The Bible says the beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the son of God, as it is written in the prophets. Now, I would like you to take notice of the word prophets. It should be plural in your Bible. Why is that important? Because the modern version, specifically the NIV, the ESV, and the NASB, they say, as it is written in Isaiah, the prophet. the New King James Version, they correct it in footnote, meaning it should say as it is written in Isaiah the prophet. Except when you read, behold, I send my messenger, and you cross-reference to Isaiah, you find out Isaiah didn't say that. Let's find out who said that. And this is important that we have the right Bible. Go back to the book of Malachi. It's the last book in the Old Testament. Get Malachi chapter number three. Malachi chapter number three. And look what it says. Behold, Malachi chapter three, verse one, I will send my messenger. Now go back to Mark chapter number one, verse number two, behold, I send my messenger. And in the King James Bible, it's rendered absolutely correct, as it is written in the prophets, because both prophets said it. Malachi prophesied, I will send my messenger, and also we have a prophecy from Isaiah. Actually, Malachi said as well, which shall prepare the way before thee. So in verse number two, when it says, as it is written in the prophets, we need to have plural prophets because we have a prophecy both from Malachi as well as Isaiah. If you just say Isaiah, not only do you not get the entire cross reference in Isaiah, which is problematic, you left out the other prophet. So we've got two prophets rendered plural. Malachi said, behold, I will send my messenger before thy face, which shall prepare thy way before thee. Now look at verse number three in the book of Mark. It says, the voice of one crying in the wilderness, Isaiah said that. You've got both prophets, which is why it's rendered as it is written in the prophets. Prepare the way of the Lord, make his path straight. Now watch this. John did baptize in the wilderness and preach the baptism of repentance for the remission of sin." What was John's baptism? It's described here, the baptism of repentance. We're going to see in a little bit who's coming up on the scene, Jesus Christ, who's being heralded, John is heralding him to the Savior. Here he is. Get your life in order. Repent. You got sin in your life? You better clear it out. You want to change your life? Now's the time to do it. And let's get baptized because Jesus Christ is now coming on the scene. And that's John's baptism. It's important to note early on this morning that John's baptism isn't our baptism. Go to Matthew chapter number three. Matthew chapter number three. In those days, Matthew chapter number three, verse number one, in those days came John the Baptist. Anybody want to know why Paul And Aquila and Priscilla were called tent makers They made tents Luke you know why he was called the beloved physician Because he was the physician Do you know why John was called the Baptist? Because he baptized people John wasn't the start of the Baptist Church No matter how hard you try to slice this slice it. He was a baptizer And he couldn't have been the start of the New Testament church because it didn't start yet. Christ is on the scene. He hasn't died. He wasn't buried. He didn't rose again. None of that had happened. And John's baptism is completely different than a New Testament believer's baptism. So this idea that you have to trace your lineage all the way back to John the Baptist to prove that you're a real Baptist, it's not Bible, but it sure does get a lot of people confused on when the start of the church was and what baptism is for, for concerning believers. So that's why he was called John the Baptist and saying, repent ye, verse two, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. For this is he that was spoken of by the prophet Isaiah saying, and here's what Isaiah said, the voice of one crying in the wilderness. Prepare you the way of the Lord, make his paths straight. And the same John had his raiment of camel's hair and a leather and girdle about his loins and his meat was locusts and wild honey. Then went out to him Jerusalem and all Judea and all around and all the region round about Jordan. And were baptized of him in Jordan, confessing their sins. It's time to get ready. It's time to repent. It's time to prepare yourself. Why? John is announcing Jesus Christ is coming. Matter of fact, Jesus Christ is now here and he's introducing Jesus Christ to that nation. Israel The kingdom of heaven is at hand here. He is he's on the scene. We're heralding in jesus christ Uh, let's keep reading Verse number seven, but when he saw many of the pharisees and sadducees come to his baptism He said unto them. Oh generation of vipers who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come bring fruit forth therefore fruits meet for repentance And think not to say within yourselves. We have abraham to our father for I say unto you that God is able of these stones to raise up children to Abraham. And now also the ax is laid on the root of the trees. Therefore, every tree which bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down and cast into the fire. I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance. What is John baptizing with? Very, very clear from verse 11. Water. What's the purpose of John's baptism? Verse number 11, unto repentance. We already talked, clear up your life. I'm introducing you to Jesus Christ. Repent, get your life in order. Good, here he is, here he is. Look at verse 11, but he that cometh after me is mightier than I. That would be Jesus Christ, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear. Christ is so worthy that John says, it's not even right for me to even put his shoes on. That's how worthy and holy Jesus Christ is. He shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with fire. Now it's important to stop Paul's in part here. We said that John baptizes with what? Water. Jesus, does he baptize with water? No, he baptizes in two modes. What does it say? The Holy Ghost and with fire. So Jesus Christ is going to baptize two ways, Holy Ghost and fire. Well, which one do I receive or do I receive both? Let's answer that question. Look at verse 12. whose fan is in his hand, and he will throughly purge his floor and gather his wheat into the garner, but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire." Now, a single cherry-picked reading of verse 11 could lead someone to believe that you need to get baptized twice, with the Holy Ghost, and then with fire. And there's some Pentecostal groups that will take that verse, and they will say, well, you get the Holy Ghost after you get the baptism of fire, which means you would bring forth the evidence of that by speaking in tongues. Except you're not going to receive both. You're only going to receive one. You receive the baptism of the Holy Ghost when you trust Jesus Christ as your Savior. You are fully immersed in Him. Why can't we read that verse alone because you can come up with some real strong strange doctrine You've got to read it with verse 12 You have wheat What happens to the wheat it's gathered up? You have chaffed what happens to the chaff it's burned up Now, let me ask you something. Does the wheat get burned? No, it gets gathered. Does the chaff get gathered? No, it gets burned Jesus has two baptisms you are going to get one or the other. If you've trusted Christ as your Savior, you have received the baptism of the Holy Ghost. Are you saved this morning? You have received that baptism and have been fully immersed in Christ. That means it doesn't matter if you're a preacher, it doesn't matter if you're a missionary, it doesn't matter if you give a million dollars to Faith Promise, it doesn't matter If you planted 50 churches around the united states You have the same salvation as everybody else as everybody as every other born-again believer. You have the same salvation make sense Some farmers when they feed their horse when they feed their horses, they'll put extra chaff Into the wheat Into the good stuff, you know why they do that If they have a horse that has a problem with just eating too fast, it'll get them to slow down and eat But they don't eat both Now we've got a horse we've been farming sheep for about three years now and uh, you get a bad cut of hay You're going to pay The same amount you're going to pay for a bale of hay, but if it's got a bunch of like straw in it You basically have a sheep that's going to eat the good stuff half of it And you go out there and it's going to be all the straw, all the chaff, if you will, is going to be left aside. The sheep doesn't eat both. He picks out the good stuff and gathers it up and eats it. And the chaff is left to the side. Well, what does all this mean? It means you are going to receive one or the other. If you're saved, you've already received one. You're not going to receive the other. I have been fully immersed in Jesus Christ. I've been gathered in his week. Do you know why we witness to our lost co-workers on lunch break and on downtime? Because they are about ready to be baptized by fire when they die without the Lord Jesus Christ. They will be fully immersed in fire. Jesus baptizes in one of two ways if you're not saved and if you were died if you were to die today You will receive a baptism given by Jesus Christ and you will be fully immersed in fire And we don't want that for anybody look at Revelation chapter 19 Try to get an understanding of our baptisms Before we go into a public baptism Revelation chapter 19, look at verse number 20. And the beast was taken, and with him the false prophet that wrought miracles before him, with which he deceived them that had received the mark of the beast, and them that worshiped his image. These both were cast alive into a lake of fire burning with brimstone. That is a fully immersion, a full immersion in fire. In fire. I hope you're saved this morning. Look at Revelation chapter 20. At the end of the verse, and fire came down from God out of heaven and devoured them. Verse 10, and devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire. and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are and shall be tormented day and night forever and ever. Verse 21, I saw the dead small and great, stand before God, and the books were opened. Another book was opened, which is the book of life. And the dead were judged out of these things which were written in the books according to their works. 