Words of Jesus Podcast - Baptism in the Nature of Jesus Christ

Episode Date: February 26, 2021

Baptism is a common and contentious religious practice. Scripture is relatively quiet regarding method. But, is it essential, yes? One baptism; the baptism in the Spirit. In our day, Christians tack "in Jesus name" verbiage at the end of every prayer. Does saying it make it so? The ministry of Jesus introduces a new element, baptism in the Spirit, Jesus enters the waters, lays down his life and rises from the water ready to begin his ministry. Over and over the Scriptures convey the actions of Jesus being the result of "obeying His Father." We must also enter into a life of obedience to obtain baptism in the [nature of Jesus Christ] Spirit.***The Baptism of Jesus by John (Part 4)WHEN JESUS was thirty years of age, John the Baptist was preaching the baptism of repentance for the remission of sins. The people of Judea and Jerusalem went to him and were baptized in the waters of the Jordan River.           From Nazareth Jesus went to John to be baptized. John hesitated, saying:           “I have need to be baptized of thee, and comest thou to me?”           Jesus replied:           “Suffer it to be so now, for thus it becometh us to fulfill all righteousness.” So John baptized Him and straightway as Jesus went out of the water the Heavens were opened to him. He saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and lighting upon him. He heard a voice from Heaven, saying,: “THOU ART MY BELOVED SON; IN THEE I AM WELL PLEASED.”***Related Material: "What is sin?... Sin, Salvation & Law"Request your free copy at www.thinkredink.com or you can send an email to [e-mail]. ***CHAPTER 2 SCRIPTURES (KJV)MATTHEW 3:13-17Then cometh Jesus from Galilee to Jordan unto John, to be baptized of him. But John forbad him, saying, I have need to be baptized of thee, and comest thou to me? And Jesus answering said unto him, Suffer it to be so now: for thus it becometh us to fulfil all righteousness. Then he suffered him. And Jesus, when he was baptized, went up straightway out of the water: and, lo, the heavens were opened unto him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove, and lighting upon him: And lo a voice from heaven, saying, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.MARK 1:9-11And it came to pass in those days, that Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee, and was baptized of John in Jordan. And straightway coming up out of the water, he saw the heavens opened, and the Spirit like a dove descending upon him: And there came a voice from heaven, saying, Thou art my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.LUKE 3:21, 22Now when all the people were baptized, it came to pass, that Jesus also being baptized, and praying, the heaven was opened, And the Holy Ghost descended in a bodily shape like a dove upon him, and a voice came from heaven, which said, Thou art my beloved Son; in thee I am well pleased. JOHN 1:29-34 (NOT REFERENCED IN THE PUBLISHED BOOK)The next day John seeth Jesus coming unto him, and saith, Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world. This is he of whom I said, After me cometh a man which is preferred...

Think Red Ink Ministries presents The Words of Jesus series with Don C. Harris Hello friends, Don Harris here with Think Red Ink Ministries, and we're continuing with the series, The Words of Jesus. And we're still on chapter 2, as the discussion continues. It keeps opening up to new things, and so we want to chase them as best we can so that we can get a good foundation as we continue. It was all about John the Baptist baptizing Jesus in the Jordan,

and it's all about beginnings, isn't it? Our Lord Jesus wanted his beginning to be pleasant to the Father. He wanted to obey his Father. And he saw that as he began to be a man, 30 years old, and starting his ministry, he knew that this was the time to visit the mikvah. So he went to John the Baptist and asked him to baptize him. Talked yesterday about how John was a little confused about that. What's the deal here? Why is it that you're asking me to baptize you? Truth is, I need you to baptize me.

And why was he saying that? Well, he was saying that this baptism that I have been commissioned to give to or to present to Israel is a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. That is something that perhaps John had in his life, but we know that Jesus did not. We don't know about John the Baptist's situation. Perhaps

he didn't. I know that goes far and flies in the face of modern Protestant thinking that anybody could live without sin. But that is not such an impossibility as we've been told that it is. There is such a thing as living without sin. Now the Bible teaches us that if any man says he has no sin, he's a liar. Now

I want you to strike the difference between saying that we have no sin and not practicing it every day. The Bible says that he that is born of God are you born of God? Do you claim to be born again? Do you know what the Bible says about you? It says that you don't sin. He that is born of God does not commit sin. For his, Christ's seed remaineth in him and he cannot sin because he's born of God. Now does that describe you? Or does that condemn you?

