🎵Music🎵
Hello. Welcome to Sure Foundation Baptist Church. Thank you for coming out to our Sunday
morning service. Let's take our seats and find our blue hymnals and turn to page 368.
Find our seats and turn to your blue hymnals. Page 368, Blessed Assurance.
Page 368, Blessed Assurance. Sing it out on the first.
Blessed assurance, Jesus is mine. Oh, what a foretaste of glory divine.
Heir of salvation, purchase of God. Born of His Spirit, washed in His blood.
This is my story. This is my song. Praising my Savior all the day long.
Perfect submission, perfect delight. Visions of rapture now burst on my sight.
Angels descending, bring from above. Echoes of mercy, whispers of love.
This is my story. This is my song. Praising my Savior all the day long.
Perfect submission, all is at rest. I am my Savior in happy and blessed.
Watching and waiting, looking above. Filled with His goodness, lost in His love.
This is my story. This is my song. Praising my Savior all the day long.
Amen. Great singing this morning. Brother Joe Ritchie, can you open us with a word of prayer?
Amen. Let's turn to page 106. We're going to sing, Leave Me to Calvary.
Page 106, Leave Me to Calvary.
Page 106, sing it out loud on the first. King of my life, I crown Thee now.
Thine shall the glory be. Lest I forget Thy Thor crown grow.
Leave me to Calvary. Lest I forget Gethsemane.
Lest I forget Thy nagony. Lest I forget Thy love for me.
Leave me to Calvary. Show me the tomb where Thou wast laid.
Tenderly born and wed. Angels of Rome, apply the rain.
Garden me whilst Thou sweat. Lest I forget Gethsemane.
Lest I forget Thy nagony. Lest I forget Thy love for me.
Leave me to Calvary. Let me like Mary through the gloom
come with a gift to Thee. Show to me now the empty tomb.
Leave me to Calvary. Lest I forget Gethsemane.
Lest I forget Thy nagony. Lest I forget Thy love for me.
Leave me to Calvary. May I be filling Lord to bear.
Daily my cross for Thee. Even my cup of green to share.
Thou hast borne all for me. Lest I forget Gethsemane.
Lest I forget Thy love for me. Leave me to Calvary.
On our front cover we have our verse of the week. It says,
But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be entreated,
full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality and without hypocrisy.
James chapter 3 verse 17. That's a great verse there.
Our service times are 10 30 a.m. for the preaching service.
And Sunday evening is our afternoon service, excuse me, is 3 30 p.m.
And Thursday Bible study is at 6 30 p.m. We'll be in Hebrews chapter 8 this coming Thursday.
Our soul winning times are listed below. We have soul winning today.
Please be in the auditorium if you're planning on going out from here at 1 10.
There's going to be a short five minute sermon before we go out soul winning.
And then if you haven't gone soul winning or you're not in the WhatsApp group,
please see Brother Sean Connolly sitting right there.
Raise his hand for you.
And so if you're wanting to get into soul winning, get involved in soul winning, he's the man to see on Sundays.
So we also have other times and we do kind of pop up sleeper cell ones that we do throughout the week sometimes.
So just kind of be paying attention for that, for extra soul winning times.
And it's starting to get nice. So we'll probably be doing a lot more soul winning.
As a matter of fact, we have a lot more scheduled to take place.
So anyway, and if you don't know what soul winning is, it's when we go and knock on doors and try to present people with the gospel and show them the truth that the gospel is what saves.
And if someone's lost, then we try to lead them to salvation through the scriptures, because that's what Jesus said to do.
He said, Go ye therefore and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son and the Holy Ghost.
So that's what we try to do with this church.
Our praise report, you can see the salvation, baptisms and attendance.
I baptized a man last week that had gotten saved three years before in Spokane.
And he threw some persistence of some of our church members.
But Brother Sean, he was one of the guys that had led that guy to the Lord.
And so it's nice to see the fruit of what you do come get baptized, because not everybody comes and gets baptized, do they?
Not everybody comes to church, but it doesn't mean they didn't get saved, right?
So that's proof in the pudding there that people do get saved, and sometimes it just takes them a while to get involved.
So anyway, and then Brother Ian, I think, baptized too.
We're going to have two baptisms this morning, as far as I know, two baptisms this morning.
So right after the service, just be patient.
And we have the water's all warm and ready to go.
So if there's anybody else that wants to get baptized, feel free, because today's a good day to do it.
The water's warm. The day is beautiful so far.
I think that might change later, but if you've never been scripturally baptized, then there's nothing stopping you.
If you're saved, then there's nothing that should be stopping you from getting baptized.
Anyway, our upcoming events.
Next Saturday, we have a big soul-winning push, and we're trying to just hit the areas that are around the church right now.
And we're supposed to have this app going, but I'm having difficulties getting a hold of the guy.
So even if we don't, I do have some special invitations that were made just for next Saturday.
They look the same as our other ones, but they have a QR code on the front of it.
And so we're kind of experimenting a little bit with this technology.
And basically, if someone gets saved, they can scan that QR code and then say,
Hey, I got saved. I'd like some follow-up in whatever area.
So basically, we want to try to follow up with the people that we get saved or the people that are interested in coming to church.
And so it's kind of something that we're working on trying to get done.
And I'm going to try really hard to get a hold of the guy as far as the app goes.
And even if it's not 100% perfect, we can still run with what we got.
We do have a map that we can work off of that's already inside the app.
So the app is called SWAP, S-W-A-P-P.
If you download that app and go under – what is the name of the – I can't remember what the – it's Cross Crusaders.
Then you can actually work off that map and you don't have to have access to anything except for just that map.
So we're going to try to hit all the areas that are surrounding the building.
So it would be anything over across Mill Plain, back behind us, on the side of us, wherever the immediate area is.
We have enough invitations to handle that day, the special invitations.
So I'm going to ask that you hand out those special invitations on that day.
We're going to meet here for breakfast about 9.30 a.m. and then we'll go out soloing at 10.30 and we'll knock doors for a couple hours.
We'll come back here, have some lunch, and then we'll go out for another couple hours and we're going to try to push forward.
It's April 1st, so we're trying to get as many people that don't believe on the Lord to believe on the Lord, right?
And the Bible says the fool has said in his heart there is no God.
So we're going to try to show some fools out there and obviously people – that's a negative word.
But it just means that they're not – I mean basically in that context it's talking about someone that's not saved.
They're not smart because they're not saved.
So anyway, April 2nd is going to be the Lord's Supper. That'll be at the p.m. service.
So that's next Sunday at 3.30 p.m.
So if you are a part of this church and you don't have to be on some special list or something to be part of this church,
you just have to be saved and baptized to partake.
So – and I'm not going to jump on you and say, have you been baptized, you know, or anything like that.
I'm just going to leave it up to your judgment.
I don't police the Lord's Table, but I would just say – and I would warn you not to take the Lord's Supper unless you've done those two things.
Obviously, salvation, it's what's the point of taking the Lord's Supper if you're not saved.
And the Bible says the next thing you're supposed to do after you get saved is get baptized.
I'll be preaching about that this morning.
So you'll have a really clear understanding in the p.m. service tonight.
I'm preaching about the other ordinance that pictures the death of Christ and that is the Lord's Supper.
So if you want to understand why we baptize, what baptism represents,
and then at the 330 service I'm going to be preaching about the Lord's Supper and what we believe about that.
So the two pictures that we do in the Bible that we do to remember Christ is just those things – baptism and the Lord's Supper.
So I'll be teaching about those two ordinances today.
And hopefully you have a good idea of what we believe at the end of that.
And hopefully you'll believe the same thing according to the Scriptures.
So that'll be next Sunday.
And April 8th is the big soul-winning push we're going to do in Portland.
So it'll be something similar, maybe not as long, but we'll do something similar in Portland.
Is there anybody that wants to volunteer to make the maps for the Portland?
