[0:00] Take your Bibles and turn to Luke chapter 3. By the way, if some of you feel real generous, he lost about seven months of income last year because he lives strictly off of his concerts. We can buy all of his CDs.
[0:12] That'll even help him. And I love this guy. He loves Jesus. I love him. Is the piano top blocking the screen, guys? Okay. Open your Bibles to Luke 321.
[0:24] Luke 321. I do hope you'll come. He plays all over the world. He was in Moscow playing in one of the real big concerts. I've had time to ask him lots of questions. And he said, the Russians are like the best people.
[0:37] They're like musicians par excellence. And he said, 1,500 of the 3,000 came in with the entire score for the songs. He said, while you're playing, they're going, watch and make sure you hit the right notes.
[0:50] He said, it was kind of intimidating. I said, it's kind of like going to vision and preaching. They all open their Bibles to see if I'm right. I hope you do. Take your Bible. Go with me to Luke chapter 3 and verse 21.
[1:02] I want to read the passage of Scripture with you again. I really want to ask you to get out your Bible and your pen and write some things down and learn this. We are a Baptist church.
[1:14] We baptize people. And you might say, why do we baptize people? And why do we have to have so much water? And you may have a whole lot of questions. And I hope you get most of those answered today.
[1:26] So I want you to go to chapter 3, verse 21. And I want you to get an e-pen ready. Ready? Now when all. Circle that. See, what was happening was a whole bunch of people were getting baptized.
[1:36] There was this lunatic in the river named John the Baptist. And he was out there. They called him the Baptist because he's the baptizer. And he's baptizing people. And you could have thought maybe he's a little weird or he's a little off subject.
[1:49] And maybe he wasn't the right guy. But then somebody shows up. Look in your Bible. Now when all the people were baptized, Jesus showed up. Underline that.
[2:00] Now he put his stamp of approval on that right there. He put his stamp of approval on the ministry of John the Baptist and the baptizing. And Jesus also being baptized.
[2:12] And I don't know if you ever pay attention to words as much as I do. But I wish you'd underline this. When he got baptized, he was praying. Because he wasn't getting baptized for you.
[2:22] He wasn't getting baptized for the people watching. It was between him and his father. He was like, Lord, I love you. I'm obeying you. I'm following the things you've laid down for people.
[2:34] And when you get baptized, it ought to be like, I'm doing this for Jesus. You get baptized, it ought to be, I want to honor the Lord Jesus Christ with this. And then the Bible says the heaven was opened.
[2:46] Now here's a picture of the Trinity. You know that word's not found in your English Bible. But the truth is real. And there's God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost.
[2:57] And they are three distinct persons. And yet they are one person. And that's hard for us to capture and understand in our minds. But it's what we have.
[3:08] So we'll believe it. Amen. Look, if you would, in verse 22 and underline, Holy Ghost. He's there. He was there. And he was there in a form.
[3:19] He descended in a bodily shape like a dove. So he's like, I'm really here. This isn't some wind blowing or water sprinkling or something happening.
[3:30] He was there. And it was pretty obvious he was there. He descended in a bodily shape like a dove. That's what the Bible says. And then they heard a voice from heaven. You never see the Father. He's invisible.
[3:41] No man has seen him. No man has seen the face of God. A voice from heaven. That's God. And he said, thou art my beloved son. In thee I am well pleased. I want you to underline a voice.
[3:53] And I want you to underline beloved son. That voice from heaven was the Father speaking to the Son. So now I've got God the Father and God the Holy Ghost. And he's speaking to the Son.
[4:04] And he's the beloved Son. It's really interesting. God is pleased. And he announces that pleasure when Jesus gets baptized here.
[4:16] So baptism pleased him. God is three persons in one. And there are three distinct persons. There's often a heresy that goes around sometimes out of ignorance.
[4:28] And sometimes intentionally. And we act like, well, he's God the Father. And sometimes I'm a dad. And sometimes I'm a husband. And sometimes I'm a son.
