 So a sacrament is something that is made up by the Catholic Church and Protestant churches. By the way, it's important to note that as Baptists, we are neither Catholic, obviously, or Protestant. We are not Protestants. Many people will say, and I'll prove to you with a little bit of history this morning, that we are not Protestants. Protestants in the 16th century came out of the Catholic Church. This was a movement, you know, John Calvin, Wesley, Luther. These were people that protested against the Catholic Church. The Baptist, as I'll show you this morning, was never part of the Catholic Church. The Baptist is simply what Jesus was, what John the Baptist was. We were people that always have existed since Christ, that have just held to the doctrine of Jesus. And many people will say, even if you Google and you look up, when did the Baptist form or when did this denomination, which we are not a denomination, we are independent churches, when did this denomination form? Many Wikipedia sites or many informational websites will say that Baptists were formed in the 1600s or 1700s. This is not true. Baptists have always existed. Now, what is a sacrament and where did this idea that baptism is a sacrament come from? A sacrament in that word means that the act or the thing that you're doing of that sacrament is giving you grace. Okay, so the Bible says, for by grace are ye saved through faith. So it's by grace that we're saved. Okay, but the way the Catholics and the Protestants especially use baptism, the Lord's Supper, many other things as a sacrament is what they do is they tie these things to your salvation. They tie these things to salvation. It's whether it's an act or a ceremony, they're attaching it to the Gospel. They're attaching it to what makes you go to heaven. Now, baptism, as we're going to talk about this morning, is not tied to salvation. It is simply something we are commanded to do. However, it is a big deal. It is a big deal in the Bible. And as a matter of fact, many Baptists throughout history died for this one reason alone, that they just refused to accept baptism as a sacrament. They refused to accept infant baptism, baptizing of babies. We'll talk about that in a few minutes. But it was the first point of contention in the fourth century with the Catholic Church. And the Catholic Church took it so seriously that they were literally executing Christians who would not accept this doctrine, that baptism was required for salvation and especially against what we call believers' baptism in the baptizing of infants. Now, let me read you a couple of things to prove this from you from my favorite book that I hate to read, The Martyr's Mirror. This book is 1,100 pages long. I've only read about half of it, not because I don't want to read it, but because you kind of have to read it in doses. It's seriously disturbing. It goes into great detail about martyrs of the Christian Church, of what we would call Baptists. Let me just prove to you wrong this morning. I understand that this isn't the Bible, but this isn't a historical record of people being executed as the Catholic Church and the Roman emperors enforce these rules that infants must be baptized. So what was happening was the Catholic Church formed in 300 or so AD and after that they started implementing what they did was they tied salvation to the doors of the Church. This is where the sacrament came from. It was about control. See, in order to go to heaven, you have to come to me. In order to go to heaven, you better walk through the doors of that Church. In order for your kids to go to heaven, you better come to this Church, give us money so we can build our buildings. It's all about control. So they took control of salvation and baptism was the first doctrine that they perverted in order to do this. Let me read you a couple of things from The Martyr's Mirror. First of all, the most important matter. Here's talking about the account of these edicts that were passed by these emperors. The most important matter in this transaction, he writes, is the imperial code. This is from an edict from the emperor, which contains an edict issued by emperors Theodosius and Honorius, which reads, If any minister of the Christian Church is found guilty of having re-baptized anyone, he together with the person thus re-baptized. So if anybody, this is in the fourth century, if anybody is caught re-baptizing, because look, the Christian Church believes that if you were sprinkled as a baby, that is not baptism. I will show you from the Bible this morning. So what was happening was people were getting saved and they were getting baptized. Well, the Catholic Church was very offended by that because it was nullifying their, quote, unquote, sacrament. If anyone is found guilty of the minister of the Christian Church is found guilty of having re-baptized anyone, he, together with the person thus re-baptized, both of them, provided the latter is proved to be such an age as to understand the crime, shall be put to death. Another one, several versions of this edict of Honorius and Theodosius unanimously indicate three things. That at that time, A.D. 413, okay, so they were called Anabaptists already in the fifth century is what we're seeing. A.D. 413, there were people who were called Anabaptists. That means that was a derogatory term for people that were re-baptizing. And the reason it's derogatory because they weren't re-baptizing. They were simply baptizing biblically for the first time. On that account of this matter of re-baptizing, these people were exceedingly hated by the world, especially by the great religious leaders. It is shown how they were hated, namely unto death. So the command was given that they should be punished with death. However, intelligent people well-known, now this is the author writing this, intelligent people well-known that Christ our Savior predicted long before that such things would befall His disciples and followers. So