The Bible tells us that… at the tower of Babel, God confused the people’s language so they couldn’t understand each other. Language is how we communicate with each other, and how we communicate is VERY IMPORTANT. How we say things; the kind of words we use; and even the punctuation we use in our sentences is important.
• For example: punctuation saves lives "Let’s EAT KIDS" ... OR "Let’s eat, kids "
• How you punctuate a simple sentence can make all the difference. If you take the sentence: “A woman, without her man, is nothing” and change the punctuation it will read “A woman: without her, man is nothing.
(Punctuation changed the meaning)
• Punctuation can even influence our theology. I found a comic strip about Abraham and Isaac where (in the first frame) Isaacs says “Here’s the wood for the sacrifice, Dad.” Next he says “Here’s the dagger for the sacrifice, Dad.” And then Isaac looks around and asks “WHERE’S THE SACRIFICE?” Abraham replies “God will provide the sacrifice Isaac” to which Isaac responds: “Did you say God will provide (comma) Isaac?” Or “God will PROVIDE ISAAC?” Abraham says “Come here son.” And ISAAC says: “I ain’t budgin till you put IN a comma.”
Punctuation can make great deal of difference in what is meant. (PAUSE) And so can the order of the words in sentence.
For example, there’s an evangelist in our brotherhood named Harvey Hacker who told about a Revival where a lady in the audience approached him after his sermon and complained about his view on baptism. So he asked if she had a Bible. She took one out of her purse and he asked her to turn to Mark 16:16. Then he asked her to read that verse… and this is what she read: "Whoever believes shall be saved and be baptized…” “WAIT” he cried… “read that again.” She started again and repeated: “Whoever believes shall be saved and be baptized…” Harvey stopped her again and said: “Read that one more time, slowly this time.” And so she slowly began read “Whoever believes (PAUSE) and is baptized shall be saved…” I never saw that before.”
WHY had she not seen that before? She hadn't seen it because, WHAT she’d been taught, contradicted what she read. So she transposed/ rearranged the words of the sentence to fit what she believed. She’d always believed “Whosoever believes is saved… then baptized!” And that’s the reason she read it the way she did.
How we communicate is VERY IMPORTANT. How we say things, the kind of words we use, the punctuation we use, and even the order of words in a sentence is very important. It’s especially important to God - when we’re dealing with his bible, because you don’t mess with His message.
Now, people have been messing with God’s message for centuries. People will rearrange the wording of Bible verses - almost subconsciously - because their theology demands another interpretation than what they read.
For example, there are churches that baptize babies FOR salvation. Essentially, their theology is “Whoever is baptized shall be saved… and THEN they can believe.”
Now these churches don’t necessarily warp Mark 16:16 on purpose, but they might as well. Children can’t believe, but these churches baptize them anyway for salvation. Then later – they put the child through confirmation classes - to teach them what they didn’t know before they were baptized… because they were infants
But there’s an interesting passage in John 1:12-13 that tells us this is wrong.“But to all who received him, who BELIEVED in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of BLOOD nor of the WILL OF THE FLESH nor of the WILL OF MAN, but of God.”
Now let’s take this passage one step at a time.
NOT OF BLOOD means – you can’t become a Christian by being born of a Christian. Jews essentially became Jews because they were BORN of a Jewish family. Now, you could convert from being a Gentile to being Jewish, but the major way people became Jews was by blood - being born of a Jewish parent.
But you can’t do that to become a Christian. Without faith/believing… you can’t become a Christian.
So, you can’t be born of BLOOD (born of a Christian parent) to be saved. And (the next phrase says) you can’t be born of the WILL OF THE FLESH. That means that there’s nothing in my FLESH that makes me deserve salvation. In John 6:63 Jesus said “The Spirit gives life; the flesh counts for nothing. That is: there’s nothing I can do (in my flesh) that will impress God.
