Christs Doctrine of Water Baptism

I want you to turn to Matthew 28, Matthew chapter 28 this morning. And I just want to put on hold our Sunday morning series and our Wednesday night series. And for a few meetings for a few weeks, I want to deal with this vital subject of water baptism.

And I'm calling this the importance of water baptism, the importance of water baptism, because there's two extremes almost on every subject within the church, within the body of Christ. Either we treat something too lightly, too casually, or else we go to the other extreme and we become dogmatic and we take a truth, take it to an extreme where it becomes hurtful of those around us. So these are two dangers that we don't hold and minister the truth of God and love, but we either are too casual or too hyper and too extreme.

That's one thing about truth. You don't need to strengthen truth. Truth is truth.

But I want to show you it's not enough merely to have the truth. If you don't minister it and love, if you don't hold it and love, it can become dangerous, very volatile. So you've got to be very careful with truth.

You could be saying the right thing and you could cause damage and hurt. That is not good. Or else you could try and downgrade the truth of God.

And so we're calling this series on baptism. We're going to do a water baptism next Sunday morning with several of the folk, but I want you to be aware. See faith cometh by hearing, hearing by the word of God.

If I want you to have faith and those who are going to get baptized next week, if I want you to do this in faith, I want to minister the word of God. That is the best preparation for water baptism is to tell you to minister to you of the word of God. The word importance in our English language comes from the Latin.

It means being of consequence. Something is of consequence or something of significance or that something has great weight to it. That's what we mean by importance.

And I'm going to deal with the importance of water baptism. It is very important. Don't you dare take water baptism casually, but also don't take it to an extreme.

Don't add to it. Don't make more of it than the Bible does. Don't start creating theology around it that the Bible doesn't.

Don't do that. But let's see the importance of it. Let's give care or attention to it.

And literally within the word importance coming from the Latin, it means to carry before or to bear. What does that mean? When something's important, you carry it tenderly. You carry it with importance.

You carry it with care. You actually carry it into the midst of focus. So we're aware of it.

If you're not baptized in water, I hope by preaching this, you see the importance. Maybe someone online will hear it who otherwise justified why they weren't. Oh, I'm not ready.

Really? Is that a biblical thing? Definitely not. Oh, I don't believe that. Then why are you playing with the things of God if you don't believe this? You're going to see how important this is.

But I want to assure you there is an importance to this. But in this part one, this is what I want to deal with. Christ's doctrine of water baptism.

Not man's, not a church's, not denominations, not even the apostles this morning. We'll deal with that later. I simply want to deal, and there's such a simple elementary message.

You see the importance of a doctrine. You can so be familiar with it, used to it, that you don't even know what you believe. That's what causes harm in the body of Christ.

Go, yeah, yeah, yeah. I know that. I believe that.

I understand that. I practice that. I am baptized.

And you don't even know what you believe. The power of it has not come to your heart. You can't defend it.

You can't go to the scripture. You don't know why you believe what you believe or why you practice what you practice. And that's how error and false doctrine sweeps in because you're not even fully grounded and persuaded in the most basic things of scripture.

And so it gets lost quickly. We end up with mature Christians who don't really know what they believe or why. They just spot it all off.

They just practice it. But there's no depth, no conviction, no understanding. But I don't want that to be in our midst this morning.

Reading from Matthew chapter 28, we're going to read the words of the master. Verse 16. Then the eleven disciples went away into Galilee, into a mountain where Jesus had appointed them.

And when they saw him, this is him resurrected from the dead. This is during the 40 days after his death, burial, and resurrection. He is alive.

Saints of God, he is alive this morning. And it says, and they saw him. They worshipped him, but some died.

And Jesus came and speak unto them saying, all power is given unto me in heaven and earth. Go ye therefore and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost. Teach in them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you.

I know I'm with you all way, even unto the end of the world. Amen. Will you pray with me? Let's pray that the Lord opens this up, shows us the importance of it, allows us to do this as a church, as individuals with faith in our heart.

Father, we do thank you for the clear teaching of Scripture. I thank you for the clear command of Christ, the clear teaching of Christ, the clear example of Christ. And Father, we thank you for the Holy Spirit who teaches us.

He inspired this book. He wrote its letters. He inspired its authors.

My God, we thank you that the Holy Spirit lays this before us, Lord God, not as an option, not as an opinion, not as a tradition, not as a mere theology, but Lord God, as a clear, simple command from our master, the Lord Jesus Christ, who called us to deny ourself, take up our cross and follow after him. The one who taught us time after time what it was to be, to be a disciple of Christ, what it would cost us. And he embodied that in the message of the cross.

Lord God, I'm asking of you this morning that those that are going to be baptized next week, that you'd minister faith to their hearts, that you'd stir them, Lord God, to realize they're responding to Christ. They're obeying the words of the Lord Jesus Christ. They're following the master and his example.

Lord God, it is a good thing that you, our heavenly father, are pleased with and delight in, and that you bless by the power of your Holy Spirit. Nor, God, overshadow us this morning, nor, God, as we come to your word, in Jesus' mighty name. Amen.

I'm going to start very simply here, just as we take a few messages on the Sundays and Wednesdays for a couple of weeks at least, just to open this up to see, to understand concerning water baptism. My first message, which is so elementary, and in fact I was going to jump on to many other things, and I couldn't. I wanted to cover a lot of ground, but constantly I came back to the simplicity of this.

Don't rush ahead. Don't cover much ground. Just stick with the master.

Stick with Jesus, his words, his example, his teaching, his exposition, his instruction concerning this, and that's what we're going to do this morning. And so I call this Christ's doctrine. Don't be scared of that word.

It's a Bible word. Christ's doctrine of water baptism, or Christ's teaching of water baptism, or what Christ himself taught and gave us. Concerning this simple action, teaching about water baptism, it says in Hebrews chapter 6 in verse 1, Paul the apostle writing, therefore leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ.

Notice he's talking about the doctrine of Christ, the teachings of Christ, the teachings about Christ, the teachings of Christ that we read in the Bible, the teachings of Christ given to the apostles to teach the church. But Paul in Hebrews 6, he says, therefore leaving the principles. He doesn't mean you move on from the doctrines of Christ.

Never, never. In these verses he says the doctrines of Christ are the foundations. When you go to build a house, you don't build a house or a foundation over here and build the house over here.

Absolutely not. You don't lay down the foundation, then say we're finished with that. We laid the foundation.

We don't need that anymore. Now we can build a nice house. We don't do that.

You know what you do? You lay the foundation in order to build a house upon it. And as you build that house, the foundations are essential. And so in Hebrews chapter 6, when he says, therefore leaving the principles or the foundations of the doctrine of Christ, it doesn't mean leaving them behind, forgetting about them, moving beyond them.

He doesn't mean that. He just means don't just lay the foundation. Don't just teach these principles of the doctrines of Christ and not notice that word doctrines.

It's the word logos in the beginning was the word doctrines. It is teachings. It is the logos or the things that God says in John chapter 1 verse 1. This word logos is the doctrines of Christ.

Or you could say the word of Christ, the message of Christ, the embodied teaching of Christ. And so he says that therefore leaving the principles of Christ, let us go on to perfection, not laying again the foundation. And then he's going to mention six teachings, repentance and faith.

That's two of them. He then says in verse two, the doctrine of baptisms and of laying of hands. And then he mentions another two.

There are six, but listen, one of the six foundations is actually the doctrine of baptisms, the teaching, the message of baptisms. And notice it's plural, not singular. There's not just a teaching in our New Testament about one baptism, but about several distinct baptisms.

There's the baptism in the Holy Ghost, the Bible. Jesus taught about a baptism of suffering. That's not salvation.

That's not water baptism. That's not Holy Ghost baptism. The baptism of suffering is another teaching that Jesus actually taught.

So we see in Hebrews six and one, one of the foundational teachings, basic, the ABCs, the elementary is on baptisms, on the word baptisms. There is an entire teaching about baptisms, not just water baptism. It is only one of those things.

And yet it says, don't just lay the foundation. Don't keep laying the foundation. Imagine you're a perpetual builder of houses who never got onto the building.

You're always laying the same foundation. At some point, I'm going to come along and say, hey, mate, when are you going to start on the building? You're so consumed with the foundation. Don't you know you lay in foundations to build a building? And so why do we deal within these six foundations? Listen to what he says again, not laying again, the foundation of repentance, of faith, their foundations.

You cannot build a house. You don't go anywhere unless they're in place. Then the third thing he mentions is the doctrine of baptisms, repentance, faith, baptisms, in that order.

First repentance before faith. Those who jumped to faith without going through repentance have missed something vital. There's those in the church today, and they don't even talk about repentance.

Then you haven't begun. You do not have a good foundation. And so there's the most simple, basic, elementary doctrine of Christ, repentance, faith, baptism, and the other three things that are mentioned here.

But we're going to deal with baptisms, therefore leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ. The word principles there means to arrange in order the principles of the doctrines of Christ. Everything laid out in order, logically thought through, systematically taught, put in its right place, put it in its right order.

That's what the word of God is talking about. And we know that these are part of the foundation, and it is absolutely vital. Here this morning as we come to Matthew 28, I'm going to deal with at least four things.

And you know how messages can grow as I preach them. So you don't know how many points I could end up with, or maybe we'll have to miss some points, but I'll show you there's at least four points here for us to deal with. And this is the first and most important one I want you to set in place.

This is part of the doctrine, the foundations. You've got to have this established. This message on baptisms, it's important.

It's vital. How can you go on to perfection if you don't even understand baptisms? All of you ought to understand baptisms, not just one baptism, the full spectrum of the teaching of what it means to be baptized in the New Testament. Here's my first point this morning.

Christ's clear command. Let me say that again and emphasize it. Christ's clear command.

What is water baptism? It is Christ's clear command. Look at verse 18 in Matthew 28. And Jesus came and speak unto them saying, all power is given unto me in heaven and earth.

Go ye therefore and teach all nations baptizing them. Do you see that this is a clear command of Jesus Christ? He's speaking to his disciples. On this occasion, he's probably speaking to above 500 believers that Paul mentions in Corinthians.

This is one of five times at least that Christ meets with the early disciples. He doesn't meet with them all the same time. Remember when he first met with them, there was 10 of them there, not 11, 10 of them.

Thomas wasn't there. Remember he's there one week later, then Christ appears again. Thomas is there.

And so in our New Testament, the gospel, we have various appearances of Christ to the 12 or to the 500. And I believe this is one of those occasions. Matthew 28, there were many there.

And you know what he does? He commands them, teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the father and of the son and of the Holy Ghost, teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you. And lo, I am with you all way, even unto the end of the earth. Amen.

Do you see Christ says here before telling them to go and baptize? It's a command. It's a clear, distinct command. It's not an opinion.

It's not an option. If you're born again here, it's not an option about getting water baptized. It's, it's not just your choice.

Are you in Christ? Have you met Christ? Do you believe in the commands of Christ? Listen to what he says in Mark chapter 16, 15. And he said unto them, go ye into all the world, preach the gospel to every creature. He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved.

And he that believeth not shall be damned. So it's a clear command given to the church. Everyone who believes must be baptized in water.

We must teach all nations. Notice the alls in this scripture, all power is given unto me. Go teach all nations.

There is an importance in these words. All power, all dunamis is given to Jesus Christ. He is all power.

And you know what? He gives you power. The same power that was given to him, he gives to the church. There is power behind water baptism.

It's not a man made religion. It's not just a tradition. It's not just some dead ritual.

Jesus Christ is there saying all power, dunamis, sorry. It's exousia, not dunamis. You'll know that the word dunamis means supernatural power, but the word power here is not dunamis.

It's not the acts one holy ghost power to do miracles, to do wonders, to do supernatural acts. It's not that it's the word exousia. I have all power and I'm giving you power.

So what does the word exousia mean? It means all authority, the right to do this, not the power to accomplish some act, but the actual right to teach men and to baptize them in water. He says, I am giving you the authority. Can you imagine Christ giving you authority and us not walking in that authority? I want to tell you, I've been given power, authority.

That's why I preach with authority. I want to tell you, I don't come here and give an opinion. Well, I think, I think you should do this.

No, I'm here saying you ought to do this. You're commanded to do that. I stand here, not as a man of opinions and ideas and suggestions.

I come here as a messenger sent by Jesus Christ. He commissioned me. Now I'm teaching you.

I am telling you what you ought to do as a follower of Christ. I'm not giving you an option. I'm not giving you a suggestion.

I worry about the church and this church in particular. Do you know when I sit and talk to you and I say, I think you should do this. What about this? If you haven't learned by now, I'm not giving opinions that comes out of decades of wisdom experience being saturated daily in the word of God.

And I watch people. They listen to go, no, no, no. We'll do this.

I could recite stay standing here over the past year, two years, five years. How many times I've given the wisdom of God, the scripture and people sitting here have not listened to it. You know why they think it's an opinion.

They actually think I operate in that. I worked very hard not to. You know why Jesus says, I gave you power authority.

You know what that authority is. I have been given certain rights. I have been given a realm of operation and a part of that is to baptize, to command you to be baptized, to call upon you to be baptized.

That's why we as an authority, where is our authority? It is in Christ. It is in the word of God. It is in the power of the Holy spirit.

We have been given authority to go and baptize in the name of the father and then the son and of the Holy ghost. He says, I have been given power. Go ye there for the basis of us going, teaching, preaching, discipling all nations.

I noticed he says all nations, water baptism is for every culture, every nation. There's diverse cultures represented in this room and in the church. This teaching is not affected by culture.

Never ever. It doesn't matter if you're an Irish man, a South African English man or anything else. It doesn't matter.

The command is the same. Be baptized in water. So this is Christ's clear command.

Go baptize, go teach, go preach. You know what, why things get lost in the church? Because there's no teaching. There's no preaching.

We've been given authority, the rights to teach good, all nations, all cultures, all men, all places, all generations, even says even until the end of the world or the age of the world. The end of the world doesn't mean explosion. It means the end of this age of grace, of the preaching of the gospel.

Christ has great authority. Go preach. Keep doing it to the end of time.

Keep doing it to the furthest boundaries of the world. Do it in all nations to all people. Teach them.

We need the teaching of the word of God again. And you know what? I believe because there's several people have come saying, I won't baptize in water. That comes out of teaching.

That comes out of challenge. We have an authority to baptize in the name of the father and of the son and of the Holy Spirit. Go ye therefore.

The Greek tense is going. In other words, not just go a one-off action, but as you go, everywhere you go, keep continuing to go. That's what it means.

It's a natural part of our Christian life. In a local church, we are commanded. This is a normal part of our life.

Teaching, preaching, baptizing. There shouldn't be Christians who are taught, preached to, who come into the body of Christ, who are not baptized in water. He says, ye teach, you baptize.

He is not going to baptize them. We as a church need to teach people, disciple them. Remember, we're not looking for converts.

We're looking for disciples. I want to tell you, I got rid of any sort of problem with that years ago. I'm not looking for a room filled with people.

I'm not looking for people sitting on seats in a church. I'm not looking for that. You know what I'm looking for? I'm looking for taught ones, disciples, followers of Christ.

What is a disciple? Christ defined it. It's someone with a cross on their shoulder. Show me someone who said, I'm a Christian.

I'm born again. I'm going to heaven. I want all the blessings.

God's going to bless me in my work. He's going to bless me in my finance. He's going to bless me in my marriage.

He's going to bless me in everything, but I ain't going to do anything. You are not a disciple. You're a liar.

Maybe you're even a thief, but where's your cross? See, that is the mark of discipleship. And so Christ gives us simple command. As you teach, as you preach, go and baptize.

This is what the church does. The word baptize here is speaking about water baptism. It is a command.

In fact, Christ goes beyond the command. You know, in Matthew, he says, when you pray, don't even say you must pray. He says, when you pray, he says, listen, there's somebody who's better not get scared when you fast.

He doesn't say you ought to fast. I'm telling you to fast says when you fast, see a follower of Christ does fast. He abstains from food to pray, to seek God.

He prays. He reads the word of God. He takes up his cross and follows Jesus Christ and he gets water baptized.

That is a disciple of Jesus Christ. Christ goes beyond the command to taking it for granted that a genuine Christian who follows him, it's not optional, not denominational, no cradle. Well, I'll go back to the Heidelberg creed.

I'll go back to the great creeds of Christianity. I don't need them. I've got one simple command from Jesus.

Go teach, baptize. I don't need to look at the crates. Oh, but would you, are you an adherent of Nicaea? Absolutely not.

After Nicaea and the Nicaean creed, they began to persecute real Bible Christians. The Nicaean creed became a horrible document that created the Catholic church. Don't tell me we need to adhere to Nicaea.

I don't adhere to Nicaea and yet there's nothing essentially wrong with Nicaea with its written document, I believe at all. But why would I adhere that? I adhere to the first century apostolic doctrine of the Lord Jesus Christ. And you know what? It is a command to be baptized.

So Jesus says in Mark 16, 15, he said unto them, go ye into the world, preach the gospel to every creature. Do you know what he's saying there? Go reach sinners with the message of my love, my salvation, my forgiveness. Reach every single creature.

Then listen to what he says. He that believeth. So they're going to believe because they're preaching.

You go preach those that believe because of your preaching. That's what's meant to happen when you preach the gospel. Why not believe someone is going to believe? Are you satisfied to preach in this high street every single Saturday and men and women walking past you and no one ever believes? Are you satisfied with that? You ought to get desperate on a Friday night praying.

You ought to get desperate on a Saturday morning. You ought to lie on your face before going on those streets, begging for souls, saying, don't let us preach without people believing. You ought to stand on that street and cry tears.

I told you of an experience with God where for six years, every time I walked to high street to get a pen from one of the shops, I would stand and begin to wait six long years. Every single time I went to the high street because God had given me a vision of souls on their way to hell. It so devastated me, impacted me that I couldn't even go to get a pen from the shop without standing there and seeing souls on their way to hell.

Since we need to get passionate again. And so it says here, he that believeth and is baptized shall be saved. And he that believeth not shall be damned.

Notice it's not baptism that saves you. He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved. Oh, that must mean you're saved by baptism.

No, Jesus doesn't say that. He goes on to say, he that believeth not shall be damned. But look at it.

Those who believe the gospel, it's not enough to believe. You've got to be baptized in water. Jesus teaches that here.

Christ's clear command. That's my first point. My second point, Christ's clear example.

We baptize in water. We get baptized in water. We baptize others in water.

Why? First of all, because of Christ's clear command. It cannot be any clear. Saints, are you hearing me this morning? Is this clear? Do you believe it? Do we walk in this? Christ's clear command.

But the second one, Christ's clear example. It says in Matthew chapter three, verse 13, then cometh Jesus from Galilee to Jordan unto John, who was John the Baptist, or John the baptizer, the immerser, to be baptized of him. Jesus Christ, the perfect son of God.

He was sinless. He was perfect. He was obedient in every action, every day.

The only child in all of history that never disobeyed its parents. Never in thought, word, deed, or action. He was an utterly unique child.

He was sinless. And yet, look at him. He comes to John the Baptist, his cousin, born of Elizabeth.

He was six months older than Jesus, his cousin, or his half-cousin. And here he is. John the Baptist has been preaching for six months and isn't far off being martyred for preaching repentance.

It says that Jesus came on to him in Jordan to be baptized of him. Christ actually went out to the preacher. He went looking for baptism in his own heart.

He says, I'm going to John. I'm going to the river. I'm going to be baptized.

Why do we have Christians who think they don't need to be baptized? It's Christ's example. Some are scared of water. Mary was.

She had to pray her way through it. Says, you need to pray for me. Although several years ago, she was scared to go down into the water.

It didn't stop her getting baptized. She just said, I need to get through this. You need to pray for me.

Now you guys are, you're going to bring me back up again, aren't you? Yes, we'll bring you back up again. We'll keep our hands on you. We'll help you.

But it never hindered her going through natural fears, worries, doubts. We have these saints of God, but it never stopped her. You know why her master got baptized in water.

So it says he went to John to be baptized, but John forbade him. Look at the natural reaction of John the Baptist. He said, I have need to be baptized of you and thou comest to me.

Look at this preacher. He is stirring the entire nation. Thousands are coming out.

Even the king comes out to hear him. Here's all the religious leaders come out to hear him. They're filling the banks and here comes his cousin.

One man said, I'm come. You need to baptize me. Oh no, no way.

Am I going to baptize you? You need to baptize me. This is the greatest preacher in the nation. There's a preacher preaching on fire for God filled with the Holy Ghost since his mother's womb.

A man who shakes the nation, religion, politics, stirs up all the demons of hell. And yet he says, I can't baptize you. You need to baptize me.

What a great man. Oh, what humility. You've got Christ come and said, you need to baptize me.

You've got John, the greatest preacher, man of God on fire for God. And yet he said, no, you need to baptize me. Do you see the humility here with real men of God? Those who walk with God walk humbly.

You know, pride is a terrible thing in the church. Attitudes are, I'm not born. I'm not going to show any weakness.

I'm not going to submit to that person. Remember what scripture says. We all submit one to the other.

I'm not submitting to them. I won't submit to my husband. I won't submit to my parents.

You need to know the greatest people who've ever walked the earth were people of submission. These men believed in water baptism. They practiced it.

They did it. And then listen to what Jesus says to John and Jesus answered unto him, suffer it to be now or allow it just for now. And listen, he says for that had become us to fulfill all righteousness.

Then he suffered them. Christ was saying, I'm setting an example. Peter says you and I are to follow in the footsteps of Jesus Christ.

We're to follow his example. You know what he's doing? Fulfilling righteousness, fulfilling holiness. He's obeying his father in heaven.

He is setting an example. And so that was a hard argument for John. John said, Oh, okay.

This is hard for me to do, but it's not about you. Not about me. See a lot of people in the church that caught up with them, caught up with them.

It's not about you. Can I tell you this church ain't about you? It never will be. It's not about me.

It's not about you. It's not about the person sitting down the road from you. It's not about you.

We need to submit ourselves because there's a higher calling. This is all about Christ's command, Christ's example. There is a message in water baptism.

And it says in Jesus, when he was baptized, went straight up out of the water and load, the heavens were opened on to him. And he saw the spirit of God descending. Now there's those who deny the doctrine of the Trinity.

They don't believe that father, son, and Holy ghost are three persons. They believe God is one person manifested in three ways. I disagree with that.

God is one, not one person. God is one. He's united.

He thinks acts speaks as one, but there's three persons. If it wasn't then what sort of game are we playing here? Jesus is physically in the water. He's just being baptized bodily.

He has God manifest in the flesh. He comes up out of the water. Then the text says he saw the heavens open and the spirit of God descending as a dove upon him.

That isn't one person that has two persons. The Holy spirit was descending upon him. The Holy spirits, a person, a distinct person coming down with a different task, a different call, a different commission.

Jesus is in the water. Here comes the Holy spirit descending like a dove. He's not a dove.

The Holy spirit's not a dove. He's like a dove. He's like it up.

It wasn't the dove came down. It was like a dove. Remember the tongues of fire, like tongues of fire.

It wasn't tongues of fire. It was like the Holy ghost came on them and operate like tongues of fire. Then listen to what it says.

I know a voice from heaven saying, this is my beloved son and whom I am well pleased. Who's speaking from heaven? It is the father. This is my beloved son.

You've got the father in heaven speaking. You've got the Holy spirit coming down. You've got Jesus standing in the water, having been baptized.

Do you see the blessing? Do you want the blessing of the Holy spirit on your life? Do you see the example of Christ? He said, fulfill all righteousness. Follow my example. I'm leading the way.

See if Christ hadn't have done it, you'd have smart Alex all across the church that Jesus didn't do it. I don't need to do it. That's what we have.

A bunch of smart Alex. It's not enough that the Bible teaches it. They go, I'm more spiritual than that.

Then you're not spiritual at all. But look at this. Do you want the power of the Holy spirit to come on your life? Why not obey water baptism? And then more than that, look, God, the father speaks from heaven and says, I'm well pleased in you.

The father was pleased in Jesus. Who's perfect. He can't do anything wrong.

How can you be more pleased by getting baptized in water? Here is Christ, the perfect son of God. And the father is so delighted. He is so happy on this day at this moment.

I mean, he didn't stay in the water. It's not like that apostolic movement out of Denmark. They keep you in the water to cast all the demons out of you for 30 minutes.

They keep you in the water to get you baptized in the Holy ghost. The poor guy is going to get a cold. If it's Ireland, that might work in, in some other hot country.

It's not going to work here. I tell you, don't leave them in the water. You know, when Christ was in the water and God said, I am well pleased with you.

God, the father was acknowledging and testifying about the example of Christ. The Holy spirit is bearing witness father, son, and Holy ghost bearing witness to this act, this event. It wasn't just a spiritual inward experience.

It was an outward physical act of getting in the water, be immersed in the water by somebody else coming up out of it. It's an actual act that suddenly happens. Listen to what it says in John chapter three 22, after Christ steps out in his ministry, after these things came Jesus and his disciples into the land of Judea and they retired with them and baptized.

Do you see as soon as Christ and his disciples step out in the ministry, what are they doing? They know are baptizing. Not only did Christ get baptized by John the Baptist, but here he's going on in ministry. They are carrying on, not just preaching, not just teaching, not just healing of the sick, not just casting out demons.

Here is Christ and the disciples everywhere they went, they baptize people. Baptism is important. Do you see the example of Christ? If it wasn't important, he wouldn't have done this.

But actually not only commanded, believe and be baptized wherever you go, baptize. But here he is in his own ministry, wherever he went, baptize people. They're believing on me.

Let's baptize them. And listen to what else it says. And John also was baptized and in any, that's the name of a river near Salem because there was much water there.

Do you believe in sprinkling and infant baptism? Look what it says. John was baptized in there. Why? Why there? Because there was much water.

You don't need much water in the desert to sprinkle. You don't need that. But if you're going to immerse people, if you're going to do that, you need a lot of water.

John had to have a river, a lot of water. So look, Jesus is out baptizing. John is out baptizing.

Everyone of any consequence who has the Holy Spirit is baptized and disciples. And John also was baptized in there. For John was not yet cast into prison.

He soon will be. He's got weeks left. And there arose a question.

Look at these two great preachers who are impacting the nation, stirring the nation. They're both baptizing. But here's the typical thing that happens amongst God's people.

There arose a question between some of John's disciples and the Jews about purification. Do you see what's happening? Men's lives are being changed. Christ is baptizing disciples.

What do the followers start doing? They start to argue. A question. Well, what about this? It's about purification, about cleansing, about being right ritual from the Old Testament.

Do you see how easily a church can get distracted, arguing opinions, ideas? I think I don't agree with that. Well, what do you believe in? Show us a better way. I think this, I think that, I think this.

Remember what I've said. Opinions are like belly buttons. Get back to the scripture.

Do you know people critique everything nowadays, especially with YouTube? They'll critique. They'll critique this red curtain. We had people leave us because of that red curtain.

Said that red curtain's demonic. You need to move it. No, we're not moving the red curtain for you.

If I told you some of the stories, you wouldn't believe them. Gets ridiculous. There's a wee video on YouTube.

It's about me making hand signs. Said this man's an occultist because of his hand movements. That's how ridiculous it gets.

You know what? You can get easily distracted from the focus. The command of Christ, the simple, clear command, be baptized. The example of Christ.

He not only got baptized, he's now baptizing people. And in the middle of these thousands being water baptized to follow Christ, what happens? Well, I've got a question about purification, about being clean, ritually right with God. God help us.

We need to be careful. And they came on to John and said unto him, Rabbi or teacher, he that was with thee beyond Jordan, you know, the one you baptized, you baptized him. You know him.

Here they are. These people have questions and here they are now coming directly to John and they're going to pitch John against Jesus. John, see him that you baptized in Jordan.

Listen to what they say. Of whom thou bearest, behold, the same baptizeth all men and all men come on to him. When therefore the Lord, sorry, let me say that again.

And they came on to John and said unto him, Rabbi, he that was with thee beyond Jordan, to whom thou bearest witness, behold, the same baptize us and all men come to him. You see what they're doing? He's getting more popular than you. People are being baptized, repenting, getting right with God.

And you've got these busy bodies going back and forth. John, do you know he's getting more baptisms than you? Then questions. Well, what about between the disciples? What about purification? I hope John washed his hands before baptizing us.

I hope Jesus has ritually washed his hands before. And then there'll be someone in there who says, do you think the water's hygienic enough? How about we do a bit of a test before we get in there? Looks a bit murky to me. This man got baptized in water, the gypsy camp in Shropshire in England.

Okay. All these gypsy kids got baptized with me. I loved it.

I loved that. We had to walk across two fields, get down into the muddy water. It was my father baptized me.

And one of our best friends, he promised me he was going to keep me down there if he ever got me under the water, but he brought me up. Thank God. But do you see this? The example of Christ baptizing and hear those going to John when therefore the Lord knew that the Pharisees had heard that Jesus made and baptized more disciples than John.

Do you see what's getting stirred up here? Religion, tradition, distraction, don't lose the power of water baptism. Christ, follow Christ in baptism. Just enjoy the simplicity of this.

Men want to argue over these things. You're just losing the thrill of this to be baptized in water. I don't care who's following who.

I don't care about these side issue questions. They're of no consequence. Then third of all, listen to this.

Christ's clear use of the word baptism. Christ used the word baptism. All the belief have to be baptized in water.

Go baptize men. Now listen to this word baptism. Jesus didn't use any other single word.

He could have used the word, the Greek word which means sprinkle. Or he could have used the word which means to pour. He didn't use them.

He used a Greek word meaning it's a Greek word. It means something. It's used 77 times in our New Testament.

And listen, 13 of those times is speaking about John's baptism. To baptizo, you have an example with John the Baptist. You have a clear example.

And you know what? It says that they went down into that water. There was much water to be baptized in. Six times the word is used of the pouring out of the Holy Spirit and fire.

So it can be used of water, can be used of the Holy Spirit. And do you honestly want sprinkled with the Holy Spirit or do you want drenched with the Holy Spirit? You choose. I know what I want and neither do I just want a bath.

I want an outpouring of the Holy Spirit. Listen to what the word baptizo, that Jesus used, that he taught, that he used in his command. He's commanding, baptize all those that believe.

Teach them, then baptize them. It means, and this is the Greek meaning, this is the only Greek meaning. There is no other meaning.

The Greek word baptizo means to dip repeatedly below the surface of water, to immerse, to submerge below the surface. If it's still half above, it's not submerged. It's not baptizo.

It means to be utterly hidden from sight. No part of the body above the water. You're totally submerged.

In Greek language, in that day, it was used of a boat being sunk to the bottom of the ocean. It was baptizo'd. It's sunk in under the water.

The boat isn't above anymore. The water has submerged it. That is baptizo.

No sprinkling, no dripping, no pouring. It is an absolute baptism. It also means to moisten something, to take a garment, to soak it thoroughly.

So, if you dye a garment, you're making a white garment purple. If you dye that garment, if you baptize that garment, the purple dye in the water is going to get right into that white garment, and it's going to be absolutely dyed purple. And so, the word baptizo was often in the ancient world used of dyeing things.

It means to be left in the water until the color of water soaked into the garment and changed its actual color. Something becomes purple that was once white. It also means to cover totally with fluid, to plunge beneath.

And so, the word baptizo was often used of a man drowning, a man who'd lost his ability to stay above the surface, a man who'd gone under for the very last time. He's baptizo'd. And then lastly, the word baptizo is the strongest word to explain identification.

That water becomes one with the man. There is a submergent. You can't see him anymore.

He is lost in something. So, if you want to explain about a man being lost from sight, hidden, taken out of sight, you use the word baptizo. See, the word baptism only speaks of full immersion, covered in water.

Sprinkling was an invention of the church. The first time it's ever used in church history. And you can trace it to the third century.

It was a man who got converted mightily from his sin. He was on his deathbed about to die. He didn't want to die without being baptized, but he couldn't move from his home.

So, they came in and they poured water upon him. The first time it was ever recorded in church history. But that's not the Bible word.

Where you can, you're commanded, be baptized. Jesus commanded this. If you believe, then get baptized in water.

Go down to the river or a swimming pool or a nice tank in some church. Nice, warm, heat attack. I don't like them.

Let's go to the river. It's muddy there, cold. We get in there.

It's more New Testament. I want to tell you. We get in there and you know what? You're commanded.

Be submerged. It's symbolic. We're going to deal with this in the other messages.

Number four, Christ's clear call to repentance and faith. Who are those who get baptized? We've already heard those who receive, who are taught. Those who get preached to.

Those who believe. But listen, let's just go a bit further with this. Christ is our example.

He commanded it clearly. We have his clear example. We have his clear use of the word baptism.

Think about Christ chose that word. He knew what he was talking about. Christ was immersed in water.

Christ immersed others in water. Christ commands us to immerse men in water. But fourth, Christ's clear call to repent and to believe before water baptism.

It says in Matthew four verse twelve, now when Jesus had heard that John was cast into prison, he departed into Galilee. And from that time, Jesus began to preach and to say, repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. As soon as Christ began to preach, what was his message? Repent.

Repent. How are you going to get converts who are going to get, want to get water baptized? You preach repentance. Christ preached repentance.

Why can you go into a church and you never hear repentance? Why is it you could go through several weeks and you don't even hear the command, repent to your sin? Oh, we're all sinners. No, Jesus said, repent. You remember what the apostles and Jesus said? Remember the woman at Samaria who had five marriages.

She messed up with sexual immorality. And then he said, the man you're with now isn't your husband. Do you know what he said? Go and sin no more.

She's a new convert. Not even an hour saved. She's met Christ and has changed.

Go and sin no more. Do you know what they tell them in the church now? Christ understands. Hey, you won't get changed immediately.

You can keep your sin. You can keep walking in this. No, it's just all under grace.

Don't worry about it. Jesus preached repentance. You want to get baptized in water? Repent, repent.

Do you realize repentance always comes before faith? And if there's no repentance, it's not real faith. Remember Hebrew six, where we start. Remember what the foundations are? Number one foundation, what is it? Repentance.

What's number two? Faith. What's number three? Baptism. Do you see the order here? You can't change the order of God.

And so Christ, when he began to preach, what did he preach? Repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. It's so close you could reach out and touch it. You better repent.

That's how close the kingdom is. I mean, God's dominion, God's reign, God's blessing. You want God's blessing in your life.

Repent. Turn from your sin. See, real preaching deals with sin.

Preaching that does not deal with sin. Exposing sin. That is sin.

Turn from it. What does repent mean? Means turn. You're walking that direction.

Turn. You know those who get baptized in water next Sunday? They're people who've repented. If you haven't repented of your sin, you've got no right to water baptism.

If you're not born again, you've got no right to come and take of this Lord's table, to break bread, to have communion. It's not for you. Believe.

Get born again. Repent. This is the first great thing.

Listen to what John the Baptist did. Remember his baptism. That's where Christ went.

Listen to what it says in Matthew 3 7. But when he saw, and this is John the Baptist seeing many Pharisees and Sadducees come to his baptism. Now notice what's happening. He's preaching repentance.

There's John the Baptist. He's baptizing those who repent. They repent of their sin.

He's preaching against sin. He deals with sin. Then this day he looks up.

Here's all these Pharisees and Sadducees. Religious leaders who have the Bible. Who are scrupulous about their rituals and traditions.

But yet they haven't repented. Listen to what John says to them. He said unto them, O ye generation of vipers.

We don't have preachers like this anymore in our day. O ye generation of vipers. He's looking at certain people, certain systems of religion, legalism, hypocrisy, dead religion is very dangerous.

Notice you don't get the apostles and Jesus saying that of the alcoholics or the prostitutes or the immoral woman. You don't hear that sort of talk. This is safe for religion that has destroyed real faith in God.

That's what it's safe for. You generation of vipers. Who has warned you to flee from the wrath to come? You're coming out to this water baptism.

This water baptism means you've repented. You've turned around. You hate your sin.

That's what this baptism means. Why are you here? You don't hate your sin. You like your religion and your pride and your arrogance and your performance.

You've got no right to be here. That's what he's preaching here. And then listen to what he says.

Bring forth therefore fruit meet for repentance. But brother Keith, that's works. I'm under grace.

You're making me feel bad. I know under grace, we have liberty, not legalism. You're making me feel legal, like I'm meant to obey something, like I'm meant to receive commands.

But under grace, we don't have any commands. It's all grace, grace, grace, faith, faith. That's a perverted gospel.

You need to be very, very careful. John the Baptist in Christ after preached. Bring forth therefore fruits meet for repentance.

If you've repented, we'll baptize you, but make sure you bring forth those fruit. No fruit, no repentance. Remember what Jesus said.

You will know them by their fruit. You can tell. Don't judge.

You're not meant to judge people. Yes, you are. You're meant to judge me.

You better do it correctly. Better not misjudge because you're getting in trouble. But you are allowed to judge.

You better be judging my preaching. Is it biblical? Is it according to scripture? Is it correct? Is it balanced? Is it Christ glorifying? Is it the word of God? You better be judging. But don't judge me wrongly.

I don't like his style. And? He raises his voice. And? It's too quiet.

And? I'd never accuse that. And? You ought to judge my character. Do I preach the truth? That's what you judge.

If you judge other things, you're wrong before the Holy Ghost. So here's John the Baptist preaching repentance. And he says, and think not to say within yourselves, we have Abraham to our father and say unto you that God is a, I say unto you that God is able of these stones to raise up children.

There's a lot of people that I've always been a Christian rubbish. That's utterly unbiblical. We've had people come in.

When were you born again? Oh, I was raised this way. I've always believed like this. Really? What you never had the born again experience that Jesus has taught about.

Not saying, you know, the day or the hour or even the month, but did you have a radical change where you repented? Oh, we're of the seed of Abraham. We're in a good Christian community. I was raised in church.

When were you born again? When did you repent? I got saved at four and a half. I can tell you when I repented, I can tell you of the dealings of the Holy Ghost. It was terrible that night.

It changed my entire life. I was a child, but the Holy Ghost came to me and he showed me that night. I needed him.

I felt the distance between me and God. He was up there. I'm down here.

I believe in him. But that night the Holy Spirit showed me I need to be born again. And that night I cried onto him.

I repented of my sin and I was born again. I didn't know all the terminology, but instantly the power of the Holy Spirit illuminated me. Since I'm telling you something real, John said, I indeed baptize you with water.

He will baptize you with the Holy Ghost. Now listen to this with repentance. What about Peter on the day of Pentecost? He says, then Peter said onto them, 3000, what must I do to be saved? What would you tell them? Believe.

Have you forgotten anything? Listen to what Peter said. 3000 under grace in the new covenant in a work of the Holy Spirit in revival. What do you preach? When men say, what must I do to be saved? What shall we do? Repent and be baptized.

Every one of you. Repentance will give you faith. I'm going to tell you that preach true repentance.

Let a man really repent. He'll have the gift of faith to believe in Christ and be baptized. John preaching on the day of Pentecost to 3000 new converts preach repentance and then water baptism.

First repent, then be baptized in water. Without repentance, you cannot be baptized in water. Or what about faith then? Jesus said again, Matthew 16, 15 said unto him, go ye into all the world, preach the gospel to every creature.

Notice the gospel. He that believeth, if you preach the gospel, people are going to believe and is baptized. Those who believe the gospel are going to be baptized, but first they have to believe before you get baptized in water.

You've got to believe. Go back to your Bible. Go back to your new Testament and see what real faith is.

Do you understand what real faith is? Unless a man comes to faith in Christ, he cannot be baptized in water. Faith in what? Faith in a person. The actual Greek means to faith into, or a faith that moves you somewhere.

A faith that takes you in a direction. A faith that puts you in the person of Christ. To have faith in Christ means you're moved.

You're placed into Christ. That's why someone who believes in Christ has radically changed their once in Adam, once in themselves, once in the world, once in sin. But one act of faith, when you repent, when you're convicted of your sins, do you know what happens? Faith comes in and lifts you up and makes you a new creature.

You know what we're to have faith in? The blood of Jesus. The finished work of the cross. A belief, a conviction that if you repent, God will forgive you.

He'll wipe away your sin. He'll make you a new creature. He'll forgive you entirely.

He'll let go of your debt. Saints, we're talking about something very, very real. Repentance and faith.

If I went through every example in the book of Acts of where you find water baptism, do you know what you always find before it? Is either preaching repentance or faith. Sometimes it uses the word repentance without mentioning faith. Other times it mentions faith without mentioning repentance.

But these are things that happen together. Repentance and faith go together. Two sides of the same coin.

Then you can get baptized with water. Who is it who gets baptized in water? It's those who have repented. They've turned from the world.

They believed in Christ. They put their confidence in him. They believe the word of God.

I didn't say they're sinlessly perfect. Do you know in the New Testament, most of those who get baptized in water, it's the first day they got saved. Who here got baptized in the day you got saved? No one here.

I didn't. I didn't. I got saved at four and a half.

I got baptized in water at 15 years old at that gypsy camp in England. But in the New Testament, the ethiopian eunuch on his way in the chariot, remember he believed. What did he do? What does stop me or hinder me from being baptized? Here is water.

Didn't take his wee canister out and pour it in his head. He said, here's water. Let's stop.

Let's get down in there. Philip the evangelist is with him. Do you see this, that what happens here with these issues of water baptism? We're only beginning.

I'm laying a foundation, but I hope I preach clearly to Christ doctrine of water, baptism, Christ's clear command, Christ's clear example, Christ's clear use of the word baptizo, and Christ's clear call to repentance and faith. But let me just mention as I close one last little thing in the text. Listen again to what it says in Matthew 28 verse 19.

Go you therefore and teach all nations, baptize in them in the name of the father and of the son and of the holy ghost. One last thing as I close. There's disputes all over the church about water baptism.

Entire denominations baptize infants. Sprinkle with water rather than immerse. You know a baby can't repent.

It's a direct disobedience. There's some examples in the book of Acts and in the gospels and it says the entire household was baptized. Lydia's entire household.

It doesn't say there's children. So people assume there must have been a child, a baby in there. So that child must have got baptized.

It doesn't say that. The constant teaching is repent and be baptized. Believe and be baptized.

Preach to them and then baptize them. It never says that your child is in the covenant because of your faith. Never ever does it teach that.

You don't go back to the old testament. You go back to Jesus Christ. You go to the doctrine of the apostles.

You're not getting re-baptized next week if you got baptized as an infant or got baptized as an apostate. Some people have got baptized. They didn't care about Christ.

They're womanizing, getting drunk, running after this world, taking drugs. Your baptism was no baptism. There's teachings in the church today and I'm warning you they're making baptism sacred.

And they say even if you didn't really believe it's so sacred you don't need to get it done again. No. It's the faith that is sacred.

That is supernatural. That is just the outward act of the inward faith of me saying I am born again. But notice this as we close.

I better be careful not to get off on a sidetrack here. It says to be baptized in the name of the father, son, and holy spirit. The entire denominations in our world deny that and say you need to be baptized in Jesus name only.

They deny the trinity. They're called oneness Christians or oneness Pentecostals. They don't believe there's a father, son, and holy ghost in three persons.

They believe it's one person manifest. They believe that God was a ventriloquist. That here while Christ is in the water being baptized he is throwing his voice into heaven, speaking out of heaven, and also descending while standing bodily in the water.

I don't believe that. I believe in father, son, holy ghost. I believe three and one.

One and three. I believe in the three persons who are one God but who are real three persons. Look what Jesus said.

There's the command of Christ. As I close, listen this last Christ's clear command to baptize, baptizo, in the name of the father and of the son and of the holy ghost. Christ gave that command.

There's all those who say but in the book of Acts it always says they baptize in Jesus name. You're absolutely right. They say there's the only time it's written like that.

You're absolutely right. They say he didn't mean what he said. Now hold on a second.

They say let me explain what Jesus really meant. Oh really? Now you're on dangerous ground. When I was a teenager and people whispered to me but in the book of Acts they always baptized in Jesus name and it sort of died in here.

And up into my 20s I couldn't baptize people because I had a doubt over it. Do you do you do you say we baptize you in the name of the father son holy spirit or do we say we baptize you in the name of Jesus? Which is it? Do we follow Matthew 28 or do we follow the book of Acts? Which is it? Do you see how easily they say I'm talking about me here. I'm talking about my teens and my 20s.

Someone just sowing those doubts and questions and it gets me confused. I love Jesus. I obey the word of God but here they sow a little disagreement.

I'm going to tell you there's the command of Jesus Christ. Baptize them. Immerse them in water in the name of the father and the son and of the holy ghost.

And we'll maybe say a little bit more about this at another time or I'll keep you here for a very long time. Saints of God I'm telling you of the simplicity. My message has been Christ's doctrine of water baptism.

Don't change it. Don't add to it. Don't explain it away.

Don't justify it. Don't add your theology. Don't pitch it against other scriptures in the bible.

When it says father son holy spirit why don't we do that with authority? And I'll say more about this because there's more to be said. But I'm giving you a clear command. A clear example.

Clear teaching. Clear instruction. And saints of God you can have faith today that we have authority.

We have exousia. We have the right to baptize men in water as a church and to immerse them into an experience with the lord Jesus Christ of death, burial, resurrection. And I'm going to tell you all those that got baptized in the new testament they didn't prepare for it.

They were ready by repentance and faith. They weren't the finished sinless product. There were issues that would have to be dealt with.

Peter had some issues after getting baptized in water. They didn't go back and get baptized again. Oh I denied him three times.

We better immerse you to get rid of the sin. No they didn't say that. He got baptized once.

One baptism. Oh he wished he hadn't have done that. You know some of you you wish I wish you could go back and get baptized again because now I understand it.

Or maybe I didn't understand what I was doing. Well join the club. Who here understood what was happening when they're baptized in water? Oh yeah I understood it all about being crucified with Christ and buried with Christ and risen again.

I didn't have a clue. You know I felt disappointed with my baptism and oh I'd so love to do it again. I did not have any tingly feelings down my back.

My hair didn't stand on end. I didn't have a dynamic experience. I come up by the water.

Is that it? Do you know what what a baptism is? It's obedience to the command of Christ. The first act of discipleship. It is following your master.

It's not an experience though it could be. It could be. It's not some ecstatic occurrence although it could be.

What it is is a conscientious willful act of obedience in the light of God's word. Let's stand here this morning. Let's just thank him.

Let's praise him. We worship you. We love you.

We bless you Lord Jesus. We worship you oh Lord Jesus. We want to follow your commands.

We want to follow your example. We want to walk in the light of your word. Lord God we pray for this water baptism next week.

Lord God that the heavens would open. That the father would find pleasure and delight in those that are simply obeying you. My God that the power of your Holy Spirit would come down as a dove in these individuals.

My God we ask of you that you prepare these hearts by the simplicity of repentance and of faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. My God to embark on this walk with the Lord Jesus. Father I pray that you sanctify them.

That you'd bless them over this week. That you'd deliver them from every stratagem of the devil. That you'd save them from the hand of their enemies.

My God we're asking of you for the power of your Holy Spirit. Lord God we ask that you would add many unto this church who repent of their sins in this city. Who believe in Christ and Lord God we shall baptize them in the name of the father and of the son and of the holy ghost into the death the burial and the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Hallelujah.