Baptized Into Christ — Not Water, But the Spirit

Hello, and welcome to Through the Bible with Les Feldick, an Oklahoma rancher and farmer. Les Feldick has been teaching homestyle Bible classes for over 20 years in Iowa, Oklahoma, and Texas. Les Feldick's unique style of Bible teaching has made the books of the Bible come to life. When Les is teaching, it's so interesting that people say time just seems to fly by. And now, here is Les Feldick. Okay, again, it's good to have you all back, and Bible in hand, and pencil and notepad, that looks good. You know, I had a missionary visit one time a couple years ago, and I think he came up to the taping with us, if I remember right, and you know the thing that impressed him the most about all of you folks? You all had your Bible in front of you. He said, I've never seen that before, and it is. I'm just so proud of the fact that you do all have your own Bible, and you're taking your notes, and I think our television audience is doing the same thing. From what we can gather, most of them are following along in the Scriptures. In fact, that's why we're starting to put it on the board. You know, we get these requests, we'll do this and do that, so we're trying to respond, and this is what we like to know, is that people are actually seeing what does the Book say, not what I say, but what does the Book say. Alright, so we're going to get right back to it. Oh, I guess maybe we should mention the fact that yes, all the past programs are available on video, on books, and audio cassette. We put six hours on a video, twelve programs, and six hours of audio, and then the same twelve programs make up one of the little booklets. We now have a total of thirty, this will make thirty-three, wouldn't it? That's the number on the board. Which means this is the ninety-ninth time we've come up here to tape. It's unreal. Back to Galatians chapter 3. Dropping in we'll review just at least for a second verse 26 where we ended. For now Paul says to these Galatian believers, Remember for the most part are Gentiles, for you are all the children of God, by faith in Christ Jesus. And as I mentioned in our last program, when Paul speaks of faith in Christ, he's speaking of course of that whole finished work of redemption, which is his death, his burial, his shed blood, and his resurrection. No, Paul stresses constantly the power of his resurrection. Now the next verse, verse 27. For as many of you as have been baptized into your denomination have put on Christ. Well that's the way most people read it, isn't it? Sure, you ask the average individual, how did you become a member of your church? Well I was baptized into it, and that's not what the Scripture says. Here it says you have been baptized into Christ, and there's not a drop of water in this verse. It's as dry as a bone. It's just as dry as it can be. There's no water in here. And I'll come back to Romans chapter 6, the same thing. And I'll never forget the first time I heard a guest preacher in one of our previous churches where Iris and I were active. And my goodness he preached from Romans chapter 6, and when he said there wasn't a drop of water in this third verse, we thought he was way out in left field, and I was probably one of the strongest. But all I can see now is that he was 100% right. There is no water in Romans chapter 6. And verse 3, basically the same thing as what he's saying in Galatians chapter 3. Know ye not that so many of us as were baptized into, not a denomination, not into a church, but into Jesus Christ. And don't you know that if you've been placed in Christ, then before you could get there you had to be identified with His death. And how have I always put it? Oh listen, I guess I got the board clean. I can use it again. When Christ died, God saw every one of us on the cross in the person of Christ. He died in our place, and this is what God saw. He saw you and I crucified, and that's what He means in Galatians 2. I have been crucified with Christ. Now just as surely as God saw us on the cross in the person of Christ, He saw us in the tomb. And so here we are. We're in the tomb. We're buried with Him. Not by water, but by virtue of God determining that now, since He had paid the sin debt for all, and for those who believe and appropriate it, then God says, Oh yes, you're dead. You're crucified. I saw you in Christ. I saw you buried with Him in His death, in His tomb. And so also we've been resurrected with Him to a new life. We are totally different people as a result of this power of His resurrection. And so it's a God thing. God in His omnipotence, in His power, in His omniscience, in His ability to work in the area of the invisible, He has placed us in all of these places. In the area of the invisible, He has seen every one of us crucified with Christ. In the area of the invisible, He saw every one of us there in the tomb with Christ. In the area of the invisible, He has resurrected every one of us to a new life. How often haven't I made the illustration? If you were to go down to the morgue and accompany a pathologist