THE ESSENCE OF BAPTISM

First lesson: Galatians 3:27-28 "For as many of you as have been baptised into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female; for ye are all one in Christ Jesus. " Second lesson: Galatians 5 : 24 "And they that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts. " Golden text: Colosians 3:11 'Where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision, Barbarian, Scythian, bond nor free; but Christ's all, and in all." Introductory song: 1. "Be pure as I am pure, for the defiled do not always live with me". 2. "The kingdoms of this world have become the throne of God and His Christ". 3. "This is the time of joy, the Holy Spirit has come to reign". 3.1 The new birth Beloved, this gospel is what is expected of everyone to undergo in this kingdom, and it is meant for a particular people, so that they should not continue in their problems. Very many people are looking for this kingdom and this particular gospel. And the moment they come to accept baptism into this kingdom and read it, they will deny the world and the fullness thereof. Put differently, you deny the world and the things thereof once you have been baptised into this kingdom. Because it is there and then that you have become one with Christ. This explains why Christ said, "Verily, Verily, I say unto thee. Except a man be born of water and of the spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God." (John 3:5). The spirit in this biblical excerpt refers to putting on Christ as garment and mortifying the flesh. This goes in line with the content of the second lesson which has it that: "those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires." This connotes that all those who belong to Christ are sinless and do not have need for materialism. Our golden text informs us further that there is no longer Jews, Greek, child, slaves, amongst others. This means that Christ alone is in existence and in all things. Christ was formerly a Carpenter. But right from the day He renounced the things of the world and lived in spirit, He was taken into the Wilderness by the Spirit. And right from then till now, He has no other work than to serve God. Saul was the enemy to Christ's followers. But right from the time he went to torture the followers of God and was subdued by Christ, he did not have any other work to do than serving God. After he was caught by Christ, he was baptised and made one with Christ. And till now, Paul has no concern with sin and materialism. The book entitled, FIRST STEP TO GOD has enjoined us all to purge ourselves of immoralities, theft, falsehood and other vices after the rebirth - baptism. But today, the reverse is the case, because it is not uncommon to see some people going back to indulge in sins after their baptism. If you are in this group, the question is, what kind of baptism did you accept? Do you not know that going back to your former self (sinful acts) after baptism tantamounts to the second death? This is the bane of the world. No matter who a person was, so long as he has come into the kingdom, accepts baptism and decides to serve God diligently, such a person has denied and renounced all forms of sins and materialism. 3.2 Resurrect with Christ: Be one with Him Be informed that right from the day you were immersed into the water in baptism, you have become one with Christ. And it then becomes imperative that, you must not go back to defile yourself again with the things of the world. That is why Christ strongly enjoined that, anyone who is not born of water and the Holy Spirit is not worthy to enter into the kingdom of God. But the most pathetic thing is that, in most of the churches, there is no member, ranging from the highest to the congregation who had mortified the flesh. This is so because there is no member who has actually been baptised by immersion and to become one with Christ. Thus, they have no share, in God's kingdom. This is because there is no one of them who has died with Christ in baptism. And if you have not died with Christ, how would you then resurrect with Him? And if you have not resurrected with Him, how then can you have a share in His kingdom? Similar thing applies to the other religious world among others who scoff at baptism by immersion. Accepting baptism and mortifying the flesh constitute dying and resurrecting with Christ. And once this is done, the spirit has been made to take dominion over the flesh. And this is also the time which Christ has been made to rule over you. In fact, this is a problem free period in your life. 3.3 The Kingdom has arrived The whole world was waiting for this kingdom. And since the wisdom of God confounds man, it has been enjoined that the gospel of this day has to be made available in writing, so that once those who were meant for this kingdom read it, they would be able to identify themselves. This is so because it appears as if most of you are not prepared for the kingdom. That is why you relish immoralities, stealing, falsehood and other vices. The Holy Spirit has come to lead