Good morning. Let's all stand
together. We'll sing hymn number 442. 442. Praise him. Praise
him. Jesus, our blessed Redeemer. ? Highest archangels in glory ?
Strength and honor ? Give to his holy name ? Like a shepherd
? Jesus will guard his children ? In his arms he carries them
all day long Praise Him, praise Him, tell
of His excellent greatness. Praise Him, praise Him, ever
in joyful song. Praise Him, praise Him, Jesus,
our blessed Redeemer, for our sin. Jesus Jesus Jesus Jesus a a a a a a a a a a Be seated. We'll sing hymn number
299. 299. Day by day and with each passing
moment, strength I find to meet my trials in. My father's wise bestowment I've
no cause for worry or for fear Each day what he deems best Lovingly,
it's part of pain and pleasure Filling joy with peace and rest
Every day ? The Lord himself is near me ? ? With a special
mercy for each hour ? ? All my cares he plain would bear and
cheer me ? ? He whose name is Counselor and Savior ? strength shall be in measure
help me ? So do trust thy promises, O Lord
? ? Had I loosed thy sweet consolation ? ? Within me, within thy holy
Word ? ? Help me, Lord, and do not trouble me ? If you have your Bible let's
look together and Romans chapter 6. Romans chapter 6. Didn't you all remember that
old chorus we used to sing years and years ago? His name is wonderful. His name is wonderful. Boy, I tell you what. Of course,
I could sing the rest of it, but if I was a sewing machine,
I wouldn't be a singer. All right, Romans 6, gonna read
down through verse 10. What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that
grace may abound? God forbid, how shall we that
are dead to sin live any longer therein? Know you not that so
many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into
his death? 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 should
also walk in newness of life. For if we have been planted together
in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness
of his resurrection. Knowing this, that our old man
is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed,
that henceforth we should not serve sin, for he that is dead
is freed from sin. Now if we be dead with Christ,
we believe that we shall also live with him, knowing that Christ,
being raised from the dead, dieth no more, Death hath no more dominion
over him, for in that he died, he died unto sin once, but in
that he liveth, he liveth unto God. Our blessed, blessed Lord, our
great, glorious, infinite, Eternal God and Father of our Lord Jesus
Christ, our Master, our Lord, our Savior. Oh God, our Father,
we thank you. Oh, how we bless you. There's
none like you. I know this world don't acknowledge
you. I know religion doesn't acknowledge
you. They've got you a helpless, poor,
pitiful beggar. They've got you without no strength,
no power, no ability. But oh God, we know that you
got all power in heaven and earth. We know that you created this
world just by your word. You just spoke it into existence. And Lord, it's gonna stand fast
until you One day in your sovereign will and purpose and power, burn
this earth up and create a new heaven and a new earth where
people who have the righteousness of Christ and his alone shall
dwell in that new heaven and that new earth. We know, oh God,
whatever anybody says about you, thinks about you, says about
you, we know you're God and there is none other. We know you're
just God and we know you're a savior. We know you're holy and you're
just. And you, in your wisdom and grace,
through your son, made a way to save sinners like ourselves
and be just as just as you ever was and ever will be. And you
did it through your blessed son, bearing our sins in his own body
on that tree. Oh God, blessed be your name.
Oh, what a glorious salvation you've given us. And Father,
we thank you. We said this morning, I was like
David, I was glad when they said, let us go on to the house of
the Lord. And Lord, it's a good thing,
it's a blessed thing to be able to meet here this morning, to
gather around the word of God, to gather around Christ, sit
at his feet and learn of him. Enjoy the worship. Enjoy the
gospel. And Lord, please bring glory
to yourself. Bless the saints of God that
they've gathered out. Save your people in this place.
And do it for the glory and honor of Christ. We ask in his blessed
name. Amen. And amen. Hymn number 125. 125. I hear the Savior say, Thy strength
indeed is small. Child of weakness, watch and
pray. Find in me thine all in all. Jesus, lady of grace. Oh the heart of stone. Jesus made it all, all to of Jesus. of a Sin had left a crimson stain,
he washed it white as snow. We'll stand together as we sing
the hymn of the day in the bulletin. To the tune of Amazing Grace.
