Matthew chapter 3, of course, we have a very famous passage talking about John the Baptist
preaching and preparing the way of the Lord Jesus Christ before his ministry began.
And then it talks about at the end there, the baptism of Jesus Christ, which is what starts his ministry.
And I want to preach about baptism this morning.
Now, first of all, I want you to know that baptism is really important, first of all,
because the first time as you're reading the New Testament
that you ever see Jesus say anything, he's talking about being baptized.
Like if you have a red letter Bible where all the words of Christ are in red,
you know, you get through chapter 1, chapter 2, chapter 3, and then boom.
The first thing that Jesus says in the Bible as you're reading in the New Testament is in verse 15.
He said, suffer it to be so now, for thus it becometh us to fulfill all righteousness.
And what's he talking about? He's talking about being baptized,
because John the Baptist didn't want to baptize him.
He didn't feel worthy to baptize the Lord Jesus Christ.
But Jesus said, no, we must fulfill all righteousness by you baptizing me.
And so it's important, first of all.
But the second thing I want you to see here is that baptism is by immersion.
It says in verse 16, and Jesus, when he was baptized, went up straightway out of the water.
Now, if he came up out of the water, that means that he was down in the water.
Not being sprinkled or having something poured on his head.
He was in a river, and he went down under the water, and he came back out of the water.
Let's look at a couple other scriptures on the fact that it's by immersion.
Go to Acts, chapter 8.
Acts, chapter number 8.
And while you're turning to Acts 8, I'll read you another scripture.
Mark, chapter 1, verse 5 says,
And there went out to him all the land of Judea, and they of Jerusalem,
and were all baptized of him in the river of Jordan, confessing their sins.
So they were in a river. They were definitely going under water.
Look, if you would, at Acts, chapter 8.
And this is the famous passage of the Ethiopian eunuch getting saved.
Philip, the evangelist, preaches the gospel unto him.
And he hears the gospel, and he wants to get baptized.
Now, you better be reading a King James Bible this morning,
or else you're going to be missing part of the story.
Because all these wicked new versions, they actually remove part of the passage here.
They take out verse 37, which is the most important verse in the whole passage, of course.
And it says in verse number 35,
Then Philip opened his mouth, and began at the same scripture, and preached unto him Jesus.
Notice, he's using the Bible to get somebody saved.
Because faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.
Somebody said, well, how did they get saved, you know, in Jesus' day?
And in the early church, they didn't have the Bible yet.
Well, they had the whole testament.
And he's using the book of Isaiah, and he's preaching unto him Jesus Christ, from the book of Isaiah.
And not only that, but even before it was written down,
holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.
God, who had sent three times in a diverse manner, spake in time passed by the prophets,
hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, and we have the written word.
But before that, it was his prophets speaking God's word.
God's word has always been on this earth, from the time that God said,
let there be light until now, God's word has always been on this earth.
But he says here, he preached unto him Jesus in verse 36,
and as they went on their way, they came unto a certain water.
And the eunuch said, see, here's water.
What does hindering me from being baptized mean?
What's hindering me, or what's stopping me from being baptized right now?
Notice that when he saw water, he said that.
Now, I guarantee you they had water with them in the chariot,
because you don't go through the desert of Gaza with no water.
You die of dehydration.
But guess what? They didn't have enough water in the chariot to dunk somebody under it.
They had enough to drink, so if baptism were by sprinkling,
he would have reached into the ice chest and said, hey, see, here's water.
What does hindering me from being baptized?
No, he points out a large body of water and says, hey, here's water.
What's hindering me to be baptized?
Here's the key verse, verse 37.
And Philip said, if thou believeth with all thine heart, thou mayest.
Now, let me ask you something.
Is someone who believes with all their heart saved?
Yes, sir.
Absolutely.
Everyone that believeth in him is saved.
That's what the Bible clearly teaches in many scriptures.
And so he's saying, you've got to get saved first, then baptized.
Now, does he say, if thou believeth with all thine heart, and join a church, and turn your life around, and?
No, he just says, if you believe, that's enough.
Look what he says next.
He answered and said, I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.
And he commanded the chariot to stand still, and they went down both into the water.
Do you see how it's by immersion?
Both of them went down into the water.
Why? Because obviously, the water wasn't flowing by the edge of a cliff.
In order to dunk somebody underwater, you've got to get in the water, usually.
And so it says that they went down both into the water, both Philip and the eunuch, any baptism.
And when they came up out of the water, I mean, the Bible couldn't be any more clear.
And that's why my dad taught me this as a little kid.
He said, son, any church or any religion that baptizes by sprinkling or pouring or anything other than emergent is a completely false religion.
And he said, they are not saved.
And here's what he said, what does that have to do with salvation?
The reason it has to do with salvation is that people who are saved understand the Bible.
But the Bible says the natural man received not the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness unto him,
neither can he know them because they are spiritually deserted.
Anyone who could read this book and walk away saying, oh, it's by sprinkling, is not saved.
Because otherwise, how do you explain how blinded you'd have to be?
When he just says, oh, over, get down in the water, up out of the water.
Oh, I think it's a sprinkler.
No, because it shows a lack of understanding.
And it shows that these religions that sprinkle have no regard for what the Bible says whatsoever.
They don't care.
They've got their traditions of man.
They've got man-made religion.
It is not a biblical religion.
A biblical religion will baptize you by immersion, as the Bible clearly teaches.
And so that's what we see in chapter 8.
Now, we talked about the fact that it's important.
We talked about how it's by immersion or being dumped under the water.
And we'll get into that a little bit more.
But notice, when is the time to be baptized?
The time to be baptized is as soon as possible after you get saved.
I mean, this guy got baptized right away.
Go to Acts 16, just a few pages to the right of your Bible.
Acts 16.
It says in Acts 16, verse number 30.
This is the Philippian jailer, of course, the famous passage where this Philippian jailer is about to commit suicide.
Because of the fact that he thinks that all the prisoners have escaped.
God sends this great earthquake where Paul and Silas are in prison.
He sends a great earthquake and it shakes loose all the prison doors, all the shackles fall off.
God performs a miracle where he sets every prisoner loose of his bonds.
And the prison guard, you know, he wakes up or comes to his senses or wherever he looks, he sees all the doors open.
He thinks to himself, the prisoners have all escaped.
Well, go back a few pages in your Bible in the book of Acts.
Not right now, but you'll see a story where a prisoner escapes and the king commands the jailer to be put to death.
Because in the Bible, and there's also some passages on that in the Old Testament where if you let the prisoner go, you'll be killed.
You're going to be put to death for that.
Well, this guy thinks he's going to be put to death because all the prisoners are gone.
