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All right, amen. So look down at verse number 11. Matthew chapter 3, look at verse number 11. It says, I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance, but he that cometh after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear. He shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with fire. So what I'm going to be preaching about this evening is the subject of baptisms. You know, there's a lot of controversy surrounding what it means to be baptized, and it's just, I feel like it's just that time or that season again to address this. I preached a sermon about this when the church first started, and this one's different from that. So that one was more focused on, you know, why we do it, why we believe that we should do it, and things like that. This one here is a little bit different, but to draw your attention back to verse 11, this verse has the three subjects that we're going to be talking about regarding baptism, and that is water baptism, that is the baptism of the Holy Ghost, or what I would call a dry baptism, and then he makes a statement here at the very end of the verse and says, and with fire, and with fire, which represents controversy, okay? I've heard a lot of weird teachings on what it means to be baptized with fire, and I'm going to teach you what I believe that it's talking about, and, you know, we need to understand these things because if somebody comes up to you and they're like, hey, you know, what's this whole thing with, you know, the baptism for the dead? What does that all mean? Or, you know, I believe you got to be baptized in fire, you know, which is speaking in tongues, you know, or how are you going to answer that? You know, do you have an answer for that? We should be ready, willing, and able to have an answer for all the doctrines that we believe, and it's just time that we go through these things again. Now, keep your place in Matthew 3 because we will come back to it, but go to 1 Corinthians chapter number 10, 1 Corinthians chapter number 10. And to start this off, I'm going to label these baptisms in two different ways. So, when you study the word baptizer or baptisms out in the Bible, and it has to do with water, water baptism, right? We're going to call that a ritual because really it's a custom, and we all know that we're not saved by rituals or customs, right? But if you look and study the subject out, it's always a custom. It's always a ritual in the Bible. And all ritual means is a ceremonial action that we perform, you know, in a customary way. That's basically what it means, okay? Now, do we have to be baptized in water to go to heaven? Obviously, the answer is no, we do not have to, right? But that's a big point of contention for a lot of people. And just the last two weeks, soul winning around here, I've heard a lot of people, a lot of people bringing up this whole baptism thing. So, I figure, you know, it is time to make sure that we're all up on it because, you know, the enemy, he's got his circuits, right? He's got his cycle of false doctrines that he likes to throw out there. And it seems like we all kind of get, you know, the same ones in season, isn't it? You know, it's like right now it seems to me like it's a season of baptism. You know, people talking, you got to be baptized to be saved. And then obviously he's talking about the baptism of the Holy Ghost or what that means. We're going to call that a real baptism because that's the one that counts. That's when we're saved, okay? And so just keep that in mind. But what I want to do is I want to just start off talking about the definition of baptize. You see, it's like the repentance doctrine, right? People hear the word repent and they figure, oh, well, they just automatically attach of your sins after the word. And that's not true at all. It's not what the Bible teaches. In fact, you're not going to find repent of your sins, that phrase in the King James Bible one single time. Well, it's the same with baptize. People see the word baptize, baptism, baptize, whatever in the Bible. And they're thinking, oh, they'll just automatically come up and say, oh, that means in water. Okay. You have to be baptized, you know, the Campbellites or the church of Christ. These people are notorious for bringing this up saying you have to be baptized in order to be saved, but they aren't the only ones. I've met people in all sorts of churches around here that will say, well, yeah, I was baptized. I can't tell you. I think I heard this every day last week that I went soloing. It was just like, yeah, I know I'm saved because I was baptized. It's like, what do you mean by that? Baptize in water? Yeah. Yeah. That's why I know. Okay. So you had to be baptized in water. Yeah. Right. What church you go to? The Nazarene church. Okay. People are all messed up about this. So we're going to get into this thing here. First Corinthians chapter number 10. Look at verse number one. First Corinthians 10, one says this moreover, brethren, I would not that ye should be ignorant. How that all our fathers were under the cloud and passed through the sea. So right off the bat here, Paul's telling the Corinthians, there is something that he does not want them to be ignorant about verse two. And we're all baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea. There's that word baptized. Okay. Now who here thinks that that's talking about water baptism? No, that's ridiculous. That's absurd, right? But strangely enough, and you might laugh and you might think this is funny, but it is definitely true. There are people out there that would read that, or you would maybe bring that to their attention at the door and they would say, well, yeah, that's talking about water baptism, right? The cloud and moisture. And they went through the sea. Well, they went through the sea and dry land. It's like, it's not talking about that, but it says an all were baptized unto who? Unto Moses. Now did Moses save the children of Israel from their sins? Was Moses the source of their salvation spiritually? No, not at all. So what this is talking about here is an identification. Okay. The Paul's just telling them, hey, don't be ignorant regarding the fact that the children of Israel were identified or baptized with Moses, meaning that when they, they had to, they had to trust him, obviously follow him because he had the word of God. And in so doing that, they identified themselves with Moses. And this is why we do public baptisms, right? Well, we don't right now because we don't have a baptistry. We're working on that currently. And we used to rent pools, but it's kind of hard right now with the coronavirus stuff going on, but it's to identify. You say, well, why do we do baptisms? What's the whole point? Well, it's just a publicly identify yourself with the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. It has nothing to do with salvation. And here's a clear, perfect example in the Bible of one of the definitions of the word baptized. And it means to identify with. Now, like I said before, they're not, this verse is not talking about water baptism. When they were in the cloud, they were not soaking wet. Okay. They were not dunked. They were not immersed in water, if you will. Now you can leave your place there real quickly and go to Romans chapter number six, Romans chapter number six. And so the first thing that I just want to bring out in the open is that the word baptize means to be identified with, right? It has several definitions, but to be identified with is one of those definitions, right? So when somebody's coming up to you, or maybe they're approaching you with a question regarding baptism, and maybe they think that they have to be dunked in water or sprinkled in order to be saved, you know, you can bring them to this verse and say, see, the word baptized doesn't always mean what you think it means. How do you explain this? Do you have an answer for this? What are they going to say? Right? You need to put them on the spot. Remember, these are the people that are making the claims, right? When you find somebody and they're like, hey, you know, I know I'm saved because I was baptized in water. You need to make them prove that claim, make them show that. And when they can't and they display their error, then that's when you take action and you correct that person, right? That's how we do business. Romans chapter six, look at verse number one. It says this, what shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? God forbid. How shall we that are dead to sin live any longer there in? Know ye not that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death? One more time. Know ye not that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death? Is that talking about water? No, it's not. What is that talking about? Being placed into Jesus Christ, being placed into the body of Christ. When a person gets saved, they get born again. You are sealed with the Holy Spirit until the day of redemption, not until the next time