In this fourth and final part in The Devil's Dirty Deed, B. R. Maul shows in God's word why infant baptism is not what God meant and discusses the dangers of listening to man's tradition over the Word of God.
In this fourth and final part in The Devil's Dirty Deed, B. R. Maul shows in God's word why infant baptism is not what God meant and discusses the dangers of listening to man's tradition over the Word of God.
(This is a computer generated transcript of this podcast. This is NOT a typed transcript and it has not been edited. Expect grammatical and syntactical errors.)
Hello and good day. Welcome to another podcast of Living God's Way in an Ungodly World. I'm your host B. R. Maul. So good to have you here with me today. This is the fourth installment of the Devil's Dirty Deed. The last three weeks I have been talking about infant baptism, the devil's dirty deed, the great lie I've been saying, the big lie, but you know, the big lie doesn't truly underline that enough. It really doesn't emphasize what the devil's been doing. So I think I should call it the Great Lie. After all, the devil is the father of all lies. The devil, the Christian's biggest enemy will do everything and is doing anything and everything to confuse us, to fool us, to trick us into believing as many lies as he can.
Now, unfortunately, he seems to be doing a pretty darn good job because around the world, billions are fooled. He has them in all kinds of different religions, Hinduism, Islam, but all kinds, and I believe I've said it before in a podcast, or maybe it was while preaching, but even denominations of Christianity alone, we're looking at well over 40,000.
Yes, 40,000 different denominations. And there's no way that all of them are correct. Impossible. After all, there is only one way, and that's through Jesus Christ. And so that's a good place to start. Even though the devil cannot take your salvation from you, he can certainly blind us, mislead us, and make us useless in building the kingdom of God, which God has given us to do, to go out into all nations making disciples.
And so he will do that. He will do everything he can to make us useless and at the same time, to take away all the wonderful blessings that God our father wants to bestow on his children as we follow him. And he's doing a pretty successful job at it. That's unfortunate. Of course, the great news is we already know how the story ends.
We know that Jesus has already won. Not that he will win, he's already won. He's already overcome death. He's already paid that price. But God has plans of his own. He wants to save as many souls. He wants to give everybody the chance to make that decision that, yes, Lord, I love your son and I want to be with you in eternity, or, no, this is my life. I don't want to give it to you and I'm gonna live my way. And of course, there's a major price to pay for doing that, and that's eternity separated from God, death, eternal death. But that said, last week I talked about Simon the sorcerer, and we learn some pretty big news because Simon the sorcerer is an example of what can happen when somebody in his case believed in Jesus and he was so excited about it and taken back from the miracles that he wanted to be baptized and he was baptized. So here was a man that believed and was baptized, but was not born again. So what was it that Simon, the sorcerer completely missed the boat on? Because we all want to make sure right, that we are following the Lord. He wasn't believing in his heart. Simon the sorcerer was believing in his mind. He was in awe. He was excited about the concept of the whole thing. He himself wanted to benefit from being a Christian for following Jesus. He wanted to be able to lay hands on people and give them the Holy Ghost. And of course, his heart. He wanted to make money. He was thinking about himself and not others.
John 14, verse 21. Reads, and this is Jesus speaking. He who has my commandments and keeps them. It is he who loves me. We have to have his commandments and keep his commandments. That is loving Jesus. Let me read that again and I'll read the whole thing cuz that was only the first part of verse 21. John 14, verse 21.
He who has my commandments and keeps them. It is he who loves me and he who loves me will be loved by my father and I will love him and manifest myself to him. That's it right there. You want to love the Lord Jesus? Get into his word. Read God's word daily. That's not work of salvation. Not at all. He's just saying that if you truly love him, that's what you're gonna do.
When we look at baptism now, there's basically two different types that people believe in. One is pedo baptism, or what we call either baby baptism or infant baptism. And then there is the believers baptism. Only one of those can be right. I hate to say that in my heart, truly, I wish they could both be right.
Born into a Lutheran family growing up, that was a big part and I took great comfort in knowing that I was baptized as a baby, but I was misled. And I've talked about this in the other podcast. I won't continue on that. But again, I wanna refer to scripture. I'm gonna be referring to a lot of scripture today, so bear with me and I hope you have your Bibles out cuz this is a good time to learn.
If you want to take notes, just hit pause. If you go to Mark. 16 verse 16, the Gospel of Mark, chapter 16, verse 16. So Jesus has just told them to go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. Verse 16, he says, he who believes and is baptized will be saved, but he who does not believe will be condemned.
