In this COVID-19 business everybody
that's working in it and my company is considered an essential company
since we work on x-ray equipment and so I've not had to get out
a whole lot so that's been good but little bit and definitely
can sympathize with all those who are having to get out in
this and we definitely want to be very careful whenever we go
out and Anyway, the city of Joplin issued a stay at home request
this week. It actually begins tonight at
midnight. And our membership here at our
church is mostly of folks besides me and my family it's mostly
elderly folk and one of our one of our elder members she broke
her hip just a couple weeks ago and is recovering from that so
she's not able to And one of the other gentlemen that come,
he drives from Oklahoma over here to meet with
us. And both of them are, as I said,
were our elderly folks. And so let's dissent against
God. And so with that being said,
we're trying to be respectful of the things that the government
has asked us to do, especially as contagious as this thing has
been. We want to be mindful of those
things and keep in mind our elderly folk and everything from getting
this. bring something into, uh, uh,
our, um, uh, elderly folk. Hey, brother Gabriel, I see you
there. Um, and all my family looks like is watching. Uh, What
I'm going to do today is I'm going to talk a little bit about
what we've been talking about, about the baptism of the spirit.
I'm going to read a few more verses from where we left off
last week. And then I thought, since I'm
kind of doing this from home, a little impromptu thing, that
if there's any questions about what I've been teaching about
the baptism of the Holy Spirit, any of you guys that are logged
in watching here during the live feed, feel free to ask a question
and maybe I can address that and everything. Or anything about
this whole series on the church that I've been preaching on now
for several months. If you have any questions about that, to
go back and maybe I can address those. Maybe I didn't hit on
a topic or maybe I wasn't clear about that. Whenever I was preaching,
I was a very eloquent preacher by any stretch of the means.
And I realized that a lot of times I kind of get off on rabbit
trails and sometimes lose my train of thought. But I only
preach to the ability that the Lord's given me for how he's
given me to do it and with the understanding that he's given
me. And that's all I really do. But if anybody has a question
or anything, if they want to type it down there at the bottom,
I'll try to keep my eye on that as I'm talking and see if there's
a question that comes up and everything. But hopefully I'll
have an answer for it. I don't claim to have all the
answers. No, I'll just take no, I'll have to look that up and
see but I'll try to try to at least give a scriptural answer
I believe that answers ought to be given in a scriptural way
and not to look at creeds and confessions and the theologies
of men but to look at God's Word and see what God's Word says I want to look today, if you're
with me and got your Bibles in front of you, I want you to turn
to Colossians chapter 2 and verse 12. Last week we were looking
at the topic of 1 Corinthians chapter verse 13
where it says that That matter of fact, let me just read that
you don't have to turn to it. Let me read read it real quick
1 Corinthians chapter 12 and verse 3 I'm sorry 1213 for by one spirit. Are we all baptized? Whether
we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free and have all
been made to drink into one spirit. Um, we looked at that last week
and I've been, uh, preaching on the last couple of weeks.
Um, that, uh, uh, the baptism with the Holy spirit or in the
Holy spirit, uh, is not what, uh, modern Christendom preaches. It's not about being born again. It's not about a second work
of grace. And a lot of these verses, and
specifically that verse in 1 Corinthians 12, 13, is not speaking of spirit
baptism. It's talking about water baptism. And I think that we're going
to find that in the other cases, whether it be water baptism or
what water baptism signifies. But here in 1 Corinthians, we
saw last week. Lost my place again, let me get
back over to it. We saw last week that the context of 1 Corinthians
chapter 12 and as a whole is Paul writing a letter to the
church, the gathered assembly, the congregation at Corinth of
baptized believers. That's what a church is, is a
gathered assembly of baptized believers. That's the only thing
a church is. A church isn't anything else.
It's not a universal, invisible group of people that is a body
spread out all over the world. The church is not the elect of
all time. The church is a gathered assembly
of people, wherever they meet, if they believe the gospel, the
true gospel of Jesus Christ, and they have been baptized. commanded in the great commission
by Jesus Christ to gather together and be instructed in the doctrines
and all things whatsoever Christ has commanded. And so the way
that we are entering into the church, as we've seen in Acts
chapter two, is we are being tied. are baptized upon profession
of our faith that not only says that, yes, I agree to the doctrine
and the gospel that you're preaching, but I'm also saying that I identify
with the work of Christ, his death, his burial, and his resurrection
as my only hope. that salvation is only found
in the work of Christ alone. And so our water baptism is what
teaches that. It's what shows that it signifies
that we align ourselves with Christ and what he did for us
as our only hope. It also shows forth our union
with Christ and that he was our surety and our substitute. He
stood for and stood in our place as our surety. He took on the
life and the death that we, the life that we couldn't live to
the law, He did for us. And the death that we deserved
under the wrath of God, then that death, He took on for us. And so our water baptism shows
forth that union with Christ and that He is our substitute.
