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Doctrine of the Present Acceptance and Identification of Christ's Authority
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The speaker discusses the idea of Christians who were once Hebrews or Jews but have now decided to go back into Judaism because they are lazy and don't want to study or understand the Word of God. The goal is to understand the doctrine of the present, which deals with acceptance and identification of Christ's authority. This is different from the doctrine of the past, which deals with repentance and faith. The speaker mentions the importance of baptism and how it relates to sanctification and glorification. The concept of baptism in the Old Testament was a symbol of cleansing and consecration, but it did not actually make a person holy or complete. Only through Jesus Christ can we be truly saved and accepted by God. Christians, these Hebrew people, Jews, that had given their life to Jesus Christ, have now decided they wanted to go back into Judaism. And it wasn't because of the immaturity, it was because they were just simply lazy and slothful and didn't want to study or try to understand the Word of God. And so our goal and our purpose is to try to make sure that we understand these things in order that we might be able to move on in Jesus Christ. Man, I have got a difference, I hit something on there and it gave me a whole different look out than I've ever seen before. I love technology when it works. When it doesn't work, it gets on my nerves just a little bit and tests my faith. I closed it all out, but it's still, it's something that I hit that made this thing. We're going to control the slides today and I'm going to preach. So today we're going to look at the doctrine of the present, we've looked at the doctrine of the past, what Christ's work in the past, what did He do? Repentance from dead works, faith toward God, two sides of the same coin. This has to do with our redemption, our salvation. In other words, when we come to Jesus Christ, we come only after we've repented and then we have faith toward God. Salvation takes place. Today we are going to look at the acceptance and identification of Christ's authority. That is His work in the present. So if you have your Bibles, they're in Hebrews chapter 6 and verse 1. He says, therefore, leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ, let us go on unto perfection, not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God, of the doctrine of baptisms and of laying on of hands and of resurrection of the dead and of eternal judgment. When we talk about the Christ in the past, and I mentioned it deals with redemption. It deals with salvation. And when we look at this ministry of Christ, we see that we're looking at how does Christ relate to sinners. When He relates to sinners, in order to come to Christ, you have to repent and have faith and obedience in Christ. We come to Christ in the present and it deals with sanctification. In other words, we have now, because we have been saved, we are set apart for a purpose. And this deals, the ministry of Jesus Christ is how He relates to saints. Now that we are saved, you cannot be sanctified if you have not been saved. There has to be a process that takes place. Then, in a couple of weeks, we'll look at Christ in the future that deals with our glorification. After salvation, we have been sanctified and one day we will be glorified. And this really relates to Jesus Christ and Satan and what He's going to do with Satan and sin as it is cast into the lake of fire forever and ever and all of an eternity that is there. This is the work of Jesus Christ. And I cannot say it enough that after you repent from dead works and after you have faith toward God, salvation takes place. At that very moment, the Holy Spirit comes and indwells you. The Holy Spirit comes into your life and He takes up residence in this believing sinner. You're still a sinner, but now you have the Holy Spirit within you and He abides with you forever. Acts 2, verse 41, when you're looking there at the first church, there was 120 of them gathered, a local assembly that we talked about last week. The Holy Spirit fell upon them and it says, then they gladly received His Word, that's salvation, that's redemption, justification, and were baptized. They were immersed in water. And the same day they were added unto them, church membership, about 3,000 souls. When you look at Romans chapter 8 and verse 9, Paul says, you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit. If so be that the Spirit of God dwells in you, now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of His. And so when we're saved, we receive the Holy Spirit into our life. We go back to Ephesians chapter 1 that we studied last and it says, in whom you also trusted after that you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, in whom also after that you believed, salvation, you were sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise, which is the earnest of our inheritance unto redemption of the purchased possession unto the praise of His glory. And so I've laid that out in introduction today because I want you to understand when we're talking about this, we're talking about identification and acceptance of the authority of Jesus Christ. He comes to this present ministry and He uses the word baptisms and He uses it in the plural. And I'll just be honest with you, I have been studying this and looking at this and breaking this down for about two months now. And finally, I come running out of the basement Saturday morning early, down where my office is at, and I say, man, I finally, in 30 years of ministry, I think it finally makes sense and I finally understand all of the baptisms that are in the word of God. And so sometimes, man, we get