Up front here, if you need some
seats up front, we've got six on the right side and five on
the left side. Or you guys can go downstairs
into our air-conditioned portion of the building with the folks that like to hide
downstairs i want you to turn your bibles back to acts chapter
nineteen if you don't have a bible you can use pastors commentary
inside your bulletin to follow along in the uh... message the
outline is inside the title of our message is baptism the meaning
of the message and you know i love to preach and teach on the subject
of baptism in the reason is is that baptism is the gospel. Baptism proclaims the gospel
and therefore every time we get an opportunity to expound on
the subject of baptism, we are preaching the gospel. Now you're
going to find out by virtue of our text how very important it
is that when we are addressing any of the ordinances of the
Lord, whether that be baptism or the Lord's table, that we
understand that those ordinances are designed to do one thing
and that is to teach us about Jesus Christ. The Apostle Paul
had begun his third missionary journey making his way out of
Jerusalem through Corinth into Asia Minor when he found himself
out of necessity going to the city of Ephesus once again. Now Ephesus was a very popular
city that was known for its religiosity. It was a polytheistic area. It was It was highly noted for
the worship of Diana the the gods of the Greek and Roman culture
were the pagan gods that prevailed in Rome and as well as in Ephesus
and if you were to read the latter part of Ephesus you would realize
that there was a mighty work that was accomplished in by the
Apostle Paul and others who ministered with him there in Ephesus, so
much so that those who were witches and those who were involved in
seances and those who had invested in books of sorcery, took all
of their books, all of their dark, dark rituals and gathered
them together and burned them in an open public demonstration
of having bowed the knee to the true and the living God, Jesus
Christ. That is a radical work of grace
when a city does that publicly. Now to be sure, the Apostle Paul
still had his work cut out because there were many in Ephesus who
did not like what Paul was doing. But what God has done for us
in the opening verses of chapter 19 is given us an opportunity
to consider this proposition, that baptism, like the Lord's
table, is not an empty ritual nor some type of mindless ceremony
that we engage in without an understanding. That is so critical
to know that you do not baptize people because they feel like
being baptized. You do not baptize people because
it's the tradition of the church to baptize. You do not baptize
people because it's just something that the religious world engaged
in. When we baptize people, it is
because we have taught them the meaning and significance of baptism. So be very sure to know that
what's before us is a number of questions, the first of which
goes like this. Baptism is invalid if indeed,
this is a proposition, if indeed you have an insufficient knowledge
of the true and the living God. Baptism is invalid if you are
ignorant of the gospel. Our text makes this very clear
that if you have an inaccurate or insufficient understanding
of those things that make for eternal redemption, your baptism
is invalid. Notice how he opens up. I want
you to see this. In verses 1 and 2, the Apostle
Paul finds out that he is dealing with some men who are called
disciples. Look at it again in verse 1.
And it came to pass that while Apollos was at Corinth, Paul,
having passed through the upper coast, came to Ephesus and finding
certain disciples. Do you guys see that? Now the
word disciple is the root word to the word discipline. Now,
to be disciplined is to be taught. In fact, the Greek word behind
this phrase is mathetuo, from actually we get our term math.
And so to be a disciple is to be one who is educated, instructed
in certain teachings. And somehow the Apostle Paul
had acquired the fact that these men were disciples. They were men who were taught.
And therefore, here's the question that he raised to them. Have
you received the Holy Ghost since you believe? Look at verse 2.
And he said unto them, Have you received the Holy Ghost since
you believe? That's the first question that
he raised. Now, why does he raise that question?
What is the relationship to the Holy Ghost with respect to a
person professing faith? Well it's this, the Apostle Paul
knew what Peter knew, what James and John knew was the promise
that Jesus said would be given to all those who believe on him.
What is that? It's the promise of the Holy
Spirit. So he didn't open up saying do you know the gospel
or do you know the Lord Jesus because the assumption is as
a disciple you do. But I want you to understand
there are a lot of people walking around today and perhaps some
of you are in this situation right now. You may have gone
through the ceremony of being baptized, but you don't even
know the gospel. You may have been taken into
the act or ritual of being baptized by your parents or in your youth,
but you are ignorant of the truth of the gospel. This was the case
with these Ephesian men. Now, they were Jewish, obviously,
because of the nature of their response, or they were proselytes. One thing was very clear. They
were ignorant of God. Ignorant of God. To be ignorant
of the Holy Spirit is to be ignorant of God. Because we know, according
to the Bible, the Holy Spirit is God. Isn't that right? And
so, what we are dealing with at the outset is a group of men
who are called disciples, but when the question is raised,
do you know God? They're saying, we've never even
heard of a Holy Spirit. Now, this is a real problem for
the Apostle Paul, which brings him to the next question. Listen
to what he says. Since you don't know the Holy
Spirit and never even heard of Him, verse 3 tells us, then unto
what were you what? Baptized. If you haven't heard
of the Holy Spirit or the Holy Ghost, as the King James puts
it, then to what were you baptized? What is he saying? Here's what
he's saying. Since you are disciples, it means that you have been indoctrinated
into a system of teaching. Being indoctrinated into a system
of teaching means that you have been baptized, because that's
what's going to happen to at least 12 or 15 of you today.
