Christian Life and Its Sufferings (7)

0:00We praise the Lord for thy great plan, That we might well in place may be. Thou with Him thus we filled with thee. Thou in the sun is fresh might be. Welcome to Life Study of the Bible with Witnessly, a program brought to you by Living Stream Ministry. Witnessly, a servant of the Lord for over seven decades on five continents, culminated his ministry with a 21-year book-by-book exposition of the entire Bible, which he called a Life Study. This Life Study is the basis of our program today, which includes short portions of the spoken messages given by Witnessly. Now, let's join today's Life Study.

1:02The Apostle Peter said that the water of baptism saves us and he referenced the picture in the Old Testament of Noah's family being saved in the ark from the judging water and separated from the condemned world of that time through the water of the flood. This is Matt Miller with Bob Danker for another enlightening Life Study from First Peter. Bob, thanks for joining me for this special program today. It's very good to be with you, Matt. Actually, this portion of Peter is quite marvelous because it takes us back to the Old Testament picture of Noah building an ark with his family, entering into that ark and passing through a flood and then being deposited into a new world where he had a new living. It's quite a marvelous picture. And in a book like First Peter where Peter stresses are being saved from our old way of living, our old manner of life

2:05and now having an excellent, holy manner of life in resurrection, this is a marvelous picture that shows us how we can be saved. This is really the main view in Peter. I really hope we can see it today because it's an important emphasis that the Apostle Peter had this matter of being saved from our vain manner of life and being brought into a whole new realm with an excellent, holy manner of life and Noah was a perfect picture of that and Peter brought that picture in in chapter 3 of his first epistle, verses 20 and 21. I'm going to read those verses. The long suffering of God waited in the days of Noah while the ark was being prepared, entering into which a few that is eight souls were brought safely through by water, which water as the anti-type also now saves you. That is baptism, not a putting away of the filth of the flesh,

3:07but the appeal of a good conscience unto God through the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Critical ending to the verse there that it's through the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Without that, baptism is just a vain ritual. Really happy for that last phrase there, Bob. Very good. Let's go to witness Lee for a life study of first Peter message number 25, which was originally spoken in December 1982. Noah and his families passing through the flood within the ark was a type of arguing through baptism. The water of the flood deliver them out of the old men of life in the new environment. In that manner, the water of baptism today delivers us out of the inherited vain men of life into a new manner of life in resurrection. This is the main emphasize of this book.

4:09Christ's redemption for us was for these. When you were baptized, the Spirit applied hot Christ accomplished to you through His resurrection. Now, our daily walk should be in the Spirit of the resurrected Christ. A walk that lives Christ in resurrection through the life power of His Spirit. This is a new and excellent man of life that glorifies God. Baptism itself does not and cannot put away the fields of our flesh. The dirt of our fallen nature and development of flesh list, Peter's writing corrected that wrong teaching. The wrong teaching of this baptismal salvation. Baptism is only a failure. Its reality is Christ in resurrection as the life-giving Spirit who applies to us

5:09all that Christ has passed through in His crucifixion and resurrection, making these things real in our daily life. Bob, that's a good point to stop and fellowship. This point about Christ making these things real to us through baptism. And I really want to get into that. As Witnessly said, the main focus of the entire epistle of first Peter. But before we do, I'd like to at least address this matter of this wrong understanding of baptismal regeneration. I had actually never heard of such a thing until someone actually accused Witnessly of teaching baptismal regeneration, which obviously he doesn't because of what he just said. That's right, Matt. Witnessly does not teach baptismal regeneration. This is an erroneous teaching, the teaching that just by being baptized alone,

6:10a man can be regenerated and can be saved. Well, this verse here, chapter 3, verse 21, and does say that the water of baptism saves us. But it also says that this water cannot put away the filth of the flesh. It doesn't have that kind of power. Actually, the water of baptism is only a symbol or a figure. It is not something that operates in and of itself. The operating factor in baptism and in our living, after baptism, is the spirit of Christ. And this spirit is Christ himself in his resurrection. This spirit actually is the spirit of reality. He's the spirit who makes Christ real to us and makes Christ death real to us so that we can actually experience the putting away of all negative things

7:13that are related to us and to our old manner of life and also makes Christ's resurrection power real to us so that we can have a new, holy and excellent manner of living in the resurrection of Christ. So here, Peter's focus is not just so that we would be saved from God's judgment and God's condemnation. Most people, when they think of salvation, they think, well, we need to be saved from God's eternal judgment, right? And Christ's redemption saves us from that. And if we have the wrong teaching of baptismal salvation, some will say baptism saves us from that. But that's not correct. Peter's focus is not on being saved from hell, let's say, although that is part of salvation. But Peter's focus is to be saved out of our former manner of life which we inherited from our fathers. You know, before we believed in the Lord Jesus,