Well, let's break that down cuz you may think, well, all right. That doesn't really say much. I mean, yeah, you need to be. You need to believe and be baptized. He says to be saved. Not exactly. He who believes and is baptized will be saved. Now we know from a lot of scripture that belief is what is needed to be saved.
I talked about it when we covered Nicodemus. I'll talk about it again or read it in Romans, that there are place after place after place that somebody is believed, but it's not mentioned that they were baptized. Some they could have been baptized later. They may have never been baptized. We don't know.
But the second half, listen to this carefully, but he who does not believe will be condemned when Jesus is talking. He left out baptized when it comes to being condemned. Did you catch that? We already know from scripture elsewhere that if somebody believes, and that is all it takes, is that belief in the heart that that alone is salvation.
So baptism, although we're told to do it, is not part of getting our salvation. Why? Because if a person fails to believe, it's quite clear here that even if they were just baptized without belief, they would be condemned because the only ingredient he says he who does not believe will be condemned. He didn't say he who does not believe and does not get baptized.
Why? Because Jesus over and over has covered it, that you must believe in me. He is the way. And we'll go over more of that scripture, and I cover this in many of my podcasts because that is the only way all these other denominations that continue to form, I mean we got so many of 'em, we can't even keep track anymore.
Cause I just said there's tens of thousands of denominations in Christianity alone. Now think of all the religions that are out there. So there's much false stuff going on. We must be very careful what we're reading. So you read that for yourself. Mark 1616. Now along with Mark 1616, he that believes and is baptized.
Jesus puts belief first and baptized. Infant baptism puts baptism first. But everywhere that we read about belief and baptism in the New Testament, and there is none in the Old Testament. It is always the belief and then baptism. Cause that was Mark 1616. Well, he got Acts two verse 41 that they gladly received his word and were baptized.
Acts eight 12 when they believed. They were baptized. Acts eight 13 talking about Simon the sorcerer. Simon himself believed also and when he was baptized. So over and over again, belief always comes first. The apostles. Nobody ever baptized somebody who did not believe. So beloved, that is so important, so important.
I've said it before, I empathize for those who truly are struggling with this because I went through it myself. But it's the truth. It is the truth. Let's keep going though, shall we? So let's take a look at the Great Commission now. That was part of it. Mark 16, 16. That was the account there. But in Matthew, we get a little different picture on what's going on here.
So looking at. Matthew chapter 28, verse 19 and 20. The last two verses in the book of Matthew, Jesus is talking, go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you and low I am with you always, even to the end of the age.
All right, let me break this down for you cuz this is a passage I have been told by even highly educated men. They're PhDs and they try convincing me that nations represents everybody and everybody then represents babies. There are so many ways why that is incorrect and they should know better. So let's break this down right from the beginning of 19.
Go therefore, and he says, therefore, that always means because of what I just said. And before that he said, all authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth. So because of that, go and make disciples of all the nations. Nations is not pointing to age nations is Greek ethnos and it means a race, a tribe, and specifically a foreign tribe.
And who's he talking to? He's talking to the Jews. So specifically non-Jewish nations. If you look up the Greek and look into that, that's what is talking about. To be even more specific then. Non-Jewish nations would be Gentile or the Heathen nation people. And the reason he's being so specific about this is remember, the Jews are convinced for the longest time and for the Old Testament, it was the Jewish people.
The Jewish people that were God's people. But Jesus is saying, go out and make disciples of all the nations, all the He, the nations get out there. I don't buy into this. While we have to assume that that means infants, because as soon as we are assuming, as I've been told, what does assume mean? It makes an ass out of u m e.
So it makes an ass out of you and me. We cannot assume. Beloved, we cannot, and to believe in infant baptism, a person must recognize that even if they're talking about it, they are making assumptions. Even if they're not admitting to it, they have to make assumptions In order for infant baptism to work all nations, if we want to say that, it means little babies too.
That's, if Jesus had demonstrated, give me those babies, I'm going to baptize them. And apostles, here's how you baptize the babies. Here's what I want you to do. And people. All my people, all my children, all my followers. When you start having babies, I want you to baptize those babies right away. Would not Jesus Christ make it very clear to do that?
Why would he make it cryptic if that is what all we had to do was just baptize our babies? And that's it. Okay, I'm gonna keep going with this cuz he says, go therefore and make disciples. Make disciples. That means to make a disciple. A disciple is a student learning. Who are we baptizing? He says baptize them.
