Why don't you go ahead and return
to Acts chapter 2. Acts chapter 2, what I was kind of hoping for us to
accomplish in this study, is not only to understand the definition
of what baptism is, but as the ordinance, what the prerequisite
of baptism is, the purpose of baptism, and that authority that's
involved. So start out in our introduction
this last hour, we saw that baptism is an important thing. Water baptism is an important
thing. not to be sloughed off or deemed
a secondary issue, that it's part and parcel and tied in with
the gospel. It is the very thing that we
are to do whenever someone believes the gospel. We're commanding
them to be baptized to show forth that gospel in visible form. And then we begin to indoctrinate
them with the teachings that Christ has commanded us, And
as I mentioned last hour, there are many people that have been,
over the history, have been persecuted for these very things. Matter
of fact, that's what the Baptists down through history were considered. And then there became a sect,
a specific sect called the Anabaptists. But Anabaptist was a general
term that was given to any church or any group of people. that
wouldn't accept the baptism from Rome or from any organization
that either sprinkled or poured or baptized as a baby. There
were people down through history that would not accept those baptisms
as valid baptisms. And so they were persecuted They
were given a name, they were called Anabaptists. The word
Anabaptist kind of sounds like no baptism, but that's
not what it means. The word Anabaptist means re-baptizers
or to baptize again. That's what the word Anabaptist
means. It means to baptize again. And the Anabaptists all claimed
that they weren't Anabaptists because that's not true. They
do not believe that they were baptizing again anybody coming
from the Catholic Church, or the Anglican Church, or the Presbyterian
Church, or the Lutheran Church, or any of those other churches
that came out of the Catholic Church. They did not believe
they were re-baptizing them. They believed they were baptizing
them. That's why in the 1644 Confession
of Faith, Baptist Confession of Faith, It says that there
were, these were seven churches in London who the convention
says wrongly, wrongly called Anabaptists. It isn't that they
were trying to distance themselves, and I've heard that, especially
from some of the reformers, that hey, those Baptists were trying
to distance themselves from the Anabaptists. They were claiming,
hey, we're not Anabaptists. We don't want to have anything
to do. Don't lump us in with Anabaptists. because they believed
that some of the Anabaptists were heretics, you know? But
that's not the case. If you read some of the writings
of some of these early men, particularly Baptists of 1644, what they were
claiming was that the term itself is wrongly applied to us. We are not re-baptizers. We are
baptizers. We only baptize those who are
scripturally candidates for baptism. and those who have been wedded,
you know, dampened in some other form, in some other way, by some
other organization besides the Lord's church, and by immersion
under belief and repentance, then that wasn't baptism. We
don't recognize that as baptism. And today, listen, brethren,
even among Baptist churches today, there are a lot of people that
are looking at those other baptisms, pedo-baptism, sprinkling, pouring,
or even non-baptism, they're looking at that as, you know,
no big deal. And looking at that as, well, that's acceptable baptism.
As long as you get wet, that's acceptable baptism. But that's
not what the Bible teaches. And I'm sorry. I have good friends
that believe that. Love them to death. I believe
they believe the gospel. They are brothers in Christ.
I just believe that they're sincerely in error when it comes to that.
I pray that the Lord will give them a better understanding of
that as time goes on. But we find that there is a prerequisite
to baptism. And there were men and women
that were killed throughout history because they held to these things.
And it's not popular even today. We've had people that's come
and joined in attending our church, and whenever membership was brought
up or asked about, we began to talk about baptism. We found
that baptism wasn't according to scripture, and we began to
encourage and admonish them to be baptized. They became offended
at that, and they left. Good people. We love them. I
believe they believe the gospel. you know, they don't want to
submit to the Lord's terms of becoming a member of the local
church. And we have to be faithful to that. And so it doesn't come
down to an issue of whether or not we believe someone's saved
or not. Again, baptism isn't about salvation. See, that's
another error about baptism. There are those who believe that
baptism is by immersion and it's by the local church. called the
Campbellites. You've heard that term probably
before. As a matter of fact, the man who began the Campbellite
movement actually used to be a sovereign grace landmark Baptist.
