We started our series on baptism off on this verse. So we're going to finish this lesson where we started. Look at Ephesians 4, verse number 5, and let's read that short verse together. Everybody will read it together. Ready? Ephesians 4, verse 5. One Lord, one faith, one baptism. And remember we talked about that first lesson. We looked at that verse in Hebrews where it talks about the doctrine of baptisms. Plural. And we went through and looked at all of the baptisms. But this verse here in Ephesians 4, it isn't talking about water. What is it talking about? Call out the answer if you know. Baptism of the Holy Spirit. That is right. And that's the one baptism that we share together. So when a believer gets baptized in water, does the Holy Spirit show up in the water? Go like this. No, it don't. It does not. Does the blood of Jesus show up in the water? It does not show up in the water. What shows up in the water? A person that's standing there. And the person is going to baptize that person. So you don't come in contact with the blood and you don't come in contact with the Holy Spirit when you and I as believers got baptized. Or, if you are a believer and you haven't yet been scripturally baptized, you won't come in contact with the Holy Spirit. You already have the Holy Spirit. That's the one baptism, right? Alright. Go to Matthew 28. Matthew chapter number 28. I'd like us to read together and let's find out if Jesus said that water baptism is just for a Jewish nation. Alright, let's find out if it's just for one nation. Ok, let's read it together. Matthew 28, let's read verse 19 and 20 together. Ready? Go ye therefore and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you. And lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. Amen and Amen. Verse 19, "...Go ye therefore and teach..." How many nations? Very good. All nations. So any believer from any nation should be water baptized. Should be scripturally baptized. Go to Mark 16. Mark 16. Mark 16. Okay, and let's see, we know this verse, you know the answer to it, but I'm going to ask it anyway. Who is the gospel for? Okay, it's not for just a certain group of people. Should we be looking, Wilder, should we be looking to figure out if someone is from a specific nation before we preach the gospel to them? Melanie, are you sure we don't have to go and say, hey, before I tell you something about Jesus, I just want to know something. What nation are you from? No, you don't. Okay. Alright, you sure about that? Alright, let's see if the Bible confirms our thought. Mark 16, let's read verse 15 together. Ready? And He said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature." Alright, you've got the doctrine of creation there as well. A creature is a created being. We're created by God, but we're sinful, and so we need the gospel to be preached. How many of you believe that that's important to do? Okay, that's good because that's what the Bible says, right? We want to go by that. Now let's read verse 16, one more verse out of this chapter. He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved, but he that believeth not shall be damned." So water baptism is for those who have not been damned. You pass from condemnation. You don't have condemnation on you anymore. and you trust Christ, and if you're not damned, damned to hell, then you can be water baptized. That's who water baptism is for. In Mark chapter 16, those who are not damned, that's who it is for. Now, on Highway 111, if you go south on 111, and you get off one of the Sparta exits, there's a sign by one of the Church of Christ churches, and the sign says, then, now, and it shows a picture of a person not in water, and then it shows a person in water. And this Church of Christ billboard, it's off one of the exits down there. If you're ever down that way, I forget which one, but you'll see this big billboard. And then right in the middle of the billboard, the big highlighted headline is, Saved by Water. You know how many people are reading that? Everybody in town, because they're all using that exit at one time or another. Everybody in town reads that. Now if we're saved by water, we've got a problem. We've got a big problem. We're either all wrong, or the church of Christ and the others that teach water is going to save you, they're wrong and we need to bring what to them? We need to bring the gospel. Alright, 1 Peter 3. 1 Peter 3. 1 Peter 3. Go all the way down to verse number 20. Let's just read verse number 20. Ready? Which sometime were disobedient, when once the longsuffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was a preparing wherein few, that is, eight souls were saved by water. Well, praise the Lord. Eight souls were praised as they went into the water. Now look at the Bible and is that what it says? Does it say the eight souls went into the water? They weren't in the water. Who was in the water? The souls that were what? Those souls that were in the water Did they live or die? Yeah, they died. So when you go back to this picture of Noah, that ark, those who were in the ark, pictures those who were in Christ. And they passed through death. They passed through judgment. There was no damnation or no judgment that hit them. The judgment was water. and God wiped them all out. Do you believe that? Some of you are looking at me like you haven't slept all night. Do you believe that? Okay, alright. We'll keep reading. This verse right here, the church of Christ goes to to try to prove that water baptism saves, but the entire context of the verse proves that water baptism doesn't save. Well, it does, but let's find out what it does save us from. Let's read the next verse. Verse 21. Well, we'll read the entire verse. The like figure whereunto even baptism doth also now save us, not the putting away of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God by the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Water doesn't save you from the filthy sins of your flesh. 