you sin, not until the next time you backslide, not until you miss a tithe or until you miss a church service. You're placed in to the body of Christ. Look at the verse again. Baptized in to Jesus Christ. So another definition of the word baptized is to be placed into. So when a person gets saved, they are automatically, listen to me, they are automatically baptized or placed into the body of Christ. So not does it only mean to identify with, but it means to be placed into. And we're going to take a look, like I said this evening, at a lot of different definitions in the Bible regarding baptisms. But this here, I think is the most important one. This is the one that I always go to because you have a lot of people out there that make videos, they make claims, it'll prove to me the baptisms by immersion. Well, let me just ask you a quick question. Was Jesus sprinkled with death? No. Right? When he was buried, was he buried? Was he completely immersed? Was he placed into the tomb? Yes. Was he identified with death? Yes. That's what this is saying, right? That's what it's saying. All the way dead. Everybody follow me, right? We understand this. It's very clear, right? But people say, well, I dare you to prove to me right now, you prove to me where I can't sprinkle somebody or where I can't pour water on somebody and call that baptism. Well, logically speaking, Jesus wasn't sprinkled with death. He was immersed into the tomb. He was placed into the tomb. He was identified with death. All of those things are true. It was a full meal deal, if you will. Okay. That is very, very important to understand and watch this video by this methodic Methodist pastor. He's not a methodic. Not that I know of, but it just pisses me off. Okay. And so this guy hates my guts. I don't like him. He preaches a false gospel. The heck with him, right? So he's got this challenge out there to people, you know, prove to me that baptisms by immersion only and all this garbage. Then he gives this example where he's got this little video camera, maybe it's his phone and he goes down into a Creek, right? And he's like, see, I went down into the water, but I didn't get completely wet. That's ridiculous. That is absolutely absurd, but that's his justification for, you know, baptism by sprinkling, right? When you're saved, are you just sprinkled into the body of Christ? Not unless you're a new evangelical. I mean, think about it. If you teach the doctrine of probation, which is basically you, okay, I repent, meaning I feel sorry for my sins and I signed this contract so to speak. And I promise I'm not going to sin anymore. And I'm just going to keep coming here to keep doing the right things so I can maintain my salvation. If that's your position, like somebody who's on probation, right? Then I can see where you're coming from. You see what I mean? Because they're not all the way in the body of Christ, right? They're working their way to heaven. So to them, you know, with somebody who holds that position, it would make sense, wouldn't it? Why they would be jacked up or all messed up regarding baptisms in addition to that. And so it means to be identified with, but it means to be placed into, okay? And this is why when we baptize people publicly, when we do that ritual, so to speak, we dunk people in water because it's supposed to be a public testimony, a picture of the death and the burial and the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Jesus wasn't sprinkled with death. Why would we sprinkle people with water? Okay. And like I said, I talked more in detail about this in the other sermon that I did a couple of years ago, but we've got to keep moving on here. Looking for some reform. It says, therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death. Again, again, how are you going to look at this verse here and then try and issue a challenge to people, you know, that baptism isn't by immersion only. How, how are you going to do that? There's no language that you can go back to on this planet that's even going to help you out. I don't care what concordance, I don't care what scholar you go to. Look, there is no way you're going to come to that conclusion by reading the Bible, no way whatsoever. So he says, therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death, that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the father, even so, we also should walk in newness of life. And obviously he says that you should because it's not a must. It's not a requirement. You do not have to walk in newness of life to get saved or to stay saved. It's a free gift. It is salvation. It is not probation. Look at verse number five. For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection, knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin. Keep your place there because we're going to come back to it. And I'm going to explain why I read those verses to you later in the sermon, but go to first Corinthians chapter number 12, first Corinthians chapter number 12. So you can see, we don't need to go back to a lexicon. We don't need to go back to the Greek or the Hebrew to understand what the word baptize means. It means to be identified with. We're identifying ourselves when we do public baptism with what Christ did for us, right? But when a person gets saved, they're baptized, meaning they're placed into the body of Christ. When we baptize people publicly, we place them into the water, okay? We don't just go down to this creek back here, whatever it is, and get our feet wet and get a cup and sprinkle it on somebody's head because that would go in the face of what this is trying to teach us. First Corinthians chapter 12, look at verse number 12. We've talked about these recently, but it says this. First Corinthians 12 verse 12 says, for as the body is one, what body is that? It's the body of Christ. For as the body is one and have many members and all the members of that one body being many are one body, so also is Christ. Verse 13, for by one spirit, we are all baptized into one body. Whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free, we have been all made to drink into one spirit for the body is not one member, but many. So there's one baptism. We're all placed into this. We all have the same baptism. There's not one baptism for Jews. There's not one baptism for Gentiles. There's not one baptism for the Catholics and for these people. It's one baptism for one body. This is very important to understand because there are people out there that teach that there's all sorts of baptisms that we have to participate in today. And don't let me confuse you here because I think I kind of messed up, but you get what I'm saying. The word baptized means to be identified with, or it means to be placed into. There's ritual baptisms and then there's real baptism. When you're placed into the body of Christ, that is a real baptism. That's an eternal thing. That really happens. That's what counts. And that's why just for the sake of the sermon, I'm calling it a real baptism because let's face it, if you never get baptized in water, does that mean you lose your salvation? Does that mean you're not really saved? And of course not. That is not what the Bible teaches at all. What did Paul say when the subject was brought to his attention? He said, I came not to baptize, but to preach the gospel. Why did he say that? If baptism by water was a requirement for salvation, there's no way he would have said that. Even a dispensationalist has to admit that. Now go to Mark chapter number 16. Mark chapter number 16. We're going to start answering some questions here. Mark chapter number 16. And so, going back to 1 Corinthians 12, it's like I preached about during the bodybuilding series, it's important that the whole body has the same answers for doctrine, right? We get our answers from the Bible. Not from this scholar, not from this denomination, not from this person, not from that person, but from what the word of God says. It's very, very important because when you don't do that and you get one definition from a guy who speaks Greek while another guy who speaks this language or whatever, then you start having issues, right? You start having problems. You start having things like, oh, well, you know what? It's the ritual baptism that saves as well. There's something super duper spiritual that happens to you when you get baptized in water and it means you're going to continue on forever. I can't tell you how many people I've seen get baptized in water and never come back to church. You know, I've seen that so many times and I'm not mocking water baptism. We do water baptism, right? We're going to get a baptism. We're going to get set up and continue to do those things, but I'm just telling you the truth, right? Some people, they have like this superstitious view when it comes to water baptism. They get that water baptism done and then it's like, I don't know if they maybe just feel like, wow, I finally, I've arrived. You know, I've done something good and they just get super complacent