And so he decides he's just going to kill himself rather than go through that spectacle of being executed.
And who knows, maybe it was a very unpleasant way that they were executed.
The Bible doesn't really make that clear.
But anyway, this guy's about to commit suicide.
And basically they tell him in verse 28, Paul sees that he's about to commit suicide.
But Paul cried with a loud voice saying, do thyself no harm, for we are all here.
So he tells the guy, look, nobody's escaped, don't kill yourself.
Then he called for a light and sprang in.
So he springs into the cell with a light and came trembling and fell down before Paul and Silas and brought them out and said,
Sirs, what must I do to be saved?
Now you say, what did he mean by that?
Personally, I don't even think he was talking about getting saved like going to heaven.
He was probably talking about, what do I have to do to be saved now that all the prisoners are loose?
What do I have to do here?
But it doesn't matter whether, or he might have been asking what must I do to be saved as in go to heaven.
But it doesn't matter. The answer's clear.
Paul is telling him what he has to do to be saved as in go to heaven.
He used this as a soul winning opportunity, whatever the jailer meant.
It says in verse 31, and they said, believe, that they as Paul and Silas said, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved in thy house.
Isn't that a great scripture?
And it says in verse 32, and they spake unto him the word of the Lord.
Notice again, using God's word to preach the gospel.
Faith cometh by hearing, hearing by the word of God.
They spake unto him the word of the Lord.
Now why did they say, thou shalt be saved in thy house?
Because they didn't want to just give him the gospel.
They were saying, hey, we want to give the gospel to your whole family and your house.
If they believe, they'll be saved too.
And that's why it says in the next verse, they spake unto him the word of the Lord and to all that were in his house.
So that was a great opportunity to give the gospel unto more people.
And it says in verse 33, and he took them the same hour of the night and washed their stripes.
So he hears the gospel, his whole family hears the gospel, they believe it.
So the jailer washes their stripes.
He gives them some medical attention from when they were beaten before they were thrown into the prison.
He takes care of them.
Now that he's not the hardest...
He must not have been very nice to them before this.
Why didn't he wash their stripes before this?
Because he's a typical jailer or whatever who's mistreating the prisoners.
And so now that he realizes, hey, these guys just gave me the gospel, these guys just got me saved,
he actually takes them, washes their stripes.
And look at this.
And was baptized, he and all his straight away, which means immediately, straight away.
What's the shortest way to get somewhere, just to go a straight line?
And that's what straight away means, just straight to it, right away, the same hour of the night.
What hour of night was it?
Well, the Bible says when the earthquake came, it was midnight.
So this guy got baptized at midnight or one in the morning or two in the morning, somewhere in that time frame.
I mean, this guy got baptized in the middle of the night.
That shows how the Bible teaches getting baptized ASAP.
It's not always possible to get baptized immediately.
Maybe the water is not available or maybe it's ice cold and you don't want to be put into doused in ice-cold water.
But the bottom line is, as soon as possible, after you get saved, when there's water there, do it, get baptized.
And so he got baptized and it says, when he brought them into his house,
he set meat before them and rejoiced, believing in God with all his house.
Now, look, if you would, at Romans 6.
Here's another verse on the fact that it's by immersion.
Colossians 2.12, while you're turning to Romans 6.
Colossians 2.12 says this, buried with them in baptism.
That's not sprinkling.
Buried with them in baptism, wherein also ye are risen with them through the faith of the operation of God who hath raised them from the dead.
Look at Romans 6.
Romans 6 is probably the best chapter on baptism.
It says in verse 1, what shall we say then?
Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound?
God forbid.
Now, a lot of people use this to try to teach work salvation.
They'll say, see, you can't just continue in sin that grace may abound.
Wait a minute. Hold on.
The whole reason he's asking that question is because in chapters 3, 4, and 5, he just finished teaching you that if you do continue in sin, grace will abound.
He tells them, it's all by faith.
It's not of works.
You don't have to turn from your sins.
But he's saying, hey, should we continue in sin that grace may abound?
I mean, if we continue in sin, grace will abound.
But should we do that?
God forbid we would do that.
God forbid we just say, oh, cool, I'm saved.
I'm just going to go live however I want now.
Now, we could do that.
You'll definitely get punished on this earth.
You'll definitely reap what you've sown.
But you could do that.
You say, I don't believe you.
Go back to chapter 5, verse 20.
This is what Paul is referring to.
Romans 5, 20.
Moreover, the law entered that the offense might abound.
But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound.
So where sin abounds, grace abounds.
That's what the Bible's taught.
He taught in Romans chapter 3.
Therefore, we conclude that a man is justified by faith
without the deeds of the law.
But in chapter 6, verse 1, he's saying, should we do that?
What shall we say then?
Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound?
God forbid.
How shall we that are dead to sin live any longer therein?
Know ye not that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ
were baptized into his death?
Now, everybody hasn't been baptized.
He's writing this letter unto the saints that are at Rome
and to everyone else throughout the world, he's saying,
that have also believed on Christ, that are also saved.
But he's saying, hey, those of us that are baptized
were baptized into his death.
Therefore, we are buried with him by baptism into death.
That like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father,
even so, we also will automatically walk in newness of life.
If you're really saved, you'll automatically walk in newness of life.
There's going to be a change.
No.
He said we should walk in newness of life.
We should.
Just like Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father,
even so, we also should walk in newness of life.
For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death,
what does that mean, to be planted together in the likeness of his death?
The likeness.
A likeness is not the real thing.
If I drew a likeness of you, it wouldn't be you, it would be a picture of you.
If we've been planted together in the likeness of his death,
meaning if we've been baptized,
which is a likeness of the burial and resurrection.
He said we're buried with him by baptism into his death.
If we have been planted together in the likeness of his death,
we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection.
What's he saying?
He's saying that this is an important part of our growth as a Christian.
Because in order for us to walk in newness of life,
we need to follow his example and be baptized, just like Jesus was baptized.
And he's saying if we've done that,
then we can walk in the likeness of his resurrection.
Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him,
that the body of sin might be destroyed,
that henceforth we should not serve sin,
for he that is dead is freed from sin.
Now there are two things that this passage has taught us that baptism symbolizes.
Number one, baptism symbolizes the death, burial, and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ.
That's the first thing it symbolizes.
But it symbolizes something else if you're reading there carefully.
It symbolizes our death and resurrection.
Basically what the Bible is teaching here is that the old man,
it's like Paul said, I die daily.
The old man has to die.
The Bible says we have to mortify the flesh and walk in the Spirit.
See, when we got saved, God created in us the new creature, the new man, the inward man.
And when we get baptized, we're symbolizing,
hey, I'm burying the old Steven Anderson.