2 Corinthians talks about, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh. That's referring to our sins. So the water doesn't save us from that. It's nothing but the... Good, help me out a little more. Nothing but the blood of Jesus. So, water doesn't save us from the filthiness of our flesh. But watch what it says in this parentheses, which is here for an absolute certain reason, not the putting away the filth of the flesh, comma, and then this big word, but, but what does it save us from? But the answer of a good conscience toward God. Now, if God told you and I as believers to do something, and we haven't done it, do you think that that would affect your conscience? It should. Whoever said that is right. It should. I would be concerned about someone who says they're a believer and when you point out something in the Bible where they should consider changing and it don't bother them at all. You say, you should consider obeying the Lord in this area. Let me show you this in the Bible and it doesn't change Him at all. I'm telling you, none of us have this thing all figured out on how to live as holy as we should. But we should be looking and moving toward that direction. We should be willing to be nudged that way. We should be willing to be pulled a little bit more toward the things of God. And it should bother our conscience if we don't. We talked to a few brothers here over the last month about baptism because we've been on this. And some things on their heart and on their conscience that we're trying to get reconciled and cleared out through the Bible. That's the answer, man. You're getting that stuff that's on your heart hashed out. I'm going to ask you young people this morning. Is your heart clear? Is your heart clear? If there's something on your heart, you need to talk to somebody about it. Talk to your parents about it. Talk to your pastor about it. But you want to get your conscience clear. You want to have things that are on your heart, on your conscience. You want to get those things cleared out. So that's what the answer is, and it'll save us that way. Go to Acts 10. Let's see if we can piggyback a verse here on that thought. Acts 10. Let's read v. 43 together. Acts 10.43. To Him give all the prophets witness that through His name, whosoever believeth in Him shall receive remission of sin. Sounds like believing, not water to me. You would agree? V. 44. While Peter yet spake these words, the Holy Ghost fell on them which heard the word." You hear the word, you believe, guess what you receive? The Holy Ghost. The Holy Ghost. And that is the Ephesians 4, that's the what? That's the one baptism. Everybody got that? Alright, Wilder, you got that? That's the what? The one baptism. Okay, you got it. Good job. Verse 46, it says, "...for they heard them speak with tongues and magnify God. Then answered Peter, Can any man forbid water, that these should not be baptized, which have received the Holy Ghost, as well as we?" So, who should be forbidden to be put into water and to be baptized? Non-believers, that's right. Those that are lost, we don't want to put them in water. That would be wrong. Verse 47, it says, Verse 48, I am sorry. And He commanded them to be baptized. Who's the them? The people that believed, right? And He commanded them to be baptized in the name of the Lord. And if we, as believers, that's a command. So we are being baptized because it's a command by God to do it. So if you're a believer and you don't love the commands of God, it's not going to be a good answer to your conscience. It's going to be on your conscience. And you're going to want to get that done so you get it off your conscience. Why? Because a believer's conscience is affected when they don't obey the commands of God. How many of you young people felt guilty when your parents told you to do something and you didn't do it. Okay, two people. Well, praise the Lord. We're really dealing with a repentant group this morning. I have to turn the air conditioning off and start preaching on hell a little bit. Scare you young'uns. How many of you ever did something you weren't supposed to? You didn't follow the commands of your parent. I'm going to help everybody. Put your hand up. Now, did you feel bad about that? Yeah, because your conscience was affected. It's the same idea here. When God gives us a command, it should affect our conscience if we're not obeying. It'd be a real problem if you just didn't care and were completely indifferent about what your parents asked you to do. Wouldn't it? It would. This emotional checking out this indifference to spiritual things, this, it's just kind of me and my social media scrolling, three-second looking world. Be careful. It's going to check you out. It's going to check you out. Your conscience should be affected by the commands of God. And so that's why a believer's water baptized. They want to follow what the Lord said to do. Go to 1 Corinthians 15. 1 Corinthians 15. It says, "...Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you, which also you have received, and whereby you stand." Now I want you to read verse number two up to the comma. You ready? "...by which also ye are saved." Okay, so what saves? What saves? Are you sure about that? Okay, the gospel saves. Go to 1 Corinthians 1. Lily, what saves? The Gospel. Amen. Melanie, what saves? The Gospel. Praise the Lord. I want to make sure you got that in case someone would tell you that water saves. 1 Corinthians 1. Here's what Paul writes under the Holy Spirit's inspiring power. In verse number 14, he says, well, let's read it together. I thank God that I baptized none of you but Crispus and Gaius, lest any should say that I had baptized in mine own name." So hold on a second. Paul is thankful that he didn't baptize anybody. Because he doesn't want to think it's about baptizing in his name. And then he goes on to say, oh but wait, verse 16, let's read that. And I baptized also the household of Stephanas. Besides, I know not whether I baptized any other." So he kind of backtracks and he says, well, you know, I guess I did baptize somebody. But we've got a problem here. I've got to address this problem. Because Paul wants to help them out. And then he goes on to say, let's keep reading in verse 17. Let's read up to the colon. For Christ sent me not to baptize, but to preach water." Oh wait, I must need to get my glasses changed. Hold on. Let's read it again. Let's read it again. For Christ sent me not to baptize, but to preach the Gospel. And the Gospel that we read in 1 Corinthians 15 is what type of Gospel? It's a saving Gospel. So would water save you? No, because the Gospel isn't Believe, confess, and get water baptized. That's not what the gospel is. And Paul very beautifully points this out. Is water baptism important? Yes. But it won't save you. The gospel isn't believe, confess, and get in water. That's not what the gospel is. Colossians 2. Colossians 2. Read verse number 12. Ready? Colossians 2. Read verse 12 together. Ready? Go. buried with Him in baptism, wherein also ye are risen with Him through the faith of the operation of God, who hath raised Him from the dead." Okay. Have you been raised from the dead by the spiritual circumcision and the operation that wasn't made by hand? Would that have happened to you as a believer? Okay. Okay. So when you get water baptized, that doesn't happen again. It already happened. But it is a It's symbolic of what happened inwardly is now shown outwardly. Let me show you something. What is this? Anybody know what this is? It's a wedding ring. Guess whose wedding ring it is? Yes. Guess where it isn't? It's not on my hand. Because everybody knows that if I put this wedding ring on, that would make me married, right? It wouldn't make me married, would it? Oh, I know, I know. If I take this wedding ring off, now it will make me not married, right? That would be no. No. Do you know why I can't put this wedding ring on, Wilder? What do you think? It don't fit, does it? Because my finger is getting fatter. That's what happens when you get older. What happens when you get older? Or are my knuckles swelling? Or I don't know what's going on. But anybody ever watch these videos on YouTube? You know, a guy's working and all of a sudden he gets his finger caught in something. And the ring gets caught. What happens to his finger? Yeah, you must have watched the same video. You're not supposed to watch that violent stuff. Well, there's also videos of You know the other problem with the wedding ring is? Well, if your finger swells or your finger gets fatter than what the wedding ring can handle, you can't get it off. You gotta go to the hospital and they gotta saw it off. Or you can go to get a Dremel tool at Lowe's and cut the thing off. Well, I couldn't get my wedding ring off and this was bothering me because it was swelling and all I kept thinking about was that video on YouTube I saw. I'm trying to get it off, trying to get it off, couldn't get the thing off. Got a bunch of oil. I tried to fast for a day or two, doing what I can, trying to keep my body cool. And I assume that was right, Will. I don't know if it was. We can cut it off of you next time. Amen, amen. It's good to have a medical professional in the church house, amen. I don't know if I did it right, but I got it off. Finally, I'm not married anymore. No, I wasn't thinking that. Because nobody that's married thinks that, oh, wow, I've got my wedding ring on now. I'm married. The wedding ring does what? Call it out if you know. It symbolizes My wife and I's love for each other. I bought my wife this beautiful wedding ring. I saved up all my money. Man, this thing was nice. It was nice. Spent four figures on it. Some of you I told, it's all right. Oh, nice. You know, one of those big fat diamonds in the middle. My wife's special, I love her. I got the little itty-bitty diamonds, you know, add a little special touch. Well, we were helping a friend some years back and clear out some carpet. And she gets home, she looks at her wedding ring. You know what was gone? Hey, man, some of them diamonds fell off. And that's what you spend money for is the diamonds. Man, I was so upset. She was so upset to tell me. But you know what she didn't say to me? I guess I'm not married anymore. Why was she upset and why was I upset? Because what that represented, what that was symbolic of, was our love for each other. That makes sense? Our love for each other. That's why it was upsetting