How long do you have to read Exodus 20? How far down can you get in the list of 10 before you realize, uh-oh, you know, that's wrong. I need to do something about that. Well, if that's wrong. I need to do something about that. Well, if that's the case, there may be a good case to be made for the fact that you've never really experienced a visitation of the God of the Bible. Jesus said if you'll keep my commandments

I and my Father will move into you, take up our abode with you, He will love you, I will love you, and we will lead and guide you into all truth. All of that was predicated upon if you'll keep my commandments. Why do you call me Lord and not do what I say? Is Jesus Christ your Lord?

Why don't you do what he says? Chances are that we've been kind of lulled into this sense of, I can't help it. We've been lulled into the sense of God forgives everything. There's nothing that he can't forgive. Yeah, you might be right. And there's nothing you can't repent of, friend. And if you want forgiveness, that's the way you're going to receive forgiveness, by repenting of that action that is against God.

Now if you do that, that's good. But that in itself is not salvation. What we need is to be regenerated. You see even the word salvation today has just shrunk and kind of degraded to the point that it hardly means anything anymore. When the Bible says that, when it talks about salvation, it's talking about salvaging. That's where the word comes from.

To be saved, you ask people, what are you saved from? Well, saved from hell is what they'll tell you. But the truth is, is salvation is a salvaging. We use the word today, is salvation is a salvaging. We use the word today, we talk about salvage yard. What's the salvage yard? Well, that's where they take whatever is left of whatever they're taking, and they redeem it for whatever value it has. That's what happens to us. We're salvaged. We say saved, and that's

just a church word now. You know, have you been saved? Well, saved from what? You haven't even been adjudicated a sinner yet. You've not stood before the judgment throne of Christ. You've not stood there and had your sins enumerated to you. What are you forgiven of? You haven't even had any charges brought against you yet. This is why Jesus said, he that endures to the end shall be saved. Well, I'm not at the end yet. So do I have a right to claim salvation? Well, I say, no, I don't. Now, do I have a right to claim salvation? Well, I say, no, I don't. Now, do I have a sense of being safe and no longer at enmity with God? Yes, I do feel that way.

Yes, I feel safe. I feel that he has entered into the covenant with me that if you'll keep my commandments I'll never remember anything you did wrong. That's where I want to be. I want to be in that safety. But to claim that I have some eternal gift that has been given to me of what we are calling salvation that is irrefutable and it can't be negated, it can't be cancelled,

it can't be touched, I think is a very dangerous place for us to live. The most detrimental doctrine and one of the most detrimental doctrines that have hit Christendom is number one, that we are saved instantaneously. Two, that the salvation that is given to us cannot be revoked and that kind of ties itself with the fact

that we're really not saved yet. We'll be saved, hopefully, in the future. And as a matter of fact, those of you who know the Greek New Testament, you're hard-pressed to find anywhere in the New Testament that the word saved is, that it's not predicated by being saved. We are being saved. As a matter of fact, it's translated that way in a couple of situations.

We are being saved. So are you saved? I'm being saved. I'm sure of that. I'm sure that I'm being saved. Now, you know, the idea that, I mean, the doctrine kind of goes haywire with people who, you know, they have they just, they have more mouth and they have

knowledge to back it up. They'll make comments like, I was saved, I'm as sure for heaven as if I were already there. No, you're not. I don't know where you get the idea that you are, but you're not. Well, God made a promise. He can't go back on his promise. You want to talk to a guy named Eli? How about when the Lord came to Eli and said, look, I know I told you that you're going to be my high priest and your sons were going to serve in the temple forever, but no, I've changed my mind. I've changed my mind. They're not going to do that anymore. Well, don't

you think Eli had the right and the privilege to say, now wait a minute, you promised. He could have, I guess, because indeed he did promise. Indeed he did say so. But you see, I don't know if this is a strange concept to you or not, but we serve a sovereign God. He does whatever the hang he wants to do. This is his deal.

It's his salvation that's given to us. David said, restoring to me the joy of thy salvation. Not my salvation. Thy salvation. He saves us. He is the savior. You see, he's a sovereign God. He can do as he wishes.

You tell me why the scriptures say that a man who turns back again he's a sovereign God. He can do as he wishes. You tell me why the scriptures say that a man who turns back again and goes back on his promise and on his resolve to serve the Lord and go his own way again, you tell me why that man should be compared to a sow that was washed to her wallowing in the mire. You tell me why that should be compared to and metaphorically described as a dog returning again to its vomit. You tell me what it means

when it says it's impossible for those who were once enlightened and tasted of the heaven and the gift and the powers of the world to come if they should fall away to renew them again unto repentance seeing that they crucified the Son of God afresh and put Him to an open chain. You tell me why it's a fearful thing to fall into the hands of a living God. Can you explain that to me? You can't explain that to me shaking your finger in the face of God saying you promised, you promised, you promised. I went

down the Roman road. It says right here, believe in the heart that God raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. I don't think you understand who you're dealing with. I don't think you understand what a kingdom is. You think that God is the president of the Christian world? He's just the president? You think that's what it is? You think that he has to submit what he does to some congress of believers out there that decide whether or not he has the power to do whatever it is he has to do? No, you see the problem is the problem is we're Americans.

