There are differing views as to this matter, and it is not my intention to examine each different view in this short paper; except to say that most are faulty, and are not based on the clear statements of the New Testament. Those views are therefore false, and need to be rejected as heretical. However some doctrines are more evil than others, whereas others are just a form of child dedication, and though unscriptural, (and they are to be rejected as such), yet their practice springs from a pure motive, and usually from a desire in the hearts of anxious parents, that their children may come later to know the Lord Jesus as their own Saviour, and at the time of receiving Him as such, their response is regarded by their parents as a response to what they had done in faith years before.

However it needs to be pointed out here, that any idea of "Baptismal Regeneration", is both false and spurious, and can put the infant on a totally false ground. This tends to make unsaved people both hard and hypocritical, and to make them think that as many say in India that they are " Born Christians", simply because they have been born to Christian parents, and that they have been "Born again by Baptism", (having been sprinkled or immersed as babies). Such people feel that they do not need to have the Gospel preached to them, they have no need of repentance, or of a personal faith in our Lord Jesus Christ.

I was once present in a house meeting in Ludhianna, (Punjab India), and heard a young man give his testimony. He told how that he was brought up in a moderately strict Anglican religious family in England. He was of course "Christened" as a baby, went to Sunday school, and may even have become a choir boy, but he was not saved. As his rebellious teenage years dragged by, he received a kind of wanderlust, and went wandering around the world, in search of he knew not what. In the course of his wanderings, he came to India, and there for the first time in his life he heard the Gospel faithfully preached. He began at last to see himself as a guilty lost sinner, he then truly repented of his sins, and put his personal faith and trust in Christ, receiving Him as his own Saviour. He began to read his Bible like he had never done before, and he soon discovered the words of the Lord Jesus in Mark 16:16, "He that believes and is baptised shall be saved". Upon reading this he realised that what was done to him when he was a baby, had no value, and was based only on the traditions practiced by those people who were members of the Church which was attended by his parents. He was then and there baptised in water by being totally immersed therein, (in India). He informed his parents by letter of what he had done, and they were not very happy with him.

Later he returned home to England, and joyfully told his parents, "I am a Christian now". His father then asked him rather caustically, "Then what were you before?" His answer to this question was, "Well I suppose I was just a baptised, (christened), heathen". This brought home to me the truth, that baptism has absolutely no meaning to a person that is not saved, and that even if they were baptised a hundred times, it could never make them a true "Christian". Thank God that He moved Paul to write by the power of the Holy Spirit, "For ye are all the children, (sons), of God By Faith In Christ Jesus". (Galatians 3:26).

Without going further into the matter, let it be said at this point, that any view or doctrine that makes a lost and hell-bound sinner to think that they are saved, or are a ‘Christian’, without the need for repentance or of faith in Christ, is of the devil. An evangelical Anglican Bishop once said that "There will be more people in Hell because of the devilish doctrine of "Baptismal Regeneration", than because of any other doctrine". Let us be warned lest there be any who read these words, who are merely relying on the fact that they have been baptised, (by immersion or by sprinkling), to gain them a place in heaven, then they will surely end up in hell. Let us emphasise that salvation,, the forgiveness of sins, and the receiving of the gift of eternal life can only be obtained through a genuine repentance for sins committed, and a true and personal faith in our Lord Jesus alone, who shed His precious blood to atone for our sins, and to buy us back to be His forever. Let us all remember that the word "Christian", means "Christs own", or "belonging to Christ". One can never say that they belong to Christ, until they deliberately give themselves to Him forever.

As for other doctrines or views, such as "Household Baptism" such as is practiced by the Close, or Exclusive Brethren, or the doctrine of, "Baptism essential to salvation", as taught by certain of the "Church of Christ", people. Or the "Name of Jesus only", teaching such as taught by most Pentecostal groups, each can be shown from the New Testament to be quite wrong, but it in not our intention to go into the examination of those wrong doctrines now, but we may refer to them later.

I must say that I was brought up in the Exclusive Brethren System, and was baptised (probably in the family bath), by total immersion in water, and under the correct scriptural formula of Matthew 28:19, but I came to see 47 years later that according to the New Testament Scriptures, a person first believes, and is then baptised. When I saw that the command to be baptised was given by the Apostle Peter, I then returned to my home Assembly, and was baptised the following Sunday. In doing so, I incurred my dear father’s criticism, and also of some other family members, but I do not regret doing what I did and I would not hesitate to advise others who might find themselves in a similar situation to do the same. I have sometimes said that before being baptised as a believer, I had what seemed to be a good, sound argument, but now I have a good conscience. Because I know that by God’s grace, He has enabled me to be obedient to His word.

Let us now return to the subject matter of this paper, and in order to bring out the "Thoughts about Baptism, perhaps it would be best to ask, and to answer from the Bible, a number of questions, and the first of these is as follows.

