A couple of month’s ago when it was much colder outside than it is now, I locked my car keys in my car while at work. I had to try to get into the car, so I made a “contraption.” I took the metal pieces off of two hanging file folders and hooked them together to make a long metal piece. I wanted to use the little hook at the end of the metal piece, slide the metal piece down the window toward the lock, hook the lock and pull open the lock on the door of my car.

It was very cold in the afternoon as I stood outside by my car. A weather front had come in. I stood out there for more than 30 minutes trying to get my car door open with this “contraption” that I had made because I didn’t have the real thing—my key. I couldn’t do it. I thought I could. I truly believed I could. The colder I became, the more I thought, “No, this can work. I know this can work!” And I kept trying and trying because I truly, truly, really believed that I could get into my car using the “contraption” that I had made. It didn’t happen. But you know, it didn’t matter how sincere I was in my belief that I could unlock my car in a different way.

Well, you know the point I’m trying to make. There’s only one way into heaven. We’re told in Romans 10, and verse 17, that “faith comes by hearing, and hearing [comes] by the Word of God.” We are told in John 3, and verse 16, “For God so loved the world that He gave His One and Only Son that whosoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.” So, we are to hear and to believe.

In Acts 17, verses 29 and 30, we’re told to repent: “Therefore since we are God’s offspring, we should not think that the Divine Being is like gold or silver or stone—an image made by man’s design and skill. In the past God overlooked such ignorance, but now He commands all people everywhere to repent.”

We’re told, again in Romans 10, to confess the Lord—Romans 10, and beginning in verse 8: “But what does it say? ‘The Word is near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart,’ that is, the Word of faith we are proclaiming: That if you confess with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved,” [Romans 10:8-10].

And to be baptized? Well, let’s spend a few minutes on that one, because that’s the one that is so hard for people to seem to be able to grasp. Let’s read Acts 2:37 and 38. Of course, you’ll recognize this as Peter’s first sermon on the day of Pentecost: “When the people heard this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and the other apostles, ‘Brothers, what shall we do?’ Peter replied, ‘Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the Name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.’” Repent and be baptized FOR the forgiveness of your sins.

Have you ever heard of the term called “baptismal regeneration?” If you are a member of the church of Christ, then the people you hear on the radio [religious programs] “SAY” that THAT’S what you [as a member of the church of Christ] believe. And I’d never heard this term, “baptismal regeneration,” used in the church of Christ. “Baptismal regeneration.” It’s a belief that there’s something “magic” about baptism that saves you—specifically that there is something magic about the water that saves you. And if you truly listen to the way the religious programs describe it on the radio, it is truly stupid, to be very honest. We would have the same objections to this “baptismal regeneration” belief that Naaman [in 2 Kings, chapter 5] had when he was told to “go dip in the Jordan River,” and Naaman said, “Aren’t the rivers where I came from better rivers than the Jordan River? Don’t they have better water? What’s magic about the water in the Jordan River?” [Read the exact words Naaman spoke in 2 Kings 5:12.] Well, there wasn’t anything “magic” about the water in the Jordan River! But God SAID, “Go dip in the Jordan!” It was a matter of obedience! The point is obedience! Naaman was told to wash in the Jordan River.

Baptism is a symbol of the death, burial and resurrection of our Lord. Tommy Woodall read to us from Romans 6, and I’ll not repeat all of that reading. But Romans 6 is talking about baptism as a symbol of the death, burial and resurrection of Christ. But another point about baptism has to do with obedience—that in baptism, we OBEY! We DO what we have been told to do! And if you won’t obey God in something so very easy like baptism, how are you going to obey God when the difficult times come into your life? We start our walk with the Lord through baptism. It’s something so very easy.

And we’re told here in Acts 2:38 that we are baptized “FOR the forgiveness of your sins.” Well, if you listen to the radio or listen to some denominations, you will also hear them talk about this verse, and they say, “Oh. Yeah. What that means is that you’re being baptized because you have already been forgiven.” They say that the word “FOR” in “FOR the forgiveness of your sins” means that you have already been forgiven, so you are only being baptized to “glorify God or to praise Him,” because “you’ve ALREADY been forgiven of your sins.”