to us. How's your conscience? If you obey God, your conscience will be clear. If you don't obey God, you're going to have... right? When God commands you and I to do something and we don't do it, because we love our Lord so much, it would bother us. But all this is, is symbolic. That's all it is. Let me just do something else here. Okay. Now, okay. Now, how many of you boys shoot a gun? You think you're pretty good? You think you're pretty good? Okay. What if I told you I had an 11-year-old daughter that can out-shoot every one of you whippersnappers? What if I said that? You're all, yeah, they're already starting to sit up a little straighter, like, you know, I'm the real cowboy up in this, I'm the lone ranger of this territory, man, that's what you're thinking, I know, I know. I said, you know what, you know what, I got an 11-year-old daughter that will out-shoot all y'all. Nah, nah, let's get the rifles out, let's get the BB guns out and see. And before we shoot, I want to tell you one more piece of information. And the entire state, she outshot everybody, 15 years and younger, or from 11 years old all the way up to 15 years old. And there's four positions the kids shoot in. In the one position, she outshot everybody. Every shooter outshot them all. Yeah, my kid, right up there. Good shot. You say, I don't believe that. I don't believe that. You have to look at the records, and you believe it. So you know what happens when a team comes out? They say, I'm going to be part of this shooting team. OK? You'll be part of this shooting team. Come on out here, Ethan. You're going to be part of this shooting team, except you've never shot a gun. OK? You never shot a gun. You just thought you could out-shoot my kid just because you're a guy and you've got an ego like I do. But you don't even know how to load a gun, let alone shoot it. And you say, OK, well, I'm going to be on the team, and I'm going to go out there with the team. So we're going to give you the team shirt. We're going to give you this team shirt. Put this shirt right here. We're going to give you that team shirt. Look at that. Eat, sleep, shoot. OK? Eat, sleep, shoot. Yeah, I'm part of the team now. Except he's not part of the team. He's putting on a shirt that he should never worn. He don't know how to handle a gun. He's putting on something he has no business putting on. Now turn around for a second. You put this on, Ethan. Put that right there. All of a sudden, everybody sees, well wait a minute. Bend of the River. Public Shooting Center. Cookville, Tennessee. and some possum hanging down there as a target, I guess. But what does it say? It says Josiah. Does this belong to Ethan? He's wearing something he has no business wearing. He's trying to, thank you my friend, give me five. He's trying to identify as a shooter, as a top-level shooter, as somebody who's on the team, and he has no business walking out with the team uniform. He's not on the team. So somebody that tries to get water baptized before they got saved, they're not on the team. They're not part of the body of Christ. It's only for those who are part of the body of Christ. And it's a way for us to identify as a believer. And by the way, after you identify as a believer, now, guess what your eye's on? The bullseye. The target. The prize. You saved? Put your hand up if you saved. Are you water baptized? Guess where your eyes should be on? How many bull's eyes can you shoot in your life? You want to win more Christ? You want to live for Christ? Keep your eyes on Him. Don't just say you're something that you're not. Go to Colossians 3. Go to Colossians 3. Let's read verse number 1 and 2. If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. Set your affections on things above, not on things on the earth. So now you're a sharpshooter. When you get saved and when you identify as a saved person by being immersed in water, now your eyes, as Colossians 3, your affections are now set on heavenly things, not earthly things. You're looking at that bullseye and you want to make sure you're hitting it. Because if you don't, you can't look this way and that way and get any type of shot. You can't get any shot off that's worth anything in your Christian life. You've got to keep your eyes on the right affection. You've got to keep it on the bullseye. Bullseye. Physical water only removes physical dirt. And when someone dies, they don't sprinkle dirt on them, do they? So go to Acts 8. Acts 8. Look at verse 30. For the sake of time, we'll pick it up at verse number 35. Let's read verse 35 through 38. Then Philip opened his mouth and began at the same Scripture and preached unto Him, Jesus. And as they went on their way, they came unto a certain water. And the eunuch said, See, here is water. What doth hinder me to be baptized? And Philip said, If thou believest with all thine heart, thou mayest. And he answered and said, I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. And he commanded the chariot to stand still, and they went down both into the water, both Philip and the eunuch, and he baptized him." What would have been the hindrance if he didn't what? Believe. That's the only hindrance. So if you haven't believed, then you have no business wearing the team uniform. If you have believed, then you have the access to putting that team uniform on. Then you can be baptized into water. The mode of that baptism is not sprinkling, it's what? Immersing down and coming completely back up into the water. Walter, why