If you have read the earlier pages of this paper, you must realise by now, that only a genuine Believer in Christ, should be baptised. But let us emphasise that it is incumbent on every true believer in Christ, (regardless of what may have taken place in their life before their coming to Christ to trust Him, and to receive Him as their own Saviour), to be baptised as a testimony to their faith in Christ, and to their desire to be obedient to His word.

No excuse is valid for us to put this matter off. I recall being asked about this matter by a brother who came from the same background as me. When I told him similar things to what I have earlier written in this paper, it became obvious that his conscience was touched, and he replied emphatically "I am not going to get baptised just to please the brethren!" My reply to this was to say that to do anything ‘just to please the brethren’ was to act from a false motive. That if we did not do so to please the Lord, who left heaven for us, and who died and rose again for us, who became obedient unto death for us; then it was better not to do anything simply to please men, and to conform to what men might expect of us.

Others may say, (indeed I said so myself), "But I have been baptised!" My answer to such now would be, "Were you baptised as a Christian Believer, or as a baby?" If the reply is the latter, then I have to inform you that you have not been baptised according to the command of the Lord Jesus, and that whatever form or ceremony you underwent, (which you do not even remember), was not a valid expression of obedience to the teaching of the New Testament, and while ever you continue as you are, then in spite of whatever else you may have done, you have not yet been obedient to the Lord in this matter.

Still others may say, "I am too old". To this excuse I would reply that I have known of an old couple beyond the age of eighty years, who were saved from an Anglican background, yet when they saw the truth of the Scriptures, nothing could stop them from obeying the Lord Jesus in this matter. If a person is knowingly at the end of their life, such as a person who is dying from terminal cancer, or Multiple Sclerosis or some other disease, then as they are about to

leave this scene, (unless they wish to die with the satisfaction of knowing that they have been obedient to the Lord’s commandment), then there is no necessity for such to be baptised as they are finished with this world. In justification of this advice I would like to point out that Baptism has nothing to do with heaven, or with our place there, but has everything to do with earth, and our testimony here. We shall deal with this matter further on in this paper.

Perhaps it would be appropriate to comment here on a report that I received from an eye-witness to the courage of new believers in Russia in the years since the fall of Communism. This dear brother told of being by a river, where the ice on the surface of that frozen river was broken n so that people could be baptised by immersion. When others who were nearby witnessed what was taking place, and they discovered that people were obeying the commands of the New Testament, they asked if they could be baptised also, as they also were true believers in Christ, but they had never been taught what the scriptures say on the matter. Such courage would put many of us to shame, in this land of luxury, and heated baptismal pits etc.

There are three modes of baptism in common use today, and they are Sprinkling, Aspersion, (or pouring), and immersion, but only the last mentioned is the correct and scriptural method. The Greek root, from which we get our word ‘Baptise’, is Baptiso, which means to dip or immerse, or as one commentary states, ‘to make thoroughly wet’. As we shall see more fully in the later chapter, the meaning of the ordinance is a symbol of death, burial, and resurrection. It will occur to my readers that no corpse is buried by simply sprinkling sand over it, neither is it buried by pouring sand or soil over it. Even in lands where the ground is very hard, such as in Bahrain, I have seen an ancient cemetery there, a shallow grave is still dug, but after the corpse is buried, then a mound of stones and dirt, or rubble is raised over it. Besides this there is abundant evidence that baptism was by immersion. It is said of Phillip and the eunuch that they went both of them down into the water, and that Phillip baptised, (Gk Baptiso) him. I have seen pictures of a lot of people lined up by the side of a swimming pool, (in the water) and the Pentecostal Pastor just went along and dunked each person, pushing them down, and just saying the words "In Jesus’ Name) This seemed to me to be a travesty of what the scriptures teach us. It is obvious also that John the Baptist chose a place where there was much water, such as Aenon near Salim. (John 3:23) While we need to understand that John’s baptism was not Christian Baptism, but was rather a ritual purification, yet it was ordained of God, and blessed of Him also, yet the mode of immersion was the correct one and was practiced by him.

There is only one place in the scriptures where the correct formula for baptism is given to us. This passage is in verse 19 of Matthew 28.(Matthew 28:19), though we are told in several places in the Acts that people were baptised in the name of the Lord. (I shall explain why shortly). These words of the Lord Jesus are both authoritative and final, and to be baptised correctly this formula must be used. Let us remember what precedes this statement. The Lord Jesus had risen from the dead, and He has stated categorically that all power had been given unto Him, both in heaven and earth. The word ‘power’, is exousia, (in the Greek), and it conveys the right to exercise authority. Thus His command given here is final, and none have the right to change it.

