The Salvation Experience | Associate Pastor Chad Erickson

remain standing if you will and turn with me to john chapter 14 and verse number six so good to see everyone out uh this evening i appreciate our worship team our singers and our musicians are behind the law behind the wall there you couldn't see them playing but they were back there wait a minute on the front row my bad amen what uh what a beautiful uh what a beautiful backdrop and uh and stage set that has been prepared and i know sister lauren uh hammond and her whole team the staff the school staff and everybody that works so hard appreciate them putting 100 110 into our spring programs don't we have the the greatest spring programs at apostolate christian academy are we so thankful and i know i know i've got a lot of actors and actresses that are clapping their hands and i know you have good uh good memories of years gone by when you've acted and we've enjoyed every single one matter of fact just uh just for reference point of reference um on youtube i believe the past i don't know how many uh maybe five seven of the spring programs are on youtube uh just get on youtube search a little bit and you can uh uh you can see what some of these some of these uh young adults look like when they were in in middle school in high school uh it's a lot of fun to to pick at people what they used to look like how they used to act now that they're all sophisticated and mature you know uh but man just if you get on there we just it's great it's it's a lot of fun to to check it out well um bishop william perrin pastor hammond already announced that bishop william parent uh what what an uh icon of pentecost of the apostolic movement a legend a legend of his own time his father of course gets a lot of credit for being our first general superintendent but just in his in his footsteps uh bishop william parent followed his father and uh he is uh it is because of him there's a lot of great churches in the applestag movement that are that are going on today because of that parent family and a matter of fact he uh got to experience maryville i believe our last men's conference that was here uh he had a young man from the from the auburn hills church drive him down here and i remember getting to sit i believe it was in the in the events center and get to have some dinner with him and the young man that brought him down and just to hear the stories that he told but as much as i got to hear the stories i was also glad that he got to experience marvel he said i wanted to come and experience first episode church of maryville so that's just such a neat thing uh there's such a such a legend of a man uh was here in maryville and got to see just a little bit what god is doing here amen john 14 and 6 says jesus saith unto him i am the way the truth and the life no man cometh unto the father but by me pastor has been on a series on wednesday evenings on the purpose of tongues and he kind of moved into the working of the spirit and i i want to keep on the same vein and i want to teach a lesson tonight simply called the salvation experience it's an experience it's much more than just a plan now let me say this what i'm about to teach tonight is the most important subject of the word of god i love preaching about faith we heard sunday night but you can have all the faith in the world if you're not saved it makes no difference sunday morning we preached about keeping on and don't give up but you could keep on and not give up but if you don't have salvation you're you're racing towards a finish that's not not what you want to get to we could have hope we can have healing right we can preach on healing tonight and and believe me there's sicknesses and bodies that are here today that i'm sure that you would love to go home disease free sickness free but again it's only temporal unless you've been saved pastor raymond woodward has a series on the new birth that is mind-blowing matter of fact he came a few years ago 2017 i believe it was he came to strong tower youth camp and to all you students that were there he went through i believe it was at nine o'clock in the morning every morning he taught on doctrine and he taught such an amazing message on the new birth experience i want to pull a little bit from that from that teaching that he did from that study that he did and again i just want to simply entitle the salvation experience why don't we just lift up our hands come on if you've been saved i i just want you to lift up your hands if you've been filled with the holy ghost if you've experienced salvation if you've experienced the day of pentecost been baptized in jesus name for the remission of your sins why don't you just give god praise and give him honor come on you've experienced the greatest experience everybody ought to know everybody ought to know what it feels like for the holy ghost to enter inside of the body everybody ought to know what it feels like for sins to be washed away everybody ought to know what it feels like for repentant sin oh to be forgiven i pray in jesus name lord god as i preach and as i teach on this beautiful subject lord the most important subject lord god it's the way we enter to your kingdom god i i just believe lord somebody here tonight is gonna be touched by your word somebody here tonight is gonna feel your holy ghost and lord not just feel it and not disunderstand and not just be enlightened but god i pray that there's obedience that takes place in this place tonight in jesus name everybody said amen oh clap your hands unto the lord and just love him today hallelujah you may be seated i do have one one more prayer request that was given to me uh during offering uh john spence please in your in your prayer time uh maybe just note that in your phone note that on your tablet there just john spence that god would touch would touch his body in jesus name john 14 6 jesus makes