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Go to mark chapter number one go to mark chapter one so in mark chapter 16 It said he that believeth and is baptized shall be saved But you know earlier in the book of mark it also brings up what you have to do to be saved Now let's see if it brings up baptism in the early part of mark mark chapter 1 verse 15 and Saying the time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God is at hand repent ye and believe the gospel So what was Christ going around trying to get people to do believe the gospel? He didn't bring up baptism though did he? He wasn't saying you have to do this in order to get saved Go to Romans chapter 10 for a moment go to Romans chapter number 10 And I'm kind of dancing around a little bit, but I want to show you a few different verses here So before we discover what the real purpose of baptism is I want to make it clear though baptism does not save Okay, because that's what a lot of people will teach this is what a lot of people emphasize believe I've met Baptist at the door I've met other denominations at the door that say you have to be baptized to be saved and The Bible makes it clear that the only thing you have to do to be saved is believing the gospel Now obviously getting baptized isn't gonna change if you're saved or not isn't gonna stop you from being saved or If you believe but don't get baptized you're not gonna not get to heaven so baptism while it's very important has no Impact on whether or not you're saved But if you believe that baptism is necessary for salvation That's actually a problem when you start trying to say that baptism is necessary to be saved Or you believe you have to be baptized to be saved That's where you start changing the gospel message you start adding some kind of a work to Salvation and now no longer are you believing the right gospel now what it says in Matthew chat or sorry Romans chapter 10 verse 16 But Have they not obeyed the gospel for Isaiah saith Lord who hath believed our report now? I bring up this verse for this reason the people that add Baptism as a necessary requirement to salvation they never stop there, okay The people that really believe this heavily are the Church of Christ, okay? And there's other people that believe this but a Church of Christ will teach you have to be baptized to be saved But they never stop there, and then they bring up all these other verses about stuff like well You got to obey the gospel You know and they'll say you got to be faithful under the gospel and the Bible does say you have to obey the gospel But you know what it defines what obedience to the gospel actually looks like what did it say it said who have believed our report? So notice what obedience to the the gospel is believing it That's why I said the next verse so then faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the Word of God So you hear the gospel and then what's obeying the gospel believing the gospel Putting your faith in your trust in the gospel. It has nothing to do with then getting baptized It has nothing to do with then being faithful for the rest of your life No obeying the gospel is strictly believing on the Lord Jesus Christ. That's why it also says in verse 9 That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus and shalt believe in thine art that God hath raised him from the dead Thou shalt be saved now where in this verse did it say get baptized Where did it say here go to church? Where did it say here be a good person? Where did it say here a pen of all your sins? It didn't say any of that because none of that's necessary for salvation So we must believe all the verses of the Bible not just the ones that fit our doctrine You know someone that believes baptisms necessary for salvation. Yeah, they could look at mark 16 16, but then how do they believe this verse? You know what they'll say they'll say well you have to take the whole of Scripture brother and it's like I am But my doctrine believes all verses your doctrine rejects 99% of verses about salvation That's why it's a dangerous heresy and it says very clearly in verse 13 brucer She'll call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. It didn't say whosoever gets baptized whosoever comes up out of the water because that would be Unfortunate for a lot of people the thief on the cross. I mean, how is it gonna get baptized? And it's funny because you bring that up and like oh, well, that's an exception You bring that up to Church of Christ. They're like, well, he would have gotten baptized, you know, it's like That I mean, well then is it really necessary if he didn't have to and he still got to heaven then And again, it's like well, we believe it's really important. Okay, so do we I Think everybody should get baptized. Hey, and if there was a way to get that guy baptized on the cross You know, I was hanging there do it But if not, you know You don't have to and again it's it's weird because when you bring up the fact that you don't have to people are like Oh, you're really de-emphasizing baptism Look the name of our church is called steadfast Baptist Church. I'm not really de-emphasizing it Okay But I am putting in its proper role in his proper place the fact that has nothing to do with being saved go to Acts Chapter 2 and we'll see another verse that people bring up Now Acts chapter number 2 you can look at it a few different ways But I think the easiest way to look at it is just like Mark 16 16 Whereas Mark 16 16 is saying hey if you believe and your baptized are saved But did you have to get baptized? No, he's just bringing up another thing So in