All right, good morning to all of you. It's Mother's Day. And boy, what a beautiful day, huh? Praise the Lord. All right, we are gonna go to, we've finished up with the church stuff there on Confession 15, moving to Confession 16. Introduction to this is, to the baptism, and we'll be looking at, in that confession of faith that you'll soon be getting, it's got baptism in the Lord's Supper. And so, I wanted to start you off with this as an introductory lesson, dealing with some things about baptism. And so, it's interesting when you look at the beginning of things, and you understand how they begin and some of the things that need to happen when you begin and so on like that. And so we'll look at some of that this morning. Let's go to the Lord in prayer, ask God's blessings upon this. Heavenly Father, as we come to you right now, we pray that you would forgive us of our sins, and we thank you for that. Lord, that you'd open our understanding, that we might understand the scriptures, and we thank you for that. And then, Father, we come to you right now, we pray that this word of God this morning, Lord, teach us. Lord, may these things become practical doctrine to us. And now we commit it unto you. We thank you for your word. We ask it in Jesus' name and for his sake. Amen. All right. Now what we're looking at today is, this is the introductory lesson to dealing with baptism. And so we, without further ado, we all know this. It is commanded. And it was commended by Christ, as we find there in Matthew 28, 19, Jesus commissioned the church, those first apostles. All right, go ye therefore and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. It's been interesting over the years when you study the history of baptizing. It's been used long before Christ ever instituted it. Many of the other foreign religions of all different types had reasons for baptism. And they all had different styles of baptism. And it was interesting that when you read the history of that, you get tickles that it's because of, first of all, their purpose of it wasn't a Christian purpose. They had their own reasonings for it. And sometimes they baptized people face down, all right. Then others, they had them, when they got ready to baptize them, they just had them sit down where the water was over their head. And then others, I mean, they had a lot of different ways of doing it, I'll just put it that way. Then it went, then they tried, you know, The emperor didn't wanna be baptized wearing all of his emperor things, and so he told them, you gotta come up with another way of doing this, and so they started pouring, right? And what the Lord commands then, Jesus commissioned the church, go ye therefore and teach all nations. So the first thing is the teaching part of it. In other words, you teach them. You teach them about me, you teach them about saved by grace, you teach them all these things, and then you teach them about baptism, Christian baptism. And so when you go to Romans chapter six, you realize that baptism represents the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ. It's a symbol. It memorizes and memorials Christ's death and resurrection, and it represents yours also. And he says, go ye therefore and teach all nations. So teaching is a requirement for that. And then it says baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. And so to be baptized with the Trinity in mind. And so we find then if we just wanted to park on this verse, there's so much theology in this one verse that we could talk about it easy for a couple of days. Because not only does it say teach, you gotta deal with everything that they're supposed to teach, right? And as a missionary, it's one thing we had to do was teach. teach the people. I mean, I had some people that were Muslims and so I had to start with ground zero with them. I had some people that come out of the Lutheran and the Catholic church and had to start with ground zero with them. And so we just had to start teaching, all right, the truth. first of all, of salvation. And then we moved from salvation, then what's the next step? You're saved, baptized, added to the church. And so then we started dealing with baptism and what it meant, what it represented. And so that way we could teach the Muslim that as well as the, the religionist, that. And so the motive of it was changed. And then we find the Trinity. And of course, the Trinity is a big, big, big, big theological quagmire for a lot of people because they don't believe in the Trinity. And so we taught that, went through the Word of God dealing with that. And so, It was a command, it's commanded. You see that? Ever, ever so important. And so now, what I want to do is take the rest of the time we have, and we have a scriptural pattern. Now, why is this scriptural pattern so important? As a Baptist church, The one thing we live off of is the fact that historically speaking, we live off of a scriptural pattern. And that is ever so important to us. If we leave the pattern, then we've broken with scripture. And so when we look back in the Old Testament, When God wanted a tabernacle built that was movable, right? We looked at this once before. He had all the makers build all of these parts for that tabernacle, didn't he? I mean, they weaved the thing, they built, they made the