(Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated and may contain mistakes.) All right now Because the this the new challenge for this month is on baptisms and Trying to get encourage people get baptized. I wanted to preach a sermon as something to do with with baptism, but Not just the standard, you know who should get baptized when they should get baptized and everything else I've taught that a few times already and to be honest with you. I don't want to do it again I'd rather just have you if you don't if you don't know that already go back and listen to one of those sermons For now, I will end up re-preaching sermons like that in the future, but it wasn't something that I was too excited about Preaching on tonight. So I actually decided to preach on something that's Close similar with with baptism. We're getting a little bit more and a few other questions about baptisms a little bit later in the sermon, but What I'm preaching on tonight I'm preaching against is this false doctrine of the Baptist Briders who's heard of Baptist like a Baptist bride or Baptist brighter churches before you heard about it before I'm gonna And and I'm not I'm not an expert on their doctrine So I looked up and kind of studied out more I've dealt with some people that were Baptist writers in the past So I'm gonna be more speaking to My experience talking with people then might necessarily be exact established theology of You know landmark Baptist Church, whatever So one of the things you'll find is that there's landmark is associated with people who believe Baptist bars and result it's not just one church. It's a There you'll find a lot of landmark missionary Baptist churches or landmark Baptist churches our churches that will follow this Baptist brighter Doctrine and from my reading and my understanding of the history This is a group that was part of the Southern Baptist Convention They're Baptist believers But they they they ended up they were trying to change the the convention, but they ended up then having to Withdraw because of their belief so that you know other people were rejecting their beliefs. So they ended up withdrawing now One of the reasons why I'm even bringing this up and preaching about it is because there are some things that they believe That we also hold to and and this is there's you know It's easier to get caught up in false doctrine when you've got some other common ground That you can you could kind of tie together and soon bridge some gaps So these churches are going to be kjv only churches, right? They're Baptist churches There's gonna have a lot and you know, I'm not even saying that they're that they're unsaved right now many of them are because I what from what I've seen a lot of them seem to be very Calvinistic and Just in and very just very very Calvinistic, but I can't I can't speak for all of them So I'm not I'm not trying to paint this too broad also, I have limited experience so, you know, I don't want to go too broad on that but Um Some of their their main tenants in one of the the reasonings for them splitting from the Southern Baptist Convention also were good in the sense that You know for again for based on my reading. It's they didn't want to have like recognize all these various Pastors from a different denominations and just having them come into church like they didn't think it was right to just allow all Different variety of Pastors to come in just because they were called themselves Christian is come in and preach behind the pulpit. Look amen to that where you have to have standards of What even constitutes a legitimate church what constitutes you know? Who's going to be allowed to come in and preach behind the pulpit? So there's definitely reason and concern to to make distinctions and to into cause separation but one of the things you'll notice as we get into this and what I think their biggest problem is that They they have some some decent principles but they they end up taking things way too far to the point of becoming cultish and And as we get into it, hopefully I'll be able to elaborate on that a little bit a little bit better They also reject the the universal church the concept of there being an invisible Universal Church that every Christian is a part of so and this is huge because we we believe exactly the same thing here We reject the teaching of a universal Church, which another word for universal is Catholic by the way Just so you're aware of that that The the Catholic Church like, you know, the the Catholic Church exists today that's existed for a long time it literally means the universal church and I mean you want to talk about ecumenical ecumenical type of a sounding church, right? It's universal that is what they're about and we believe that the church Because the word Church literally means congregation So you can't have a universal church Comprised of all believers in Jesus Christ When you're not congregated together just it doesn't add up. It doesn't compute doesn't make any sense. It's a contradiction of terms the problem though is that people don't understand that that word that the word Church is synonymous with a congregation and So you just have this this idea floating around that oh well we're all because what they'll say is well part of the body of Christ and Lose sight of the fact that when the Bible is talking about a church And even talk about the church It's talking about individual churches just like when the Bible talks about the husband or the wife Like it's not like there's only one husband ever. There's there's other husbands. There's other wives, but it's it's referring to in Context, you know the husband in general or the church in general, right? So I don't want to get too far off into that because they reject the universe It's not certain about the universal church, but many denominations accept that Catholic Church I know I grew up as Presbyterian which I consider Catholic light, but we would recite I was forced to memorize the Apostles Creed which says we believe in the holy Catholic Church. I Mean literally that that is one of the things I had to chant and recite and memorize That we believe in and of course in in when we memorized it they had like universal in parentheses Just letting you know that that's what Catholic means But it's like we're Protestants saying I believe in the holy Catholic Church because Catholic means universal so And that is what Presbyterians believe and that is what many different denominations believe That's what you know the vast majority I would say of Christian denominations will believe in the concept of having even Baptists will believe in this concept of having you know this universal invisible body of Christ that everyone's a member of and But they don't believe in that so here's you