A week ago on Thursday night,
we saw how Cornelius and his household confessed the Lord
in baptism. Last Sunday in our Bible class,
we studied the account of Moses and the Israelites crossing the
Red Sea. This past Thursday night, We
heard Peter rehearse the account of Cornelius and his household
confessing the Lord in water baptism. Suffice it to say, baptism,
the doctrine of baptism has been on my mind for quite a few weeks
now. So my subject this morning is
going to be baptism. The title of my message is The
Importance of Baptism. Do you ever give much thought
to believer's baptism? When the Lord Jesus Christ was
here, He walked from Nazareth of Galilee all the way to Jerusalem
to be baptized by John. Baptism must be important. Why did He do that? Why did he
walk all that way to be baptized of John? Well, one reason he did it is
because he knew it was his father's will that John baptize him. And as the son of God, in his office as the son of man,
another reason he did it is because he believed God. He believed
God. I want you to see the importance
of baptism for the believer. And I want to ask three questions.
What is baptism? And then secondly, who should
be baptized? And then thirdly, should we be
re-baptized or baptized again? So first we'll begin look here
at what is baptism. Now this is not in any particular
order of importance, but let me give you four things that
baptism is. First, by definition, baptism
is immersion in water. The very word baptizo means immersion. To say immersion is a mode of
baptism or a form of baptism is as redundant as saying sprinkling
is a form of sprinkling. It is the same as saying sprinkling
is a form of sprinkling. Immersion is not a mode of baptism. Baptism is immersion. Matthew
3.16, Jesus, when He was baptized, went up straightway out of the
water. Philip and the Ethiopian eunuch,
they commanded the chariot to stand still, and both Philip
and the eunuch went down into the water. And Philip baptized
Him, and when they were come up out of the water, the Spirit
of the Lord called away Philip. So first of all, baptism is immersion. That's important because when
our Lord died, when He went to the cross and bore the penalty
of God's wrath, in the Psalms, in many of the Messianic Psalms,
He talks about being in deep waters. The waters have come
in unto my soul. We read that there in Jonah,
where he went down below the mountains of the sea. It's all pointing to Christ. He was immersed. He was immersed
in wrath, for one thing. And then secondly, when he went
into the grave, he was buried. He was buried. The next time
that something dies around your house, an animal or something,
you just sprinkle a little dirt on it and leave it there for
a few days. And you wish you'd dug a hole
and buried it. Dead things need to be buried.
And that's what baptism is. It's a burial. Secondly, baptism
is the believer's confession of faith in Christ. Baptism is
a believer's confession of faith in Christ. By being immersed
in water and then raised up out of the water, you symbolize how
God saved you through death, burial, and resurrection of Christ
as your substitute. Romans chapter 6 verse 3 through
verse 11. Know ye not that so many of us
as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into His death? The word there really should
be unto. Baptized unto Jesus Christ. Unto His death. Baptism is not
a sacrament. It doesn't put you in Christ.
You're baptized unto Christ. God puts us in Christ. 1 Corinthians
1 verse 30 tells us, Of God are ye in Christ Jesus. He put us in Christ before the
foundation of the world by grace. Baptism is baptism unto Christ. And we'll see that in another
scripture here in a moment as well. But when you consider baptism,
When a person is baptized in water, that immersion symbolized
what literally took place in reality for the sinner when Christ
died. Christ was made sin for you. That's what you're confessing. Christ was made sin for you. And therefore, the justice that
should have been yours, that should have fallen on you, fell
on Him instead of on you. And you're confessing that He
died in your place. He died the death that you should
have died. That's what you're confessing.
