Music
Amen, welcome to First Works Baptist Church and Good Evening.
We're going to get started with song number 410.
Faith is a victory.
song number four one zero faith is a victory and if you are able to let's all
stand together for our first song song number four hundred and ten
It's on number 410, there in your hymnals on that first verse.
In camped along the hills of light, ye Christian soldiers rise,
and press the battle there the night shall build the glowing skies.
Against the bow and bails we love, let all our strength be hurled.
the world. Faith is a victory. Faith is a victory. Oh, glorious victory that
overcomes the world. His banner over us is up. Our sword, the word of God.
We tread the battle saints above, with shouts of triumph trod.
By faith they like a world whence they're gone or every peep.
The faith by which they conquer death is still our shining shield.
Faith is a victory, faith is a victory.
that overcomes the world. On every hand, the four we find, drawn up in dread or rain.
And onward to the fray, salvation's helmet on each end,
where truth occurred about. The earth shall tremble, neath our dread.
with a shout. Faith is a victory. Faith is a victory. Oh glorious victory that overcomes
the world. To him that overcomes the foe. Wide raiment shall begin before the angels
From the hills of light, our hearts full of a flame
Will vanquish all the hosts of night
In Jesus' concrete name
Faith is a victory
Amen. Wonderful seeing you. Let's serve our service with a word of prayer.
Dear God and my father, we thank you so much. We're God that you give us the
victory over death through faith in your son Jesus Christ.
Lord, we do pray that you please just bless every aspect of the service, O Lord.
I pray that you would please bless our singing unto you, O Lord, your God, and most importantly, the preaching of your word.
I pray that you please just fill a pastor with your Holy Spirit, O Lord, your God, guide him through the scriptures.
And I pray that you'd also just please be with us in the congregation, O God, help us, O God, to pay attention to the Sermon, O God, that there be no distractions.
And I pray that you would please, O God, help us, O God, to absorb all the truth, O God, as well and apply it to our lives, O God, this evening.
Song number 335, song number 335.
Seat on that first verse.
It may be in the valley where countless dangers hide
It may be in the sunshine that I in peace abide
But this one thing I know, if it be dark or fair
If Jesus goes with me, I'll go anywhere
Deseret to me, where I may repeat
If he is there, I counted a privilege here
His cross to bear
If Jesus goes with me, I'll go anywhere
It may be I must carry the blessed word of life
Across the burning deserts to those in sinful strife
And though it be my heart to bear my colors there
If Jesus goes with me I'll go anywhere
If Jesus goes with me I'll go
Anywhere, it is heaven to me, wherever I may be, if he is there.
I counted up rivers here, his cross to bear, if Jesus comes with me, I'll go.
Anywhere.
If it be my portion to bear my cross at home
Beyond the billows flow
I'll prove my faith in him
Confess his judgments fair
And if he stays with me
I'll go anywhere
If Jesus goes with me I'll go
This heaven to me, wherever I may be, if He is there, I counter up privilege here.
His cross to bear, if Jesus goes with me I'll go.
And He, where on that last singing out unto the Lord,
It is not mine to question the judgments of my Lord.
It is but mine to follow the leading of His word.
But if to go or stay, or whether here or there,
a we by my Savior contends anywhere.
If Jesus goes with me, I'll go.
Just have it to me, wherever I may be, if he is there, I counted a prayer of this year.
His cross to bear, if Jesus goes with me, I'll go.
All right, good evening, everyone.
Welcome to First Words Baptist Church.
We would like to welcome just some announcements
before we sing our next song, which
would be song number 212, Oh, Happy Day.
Song number 212, if you'd like to get that ready.
We'd like to welcome you back to our Thursday night service.
We're currently going through the book of Isaiah
at 7 PM on Thursday nights.
Today was our birthday breakfast.
Happy birthday to everyone who has their birthday in April.
So many teams and times are there below.
I was speaking to a young man on my team
the other day, yesterday.
I won't say his name, but it rhymes with Adrian.
And he didn't really, I told him that I went out
so when it on Tuesday, I went out.
Me and Pastor, we got some people saved.
And he was like, what?
You guys go so when it on Tuesday,
is that like an official thing?
Yeah, it's right here.
You can look down the bulletin, it's right here,
it's in this boxer here, it's nice,
so many teams and times.
So if you like to participate in so many,
you can just look down here.
Sunday evening afternoons are not the only day
that we go so winning, right?
All right, continue to pray for the expecting mothers.
We have a new couple, Miss Freddie and Karina,
to add to our list here.
We had Miss Caitlyn's baby shower today.
It went great.
I mean, it looks like a lot of delicious food there.
Our big push is for Easter.
We have our Easter cards going and take as many as you can
and just give them to your co-workers,
your friends, your family.
Invite them to come to our service, April 20th.
And then we have a...
Now I was gonna say birthday breakfast, but we have a breakfast at 945 to make sure you bring your
Your guests if they're gonna come make sure you bring them there so they can get a breakfast as well
T you want a mission trip will be saturday april 26 meeting at the building at 9 15 and then we have a science meetup sunday april 27th
After the evening service
Please silence your phone to not be disturbance to the service
And that's it for the announcements.
Please open up your hymnals to song number 212.
Oh, happy day.
Song no. 212, sing it on that first verse.
Oh, happy day that fixed my joys,
Undy my Savior and my God,
Who made this glowing heart rejoice,
And tell the raptures all abroad.
Happy day, happy day,
For Jesus washed my sins away,
To watch and pray, and live rejoicing every day.
Happy day, happy day, when Jesus walks, my sins away.
Oh, happy bond that seals my vow, to him the merits of my love.
The cheerful anthems fill his house, well to the sacred shrine I move.
Happy day, happy day, when Jesus washed my sins away
He taught me how to watch and pray and live rejoicing every day
Happy day, happy day, when Jesus washed my sins away
Just on the grave
transaction son I am my Lord and he is mine I followed on charm to
confess the voice divine happy day happy day when Jesus washed my sins away he
When Jesus washed my sins away
Now rest my long divided heart
Fix on this fistful center rest
Forever from my Lord depart
With him a very good possess
Happy day, happy day
When Jesus washed my sins away
Happy day, happy day, when Jesus washed my sins away.
Amen, wonderful singing.
At this time, our ushers will be receiving the offering.
And please turn your Bibles to Hebrews chapter 6.
Good evening. So now we're in Hebrews chapter six.
Hebrews chapter six, the Bible reads,
therefore leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ. Let us go on to perfection, not laying
again the foundation of repentance from dead works and a faith toward God and of the doctrines of
baptisms and of laying on of hands and of resurrection of the dead and of eternal judgment.
And this will be due if God permit.
For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened and have tasted of the heavenly
gift and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost and have tasted the good word of God and the
powers of the world to come.
They shall fall away to renew them again into repentance, seeing they crucified to themselves
the Son of God afresh and put up to an open shame.
For the earth which drinketh in the rain, and cometh oft upon it, and bringeth forth
herbs meat for them, by whom it is dressed, receiveeth the blessing from God.
But that which bear thorns and briars is rejected, and is nigh in a cursing, whose end is to
be burned.
But, beloved, we are persuaded better things of you, and things that accompany salvation
thus that we thus speak.
For God is not unrighteous to forget your work, and labor of love, which he hath showed toward
his name, in that ye have ministered to the saints, and do minister.
We desire that every one of you do so the same diligence to the full assurance of hope unto the end.
That you be not slothful, but followers of them who through faith and patience inherit the promises.
For when God made promise to Abraham, because he could swear by no greater, he sware by
himself, saying, Surely, blessing I will bless thee, and multiplying I will multiply thee.