Twelve or fifteen of you today will be baptized because you
have come to understand certain theological facts about God. And so the Apostle Paul was under
the assumption that since they were disciples and therefore
they were baptized, they were taught. Unto what then were you
baptized? How could it be that you are
disciples? And how could it be that you're baptized if you don't
know that there was even a Holy Ghost? Now let me prime your
thoughts with this for a moment, particularly those of you who
are Christian, and we'll work our way towards those of you
who are not Christian. The Bible is replete with the
teaching of the third person of the Trinity, that is the Spirit
of God. I know a lot of you who are visiting
with us today, you have maybe never really engaged in a church
protocol or religion, and you've heard about religious folk talking
about the Holy Ghost, the Holy Ghost, the Holy Ghost. Hey, they
talk about the Holy Ghost everywhere in clubs and bars. I told you
I heard a blues group one time talking about how good and synergistic
they were getting down that they could just feel the Holy Ghost
up in there. I beg your pardon, it wasn't the Holy Ghost. However,
there is a Holy Ghost. And when properly understood,
He is God. He is the Spirit of the Living
God. For those of you who know Him,
He is the same Spirit that created the heavens and the earth in
the beginning. He garnished the heavens. He arranged the universe. He sustains this universe by
His power. The oldest book in the Bible
is the book of Job. Job says the Spirit of God garnished
the heavens, and he gives life unto men, and he gives understanding
and inspiration to those who are believers. The Spirit of
God is the life-sustaining person of this universe. In fact, those
of you who don't know the Lord today, even you are upheld right
now by the Spirit of God. I'm going to talk about this
a little bit later on down the line. Me and my son, my 17-year-old
son, had a conversation last night as I was bringing him home
about the tragic accident that occurred in Dublin a couple of
weeks ago where these teenagers were out racing. And some of
you guys may have known these teenagers. My son did. And it
was a young 16, 17-year-old girl and 16, 17-year-old boy. And
they were drag racing or something. Two or three of them got killed.
My neighbor across the street has two children, a 17-year-old
daughter and a 15-year-old son. They go to Castro Valley with
our kids. And the daughter was inquiring to my son because they
watch us and have watched us for years leave the house at
least two or three times a week, engaging in this thing called
the gospel. And she asked my son, What is it that gives you
this sense of peace and calm in the midst of tragedy? She
said, because I'm an atheist. I don't know God. I don't even
know if there's a God. And my son began to explain to
her who God is and how the gospel works and why believers, even
in the midst of tragedy, can have peace. even in the Mr. Tragedy. And so that becomes
something that's critically important for you who are unbelievers to
deal with as well. When we talk about Christianity,
we're not just talking about some religious preference. We're
talking about the truth. We're talking about the true
and the living God, the very God that right now is dealing
with your conscience and your heart right now. You see, the
Spirit of God strives with men. He witnesses to men. He talks
to men. He deals with you in those areas
where of only the Spirit of God has domain, your conscience and
in your heart. In fact, you spend your whole
life long struggling against that witness that the Holy Ghost
brings into your life. And I was so thankful that my
son had been brought up under the truth of the gospel, and
he had enough cordiality to talk to her about the things of Christ.
And so we're praying for her that God would be pleased to
bring her, her brother, her mother, and her father to a saving knowledge
of the true and the living God. And isn't it something how God
has to use a tragedy to bring sinners to Christ? But that's
just how God works. And so these Ephesian disciples
were men who were ignorant of the Holy Ghost. The Bible tells
us that the Spirit of God was the promise of the Father that
would be given to the church when Jesus rose again from the
dead and ascended on high. Let me go on to develop this.
This is very important. When you read your Bible, particularly
in the book of Acts, you cannot get away from the agency and
ministry of the Holy Spirit. You can't get away from it. You
know, there are segments of Christianity that want to deny the Trinity.
There are segments of Christianity that want to deny the deity and
authority of Jesus. There are segments of Christianity
that want to deny that the Holy Ghost is a relevant and germane
reality in the life of Christians. Listen to me. I warn you, do
not neglect the reality of the Spirit of the Living God. He
is replete through the book. If you and I who are Christians
cherish the Father and we cherish the Son, we must cherish the
Spirit who reveals to us the Son by whom the Father sent Him. Are you hearing what I'm saying?
And yes, He's a mystery. The third person is a mystery.
