(Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated and may contain mistakes.)

Men, this morning I'm going to be preaching on the subject of scriptural baptism. Obviously baptism is a big part of our belief. It's even in the name we're Baptist, right? Faithful word, Baptist church. And what we're going to talk about this morning is what constitutes a scriptural baptism. What makes a baptism be in accordance with the word of God? Because obviously there are some wrong baptisms that are out there, some so-called baptisms that we would not recognize, we would not accept because we don't believe that God would recognize them or accept them based upon what he has written in his word. Now the first issue that I want to address is here in 1 Corinthians chapter one about the idea of who it is that performs the baptism, right? Looking at verse number 10 here in 1 Corinthians one, the Bible reads, now I beseech you brethren by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ that you all speak the same thing and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment for it has been declared unto me of you, my brethren by them, which are of the house of Chloe, that there are contentions among you. So God is talking about the fact that he wants us to have unity within the local church. He doesn't want factions to be created within the local church and specifically he's going to get into this idea of having factions around certain personalities or breaking up into different factions based on who you're following, specifically which Bible teacher or Bible preacher you are identifying with. And he says in verse 12, now this I say that every one of you sayeth, I'm of Paul and I of Apollos and I of Cephas and I of Christ. Verse 13, is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? And this is the part I want to emphasize, or were you baptized in the name of Paul? I thank God that I baptized none of you. Well, but Crispus and Gaius, lest any should say that I had baptized in my own name. And I baptized also the household of Stephanas. Besides I know not whether I baptized it. He's like, that's all I can remember even baptizing. You know, I mean the Apostle Paul is a big time preacher of the gospel. He won a whole bunch of people to Christ. He is founding churches all over the place. But when he wrote to the Corinthians, he's racking his brain and he comes up with just a few people that he baptized and he said, you know what, I'm thankful that I didn't personally baptized more people than that. Less people would say that I was baptizing in my own name. And what he's saying here is that he doesn't want people to take pride in who specifically baptized them because this could lead to a factional mentality or a cult of personality around that person saying like, oh yeah, well I was baptized by Paul. Oh, I was baptized by Peter. You know why I got baptized by Apollos. As if this is some kind of a point of glory or pride. And what the Apostle Paul is emphasizing here is that you were not baptized in the name of the person who physically dunked you under water, but that you are baptized in the name of Christ and Christ is not divided. And so by one spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jew or Gentile, whether we be bond or free. And so what the Bible is doing here in first Corinthians chapter one is de-emphasizing who it is who actually performs the baptism. That's not the emphasis. That's not what we should be focused on when determining a scriptural baptism. It shouldn't be about the quality of the person who baptized you. And that's what is clearly stated in this passage. And that's why the Apostle Paul who, you know, arguably could be one of the coolest baptisms you could have being baptized by the Apostle Paul, he said, you know, I'm just thankful that I only baptized a few people because it's not about me, it's about Jesus. He says in verse 17, for Christ sent me not to baptize, but to preach the gospel. You know, this makes me laugh when people try to claim that being baptized is the gospel or that you have to be baptized in order to be saved. Well if that were the case, then why would the Apostle Paul say Christ sent me not to baptize but to preach the gospel? Apparently those are two different things, because the gospel is the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ, and it is the gospel that saves us, not baptism. Now baptism pictures the gospel, right? When someone is up right in the water, that pictures Christ on the cross. When they go down under the water, that pictures Christ's burial, and when they come up out of the water, that pictures Christ's resurrection. But we don't want to mix up the symbol of something with that thing itself. Baptism is the symbol of the gospel, but it's not the gospel. It pictures Christ's death, burial and resurrection. It pictures the thing that saves us. Christ's resurrection saves us. Baptism is the picture of the thing that saves us, but it isn't the thing that saves us itself, meaning that a person could be baptized and go to hell. Even if they have the best baptism by the best person, it doesn't matter, because we're saved by believing the gospel of Jesus, not by getting baptized. And conversely, a person could believe on the Lord Jesus Christ as their savior, never get baptized and still go to heaven, because baptism has nothing to do with salvation except that it pictures salvation. I like to use the illustration of a wedding ring, because my wedding ring shows people that I am married. People look at my hand, they see this ring and they know that I'm married. Now, I don't need this ring to be married. There are many men out there who don't wear a wedding ring, and they're not more or less married than I am. They're just as married to their wife as I am. This is just a symbol. If I take it off, I'm still married. If I put it on someone else, they don't suddenly become married to my wife, because it's just a picture, right? Then you put this on after you get married, you slip this on, or maybe right the moment you're getting married, then you put that on, and it's the same way with baptism, right? Baptism could take place at the same time that you get saved. You believe on Christ and then you immediately get baptized that same day, or perhaps you get baptized at some later date after salvation. It could either happen on the same date or later. Just like my wedding ring, when I got married, I didn't have a wedding ring for the first two weeks, and then two weeks later, I got my wedding ring, right? Doesn't really change my status during those