The title of the message is Believer's Baptism. Believer's Baptism. Now our Lord
gave two ordinances for the church to observe till he comes back. It's the Lord's table. The bread
and the wine that we take and do in remembrance of him till
he comes. and baptism. Those are the two
that he gave. Now it says in verse 18, And
Jesus came and spake unto them, unto his disciples, saying, All
power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. All authority hath
been placed into the hands of Jesus Christ. That's what that
word power is. It's all authority. He has all
authority. It's been put into His hands.
All authority in heaven. And this is astounding. All authority
in heaven has been put into the hands of a man, Jesus Christ. There's a man in glory, seated
at God's right hand, who has been given all authority in heaven,
all the angels, all the angels do his bidding. If he says to
one, go, he goes. Another comes, he comes. Whatever
it is, he has all authority. And he has all authority on this
earth. In actuality, this earth is not ran by men. It is being
ran by Jesus Christ. He has all of power and all authority
over all nations, over all kings, over all people. There is absolutely
nothing and no one that's not under the power and authority
of Jesus Christ. Not one. All principalities,
Satan, demons, all principalities and powers. It says he made a
show of them openly trumping over them. He has all power over
them. They all have to do whatever
it is he commands. If you remember going through
the Gospels, when you read through the Gospels, when he says to
a demon, come out, what happens? He comes out. He came out. He has all power, all authority,
and he has all authority to execute judgment. Look over in John chapter
five. John chapter 5. It says in verse 25, Verily,
verily, or truly, truly, I say unto you, The hour is coming,
and now he is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son
of God, and they that hear shall live. For as the father hath
life in himself, so hath he given to the son to have life in himself,
and hath given him authority to execute judgment also, because
he's the son of man." All judgment has been put into the hands of
this man, Jesus Christ. All authority to rule over all
is in the hands of the Lord Jesus Christ. Listen to John 17 too.
I'll just read it to you. He's speaking here to his father.
This is his intercessory prayer. And he says in verse two, he
says, as thou has given him, that is Christ, speaking of himself,
power over all flesh. that he should give eternal life
to as many as thou hast given him. If he did not have the power
over all flesh, it would be a mess. It would be a mess. But he has
been given power, authority over all flesh, that he should give
eternal life to as many as the Father gave to him. Now that
being so, that being so, he says to his disciples, he says to
his church, Go ye therefore seeing I have all power in heaven and
earth. Go ye therefore and teach all nations. Preach the gospel
to all nations. Makes me think of Jonah. He did not want to go to Nineveh,
did he? He didn't want anything to do with Nineveh. Nineveh was
their great enemy. Jonah did not want to go there
because you know why he didn't want to go there? He knew God
was a merciful God. He didn't want them to have mercy.
He did not want them to have it. That's basically what it
came down to. I tell you this in seriousness. It would be like sending a Jew
to Hitler. That's what it was like in that
time. That's what it was like. Sending him to Nineveh to preach
to them would be like sending a Jew to Nineveh or sending a
Jew to Hitler to preach the gospel to him. There was that much animosity
between them. But he says, you go and you go
to all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and
of the Son and of the Holy Ghost. And what he tells us here, what
he's showing us here is that the Godhead is not divided. The Godhead is involved in the
saving of a sinner. That's why we are baptized in
the name of all three. There's unity here. It takes
all three to save a sinner. It takes all three. A few years
ago, someone told me, when he was talking about the new birth,
that the Holy Spirit gives a new birth. And he said that that's
not that important. I said the work of the Holy Spirit in the
new birth is as important as the work of Christ on the cross,
and it's as important as the Father in the covenant of grace
and choosiness. How can you say that one is not
important and the other one is? It takes all three. That's why
we are baptized in the name of the Father, the Son, and the
Holy Spirit. The Godhead is not divided. What
one does, God does. It's God doing it. And the church's commission is
to take the gospel, to take the gospel forth to all the world.
That's why I felt it was so important for us to be on the radio in
this community, that we preach the gospel to everybody as God
enables us to in this community. It's important. Go out there
into the highways and edges and compel them to come in. This
is not a secret society. It's not a closed group. I would thrill me to death if
God would save people of all kindreds, tongues, and nations
and bring me in here. It would thrill me to death. We would go to all the world
and preach the gospel. God has a people out of every kindred,
tribe, tongue, and nation under heaven. Under heaven. The church is to make, he says,
and what it's saying here, it says go and teach all nations,
and by margin it says to disciple, make disciples. Make disciples
out of men and women, out of all nations. How do we do that? How do we do that? Here's how
we do it. Through the preaching of the gospel, the Holy Spirit
takes the gospel and gives faith and repentance. And by doing
so, disciples are made. And when disciples are made,
which are believers, they are to confess Christ in baptism,
and then we teach him. You can't teach a dead person.