Acts chapter number 2 when Peter is talking to Jews and He's trying to get them to actually believe in the Christ that they just crucified They asked him this question. Like what shall we do? And you have to think about it again. Was that question in reference to just going to heaven or just like What should we do and Peter is gonna bring up all the things that they should do. Okay, it says in verse 38 then Peter said to them repent and Be baptized everyone even the name of Jesus Christ for mission of sins and you should receive the gift of the Holy Ghost now I'll say this you don't have to be baptized in order to receive the gift of the Holy Ghost But you do have to repent now. What was that repentance that repentance is the fact that they crucified Jesus now They actually have to believe in him now how to put their trust in him because the repentance here is in reference to changing their mind about who Christ was and Deciding to put all their faith in that death-grown resurrection as their means of salvation But again, if someone came up to me and they're like, hey pastor Shelley, what should I do? I'm like, well, let's get saved and then we'll baptize you That makes it that makes logical sense. I mean if someone came to church and said hey, hey brother Dylan What should I do and he's like you should you should get saved and you should get baptized and he could say you should repent And you could you should get baptized and then you know what? Let's go so winning and then someone will accuse me you believe that people have to go so wanting to be saved You say that's silly. I had literally had someone tell me that Because they're just not you know Taking the whole of what I say, right? Because again, I don't believe you have to be baptized or so when you say all you have to do is trust Christ And again Peter believes the same thing look at verse 21 in the same chapter and it shall come to pass That whosoever call upon the ocean call in the name of the Lord shall be saved Does that sound like a different gospel than what we read in Romans chapter number 10 or the exact same Again, it's the exact same but when they bring up this question, they didn't say sirs. What must they do to be saved? They didn't say what's necessary to have eternal life. They didn't say what's the only requirement to go to heaven? They said hey, what should we do? You know what what now we've killed Jesus. What do we do now? You know and it's like we'll repent and they get baptized and receive the holy gift I mean if you go to Acts chapter number 10 You see a group of Gentiles believe on Christ start speaking in tongues and then they're like, well now we should baptize these guys Illustrating the fact you don't even have to be baptized to receive the gift of the Holy Spirit Once you receive the gift of the Holy Spirit, you're going to heaven I don't care if you get baptized or not. You've been sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise You're on your way to heaven the Bible makes clear you have everlasting life. There's no way to lose that Go to Acts chapter 13. I'll show you verse here acts chapter number 13. The Bible is clear that salvation is by faith alone now Should you get baptized? Yes, you should Do you want every person saved you get baptized? Yes, I do But if every person I got saved or preached the gospel to never got baptized I will still see all of them in heaven Even If they were sprinkled, you know sprinkling can't take away your salvation, okay It's just getting wet, you know, someone throws a water balloon hits you in the face. It wasn't baptism. Okay? Hopefully it was wet and not a you know frozen acts chapter 13 Look at verse 38 be it known unto you therefore men and brethren that through this man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins So he's gonna bring up the forgiveness of sins Which is necessary for salvation verse 39 and by him all that believe are Justified from all things from which he could not be justified by the law of Moses So now as he's saying if you believe you're justified from everything What else could be necessary then? You don't need anything else It was just you believe now you're justified from everything and he says specifically how you could not be justified by the law of Moses Meaning what no matter how much works you try to add. It's not gonna help It's not gonna benefit and if you believe though in works, you're not gonna be saved Now I alluded to this I'm gonna bring up a specific example because I you can go to a lot of different Church of Christ websites and you'll find what they believe about salvation and Unfortunately people say oh they just add baptism. But here's the thing every time I look it up They add a lot more than just baptism Because as soon as you add one work Usually just unload the truck and add them all I mean, it's just like in Acts chapter 15 when they bring up circumcision, but then they come back and they're like Oh, yeah, and you have to keep the rest of law, too Because you never just have somebody say it's just like faith in one work It's always faith in all the works or all all the commandments or being perfect or faithful to the end or some nonsense like that And the Church of Christ are no different Now what you have to understand about Church of Christ is they're kind of like independent vinyl Baptist in The sense that they have a little bit of autonomy and they all vary a little bit and what they believe and how they operate But a common denominator is baptism necessary for salvation and then beyond that a lot more Now if you go to their steps of salvation, I went to this a