Is Water Baptism Necessary? If so, what is the biblical purpose of it?

on here first Harvest Ministries I want to ask or answer a question that has come into the ministry a couple of times and I hope to help you understand the importance and the necessity of water baptism you know a lot of people think that water baptism is simply a symbolic gesture um that it's just an outward expression of an inward work and um they really don't believe it has anything to do with the Salvation process merely symbolic but is that the truth we don't believe that here at first harvest we believe that water baptism is a prerequisite for and a natural part of the Salvation experience we believe everything begins at water baptism let me explain to you why there's a law of restitution in the Old Testament you can never understand the New Testament till you thoroughly understand the old there was a law of restitution and it simply said this if you stole something from someone you were now indebted to them now the debt could not be repaid with just and I'm sorry that wouldn't do it that's not Justice that's not the scales balancing out that's a copout so Yahweh God himself created a program of restitution here's what it said you steal $5 from me you now owe me $10 so somebody comes to your house and they steal your car they leave in that car they come back and say I'm sorry I stole your car well they've really not done anything to restore your friendship or your relationship they stole from you however if they steal one Mercedes and pull back into your driveway with two Mercedes and give you the keys they've done a lot to restore the relationship if that would happen to me I'd be very quick to be friends with them again I'd actually encourage them to steal it again and bring back two more this is the process that Yahweh has set up called restitution now this is the very reason why in the Old Testament think about it why did Yahweh require animal sacrifice let's get one thing straight he never wanted animal sacrifices you can go to the Book of Jeremiah and you'll read where he says that he never desired animal sacrifices that was never that wasn't his thing Blood and Guts and animals dying that wasn't his thing at at all animal sacrifice was the Arc of restitution why couldn't they in the Old Testament just come to the temple and say by the way would you tell God I'm sorry that i' broke his law well that would not restore the relationship between you and Yahweh you had to something had to die to repay the debt the debt for sin is death so in yahweh's Mercy he didn't require you to die but he did require something to die in your stead up until yua came that was the blood of a bull or a goat or an animal of some type now what that did was when you brought the dead animal it restored your relationship to Yahweh something had to die so now we come to the New Testament and here we come to the ultimate lamb himself the beautiful son of God yesu that lived a perfect life he was the exact image of the heavenly father and he came and he made the ultimate sacrifice to restore our relationship with Yahweh think about it why did he have to die why couldn't he just come down live a perfect life and then you know just die of a ripe old age why did there have to be a sacrificial debt because we owed a debt and that debt could only be repaid with the blood of the perfect lamb up until that time those Lambs were temporary because their value was not that much but yua being the perfect human lamb now he restores us back to Yahweh so when we come and repent of our sin we come under the atoning death of Yeshua Jesus Christ now so what does any of that have to do with water baptism it has everything to do with water baptism okay so you broke yahweh's laws all your life you hear the man of God or the woman of God or somebody speak to you about your sin which is commandment breaking Godly sorrow Rises up within you and you're truly sorry that you've been a rebellious child and you're ready to come into the Covenant with Yahweh through the blood of Yeshua the Lord Jesus and you're ready to come in and you're ready to restore your relationship with him well you got a few good things going for you the best thing going for you is Yeshua himself he's paid the price he is the propriation for your sin he is the slain lamb he is your way to bring a dead sacrifice to Yahweh you come under the blood of that sacrifice with faith in the life of Yeshua now so then why can we not just say okay I believe the Lord Jesus Christ I confess him as my savior and there you have it I'll tell you why because you've committed grave sin against the almighty all your life now that you've come to him you cannot just come with an I'm sorry there must be a death attached to your sorry there must be something you bring to him to restore the relationship here's what you bring to him your own death now in his great Mercy yua died for you but you do not identify with that death just by saying I'm sorry no no let's read what the Apostle Paul said and how you are to identify with that death Romans 6 verse4 for we died and were buried with Christ by baptism here's what happens you cannot come to God with that hey I'm sorry high five Hallelujah I'm forgiven it's over no no know you owe your own debt and now By the Waters of baptism you will be brought to death you will come to the waters to identify with the death of the lamb but you do not identify with that death with an I'm sorry you identify with that death by a baptism in faith in the death of yua believing on that going into the waters you go down and you are buried you die you're buried in a grave a watery grave and when you come up from there you come up into the newness of Life the restoration has begun the relationship has been restored you're no longer the enemy of Yahweh because you gave something you did what you died for your sins through Christ but you identified with that death through your baptism see it's faith and works in perfect marriage Perfect Harmony and uh whenever you're baptized you're taking your I I'm sorry to a true level for example if I come to you and say I'm sorry I sto your car but I don't bring you the car back or another one to go with it I'm really not that sorry faith is always identified by works now I want to read to you another example in the scriptures and it is found in the gospels and it is made it's a statement made by John the Baptist and um whenever we get to the Waters of baptism while he's baptizing folks uh there's some uh people that come down Pharisees and uh they want to to uh be saved they want to um uh they want to be saved and go to heaven and all that good stuff um but he says not so fast gentlemen while he's standing at the river of Jordan he tells them not so fast he tells them that if you want to be saved bring forth works or fruit that is worthy of repentance in other words put your mouth put your actions where your mouth is don't just come down here say you want to repent come down to the water and be baptized and it is there that you die it is there now of course there's people that's went down in the waters of baptism they didn't die they didn't see it as a sacrifice they didn't see it as them dying therefore it was they come up a wet sinner but when you understand that when you go in the water you have become the sacrifice with Christ for your sins it is there that you're identified with his death and you are raised with his burial and at baptism the relationship is restored you must be baptized God bless you today