8:14we lived in a certain way. We lived in the flesh. We had a fleshly manner of living full of sin, full of self, full of corruption and full of defilement. This was our, not only our person, but our way of living was like this. So the salvation of the Lord should save us out of that. Into a new, holy and excellent manner of life. But this can be realized, not by merely by the water of baptism. It can be realized only by the life-giving spirit operating in us to make Christ with his death and resurrection real to us in our daily life. Sounds like the key really is the resurrection of Christ. If there's no resurrection of Christ, then Christ does not become the life-giving spirit. As it says in 1 Corinthians 1545, the last Adam became a life-giving spirit. If there's no life-giving spirit, then the whole thing becomes just an empty, dead, vain ritual,

9:18which I'm fearful. Many people, that's all they know in baptism is something that's just empty without the experience of Christ as resurrection. That's a very good man. Actually, the reality is not in the water. The reality is in the life-giving spirit. And as you said, this life-giving spirit is the resurrected Christ. We all know that Christ's death redeemed us from our sins and from God's condemnation. But it's his resurrection and the fact that he is now the life-giving spirit to apply to us all the reality of his death and resurrection that saves us from our old way of living and ushers us into a holy manner of life that glorifies God, that lives out God, that expresses God, that lives Christ and not lives out the flesh. Only the Spirit can enable us to put away all our fleshly person and our fleshly living

10:20and live a life that glorifies God. And when we have the experience of the life-giving spirit through salvation, an outward testimony follows and that outward testimony is baptism. That's right. So I'm going to read a verse, Mark 16, 16, which is another verse that talks about baptism related to salvation, which is another one of those verses that people use for baptismal regeneration. But it doesn't teach that. Here's what it says, He who believes and is baptized shall be saved. But He who does not believe shall be condemned. Let's return to witness Lee and see how this salvation has two steps to it, to believe and to be baptized. Here's witness Lee.

11:27The second baptism, where you get through these two things, you get through the one step of believing, to be saved. Believing is our reflection to all what Christ has accomplished. All what Christ has accomplished is preached to us then who listened to this preaching, the spirit within us helps us to reflect. We have a reflection of what we heard of the gospel, that means of Christ's accomplishment. This is just a camera. Once you have the reflection, all the scenery gets into the camera and on the film. All Christ's accomplishment is just a scenery. The preaching brings us to us and the Holy Spirit within us, and legends us, and this reflection,

12:28this believing needs an expression. The whole expression, the baptism, baptism is a counterpart of our believing. At this expression, at this baptism, where the baptized are peeled to God, for a good and pure conscience. So after being baptized, rising up from the water, we have a conscience, God and a pure, no more condemnation. All our sins, our fences, all our transgressions, transpices, all have been forgiven, and all the problems, untangling our being, our life, all have been buried in that water. So we surely, through the baptism, have got a clearance. So our conscience is good and pure.

13:29So, baptism gives you such a testimony, gives you such an assurance, through the baptism you appear to God, and then after being baptized, God gives you the answer that you don't have a good conscience. This is the best definition given by Peter on baptism. Baptism is what? Baptism is an appeal to God for a good and pure conscience. Bob, this is a really good definition of baptism that Peter gives us, and we better stop here and develop it a little bit, kind of chew the cud, so to speak, and digest this a little bit more. Yes, Matt actually, Bradley gives us a wonderful definition of believing and being baptized.

14:30To believe, he said, is a reflection of all Christ's accomplishments for us. When we hear the gospel, actually the main content of the gospel is Christ and His accomplishments. His incarnation, human living, crucifixion on the cross, and His resurrection to become the life-giving spirit. All these are accomplishments of Christ and these are included in the gospel that we hear. When we hear this gospel, the spirit operates in us to enlighten us and to cause us to reflect what we have heard. And eventually we say, yes, I believe. That is a great reflection of what we have heard concerning Christ. That is our faith, but this all happens within us. No one can see this, but baptism is the expression, the outward expression of what has taken place within us. When we believe in the Lord, we receive Him.

15:31He enters into us and we are regenerated. Then there should be an outward affirmation or an outward witness to the fact that we have believed and we have repented of our old life. We have had a turn to God and we have received Christ. This expression is our baptism. And baptism is a testimony that all the negative things, our sins, our trespasses, all these things have been forgiven by God. And also we are now forsaking our entire old manner of life. We're having a thorough clearing up of our old living. Once we are baptized and we come up out of that water, we have a good and pure conscience toward God that testifies and gives us the inward peace that now we have no more problem with God. Isn't this marvelous? It's really marvelous.

16:32In fact, this matter of baptism and salvation being counterparts going together is actually, I'll give a personal testimony about it. I grew up as a Catholic and when I was a baby, I had infant baptism. And then later when I was in high school, I heard the gospel as you were describing it. I heard of Christ's work for us. And I saw for the first time, I really had an inner impression. Although I had heard it in Catechism growing up, it never made the impression in my inner being like a camera. The scenery impressed me in high school to where the point is, I believed. And I said, yes. And it was a real salvation experience. And then as I grew in the Lord in high school, this very verse came to me about he who it believes and his baptized will be saved. Because when I was baptized as a baby, there wasn't the counterpart of believing. So later when I was believing in high school, I felt like I really need to get baptized

