All right, turn with me, if you
would, to John chapter 4. John chapter 4. I want to begin this by asking
a question that I have asked before when a brother or sister
has expressed a desire to confess the Lord in believers baptism
and the reason I want to ask this question again is because
I believe it is a very important question I know it is it's an
extremely important question here is the question Are we about
to witness a salvation? Have we all gathered here and
we're all sitting here and in a few minutes we're about to
witness a salvation. It's going to be probably 30
minutes, probably 30 minutes before our brother here can get
into this water. Is he right now, and I do mean
right now, a lost man with no hope for the next 30 minutes? We know that God kills and God
makes alive. That's what he said in Deuteronomy
32, 39. He said, I kill. Whatever dies,
God said, I did it. And whatever lives, God said,
I did it. I do all these things. If God
stopped his heart right now, if he had a heart attack right
now, before we could get him in that
water, would he go to heaven or hell? I think this is an important
question. I'll tell you something, if baptism
is salvation, we better hurry up. Just in case. Just in case. I'd better hurry
through this. But thank God Almighty, water
baptism is not salvation. The sinless Blood that Jesus
Christ willingly shed. That's salvation. We just sang
all these songs about the blood, about the cross, about a sacrifice
that was made. That's salvation. If we want
to see salvation, all we have to do is look to a person. A
man is salvation, and his name is Jesus Christ. The lamb slain,
he is called. That's salvation. And God Almighty said that lamb
was slain before the foundation of the world. Isn't that what
he said? Before the foundation of the world. Your hope of eternal
life. was ordered and sure before Christ
ever even spoke the world into existence. It's already a done
deal, no matter what happens in the next 30 minutes. We can
be at total ease. We can take all the time we want.
We can take 35 minutes if we want. Whatever happens, it's
already a done deal, ordered and sure. Now, let me show you
proof of that here in John chapter 4. John 4 verse 1 says, when therefore
the Lord knew how the Pharisees had heard that Jesus made and
baptized more disciples than John. See, I said baptized more
disciples. Verse 2 says, though Jesus himself
baptized not, but his disciples. The Lord Jesus Christ never baptized
one person on this earth. The first time I came to realize
that, that was amazing to me. Not one time. He never baptized
one person on this earth. And the reason is because water
baptism is not salvation, and he wanted to make that very clear.
If water baptism was salvation, God Almighty would have done
it. The one thing that is salvation,
the sinless blood that Jesus Christ willingly shed, he had
to do that all by himself. No man could help him. Salvation
is of the Lord. That's what Jonah said. Salvation
is of the Lord. It is only of the Lord. It has already been accomplished
by the Lord. It is finished. That's what he
said. It is finished. What did he mean
when he said that? When he said, It is finished,
this is what he meant. The salvation of all of His people
is accomplished. It's done. It's done. It's over. If it was not, He
would have never lied to us by telling us it was. God cannot
lie. He cannot lie. And He would have
said, It is almost That's what he would have said.
But he didn't say that. When he by himself purged our
sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on High.
He's finished. The only priest that ever sat
down. The sacrifice is finished. All right, now turn with me back
to John chapter 1. Jesus Christ, the man, our Savior, is God. He's not God's son. He is the Son of God. Big difference. Big difference. He is the highest God of heaven.
When we talk about God, we are talking about the man, Jesus
Christ. God is a man. God is a man. I mean a flesh and bone man. In him dwelleth all the fullness
of the Godhead bodily. God is three persons. Three persons make up God, and
we all Naturally, think of it as being the Father, the Son,
and the Spirit. And that's not how it is. It's
the Father, the Son, and the Spirit. These three are one. The Father is the Father of God. And the Son is the Son of God. And the Spirit is the Spirit
of God. It's not God's Son and it's not
God's Father. It's God the Father, God the
Son, God the Spirit. These three are one. All right,
now knowing that, look with me at John 1, verse 1 says, In the
beginning was the Word. Revelation tells us that Jesus
Christ's name is the Word. And we're about to see in just
a minute this is Jesus Christ. In the beginning was the Word.
and the Word was with God and the Word was God. All right,
now verse 14 says, And the Word was made flesh and dwelt among
us. And we beheld His glory, the
glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace
and truth. That's Jesus Christ. The Word
was God. He was in the beginning before
anything was made. He did not start 2,000 years
ago. He was with God and He was made
flesh, dwelt among us. We saw His glory. We saw what
He looks like. He looks just like the Son of
God. God does. Now that's important. That's
extremely important for what I'm about to show us. Turn with
me to Matthew Matthew 3 verse 13 Then cometh Jesus from Galilee
to Jordan unto John to be baptized of him Now wait a minute God
was baptized By a sinner Was he or was he not? God was
baptized. Verse 14, But John forbade him,
saying, I have need to be baptized of thee, and comest thou to me?