there's many stories and many accounts which I will not read to you because there's kids in the room of people being put to trial and they were being put to trial and they were submitted to tortures of all unspeakable kinds. And all they had to do was admit that they were wrong for re-baptizing somebody or admit that they were mistaken or that it was a wrong, even to just admit that baptizing infants was okay and they would not. They went to their death. Their horrible, long, painful deaths they went to over this one issue. And you know what they were doing though? What they were doing, you say, oh, it's just baptism. What they were doing was defending the gospel is what they were doing. They were defending against this idea of adding any works at all to salvation. Like today, it's the same thing. People add all kinds of different works to salvation and we should defend that to the death. And the reason that that is important is because, look, am I going to lose my salvation if I say some words in front of a judge? No, I'm not. But it is the testimony of these Christians throughout history that shows us the truth and shows future generations the truth. So let's look at this. Look at the Catholic Church in the 4th century. They directly tied baptism to salvation. The Protestants in the 16th century, they were a more sneaky way. They said that baptism was a means of grace. Yes, it's only by faith in Jesus alone, but you get that faith. You get that grace through things like baptism. The Protestants are in many ways more dangerous than the Catholics because it's a more gray area but it's still adding works to the gospel. It's heresy. It's heresy. Baptism is simply a church-ordained practice. It's a command. It's a work that we do and it's not tied to salvation. And you will clearly see this after this sermon. We'll go through a lot of Bible on baptism. But let's look at a couple of verses that people use to justify baptism being tied to salvation. Look at Mark chapter 16. Go to Mark chapter 16. Before we get into biblical baptism, let's just look at... And you're going to see how silly and how if somebody actually believes that baptism is tied to salvation, I'm going to show you this morning how it's just a complete fundamental misunderstanding of the Bible itself. A fundamental misunderstanding of the simplest thing in the Bible, which is the gospel. Look at Mark chapter 16 in verse number 16. Here's a quintessential verse. Now look, I'm somebody that believed in infant baptism until I was into my 30s. So I know how to argue the wrong side of this case. Now look at Mark chapter 16 in verse 16. Here's the number one, I think, popular verse to defend infant baptism or a non-believer's baptism and baptism being part of salvation. He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved. See, there you go. You have to be baptized to be saved. Well, let's just keep reading. He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved. But what is it that sends you to hell? Is the question we must ask. What is it that damns you? What is it that makes you not go to heaven? Look at the last part of the verse. But he that believeth not shall be damned. It's not believing that will send a man to hell. It is not believing on the Lord Jesus Christ. It is not trusting on Christ alone that will damn you to eternal damnation. And he that believeth and is baptized shall be saved. Guess what? He that believeth and drives forward shall be saved. He that believeth and installs carpet for a living shall be saved. These are all true statements. So it's not untrue. But it's he that believeth not that will go to hell. Okay, so that is a very clear misunderstanding of the Bible. Go to Matthew chapter 28. Go to Matthew chapter 28. Many of these verses that are used to prove infant baptism, prove non-believers baptism are actually just they're teaching the opposite. Which is it just shows you that unsaved people do not understand the Bible. Look at Matthew 28 and verse 19. We're talking about the Great Commission here. Look at Matthew 28 and verse 19. Go ye therefore and teach all nations. Now this was a huge one. This was the number one verse that the Lutheran church used in my experience to justify baptizing infants. See? Teach all nations. It says all nations there. Baptizing them. Baptizing all nations. See? That must mean babies too. You're like, what? Like what's this? Is that even me? It's talking about going outside just the Jews here. It's saying all nations. It's saying taking the Gospel to the world is what it's talking about. In the justification or in the context of what nations should receive the Gospel. It's like, hey, preach it to everybody in the world. Teach all nations. Baptizing them. And then once you've taught them the Gospel and they believed it, what comes next? Baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. It's referring, look, it's just bizarre. It's just bizarre to think that this would justify baptizing infants. I've done this object lesson in the church before. Let's get the youngest baby in this church and try to teach that baby colors. Try to teach that baby how to count to ten. Try to teach that baby the one plus one equals two. The simplest thing. Look, it's obvious that these people must be taught. They must believe the Gospel and then be baptized. So what the church really did, the Catholic church, the Protestant churches is what they did was they hijacked God's Gospel. They hijacked salvation. They continue to do so today. You know, the Catholics, look, it's powerful. It's powerful control over people's salvation. That's what they're trying to do. They're trying to gain control. They're trying to make the gates to heaven come through their building is what they're trying to do. And look, it works. Look at the Catholic church today. Look at these churches today. It's very powerful. It gets money. It gets people. You know, when you tie, you know that you must come