But some will argue that if this statement is correct, why does it state in the Book of the Acts, that people were baptised in the name of ‘The Lord’? The answer to this question is to be found specifically in Paul’s letter to the Colossians, (Colossians 3:17), where an unchanging principle is stated, that everything we do or say is to be done in the Name of the Lord Jesus. The proof of our contention is found in Acts chapter 19:1-5. (Acts 19:1-5). When Paul asked those twelve men to what they were baptised, it is plain that if they had been baptised with Christian Baptism, they would surely have known that there was a Holy Spirit, because they would have been baptised to the name of the Triune God, of whom the Holy Spirit is part, thus the formula of Matthew 28:19 would most certainly have been used in the fulfilment of that ordinance. But these twelve men only knew about the baptism of John, (the Baptist), and because of this they had not heard the sacred formula of Matthew 28:19, nor did they know, or even know about, the Person of the Holy Spirit, neither did they receive Him until that day itself.

Let us now examine that verse a little more closely. The word translated "Teach", is the Greek word mathēteuō, which literally means ‘make disciples’. This shows that those who were to be baptized, were expected to be obedient, wholehearted followers of Christ. They were to be taught to observe, (obey), all the things that the Lord Jesus had taught His disciples, (not just what suited them of all those things). They were then to be baptized to the Name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. This shows us that those that are to be baptized should expect to undergo a period of concentrated teaching as to those things, before they are baptized. This is perhaps overlooked somewhat in these days, as the Elders and members of an Assembly are often so glad that some one (or more than one) have expressed the desire to be baptized, that the matter is arranged to be done as soon as possible.

Further we should notice how that in making this statement, the Lord Jesus preserved the doctrine of the Trinity, and the doctrine of the Oneness of the Godhead. This is to be seen in the fact that He used the singular word for Name, not the plural names. Though there are three distinct Persons in the Trinity, yet their name is only One. The equation thus is, Three Persons but One Name = One God. This agrees with other passages of scripture where the Oneness of God is emphasized, such as (1Timothy 2:5, & 1Corinthians 8:6). Let us emphasize here that we (Christians), have only One God, not three as claimed by others.

The first Baptisms in the New Testament, took place in the River Jordan, where John the Baptist was operating. Later as the Lord Jesus preached the Gospel and people were saved, those people were baptized by the disciples of Jesus in public places wherever sufficient water was available. Though the saved ones came to Christ, (John 3:26), yet the Lord Jesus did not perform the baptisms, but His disciples did,(John 4:2).

On, or about the day of Pentecost, there were three thousand souls baptized, these could not all have been baptized in one place, but there were many places in the City of Jerusalem that could have been used for the same purpose, and at the same time. As the Church spread, and as they acquired their own buildings, places for baptism were included in the construction of such buildings. Baptismal pits or tanks, with steps leading down into, and out of them are still to be seen in the ruins of the most ancient Church buildings in Turkey, and ancient Asia Minor today. The site of such places for Baptism are not of great importance, but the availability of water would seem to be the main requirement. I have attended baptisms held in Gospel Chapels, and also in the sea in Australia. I have baptised people in the Mediterranean Sea in Egypt, as well as in the baptismal tank in a Gospel Chapel in Heliopolis, Cairo. I have attended baptisms in India where people have been baptised in tanks, and irrigation channels, in various places.

Baptism ceremonies are a good opportunity of witness, and Gospel preaching; and it is as well to invite relatives, and friends to attend. I recall a baptism being held in a country place in Uttar Pradesh India. On that occasion those being baptised invited Hindu and Muslim neighbours to attend, and there was quite a gathering, and most present were unbelievers, thus a powerful testimony was rendered, a testimony that those present would not be likely to forget quickly. On another occasion I recall baptising some people in a pool in a mountain stream in Malaysia, (a wholly Muslim Country). The opportunity was taken to explain to all present, what was about to take place and why, and the meaning of the ordinance.

Some believers seem to think that a baptism should be a big and social occasion, however the Scriptures do not teach this. In fact in Acts chapter eight, a description of a baptism is given, and we are only told of the presence of two people, that is of Philip and the Ethiopian Eunuch, (though it is quite possible that others of that official’s retinue could have been there).

We live in a day when strange things are held and practiced; and it is considered that only the ordained Priest, Minister, or Pastor has any right to baptise another person. In fact I have met people who believed that their ordination into the ministry of the Church, invested them with the sacred right to baptise another. Many such people are not truly saved themselves, and are just lost sinners and are on their way to Hell themselves. Such people, regardless of their religious educational attainments, or any ordination that they may have received from men, have no scriptural authority to perform such a ceremony.

But the simplest, most humble brother, who has been born again, and is cleansed in the blood of Christ, and who is himself baptised. One who is a true disciple of Christ, does have the authority, (delegated by the Master Himself0, to baptise another person who has likewise accepted Christ as their own Saviour and desires to be obedient to His word.