mankind and it is only the godly ones that are led. The Holy Spirit alone does all things. He is accorded recognition for His glorious works done on earth. That is why you always see things going wrong when you attempt to arrogate any glory to yourself in the choir and other fellowships. The power which people were longing to behold has come. But instead of them purging themselves of all sins and materialism completely after baptism in order to see the power lavishly in them, they turn to defile themselves, thereby crucifying Christ the second time. And by so doing, the said power eludes them. It is a pathetic case. If you wish, I could enumerate to you those people who, after baptism, went back to defile themselves because they feel aggrieved that they are not blessed with material things they needed but only with the spiritual ones. So they become dwindled. You can easily trace the cause. 3.4 Do not resist the Holy Spirit A great number of people here in the kingdom do not want the Holy Spirit to work in them. That is why they always flout the Holy Spirit's injunctions. It is true that the flesh and the blood cannot do the said work. It was written of the Holy Spirit to come and lead. And He has come to do exactly that. But surprisingly, we have deliberately crucified Him again. Some people have baptised up to five times into Brotherhood of the Cross and Star in their life time. The nagging question is, what does the Holy Spirit use you to accomplish? He uses you to pray, heal the sick, preach the word of God, and perform other marvelous works in every nook and cranny of the world in order to uplift the glory of God. The Bible has enjoined that, 'let all those who call on the Lord separate themselves from evil. But how many have separated themselves from evil? Have you vowed to deprive yourself of the worldly things? None of you has done this, for you all are like dogs, which after vomiting, turn back to it. This is because after being baptised and made to resurrect with Christ (made pure), you turn back to indulge in sins and vices (defile yourself). Are you not surprised to see yourself refraining from snuffing, immoralities and other vices, which1 you got entangled with after baptism? Why then do you still go back to indulge in these unwholesome acts which- deprive you of the Holy Spirit? If you are led by the Spirit, you can sleep on the floor, fast for one week, and preach at all times, at the expense of staying idle at home. Also, should the spirit lead you, you would discard the love for materialism and shun sinful acts. Now if you resurrect with Christ, you need to seek for the heavenly things at the expense of the carnal things? Now the question is, how many people are seeking for the heavenly thing(s)? Are the quarrelling, segregation, immoralities etc, you indulge in not worldly things? So beloved, have you seen what is killing the spirit of God in you? Have you also seen what is responsible for your inability to do the work of God? Your indulging in sins, and developing mania for materialism after your baptism are the sources of your problems. Some people accepted baptism into Brotherhood of the Cross and Star in the hope of having children who, after two or three months without being blessed with a child after their baptism, do go back to consult the native doctors for help. And as a result of that, goats, yams and other materials are charged from them. Have you seen the problems involved here? This is the folly of man. 3.5 The unlimited power All those who proclaim to have enrolled in Brotherhood of the Cross and Star and later left are those who do not seek for God and His kingdom. They are also those who are not ready to mortify the flesh and become one with Christ. Also. those who are in this group are those who do not care for the heavenly. Anyone who has agreed to mortify the flesh has no right to dance to the tune of the flesh any longer. Rather, he must always be led and controlled by the Holy Spirit. There are some people who "go into the bush in order to possess this-power but their efforts end in a fiasco. The medical personnels do pray always to be blessed with this kind of power, but to no avail. The reverend fathers too seek for this power with all their best but to no avail. But if there are some of you here who would mortify the flesh, believe in God and purge yourself of sins, you will be blessed with the power of God without limit. There is no power or person that exist apart from Jesus Christ. There is no male, female, children, heirs, slave etc. for it is Christ alone who exists in all things. The word of God which has it that, "when the spirit of truth comes, He will guide you into all the truth, for He will not speak on his own authority. But whatever He hears He will speak, and He will declare to you the things to come..." (John 16:13), is vindicated. But have you accepted the promised Comforter? It is said in our first lesson thus; “for as many of you as were baptised into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus." Sequel