My prayer man.
Man, Acts chapter number two that we just read
is, of course, a very famous passage
of the day of Pentecost.
And I want to focus in tonight on one particular verse that
is one of the most twisted and misused verses of the New
Testament, which is Acts 2.38.
In fact, this is really a prime example
of just taking one verse out of context
and just building an entire doctrine on it,
building an entire religion out of it,
and then just completely ignoring
the rest of the New Testament's clear teachings.
In fact, I've driven by certain charismatic, Pentecostal-type
churches, and this is literally the name of their church.
I saw one around Phoenix.
It's called Acts 2.38 Church.
That's just the name of the church.
And to the oneness Pentecostals and to some other false
teachers of this world, Acts 2.38
is sort of like their John 3.16 that they go to.
Except the difference between normal evangelical Christians
and John 3.16 is that we have about 100 other verses that
say the exact same thing that John 3.16 says,
and we're actually correctly understanding
our favorite verse, John 3.16.
And they are twisting one verse, isolating it, and pitting it
against the rest of the Bible.
Here's a little Bible study tip.
When you're reading the scriptures
and you come across one verse that
seems to be saying something different than what
100 other verses are saying, it's
a lot more logical to think maybe
that you're wrong about that one verse
than that you're wrong about 100 verses.
And this is the importance of reading the entire Bible
and reading the entire New Testament, getting the best.
If you actually read the entire New Testament,
you're not going to walk away thinking
that salvation is by anything other than faith
in the Lord Jesus Christ, believing
in the Lord Jesus Christ, because that message is just
hammered so many different times throughout the course
of the New Testament.
And so this one verse, though, is often misused, misapplied,
and you might have people hit you with this verse.
So it's good if we can really dig into this verse
tonight and get a good grasp on understanding this verse.
Acts 2.38, let's just read the verse,
and then we're going to get into all the context
and explain what's going on in this verse.
It says in verse 38, then Peter said unto them,
repent and be baptized, every one of you,
in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins,
and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.
And what the false teachers are doing with this verse
is basically teaching that you have
to be baptized in order to be saved,
and that you are baptized only in the name of Jesus,
not in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost.
If you somehow follow this formula of salvation,
not by believing in Christ, not by faith,
but a salvation by repentance, which
they define as repenting of your sins, and then be baptized,
and then you're going to be filled with the Holy Ghost,
but it has to be done in the name of Jesus only.
These are the kind of weird teachings that
can come out of this verse.
Sometimes it'll be one of those teachings.
Sometimes it'll be several of those teachings.
But that's the kind of stuff that people
are using this verse to teach, and it's wrong.
So let's go ahead and approach this verse in context
and see what we're actually dealing with.
First of all, the context here at the day of Pentecost
is that the Jews have crucified the Lord Jesus Christ.
And this is something that's brought up repeatedly
in this chapter and in the chapters to follow.
It's reiterated over and over again
that the Jews are responsible for killing
the Lord Jesus Christ.
Now, they're not the ones who actually hammered
the nails into his hands.
It was actually, obviously, Roman soldiers
that are doing the literal beating
and the literal nailing of him to the cross.
But yet, throughout the Book of Acts,
the blame is squarely placed on the Jews again and again.
Why?
Because they're the ones who brought him to Pilate.
When Pilate was determined to let him go,
the Bible says, they cried out, crucify him, crucify him,
his blood be on us and on our children.
Now, most of the people did this through ignorance.
Their rulers and chief priests and scribes,
they knew what they were doing.
And they took him with wicked hands and crucified him.
What are the people of Jerusalem guilty of?
They're guilty of being caught up in this
and being persuaded by their leadership
to cry out, crucify him, and to take the wrong side
and to want Jesus Christ be killed.
So that's what's brought up in the actual context.
If we back up here a little bit, also,
we can find a clear verse in this passage that actually
mentions being saved, actually uses the word saved,
and tells us what it takes to be saved.
Verse 21 says this.
And it shall come to pass that whosoever shall
call on the name of the Lord shall be saved.
So right there in Acts chapter 2,
we have the Bible's clear teaching on salvation,
that whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord
shall be saved.
Now, this is something that is actually
found throughout scripture, Old Testament, New Testament,
Genesis, all the way to Revelation.
This idea here is present of calling on the name of the Lord.
You can go all the way back to Genesis chapter 5.
And the Bible says that in that very early generation,
Adam, Seth, Enos, then began men to call
upon the name of the Lord.
Abraham called upon the name of the Lord.
Isaac called upon the name of the Lord.
David called upon the name of the Lord.
We have this all throughout scripture.
And if you would, keep your finger in Acts chapter 2.
We're going to come right back.
Go to Romans chapter number 10.
In Romans chapter number 10, we have some clear teaching
on salvation that begins in verse number 9,
that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus,
and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him
from the dead, thou shalt be saved.
For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness,
and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.
So here we very clearly see salvation
by believing that Jesus Christ is the Son of God,
that he rose from the dead, faith in Christ,
and it's expressed with the mouth, right?
With the heart, man believeth unto righteousness,
with the mouth confessions made unto salvation.
For the scripture saith, whosoever believeth on him
shall not be ashamed, for there is no difference between the Jew
and the Greek, for the same Lord over all
is rich unto all that call upon him, verse 13,
for whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord
shall be saved.
How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed?
So obviously, this calling upon the Lord,
it can't just be words.
It has to be coupled with a belief in the heart.
You know, you believe in your heart.
It's the faith that saves you.
But you then, as a manifestation of that,
you call upon the name of the Lord.
You confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus.
That's going to come out of your mouth,
reflecting what's in your heart, the faith there.
And so how shall they call on him
in whom they have not believed?
How shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard?
And how shall they hear without a preacher?
So the preacher preaches the word of God.
People hear that preaching of the word of God.
And when I say preacher, I don't necessarily mean a pastor.
This could be man, woman, boy, or girl
that's just preaching the gospel, speaking the gospel,
sharing the gospel.
And so someone speaks the word of God.
The word of God is heard.
It's believed, and confession is a result.
Calling upon the name of the Lord.
We even have an example in Acts chapter 8
where the Ethiopian eunuch makes a simple confession,
I believe that Jesus Christ is the son of God.
We have the thief on the cross just saying to Jesus,
Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom.
So this could take various shapes and forms.
But the point is that it's all based
upon an expression of faith.
It's not works.
It's not any kind of a ritual or a church thing getting saved.
It's just about believing in Jesus
and calling out to Jesus for salvation,
calling upon the name of the Lord.
Now the Old Testament, they didn't know the name of Jesus.
But they still got saved by calling
upon the name of the Lord.
They called upon the name of God Almighty.
Later they called upon the name of Jehovah.
They called upon the name of the Lord of hosts.
But at the end of the day, they're
still calling upon the Lord.
Jesus is the Lord.
Now that we're in the New Testament,
now that that name has been revealed,
there's none other name under heaven given among men,
whereby we must be saved.
In the Old Testament, that name hadn't been revealed yet.
