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Of course, this being a big day for baptisms. I thought it'd be appropriate to preach on the subject now I know I've preached on this particular subject about a month or two ago and I remember preaching at a time thinking you know a lot of the people that That needed to hear it weren't there, so I thought you know especially with a lot of the little kids here It's important that they understand what baptism is and I'm sure they already have an understanding of that But let's go ahead and drive that home a little bit And you know we should it's really one of the most basic simpler doctrines in the Bible. It's not a very deep subject It's not anything that really takes a lot of explaining Really when you deal with it. It's something that you kind of have to dispel a few Misunderstandings about baptism really that you have yet to do more of that really than explaining What baptism is more about explaining what it is what it isn't and? So we'll just go kind of quick through this morning and get to the baptisms But I didn't want to touch on this subject because it is important I mean after all we're Baptist right, so you know it's kind of what we're about It's one of our you know distinctives is the fact that we believe in a believer's baptism by immersion But one of the first things I want us to notice There in Matthew 28 is that baptism is not and it's not optional I mean it is but in the sense that you don't have to do it in order to be saved You don't have to do it in order to go to heaven You don't have to do it to be a member of the church You know you could go your whole life without getting baptized But it is a command that God gave us not only to be baptized But to baptize others and if you look there in Matthew 28 verse 19 Jesus giving the Great Commission says go ye therefore and teach all nations baptizing them in the name of the Father And the Son of the Holy Ghost we see first of all that If Jesus is commanding others to baptize that only stands to reason that he's committing other people to be baptized So it's it's it's a it's not optional in the sense that if you want to obey the commandments of God If you want to be pleasing unto the Lord There is a time and place for you to be baptized and we're going to talk a little bit more about that You know just to kind of drive this point hold a little further you can stay go ahead and turn over to Matthew chapter 21 Matthew chapter 21 But baptism is a command it says in John 1 and I knew him not but he that sent me to baptize with water So John the Baptist even he was sent to baptize that was what he was given to do that was part of the Commission that was given to him to go out and to baptize the multitudes So he didn't see that baptism off the scripture is something that's commanded in the part of the one who was doing the baptizing He looked at Matthew chapter 21. We'll see more of this It says the baptism of John whence was it? Of course? Asking the Jews asking the Pharisees kind of you know Trying to catch them in their words as they often try to do to him and saying to them You know, where was the from whence was the baptism of John? You know, where did it come from? Was it a command of men or was it from heaven from heaven or if men as it says there? And the reason when they themselves saying if we say from heaven he will say to this why then do you not believe him? So they didn't want to answer correctly The correct answer is as we saw as I read from John 1 is that it was from heaven that John the Baptist was Commanded by God from heaven to go out and baptize. So baptism is a command So in that sense, it's something that's not optional something that we need to do If we are going to be obedient unto the Lord, we need to be baptized Not only that but it's also the example of that Jesus Christ said so whenever we see Jesus doing something You know, we should probably take note of it and he is the one that we are supposed to walk after and follow and Try our best to be like him in every way and Jesus himself was Was baptized and if you would go over to Matthew chapter 3 and we'll take a look at his baptism Matthew chapter 3 I'll begin reading in verse 13 The Bible says then come with Jesus from Galilee to Jordan unto John to be baptized of him and now is the whole purpose You Know Jesus made it a point to be baptized if you notice it says there he cometh from Galilee to Jordan unto John You know, it wasn't just stopping by to say hi He just wasn't checking in on things and while he was there figured he'd get baptized That was the whole purpose of him going there. He was going there to be baptized It didn't happen by chance, you know something that he purposed to do And really that's the way it's gonna be for us if we're going to obey this command to be baptized We're going to have to pick a date. We're gonna have to pick a time We're gonna have to pick a place that we're going to do it We're going to say this is the you know, I'm gonna not I'm not gonna make any more excuses I'm not gonna put this off any further I'm not gonna let anything get in the way of being baptized. I'm gonna go and do it That's right Now you'll do that when you realize and understand that it is something that you need to do that It is something that God expects of us as his children It's one of the first things that we do is we'll see here later in a few of the other scriptures Immediately after salvation is a good time to do it that we should be baptized after salvation You see the command to be baptized is for saved people It's not for people to get saved go ahead turn up Acts chapter 10 Acts chapter 10 So we see that first of all baptism is a command It's something that we're supposed to be doing as believers and that it's the example of Jesus Christ set he picked a place He picked a person he picked a time. He went there for the express purpose of being baptized Okay Not only that but we also see here that the command to be baptized is for saved people It's important to make this point because a lot of people teach today that in order for you to be saved You have to be that they'll say you can't you know that that baptism somehow is a part of salvation They'll say things like you know an example will be the Roman Catholic Church or even the Greek Orthodox Church Even some Lutheran churches, you know, they'll teach that you have to be baptized. They don't even baptized correctly You know, they'll baptized by sprinkling. I know the Greek Orthodox dunks, but they know infants which is another false doctrine You know, you can't an infant can't get saved. They