We can't comprehend what we can't see and we can't fully grasp
what we cannot realize in our physical senses, but he's not
a force. And he's not a mere religious
experience. I want you to understand that
the Holy Ghost is a person. He's just as much a person as
the Lord Jesus, as the Father, and as you. I tell our folks
here, particularly our men folks here in our church, as I engage
with them, you deal with the third person as if he was a person
right in front of you. You talk to him, you bow to him,
you worship him, you call upon him, you depend upon him, you
respect him, you reverence him. He is God Almighty. He's God Almighty. And these
men, these men were ignorant of the promise. of the Holy Ghost. Paul was absolutely amazed at
this reality. How could you be baptized and
not come into the reality of the third person? Which brings
another question in relationship to the doctrine of baptism of
which we'll further explain. You'll find that within the book
of Acts there is this relationship between believing and being baptized
and experiencing the Spirit of the Living God. That too you
cannot deny. You just can't deny it. Now what
the Bible makes sure of as we go through the book of Acts is
that you cannot nail the Holy Spirit down and put him in a
bottle and make him act when you want him to act. You cannot
patent the Holy Ghost and sell him in the church and make you
some money. We'll see that as we work through this but what
I do want you to understand is When a man or woman comes to
believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and therefore submit to the waters
of baptism, you are responding to a revelation of the truth
as it is in Christ because of the work of the Holy Ghost. And
therefore it would be incongruent for you to be baptized and not
know the person and work of the Spirit of the Living God. all
through the book of Acts. Remember Acts chapter 2 verse
38? Don't go there. Peter is preaching to the Pentecost
group and he said to those Jews who were observing the manifestation
of the Spirit in the different manifestations of the languages
of the different people groups and ethnos that was there in
Acts chapter 2, he said, this is the work of the Spirit of
God. The Spirit of God has caused the disciples to be able to speak
in these other men's languages the wonderful works of God. Repent! Believe on the name of the Lord
Jesus Christ and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost too
and The text tells us that in believing the gospel and being
baptized they too would receive the gift of the Holy Ghost We
read in Acts chapter 10 don't go there once again Peter's preaching
to the Gentiles and as he's preaching Christ to the Gentiles the Spirit
of God falls on those who are listening to the preaching of
the gospel and Peter's preaching and then he turns to his brother
and he says, What would hinder us now from baptizing these men
and women since they have received the Holy Ghost just like us?
Are you guys hearing what I'm saying? And so what we find is
in the ministry of the preaching of the Word of God, two things
will take place when God honors it. Men and women will believe
the Gospel because the Spirit of God will plant faith in your
life And you will be baptized. Do you guys get that? You will
be baptized. One of the things that delights
me and many of our folks in Grace Bible Church is that God allows
us to see the salvation and conversion of men and women frequently.
And the evidence of it is not merely believing but being baptized.
And it's a joy. Today is a wonderful day, isn't
it? Today is a wonderful day. And I said to our men last night,
let's pray that the Spirit of God would do what He does when
Christ is exalted and men and women are coming to the waters
of baptism. And that is revealed to the hearts of those watching
the glory of God in Jesus Christ. Now, when that happens, I'm here
to tell you, it's an amazing thing. It's an amazing thing,
and only God can do it. And this is why, look, for some
of you, you think baptism is a foolish thing, or the Lord's
table is a foolish thing. This is what God has ordained
in the proclamation of the Lordship of Jesus Christ, and the Spirit
of God is pleased to hover over this work. I'm just... I'm eager
to see what God's going to do as a consequence of what takes
place today. So, the next thing that I want
to call to your attention is in your outline point number
two. It's in verses two and three.
The Spirit of God is to be received as the net effect of proper teaching. The Spirit of God is to be received
as the net effect of proper teaching. The apostle Paul Assume that
these men have the Spirit of God, but once he found out why
they didn't even know about it He realized oh Not only were
you ignorant, but you were deficient in your knowledge of the gospel
Paul knew before the Spirit of God would approve the life and
conversion of these men that they would have to hear the truth
as it is in Christ and And therefore, listen very carefully to me.
The Spirit of God does not operate apart from the message of the
gospel of Jesus Christ. He does not operate apart from
a faithful proclamation of the person and work of Christ. where the person and the work
of Jesus Christ is not preached and taught, the Spirit of God
does not operate. These men are a byproduct of
that reality. They're disciples, they've been
taught something, but they've been taught so insufficiently,
so ignorantly, that the Spirit of God cannot operate, because
the Spirit of God is the Spirit of truth. Did you guys get that?
John chapter 16 and when he the spirit of truth is come he will
lead you into all truth now We deduce from this fact this truth
The Spirit of God does not operate in a false teaching of who Jesus
is and what Jesus did Did you guys get that the Spirit of God
does not operate in? conjunction with error It is
for this very reason that these men have to hear the gospel all
over again. But mind you now, how good is
God? How good is He? Is He good? Watch
this now. These men are ignorant of the
truth. They are absent of the vital living efficacy of the
Spirit of God. But God sent Paul their way,
didn't He? He sent Paul their way to teach
them the truth as it is in Christ. And by the time Paul leaves,
these men will be safe and secure in the reality of who Christ
is and what he did. Did not so? Now listen to what
they said. I want you to get this. Listen
to what it says. In verse 3, he says, unto what
then were you baptized? And they said, unto John's baptism. Now, Think with me for a moment,
folks, about the baptism of John. Some of you know your Bible,
right? You know that John the Baptist preached Christ. Didn't he? You know that if these
were direct disciples of John the Baptist, and they had heard
him write, it was inevitable that they would have come to
know of Jesus the Messiah. Isn't that true? Don't you know
that it would be impossible for them to be under John's ministry
when John was the one who saw him? When John was the one who
baptized him? When John was the one who heard
the heavens open up and the Father saying, this is my beloved Son
in whom I am well pleased? When John was the one who saw
the Holy Ghost descend on Jesus like a dove? How are they gonna
receive John's teaching and not know about the Father, know about
the Son, and know about the Holy Ghost? It's because they were
taught deficiently by somebody else who had been taught by John. Now watch this now. When we speak
about effectual teaching, that work of God, whereby He is your
teacher, We are talking about how many women actually receive
the truth. In other words, to be taught
by a man might be to be taught wrong. Did you hear what I just
said? To be taught merely by a man
might be to be taught wrong. But when the Bible says, as it
is written, they shall all be taught of God. Therefore everyone
who has heard the gospel and has learned of the father to
whom does he come Christ What do you mean preacher? I mean
this that the Spirit of God will see to it that you will learn
the truth as it is in Jesus because that's his office and anything
short of that will not render your baptism valid and As I begin
to explain baptism to you in a moment, you'll understand what
I'm saying. Every one of you who will be making a profession
of faith today, confessing Jesus, you will be getting in the water
because you are declaring that you met God in the truth of the
gospel, that Christ has been revealed to your heart, that
God has taught you who Jesus is. Are you guys hearing what
I'm saying? You're not getting in the water. because it's vulgar,
it's something that you feel you need to do, but because you
have heard the message of redemption and because the Spirit of God
has shown you who Jesus is and he has convinced you of his person
and of his work. Am I making some sense? That
then prepares you for the waters of baptism. This is what John
was teaching. These men, therefore, probably
were taught by some disciples who were part of John's ministry
prior to John seeing Jesus. See John's ministry lasted three
and a half years to remember that and for about two and a
half years John was preaching repentance Saying wait for the
Messiah to come But he didn't know who that Messiah was and
therefore his disciples didn't know to you hear what I'm saying,
so it might have been this category of people that who either came
under John's direct ministry or the ministry of other people
who had only been taught a preliminary fact about the coming of Jesus.