rings for it to hang on, everything, didn't they? All right, well. Until it was put together, it wasn't a sanctified place, was it? Nope. Well, then they put it all together. Then God put it all together. All of those people put it together, right? And it still wasn't a sanctified place. In other words, the workers went in, the workers come out, the workers went in, the workers come out, they placed everything, the priest, everybody doing their thing, isn't it right? But then, when it became a sanctified place, if you walked in there, especially if you walked past the, you had the Gentile area, then if you passed that, went into the other curtain area, they'd kill you. It was a sanctified area. And if you decide you wanted to walk in and just take a peek at the ark, God would kill you. Why? Because the thing had become a sanctified place unto the Lord, okay? But they built that according to God's plans, right? Well, then when it comes to the temple, what happens? Same thing. God gave the plan of how it should be built, and that's how it was built. No other way but that way. And so we find that when something is put together for God, and is put together by the directions of God, if you deviate from that, then you've disobeyed God. All right? Ever so important. And so what we find then is that when we go to the New Testament, we have a New Testament pattern of how a New Testament church should function. All right? Now, in all reality, We can talk about a lot of things within that. But when we start looking at things, we gotta see, well, how'd it start? What'd they do? And then we see what we might've done with that as far as fellowship goes and other things. But anything, anything outside of that, we've added to scripture. Okay? And so that's why, remember something, if you add to it, you've changed the purpose of it. Okay? And a lot of people want to add to the church, and when they do, they change the purpose of it. And so that's why it's so important for us to realize the purpose and stay with the purpose. All right, so we find then that to go, go ye therefore and do what? Teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. And then comes verse 20 and so on. But now let's look at this scriptural pattern and see what we find. So the Lord told them in Matthew 28, go ye therefore. Now here in Acts 2, we're gonna take this apart. In Acts 2, we'll start here in verse 41. then they that gladly received his word were baptized. See that? All right, let's pull that apart a little bit. They that gladly, all right, they. See the word they? All right, circle it. Because that's a specific group of people, isn't it? It doesn't say everyone that received, it said they. And that's a very specific group of people. Now, listen to me. It's ever so important, how do you recognize a lost religious person? You go to Matthew 7, and here you got all these religious people, isn't that right? Lord, have we not done this in thy name, and that in thy name? Anyone who works in thy name? And he comes back and says, he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. See that? So one of the things you find that marks religious lost people, number one, is their disobedience toward God. And their lack of recognizing that God is sovereign, they don't put the things of God first. They don't have a priority. People that are truly born again, I came out of nothing, God saved me, and then all of a sudden I had this urge, buddy, I wanted to go to church, I wanted to read the Bible, I wanted to learn how to pray, I wanted the things of God. See, that, what you find in 2 Corinthians 5, 17, therefore if any man be in Christ, he's a new creature. Behold, old things pass away, all things become new. That's the standard for true conversion. And if that didn't happen in your life, then you're not saved. Sorry, but the standard. And so, now listen to me. The one reason that so many people do not like just straight biblical preaching is because it has standards. Okay? And boy, we don't like that. We like our options. Well, that just manifests your lostness is what it does. Because religious lost people, they rebel at the things of God. There's not a willingness in them, you see, but he that doeth the will of my Father. Even Jesus said, not my will, but thine be done. You see that, how it works? All right, now watch this. Then they that, they, that gladly. Now here that word gladly talks about happily so, willingly so, okay? And they gladly, watch this now, in other words, they were willing to acquiesce their will to God's will, all right? They gladly were willing to do that. Then it says received. And I always take these words and look them up and go back as far as I can see what it says here and then here and here and received. That word received means that they fully accepted everything that was said. That was the definition of it. They fully accepted everything that was said. In other words, when they heard about Christ, they fully accepted that. When they heard about Christ's blood, they fully accepted that. When they realized that Christ was their substitute, they fully accepted that. When they realized that they were a sinner needing the Savior, they fully accepted that. When they realized that Christ was the Savior, they fully accepted that. All right? So they gladly received