them crossed up and we allow, and that's why I went back last week and I laid down this idea of the church. What is a church? And we have to understand that. But I want us this morning, we are looking at that word baptism and it's in plural. And so He tells us here that we are supposed to be leaving behind baptisms and heading toward maturity, to perfection, to completion. What is that? Our process of sanctification and glorification. And so we're leaving these baptisms behind. And so baptisms is something that, even though we are looking at it in the present, for us as a believer, if you've accepted Jesus Christ as your Savior, and that's who He's writing to, to Jewish Christians that have given their life to Jesus Christ, He's saying this is a starting point you should be already moved on behind. So what did these Jewish believers believe and what were they thinking when they saw this plural baptism? And so as we think about this, I want you to understand that baptism there in your Bible is actually a transliteration. It is not a translation that we talk about. It is a transliteration. What we mean by that is the Greek word is actually B-A-P-T-I-Z-E. And all they did was take the Greek letters and write the English equivalent for each letter and leave it up to us in order to define. And so it did not translate that. Actually the word that is used here with the plural added onto it is translated washings in the Bible. And so when we talk about washings, and I read Hebrews chapter 9 to you this morning in our Scripture reading, because all through the Old Testament there was these ceremonial immersions, these ceremonial washings that took place. And all they did went to Israel in the Old Testament. When you study these washings, all they did was clean people from uncleanliness. They restored them of their fellowship or they were being consecrated to or set apart and separated for God in a new identity. Every single time when you read through Leviticus, you read about all of these impurities. And when women are on their time of the month, when you have sores and things like that, what did He say? Once it was over with, you went and you washed. You cleansed yourself. When the high priest was ordained for a ministry and a purpose, what did he do? They immersed him. He washed from head to toe. He changed his garment. But they had to do this all the time. This was a daily and hourly washing. When you get into the time of Jesus Christ, you remember we talk about all them pools where people were healed and saved and different things. These pools was there for Gentile converts that had converted over to Judaism. This was a place that before they entered into the city and got close to the holy temple, what would happen is they would be immersed in these pools and they would be consecrated to God so that they could go on to the temple and worship God. And so there was all of these cleansings. As a matter of fact, Dwight Pentecost says this. He said the Jewish converts from paganism, known as proselytes, underwent baptism to signify that he was terminating his relationship in his old society, including his allegiance to his old gods, and he was joining himself with the community of Israel and submitting himself to Israel's God. We see that idea in Hebrews chapter 9 that I read for you all ago. It says, "...the Holy Ghost, this signifying that the way into the holiest of all was not yet made manifest while as the first tabernacle was yet standing, which was a figure for the time then present in which were offered both gifts of sacrifices that could not make him that did the service perfect as pertaining to the conscience, which stood only in meats and drinks and divers washings and carnal ordinances imposed on them until the time of reformation." That word up there, figure, literally is the word that means parable. In other words, all of this that we saw in the Old Testament was a figure, it was a parable, it was a story showing them what was actually going to happen in Jesus Christ. It was just an object lesson to explain to them reality. And it didn't really matter how many times they washed, it never did, them washings never did make them holy or consecrate them completely over to God. They had to continually do it over and over and over. And so the Spirit meant to teach by the very thing itself that it had limits. It was not complete in the Old Testament. And so the very thing itself with having limits, because it couldn't bring access and it couldn't bring perfect cleansing, they had to do it over and over and over. And I want us to understand this, Warren, when we think of the washings, the baptisms, the immersions of Israel, no matter what the ritual of worship was, it was always external, it was always physical, it was an act of man using some physical substance to enable him to worship God. Nothing that is earthly, nothing that is external, physical or imperfect can make us acceptable to God. Nothing. And so their worship did not save them. Their washings did not save them. It did not do that. All it did was give them access to fellowship and communion with God. No matter which one you look at, it's the same reason and the same purpose. They washed to have access and communion with God. And so what we see is the first covenant, the Old Covenant, the Old Testament, which is what that means, the Old Covenant, the Old Testament, wasn't satisfactory. It wasn't enough. It couldn't set things straight. Oh, it's sanctuary was meaningful. And the author here explained all of the different things. The lampstand, the table of showbread. He took us into the Holy of Holies. Everything about that tabernacle, everything about that temple pictured Jesus Christ, but it showed us a level of inadequacy. None of us can get to God through anything that is earthly. If you don't have Jesus