BAPTIZED BY WHOM?
Ranger Devotional
1 John 1:7

A. Introduction:
1. The question of who baptizes another person is far less relevant than what some people would have us to believe.
2. Man's obedience is never determined by the spiritual condition of another person.
3. For example, when I take the Lord's Supper my properly doing so has nothing to do with the spiritual condition of the one who is waiting the table or passing the elements.
4. The same is true of singing, praying, or being taught by a preacher through the means of a sermon.
5. I have heard of men who committed adultery during the week, but he continued to preach on Sunday as if there was nothing sinful in his life.
6. Suppose you were taught and baptized by such an individual?
7. What affect would his spiritual depravity have on your conversion?
8. Absolutely none!

B. Body:
1. To suggest that the one who baptizes another must person must be a faithful Christian man, for that baptism to be valid, is an error.
a. At a Ladies Only Retreat, or any other situation limited to women, must she wait for a qualified man to baptize her?
b. Is she usurping the authority of a man who is not there?
c. Does a woman not have just as much an obligation to bring souls to Christ as a man?

2. If he must be a faithful Christian, It would put all of us in a condition of not knowing the state of our soul's salvation; until the final word comes from the Lord at Judgment.

3. However, since we can "know that ye have eternal life" 1 John 5:13, we must understand that another person’s spiritual life has nothing to do with our spiritual condition.
These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life, and that you may continue to believe in the name of the Son of God. (1 John 5:13)

4. All that matters, is that we are "walking in the light" -1 John 1:7, or that we have a desire to do so, as we seek what must be done to become a Christian.
But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin. (1 John 1:7)

5. If this is not true, then one would have to make sure that the person who has just taught him, and who is about to baptize him, is faithful to the Lord.

6. But how does one do that?
7. And, of course, the answer is he cannot.

By Gary Murphy

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