Brother Robert, Brother Sean, you guys can get together if you want.
You can fight? No, I'm just joking.
But it can either be – obviously I just want it to be in a receptive area of Portland.
So either Gresham or like North Portland or something like that.
So either one's fine.
And April 9th is of course Easter Sunday.
We're going to have a potluck after the service.
There'll be a sign-up put into the WhatsApp group if you –
and then obviously the church will provide like the ham or whatever we're going to have.
And we just want you to bring all the good side dishes like the Baptist eggs.
They call them deviled eggs, but we call them Baptist eggs.
So we don't want to give the devil any glory in this church.
And then there'll be other side dishes to sign up for and desserts of course.
So we're going to have a potluck after the morning service.
And we'll also have something set up so you can take pictures.
So even if it's raining, a lot of people like to go outside and take pictures.
And I get that. That's cool.
But we'll have something set up so that you can take family pictures here on Sunday morning.
And no, there won't be any bunnies. No, there won't be any eggs.
So don't get offended before we even start.
And if you believe it should be called the resurrection Sunday, that's fine.
I agree with you that Jesus did resurrect.
But Easter has a negative connotation with some conspiracy theorists online.
And all that stuff is just made up stuff.
So I don't have any problem calling it Easter.
So anyway, April 11th is the OMSI homeschool field trip.
That'll be at 930 a.m.
Tomorrow's the deadline to sign up for that.
So Miss Rachel's in the back right there.
Wave your hand up.
We do have some new people at our church.
And it is a homeschool field trip.
So if you're a homeschooling parent, you're more than welcome to come.
We'll pay your admission.
But we do need to know that you're coming.
So I think a lot of people signed up.
And so that's the deal.
Do we have to pay for parking?
Yes? No? Okay, no.
All right, that's good.
So no parking payment.
So just show up there at the scheduled time.
And it's for general admission and the planetarium show.
So obviously if there's some kind of weird...
Is there like some kind of theme going on right now?
No? Okay.
Because we don't want to do like...
We don't want to do Pompeii and accidentally walk into that nightmare.
So that was really Sean Harrington's fault.
No, I'm just joking.
No, Sean Harrington brought it to my attention.
But I had no idea that it was going to have all that weird stuff in there.
So I apologize still years later about that one.
So anyway, moving on.
April 12th, we have the crochet class.
It'll be at 3 p.m. here at the church building.
See Mrs. Boda for any questions.
Where are you at, Mrs. Boda? She's not here?
Oh, she's not here. Okay.
So April 13th through 17th is the Detroit soul winning trip.
Getting excited about that.
We have a lot of people that are showing up for that.
Who's coming to that?
I am. All right, great.
So we're going to go to Detroit.
And people are like, why Detroit?
Well, Detroit's very receptive.
We've been there and just impoverished.
And we want to go.
And the Bible says we're supposed to preach the gospel to the poor first.
And so we're going to go and preach the gospel.
We had many people save their last year for the trip.
And we're going to have people from other churches.
Deacon Corbin Russell will be there.
We're going to have a preaching service on Sunday.
But the first night will be pizza.
We're just going to have a dinner together.
Thursday is kind of a get in day.
Friday is going to be a soul winning marathon.
Lunch will be provided.
So make sure if you get in a hotel room it serves breakfast.
And then Saturday, same thing.
And then we're providing lunch for that day too.
And then Sunday we'll be kind of back to back services.
We'll have a lunch in between that's going to be catered to the preaching place.
I can't say where all the places are because people will just call and try to get us kicked out or banned or whatever.
Anyway, sorry about that.
But it's going to be a great trip.
And then Monday is kind of like a free day if you want to go and explore the city or whatever.
Or go do something that you've been wanting to do in Detroit your whole life.
You're more welcome to do that.
But some people are going to be soul winning.
But I don't want to get into the hyper spiritual attitude where if we have a free time that you're ribbing people for not doing that extra day.
So I mean obviously people are paying for their own airfare to get there and stuff like that.
Paying for their own hotel rooms.
And I want soul winning trips to be fun and enjoyable, not like a merciless nightmare.
So anytime you have free time, if I say there's free time I really mean that.
That's not code word for well you can do free time if you want.
But if you really want to be spiritual then you'll keep soul winning for five, six more hours after that.
I don't want our church to have that kind of an attitude.
So anyway, it's going to be a great trip.
Looking forward to it.
April 29th is the soul winning marathon in Salem, Oregon.
I'm hoping Brother Temo can give me some insight on what areas to go to.
Obviously there's not a lot of Spanish speaking people in our church but we do have some.
So I'm sure there's a good sized Spanish population down there.
Spanish speaking population down there.
But we'll try to get the places where we can be the most effective.
Anyway that's coming up April 29th.
So we have a lot of soul winning coming up this next month.
And why do we do that? Well because it's warmer.
In the winter time people don't like to come when it's raining.
But at least in the spring time it's a little more warm of a rain.
And so people just want to get out. There's a little more sunlight.
And spring kind of represents the newness of life basically.
And it was the first month for the children of Israel was spring.
Because it represents a new beginning.
So we do ours in January in America because we're a bunch of heathens.
But really in reality it should probably be spring.
It seems like the best time to have a new year.
So anyway I'm preaching about stuff I shouldn't be preaching about right now.
Anyway let's see. Last thing is the King James Conference.
That's going to be May 25th through 28th.
And we'll probably start getting an idea of decorating and some other things like that.
And start planning really hardcore the conference itself.
So that's all I have for announcements. It's a long announcement.
I'll try to be shorter in the other service.
But we are family integrated.
That means the children and infants are welcome during the church services.
We do have mother baby rooms located back there and a dad baby room back there.
For your convenience during the services please take your children there.
And I would limit your in and outs with them to about two.
So if you're just constantly coming in constantly going out.
It is distracting to the other people in the services so please be respectful of that.
The rockers and gliders are for pregnant nursing mothers and elders only.
So if you are an elder you're more than welcome to sit in one of those chairs.
And I just mean I guess I should probably stipulate what elder means.
Let me think about that.
I might be an elder. I am an elder. I am an elder.
But anyway dumb men are allowed in the mother baby rooms and vice versa.
Please watch your children at all times.
Don't let them wander off into other areas of the building by themselves.
And no food allowed in the assembly area which is this area where we're at right now.
And please silence your cell phones or place them on airplane mode for the service.
Escorts are available by the ushers for your convenience.
And online donations are available on our website.
And the text giving number there.
Secure giving there and then our tithes and offerings so far for the month of March at the bottom of the page.
And we do have and Tony are you listening or Owen.
I need to go on to the the hiatus for a couple minutes after we sing happy birthday.
Can you guys put us on silent on the Internet for just a few minutes.
OK.
Let me know when it's after we sing happy birthday.
Just let me know when it's when we're offline.
All right. So we've got some birthdays to celebrate.
Matthew Miller is turning. How old is Matthew.
Eight. You're turning eight. All right. Cool.
I remember when you were just a little guy.
You still you're still kind of a little guy but you're getting older you're getting bigger right.
And then Ryan Holmes. Is that right.
He's only 55 but he just barely looks like he's 40.
So I'm just kidding. But Ryan it's Ryan's birthday.
Rebecca out quarter of the 31st.
How old are you going to be Rebecca.
Six.
I love being six.
Do you know how to ride a bike yet.
All right. Cool.
And she's oh you're going to turn seven.
That's that's a great number right there.
Seven.
Alana.
Yankee is going to be on the 31st and also Timothy Harrington on the first.
That's next Saturday. So let's sing happy birthday to all the birthday people.
All right. I'm going to back away from this Mike.
All right.
Thank you.
All right.
Let's turn our blue hymnals to page 320.
I'd rather have Jesus page 320 in your blue hymnals.
I'd rather have Jesus.