Them is the disciples. To be a disciple, you must be able to learn. You must be able to comprehend that, that we have to be able and willing to learn. Cuz in our heart, we want to learn. So we're out there making disciples. Making disciples A disciple is somebody who has believed in Jesus Christ as their savior.
Then they can be ma uh, baptized. So get go therefore, and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and then of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Once they're baptized, what do we do? Verse 20, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you teaching them. So they are a disciple.
They have come to Jesus Christ. They have repented of their sins. They have admitted that they need a savior. They are a disciple. Then go and baptize that person right away. Why do we do that? Because baptism is the outward expression of what has happened inside. It is not the baptism of water, beloved, when we are born again.
We are baptized by the Holy Spirit. John the Baptist says that he, who's coming, I baptize with water in repentance, but the one who's coming, he baptizes in the Holy Spirit. As soon as somebody confesses with their mouth, Jesus Christ says the Lord. And they believe in their heart that he was raised by Father God.
Boom. It is instant. He is or she is baptized by the Holy Spirit. See how none of that pertains to our own works? Yeah, I get it. There are denominations that say, oh, but you can actually believe the Holy Spirit has to do that. Okay. No. The Holy Spirit gives us the ability, but a person still needs to open their mouth and say it, period.
But for some reason, so many denominations don't wanna do that. Why? Because it's pride is difficult for some people to actually do it. Well, if they can't do it, if they can't say it with their mouth, they certainly don't hold it in their heart, which means they shouldn't be baptized. Cuz that means a good chance they're not even born again.
See how important this is? So important. So important. That's why I'm so passionate about this, that the devil's dirty deed is making hundreds of millions of people believe that because somebody splashed water on their head when they were a little baby, that they are born again and are a child of God. So deceptive.
And the very fact the devil has done that angers me cuz there is no other way. Jesus says in John 14 verse six, his own words, I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father. Except through me. Through me, he says, not through the water that you wanna give power to because my blood was shed.
No, through Jesus and no one, which means each person has to do it themself. They have to go through the name of Jesus. They have to believe in Jesus. And believing is loving him, knowing in one's heart. So there's no option there. There's no room to say, well, okay, you know what? Sure that baby can eventually grow up and well, when they're an adult, they'll believe then they can do it.
But this is just kind of marking them. No, it's not. It's a big lie. Don't believe it. Going right back to Romans 10, verse nine through 13. This is Paul's letter that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus, and believe in your heart that God has raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart, one believes unto righteousness and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.
For the scripture says whoever believes on him, that's Jesus will not be put to shame for there is no distinction between Jew and Greek for the same Lord overall is rich to all who call upon him. For whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved. Do you realize how much action is taking place here that he's expecting?
We need to confess. We need to believe. If one calls upon him, he distinguishes Jew and Greek. He's distinguishing the difference in nations, in people. He's not distinguishing when he says all. He's not talking about age at all, and yet there are scholars who want to do this. It's like talking to the Pharisees all over again.
I can see how Jesus gets so frustrated or he was frustrated when he was walking the earth because these Pharisees, who knew the Bible intellectually better than than most people, or probably everybody intellectually, but they didn't know it by heart. With their heart. They, they memorized it, but they in their hand, but they didn't know it in their heart.
They didn't live it because let's just also break this down. Yes, this is gonna be a longer podcast, but just bear with me please. Paul says that if you confess with your mouth, the Lord Jesus, he's saying when you confess the Lord Jesus. In other words, when somebody with their mouth is saying, Jesus is my Lord, not just saying the name Jesus or not, by just saying, Lord Jesus, no confessing confession that Jesus is their Lord.
And see, that's different than just being a savior because being our savior, that's what he did on the cross. That's what makes him a savior of what he did. He paid that price. But Lord of our life, Jesus being our Lord means he owns you. He is lorded over you. Just like feudalistic societies that the Lord the king ruled over.
If the king, if the Lord told you to do something, you did it, or you paid a price. Now in this case, he's the King of kings, the Lord of Lords. So that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus, and believe in your heart, not the head, there are so many. And Simon, the sorcerer, he did not believe in his heart.
He believed in his head. So with the mouth confessed to Lord Jesus with the heart, believe that God has raised him from the dead and you will be saved. There's no question about that. For with the heart, one believes unto, unto righteousness and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. So again, for the scripture says, whoever, whoever believes on him will not be put to shame for there is no distinction between Jew and Greek.
