That hymn was about baptism. Pretty good words. I want to
mention, speak a little bit about baptism in this message. Before you go back to 2 Kings,
I want you to turn to Isaiah. Isaiah chapter 2. Isaiah chapter 2. This story
is a story of a man full of pride. Full of pride, he's got to be
brought down. God hates pride more than anything
else. Isaiah 2, let's read a few verses
of Scripture, what the Lord says about the pride of man. Isaiah 2, verse 10, enter into
the rock, that's Christ, hide thee in the dust for fear of
the Lord, for the glory of His majesty. The lofty looks of man
shall be humble. The haughtiness of men shall
be bowed down. The Lord alone shall be exalted
in that day. The day of the Lord of hosts
shall be upon everyone that is proud and lofty. Everyone that
is lifted up shall be brought low. Are you reading that with
me? And Paul wrote in 2 Timothy 3,
That the last day is a perilous time. This is the thing that
would characterize it more than anything else. Proud, high-minded,
haughty. Verse 17, the loftiest man shall
be bowed down. The haughtiness of men made low. The Lord alone shall be exalted
in that day. And religion is worse. Man is
proud. Pride is taking credit for anything
we are, anything we do. Everything we are and have is
by the grace of God. Six things the Lord hates, seven
are abomination. The first thing, proud look. You see it everywhere. And as I said, religion is the
worst. You know, people talk about they made Jesus Lord. People
talk about let God, they let go and let God, let God into
their heart, let Christ have His way. One thing saves a sinner, it's
the sovereign, electing mercy and grace of God. One thing saves
a hellbound sinner, the blood of Jesus Christ, God's Son. God's
will, God's wonderful, gracious, merciful, loving will to save. He saves whom He will. Our religion
is the worst. Hell is filling full of people.
Proud people. Fill it up. Daily. Look at chapter
3 of Isaiah. Verse 9. I want everybody to
look at this. Young and old. Children, look
at this. Isaiah 3, verse 9. A show of their countenances
doth witness against them. It's a proud look. They declare
their sin as sodomy. Hide it not. Coming out of the
closet. Woe unto their soul. Look at
verse 16. Moreover, the Lord said, the
daughters of Zion are haughty, with stretched forth necks and
wanton eyes. Look at me. Look at me. God sees, and He hates. Go back to 2 Kings 5. There's
a scripture in Isaiah 23, verse 9, that I remember reading as
a young man. It made a great impression on
me. Committed it to memory. Think about it all the time.
It says, the Lord of hosts hath purposed it. And whatever God
purposes, he said, I'm going to bring it to pass. But the
Lord of hosts hath purposed it to stain the pride of all glory
and to bring into contempt all the honorable of the earth. Everything
is coming down. Because the Lord alone must get
the Lord. This man, Naaman, in our text,
in our story, Naaman was captain of the host of the king of Syria.
He was a great man with his master, or before men. He was a great
man before men. He's a Syrian. He's not an Israelite. He's the enemy of God's people.