His word, then they that gladly received His word, look at this now, were baptized. You see that? And so that's what it takes. I was... This was a long time ago over in Germany. There was a guy that, he said, I'm thinking about being baptized. I said, I think I might want you to baptize me. I said, I won't. I said, forget it. I said, your motive's all wrong, all wrong, all wrong, totally 100% wrong. I said, I will not baptize you. So he left, he left. I didn't see him for a long time. I said, did you ever get baptized? No, I gave up on it. So, but watch this now. They that gladly fully accepted this word about Christ and the Great Commission, go ye therefore to each all nations baptizing them. You see that? And so, as these men went out, they preached Christ. And then they preached the truth of baptism, the fact that it represented the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ. And that's all it was, was a symbol to that. And so they, look what they do, they received his word, were baptized. They were willing to do that. You see, there's something about those people that gladly, in other words, happily, willingly, receive the Word of God. All right? Now just think about what the Bible tells us in Romans and other places. about they cannot receive the word of God. There's some people that just cannot receive it, you see that? And so that tells me they're lost. The reason they can't receive it, the reason they rebel against it, the reason they're not willing to follow the Lord is because they're lost, you see. And I can't change that. You can't change that. That's why the people that believe in a sovereign God are usually very, very, very much praying people. If you wanna hear somebody pray, you listen to somebody pray that's totally dependent upon God for everything. You'll find out in the history books and everywhere else, you say, why, where in the world these guys learn to pray like that? Well, it's because of their dependency upon God. They know that I can't change nobody as an individual. I can preach the word, but what can I do after that? Nothing. Nothing at all. You see, listen, if the Holy Spirit can't convince you, no human can. And that's why we've got to allow the Spirit of God to work. And so what we find here in Acts 2 41, then they that gladly received his word were baptized. And so they gladly received the word and they were willing and they were baptized. You see that? That's willingness, not fighting against it. It's a manifestation of something. Then it says, in the same day, there were added unto them about 3,000 souls. And the saint, boy, there was a lot of something happening there, wasn't there? Mercy. How'd we get 3,000 souls in here? We wouldn't, would we? We'd have to put speakers on the building, preach to the whole neighborhood. And the same day they were added unto them. So why do we, we're gonna talk about this in a minute, but they were added unto them. Well, what were they added to? You see, we'll find that in the next part of this verse here. But what you see here is when God moves on people, right? Look at what he does. First of all, He's going to do it within the realm of the Great Commission. Go ye therefore and teach all nations. Somebody went there and taught them, right? What's it say in Romans 10? How shall they hear except they have a preacher? So when they heard, What did they do? They gladly received his word. That is a working of the sovereign God in their lives. They gladly received his word. See that? Only God can cause that to happen in somebody's life. And When that reality hits you, if you're a saved person, it'll make a praying person out of you. And once that reality hits you and you're a saved person, it'll cause you to praise God because you'll recognize the fact that He's done this. And so we find then the same day there were added unto them about 3,000 souls. So God wanted to add to this church, it was time for something to happen, time for things to get started. And so here you have these people, they gladly received his word. Over the years, I've been in some places in the world and present the gospel, and it's amazing when God really opens up somebody's heart, some of these other countries, and why they gladly received the word. Wow, it's exciting to watch it because, you know, God has brought that about in their life. and what do I do next, you know? And it's exciting. All right, let's go to Acts 2, 46 and 47. Now look what it says, and they, that's Peter and them preaching, all right, continuing daily. Now, that's interesting. So that means from day to day, they just kept on keeping on, right? But now I want you to see something. And they continuing daily, now watch this. I want you to get this. This is so good. You see, in 41, And they gladly received his word, were baptized. And down here, and they continuing daily with one accord in the temple. Now, now that, you ought to pause right there and look at that. Did they have any church buildings at this time? No. Were they having any persecution at this time? No. Was it gonna start? Yes. But look at where they were at. The only religious facility around them was the temple. You wanna know why the Jews got mad? Because when you have all these people show up and they're not following the letter of the law, but now they have been