So nations for the same Lord overall, that's all nations, all people is rich to all who call upon him. And I look that up to call is to invoke the Greek for invoke. Whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved. Infants and babies cannot invoke, they can't. You need your mouth to do that. It doesn't say anything about spiritually invoke, because Jesus didn't just die and be raised spiritually.
He died and was raised bodily. The body does have a play in this and for some reason, so many churches wanna throw all that out so Jesus can fit into their service, into what they feel comfortable with. And beloved, we have to stop that. We must stop that for the sake of eternity. We're talking about eternal lives here that we're playing with, and it could be your own life you're playing around with.
And I beg you, please don't do that. I've had those argue with me that that would make our heavenly father quite the evil God, if that's what it takes. Because well then I guess baby will just go to hell if they die. All the abortions, all stillborns, all toddlers that pass away, they try to say, well then we have no idea where they go.
And since they were born into sin, they would have to go to hell. Okay. Yeah. We are born into sin. We are born into a sinful world, and naturally we adapt to that world and we want to serve our own selves. We know that cuz anybody who has been a parent a two or three year old will keep yelling out. Mine mine, that's mine, mine.
Cuz the only thing they can do is think about preserving themself. Saving themself when it comes to food or anything. But we do have some passages that proves that until they are at the age of accountability, age of accountability is not in the Bible. There is no place where God or Jesus says at a certain age, here is when you are accountable and that you need to confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and with your heart believe.
We're not told. Why is that? And I think it's because it's different for everybody. I'm amazed there are some four or five, six year olds that can verbalize very much so they love the Lord and they do comprehend and they do repent. And at the same time, there are those who, for whatever reason, maturity, mentally, I don't know, nobody can say for sure, but others just don't get it until later.
Bear with me cuz I'll say more about this age of accountability. First of all, think about it for a moment. Our loving God, he designs all of us. He creates every single person and he loves every single person he desires that no one shall perish. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever shall believe in him shall not perish, but have everlasting life.
But love the kind of agape love that God has and wants us to be able to share with him is a choice. Love is a choice and for us to, to completely feel that we will have to be glorified in our glorified state. And that's where faith comes in. We just have to believe and have faith that through this process and in eternity, when the time comes, will be glorified and that he will give us, in our glorified state the ability to completely love him and to love others.
But for right now, we still fight that sinfulness, that sin nature in us, the flesh. So he designed all of us with the opportunity to go to heaven, and yet Jesus is saying, but you must confess with your mouth and believe in your heart. Why would a loving God just say, well, you weren't able to do that, so I guess you're gonna go to hell.
I think God didn't spend a whole lot of time going into that because that part isn't important, cuz there's several places that he makes it clear that babies go to heaven. The biggest and most obvious, Is found in second Samuel 12. King David here has a child with Paba. And of course, because of David's sinful actions, God is taking that baby.
Now, first of all, can you see our loving God striking a child with an illness? Cuz it says here, and the Lord struck the child, that Uriah's wife bore to David and it became ill. Our loving father would not kill a baby knowing it had no chance at all to go to heaven. I refuse to even cater to such a stupid notion as that because he is so loving.
But David therefore pleaded with God for the child. Now, David fasted, he refused food. I'm gonna drop down to verse 20. So 1220, or I'm sorry, 19. When David saw that his servants were whispering, David perceived that the child was dead. Therefore, David said to his servants, is the child dead? And they said He is dead.
So David arose from the ground, washed and anointed himself and changed his clothes, and he went into the house of the Lord and worshiped cuz David refused comfort. He refused food. He refused to be with other people. He was fasting and he was praying that God would save the child's life. The baby dies.
What does he do? He gets up, he washes, anointed himself, changes his clothes, and goes right to the house of the Lord and worships our wonderful God. Then he went to his own house and when he requested they set food before him and he ate. Then his servants said to him, what is this you have done? You fasted and wept.
For the child while he was alive, but when the child died, you arose and ate food. They saw this the other way around that. Now he should be mourning. David says, and listen carefully. While the child was alive, I fasted and wept for, I said, who can tell whether the Lord will be gracious to me that the child may live, but now he is dead?
Why should I fast? Can I bring him back again? I shall go to him, but he shall not return to me. One more time, I shall go to him, but he shall not return to me if the baby was destined not to go to heaven. David, being a godly man. David was given the Holy Spirit and the Old Testament. The Holy Spirit did not dwell in people.
