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Hey man, so here we are in John chapter number one, so we're gonna look and we're gonna start really in verse number 15 tonight in John chapter number one. We're gonna look, last week we looked at who Jesus was. We looked at who Jesus was in the first 14 verses of John chapter one. Tonight we're gonna look at who John the Baptist is and what he was doing here. In verse number six, the Bible says, it kind of tells us who he was and why he was there, but we're gonna look at specifically what he was doing and why he actually meets Jesus in this chapter as well. Look at verse number six, the Bible says there was a man sent from God whose name was John. The same came for a witness to bear witness of the light. We talked about Jesus being the light last week. It says that was the true light which lighteth every man that cometh into the world. But I'm sorry, verse number eight, he was not that light saying, you know, John was not the one. He was just there. He was just there. He was sent to bear witness. He was sent to, you know, come and kind of declare the coming light is what John was there for. But it's important to know that John was sent from God in verse number six. We're gonna start in verse number 15 where the Bible says, John bear witness of him and cried saying, this was he of whom I spake. He that cometh after me is preferred before me for, and then he says something that he says twice. And he says, you know, I have this underline in my Bible, he says, for he was before me. And after we look at the second time he says that, I'm going to show you what he's talking about when he says for he was before me. And look at verse 16, and his fullness have all we received and grace for grace, for the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. So he's already declaring that this person Jesus is the Messiah. No man has seen God at any time, the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him. And this is the record of John when the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, who art thou? So the next few verses, John is out in the wilderness, he's preaching this, he's preaching Jesus Christ. And we just saw that. What was what was the message that John was preaching before he started doing the actions that he was doing? He was preaching Jesus Christ in the wilderness, all right. And now the Pharisees and the scribes, they send people out to visit, you know, I'm sure he's making quite a stir. They send people out to see who is this guy? What's he doing? And they start interrogating him here. In verse number 19, it says, anyway, they asked who art thou in verse number 19. In verse number 20, he starts telling them, he says he confessed and denied not but confessed I am not the Christ. Now every single Pharisee, every single Jew knows, you know, Christ is not Jesus's last name. You know, Jared Pozarnsky, Christ is the Messiah, Jesus the Christ, the Christ being the Messiah. So you know, so basically, John, when he says, you know, truth came by Jesus Christ, he's saying this person Jesus is the Christ is what he is declaring to everybody, because the Jews and the children of Israel had been waiting for the Christ. This is how all people in the Old Testament were saved by believing God's promise that he was going to send a Christ or the Messiah. We call, we see that word used in John chapter one here, as well. So the scribes and the Pharisees, they go out to see what this is all about. And they asked him, what then? He said, I'm not the Messiah is what he's saying. He said, what then? Art thou Elias? That's me. That means that's the New Testament word for Elijah. All right. Are you Elijah? And I'll tell you why in a few minutes why they're asking if he's Elijah. And he sayeth, I am not. Art thou that prophet? And he answered, no. Now that's interesting, because this kind of shows that, you know, this was a prophecy that Elijah would come first. And this kind of shows that, you know, John was saying, you know, this is, he either knew that it was a spiritual fulfillment, or he just didn't know that he was fulfilling this spiritual prophecy, because he was actually spiritually fulfilling a certain prophecy in the Old Testament by being there. He was the spirit of Elijah, as we'll look at in just a few minutes. Look at John chapter one, verse 22. So he tells them, I'm not Elijah. I mean, he's not physically Elijah. John the Baptist was not, you know, Elijah, you know, brought back down from heaven. John the Baptist was fulfilling a prophecy, it was a spiritual fulfillment of a prophecy. We'll look at that in just a few minutes. Look at verse 22. And they said to them, who art thou? They said, who are you then? And we may give an answer to them that sent us, what sayest thou of thyself? He said, I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness, make straight the way of the Lord, ask sayeth the prophet, Esaias. Now Esaias is Isaiah, turn to Isaiah chapter 40, turn to Isaiah chapter 40. This is what, this is what John the Baptist is quoting right here. He's quoting Isaiah chapter 40, which is a prophecy. In Isaiah chapter 40, you look at verse number one, Isaiah chapter 40 in the Old Testament, look at verse number one, where the Bible says, comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God, speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem and cry unto her that her warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned, for she hath received of the Lord's hand double for all her sins. Then verse number three says, the voice of him that crieth in the wilderness, prepare ye the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God. So this is what John the Baptist is quoting. He's quoting this messianic prophecy from Isaiah chapter 40. Now turn to Matthew chapter 17. Let's go back to this idea of him being Elijah, because there is a prophecy in the Old Testament we'll look at in just a couple seconds about, you know, Elijah coming and, you know, before the Christ comes. All right. Let's go back to Matthew chapter 17 and look at verse number 10. Look at Matthew chapter 17. Look at verse number 10. So