Requirements #3: Discipleship Baptism Part 1

The point: Give close and serious attention to the matter of church membership, as fulfilling the church's purpose is commensurate with maintaining a biblical standard for membership.

The church is likened to a house with a front door (admission) and a back door (dismissal). This metaphor illustrates the church's stewardship over membership, emphasizing that both those seeking entry and those within must adhere to God's Word as the standard for opening or closing these doors.

in a biblically ordered church I use the imagery or the analogy of a house with a large front door and a back door and that house represents the church those within it are given a responsibility to exercise a stewardship with respect to opening the front door or to opening the back door and though the leaders in the church God appointed elders have a peculiar and concentrated responsibility with respect to who is admitted at the front door who is dismissed at the back door they do not have an independent function with respect to the doors of Christ's church and I don't have time to go back ove...

6:56 - 8:23 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: He reviews the first two requirements for church membership: age/maturity (men and women, not infants) and gospel knowledge, profession, and experience (repentance toward God and…

Martin recounts witnessing to a man who, when asked what he believed about Christ, could only say, 'I believe he's for good.' This anecdote illustrates the inadequacy of a superficial profession of faith without substantial gospel knowledge, highlighting the need for genuine understanding for church membership.

I am a woman I am a young man I am a young woman but I am a man I am a woman we say good credential number one you pass muster credential number two what do you know of repentance toward God and of faith to what our Lord Jesus Christ and if the answer is such that I got years ago when I was in a traveling ministry and I was witnessing to someone I met in a diner somewhere and asked him if he were a believer oh yes I believe in Christ I said well what do you believe about Christ he said I believe he's for good I said tell me a little more what else do you believe I believe he's for good that wa...

14:11 - 15:37 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin introduces the third requirement: 'who has been baptized upon profession of faith,' which he terms 'discipleship or confessors baptism.' He explains his deliberate use of…

Martin references a book titled 'The Water That Divides' to acknowledge the historical and ongoing divisiveness surrounding baptism among evangelicals, setting the stage for his defense of a clear biblical position.

because both of those terms can be loaded in such a way as to skew the teaching of scripture the teaching of scripture is that the person knocking at the front door is able to bring forward as one of his credentials that he has been baptized as a disciple as a confessor of Jesus Christ as Savior and as Lord now I'm fully aware from my reading of church history and my understanding of the circumstances in the evangelical world today that for many the whole question of baptism is an irritant one man wrote a book a few years ago called the water that divides and he was referring to baptism showin...

16:59 - 18:04 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: He acknowledges that baptism is often a source of division and that some movements (e.g., Salvation Army, Quakers) or denominations choose to ignore or be flexible on it. Martin…

Martin shares his personal experience of being raised in the Salvation Army, where he never saw a baptism until age 16, because General Booth decided to forgo baptism and the Lord's Supper to avoid division and focus on evangelism. This illustrates one approach to avoiding the 'water that divides'.

Now that's what the Salvation Army has done. I was reared in a home with a mother and father who loved Christ, who manifested an attachment to Christ, but I never saw a person baptized until I was 16. Because I was reared in the Salvation Army and they practiced no form of baptism. General Booth said, look, we're out.

18:36 - 18:55 Read in full sermon

The point: Be able to articulate the threefold biblical basis for the duty of confessors/discipleship baptism: Christ's command, apostolic practice, and apostolic letters.

Martin quotes Luther's famous declaration, 'My conscience is held captive by the word of God,' to convey his own conviction that he cannot treat baptism as indifferent as long as the biblical pillars for its duty remain intact.

baptism rests upon these three massive pillars of biblical revelation. The clear command of the Lord Jesus Christ, the consistent pattern of apostolic practice, and the common assumption of the apostolic letters. And when anyone can, to my rational mind, dismantle those three massive pillars, then I shall be prepared to put baptism into the category of a thing indifferent. But until then, I cannot. As Luther said before the Diet of Worms, my conscience is held captive by the word of God. First of all, then, the clear command of our Lord Jesus Christ. We turn back to the Matthew passage. As I'v...

24:44 - 25:48 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin expounds Matthew 28:18-20, emphasizing Christ's 'all authority' as the basis for the command to 'make disciples, baptizing them, and teaching them.' He defines 'make…

The analogy of making bricks without straw is used to explain that while the gospel provides the 'straw' (indicatives of what we are in Christ), believers must also be taught 'how to make bricks' (gospel imperatives and ethical living). This emphasizes the practical, ethical focus of discipleship teaching.

With no straw. You give them the straw of what they are and have in Christ, but you never leave them holding an armful of straw. You tell them how to make bricks with their straw. Teaching them to observe whatsoever I have commanded you.

34:58 - 35:14 Read in full sermon

Driving home: We have no more warrant to read in, they that received his word were baptized, and their children, then we have a right to read in dogs and cats.

Martin asks rhetorically if 'dogs and cats' were baptized in Acts 2, to highlight the absurdity of reading infant baptism into the text when it explicitly states 'they that received his word were baptized,' implying conscious, believing individuals.

Now, I don't mean to be unkind, but do you think any dogs and cats were baptized? Anyone think any dogs or cats were baptized? Why not? Because it doesn't say.

48:03 - 48:20 Read in full sermon

The point: Do not assume that all aspects of church practice must be 'tidy' or immediately incorporate into a local church, as God's Word shows exceptions (e.g., eunuch's baptism).

Martin notes that God sometimes 'messes up our tidy little schemes' by presenting scenarios like the eunuch's baptism, where immediate incorporation into a local church isn't possible. This illustrates that while the framework of making disciples and baptizing them is firm, God allows for flexibility in the details of implementation.

Now, he couldn't fulfill the latter part, and he had to leave that with God. You see, the Lord puts these things in here so that we never think we've got it all set up like the details of Mosaic legislation. We've got it all tidy. God loves to mess up our tidy little schemes.

59:15 - 59:31 Read in full sermon