I'm going to go ahead and just
take the time this morning and read these verses. Beginning with verse 25, And
they asked him, and said unto him, Why baptizest thou then,
if thou be not the Christ, nor Elias, neither that prophet? John answered them, saying, I
baptize with water, but there standeth one among you whom ye
know not. He it is who coming after me
is preferred before me, whose shoes lack it. I am not worthy
to unloose." These things were done in Beth-Abrah, beyond Jordan,
where John was baptized. And the next day John seeth Jesus
coming unto him, and he saith, Behold the Lamb of God, which
taketh away the sin of the world. This is he of whom I said, After
me cometh a man which is preferred before me, for he was before
me. And I knew him not, but that
he should be made manifest to Israel. Therefore am I come baptizing
with water. And John bare record saying,
I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and it abode
upon him, and I knew him not. But he that sent me to baptize
with water, the same said unto me, upon whom thou shalt see
the Spirit descending and remaining on him, the same as he which
baptizeth with the Holy Ghost." Something miraculous was taking
place out here in this wilderness. You just be hard pressed. You
know, we read these things in the Bible and I don't even know
if we try to... A lot of times I'll just sit back after reading
and studying and I just run into a wall and I'll sit back and
I'll just try to sit there in my mind and kind of project myself
into what's going on. These things tell a story. Something
is going on out here. Something miraculous is going
on out here. Here is a man that God hid in
a wilderness for thirty years, preparing him, John, for one
year's ministry. Thirty years of preparation for
one year's worth of preaching. And he brings him on to see him.
He hid him. The people didn't know who he
was. They knew a few things about him, you know, about his birth
and his daddy and all those things. There were some rumors about
him, you know, going around. But he was basically hid for
30 years until the time of his showing to Israel. Just like
every other prophet of God. God hides him in his purpose. And he trains him. How long has
he been training him? The apostle Paul said, God who
separated me from my mother's womb and called me by His grace
to reveal His Son in me that I might preach Him among the
heathen. He separated Paul as an apostle, as a preacher, as
a messenger of God from his mother's womb. And his whole lifetime
was filled with provenient grace preparing him for those days
that he preached the gospel. He was a Pharisee and there's
nobody, I was talking to Jesse this week, there's nobody in
this Bible who can unravel a Pharisee better than the Apostle Paul.
That's why God allowed him to be a Pharisee. He could take
that religion apart, just take it apart. And some ministers,
like myself, was allowed to be raised in religion, and I can
take it apart because I know what it's all about. There's
a preparation going on here. And then he brings him out, and
here's another miraculous thing. Here's all these company, all
this Sanhedrin and all these men, and they've all been raised
and acknowledged and worked hard and went to seminary and learned
all these things, sat under the feet of Gamaliel, the greatest
teacher Israel ever had, had papers and documents and doctors
of divinity, and they wore the big robes and they had the whole
nine yards, but nobody come to hear them. And when they did come, they
didn't have anything to say. But now here's John, he's totally
hidden from them, but in God's time, when God gets ready to
show His man to Israel, and Israel to His man, all of a sudden everybody,
everybody it says, everybody, all of Jordan and Jerusalem and
Judea and all, I mean we're talking about a vast area. And no cars,
no planes. They got their sandals on, Winston,
and got out and trudged down the road all the way out to the
wilderness where John was. Because he's the only one saying
anything about God. How'd they know that? How'd they
know that? You can't explain it, can you?
I can't explain it, I'm telling you, the more I live, the longer
I live, and I look around and I see these things, there's something
miraculous that takes place, and you can't put your finger
on it. Why a certain time something has said this happened, some
catastrophe befalls you, you get sick, you get worried, something
happens, your husband leaves, you know, all these things, they
all happen. But the result of those things
is that you cross that path with God's preacher. That's what happens. And then he gives you ears to
hear. And they go home and they tell somebody else and they come.
And then they go home and tell somebody else and they come.