the disciples actually asked Jesus this. It says, the disciples asked him, saying, why then say the scribes that Elias must first come? And I'm going to show you that prophecy in just a couple minutes. And Jesus answered and said unto them, Elias truly shall come first and restore all things. But I say unto you that Elias has come already and they knew him not, but have done unto him whatsoever they listed, likewise also the son of man, also the son of man suffer of them. Then the disciples understood that he spake unto them of John the Baptist. Now turn to Malachi chapter four, the last chapter in the Old Testament. Look at Malachi chapter number four. And let's look at this prophecy in the Old Testament. Malachi chapter four, right before the book of Matthew, you'll see the last book of the Old Testament, which is Malachi chapter number four. And look at verse number five. This is what the scribes and the Pharisees were referencing when they were asking John the Baptist, are you Elijah? Look at verse number five. It says, Malachi four, verse five, it says, behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord, and he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children and the heart of the children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse. So the Bible here is quoting that Elijah is going to come and he's going to attempt to make straight the way of the Lord. It's kind of the same thing here. He's going to try to get people's hearts right to prepare for the Messiah to come. That was the point of Elijah coming. And here we see Jesus explain to us in Matthew chapter 17 that John the Baptist was a spiritual fulfillment of this prophecy. So either John was talking in verse number 21 that he was not a physical fulfillment of it, he wasn't actually Elijah, and he knew, I think that's my opinion, the Bible doesn't really say for sure what he actually knew, but I think that since he was taught of the Lord that he knew that he was a spiritual fulfillment of that, he just didn't feel like he had to explain things to the scribes and the Pharisees at the time. That's my thoughts on that. Look at verse, go back to John chapter 1 and look at verse number 23. So basically if you look at John chapter 1 and verse number 21, 22, and 23, he's kind of telling them I'm not actually Elijah, even though he was the spiritual fulfillment of Elijah, as Jesus explained in Matthew 17. But in verse number 23, he quotes and he says, I am the one, I'm the voice of one crying in the wilderness, make straight the way of the Lord. He says, I am fulfilling this prophecy in Isaiah chapter 40. So he's literally telling them that he's a prophet, is what John the Baptist is telling the Pharisees. He's like, hey, I'm a prophet. I am the guy that is Isaiah chapter 40 was talking about. Now look at verse number 24. Verse number 24, and they which were sent were of the Pharisees. So they were just there to cause trouble. They weren't going to believe anything that he said anyway. And they asked of him and he said unto him, why baptizest thou then, if thou be not that Christ nor Elias, neither that prophet? John answered them saying, I baptize with water, but there standeth one among you whom ye know not. He it is who coming after me is preferred before me, whose shoe latch it I am not worthy to unloose. So again, he's declaring Jesus. He's declaring the Christ. He's declaring this isn't about me. This is about this person that's about to come on the scene. Verse 28 says these things were done in Bethabara beyond Jordan where John was baptizing. And then verse 29 in John chapter one, we see the baptism of Jesus here. We see Jesus being baptized. It says the next day, John seeth Jesus coming unto him saying, behold the lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world. And then in verse number 30, he says again, he says this is a he of whom I said, after me cometh a man which is preferred before me, for he was before me. Now this is interesting. Turn to Luke chapter one. So twice John has said about Jesus that he was before me. I mean, it's pretty clear that we've seen so far that John knew exactly who Jesus was. He knew, you know, I mean, behold the lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world. You're not talking about a prophet there. You're literally talking about the Messiah, but he knew exactly who Jesus was. He wasn't like, Oh, this is some, you know, person. He knew that Jesus was the son of God. Look at Luke chapter one. And it's interesting. The word he uses that he says is twice. He says, for he was before me, Luke chapter one says this, Luke chapter one talks about Elizabeth who was John's mother. It says, and after those days, his wife, Elizabeth conceived and hid herself five months saying, thus the Lord had dealt with me in the days wherein he looked on me to take away my reproach among men. And in the sixth month, the angel Gabriel was sent from God unto a city of Galilee named Nazareth. So all that to say this, Elizabeth was pregnant six months before. This is going to get, you know, tell Mary that she is, you know, with child of the Holy Ghost is how this story continues. So all that to say this, John the Baptist was born before Jesus. He was at least, you know, five, six months older than Jesus physically on this earth. So all I'm trying to say is that Jesus or John the Baptist, when he said for he was before me, he was acknowledging that Jesus was God. He was telling the Pharisees, he was telling the people there that this is the son of God. He was before John, not because he was born before him, because he was born after John. Jesus was what? He was from eternity. He was, you know, he was not born. Jesus always was. He was the word of God and the word was God, just as we looked at last week. Jesus was from eternity. And John is literally acknowledging the deity of Christ with that statement. How many people caught it? Who knows? Definitely not the Pharisees, right? Look at verse number 31 of John chapter one. Now we're going to look at what John was doing. What John was doing. We're going to look at what John was doing the day before, what John was doing when Jesus