I'd rather have Jesus on the first.
Here's.
I'd rather.
I'd rather have.
And then at this time we'll have our ushers come forth to receive the offering.
Thank you so much.
Thank you.
Turn to your Romans Chapter six.
If you don't have a Bible there should be one underneath the seat.
Romans Chapter six.
Romans Chapter six. God's word reads.
What shall we say then? Shall we continue to 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?
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 should walk in newness of life.
For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death we shall also be in the likeness of his resurrection.
Knowing this that our old man is crucified with him that the body of sin might be destroyed and henceforth we should not serve sin.
For he that is dead is freed from sin.
Now if we be dead with Christ we believe that we shall also live with him.
Knowing that Christ being raised from the dead dieth no more death hath no more dominion over him.
For in that he died he died unto sin once but in that he liveth he liveth unto God.
Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof.
Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin but yield yourselves unto God as those that are alive from the dead and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God.
For sin shall not have dominion over you for ye are not under the law but under grace.
What then? Shall we sin because we are not under the law but under grace? God forbid.
Know ye not that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to his servants ye are to whom ye obey.
Whether of sin unto death or of obedience unto righteousness.
But God be thanked that ye were the servants of sin but ye have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered you.
Being then made free from sin ye became the servants of righteousness.
I speak after the manner of men because of the infirmity of your flesh.
For as ye have yielded your members servants to uncleanness and to iniquity and unto iniquity even so now yield your members servants to righteousness unto holiness.
And when ye were the servants of sin ye were free from righteousness.
What fruit had ye then in those things whereof ye are now ashamed?
For the end of those things is death.
But now being made free from sin and become servants to God ye have your fruit unto holiness and the end everlasting life.
For the wages of sin is death but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Brother Drew can you pray for us please?
Amen. So like I said in the announcements I am preaching about the two ordinances today.
And the first ordinance I want to talk about is the doctrine of water baptism.
And it is one of the two ordinances that we believe at this church that we're supposed to...
I mean there's obviously more than one ordinance in the Bible right?
But these are ordinances that picture the death, burial, and resurrection and the death and the blood that was shed for us on the cross.
So Romans chapter 6 look at verse number 3.
The Bible says,
Let's have a word of prayer.
Heavenly Father we thank you Lord so much for the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ.
Lord I pray that we would have a better understanding of this doctrine.
And maybe some people already know a lot about this doctrine.
But we need to be refreshed sometimes Lord.
And I just pray that you'd help us to not just tune out the things that we think we already know.
But Lord help us to be solidified in those things that we believe.
And for those that are new to this church or maybe don't fully understand the reason why we baptized.
I pray that you'd help them to understand through your Holy Spirit today Lord.
I pray you fill me with your spirit.
In Jesus name I pray.
Amen.
So number one this morning is baptism is a picture.
So baptism is just a picture of something that has changed in our life.
And it's a picture of the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ.
So like the wedding ring that I'm wearing on my finger.
Is this wedding ring my marriage?
It's not my marriage is it?
If I take this wedding ring off.
Which I'm not going to try to.
I guess it's not too bad.
It's rubber.
So if I take this off.
Am I still married?
Yeah but this is a picture of the fact that I'm married to my wife.
And that helps people know that I'm taken.
You know I've made vows for the rest of my life and I'm married.
So baptism is similar in the fact that it's a picture of what Christ did for us.
And the fact that we're identifying with Christ.
And that we're saying we're going to die to ourselves.
And that we are going to follow after Christ with our life.
And so it says we're baptized in verse 3 into Jesus Christ.
So it is a picture.
It's a picture of the death, burial, and resurrection.
And it pictures again that we are dead in trespasses and sin and identify with Christ.
Look at verse number 4 in our text from this morning.
Romans chapter 6 verse 4.
We're going to come back and forth to this.
We are going to look at a lot of scripture today.
And maybe you have some preconceived notions about what baptism actually is.
I just would hope that you would look at what the Bible says.
And that you would understand what it says and what it's saying.
Because there's a lot of misconceptions about baptism.
It's one of the biggest misconceptions in all of Christianity actually.
And many people were killed and burned at the stake for re-baptizing.
Because the Roman Catholic Church would burn people and kill people if they refused to baptize their children.
Or if they baptized again.
That's why Baptists were first called Anabaptists which means another baptism.
And so it's like a name given to us from our enemies that we would baptize again when you should only have to be baptized.
You should only have to be baptized once.
But the problem is that some people think that baptism saves them.
Some people think it washes away their sins.
Some people think that if they don't get baptized as a baby, then that baby if the baby dies will die and go to hell.
And that's not what the Bible teaches at all.
But it is a picture. Look at verse 4.
It says, Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death.
So are we literally buried into ground?
No. Therefore for this reason we are buried with him by baptism into death that like as Christ was raised up from the dead.
So see that term like as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father.
Even so we also should walk in newness of life.
So you see how it's saying that it's a picture.
It's like as Christ. Like he was buried. Like he was resurrected.
That we were raised up from the dead.
That we also should walk in newness of life.
Now do we have everlasting life right now?
If you're saved you do.
But you don't have your everlasting body.
Jesus does have his everlasting body.
But the picture is that just like Christ raised up with a new life because he did die.
That the picture of baptism is that we are going to raise up and walk in newness of life also.
That we have been saved and that we are going to walk after Christ.
But notice that word should.
The word should by etymology comes from the word shall.
And when the Bible says thou shalt do things.
Or thou shalt do this or that.
It is a command.
So once we're baptized. Once you're saved you should.
You shall walk in newness of life. You should do that.
But does everybody do that?
They don't.
So the word should sometimes is a tricky word.
But it does mean that you're supposed to do that.
You're supposed to walk in newness of life.
You're supposed to live like a Christian.
You're supposed to get sin out of your life.
That's what it's talking about.
But is anybody in this room sinless?
Would anybody in this room raise their hand right now and say I'm sinless?
Now the fact that if you're saved.
You are sinless according to God because his blood has been placed as an atonement for your sins.
And if you believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.
Your atonement has been paid.
So yes you are sinless in the fact that Christ's sinlessness was passed upon you.
And his righteousness was imputed to you.
But you yourself.
The works of the flesh.
You know you are still a sinful person.
Because of your flesh right?
So look at verse five it says.
For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death.
See how it says in the likeness.
So we're not literally being buried in the ground right?
We're planted together.
What do you do when you take a plant?
How do you plant a plant?
You put it in the ground don't you?
You put the roots or the seed or whatever it is you put it in the ground.
So if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death.
We shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection.
So we're not literally getting resurrected.
See how it's a picture of baptism.
Baptism is a picture of that we are identifying with Christ and his death, burial and resurrection.
Look at verse six it says.
Knowing this that our old man is crucified with him.
What is this old man?
Is this like some 90 year old man that lives inside of you?
No it's the old man.
The old sinful man is crucified with him.
So that is the parts of your body that want to still sin.
The flesh.
Now the new man is the man that is a new creature in Christ Jesus.
But see here's what people don't understand.
They think that if you become a new creature in Christ Jesus.
That you don't have the old man still in you.
You do still have the old man in you.
And once we're resurrected from the dead at Christ appearing.
Or those who are alive and remain are caught up to meet him.
And so shall we ever be with the Lord.
Then you get that body that's incorruptible.
Then you get the body that is not sinful.
But while we live on this earth in a body of flesh.
We are still living with it.
The old man still lives there.
And he's like a grumpy old man right?
He wants to do wrong.
He's mean.
He wants to do the things of the flesh that the flesh lusts after.
Sinful things.
But the new man is permanently part of you.
And the Holy Spirit when you get saved comes and resides within you.
The tabernacle of God is with men now.
And so God is with you.
God is in you.
As opposed to the Old Testament where the Holy Spirit would come and be upon people.
But then the Holy Spirit could be taken off of that person.