know, they're kjb only or I assume the kjb I know I know that they they list the kjb as being you know, the inerrant Word of God They reject the universal church we do the same thing they have other They have standards for what requires a church to be a legitimate church, but their idea of what's a legitimate church is different Way different than what we would consider and this is where they start getting into like church genealogies if you will of going back and What they what they believe in is this Baptist succession Right, and this is very similar to what the Catholic Church believes, you know, if you talk to the Catholic they'll tell you Well, they were the church that started with you know, the Apostle Peter was the first Pope and you know we have this continuity of churches that exist that goes all the way back to the disciples and You know we can prove it and and they kind of rely heavily on that now I want to be very clear and careful on how and what I say because I do believe that people who have beliefs like ours Have always existed since the time of Christ and churches that could you could consider similar to ours in mind and spirit and doctrine Have always existed as well and that there there is Linkage from churches beginning other churches. I don't think that we can Just go back through history and just make those actual connect all those dots One is because I mean the Baptist name hasn't been you know A Baptist Church hasn't always even been what people have been called and you know These people would say the same thing and if you've ever seen it was ever seen that booklet the trail of blood Lots of Baptist churches use that and I'm not saying anything, you know necessarily bad about that I don't I don't know the validity of the data and in that I don't know whether it's true or false Haven't done my own research and studying the history. I mean, I'm not saying it's false So but it does kind of explain the concept of what I already believe anyways, it has to you have to have some type of succession of believers getting other believers saved and other you know in church being spawned and started but Here's where I draw the line and where I'm not gonna say like and where I think these people go way overboard is You almost have to like they have to have this almost like a proof of pedigree That why came that we at least in America you can trace back to these founding churches To even be considered like a legitimate Church even in God's eyes that like well if you can't show Well, this person went to this person this person this person then we're not gonna you know You're not recognized as a legitimate church, which to me is just kind of ridiculous to make that type of you know to be able have to trace yourself back and that Closely resembles, you know the Jews who want to look at their genealogy Well, are you really a child of Abraham right in the the Bible tells us about warns us in 1st Timothy chapter 1 verse number 3 as I besought thee to abide still to stay in Revelation 19 as I besought thee to abide still at Ephesus When I went into Macedonia that thou mightest charge some that they teach no other doctrine neither give heed to fables and endless Genealogies which minister questions rather than godly edifying which is in faith So do so the Bible saying to avoid genealogies why avoid genealogies because they just bring up more doubt and more questions Right and more strivings everything else and this trying to go back and do some church history searches and doing these Genealogy searches is gonna bring up the same, you know, you can say oh, but this is talking about physical genealogies Okay, but it's the same exact concept and problem that you're gonna run into whether you're looking up a You know a whole body a church or an individual doesn't matter It's gonna bring up the same problems and we should avoid those types of things Anyways, you ought to be able to judge a church based off of what they're preaching and what they're teaching and compare that to the Bible And here's the other thing too when it comes to determining What's legitimate and what's not you know, obviously the Bible spells out how to do things and and There are certain doctrines. I'll hold to us. This is what's right and this is how you do things But it doesn't mean that churches couldn't have started in an incorrect way But still be considered legitimate churches in God's eyes Right just because things weren't done the way exactly the way that he is going to tell you it has to be It doesn't necessarily mean that you know, I'm and obviously we're gonna say no it needs, you know things If we're gonna start a church or do anything, we're gonna do things according to the Bible But if you're gonna look back into history You know, you can't just say well they just aren't because of whatever they come up with with extra biblical reasons or Just using logic to deduce one of the things that we saw when we went through our list of Churches in the book of Revelation was that they had a lot of problems yet. They were still considered to be legitimate churches I mean one even had a prophetess Jezebel Right that was causing people to commit fornication Real bad problems in the church and they were still considered legitimate church in God's eyes But I mean, yeah, but the Bible says I suffer not a woman to teach but to be in subject You know, it's like yeah, I know I agree and that's wrong but here's a church that had a female preacher and I had a you know, and They were still considered a legitimate church in God's eyes. I mean they were now they're about to lose their candlestick, but So you get what I'm saying here? We can't be You got to be able to look at evidence like that and say let's not be so strict of going back and be like well you need to have this perfect pedigree or else God's not even considering a church and This also what a lot of it stems from is what I call Baptist writers is they're totally incorrect understanding of the marriage sup, you know the marriage feast of the Lamb and Just who the bride of Christ is In Scripture and what they'll say is that other people can be saved as other believers But you're not going to be you know, have your special position if you weren't, you know Baptized by a person who's had the hands laid on by this person that can trace it back to the Apostles Right that you need to have that. Otherwise, it's not legitimate and you need to be in a church I could trace its root, you know in the real strict on that type of a thing and they'll say that You Know basically it's the it's the we're the only true church mentality Which is a very another dangerous area to get into when you've got a church is saying well, I mean the Catholic Church We're the only true church the Mormons