came there. In verse number 31, it says, so he was doing this thing, he was baptizing people, and it says, and I knew him not, but that he should be made manifest, made known to Israel, therefore I am come, baptizing with water. And John bear record, saying, I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and it abode upon him. And I knew him not, but he that sent me to baptize with water, the same said unto me, upon whom thou shall see the Spirit descending, this is the Holy Spirit, and remaining on him, the same as he that baptizeth with the Holy Ghost. So now we see John is baptizing people, he's baptizing people with water, and then he's saying that this person that I'm talking about, the Messiah, is going to baptize with the Holy Ghost. So I want to explain to you for just a few minutes the difference between the baptism of water and the baptism of the Holy Ghost. All right, so turn to Acts chapter two in verse number 38. Acts chapter two in verse number 38. Let's look at the baptism of the Holy Ghost, because this is a very specific thing that happened in the book of Acts. It's something that also, it applies to us today, you know, and I'm going to explain to you what that is. All right, look at Acts chapter two in verse 38. There's a lot of false teaching about the baptism of the Holy Ghost, and, you know, an equivalent of the baptism of the Holy Ghost is being filled with the Holy Ghost. All right, those are things that are, you know, the same. All right, look at verse number 38 of Acts chapter two. Then Peter said unto them, repent and be baptized, every one of you in the name of Christ, for the remission of sins, and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. So people that teach baptism for salvation will use this verse, like, all the time. But the point is, is salvation is the part where it says repent, because repenting means changing your mind from unbelief to belief. So the salvation part of this verse is in the repent part of the verse, all right? And then it's just saying, and be baptized, every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ, for the remission of sins, and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. What is the gift of the Holy Ghost? What happened in Acts chapter two? They got filled with the Holy Ghost, and they started speaking in all these different tongues or these different languages, and they started preaching on the day of Pentecost to all these different people that were in Jerusalem, from all these different nations, and they started preaching what? They started preaching Jesus Christ to these people. The miracle had a purpose. It wasn't a bunch of blabber, it wasn't a bunch of gibberish, it was to preach the gospel to people in the language that they could understand. So that is what the Holy Ghost was doing for them in Acts chapter two. Look at Acts chapter one, verse number five. Again, we see this idea of being baptized with the Holy Ghost, being kind of prophesied to the disciples before it actually happens in Acts chapter two. But in Acts chapter one, verse number five, it says, for John truly baptized with water, but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost, not many days hence. Again, talking about that day of Pentecost miracle that God is about to perform. It had a very specific purpose. It had a very specific purpose of just spreading the kingdom of heaven on earth, and it made a lot of sense. All these people come from other nations, they would get saved, and they would go back to their nations and just start spreading the gospel all over the world. So being baptized with the Holy Ghost, look at Acts chapter seven. Look at Acts chapter seven. So when you are saved, and I'm not going to spend the whole sermon on this, but basically this is how the Holy Ghost works with you. Your body is a temple of the Holy Ghost if you're saved. When you are saved, God puts a down payment of the Holy Ghost in you. Ephesians chapter one talks about you being sealed with the Holy Ghost. You get that earnest of the Spirit, meaning God puts enough Holy Ghost in you, enough Spirit in you, in order to seal you, keep your salvation, keep you saved, you're a temple of the Holy Ghost. Again, Ephesians chapter four, that's why you can grieve the Holy Spirit. Because you have the Holy Spirit with you if you're saved. So if you're going to be saved, and you're never going to go to church, and you're going to be a drunk, or whatever you're going to do in your life, you're going to be grieving that Holy Spirit that's with you that you're sealed with. That's not what the Bible is talking about as far as being filled with the Holy Spirit or being baptized with the Holy Spirit. Look, you're not going to be filled with the Holy Spirit if you're just not doing anything for the Lord and you're living a wicked life. We should all pray that we be filled with the Holy Spirit when we go out soul winning. We should pray, God, you give me the utterance. Look, I'm telling you, it's a real thing. I mean, the most quiet people, the most introverted people, how is it that they're such great soul winners? Because they have the Holy Spirit working with them when they're out soul winning. You'll literally be with someone who never says anything, the quietest person that you know, and you go out soul winning and you'll see them preach the gospel to somebody and you're just like, whoa, where did this come from? It's they're filled with the Holy Spirit and they're preaching the word of God. Look at Acts chapter 7, verse number 54. I mean, Stephen, Stephen, the first person martyred in the book of Acts, Stephen gives this huge, awesome sermon, but we don't know much about Stephen if he was some great order or whatever, but the Bible tells us how he was able to do that. Look at verse number 54 in Acts chapter 7, Acts chapter 7, verse number 54. The Bible says, when they heard these things, they were cut to the heart and they gnashed on him with their teeth, but he, what? Being full of the Holy Ghost, looked upon, looked up steadfastly into heaven and saw the glory of God and Jesus standing on the right hand of God. Jesus stood up for this guy, standing