[4:39] And sometimes I'm something else. That's not what's going on here. There are three people all together at the same place. You don't need a theology book for that. You just need to be able to read English.
[4:50] They're all here right now. How many of you see that? If you do, say amen. God the Father. God the Son. God the Holy Ghost. By the way, when we baptized, the Bible says in Matthew 28, 18, he gave all authority to Jesus to say anything you want in 19.
[5:04] He said, you go and make disciples. Go and teach all nations. And baptize them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. I want to answer a lot of questions. And you're going to say this isn't really out of Luke.
[5:16] But it really is. Because when you read the word baptism, you ought to be able to understand it. When you say Jesus came to be baptized, you'll understand it. There's a lot of questions and a lot of arguments and a lot of discussion about baptism.
[5:27] Can I be sprinkled? Can I be sprinkled as a baby? When I married Betty, she had already been christened as a baby. And she was baptized when she was 12 and entered into the Methodist church.
[5:43] And I'm dating her. And she had just gotten saved a year before. So when she was a baby, she wasn't already saved. And then when she was 12, she wasn't already saved. And she got saved.
[5:53] And, of course, I'm a Baptist preacher. And I knew it back then. And so while I'm dating her, I'm discipling her selfishly. And I said to her, you know, if anything's ever going anywhere, you want to get baptized.
[6:05] And she got baptized. Her family didn't like that at all. I want you to just take some notes. Go with me. Number one, baptism takes place in water.
[6:16] All right. Baptism takes place in water. You're going to say this is kind of childish. But I didn't write the Bible. God did. And so he said it a whole bunch. And that there's confusion all over the world about how to get baptized.
[6:29] Do I get baptized with sprinkling? I've even had discussions with some missionaries over the years that wanted to sprinkle somebody. And I said, that's not how Jesus did it. Go to Matthew chapter 3 and verse 6.
[6:42] And we're baptized of him in Jordan. And we're baptized with him in a river. I've been there. It's not that impressive of a river.
[6:52] Don't tell any Israelis that. But it's not the Mississippi. And it's definitely not the Amazon. But it's a lot of water. And that's what it takes to get baptized.
[7:03] In Mark chapter 1 and verse 5 he said, And they went out unto him all the land of Judea and they of Jerusalem and were all baptized of him in the river of Jordan.
[7:15] In the river of Jordan. So baptizing takes a lot of water. In John chapter 3 and verse 22 to 23 the Bible says, And John was baptized in Enon near to Salem because there was much water there.
[7:32] And they came and were baptized. So Jesus went to the river. Jesus was baptized in river Jordan. There is much water in the river Jordan.
[7:42] In Acts chapter 3 and verse 36 the Bible said, And as they went on their way they came unto a certain water. So there was enough water.
[7:53] It was a certain water. And what's interesting is if you're in the desert, you know, you can just take a canteen and sprinkle a guy. You can just take a skin and get some water out of it and sprinkle him.
[8:04] But as they rode along this eunuch knew enough that he needed certain water. And he said, Here is water. What doth hinder me to be baptized? And Jesus said, Or Philip said, If thou believest with all thine heart thou mayest.
[8:19] And he answered, I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. And he commanded the chariot to stand still. And I just want you to know this in your Bible. They went down both into the water.
[8:32] Hard to do in a glass. Hard to do in a little sprinkling receptacle. They went down both into the water. Both Philip and the eunuch. And he baptized him.
[8:44] Baptism takes place in water. Acts chapter 10 and verse 47. Can any man forbid water that these should not be baptized which receive the Holy Ghost as well as we?
[8:59] So I just want you to know. Let's just go over probably the basic thing. The word baptized means immersed. It means stuck in the water. It means dunked in the water. Baptists were often called in history.
[9:12] We were the dunkers. We dunk people. We baptize people. We place them in water. So I don't want to hurt your feelings. But you need to hear the truth. If you've been sprinkled and you've never been baptized in a lot of water after believing in Jesus Christ, which you won't have any question about that in a minute, if you believe the Bible, then you've not been baptized.
[9:32] You've been, I don't know, you've been playing. You've done a religious thing, but you've not been biblically baptized. You can always spot a young kid that thinks a whole lot about church.
[9:46] You know, when I was a kid, I baptized all the time. We had a creek out in front of our house. And so I baptized everybody. I baptized people 10, 20, 30 times.
[9:57] I baptized until they cried sometimes. I was bigger than them. And they wouldn't quit. And I'd hold them there. But I'd say, I baptize you in the name of the Father. And I'd put them under. And they'd say, that's enough. And I'd say, oh, hush, I'm practicing.
[10:08] And so I baptized a lot more people before I got to be a pastor than I did when I wasn't a pastor. But that wasn't baptizing. That was playing. That was playing.
[10:20] And in the Bible, it's a pretty important thing. John the Baptist is in the river. And John the Baptist is baptizing. And John the Baptist is saying, you don't come up to me unless you are ready.
[10:31] You have turned your life away from your sin. You've turned your life to the Lord Jesus Christ. And to truth that they confessed sin. And he baptized them. Well, everybody could say the Jews could say, that guy's a nut.
[10:45] But Jesus showed up. Not only did Jesus show up, the Holy Ghost showed up. The Holy Spirit was there. Not only was the Holy Spirit there, the Father was there.
[10:56] I mean, it was all of a sudden like, let's just stop time. And everybody quiet. Watch this. Jesus is going to get baptized.
[11:07] I love it. In John chapter 1 and verse 29, John the Baptist points up the hill and said, Behold the Lamb of God, which takes away the sin of the world. And Jesus comes down to be baptized.
[11:20] He got baptized and it pleased the Father. And the Holy Spirit of God comes down in the shape of a dove. And a voice from heaven said, Boy, that's my son.
[11:31] And I am well pleased in him. I am well pleased in him. So the next question that has to be answered. First of all, you've got to be baptized in a lot of water.
[11:44] You know, you've got to be baptized in a lot of water. It's not a convenience thing. It's not some ceremony we just put on. It's to be done the way it was done in the Bible. And every time we look in the Bible, that's how it was done.
[11:57] The second thing would be, well, do I have to be baptized to be saved? Do I have to be baptized to be saved? And the answer to that is absolutely not.
[12:10] Baptism doesn't save anyone. And that's another thing that comes along. So there are churches that believe in what's called baptismal regeneration. And they think that a person getting baptized, that's a part of salvation.
[12:25] Or maybe it may be the main part of salvation. We're going to look at verses here for a second. But I need you to understand from a biblical standpoint. See, we would have to reject a baptism from another group if they thought baptism had anything to do with salvation.
[12:43] Because it's not just a symbol. It's a testimony. And we'll get around to that in just a minute. But do you have... And every time we baptize here, if you notice, every time I try to make mention of the fact, we gain no merit.
[12:56] We don't get saved. Nobody gets any brownie points. We're doing this to obey Jesus. And it's not a sign of having anything to do with salvation. So write this down somewhere.
[13:09] No external acts are necessary for salvation. No external acts are necessary for salvation. Write this down. It is faith alone so that none of us can brag about anything.
[13:23] None of us will ever get to heaven and say, Well, I was baptized by John the Baptist. I was baptized by Charles Haddon Spurgeon, the greatest English preacher who ever lived. You'll not get to do that because that has nothing to do with getting into heaven.
[13:38] In Romans chapter 3 and verse 22, I hope you'll open your Bible there. You need to mark this because you need to know it's the scripture. If those people would open a score of music to follow along with Mr. Rotman when he plays the piano, you certainly ought to open the Bible to make sure I'm telling you what the Word of God says.
[13:57] So check it out. It'll be on the screen, but you got it right there in front of you. Look at it. The Bible says in Romans 3, 22, Even the righteousness of God, Now listen, which is by faith.