through the doors of my church and give me money in order for your children to go to heaven, in order for your relatives to get out of hell or purgatory or wherever it is. Look, that's powerful. And look, they've fooled a lot of people. They have fooled a lot of people. The Protestants are no different. It's just better disguise. Okay, the true wickedness. But look, the true wickedness is of the Protestants. You know, it's a more disguised false Gospel. The Catholic church, I've said this before, the Catholic church was just getting too stupid. The Reformation was the devil's plan B. It's like, this is too dumb. People are figuring this out. You know, as long as there's a Bible out there what God promises would always exist. God promised he would always have his word somewhere. Look, as long as that word is out there and it's pure and people can read it, they can look at it and say, this is stupid. This is wrong. This is why, you know, not only for baptizing believers Christians killed, but they were killed for having a Bible. They were killed for owning. Entire villages were burned because people had Bibles in that village. Because when you're teaching something different from the Bible, what you can't have is people reading the Bible. Now look, turn to Matthew chapter 7. This is very strange. It's very strange that I always knew this. Even as a kid, I wasn't even saved. I always knew this idea in the Bible that few people were going to heaven. Look, it's very clear in the Bible. Jesus says it in Matthew 7. But I always knew that few people were going to heaven. The Lutheran church taught about hell. And I knew I just kind of had this feeling in my mind that like not everybody's going to heaven. Otherwise, what's the point of hell? Look, even if it was all just people that just didn't go to church, most people are going to go to hell. It's kind of a thought that I had as a kid. Did you know that like one out of five people at this point goes to church every week? Once a week? One out of five people in the United States. That's the minority. I mean, you all are one in 10,000. I told you about that on Wednesday night. You come to church three times a week. I mean, what in the world is wrong with you? But you are the extreme minority. But even if it was just going to church that got you to heaven, most people are going to hell. And I always knew this, even as a little kid that wasn't even saved. I always knew this. Yet going to Lutheran funerals, and I can't even remember how many Lutheran funerals that I went to. So I always kind of had this idea in my head that most people aren't going to go to heaven. Even though I didn't even really know what the true gospel was at that point, most people aren't going to go to heaven. Yet I never went to a funeral of someone that wasn't going to go to heaven. Because, and I've always asked myself that question, it must be the hardest thing in the world. And I obviously know the answer to that today. It must be the hardest thing in the world for a pastor to stand up at the funeral of someone who was not saved. Knowing that that person is not in heaven. You know, speaking to a church of people that want to have hope or want to have whatever, but the Lutheran funeral was always this. And I've been to many Lutheran funerals, many of these funerals, this person never went to church. This person openly denied any kind of religious affiliation. And yet the pastor would always stand up at that funeral and say, we remember so-and-so's baptism as a child, as a baby. So that's kind of the card. I'm sitting there as a kid, as a teenager, as a 20-year-old. And I'm sitting there thinking, this doesn't seem right. You know, this doesn't seem right. You know, it's kind of this Trump card that, bam, no matter what, you know, this person lived. I mean, because I'm kind of a Catholic thinking, you have to live a good life and confess your sins and all these things. Yet nobody goes to hell. It's weird. I was seeing that logic. I mean, thank God that God just kept those inconsistencies popping up in my head. And I went and I, you know, someone told me the truth. Thank God for that. But look, we remember their baptism. Nobody's in hell. Nobody's in hell. Catholic sermons are the same thing. You're like, wait a minute. This seems like a scam. Look at Matthew chapter 7. Look at verse 14. I was like, this doesn't seem right. This doesn't seem right at all. Look at Matthew chapter 7 and verse 14. Because look, this isn't a hard verse to understand. Straight from Jesus, right? Because straight is the gate. That means narrow, not straight like an arrow. Because straight is the gate and narrow is the way which leadeth unto life. That means heaven, folks, and few there be that find it. Look, you say you're a jerk. You want to stand up at somebody's funeral and tell everybody they're in hell? No, but I don't want to lie to them. Because guess what? Here's the problem. Here's the danger. Here's the danger of this. What about all the people that aren't dead yet? What about all the people that are at that funeral that don't know the true gospel? What about those people? Look, they still have a chance. And if they're sitting there thinking, well, I'm baptized. I was baptized as a baby. I'm good. Look, that is wicked as hell. And that is sending people to damnation. This doctrine. Turn to Jeremiah chapter 2. Here's what these people have done. Here's what the Catholics have done. Here's what the Lutherans have done. Here's what all the Protestants that are teaching that baptism is a way God gives you salvation. Here's what they have done. Jeremiah chapter 2. Look at verse number 13. Here's what's really happening with these people. Look at Jeremiah chapter 2 in verse 13. The Bible tells us these people have done two things. They have done two things wrong. In Jeremiah 2.13, the Bible says, for my people have committed two evils. Number one, they have forsaken me. The fountain of living