We don't understand what it's like to live in a kingdom. We have a father who is a king. He does whatever he wants to do. The law is king. Thomas Jefferson's famous speech of Lex versus Lex Rex. What is that? That is the law is king or the king is law. And he said, we want the world to know that as far as the United States is concerned, the law is king. Well, yeah. So isn't that the way it is everywhere? No, no, it's not. In a lot of countries, in a lot of places, the king is law.

What he says goes. Well, welcome to the kingdom of God. We have a king that wants things in a certain way. And friend, you're either going to please him or you're not going to please him. Thank God that he sent his son to this earth to try to make intercession for us, to help us understand these things he says you want to you want to please our god here's what you can do you can keep his law keep his law he'll be happy with you once you do that now you've opened up you've opened the door for regeneration you can actually become a different person. But you're going to have to please

our Father God and you're going to do that by keeping the laws of God. Jesus knowing this was the very reason he looked at John the Baptist and said no, I don't have any sins to repent of or have remitted in my life. But this baptism thing, it becomes us. It's what we should do. And so John baptized him.

And I can just see the situation not long after that where you have Jesus standing there walking after he comes up out of the water he walks over to the shore and they look up and they see the Spirit of God descending like a dove on him. Jesus is well aware of what this is all about. This is the transference of that water baptism to the baptism of the Spirit of God.

Now Jesus, his whole purpose in life is if I can get people immersed in my name, immersed in my name, immersed in my nature, if they can understand that I am here to show them the way this is to be done, then we're going to be able to accomplish this thing called redemption. We're going to be able to fulfill what the father has been trying to do since genesis 3 15 and it had to be a wonderful day i mean it had to be the one of the greatest days in his life oh hang on it's going to get even better what is that the voice from heaven it cries down through just cascading through the clouds into the ears of every person that's there

and just probably vibrating the soul out of this little dove sitting on Jesus' wet shoulder. This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased. He started his ministry with the Lord's pleasure in his life. Friend, do you know how many people I know and have met over the years of my experience in the church that have started

their Christian life by doing the best they can and getting forgiveness, you know, extracting forgiveness from God, waking up on Monday morning and realizing I'm the same as I was Sunday morning. They go to their preacher and they say hey what's the deal here? What's the deal here? I got saved, I got baptized, I got the same problems today that I had

Saturday night before I decided to come here Sunday morning. What's going on? And sorry to say but our preaching population, our repertoire of ministers on the earth, I don't know where they get these ideas from, and they're wanting him to be a Christian. He wants to be a Christian. But frankly, I don't think they know how. I don't think they understand it themselves. So what they do is they give them trite answers. And they say, you know, when you hear within yourself

that you're not a child of God, that you need to be saved, that you need to forgive your sins forgiven, that's the devil speaking to you. Now let me just jump out of what I'm saying right now. You can chew on that. Push it over to the side. Hold it as a cud. We'll be back to it in a minute there was a time when Jesus cast demons out of a man

and the Pharisees said he doesn't cast out devils by the spirit of God but by Beelzebub he cast out devils now what were they saying? They were saying that it's the power of Satan that is casting this devil out. Do you know what Jesus said after that? Well, he interrupts this thought with, you need to know that a

kingdom divided against itself won't stand. So this thing is flawed politically, it's flawed logically, but let me just deal with this situation spiritually just a moment. And that is you need to know something, Mr. Pharisee, Mr. Scribe, Mr. Sadducee, church member, reverend, pastor, priest, whatever. I will forgive anybody of anything except that.

Except what? Blasphemy of the Holy Spirit. They're not going to be forgiven. You will not be forgiven, not in this life, nor in the life to come. What is blasphemy of the Holy Spirit? Well, put down your Sunday school literature because they're lying to you. The scriptures make it very, very clear that the blasphemy of the Holy Spirit is taking

the works of God and attributing those to the devil. He doesn't cast out demons by the Spirit of God. He cast them out by Beelzebub, the prince of the demons. What did they just do? They just blasphemed God. They blasphemed the Spirit of God, which are one and the same.