[14:11] Now you need to underline that. The righteousness of God, which is by what? Help me. By faith. And what kind of faith? Faith of Jesus Christ. Unto all them.
[14:23] Now, I want you to read this next part down to the colon. Say it all with me. Are you ready? Upon all them that believe. The righteousness of God is by faith of Jesus Christ upon all them that believe.
[14:39] It didn't say baptize. It didn't say baptize. It's on them that believe. There is no difference. All have sinned. He's really trying to straighten up a little bit of a problem.
[14:51] When you read the book of Romans, you need to understand there's a problem in the Roman church between Jews and Gentiles. And Jews are kind of like, we're not like those godless pagans. Gentile in many parts of the Bible.
[15:04] And a lot of what it refers to is that they are pagans. They're godless. Because if you don't have the one and true God, which the Jews had, then you're godless. And now they were saved and they're in the church together.
[15:16] And he said, there's no difference, by the way. A Jew doesn't get saved by what he does. And a Gentile doesn't get saved by what he does or didn't do. Everybody. Not just the Gentiles saved by faith, but even the Jew is saved by faith.
[15:29] In verse 24. Look in your Bible. You got it? It says, being justified. Help me. What's that word there? Being justified? Freely. Freely. Salvation isn't about what you give and where you go to church.
[15:42] It's a gift you receive by the grace of God. Read the verse. Justified freely by his grace. And why?
[15:52] Because redemption is found not in an action, but in a person. Now look at it. Underline it in your Bible right there. It says redemption that is in Christ Jesus.
[16:05] Salvation is a God thing. It's God coming down. It's God doing the work. It's God making the move. It's verse 25. God setting Jesus forth as the offering and the sacrifice of propitiation.
[16:18] Go to verse 26. To declare, I say, at this time his righteousness, that he might be just and the justifier of him which believes in Jesus.
[16:30] Underline this. He is a justifier of who? Underline it in your Bible. He's a justifier of believers. If you believe Jesus, he justifies you.
[16:43] If you realize your sin separates you from Almighty God and causes you to spend an eternity in hell and you realize that Jesus died for you and then he justifies you.
[16:55] Verse 27. This is kind of a recurring thing and the Bible happens more than one time. I'm not sure if I get to all of them for the sake of time. But I want you to notice this. Underline verse 27. Where is boasting then?
[17:08] You need to put a circle around that. Do you realize that nobody gets to heaven with anything to brag about? Everybody gets to heaven and gets to the same way. Boy, I don't deserve this.
[17:20] Man, I can't believe I'm saved. I just don't understand why he loved me so much. I mean, I just can't imagine. And we go into heaven and there will be a lot of bragging going on in heaven on Jesus.
[17:30] We're going to go there going, wow, Jesus, you are good. You are kind and you are merciful. You're a wonderful and a sweet person. Because if it was anything I could do, I'd brag about it.
[17:43] I like to brag. Most folks got bragging walls in their houses. You know, that's the one where you put up everything everybody nice ever said about you. You know, you got that thing where you got all your plaques and you got all your stuff.
[17:55] And on your Facebook, you want to put it. You want it everywhere. We all like a little bit of bragging. We like to brag and we do it through the clothes we wear sometimes in the house we live in. We like to brag. But in spiritual things, you don't get to do any bragging.
[18:06] In spiritual things, you come like a beggar who needed to be saved. It says in verse 27, where is boasting? Underline it. It is excluded. It is excluded.
[18:18] Underline that. Circle it. No bragging here. No boasting here. By what law? Of works? Nay, by the law of faith.
[18:31] Verse 28, you need to get it marked in your Bible. For we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law.
[18:43] So a man goes to heaven because he trusts Jesus and it's not about anything he does. It is not about anything he does. None of us will go to heaven because of what we did.
[18:57] Verse 29, is he the God of the Jews only? Is he also the Gentiles? Yeah, he said the Gentiles too. So that's that argument that's going on. In verse 30, seeing it as one God which shall justify the circumcision by faith and uncircumcision through faith.