it clear that he is the way matter of fact uh before there was uh terms such as christian or pentecostal because it seems like everybody's christian today but before there was terms such as pentecostal or uh in the last probably 20 years the word apostolic has really come on strong i remember growing up it was mostly a pentecostal until it seemed like every denomination decided that they were pentecostal because the holy ghost was being poured out in different denominations and so people would say well you know i'm a uh i'm a baptistal or you know i i'm methodist but i'm pentecostal and i'm so thankful for the outpouring of the holy ghost but there's so much more to salvation than just receiving the gift of the holy ghost and so we moved into what we what we call ourselves as apostolic because now we're kind of moving into what the apostles taught because we realized that there was a lot of teaching that took place before this was written we understand they have the pentateuch and uh they have the old testament they had the law and the prophets but obviously all throughout what we would consider the new testament age or the time of the new testament that's written in this book these books were not written yet we had not discovered this writing this was put together much later on many many of the writers were writing into the 70s and 80s which was much past when many of these apostles died so the apostolic doctrine what we believe is apostolics it was taught before it was even written it was taught because jesus christ himself had given and had had molded these disciples that he made into apostles and and not just disciples disciples our followers right i i'm thankful that they first chose to follow christ but then christ commissioned them jesus commissioned them to be more than just followers he said i am commissioned you to be apostolics or apostles so that you could teach this word that i have taught you but even long before they were called apostolics or pentecostals we were called christians they were known as the way when you met somebody you would ask them you'd say are you a part of the way when you shook their hands whether especially during the times when there was a lot of persecution of the early church when you would when you would meet in a hidden place whether it was uh maybe in the back room of a house you would you would shake you'd shake somebody's hand and you would ask them are you a part of the way very similar to meeting somebody at dollywood and looking at them and saying hey are you apostolic i can tell by the way you look i can tell by the way you act there's something different are you apostolic are you what church do you go to and um i've never been more thrown off i just looked back at the roberts and it reminded me i've been i've never been more thrown off than we went to we went up to marriage retreat a day early and on thursday on thursday there was a convention that was getting over that was in the in the main uh convention center there that we had our marriage retreat and uh maybe some of you noticed because even friday they were kind of hanging out but when we pulled into our our hotel on thursday evening of marriage street weekend it was jam-packed with apostolic people or what i thought were apostolic people until i until i got to talking to them of course they thought that i was whatever they were because my wife you know we get out of the car and you know she's holiness and flowing dress and we we get out and they're all man they were all so brother ham they were so kind to us until they found out who we were they i don't know they were a group that was was trinitarian and they they knew they knew right away when when i when i shook their hand and was asking what church they went to and and figured out very quickly that we were not of the same faith and they figured out that i was not to say faith was damn it was it was like a switch that turned off it was kind of funny but but but people would people in the day and i'm talking the early church i'm talking about even before uh many of the books of the bible were written they would say are you a part of the way and it was all from jesus saying i am the way they were following after christ there's only one way and the gospel is not the gospel if you take away from it or if you add to it it just doesn't work you can look at what paul says in galatians chapter one and verse eight those who mix god's message with men's ideas create a perverted gospel and paul says they're a curse they're cursed look with me in galatians 1 8 it says but though we or an angel from heaven preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you let him be accursed because just like today it's not you know we look around and if you drive down william blunt drive on both sides of the road if you go up 411 on both sides of the roads you're going to see churches with steeples that that identifies them as a christian church but if you start reading what their doctrine is every single one of them have a different doctrine and it's all because somewhere along the way there was some philosophy that got mixed with the gospel men's philosophies and and paul was simply saying this he was simply saying i don't care if somebody walks into your church and says i had an encounter with an angel and the angel told me this and an angel told me that what paul was saying if it does not match up to what the apostles what we are preaching to you now it was before this i'm going to put this down he was saying if it does not match to what we are giving you straight from jesus christ he said they are accursed today we have so many denominations i i i want to think about uh uh i want to think about a buffet and i i told our several churches last night i sister niece was it was was is part of our sevierville campus and i looked at her and she reminded me that we used to always go and i look