BAPTISM SAVES!

SALVATION IS IN CHRIST
The last few verses of I Peter 3 contain a very beautiful summary of our salvation in Christ. He is the Righteous One (Acts 3:14) and He died for us who are unrighteous (I Pet. 3:18) that he might bring us to God. He died as a substitute (I Pet. 2:24 & II Cor. 5:15). The Scriptures teach us that there is salvation in no one else other than Christ (Acts 4:12).

ONLY ONE SACRIFICE
The Scriptures emphasize the once-for-all-ness of Jesus’ death in bringing us to God. The Hebrews writer makes this very clear to us. He sacrificed for their sins once for all when he offered himself (Heb. 7:27). He accomplished this by entering the Most Holy Place once for all by his own blood, having obtained eternal redemption (Heb. 9:12). The sacrifice of Christ was a once for all (Heb. 10:10) event in salvation history. There had never been anything like it before. The sacrifices of the old covenant were but a shadow of the good things that are coming (Heb. 10:1-2). As there has never been anything like the sacrifice of Christ before, so there will never be anything like it again. But now he has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to do away with sin by the sacrifice of himself. (Heb. 9:26).

Folks today who believe there will be return again to the Jewish sacrifices really have little respect for the complete Word and have almost totally rejected the message of Hebrews. This letter demonstrates how disrespectful to the sacrifice of Christ it would be to return to the trappings of Judaism. Read Hebrews 8-10 to learn the superiority of Christ as sacrifice for sins over all the sacrifices of the ancient Levitical system.

ONE CHRISTIAN BAPTISM
Peter says it twice. Baptism saves us (v. 21). He doesn’t call it a good work of man in an attempt to earn his own salvation. That’s definitely not what baptism is all about. The Scriptures say we receive forgiveness of sins and salvation when we are buried with Him in baptism (Acts 2:38 & Rom. 6:3-4). Don’t forget that everything about salvation is in Christ. When we are saved we are in Christ because we are baptized into Christ (Gal 3:27).

In Colossians 2 Paul has a very convincing argument about the meaning of baptism. He begins his discussion in verse 11 by discussing circumcision. The circumcision of the Old Testament was a cutting away of the flesh by men but the circumcision of the New Covenant is not done by the hands of men but is a putting away of the old man, the flesh, or the sinful nature. The new circumcision is done by Christ (v. 11).

When did all this happen, Paul? It happened concurrently (at the same time) with being buried with him in baptism and raised with him. . . (v. 12). Something else happened at the very same time we were buried with Him in baptism: God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins. . .(v. 12). How could anyone try to dismiss something so important to God.

No one believing in Christianity would believe for a moment that Jesus’ burial and resurrection where unimportant. How could anyone miss the fact that baptism saves (God says it—I Pet. 3:21)? How could anyone say we don’t have to be buried and raised with Christ (God says it—Romans 6:3-4 & Col 3:11-13). Jesus said it (Mark 16:15-16). Why would anyone work so hard to try to help God unsay what He said in his own Word? We serve a resurrected and living Savior. That’s at the heart of the gospel (I Cor. 15:14). Because of His resurrection we who have been baptized into Him have been born anew into a living hope. That hope is through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead (I Pet. 1:3).

What a marvelous message! He not only was resurrected, he also ascended to God’s right hand where He continues to live and intercede for us (Heb. 7:23-25). How very important it is to be in Christ and to share in all the blessings that are to be found in Him. Paul, like Peter at the beginning of this letter, enumerates many of these blessings in Ephesians 1:3-14. The only way to be in Christ is to be baptized into him (Gal. 3:26-27). There is only one Christian baptism (Eph. 4:5) and God designed that baptism to save us.

THINK IT OVER
Some folks go so far as to argue that one is saved and later baptized to become a member of some church. Do you know what the Bible says? the church is composed of the saved and it is god who adds us to the church (Acts 2:47). Now, compare Matthew 26:28 and Acts 2:38. If you carefully compare these two verses you will note that baptism is for the forgiveness of sins. The same is said of the blood of Jesus. What is said of one is said of the other. The truth is it is because of the blood of Jesus that baptism saves.

