God: "I looked for someone to take a stand for me, and stand in the gap" (Ezekiel 22:30)
Salvation is by grace, by grace alone. Nevertheless, divine grace is not exercised at the expense of holiness. It never compromises with sin. It is also true that salvation is a free gift, but an empty hand must receive it and not a hand which still tightly grasps the world. Something more than believing is necessary to salvation. A heart that is steeled in rebellion against God cannot savingly believe. It must first be broken. Only those who are spiritually blind would declare that Christ will save any who despise His authority and refuse His yoke. Those preachers who tell sinners that they may be saved without forsaking their idols, without repenting, without surrendering to the lordship of Christ are as erroneous and dangerous as others who insist that salvation is by works and that heaven must be earned by our own efforts.
Every baptism recorded in the Bible the baptism of a person who had professed faith in Christ. A person needs to hear and believe “the word of the Lord” in order to be baptized… Also [significant] is the order of Peter’s command, “Repent and be baptized” (Ac. 2:38). I [see] no reason to reverse the order.