[19:15] What he's saying is it doesn't matter which one you are. Faith is the key word. Circle it, faith. A Jew gets saved by believing. A Gentile gets saved by believing.
[19:27] He counts faith as righteousness. What God counts as righteousness is our faith, not something we do. Look in Romans chapter 4 and verse 5.
[19:38] Romans chapter 4 and verse 5. The Bible says, but to him that worketh not. You go to heaven not by anything you do.
[19:49] Now listen to me, cultural Christians in the southeast part of the United States honestly believe their salvation is something they did. They think I got baptized.
[20:00] I go to church. My grandma was buried in the church parking lot. Or in the church graveyard, not the parking lot. I hope. I hope we keep the poor lady. Although somebody in our church did run over my mother when she went to church here.
[20:13] One of our mystery wives did. But anyway. And broke her hip. But anyway, that shouldn't have happened. Amen. But it did. But he says, hey, it's not what you do.
[20:24] It's believing what Jesus did. Believe in what Jesus did. And the last part of that verse said, his faith is counted for righteousness.
[20:36] Now we need to be, see what I'm doing here. I know you come all the time and you hear the Bible all the time. But we need to just go back over it. It's all about knowing that it's Jesus and what he did on the cross.
[20:49] It's the finished work of Christ. It's not anything we do. It's nothing that you can do in your body that gets you right with God. Nothing. Nothing.
[21:00] The Bible says in Galatians 2.16, knowing. I know y'all know this. He says, the man is not justified by the works of the law. Skipping down.
[21:11] He's justified by the faith of Christ and not by the works of law. For by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified. No one will go to heaven because they were good enough.
[21:26] Everyone will have a problem if they think that they got to go to heaven by admitting they're not. You know, sometimes people in rich areas like where we live, because we live in a very rich area.
[21:38] And sometimes we get to thinking that we're not like other people. And we get to thinking that maybe those people on the south side of Atlanta need to repent. And maybe those people in another section need to repent.
[21:49] And we start looking around and thinking other people ought to. But maybe we're good. But no flesh, no person will go to heaven by something he or she did.
[22:03] I have so much more to show you, but time's running out. So let's skip down to this. Just real quickly. You don't even have to look this one up. But in 1 Corinthians 15, the apostle Paul is going to declare unto us what the gospel is.
[22:16] Now, when he declares what the gospel is, there's something missing. Especially if you're a baptizer and think it's baptism. In 1 Corinthians 15, 1, he said, I declare unto you the gospel.
[22:29] Now, when we want to know what the gospel is, we can pretty simply run to 1 Corinthians 15. And down in verse 3, he said, Christ died for our sins. And in verse 4, he said, he was buried and he rose again the third day.
[22:42] And he conspicuously left out getting baptized. He didn't even mention it. Was that an oversight? No, it was not an oversight.
[22:54] So we're talking about baptism today. And Jesus went to the river to be baptized. But that didn't save him. That didn't save him. That didn't wash away any sins. That did nothing more than do something that pleased the Father.
[23:10] That pleased the Father. So who should be baptized? Let's answer some questions real quickly. Number one thing. There is not one.
[23:20] I'd like to show you the verses about babies getting baptized. I'd like to. But there aren't any. We don't have one verse.
[23:31] Now, whole denominations baptize babies. And they think maybe it'll wash away the original sin. Or maybe it'll put them in the covenant. Or maybe it'll get them with some right standing with God.
[23:42] Or maybe it'll identify them as a Christian. That's nice. Just not biblical. That's not biblical at all.
[23:54] We have no idea in the scriptures of anybody being baptized as a baby. Every baptism in the New Testament is preceded by repentance and faith.
[24:10] The Bible says in Acts chapter 8 and verse 12. You should mark this because you want to know it. When they believed, they were baptized.
[24:24] In Acts chapter. I don't have time for all of them. But in Acts chapter 2. Gladly received his word. They believed and they were baptized and added to the number. What was the condition of being baptized?
[24:36] In Acts chapter 16 and verse 30. He says, Sirs, what must I do to be saved? And he said in verse 31. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved and thy house.
[24:50] He didn't say get baptized. He didn't say get baptized. In Acts chapter 18 and verse 1. Crispus, the chief ruler of the synagogue, believed on the Lord.
[25:02] And hearing, believed and were baptized. Baptism is reserved solely for those people who have put their faith in Christ.
[25:13] So listen to what I'm going to tell you. Number one, if you got baptized as a baby. Well, I got bathed as a baby. But that doesn't do anything more than get me a little wet or clean. That's not going.
[25:25] That has no spiritual value at all. If you got sprinkled or baptized when you were confirmed, but you had not believed in Christ, has no value at all.
[25:37] You don't need to be baptized to go to heaven. You do need to be baptized to follow the example set by Jesus Christ and to do what he told the church to do. In Matthew chapter 28 and verse 19, he said, teaching all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost.
[25:59] You need to be baptized. But you get baptized because you believed. Now, some people get baptized before they believe. We're after a false profession of faith. And then they haven't been baptized after a true profession of faith.
[26:12] That's really similar to you putting on my wedding ring like you're married to Betty and you ain't married to her. Similar to my grandsons getting married Friday night. And our oldest grandson is getting married Friday night.
[26:25] And if he puts that wedding ring on right now, that would be pretty. That would be nice. But it don't mean he's married. He's going to have to make a decision. It's going to be a public decision. And that will happen Friday night in a service.
[26:36] So, baptism is a lot of water. And it's for believers. And it's after believing. And it's a picture.
[26:47] What is baptism? It's a picture. In Romans chapter 6, verses 2 and following. And I'm just going to go pretty quickly because our time's run away.
[26:57] But in chapter 6 and verse 2, how shall we that are dead to sin live any longer therein? In verse 3, we were baptized into his death. We're buried with him.
[27:08] It's a picture. It's a picture when we baptize somebody. They're like walking in a pulpit into the baptistry. And they're already saved. The baptism is an outward revelation of an inward reality.
[27:24] I am already born again. I've been doing weddings. I've done lots of weddings. You've been to a lot of them I've done here because all the kids are always getting married. You know, I've never been to a wedding one time when I looked at her and said, Will you take him?
[27:36] And she goes, I don't even know how I got here. I don't know how I got this dress on. No, she made a decision already. And we are in a service saying, now we're going to bring public a decision you made.
[27:50] I've never asked that question to anybody here. Has any reason why these two shouldn't get married? Because I'm afraid another student in the training center might have been courting her too. And he might hold his hand up and say, I got a reason.
[28:01] I want her to marry me. You never know. I don't do that. But the whole point is when you get baptized, it's like when you get married. I know. I've never been to one. I mean, I saw Andy Griffith and Barney have a shotgun wedding one time.
[28:15] But that's the closest I've ever been to one of them on Andy and the Mayberry, you know. And so when you get baptized, you're doing it because you freely want to say to everybody, Hey, I have trusted Jesus Christ as my savior.
[28:29] Watch this. I'm going to get in this baptistry. And when they bury me here in the water, it's a symbol of I have decided to follow Jesus. I want to bury the old man and I want to be raised to walk in newness of life.
[28:44] I've already done all that, by the way. That happened before I got here. I just wanted y'all to know I made that decision. I just want to tell y'all Jesus did something in me.
[28:55] It's a way to publicly profess your faith. In Romans chapter 10 and verse 11, whoso believeth on him shall not be ashamed. If you love Jesus and you're ashamed, something's wrong with your love.
[29:10] You know, I'd like to marry you, but don't come to the wedding. We'll get a proxy. I'd like to marry you, but could you wear a bag over your head? Come on, we don't do that. If you love Jesus, you will not be ashamed.
[29:26] I got a lot I could say there, but I won't. Baptism is your testimony of your decision to accept the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior. It is your way of publicly acknowledging and identifying with Jesus Christ, with his church, and with what he did on the cross of Calvary.
[29:46] It is a picture of the death and the burial and the resurrection of Jesus Christ. That's what we're doing. Last thing to say to you, when should I get baptized?
[29:58] Okay, so just write this down, a summary here. You ready? It's believer's baptism. Write that down. It is believer's baptism.
[30:09] That means if you're not a believer, it's not baptism. Do you hear that? If you're not a believer, it's not baptism. So you're doing it because you are a believer.
[30:20] They believed and they were baptized. They believed and they were baptized. You only get baptized when you're old enough to make your own decision.
[30:33] When, so funny, you know, I'm in Peru and pastoring and starting churches and, and the churches are growing quickly and people are coming. And the folks would come to me and they'd say, uh, I need you to baptize my son.
[30:48] He'd be three years old. And I said, no, why would I baptize him? He said, because I need him to trust Jesus like I have. And I said, I'm glad you do. So you get to pray all you want.
[30:59] I could dunk him all day long. That doesn't make him believe in Jesus. You see, you got to get old enough to make your own decision. You need to be old enough to say, you know what? I have failed the God of heaven.
[31:12] I have sinned against the Holy God. I know I've sinned against him and I want to turn from that sin. And I want to turn to Jesus and I want to believe him in my own heart for myself.
[31:26] I'm fixing to aggravate some of us just a little bit. Sometimes you want your kids to do that and you prompt them way too much. And you kind of lead them on. And then you make a false decision.
[31:41] It's like getting a vaccination. You don't get the real thing. You just get something that kind of puts it off or doesn't do it. Don't do that. Pray for them and tell them the truth and beg them to come to Christ.
[31:55] But they don't need to trust Christ to please you. Because in this equation, you're nobody. Salvation is a God thing, not a mama thing.
[32:12] Salvation is a God thing, not a daddy thing. And they need to know that they have come to a place in their life that they have trusted Christ. You only get baptized when you realize that salvation is purely by grace.
[32:27] And you receive no merit, no points, no good works for being baptized. God ended up in heaven going, and I saved you about 90%. I'm leaving you to work on 10%.
[32:37] God saves you at 100%. And leaves you to work on nothing to get to heaven. You need to understand that. That doesn't mean you don't want to please him.
[32:50] It just means that we are saved by the good grace of God. The Bible says, for the wages of sin is death. But listen, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ the Lord.
[33:06] One thing you earn, one thing is a gift. And the gift comes through one person, and that is Jesus. You get baptized by immersion, even if you were falsely baptized some other way.
[33:21] Now this is what I'm going to tell you. Jesus went down to the baptizing place. I was in South Africa, and a guy was going to be a pastor.
[33:34] And I asked him, I said, well, tell me about when you believed. And we went over his salvation. I said, that's great. I really believe, you know, you got a good testimony. I said, tell me about getting baptized. He said, you know, I was down in the swimming pool one day swimming, and I thought to myself, I ought to get baptized.
[33:49] He said, so I said, Father, in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, I do baptize myself. And he dunked himself on the water and said, that's when I got baptized. I said, well, I'm not baptizing. You weren't publicly testifying to anybody.
[34:01] You weren't submitting to any leadership or authority. You weren't recognizing a church. You were playing. He didn't like me. I don't know why.
[34:11] I just told him the truth. You don't get baptized until you realize that water can't wash away sin. It can't put you in a covenant. It can't get you closer to God.
[34:23] It's just a symbol of what happened in your heart. My dad never wore a wedding band as long as I can remember him.
[34:34] He was a machinist and a mechanic and a maintenance man on big, heavy equipment. At the company, it was against company policy to wear a ring because they said some people, the machinery caught their finger, pulled off their, or caught their ring and pulled off their finger.
[34:50] I wear one because this is about as heavy duty lifting as I do. And so I'm pretty, I'm pretty secure with my ring.
[35:01] But I'm no more married than the guy who doesn't wear a ring. The ring doesn't make you married. It's a symbol you're married. You get baptized to publicly say you love Jesus and you're giving your life to him.
[35:14] You get baptized when you want to say you're leaving your old life and living a new life. Being baptized as an adult is quite humbling. You know, some people in our church, you may be attending and you're not really baptized.
[35:28] You don't want to get baptized because you're a full grown man. And I'm not going to go up there and let somebody put me underwater. I'm not going to do that. Well, that's about as big a pride issue as I ever heard.
[35:39] And salvation is about humility. It's about coming to Christ and saying, I'm nothing. I'm nobody. And I can't go to heaven on my own.
[35:50] So I want to tell you today that if you'll go back, if you'll go back to the verses where we started, it's really interesting. Jesus was praying when he got baptized.
[36:00] I love that. Could you understand what that means? I mean, him and the father, they're one. But they're working separately right now. And he's getting baptized.
[36:11] Hey, father, I love you. I'm doing this for you. Bless me and use me for your purposes and your causes. And the father goes, oh, I'm well pleased.
[36:22] Go ahead. Holy Spirit goes, dives down like a dove. Says, we're here, bud. You understand that? If you're not baptized, you ought to get baptized only if you're a believer.
[36:37] But some of you just go to church because that's what you do. Your mama wants you to. And you do it because of peer pressure. But you're going to go to hell when you die. I'm sorry.
[36:48] Hey, there's not a nice way to say this. If you don't know Jesus, you will die and go to hell forever. Nobody will pray you out.
[36:58] Nobody will fix anything. There's no solution. Once you close your eyes in death, you wake up somewhere forever. If you're not trusting Christ, today's your day.
[37:09] Trust him. And if you're a believer, stand up and be counted. Be baptized. Don't be ashamed of the Lord Jesus Christ. Let's bow our heads for a word of prayer.
[37:21] Father in heaven, I love you. And I thank you for the opportunity to serve you. God, I pray that you might save somebody today. Somebody that's watching online or somebody that's here or somebody that's out in the hallways listening.
[37:35] I pray, God, you'd save somebody. And God, I pray that some believers would just make a decision. I am really going to obey and honor God in this. I haven't been obedient, but I'm going to be.
[37:50] So, God, I pray that you do a work, that you would honor yourself as you deal in people's hearts. With heads bowed and eyes closed, I'm going to ask Trent and Ben Myers to stand up here at the front, one of you on each side.
[38:06] If you're here and you've never been saved, I've got some men here that would like to take the Bible and show you how to go to heaven when you die. We will take you to a place in private. We'll answer your questions and we'll show you no pressure.
[38:20] We want you to know Jesus. I'm not trying to get you to be a member of the church or any of that. I want to ask you in a second to get out of your seat and come forward. But I want to pray for you. If you're here and you say, I'm not sure I'm saved, would you just hold your hand up and let me pray for you?
[38:34] I'm not sure I'm saved. Anybody? These guys are here. I want you to come tell them I need to be baptized if that's the case. You know whether or not you've been scripturally baptized.
[38:46] I think the Holy Spirit might speak to you right now. You can take and shake Ben's hand, Trent's hand right now and say, I am ready to take the next step. And we'll line up discipleship time with you and we'll go over everything the Bible says about it.
[39:00] But I want you to obey God. Would there be anybody who would just get out of your seat and come right now and say, I need you to pray with me. I'm making a decision to publicly acknowledge my faith in Jesus Christ.
[39:13] Father, work now and move. And I'll give you praise, honor, and glory for all that you do. Heads are bowed. Eyes are closed. These guys are standing here. You're more than welcome to come forward. And whenever you finish praying at the front or in your seat, you can stand and sing with Stephen as he leads us in his song.
[39:26] It's coming. It's coming. It's coming.
[39:39] It's coming.