particular Church of Christ steps of salvation They had six a lot of them have seven just depends on which one you're looking up But this is what they say number one. You have to hear the gospel You have to hear the Word of God now I agree with that you do have to hear the word because faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God They say number two to be saved. You have to have belief or faith in the gospel. I agree again Third you have to repent or have repentance now depending on you to define repentance I agree the repentance that was brought in Acts chapter number two Amen, if what you mean by repent is stop trusting your works or in a false religion and believe in the gospel That's exactly what repentance means for salvation, but that's not what they mean Let me give you a quote from their article Unfortunately, and this is talking about someone that gets baptized without repenting of their sins Says unfortunately such a person goes down into the water as a dry center and comes up a wet one There is no deep lasting heart rendering Rending life-changing response from the heart Brings up a lot of the heart Heart rendering response from the heart, you know This sounds like Bo Ballard's type of salvation here But he's saying look here's the thing if you believed in Christ You are dead and you you basically died to sin at that moment anyways So you didn't go down a center to come back up a center, you know what and your new man You were already born again. So you you were a new man and he went down and you came back up a new man Okay, and it's silly To say well, I was a sinner all my life and then I got baptized and now I don't sin anymore Because isn't that what that would be implying? Hey, you went down to draw Center, but you came up a wet one. That's a problem. Look no one comes up Not a sinner anymore At least in their flash and their old man. I mean what person could get up and say, you know what? I don't lie anymore. That's a lie To say I've never had a foolish thought I've never looked upon someone with lusts. I've never been covetous I've never you know, and again we're talking about minor things How about major things people still steal and cheat and lie and commit fornication do drugs and drink alcohol I mean the list goes on and on and on and on. I believe everybody sins every day Unless you're unconscious or something, but even then you probably had a bad dream, you know, I don't know I mean, it's so foolish to get up and say why repented of my sins brother. No, you didn't You just added arrogance and pride to the list of your sins is all you did and foolishness You know, there's no person that gave up all their sin now. Look we should try, you know, if you're drinking alcohol give it up Hey if you're committing fornication stop. Hey, if you're doing wicked things or evil things stop doing it But at the end of the day, you're never gonna repent of all your sins. You're never gonna be perfect You're never gonna have that, you know work in your heart. We're no longer you want to sin or something ridiculous like that That's why we have to believe in Christ. That's no point That you can't get there for all of sin and come short of the glory of God We have to put our trust in Jesus Christ. That's what really saves us now go through a dilute chapter 3 I want to show you a few verses here on repentance because they're bringing up repentance as a necessary requirement to Salvation they're saying you got to hear you got to believe you got to repent but when they say repent The Church of Christ doesn't mean change your mind and believe the gospel what they're saying is, you know Give up your sin or feel really bad about your sin and some people they try to like play both sides They'll say well, you don't have to give up all your sins to be saved But you do have to feel really grieved in your heart brother I mean, there's got to be this just deep just burning in your heart where you just feel so bad I'm just I committed so many sins brother And I just don't deserve that heaven and that's how I know I got saved You see I feel so bad about it. Look, I don't care if you're deadpan when you get saved You don't have to sit there and have this emotional experience. It's not a country music song when you get saved You know It's putting your faith in Christ No matter how bad you feel about it. I mean Esau felt really bad about it But then God didn't you know, give him his repentance, you know Judas felt so bad about it. He killed himself Yet he still went to hell. I Mean plenty of people feel really bad about their sin Pharaoh felt really bad about it when his son died You know, it's not about how bad you feel And some people have this weird idea they think that wicked people can't feel bad But wicked people feel bad about their sin all the time That's another punishment. It's just feeling like a piece of crap for doing all the sins that you do I mean Pharaoh felt horrible. He's like, you know, you know Lord's righteous. I and my servants are wicked is what he said He realizes that he was evil. He realizes that he was a bad guy You know when I run out to people so winning I ran into other people and they're really sinful. They'll say it They'll say like well, I don't deserve that because I'm really sinful You know, I've been to jail and I've done all these wicked things or whatever, you know It's it's not like the wicked don't know that they're wicked or something or they can't feel bad about their sin Sometimes they do a lot of times they feel bad. I mean even Jeffrey Dahmer the guy that was just like one of the worst Psychopaths ever. I mean when he's in