to the statement above, there is need to purge segregation and embrace oneness and unity here in the kingdom. Read the first lesson again. First lesson: Galatians 3: 27 28 "For as many of you as have been baptised into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus. 3.6 What baptism is Do you not know that Baptism means dying again with Christ? Do you also know that, your emerging from water after baptism constitutes your having resurrected with Christ? So those who have resurrected with Him need not behave the way they did before, for they are one with Christ. Anyone who does things according to the commands of God will reap the 'fruit of it. And those who contravene the word of the Holy Spirit and act contrary to His injunctions are bound to see the adverse effect of their action. We are made to know the fact that, wherever exists segregation or division, unity cannot prevail there. And as such, the place cannot stand firm. Right now. we are baptised into one and we are one with Christ. So there is no need for segregation or division amongst us. We all have died and left behind the world and its work of darkness; we are in the kingdom of God. We no longer lament, cry, medicate, fornicate, tell lies, sue people, begrudge etc., for we are all one in Christ Jesus. If there exists a person who knew not that, mortifying the flesh constitutes dying with Christ, such a person should now realise this very fact. And note that, anyone who has mortified the flesh is led by the Holy Spirit. Therefore, he has no concern with the carnal things of this world any longer. And if you now realised this fact and practised same, you would see the glory of God manifesting in you. 3.7 Baptism is a must It is imperative that, we are baptised; because without baptism, no one is worthy of the kingdom of God. This explains why people like John the Baptist, Jesus and others embraced baptism without delay. In fact, baptism constitutes mortifying the flesh, and being made pure. So baptism is very significant in the life of everyone. A local adage has it that, a blind man cannot lead a fellow blind man. Imagine someone who baptises many people but does not have baptismal card himself. If Christ did not die, He would not have been able to perform miraculous works neither would He have been called, Christ. He would not have had the Holy Spirit in Him. And it is your failure to die and resurrect with Christ through baptism, that you are unable to perform any miracle in the kingdom. Since some people do not have baptismal certificate, they cannot inform the people they baptised about the significance of baptism, and the importance of baptismal certificate. They do not know that anyone who has been baptised has died and resurrected with Christ, therefore such is justified. So anyone who has been baptised and made to resurrect with Christ is justified and such has to be glorified along side with Christ. 3.8 The significance of baptism The baptism of John has repentance as its aim. So that you should believe fervently in Christ Jesus, while the baptism of Christ on the other hand, connotes the forgiveness of sins, so that you might receive the Holy Spirit. No matter the extent of your sinfulness, when once you confess your sins and are immersed into water in baptism, you are one with Christ, justified, and are given the Holy Spirit as a gift; for you have died and left behind the material things of the world. You receive this type of baptism here in this kingdom. 3.9 The essence of baptism If you go back to sinful acts after baptism, you are made to confront tribulations and sufferings. The question is, what then does your baptism entail? I preach this to bring you to the accurate knowledge of truth. An adage has it that an orphan uses both his head and hand to erect a fence. Some of you do not know what it entails to indulge in sins after baptism. That is why it is not uncommon to hear you testifying and confessing of committing sins everyday even after baptism. This very gospel need be read by every one in order to know the significance of baptism. All your sins are forgiven when you baptize in this kingdom. Anyone who fails to be baptised cannot be saved. Mortify the flesh for the spirit to take dominion over you. All those who are Christ followers have seen their nakedness, for they all have realised the fact that there is no righteous man on earth due to the fact that, we were conceived of iniquity and born of unrighteousness. And it is the baptism preached in this very sermon that can save us and make us pure and worthy of God. Because it is after baptism that we are blessed with the Holy Spirit as a gift. This gift is meant for us and our offsprings. But we cannot achieve such due to our indulgence in sins after baptism. 