13, and the sea gave up the dead which were in it, and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them. And they were judged, every man according to their works, and death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. You die without Jesus Christ today, you go to hell in fire. And there's gonna come a time where there's gonna be a final judgment and God's gonna remove, he's gonna move hell and he's gonna cast it right into the lake of fire with the devil and every last one of them. And you're gonna be fully immersed there. And that's the second death. Which is why Jesus said to Nicodemus, you must be born again. Two births, one death. One birth, two deaths. Which one you want? If you're not saved, which one you want? If you are saved, just praise God, hallelujah, that you've been fully immersed into Jesus Christ. And you have no fear of the second death. He won the victory. O death, where's thy sting? O grave, where's thy victory? Last one, Revelation 21, the Bible says, but the fearful and unbelieving and the abominable and murderers and whoremongers and sorcerers and idolaters and all liars shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone. Have you ever told a lie? By nature, you're a liar. And you know where you belong? In the Lake of Fire. I've told a lie. Doesn't that mean I'm going there? You know what Jesus said? I am the way, the truth. You need to be fully immersed in Jesus Christ and be baptized by the Holy Ghost, because then you get into truth. He is the truth. And you no longer have to fear what's going to happen to those. You're not categorized in Revelation 21 8 anymore. You're not. Which is the second death and we already talked about that Go back to Matthew chapter 3 Okay, so let's review John had a baptism It was a baptism of the repentance because Jesus Christ is now being herald under the scene he's declaring that Israel here he comes Then we additionally said that John baptizes, we saw this in Matthew chapter three, John baptizes with water. And we saw the point that Jesus doesn't baptize with water, he baptizes with the Holy Ghost and with fire, amen. Do people receive both of those baptisms? No, you will receive one or the other. Who receives the baptism of the Holy Ghost? That would be believers Who receives the baptism of fire? That would be unbelievers You can run up and down the aisle Do a few backflips fall down on your back and quack like a chicken And say that you received the baptism of fire as evidenced by you talking like a chicken Now that's going to be a great emotional experience And if you want to put your faith and trust in your experience because somebody got you so worked up That you lost control of your emotions or you were overcome with the spirit of antichrist Which a lot of these fakers are doing online and on tv You can tell me all about your experience. If it doesn't line up with the word of God, you're wrong. Your experience is unworthy. Your experience is not trustworthy. Only the word of God is. We're not going to get into in the tongue, but you don't receive the baptism of fire if you are a born again believer in the Lord Jesus Christ. What do you make of all that stuff? Well, you're just going to have to Keep coming and when we get on signs and wonders and done talking, we'll go over all that. We just don't have time to do everything in one lesson. Matthew chapter three, verse 13. Then cometh Jesus from Galilee to Jordan unto John to be baptized of him. Huh? Did Jesus have to be saved? No. So baptism doesn't save you. Did Jesus have any sin whatsoever to be cleansed from? Then a man dipping you in a body of water doesn't bring you into contact with the blood of Jesus where your sins are washed away because Jesus had no sin to be washed away. That makes sense. Again, you can cherry pick verses and come up with all sorts of things. You've got to read the Bible in the context of the Bible. The verse before it, the verse after it, the chapter before it, the chapter after it, and in its full, rightly divided context. Best we know how, we try to do that. But John, verse 14, forbade him saying, I have need to be baptized of thee, and comest thou to me? It's a pretty good question. I'm not even worthy to put your shoes on, and you want me to baptize you? And Jesus has to help John out like he has to help us out. Don't you have questions like that sometimes? Watch. 