on the word of God, and then he said, behold, I see the heavens open and the son of man standing on the right hand of God. But he was, this was a fulfillment of the promise given to us in Matthew chapter 10. Turn to Matthew chapter 10. This is idea of being filled with the Holy Spirit, filled with the Holy Ghost. And he just, he just preaches the word of God to these people to where they're just, you know, their hearts aren't ready for it. So what? It just, it cut through their stony hearts. It just, they gnashed on him with their teeth and then they end up killing him. They end up killing him and he sees Jesus right before he dies. Look at Matthew chapter 10 in verse number 17. So look, this is a great promise here in Matthew chapter 10, now that you understand what it means to be filled with the Holy Ghost. Look, you don't have to be a pastor to be filled with the Holy Ghost. You just have to be somebody that is just, you know, being obedient to God, wants to go out and preach God's word. And look, God will answer this prayer for you. Look at verse number 17. But this is a great promise here, especially as, you know, a world gets more and more hostile towards Christians. You don't have to worry about that. Look at verse 17. It says, but beware of men, for they will deliver you up to councils. They will scourge you in their synagogues. You shall be brought before the governors and kings for my sake, for a testimony against them and the Gentiles. Verse 19. But when they deliver you up, take no thought of how or what you shall speak, for it shall be given you in the same hour what you shall speak. For it is not ye that will speak, but of the spirit of your Father which speaketh in you. This is a huge promise right here. And this is why if you read accounts of people that were martyred, and I mean just horrible things were done to them, just tortured and killed and burned to death, and you just be like, you know, I don't know, you read stories like that and you say, I don't know if I could take something like that. I don't know, you know, they're saying, recant, recant. All they wanted a lot of these people to do was say, hey, just say that you don't believe in Jesus. Say that you don't believe that, you know, these people should have been re-baptized, just recant and will throw you in prison or will kill you quickly or whatever. You know, all this suffering can stop and you read these accounts and they never stop, like they just never recanted. They just never recanted. They're on fire and they're just, they're just praising Jesus as they're burning at the stake. You're like, how is that possible? It's possible because God promises that in that time, the Holy Spirit will give us utterance. The Holy Spirit will speak for us. So it's not that Stephen was some great man, I mean, he was, I mean, I don't want to take away from Stephen. I don't want to take away from the courage of these people. But that is just simply God fulfilling his promise by when we need it the most, God promises that he will fill us with the Holy Ghost. You don't have to worry about what you're going to say. You're like, I don't even, I can't really quote Bible verses and I can't really do this that well and all that. Hey, at that time, you'll be quoting all kinds of stuff if that happens. It's a promise that God, I love that promise. You don't have to worry about that. This is one of those promises that God just gives us. He's like, at that time, I will fill you with the Holy Ghost and I will tell you what to say. But look, you don't have to be getting martyred to be filled with the Holy Ghost. You know, you can just be studying your Bible and wanting to go preach the Bible, you know, preach the gospel to somebody and you will feel the Holy Ghost working with you when you are preaching the Word of God to people. You will, I mean, it's God working with us as we go out and obediently do what we are supposed to do. It's a great promise in the Bible. That's what it means to be filled with the Holy Spirit, to be baptized with the Holy Ghost. And that's exactly what happened on the day of Pentecost. You know, then weird religions pop up and weird cults are made out of all this. We should just take the Bible for what it says. It's not complicated. Right? I mean, all these miracles that God did through baptizing these people, that's not the only time that they spoke in other languages in the book of Acts. I'm sure it wasn't the only time, you know, that it happened. You know, throughout Christian history. But the point is there was a point to it. It was people preaching the gospel and it was God working with them to get people saved. Is the purpose of it. It wasn't just some craziness to try to, you know, prove that you're spiritual or prove that, you know, you're saved or some weird false gospel. All right. So that's what it means to be baptized with the Holy Spirit, baptized with the Holy Ghost. And that's what John was talking about. Now, let's talk about water baptism. Let's talk about water baptism because John was baptizing people in the Jordan River. Turn to Luke chapter 3. The first mention of baptism in the Bible is actually in Matthew chapter 3. But let's look at, what I want to explain to you tonight is why John was baptizing and why Jesus needed to be baptized. You're like, what in the world? Jesus needed to be baptized? Why did Jesus need to be baptized? So that's what I want to explain to you tonight. But first, before we can understand why Jesus needed to be baptized, we need to understand why John was baptizing. All right. So look at Luke chapter 3. Look at Luke chapter 3. It's mentioned the first time in the New Testament in Matthew chapter 3, but look at Luke chapter 3 in verse number 2. So this answers why John was baptizing. Why was John baptizing people? Okay. The question is, why was he doing this? Look at verse number 2. Because before Jesus came, he was baptizing other people. Look at verse 2. And then Annas and Caiaphas, being the high priests, the word of God came unto John the son of Zacharias in the wilderness. So why was John doing what he was doing? This answers it right here. Because God told him to. The