And now here's this whole country going out to hear this unknown
man that God hid for 30 years. And here's the Sanhedrin and
there ain't nobody paying any attention to them. with all their
preparation. And I'll tell you what this has
done for me over 35 years. It's taught me that these things
are of God. They're not of me. And I can
sit home in my study and prepare, and I do. And I can pray, and
I do. But I can't bring you in here
and I can't give you ears to hear. I can just tell you what
God said. And that's as far as I can go.
And that's what John's telling these fellas. He said, I'm a
voice. I baptized with water. We took
Jesse here, put him down under the water. That's as far as I
can go with it. And you've got to get in here
and read these other accounts of these men, but in these other
accounts, he said, "...there standeth one among you mightier
than I, and he baptizes with the Holy Ghost and with fire."
And that's what I want to talk to you about this morning in
this lesson. He baptizes. We hear a lot about that today,
don't we? In Pentecostal groups and that talk about this baptism
of the Holy Ghost, and the evidence of it is that you come for speaking
in tongues. And they build an entire religion
around this baptism of the Holy Spirit. But here's John, long
before all these things took place, long before our Lord was
crucified and ascended back into glory and the cloven tongues
of fire fell on the church over there in Acts chapter 1. This
was years before that happened, Jesse, and he's talking about
a baptism with the Holy Ghost. Wasn't anybody speaking in tongues.
Huh? He baptizes with the Holy Ghost,
but wasn't no tongues. Huh? So what on earth is this
baptism? of the Holy Ghost. Well, this
baptism is an immersion. There's not three or four baptisms
talked about here. John said he baptized with water,
so we've got that and we've got water baptism. And then John
also says that there stands one among you, he's going to baptize
with the Holy Ghost. Now we've got two baptisms. And
then over in Matthew and Luke, both, in both their accounts,
And I think it's the third chapter in both of those books. You'll
have to look it up, be sure. But in both of those places,
he talks about baptism of fire, baptism of the Holy Ghost and
fire. And so we want to look into those
things and see what these things are all about. Well, he said,
I indeed baptize you with water, with water. So let's take a look
at that. Now, I find that baptism by water
to be absolutely necessary. John said God sent him to baptize. Ain't that what he said? I just
read it to you a few minutes ago. He sent him to baptize with
water. He was commanded. He preached
to them just like I'm preaching to you. He preached the same
Christ. He preached the same crucifixion. He preached the
same things I'm telling you. He took those Old Testament tithes
and pointed to Christ. But when he got done, he said,
the Lord has commanded you that believe to be baptized. And he
baptized them. He baptized them. And I tell
you, I find a necessity in baptism in that it's connected with the
commandment of God. And I'm going to show you that
in the Scripture. I know what this water baptism is. I know all these things. But
I'm telling you, this thing is connected with God. And it's
a commandment of God, and it's the confession of faith. Look,
turn with me over here to 1 Peter 3. Over here in 1 Peter 3, Peter
begins to warn the folks Is that 1 Peter or 2 Peter? I
hope I didn't give you the wrong. I've got 1 Peter here on my note.
Is that where he's talking about down here in verse 21, where
he talks about the like figure unto even baptism? Is that okay? 1 Peter 3, verse 21. Now, in this chapter, Peter said,
you've forgotten about some things. He said, you forgot that the
world that used to be was standing in the water and out of the water
by the commandment of God. You forgot about that. You forgot
all about it. You forgot that this world that
you lived in, that these old timers lived in, Adam and Enoch
and all these men, Abel, all of them, they all lived in a
world that God had separated. It wasn't like that in the beginning.
God separated the land from the water. And he held it that way. There's more water than there
is land, but he held it that way. He held it that way so that
you could live and survive by his grace and that these green
grasses would grow and the fruit trees would grow and all these
things, that this world would sustain you. He held this world
that way. He commanded the waves to come
so far and no further. But he said, you forgot about
that. So God reminded you, he overflowed the whole outfit.