So they called out to the Lord by other names.
They didn't have the luxury that we
have of knowing the entire story start to finish
and being able to look back on the finished work of Christ
on the cross.
They looked forward to the cross.
They saw through a glass darkly.
They called upon the name of the Lord.
They relied upon him for their salvation.
They did not rely upon themselves.
They had to rely upon the Lord.
Just like us in the New Testament, right?
We have to put our faith in the Lord for salvation.
And specifically Christ's death, burial, and resurrection
is what purchases our salvation.
That's where our faith is today in 2020.
So salvation has a continuity all the way from Genesis
to Revelation, that salvation has never been by works.
It's never been by cleaning up your life.
It's never been by getting the sin out of your life
and turning over a new leap.
You know, you want to go join a 12-step program
to get the sin out of your life or beat some addiction.
Great.
That's not salvation, though.
Don't confuse self-reformation with salvation.
You know, people all the time are
able to beat the alcohol or beat the drugs.
It doesn't mean that they're saved.
They could do that without Jesus.
They could do that through Alcoholics Anonymous
or something.
And yet they get it done, don't they?
But guess what?
That's not salvation.
Salvation has to do with trusting the Lord
to get you to heaven.
It's not about cleaning up your life, keeping God's commandments,
somehow being worthy of getting into heaven
because we are all unworthy.
We've all sinned and come short of the glory of God,
being justified freely by his grace
through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.
So we know that salvation is by calling
upon the name of the Lord.
It's by faith in Christ.
It's already been paid for by the Lord.
It's not something that we earn.
And it's not something that a church holds
the actual means of our salvation, right?
I mean, think about it.
Do we have to rely on a certain church that
basically they're the ones who have the power to baptize us
or not baptize us, right?
Is that what salvation is?
We have to go find someone else to do it for us?
No, the Bible says the word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth
and in thy heart.
That is the word of faith which we preach,
that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus
and shalt believe in that heart that God is raised from the dead,
thou shalt be saved.
So you see how it's available to everyone.
I don't need Peter to do it for me.
I don't need someone else to do it for me, right?
Once I hear the preaching of God's word
and understand the gospel, I could just
call upon the name of the Lord right there.
I could just believe on Christ in my own heart
and just confess that with my mouth.
And no one else can deny that to me
or stop me from getting saved or something like that.
Because it's not in the hands of other people.
It's nigh me.
It's in my mouth.
It's in my heart.
It's right there.
And so that's what the Bible is saying.
So in Acts chapter 2, let's go back there.
We saw in verse 21 the reiterated clear teaching
of scripture that we can find throughout the entire Bible,
Old Testament or New Testament, that whosoever
shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.
In Romans 10, we got more detail about the fact
that it's faith that motivates that calling
upon the name of the Lord.
Then we're in Acts chapter 2.
We jump down to verse 23.
It says, him, talking about Jesus of Nazareth,
being delivered by the determinate counsel
and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken
and by wicked hands have crucified and slain.
So he's holding them accountable,
saying you crucified Jesus, whom God has raised up,
having loosed the pains of death because it was not possible
that he should be holding of it.
And then as we jump down a little bit,
it says in verse number 33,
therefore being by the right hand of God exalted,
talking about Jesus, and having received of the Father
the promise of the Holy Ghost, he hath shed forth this,
which ye now see and hear.
Now what's he talking about when he says,
he hath shed forth this, which ye now see and hear?
Well, let's get more context.
We just read the whole chapter before the sermon.
But remember, this all started because a miracle took place
where the early church was gathered together.
The number of names together were about 120,
including the women.
So you've got men and women, 120 at the early church there
gathered together and the Holy Ghost is poured out upon them.
They're baptized with the Holy Ghost.
And the Bible says that as they are all filled
with the Holy Spirit, they began to speak with other tongues
as the Spirit gave them utterance.
And as we go through this chapter here,
we see that the miracle was that there were a whole bunch
of people at Jerusalem that had come from all over the world
devout men, the Bible says, from every nation under heaven.
And when they were at Jerusalem,
you've got the early church,
which are pretty much Galileans,
and they are actually speaking the word of God,
preaching the gospel, preaching the word of God
to these foreigners who are visiting.
And these foreigners are actually getting the preaching
in their own language.
So the thing that's shocking is they said,
aren't these guys all Galileans?
How are we all hearing them speak in our own tongues
the wonderful works of God?
So basically this miracle takes place
where even though these 120 people are not capable
of preaching all these foreign languages,
God performs a miracle where they're able to speak
the language that they had never learned.
Look at verse number eight.
It says, how hear we every man in our own tongue
wherein we were born.
So what does tongue mean?
Language.
Now a lot of people, they get mixed up by this word tongue
like speaking tongues,
and they think like tongues and so, ooh, tongues.
Okay, this is my tongue.
All right.
But when the Bible says tongues,
it's talking about languages.
So this speaking with other,
and by the way, the Bible doesn't use the term
speaking in tongues.
It says speaking with an unknown tongue,
speaking with other tongues.
Okay, now the modern versions, they do this as in,
speaking in tongues because of the fact that, you know,
it's just a fundamental misunderstanding
of the Greek language because the Greek word
that is translated as with is en, e-n.
Oh, en, that sounds like en.
En, en, en, en.
But here's the thing about that.
If you actually study the New Testament
and actually read the New Testament cover to cover in Greek
multiple times, you know what you're gonna find
is that yes, of course the word en can mean en,
but it frequently, like over and over again,
like literally scores of times is referring to
the means by which something is done or the instrument.
Like when it talks about killing people with the sword,
it's gonna use the word en there, okay?
Or talking about, I could give you
a whole bunch of examples.
We could literally just go all night
and look at every verse where the Greek word en
is actually talking about what you use to do something.
And so the King James properly translates it as
speaking with an unknown tongue,
meaning speaking by means of an unknown tongue.
That's what it means.
Speaking by means of languages, using language.
Whereas by using this term in the new versions,
speaking in tongues, the problem with this
speaking in tongues is that it doesn't really make sense
to our English speaking minds
because we don't use that term.
We don't talk about speaking in tongues
unless we're talking about this weird charismatic movement.
Now we would say, you know, you speak in another language,
wouldn't we say that?
Wouldn't we say you speak in a foreign language?
He was speaking in a foreign language,
but we wouldn't say he spoke in languages.
It doesn't really make any sense, right?
That's why the King James Bible is translating it
like they spoke with languages,
meaning like they're using languages, okay?
They spoke in an unknown tongue.
And so the King James Bible is clearer
in the way that it translates this, okay?
Because the King James Bible is better
because these new versions are messed up,
but that's a whole nother sermon.
But the point is that when the Bible talks about
speaking with other tongues, okay,
as the spirit gave them utterance there in verse four,
what are they using to speak the word of God?
They're using foreign languages.
They're using other tongues.
And just to be clear that these are actual foreign languages
and not some mystical babble or angelic speech
or some kind of a strange thing,
look what the Bible says after verse eight.
It says, how are we every man?