at the jeters and the ammuns we used to always go to shoni's especially on rally nights when whenever there was a rally in maryville on friday nights we would go to shoni's because we knew that somewhere around 10 o'clock they would bring out the breakfast buffet oh my goodness you could have your eggs anyway you want to have your eggs you can have them scrambled over easy you can have them sunny side up you can have them in an omelette you can have them hard-boiled and i love oh i'm talking about food you think i've been fasting all day today but that's how that's how religion has gotten that's how christianity has got it's however however you like your eggs we'll serve them to you any way you like them however you want the salvation process you want to shake the preacher's hand and be saved well you go ahead and shake the preacher's hand if if you want to do some kind of penance and and be saved by doing good acts or good works you just go ahead and do those good acts and therefore you are saved and it's just kind of like you just got this whatever man feels comfortable doing that's what they've turned into salvation but we understand that there is only one way and i want to keep on reiterating that because in our day and age we're in a microwave generation it's give it to me quick give it to me easy i want it right now just just i want to be safe tell me how to do it and it's a process salvation is not only an experience it is a process not looking for man's opinion and i'm so thankful we're in a church that we don't even look for a pastor's opinion when it comes to salvation pastor never gets behind this pulpit pastor carpenter never gets down this pulpit or any of our pastors get behind this pulpit and give you their view of salvation we go straight to the word of god because it matters not what man thinks about salvation now when it comes to standards of holiness when it comes to pastoral standards i believe 100 i want a pastor it's an umbrella that's a shelter over me that's keeping me from this world and keeping me from harm but other than that when it comes to salvation we do not bring men's philosophy into salvation because there's only one right way so i want to kind of move in we understand there's not many ways to god there's only one way and and i want to go into this there's three parts of the gospel the gospel message has three components that must work together um sister sister paula solomon came up to me right before service started she was so excited she's been teaching a bible study to a co-worker and she said we the bible study today every wednesday i've been teaching this bible study and today it was on salvation and today was on the the oneness of god and explaining how how those two collated together and how it was so important to understand that that god is one to understand salvation and sister paul i was so excited she says i just had to tell somebody because i saw the revelation hit my friend i i saw i saw her eyes light up sister paula said i heard her say i see it i i see is one god there's not three there's just one but to truly understand the oneness of god to truly understand salvation we first have got to go back into the old testament because in the old testament there are what are called types and shadows of what jesus was going to do in the new testament so let's look look with me turn in your bibles this is a bible study so let's go ahead and study the bible first john chapter 5 and verse 6. let's let's read and we're going to see how john brings the old testament into the new testament he said this is he that came by water and blood even jesus christ not by water only but by water and blood he's very he's reiterating this this topic in this subject and it is the spirit that beareth witness because the spirit is truth for there are three that bear record in heaven the father the word and the holy ghost and these three are one and there are three that bear witness on earth or in earth the spirit and the water and the blood and these three agree in one all right there are three that bear witness the spirit the water and the blood and these three agree in one so let's go back and talk about let's go to the old testament and talk about these three components these three elements because there is a deliverance that must take place for the children of god out of egypt number one there has to be we understand there has to be blood that's put over the doorpost don't have time to tell the whole story but you know the story i i believe if you don't you can look it up it's it's a very interesting story when by the time all the plagues went through and the last plague to come was was a plague where the firstborn would die and the only way for the death angel to pass over and not affect your household you had to put the lamb you had to slaughter the lamb you had to put the lamb's blood across the doorpost talking about blood and then we also understand as they came out of egypt as they came out of the world they had to go through the red sea that's the water and then we also understand that there was a pillar of fire by night and a pillar of cloud by day that led them away from the sea blood water spirit we're going to kind of come back to that because it's very important keep that in mind also there are three pieces of furniture involved in atonement inside the tabernacle you would first come to the brazen altar i believe i have a tile you would first come to the brazen altar this was a place of death this was a place me of the next town this was a place of death this was a place of bloodshed there had to be the shedding of blood without the shed of blood there could be no pushing back of sin from that place you went into the water the brazen laver you had blood and then you had the water you had to have a place to wash you had to have a place to get that blood because the blood was the evidence of the