The Holy Spirit was given to certain people, and in this case, David being the man after God's own heart. He knew when writing Second Samuel, he was going to see God, and he knew through the Holy Spirit mind. You remember, the Holy Spirit has inspired the whole Bible. David makes it very clear that, yes, he can't come back to see me while I'm still alive, but I will go to him.
He wouldn't say that if the baby was going to hell or wasn't gonna be in heaven, however you wanted to word it, God would not allow that. He would not allow our stupidity in killing babies in the womb or for those babies who even naturally just don't make it. To go straight to hell. I couldn't worship a God like that, but I know he's not like that.
So we have to get off this notion right away that, well, okay, we have to do something to make sure the baby doesn't go to hell. And people, if a baby's coming out and they're, it looks like they might not make it, and they, they try to hurry and let, let's hurry up and get some holy water. Let's hurry up and, and get those done so we can save the baby.
How ludicrous is that? The very thought that we, it's upon us somehow to get a, a priest or a pastor hurry up so they can baptize the baby. Isn't that playing? God, I see that and that frightens me. I'm not gonna pretend to be God. And even as a pastor of a church, I refuse to do that. I will not play God. I am his ambassador.
I. And we'll do everything possible to represent him that I can in my actions and words and studies, but I will not pretend to be my God. So there is right there, the biggest example. So let's continue forward here cuz another area that really shows how much, and there's many that you can pick out, especially in Psalms, just how much the Lord loves babies and when they are in the womb and even before they're conceived, all this wonderful stuff.
But in Psalm 22, it is a Psalm of David. What does he say here? Psalm 22 starting in verse six, and it reads King David. But I am a worm and no man, a reproach of men and despised by the people. All those who see me, ridicule me. They shoot out the lip, they shake the head saying, He trusted in the Lord. Let him rescue him.
Let him deliver him since he delights in him. But you are he who took me out of the womb. You made me trust while on my mother's breasts, I was cast upon you from birth, from my mother's womb. You have been, my God, be not far from me. For trouble is near for there is none to help. There's a lot there. But for the very fact, I don't want a two hour podcast.
Let me speak to verses nine and 10. David says, but you are he who took me out of the womb. You made me trust while on my mother's breasts, so you made me trust. All right, so some will look at that and say, see, babies can trust. If babies can trust, then they can have faith. And if they can have faith, they can believe.
But if we look into that, you made me trust. Trust is also saying hope. That's got nothing to do with faith and believing. There's no way, uh, an infant, the mind is gonna be able to comprehend that. Oh, well then it was the soul. I've heard that in their soul, it's a spiritual thing. They can believe they can have faith because the Holy Spirit is the one that that makes you believe.
No, he does not make a person believe the Holy Spirit does not make anybody, because it must be something that we give back to God our love. He gives us the ability through grace. He does that. That's in Ephesians two, verse eight. For by grace, you have been saved through faith. And that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not of works list.
Anyone should boast. All right, I'll come back to this and and speak more about it. But the key word there is grace. By grace. That is what the Holy Spirit gives us, grace, but we are saved through faith. And Jesus says many a times in the New Testament, your faith has made you well. Your faith has saved you.
Your faith. Your faith. He didn't say, my faith and the Holy Spirit is Jesus. And Jesus is the Holy Spirit. So it is through his grace, through our faith. It is the grace that gives us the ability to have faith. Okay, I'll come back to that. But now back to Psalm 22. So you made me trust while on my mother's breasts, that's giving hope.
That's guiding the baby from my mother's womb. You have been, my God, I don't see anything at all in there about babies making any kind of decision. And even spiritually, because our flesh and blood is tied in to our spirit, we cannot distinguish the difference. And if baptizing babies is all that was needed, we wouldn't need churches.
We wouldn't have to help guide people to understand the gospel because that is what a person needs. Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God, not faith by sprinkling water on a baby's head. I wish it were so, I wish it was that easy cuz I could save my kid. I would just be at every hospital I could and, and just keep on Every time someone was, was born as far out as I could drive, I would make sure I was there and, and make sure that they were saved.
You're good to go. You're done. That's not the way it works. Those are several passages right there that we see for ourselves that babies do not go to hell, babies go to heaven, and how much God loves these babies and gives the baby hope and guides them. Now, I will talk about the age of accountability. I don't understand why people who wanna believe in infant baptism think that they prove themselves right by saying, believers baptism.