waters. These people have forsaken the gospel. If you have added works to the gospel, you have forsaken the gospel. They have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters. And what have they done on top of that? They have hewned out themselves cisterns, broken cisterns that can hold no water. Baptism or any works attached to salvation is man hewing out his own cistern. It is man taking the salvation of the gospel by God and throwing it out the window and building himself his own tank to hold water. But guess what? God says that's a broken cistern. It will get you nowhere. It will hold no water. It's false hope. Standing up at a funeral and saying, we remember his baptism. That's giving the living people that need to be saved false hope in something that isn't even biblical baptism itself. And it's sending people straight to hell. And that is why the martyrs died for it. That is why the martyrs died for it. When they were dying for the doctrine against the doctrine of infant baptism and whatever other doctrine the Catholic Church came up as a sacrament, they were just dying for the gospel is what they were doing. They were defending the gospel. And that lives with us today. That lives with us today, that testimony. So let's look at biblical baptism. Let's see what, now we know it's a big deal. You know, all that is introduction. I want to show you it's a big deal that people died for. This doctrine that I'm going to teach you this morning, people died horrible deaths for it, to defend it. Look at Acts chapter 8. Go back to Acts chapter 8. Probably the best example in the Bible. This is why it's been messed with in the Bible, by the way. It's the best example in the Bible of what baptism is, how it goes and what is necessary for baptism. Look at Acts chapter 8 and verse 26. Acts chapter 8 is kind of a good, Philip is kind of the star of Acts chapter 8 throughout the whole thing. Look at verse number 26. We'll read the second story from Philip in Acts chapter 8. And the angel of the Lord spake unto Philip saying, Arise and go towards the south. And he arose and went, behold, a man of Ethiopia, a eunuch of authority. So this is a man that is an important person. He's heading back to Africa and it's perfectly understandable why God would want this man to get the gospel. He's somebody who has great authority and he's going back to his home country under Candice the Queen of the Ethiopians who had charge of all her treasure and come to Jerusalem for to worship. He was returning and sitting in his chariot and he read Isaius the prophet. That's Isaiah. Then the Spirit said unto Philip, Go near and join thyself unto this chariot. And Philip ran thither to him and heard him read the prophet, read the prophet Isaius and said, Understandest thou what thou readest? And he says, and he said, How can I? Except man, some man should guide me. And he desired Philip that he would come up and sit with him. The place of the scripture which he read was this. Turn to Isaiah 53. Let's just read what he was reading. The place in the scripture which he read was this. He was led of a sheep to the slaughter like a lamb dumb before his shearer so opening out his mouth. Let's just look at it. He's talking about Isaiah 53. This is what this eunuch was reading. Look at Isaiah 53 and look at verse number six. So he's reading an Old Testament prophecy of the coming Messiah is what this eunuch is reading. He's reading verse number six of Isaiah 53. It says, All we like sheep have gone astray. We have turned everyone to his own way and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity. This is a prophecy of something that has not happened yet in Isaiah. He was oppressed. He was afflicted. Yet he opened not his mouth. He has brought as a lamb to the slaughter and as a sheep before his shears is dumb so he opened not his mouth. And he was taken from prison and from judgment and who shall declare his generation? For he was cut off of the land of the living and for the transgression of my people was he stricken. Now you can imagine somebody reading that who hadn't heard about Jesus, you know, would be like, Who is this? Who is it? When's this person coming? This is a prophecy of the coming Messiah. And Phillips like, Hey, I know the answer. He's like, Imagine Philip. He's like, This guy's reading this. I mean, talk about a divine appointment here. This guy's reading this and this has literally just happened. This has just happened. And Phillips like, Hey, I got good news for you. Let me tell you about Jesus. Look at verse number 34. And the eunuch answered Philip and said, I pray thee, of whom speak at the prophet this? Of himself or of some other man? Then Philip opened his mouth and began at the same scripture and he preached unto him Jesus saying, This has just happened. And let me tell you about Jesus Christ. And they went on their way and they came. So he preaches him the gospel. He preaches him the gospel. How shall we hear? You know, without a preacher. And he said, and he said, and they went on their way and he came to a certain water. And the eunuch said, See here is water. What doth hinder me to be baptized? And look at verse 37. This is probably the best example, the best one example in the Bible of why we are King James only. Because this verse right here has been removed from modern Bible versions. Tell me there's not an agenda to change the word of God. As people, you know, just want to just baptize anybody, baptize any infant, make baptism a sacrament, make something that you have to get to heaven through me, through my church. It's a lot easier without verse 37. Look at verse 37. And Philip said, so he's saying, he's saying, I heard he just got the gospel preached to him. He's like, now I want to be baptized. Philip preached to him Jesus between 35 and 36. And Philip said, if thou, but he's like, why can't I be baptized? And Philip says, there's one condition. If thou believest with all thine heart, thou