Welcome to the Pastor's Page. The items below are posted at random and are most assuredly believed among us here at FBC. I will be continually adding new material to this page and perhaps redesigning it from time to time. It is my prayer that these postings will serve to edify, enlighten and energize those who spend time therein.
Pastor Stan Gustafson
A Culture Within A Culture
The mature christian knows it, and the young convert will soon find it out. The christian culture is incompatible with the world's culture. On every level these realms are at odds. The differences are so stark that the follower of Christ is instructed not to love the world nor the things that are in the world. He finds himself in hostile territory on this very planet. His soul is vexed by the media and the accepted behavior all around him. He is told in scripture to be not conformed to this world but actually be transformed away from it. While often the newborn believer struggles to move spiritually away from the attitudes and actions of earthly society, as he matures in Christ and the Spirit controls him more fully he develops a disdain for the culture he once took for granted. He learns what it means in I Peter 2:11 to be stranger and a pilgrim here.
We will never reform the unchristian world to biblical godliness. Issues pile upon issues in every generation. Universities are hotbeds for blasphemous and immoral instruction. Governments constantly legislate contrary to the will of God. The family structure is so deteriorated as to be unrecognizable in relation to what God originated in the beginning. The biblically grounded find themselves a culture within a culture. We serve a higher Authority. We think with a different mind and obey laws appreciated only by the redeemed in Christ. Step lightly while you're here, my brothers and sisters, we are not staying.
The best we can do is season the world with the salt of truth and light the darkness around us with the testimony of Christ. It is a grand mistake to try to influence the world by becoming compatible with it, yet this is the philosophy of many ministries today. Light contrasts darkness, and the Christian testimony throughout the New Testament was done by being different than the world. Not synergy, but manifest antithesis. Philippians 2:15 is applicable here instructing us to be blameless and harmless in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, shining as lights and holding forth the word of life. Do the words of Christ frighten you? "If they have hated me, they will hate you. If ye were of the world, the world would love its own. I have called you out of the world." Not until that blessed day when Christ rules finally with all enemies under His feet having put down all rule, all authority and all power (I Co. 15:24,25) will the culture of this planet be His culture.
John the Baptist
Here is a tremendous New Testament figure about whom much scripture is written. He was the first prophet of the New Testament era, the first preacher, and the first martyr. He was a man sent from God to bear witness of the light that all men through him might believe. He was a voice crying in the wilderness to prepare the way of the Lord. Those who heard him preach heard a message of repentance from sin and the duty of faith in the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world. People came in multitudes from every quarter to hear him and receive baptism at his hands. Matthew 3:5 - "Then went out to him Jerusalem, and all Judea, and all the region round about Jordan." Luke 3:7 tells us that multitudes came. Matthew 21:32 says publicans and harlots were converted. He performed in the spirit and power of Elijah. Below are three brief points about his baptism which still apply to baptism today.
1. IT WAS IN PUBLIC BECAUSE IT WAS A PROFESSION
Baptism is a public profession of one's salvation and expresses perfectly that individual's conversion. Romans 6:3,4 tell us that we are buried with Christ by baptism into death and pictorially raised with Him as we emerge from the water. In conversion, we die with Christ and experience a resurrection in that He gives us a new and eternal life. In baptism, we picture that death and resurrection, telling those who witness it that we have entered into Christ's passion...that we have been saved in Him. It was a public spectacle in John's day when people went into the water to submit to baptism. Multitudes (Luke 3:7) saw these people aligning themselves with the Savior. They were publicly "putting on Christ" as it says in Galatians 3:27.
2. IT WAS IN JORDAN BECAUSE IT WAS IMMERSION
Many have seen the ancient painting of John standing waist-deep in the Jordan River with Christ by his side as John pours water over the Lord's head. This, of course, is unreasonable. Pouring or sprinkling cannot be baptism for a number of reasons. John baptized in the Jordan because he required sufficient water in which to immerse the subject. John 3:23 tells that John purposely baptized where there was "much water." The term "baptism" itself comes from the Greek root "baptizo" which means to dip, plunge, whelm, or immerse. It is impossible to fulfill the design of the word by pouring or sprinkling. Baptism by sprinkling is a contradiction of terms. We must also look at the intended picture of baptism relative to its mode. It is a burial and a resurrection which can only be pictured by immersion as in a watery grave. It must have been a grand scene at the Jordan River to see the candidates profess their faith in the Savior and their connection with the gospel.
3. IT WAS IN OBEDIENCE BECAUSE IT WAS IMPERATIVE
The ordinance of baptism is often seen as optional or elective. Often it is neglected in church teachings, yet the Baptist included it in his preaching as commanded and expected of all converts. (Mark 1:4 - John did baptize in the wilderness, and preach the baptism of repentance for the remission of sins.) So we understand from this that his sermons actually consisted of repentance, a turning from sin to Christ for forgiveness of sins, and after that, a submitting to baptism to symbolize this event. Logically, if John preached repentance and remission of sins as imperative, then he preached baptism as imperative also. Since baptism is the will of God as expressed in His Word for new believers, it is a matter of obedience to submit to it. Jesus said when applying to John for baptism, "Suffer it to be so now; for thus it becometh us to fulfill all righteousness" (Matthew 3:15). Jesus knew that baptism is a part of fulfilling all righteousness. It is a righteous act and therefore a sin of omission to neglect it. (James 4:17 - Therefore to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin.) It is a privilege to witness the baptism of born again people. By it they boldly profess their acceptance of Jesus Christ and their willingness to begin their Christian life in obedience to what the Lord would have them do.
Pastor Stan Gustafson