were the only true church, right? But you know, we're not gonna hear it said here. We're the only true church Because I don't believe that Now the the church is That I think teach the closest to what's right and biblical and accurate are going to be independent fundamental Baptist churches That's what I believe but it doesn't mean there aren't any other churches out there that are also legitimate churches in God's eyes Teaching good doctrine with saved people in it because I don't believe that that's like that It's only independent, but you're gonna have your best bet try it, you know finding independent fundamental Baptist churches And that's been my experience and that's what I believe but I don't think that we've got the corner on the truth and being a legitimate church so when you when you hear these people saying that you got you got to be careful because That leads you down some very weird doctrinal paths where You have no alternative because if you're part of the only true church and this is what the only true church is saying Now now you've just completely closed off any alternative To to well what you know is this right and challenging? What's being said well? This is the one true church, so this must be right and that kind of Gives them their own Credibility and authority as saying well if you can instead like if it I mean this is a classic cult leader type of a move is Convincing people that you are in the one true church because then you could get away with a lot more That's that's a point. I'm trying to get across here is That that's the mentality that follows of just saying well We've already proven to you that we are the legitimate right church because we set up what it takes to be a legit You know the legitimate true church We met we checked all the boxes so now what we say is true, and what other people say our lies And you can't use that as your authority you have to use the Bible as your authority for everything for everything and be able to challenge your beliefs no matter you know no matter who holds other beliefs and Determine what's true based on what the Bible says not on what history says not on what who's saying it says But what this word says? So we're gonna look at this The marriage supper of the Lamb as well as the bride of Christ Revelation 19 talks about the marriage supper of the Lamb Which takes place? Basically when Jesus Christ is going to set up his kingdom on earth, and then we see the bride of Christ mentioned in Revelation chapter 21, so Let's look at verse number 7 here the Bible reads Let us be glad and rejoice and give honor to him for the marriage of the Lamb has come and his wife hath made herself ready and To her was granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen clean and white For the fine linen is the righteousness of Saints and he saith unto me right blessed Are they which are called unto the marriage supper of the Lamb and he saith unto me? These are the true sayings of God now jump down to verse 17 I just wanted to get that context of that the marriage supper of the Lamb being brought up here Verse 17 says and I saw an angel standing in the Sun and he cried with a loud voice saying to all the fowls That fly in the midst of heaven come and gather yourselves together unto the supper of the great God that you may eat the flesh of kings and the flesh of captains and the flesh of mighty men and the flesh of horses and of them that sit on Them and the flesh of all men both free and bond both small and great and I saw the beast and the kings of the earth and their armies gathered together to make war against him that sat on the horse and against his army and The beast was taken and with him the false prophet that wrought miracles before him With which he deceived them that had received a mark of the beast and then that worship of his image These both were cast alive into a lake of fire burning with brimstone and the remnant were slain with the sword Of him that sat upon the horse which sword proceeded out of his mouth and all fowls were filled with their flesh So without going through all the context of all these last chapters of Revelation, basically what's happening here is this is after God's done pouring out his wrath and Jesus is just about to set up his kingdom because the you know, the beast and the false prophet are being thrown into the lake of fire right and Satan's gonna be bound in hell for a thousand years the kingdom is going to be established and this marriage supper of the Lamb is brought up with the Saints being Dressed in white and fine linen here in verse 8 where it says and to her Tell not the wife of the Lamb was granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen clean and white For the fine linen is the righteousness of Saints now The reason one of the the big distinctions is that or the cause for for people get screwed up by this is just a lack of understanding of the end times events and Just who the bride is and who in and what the you know Who's gonna be at the marriage supper of the Lamb because they'll say people are excluded from this Just like the millennial exclusionists who believe in Baptist purgatory and that people are gonna go to hell for a thousand years they don't understand this also, but There's Go over to Revelation 21 for them trying to think about the best way to explain this it's it's a simple concept but Revelation 19 where it refers to people being dressed in white fine linen The reason why the Saints have the fine linen is because they've been washing the blood of Christ They've been purified and cleansed and sanctified through Jesus Christ Not through their own righteousness not because they've attained unto White linen that they have just completely pure clean works. It's because of Jesus Christ. So What we're gonna find at the marriage supper lamb is all the believers Because they've already been raptured at this point and they're all going to join Jesus Christ on the earth to rule and reign with him. No one's left out of this now The reason why I'm started here is because it's referencing all these believers being the wife and Then we're gonna see in Revelation 21 the bride Which I mean this is still referring to the same the same thing. I mean, there's not Jesus doesn't have multiple wives right, you've got the bride of Christ and And Revelation 21 talks about the New Jerusalem Being the bride. Okay now look at verse number one about says and I saw a new heaven and a new earth for the first time in the First earth were passed away and there was no more sea and I John saw the holy city New Jerusalem coming down from God out of heaven prepared as a bride adorned for her husband and then jumped on verse number nine The Bible says and there came unto me one of the seven angels Which had