don't know any better, right? You know We baptized people who are old enough to have come to the place of their knowledge and understanding for salvation who have received Christ by faith You know their own will that's who we baptized, you know, whether that's a child or an adult that doesn't matter But we know one thing is that an infant can't discern between right and wrong They can't make that decision and call upon the Lord for faith So it doesn't make any sense to baptize it and not only that the way they baptized, right? They'll do a lot. They'll take the ladle a lot of times. I don't know I never I was never part of the Catholic Church I don't know a lot about it My wife was you know, and it's a pretty common knowledge that they sprinkle or they use the ladle or the little cup I don't know what what it is. But the point is is that they're not immersing people. They're not putting them all the way under Which we'll see here in a minute. That's the way today to baptize somebody So we have to understand that this command to be baptized is for saved people. It's not for the lost It's not in order to be saved. It's something that you do because you are saved it says here in Acts chapter 10 beginning of verse 1 and there was a certain man in Caesarea called Cornelius a Centurion of the band Called the Italian band a devout man and one that feared God with all his house which gave much all the people and prayed to God always He saw in a vision evidently about the ninth hour of the day an angel of God coming into him and Saying unto him Cornelius and when he looked at him he was afraid and said what is it Lord? And he said unto him thy prayers and I'd almost are come up for memorial before God And now send men to Joppa and call for one Simon whose surname is Peter He lodges with one Simon a tanner whose house is by the seaside He shall tell thee what thou ought to do. Of course We know the right if we know that are familiar the story then sends those three men Peters up on the roof. God gives him the vision the blanket coming down with all manner of unclean meat beasts He tells him to rise kill and eat. He does that three times and it's a it's a symbol of and he says You know Peter refuses and says no unclean a thing that's coming to my mouth He says if God tells him that which I call clean call that not that one clean What that was was a picture that God was going into the Gentiles and that's when those three Gentile men the Italians here Show up at his gate and ask for Simon and he goes to back to Cornelius his house and talks to him and it says there in verse 34 Then Peter opened his mouth and said of a truth I perceive that God is no respecter of persons But in every nation that he that feareth him and worketh righteousness is accepted accepted by him The word which God sent of the children of Israel preaching peace by Jesus Christ. He is the Lord of all that word I say, you know, which was published throughout all Judea and began from Galilee after the baptism Which John preached how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power Who went about doing good and healing all that were oppressed of the devil for God was with him And we are witnesses of all these things which he did it did both the land of the Jews and in Jerusalem Whom they slew and hang out a dream him God raised up the third day and showed him openly now to all the people but not to all the people but unto Witnesses chosen before of God even to us who did eat and drink with him after he arose from the dead Then and he commanded us to preach unto the people and to testify That it is he which was ordained of God to be the judge of quick and a dead To give all the prophets to him to all the prophets witness that through his name Whosoever believeth in him shall receive remission of sins while Peter yet spake these words the Holy Ghost fell on them which heard the word and They of the circumcision which believed were astonished as many as came with Peter because that on the Gentiles Also was poured out the gift of the Holy Ghost For they heard him them speak with other tongues and magnify God then answered Peter For who can any man forbid water that these should not be baptized which have received the Holy Ghost as well as me And he commanded them to be baptized in the name of the Lord then prayed to him to Terry certain day So one thing again to point out there is the last verse that he commanded them to be baptized. It's adjusted You know, you might want to think about this. He said don't you need to be baptized? But more than that we see here that baptism again is for people who are saved if you were noticed while I was reading that Peter pretty much preaches the gospel. I mean, that's what he did sir He preaches the gospel these people get saved and then they get baptized if you notice first of all, he says there in verse 36 He says the Lord the word was God sent on the children of Israel preaching to peace by Jesus Christ He is Lord of all isn't that one of the first things we tell people when we're when we get into the gospel with them We say, you know, Jesus Christ was God that he was born the flesh But he was born a virgin that he's coming to flesh. God was manifest in the flesh So when we're preaching the gospel, at least we should be explaining to people that Jesus Christ is God That's what Peter's doing here. Yeah, he goes on and says in verses 38 through 40 He preaches the death burial resurrection, but he says how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power What about doing good and healing all the repressed of the devil for God was with him And we were witness of these things which he did both in the land of Jews in Jerusalem Whom they slew and hanged on a tree. So there's your death And his burial whom God raised up the third day and showed him openly So again, it preaches them that Jesus Christ is God then he preaches them the death burial resurrection of Jesus Christ And in verse 43, he preaches them that the only thing they have to do is just believe that salvation is by grace through faith Look there in verse 40 To him give all the prophets witness that through his name whosoever believeth in him shall receive remission of sins Now it's important to take note of that verse It's gonna come up later that the one thing to reach you need to do in order to receive the remission of sins is what? It's to believe that's it. He didn't leave anything out You know, he said the one thing you need to do is just believe that's the same thing We preach when we go out So winning telling people about the gospel the good news of Jesus Christ that