The old Steven Anderson is going to have to die that the new Steven Anderson might live.
That I might live a new life in the Spirit.
That I might walk in newness of light.
Now look, when you get baptized, that doesn't mean automatically from now on
the old man is dead and I'm going to walk perfectly in the new man from now on.
Why? Because baptism doesn't really do that for you.
Baptism just symbolizes that.
See what I mean?
So being dumped under the water, it doesn't kill the old man.
It doesn't put you in the Spirit and make you our minister of life.
But it symbolizes that.
It symbolizes two things, the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ.
And it also symbolizes the death of the old man
and the new resurrected Spirit-filled man of the new man.
And so it's a picture of you walking in the new man, putting on the new man.
Now look, it's something that you have to do daily.
And you only have to get baptized once to symbolize this.
But what you're symbolizing is you're showing God that that's what you want.
You're showing God, I want to obey you.
I want to put on the new man.
I want to put off the old man.
I want to follow your example.
You see, everyone who gets saved does not necessarily want to live for God
and serve God and obey His commandments.
Many people get saved, they know they're saved,
but they're not willing to forsake all and follow Him.
They're not willing to put on the new man.
They're not willing to serve God and die to self and deny self
and take up the cross daily and follow Him.
But baptism is a way of showing God,
hey, I'm going to take this first step of obedience to show you
that I want to put on the new man.
I want to walk in newness of life.
I do not want to continue walking the same way I was walking
before I got saved.
I want there to be a change,
and I'm symbolizing that by getting baptized.
That's what this means, according to Romans chapter 6 here.
So that's what it symbolizes.
Now, let me say this.
Baptism has nothing to do with salvation.
It does not get you saved.
Turn to 1 Corinthians chapter 1.
So, so far we've seen it's important.
Jesus made a big deal.
You say, what's the big deal?
Getting dunked under water is meaningless.
No, what it represents means a lot.
You say, oh, it's silly, dunking somebody under water,
that's old-fashioned, it's 2011, get over it.
Hey, it symbolizes the death, burial, and resurrection.
It symbolizes denying self and taking up the cross
and following Him.
Those are important things.
And baptism, for what it represents, is very important.
And when God sees you obey Him,
just as He was well pleased in His Son Jesus Christ
who was baptized,
He will be well pleased with us when we're baptized
because we're obeying Him.
We're in obedience to Him.
We saw that it's by immersion, it's by being done.
It's done as soon as possible after being saved immediately.
There's only one prerequisite, believing,
not a six-week class.
Now, many churches will have a class.
In fact, it's all it is,
is just a copycat of Catholic catechism.
Catholics have a catechism and so forth,
so they want you to go through this little class.
I mean, I like what one person said.
They said, why do you need a baptism class?
Is the water that deep?
You know what I mean, swimming lesson?
I mean, good night.
What do you need?
The Ethiopian eunuch didn't get a class.
He believed.
That was enough.
You say, well, you need to make sure they understand
everything about baptism.
Why?
No.
Yeah.
No.
Do you think the Ethiopian eunuch
understood everything that I'm preaching
about baptism right now?
No.
No way.
You're going to learn more later.
The key thing that you need to understand is this.
I believe on Christ.
I'm saved.
I know I'm saved.
And God told me to do this,
so I'm going to do it.
That's it.
I mean, that's all you really need to have said.
Hey, the more you understand, the better.
You know, you baptize a child, and they say, oh,
does that child really understand
the doctrine of satiriology of baptism?
It's like, what?
As long as the thing I'm concerned is,
do they understand the gospel?
Are they saved?
You know, you shouldn't baptize somebody
who isn't old enough or coherent enough
to understand being saved.
But they don't have to understand
everything about baptism.
They need to understand everything about salvation.
And then just understand, hey,
this is something God's telling me to do.
I'm going to do it.
That's all.
That's the prerequisite.
But let me give you some thinking
or some teaching on the fact
that it's not part of salvation.
Because there are religions out there that teach,
hey, baptism is what saves you.
You've got to be baptized in order to be saved.
Well, here's some problems with that.
First of all, number one,
no one was baptized in the entire Old Testament.
The first person to baptize anybody in the Bible
is John the Baptist.
So here's my question.
If baptism is somehow part of salvation,
then why was no one baptized for approximately 4,200 years,
4,300 years before John the Baptist came along?
If that is somehow,
oh, people were saved different back then.
That's a bunch of baloney.
Everybody's always been saved the same way.
Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord
shall be saved.
Abraham believed God.
It was counted as the name for righteousness.
Even as David also described it,
the blessedness of the man,
to God and cuteth righteousness without works.
Hey, it's always been salvation by faith.
Just call out to him by faith and you shall be saved.
It's been that way all through the Old Testament,
New Testament.
This isn't some magical thing
where all of a sudden now you have to be saved a different way.
Baptism now saved.
Look, the thief on the cross wasn't baptized.
You say, well, that was a different dispensation.
No, because he got saved the same way everybody does.
He just believed on Christ and just asked him to save him.
Same as everybody else.
But not only that, that's one thing.
But not only that,
what about the fact that Jesus was baptized?
Now, if baptism is supposedly saving you from your sins
and washing away your sins,
well, then why would Jesus be baptized?
He had no sin.
So why would he be baptized?
He didn't have any sin.
But not only that,
and here's the most important piece of evidence,
not only that,
but there are hundreds and hundreds of verses on salvation
that don't mention baptism.
What about all the verses that say that
whosoever believeth in him, like John 3.15,
that whosoever believeth in him
should not perish but have eternal life?
Look, if it says whosoever believeth in him will be saved.
Let's say there's a guy who believes in him,
but he doesn't get baptized.
Is that guy saved or not?
According to the Bible.
Now, look, don't tell me,
well, everybody who believes in him
is going to get baptized for sure.
No?
He said as many of us as have been buried with him,
as many of us have been baptized,
because not everyone has been baptized
who believes in Christ.
Many believe in Christ and never get baptized,
and that does not make them unsafe.
Not only that, but if baptism...
So, I mean, you just have...
And I'm not going to sit here.
I could if I wanted to just quote to you
all the verses that say it's just by faith,
just by believing.
Believe, believe, believe, believe.
I could go on and on with that.
I'm not going to for the sake of time.
I gave you one that should be enough,
and you probably know the other 200 of them
that could tell you, hey, it's all by faith,
it's all by...
I ran through that list enough times
in my career as a pastor here.
But look at 1 Corinthians 1, verse 14.
Tell me if this sounds to you like
the gospel of Christ is a gospel of,
hey, if you get baptized, you'll be saved.
That's what people say.
Like, the gospel is you got to believe and be baptized,
or they'll say,
repent of your sins and be baptized.