in an autopsy, would you ever see the soul of a person? Would you ever see their spirit? Of course not. It's invisible. Does that mean it's not for real? Well you better believe it's for real, or you wouldn't be here. But they're invisible, and that's where God works. In that area of the invisible, He works in the area of our soul and our spirit, and human hands can't touch that. You can baptize this whole body a hundred times, and it's not going to change the soul and the spirit, because this is only an outer tabernacle. But the soul and the spirit are invisible, and so that is in the area where only God can work. Oh, I wish people could understand that. So here we have, don't you know that as many were baptized into Christ, we're also baptized or identified in His death? And then you come on up to verse 8 in this same Romans chapter 6. Now if we be dead with Christ, in other words if we've been crucified with Him, we've been buried with Him, if we've been dead with Christ, then we believe that we shall also live with Him. How? By resurrection power. We've been raised in resurrection power. We're a new person. We're a whole new being, and now we are placed into Christ. How? Oh, now it's in Romans on your way back to Galatians. Stop at I Corinthians chapter 12, verses that we use over and over, because they are so foundational, and they are so simplistic. You don't have to have a seminary degree to understand some of these verses. They're so simple. I Corinthians chapter 12, verse 13. For by one Spirit, the Holy Spirit, are we all baptized? And here's another verse that's as dry as a bone. There's not a drop of water in here. Not a drop. It's the work of the Holy Spirit working in the area of the invisible, placing you and I now in that new resurrected personage into that relationship with Christ in the Body of Christ. So we're all baptized into one Body, the Body of Christ. And it doesn't make any difference who we are or what we are as long as we're believers, whether we be Jew or Gentile. It's not just for the Jew, it's not just for the Gentile. Whether we be bond or free. Now I know the black and the white isn't in here, but you go back into Bible times, who for the most part were the slaves, or the black people. And so blacks were just as eligible for salvation as whites. The red and the yellow. There is no color line in the Body of Christ. We are all baptized into that Body of Christ, and we are all one in Christ. You know I mentioned to our class last night, we just came back from that cruise on the Mediterranean, and we had 62 of us from various parts of the country. But you know what? In a matter of 24 hours we had all come together as though we'd known each other all our life. Why? Believers. We were all believers. We were all members of the Body of Christ, and you're not strangers long when you're believers. And it's so beautiful. Now next week of course we'll be going back to Israel, and we'll have a different group. And I know the same thing is going to happen again. That whole group of people is just going to come together, and by the time we come back it's going to be as close knit as family. I know every group we've ever taken over, whenever we get a chance we still like to get together and have reunions of sorts. And it just shows the fact that when you become members of the Body of Christ, there is that unity that nothing can take apart. Now this is what alone comes from the writings of Paul. This isn't taught in the Gospels. This isn't taught in the Old Testament. But Paul is constantly at it, that when we have faith in the Gospel, then we become a member of the Body of Christ. Now back to Galatians chapter 3, and this is too good a verse to just casually go over. I'm going to spend a lot of time in it, believe me. Galatians 3, verse 27. Galatians 3. If you have been baptized by that Holy Spirit's work into the Body of Christ, then something else has happened. What? You have put on Christ. Now I know that maybe some of these things take more faith than the average believer has. But come back with me again to Romans, because you see Romans is the first Book of Doctrine that Paul writes, at least in our New Testament, and this is where we have to spend most of our time. Romans chapter 3, and again those verses we looked at earlier, verses 21 and 22. We looked at verses 19 and 20 in our previous program this afternoon, but now let's come on down to verses 21 and 22. Are you all there? Remember up in verse 20 it says, Romans chapter 3, verse 21. "...by the deeds of the law, no flesh shall be justified, for the law brings nothing but the knowledge of sin." Now read on to verse 21. Now the righteousness of God without the Law is manifested, or brought into the spotlight. It becomes the very epitome of everything, and it was witnessed by the Law and the prophets. What did I tell you in the last program? The Bible is a progressive revelation. Now here is a good indication of that. Here we are in grace, no Law, and nothing that's part of our salvation comes from the Law. But what does grace rest on? The