Number 19 John chapter 1 verse 19, and this is the record of John when the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him who art thou and He confessed and denied not but confessed. I am NOT the Christ so to get some context John saying it's not me Okay, and they asked him what then art thou Elias and he said I am NOT art thou a prophet and he answered no Then said then to him who art thou that we may give an answer to them that sent us. What sayest thou of thyself?" And here's the answer. He said, I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness. Make straight the way of the Lord, as said the prophet Esaias. And they which were sent were of the Pharisees. And they asked him and said unto him, why baptize thou then? If thou be not that Christ, nor Elias, neither that Prophet this is the big question that they want to know why Baptize it thou then you see that in verse 25. That's the big question John has to finally tell him look I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness and here's my cry Jesus Christ is coming. Get your eyes off me. He is heralding in the Savior We talked about that earlier this morning And they want to know, then why are you baptized? You would think that these fellows might be thinking that baptism somehow might save you. I mean, are you the Christ? Are you the one? And he has to point out to them, look, I'm not the Christ. And if anybody sitting here this morning thinks that water baptism saves you, I hope I can persuade you differently by the end of this message. That's the big question. Why baptize it thou then and now watch the answer come back? Verse 26 john answered them saying I baptize with water It's pretty clear. We went over that earlier this morning as well John baptizes with water, but jesus doesn't But there standeth one among you whom ye know not And when we say Jesus doesn't baptize with water, he baptizes with the Holy Ghost or with fire. It's going to be one or the other. If you're a believer, you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, you get fully immersed in Christ and you get baptized by the Holy Spirit. If you don't believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you die without him, you're going to die and be baptized and be fully immersed in fire. We don't want that for anybody. That's why we preach the gospel so they get saved and not have to get the better baptism. Verse 27, he, it is, who coming after me is preferred before me, whose shoes latch it, I am not worthy to unloose. John says, not only am I not worthy to put your shoes on, I'm not even worthy to unbuckle. That's how worthy Jesus Christ is. This is, so verse 29, verse 28, I'm sorry, These things were done in Bethphara, beyond Jordan, where John was baptized. So he says, look, I'm not the Christ. I baptize with water. Somebody's coming that's better than me. And he's down by the Jordan and he's baptizing. Now look at verse 29. The next day, John seeth Jesus coming unto him and saith, behold the water which taketh away the sin of the world. except you and I both know I read that wrong, because water doesn't take away sin. Behold the Lamb of God. He's the one that takes away sin. Water never did and never will take away sin, only Jesus Christ. So we'll continue reading. This is he of whom I said, After me cometh a man which is preferred before me, for he was before me. And I knew him not, but that he should be made manifest to Israel. Therefore am I come baptizing with water." What's the answer that John gave as to why he is baptizing? We just read it. to manifest to Israel that Jesus Christ is here. That baptism didn't save anybody. John is manifest. Look, he's here. You got sin in your life, repent. Get yourself prepared, because here's the Savior. That's what John's baptism was for, and he did it with water. And John, for I knew him not, verse 31, but that he should be made manifest to Israel Therefore am I come baptizing with water and John bear record saying I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove and it abode upon him So question why baptized about him? Answer to manifest to Israel that Jesus Christ is here That was the purpose of his baptism get Matthew 28 if you would Matthew chapter 28, verse number 18. And Jesus came and spake unto them saying, all power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore and teach all nations. Let's bring out some deep theological truth. What does all nations mean? It'd be all the nations. There's some fringe groups, these hyper Paul-only type guys that say, well, baptism isn't for you. Baptism isn't for the New Testament church. It certainly is. I'm not of the nation of Israel. That would make me of another nation, which would make me of all nations. Okay. And so all nations, baptism is certainly for the church and the church doesn't have John's baptism. We have believers baptism, which we're, we're parlaying into now. So it's