sin and i don't know about you but when i when my sin has been forgiven i don't want any evidence of that sin on my body the priest did not want number one it was not usually for the sin of the priest it was the sin of the people but it was the priest who had blood all over so the priest would then go from the place of blood to the place of washing and as he began to wash he would cleanse his his hands and he would cleanse his robe and he would cleanse even down to his feet there was a cleansing ritual that the priest had to go through at the labor so important there's blood there's water and then if you look to the holiest of holies all the way as far back into the holy of holies we have the ark of the covenant and this is where the spirit of god would rest upon the mercy seat between the cherubims and that priest understood i've got to go in the correct order i can't skip any point in this order if the priest would have went straight from the altar into the ark he would have been killed he would have died within the holy of holies he had to go through the process okay he had to go through the plan it's so important that we don't skip any part of the process it's very important you don't skip any part of the plan because if you skip any part of the process death is your final destination destruction praise and alter blood praise and labor water for washing and the ark of the covenant it signified the spirit represented the spirit of god so we have paul as he's bringing these three elements now he's bringing them into the new testament in first corinthians look at me chapter 15 and verse 1 first corinthians 15 and 1 now paul is bringing these elements into the new testament belief moreover brethren i declare unto you the gospel which i preached unto you which also you have received and wherein ye stand by which also you are saved if you keep in memory what i preached unto you unless you have believed in vain for i delivered unto you first of all all that which i also received here it is how the christ died for our sins according to the scriptures that he was buried and that he rose again the third day according to the scripture so the new testament church contained all three elements of salvation blood water fire death burial resurrection now listen i know some of you are scholars and some of you have been in pentecost all your life and you're just like brother erickson we understand but not everybody in this room understands the same way you understand you got to slow down i once heard somebody uh pat i think pastor carp was telling me this is years ago he said i i have a i have a saint of god that keeps on coming to me and complaining that i'm preaching too much on the holy ghost and too much they said go beyond that we're pastor we're beyond that well you might be beyond that but there's too many people in this place that are not beyond that so please stick with me stay with me it's so important that everybody in this room understands the three elements of blood water spirit brings us to acts 2 and 38. the greatest to me the greatest scripture of salvation peter said unto the people in his hearing that he was preaching to he said repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of jesus christ for the remission of sins and you shall receive the gift of the holy ghost repent as a very first repentance is the first action the very first step that must be taken toward salvation and unfortunately repentance is usually the one step that we just kind of move right past do you know why because it takes time to see the fruit of repentance and so and so as a church family and as a social media staff it's really hard you know you get on twitter and it's hard to say well we had 18 repent tonight well you can't you can't see it you can't tell because it takes time right it's easy to see when somebody speaks in tongues boy that's exciting we see that we can we can say hey we had to get the holy ghost tonight you put somebody up in the baptistry and it's exciting because you can watch them go down in the water but repentance is sometimes we kind of just kind of tiptoe and jump over repentance because you can't see it it takes time to see because there's a lot of people and this is maybe not here but there are there are religions within christianity or at least they refer to themselves as christians that they look at repentance as penance okay which is an action of devotion it requires it's required by a priest to receive absolution for sin it's merely a religious tradition that somehow you can do an act or do something that'll take your sin away that'll remove your sin and it'll take it off of of the if you were the lamb's book of life and and the only way for you to remove that sin is you have to do something great or grand or good but we understand that works is is not works doesn't save us right we understand that it's nothing that we can do we can't get good enough to get god right jesus said in luke 13 3 he said i tell you nay but except ye repent you shall all likewise perish that that's how powerful repentance is jesus started right off and he said i i'm not referring to being filled with my spirit i'm not referring to you going down in my name if you don't repent you have no hope because what what is the purpose of baptism without repentance we'll get to that in just a moment but here's here's how powerful repentance is and i i've never really thought about this until i began to study study this lesson the reason why you can go to work with good christian people that attend churches all over this county good i'm talking good people i'm talking about people that bring their bible to work and they read it during during break good people people they could man they could they could share every bible story they know and i'll go step further they'll come to work and talk to you about shaking the preacher's hand and you will witness