The whole outfit. Covered it up. Buried it in water. Now listen here to what he says.
Coupled together with this, Peter says, the like figure, whereunto
even baptism doth also now save us, not to putting away the filth
of the flesh, but an answer of a good conscience toward God
by the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Now here's the question. If Adam didn't get on the ark,
would he still be safe? Huh? Would he still be safe? A boat
ain't got anything to do with salvation by grace, and I'm not
ignorant enough to swallow up this religious idea that these
guys were a bunch of cavemen. This was a preacher of God's
righteousness, and he understood exactly what I'm telling you
this morning, that salvation is by the grace of God. And he
preached the righteousness of Christ. He preached substitution
to that world. He knew what he was talking about.
But before him was a ship, a boat, whatever you want to call it,
that God commanded him to build, and he moved with fear and built
it, and there come a day to get in it. If he hadn't got in it,
would he be saved? Salvation hasn't got anything
to do with a boat. Now that's what Peter is talking
about. That's what he's talking about
here. The like figure whereunto baptism doth also now save you,
because baptism confesses what this heart believes. And it falls. You're not near about saved until
you come under the submission of the authority of Christ. You
ain't spitting distance being saved. I don't care what you
believe. You're going to bow and submit to His feet. You're
going to fall right down there, and if He tells you to jump,
you're going to say, how high? I don't care if it goes against
everything you ever believed. You're going to say, how high,
and you're going to jump. Noah become acquainted with God
and the fear of God. These old timers weren't like
we are. These old timers feared God. Men of God were called people
who feared God. They feared Him. He was above
them. He was so far superior. in His character and in His person,
that they tremble before His presence. Today, we're all buddy-buddy.
We've got everything all fixed up. We know God. We just walk
down the road with Him, hand in hand. But not so with Noah. He moved with fear. And I'm telling
you, when God saves a man, when He does a work of grace in your
heart, He'll bring you down. He'll bring you down, and you'll
fear God. You'll come to know that it's
in His hand to pass you by or save you. It's not your option,
it's His. It's not your decision, it's
His. It's not of Him that willeth nor of Him that runneth, but
of God that shows mercy. Now that's where you're going.
And when you get there, and He tells you to be baptized, you're
going to run and jump in the water. What's the first thing
that Ethiopian eunuch, he didn't know nothing about water baptism. He didn't know God from a billy
goat. He went to Jerusalem. He'd heard some things. He went
down there. He didn't learn anything. He'd come back and fill up God's
next chariot and preach Christ to him. What's the first thing
that eunuch said? What does hinder me from being
baptized? I want to hear all that Tommy
Rod about, well, you know, baptism ain't necessary, ain't it? Now, I know there's a time and
a place and there was a thief on the cross and he wasn't baptized.
He couldn't be baptized. If he could have, he would have.
But he couldn't be. So there's water baptism, and
this water baptism is a confession of faith. And it's the commandment
of God. And it's a picture. It's a picture
of what takes place. Over here in 1 Corinthians 10.1
it says, I would not have you to be ignorant
how that all our fathers were under the cloud, that fiery pillar
back there in the wilderness, and all passed through the sea.
Now watch it. And were all baptized unto Moses
in the cloud and in the sea. And they did all eat the same
spiritual meat, and did all drink the same spiritual drink, for
the drink of that spiritual rock that followed them, and that
rock was Christ. Here's baptism in a picture.
Going through the sea. Buried in the sea. What's the
only thing that didn't come up on the other side? The enemy. He's down in the sea. We're buried in the death of
Christ. He submerses us right down by
picture into that death of Christ. And what's the only thing that
don't come up? Sin don't come back up. The enemy don't come
back up. The law don't come back up. It
stays right down there in the sea. The only thing that comes
up is the children of God on the other side. And everything
they need for warfare washes right up on the bank. Where did
Israel get all them swords and chariots and all these things
they went into battle with? They picked them up on the other
side of the sea. God just grounded Pharaoh and his whole army and
then washed all the stuff they needed right up on the bank.