He hates God. Oh, but he's a great man. He
hates God. Do you know that Thomas Jefferson,
one of the founding fathers of this nation, did what King Jehoiakim
did back in Jeremiah's day? Jehoiakim the king took a pen
knife and read Jeremiah's letter and Jehoiakim would cut a page
out and throw it in the fire. Cut it out and throw it in the
fire. Thomas Jefferson did the exact same thing. He took a Bible,
he didn't like the miracles, he didn't believe in the miracles,
and he cut out all the miracles that he didn't believe in. Cut
them all out of the Bible. That's not my father. That's
not a father of the faith. He may be a great man among men,
but he's an abomination to God. This Naaman, this king, was a
great man with his master, with men, honorable, that is, before
men. They honored him because by him,
the Lord had done something. He didn't do it. The Lord did
it. He had no room to glory or boast
because the Lord's the one that did this through him. Still,
he's an enemy of God, a Syrian. They hated Israel. They went
and took captive God's people, this little maiden. This is a
wicked man. All right, so he was a mighty
man. He was an honorable man before men. He was a great deliverer,
a captain. He's as high up in the rank as
you could get. He had it all. He had all the
world's goods. He was wealthy. He was honorable. Fame, fortune. He's a leper. He's a leper. That means he's
dying. Leprosy was always fatal. His
flesh is rotting. If you got around him, you'd
smell it. And pride is despicable. Have you ever been around somebody
that's just arrogant and proud? It's obnoxious. This man's a dying man. His flesh
is rotting, but he's got it all covered up. He's got it all covered
up, probably perfumed. I shaved some of my face this
morning and started to put aftershave on. I like to do it. It makes
me feel better. I thought, not today. I'm not
going to do that today. He covered his flesh up. You
know that all human beings are lepers before God? The psalm says, 14, in another
place, it says, the Lord looked down from heaven upon the children
of men to see if there were any that didn't understand, any that
didn't seek God. He said, they're all together
become filthy. And the margin says, stinking
to God. Flesh, proud flesh. It's obnoxious to God. Well, here's a witness to this
man, this leper, a witness, a young lady. Verse 2, the Syrians had
gone out by company and taken taken captive out of the land
of Israel, a little maid, a young little captive maiden. And she
waited. She was an employee or slave,
servant of Naaman's wife. And she said, she said to her
mistress, now, she's got a story to tell. She's got some good
news. She's going to bear witness of it. She said, would God, my
Lord, were with the prophet that is in Samaria, he would recover
him of his leprosy. This little captive girl or maiden
knew that prophet. She knew him, Elisha. Elisha
is going to represent Christ, that prophet. He also represents,
and he is, a prophet, a true preacher of the gospel and all
of God's Well, she knew. She'd heard the prophet preach.
The Lord had revealed himself to her. She knew Christ, the
prophet, and her message to her mistress, who in turn sent it
to the master, was, there's a prophet in Israel, and he's the healer.
He's the only one. The only one. If he only knew
him. If he only knew that prophet. And it's the only one. And he's
in Israel. You have to go there. He's not
going to come begging you. He doesn't need you. You have to go to Him. Doesn't Scripture say we've got
to go to Christ without the camp, bearing His reproach? This woman,
this young lady, you know, bore witness of the prophet, and women
are not to be preachers from the pulpit, but all of the daughters
of Abraham are witnesses. All of them. All of them. They tell others of Christ. Naaman
overheard this. Naaman overheard this. His wife
came in and said, this young maiden in there said that there's
a prophet in Israel that he can heal you of your leprosy. Really? We don't know. The Word of the
Lord doesn't return void. You know that? That's why we
shouldn't be speaking a word in secret. We just don't know
what the Lord is going to do with us. This little maiden said
to her mistress, I wish the Master knew that the prophet in Israel,
he's healing. She in turn went and told him.
You know, during all of this, Naaman was healed. Who else?
Some of his servants maybe? He had a whole entourage of people
with him that heard this message. Did they get in the river with
it? Well, my father-in-law at one time was, he was a very,
nobody I know has brought more people to hear the gospel than
my father-in-law. And he'd tell you right now, he couldn't, he's
not eloquent, couldn't speak, didn't know, he'd tell you that
I didn't, don't know anything, don't know anything. But he told
everybody all he knew. He told what great things the
Lord had done for him. All the time, always. When he taught,
you remember it, some of you remember it. And Tammy, when
he talked, when he whispered, he'd sound like this when he
whispered. Well, there was a man that came to hear my dad preach. And dad knew him. And he said,
so-and-so, he said, how did you come here? He said, Ed Ballard,
my father-in-law, was talking to somebody else. about the Gospel,
and I heard Him." And this was years later, and
he started coming to hear the Gospel, and he stayed there. Where it won't turn for him,
we don't know. But this little maiden, she bore witness of the
prophet as we do and should. Well, v. 5-6, this king through
7, this king of Assyria, this powerful man, Naaman worked for,
a rich man, a king. Okay? He sent letters and money
and says in verse 5, he sent Naaman with 10 talents of silver,
6,000 pieces of gold, and 10 changes of raiment. He's going
to try to buy Naaman's healing. Okay? Go there. And if he's,
if this prophet's like every other prophet around here, he's
in it for the money. So take all this money and bribe
him or pay it, pay for it. And you know, don't, most people
think, you know, most people get a little conviction of sin.
Naaman knew he was a leper and he needed healing. He really
didn't know them, how bad he was. He didn't know he was dying.
