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

Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Page number 100, day by day. Page number 100, day by day. Sing it out on the first verse. In my father's wise bestowing. I've no cause for worry or for fear. He who's heart is kind beyond all measure. Gives unto each day what he deems best. Lovingly it's part of pain and pleasure. Meanly toil with peace and rest. Every day the Lord himself is near me. With a special mercy for each hour. All my cares he fair would bear him cheer me. He who's name is counselor in power. The protection of his shot and treasure. Is a charge that on himself he lay. As thy days, thy strength shall be in measure. This the pledge to me he made. Help me then in every tribulation. So to trust thy promises oh Lord. That I lose not faith speeds consolation. Offered me within thy holy word. Help me Lord with toil and trouble meeting. Heir to take us from a father's hand. One by one the days the moment's fleeting. Till I reach the promised land. It shall be forever. Nothing can be put to it. Nor anything taken from it. And God doeth it that men should fear before him. Ecclesiastes chapter 3 verse number 14 our service times. Our Sunday morning at 10 30 a.m. And our Sunday evening services at 3 30 p.m. Thursday bible study is 6 30 p.m. Tonight we're going to be in Genesis chapter number 44. And this coming Thursday we'll be in 2 Corinthians chapter number 10. Our soul winning times are listed below. And we do have soul winning today at 1 o'clock. And brother Sean Collins leading that. So if you're planning on going please let him know. So he can get the appropriate amount of pairs and all that stuff that we have to do before we go out. And let's see the whatsapp group is where we do all of our soul winning stuff. So if you're not in that group please let me or my wife know. We can get you in there. And our regional soul winning captains are listed below. I believe brother Neb had one up in Tacoma this last weekend. And our praise report you can see the salvation's baptisms and attendance totals from last week. And on our inside right page there we have our upcoming events. April 10th is going to be the Lord's Supper. And that will be at the p.m. service. So that's we only do this once a year. So please plan on coming if you want to partake in the Lord's Supper this year. And Easter Sunday is April 17th. And the potluck will be after the a.m. service. The church can provide the main course which is probably going to be ham. And then just bring sides and desserts. And then we're going to have a men's preaching night for the p.m. service. So men get ready for that. We haven't had one in a while so here's your chance to get some preaching in. And our Detroit soul winning trip is going to be April 22nd through 25th. Deacon Corbin Russell will be preaching for us on Sunday the 24th. And I talked to him the other day I think it was yesterday. And he said he's going to have that location sometime this week. So the address and stuff of where we're going to be meeting. And then April 24th that same day I'll be preaching in Boise at Shield of Faith Baptist Church for Pastor Jones. And then June 1st through 4th is church camp. June 10th is the Northeast New IFB conference night in New Jersey. There will be food and fellowship. We'll be preaching, me and Pastor Mendez will be preaching on Friday. And then we're going to do baptisms and there will be a soul winning marathon the next day. July 14th through 17th is the Red Hot Preaching Conference. And one more thing I wanted to add here is on the 10th, so actually the 9th I want to do a soul winning marathon here in Vancouver. So that will be not the weekend of Easter but the week before. So if you don't go you're not going to be right with God for the Lord's Supper. So I just wanted to let you know. No I'm just kidding. You're like what? No. I want to get a good soul winning marathon in here and get our Easter invitations out through the area. Whoever is going to be captains, which I haven't named that yet, but whoever is going to be we want areas that are located within 20 minutes of the church here. So anyway we want to have some visitors on Sunday. Amen. And so we'll have a great Easter service then. And then I wanted to tell you about some bad news that I had heard this morning. One of Pastor Shelley's families, they got in an accident and they lost their 9 month old daughter. And then one of their children is in ICU right now and the other one has a broken leg. So their family is very devastated right now. So we definitely keep them in our prayers if there's anything that we can do. Right now they probably wouldn't be a good time to bombard them with calls or anything like that. But just be in prayer for them and if there's something we can do as a church family or individually I'll let you know. So it's the Goodwin family. I don't know if you know them but they've been going to steadfast for a long time. So anyway if you keep them in your prayers I'm sure they'd really appreciate it and they're a church family. And so bad news. It's really really really bad news. It's my worst nightmare. So obviously there's some consolation in the fact that their daughter was going to go to heaven. So all babies go to heaven. And so that's what I mean. It's still what it is. It's a tragic loss. So let's remember to pray for them. We're a family integrated church. That means the children and infants are welcome during the church services. Please utilize those to your needs. And we do have mother baby rooms and dad baby rooms. They're located in the backs here. They're clearly marked. Please watch your kids at all times at church. Make sure they're not getting into things that they're not supposed to be. And please do not let them go to the coffee station. Little kids at the coffee station is not allowed. So if I see them or if you see them or if anybody sees them doing something and the parents aren't watching, it's going to get corrected. So I don't like this thing where people would say don't correct my children. We'll watch them then. Because I'm going to say something because I'm the pastor of the church. This is the house of God. So I just wanted to make sure that's really clear because as far as I know, little children aren't supposed to be drinking coffee anyway. If you let them drink coffee at home, that's fine. But I don't want to have to put an age restriction on it. But kids, you know it stunts your growth, right? Like I didn't drink coffee until I was 18. Look at me. And I ate my vegetables and took my vitamins and said I'm going to perish. No, I'm just kidding. All those vegetables that you try to scoop to the side of the plate, I ate those. Except for lima beans. I hate lima beans. But anyway, in all seriousness, I mean, and even with the ping pong stuff and the foosball, you notice I haven't put the foosball table back in there because I just want to have a little bit of peace. You know, I think it's gotten a little bit out of control. I don't think it's good that little kids are being allowed to just squeeze the ping pong balls and break them. Those cost money. Or rip the paddles apart and things like that. I just kind of want to take a little break from that room for a little bit because I saw it getting out of control. And if things are going to cause problems in our church, then I'll just take them away. But I'm not going to take them away permanently as of right now. But I just want to rein this stuff in. You know, as far as like, if the creamer is out there, that's not for the children to drink. I don't know why you would drink creamer anyway, but it's just not something you should do. And when we have food, then we're serving food, I don't want children putting their hands all over the food. So if your kids do that, then you need to be with them making their plate. You should be with them making their plate anyway. And when I say watch your children and all of them are in the room, in that room there, and nobody's watching them, that includes that room. That's not like the room that nobody has to watch their kids in. But even I've seen parents watching their kids and they still let them trash things without saying anything or correcting them. And you know, we want to take care of the stuff that we have. And I feel like I have to say this every once in a while, and I'm sure every pastor does. So I'm not trying to beat you up or not try to say don't have fun or anything like that, but you know, destroying the church property is not fun. Getting into stuff that you shouldn't be getting into is not fun. There has to be limitations. There's got to be boundaries on things. So please, I'm not trying to single anybody out. I'm just saying as a church family, we need to get a grasp on that. And our