And they walked off and picked it up. Everything we need. Baptism. It's a picture. It's
a picture. Over in Romans chapter 6, And
verse 3, he said, No ye not that so 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. For if we have been
planted together in the likeness of His death, we shall be also
in the likeness of His resurrection. You see that? And then water
baptism is an identification. We identify ourselves with the
children of God and with the gospel and with Christ. We identify ourselves in baptism. Do you know in the book of Acts,
I know that you've read this and you've probably looked at
it and thought, I don't know if I can handle that or not,
or maybe it's over in the Corinthians, I've forgotten now, but it talks
about being baptized for the dead. Do you remember reading
that scripture? You know what that's saying? In their baptism,
and it's public, it's a public profession of faith, confession
of faith, and they stood up and went down to that river right
before everybody, right before the Jews, before everybody, and
was buried in that water and confessed Christ. knowing full
well that it marked them out for death. It marked them out
for martyrdom. They were sure to be martyred
by those Jews. Those Jews, like Paul, were seeking
papers to go put them to death. And they were baptized. It's
an identification. It's the putting on of the uniform
of Christ. That's water baptism. But he
said, there's one mightier than I. Mightier than the humble servant
that baptizes with the water. And in fact, is the real cause
and reason for water baptism. And that is Christ who baptizes
with the Holy Ghost and with fire. Now, turn with me to 1
Corinthians 12. This is that chapter where Paul
deals with spiritual gifts. 1 Corinthians 12. And verse 12, For as the body is one, and hath
many members, and all the members of that body, being many, are
one body, so also is Christ. For by one Spirit are we all
baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether
we be bond or free, being made all to drink into one Spirit. Now, apart from this baptism,
I'm not in the body, am I? Isn't that what he said? I can't put myself in the body.
There are thousands, I'm telling you, thousands. Turn your TV
on and watch it. Walking down the aisles, they stand up here
With every eye closed and every head bowed, you know you need
somebody to pray for you, just raise your hand. And pretty soon
they got them down the aisle. And then pretty soon they got
them kneeling down in the old prayer bench. And then pretty
soon they got them making a profession. And then pretty soon they say,
well, you're in the body. Whoa, now wait a minute. The
only way I can get in that body is if Christ puts me in that
body. John, I can't get in. I can't
get in. I cannot get in that body unless
He puts me in. I've got to be baptized in it. That's what happened to Israel
when they went through that sea. That's what happened right here. He's talking about this body
of Christ, this spiritual body, this spiritual temple that He
built. The only way you can get in it
is for Him to put you in it. There is a baptism of the Holy
Spirit. He said, He goes through that
second chapter there in 2 Thessalonians and He's talking about that Spirit
of Antichrist and all that and giving them over to strong delusion
to believe a lie and be damned. But He said, I thank God for
you, brethren. Beloved of the Lord, for He hath
from the beginning chosen you unto salvation through sanctification
of the Spirit." What's that? That's the Spirit of God taking
you and putting you in the body. That's what that is. He puts
you in that body. Where He puts you, I don't know.
You might be a hand. You might be a big toe. I don't
know on what we are. But we're in the body. That's
the important thing. And we're all members one of another. We're
all just one. And apart from this baptism,
I don't have anything to confess in the water. What am I just
to go in a dry center and come out a wet one? But if He puts
me in the body, then I've got something to picture. I've got
something to picture. And only Christ can baptize with
the Holy Ghost, which is an immersion into the very character and attributes
of God. burial into divine wisdom and
counsel and purpose and glory. He just, all of a sudden, you
just, it just isn't exactly like somebody throws you in the water
and buries you and these things just, they flood your mind and
they flood your heart and all of a sudden you begin to see
the reality of the character of God. God is God. And justice
is way more than what I thought it was. and sin and all these
things. He just immerses you into His
name, immerses you into His character. And all of a sudden, all these
things become real. They become real. Old Jonah,
he got on that ship and he was headed the opposite direction
from where God told him to go. And God caused a storm to come
up, and that sea raged, and it was about to smash that ship
into smithereens. And they went down there, and
here's the old prophet of God asleep. They woke him up, and
they said, what's going on? Now, somebody's done something.
Somebody did something. And he said, it's me. He said,
it's me. He said, contrary to God. He said, just throw me over
the side. and God in his property. He already
prepared this fish for Jonah before Jonah ever made up his
mind to go the other way. God already prepared the sovereign
of the sea to swallow him up. And they cast him overboard,
and the great fish come up and swallowed him. And where did
he take him? Down to the depths. Out of the belly of hell, he
said, I cried. Took him down there and showed
him who God was and showed him who he was. Showed him, just
buried him, immersed him, baptized him right out there in the depths
until he come to know who God was. And then he cried out and
he said, Salvation to the Lord! That's baptism with the Holy
Ghost. Well, you say, don't it say they
come forth speaking in tongues? You'll speak in a different tongue.
You'll speak in a tongue this world don't understand. They
don't understand what I'm telling you right now this morning. It's
just Greek to them. It's like I might as well be
talking in French or something. They just sit and scratch. What?
What? You mean man don't have a decision? You mean God is God and He can
do what He will? Yeah. Yeah. There's a baptism
of the Holy Spirit. Well, what's this thing of fire?
What's that got to do with anything? Well, fire in the Old Testament,
And I want you to see this first. Here he is, old Jonah. He's swallowed
up. That's what happens. See, that's
what happens when the gospel comes in power. God swallows
you up. You're just swallowed up, Jesse.
You can't do anything. You can't run. You can't hide. What do I do? Where do I go? He's got you. Boom. Swallows
you up into these things and then carries you down to the
depths and lets you experience the depths of God. the depths
of His judgments and allows you to see those things. Then salvation
becomes important. And then salvation becomes impossible. And then you cry out, salvation
of the Lord. It's of the Lord. Isn't that
what he talks about over here in 1 Corinthians? I'm going to
get into that here in a little bit, 1 Corinthians 15. But Paul
cries out talking about that last resurrection. He said, death
swallowed up in victory, mortality swallowed up of life. That's
what it is. That's what it is. Now that's
the baptism of the Holy Spirit. What's this baptism? And he couples
this over in Luke and Matthew, I think in chapter 3 of both
accounts. But he couples this baptism with
the word fire. Now fire in the Old Testament
represented the holy wrath of God. And it never just fell for
no reason. It always fell for a just cause. It fell on Sodom and Gomorrah.
Abraham pleaded with him. He said, yeah, find me 50 righteous
men. I won't destroy it. And he just
kept whittling it down. Just kept whittling it down.
Well, two would have been too many, wouldn't it? There's only
one righteous man, Christ. Christ is the righteous man.
Oh, lock that righteous man. But look at him. What do you
mean he's righteous in Christ? He's righteous in Christ. And
this fire, it fell, it destroyed everything. Abraham said he looked
and the smoke rose up off that place like a great furnace. It
just smoldered down there in the plain. God burned it up.
He come down to Israel and he rang fiery hail on the Egyptians. He rained fiery serpents down
on Israel. Each time a just cause for doing
it. And Peter said this world is
reserved under judgment of fire. Isn't that what he says? Judgment
of fire. It has to do with the righteous
judgment and the holy wrath of God. And we look at these things. All the substitutionary sacrifices
in the Old Testament revolved around fire, didn't they? He
comes in there to them on that last day down there in Egypt
and he said, take that lamb and roast it in the fire. And you
go over there to the tabernacle and all the instructions concerning
the morning and the evening oblations, they're all roasted with fire.