the seven vials full of the seven last plagues and talked with me saying come hither I will show thee the bride the Lamb's wife And he carried me away in the spirit to a great and high mountain showed me that great city the holy Jerusalem descending out of heaven from God Having the glory of God and her light was like unto a stone most precious even like a jasper stone clear as crystal and had A great a wall great and high and had twelve Gates and at the gates twelve angels and names written there on which are the names of the twelve tribes of children Israel, so You say well passive versions What you know, this is describing the New Jerusalem and then that is definitely being referred to as the bride of Christ So, how can this be where we have the wife as the Saints? Well all throughout Scripture and even just now I mean if you if you think about it all cities Why are they a city? Why are they you know, it's it's because they're comprised of a group of people and That it's it's it's the people ultimately that make the city now it's describing cities have other infrastructure Which is being described here with the New Jerusalem But why is a city you know? it wouldn't really be a city if it's just completely vacant and empty the the whole point of having a city is because people are dwelling there and When you go back through history and even just the names of places now Very frequently the reason for a name of a place is because they're named after a person and the person is one who? Established and founded that settlement which became a city and now we know cities by names and Especially when you're reading through the Bible you see that over and over and over again You'll see there's a you know, there's a literal city or place called Dan There's a place called you know That has these different names and why is it because they're the ones that just went there and settled and their families grew and they Multiplied and they became a large people and they became a nation. I mean even Israel is The name of one man But that man whose family grew and kin grew to encompass an entire landmass known as a nation and These names are named after those people because those are the people who live there so the bride of Christ is Ultimately the people it's a it's a marriage supper, but it's all people it's all of the believers It's all the people who are sanctified in Jesus Christ. There's not a distinction between You know who's gonna be part of you know, the wife and who's not and what these people do The Baptist bride errs will say well only only some churches only some believers are going to be at This marriage supper only some people are part of the bride of Christ And that's why they're called Baptist brighter's because it's talking about the bride. It's like no this new Jerusalem all believers are gonna be there No, the you know, the marriage supper all believers are going to be there Because they're all dressed in that white linen. They're all sanctified and Justified through our Lord Jesus Christ, so that's and then this a Lot of people say well who cares end times not that big of a deal But the end time stuff can lead into a lot of other doctrines and have a major impact Even on your day to day doctrine in life and church you go to and things like that When you don't have a good understanding of what's you know of all scripture, but even the you know the end times it's easier to be led astray and these areas like What's gonna happen with the bride of Christ and with the marriage over them? It's easier to get away with a bad teaching on that but then People just confused they understand then that leads into other things and like like the pre-trib rapture When people don't understand in times and I understand why you don't it's easier to look back than it is to look to look forward but In order to believe in a doctrine like the pre-trib rapture then you have to have some form of like Zionism tied into it or Dispensationalism and and it gets into these other doctrines because you have to try to make this one fit Right. So in this case with the Baptist brighter, it's just oh well We have this doctrine that they don't fully understand and then they have to make that fit so they they have to impact other doctrines as well and that's where it starts to become dangerous because in order to try to Reconcile everything in the scripture when you have a bad doctrine then You have to force fit and you know This ought to be good for everybody to just pay attention to and be aware of When you're deciding what you believe and what doctrines you believe If you if you think you found something new and exciting or whatever and in some new truth Great, but verify that if it's starting to force you to start making changes in other areas and other doctrines you want to scrutinize that very very very closely and be ready to reject a Doctrine that might sound great. It might sound like oh man. This is super cool. And and you think you have this great revelation test it try it because if it if it's if you're contradicting some of the basic fundamental doctrines that are just real core real primary and you have to start changing that You've got a bad doctrine And maybe you didn't come up with yourself Maybe you heard someone else talk about or you know Test it out against other things. So when you have to start making changes Oh, well the elect here it's really talking about the Jews and here it's talking about believers and here's what you know It's like well on a second that doesn't sound right So one of the things that they believe I already brought this up they believe in this unbroken chain of Baptist churches going all the way back to the apostles and This is a point where many brighters take things to bizarre extremes and it has to do with like You know ordinations not being accurate because you can't trace back far enough even church membership You know who's gonna be at the marriage supper of the Lamb and even holding communion And one of the ways to review with the first Corinthians chapter 11 This is another Common doctrine that's held by the Baptist writers is this idea of Closed communion or twice closed communion or whatever. There's different different labels for it Where Basically what what they teach about communion is That if you're not a member of their church then you cannot participate in communion So when we do we do communion here once a year for those of you that aren't aware Right before Easter on a Wednesday night service We'll do our remembrance of the broken body of Jesus Christ and his blood that was shed for us and we kind of have our memorial of that and We do that once every year around the time of when the Passover would have been to Which I believe is when you know, I'm not gonna get into all