What About Christians Who Didn't Obey Acts 2:38?
by David K. Bernard
Podcast recording (no venue stated in the delivered transcript)
Kind: teaching
Scripture: Acts 2:38, Acts 22:16, Acts 8, Acts 10, Acts 9, Acts 19, Luke 12, Matthew 11, Job 3

Source: https://acts238.life/repository/sermons/david-k-bernard--what-about-christians-who-didnt-obey-acts-238
Published by Acts 2:38 Life from the sermon transcript on that page.
Free to copy and share with attribution.

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I do address it in my book on apologetics called anchor points and I establish a number of key principles before we get to that discussion so I would encourage uh people to take a look at that book particularly the chapter called salvation and judgment. So let's establish several things. First the first and foremost the Bible teaches the plan of salvation and I do affirm as you've stated the Bible standard this is our fundamental doctrine of the UPCI.

The Bible standard of full salvation is repentance from sin. Water baptism in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ for the remission of sins and receiving the the gift or the baptism of the Holy Ghost with the initial sign of speaking in tongues. And of course, all that is u predicated on faith in Jesus Christ. Uh we know we're saved by grace through faith. But this is experience that we receive. So what I've just described is the application of our of grace and the expression of our faith. It's obedient. Our obedient response to the gospel. It's how we believe and obey the gospel. Okay? So, we're going to always say the Bible is the standard.

Uh we cannot teach uh any exceptions. We cannot teach anything the Bible doesn't support. So, I I do want to make that clear. And this is the message that we must proclaim to the whole world. Uh we can't proclaim anything else. In fact, I tell people when they challenge us on this point, I would tell you two things. Number one, here's what the Bible teaches. And number two, God personally convicted me and I personally obeyed it. So, I believe it's necessary by by my personal experience. And I also believe it's available by my personal experience. So, I'll just give you what the Bible says, and I'll give you my personal testimony.

Aside that, it's between you and God. So, having said that, I want to make several qualifications. in addressing people in history. We don't know people's personal experience. Uh I've mentioned previously we do find accounts of baptism in the name of Jesus Christ at different points of history. We find speaking in tongues at various points of diff in history but people don't always leave a record. I believe there are many who received the Holy Spirit and spoke in tonesues but they did not write it down. Maybe they did not fully understand that tongues was the sign. uh or maybe they didn't think it necessary to tell everybody.

There could be famous figures in church history. Now I'll give an example. John Wesley, he said miracles still existed today where people like John Calvin said miracles are over. That was only for the early first century church. And Wesley said no there it's for today. He says we've heard of speaking in tonesues. And he mentioned that favorably. We know God still does that. And then and of course other historical reports say even in his revival people were speaking in tonesues. And then he relates some of his own experiences where his heart was strangely warm, where God really dealt with it. He never says, "I spoke in tonesues." But it would not surprise me at all if he did in his private personal life speak.

Um, and then when you talk about baptism in the name of Jesus Christ, again, there have been accounts of that. Um, interestingly, I had a trinitarian theologian come up to me some time back and he said, "I want you to know I was raised in a church where there were some witness people." So the pastor always baptized in the name of the father, son, and holy spirit and Jesus Christ. So he says, "I was baptized that way. I was baptized in Jesus name. You would have never known. I've had more than one. I had another prominent member of the society for Pentecostal studies." He said, "I was Catholic Charis and I I received the Holy Ghost in the charismatic movement and in the university and they baptized me in the name of Jesus Christ." Um, and I could go on and on and give you other examples.

uh that this other theologian he also said what about you know in Acts 22:16 Ananas told Paul arise and be baptized and wash away your sins calling on the name of the Lord he said what about people when they're baptized even though the preacher may just use the traditional three-fold formula what if they call on Jesus or they confess Jesus or he asked them to make a confession of Jesus Christ could could that be considered Jesus name baptism so I'm not now obviously in these cases I'm giving. If someone came to me and said, "What do you think?" I would say, "Well, now that you have a full understanding, I want to baptize you in the name of Jesus Christ so there's no doubt." Sure.

But looking at people that have never heard, have no opportunity or church history, or they think they're doing the right thing, could God accept that? Well, they were baptized in Jesus' name in in some sense. So, I'm just saying we don't know. We we could say, well, I don't think those people are saved or I think this or I think that. What if they were baptized in Jesus' name? What if they did receive the Holy Ghost? What if they did speak in tongues? So, I'm just making the point, we don't know the experiences of every individual in church history or today. Next point I want to make is conversion is a process.