But he knew he was in trouble and he needed some help. And
most people have a little conviction of sin, a little trouble in this
world, trouble in their life, trouble in their marriage, trouble
with their home and all that, so they get religion. This happens
all the time. They get religion, you know,
straighten up, and they think, well, just change my arraignment. These fig leaves, I'll turn over
a new leaf. Or, you know, and they start
tithing and start coming to church and start tithing and start giving
them money and try to do charitable things and all that. Now, God's
going to be pleased with me. Now, I'm just saved and sure
for heaven as if I'm already there. No, you're a leper. And one thing's going to cleanse
you. Didn't Peter say, you know you
were not redeemed with corruptible things? That's just silver and
gold. purchase his own redemption,
no man can undo anything he's ever done. Can't do enough to
make God accept you. It shall be perfect to be accepted.
It's going to take a perfect sacrifice. Now you're going to
have to dip seven times. That's perfection. One thing
is going to make him clean. Perfect sacrifice. If you're
not redeemed with corruptible things, silver and gold from
your vain conversation, vain religion, vain tradition from
the elders, who are redeemed with one thing, the precious
blood of Christ as of a lamb without spot and without blemish. The holy righteous Son of God
who was a substitute for lepers. And the only ones He heals are
those that don't have one good spot on them. Not one redeemable quality. Not
one good thing. Remember Leviticus 13? These
are the only ones that Christ, the High Priest, will heal. Those
that come to Him and say, in my flesh dwelleth no good thing.
From the sole of my feet to the top of my head, I'm a leper.
Well, Naaman didn't know this yet. He had some problems. Okay? The Lord's going to bring
him down. All right, go back to our tape.
Now, there's the witness, and here's the prophet. Here's the
prophet. Chapter 5, verse 8. Now it was
so, and when Elisha, the man of God, had heard, the king of
Israel ran his clothes. Elisha was aware of everything,
wasn't he? How did he know? He said his
house done that. He had insight. The Lord gave
him understanding of all things. And Christ sees all, knows all. Omniscient, omnipresent. Isn't
that? He sees. His eyes behold, his
eyelids cry. One time, who was it? Was it
Elijah? Do you ever get Elijah and Elisha
mixed up? I always do. They live back to back. Well,
it doesn't matter. They don't care. Their names
aren't important. The message is. But one time,
the king of Assyria, I think it was, was going to come attack
And Elijah told the people, or Elisha said, leave, he's coming. And they left. And the king of
Assyria said, it's like he knows everything's going on. And somebody
said, he does. He knows what you're saying in
secret. There was a man. Mr. Clark, his wife was a believer. Mrs. Clark, they were members
of the Church of National. And, you know, if I told her
first name, you know them well. Champ and Opal Clark. And Opal
was a believer. She loved the gospel. She'd come.
Champ didn't. He didn't like it. He wouldn't come. And Opal
would go home and tell him. All right? One time, finally, he went with
her. He went with her to hear the gospel. And he came away
so mad, he went home, and in the car on the way home, he said,
you've been talking to that preacher about me, haven't you? She said, no, honey, I haven't
said a word about you to him. Well, the Lord dealt with him,
didn't He? Like that man was listening to
my dad on the TV one time. Dad was on the TV at 8 o'clock
or 8.30. Tell me which one, 8 or 8.30?
8 o'clock on the TV. Man sitting there in his chair.
He just turned the TV on, okay? At a whim. Turned the TV on and
there was Henry Mahan. You know how many false gospel
preachers there are on TV? Well, he turned it on. There
was this man of God preaching the gospel. And this man was
sitting in his chair drinking a Budweiser. 8 a.m. Alright,
he turned that on and Dad was preaching to him. He said, you're
a sinner. You remember how he used to do it? You're a sinner.
Thou art the man. Preach the point at that camera.