like the next evening and the next thing you know, you just never see them again. They don't hate the church. They don't hate God's people, but they just somehow have convinced themselves that I've done enough. You know, God is happy with me and they just go right back into the world. Don't be that person. Okay, so let's see here. Mark chapter 16, look at verse number 15. Mark chapter 16, look at verse number 15. He says this and he said unto them, go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. Right? This doesn't sound like an option to me. He says, go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. Obviously he's talking to the apostles here. He's talking to his disciples, but this is meant for everybody. Now does every Christian go throughout the entire world and become missionaries? No, of course not. But by and large, the body of Christ, the mission for his church is to go out and preach the gospel to every creature, to everyone. Verse 16, he that believeth and is baptized shall be saved, but he that believeth not shall be down. Now here's the first point of contention that we're going to talk about this evening. People can bring you here and I've seen this numerous, numerous times. They'll say, well, see, it says right here, he that believeth and is baptized shall be saved. They just automatically attach that water to the word baptized. Right? Now just to prove to you what I'm talking about, go back to Mark chapter one. You see, because God expects you, he expects people, if you're going to quote a verse, especially something at the end of a book, he expects that you've read the first chapter and the second chapter and so on and so forth. Okay. You can't just take these verses and build an entire doctrine off of them. Okay. That is not right. That's not the way that God has set things up. That's what the Mormons have done with first Corinthians 15, 29, which we'll talk about in a while, you know, talking about baptism of the dead. They've got a whole doctrine, a whole process. They've got millions of dollars that go into that thing all based off of one verse. Okay. But if somebody comes up to you and they're like, Hey, the Bible says, he that is, or he that believeth and is baptized shall be saved. You have to be baptized and to water. What are you going to do? I've just got a recommendation for you. You know, you can explain to them real quickly, you know, the word baptized means to be identified with, or it means to be placed into, and you could just start right there, or you could take them back here. In addition to that and show them some stuff from the first chapter of Mark, look at verse number four. It says, John did baptize in the wilderness and preach the baptism of repentance for the remission of sins. Verse five. And there went out unto him all the land of Judea and they of Jerusalem and were all baptized of him in the river of Jordan, confessing their sins. Now, let me just stop right there. It's not saying that they had to confess their sins to get saved. Okay. A lot of people, you know, will try to throw that at you. It's not what it's talking about. And I'm going to prove that to you from Acts 19 later on. But look at verse six. It says, And John was clothed with camel's hair and with a girdle of skin about his loins. And he did eat locusts and wild honey, verse seven, and preached, saying, There cometh one mightier than I after me, the latchet of whose shoes I am not worthy to stoop down and unloose. Verse eight. I indeed have baptized you with water, but he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost. Now, why doesn't he, in addition to that, say he will baptize you with the Holy Ghost, which is what? We're calling it a real baptism. It's a dry baptism. There's no water involved. Why doesn't after this verse here, he say in water? Because it's not a requirement, right? I mean, if you really follow out what he's doing here in the first verses of Mark, obviously John is using water, but he's saying, Hey, Jesus is going to baptize you with the Holy Ghost, which is a dry baptism. So you go back to Mark chapter 16, and then you read them that with that definition in mind, saying, Hey, look, if that was a requirement, obviously John would have mentioned it when he gave that prophecy. Okay. And it's not there. So again, what he's saying is he that believeth and is baptized shall be saved, but he that believeth not shall be damned. So what is it that damns you? Believing not. Right. If water baptism was a requirement, then it would say he that believeth not and is not baptized in water shall be damned. But you have to understand that that baptism is automatic. He that believeth and is baptized, that baptism is automatic after you believe, after you put your trust on Christ. You see what I mean? That's what this is talking about here. This is why it's very important that we understand what words mean in the Bible very clearly. And we know how to circumvent these arguments that people bring to us and draw their attention back to the root of these different issues. Now go to Acts chapter number eight, Acts chapter number eight, Acts chapter number eight. And look at verse number 36, very familiar passage. We always use this when we talk about baptism. It wouldn't be right to do a sermon on baptisms, no matter what, if we didn't talk about Acts chapter number eight, about Philip and the Ethiopian eunuch, because there's so much in here and we've got to understand this. Look at verse number 36, Acts eight verse 36. It says this, and as they went on their way, they came unto a certain water and the eunuch said, see, here is water. What doth hinder me to be baptized? Very good question. If you don't know the story, the story is this Ethiopian eunuch, he was reading the prophet Isaiah and the Lord told Philip, hey, join thyself into this chariot, because there's somebody here who's interested. Philip goes over there and begins at the same scripture that the Ethiopian eunuch is reading. He begins there and then preaches Christ unto him. You see, and there's a whole lesson in that as well, right? We need to be able to learn how to jump right in the middle of what somebody is talking about and draw their attention right back to Jesus Christ. He does that and he gets this guy saved. Imagine that, Philip gets somebody saved. A man gets somebody to say, yes, people do go out and get people saved. Now, obviously it's Christ that did the work and he's the one that does the saving, but he uses human instruments to get that job done. And obviously in the course of that discussion, he mentioned water baptism. And I want you to understand that it's very clear as you read this, okay? But the Ethiopian eunuch, he's got a very good question. He says, hey, what does hinder me to be baptized after noticing what? There's water, right? So now we can draw the conclusion. Okay, now we're talking about water baptism, right? Which what he wants to do is he wants to publicly identify himself with Christ and reflect the decision that he made on the inside. Now, obviously he's been placed into the body of Christ, but he wants to do this publicly. He wants to do this ritual here or this custom. And look at verse number 37, it says this, 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. Now, if you have an NIV, guess what? That verse is gone. If you don't believe me, come up here after the service. I've got one inside the pulpit here. And you can go ahead and search all you want to for it. It's missing. Why do you think that is? Oh, I get it. It's because the latest high-speed scholars said, you know, it's not in the originals, right? Or could it be because there's a prerequisite that you need to meet before you get baptized into water? You have to be saved before you can get baptized in water. This is very important. And look, I don't fault these devils. If I was a devil, I would try to do the same thing. I would try to get people to commit to the rituals over the real thing. You see what I'm saying? 