mayest. You know what that means? Believing on. You know what that means? Trusting. You know what that means? All or nothing. That means 100% Jesus, 0% me. That is salvation that he's talking about. And he answered and said, look what he says. He confesses with his mouth. He says, I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. He confesses with his mouth. And he commanded the chariot to stand still. And they went down both and then Philip shot him in the head with a squirt gun. He went down both into the water, both Philip and the eunuch. And he baptized him. And they would come up, what, out of the water because they were in the water. The spirit of the Lord caught away Philip and the eunuch saw him no more and went his way rejoicing. All the modern versions have verse 37 gone. Look, if you're a Catholic, you can't have verse 37 in your Bible. Because let's go up to the tiniest baby in here and say, do you believe Jesus Christ is the Son of God? And you know what they do? At an infant baptism, when they asked the child that, they asked the baby that was born last week, do you believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God? And then the whole congregation reading their, reading their divine service to, right of holy baptism, replies for the baby. It's crazy, it's weird. And I, you know, I can't believe I was, I've seen hundreds of those things. We're like, we believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. Like someone else confessing your faith can get you saved. It's weird. It's not biblical. It's made up. It's a broken cistern that holds no water. That's what it is. And it's why, look, look, it's why it will always be King James only. I try to point out, there's, look, there is just so many of these. There's hundreds of reasons that the Bible has been corrupted. And I try to, it's more than you could even preach in a sermon series. But this is a huge one. The modern Bible versions will go from verse 36 to verse 38. And it even has the numbers. They didn't even change the numbers. They didn't even like take the time to renumber the verses. It's just 36 to 38. Because they can't have that as a criteria for baptism. Otherwise, they can't hijack the gospel because people will read that. And they'll be like, what? It says, if thou believest. So look, it's, it's, it's an agenda to change the Bible, folks. It's an agenda to change the word of God. And look, ultimately to stop people from being saved. Because if I can get you to believe that you have to do something, even just one thing, in addition to believing, that is not believing on. You have not trusted in Jesus Christ. Now there's more proof of believers' baptism in chapter 8. Look at verse number 12 of chapter 8. So there's another story. This is Phillips like the hero of chapter 8 here. So look at verse number, actually go back to verse 9 of Acts chapter 8. We see this sorcerer, this guy, this guy called Simon. And this guy gets saved. This guy gets saved. But there was a certain man, verse 9, called Simon. Which before time in the same city used sorcery. And he bewitched the people of Samaria, giving out that himself was some great one. To whom they all gave heed, from the least under the greatest saying, this man is the great power of God. And to him they had regard because that of long time he had bewitched them with sorceries. But when they, look, now Phillips preaching the gospel to people here. And now look what happened. When they believed Philip, preaching the things concerning the kingdom of God, that's the gospel. The same gospel that he gave to the eunuch. And the name of Jesus Christ, what? They were baptized. Look, this is very simple here. It says, when they believed the gospel, then they were baptized. I mean this is not complicated stuff. It's just simple timelines. Both men and women. So the point I'm trying to make here is turn to Matthew chapter 3. I'll give you one more example. Baptism is after salvation. It is not tied to salvation, but it comes right after salvation. And before becoming profitable because it says they were baptized both men and women. Look at verse, go to Matthew chapter 3 and look at verse number 5. Matthew chapter 3 and verse number 5. This is John the Baptist. He's baptizing people. He's baptizing people. And look what he says to the Pharisees. The people that didn't believe that were at these baptisms then went out to him Jerusalem and all Judea and the region around about Jordan. All people were coming to John the Baptist. He's preparing the way for Jesus and he's baptizing people. And we're baptized of him and the Jordan confessing their sins. So this is showing you how and we'll get to this a little bit later. But it's showing you how it's the beginning of your Christian life. It's the beginning of your Christian walk. Look, they're getting baptized and they're coming out and they're saying, we're going to change our lives. We're going to turn our lives around. We're going to repent of our sins. Not to be saved to walk in the Christian life. And it began with baptism. But then he saw some unbelievers and he's like, hey, let me baptize you. So we can, you're wicked. I don't want to baptize you so you're not wicked anymore. Is that what he says? Look what he says. He says in verse seven. He says, but he said to many of the Pharisees and Sadducees, come to his baptism. He said to them, oh, generation of vipers who have warned you to flee from the wrath to come. He said, bring forth therefore. He's saying, he doesn't say, come in the water and let me baptize you to get you right. He said, bring forth fruits, meat for repentance. He's like, you better change your mind. He's like, you better switch your belief. You better stop not believing and start believing. Cause look, these people didn't believe in the Messiah. And we'll look at that tonight as they ended up betraying and killing Jesus. But he's sitting there and he's saying, look, get saved. He's