the reasons why we do that It's a whole nother sermon, but When we take communion, if you look at first Corinthians chapter 11, we're sorry in verse number 27 We're gonna see very clearly that it's up to everybody who's gathered or assembled to decide for themselves whether or not they're gonna participate in this and he's not Closing it off and saying only only the members of this church if you're visiting with us You cannot participate if you're and and they go as far as if you're a Baptist brighter and you go to a different church I believe it's exactly the same way as them and you're visiting from that church You still can't participate in it because you're not a member of that church It's Crazy I mean that's just talk about taking things just way extreme and way overboard This is what you end up with when when you just go down way too far in into in the areas where the Bible is not that clear and explicit about and They just just run with it and go and go overboard Look at verse number 27 the Bible says wherefore whosoever shall eat this bread and drink this cup of the Lord unworthily Shall be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord. So this is a very serious thing when you're participating communion if you're going to be unworthily participating in that and People will even say this a little bit. He says some people get sick and die because they're participating unworthily All right, so it's a very serious thing. But let me say the verse 28, but let a man examine himself No One else examines you let the man examine himself and so let him eat of the bread of that bread Excuse me and drink of that cup for he that eateth and drinketh unworthily eateth and drinketh damnation to himself Not discerning the Lord the Lord's body for this cause many are weak and sickly among you and many sleep For if we would judge ourselves We should not be judged. This is a teaching from the Apostle Paul to the church at Corinth and Instructing them because they were doing things wrong with communion on how to do them, right? Notice he didn't say only the members of your church that have been baptized by a official person who's been ordained to baptized that has a Pedigree going back to you know, someone that I baptized I'll be back in this letter would just be no only this person Can do it because that's the person that I laid hands on and if they don't give it to you that you know It's only for these members and no one else he doesn't say any of that He says yeah, the people in congregation let them judge for themselves Let every man, you know examine himself He didn't give an instruction to the elder of the church at Corinth saying Okay Now make sure that no one else gets this except for These people and instruct them that only members of our church local assembly can he doesn't say any of that Watch out for people who want to create doctrines and make things some really strict rules on Areas where the Bible is not Explicitly clear in that direction. I think there's many areas of service to the Lord where there's definitely guiding principles There's guiding rules and we have enough information on how to do things That's gonna be acceptable unto the Lord But The areas where it's left a little bit more loose or free or open Don't start adding your own rules to it and and teaching The commandments of man as the commandments of God or teaching doctrine of man as a commandments of God Don't don't you know, we can't go down that road and unfortunately, that's what the what the Baptist writers end up doing here and But now I want to switch gears a little bit It's somewhat related, but I kind of wanted to cover both of these topics there and Neither one felt to me like an entire full-length sermon, but here's one that May be even more interesting for you And this is tied in with you know Because they have this whole pedigree thing and who can be ordained and who could even preach and stuff like that. It's based on Their biblical authority and what then what they'll say is that Church doesn't have authority because it didn't follow the succession, right? So there's just zero authority you can't be a legitimate church unless you followed the the the succession that that they Put their stamp of approval on but what about this is Who should be able to perform? Baptisms right if I had this question come up before it is a good question. I've thought about this quite a bit Especially, you know quite a while ago. I've been settled on this for a while, but It's a very good question and you know what it's also one that you don't have an explicit answer to in the scripture and is a perfect example because this is an area where I Believe there. I mean there's definitely a truth, right? There's definitely a right and a wrong answer on who can do who can perform baptisms but there's also a little bit of ambiguity and Clearness because it's not explicitly stated as like a doctrine is in fact like only this these people can do it So what we have to do is go off of the principles and go off of all the information that we have to make A decision on what's appropriate. What's right? one of the things that you'll find as We read Scripture. Is that the only people performing? Baptisms are the Apostles the disciples elders and people who have been ordained Now just based off of that Without a clear statement That's the guidance one part of the guidance that I take from what I would determine to say who should be actually performing the baptism But I'll also say this because I don't think we should get so Down a path of saying well if you got baptized, you know of just starting to de-legitimize people's baptisms Based on who is the person who performed the baptism and there's a good reason for that too because that what we're gonna see what hopefully what you'll see is the purpose For not having an explicit instruction on who can perform the baptism is Because the baptism isn't about the person doing the baptizing Their role is Very small and not Important now there's a proper way of doing things and you don't want to just have Just everybody out there. Just oh you're baptized now I mean think about the chaos that you could have in a church You get this brand new convert brand new believer, you know and they're all fired up and they want to go soul winning and they're going out and they're coming back and they say I had ten people saved today and I you know, and I'll just baptize you right now because that you know And they start doing all this stuff and it's like sometimes people need to just be a little you know get their zeal checked and add some knowledge to it because you don't want to just Get too far off into into areas. It's it's just not you know, it's not right So there needs to be people who have experience and