Doesn't mean that they weren't still saved.
It just means that that's a difference in the operation of the Holy Spirit in the New Testament.
So anyway it says in verse 6 again.
Knowing this that our old man is crucified with him and that the body of sin might be destroyed.
That henceforth we should not serve sin.
So obviously God has given us the Holy Spirit that we can now learn to resist sin.
Before we're just prisoners and slaves to the sin that so easily besets us.
But after being saved you do have the new man.
You do have the Holy Spirit.
You do have the Bible.
You do have prayer.
You have all these tools that can help you overcome your sinful desires.
But again baptism is a picture of the fact that that's what you want to do.
And it's also a command of God.
He says for us to get baptized.
So why would you not get baptized if God said to do it?
I mean sometimes people don't want to get baptized and maybe it's just out of embarrassment.
They don't want to get in water in front of everybody.
And I understand that but like when you got saved I'm sure there were things that might have been embarrassing about being saved.
Like I remember when I was saved I was literally in a public place.
And I remember consciously making the choice to either be embarrassed by the fact that I was in a public place or just trust Christ and I don't care what those people think.
And so I chose to trust Christ and not care what those people thought.
And I got down on my knees in front of God and everyone.
I didn't care.
And I'm not trying to make myself the hero of the story necessarily.
I'm just saying that I remember that conscious decision.
I don't know what situation you all were in but sometimes we're at a door with somebody and people will come outside and close the door behind them because they're mocking.
They're making fun of them.
They're saying things in the background.
Or sometimes you'll walk up to maybe a pack of kids and one kid is just like trying to antagonize everybody else and not allow that other person to get saved.
And you know so we got to shut that kind of stuff down and just say hey don't worry about what they're saying.
And it comes the same thing with baptism.
Who cares whether people, it's just a moment of time.
You know and then you'll be doing what God said to do and you'll be just forsake that embarrassment.
Are you embarrassed of Christ?
Are you embarrassed of his commandments?
You shouldn't be embarrassed.
It's a picture that God told us to do.
Number two this morning look at verse five.
Baptism is not a part of salvation.
So number one baptism is a picture but number two baptism is not a part of salvation.
So look at verse five it says,
For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death we shall also be in the likeness of his resurrection.
So you know like I said before there's a lot of things that are confusing.
Baptism is confusing to some people's eyes because of false teachers.
False teachers will say you have to be baptized or you're not saved.
Don't they?
So they'll also say when we ask people how do you know that you're going to heaven at the door or anywhere and they'll say well I was baptized.
Yeah and that immediately tells me that person is probably not saved.
Because if they're trusting in their baptism that it somehow washed away their sins then that person believes that some work that they did.
Because baptism is a work. It's a good work.
You know it takes effort to walk up those little stairs or to walk into that river or that lake or wherever water is.
It's work to do that isn't it.
It's not something that you know we don't drag people like a limp you know shell of a person into the water and you know we do all the work for them.
No they have to walk or be you know if they are carried they kind of have to use a little bit of muscles right.
So we don't believe that salvation is that the baptism is part of salvation.
It's a work.
So and some people say that it saves your soul and they'll point to verses in the Bible that seem confusing.
But if you just really break down the verse that's not what it's saying.
So whenever it says saved in the Bible it doesn't let me tell you something it doesn't always mean that you're saved.
You know that it's not talking about you being forgiven of your sins and trusting Christ.
When Peter said Lord save me.
Was he asking for eternal salvation there or was he asking to not drown in the water because he walked on the water and he started to lack faith.
He started to sink didn't he.
Was he saying save my soul.
No he was saying save me so sometimes salvation is a physical thing.
And so you can't always take words in the Bible and make them always be about salvation.
So when it says you know if we like saying if we believe not is that talking necessarily about salvation.
It could be talking about the fact that you have lacked belief like the children of Israel walking through the wilderness.
They started to lack faith.
They started to you know go against the doctrines that were being taught to them and wanted to just do their own thing.
In departing from Christ in that way by lacking faith it wasn't that they were all not saved.
Some of those people were saved.
I guess some of those people weren't.
Some were some weren't.
But we can lack faith in our life and that doesn't mean you're not saved.
It just means maybe you're having trouble believing some part of the Bible.
There's a lot of people that have trouble believing parts of the Bible.
There's passages that I preach in the Bible and people go that's not what the Bible says.
It's like I just read the verse like what are you talking about.
Yes it is what the Bible says.
We are just twisting the verse.
It says what it says.
You know there's no people that will twist verses they'll twist it and make it say something that's damnable heresy.
Look at Mark chapter 16.
Mark chapter 16.
Here's one of the gotcha verses that people try to use to say that baptism is a part of your salvation.
And I can see where someone that's unsaved would say that.
Because they're looking for verses that teach a workspace salvation.
Because they're a heretic.
Because they're not saved themselves.
And so what do people that are false prophets do?
They try to twist the word of God to teach you something that's not true.
Like David Koresh.
David Koresh was some weird cult leader and he said that he was the lamb of God.
So but do you think he was the lamb of God?
Well how do you think he did that?
He twisted scriptures to make himself be the hero of the story in Revelation.
And you know that the seventh you know he was just a weird dude.
He was a pervert and he was definitely not saved.
But there's people in our lives will twist doctrine and a lot of people follow false prophets.
A lot of people follow false churches.
Look at Mark 16 16.
It says,
He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved.
See end of story Pastor Thompson.
That's what it says.
Well hold on a second.
Read the rest of the verse.
It says,
But he that believeth not shall be damned.
Doesn't say he that believeth not and is not baptized shall be damned does it?
So you have to take the scripture for what it says.
The full scripture.
And that's a continuing thought there with that semicolon.
Now turn to John chapter 3 verse 36.
John chapter 3 verse 36.
And this backs up what the Bible says in multiple different places.
So you can't take a verse that maybe seemingly is like it seems like it might be saying that.
And then put that against all this very clear scripture that's in the Bible that says that salvation is by faith alone.
In the end of that verse what is it teaching?
Salvation is by believing isn't it?
Isn't that what it says?
So you're in John 3 36.
Look what the Bible says.
He that believeth on the sun hath everlasting life.
That's pretty plain and simple isn't it?
It doesn't say he that believeth and repents of all their sins and makes Jesus the Lord of their life and all this other stuff has everlasting life.
It says he that believeth on the sun hath everlasting life.
It means you have it.
That's a present tense.
It's not something you have to keep working for.
It doesn't say baptism does it?
And it says,
And he that believeth not the sun shall not see life but the wrath of God abideth on him.
So if you don't believe what's going to happen to you?
You're going to die and you're going to go to hell and the wrath of God is already abiding upon you.
You're already set for the judgment.
The only thing that's going to stop you from being judged and thrown into hell is if you change your mind that would be repenting.
That's what repentance unto salvation is is that you change your mind about what you believed and then you believe the truth.
Which is you have to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and the Bible says thou shall be saved.
Turn to 1 Peter chapter 3 verse 21.
1 Peter chapter 3 verse 21.
Now remember in Romans 6 5 it said,
For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall also in the likeness of his resurrection.
1 Peter 3 21 says,
The like figure, you see that?
It's a like.
The like figure whereinto even baptism doth now also save us.
Oh see right there pastor it says the baptism saves us.
But look at the little brackets there.
The things within those little brackets are holy scripture.
Look what it says.
Not the putting away of the filth of the flesh.
So it's clearly telling us there that it's not talking about washing away your sins. Isn't it?
It says but the answer of a good conscience toward God.
So the fact that you get in the baptismal and you get baptized is the fact that it's saying you have a good conscience toward God
and the fact that you're keeping his commandment. Right?
It says by the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
But people will take this verse right here and they'll say see baptism saves you.
It's false doctrine. That is damnable heresy.
If you believe that your baptism saves you then you're not saved.
Because you're trusting in your own works.
You're trusting that water washed away your sins.
What washes away your sins?
It's not water folks.
It's the blood of Christ.
That's what washes away your sins.
There is no salvation process.
There is no seven steps to salvation.
There is no well you got to get baptized when you're a baby.
And by the way when people baptize babies in the Roman Catholic Church they do what?
They sprinkle water on them.
Or they put like a teacup on them or something. I don't know what they do.
Maybe it's a spoon. I have no idea.
But then the Orthodox Church they'll take a baby and they'll dunk them three times.
The name of the Father. The Son. And the Holy Spirit.
That's also not a good picture of salvation.
You know what? You have to get saved three times.
Because look you're going under once and you're coming up once.
It's not one, two, three. Right?
It's like a wrestling a one, two, three they're saved.
That's ridiculous.
So you know if you believe in Christ you get born again.
The water that it's talking about being born of is the water of your mother.
You know when the water breaks?
You're in water right?
And then you break forth and you're born.
When you're born again the second time that is a spiritual rebirth.
It's not getting baptized.
So that's it.
There's nothing else to do to get saved besides believing on Christ.
In the book of John it says like over a hundred times believe.
The book of John was specifically given to us so that we would believe.
That's what the Bible says.
So why would John never say the word...
In the book of John it never says repent one time.
And I'm not saying repent isn't a good word.
Repent is a good word.
But it depends on what you're using it for.
What does it mean in the context?
Because it can mean to turn but it also can mean to change your mind.
That's the main thought behind the word repentance.
When God repented in the Bible 37 times was he turning from his sins in those verses?
No because God doesn't have any sin.
So how can you say that every time the word repent is in the New Testament that it's talking about repenting of your sins?
It's not what it's saying.
It could be saying that but again you have to get the context of what's being said.
When God repented he changed his mind about something.
When Noah went and preached unto Nineveh God repented and did not the evil that he said he was going to do to it.
So instead of destroying Nineveh he said you know what?
Well they all got saved and they repented of their sins after they got saved.
Not before but after then God decided to spare them.
So I mean it's just it's damnable heresy to teach that baptism saves you in saying that it washes away your sins.
Number three this morning I want to take a look at the procedure of baptism.
How is it done?
Well it's clearly taught in the scriptures that it's done in water by immersion.
It's not sprinkling or any other way.
It's not spritzing them with a you know a water bottle.
It's not donking them three times.
Let's see what the Bible actually says.
Turn back to Romans chapter six and look at verse four.
Romans six four.
It says therefore we are buried with him by baptism.
So into death. So what's the picture?
That you're buried under something right?
Jesus was buried. He was put into a grave.
And so we're picturing that fact.
So why would you spray water on somebody and that's supposed to picture a burial?
How does that picture a burial?
No when you go underneath the water that pictures a burial doesn't it?
Some people's graves are in water aren't they?
Some people die and drown and they're never seen again in the waters.
That's their burial basically.
So it says 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 should walk in newness of life.
For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death we shall also in the likeness of his resurrection.
Buried. You come out of the water it pictures the resurrection.
It pictures you coming out of the grave.
Right? That's the picture.
And so the picture, the procedure should match the picture shouldn't it?
Look at John chapter three verse twenty three.
John chapter three verse twenty three.
Now the word baptism is a transliteration of a Greek word.
And so transliteration means in English that they just took the word and Englishized it.
Right? It didn't exist before the English Bible was put into practice or was written.
So that word baptize is a transliteration of the word of a Greek word.
So I'm not even going to try to tell you what the Greek word is but it means to baptize.
So the reason why when there was a split with the Catholic Church I think was a thousand years ago or something.
The split between the Roman Catholics and the Greek Orthodox Church the Greeks continued to baptize by immersion even though they do the triple dunk.
They still understand because they spoke Greek and they understood Greek that it meant to go underwater.
And the Catholic Church that was I think one of the things that they were irritated about and why they split apart.
But basically the Orthodox Church is like Roman Catholic light maybe lighter.
It's basically the same.
But it's like you know they just had disagreements about certain doctrines.
So and you know they're not saved either folks even though they baptized they baptized wrong.
And I talked about the other night how they kiss icons when they walk by they you know they worship old dead bones and weird stuff like that.
So they're not saved.
And let's see so the procedure of baptism John 3 23 it says and John also was baptizing an anon near Salem because there was much water there.
Why would it need why would there need to be a lot of water if you could just sprinkle somebody.
If sprinkling is the right mode why did the person whose name is actually John middle name the last name Baptist.
Why would he need to have water a lot of water where he was baptizing people.
Well probably because you have to get them all the way under the water or it's not baptizing right.
And so wouldn't you want to go to the guy whose last name is Baptist to understand how to baptize people.
I don't know if his literal last name was the middle name was the Baptist.
That's a joke.
But he was what we call him.
There's people with the last name Baptist right now in this world.
They're usually French.
But anyway it says because there was much water there and they came and were baptized.
So lots of water equals good place to baptize.
Mark Chapter 3 verse 16 Mark 3 16.
Let's turn over there.
Mark 3 16.
I got to go faster here because I'm running out of time.
Mark 3 16 says and Jesus when he was baptized.
So I'll give you a second to get there.
So you're like what about Jesus.
He got baptized.
Why did he have to be baptized because he had to fulfill all righteousness.
He had to fulfill the law.
He had to do everything right.
And so he wasn't baptized to be saved.
Jesus was already saved.
Jesus was never not saved.
Jesus didn't have to do anything to be saved because he already was saved.
Now he had to continue to keep the law and do what the Bible said and listen to his parents
and clean his room and whatever stuff he was supposed to do.
He did everything he was supposed to do.
He was perfect.
Right.
So when he got baptized he was just doing something that was right.
A righteous act.
And that's what baptism is.
But the procedure of baptism Mark.
Matthew.
Did I tell you Mark.
I'm sorry I meant to say Matthew.
Go to Matthew chapter three sixteen.
We'll go over to Mark here in just a minute but.
I'm sorry.
Matthew chapter three verse sixteen.
It says in Jesus when he was baptized went up straight away.
What does it say there.
Out of the water.
So if you have to come out of the water where were you before you came out of it.
You were in the water weren't you.
Not getting sprinkled by a super soaker.
Not getting splashed with water.
Not having some water dumped on top of your head.
He came straight way out of the water.
When he was baptized.
So that means that he got dunked under water.
And straight way out of the water.
He didn't hold his breath.
For eight seconds trying to pull a Houdini.
He came right up out of the water.
Right.
And it says.
And lo the heavens were open unto him.
And he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove.
And lighting upon him.
Turn to Mark chapter one.
Mark chapter one.
So what's the mode of baptism.
I mean I think it's pretty clear.
I feel like I should just be done with this point and move on.
But I'm going to beat this horse a little bit longer.
And then we'll move on.
Mark chapter one verse nine.
No I don't mean literally beating a horse.
Okay.
Well you pee to people out there.
Mark chapter one verse nine says.
And it came to pass in those days that Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee.
And was baptized of John in Jordan.
And straight way coming up out of the water.
He saw the heavens opened.
And the Spirit like a dove descending upon him.
Was it an actual dove?
It was like a dove though wasn't it?
So there again it just helps you.
It's a picture.
A lot of times the Bible will give us pictures of things.
So we kind of get the meaning of what it's saying.
Turn to Acts chapter eight verse thirty eight.
Acts eight thirty eight.
So again the procedure of baptism has to match the picture of baptism.
And the picture of baptism is the death, burial, resurrection of Christ.
You're buried in the likeness of our Savior's death and raised to walk in newness of life.
Acts eight thirty eight says.
And he commanded the chariot to stand still.
And they went down both into the water.
Notice how it says into the water.
Both Philip and the eunuch and he baptized him.
So he dunked him under water.
And when they were come up out of the water.
The Spirit of the Lord caught away Philip.
That the eunuch saw him no more and he went on his way rejoicing.
So here we have another part of the Bible where you have a clear picture of what's happening.
He didn't say hey there's a water bottle what does hinder me to be sprayed with it?
He said hey here's water what does hinder me to be baptized?
Dunked under water.
And so they came up out of the water so that means what?
They had to be in the water didn't they?
Number four. I'll move on now. I beat the horse plenty there.
Number four. Who can perform baptisms?
Who can perform baptisms?
And sometimes there's a debate about this stuff.
And the Bible doesn't have a clear concise only ordained people can baptize.
But when you don't have a clear concise verse about that then you have to go with the examples that you see in scripture.
And that's why we only allow ordained people to baptize.
So look back at Romans chapter six.
Just actually go to John chapter one.
I'm going to read Romans six three.
It says know ye not that so many of us were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death.
So we're all baptized once again into Jesus Christ and when you're baptized you're added to the church.
And I'll prove that to you later.
But if you've never assembled in the church you're not really part of the congregation are you?
So when we get baptized then you are automatically.
If you get baptized here you come to our church you're automatically a member of our church.
That's how you become a member or you just come here and congregate.
And you know if you're here all the time then you're basically a member of our church.
But if you only come like Easter and Christmas then I wouldn't say you're necessarily.
At least you're not a regular attender of our church for sure.
But you know when it comes to performing baptisms.
John chapter one really kind of nails it down for us a little bit as to who should baptize.
Because you know John we don't we don't see John being hands laid upon him or anything like that.
We just have scriptures written about him that says that he's going to prepare the way for the Lord.
That he's you know he was prophesied that he would come and be the forerunner of Jesus Christ.
So look at John chapter one the Pharisees come and then they want to know why are you baptizing John?
What gives you the right to baptize John? Why are you doing these things? Who are you?
And it says in verse 19 it says and this is the record of John.
When the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him who art thou?
And he confessed and denied not but confessed I am not the Christ.
And they asked him what then art thou Elias? And he saith I am not.
Art thou that prophet? And he answered no.
And they said unto him who art thou? That we may give an answer to them that sent us.
What sayest thou of thyself? Who are you John? What do you think you're doing here?
And he said I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness.
Make straight the way of the Lord as said the prophet Esaias.
So he's saying I'm the prophet that's supposed to come and cry in the wilderness and make straight the way of the Lord.
He's the forerunner of the Lord Jesus Christ and he comes in the spirit of Elijah.
And he's Elijah if you'll receive it but he isn't some reincarnated Elijah.
I know a lot of people think that but the Bible doesn't teach reincarnation people.
You don't come back as somebody else.
And it says and they which were sent of the Pharisees and they asked him and said unto him
why baptizest thou then if thou be not that Christ nor Elias neither that prophet?
So the prophet that they're talking about is the one that Moses was talking about which is actually Christ.
But John answered them saying I baptize with water but there standeth one among you whom you know not.
He it is who coming after me is preferred before me whose shoe latchet I am not worthy to unloose.
These things were done in Bethabara beyond Jordan where John was baptizing.
So did John have the authority to baptize yes or no?
Why did he have the authority? Who gave him the authority to baptize?
God did right?
Who baptized Jesus?
John.
Why didn't he go to the Pharisees?
Because they were corrupt.
Because they weren't even teaching the right salvation anymore.
They were racist.
They were saying unless you're like some kind of born and bred Jew then you're not even saved.
And the rest of us are just goyim cattle.
Like they had kind of gone off the deep end.
Now weren't they the ones in charge at the time when Jesus came?
But he didn't want to get baptized with them did he?
There's a reason why.
Because later on he calls them vipers.
He calls them whited sepulchers.
They're twofold more the child of hell than they are themselves.
They're making people twofold more the child of hell than they are themselves.
So he's saying they're of hell.
They're not even saved.
And so why did he come to John? Was John saved?
Yes.
Did he have a calling from God to do what he was doing?
Yes.
He didn't go to the Pharisees.
He didn't go to the priests. He didn't go to the Levites.
He didn't go to the Jehovah's Witnesses. They weren't around back then.
But he wouldn't have gone to them either.
They don't have the right Jesus.
He didn't go to the Mormons.
They don't have the right Jesus.
They didn't go to the Roman Catholic Church.
He didn't go to the pagan religion that mixes Christianity with paganism.
He didn't go to the Pentecostals.
You know why?
Well, they weren't around back then.
But there's no new thing under the sun.
I'm sure that there's oneness weirdos back then too.
But why would we not go to those people?
Well, because Mormons aren't saved.
Jehovah's Witnesses aren't saved.
I would say that they make people twofold more the child of hell than they are themselves.
The Roman Catholics aren't saved.
The pedophiles and perverts.
And then the Pentecostals don't believe that you can...
They believe you can lose your salvation.
So why would you go get baptized by someone that believes you can lose your salvation?
That person is not saved.
If you believe you can lose your salvation, then you don't have salvation.
Because the Bible says that you're calling God a liar.
You're calling God a liar because the record that God gave of his son was eternal life and this life is in his son.
And the Bible specifically says in 1 John 5 that if you say, if you don't believe the record, which is eternal life,
and that life is in his son, then you're calling God a liar.
You're saying, God, I know you said I'd have eternal life, but I can lose it somehow.
Or you believe that someone did lose it.
Or you believe that you can lose it by doing something.
You can't lose it.
You can give a lot of gifts back in life.
You can re-gift things that people give you and give it to somebody else for Christmas.
Just don't accidentally re-gift it to the person that gifted it to you in the first place.
But salvation is a free gift that you can never give back.
That's the difference.
That's where the gift illustration fails in soul winning is that people...
There are people out there that think that you can give it back.
There's an imaginary shelf that you can put it on that doesn't...
It's not in the Bible anywhere, but it's in the minds of people that think they can lose their salvation.
In their minds, they can give it back.
There's a shelf somewhere. I don't know where it's at.
It's in their imagination.
Imagine, right?
But you can't give it back.
So look at John 1, verse 29.
It says,
In the next day, John seeth Jesus come, coming unto him, and saith,
Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.
This is he of whom I said, After me cometh a man which is preferred before me, for he was before me.
And I knew him not, but that he should be made manifest to Israel.
Therefore am I coming baptizing with water.
And John bare record, saying, I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and it abode upon him.
And I knew him not, but he that sent me to baptize with water, the same said unto me.
So somebody told him to do this, right?
That he, but he that sent me unto baptize with water, the same said unto me,
Upon whom thou shalt see the Spirit descending and remaining on him, the same as he which baptizeth with the Holy Ghost.
Talking about Jesus.
So, John was given a specific authority by God himself to baptize.
Turn to Matthew chapter 3, verse 13.
Matthew chapter 3, verse 13.
It says in Matthew 3, 13.
Then cometh Jesus from Galilee to Jordan, unto John, to be baptized of him.
Not the priests, not the Levites, not the Pharisees.
But John forbade him.
So John's like, No, I'm not going to baptize you.
And saying, I have need to be baptized of thee, and comest thou to me?
He's like, he knows he's the Lord. He knows he's the Messiah.
He's like, you should be baptizing me. Why would I baptize you?
And Jesus answering said unto him, Suffer it to be so now.
What does suffer mean?
It means to allow. Allow it to be so now.
For thus it becometh us to fulfill all righteousness.
Then he suffered him. He allowed him. Then he baptized him.
It's a pretty cool thing to be able to baptize the Lord Jesus Christ.
Did I mention he was a Baptist?
Anyway, but what is Jesus saying to him?
It's got to be you, John.
It's got to be you.
It can't be somebody else. It's you.
So there are people that have the authority to baptize.
Not everybody has the authority to baptize.
The chief priest even said that.
Unless you're one of these guys, you don't have the right to do this.
But God gave him the right to do it.
And then, obviously, Jesus was allowed to baptize, but he didn't.
And I don't have time to go to the scriptures where it says he didn't, but he didn't.
And he ordained twelve to baptize.
And then he ordained the other seventy to probably to baptize also.
He commanded the disciples to baptize.
Now, were the disciples ordained?
Were the apostles ordained by God?
Yes, they were. Look at Matthew, chapter 28, verse 19.
Matthew 28, 19 says,
Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.
So, just a little bit of instruction here also.
Jesus said to baptize them.
What names did he say to baptize them then?
You have a red letter edition in your Bible?
Baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.
That's how we do it.
Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you,
and lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. Amen.
So, who did he give the authority to baptize?
His apostles. Right?
And he had the twelve, plus he had seventy others also.
And so, our church's position on this is that it should be ordained men of God that do the baptizing.
So, should you baptize your little children?
Well, if you're not a pastor, if you're not a deacon, if you're not an evangelist, you shouldn't be baptizing anybody.
Now, you're like, well, where's your clear scripture?
I'm not saying I have a clear scripture.
I'm just saying the examples that you see in scripture are someone that was ordained to do those things.
John was ordained of God.
Jesus ordained the twelve, and the seventy also.
And then, all the other people in the Bible that you see baptizing are ordained.
Now, there's one that people dispute against, and we'll get to that here in a minute,
but let's look at Acts chapter six first before we get there.
We've got a couple passages to go to first.
So, to cut out some of these verses, basically the twelve called these disciples,
and they said that they need to ordain people to seven men of honest report,
full of the Holy Ghost and wisdom, to appoint over the business of attending to tables,
helping widows, all the stuff that the pastor, basically saying that the pastor
should be doing like the Bible studies and preaching the word of God and giving to prayer.
And it says in verse five in Acts six, it says,
And the same pleased the whole multitude, and they chose Stephen, a man full of faith in the Holy Ghost,
and Philip, and Prochorus, and Nicanor, and Timon, and Parmenas, and Nicholas, a proselyte of Antioch.
Whom they set before the apostles, and when they had prayed, they laid their hands on them.
So what did they do there? They ordained these men to minister.
Now, later on you'll see one of the guys, Philip, in verse five.
Philip is one of the first deacons of that church, and when you turn over to Acts eight,
and we've already seen this passage, we already saw this passage earlier,
but now I want to show it to you in a different light.
So Acts eight thirty-six says,
So that verse right there is missing out of every modern Bible version.
But the Catholic version, the NIV, the NASB, the HIV, the AIDS version, all these other versions,
these new versions based upon modern, you know, not modern, they'll say it's the oldest,
but the oldest isn't always the best, folks. If it's corrupted, it's corrupted.
If it takes this verse out of here, it's corrupt.
You're not supposed to add to or take away from the Word of God,
and these modern Bible versions will take out verse thirty-seven.
Why do they do that? Because they want to take out the fact that you have to believe with all your heart
before you can get baptized, because that's what we believe at this church, believers baptism.
You have to believe. You have to be saved before you get baptized.
So he says,
That's a pretty clear statement, isn't it?
So was Philip ordained, yes or no?
Yes he was in chapter six. He was ordained as one of the deacons.
And I would say also that he is probably an evangelist on top of that.
He probably had multiple titles.
Because we see where Paul comes back and visits him and his daughters are all prophesying,
meaning they're all soul winners, okay?
So, again, not a clear-cut scripture that says that laymen can't baptize,
but here's the one where people will protest.
Turn to Acts nine, Acts chapter nine.
Acts chapter nine verse ten says,
There was a certain disciple at Damascus named Ananias, and to him said the Lord in a vision,
Ananias, and he said, Behold, I am here, Lord.
So the Lord's speaking to him, directly speaking to him.
And it says,
Is that in red letters in your Bible?
Yeah.
Oh, okay.
So it's Jesus telling him to do this, right?
And hath seen in a vision a man named Ananias coming in and putting his hand on him that he might receive his sight.
And then Ananias answered, Lord, I have heard by many of this man how much evil he hath done to thy saints of Jerusalem,
and here he hath authority from the chief priests to bind all that call upon thy name.
But the Lord said unto him, Go thy way, for he is a chosen vessel unto me.
So is Jesus Christ telling Ananias to baptize Paul?
So do you think he's ordained?
I mean, I don't know.
Some people just scoff at this, like, I should be able to baptize if I want to.
Okay, well, at the end of the service, why don't we have Kohath come up and baptize the people who are getting baptized?
Do you guys think that would be proper?
I mean, if there's no rules at all about this, then how do we determine who baptizes?
You never see a kid baptize anybody in the Bible, do you?
You see ordained people or people that Jesus specifically says for them to do that.
If Jesus is talking to anybody in your brains, you need to go seek professional help.
If he's speaking to you in your brains through this book, that's different.
We have the whole word of God here, there's nothing added to the scripture.
God does not speak to you audibly.
Jesus does not do this anymore, but here we have an example of a man being told by Jesus to do it.
Look at verse 16.
For I will show him how great things he must suffer for my name's sake.
And Ananias went his way and entered in the house and putting his hands upon him.
Notice he put his hands upon him, right?
And said, brother Saul, the Lord, even Jesus hath appeared unto thee in the way as thou camest hath sent me,
hath sent me, that thou mightest receive thy sight and be filled with the Holy Ghost.
Here's the other thing, is that the apostles were the ones that were laying hands on people and they were receiving the Holy Ghost.
In this time, now it's just when you get saved, the Holy Ghost comes and resides within you,
but during the first generation here when the apostles were on the earth, they laid hands on people and they received the Holy Ghost.
It's all over the scriptures and I don't have time to do that today, but here's just an example of Ananias where they say,
well he's not clearly ordained, well it kind of sounds like he is to me.
Just because it doesn't say, and he was one of the 70, doesn't say that. I understand that.
But who is ordaining people? Again, I'll just use a child.
If Kohath is, you know, is Kohath going to ordain the next pastor here?
Or a pastor somewhere else? Is he, you know, can anybody just ordain people?
I mean, that's just a silly way to think.
But I have had people fight and argue with me about this topic and I just, at this church,
we're not letting people that are not ordained baptize, period.
So, because what do we see in the example of the Bible?
We see people like Ananias who clearly is laying hands on Paul and ordaining,
why is he doing that? He's giving Paul the Holy Spirit.
And if he wasn't an apostle, which I believe he was, if he wasn't an apostle,
where do you see an apostle laying hands on someone and then getting the Holy Ghost?
Not an apostle, excuse me.
Where do you see someone that's not an apostle able to do this?
Didn't Simon the sorcerer, didn't he want this power?
He tried to buy this power and he's like, you can't buy this power.
And, you know, so he got rebuked.
So, now what if someone that's baptizing for another church goes bad?
Say one of the people that I ordained baptizes somebody
and then it turns out that they turn against our church or they're bad people.
They turn out to be some wicked false prophet or something.
Is that baptism no longer legit?
Well, what was your purpose in getting baptized?
It was your following the Lord in baptism.
You were trying to do what was right in the eyes of the Lord.
And if that person was some rat-fink piece of garbage like Judas Iscariot or something,
do you think Judas baptized? I'm sure he did.
But do you think his baptisms counted?
Now, obviously, if you were baptized by Judas, you know,
you might want to get rebaptized because of your own feeling on that.
But if somebody got baptized by Tyler Baker or Garrett Kirchwe
or just anybody that's gone bad in any of these churches,
and I could name a couple from our church that I would not be too hot on,
but I'll just not say that. I don't want to get sued for something.
But anyway, so not anybody can baptize, okay?
And the point I'm making here about this is that if they were ordained to baptize
and they baptized you, then that baptism is still legit, okay?
Because then you'd have a lot of people getting rebaptized because,
oh, that guy wasn't saved. I wish I would have known that he wasn't saved.
I used to kind of feel differently about this, but I've changed my mind about that.
I used to feel like if they weren't saved, then maybe you should get rebaptized.
But obviously if you're going to a church that's a Pentecostal church
and you know that they don't believe the truth,
or you were a Jehovah's Witness and they baptized you,
that baptism doesn't count because, number one, you probably weren't saved.
So if you weren't saved when you got baptized, that's when you should get baptized again.
And if you got baptized by some holy roller freak show,
then you should probably get baptized again.
If you got baptized at the Mormon church, you should get baptized again, okay?
Now if you got baptized at some non-denominational church or whatever
and they baptized you in the name of the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit,
they believe in eternal life, they believe in eternal salvation,
then I'm not going to just fight with people about stuff.
But if you have doubts in your mind, then just do it.
If you feel like your baptism wasn't legit, then get rebaptized.
What's going to happen? Are you going to just burn up when you hit the water or something?
What difference does it make?
But if you weren't saved, your baptism did not count.
That is one thing that I will be a stickler about.
If you weren't saved when you got baptized, you got baptized at the Catholic church,
or dunked three times by the Orthodox church, then I wouldn't call that a legit baptism.
Because why? You didn't get baptized in the way the picture shows.
The picture in the scripture. That rhymed.
Anyway, you have where Paul is saying,
I am of Paul, I am of Apollos, I am of Cephas.
We shouldn't get into stupid things like that.
And basically, we're not baptized in the name of the pastor that baptizes us.
You weren't baptized in the name of Paul.
You're baptized in the name of the Father, the Lord Jesus Christ,
and the Holy Spirit, right?
You're baptized in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, not in Paul.
So, people that brag, well, I got baptized by Pastor Anderson,
or I got baptized by Pastor Shelly.
It's just a weird, it just shows you're very spiritually immature.
And if you only get baptized by a certain pastor, that's also kind of a weird thing.
But I mean, if you want to do that, that's fine.
But get baptized. That's my encouragement to you.
Just get baptized.
So, obviously, there's a lot of fake baptizing going on.
But if you believe in a fake Jesus, a fake gospel, and a fake religion,
then you're not a suitable person to baptize.
And that baptism, I would say, is not legit either.
If you're baptized by David Koresh, then you're like,
I was one of the Branch Davidians, and I think that he was the Savior.
I mean, if you thought that at the time, and you got baptized by him,
and then now you get saved, and then you're counting that baptism,
you need to get re-baptized, okay?
So, last thing, who's the proper candidate?
And I know I'm going long here, but I'm almost done, I promise you.
Acts chapter 2, verse 41.
Who's the proper candidate?
We've looked at what's the proper picture.
The baptism isn't part of salvation.
The proper procedure for baptism, and how you do it.
Who can perform the baptisms?
But now, I just want to show you very clearly,
and I kind of already showed you anyway, but I'll keep this brief.
But who's the proper candidate?
Acts 2, 41 says,
And they that gladly received his word were baptized.
So, what is that talking about?
It's talking about the people that get saved.
So, when Peter preaches that sermon,
then people respond to it,
and they that gladly received his word were baptized.
They got dunked under water,
and it says,
The same day were added unto them about three thousand souls.
Added unto who?
That congregation, that church.
So, that's why I say when you get baptized,
and you're coming to our church,
then it automatically makes you a member of the church.
You're added unto our church,
and they were added three thousand souls in one day.
That's a great baptismal party,
but it's a lot of people to dunk.
I don't know where they baptized them all,
but they must have had to change the water out several times.
So, that would have been the annoying part about it,
but I want to show you also,
and this kind of leads into my next sermon tonight.
It's in verse forty-two.
Verse forty-three.
Oh, let's see, I'm sorry.
No, verse forty-two says,
And they continued steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine,
and fellowship,
and what does it say in there?
Breaking of bread and of prayers.
So, that's why I say the Lord's Supper comes after you get baptized,
because it says they that gladly received his word,
those are the people that believed on the Lord Jesus, were baptized.
It doesn't say they that received his word took the Lord's Supper,
they broke bread, or they fellowshiped.
It says they got baptized.
So, the next thing you should do,
the first commandment you should do after being saved is to get baptized,
and if you haven't done that, I'm not here to beat you up.
Just get baptized, you know?
That's what God commands you to do.
Yeah, I mean, so,
in Acts eight thirty-seven, I'm just going to end there.
You don't have to turn there, I'm just going to read it for you once again.
It says,
And Philip said, If thou believeth with all thine heart, thou mayest.
So, the prerequisite for being baptized is that you believe on the Lord with all of your heart.
So, if you've done that today, and you've never been baptized,
then you are a candidate for baptism,
and I would like to baptize you in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost.
I'm only going to dunk you once. I'm not going to hold you under water.
It's not some mystical water that cleanses you from all your sins.
It's that you're, the big part is that you're identifying with Christ and saying,
Hey, I want to walk in newness of life.
I want to be the best Christian I can possibly be,
and you're showing everybody else that you believe that,
and the most important person that you're showing is who?
God. You're showing God that that's what you believe.
So, the first point was baptism is a picture of the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ.
Number two, baptism is not a part of salvation.
Number three, the procedure of baptism is that you're immersed in water,
and then who can perform the baptisms?
I believe, and I think that most people in our church believe this,
that you're not, that ordained people are doing the baptisms.
And number five, who's the proper candidate for baptism?
Someone that's saved, and that's it. Let's pray.
Heavenly Father, we thank you, Lord, so much for the scriptures and how clear you make it,
what baptism is and what it's not.
Pray, Lord, that many people would be baptized in the waters here at our church.
Lord, not for salvation, but, Lord, for sanctification.
I pray that you would just bless each person that comes forward for baptism today,
and I pray that you would bless their lives.
I pray they wouldn't just get baptized and fall away from church,
that they would actually do what they're supposed to do,
which is follow in newness of life, Lord.
And I just pray that the people that get baptized today would do that
and that they would serve you all their days.
And, Lord, that you would just bless their life and bless their Christian life, Lord,
and their physical life.
And, Lord, we thank you, Lord, for salvation.
We thank you for the free gift. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.
All righty, let's sing our last song, page 245 in your blue hymn books.
Little is much when God is in it, page 245.
Little is much when God is in it.
Page 245 on the verse.
In the harvest field now ripe and there's a work for all to do.
Hark, the voice of God is calling to the harvest calling you.
Little is much when God is in it, labor not for wealth or fame.
There's a crown and you can win it and you'll go in Jesus' name.
Does the place you're called to labor seem so small and little known?
It is great if God is in it and he'll not forget his own.
Little is much when God is in it, labor not for wealth or fame.
There's a crown and you can win it if you'll go in Jesus' name.
Are you laid aside from service, body born from toiling care?
You can still be in the battle, in the sacred place of prayer.
Little is much when God is in it, labor not for wealth or fame.
There's a crown and you can win it if you'll go in Jesus' name.
When the conflict here has ended and our race on earth has run,
he will say to all the faithful, welcome home my child well done.
Little is much when God is in it, labor not for wealth or fame.
There's a crown and you can win it if you'll go in Jesus' name.
Is it? No.
Yes, we'll gather at the river, a beautiful, a beautiful river,
gather with the saints at the river that flows by the throne of God.
On the bosom of the river, where the Savior came beyond,
we shall meet in tone everneath the glory of the throne.
Yes, we'll gather at the river, a beautiful, a beautiful river,
gather with the saints at the river that flows by the throne of God.
Ere we reach the shining river, lay we every burden down,
embrace our spirits we'll deliver and provide aerobic ground.
Yes, we'll gather at the river, a beautiful, a beautiful river,
gather with the saints at the river that flows by the throne of God.
Thank you.