You can't teach a dead person. You gotta have life. If God gives
you life, you're gonna believe him. If you believe him, you're
gonna follow him in baptism. You're gonna do it. You're gonna
obey your Lord. It's obedience. Now what is baptism? It is identification
with the Lord Jesus Christ in his death, burial, and resurrection. It's an identification with him,
with Christ. It says in Romans 6, 4, therefore
we are buried with him in baptism into death that like as Christ
was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even
so we also should walk in newness of life. It's an identification
with Christ. It's the way we confess the Lord
Jesus Christ. Coming up, you know, I grew up
where people came up to an altar, you know, when I was real young,
they came up to an altar, they would, I won't say they'd carry on,
but they would, you know, I'm trying to be nice here, but they
would come up to an altar, then they'd repeat a prayer after
a preacher or, you know what I'm saying? Salvation is coming to Christ,
and the way we confess Christ is being baptized. That is a
public confession of Christ. And then it's obedience to Christ.
He said to. He said to. The Lord said to,
that's His command. Our Lord said to be baptized
because He was. He's never told us to do anything
He hasn't done. He was baptized by John the Baptist.
And then it's a public confession. It's to own the Lord Jesus Christ
publicly. I am his, and he is mine. It's to own him publicly. The
Lord Jesus Christ has no secret disciples. You remember that woman with
the issue of blood? She said, if I can but touch the hem of his
garment, I'll be made whole. And she did. And then he turned
around and he said, who touched me? She was going to just slip
right back out of the crowd and just kind of go back home. That's
what she was going to do. She was going to just slip back
in that crowd because the disciple said, Lord, there's a throne
here. How can you say who touched me?
He says, somebody touched me. He drew her out and then she
confessed before a whole crowd why she touched him. He has no
secret disciples. And then it's a confession of
union. It's a confession of union. I'm his and he is mine. Now,
what are we saying when we are baptized? We are saying that
we are raised to a new life, that old life It's gone. That's not me no more. That's
not for me no more. When Christ, if you look at Christ,
when he was on this earth, he suffered. He had to deal with
sin. He had to deal with hunger and
thirst. He had to deal with all the effects of sin. He had to
deal with temptation. He had to deal with all that.
But when he rose from the grave, he rose in glory. He rose to a new life. He did. The man of Christ, he rose to
a new life. One of glory and without sin and without having
to deal with it. He knew no sin, we know that.
But he was made sin. But once he dealt with it, that
part was over with. And what a believer is saying
is that old life has passed. That's not me no more. That's
not what I want to do no more. That's not what I love anymore.
I don't love that. I hate that which I once loved,
and I now love that which I once hated. It's the walk in newness
of life. A person, listen, a person who
makes a profession and walks out and lives the same
old way. There's no change. That person
was never saved. Lost. Lost. Simon Magus is a
good example. It says he believed, and then
later on he tried to offer money for the gifts of the Holy Spirit.
And Peter said, your money perish with you, Simon, your money perish
with you. Demas, who followed Paul, made
a profession, no doubt was baptized, and then later Paul said, Demas
hath forsaken me, having loved this present world. There is
a walk, in a newness of life, it's a different life. I read
it to you this morning, those who are led by the Spirit, they're
led by the Holy Spirit, and their life is different. It says in
Colossians 3, 4, when Christ who is our life, see, it's different. You're saying that that your
life is not the same. Here's what you're saying, that
Jesus Christ is now your life. Jesus Christ is my life. Then we are confessing that we
are dead to the world. It has nothing for me now. The believer And I believe this
is learned as we go along too. We lose our ambition for this
world. And our one ambition is to know
him and to be found in him. That's our one ambition, to be
found in him. Paul said in Galatians 6, 14,
but God forbid that I should glories in anything. anything
about me, anything I've ever done. He said, God forbid that
I should glory except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ,
by whom the world is crucified to me, and I am crucified to
the world. The world is dead to me, and
I'm dead to the world. It doesn't have any claims on
me anymore. And we are saying that Jesus
Christ is all our hope. He's all my hope before God.
I don't have any hope of standing before God except for Jesus Christ
himself. Now, who is baptism for? Who's
it for? It is for believers. That's who
it's for. This is why I titled the message
Believers Baptism. It's not for infants. It's not
for infants. It's not for unbelievers. It's
not for uncommitted, unbelieving people. That's not who it's for. It's for believers. Believers. Now, that doesn't mean that it's
just for adult believers. It's for believers. God can save
a 10-year-old or he can save an 80-year-old. It's for believers. That's who
it's for. Our Lord said this, suffer the
little children to come to me. And forbid them not. Because
the disciples, when the children would come to him, they said,
they were shooting him away. He said, don't do that. Don't
do that. He said, you let him come to
me. For such is the kingdom of heaven. But it's for believers, that's
who it's for. It's for believers. Now let me give you some scriptures.