He used to believe just like we did, but yet he
began to see and think that baptism is what saved you, and then the
whole Church of Christ movement came out of that. and other churches
that believe in baptismal quickening, or that the actual removal of
sin comes when you go down into the water. So there are erroneous
things, even among immersionists. It's not just the pedo-Baptist
sprinklers that are at fault, there's also immersioners that
are at fault in believing that baptism actually saves. We do
not believe that scripture does not teach that baptism saves
anybody. No one is saved by baptism, and
no one is set apart or sanctified by baptism, okay? Baptism has no sacramental value,
and that's another thing that separates Baptists from a lot
of other denominations. They believe that the ordinances
of the church, the Lord's Supper, and baptism are sacraments. You've
probably heard that word before, right? A sacrament. Baptists
do not believe, and the Word of God does not teach that the
ordinances are sacraments. And a lot, and matter of fact,
if you read a lot of the early Baptists, you'll find that they
use the word sacrament, and I think they wrongly use that. Either
that, or I just don't have an understanding of what their English
word, their understanding in the English language was at that
time. I probably ought to look that
up. Matter of fact, Brother Royce is the one who kind of enlightened
me on this. And I have one of these, matter
of fact. I don't even know why I hadn't checked it before. But there's one of the Oxford dictionaries
you can get. And whenever you open up that
dictionary and you go to a word, it gives you the definition of
that word in different centuries. And you can see the progression
of how that word changes over the years. You can go back to
the time that the King James was written, the English of that
day, and everything, and it will give you the definition of how
that word was understood of that day. And I probably ought to
do my due diligence and do that. However, we... I completely lost my train of
thought. The prerequisite, again, is that a person must be saved. The prerequisite is someone has
to repent and to believe. And baptism doesn't save, it
doesn't wash away your sins, and it is a, oh, I'm sorry, sacrament. I was on sacraments. It isn't
a sacrament. The word sacrament means a means
of grace, that there's an infusion or a bestowal of grace because
of something that you do. And so the Catholic Church believes
that baptism is a sacrament, that it is a means of grace.
I would even say the Pago-Baptists of the Presbyterians and things
like that would also have to fall into that category. The
Lord's Supper, you know, the Catholics believe that whenever
you eat that bread and drink that cup, it actually becomes
the flesh and the blood of Jesus Once it gets in you, it becomes
that, and that infuses grace into you. The Protestants, they
believe in co-substantiation, which they don't believe that
it physically becomes the flesh and blood, but that whenever
you partake of the Lord's Supper, that it does bestow and infuse
grace into you for that. If you remember, we had some
Presbyterians that were coming to our church back in the old
building, if you'll remember. And after they attended for a
while, of course, they weren't members of the church, but they
attended for quite a while, and they finally approached me. And
at that time, we hadn't had the Lord's Supper in a little while.
And they finally approached and asked, you know, when are you
guys gonna have the Lord's Supper? Because we really need to have
that. Immediately, my head was like,
oh no, here comes the discussion. because they weren't members,
they weren't gonna be able to partake of the Lord's Supper with us
anyway. But second of all, the thing that they conveyed
to me is, you know, whenever I asked, I said, well, we have
it, but we don't have it on a regular basis. We have it every so often. And matter of fact, I believe
maybe even at that time was that time that we weren't having the
Lord's Supper because we were still studying through the wine
issue and we put off doing the Lord's Supper
until the Lord brought us into agreement on that. But anyway,
the thing that the brother told me is that we need to have the
Lord's Supper because our faith can wane if we don't have that
Lord's Supper. We need to have that continually
on a regular basis. because it's a means of grace.
It's a means of how we have grace infused into us to keep us faithful
and things such as that. And, you know, I had to explain,
well, brother, we don't see it that way. We believe that it
is truly just a symbol. It's an ordinance that's a symbol
and is in memorial to the Lord Jesus and has no sacramental
application at all. So the Baptist do not believe
that it's a sacrament. So baptism is not a sacrament,
that it is an ordinance. And to be administered this ordinance,
you have to meet the prerequisites that the Bible teaches for us
to meet. And that's one of the reasons
why those early Christians were persecuted is because number
one, they weren't recognizing the baptisms from these other
people. They weren't accepting them into their membership because
they weren't properly, and so they were called They were called
sectarian, okay? And in a sense, we are sectarian. And we say that in a good way.