Sometimes they just bypass belief altogether
and turn it into a total work of salvation.
Tell me if that's what this sounds like to you.
1 Corinthians 1, 14.
I thank God that I baptized none of you.
Does that sound like baptism is what's aged?
But Christmas in guys,
lest any should say that I baptized in my own name.
And I baptized also the house of Stephanos.
Besides, I know not whether I baptized any other.
You say, well, he just didn't want to do it himself.
He wanted other people to do it.
But look at verse 17.
For Christ sent me not to baptize,
but to preach the gospel.
Now, if the gospel is baptism saves,
be baptized and thou shalt be saved.
How is he saying I was sent to preach the gospel,
but not to baptize?
Sounds like we're talking about two separate things here.
He says Christ sent me not to baptize,
but to preach the gospel,
not with wisdom of words,
lest the cross of Christ should be made of none effect.
Go to John chapter 3.
John chapter number 3.
And I'll show you a verse.
Sometimes people will bring this up to me
that, you know, John chapter 3 teaches that baptism saves.
Now, let me give you an illustration.
My wife gave the gospel to a lady a few weeks ago,
and this lady was a religion called Church of Christ.
And it's a religion that teaches that baptism saves.
You know, you have to be baptized in order to be saved.
And so my wife's given this lady the gospel,
and this lady's saying, no, you have to be baptized.
You know, believing's not enough to save you.
Even though right there where you're at in your Bible,
it says in John 3.36,
he that believeth on the Son has everlasting life,
and he that believeth not of the Son
shall not see life with the wrath of God upon him,
even though it says clearly in John 3.18,
he that believeth on him is not condemned.
It doesn't say anything about baptism,
but he that believeth not is condemned already
because he has not been baptized.
That's not what it says.
He's condemned because he hath not believed
in the name of the only begotten Son of God.
Now, look, didn't the Bible say that you have to believe on Christ first?
Didn't it say you've got to believe or you can't be baptized?
Now, once a person believes, are they saved or not?
So what if they don't get baptized until two months later?
They'll say, no, look, I believed on Christ
when I was six years old and called upon the name of the Lord.
At age six, I got baptized at age nine.
It's not that I wasn't saved for those three years,
because baptism has nothing to do with salvation.
Now, I should have got baptized when I was six,
but I didn't get baptized until I was nine.
But I got saved when I was six.
And so my wife has given this lady the Gospel,
and she's saying, no, you've got to be baptized.
And my wife said, that's work-salvation.
That's not faith alone. That's works.
And here's what this lady said.
Well, no, it's not works because you're not the one doing it
because someone else is baptizing you.
They're doing the work.
Hold on a second.
Not only are you not saved by your own works,
you're not saved by my works either.
Or any other password.
But not only that, the Bible very clearly says,
I pause to say unto you that if you be circumcised,
Christ shall profit you nothing.
Christ has become of no effect unto you,
whosoever of you are justified by the law,
you're fallen from grace.
He said if you believe that circumcision is part of your salvation,
you are not saved. That's in Galatians chapter 5.
Hey, that's not exactly something you do to yourself either.
So if Paul said that that's works,
he said if you're trusting your circumcision, that's works-salvation.
Hey, it doesn't matter that it was somebody else doing the circumcising.
Hey, guess what? That's still works-salvation
because it's the works of the law.
You're obeying the law. You're trying to be justified by the law
You're trying to be justified by the faith of Christ.
That's what it means.
So that was a silly argument.
You're not saved by anybody's works.
Now think about that argument too.
If somebody says baptism saves,
basically now you need church to save you.
Because you don't exactly baptize yourself, now do you?
Who baptizes?
In the Bible, the only people you ever see baptizing in the entire Bible
is you see the apostles baptize people.
Do we have any apostles living today according to 1 Corinthians 15? No.
Who else do you see?
The pastor and the deacons.
That's the only people I've ever seen in the Bible baptize anybody.
Philip was a deacon in that early church.
You don't see just any random person.
Somebody gets saved and then the next day they start baptizing people.
You don't see women baptizing people in the Bible.
The only people you ever see baptized in the Bible
is the apostles and the bishops and the deacons. That's it.
People that are basically men of God
that are ordained by the laying on and the hands
and filled with the Spirit and so forth.
That's the people you see doing the baptizing.
And so, if you had to be baptized to be saved,
you're basically relying on someone else to baptize you
to get you to heaven.
And the problem with that is, I've known many people.
And see, this is what Catholicism teaches.
You must be baptized to be saved. Well, guess what they'll do?
They'll withhold baptism from people and hang it over their head.
They'll withhold the Eucharist from people.
Because they teach, hey, you've got to take the Eucharist.
You've got to take the cracker and drink the wine to be saved.
They'll withhold it from them until they do what they want them to do.
Even politically, this has come into play throughout history in Europe
when these kings and queens and subjects
had to please the pope sometimes.
Because they thought their soul was in peril
if they don't obey his ruling.
So, therefore, I even knew a guy that, basically,
he went to a Baptist church.
And he wanted to get baptized.
But the church taught that you have to repent of your sins to be saved.
You have to turn from sins.
I already dealt with that earlier in the sermon.
And he said, no, I just believe salvation is by faith alone.
I said, believe on Christ, and whoever believeth, and I believe.
And they said, well, I'm not going to baptize you.
So you believe like us.
So this guy couldn't get baptized.
So I ended up baptizing him.
Because he said, can you baptize me?
Because my church wouldn't even baptize me.
And by the way, if you're in a church that won't baptize you,
you're in the wrong church.
But obviously, this guy was in a geographical area
where that was all he could find, unfortunately, in his area.
He was in a sparse area for Baptist churches.
Where did I have your turn? John 3?
Yeah.
OK, go to John 3-3.
I used this to say, hey, you have to be baptized.
Not to mention that there's several verses in this chapter
saying it's his belief.
But look at this.
It says in verse 3, Jesus answered and said to him,
verily, verily, I say unto thee, except a man be born again,
he cannot see the kingdom of God.
Now, in order to be born again,
do you have to be born the first time?
Yes.
I mean, you can't do something again until you've done it once.
So when he says you've got to be born again,
he's referring to the fact, hey, you've already been born once.
Like, I was born on July 24, 1981.
OK?
I was born at that time.
It says right here, Nicodemus saith unto him,
and Nicodemus understood exactly what he meant by that.
First birth of being the natural birth
when he physically came into this world.
Nicodemus saith unto him, how can a man be born when he's old?
Can he enter the second time into his mother's womb and be born?
He said, what are you talking about? I'm born again?
I've got to go back into the womb and be born again?
So he's taking it a little too literal there.
It says in verse 5, Jesus answered.