like, believe on the coming Messiah. He's like, but that's what he doesn't just go and baptize them. He calls them vipers. And he says, you need to change your mind about this. So all that to say this, you believe first, you get saved and then the very next thing you're supposed to do is get baptized. Let's look at why. Let's look at why you should get baptized. Why is this a command? Why is this command that you get saved and then get baptized? Well, first of all, let's talk about baptism. What it pictures and how it identifies you in the Bible. Go to Romans chapter six or look at the front of your bulletin. Romans chapter six. Baptism defines you as a Christian. Now let's say I just became a Christian. Let's say I just became somebody just knocked on my door and they just preached to me the gospel and I just rejected the Catholic faith or the whatever faith I had and believed this gospel that makes perfect sense that is simple and but what do I know now about the Christian life? What do I know about what I'm supposed to do? I've never read the Bible. Maybe I've read it a couple of times, you know, a page or two and I don't understand it because it wasn't even saved but what do I know about living the Christian life? The starting line for your Christian life after salvation is baptism. And let me show you a few things why. First of all it identifies you with the Savior who saved you. Look at Romans chapter six and verse number four. Look baptism is your identity in many ways. Look at verse number four of Romans chapter six. Therefore we buried with him by baptism into death that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father even so we also will for sure walk in the newness of life. No it says always Paul says you should walk in newness of life. Look you were saved for free and then after that you should follow the Bible. You should out of obedience follow what God wants you to do. You should walk in newness of life and this another thing you need to understand about Romans six four it's the first thing that I need to point out here is that baptism is a picture of that. Baptism is a figure of that. See those words? That like as Christ. Look is this saying that you're to be go out and bury yourself? Go out and bury yourself in a coffin. No it's saying like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the God the Father even so we should walk in newness of life. This we being baptized and going into the water is a picture of being buried with Jesus Christ. It's a picture of you identifying with your Savior is what it is and then you come up out of that water and you are you are you should walk in newness of life. Baptism is the starting line of your Christian race. Baptism is the beginning. Go to Galatians chapter three. Go to Galatians chapter three. Baptism pictures this. The Bible is really big on figures of things, of pictures of things. Look that was all the New Testament, all the Old Testament ceremonies and sacrifices. They pictured Jesus Christ. They were a figure of things to come. God is huge on this. He's huge on this and that's what baptism is. It is a picture of us identifying with our Savior. Look at Galatians chapter three in verse 26. The Bible says, for you're all children of God by faith in Christ Jesus. Here you are, you're saved. You have faith in Christ Jesus, you're a children, you're a child of God. God adopts you into his family. Look at verse 27. For as many of you have been baptized into Christ, have put on Christ. Putting on Christ is walking this Christian life. I could, look I'm saved. I could put off Christ out of my life. I could put off, I could just live life in the flesh. But the Bible says that you are to put on Christ in your life. Look at Genesis chapter three. This is a picture of this as well. Look at verse 21. So the Bible saying that through baptism, we're putting on Christ. It's a picture of us putting on identifying with Christ. Look at verse 21. Onto Adam also and to his wife. Did the Lord God make coats of skins and clothed them? This is a picture of putting on Christ right here. God through a blood sacrifice animals had to die. Why did they have to die? Why did animals have to die for Adam and Eve to cover them with skins? Why? Because they were ashamed. Why were they ashamed? Because they were naked. But guess what? You know what came in first before they became ashamed? Sin. Rebellion against God. So now that we have sinned, we must put on Christ. And that is what a picture of baptism is for us. Of putting on Christ. Turn to Romans chapter 13. And through a blood sacrifice, God clothed them. Look, he didn't just put a couple pieces of hair on them. He completely clothed them with animal skins. It's a picture of Christ. It's a picture of how Christ clothes us and covers our sin. Look at Romans chapter 13. Look at verse 14. The Bible says, But put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ. And make not provision for the flesh to fulfill the lust thereof. Look, this is putting on Christ in this context in Romans 13. It's talking about not walking in the flesh. It's talking about being obedient to God. And the starting line of your obedience to God is baptism. It's putting on Jesus Christ. Ephesians chapter 4 says, Put on the new man. Colossians chapter 3, verse number 10 says, And ye have put on a new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him. The new man is to be clothed in Christ. And baptism is a picture of this. So baptism identifies us with our Savior. That's the first thing. And it is the starting point of your Christian life. Look at verse, go to 1 Corinthians chapter 12. Baptism also identifies us with the church. It also identifies us with our local group of believers. Look at 1 Corinthians chapter 12, and look at verse number 12. The Bible says in 1 Corinthians chapter 12, in verse number 12, the Bible says, For as the body is one, and hath many members, that's us, the church by the way, and