You're a sinner. And that fella said later, he told Dad this
later. He said, I got up. I turned that TV off. I said,
I ain't no sinner. He went back and sat down. I can drink a Bud
Light. And then he said, maybe I am
a sinner. He went back and turned it back
on. The Lord saved that old boy. Amen. He gets mad. The last you heard. And he said, let him come to
me. Let him come to me. And he'll know. There is one
prophet in Israel. Didn't Christ stand up that day
after the last day of the feast? Remember, everybody went to Jerusalem
and there was nothing but Pharisees preaching and all this stuff
going on, just a task of religion and all this going on like religion
today. And Christ wasn't in it. He wasn't there. Christ wasn't
in that mess. But he was outside, and then
when people were leaving, he stood and said, oh, any man thirst,
let him come unto me. And out of his belly shall flow
rivers of living water. Come unto me, all you that labor
and heavy laden, and I will give you rest. I'm the only one that
can. Christ is the only one that can and must. Only one to give
you peace. Only one that can save you. Only
one. The way, only truth, only life. Come to Christ. Come to
Christ. This man had to come where the
prophet was. Our Lord is no beggar. If people
come to Christ, they're going to have to come hear the gospel.
Yeah, they are. Yeah, they are. Well, there's
a prophet in this room. Now you notice verse 8, you need
to see this. I saw it four times in this chapter
and four in the previous chapter. It says a man of God. Four times,
Elisha is called a man of God. In chapter three, a man of God.
Four times, a man of God. That's what they called him,
a man of God, a man of God. What's that mean? It means what
it says. He was a man sent by God. He's
a man. Elisha was a man of like passions. He's a sinner. He's
a sinner saved by grace. Elisha's just a sinner, okay? But he's a man of God. He's the
man God sent. He's the man that God sent with
the message. And there was one One, at this time, in Israel. Is that right? That's what it says. Now, I don't
magnify myself, but I do magnify this office. There are many false
prophets that have gone out into the world. Many. But God has not left Himself
without a witness. He's not. And you're going to have to hear
the truth from a true preacher sent by God. Paul was known by
his message, by his methods, and by his manner. He said, you've
fully known my way of life. Elisha was not a man-pleaser,
was he? He was not a man-pleaser. Paul
said, if I yet seek to please men, I am not a servant of God.
He didn't bow and scrape with it. He wasn't impressed with
Naaman. He's a leper! Naaman doesn't have a thing that
Elisha needs. Elisha has everything Naaman
needs. This is how you know. One way you know. Now, Scripture
says this, and I've got to stress this because so many false prophets
are out there. Whosoever shall call on the name
of the Lord shall be saved. Lord. Did you hear the radio
message? to Jesus' followers and believers.
And God's preacher preaches a Lord, a sovereign Lord on the throne.
Man doesn't preach Christ as Lord first. He's not God's preacher. Lord and Savior. Barnard used
to say, you can't have Jesus as your Savior and later on set
Him as your Lord. You're going to bow to Him first
as Lord whether He saves you or not. The fear of the Lord
is the beginning of wisdom. And everywhere I look and hear
in religion today, there is no fear of God before their eyes.
And the worst place is the pulpit. This is how they are known. God
is to be feared in the assembly of the saints. It is to be had
in reference of all that is around Him. And religion is a mockery
of God. I wanted to preach from 1 Kings
18 on Elijah and the prophets of Baal on Mount Carmel. A God
that answers by fire. Pride. Pride. There shouldn't be an
ounce of pride in us, any of God's people. Well, this man of God, how shall
they hear? How shall they call on Him whom
they have not heard? How shall they hear without a preacher?
And how shall they preach except they be sent? Jeremiah 23, 32. Jot her down.
Because the Lord said of false prophets, the whole chapter is
about it. He said, I didn't send them and they shall not profit
these people at all. Not at all. Just make people
accountable. That's what it says. It says salvation then depends
on a preacher. No, it doesn't. But God doesn't save people through
a devil. He said to the Pharisees, you're of your father the devil.
And Elisha was a man born of God. You can't get grapes out of thorns
and figs out of thistles. Can't do it. A good man out of the good treasure
of his heart brings forth good things. A man of God. That's who the Lord is. Does
that need to be said? Well, I said it four times in
this chapter and four in the previous. I'm a man of God. I'm
a man of God. Go there. You've got to go there.
You're going to have to go hear Him. You have to go hear Him. Elisha knows he's nothing, I'm
nothing. Well, okay, Naaman came. Here he comes. Verse 9, he came
with his horses and his chariots. A horse is a vain thing for salvation.
And his chariots came with his horses and chariots. Like today,
it'd be a man coming up, pulling up in his big Tahoe. I'll never live it down. Margaret
and Mac had a Tahoe at the time. It was pretty new, and I was
impressed with it. And I forgot. And I stood up
one day and said, it's about these people riding around in
these big Tahoes. I feel so bad about that. Rolls-Royce. It's like somebody pulling up
in a Rolls-Royce. By the way, Margaret's tie hose over here
getting worked on, it won't run. And so will the Rolls-Royce. Moth and rust were going to corrupt
it all. Worthless. Here he pulls up. Look at me. Aren't you glad to
have me down here at First Baptist Church? Look who's coming. Naaman. I've actually had people tell
me, they had a rich friend, they wanted me to talk to him, and
actually a believer said to me, he can do the church some good.
I went with my father to England
and Ireland. We both preached all over England
and Ireland. Passed through Scotland and Ireland.
Like going through Jericho. Preaching everywhere. We stopped
at this place. This man was a rich landowner. He had, I don't know how many
thousand heads of sheep, sheared sheep. His shepherd had all sorts
of sheep and cattle everywhere. He was so arrogant. Oh, he wanted
us to know how much money he had, how rich he was, what all
he knew about sheep. He sat on his couch like he was
King Tut. And I remember my dad, I was
only 25 years old or something like that. Hannah was, no, I
was 30. I don't know, I wasn't up there
yet. But I remember looking at my
dad, and my dad wouldn't even look in that man's direction.
He looked at him with absolute contempt. And now I know why. There was a prophet in his living
room that that man didn't give a flip for. And all he wanted
to look at, me. You're a leper! That's all you are. Elisha didn't even come out of
his house. He saw him coming. Didn't even
come out... Are you rude? Rude? This is the
man that hates God. This is the man that's obnoxious
to God. This is the man that needs the
prophet. Right? Should the prophet come bow and
scrape to him? That man needs to bow to God
whom he shook his fist in the face of, whom he's taken credit
for glorying himself rather than God! Oh, the whole world needs to
hear this message. Elijah didn't even come out of
his house. He saw him coming. Everybody
saw him coming. Like the Pharisees, they'd blow
a trumpet. Here we come, coming to church. You ever notice how people, when
they give something to charity, they'd have it in the newspaper?
Look, I gave $103.48 to charity, and you kept $5 million. It's
a stench in God's nostrils. He's a leper. Elijah sent a messenger. Elijah. Elisha sent a messenger. What's his name? It doesn't say. It doesn't matter. He's a voice
sent by the prophet. What's he say? He's got one message.
20 words. 20 word sermon. Look at it. Verse 10, Go and
wash in Jordan seven times, and thy flesh shall come again to
thee, and thou shalt be clean. One message. There's one message
to all lepers. You know that? And we're all
just alike. I don't care who we are, how
high and mighty we are, or how low we are. We're all just a
bunch of lepers in God's sight. Old, young, male, female, black,
white. There is no superior race, we're
all a bunch of lepers. Dying sinners, that's all we
are. There's one message to lepers. One message. Get down. Get down off your high
horse. Humble yourself in the sight
of God. Repent. They all said to Peter when they
were convicted of the Lord on the throne, they all said to
Simon Peter at Pentecost that day, what shall we do? He said,
repent. You don't hear that word anymore,
do you? Boy, you do from this pulpit and every true pulpit.
Repent. It's not a one-time thing, it's
a lifelong thing. Repent. Repentance toward God
and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. What does repent mean? It means
I'm a sinner through and through. unworthy, no good, not righteous, unrighteous,
no good, sinner, rebel against God by nature. Lord, have mercy
on me. Have mercy on me like the woman,
like the leper, have mercy on me. Come down. This man is saying to the old
man, come down off your high horse. You're not a great man
with God, you're just a great sinner. You're not honorable,
you're an abomination. You're not mighty, you're a dying
leper. You're weak, you're helpless,
you're hopeless. Everything you've ever done has got leprosy in
it. Come down, come down. Go down on your knee. Go down
before a holy God. Strip, naked, strip. Take everything
off. And get in that old red river.
Get in that dip, stripping dip, I should have named it. Get in
that old red river and go down so many times until you see what
you really are. And if you do, you'll be born
again. What's the message? Come down. Repent. Peter said repent. and be baptized, every one of
you, in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. You shall receive
remission of sin. Repent and believe on the Lord
Jesus Christ. Come down, one thing, Savior,
one thing only, the blood of Jesus Christ, God's Son. Not
your works, not your greatness, you have none. Not anything you've
ever done, you're a leper. No goodness in it, you're a leper.
Come down, sinner, bow at the feet of the Lord Jesus Christ,
and if you do, There's a fountain filled with blood, drawn from
Emmanuel's vein, and sinners, lepers, plunged beneath that
flood, lose all their guilty stash. That it? That's it. Come down. Well, old Naaman didn't
like that. I'll have you know. He got mad, didn't he? Naaman was
wroth, verse 11. He was wroth. He went away. He
said, Behold, I thought That's everybody's problem, isn't it?
That's what man... An old preacher one time years
ago preached the message, it ain't like you thought it was.
From Psalm 50, where God said, Thou thoughtest I was altogether
such a one as Thyself. He said, I'm going to reprove
you, I'm going to set things in order for you. God's God,
you're not. God's holy, you're not. God's
sovereign, you're not. You're helpless. You're not in
His hands. He's not in your hands. You're
in His hands. It's not like you thought. It's
not like these preachers are saying. And the true preacher
of God will say that. God doesn't need you. This church
can be church without you. Without me. Doesn't need any
of us. Oh, we sure need Him. This is
for the poor and the needy, isn't it? Weak and wounded, sick and
sore. That's who the Lord's ready to
save, ready to pardon. He said, I thought He'll come
out to me and stand before me and call on the name of the Lord,
His God. I don't believe like He does,
but I thought He'd be glad to see me. his God, and strike his
hand and go through some little elaborate ceremony, you know,
hocus pocus, dominocus. That's talking in tongues. No, no, no. He got mad. It was Ralph Barnard
that said, and somebody brought this up the other day, we were
talking, it was Ralph Barnard that said to a young preacher
named Henry Mahan back 60-some years ago, he said, young man,
preach for a verdict. He said, preach so boldly and
so plainly and so clearly that people will get mad, sad, or
glad. Preach it so plainly, preach
God so sovereign that those that hate Him will get mad. Preach
it so plainly and so clearly that those with a broken heart
will get sad. And preach the good news so clearly
and so loudly that sad sinners will get glad. Mad, sad, or glad. And a lot of people get mad at
her, like, oh, Naomi got mad. There sits one right there. Got
mad. She got mad. I said, God doesn't love everybody.
She said, that's not... I'll show Him. She said, I'll
show Him. I'll go home and read my Bible.
Well, she did. She found out that God shouldn't
love her. But because he did, he showed
her the truth. He went from being mad to sad.
You reckon he'd have mercy on a sinner like me? Well, he did. Now what? She's glad. I thought, we need to throw all our thoughts
away, all our religion away, all our professions of faith,
all our past away. Just throw it away like a self-righteous,
filthy rag. Not this covering that Naaman
had on him. Strip! His servants came and said to
him, Father, if the prophet had bid thee do some great thing,
do, do, do, do. If he told you to do something,
wouldn't you have done it? Yeah, that's what people would
rather do. People would rather do anything than submit to the
sovereign mercy and grace of God, than admit that they are
a leper before God, than admit that they can't save themselves.
Let me climb Sinai. Let me do great things and the
Lord will be proud of me. He is not proud of you, He is
sick of you. Here is what you do. Bow! Confess, all I am is a sinner
and nothing at all. Do you reckon Jesus Christ could
be my all at all? Do you reckon He'd have mercy
on a sinner like me? I reckon that's the only kind
He will. Not proud sinners, broken sinners.
To this man would I look, God said, to him that is a poor and
a broken heart, and trembleth at my word. They said, if he told you to
do something, you'd have done it. All he's telling you to do
is just wash. Go down. Can you see old Aymond's
head dropping? I've seen it. I'd like to see
it again. Can you see this? The words sinking in. His shoulders
dropped. You've seen an animal get broken,
a horse or whatever, snorting and frowning and all that, and
the trainer, what he's got to do is break him. You see that
head start to drop. Those lips start chewing. Start
looking at him, would you please, I'm sorry. Those shoulders drop. He stands still. Have you seen
David? Tears in his eyes. It ain't like
I thought it was. I ain't who I thought I was. You know what? And I think he
got a real whiff of himself about that time. That leprosy came
up. I'm vile! I'm vile! You really think that that old
muddy river will take this away? That's what the prophet said.