? Of all his saints ? ? Deep on
his heart ? ? Engraved ? ? Attentive to the stated law ? ? Of holiness complete ? ? White
as perfection shine ? ? And wisdom, grace, and glory be ? As a priest he bears for sinners
his own, ? Tears and tears ? ? I've been
to the holy throne ? ? In Him my weary soul is found ? I read thy name upon his breast
and sing the Father's love. Be seated. Now I want you to look with me
in Mark chapter 1. Mark chapter 1, continuing our
messages through Mark. Now read verse 7 and 8. Mark chapter 1, verse 7 and 8. and preach, saying, There cometh
one mightier than I after me, the latchet of whose shoes I
am not worthy to stoop down and unloose. I indeed have baptized
you with water, but he shall baptize you with the Holy Spirit."
Now he's talking about John, John the Baptist. You remember
we started out in verse 1, the beginning of the gospel of Jesus
Christ. Then about John is his message. and that voice. And now we're
going to talk about the Lord Jesus Christ and the baptism
of the Holy Ghost, the baptism of the Holy Spirit. Our Lord's
forerunner came in the spirit and power of Elijah. I'll show
you that in a little bit. And it says here, you know, in
verse six, that he was clothed with camel's hair, and with a
girdle of skin about his loin, he did eat locusts and wild honey."
Now, that may have been the way Elijah
dressed, I don't know. But anyway, John the Baptist,
he dressed in camel's hair. He wasn't a He didn't care about
how people looked at him and how he dressed and how the world
thought about him and the opinion they had of him. He didn't think
about those things at all. And he ate locusts. Now, I looked
that up. Some say it's a certain kind
of a flower. Not F-L-O-U-R, but F-L-O-W-E-R,
flower. But anyway, it's some kind of
a flower. But it also says there was an
insect that they ate. And they would cook those insects,
and those insects would taste like shrimp. That's what it said.
I looked it up in the Bible dictionary, and that's what it said. It said
it tastes like shrimp. So that, it don't make any difference
what he ate. It just tells us he ate locusts
and eat wild honey. That's what it did. And maybe
this is the way, I mean, look what, I want you to, I want to
show you something. You keep Mark chapter one, look
in Matthew chapter 11 with me. Look what our Lord said about
John, his forerunner. Matthew 11. Matthew 11. You know, our Lord had a lot
to say about John. And he sat here and John was
in prison, he wanted to know what Christ was doing. And he
said here in verse 7, Matthew 11, And as they departed, Jesus
began to say unto the multitudes concerning John, Why did you
go out in the wilderness to see? Remember I said if you wanted
to hear God, you had to go to the wilderness to hear Him. You
got to go where John was. And why did you go out in the
wilderness? Did you go out there and see a reed shaking with the wind?
Every wind of doctrine that came along, everybody had come along
with their opinion and what they said about him, what they felt
about him, and all the things. He said, You think he's going
to be shaking this way? Think he's going to be shaking that
way? You think you can move him around just like you would anybody
else? No! Look what else he goes on to
say. Why did you go out to see? When you went out in the wilderness
to see John, Did you go out there and see a man clothed in real
nice, soft raiment? And dressed really, really nice? You got out there and you seen
him in that camel's hair? Oh, no, they that wear soft clothing
are in king's house. What'd you go to see then? A
prophet? I'm telling you, he was more
than a prophet. For this is he. Of whom it is
written, behold, I send my messenger before thy face, which shall
prepare thy way before thee. Verily I say unto thee, among
them that are born of women, there hath not risen a greater
than John the Baptist, notwithstanding he that is least in the kingdom
of heaven is greater than he. And from the days of John the
Baptist until now, the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence
and the violent take it by force. Now listen to this, what our
Lord said. For all the prophets and the law prophesied unto John,
and if you will receive it, this is Elijah or Elias, which was
to come. So he said, he is Elijah, Elijah
to come. He's the one that came. And so
whatever Elijah was like, John the Baptist was like. And then
look back over here with me in Mark chapter 1. So he described
how John the Baptist looked, how he was dressed, and how he
was sent before him, greatest prophet ever. And then he was
a preacher. Look what it said in verse 7,
and he preached, and he preached saying, THERE COMETH ONE MIGHTIER
THAN I, THE LATCHET OF WHOSE SHOES I AM NOT WORTHY TO STOOP
DOWN AND UNLOOSE." He had a message. He was a preacher. He had a message.