Well, but there's a difference between the fire that fell on
out there on Sodom and Gomorrah and the fire that fell in the
tabernacle. The fire that fell in the tabernacle fell on substitute. It was friendly fire, is that
what it was? It was friendly fire. You know,
in that mountain, Israel said, ah, we ain't going on that mountain. My goodness, there was lightning
shooting in and out of that thing and smoke raising up and the
ground was trembling and it burnt. The mountain burnt under the
presence of God, and in a way I'm going on that mountain. They
backed off. They told Moses, they said, you
go up there. And Moses went up there and he came back with the
law of God. But down on these sacrifices
come the fire of God. And I could just take you through
the Old Testament and just show you a thousand of them. There's
the mother and father of Samson, Manoah and his wife. They come
down and announce to him that they're going to have a son,
he's going to be a Nazirite, he's going to be just like Christ,
the Nazirite. He was going to be a picture.
And so Manoah offered a sacrifice unto the Lord, and the angel
of the covenant that brought him the good news, it said he
ascended up on the flames of the fire. The fire came down,
consumed the sacrifice, the angel of the covenant went up in the
flames. Picture of Christ. And you can just go on and on
and on. But the one I want you to see, I've already run out
of time, is Elijah. Here's Elijah, and he's standing
around. He comes to Israel, and they've
got an evil king with an evil bride. This world is ruled by
Satan and his evil bride world of religion. You get the picture? And here they are. They're worshiping
idols. They're worshiping Baal. And
the people, God's people, His true Israel was among them, and
they was confused and deceived. And there they was, bound down
to this old god of stone, bound down to old Baal. And God sends
the prophet down there to tell them the truth. And he goes down
and he tells them, he said, you go get your prophets, Ahab, 450
of them, bring them out here, bring two bullets. You pick whichever
one you want. Pick whichever one you want.
You put them on the altar, but don't put no fire on them. He
said, and I'll take the other one. And the God that answereth
by fire, let him be God. Let him be God. The God that
answereth with satisfied justice on the substitute, that'd be
God. That'd be God. And so there they
went. And they went clear till dinner
time. You know, I know folks get upset
and I make fun of religion, but Elijah did, didn't he? He said
he mocked them. And he said, you know, I think
your God is probably asleep. I think He might be off on a
journey somewhere. He might not even be home. And
he started telling them these things. It says in the Scripture
he mocked them. He wanted the people to see how ridiculous
this thing was. And so they started cutting themselves
and the blood gushed out all over everything. Nothing. They made all kinds of noise.
Religion makes noise, but it's silent. It's dead silent on this
thing of substitution and satisfied justice. Not one word. And then
he repaired the altar and had an altar of purpose and design.
He laid 12 stones out there representing Israel. He laid the sacrifice. He cut that sacrifice in pieces
at a time and laid it out, just like I'm doing for you this morning.
Talking about His righteousness and His substitutionary work
and His Lordship and laid this sacrifice out. And God come down
and He watered it down. He poured 12 barrels of water
on it and filled the ditch up. God come down and that's just
a picture of this world trying to water these things down. That's
all that is. It doesn't make a bit of difference.
Not a bit of difference. When that fire of God gets hold
of you, you're going to understand exactly what this thing is all
about. And he licked up all the water, consumed the sacrifice,
took all the wood, eat up the dust, and licked all the water
out of the ditch. Satisfied justice. That's what this baptism of fire
is all about. And only he can do it, Russell.
I can point it out to you, but only God can burn it in your
heart. And when he walked along that way with his disciples and
they were down in the dunks and the Lord being crucified, they
still didn't know anything about satisfied justice. So he went
back to the book of Moses, and he started going through, and
he showed them all the things throughout all Old Testament,
how these things concerned the satisfied justice of God. And
it said when he disappeared, they said, didn't our heart burn
within us when he opened us to Scripture? The fire of God. That's at baptism.