jail and he's on death row and all that kind of stuff He's saying all kinds of stuff about how bad he feels about what he did and you know what he did he became Church of Christ and People say oh look, there's a picture of a reprobate getting saved and it's like sorry he didn't And you know what? He felt really bad about his sin He was he was really apologetic. He believed that Jesus, you know was the Lord, but you know what? He never got saved because he didn't trust Christ as a Savior alone He believed in his baptism and turning over new leaf. And in fact, he wanted to die If when he got interviewed he said, please kill me because if you let me out I will continue to do this And you know what he was a raging sodomite who went around killing other sodomites and Eating them and all kinds of weird nonsense or whatever and he says even though I feel really bad about it And now I've turned to Christ or whatever. He says you let me out. I'll still do it You say why cuz he's a reprobate because he's implacable Okay being a sodomite and it's not that he didn't feel bad about it he did but you know what he's burning in hell Because he didn't believe the right gospel. He didn't have the true baptism of repentance Look what it says in Luke chapter 3 verse 3 and he came in all the country about Jordan preaching the baptism of repentance For the remission of sins and this is talking about John the Baptist. He was preaching the baptism of repentance now go to Acts chapter 19 Let me prove you what this means actually But if you go back to the beginning of my sermon if you think about what I said Baptism doesn't have to be just water. It could be dirt. It could be fire Or it could be repentance as the Bible describes now won't be fully immersed in repentance Well in the context of salvation for the remission of sins because that's what John the Baptist was preaching about That repentance has to be a what? Stop trusting in anything other than Christ Turn from that and believing only in Christ This is also why it's important when you're talking to a Catholic or to any person that's Christian so-called and they say well I believe in Christ and works so I'm safe because I believe in both wrong. You must have a baptism of repentance You must reject all of the dead works you must reject everything else that you're trusting in and have a full immersion and believing it's only in Christ a full turning away from everything else and Only unto Jesus Christ and believing in him alone for salvation You can't just you can't be believing in yourself or your catechism or your Pope or your other religion No, I have to have a full repentance a full baptism as it were not a sprinkling of it But a full turn and believing only in Christ and you say well, how is that what that means? Well, let's let the Bible define it for us act chapter 19 verse 4 Then said Paul John verily baptized with the baptism repentance saying unto the people that they should believe on him Which had come after him that is on Christ Jesus. So notice what he said you had to do believe on Jesus Christ That's what baptism repentance even means so properly defined. I agree with repentance The problem with the Church of Christ is they say repentance is turning from your sin giving up your sin, which is impossible No one could ever do that Go if you had to Luke, you know go if you would to Romans 5, you know, there's another Baptism that the Bible refers to Luke chapter 12 verse 49. I'll read for you Jesus speaking I am come to send fire on the earth and what will I if it be already kindled? But I have a baptism to be baptized with and how am I straightened till it be accomplished? So Jesus said he had a baptism be baptized with but what was that baptism? It was his burial That's what he was referring to so Jesus Christ was buried in Well dirt quote-unquote, but it's really in the tomb in the cave Okay as it were in the rock tomb But that's where he was fully immersed where he was fully surrounded where he was baptized He was baptized in death his soul descended into hell, but after three days and three nights it rose again And so again baptism is a full immersion. It's a full submerging and It's not a turning from your sin that gets you saved It's a full trust in Christ But the people that add baptism they say you have to hear the gospel you have to believe you have to repent then number four They say I have to confess Now I believe confession is part of believing. Okay. In fact, that's how I describe it I'll tell people this is how you believe call upon the name of the Lord and that's what Romans chapter 9 or Romans chapter 10 Verse 9 even said that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, why would it bring that up if? you don't need to confess and Really, how do you separate the person that's gone from understanding the gospel to believing Because some people can understand the gospel and reject it Some people can understand the gospel and decide not to believe in it So, how do I separate two guys both have understood it fully? From the guy that believed in the guy that didn't the one that confessed it and the one that didn't by thy word Shalt thou be justified and by thy word shalt thou be condemned. Okay, and even if that you know confession is only from the heart Okay, but you might as well use your mouth, you know out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speak It's what the Bible teaches. Okay, obviously you could pray silently. You wouldn't have to necessarily Open your mouth, but why not? Just like whenever I say hey when we go out So any whose server believes and calls upon the name of