the only thing you need to do in order to be Saved is to simply believe of Christ to put your trust in him Then of course verses 45 to 46 and you can see that these people get saved The Holy Ghost comes upon them and they speak with other tongues, which is a sign that was given to certain people You know, it's only those that were saved was a very it was one that was normally reserved for just the apostles But this is one of those gifts as we talked about Thursday night when we went through the book of Matthew About how he would there were certain the certain signs of an apostle Well, this is one sign that was given not to just the apostles but also to the early church And that's what we see taking place here But what happens after they could say what happens after they hear the preaching of the death burial resurrection of Jesus Christ? What happens after they hear that salvation is by grace through faith? What is it after that happens after they believe is that's when they get baptized not before not during it's not part of the equation for salvation It's something that takes place after somebody gets saved We see that there in verses 47 4 through 48 where he says can any man forbid water that these should be not be baptized And he commanded them to be baptized named Lord and they weren't let's go over to Acts chapter 8 Acts chapter 8 We'll see another example because maybe that one's not too not cut and dry enough. Maybe that one takes a little too much explaining And if that one went over our heads Let's make sure we drive this point home because this is an important point Because people get mixed up on this and there's whole churches that are built around this doctrine That you have to be baptized to be saved. I believe the Church of Christ speeches this and if you have not been baptized You're not going to heaven. Well, that's a false doctrine and we want to deal with it So we see here from Acts our first example there in Acts But looks at well, let's look at Acts chapter 8 and see another example Verse 26 and the angel Lord spake unto Philip saying arise and go toward the south under the way that goeth down from Jerusalem And the geyser which is desert And he arose and went and behold a man in Ethiopia and eunuch of great authority under Candace queen of the old Ethiopians who had charge of all the treasure and a colored Jerusalem for to worship was returning and sitting in his chariot Read and sitting in this chariot read Isaiah Isaiah is the prophet Then the spirit said unto Philip go here and join thyself to this chariot And Philip ran thither to him and heard him read the prophet Isaiah's and said Understand us what thou readest and he said how can I accept some man should guide me? And he desired Philip that he would come up and sit with them The place of the scripture which he read was this he was led as a sheep to the slaughter and like a lamb done before Sheared so he opened not his mouth in his humiliation His judgment was taken away and who shall declare his generation for his life is taken from the earth And the eunuch answered Philip and said I pray thee of whom speaketh the prophet this or of himself or of some other man Then Philip opened his mouth and began at the same scripture and preached unto him Jesus And as they went on their way they came up to a certain water and the eunuch said see here is water what that tender me to be baptized and Philip answered and Philip said you must be baptized if you want to get saved That's not what he said though He said this if thou believeth with all other heart thou mayest So we see that belief we see that faith is what is the prerequisite to baptism? Then if you got baptized before you believed with all your heart of the Lord Jesus all you did was take back All right, right somebody, you know sprinkling that it didn't count. You know, that's not it's for people who get saved That's why Peters is very adamant says if thou believeth with all thine heart thou mayest and what was he answered when he said I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and he commanded the chariot to stand still they went both down to the water both Philip and eunuch and the eunuch and he baptized him and When he that when they were come up out of the water the spirit of the Lord caught away Philip and the eunuch saw him No more and he went on his way Rejoicing so again in both of these examples we saw in the book of Acts this morning. Is that salvation precedes baptism It comes before it. It's not a part of it. It's something that they are two separate things. They're not the same thing You know, I like I like the example here where we're Peter in our previous example, you know, he says, uh, can any man forbid water that these should be baptized? I love I love the you know The example of Philip to where as soon as he hears the right answer that the man is saved You know, he stops the chariot and he gets out and goes right down in the water And they take care of it right then and there and that's how I that's the biblical example that we see a baptism You know, we don't need to have this is a pretty simple subject. This isn't something I think we need to have a Two or three week, you know Sunday school Explaining to the people that are going to be baptized what it means, you know, we can cover this in one sermon That's right. We could cover this in a pretty quick sermon and get this across pretty easily But there are a lot of churches that that's not how they want to do it They want to do the drawn-out class. They want to sit there and teach on baptism for several weeks, you know And I don't think they're giving people enough credit that they can pick this up pretty simply So we don't want to hinder people, you know, we don't want to stop people from getting baptized We want to make sure that if they're they get baptized as soon as we can get them baptized I mean if there's water there and they're saved Let's go get a baptized One of the great week one of the main reasons we ought to do that is because it gives people the back people are being Baptized it gives them joy and if that's what we see here with the example of Philip in the Ethiopian eunuch It says there that in verse 39 and when they were coming up out of the water the Spirit Lord caught away Philip That the eunuch saw him to war and what did he do and he went on his way rejoicing Of course a big part of that because he understood the gospel, but he was also able to be obedient unto The command of being baptized. So what we see off This is a good example of this the fact that obedience equals happiness, you know when we obey the Lord