And it also signifies and shows forth that the doctrine that
has been preached that led us to that profession, that we heard
and understood because God had given us spiritual ears to hear
and it brought us to faith in Christ Jesus, that that doctrine
being preached, that we believe that and that we align ourselves
with these people that are saying that truth. And so baptism has
two or three purposes for why we are baptized. It's the hand
of Christ for us to be there. And so that is how we get into
the church. And so the entrance into the
church, as we've seen in Acts, was that they believed and they
were baptized. Peter says, whenever they asked,
you know, what must we do? He said, believe on the Lord
Jesus Christ or repent and be baptized. And the Bible says
that all those, that they found that glad in their heart, that
they received his word, and that 3,000 were baptized that day. Let's see, I'm seeing that speed's
going in and out. Let me change my, let me change
just real quickly here my, all right, I'm back. All right, hopefully
that stays connected, Gabriel, a lot better. I saw that it was
going in and out of connection there, so hopefully this is gonna be a lot better. And forgive
me if I kind of pause, I'm trying to, for those that just tuned
in, uh, I told everybody that I'm going to go through some
stuff today in continuance from where we left off last week in
our sermon. But also if anybody has any questions,
since we're kind of in a more, um, uh, less, uh, uh, formal
setting here today that if anybody has any questions about the series
that we're in, whether it be the church, whether it be water
baptism, spirit baptism, that you're welcome to ask those questions
down below and I'll try to get to those. But I'm trying to look
at the words as I'm preaching here. And so if I kind of get
a little distracted, please forgive me. But anyway, back to 1 Corinthians
chapter 12. We find in 1 Corinthians chapter
12 that this letter is written to the church at Corinth, the
gathered assembly. And so being that we understand
that the formation of the church was with Jesus Christ, and that
he give it doctrines and practices to follow, and that only a true
church that follows those things is considered a church of Jesus
Christ, then then we understand that he has laid down policies
or polity that we should follow, and that polity is that before
anybody is to be added to the church, that they should believe
and be scripturally baptized. And so when we come to Corinthians,
we can't think that that's anything different. We can't think that
the model that Jesus give for the church is anything different
than what he laid down to the apostles and to that first church
for them to continue to follow. And so, um, What we need to look
at here when we come to Corinthians and find out is that prior to
chapter 12, we see that Paul is addressing all these different
issues that that local assembly, that church, was having. And
so whenever we see that they were divided, that they were
having issues among themselves, that they were seeking Prevalence above each other.
They weren't thinking of each other. They were using their
gifts in the wrong way all this stuff Paul is addressing in this
letter and then whenever he comes over to chapter 12 and we see
that he's talking about the metaphor or the issue of the church being
a unified body working together as one unit, and that the gifts
are given to the church to build itself up, to be that edifice,
to be that place, that assembly, to be that governing organization
that Jesus has left here in his place, to hold the gospel and
the ordinances out, to be a light unto this world, to be those
things. That's what the church was given
to do. And so Paul then begins to lead
them in chapter 12 to show that the spirit that brought you to
Christ, the spirit that give you understanding, the spirit
that gives you the knowledge of spiritual things, is going
to cause you and bring you lead you uh to do some things and
we see in chapter 12 the whole entire context is the spirit
leading these people to do certain things and we can't think that
it's anything different in chapter uh or verse 13 again hit the
highlights now concerning spiritual gifts brethren i would not have
you ignorant this is verse 1 You know that you were Gentiles carried
away unto these dumb idols, even as you were led. Wherefore I
give you to understand that no man speaking by the Spirit of
God called Jesus a curse." So by the Spirit of God, we do not
call Jesus a curse. So it's by the Spirit of God.
And that no man can say that Jesus is the Lord, but by the
Holy Ghost or by the Spirit of God. So by the Spirit of God,
we see that We Claim that Jesus Christ is Lord So that what does
that mean? That means that the Spirit is
leading us To say that Jesus is Lord. He says now there are
diversities of gifts, but the same spirit Okay, so the Spirit
is giving out the gifts even though there's different gifts
and many gifts It's the same spirit who is giving those gifts
So the Spirit is the one who is doing the work within the
individual member giving that member the ability to come to
Christ, to say Jesus is Lord, and then to give them the gift
to carry out, to edify the body of Christ as they're gathered
together. And being, when I say the body of Christ, I mean that
gathered assembly, okay? It says, now there are diversities
of gifts, but the same spirit, and there are differences of
administrations, but the same Lord. Okay, so what does that
mean? Administrations, governing. Okay,
there's differences in governing. Jesus is Lord. He's the authority. He's the only rule of faith that
we have over us. It's His church, and He is the
one that we look to, but yet He has given administrations
within that gathered body, as in pastors and deacons and elders. Those are the men that the offices
that he has given in the church to gather in the gathered assembly
to help facilitate and to teach and to preach and to keep order
within the church. And he has given those administrations.
And so, yes, while those men may have leadership roles within
the church, the same spirit is causing them to do these in the
way that Christ has commanded them to do it. The pastor is
not to be the Lord over the churches. He's not to lorded over God's
heritage. He's not to be a dictator. He's
not to be as a CEO or something like that. He is to preach and
to teach and by example of life. He is to lead those people, to
care for those people, to look out for their welfare, to study
God's word and to bring God's word to them, to feed them. That's what Peter was told to
do, feed my sheep. That's what we're told as under
shepherds, is to feed the sheep of God. That's our primary thing
to do. And that's how we lead people
is by preaching to them and teaching them God's Word, the whole counsel
of God. He goes on in verse six and says,
and there are diversities of operations, but it is the same
God which worketh all and in all. So it means there's many
things that goes on within that local assembly, things that are
being done, different things that people have gifts to do
and are workings that are done, but it's all done under the same
guise of that assembly who is recognized as the ministry of
Christ. And so there are diversities
of operations, but it's the same God who worketh all in all. So
that same God who's working in your brother or sister over there
is working in you. But the manifestation of the
Spirit is given to every man to profit with all. So the Spirit
is giving these things and working these things within that one
unit to profit the whole unit. And as we talked about last week,
it's never about individual growth. Your gift is not given to help
you. Okay, and we see this a lot in the Pentecostal movement and
different churches like that. They think that, and I would
even say what the quote-unquote evangelical movement, people
think the gifts are given and that the gift is all about them,
you know, is to show forth them. But the gift is always given
by the Spirit for the other person, for someone else that is in the
church. And so the gift is always to
be applied and to be used for the building up of everyone,
not yourself. And so that's what Paul is talking
about. He's talking about being unified. He's talking about getting
back to how Christ had gathered that assembly and give that assembly
a commission an authority within the earth to be able to carry
out the ministry of the gospel and the ordinances. And so we
come to verse 8 and it says, for to one is given the spirit
of the word of wisdom, to another the word of knowledge by the
same spirit. So the spirit is leading them to do that work.