knowledge and can discern Even whether or not you should be baptizing someone right everyone that we baptize here. I ask them You know Why they're saved if they know they're saved and in question about that because that's the requirement for getting baptized but People who are really new to soul winning or really new believers. Oftentimes. They don't really know even how to You know based on someone's answer they may not even always know whether or not that person is is saved like Just because it can be harder to get to the heart When you ask some like more simple questions in in just through experience you start to learn. Okay Well when they say this answer, it may sound like they're saying but like we this is just kind of a red flag You ask a few more questions you realize. Okay, this person isn't even really saved Right there. They're thinking whatever and I've said this before you know when I first got saved I used to think that all Denominations were saved that I just and you know, yeah the other differences, but I just kind of thought that everybody who claimed Christianity was saved and When I came to the realization of just oh wow Jesus Christ is Savior and he became you know I put my trust in him That was an ignorant view Because I just assumed that well everyone is believing in Christ now. I've joined as being a believer Regardless of which church I'm going to but and many people have that same view the same mindset But as you go out and start talking to people and realizing Oh, no Actually what they're believing about salvation is not what the Bible says at all and they may claim the name of Christ But it's just completely off you start realizing they're not saved So again, the the purpose for having somebody being able to perform the baptism is so that you can do it decently in an order Which is how a church ought to run Now in John chapter 4 When we look at who should perform better turn if you were to act chapter 8 That's where I'm going to spend the most time is in acts 8 John 4 the Bible tells us in verse 1 when therefore the Lord knew how the Pharisees had heard that Jesus made and Baptized more disciples than John. So it's talking about obviously John the Baptist We know is the first person actually performing baptisms prior to that. No one was getting baptized It was a new thing in the New Testament. John the Baptist was the first one and he was ordained by God To do that job. I mean that was his role his job. He was told and given instructions By God to do what he was doing. Okay, and he baptized Jesus Christ But then when Jesus came on the scene and started his ministry His ministry started seeing a lot more baptisms even than John's ministry and John made a big, you know, splash if you will you know no pun intended there, but He was he was causing a big stir big commotion because he was different and the Pharisees were going out to see him and stuff But then Jesus came on the scene and and their influence grew even more and they got started gathering a lot more followers and a Lot more people were being baptized and that's what the Bible says in John 4 1 that The Lord knew the Pharisees heard that Jesus made and baptized more disciples in John But it's very careful to add this parenthetical statement in verse 2 though. Jesus himself Baptized not but his disciples. So we see first of all, Jesus wasn't doing the baptizing the disciples were Now I bring that up and I think it's important to bring that up and I believe he didn't do it Because he didn't want people getting confused on why I got baptized by Jesus as opposed by Anyone else and he didn't want that to become a stumbling block because there's still some people even today that will believe that if you're Not baptized or not saved Right and they tie in that with salvation and I think Jesus obviously very wisely would have not done that just because he didn't want them people to think that That had anything to do with their salvation Since they're already accepting him and believing on him right and then you got people Oh, I got baptized by do I just got baptized by John or whatever Jesus himself was not doing the baptizing Philip we see is someone now obviously John the Baptist was doing baptizing Jesus's disciples were baptizing people and that's what it says here. His disciples were baptizing So this would be you know The the 12 disciples Probably some more but they all would have been told to do the baptism by Jesus Christ. They've been ordained by Jesus to do Baptisms we see Philip in Acts chapter 8 Right acts 8 verse number 5 says then Philip went down to the city of Samaria and preached Christ unto them And if you remember a couple weeks ago, I preached on What I preach on oh the the The the people the deacons I preached a sermon on deacons And I was saying how I believe that there's the seven people that were selected for the daily administration Were deacons that were being assigned by that that huge church That they had to do these other tasks Philip was one of the people in that list Just like Stephen was these are great men of God, right? so Philip was one of those people who was ordained to do a job in the church and I believe was ordained to be a deacon doesn't say specifically as a deacon, but whatever He was definitely ordained He was definitely chosen as a man that was full of faith and had these qualifications to do the job that they wanted him to do and Philip is another one that's mentioned and you could go through there's not very many people listed as who's doing baptizing in the scripture so if you're gonna try to see examples of it, these are the examples you're gonna find and Philip goes and he's preaching the gospel verse 12 says but when they believe Philip preaching the things concerning Kingdom of God in the name of Jesus Christ, they were baptized both men and women and We don't know who specifically is doing the baptizing there Except we know that Philip is the one that went down to Samaria and based on the context of the story It sounds like he's there by himself and he's like waiting still waiting to meet up with other people and everything else But he went down here to do some soul winning and ends up baptizing these people verse 13 Says then Simon himself believed also and when he was baptized he continued with Philip and wondered beholding the miracles and signs Which were done now when the apostles which were at Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received the Word of God They sent unto them Peter and John So now the apostles start to hear of the work that Phillips doing down there in Samaria and they send Apostles down there to check it out and it says in verse 15 who when they were come down Prayed for them that they might receive the Holy Ghost for as yet He was fallen