kids just can't do everything that they want to do, all right? So anyway, now bad cop is done. I'm going to go back to good cop here. And I don't want to be a police officer here. I hate having to say stuff like that, but it just has to be said because sometimes people just don't get it through their heads. It's like, oh, he's talking about them. No, I'm talking about you too. So it's everybody. Everybody has the same rules, all right? So anyway, on with my spiel here. Please make sure you silence your cell phones at this time and ushers are available by... I mean, escorts are allowed, are available to you if you need to be walked to your car. If you're a lady or you're here with your children alone, please make sure that you grab one of the ushers, the guys with the usher pin on their suit, and they will walk you to your car. Our giving information is right there at the bottom of the page. And then we have a couple birthdays in the thing here. Rebecca Alcorta's the 31st. What's the date today? Is it the 27th? Okay, so she falls in the same week. All right. And then on the first is Tim Harrington. Is that right? Okay, so let's sing Happy Birthday to Rebecca and Tim, all right? Happy birthday to you Happy birthday to you Happy birthday, God bless you Happy birthday to you All right, that's all I have for announcements. Let's sing another song and we'll receive the offering. This is right at page 174. Page 174, my Jesus, I love thee. Page 174, my Jesus, I love thee. Sing it out on the first. My Jesus, I love thee I know thou art mine For thee, all the follies Of sin I resign My gracious Redeemer My Savior art thou If ever I love thee My Jesus, tis now I love thee because thou Has first loved me And purchased my pardon On Calvary street I love thee for wearing The thorns on thy brow If ever I love thee My Jesus, tis now I'll love thee in life I will love thee in death And praise thee as long as The land gives me breath And sing when not death Do lies, hold on my brow If ever I love thee My Jesus, tis now In mansions of glory And endless divine I'll ever adore thee In heaven so bright I'll sing with the glittering Crown on my brow If ever I love thee My Jesus, tis now Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. And so, this has nothing to do with the sermon but I just was thinking about this. And it's like people say, you're not supposed to follow a man. Well, you're allowed to follow a man as long as that man is following Christ. So Paul is saying, just like I follow Christ you follow me because I'm following Christ. Now it says in verse 2, now I praise you brethren that you remember me in all things and keep the ordinances as I delivered them to you." Now a lot of Baptists will say there's only two ordinances, the Lord's Supper and baptism. Now I agree with that to a certain extent, but here's the thing, there are more than two ordinances in the Bible. There's more than two ordinances in the New Testament. But there's only two ordinances that picture something that we are required to do. Now we're not required to do them to be saved, but we are required to do them because it's an ordinance that's supposed to be kept. Because he says, keep the ordinances, alright, as I delivered them to you. Now the Apostle Paul is going to teach us how to keep the ordinance of the Lord's Supper in these verses here this morning, but before he gets into that, what is he talking about before that? He's talking about the length of your hair. And so why would he say, hey there's, you know, I want you to keep these ordinances and then he goes on about people's hair length. About how women are supposed to have long hair and men are supposed to have short hair. That's what the Bible teaches. And that's what it says in these verses, let's look at just a couple of those. Because I'm not preaching about hair length this morning, but people act like this is not something that we're, you know, you're just a Pharisee if you teach this or, you know, whatever. But this is in the New Testament, folks. This is taught by Paul in the New Testament and it's taught as an ordinance, okay? Now it says, now let's see verse 3, but I would have you know that the head of every man is Christ and the head of the woman is the man and the head of Christ is God. Every man praying or prophesying having his head covered dishonors his head. You're like, well you're not supposed to wear a Dixie cup on your head or, you know, one of those, you know, Jew hat yarmulkes or whatever. That's not what it's talking about though. It'll explain it to us here in just a minute and I just want to quickly cover this. It says, but every woman that prayeth or prophesyeth with her head uncovered dishonereth her head for that is even all one as if she were shaven. So what's the Bible saying? Hey, you know, if a woman prays with her head uncovered, then she is shaming her head. Who's her head? The man. That's what the Bible says, right? For if the woman be not covered, let her also be shorn. That means to have your head shaved. But if it be a shame for a woman to be shorn or shaven, let her be covered. That means grow your hair long. I'll prove that to you here in just a minute. It says for a man indeed ought not to cover his head, that means grow your hair long, for as he is the image and glory of God. But the woman is the glory of the man. So I guess this is kind of a picture for us to see what does God's hair look like. Well, if you're in the image of God as a man, it says, for a man indeed ought not to cover his head for as much as he is the image and glory of God. So what does that tell you? And I'm not saying that God the Father necessarily had the hairdo or something, but I'm just saying that Christ did, and a lot of people picture him with long hair, and that's not the truth. The truth is that Christ had short hair, and he wasn't a Nazarite, he was from Nazareth. There's two different things. Nazareth is the town he was from, and a Nazarite is a vow that you take to grow your hair, and it's a shame to do that because people know that you have some kind of vow that you have vowed to God, but at some point they were supposed to cut their hair. And Samson was an exception to the rule, but Jesus was not a Nazarite, he was from Nazareth. It says, for a man indeed ought not to cover his head for as much as he is the image and glory of God, but the woman is the glory of the man, for the man is not of the woman, but the woman of the man. Neither was the man created for the woman, but the woman for the man. For this cause ought the woman to have power on her head because of the angels, nevertheless neither is the man without the woman, neither the woman without the man in the Lord. For as the woman is of the man, even so is the man also by the woman, but all things of God. See yourselves, see it's telling us to judge ourselves. Is it comely for a woman to pray unto God uncovered? That means with short hair. Doth not even nature itself teach you that if a man have long hair, it is a shame unto him? So he's appealing to just human nature. It's not a natural thing that a man would want to grow his hair long, they get that from somebody. I always think it's weird when I see a woman with short hair and a man with long hair walking next to each other down the road, I'm just like, man, you're confused, because that's not what the Bible teaches. But if a woman have long hair, see it's talking about the hair length, verse 15, if a woman have long hair, it is a glory to her, for her hair, not a bonnet, not, you know, a sack or anything else, but her hair is given her for a covering. The covering is the hair, the back of your neck, you know, my head is not covered with hair, and so therefore I have short hair. And women, you know, you can just look around, you can see the back of their heads, and they have long hair. It covers their head, that's what the Bible's talking about. This is an ordinance of the church. Now is it an ordinance that we keep because it's a picture of the death, burial, resurrection? No, it's just showing who's your head. You know, and so if Christ is your head, and men are supposed to have short hair, and it's a shame for a man to have long hair, then doesn't that make sense that Christ did not have short hair? I mean, long hair? I mean, it's not rocket science, folks, but you know, people will take these scriptures and rest them and, you know, you'll see churches where women wear head coverings all the time, because they just, I mean, isn't that plain as day? They talk about the length of your hair, but yet people say, and they'll have short hair and wear some kind of head covering. It's like, you totally missed the boat. You know why? Because they're unsaved. If you're saved, you're gonna understand this principle, you know, and it's really clear in the Bible. And