We obey his word for salvation That brings happiness when we obey his word and obeying the command to be baptized that's gonna bring us joy That's gonna bring us happiness. Don't know that we're following in God's Ways that we're following him that we're doing the things that please him and we're being honored and we're pleased being pleasing to the Father That's gonna bring us happiness happiness in our life. And that's a good principle That's one thing that baptism I think kind of teaches people is that you know, it's it's one of the first steps But there's many other things that the Bible You know commands us many other things in the Christian life that we have to obey and make a part of our lives And they're not always easy things. But if we obey those things what they'll do is they'll bring us joy. They'll bring us happiness The Bible says the first John 5 will read it says for this is the love of God that we keep his Commandments and his Commandments are not grievous His Commandments should never be to us, you know, we shouldn't be you know, what a drag, you know I could obey the Bible, you know If you obey the Bible, you're not gonna have a lot of the problems that the world has you're gonna have a much better life That's what's what always, you know, just boggles my mind about you know relations that I've had You know with my family and even friends and things like that. They mock the things of God They mock you Me and me you've probably gone through this to some degree where they they criticize you for being obedient to the Word of God But then they're the ones with all the problems. They're the ones who lies are a mess. I'm not saying my life's perfect I'm not saying my life is without struggles I'm saying but there's a lot of extra baggage that I don't have because I've been obeying this book You know There's a lot of things that they have in their lives that they could get rid of and get taken care of if they would Just get saved and start to follow God and obey his commandments So that's a good thing that we can learn from you know Baptism is that when we obey the Lord we go on our way rejoicing that we can live a life that is happy and full Now there is the false gospel and I've kind of alluded to it already a few times if you would Just stay there if you go back to Acts chapter 2 So really I mean that's that's kind of the Some of the basics of baptism look at a few other things, but at this point I just want to kind of address The boss of this false gospel that's out there as I've kind of already mentioned a few times that baptism is Necessary for salvation that faith and baptism have to go head-in-hand that you cannot have salvation without baptism We don't believe that and one of the one of the passages that they'll turn to is in Acts 2 verse 38 The Bible says that Peter said out of them repent and be baptized to every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins and You shall receive the Holy Ghost. So let's see. Aha you see that Peter said that you had to Repent and be baptized in order to receive the remission of sins Now, of course, we know that repentance that he's talking about is going from unbelief to belief I want to believing the Lord Jesus Christ to turn from your disbelief in him into putting your trust in him And then he says that and they'll say yeah, so, okay, they'll agree with you there But then they'll say but you also have to be baptized in order to receive their mission of sins But that's not what he's saying. Oh, we kind of read this because you know, we don't we don't speak in the same Style of English exactly as the King James is written, you know, it's it's written a little differently though We are our manners of speaking today But what he's saying there when he says to be baptized for the remissions of sins He's not saying be baptized so that your sins can be remitted He's saying be baptized because your sins are remitted, you know, if you repent and believe on Christ your sins are remitted Therefore be baptized be baptized for the remission of sins That's how I understand this verse because how else would you explain it? I mean you have to take this verse in the light of all scripture That's right, and you have to you have to compare spiritual things with spiritual things so we see that remission simply means the cancellation of a debt, you know, it means the Getting rid of a debt a charge or a penalty and that's what happens when we get saved Well, we believe on Jesus Christ, you know, our sins are paid for through the blood of Christ You know, he we have the remissions of sins go ahead and turn over to Acts chapter 10 You're going to Acts chapter 10, I'll read to you from Matthew 26 where this is my blood of the New Testament So this is Jesus Christ speaking. He said this is my blood of the New Testament, which is shed for many more the remission So since he's saying that his blood is the remission is what's shed for the remission of sins That's right. You know, we're not filling up the tub this morning to give you clean from your sin That's not what we're doing We're doing that because you've already put your faith and trust in the blood of Christ for the remission of sins You know, I'm not gonna I'm not gonna you know make I don't want to make light of the blood of Christ I don't want to you know, dilute the blood of Christ by saying that we have to add something to it You know, we have to mix water with his blood and baptism, you know The blood of Christ is all we need and that's what he said here You know, he didn't leave anything out when he went and shed his own blood on the cross So again, we have to take acts 238 and compare it with the rest of Scripture Then we can have an understanding of what he means by be baptized for the remission of sins be baptized Because your sins are remitted Bible says you're there in Acts chapter 10 look at verse 43 to him Give all the prophets witness that through his name whosoever believeth in him shall receive the remission of sins So again, what's the one thing we got to do is simply believe didn't say believe and be baptized for mission of sins He said here that the only thing you have to do is to believe in him that whosoever believeth in him Shall receive the remission of sins Now turn over to mark chapter 16 Mark 16 is another one of these passages that they'll turn to and try to give teach you the false doctrine That you have to be baptized or to be saved But we've already dispelled the one That we read there in Acts 238 where people would twist that scripture And tell you that you have to be baptized to receive the remission of