What was his message? There cometh one. There comes
one. There's one coming. And he said,
You know what? He's got all the glory. He's
got all the power. He's got all the might. He's
infinite. He's eternal. You see, he had
a high, high view of the Lord Jesus Christ. There comes one
mightier than I. And you know what he said? It
was so mightier than I, so much more glorious. And I mean, he
is so far above me and beyond me. He has such a high view of
Christ. And when you can't have a high
view of Christ with having the right view of yourself, look
what he said about himself. He coming after me and I'm not
even worthy to get down and unloose the latchet of His shoe. I'm not even worthy to stoop
down before Him. And I'm not worthy to touch Him.
I'm not worthy to unloosen the shoe that's on His foot. And
you can't have a high view of Christ and not have a low view
of yourself. And that's the opposite of today.
Men's got high views of themselves and low views of God. But we
can't have a high enough view of the Lord Jesus Christ. We
can't honor him enough. And that's why John said, there
comes one mightier than I ever was. You all think I'm something. You think I'm some kind of a
preacher. You think I've got some power. He said, you wait
till he comes. You wait till he comes. And that's
what John said, he said, when He comes, He's gonna do all the
increases. What are you gonna do, John?
I'm gonna go down, down, down, down, down. And ain't that what
it is when we're in the presence of Christ? All we can do is go
down. Bow, you know, we're talking
about that, His name is wonderful. Bow down before Him, worship
and adore Him, for His name is wonderful. And oh, my, John had
a message about him, and oh, my, I'm not worthy, I'm not worthy. Now, that's the first thing.
People make fun of that. I read something the other day
of people making fun of believers who count themselves as nothing,
count themselves as nobody, count themselves as unworthy. Paul
says, I am the least of the less of the apostles, though I be
nothing. And I tell you what, when we
come into the prayer, that's what's so amazing about grace.
That's what grace is so amazing that God would do anything for
us at all. And that's what John felt like.
He said, oh, listen, I'm not even worthy to get down before
him and touch him and take the shoe that's on his foot. Oh my, and old John, he'd tell
you what, He had a message. You have a proper view of Christ
and a high view of Christ, you'll have a real view of yourself. I believe that with all my heart.
And then he said in verse 8, I indeed have baptized you with
water. Now, this is baptism of water.
When we talk about baptism of water, it means immersion. It means to be put under it,
be immersed absolutely into water. And what this is, baptism is
symbolic of our union with the Lord Jesus Christ, His death,
His burial, and His resurrection. And let me tell you something,
there's people that believe that there's sacrament in baptism,
and there's sacrament in taking the bread and the wine. Now,
sacrament means that you get grace given. If you get baptized,
then grace comes with that baptism. That's not right. The only place
where grace abides is in Jesus Christ our Lord. I've baptized
a lot of people in this place. Did grace go with that baptism? There's some that I've baptized
that I ain't seen in months, in years! So evidently something
didn't happen, something didn't take. There was no grace given
there. Huh? Oh no, and I tell you, you
can take wine and eat bread all your life and do it every day,
and I tell you what, you'll not get no grace from it. You only
get grace from Christ. God give grace in Christ, and
he gave it before the foundation of the world. And if anybody
gets grace, God's the one's got it, and he's the only one's gonna
give it. Ain't that right? And oh, my, he had a message. He's not baptized with water.
And oh, look, but he, but look what I, Lord, what he said about
Christ. He said, but he, he, Christ,
the Lord Jesus, the one mightier than I, when he comes, he'll
baptize you with the Holy Ghost. Now John and Luke said He'll
baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with fire. And that's what
I want to talk about this morning, the baptism of the Holy Ghost.
Now the Holy Ghost or the Holy Spirit is the third person of
the Trinity. And all three persons of the
Trinity is involved in our salvation. God the Father elected us and
chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world. salvations
of God the Father where the Son came into this world to redeem
us and buy us and buy our salvation and satisfy God on our behalf
and present us acceptable and holy before God. So the Holy
Spirit takes the salvation that God purposed the salvation that
Christ accomplished, and the Holy Spirit comes, and what He
does is He saves us and regenerates us and brings us and PUTS us
into the Lord Jesus Christ, and that's what baptism of the Holy
Ghost is. It's just like water is in immersion, the Holy Spirit
IMMERSES us into the Lord Jesus Christ's Body. Huh? you know, He has this work to
do, and look over in John s Gospel chapter 3. Look in John s Gospel
chapter 3. Let s talk about this a minute. Over in John chapter 3, talking
about the Holy Spirit and His work. He has a work to do, and
He s not just an, you know, people think He s an influence, that
he has no power, he just influences people. No, no, no, no, no, no. He has power. He has the same
power as the father, has the same power as the son. And you
can't have salvation without him. You can't understand the
word without him. Somebody called me the other day and was talking
to me about somebody in his congregation that had been with him for a
long time decided that men don't have two natures anymore, just
got one nature. And here's the thing about it,
if a person's got just one nature, all he's got is the nature that
God gave him in Adam. Ain't that right? And here's
the thing about it, if you only got one nature, and you say you're
a spiritual person, what nature is it with it that you know God?