the Lord publicly is gonna be saved But it's like well you have to call upon the name of our publicly you do have to call upon the name of the Lord You know, it doesn't have to be in front of me per se It doesn't you know, you could be privately in your room, you know There's plenty of people that pray in the Bible and they don't even open their lips They don't even make their mouth move and God hears their prayer Okay, so I'm not saying that God can't hear a prayer from the heart But what I am saying is this that confession is a part of believing Okay, but it's not a different it's not a next it's an extra step that just how you believe Five according to the Church of Christ is baptism And You say okay. Well, they're just adding one thing. They're just adding baptism. How's that harmless? No, because here's what they say at the end of this of the article. They have a sixth point Here's their sixth point on how to be saved be faithful unto death. Oh That's intense I guess Demas didn't get saved in did he? Cuz he forsook him and well, so again, it's like they don't just add a little bit. That's the most hardcore extreme Version of work salvation I've ever even heard Because imagine you were like a faithful Christian your whole life But then you just chickened out of the last moment Like you didn't want to be faithful unto death or something and then you go to hell. It's like what in the world? But can obviously we should be faithful unto that. Hey, we should confess Christ and we should follow his commandments We should do all these things on a regular basis on a daily basis But the Bible makes it clear that the salvation is so free. Even if you denied him you would still go to heaven Even if I looked at the Antichrist and I said no, I don't know him But I had already believed in the past. I would still go to heaven Because you know, it's just a free gift that you can't lose now I'm not saying you should do that. You should tell the Antichrist to go back to hell But you know the whole point of baptism, you know makes it clear that salvation has to be a simple one-time event Anyways, because baptism is a one-time event What it makes sense all these people that were baptized went to hell It's like now you don't even believe mark 16 16 Because if you're saying you have to now be faithful unto death or you say that salvation is not a moment in time If you think about it, right then you're saying people that believed and got baptized then went to hell You don't even believe mark 16 16 now But we actually do believe that salvation is a moment of time. It's the new birth It's once you believe now is the day of salvation. It didn't say now is the lifetime of salvation Because it's not a lifestyle. It's not a lifetime. It's a moment in time that you believe and you're saved They say well, what's the point then if it's not to be saved? Why would I ever get baptized? Well, it's very clearly articulated in Romans 5 and 6 Romans chapter 5 look at verse 19 for us by one man's disobedience many were made sinners so By the obedience of one shall many be made righteous notice It's the obedience of Christ that saves us not ours verse 20 moreover the law entered that the offense might abound But where sin abounded grace did much more bound that is sin at the reign of the death Even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord. So it's saying no matter what sin you commit Grace will cover it God's grace is bigger than your sin. That's why I said God's grace is greater than our sin. Why would we sing that song? Well, first of all straight from the Bible Second of all, it means no matter what sin you commit God's grace will cover it now obviously What's the logical question after hearing that I don't know verse 1 of chapter 6 what shall we say then shall we continue in sin that grace may abound Saying well if God's grace will cover no matter what sin I do pastor Shelley Then why should I not just sin as much as possible because I just want his grace to you know, really be magnified You know, some of you really magnify the grace of God in your lives But the question is should you do that? Well, what does it say God forbid? Obviously, we're not supposed to sin that's foolish and it's silly you'll teach people Hey, no matter what sin you commit God's grace will cover it. They're like, oh you're teaching people to sin. No, I'm not I'm just teaching you how great God's grace is But that doesn't mean do it. That doesn't mean sin God forbid. How shall we that are dead to sin live any longer? They're in no you not that so many of us as were baptized in Jesus Christ were baptized into his death Therefore we are buried with them 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. Now. I'll say this the moment you believe I Believe from a spiritual perspective You have been baptized into his death in that moment the moment you believe you're baptized into his death Okay, because you're already dead in trespasses and sins. It's already the spiritual operations already been performed Well, then why do baptism well baptism is an outward sign of what happened on the inside It's outwardly picturing the fact that you trusted Christ that you're believing his death-bearing resurrection as the payment for salvation it pictures the fact that you believe that one day you will be risen again and Thirdly and most importantly that you want to walk a newness of life that you no longer want to be the old Jonathan the old version of yourself the old man But now you want to walk in a new way You don't want to be the same simple person that you've been your entire life. You want to now make a change