word of God told John what to do. And he came into a country, into all the country about Jordan, preaching the baptism of repentance for the remission of sins. As it is written in the books of the words of Asias the prophet Isaiah, saying, the voice of one crying in the wilderness, Isaiah 40, prepare ye the way of the Lord, make his pass straight. So John was told to do this by the word of the Lord. John was told to do this by Jesus, by the word of God. All right. The word of the Lord came to him in the wilderness. It's kind of similar to, you know, how Paul was taken for three years and taught of Jesus. You wonder like Paul wrote, you know, two thirds of the New Testament, how did he know all this stuff? Because Jesus taught him. But Jesus literally took him for three years and taught him personally. So the word of God told John to do this. So the question is, what is this water baptism that he's doing? If you kind of read the New Testament, the first, second, third time, you're kind of like, it seems like baptism kind of came out of nowhere. It seems like, okay, he's doing this thing. But for some reason, the Jews knew what it was. The Jews, it wasn't out of nowhere, is the point. And the New Testament kind of tells us what it was about. But there's three Old Testament references that I want to show you for baptism. Turn to 1 Peter chapter 3, 1 Peter chapter 3. The Bible kind of tells us, in 1 Peter chapter 3, one of the reasons for baptism and it gives us an Old Testament comparison for this. But there's three references to the Old Testament that kind of unlock baptism for us. Let's look at that for just a few minutes here. We're just going to kind of have to do a little bit of a Bible study here tonight to kind of wrap our arms around this one. But to the untrained eye, it might seem like baptism came out of nowhere in the New Testament, but that's not the case. All right? Look at 1 Peter chapter 3. The Bible teaches that there are pictures of baptism in the Old Testament. All right? And we see that in 1 Peter chapter 3, look at verse number 18. The Bible says, For Christ also hath suffered for sins the just for the unjust that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit. By which also he went and preached unto the spirits in prison. I believe that's a reference of Jesus going to hell, his soul going to hell. Which some time were disobedient, when once the longsuffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was preparing, wherein few, that is eight souls, were what? They were saved by water. All right, now. This is what everybody misses in the Bible that believes false things about baptism. First of all, were they spiritually saved by water? We're talking about they were literally saved. Their lives were saved. They were physically saved by water. And then the very next three words kind of explain that this is a picture. This is a picture. It says, The like figure where unto, even baptism doth also now save us. And people will say, people will take those words, baptism also doth now save us. They'll be like, see, you have to be baptized to be saved. No, read the verse. It says, the like figure. What it is saying is that this is a picture. It's talking about Noah and the eight people in his family, the eight people that survived the flood is a picture of baptism. It says, and then it literally says in parentheses, it says, not the putting away of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience towards God by the resurrection of Jesus Christ. So what the Bible is explaining here in verse number 21 is that saying that the flood was a picture of physical salvation and baptism is a picture of your spiritual salvation. It's a picture of it. It is not your spiritual salvation. You are not saved spiritually by being baptized. It's a picture of it. Turn to Romans chapter six in verse number four. Romans chapter six, look at verse number four. Romans six, four is one of the most common. If you have a baptism certificate, you've been baptized here. Romans six, four is on your baptism certificate. Romans six, four kind of explains this in detail. It shows it just kind of a picture of your salvation. It says therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death that like as, you see that? Like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even also should walk in newness of life. So it is a picture of us being buried with Christ and rising again to walk in newness of life. It's a picture of it. It's not your salvation, all right? So the physical salvation of the ark and the eight people saved is a comparison to, it's just saying it's a comparison to a baptism of water being a picture of your actual salvation. All right? I mean, it's not that complicated. Turn to 1 Corinthians chapter 10. So it explains, it says, and then it literally says that it is an answer of a good conscience towards God, meaning it's something that you should do to be obedient towards the Lord. That's what it's talking about, all right? Look at 1 Corinthians chapter 10, look at verse number 1, 1 Corinthians chapter 10. We see another Old Testament reference to baptism, 1 Corinthians chapter 10 in verse number 1. It kind of gives us another point of baptism. It says in verse number 1, it says, Moreover, brethren, I would not that you should be ignorant how that our fathers were under the cloud and all passed through the sea. Talking about the cloud that was leading them, talking about the parting of the Red Sea that saved the Israelites from Egypt, and it says in verse number 2, it says, And were all baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea. And verse number 3 is really the key here, it says, And did all eat the same spiritual meat. So what this is saying is that they all ate the same spiritual meat, showing that baptism identifies you with a group of believers. It identifies you with people that believe the same doctrines as you. The doctrines of the Bible. This is why Jesus chose to be baptized, not to give away the answer, but this is why Jesus chose to be baptized by John, because they shared the same doctrine. And it was, he was showing his accord with him. Jesus was