The problem is our lostness without the blood of Jesus in our lives. follow me: All have sinned (Rom. 3:23); the conclusion is always the same: For the wages of sin is death. Death here refers to spiritual death or separation from God—where we all find ourselves at one point or another in our lives. The Good News of the gospel is that when we had no where else to turn and no spiritual power to do it God stepped right in (Rom. 5:6-8) to bridge the chasm created between us and God by our sins.

In the gospel a righteousness from God is revealed (Rom. 1:17). Beginning in Romans 3:21, Paul explains how we receive that rightness with God. Read carefully and see we are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. God presented him as a sacrifice of atonement through faith in his blood (Rom. 3:24-25).

Enough said! Now we know the facts. How do we demonstrate faith in the blood? We must go where by God’s grace and our faith the blood is applied: the burial and resurrection found at baptism.

F. Y. I. MINISTRY

Why have you had four straight articles on ministry? There are several reasons: 1) If you are a Christian, you need to fully understand what your Lord expects of your ministry; 2) Because I’ve been reminded constantly that I am on vacation. It’s funny I work all the time; I’m just restricted in movement at present; and 3) I’ve been commissioned to write Bible Correspondence courses.

You can’t imagine how many of these complete courses we take to our two prison units weekly and how many we mail out 2 or 3 lessons at a time. We have a considerable amount budgeted for BCC’s and postage. We have a room full of the courses we use. Of course it would be considerably more economical for me to write the courses and we publish our own and save a bundle. This is especially true since I am on vacation. (I must hurry and get this done. My first appointment for today arrives in less than an hour and it is still early).

Well I’m ready to get off vacation, back among the people, and back in the prison units. Of course, we won’t count what I do since I am not in my office. I want you to know that what I have written, I believe about ministry and I plan to share more. Ministry is not pick ‘n choose; it is a lifestyle.

Incidentally, I return to Big D this weekend for evaluation. Pray with me that I can be released to do some of things I’m missing. Two of the primary reasons I’m so confined: 1) I have a metal femur and that stuff takes a long time to heal since what muscle and tendon that is left will not attach itself to the prosthesis but is tied at the top; and, 2) disease. Any kind of disease tends to settle in the affected area and we don’t want any of that. Special note: I did not have any of the tested diseases (three full pages, single spaced) at the time of surgery. Prisons have most of what I was checked for: HIV, Hep. A, B, & C, Staph, etc.

Back to reality, I have written three courses. We use them often. I don’t as yet know why one of them is stuck back in a drawer. I do not write courses to be not used and stuck back in a drawer. The three we have already:
A Bible Study Guide
Morality
The Uniqueness of Jesus, A Study in Colossians

I am in the process of writing three more courses:
Aliens and Strangers, a Study in I Peter
Who is this? A Study in Mark
21st Century Ministry

Do you know what? If you’ve read this far I want to tell you something really great: You are more than welcome to any of these. The first three would be highly preferable since they are completed. We send them free to individuals and also pay the postage, grade them for you, and give you an attractive Certificate of Completion upon your completion of the course or we’ll just send them to you.

We will send these to churches as well. We prefer to send original copies (?) to churches so you can make your own copies and distribute them as you see fit. You can’t really beat either of those two deals. I would like to say these all contain quality work, but you know the human author and must judge for yourself. I’ll love you either way, and He! never fails in his love for you. h
Monday-198

THERE'S NOTHING IN IT FOR US MINISTRY!

Can you imagine a ministry like that? No one ever thought of that one before. I’ve heard of Bus Ministry, Youth Ministry, Family Ministry, and more. Just think: if we had the There’s Nothing in It for Us Ministry there would be no real reason for any ministry at all. Think of the time we would save. And, think of all the money we would save. That’s the real issue, isn’t it? It kind of reminds me of the Veggie Tales little silly song entitled; The Pirates Who Don’t Do Anything. They don’t do anything and never have every time I have watched it with the little ones: No changes; a lot like us.

How many ways can we serve the community we live in? That should be the real question and the real issue! What can I/We do next? How can we help ease the burdens of the downtrodden? How can we help people with self-defeating habits? How can we bring the Good News to a broken world which is in vast need of the healing power of Jesus? It’s for certain they will not come to us to be helped; at least not very many of them. People in these situations do not feel that desperate, for the most part. Felt needs are very important to them.