upon none of them only they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. So Phillips down there and He doesn't have the power to lay hands on people and give them the power of the Holy Ghost There were certain people who had that gift of being able and that was the Apostles that were able to give people gifts of the Holy Ghost you know to be able to speak with other tongues and the healing and everything else that you Read about of gifts that were given of the Holy Ghost through laying on to the Apostles hands They were able to give those gifts Philip was not capable of doing that because he hadn't done that but he was still getting people saved and baptized So he was ordained to do those things but he did not have the ability to do that and then of course, we know that That guy Simon wants to have that power also and they're like no and in his heart, you know Whatever all that sorry. I'm not getting into that. Let's jump down verse 35 because there's another famous passage here with Philip Says in verse 35 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 unto a certain water and the eunuch said see here is water What doth hinder me to be baptized and Philip said if thou believeth with all thine heart thou mayest and he answered and said I believe That Jesus Christ is the Son of God and he commanded the chariot to stand still and they went down both into the water Both Philip and the eunuch and he baptized him and this is one of those verses where people want to say Oh, well, I mean Philip just I mean the guy just has to be baptized So Philip just went down and baptized him, but Philip was ordained I mean Philip was an ordained leader in the church that was doing the baptism and It's not that you have to set up a special time to baptize someone hey if someone get baptized right away Amen, this would be like if I was out soul winning and I had an opportunity to baptize someone I would just be able to baptize them right away Because I'm an ordained authority in a church That would carry out that baptism and it doesn't matter where I'm at We don't have to set up a special time for it. We could just do it But I do not believe that this is something that just anybody should just be taken upon themselves to do Baptisms now, but I'll also say this turn if you go to 1st Corinthians chapter once last place I've returned 1st Corinthians chapter 1 Because this is also where we see the teaching that the person doing the baptizing isn't all that important Now while I do think for the reasons I already stated For things to be done decently in order there you ought to have specific people within the church that are doing the baptisms people who've been ordained and appointed to do the baptisms and That's for very good reasons to just make sure you're not just Ruining a testimony even of an entire church because you're just baptizing people willy-nilly and just you know Whatever will baptize you here, you know, it's like hold on a second there, you know, let's let's make sure everything is being done properly and people who have already been chosen as being as as having knowledge and Not being a novice and being able to do these things, you know It makes sense for those people to be the ones performing the baptism Because they're the leaders right now and they're the ones that are put in that position It doesn't mean that other people aren't smart enough or capable of doing it It's just hey these let's just do things and follow a set order right first Corinthians chapter 1 verse 12 Which is another great passage by the way for showing people that baptism is not required for salvation Verse 12 says now this I say that every one of you sayeth I am a Paul and I have a Paulus and I have Cephas and I have Christ is Christ divided was Paul crucified for you or were you baptized in the name of Paul? I Thank God that I baptized none of you But Crispus and Gaius lest any should say that I had baptized in mine own name So we see here that the Apostle Paul really wasn't doing many baptisms personally Now there was other people appointed to do these baptisms But at Corinth he wasn't the one going down into the water and performing his baptism He did it a few times Right. He names here Crispus Gaius He's saying I thank God that he didn't baptize anyone. Why I mean if baptized if baptism was required for salvation Why in the world would be saying well, I'm just glad I didn't baptize you then So you can all just die and go to hell No because baptism isn't required for For for entrance in the heaven. He's saying this because he said oh, I don't want anyone just thinking I'm lifting myself up so much That now I'm baptizing people in my own name No, you're gonna baptize the name of Jesus because he's the Savior not in his own name And he says and I baptized also the household of Stephanus besides I know not whether I baptized any other for Christ sent me not to baptize but to preach the gospel Not with wisdom of words lest the cross of Christ should be made of none effects And you know my job what I've been focusing on is just going out and preaching the gospel We've got other guys back here that can help and do these baptisms, right go get baptized Because if you're out preaching the gospel is not water everywhere Right John the Baptist was in Enon because there was much water there and he was able to perform the baptisms and Preach and do his ministry when there's water around him, but Paul was going all over the place Right and when he's going out soul-winning, it's not like you just had water everywhere to baptize people so he's saying you know what I'm gonna be focused on doing the soul-winning and Hey, you need you're saved now you need to go get baptized So go over here by this body of water where we've got people like, you know Ready to baptize you and I'm gonna keep going and hitting these doors, right? So he's not like stopping. Okay Let's all walk over here. Now. We'll baptize you and then go back. It doesn't make any sense So I say all that because it's not like oh well I want the Apostle Paul to baptize me and I've seen this and I understand when people have An emotional tie to someone Because they were real influential in their life and oh, can you baptize me but at the end of the day? You know what? It doesn't matter who baptizes you Jesus wasn't baptizing people personally the apostle Paul was saying, you know I'm glad I didn't baptize people personally because I don't he didn't want to be lifted up to you know to a Inappropriate degree or anything or anyone even be able to say that he was baptizing people in his own name It's Not the person that's doing the baptism that matters and I don't think that's what God views as being whether it's acceptable or not It's you taking that that step of obedience to