giving validity to what John was saying by being baptized by him. Go to Leviticus chapter 16. It's also a picture of a cleansing, and so this is probably the main thing that the Jews were thinking that it was referencing in Leviticus chapter 16, it was something that the high priests did. Look at Leviticus chapter 16, look at verse number 3, it says thus, Leviticus chapter 16, verse number 3, it says, Thus Aaron, talking about the Day of Atonement here. This is the big chapter. The big chapter that pictures, you know, we've got the bulls, the goats, we've got all the different things that are done in this chapter that Jesus fulfills all. Jesus pictures everything in the Day of Atonement in Leviticus chapter 16. But look at what verse number 3 says before we even get into the sacrifices, it says Aaron shall come into the holy place with a young bullock for a sin offering and a ram for a burnt offering, and he shall put on a holy linen coat and he shall have the linen breeches upon his flesh, he shall be girded with a linen girdle, and the linen mitre shall be attired, this is his hat, these are the holy garments, therefore, look at this, he shall wash his flesh in water and so put them on. You know, we're kings and priests, the Bible says, in Revelation chapter 1, so it's just a picture again of the cleansing that has taken place after your spiritual salvation. Now turn to Acts chapter 8, who should be baptized? Who should be baptized? Acts chapter 8 is the quintessential chapter in the Bible that tells us who should be baptized, you know, where Philip meets the Ethiopian eunuch. Look at verse, I mean the word, you know, it's interesting that, you know, in Leviticus chapter 16, the priest is to wash himself, I doubt he sprinkled a few drops of water on his head, because that wouldn't, you know, baptism literally means, the word means to immerse. That's what the Greek word means. baptism was actually made up to just, but it meant, in the Greek, it meant to immerse. The idea that anyone could be baptized by sprinkling is ridiculous just by the meaning of the original Greek word in the first place, alright? But it's lazy, it's convenient, you know, if you want to turn baptism into something weird that gives you salvation, you know, you don't want to have to fill up a big baptistry, you know, you might as well change that too, right? Look at Acts chapter 8, and look at verse number 26. It says the angel of the Lord spake unto Philip saying arise and go towards the south unto the way that goeth down from Jerusalem unto Gaza, which is desert, and he arose and went and behold a man of Ethiopia, eunuch of great authority under Candace the queen of Ethiopians, who had the charge over all her treasure, and had come to Jerusalem for to worship, was returning and sitting in his chariot, and he read, Esaias the prophet, he's reading Isaiah. The spirit said unto Philip, go near and join thyself to this chariot, and Philip ran thither to him, he's reading messianic prophecies from Isaiah, and Philip ran thither to him and heard him read the prophet Esaias, and said, understandeth what thou readest? He said, how can I, except some man should guide me? This is Romans chapter 10 right here, you know, how are they gonna hear without a preacher? And he desired that Philip, that he would come up and sit with him, and the place of the scripture which he read was this, he was led as a sheep to the slaughter, and like a lamb dumb before his shearer, so he opened not his mouth, just a prophecy in Isaiah about the Messiah, 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? Of himself, or of some other man? So he's asking, here's this messianic prophecy, and he's saying, who is this person? And Philip knows the answer, so Philip opened his mouth and began at the same scripture and preached unto him Jesus. Here's the soul winning presentation right here. 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? He's like, here's water, so he's had Jesus preached unto him, and Philip, you know, they come to water, and he says, what doth hinder me to be baptized? And Philip said, verse 37, if thou believeth with all thine heart thou mayest, meaning if you are saved, if you have trusted on Jesus, you can be baptized. That is who should be baptized. People that have believed on the Lord Jesus Christ, which is all that it takes to be saved. The Bible is so clear on that, it's more clear on that than anything else, is that it only takes believing on or trusting on Jesus. And he answered and said, I believe. Now he confesses with his mouth to Philip, I believe that Jesus Christ is the son of God. He commanded the chariot to stand still, they went down into the water, into the water, and both Philip and the eunuch, and he baptized him. So verse 37 is the quintessential verse on who should be baptized. It's people that are saved that have believed on Jesus, and that's why it's removed from every modern Bible, because you can't baptize babies if you have verse 37 in there, it kind of wrecks everything, right? Which is why it's removed. You would think people would wonder why it goes from 36 to 38, but apparently they don't. So it's listing the only one prerequisite to being baptized, which is belief, which is all it takes to be saved. So that's the question now. The next question is, so now we know who needs to be baptized, we know why John was baptizing. Does baptism save you? Here's the verses people use, Acts chapter 2, go back to verse 38. Acts chapter 2, actually go to Mark chapter 16, I've already kind of explained that one. It says repent and be baptized, repent meaning believe on Jesus, change your mind, believe on Jesus, be saved, and be baptized. It's very simple. All right, look at Mark chapter 16, look at verse number 15. Mark chapter 16, verse number 15. This is another one that people will use to say that baptism, that you need to be baptized to be saved, but this is, I mean, all we have to do is read this one, and it's very simple. Mark chapter 16, look at verse number 15, and he said unto them, go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. So you're going to go preach the gospel to everybody, and it says he