In certain circumstances a person has baptised themselves, though this is far from being normal. I once read of a lady whose name was Bilquis Sheik, who was from a Muslim background, and lived in Pakistan. She was truly saved, and she understood the need to be baptised. But she was from a noble family and any person who baptised her would be in great personal danger; either of being killed, or thrown into prison (probably to be tortured there). She was not able to find a Christian who was willing to take the risk, so she baptised herself. I also know a man who came from a Brahmin, (high caste Hindu), family. While working in Bombay, he was in the habit of listening to the messages given over the Back To The Bible Broadcast, he heard the Gospel clearly presented on that programme, but he was not saved. He went on a pilgrimage to the (so-called Holy Places in Israel), expecting to receive some special light from God. He visited the Holy Places in Jerusalem, and sat most of the day in the Lotus position, (IE with arms and legs crossed and folded), but nothing happened. As his time was running out, he returned to his hotel room distressed and disappointed, and he knelt by his bed and prayed to the Lord Jesus as he had heard the speaker on the B,toB,B do.

While thus praying, he was reminded of the things that he had heard the B.B.B. preacher say. There and then he repented of his sins, put his faith in Christ, and received Him as his own Saviour. His whole being was flooded with such a holy joy, as he had imagined was not possible on this earth. But there followed a deep conviction that he could not be a genuine Christian unless he was baptised. But he was a total stranger in Jerusalem, and he did not know anybody who would baptise him in that city. So he decided to baptise himself. He said that he ran the bath tub full of water, then read the words of the sacred formula in Matthew 28:19, and proclaimed that he was baptising himself according to the scriptures, and then he totally immersed himself in the water and came out. His whole being was flooded with an even greater joy than previously, and with the water streaming from him he returned to his bedroom to dry and dress. Later he was baptised again by the elders of the Fort Assembly in Bombay. He is now serving the Lord in the North of India, and also in Nepal, and I have been with this brother when he baptised 19 people in a stream in Nepal.

This quotation from (Acts 8:36) is an indication that there are some things the practice of which, would hinder a person from being baptised As time has passed by the number of things that would hinder a person from being baptised has increased. Perhaps we should look at only a few of these, because of space. The first we shall look at is-

Perhaps this is the greatest hindrance of all, because there are many people who have a genuine faith in Christ, but they have been sprinkled, or even baptised by immersion as a child, by their parents or the minister of the Church where their parents attended. They know that they should be baptised, but they are afraid of offending their parents, or those who are friends of the family who may attend the same Church. The Ethiopian eunuch had no such compunctions. He had come from a heathen land, where he had prospered, and was held in high esteem. He was also going back to that land where there was no Christian witness, and he wished to make use of the only opportunity that he would have perhaps for many years. He would not allow his position to hinder him from being baptised. I would exhort any who may be hindered at this time from being baptised by the fear of what others might think, to jettison such fears, and come out and publicly identify yourself with your rejected Master. Think instead of the pleasure and the joy that your public identification with Him in His death will bring to His great heart of love.

The practice of any public sin would definitely hinder a person from being baptised. If you wish to continue in such practice, then don’t think of being baptised. There are already too many hypocrites in the world, without adding yourself to them. But it is far better to cease from the practice of such sins, than to put off your baptism. The Lord Jesus is able to make you to stand for Him. He is able to keep you from falling, as you walk in newness of life, with a simple daily trust in Him. If you are involved in business dishonesty, then cease it immediately, and extricate yourself from any partnership with unbelievers, where in order to please your partners you will have to be a part of shady or dishonest dealings. Do this now, don’t think that after your baptism it will fall of automatically.

Drunkenness, Gambling, or other shameful practices must cease before you are baptised, and not be put off until afterwards. I remember going once with a local servant of God to interview a man who was a smoker. After he had been taught about the meaning and the significance of baptism, we asked him about his habit of smoking. He replied that slowly he would give it up, but we had to warn him that slowly he would never give it up, and we assured him that if he was to be delivered from that evil habit, he must make a clean break with it right there and then. He did so, and gave any cigarettes to us to destroy. He was baptised, and on a later visit we asked him about that habit, and he replied that it was gone forever, and he was so happy, because he now could enjoy his food much more, he enjoyed better health, and not only that, he had more money to spend on better things.

Immorality, is one of the banes of Western Society, and sad to say there are many who claim to be the servants of the Lord, who are living shameful immoral lives. If there is a person who is thinking of being baptised but at present they are involved in the practice of immorality, either in adultery fornication, or homosexuality, then my exhortation to such is break it off now. Confess your sin to the person with whom you have sinned, and to the Lord Jesus Christ, against whom you have sinned, and only then think of obeying Him, by being baptised; and be determined. (by God’s grace and enabling), never to return to such a sinful life again.

