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

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Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] Let's sing that out together on the first. The mighty fortress is our God, Bubble work never failing, Our helper ye amid the flood, A mortal is prevailing, For still our ancient foe, Does seek to work us woe, His craft and power are great, And armed with cruel hate, On earth is not his equal, One hundred forty-four on the second, Did we in our own strength confide, Our striving would be losing, We're not the right man on our side, The man of God's own choosing, Dost ask who that may be, Christ Jesus, it is he, Lord, sell Beoth his name, From Asia to Asia same, And he must win the battle, And though this world with devils filled, Should threaten to undo us, We will not fear for God at will, His truth to triumph through us, The prince of darkness grim, We tremble not for him, His rage we can endure, For though his doom is sure, One little word shall fare, Good one hundred forty-four on the last, That word above all earthly powers, No thanks to them abideth, The spirit and the gifts are ours, Through him who with the sighteth, Let goods and kindreds go, This mortal life also, The body they may kill, God's truth abideth still, His kingdom is forever. Amen, and we want to welcome you to Verity Baptist Church this morning. We're so glad that you are with us. We of course have a wonderful service lined up for you today. And this is the day the Lord has made. We will rejoice and be glad in it. And let's go ahead and begin the service with a word of prayer. Let's bow our heads together. Heavenly Father, Lord, we do love you. And we thank you for allowing us to gather together today. Lord, we pray that you would bless everything that happens in the service. The music, the preaching, the fellowship. Lord, I pray that you would help us. Help us learn from your word. Help us to draw closer to you. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Give me song number forty-five. Four, five, when I can read my title clear. Song forty-five on the first. When I can read my title clear. To ancients in the skies. I'll bid farewell to every fear. And wipe my weeping eyes. And wipe my weeping eyes. And wipe my weeping eyes. I'll bid farewell to every fear. And wipe my weeping eyes. Should earth against my soul engage. And fiery darts be hurled. When I can smile at Satan's rage. And face a frowning world. And face a frowning world. And face a frowning world. When I can smile at Satan's rage. And face a frowning world. Let cares like a wild deluge come. And storms of sorrow fall. May I but safely reach my home. My God, my Heaven, my all. My God, my Heaven, my all. My God, my Heaven, my all. May I but safely reach my home. My God, my Heaven, my all. Good, on the last. There shall I bathe my weary soul in seas of heavenly rest, and not a wave of trouble roll across my peaceful breast, across my peaceful breast, across my peaceful breast, and not a wave of trouble roll across my peaceful... Good singing. Amen. Alright, well let's take our bulletins and we'll look at some announcements real quickly. If you do not have a bulletin, just raise your hand and one of our ushers can get one for you. If you need a bullet, excuse me, put your hand up and we will get one for you. The verse this week, of course, Psalm 118-24, this is the day the Lord has made. We will rejoice and be glad in it. If you look at the inside of the bulletin, you'll see our service time Sunday morning, service 1030 a.m. and we are glad that you're with us, of course, on Sunday morning on the Lord's day for church. We do invite you to be back tonight at 6 p.m. for the evening service and we'd love for you to be a part of our Wednesday evening Bible study at 7 p.m., the midweek service. If you look at our soul winning times, our main soul winning times on Saturday mornings at 10 a.m. and then we have additional soul winning times on Thursdays and Sundays at 2 p.m. and we'd love for you to be a part of those soul winning times. If you'd like to go soul winning, there'll be an opportunity for you to do that this afternoon. If you look at the announcements and upcoming events, of course, you've got our sermon series there. You can take a look at that and just a new announcement that I don't want to spend a lot of time on but I do want to talk about for a second is that we are launching a new biblical leadership institute and for those of you that remember, this is just a revamp of our old spiritual leadership class and we've taken a break from that but I've taken the time that we took a break. We had a year of working on this building so we didn't have our leadership class but I've taken that time to kind of redevelop it and relaunch it and we're going to be launching it this fall and this is a program for men and it is intended to do two things. Number one, to train men in leadership, just in general, biblical leadership and then also to train men for the ministry, men that want to enter the ministry and one thing that we want to do here at Verity Baptist Church is plant churches. We've already planted five but we want to plant more and we need men to enter the ministry so this biblical leadership institute is going to be something that's going to help us with that. So if this is something that maybe you're interested in, just a couple of things. First of all, in the foyer, there is a setup with the brochures about the biblical leadership institute so men, if you're interested, go by there after the service and grab one of these nice little brochures that gives you the information that you'll need for that. We also are going to have an orientation on Tuesday, September 3rd at 7 p.m. and you can sign up on your communication card if you would like to attend the orientation and the orientation will be a time for us to be able to explain to you how the program works and also for you to answer any questions that you might have. So if this is something you're interested in, then of course go by there and grab the brochure, read all this information here of course. Also, we've got choir and orchestra practice today at 5 p.m. They're practicing for our family and friend date which is our church's 14 year anniversary so we want to encourage you of course to be a part of that. Don't miss that. And then we are continuing our rooted and grounded sermon series. I don't think you're having these in your bulletins anymore but I do want to talk about the rooted and grounded sermon series. We've been going through this series, this is now the fifth week and this is a series that we're going through on Sunday mornings but we're doing a special recording for it and this is going to serve as our new discipleship course going forward. And the first three sermons if you remember we had a section dealing with salvation. We talked about faith versus work, we talked about repent of your sins and we talked about eternal security and right now we are in a little section on baptism. If you remember last Sunday I preached a sermon on the subject of understanding biblical baptism and we pretty much talked about everything you need to know about baptism. We're going to spend one more sermon on baptism this morning and I'm going to be preaching on the subject of refuting baptismal regeneration. And that's the belief that baptism is part of salvation. And Brother Luke at our Soul Winning Challenge just a couple of weeks ago did like a ten minute Soul Winning Challenge on baptism or regeneration. I guess he was trying to steal my thunder, I don't know. But anyway this sermon has been planned for weeks and it's part of our discipleship so whether he preached on it or not I'm still going to preach on it. And it's important, something everyone needs to know so that's why it's going to be in our discipleship. But I want to say especially to you Soul Winners, you might have somebody bring up some of these arguments that we're going to talk about today. So especially for you it's important that you make note of the things we'll talk about this morning and that way you can have that ready when you're out Soul Winning and preaching the Gospel of course. If you look at the back of the bulletin, birthdays and anniversaries for the month of August. Today is Daniel Nadal-Tescu's birthday, August 11th. I think he's turned 18 years old today so congratulations to him. And then this coming week we have Mark and Mariah Purist have their anniversary August 13th. Brother Joe and Miss Kathy Maples have their anniversary August 14th. And Brother Vladi and Miss Antonina Vokulcik have their anniversary on August 14th as well. Praise Report, Money Matters, all of those things are there for you to look at. And I've just got some additional things to go over real quickly. First of all, a birth announcement. And we want to announce the birth of Alina Jacobi-Shaboyan. And she was born August 10th, 2024 at 3.37 a.m. weighing 7 pounds 9 ounces, 20 inches long. And Mother and Baby are both doing well. So of course congratulations to Brother Jacob and Miss Ariel on the birth of their baby. And of course our church would like to provide meals for the family. So if you'd like to bring a meal, you can see my wife after the service. She has a clipboard and she can get you signed up for that and make sure you see her with regards to that. And then of course I've got a couple of baptism certificates to hand out just quickly this morning. I'm going to read one and then I'll just give both names. This certificate of baptism is awarded to Thomas Wheatley in recognition of his baptism on the fourth day of August of the year 2024 presented by Verity Baptist Church. And of course we've got the verse there, Romans 6-4. Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death. That like us Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father even so we should walk in newness of life. And we've got some pictures here for Thomas to remember the day of his baptism. Thank you very much. Let's go ahead and give Thomas a round of applause. And I've got another certificate here for Jeremiah Thurman who was baptized on the same day and it's got the same information. And we've got some pictures here for Jeremiah to remember the day of his baptism. Let's go ahead and give him a round of applause. Amen. Alright, well one more thing. If you are a first time guest we're so glad that you are with us. We have a gift we'd like to give you as you walk out of the church building this morning. If you've got our main foyer you'll see a little table set up and on that table you'll see these little gift bags. Please grab one on your way out as a gift from us to you for being our guest this morning. There are several resources in this bag that we'd like you to have. The one I'd like to highlight is this documentary that our church made. It's called Being Baptist. It's very well made, very interesting. We think you'll like it and we want to give this to you as a gift. So please make sure you don't leave here this morning without grabbing one of these gift bags on your way out. And if you are a guest we'd ask that you please take a moment to fill out the communication card which is inserted in your bulletin. And if you need a pen you can just raise your hand and one of our ushers will bring you by a Verity Baptist Church pen. And you're welcome to keep the pen of course as a gift from us as well. And we'd love to have a record of your attendance. We actually would like to send you a little gift in the mail, but we need your information to do that. So please take a moment to fill the card. In a moment here we're going to sing a song. When we're done singing we're going to receive the offering. And as the offering plate goes by you can drop this card in the offering plate. Or you can hand it to me after the service. I'll be standing at the back door greeting people on the way out. And I hope you'll come by and say hello. Alright, well let's go ahead and take our chorus of the week which is the insert in your bulletin. And we're going to sing How Great Thou Art. This is the kind of song you sing on purpose and with passion. And let's go ahead and sing it out on the first. Oh Lord my God, when I in awesome wonder, sing it out on the first. Oh Lord my God, when I in awesome wonder, consider all the worlds thy hands have made. I see the stars, the rolling thunder, thy power throughout the universe this way. Then sings my soul, my Savior God to thee. How great thou art, how great thou art. When sin falls, my Savior God to thee. How great thou art, how great thou art. Sing it out on the second. When through the woods and forest glades I wander. And hear the birds sing sweetly in the trees. When I look down the mountain grandeur. And hear the broad and feel the gentle. Then sings my soul, my Savior God to thee. How great thou art, how great thou art. Then sings my soul, my Savior God to thee. How great thou art, how great thou art. We're gonna go ahead and slow it down. We'll slow it down on the third. Sing it on purpose on the third. And when I think that God his Son not smearing sent him to die, I scarce can take it in. Then sings my soul, my Savior God to thee. Then sings my soul, my Savior God to thee. How great thou art, how great thou art. Then sings my soul, my Savior God to thee. How great thou art, how great thou art. Sing it out on the last. When Christ shall come with shout of acclamation and take me home, what joy shall fill my heart. Then I shall bow in humble adoration. My God, how great thou art. Then sings my soul, my Savior God to thee. How great thou art, how great thou art. Then sings my soul, my Savior God to thee. How great thou art, how great thou art. Amen. Good singing. Before the offering, I do want to remind you, of course, that we are a family integrated church. What that means is that children and infants are always welcome in the service. We do not separate children from their parents for any reason. However, we do have mother-baby rooms and daddy rooms available for your convenience. All of the rooms have comfortable seating. They have monitors set up so you can watch. The service and listen to it. So if you have a child that's been distracting during the service, if you need some privacy, we encourage you to use those rooms. Of course, if you need to be baptized, please let us know. We'd love to baptize you. You can let us know on your communication card and we'll follow up with you in regards to that. Or after the service, after the preaching, while we're singing the last song, if you step out those doors, one of our staff guys can meet you there and we can get you situated for baptism. And of course, I want to remind you to please make sure your cell phones are off or on silent or vibrate or something like that so they don't go off in the middle of the preaching. Of course, we're doing a special recording for these sermons. So if you would help us with minimizing distraction, not allowing children to cry for too long or anything like that, we'd appreciate your help with all of that. All right, we'll have the guys come up and help us with the offering at this time. And let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer. Heavenly Father, Lord, we do love you. And we thank you for allowing us to gather together this morning. Lord, we pray that you'd bless the offering, the gift and the giver. We pray that you'd meet with us as we open up your word, as we study the Bible together. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Turn in your Bibles to 1 Corinthians chapter 1. 1 Corinthians chapter 1. If you do not have a Bible, raise your hand and an usher will bring you one. 1 Corinthians chapter 1. We will read the entire chapter as our custom. 1 Corinthians chapter 1. Just keep your hands up and an usher will bring you a Bible. 1 Corinthians chapter 1, the Bible reads, Paul, called to be an apostle of Jesus Christ through the will of God, and Sauthenes our brother, unto the church of God which is at Corinth, to them that are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints, with all that in every place call upon the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, both theirs and ours. Grace be unto you, and peace, from God our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ. I thank my God always on your behalf for the grace of God which is given you by Jesus Christ, that in everything ye are enriched by him, in all utterance and in all knowledge, even as the testimony of Christ was confirmed in you, so that ye come behind in no gift, waiting for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, who shall also confirm you unto the end, that ye may be blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is faithful, by whom ye were called unto the fellowship of his Son Jesus Christ our Lord. Now I beseech you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you, but that ye be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment. For it hath been declared unto me of you, my brethren, by them which are the house of Chloe, that there are some contentions among you. Now this I say, for every one of you saith, I am of Paul, and I am of Apollos, and I of Cephas, and I of Christ. Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul? I thank God that I baptized none of you, but Crispus and Gaius, lest any should say that I baptized in my own name. And I baptized also the household of Stephanus, besides I know not whether I baptized any other. For 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. For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and I will bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent. Where is the wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the disputer of this world? And hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? For after that the wisdom of God, the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. For the Jews require a sign, and the Greeks seek after wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews a stumbling block, and unto the Greeks foolishness. But unto them which are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God, and the wisdom of God. Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men. For ye see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble are called. But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise, and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty. And base things of the world, and things which are despised, and things which are God chosen, yea, and things which are not, to bring to not things that are, that no flesh should glory in his presence. But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption, that, according as it is written, he that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord. Let's pray. Almighty God, thank you for this church, thank you for this day, thank you for being here this morning. Please bless Pastor. Let the sermon glorify you, and bring honor to you. In the name of Jesus Christ, I pray. Amen. Amen. Alright, we're there in 1 Corinthians, chapter number 1. And of course, if you remember, in our previous lesson in this sermon series, we had a comprehensive teaching on the subject of baptism. And we learned about the who, and the what, the when, the why, and the how of baptism. And we learned pretty much everything you need to know about baptism. However, in this lesson, we're going to go just a little deeper on the subject of baptism. And I'm going to be specifically refuting the belief of baptismal regeneration. And I'd like to just read a definition for you of baptismal regeneration. And it is defined as this. Baptismal regeneration is the name given to the doctrine which maintains that salvation is intimately linked to the act of baptism. In other