But listen very carefully to me. Until we identify and declare
the name of Jesus as Messiah, we don't have the gospel. Now
how does this work in this 21st century contemporary world of
ours? Just to say that you love God
and know God doesn't mean you know God in the truth. Just to
say you want to have a relationship with God in the vague, general,
sort of non-nominational sense doesn't mean you know the truth.
To know God, Jesus said, is to know the true and the living
God and Jesus Christ whom he has sent. That's John 17 3. So
mark this now. This is the thing that I was
sharing with my son as I'm encouraging him on how to witness to this
young lady. He has to bring her to bear to this reality. God,
my friend, has to reveal Christ to you through the gospel for
you to know that you know that you know God. Are you hearing
what I'm saying? God must reveal Christ to you. in order for you to know that
you know God. To have the general sense of who God is, is not to
know God. You may be agnostic, but you're
not a believer. And so that's a work that must
be done. And this is the thing that's being dealt with here
in our text. Listen to what Paul says in verse 4. Then said Paul,
having come to the reality that these men were ignorant of the
Lord Jesus, he said, John truly baptized with the baptism repentance
saying unto the people that they should believe on him which should
come after him pocket right there for a moment that's probably
as far as those men had come what Paul goes on to do is say
that is on the name of Jesus Christ Now the Messiah of whom
all the scriptures have declared from Genesis 1 to Revelation
22 and 21 is now made manifest in the person of Jesus. Did you
guys get that? Watch this now. In other words,
to preach the gospel is to proclaim the person and the work of Jesus
Christ of Nazareth. He is the revelation of the invisible
God. He is the one of whom the scripture
said would be born of a virgin. He would come into this world,
having assumed our nature, and took on the task of redeeming
a people for himself by being their substitute and their surety
on Calvary Street. Who is He? Jesus Christ of Nazareth. You guys got that? This is critical
because, again, there are a lot of people who believed in Messiah
in the Old Testament, a lot of people who believed in Messiah
in the first century. They didn't believe Jesus was the Messiah.
So now what Paul is doing is preaching the gospel as it was
revealed to him, right? He had heard it time and again
by Stephen and others. He had persecuted that way, ridiculed
that way, mocked that way until he met Jesus himself. See what
I'm getting at? See, when you meet Jesus yourself,
it's a whole different story, isn't it? When he met Christ
himself on the Damascus road, it was undoubtedly a revelation
of the very God that Stephen and all those brothers have been
preaching. And the text tells us after that Paul had a revelation
of Christ, he himself was taught by Ananias and then baptized,
he straightway preached, watch this now, that this is the very
Christ. All through the book of Acts,
The whole issue is preaching Jesus Christ of Nazareth. All
through the book of Acts, the whole ministry was the ministry
of doing what Jesus said in Matthew 28, 19, and 20. Go ye into all
the world and preach the gospel. teaching them to observe whatsoever
things I have commanded you, baptizing them in the name of
the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost. And so what
Paul is doing with these men at Ephesus is teaching them about
Jesus Christ. Now listen to what it says so
we can go into our development of the doctrine of baptism in
close. It tells us here in the latter part of verse 4, John
told them to believe on him Which should come after him that is
on Christ Jesus verse 5 and when they heard do you guys see that?