While the baptism of John was mainly a form of ritual purification, yet a similar idea is carried over into Christian Baptism. In the baptism of John, he preached the baptism of repentance. He called on all even from the least to the greatest to repent of their sinful and hypocritical lives. From Soldiers to religious leaders, (whom he called ‘offspring of vipers), he called on all to renounce their past sinful lives, and to turn anew to Jehovah the Holy God of Israel.

Though Christian Baptism is somewhat different, yet it also demands of those who submit to that ordinance, that they should thereafter live a holy life, and walk in the power of the new resurrection life of Christ. As we have stated earlier in this paper, baptism is a symbol of death, burial, and resurrection. Once a person is convicted by the Holy Spirit of their sins, and they come to genuine repentance, following which they put their trust in the Lord Jesus Christ, and make Him the Lord of their lives. At that time it is normal for such to be disgusted with their old life, and want it to end, and at the same time they wish to live a new and a better life, a life ultimately of personal holiness. It should be pointed out here, that God never saves a person from their sins, and yet still wishes that they might continue in their sins. This is the clear teaching of (Romans 6:1-23).Though He is wonderfully patient, and He bears with us in our sins and failures for a long period of time, yet He does not wish that we who have been ‘born again’, should continue to test His grace and live in sin. He is determined that sin shall not have dominion over us, and He constantly works with us to bring us into line with His own desires. He shows us that our old life can never be improved, and that when Christ died, He died not only that our sins might be forgiven, but His death was vicarious, (it was on our behalf), and that when He died, we died with Him, and that when He was buried we were buried with Him; and that when He rose again from amongst the dead, we too were raised with Him. Now baptism is a symbol of all of these things, that is, it is a symbol of death, burial, and resurrection.

God expects then that after we are baptised we should walk in newness of life, (that is in the power of Christ’s new resurrection life). This power already dwells in us in the Person of the Holy Spirit, who quickened Christ from amongst the dead. We need to discover how to use that power, and to do so we must first "reckon ourselves to be dead to sin, but alive unto God, through Jesus Christ our Lord", (Romans 6:11). Please note that the verse does not say that we are to imagine ourselves to be dead to sin, but that we are to reckon, ourselves to be dead to sin. It is a fact, but we can only experience the power of that reality, as we reckon, (that is as we make up our minds), that it is really true Thus the act of baptism makes way for our experience of the reality of Christ’s sanctifying ministry in our lives.

Let us ponder then, what is involved in this in the practical sense. Baptism does not save us from the guilt of our sins, and the judgement that we deserved, but it does save us from the power of the principle of indwelling sin, (if we are true to it), and it will thus save us from this wicked world, and the generation that we rub shoulders with each day. It had s special, significance for the Jew, and when the Jew is baptised, his, (or her), national sins are washed away They are forever regarded as dead and buried by those of their race, religion, or family. That is why Paul was told by Ananias to arise and get baptised for the washing away of his sins, (Acts 22:16). The sins referred to in that verse were his national sins, he washed them away by being baptised, and thus severing himself from the Nation of Israel, by death burial and resurrection, (in the symbol).

Though we are Gentiles, and because of this we are not guilty of the sins of the Nation of Israel, yet baptism is meant to save us from this wicked world that has crucified our blessed Saviour. Because though the Lord Jesus was tried and crucified in Jerusalem, He was sentenced to death by a Roman, (European) Judge, and he was crucified by Roman, (European) soldiers. This means that when we are baptised we are literally saying goodbye to this world, to its sins, its pleasures and its sports, in fact to everything that is of the world. Thereafter we are dead and buried as far as the world is concerned, and we should so live and act as if this was true.

There are two aspects to our responsibility after we are baptised, the collective, and the individual. We shall deal with the collective responsibility first. In (Acts 2:41), we are told that those that were baptised did certain things, and that they continued steadfastly in the practice of those things. First let us see that they continued steadfastly, that is they went steadily on. This is what is expected of those that are baptised today, we expect such to go on steadily, that is not to settle down, as if they had reached the end, and certainly not to go back to their old life, but to go on steadily. This does not mean that we expect those that have been baptised to make spectacular progress, but we do expect them to make steady progress. But they continued steadfastly in four things, and we will consider these separately.

It is important to note that there is much teaching around today which is not the teaching of the Apostles. I refer to the many heretical Pentecostal doctrines that are being pushed onto many unsuspecting minds, but we will not delve into such heresies now. We need to realise that the Apostles is to be found in the pages of the New Testament, and we need to maintain the "Faith once delivered to the saints", not the fanciful imaginations of modern teachers. We also need to realise that we have an advantage that the early believers did not have. The Apostles may be gone to be with our Master, but they have left us with a completed New Testament, wherein their teaching is enshrined. Let us cling to that word, and fellowship with those who love and teach that word. We are not baptised and then left to walk alone, but it is the normal thing for those who are baptised to walk in fellowship with those that hold and teach the teaching of the Apostles.