If sectarian means that we close all others out because we believe
our church is the only church that's right, that's the wrong
sectarianism. Sectarianism to say, you can't
be a part because you don't meet the requirements of scripture,
that form of sectarianism is definitely good. Okay, and that
way the Bible teaches, that's how we keep the local church
pure. Okay, we do make mistakes sometimes. People come in with false professions
and they are found out to not be what they profess. We make
mistakes. People come in saying that they
had correct, thinking they had correct baptism, And whenever
they conveyed their baptisms in the past to us, they conveyed
it in such a way that we thought that it was a good baptism, an
authorized, proper baptism. But as they sat under the teaching
of the word of God, I'm one of them, as I sat under the teaching
of the word of God and began to study baptism and the church
and things such as that, I began to see, oh, wait a minute, that
baptism I had wasn't a valid baptism. And so we submit ourselves
to that, or they'll submit themselves to that. So we see that the Bible
has these teachings and we shouldn't just throw these things off because
many people have died for these very things. Now, it's interesting
to note that Baptist, and I'm not saying as a denomination,
again, for anyone that's not heard us preach or teach on these
things, whenever we talk about Baptist, okay, we're not talking
about a denomination, although there is a denomination called
Baptist. there's Southern Baptists, there's
Northern Baptists, there's Free Will Baptists, there's Independent
Fundamental Baptists, there is Seventh-day Baptists. You know,
there's all these different kinds of Baptists in their denominations.
But whenever we speak of a Baptist church, we're speaking of a church
that is continuing in the ministry of the gospel according as it
started with John. The beginning of the gospel began
with John, that unfolding and revealing of Christ as who he
is, as the son of God, and what he was doing, and repentance
and faith. That began with John, who was
called the Baptist. That was the term given to John
in his service, to John as his role and ministry. The ministry
of John was to be the Baptist. and the ministry of the church
is to be the Baptist, the one who preaches the gospel and baptize
and teaches all things whatsoever Christ has commanded. That is
the Baptist ministry. And so we are continuing that
ministry. We are not identifying with an
organization that is a convention or a denomination. We are continuing
and identifying with that ministry that John began, that Jesus picked
up and passed to every church as it went down. Not saying that
those churches were called Baptist churches, but it's the ministry
of the Baptist. That's what we do, we baptize. And so, but it's interesting
to note, that the Baptist are the only churches that, when
teaching on baptism, begin with John the Baptist. A lot of them
never begin with John the Baptist. They'll begin somewhere else.
But there is no difference, as I showed a while ago, there's
no difference between the baptism administered by John and the
baptism administered by the Lord and his disciples, the baptism
that's administered by us today. Every major denomination has
a name that distinguishes it from others, and that name portrays
an important emphasis of its teachings. The Lutheran Church,
why is it called Lutheran? Well, because it identifies with
Martin Luther. So they're looking at Martin
Luther. But see, the Baptist churches,
and again, Baptist is not trying to identify, and I'm not trying
to identify and claim anything, or we are, to John the Baptist. It hasn't got nothing to do about
Baptist or John. It has to do with the ministry
that God give to John and give to the local church. It's that
ministry. If they don't have Baptist in
the name, that don't make no difference to us either. You
don't have to have Baptist in the name. Now some people will
say if they don't have Baptist in the name, it's because they
have shame. I'm not ashamed to call myself
a Baptist, but not affiliated with all the false Baptists that's
out there. I don't have any problem with
that, but it isn't in the name. It isn't about the name. The
name ain't got nothing to do with it. So I wanted to say that
at the onset, but who is the proper subject for Look with
me in Acts chapter 2. Acts chapter 2. Now after Peter got up on the
day of Pentecost, he preached the message of the gospel. And as that message
was being preached, look at verse 37. It says, now
when they heard this, they were pricked in their heart and said
unto Peter and to the rest of the apostles, men and brethren,
what shall we do? Okay, so they were pricked in
their heart. So there was something that immediately
upon hearing this, their heart was opened and it bothered them. There was something going on
in them that this resonated with, okay? And it said, you know,
what shall we do? Then Peter said unto them, repent
and be baptized. Again, the importance of baptism
was placed just like with John, repent for the kingdom of heaven
is at hand. And those who repented and showed
forth Fruits of repentance, what happened? They were baptized.