The italicist says what this? It's true. They heard this But
more than that, it's true that they heard How does faith come
And when they heard and when they heard see this is the first
time they heard They have been taught a lot of things, but they
had not heard from Jesus yet. They had not heard about Jesus
yet. The Spirit of God, by the way, right now is operating in
the teaching of Paul to help them comprehend Jesus. Can you imagine what's going
on in their heart? Think about it with me for a
moment. You're under Christian education. You're being taught
some things. But there's a great deal of emptiness
and unanswered questions in your soul. You're going about with
a few principles under your belt and you're calling yourself a
disciple, but you haven't had the witness born in your soul
yet of the truth. Isn't that a very precarious
and difficult place to be? Now having said that, because
I want God to touch some of you today. Having said that, here
is the joyful, joyful hope of the sinner. God is seeking and
saving that which is lost. The Spirit of God is seeking
and saving that which is lost. I'm here to tell you, Paul was
headed to Jerusalem. He was headed to Jerusalem, but
the Spirit of God forced him to go back through Ephesus. And
on his way back through Ephesus, he found 12 men who were chosen
of God before the foundation of the world, who were ignorant
of Jesus Christ. Ignorant of Christ. And had they
died, had they died, oh, they would have perished. But God,
who is infallible in his mercy and his grace, saw to it that
they heard. They heard. Faith comes by hearing
and hearing by the word of Christ. They heard the gospel. Now listen
to what it says. Listen to what it says. And when
they heard this, they were what? Baptized! In the name of the
Lord Jesus. Well, weren't they already baptized? No! Well, yes, they were baptized,
but they weren't baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. They
were baptized that they went through a ceremony, but they
weren't baptized according to the truth. I mean, they went
through an external form of baptism, but they had not been baptized
according to the truth of the gospel. Are you hearing what
I'm saying? And therefore, Paul had no compunction of saying,
let's now be baptized according to the truth. Now let me say
this, to be baptized according to the truth is to truly be baptized. In other words, some would say
that they were baptized all over again, but we would argue that
they were never baptized in the first place. Because to be baptized is to
be brought into identification with the teaching that baptism
signifies and if the gospel is not preached, no matter what
ceremony you went through, it was not baptism. Did you guys
hear what I just said? It's very important for you to
know this. So now I want to deal with one more other brief controversy
that comes along with scripture because we are not necessarily
careful or that we have been swayed by what men have taught
us and that is in the name of Jesus Christ. the name of Jesus
Christ in your outline the third point in your outline I have
very clear listen to it the knowledge of Christ and his authority is
that what it says the knowledge of Christ and his authority when
Paul said When it said that Paul had preached the gospel to them
and they heard they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus
Christ, I want to make sure we get this. We are not dealing
with the expression of a formula as laid out in John or Acts 19. In other words, God is not teaching
in this text that in order to be properly baptized, you have
to use the name the Lord Jesus. Let me expand. Christianity is
not a body of mantras or repeated slogans or phraseologies that
we use that kind of activate God and then make him do something.
When we use the term the name of the Lord, or the name of Jesus
Christ, or the name of the Father, or the name of the Holy Ghost,
what we are saying by the name is the identity, the authority,
and the work of that very person. That means you have to be taught
who Jesus is and what Jesus did in order to be effectively baptized
in his name. Did you guys get what I just
said? Let me explain that by backing up. Remember what Paul
said? He asked the question, until what then were you baptized?
They said, John's baptism. Well, Paul didn't think that
when they were baptized, they said, be baptized in the name
of John. No! He understood that they were
baptized according to the doctrine of John, according to the teaching
of John. Watch this now, according to
the authority of John. Jesus asked the rulers in his
day, this is Matthew chapter 11, and they were trying to get
at him because he was operating in his divine authority. They
said to him, who gives you authority to come into the temple and tie
the temple up like you're doing? He says, I'll ask you a question.
John's baptism, was it from heaven or was it of men? And they said
when they looked at him, we'll get back to you. And they went
and huddled up and they started raising the issue. Now look,
he got us in a quandary here because if we say it's from heaven
then he's gonna say how come you didn't submit to it? And
I'll get back to that question at the end of our message with
you. But if we say that it was a man,
then everybody around here who heard John and believed on John
will be mad at us. So we'll tell him we don't know.