Though the Apostles have long since gone, yet the fellowship that they established still continues, and will do so until the Lord Jesus comes for His Church. What is to be seen in most of the formal Churches of today, is really a travesty of that fellowship. The fellowship of the Apostles was a warm and loving thing, where everybody knew everybody else, and where social differences disappeared. They had all things common; they shared what they had, both of material things, as well as Spiritual things. It is normal for those who are baptised to be part of such a group, this is the true Church. Those who were baptised did not just come to the meetings to get, but to give.

The Greek word from which our word for fellowship comes, is the word koinonia, and it literally means ‘to share’, or ‘partnership’. Now for any partnership to operate successfully, there are two things that must be there, and those two things are ‘privilege’, and ‘responsibility’. We must first give, before we can take. The Church is in such a powerless state today, because most are taught to partake of the great privileges that come with Christian fellowship, without being taught to put anything back in return. The notion of the Clergyman, has contributed to this, because that person is specially trained for his office, and all the gifts of the Holy Sprit are supposed to be concentrated in him, and he is paid to do everything, while the congregation does little or nothing. In many cases he gobbles up the financial resources of the Church also, leading to the death of any missionary vision that may have been in the Church beforehand.

It is to be understood that once a person is baptised it is normal for then to join such a fellowship as we have described. First they contribute to the wealth of the Local Church, by being present at all of the meetings. Then as their understanding increases, and the gifts that God has given them become evident, they will be expected to share the responsibilities connected with the function of the Local Church. To give out Gospel tracts is something that we all can do, and thus we are able to spread the Gospel in this way. Most Churches or Assemblies have a good outreach in Sunday school, and both young men and sisters should aspire to be a Sunday school teacher. In this way the soul of the giver is blessed. Paul referred to the words of the Lord Jesus how that He said, "It is more blessed to give, than to receive". (Acts 20:35). Thus the giver themselves are enriched, the Church also profits as we share the responsibilities of its witness, God is glorified, and the gifts given by Him are developed, and the end result is blessing to all.

The third thing that those who were baptised continued steadfastly in was the breaking of bread. It became the practice during the time of the Apostles for the Church to Assemble on the first day of the week to celebrate the Lord’s Supper. This is generally referred to in the scripture as the ‘breaking of bread’. (Acts 20:7) In a certain sense when we are baptised by immersion, we take a vow that we will be true to the death of Christ,.. This vow is renewed every time we break bread, because as we partake of the loaf, and drink from the cup we show forth His death until He comes. It is true that the Lord Jesus has commanded us to be baptised, but He has also asked us to partake of the two emblems at the Lord’s Supper, in remembrance of Him.(Luke 22:19 & 1Corinthians 11:24-25). It is normal then for each believer in any local Assembly who has been baptised also to remember the Lord, in the breaking of bread.

They should do this every week, not just occasionally, monthly or quarterly, (as is the practice with some. The Elders in the local Assembly are shepherds and they watch over your souls as those that shall give an account to the Chief Shepherd. (Hebrews 13:17) So if any member of the Church is absent from the Lord’s Supper, they have a God-given right to visit that person and to inquire as to their spiritual well being, and to ask them as to why they were absent from the Lord’s Supper, and also to encourage them to be present when next the Lord is remembered in His own appointed way.

The prayers mentioned here are not our personal, or family prayers, but the meeting of the Church that is set apart for this purpose. At the Church’s beginning, it was the practice, (which practice was carried over from Judaism, for the Church to gather each day at 3 PM, at the Jewish Temple to pray. As the Church began to grow, and to spread, the prayer meeting became a weekly affair. Some Assemblies still feel that one prayer meeting each week is not enough, so they gather on another occasion also for prayer. We cannot pray too much, and where there is a burden to pray, God has honoured it with His blessing.

However those that are baptised should always be present at the weekly Assembly prayer meeting and the scripture commands, the men should pray in every place. The women are to pray also, but their prayers should be silent, (heard only by God), as commanded in the scriptures. This meeting is just as important as the meeting for remembrance, but in these days of general decline is the witness of the Assemblies of God’s people, it has fallen into disfavour and very few attend. Let us shame others by our regular attendance at the prayer meeting.

The hour is late, the coming of the Lord for His Church is rapidly approaching, and God expects that we should not forsake the assembling of ourselves together. Let us be diligent, and faithful in the fulfilment of our responsibilities, until He comes!

Let us now look at the individual side of our experience after baptism.