And you're confessing that when He was buried, He was buried
in your grave. He was buried in the grave that
you should have been buried in if God executed justice upon
you instead of upon Him. And when
He rose from the grave to His throne in Heaven's glory, you
confess that in Him you have risen and are seated with Him
in Christ in the heavenlies. That's what we confess in water
baptism. Verse 4 says, Therefore we are
buried with him by baptism into death, that like as Christ was
raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so
we also should walk in newness of life. Christ was raised by
the Spirit of God and Christ raised Himself. Likewise, true. But Christ was raised to newness
of life. He was raised up never to come
in contact with sin ever again. Separated from it forever. Never
to be under the law ever again. Ever. But only to reign Love
and in grace and holiness in all the attributes of God Almighty
He was raised to newness of life to newness of life perfectly
holy in his person perfectly righteous no need for for a law
and What you confess in baptism is when we're baptized into his
death married with Him by baptism into death, just like as Christ
was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, we're
confessing we also have been raised up to walk in newness
of life. We don't need a law to curb us. We don't need a law to bind us. Because We don't have to be hogtied
like a sinner does to keep from harming themselves and everybody
else around them. And it still doesn't do any good.
The law never has made anybody obedient, ever. But in water
baptism, you confess that in spirit, that now you're led by
the Holy Spirit. It's a brand new life, a spiritual
life. You are in a new kingdom. Not
a carnal existence, not a carnal kingdom, but in a heavenly kingdom,
in a spiritual kingdom. It's new in every way. New in every way. And in His
holy person, you're holy. In His righteousness, you're
righteous. In this new Spirit, you walk
in Him, led by the Holy Spirit of God. This new Spirit that
God has created within you, this newness of life that God has
created within you, cannot not believe God. It cannot not believe
God. It can only believe God. It can
only trust Christ totally Incompletely. And therefore, because it's born,
this newness, this new man is born of the Spirit of God, it
can't sin. Because it's born of the incorruptible
seed of God. If it could sin, it'd be corrupted.
Can't sin. I'm not talking about this flesh.
I'm talking about God's creation. I'm talking about what Christ
made. God has never made anything but that which is good. And whatever
He has created in a believer, it's good. That's why Paul said,
in my flesh. That's why Paul said, in me.
That is, in my flesh dwells no good thing. And by faith in Christ,
who loved His Father and His neighbor perfectly, you are just
as perfect as He is. Just as perfect as He is. You
are no longer under the law. Absolutely not under any law
whatsoever. Read on with me, verse 5. Because
if we have been planted together in the likeness of His death,
we shall be also in the likeness of His resurrection. These are
not possibilities that Paul is talking about. These are statements
of fact. This is statements that every
believer knows to be a fact. Knowing this, that our old man
is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed. You see that word might right
there? Don't look at a word like might or right over here in the
next phrase where it says should. Don't look at phrases like that
as if maybe, or as if there's a possibility. It's the same
as when the Lord said, He who knew no sin was made sin for
us, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him.
It's not that we maybe, somehow, it might work out to where we
end up being the righteousness of God in Him. It is we are made
the righteousness of God in Him by what He did. And that's what
this word means right here. Our old man is crucified with
him, and the body of sin is destroyed. If you go home and look up these
verbs right here, what you're going to find out is they're
in the past, the aorist tense, which means it's already taken
place. And they're right here for some reason, they're translated
in in a future, like in our language it would be what you'd call future
tense, but the original is aorist tense, which means it already
took place. Our body of sin is destroyed,
that henceforth we shall not serve sin. Not that we shouldn't
or ought not to, but we won't. It's an impossibility. That's
what Paul is conveying here. And that's what we confess when
we're baptized. For he that is dead is freed
from sin. You're not a servant of sin anymore.