Repent, be baptized, confessing your sins. What is the mode here? That Peter, who was instructed
for three and a half years by Jesus, who fell under the ministry
of Jesus, who was commissioned by Jesus to baptize, who was
there whenever Jesus commissioned the church to baptize, What is
the first thing that Peter tells the first massive evangelistic
effort of that first church? What does he tell the first disciples
that come forth? Repent first. If there's no repentance of dead
works, then there is no baptism. But he said, repent and be baptized. He didn't say repent and join
the church. He didn't say repent and that's
it. He said, repent and be baptized. Every one of you in the name
of Jesus for the remissions of sin. John preached baptism for
the remissions of sin. Why? Because our sins have been
remitted. He said, well, wait a minute. All that John business
was before Jesus died. Exactly. Were their sins remitted
before Jesus died? Or is the remissions of sin only
after Jesus died? See, there's where those who
do not believe in eternal justification, that's the place where they lose
it. They don't have any grounds to
stand whenever they say that justification never did take
place until the cross. And now, because of the cross,
everybody back from that can be justified because they believe,
and everybody going forth, if they believe, can be justified.
That's not what the Bible teaches. John preached baptism for the
remissions of sins, just like Peter preached baptism for the
remissions of sins, and is either one of those teaching be baptized
so that your sins will be remitted? No. Remember the illustration
that I've always given here, okay? Brother Ed, he fought in
the war, was at least in the service. Did you fight actually
in the war? No. Okay, he's in the service,
but say there was something sprung up, okay, and he did something
heroic, and then they give him the medal for bravery. Did the president give Brother
Ed a medal so that he would go out and be brave? No. Putting a medal on somebody doesn't
make them brave. But whenever you put that medal
on that's been given for the fact of being brave already,
then that shows forth as a symbol that one was brave. Baptism is
a sign and a symbol of one who has been united in Christ in
death, burial, and resurrection. One who has had their sins remitted. Baptism shows forth that my sins
have been remitted. There's been remission of sins
for me. That's what that baptism shows.
So the reason that he was saying be baptized for the remissions
of sin is it's saying be baptized because your sins have been remitted. And if they were remitted before
with John, then that means justification was before the cross. Now, surely
it was based upon the acts and works of Christ in the cross. But brethren, the declaration
and the seeing of that and declaring of that, and listen, even the
experience of that, the experience of that even, did not Abraham
experience the comfort and peace and assurance of justification? He saw the seed and he accounted
the seed for righteousness. Abraham knew it wasn't his works
or his belief, it was the seed that was accounted unto him for
righteousness. So we've seen that baptism is
for the remissions of sin or because there's been remission
of sin, didn't mean to get off on that justification sidetrack.
But just to note, in case anybody's never noticed that, there was
remission of sin before the cross through the baptisms that was
given in John. They were baptized for the remission of sin, just
like Peter said. So he said, for the remission
of sin. So that doesn't mean so that your sins will be remitted.
That's where the Campbellites go astray. They believe that
when you're baptized, that's when your sins are remitted,
that your sins are washed away. Any of y'all seen that movie,
Old Brother, Where Art Thou? You remember when Delmar went
down into the river to get baptized whenever he come out? Come on
in, boys, the water's fine. I've had my sins washed away,
you know? The water of baptism doesn't
wash away the sins, okay? It is a picture of your sins
being washed away by the blood. The blood washes away our sins,
but it is a picture of that taking place. And so Peter goes on and
says, repent, be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus
Christ for the remissions of sin, and you shall receive the
gift of the Holy Ghost. Now that doesn't mean being born
again. These men were already born again. That's not what that
was talking about. For the promise is unto you and
to your children, And here's where the pedo-baptist says,
so see there, we need to be baptizing our children. They fall under
the, if you baptize your children, they're under the promise. Okay,
it's that covenant thing, all right? But look what it says.