all nations. And now watch this. Paul, okay. Baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost That's the command go ye therefore and teach all nations Baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost Hold that thought Because I want to cross-reference some thoughts in the book of Acts So if you would go to Acts chapter 16, and I'll be able to I'll be able to clear my thoughts on this It acts chapter number 16 Okay. Acts chapter 16, look at verse number 14. Because it's important that we understand when the baptism has to occur. So look at Acts chapter 16, look at verse 14. And a certain woman named Lydia, a seller of purple, of the city of Thyatira, which worshiped God, heard us, whose heart the Lord opened, that she attended unto the things which were spoken of Paul. So you know what happened to Lydia? She heard some preaching and her heart was opened. The Lord did something. She was saved. The Lord opened her heart. That happens first. Watch what the second step is in the next verse. And when she was baptized and her household, she besought us saying, if you have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come to my house and abide there. And she constrained us. What has to happen first before someone is scripturally baptized? They must believe the Lord's got to do something in your heart. The water baptism isn't going to do anything for your heart. We see an example of Lydia. She believed that was first. What happened second? Baptism. We don't put the cart before the horse. It's important to note that look at verse 30 in Acts chapter 16. Acts chapter 16, look at verse 30. And brought them out and said, Sir, what must I do to be saved? That's a pretty good question for some prisoners to be asking. You're gonna knock on somebody's door and you're gonna tell them that they're a sinner. You're gonna tell them why Jesus Christ came. You're gonna tell them all these things. Wouldn't it be great if they just grab a holy and say, what must I do to be saved? And what's the answer? We all know this verse. And they said, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved and the house. What do you what must you do to be saved? You must believe the whole in my house part really just means Gentlemen you get saved there's a good likelihood you're going to preach the gospel to your family Ladies, if you get saved there's a good chance You're going to you're going to integrate all that into what you're schooling the kids on and they're going to say and they're going to get saved It's kind of a natural byproduct if you hang around Christians What do Christians typically talk about? Not the things of the world, Jesus Christ. And you'll tend to learn more of those things. So that's all that's saying. If you are saved, your first priority is the testimony to your own household, your own household. But they got saved and that's first. And they spake unto him the word of the Lord, verse 32, and all that were in his house Watch verse 33 and he took them the same hour of the night and washed their stripes and was baptized he and all his straight way What happened second they were baptized? Believing on the Lord Jesus Christ is first and then baptism is Second one more verse Acts chapter number 10 Just so we get the order And we're not leaving any stone unturned. Acts chapter 10, look at verse number 44. Acts 10, 44. While Peter yet spake these words, the Holy Ghost fell on all them which heard the word. And they of the circumcision which believed were astonished as many as came with Peter because that on Gentiles also was poured out the gift of the Holy Ghost they believe They received the Holy Ghost Because they heard the word of the Lord and watch what happened second where they heard them speak with tongues and magnify God We're not going to get into tongues. Now. They answered Peter. Can any man forbid water? That these should not be baptized which have received the Holy Ghost as well Verse 48 and he commanded them to be baptized in the name of the Lord, then prayed they him to tarry certain days. The order is always the same through the book of Acts. Believers, or I'm sorry, people hear the word of the Lord, they believe on the Lord, and then they follow the Lord in obedience and are baptized. You say, do I have to be baptized to be saved? No. But every single instance in the New Testament someone that was saved was baptized Because it's about obeying the Lord Not about salvation not about salvation if you're a new creature if you've trusted Christ you're going to want to do What the Lord asked you to do, right? It's a want to not a have to well, I have to do it. Well, why are you asking? Do I have to do it? Parents raise kids and you ask them to clean your room, will I have to? Well, why are you asking me if you have to? Don't you love me? Don't you love contributing and helping out? When we could say, well, Lord, why do I have to do that? Why