saved by grace, and they're having a revival while the rest of you are still living under the law, that don't mix. And it said, with one accord, where were they at? In the temple. Over the years, I've seen guys go out and start working, they've rented facilities. And Even in Germany for a while, we rented a Lutheran facility. And I know here in the States, a lot of guys, if they go to start a church, the first thing they do is try to look and see if there's a Seventh-day Adventist church around somewhere, because they don't have church on Sunday. They have it on Saturday. And so 90% of the time, they're very willing to rent their facility out to you. Well, then you can have Sunday church, you see. And so they always look for a Seventh-day Adventist church, but I've, I asked one guy, I said, well, how'd it go? He said, oh, man, the first year went good. He said, and we finally bought us a piece of property, we're gonna move out there. And he said, but I got stupid one Sunday, and he said, I preached the message, I've been preaching about all this doctrine stuff, and I preached about the doctrines of the Seventh-day Adventist and how wrong it was. And he said, for some reason, somebody listened to my message. And he said, by Tuesday I was notified that we were no longer in friendship with them. So that's the way it is. So it was here with one accord in the temple. So now once you have Peter and them, And you have all these people now in one accord, look where they're at, in the temple. The only religious place they had around was that. And you can see why things were gonna get rough. Then it says, and breaking bread from house to house did eat their meat with gladness and singleness of heart. So the one thing that God does, and I've watched it happen, watched it happen, watched it happen, is when you start a mission work, you'll find that what you have here, you've got this one thing that just absolutely permeates everything around you, and it's this. First of all, it's the fellowship of the saved. and said with one accord, see that? In other words, they're all in agreement. Breaking bread from house to house, fellowship and did their meat and gladness and singleness of heart. The most important thing in any group is when the whole group focuses on the main thing. And that's why teamwork is so important. It's because everything rises and falls on leadership. But listen, you can call yourself a leader, but if there ain't nobody following, I don't know if you're a leader or not. The reality of it is this. If you don't have singleness of heart and mind, as you go out to accomplish your mission, you're going to have a hard time accomplishing your mission. Because you don't have singleness of heart, there's no unity in it. I know what can happen when you get a small group of people that's focused on one thing. They can get the job done. And that's so important. And so the one thing the Lord has done here, in the beginning, look what he done. All these people had singleness of heart. In other words, they had one focus and that was Jesus Christ. They had one focus, and that was the ministry. One focus, preaching Christ, presenting Christ, fellowshipping with Christ. God put it in them, and they had a singleness of heart. Now watch what happened, verse 47. Praising God and have favor with all the people. When you have singleness of heart, you'll find that as you praise God for what He's done, that there's gonna be other people that wanna get in on it. Because they see something there. The reason that a lot of people don't wanna go to church is because the only thing they hear about is church fights, church fusses. You know, discontent so on. That's why, listen, when you grieve the Holy Spirit like that, don't expect anything to happen. It ain't gonna happen. But boy, when people start praising God, they'll start having favor with people, the people around. Can you imagine this though, having favor with the people inside the temple? And there's the priest looking at him like, what's going on over there? Why are those people having a good day and we're over here still killing cows and chickens and other things? What's going on over there? Well, here's what happens. When the Lord goes to work and things are right, look what happens. Verse 47, and the Lord added to the church. The Lord added to the church. See that? Now, when you get that in your head, that will cause you to do some serious praying. The Lord added to the church. That ought to be, that used to, 40, 50 years ago, that was the scream of the missionary. And many pastors here in America, hey, let the Lord add to the church. We'll do our part, we'll pass out tract, witness people, invite folks to church, but then let's let the Lord add to the church. Well, when you get the Lord adding to the church, you're gonna have unity. unity of doctrine, unity of willingness to do what God wants you to do. When the Lord adds to the church, then the focus is going to be the Lord and the word of God. You see that? Now, he said add to the church daily, such as should be saved. Wow. What a statement that is, huh? Such as should be saved. Ever, ever so important. So the first question is this, who should be added to the church? Those that are saved. You see that? And, One of the things we realize when it comes to the