So Jesus is answering his objection.
Is he not?
He's explaining to him what he meant.
That's why it says Jesus answered.
Verily, verily, I say unto thee.
So he's trying to make it easier for this guy to understand.
This is an answer to his question.
Verily, verily, I say unto thee,
except a man be born of water and of the Spirit,
he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.
Now, hold on a second.
If that water was baptism,
does that answer Nicodemus' question at all?
No, not at all.
And that would be three births.
Because they'll say, see, born of water, that's baptism.
That would mean you've got to be physically born.
Then you've got to be baptized.
Then you've got to be born of the Spirit.
That's like a triple birth.
That's not born again.
That's born again and again.
You've got to be born three times.
It's stupid.
And not only that, it says,
Verily, verily, I say unto thee,
except a man be born of water and of the Spirit,
he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.
He defines it in the next verse.
He says that which is born of what?
The flesh.
Of the flesh is flesh,
and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.
Now, look, if you have a pen,
you can just underline in your Bible,
in verse 5, underline born of water
and then underline of the Spirit.
So you've got two births there, right?
Born of water and born of the Spirit.
Then in verse 6, you can underline
born of the flesh and born of the Spirit.
So do you notice something here?
There's two births in these verses.
In verse 6, the first birth is a flesh birth.
The second birth is a spirit birth.
In verse 5, the first birth is the water birth.
The second birth is a spirit birth.
Now, anyone can deduce and put together here, hmm,
the water birth is another name for the flesh birth.
He's talking about the same thing again.
He's explaining to them what it means to be born of the water.
Being born of the water, Nicodemus,
is when you're born of the flesh,
not when you're dumped under water.
That's not being born of the water.
Now, look, you say, why would being born physically
or born of the flesh be called born of the water?
Because a baby is carried in a sack of water.
It's called the bag of...
and this is a really technical term,
but it's called the bag of waters.
I mean, that is the literal technical term
that a doctor will use.
Her bag of waters broke.
That's the birth.
Because when a woman gives birth,
now, sometimes the water breaks early.
Have you heard that? Hey, my water broke.
Sometimes that takes place before birth.
Sometimes that takes place during birth.
So there's water involved with birth.
Now, my children are born underwater,
but that's another story.
My wife is in labor, and she's in a big tub
and gets birth underwater.
But that's just a comfort thing.
But anyway, you know, it's clear here.
I don't see how anybody could walk away from this
and say, this is baptism.
It's nothing to do with baptism.
And you've got to let the Bible define itself.
You can't just make the Bible mean whatever you want it to be.
He said, well, born of water, I think that's baptism.
But if you read verse 6, he says it's born of the flesh.
So let it define it.
He said, marvel not in verse 7 that I said of thee,
you must be born again.
Nothing to get all worked up about Nicodemus.
Don't be marveling here and wondering,
and what in the world?
I've got to get back in the womb again?
No, because he said you've got to be born again spiritually.
Not physically born again, spiritually born again.
Now listen, is getting dunked underwater
physical or spiritual?
It's a physical act.
He said you've got to be born of the Spirit.
It's a spiritual birth that takes place.
The new birth is spiritual.
The first birth is a physical, fleshly birth.
This is not saying that you have to be baptized.
Here's another verse that people will turn to
if you try to tell you that you've got to be baptized to be saved.
Go to 1 Peter 3.
I'm just explaining a couple of these to you,
and I've done sermons where I went through every verse
that I've ever heard anybody use to try to say you have to be.
I'm just using these with you because, number one,
it helps us to understand baptism,
and number two, somebody might hit you with these.
Who's ever been out soloing and somebody hit you with these?
Somebody hit you with John 3, somebody hit you with 1 Peter 3.
People will try to hit you with these to try to tell you,
hey, you've got to be baptized to be saved.
But go to 1 Peter 3.
Let's see, let's read verse 20.
It said, which sometime were disobedient...
Actually, let's go to verse 18 so we can get the whole thought.
1 Peter 3, 18.
For Christ also had 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,
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, wherein few, that his eight souls,
were saved by water.
The like figure were unto even baptism, that 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, look.
Look at the end of verse 20 where it says,
saved by water.
Now, look, you can't just read the Bible
and just turn off your brain when you read it.
I mean, yeah, water is what saves us.
It's not Jesus. It's not the resurrection of Christ.
It's just water that saves us.
Water is our savior.
That's why we bow down and worship water.
But see, if you just take three words out of context,
you just rip three words out of context,
see, saved by water.
Water is our savior.
That doesn't make any sense.
You've got to understand that the word by, the preposition by,
doesn't always mean the same thing.
And that's why we have to understand, what is he talking about here?
He's talking about Noah's ark.
Did you get that?
He's talking about how Noah, by the Holy Spirit of God,
the same Spirit of God that raised up Christ from the dead,
Noah preached, filled with the Spirit of God,
the words of God unto the generation that perished in the flood.
He preached God's word unto them.
Few people were saved by water.
Now, here's a question.
Is the water what saved them?
Man, it's a good thing for this water, or else we wouldn't be saved.
Now, what saved them?
The boat saved them.
Does everybody understand that?
So it's not saying, hey, the water saved us.
That's not what he means when he says saved by water.
He's basically saying they went through the water.
By has more than one meaning.
But here's the thing.
They were saved by the boat.
Now, did the boat save their soul?
No.
Did the physical boat save their soul?
No.
You've got to just read what he's saying here.
It's not that complicated.
The boat didn't save their soul, but did the boat save their body?
Yeah.
Oh, yeah.
Because if they didn't have that boat, what would have happened?
They're going to drown in the flood.
Everybody who was not on the boat, everybody drowned because they weren't on the boat.
So the boat is saving their body.
That is figurative of spiritual salvation, okay?
A boat can't save your soul.
Water can't save your soul.
But the boat pictured Jesus Christ as our Savior.
Why?
Because the boat only had one door.
Noah was very clearly given the instruction, one door on the ark.
Why?
Because there's only one way to heaven.
And Jesus said, I am the door.
If any man enter in by me, he shall be saved and shall go in and out and find pasture.
The Bible's clear.
There's one way.
On the way, the truth and the light, Jesus said.
No man cometh unto the Father both by me.
So that one door on the ark pictured the one door to salvation, Jesus.
That door was not salvation.
If you walk through that physical door, it's not like, boom, I'm saved.
But it pictured salvation.
That flood was not eternal damnation.
That flood was not hell.
But it pictured the lake of fire.
It pictured perishing or dying.
See, there's two kinds of dying.
I mean, there's dying, physically dying.
And then there's the death of spiritual death in hell.
The dead are there.
So we see that the ark pictured salvation.
The ark was not literally salvation.