words, the belief that baptism is necessary for salvation. And there are lots of people out there who teach this, who believe this. Obviously, if you do not believe that works are required for salvation, then it should be fairly obvious that baptism is not needed for salvation. However, it's good for us to understand what the Bible teaches about this and how to refute it. Because like I said, you're going to come across people who believe this. Lots of churches believe this. Denominations believe this. Many people out there, for example, the Catholic Church teaches that baptism is a sacrament and it's part of salvation. Many people that came out of Catholicism, Protestants that came out of Catholicism, pretty much if they're baby baptizers, they're baptizing babies because they believe that this is somehow connected to or the process of salvation. A lot of charismatic Pentecostals believe that baptism is a step in the process of salvation. The Church of Christ believes in baptismal regeneration. So there's lots of people out there that believe that baptism is required for salvation. And I'd like to teach from the Bible and refute some of the arguments that are made in regards to that. Now I'd like to begin just by way of introduction by giving Paul's statements about baptism and the Gospel. And you're there in 1 Corinthians chapter 1. If you look down at verse number 12, just for sake of context, I want you to notice that Paul is dealing with division in the church at Corinth. 1 Corinthians chapter 1 and verse 12 says this, Now this I say, this is Paul speaking of course to the church. He says, Now this I say, that every one of you sayeth, I am of Paul, and I am of Apollos, and I am of Cephas, and I am of Christ. So what Paul is dealing with is division. There are these cliques that are formed within the church at Corinth. And some are saying, I am of Paul, I am of Apollos, I am of Cephas, I am of Christ. And then Paul makes this statement about baptism. Notice there in verse 13, 1 Corinthians 1.13, he says, Is Christ divided? He's asking these questions. Is Christ divided? Because he's referring to their division in their church. He says, Is Christ divided? He says, Was Paul crucified for you? And here's a statement on baptism. He says, Or were ye baptized in the name of Paul? Then in verse 14, he makes an additional statement. He says, I thank God that I baptized none of you. So he is making a statement, referring to the fact that he's thankful that he did not baptize many of them. And the reason that he's saying that is because it seems that these people in Corinth are taking pride in the sense of who baptized them. So when they're saying, I am of Paul, I am of Apollos, I am of Cephas, I am of Christ, they're taking pride in these divisions. They're taking pride in the sense that somebody baptized them, that they were baptized by Cephas, or that they were baptized by Apollos, or that they were baptized by Paul. Which is why he asked the question there at the end of verse 13, Were ye baptized in the name of Paul? He says, I thank God that I baptized none of you, but Crispus and Gaius, lest any should say that I had baptized in mine own name. So he says, I baptized none of you. He says, Okay, but there were a couple of exceptions. He says, I did baptize Crispus and Gaius. Then in verse 16, he says, And I baptized also the household of Stephanus. Besides, I know not whether I baptized any other. So he's saying, Look, I baptized Crispus and Gaius. I baptized the household of Stephanus. He said, I honestly can't remember if I baptized anybody else. But he said, I'm thankful that I baptized none of you. He said, I'm thankful that I did not baptize the vast majority of you because of the fact that they are taking pride in who baptized them. And they're allowing this to be a cause for division. That's the context to the verse I want to key in on in verse 17. And I want you to notice what he says here in 1 Corinthians 1 17. He says, For Christ. Now remember, this is in the context of, I'm glad that I didn't baptize most of you. He says, For Christ sent me not to baptize, but to preach the gospel. And what Paul is saying here, Paul states that he was sent by Christ to preach the gospel. What does that mean? That means to get people saved. To preach the gospel of the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. The message of salvation. To get people saved. But then he says, Christ sent me to preach the gospel, but not necessarily to baptize. He says, For Christ sent me not to baptize, but to preach the gospel. Now we know that baptism is part of the Great Commission. The Great Commission given by the Lord Jesus Christ was to go ye therefore into all the world 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 have commanded you in law, and with you always, even unto the end of the world. Amen. So we know that there's a three-fold commission there. To go out and preach the gospel. To teach all nations. To preach the gospel to every creature. And then to baptize them. And then to disciple them. To teach them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you. Baptism is part of the Great Commission. However, Paul is making it clear here that baptism is not part of the gospel. Because the gospel is what saves you. And the Bible is clear about the fact that the gospel is the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ. So here he says, For 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. I want you to notice here that Paul is making it clear that his mission is to preach the gospel. To spread the gospel. To get as many people saved as possible. And in his mind, he's making it clear that baptism is not part of that. For Christ sent me not to baptize, but to preach the gospel. So it's clear from the statements of Paul that baptism is not part of the gospel message. And baptism is not needed for salvation. And again, if you've been with us and you've been following along in this study and in these sermons. We've talked about faith and works. And we've talked about having our confidence in the Lord Jesus Christ. And it should be pretty clear that salvation is not part, that baptism is not part of salvation. If you believe that you don't have to do anything in order to earn salvation and to work for it. However, with that said, I'd like to give you five arguments. And I'd like to show you five arguments. And these are arguments made by those who advocate baptismal regeneration. If you find someone who believes that baptism is part of salvation. They're probably going to take you to one of these arguments. And I'd like to just go through their most used major arguments from the Bible. And show you how these passages are really not teaching baptismal regeneration. And they're not teaching that baptism is part of salvation. So you're there in 1 Corinthians 1. I'd like you to find the book of Mark towards the beginning of the New Testament. You've got, of course, Matthew and then the book of Mark. Find Mark, if you would. I'd like you to go to Mark chapter 16. And I'd like you to look down at verse number 16. Mark chapter 16 and verse 16. And let's look at the first argument for baptismal regeneration from Mark 16 and verse 16. Mark 16 says this, He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved, but he that believeth not shall be damned. And this is a verse that people who believe in baptismal regeneration or who teach baptismal regeneration. Who teach that baptism is required for salvation. Here's a verse that they like to go to as an argument to prove their point. Now I want you to notice here in Mark 16, 16 that the verse is made up of two statements. The first statement says this, He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved. And then we see a second statement, But he that believeth not shall be damned. So I want you to notice these two statements. The first statement, He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved, is about people who believe and are baptized. According to Mark 16, 16, if somebody believes and they are baptized, they are saved. He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved. Now you might ask the question, why does God even put these two things together? He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved. Remember that baptism is part of the Great Commission. God does not need someone to be baptized in order for them to be saved. But he does want them to be baptized as part of their discipleship and following the Lord Jesus Christ. So this is why it's brought up. But I want you to notice the statement simply says this, That if someone believes and they're baptized, they're saved. By the way, let me just say this. This verse could say he that believeth and is, and fill in the blank with whatever you want, and it would still be a true statement because if you believe you're saved. So it says he that believeth and is baptized shall be saved. It could say he that believeth and goes to church shall be saved. It could say he that believeth and starts reading the Bible could be saved. It could say he that believeth and does jumping jacks shall be saved. Because that would still be a true statement because anybody that believes on the Lord Jesus Christ is saved. So the first statement is about people who believe and are baptized. And what does it tell us? It tells us that they are saved. Now listen, I don't believe in baptism or regeneration, but I do believe this, that anyone that believeth and is baptized is saved. But I want you to notice the second statement. The second statement says this, He that believeth not shall be damned. So the second statement is about people that do not believe. No mention of baptism and they are damned. You say well why would he say he that believeth not shall be damned? Because of the fact that what saves you is believing. And what does then condemn you? If what saves you is believing