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. Done deal. You have got to be saved in order to get baptized. Verse 38. And he commanded the chariot to stand still. And they went down both into the ravine, into the creek, into the pit, into the hole, into the water? Now, does this mean that they went into the water? Does this mean they got wet? Look, if I went into that room over there, into the mother-baby room, did I go in there? Or did I just like kind of stick my foot in there? Look, this is ridiculous. But there are denominations out there in full force preaching that nonsense. And there, leaven has infected entire communities. This one being chief, it seems like lately. But it says they both went down into the water. Why did they both go into the water? So that they could replicate what took place spiritually. What really happened, right? When you get saved, you get placed into the body of Christ. You are now identified with his death, burial, and resurrection, which you had to have heard in trust before you could get saved. So they say, okay, we're going to go down into the water, both Philip and the eunuch, and he baptized him. Did the eunuch baptize himself? No, he did not. Who did the baptizing? Philip did. That's right. Verse 39. Because look, I heard somebody say this, that you could baptize yourself. Is that who said it? Joseph Smith baptized himself. That does not surprise me. And now what is he baptized with? The fire, right? Look at verse 39. And when they were come up out of the ravine, out of the creek, out of the pit, out of the hole, oh wait, out of the water. So they both went down into the water and they both came up out of the water. The spirit of the Lord caught away Philip that the eunuch saw him no more and went on his way rejoicing. Right? This is always a good place to go to explain why we do the ritual, why we do the custom, why we do a public testimony of water baptism. Okay. But it also proves that it's by immersion. It's not the only place, but it's one place that proves it's by immersion, not by sprinkling. And they want to take you back to Numbers and talk about the sprinklings and all this stuff. It's like, look, you don't even understand that. You probably don't even know what Numbers 21 is about, Numbers 22. You probably have no idea what Numbers chapter one is about. You know what I mean? You see all those names, you're just like, I'm not reading this, right? And you know that's true. But very clearly here, bad blood, just like I said earlier, logically speaking, Jesus was buried. Look up the definition. If you don't believe me, just look up the definition of what it means to be buried. Fully immersed, fully covered, right? When we bury people, do they not go six feet under or do we just sprinkle dirt on them? Now, some countries do stuff like that, right? And that's horrible, but when you're... But they have enough common sense not to say that that person's buried. Everybody get what I'm saying? When you're buried, you go into the ground, you go into the tomb or what have you. If you go down to New Orleans, you'll see a lot of these above ground cemeteries, right? But guess what? Those dead bodies are in, they're immersed inside of a coffin, right? They're all the way inside, at least until the hurricane's coming. That's a whole another topic. Now, leave your place there and go to Acts chapter number 19. Acts chapter number 19. Acts chapter 19. And so up to this point, I just wanted to make the distinction, right? There's dry baptisms in the Bible, right? And the dry baptism, obviously, no water involved. When we're talking about the Holy Ghost, we're talking about salvation, we're talking about being placed into the body of Christ, being identified with the truth that Jesus died, was buried and rose again. And then the water baptism, it's just something that we do, it's something that we follow to publicly proclaim that we've believed, that we trust, that we're serious about following him, right? That we want to walk in newness of life. That's the whole point of doing that. But I want to go back to this, what we kind of started off talking about, which was John's baptism, right? We started off in Matthew chapter three. And again, people will say all sorts of things and they always... Look, Matthew chapter three is just a source of a lot of false doctrine. People will go there and try to prove repent of your sins, crazy stuff about baptism. They'll teach, oh, well, people in the Old Testament got saved differently than they do in the New Testament, all sorts of weird stuff. And so I think it's vital, I think it's very important that you at least know where to go when these things arise. And Acts 19, you should highlight this, write this down, mark this up, figure out a way to always know how to come here in order to prove what John was really doing. Because I've heard so many people say, you know, John's baptism, it included like a contract, you know, like, okay, he made these people basically confess their sins. He made them promise they weren't going to sin anymore. He made them turn from their sins and he made them get baptized in water. And they're like, and there's no way he could have dunked them all or immersed them all, so he sprinkled. This stuff's out there, man. And if you don't know how to answer it, it could, I mean, it could cost you all sorts of stuff. Remember, oftentimes the people that are challenging you with this stuff, right, they're probably not going to get saved, but it's the people around them that are waiting to see how you answer these things. Those are the ones that are waiting. Does this guy really know what he's talking about? And you could be the turning point for someone. You could be the reason why somebody is like, wow, I've never heard anybody answer that before. This guy has the answer. This woman has the answer. Now they're going to come to you and say, well, what must I do to be saved? Tell me the truth, right? Isn't that the goal? Isn't that what we want? That's why we have to know these things. Acts 19, let's start here. Let's start in verse number one. Verse number one says, and it came to pass that while Apollos was at Corinth, Paul, having passed through the upper coasts, came to Ephesus in finding certain disciples. He said unto them, have you received the Holy Ghost since you believe? And they said unto him, we have not so much as heard, whether there be any Holy Ghost. And so you have to understand that this is a unique situation here in history. Remember the book of Acts is a what? It's a transitional book. It's a highlight of how they went from the old system to what we call now the local New Testament church. Okay. And so the situation here is Paul's run into these certain disciples and these people were baptized unto John's baptism. They were already saved. And I'm going to show you that here. Look at verse number two says, and he said unto them, have you received the Holy Ghost since you believed? And they said unto him, we have not so much as heard, whether there be any Holy Ghost. Verse three, and he said unto them, unto what then were ye baptized? And they said unto John's baptism. And so Paul's asking them, well, what are you identified with? What have you been placed into? Basically, who are you? What are you trusting in? Like, what's the source of your trust? And look how they answered in verse three again. And they said unto him unto, and they said unto him, what then were you baptized? And they said unto John's baptism. And then he's like, oh, okay. And he explains what John's baptism was. Verse number four, this is the key verse here. It says, then said Paul, John verily baptized with the baptism of repentance. And then he's going to explain what that means. Saying unto the people that they should believe on him, which should come after him that is on Christ Jesus. So what was it that John the Baptist was doing? What was the requirement for salvation? Well, look at the verse again. 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. That is the baptism. That is what John preached. He wasn't preaching works, was he? He wasn't preaching ceremonial rituals in order to be saved, was he? What was the source of his baptism? It was this truth that you have to believe, which was that you needed to believe in the coming Messiah. And these guys obviously believed that because in verse five, it says this, when they heard this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. And when Paul had laid his hands upon them, the Holy Ghost came on them and they spake with tongues and prophesied. And again, the word tongue in the Bible is either the organ in your mouth or it's a known language somewhere on this planet. And so the Bible is saying they got filled with the Holy Ghost, which is separate from being indwelt with Holy Ghost right upon salvation or the baptism of the Holy Ghost being placed into the body of Christ. So they were given this gift here to actually speak in known languages so that they could go get other people saved in the language that they did not speak. This was a supernatural gift, something that only took place during that time. I challenge anybody to show me somebody today that just all of a sudden I could speak Chinese and I've never even studied it before, just on an instant. Like you walk into this certain community around here and all of a sudden you run, I don't know, let's say sometimes this happens to us, like we'll go soul winning and all of a sudden there's like a whole section of buildings and most people don't speak English. They all speak maybe Arabic or Swahili or some kind of African dialect. If God gave us in that moment the ability to speak that language or for them to hear what we're saying in their language, that would be the gift of tongues. But what you have today, you have these groups of people out there that just do this gibberish, this Kenneth Copeland, Paula White, Rodney Howard Brown, Pentecostal garbage, and they just make up words on the fly and then they translate that for you and tell you what it means. And they'll say, well this