do a public display that you're Putting your faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and that and that step of obedience now, it's a command to be baptized and The word baptism literally means immersion So we believe in people getting completely dunked under water to illustrate and show how our Lord Jesus Christ died on the cross was buried and rose again three days later, and that's the symbolism behind the act of Baptism is when you go into the water it demonstrates the death and burial of Jesus Christ But then coming back up out of the water is like Jesus coming up out of the grave in his resurrection and you Doing that in front of you know It doesn't matter how many people doesn't have to be in front of an entire group and in the whole church And if it wasn't for the whole church, it's not legitimate. It could be in front of one person But the point is it's for God. It's showing your faith Outwardly to God that yes I'm gonna die to self just as Jesus died on the cross and I'm gonna walk in newness of life And this is what I'm gonna do That's what it's about. It's not about the person doing the the actual dunking because It's not like they have magic hands or say magic words and it's like now now that's legit And here's the thing If it really mattered who is doing it, I mean think about it like You think God wants you worried about? Oh, man, this person baptized me, but then it comes out like much later They're wolf in sheep's clothing right if someone like think about rapper base of people that sneak in they creep in they get Positions and they get ordained and they get you know They become part of the church and they're doing these baptisms for years and then it all of a sudden finds out man That guy was a pervert that guy's a you know, whatever they're out So now you just have to do all these re baptisms again Well that didn't count. None of you accounted for well, this guy already died. He got bit yoked. Well God never viewed it as legitimate Even though you didn't know that he was a bad guy or whatever That's Silly, okay, that's ridiculous. That's taking things too far It's on the one hand should you have the right people perform a baptism? I do believe you should I believe it should be someone who's ordained or whatever that it's not just out of order of just Everybody taking it on themselves and just baptizing people and you've got new believers just starting to baptize roommates and other people and stuff when they're not even really grounded and settled and You know grown enough to understand more fully some of the deeper things right and and be able to to do that because I Mean, it's like the people who get baptized like good to try like all these different religions and stuff. It's like Pretty soon. It just becomes pointless and meaningless And I've know, you know some people great amen if they've been through a bunch of false religions But then they finally get it right and get baptized. Amen. It's great But do you know some people just doing it because they're just like trying out each one And I think that some people might want to have their bases covered just be like well I just try you like I was a member of all these different is one of them's got to be right and But but the more you do it just diminishes the whole meaning and purpose of it Right, it's just it's kind of so there's a good reason to have Someone who's ordained doing the Baptist performing it. Is it some hard fast rule? No, you can't point description say it's some hard fast rule So if somebody ended up being baptized by someone else that wasn't ordained Right, maybe someone lives in some area and it's just kind of remote and there's really no churches There's no one preaching the right gospel But they ended up getting saved through someone passing through whatever and that person baptized them Is that just gonna be like well God's just gonna curse you now because you didn't do things, right? No, I don't believe that for a second I would still I would say that you know what you got baptized by the Maybe the best person whoever is around to be able to do it And I don't think you should just wait If you want to get baptized, you know, you should do your best to try to get it done in a way That's that's the most real or optimal but I mean let's face it if people had there's unique Situations and kind of weird, you know exceptions to the rule where I don't think God's is gonna be like Nope, sorry I'm not recognizing the the the fact that you wanted to go through with this and and got baptized because that person Just was not the right person So while I don't recommend just anyone going on baptizing at the same time I'm not saying that it's you know, it's not that important on who's doing it and How is this tie in with a Baptist brighter? Well because we need to take the Biblical Approach and not go off the deep end on any doctrine Because you can start taking things to weird extremes And then and that's where you're gonna end up with. Okay. Now we got to rebaptize the whole church And then you end up having baptisms every you know, like our baptism numbers are gonna be exceeding our soul-winning numbers You're gonna be finding all these faults and flaws and all this person did it Now you need to do this and I've heard people like you need to be if you wanna be a member of our church you Gotta get re baptized at our church They don't recognize other churches this that's part of the Baptist brighter believe to like if you come from another Baptist Church that wasn't a Baptist brighter and You want to join their church? I'm pretty confident. That's what it is. This is just based off a memory now I didn't I didn't do the research on this kind I just thought about this now because I remember that coming up before to Where someone was telling me that they had to get rebaptized at that church Even though they'd been saved they have a testimony being saved You know like they had gotten baptized and a bat, you know, just some different Baptist Church But it wasn't a Baptist brighter Church and they had to get rebaptized in that church or else They couldn't even be a member of the church And that's taking things too far and that's just just weird and it's gonna lead you into other weird doctrine Let's borrow as I've ordered a prayer dear Heavenly Father Lord, we thank you so much for Your words and I pray that you would please just help us to have good doctrine and have sound doctrine Lord and that we would follow The example set forth in Scripture, especially when it comes to church and administration so that we're doing everything decently and in order Lord help us to continue to learn and I pray that you would please just open up our minds To understand the truth more every day in Jesus name we pray. Amen Amen