It says, and to all that are far off, even as many as the
Lord our God shall call. It has to do with all that the
Lord shall call. Remember, no one can believe
on Christ unless they're called. And all that the Lord does call
upon shall come to him, right? So this notion of a child being
in this limbo isn't scriptural. Sorry to all my Paedo-Baptist
friends, but that just isn't what the scriptures teach. For
the promises unto you and your children And to all that are
far off, now remember, and let me say this as we get into this,
even if that did mean baptize your children, what was just
the prerequisite that Peter preached? Repent and be baptized. There's nothing wrong with baptizing
children. Now, we're very careful in baptizing
children, especially extremely young children, okay? Sometimes
children want to be baptized because they see people getting
baptized. Or you could be like me. One time I was baptized because
I was told that you can't take the Lord's Supper until you get
baptized. And I kept seeing them eating
them little crackers and drinking that grape juice in the church
that I was in, putting the grape juice, drinking that grape juice
and eating those crackers. And I wanted to do that. But
yet they kept telling me, oh no, only Christians can do that
who have been baptized. And so I wanted to get baptized
so that I could take the Lord's Supper. See, wrong motive, right? That's why all my baptisms before
the last one were all invalid baptisms. Wrong motives, wrong
doctrine, everything. But we see here that the promise is to you and to your children
if your children repent and believe. Yes, to you and your children.
If your children repent and believe, then they too can be baptized.
Same thing goes with all those illustrations later on in the
New Testament, where it talks about whole households being
baptized. The Paedo-Baptists will use that
and say, see there, their whole house was baptized. Well, number
one, just because it says whole household doesn't mean there
was children or infants in there. Now, where does the scripture
say that there was infants in Cornelius' household? or the
jailer's household. There wasn't anywhere that said
that there were infants there. That said, or children, just
said your whole household. But if you'll remember, it said,
and they which believed were baptized. So even if it was children
that was in there, it still was the children that believed were
baptized. See, we gotta let scripture tell
us how we are to believe on these things, brethren. Let it speak
for itself. He says, and with many other
words did he testify and exhort saying, save yourselves from
this untoward generation. Then they that gladly received
his word were baptized. So that means they were pricked
in the heart. They heard the word, it pricked in their heart.
Their conscience was moved. Their guilt was there. They sorrowed over what they
had done. They understood the gospel of Jesus Christ, realized
that they were at fault and was in need, and so they asked, you
know, what shall we do? What was the instruction by Peter?
Repent. Repent of what? Just repent?
Does that just mean, God, I'm sorry? No, it's turn. Repent is turn from your dead
works. What was the dead works? They
thought that their righteousness came by keeping the law. And
how amazing it is today that there are people that still think
that there is righteousness that can come from the law or even
sanctification that can come from the law. When the Bible
says that, don't happen. That the law is only there to
point us to Christ, to get us to the place to see our inability
and Christ's ability, what is done. And then once that takes
place, we have no need of that tutor anymore, that schoolmaster
anymore. and we die to that, that master,
that husband dies so that we could be married to another one.
We become married to Christ. We're no longer married to the
law, under the law. What a beautiful picture that
is. And Peter says, listen, repent. Repent from that wrong way of
thinking that it is what you do or what you say or how you
live, how you act. and look to Christ as your only
way. Look to Him. His righteousness only is all
you need. Don't even trust in your own
belief. Brethren, every one of us in here, and let me just say
this, how many of us in here has repented of a sin and turned
around and went back and did that sin again? Now, am I the only one
that that's happened to? I don't think so. Anybody watching?
Every one of us has repented of sin and turned back and did
not sin again, I'm sure. So repentance, if salvation hinged
on me being a repentant person, then I'm doomed. Because I have
to continually keep repenting because I continually keep going
back, if it's talking about sins. How many in here has believed
on the Lord Jesus Christ but then came into some time where
you had some doubts and thought, well, I don't know about that?