to another faith by the same spirit, to another the gifts
of healing by the same spirit, to another the working of miracles,
to another prophecy, to another discerning of spirits, to another
diverse kinds of tongues, and to another the interpretation
of tongues. Back when this was written, the apostolic time was
still in effect. They still were forming Churches
Gentiles were being brought in Jews were being converted. These
signed gifts were still intact for the validation of the gospel
the validation of the Lord's Church and so the gifts were
still being Used and there were people still within the church
that needed to have these gifts. The Bible had not been written
we didn't have God's Word there before us to be able to follow
and so Until that establishment was completed, there was these
sign gifts, and these sign gifts were given not to pump up the
person or make the person more spiritual, or not to show of
any sign to the believer, but it was a sign for the unbeliever,
and that was given by the same spirit. So the spirit is bringing
all these gifts together so that these people would work in unity
together he goes on to say but all these worketh that one and
the self same spirit dividing to every man severally as he
wills so there again your your spiritual gift isn't something
that you can take a test and find out what it is and then
start applying yourself to it it isn't something that you can
go learn okay you can't go to a seminary and learn a spiritual
gift you can't learn to be a pastor okay you can learn how to be
a better pastor by studying god's word You can learn things about
administration maybe from a school, but what's the best teacher?
The best teacher is God's word. And if there is a gift of preaching
and teaching and pastoral work, that's given by God. It's given
by the spirit of God. It's not given by man. Man can't
teach you that. It only comes by the grace and
the ministry of the spirit. And then it gets to verse 12,
for as the body is one, so here we go. We go into the metaphor
as we talked about last week. The body is one and hath many
members. All the members of that one body being many are one body. So also is the body of Christ. Whenever the body of Christ meets
together, it's to function as one organism, one body. Even though there's many members,
it's to function and work as one body. And so he uses that
metaphor there. And then in verse 13, we see,
for by one spirit are we all baptized into one body. And as
we've seen last week, what that means is that by that one spirit,
we are led to be water baptized and brought into that one body.
For as the body is one and hath many members, all the body of
that one body being many are one body, so also is Christ.
for because by one spirit are we all baptized into one body
whether we be jews or gentiles whether we be bond or free and
have been all made to drink into one spirit so we've been brought
to unity. We've been brought to come together
and work together as a congregation. That congregation is to work
together as a governing organization, one unit, not as individual units. All the decisions are to be made
by the church. It isn't the pastor's place to
make every decision for the church. Are there some administrative
things that the church may give him leeway to make and do on
his own? Absolutely. But as a whole, and
as if any pastor knows anything about the word of God, he should
be consulting with the people of the church before he makes
any of those decisions. Um, do I, does the pastor need
the decision to, you know, go down to the grocery store and
get, you know, uh, uh, or go down to the Walmart and get,
you know, toilet paper because the toilet paper is out in the
bathroom. No, he don't. If he can find some at this point,
but, uh, no, he doesn't need that authority from the church
to do that. But whenever it comes to the
ministry of the gospel and the things of the church, The pastor
should be talking with the church because this is a church thing.
Men are sent out from the church. We've seen that in Acts. We saw
Paul and Barnabas. They were sent out and the church
at well just Antioch, they sent
Paul and Barnabas out. They told them how far to go.
They were the one that Paul and Barnabas came back and reported
to. Even though Paul was an apostle, he still recognized the authority
of the congregation that Christ had given to the congregation.
