts and lavish banquets, how can they learn restraint? If someone is used to dressing conspicuously in gold and purple, how can they cast them aside for ordinary, simple clothes?

Someone who loves the trappings of public office cannot become an anonymous private person, I thought. Anyone who is attended by great crowds of supporters and is honored by a dense following of attendants would consider ordinary life a punishment. While temptation still holds us fast, we are seduced by wine. We're inflated with pride. We're inflamed by anger, troubled by greed, enticed by ambition, and cast headlong by lust.

These were my frequent thoughts, for I was held fast by the many sins of my life, from which it seemed impossible for me to free myself. Thus, I yielded to my sins, which clung fast to me. Since I despaired of improvement, I took a loose view of my faults and sins and regarded them as if they were slaves born in my house. They belonged to me. They were just part of me.

But after the life-giving water of baptism came to my rescue and washed away the stain of my former years and poured into my cleansed and purified heart the light which comes from above. And after I had drunk in the heavenly Spirit and was made a new man by a second birth, then amazingly, what I had previously doubted became clear to me. What had been hidden was revealed.

What had been dark became light. What previously had seemed impossible now seemed possible. What was in me of the guilty flesh now confessed it was earthly. What was made alive in me by the Holy Spirit was now made alive by God. So that really moved me when I read that. That is the exciting miracle that takes place in baptism, the dual baptism of water and the Holy Spirit.

Water alone doesn't bring that about. The two together do bring about the new birth. So with that, is there anything further we need to do before we leave? Yes. I just have a quick question. So we know our past sins are forgiven, and we know we're going to continue to make mistakes and sin. What about our future sins? How does the blood continue to cleanse us? Very good. That was actually one of my slides that I realized now when I was getting everything arranged. I accidentally deleted that. So yeah, you're not going to be living a perfect life hereafter.

Don't imagine that. That's why Jesus taught us to pray every day, "Forgive us our sins as we forgive one another," or our trespasses are different translations. So yeah, you are going to be sinning every day. Nobody goes through an entire day without committing some kinds of imperfections and sometimes some pretty serious sins.

And that's why the blood is still there. It's a living, ongoing relationship. And so every day you can turn to God, ask forgiveness, and it comes if you're truly repentant. So you don't have to keep starting over. You only get baptized once. You're only born again one time. You don't just keep starting over. But every day you have to ask forgiveness and be repentant. It doesn't do any good. I mean, there's millions of Catholics who go out and pray that prayer on their rosary, and they're not even—they're getting ready for their next getting drunk or something like that. But as long as you are truly repentant of your sins and you confess them to God, then Christ's blood is there to continually cleanse you.

So your past sins are cleansed today. Your future sins, it's on a daily basis. But the blood of Christ, John says, "If we walk in the light, the blood of Christ cleanses us from sin." So it's part of this abiding, walking with Christ on a daily basis, living with him and him living with you.

Thank you.

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