At what age is that? And of course, we call it the age of accountability. That's not biblical. It's just what we say so we can identify. That's all we are told is that that is how somebody is born. Again, I'm not gonna argue that because Jesus says it over and over. I've spent the last four weeks talking about this.
That is what we have to do. God is God. He's the one who said, you gotta confess with your mouth, Lord Jesus, believe in your heart that he was raised from the dead, period. Nothing about baptism there. Oh, but you know, if you can't prove that at what age? Well then how we supposed to help people then? I mean, what if they missed their chance?
Okay. Okay. Several things before I make the most obvious point, but first of all, the very fact that a person becomes aware that they are sinners and they become aware that I'm doing something wrong here and so-and-so is mean to me, and, and I'm being mean back, they're able to talk about it then that's why we start telling our kids at a young age and start teaching them about Jesus and what he has done for us on the cross.
And we tell them that at some point you need to confess him as, as your God. Well, how do I do that? And if they don't comprehend it, then they just don't do it. They will know for themself. We don't know for other people they know. We're told in, in the, in Matthew that we can't know someone's salvation. We can know for sure ours cuz we know we're telling the truth.
If we believe, if we understand. And more importantly, beloved Jesus knows if a person, if a child wanted to confess because they're just afraid of dying, they don't really understand and they confess and they die, and they didn't really understand what was going on again, do you really think that our God is that evil that he's out to get that little child?
Not at all. He knows everybody's hearts. But to me the most obvious is this, for those who are big advocates of infant baptism, age of accountability applies. To that concept as well, but they don't want to admit to it. Age of accountability would go both ways then, because for someone to believe in infant baptism, they must believe that one can lose their salvation.
They have to. Otherwise, how can they explain away born again? How can they explain what Jesus was telling Nicodemus? There has to be a point in time where a person needs to be able to be held accountable. So if they believe that, well, okay, technically they're saved, their salvation is good, and so as a baby or a child, that they will just go to heaven.
But then my question then is, well, at what age are they accountable to losing their salvation? I'll push back the same as they, they try to push me, right? You can't prove that there's a age of accountability. What age is that? What age can they finally just confess that and believe? Okay, but at what age then are you saying that they can lose their salvation?
At what age then if they were baptized as a baby. So now they're, they're salvation. They're good to go. As long as they don't lose it, it can't work. They would have to explain, well, okay, at, at this age is when they can actually start committing the sins or decide they don't wanna follow Jesus anymore. Or they, they just don't love 'em.
Oh really? At what age is that? At what age can they comprehend that it would be the exact same age then that they would be able to understand that they are sinners? Repent cuz they need a savior. The only difference is for those who believe they're saved because they were splashed water on their head.
At some point in time they'd be held accountable thinking, I don't want this, this is my life. Because how do we explain then the hundreds of millions of people that were baptized as infants that are out there living a life that is no fruit of the Holy Spirit whatsoever? None. They go to church, they give money.
But Monday through Saturday, boy, life is theirs. And from time to time they feel bad for what they did, that there's a difference between repenting and being sorry for being caught. So age of accountability applies both directions. Still have some more to cover, but we're getting close to the end. Bear with me, beloved, because the other thing I want to acknowledge so we can end, uh, this stretch on infant baptism and that is that there were whole households that were baptized, so that means the whole households were saved.
And again, I couldn't disagree anymore than I already do because that's not biblical. Because just as much as baptizing a baby without them knowing it is saying, Hey, you're gonna go to a heaven, whether you want to or not, is the same concept then of me becoming a believer in Jesus Christ. And because I did and I went and got baptized that now my whole household is saved.
That's is ridiculous. But let's take a look at two of the passages that they really lean against. Both are found in acts and both are in Acts 16. So go to chapter 16. The book of Acts will go right to, I think it's 15 and there we learn of Lydia. I'll start on 13 And on the Sabbath day, we went out to the city to the riverside where prayer was customarily made and we sat down and spoke to the women who met there.
Now, a certain woman named Lydia heard us. She was a seller of purple from the city of the Tierra who worshiped God. Now before I read the next line. So she is already worshiping God. She is a gentile woman, but she is worshiping the one true God, Yahweh. She's already almost there cuz it comes right down to believing in Jesus the next line, then the Lord opened her heart to heed the things spoken by Paul, the Holy Spirit.
God himself is the only one that can open people's hearts. So this wasn't something that Paul did, this wasn't something that she did. The Lord opened her heart to heed the things spoken by Paul. And when she and her household were baptized, she begged us saying, if you have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come to my house and stay.