Same thing with the Old Testament sacrifices.
Where they would slay a lamb and shed the blood and offer it for a burnt sacrifice.
Was that salvation?
Was that lamb their savior?
No.
But did it picture their savior?
Yeah.
See, there's a lot of things in the Bible that picture salvation.
That lamb was not the savior.
But it pictured Jesus, the lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.
Okay, the ark was not their savior.
But it pictured their savior by having one door, by saving them from God's wrath,
when God poured out his wrath in the form of a physical flood.
They were saved from that by getting on the ark.
That pictured salvation.
Okay, look at the next verse now.
Now that we understand verse 21.
He says, the like figure whereunto even baptism doth also now save us.
Now look, that does not say baptism saves us.
That says that the figure of baptism saves us.
Well, what does baptism a figure of?
The resurrection, right?
The death, burial, and resurrection.
What saves us?
The death, burial, and resurrection.
The Bible says we're saved by his life.
It talks about his death.
It says we're saved by his life.
The fact that he rose from the dead.
The gospel is the resurrection of Jesus Christ, according to 1 Corinthians 15.
He said the gospel is that Christ died for our sins, according to the scriptures,
was buried, and was raised again the third day, according to the scriptures.
That is the gospel.
That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus,
and shalt believe in thy heart that God is raised from the dead,
thou shalt be saved.
So baptism is a figure of salvation.
Now, have you ever gotten an instruction manual for putting something together,
and it's telling you, like, insert, you know, slot B into tab A,
and then it says, like, C, figure 3?
Now, that figure is what?
A picture of what you're supposed to do.
That figure's not going to do it for you.
That figure, you know, I held up the figure, and it won't build my equipment,
because the figure is just showing you how to build it.
It's just a picture of it.
It's not a real piece of equipment that you're looking at.
You're just looking at a picture of that equipment.
Well, baptism is a figure of salvation.
It's not salvation.
It's a picture of salvation, because it pictures the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ.
And look at it. It says, by the life figure, whereunto even baptism doth also now save us.
Now, notice the parentheses.
Not the putting away of the filth of the flesh.
So this isn't washing away all of our sins.
It says not the putting away of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God.
Now, an answer is something that follows something, right?
Somebody asks a question, they get an answer.
Okay, the answer of a good conscience toward God.
How do you get a good conscience toward God?
By getting saved.
Because the Bible says that our guilt is paid for.
Not only our sins, but also the guilt of our sins is paid for by the blood of Christ.
When we believe on Jesus Christ, we have a good conscience toward God now.
Now we have access by one Spirit with the Father.
Now we can come boldly into His presence, because we're saved.
The answer to that, or the next step that follows, is baptism.
And then look at this little phrase that's thrown on the end.
After the parenthesis, He picks up the original thought.
By the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
See, whenever you have a parenthesis, you're adding something.
Now, if you're writing a sentence and you have parenthesis, here's a rule about parenthesis.
You should be able to remove the parenthesis and the sentence still makes grammatical sense.
If you write out a sentence using English grammar, and you put something in parenthesis,
and you remove those parenthesis and the sentence no longer can stand alone grammatically,
you have done something wrong in your punctuation.
So the parenthesis is added here to give us more...God's giving us more understanding.
And obviously I understand God is not, you know, the author of necessarily the punctuation marks.
He spoke the words, and this is obviously put into our modern punctuation.
And punctuation changes over time, I understand that.
But this is a correct punctuation mark in the sense that if we take out the parenthesis,
and of course we're not removing from God's Word,
but just to help us understand the grammar of the sentence,
look at what it says with the parenthesis laid aside for a moment.
We're not removing it, we're just setting it to the side so we can understand the meat of the sentence.
The life figure we're unto even baptism does also now save us by the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
You see what I'm saying?
Save us by the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Why? Because that's what baptism's a figure of.
The figure saves us by the resurrection of Jesus Christ because it represents what saves us.
You can always take a verse and rip it out of context and make it say what you want,
take a little phrase, saved by water, saved by water, and just run with that.
But first of all, whenever you're interpreting the Bible, you've got to get the context of the complete verse,
then you want to get the complex of the complete chapter,
and you want to get the complex of the complete book, and then you've got to get the context of the whole Bible.
And then you've got 200 verses saying that if you believe you'll be saved with nothing else, no works,
nothing that we can do to save us, it's just all through faith.
If we find something that supposedly contradicts that, one of two things.
Either number one, the Bible's not God's word, so it's contradicting itself, or else you're understanding it wrong.
And so it all has to jive, it all has to match, it all has to be consistent.
And it is consistent, thank God, that salvation's by faith alone.
That makes you understand the illustration of Noah's ark.
Now, was everybody on the ark saved? No.
Because look, as soon as they get off the ark, a bunch of people start worshipping Satan and building the Tower of Babel.
One of the guys on the ark was a homo. Damn. He was a reprobate. He wasn't saved.
Now, we don't know who was saved. We know Noah was saved.
We don't know for sure which of the people else on the ark were saved and which weren't.
Maybe they were all saved except Ham. We don't know.
Maybe there were a couple of unsaved people and a couple of nots.
Now, here's another question. Was everyone who was not on the ark unsaved? No.
They drowned, yes. But were they all unsaved? Did they all go to hell? No, I don't believe so.
Are you still in 1 Peter? Go to chapter 4, and the Bible says in verse 6,
For this cause was the gospel preached also to them that are dead.
Now, a lot of people misunderstand this and say, yeah, he's preaching the gospel to dead people.
No. They're dead now. When he preached the gospel unto them, they were alive.
He's saying it was preached unto them who are dead. It's not saying he preached unto them while they were dead.
Yeah, they were spiritually dead, but they weren't physically dead.
This is talking about the same subject of Noah's ark. He's continuing the same thought here.
He says, For this cause was the gospel preached also to them that are dead,
that they might be judged according to man in the flesh, but live according to God in the Spirit.
These people lived on spiritually, but they died physically. That's what he's saying.
They died in that judgment of the flood. He's saying, Noah preached for 120 years and nobody got saved.
What in the world? There's something wrong with Noah. There's something wrong with his preaching.
If he can preach for 120 years, God's word and nobody gets saved. God's word has power.
If people aren't being saved, it's because it's not being preached.
Because when God's word is being faithfully preached by a man of God, people get saved.
Now, does that mean that people are necessarily going to get on the boat?
Everybody's laughing at him. Everybody's mocking him. Everybody's saying it's stupid.
That doesn't mean that they're necessarily going to get on the boat.
Plus, God, frankly, was punishing a lot of them. He wanted them to drown.
Because God will even sometimes cause a saved person to die physically as a punishment for their actions.