don't we read the Bible and it says, don't do this. And we say, well, do I have to? Why don't we ask? Well, that's great, Lord, I'd love to. I'd love to. It's about wanting to obey our Lord. I mean, after all, he died on the cross for us. He saved us from our sin. So why would we ask? Why would we ask any other question, man? Landlord. OK, go back, go back to Matthew 28. I want to look at something here. Matthew 20, verse 19. Go ye therefore and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost." The name. But then it lists three things. The Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. Huh. How come it doesn't say names? You know why it doesn't say names? And it says name? Because there are three that bear a record in heaven. The Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost. You know what you've got right here in this passage? The Trinity. There's three in one, there's one in three. How does that happen? I thought one plus one plus one is three. Aren't there three gods? No, it's three in one, one in three. One times one times one. There's three, praise the mystery of God in this. We have a Trinity. Now I have to point this out because it says in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost. There is a movement that is Popular, I guess depending on what area of the country that you live in That says you can only be baptized in Jesus's name only This is a group that doesn't believe in a Trinity. It's Jesus Jesus Jesus So, what do you baptize in Does the Bible say that in him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead What's the Godhead now the father got the son got the Holy Ghost? So what do you baptize in? Both. It doesn't matter. If you say, I baptize you in Jesus' name, well, in Jesus is all the fullness of the Godhead. So you've got the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost. If you do in the name of the Father and Son, the Holy Ghost, it's the same thing. We have a Trinity, three, bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost. That's important to say today because you can't talk about the Trinity enough. If you start doing public evangelism and witnessing to people you're going to run into these groups that don't believe in the Trinity And they're gonna look at you like you serve three gods How many gods do we serve one God Three person God the Father God the Son God the Holy Spirit That's why it says in the name of If it said names, you would have a plurality of gods. You have the name. Well, how can it be singular and have three? That's what I'm saying, it's the Trinity. It's the Trinity, we have a Trinity. Verse number 20, therefore, or I'm sorry, teaching them to observe all things. All right, let's do another deep theological lesson. All things would mean all things. Now, I understand what people mean when they say, well, there's two ordinances given to the church, as if we only, well, you know, Lord's Supper and Believer's Baptism. How many of you have heard that? Okay, except all things means more than two ordinances. Of course, we want to obey the Lord and Believer's Baptism. Of course, we want to have the Lord's Supper. But when it says teaching them to observe all things, that would tell me there's more than two things we should observe. Which tells me when we read the Bible, we should allow God's Word to change us. And there's going to be more more than two things that need to be observed. Are you with me on that? OK, we want to observe all the things whatsoever I have commanded you and Lo, I am with you always. Even under the end of the world Now all you young people look in the middle of verse number 20 it says I have commanded you Obedience should be the only reason we need to follow the Lord And obedience is about following the Lord in all things that are written in his words But nowadays, when the preacher says obedience, I'm not saying you, the people, the world, they hear legalism. Every time you hear the word obey, it triggers this worldly kind of carnival Christianity to hear legalism. That guy's a legalist. No. Why do you get upset when there comes a command from the Lord and he's asking you to do something in your life? Why do we yell legalism in our heart? Why don't we yell? Thank you lord Millions of americans go to work. We'll go to work tomorrow And their boss will give them commands Sweep the floor. You're a legalist Go home. You're fired Now isn't it great the lord says i'm with you always he's not gonna leave you You might decide to break fellowship with him. And that might be severed, but you're not gonna lose your salvation. He's gonna be with you. And so many of us can attest to that. We get saved, we get baptized, and praise God, we're gonna have some folks getting baptized. And you get away from the Lord. Well, you didn't get away from your salvation. You just lost some fellowship with him. Because you got away from the fact that when he says, observe all things, you decided in your mind, well, Lord, you might have not said legalism, but you said, Lord, it's okay, I'll come back eventually, or I'll be okay, I'm not gonna die now, or nobody's really gonna know, so I don't really observe all the things you asked me to do, I'm just gonna kind of go on. But I'm telling you, God wants us to observe all things. It's not just church on Sunday, Lord's supper once a week, and oh yeah, I'm a believer, I'll get baptized. All those things are great and need to be done. But let's not forget, draw the lens back a little bit as well. Acts 8. Actually, let's move the thought on. Acts chapter 8. All right, Acts 8. We'll come all the way down, let's see, Acts chapter eight. Verse 26, and the angel of the Lord spake unto Philip, saying, Arise, and go toward the south, unto the way that goeth down from Jerusalem unto Gaza, which is desert. Verse 27, and he arose and went. Behold, a man of Ethiopia, a eunuch of great authority under Candace, queen of Ethiopians, who had the charge of all her treasure, and to come to Jerusalem for her worship, was returning, and sitting in his chariot, read his eye as the prophet. Then the Spirit said unto Philip, go here and join thyself to this chariot. A lot of times the Spirit tells us to do something. We're commanded to go out in the world and preach the gospel. Spirit of God, pricks your heart. We talk ourselves out of it. Not Philip. Spirit said unto Philip, go, and you know what Philip did? He went. What's God telling you to do? And Philip ran thither to him, verse 30, and heard him read the prophet Esaias and said, understandest thou what thou readest. Now, I know people like to critique the Bible, the King James Bible and say, well, it's so hard to understand. Can you read all those archaic words and come away with anything but, does the guy understand what he read? There's no reason to change or correct the Bible, just learn some new words. Understandest thou what thou readest. He's asking him. Do you know what you read? It's a fair question all those that are getting baptized. We want to know Do you know what you read? Do you know what you believe? Well, we put you in water. We want to make sure you know, it doesn't save you that Jesus does and He said and how can I accept some man should guide me and he desired Philip that he'd come up and sit with verse 32 Place the scripture which read was this "'He was led as a sheep to the slaughter, "'and like a lamb dung before his shearer, "'so opened he not his mouth. "'In his humiliation, his judgment was taken away, "'and who shall declare his generation "'for his life taken from the earth?' "'And the eunuch answered Philip and said, "'I pray thee, of whom speaketh the prophet this, "'of himself or of some other man.'" This is very important verse. "'Then Philip opened his mouth "'and began at the same scriptures "'and preached unto him water. Except no, it says he preached unto him Jesus because that's what he needed to hear first before he gets into water Who saves? water or Jesus Christ Jesus Christ And they went on their way they came unto a certain water and the eunuch said See here is water. That's very observant. What dot hinder me is to be baptized. And there's only one thing that's going to hinder him from being baptized. Watch what it is. And Philip said, if you join the church and make every service and you're here all the time, the doors are open. It doesn't say that. And Philip said, if you pledge to give to local churches and you pledge to give money to missionaries all across the world, then you may. Oh, wait, it doesn't say that either. What does it say? And Philip said, if thou believe it with all thine heart, thou mayest. What's the only hindrance to getting baptized? Believing on the Lord Jesus Christ. That is the only hindrance to baptism. Should we give to our local church? Sure. Should we give the missions? Sure. Should we try to make it every time the doors are open? Sure. Is any of that a hindrance to being baptized? If we go by just, if we just go by the Bible, just by the Bible, not talking about trying to, You know build a big church or have a good marketing this or have the people make sure that you really test To really see if they're really in man None of that is a hindrance the only thing you must do Is believe that is the only objection the only hindrance that has to be put out of the way We'll go through a six-month discipleship class and see who's really saved, who's really going to live for the Lord. Except after the six months, who's to say in two years or three years that person isn't going to backslide? What do you take away their baptism? People come up with all these sorts of things to add hindrances that aren't there. If you're saved this morning, do you plan on backsliding? I hope you don't. I'm saved this morning, I don't want to. But if we do, number one, we don't lose our salvation, and