Every one of us here. So if belief is what keeps us
justified, if belief is what causes God to declare us just,
then what about the times of unbelief that we have? Do we
lose that justification? Whenever the apostle said, we
believe, help thou our unbelief, he said, justified, unjustified. Is God sitting up there with
an eraser and waiting on you? Oh, he repented. I'll write his
name in the Lamb's Book of Life. Oh, he messed up. Restart. Oh, he repented again. Back in
there. Oh, messed up again. Oh, he believes on me. All right,
name's in the Book of Life. Ah, he doubted. Kind of silly and absurd when
you see it in person, right? But yet, that's the mentality
of most people. See, repent is to trust in Christ, turn away
from yourself. Whenever a person is born again
and is converted to the gospel, that's why I say, now that I've
seen the gospel, and I don't want to presume, you know, it's
only by the grace of God. that he gives me faith to believe.
But once you see the gospel, you can't ever go back to that
Arminian view of things again. Why would you want to go back
to a system like that? That number one defames Christ. Baptism is something that is
done to those who have heard, who have believed, who have repented,
not just from sinning, okay, but repented from believing that
they're keeping law or keeping and doing good things is making
them acceptable to God. Those who receive the word of
that gospel, the word of instruction to be baptized, you know what
they were? They were baptized. It wasn't until they did that
that they were baptized. Matter of fact, I would be pretty
accurate in saying that if these men did not show forth fruits
of repentance, then Peter, like John, would have said, whoa,
whoa, show forth fruits of repentance. Now, if repentance is talking
about stopping sinning, How can they show forth fruits of repentance
to people right there, and then be judged right there as having
done that, and then be baptized? Because it says that same day
there were, how many? That same day there were added
unto them about 3,000 souls. So 3,000 people received the
word, repented, and was baptized. But if repentance is saying,
I repent of my sin, then how did they show forth fruits of
repentance that those apostles could judge
that and say, all right, candidate for baptism. I mean, they didn't
have enough time to show forth fruits of repentance. As far
as quitting sinning, I'm not sinning anymore. I'm not going
to sin anymore. I turn away. I repent of my sins, meaning
I'm turning from my sins. As soon as I baptize you, you
go home, you're gonna be right back in them. So it's not repenting of sins, okay? Meaning all the bad stuff
that I do, it's repenting of my sins of dead works. Thinking that the gospel or the
way that I get to Christ is by this way instead of this way.
Now that is something that you can show forth right away and be baptized and judged on. See,
someone can say, you're right. I believe that imputed righteousness,
that Christ's death was enough, that I don't need to, it isn't
my repentance, it isn't my faith, it isn't my decision. It isn't none of that that causes
God to save me. It was Christ only that saved
me. You know what? You can judge that right away
and say, OK, well, if you believe that, then come. Now, are there
people that can even say that and find out later that they
leave the faith? Absolutely. Or there wouldn't
be admonishments in the pastoral writings about people who that
happens to and in Corinthians and things like that and how
we are to put them out of the church and that, you know, these
people went out from us because they were in a moment. So we
see, yes, there is going to be false things that take place,
but just because false things take place doesn't negate the
fact that there is a way that we are to do things. And the
proper subject for baptism is those who believe, repent, that's all in conjunction
with each other. Then they are the ones who are
baptized. And to believe presupposes that they have already been born
again because only those who are born again believe. Now, look with me, if you would,
to Acts chapter 8. Acts chapter 8. and look at verse 26. Now I want you to
pay close attention here because I told you that there's only
one place in Scripture where people point to of someone who
was baptized but never tied to a local church, okay? And it
was the Ethiopian eunuch and I said I thought that I have
a biblical basis to say that that's not even true there. that
he was just turned loose. Look at verse 26. It says, and
the angel of the Lord spake unto Philip, saying, Arise, and go
toward the south unto the way that goeth down from Jerusalem
unto Gaza, which is desert. And he arose and went, and behold,
a man of Ethiopia, a man of Ethiopia, a eunuch of great authority under
Candace, queen of the Ethiopians, who had the charge of all her
treasure, and had come to Jerusalem for to worship. So this Ethiopian was coming
to Jerusalem to worship. So it seemed that even before
Philip spoke and preached to this Ethiopian, he was coming
to Jerusalem to worship. Who was he coming to worship
with? Was he coming to worship with the Jews? Was he coming
to worship with the Christians that were following Jesus? I
don't know. It doesn't say, but it does say
that he was coming to Jerusalem to worship. And that was before
he even talked to Philip. So we know that the Ethiopian
was someone who came to worship, just like how Cornelius worshiped
God before he was preached the gospel and began to rightly worship
God. The Ethiopian was coming to worship.