Christ, all you have is an inadequate system. And that's why he says, leaving the doctrine of Christ. That's why I love the Psalms this morning. Because it is in Christ alone that we have everything that we have. If anything is added to that or taken away from that, it's inadequate. And it's no good. So the old sure divine services and divinely ordained sanctuary, but it was an earthly, passing, and temporary. Hebrews 9, verse 11 is the best verse in that. He says, but Christ. But Christ. They had this beautiful tabernacle. They had this beautiful place to come to God, but it was inadequate. But Christ, in verse 11, being come a high priest of good things to what? To come by a greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this building. And so we saw last week, I laid that foundation that what? The church is not a building. We are what? We are parts of the building. We are stones within the building. The foundation is Jesus Christ. It's built upon the Word of God, the prophets, and Jesus Christ. And then you and I are lively stones. But as we sang this morning, Christ is the cornerstone. He is the foundation. He's what pulls it all together. You cannot have Christianity without Christ. And so then all of a sudden, He says, this is not the building. You remember last week, though, we were to take that building of all of these lively stones, and what do we do? All over the world, we present a temple to God. A dwelling place for Him because we take Christ with us. Now, understand, then comes the beginning of the New Covenant, the New Testament. And when we come to the New Testament, God begins to usher in His kingdom. And when He ushers in His kingdom, with this kingdom, we see a forerunner. And this forerunner, John the Baptist, had a message and he had a washing, right? The baptism of John. What was the baptism of John the Baptist? It was a baptism of repentance. Of repentance. Look at what it says in Matthew 3, verse 11. John said, I, the I refers to John the Baptist. You go back up in the verses before that, you see John the Baptist is the one speaking. He says, I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance. But he, someone else that cometh after me, is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not even worthy to bear. He, referring to Jesus Christ, shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with fire. All right? So we have something happening here. John was, in this verse, making a prediction of a spiritual baptism. Look at what he says. He says, I baptize you unto repentance, but Jesus Christ will baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with fire. This is something that is happening in the future. And so John baptized with water, but the purpose of that was for repentance. And then you see Christ baptized with the Holy Spirit, and the purpose of that was for salvation. But repentance has to come before salvation. Therefore, John the Baptist is a forerunner. He's ushering in this new kingdom. When Jesus Christ baptizes with fire, that's going to be in the judgment, and that's yet to come. That's in the future. That's what we're going to look at in a couple of weeks. And this is a future ministry that's there. But I want you to notice that word shall. What does shall mean? Shall is a word that is in future. It's yet to come. Right? I shall go to the Queen tonight. It hasn't happened yet. It's in the future. It's something that is coming up. And he says, he shall baptize you with what? The Holy Spirit and fire. In other words, these two events are not now. They're later. They're later. They're in the future. And so notice John the Baptist. He's baptized, immersed in water unto repentance, redemption. In other words, he said, bring me fruit of repentance. Show me that you have repented of your sins and that you have faith toward the God of Israel because there's only one God, and Jehovah is his name. Right? Show me that you have believed him. You've turned away from these false gods. You've turned away from all of this worldly stuff, and you've come to him. And then I will baptize you. I will immerse you for repentance. And so understand this. The Greek word baptize means to immerse, to dip, or to die. And when you study that word in the culture of history, you will find that what they did is they would take a cloth after they would get wool or whatever material they were doing. They would get it, strip it, make their thread and everything. They would make their cloth. Then they would dip it in bleach, and they would emerge out of that bleach. As they put it down into that bleach would emerge this cloth that was pure white. And then they would take that pure white cloth, and then they would dip it into a color. And when they dipped it into a color, all of a sudden that clean white cloth now changed appearance, and now it identified with a new color. It's no longer white. It's now something else. And so the parallel is obvious of what John is talking about here. We are first cleansed by the blood of Jesus Christ. Remember Christ, the high priest. He didn't go into the temple made by hands. No, he went to the throne of God, and he put his blood there. He cleansed us. It's his blood that gets rid of all of the sin and the stains of sin and everything else. And then what happens? Then as we believe him, it is imputed unto us for righteousness. He changes those colors. That comes with the immersion of the Spirit. And so notice this parallel that's here. John's baptism was a public confession of sin. It was a public confession of uncleanliness and unacceptable vility before God. Mark 1, verse 5, There went out unto him all the land of Judea and they of Jerusalem, and were all baptized of him in the river of Jordan. Notice what they're doing when they're baptized. Confessing their sins. It was a baptism of repentance. It