all the members of that one body being many are one body, so also is Christ. For by one spirit, are we all baptized into one body. Whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we bond or free, we have all been made to drink into one spirit. This is talking about the unity of the church. This is talking about Colossians chapter 3 and Colossians chapter 4 that we've been studying for the last several weeks, talking about how we're all to be unified under Christ. And it is through baptism that we identify with one body. We identify with the church. Turn to Acts chapter 8. Go back to Acts chapter 8. But the biggest thing about baptism, if you're saved, you are to be baptized, is it the biggest thing going forward in your life? It identifies you with Christ, it identifies you with your fellow believers, but it marks the beginning of your Christian life, and you will see this over and over and over in the Bible. Look at Acts chapter 8 and verse 13. Remember Simon? Remember Simon? Look what the Bible says in verse 13. Then Simon himself believed also. So there's all these people that believe Philip, and then they got baptized. But look at Simon. Simon himself believed also, and then what happened? And when he was baptized, he continued with Philip. See, baptism was the beginning of his Christian life. We see he stumbled along the way, and that's not the point. The point is that the beginning of his Christian walk was baptism. He continued with Philip after he was baptized, and he was baptized after he believed. It's very clear and consistent throughout the Bible. Look at Matthew chapter 28. Look at Matthew chapter 28. Let's look at the Great Commission. The Great Commission. Let's look at both verses in the Great Commission. Actually, why don't you turn to 1 Peter chapter 3? I'll just read for you the Great Commission. In verse 19, you turn to 1 Peter chapter 3. In verse 19, the Bible says of Matthew 28, the Bible is baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son. Teaching them. So again, that we teach all nations, then you baptize them, and then teaching them to observe all things. Whatsoever I've commanded you and lo, I'm with you always, even unto the end of the world. Amen. It's belief, it's baptism, and it's becoming a disciple. That is the pattern of the Christian life. Look at 1 Peter chapter 3. One of the best pictures of baptism, also one of the most misused scriptures, by the way, is 1 Peter chapter 3. Look at verse 18. Look at verse 18. For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust were the unjust, that he might bring us to God and be put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit, by which also he went and preached unto the spirits in prison, which some time were disobedient, whence the long suffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was preparing, wherein few, that is, eight souls were saved by water. Now, were the eight souls saved spiritually by water? No, he's talking about something that actually happened here. He's talking about God flooded the world, God flooded the world, and this is a picture of water, like they were literally saved from drowning, is what he's talking about in verse 20. But then look at verse 21. See, it's like, see, they were saved by water. Baptism does save you. They were saved from drowning. Look at verse 21. And then it says, like the first three words here, you know, underlining your Bible, the like figure, were unto even baptism, now also save us, not the putting away of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience towards God by the resurrection of Jesus Christ. What this is saying in verse 21, is like, this is a picture. Baptism is a picture of this, of the answer of a good conscience towards God after you are saved. And the Bible here is using the water of Noah to compare it to the water of baptism, because what did the water of Noah do? The water of Noah destroyed all flesh in the world. It literally killed everybody, but eight people. Baptism in this same sense is the water. It's a picture of the water destroying your flesh. It's the picture of the water destroying the old man. And you are to be raised a new man. It is the like figure. It is a picture of this. Now a lot of people will go into more detail about Noah being a picture of Christ and the believers being a picture of the other people in the ark. That's all fine, but the point I want to make today is that the water destroyed all flesh and that's what baptism is a picture of. It is baptism is a picture of you starting your Christian life. And if I just got saved, I know nothing about the Bible. I'm living a wicked sinful life. I get saved because look, my life that I'm living, it has nothing to do with whether or not I will get saved or not. That's what my heart and what I believe in my heart is whether or not I get saved. Now I got this wicked, sinful, fleshly life. I know nothing about what the Bible says. I need to destroy that flesh and that's what baptism is a picture of. Baptism is a picture of you just like killing that old man, just drowning that old man and raising, identifying with Christ, walking in the newness of life. There's tons of pictures in the Bible about this. Red sea destroyed all flesh. Naaman being having his leprosy, which is a picture of sin washed away in the river. It's just a picture of destroying that, destroying our old man and rising as a new man out of the water. It's a beautiful picture and that's what baptism is. It is a picture of the beginning of your life. It is a marker of the beginning of your Christian life. So again, baptism is a command by God. It has nothing to do with salvation. It identifies us with Christ. It identifies us with a local group of believers and it pictures the beginning of your Christian walk. Turn to Ephesians chapter 2. Turn to Ephesians chapter 2. There's just so much on this. I feel like I'm just scratching the surface, but I just want you to understand