All of a sudden they become agnostic. To use the name is to establish
the authority of that person. Which means to expound or make
clear his identity. When we use the name of the Lord
Jesus Christ, as I'll share with you a couple of verses in the
book of Acts where it's done, what we are saying is baptism
only has authority when it's done by those who are operating
out of the authority with which Jesus has given them. When the
apostles were told to go into all the world and preach the
gospel to every creature, he that believeth and is baptized
shall be saved. He that believeth not shall be
damned. They had no authority to preach
and baptize except in the authority of Jesus Christ. And the authority
of Jesus Christ can only be impressed upon your heart and mine as we
make known who he is and what he did. You guys got that? In other words, for me to tell
you to just come up and be baptized in Jesus' name has no authority
at all. Do you know there were all kind
of Jesuses in the days of the Lord Jesus? Christianity is not a system
of mindless mantras. You can't get God to act for
you just because you go, in Jesus' name, in Jesus' name, in Jesus'
name. We better know what we're saying when we say, in Jesus'
name. When we say in Jesus' name, you
know what we're saying? We're saying in the name of Him
who is the revelation of the invisible God. When we say in
Jesus' name, we're saying in the name of Him who is the second
person of the blessed triune God, very God of very God and
very man of very man. When we say in the name of Jesus
Christ, we're saying in the name of the one who died on Calvary's
tree as the sin bearer of his people, having accomplished an
eternal redemption for them, having established an everlasting
righteousness, having put away all their sin, all their sin
by the sacrifice of himself. When we say in the name of Jesus
Christ, we're talking about the one the Father sent who died
and was buried and rose again the third day. When we talk about
the name of Jesus Christ, we're talking about the God-man who
ascended on high, sits at the right hand of God the Father
right now, ruling over this whole universe. When we talk about
the name of Jesus Christ, we're talking about the God-man who
sits in glory right now as the mediatorial fullness of everything. You can't get nothing from the
Father unless you come through the Son. And to come through
the Son, you need the work of the Holy Ghost, because the goal
of the Holy Ghost is to reveal the Son to you. Now when He reveals
the Son to you, you'll know the Son like we know the Son in the
truth. We'll know the Son like the Father
knows the Son. So when we use the name, in the
name of Jesus, we are declaring all that is invested in His person
and work. When we use the name Jesus, we
are declaring that He is the Gospel. You therefore must be taught
Jesus. You must be taught who Jesus
is. And if halfway through the teaching
process of who Jesus is, you bail out, saying, I don't know
if I believe that, then you haven't met Jesus. Are you guys hearing
what I'm saying? Let me give you an example. In
the book of Acts chapter 2, go there. I'll show you a couple
verses and then I'll just run through the six points of what
baptism signifies and we'll close. In Acts chapter 2, I want you
to hear how Peter enunciates this. For those of you who don't
have a Bible, just listen. In Acts chapter 2, here's what
Peter says. Now you know that Peter was one of the pillars
of the apostles and God had granted him to use the key to open up
the kingdom of God to the Gentiles in that Pentecost day. Remember
that? He preached Christ in Acts chapter
2 verse 38. Now listen to the language. I
want you to see this. Then Peter said unto them, Repent and be
baptized every one of you in the name of what? Jesus Christ. Do you see that? In the name
of Jesus Christ. Go to Acts chapter 8. Acts chapter
8. Listen to what it says in Acts
chapter 8 verse 13, verse 12. This is Philip preaching. But
when they had believed Philip preaching the things concerning
the kingdom of God, watch this, and the name of Jesus Christ,
they were baptized, both men and women. Do you see that? Go
to Acts chapter 9 one more time. Acts chapter 10, I'm sorry. Acts
chapter 10. This is Peter's account with Cornelius and the band.
Listen to what it says starting at verse 40. And I'm going to
go to verse 48. for they heard them speak with
tongues a magnified God then answered Peter can any man forbid
water that these should not be baptized which have received
the Holy Ghost as well as we now listen to the phrase and
he commanded them to be baptized in the name of the what then
prayed he they him to Terry now let me ask you the question are
we going to baptize him in the name of Jesus Christ Are we going to baptize them
in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ? Or are we going to baptize
them in the name of the Lord? Pick one. Pick one. Since we are stuck on superficial
nominations, are you hearing what I'm saying? In other words,
even the apostles who were guided by the Holy Ghost were not bound
to the strict terminology in Jesus' name. Sometimes it was Jesus Christ.
Sometimes it was the Lord Jesus Christ. Sometimes it was the
Lord. Are you hearing what I'm saying?
Do not fall prey to pagan mantra. The point is not establishing
a formula by which you properly baptize the people. The point
is making sure you preach the truth of the gospel and men and
women know the Lordship of Jesus Christ in the saving of their
souls so that when you do baptize them, whether you use the name
the Lord, the Lord Jesus the Lord Jesus Christ Jesus or God
the Father God the Son God the Holy Ghost which is what we use
here because Jesus said do it that way go with me to Matthew
chapter 28 verse 18-19 I want you to see this and then we'll
move on we're just about done Matthew 28 I want you to hear
what Jesus said and then we'll move forward Matthew 28 verses 18 through 20. You see,
what I have to do when I preach and teach is to explain and ward
off the errors that creep into our church. and bind people to
legalistic practices that have no premise in scripture. You
just have to do that. You just have to do that. Because
I know out of all these folks here, some of you have been told
that you can't be properly baptized unless you're baptized in Jesus'
name. How many of you have been told
that? Let me get a few here. All right, we got a few. Just a few.
Good. Some of you ain't never been told that. That's great.
If you haven't been told that, don't buy into it tomorrow. It's
not about a formula per se. It's about the revelation of
Jesus Christ according to the gospel. Did you guys get that?
But if I'm going to use the formula, when you hear us talk to the
folks who are going to be baptized, I'm hard-pressed to deny what
Jesus plainly said here in Matthew 28, 19. I'm hard-pressed. Why
would I reject this plain and straightforward commandment just
to justify a theological supposition on a part of a group called Jesus-only
folks, Oneness Pentecostals? Why would I neglect that? Are
you hearing what I'm saying? I wouldn't. And especially if
on the part of the Jesus-only group, they deny the reality
of the person of the Father. and of the Spirit, suggesting
as modalism teaches that Jesus is some type of transformer.
When he wants to, he'll transform into the Father, and then sometimes
into the Holy Ghost, and sometimes into Jesus. That's so contrary
to the Scriptures, I don't even consciousness. In the mystery
of the Godhead, the Bible is replete. There is God the Father. He spoke from heaven. there is
God the Son, He spoke back to His Father. And if John or James and Matthew
were guided by the Holy Ghost to write that the Father spoke
from heaven to the Son and the Son spoke from earth to the Father
in heaven, unless they are all in collusion to lie to us and
the Holy Ghost is called the Spirit of what? True. I must
deduce that there is a separate entity called the Father from
the Son and from the Holy Ghost, or else we have a psychosis going
on here, where we're dealing with multiple personality types
in one body. I don't believe that for a moment.