You've been free when a servant has been unshackled. I've used
this illustration before. You see them wrestling these
criminals and these thugs into a jail cell on these TV programs
and they have to do everything in the world. Three or four police
officers get them and bind them and throw them into that jail
cell and get them in there. But you don't ever see a show
about them releasing one. And I guarantee you the reason
why is because it's not nearly as fun to watch. Because when
they're released, they just walk out of there. They don't have
to be hog-tied and pulled out of there and coerced to come
out of there. They walk out of there. They're free. And they
leave. Well, you're being freed from
sin. This is by what Christ did. And now if we be dead with Christ,
we believe. This is what we confess when
we're baptized. We believe that we shall also
live with Him. If we're dead with Him, we believe
we'll live with Him. Knowing, not thinking about it,
but knowing, persuaded that Christ being raised from the dead dieth
no more. So, we will die no more. Death has no more dominion over
him. So, death has no more dominion over us. Why not? Because death stingeth sin, and
he put sin away. And the strength of sin is the
law, and he satisfied the law. For in that he died, he died
unto sin once. But in that he liveth, he liveth
unto God. And so our newness of life is
we live unto God. We live unto God. Likewise, reckon,
just count yourself to be dead indeed unto sin. If you, if faith
counts itself to be dead indeed unto sin, we count that old man
to be dead indeed unto sin. It's when, it's when we start
looking at our flesh and seeing how sinful we still are in our
flesh. That's when we start having problems. This is something we do by faith.
Count yourself, that old body of sin, to be dead with Christ. Dead unto sin, but alive unto
God through Jesus Christ our Lord. Alive unto God through
Jesus Christ our Lord. Galatians 3.27 says, For as many
of you as have been baptized unto Christ have put on Christ. 2 Corinthians 5.17 says, Therefore
if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature. That word is
creation. He is a new creation. Old things
are passed away. Behold, all things are become
new. All things. Baptism is immersion
in water. Baptism is a believer's confession
of faith in Christ. When he When he died, I died. When he was buried, I was buried.
When he rose, I rose. Newness of life. And thirdly,
baptism is a believer's public vow that he's consecrated to
the Lord Jesus Christ. He's committed to the Lord Jesus
Christ. Through baptism, you publicly
confess that, that Christ is your Lord. that He has dominion
over you in heart, in spirit, that He is the one who's leading
you, He is the one in whom you delight to follow, and you commit
yourself to His people. His people are your people. Now,
last week we saw Hebrews 11.29. It said, By faith they passed
through the Red Sea as by dry land, which the Egyptians were
saying to do were drown. And I mentioned to you that there
was some more in that that I didn't have time to go over with you
last week. So we're going to look at it
this week. Turn over to 1 Corinthians 10 verse 1. Now this consecration, this is
what we're talking about here. A consecration to Christ. He's our Lord. We're following
Him. Being led by Him. He reigns now. 1 Corinthians
10. Moreover, brethren, I would not
that ye should be ignorant, how that all our fathers were under
the cloud, and all passed through the sea. and were all baptized
unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea, and did all eat the
same spiritual meat, and did all drink the same spiritual
drink, for they drank of that spiritual rock that followed
them, and that rock was Christ." Now, let me say a word about
this. Moreover brethren, I would not
that you should be ignorant how that all our fathers were under
the cloud and all passed through the sea When Israel entered the
sea you remember the cloud the cloud went behind and the cloud
was over him and the walls of the water were higher than their
heads and they all passed through the sea and They entered the
water and came out of the water And the scripture says here in
verse 2, and they were all baptized unto, that word unto, when I
said over there a while ago that the word into would be better
unto, it's the same Greek word, same word. They weren't baptized into Moses
were they? They were baptized unto Moses.
and were all baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea."
What does that mean? What does that mean? Moses came
to that sea and he said, stand still and see the salvation of
the Lord. He shall fight for you this day.
You will not see the Egyptians anymore. You hold your peace. In other words, you don't do
anything. You just cease from all your
labors, stop working. Don't do a thing in the world.
And Moses took his staff and he held it out over those waters. He stepped into those waters
himself. Just as Christ stepped into the
water that had to be separated for us to cross. He was made
sin. And he held his staff out over
that water and when he did, those waters parted. And who went across
first? Moses did. Moses stepped out
there and he walked across those waters. That water was high over
his head and he walked out there first and passed through it. And the children of Israel stood
there And they looked around, and somebody
said, I believe him. I'm going with him. And he took
off. And when he did that, he committed
himself to Moses. He consecrated himself to Moses. And Moses, right then, became
his leader and became his ruler, became his governor, became the
one that He would follow from that day forward. Moses became
that one. And then the next one. And then
the next one. And they all passed through.