was a public confession of repentance from sin. And so it was this confession of this remission of sin. Why were their sins remitted? Because of the water? No, their sins was remitted because of the first principles that we study. Repentance from dead works. Faith toward God. When you have done that, then God has forgiven you of your sins, and now the water in the Jordan, I'm going to identify you with what's already taken place and what's already happened. This was John's baptism. It was a public confession of faith. It was an acceptance of and allegiance of becoming Messiah. Remember what John's message was? Repent, for the kingdom of God is at hand. It's coming. It's here. What was John the Baptist pointing to? When Jesus Christ walked up on the baptism of John, what did He say? Behold the Lamb of God that taketh away the sins of the world. In other words, He said there is a kingdom coming. Jesus came and He said, behold the Messiah. And He told the people, He must increase and I must decrease. Over and over, John said, I am not the Christ. I was sent to inform you of the Christ. There is the Christ. Look at Him. And so what? His baptism was simply that of repentance. And here's the key. John was preparing them for entrance into the kingdom of heaven. Remember, I gave you all a chart last Sunday night, I believe it was. I made a mention of it in the end of the sermon Sunday morning, and several asked about it because I didn't have slides for it or whatever. So I put it on a piece of paper. But you remember the comparison between the kingdom of God and the church? The kingdom of God is spiritual, or it's universal. The church is local. Right? All of that. Break down the difference. Well, John the Baptist is coming because this kingdom of God. Anybody can enter into the kingdom of God. But remember, He shall come that He will do what? Baptize you with the Spirit and with fire. That's still future. It's still future. So he would say, here's how you get into the kingdom of God. How do you get into the kingdom of God? The same way you get into the church. You have to believe, repent of your sins, repent from dead works, and do what? Have faith toward God. And then you're saved. Then you can get into the church. But first you're put into the kingdom of God. You're saved. The Holy Spirit comes in and dwells you. That's what we said at the very beginning. And so John's baptism served as a pattern or example for us. And if we wish to follow Christ's example, what did Christ do? Christ came to John the Baptist to be baptized, right? Why? Because John's baptism looks forward to the coming of Christ and the kingdom. Now, remember, why was John called John the Baptist? Because he was the immerser. He was the dipper. He went to the Jordan River because there was much water. So he got labeled as this one. That it wasn't just pouring. It wasn't just sprinkling. But he literally immersed. And that's what baptized means. To completely immerse. Whose authority was John baptizing? The authority of God. God called John and gave him the authority to baptize. Why? Because of the introduction of this kingdom. Now, when you think about Jesus Christ, there's four reasons for confessing. Four reasons that happened in order for you to be baptized by John. Number one, you had to repent of your sins. Number two, you had to confess your sins. Number three, you had to confess your repentance. And then you had to accept or make an allegiance to the Messiah. And then John would baptize you. Remember the verse I read a while ago in Mark? What were they doing? They were confessing of their sins. Why? Because they've already repented of their sins. Now they're confessing their sins. And John is baptizing them, showing their allegiance to God and the new kingdom. But Jesus Christ didn't have any sins, did he? Jesus Christ didn't have nothing to repent of because He was God. He was holy, right? Jesus Christ did not have... The only part of the baptism that Jesus Christ needed was the authority and the acceptance of the kingdom. If He is going to be the King and the Messiah in that kingdom, then He had to identify with the entrance into that kingdom. And so that baptism was an identification. It's what separated all of the Gentiles, all of the believing Jews from everybody else when they had been baptized by John the Baptist. And so that understands that. So now we have a baptism in the future. So let's move to the next one. Now we have the baptism of Christ, the Holy Spirit. Remember, baptisms is plural. It started out with just washings and cleansings. That was just a picture. Then you had John the Baptist come along and he baptized because of repentance, accepting and identifying them into the kingdom of God, right? So that's the reason that baptism's in plural because through baptism, God taught them the way to Jesus Christ and about Jesus Christ. So now we have the baptism of Christ, the Holy Spirit. Remember, this baptism is future. Matthew 3, verse 11, I, John the Baptist, indeed baptize you with water unto repentance, but he, Jesus Christ, that cometh after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear. He shall, future, baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with fire. Now let me give you a couple of facts here because this is probably baptism is the number one thing that divides everybody in Christianity today. It's probably the number one thing that is undermining the work of Christ more than anything else. And it's being misunderstood. But you know what? We are Baptists because we're a reason. Because we were the immersers. We were the only ones that immersed people. We were the only ones that did it as an authority that we'll see here in a little bit. But notice fact number one. The Holy Spirit does not baptize anyone. You ever heard of people pray and want the