And so we ought to be mindful of those things in our lives,
not only as individuals, but as pastors. If you're a pastor,
be mindful of that thing. You're not the CEO. You're not
the head honcho there. While you may be given governance
as far as keeping the order of the church, and that you may
be given a position of leadership in that office, It's not to be
used for your own, you know Advancement it's not to be Used as a way
to keep other people doing what you want them to do or whatever
That it is given to you and that you should be very careful With
that knowing that it is the church that the Lord has given the Commission
to not you And and sometimes I have to remind myself of that
as well and so But anyway, the context of what we saw last week
is that this is talking about water baptism, because by one
spirit are we brought, just like in Acts chapter two, we are brought
to baptism, which is what brings us into that one body, which
is the church. And then, of course, I hit on
a lot of things that some people bring up about the verse here,
and that Paul was speaking of himself included in that, and
so it couldn't be speaking of the local assembly there. And
I dealt with those, and you can look back at last week's message,
and that deals with that. I said this week that we were
gonna look, though, at a couple of other verses. Turn with me,
if you would, to Colossians chapter two and verse 12. Colossians
chapter two and verse 12. This is another passage of scripture
a lot of people also like to go to that says that we have
this spirit baptism that baptizes us into the body of Christ. Colossians chapter two. In verse 10 it says, and ye are
complete in him which is the head of all principality and
power, verse 10, in whom also ye are circumcised with the circumcision
made without hands and putting off the body of the sins of the
flesh by the circumcision of Christ. buried with him in baptism
wherein ye also are risen with him through the faith of the
operation of God who hath raised him from the dead." Now, what's
this talking about? Well, it's not talking about
spirit baptism, okay? It's talking about the substance
of what water baptism is about, okay? As I said, every place
that you go through in here that talks about what people would
say is spirit baptism, if you look at it in context, it's either
talking about water baptism itself, or it's talking about the substance
of what water baptism is a sign for or a symbol for. Here, this
is going back talking about being buried with him in baptism, wherein
also ye are risen with him through the faith, the operation of God,
who hath raised him from the dead. And you being dead in your
sins, and the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath he quickened
together with him, having forgiven you all trespasses, blotting
out of the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was
contrary to us, and took it out of the way nailing it to the
cross. So again, this is appealing back
to the ministry and work of Jesus Christ on the cross. And our
baptism, when we are water baptized, it is symbolizing our union with
Christ in that, or Him standing as our substitute in that. So
whenever we say we are baptized with Him, We are speaking of
that baptism that he experienced, that baptism of fire that he
went through, that baptism that he told his disciples, I'm about
to go through a baptism, but it's not a baptism that you're
able to endure or to withstand. That baptism was that baptism
of wrath of God upon him. But we in our water baptism,
Show forth that we look back to that we are in him. We believe
that we he Did that work for us and we are in him and because
we're in him then what all was accomplished with him Is given
to us imputed to us this we can call it our own and so The baptism
that's talking about here is not spirit baptism. It's talking
about what happened with Christ and our identifying with what
happened with Christ. That's why water baptism is by
immersion because it shows forth exactly what it talks about here,
being buried with him and being risen with him. You can't show
forth that in sprinkling or pouring. In immersion, it shows forth
a death, a burial, and a resurrection. It shows forth that which Paul
said in Corinthians is part of the gospel, that Christ died,
and that he was buried, and that he was resurrected. And so our
water baptism shows forth that. This verse alludes to the substance
of that. Turn back with me, if you would,
to Galatians chapter three. Galatians chapter three. Look with me, if you would, at verse 22, it says, but the
scripture have concluded all understand that the promise by
faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe. But
before faith came, we were kept under the law shut up unto the
faith, which should afterwards be revealed. Wherefore, the law
was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ that we might
be justified by faith. But after that faith has come,
we are no longer under a schoolmaster. For ye are the children of God
by faith in Christ Jesus. For as many as you as have been
baptized into Christ have put on Christ, there is neither Jew
nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male
nor female, for ye are all one in Christ Jesus. And if ye be
Christ, then are ye Abraham's seed and heirs according to the
promise. Now again, Paul is writing to
the churches of Galatia, congregations there. And if we look back again
at the prototype, back into the gospels, we see that whenever
the Holy Spirit was being first talked about in the New Testament,
it was talked about that Jesus would do the baptizing. Okay,
not the Holy Spirit. We see that there was a connection
with water baptism. Okay, water baptism had the administrator
who was John, it had the person being baptized who was the one
who repented and believed, and then it had the water with which
the person who repented and believed was baptized with by John. And so it is with Holy Spirit
baptism. Holy Spirit baptism is by Jesus
of the congregation and that was with the Holy Spirit, and
that happened at Pentecost. And it hasn't happened ever since,
except for the inclusion of the Gentiles in two other places
in Acts that showed forth that the Gentiles were being included
into that local congregation or that the New Testament church,
Jesus's new tabernacle, the Jesus's new house, the house of God is
what the Bible calls it, the house of God. that the Gentiles
were being included into that and being part of that, and that
they could sit side by side with a Jew and be able to worship
Christ, be able to partake of the gospel and the ordinances,
just as the Jew, who for times past, it was only confined to
the Jews. And so apart from those things,
the Holy Spirit baptism has not happened to anybody else. Nowhere
else in Scripture are we found that. Nowhere else in the history
have we ever seen that. And so when we look at that and
we see the prototype, it is Christ who baptizes. If we come here
and we see, for as many as you have been baptized into Christ,
have put on Christ, and we say, there you go, that's Holy Spirit
baptism, well, Excuse me. The Bible says that Holy Spirit
baptism isn't being baptized into Christ. It's being baptized
into the Holy Spirit. We were baptized into the Holy
Spirit. And so this can't mean Holy Spirit
baptism because the Holy Spirit baptism of the gospels is Jesus
baptizing the congregation into the Holy Spirit. Here we see
that someone is being baptized into Christ. What does baptized
into Christ mean? Well, again, water baptism is
being baptized into Christ. The congregation is called Christ's
body, right? That's what he said. He uses
that metaphor. We are considered, whenever we
come together as a congregation, we are considered a body of Christ.
And so when you are a believer, you come to believe, and you
are water baptized, then you're added to the church. Then you
are baptized into Christ Jesus. For as many as you have been
baptized into Christ have put on Christ." Whenever we come
together as an assembly, whenever we come together as a church,
what are we doing? We are putting on the mantle
of Christ. We are putting on the work of
the ministry. We are putting on the service
of God. Whenever those priests went into
the temple in the Old Testament, and remember, those priests were
the elect out of the elect. There was all the elect, which
was Israel, And then out of all of Israel, God chose the Levites
to be the ones who did the service and the ministry of the temple,
of the tabernacle, of the gospel, and of the ordinances. The church
is a called-out gathered assembly who is governing the kingdom
of God by the ministry of the work of the Spirit and the ordinances
of Christ that teach and preach visibly the things of the gospel. And so whenever someone is baptized
into Christ, comes into the church, and is added to the church, then
they have put on Christ. They themselves now are now the
representative of Christ in that official capacity of being a
part of that congregation who ministers the gospel and who
ministers the ordinances of the church. and of Christ. And so
they have put on Christ. They have put on this mantle
of Christ. And as those priests in the Old
Testament, whenever they would go in to do this service, what
would they do? They would put on the holy garbs. They would
put on the things that represented the work and the ministry of
God. They would put on the ephods.