And all were baptized unto Moses in the cloud and the sea. They
were baptized unto Him. Israel utterly committed to Moses. And our baptism is a publicly
avowed commitment to Christ. That's what it is. That's what
we're saying. We're committed to it. He's our
captain. He is the one that leads us,
governs us, rules us. We're following him and nobody
else. And they went into that water
after being delivered from bondage. They went into that sea. just
a group of folks, and they came out the other side of the Red
Sea, committed to Moses as one nation, and then for the first
time you find them called the Church in the Wilderness. The
Church in the Wilderness. And all drank the same spiritual
drink, and they drank of that spiritual rock that followed
them, and that rock was Christ. God put a difference between
them. between them and Egypt. Egypt was drowned. They were
separated, severed off from Egypt. And they all together, who were
all baptized under Moses, they all drank the same, ate the same
spiritual meat and drank the same spiritual water, which is
Christ. That's what believers do. They
have all been baptized, all consecrated to Christ. Now, fourthly, It's
immersion in water. It's confession of faith in Christ.
It's public consecration to Christ. Fourthly, it's an answer of a
good conscience toward God. Look over at 1 Peter 3, verse
18. 1 Peter 3, verse 18. You see, we were enemies against
God. Enemies in our mind by wicked
works. And even at the time that Christ,
when we were born into this world, by our day and time, by the time
that you and I were born, if you were one of God's elect,
Christ had already reconciled you to God. But however long
you walked in your rebellion, you were an enemy in your mind. Your mind, in your mind, you
hated God. You were an enemy with God. God
had reconciled you to Himself. But you weren't at peace with
God. You were an enemy towards God. And it wasn't until the
Holy Spirit came and purged your conscience with the blood of
Christ. And when He purged your conscience from dead works to
serve the living God, that's when you turned toward God in
repentance and cast your care on Christ Jesus the Lord. And
baptism is a confession that I have a clear conscience. I'm
at peace with God now. I'm at peace with Him. We're
at peace with one another. Look here in 1 Peter 3.18. It says, For Christ also hath
once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might
bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened
by the Spirit. Quickened by the Spirit. And
then look here at about the middle verse of verse 20 there. It says,
The long-suffering of God waited in the days of Noah while the
ark was preparing, wherein few, that is, eight souls, were saved
by water. Noah was in the ark when it was
submerged in the rain, and the rain was God's wrath pouring
out on sinful flesh, and it was poured out on Noah too. But Noah
was in that ark. Verse 21 says, This quickening
by the Spirit And then us going into the water. These are the
two things we're looking at here. That spirit purges the conscience. And then you go into the water.
And the like figure wherein to even baptism doth also now save
us. Now look at the parentheses.
Not the putting away of the filth of the flesh. They don't wash
you that way at all. But the answer of a good conscience
toward God. And it's by the resurrection
of Jesus Christ, who's gone into heaven and is on the right hand
of God, angels and authorities and powers being made subject
unto Him. Has Christ's blood purged your
conscience? Are you still mad at God? Are
you still angry with God? Are you still upset with God? The one who bought you, the one
who... Are you reconciled to God in
the court of your conscience? Are you at peace with Him? The
believer is at peace with God. I can remember one time I used
to preach at a place and I could remember, I don't know where
this lady is now, I haven't seen her in years and years, but I
can remember she would come up to me after the message was over.