baptism of the Holy Spirit? You can't find it in Scripture. The Holy Spirit baptizes, immerses no one. In Matthew chapter 3, verse 11, who did it say was going to do the baptizing? Jesus Christ. How is He going to do it? With the Holy Spirit. Just like I baptize in water, Jesus Christ is going to immerse you with the Holy Spirit. You see the difference? And so we see Christ is the one that issues the immersion. Christ is the one and He uses the Holy Spirit to do it. The Holy Spirit is just the medium. Just like water was the medium for John the Baptist, He baptized them in the water in the River Jordan for why? Repentance. And so when we think about that, 2 Corinthians chapter 5, verse 17, Paul writes to the church at Corinth and says, Therefore, if any man beware in Christ, in Christ, He is a new creature, all things are passed away, behold, all things come new. If any man is in Christ, Galatians chapter 3, verse 26 through 28, for you are all the children of God. Held by faith in Christ Jesus. You can't get to faith toward God until you have repented from dead works. You see the steps? You repent from dead works. Then you have faith toward God. This verse says, For as many of you... Go back one slide. For you all are children of God held by faith in Christ Jesus. In other words, you cannot have faith without first having repentance. You've got to walk away from something before you can have faith. You've got to repent before you can have faith. So these people, everyone that has repented of their sins and had faith toward Jesus Christ, that's everybody, he says, For as many, verse 27, of you as have been baptized into Christ, immersed into Christ, have done what? Put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek. There is neither bond nor free. There is neither male nor female. For what? You are all one in Christ Jesus. After redemption, what is redemption? Repentance from dead works and faith toward God. When that takes place, then what happens? Then and immediately then are we identified with Jesus Christ. The Holy Spirit indwells us and immediately we are in Christ. It's what this Scripture says. Galatians 2, verse 20. Paul said, I am crucified with Christ. Nevertheless, I live. Yet not I, but what? Christ liveth in me, and the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by what? The faith of the Son of God. Who's the Son of God? Jesus Christ by the faith of Jesus Christ who loved me and gave Himself for me. That number one is the Holy Spirit does not baptize anyone. Christ immerses you with the Holy Spirit. You are indwelt by the Holy Spirit, not baptized in the Holy Spirit. So there you can take a whole bunch of different religions and ideas right there and guess what? They are preaching another gospel. And that's what we're going to get at down here because that's what he's saying is we as the church, these Jews were walking away from the simplicity of the gospel of Jesus Christ. And he was saying, you need to get this and quit going back and arguing over the simplicity of the truthfulness of the gospel and move on to maturity, grow up. And so notice back number two. Every verse, and there's only six verses that talk about being baptized with the Holy Spirit. And it's never of the Holy Spirit. It's always with the Holy Spirit. All six of them are verses that are referring to a specific future event. Something that is going to happen in the future. Acts chapter, and so what do we do? We have to start all of the ones in the gospel that use all of them are a future event. But you get over to Acts 11, verse 15, and you reread this. And as I began to speak, Peter talking here, the Holy Spirit fell on them as on us at the beginning. And so what does He do? He is preaching. You go back and look at the context. He is sharing them about Jesus Christ. He is giving them the gospel of Jesus Christ. While they are listening, their blinds are going off and what's happening? People that are listening are right there where they're standing, where they're sitting, are repenting from dead works, having faith toward God, and all of a sudden as they are doing that, you don't have to walk an aisle and pray a prayer with a preacher. You don't have to come to a church service. You don't have to go to a revival. Where you are, you have to repent from your dead works and have faith toward God and you can be saved. While he was preaching, all of a sudden the Holy Spirit started falling upon people. Now that's kind of an odd thing that's happening here. All of a sudden the Holy Spirit is falling on people while he is preaching. But notice what he says. Then remembered I. What is remembered? A memory is something of the past, right? So now, then I remembered, and look at what he said. The Word of the Lord, how that he said, John indeed is immersed with water, but you shall be immersed with the Holy Ghost. The Holy Spirit. Something happened between the Gospels and Acts chapter 11. You tracking with me? You tracking? Let's go back to Acts chapter 1. That's the first chapter after we get out of the Gospels. In Acts chapter 1 verse 4. And being assembled together with them, Jesus Christ, who's talking here, commanded them that they should not depart from Jerusalem, but wait for the promise of the Father, which saith he, you have heard of me. And then he quotes the Scripture. For John truly immersed with water, but you shall be immersed with, not of, with the Holy Spirit not many days hence. There is a single event that happens in Acts chapter 2. And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, the Holy Spirit descended upon them. In other words, they were now indwelt and empowered for the Gospel. It was one event that happened, and it happened to one specific group of people to the church. The 120 that was gathered there in Acts chapter 1. That single event was a one-time only event. There is only been one immersion of the Holy Spirit. And why did it come? You have to go back, and I don't have time today, but I've given you, and I please encourage you to go on our website, look up the discipleship speech for today. There's 30 pages of notes and Scriptures that go through the Holy Spirit, baptism of the Holy Spirit, and baptism of water. And so it's going to go a whole lot deeper than what I'm able to today. But I want to get you to where we need to be to understand this passage of Scripture. And so there was a single event that happened on the church when the Holy Spirit fell, seeking the baptism within or by the Holy Spirit is of absolutely no use because it's already happened. You would have to go back nearly 2,000 years ago and be in that event to be baptized with the Holy Spirit. It's already happened. It's done. It's done. John 14, 17. You read John 14, 15. He says in John 14, even the Spirit of truth whom the world cannot receive because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him, but you know him, for he dwelleth with you and shall be in you. So what's he saying there? Before Pentecost, Jesus Christ looked at His disciples and said the Spirit dwells with you. How did the Spirit dwell with the disciples? Because Jesus Christ is fully God. He is fully man and He is fully Spirit. And so I am dwelling with you. And you have not seen the Spirit yet because you've seen my body, right? He told Thomas, you haven't seen God, but if you've seen me, you've seen God. If you've seen me, you've seen the Spirit. Remember what He told Nicodemus? We can't see the wind, but we can see the effects of the wind. You can't see the Spirit, but you can see the effects of the Spirit. Jesus healed and did mighty miracles, right? The effects was there, but nobody has seen it. But look what He said. Even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive because it saith it not, neither knoweth Him, but you know Him, who are the disciples, for He dwelleth in you. And then He says, and shall be in you. That's future. The Spirit is with you now, but in the future, He shall be in you. And you go on and you read that and Jesus Christ said, I must go in order for Him to come, right? And Jesus Christ in Acts chapter 1 told them to do what? I am fixed unto ascend to the Father, but you go to Jerusalem and wait. Because once I'm gone, I am going to immerse you with the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is then going to be in you. But it happened corporately as a church. Once that took place, once that baptism took place, the minute you repent and have faith toward God, the Holy Spirit indwells you immediately. There is no immersion that happened back in Acts chapter 2. So fact number three, the prophecy of John the Baptist is synonymous with the promise of the Father. John 14, 26. But the Comforter, which is the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, He shall teach you all things and bring all things to your remembrance whatsoever I have said unto you. Therefore, the baptism with the Holy Spirit was the outpouring of the Holy Spirit that was not individually, but rather was collectively. When you go back to Acts chapter 2, the Holy Spirit descended and landed on everybody. He didn't split. It wasn't one Holy Spirit that split it on each individual person, but the Holy Spirit fell and filled everyone that was in that upper room. So it happened that collectively upon the church, all those that were gathered, all those that were assembled, all those that had been purchased by the blood of Jesus Christ. Now real quickly, look at 1 Corinthians 12, 13. We're going to go real fast now. For by one Spirit are we all immersed, baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free, and have been made to drink into one Spirit. Now let me ask some questions for clarification. He says we are all by one Spirit. We are all immersed into one body. And then he goes on. We've been made to drink into that one Spirit. Does the Holy Spirit baptize anyone? No, we've already looked at that, right? So when he says we are all baptized into one body, it cannot be the Spirit. So the Spirit baptizes nobody. Who baptizes? Christ with the Spirit. Is baptism with the Holy Spirit a continuing event? No, it happened once on the day of Pentecost. It's in the past. It's done. So therefore, again, number three, is the body of Christ a universal, invisible thing? It is not. This verse makes it clear that Paul was addressing himself to where? The church at Corinth that was a local, visible entity. Question number four. Is there one baptism or is there several baptisms? There's only one. There's only one when it comes to the church. And who's he writing to? The church, the local body. Look at Ephesians chapter four and verse five. One Lord, one thing, one baptism. Now, if this one baptism is Spirit baptism, as a lot of people think, what becomes of a believer's baptism in water? So that the context of Ephesians chapter five, how do we interpret 1 Corinthians 12 and verse 13? Well, look at what it says, and I'll put some words in there for you. For by one Spirit, that's salvation. Right? When you repent and you have faith toward God, immediately the Holy Spirit indwells you. For by one Spirit, salvation, are we all baptized, immersed. That's believers. You cannot have water baptism until you have received the Spirit, until you have been saved. That's what's receiving the Spirit, right? If you are saved, you have the Spirit. You cannot have water baptism until you've had the Spirit. And then you are into one body. You become a church membership. Whether we be Jews or Gentiles, there's no racial discrimination. Whether we be bond or free, there is no class distinction. And have been all made to drink into one Spirit, there is no favoritism when it comes to the blessings of Christ. As a member of this church, you have everything in Christ that I have. No matter of your education, your intelligence, or anything. So, let me give you the baptism of the church with water real quick and we'll shut down. I know I'm out of time. But I want to look at you, and I haven't done this very often, but Brother Keith reminded me I need to do this more often. He's not here today, but Sister Debbie can tell him. But I want to give us our doctrinal statements. Here's what we believe, based on last week's sermon and this week's sermon. We believe that Jesus Christ established His church during His ministry on earth, and that it is always a local, visible assembly, right? Of scripturally baptized believers. All of the disciples had the baptism of John the Baptist, which meant that what? They had the baptism of repentance. Every one of them had repented of their sins, had faith that the Messiah was coming, and this new kingdom was about to have. And Jesus said, I'm your King, come follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men. And so they were following Him as their King. So they were scripturally baptized under the authority of God. They were in a covenant relationship, right? They were all together. They had a purpose and a plan. What was their purpose and plan? To follow Jesus Christ, who was obeying God. To carry out the commission of the Lord Jesus Christ. And so the same thing that happened with the disciples is the same thing that we believe. The only thing is, is that now there is not the baptism to repentance because Jesus Christ is gone. We get the Holy Spirit. And so the only difference is, is guess what? To be scripturally baptized believers, you have to go through water under the authority of the church. Then, now you are in a covenant relationship. And now we can carry out the commission of the Lord Jesus Christ, which gets into the next week's sermon, The Land of Amns. It goes on in that verse, that same deal. I broke it into two slides because it would have been so small. And each church is independent, self-governing body, and no other ecclesiastical body. That means no other church may exercise authority over it. We believe that Jesus Christ gave the great commission to who? The New Testament churches only. It was not given to individuals. The great commission was given to the church. And that He promised the perpetuity of His churches. The gates of hell will not prevail against the church. That's our doctrinal statement. And then there's some Scripture that's there. Number 18 doctrinal statement are church ordinances. We believe that there are two pictorial ordinances in the Lord's churches. Baptism and the Lord's Supper. Scriptural baptism is the immersion of a penitent believer. That means you have to be repentant. That's penitent. You have to be repentant. And to be a believer, you have to do what? Belief is faith. So you have to be repentant and you have to have faith toward God. And then you are immersed in water that is administered by the authority of a New Testament church in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Because who gave the authority? Christ is the one that immerses us with the Holy Spirit. Christ is the one that called the church. It's His church. Christ is the head of the body. He's the cornerstone of the building. He is the groom of the bride. He's the authority. So water baptism is an outward symbol of picture of an inward reality of the Spirit's baptism. It's showing and proving to everybody else that what's already taken place on the inside. 1 Corinthians 15, 1-4. Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel, the gospel, the good news, which I preached unto you, which also you have received and wherein you stand. Where's our authority and our stand come from? The gospel. The gospel. That's what separates. You talk about all these religions and what separates all these different religions. What separates us from some Baptist and everything else? It's the gospel. Because they preach another gospel. There's only one gospel. Paul said, I preached it unto you, which you have received, and now you stand. This is the authority by which you are also saved. If you keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless you have believed in vain. For I delivered unto you, first of all, that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that He was buried and that He rose again on the third day according to the Scriptures. If you haven't been immersed with the Holy Spirit, water baptism is absolutely, totally meaningless. It means nothing. Because water baptism is the outward evidence, the outward sign, the outward manifestation, illustration of what took place in your heart when you repented from your dead works of your sin and had faith toward God, received Christ as your personal Savior and were baptized by the Holy Spirit into the body of Christ. There is one baptism. So therefore, you can look. There has to be a proper candidate for baptism. The only people that can be baptized have to be believers. They have to have repented and had faith. There has to be a proper mode for baptism, immersion. We can't pour. We can't sprinkle. Sprinkling and pouring are neither effective in their symbolism or their identification with Christ. We are what? Buried in Christ. Therefore, we are a new creation. We have died to our way of sins. We have resurrected to a new walk in life. There has to be a proper motive for baptism. Why are you being baptized? And this is what I ask everybody that comes forward for baptism. Why do you want to be baptized? Because if they tell me I want to be baptized to be saved, then guess what? We're going to have some more talking because you can't be baptized to be saved. So I want to know why do you want to be baptized? Because there's two reasons for baptism. Number one is symbolism. Symbolism. You are not saved by baptism. That's another gospel. We are saved by repentance of dead works and faith toward God. For the gospel says you are saved by grace through faith, repentance from dead works, faith toward God. By grace are you saved through faith. So it's symbolism. It pictures what's already done. It's also scriptural baptism is identification. The act of baptism declares the death, burial and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. So you have an actor. You have a candidate in this picture, in this parable, in this story that baptism is given. You have the candidate or the believer in baptism is declaring their identification with Jesus Christ. In other words, the believer is personally and publicly identifying with the finished work of Jesus Christ. When I am baptized, I am picturing that I have died to sin. There's no way I can make it to heaven. What is sin? My works, dead works, right? And then I've had faith. I've been buried with Christ. But now I'm walking in newness of life in Christ. And so this baptism becomes this act of obedience. And this actor, the believer is gone. But then the fourth aspect, there has to be the proper authority. And this is the most divisive issue in Christianity today, even among the different flavors of Baptist churches. And it all comes down to one question that we have already addressed. And it's addressed in our doctrinal statement. That's why it's there. And that's why it's important. Who has the scriptural authority to baptize? Who has the authority to baptize? There's two major groups. There is the open Baptist and there are closed Baptists. Open Baptists accept alien immersion. As long as you is immersed, it doesn't matter the authority that did it or why you did it or how you did it. That's open Baptist. Then there's closed Baptist. Those who receive, only receive into membership people coming from churches of life, faith and order that preach and live the same gospel that we preach and live for the true gospel of Jesus Christ. What is that gospel? Salvation is by grace through faith. So the answer comes down to who has the authority to baptize and where was the command to baptize from? The Great Commission. What does the Great Commission say? And Jesus came and spake unto them. Them. Individuals that were all assembled there with him. It was the church, the one that he called. He said unto them saying, all power is given unto me in heaven and earth. Go you therefore and teach all nations baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and the Holy Ghost, teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I've commanded you and lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. Amen. The Great Commission was given institutionally to the apostles who were built on the foundation of Jesus Christ, who wrote our New Testament, our new covenant from Jesus Christ that we see gathered 120 of them in Jerusalem in the upper room. And when the Holy Spirit empowered them, the Holy Spirit then accompanied with his authority through the church, therefore making it an ordinance of the church, not individuals given the church the authority to administer the Lord's Supper and baptism. Not only the church has the authority to baptize and observe the Lord's Supper. Baptism is the door to church membership. You are already saved. You are in the kingdom of God. But just because you are in the kingdom of God does not put you in the building, the body or the bride of Jesus Christ that is entered through water baptism. And therefore, baptism is the identification with Christ and the acceptance authority. So it leaves two questions that you have to answer. Number one, have you repented of your sins and placed your faith toward God through Jesus Christ? That's the first thing. You have to be redeemed. You have to be saved first. And then the second question is, are you ready to identify with Christ according to Scripture with the administration of the baptism? See, that's why when somebody comes and they're saved, but they've been baptized, they've been a member of the church, guess what? There's going to be many people in the church that are not saved and that are lost because it's entered through baptism. Who knows? The parable is, is when Jesus Christ comes, there's going to be wheat and tares saved and lost within the church. But at the end, Jesus Christ is going to separate them. And only those that have believed and repented from dead works and had faith toward God are going to have eternal life. They're not only going to be in the bride, the body and the building. And so see, that's why the authority. That's why I did the lesson last week. And next week, we'll see what's the purpose of the laying on of hands. It authorizes you as a church member to go preach, teach all things whatsoever. And what are we teaching? It does baptize, but what is baptism? I'm not out there baptizing people. I'm baptizing under the authority of my church. And so I have to have that authority from them to baptize. That's why we vote on every baptism. When we stand up there in the waters, what do I say? I'm baptizing you by the authority of Kentucky Missionary Baptist Church, a local New Testament church, by the authority of Kentucky Missionary Baptist Church, with the Holy Spirit, God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. So it comes with authority. And then it comes, God, this authority that you've given Kentucky Missionary Baptist Church, I want you to recognize that authority came from you. Which one's more important, the Father, the Son, or the Holy Spirit? There's one God. And so I'm recognizing your authority in your scriptures. And so therefore, I become a candidate for baptism. As we stand and have a verse of invitation. Page 455.