In our own tongue, in our own language,
wherein we were born.
Parthians and Medes and Elamites
and dwellers in Mesopotamia and in Judea and Cappadocia
and Pontus and Asia.
Folks, it's pretty clear we're talking about
foreign languages when he starts listing
all these nationalities that are understanding
in their own tongues, in their own language.
So it's not in tongues, it's in Parthian, right?
It's in the language of Cappadocia.
It's in the language of Egypt.
It's in the language of Libya.
Not just in tongues, like some kind of just
ethereal, mystical tongues.
It's just languages, folks, it's foreign languages.
Today, this would be Chinese.
This would be Japanese.
This would be Korean.
This would be German, Spanish, French.
That's what it would be today, okay?
These people are from other parts of the world,
other nations, Crete and Arabians,
and it says in verse 11, we do hear them speak
in our tongues the wonderful works of God.
Notice how you can just substitute in the word languages,
it would make perfect sense.
We hear them speak in our languages.
But if you just said, we hear them speak in languages,
we hear them speak in tongues.
That doesn't really make sense.
And so by using a term that doesn't really quite make sense,
they've created this new thing of just speaking in tongues,
which is like a special thing that's not foreign languages.
Well, it is foreign languages
if you actually read the Bible, my friend.
They're just speaking in foreign languages.
So these people are speaking in a language
that they haven't studied.
These are not scholars.
These are not these educated polyglots
who've learned all the languages of the world
and they're just able to just preach
in one language after another.
These people are miraculously given the ability
to speak a language that they haven't studied.
And it makes sense because God wanted the gospel
to go out into the whole world.
And so therefore, all these people have come
from all over the world for the feast,
for the day of Pentecost, and they're devout Jews
from all over the world that are there.
So if a bunch of them can get saved,
then they can bring the gospel back home to their nation
and preach in that other language
and the gospel could just spread like wildfire
and just make its way around the world much more quickly.
So this is kind of an event to jumpstart
the gospel being spread by miraculously allowing
these foreign languages to be spoken
by people who hadn't studied them.
I mean, think about how cool it would be
if you're out soul winning and you knocked on a door
and the person just only speaks Vietnamese
and all of a sudden you're just like, oh, no problem.
And then you just start speaking Vietnamese
and you just present the gospel in Vietnamese
even though you've never studied, never.
That would take a miracle, wouldn't it?
Okay, and that's the miracle that's taking place here, okay.
And so this is something that got people's attention
because they're all amazed, it says in verse seven, right?
They're marveling like, wow, these guys are speaking
in all these foreign languages.
And others in verse 13 mocking said,
well, these men are full of new wine.
And then Peter gets up and says,
these men are not drunken as you suppose
because they just heard a bunch of like weird language
and they just thought, oh, I just babbling.
That's not a real language, that's just babbling,
they're drunk.
But in reality, the person they were talking to is like,
no, I'm understanding this in my own language,
this is a real language.
So then Peter explains, no, this is a fulfillment
of prophecy, verse 17, it shall come to pass
in the last days, saith God, I'll pour out of my spirit
upon all flesh and your sons and your daughters
shall prophesy, your young men shall see visions
and your old men shall dream dreams and on and on.
So he says, no, no, no, this is an outpouring
of the Holy Spirit's power and because of the power
of the Holy Spirit, they're able to speak
in this other language and people are able to understand
the gospel in their own language, okay.
So then he begins to rebuke them for crucifying Jesus
and preach about how Jesus Christ died on the cross,
was buried and rose again and you crucified him
and God raised him up and on and on and then it said,
the verse that we just looked at, verse 33,
therefore being by the right hand of God exalted
and having received of the Father the promise
of the Holy Ghost, he has shed forth this
which you now see in here.
So what's the this which you now see in here?
It's like this.
Do you see how these people are filled
with the Holy Spirit and God's using them mightily
to proclaim his word even miraculously
in a foreign language, you see what you're seeing here
is a manifestation of the Holy Spirit of God, okay.
That's what he's saying there in verse 33.
Verse 34, for David is not ascended into the heavens
but he said, he saith himself, the Lord said unto my Lord,
sit down in my right hand until I make thy foes
thy footstool, therefore let all the house of Israel
know assuredly, don't miss it because we're getting close
to verse 38, so we wanna get this context,
that God hath made that same Jesus whom you've crucified,
did I bring that up?
Both Lord and Christ, okay so that's what he leaves him with
you crucified him, God has raised him up,
he's been made both Lord and Christ and he's saying
that the outpouring of the Holy Spirit here
and the speaking in these unknown languages to them
is a manifestation or evidence of that,
outpouring of the Holy Spirit because Jesus Christ
is truly the son of God and so forth.
So that's the basic message of what he's saying,
that's the important context leading us into this.
Then in verse 37 it says, now when they heard this
they were pricked in their heart and sent into Peter
and to the rest of the apostles, men and brethren,
what shall we do?
Now look, they feel like idiots now, we blew it,
we crucified the Lord of life, we killed Jesus,
Jesus really was the Messiah, he really was the son of God,
boy did we blow it, what do we do now?
What should we do, like how do we fix this
is basically what they're asking.
What shall we do, how can we, okay, okay we messed up
but what's our way forward?
Okay, now this verse is often misquoted as
what must I do to be saved?
That's not what this verse says,
there is a verse that says that, in Acts chapter 16
the Bible says what must I do to be saved
and they said believe on the Lord Jesus Christ
and thou shall be saved and thy house
because consistently faith is the answer to that question.
What we must do to be saved is believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ.
They're not asking what must we do to be saved,
they're basically saying like oh man, we have blown it,
we rejected Jesus, we killed Jesus,
you know we're out in the cold here,
God's working in the followers of Christ
and we're on the wrong side here, what shall we do
and I think that the gist of what he's saying here
is like how do we fix this, okay, what shall we do
and that's different than what is required for salvation,
that's not the question that's being asked,
what must we do in order to get to heaven?
That's not what it says, what shall we do
in order to be saved?
No, that's talking about, you know,
that's what we would see in Acts 16,
what must I do to be saved?
Believe, right, or all the times throughout John's gospel
where Jesus is just continually telling people,
you know, he that believeth on me has everlasting life,
whosoever believeth in him shall not perish
but have everlasting life and on and on.
So it's men and brethren, what shall we do?
Then Peter said to them, repent.
Now this answer makes perfect sense
because the word repent simply means to change.
It can mean a change of mind,
it can mean a change of action
and it's not always from bad to good.
Repentance is just a change
and so in order to know what the repentance is,
you always have to get context
because for example, some people when they see repent,
they just think it means repent of your sins.
So they just think every time they see repent,
it's just like, oh, you gotta quit drinking,
quit fornicating, clean up your life,
clean up your mouth, clean up,
and they have all these ways
of just defining what repent means.
But here's the thing, God repents in the Bible
more than anyone else
and we know God has no sin to repent of
so clearly, repentance is just a change.
God is gonna do one thing
and then he repents and does something different.
Also a great example of this is in the book of Exodus
when the children of Israel are brought out of Egypt
and God says, well, I don't wanna take them
through the land of the Philistines
because then when they see war, they'll repent.
So he takes them through the wilderness instead.
Now going to the Promised Land is a good thing,
repenting would be going back to Egypt which is bad.
So in that case, God doesn't want them to repent.
He wants them to stay on the track to the Promised Land
and not to repent and go back to Egypt.
So repent could be good, bad,
it could be any number of things.
If I just said, hey, I was gonna go to the grocery store
but then I repented, it's not like,
oh, I'm glad you got the sin out of your life, brother.
No, it's just I changed my mind about what I was gonna do.
And so there are all kinds of examples in the Bible
where repentance is clearly not repenting of your sins
because you've got God doing it 30 sometimes,
you've got the example that I gave you from Exodus
and again, that's a whole nother sermon in and of itself.
So it makes perfect sense to say that people repent
because he just finished telling them, you rejected Jesus,
you crucified Jesus, you killed the Prince of Light,
you did this horrible thing and they're like,
well, what's our way forward?
What shall we do?
How do we make this right?
How do we fix it?
What do we do?
And he's basically saying, well, you need to change on this.
Instead of rejecting the Lord Jesus Christ,
you need to confess the Lord Jesus Christ, okay?
So he says, repent and be baptized,
every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ.
Now, what is baptism?
Baptism is a public profession of faith in Jesus Christ.
This is a public way of actually confessing Christ
and professing Christ publicly.
And so, because they have publicly rejected Christ,
publicly renounced Christ, publicly yelled, crucify him,
give us Barabbas and all this,
you know, in order to make it right,
now, how do they make it right?
Well, you know, they can repent.
They don't have to continue rejecting Christ.
They don't have to continue persecuting Christians.
They can repent and be baptized, every one of them,
in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Meaning, instead of condemning Christ publicly,
now they're professing Christ publicly,
which is a way to undo the damage that they've done, okay?
So this is what they should do, to repent and be baptized.
Now again, when he says repent here,
is he saying like, all right, you know,
it's time to quit drinking?
That's absurd in this context.
Now, I'm all for people quitting drinking.
I'm totally against drinking.
I'm totally against drugs.
I'm totally against fornication.
But is that what he's really talking about in this context,
cleaning up your life?
Clean up your lives, everybody,
and be baptized in the name of Jesus.
No, that's not what he's saying.
He's saying, you rejected Christ,
now you need to embrace Christ.
You publicly denounced him,
now you need to publicly confess him.
That's what needs to change.
He's not talking about a lifestyle change
in this context.
Other times, repentance is talking about a lifestyle change
because it can literally be talking about anything.
It could be talking about a trip to the grocery store.
It could talk about anything,
because it's just a word that just means to change
or to turn, and so it really depends on context.
What's the context here, right?
So he says, repent and be baptized, every one of you,
in the name of Jesus Christ, for the remission of sins,
and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.
Now, the next mistake that they'll make
is saying that, well, in order to get our sins forgiven,
in order to receive the remission of sins,
we must be baptized.
That's what they'll teach.
They'll use this verse to say,
that's how you get your sins forgiven,
is by getting baptized, okay?
And that is not what this verse is saying,
because when the Bible,
and if you would keep your finger here,
and let's go to 1 Peter 3,
which, but keep your finger in Acts 2,
and 1 Peter 3 is another scripture that people use
to try to teach that baptism is actually how you get saved,
or that you have to be baptized in order to get saved.
Now again, there are a lot of problems with that
right on its face, okay?
Because first of all, baptism is something
that doesn't exist until John the Baptist.
Nobody's getting baptized in the book of Genesis,
or all the way through Malachi.
Obviously, you have things that symbolize
and picture baptism.
You have foreshadowings of baptism,
like the flood, or crossing the Red Sea.
Those things are obviously symbolic of baptism,
but you don't have Abraham baptizing
his members of his household or something, right?
Baptism just isn't a thing
until you get to the book of Matthew, period.
It's not something that's going on
in the books of Genesis to Malachi.
So how did those people get saved then?
I'll tell you how they got saved,
by calling upon the name of the Lord.
How do we get saved?
By calling upon the name of the Lord, okay?
Baptism is something that started with John the Baptist,
and baptism has never been the method
whereby a person is saved,
because the Bible said you confess with your mouth
the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart
that God raised him from the dead and you shall be saved.
The Bible says that everyone who believes on Christ is saved.
Whosoever believeth in him should not perish
but have eternal life.
Verily, verily, I say unto you,
he that believeth on me hath everlasting life.
Why doesn't it say that you also have to get baptized
in all these hundreds of places
that teach that it's just by faith, okay?
So look at first Peter chapter three, okay?
And you'll find verses that talk about people
getting, believing and being baptized and going to heaven.
Well of course if you believe and get baptized,
you're going to heaven.
Who here has believed in Christ and been baptized?
Well, you know what, you're all going to heaven
because you believed in Christ and been baptized
but I got news for you, even if you hadn't been baptized,
you'd still all be going to heaven
because it's the believe part that gets you to heaven.
Here's what you're never gonna find
a verse in the Bible saying.
If you don't get baptized, you won't go to heaven.
Is there a verse, anything like that?
But how many verses could we point to
that say if you don't believe, you're not going to heaven?
Tons of verses that say if you don't believe,
you're not going to heaven
but you won't find, oh, you didn't get baptized,
you're not going to heaven.
Why, because the one thing you have to do to be saved
is to believe, okay?
First Peter chapter three says this in verse 21.
It says, well let's get the context in verse 20,
which sometimes were disobedient
when once the long suffering of God
waited in the days of Noah while the ark was a preparing
wherein few, that is eight souls, were saved by water.
The like figure were unto even baptism
doth also now save us,
not the putting away of the filth of the flesh
but the answer of a good conscience toward God
by the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
Now stop and look at this verse for a second.
Notice the keyword, the like figure
were unto baptism doth also now save us.
Now notice the parenthesis.
The reason that our Bible has punctuation marks in it
is to help us understand the text, right?
So if there were no spaces between words,
no periods, no commas, no capitalized letters,
it'd be harder for us to understand
because we're not used to reading a text like that, right?
We don't write that way.
We've never in our lives read texts that way in English.
Now other ancient cultures that are more primitive
in their writing, yeah, a lot of times
they would just run it all together
and they didn't have any punctuation
and they didn't have capital and lowercase letters
but we're not used to that, are we?
And so our language requires punctuation and capitalization
in order for us to make sense of it.
Now other languages have other things
to help them make sense of it.
Like for example, if you're reading the original Greek,
well then all the words are inflected.
And so because of the inflect, and don't worry
if you don't know what that means,
but those of you who do know what it means,
the words being inflected delivers all this meaning
about what word is doing what in the sentence
that really helps you understand.
But because our language in English is not inflected,
therefore we have to rely on things like word order
and punctuation and these other cues
so that we can understand this in modern English.
Whereas in ancient Greek, the word order
wouldn't have mattered so much
and they didn't need punctuation or upper or lowercase
because the inflections are giving them
a bunch of information that is taking care of them
in another way, right?
Our language is different.
Every language is different, right?
If we were reading this in Chinese,
it'd be a lot different, wouldn't it?
So what we have to understand is that
the punctuation is there to help you.
Let's let the punctuation help us for a second.
If something is parenthetical, if something's in parenthesis
it's clarifying or explaining something,
but it's not structurally part
of the main flow of the sentence.
Does everybody understand that?
So if we look at the main flow of the sentence
without the parenthesis, the like figure we're onto,
even baptism does also now save us
by the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
The figure of baptism saves us by the resurrection of Jesus.
Why?
Because baptism is a picture of the resurrection of Jesus.
So it's not baptism that saves us,
it's the figure of baptism that saves us.
Because what does baptism figure or represent?
The resurrection.
So what are we actually saved by?
The resurrection of Jesus Christ.
So when a person is baptized,
when they're standing up in the water,
that's a picture of them, or sitting up in the water,
you could say, that's a picture of Jesus on the cross.
And then when they go under the water,
that's a picture of him being buried.
And when they come up out of the water,
that's a picture of him being resurrected.
That's what baptism is.
It's a picture, it's a figure,
it's symbolic of the resurrection of Jesus, right?
Buried in the likeness of his death,
raised in the likeness of his resurrection.
And so here we see that the figure of baptism
saves us by the resurrection of Jesus Christ,
because that's what the figure represents,
what actually saves us is the resurrection,
not the act of baptism, it's the figure of baptism.
But not only that, now let's look at the parentheses.
Because with the parentheses, it gets even better.
Not the putting away of the filth of the flesh,
but the answer of a good conscience toward God.
So he clarifies and says, hey,
I don't want you to get the wrong idea
and to think that baptism is somehow
the putting away of the filth of the flesh,
or it somehow is clearing up your sins.
No, it's the answer of a good conscience toward God.
Now, what comes first, the question or the answer?
An answer is a response.
The word answer means response.
And so baptism is a response to
a good conscience toward God.
So what comes first, baptism
or the good conscience toward God?
You have the good conscience toward God,
and then baptism is the response to that.
It follows that, does everybody see that?
Baptism is the answer of a good conscience toward God.
So you don't get baptized in order to get
a good conscience before God.
You have a good conscience toward God,
and then you respond by being baptized.
Because salvation comes first, then baptism.
You believe on Christ, you call upon the name of the Lord,
you're saved, and then you get baptized, okay?
Because baptism is not the putting away
of the filth of the flesh,
it's the answer of a good conscience toward God.
And the salvific component here is
the resurrection of Christ,
and baptism is a figure of that.
Thinking that baptism actually is what saves you
would be as absurd as taking verse 20 and saying,
well, eight souls were saved by water.
You know, I read that Noah's Ark story
a whole bunch of times,
and I don't remember the water ever saving them.
So you're misunderstanding that preposition by,
because you know, the water didn't,
it's like, thank goodness for all this water.
That's not really how the flood story reads, is it?
What would we do without this water?
We're saved by the water.
No, no, no.
See, you're misunderstanding that preposition by there.
Okay, because actually, no.
Noah's Ark is a picture of salvation.
The flood is a picture of baptism.
It pictures a whole bunch of things.
You know, the ark pictures Jesus.
There's only one door to get on the ark and be saved.
Jesus said, I'm the door.
If any man enter in by me, he shall be saved.
Why did Noah's Ark only have one door?
Because salvation only has one door.
The ark saves them from the flood,
and the one way on represents Jesus, okay?
And then the door is shut by God,
and it doesn't open again
until they're safely on the other side.
And that's the same way.
Once we're saved, we're in,
and we're sealed unto the day of redemption.
Just like Noah was sealed into the ark
until the day of redemption.
But again, I don't wanna get too far off track with that.
So everybody understand 1 Peter 3.21,
that the figure of baptism saves us.
It's the resurrection that saves us,
and it's the answer of a good conscience toward God.
Now, look at Acts 2, verse 38 with that in mind.
Then Peter said to them,
repent and be baptized, every one of you,
in the name of Jesus Christ, for the remission of sins.
Now, where they're misunderstanding this
is it's not saying get baptized
in order to receive the remission of sins.
What it's actually saying is,
get baptized because of the remission of sins,
because the word for can also mean because of.
For example, let's say I put up a poster that said,
wanted for murder.
Does that mean like,
hey, I'm looking to hire somebody to commit a murder,
and I've heard you're good at it,
and so I'm looking for you.
Is that what that means?
Or, wanted for murder.
We wanna find this guy so we can murder him.
No, no, no, what it means when it says wanted for murder
is it says wanted because of murder.
He's wanted because of murder.
I mean, for God so loved the world
means because God so loved the world.
So the word for can also mean because of,
not in order to get there.
Now, again, the fake Greek scholars and bozos will say,
well, you know, when you have this preposition ace
plus accusative in the original,
it can only indicate motion toward,
and yeah, I'm glad you got that
in your first semester of Greek,
but guess what?
That's not the only way that that's used at all,
and in fact, let me give you another example
from the New Testament,
because look, and by the way, let me just say this.
When someone has to go back to the Greek
to prove their point, it's because it isn't there,
because actually, if we just read the Bible in English,
we're gonna come to all the right conclusions.
You don't have to learn Greek and Hebrew
to understand the word of God, okay?
We've got the Bible accurately translated into English.
I believe that the King James Bible
is the word of God without error,
and it doesn't have anything wrong or misleading in it,
and so it's right, it's correct, and this is all you need.
God doesn't expect everyone to go out
and learn two foreign languages to understand the Bible.
He has, in his grace, allowed us to have the word of God
in our own tongue wherein we were born
in our King James Bible, and what a blessing to be born
as an English speaker, because we have
such a great translation, and obviously,
the Bible's been translated into lots of languages,
but the quality varies, doesn't it?
Some translations are better than others,
and we have the King James, enough said, another sermon,
but the point is that they are going back to the Greek
because they're relying on the fact
that you don't know Greek, and because 99% of the time,
make that 99.99999% of the time,
they don't know Greek either, but they're just repeating
something that they saw in a textbook or that they heard.
They're not actually reading the New Testament
cover to cover, reading other Greek literature,
and seeing how these words are used.
Even if they just read only the New Testament in Greek,
they would find other examples where this exact
preposition is used to mean because of,
and I'll give you an example right now.
In Matthew chapter 10, it says, the men of Nineveh
shall rise in judgment with this generation
and shall condemn it.
It says, because they repented at the preaching of Jonah,
and behold, a greater than Jonah is here,
and when the Bible says that they repented
at the preaching of Jonah, the at there in English
is translating the exact Greek preposition
plus an accusative case, it's exactly the same.
So let me ask you this, are they repenting
because of the preaching of Jonah?
Or are they repenting, are the men of Nineveh
repenting in order to get the preaching of Jonah?
Think about that.
I hope I'm not losing you by getting all technical here.
I just want to do justice to the subject
and I want to just be clear about this.
They're not repenting in order to get Jonah's preaching.
They're repenting because of Jonah's preaching.
And guess what?
These people are being baptized
because of the remission of sins.
Okay?
You say, well, the word for could go either way.
So could the Greek word go either way,
and so the King James has translated
exactly what the Greek says.
And by the way, not only is this this way
in the New Testament in Matthew chapter 10,
but all throughout Greek literature,
you'll find examples.
Brother Anzalem and I were literally
just working through Plato, like less than a week ago,
and we came across an example of this preposition
with an accusative meaning because of, okay?
It's very common.
Okay, and it doesn't matter that,
oh, well, all these other times it means this.
But words can have more than one meaning.
Look at the way that preposition by was used
in First Peter chapter three, right?
But it doesn't mean what you think it means
if you think the water saved them.
You need to go back and read Genesis again.
And so the point is that they are not being baptized
in order to get the remission of their sins,
but they are rather being baptized
because of the remission of sins.
So let's look at the verse there.
Second Peter, or excuse me, Acts chapter two, verse 38.
Then Peter said to them,
repent and be baptized, every one of you,
in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins,
and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.
For the promise is unto you,
and unto your children, and so forth.
What's he saying here?
The context is they're amazed
at the outpouring of the Holy Spirit.
Peter explains what that outpouring of the Holy Spirit is,
that it's all because of Jesus,
his death, burial, and resurrection.
And then he's basically saying, you know, if you repent,
you don't have to be on the outside looking in like this.
You can actually repent,
you can actually publicly confess Christ
by being baptized, every one of you,
in the name of the Lord Jesus for the remission of sins.
And then it says, you know,
and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.
Just like these people here are filled with the Holy Ghost,
you can be filled with the Holy Ghost too, okay.
Now go to Acts chapter 10.
I gotta hurry because I'm running out of time.
There's so much stuff to talk about here.
I'm gonna try to get to all of it here,
so stay alert, stay alive,
because obviously we all have a little bit of time,
and I don't wanna lose you by going fast,
but we need to go fast in order to finish the sermon.
Okay, so in Acts chapter 10,
here's a wonderful verse in verse 43
that you should underline, memorize, know this verse.
To him give all the prophets witness,
that through his name, whosoever believeth in him,
shall receive remission of sins.
How do we get remission of sins?
By believing in Jesus.
Not by being baptized, by believing in Jesus, okay.
And by the way, all the prophets will testify to that.
So it sounds like there's a lot of evidence
for salvation being by faith,
since to him give all the prophets witness,
that through his name, whosoever believeth in him,
shall receive remission of sins.
Again, giving us continuity of the entire Bible,
giving this message of believing,
calling upon the name of the Lord,
getting remission of sins through faith,
all throughout the script.
Abraham believed God,
and it was counted unto him for righteousness.
On and on.
David describes the blessedness of the man,
unto whom God impudeth righteousness without works.
And so whosoever believeth in him,
shall receive remission of sins.
Same book of Acts, by the way.
Same preacher, Peter, who was preaching in chapter two.
And they of the circumcision,
which we believe were astonished,
as many as came with Peter,
because that on the Gentiles also was poured out,
watch this,
the gift of the Holy Ghost.
So again, what did it say in Acts 2 38?
You'll receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.
Specifically, the gift of the Holy Ghost,
in chapter 10 and chapter two,
is referring to the fullness of the Holy Spirit,
not simply being indwelled by the Holy Spirit.
Okay, every single person,
when they're saved in the New Testament,
is indwelled by the Holy Spirit.
But is every Christian automatically filled
with the Holy Spirit?
The disciples were already indwelled by the Holy Spirit
all the way back in John chapter 20,
when Jesus breathed on them and said,
receive the Holy Ghost.
But yet, even after that,
they're told to wait in Jerusalem
until you be endued with power from on high.
Wait for the promise of the Father.
Wait for the gift of the Holy Ghost.
The gift of the Holy Ghost was talking about
that manifestation of God's power,
that fullness of the Holy Spirit,
the Holy Ghost upon them.
So like in the Old Testament,
when the Holy Ghost would come upon people in mighty power,
that's not the same as just every believer
being indwelled by the Holy Spirit.
If you're indwelled by the Holy Spirit as a Christian,
you know, you're sealed by the Holy Ghost
under the day of redemption,
he'll never leave you or forsake you.
Doesn't mean you're filled with the Holy Spirit though, okay?
So it says here that on the Gentiles
also was poured out the gift of the Holy Ghost.
How did they know that?
For they heard them speak with tongues and magnify God.
Then answered Peter, can any man forbid water
that these should not be baptized
which have received the Holy Ghost as well as we?
And he commanded them to be baptized in the name of the Lord
then prayed they him to tarry certain days.
So a couple of things I wanna point out here
is that again, salvation is totally by faith.
It's always has been, every prophet witness to that.
The gift of the Holy Ghost is referring to
not simply just being indwelled by the Holy Spirit
which every saved person is indwelled by the Holy Spirit
but it's talking about the fullness,
the power of the Holy Ghost, the Holy Ghost upon you.
But then second, notice that these people
are filled with the Holy Ghost
in the same way that they were in Acts 2
before they got baptized.
Do you see that?
So it's not like Peter's just giving some formula here
of here's how you get saved, you repent, you get baptized,
you get filled, this is how it works,
blah, blah, A, B, C, no, that's not what it is
because otherwise explain why in chapter 10
these people, they already believe.
They already have the Holy Ghost upon them
and they're already saved
and now they're ready to get baptized.
So isn't it interesting they're saved
before they're baptized,
they believe before they're baptized.
How do they know that they believe?
Because here's the thing,
the guys that came with Peter,
they don't speak necessarily the language
that the Italians are speaking
because they're going and speaking
to this group of Italians.
And so they're probably using Greek
as a language whereby they can all communicate
because in the world back then,
that was sort of a universal second language.
So obviously, Jesus and all of the disciples spoke Greek.
But that's not their main language.
Their primary language is Aramaic
and then they speak Greek as a second language.
Well, people in Italy,
their primary language could be other tribal languages
but it's typically gonna be Latin
as gonna be their main language
but they're gonna speak Greek as a second language.
So basically, Peter's got these guys
that he brought with him that are Jews
and they go and presumably Peter's preaching in Greek,
the people are understanding in Greek and hearing Greek
but when they hear him preach the gospel,
they answer him back, they respond back to him,
they confess Christ to him in another language.
I wonder what language that is,
the native language of the people that were brought.
And so basically, these guys are blown away
like whoa, how are these Italians speaking to us
in our language of Aramaic or Hebrew
or whatever they confess Christ in a language
that was unique to the guys that came with Peter.
Do you understand what I'm saying?
So the evidence of the Holy Spirit's power,
sort of like in Acts 2 where they spoke to those people
in the language wherein they were born,
here these guys who came with Peter,
they heard them speak with tongues and magnify God.
So it's not like they just start speaking
some heavenly language.
We don't know who they're magnifying
if they're speaking some gibberish
but rather the guys who came with Peter
heard them speaking in their native language
even though they're Italians.
And it's like whoa, we were communicating in Greek
but you guys, you're speaking our language.
That's clearly what's going on here
if you just use a little bit of common sense
and what you know from the rest of the New Testament.
And so he says, can any man forbid water
that these should not be baptized
which have received the Holy Ghost as we?
Like these guys need to get baptized.
These guys are clearly saved and not only that
but there's an outpouring of the Holy Spirit's power
upon them as evidenced by the fact
that they're speaking in a language
that's not native to them and glorifying God and so forth.
And he commanded them to be baptized in the name of the Lord
then prayed they him to tarry certain days.
And again, I don't have time
but another place to turn would be Romans chapter three.
Romans chapter three is a great chapter on salvation.
Whole chapter, okay?
But it makes it clear that remission of sins
is through faith in Jesus Christ.
It's on him that believeth.
Very clear, Romans three hammers the fact
that remission of sins comes through believing in Jesus.
And so is baptism the way that you get the remi...
Faith is the way that you get the remission of sins.
Confessing with your mouth the Lord Jesus
is how you get the remission of sins.
Calling upon the name of the Lord
is how you get remission of sins.
But is baptism how you...
No, these people are already there.
Then they get baptized.
And that's the biblical order.
First you believe, then you get baptized, right?
Acts chapter eight, what doth the enemy be baptized?
If thou believeth with all thine heart thou mayest.
And then the eunuch answered and said,
I believe that Jesus Christ the son of God
and they stop the chariot, they go down into the water,
they go down into the water and he baptizes him.
Now here's the thing.
Let's say you're at this incident.
Go back to Acts chapter two, we'll finish up here quickly.
Let's say you're at this occasion in Acts chapter two
and you're one of the 3,000 or so people
who hear this preaching and you actually
receive this truth and you believe what Peter's preaching.
You believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.
You believe that this is true.
And Peter has just told you what you should do.
You should repent.
Meaning stop listening to the Pharisees,
stop listening to the scribes,
stop listening to these people.
Be baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus.
If you're there and you're hearing this, right?
And then you come forward to be baptized, right?
There's like 3,000 some people who do this.
Then obviously their salvation and their baptism
is in some ways happening at the same time
because they're basically showing up
and confessing Christ as they're getting baptized.
It's sort of like at Verity Baptist Church
when I've been there, when they baptize people,
he always asks the people like publicly
as he baptizes them, hey, have you received
the Lord Jesus Christ as your personal savior or something?
Who knows what I'm talking about, right?
He'll ask them something like that.
And they'll confess Christ right there
as they're getting dunked.
Is it the dunking that saved them?
No.
Now obviously those people have already previously
confessed Christ and he's just basically
having them do it publicly.
But the point is that these people,
they're pretty much confessing Christ
and going straight into the waters of baptism.
But it's not the baptism that saves them.
It's not required for salvation.
Could baptism and salvation happen at the same time
if that's when someone is believing and calling upon Christ
right as they're going up to get baptized?
Sure.
But don't misunderstand that into thinking
that somehow baptism has anything to do with salvation
because it doesn't, okay?
Just like when I got married,
I put on a wedding ring at that moment.
But did the wedding ring make me married?
No.
Some people could get the ring, and actually I didn't.
I got the ring weeks later.
But other people usually get it right as they're,
it's like, they're like, I do.
Ring on.
I now pronounce you man and wife.
So the ring is literally going on within seconds
of them being pronounced man and wife.
In my case, we got the rings a few weeks later.
Does that mean we weren't really married
because we didn't have the ring yet?
Baptism is like this ring.
It's a symbol.
This is a symbol of my marriage, but it's not my marriage.
If I take this off, I'm still married.
If I put it on someone else,
they don't suddenly become married to my wife
because the ring is not marriage.
The ring symbolizes marriage.
Just as baptism is not salvation,
baptism symbolizes salvation by the resurrection.
And again, that symbol could come
within seconds of salvation coming
and therefore be associated with salvation
in the sense they're both happening at the same time.
But they have nothing to do with one another
in the sense that you could get baptized
without being saved,
you could be saved without being baptized.
Because salvation is by faith, it always has been.
The last thing I want to deal with,
and so I hope that this helps you tonight
understand this verse, Acts 2 38.
Peter said to them,
"'Repent and be baptized,
"'every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ,
"'for the remission of sins,
"'and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.'"
And again, let's say you were to say like,
well, you know, I'm not buying this, you know,
this whole thing of, you know,
baptized because of the remission of sins.
Now, I believe that that's what this is saying
because like I said, there's other examples
of this word being used this way in English
and even if somebody wants to go back to the Greek,
guess what, we can find examples of it in Greek too.
And so all day long, we can defend that grammatically,
that that is definitely within the semantic range
of what we see here.
But let's say you're like,
well, you know, I don't buy that.
I don't buy that.
I think it's saying, you know,
repent and be baptized,
every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ
for the remission of sins
and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.
I think it's saying that, you know,
you get baptized in the name.
Then my answer to that would be,
first of all, I believe that you're wrong.
But even if that were the case,
let's just give you that for a second.
Even if that were the case,
then you could still just say,
well, these specific people that he's talking to
have openly rejected Christ.
So he's just telling them to openly profess Christ.
And obviously if they openly profess Christ,
that's professing Christ and professing Christ saves you.
And so it would just be a way
for them to publicly profess Christ.
And that's their way of believing in their heart
and confessing with their mouth or whatever.
But it's not a formula for everybody's salvation
saying you have to do it this way.
It's this situation.
That would be my answer to that.
But again, I think that the much simpler explanation
is simply that you get baptized as an answer
of a good conscience toward God,
as we saw taught elsewhere in scripture.
The last point, I'm out of time,
but the last point I want to bring up
is just this idea of being baptized
in the name of Jesus Christ.
Because these same people who are misusing this verse
about what it takes to get saved,
they'll also use this verse to say
that you must be baptized in the name of Jesus only.
And they add this word only.
And it's become known as the Jesus only movement.
It goes back to the year 1913.
And in 1913, a Pentecostal preacher
at some holy roller wild camp meeting
got up and said in his sermon,
isn't it interesting that Jesus told people
to baptize in the name of the Father
and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost,
but then in the book of Acts,
they're just baptizing people in the name of Jesus.
Hmm, that's interesting.
And this guy in the audience, that bothered him.
And so he stayed up all night,
I don't know, foaming at the mouth
or whatever these Pentecostals do.
And after doing that, he ran out of his tent in the morning
and was running around the campground saying,
the name of the Father is Jesus.
The name of the Holy Ghost is Jesus.
They're all named Jesus.
And so the name of the Father, the Son, the Holy,
because he stupidly thought,
well, it's the name singular of
the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost.
And so, you know, therefore it's one name.
It's obviously just a foolish misunderstanding
of language to think that, okay.
The name of the Father is not Jesus.
The name of the Son is Jesus.
This has a much simpler explanation,
but I wouldn't expect unsaved people
to understand spiritual things necessarily, okay.
And so when the Bible says that we are to baptize people
in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost,
Jesus is giving that commandment.
Baptize people in the name of the Father,
Son, and the Holy Ghost.
Why don't we just obey what Jesus said?
So that's why when we baptize people,
we say I baptize you in the name of the Father,
the Son, and the Holy Ghost.
You say, okay, well then why did they do it
in the name of Jesus in the Book of Acts?
Here's the answer, because what if I told you
that when you baptize in the name of the Father,
the Son, and the Holy Ghost,
you just baptized in the name of Jesus
because Jesus is one of those three?
I mean, think about it.
If I said I baptize you in the name of the Father,
the Son, and the Holy Ghost,
did I baptize you in the name of the Father?
Yeah.
Did I baptize you in the name of the Son?
That's Jesus.
Did I baptize you in the name of the Holy Ghost?
But here's what the Book of Acts doesn't say,
be baptized only in the name of Jesus.
Okay, no, no, no, you wanna be baptized
in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost,
which makes perfect sense because the Father,
the Son, and the Holy Ghost were all actually participants
in the resurrection of Christ
because Jesus said that he had the power
to lay down his life and he had the power
to take it up again.
He said destroy this temple and in three days,
I will raise it up.
But then the Bible also says that God raised up Jesus
and it's referring to God the Father
and it also talks about the Holy Ghost being involved
in Jesus' resurrection.
And so it was a collective act of Father, Son,
and Holy Ghost that raised Jesus.
And the reason I make a big deal out of this
is because we believe in the Trinity.
Go to John chapter eight and we'll be done, last place.
John chapter eight, we believe in the Trinity.
And this misunderstanding of Acts chapter two verse 38
and this stupidity of saying the name of the Father
is Jesus has led to this heresy, this false doctrine
called oneness or modalism, which basically denies
the Trinity and says that Jesus is God the Father.
And it's basically, it's just one person
acting in three different modes
or just three different manifestations.
But look what the Bible says in John chapter eight.
And again, I could preach for hours debunking
the stupid oneness, modalism doctrine,
but we're just gonna look at one scripture tonight
as an indicator.
It says in verse number 14, Jesus,
or verse 13, the Pharisees therefore said unto him,
thou barest record of thyself, thy record is not true.
Jesus answered and said to them,
though I bear record of myself, yet my record is true,
for I know whence I came and whither I go,
but ye cannot tell whence I come and whither I go.
Verse 16, yet if I judge, my judgment is true,
for I'm not alone, but I am the Father that sent me.
It is also written in your law
that the testimony of two men is true.
I am one that bear witness of myself
and the Father that sent me beareth witness of me.
Jesus is saying there are two witnesses here,
the Father and me.
And by the way, he says, I came not to do my own will,
but the will of him that sent me.
Oh, just kidding, I am the Father.
I mean, think about how foolish that is.
Or what about when they asked to sit at the right hand
and left hand of Jesus and he's like,
well, that's not mine to give, you know, the Father.
It's like, I mean, think about how,
that'd be like, I mean, it makes no, it's absurd.
Oh, sorry, I can't do that for you, that's the Father.
Or what about when he said that of that day and hour
knows no man, not even the Son knows, only the Father knows.
Just kidding, I am the Father.
That's dumb.
And then 1 John 5 says, for there are three
that bear record, bear record means testify or witness.
There are three that bear record in heaven,
the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost,
and these three are one.
How could there be three heavenly witnesses,
the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost,
if they're all the same person?
That's not three witnesses.
That'd be like, oh, no, Your Honor, I'll call to the stand
Stephen Anderson, the pastor.
Oh, but Your Honor, I have a second witness,
Stephen Anderson, the Father.
Oh, wait, here's another witness,
Stephen Anderson, the husband.
Oh, here's another witness, Stephen Anderson, the cousin.
And we just put Stephen Anderson on the stand.
You've seen seven different witnesses here.
No, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost
are three heavenly witnesses
because it's three persons, one God,
that's called the Trinity.
Three persons, one God.
Not one person who wears three different hats, okay?
And not someone who is his own father, okay?
But rather, you've got the Father,
you've got the Son, you've got the Holy Ghost.
God eternally exists as Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.
Jesus is just as much God as the Father is.
The Holy Ghost is just as much God.
And there's only one God,
but God eternally exists as three persons.
That's the Trinity, okay?
And so they have created this false conflict of,
well, do we baptize in the name of the Father
or of the Son and the Holy Ghost,
or do we baptize in the name of Jesus?
But they're mixed up because if you baptize
in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost,
you just baptize in the name of Jesus,
since the name of the Son is Jesus.
They create this false conflict,
and now they're like, you know,
have you been baptized in the name of Jesus only?
Why would I do that?
Because then they'll turn around and then say,
well, that's because the name of the Father is Jesus,
because basically they're saying
there is no separate, distinct,
it's just one God who basically came down
and became the Son of God and died for,
no, no, the Bible says the Father sent the Son
to be the Savior of the world.
That's what the Bible says.
The Father sent the Son to be the Savior of the world.
It doesn't say God the Father came down here
and died on the cross for you.
No, Jesus died on the cross for you,
who is the Son of God.
And again, that's a whole nother sermon,
but don't be deceived by people twisting this Acts 2.38,
the way that you will be safe, you know,
marked safe today from being deceived by the Pentecostals,
is you gotta read the whole Bible.
Read the whole New, if you read the whole New Testament,
their claims become absurd,
because you'll see all these things.
You'll see the Trinity hammered on every page.
You see salvation by faith hammered on every page.
You're not gonna fall for this stuff.
Okay, you gotta get the whole counsel of God.
You gotta get the context.
You gotta read the whole Bible.
That's how you can be safe.
And by the way, sometimes we're gonna come in the Bible
to things that we don't understand at times.
Don't ever throw out the 20 clear verses
for one verse that you're not sure about.
If you got 20 clear verses, 100 clear verses,
lock that in and say, well, I know this is true,
because that's what the Bible says.
And don't let one verse throw you for a loop.
Because you know what?
There were times when I was a little kid or something,
and I read verses like Acts 2.38,
or I'd read like James chapter two,
and I was like, I don't really know what this is saying,
but I just had the faith to realize,
it said like 100 times it's by faith,
so I'm just gonna figure this out later.
And that's good advice sometimes to just figure it out later.
Go with the preponderance of scripture.
That's why you need to read the whole Bible
and get the big picture, not just like Acts 2.38 church.
How about whole Bible church?
Entire Bible church, all right?
Let's bow your heads and have a word of prayer.
Father, we thank you so much for your word, Lord.
Thank you for saving us, and thank you for the fact
that all the prophets teach us that salvation comes
by believing in the name of Jesus.
Thank you so much for making salvation
so easy and available to us, Lord.
And Lord, allow us please to preach that message
to as many people as we possibly can,
and in Jesus' name we pray, amen.