17:35because I need that counterpart, that expression to go along with the inward experience of salvation that I was having. Yes, it matted so clear here that baptism by itself or the water of baptism cannot wash away the filth of our flesh. It doesn't have the power to do that. But Peter says here that baptism is an appeal to God for a good conscience. So when we're baptized, we're making an appeal to God to give us the inner witness that we have a good and pure conscience. And as soon as we're baptized and we come up out of that water, we do have the inner answer from God to our appeal. He says to us, yes, you have a good, pure conscience. Everything now between you and me is fully cleared up and now there's no more problem. Now we have Christ within us as the life-giving spirit

18:35to empower us to have a new manner of life, a holy manner of life, plus all our old past, all our sins, all our old way of living is now buried in the death of Christ which is symbolized by our being baptized. Then that results in a good conscience. We have peace. That's the result. And yesterday, Bob, in a radio program with Ron Kankus in verse 16, we talked also about having a good conscience. So there's a lot here, but let's go on to the conclusion of today's life study. We're gonna see more about this matter of Noah's Ark with the flood waters and how the picture also of the Red Sea from 1 Corinthians chapter 10 is also showing us that baptism separates us as believers from the condemned world of Satan in Egypt. So let's go on to witness for the conclusion of today's life study and more pictures of this wonderful baptism that we have.

19:37You know, in the Old Testament, there were two waters all typify our baptism, the flood that saved Noah and his family. This is one water typifying our baptism. The second one is the Red Sea water. You have to look at the picture in this way. The Ark saved Noah and his family from God's judgment. But the water saved them from the corrupted world, from the corrupted age. The Ark saved them from the punishment of God's condemnation by the flooding. But the water saved them and separated them from that corrupted age and brought them into a new age, brought them to a new earth, to begin a new life in a new age.

20:41You know, children of Israel passed through the Red Sea. The Red Sea water was a judgment to Pharaoh and his Egyptian armies, Pharaoh and his armies, all were drunk there, buried in that judging water. But that judging water separated the children of Israel out of Egypt, Egypt was a corrupted world. God's people were separated from that corrupted world by the judging water, the Red Sea water. Now, in New Testament, we also have a water. The baptism. The baptism also saves us, separates us from the world. Bob, to me, this is a really enlightening conclusion to the program today, how the Ark saves us

21:43from the judgment on the world. But the water saves us from the evil world. Why don't you talk about this? This is marvelous. Yes, there's really two things going on here. Noah and his family entered the Ark and it was the Ark that saved them from being judged and terminated by the flood. But at the same time, the water of the flood terminated the whole corrupted generation that Noah lived in and deposited Noah and his family into a new world after the water subsided. They had a new life in a new age. This is a marvelous picture of baptism. And in the same way, the water of the Red Sea, when the children of Israel crossed the Red Sea and the Pharaoh and his army entered into it, the waters closed up and they buried Pharaoh and his army. That means the Egyptians were terminated by the water, the people of the corrupted world were buried.

22:44And that whole, old manner of life that they had in Egypt was behind them. There was no way for them to go back. The same with Noah. There was no way for him and his family to go back to that old way of life. The water saved them. That whole generation was buried under the water of the flood and so Noah and his family emerged from the Ark in a new world. This is exactly what baptism does for us. It brings us into a new world and that world is Christ as the life-giving spirit and also the church as the body of Christ. We live in a new world, in a new generation. We live a new life by the power of the spirit. And the power of the spirit empowered the word to make these pictures so real to us today in this program. I feel like this is so real. This is not a fairy tale from a long time ago. This is the picture of the real church life today to terminate the former manner of life,

23:46the vain manner of life, and bring us into an excellent and holy manner of life, which is the main focus of Peter's epistle. Bob, we've run out of time. Appreciate you coming into the studio today. It's always a pleasure, man. And thank you also for joining us. We hope you've enjoyed the enlightenment and inspiration that's here in First Peter chapter three as much as we have. If you'd like to get the printed message that go along with today's radio program, you can call us at 1-888-Life Study. That's 1-888-543-3788. Or you can write to Living Stream Ministry, PO Box 21-21, Anaheim, California, 92814. Or just send our email to radioatlsm.org. On behalf of Bob Danker, this is Matt Miller. Thank you for listening today. Dear Lord, we give ourselves to Him. God views the church, the redeemed believers,

24:47from a heavenly perspective. Far from seeing her as defeated by the power of sin and sins, God views the church as the triumphant and glorious counterpart of Christ, who fully expresses the one who fills all in all. In the glorious church, watchmen need discusses four significant representations of the church in the Bible. Eve in Genesis chapter two, the wife in Ephesians five, the woman in Revelation 12, and the bride in Revelation 21 and 22. In each instance, he presents the church's high calling to fulfill God's eternal purpose. Recently discovered handwritten notes supplement this new and fresh translation of the glorious church, making it the most complete record of the messages given by watchmen need in the fall of 1939 and the fall of 1942. The appendix, the overcomers, and God's dispensational moves, is a significant never before published portion of these notes. The glorious church by watchmen need

25:49from living stream ministry is available now at Christian bookstores, or call 1-888-543-3788.