Good morning and welcome in. Today we are going to take a look at some scripture from the book of Acts but before we do that, I wanted to ask you a question.
How many of you have taken care of a little infant? They are absolutely adorable but they really can’t do much for themselves can they? We need to feed them, clothe them, and of course change their poopy diapers! From time to time they need to take a bath occasionally, but they need our assistance to get clean. We need to help them to do something that they cannot do for themselves, we need to give them a baby bath so that they can have their dirt washed away.
This reminds me of the Christian Life.
This is the same thing that God wants to do for each of us, but just like an infant we cannot do it ourselves. We may be adults physically but spiritually we are little children who need God’s help. So what God does is being a precious loving Father, He gives us a bath Himself, except this bath cleans the inside of our hearts. He wants to wash away all of our past iniquity, all of the dirt of our sins, cleansing both our conscience and our minds through our act of faith in His Son Jesus. That act of faith is being baptized into Christs name.
When we believe the truth about Jesus dying on the cross for our sins and being raised from the grave for our salvation, we can be baptized into His name through submersion in water. Scriptures teach us that at that moment, all of our past sins before that point are completely washed away and forgiven by God. The word remission means to pardon sin or the forgiveness of an offense. When you pardon someone it means to forgive them and to release them completely without further punishment or resentment.
Acts 22:16 And now why tarriest thou? arise, and be baptized, and wash away thy sins, calling on the name of the Lord.
Hebrews 10:22 – Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water.
People take a bath or a shower to wash away the dirt that has accumulated on the exterior of their body. Being water baptized into the name of Jesus Christ completely washes us from all of our past sins in our consciences.
1 Corinthians 6:11 – And such were some of you: but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God.
Acts 2:38 Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.
The act of being baptized into the name of Jesus is a physical act of faith on your part. There were numerous people who were completely healed by Jesus and forgiven for their sins when they came to Him in faith. Jesus saw their faith. Faith is definitely something that you can see!
Mark 2:1-12 And again he entered into Capernaum, after some days; and it was noised that he was in the house.
And straightway many were gathered together, insomuch that there was no room to receive them, no, not so much as about the door: and he preached the word unto them. And they come unto him, bringing one sick of the palsy, which was borne of four. And when they could not come nigh unto him for the press, they uncovered the roof where he was: and when they had broken it up, they let down the bed wherein the sick of the palsy lay.
When Jesus saw their faith, he said unto the sick of the palsy, Son, thy sins be forgiven thee. But there were certain of the scribes sitting there, and reasoning in their hearts, Why doth this man thus speak blasphemies? who can forgive sins but God only? And immediately when Jesus perceived in his spirit that they so reasoned within themselves, he said unto them, Why reason ye these things in your hearts?
Whether is it easier to say to the sick of the palsy, Thy sins be forgiven thee; or to say, Arise, and take up thy bed, and walk? But that ye may know that the Son of man hath power on earth to forgive sins, (he saith to the sick of the palsy,) I say unto thee, Arise, and take up thy bed, and go thy way into thine house. And immediately he arose, took up the bed, and went forth before them all; insomuch that they were all amazed, and glorified God, saying, We never saw it on this fashion.
It’s clear in the scriptures that God cares for this world so much that He laid down his own life for our forgiveness. In order to reconcile us unto Himself, He paid the sin debt that we owed by dying on the cross for us.
John 3:16-17 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.
Even before any of us had gone through a change in our lives, the Lord granted us complete forgiveness for our sins.
1 Peter 3:21 – The like figure whereunto even baptism doth also now save us (not the putting away of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God,) by the resurrection of Jesus Christ:
Just like a little infant needs a parent to wash them at the beginning of their life, we all needed the same at the beginning of the Christian life.
Romans 5:8 – But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
All of us are sinners and there are none righteous in this world, no not one. To obtain forgiveness and complete remission for our sins with God, He wants us to place our faith and trust in his only begotten Son Jesus. This is why He was sent, to redeem us and save us from our sinful condition. He is the Lamb of God, whose blood was shed for this entire world.
1 John 4:9-10 – In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him. Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.
Acts 10:43 …..through his name whosoever believeth in him shall receive remission of sins.
Rom 3:25 Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God.
So again, the word remission means to pardon sin or the forgiveness of an offense. Forgiveness is to pardon and to waive any negative feeling or desire for punishment, retribution, or compensation.
Acts 13:38 Be it known unto you therefore, men and brethren, that through this man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins:
So I want you to remember today that in order to inherit eternal life someday, we must have our sins washed away and be cleansed. We need to become new spiritual children and that requires sitting in…
……God’s Baby Bathtub.
Let’s think about these things for right now. We can be found on your web browser by searching, tlkjbc where you can find our diaries distributed through various platforms. We are not associated, nor affiliated with any other religious groups. You can get our entire podcast feeds directly, along with transcripts at tlkjbc.com or I suppose that you could find us somewhere up here, in the Great Northern Minnesota woods. Peace to you all, and Lord willing, we will talk with you some more tomorrow. Till then, bye bye everybody.
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