a change in their life brother thompson you will see a change in their life and and to us apostolics every that goes against everything that we've ever been taught because we think to ourselves unless you've been baptized in jesus name unless you're filled with the holy ghost your life has not changed that's not true because when you walk up and shake a preacher's hand if you make a decision at that point i'm not going back to the bar on friday night and since i don't go back to the bar on friday night that means i'm not going home and abusing my wife on saturday morning do you see what i'm saying you've already made a huge change in your life without even being baptized or receiving the gift of the holy ghost people in the denominal world have life-changing experiences by simply repentance be repenting because it's so powerful you know if i took away i took away many things from marriage retreat this year but one thing that dr hughes said that just absolutely got my mind just really thinking he said he said stop praying to god to fix your marriage and start praying to god that he will help you fix your marriage and i just i'm like so many times we just wanted to sit back and like god i need you to fix all this stuff going on and god's like get up off your seat and fix it yourself and you say my god i can't do it i don't have the power and he said i'll give you the power but i'm not going to do it for you he said i'll help you to do it and the same thing is with repentance we can't just come to this altar and say god i mean i'm addicted to this i'm addicted to that i treat these people horrible and my motives are wrong but god i need you to fix it all and god's like that's not how it works because repentance is you saying i'm going to fix it repentance is us is me coming to an altar and saying god i'm sick of being the person i am i'm sick of going to the places i've been going to and having the friends i've had and and we talk about stuff we shouldn't talk about it and i'm in repentance is simply saying i'm not gonna do that anymore i'm sick and tired of doing that and so now we have the power of repentance and the power of repentance oh let me find a verse because this verse goes so well with this john the baptist said in matthew 3 8 he said bring forth therefore fruits or evidence meet for repentance he's saying if you're gonna repent i need to see some fruit i need to see you stop going to the bar on friday night i need you i need to see you start being faithful to your wife now this now this is john the baptist he's talking this is way before the holy ghost was poured out y'all john was long gone his head was on a platter he was long gone before the holy ghost john was simply saying i'm going to baptize you on the repentance and i expect to see some fruit because of it it's kind of this kind of goes it kind of it kind of it doesn't go along with stuff we've always kind of thought about repentance the greek word metanoia means a change of attitude leading to a change of action a change of attitude that's me leading to a change of action i've got a makeup in my mind that's not who i'm gonna be any more i'm so sick of being who i am we're going to talk about the help we're going to get just a moment don't don't don't don't don't tune me out holy ghost is going to get involved here in just a moment but the first thing is repentance is i make up in my mind i'm going to change the hebrew word shubh h s-h-u-b it's found over 1 000 times in the old testament it's used 164 times in a covenant sense it means turning away from a previous life when they made a covenant together they would use this word shuba and it simply meant i'm going to destroy the house and leave nothing behind similar similar uh to what what the babylonians did to the hebrews you remember daniel and shadrach meshach and abednego and and i'm looking over here because what what the babylonians did is they looked for the young adults they looked for the teenagers they looked for the bright hebrews and they slaughtered so many others they slaughtered all the all the workers they slaughtered all the older generations and they looked for the most brilliant the smartest and they bound them together and they lined them up and they walked them they marched them out of jerusalem they marched them towards babylon and what they did while they were still there watching is they set the city on fire they tore down the walls of jerusalem they tore the temple down why did they do that because they wanted those hebrews to know there's nothing to go back to don't bother escaping we're not gonna we're not gonna put barbed wire around so we're we're not gonna keep you tied to some tree or or lock in some hut somewhere in babylon because there's nothing to go back to which is why the hebrews the bible talks about that they sat by the river they hung their harp on the willow remember that scripture they hung their harps on the wheel and they weeped they cried about where they were in their circumstances it wasn't just because they were in babylon because i got news for you they weren't slaves like they were in egypt it was because everything they'd ever known everything they'd ever believed they watched it burn to the ground and they had no home to go back to and they wept by the river because they had nowhere to go well i say all that to say this true repentance means you burn everything that you came out of true repentance says god i want you to watch because i'm making up a choice in my mind right now this attitude that i'm going to have this new lifestyle that i'm starting god i want you to see i'm going to burn everything in my past i'm gonna i'm gonna unfriend some people that i've been friends with on facebook come on let's just get where we're living today i'm gonna stop following certain people that cause triggers in my mind to go back and do stuff i used to do listen you