number two, what are we gonna revoke your baptism and say you gotta get rebaptized? No, why? There's only one hindrance. You must believe, believe, believe. Okay, this is important. Look at verse number 36. And as they went on their way, they came onto a certain water, and the eunuch said, see, here is water. What doth hinder me to be baptized? Did I just ad nauseum go over what the hindrance was in verse 37? So how many of you would agree that verse 37 is pretty important to be in the Bible? Except you can open an NIV or NASB And it will go from verse 36 to verse 38, which would lead you to believe that you don't have to believe as a hindrance, and that water baptism would save you. You've got to have all the verses. Verse number 37, matter of fact, New American Standard Bible, just in the book of Acts, changes it 22 times. There's only 40 verses. That's a change every other verse When you get down to verse 37, you better make sure you've got verse 37 in there Better make sure Verse 38 and he commanded the chariot to stand still and they both went down and they went down both into The water both Philip and the eunuch and he baptized him so two things that would leave out any type of sprinkling. You're going down into the water. It's a full, immersed baptism. Just circle back for what was the hindrance you have to believe? If you have to believe, that would rule out infants, and that would rule out those that don't understand enough to believe, right? So infant baptism is out. Sprinkling is out. And to just circle back and wind back a little bit, when we go back to the Old Testament in relation to water baptism and these false heretical groups that say it saves you, well, that would mean from Adam till John, nobody got saved. If water saves you, then nobody got saved until water baptism came on the scene. Well, it's a new circumcision. Well, what do you do with It's not like you had the nation of Israel for the first 1,500 or 2,000 years. What do you do with that? You just get yourself in a pickle when you start changing the Bible And it just starts crumbling down and falling apart. So we want to have all the verses Sprinkling is not a mode scripturally infants is not a boat because they can't believe and Baptism what our baptism doesn't save you because you can't explain how people got saved before that. Well, they try to but They fully rest the scripture to their own destruction All right last last verse here we'll move on to two more thoughts look at verse number 39 And when they were come up out of the water the spirit lord called away philip and the eunuch saw him no more And he went on his way Rejoicing full immersion Remember I said well people here when they say well you need to obey the Lord and obedience and people here legalism You know this unicorn I get to obey and I'm going away rejoicing Praise God somebody gets saved. It's time to rejoice you get baptized. It's time to rejoice It's time for all of us to rejoice this idea that obeying the Lord takes all the fun out of your life I beg to differ The Bible clearly shows that those who obey the Lord go away rejoicing. And we should as well. Young people get a hold of this. It's fun to follow the Lord. It's exciting to live for Jesus. Go away rejoicing. Even if the sermon is a sleeper, you can still go if you got the Lord. Obedience always brings joy. It always does. There's no reason to be depressed. We just cure depression. Amen. Amen. Acts 2. Acts 2. If you're on medication, just keep taking it and go ask your doctor what I said is right. Acts chapter 2. Acts 2. Verse 37, Acts 2. And Luke 5, Acts 2 and Luke 5, we'll need both of these to get this idea. Acts 2 and Luke 5. All right, everybody got your place in Acts 2, we'll do that first. Verse number 37, and when they heard this, they were pricked in their heart and said unto Peter and the rest of the apostles, men and brethren, what shall we do? Then Peter said unto them repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost now no prophecy of scripture is of any private interpretation and it's easy if we just cherry-picked one verse Acts 2 38 you could come away with the idea that water baptism saves you Was at the UPS store like a month or two ago and pull up And of all the things you can put on your car, bumper stickers and license plates, of all the things you can put, trust Jesus, Jesus saves, right on the front of the license plate, it was Acts 2.38. You can put anything on there to tell somebody about Jesus, and you put Acts 2.38. And if you take Acts 2.38 as one verse, you can come up with a lot of doctrine. off of one verse. We don't do that, that's a private interpretation. We gotta run a bunch of verses to understand context. So let's do that and let's look at Luke chapter number five. And let's see what happens in Luke five. Look at verse number 12. Luke 5, 12, but it came to pass when he was in a certain city, behold, a