is our heavenly prayer language, blah, blah, blah, chapter and verse, please. You aren't going to find it. And you say that to these people and they'll just sidestep you the whole time because it's not in the Bible. There's not one single verse that talks about this heavenly angelic prayer language whatsoever. It doesn't exist. And so when they tell you, well, you prove to me, here's how you prove that doctrine. That's how you prove the doctrine. It's not there. Now we can go home. Okay. Done deal. You know, I've told you guys this before, I wanted to do a men's preaching now where I just walk up there and say, you know, I'm going to be preaching about a heavenly prayer language. And I'm just going to go like this and then just sit down because I got nothing. There's no verses to prove it. It's a complete lie. It's a hoax. It's a sick, disgusting joke. But you know what? Millions upon millions of people that today, they believe that and they are hoodwinked into that doctrine. And you know what? It's a tragedy. And there's just not enough preaching in this world today, debunking it. You know, it makes me sad because there's people that I know and people that I've cared about and that I want to be saved, but that is a point of contention for them. And they will not hear the truth. So verse six again says, and when Paul had laid his hands upon them, the Holy ghost came on them and they spake with tongues and prophesied, meaning they foretold the word of God. They preached the word of God. So go back to Matthew chapter three here and we're going to start answering some of these other contentious questions in the Bible about baptism. So question is somebody comes up to you and they're like, okay, you know, I get it. I get what the baptism, the Holy ghost is and all that goes into that. But what about with fire? What does that mean? Look at Matthew three 11, where we first started the sermon. It says, and I indeed baptize you with water into repentance, but he that cometh after me is mightier than I whose shoes I am not worthy to bear. He shall baptize you with the Holy ghost and with fire. Now, again, you know, you go to Acts chapter 19 and somebody starts getting weird on you here in Matthew three 11, you know, talking to you about the baptism of repentance. Oh, let's turn from sins. Now you go to Acts 19 and you tell them what John really said, right? But what is this here? He says he shall baptize you with the Holy ghost and with fire. Now things that are different are not the same. These are two different completely different things. What does that mean? What are you going to say if somebody challenges you on that? Now, you don't have to turn there. I'm just going to read to you what I've been taught by Pentecostals, what I've been taught by non-Pentecostals that this means here. Just listen to this. They'll often say, okay, this comes from Acts chapter two and they'll read these verses, Acts two, two, like I said, just stay where you are. You don't have to turn there. But Acts two verse two says this. And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as a rushing mighty wind and it filled the house where they were sitting. And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire and sat upon each of them. Let me read that to you again. And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire. Now see, see there's that word fire. So that's what we're, that's where we're headed, right? It was this situation here. It was this story here in the Bible that sets us up for the baptism of fire. And then verse four, it says, and they were all filled with the Holy ghost and began to speak with other tongues as the spirit gave them utterance. So they'll say, see the baptism of fire is when you speak in tongues and you start to prophesy and that's evidence that you have the Holy ghost and that's evidence that you are saved. That's I'm serious. That is like their go-to position. That is what they teach. And that is what they believe. And look, they even have a place to go to, to try to convince you of that. And if you don't know any better, if you're not studied up and you haven't rightly divided the word of truth, it is possible that you could fall for something like this. Now, obviously not anybody in here, but there are people out there that, you know, that we go get saved and you know, five, six, seven months down the road, they just forget what church it was. They go visit their friends, community church. They invite a charismatic speaker and they say that and they believe it. You don't believe me. I meet people like that all the time, all the time. Don't think because you're saved that you got everything right. You know, you just know all truth because look, we know that saved people can be led astray just as well. Okay. And it's important to understand that is not what this is talking about. First of all, the first thing that I want you to notice is that verse says as a fire. So it says cloven tongues like as a fire. Okay. So it's not even talking about fire, not being taught. It's not even talking about being placed into fire for one or being identified with fire. It's saying that these cloven tongues like as a fire. Okay. Now here's one way to look at that. So back to the question, what is the baptism of fire? What do we make of this? Because in the other gospels, it just says the baptism of the Holy ghost. When you read the parallel passage, it doesn't mention the fire. Now, does that mean we just need to brush it off and not have an answer? Of course not. So back up to verse number seven, it says this, looking for some more sentences, but when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees, so remember John's doing his baptisms. He's got all kinds of people in Judea coming to him. But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees come to his baptism, he said unto them, Oh, generation of vipers who has warned you to flee from the wrath to come. So understand this, John here is not only talking to people who believed his baptism and got saved, but he's also talking about these phonies, these super hyper spiritual people, these so-called religious leaders of his day. And notice how he acts towards him. He says, Oh, generation of vipers. That's strong language, isn't it? Does it sound like he's talking to people here who he believes are saved? Oh, generation of vipers, who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come. So the first thing you need to understand here is that John is talking to a mixed multitude. And he's saying, Hey, after this, after these things in verse 11, right, you'll be, he will baptize you with the Holy ghost and with fire. You need to understand there are people that believe that he's talking to there. And there are people that do not believe that he's talking to there. Now, where do people go that reject the gospel when they die, they go to hell, they are placed into hell. They are baptized with fire. Okay. That is definitely one application. That is one interpretation that I believe is true in a sense here, because he's basically saying, you know, Jesus is going to come and he's going to baptize you with the Holy ghost. Obviously talking to the people in the mixed crowd here that believe that they got saved, but he's also got these Jews, these hyper spiritual people that have rejected his message. They don't believe it. They're just there because they don't want to upset the people. They want to pretend they want to play along. And who is it that's going to baptize them with fire. It's going to be Jesus Christ. Read Matthew chapter seven, read the book of revelation. He is going to baptize them with this fire. So that's one application, but I want to give you another one here, one for the believer, right? So these people here now, let me see, I'm going to have you turn to, uh, I'm going to have you stay there. I have you stay there for a second. So these people here that are baptized with fire, they're going to get placed into hell someday. And it's unfortunate. It's sad. They're going there. I mean, when you reject Christ, you're literally identifying yourself with death. You are identifying yourself with hell. You're saying, I don't want the truth. I don't want what Christ did for me. And you have made that choice. And so the result of that choice is that someday you will be placed into hell thus being baptized with fire. But I want to show you something else in the Bible. And that is that that is this, I'm just going to just give it to you right now. If you study this out, the word fire in the Bible, aside from like literal fire is a representation of judgment. And I've studied this out. This is what I believe. If you look up the word fire in your Bible app, it's going to come up a lot. I forgot how many times exactly. But the first mention of fire is what? Genesis 19. I'm going to read this for you here. Genesis 19 24, then the Lord rained upon Sodom and Gomorrah brimstone and fire from the Lord out of heaven. That is a judgment. Okay. When you understand that, I mean, what's