can't you can't expect to do anything in god and in the kingdom of god if you allow the same things to trigger your mind over and over and over again my god if it causes you to sin burn it well who was it was cortez remember cortes in 1519 he brought 600 men to the new world here to america from spain and what did he do he burned his ships his men thought that he had lost his mind but he thought i'll tell you what if i ever get in a fight if we get into war here in this new world the last thing i want to do is look over my shoulder and seeing all my men getting on ships and going back overseas and going back home there is no more home as soon as cortez and his men got to america this was their new home and they were never returning back and so cortez was like what do we need ships for if we're not going to return home repentance scott help us to destroy shoot help us to destroy the things on our past that would cause us to want to go back into the world romans 6 and 6 says knowing this that our old man is crucified with him that the body of sin might be destroyed and henceforth that henceforth we should not serve sin and ruling your life you got to make sure that it's dead destroyed so that's step one repentance we're talking about the plan of salvation now listen look let's look at the last command i'm going to go a lot faster through this because it repentance i want to kind of go slow but we're a little bit faster through the next to the next step because it's so important that we understand what our purpose as the church is so let's look and see what jesus said his last will and testament his last command before he left earth here look with me on matthew's record in matthew 28 19. you could probably quote it it simply says go ye therefore teach all nations baptizing look in mark chapter 16 in verse 15 mark says and he said unto them go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature he that believeth in is baptized shall be saved luke's account saint luke chapter 24 and 47 and that repentance and remission of sins this is baptism should be preached in his name among all nations beginning at jerusalem and ye are witnesses of these things and behold i send the promise of my father unto you but tarry ye in the city of jerusalem until ye be endued with power from on high and then we have john now the gospel of john chapter 20 verse 23 simply says whosoever sins ye remit talking to us talking the apostles talking to church whoever sins ye remit that's baptism they are remitted unto them and whose ever sins he retained they are retained he was simply saying jesus was saying and john was recording jesus was saying go and baptize people for the remission of their sins because if you don't baptize them for the remission of sins they're going to contain and keep their sin so the very first command of the church go ye and baptize most important thing the church can do listen i'm thankful for a great choir but it doesn't say go ye and have a great choir i'm so thankful for a great youth program we have the greatest student programs but it doesn't say go ye and have a great student program go you'd have a great free class or or go you'd have a great coffee shop or a great christian school the church's command from christ himself is go ye and baptize so let's discuss water baptism back to the key salvation verse of the bible acts 2 and 38 repent and be baptized but it doesn't stop there every one of you that's all inclusive in the name of jesus christ it's telling you how to do it for the remission of sins and why to do it and then it gives the gift and you shall receive the gift of the holy ghost but let's look at two critical crucial things we have mode that's what it's done and formula that's what's said first of all what we've got to realize is every christian if you're here tonight in this whole apostolic doctrine the apostles doctrine is is foreign to you first thing you got to understand is that every christian every person you read about in your bible in the new testament if they were baptized they were baptized in the name of jesus christ for the remission of their sins let's look at let's look at mode in the third century along with the doctrine of the trinity another false doctrine was introduced called infant baptism and it's not to drown the infant and then if a baptism was not even biblical but i'm glad that they took another step and then try to immerse the infant if you're going to do it wrong do it right wrong and so i guess brother no one can drop oil over here i can use a little bit of water and so they felt well all we need is water i guess they thought that something was in the water and that's not the case is that some people cold there's nothing that says the water right so they took that water and they sprinkled the child but the problem with that is when you bring men's philosophy into doctrine another century goes by and now not only are they sprinkling infants but now they're sprinkling adults people that are converting into christianity they're not baptizing them anymore they're now sprinkling them because this is just the mode of baptism they've gone into but let's study what is the word of god instruct when it comes to the mode of baptism i'm i'm going to move quickly but but in john 3 and 23 we're to see the statement much water and john also was baptizing in aeon near salem because there was much water there and they came and were baptized obviously if if sprinkling was the correct mode of baptism they wouldn't need much water acts 8 and 38 we're going to see the statement into the water it says and he commanded the chariot to stand still and they went down both into the water both philip and the eunuch and he baptized him one verse later we're going to read out of the water and when they were come out of the water the spirit of the lord caught away philip and the eunuch saw him no more and he went