That's clear in the Bible. I mean, look at Ananias and Sapphira.
We don't really know for sure that they were saved, but they probably were.
And they died. That doesn't mean they went to hell.
And see, clearly, if somebody is living a sinful and worldly lifestyle, they're going to get punished on this earth.
And it could be that they'll get in a horrible car wreck and die or something.
I mean, God can send punishments like that.
Look at examples in the Bible where people like, for example, King Saul.
His death in battle was a punishment that was predicted that it would happen.
Because he had been ungodly, hey, you and your sons are going to perish in battle.
But Saul didn't go to hell. Saul went to heaven. That's clear.
Who else? I have another example on the tip of my tongue of somebody in the Old Testament who died because they disobeyed God.
Josiah, great man of God. He was told by God, do not go to battle against the Egyptians.
He disobeyed. He went to battle against the Egyptians. So God allowed him to be killed.
That was his punishment for disobeying. It doesn't mean he went to hell.
People who didn't get on the ark, they drowned.
But that doesn't mean that only out of the whole world, the whole planet, the people were only saved who were on the ark.
That is not scriptural because the Bible says right here, 1 Peter 4.6.
Hey, there was a reason why the gospel was preached under them. It wasn't a waste is what he's saying.
Noah was not wasting his time for 120 years because even though he didn't talk people into getting on the ark, he still got people saved.
It's sort of like we might go out and get people saved and they don't show up to church and we say, oh, we wasted our time.
No, they're still saved. They're still going to heaven.
Now look, they're going to live a messed up life unless they get in church and get through some preaching of God's work.
It doesn't mean we wasted our time. You're wasting your time when you don't go out and do it.
That's a waste of time. But when you go out and preach the gospel, you're never wasting your time.
And Noah didn't waste his time. He got people saved. He was preaching the truth and people got saved.
Let me just close with just a couple things real quick here. I wanted to finish up quickly.
Go to Acts 2. We're going to finish up completely the book of Acts here on baptism.
So we saw just a quick review. We saw, hey, it's important. It means a lot to God. It's by immersion. You've got to be dumped.
It's done immediately as possible. It symbolizes the fact that you want...
And you know what you're saying? When you don't get baptized, it's like, I'm not going to obey God.
I don't want the old man to die. I don't want to walk into this of life.
So it pictures a willingness and obedience to follow God. It also pictures the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ.
It's not for salvation. It cannot wash away the filth of the flesh. But it is an answer of a good conscience toward God.
It is a picture of salvation, but it is not salvation. That's why there are hundreds of verses that say it's faith alone.
It is work salvation. And a person who believes that baptism is necessary for salvation is not saved and is going to hell.
Because they are trusting in the works of the flesh and the works of the law. Just like circumcision.
Even though it's done by someone else, as I said earlier. Still not going to get you to heaven.
Okay? We saw all that. But lastly, I want to show you this. Two things. Number one, it's a commandment.
Baptism is not optional. It's not, hey, if you feel like it, hey, this is a bonus you can do. No, it's a command.
Look at Acts chapter 2, verse 41. First of all, this shows, hey, the they that gladly received his word were baptized.
And the same day were added unto them about 3,000 souls. You say, okay, so people who were glad about being saved, they got baptized.
But is it a command? Go to chapter 10 and see that it's a command. Flip over to chapter 10.
Now look, I don't know about you, I'm glad I got saved. And then, hey, if you're glad about it, get baptized.
And you don't have to wait until Aunt Clutie flies into town to get baptized. Why don't you just get baptized now? You know what I mean?
It's not some show where you put on a special, this is the Catholic church, man. You put on some special outfit and all this stuff.
Okay? And then invite all your friends and family and have godparents or something.
It says in Acts 10, 47, can any man forbid water that these should not be baptized, which have received the Holy Ghost as well as wheat?
So these people are saved, they've got the Holy Ghost. And he said in verse 48, and he commanded them to be baptized in the name of the Lord.
Did he suggest unto them to be baptized in the name of the Lord? Did he say, you know, hey, this is something you might think about doing?
No, he commanded them to. Now you say, are you talking about forcing them? No. He didn't force them to be baptized. He commanded them to.
When you command somebody to do something, that doesn't mean they're going to do it, is it?
It's not forcing someone. I mean, if I command someone, if I say, hey, I command you, if I say to my children, I command you to shut that door right now,
I'm not forcing them to shut it, I'm commanding them to shut it. If they do it, then I'll be pleased. If they don't do it, I'll be displeased.
And I would punish them. If you don't get baptized, I'm not going to punish you. But God might punish you, because it is disobedience to God's Word.
So it is a commandment. Just like there's a command, thou shalt not steal. It doesn't mean that we can necessarily force people not to steal, but it is a commandment.
It's not saying, hey, it's better if you don't steal it. You know what I mean? Stealing is not the best way. You know, like these politicians.
So is abortion murder? Is it wrong? It's not the best option. Being a sodomite is not really the best family. The best thing is a man and a woman raising children.
That's the best, perfect. Anything else kind of falls short of that? You know, when you're a pervert and a pedophile, that's a little bit.
Could it be short of God's perfect plan? No. It's a commandment. Don't steal. Not, hey, stealing is not cool. No, it's wrong. It's sin.
And it's a sin not to get baptized, because it is commandment. It says, he commanded to be baptized in the name of the Lord. Then they prayed the hymn to Terry certain days.
Go to Acts 19. I want to show you one last thing. One last thing is being re-baptized. Now, what does it mean to be re-baptized? Well, it means to be baptized again.
Now, it's interesting, because a lot of people, and I don't really put a lot of stock in history sometimes, because it seems like history is constantly changing.
And there are all kinds of wars that take place, right? And here's something to learn about history. The people who win the war, they're the ones who write the history book.
You know, case in point, the Civil War. The people who win, they write the history book, and they demonize the other side, and they glorify themselves.
And they spit it into a lot. It's like we could go through all different wars, and see that the winners are going to write the history book in their favor.
It's always like that. Well, that's why I don't just blindly trust whatever somebody says. Well, look at this history book I would have for 2,000 years ago.
I mean, it's not that it relies so much. The Holy Bible is the only thing that's been preserved. That's because it was preserved by the power of God.
This other stuff, I don't trust it. But the history books tell us, take it with a grain of salt if you will, but they tell us that where modern day churches being called Baptist churches come from,
is that they were called rebaptized, or anabaptist. It means baptizing a second time. Because they would take a Catholic who got baptized, or not even baptized, but sprinkled as a baby.
And then when that person actually believed on Christ and got saved, they would baptize him again, after they got saved.
So they would take a person who was unsaved when they got baptized, after they got saved they would baptize him again. It's called a rebaptizer, and it was made a crime.