And so, after he had patiently and dirty obtained the promise, for men verily swear by the greater,
and an oath for confirmation is to them an end of all strife, wherein God, willing more
abundantly to show under the heirs of promise the immutability of his counsel, confirmed
that by two immutable things in which it was impossible for God to lie,
we might have a strong consolation who have fled for refuge till they hold upon the hope set before us,
which hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast,
and which entereth into that within the veil,
whether the forerunner is for us to enter even Jesus,
made in high priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.
Let's pray to Lord God. Just thank you for this time. We have to hear the preaching of your word Lord
We should pray that you're with us in this service Lord
Please Philpastor may hear with your Holy Spirit Lord as he preaches us your word Lord and just give us and the congregations ears
They're here to the message. He's preferred for us Lord. We pray this on Jesus name. Amen
Amen.
Okay, we're in Hebrews chapter 6 this evening.
Look at verse number 1.
It says, Therefore, leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ, let us go on into
perfection, not laying again the foundation, meaning those principles of the doctrines
of Christ.
And he begins to list them here.
He says, The foundation of repentance from dead works, and of faith toward God, verse
of the dead and eternal judgment.
And the title of my sermon this evening
is the Doctrine of Baptisms.
The Doctrine of Baptisms.
And I want you to notice that it says in verse two,
Baptisms plural, meaning that the Bible teaches
specific things regarding various types of Baptisms
in the Bible.
There's not just one type of Baptism in the Bible.
There's actually various types.
And if we're not careful, we can often confuse one with another.
We can often amalgamate them just because it says baptism
and automatically assume that this is just all referring to water baptism.
And tonight, we're going to talk about the subject of baptism.
And let me just say that this idea came about when I heard about this movement
called Baptized California.
And this is something that's been going on
probably over the last couple of years.
But basically what this is,
is it's an interdenominational movement
that's taking place in Huntington Beach
in the month of May and June,
where all of these churches of different faiths
with different types of beliefs
gather together to baptize all of their converts.
And, you know, as far as numbers are concerned,
they have a pretty high success rate.
You know, they baptize thousands of people.
And this is something they're going to do this year in May.
I think it's on the third or so.
They'll go down to Huntington Beach,
they'll put their differences aside, of course,
their doctrinal differences aside,
and they will baptize a bunch of people.
Now, here's the thing is that,
at face value, you may think to yourself,
what's wrong with that?
People are getting baptized,
and people are doing this biblical ordinance of baptism.
What's wrong with that?
Well, let me just say that it's possible,
because there's so many people getting baptized,
it's possible that someone is getting baptized
because they got saved.
And I'm not gonna write it off as that being not a possibility
because when you have such a high number
of people getting baptized,
there's probably gonna be someone there
who actually is getting baptized after they get saved.
Just like a person going to the crusades with Billy,
well what's his name, I can't remember his name now.
Billy Graham, you know hearing his false gospel, but then when they go to the altar
There might be someone there who actually preaches the right gospel and ends up getting that person safe
The law of number says it's possible that some of those people are saved and they're getting baptized thereafter. However
With that being said, I would surmise that the vast majority of them are not saved
Now the reason I say that is because the promotional video that's being given about this baptized, California
You know they have this whole theatrical video promoting this and this guy
he's watching Billy Graham and
Then he watches a video about Chuck Smith and Lonnie Frisbee and the whole Jesus revolution movement
Because that's where it started from in the 70s regarding this whole baptism thing and then he he comes to this conclusion
I want to give my life to Jesus. I want to get baptized. Hold on a second
Where is giving your life to Jesus and baptism have anything to do with the Bible?
There's nothing in the Bible that says give your life to Jesus and be baptized.
In fact, there's like no verse in the Bible that says give your life to Jesus in just one single moment.
What the Bible actually teaches is that on a daily basis we're to take up our cross and follow Him, right?
Essentially referring to the fact that we need to die daily, take up our cross,
follow the Lord, each and every day has to be a decision
to serve God, to obey His commandments, and guess what?
You have to renew that decision the following day.
There's no rollover serving God.
It's not like, well, you know, I'm deciding to serve God today
and therefore it's gonna happen tomorrow,
it's gonna happen this week, it's gonna happen this month
and for the rest of my life, eh, doesn't work that way.
The Bible says that we ought to be a living sacrifice, wholly acceptable to God, which
is our reasonable service.
The problem with the living sacrifice though is that it comes off the altar.
So you put it on the altar to be a living sacrifice and then it comes off the altar.
So you have to continuously decide to follow the Lord Jesus Christ.
Now of course I'm referring to people who are saved, right?
But here's the thing is that a lot of these people think that that's what salvation is is giving your life to God
Having a relationship with God and in fact some people in the comment section of these videos are saying this oh
Yeah, this is such a great event
I did this last year and I'm thinking about doing it again this year to recommit myself unto the Lord
Just completely misconstruing what baptism is all about
And so obviously, if you have thousands upon thousands,
and I'm talking about they have thousands of people
getting baptized in California,
and it's a movement that's all across the nation,
by the way, but they have thousands of people
who are getting baptized, let's just be honest here,
the vast majority of them probably don't have
a biblical understanding of what baptism is all about, okay?
And some of the people might mean well.
And I would even say maybe some of the Christian leaders
of these churches who are participating
might even mean well,
because they want to bring revival to California.
They want to bring a spiritual revival.
But you know what,
if you want to bring a spiritual revival to California,
it's not through baptism,
it's through preaching the gospel.
It's through getting people saved.
It's preaching the truth, preaching righteousness.
And let me just be honest with you,
I don't think the majority of those people
who are getting baptized at these events are saved.
Okay?
And so lest we should, you know,
be okay with such an event,
lest we should promote or support such an event,
we need to have a biblical understanding
of what baptism actually is according to the Bible.
And so tonight, I'm gonna give you three things
regarding the doctrine of baptism.
We're gonna talk about water baptism.
We're gonna talk about the baptism of repentance.
And then lastly, we're gonna talk about baptism
of the Holy Ghost.
And all three of these are completely different
one from another, okay?
So let's talk about...
Water baptism, go to Acts chapter two if you would.
Acts chapter number two.
The first doctrine of baptisms is water baptism.
Now, what am I referring to?
It's literally being fully immersed in water,
your body being fully immersed in water,
and fully coming out.
And this is an event that takes place after salvation,
meaning that salvation has to precede the event,
the active obedience known as baptism.
It's by being fully immersed in water,
So, it's salvation precedes baptism, it's by being fully immersed in water and it's
done, listen to this, in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.
All three of these elements are necessary in order to have a biblical baptism.
So, let's talk about salvation preceding baptism first and foremost, because again, a lot of
confusion is surrounded this ordinance of baptism because they think, well, I want to just give
my life to God and therefore I should get baptized.
and then you have to be baptized.
And after salvation, you can choose to give your life to God today,
but tomorrow you've got to renew that commitment once again.
So let me say this regarding salvation before baptism.
If you're not saved, you shouldn't be baptized.
If you're not saved and you get baptized,
you didn't get scripturally baptized, you got wet.
And don't be offended at this because sometimes we'll talk to people and they're like
Are you 100% sure that if you died today you go to heaven? They're like, oh, yeah, I got baptized
And we explained to them, well, baptism has nothing to do with your salvation, actually.
You know, you have to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, place your faith in Him.
The act of baptism has nothing to do with that.
And so if you're trusting in baptism for salvation, according to the Bible, you're not saved
yet, but you can get saved now.
And people are like, I can't believe you just said this or that.
I've been going to a church for 20 years, I haven't done this or that, and it's just
like, but this is what the Bible says, though.
And the fact of the matter is, is that you could have had an emotional experience, by
in your baptism, which a lot of people do.
You know, this event I'm sure is gonna produce
a very emotional reaction to people.
They're in the ocean, they're coming out.
Oh.
You know, they got the slow motion camera there
and everything, and it's just like,
I felt the presence of God.
But let me just remind you that feelings
doesn't bring veracity to facts.
Okay, just because you feel something doesn't mean it's actually right and
Let me give an example, you know for a long time before we got this heater
the way we baptized people was outside and
We used to just many of you actually were baptized in that manner and
Bagging it in Omani if someone said, you know, I want to get baptized because I got saved and therefore
I want to follow the Lord and believers baptism we would fill up the horse trough with the hose outside in December
And it's just like hop on in you know, and you know that they're in there
They're just like you know, they're doing the Harlem Shake while they're in there
And I'm just taking my time. I'm like
Tell us your name and
They're like mark
Tell us your full name though. Yes, you know
We would want a testimony of profession of faith and we baptize him and they're just like shivering
I'm telling you right now the only feeling they had was no feeling because their body is just probably completely numb
You know, feelings doesn't lend veracity to facts or to an experience.
We need to make sure that we recognize that the Bible teaches that we walk by faith and not by sight.
And I'm not discrediting feelings at all because feelings are important and emotions are important.
There are instances when you read the Word of God and you have a swelling joy, your tear comes to your eye,
and you have that feeling, but let me just say this.
The Bible's so true even if you don't cry.
The truth is the truth even if you don't get the feeling in your stomach
It's always going to be true enjoy the feelings when they come
But don't discredit the truth if it doesn't come and so what I'm saying here is just because someone has a feeling over an
Experience doesn't mean it's actually true doesn't mean that it's actually biblical
And we can't just look at an experience and say this has to be from God because I felt the presence of God
I just feel it on my stomach, but it contradicts the word of God. We need to decide what the Bible says
And so, talking about this matter of baptism, water baptism,
you know, if you have not been saved and you've been baptized,
and now you got saved, you have to be rebaptized.
And really, it's not a rebaptism, you're actually just being scripturally baptized.
Because according to the biblical standard the only baptism the God accepts is the baptism that comes after you get saved
Okay, and of course we know when we talk about getting saved
We're talking about believing on the Lord Jesus Christ for salvation not of works. It's not by repenting of your sin
It's not by keeping the commandments of God. It's not by your relationship with the Lord
It's not by you know knowing God and his word because quite frankly not a single person
Who gets saved knows God completely
You know to know him is to know his word
That's a lifelong process. We're talking about just placing your faith in him for eternal life to have the forgiveness of sins
Okay, look at Ash chapter 2 verse 37
It says here now when they heard this they were pricked in their heart and
Sentenced a Peter into the rest of the apostles men and brethren. What shall we do?
Then Peter said unto them, Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.
Now a lot of times false prophets, when they're preaching a false gospel, will often use this verse as a means to teach baptismal regeneration.
And they'll often say, in order for you to be saved you have to be baptized because it says here, Repent and be baptized every one of you for the remission of sins, another way of saying remission is forgiveness, right?
But this isn't what the verse is teaching at all.
When it says, repent and be baptized
for the remission of sin,
that word for can also be substituted with because.
So, repent and be baptized, every one of you, because of the remission of sins.
Why do we get right with God?
Why do we clean up our lives?
Why do we follow the Lord and believe in baptism because at salvation we receive the remission
of sins?
Okay?
And in fact, you know, a lot of times people who believe in baptism or regeneration love
to go to this verse and they'll say, it says right there, you've got to be baptized for
the forgiveness of sins.
Hold on a second.
Look at verse 21.
And it shall come to pass that whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved.
It's funny how they always want to focus on verse 38 and just completely ignore verse 21 that says you have to call upon the name of the Lord to be saved.
And by the way, calling on the name of the Lord is consistent with the Romans chapter 10 verse 9
that if thou shalt confess with thine mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in thine heart that God has raised him for the dead,
thou shalt be saved. And in fact verse 13 says, whose service shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.
We see here that what Acts 2 38 is teaching is what we're talking about tonight, which is you should be baptized
After you get saved after you receive the remission of sins after you've gotten eternal life through faith in his name
You should repent and be baptized and you know a lot of times churches like ours
Preaching like ours gets criticized a lot
Because they think, oh, that's just like a greasy grace.
That's a cheap grace.
You're saying, oh, you have to believe,
and then you just can live however you want.
But no, you can scour out my sermons all you want.
You'll never see that I teach that.
Because we teach that life has consequences.
Actions have consequences, right?
And we specifically teach that repentance of sin
is necessary after you get saved.
Not to maintain salvation not to get your salvation not to prove that you're safe
But because God wants you to do it
But can we all collectively agree that the vast majority of Christians just don't do that after they get saved many Christians
Just live a carnal life and in fact, they don't even know enough Bible to know what is sin
You know, they know lying is sin drinking alcohol is a sin
Fornication is a sin, but you know, you know the Bible teaches that the thought of foolishness is sin
So even thinking foolishness is sin in the eyes of God, but newer Christians don't really know that
until they get into a Bible-believing church they hear preaching and then God commands them to repent of that. In other words,
once we get saved and get into church, we get baptized, God wants us to start cleaning up our lives,
living a life that's pleasing unto him. But let me just remind you, even if you don't, you will suffer the consequences of your sin,
but you're not going to lose your salvation. It doesn't mean you're not saved because as we mentioned this morning,
But to him, that work is not.
But believe it on him to justify it, the ungodly.
His faith is counted for righteousness.
Now let me mention this is that a profession
of the right salvation needs to be given
in order to qualify for baptism.
We don't wanna just baptize people
just because they wanna get baptized.
So, oh, I wanna get baptized.
You know what we do at our church is we vet people.
We just ask them, it's like, okay,
what would you say someone has to do to be saved?
And if someone says, oh, repent of my sins.
Wrong answer.
Okay, and by the way, we don't say like wrong wrong wrong
fail the test
No, we we try to lead them to the Lord
Preach them the right gospel and then they could get saved after they they can get baptized after they get saved, right?
But we're not just gonna be like oh you want to get back sure why not you know just hop right on in
I'm not gonna question anything that you believe or anything like that
No
We have to ask people because the biblical model is that people get saved first and then water
Baptism proceeds thereafter go to Acts chapter 8 Acts chapter 8 if you would
Acts chapter number 8
Look at verse number 9
So we're talking about the doctrines of baptisms.
The first thing that we're going to look at is water baptism,
meaning being fully immersed in water as a profession of faith.
Look at Acts 8 verse 9.
It says, but there was a certain man called Simon,
which before time in the same city, we used sorcery.
and bewitched the people of Samaria giving out that himself was some great one
to whom they all gave heed from the least to the greatest saying this man is the
great power of God and to him they had regard because that
of a long time he had bewitched them with sorceries
but when they believed Philip preaching the things concerning the kingdom of God
and the name of Jesus Christ look what it says they were baptized
both men and women so what do we see here
Then they were baptized.
Look at verse 13.
Then Simon himself believed also,
and when he was baptized.
So what do we see here?
He believed, and then thereafter, he was baptized.
It says he continued with Philip, wondering,
and wondered, beholden the miracles and signs
which were done.
Skip down to verse 35, if you would.
Verse 35, brother Reuben, if you can turn that up please.
Verse 35 says, then Philip opened his mouth.
Turn it up as they make it cooler not hotter. Sorry got to clarify that real quick
Verse 35 says then Philip opened his mouth and began at the same scripture and preached unto him Jesus
Is referring to the Ethiopian eunuch and as they went on their way
They came into a certain water and the eunuch said see here's water
What does hinder me to be baptized very smart man, right?
He's like what's keeping me from getting baptized? There's water here. What is going to impede me?
What is keeping me? What is hindering me from being baptized verse 37 and Philip said if thou believe us with all thine heart
thou mayest
Now obviously the Ethiopian eunuch knew exactly what he meant by that right because what is his response?
And he answered it said I believe that Jesus Christ is the son of God
And this is obviously based upon the reading of the Scripture in Isaiah 53 that he had that he got from Jerusalem
Look at verse number 38 and he commanded the chariot to stand still and they went down
both into the water, both Philip and the eunuch and he baptized him.
So the evangelist Philip, even he understood, oh this person wants to be baptized, you know
okay if you believe with all your heart, you may.
And he's like, he made a profession of faith, good enough for me, let's get him in the water,
baptize him right away.
Now let me just mention that this is why it's important to use the King James Bible.
Because the vast majority of the modern versions of the Bible remove verse 37, okay?
Which is a problem because if the Ethiopian eunuch is asking what does thunder mean to be to be baptized?
And then it goes to verse 38 and he commanded the chariots stand still they both went down into the water and he baptized them
Well, you're missing the most important part, which is verse 37 that says if you believe with all your heart and
A lot of the modern versions of the Bible either literally remove the verse
Meaning, you'll have verse 36, just the number 37,
and then verse 38, or it has the verse there
with the little footnote at the bottom that says,
this was not in the original languages,
in the original manuscripts, false.
Of course, it's in the original manuscripts.
You know how I know?
Because it coincides with the entire narrative
of the New Testament that you have to believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ before you get baptized.
Plain and simple.
You know, those footnotes cast doubt on God's word.
And so, is it any wonder why a lot of these people who are participating in baptized California are using the modern versions of the Bible?
Oh, yeah, you can get baptized. You want to get baptized? Sure. Why don't you do it? Just pop in the water.
We'll baptize you. No, you need to make sure that they're saved first.
So, baptism is by being fully immersed in water.
As we see here in verse 39, that they went down into the water, right?
and he came completely out.
Now this is important because, you know,
this is one of the reasons why we're characterized as Baptist.
You know why?
It's because we don't believe in sprinkling.
And we definitely don't believe in sprinkling babies
because the only people according to the Bible
that qualify for baptism are those who can believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ.
And I don't know if you know this,
babies can't do that yet.
You know, this is not a Roman Catholic church. This is not an Orthodox church and you know
This is not a Presbyterian Protestant church either
Because there are Protestants out there who baptize their babies
And when you ask them show me a verse in the Bible where babies are baptized. They can't do it
Or they'll point to you know act 16
Where the household is baptized
It's like, I'm sorry, infant.
Is there an infant in that house?
Oh, it's a household, so it must have an infant.
Folks, there's plenty of households that don't have infants.
There's people out there that just don't have babies.
They don't have children.
They're just adults, but that's their text verse.
They're like, oh no, no, it says household.
No, sorry, that's not good enough.
There's no other example given in the Bible
of children who can't understand the gospel
getting baptized in the Bible.
You know why there isn't, because it's not a biblical thing.
You know, and even if it was biblical, okay, let's just pretend for a second that it was biblical to baptize babies and children
Nowhere in the Bible. We see anybody getting sprinkled
And in fact baptism literally means what to be immersed
Not sprinkled
Immersed what does the most means it means you're fully put in and you're fully taken out now. Why is that important to know?
Well, here's the thing the last time I checked it wasn't just a little bit of dirt sprinkled on the Lord Jesus Christ when he died
Baptism pictures the death burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ
Did he just sprinkle some death?
Did he just sprinkle some resurrection?
Did he just go a little bit that he just put his head into the grave and only his head came out?
No, he fully went into the grave and he fully came out
Baptism though having nothing to do with salvation
symbolizes salvation
The fact that we go in with Christ and we come out in the resurrected form, okay?
And so baptism needs to be by being fully immersed in water
And in fact, let me read to you from the Gospels here. It says in Jesus when he was baptized
Went up straight way out of the water and
Low the heavens were opened unto him and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and lighting upon him
So when Jesus was baptized, which by the way proves two things
First thing it proves is that baptism is not necessary for salvation
Why because well, why was Jesus being baptized? He is salvation
Secondly that baptism is by being fully immersed in water as proven by the fact that he's coming completely out straight way out of the water
Okay, and so no sprinkling is done in the Bible
It pictures the death, barren resurrection of Jesus Christ, which is fully symbolized and fully going in the water and coming out.
Go with me, if you would, to Matthew chapter 28. Matthew chapter 28, if you would.
Matthew chapter 28. We're talking about the doctrines of baptisms.
Water baptism, salvation precedes baptism.
Baptism is by being fully immersed in water.
And then lastly, baptism is done in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
You say, well, yeah, I mean, why is that important to even talk about?
Because you have another movement when it comes to water baptism, where they want to baptize you in the name of Jesus.
And you're like, whoa, hold on. Is that bad or what?
Well, when Jesus says to do it this way and you do it another way, yeah, that's bad.
Right when Jesus says literally to baptize in the name of the father the son of the Holy Ghost and you're like no
We're gonna baptize in your name instead. Yeah, that's called disobedience
Look at Matthew 28 verse 19 says go eat there for and teach all nations
Baptizing them in the name of the father and of the son and of the Holy Ghost and that name is Jesus
No, we don't see that now do we?
It says teaching them to observe all things,
whatever I've commanded you,
and allow I'm with you always,
even into the end of the world, amen.
You know, it just astounds me how many times
Christians so-called, who baptize in the name of Jesus,
don't reference Matthew 28.
Or how many times they just completely ignore
what Jesus said in Matthew 28.
And you know, they'll point to all the verses
in the book of Acts that talks about
baptizing in the name of Jesus,
even though the book of Acts is a book
You know, the Acts of the Apostles, but they just stay away from Matthew 28, the actual
instructions on how to baptize.
And let me just say this, people who baptize in the name of Jesus often uphold a false
doctrine known as modalism, okay, meaning that they believe that Jesus is the Father.
No, we believe in the trinity because the Bible teaches the trinity these three are
One the three distinctive persons in one God
And so that's what the Bible teaches and Jesus said plainly to baptize in the name of the Father and the Son of the Holy Ghost
So let me just say this if you were previously baptized in the name of Jesus
I believe you need to be baptized again. That's not a scriptural manner of getting baptized
Now go to Mark 16 if you would Mark 16 actually skip Mark 16 go to 1st Corinthians chapter 9 1st Corinthians chapter 9
I'm gonna read you for Mark 16
Talk about the doctrines of baptisms
Talk about water baptism if you've been saved you believed on the Lord Jesus Christ
Your first step of obedience is to be fully immersed in water making a profession of faith in Christ
Identifying with his death prayer and resurrection through water about baptism
And, you know, if you just recently got saved.
Then you know what?
That water is nice and ready for you to go, okay?
We'll baptize you tonight, and you know, don't worry, I won't hold you under for too long.
Just enough for you to feel the death, and I'm just kidding, you know?
Just long enough.
No, no, I'm kidding.
I'm kidding.
You know, you go under, and you come right out, okay?
And again, it's a symbolic representation that has nothing to do with your salvation,
which we're going to go over in just a bit.
So that is water baptism.
The baptism of repentance isn't baptismal regeneration because the Church of Christ, the Catholic Church, various other so-called Christian denominations will teach that baptism can save you.
Being fully immersed in water or being sprinkled is what saves you, gives you salvation.
And they'll point to a lot of these verses that seem to imply that.
You know they'll point to a mark 16. They'll point to a 1st Peter chapter 3
They'll ignore the other clear portions of the scriptures and say you have to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and
That it's not a baptism
But they like to use these other portions of scriptures in order to substantiate their claims
So let's talk about that
I'm number two for mark 16 and verse 15 it says and he said unto them going to all the world and preach the gospel to every creature
He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved
And typically that's right where they stop.
They're just like, there you go.
Just don't, just don't worry any further though.
Says, he that believeth in his baptized shall be saved,
but he that believeth not shall be damned.
So what is the Bible telling us?
It's telling us that if a person believes
in his baptized, they will be saved.
However, if you don't believe,
meaning you don't believe under the Lord Jesus Christ,
and it removes the act of baptism,
it says, what does it say?
You'll be damned.
Clearly showing us that the main factor here is where you're placing your faith in for salvation. Okay
Now here's what I typically tell people when they when they come at me with baptism over generation
You know, they'll say no you have to be baptized in order to be saved
This is what what the Bible teaches and I often I'd set them up. I'll be honest with you. I set them up and
I'll tell them. What is the gospel?
Right, what's the gospel?
Gospel, according to 1 Corinthians chapter 15,
is the death, barren resurrection of Jesus Christ.
And according to the Apostle Paul and virtually
all the book of Romans, it's when we believe the Gospel,
right, that's what saves us.
The Gospel is the power of God into salvation
to everyone that believeth, right?
And they would have to just agree with that 100%
because it's literally what the Bible says.
So with that in mind look at 1st Corinthians chapter 9 verse 16 the apostle Paul speaking again
He says in verse 16 for though I preach the gospel
I have nothing to glory of, for necessity is laid upon me.
Yea, woe is unto me if I preach not the gospel.
There's some passion right here, right?
He's like, I need to preach the gospel.
Necessity is laid upon me to preach the gospel.
Woe is unto me.
What is woe?
It's like, may I be cursed, may I be punished by God
if I don't preach the gospel.
You won't walk away from that saying like,
man, he's really serious about preaching the gospel.
It's something that is very important to him.
It's something that apparently you should be doing.
It's something that the Apostle Paul took very serious.
Now go to 1 Corinthians chapter one,
1 Corinthians chapter one.
So according to the baptismal regeneration crowd,
if they believe baptism saves,
then they would have to concede
that baptism is the gospel.
Because in order to reconcile
Roman chapter one that says that the gospel is the power of God into salvation and they also believe that baptism saves
They would have to say oh baptism is part of the gospel since the gospel saves and we believe that baptism saves
Okay, you guys get what I'm saying here
Baptism is the gospel according to them because the gospel is the power of God into salvation.
You have to be baptized in order to be saved.
Hold on a second.
They'll look at 1 Corinthians 1 verse 12.
Now this I say that every one of you say,
I am of Paul and I of Apollos and I of Cephas and I of Christ.
Is Christ divided?
Was Paul crucified for you?
Were you baptized in the name of Paul?
I thank God that I have baptized none of you.
But Christmas in Gaius.
Lest any should say that I baptized in my own name so ma'am is Paul Baxling here or what?
He's like, I'm glad I didn't save any of you. I
Didn't baptize any of you according to their interpretation
Less verse 15 less any should say that I baptize in my own name and I baptize also the house of Staphon is beside
I know not whether I baptized any other
Now here's the key, verse 17, for Christ sent me not to baptize.
Well, that's kind of weird because if baptism saves, then that would mean that baptism is the gospel
and apparently Apostle Paul is being obedient to the gospel.
Since he's saying Christ did not send me to baptize.
And anytime I've shown this verse to those who believe in baptism over generation, I've got nothing to say.
Oh, you're misinterpreting that.
Go ahead and interpret it for me.
Cause my five year old can interpret this.
You don't really need the Greek for this.
And you don't need the Hebrew cause it's not in Hebrew.
You could read it in any language,
it'll say the same exact thing.
You possible are saying Jesus didn't send me to baptize
and in fact, let's read on, but to preach the gospel.
Shown as conclusively that the gospel and baptism are two separate things
Why because one saves you and one doesn't
He says now with wisdom of words, let's the cross of Christ should be made of none effect
And let me just remind you that people who preach baptism over generation are making the cross of Christ of none effect
They're making the cross of Christ ineffective. It's null and void to the recipient because it's not the gospel
We're not downplaying the importance of baptism, but baptism has its place after salvation
Church attendance has its place, but after salvation reading the Bible has its place after salvation
repenting of sin has its place after salvation
But any one of those things done for salvation immediately is a false gospel immediately
according to the Bible.
And the apostle Paul confirms this.
You know, he says in Galatians chapter one,
if anyone preaches another gospel,
then that which we have preached unto you,
let him be a curse.
What's another gospel?
Anything that you're placing your faith in
that substitutes the Lord Jesus Christ's
sacrifice on the cross.
You know what?
That's exactly what baptism is.
It's a cheap substitute for that.
And you know, here's the thing is that
a lot of these people believe in baptism over a generation,
believe you can lose your salvation.
So how many times do you have to be baptized?
You just got to get baptized over and over and over and over again
Oh, but doesn't the Bible say not by works of righteousness which we have done but according to his mercy
He saved us by the washing and regeneration renewing of the Holy Ghost. Yeah, that's not baptism
Because I don't know if you know this but you know this this holy water can't wash away your sins
It could barely even wash away the dirt on your skin
If that
I mean if we get about five people getting baptized you know after a while there's gonna be some dirt floating around there
But that's as far as it's gonna get
The washing away of sins what can wash away my sins?
Nothing but the blood of Jesus and you know that's consistent with the Bible teaches
Bible teaches that we receive the remission of sins through his blood
Okay
It goes on to say, verse 18,
for the preaching of the cross is to them
that perish foolishness, but unto us which are saved,
it is the power of God.
Oh, you think it's foolish to say that if we believe
on the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, that that's foolish.
Oh, you think it's foolish that he was delivered
for our offenses and raised again for our justification,
and only by our faith in Christ is foolish,
but to us it's the power of God, as the Bible says.
What the Bible actually teaches is that if anyone places
their faith in anything else other than Jesus Christ,
that's stupid.
Oh, you shouldn't say that's what foolish means. It's stupid now. Let's go to 1st Peter chapter 3 real quick
Since we're on the topic before I actually get into what baptism baptism of repentance is
Let's go ahead and just debunk this baptismal regeneration nonsense
And again the reason we call ourselves Baptist
Is because people by and large know that we baptize our converts after they get saved. That's what they call as baptists
Okay, look at 1st Peter chapter 3 verse 18. There's another portion of scripture that people try to twist to teach baptismal regeneration
We'll skip down to verse 20. It says which sometime were disobedient
When once the long suffering of God waited in the days of Noah while the ark was a preparing
Wearing few that his eight souls were saved by water
The like figure we're unto even baptism doth also now save us,
not the putting away of the filth of the flesh,
but the answer of a good conscience toward God
by the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
There you go!
Baptism saves us!
You know, you would have a point there,
aside from the fact that Peter gave us an example of what he meant by that.
Because what's the example? Noah, right?
Is the example.
And it says in verse 20 that Noah,
while the ark wasn't prepared and weren't few,
that his eight souls were saved by water.
Now let me ask you a question.
Pop quiz, did water save Noah and his family?
What did the water do?
It killed everyone.
The entire world drowned.
The water did not save no one in his family. I don't know if you know the story
Okay, I don't know if you went to Sunday school class
But if you went to Sunday school class as a kid, we all know that the Ark saved
No in his family not the water
Well, why does it say it's those were saved by water well because they were right next to the water
Being in the Ark. They're saved by water
And in fact, I want you to notice verse 21,
the like figure were unto even baptism,
doth also now save us.
And of course you have that parentheses there,
meaning that you can continue the sentence there
without the middle part, what's in parentheses.
Doth also now save us by the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
So if we were to read it without this little
interim section here, we could read it like this.
The like figure were unto even baptism,
doth also now save us.
by the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
Now that actually fits the narrative of the entire Bible.
Because he was delivered for our offenses
and raised again for our justification.
And if Jesus Christ pictures the Ark,
and if no one in his family pictures the believer,
that makes total sense because they were fully placed
in Christ, Christ the Ark was baptized in water,
meaning that he fully died.
And when the waters receded, he fully came out.
And it's through his resurrection that we're saved.
Plain and simple.
But folks, this is how false prophets operate.
They want to take the most obscure scripture,
the most difficult scripture,
and try to teach a foundational doctrine off of that
to confuse you.
But you know what?
Thank God that the Bible is filled
with clear statements about salvation.
Yeah, but I mean like, how clear?
Oh, how about this?
You don't believe on the Lord Jesus Christ
and thou shalt be saved.
That's pretty easy.
For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever believeth
than him should not perish, but have everlasting life."
I don't think that's that clear though.
Okay, how about verse 36, he that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life.
He that believeth not the Son hath not life, but the wrath of God abideth on him.
Emphasis added, emphasis is mine.
Don't go to the obscure scriptures.
Don't interpret the clear passages using obscure passages.
Use the clear statements of the Bible
to interpret that which is obscure.
Because you and I both know the Bible
does not contradict itself.
So there's two statements in the Bible
that seem to be a dichotomy of sorts.
We know they're both saying the same thing.
We're just misinterpreting one.
Because God doesn't contradict itself.
Why would you say that it's by believing
on Jesus Christ only?
Right, and if by grace, then it is no more of works
Otherwise grace is no more grace and then another portion he says oh you have to yet
But you have to be baptized to be saved. Okay, then what's what the thief on the cross?
By the way, baptism over generation people hate the thief on the cross
Bros, I mean we always talk about like oh man. He didn't have chance to serve the Lord
I don't know he might be getting some rewards in heaven
You know because we've used him and his example so much to thwart the baptismal regeneration crowd
Because guess what when he was crucified he couldn't really get down to get baptized
This is what people often say. Yeah, but that was Old Testament though. So what?
Old Testament New Testament. I don't care what dispensation you believe in salvation has always been the same
No, in the Old Testament salvation was different that's interesting
Isn't there a verse in the Bible that says to him give all the prophets witness that through his name who serve a belief in him
Shall receive remission of sins
The prophets of the Old Testament say that you have to believe that's weird. No, it's not weird because their gospel is the same as ours
They look forward to the cross when we look back
What's the point that I make it the point that I'm making is baptism were generation is a false gospel
And you know what, you're like,
oh, you shouldn't be that mean about it.
Well, yeah, I get mean about things,
about a false gospel that's leading people to hell.
Because I promise you, there's well-meaning people
in those churches listening to that false gospel,
believing it, being deceived by it.
And you know what, if someone doesn't give them the truth,
they're gonna burn in hell for it.
They're gonna be baptized in eternal fire.
Now go to Luke chapter three.
Luke chapter number three, if you would.
So with that being said, let's talk about the baptism of repentance.
So we talked about water baptism, being fully immersed in water.
Now we're going to look at baptism of repentance. What does that mean? What is that referring to?
I'm losing my place here.
Look at Luke chapter 3 in verse number 1.
It says, Now in the 15th year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, Pontius Pilate being governor of Judea,
And Herod being Ted truck of Galilee his brother Philip Ted truck of itch area of the region of truckinitis
Lysinias the Ted truck of
Abiline and it's in Caiaphas being the high priest the word of God came into John the son of Zechariah's in the wilderness
And he came into all the country about Jordan, preaching the baptism of repentance for the remission of sins.
Now, automatically, people who read this, who are not saved or preaching a false gospel,
they'll insert that the baptism of repentance is referring to the fact that you have to repent of your sin to be saved.
Or they'll even relate this to water baptism, saving you as well.
People say it on both sides, but they'll talk about the baptism of repentance for the remission of sins for the forgiveness of sins
They'll say John the Baptist preached this he preached the baptism of repentance go to Mark chapter 1
Mark chapter number 1 and after mark 1 we're gonna go at Acts 19
Look what it says in Mark chapter 1
And verse number four, it says John did baptize in the wilderness and preached the baptism of repentance for the remission of sins.
And there went out unto 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 again, we see there the repentance for remission of sins.
What is this referring to?
Go to Acts chapter 19.
Acts chapter 19, if you would.
So a lot of times people will talk about this message
of repentance along with repent for the kingdom
of heaven as at hand and they will insert
repentance of your sins for the kingdom of heaven
as at hand, right?
Because you ask them, you're like,
where in the Bible does it say
you have to repent of your sins to be saved?
You're like, oh, repent for the kingdom of heaven
as at hand.
And it's just like, where does it say
repent of your sins to be saved?
Repent for the kingdom of heaven as at hand.
where does it say repent of your sins to be saved?
And I promise you, I've had people say to like,
are you deaf?
Repent for the kingdom of heaven, is it in?
And it's just like, there's no up sins there.
And what they are maintaining
is the word repentance always means to turn from your sin.
But that's a major
Misconstrued interpretation of the word repentance and here's probably the strongest reasons why is because the Bible records God repenting
So if repentance always means to turn from your sin, you're teaching blasphemy
Since the Bible records God repenting more than any person in the Bible
You know what that teaches us?
It teaches us that repentance doesn't always mean
term from your sin.
There are instances in the Bible where it means
to change what you believe.
And in the context of salvation,
it does not mean to term from your sin
because let me just be honest with you,
no one's able to do that.
And if you say you have no sin,
then you're calling God a liar according
to 1 John chapter one, verse number 10.
But, here's another reason why, is when John the Baptist preached repentance, first of all, he didn't say of sin,
secondly, the Apostle Paul expands or gives clarity to what he meant by that.
Look at Acts chapter 19, verse number 1.
It says, 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 unto them, Have ye received the Holy Ghost since ye believed?
And they said to him, we have not so much as heard
whether there'd be any Holy Ghost.
Okay, these guys aren't saved.
You know, if you find someone who calls himself a Christian,
here's a modern day version of this.
And you're like, you know,
so you receive the forgiveness of sin,
do you have eternal life?
I don't even know where eternal life is.
You're just like, oh, this person's not saved.
Because obviously the message of salvation
includes these things, right?
So if they never even heard of the Holy Ghost,
they're just like a false convert is what it is.
And look, that's a thing where people,
they go along to get along,
maybe they make a profession of faith,
but they don't really understand the gospel.
And this is an example of that, right?
And so look what he says in verse three,
and he said unto them,
unto what then were ye baptized?
And they said unto John's baptism.
You don't know who the Holy Ghost is?
Like, what'd you get baptized for?
Like, oh, we got baptized by John, John the Baptist.
I mean, John the Baptist, right?
The forerunner of Jesus Christ.
So they wanna use John the Baptist as credibility
to what they did.
They're like, oh, we were baptized for sure.
We were baptized.
I mean, I'm saved cause I was baptized.
And so Paul kind of gives them a reality check here in verse 40 says then said Paul
John verily baptized with the baptism of repentance like we saw in Luke chapter 3 Mark chapter 1, right?
Saying unto the people that they should believe on him which should come after him that is on
Christ Jesus
So when John the Baptist is preaching the baptism of repentance
The commentary that we're getting here from the Apostle Paul who's filled with the Holy Spirit is
bringing clarity to some of his statements some of the preaching that we didn't get in the Gospels and
That is that he's telling them believe on the Lord Jesus Christ
So when it talks about the baptism of repentance, it's not referring to water baptism
And it's not referring to repenting of your sins to be saved
Baptism of repentance is just another way of saying believe on the Lord Jesus Christ
You're like, why, why, why, why would you say that?
It's just so confusing.
Well, not in these days.
You know, right now, people confuse baptism
with only being water baptism
because that's what people associate it with.
Whereas in the Bible, baptism just has various meanings.
That's why the Bible talks about the doctrine of baptisms.
Because again, what does baptism mean?
What is the definition of baptism?
To be immersed.
When you believe on Jesus Christ,
what happens to you?
You're fully immersed in Christ.
You're placed in Jesus Christ, right?
You're not just a little bit of you. All of you goes into Christ.
Now go to Ephesians chapter 4 if you would. Ephesians chapter 4.
And then we're going to go to Colossians chapter 2. Ephesians 4 and then we're going to go to Colossians chapter 2.
Look at Ephesians 4 if you would.
Ephesians chapter four, verse number one says here,
I therefore the prisoner of the Lord
beseech you that you walk worthy of the vocation
wherewith you are called,
with all lowliness and meekness with long suffering
for bearing one another in love,
endeavoring to keep the unity of the spirit
in the bond of peace.
And I want you to notice these next couple of verses.
There is one body and one spirit,
even as you're called in one hope of your calling.
Verse five, one Lord, one faith.
One baptism
One God and Father of all who is above all through all and in you all now
What does it mean by one baptism? Well, we obviously know based upon Hebrew 6 that there's various forms of baptisms
So what is baptism referring to here? Well based upon the verse one Lord one faith. It's referring to one way of salvation
So the baptism of repentance
Coincides what we see here in Ephesians 4 verse 5 that the one baptism is referring to the fact that there's only one way to get saved
Because there's only one faith
Go to Colossians chapter 2
Colossians chapter 2 to further look at this
I'm going to read you from 1 Corinthians chapter 12 verse 12, you're going to Colossians
chapter 2.
1 Corinthians 12 says this, for as the body is one, and hath many members, and all the
members of that one body, being many are one body, so also is Christ.
And please listen here in verse 13, it says, for by one spirit are we all baptized into
one body.
Whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free and have been all made to drink in one spirit
For the body is not one member, but many. So the Bible is clearly telling us that the spirit through salvation
Places us into what? One body that body being Jesus Christ
That's what it means to be fully immersed in Christ to be baptized in the Lord
Look at Colossians chapter 2 and verse number 10
Skip down to verse 11 actually says in whom also you are circumcised with the circumcision
Made without hands in the putting off of the body of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ
Buried with him in baptism
Wherein also you're risen with him through the faith of the operation of God who has raised him from the dead
So the Bible says that we're buried with them by baptism now
The reason we know this is referring to water baptism is because you're not buried right now
Though you're literally baptized in water you didn't remain buried. It's obviously symbolic water baptism is symbolic
What this is referring to is what Ephesians chapter 4 verse 5 is referring to it's what first Corinthians chapter 12 verse 12
Is referring to that we're baptized into we are immersed into the Lord Jesus Christ by faith
Okay, now turn with me if you would we're gonna finish up here in just a bit
Let's just go to act chapter 2 act chapter 2
So what is the baptism of repentance is referring to the fact that the message of John the Baptist is to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ
which interpreted by Acts chapter 19 and
Ephesians 4 5 Colossians chapter 2 verse Corinthians 12 12 is that were being placed into Christ
You know just like no one in this family were placed into the ark
And by the way when they're placed into the ark and the wrath of God came they were sealed in the ark, right?
And the Bible says in Ephesians 1 verse 13 in whom you also trusted, after that you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and whom also after that you believed you were what, sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, which is the earnest of our inheritance unto the redemption of the purchased possession.
Makes sense, right?
Let me see here.
Let me just read to you from Romans chapter. You don't have to turn to Romans 6 verse 3 says this no
He not that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death
Therefore we are buried with them by baptism into death
That like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the father even so also we should walk in newness
of life where if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death
we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection
just adding further credence to the previous verses that teaches that we are placed
immersed in Christ. All right here's my last point and I'm not going to spend too much time on this
because it's pretty self-explanatory but it's worth mentioning. So we talked about
water baptism, we talked about baptism of repentance
and here's the last baptism is the baptism of the Holy Ghost.
This is something that a lot of Charismatics talk about
and they're just like, yeah, but were you baptized
with the Holy Ghost?
Can you speak in tongues, right?
And you know, I'm not gonna mock baptism
of the Holy Ghost in the New Testament
because it was a real thing.
It's not a legitimate occurrence and phenomenon today and I'm explained to you why the reason the phenomenon of the baptism of the Holy Ghost was
Necessary in the New Testament is because it operated as a springboard to start the New Testament churches
The Apostles were given the capability of doing some pretty crazy stuff in
Order to lend veracity to the message that they were preaching
So that's why people were being raised from the dead.
That's why they were able to speak in different languages.
That's why they were able to perform these great miracles
because it added credibility to their message.
And in fact, in Mark chapter 16, Jesus told them that.
You know, they're like,
you're going to be able to take up serpents and drink,
you know, venom and deadly poison
and nothing's going to happen to you.
You know, the apostle Paul did that, right?
Like a viper, like bid him.
And he just like shook it off and there he and I
Now here's what's funny about the baptism of the Holy Ghost of today
You know everyone wants to claim the baptism of the Holy Ghost because you know they can Hala Shalabala in the six-pack dollar all day long
About an eats on a shit about a Honda
And it's just like impressive
But yeah, I got a black Mamba for you
Let's see how well you do
With the rattlesnake because if you're baptized with the Holy Ghost if you're claiming this baptism of the Holy Ghost
It's not just speaking in different tongues
With tongues. It's also this other stuff, too
Yeah, I can heal people. Okay. Heal yourself. Let's see physician healed. I self here's here's a rattlesnake
And let's see how you do with that. I mean, that's interesting. They never want to try that
I'll tell you why because they're phonies and frauds. That's why
You know the baptism of the Holy Ghost was unique to the Apostles and New Testament believers in
Order to accelerate the genesis of the New Testament churches and needs a springboard
That's why so many people thousands of people are getting saved
churches being started in order to create momentum in the New Testament, but after the Apostles die out
Now you just have converts who are preaching the gospel now you have thousands of converts who are preaching the gospel
You don't need those miracles necessarily to confirm the message
The gospel is now the power of God into salvation to everyone that believe that in fact
Let me just be honest with you the gospel is the greatest miracle
Someone getting saved by believing the gospel is the greatest miracle now. That's not to say I true
I do believe in the end times
There's gonna be an outpouring of the Holy Ghost
During the tribulation more specifically great tribulation where God is going to allow a lot of these miracles to come back again
Because we're gonna go out with the bang
And in order to get a lot of people saved during this time
You know, I believe the Bible teaches that this is gonna happen
But I do not believe it is a current occurrence now. Don't misinterpret what I'm saying
I'm not saying that I don't believe in miracles because I do I
Just don't believe you can do miracles. I
Don't believe if I bring up Andreas up here and slap him on the forehead
All he's going to get is like a headache.
I'm not going to improve his life in any way.
If he's suffering from some illness, I'm not going to help him.
I can't help him.
I can pray for him, and if I pray for him and he's miraculously healed, it's because
of God.
It's not because he touched my garment or something.
And then virtue comes out of me or whatever.
We could all attest to the fact that we make each other sick,
actually, when we are in contact with one another.
The only thing we transmit one to another is sicknesses,
colds, and flus, stomach viruses, and whatnot.
And so we don't have any ability of that.
Now look at Acts chapter two, just to confirm that.
It says in verse number one, excuse me, of Acts two,
and when the day of Pentecost was fully come,
They were all with one accord in one place, and suddenly there came a sound from heaven
as a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the howls where they were sitting.
And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire.
And it sat upon each of them.
And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost
and began to speak with other tongues
as the Spirit gave them utterance.
There you go, pastor.
You're reading it right there?
They're speaking with tongues.
The Spirit has given utterance.
It's like fire.
We enjoy not just the first couple verses. We like the whole chapter
Says in verse 5 and they were dwelling at Jerusalem Jews devout men of every nation under heaven now when this was noise abroad
The multitude came together and were confounded because that every man heard them speak listen to this in his own language
Now correct me if I'm wrong
But not a single person who goes to one of these charismatic churches that speaks in tongues
What they claim to be tongues never do they hear them speak in their own language?
It's always that
Right
The miracle here is that there's Jews from different regions that speak different languages
that are coming to Jerusalem for the day of Pentecost and God is
miraculously allowing the apostles and the disciples to speak that language in order to preach the gospel unto them.
A language that they previously did not learn before or studied.
Okay?
Look at verse seven and they were all amazed and Marvel saying one to another. Behold are not all these which speak Galileans and
How here we every man in our own tongue?
Wherein we were born you see these charismatic want us to think that oh no tongues is like a language that only God
Understands, you know as the tongues of angels pastor. It's a heavenly language that no man could understand
But here's the problem with that interpretation saying that it's the tongue of angels the Bible records angels talking all the time
Every time you look throughout the Bible. You see angels. You'll see it angels to Gabriel talks Michael talks
Nameless angels talk they always talk in the Bible
They even in heaven when they're talking to God
They're they're talking they're saying you know, they're speaking the language and they're never like
So if we're to look at this from a biblical perspective, we cannot say that tongues is referring to blah blah
It has to be referring to an actual language
and here's the confirmation is that these people
are listening to them, these spirit-filled disciples
who have cloven tongues like as a fire,
they're filled with the Holy Ghost,
they've been baptized with the Holy Ghost
and they're speaking in Spanish.
You know, they're speaking, and not Spanish, obviously,
we're gonna look at the language,
but I'm saying they're speaking in an actual language.
That is known and in fact look at the list verse 9
Parthenians and Medes elamites the dwellers of Mesopotamia and Judea
Cappadocia and Pontius in Asia friggin Pamphylian Egypt and in the parts of Libya about
Cyrene and strangers of Rome Jews and proselytes
Cretes and Arabians we do hear them speaking our tongues the wonderful works of God
So, the baptism of the Holy Ghost was a supernatural phenomenon that took place in the New Testament
in order for all these people to get saved like in one sitting.
Because you have a bunch of people coming to Pentecost.
There's Jewish converts all around the region in that area.
They're coming to worship the Lord in Pentecost.
God has foreknowledge of this.
So it's like, hey, they're coming here.
Why don't I just allow you guys a reverse,
a good way to use the Tower of Babel type of a thing.
Let me just give you all different languages.
Confound the languages in order for you
to preach the word of God into them.
And that's exactly what happened.
So then these people get saved, and what happens?
They go back to their regions, churches get started,
more converts are made.
This was the purpose of the baptism of the Holy Ghost.
Now, I'm done, I had more verses,
but I'm way beyond my time here.
You know, I'm not saying that we cannot be filled
with the Holy Ghost.
Folks, I pray that God fills me with the Spirit
every single day.
And if there's a day that I'm not filled with the Spirit,
it's not because God's not filling me,
I'm just flushing, I'm grieving the Holy Spirit,
I'm quenching the Holy Spirit, it's my problem,
not because God is not making that available to me.
But let me just say this, when I am filled with the Spirit,
you know, God can use me, God can use you
with boldness to preach the word of God
and also to get people saved.
That is the purpose of the filling of the Holy Spirit.
You know, you should ask for the filling of the Holy Spirit
when you read the Bible.
Or fill me with your Holy Spirit as I read your Bible
so that you can submit yourself to the ministry
of the Holy Ghost and learn these things
from the Word of God.
Ask the Lord to fill you with the Spirit
when you're out there preaching the gospel.
Say, Lord, leave me to someone who wants to hear the truth.
Give me the words to say, fill me with boldness.
May the Holy Ghost speak through me.
That's what it means to be filled with the Spirit.
Not like you're not gonna adore him,
but like, huddle, laddle, laddle, laddle, laddle, laddle,
All of a sudden your fill is just like
You're just gonna scare people off like that don't do that
The filling of the Holy Ghost is this is is a something of substance that's used to get people saved
Speaking in tongues the way charismatic's do brings glory to themselves
Because people who watch are like oh wow this person's just really filled
But you know what speaking with tongues by preaching the word of God brings glory to God
Because people are being saved and so, you know, I know that's kind of a rabbit trail that we chased there regarding baptism
But you know, it's it's part of it. And so what is baptism? Well, it really depends on what you're talking about
Water baptism. We're about to see some tonight
It's people who are getting baptized as a public profession of their faith in Jesus Christ
It's following the Lord and believers baptism. It's the first step of obedience after someone gets saved
If you're not saved you should not be baptized
But if you are saved, you're like,
what must I do next?
Repent me, baptize, because of the remission of sins.
You know, and then, of course, we talked about
the baptism of repentance, which is simply
the message of salvation, believing on the Lord Jesus Christ.
And then the baptism of the Holy Ghost,
which was a New Testament occurrence,
in order to facilitate the growth of the churches
in the Book of Acts.
Pretty simple.
And that's it, let's pray.
Father, we thank you so much for your word.
Thank you for...
The explicit verses in the Bible that gives us knowledge of these things and Lord
We we're thankful for the baptism of repentance
The fact that if we believe on you were completely placed in Christ for salvation and
I pray Lord that you'd help us to have a deeper understanding of it as we read the word of God that we may not be
Confounded or confused and Lord I'm thankful for water baptism as well
People who decide to follow you in believers baptism, but of course we know that every person who does has to renew their commitments each and every day
The commitments that we keep to you today
Cannot roll over for tomorrow tomorrow. We need to die again
and nail ourselves to the cross, Lord,
be that living sacrifice upon the altar,
die to self, Lord, in order to follow you.
And I pray that, Lord, you would fill us all with your spirit,
fill us with your power to preach the gospel,
get people saved, and may you use this greatly
to bring honor and glory to your name.
We love you and we thank you.
Pray these things in Jesus' name.
Amen. Song number 36, constantly a writing. Song number 36, constantly a writing. There's our last song.
Song number 36. Sing it on that first verse.
There's a peace in my heart that the world never gave.
A peace it cannot take away
Though the trials of life may surround like a cloud
I've a peace that has come here to stay
is my constantly abiding rapture divine he never leaves me lonely whispers oh
came to sing of a savior and king, when peace weakly came to my arm.
Troubles all fled away, and my night turned to day.
abiding. Jesus is my...
This treasure I have in a temple of clay
Here on His foot do I roam
A body's coming to take me some glorious day
Over there too
abiding. Jesus is mine, constantly abiding.
Amen as we wait for our baptism. Let's sing number song number 24 and can it be song number 24
Song number 24 and can it be
So 24 see on that first verse
And can it be
Till death pursue
Amazing love, how can it be
That thou, my God, should die for me
Amazing love, how can it be
All right, we have a baptism here, tell us your name.
Robert, have you trusted Jesus as your savior?
Okay, upon your public profession,
I'm gonna now baptize you in the name of the Father,
and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit,
going to cross your arms over your chest,
buried in the likeness of his death,
raised to walk a newness of life.
Congratulations.
Alright, let's pray and we'll be dismissed. Father, we thank you again for a great Sunday.
Thank you for all those who came. Thank you for the baptism and those who were saved throughout
the day. I pray that you bless us as we go on our way. Lord, help us not soon forget
the messages of this morning and, of course, of tonight. And may you use this in a great way,
Lord, to bring honor and glory to your name. We love you. We thank you. Pray this things in Jesus'
name. Amen. You are dismissed.