You could see that in the New Testament. So, uh it's meant that the three steps of Acts 2:38 are not strictly simultaneous, but they're meant to happen in rapid succession. I say they're not strictly uh simultaneous because you can be baptized in Jesus' name and not have received the spirit yet. Acts 8. You could receive the spirit and not be baptized in Jesus' name yet. Acts 10. So we know of that. But it's a conversion process. So let's take those examples. Acts 8, the Samaritans believe. They were baptized and the word was sent to the apostles. None of them received the Holy Spirit yet. So the Peter and John came down from Jerusalem.

They lay hands on. they received the Holy Spirit. It's probably about a two-day journey for the Samaritans to get the report to the apostles and for the apostles to come back would be another two days. So, there had to be at least four days between they were baptized in water, baptized in the spirit. So, there four day conversions. Okay. Acts nine, Saul of Tarsus, the Apostle Paul, he's stricken on the road to Damascus. He obviously repents of his sins. Lord, what do you want me to do? God sends him to Ananas. So, three days later, Ananas lays hands on him. Uh, he receives the Holy Spirit.

Ananas tells him to be baptized. So, it had to be a three-day experience. Cornelos in his household. He's praying. He's apparently repentant. Uh, he has to send. God tells him to sin for the Apostle Peter. Peter comes. He preaches. Uh, they receive the Holy Ghost while he's preaching. Then he takes them to be baptized. So I think it was a four- day journey, four days between him going to get Peter and Peter coming back. So by the time he really repented it was four days to receive the Holy Ghost and then I don't know how long it took but if they went to the Mediterranean ocean to get baptized Mediterranean Sea it would have you know 15-minute walk or 15 minute walk or however long it was you know what okay um disciples of John Ephesus Acts 19 they had been repented they had bapti been baptized into John's baptism but Paul rebaptized them in Jesus name and then he prayed when they received the Holy Ghost.

So between their repentance and their uh apostolic new birth experience, we don't know days, months, years is a time. My point is there's a process. Now the question becomes what if somebody dies in the process? You know what if they're walking on the way to the Mediterranean Sea and they die of a heart attack? Okay, but what we have to understand is that God looks at the total process and we trust God. But that's not a trivial observation because okay all these various believers some of them may have repented some of them may have received the Holy Ghost but what about baptism in Jesus name or vice versa and then even our own churches we will have people come they get baptized it may be several weeks or months or even longer uh before they receive the Holy Ghost.

I I usually I think if you teach faith and preach it and practice it, you can reduce that dramatically. But still, there's going to be some lag even in our own churches. So, it's not just talking about people in history or of other denominations, but it could be in our own ranks. Sometimes people receive the Holy Ghost, but it takes some time before they are fully convinced of the need to be baptized in Jesus' name. Or they're baptized in Jesus' name, but it's sometime before they receive the Holy Ghost. So, all those cases, conversion is a process. Now, we advocate completing the process, but the issue is what if somebody dies in the middle?

So, I'll give you actual case studies. A couple receiving the Holy Ghost. They're in a Bible study. They're on they're driving to be baptized in Jesus name. They're killed in a car wreck. Uh little child, terminal disease, receives the Holy Ghost on his deathbed. He dies before he can be baptized. Now, he's perhaps below the age of accountability, which is why they didn't baptize him before. They said they weren't sure. Anyway, we could multiply these examples. So, we just have to understand it's a process. And that leads me to my next point, and this is maybe the most important. God is the judge, not us.

So, I'm not prepared to teach exceptions to all these cases. But I am comfortable saying God is the judge. And that is not a copout. That's not a a dodge. That's being very sincere. That's being humble. That's saying I my job is to preach the gospel. God is the one who judges. So it maybe in a if you use a legal context, if I'm a lawyer, I can tell you here's what the law says, but the judge will decide did you break the law or did you follow the law? Maybe there was an exceptional case where we're going to deem that you fulfilled the intention and the spirit of the law.

That's a judge has to do that. I can't say, "Oh, the law allows this unusual exception or unusual application." But a judge could say, "I'm going to deem this is how the law applies in your case." And maybe it's never happened before, but I'm going to deem it. So God is the judge. And I don't mean this to excuse or compromise, but any exceptional situation or case of what we might say is partial fulfillment or unusual or unique fulfillment. Uh is it really a fulfillment? Now again, I told you in a pastoral perspective, I don't want to leave any doubt. I'm gonna I knew a guy that saw the truth of baptism in Jesus name before anybody ever taught him.

He baptized himself in Jesus name. Later when he came into a United Pentecost church, the pastor baptized him just to be clear, make a clear confession. But could you say he he that had to happen, you know, to for him to be saved? I mean, so throughout history, there could have been lots of people like that. Um, so I'm not trying to make exceptions. I don't think we can teach or preach any kind of exceptions or make any kind of assurances, but I do think we can take account conversion as a process. Now, here's another example. So, these people that get killed in the middle of the process, do we have to say they're all going to hell or can we say God is the judge?