Who knows? How do we know that the Ethiopian
wasn't coming to Jerusalem to worship with those who were called,
who was it called the way? The ones following after Jesus. Or even at that, those who were
the Jews who were coming to the tabernacle, the temple to worship. Maybe he was doing that, I don't
know. But either way, he was coming to worship. All the way from Ethiopia, by
the way. If he was actually living in Ethiopia, which we don't know
because it just says that he was a man of Ethiopia. It didn't
say he was a man from Ethiopia. It says he was a man of Ethiopia,
meaning that he was an Ethiopian, and that he had power under the
queen of Ethiopia. And he had charge of all her
treasures. Now, I would think that he was in Ethiopia, though. Why? Because it says that he
had come to Jerusalem to worship. So he didn't live in Jerusalem,
he come to Jerusalem to worship. And it's kind of hard to be in
charge of all the treasure of the queen if you're not there
where the treasure's at, right? So this man was traveling from
Ethiopia to Jerusalem to worship. Verse 28, was returning and sitting
in his chariot, read Isaiah the prophet. Oh, wait a minute. Now
that does tell us what he might be worshiping. Here he had a
scroll of Isaiah the prophet. Now listen, brethren, that period
of time, having the word of God in your own hands was not very
that didn't happen often. Having a copy of scripture didn't
happen very often. Now, what they did have was the
Septuagint. That was the Hebrew Bible translated
into Greek, and it was called the Septuagint. Now, that was
around during that time. People had that and was able
to read that. And so maybe that was what he was reading. Maybe
he was reading the Septuagint. I don't know. It doesn't say,
does it? It doesn't say there. It just says that he was reading
Isaiah the prophet. So that tells me that he was
going to Jerusalem to worship, and he was going to worship under
the umbrella of the God of the Bible, at least, that we understand. He's at least reading the scriptures
from the God of the Bible. He's reading Isaiah. It says, then the spirit, saith
unto Philip, go near and join thyself to this chariot. And
Philip ran thither to him, and heard him read the prophet Isaiah,
and said, understandest thou what thou readest? And he said,
how can I except some man should guide me? And he desired Philip
that he would come up and sit with him. The place of the scripture
which he read was this, He was led as a sheep to the slaughter,
and like a lamb done before his shearer, so opened he not his
mouth. So he was reading about Christ's
crucifixion in Isaiah, wasn't he? So here this Ethiopian was going
to worship in Jerusalem. He had a copy of the scriptures,
or at least Isaiah, and he was reading that and was pondering
at least on the part that was dealing with the gospel. And
yet he didn't quite have any understanding of what he was
reading, and so now Philip has come alongside to help teach
or to show him what was going on in this passage. Said, in
his humiliation, his judgment was taken away, and who shall
declare his generation? For his life is taken from the
earth. Now that was the rest of the passage. Verse 34. And the eunuch answered Philip
and said, I pray thee, of whom speaketh the prophet this, of
himself or of some other man? Then Philip opened his mouth
and began at the same scripture and preached unto him Jesus.
So he showed this Ethiopian eunuch how this pertained to being the
gospel of Jesus and what had just transpired in Jerusalem,
just not many days before. And as they went on their way,
there came unto a certain water. And the eunuch said, see, here
is water. What hath hindered me to be baptized? Is there anywhere in that Isaiah
passage that talks about being baptized? I went back and checked. I couldn't
find anywhere in that passage that talked about being baptized.