When the Lord Jesus was baptised the Father was watching, and He hastened to declare to all that He had found all His pleasure in the person of Christ in His manhood’s condition. Right from the moment of His birth, up until this moment, every moment of the thirty years that He had lived as Man upon this earth. Thus at tis moment of time, there was the plain declaration of the fact of the Trinity. The Father’s voice is plainly heard from heaven, the Son is standing upon the earth, having just been baptised in the waters of the Jordan River by John the Baptist; and the Holy Spirit hastens to descend from heaven in a bodily, (visible) form, as a dove, to abide upon, (find his rest in), the person of Christ. Thus we have here the testimony as to the Triune God, the Trinity, before men, and particularly before His servant, John the Baptist.

My dear brother or sister let me tell you that when you were baptised, the Father was watching, and it brought joy to His Great heart of love to witness your obedience to His word. Let me challenge you to follow the example of the Lord Jesus, because it says of Him that while in the water He was praying. Though He did possess Divine Power, yet He did not rely upon His own personal power, but as Man He relied fully upon God whose will He had come to do. He was about to begin His public ministry, which was to end with His suffering on the cross, where He finished the work of our redemption. At this point He displayed the characteristic of perfect and absolute dependence upon God; you must do the same as you begin a new phase of your testimony here.

From this moment He submitted Himself to the control of the Holy Spirit, who drove Him into the wilderness, to be tempted by the Devil during forty days. We learn from the fact that the Holy Spirit drove Him, that He was almost unwilling to go there. This was only because He hated evil, and was not willing to go into any situation where he was exposed to temptation. Let us likewise avoid any situation where we also will be tempted to sin. Satan also witnessed your baptism, and it displeased him greatly. You may expect that by that act of obedience, you have incurred Satan’s wrath, and now he will use all his cunning and long experience in tempting men to try to cause you to fall, to get you to appear to others to be a hypocrite. One who has denied in practice what you have professed when you were baptised. But the Lord Jesus has set the perfect example for you to follow. Depend wholly upon Him, He will never fail you. The temptations that Christ experienced, were not to prove His sinlessness, (God knew that He could not, and that He would not sin), but He underwent those temptations to show you and me and all who would follow Him, how to overcome the tempter.

Remember that Satan has a vested interest in bringing about your fall, and this is for several reasons two of which are as follows. If he can get you to sin, then he has you at his mercy. He will point you out to others as a hypocrite, and tell others that they must not be like you. He will suggest to them that they had better not be baptised, lest they too become a hypocrite like you. Secondly Satan knows that if you do fail, you will lose your joy. He will then magnify your failure until it seems so horrible that you could never be forgiven, and he will then try to make you think that you have lost your salvation, and he knows that if he can convince you that you have lost your salvation, that you will be doubly miserable. He will quote scripture out of context, and cause you to read the words of men who were otherwise sound, and have been mightily used of God, all in an attempt to make you to doubt what the scripture clearly says as to the eternal security of your salvation.

As we mentioned before, Christ was not subjected to temptation to prove His impeccable character, but that He might show you and I how to overcome the tempter. Just as the Lord Jesus was driven by the Holy Spirit into the wilderness, so you may expect to undergo a period of deep testing following your baptism. Satan is determined to tempt you and to get you to yield to his temptation, and thus make you to appear to be a hypocrite, because he does not wish others to follow your example, of obedience to the commands of the Lord Jesus. Let us fix our eyes upon Christ. Let us learn from Him; Let us follow His example.

First we should notice, that though only three temptations are recorded, yet we learn from other scriptures that He was tempted in all points like as we are, (Hebrews 4:15), so that in the days that led up to the three recorded temptations, He must have undergone every temptation that you and I will ever have to experience, but He came though it all unscathed, and did not sin. This prepared Him for His present High Priestly Office, because He knows exactly how you feel when you are tempted, and now He ever lives to make intercession for us. During those forty days He ate nothing. This could mean that He fasted voluntarily, or it could mean that being exposed to temptation, to sin, was so hateful to Him, that he lost all desire to eat. Though He was in the wilderness, yet He was not there by choice, He had to be driven there, but He was surely in the centre of the path of the will of God.

After not eating for forty days He must have been ravenously hungry. It was just at this point that Satan chose to attack. He attempted to sow his doubts in the mind of the Lord Jesus, saying to Him, "If thou be the Son of God, speak to this stone, that it become bread". This temptation seemed on the face of it, to be very reasonable; indeed all of Satan’s temptations are. What could be more reasonable for a hungry man than to make bread to satisfy His hunger? But the Lord Jesus knew that if it had been His Fathers will, then He could have supplied Him with an abundance of fresh and sustaining food. Further He knew that stones were not for eating, and had no sustaining substance, no matter hoe tasty they may appear to be. (Luke 11:11).