Just about every time. And she would say, you know,
the folks would be coming up and they would just be rejoicing
in the message and thankful and mention this part or that part
that just blessed them, you know, whatever. She would come up and
she always had this odd comment to me. She'd come up and she'd
say, I can't explain it, but when you preach that message,
she said it's some kind of heat. She goes, I get really hot. And
I can't explain what it is. And she said, it's almost like
I get angry. And she left. And that's what it was. Every time she heard it, she
got angry. She wasn't reconciled to God. The believers reconciled
to God. The believer, when he's purged
in his conscience, He's not angry with God anymore. When he hears
what he is, it's the only time. I think Scott, you made this
comment one time. It's the only time that you can
hear a message that puts you in the dust, just lower than
a snake's belly, and yet you come out rejoicing that you heard
it. It's the only way because He
takes away the enmity and makes us at peace with one another
and you're thankful for what He did for you. And you readily
take sides with Him against yourself and say, that's right, that's
exactly what I am. Well, here's my second question.
Who should be baptized? Who should be baptized? Well,
only those who by faith believe Christ Jesus to be the Son of
God. That's all it wants, they should
be baptized. And I'm not going to get into all the various arguments
that folks argue over anything. So I'm not even going to get
into all that. But what I'm going to tell you is this is the one
prerequisite. You've got to believe on Christ
Jesus the Lord. That's it. That's it. That He's
all your righteousness. He's all your holiness. He's
the one who bought you with His own blood. He is personal purchased
possession. He's your wisdom. He's all your
acceptance with God. Every bit of it's in Him. The
Ethiopian eunuch, when he said, what does hinder me from being
baptized? What did Philip say? If thou
believest with all thine heart, thou mayest. He had preached
the gospel to him. He'd heard the gospel. Isaiah
chapter 53. Now that it pleased God to bruise
him, in the place of his pen by his stripes were healed. And
he believed him. He believed him and he was baptized.
Those on the day of Pentecost who heard Peter preach the gospel,
the Holy Spirit pricked them in the heart. And they said to
Peter and the rest of the apostles, men and brethren, what should
we do? Peter said, repent. Turn from your false religion. Turn to Christ. Bow to Christ. Believe on Christ. Be baptized. The Lord said, Go ye into all
the world and preach the gospel to every creature. He that believeth
and is baptized shall be saved, but he that believeth not shall
be damned. That's just long and short of it. When I was baptized,
I didn't know some of the things that I know now. And I'm not
saying that you'll know everything there is to know about Christ. But I'll tell you what I did
know about Christ. I did know that His one offering
put away my sin before I ever knew anything about it. I knew
it put away my sin and that it was a must that the Spirit quickened
me. It had to be because His blood
was precious to me. I didn't know why His blood was
so precious to me, but I knew God if God didn't save me after
what he did for me and God didn't actually bring me to believe
on him after what he did for me Something's wrong. I Don't know how to describe
it. I don't know the theology of it I don't know what the what
the theological term is for it I thought then but I know if
God don't save everybody that he shed his blood for something's
wrong and I didn't know what I was thinking at that point,
but what I realized was is that his blood was shed for a particular
people, that it was shed for a particular people. And the
way I came to realize it was is that if way back there at
Calvary when he shed it, it made reconciliation for me. And I
beheld all the people in the world that never believe him,
never trust him. It didn't take me long to figure
out that Hitler didn't believe him Ted Bundy didn't believe
on him. I thought about all the saw the
wretches of the world that didn't believe on him and I realized
if he if he purged my Senate Calvary and They weren't brought
to believe Something's wrong that don't that don't jive that
don't jive with his blood being effectual. I And as years went
on, I realized the more I listened, what that was called. It's called
limited atonement. It's called particular redemption.
It's called Him having an elect people and putting away their
sin and saving them by irresistible grace. And I understood those
terms because As I went, I understood. But I always believed that. That's
what I believed from the beginning. I just didn't know what it was
called or exactly how to say it or how to put it in words.
But I knew that's the Jesus that saved me. I knew that's the Jesus
that saved me. But baptism itself never saved
anybody. Sinners are saved by grace. Obedience
to Christ is the fruit of God's grace. And the first public act
of obedience that a believer does is baptism. That's the first
public obedience that he performs is to be baptized. And he professes
God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. And
if the thought of being baptized grieves you, if it grieves you,
if it makes you uncomfortable to think about, going into a
watery grave and being dunked on, immersed in water and raised
up. If that irritates you and grieves
you, you ain't been saved. Because those in whom the Spirit
has revealed Christ find that the Lord's commands are not grievous. They're not grievous, but we
delight to do His will. I'll give you an illustration.
The Lord said, my yoke's easy and my burden is light. When
we behold Christ by faith, baptism is that first public act of obedience
where we follow Him. And we do it because it's easy.
And it's a light burden. Because now by faith it is. He
took your sin to be His own. He only commands you to confess
that He did it. You see how His burden is easy? He went to the cross and bore
the shame and the chastisement, all the hell that sinful man
could injure Him with, and all the eternal wrath that holy judgment
could pour out on Him, until He had paid the wages of sin,
given up the ghost, and was buried. And He doesn't command you to
do that. He just commands you to be immersed in a watery grave,
confessing that you were in Him when He did that in your place.
So you see how light his burden is? His burden is light. He was raised from the grave
to sit at God's right hand. Resurrected from the dead. He
don't command you to go into the ground and try to claw your
way out of a miry pit in the ground and somehow resurrect
yourself from the dead, He just commands you to confess that
when He was resurrected from the dead, you were in Him and
seated in glory. You see, His yoke is easy. His yoke is light and His burden
is easy. See from his head his hands his feet sorrow and love
flow mingled down Did air such love and sorrow meet or thorns
composed so rich a crown? The believer beholds it and says
it's as easy to bear and he delights in him. He delights him Well,
I got one last question Should a believer ever be baptized again? Should he ever be baptized again
after he's baptized first time? If you were baptized, confessed
Christ Jesus, and then later God gave you faith to behold
the all-sufficient Lord in Christ, then the answer is yes. Yes. And the reason being is, is because
if you didn't know the true Christ, the true and living God, and
believe on Him when you were baptized that first time, all
you really did was go for a swim. That's all you really did. When
you professed another Jesus, you made a false profession.
And if God's drawn you to THE Christ, if He's made Christ Himself
Lord unto you, instead of you making Him Lord of your life,
if He's made Himself Lord unto you, and now He truly rules and
reigns, then you need to be baptized and confess Christ, and you'll
be doing it for the first time. I don't care if you've been baptized
15 times. But once you've been baptized
in the name of the true and living, sovereign, triune God of glory,
heaven and earth, then the answer is no. No, you don't have to
be baptized again. There's no reason for you to
be baptized again. Now, back before man-made baptistries
came along, there was, believers were baptized in creeks or rivers
or ponds or whatever was nearest, closest to the church building.
Some still are today. Some people wouldn't dare be
baptized in a baptistry because Philip and the eunuch went down
into a creek. People will make a law out of
everything. But before they had baptistries, you'd go be baptized
in the same creek you go fishing in. And you hear folks who get
under legal conviction. And they think being baptized
again, re-baptized, is going to make them right with God.
It's a work. They've turned it into a work.
And so they go and they're re-baptized again and their conscience is
soothed for a little while. They're just under legal convictions,
that's all it is. No Holy Spirit involved. And they get all worked up at
some revival meeting and they decide that they're going to
re-dedicate their lives in baptism. Be baptized again. Just simply
to rededicate my life. But you know, maybe it's another
notch in my belt of works. Maybe God will like the fact
that I've rededicated myself. Whatever. I think about as much
of that as I do about folks renewing their vows of marriage. And every
time they feel guilty, they're baptized again and again, again
and again. And the old saying, the reason
I said folks used to be baptized in creeks and all that so you
don't understand it, but you remember the old saying, you
ever heard the old saying? They used to say down south,
a man could be baptized so many times a fish know his Social
Security number. But it won't do him any good
unless he knows Christ. It won't do him any good unless
he knows the true and living God confesses him. Well, here's
the conclusion. I'll tell you why God's messengers
are not sent to coerce sinners to be baptized and the reason
we don't have to do it. Now let me say this to you first.
