Mr. God, to hear the Bible preached, I just pray that you would please just help us to learn what we need to learn from the Bible this morning.
And God, I just pray that every single person here would get something from the message and that it would either lead them to greater service for you or bring them to the knowledge of Jesus Christ and baptism and these different subjects to God.
In Jesus' name I pray, amen.
Now in Matthew chapter 3 we see Jesus Christ's baptism starts off the chapter talking about John the Baptist and who he is coming on the scene, preaching in the wilderness.
Great crowds of people are coming out to hear him in the middle of the desert is what the word wilderness means in the Bible.
And he's preaching in the wilderness and then Jesus Christ himself comes to him in verse number 13.
And Jesus Christ demands to be baptized of John the Baptist.
Now you notice that these are the first words that come out of the mouth of Jesus Christ when you start reading the New Testament.
You know some Bibles have the red letter edition and whatever Jesus said while he's on his earth is in red.
What's the first red letters that you're going to see in the Bible?
Jesus Christ saying to John the Baptist in verse 15,
Suffer it to be so now, for thus it becometh us to fulfill all righteousness.
So the beginning of Jesus Christ's ministry was marked by, when he was 30 years old,
that's what's written in the book of Luke, that he was baptized by John the Baptist.
Now I want to talk to you this morning about the subject of baptism.
Now first of all I want you to see the method of baptism.
Look if you would at verse number 16 the Bible reads,
And Jesus, when he was baptized, went up straightway out of the water.
Now if you're coming up out of the water then that means you had to be down in the water, right?
So baptism is down in the water and then you come up out of the water.
You say, well, what about sprinkling? What about pouring?
What about the priest that puts a little water on his finger? I don't know.
Maybe he just licks his fingers and just puts it on your forehead.
You know, hey, you say, I've been baptized. Hey, that's not baptism.
Because baptism is down in the water and then up out of the water.
Now the word baptism, just a brief history lesson, I'm not a big history buff,
but a brief history lesson, in 1054 A.D. there was a split between the Roman Catholic Church
and the East Orthodox Church, two great false religions.
And when they split, they split over this issue.
The Catholics started sprinkling babies, you know, they would just sprinkle them,
you know, and baptize them like that.
And then the Orthodox, they spoke Greek, because you have to understand that back then
all the Catholic Western Europe spoke Latin and Latin-derived languages,
and Eastern Europe spoke Greek languages, in the Church that is.
And so what happened is the Greek people, the New Testament was written in Greek, right?
And the word Bautizo in Greek, baptism, it means one thing.
It means to dunk somebody under water, to dunk something under water.
It's a word that's even used when you wash your clothes.
And you baptize them under the water.
And what happened is the Catholics in Western Europe started to sprinkle babies,
and they said, wait a minute, that's not even what baptism means.
Okay, baptism means to dunk something under water.
And that's what we see right here, and we don't need a history lesson for that.
We see right here in the Bible it says, Jesus, when he was baptized,
hey, I want to be baptized the way that Jesus was baptized,
where you go down in the water and you come up out of the water.
That's what baptism is.
Now flip over in your Bible, if you would, to the book of Romans,
forward in the New Testament to the fifth, I'm sorry, sixth book in the New Testament, Romans, chapter 6.
Romans chapter 6, and look at verse number 1.
Actually, we'll skip that for now, but Romans chapter 6, the Bible says in verse number 3,
are you there, Romans 6, 3,
know ye not that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death?
Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death.
You see that? It's a picture of the burial of Jesus Christ,
and the Bible says that like as Christ was raised up from the dead,
by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.
So what baptism is, is it's a picture, it's a figure, it's a symbol of when you're standing in the water,
it's a picture of when Jesus was on the cross.
When you're baptized under the water, it's a picture of when Jesus was buried,
and when you come up out of the water, it's a picture of when he rose from the dead.
That's why sprinkling doesn't work. That's why pouring doesn't work.
Hey, that's why a few drops of water doesn't work.
God says baptism is in the water and out of the water.
So number 1, we see the method of baptism.
But number 2, what's the reason for baptism?
I mean, what's the purpose?
I mean, maybe in our human mind it seems a little silly, right?
Dunking people in the water.
I mean, we baptized several people in the backyard right here in the swimming pool.
I mean, we baptized, I think, what, 4 people in one day before.
We had them out there, and we lined them up,
and man, we brought them down in the water, down into the water with me,
and I baptized them and dunked them under water, and they dressed,
you know, they put on a towel, and we had them change their clothes back again.
Hey, what's the point of that?
It seems a little weird, doesn't it?
Pastor Anderson said, well, you're dunking people under water.
Well, that's fun, okay?
The reason for baptism is fun to dunk people in the water.
No, I'm just kidding.
But the reason for baptism, well, some people say,
well, the reason for baptism is salvation.
That is not true.
Baptism has nothing to do with salvation.
Turn, if you would, just one book forward from Romans to 1 Corinthians,
one book toward the back of the Bible.
Look at 1 Corinthians chapter 1.
But before we look at that, what does the Bible say salvation is?
Well, the Bible says, for I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ,
for it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth
to the Jew first and also to the Greek.
So salvation is to everyone that believeth.
The Bible says in Acts 16, 31, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ,
and thou shalt be saved.
Romans 4, 5, but to him that worketh not,
but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly.
His faith is counted for righteousness.
So you have to be righteous to go to heaven.
The Bible says there's none righteous, no, not one,
but to him that worketh not,
but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly.
His faith is counted for righteousness.
That's why Paul said in Philippians 3, 9,
not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law,
but that which is through the faith of Christ,
the righteousness which is of God by faith.
So we see clearly throughout the Bible,
hundreds and hundreds, and I could literally read for you,
and I've done this in this church before,
read a list of 150 or so scriptures that just clearly say,
believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved.
Whosoever believeth, everyone that believeth.
Now, let me ask you this.
Think about math.
If I told you the Bible says everyone that believeth
is going to be saved is a person who believes
and is not baptized saved according to the Bible.
Well, they'd have to be,
because if you had to be baptized to be saved,
and God said everyone that believeth is saved,
and then he sends somebody to hell because they believed
and were not baptized, then he's a liar,
because he said everyone that believeth.
You say, what about a murderer?
Everyone that believeth.
You say, what about somebody who's never been to church?
Everyone that believeth, okay, is what the Bible says.
If you believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, not go to church,
not live a good life, not be baptized, hey, believe.
No church can get you to heaven.
Believing on Jesus Christ can get you to heaven
no matter who you are.
Of course, the Bible reads in John 3, 16,
you have to turn there,
that he gave his only begotten Son,
that whosoever believeth in him should not perish,
but have everlasting life.
For God sent not his Son into the world
to condemn the world,
but that the world through him might be saved.
He that believeth on him is not condemned.
Hey, and then earlier in the chapter he said to Nicodemus,
he said, art thou not a ruler in Israel?
Or art thou not a master in Israel,
and knowest thou not these things?
He's saying to Nicodemus, you should know this.
This has been taught in the Bible from Genesis
all the way to Malachi, sir,
and you should know that salvation is by grace through faith,
by being born again by the blood of Jesus Christ.
Now, I was, when I lived in the Midwest,
and you know that I sell fire alarm systems for a living,
that's my day job,
and I was in the Midwest,
and I was driving around,
we were working for a company,
who's ever heard of the phone company called Quest?
Heard of them?
Quest, big company, right?
Well, I was driving around,
and basically they have all these little shacks.
I don't know if it's like a booster station,
you know, for their signal, for the phones,
and they have these little shacks just in the middle of nowhere,
just transmitting the phone lines.
Well, each one of them had a little fire alarm
system and a suppression tank,
and so I drove around for a couple of days,
and all I did was just check the fire systems,
and I was driving with the guy that worked for Quest.
And so I'm driving along with this man from Quest,
and so we're talking, you know,
we're just sitting in the truck driving.
He's escorting me to each of these locations
so I can do my testing,
and here we are driving around.
Well, you know, of course I get to talk to him.
I'm going to talk to him about the Bible.
I'm going to talk to him about the gospel,
try and get him saved.
Well, it turned out he was a Pentecostal, okay?
And so he was a die-in-the-wool Pentecostal.
You've met the type.
I mean, they're just, he is this Pentecostal to the bone.
And in fact, he was actually married to a Baptist,
and his in-laws were Baptists,
and they had been trying to convert him,
you know, trying to get him saved,
trying to get him to realize that salvation by faith
and not by, you know, living a good life and all this stuff,
the Pentecostals believe in Baptism.
They believe in Baptism.
You must be baptized to be saved and on and on.
Yes, that's what Pentecostals believe,
all Pentecostals believe.
Talk to any of them you want.
Okay, but anyway, he's been arguing with them,
and they could not get him saved.
They could not get him to go to church.
They could not get him to understand.
He just, he went to his Pentecostal church,
and he forced his wife to go to that Pentecostal church,
and he went there just, he was totally involved.
I mean, he was, and he said,
he said, oh, you're a Baptist, huh?
He said, there's one thing I don't agree with on the Baptist for sure.
I'll tell you right now.
He said, the Bible says you must be baptized to be saved,
and the Baptists don't believe that.
And I mean, this guy wasn't just a casual.
I mean, he knew what he believed.
And he said to me, he said the first time
that God ever opened up salvation to be available to the Gentiles
was in Acts chapter 2, and he said,
repent and be baptized in the name of the Lord
for the remission of sin, and on and on.
And I said to him, I said, no, you're wrong,
because here's what I said actually.
Let me back up in the story.
I said, well, if you have to be baptized to be saved,
what about the thief on the cross?
I mean, here he is hanging on the cross.
He believed on Jesus, and Jesus said,
today shalt thou be with me in paradise.
I said, what about that?
He's like, no, no, no, no.
That was back then.
That was before the resurrection,
and it was all different back then.
Now you've got to be baptized.
And on and on, and I said, listen to me.
I said, if you have to be baptized to be saved,
I said, well, how do people get saved for the first 4,000 years
from the time of Adam to the time of Christ?
Because nobody got baptized in all that time.
And he said, well, it was different back then.
I said, no, it wasn't different back then.
He said, well, the Gentiles, they just got saved from Acts 2 and up.
I said, are you telling me that God only saved one race of people
for 4,000 years?
So, oh, sorry, oh, you're not a Jew?
Sorry, go to hell.
It's not anybody's fault what race they're born.
Why would God save people to hell because they're of a certain race?
It doesn't even make sense.
And I proved to him from the Bible that all throughout the Old Testament,
I showed him all different races being saved.
And I showed him how in the book of Jeremiah,
Jeremiah himself, one person preached to every nation under heaven.
He traveled from one nation to the next and preached the gospel
to every nation under heaven.
I said, you're wrong.
I said, look, it's never been just for the Jews.
It's always been to the Jew first and also to the Greek.
Hey, it's always been to every creature under heaven,
salvation by faith, grace through faith through Jesus Christ.
I showed him in the book of Genesis where Noah found grace
in the eyes of the Lord.
I showed him in the book of Genesis, chapter 5,
where it says, Then began men to call upon the name of the Lord.
I showed him in the book of Genesis, Abraham believed God,
and it was counted unto him for righteousness.
I said, no one's ever earned their way into heaven.
Nobody's ever been saved any other way,
but the way that they're saved right now, which is by faith in Jesus Christ,
Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.
I said, it's by faith, it's salvation by faith.
And I turned to John 3, and I said, look,
Jesus is preaching whosoever believeth to Nicodemus,
and he said, Nicodemus, shame on you.
You claim to be a student of the Bible, and you don't know these things.
You don't know what it means to be born again, shame on you, he says.
Hey, shame on you for not knowing that it's by faith, salvation.
Okay, so there's no new method of salvation.
I went through this with him, and I proved to him, I said,
salvation's always been by faith.
Baptism didn't even exist until John the Baptist.
I said, that's not salvation.
Salvation doesn't change methods.
Anyone who's saved right now, anyone who ever has been saved,
anyone who ever will be saved is saved by one method,
believing on the Lord Jesus Christ.
That's what salvation has always been.
It's what it is right now, that's what it will always be.
No, I'm not a dispensationalist at all,
and if you don't know what that means,
then thank God you don't know what that means,
but that's what most people believe.
And you know what he did?
I mean, he literally said, he said, I'm all,
because I proved to him from the Bible,
and he had a couple of baptism verses,
and I said, look, you're telling me this about Acts 2-38.
I said, back up to verse 23, it says,
whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord
shall be saved in Acts 2-23.
I said, nowhere does it say that if these people are baptized,
we'll save them.
They say, what should we do?
Well, get baptized, okay, because they're already saved,
because they're already believed.
And so that's what I showed him, and you know what he actually did?
He bowed and prayed and said, you know what, I'm wrong.
He said, it is by faith.
And he bowed and asked Jesus Christ to save him,
and he told me, he said, this Sunday,
I'm going to go with my in-laws to church.
He said, and you know what,
I know that they'd obviously been praying for him,
you know, for years.
It's probably what was going on.
And his wife had been praying for him,
and what happened is, you know, God sent me along
so that I could talk to this guy
because people had been praying for him.
Hey, I'm glad that God sent me
because God looked down and he must have respected me
and known that I was going to talk to the guy
and not just talk about sports,
not just talk about the weather,
not just talk about the television.
Hey, I was going to talk about the Bible.
I was going to talk about salvation.
And I wonder if God looks down at you today,
wouldn't you love to win somebody to Christ?
Hey, I wonder if God looks down at you and says,
I know that this person will open their mouth
and preach to God.
I'm going to put them in an opportunity
where they can get somebody to say,
I'm going to put them in that kind of an environment
where they could be with somebody
who's been already prayed for.
I mean, I guarantee you the work that I did
to get this guy saved was nothing compared to
people probably been praying for him for years.
And I just got to walk in and hop in the car with this guy
and get him saved.
Hey, be at the right time and the right place
and open your mouth and preach the Gospels
is the moral of the story.
But see, this man thought that baptism was salvation.
Well, let me ask you this.
If baptism is salvation,
why did Jesus have to be baptized?
Why did he say, I must be baptized?
Was it because he had to wash away his sins
as people teach that baptism is?
He didn't have any sins.
Jesus Christ knew no sin.
Why would he be baptized
if baptism is washing away your sins?
He had no sin.
Why would he be baptized if baptism is salvation?
He didn't need salvation.
He's the Savior.
There was nothing for him to be saved for.
And so that's an erroneous teaching.
It's a wrong teaching.
But then what is the purpose of baptism?
Look down where you are.
I had you turn to 1 Corinthians 1
a long time ago.
Hopefully you're still there.
But look at verse 11.
The Bible reads,
For it hath been declared unto me of you, my brethren,
by them which are of the house of Chloe,
that there are contentions among you.
1 Corinthians 1.12,
Now this I say, that every one of you saith,
I am of Paul, I am of Apollos,
and I am of Cephas, and I am of Christ.
Is Christ divided?
Was Paul crucified for you,
or were you baptized in the name of Paul?
Look at verse number 14.
I thank God that I baptized none of you,
but Crispus and Gaius.
Now, if baptism is getting people saved,
why did Paul say,
Thank God I didn't baptize any more of you?
Thank God I didn't baptize you
because I wanted you to go to hell.
Is that what he's saying?
No.
He said, Who cares?
And then look down in the chapter where he says,
He says in verse 17,
For Christ sent me not to baptize,
but to preach the gospel.
So is the gospel that if you get baptized,
you'll go to heaven?
No.
He said two different things.
He said, I'm not sent to baptize.
Christ didn't send me to baptize.
He sent me to preach the gospel.
And he says,
Not with the wisdom of words,
lest the cross of Christ
should be made of none effect.
For the preaching of the cross,
the preaching of the cross,
and then the pair of foolishness,
but let us which are saved,
it is the power of God.
So the gospel's the power of God.
Believing is the power of God.
Baptism, he said,
You know what?
That's not even my calling.
And of course you say,
The Bible, Paul was never even a pastor of a church.
Paul was not a pastor of a church ever.
Paul was not a deacon.
Paul just preached the gospel.
And he started many churches,
and other men passed those churches.
And so obviously people are baptized
predominantly by pastors and deacons.
You know, the church is the one who baptized it.
Paul baptized some people
because he had just started the church,
and so forth,
and so he was there working in that capacity.
Look at Acts chapter 8,
back toward the book of Matthew,
two books.
Look at Acts chapter 8, verse number 35.
Acts chapter 8, verse number 35.
And we'll see Acts 8, 35.
The Bible says,
Then Philip opened his mouth
and began at the same scripture
and preached unto him Jesus.
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?
He said, What's stopping me from being baptized?
And Philip said,
If you have a King James Bible,
you see verse 37.
If you have any other Bible,
you need to throw it away
because it's missing.
It goes 36, 38.
Can't even count.
And you're going to trust
everything that you believe on a Bible
that can't count right,
like the Roman Catholic Bible
that leaves out verse 37,
like the NIV that leaves out verse 37.
It goes 35, 36, 38, 39.
No thanks.
I'll stick with the King James Bible.
It says,
And Philip said,
If thou believeth with all thine heart thou mayest,
and he answered and said,
I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.
There's salvation right there.
And then it says,
And he commanded the chariots to stand still,
and they went down both into the water,
again, see that, the method,
into the water,
both Philip and the eunuch,
and he baptized them.
And when they were come up out of the water,
you see the pattern there?
And so,
Believe on Jesus Christ
was something that he had to do
before he could get baptized
because he had two different things
being saved and being baptized.
Now look at 1 Peter chapter 3.
Toward the end of the New Testament,
just shortly before the book of Revelation,
1 Peter chapter number 3.
And look at verse 18.
1 Peter 3.18.
And we'll see one of the verses
that the people will try to abuse and change
to try to say that baptism saves.
And I'm going to explain to you
what it really means.
I mean, it's so obvious what it really is saying.
In light of especially the other 300, 400, 500 times
God said it's all by faith.
But look if you would at 1 Peter chapter number 3 verse 18.
The Bible says,
For Christ also has once suffered for sins,
the just for the unjust,
that he might bring us to God,
being put to death in the flesh,
but quickened by the Spirit.
Verse number 19.
By which also he went and preached
unto the spirits in prison,
which sometime were disobedient,
when once the longsuffering of God
waited in the days of Noah,
while the ark was a preparing,
where in few, that is,
eight souls were saved by water.
The like figure, whereunto
even baptism doth also now saveth.
See, baptism saves.
Baptism saves.
No, that's not what it says.
Read it.
The like figure.
Okay, figure, like figuratively speaking
is what figure means, okay?
It means it's a picture like a figure,
not literal, okay?
The like figure,
whereunto baptism doth also now saveth,
not the putting away of the filth of the flesh.
Is it washing your sins away?
No.
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.
So how are you going to have a good conscience toward God?
Because now you've got to be saved.
Once you get saved,
all your sins are washed away,
past, present, future.
All your sins are gone.
Hey, you have a good conscience toward God.
What's the next step?
What's the answer of a good conscience toward God?
Being baptized.
The first thing you do after you get saved.
And so the Bible says here,
and by the way,
do you see the parenthesis in verse number 21?
You can understand that the parenthesis
in any literature or in the Bible
is when you're putting something in
that is not necessary to the sentence
to be grammatically correct.
Now we know, of course,
that every word in the Bible is necessary.
That's not what I'm saying at all.
But I'm saying grammatically speaking,
you could remove the parenthesis
and the sentence would still make sense, right?
Because if you said
the light figure were unto even baptism
that also now save us
by the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
So we're saved by the resurrection.
Understand grammar there.
We're saved by the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
Baptism is a figure of that.
Now he goes on to explain more
in chapter number four.
Look at chapter four.
You're in chapter three,
just a couple of verses now,
and he keeps talking about the same thing.
Verse one,
Forasmuch then as Christ had suffered
for us in the flesh,
arm yourselves likewise with the same mind,
for even had suffered in the flesh
that ceased from sin,
that he no longer should live
the rest of his time in the flesh
to the lusts of men,
but to the will of God.
He's saying,
if you've been saved and baptized,
hey, you shouldn't live after the flesh
and the lusts.
You should live to God.
Hey, does that mean that everybody's going to?
No.
This is what you should do.
A lot of people get saved
and continue to live a horrible life.
They're still saved because they're a believer.
Okay.
And on and on.
And the Bible says,
and we're going to see in a second,
it says in verse three,
for the time past of our life may suffice us,
saying we've done enough
to have wrought the will of the Gentiles
when we walked in lasciviousness.
It's talking about promiscuity,
lusts,
excess of wine,
talking about being drunk,
revelings,
banquenings,
abominable idolatries,
wherein they,
talking about the unsaved,
think it's strange that you run now with them
to the same excess of riot,
speaking evil of you.
What's wrong with these people?
They don't drink.
What?
They don't watch TV?
What?
They don't go to these filthy movies with us?
What is wrong with these idiots?
Good night.
Don't they know what fun is?
And so that's what it's saying.
They speak evil of you.
They think it's weird that you don't run with them
to the same excess of riot.
Verse number five,
who shall give account to him
that is ready to judge the quick and the dead?
For this cause,
and this is the key verse to understanding
this whole passage in 1 Peter 3 and 4.
The Bible says,
for this cause was the gospel preached
also to them that are dead,
that they might be judged according to men in the flesh,
but live according to God and the Spirit.
Now here's the thing.
People who don't study the whole Bible
and read the whole Bible,
they can be easily deceived and easily confused.
I've even heard preachers read this verse
and say, where it says the gospel is preached
to them that are dead,
they said, see, God, Jesus Christ,
because they don't believe he went to hell
when he died on the cross.
They think he went down to Paradiso
or whatever,
this false doctrine that's out in the Bible,
and they say that he went down there
and he preached to the people that were in hell,
the dead people that were in hell.
He went down there and preached to them, right?
And a bunch of them got saved
and he took them to heaven.
Now think about how stupid this is, okay?
So people who died and went to hell
before Noah's Ark is what it's saying, okay?
If you say 1 Peter 3,
let's say Jesus gets up and preaches to see the gospel.
So do you want to get saved?
Hmm, let me think.
Hmm, let me think, I'm on fire.
Yeah, what kind of a dumb,
I mean, it doesn't even make sense, right?
Who's going, oh, no, I think I'll wait.
It doesn't make any sense, okay?
But people need to study the Bible.
People get so confused about these.
Or other people say,
well, this is talking about when Jesus
went and took all the saved people.
Remember, they were down in paradise
in the center of the earth,
which doesn't exist.
It's a goofball doctrine.
And that's when he transported them
up to heaven, okay?
Look, it doesn't say anything like that.
That's what it said in the commentary that I looked at.
I don't look at commentaries ever
just to make fun of them, okay?
And so I looked at it to make fun of it,
to see what kind of goofball stuff
can I find about this verse.
And they're saying, and I've heard this in churches,
that that's when he transported this mass of people
from Hades, Sheol, underworld to heaven.
I don't know where people get this.
Look, this isn't really that hard to understand, okay?
Look what it's saying here.
The gospel is preached to them that are dead.
It's talking about the people who died in the flood.
Okay, do you understand that?
Back in chapter 3, it talks about people being disobedient
in the days when the ark was a-preparing, okay?
When Noah's ark was being built, they were disobedient.
And it talks about them living a filthy life,
lasciviousness, lust, drunkenness, revelings.
Understanding context, before the flood,
people were living filthy and ungodly lives.
The Bible says the whole earth was overspread with violence.
I mean, it was a dangerous place to even be.
People are killing each other, hurting each other,
abusing one another.
It's before Noah's ark, while it was being built.
Very evil time, okay?
Noah was only found righteous before God.
He built the ark, and it says here,
where in few, that his eight souls were saved by water,
in verse number 20.
Look, Noah's ark was a picture of salvation
in the same way that baptism is a picture of salvation.
That's what it's saying in verse 20.
The like figure, a similar figure,
a similar illustration of our salvation is baptism,
as was Noah's ark.
Do you follow me so far?
Noah's ark was a picture of salvation.
Now let me ask you this.
Did everyone on the ark,
was every single person on the ark
saved spiritually, like they were believers in Jesus Christ
and went to heaven when they died?
No.
I guarantee, I promise you,
that there was at least one person,
several people, on the ark with Noah
of those eight people who went on the ark
who were not saved and died and went to hell,
because the ark was only a picture of spiritual salvation.
The ark was not spiritual salvation.
Do you understand that?
It was only just like baptism's not salvation.
You see, when Noah got off the ark in Genesis chapter 9,
one of the men on the ark whose name was Ham
was a sodomite.
You say, what's a sodomite?
Let me speak in your language.
He was a faggot.
He was a homosexual, okay?
He was a queer.
Is that a little easier to understand?
I always try to bring it down to everybody's level, okay?
And so, he was a queer.
Now, the Bible says in Romans chapter 1
that the reason that a man would lust after another man,
study this later in Romans chapter 1,
is because he's been rejected by God,
because he's said no to God and no to God,
and he's rejected the gospel.
He didn't want to retain God.
He said, I don't want to think about God.
I hate God.
And it says, wherefore, for this reason,
God gave him over to a reprobate mind
to do those things that are not convenient.
Where do the child molesters come from?
Hey, where do the homosexuals come from?
Where do the pedophiles come from?
Where do the bestiality come from?
Hey, where do all these filthy perverts that hurt kids
and break into houses and hurt people and abuse people,
where do they come from?
Because they rejected God too long,
and God says, I'm giving you up.
And when God gives a person up,
they go into the filthiest, most abominable sins imaginable.
You say, I don't believe that.
Get a Bible, read Romans chapter 1,
and then tell me you don't believe that,
because that's what Romans chapter 1 reads.
I don't have time to go into all that.
So you see, not everyone on the ark was saved.
Why do you think right after they got off the ark,
the first thing they did is set up a false religion
in Genesis chapter 11 at the Tower of Babel with Nimrod?
False religion, ungodliness, wickedness, why?
Because not everybody on that ark was a righteous person.
One person on that ark was a righteous person.
His name was Noah.
But the picture there is of salvation.
Now, try and follow this logic.
You say, this is too complicated.
I'm tired on Sunday morning.
Hey, wake up and think about this, okay?
Think of this out.
I'm not going to preach some preschool sermon.
Okay, you need to come to church to learn the Bible
and to understand the Bible
and to know what these things mean.
Now, here's what it is.
The ark was a picture of salvation.
Why? Because the ark only had one door.
Noah was told specifically, one door.
Of course, Jesus said in John chapter 10,
I am the door.
If any man enter in by me, he shall be saved.
What about the Buddhism door?
Don't build that door, Noah.
There's one door.
Jesus Christ said, I am the way, the truth, and the life.
I am the way, the truth, and the life.
No man have them to follow but by me, Jesus Christ said.
It's exclusive doctrine.
It says you must go to heaven through Jesus Christ.
One door, one way to heaven, Jesus Christ.
Here's the other picture of the ark.
If a bad person, think about this,
if a bad person, like the bad person named Ham
who started a whole wicked civilization
when he got on the ark,
if a bad person got on the ark,
would they still be saved from drowning?
Absolutely.
I mean, think about it.
If we were in the days of Noah's ark,
Noah's building this ark,
he says God's going to pour out his wrath
and judge this world,
and the only way to be saved from drowning in the flood
is to get on the ark.
Think about it.
If the most wicked, ungodly person
would have gotten on that ark,
would they have drowned?
No.
Ham did not drown.
He's a wicked man.
Others, if they would have gotten on the ark,
would not have drowned.
See, it's a picture that salvation
is not based on how good you are.
It's are you on the ark?
Have you gone through Jesus Christ?
Are you in the boat of salvation?
Are you with Jesus Christ?
That's salvation.
It doesn't matter how good you are.
And then the most good, godly, righteous person,
if they had not gotten on the ark,
they still would have drowned.
And that's the same thing.
The most good, nice person
who's not a believer in Jesus Christ
will not be saved.
Okay?
Same thing.
Now, let's reverse it now
and understand what 1 Peter 4 means.
Let's reverse it now.
If everyone on the ark was not saved,
which they were not,
it was just a picture of salvation,
then could it be that some people
who were not on the ark
were spiritually saved by believing in Jesus Christ?
Absolutely.
Say, no one in his family,
or the only people saved in the whole world,
people say, I don't believe that at all.
See, some of the people were saved.
Think about it.
Who got Noah saved?
Okay, obviously his progenitors
all the way back to Seth
were believers on Jesus Christ.
And so probably his father,
Lamech, was probably saved.
Who knows?
Maybe Methuselah was saved.
He died the same year of the flood,
so maybe he probably died in the flood.
It's funny, you count the years.
It's like his life goes right up to the flood.
So I wonder what happened to him.
He probably drowned.
Okay?
And so on and on.
I guarantee you that there were people
who were believers in Jesus Christ,
but because they lived a wicked life,
because they were too into what the world was doing
to be a part of Noah Baptist Church,
hey, they ended up being carried away in the flood
with the ungodly.
That's why it says, look clearly.
Now look down at your Bible, 1 Peter 4, 6.
For this cause was the gospel preached also
to them that are dead.
It's like those who died in the flood, okay?
It says that they might be judged
according to man in the flesh.
In the flesh, I mean, they were judged for their sins.
They drowned because they didn't listen to Noah
get on the ark, okay?
That they might be judged according to man in the flesh,
but live according to God and the Spirit.
See, they were saved.
I mean, spiritually, they were saved.
They believed Jesus Christ.
I mean, they'd been saved,
but were they saved from the flood physically?
No, okay?
So that's why he's saying it's just a picture.
It's a figure.
Hey, the gospel was preached to them.
And don't think that Noah wasted his time for 120 years.
I heard it was preached for 120 years and nobody saved.
No, the Bible says, look, there was a reason
why he preached to them that are dead.
Hey, there's a reason why he preached for 120 years.
To all those people, hey, there's a reason why,
and that reason is that those people still went to heaven
even though they died in the flood.
You see, they got saved, but they didn't get baptized.
You see what I mean?
Because the ark is a picture of baptism
going through the water.
There are people today who get saved,
but they don't get baptized.
Hey, they are going to be judged in the flesh by God
for disobeying God and not being baptized.
Hey, but they're going to live in the Spirit
because when they breathe their last breath,
they're going to be in the presence
of Jesus Christ in heaven and live eternally,
and their sins will never be mentioned to them.
Praise God.
Now, doesn't that make sense?
Read through that.
That's what it's saying.
That's what it's clearly teaching from the Bible.
You say, well, it says he preached to the spirits
which were in prison.
Nowhere in the Bible will you ever find
a person going to hell and that being referred to as prison.
The only time prison is ever referred to as hell
is when the devil is actually chained up in Revelation 20,
and he's cast into hell just for a temporary time
for 1,000 years until he's loosed out of his prison.
Totally different because the word prison
denotes a temporary punishment.
That's what prison means.
It's a place where you go for 10 years, 10 to 20,
3 to 5, possibility of parole.
Hey, that's what prison means, okay?
Prison's a temporal punishment.
Prison will be found many times throughout the Bible, though,
in reference to people who are unsaved
being referred to as being in prison.
Isaiah 61, 1.
You don't have to turn there.
I'll just read this for you.
Isaiah 61, 1 reads...
Let me turn there quickly.
Isaiah 61, 1 reads,
The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me
because the Lord hath anointed me
to preach good tidings, or the gospel.
Good tidings, good news.
The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me
because the Lord hath anointed me
to preach good tidings unto the meek.
He hath sent me to bind up the brokenhearted,
to proclaim liberty to the captives.
Notice how we're captives.
And the opening of the prison to them that are bound.
That's what God calls salvation.
The opening of the prison doors.
Being set free from the bondage of sin,
the bondage of being obedient to Satan.
Hey, the bondage of the fear of death
the Bible talks about in the book of Hebrews.
Hey, it's like being imprisoned, God says.
But God has taken us out from the spirit of bondage
unto fear in Romans chapter 8
into the glorious liberty of the children of God.
See, that's what it means to be in prison
is when you're unsaved.
But when you're saved, the chains fall off
and you're free at last.
And you're free, the truth will make you free,
the Bible says, if you believe the word of God.
Now, so we see that salvation is not what baptism is for.
So what is baptism for?
Well, we kind of alluded to it.
Baptism is primarily for obedience.
The number one reason to be baptized is obedience to God.
The Bible reads in Acts 10, 48, don't turn there,
and he commanded them to be baptized in the name of the Lord.
Now, what's that?
It's a command to be baptized, right?
He said he commanded them to be baptized in the name of the Lord.
Now, look, when you get saved, you've got two choices.
You can say, now I'm saved, I believe in Jesus Christ,
I'm trusting Jesus Christ alone to go to Heaven,
nothing can ever take that away from me,
I have everlasting life, can never lose it.
Well, now you have a choice.
You can say, well, I'm going to obey God and live for God,
or I'm going to just live however I want to live,
I'm never going to go to church, I can read the Bible,
I'm just going to do what I want to do.
Now, either way, you're still going to go to Heaven,
because you're saved.
But if you go the wrong way, you're going to live a stupid life.
You're going to get to Heaven and see Jesus
and you're going to feel pretty bad that you did nothing for Him
after all that He did for you, number one.
But number two, do you really want to live the way the world lives?
I don't.
Have you ever seen what it's like when people really just go
all the way down the downward spiral of sin?
You know, because some people are just kind of dabbling in sin, right?
Have you ever seen what it's like when somebody goes all the way down
that downward spiral?
You know, they go from alcohol to marijuana, you know,
and then they go on to the LSD and the, what's it called?
What's that crazy stuff?
Ecstasy, you know, that's what kids were doing when I was in high school.
You know, and then they move on to cocaine, you know,
and then they might start shooting up and methamphetamines.
And then you know where they end up?
Do you want to know where they end up?
They end up walking up, they end up at I-10 and baseline
is where they end up, holding up a card one more time.
Homeless, please help.
You say, oh, those poor homeless people, you know why they're homeless?
Because they're dopeheads.
Go talk to them.
They don't think it's the same thought.
They don't think it's a normal thought.
Try to have a normal conversation.
I've done it.
I've walked down the street and run into homeless people.
Try to talk to them.
They can't think straight, because what happens is
you get one bad batch of drugs, boing, your brain's fried.
I mean, I've known people who did drugs and did drugs and did drugs
and it's fun and woo.
One time, I mean, they got one bad batch of drugs
and just fried their brain.
And I mean, they're just nuts.
And I know, I'm thinking of a guy in particular.
A guy had all kinds of money, ran a business, snorted some bad cocaine,
and now he literally walks around with a backpack, you know,
picking up cans, and he's nuts.
He's out of his mind.
Never been normal again.
Never been sane again.
See, that's where sin will take you if you go all the way.
You know, you go all the way.
Have you ever been around people who are just full-blown alcoholics?
I mean, just drugs.
I mean, they get up in the morning and drink a Bloody Mary in the morning
and I mean, they're just drunk.
It's really a sad thing.
I mean, it's really a disgusting thing to see people
whose entertainment on a Friday night is to all by themselves
sit in their house with bottles and bottles of cheap booze
and just drink themselves sick into a stupor.
Hey, that's sad.
That's horrible.
But see, that's where sin ends up taking you.
You say, oh, I'm going to go out and party and live the party life.
You know, and then you get some disease.
You know, oh, yeah, it's going to be so much fun.
And then you bring a child into this world who doesn't know who its dad is
or doesn't know who their mom is
and gets bounced around or stuck in a daycare somewhere
because it was so fun to do sin.
See, sin leads you down a road that you don't want to go down.
Okay?
It's a road.
The Bible says, cursed is everyone
that will bend not all the words that are in this book.
Okay?
And so there's a curse involved when you sin.
You'll still go to heaven and God will never even bring it up to you.
But do you want to live the life of the sinner now?
The Bible says the way of the transgressors is hard.
God says it's a hard life, the sinful life.
Hey, look at these people that you envy.
You love their music so much.
You know, the Rolling Stones,
one of the most popular rock bands in the history of America.
Hey, why don't you look into their face
and see a person who's lived a hard life.
See the look of a disgusting old pervert
when you look in the eyes of a Mick Jagger or a Keith Richards.
Old hearted, drugged out, fornicating, slept around, filthy pervert.
I heard one of them had to have a complete blood transfusion
just because he put so much drugs.
I mean, he had to have some of his organs replaced
so he could continue to do more drugs
because he just put so much drugs into his body.
Hey, is that the life that you want to live?
No.
I don't want to live the life of sleeping around and all the sin.
Hey, I just want to live the life of being married
and having children in God's way.
It's a much more happier life.
You have to believe that by faith because that's what God says.
And so there's a way that seemeth right unto a man
but the end thereof are the ways of death.
Now, you have that choice when you get saved.
Am I going to live according to God or am I going to live how I want to live?
Well, let me ask you something.
What's the first thing that God asks you to do after you get saved?
What's the first thing Jesus did?
I mean, he was never saved. Obviously, he's the savior.
What was the first thing that he said?
I mean, he said, I need to be baptized. That's what I need to do.
In the book of Acts, what was the first thing?
That guy was partially right.
Hey, the first thing he told them to do after they got saved was to get baptized.
Let me ask you something.
If you don't take the first step going this way, the right way,
which way do you think you're going?
I mean, if you're not going to take that first step of obeying God and getting baptized,
you're probably heading down the wrong way.
And you're probably developing a pattern of disobeying God.
I mean, you say, well, I'm Satan. I'm going to heaven.
Yes, you are. Praise the Lord.
But now you're going to decide whether you're going to live after the flesh
or you're going to live after the spirit,
whether you're going to live for self and sin and Satan,
or whether you're going to live for God.
And if you live for God, it starts with one step, and that step is baptism.
And so you say, well, I don't understand what the big deal is about getting dunked in water.
Hey, it means nothing, except for the fact that you're obeying God.
And that's a pretty big thing.
I mean, if God tells you to hop on one foot, man, hop on one foot.
And obviously God doesn't tell you to do anything silly like that.
But then if God says to be dunked in the water, hey, be dunked in the water
and get up out of the water and say, hey, praise God, I just obeyed God.
What's next, God?
See, you're developing a pattern.
It's basically the litmus test where God says, okay, now you're saved.
Let's see if you want to obey me or not.
Let's see if you want to live for me or not, because I want to mess with somebody.
I want to spend time with somebody who's on the right path.
Let's check you out right away.
Let's just put it out in front of you.
It's really just a yes or a no decision.
It's really a smart idea.
I mean, how hard is it to get baptized?
I remember when I got baptized, you know, they had the clothes all there.
I went back.
I changed my clothes.
I walked in.
The pastor said, I baptized you.
My brother in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost got up,
dried off with a towel, put on my clothes, and I was done with it.
Pretty hard, huh?
It's not that hard, is it?
But let me ask you something.
Do you think it's hard to read the Bible every day without fail?
Sometimes it can be hard certain days.
Do you think it's hard to always stand up for what's right?
Yeah, you know.
Do you think it's hard to be in church Sunday morning, Sunday night, Wednesday night,
and just always in church?
Sometimes that's hard.
You know how things come up.
Hey, do you think it's hard to obey the words that are in this book a lot?
Oh, man, it's hard.
Do you think it's hard for Christians that are in places like China,
where they have to hide and it's illegal and everything?
Hey, it's hard.
So God's saying, look, if you can't do the easiest thing of being baptized,
there's no way you can do the hard thing of living for Christ for a lifetime.
And that's why nobody who doesn't get baptized will ever, you know,
go on and live for God in a lifetime.
It never happens.
The people that I know that live for God, of course, they got baptized.
Because that's the first step.
And when you skip that first step, God's kind of like,
okay, well come back and see me when you've done the first step,
and we'll talk about step number two.
It's kind of like we're building the swing set.
Okay, 24 steps.
And I remember step one, step one was the hardest step in this instance.
And we're building that swing set because, of course,
my son, he memorized the whole book of Ecclesiastes.
And I told him, if you memorize the whole book of Ecclesiastes,
12 chapters, I will buy you this fancy swing set.
And so he finished it on Friday, and I bought it for him yesterday.
And this thing, we assembled it.
I mean, we worked on it for, what, 12 hours with two guys all day,
and it's still not quite done.
And we're working on it, working on it, working on it.
And I remember step one took us like almost three hours.
I'm not kidding, 24 steps.
I'm like, three hours times 24.
Okay, it's going to be three days and three nights of work.
That's not going to work.
And so step one was a nightmare.
It was a pain in the neck.
And then after that it got easier.
But what if we would have just said, you know what, this is too hard.
Let's just do step two.
And it would be like a patch, and literally,
we had a chart of all the parts involved.
It had like literally 207 different kinds of parts.
This screw, this washer, I mean, just thousands of screws and washers, literally.
And it's like, can you imagine?
It would have been like, attach part 357 to slot 859,
and we would have been like, we haven't even built that.
Well, you've got to go back to step one, okay?
Do step one before you talk about step two.
Hey, we have to do the thing in order.
It's the same thing.
God says, first salvation, that's the order.
Second baptism, third, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh,
you know, on from there, whatever God has for you.
And I'm going to skip some of this for the sake of time
because it's getting a little bit later.
But look at the second reason for baptism.
It's 1 Corinthians chapter 10.
I'm not sure where you are in your Bible,
but 1 Corinthians chapter 10,
just about halfway through the New Testament,
1 Corinthians chapter number 10.
Look at verse number 1 of 1 Corinthians 10.
The Bible reads in verse number 1,
Moreover, brethren, I would not that you should be ignorant,
how that all our fathers were under the cloud
and all passed through the sea.
And were all baptized unto Moses.
Notice that phrase.
Were all baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea,
and did all eat the same spiritual meat,
and did all drink the same spiritual drink,
for they drank of that spiritual rock that followed them,
and that rock was Christ.
So we see again another picture of baptism in the Old Testament
was when the children of Israel crossed the Red Sea.
Because they had the wall of water on this side
and the wall of water on this side
and the cloudy pillar above them,
so they were immersed surrounded by water at that time.
Now that's a picture.
Let me ask you this.
Remember in the Passover
where they put the blood on the doorpost?
Obviously that blood on the doorpost
pictured the blood of Jesus Christ.
And he says if you're in the house
and you've got the blood on the doorpost, you'll live.
But the first born child of the home
where there's no blood on the doorpost will die.
Did it matter how good they were?
Did it matter if they went to church?
Did it matter if they lived a good life?
Did it matter what religious ceremonies they performed?
If they were a person of prayer,
hey, what mattered is the blood applied.
Another picture of salvation.
But did everyone who physically put the blood on their door,
were they spiritually really saved
or was that just a picture?
They were physically saved.
Or a person who was a born Indian Christian
who did not put the blood on the door,
their first born son still would have died.
You understand?
You have to be able to differentiate in the Bible
between the picture and the literal story.
There's the picture of salvation
and then there's the fleshly application.
But then after they put the blood on the doorpost,
God said, okay, get up and go out of Egypt.
Egypt pictures the world, the sinful place,
the bondage of living a life of sin.
Sin is bondage.
You get addicted.
You get addicted to alcohol.
You're a slave to a cigarette, slave to drugs,
slave to the television.
You can't put down the remote,
drools running out of your face.
You're a slave.
I get to watch the TV anytime I want to.
Okay, don't watch it for the next seven days.
Liar.
You'll watch it as soon as you get home.
Watch it when you get home tonight.
It's already on.
You're going to walk in the door.
It's already playing.
You're going to be like, oh, hey, shut it off.
I have to prove Pastor Anderson wrong.
You have to come in with your eyes closed and your ears plugged
because the thing's probably already playing.
Probably leave it on 24 hours a day.
It's probably on a timer.
It turns off for one hour between 2 a.m. and 3 a.m.
just to rest the machinery
so it doesn't just blow up from running so much.
We slept in a hotel worth the Grand Canyon a couple days ago.
The people in the hotel next door to us, it was on all night.
I think they just sleep with it on.
I mean, 2 in the morning, 3 in the morning, 4 in the morning, 5 in the morning.
We hear it through the wall, television.
And so sin is very addictive.
All sins and pornography is addictive, drugs, alcohol, whatever.
It's all addictive.
And so it's bondage.
So God said, get out of the bondage.
Get out of Egypt and go through the Red Sea
into the wilderness and then the Promised Land.
So that Red Sea crossing pictures baptism.
Right after they got saved,
the picture, you know, figuratively speaking,
then they got baptized in the cloud and in the sea unto Moses.
So did everyone who crossed the Red Sea, were they really saved?
No, but it's a picture of salvation.
Or I'm sorry, a picture of baptism.
The blood on the door was a picture of salvation.
And it says they were baptized unto Moses.
Moses is a picture in the Old Testament, of course, of Jesus Christ.
The Bible says the law came by Moses and grace and truth by Jesus Christ.
You'll see the juxtaposition throughout the Bible of Moses and Jesus.
Moses represents the whole Old Testament.
Jesus represents the New Covenant.
And you'll see that all through the Bible.
It's a whole other sermon in and of itself.
But understand that baptism is not only obedience,
but it's also identification.
See, they were baptized unto Moses.
We're baptized unto Jesus Christ.
So it's basically us identifying with Jesus and saying,
I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God,
and so I'm going to publicly be baptized
to show that I believe that Jesus died and was buried and rose again.
That's what baptism is.
Now, just like the ring on my finger is a symbol,
okay, what does this mean?
That I'm married.
If I take it off, am I still married?
Yeah, absolutely.
If I put it on some other man, does he become married to my wife
because I took off the ring and put it on his hand?
Absolutely not.
It's a picture.
Okay, when did I put this off?
Six months before I got married, right?
Two years after I got married.
No, when did he put it on?
He put it on right after he got married.
I now pronounce you man and wife.
You may kiss the bride.
May I have the rings, please?
And then they put the ring on.
Okay, because it's a symbol.
Now, is this to show myself that I'm married or to show other people?
To show other people that I'm married.
Okay, I know I'm married.
So, Steve, are you married?
Yeah, I guess, you know.
I must be.
I mean, I woke up this morning, I had this ring on.
I got some kind of a memory disorder, you know.
I mean, it's not funny, but I remember I worked in an Alzheimer's place for a while,
and I saw, you know, I do fire alarms and everything,
and there was a sign on this lady's door.
I'm not trying to make fun or mock her or anything,
but it said, you know, your name is this, you have a cat,
you live here, this is your house.
You know, Steve, I have to read one every morning.
You know, Steve, you're married, you pastor a church, okay.
You're going to be preaching this morning.
It's like, oh, no, you know.
What?
So, obviously, it's to show other people that I'm married.
Same thing with baptism.
You know if you're saved or not.
Baptism is that you're confessing before others that you're saved.
It comes after you're saved.
Can you imagine if, well, let's move on to the last point because I'm in a hurry.
I'm sorry, there's two more points, but they're going to be fast, okay.
What's the, when should you be baptized?
Well, immediately, okay.
I'll just read these for you quickly.
Acts chapter 2, then they that gladly received this word were baptized
and the same day they were added unto them about 3,000 souls.
So in Acts chapter 2, people were baptized the same day they got saved.
I mean, ideally, right?
I got baptized years after I got saved.
Did you know that?
I got saved when I was six, baptized when I was nine.
I should have gotten baptized when I was six, okay.
But I was in a church that was mixed up on that, and so they're like,
well, let's watch him and see if he's really saved, okay.
And so I guess they pronounced me saved when I was nine.
And so in Acts chapter 10, for example, the Bible says that
while Peter yet spake these words, and you have to turn there,
the Holy Ghost spell on all of them which heard the word,
and Paul Peter says, can any man forbid water that these should not be baptized,
which have received the Holy Ghost as well as we,
can any man be baptized in the name of the Lord?
He said, hey, these people just got saved.
Peter just preached to them and they got saved.
He said, let's baptize them right now.
That's the Bible method.
Acts chapter 16, he brought them out and said, sir, what must I do to be saved?
And they said, believe I'm the Lord Jesus Christ and I shall be saved in the house.
And on down the story, you get to verse 33, it says,
they took them the same hour of the night and washed their stripes and was baptized, okay.
They baptized the same hour which was midnight, if you look at the story in Acts 16.
They baptized people at midnight.
You see, that's crazy, but then the Bible's crazy.
That's what they did.
These people said, I want to be baptized right now.
Hey, I want to start living for God right now.
I want to obey God now. Baptize me right now.
He said, sure. Baptize me in the middle of the night.
You say, well, wait a minute, in my church, you have to take a class,
you have to take catechism, you have to take a six-week course on what baptism means
and the doctrines and the covenants and blah, blah, blah.
Hey, look, the Bible says the same day, the same hour, right now.
Be baptized.
You say, why do I understand all the theological implications of being baptized?
Hey, be baptized because God said to be baptized.
Is that the only thing you have to know?
You say, what is baptized?
You're baptized, I don't even know what it means.
It means God said be baptized and I did it.
That's what it means.
You say, well, it's more complicated than that.
You're right, it's more complicated than you or I will ever understand,
but why don't we just obey now and understand later?
Because God said to be baptized.
And then the fourth thing I want to show you is how many times do you need to be baptized?
How many times?
You laugh, but it's a valid question.
I mean, how many times?
Once a week and twice on Sunday?
How many times do you need to be baptized?
I call this point the frequency of baptism.
What is the frequency of baptism?
Well, this is the frequency one time after you've been saved.
That's the key though.
One time after you've been saved.
Sometimes I'll win somebody in Christ, I'll get them saved.
They'll ask Jesus to save them and believe.
And I'll say, all right, the first step is to get baptized.
And then they'll say, I've already been baptized.
Some people say, I've already been baptized twice.
I say, well, third time's the charm.
Be baptized a third time.
You say, I've been baptized seven times.
Hey, be baptized an eighth time because you need to be baptized only once after you've been saved.
Okay, that's the key.
It has to be after you've been saved.
Let me prove that from the Bible.
It's the last place we're going to turn.
Acts chapter 19.
And look at verse number one and we'll see this exact scenario in the Bible.
Acts chapter 19 quickly, verse number one of Acts 19.
The Bible reads in Acts 19 one.
And it came to pass that while Apollos was at Corinth,
Paul, having passed through the upper coast, came to Ephesus and finding certain disciples.
He said to them, have you received the Holy Ghost since you believed?
And they said to them, we've not so much heard as whether there be any Holy Ghost.
And he said to them, until what then were you baptized?
And they said, unto John's baptized.
Now, baptism.
Look at verse number four.
Then said Paul, John verily baptized with the baptism of repentance,
saying unto the people that they should believe on him which should come after him,
that is, on Christ Jesus.
He said, look, you missed the whole point of what John is preaching.
Yes, he was screaming and yelling about sin,
but didn't you hear that the whole point of his preaching was that he was preparing the way of the Lord,
that he was pointing to Jesus Christ?
He said, oh, repentance, that means we're supposed to quit saying.
No, he said, no, the preaching of repentance was that they should believe on him,
that afterward should be revealed, that's Jesus Christ.
And look what it says in verse five.
When they heard this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus.
You see that?
So they'd already been baptized.
He asked them some questions about the Holy Spirit, about Jesus.
They're like, we don't even know what the Holy Spirit is.
We don't even know what you're talking about.
We don't know what salvation is.
And he says, well, I thought you said you've been baptized.
And they said, yeah, we're baptized by John the Baptist.
We were baptized by the greatest Baptist preacher that ever lived.
He says, it doesn't matter.
You need to be saved.
You need to believe on Jesus.
Then they believe on Jesus.
What did they do in verse five?
They got baptized again.
Did you know that the name Baptist, you say, why is it faithful word Baptist search?
The name Baptist comes from the word Anabaptist, which means rebaptizer,
because we believe that a person who's been sprinkled
or a person who's been baptized before they were saved
should get rebaptized after they got saved.
And it used to be in the Middle Ages that it was illegal to rebaptize somebody.
It was punishable by the debt penalty by the Roman Catholic Church.
If you took a Roman Catholic who'd been sprinkled and rebaptized him,
that's what the Roman Catholics were doing in their regime of terror
known as the Dark Ages.
Real pleasant time, wasn't it?
The Dark Ages from around the time leading up to the 15th and 16th century
when it came out of the Dark Ages.
Now, the Bible says, go ye therefore and teach all nations, baptizing them
in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost
and teaching them to observe whatsoever things I've commanded you
and lo, I'm with you always even to the end of the world.
The great commission is to go out and win people to Christ, get them saved,
and then to get them baptized and then to teach them to live for God.
Now, they may just get saved.
A lot of people are just going to get saved and we're still, glory to God,
shouting hallelujah that somebody got saved.
Some people are just going to get saved and baptized and then that's it.
And the greatest thing is when somebody gets saved and baptized
and then they really get a hold of reading the Bible
and learning the Bible and living for God.
So baptism is obedience.
It's identifying with Jesus Christ.
It's not the putting away of the filth of the flesh,
but it's the answer of a good conscience toward God
after you've already been saved.
Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer.
Father, thank you so much for teaching us in the Bible what baptism is.
So many confusing things are taught by so many different people.
So many religions and denominations have their own ideas about baptism.
But if we open up the Holy Bible, it's very clear what baptism is.
It's the answer of a clear conscience toward God.
It's the picture, the figure of the resurrection of Jesus Christ,
which is what really saves us.
The Gospel, the death, the burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ is what saves.