They would put on the breastplate. They would put on the holy clothes. They would put on those things.
And we have put on Christ. Whenever we come into the church,
we have put on Christ and now are showing forth the things
of Christ. And so this isn't talking about
a spirit baptism. It can't be talking about a spirit baptism
because, number one, spirit baptism was baptism in the Holy Spirit,
not into Christ. And this says that we are baptized
into Christ, not into the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is not
said to baptize anybody. Nowhere in Scripture does the
Holy Spirit ever baptize anyone. That's what we have done. We
have taken theological men's words and we have applied it
here. We've taken presuppositions that
has been brought down, and I would say because of the compromise
of most Baptists, it's because of their compromise with Protestant
teaching. And that has come down because
we have listened to the 1689 Confession of Faith, which is
just a carbon copy of the Westminster Confession of Faith. The Protestants
who looked at and made up this universal invisible church, and
who have made up the doctrines and taken the scriptures to bend
to that false invisible church theology have now applied that
in so many places, in so many areas, and the Baptists have
been listening to them because they also teach a form of the
doctrines of grace, that they have listened to that year after
year after year after year, and now it just becomes you hear
it so much you think, well, that's got to be true. You look at history
and you see confessions of faith say, well, it's got to be true
because that's what they believed back then. Listen, brethren,
just because some men wrote that down on a confession of faith
doesn't doesn't mean that they are in error. You're in error.
I am in error. Every one of us come into error
at times. And I can write down a confession
of faith. And if somebody thinks that, you know, I wouldn't think
that anybody would think that I'm such a spiritual guy. I know
that I'm not. But if anybody would ever look
from history, look back at Sovereign Grace Baptist Church and say,
oh man, yeah, you ought to listen to that. Listen to that guy,
what he said. Hey, listen, man, take what I
say with a grain of salt until you get to your Bible and listen
to the Holy Spirit and what the Holy Spirit says. We all make
mistakes. John Gill made mistakes. C.H. Spurgeon made mistakes. John
Calvin, Martin Luther, all those guys, Jonathan Edwards, Matthew
Henry, all those guys are guys just like me. They're just like
you. They are men who the Lord had
saved. If they were saved, they were
men that the Holy Spirit was teaching and giving instruction
to. And listen, they could have missed it just like I miss things.
I've missed things. I've had to come back to our
church. and apologize for things that I have held to because of
either past teaching and being younger and learning things growing
up. I've had to wrong things the
way that I've seen things because I like this group of people or
that group of people. And I've had to come back and
I've had to apologize because of my wrong thinking. So anybody
that would ever look to a man and say, you know, hey, yeah,
we ought to believe that because they said so. You know, the Westminster
men, they weren't divines. They were men just like you.
Men like pastors that I know. They were men just like anybody
else. And so we shouldn't be quick to look at those men for
our understanding, but what has happened over time is that men
have listened to men so long that now those things that men
have said, just, hey, obviously, you know, we look back at the
Nicaea Creed, look at all the error in the Nicaea Creed, but
yet what do people talk about? Oh, the church fathers, man,
them guys were Catholics. Them guys weren't church fathers,
and yet people go on and on and on about that stuff. Listen,
the Bible is our only rule of faith, and that's what we should
be looking to. Now I've kind of got off on a
tangent there, and Gabriel's comment is staring me here in
the face. They're about to getting off
track. Look with me at Romans chapter six. Romans chapter six. Look at verse one, it says, what
shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that
grace may abound? God forbid, how shall we that
are dead to sin live any longer therein? Know ye not that so
many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into
his death? Now what's that talking about?
It's talking about water baptism, okay? It's talking about water
baptism. Those of us who were baptized
into Christ Jesus, those who have believed upon Christ and
repented of our false thinking of how we're saved or how we
get to heaven or what salvation is all about. Those of us who
believed and repent and are water baptized are then added into
the body of Christ, the congregation, okay? The church. So we were baptized into Christ
Jesus, why? Because we were baptized into
his death. We were baptized into his death.
Again, the water baptism always goes back not to spirit baptism,
but it goes back to union with Christ. It goes back to substitution,
the work of Christ alone. It is the blood of Christ alone.