Paul said it this way - Romans 7:18 “I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my FLESH. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out.” Now, that’s just a fancy Biblical way of saying that you can’t be good enough to be good enough to get into heaven. So, essentially – the good things you DO to try to impress God… DON’T. They don’t impress Him. I mean, God appreciates good deeds - it’s just that they just don’t impress Him. They won’t buy you a ticket to heaven.
So, you can’t be born of BLOOD… and you can’t be born of the WILL OF THE FLESH.
And (pause) you can’t be born OF THE WILL OF MAN! Now this is the part of the passage that addresses that issue of: “Whoever is baptized shall be saved… and THEN they can believe.” This is where we’re told you can’t do that. YOU can’t decide salvation for others. You can’t simply WILL other people into heaven because you think they ought to be there. You don’t have that right because you’re not God!
So, if you can’t WILL someone into heaven, you certainly can’t WILL your infant child into heaven either (since you’d be the one to decide if they were “baptized.” Your child has to believe (which infants can’t do), because belief HAS TO come before baptism. Without belief… baptism is just getting wet.
That’s why Mark 16:16 says “Whoever believes and is baptized shall be saved”… and then it says: “but whoever does NOT BELIEVE will be condemned.” Faith must come before baptism because belief is THAT important!!!
Now, let’s get back to that woman at the Revival. She said “Whoever believes shall be saved… and then baptized.” But why? Why get baptized? If you believe baptism comes AFTER salvation, why do it at all??? There’d be no real purpose.
ILLUS: I remember reading about a denomination that believed baptism came after salvation, and they were having trouble convincing a lot of their new members to get baptized… because it just wasn’t necessary. If it wasn’t necessary - why bother? Thus, a lot of their people just opted not to get wet. There was no reason for it.
But now, there are some churches (that think like that) that HAVE come up with a reason for people to get baptized: They baptize people for the purpose of joining their congregation.
ILLUS: I once was talking with a man about Jesus and the Church, and I hadn’t brought up the subject of baptism… but he asked: “Do I have to be baptized again?” And I thought “Well… that’s an odd question”! So I asked him: “How many times have you been baptized?” “Five times” he replied. FIVE TIMES??? Why were you baptized 5 times?” And he explained that every time he joined a new church they baptized him TO JOIN their congregation.
Now, that’s not even remotely Biblical. Notice what Jesus told His disciples before He ascended into heaven: “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of THE CHURCH OF CHRIST AT LOGANSPORT!” Wait a minute: was that what Jesus said? No! So, what does it say? It says: “Baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit…” Matthew 28:19. You are NOT baptized, IN THE NAME of the Church of Christ, or the Methodist church, or the Lutheran Church, or the Baptist church, or the Catholic church. You are baptized in the name of the FATHER the SON & the HOLY SPIRIT. You are baptized to belong to GOD… not to belong to a specific church.
Now, there is one last “rearrangement” of Mark 16:16 we’re going to talk about this morning and it kind of goes like this: “Whoever believes and says the SINNER’S PRAYER (or asks Jesus into their heart) shall be saved.”
Remember: How we communicate is very important. How we say things, the kind of words we use, the punctuation we use, and even the order of words in a sentence is very important. It’s important, especially when we’re dealing with God’s Word, because you don’t mess with his message
Now, the sinner’s prayer often is taught this way: “Dear Lord Jesus, I know that I am a sinner, and I ask for your forgiveness. I believe that you died for my sins, and that you rose from the dead. I turn from my sins and ask and ask you to come into my heart and life. I want to trust and follow you as my LORD and savior. In your name Amen.”
That sounds almost Biblical… and it’s VERY popular. In one form or another, the sinner’s prayer shows up a lot in Bible tracts, in Gideon Bibles, and you’ll often hear it if you were to attend a revivals in most churches. But the one place you’ll NEVER read the Sinner’s Prayer… is in the Bible, because no one ever prayed to God to become a Christian. It’s just not there!
ILLUS: But (someone will say) what about the thief on the Cross? He “prayed” to Jesus, he went to Paradise, and he became a Christian.
Well… two out of 3 ain’t bad. The thief did “pray” (or make a request of Jesus). He did go to paradise. But the thief was not a Christian when he died on the cross. And if he wasn’t a Christian… he would not be an example of how we can become Christians.
But, how do we know the thief wasn’t a Christian? Very simple – he didn’t have the Spirit residing within him. You see, the Bible is very clear that we must have the Spirit within us to belong to Christ. Romans 8:9b tells us “Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him.” So, you can’t be a Christian if you don’t have the spirit.
Ephesians 1:13-14 “In (Jesus) you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory.” So, it’s the Spirit, that dwells within us, that makes us Christians.
But the problem for the thief was: the Spirit wasn’t available when the he died. In John 7:38-39 Jesus said “Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’”… (and then the text says) “Now this he said about the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were to receive, for as yet THE SPIRIT HAD NOT YET BEEN GIVEN, because Jesus was not yet glorified.”
Jesus glorification came just days before Pentecost (That's why Peter's sermon at Pentecost promised that if we repent and are baptized, we'll receive the gift of the Holy Spirit… it came after Jesus was glorified).
You see a similar statement by Jesus in John 16:7 “Nevertheless, I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, THE HELPER (the Holy Spirit) WILL NOT COME to you. But if I go, I will send him to you.” Thus, the Spirit was not given until Jesus had "gone away".
The thief on the cross is a powerful story about forgiveness we can have thru Jesus but the thief did not die as a Christian. And because of that we can’t use the thief’s conversion as a way to describe how a person can become a Christian. It’s not honest to do that!
CLOSE: “Whoever believes and is baptized… shall be saved.” Let me close by telling you the story of a man who was baptized a 2nd time because he’d learned that. According to his mother’s Bible, this man was sprinkled with water when he was not quite two years old… in the Episcopal manner. And when he reached the age of 33 he took an oath to follow the doctrine of the Church of England.
As he grew older, a strong revival swept through the various denominations. And it was during this period that he remarked to John Gano, the Chaplain in the Continental Army, “I have been investigating the Scripture and I believe immersion to be the baptism taught in the Word of God, and I demand it at your hands. I do not wish any parade made or the Army called out, but simply a quiet demonstration of the ordinance.”
WHO WAS THIS MAN? His name was George Washington, and shortly after that, Chaplain John Gano immersed General George Washington in the Potomac River in the presence of 42 witnesses. Washington had become convinced that “Whoever BELIEVES and is baptized… shall be saved.”
INVITATION
• This historic episode was perpetuated in 1908 when E. T. Sanford of Manhattan’s North Church commissioned an artist to portray the scene, showing Washington standing with Chaplain Gano, waist-deep in the Potomac River. For a number of years this painting hung upon the wall of the Baptist church of Asbury Park, New Jersey, but in 1926 it was presented by the great-granddaughter of chaplain Gano to the William Jewel College in Liberty, MO, at the dedication of the William Gano Memorial Chapel.
John Gano was, at the time, a Baptist Minister and remains so all his life. His son, also named John, became a preacher in the Church of Christ in the early days of the Restoration Movement, and his son R.M. Gano, became a highly successful and popular preacher. He was an early leader in the church in Dallas and is said to have baptized 1000s of converts in his long ministry.
(The sources for the above article come from a couple different sources:
* News From Home, 50 Maiden Lane, NY, NY, vol. V, No. 1, 1994 (reprinted by Philip L. Young, 304 N. Garfield St., Oblong, IL 52449
And as 1932 was the Bicentennial of George Washington’s birth and created a fair amount of research and publication of facts regarding his life.
Charles Edward Thomas published the first account of the baptism in the “Delta” magazine in August of 1932. Time Magazine picked up the theme and published an article about it on Sept. 5, 1932 and this in turn became the spark that led Ira Boswell to write a further report with information he gathered in an article in the “Christian Standard” dated Oct. 15, 1932. James H. Childress reviewed all the articles in the “Firm Foundation” Vol. 50, No. 15, April 11, 1933, p. 1,3)