man full of leprosy, who seeing Jesus fell on his face, And besought him, saying, Lord, if thou will, canst thou make me clean? So leprosy, picture of sin in the Bible. This man's got leprosy. He goes to Jesus, verse 13, and he put forth his hand and touched him, saying, and Jesus says five words, I will be thou clean. Man's made clean. So before we continue, Who made this man clean? Amen. God did. The Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ made him clean. How many words did Jesus say? Five words. How fast was this man made clean? Immediately, it says, right? Who did the cleaning? God did. Is he clean? Everybody get the point? You keep hitting the nail on the same head for a reason. Here's the reason look at verse 14 and he charged him to tell no man and go and Show thyself to the priest and offer for thy cleansing Well, wait a minute. I thought he was already clean Why does he have to go to the priest for thy cleansing? He was clean he went to the priest why for the testimony for the testimony, look at Acts 2.38. Are you with me on this? Do you get this? Look at Acts. Then Peter said, I'll be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins. He didn't get baptized and his sins were forgiven, his sins were forgiven, and he presented himself in water as a testimony. In Luke chapter five, you've got the same principle. The cleansing happened immediately, and then he's told to go and show himself for thy cleansing. Wait a minute. I thought I was already clean. Yeah, you are it's for a testimony You get in water and ain't gonna make you clean. Jesus Christ made you clean. You know what that's for Testing testing Look at verse 39 for the promises unto you and your children to all that are far off even as many as the Lord our God choke all Acts 2 39 And verse 40, and with many other words, that he testified and exhorted, saying, save yourselves from this untoward generation. Last verse here for Acts 2. Then they gladly received his word were baptized. Then they that gladly received his word were baptized. In light of Acts 2.38, looking at the principle we saw in Luke 5, And now closing the chapter out in verse number 41, what happens first? They receive his word and then they were baptized. That's the clear. If you're trusting in your baptism, even half a percent for salvation, then that means you're not trusting Jesus Christ. 100% for your suffrage Even if it's a half percent on back Last verse and we're done Romans 6 last verse We'll look at the picture of the death, burial and resurrection. The old news, it's gone away. You're raised in newness of life. Look at Romans six. What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? The answer comes back very clear in verse two, God forbid. How shall we that are dead to sin live any longer therein? No, you're not. But so many of us, as we're baptized into Jesus Christ, we're baptized into his death. When did that happen? When you were saved, you were fully immersed in Christ. Verse four, therefore, we are buried with him by baptism unto death, that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so also should walk in newness of life. You don't walk how you used to walk. You don't live how you used to live. This idea that we're, carnal Christianity is from the devil. The whole Corinthian church had to be cleaned up because they were living as carnal Christians. The devil says, man, this guy saved the Lord owns him. I'm going to do everything I can to mess up their life down here. Yeah, he's got eternal life. But look, Satan does not want you affecting anybody else. Keep it in the church. How about no? So it's a public baptism, you know, We're live-streaming it so the public can see and you We asked everybody and they were okay with with the live stream. What I'm saying is just keep it in the church No No You walk a new life let everybody know about and You're so fully persuaded that Jesus Christ is the answer. I that you are willing to embarrass yourself in front of this world by getting soaked in water and getting your hair messed up, getting your clothes all soaking wet. Why? Because Jesus Christ is so worthy. He's so worthy and he's so worthy. Who cares if your hair gets messed up? It's for Jesus. It's for Jesus. Finish this out. Or if we have been planted together, when you take a seed, it goes all the way down in the dirt, you put dirt under it, it goes, we're gonna go down into the water, and that seed comes up, and then you got your plant. Same idea, go down in water, you're gonna come up, plant again in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection, knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth, We should not serve sin. For all of us this morning, I beg and plead with you that none of us serve sin. To the four baptismal candidates, I beg and plead with you this morning, when you leave the church house, You are to serve Jesus Christ. You are not to serve sin.