Jesus says, I'll forgive anybody of anything except that. Now there's been a lot of speculation as to what is the blasphemy of the Holy Spirit? The hell dodgers out there who are scared to death of going to hell, and this is their whole impetus, their whole motivation in being a Christian, this is what makes them tick, is figuring out how little I can get by with and still not go to hell. And unfortunately, there's a lot of those out there.

They're like the people who call the insurance company and says, you know, what's the basic minimum I can get here? Well, do you want insurance or do you not want insurance? Well, I just want to get the basic. You know, not one penny more than I have to spend by law. Well, this particular fire insurance that you're trying to buy from God, you're going to be really disappointed at the deductible. It's really going to be bad when you have to make a claim.

However, blasphemy of the Holy Spirit, attributing the works of God to Satan, is something that you'll never be forgiven for. Now, let's go get the cud that we pushed aside a while ago. The poor sap that comes to church and gets saved and he gets baptized and he gets on the church roll and he is trying to go the right way. He's trying to do the right thing. He's getting bad information from the church is what he's getting.

But he doesn't understand this. He thought there was a change involved. He's right. He thought that he was going to be a different man. He's right. He thought his life was going to change. He's right. But nothing has happened. And they go to the pastor, they go to the preacher and the only advice they give him is, my friend, you need to just have faith in God. Let me tell you about the little choo-choo train. Faith, fact, and feeling.

You see, feelings come afterwards and all the rest of the stuff. And it has nothing to do with the way you feel. It has to do with the promise of God. You believe in Jesus, right? Yeah. Well, what did he say? Did he say he was going to save you? Yeah.

And he pointed at little scriptures and they said, did you do this? Yeah. Did you do that? Yeah. Well, then you're saved, whether you feel like it or not. Well, why do I feel like this? The devil is lying to you. Let me just talk about just a second how stupid that statement is. So now it's the devil's ministry to tell people that they need to be saved?

Now it's the devil's ministry to say you have sins in your life that you need to repent of? Now it's the devil's ministry to say you need to seek God with your whole heart? It's the devil's ministry to do this? This is what he's whispering in people's ears? That they need to be saved? Really? Why don't you just tell that guy the truth?

Hey preacher, why don't you just tell him the truth? That you feel that way every Monday morning yourself. Because nothing has changed. Something needs to change within you. And you don't know how to do it. You know you're called of God. You know God has called you to be in his kingdom, but nobody told you how to answer, did they?

They told you how to shout. They told you how to raise your hands. They told you how to praise God. They told you how to say thank you Jesus 150 times, or to sing songs or hymns, or change all your car radio presets to Christian radio stations, or quit wearing those kind of britches and start wearing these, quit wearing those kind of dresses and start wearing these. They tell you all that stuff.

But nobody tells you how to answer the call. Do you know how to answer that call in your life? Somehow I feel like God is just, I just feel like I need to belong to Him and to His kingdom. Good for you. I love hearing that. That's exactly that's exactly, you're listening to the voice of God when you hear that that's exactly what he says to people

you need to be a part of my kingdom I want you, I need you, I love you I want you in my kingdom I'm calling you friend I don't have to know anything other than some of the red ink in the bible that tells me many are called

many not all many are called many are called if it was all he just said all look if you feel that tug within your spirit you feel like this is where you need to be and where you need to go? You're one of the elect. You are one that God wants in his kingdom. Man, not everybody's got that. Not everybody has heard that. Not everybody has felt what you felt. But here's where you're going to mess this up. You're going to go to the church leadership,

and they're going to tell you stuff that doesn't make any sense whatsoever and they're going to tell you that if you don't believe it you don't have any faith you can't apply logic to God God's he does things that are illogical all the time did you know that one plus one plus one equals one

and they're going to tell you and if you doubt it it's because you don't have faith friend go to the scriptures go look at the red ink see what he says to do sir what must i do to inherit eternal life keep the commandments oh now wait a minute j Jesus didn't do yes. He did that question was asked four different times in three different Gospels Answered the same way each time you've read the commandment. What do they tell you to do? The little guy he understood exactly what he what was being said to him. He said Master I've kept those Commandments all my life. So what did Jesus say? Well, just keeping the commandments can't save you. Oh Jesus didn't say that what Jesus said to him was

This do and thou shalt live you wondering how to make your life work all you're going to do Red ink. We'll see you next time. Bye-bye. © transcript Emily Beynon You've been listening to Don C. Harris of Think Red Ink Ministries. Email don at thinkredink.com. That's thinkredc.com. That's ThinkRedInc.com. Join us again for the next episode in the Words of Jesus series. you