So they're reading Isaiah. He's preaching to him Jesus and
the gospel. from Isaiah. Now somehow this
Ethiopian eunuch realizes that there is a need to be baptized.
Now where did that come from? Where did that come from? Well, we have to make two assumptions
here based upon what the scripture reveals. Number one, he was worshiping
up in Jerusalem. So either he was taught about
baptism up in Jerusalem Or Philip, as he preached the gospel, preached
the gospel, and in that preaching of the gospel, talked about baptism. Now, isn't that what Jesus told
them to do whenever they went to make disciples? Make disciples, baptizing them. So somewhere along the way, this
Ethiopian eunuch heard the gospel, but yet the gospel was tied to
baptism. And this man realized, hey, there's
water. What keeps me from being baptized? Look at verse 37. Philip said
this. What's the prerequisite, Ethiopian
eunuch, to being baptized? If thou believest with all thy
heart, thou mayest. But if thou don't believe us,
thou may not. It's just the opposite, right?
What was the prerequisite that Philip, the evangelist, Philip the deacon
here, what was, who by the way, remember Philip was there whenever
the commission was given, right? This isn't Philip the Apostle,
by the way. This is Philip the deacon. This is Philip, the one
who was made a deacon and then later was considered an evangelist,
held the office of evangelist. But he was there, right? Because
all the disciples heard the commission, right? And he was the one who
had accompanied with them. And out of the 120, then on the
day of Pentecost, the number turned to 3,000. And then we
found in chapter seven that among all those people, they chose
seven men to be deacons. And Philip was out of those people.
So Philip had been taught that baptism had prerequisites, but
that it was also essential in preaching the gospel and teaching
them to be baptized who believe the gospel. And this Ethiopian
eunuch was told, if thou believeth with all thine heart, thou mayest.
And the Ethiopian, look what he said, I believe that Jesus
Christ is the God, the son of God. And he commanded the chariot
to stand still. And they went down both and splashed
water on him. Know what it says? Poured water
on him. No, it says, and they both went
down into the water, both Philip and the eunuch, and he baptized
him. He immersed him. And when they
were come up out of the water, the spirit of the Lord caught
away Philip that the eunuch saw him no more. And he went on his
way, on his way where? to Jerusalem to worship. And Philip was found at Aztos
and passing through, he preached in all the cities till he came
to Caesarea. And it was there in Caesarea that he became the
evangelist. What do we see here? Well, what's
the prerequisite? Who's the proper person to be
baptized? Those who believed, right? Those who believed. What does
hinder me to be baptized? What hinders you from being baptized? Well, there is something, belief.
And belief is tied in with repentance. Belief is the other side of the
coin of repentance. To repent means that I've changed
my mind and I'm not believing this, I'm believing this. So belief in Christ and his righteousness
means I've repented from me and my righteousness. I've repented. Repentance and belief are the
same coin, two different sides. To repent means to believe. And
when you believe, you will repent. If one does not do that, they
cannot be baptized, must not be baptized, should not be baptized. Whenever you look through the
scriptures, you're gonna find that only those who believed
baptized them, or was baptized. Now, Lord willing, next week,
we're going to pick up with the proper design. So we see that
the proper candidate for baptism is those who have believed. Of
course, that presupposes, again, being quickened of the Holy Spirit.
Some people call it regenerated. The word regenerated is not the
biblical term for being born again, although that's drilled
into so many people's heads, drilled into our head. Can't
find any scripture that has to do with anyone's being born again
or quickened that has to do with Regeneration. Regeneration, the
words in scripture, has to do with whenever all things are
made new in the future, or it has to do with the death, burial,
and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Anyway, that's another day, another
story. But we see that the proper candidate
is those who have been born again, who believe and repent. Those
are the ones who are to be baptizing that baptism is by fully immersing
that believer in water. Of course, we'll go through some
more of that, Lord willing, later. All right, any questions or any
comments? All right, Lord willing, we'll
look at the design of baptism next week. We'll look at the
design of baptism and pick up and carry on. Let's bow and have
a word of prayer. Father, we thank you today for
your mercy that we have.