anyway, again, I'm not preaching about that, but I just wanted to bring it up, because it's important for us to understand, hey, this is a New Testament teaching. It's not some Pharisaical law that I'm imposing upon you. The apostle Paul's saying, keep the ordinances as I gave them to you, and then he starts talking about, hey, cover up the back of your head, ladies. You know, and obviously, let me caveat this for a second. If you have cancer and all your hair falls out, I'm not expecting you to walk in, you know, and not have long hair. You can always get a wig or whatever, but, you know, if you had your, or you have some kind of, you know, medical issue where you can't grow your hair long or something, that's different. But if women are just chopping their mop, and just so they don't have to mess with their hair, then you're wrong. You're not right with God. That's what the Bible says. Like it or lump it. And men should have short hair. So, you know, people make fun of my hair, but, you know, it's a lot easier than having to comb it every day, and especially since my hair is starting to fall out, so it's a lot easier to deal with, you know, trying to do that comb over in the back, it just wasn't working. Anyway, so I'll have all my hair in heaven, hopefully. But anyhow, so Paul's saying, hey, be followers of me, as I am of Christ, keep the ordinance as I deliver them unto you. So there are many ordinances in the Bible, and that was just an example of one, but Paul shows us the ordinance of the requirement of hair length, however, you know, the ordinance message in this, mentioned in the passage also underneath that is talking about the Lord's Supper. And we're going to get into that in the second part of my sermon here, but there's another ordinance that's not mentioned in this passage that I want to discuss this morning, because it is a picture of something, it's baptism, and so there are two ordinances in the New Testament that we are commanded to keep that picture something, okay, and so there's other ordinances, I get that, but these two are the only ones that actually picture something. If you have a different one that I have not read, and I've read the Bible as far as the Psalms, you know, I would like to see it, but there isn't one, so I already know that I'm right. So you're like, you always have to be right, well, I'm right about this, I know that. So now I call the title of the sermon the Two Token Ordinances because a token is a thing serving as a visible or tangible representation of a fact. Fact is, Christ died for our sins on the cross, He was buried, He rose again, and God wants to picture that in the New Testament, why? Well because He wants us to, you know, He wants His death to be pictured so people understand, you know, it's not the Old Testament, this is the New Testament, and it's also a symbolic thing like my wedding ring, it's a symbolic thing, what's it saying to you? What's this ordinance that I'm doing, no it's not an ordinance, but what is this picture that I'm taking, I'm married, and so if people see me with a ring on my finger, they're going to know, hey, He's married, He's off limits, or vice versa with your wife, and you wear those things as a symbol of the fact that you are married, it's a token of the fact that you're married. And so, baptism is a token of the fact that you have died to yourself, you have identified yourself with the Lord Jesus Christ, and you're buried with Him in baptism and raised to newness of life. Now also, the Lord's Supper, the juice represents the sinless blood of Christ, okay? And so when people use alcoholic wine, they're ruining the picture of the sinless blood of Christ. I will harp on that every single time I get a chance to because it really irritates me highly when someone, I mean we've gone to churches before where we were just visiting or something because of some event, and literally there's two guys standing up in front, they're doing the Lord's Supper, and one guy's got a hunk of leavened bread in one hand, and they've got a glass of, you know, they've got a little box of wine, like alcoholic wine, and they're giving you the elements right there, and like people are literally just walking up and like taking hunks off of this bread. The bread you're supposed to use is unleavened bread. What is that picture? A sinless body that was broken for you, and Christ's body was broken for us, not his bones, but his body was broken for us, he suffered for us, and so that's what that represents. So you have two pictures of sinlessness. Why would you have alcoholic wine, which is poison by the way, it literally is poison, it can kill you, and it does kill people every single year, every single day, I mean, you know, there's people that get into accidents because they're drunk every single day, and so alcohol is very damaging, alcohol ruins people's lives. Why would we represent Christ's blood with alcoholic wine when his blood was sinless? That's the way we are saved is by the blood of Christ. So why would you use a wrong picture? So if we're going to use the picture, let's use the picture right, and use unleavened bread and grape juice. And the same thing with baptism, see, the devil wants to twist everything that God does, and so he'll twist the Lord's Supper, and then he'll also twist baptism. How many people have seen a baptism where you're not actually going underneath the water? The Catholic Church does it on every single baptism, they just like pour water on top, they take like a little tiny ladle and just pour it on top of their head. That's not baptism. Baptism is a transliteration of the Greek word, baptism did not exist in the English language, it was made up because there was no word for it, so it's called baptism. But you know, there was a split with the Catholic Church and the Orthodox Church, and the Orthodox Church was called the Greek Orthodox Church, right, and there still is one today, they submerged people in water because they know what the word means because they had the Greek, right? They understood what the Greek meant. The Catholic Church went off into the weeds, you know, and obviously they were always in the weeds, but they went off and they sprinkled people with water instead of actually submerging them in water. And I'll get into that here a little more, but so the devil wants to take the pictures of salvation and mess with them, and he wants to take the picture of the blood of Christ and mess with it, and we want to do things the way God said to do them because he says to keep the ordinances as I delivered them to you, alright? So a token is a thing that serves as a visible or tangible representation of a fact and another definition would be done for the sake of appearances or as a symbolic gesture. So these types of ordinances are the only two in the New Testament that we're supposed to keep, and one of them we do on a continual basis, and one of them we do once, okay? Baptism is supposed to be done one time, and the Lord's Supper is done, what we believe of this church is done every year because we believe it's a continuation of the Old Testament Passover. When Christ gathered his disciples together in the upper room, he changed that Passover because the next night at even, he died as the sinless Lamb of God on the cross. And so at that point, there's no need to have the picture of the Lamb of God, which was supposed to be without blemish, without spot, and so that picture's taken away because we don't need that picture anymore because Christ has already died for us, and so what is the picture now that his blood cleanses us from all sin, and the fact that his body was broken. They did still eat the bread, the unleavened bread, there was a feast of unleavened bread that lasted for seven days, and every year they were supposed to keep the Passover. So why do we keep the Lord's Supper one time a year? Because that's what they did in the Old Testament as the Passover. So some things changed, but Christ showed us what changed. So everything in the New Testament has changed, the Bible gives us a reason why it changed. And so if Christ changed it, he showed us what to do. So we see the picture of the Lord's Supper in the Bible because it was shown to us in the Gospels how he did it. He explains it in this passage exactly how he did it in the Gospels. So that's why Paul's saying, hey, follow me as I follow Christ because you need to keep the ordinances, and then he explains to us what the ordinance is, and he explains to us how to deliver that ordinance and how to do it. So number one this morning, the token ordinance of baptism. I want to look at the token ordinance of baptism, or that picture, that thing that, that token, it's a thing that serves as a visible or tangible representation of a fact, or as a symbolic gesture. The