All right, this morning, I'm going to be taking a break in our study of the book of Hebrews to address an issue that is important. I'm going to be talking about baptism. Clearly, we have a baptism service that's going to happen this morning. And again, just to kind of give you an explanation, we intended, normally we have a separate service at 2 o'clock, but this time we're doing it because of various reasons.

We're having our sister Susan, she's going to be baptized after the message. But I wanted to give a clear understanding of what it is that we are doing. There are a lot of things that we do in life that we do just because it's just done. You know, if you travel, you'll notice one of the first things that you'll notice that 35% of the countries in the world, they all, they drive on the left side, the opposite side of us where we drive.

So if you've ever visited England, you'll notice that the cars are coming the opposite direction, or if you go to, again, other parts of the world. Like why do they do that? I tried to explain this first service and I got lost. I'm not even going to attempt it.

So just Google it. There's a lot of things that we do in life just out of habit. And so we're curious, but we don't really know the answer. So this question, whether we're driving on the right side or left side, I mean, we might be curious, but we don't know in detail why we do it.

And it's not significant, even though this is something we do on a daily basis, not knowing isn't going to affect your life in one way or the other, right? Other than the fact you visit some countries and they drive on the other side. But there are certain things that we do without really understanding that if we don't understand it, it is detrimental.

It's absolutely important. One of the things that we absolutely need to understand, to be convicted about, is the sacraments that we practice on a regular basis. The reason why the churches call it sacrament is because it means it is sacred. It is something that is set apart, not through church history, but the scripture.

Christ himself set it apart as something sacred that we ought to practice. Now it's so sacred that in the early church, when they didn't practice it properly, remember what happens? Many people were falling asleep, meaning that they were dying. There was a direct judgment that came upon them because they weren't practicing it the way God told them to practice.

They weren't considering it to be sacred. So what we do in baptism and what we do in communion, we may not experience, "Oh, we didn't participate in a worthy manner," so you may not have death penalty coming, but it does show us that in God's eyes, how important this is.

That this is not something that we ought to participate half-heartedly. We need to know why this was implemented. We need to know why we practice this, what is the meaning behind it, and why do we do it in this particular mode? Why are we a Baptist instead of a Presbyterian?

I grew up most of my life as a Presbyterian because my dad was a Presbyterian pastor, and at one point in my understanding of scripture, I had a radical change. Before I get into it, first of all, what it is not. I mean, at another time we'll be talking about communion, but today, because we're having a baptism service, I wanted to emphasize, and again, it's going to be more informative.

So the goal of my preaching this morning is not to inspire you to go out and do anything in particular, other than to engage in something that is absolutely sacred because the scripture says so. What it is not. There is no supernatural power in this water. We didn't mix anything in here, right?

She's going to go in there and then she's going to feel tingling and then come back out a completely new person. There is no supernatural power in here. Baptism is not something that Christians do after they became a Christian and then realize that, "Man, I really need to take my faith seriously," and then they decide to get baptized later.

Baptism is the first act of obedience. It is symbolic, but there is power in this symbolism. And I guess the best way for us to understand it is like when you have marriage ceremony. We go through all the symbolism of getting dressed in white and men and the bride coming down the aisle, the lighting of the candles, the putting on of rings, cutting of cakes, like all of that to symbolize that a new life is starting between two people becoming one.

So all of that is symbolic. We don't ever attend marriage ceremonies like, "Ah, this is nothing." We know the importance of that, and it was meant to be public. But we take more seriously the symbolism in marriage than when we do what God commanded. See, marriage ceremony was not commanded in scripture.

It is not a sacrament that was commanded. And yet in our culture, we take that very, very seriously, what we do in marriage ceremony. In fact, as I officiate weddings, I mean, usually the people are so concerned that we get everything right. I think that people are the most teachable during wedding ceremonies.

They ask me questions like, "Do we stand here? Do we stand there? Who goes first? Who goes last? What is the beginning? What is the end? Who says this? Where do they stand?" Because they want to make sure that they get everything right, because it's important. Every part of that points to something.

But that was not commanded in scripture. It's important for us because of what it signifies. But baptism is commanded in scripture. And though it is symbolic, when we obey it according to what the scripture says, it is meant to nourish the church. So this morning, I want to dive into two things.

One is the importance of baptism and the meaning of baptism. Importance of baptism and meaning of baptism. So those of you who are visiting our church for the first time, it's like, "Oh, great. The first service is going to be talking about theology." In fact, every week is theology.

Whether I mention theology or not, every week is theology. But today in particular, it's going to be theological. Why is baptism important? If it is symbolic, why is it so important? If you look at the Great Commission, Matthew 28, 19, "Go therefore make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you." Now if you've probably heard many services, many sermons or Bible studies about going, right?

If we're serious Christians, we need to be going. We need to go to our neighbors. We need to go to the remotest part of the world. You know, we've just sent out the Tongs as missionaries to China, so they were going. And then if you do a little bit of digging, you find out, it's like, "No, the imperative is to make disciples by going." And so you probably heard a lot of sermons about making disciples, that we need to make this all about making disciples and we need to go.

So the goal is making disciples. And you probably heard a lot of sermons about teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. That's why we have Bible study. We have small groups, in order for you to understand that it's not just enough to say, "I believe in Jesus," but then it says to teach them to observe all that I have commanded you, to be obedient in our faith.

But we kind of skim over the baptism part, right? It says to make disciples by going, baptizing, and teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. But we know about going, we know about teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you, but this baptism part seems like just a religious ceremony, just kind of added in.

So we quote it, we memorize it, but we don't really understand it. Why is this there? When somebody becomes a Christian, first thing we ask is, "What church do you go to?" So say, "I confess my faith and I believe, what should I do?" "Well, go to a church." It's like, "Well, I'm at a church." "Well, then join small group." It's like, "Well, they have a small group on Wednesday, then what else should I do?" "Well, find maybe older brothers and sisters that you can fellowship with and get involved with them." Is there a community group?

Get involved with the community group. And you really should pray. You need to really commit to the discipline of prayer. And evangelism. If your church has short-term missions, maybe you should do that. If you have membership, become a member and serve in some capacity in the church. And we have all these things that we tell a brand new Christian that this is what you ought to do, teaching them to observe all that I've commanded you.

But before we even get to that, he says to baptize. Where in every instance in the New Testament, the very first thing that was commanded and practiced was baptism. It was not just some religious ceremony. You know, there's an issue in our culture where there's this cliche that people use in saying Christianity is not a religion but a relationship.

That statement in and of itself is true. Christianity, you can't be a Christian just because you attend church, because you were raised in a church, or just because you went into the water and came out. That doesn't make you a Christian. So Christianity isn't simply about religion, but it is religion.

Because religion basically means a set of beliefs that causes you to live a certain way. That's what a religion is. So Christianity is a religion. But religion in and of itself obviously doesn't save you if you don't have a relationship with Christ. The reason why I say that is because there is a disdain in our culture toward anything that is not personal with Jesus.

So that's religion. You know, "Oh, I don't have to go to church. Don't tell me to read the Bible. Don't tell me I have to live a certain way. Do this or don't do that, because if you do that, that's religion." As long as I have this personal relationship with Jesus Christ, all this other stuff doesn't matter, which is absolutely wrong.

As I said, there are many things that the Scripture teaches, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you, but these two particular things, and this one particular thing that we're addressing today about baptism, was absolutely commanded and practiced. Acts chapter 2, 38, after Peter preaches his very first sermon, very first revival, they were convicted to the heart, and they said, "What should we do?" And he said, "Repent and be baptized." He didn't just say, "Repent and go to church.

Repent and do your quiet time. Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ, for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit." Acts chapter 8, 12, Evangelist Philip preaches the gospel to the Samaritans. They are convicted when they believe Philip as he preached good news about the kingdom of God, and the name of Jesus Christ.

They were baptized, both men and women. Acts 8, 36, "And as they were going along the road, they came to some water, and the eunuch said, 'See, here is the water. What prevents me from being baptized?'" Acts 9, 18, "And immediately something like scales fell from his eyes and regained his sight.

He was raised and was baptized." And again, I can go all, give you other texts over and over again, and my point is that as Jesus commanded, as his last will and testament, to make disciples by going, baptizing, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you, baptism was a key element of making disciples.

So the fact that this is important is crystal clear in the Scripture. In fact, I don't know any denomination that doesn't see the importance of baptism. The meaning behind it, mode of it may be different, but we all agree it is absolutely essential. This is the first act of obedience.

So if this is this important, and if that is not in question, the second question is, then why is this so important? What is the significance of this baptism? Which is the second point, the meaning of baptism. Well, I tricked you because it's two points, but this point has three points.

Okay? So it's actually four points. The meaning behind baptism, there's three things that I want to share with you that the Scripture teaches. First of all, the reason why this is important is because of what it symbolizes. It says in Romans 6, 3-4, "Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?

We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life." So first of all, baptism symbolizes our union with Christ in his death and his resurrection.

That's what it symbolizes. That's what it proclaims. Just like when two people come together and they get married, they light the two candles, meaning that two families are coming together, and then at the middle of the ceremony, when they're done, they will light one candle, right? And they blow out the other two candles, which signifies that these two people are becoming one.

The ring that they put on each other is a symbol of the eternal union, this covenant that cannot be broken. So when they put that ring on, it symbolizes this eternal covenant that they are entering. Every part of that ceremony signifies something very important happening in that ceremony. And it is meant to be public, and that's what the baptisms first and foremost represent.

That's why when Susan gets baptized, when anyone gets baptized, we ask the question, "Do you understand this, that you are uniting with Christ in his death, and you are uniting with Christ in his resurrected life?" The mode of baptism symbolizes that in and of itself. The word for baptism in Greek is "baptizo." The word "bapto" basically means to immerse.

The word "baptizo" means to be completely immersed. When it adds the word "izo" at the end, it's to intensify the word. So basically, the word in and of itself that is used to describe this sacrament means to be immersed. And it makes sense because of what it signifies. It signifies death.

You never go to a funeral when somebody is only buried halfway. You don't just throw dirt on them. You don't just say, "Oh, we're burying them," and just throw up some dirt. You make sure they're completely buried. And then if somebody happens to be alive, you don't come out halfway.

You don't see just a hand. All of it. And that's what it symbolizes. They are buried with Christ, and they are raised completely in the resurrected life. It is designed for that purpose. In fact, in the early church, every passage that I read, when the early church practiced this baptism, this immersion, it was done for that purpose.

There's a reason why they did that. Again, because of what it symbolizes. It does not symbolize a covenant sprinkling from the Old Testament. Again, this is where we differ with our Presbyterian brothers and sisters. Like I said, I grew up Presbyterian. I was infant baptized. And then I chose to become a Baptist, again, though I was baptized as an infant because of what I saw in Scripture.

And I wrestled with this for a very long time before I decided I need to do what the Scripture says. And the reason why I did that is because it is not safe to simply go by tradition. It is not safe to practice my faith, even if something that I didn't realize how significant was at that time.

It is not safe for us to simply do something simply because that's just the way it's done. And so the more I recognize how important this was, the more important it was I did it the right way. Baptist baptism symbolizes complete union with Christ in every way. There is no halfway.

Again, if you were to use poker terms, you don't go halfway. You're all in from the beginning. Sometimes the Christians play, and then they put a little bit here and a little bit there. And then, you know, when I graduate college, I'll go in a little bit more. And then when my children grow up a little bit more, I'll give a little bit more.

And you're never fully all in. You're always just kind of playing, and the whole while you're playing around, you're thinking that God is waiting just incrementally, right? You buried your arms, and next year, hopefully, you'll bury your legs. And then a year after that, maybe you'll bury your nose.

You know what I mean? And for whatever the reason, people live their Christian life in increments. This baptism ceremony from the get-go, when we are baptized, signifies death with Christ. I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live. And so when somebody goes into the water, that's what it signifies.

My old life, who I was, is gone. My ambition is gone. My desire to be somebody, it's gone. My desire to be recognized, it's gone. And then to leave a legacy, and I hear that a lot, even in the Christian circle, leave a legacy. No. The only legacy that any human being should leave behind is the aroma of Christ in your life.

I don't want people talking about me three generations later, like, "Oh, Peter was this, and Peter was that," because I already know, you know, when there's good things, there's always bad things, right? I want them to remember whatever aroma I left of Christ, because it is no longer I who live.

It doesn't matter. And that's what this symbolizes, death of our old self. And when we are resurrected with Christ, that we commit to this new life, new resurrected life. In every way, that's why this water of going in and coming out is the right mode of baptism as it was practiced in the early church.

Secondly, it symbolizes forgiveness of sins. In Acts 2, 37, 38, it says, "Now when they heard this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, 'Brothers, what shall we do?' And Peter said, 'Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ, for the forgiveness of sins.'" Again, in Acts 22, 16, "And now, why do you wait?

Rise and be baptized. Wash away your sins, calling on his name." You know, part of the struggle that we have as Christians, when the Scripture says that just shall live by faith, we immediately think about how that's being applied. Like, "Oh, I need to live by faith. I need to trust God in my finances.

I need to trust God in my future." Which is true. That is a part of the application of what it means to walk by faith. But the first and foremost, most important part of walking by faith is believing with all your heart that your sins are forgiven. That when you went into the water, the old self, whatever it is that you did up to that point, it has been crucified with Christ.

Christ forgave you and cleansed you. And until you believe that your sins are completely forgiven, you will live your life trying to earn his forgiveness. You may not write down that on your doctrinal statement. You may never even confess that. But in your heart, you will live the rest of your life trying to be worthy of forgiveness, which is a contradiction of terms.

To be saved by grace means to receive something that you didn't deserve. So the first act of obedience, even before baptism, what the baptism represents, is to believe with all your heart that you are forgiven. If anyone is in Christ, he's a new creation. He's not part of a new creation.

He's not some of the new creation. All of it is a new creation. His sins have been washed. And the reason why we don't sprinkle is because sprinkling was just a shadow, because it only pointed. It gave hints of what was coming. And what was coming is absolute forgiveness.

Not just a hint of it, not just a part of it, not just what you did that day, but our very nature of who we are. We weren't just simply cleansed of an act. We weren't simply cleansed of something you said or something you did. We were cleansed from the core of who we are.

Our very nature was transformed because of what Christ has done. And that's what this water signifies. A burial of the old self and forgiveness of our sins and to be resurrected in our righteous self because of Christ. That's why it says in Psalm 103, 11 through 14, "For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his loving kindness toward those who fear him.

As far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us. Just as a father has compassion on his children, so the Lord has compassion on those who fear him. For he himself knows our frame. He is mindful that we are but dust." He didn't forgive us because we are worthy of forgiveness.

He forgave us because we had no other choice. And that's what this signifies. A complete and thorough forgiveness of our sins, past, present, and future, if you believe. Third and finally, receiving the water baptism signifies gift of the Holy Spirit. In Matthew 3, 11, "I baptize you with water for repentance, but he who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry." He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire.

Again, in Acts 2, 38, "Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit." The real baptism that this signifies is ultimately preparing a place for the Holy Spirit to enter.

If the Holy Spirit is not indwelling in you, you're not a Christian. You're not a Christian. You know, I know that in some circles that for whatever reason, I believe it's a wrong teaching that the Holy Spirit comes and goes. You know, the Holy Spirit, like, "Oh, you've got to be filled with the Holy Spirit," and it comes, and then when you're not walking right, the Holy Spirit leaves, and that is unbiblical.

If you are a child of God, God cleansed you of your sins and created you to be the temple of God, and now the Holy Spirit makes us indwelling in you, right? That signifies two things. One, that you have become sacred. I know that as a pastor, that certain things you won't do when I'm in the room.

It's not because I'm holier than you, right? And I know years ago, and I don't think gangster rap is that popular today. Is it? Right? It's not popular today, right? I think, I'm just guessing, right? I remember years ago, like, people would listen to gangster rap, and I could hear it from a distance.

I could hear it from a distance because I hear the car coming. They got to blast it, and then, you know, I hear it. And as soon as they come to the parking lot, you can hear the volume getting lower. And then they come to pick me up, and I go in there, and then Christian music is played.

At some point, in that 300-yard drive, the volume went off, turned off, and then another channel came. And all of it because they probably think that I'm going to judge them, right? Which I probably would have, right? But they were playing gangster rap. And the reason why, not because I'm holier, but because I represent.

I represent God in their life. There are certain things that you feel comfortable doing in the privacy of your own home that you will never do here at church. There are certain movies that you will watch with your friends, or maybe in a certain context that you would never, if we played it here, you'd say, "Oh my God, what kind of church is this?" In my house, it was okay, but here, how can you possibly allow that in the church?

Because we consider this space sacred. We consider certain things more sacred than others. And I'm not saying that they are all equally sacred, but the scripture says, "Do you not know that your body is the temple of God now?" That it is not just that building. It is not this place.

It is not just at a particular time. He says when we were baptized, we were resurrected, the real baptism happened with the Holy Spirit entering. And that's what Paul uses to rebuke the Corinthians church because they were being divided. He said, "Do you not know that you are the temple of God and the Spirit of God dwells in you?

And he who defiles, meaning he who divides the church, God will bring judgment upon them because this is sacred. The gathering of believers is sacred because each individual has become sacred by the Holy Spirit." So that's the first meaning behind that. We have become sacred, sacred in the eyes of God.

Secondly, because we have become sacred, we have become set apart for his use. The Holy Spirit just indwells in us so that we can feel good when we sing and then say, "Oh, I feel it." Again, there's nothing wrong with that. The work of the Holy Spirit inspires us, moves us, brings us to tears.

But the Holy Spirit is indwelling in us because it is groaning on our behalf because his presence is now in us. He didn't simply tell us to come. He sent this Holy Spirit to make sure that we come. And so one, we have become sacred, but we have become sacred for the purpose of his use.

It is no longer our lives to live. The Holy Spirit now dictates to us. The Holy Spirit now guides us. The Holy Spirit now groans on our behalf to be reunited to our Lord. This is the meaning behind what we practice. As I mentioned to you, the reason why we don't practice infant baptism is because infant has no understanding of any of this.

There is no place in the Scripture where an infant is baptized saying that it's a replacement of the circumcision, so therefore you have special blessing upon you that you do not know of just because you happen to be in this church. We don't see that in Scripture. In fact, this is so sacred that we want to make sure that when somebody is baptized, that they are able to make a credible confession of faith, that they understand.

So when Susan goes in, we're going to be asking her, "Do you understand that you're going within the water to be united with Christ in his death? And you come out, you're going to be united with Christ in his resurrected life?" And she will answer yes, because if she doesn't, we have to pray in service.

I remember years ago, as a youth pastor, I went up to a retreat and one of my friends in the middle of the retreat said, "We're going to have baptism service." So initially I got excited, I said, "Oh yeah, we're going to participate in a baptism service." And again, this was years ago in a youth group retreat camp, and then he just had everybody get in swimming trunks and everybody jumped into the pool.

So there was about 50, 60 youth group kids. We jumped into the pool and he looked at me and said, "Hey Peter, can you lead us?" I said, "What do you mean?" He said, "We're going to have baptism." I said, "For them?" He said, "Yeah." And then he gave instruction, everybody paired up.

So they all paired up. Everybody laid hands on each other. Everybody laid hands on each other. Now everybody go in the water and come out. So they all came in and came out. You're baptized. And then he asked me to kind of oversee and pray for them. I said, "I was a young pastor then, but I don't think this is how you're supposed to have baptism." Right?

Looking back at it now, it grieves my heart that something that was so sacred, that was meant as a means of grace to nourish and strengthen the church, when we don't do it without thinking properly of its significance, it loses its value. And it becomes just a religious thing that we do, which has no purpose and no meaning.

Now I talked about baptism, but it is not isolated to just baptism. We can do the same thing with our Sunday worship. You just checking in and out. Why do you do it? Because you did it all your life. You just did it. Like, why do we need to be here?

Why am I here? What am I here to do? What is the purpose? Why is this important? And if we're not asking these questions and we're not digging and we're not practicing it purposefully, it will be no different than just jumping in that water and coming out and saying, "You are baptized." Like I said, for me to become a Baptist meant that I had to go against what my father did when we were young.

But it is, I cannot, I cannot follow tradition, neither can you. You may disagree with the mode, you may disagree with the means, but you cannot disagree because of your tradition. You must, if you, again, I know some of you, many of you are like me, grew up in a Presbyterian church, maybe you consider yourself Presbyterian even now.

And the purpose of this message, again, to convince some of you or to instruct for you to understand why we do what we do. And then there's some of you may require more attention. If you have questions and you have more that you want answered, I'm more than willing to sit with you and answer some of the questions that you have and do my best to try to inform you why this is so significant.

This is just not some religious thing that we're doing because it's a church, right? We're Baptists and we're Baptists deliberately because we believe what we see in Scripture is honoring God. And this is not just about baptism, it's about everything that we do in church. We want to make sure that we're practicing what he told us to do.

Well, at this time, I'm going to invite our sister Susan. She's going to come up here and give her testimony and then we'll have our baptism ceremony.