sins. That's just not the case. We saw that now mark 16 Jesus said he that believeth in his baptized shall be saved. So again, this is another one of their aha verses They'll say see you got to be baptized You got to believe that's not enough though. You have to believe and be baptized to be saved. That's what Jesus said Well that Jesus did say that I mean, that's a true statement, right? I mean if you believe and are baptized will you be saved? Absolutely, because you did the one thing you need to do right you believe and you can make that statement in a lot of different ways You know, you can say whosoever shall believe in true bubblegum shall be saved. Is that not also a true statement? Yes, who shall ever go shall believe and go to the fridge and make a ham sandwich shall be saved I mean, you know we can have fun with it You can tag whatever you want to do whatever you want on that. You can believe and do anything and be saved That's how you gotta understand this verse Because that has a true statement that if you believe that are baptized you're saved But you're saved because you believe not because you were baptized and the answer to this verse is in the verse itself If you just continue reading the verse, you know, there's a semicolon there That's where they like to stop but the sentence goes on and says but he that believeth not shall be damned Yeah, so what is the person who's damned is the one person who did the one thing? So if a person got baptized but didn't believe Then they're gonna be damned why because they didn't believe you have to believe in order to not be damned. That's right Does that make sense? I hope that that's coming across right because that one thing that we have to do is simply believe It's important to understand these verses because these are ones they try to Trick people up on so again everyone that's getting baptized this morning I'm you know I'm sure understands this concept that salvation is by faith through grace alone And if you don't understand it, then you don't don't get baptized You know, you need to get saved first make sure you have a saving knowledge of Christ. Okay now What I want that one of the last things I want to touch on is the why we do why do we baptize the way? We do okay, you know we saw first of all that baptism is for believers that it's the that it is not It is not necessary for salvation. We talked about that. But now, you know, we call ourselves Baptists, you know So baptism is a big part of what we do. You know, we're weird we get we get excited about it We go so far as to we actually buy, you know water heaters and make sure the water comes out in 98 We encourage people, you know, it's gonna be a nice warm 98 degrees. We bring the towels, you know, we get excited about it You know, at least we should as Baptist we should get excited about baptism it's something that should should thrill us You know that that people are getting right with God that people are getting saved that people are designed to walk with the Lord That's what that means. That's a sign of a of a good church a church that's growing and thriving is when you start to see baptisms taking place So what I want to talk about real quick is just Baptism is by immersion by full immersion to be go all the way under the water and come all the way up You know if you got saved then you had you know, somebody just throw water on you You didn't get baptized baptism is by full immersion if you would go to turn to Matthew chapter 3 should I just keep something there? We'll go back to Matthew chapter 3 again, and we'll look at the example of Jesus Christ baptism I mean if anybody got baptism, right? It's the Lord. It's Jesus Christ. He definitely did it the right way. Yep So, how did Jesus do it? Well there in Matthew chapter 3 look at verse 13 Then comes Jesus from Galilee to Jordan unto John to be baptized up to him but John forbade him saying I have need to be baptized to be in the compass now to be And Jesus answering said unto him suffer it to be so to be so now But thus it become with us to fulfill all righteousness then he suffered him Now here's how Jesus was baptized and when and Jesus when he was baptized Went up straight way out of the water. You got to catch that those words out of the water Okay, you know this doesn't take a lot of you know a Lot of powers of the mind to figure out that if you're going to come up out of something you have to have gone down Into it that's right, right So he came up out of the water because he first went down into the water And a little the heavens were open unto him and he saw the Spirit of God ascending like a dove now Don't anybody get your hopes up this morning If it does happen then and then I will have to pinch ourselves and wake up so this was very special for him of course But let's look at a let's uh, let's look at another example over at John chapter 3 you're turning over to John chapter 3 I'll remind us what we just read in Acts 8 when Philip baptized you know in eunuch They went down both into the water again. So we see them going into the water You had to stop the chariot and say hey, let's go down into the water to baptize you I mean wouldn't have been a lot easier to just take the water then I'm sure the guy had water that he was traveling with you know Camel skin or whatever they use back then to carry water. He could just you know Baptized them could have sneezed on We've been a lot easier than stopping the chariot getting down going down to the water But he did it that way because that's how baptism is to be done. It's to be done by full immersion It will explain why here in a minute now You're there in John chapter 3. We'll look at another example. We're back into this by immersion or It looks there in John chapter 3 verse 23 and John was baptizing in anon near to Salem now. Why was he there? I mean if baptism is my immersion. He could have done it anywhere What do you mean he could have he could have just gone and got a bucket and a ladle and just baptized people and just? Sprinkled them and have been a lot easier could have got himself a spray bottle You know if baptism was just by immersion wasn't by immersion Then we wouldn't have to go through all the trouble of setting up that tank Think about much easier would be for me to just pull out the spray bottle after service and say all right all you that are getting baptized line up Like you know praise the Lord You've been obedient that would take a lot of effort that wouldn't take a lot of You know it would take a lot of effort on a part. I think that's part of the reason why God chose Immersion because you know it