token of baptism pictures the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ. You're buried, you know, you're dead, you're buried, you rise again. Jesus died, he was buried, he rose again. So when you go under the water, that's the picture of your burial after you die. And then the newness of life is when you're pulled back up. So that's why I don't hold people down longer than they should, even though I'd like to with some people, and I'm just joking. But you know, so, and that's why I don't, you know, I don't dunk people three times. You don't die three times. See, the East Orthodox Church and the Greek Orthodox Church, they will, have you ever seen where they baptize babies, and they like dunk them three times, then they're like, you know, it's, I wonder how they never drown them, but anyway. They dunk them, they dunk them again, they dunk them three times. And that's not the picture of baptism. You can't show me in the New Testament where someone was baptized and they did it three times. They don't do it three times because that ruins the picture. See, the picture is important because it represents the truth, the fact. You don't have to be born again three times. You can't be born again three times. You're only born again one time. Just like you were born one time out of your mother's womb, and Jesus was trying to explain this to Nicodemus that, you know, and Nicodemus is like, am I supposed to go back to my mother's womb and be born again? And Jesus is like, are you a master of Israel and you know not these things? So he said, you know, basically, he explains to him that you're born again from the Spirit of God. One time. Born again. Doesn't say born again and again and again and again, but a lot of people think that they could lose their salvation, but that's not the picture of baptism, is it? And Christ was saved. He was saved when he got baptized. So it wasn't saved because he got baptized, but he was saved when he got baptized because Christ had no sin. So Christ was born sinless, lived a perfect sinless life, and so he was always saved, and the other thing is that he's God, okay? So he was tempted at all points like we are, yet without sin, and that's why he could be that sacrifice for us, and that's how we are, that's the way we are also able to be resurrected like he is because of what he did for us. So let's look at Exodus chapter 29. I want to show you an Old Testament symbol that, you know, some of this stuff is still done and performed today in the Lord's Supper, but most of it isn't, but I just want to show you just like, these are pictures for us. Like you read through the books of Moses and you're like, what does this mean? Well, most of it points to Christ, okay? I think pretty much all of it represents Christ or what God's going to do later in the future with us, like, you know, the Feast of Tabernacles and all those different feasts, pictured things. I'm just going to give you an example of that. Exodus 29, 1, it says, and this is the thing that thou shalt do with them to hallow them to minister unto me in the priest's office. So this is talking about how the priests are supposed to be, you know, symbolically cleansed and all these things. It says, take one young bullock and two rams, what does it say? Without blemish. What does this represent? Christ, okay? The sinless Son of God, and it says, and unleavened bread and cakes unleavened, tempered with oil. So you've got the unleavened bread representing the sinless, you know, death of Christ, his body being broken for us, and tempered with oil. What would the oil represent? Well, the Holy Spirit. When Christ, you know, died, he was without blemish, you know, his body was sinless, and he was filled with the Spirit, it says, wafers anointed with oil of wheat and flour shalt thou make them, and thou shalt put them into one basket, and bring them in the basket with the bullock and the two rams, and Aaron and his sons, thou shalt bring unto the door of the tabernacle of the congregation, and shalt wash them with water. So here you have the symbolic washing of water. Once you get all those things, you know, once you receive Christ, what are you supposed to do? You're supposed to get baptized, aren't you? So they're supposed to wash themselves with water, and it says, thou shalt take the garments and put them on Aaron and the coat and the robe and the ephod and the ephod and the breastplate and the gird him with the curious girdle of the ephod. So aren't we supposed to get new garments? Once we get saved, Christ is going to give us a robe, a white robe, and those types of things, and so these are all just like pictures of what the future is going to hold for us, and you know, aren't we supposed to be kings and priests unto the Lord our God? Every single person in this room, if you're saved, you are a king and a priest unto the Lord. Now, you don't have any power as far as like governments go right now. It'd be nice, you know, I'd change a lot of things instantaneously right now. I'd be like, homeless? Gone. You're going to move to a different island, and if you don't work, then I don't know what to tell you. Well, you're not going to come here and beg from us and just, you know, not work, because the Bible says if a man doesn't work, neither should he eat, right? Another thing I'd change is this whole government, and you're like, well, you believe in a theocracy? Yeah, I do. I believe that theocracy is going to come. Obviously, I understand I'm under a different government right now, but one day it will be a theocracy, so you'd better just get used to it now, because it's not going to be America with the American flags hanging everywhere. I don't even know if there's going to be a flag. But one thing I do know is that Christ is going to be the king, and the king is going to be supreme, and he's going to rule with a rod of iron. So if anybody gets out of line, it's not going to be, oh, we're going to just let this child molester out in two or three months. Like the new judge, the Supreme Court justice, you know, allowed a person that should have gotten life in prison according to the law, but according to God's law, should have been put to death, but she gave him three months, and this is the person they're going to have being the head judge over all the land, doesn't even know whether, you know, how to define what a woman is? What's a woman? I don't know. That's what she answered. You know, the people are supposed to ask her hard questions, even the Democrats, and the Democrat is pretending, you know, he's just like, I'm just so glad you're black, and, you know, you're such an inspiration. It's like, what does that have to do with anything? You know what, the best thing to do is have a judge that will judge righteous judgment. But we don't have much of that going on in the land today, do we? So look at verse 6, it says, and thou shall put the mitre upon his head, and the holy crown upon the mitre. So you know, obviously Aaron and his sons were priests unto the Lord. Jesus Christ is now the High Priest, whoever liveth to intercede for us, and there doesn't need to be any more High Priest, but we are still priests and kings unto God. That's what the Bible teaches, alright? Verse number 7, and thou shalt take the anointing oil, and pour it upon his head, and anoint him. And thou shalt bring his sons, and put coats upon them, and thou shalt gird them with girdles, Aaron and his sons, and put the bonnets on them, and the priest's office shall be theirs for a perpetual statute that shall consecrate Aaron and his sons. So all this stuff is done, this anointing oil, and putting the crown on them, and the mitre, and all this stuff is a perpetual statute, they're supposed to do this to what? To picture something. So the Old Testament is filled with pictures of things, but Christ fulfilled those pictures, didn't He? And so, why is there two things that we still have to do? Because God said so. And why isn't there more? Because we don't have to keep the law to be saved, we don't, you know, they didn't have to keep the law to be saved back then either, but there was a whole bunch of laws that they had to keep, but Christ fulfilled all those laws, and then, so He changed the New, in the New Testament things were changed, and then, so it explains what those changes are in the Bible, in the New Testament. So the first principle of baptism is to understand that it's an easy doctrine. This isn't like some radical theological sermon that I'm preaching today, it's actually some of the easiest stuff that you can teach. Hebrews chapter 6, go ahead and turn to Hebrews chapter 6, explains to us that it's just a, it's a first principle, it's one of the first things that are easy to understand, it says in Hebrews 6, 1, it says, Therefore, leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ, let