that believeth. So some people are going to believe, some people aren't when you go out and preach the gospel to people. Some people don't want to hear the gospel. You preach the gospel to somebody, look, we preached the gospel to three people today. Two got saved, one didn't. So some people will believe, some people won't. It says he that believeth and is baptized shall be saved. See, you have to be baptized to be saved. But first of all, we don't even need the last half of the verse, but the last half of the verse helps us. But it says he that believeth and is baptized shall be saved. So the Bible is saying here, he that believeth and is baptized, you know, shall be saved. So that's a true statement. He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved. But here's another true statement. He that believeth and drives a Ford shall be saved. He that believeth and eats turkey on Saturday shall be saved. He that believeth and installs carpet for a living shall be saved. And it explains it to us at the last part of this verse. It says but he that believeth not shall be damned. Does it say he that believeth not and doesn't install carpet shall be damned? No, the thing that damns you is not believing. Meaning the thing that saves you is belief alone, which is what matches every other part of the Bible. They also use John chapter three, which I've preached through that before. But the funny thing about John chapter three is John chapter three is probably the chapter in the Bible. I think it is the chapter in the Bible that says the most times that you just need to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ to be saved. He that believeth on the sun hath everlasting life. Verse number 36. I mean, it's got the most clear verses in the Bible about what it takes to be saved. And then they'll take the conversation with Nicodemus at the beginning and say, oh, you know, you have to be born of water and of the Spirit, and they'll say the water is baptism. And like, okay, this Bible has been around for thousands of years. God promised to preserve us. He's miraculously preserved this Bible for us. And yet he makes it contradict itself multiple times in one chapter. Like you're reading it wrong. You have a problem with the way you're interpreting things in the Bible. I mean, it's just a Bible reading rule. You can't just read something and interpret it where it just makes clear verses wrong or contradictory. It's very simple. It's unsaved people that understand what they're reading, what they're talking about. You know, I mean, just imagine Acts chapter six and verse number 31. I mean, it's a really complicated verse in the Bible. What must I do to be saved? Leave on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved. You're like, man, that's really hard to understand. What do I have to do? I mean, you'd think, like, did they give him half an answer? Did they not really tell him how to be saved? Were they lying to him? You know, like, they've left out that you also have to install carpet. You also have to be baptized. You have to do these other things. The poor guy's going to go to hell because they didn't tell him the whole thing? I mean, give me a break. It doesn't make any sense at all, all right? So look, it's just he that believeth in a baptized shall be saved, but he that believeth not shall be damned. It's not believing that damns you. It's because believing is what saves you, all right? Very easy to understand and clarify these things to people that want to understand the truth. All right? So back to what baptism is. We know that baptism is for believers. It's for people that are saved. That's what John was doing. He was declaring Jesus Christ to people, and he was baptizing people, all right? baptism is a command. It's something that we do in obedience to God, in obedience to Christ. It's the answer of a good conscience towards God. You know that, hey, you know what I'm going to do? I'm going to do what God wants me to do in this Christian life. God gave me this free gift of salvation. I'm going to do what God wants me to do. It's a picture of my salvation. It's obedience to him. It's the first step in showing him that I'm going to walk in newness of life. I'm not going to actually just like, hey, I'm saved, see you later, thanks for stopping by. I'm taking this thing, keeping it for myself for the rest of my life. I'm actually going to walk in this. I'm actually going to read the word of God and do the word of God in my life. And look, it also identifies us with believers, as we see with Moses in the Red Sea. So there's a lot of things that baptism means, and a lot of people think it's not really a big deal. But you have to remember that people were killed for this. When you look at books like The Martyr's Mirror and all these different accounts of people, many of these people were killed simply because they would not accept baptism as part of salvation. It was baptism that got many Christians in the first few centuries killed, because they would not accept it as part of salvation, and they would not stop baptizing people. So it's a big deal, and it's a big deal that the doctrine is understood. I mean, that's why Baptists were called Anabaptists. It was a joke. It was a joke. It was a derogatory term. That meant re-baptizers, re-baptizing. But here's the thing. If you've been baptized as a baby, as a Lutheran, or as a Catholic, or baptized in a Pentecostal church or whatever it was, you've never been baptized. So I mean, the irony of Anabaptists and re-baptizers is we only baptized people one time here. But it is a scriptural baptism. Whatever they did when I was a baby, it was something, but it was not baptism. It was not baptism. So it's an answer of your good conscience and obedience towards God. It identifies you with a local group of believers. It's a picture of your salvation. It's a picture of that cleansing that has taken place. Now turn to Matthew chapter 3. It's also something that shows that we want to walk in that newness of life, as John 6 4 says, and not continue in sin. It's a picture of us showing God that we don't want to continue in the life that we had. We want to have