The water you are referring to in Titus 3:5, is not physical water as we know it, it is referring to “spiritual” water, look at Eph 5:26,27 , it is the word of God that does the washing.
JL: [Titus3:5 Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy HE SAVED US, by the WASHING OF REGENERATION, and RENEWING OF THE HOLY SPIRIT;] Baptism with WATER, as we know it, IS that WASHING OF REGENERATION.
[Acts 22:16 And now why tarriest thou? Arise, and BE BAPTIZED, and WASH AWAY THY SINS, calling on the name of the Lord.] Paul was regenerated by RENEWING of the Holy Spirit, when he was BAPTIZED with WATER, as we know it. In Acts2:37-37, Peter said, be baptized for remission of sins, RECEIVE the gift of the Holy Spirit.
With the tradition of men you hold, Paul was already WASHED of his sins. Therefore Peter should have said, since you now believe you are automatically REPENTANT, WASHED and have RECEIVED the Holy Spirit, if you want you can be BAPTIZED to indicate publically you have accepted Christ as your Savior.
[Act8:34 And the eunuch answered Philip, and said, I pray thee, of whom speaketh the prophet this? of himself, or of some other man? 35 Then **Philip opened his mouth, and began at the same scripture, and
preached unto him Jesus. 36 And as they went on their way, they came unto a certain water: and
the eunuch said, See, HERE IS WATER; what doth hinder me TO BE BAPTIZED?]
[Eph5:25 Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it; 26 That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the **WASHING OF WATER BY THE WORD, 27 That he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish.]
Eph5:26 is clear, it is WATER, as we KNOW IT, and the WORD. It is actually the WORD CHRIST who washes us by WATER, as we know it, thru the action of the Holy Spirit in baptism. Eph5 is talking about the CHURCH, who concevies children by preaching the WORD. Those children are birthed thru the womb of the Church when BORN AGAIN thru WATER, as we know it, and the SPIRIT in baptism, Jn3:5. Just as was done in Acts2:38-37, Peter preaches the WORD, people are pricked (faith life is conceived) in their heart. Those people wanted to know what to do. Peter said REPENT, be BAPTIZED for REMISSION OF SIN, RECEIVE the HOLY SPIRIT. Those people were BORN AGAIN thru baptism. Baptism is a sacrament because Christ (God) is acting thur a visible SIGN (water) and the word, Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
You should look at 1Peter 1:23., again it is referring to the “word”
JL: [1Pt1:23 Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever.] I am born OF the corruptible SEED of my natual father, but I am not DELIVERED as his child until I break thur the water of my mother’s womb. I am supernatually BORN AGAIN by the incorruptible SEED of God’s Word, but I am not DELIVERED as HIS child until I break thru the water of my mother’s (Church’s) womb.
If you look at Acts 2:37,38, basically Peter was preaching the "gospel"to them, and the word “pricked” their hearts, they understood and believed, so they repented of their sins and were baptized,(belief and repentance came first).
JL: Did I ever say, belief and repentance didn’t come first? We are saved as Eph2:1-11 tells us by God’s grace, that free gift of God. First faith is conceived by God’s grace, we accept by God’s grace, we repent by God’s grace, we are baptized FOR remission of sins by God’s grace, we receive the Holy Spirit by God’s grace and our good works after baptism we do by God’s grace, so NO MAN can boast.
Verse 47 says that “the Lord added to the church daily such as should be saved.” This is the “Body of Christ”.
JL: I don’t know what your point is here, so I’m guessing. Yes it is the Lord who adds to the ONE VISIBLE Church, “body of Christ”, daily such as should be saved. How can one hear an invisible church? How can an invisible body made up of contentious people, with contradicting interpretations, of the same scripture, be a PILLAR and GROUND of TRUTH? Such a body would be unhealthy and of no real use. It could never act as ONE BODY, it can only act as thousands of bodies, as we clearly see. It would be chaos if one foot wanted to go to the right and the other foot wanted to go left, it would be working against itself. As our Lord tells us in [Lk11:17 But he, knowing their thoughts, said unto them, Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation; and a house divided against a house falleth.]
[Mk 9:38 And JOHN answered him, SAYING, MASTER, we saw one casting out devils in thy name, and HE FOLLOWETH NOT **US: and
WE FORBAD HIM, because
HE FOLLOWETH NOT US. 39 But JESUS SAID, FORBID HIM NOT: for there is no man which shall do a miracle in my name, that can lightly speak evil of me. 40 For he that is not against
US is on OUR PART.] The Holy Spirit works in those separated denominations outside the Apostles Fellowship. Uniting them to the ONE fellowship in a spiritual way.
By the way you have yet to SHOW ME a scripture telling us, baptism, only indicates one has accepted Christ as Savior. You can’t of course, because that’s going outside of scripture, using a made up tradition of men.
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