hell? Fire. What's the lake of fire? It's fire. But what all, what is it in addition to that? It is judgment. It is judgment. So fire represents judgment. Now go, oh, you're there in Matthew three, look at verse 11. Let's just read it again. It says, I indeed baptize you with water to repentance. Be the commitment after me is mighty than I whose shoes I am not worthy to bear. He shall baptize you with the Holy ghost. We've already talked about that, right? Baptized with the Holy ghost. You're sealed. It's a done deal. It says and with fire. Now I also believe that this means for the believer that we're baptized with fire too. And that is that we are baptized with judgment. Look, if you don't believe me here, look at verse number 12. It says this talking about Jesus is whose fan is in his hand and he will thoroughly purge his floor. Well, that's a judgment and gather his wheat into the garner, but he will burn up the chaff with what? Unquenchable fire. So somebody says, okay, well look, I'm a believer and I've got the baptism of fire. I speak in tongues. I prophesy, you know, my pastor's John Hagee and all this crazy stuff. You know, you're dealing with a quack. Okay. Somebody who's just off their rocker completely. Now go to Luke chapter number 12 and we'll talk about this more. I also believe that we are, just like we're identified with the Holy Ghost, we're placed into the body of Christ. You know, the Bible says that when you're saved, you're given the ability to now understand all scripture, right? You now can understand the Bible. You can read it and gain insight. You don't need me. You know, we come to church for edification and to learn and to sharpen one another, but you don't need man to necessarily teach you everything. You can read the Bible. You can study these things out and come to the same conclusions that I've come to because we have the same spirit. We're placed into the same body. You see what I'm saying? And so it's important to understand that. So in verse 12 there that we just read in Matthew chapter three, it's talking about judgment. So just like that we're baptized into the Holy Ghost, we're identified with Christ, with the Holy Ghost, right? We're identified with his judgment, meaning we have what? We have the mandate. We have the power. We have the authority to preach his judgments to this world, right? So thus we are baptized with fire. Now, do we always walk in newness of spirit? Do we always walk in the spirit? Do we always walk with the Holy Ghost? No, because we're evil. But do we always walk with the baptism of fire? No, but we have that potential. We have the potential every single day that we wake up to walk in newness of life to say, you know what? I'm going to walk. I'm going to listen to the Bible. You know, I'm gonna let the Holy Spirit guide me. We have that option, but we also have the option to partake of our baptism of fire. It's given to every one of us. Luke chapter 12, look at verse 49. Jesus says this, I am come to send fire on earth. And what will I if it be already kindled? So what is Jesus saying here? He has come to send what? Fire. What is that? Is he going to send literal fire? Yes. One day, one day obviously he's going to unleash hell on earth. But what is he talking about here? Judgment. His words are as fire. I am come to send fire on the earth. And what will I if it be already kindled? Verse 50. But I have a baptism to be baptized with. And how am I straightened till it be accomplished? Suppose ye that I am come to give peace on earth? I tell you nay, but rather division. The word division means to divide. It means to separate, to cut, to judge, to sever, not to join, not to bond together, to judge, to divide, right? All off the tail end of his statement in verse 49, I am come to send fire on the earth. When you get saved, you are automatically baptized, placed in to the body of Christ, identified with the Holy Ghost. But you, my friend, have the baptism of fire as well. And that fire is judgment. It's what he's talking about here. Verse 52, four from henceforth, there shall be five in one house divided, two, I'm sorry, three against two and two against three. Why is that? It's because there are people that will get saved, and then they will be different from the rest of their family who rejects that message. And so now you have an unequally yoked household or possibly even worse, an unequally yoked marriage or what have you. But that's what he's talking about here, all as the result of judgment. Why? Because he came to send fire on earth. When you're saved, you're not only baptized into Christ, but you're baptized with the ability to have fire, judgment. And see, this is why I get so pissed off when people attack judging. The Bible says the spiritual judges all things. So when you say I have no right to judge, you're taking my baptism of fire away from me, which Christ gave me and he gave you. It's all right. We can partake in that by reading the word and by preaching the things that he's told us to preach. Verse 53, the father shall be divided against the son and the son against the father, the mother against the daughter and the daughter against the mother, the mother in law against her daughter-in-law and the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. Go to 1 Corinthians chapter number two. 1 Corinthians chapter number two. And we'll look here real quickly at verse number 13. 1 Corinthians 2, look at verse 13. He says this, which things also we speak, not in the words which man's wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth, comparing spiritual things with spiritual. The words that Jesus said, the words that I speak into you, they are spirit and they are life. He said that all power is given unto him in heaven and in earth. Right? So when we have the spirit, we are able to rightly divide the word of truth, which oftentimes results in judgment because he said, he is the only way, he is the only hope that the world has. Verse 14, but the natural man receiveth not the things of the spirit of God for they are foolishness unto him, neither can he know them because they are spiritually discerned. What does that mean? That natural man receiveth not the things of the spirit of God. It means that the natural man, the person who doesn't have the new man, understand me? The person who's not saved cannot understand spiritual things. So when you get saved, when you get baptized into the body of Christ, when you get born again, you also get that same baptism of fire. You get that ability to be able to understand the word of God, which will result in fire, preaching, fire, teaching. I mean the word of God. When you go out and you knock on somebody's door and you preach to them the gospel, you are literally preaching them that fire. And where did that come from? That came from God. That came from your new man. That came from the words that you studied that he put into your heart. That's where that came from. Verse number 15, but he that is spiritual, uh oh, judgeth all things, yet he himself is judged of no man. Look, it is a righteous thing to judge. And you say, but what if, you know, the gospel in the Bible has done more harm than good. You know, it's ruined families. Yes, it has. Jesus told you that in Luke chapter 12, because his word divides. It's a fire. It burns up. Look, there's two ways to do things, his way or the highway. That's it. The whole Bible's a dividing thing. The whole Bible's fire, the whole Bible's judgment. And when you're saved, you get that ability to be able to proclaim that truth, which is fire. Verse 16, for who hath known the mind of the Lord that he may instruct him. But we have the mind of Christ. We need to fuel that fire. We need to pour kerosene on that fire, so to speak, by coming to church, by being around each other. Because look, when you hear these stories of people, you know, harassing our church members, like brother Briely and Marissa got today, these, these people harass them, you know, that, that should bother you, man. That should upset you. That should get your fire going. That should be like, you know what? You know what? I'm going to go, so I'm going to, I'm going to get my, I'm going to get my Bible. I'm going to read, I'm going to study. I'm going to do these things and take part in that. That should motivate you to go out and get your own fire going and start kindling it like Jesus said, right? That's the goal. That's what I believe. The baptism of fire is for the Bible believing Christian. So yes, the world, unfortunately they're going to suffer from baptism with fire and that as hell. But you know what? We have our own fire baptism and it's a good thing. It's an eternal fire that never is quenched. So let's see real quickly. So that's the first controversial thing that I want to, or maybe the second one that I wanted to discuss. I got two more for you and then we'll be done. I promise. First Corinthians 15. I just wanted to hit this one real quick since we're talking about it and I'm not doing a series on baptism. So I'm just