So she persuaded us. Advocates of infant baptism will point out. Do you see? She was baptized and her whole household were baptized too. And so they're saved. What they're insinuating is that nobody else in her household came to believe in Jesus. They only had to be baptized. This once again is using assumption.
The Lord opened her heart to heed the things spoken by Paul and when she and her household were baptized, we see that as well. See that sentence continues. There's nothing in between there, but there is the stuff that happens in between the periods. The Lord opened her heart to heed the things spoken by Paul.
Period. More stuff happened there than what happened. We don't have to assume. We can know that at this point in time that because her household were baptized, that they had to believe first why everybody must believe in Jesus. He says, I am the way. That's it. Not well. The head of the household believed so you don't have to.
Just dip yourself in that water over there. Ridiculous. Can we send any more people to hell that's already going there? Let's not help others go to hell by trying to convince people that because this passage says her household was baptized that nobody else had to believe. And on top of that, they'll say, well, we have to assume then that she had, uh, at least one baby in there.
Really? No, we don't. Because when referring to household, the Greek word is pronounced and it is a dwelling. A home, a house, a household. And it can imply a family. A family. But because we already know that a person must confess with their mouth, they have to actually hear God's word, the gospel first. Then confess with their mouth and believe in their heart, then they can be baptized.
So that is the family, but it's also just her house. The people in her house. Lydia was wealthy, so she would've had probably servants. So it's not even just family, it's those in her house. Beloved, if we were planning to get together and do some grilling, have some fun together, and I said, Hey, I tell you what, I'll bring my family over and you have your family.
Let's grill up some food and have some dinner. Maybe I have an infant, or you have an infant. Okay. The very fact that we are planning to do something with the families, the infant can't cook, and the infant, if it's small enough, can't even eat what we cooked needs to breastfeed. So that doesn't mean just because I implied.
Our family is coming over to cook and eat that. That's everybody. So that alone is enough to say we can't just assume because we have to check the Bible with the Bible and everywhere else. It's very clear, as Jesus says, confess with your mouth, Lord Jesus. Or I'm sorry, that was Paul that actually said that.
And believe in your heart, we know a baby can't do that. The next spot will go right to, we'll stay in chapter 16 in the other spot where they say the whole household is the jailer. So Paul and Silas are in jail, but at midnight, Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them.
That's a whole sermon right there. That's wonderful. Suddenly there was a great earthquake so that the foundations of the prison were shaken and immediately all the doors were opened and everyone's chains were loosed. Pretty awesome miracle, huh? And the keeper of the prison awakening from sleep and seeing the prison doors open, supposing the prisoners had fled, drew his sword and was about to kill himself.
But Paul called with a loud voice saying, do yourself, no harm for we are all here. Quick history, less none. That the reason he was going to kill himself is because in Roman law, if a prisoner would escape, then the penalty that was gonna go to that prisoner would then go to him or those who were responsible for watching over the prisoners.
Okay, so Paul says, do yourself no harm for we are all here. Then he called for a light, and that was the jailer who called for a light. Then he ran in and fell down, trembling before Paul and Silas, and he brought them out and said, SIRS, what must I do to be saved? So they said, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved.
You and your household believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved. And when they say you and your household, they are saying your household can also believe not if you believe you will save everyone in your household. Why is that? Check the Bible with the Bible. Is there another place where.
Is pointing to the fact that other people have saved another person or a group of people by their own belief answer, no, not at all. So when reading that, it's obvious. They are saying, believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved and also you in your household. Your household can also will prove this through the scripture here.
Then they spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all who were in his house. The very next sentence then. So he says, you just need to believe and and your house, I mean, they can listen and believe. And then they spoke the word of the Lord. In other words, they shared the gospel to him, the jailer, and to all who were in his house.
So nobody was saved just on the back of the jailer, believing that's a big no-no. He took them the same hour. That's the jailer and washed their stripes. So the jailer washed Paul and Silas's stripes cause they were whipped and immediately he and all his family were baptized who, all those who believed, all those who had heard the gospel.
And we'll go right back to that same assumption with Lydia, because the same word for a household that they talk and use when talking about Lydia is the same one with the jailer, his house. And it can also imply the family, but we know from scripture. For all of those who were there, who were able to listen to the gospel, confess with their mouth, the Lord Jesus, and believe in their heart, that excludes babies.
