Aiming for Christian Conversion

Introduction

Most Christians seem to know that we ought to pray for the salvation of our loved ones. Most Christians seem to know that we ought to talk about Jesus and explain the gospel to those who are not believing or following Christ. Most Christians seem to know that we ought to be evangelists and make disciples.

But what does this mean?

Practically (in our everyday lives and conversations), what are we aiming for?

What are we praying for?

What should we be calling or urging or persuading our unbelieving friends and family and neighbors and co-workers to do?

Today we are continuing our topical preaching series on Christian living. How Should We Live? is a series of sermons this year that’s been focused on various aspects of everyday, normal Christian living in the world. We’ve covered a number of topics so far: What is a Christian church? What is Christian marriage? And what does the Bible teach about gender, especially as it relates to our roles in the home and in the church?

Most recently, we’ve looked at the Christian mission of evangelism, and how Christ has called or commissioned all Christians to be evangelists in their everyday lives. Indeed, we are to live with a high priority on evangelism (at work, at school, in our homes, and in all our relationships), we are to look for opportunities to be ambassadors for King Jesus in the world.

But the question we are considering today is “What are we aiming for?”

When we pray for the conversion of our unbelieving spouse or children or friend or co-worker, what are we asking God to do? When we talk about Jesus and explain the gospel to unbelievers around us, what should we be calling them to do? When we feel our responsibility to be evangelists, what does that responsibility actually mean? What is our practical goal or aim?

Today, I’m going to argue that the Christian goal in evangelism is conversion. Of course, our ultimate and primary goal is faithfulness – we want to live faithfully as Christ-followers, and we want to faithfully tell others who Christ is and what it means to follow Him. But our focus today is on the desired results of our evangelism – What are we actually wanting others to do?

We want to see sinners converted! We want to see those who do not believe or follow Christ transformed from sinners to saints! We want our lost loved ones to be transferred from the kingdom of darkness and to be made citizens of the kingdom of God’s Son.

So, we’re going to read a passage today that includes various features of Christian conversion, we are going to consider what these features mean, and then we are going to talk about our goal or aim so that we might become better Christian witnesses in our everyday lives.

Let’s stand as I read from Colossians 2:6-15.

Scripture Reading

Colossians 2:6–15 (ESV)

6 Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him, 7 rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving. 8 See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ.

9 For in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily, 10 and you have been filled in him, who is the head of all rule and authority. 11 In him also you were circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ, 12 having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the powerful working of God, who raised him from the dead.

13 And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, 14 by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross. 15 He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in him.

Main Idea:

Christians must aim for the conversion of sinners by teaching the gospel, urging repentance and faith, looking for signs of spiritual life, and baptizing believers into church membership.

Sermon

1. What is Conversion?

It’s important for us to begin by defining our terms. The Bible uses some words to refer to specificideas (i.e., repentance, justification, glorification), and it uses other words more broadly (i.e., eternal or spiritual life, salvation, conversion). And sometimes the Bible uses these terms interchangeably.

For example, the Bible uses the term “salvation” to refer broadly to all the blessings God has promised in the gospel. The Apostle Paul says, in Romans 1, “I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes” (Rom. 1:16). Here, the word “salvation” is especially referring to that moment when a sinner first believes. He or she is “saved” by the power of God through the hearing of the gospel message.

But the author of Hebrews says, in Hebrews 6, that there are “things” which “belong to salvation” (Heb. 6:9). Things like good “work” or good deeds (Heb. 6:10), and Christian “love” (Heb. 6:10), and the “assurance of hope” (Heb. 6:11), and a full “inheritance” of all “the promises” of God’s blessing (Heb. 6:12).

Salvation, then, can be used an umbrella term that includes various aspects or features. When we say that a Christian has been saved, we are saying that he or she has specifically been justified, regenerated, and sanctified. When we say that a Christian will be saved, we are saying that he or she will be glorified in the end.

The Bible uses the word “conversion” in a similar way. For example, in Acts 15, Paul and Barnabas told the story about how lots of Gentiles (i.e., non-Jews) were “converted” through their ministry (Acts 15:3). And the details of those conversions included Gentiles hearing the gospel, believing it, being filled with the Holy Spirit, and being baptized into local churches as new disciples.

Some of those Gentiles who were converted through Paul’s ministry lived in a town called Colossae, and they were the first recipients of the letter we read from this morning. They were those who had been “taught” about “the faith” or the gospel (v7), they had “received Christ” (v6), they had responded to the message of the gospel with “thanksgiving” (v7), they had been “filled” with Christ (v10), they had been “made alive” by the power of the Holy Spirit (v13), and they had been “buried with [Christ] in baptism” (v12).

We might say, then, that Christian conversion is the broad biblical term that refers to the various aspects of a sinner turning away from unbelief and turning toward a life of believing and following Christ as a disciple. Conversion is what happens when a sinner is saved or brought into salvation. We know that God is the one who does the saving, but conversion is what it looks like “on the ground” when a sinner becomes a disciple of Jesus in the world.

Let’s look at each of these features of Christian conversion, and let’s consider them together.

2. Hearing the Gospel

The first feature of conversion is that sinners must hear the gospel. You can’t believe what you don’t know, and you can’t know what you haven’t learned. We see this in v6-7. Paul says, “you receivedChrist Jesus the Lord” (v6), and they “received Christ” because they were “taught” the “faith” aboutChrist (v7).

Sometimes the word “faith” in the Bible is a verb. Faith is what sinners must do or have in response to the gospel. It’s the action by which we receive “the righteousness of God” (Rom. 3:22), it’s the right response to the gospel by which we are “justified” (Rom. 5:1), and it’s the ongoing posture we have as “sons of God” in “Christ Jesus” (Gal. 3:26). In this sense, “faith” is what we must do.

But here, in our passage, the word “faith” is a noun. It is the substance or content of what Christians believe. It’s the sum total of Christian “unity” (Eph. 4:13), it’s the “one mind” for which Christians must “strive” (Phil. 1:27), and it’s the “good doctrine” which pastors must teach in order to “train” those under their care in “the words” of Christ (1 Tim. 4:6).

At its core, the Christian “faith” is the message about how God “canceled the record of debt that stood against us with all its legal demands” (v14). It’s the story about how God “nailed” our sin “to the cross” in Christ (v14), and how God “triumphed” over death, hell, and the grave (v15)… in or through Christ… and on behalf of sinners like us.

Friend, if you think you’re a Christian today, then I wonder how much you know of the gospel. Do you know “the faith” or do you merely have some nebulous feeling that you have faith?

So many East Texans have a kind of “faith” or belief, but that faith is often an undefined and personal feeling. They have faith that they will go to heaven. They have faith that God is forgiving. They have faith that Jesus saves.

But ask them what any of this means, and you’re likely to get a confused response. Ask your friends and family why they are so sure that they are going to heaven. Ask them what it means that Jesus saves, or who Jesus actually died to save. And ask them if they know that God’s forgiveness is conditional.

Remember, friends, that many sinners will turn out not to be forgiven on the last day. Jesus said, “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven… On [the last day] manywill… [hear Jesus say], ‘I never knew you; depart from me’” (Matt. 7:21-23). It is only those who “hear” the “words” of Jesus and “do them” that will be saved in the end (Matt. 7:24).

Friend, those who have saving faith, biblical faith, the kind of faith that will actually make a difference when you’re standing before God… that kind of faith must be grounded in “the faith” (v7), which is something you must be “taught” (v7). You don’t come into this world knowing “the faith,” and you won’t know it simply by living in Texas. Someone has to teach it to you, and you must learn it.

You must learn what it means that Jesus is the savior of sinners. You must learn what the Bible says about who God is, who you are, and what God requires of those He intends to bless with all the promises of the gospel.

In short, you must learn the gospel… the core and fundamental doctrine and truth-claims of biblical Christianity. One can learn that he or she is a sinner by simply thinking about it for a little while, but one can only learn what it means to be a saint by hearing and learning what God has revealed in His word.

As the Scripture itself teaches, “faith [the verb] comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ” or the doctrine of the faith (the noun) or the message about Christ (Rom. 10:17).

The first feature of Christian conversion, then, is hearing the gospel. And the second is “receiving” or believing it (v6). For any sinner to be converted, he or she must hear the gospel, and he or she must receive it as true and glorious.

3. Receiving Christ

The second feature of conversion is that sinners must receive or believe the gospel… or more specifically, sinners must receive or believe Christ. Those converted Christians in Colossae were the ones who “received Christ Jesus the Lord” (v6); and they had responded to the gospel message (i.e., the message about Christ) with “thanksgiving” (v7).

Friends, do you know that the message of the gospel is not good news to everyone who hears it? In fact, the Bible teaches us that the gospel is very bad news to those who hear and reject it… those who know and neglect it… those who learn of God’s offer of grace but keep right on living the way they always have.

Nearly 250 years ago, a Particular Baptist (or Calvinist Baptist) in England, named Andrew Fuller, argued that it is not only a marvelous privilege that sinners should hear the gospel, but that it is a moral obligation of all sinners everywhere to believe that good news and follow Jesus.

William Carey is known as the “father” of the modern missions movement because he was an organizer and a doer, but Andrew Fuller was the man in the late 1700s who made the theological argument for why Christians everywhere should make evangelism (both at home and abroad) a top priority.

Fuller, in his publication called The Gospel Worthy of All Acceptation, argued that sinners need to hear the gospel and they are obligated to believe it.[i]

He said that the gospel is like an announcement from a mighty king sent to rebels who have overtaken the king’s property and made war against him. The mighty king threatens the highest punishment for their crimes, but he also offers complete forgiveness if they will but surrender to him this instant and pledge allegiance to him from this time forth. The threatenings are certainly fearful, but the promise of forgiveness is gracious to the fullest extent.

With this analogy in mind, Fuller argued that unbelieving sinners are in an “alarming situation.” But he was not primarily talking about those sinners who had never heard the gospel or who never even had the opportunity to hear it. He was especially talking about those who had heard the gospel but remained in unbelief.

In the language of his day, he said, “We are in the habit of pitying heathens, who are enthralled by abominable superstitions, and immersed in the immorality which accompany [them]; but to live in the midst of gospel light, and reject it, or even disregard it, is abundantly more criminal, and will be followed with a heavier punishment. We feel for the condition of [reckless] characters; for swearers, and drunkards, and fornicators, and liars, and thieves, and murderers; but these crimes become tenfold more heinous in being committed under the light of revelation, and in contempt of all the warnings and gracious invitation of the gospel.”

He went on, “The most [reckless] character, who never possessed these advantages, may be far less criminal, in the sight of God, than the most sober and decent who possesses and disregards them… The gospel wears an aspect of mercy towards sinners; but towards unbelieving sinners the Scriptures deal wholly in the language of threatening.”

Then Fuller got straight to the point by saying, “Herein consists [the] sin [of those who hear and do not believe], and hence proceeds our ruin. God called, and we would not harken; he stretched out his hand, and no man regarded; therefore [God] will laugh at our calamity, and mock when our fear comes… Great is the sin of unbelief… [which becomes] unpardonable… by persisting in it till death… You cannot go back into a state of non-existence, however desirable it might be to many of you; for God hath stamped immortality upon your natures.”

And then Fuller made the application, “Like a vessel in a tempestuous ocean, you must go this way or that; and go which way you will, if it be not to Jesus, as [though He were] utterly unworthy, you are only heaping up wrath against the day of wrath. Whether you sing, or pray, or hear, or preach, or feed the poor, or till the soil… if… Christ be disregarded, all is sin, and all will issue in disappointment.

[Which way] will you go? Jesus invites you to come to him. His servants beseech you, in his name, to be reconciled to God… An eternal heaven is before you in one direction, and an eternal hell is in the other. Choose you, this day, whom you will serve.

For our parts, we will abide by our Lord and Savior. If you continue to reject him, so it must be: nevertheless, be you sure of this, that the kingdom of God has come here unto you!”

Friend, if you hear the gospel today, you can know that God Himself is offering you the great gifts of forgiveness and mercy and peace and grace. Do not reject this offer. Don’t disregard it. Don’t leave here without taking hold of these great gifts in the person and work of Christ.

If you want to talk more about what this means or how you can receive Christ, then let’s hang out after the service. I’ll be standing right down front after the service for a while, and there are many Christians around the room who would be glad to talk with you.

First (to be converted), sinners must hear the gospel; second, sinners must receive Christ; and third, sinners must be spiritually regenerated or “made alive” in Christ (v13).

4. Spiritual Regeneration

Another feature of conversion we see in our passage is that of regeneration. The Bible uses this fancy term, so I do too. But let me explain what it means.

Look at v13. Paul said to the Christians in Colossae, “you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with [Christ]” (v13). And in v9-11, Paul said that they were “filled” in Christ (v10) and they had been “circumcised with a circumcision made without hands” (v11).

All of this is rich biblical language that is pointing to two big concepts and themes in the Bible:

(1) covenantal blessing and cursing

(2) spiritual life and death

As we talked about last Sunday, the sign of “circumcision” was given to Abraham (in the Old Testament) as a symbol of God’s covenantal promise to bless him and his “offspring” (Gen. 17:1-14). To be counted among the circumcised people was to be numbered among those who were under God’s covenantal blessings; but to be counted among the uncircumcised people was to be numbered among those who were under God’s curse.

And going all the way back to the first chapters of Genesis, God’s curse is summed up in “death” (Gen. 2:16-17). When the first man (Adam) sinned, he and every human after him became cursed by God (Gen. 3:17-19). The Scripture says, “sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned” (Rom. 5:12).

Now, this most certainly refers to physical death. We die because we sin. Our bodies break down, we get sick, we suffer disease, and sooner or later we die because we live in a world that is under God’s curse and because we are sons and daughters of Adam who practice the very sins that deserve death (Rom. 1:28-32).

But even now, while we are still physically alive, unless or until we have been “made [spiritually] alive” by the power of God (v13), we are (in a sense) dead already. We are like zombies walking around, condemned to death, stinking of death, and rotting away because of sin, even though we can still move around.

The Scriptures describe it like this in Ephesians 2. People come into this world “dead in…trespasses and sins… following the course of this world, following the [ways of the devil]… carrying out the desires of the body and the mind” (Eph. 2:1-3). In other words, spiritually dead people walk around thinking and saying and doing the stuff that stinks of death and leads to death.

So, then, the language of our passage this morning is drawing upon these two biblical concepts of (1) covenantal blessing and cursing and (2) spiritual life and death, but Paul was telling those converted Colossians that even though they too had been “dead in [their] trespasses” (v13), and they too had been counted among the “uncircumcision” (v13)… that “God” had “made [them] alive” (v13), and that “in” Christ, they had received the sign of God’s blessing “without hands” or in a way that is not physical (v11).

This transfer from death to life and from covenantal curse to covenantal blessing is what the New Testament calls “regeneration.” The word means to be re-generated, re-made, re-created, or re-born. It’s what Jesus was talking about in John 3 when He said that a person must be “born again” (Jn. 3:3). It’s what the Apostle Peter was talking about when he said that Christians are those who have been “born again… through the living and abiding word of God” (1 Peter 1:23).

The Apostle Paul said it like this in Titus 3, “we ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, led astray, slaves to various passions and pleasures, passing our days in malice and envy, hated by others and hating one another. But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior” (Titus 3:3-6).

In other words, regeneration is what God does through the power and presence of His Spirit in the heart and life of a sinner when he or she hears the gospel and begins to believe it. Sinners must believe the gospel, but it is God who opens their blind eyes to the glory of Christ in the gospel… it is God who opens their deaf ears to hear the gospel as genuinely good news… it is God who speaks the effectual word of life into the dead hearts of guilty sinners to make them alive.

And this is exactly what God promised He would do! Throughout the Old Testament, the repeated story is told of how sinners are not only incapable of obeying God, but that they are disobedient becausethey do not believe Him.

God speaks His glorious words of promise and reveals His wise instructions for living well, but sinners do not obey Him because they do not believe Him… and this despite the most powerful displays of God’s power and character!

This is why God promised not only to make Himself known in the New Covenant through Jesus Christ, but He also promised to make His people want to believe and obey Him. God spoke through the prophet Ezekiel, saying, “I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone… and [I will] give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you, and [I will] cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules… you shall be my people, and I will be your God” (Ezekiel 36:26-28).

This third feature of conversion, then, is not really what we are asking sinners to do. We need Godto do this! And what we do is look for signs of spiritual life… those characteristics that show that someone has been regenerated (a genuine turning away from sin, a real love for Christ and His word, a real love for Christ’s people, a desire to grow in holiness, and a respect and appreciation for the means of grace – Bible, prayer, church – and an active use or practice of them).

Friends, it’s right here that many Christians have the biggest trouble when thinking about what it means to be converted… what it means to be a Christian.

Some Christians overemphasize the necessity of regeneration, and they fail to preach or teach the gospel, they fail to call sinners to repent and believe, and they fail to speak with a sense of urgency that sinners ought to do this right away. Some Christians believe that only God can regenerate a sinner (right and good), but then they apply this belief by neglecting to call sinners to believe and to obey the gospel. This is a tragedy, and it is a misunderstanding of what the Bible teaches.

But other Christians (and this is far more common today) overemphasize the responsibility of the sinner to “make a decision for Christ” or to pray “the sinner’s prayer” or to say that they “believe in Jesus.” These Christians believe that the sinner must make a personal profession of faith in Jesus (right and good), but then they apply this belief by neglecting to look for signs of spiritual life. This is also a tragedy, and it’s also a misunderstanding of what the Bible teaches.

We must hear and understand both of these truths from the Bible. Sinners are most definitely responsible to believe, and God is most certainly the one who makes dead sinners alive in Christ… and those sinners who actually believe will give evidence by the way they talk and live… as people who are spiritually alive.

So then, conversion is when sinners hear the gospel, when they believe or receive Christ, and when they are regenerated by the power of God’s Spirit… and there’s one more important feature in our passage this morning… baptism.

5. Believer’s Baptism

I won’t say nearly as much as I might on this point today. Our time is nearly gone, and we teach on this subject quite a bit.[ii] But believer’s baptism deserves to be noted as the main observable feature of Christian conversion in the Bible.

If you were to ask a first-century Christian when he or she was born again or when he or she first believed the gospel or when he or she was baptized, you would get the same exact answer. While the Bible does distinguish these features of conversion (theologically), in the practical experience of the first-century Christian, they perceived all of these features to occur at once.

It's only been since Christians started individualizing and privatizing Christian conversion (as opposed to practicing conversion as a communal and public experience) that Christians (especially American Evangelicals) have separated baptism from one’s profession of faith. No Christian before the mid-1800s (at the earliest) believed that one’s public profession of faith was anything other than his or her baptism into the membership of a church.

Now, I am convinced that Paul is talking about spiritual “baptism” in v12 of our passage, since the context is all about what God has done “without hands” (v11) and “through faith” (v12). But, again, in the New Testament, the way all of the invisible features of conversion (belief or trust in Christ, spiritual regeneration, the sanctification or setting apart of the believer unto holiness) these all became visible at that moment when a new disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ was “baptized” into “the name of Christ” (Acts 2:38, 10:48) or into “the name” of “[God] the Father and of [God] the Son and of [God] the Holy Spirit” (Matt. 28:19).

The consistent and comprehensive teaching of the New Testament is that one’s spiritual rebirth is certainly a personal matter (God regenerates individuals), but spiritual rebirth is never a private matter (individuals never declare themselves to be regenerated). Christ has commissioned local churches (He has authorized them) to speak with the authority of heaven, and to declare that this sinner (so far as we can tell) is born again.[iii] And the way local churches make this declaration is by baptizing repenting and believing sinners into church membership.

In our passage this morning, the Apostle Paul was able to write to the church in Colossae with the assumption that every one of them had been “buried with [Christ] in baptism” (v12). And this was the public mark or sign that set Christians apart from the unbelieving world around them… Who were the Christian converts? Those who had been baptized into Christ and into the local church.

As I said, I could say so much more about this, but let’s get to a few points of application…

6. How do we aim for Conversion?

If Christian conversion happens when sinners hear the gospel, when sinners believe the gospel or receive Christ as Savior and Lord, when sinners are born again or regenerated by God’s Spirit, and when repenting and believing sinners (i.e., regenerated ones) are baptized into membership in a local church… then these are the features or targets we ought to aim for. We must aim for the conversion of sinners by teaching the gospel, urging repentance and faith, looking for signs of spiritual life, and baptizing believers into church membership.

First, brothers and sisters, we ought to aim for the conversion of our friends and family by teaching them the gospel. We should talk about it regularly. We should bring it up in regular conversation. We should explain the gospel, and we should ask questions so that we can try our best to ensure that our loved ones understand what the gospel really is.

We ought never assume that people already know the gospel. Instead, we ought to keep in mind that it is the gospel message (teaching and explaining it) that carries the power of God to save sinners.

Second, we ought to urge our family and friends to receive Christ as Savior and Lord. We ought to tell them frequently that the gospel is only good news for those who repent (turn away from sin) and believe (or trust and follow Jesus). We ought to remind our loved ones that God’s forgiveness in Christ is conditional; only those who truly repent and believe are forgiven and saved on the last day.

We ought never leave out the threatenings of the gospel, and we ought never make it seem like we are indifferent about how our loved ones respond. Instead, we ought to plead with them to turn to Christ as soon as possible, and we ought to make it clear that we are genuinely concerned for their souls.

Third, we ought to pray for the Lord to grant the gift of spiritual life, and we ought to patiently wait to see evidence of it. Yes, we ought to call for repentance and faith as soon as possible; but no, we ought not be so quick to affirm that our loved ones are most definitely saved (or justified before God) simply because they have “prayed a prayer” or said they “believe.”

We ought to be joyful when we see what we think are signs of spiritual life, but we also ought to be patient to see if these are persistent and pervasive or if these are just fleeting emotional sentiments that are gone as quickly as they came. Remember that Jesus said there is a kind of person who “hears the word [of the gospel] and immediately receives it with joy, yet he has no root… [and] endures for a while, [but soon] falls away” (Matt. 13:20-21).

Fourth, and finally, we ought to call upon those who say they believe in Christ to seek membership in a local church through public baptism. Many of our friends and loved ones feel totally at ease in their estate of spiritual death because some Christian or pastor told them that they are definitely on their way to heaven because they “said a prayer” or because they know the “ABC’s” of salvation.

But brothers and sisters, God has not authorized us as individuals to give sinners such an assurance of their salvation (“You are a Christian!”). We bare that responsibility together, gathered as a local church, an assembly of the Lord Jesus Christ… and only in baptism has Christ authorized local churches to collectively affirm that an individual sinner has now become a saint… and we (as a church) should only baptize someone after having observed (at least to some degree) that he or she is showing signs of spiritual life.

What I’m arguing for this morning is a return to biblical Christianity. Unlike the efforts of American pragmatism, and unlike the privatized way of living as Christians in the world, I’m arguing that we should be Christians who aim for the conversion of our lost friends and loved ones by doing the slow and faithful work of teaching the gospel, urging repentance and faith, looking for signs of spiritual life, and baptizing believers into church membership.

May God help us to be active in our evangelism, may He help us be fervent in our call for repentance and faith, may He grant spiritual life through our gospel conversations, and may He help us to patiently and joyfully welcome new disciples into fellowship among us… as God does the work that only He can do… regenerating sinners and building His church.

Endnotes

[i] Read Fuller’s The Gospel Worthy of All Acceptation in digital form here:https://archive.org/details/gospelworthyall00fullgoog/mode/2up [ii] For a quality introduction to the meaning and practice of baptism, see this article here: https://marcminter.com/2022/08/05/the-meaning-and-practice-of-baptism/ [iii] Here is a sermon I preached in January of 2023 on the authority of local churches to speak in this way: https://sermons.logos.com/sermons/1051624-christ%27s-visible-kingdom

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