Satan is feeding the world that is under his control on stones, though he makes them appear to be very tasty and palatable to the flesh. He will offer you many things that the world enjoys, the spiciest magazines, the exciting television shows etc. None of these things will build you up spiritually, learn to reject them all, and feed daily on the word of God, by reading the Bible. There you will find the words that go out through God’s mouth, and if you feed your soul upon those, they will make your heart to rejoice, and will make you strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. Please note that the Lord Jesus answered every temptation of Satan by quoting the Bible. When you are tempted by Satan you must learn to do the same; he cannot bear it when you quote the scriptures to him, and show him that you are determined to obey what God says.

Next Satan took the Lord Jesus to the top of a high mountain, and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world in am moment of time. It is obvious that Satan did not take him to such a place physically, but in His mind he did. After he had shown Him those kingdoms and offered their glory to Jesus, al he asked of Him was that He would only bow down to Satan. On the face of it, this did not seem to be much to do. Just consider the matter. He offered Jesus a life of luxury, power and ease, where he could have everything that He wished. This meant that He would escape the sufferings of the cross, but it would also mean that you and I would be left to suffer in hell for eternity. But the Lord Jesus chose rather to suffer in our stead, the Just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God. He refused to bow down to Satan, for to worship him means just that. We too must reject what Satan offers, and take our place with the Lord Jesus, we must suffer with Him, if we are to reign with Him. Satan offers an easy life, present advantage, but God offers us future glory, but glory that abides. May God help you to choose the path of suffering, and from this very day, may enable you to take up the cross of Christ, and by faith to make it your own, so that you might share His throne bye and bye. This was the offer of temporal glory, fame and power, but the final temptation was different.

In His mind Satan now took him to Jerusalem, and set Him on the pinnacle of the Temple. This was a different situation to the mountaintop, and the emphasis in this temptation is ecclesiastical or religious. The pinnacle was the very top, the highest point of that great building, which Herod took forty six years to build. It was in itself a kind of bribe, which Herod the Great used to gain the favour of the support of the Jews, and thus to perpetuate his Dynasty, and that of his sons after him. Once more Satan sought to inject the poison of doubt into the mind of the Lord Jesus, saying to Him, "If Thou be the Son of God". The Lord Jesus knew that He was the Son of God, and that many things had been written about Him in the Old Testament Scriptures. Satan tempted Him to throw Himself down from that lofty place, and now he quotes the words of scripture, in a vain attempt to lure the Lord Jesus out of the path of the will of God. To have yielded to Satan’s temptation, would mean that He was tempting God, and He knew that this was not right, Thus He answered the tempter once more with the words of Holy Scripture, but this time He gives those words a present application, by using the words "It is said", indicating that God was speaking to Him right there, and then.

Let us remember that Satan is able to quote scripture also, but when he does so, them we need to take heed, and to carefully examine what he says. In this temptation he tempts the Lord Jesus to do something spectacular, suggesting that it would give God the opportunity to demonstrate that His promises made in His word are true. However the Lord Jesus saw through the tempter’s strategy, and He answered him by again quoting the scriptures, (Deuteronomy 6:16) A careful examination of this temptation will show how absurd the proposition was. Satan quotes from Psalm 91, he takes the verse out of its context, he does the same today. I recall speaking with a brother in Zambia in the year 1976. His wife had been diagnosed as having cancer the year before, but it was claimed that she had been healed by God. This brother made the remark that "It is so nice to know that God is alive in 75". I was a little shocked and remarked that if his wife had not been healed, would it mean that God was dead? There are many today who concentrate on the dramatic, however God would have us to take Him at His word, and trust Him in every circumstance, to accomplish His own will. Then we read that the Devil "When he had ended every temptation departed from Him for a season". This statement seems to indicate that he intended to return, which he did at Gethsemane. But he left the Lord Jesus unscathed. He had succeeded in bringing down every other man who had ever lived, but the Lord Jesus defeated him there, and it was at this point that He bound the strong man, and now He set about to plunder his goods. (Luke 11:21-22)

We read in Mark’s Gospel chapter one verse thirteen that after the Devil left Him the Angels ministered unto Him. Then take courage my brother, or my sister, because all that was available to the Lord Jesus is available to you also. The same Holy Spirit, who came upon Him bodily, also indwells you, you also have in your hands the completed word of God, and there is an angel deputed to minister unto you too. (Hebrews 1:14). Thus God has made every provision for you to be more than conqueror through Him who loves us. God will see that you are protected also, though He may bring you into circumstances where you may be in danger. Because though we read in the same verse that we have quoted above from Mark 1:13, we read that the Lord Jesus was with the ‘wild beasts’, yet they neither terrified Him, nor did they cause Him any harm.

Daily surrender your lives to the complete control of the Holy Spirit, and determine to walk in the path of God’s Holy Will, whatever the cost. Follow the example of our blessed Master, for He has left us a model that we should follow in His steps. If you do this, then when your life is ended, you will have no regrets, but you will be able to say with Paul, "I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith". May God bless and encourage you!