We know it's not needed. Y the age of accountability. If the baby dies, they're not being held accountable. There's still more so after they were baptized now when he had brought them into the house, so the jailer brings them into his house. He set food before them and he rejoiced having believed in God with all his household.
Okay, again. They wanna point to that and say, see all his household, I just gave you the example about, all right, if we are gonna come and, and barbecue, I'm gonna bring the whole family. Let's barbecue, let's do some dancing. Let's, let's play some card games. And meanwhile, one or both of our families have a little infant that can't eat the food that we made.
Can't dance, can't cook. Does that mean that? Well, yeah. We're just not gonna bring them then. Cuz they can't do all that. No. It, it implies that we're gonna do all that even though they can't, the infant can't do all of that. But we're gonna bring the infant anyway. To me that is a pretty good example of why we can't know that even if there was an infant in these households, the infants were not baptized.
Why? Because the infants did not, cuz they could not believe, but they are not held. Accountable. I certainly hope this helps. Beloved, thank you so much for bearing with me. This is a, a very important topic and at the same time, one that needs to be addressed. I'll end with reference to two other passages in God's word.
Ephesians two, eight. For by grace, you have been saved through faith and that not of yourselves. It is the gift of God, not of works unless anyone should boast works with the baptizing an infant. I empathize because it's something that we want to believe. As a parent, I would love to be able to secure my children's.
Eternity. But that is works my work of having them baptized or the work of a pastor or a priest. It doesn't matter who does it, because nowhere does it say the power in the blood of Christ transfers to water. That is all manmade because then we get to participate and we as people wanna do that, we wanna say, the blood isn't enough.
We gotta still do this too. We wanna be a part of that salvation. And it's not of us. It is true faith, but that faith we get by the grace of God, it's not of ourselves. It is a gift. A gift must be received, must be received. It's a choice to receive it. And I said it last podcast, you know what? There are plenty of people who, frankly they don't want to go to heaven.
They really don't. I have seen people, I have met people, I know people, some very well, they don't care. They will blaspheme God. They have no desire in their heart to go to heaven because their pride is so puffed up. They believe they know everything. And that's just, that's their decision. They don't wanna give their life to God.
And God being so loving isn't twisting anybody's arms saying, Nope, nope. Give it to me. Nope. Nope. Your parents baptize you. You have to come to heaven. No, our God is loving God. And with that, I also wanna point out then, and this is the last passage for, uh, this podcast is Matthew seven 13 and 14. Enter by the narrow gate.
For why does the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction and there are many who go in by it because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it beloved, I pray that that is not you. Can you see that? The wide gate is all the stuff, all the traditions, including baby baptism that we want to do, that we want the comfort in just doing.
If I just go to church, I'm a good person. If I just give money, I'm a good person. If I just baptize my, my babies and secure them because I'm a good person and they'll grow up to be a good person because of it, all of that is wrong, wrong, wrong and misleading. I pray you are not being misled, and if you are, take this time, take this moment to repent of that to the Lord.
Ask him, say, father God, help me to understand if Bruce is telling the truth, help me to understand and he will do that. He will do that. He loves you so much. Let's not mislead others. Let's not tell our kids you were baptized. You're good to go. Next time, I will talk about why we do not lose our salvation.
Those who claim to have lost their salvation, they never had it because there are also passages that show us those who love Jesus Christ, their savior. We cannot be taken away. There is no power in heaven and on earth to do that, and that includes your own will. We'll talk more about that next week. This ministry is supported by listeners like yourself.
If this ministry is blessing you, I ask that you continue to pray for this ministry, that it will touch the lives of others. Pray that the message continues to spread and if you are able to support the ministry financially so we can reach out to more people than I ask you to please donate. You can go to my website, there's click on support this ministry and there are several ways to do that.
You can do that with credit card, you can do that with PayPal and there's also uh, a post office box you can mail your check or money order to B. R. Maul. That's B R M A U l. It's at PO Box 126 Frazee Minnesota. That's F R A Z E E, Minnesota 56544 and that is so appreciated. Anything you can do is absolutely wonderful.
And with that said, beloved, stay on the narrow path. Keep reading God's word each and every day and keep praying to our Lord. He loves you so much and until next time, God bless.
Songs
“Heroes Inspire Hope” and “Mountainscape” by Humans Win
“Cinematic Uplifting Inspiring And Motivational Trailer” by Media Music Group
“In My Heart” by Sounds Like Sander
“Burying A Friend” by Jon Presstone
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