us go on unto perfection, not laying again the foundation, say a foundation, something, was it on the top or on the bottom? The foundation's on the bottom. The foundation is laid, so the first principles of the doctrine, or the principles of the doctrine of Christ, let us go on unto perfection, not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works, and of faith toward God, of the doctrine of baptisms, and the laying on of hands, and of the resurrection, excuse me, of the resurrection of the dead and eternal judgment. So all these things are being explained that they're easy, you know, they're first principle doctrines. So one of those things is the doctrine of baptisms. So baptism is a first easy foundational doctrine in the New Testament. So who can and should be baptized? Who can and should be baptized? Well, let's turn to Acts chapter number 8, verse number 35, Acts chapter number 8, verse number 35. Who can and should be? Who's a candidate to be baptized? Who is allowed to be baptized? In Acts 8, 35, talking about Philip here, who by the way is an ordained deacon in the church and it says, then Philip opened his mouth and began with the same scripture and preached unto him Jesus, talking about the Ethiopian eunuch. He's reading the Bible, he doesn't understand it, Philip goes alongside him, he explains to him what the scriptures he's reading are, and in verse 36 it says, and as they went on their way, they came unto a certain water, and the eunuch said, see here's water, what doth hinder me to be baptized? He's saying, what is stopping me from getting baptized right now? Which kind of shows me that he understood, you know, he was probably reading the Bible because he wanted to get what other people were getting, because how would he know about baptism if he didn't know anything about Christianity? He probably knew something about Christianity, but he's, you know, just like me, I was reading the Bible when I wasn't saved and I was trying to understand it and I couldn't. And you know why you can't understand the Bible when you're not saved? Because you don't have the Spirit of God in you. So anyway, he says, what doth hinder me to be baptized? And Phillips said, if thou believest with all thine heart, thou mayest. So what is the prerequisite for being baptized? Is it being born a baby and having water sprinkled on top of your head? Because you're going to go to hell if you don't do that? No. See, the Catholic Church would say, yes, that child, if they don't get baptized, they would die and go to hell. That's just not true, and the Bible teaches that in a few different places, but the point is here is that the Bible actually says, if thou believest with all thine heart, thou mayest. You may get baptized if you're saved, if you believe in Christ with all your heart. And he answered and said, I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. And so at that point, he stops, he baptizes him. I'm going to come back to that. So just keep like a finger there, or if you can just get back to it real fast and go ahead and do that, but I'm going to cover that last verse here in just a minute. But the prerequisite for being baptized is that you must be saved first. How many times do you go to a door and someone says, you ask them if they're saved and says, well, I was baptized when I was three, I was baptized when I was seven, I was baptized and confirmed at this age. So that just instantly tells us that they believe that to be baptized is to be saved. And that's another one of the lies of the devil. It's not true. So it's actually the first commandment after salvation. It's something that we should do after we're saved. The Bible clearly teaches that right here. What's stopping me from being baptized? And you know what, that verse, number 37, is missing out of all the modern versions of the Bible. Missing. And if it's not missing, there's a footnote next to it that says, other manuscripts say blah blah blah blah blah, right? Which is a lie. I mean, it's not a lie, but those manuscripts are corrupt. So if you're getting your Bible translation from a corrupt manuscript, then it's going to be missing that verse. So why would you take that verse out of there? So that people can lie and twist the scriptures and make people think that when you're baptized, that's what saves you. That you don't have to have a prerequisite to be baptized, that you just have to be born. That's why the Catholic Church and the Orthodox Church baptizes children. That's why the Presbyterians and other Calvinists baptize children because they just believe that you're already saved if you're one of the special chosen ones, you know, and so they might as well just get the baptism out of the way. But in reality, Calvinists are just Catholic lights, you know, they're a branch off of the whore, the Catholic Church, okay? So our first commandment, it's our first, so baptism is our first commandment after salvation turn to Acts chapter 2 verse 41, Acts chapter 2 verse 41. You know what? The Bible says in 1 Corinthians chapter 14, let everything be done decently and in order. So when we have our church services, why do we do the services the way we do? Why do we have the songs and the prayer and the song and the, you know, the other song and the offerings and just everything that we do? Because we're doing it in a decent order. What if everybody got up to preach a sermon on Sunday? What if everybody was allowed to preach in church? What if you didn't have to have qualifications to be the pastor? Now I mean, they're just, God is a God of order and this world is a world that should be in order, but people want to get it in this order, don't they? But God wants us to do things decently and in order. So in Acts chapter 2 verse 41 it says, then they that gladly received his word, in other words those that were saved, were what? Baptized. And the same day there were added unto them about 3,000 souls. So the other thing it does is it makes you, if you're baptized at this church, you're saved and you're baptized here, you automatically become a member of this church by baptism. So but I don't have some role where I keep track of everybody and if you haven't been here for three months and you're kicked out or whatever, I don't do that, but you do become part of the church once you're baptized here, but that's what the Bible teaches anyway. So now turn to Acts 16 32, Acts chapter 16 verse 32. I'm just going to show you a couple examples in the Bible where people, once they got saved, got baptized. And a lot of times they got saved and then they got baptized the same day. Now not everybody does that, I understand that. And if you're saved and you're not baptized, that doesn't mean you're not saved. It just means you're not keeping the first commandment that God tells you to do after you get saved. Acts 16 32 it says, and they spake unto him the word of the Lord and to all that were in his house, it's talking about the Philippian jailer, they spoke the word of God to them and all that were in his house and he took them the same hour of the night and washed their stripes and was baptized. He and all his straight away. So they get saved, they get baptized. See the order? Second verse there that shows the order. Now look at verse 34 it says, and when they had brought them into his house, he sat meet before them and rejoiced believing in God with all his house. And I added that verse in there just so you understand that sometimes it's not, the Bible isn't super queer, you know, it says that they that gladly received his word were baptized. To me that's clear because if you receive Christ, you become a son of God, John 1 12. But when, you know, then it'll say this out of order, you know, they rejoiced believing in God with all his house. But some people will twist that and say, well see they got baptized and then they believed in God with all her house. Even though that's out of order, it's just telling you, it's just summing up what happened there. They believed, they got saved. Because in the same chapter that question is asked, Sirs what must I do to be saved? You know this Philippi, the same guy that gets saved and baptized asks the question what do I got to do to be saved and he says, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved, okay? Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved and thy house. So you know, and then you see what I just showed you was him, them going to their house reaching the word of God to them, them getting baptized and then it sums up the fact that they believed in God with all of his, that he believed in God with all of his house. It's telling you, hey they got saved, they got baptized. But they have the baptism in a couple verses up. Does that mean that they got baptized first? No, it doesn't mean they got baptized first. They got saved, then they got baptized, okay? Now look at Acts chapter 22, this is Paul, his testimony, one of his testimony stories where he tells about how he was saved and people take this and just run with it. But it says now, and this is why I believe that Paul, he got saved by Ananias, not by Jesus when he knocked him off the horse and blinded him. I believe that, you know, a saved believer has to go from faith to faith and preach the Bible, preach the gospel, right? It says now, why terriest thou, arise and be baptized and wash away thy sins, calling on the name of the Lord. So yeah, it says it in an order that just sounds strange to us, but he's not saying be baptized and that washes away your sins. He's saying those things first, but then he says calling upon the name of the Lord. So he's basically, the way he's wording it, he's saying, you know, you need to call upon the name of the Lord, that's going to wash away your sins, be baptized, okay? It's not saying that you're baptized and that washes away your sins. Baptism does not wash away your sins except for symbolically. When you get baptized, you know, when you wash yourself with water, that's symbolically or, you know, that literally makes you clean. You know, you use soap and water and shampoo, I hope, you know. But those things, you know, taking a bath cleans you up, doesn't it? So what's the picture? Well, when you die, when you get saved, you're dying to yourself, you know, you're identifying with the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ, you're in the water, you're buried in the water, and that water washes you, okay? But the water doesn't literally wash you when you're baptized, doesn't literally wash you of your sins. It might make you clean when you get dunked real quick, but it doesn't clean you of your sins. That's not what the Bible teaches. You're forgiven of your sins actually from something that would normally stain something, right? You're washed of your sins from the blood of Christ, and it's like the best detergent ever because it cleanses you of all your sins, and you're like, well, blood cleanses you of your sins? That's what the Bible teaches, you know, you're washed from your sins in the blood of Christ. So the baptism that you do does not wash away your sins, alright? So it shows your identity as a Christian, your death to self, and your life following Christ, and so water pictures your cleansing and newness of life. Look at Romans chapter number six, the Bible explains it here in Romans chapter number six, so go ahead and turn over there, Romans chapter number six. The Bible says in Romans six verse one, it says, what shall we say then, shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? God forbid. So you know, these people that would say, well, you're just saying it's only by faith, it's only by faith in Christ that you're saved and it's no other works. Yes, that is what I'm saying, but are we saying that we should continue in sin that grace may abound? God forbid. How shall we that are dead to sin live any longer therein? And people twist these kind of verses too, but here's the thing, should we continue in sin that grace may abound? No we shouldn't, but if we continue in sin, will grace abound? Yes, it will, because that's what grace is. Grace is being, you know, God saving you even though you don't deserve it. You don't deserve to be saved. It says, know ye not that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death? Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death. That like as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. So it is a picture of you dying of yourself and you're going to walk in newness of life. So hey, if you're baptized today, you know, that picture was that you're going to be different, you're changed, you're going to walk in that newness of life, it doesn't mean you're never going to sin again though, but you should, see that word should, walk in newness of life? It doesn't say have to or you're going to go to hell. And that's where the people will twist it into these, you know, work salvation, you have to do the worst, you have to have works, you have to have fruit. No you don't. You don't have to, you should, but you don't have to. I get sick of people twisting the Bible and making it say something it doesn't say. But it says for if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, so it's the likeness, were you literally crucified? No. Christ was crucified, so we're, it's a picture, right? It says we're planted together in the likeness of his death. We shall also be in the likeness of his resurrection, walking in newness of life. But you know, we're not resurrected, you're not resurrected the moment you come up from the baptismal waters. You're not resurrected, it's a picture. It's the likeness of the death. And so we're picturing that likeness, we're picturing the fact that we're dead to self and we're buried with him by a baptism of the death. But it is symbolic, it's not literal, okay? Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed and henceforth we should not serve sin. So there is an aspect of this, of being baptized that does picture you being clean from henceforth and living unto God and living unto Christ. So it's really sad to me when someone gets baptized and then we never see them again. Because they obviously didn't get the picture. Because the picture is you're going to walk in newness of life, but again, let me caveat this, if you don't you're still saved. And you're like, well, people will say, well, you know, you're just teaching people that they have a get out of jail free card or a fire, you know, they're fireproof now or whatever. They are. It is. But I'm not saying that you should not do anything good or you shouldn't follow Christ. I'm saying you should. But even if you don't, you're still saved because all you have to do to be saved is believe on Christ. Who can baptize? Who can baptize? Well, this question gets brought up a lot, all right? And it's really, to me, there's, okay, so let me just say this, there's no clear verse that says an ordained man of God must baptize. That's it. It doesn't say that. So obviously, we can't go with what the Bible does not say, we have to go with what the Bible says. There is a principle in the Word of God where, you know, what the examples you see are what you should probably go with. Because if there's not a super clear scripture about it, then you would go with what the example is in the scriptures, okay? So in the scriptures, what do we see? We see, let's look at Matthew chapter 3 verse 13. And I just want to show you, so like, when people in this church get baptized, who do you think is going to do the baptizing? It's going to be me, the pastor, okay? I don't, you know, just think about this, and God is a God of order, just think about this for a second. People don't come and say, you know what, I really just, I'm such good friends with Miss Sheila, and I want her to baptize me. Wouldn't that be strange? Why do you think it'd be strange? Well, number one, you don't see an example of a woman baptizing in the Bible, okay? What do you see an example of men baptizing in the Bible? And the other example you see is men that are ordained of God baptizing people in the Bible. Now, people will go, well, Ananias, he wasn't ordained, how do you know that? How do you know that? Ananias literally spoke to him as a prophet of the Lord, told him that Paul was going to be coming. They have this conversation that takes place, you know, between them, he's like, well, Lord, he's the one that was like trying to kill us, and he's done a lot of havoc and done a lot of bad things, and God's just like, he's a chosen vessel unto me. So it says in Matthew chapter 3 verse 13, it says, Then cometh Jesus from Galilee to Jordan unto, some little girl that anybody can baptize, is that what it says? No, it says unto John to be baptized of him. Why did Jesus go to John the Baptist to be baptized? Because he's the guy that could do it. He's the guy that was supposed to do it, and even though Jesus Christ is the Lord of all, even though Jesus Christ is the Messiah, even though Jesus Christ is the Lamb of God, you know, slain from the foundation of the earth, he's the Lamb of God that taketh away the sins of the whole earth, he still went to John. Why did he go to John? Was John ordained? Well, if you've read the book of Isaiah and the book of Malachi, you understand that the voice crying in the wilderness is John the Baptist. Why is everybody coming to John the Baptist in Anon because there's much water? Because John was the guy ordained to baptize, that's why. That was, and he even asked the Pharisees, like, was the baptism of John from heaven or was it of men? It was of heaven, it was ordained of God for him to be the one that baptizes. It says, Then cometh Jesus from Galilee to Jordan unto John to be baptized of him. You know, and so that's, and then it says John, but John forbade him, saying, I have need to be baptized of thee, comest thou to me? He's like, why would you come to me? Who am I? I'm just the voice crying in the wilderness, you know, I'm just, you know, he was asked, like, are you, you know, are you Elijah? And he's like, no, but he really, he was symbolically Elijah. So he didn't even know some of the things that he was, apparently. But the point is, is that Jesus could have gone to, if it's true that anybody can baptize it's a believer, why did Jesus have to go to John? Why? Why didn't he go to the Pharisees? Because they were corrupted and wicked and they were preaching a false gospel, basically, they were preaching works salvation. So why would you go to someone that preaches a works-based salvation that can't, that, you know, is not authorized to do it because they've disqualified themselves as true leaders of the Lord, right? Because the priest in the Levitical priesthood was set up by God, but these guys weren't following it. They were following the traditions of men and people, you know, with the washing of hands and all these other stuff that's not in the Bible, they were following that instead of following the law of the Lord. So and then what's Jesus say to him in verse 15? And Jesus answering said unto him, suffer it to be so now, for thus it becometh us to fulfill all righteousness and he suffered him. So John the Baptist, which was his cousin by the way, baptized Jesus Christ who was the Lord of heaven and earth and he was the son of God. So but what's my point here, and I don't want to beat this to death, but there's people that will say anybody can baptize. But when we saw who baptized, Philip baptized, you know, Philip got that guy saved, he was an evangelist, and he was also a deacon. Paul talks about how he did baptize some people, but he also talked about other people that baptized and none of them were women, none of them were little kids, none of them were just regular laymen in the church, but they were people that were ordained of God to do it, okay? Now again, I don't have the John 3 16 of baptism here, okay, where it says for sure this is who's supposed to baptize, but you'll see the examples of scripture, you'll never see it done by someone that's not ordained. And if you want to use, you know, Ananias as an example, you just don't know. It's obvious he was a prophet, so he was ordained in some way. You know, when Jeremiah the prophet was called to be a prophet to the nations, what did God say to him? I have ordained thee a prophet unto the nations. So God obviously ordained Jeremiah to be a prophet. So now, and just recently I've seen over these guys that were, you know, over in Africa and they were under a local New Testament church and there was some falling out, I don't know exactly what happened, but, you know, they put out, they sent out this email that said, you know, we don't believe that you have to be ordained to baptize and we don't believe, you know, that, you know, basically just spitting in the face of ordination, spitting in the face of people needing to be ordained to baptize, saying it's not true and all this other stuff. Well, you know what? At this church, that's the way it's going to be. You know why? Because that's the example that you see in scripture. So why would I go away from something that's not in scripture? You know, and people just always turn it, you know, people always, their bosoness comes out of them at some point. And I already kind of just had this bozo feeling about these guys anyway, but they totally like failed in the way that they presented, you know, this whole situation where they're just like, we don't have to, you know, be ordained to, you don't have to be ordained to preach the gospel, but you know what, you have to be ordained to be, to start a church. The apostle Paul, I just talked about this, the apostle Paul was ordained before he left Antioch. He was already an apostle. Why did he get ordained? Why did they lay hands on him? Why did they send him out? Because he needed to be ordained to start these churches. If you're just going out on your own, you're going to pull a Kent Hovind, you're going to pull some kind of, you know, we just want to go because the Bible says, no, look, do it the right way. Do it the right way or don't do it at all. Because anybody that says you don't have to be ordained to be a pastor, they're a bozo. Anybody that says they can just go off and start church wherever they want, they're bozos. They're bozos. And people that say that anybody can baptize people, that person's a bozo to me too. That'd be like me saying hey Kathleen, come up here, I just want you to get some glory here and come up and baptize some people for me, wouldn't you guys think that's weird? Honestly. Don't be a McFailure, you know, baptize people that are supposed to be baptized and let them baptize. Hey, if you want to get qualified, get qualified. But don't try to sidestep it by twisted scripture that's not true. So anyway, let's, and so who, so I talked about who, is baptism needed for salvation? No, it's not. In Matthew 3, 15 where you're already at says, and Jesus said unto them, suffer to be so now for thus it becometh us to fulfill all righteousness. Then he suffered him. Jesus did have to be baptized. Why? What's it say? Because he has to fulfill all righteousness. Christ had to fulfill all righteousness. That's what made him able to be the Savior. That's what made him able to be the Messiah is that he fulfilled all righteousness. Everything in the Old Testament here, he fulfilled. So he had to be baptized to fulfill all righteousness. But did he have to be, did we have to be baptized? No, because Christ is the one that paid for our salvation. Christ gives the gift of salvation. He pays for it, he gives it. We don't have to pay for our salvation. Someone already did it for us. That's the whole point. That's why I don't understand why people can just believe in this false work salvation or think that they have something to do with it. You don't have anything to do with it. The only thing you have to do is have faith. Christ did it all. You did nothing. You have nothing to do with it. You're just a wicked sinner that needs to be saved just like everybody else in the world. And you know what? Christ came and fulfilled everything, lived a perfect life, followed all of his parents' rules, followed all of God's rules. And you know what? That's what made him able to be the sacrifice for us on the cross. Now look at Mark chapter 16 verse 16. This is another scripture that people like to twist and say, oh, you have to be baptized to be saved. Look what it says in Mark 16 verse 16. It says, he that believeth and is baptized shall be saved. You're like, oh, well it says you have to be baptized. But look what it says in the rest of it. That little mark right there shows that the statement's not over. But he that believeth not shall be damned. It doesn't say he that believeth not and is not baptized shall be damned. It says he that believeth not shall be damned. Look it's only faith alone that saves. How is it done? Well, I've kind of already talked about it a lot, but I'm going to just cover it again real quick. Look at Matthew 3 16, Matthew 3 16, I should have had you hold your finger there. I'm not as good as Pastor Mendez about doing that holding the finger thing there anyway. So Matthew 3 16 says, and Jesus when he was baptized went up straightway out of the water. So when Jesus was baptized, where did he go? He had to go under the water in order to come out of the water, right? Is that too hard for everybody to pick up there? He went up out of the water when he was baptized. So what is baptism when you go under the water? And when you come out, you're out of the water. It's not real hard to figure out, okay? It says lo the heavens were opened unto him and he saw the spirit of God descending like a dove and lighted upon him and lo a voice from heaven saying this is my beloved son whom I am well pleased. So what was the, how was it done? How was baptism done? Well you have to go under the water. That's submersion, okay? It's not sprinkling, it's not squirting somebody with a squirt gun saying y'all are baptized now. That's what church, some churches do that stuff. Ridiculous. So look back at Acts 8.38, I think I did have you put your finger there. Acts 8.38, so how is baptism done? Underneath you've got to be plunged underneath the water. That's what baptism actually means. And Acts 8.38, this is after Philip gets the Ethiopian eunuch saved, he says, and he commanded the chariot to stand still and they went down both into the water. So here's the picture. They see the water. What doth enter me to be baptized? Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ with all your heart and that may us, right? And then he says, I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. Then he commanded the chariot to stand still and they went down both into the water, both Philip and the eunuch, and he baptized them. Joseph says Philip and the eunuch, both Philip and the eunuch. You don't baptize yourself. I know Joseph Smith did that but, you know, he was a cult leader, okay? And he's roasting in hell today, by the way. But it says they both, Philip and the eunuch, and he baptized them. So you have to go into the water to get baptized. When I baptize people right there, they go into the water and I dunk them under the water and if a finger doesn't go down, they're not saved, no I'm just joking. I try to get you all the way wet though because that's what the Bible is saying to do, right? How do you do it? You dunk people under water. Now how many times must you be baptized? And the answer is once, okay? However there's a caveat to that. In Ephesians 4 and 5 it says one Lord, one faith, one baptism. You know and I realize that means one baptism, the same baptism for all, right? But it also, there's only one Lord, one faith, you only get saved once. There's only one God, there's only one baptism. You get saved, you get baptized one time. Now the caveat to that is this, remember when I talked about how you had, like Jesus went to John, okay? When you get baptized you're supposed to go to the right person. You're supposed to have the right elements. You have to be saved. You go to the right person. Then you get baptized the right way, but if you were, say you were under some kind of fault like a Mormon church, I don't know how they baptize, I think they do dunk you under water, but they don't have the right Lord. They don't have the right faith and so therefore it's not the right baptism. Because if you're not saved, then baptism means nothing. You know and it doesn't save you anyway. So if you got baptized at some crazy church, in my personal belief is that if you get baptized by someone that is a false prophet as far as like the church, the church what it represents is not a true church, then I think you should be re-baptized. Because it wasn't done by someone that's legit. Now let me caveat that also. Say someone turns out to be a bozo in one of our churches and they go off into perdition like Garrett or just Ryan or anybody else that just went into bozo perdition. If they baptized under the authority of this church, I think your baptism is still legit because they were acting as an agent of this church that was ordained. Now here's the other caveat to that. If you don't want to say, well Tyler Baker was my person that baptized me, you know what? Then get re-baptized if it makes you feel better. But do I think you have to be? No, because he was working as a deacon under Pastor Anderson, but some people did want to get re-baptized. I mean you're not going to catch on fire if you get baptized again. I'm just saying you only have to get baptized once, but just make sure that it's at a church where they're authorized to be baptized. The Church of Christ, not authorized. The Catholic Church, not authorized. East Orthodox Church, not authorized. Pentecostal Church, not authorized. Why not the Pentecostal Church? Because they don't have salvation. Why don't they have salvation? Well they teach that you can lose it. If they teach you can lose it, then do they have the right salvation? No. And so every Pentecostal Church is going to teach the same thing, that you can lose it. So we don't believe that, do we? So anyway, you know, I preached one point, and I haven't even got to my second point. So what I'm going to do is I'm just going to preach the rest of this tonight. So I got pretty fired up about this, but you know, I do want to kind of leave you with a couple conclusions here though. So a couple conclusions that I want to end with here. So if you're saved, you should be baptized. So if you're here today, and you have never been baptized, but you are saved by putting your faith in Christ, you should be baptized, don't put that off. If you're not baptized, you should not partake of the Lord's Supper. Why? Because everything's done in order. Why would you skip baptism and go right to the Lord's Supper, that doesn't make sense. That's my personal belief, that's what I teach, that you know, once you get saved, you get baptized, you don't skip that process. Because then I would say, well, if you can't even keep the first commandment that you're supposed to do after being saved, then why would you partake in something when you're not right with God when it comes to that, right? If you're in major sin, as far as the Lord's Supper is concerned, I'll just cover that tonight, but we need to keep the ordinances like we're instructed. Baptism is important that we keep the picture. We have to keep the picture that God put there for us. There's certain people that are candidates for baptism, it's the people that are saved, right? And there's certain people that can baptize, I think that those people are the ordained men of God, that are supposed to baptize. You do it in order, salvation, then baptism. You do it the correct way, you get dunked under water, and here's something I left out that is really important, you must do it in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. You know, because at this church we believe in the Trinity. God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Ghost, these three are one. And Jesus said to do it that way. So I don't care what, you know, if it says something in Acts that they were baptized in the name of Jesus or whatever, I don't care. I'm going by what Jesus said, alright? I think that they're just making the point of saying that Jesus is the Lord when they do that, but that's a different subject, that's a different topic for a different time. But I am telling you this, that God said, Jesus Christ said that we're supposed to make disciples, we're supposed to baptize them in the name of the Father, the Son, the Holy Ghost. I'm not changing that. That's written in red letters, folks, and that's what I believe, okay? So it's not going to be, you know, we don't believe in oneness here. We're not Pentecostals, again. So we have the right baptism and, you know, I think that here's one last thing I want to challenge you with is that if you're getting people saved, try to get them baptized. You know, try to get them in here. I know it's more difficult than it's ever been to probably get people baptized, but, you know, explain that after you go over salvation with people, they prayed the sinner's prayer, they've called upon the name of the Lord, that you know for sure that they're saved, you know, 99.999% sure that they're saved because there's always that person that pretends. But show them what happens next. Here's what happens next, you get baptized, get into a church, give them a Bible, you know, and give them the tools that they need to be successful in the Christian life. We give them a King James Bible and then, you know, tell them they need to come to church and get baptized. And so, and if you want to follow up more than that, that is your, you know, privilege to do that. You can do that. I don't care. I want you to. But, you know, that follow up there at the door is a good follow up. They should know that they need to get baptized. Don't just walk away because you think they're bored or whatever. So they shouldn't be that bored if you got a peppy gospel presentation. So anyway, that's all I got for that subject. So I'll cover the other topic tonight. Apparently, putting two ordinances in one sermon was a bad idea. All right, let's pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you, Lord, so much for this wonderful day. We pray that you just help us to, Lord, just keep things and decent. Amen. He's 103 under his wings. Sing it out on the first. And I am his child. Under his wings, under his wings, who from his love can sever. Under his wings, my soul shall abide, safely abide forever. Under his wings, what a refuge in sorrow, how the heart yearningly turns to his rest. Often when earth has no bone for my healing, there I find comfort and there I am blessed. Under his wings, under his wings, who from his love can sever. Under his wings, my soul shall abide, safely abide forever. Under his wings, oh a precious enjoyment, there will I hide till life's trials are o'er. Sheltered, protected, no evil can harm me. Resting in Jesus, I'm safe evermore. Under his wings, under his wings, who from his love can sever. Under his wings, my soul shall abide, safely abide forever.