on his way rejoicing in romans 6 and 8 we're going to see the statement buried with him or buried in water therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death that like as christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the father even so we also should walk in newness of life burial is below beneath immersed in the ground and then romans six and five here's one more planted in water for if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection you cannot have a resurrection without there being a burial there's no question about mode immersion was the only way baptism was performed in the word of god so let's move into formula every christian in your bible not only was immersed but every christian in your bible was also baptized in jesus name acts 2 and 38 the jews baptized acts 8 and 16 the samaritans they were baptized in the name of the lord jesus acts 10 and 48 the gentiles he commanded them to be baptized in the name of the lord and what's that name even read baptisms of the ephesians in acts chapter 19 verse 5 they were baptized in the name of the lord jesus peter taught in acts 4 12. paul taught in colossians 3 17 everyone taught jesus name baptism and there's only one verse that trips up people and a whole doctrine of baptism has been written around this one verse matthew 28 19. let's read it together it says go ye therefore and teach all nations baptizing them in the name of the father and of the son and of the holy ghost and first of all what i want to say is this we've already covered what jesus was even trying to get across here he was not trying he jesus was not there was no baptism taking place it wasn't like jesus had somebody in the water and said okay disciples apostles come on gather around i'm gonna show you how to baptize somebody he you know there's some people that baptize people three times there's some religions in the name of the father they'll dunk them one time in the name of the son they'll dunk them one time in the name of the holy ghost so dunk them one time but that's something it says it was a singular in the name singular of the father and of the son and of the holy ghost he doesn't say the name of the father in the name of the son in the name of the holy ghost he doesn't even say the names of the father of the son because those are names come on if you've been around pentecost at all you realize this scripture it's so simple why why can people have a whole religion in a whole doctrine based around one scripture that's so obvious matthew the writer of that scripture he didn't even write that until a.d 62 y'all which means that every baptism that took place in this new testament had already been done before matthew even wrote his book think about it that either means that matthew is so confused after after seeing all these people baptized from the jews to the gentiles to the samaritans the ephesians either matthew is so confused and or he understands what the name of the father and son and holy ghost is obviously when he writes that he's speaking of relational terms and not names because father son and holy ghost are not names they're titles it's titles of how we are related or how he relates to his people he is our father we want we want that relationship when we're baptized but that's not his name he's a son of redemption he's the one that died on the cross he's the one that was buried but son is not the name and he's the holy ghost that's living in the church today that's working in the church today that's working in this place and inside of each one of us but that's not his name i'm so glad that we are people of the name we understand what the name is of the holy ghost we understand what the name is of the son what the name is of the father there is no other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved it's so simple acts matthew 28 19 is so simple it's a beautiful scripture talking about baptizing people going and baptizing people and making sure they understand why they're baptized repentance baptism step three and i'm moving quickly romans 8 11 says if the spirit of him that raised up jesus from the dead dwell in you he that raised up christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his spirit that dwelleth in you when i receive the holy ghost when you receive the holy ghost we apply resurrection power of jesus christ to our lives oh my come on sometimes we get so caught up in believing i'm all about the the authority part of the holy ghost i'm all about receiving power i have to receive the holy i love all those verses that talk about you know we sing about you know got the holy ghost and made me to walk right no it didn't made me makes me talk right no it doesn't i'm ruining a choir song right now makes me give right no it don't because there's people that have the holy ghost that ain't living right people have been filled the holy ghost is still ain't given right oh man i'm i'm butchering songs right now we sing that song sunday night y'all we didn't write these songs so i mean i don't you know don't condemn them don't condone them on them but what was saying jesus paid all my bills when i called on jesus name sister lord is that what you're saying y'all listen if you charge too much on your credit card you can cry jesus name all you want how did i get there i know how i got there we talk about the holy ghost making us do this and making us do that and because i got the holy ghost now i'm doing this and he's no he's just empowering us to do it right he's not making us do anything so the whole point of the holy ghost and so we get so caught up and believe me i love the benefits of the holy ghost i've preached the message about the benefits of the holy ghost oh there are so many benefits listen if you don't have it if for the benefits alone you get it it's worth it but but that's not why you get it you get it because it gives you resurrection