would actually take a little bit of effort on our part You know it took effort for brother Matthew to get the tank took effort not a lot You know it wasn't like we had we broke our backs or anything like that, but it took effort planning Getting the heater down here. You know bringing the towels hooking it all up this morning getting it filled up. You know So there's effort involved now. We know of course. It's a picture of the death bringers resurrection of Christ That's the real reason, but you know it's another it's kind of a side point that you know it takes effort to be baptized by immersion He says there in John 3. He was baptized in anon near to Salem because there was much water there So he was baptizing multitudes of people so of course he needed a large body of water to do that Why because baptized baptism is by conversion? It would have been a lot easier for him to do it if it wasn't by immersion He wouldn't have it gone there. He wouldn't have needed a lot of water So we see first of all that baptism is not necessary for salvation It's something that comes back for salvation something that shows us our obedience and desire to walk Commandments of God it shows us we also saw that baptism is something that it's done by full version You know it's something that is by meant by going all the way under the water and coming all the way back up And then we also see that baptism basically what it is. You know. Why why are we getting baptized? Why can't why can't you just go home and get baptized? You know just at home by yourself dunk yourself You know just take care of it one on one or whatever It's because baptism really is a is a public profession of your faith. It's a public display of what you believe inwardly That's really what what it is. It's a picture of Christ death burial and resurrection If you want to know the Romans of Romans chapter 6 Romans chapter 6 you're going to Romans 6 I'll read you from Colossians chapter 2 where it says that we are buried with him in baptism Wherein also you are risen with him through the faith of the operation of God who hath raised him from dead from the from the? Dead so our being our baptism when we're going down to the water what we're showing people is that we are dead in Christ That the old man has been crucified and that the life which we now live in the flesh be lived by the faith of the son Of God who loved us and gave himself for us so that you know that's that's what baptism is It's a public profession of you showing the death of Jesus Christ and also the resurrection there in Romans chapter 6 look at verse 4 Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death that it's like that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father even so we even so we also should walk in newness of life So that's that's what baptism is it's showing us a real. We're walking in newness of life We're walking in a new life in Christ. We're following after God. We've been born again. It's been we do That's why we do it publicly. That's why we do it at a church That's why we show people and you know make a big deal out of it That's why you're probably gonna end up on the church's Instagram getting baptized We want people to know we've got people here that are getting baptized that are following the Lord and that love God And and and we want to do that public remain Now if you would go over to John chapter 3 John chapter 3. I know we were just over there But let's go back to John chapter 3 I want to think about that verse again because you know this like I said the beginning of the sermon This is like. This is something. I did preach recently and maybe some of these points are something You're already familiar with or heard recently And you know I'm sure if you've been going to a Baptist church for very long that you've heard sermons on baptism At least you should have you know and it's something that's real simple. It's not the most complex and Intellectually stimulating subject at times You know maybe maybe a better preacher could make it that way I don't know, but what I don't want us to lose sight of is the fact that baptizing people is exciting It's an exciting thing at least it should be you know that's that's that's what a you know a lot of churches lack a lot Of these dead churches. They don't have that If you know if you're a church that doesn't have baptisms going on you know somewhat of a regular basis I'm not saying it has to be every service But I need to sit come down here today and sit up a tank and baptize five adults I believe and several children I mean we were gonna baptize today more people than some churches will baptize in a decade and I think I'm exaggerating I'm not there are churches out there that are dead as a doornail They have a baptistry they have a nice beautiful building They got a nice built-in baptistry behind the pulpit up on the platform, and there's cobwebs in it and spiders You know if Pastor Anderson likes a joke. That's where they put all the Christmas decorations. It's just a storage space But I've literally seen it with cobwebs and spiders and everything else they got to clean them out every every time they get somebody Baptized you know once in a blue moon So we want to be excited about baptism. You know something we should be excited to be baptized We should be excited about seeing baptisms Because baptisms are exciting I mean think about how serious John the Baptist was about baptizing people You know he's over here at John chapter 3 He was a down here to say on the baptizing because there was much water there, and they came and we're baptized baptized And mark what it says the beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ the Son of God as has written the prophets behold I sent my messenger before thy face Which you prepare the way before thee the voice of one crying in the wilderness prepare you the way of the Lord make his past straight John did baptize the wilderness and preach the baptism repentance for the mission of sins and there went on to all the land of Judea And of Jerusalem and they were all baptized of him in the river of Jordan confessing their sins I can you imagine what a baptism service that was When you've got all the land of Judea and all the land of Jerusalem coming out and being baptized by this one man in this River I mean that's exciting. That's that's a thrill. That's that's amazing You know we would love to see baptisms like that what would the God we could witness that one day You know I whenever I read that I think about that I always I've used this example in the past as I think about background from in Traverse