We'll turn to some of these. Turn to Mark 16 concerning baptism,
faith and baptism. In Mark chapter 16, look in verse 15. And he that is Christ 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. He that believeth and is baptized
shall be saved. That's who baptism's for, it's
for believers. And then turn over to Acts chapter
two. In Acts 2. Let me get over there. In Acts 2, verse 41. It says
in verse, I mean, 44. Well, wait a minute, let me go to 41
first. Then they that gladly received
his word were baptized. They believed it and they received
it. And the same day there were added unto them about 3,000 souls. And let me read the rest of these
to you. In Acts 8, 12. But when they believed Philip
preaching the things concerning the kingdom of God and the name
of Jesus Christ, they were baptized, listen, both men and women, both
men and women. There have been some, and it's
happened in the past, where a husband was baptized for his wife. That's
not so. Individually, we are baptized
as one believes the gospel. It says in Acts 18, eight, and
Crispus, the chief ruler of the synagogue, believed on the Lord
with all his house, and many of the Corinthians hearing, believed
and were baptized. They were baptized. And then you know the story of
the eunuch. Philip went and he preached to
that eunuch. He got up in his chariot, And the eunuch was reading Isaiah
53. And Philip asked if he knew what
he was reading. He said, how can I since some
man showed me? And so Philip got up in the chariot
and he began at the same scripture, it says, and preached unto him
Jesus, which he was reading Isaiah 53. That's the chapter of substitution
and satisfaction. And he took that scripture, and
he preached unto that eunuch the substitutionary work of the
Lord Jesus Christ, the substitutionary person of the Lord Jesus Christ,
and how he satisfied God's law. And at the end of that ride,
it says this, and when they were come up out of, And Philip said,
let me go back here to first. And as they went on their way,
I'm reading it because I wrote it down. As they went on their
way, they came into a certain water. I'm sure they had a cruise of
water in the chariot, being out there in the desert. I'm sure
they had some water. Why didn't you sprinkle it? Why didn't you sprinkle it? Here's a cruise of water. Let's
do some sprinkling here. No. He said they came to a certain
water and the eunuch said, see, here is water. What does hinder
me to be baptized? Why can I not be baptized right
now? Right now. And Philip said, and
this is the only reason. If you cannot or if you are,
If thou believest with all thine heart thou mayest. Believest
what? The message of the gospel. The
message he just preached to him out of Isaiah chapter 53. He
preached Christ to him. That's what it says. He preached,
beginning at the same scripture, he preached Jesus unto him. And that eunuch believed him.
With all his heart he believed Philip concerning Christ. He said, if I believe with all
thy heart, thou mayest. And he answered and said, I believe.
I believe with all my heart. I believe that Jesus Christ,
this man. This man that died on Calvary's
tree. This man who walked on this earth
in the flesh as God. I believe this man is the son
of God. I believe that with all my heart.
I believe he's the Messiah. He's the Savior. I believe that Jesus, that name
means Savior. I believe he's the Savior. I
believe he's the only Savior. And I believe it's through his
blood and his righteousness that I am saved, I'm cleansed from
all my sins, and I'm accepted before God. That's how I'm saved.
He said, I believe that Jesus Christ is the son of God, and
he commanded the chariot to stand still. Whoa, he said, whoa, pull
back on them reins. He said, that's what I wanted
to hear. That's what I wanted to hear. And they went down both
into the water, both Philip and the eunuch, and he baptized him. Underwater, immersed him. didn't
sprinkle him, it's immersion. And then 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.
We see here the mode of baptism. It's by immersion, by immersion. See, this represents the death,
burial, and resurrection. When I, in here, in just a few
minutes, when Jane gets in the water, I'm gonna put her under
the water, which symbolizes death. It symbolizes death. It symbolizes
being buried. When you bury someone, you don't
sprinkle dirt in their face. You bury them, don't you? You
bury them. You don't sprinkle dirt in their
face. And the water baptism, it symbolizes my death in Christ. It's a symbol. There's no saving
power in it. Don't think there's any saving
power in baptism at all. Thief on the cross wasn't baptized,
and he went to glory that day. Today, shall thou be with me
in paradise. It's a symbol. It's a confession
of my union to Christ. I'm his, he's mine. I have a
new life, it's him. He's my life. And that's not,
and waters of baptism is not holy. That's not holy water. I had to strain it last night,
get dirt out of it. It's not holy water. I tell you what,
there is one holy water. It's Christ, the water of life.
He said, I am the water of life. Now, if you want to talk about
holy water, that's it. That's it. Christ, who is the
water of life. But that's not holy water. There's
no such thing as holy water. There's no saving power in it.
It is a confession of what Christ has done for me. He died for
me. He died, took my sins, and was
buried, and He rose again to a new life, and I've risen to
a new life when I come up out of this water. And I'm His, and I'm gonna follow
Him. I'm following Him. There's no saving power in this
baptismal water. There's all the saving powers
in Jesus Christ. And one does not have to be baptized
to be saved because, as I said, the thief on the cross wasn't.
But I can tell you this, if God saved you, if He has saved you,
you will want to confess Him. You'll want to do it. You will
be obedient to your Lord's command. You will be obedient to his command. All right.