going to squeak these in real quick for you. The second one here, baptism for the dead. Okay. First Corinthians 15 29. It says, else, what shall they do? Which are baptized for the dead? If the dead rise, not at all. Why are they then baptized for the dead? Okay. We live in Idaho here. I can't man. There's, there's entire subdivisions around here with Mormon tabernacle temple wards, whatever you want to call them, little huts in the center of them. And most of those people go to that church. Okay. Who's ever gone soul wanting to not talk to a Mormon in this church? Nobody. Right? These guys always come visit us. I'm like, you're going to talk to a Mormon today. I'm like, Oh man. Well maybe, you know, you can tell they're like, eh, he's just being, he's just excited. Right. First door Mormon. Almost every time. Right. And it's not a bad thing, but we need to know. We have to, we have to know how to answer these things. Now, just listen to this. I took this from, uh, from one of their websites and I'm trying to justify this. Okay. They say this about baptism for the dead. So, so what they do is they spend a lot of money and a lot of research digging into genes. They require their people to, I don't, I'm not even sure if it's a requirement anymore, but they, they, uh, they goad their people, uh, they ask for people to come in with names of, of passed on relatives and they say, okay, well we'll make an atonement for them. We will baptize, uh, you for them or however it goes. Okay. And here's what they say. They don't, and they'll quote first Corinthians 15, 29 as a proof text, even though they don't believe that the entire King James Bible is inspired, but that's another story for another day. Listen to this. Jesus Christ taught that except a man be born of water and of the spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. Okay. And they cite John chapter three verse five. We're not going to take the time to go there, but that's Jesus talking to Nicodemus and Nicodemus is like, what do you mean? I got to go back to my mom's womb to be, you know, born again. I got to start life over again. Jesus is like, you know, I can't believe you're a ruler in Israel. You don't know, you don't know these things. And Jesus telling him, Hey, you have to be born physically. Like we are right. Everybody in here has been born physically once. And you have to be born spiritually. You have to be born again because you're a sinner and you can't save yourself. Right. But they misinterpret that. And it's embarrassing. It's embarrassing. Look, I, I, everything I just said, I've explained that to Mormon elders before, and I made them cry, made them bow their eyes out because they had no response for it. I'm not, I'm not making up bawling, just bawling their eyes out. Have you, I mean, imagine this, you've got no answer. You're running around town and day after day, week after week, you're preaching this nonsense. And then you run into somebody that's got a little truth, a little fire in them. You know what I mean? Say something like that and you just start bawling your eyes out. I mean, in my mind, I would think like, okay, well now maybe they're going to soften up and open up to the truth. Nope. They just double down. It says for those who have passed on without the ordinance of baptism by proxy, the deceased is, what we do for them, for the deceased is a free will offering according to church doctrine. Okay. And then it goes on to say a departed soul in the afterlife is free to accept or reject such a baptism. I'm not making this up. This is what they teach. And part of this got cut off. So I'm trying to figure out what I'm saying in addition to that, but you get the point. The offering is freely given and must be freely accepted. This ordinance is not to be forced on deceased persons. And it does not mean that they will necessarily become part of the church of Christ or the Latter-day Saints. So they're saying that even though they do baptize, they do baptize for the dead. They're saying that in the afterlife, wherever they are in the lowest of heavens, that they're not forcing them to become members of the church. I think most of them would rather just stay in hell. Okay. Let's see here. He goes on. He just goes on to talk about this. But it, but they keep bringing up church doctrine. This is what our church doctrine teaches. And then they reference the Bible. They say, well, even Paul mentioned this, even Paul talked about this. Now here's the thing, right? Cause I got to hurry up. Here's the thing. They have built an entire process and I mean an entire division and they've got building, they got all sorts of money and resources and time devoted to baptizing the dead by proxy. Think about that. And they want to cite one Bible verse as a proof text, as an example. Okay. Now here's the thing. Go ask a Mormon the next time you get the opportunity and say, does water baptism save you? What will they tell you? They'll say, yes, all the works do right. That's what they'll say. But here's the thing. Well, how are they going to do works after they're dead? So you might as well just live like hell and then have someone else do the work for you because you're not going to work cause you're dead. It's ridiculous. And some of them will say this, some of them will say, no, water baptism does not save you. It's repentance from sins. They'll say that some, so you're going to get different answers. And if they say that to you, and I'm not sure which word teaches what around here, they're all different slightly, right? But if you run into one that says that, then it's like, if water baptism doesn't save you here, why would it save somebody in the afterlife? Doesn't make any sense. Rituals don't save. And they'll even say that. Well, rituals don't save. It's what's in the heart. It's the actual turning from the sins, right? We have to work. We have to please heavenly father. That's what they'll say. We have to please heavenly father. So, so just, just, just real quickly. There's back to first Corinthians 15, 29. There's a lot of different interpretations. I'm going to read for you the most common ones here, and I'm going to tell you something. They're all better than the Mormon. Okay. So the, the, let's read the verse again. It says, else. So let me back up. I'm sorry. I'm getting, I'm trying to hurry up because I know some of your, you got, you look like you're tired, but what is first Corinthians 15 talking about? It's talking about the gospel, the death, burial and resurrection. Okay. I mean, the first part of us talking about the gospel, the good news that you don't have to work for your salvation. Right. And do they believe that part? I mean, if you don't believe me, turn there, turn to first Corinthians 15 real quick. And I'll just show you, look at verse number one, first Corinthians 15, moreover, brethren, I declare to you the gospel, which I preached unto you, which also ye have received where in ye stand by which also ye are saved. Well, here's the thing. The Mormons don't believe that you are saved. They believe you are being saved and being saved and being saved. That is a process because when you join the Mormon religion, you're placed onto probation. You don't have salvation and you need to understand that says by which also ye are saved. If you keep in memory, what I preach unto you, unless you have believed in vain, obviously we preach the gospel to people. They pray with us and you know what? Sometimes they believe in vain. Sometimes they're just going through the motions. That's part of life. Don't let that discourage you. It is what it is. But he says this for I delivered unto you, first of all, that which I also received, how that Christ died for sins, according to the scriptures and that he was buried and that he rose again the third day, according to the scriptures and was seen in Cephas, then of the 12th. So he's talking about the gospel in first Corinthians 15, which they do not even believe. And so now you want me to believe your approved texts on baptisms for the dead? You're crazy. You're out of your mind. But then Paul goes off and he starts addressing some people in the Corinthian church that were doubting and speaking against the resurrection, right? The resurrection of the saints. And he's basically saying, let's see here, let's back up to verse 28 says, when all things, so first Corinthians 15, 28, and when all things shall be subdued unto him, then shall the sun also himself be subject unto him that put all things under him that God may be all in all. In verse 29 else, what shall they do? Which are baptized for the dead. If the dead rise, not at all, why are they then baptized for the dead and why stand we in jeopardy every hour? So he's basically saying, why are we doing these things? If there's no resurrection, we might as well just eat, drink, and be married. There's no point to our faith. There's no point in going to church. There's no point in preaching the gospel if there's no resurrection, right? That's what he's saying there. Now, some people