Confession and Evidence

Announcer:

This is Today With Derek Prince. The internationally recognized Bible teacher and author presents to you Keys to Successful Living.

On yesterday’s program Derek Prince began his teaching on the topic ‘Immersion In Water.’ He first told us of three different kinds of baptism and then began to outline the main requirements for the baptism of John beginning with repentance. Today he continues with the last two requirements: confession of sins and the evidence of a changed life. Be sure to stay tune at the end of the broadcast today for our address and this week’s special offer.

Derek Prince:

Now, John’s baptism here required three things of the people who came to be baptized. Number one, it was a baptism of repentance. We’ve dealt already with repentance. It’s not an emotion, it’s a decision. It’s coming to the end of something, turning around, facing the opposite way and going in the opposite direction. John demanded that those who came to him for baptism would meet that condition. It was first a decision, then an action.

Secondly, John demanded the public confession of sins. This seems to have dropped out of the thinking of so many people in the church today. But I have learned by observation that it’s extremely powerful when God’s peoples are sufficiently convinced by the Holy Spirit to confess their sins. It has been the key that has sparked various revivals in the past, especially the Welsh Revival in 1904. It was marked by people confessing their sins.

And let me say something to you, you don’t necessarily have to confess your sins in public but you do have to confess your sins. Because the only sins that God is committed to forgive are the sins we confess. John says in his first epistle, the other John, John the apostle:

“If we confess our sins He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”

But that sentence starts with a little word ‘if.’ If we confess our sins. If we don’t confess, we have no guarantee that God will forgive.

I’ve dealt with many, many believers over the years who have a pile of unconfessed sin behind them. Then they come for healing or for blessing and they wonder why they don’t get healed. They have a tremendous burden. David said, ‘My sins are like a heavy burden over me.’ Dear friends, there are some of you here today who have a heavy burden over you because you’ve piled up sins which you haven’t confessed. Some of you would do well to get alone with God, open your hearts to the Holy Spirit and say, ‘God, show me what I need to confess.’ But please remember what I’ve said, if you don’t confess, you have no guarantee that God will forgive. If we confess He will forgive.

The third thing that John the Baptist demanded was evidence of a changed life. He demanded evidence that people had repented. When people came to him who apparently had not repented he refused to baptize them. And particularly, those were the religious people of the day—the Pharisees and the Sadducees. Jesus pointed out to the Pharisees later, He said, ‘The Publicans, the tax collectors and the harlots believed John and you didn’t.’ He said, ‘They will go into the kingdom of heaven before you.’ It’s rather characteristic, it’s very hard for strongly religious people to come to grips with a new dealing of God. I’ve said sometimes when a new move comes in the church it adds a new story to the building. And then, generally speaking, they put the roof on and say, ‘This is it, no more.’ And the next time the wind of God moves the first thing He has to do is blow their roof off. They tend to be rather resentful and find it hard to move with what God is going to do next.

So, this was like the Pharisees. This is what John said to him. He was a very plainspoken man. I once made a little study, I don’t want to go into it here, of the characteristics of people of whom it was said they were full of the Holy Spirit. The first one was John the Baptist. He was filled with the Holy Spirit from his mother’s womb. Then Jesus and then Peter and then Paul and then Stephen. I made a rather frightening discovery. Most of them ended their lives as martyrs. Another thing I discovered was they were all people of plain speech, they didn’t use nice religious language. The Holy Spirit cannot endorse anything that is woolly or muffled. He wants plain, clear speech. You listen to what John said, a lot of preachers wouldn’t talk like that today. But in Matthew 3:7–9:

“But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to his baptism he said to them, ‘Brood of vipers! Who has warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Therefore, bear fruits worthy of repentance [or answerable to a change of life]. Don’t think to say of yourselves, ‘We have Abraham to our father.’ [He said] God can raise from these stones children to Abraham.’”

It’s an amazing statement, isn’t it? So don’t rely on your pedigree, don’t rely on your background. You have to meet God’s conditions personally. So, those are the three requirements of John’s baptism: repentance, public confession of sins and evidence of a changed life.

I want to point out something here because it applies with every place where baptism is used. It says he baptized them into repentance. But, he wouldn’t baptize them unless they had already repented. So, the baptism did not produce the repentance, it was the seal and evidence that they had repented. You’ll find this will be true of every place in which the phrase ‘baptizes into’ is used. It’s not used to indicate that that brought them in but it’s used to indicate that’s the seal upon their being in. We’ll come to this later.

Now, there were limitations to the baptism of John. It only took people a certain distance. First of all, it did not produce the new birth. Matthew chapter 11:11, Jesus says of John the Baptist:

“Assuredly I say to you among those born of women there has not risen one greater than John the Baptist, but he who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he.”

So John was born of women but he was never born again. He didn’t enter into the new birth because that was not possible till Jesus came. So, he was one of the greatest of those born of women. But he that

is least in the kingdom of God is greater than John—not because of what we are but because of where God has put us. He has brought us into the kingdom through the new birth. You remember Jesus said ‘unless a person is born again he can neither see nor enter the kingdom of God.’ So John had his limitations, God-given limitations.

Secondly, this is important, after Pentecost the baptism of John was not accepted any longer as valid. This is revealed in Acts 19, just the first few verses.

“And it happened while Apollos was at Corinth that Paul, having passed through the upper regions, came to Ephesus. And finding some disciples he said to them, ‘Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?’”

Now we’re not told what they were disciples of. Apparently Paul was not clear. But he asked a question which I imagine he asked everywhere he went, ‘Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?’ Which proves that it’s possible to believe without receiving the Holy Spirit. My first wife was like that. She was a tigress about receiving the Holy Spirit. Whenever she met anybody she said, ‘Did you receive the Holy Spirit?’ And I think we are pretty slow today to raise this issue with people. ‘Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?’

“Well then Paul made a discovery.
‘They said to him, ‘We have not so much as heard whether there is a Holy Spirit.’ And he said to them, ‘Into what then were you baptized?’ So they said, ‘Into John’s baptism.’’”

Now, there are different ways of understanding that, but if they said, ‘We have not heard that there is a Holy Spirit,’ why did Paul say, ‘Into what then were you baptized?’ Why the ‘then’? How come that they could not have been Christians without hearing about the Holy Spirit? One explanation is Jesus told His disciples in Matthew 28:

“Be baptized in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.”

So, if they had had that baptism they must have heard of the Holy Spirit. So, Paul realized that they were never baptized as believers in Jesus, they were only baptized with the baptism of John. So Paul went on:

“‘John indeed baptized with a baptism of repentance, saying to the people that they should believe on him who would come after him; that is, on Christ Jesus.’”

So Paul said, that was a preparatory baptism but now that Jesus has come, died and risen again, it’s not any longer sufficient. In verse 5:

“When they heard this they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus.”

That’s the critical thing, you have to acknowledge Jesus as Lord and Messiah to qualify for baptism.

“And when Paul had laid his hands on them, the Holy Spirit came upon them. They spoke with tongues and prophesied.”

So Paul was thorough. He didn’t accept anything superficial. He wanted the real thing and he wanted it thorough so they had to be believers in Jesus, they were baptized in water and after they were baptized in water, as a distinct experience, Paul laid his hands upon them and they spoke in tongues and prophesied.

“So that’s trying to set the limits to the baptism of John the Baptist.”

Now we want to come to Christian baptism, which is the word that I use—what it means to be baptized as a believer in Jesus. I would have to say that this is a far more important thing than the average Christian today realizes. Even the Baptists, generally speaking, have very little understanding of the real significance and importance of being baptized in water. Let me say you are not baptized into Jesus Christ because you’re a sinner. It’s not a baptism of repentance. Let’s look at it. Matthew chapter 3:13–17:

“Then Jesus came from Galilee to John at the Jordan to be baptized by him. And John tried to prevent him, saying, ‘I have need to be baptized by you and are you coming to me?’”

Now at that moment John did not know that Jesus was the Messiah because in John’s gospel he says,

“‘I only knew He was the Messiah when the Spirit of God descended upon Him and remained on Him.’”

So that’s a testimony to Jesus’ life.

Announcer:

On tomorrow’s broadcast Derek Prince will continue his message ‘Immersion In Water.’ He will begin to focus on Christian baptism in water, it’s requirements and how it differs in meaning from the baptism of John.

This week’s message is available on audiocassette No. RC4164, and also on video. Our special offer this week is the deluxe hard cover edition of The Spirit-filled Believer’s Handbook. This 500 page hard cover edition covers the six basic doctrines of the Christian faith. It’s topical and Scripture indexes are useful for new Christians as well as for pastors and teachers in the study of God’s word. To receive your copy of Immersion In Water write today and include a contribution of $5.00 or more for audiocassette RC4164 or $14.95 for the video teaching. Include a gift of $15.00 or more for The Spirit-filled Believer’s Handbook.

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