3.10 My mission I do not come so that you might be wealthy, sick, condemned, lack and die. Rather, I come to feed you with the accurate knowledge of truth and I have done same openly. Therefore, if you perish as a result of not imbibing the truth, your blood is on you. Since it is the patient that always seeks for the physician, anyone who knows that he needs baptism must seek for it. And anyone who knows the right thing that should be done and fails to do it, has himself or herself to blame, because he or she is condemned. Even though the money and wealth of such people are distributed to people along the streets, they would all perish. Most of the lunatics in the psychiatric hospitals are not actually mad. Rather, they are tormented by the spirit, and would only be made whole if the person accepts baptism. The same thing happens with those in the prison custody, because as a result of their not being baptised, the spirit in them instructs them to do things abnormally. Similar thing is happening in the hospitals. And if these people are made to confess their sins and accept baptism, most of them would be freed. We are enjoined that the flesh uses its lust to wage war against the spirit. And the spirit too in response also wages war against the flesh. So both of them are incompatible. It is the war waged by the flesh against the spirit that makes people to behave like mad, sick persons and prisoners. And once you accept baptism, you have killed the flesh leaving the spirit to exist alone in you. And by so doing, you are saved and made normal and well. Baptism does not provide you with any material thing, instead it gives you eternal life. And once you accept it, you are justified. Read our second lesson again. Second lesson: Galatians 5:24 "And they that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts. " 3.11 The gift of the Holy Spirit If you do not die with Christ, how can you resurrect with Him? If you do not resurrect with Him, how can you live with Him? If you do not live with Him, how then can you have eternal life as expected of you? If Christ did not receive the Holy Spirit through baptism, how then would He have been able to perform great and wonderful works? We all are true witnesses to the fact that, Jesus Christ was led by the Holy Spirit. And anyone who accepts baptism has put on Christ, therefore he has to do things according to the dictate of the spirit alone. And by then you are led by Christ alone. That is why you are hardly harmed when the spirit is ruling over you. And easily harmed when the spirit is killed as a result of your indulgence in sins after baptism. And this constitutes the problems and troubles faced by the members of this kingdom. Baptism is the greatest of all things found in heaven and on earth. It is what changes, cleanses and brings forgiveness to man. That is why anyone who is baptised and made one with Christ, is hardly harmed. 3.12 Baptism for forgiveness of sins The magnitude of your problems not withstanding, if you confess and repent of your sins and accept baptism your problems will cease immediately. This is because baptism after true repentance is a means for forgiveness of sin. This therefore, accounts for why you should note that except one confesses his sins, believes in God and accepts baptism, such a person is condemned. It is needless for one who has not mortified his flesh with Christ to defend himself. And to such a person, there is no salvation for him. Our Lord Jesus Christ was the first man to die, and resurrect. So, He has no business with the second death. That is why we must all join Him in the first death, so that, we would also resurrect with Him. Except you die with him through the mortification of the flesh, you cannot resurrect and without resurrection you have perished. A lot of people do not believe in resurrection. You erroneously believe that there is no resurrection. Indeed, there is. After all, the children of God cannot die. There is no other death for them except to mortify the lust of the flesh and its affection. If you do this, you will live forever without the fear of death. You will recall that when that young man demanded Christ to permit him to go and bury his father first before coming to join Him, Christ told him that he should leave the dead to bury their dead. (Luke 9:60). This He said because as many as follow Him, there is no death for them. He is everything to them. 3.13 What is mortification of flesh Do not misconstrue the mortification of the flesh to mean murder, or death on the cross. It does not mean you committing suicide. Flesh here is the desire for mundane things and the carnal pleasures of life. Mortification of flesh implies repentance from all manners of sin and total avoidance of earthly desires and action. It is a complete change from vice to virtue. In so doing, you would no more have anything to do with the world but rather you would walk within the tenets of the kingdom of God. You have been singing the spiritual chorus that says: 'the spirit of the living God come and lead us aright"; Do you really mean it? He has come to lead, teach, change and salvage but the question is, are you ready for Him? 3.14 The prophecy of Holy Prophet Mohammed Prophet Mohammed affirmed that it is the Holy Spirit that has the right of leadership. Our Lord Jesus Christ also said that, the Holy Spirit of truth would lead the world, and in conformity with this promise, He has come to lead you. Have you received Him by mortifying the flesh? Note that the era of flesh had since passed. This is the era of the leadership of the Holy Spirit. No other force is in operation now other than the Holy Spirit. He is in all things and He is everything. You would now realise that Christ is the ruling force now. We are all one in Him and as such, we are joint heirs in the kingdom and so we are ruling with Him. There is no more division. We now do everything in common for we are all one. The flesh does not exist any more. Our Lord Jesus Christ has taken dominion over all things. Note, I am not saying that everybody has this Spirit. It is limited to those who have mortified the flesh. You should recall that during the time of John the Baptist, many people were baptised but out of the lot, it was only our Lord Jesus Christ that the Holy Spirit descended upon. This therefore confirms the fact that the Holy Spirit is for those who were predestined to have it. As many as have decided to work for Him, definitely, He will bestow the Spirit on them. Without the Spirit, none can function effectively. The Spirit is the operational force in man; without it, you cannot perform. As many as have mortified the flesh, they have put on Christ. They are no more functioning independently of Him, rather, He monitors their activities and indeed uses them for His glory. These are the people who have died with Him and also resurrected with Him. And to them, there is no death. They are one with Christ. That is why, in spite of the population of the world, all those that have this hope are one. We have now put on Christ, all problems are solved and above all, we are fortified. After all, Christ is in perfect control of everything in the world. Read the golden text again. Golden text: Colossians 3:11 "Where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision, Barbarian, Schthian, bond nor free; but Christ is all, and in all.”. 3.15 The price for sinful acts Have you now realised that we are all one in this kingdom? There is no more division. Hence, I keep teaching you that you should shun class and rank differences in this kingdom for we are all one and equal. Whosoever sows the seed of discord has committed a crime. Murder, fornication, stealing, deceitfulness, duping, lies and arrogance are crimes as far as God is concerned. And the. aftermath of these and other such crimes is death. Your problem and indeed the present precarious condition of the whole world is caused by your uncontrollable interest in committing sins. And this has gone a long way to blind you to such an extent that you cannot see the glory of God. There was a certain hunter who is a Brotherhood member. Each time he went for hunting, he came back with a bag full of animals. As this continued for a long time, his friend called him and demanded him to disclose the secret of his hunting for him. The hunter told his friend that he should repent of all his evil ways and accept baptism into Brotherhood. And that would be the only way he would have good fortune to hunt down many animals. Having been convinced that this could be a way out for him to be lucky as his friend, the man did not waste time. He went and received baptism. From the day he was baptized, things actually changed for good. His traps caught as many as ten to fifteen animals a day. But surprisingly, the brother that disclosed to this other man that baptism into Brotherhood of the Cross and Star could bring good luck started to have hard luck to shoot animals. I want to illustrate to you the side effect of arrogance, blindness, and ingratitude. You have in no small measure fallen short of the blessings of the Father because you have deviated from rectitude and have opted headlong for evil practices and greed has taken your good part. There are money, good health, wealth in fact, all good things of life in this kingdom, but you cannot get them, so. long as you do not understand this kingdom. And at a point, the first brother no longer shot even one animal,. The wife was disturbed with the unpleasant development and demanded to know from him why he could no longer shoot a game. She was irked and questioned the husband whether he had gone back to his old habit of taking snuff. The man was angry, because he said he could not imagine going back to snuffing which he had discarded long ago. The wife then inquired further more the reason why the man had hard luck in recent time. He felt so bad about the wife cutting comment and threatened to beat her up should she continue asking him anymore questions. At this moment, the other brother was having field day in his game each day. He decided to dash his friend one animal for food. Once again the wife of this brother called him and said to her husband that, it seemed he had gone back to snuffing, otherwise nothing should have militated against him. He replied that he had since stopped snuffing, that he could not, for anything sake, go back to it. As God would have it, the daughter of this hunter went for morning prayer one morning during which time a visioner drew the attention of this sister to the fact that her father, like a dog, had eaten what he had vomited - snuffing. The visioner even asked her to go and call his father to come and put up a defense to that effect. Truly, the man admitted that he had gone back to snuffing. The visioner disclosed to the hunter that it was snuffing that had caused his hard luck. The visioner told him to stop snuffing and to go on ministry work and to celebrate feast to normalise his condition. He did and had his ill luck reversed for good. The same thing applies to very many of you. You claim to have left sins on one hand only to indulge in it on the other hand. You talk of ill luck, poverty, ill health, hunger, hatred etc. All these and many more things come your way as a result of your indulgence in sins. Do you not know that in so doing, you have humiliated God? If you get baptised into Brotherhood but cannot control your infatuation with sin, the essence of your baptism is defeated because this does not portray you as a child of God. It does not matter how many years you have been a member of Brotherhood. The main thing is for you to practise the word of God taught in this kingdom. A lot of you carry your shoulders high, claiming to have put very many years in Brotherhood of the Cross and Star. That is not what qualified you into Brotherhood. All the newly baptized brethren do enjoy the blessings of this kingdom more than the old ones. This is so because the new brethren have seen the need to practise righteousness and have actually done same. Take for instance, testimony; have you seen an old member giving a .soul-winning testimony of late? It is only the new brethren that have wonderful testimonies to give. 3.16 Shun sin You would not have suffered any form of affliction or sickness; you would not have been poor if you had put my teachings into practice. In fact, if you practise the word of God, your problems are gone. It is not uncommon to find that the person you baptize testifies that his problems are gone, but yours persist after which you begin to question, what offence you have committed that your problems refuse to give way. Are you true to yourself that you do not know the sin you have committed? Have you not disgraced God in action, thoughts and word? Your twenty years in this fold affords you nothing so long as you have defiled yourself. Be reminded that every man that hath this hope in him purifies himself even as he is pure (1st John 3:3). The moment you come out of water, you should put a stop to anything evil. You should be pure forever. After all He is pure. You should no more live a life full of sins like the worldly people. Having been baptized into this fold, you are no more of the world. You no longer live for yourself as such, you do not have to act, speak, see, touch, feel and live on your personal pleasures. Your activities should be guided by the Holy Spirit. The moment you attend this new height, you will witness great blessings in your life. It is a derailment for a Brotherhood member to go to the hospital. The Christ's Student Natural Choir composed it into a song that when they had strictly kept the commandment of the Father, they neither fell sick nor went to the hospital. A Christ's Student went for an operation, when he came back I sent him out of the group. And you do not seem to learn a lesson from this action. The Christ's witnesses now frequent the hospitals. Many of them even have personal doctors, who inject and prescribe drugs for them. They do this because they have gone contrary to the tenets of this kingdom and have no fear of God again. 3.17 Emulate me Many times, I have told you that mine is leadership by example. I do not teach one thing and do another. I have several times told you to emulate me. Ever since I came into this earth plane, my target is to accomplish my assignment of changing man. And I have nothing to do with sin. I have never committed sin. My life style is a one-way traffic. Righteousness to the core. I do not want to have faith or hope in any man or the material things of this world. This is so because I am not of the world. Getting baptised into this kingdom is an opportunity for you to refrain from 'sins because you have been informed of the attendant effects. You should not toy with this rare opportunity accorded you. God would have asked you to accomplish great task if you had refrained from sins. He would have indwelled and used you to His 'glory for your salvation and blessing. You suffer because you are so much in love with the world at the expense of the love of God. Let the Holy Spirit direct you, and you will not be-the same again. Remember you have been advised: ”Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean things; and I will receive you”. (2nd Corinthians 6:17) Those who have ears let them hear. May God bless His holy words. Amen. THANK YOU FATHER