City, Michigan we have the cherry festival, which is a town of about I Know 75,000 people maybe in the city. It's not very big at all You know the tri-county area probably isn't even More not even you know a hundred thousand people's it's very rural part of the country But once a year for the last over the last hundred years they have What's called the cherry festival because Traverse City, Michigan is the cherry capital of the world at least it was More cherries there than anywhere else in the world they would ship out a lot of cherries They haven't seen called the cherry festival And they've turned in this week-long celebration of starts on the 4th of July or ends on the 4th of July I can't remember But there's fireworks the beginning and the end the carnival comes to town they bring in all the stupid rock bands They set up the Midway they close off the downtown and in a week's time about 3 million people come through that town That little town in northern, Michigan 3 million people come through it And that's like taking the entire city of Phoenix and just bringing them through And every other year what they have is they have the Blue Angels come which are the Think they're f-14 or f-16 and who knows who the Blue Angels are the Navy Blue Angels They do the air stunts the Blue Jets They'll come to town that always draws a big crowd and Traverse City, Michigan sits on The Grand Traverse Bay it has a 13 mile long. I think it's longer than that It has a very long peninsula, then you have West Bay, and you have East Bay, which are two inlets out of Lake, Michigan So it's a real beautiful part of the country, but when you go down And you watch this air show you'll stand out on the beach, and you'll look down and just for miles You'll just see for miles literally miles of just a crowd of people all along the Bayshore to watch these Jets And I think I always thought wow whenever I get in like a stadium or I see large crowd of people at our shows amazing Don't hold that many people at once to see that a multitude like that now think about that with that now What if that crowd was there along that Bayshore? Just tens of thousands of people and there was just one guy standing out in the bay preaching to them And they just started coming getting baptized And that'd be amazing that would make headlines that would that's that's something really special, but that's what we see here We see that baptism baptizing people can be very exciting thing especially when there's large numbers of people being baptized I Mean think about what Philip did we read their next chapter 8, and I won't have you go back there But with you if you if you read acts 8 you see Philip he baptized an entire city And then he baptized as one person in the same day He goes he baptized in his tire city And then the spirit tells him to go and join himself in this chariot, and he baptized as one guy, and I think they're both equally Exciting you know and we see that Baptizing large people numbers of people or is biblical you know baptizing people immediately after salvation is biblical Or as close to you know sometimes the facilities don't always lend itself to the exact convenience You know us and we had people that were kind of waiting a baptism and unfortunately had to kind of you know Work out the kinks and make that happen But you know seeing large groups of people be baptized is not only biblical, but it's also very exciting So we should be excited to see others baptized You know I don't know if you know if you're here today, and you're not you've already been baptized And you know don't ever let it turn to a lackluster thing I know up in Phoenix. You know we got a lot of people, and I'm not I'm not faulting anybody But we can we see a lot of baptisms, but I remember when I first got there And we would announce baptisms after the service say hey, we're gonna have baptisms outside It was like you'd have like a few dozens You have dozens of people out there And I think we kind of gotten used to seeing a lot of baptisms, and we have a lot of people now We don't see we don't see everybody flood out the door and go and go out there We've just kind of gotten used to a lot of baptisms But we should still be excited about seeing baptisms about wanting to go see somebody and share that moment with that person because that's That's a big step. I mean some people kind of take it for granted They don't mind You know getting up in front of people and allowing themselves to be seen of others and go through that process some people That's a big step to have to you know have everybody looking at them And then you're gonna have some guy grab you and put you underwater and bring you back up You know it could be intimidating You know it can definitely for some people, so we should never be take that lightly We should always be excited about it, and we should always want to see that. I think that's something that's important You know we should be excited to see others baptized And I think probably the most exciting people you'll ever see baptized are the people that you went to the Lord And really that's the kind of the application. I want to end on this morning, and you know that that's something I think we could all work on self included is not just getting people saved But encouraging them to take that next step to come out to church and to be baptized You know Philip he won that and baptized that city in the same chapter You know he he went out and won that guy and then he baptized him He was the one that did it and he was able to take you know of course He kind of that was some low-hanging fruit on the guys like hey. He's asking. What am I gonna do to get baptized? You know we don't necessarily have that when we knock on the door. I mean people are You know they kind of have to be proud and encouraged and even taught that they need to be baptized But really what we see is that it takes purpose and effort to get anyone baptized You know he had to go and join himself to the charity and to preach in the gospel They had to go down in the water and explain all that to him And that's what we're gonna have to do we want some to see some exciting baptisms Which are gonna be the people that we get saved those would be the most exciting baptisms you ever see When you get somebody saved you get them to church, and you get them baptized You're gonna be excited about that person you might even be more excited about it than they are Because now you know you're not only you take it It's like you've gone another step and walking with the Lord you are fulfilling the great the Great Commission You know you're not