So what's he do? He had medals all over his shoulder.
He had a helmet on his head. People have a helmet called knowledge.
Be done with it. Breastplate, heart, heart, head,
heart, take it off. He had these medals, everything
he'd accomplished. He hadn't accomplished nothing.
Stripped all his beauty. all his raiment, all his covering,
and you know what everybody saw. Everybody. He did this in front
of everybody. This is what Bambi has a picture
of. Everybody really confesses pride.
They're going to get in that pool before everybody. What they're
saying is, I ain't nothing but a sinner that needs to be washed
in the blood Everything I am, everything I've
ever done is nothing. Filthy, violent, wretched sinner
that I am. Oh, may the blood of Jesus Christ
cleanse me from all unrighteousness. May I rise to walk in newness
of life. He stripped naked before everybody. You know what everybody saw now?
This once honorable, this once great man, this once rich man. You know what they saw? Just
an old leper. That's what he is. come down. You know everyone
that humbles himself is going to be exalted. And he that exalts
himself is going to be amazed, going to be amazed. So he went
down. First he said, you know, aren't
the rivers of Abena and Firepower Rivers of Damascus better than
all this? Like somebody said, they don't talk to me like that
down at First Baptist Church in Abena. They don't talk to
me like that. They're glad to see me at Firepower Methodist
Church. They're glad to see me. Are you talking to me like a
dog? Did you hear that this morning? You know why the Lord talks to
us like dogs? That's what we are. A dog doesn't get offended? A
worm? Fear not thou worm, Jacob. He
doesn't get offended. That's what he is. Well, he went down. And he dipped
seven times. Can't you see it, Kelly? You
see him going down? Is that good enough? No, keep
dip. Went down. That's enough dip. He'll find seven times. He went
dip, dip, dip, dip, dip, dip, dip. He's got this muddy water
coming in his nose, in his mouth, in his eyes, come out of his
ears. He's filthy. He's in the River
Jordan. He just feels filthy. You taste it, and he's broken. But you know what? He came up that last time. Let patients have their perfect
work. Clean as a baby. Washed completely. He's been
born again. Now, pre-baptism doesn't save
you, it doesn't put away one's sin. But Peter said it's the
answer of a good conscience of those who know what they are.
A good conscience is a broken-hearted sinner. No, I'm just nothing
at all. May God have mercy upon my soul.
And I know that a good conscience has been taught by the Spirit
of God that Jesus Christ is my only hope of salvation. And I
believe Him. I hope He died for me. I believe
He died for sinners. I sure hope he died for me."
And Christ said, confess, all that confesses. He said, if you
deny me, I'll deny you. He said, if you confess me, I'll
confess you. He said, I'm going to confess
you. And baptism is not confessing
yourself, it's confessing Christ. Baptism is not showing yourself.
If anything, you know, I've taken these pretty ladies, got all
this makeup on, their hair is just all right, everything's
in perfect place, and I dip them under that water and they come
out, you know what they look like? A wet rat. Seriously. You know what? That's
what you look like in the morning. That's what you look like all
the rest of the time until you make up. And that's what we do when we
come to Christ. Straight up, I'm a nothing. He
knows. He sees it anyway. And when we
confess Him in baptism, we're just saying, I believe Christ
is my only hope of salvation. I'm a nobody. Put me under that
water, preacher, don't let me up. Just let me be done with
me. But no, everybody's been crucified
with Christ and buried with Him, I rise. And every sinner God brings
down, He brings up. Like a little child. Now this
man is all, he's brand new. And you read the rest of the
story, he came back to the man of God. He knows who he is. And
he knows his God. And he says, this God is my God. And he stood before the man.
And he wanted to just give him everything he had. He wanted
to give this preacher the gospel, everything he had. And the preacher
said, I don't need it. Don't need it. Come down. Believe on the Lord
Jesus Christ. There is a fountain filled with
blood. Dip and you'll come clean. Alright, let's sing it. Closing
hymn.