I want you to be clear on this. If there's ever anybody in this
congregation that has a desire to be baptized, you can go tell
your mama or your daddy, or you can go tell, if it's one of the
men, you can go tell one of the other men, or you come to me.
You're always welcome to come to me anytime. And if you go
see your mother or your daddy, they're probably going to tell
you to come talk to me. But the reason that I don't beg
you to come down here and make a decision, the reason we don't
have an altar right here in the front or anything like that is
because Christ is our altar. He's our altar. We bow to Him.
We don't bow to an altar, a man-made altar. And the reason I don't
have to coerce people and try to beg people and we don't do
all those things that sentimental religion does is, is because
baptism is commanded by the Lord Jesus Christ. It's a command
that He commands. And it'd be sin for one who's
born of the Spirit of God, it'd be sin for him not to obey Him. And because sin shall not have
dominion over you, Because it's an impossibility
that sins gonna have dominion over you and because you're under
grace because as 2nd Corinthians 9 8 says God is able to make
all grace abound towards you that he always having all sufficiency
and all things may abound to every good work because our God
is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think
according to the power that he worketh in us and When God has
taken up His abode in you, by His power, and He's cleansed
your conscience with Christ's blood, when God is willing for
you to glorify His Son in believers' baptism, by His power working
in you, it'll be your chief desire above everything else. Above
everything else. I'm going to tell you a story.
And if Dee Parks hears this over Sermon Audio, he's gonna be embarrassed
probably, but I'm gonna tell it anyway. I heard it from his
daddy, Moose. Moose was telling us, we were
down there at Crossville, and Moose was telling us, Dee, his
son, was down at the college where A.J.' 's gonna go, down
at Flagstaff? Full Sail, Full Sail. Full Sail
College down in Orlando. And they have classes 24 hours
a day down there. Well, Moose gets a call. Moose
usually stays up, studies at night. So Dee knew his daddy
would be awake. His daddy's name's not Moose,
it's Daniel Parks. But for a long time I called
him Brother Moose, because I didn't even know what his first name
was. But anyhow. But Dee, the Lord
revealed Christ in him. And Dee called up his daddy.
And he said, Dad, I'm lost. He said, Dad, I'm lost. And Lou
said, well, son, don't you have somebody around there that can
give you some directions? He said, I'm talking about spiritually
lost. And he said, oh. He said, well,
call your pastor. What you doing calling me? Greg
Amquist was his pastor. He said, what you doing calling
me? Call your pastor. So Dee called Greg, hangs up,
calls Greg. And if I understood the story
right, called him right then, about 2 o'clock or 3 o'clock
in the morning. And Greg answered the telephone. And Dee goes to
just pouring out his heart, you know, crying and weeping. Just,
you know how it is when you first come to know the Lord. And he
wanted to know what he should do. Should I be baptized? What
should I do? After a while, Moose said he
got a phone call again. It wasn't long. The phone rang
again, about ten minutes. His phone rang again. He picked
it back up and it was D again. He said, Daddy, I called Greg.
And he said, and I told him what was going on, and he said all
he told me was he had He had married a couple that day, officiated
a wedding all day, had been studying all afternoon, and he was sleepy.
He had to preach in the morning. He told me just to wait, and
he'd talk to me sometimes Sunday afternoon or Monday morning.
And Moose said, well, that sounds OK. He goes, well, what if something
happens between now and then? Moose said, son, if God saved
you, you ain't going to spoil between now and Monday morning. Oh, you see what I'm saying?
No, you won't have to have somebody coerce you. You'll be trying
to twist the preacher's arm. Come on, let's get with it. I want to be baptized. They didn't have to twist your
arm to propose to that woman, did they? And when Christ has
revealed Himself in you, you want the world to know I am His
and He is mine. You want everybody to know it.
No embarrassment about it. So, all right. Lord bless you.