The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us (Jno. 1:14). The son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve. . .(Matt. 20:28). And, what was there in it for Him? I have brought you glory on earth by completing the work you gave me to do (Jno. 17:4).

It just seems to me we are here for some of these same purposes. If there is a job to be done in serving in any capacity it would be better to have a Christian in that capacity. Christians are dependable. You can count on a Christian. They don’t punch clocks. They are available at anytime, day or night. There will be no reason to expect a shoddy job. A Christian, unlike his or her Lord, is not perfect, but will give his or her best every time. You can count on that happening! That's ministry.

We can stand in denial of responsibility. It’s not my job. Let someone else do it. We can minimize our responsibility. Let the EMS do it; it’s really their job to serve the community in crisis work. We can project our feelings about not doing it to someone else: He could have done it; he was closer to the situation than I was. Regrettably, we can just rationalize our irresponsibility by saying, There is always someone else better suited or trained for that particular job than I am.

You see, we can just pass the buck until we finally come back to: There’s nothing in it for us! Just live in eternal gratitude that Jesus did not take the same attitude when he died on that cross for each of us.

LET THE ANSWERING MACHINE PICK UP THE MESSAGE MINISTRY!

A couple of weeks ago I received a call at 3:45 a.m. When one receives a call at this hour of the morning it is always important to the person making the call to make that call whether the recipient of the call thinks it is important or not. Well, that’s not altogether true. I remember when Misty was in high school and this dude called at 3:00 a.m. and I told him that under no circumstances was my daughter going to talk to him at that time.

What was the difference in the two calls? The latter was by a kid who was either drinking or drugging or maybe just goofing off, so I dismissed it. The former was by a man who had written me about his problems just two weeks prior to the call. Of course he was all chipper. Did I wake you up? Yes, you did! Well, your wife was awake because she answered without delay. No, she wasn’t awake either. etc. etc. etc. But, I spent an abundant amount of time with him as I have numerous others.

Ministry is 24/7. We have established that. Scenario: I get a call at 3:00 a.m. and the voice on the other end says, You don’t know who this is but I just need to know if I commit suicide, will go to hell? Many people would abruptly answer emphatically YES! Do I approve of suicide? Absolutely not—under no circumstances, but I won’t fall into that trap for several reasons: 1) I am not God; 2) I must understand that the person is saying I’m a gona’ do it if you give me the right answer! or 3) I might do it! or, 4) in the very least, the person has suicide ideation. I must keep him or her on the line and keep them talking.

Could that scenario be considered a life and death situation? Of course it could. My job here might just last the remainder of the night or until the person passes out or worse. But, I have a job because I do ministry. But, what if I didn’t take calls like the two I mentioned. How unloving can one get? How unlike Jesus? How far from ministry? I just believe there is a serious lacking of love in some folks’ ministry. I guess we could let the suicidal ideated die. We could let the hungry starve. We could let them all wait until we had a convenient time. I go on record as saying these are not Jesus attitudes toward life or people or ministry. Dear children let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth (I Jno. 3:18). It’s great to hear lofty words about love from the pulpit but when does the rubber meet the road?

My son got relieved of his “preaching job” just a couple of weeks ago, which wasn’t the worst thing that ever happened to him under the adverse circumstances he was trying to work and then got called for 15 hours of ministry the following week. He could have said, I’m not getting paid to do that anymore! He could have refused the requests.

If I recall correctly, Paul and Silas did something really great for a girl at Philippi. As a result they were dragged into the marketplace to face the authorities, upon which they were immediately attacked, stripped, and beaten, being severely flogged and thrown into prison, into the inner cell, and their feet fastened in stocks. My last sentence was nearly as long as one of Paul’s as he writes in the Greek text, or the title of this article, but to make a long story a little shorter God broke them out with an earthquake. The jailer, who was subject to death if they escaped, came running in and said, Sirs, what must I do to be saved? (Acts 16:30). And Paul and Silas replied, Check with us tomorrow. It’s too late to ponder such issues. This can wait for another day. Did they? NO WAY!!!

Paul and Silas went to the jailer’s house, got their wounds cared for, ate a great meal, taught them the Gospel, baptized them all, and had a really great night at ministry. Of course they had no telephones or answering machines but they did have one terrific night. Yes, ministry works at night just like it does in the daytime. Did you know that? Lovingly, h