that baptism marks the beginning of your Christian life. Look at Ephesians chapter 2, verse number 8 and 9. We read these all the time. For by grace are you saved through faith and not of yourselves. It is the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. But look at verse number 10. Then what? Then what? For we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto what? Look, you're created in Christ Jesus unto good works which God hath before ordained that we, again, here's this word that Paul uses again and again and again that we should walk in them. Baptism is the starting line. You say, you get saved, then you should walk. Christ saved you. Look, you didn't deserve that. You didn't deserve to be saved. Shouldn't you be obedient to that? It wasn't anything you did, but he did it anyway. He did it anyway. You should listen to this very important command. I mean, why wouldn't you? It's the first sign of obedience in your life as a Christian. So how is it done? How is it done? And guess what? You're going to need God walking with you in your Christian life. So it's best that you start walking in the correct way. Turn to John chapter 3. So how is baptism done? You know, is it a sprinkling? What is it? You know, I mean, I guess if I was going to invent this idea that I have, you know, I can get people saved in this church by baptizing people and I was going to have, it would be easier if I didn't have to fill up a whole thing of water and actually have to, you know, put people under the water and bring them out. It'd be easier just to sprinkle people. Like it's just, it's laziness. It's really what it is. But look, let's look at the Bible. Look at the Bible. Look at John 3. Look at John 3. There's so many examples of this as well, but look at John 3, 23. And John also was baptizing in Aenon near to Salem because there was much water there and they came and were baptized. Go back to Acts chapter 8. So look, he went to a place. There was a lot of water. Like you can get a little cup of water anywhere, but he went all the way to this place because there was much water there. Look at Acts chapter 8 verse 38. Philip, you know, when he baptized Ethiopian eunuch, it says, he commanded the chariot to stand still and they went down both into the water. It doesn't say Philip went and got a cup of water and sprinkled it on the eunuch's head. Both Philip and the eunuch and he baptized him. This, look, and here's the thing. In Romans 6, 4, in the front of your bulletin, it says, this is a picture of us identifying with Christ. We are buried with him. How many people are going to bury a body by just sprinkling a little dirt on it? Look, when you're buried, you are buried. This is a picture of being buried with him by baptism into death. So the point is, I mean, the Greek word, I mean, I don't go into the Greek. But every, you know, a lot of people know that the Greek word, baptism, it actually means to immerse. It means to put under to dunk. It means to completely submerge someone in water. That's why we have a baptistry. So people can be completely immersed. And we can do it the right way after salvation, complete immersion. So look, you should be baptized in a Bible Church after you are saved, after you've believed the true Gospel. You should be baptized. Look, it matters who you're baptized by. Turn to Matthew chapter 3. You know, you should be baptized by a saved pastor who's preaching the true Gospel. If you haven't been baptized, talk to my wife or I or one of the ushers and let's get it done. Look at Matthew chapter 3. Go to Matthew chapter 3. Go to Matthew chapter 3. It is, look, it is the beginning of your Christian life. That is, how could you have something? How could you run a race if you never started from the beginning? Look, it depends on how the race is going to go on how you start. You know, so you need to start properly. Guess who else started? Started their ministry. Started everything with baptism. Look at Matthew chapter 3. Down at verse number 13. Jesus Christ started everything with baptism. Are we better than the Messiah? Look, we must start the right way. Look at verse 13. Then come with Jesus from Galilee. This is when John is baptizing. John the Baptist is baptizing people. Then come Jesus from Galilee to Jordan unto John to be baptized of him. Did Jesus have sins to be forgiven? Did Jesus have, did Jesus need to be saved? This was, Jesus is setting an example for us here on how to start things right. Look at verse 14. But John forbade him saying, I need to be baptized of thee and thou comest thou me. And Jesus answered and said unto him, Suffer to be so now, for thus it be to fulfill all righteousness. He's saying, look, I'm doing this for an example for you. You know what? This was the first thing Jesus did. Right after this, if you keep reading in Matthew chapter 4, Jesus goes to be tempted in the wilderness by the devil. And then look at verse 17 of Matthew chapter 4. Look at verse 17. And then after he was tempted in the wilderness, look what it says in Matthew chapter 4 and verse 17. If this doesn't prove to you that baptism is the beginning of your Christian life, I don't know what is. What will? From that time. From that time. Now, after Jesus has been baptized, Jesus began to preach and say, repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. And right after this, he starts collecting disciples. And he starts beginning his ministry. But it all began with baptism. If you haven't been scripturally baptized, talk to somebody. If you are saved, talk to somebody. On the Sunday after Easter, we are going to fill the baptistry and we're going to have a baptism Sunday. Talk to somebody. Baptism is an essential part of identifying you as a Christian, identifying you with the one who saved you. And starting your Christian life properly. Because look, guess what? We should walk in it. We should walk in it. Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer.