This Sunday night (October 26) there will be an unusual service at New Hope Baptist Church in Seneca, Kansas. The pastor of that local church (even a Baptist one) will be baptized. It is not that he had not been under the water before and thought he was baptized, but now he realizes that he was not truly converted when he was put under the water as baptism before. Many will sneer at this or perhaps shake their heads at this radical. However, if we really believe that the Gospel of Jesus Christ is a vital issue and that only believers are to be baptized, this should make us all think about the issue carefully. While there are many thoughts about what baptism is and what it means, certainly it is a New Covenant issue. Water baptism is the outward sign of receiving the covenant promise of God and it is also a covenantal promise to God.
The sacraments or ordinances are not taken very seriously in our day in many places, yet in others they are overly emphasized as bringing grace in and of themselves. What is happening this Sunday night is a sign that baptism is being taken seriously because Jesus Christ and His Word are being taken seriously. If we expect Christ and His Word to be taken seriously by others, we must begin to search our own hearts first. The Church in America is under spiritual judgment and we must understand that one of the meanings of this is that spiritual understanding has been withdrawn. When spiritual understanding has been withdrawn, this leaves a people without insight into their own spiritual condition. There are many in our churches that think they are converted when they are not. True revival begins in the churches, yet unless the ministers and members of the churches begin to take God at His Word and cry out to Him, we will not see revival because the agent of revival (the church) is full of unbelievers who are deceived and deceiving others.
In the modern world being nice and polite has replaced true love. We have also replaced true love now with the desire to be inoffensive. We are not willing to offend others with the biblical teaching about sin and we are not willing to offend ourselves with the biblical teaching about sin. But Jesus Christ is a Rock of Offense. It may offend our own hearts to examine ourselves to see if Christ is there as Paul commanded (II Cor 13:5). Paul did not tell them to examine themselves to see if they had walked an aisle or if they had prayed a prayer or if they had changed to become a little more moral, he told them to examine themselves to see if Christ was indeed presently there. In the days of Jesus and Paul there were many people adding things to and taking things away from the Gospel. We must not imagine that in our dark day that things have not been this way for many years and are not that way today. While it may not add to the membership roll and look impressive to many others, baptism is an act of obedience and an act of total renunciation of our rights to self. It is to declare that we are nothing and should do nothing but be instruments of His glory in the world.
It is very true that any who begin to consider their hearts as to whether Christ is really there or not will have a battle with pride. Others who begin to see that they were not converted until after they were baptized will also begin to battle with pride. We will always wonder what others will think of us. Ministers of the Gospel must realize that they cannot seek the glory of God as long as they seek the glory of men (John 5:44). In fact, until we are willing to live and teach in a way where we are not seeking to please men we will not be servants of Christ (Gal 1:10). It is my hope that this baptismal service will be one of many in the coming days because it is my hope that God will use the testimony and example of Curtis Knapp and others to shake some from their false confidence and pride to search the Scriptures and their hearts to a true seeking of the true Christ. What would a church look like that was full of religious people without Christ in their hearts and the power of the Spirit working in them? To be blunt, it would look pretty much what we look like today. That should be enough to send us to our knees. Please read this testimony and search your own hearts. If Christ is there according to Scripture and not just because you want it to be so, ask God to give you a burden for others so great that you are willing to suffer their wrath in order to speak plainly with them about their souls.
The Testimony of Curtis Knapp
This Sunday night, my wife and I, as well as another couple from our church, will be baptized. My wife and I feel that we were converted somewhere in the early to mid-1990s, whereas the other couple feel that they have been converted more recently. Although we were all “baptized” long ago, we believe that it was not truly what the Bible means by baptism, since it preceded our conversion. It has taken a long time for my wife and I to realize that we should be baptized following our true conversion. I have been asked to share a brief testimony in this regard.
Though the details of our respective testimonies are different, the basic scenario is the same – we all thought we were saved and then later we really were saved, and later we realized what happened. For my own part, I was raised by parents who took me to church. I was not allowed to take communion until I made a profession of faith and was baptized. I distinctly remember hating Jesus Christ as a child for two reasons: 1) I did not understand His parables and then heard Him say that he spoke in parables intentionally to conceal the meaning. 2) I thought him to be cruel and unfair to the man who wanted to bury his father first. I knew I was not saved because I hated my brother and read in 1 John that I could not love God and hate my brother at the same time.
At age 12, I began to fear going to hell and the fear increased until I quenched it by doing what my church had taught me to do — praying a prayer to ask Jesus in my heart. After doing this, I walked down the aisle at church and professed my faith in Jesus. I was then baptized a couple of months later. For a few months, I resolved that I would live differently. I would stop cussing and be good for Jesus. But my self-empowered resolutions did not last and I returned to my sinful ways. I continued as a Pharisee for many years. My church thought of me as a good boy and a fine Christian man, I suppose, because I did not rebel against my parents, did not party, and kept the rules. But they did not know my heart. I was entirely focused on myself. I was full of pride. I thought I was better than these others and that I obeyed those commandments that really mattered to God. My faith was in me. I was a slave to the approval of others. I did not see the glory of God, nor did I love God. I did not read the Bible, did not
understand what I read, and did not enjoy it. I did not pray except occasionally ask God to give me things.
While in college, I drifted farther away from God, but a few years after college, God permitted himself to be found by one who was not seeking Him. He led me to John 6 and opened my eyes to see His glory and enabled me to love what I saw. He also opened my eyes to see my sin and caused me to mourn over it. He gave me a love for His word and the ability to understand it for the first time. He gave me repentance, a new heart, a new nature, and true faith in Christ Jesus. For the first time I trusted in Christ, not in my free will decision at age 12. I should have been baptized during this time, but I really did not know what was happening to me. When I was 12, I was relieved because I thought I had obtained fire insurance. When I was truly converted, I was relieved because I felt I had found God.
For His glory,
Curtis Knapp
God Loves... Himself 
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