The the Roman Catholic Church actually has a doctrine, the baptism of desire. So if you express your desire, you fervently want it, but you're physically prevented before you die from being baptized because they believe baptism is essential to salvation, then God will count your intention as having been fulfilled. So they're not saying you weren't baptized. They're just saying it's an unusual fulfillment. Now, I'm not going to teach that doctrine. I don't see it in the Bible. But I'm just giving you an example that I'm very comfortable saying God is the judge. So, do I have to say this person went to hell, that person went to hell, this exception doesn't count or that fulfillment doesn't count?

I say let's let's preach the gospel. Let's give our personal experience, but let's leave all these things in the hands of God. Now, let me give you a a further thought. Whatever the case, God's judgment will be fair, merciful, and appropriate. God will hold people accountable for what they know or should have known. God will not judge them by a standard they could not know. Now that doesn't mean anybody gets saved without the gospel. But let's take the case of American Indians in AD 1000. Was there any chance they could have received the Holy Ghost? Or how could God have treated them? Now what we might say is now some early trinitarian Pentecostals taught this and some early one Pentecostals taught this and they said you know people like this.

So the early trinitarian Pentecostals like Parm and Seymour, they said, "No, really, you must be baptized with the Holy Ghost to really be saved, have the full gospel, go up to the rapture." But what if you didn't? Well, if you didn't know about it, you didn't hear about it, didn't understand it. Well, you you wouldn't go to the rapture, you go through the tribulation or you couldn't go to the new Jerusalem, but you'd end up in the new earth. Some of the early one is Pentecostal pioneers like GT Haywood, Andrew Ursin, uh Frank you were similar. They saw well you need to be baptized in Jesus name and receive the Holy Ghost to be saved.

Go to heaven, go to the rapture, go to the new Jerusalem. But what if you're only part way? You didn't know anymore. You didn't have the opportunity whatever. Well, you could go to the new earth. So they did have some destiny that was not full salvation or not the church, but it wasn't going to the lake of fire for eternity. Well, I again, I don't think we can teach those doctrines. I don't really see them in the scripture, but what they were trying to grasp is God's going to be fair somehow. I don't know how he's going to do it. And you do have scripture for this because you do have, for example, in u Luke 12, the servant that knew his master's will and didn't do it was beaten with many stripes.

The servant who did not know his master's will but but still didn't do it was beaten with a few stripes. different levels of judgment based on their knowledge and their accountability. Likewise, this is interesting to me. Mark Matthew 11, Jesus was rebuking the cities of Galilee. He said, "If Sodom and Gomorrah had heard this preaching, they would have responded and you didn't. It will be more tolerable or more bearable in the day of judgment for them than for you." Now, that doesn't sound like you're going to be saved and go to New Jerusalem, but it does sound like there's going to be a different type of punishment.

So, I will say that I don't know how God will implement this in eternity. There's this interesting passage in Job chapter 3. I don't know that we can use it for doctrine, but I'm just giving you an illustration. It says it talks about slaves that are mistreated in their life, but when they die, they'll be rest and won't have their masters. Does that mean they get to go to heaven or but it I think there's a principle and there are other scriptures I can give that God is going to take into account everybody's life experiences their opportunities their knowledge their level of accountability and whatever eternity is going to look like I'm not saying it's going to be the new Jerusalem with Jesus Christ but somehow there is going to be an appropriate level of um how God will deal with each person.

So that when we trust the judgment of God, I think that mitigates a lot of our concern here. So I would just summarize by saying we we must preach the gospel of Jesus Christ and our response according to Acts 238. But we can easily say God is the judge, not us. He knows how each person what each person's responsibility was, what their knowledge, their accountability, and what their experience was, and how he will justly and fairly and mercifully treat them in eternity. And I'm very confident in trusting God as the judge. I don't have to create a doctrine to deal with that. Uh nor do I have to give assurances to deal with that, but I can just point people to God as a practical matter for someone who's passed away.

there's nothing we can do about it. So, I simply say they're in God's hands. And I I preached sermons where I was not confident the person was saved, but I didn't feel like I had to tell the family, "No, I think they're probably burning in hell right now. I think I can just say, you know, they're in the hands of a just and loving, merciful God, and we trust him to do, but I would never put them in heaven or give them a false assurance." On the other hand, um they're they're if somebody's alive, then we know what to do. Salvation, conversion is a process.

Complete the process. Um you know, you need to if if you have faith, you need to keep living by faith and you need to fulfill what the Bible has told. It's a both a promise and a command. I think we can respond in that way uh with a firm commitment to uh preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ uh in the message of Acts 2:38, but letting God be the judge to sort out any unusual or acceptable cases, not giving false hopes or promises, but trusting uh the justice and mercy of God.