And Jesus answering, said unto him, Suffer it to be so now,
for thus it becometh us to fulfill all righteousness. Then he suffered
him. And Jesus, when he was baptized,
went up straightway out of the water. And, lo, the heavens were
opened unto him. And he saw the Spirit of God
descending like a dove and lighting upon him. And, lo, a voice from
heaven saying, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. God Almighty was baptized. Do we see that this proves water
baptism is not salvation? Think about this. What blasphemy
would it be? What absolute blasphemy would
it be to say God needed to be saved? What utter blasphemy? What blasphemy would it be to
say that God had sins that needed to be washed away? What blasphemy? Water baptism is not salvation. It is a confession. It's a confession. God was confessing
something. As I was studying this, I really
entered into how grateful I am that God confessed this. God was confessing His union
with His people. And that's what we're confessing
in water baptism. We are confessing our union with
our God. That's exactly what we're confessing.
God was saying, I died with them. Now, I love saying that. But
even more than that, I love hearing God say that. I died with them. And I was buried with them. And I arose with them. I didn't
do this for myself. I did it for them. And we are saying in this, we
died with him. You know, we're going to lay
this body down, but there's no more death for a believer. I mean,
we died in him. If the Lord tarries, you'll come
and see me in a casket one day. I won't be dead. I died with him. I was buried
with him, and when he arose, I got up with him, alive evermore. It's a confession of what has
already taken place. That's what it is. Now, if I
committed murder, and later in the courtroom I
confessed to it, Would I at that moment be committing the murder? Would I at that moment be grabbing
that knife and stabbing it into somebody's chest if I confessed
it? No. What if I didn't confess
it? What if I never did confess it?
Would that undo the murder? Make it so that it never happened?
No. What's done is done. What's done is done. We're just confessing what's
already been done. That's all we're doing. We're
just confessing what's already been done. And to say that this
is anything more than that is to deny what Christ accomplished
on that cross. That's what it is. This Word
of God does not say, Call His name Jesus, for He shall make
salvation possible. That's just two chapters back.
It doesn't say that. It does not say, Call His name
Jesus, for He shall do everything but the last step. One final
step. Can't be saved until you do this
one final step. That's not what it says. Call
his name Jesus for he shall save his people from their sin. It's a done deal. It's a done
deal. And that's what we believe, isn't
it? That's what you believe based on the Word of God. Christ did
not fail. He did not fail. He accomplished
what he set out to accomplish. Now turn with me to Mark 16. Mark 16 verse 15 says, And he
said unto them, 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. Now why
does verse 16 not say Why does it not say? He that believeth
and is baptized shall be saved, but he that believeth not and
is not baptized shall be damned. Why doesn't it say that? Here's why. Believing and being
baptized are the same thing. They are the same thing. They
are performed at the same time by the same Holy Spirit. And it happens without one work
from man, not one work. Believing is the gift of God. What credit can we take for believing? We're about to read a scripture
to prove that to us. John the Baptist said in Luke
3, I indeed baptize you with water. Didn't he say that? But. This is what he preached. This
was his message. You think John went out telling
everybody, there's a river, you got to get in it. Here was his message. I indeed
baptize you with water, but one mightier than I cometh after
me. The lachet of whose shoes I'm
not worthy to unloose. He shall baptize you with the
Holy Ghost. That was his message. He's going
to baptize you. He's going to do it. I'm going
to put you in some water. Somebody's coming who's going
to baptize. We're going to confess what the
one who is coming is going to do. He's going to baptize you
with his Holy Spirit. The true baptism of God is when
he sends his Holy Ghost, his Holy Spirit, to a sinner. And
the work of God's spirit is this. God the Father performed a work. And you know what that work was?
He chose certain people to show mercy to. And God the Son had
a work. And you know what that work was?
He died and shed his blood for every soul that God the Father
chose. And God the Holy Spirit has a
work. He comes to every single child that God the Father chose
and God the Son died for and He lays hold of that sinner and
He brings that sinner to Jesus Christ and puts him in the blood
that was shed. That's called immersion. He puts
that sinner in Christ and all of that happens when God's Holy
Spirit comes to that sinner and puts faith to believe. That in
Christ is when a sinner's heart cries, I need Him. I want Him. I've got to be in His blood.
I can't be here anymore. I've got to be there or I'm going
to die. That's immersion. And God's Holy Spirit did it.
He baptized him. It all happens together. Baptism
is not something we do. It's something God does. And
we don't steal His glory. We just confess it. We just confess
it. All right, now let me prove that
to you. Go to Ephesians 2. We just read, He that believeth
and is baptized shall be saved. And John said, I'm going to baptize
you with water, but one's coming to baptize you with the Spirit.
He that believeth. Believing is faith. That's what
it is. Faith believes God. All right? Ephesians 2 verse 8 says, For
by grace are you saved. The word grace means gift, present. For by grace are you saved through
faith, believing on the Lord Jesus Christ. And that is not
of yourselves. It's the gift of God. Not of
works, lest any man should boast. the ability to believe God and
believe his word, it only comes through the gift of God's Holy
Spirit. It only comes through the baptism of God's Holy Spirit. That's the only way that faith
comes. So if a sinner believes God and
if a sinner believes his word, if he believes on Christ, that
faith is the evidence that his spirit has baptized us. And if
we don't believe God and we don't believe his word, that's the
evidence that we have not been baptized by God's Holy Spirit. But all the work is in his hands.
It's all in his hands. And then he just reveals it to
us and we just evidence whatever he revealed. That's all. Mark
16 said, He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved. What
he was saying is, he that receives the gift of God And he that receives the work
of God shall be saved. Shall be saved. God's going to
do it. He gets all the glory for it, and God's children love
it to be that way. Now, we started this by asking
the question, are we about to witness a salvation? And I hope we've clearly set
forth the answer is no. The answer is no. One more question. If the answer is no, why are
we doing this? If the answer is no, why are
we doing this? The first answer is God told
us to. He said, confess him before men.
He that will confess me before men. Isn't that what he said?
And he showed us how to do that in his own water baptism. He
acknowledged us and committed to us. He showed that to us.
The commitment was already there, but he showed that to us. And
that's not the only reason. That's reason enough. The fact
that God said so, that's reason enough. But there's something
that goes along with that, something that's deep. and something that's
powerful that motivates a center truly compels a center to want
to do this right here turn with me to acts chapter eight. Acts chapter 8 verse 26 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, and 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, was returning and
sitting in his chariot, and he read Isaiah the prophet. And
man, how do we love Isaiah the prophet? Then the Spirit said
unto Philip, Go near and join thyself to this chariot. God
is doing this. 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 dumb before his
shearer, so opened he not his mouth. In his humiliation, his
judgment was taken away. And who shall declare his generation? For his life is taken from the
earth. 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.
He told that eunuch about the wrath of God. All of the suffering, here they
are reading about a lamb slain, all of that suffering, all of
the punishment is a result of the wrath of God. And Philip
said, Brother Enoch, you've sinned against God. So have I. All have sinned. All have sinned. And it only takes one to ruin
us. It only takes one sin on our
record to eternally ruin us. We can try to deny that all we
want to, but it's the truth. It only takes one. The wages
of sin is death. And that's what we deserve, Brother
Eunuch. But Christ came down, the sinless one and the perfect
one, The only one who could, he came down and he took all
of your wrath upon him. And the reason he did that is
because he took all that sin off of you. All that sin that
gets into our minds and into our hearts and grieves us. and
bring so much guilt and humiliation. He said, Brother Enoch, did you
see where it said his humiliation? You know what he was humiliated
over? Your sin. He was sitting there bearing
your sin. Humiliating. The shame. And he took every bit of that
sin and he laid it on himself. And he went as a sheep to the
slaughter. He gave His glory to you and
took your humiliation upon Himself. And when He did that, He set
you free. He set you free. If God hadn't
told me that in His Word, I just don't know how I could believe
that kind of news. That's just too good. But He did, and it said, Brother
Eunuch, that he earned a place in the kingdom of heaven for
you and for us all eternity. Whatever that is, the kingdom
of heaven is a man. Heaven is a man. Those mansions
are a man. There's a place in that man for
us. And He gave every dime of His
inheritance. Everything that God has, God gave to His Son. And you know what His Son did
with it? He gave every dime of it to you. To me and you. Joint heirs with Christ. And it's already done. I'm sure
that eunuch probably said, just like everybody else did, what
must I do? What do I have to do? Well, that's the best part.
It's already done. It's already done. It's finished. You see, let me show you over
here in John 19, it is finished. And it can't be undone. The eunuch
probably said, but what if I sin tomorrow? Can't be undone. Tomorrow's sins were paid for,
just like today's sins were paid for, just like yesterday's sins
were paid for. It's done. It's finished. It cannot be undone. Can you hear that eunuch crying
the same thing every child of God cries? I love how I thought
this and the longer I'm here and the more people the Lord
brings here I hear it come out of every single one of us. Why
me? Why me? Why me? You know the only thing we can
say is thank God. You know why we filled up that
water right there? To say thank God. That's what we're saying.
When he goes down, thank God. That's all we're saying. Thank
God. We wouldn't dare diminish his
glory by trying to say we're going to finish it up for him.
We're going down saying thank God. Why me? Thank God. That sinner right there heard
the gospel and he said this is the greatest news I've ever heard
in my life. How can I scream this from the mountaintops? I
want everybody to hear this. How can I tell everybody what
Christ has done for me? Philip said, You can be baptized.
That's how God said, You can do it. Verse 36, And as they
went on their way, they came unto a certain water, and the
eunuch said, See, here is water. What doth hinder me to be baptized?
And Philip said, If thou believest with all thine heart, thou mayest. And he answered and said, I believe
that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. I believe the Messiah
has come. I believe that my Redeemer liveth. That's what I believe. Verse
38, And Philip commanded the chariot to stand still, and they
went down both into the water, both Philip and the eunuch, and
he baptized 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 rejoicing. Rejoicing. What motivates a sinner
to want to do this? Love. Love. Once a sinner realizes he loves
me and I love him, that deep, powerful union compels a sinner
to want to tell everybody. Tell the world. Let me tell the
world. I am his and he is mine. All my hope is in the one who
has already loved me and washed me from my sins in his own blood. That's where all my hope is.
I'd love to go after you. I'd love to confess that again.
But our Lord didn't tell us to do that. But that's what you
want to confess, isn't it, buddy? All right, let's go. you