will say, okay, well, Paul was addressing people who taught in their land, the baptism for the dead, this proxy baptism. And I don't know the history as well. If you look it up, there are some scholarly articles that say there were people back in Corinth that were baptizing for the dead and Paul was addressing that. It could be, but I'll tell you one thing, that interpretation is much better than what the Mormons say, okay? So else, what shall they do? Which are baptized for the dead. If the dead rise, not at all, why are they then baptized for the dead? So that's one interpretation that people will say. Another one is they'll say, okay, well, some people were just getting baptized because of the testimony of those who have died. And then they'll say that. They'll say, so else, what shall they do? Which are baptized for the dead. If the dead rise, not at all, why are they then baptized for the dead? So he's basically saying that new converts take the place of old converts. And that's an interpretation that people have. Again, that is better than what the Mormons say, okay? But go back to Romans six. Hopefully I told you to keep your place there, Romans chapter six, because the answer can be found in Romans chapter six, which we have already gone over. And I told you that we would come back to it. So Romans chapter six here, look at verse number four. Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into what? Into death. That like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. Look at verse five. For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection. Verse six, knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin. So go back to first Corinthians 15, look at verse 29. So Paul's saying, else what shall they do which are baptized for the dead? You see people say, you see for the dead. You know what that really means? Because of the dead, right? So because of the dead, so for the dead, if the dead rise, not at all, why are they then baptized for the dead? Well, it's because we're being identified with the dead. We're being identified with Jesus Christ who died and was buried and rose again, right? That's really what he's talking about here. The references to our bodies, which are buried with Jesus in baptism, right? We're supposed to live with the expectation of the resurrection of our bodies, of our getting the new body, okay? And so he's saying that that whole thing is pointless if there's no resurrection to begin with, okay? So I'm not gonna lie, it's a hard thing to explain, but it's better than what the Mormon say, okay? Look, I don't care how you interpret it if you're saved, it's better than what the Mormon say. I mean, they built an entire process off of church doctrine and then they use this as a proof text. I'll be honest with you, I don't think that they built their baptism for the dead off of 1 Corinthians 15, 29. There's no way that even Joseph Smith opened up the Bible and read that verse and just said, you know what? I'm gonna do all this stuff here, right? They probably learned that through demonic activity, for one, and just went about it that way. And so again, else what shall they do which are baptized for the dead? We're baptized because of the dead, because of Jesus Christ, okay? That's what he's talking about there. That's what I believe it says, if the dead rise not at all, so obviously if the saints don't resurrect, then why are we baptized for the dead? Why were we baptized for Jesus Christ? So that's what I believe he's talking about there, because verse four of Romans chapter six, therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death, okay? So just write that down next to that verse in your soul winning Bible so that you can go back to Romans six the next time somebody challenges you that out in town and it'll be easy for you to basically explain what that means and say, you know what? That's better than what you believe, okay? So there's that. Now, real quickly, go to first Peter chapter three, first Peter chapter number three. And why turn there, I'm just going to read a few Colossians chapter two, verse 12, which says buried with him in baptism wherein also you're risen with him through the faith of the operation of God who has raised him from the dead. So again, buried with him in baptism, that is all part of it. All of that fits into first Corinthians chapter number 15, verse 29. But real quick, they just want to hit this one last thing here about water baptism and we're done, I promise. First Peter three 21, look what it says. It says the like figure were into even baptism doth also now save us, not the putting away of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience towards God by the resurrection of Jesus Christ. People will... Now, if somebody comes at you at this point with that verse, you've got enough ammo to be able to discern what the word baptism means, right? There's dry baptisms and then there's water baptisms. A water baptism is always a ritual. We are not saved by rituals. We are not saved by traditions. We are not saved by works, by outward manifestations of things like that, right? He says the like figure were unto even baptism doth also now save us. If somebody hits you with that verse and says, see, you're saved by water baptism, it's pretty easy to tell that's not what it's talking about. Because in parentheses here, it says not the putting away the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience towards God. It's from the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaketh, it's your testimony, what you've trusted, what you've been baptized. Are you baptized into the body of Christ? Then guess what? That's what saved you, not the putting away the filth of the flesh, not obeying certain things, not doing certain things, okay? Now go back to Matthew 3 and we'll close there. Matthew 3 and we will close there. And people often take it Acts 2 38 and try that whole deal there, but I'm not even going to be able to touch on that tonight. We don't have time. The word baptized there is not talking about water baptism, okay? It's talking about being baptized into the Holy Ghost, being placed into the body of Christ. Last one, here's the kicker. So people are like, well, it's water baptism that saves. Obviously you could take them to 1 Peter 3 21, you could go down that road. But here's the last little bit that I want to leave you with. Matthew 3 verse 13, because we started here, let's read, we read verse 12, we went over that. Now look at verse 13, then cometh Jesus from Galilee to Jordan unto John to be baptized of him. Verse 14, but John forbade him saying, I have need to be baptized of thee and comest thou to me? And Jesus answering said unto him, suffer it to be so now for thus it becometh us to fulfill all righteousness. Then he suffered him and Jesus, when he was baptized, went up straight way out of the ravine out of the lake, says out of the water and lo, the heavens were opened unto him. And he saw the spirit of God descending like a dove and lighting upon him and lo, a voice from heaven saying, this is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased. So people say, well, water baptisms, what saves you? That is a blasphemous statement because Jesus was baptized in water. So are you telling me that he had to be saved? The person who saves you had to be saved? That's ridiculous. And so, you know, people want to go to Matthew 3 and pick and choose and twist and pull, but they don't ever want to read the rest of the chapter here. And so anybody tries to get you with that, just remember just a few verses down, Jesus was baptized by John and water and he had no sin. Okay. So it's impossible that water baptism washes away sins. It's not true. That's a lie. So I just wanted to hit that really quickly here before we close. I know it was a lot, but hopefully you remember some things from there and you've at least got a place to go to. You got a couple extra markings in your Bible because it's a real deal. Man, people are confused out there. And I see this all the time. When you guys have the answers, it makes the difference. When they see that you've got the answers and you know where to go and you know your Bible, that does a lot for this community. Because I think that a lot of times, even people that don't get saved, they go back and they're like, inside, they're thinking like, man, the guy was right. That girl was right. She knew, he knew, they knew what was going on. They knew the truth. It's important that we understand these things. You don't have to memorize the whole Bible to be an effective soul owner, but it's good to know where to go. Start familiarizing yourselves where to go when people hit you with these strange things. Okay. So let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer. Thank you so much, Lord, for just the great, vast knowledge and wisdom, Lord, that we're able to pull from your word week after week. Let's pray you strengthen us, Lord, and motivate us to continue on for you, Lord. In Jesus' name, I pray. Amen.