just not just preaching the gospel of a preacher, but also Baptizing them and teaching them all things. That's that's three different things You know there's three steps to the Great Commission. You know we focus a lot I'm just going out and winning this and winning the loss which is great I'm not downplaying at all we need to keep doing that We also need to be willing to take to the next level at some point And I'm preaching this to myself as much as anybody else something I need to work on is getting people baptized getting them to come to church and get baptized now You're not gonna get every single one You know you're not gonna You know, but if we're not making any effort at all to do that I can guarantee you what they you'll never get anybody But if we start putting forth an effort to do it. You know we might get shot down a lot And we put it, but we might you know eventually get somebody to come out and get baptized I believe that you know I know up in Phoenix There was a guy who goes out sold in the regular and he had I think three people that he got saved and come out And get baptized all the same day You know and I'm excited for that guy. It's a good job. You know I thought that's great You know that I was challenged by that we should allow that kind of zeal to Challenge us and to be even better at that soldiers it ourselves I Mean we see you know, but it's gonna take effort. It's gonna take a purpose I mean you think about what will close here go to Acts chapter 16. You know it's not gonna happen on accident You're not gonna Just you know not every person you knock on and get the door and get saved is getting that Ethiopia Munich He's just gonna get saved immediately. They're gonna. They're gonna go to you like hey. Well. I want to get baptized now What do I do? It's probably not gonna happen. You're probably gonna have to talk to them about it I'm not saying he has to take another 15 20 minutes going over baptism, but I think it's something We should at least be mentioning. It's something we should at least have our you know our radar on for me It's this guy sound like somebody's potentially might come to church. You know that's how this church is gonna grow I mean we're thankful for people who listen to Pastor Anderson and come out to this church You know and I'm sure there's more out there, but you know that has there's a cap on that You know eventually you're going you're gonna get all the listeners You're gonna get and the church is gonna have to grow itself And the way we're gonna do that is by yes going out and reaching them with the gospel But then encouraging them to be baptized and to follow Lord and teaching them things whatsoever We command it. That's how the church is gonna grow by encouraging people come to church To be baptized and it's gonna take effort on our part. That's the point I want to make that's what I want to close on I mean look at the effort Paul made He said well that sounds hard that sounds difficult it might be but I don't think it's gonna be what Paul went through I mean Paul was cast into jail remember. There's the earthquake and The jailer goes to kill himself to run himself through with the sword because all the jail doors were open And Paul says do thyself no harm for we all hear the jailer comes in trembling and falls down before him Says sirs what must I do be saved he says believe in the Lord Jesus Christ I should have saved him up in the house, and then he preached unto him the Word of God into his house And it says there in verse 33 and he took him the same hour of the night and washed their stripes and was baptized He and all his straight way straight way so after this this guy gets this jailer gets saved He washes Paul's stripes. I mean Paul is the guy who's been beaten cast in jail Doesn't know what's gonna happen next But he still takes the time to preach this guy the gospel and even takes the time despite his difficult circumstances To remind him that he needs to be baptized to and not just him, but his whole house So I think if Paul can endure all of that and still you know Have the mind to remind people that we get saved to be baptized. You know we should be able to do the same So if you're gonna do that if you're gonna put forth that effort you're gonna have to have a plan to baptize people And really I just want to give you if you have anything to write this down Or if you want to talk to you about the service if you ready I have three simple verses three simple verses Matthew 28 19 is where we're gonna show people You know after you get somebody saved you can say something just real quick. It doesn't have to be you know a figure and Turn into this long. You know conversation You just say hey You know I'm glad you're saying the next step for you is to get in church and get baptized You know if you want to be pleasing unto the Lord and live a life that he can bless the next step of obedience To show them that you want to obey him as a child of God is to be baptized So that God can bless you you would show them Matthew chapter 28 in verse 19 where it says go you therefore and teach all nations Baptizing the name of the Father the Son of the Holy Ghost and teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I've commanded you you say see it's God's will here that you would be baptized He wants people who believe to get baptized And maybe you could think of other verses that would be better to make this point But you want to show them that it's God's will for them to be baptized and you can turn over to Matthew Matthew 3 16 we already read it You can say so God wants you to be baptized and hey the way you get baptized is by full immersion And you imagine 3 16 of course is the example of Jesus Christ I'll let you went down straight way into the water or came up straight way out of the water After you first went down into it so you can say so we believe that baptism is by immersion And then you can just say it show max 1048 which we talked about say and say you know it's it's a command to be Baptized this is something you need to do If you know, but by then they've already they're saved so they understand that this is not part of their salvation But that's something that they need to do in order to be pleasing to God You know maybe if we just took a minute and marked out a quick baptism road in their Bible We could encourage people to be baptized and then maybe you one day get excited about saying somebody that you got saved Come out to church and get baptized Yeah, but it's not gonna happen if you're not willing to put forth the effort to see it happen. Let's go ahead and pray Let's go