It is the work of Christ alone that saves us. It's not our good
deeds. It's not our repentance. It's
not our faith. It's not our belief. It's not our law-keeping. That
saves us. What saves us? It was the work
of Christ Jesus on our behalf. Him standing in our stead. Him
living a life of obedience to the law, to keep the law, because
no man has ever kept the law, ever. Him coming under condemnation
and coming under the wrath of God because He took our sin as
His sin. It was imputed to Him. He was
imputed our sin. Why? Because He said in the covenant
of grace, I will stand for them. You give them my righteousness,
I'll give them, and then I'll take their sinfulness. And so
Christ came and did that for us. And so in that death, that
burial, and that resurrection, we were in Him. by union. And so that whenever
he died, God looks on it as if every one of us who are the elect
of God died. Whenever he was buried, every
one of us was buried with him. And then whenever he was resurrected,
every one of us who are the elect of God was resurrected with him. And we will one of these days
be resurrected and we will live with him forever. And so Romans chapter six in
verse three is talking about water baptism and the symbolism
of water baptism. Know ye not that so many of us
as were baptized into Christ Jesus. Now, just think about
though, he's talking about, he's talking to the churches in Rome
and he's saying, know ye not that so many of us as were baptized
in, so he's not even talking about all of them. He's talking
about as many of us as were. As many of us as were baptized
into Jesus Christ were baptized into His death. Therefore, we
are buried with him by baptism into death that like as Christ
was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even
so we also should walk in newness of life. And so again, we see
this metaphor or this symbolism of baptism is teaching that just
as Christ was resurrected from the dead, we too ought to walk
in newness of life as being resurrected from the dead. And so again,
this isn't talking about a Holy Spirit baptism at all. This is
a reference back to water baptism and it is a reference back to
the ministry and work of Jesus Christ. And so we really shouldn't
be looking at that in any other way. The baptism in the Holy
Spirit or with the Holy Spirit is nothing more than the accreditation
that God gives of the new covenant institution of the church. Jesus Christ has built an institution
of gathered assemblies wherever they may be. And each one of
those assemblies is to be governed just the way that he intended
it to be governed. And, but at the very beginning,
God accredited that just like he did the three previous houses
of God in the Old Testament, that at the institution of those
at the very beginning, when they were built and completed and
was ready to begin service for him, he came down with his Holy
Spirit and his presence in there and blessed that. And that's
what happened in Acts. Whenever the day of Pentecost
fully came, God came down and he empowered the church to be
witnesses for him as he promised he would do. It was a fulfillment
of the prophecy of the promise of the Father. It was the empowerment
that Jesus promised was gonna happen not many days hence. It
was everything that John had been talking about that was gonna
happen and that Jesus was gonna be doing it. All of that took
place in Acts, and it hasn't happened since. Although that
accreditation and that empowerment is still ongoing, the manifestation
of that is not taking place since then. The physical manifestation
of God doing what he did. We still have the presence of
Jesus with us. We still have the presence of
Jesus promised to us. He told the church in Matthew, he said,
and lo, I am with you always, even until the end of the age. So we have that promise of Christ
to be with us. The Holy Spirit is sent as our
comforter to lead us into all truth and to give us the work
of the Spirit in our gifts and in the outworking of those gifts.
And so we have that promise. But, brethren, also on the downside,
we have in Revelation, we have warnings that if we do not stay
faithful to the gospel and to Christ, that that light can be
removed from the lampstand, that Christ can take His name away
from that gathered group of people. And we've seen that throughout
history. Churches that never repented, and Christ removed
his presence from them, and they shriveled up, withered up, and
died. It's his church. He can do what he wants, and
if he calls it to repentance, then if there is no repentance
given to it, then he can easily remove the light and the lamp
stand. We pray here in Joplin, and I
pray in every New Testament church wherever they're at, that Christ
would give us faithfulness, that he would keep us faithful, preaching
the word of God. I'm appreciative to many of you
that are watching here that I've seen come on, many men that are
out there that we fellowship with, and things that are preaching
and holding to the Word of God of imputed righteousness and
sovereign grace. I'm appreciative of that, that
you're standing, and even though that modern-day evangelicalism
and Christianity reject and to some even hate the true gospel
of Jesus Christ, And I'm not just talking about him dying
and being buried and being resurrected. I'm talking about how he died
according to the Scriptures, how he was buried and how he
resurrected according to the Scriptures, and that that salvation
is an efficacious salvation. It actually accomplished salvation.
It didn't make it possible for somebody, if they'll just choose
Jesus, He actually saved everyone for whom he died. And so that
that salvation will be applied to everyone for whom he died.
And that there is not one person that will be lost. That all that
the Father had given Jesus Christ is going to come to Jesus Christ.
And we have confidence that there won't be one that'll ever be
lost that was given to him. Jesus accomplished. He is a faithful
son. He is a faithful servant, and
he was a faithful savior. That's why they said to call
his name Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sin.
And so we have the confidence that not one person will be lost.
One Peter says that he's not willing that any of us should
perish, but all come to repentance, not one of his sheep. is going
to be left here to face the wrath of God, because we've not been
appointed under wrath. We've been appointed forgiveness
and mercy in the eternal covenant. And so he's not willing that
not one of his sheep perish, but all come to repentance. And
that is why he is long-suffering and has not come back yet, because
yet there's still those sheep out there that he has to bring
back. If you remember in the gospels,
Jesus said, you know, that he has sheep of that fold of Israel,
but he also has other sheep that he must bring. And listen, that faithful shepherd
will bring them all. Why? Because the shepherd died
for the sheep, and the sheep will come. They will hear his
voice and they will follow him. Another's voice they won't follow,
but they will follow him. These are the promises of the
gospel. This is the true gospel, and there are men out there,
brethren, I know they're few and far between anymore, But
there are men out there that truly hold to these things, and
I'm thankful for them, and I'm thankful that many of them are
being forced. This is one good thing we can
think about this COVID-19 business, is it's forced a lot of these
great preachers who don't normally videotape and broadcast their
messages to come on Facebook. And now that message of God's
grace, have you ever thought about, I was talking to Brother
Jim McDole, he's a pastor friend of mine down in Duncan, Oklahoma. He's from Northern Ireland. Me
and him was talking about this just the other day on the phone.
Have you thought that maybe Christ has brought this upon the United
States to bring the true gospel preachers out of the woodworks
and into the main where people can hear that? Because all of
us are in our little tiny churches all over the country, and a lot
of us are not being heard. You know, there are many of Christ's
sheep that are out there that don't have a church around them
that are preaching the truths of Scripture. And that all of
a sudden now that this COVID-19 has forced them all to go inside
and to keep up with their congregations, they're doing exactly what I'm
doing here today. I'm talking on, on Facebook. and that maybe
the Lord is bringing this message to his sheep in ways now that
they weren't able to be able to do before by hearing this,
finding out, hey, you mean to tell me there's been a church
20 miles down the road from me? I didn't know that. Hey, I'm
gonna drive 25 miles down the road and start attending that
fellowship. You know, there's all kinds of things that we can
look at that's going on with this COVID-19 business. And see,
not only is it bad, absolutely it's bad, but yet the Bible also
says, that is good for us to endure affliction, that out of
affliction we learn a lot of things. We learn a lot of things
about ourselves. We learn a lot of things about people in general.