don't you come on out here, and Melanie, Hannah, why don't you hold this? And why don't you hold this? Melanie, actually, why don't you come hold this? OK. Hannah, you stay up here, though. Stay up here. All right. Come over here. Hold this this way. Pull it tight. Pull it tight. OK. That's what we can afford for a baptismal. There it is. We don't have any water, but imagine that there's water here. Okay? Imagine. Lily, why don't you come on up? Lily, come on up. You come on back here. Let me scoot by. Make sure we make this work. Okay. Can everybody see Lily? Okay. Now Hannah is going to baptize you. So you come on over here. Come on over here. This way. This way. You take the hand like this. Hold your nose. Now hold here. Okay. You're going to come over here. You're going to hold her right there. You're going to hold her here. This is a picture. It's a symbol. See this? She's going to go down into the water. Go ahead. Bring her down into the water. Come on, you've got to get her all the way down. Benjanese, Lily. It's play acting. And then come on up. See, did you go all the way down and all the way up? In the imaginary water, in the imaginary baptismal? Alright, let's give them a few amens and hallelujahs. Thank you, thank you. How about some glory to God in there too? Yes, sir. You get the identifying team uniform. You get the wedding ring as a symbol. You get that after you've believed. Does that make sense? They're identifiers. They're symbols. And going fully down, buried with Christ, risen with Him. And then after you've been risen with Him, your eyes are where? That's it. That's it. Alright, Acts 16, last one. We'll close it out. Acts 16, verse 33. Acts 16, 33. We'll just read that. Or, you know, let's go to Verse 31-33. Why don't we do that? And they said, "...believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved in thy house." And they spake unto him the word of the Lord, and to 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, straightway." The straightway, that means with no delay. So within that hour, what happened? They believed, and there was a sense of urgency for it. Now, it doesn't get you to heaven. We know that. We've already exhausted that. But there should be an urgency to get it done. Straightway. That's the way with no delay. Let's get her done. You a believer? Have you not been baptized? Straightway. Let's make some plans to get that thing done. So you obey the Lord and your conscience answers you. This is an often overlooked verse and let me just add this before we close. It's an often overlooked phrase in the verse. I guess it's a better way to say it. Let me read the verse wrong and then you fill in what should be there. And he took them the same hour of the night, and was baptized, he and all his, straightway." Now what did I leave out? Wash your stripes. You a believer? You care about people? You ever see a hospital that says, the Darwinian Medical Hospital? You don't see that, do you? You ever see atheistic regional hospital show up in the town? You don't, do you? Remember those stats we were sharing during the midweek service? The worldwide stats about the Christians and how many of the hospitals and all are closed. You know who cares for people? Christians. But you know what a lot of Christians do? They know how to be saved. Man, they're good at getting the gospel out. Matter of fact, they're so good at it, that's all they do. Let me tell you something. The Christian life is a lot more than passing tracks out, preaching on the street, knocking on doors, and compartmentalizing your relationship with that world as, I'm not talking to them unless I can tell them the gospel. That saved jailer was concerned about the stripes that Paul and Silas had. Are you concerned? Are you concerned about people? Or do you just want to make sure you've got all your I's dotted and your T's crossed, make sure you've got your doctrine right, because you might run into a Jehovah's Witness. You've got to win that argument. I mean, after all, winning the argument is the most important thing, right Brian? No, it's not the most important thing. It's not. If you had a neighbor that was a Jehovah's Witness and you saw that their lawn was grown over-weeded, Could you knock on their door and not give them the gospel but mow their lawn? I hope you could. I hope you could. You know what Christians do? They care for people. Look for opportunities when someone has a stripe that needs healing to be there for them. I would hope that if I was injured, I'd have someone help me with my wound. The Christian life is about seeing the wounds of others, and at the very least being concerned about them. We're told to go into all the world and preach the gospel, and there's no Bible verse that tells us we should do anything else but that, except there is. And we just read one. You know what that tells me in that verse? Save people have a heart for the wounds of others. And I think we should remember that. Brother David, I think that's part of the Colossians 3, setting our affections on heavenly things. I think the Lord wants us to care enough to have our eyes on all the bullseyes. You know, when you shoot, there isn't just one target. There's five on the left and five on the right. They have to do ten shots. There's multiple targets in the Christian life. And you might be excellent at this one target, but maybe there's another area of your life that you need some improving on. Get that one right. Get that one right.