two weeks, does it? I got saved when I was six years old. I didn't get baptized until I was nine years old. Now, I could have gotten baptized immediately at age six, but I didn't. I got baptized at age nine. That's not really the point, is it? Baptism is an outward show. It shows other people your testimony. It's a public profession of faith in Christ, but it doesn't affect the relationship that you already have as a son or daughter of God just by virtue of believing in Christ. That's what saves you. Baptism is just symbolic. That's all. So we don't want to mix that up. That's why he said, Christ sent me not to baptize, but to preach the gospel. Not with wisdom of words, lest the cross of Christ should be made of none effect. For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness, but unto us which are saved, it is the power of God. So it's that cross of Christ, the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ that saves us. Baptism is symbolic. Baptism pictures that. Now who is able to baptize in scripture? Or when it comes to whether or not a baptism is scriptural, does it matter who performs that baptism? Now here's what I believe, and I'm right, okay? Let me just explain this. And the reason I say that is because a lot of people disagree with me on this. You'll find a lot of people amongst independent fundamental Baptists that have different views on this. Some of my preacher friends have different views on this, but I'm going to explain to you why I believe what I do about this, and I hope that once you think about it and look at the scripture with me, you will hopefully agree. But if you don't agree, that's okay. But here's what I believe. I believe that for your baptism to be valid, okay, it has to be, number one, in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. Number two, it has to be baptism by immersion, meaning you're dunked under water, not just sprinkled or something. And number three, it has to be after you're saved. So you've got to get baptized after you're saved, you've got to be dunked under water, and it has to be in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. Now all of my Baptist brethren would agree with me on those three points. The point where they would probably disagree with me is that I say no matter who performed your baptism, it's valid if it meets those three criteria. And let me explain to you why. I believe that no matter who baptized you, if you meet those three criteria, your baptism is valid. It doesn't matter what church it was in, it doesn't matter the person who did it, that's what makes a scriptural baptism, those three elements. Now you say, well, Pastor Anderson, I don't know, because, you know, what if somebody was baptized in an apostate church or by a false prophet or somebody that turned out to be a false teacher? Here's the problem with that doctrine, this idea that says, well, the person who baptized you matters. Okay. There are a couple of problems with that. Problem number one, nowhere in the New Testament does the Bible tell us who is allowed to baptize. I mean, read the New Testament as many times as you want, and you're never going to find a verse that says this is who is allowed to baptize. There's no such mention. Now, what we do find is we find the example of scripture where when we read the Bible, everyone who baptizes somebody in the New Testament happens to be some kind of an ordained minister, whether that's an apostle or a pastor or a deacon or something of that nature. So we do have that example of scripture of men of God performing baptisms. But here's the thing about that. We don't have a clear verse. We don't have an explicit verse saying this is who can baptize. And so therefore, I'm not going to be dogmatic about something that the Bible doesn't even clearly state because all of our doctrines that we really stand on should be based on a clear statement of scripture. I can't even prove to you from the Bible that you have to be baptized by a man as opposed to a woman. Because I don't have a Bible verse to prove that to you. And you're just like, you know, but but here's the thing, look, we're not going to have women performing baptisms at our church. We don't have laymen performing baptisms at our church because we follow the example of scripture where we have preachers, men of God, ordained ministers perform the baptisms. But we can't really judge other people who have a different view because we don't have a clear Bible verse. We're just following an example. And so that's what we believe is the best practice. So that's what we do, right? We follow the practice of scripture that we see of, hey, in the Bible, it's preachers, it's men of God, it's ordained ministers doing the baptisms. So we're going to do the same thing. But can I really get up and be dogmatic about that and say that that's how it has to be? Nope, because there's no Bible verse that clearly states that. So that's one problem with putting an emphasis on who did the baptizing is that you don't have a clear scriptural basis to make those kinds of demands. Number two problem with this is that let's say we had a doctrine that said that in order for your baptism to be valid, the guy who baptized you had to be a saved man and he had to have a certain doctrinal purity or he had to be a certain type of Christian or certain denomination or whatever. You know, he has to be a Baptist or whatever. Let's say we had that philosophy that put some kind of a criteria on the spirituality of the person who baptized you. Well, here's the problem with that. What about all the people that Judas Iscariot baptized? Now we see in the Bible that during the ministry of Christ, Christ did not physically baptize people. Just like the apostle Paul delegated most of the baptism to someone else and he only baptized a couple of people. Usually he was delegating that to someone else. Well the Bible says of Jesus in John chapter four, Jesus himself baptized not, but his disciples baptized, right? It was the disciples of Jesus who did the baptizing. Well guess what? There were 12 disciples that were doing the baptizing and one of them was Judas Iscariot. And I guarantee you that a whole bunch of people got baptized by Peter, a whole bunch got baptized by John, a whole bunch got baptized by James, and a whole bunch got baptized by Judas Iscariot. Now what did we just read in First Corinthians chapter one? That people should not glory in or identify with the person who baptized them or somehow think that it's better to be baptized by say Peter than some no name kind of disciple like Bartholomew that gets, you know, maybe a couple Bible verses. Peter gets whole chapters and whole books. So what now? You got baptized by Peter, you got baptized by Bartholomew, Bartholah who? You know, who's that? But the point is that it doesn't matter. But what about the people who got baptized by Judas Iscariot? Do they all need to get re-baptized? No think about it. The people that Judas baptized, they in their heart believed, they called upon the name of the Lord, they're sincere, they got baptized, why would they need to get baptized again just because the guy who baptized them turned out to be a phony? Now stop and think about this. What does it even mean to be baptized in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost? Because the Apostle Paul said, hey, I'm glad that people didn't get baptized personally by me lest it be said that I baptized in my own name. What does it mean to be baptized in Paul's name or in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost? Well, in the name of means by the authority of or on behalf of or representing. So stop and think about it. If I showed up and signed a legal document in the name of Faithful Word Baptist Church, right? Let's say Faithful Word Baptist Church is buying a church van. Okay, well, the church doesn't have a big hand that can sign things, right? Because the church is a fictitious entity. It's a figment of the imagination, right? Because it doesn't have an actual corporeal bodily existence, right? It's an idea. The church is the assembly of God's people. Well, an assembly figuratively is a body, but is it an actual body like we all form up every Sunday morning and form like a Voltron, you know, and then we go down and make purchases? No, because it's only symbolically a body. It doesn't actually exist in the real world as a literal body, right? But in our minds and in the Lord's mind, it's a body. Does everybody understand the difference between figurative and real, right? And so here's the thing about that is that if I showed up and signed that paperwork, I'm not signing it on behalf of myself. I'm not buying that church van, right? I'm signing it on behalf of Faithful Word Baptist Church. I'm representing the group here. Hey, this is a van that we're going to use for the ministry and I'm just representative of this body right here, okay? If the ambassador from Chile is, you know, making some kind of an agreement with the federal government, they're going to sign that document on behalf of the people of Chile. It's not some personal transaction that they're doing. They represent someone else, right? I might give someone else power of attorney because I don't want to mess with all the nitty gritty of some kind of a financial thing that I need to do. So I might just empower someone else to do things in my name, right? This is like when Ahasuerus takes off his ring and gives it to a different person every week, you know, to just do things in his name and to seal those letters with the king's ring, whether it's Haman or Mordecai, they're doing it in the name of the king. Does everybody understand? So when I got baptized, I got baptized, yes, by a human being, right? There was a man who baptized me. It was Pastor Armour at Citadel Baptist Church when I was nine years old and in, uh, uh, was that Sacramento, California? I'm starting to think it was like Elk Grove, no, Sacramento, Sacramento, California. And when he baptized me, he baptized me in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. So that man was the one who dunked me underwater physically. He was representing God when he did that. And so it was really a transaction that was happening between the Lord and myself. That baptism was really between me and God. He was just a human instrument. He was a human intermediary. But really the important thing was that I was being baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. That's what mattered. Okay. And that's who I really had something to do with there than just a human being. You know, I was really disappointed years and years later when I looked at my baptism certificate and I was going through memorabilia and you know, of course the church that I went to, Citadel Baptist Church, was a King James Bible preaching church. But I looked at my baptism certificate and ah, it's got the NIV on it. It's got the verse about baptism from Matthew 28, 17 from the NIV, that was disappointing for me, right? Well, you know, I'm not going to display this thing. So then I just went out and got re-baptized. No, I don't have to get re-baptized because the NIV is on my baptism certificate. Nor do I have to monitor Pastor Armour for the rest of his life to make sure he turns out to have been a true man of God. And if he ever goes into heresy or apostasy or turns out to be a Judas, it's like, ah, 30 years later, turns out Pastor Armour, you know, wasn't what we thought he was. Gotta get re-baptized. I'm not saying that about him. I'm just saying that would be a little silly, wouldn't it? Okay. It's not about the person who baptized you because they did it in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. Now here's the thing. If we were to say, you have to be baptized by someone who's legit. Let me tell you what would be the result of this just in the real world, okay? And anybody who knows our church or knows human nature or knows what it's like to be an independent Baptist, you know what people would start doing? They would start demanding that a certain person baptize them. They would show up and they would say, no, I want Pastor Anderson to baptize me because I trust Pastor Anderson to do it. But I don't want to get baptized by somebody where, you know, a few years later I'm having to redo it. Now if people started demanding to be baptized by me personally or by Pastor Jimenez personally or by anyone personally, let me ask you this, wouldn't that look a lot like first Corinthians chapter one, what we're trying to avoid? If somebody's showing up saying, well, I want to be baptized by that pastor, that guy, you know, that's exactly what the apostle Paul is trying to avoid. And I promise you that if I got up and taught that doctrine and said, hey, you know, if you got baptized by a false prophet, you got to get baptized again. If you got baptized by a Judas, people will be like, well, just to be safe, I'm going to go with Pastor Anderson or just to be safe, I'm going to go with this other staff member that I trust, but not this staff member. You know, I trust him, but I want to trust, I'll trust this pastor, but not this pastor. You know what else would happen? You'd have people who are maybe brand new to an old IFB church saying, well, you know, I just started going to this old IFB church. I don't want to get baptized over here because I don't really know these people that well, you know, I'm going to travel and get baptized in a new IFB church, you know, where I can trust. Folks, that is exactly what 1 Corinthians chapter one is warning us against this idea of being baptized by a certain person. Okay. And so this is another big problem with this doctrine. And so maybe on the surface it might sound okay, but when you actually start applying this thing, you find out it doesn't have scriptural basis and it's going to lead to the exact kind of factionalism and the exact kind of personality cult that we're trying to avoid according to 1 Corinthians chapter one. And this is why I believe we should totally de-emphasize who did the baptism and focus on who was the baptism done in the name of, which is the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost and focus on the fact of, hey, was it by immersion? Was it biblical? Was it after you were saved? Those are things that actually matter according to the Bible. And so I strongly believe that who baptized you does not determine whether your baptism is valid or not. No more so than who performed your wedding, you know, determines the validity of your marriage. Because imagine this, you know, oh, well, it turns out the person who performed my marriage years and years ago turned out to not be legitimate. So I guess my marriage is invalid, so it turns out we're not married. It's crazy, right? Why? Because they are doing that marriage as a representative of the church or of the state or of the city or whoever, they are one who has that authority and that power vested in them to perform a wedding, not because they are the supreme arbiter of who's married and who's not. No, the one who is the supreme arbiter of marriage is God. And from a civil standpoint, the state is the arbiter of who is married and who is not. And those of you who are overboard conspiracy theorists and don't want the state to have anything to do with marriage, you're wrong. And you should listen to my sermon, Marriage Licenses in the Light of the Bible, because I'm telling you something, marriages should be legally binding according to the Bible. And if your marriage is not legal where you live, you need to actually get legally married. And different countries and different states have different rules about marriage. But if you're living in Timbuktu, you need to be married according to the laws of Timbuktu. Don't just be some off-the-grid Timbuktu marriage. You need to be, I don't know what the rules are in Timbuktu. I don't know what they are. But if anyone's listening to my sermon right now in Timbuktu, you better go down to the Timbuktu City Hall and you better get your marriage certified so that it's actually legally binding. Isn't it interesting how the preachers that get up and teach, oh yeah, you know, we need to get the government out of marriage and don't get a marriage license, they're on their fourth wife because they didn't legally marry the last three. Can't help it. Sorry. Have a little bit of a cough. Isn't it funny, you start teaching, oh yeah, we don't need a marriage license and then it's like a new wife every year. You want to talk about easy divorce, you're not even legally married. That's the easiest divorce there is. Folks, I'm not for easy divorce. I know Jake Thornton's not for easy divorce because, you know, he's always getting people to sign up for that covenant marriage that's, you know, the marriage that's more binding in Arizona. And look, you know, I'm for the covenant marriage, I'm for just the regular vanilla marriage license in Arizona, but you better get a marriage license to where you're recognized legally by the state as married. That's biblical and that's a whole nother sermon, I don't want to go off on that. The point is though, it's not who performed the ceremony that makes you married and it's not who performed the baptism that makes you baptized. It's who it was done in the name of and it is whether or not it was scriptural. Look at 1 Corinthians chapter 3 verse 1, And I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as unto babes in Christ. I fed you with milk and not with meat, for hitherto you were not able to bear it, neither yet now are ye able, for ye are yet carnal. For whereas there is among you envying and strife and divisions, are ye not carnal and walk as men? For while one sayeth, I'm of Paul and another, I'm of Apollos, are ye not carnal? What does carnal mean? Fleshly, like you're not thinking spiritually minded, okay? Who then is Paul and who is Apollos, but ministers by whom ye believed, even as the Lord gave to every man. Everybody has a person who is instrumental in getting them saved, right? Whether that's a male or female, they had someone who was instrumental in getting them saved. You know, the most immediate person for me was my mother. Obviously, I heard the gospel in church and from my father and from my siblings, but ultimately it was my mother who won me to Christ at the age of six. The minister by whom I believed, right? We all had someone that preached the gospel to us or many someone's who preached the gospel to us, but are they really the thing that's the most important about our salvation? No. The thing that's important is that we believed on Jesus. They were just the tool. They were just the instrument. Same thing with the person who baptized you. They're just a tool. They're just an instrument of God. I spent a lot of time on that point because I think it is the key point. Now, if you would go to Matthew chapter 28, Matthew chapter 28, and so scriptural baptism. Now look again, not all of my Baptist brethren agree with me on this. A lot of the old IFB, probably some even in the new IFB are going to have different views on this and they're going to say that, hey, you know, I don't accept your baptism if it was in this other situation. I'm just telling you what I believe and I've articulated it to you from scripture why I believe that way. It's up to you to decide how you believe it. And that's why if anyone ever comes to me and says, I want to get re baptized because I don't think that my baptism is legitimate. I've often told people, I've said, you know what? As far as I'm concerned, after they've hit the three criteria of baptized in the name of the father, son and holy ghost, deep water after salvation, I've often told people, look, I believe that you're scripturally baptized. I don't believe that you need to get re baptized, but I will say this. If you want to get re baptized, I'll re baptize you. If you're not comfortable with your baptism or if you don't agree with me, then hey, anybody who's saved and wants to get baptized, I'll baptize them as long as they're saved. So I don't want people feeling like they didn't get a real legitimate baptism. But as far as I'm concerned, you're scripturally baptized if you hit those three criteria. And like I said, I'm right. Now you might not think I'm right and that's okay. You think you're right, I think I'm right. But at the end of the day, I'm right. And not just because I said that, but because of the reasons that I gave earlier. So let me just briefly touch on these three criteria, okay? Because now that we've established it's really just about scriptural baptism. It's not about the who, it's about the scriptural nature of your baptism. First of all, the baptism should be in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost. The Bible says in Matthew 28 verse 18, and Jesus came and spake unto them saying, all power is given unto me in heaven and on earth. Go ye therefore and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost, teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I've commanded you. And lo, I am with you all way, even unto the end of the world, amen. And so baptism was commanded by Christ. This is Christ instituting the New Testament Church's view on baptism, right? To go out and baptize in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost. That's the instruction that he gave. Now obviously when John the Baptist is baptizing people, it's not going to be by this formula because this hadn't been given at that time, okay? But that was still a scriptural baptism for then because it was basically still under the old covenant, right? But then when Jesus died on the cross, boom, now we're in the new covenant. Now we're in the New Testament. So this is what New Testament baptism looks like, okay? And the people who were baptized by John the Baptist, they did not need to get re-baptized either because John the Baptist baptism was a legitimate baptism unless they were unsaved when John baptized them, then they would need to get re-baptized. But here's one thing I want to touch on briefly is that there's been this imagined contradiction that there's a difference somehow between being baptized in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost, and being baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus, which is how baptism is described in the book of Acts. And because of this imagined discrepancy, just from somebody who was asking foolish questions or navel gazing or splitting hairs, back in 1913 you had this Charismaniac revival camp meeting with a bunch of people rolling around in the aisles and barking like dogs and laughing hysterically and doing what Charismaniacs do. You had some guy running around the campground saying, the name of the Father is Jesus. And you get this what's called Jesus only baptism because he thought that this appeared to be a contradiction. Well guess what? It's not a contradiction because if I got baptized in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost, let me ask you this, what's the name of the Son? Okay, so if I got baptized in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost, did I get baptized in the name of Jesus? Because isn't he included in that? So what's the problem? See there is no problem to people who are actually doctrinally sound. To Baptists, there's no problem. But to the oneness Pentecostals, there's this big contradiction between Matthew and Acts and they can't figure out how to reconcile it so they end up rejecting the Trinity and going into damnable heresy to fix a problem that wasn't even there in the first place. There's no problem. There's nothing to see here folks, okay? If I got, let's say a business dealing took place and the document was signed in the name of Daniel and Varen and Fidel, right? Then was it signed in the name of Fidel? Yeah, because he's one of those three persons that was involved. So if you're baptized in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost, it's covered. It's scriptural. It's not baptism. Now this Jesus only baptism, on the other hand, is actually violating Matthew 28. Because Matthew 28 is clearly saying, go baptize them in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost. And if you go out and say, well, I'm baptizing in the name of Jesus only, you're not following the command of Christ who said to do it in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost. Hey Raz, if you did it in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost, did you baptize in the name of the Lord Jesus? Yes you did. All it is, is just that the book of Acts is written by a different author than the book of Matthew, right? So Luke is writing the book of Acts and he's just talking in the third person about baptism saying, oh, they got baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. Well, you know what? There's no issue there. Because by getting baptized in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost, yes, it's accurate to say that they got baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. That's what he's emphasizing. You see, different biblical authors emphasize different things for various reasons. And if you read Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, you're going to find that they all tell the same story but with very different emphases. That's what we see here in Acts. And so we don't want to get confused or carried away about some imaginary difference in what Jesus said to do in Matthew and what they did in Acts. I don't believe that they were just doing something different in Acts. I think it's just a different author writing about it in different words, but that it was done in the same way. Now go, if you would, to Acts chapter number 8, if you would. Acts chapter number 8. I'm just going to hurry up and quickly go through these three criteria of a scriptural baptism. Criteria number one is what? That it's done in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost, right? Well who baptized you? Doesn't matter. What matters is whether you're baptized in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost. But number two, baptism needs to take place after salvation, right? Baptism needs to take place after salvation. Don't get this out of order. This is why we don't baptize babies. Just trusting that they're going to get saved down the road. Just banking on that. Guess what? We cannot guarantee that a particular child will get saved down the road because last time I checked, salvation is a personal decision that's made by each individual. Now look, obviously if we bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord, if they grow up in a Christian home and we're teaching and preaching the gospel to them and reading scripture with them and we're bringing them up in a church where the gospel is clearly preached, then obviously the likelihood of them getting saved is exponentially way higher than growing up in some atheist or Hindu or Muslim home. But at the end of the day, don't they still have to make that personal decision to receive the Lord Jesus Christ as their savior? Didn't I have to make that decision or was I just guaranteed admittance into heaven by virtue of being born to my parents? Now I still had to hear the gospel and believe it. Now obviously the fact that my parents taught me the word of God at such a young age made it super easy for me to get saved, made me super likely to get saved. And thank God me and all three of my siblings are all saved, okay? But I still had to make that decision on my own to believe on Christ and my children have to make that decision to receive Christ as their savior. I hope none of my children think that they're just grandfathered in and they're just automatically saved and that they're going to stand before the Lord someday and say, well, excuse me, do you know who I am? Because I'm Pastor Anderson's son or daughter. That's meaningless to God. You're not going to ride, no one's riding into heaven on my coattails. It's got to be between them and God and there's one mediator between God and men and it's not your mom and dad. The mediator between God and man is Jesus and your mom and dad aren't going to be there. It's going to be you and him when you get saved. Now my mom was there when I got saved, but guess what? I didn't pray to her. I didn't pray to my mom or Jesus mom. I prayed to the father in the name of the son and I called upon the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and I asked Christ to save me. I didn't say, hey, you know, would you tell your son to save me, Mary? I just went straight to Jesus. Okay. But the Bible says in Acts chapter eight verse 35, then Philip opened his mouth and began at the same scripture and preached unto him, Jesus. And as they went on their way, they came into a certain water and the eunuch said, see, here's water. What does hinder me to be baptized? And Philip said, if thou believeth with all thine heart thou mayest. And he answered and said, I believe that Jesus Christ is the son of God. 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 what do we see here? There's a prerequisite for getting saved or excuse me. Well there is a prerequisite for getting saved is called admitting you're a sinner and believing in Jesus. But that's not what we're talking about. The prerequisite for getting baptized is believing in Jesus, being saved, right? If thou believeth with all thine heart thou mayest be baptized. What are we saying? That there is something that hinders you from being baptized. It's called not believing in Christ. If someone's not saved, that's a hindrance to them getting baptized. We should wait until they have believed on Christ. Then they may, then they are allowed to be baptized, right? If thou believeth with all thine heart thou mayest. Does it say if thou believeth with all thine heart thou shall attend a six week class and shall be baptized? Many churches will literally require you to go to a class for four weeks or six weeks before you get baptized. And the question that I've heard asked is, is the water really that deep? Why do you need all this training to be baptized? Well we just really want to make sure they understand everything about baptism. You don't even understand everything about baptism, especially not if you're requiring a class. That shows how little you know about baptism because in the Bible it teaches that when people got saved, the best time for them to get baptized was immediately. So maybe you should go to a class. The people who are teaching the class need to be enrolled in a baptism class by somebody who actually gets it, okay? No swimming lessons required. I know there's much water there, but we don't have to go to the deep end. We can get baptized in the shallow end of the pool. And so the Bible says here that if you believe, you may be baptized. There's not some other thing that you have, you don't have to clean up your life before you can get baptized. You don't have to, uh, you know, go to a class or anything like that. It's about believing in Christ. And then we actually find our third criteria even right in this exact passage because notice says they went down both into the water, both Philip and the eunuch, and he baptized them. Baptism's by immersion. That's why they went down both into the water. It's not just by sprinkling, okay? It's not by pouring, it's by immersion. You know, the Bible says that John was baptizing an anon near to Salem because there was much water there. How much water do you need to baptize by sprinkling? A teaspoon, a thimble full of water will do. So why would you have to travel? Here's the thing about the Jordan River. The Jordan River is kind of a trickle in places and depending on the time of year as well. But if you want to look at the Jordan River, you could look at places in the Jordan River. And apparently this was the case back then as well, that there were portions of the Jordan River where it wasn't deep enough to baptize someone, right? Because think about it, if we went to some kind of a seasonal type of a flow, how about the Salt River? Now look, recently you could baptize in the Salt River because it was really flowing in the past couple months. And you could have been baptizing in Tempe near to Phoenix because there was much water there in the Salt River. But guess what? Many times the Salt River is six inches deep or dry as a bone. But if it were six inches deep or even 12 inches deep, is that going to be a place where we can effectively baptize people? No, it has to be deep. So he went to a certain part of the Jordan River where it was deep enough to baptize people. Okay, well I just baptized the platform here. Actually, I didn't because it wasn't fully immersed. And so if, I mean, I'm just going to, I meant to do that, okay? So here's the thing, if baptism were by sprinkling, this tiny little puddle, this tiny little, it's enough, right? I just, here you are my son, you know, and I could baptize like that. But of course baptism is by immersion. I cannot immerse anyone in that. It's not deep enough. Let's flip over to Acts chapter 19. Quickly, we're almost out of time, but while you're turning to Acts 19, I want to point out to you that in Romans chapter six, the Bible says we are buried with him by baptism into his death. That's immersion. The Bible says they went down into the water. There was much water there. The Bible says Jesus, when he was baptized, came up straight way out of the water. How do you come out of the water if you weren't down in the water? Okay. And so it's clear in all these mentions of baptism that it's by immersion, Colossians, which is so funny because the, the, the baby sprinkling Protestants, their proof text for baby sprinkling is Colossians two, where it mentioned circumcision and then it mentions baptism. And they claim like, Oh, well, you know, baptism sort of like the new circumcision, ergo, let's baptize babies. They forgot to read the exact verse where it says buried with them in baptism. When was the last time you saw a burial where they just sprinkled a little dirt on someone? That sounds like you just murdered someone and the cops are coming and you don't have time to actually hide the bodies well. Everybody knows that the key to getting away with murder is you got to be able to hide the body well, sprinkle a little dirt on it and get out of there. It's cause it's cause you already hear the sirens coming. This is just theoretical for me. Okay. I don't have any experience with this whatsoever. Buried with them in baptism, a burial is being totally covered by dirt on all sides. That's what it means to be buried. If baptism pictures burial and resurrection, it makes a lot of sense that you would go under the water and come out of the water because that's the whole picture. The resurrection, how does sprinkling picture a resurrection? It doesn't. Okay, so we're buried with them by baptism into his death. They went down in the water. Jesus came up out of the water and on and on. It's very clear, but a lot of people are ruled by pagan traditions that have come into Christianity as opposed to scriptural traditions that are found in the Bible. Last place, we're going to turn acts 19 verse one. The Bible reads, and it came to pass that while Apollos was at Corinth, Paul, having passed through the upper coast, came to Ephesus and finding certain disciples, he said unto them, have you received the Holy Ghost since she believed? And they said unto him, we've not so much as heard whether there be any Holy Ghost. They're like, have we received the Holy Ghost? Does the Holy Ghost even exist? Now Paul's taken aback by this. He's kind of surprised that these disciples who've supposedly believed and been baptized that they don't know whether there be a Holy Ghost. So then he asked this question, he said to them, unto what then were you baptized? Now how does this question make any sense? Think about it. He says to them, hey, have you received the Holy Ghost since you believed in it? Well, we haven't even heard if there be a Holy Ghost. He's like, well, unto what then were you baptized? Why? Because he's expecting them to have been baptized in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, and then they would have heard of the Holy Ghost. But then he says, unto what then were you baptized? They say, well, unto John's baptism. Now here's the thing about that. Okay, John's baptism is still valid because all of Jesus's original disciples, they were baptized by John. They didn't have to get re-baptized. Who would re-baptize them? Stop and think for a second. John the Baptist baptized the original 12 disciples. If they supposedly had to get re-baptized, who would baptize them? Jesus? Jesus didn't baptize anybody. His disciples did the baptizing. So again, John's baptism is of course valid. Okay. Why did these guys in Acts 19 need to get re-baptized? Is because these guys have no clue what's even going on. Because John the Baptist is constantly preaching about the Holy Ghost. His whole preaching was about how the only way that I even knew, and I'm paraphrasing, but this is what John the Baptist said, the only way I even knew who the Messiah was, the way that I knew who the Son of God was, was that I saw the Holy Spirit descending upon him. And the one who sent me to baptize told me, the one upon whom ye see the Spirit descending, he it is that shall baptize with the Holy Ghost. He's the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world. He is the Messiah. He's the Son of God. He's the Christ. John the Baptist's mission was to point people to Jesus. And he talked a lot about the Holy Spirit as he pointed people to Jesus. And he told them that they should believe on Jesus. These people clearly didn't get that message because they don't even know what's going on. They don't even know if there is a Holy Ghost. They probably just got baptized by John the Baptist because everybody else was doing it and they didn't actually pay attention to what was going on. And I guarantee you there have been people who went to church and preaching took place and they got caught up in a group of people and, you know, they thought they got saved and they got dunked along with everybody else, but they didn't really know what was going on. So if you ask them a year later or two years later, they're like, you know, what do you have to do to be saved? So let's keep reading and see if this rings true here. It says unto what then were you baptized? They said in verse three, unto John's baptism, then said Paul, John, verily baptized with the baptism of repentance, saying unto the people that they should believe on him, which should come after him. That is on Christ Jesus. So he's explaining, you know, you guys miss the point of John's message. John's message was about believing in him that would come after, looking forward to Jesus, looking forward to the cross, right? Because people in the Old Testament are saved, looking forward to the cross. We're saved looking backward to the cross, but it's always been the cross that is salvation, okay? In all periods. Salvation has always been by grace through faith, but in the Old Testament they saw through a glass darkly. They didn't understand things, but you were supposed to understand a little more than these people understood. Okay? These people just don't have a clue. They missed John's sermon, they got dunked, but they weren't paying attention to the preaching. And so Paul is having to explain to them what John even preached, that it was all about how there's this one who's coming after and he's Jesus and so forth. And then when he explains that to them, it says in verse number five, when they heard this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. So it wasn't that John baptizing them that was the problem. It was the fact that they didn't get the message. That's why Paul had to give them that message in verse four and explain to them about Jesus. And obviously this conversation took more than 30 seconds, even though it only takes 30 seconds to read it in the Bible. The Bible is giving us an abbreviated form of what took place. Bottom line is Paul came across disciples who had been baptized, but they didn't understand the gospel. They didn't know what was going on. And so once they actually got the gospel, then they actually got baptized. And that's why if you got baptized before you were saved and then after that you got saved, then you should get re-baptized. You know, if you got baptized, look, I got baptized when I was nine, right? But let's say I got baptized at nine and I wasn't actually saved and I had actually just, you know, gone through the motions and it was actually later when I was, you know, 15 that I actually got saved. Well then at 15 I would want to get baptized again. And you say, well, I've already been baptized three times or something. You got wet three times. I've gotten wet hundreds of times. I've been immersed, you know, when you have an older brother, you get immersed in the pool repeatedly. You know, he's performing baptisms a lot sometimes, you know, and my brother Clint baptized me like 200 times, but it wasn't in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. Okay? It was just called roughhousing in the pool and, you know, we wrestle and try to dunk each other. I baptized him a few times too, you know. But that's not baptism, is it? It's getting wet. It's taking a bath. It's going under water. See, in order for baptism to be valid, to be baptism, it's got to be after you're actually saved. It's got to be under water and it's got to be in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. Once you've got those three elements, you're done. So how many times do you need to be baptized? Once. Okay? But it has to be a scriptural baptism. And so if you've been baptized 54 times and it was not a scriptural baptism, well, you know, it's time to make it 55 because it needs to be once that's legitimate. And so I hope that this sermon helps you understand some doctrinal things about baptism from the Word of God. It's a foundational teaching. It's something that we need to know. Those of you who've been saved a long time or in church a long time, you might think that a sermon like this is a little bit too basic or too elementary, but we need to always hammer these basic doctrines to make sure that we all understand what the Bible says and don't go off into false doctrine or heresy. So for those that are newer, you know, you might have learned a lot today and you might have even realized that you need to get baptized. Well, you know what? I would love for you to get baptized if that's the case. And by the way, we are always prepared to baptize people every Sunday morning. We have the baptistry full of water and we're always ready to baptize people. We have change of clothes, we have towels. Now look, if you don't get baptized, you're still going to heaven as long as you believe in Jesus. But baptism is a first step of obedience that God commands us to do. And so you want to start off your Christian life on the right foot. You want to be scripturally baptized, not because it affects your eternity, but simply because you want to obey the Lord by following the Lord's example in baptism. And by the way, if baptism supposedly saved you from your sins, well then let me ask this. Why did Jesus get baptized? Jesus didn't have any sins. Jesus got baptized because it was obedience to the father for him to get baptized. Well guess what? It's obedience for us to get baptized as well after we believed on Christ. It has nothing to do with salvation. And if you're not sure that you're saved, getting baptism, getting baptized isn't going to help. You know, it's not like, well, I'm not sure about getting saved. Maybe if I get baptized, then I'll feel better about my salvation. No. Settle your salvation first. Then it's settled between you and Christ, that you believe on him, that you're fully trusting him, that you know that you can never lose your salvation because it's all paid for by Jesus. Once you get that settled, get baptized once and for all. Who has to baptize you? Well, at our church, it's going to be myself. It's going to be Corbin Russell. It's going to be Chris Segura. It's going to be someone else who's ordained. But here's the thing, it could really be anyone, although what we do is a best practice, don't feel like you have to seek out, you know, and maybe I'm saying this a little bit for people that are on the Internet because I know a lot of people, you know, thousands of people listen to these sermons online. You know, if someone's out there listening to this sermon online, they should just go to their local church and get baptized. I'm sure there's a Baptist church in their town where they can get baptized. They don't need to fly to Phoenix or drive eight hours to their, you know, the closest church that's affiliated with Pastor Anderson or say, you know what I mean? That's meaningless. Go to any Baptist church and get baptized. You know, as long as they're doing it in the name of the Father, Son, Holy Ghost in deep water, which they probably all are or ninety nine point nine nine percent are. And if they tell you to take a class, well, then, you know, maybe drive to another church that, you know, isn't going to make you jump through all those hoops. If that's the only option, then take the class, you know, and maybe even take some swimming lessons at the YMCA if you want. But just, you know, I would just get baptized, you know, as soon after you get saved as you can. Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer. Father, we thank you so much for salvation, the free gift through believing in the Lord Jesus Christ. And Lord, thank you for baptism that provides such a beautiful picture of that salvation. And it it just shows how easy it is to be saved and and how it's all through your death barrel and resurrection and how you did all the heavy lifting when it came to salvation. Lord, thank you so much for sending Christ to be the savior of the world. And it's in his name we pray. Amen.