We learn a lot of things about the gospel. Christ crowds us
to himself sometimes by these afflictions, as David learned,
that through these afflictions he grew closer to God. I remember the old song, you
know, through it all, through it all, through it all, I've learned
to trust in Jesus. I've learned to trust in God. We've learned
to do that. Our families have learned to
trust the Lord. You know, is the big boogeyman COVID-19 going
to kill me whenever I walk out the door? Well, we trust in God.
It's appointed unto man once to die. Christ has set the day
and the boundaries of my habitation, of the day that I began and the
day that I will end. And nobody can speed that up
or slow that down. And so I trust in Him. Am I prudent? Yeah, I need to be prudent. Am
I need to work in wisdom? Yeah, we need to work in wisdom.
But anyway, those were some final thoughts on that. It didn't have
nothing to do with Holy Spirit baptism. There's that rabbit
trails that I like to go down once in a while, brethren, but
bear with me on that. I apologize. But words that I
think we probably all need to hear that even in affliction,
there's some good things that out of that, you know, the Bible
says that the Lord chastens those that he loves. You know, the
word chastening, A lot of people think that chastening comes because
you've done something bad. And so God chastens you because
you've done bad. Now, surely that's true, that the Lord does
chasten us whenever we've sinned, but yet chastening doesn't have
to be because we've outright done something bad. I mean, think
about Job, how the Lord chastened Job, even though Job at the time
had not yet done anything bad. But yet, what did it do? It brought
forth what was inside Job and allowed Job to see his downfall. And Job was able to see that
and to trust God even more and see the sovereignty of God in
all things. And so, yeah, to the Christian
that's out there, There is some good that comes out of this for
us. I know one thing, it's allowed us to have a lot more time to
be at home to study and to spend time with our family. I'm on
the road a lot with work, and it's allowed me to be home with
my family a lot more and be able to read some more than I do. And so there are some silver
linings to a lot of this. But know that as Christians,
we're the children of God. And if the black plague comes
back and kills us all, we have Christ to be with for eternity
after that's all over with. So the worst thing that can happen
to us, brethren, is that we die. That's the worst thing that can
happen to us. But the best thing that can happen to us also is
that we die. If we die, we go to be with the Lord. And so we
shouldn't have any fear in those things, but that we should think
on the things that are wholesome and good and the things of Christ
and the promises that he's given to us. Now, I haven't seen any
questions come up. I guess if anybody has any questions
at this point, if you want to type them in down at the bottom,
I'll maybe try to hit them. If I don't see any questions
here in just a couple of minutes of me rambling. then I'll go
ahead and close it out for today. For those who didn't hear when
I first started, our church has, in respect for the government
and the things going on with the virus and everything, and
our elderly people that we have, which half of our membership
is over 70, that we have a stay-at-home ordinance
here in Joplin. And so we're going to honor that
for our leaders who have asked that and for the people around
us. And although none of us are sick
or anything like that, I have to get out in it occasionally.
you know, with the asymptomatic issues and not knowing that you're
carrying it and could possibly spread it. You know, I want to
think about my elderly members and my family and things like
that. So we've honored that. I don't think that it's as bad
as everyone says as far as the death toll stuff. The contagious
part of it, it's definitely bad, but as far as the recovery rates,
we see that it's not as bad as some of the things that we've
experienced with flu and things like that. It's just that the
contagion is what's bad. And I might be wrong about that
as well, and I'm not here to try to make political points
or anything, But I think that for a Christian, we shouldn't
go haywire. And we're not doing this because
we're going haywire, and we're not doing this thinking that
letting the government take away our rights to assemble and things
like that. We just realize that uh... we're not forsaken the assembling
of ourselves together uh... we uh... we're choosing as a
church to uh... to abide by the request of our
government until uh... sees it to we see that there's
some safety to be able to come back together and meet uh...
again and uh... and everything and so uh... we're not uh... we're well aware
that our government uh... is uh... likes to take uh...
uh... freedoms and and and grasp at
freedoms but uh... Again, we don't serve and live
in the kingdom of this world. We live in a different kingdom.
And whether all of our freedoms are taken away, it doesn't make
any difference. We still are under Christ Jesus
and in His kingdom. And our kingdom and His kingdom
is not of this world. It is a heavenly kingdom. And
that's the one that we're more interested about. and everything.
And so we can meet and gather as often as we can. And if we
have to break our times of meeting together
for a certain amount of time, we know that we're not going
to go to hell and the Lord's not going to frown upon us for doing
that. And if we make a mistake and
choose the wrong thing to do, It's all of the Lord. It was
all of Him. And we know that He's teaching
us some things and we're hopefully learning from these things and
growing closer to Him in all these things. And I hope you
are too. I hope these messages have been edifying to you guys
on the Holy Spirit, baptism. I hope that this whole series
on the church has been edifying to you guys. As well, I know
it's been an extensive study, and I'm thankful for all you
guys that have been tuning in and listening to these things.
And I pray that the Lord has blessed you with those as he's
blessed me in the study of it. And hopefully through all my rambling and incoherent thoughts
that I often have, that it has made some sense to some degree. But anyhow, Well, I've not seen
anybody posting any questions. I'll scroll back through here.
Yeah, it doesn't look like anybody's asked any questions. If you come
in and you're watching this after the live portion and you have
questions, feel free to post those down below and I will try
to come back on and post an answer for that with some scriptures, and try to answer your question.
Feel free to, on our Facebook page here, if there's ever any
questions you might have or anything, feel free to always ask that.
If you have a question about what we believe, uh... about
how we operate our church or anything feel free to ask that
you know uh... we were not ashamed to tell what
we believe in and hopefully uh... we can give you an answer this
back by the word of god and not by our own uh... presuppositions
and influences and things like that that we've had outside of
God's word. Hopefully it'll be a scriptural
answer for you. But anyway, we love all you guys
and we pray that the Lord keep you safe and will bless you and
watch out for the Rona. Wash your hands. cover your faces,
all that kind of good stuff. But we do love you in the Lord
and look forward to any time we get to meet you. Anytime you
guys are through Joplin area, any of y'all that are watching,
call me up. Our numbers are available on
our website and on our Facebook page and things like that. Send
me a message through messenger, whatever. Get a hold of us man. We'd be glad to meet you talk
with you visit with you and Fellowship in the Lord together. So if there's
not any questions or anything like that I'm gonna go ahead
and wrap this up for this week and Lord willing. We'll see you
again next week and we'll pick up and keep on Looking at some
of these things. I don't know I made since we're
not meeting as the church May venture off into some other
things, maybe. So there's been a couple of questions
that's been asked about some things that I've taught in the
past and people are concerned about. I may go back and address
some of those. One is what I teach about Adam
and how Adam was created. Another is, do I believe in God
being the author of sin? And some people have found some
concerns in that. And so I want to be as clear
as I can and as scriptural as I can in that, and always open
for correction in that by scripture. I'll be honest with you, I'm
not interested in being corrected by a confession of faith of men
of old. But if you can bring the Word
of God and everything, I don't want to preach untruth. And so
if there's correction that needs to be made, I'll be glad to listen
to that. And we'll definitely look at
God's Word with you at that. But there's been a couple things
of folks that have contacted me and are concerned because
I'm teaching certain things to them that seem to be unorthodox. And in the fact of God and His
involvement with sin and evil and how Adam was made, and his
sin. And so maybe I'll address that
in the next couple weeks while we're sheltered down here and
everything and kind of take a break from our study on the church. But anyway, anything else like
that that you guys know of or have heard me preach or talk
that you're kind of got a question about, feel free to send me a
message on that and I'll try to maybe address that. But other
than that, let's bow and have a word of prayer, and we'll ask
the Lord to bless the preaching and the teaching of the Word
today and wherever it's at. Our gracious Heavenly Father,
we again thank you today for your mercy and grace. We thank
you for the Lord Jesus Christ. Father, we even thank you for
this technology that we have, even now that we're able to use.
We know that it's not a substitute for the gathering of the people
together in congregations around this world. But Father, it definitely
is a tool that you've given us to be able to spread the gospel
of Jesus Christ. And Lord, we're thankful for
that. Lord, I'm thankful for our church
and how you've kept us safe over the last several weeks. Our hearts
do go out for Sister Louetta this morning. We ask, Lord, that
you continue to minister to her and her healing from her surgery
and her broken hip. Lord, that you might be with
the nurses and the doctors, the caregivers, Lord. We especially
ask, Lord, in that that they might be patient and helpful
and mindful of their patient. and the needs that they might
have. We pray for the family and we know that in this time,
especially with Sister Louetta being out at the assisted living
and they having that lockdown with no visitors coming in or
out and none of the tenants being able to leave and come and go. Lord, we know that that's hard
for Sister Louetta, and so we pray, Lord, that you would keep
her encouraged. We pray for the family, that
you would keep them encouraged, and that prayers and that things
will continue to go for her. Lord, we pray for our nation
and this world and all this epidemic that's going on. Lord, we pray
that you would have your perfect will in all of it. that we know
that it will accomplish the purpose for which it's come. Lord, that
you are in control of all things, that you've said in your word
that you have sent the pestilence, that you have sent the famines
and the wars and the things like that as judgment upon this sinful
world. And Father, we are grateful,
though, that you've given grace and mercy through the Lord Jesus
Christ. And so, Father, we ask, Lord, that you just might, through
all this, encourage your people draw your sheep to yourself through
all this, and that you might be glorified and honored in all
things. And we pray, Lord, that you'd keep us all safe as we
go and our families. I pray, Lord, for those that
are listening, that you might encourage them, edify them through
the Word. And Lord, we just thank you for
the Bible. We thank you for the Word of
God that we have to go as encouragement, as instruction, as wisdom given
to us from the very mouth of God. And so, Lord, we just pray
that you'd give us understanding of it, that you would, by the
Holy Spirit, make us receptive of it, and that we might, as
you work and will in us, will and work in us, that we might
do the things that you would have us to do. And so again,
we pray, Lord, for all those that are preaching around the
world today, even in their secluded areas where they're having to
do by Facebook. Lord, we pray that you would
glorify the preaching of the word of God and the truth as
it's being preached to the people of God. And thank you again for
your son, Jesus. We thank you for his blood that
has cleansed us of our sin. And we thank you for forgiveness.
and for righteousness being imputed to us. And Lord, we thank you
for the removal of any wrath that would have been upon us
had we not received the gift of mercy and grace and the holy
calling of God and the giving to Christ Jesus. So we thank
you now for this time together, and we ask that you bless it.
In Jesus' name we pray, amen.