church is that within the church, we have people that are saved and people that are lost, don't we? I mean, the only thing we can go off of is their profession of faith, right? We rejoice in that if it's real, and we're sad about that if it's not. But there's things in Christianity that absolutely amaze me. One of those things is the wisdom of old men that have just, you know, been in the work of God for years and years and years, and they have a wisdom about them that only God can give. I mean, I've mentioned to you many times, Hobson Wolfe, that man could not read nor write. Pastored church for years, had a good little church. His wife would read the Bible to him, he'd memorize it. He'd go to the pulpit, every time he opened his Bible up, right in the middle of the Psalms. And I think I've told you, I got amazed at this guy. Within that church, here was a preacher that couldn't read nor write. He had college professors in there, doctors, lawyers, and why would they come there to listen to this guy that couldn't even read nor write? It's because he had God all over him. One businessman looked at me and he said, man, I've been to every church in town. He said, I've been to the big church, the little church, the nasty church, the fighting church, everything. I've been to all of them. He said, then I walked in here one day and I heard this guy preaching. I thought to myself, praise God. You know, I used to keep track of how many verses he'd quote. I think I told you, I said, one day I kept marking them down. 46 verses, he quoted, and he didn't miss a lick. But he told me one thing. He said, now listen, boy, he said, in the church, you'll have false professors, you'll have the devil to make sure that you've got some people that come in that are lost, and he'll try to use them for all kinds of reasons. He said, but remember this. He said, just preach the word of God. He said, you'll either preach them in or preach them out. He said, why? He said, because they can't endure, like it says in Timothy, they'll not be able to endure sound doctrine. And I found over the years that works. I don't have to fight with a lot of people, why? Because word of God will eventually beat them right out the door. And that's good. All right, now watch this. In the last four minutes here, And the Lord added to the church daily, such as should be saved. In other words, God had a number of how many he was going to save at this time. Now we know that as the church age started, there was all kinds of revivals. But then we understand this, as the church age comes to an end, There's gonna be a famine in the land. And it's of hearing the words of the Lord. There's gonna be a famine in the land. And we're there. It's happening in a large way right now. I never thought I'd live to see it, but I'm seeing it. And so what we find then is when I look at this, such as should be saved, that means God had a number that he was going to save to get the church age started, right? Moving out. And then at the end of it, we're going to find that those that are saved If you don't have a right relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ yourself, your life will be in trouble. Because it's gonna wind up being on you. Right now there's churches all over the place, no pastor. And I never thought I'd see that. Man, I can remember the day every church, even the churches I pastored had two or three guys in it that God had called to preach. And all that's changed. I talk to other people the same way. You see, God is working off of God's timetable, not yours or mine. God's working off of his prophetic word. God's working according to His Word, His time. And as we read the Word of God, the more we read the Word of God, the more we understand the importance of that. And so, you see, ladies and gentlemen, when I look at this, now watch this, All right, chapter two, verse 41. Then they that gladly received his word were baptized. See that? Baptism is a prerequisite for church membership. And the same day there were added unto them about 3,000 souls. What was they added to? Well, then down in verse 47, the Lord added to the church. That's what they were added to. They were saved, baptized, and added to the church. You see that? Well, that's the New Testament pattern. Anything outside of that is not the New Testament pattern. Saved, baptized, added to the church. Why? I'll take the last minute and remind you of something. Baptism is identification. And so a lot of missionaries have used that. Like I told you, there's one guy in Jakarta, Indonesia, right downtown Jakarta where all the other religions were. There was a Y in the road. Street's super busy. There was a house here, and the house had a big cattle trough right there. So it'd be like being downtown on a super busy street, and the cars going like this on both sides. But that's where he baptized those people, right there. is because they were identifying with Jesus Christ, and everybody that drove by there knew what was going on. Those people are identifying with Jesus Christ. And so, not only is baptism, does it represent death, burial, and resurrection, but it identifies you. You're identifying with Christ. All right, well, time is gone. Let's all stand, if you would, please. And we'll go to the Lord in prayer and move to the next service.