what condemns you, what condemns you is not believing. Notice that when he mentions he that believeth not shall be damned, there's no mention of baptism. Because baptism has nothing to do with whether or not you're condemned, whether or not you're damned, whether or not you die and go to hell. All that has to do with that is whether you believe or not. So notice there's two statements. One statement is about people who believe and are baptized. And according to Mark 16 16, anyone that believes and is baptized is saved. Then there's a second statement that says anyone that doesn't believe is condemned. Anyone that doesn't believe is damned. He that believeth shall not be damned. Why is that? Because believing is what saves you, not believing is what damns you. Period. End of story. Now let me just say this. This verse, because the baptismal regeneration crowd, the people who want to add baptismal salvation, they love Mark 16 16. But here's the truth about Mark 16 16. This verse does not say anything about people who believe and are not baptized. In order for this verse to teach baptismal regeneration, it would require a third statement. It would require an additional statement. See, neither one of these statements proves that you need to get baptized to be saved. Because it says he that believeth and is baptized shall be saved, but he that believeth not shall be damned. Now, if there was an additional statement, like for example, if it said he that believeth and is not baptized shall be damned, then that would teach baptismal regeneration. Because then you'd have someone that believed, but they weren't baptized. Or if it simply said he that is not baptized shall be damned. That would teach baptismal regeneration. That is not in the verse, and the verse does not teach that. So, if baptism is required for salvation, this is not a verse that proves that, because of the fact that the Bible says he that believeth and is baptized shall be saved, but he that believeth not shall be damned. What saves you? Believing. What damns you? Not believing. And that is consistent all throughout scripture. By the way, let me just bring up this point. If someone needed to be baptized in order to be saved, then what do you do with the thief on the cross? Because the thief on the cross looked at Jesus and said, Remember me when thou enters into thy kingdom. And Jesus said, Today thou shalt be with me in paradise. And he never got off that cross and got baptized. But what did he do? He believed on Christ. And that's what saved him. So, we see this first argument for baptismal regeneration from Mark 16, 16. We see that it does not prove, there's nothing in this verse that says you have to be baptized to go to heaven. It says he that believeth and is baptized shall be saved. I believe that. I believe it could say he that believeth and anything shall be saved, because what saves you is believing. But then I also believe the next phrase, he that believeth not shall be damned. Because what condemns you is not believing on the Lord Jesus Christ. So, that's argument number one for baptismal regeneration, Mark 16, 16. Let me give you a second argument. Go with me if you would to John chapter number three. You're there in Mark. Just flip over past the book of Luke into the book of John. John chapter three. Let's look at the second argument for baptismal regeneration from John 3, 5. Now, in order to get the context, let's begin at verse number one. John chapter three and verse one, of course, is a very famous story of Jesus having a conversation with Nicodemus. John chapter three and verse one, the Bible says this. There was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. The same came to Jesus by night and said unto him, Rabbi, we know that thou art a teacher come from God, for no man can do these miracles that thou doest except God be with him. I want you to notice that Nicodemus comes to Jesus and he begins the conversation by saying, we know that thou art a teacher come from God. And then Jesus begins to speak to him about seeing God. He says, you're right, I come from God. Let me talk to you about how you can one day see God. Look at verse three. Jesus answered and said unto him, verily, verily, I say unto thee, except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. So here Jesus makes this very famous statement, except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. According to Jesus, you must be born again in order to go to heaven. You will not see the kingdom of God except a man be born again. I want you to notice in verse four that Nicodemus assumes, because Jesus brings up this new thing that Nicodemus is not familiar with, about being born again, a second birth. And Nicodemus assumes that Jesus is talking about being born again, being born a second time physically. Look at verse four. Nicodemus saith unto him, how can a man be born when he is old? Now why does he ask the question? Because Jesus said, except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. And Nicodemus says, well, I'm an old man. How can a man be born when he is old? Look at the fact that he is referring to a physical birth. Can he enter the second time into his mother's womb and be born? So he's asking this question. He's saying, how can I be born again, Jesus? Can a man go back a second time into his mother's womb and be born? Now it's very clear from the context that Nicodemus is assuming that being born again is referring to a second physical birth, going back into your mother's womb and being born again physically a second time. So in verse five, Jesus explains that the second birth is not a physical birth, but a spiritual birth. Notice John three and verse five. Jesus answered, verily, verily, I say unto thee, except a man be, I want you to notice he's going to give us the two births. Because remember, he talks about being born again. And Nicodemus confuses being born again with the first birth. So Jesus is going to explain the difference between the first and the second birth. He says, except a man be, number one, born of water and, number two, of the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. Now here's what the baptismal regeneration crowd does. They see the word water and they just assume it's baptism. Well, being born of water, that's referring to baptism. Now wait a minute. Just because the Bible uses the word water does not give you the right to just assume it is referring to baptism. The Bible uses the word water a lot. The Bible uses the word water as an illustration of the Holy Spirit. The Bible uses the word water as an illustration of the word of God. The Bible uses the word water as an illustration about lots of things, so you can't just see the word water there and just assume that it's talking about baptism. And by the way, the word baptism or the concept of baptism is not found in this context at all. And in the context, because remember, we must never arrest a verse from its context. We must always allow the context to explain to us what's going on here. The context is this. It's simple. Jesus said, you must be born again. And Nicodemus thinks, well, how can I get born a second time physically? Can I enter into my mother's womb a second time and be born again physically? And Jesus is saying, no, no, you don't understand. Except the man be, number one, born of water, and number two, of the Spirit, meaning born of the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. He's talking about two different births here, one of born of water, one of born of Spirit. Now the context leading up to the verse would tell us that the born of the Spirit is the second birth that Jesus is talking about, and the born of the water is the first birth, the birth of the womb that Nicodemus is confused about. Doesn't the context just on its own, before verse five, explain that? But then look, in verse six, he makes it even clearer. I want you to notice that the context leading up to verse five and the context after verse five both point to the fact that the born of water is a physical birth. The context leading up is clear because Jesus brings up a second birth, Nicodemus is confused and assumes that the second birth is a physical birth, and Jesus is saying, no, the first birth was a physical birth, and the second birth is a spiritual birth. He says, except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. Then, if that's not enough, in verse six, he then details the two births again. Notice what he says, John 3.6. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Marvel not that I said unto thee, ye must be born again. Now look, the context is clear. Nicodemus is marveling. He's confused about this second birth concept, and Jesus is saying, look, I'm not saying you've got to get born physically a second time. That which is born of the flesh is flesh. That which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Marvel not that I said unto thee, ye must be born again. He said, Nicodemus, look, you're an old man. You were born physically a long time ago. That's covered. The first birth is covered. What you need now is to be born again spiritually. Now look, between verses five and six, in both verses five and six, you have two births that are mentioned. In fact, if you don't mind marking in your Bible or underlying in your Bible, you could underline these words, born of water and these words of the Spirit. And in verse six, you could underline these words, born of the flesh is flesh. And you could underline, born of the Spirit is spirit. And you see that these terms are being used in parallel, and they're being used interchangeably. If we were to draw lines from the two births in verse six to the two births in verse five, wouldn't we draw a line from born of the Spirit is spirit to of the Spirit? And if we draw a line, because obviously when it says born in verse five of the Spirit, that is referring to the same thing in verse six, that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. If we draw a line from born of the Spirit is spirit to of the Spirit in verse five, and then we want to draw a line from born of the flesh is flesh up to verse five, where would that leave us? It would leave us with born of the water. Because born of water is used in parallel and synonymously with born of the flesh is flesh. And born of the Spirit is used in parallel and synonymously with that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Marvel not that I said unto thee, you must be born again. And then to take it even further in verse eight, he says, The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth. And he says, So is everyone that is born of the Spirit. He's making the point, the whole point of this context is Nicodemus, you don't have to get born again physically, you have to be born again spiritually. So is everyone that is born of the Spirit. So show me where baptism applies in this text. Well, it says water. Well, I can show you where the Bible uses the word water about the Holy Spirit. I can show you where the Bible uses the word water about being washed with the water of the word. Just because it says water doesn't mean it's talking about baptism. And in the context, no one who's being honest with the word of God can tell you that born of the water is a reference of baptism. It's a lie. Out of its context and say, well, the Bible says you got to be born of water. That's baptism. Someone might be able to fool somebody with that. But if you actually read it and you actually understand it and you get it in its context, it's very clear that born of the water is equated and used synonymously with born of the flesh. And of the Spirit is equated and used synonymously with born of the Spirit. And in its context, that's the conversation that Jesus and Nicodemus are having. And by the way, let me just say this. Jesus is simply explaining something that is biologically true. And it is this, that being born of the water is a physical birth. It is indeed a reference to a physical birth. Let me just read this for you. During pregnancy, a baby is surrounded and cushioned by a fluid filled sac called the amniotic sac. Typically, at the beginning of or during labor, the membrane will rupture, also known as your water breaking. And oftentimes, one of the ways that a lady knows, not all of the time, but oftentimes, a way that a lady knows that she's going into labor is she'll look at her husband and say, my water broke. And that's what Jesus is referring to when he says, look, you were already born of the water. And by the way, we're told that human beings are like 60% water. So he's saying being born of water is being born of the flesh. You've already had the first birth. What you need is the second birth. You need to be born again, and that is being born of the Spirit. So look, these are their greatest, I mean, you talk to a baptismal regeneration guy, and these are their greatest hits. I mean, Mark 16, 16, we've already looked at it. It's not holding water, excuse my pun there. And then they've got, you know, John 3, 5. And if you look at it in context, it's born of water, but it's not holding water either. It's not teaching that baptism is part of salvation. Let's go to their next argument, their great arguments. Go to Acts chapter 2, Acts chapter 2, and we're going to look at the argument of baptismal regeneration from Acts 2, 38. Now, in order to get the context, we'll begin at verse 37. But here's their next big argument. You talk to somebody who teaches and believes that baptism is part of salvation. This is a verse they're probably going to take you to, Acts 2, 38. I mean, the charismatic Pentecostals, this is their favorite verse in the Bible. Acts 2, 38, I mean, there's literally churches out there called Acts 2, 38 Church, because this is like their big one. Let's look at what it says. Acts 2, let's begin at verse 37 for context. Now, for full context, and you can read this on your own, Acts 2 is the day of Pentecost. And Peter just got done preaching, and now they're going to respond to Peter. Notice what they say, Acts 2, 37. Now, when they heard this, in reference to Peter's preaching, he preached the gospel to them, by the way, the death, burial, and resurrection, if you look at it, it's what he preached to them. Now, when they heard this, they were pricked in their hearts and said unto Peter and to the rest of the apostles, men and brethren, now they ask a question, I want you to notice this question. They said, what shall we do? Peter just got done preaching to them that you crucified Christ, you put him on a cross, and God resurrected him, and you better put your faith and confidence and trust and belief in the Lord Jesus Christ. And now they're responding to him, and the response is this question, what shall we do? Now, what's interesting to me is this, that when you look at the question asked, excuse me, when you look at the question asked in Acts 2, 37, it reminds me of another famous question asked later in the book of Acts. Keep your finger there in Acts 2, 37, and flip over to Acts chapter 16, real quickly. Acts chapter 16, and verse 30, I want you to notice these two questions, and let's compare and contrast. Acts 16, 30. Now, Acts 16, 30 is the Philippian jailer, he's brought Paul out of the jail, or he goes into the jail, Acts 16, 30, and he asked this question, and brought them out and said, look at what it says, Acts 16, 30, and brought them out and said, Sirs. Now notice the question that he asked. What must I do to be saved? What must I do? Acts 2, 37, what shall we do? Acts 16, 30, what must I do? Now I just point this out to say this, if you flip back to Acts 2, 37, what shall we do? The word shall is an older word that we don't use a lot today, it is the archaic form of our word that we would use would be should. So here's what they're asking. What should we do? What ought we do? Hey Peter, what do you think we should do? Now if you're going to ask a preacher, what do you think we should do, I mean there's a lot of answers to that question. I mean I think you should believe, I think you should get baptized, I think you should tithe, I mean I think you should go soul winning, there's lots of things we think you should do. What shall we do? But when the question, go back to Acts 16, 30, is asked, what must we do? The word must means what is required, what are we obligated to do? What is required to do in order for us to be saved? What must I do to be saved? Then the answer is clear and simple, verse 31, and they said, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved and thy house. Period. What must I do to be saved? One thing, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. Notice no mention of repentance, no mention of baptism, no mention of giving, no mention of anything. Why? Because the answer to the question, what must I do to be saved, is simple. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. But in Acts 2, 37, we have a different question. The question is what shall we do? So first I want you to highlight the fact that shall is not must. What should we do is not what are we required to do. What ought we do is not what must we do. But then I want you to notice Acts 2 and verse 38. So in Acts 2, 37, they asked the question, Now when they heard this, they were pricked in their hearts, and said unto Peter and to the rest of the apostles, Men and brethren, what shall we do? Verse 38, Then Peter said unto them, Repent! And I'm not preaching on the subject of repentance, but the argument I'm going to give you for baptism right now also applies to repentance, if this verse gets brought up to you in the context of repentance, regarding to repent of your sins for salvation. Then Peter said unto them, Repent! And be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ, for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. So I want you to notice they asked the question, What shall we do? And Peter says, Well if you all know what you should do, you should repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ, and he says, for the remission of sins. So here's what the baptismal regeneration crowd does. They'll say, see, you have to repent and be baptized. And we're talking right now in the context of baptism. You have to be baptized for the remission of sins. You have to be baptized in order to be saved, in order to have your sins remitted, in order to have your sins cleansed and forgiven. Now here's the problem. The problem is that that flies in the face of thousands of other verses that say that salvation is a gift, it's believing, it's faith, it's not of work. I mean hundreds of verses, all throughout the Bible, are saying, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. Not mentioning baptism. The most famous verse in the Bible, John 3 is 16, John 3 is 16, for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life. It doesn't say believeth in him and is baptized and repents of their sins and goes through. It doesn't say that. So they'll say, for the remission of sins though, for the remission of sins. Now here's the thing about language, the English language, and I think languages in general, and it is this, that one word can have multiple definitions. I mean open up a dictionary, look up a word. You know what you'll find? You'll find, you'll look up the definition word and it'll say number one, number two, number three, number four, and you have all these different definitions for the same word. And the word for, the word for has multiple definitions. Let me give you some examples. The word for can be defined as, and one of the definitions is on behalf of. For example, someone might use this sentence, he's going to speak for the court. And when they say, this lawyer is going to speak for the court, or this person is going to speak for the