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. Why did Jesus tell John to baptize him? Jesus was saying this is the right thing to do and it is to fulfill all righteousness. And you know what John did? He obeyed Jesus. Do you know why we get baptized as believers? To obey Jesus. Even though John's baptism is different than a New Testament believer's baptism, the principle is the same in the sense of we are obeying the Lord Jesus Christ. And John is simply obeying Jesus. And Jesus says it's to fulfill all righteousness. It's the right thing to do. And Jesus, when he was baptized, went straight way out of the water. If you come straight way out, that means you had to be straight way under first and then come up. So it's a full immersion. And lo, the heavens were open. That won't happen to you today for being baptized under him. And he saw the spirit of God descending like a dove and lightning upon him. And lo, a voice from heaven saying, this is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased. God, the father was pleased. And allow me to say this this morning, why not start off your Christian life after you've trusted Christ in obeying the Lord in baptism? It's pleased, he'll be well-pleased. God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Ghost, it's pleasing to our God when we obey him. And it always brings about a spiritual blessing. Notice I said spiritual blessing. This is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased. So Jesus says to John, you baptize me. John obeys. Jesus is baptized, showing it is the right thing to do. Jesus is setting the example. It was by full immersion. And this is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased. God the Father says, obedience is pleasing to me. And so that's what we see pictured in Matthew chapter three. Okay, let's go to Acts 18. Acts chapter 18 will go toward the end of the chapter, Acts 18, and we'll pick up reading at verse number 24. Acts 18, verse 24. And a certain Jew named Apollos, born at Alexandria, an eloquent man and mighty in the scriptures, came to Ephesus. This man was instructed in the way of the Lord, and being fervent in the spirit, He spake and taught diligently the things of the Lord Now there's a comma there hold the comma That's a pretty good testimony you're eloquent nothing wrong with that you're mighty in the scriptures That's a good thing He has instruction in the way of the Lord praise God And he's teaching and speaking about the Lord Hallelujah. All of that is good. There's nothing bad about this man in considering the things we've spoken about. Except after the comma, what has been said, or what is said rather, knowing only the baptism of John. Now we talked about this in our rightly dividing on Sunday nights. Dispensations versus divisions and understanding those terms biblically This man has been given truth truth has been dispensed out to him Except He didn't have all the truth He only knew up to if you will it looks like John's baptism and he did John's baptism however, there's a problem and the problem is When he began verse 26 to speak boldly in the synagogue whom when Aquila and Priscilla had heard, they took him unto them and expounded unto him the way of God more perfectly." Somebody had to pull him aside and gave him some additional truth that he was missing. There's a lot of people that know a lot of things about the Lord Jesus Christ in the Bible, but sometimes you got to bring them aside and you got to expound to them things that they need They need a little more perfect explanation. Jews know a lot about the Bible. Jehovah's Witnesses have some truth that is erroneously misplaced that allows them to conclude very, very wrong doctrine. You know what you gotta do? You gotta bring them aside and teach them what the Bible says so that they can get saved. And that's what's happening here. This man, this man, Apollos, is being taught about Jesus Christ. And when he was disposed to pass into Achaia, the brethren wrote, exhorting the disciples to receive him, who, when he was come, helped them much which had believed through grace. For he mightily convinced the Jews, and that publicly, showing by the scriptures, That jesus was christ. He was missing something, but he got it Now i'd like to have more about that whole situation But what we've got is he only knew up to john's baptism. He got some more information Jesus is the christ. He got cleared up some things and he went on with that additional truth and praised the lord That's the way it should be Just because someone received john's baptism Didn't mean they were trusting jesus christ as their savior It makes sense at the point we're going we're going So let's continue reading in when we'll I think we'll finish here in John, I'm sorry Acts chapter 19 Watch what it says as we continue to read in verse 1 and it came to pass that while Apollos was a Corinth Paul having passed through the upper coasts came to Ephesus and Finding certain disciples and he said of 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 If you trust Jesus Christ as your Savior and somebody said to you hey now I know we're in the book of Acts here, but still Consider this someone says if you receive the Holy Spirit you receive the Holy Ghost. Oh, yeah, I trusted Christ. Amen Well, they're saying what are you talking about? What do you mean Holy Ghost? Let's keep reading. Verse three, and he said unto them, unto what then were you baptized? And they said unto John's baptism. Then said Paul, John verily baptized with the baptism of repentance. You see the distinction? Paul's drawing this out, saying unto the people that they should believe on him which should come after him. That is on Jesus Christ. Look, Christ is coming onto the scene. Repent. Get prepared. Clean up your life. You have sins. Repent of them. Get in this water and be baptized because the Messiah is coming on the scene. He's come to die for the sins of the world. He's going to. But he didn't die yet. So people that receive John's baptism, here we see an example of someone that received it. But it ain't good enough. It's not good enough. They're a little confused. Have you received the Holy Ghost since you believe they've got to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ to receive them They said that they've received John's baptism as We piece these verses together apparently it's very obvious that John's baptism didn't do what it didn't save them it didn't When they heard this They should believe on him and the verse 4 Which should come after him that is on Jesus Christ Have you believed on Jesus Christ when they heard this? They were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus Okay Acts chapter 19 They had received John's baptism except they were not believers on the Lord Jesus Christ. And after they believed on the Lord Jesus Christ, they were then re-baptized as obedient believers. Does that make sense? Okay, now we're not in that era. None of us had received John's baptism and none of us will ever receive John's baptism. But during this time, You had people that did receive john's baptism But after they trusted in the death burial and the resurrection of the lord jesus christ, which they were all preaching Then they were rebaptized as a believer And they got to experience both now, that'd be kind of pretty neat if you got to experience both of those baptisms Now, how does that make sense for us today? Well, I was re-baptized. I didn't have John's baptism, but I had a unscriptural baptism. It's called an infant baptism that you receive as a Roman Catholic infant. You were brought into the priest and he gives you some sprinkling with water. After I trusted Jesus Christ as my savior and they said, well, were you baptized? Yeah, as an infant. I had to be brought aside and taught the things of God and understand that okay great, but here's what the Bible says and So I was rebaptized as a believer fully immersed in water you must believe on the Lord Jesus Christ first and Then you receive believers baptism second not the other way around If you've never read the book Martyrs mirror. I would advise as a book to add to your reading list. We'll have it in the library. The library should be done in another week. We'll have that on the shelf there. You won't be able to read it in a week. You won't be able to read it in a month. Probably take you two months. And you'll realize how important believers baptism was to people. The Anabaptists were the rebaptizers. It was a capital offense. That means if you renounced your Roman Catholic state-given baptism, if you renounced that, which they did, and said, we are believers in the Lord Jesus Christ, and we want to be scripturally immersed in water, you were put to death. You were burned at the stake. How important is baptism to you? You live back in that time, 1500, 1600s? We don't live in that time now. Praise God. But as we close, I just want you to get this wrapped around your mind. If, if that decree went out by our nation's leaders, If we find out if any New Testament born-again Christians believers of the Lord if they dare Get re-baptized after they come out of a false religion It's the death penalty Who's ready for a live stream now Much different in it much different. I Will say this as we close out we don't have a capital offense for baptism Let's not take light the freedoms that we still have left here and use it to go out into all the world and preach the gospel, have the Lord save converts, bring those converts in, teach them the way of the Lord more perfectly, and then get them baptized. We have the freedom to do it, but we are so immersed in prosperity and power and money that we tend to forget what is most important. And the Christians that are being persecuted and are living a poor life with hardly any money are the ones that are more fervent to get the gospel out and to get baptized because they honestly don't think they're going to live tomorrow or next week or next month. but you and I take it for granted. I'm guilty of it as much as you are. We're gonna have tomorrow. Next month we got money coming in. We got a job that's secure. The government isn't coming into our church house and my response is not yet, not yet, not yet, not yet, not yet. This toxic positivity that has been infiltrated churches Love, love, love. Peace, peace, peace. Fun, fun, fun. It's all about you, you, you. Wait until it doesn't become about you. And we'll see, we'll separate the men from the boys. We'll separate the women from the little baby girls. When you're actually going to have to live a persecuted life for the Lord. I don't want that. Believe me. I want my kids to grow up without having to deal with that. But these re-baptizers, these Anabaptists, were so fully persuaded in their mind that they were willing to die for their baptism. Who you living for? Who you living for?