Now, I believe that John said, And the heavens opened, and I
heard a voice from heaven saying, This is my beloved Son, hear
ye Him. Said it three times in the Gospel.
Three times in the gospel. And when Jesus spoke to his Father,
Father! He wasn't deceiving his disciples,
was he? And the Holy Ghost is definitely
an entity all of himself. I will send the Comforter to
you. Now this is a mystery. How they
could be distinct in their persons and one in their essence. So
that when you have the Spirit, you have Christ and the Father.
And yet they're distinct in their persons, but it's made known
in the Scriptures, isn't it? So now listen to what Jesus said
and we'll begin to wrap this up. Jesus said in Matthew 28
verse 18, And Jesus came and spake unto the disciples and
said, All authority is given unto me in heaven and in earth. How much authority is given to
Jesus? All of it. That's why we use the name the
Lord Jesus. The name the Lord Jesus. Stop
in the name of the law. in the name of the Lord. That's
what we're saying, the authority of Christ, the rule of Christ,
the control of Christ, the power of Christ. Here's what he said,
because I have all authority, go ye therefore and do what? Teach. That's what I've done
for you for almost an hour. Isn't that the truth? For almost
an hour now, I've taught you that Christianity is not about
mantras and slogans and empty rituals. Have you guys heard
me today? It's not about mantras, slogans, and empty rituals. Therefore,
when you are baptized, you are baptized because you personally
have heard the gospel and the Spirit of God has done something
for you. Listen to it. Go ye into all
the world and teach all ethnos, all nations, all different people
groups like we have here today. I'm teaching you. I'm teaching
you again the gospel of the grace of God. Listen to it. Baptizing
them, do you see the phrase baptizing? Them in the name of the Father
and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost. There is your Trinitarian
formula. Teaching them to observe all
things whatsoever I have commanded you and lo, I am with you always,
even unto the end of the world. Let me say five things. Baptism. What is it? Baptism first and
foremost is a confession It's a confession You know what a
confession is a confession is when you come to learn the truth
about something and you admit it David said in Psalm 32 When the
Holy Ghost had convicted him of his sin of committing adultery
with Bathsheba He said in Psalm 32 around verse 6. I said I I
will confess my sins unto God. And he forgave the iniquity of
my sin. In verse 6 he says, And this
shall all the godly do in a time when God may be found. Will you
hear me? When you come to the waters of
baptism, you confess your sins. Are you hearing me? You confess
your sins. Why? Because God's taught you
that you're a sinner. He's taught you that you've broken His law.
He's taught you that you've transgressed His commandments. He's taught
you that your thoughts are evil and wicked, and that apart from
the grace of God in Christ, where are you going? My son was talking
to that young lady, and she was contemplating where those children
went when they died. She said, they were religious. Does that mean that they went
to heaven? And my son said, well, they would only go to heaven
if they believed on Jesus. She said, well, one of them was
Mormon, and she wasn't sure what the other one was. He says, well,
I don't know about them personally, but this is what I do know, that
unless they believed on the Lord Jesus Christ, they have gone
to hell. He says, now, I don't know where
they went, but I'm here to tell you what the Bible says. You
know what she said to him? She says, well, that means if
I die, I'm going to hell. My son said, that's what that
means. I said, Nate, what did she do?
She said, she listened. I said, son, let's pray for her.
Pray that the Holy Ghost is dealing with that 17-year-old girl about
eternal matters of which He made us. He made us to think about
eternity. He made us to think about life
after death. He made us to think about God.
He made us to think about heaven and hell. It's in your heart.
Only reason you don't believe it is because you get taught
differently. Until God shows up in your life. Until God shows
up in your life. We confess Christ as Savior from
our sins when we're baptized. Matthew chapter 3 verse 6, don't
go there. And John was baptizing in the river Jordan. And they
all came to John confessing their sins, being baptized of him. It's a confession. The next thing
that baptism is, it's in your outline. a response of the conscience
1st Peter chapter 3 verse 18 through 21 Peter says the life
figure were unto baptized baptism doth also also save us now not
the putting away of the filth of the flesh those of you who
are about to be baptized you ain't gonna be any cleaner when
you get out the water than you did when you got in if you're
dirty now you're gonna be dirty when you get out I hope you took
a bath I'm messing with you. The water doesn't make you holy.
That which is of the flesh is of the flesh. It's the spirit
that gives life. What Peter said is when you hear
the gospel like some of you heard it today, your conscience says
yes to Jesus. Your heart says yes, Christ died
for my sins. Your soul says yes, when he rose
again he justified me. Your spirit says, yes, because
he's at the right hand of God, I must at last stand before God
clothed in his righteousness, as our elder said this morning,
or else God's a failure. The peace that comes to your
conscience when you come to know the gospel is amazing, isn't
it? You get in this water, therefore,
as a response to the testimony that Jesus was your surety. He
was your substitute. He took your place. He died in
your stead. It is no possible way for me
ever to have to face the wrath of God again. Not only did the
Father justify me through the Son, but the Holy Ghost justified
me in the Son. What do you mean? The Holy Spirit
is the one who tells you you are justified. He that believeth
on the Son of God hath the witness in himself. The goal of the Spirit
of God is to say to your heart, you're free to go. You're free
to go. That's why you get in that water.
A third thing, too. Listen to it. A third thing.
Baptism is a testimony of the death, burial, and resurrection
of Jesus, isn't it? This is the reason we don't sprinkle
and this is the reason we don't pour. We baptize. There are a
lot of you who are about to see people taken, put under the water,
and if y'all act right, we'll let you back up. Especially you,
Dana. I'm messing with you. When they
go down in the water, they die. When they come up out of the
water, it's a testimony of them having been raised from the dead
by the power of God. They're new creatures in Christ.
Well, I don't know about that pastor. If you knew him like
I knew him, I do know him. They're safe sinners. God has touched their life. They're
not perfect in themselves, but they're perfect in Christ. And
I'll tell you what, they have something that you might not
have. You know what that is? An assurance of faith. And that's why they're getting
in the water. Because they believe the gospel. See, faith is a gift
from God. Faith is a gift. Spirit of God,
give somebody else faith today. Right now. Give them faith in
Christ. Cause them to believe the gospel
right now, so they can know what I'm talking about. I'll show
you something else. Not only does it teach us of
the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ, but it's a picture
of the sinner's union with Christ. When we put that sinner down
into the water, they have gone into the death of Christ. You
know what that means? When we preach Christ crucified,
that man that hung on Calvary Street, The redeemed sinner sees
himself on that cross with Jesus. Isn't that right? Paul says,
I have been crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live. Yet not
I, but Christ liveth in me. He loved me and he gave himself
for me. And so what the believer is declaring
is that when Christ died, he died. When Christ was buried,
he was buried. When Christ rose again, he rose
again, too. That's what you're about to see.
There is one more thing, or two more things. Here's the fifth
one. Promise of eternal perfection. Paul said in 1 Corinthians chapter
15, verse 59, the reason why we baptize, and for those of
you who are men, get the men's meeting. Last night I talked
about this very important thing. In this one, you can let your
wives listen to it. Anyhow, baptism for the Christian declares that
we're waiting for the resurrection on the last day. See, we believe
in the resurrection. Don't we believe in the resurrection?
When we put our brothers and sisters in the grave, and we
preach the gospel at their funeral. We declare that the trump shall
sound and the dead in Christ shall rise first and then we
all shall be caught up together in the air in the twinkling of
an eye. We shall be transformed. We shall be made like unto Jesus
in his spiritual glorified body and so shall we ever be with
the Lord. We believe in the resurrection, don't we? We believe that the
hour is coming when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son
of God and they that come forth shall come forth either to the
resurrection of the just are the resurrection of damnation.
Everybody's going to experience the resurrection. But not everybody's
going to glory. But we believe in the resurrection.
That's why we declare the Christians that you bury and not cremate. Did you guys hear what I just
said? You bury and not cremate. Why pastor? Because you are not
your own. You've been bought with a price.
The precious blood of Jesus Christ. Therefore glorify God in your
bodies which are his. And when we bury people, we want
the living to see that our hope is in the resurrection. We don't
believe in burning up nothing. Burning up is for the other folk.
It ain't for us who believe the gospel. Did you hear what I just
said? Trying to help you now. Don't
be trying to save a few dollars by burning your mama up, burning
your dad. Listen how wicked that is. That's
not biblical. It's not Christian. It's not Christian. You don't
have anything in the Bible that says we can bury our folk any
kind of way we want to. Life is from God and death is
from God too. Did you know that? If God gave
you life and you live for his glory, you die the way God wants
you to die. Now, if you are a Christian,
don't you know that some of your kinfolk ain't gonna ever darken
the doors of a church until you're dead and in the casket? Don't
you at least want the gospel preached that one time? Are you
hearing what I'm saying? Let them all come in from North
Carolina, South Carolina, Idaho, Canada. Come in, we're gonna
do a memorial and then raise up somebody that's ready to preach
the truth as it is in Christ so they can hear the gospel one
last time before we put you in the ground. Am I making some
sense? Am I making some sense? All right,
one more thing. This one here is gonna touch
some of you and it needs to. I don't know how we can profess to be
believers in Christ and not be baptized. I don't know how you
can do it. Well, I believe the gospel, but
I don't want to be baptized. That's a contradiction in turn.
Do you know that? I'm just going to put it out
there to you. I don't know how you can believe the gospel. You
know, I'm going to believe the gospel about faith, but I'm not going
to be baptized. Man, you got a whole lot of authority
over yourself. When Jesus commanded baptism, and everywhere you read in the
book of Acts, anytime they heard the gospel in power, guess what
they did? The first act of obedience is baptism. So you, who think you have the
prerogative to hang out, You better ask yourself, do you really
recognize Christ as your Lord? I know in this consumer age we
kind of pick and choose what we want to do, but I'm here to
tell you as long as you are under the truth of the gospel and you
are saying to people you are a believer but you haven't been
baptized, you are living in rebellion. Did you hear me? Rebellion. Amen. We're going to sing our
last song. We're going to have the Lord's
table, uh, Lord's table, the offering. And then we're going
to go through our service.