What nature you call on God with? What nature do you pray? What
nature do you understand the Bible with? So you can't know
God unless the Holy Spirit comes and gives you life, and when
the Holy Spirit comes, he puts you into the body of Christ.
Now look what he said here in John 3. Look here in verse, we're going
to go down through these verses and comment on them a little
bit. There was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, the ruler of
the Jews. The same came to Jesus by night and said unto him, Rabbi,
we know you're a teacher come from God. No man can do these
miracles that thou doest, except God be with him. Well, our Lord,
you know, He was bragging on Christ and And you know what
our Lord said to him, said, Nicodemus, I don't care what you say about
me, but I'm going to tell you what has to happen to you. You,
I have to be born again. You can't see the kingdom of
God. What he said is as a natural man down in verse six, ain't
that what he said? That which is born of the flesh
is flesh. The flesh can't see the flesh,
can't understand the flesh, cannot grasp. But he goes on to say
this. Well, how in the world can a
man be born again when he's old? Well, there's the key to it right
here. Our Lord said, Unto thee except a man be born of water,
and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.
Now, that water there is not water baptism. That's not water
baptism. That's not what He's talking
about. And the Holy Spirit has to be the one to regenerate and
bring dead sinners to life. And when He says there in verse
Five, that except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, see
how that's capitalized, the Holy Spirit, born of God, born of
the Spirit of God, cannot enter in the kingdom of God. Now that
water there is not water baptism, it's not. Paul talked about the
washing of the water by the Word, And that's what the Word does,
and our Lord Jesus Himself said in John 15 and verse 3, NOW YOU
ARE CLEAN. HOW? THROUGH THE WORD WHICH I'VE
SPOKEN UNTO YOU. THE WORD, THE WORD ITSELF COMES
AND WASHES US AND CLEANS US IS WHAT HE'S TALKING ABOUT. And
oh, my, look what He goes on to say now, EXCEPT THEE BE BORN
OF WATER. And you know the Holy Spirit,
I'm telling you, except you be born of this water and of the
Spirit, you cannot enter the kingdom of God. And you know
what he said here? He said, marvel not, you know,
that which is born of the flesh. Oh, listen, it can't do anything.
But that which is born of the Spirit, he becomes a spiritual
person. He becomes a spiritual man. You
all know the verses, you know, I've quoted this so many times.
over in I Peter 123, being born again, being born again, not
of corruptible seed, but incorruptible. And listen to this, by the Word
of God, by the Word of God, the Word comes and washes us and
regenerates us and does something for us that nothing else can
do. You know, the Holy Ghost never, ever operates apart from
His Word, never, never, never. Let me give you a little Something
I saw the other day, the word, the Lord Jesus Christ, the word
came from Christ, the word from the word, and it's the word that
reveals the word. The word was made flesh, huh? And from that word, he reveals
the word. And that's the Holy Spirit. He's
the only way we could not. I read the Bible for years. And. And I and even with a Bible
that I in front of me, I still preach works. I still preached
a personal holiness. I still preach that you could
be a righteous person. Now, how in the world did I know
those things? I didn't. I knew Him by natural
man, but when God gave me the Spirit of God and regenerated
me and brought me to Christ Himself, then I began to understand what
the Bible said. Before that, you know, if works
is all you know, that's all you see. But when God teaches you
the gospel, and brings you to Christ, and regenerates you,
and immerses you into the body of Christ, and gives you the
new birth, and gives you a new understanding, you know what?
You say, but how in the world did I ever believe anything else? I must have been dumb as a box
of rocks. But once He shows it to you,
the only way that happens is by the Holy Ghost using the Word
of God, being born again. Not of the flesh. The flesh profits
nothing. But incorruptible seed. What
seed? The Word of God. How does that
Word of God get in you? By the Spirit of God. Oh my. And I tell you, when we talked
about being born of the Spirit, Peter called it being begotten
of God. And then also, you know, over
in 1 John it says, He that's begotten of God loveth him that's
begat of God. If you're begotten of God and
you know somebody else that God's begotten, you love that person.
That's why you can go places that you, you know, go in fellowship
with other believers, go in other congregations, and you just feel
right at home. You know why? Because we're all
the same. Huh? And oh, we're made partakers,
partakers of a nature, a new nature. What nature? The nature
of God Himself, divine nature. And let a man say all he wants
to, there's one nature. But I tell you what, I never
had any problem with my flesh and my nature and my self-righteousness
and my self-confidence and my holiness and my works until God
saved me and THEN I had a problem. I got in a fight. I got in a
real fight. And you know who I was fighting?
My flesh and the spirit. I mean, I went to fight. I had
this awful fight. I mean, I was just, whap, whap,
whap. Stop thinking that, whap. Don't
say that again, whap. You know, that's what we do.
We just fight. We have this fight going on within ourselves. That's
what I preached the other day about repentance. Once you've
repented, once you've repented, you never stop. You'll thank
something, say, oh God, forgive me. You'll say something, oh
God, forgive me. You'll get up and say, Lord,
don't let me be cold today. Don't let my heart be cold. Warm
my heart today. Oh my. And then back over here
in John 3, 8, I hope you're still there. No, yeah, you know, he
says there in verse 8, he says, you know, that which is born
of the flesh is, it's just flesh. But look what he said, and the
Spirit is sovereign. The Holy Spirit is sovereign.
Look what he says in verse 8. The wind blows where it will. Where it will. And you hear the
sound of the wind blowing. And you hear it. But you can't
tell where it comes from. And you don't know where it's
gonna go when it leaves by you. You don't know where it's gonna
go. Well, that's the way everyone's born in the spirit. God comes
and does what he wants to. He blows by you, don't blow by
somebody else. But he blows. Now, I want you
to look in John 16 with me. Let's look in John 16 a little
bit, talking about baptism of the Holy Spirit. Oh my, the Spirit is sovereign,
the Holy Spirit has to do all the work. He's working out the
salvation IN us and doing for us what Christ promised would
happen. Look what He said here in verse
7, John 16, 7. Our Lord's talking to His disciples
and He said, Nevertheless, I tell you the truth, it's expedient
for you, it's profitable for you that I go away. I got to
go away. I got to go to the cross and
I got to go back to glory, got to go to the grave. For if I
go not away," Now look at that capitalized word, Comforter,
Comforter, "...will not come unto you. But if I depart, I
will send him unto you." And then this is what happened, this
is a missing note in today's preaching, is HOLY GHOST CONVICTION. And when He has come, when the
Holy Spirit has come, when the Comforter has come, you know
what He'll do? He'll REPROVE, He'll CONVINCE,
He'll CONVICT. And when it says the world, he's
talking about the John 3.16 world. It's the world of every tribe,
every kindred, every nation, every character, every station
in life, every status in life. It's not the whole world. He
don't convict the whole world. It's the world of God's elect.
And he said he'll convict the world of sin. You know, I tell
you what, hardly anybody, anybody preaches against about sin anymore. Don't talk about it being a nature.
Don't talk about being something you're born with. Don't talk
about something that you and you come from your mother's womb,
you come out of there speaking lies. It don't talk about, you
know, man being a wicked, depraved, sinful, God-hating, Christ-rejecting
sinner. They don't want to hear that.
But that's what he said, the first thing he'll do is he'll
make you know you're a sinner. He'll make you know you're a
sinner. How much sin does he make you know? More than you
really want. Enough to make you know you hate
it, you despise it, and you don't want to do it. And then look
what else he said. And then He ll come and He ll
reprove the sin of righteousness. And the sin because here He said,
Because ye don t believe on Me. Why don t you believe on Me?
What a sinful thing unbelief is! And then He ll reprove the
world of righteousness. Why will He reprove the world
of righteousness? Because I go to My Father and
you see Me no more. I'm the only one that's got a
righteousness. My righteousness dwells in glory, and the only
place you can get it is coming to me. He'll convince you that
your righteousness is as a filthy rag. He'll convince you that
your righteousness absolutely is worthless, and that there's
only one righteousness. He'll convince you of the righteousness
of Christ. And then look what else he says,
and of judgment, of judgment. Oh, my. of judgment, oh. And then he goes on to say, oh
my, of judgment because the prince of this world is judged. I mean
this world and everything about it's already been judged. And
I tell you what, we'll go into judgment too. And if you've been
convinced of sin and the righteousness of Christ, then the judgment's
already been for us in Christ. But look what he said, and he
goes on to say, I have many things to say unto
you, but you cannot bear them now. Howbeit when he," see, he's
a person, when he, the Spirit of Truth, the Holy Ghost, the
Spirit of Truth has come, look what he's gonna do for you. He's
gonna guide you. We have to be guided. We ain't
got sense enough to get there. We have to be guided. Where's
he guide us to? Into truth, into truth. Huh? That was a time you didn't
know the truth. How'd you get it? He guided you
to it. Huh? He guides you to the truth.
And once He starts guiding you, He just keeps on guiding you.
Look what He says here now. And here's what He says about
it. And when He comes, He shall not speak of Himself. The Holy
Spirit will not get up and say, Well, listen, I know I've got
the Holy Spirit in because I speak in this language, that language,
this other thing, and I jerk around and I run the aisles and
all that stuff. No, no. And then what it goes on to say,
He shall not speak of Himself. That's one way you know. And
when he come, he'll show you things to come. He'll show you
things to come. And here's the thing that the
Holy Spirit does. He shall glorify me. He shall
glorify me. For he shall take the things
that belong to me, and he'll show them unto you. Oh, he'll
show them unto you. And all the things that the Father
hath are mine. and He shall take of mine, take
what belongs to me, the glory that belongs to me, the power
that belongs to me, the redemption that belongs to me. The Savior,
the Savior, He'll take everything that belongs to me, and He'll
show them to you. I've done, I've preached this,
I think it's the fifth message I've preached out of here, and
I'll tell you what, every one of them points to Christ, every
single one of them. Ain't that right? And that's
why our Lord says, you know, God said, if a man worships God,
he's got to worship in the Spirit, Holy Spirit, and in the truth. And how you can't do that unless
the Holy Ghost comes and does that for you. Ain't that right?
And that's why he says, the Holy Ghost shall baptize you. He shall
baptize you with the Holy Ghost. And that means to immerse you
into the body of Christ. He'll baptize you, immerse you
in the Holy Spirit. You all remember when our Lord
Jesus Christ, he told them before he went to the cross, well, after
his resurrection, he told them, said, you all go into Jerusalem
and you stay right there. You stay right there. And he
says, and I'll come and I'll, I'll send the Holy ghost and
then power should come upon you. And I tell you what, what power,
how did they know that the power of God come upon them? Pentecost. when they got up there and began
to preach in the power of God and the Spirit of God, and the
only evidence that they had that the Holy Ghost and power was
on them is they all spoke with another language. They wasn't
speaking in another tongue. Everybody understood what they
were saying. Now, the tongues have ceased.
There's no reason in the world for anybody to speak in tongues.
an unknown tongue. They people talk about unknown
tongues. Those fellas knew the tongues that those fellas was
preaching. And over there in Acts 10 the other night when
I was preaching on it, they knew the fellas that got baptized,
Cornelius and him, when they got baptized and the Holy Spirit
baptized them, you know what happened? They began speaking
tongues. And they said, oh my, God gave
them the Holy Spirit like us. All right, the Holy Spirit was
a gift is given to them born again by the preaching. And tongues
was evidence of it, but you don't have any evidence of that anymore.
You know what the evidence that we're believers? Christ. Christ. I wanna show you one
other first. Well, I'm gonna show you a couple
more. I hope, well, I ain't preached long. I put this on so I know how long
I'm preaching. Y'all, I know you think I've been preaching
a long time, but it says 30 minutes. You say, well, boy, I hope he
don't go another 30. Look at 1 Corinthians 13. Look at,
excuse me, 1 Corinthians chapter 12. 1 Corinthians chapter 12 and verse
13. You know, that's the thing about
it. When he talked about being baptized in the Holy Ghost there,
and he said you receive the Holy Ghost in power after he's come
upon you. When he told his apostles to
tarry in Jerusalem, that wasn't regeneration, that was baptism,
the Holy Spirit baptizing them. And that's how we are today,
and that's the way the Holy Spirit was given as the evidence of
being born again by the preaching. But look what he said here in
1 Corinthians 1, verse 13. For by one Spirit, see how that's
capitalized? Are we all, who are we all? God's elect, God's purchased
people, God's chosen people. We were all baptized, immersed
into one body. Oh, my. Huh? Immersed into what? What body? The body of Christ.
How do you get in the body of Christ? You know, the Catholics, they
give you a stick away for as you say, this is the body of
Christ. It's not. I've never seen the body of Christ,
but I'll tell you one thing, I'm in the body of Christ right
now. And every one of you here, and that's what he says, members,
every one of us is different members, but every one of us
are into the Body of Christ. He said by one Spirit are we
all IMMERSED into the Body of Christ. Oh my! And here's the thing about it,
whether you're a Jew or a Gentile, I mean it don't make any difference,
you've all been made to drink into one Spirit. We're all in
Christ. And oh my, we're actually one
with Him is what this is talking about. And that's what the baptism
of the Holy Spirit means. This is the doctrine of baptism
by the Holy Spirit. If you're baptized in water,
you're immersed. If you're baptized by the Holy
Ghost, you're immersed too. But where are you immersed at?
Into Christ. Huh? Into Christ. And what He
does, we do. Now look with me in Matthew 3.
We're gonna be all over the Bible today. You know, this is what
I loved about preachers when I first started listening to
these grace preachers preaching. That's why people bring their
Bibles, so they can follow along. They can see for themselves what
we're saying. See for themselves what we're saying. See, we're
actually one with the Lord Jesus Christ. Actually one with Him. And that's what baptism, the
doctrine of baptism means and by the Holy Spirit. Look what
he said here in John 3, 13. Then cometh Jesus from Galilee
to Jordan unto John to be baptized of him. John forbade him, said,
Oh, no, no, no, no, no. I need you to baptize me and
you come to me. Our Lord said, listen, John.
YOU LET IT HAPPEN. THIS IS WHAT'S GONNA HAPPEN.
SUFFER IT. ALLOW IT TO BE SO NOW. NOW WATCH
WHAT IT SAYS NEXT. FOR THUS IT BECOMETH US TO FULFILL
ALL RIGHTEOUSNESS. NOW WHO IS US HE'S TALKING ABOUT? THAT IT BECOMES US. WHO YOU RECKON
HE'S TALKING ABOUT? HE'S NOT TALKING ABOUT HIMSELF.
THOUGH HE IS. BUT IT BECOMES US. WHO'S US?
US! It becomes us. We're so identified
with Christ that He says when it becomes us to fulfill all
righteousness. So what He's saying is when I'm
baptized, YOU'RE baptized. When I fulfill righteousness,
YOU fulfill righteousness. Ain't that good? Ain't that right?
Huh? Oh my! If we're so united to
Christ, it becomes us, His elect. You know how we get into Christ?
God put us in Christ. God the Father put us in Christ.
Every member, we're united to Christ. We're put in the body
of Christ by the Holy Spirit and by God the Father. We're
united to the Lord Jesus Christ. Every man in the body of Christ,
this is what's called true fellowship. This is really true fellowship.
Christ is the firstborn from the dead, but I'll tell you something,
there's many, many brethren after he's the firstborn. I'll tell
you something about us. Listen, we're so united in Christ,
so union with Christ, and though we're all the same, you know,
here's why we're all in Christ. All baptized and immersed into
the body of Christ. We're members of the body of
Christ. We have the same nature, the holy nature of God, made
partakers of the divine nature. We all have the same Father.
God's our Father, and we all have the same salvation. Huh? You know what that means? Christ
is all. Christ is all. And when we're
baptized into Christ, let me tell you something, that's our
identity. That's our identity. That's our identity to one another.
That's how we identify one another. And that's how also our identity
before God the Father. Our identity before God, you
see, when He looks at Christ, when He looks at me, He has to
see His Son. That's how united I am so far with Him, so wonderful
with Him. Let me show you this. In Romans
6, I started out over there. And I'll, Romans 6, look over
here with me. You know, it talks about being
baptized over here. Romans 6, 3 and 4, look what
it says. Know ye not, don't you know this,
THAT SO MANY OF US AS WERE BAPTIZED INTO JESUS CHRIST WERE BAPTIZED
INTO HIS DEATH? THEREFORE WE ARE BURIED WITH
HIM BY BAPTISM UNTO DEATH, THAT LIKE AS CHRIST WAS RAISED UP
FROM THE DEAD BY THE GLORY OF THE FATHER, EVEN SO WE ALSO SHOULD
WALK IN NEWNESS OF LIFE. NOW DO YOU THINK THAT THAT VERSE
3 AND VERSE 4 IS TALKING ABOUT WATER BAPTISM? NO, IT TALKS ABOUT
US BEING BAPTIZED INTO THE DEATH OF CHRIST. BURIED WITH CHRIST
IN THAT DEATH. RISEN WITH CHRIST IN HIS RESURRECTION. THAT'S WHAT THAT'S TELLING US
HERE. IF THAT'S WATER BAPTISM HE'S TALKING ABOUT, THEN EVERYBODY
THAT'S EVER BEEN BAPTIZED WOULD BE SAVED. BUT THIS IS OUR IMMERSION,
OUR DEATH IN THE BAPTISM, IMMERSING US INTO THE DEATH OF CHRIST. AND CHRIST INTO HIS DEATH. When
he died, when the Lord Jesus Christ died, all of his elect
died. The result of sin, you know what
the result of sin is? Death. In that Christ died, he
died unto sin. What? Once. Once. When he died, we died. And my
sin actually became his sin. So when he died, I did too. When he went to the tomb, ain't
that what it says? He was buried. We're buried with
him by baptism, by his immersion because we're in his body, under
death. And then as Christ was raised
from the dead, we was raised from the dead in him. Oh my,
he went to the tomb, every believer did too. When he was raised,
so were we. And I'm gonna show you in Ephesians
2.5. I hope I'm not wearing you out,
but this is so wonderful for me. I don't know about you all,
but these things are such blessings to me. How so identified we're
with Christ. Look what it said over here in
Ephesians 2, 5 and 6. Even when we were dead in sins,
hath quickened us together, listen to that, together with Christ,
and hath raised up together with Christ. And he sat down in heavenly
places, and look what it says, we sat down with him. Huh? Every believer, every one of
God's elect, when he died, we died. When he was buried, we
was buried. When he was raised, we was raised.
When he went up, we went up. When he sat down, we sat down.
Ain't that what I just read to you? Huh? Oh, my. Oh, every one of God's elect
was so regarded in Christ that God regards them As He did His
Son, He does us. That's why He said He's going
to conform us to the image of His Son. You know what our future is?
Father, I will that they whom Thou hast given me be with me
where I am. That's our future. That they
may behold my glory. That's our future. But you know
what right now is? As He is in this world, as He
is in this world, so are we. As He now is, John 4, 17, as
He now is, so are we in this world. How is He right now? How is He right now? He has no
sin. He died to it. In that He is
raised, sin has no more dominion over Him. And as we was raised
with Christ, sin has no dominion over us. As he was buried, because
of sin, we was buried with him. And when he was raised, the scripture
said, we was raised up together with. When he sat down, we sat
down with him in glory. So as he is, so are we right
now. Watch Christ right now. That's what we are right now. Oh, my. Oh, what a future we
got. Oh, he said over there in Romans,
he said, and we are walking newness of life. This is newness of life. Ain't this the most wonderful
life? This new life we have. This is newness of life. And
every time we hear it, it's newness of life. Oh, Oh, there's a spirit
working in us. And oh my, we're immersed in
Christ, put on Christ, we're baptized into Christ. And oh,
we have that fine linen, the righteousness of Christ. When
God sees me, all he can see is his blessed, blessed son. If
he ever looked at us outside of his son, you know what happened?
Be no hope. No hope. But all earthly distinctions
and all fleshly distinctions are gone. Gone. All of God's
blessed people are one in Christ. Oh my. I'm certainly thankful. There's
no other way I could get in Christ without somebody putting me there.
No other way I could understand it without the Holy Spirit of
God. No way else I could have new life except he gave it to
me. Our Father, in the blessed name
of Christ our Lord, thank you for your gospel. Thank you for
the truth as it is in Christ our Lord. God bless the gospel
to our hearts, minds, and understanding. Meet all of our needs. and do
it for Christ's sake. Oh Lord, we thank you for this
gospel of our oneness, our union with the Lord Jesus Christ. Thank
you for it. Blessed be your name. Amen. Amen. 326 in the hymn book. And we'll
stand together saying this. 326, and then you'll be at liberty
to go. No, that's not the one I want.
I want that one that's, I am not skilled to understand what God has willed and what
God has planned. That's the one I want. Huh? 222? 236? How much? 226. I am not skilled to understand
what God hath willed, what God hath planned. I only know that
His right hand is one who is my Savior. I take Him at His word indeed
Christ died for sinners lives I read for in my heart I find
indeed of Him to be my Savior His place on high, and come for
sinful man to die. You count His strength, so what's
did I with Him, my Savior? And with His Word contented be,
as I with my dear Saviour. my soul is from the springs that
he who lives to be my king was bound to be my savior. See you tonight, God willing.