that newness of life. We want to walk in that. Look at Matthew chapter 3. Look at verse number 1. In those days, it says, came John the Baptist preaching in the wilderness of Judea, and saying, Repent ye, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. He's saying, The Messiah is here, believe on him, is what he's saying. For this is he that was spoken of by the prophet Isaiah, saying, The voice of one crying in the wilderness, prepare ye the way of the Lord, make his pass straight. And the same John had his raiment of camel's hair, and a leathern girdle, he had a good belt. I preached the whole sermon on that. I don't know if you guys saw that. But he had a good belt about him, you know, and he was out in Jerusalem, all Judea and the region around Jordan, and we're baptizing of him in Jordan, confessing their sins. What were they doing? Were they getting saved by repenting and walking away from their sins? No, they were telling God we're sorry. They're getting things right with the Lord. They got saved, they're getting things right, and they're saying, you know what, we're going to walk in a new life now. You should confess your sins. It doesn't save you, but you should confess your sins every day. It's a good thing to do. You want to have a good relationship with your Heavenly Father, not to make a mockery of the grace that we've been given. I mean, grace will abound, but we're not to make a mockery of it. It's a symbol of your new life. Now why did Jesus get baptized is the question. Now that we know why we should get baptized, why did Jesus get baptized? By the way, just a side note, that's a proof that baptism doesn't save you. It's a proof that baptism does not remit your sins, because did Jesus have sins? He was without sin, the Bible says. Baptism itself has nothing to do with the remission of sins. It is just a picture of your salvation, because Jesus didn't need to be saved. He came to save. That's the first thing. But then why? Why did Jesus have to get baptized? Are you in Matthew chapter 3? You should be in Matthew chapter 3. Matthew chapter 3. Look at verse 13. We get a little bit more detail in Matthew chapter 3 and verse number 13 about why Jesus needed to be baptized of John. Look at verse 3, it says, Then cometh Jesus from Galilee to Jordan unto John, to be baptized of him. But John forbade him, saying, I have need to be baptized of thee, and comest thou to me. Imagine God coming to you, asking to be baptized, and you're just like, what in the world? And John said, he didn't understand, you need to baptize me. And Jesus answered, answering said unto him, Suffer it to be so now, for thus it becometh us to fulfill all righteousness, then he suffered him. Now turn to Philippians chapter 2. So John says, you should be baptizing me, I shouldn't be baptizing you. And Jesus says, you need to just do it. He says, you need to just do it. This is what is supposed to happen. We need to fulfill all, I need to fulfill everything, all righteousness. What is he saying? I need to fulfill everything that God the Father has sent me to do. So you need to do this. He's saying, just suffer it to be so. He's kind of saying, you don't need to understand it, you just need to do it. Now look at verse number 2, or verse number 8 of Philippians chapter 2. Philippians chapter 2 and verse number 8. And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself. This is talking about Jesus, and look at this. It says, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. Remember the garden where Jesus is sitting there and he's praying to God, and he's literally sweating blood, he is so stressed out, he was fully man and fully God. He felt everything that we felt. He felt all our temptations, he felt all the pain, he felt all the torture. He knew exactly what was going to happen and he just was asking God, if there's any way remove this cup from me. And God said, God said, there is no way. He's like, this is what needs to happen in order for salvation to be available to who? All men. He's saying, you have to do it, and what did Jesus do? He was obedient. He did it. Jesus got baptized by John because he was obedient. He was showing obedience to God. And why? Why did he go to John to get baptized? Because he identified with John's doctrine. Because he wanted to validate exactly what John was saying. What was John saying? He was saying that Jesus is the Son of God, that Jesus is the Lamb of God, that Jesus is the Messiah, Jesus is the one that everybody's been waiting for. And he's saying, he's valid, he's right, here I am. Baptize me. Why? Because he's being obedient to God. Now doesn't that kind of sound like why we should get baptized? For obedience to God? He identified with John's doctrine? That's kind of like why we should be baptized. We should get baptized and then we should rise from the water and walk in newness of life. Jesus was, what was about to happen in Jesus' life? He was about to start his ministry. The very next thing that happens in John chapter 1 is Jesus starts calling disciples. He starts walking in his ministry on this earth. So as Jesus marks the beginning of his ministry with his baptism, it is showing us that we should mark the beginning of our Christian life with baptism. It's a big deal. It's a big deal. Jesus got baptized for the exact same reasons that we should get baptized. It's a beautiful picture. It's a beautiful picture and we should walk in newness of life just as Jesus walked and started his ministry on this earth. He was being an example to us here on why we should get baptized. Obedience to God, identifying with the proper doctrine, being saved of course, and walking. And walking this walk, deciding, you know what, I'm not just going to be saved and hang on to this and do nothing, I'm going to start doing what the Bible says and start making some changes and start preaching the gospel to people, start getting people saved, start enlarging the kingdom of heaven, just exactly what Jesus was about to go do with this three and a half year ministry. So why did Jesus get baptized? The exact same reason that we should. Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer.