I mean, to me, no matter how many times you see that done, whether you know them or you don't know them, it should light your fire. As Fred might say, if it doesn't light your fire, your wood might be a little wet. But, uh, man, I'm telling you, the evidence and the declaration of changed lives, that's what we're about. You know, if you're here today for the first time, my name's Jamie. I'm the lead pastor.

Honored that you would be here visiting today. And as I look across the room and knowing that this was move-in week for the University of Toccoa Falls— I may mess that up and call it Toccoa Falls College, just forgive me in advance, some habits are hard to break— but you're here, you're a new student or you're a returning student, maybe your family is with you. Thank you for coming today. You could have gone anywhere. You could have chosen to use this time to drive back home.

But you came to worship with us. And we're humbly honored. Thank you for being here. You know, and if you're new or you've been here for a while, can I tell you something about us for a few minutes? We are Ebenezer.

We're a place that we feel we're called to lead the broken to hope in Christ. And that word hope, we don't use it flippantly. We believe that we are a people of hope because we have hope. Therefore, this is a place of hope. If you don't hear anything else we ever say, we want you to hear this is a place of hope.

Because our hope is built on Jesus Christ. And we believe— actually, we are the broken leading the broken to hope in Christ. And the word hope has 4 letters, right? H-O-P-E. The word H, we believe one of our values here at Ebenezer is we want to help others know.

We believe in relationships. We believe God's called us to engage by attending, by sharing lives, and by inviting others. That's how we show that we value relationships. The O of HOPE means to own our faith. We believe in discipleship.

We believe that we are called to know more, to learn about Christ, to follow Him. And in follow Him, invite others along in the journey and see that multiplied. And from that, the P of HOPE is pursue God daily. We believe we were created by God for God to glorify Him. And so every day, every breath, every moment we have, we honor Him in worship and dedication.

We believe we're called to be a praying people. That we communicate with God. We commune with Him. We talk to him. We share our hurts and our lives with him.

And because he's so good to us, we give back. God's given everything we have, even the breath that we're taking. So we give our tithe. We give our talent. We give our time in honoring him.

And the E of HOPE is extend his hope. I mean, for people of hope, we got to take it somewhere, right? And we'll never take it anywhere unless we love others. Love others. We love Tekoa.

We love our town. We love our state. We love our country. But we love our world. Why?

Because Jesus does. And without love, we're nothing more than a resounding gong. Just making noise. But when we find that love, it leads us to the next stone, which is we serve. The greatest evidence of a growing disciple is serving.

Serving in your town, serving in your community, serving in your church. I mean, Jesus said it best when he said, "Love one another. By this all men would know you're my disciples if you have love for one another." So we show our love by serving. And finally, we reach people. Folks, we're called to reach people in our backyard.

At the grocery store. And all around the world. That is who we are. And I thought today might be just a great time to remind Ebenezer. Ebenezer, this is who we are.

This is who we are. We are a people of hope. And it's on the wall as you come in the building. Romans 15:13. In fact, would y'all mind repeating it after me?

I just— as a prayer today. I'm gonna say a line. You say it back to me. Now, may the God of hope. Fill you with all joy.

And peace in believing. So that you will abound.

In hope. By the power. Of the Holy Spirit. Man, that lights my fire. Does it light yours?

I hope you can leave today feeling a little bit more energized and ready As Caleb was mentioning, we all came in here with something. We all came in here knowing that God— maybe we didn't— that God is actually fighting our battles for us. Let us go out and be hope-filled people. Let's be hope dispensers. Let's steal that phrase from Napoleon and we be hope dispensers, because that's what we're called to do.

Turn your Bibles with me to Acts 2:37. If you're on a device, Hey, listen, let me remind you that if you're here today and you're like, "I don't have a Bible." You know, we just kind of changed our seating in here. Well, we've got that problem solved. We don't have Bibles in the back of those chairs. We've got free Bibles for you to make your own right outside in the lobby.

Now you probably don't want to get up right now because that would be embarrassing. Don't worry about that. When you leave today, stop by our Next Steps, our guest area right outside these back doors and say, "Hey." Could I have a Bible? Don't be ashamed. That's what we bought them for.

I have 3 cases in my office waiting to be opened up. I want to reorder again in a few weeks. So please stop by. And it's in large print for those of us like me who might need these. Acts 2:37.

We're doing a series called Explicit Discipleship. Why are we calling it that? Because there are commands in the Bible that are not vague. They're not inferred. They are direct, "Do this," kind of commands.

Now, Jesus said, "If you love me, you will keep my commands." We do this out of love. Not out of self-righteousness. But there are things that are explicit. We started with repentance. When John the Baptist started his ministry, he preached, "Repent, for the kingdom of God is at hand." Mark 1:15, Jesus said the same thing.

Repent and believe because the kingdom has come. And we started with repentance because it's important. We turn away from our life of sin and turn to God. That's what the essence of salvation is. If I'm being saved from my sins, ladies and gentlemen, and I don't turn away from the sin that has me dead, then have I been saved?

And hand in hand with this, probably primary, is faith. Freddie did a really good job last week compelling us that we are commanded to believe. Ephesians 1:13 says, 'In this, having listened to the gospel of your salvation, having believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise.' Our faith and repentance go hand in hand. I can't repent without believing in Jesus. Why would I repent?

I'm turning to Him. I can't turn to somebody I don't believe in. But why would I turn if I haven't believed? And through that, we know that we're saved through faith. It's the medium.

By grace. It's God's work. Not my faith. My faith is not my work. Repentance is not my work.

It's God's work in me. Those are primary. Before we talk about any other commands, we have to get in our mind that I must repent and I must believe. You know, let me chase a rabbit. You know, I put this timer up here.

It would help if I'd start it.

Y'all want me to take off about 5 minutes here?

I mean, honestly, with what I'm going to preach today, I'd like for us to just be sitting in a coffee shop or somewhere and just had hours to just dig. Have you ever done that before? Man, you need like 2 or 3 dudes in your life. And you just go sit somewhere with no time schedule and just dig. I sat with my brother-in-law yesterday.

And we barely got through half of John 4 in an hour. Oh, it was so rich. God's Word's alive and active. And I don't know about you. Did you come today to hear something from His Word?

Do we trust that the Word of God never returns void and that it has power in our life? Well then, as we dig into this next command, I want us to keep that in mind. Because God may be dealing with someone in this room today to act on the command that we're going to talk about. So would you stand with me as we start reading in Acts 2:37. And we stand to honor God's Word.

Not my word. Not this church. Not this place. We do it because we sit under God's Word. 'Now when they heard this, they were pierced to the heart and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles—' What did they hear?

They had just heard Peter say, 'You Jews, 50 days ago—' This is the day of Pentecost. 'You crucified the Son of God. You rejected the Son of God.

But even though you killed him, he came back from the dead.' 'And He's alive.' This cut them to the heart. And they said, 'Brothers, what shall we do?' Peter said to them, 'Repent, and each of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ according to the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is for you and for your children 'And for all of you who are far off, which promise? The gifting of the Spirit.' He just talked about that in his message.

Joel, he preached the Spirit would come. 'As many as the Lord our God will call to himself.' And with many other words, he solemnly testified and kept on exhorting them, 'Be saved from this perverse generation.' That's why people crazy like me ask you every week in a church service, Are you saved? Have you trusted Christ? Because if you haven't, let's get that business done first. Repent and believe.

So then those who had received his word were baptized. And that day they were added about 3,000 souls. Father, we love you. Speak to our hearts. Prep our hearts.

Plow our hearts. That we would hear your words. Not mine. And it would be life transforming in Jesus' name. Amen.

So some of you saw this, um, candelabra came up, come out here and you probably recognize it. Can I just do a poll? Laura and I were married May 30th, 1998. Yes, almost 30 years ago. In fact, the beginning of this month, Laura and I went on our first date 30 years ago.

I met her after class at North Georgia College and State University. That was weird. Yeah, it was really long, really long name. Now it's the University of North Georgia. I'm like, could we go back?

But we met after class and she— I followed her over to Cleveland. She worked at Betty's Country Store in Helen and she wanted to show me Betty's. I met her mom and it was gorgeous. And then we went to church 3 times. That was our first set.

That was date 2 through 4. And then we went to a movie. But it started on a journey that I would never ever ever, ever exchange again. Because when we married, we did a unity candle. How many of you did unity candles in your wedding?

A bunch of you did. Some of you— like, there's all kinds of symbols now. Like, you've got— you take 3 cords and you braid them, like 2 people plus God. You've got, like, you mix sand, like 2 different colors sand, because you can never separate them. All of these things are symbols to the vows that you made.

Now, for those of you that are unmarried, thinking about getting married, or you are married, can I tell you that when you spoke to your spouse and you said, "I, Jamie, take you, Laura, to be my wife. To have and to hold from this day forward. For better, for worse. For richer, for poorer. In sickness and in health.

As long as I'm alive, I make this covenant to you. I made it to God." "Me and to her. That's why I made that vow. The only way that vow will be broken is in death." And when we came over after we did all the stuff and we took the candle— if you don't know what this represents, kids, one candle represents the bride and one represents the groom. I did that right?

The groom's over here, bride's over here. The moms would come and light these to represent these two individual lives. And they would take these candles and bring it to the middle. As Genesis 2:24 says, "For this reason a man will leave his mother and father and be joined to his wife, and two become one flesh." That light burning inside, no longer distinguishable, but yet two individuals. Kind of like our God.

Who is one God, yet three persons. I still believe that a married couple, a man and a woman, has the greatest potential to declare a triune God to the world in the gospel.

We exchanged rings. In fact, this is my original wedding band. It's 28 and a half years old. I don't know when they made it. And I can still wear it.

I've never had it sized. Which means I haven't gained that much weight since I got married. I mean, it's pretty sweet. I can still take it on and off. You know, Laura took this ring and she slid it on my finger and she said, "I, Laura, take you, Jamie." Said the same things.

She said, "I give you this ring as a token of my vows." How many of you remember your vows that you made? Do you realize that this did not marry me?

Getting this ring did not marry me. Are you with me? Like, I just took my ring off and I'm still married to Laura.

Why? Because of the vows that I made. Some of you have a ring on today and you're no more committed to your spouse than you were the day before you married her or him. You're wearing the symbol, but there's no intent in the heart.

And that's like baptism.

Baptism does not save you and me.

I'm going to give you a lot of reasons today. You looked at that note, she said, "Oh Lord, we're going to be here to 1 o'clock." But you know what? I want to remind you. My goal is twofold today. Number 1, for those of you that claim to be Christian and have been baptized, I want to challenge you and remind you.

Are you living up to the commitment that you made to your Lord? Are you living as if the ring is on your finger with Jesus? And for those of you that have not been baptized, As Ananias said to Paul, Acts 22:16, "Get up!" Why are you waiting? "Be baptized." Why? So you can declare to the world that you belong to Jesus.

Jesus belongs to you. And you are now living a new life. Baptism is not mystical, but it's absolutely spiritual. The water in that pool behind me does not have power to save you. No more power than the goats and the sheep that were sacrificed to take away your sin.

Now I know some of you grew up in denominations that practiced infant baptism. That practiced christening. Maybe you grew up in the Catholic Church and they told you that baptism was a dispensation of grace to you. And that if the priest held it back like their communion, they're holding back salvific grace in your life. That all sounds like man's works to me.

Does it to you?

You see, when John the Baptist came preaching, he said, "Be baptized unto repentance." Turn away from your religion. Turn away from your old life. But in Matthew 3:11, he then comes along and says, "Listen, I baptize you." with water unto repentance. But there's somebody coming after me whose sandals I'm not worthy to lace, and he will baptize you with fire and the Holy Spirit. Have you ever tried to wash grease off with water?

Even with a pressure washer? You know why you can't wash off grease with water? Because grease and oil is not water soluble. You gotta have some purple power. You gotta have some 409.

You gotta have something that will chemically break it down. You see, when John the Baptist preached unto repentance with water baptism, it was pointing to what the Spirit of God would do when he would immerse us. The word baptizo, it's a word we get the actual word baptism. It means immersion. It means to dip.

And so for you, I don't mean to offend you. Now listen, this, this message can be a little offensive, but guys, listen, I want to set you up for the best growth in Christ. If you give us this hour to worship, I want to give you something to go home with. If you were christened as a child, became a Christian at 10, and were not baptized, you haven't obeyed our Lord yet because you didn't make that decision to be baptized.

If you were saved at— if you made a decision at 7 and you didn't get saved until you were 20 and you haven't been baptized after your profession, why not? The biggest question in this room today is, why not? Why would you need to be baptized if it doesn't save you? Because Jesus said so.

In the Great Commission in Matthew 28:19-20, He says, "Go and make disciples." How? The first step. Baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. In Jewish culture, baptism was practiced. You ever read the Bible and hear about the Pool of Siloam?

Or the Pool of Bethesda? These pools were created because in their culture they believed, "I can't go into the temple." If I've touched dead stuff or my hands are dusty or my feet's dirty or I've been out in the— and I'm all sweaty. So they had these pools and people would come and take off their outer robe and they would dip in the water to wash off the impurities. But folks, listen. That water didn't get inside.

Did it? Unless you opened your mouth. Which I would not advise. Especially in kiddie pools. Yeah, it's gross, isn't it?

But yet we build theologies around dipping in water.

Jesus— John the Baptist said, "Jesus is greater than I am." So therefore his baptism is greater than John the Baptist. So why do it? Why do it? Because Jesus said so.

When you study the word baptizo, there's another word similar to it called baptō. The word baptō literally means to dip. Zip. Kind of like you do. What I'm going to do in an hour, I'm probably going across the street.

I'm going to take a chip and dip it in salsa.

Laura's going to love this story. In 200 BC, there was a poet and a physician by the name of Nicander who wrote about how to make pickles. My wife loves pickles.

And he wrote about the process. Number one, it should blow your mind the pickles have been around 2,000 years. But what he wrote was he said he took the cucumber and he would dip it, baptō, in water. That's not baptism.

He said, then you would take the dipped cucumber and baptizo it in vinegar.

And what happens when that cucumber sits in vinegar? It becomes a pickle. And I want you to liken this. This is a man by the name of James Boyce wrote about this. I want you to liken to that.

You get dipped in the water and it tells a story. But when you get dipped in the baptism of the Holy Spirit, it changes who you are. You're no longer a cucumber. You're a pickle.

And some people like pickles. Some people don't. But folks, listen. Let me be honest. You came in here today and you've carried the weight of the world.

And some of you come in here and you feel as dirty as when you've worked out in the yard, sweaty, nasty, and gritty.

Because of that, sometimes we don't feel like that we can come into the presence of our God. It's a hindrance. It's a boundary.

I'm not asking all of you to get in a line and let's just go dip in the water again.

What I'm asking you is, do you remember the symbolism that that baptism had in your life? That it represented God taking your sin away because of what Jesus did on the cross. And he purified you when he burned away the chaff in your life. So what I want to do, I'm going to walk through, through some points. Um, who knows where I might go.

I want to show you 5 things that I believe are important for us to keep in mind when we talk about baptism. Let me, let me start by telling you these 3 things. Number 1, Baptism doesn't save you. It does not save you. Number 2, baptism is being fully immersed.

And number 3, baptism comes after profession. It comes after profession. Our Anabaptist roots going back over 500 years pushed back against the church who was baptizing infants un— to wash away the sin and guilt of Adam. You know why they did that? Can I be practical with you this morning?

You know why they did that? They were losing their babies. And they wanted to know where their babies was going to heaven. So they would have them christened. And they allowed a priest to convince them, "If you bring your baby to us, we'll make sure they're okay." If you can show me directly, explicitly in the Bible where it says to baptize an infant, I will concede my point.

But I do not see it. What I see Is I make a profession of faith. Repentance, faith together. Saved. Filled with the Spirit.

And then I go through that water of baptism because Jesus told me to.

So are you ready? Let's go to point 1. Baptism is a command to obey after faith in Christ. I already mentioned to you Matthew 28:19. Notice though the formula.

"Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit." The three persons of God. Water is an instrument or a tool. But we are to be baptized. To connect. To identify with the name of Jesus Christ.

There's no other name under heaven by which man must be saved. In the name of Jesus. I listened to a liberal preacher say the other day that John 14:6 had gotten misconstrued. That Jesus really didn't mean he was the only way, the truth, and the life. He was trying to comfort his disciples.

And we ought to comfort people too. That they're okay. I really believe. And you believe too. He said, "I'm going to prepare a place for you.

I'll come back to receive you myself." We don't know how to get there. If I'm gonna get to heaven, I need to know Jesus Christ and Him alone. He's the only one who can take my sin away. He's the only way that can wash my sin away. Not with water.

But with the blood that He shed on Mount Calvary when He died for my sins. As David wrote in Psalm 51, 'Cleanse me. Purge me. Wash me.' 'With hyssop make me whiter than snow.' And the only thing that can make you white— I know it's kind of weird, isn't it? The only way I can be white as snow is to be plunged in the blood.

If water baptism was effective unto salvation, it's no different than sacrificing bulls lamb and goats. What I need is spiritual birth. Jesus told Nicodemus, "Unless a man be born again." Nicodemus was like, "How does that happen?" He said, "That which is born of flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit." You fast forward to John chapter 4, and at the beginning of the chapter it talks about why Jesus left. It said Jesus was baptizing more than John the Baptist. And then it said, however, Jesus wasn't actually doing the baptizing, it was his disciples.

And then he meets the woman at the well. We've been talking about this on Wednesday nights. He meets the woman at the well and he's— and she like is having this conversation with him and she starts having a political religious conversation about where somebody should worship. And Jesus said, God is a Spirit, and whoever worships Him must worship in spirit and in truth. He just told Nicodemus you had to be born again of the Spirit.

So how can I worship Him in spirit and truth if I have not been born again? But here's— I want, I want you to notice something. If baptism was prescriptive to finish salvation, do you know He doesn't mention it about the Samaritan woman? Do you know by the end of John chapter 4, the, the the town of Sychar turns to faith in Christ and it doesn't mention their baptisms? Have you read about the original 12 disciples' baptisms?

No, you won't. The only apostle that we have recorded in Scripture's baptism is Paul's. If it were prescriptive, it would be in there. Wait a minute. What about Acts chapter 15?

That's the first time the church got together because they needed to solve a problem. People were going around preaching and saying, "Hey, if you as a Gentile don't get circumcised," Then you are not saved. Circumcision was the thing for Jews, right?

When they had the council and they agreed that we will write and instruct people, no, people do not need to be circumcised. They're saved by grace alone. By Jesus alone. And at the end of the letter they said, what we do write to you and say to do is abstain from eating meat sacrificed to idols and from fornication. If baptism was to be prescriptive, they missed the opportunity.

Y'all want me to keep going, man? I got— I chased 5 rabbits this week doing this stuff. I traced all of Paul's statements. What I'm telling you today, if you need a reason to be baptized post-conversion It's 'cause Jesus said so. When Paul comes across the men in Ephesus in Acts 17 and finds out they had been baptized into John's baptism.

But they had not received the Holy Spirit. Paul then said, 'John baptized with the baptism of repentance. Telling people to believe who was coming after him. That is, Jesus.' When they heard this, they were rebaptized. In the Name of Jesus.

Folks, our sins are saved because we're in Jesus. Not in a pool of water.

And when we are baptized, we're telling the world, "I believe who Jesus is. Who He said He is. What He did. And I'm going to immerse myself in that water and come up just like Jesus was buried and raised again." That's the only time I— That's 3 squats. I can't do anymore.

I do 1 sit-up every day. I did half of it this morning.

Some of y'all will get that about 12:30. Acts 2:38, "Repent and each of you be baptized in the name of Jesus." Acts 8:12, "Peter—" or excuse me, "Philip preached the Good News and the name of Jesus Christ and they were being baptized." Acts 8:16, "For He, the Spirit, had not fallen on them. They had simply been baptized." 'in the name of Jesus.' I haven't heard the word 'water' yet. Acts 10:48, 'And he ordered them to be baptized in the name of Jesus.' Y'all want to keep going? In the name of Jesus.

My baptism illustrates that I am in Christ and Christ is in me. And he can't be in me without the Holy Spirit. Do you know him today? I think we all have rehearsed this enough. How do you know you're saved?

Jesus. Y'all are getting it now. The first mark of, of the, of salvation is the Holy Spirit because he promised it. Are you standing on that? Number 2, I'm already down 7 minutes even with a delayed timer.

Baptism follows confession of faith and repentance and does not save Anyone. Go read those passages later. Here's what I want you to notice. Acts 8:36. Philip leaves the area and goes south of Jerusalem and encounters an Ethiopian eunuch who's reading the book of Isaiah 53.

We've been learning on Wednesday night how to find leading questions to be able to start a conversation. And Philip's leading question right here is, "Hey, do you understand what you're reading?" And the eunuch says, "How could I unless somebody explains it?" And it's almost like Philip pulled an Ace Ventura and went, "Pshh!" And in Isaiah 53 began to preach Jesus to him. When you get to verse 36, it says, "They came along the road and they came to some water and the eunuch said, 'Look! There's water. What prevents me from being baptized?'" Now how many of you are missing verse 37?

A bunch of you are. That's because the verse is based upon manuscripts after the 8th century. Early manuscripts do not have it. However, my New American Standard 1995 has it in there. And the essence of that verse is supported by the rest of the Bible.

And Philip said, "If you believe with your heart, you may." Romans 10:9. And he answered and said, "I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God." Baptism follows confession. Baptism follows confession. Listen to this. Acts 16:31, "Believe in the Lord Jesus and you will be saved, you and your household." Acts 10:43, "On him the prophets bear witness through his name that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins." Like, "Have y'all heard?

What about baptism yet?" Not unto salvation. Baptism doesn't save you. But we do it because Jesus asked us to do it. Number 3, baptism conveys outwardly the regeneration the Spirit is working inwardly. I know that's a mouthful.

Conveyance there meaning that what we see happening The idea of cleansing and connection. It's what the Spirit's doing on the inside of me.

Is the Spirit at work in you?

Like, this is what breaks my heart. There's people in this room who have been married 50 years and this has no meaning to them anymore. That's why we're gonna have a marriage conference in October, by the way. Shameless plug.

Some of you have been Christians for 45 years and you're no more committed to Christ than you were before you got saved. That's hard, isn't it? Listen, I'm asking you today, are you living as if you've been in those waters? Are you living as if the Spirit of God lives inside of you? Are you living a life where you're quenching the Holy Spirit because you won't let sin go?

Your pride won't say no and you're just living life the way that you want to. Folks, I'm telling you, that's what liberal Christianity is teaching across this nation. Just do some good stuff and you're okay. No! The essence of salvation is being set free from death.

Set free from sin. Matthew 3:11, he said, "I baptize you with water. But he will baptize you with Holy Spirit and fire to purify you." Acts 1:5. Check this out. 'For John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.' This baptism is spiritual.

It is important. But what's greater is the Spirit baptism. That rinses dirt. The Spirit burns stuff away.

Let me ask you this. How many of you ever had— don't raise your hands. I go once a year to the dermatologist because I get these things. And they usually take nitrogen and freeze them off. Sometimes I've gone in there and they've taken that little zapper.

I don't know what you call it. But it— tttttttt— and it burns it.

It's the only way to get rid of it. You can try to scrape it and all you want to do. It won't take rid of it. It has to be burned away. How many of you have put yourself under the fire of the Holy Spirit?

Said, "God, don't just wash me." 'Purify me.' I mean, 'Cleanse me from the top of my head to the bottom of my feet.' And that baptism of the Spirit is what connects us into the body of Christ. Not a membership card. You may say, 'You know what? I'm mad at that church. I'm gonna go up the road to another church.' Are you escaping the Holy Spirit?

If you come into this room and you say you're a born-again believer, I believe you're a part of us and I'm a part of you. Because you've been baptized in the Holy Spirit. Makes us brothers and sisters. And what we need to realize is that Spirit purifies us. And point 4, that the baptism, it represents the forgiveness.

It represents the cleansing of our sins. Guys, today, if you know Jesus Christ, do you know that your sins are fully forgiven? Not part of them. I mean, if Jesus would have died and they'd only buried His foot in the ground, I don't make any sense. When somebody dies, you bury them completely in the ground, right?

When you're baptized— wait a minute, I might have one more squat in me. When you're baptized, you go down in that water just like Jesus went down into the grave. Dead. Dead to what? Dead to my past.

Dead to my sin. Because the truth is, my sin was already killing me. Ephesians 2:1 said we were dead in our trespasses, right? I'm just dying to my death. But now I've come out of that.

And just like Jesus was raised from the dead to live eternally, I've been raised from my old dead. I don't want to go back and put on my old clothes. How many of you, when you became a Christian, decided to throw all your old clothes away? Not physically speaking. I'm talking about spiritually speaking.

You threw your your clothes away. Listen, I told you when I married Laura, I was 134 pounds. That's weird to think about. I'm not gonna tell you how much I weigh now. I can still put this ring on.

But I wore like a 30 or a 32 in the waist.

How would you feel if next Sunday I went and pulled out an old pair of my pants and wore them on this stage?

Everybody's talking about my tight pants. That's what I'd be singing. Nobody wants to see a 51-year-old with skinny jeans on, and nobody wants to see a born-again Christian putting on their old grave clothes either. Stop putting on your old stuff. Stop going where you're not supposed to go.

Put the past in the past and live the new life that God has called you to live. The second imperative for baptized is in Acts 22:16. Acts 22:16. Paul is speaking in the temple. Guess what he did?

Paul came back to Jerusalem. And the elders of the church were like, "Man, listen. You've been around Gentiles. And I know, I know, I know. We know about, you know, that circumcision doesn't do anything.

But you might offend some people. Would you at least go shave your head?" And go through purification. So nobody will make an issue. So baldy Paul goes into the temple. And they're already ready to sack him.

He gets arrested. And he asks the guard, "Wait a minute. Stop. I want to speak." And like Stephen in Acts 7 where Paul was sitting there clapping as Stephen was being stoned to death. Now Paul is standing before that same kind of crowd.

And he's going to share his story. How Jesus intercepted him on the road to Damascus. How it blinded him. But when did Paul get saved?

I'm going to argue on the road to Damascus. Because why would he have obeyed Jesus to go into Damascus?

You don't obey somebody you don't believe in. Paul's first act of obedience was to say, "Okay." So he goes into the town and God speaks to a man named Ananias. Again, we get this little bitty paragraph about Ananias. But he tells Ananias to go and see him. And Ananias is like, "What?

This man was going to kill Christians. He admitted it." And Ananias goes and prays for him. And the blindness, like scales, falls off his eyes. And he says, "God's called you to take the message to the world." "Go." And he says, "And you will learn what it means to suffer for my name." And Paul says, "Okay." But listen to what he says in that verse. He says, "Now why do you delay?" Delay in what?

Getting started. He says, "Get up and be baptized and wash away your sins, calling on his name." The reason he put that participle in there is because Paul is speaking to Jews in the temple who have brought their lambs and their goats to be sacrificed. But we know Hebrews is very clear. Hebrews 10:4, 'The blood of goats and lambs does not take away sin. But the blood of the perfect Lamb, Jesus Christ, takes away my sin.' And he called on His name.

Not Not in the baptism. He was already saved. Let me ask you a question. Y'all want to do a mission trip to northern Alaska and let's minister? Somebody said yes over here, by the way.

Lincoln, you ready? Oh yeah, somebody else said— Lincoln's like, "No, no, no, no, no, no. I'll stick with Scotland." You go to an Eskimo and tell them, say, "Hey, um, You know, we need to baptize you now. I remember reading the story— this is a true story— of a missionary ministering to Eskimos, and because they insisted on baptism, they baptized a lady. She got sick and died.

Do y'all love the video Alistair Begg does about the man in the middle?

When he says, I get to heaven, I want to ask that thief How'd that work out for you? You know, the thief that said, "Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom." Guess what? He didn't get baptized. He didn't go to a new believers class. He didn't walk an aisle and join a church.

He didn't even own a Bible. How did it work out for him?

Because the man in the middle said, "I could come." And I can come because he He has cleansed me. Last point. Baptism pictures connection to Jesus Christ and the Gospel. I am going a little long. So if it's okay with you.

What I'd like for you— challenge you to do is go home and read Romans 6:1-7. It's a beautiful picture of these metaphors. Number 1. It connects us to the death and burial of Jesus. When I am baptized, I am declaring that I own His death.

I'm taking it on myself. But then number 2, I'm connected to His resurrection. He says, "So that Christ, as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father." As I'm coming out of that water, I'm symbolizing that I have, number 3, new life. Why be baptized? Because I'm preaching the gospel when I do.

I am declaring to the world that this is my identity. Number 4, it leads to my conviction of holiness. For if we have become united with him in the likeness of his death, certainly we will also be in the likeness of his resurrection, knowing that our old self was crucified.