Law and the prophets. Because they came before. It's a progressive thing. Here comes the Law of Moses, and then here come the prophets with all of their teachings concerning the coming of the King and the Kingdom. Then as we've seen that all just fall through the cracks, and so temporarily God turns to the Gentiles and calls out the Church. Of course we build on everything that's gone before. Now read on in Romans chapter 3. The righteousness of God without the Law is witnessed by the Law and the prophets. Now look at verse 22. "...even the righteousness of God..." Not our righteousness, ours is nothing but filthy rags, but God's righteousness which is by the faith, or the faithfulness of Jesus Christ unto all upon all that believe. Now I like to look at that word upon, it's just like being draped with some blanket or cloak or something or other that just totally covers me up. And it's the righteousness of God, which means that whenever God looks at me, whenever He looks at you, what does He see? He sees that outer covering. And who is that outer covering? It's Christ. And that's what it means to put on Christ, that whatever God sees is not me, it's not you, it's Christ. And how does that happen? By a work of God. I can't do it. You know like I explained in the class last night, or Monday night, I don't remember. But can we crucify ourselves? Impossible. There's no way a person can crucify themselves. You might be able to have guts enough to put the first nail in, but how are you going to put in the second one? You've got no way of doing it. And so it becomes utterly impossible. And so we have to realize the same way in salvation. I can't do anything. God has to do it, because this is being done in the area of the invisible, in the Spirit. Okay, back again to Galatians, and by that time I'll probably think of another verse. But I think we're ready. So we have put on Christ, and according to Romans that becomes His righteousness. His righteousness. Yeah, I knew I'd think of another one. Isaiah. Oh these are too good to pass up. You know it might be a long time before we come this way again. Isaiah 61. Verse 10. Isaiah 61. Verse 10. I will greatly rejoice in the Lord, my soul shall be joyful in my God, for he God hath clothed me with the garments of salvation, and he hath covered me with the robe of righteousness. See how that fits with Romans? Upon all that believe, what dropped? The righteousness of God. Upon old Isaiah, what dropped? The clothing of righteousness. And as a bridegroom decketh himself with ornaments, and as a bride adorneth herself with her jewels. That's the outward view now that God sees of that believer. Adorned, covered with righteousness, and boy inside is still old me for the most part, still old you. But oh on the other hand, we are new creations in Christ because of all that has happened when we believe. Not when we go through a bunch of rituals, not when we go through a bunch of walking the vials, and so forth. Nothing against that, don't get me wrong. But listen, that doesn't save anybody. That'll never save anybody. Alright, come back to Galatians chapter 3. Verse 29. If you be, or if you are Christ, then you are Abraham's seed. Now that doesn't make you a Jew. Careful, careful. A lot of people teach that. And when you become a Christian, you become a Jew. No, no, no, no, no. You don't become a Jew, but we become the offspring of Abraham in the realm of the Spirit. And so if you're Christ, then you are Abraham's seed, and if you're the seed of Abraham now in the realm of the Spirit, then you become heirs according to the promise. Now think about that. That if you're Christ, you are Abraham's seed. Now again, we've got to go back to Genesis 12, because you have to see these things before they really begin to make sense. Back to Genesis 12, and we'll just look at the last part of that covenant again. Where God says to Abram, I will bless them that bless thee, I will curse him that curseth thee. And now look at the last part. And in thee shall all the families of Israel be blessed of the whole earth. So you see God is looking way beyond the promises given to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. God is looking way beyond the Law. He's looking at this Age of Grace when His blessings of salvation go to the whole human race. And as we saw in a previous verse, rich or poor, black or white, east or west, it makes no difference. As soon as we become a believer of the Gospel, we're one in Christ, and we're in the Body, and we then become heirs of the promises made to Abraham. Because you see, Abraham's promises went way beyond the Nation of Israel, and so that's where we come in then, as I showed in an earlier program. As Abraham was saved by faith, plus how much? Nothing. Always think of that. Did Abraham bring sacrifices for salvation? No. Was Abraham circumcised before he could have salvation? No. Was Abraham under the Law? No. So what did Abraham do to merit salvation? Believe God. That's all. And so he becomes then the first to really be saved by faith plus nothing, and immediately after, sacrifices are coming in again. So now then, here we are in 2000 B.C. And Abraham was saved by faith plus nothing. Here we are over here in our age of grace, the 1900 B.C. Saved by faith plus nothing. So what does it do? It just simply ties us to the man Abraham, and that's where we're connected, not through earthly progeny, but only in the realm of the spiritual do we become the children of Abraham. Is that clear? Oh I hope I can make that plain. That here is where the connection comes in. That as God made the promises to Abraham 2000 years B.C., that yes, out of him would come the nation of Israel. Yes, through the nation of Israel would come the Law, and yes, Israel would be the vehicle that crucified the Redeemer, and made our salvation possible. But then Israel slips off the scene, and the Gentiles come into that place like I mentioned a few programs ago. Where are we? We're dwelling on the root and the fatness of Abraham, because all of those promises that were made to Abraham, now become ours. And so we have entered into the whole concept of being joint heirs according to the promises. Alright, now that joint heir should bring us back to Romans chapter 8. Romans chapter 8, and let's just start with verse 14. Romans 8. Romans 8. "...For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are not hoped to be, not might be, but they are the sons of God." Romans 8. "...For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear." What did I tell you about the Law? It was a burden, it was severe. Don't tell me they didn't live in a segment of fear. My goodness, I'll bet you more than once they slipped out on a Saturday afternoon, and tried to pick up a few sticks, and were scared to death that somebody would see them, and they would be stoned to death. But you see we're not in that situation. Oh Paul says we're not under that spirit of bondage and fear. But on the flip side, we have received the Spirit of Adoption, whereby we cry Abba Father. Now let me go back again to our last program. Do you remember what I told you when that Greek or Roman tutor had that child completely ready as an adult son to step in and be co-equal with the Father? Now did he have to come in like a little puppy dog, and almost afraid of Old Dad? No! He's now a prepared young man. He's ready to come right in and work alongside the Father. Why? Because he's been well tutored. He's ready for it. Alright that's where we are. Oh by virtue of the work of the Cross, now God can place us as a full, completely tutored son of God, and we can come right in alongside with Him. That's our position. Now someday if the Lord tarries, we'll be going into the book of Ephesians when we finish Galatians. And Ephesians is a book of position. Where are we as believers? Oh we're in that exalted position. Even though we're here on the earth, we're under the curse, we're up against all the things that the rest of the world is, and a lot of us are kind of blind to the fact. But in faith we can see that we're already in that exalted position in the heavenlies. We are already joint heirs with Christ. Now let's go back to Romans chapter 8, and we have received the Spirit of Adoption, where by we cry, Abba Father. Now again let your mind run a little rampant. Can you picture that 18 year old son in the Middle East, and maybe his father has a jewelry store, and those of you who have been there, you know how beautiful they can be. Boy those jewelry stores in the Middle East will just knock your eyes out. Can you imagine the exhilaration of both the father and the son the first morning that fellow comes in and says, Romans 8. Father, I'm finally ready, and I'm going to run the business with you. And that father was just as exhilarated, and he said, Son I've been waiting for this day. Got an idea? Sure you do. Alright that's what God says. Every time a child of God is saved, God the Father says, Oh I've been waiting for you, I've been waiting for this day. And He places us right up there in a place of full responsibility. Oh I know we begin as babes, and we feed on the milk of the Word, but positionally we're right up there with God the Son. One more verse and it'll be time to stop. Verse 16. The Spirit Himself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God, and if we're children, if we're born ones, we're then what? Heirs. Heirs of God, and joint heirs with Christ. What a word! Joint heirs. What's His is ours, and on the other hand what's ours should be His, see? And so joint heirs with Christ, if so be that we suffer with Him, that we may also be what? Glorified with Him. Thank you for watching Through the Bible with Les Feldick, a weekly Bible study. If you would like more information about the Les Feldick Ministries, a Bible study in your area, or about this program, write to Les Feldick Ministries, Route 1, Box 760, Kenta, Oklahoma 74552. That's Route 1, Box 760, Kenta, Oklahoma 74552. Through the Bible with Les Feldick is viewer supported and your gift is appreciated. Thank you and be sure to tune in next time for Through the Bible with Les Feldick.