You know, in Catholic controlled areas. Hey, if you rebaptize somebody, that's the death penalty.
So we are very strongly believing at Faithful Word Baptist Church in rebaptizing people.
Now, most people should only need to be baptized once. You only need to be baptized one time. You say, what's rebaptism about?
Well, all it's about is if you got baptized before you were saved, that's not scriptural baptism. Because you've got to believe first before you get baptized.
So let's say you got baptized as a kid and then you get saved as an adult, you've got to get baptized again. Because the first time you took a bath.
And I've taken many baths in my life. And I've jumped into many swimming pools. And I've been even dunked under by someone else.
I mean, my brother was not an apostle. My brother was not a bishop or a deacon, but he dunked me many times.
And it was not in the name of the father or the son of the Holy Ghost. We would wrestle around in the pool all the time.
And we would try to dunk each other. That was a game that we would play a lot. And I'd play it with my friends. I've been baptized many times.
I've done a lot of baptizing as a child. But is that really a scriptural baptism, though? No.
Well, guess what? Baptizing an unsaved person is not scriptural. And by the way, sprinkling is not scriptural.
You say, well, I get baptized when I was sprinkled. No. You were not baptized. You were sprinkled.
This is not baptism. Baptism is by immersion. So, look at Acts 19. I'm going to prove to you scripturally.
Because you say, well, Pastor Anderson, that's your opinion that people need to be re-baptized.
I've already been dunked. I don't need to do it again. Look at Acts 19 and see what the Bible says.
It says, they came to pass while Apollos was at Corinth. Paul, having baptized...
I'm sorry, Paul having passed through... I've got baptism on my mind.
Paul, having passed through the upper coast, came to Ephesus. And finding certain disciples, he said unto them,
Have ye received the Holy Ghost since ye believed? And they said unto them,
We've not so much as heard as whether there be any Holy Ghost. And he said unto them,
Unto what then were ye baptized? And they said unto John's baptism.
Now, what did John the Baptist emphasize the most in his preaching? The Holy Ghost.
I mean, look at every time. I mean, look at what John's preaching. He's constantly mentioning the Holy Ghost,
the Holy Ghost, the Holy Ghost, the Holy Spirit. That's a key thing in his preaching when you look at all his sermons
that it records for us in Matthew, Mark, and Luke and John.
These people were baptized by John the Baptist. Did they get John the Baptist's message?
No. That's why he has to give them the Gospel in verse 4.
Then said Paul, John verily baptized with the baptism of repentance.
He's explaining to them what John the demon was baptizing for and what he was preaching.
What was he saying when he baptized the baptism of repentance?
Saying unto the people that they should believe on him which should come after him that it is on Christ Jesus.
So when he preached repentance, people automatically hear the word repent and they think, Repent of your sins. No.
God repented more than anyone else in the Bible. He doesn't have any sins. You can repent of anything.
And he's telling them the thing that they needed to repent was that they needed to repent and believe the Gospel.
Because they didn't believe the Gospel, they needed to repent and believe the Gospel.
Basically change what they believe or change what they believe is getting them to heaven from works unto faith in Christ.
When they heard this, verse 5, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus.
Now the reason these people had to get baptized again is because they weren't saved.
They did not understand that they needed to believe in Christ.
They did not even know anything about the Holy Ghost which was John's main preaching.
So why did they get baptized? Probably just because everybody else was getting baptized.
The Bible says, then went out to Jerusalem and all Judea and all the region round about Jordan and were baptized to them in Jordan.
Even the Pharisees and Sadducees which definitely didn't believe in Christ, they showed up and said hey, baptize us.
And the only reason John the Baptist didn't baptize them is because he was like, I know who you guys are.
He said, you're going to have to prove to me that you guys even really have repented here.
Because they believed in a total false religion.
Not repented of drinking and fornication and repent of their sin, no.
They needed to repent of a false religion that was taking them to hell.
And he said, hey, you're a generation of vipers, you snakes, you devils.
And maybe God even had shown him, hey, these people are not being sincere.
Nothing's changed about what the Pharisees and Sadducees believed.
They showed up in their long robes, yeah, okay, well everybody else is doing it, we better do this.
He said, get out of here, you devil, you snake, you viper.
And so these people didn't get the message. Now let me bring this into modern day.
Let's say you're out soul-willing, right?
And you meet some people and they say, oh, you're from Faithful Word Baptist Church?
I've been to Faithful Word Baptist Church, in fact, that's where I got baptized, right?
And you say, really, well, what do you believe a person has to do to be saved?
Well, live a good life.
Go to church.
Now, wait, you'd be like, what?
You went to Faithful Word Baptist Church and you think that?
You got baptized by Pastor Steve Anderson?
And you say, that would never happen.
Hey, it happened for John the Baptist.
Now, hopefully every person that I've ever baptized was truly saved.
They probably were, I hope so.
But hey, if it could happen to John the Baptist, it could happen to Pastor Anderson,
where somebody gets baptized who wasn't truly saved.
And maybe at the time they were given the right answers or kind of saying the right things,
and then after years and years went by, because there was no real salvation,
because the Holy Spirit was not living inside of them, they went off into some other doctrine.
And they're not saved.
Well, then let's say you said, well, Pastor Anderson preached that they should believe on him, Jesus Christ.
This is what Pastor Anderson preached.
Then when they heard that and believed that, wouldn't they need to be baptized again?
See what I mean? That's what the passage is teaching.
Oh, well, Pastor Anderson already baptized you? Well, that's a legit baptism.
Now let's just get you saved.
No, it doesn't work that way.
So all that to say this.
If you are saved and you have not been baptized, you need to get baptized right away.
And if you say, well, I've already been baptized, but I don't think I was saved when I got baptized.
I probably wasn't saved or I'm not sure I was saved.
Then you need to get baptized again.
Because now that you know you're saved, you need to get baptized only once.
You say, why don't I get two baptized? You only need one after you're saved.
And if you had 500 before you were saved, well, it's going to be 500 in one.
Because you've got to do it once. The only one that counts is the one after you're saved.
And so if you need to be baptized, and we're baptizing people today.
And so if you need to be baptized, get baptized today.
Come to me. Shake my hand and tell me that you need to be baptized as far as I'm aware of prayer.
Father, we thank you so much for your word, dear God.
And thank you for this thing that you've given us, baptism.
It's a great symbolic thing, a figure, a picture that we can learn from.
And help us to every single day basically die to self, deny self, and take up the cross and follow you.
Help us to walk in newness of life every single day.
We should walk in newness of life. Help us to do it.
And help those that have not been baptized to realize the importance of taking that first step.
And help those who have been baptized to continue to walk in newness of life.
In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.