Folks, have you died to your old self yet?

It's hard to follow Jesus if you're dragging your old corpse around. And number 5, to be freed from sin. To be freed from sin. So why be baptized? Jesus commanded.

Our faith declares it. And we embrace all that entails. Cleansing. Forgiveness. New life.

Death to my old self. Why would we not want to?

It's the ring slid on my finger that represents my commitment that I made when I said, "Lord, I believe and I repent." It paints the picture. Here's the truth. If you choose not to obey Christ in baptism, you also cause me to disobey. 'Cause I've been commanded to baptize you.

You commit— you, you're actually challenging this church to disobedience. Now, there may be a lot of reasons why you'd say, I just can't do it. I'm going to challenge you this: won't you come and ask?

And for those of you that have been Christians for a while, how fresh is this in your life, this unity that I have with Christ? You'll When John the Baptist was preaching, he said after he said, "Be baptized unto repentance." He said, "Bear fruit in keeping with repentance." He didn't say, "Make a note of when you were water baptized and live on that." He elevated the idea of repentance. The command is clear. Be baptized. So I want to talk to a few of you right now as we get ready to go into decision time.

I'm gonna be over here on to my left. Kevin will be over to my right.

The first group of you are those of you that are born again, you're saved, and you're just, you know, you just feel dirty. I get it. I really do. My faith gets weak. I say stupid stuff.

I act in stupid ways, and I know it's sin. I'm thankful that the Bible says if we confess our sin, he's faithful and just to forgive us of our sin. All of them. But some of you walked in here today and you got some dirt on you. Can I challenge you to repent?

And he promises he'll forgive you. Some of you in this room, you were christened, or you were sprinkled, or you were baptized at such a young age you don't remember, and you know you were saved at a future time, and you have not been saved after your profession of faith. That QR code at the bottom of your study notes is a way you can immediately tell us, "Hey, I want to talk to somebody about being baptized." Or in just a moment when we're down here at the altar, come and say, "Hey, listen, I've never been baptized. I was baptized at 8 and I didn't get saved until I was 20." That's my story. I was baptized at 7 years old, but I didn't get saved until I was 20.

And you know what I did? I actually held on to that old baptism until the Lord convicted me and said, Listen, you're not declaring the changed life you had at 20.

And I talked to my former pastor and like the eunuch, we went upstairs. I went home, got my clothes, and he baptized me. Just me and him in the upstairs in a pool that day. Why? Because Jesus told me to.

If I want to tap into the eternal life that obedience brings, Be baptized. Why are you waiting? Get up, be baptized, let the world know who your God is. And parents, let me, let me talk to you for just a moment. Kids make professions of faith sometimes too soon.

I believe there is a sweet spot, but can I encourage you to do something? Number one, don't ever sit there and tell your kid, when you live better, I'll get you baptized. That's awful. Don't do that to your kid. You're telling them that I need your behavior to change, not your heart.

But number two, if you put it off and wait too long, you miss an opportunity to affirm their profession and they'll walk away from it.

So if you're here today, parents, and you're like, you know, I want to get my kid baptized, I think they're ready, come and talk to us. We want to join you in that. If you have your ping pong ball At the beginning of 2024, we started a campaign of baptism. We're on number 74, by the way. And some of you thought, oh, we didn't do 100 in a year.

Well, it wasn't about the number, it was about the qualitative transformation of people's lives.

Who's got 75? Who's got 76? I can tell you, we got people talking to us, we're probably over 80 in by the end of the year at least.

We gave you those numbers to pray that God would save and change their lives so that when they walk through that water, they're declaring the gospel, not just checking a box.

So would you stand with me? Father, as we go into this time of decision, Lord, I do pray you speak to our hearts. Some of us in this room, we've been putting off baptism too long. Maybe we're afraid of crowds. God, give them courage.

Maybe they're just like, I just don't see the seriousness of it. Well, God, you, you called us to obey. God, give them the strength and the courage to step out in obedience. For some of us, we've been in church for 40 or 50 years, but the ring on my finger means nothing, the baptism in my life means nothing. God, today bring them back into a relationship with you.

Who knows, maybe they need to redeclare to the world that they believe in Jesus Christ and what what he's done. So Lord, speak to us now in this time of decision. In Jesus' name, amen.