court, what they're meaning by that is that this individual is going to speak on behalf of the court. But the word for can also mean in favor of. For example, somebody might take a vote and they might ask the question, all for the plan? And what do they say? When they say, is everyone for the plan? They're asking, is everybody in favor of this plan? The word for can also mean in spite of. For example, someone might say of an athlete, for his large size, he moves gracefully. What are they saying? They're saying, in spite of his large size, he moves very gracefully. The word for can mean with respect to. For example, someone might say this, he's a stickler for detail. What are they meaning by that? They're meaning that he's a stickler with respect to details. The word for can mean in honor of. For example, someone could say this, oh it was named for her grandmother. And what do they mean by that? It was named in honor, that baby was named in honor of her grandmother. So the word for can mean lots of different things. Now there are two definitions that we want to concern ourselves with, and they are this. One definition for the word for is this, to get. And this is the definition that the baptismal regeneration crowd, the people who believe that baptism is part of salvation, they want to give the word for here that definition. Because the word for can be defined as to get. For example, someone could say this, he asked for his check. And if we said, well he asked for his check, what are we saying? We're saying, he asked to get his check. Because the word for can mean to get. So they read this verse, and they say, they see, then Peter said it to them, repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ, to get the remission of sins. That's the definition they choose to give this passage. However, that goes against hundreds of other verses all throughout the Bible. But do you know that there's another definition for the word for? Another definition for the word for is this definition, because of. Because of. For example, you might one day see a poster with somebody's picture on it, and it says, wanted for murder. Now what does that mean when it says wanted for murder? Does it mean wanted to get murdered? Like we want them to do a murder? We're looking for this guy, we'd like to hire him to murder someone. Is that what that means? No, it means wanted because of murder. Wanted because of the fact that they murdered. Wanted for murder, that's what it means. And if you put that definition on this verse, then all of a sudden, it fits within the context of all of scripture, because when the Bible says, repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ, because of the remission of sins, praise God, yeah! Why should you repent? Because of the remission of sins. Why should you get baptized? Because of the remission of sins. Why should you do anything in the Christian life? Because of the remission of sins. Now the definition you give the word for, either syncs with all of scripture or it teaches heresy. Which one are you going to choose? Because the baptismal regeneration crowd, they'll say, no, no, it's to obtain. Well, it could be on behalf of, it could be in favor of, it could be in spite of, it could be with respect to, it could be in honor of, it could be to get, but you know what makes the most sense? Because of. Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for, because of the remission of sins. By the way, this is the way the word for is used a lot in scripture. Let me just give you an example. Go to Romans chapter number five. You're there in the book of Acts, just flip over to the book of Romans. Romans chapter number five. Acts and then Romans. Romans chapter five. And look, you're going to have to let go of whatever church you grew up in and whatever false teaching you've been taught and you're just going to have to deal with the Bible and let the Bible actually tell you what salvation is. Romans chapter five. Do me a favor, put a ribbon or something there in Romans because we're going to leave it and we're going to come back to it and I want you to get to it quickly. Romans chapter five. Let me just give you an example of the word for being used as because of. Romans 5-12. Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world and death by sin, and so death passed upon all men, look at it, for that all have sinned. For that all have sinned. What does that mean? It means because that all have sinned. So here, the word for is being used with the definition of because of. And that is also the definition of Acts 2-38. It's the only definition that makes sense and that syncs it with the rest of scripture. Go to Acts chapter 22. Let's go to the fourth argument. Now, I'm going to be honest with you. Arguments one, two, three, and five are probably the four big ones. The fourth argument is not as big, but I have heard it, so I just want to deal with it. Go to Acts 22 verse 16 and let's look at the argument for baptismal regeneration from Acts 22-16. Now, just to give you the context, this is when Saul, who will later be named Paul, is getting saved. Ananias is coming to him, Acts 22-16. Notice what the Bible says. And now why tarryest thou? This is Ananias speaking to Saul. He says, And now why tarryest thou? Arise and be baptized and wash away thy sins, calling on the name of the Lord. So again, this is a verse that sometimes people who want to add baptism to salvation will go to. And they'll say, See? Ananias told Saul, Arise and be baptized and wash away thy sins. But wait a minute, that's not all he said. He said, Arise and be baptized and wash away thy sins, calling on the name of the Lord. I want you to notice again that this, what Ananias said to Paul, is made up of three different parts. This statement is divided into three sections. He's telling them to arise and he's telling them to do three things. And be baptized and wash away thy sins, calling on the name of the Lord. Now you could connect the second statement, wash away thy sins, with the previous statement, and be baptized, and try to teach baptismal regeneration, which is what they do. They'll say, See? You've got to be baptized and wash away thy sins. Be baptized and wash away thy sins. And this is what people teach. They literally think that you get into the baptistry waters and as you go down and come up, it just removes, it washes away the sins from you. And they'll get that from this teaching. Arise and be baptized and wash away thy sins. Now you could connect it to that previous statement. Or you could connect it to the subsequent statement. What's the subsequent statement? Wash away thy sins, calling on the name of the Lord. Wash away thy sins, calling on the name of the Lord. Now the verse itself, I'm going to give you a proof text here in a minute, but let me just make this point. The verse itself tells you which way you should connect the phrase. Because the question is this. How do we connect the phrase wash away thy sins? Is wash away thy sins connected to and be baptized and wash away thy sins? Or is it connected to wash away thy sins, calling on the name of the Lord? How do we know which way? Well the verse itself tells you. And then the rest of scripture tells you. Let me show you. First of all, I want you to notice the use of the word and. You see the word and? And is a connecting word. Here's a definition for the word and. It is used to add an additional comment or interjection. So when you're making a statement and you want to add an additional comment, you would use the word and. Look at what the verse says. And now why terriest thou? Arise, and he's going to tell him what to do. And be baptized. Why does he say and? It says and because be baptized is an additional comment. It's in addition to arise. Right? So arise and being baptized aren't the same thing. So he says, here's what I want you to do. I want you to arise, number one. And, and I'm adding an additional statement here. I'm adding an interjection and be baptized. Look at it, and. Why does he say and? Because he's adding an additional statement. Here's what I want you to do, Paul. I want you to, number one, arise. And, I'm adding an additional statement. I want you to be baptized. And, I'm adding an additional statement. I want you to wash away thy sins, but wait a minute. Between wash away thy sins and calling on the name of the Lord, there's no and. You know what that tells us? Is that calling on the name of the Lord is not an additional statement. It's a continuation of the same statement. It's all one statement. Wash away thy sins, calling on the name of the Lord. Why does it say that? Because the way you wash away your sins, the way anyone ever washes away their sins is by calling on the name of the Lord. And, separates the statements. Arise and be baptized. And, here's a statement, wash away thy sins, calling on the name of the Lord. So you see that the verse itself shows you that we should not connect wash away thy sins to the previous statement of be baptized, but we should connect it to the continuation wash away thy sins, calling on the name of the Lord. But let me just give you another proof from scripture. Go back to Romans chapter 10. If you remember, if you kept your place in Romans, go to Romans chapter 10. Go back to Romans, and I'd like you to look at chapter 10 and verse 13. Romans 10, 13. Here's a very famous scripture from the Bible. For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. The Bible is clear. Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. Which is why Ananias said, wash away thy sins, calling on the name of the Lord. Now again, you might ask, well why does he say be baptized and why is that even added there? Look, the reason that Ananias is saying that is because baptism, though it is not part of salvation, it is part of the Great Commission, which is why it's brought up in verses like Mark 16, 16. Acts 2, 38. And here, Acts 22, 16. But it is clear that the way someone gets saved is by calling upon the name of the Lord. By in faith, believing on Christ, calling upon him for salvation. Call upon the name of the Lord. The Bible says, for whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. And if you go back to Acts 22, 16, he says, arise and separate statement, baptize and separate statement, wash away thy sins, calling on the name of the Lord. So that's the argument from Acts 22, 16. And again, holds no water. Doesn't prove you have to be baptized to be saved. Continue to keep your place in Romans, and let's go to the last one. The last one is in 1 Peter chapter 3. 1 Peter chapter 3, if you go backwards from the end of the Bible, you go past the book of Jude, past the 3rd, 2nd, and 1st John, 2nd Peter, and then into 1 Peter. 1 Peter chapter number 3. 1 Peter chapter number 3, and verse 21, we'll look at the argument of baptismal regeneration from 1 Peter 3, 21. Now we'll begin in verse 20 again for context. I want you to notice here what the Bible says. 1 Peter 3, 20. Which some time were disobedient, when once the long suffering of God waited in the days of Noah. So he's bringing up Noah as an example. Of course, Noah and the ark and the worldwide flood. He says, when once the long suffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was a preparing, wherein few, that is, eight souls were saved by water. So he's bringing up Noah, and he says, remember Noah, and he says, while the ark was preparing, wherein few, that is, eight souls were saved by water. Then in verse 21, it says this, the like figure. I just want you to notice those three words. In fact, you ought to mark those in your Bible. The like figure. Where unto even baptism doth now doth also now save us. Look at it. The like figure, where unto even baptism doth also now save us. Not the putting away of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God by the resurrection of Jesus Christ. So here, you have a phrase where the Bible says, even baptism. It says, where unto even baptism doth also now save us. And again, the baptismal regeneration crowd is going to come to a verse like this, and then they're like, we definitely have you now. I mean, it says, even baptism doth also now save us. I mean, that's, that's gotta be, baptism is part of salvation, and they want to put a period there, and disregard the rest of scripture. But let's look at it. What is it saying? Now I want you to notice the phrase, the like figure. Because if you remember other passages about baptism, which we talked about in our previous lesson, is that baptism is a picture. In fact, the like figure should remind you of Romans chapter 6. Let's look at it real quickly if you kept your place in Romans. Go back to Romans chapter 6. Look at verse 4. Romans chapter number 6 and verse 4. Notice what the Bible says. Therefore, we are buried with him by baptism into death. Now are we physically buried in the death of Christ with him literally? No. He says we're buried with him by baptism into death. Well how are we buried by baptism into death? It's because baptism is a picture of his death. Now look at the words. That like ass. That like ass tells us, we're not talking literally here, we're talking figuratively. This is a picture. When someone goes down into the water, that is the like ass, that is the picture of, that is the figurative representation of being buried with him by baptism. You're not physically literally buried with him. It's a picture that like ass that Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father. Even so, we also should walk in newness of life, verse 5, for if we have been planted together, look at the words, in the likeness of his death, we shall be also, look at the words, in the likeness of his resurrection. The Bible is clear that baptism is the like ass. It's the in the likeness of his death. And in the likeness of his resurrection. Again, I spent time on this last time and I'm not going to go through it again, but it is a picture. The picture is an image of the thing, it's not the thing. It is what the thing looks like, it's what represents the thing, but it's not the thing. It's the picture. Baptism is a picture of the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ. But it's not the physical, literal resurrection, death, burial, and resurrection of Christ. It's the like ass in the likeness and the likeness. Go back to 1 Peter 3.21 and look at these words. Doesn't this follow the same context, 1 Peter 3.21? The like figure. Now, the like figure is actually even more clear than in the likeness of and the like ass. Because the like figure is telling you this is figurative. This is not literal. Here's what he's saying. Which sometimes were disobedient. When once the long-suffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was a-preparing, wherein few that is eight souls were saved by water, the like figure where unto even baptism death also now save us. Now, here's what he's saying. He's saying that the water, both of the flood and of baptism, are a figure. He was like, oh no, baptism saves you, even baptism death also now save you. But wait a minute, look back at verse 20, eight souls were saved by water. Now we know that the water being referenced in that verse is talking about the waters of the flood. Are you telling me that being physically in the ark is what got these people spiritually saved? They got eternal salvation because they physically went in the ark. That's false, number one. And that's missing the whole point that though the ark was an actual event, though the ark and the worldwide flood actually happened, it's also a figure, a picture, an illustration of salvation. How is Noah's ark and the flood a picture of salvation? Well, the water and the flood represents the coming judgment of God. The ark represents the Lord Jesus Christ. And the only way you survive the judgment of God is if you're in Christ. If you're in the ark, you're saved. And this is used elsewhere. Remember Rahab and the walls of Jericho? They said you put a scarlet thread down which pictured the blood of Christ and if you and your family are inside, you won't be destroyed. But if you're anywhere else, you're going to be destroyed and that won't be our fault, that'll be your fault. Because salvation is under that scarlet thread. Salvation is in the ark. But look, they literally were saved by the ark physically from a flood. That's what happened. But in the New Testament, we're learning that that also is a picture. It is the like figure of salvation because we realize that salvation is the ark represents the Lord Jesus Christ, the flood represents the wrath of God, the judgment of God, and you get in the ark. If you're in the ark, you're saved. If you're not in the ark, you're going to die. You're damned. That is the picture. Look what it says. The like figure where unto even baptism doth also now save us. So here's what he's saying. He's saying in the same way that Noah's flood pictured salvation, baptism is the like figure and picture salvation as well. Which coincides with Romans 6 verses 4 and 5 where it says that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father even so we should walk in His life. For if we have been planted together in the likeness of His death we shall also be in the likeness of His resurrection. And look, the truth is this. Galatians 3.27 says this For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ. And when the Bible says baptized into Christ, we're talking about being baptized in water. Because when someone is physically baptized into water that also pictures the fact that at salvation you were placed in Christ. Look, the only way you're going to get to heaven is if you're in Christ. The only way the only reason I'm going to get to heaven is not because I'm not going to die one day and walk up to the pearly gates and get in on my own merit. God's going to look at me and say, well you're good enough. No, the only reason I'm getting in is I'm hid in Christ. I'm clothed in the righteousness of Christ. I'm in Christ. So baptism pictures when you go down into water it does picture salvation in the sense that you were dunked into Christ. For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ. That's the picture. Now, that's the context from the Bible. I think that's good enough. I think that's clear. This is the actual verse itself. Because what's interesting about this verse is that we have a parenthetical statement. If you have a King James Bible in your hand and if you don't have a King James Bible you should get one. That's a sermon for another day. But I want you to notice that we have a parenthetical statement. The like figure, whereunto, even baptism does also now save us, parenthesis, not the putting away of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God, the resurrection of Jesus Christ. When we approach a parenthetical statement you have to remember how parentheses work in a sentence structure. For those of you that maybe don't remember, let me just read for you how this works. A parenthetical statement is a phrase that is not essential to the rest of the sentence. However, it is still important. When used correctly a parenthetical statement can add crucial information to a sentence without disturbing the flow of the sentence. However, a sentence could be read without the parenthetical statement and would still be a complete sentence. I want you to understand what I just read to you. The way that parentheses work is that you can write a complete statement, a complete sentence, and the sentence is complete, it makes sense, it has a subject and everything it needs to be a sentence. You can put a period and it's done. But sometimes you want to maybe give some additional information to help with the understanding of the sentence, but you don't want to restructure the whole sentence. The sentence is fine. What you can do is you can add parentheses in the middle of a sentence and give a little statement, you can use parentheses in a sense where you give a whole sentence, not in the middle of a sentence. But you can add additional information but the parentheses are not essential to the sentence in the sense that if you didn't have those parentheses there and that information there the sentence would be a complete sentence on its own. In fact, it would be wrong to have a sentence that could not be complete on its own without parentheses. In fact, the way that this is taught oftentimes is to make sure that you're using parentheses properly, though a teacher will tell you, read the sentence without the parenthetical statement and make sure that it's still a complete sentence that makes sense on its own without the parentheses. That's how it works. The parentheses are there to add information, to give crucial information, but is that essential to the complete sentence? Why is that important here? It's important because the King James translators gave us parentheses here to tell us this is additional information that is not crucial to the whole of the sentence. Now I believe that every part of the Word of God is perfect, inspired, preserved, inerrant. Every word is perfect. So I'm not minimizing what's in the parentheses. I think it's extremely important. But the point that I'm trying to make is this. We could read the verse without the parenthetical statement and it should still be a complete sentence. In fact, let's just do that. Let's read the passage without the parenthetical statement. Let's read the passage without the parenthetical statement and let's see what it says. 1 Peter 3.21 The like figure whereunto even baptism doth also now save us. Let's skip the parenthetical statement. Even baptism doth also now save us by the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Doesn't that just make perfect sense with the rest of Scripture? How does baptism save you? It saves you by the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Well how does that make any sense? Well it makes sense because baptism is the like figure of the resurrection of Christ. So how does baptism save us? It saves us the same way that the flood and the waters of the flood and the ark save Noah. It's a picture. It is a figure. The ark represents the fact that salvation is through Jesus Christ alone. Jesus said, I am the way, the truth and life. No man cometh unto the Father but by me. And baptism shows us that the only way you can be saved is through the death, burial and resurrection of Christ. Now I'm not discounting the parenthesis. I think what's in the parenthesis is extremely important but to look at the sentence in its complete form without the additional information it says, the like figure whereunto even baptism doth also now save us by the resurrection of Jesus Christ. So the passage when read without the parenthetical statement is clear about how it is that baptism saves you. How does baptism save you? It saves you by the resurrection of Jesus Christ. How does baptism save you by the resurrection of Jesus Christ? Because baptism is the like figure. It is the like as. It is in the likeness of the death, burial and resurrection of Christ. But let's now just look at the parenthetical statement because it's there for a reason. It's obviously important if it was added. So now without the complete sentence around it, let's just look at what this crucial information is that Peter wanted to give us in 1 Peter. What does it say in the parenthesis? Not the putting away of the filth of the flesh but the answer of a good conscience towards God. What is that talking about? It's talking about salvation. Even baptism does also now save us. Not the putting away of the filth of the flesh but the answer of a good conscience towards God. Here's what's funny about that. It's almost like he knew that people were going to teach that you had to get baptized to wash away your sins. Because remember, isn't that what they teach? The baptismal regeneration crowd likes to go to Acts 22 16 and say, arise and be baptized and wash away thy sins. They teach you get in the water and it washes away your sins, the water. You know, don't get baptized after somebody else because you're going to get all their sins. But they teach arise and be baptized and wash away thy sins. That's what they teach. And here Peter says, just to be clear, we're not talking about the putting away of the filth of the flesh. We're not talking about washing away your sins. We're talking about the answer of a good conscience towards God. How do you get the answer of a good conscience towards God by the resurrection of Jesus Christ? So look, it's clear. It's clear that Mark 16 16 does not teach baptism or regeneration. Because, yeah, it says if you believe and you're baptized, you're saved. But it also says that if you don't believe, you're damned because what condemns you is not believing and what saves you is believing. And that's it. It's clear that John 3 5, being born of the water, is not talking about baptism in its context. It's talking about that which is born of the flesh is flesh. And that which is born of the spirit is the second birth. It's clear from Acts 2 38 that the question being answered is what shall we do, not what must we do? And the fore of remission of sins is not talking about to get salvation, but because of salvation. It's clear that the argument from Acts 22 16 wash away thy sins is not connected to and be baptized. It's connected to calling on the name of the Lord. And that's consistent with the rest of scripture. And it's clear from 1 Peter 3 21 that the waters are just a like figure, both of the flood and of baptism. And the parenthetical statement is clear that the way that baptism doth now also save us, the way that even baptism doth also now save us is by the resurrection of Jesus Christ. And it's not the putting away of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of God, the answer of a good conscience toward God. It's clear. It's clear from the Bible that salvation is not anything but believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer. Heavenly Father, Lord we do love you and we thank you for the clarity of scripture and Lord I think it's important sometimes to go to these verses and to answer them because many saved people are going to be questioned about things like this and they may know that it's wrong but they might not know necessarily how to answer those questions and Lord I pray you to help us to study your word to be ready to give these answers to be ready to give an answer of these things and of what we believe and Lord we pray that you would continue to bless us and help us. In Jesus' name we pray Amen. Alright, well let me give you some just concluding statements as we go. We're going to have brother Matt come up and lead us in a final song. Just want to remind you of a couple of things. First of all, don't forget to see my wife after the service. If you'd like to sign up to bring the Sheboyans a meal please go by and see her. She has a clipboard for that and she can get you signed up for that and then you men don't forget that if you are interested in the Biblical Leadership Institute we've got these flyers back there, these brochures back there make sure you grab one and sign up for the orientation if it's something you're interested in you can do that on your communication card and of course I want to encourage you to come back tonight at 6 pm and tonight I'm going to be preaching a special sermon that I'm actually going to be preaching later on this week in Texas but I always like to preach whatever I preach somewhere else I like to preach it here first to our church so we're not going to be live streaming tonight but I'll be preaching a special sermon on the subject of ambition and I want to encourage you to be here tonight as we learn biblically what the Bible says about ambition and how we should have ambition how we should pursue ambition and how we should protect against ambition so I want to encourage you to be here tonight at 6 pm as we look at that and then of course I want to encourage you to bring somebody with you next week, invite somebody to church next week we're done with the sermons on salvation we're done with the sermons on baptism now we're going to get into the sermons of Christian living and the Christian life so I want to encourage you to be with us as we continue this rooted and grounded series on Sunday mornings if there's anything we can do for you please let us know and we'll begin our final song turn to song number 100 1-0-0 song 100 on the first day by day and with each passing moment strength I find to meet my trials here trusting in my Father's wise bestowment I've no cause for worry or for fear He who's heart is guide me on all measure gives unto each day what he needs best loving me is part of pain and pleasure mingling toil with peace and rest every day the Lord himself is near me with a special mercy for each hour all my cares he faint would bear and cheer me he who's name counselor and power the protection of his childhood treasure is a charge that on himself he may as thy days thy strength shall be in measure this a pledge to be made good on the last help me then in every tribulation so to trust I promise his own Lord that I lose not faced with consolation offered me within thy holy word help me Lord with toil and trouble meeting dare to take as from a father's hand one by one the days that home is fleeting till I reach the promised land Amen. Good singing. Before we leave here if anybody has questions about salvation church membership or baptism pastor will be at the door. He'd love to talk to you or direct you to someone who's trained to talk to you about that. I'm gonna ask brother George would you close the prayer for us? Amen. Amen. Amen.