power the same spirit that raised christ from the dead think about this is going to quicken this mortal body if you've got his spirit within you when the church is called up that's what gets quickened hey listen holy ghost i want the holy ghost because it helps me to live it helps me doesn't make me it helps me to live right and it helps me to make decisions to give right it helps me to do all this stuff but oh my god if nothing else i want the holy ghost because it's god's spirit it's going to be quick enough inside of me man when the trumpet sounds i want to be ready and the only way that i can truly be ready to go is to have the same spirit inside of me that raised up christ from the dead somebody give him praise that the spirit is inside of you and reigns in your life quick in your mortal body hallelujah oh sh didn't mean to preach but that feels good acts 1 and 8 but ye shall receive power oh thank you for power why he shall become witnesses unto me in jerusalem all judea somberia wait wait i thought the power was so that i could look down my nose that people don't have the holy ghost flex a little bit now is that why you have the holy ghost it's to give you power to become witnesses the holy ghost right there the resurrection of jesus was a supernatural event the evidence of receiving the holy ghost is a supernatural event something is going to happen supernatural when you receive it you begin to speak in a tongue there's nothing that you can make up matter of fact talking to dr hughes we were over dinner i thought i thought he was going to preach about it when he was preaching sunday and i brought him and we're all excited about it because he's he's preached a message about it but there's there's there are actual doctors who have done research and they have tested the human brain and when a person speaks in tongues the part of the brain that's over the language totally shuts down it goes black on their instruments they're watching it those brain waves totally disappear when somebody begins to speak in tongues you say well how do they know that well it's quite simple i i saw the video of it there was a big news article on one of the major news networks and they have this these doctors had these pentecostals in these side rooms brother brother art schnitzer and and i promise i saw it happening there wasn't nothing funny phony about it these women were were speaking in tongues i mean i felt the holy ghost watching this segment and they were there in another room watching all their little and they said when that person began to speak in another tongue began to speak in tongues that every part of their language part of their brain shut down which simply tells me this it's super natural it comes from heaven it's nothing that we can make up if somebody tells you to repeat some syllables and say until you get the holy ghost that's not the holy ghost because that's not supernatural supernatural happens when you just start to worship god and start to give god your heart and you repent of your sins and the next thing you know something happens supernatural that you didn't start and you can't stop and the holy ghost begins to cause you to speak in another tongue speaking in tongues i'm hurting you may be seated every christian in your bible that is spirit-filled spoke in tongues when the church began on the day of pentecost the disciples spoke in tongues as the spirit gave them utterance for our dear catholic friends both peter and mary the mother of jesus were both in the upper room and they both spoke with tongues because the bible clearly says in acts chapter 1 that they all receive the gift of the holy ghost even simon the sorcerer he saw in acts chapter 8 he saw the evidence of the samaritans receiving the baptism the holy ghost and he said i've got money in my pocket he said i'll give you money if you'll give me that power i don't know about you but there must have been some supernatural something going on for a sorcerer who is used to using witchcraft for a sorcerer to say i'll give up my business here if you if you let me buy into your business over here supernatural cornelius's household who were gentiles spoke with other tongues when they received the holy ghost paul had this experience in acts chapter 9 matter of fact he said i speak in tongues more than ye all believers who had only experienced john's baptism were re-baptized and began to speak with other tongues john 3 and 38 or john 7 38 says he that believeth on me as the scripture hath said out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water but this spake he of the spirit this is in parentheses y'all this is this is something that that john had to explain because this is not he said now jesus just spoke right here but but i've got to explain what he's talking about because here it is he said the holy ghost was not yet given because jesus was not yet glorified but john was making it very clear he's referring rivers of living water is referring to the gift of the holy ghost and when i receive the gift of the holy ghost i'm applying the resurrection of jesus christ to my life and i'm making it effective in me if you go back into the old testament i am following the fire of the holy ghost it's going to lead me out of sin come on somebody the same fire that led them out of egypt it led them into and through the red sea and it kept on leading them and as long as they followed the fire and as long as they followed the cloud by day they were leaving their paths of destruction and the same thing is with the holy ghost today if you let the holy ghost dominate your life it'll lead you out of all the past you said brother erickson i thought the holy ghost wasn't for that oh yes it is it doesn't make you live right but if you'll follow it you will live right if you follow it you will give right if you follow it oh somebody help me there's people in this place today if it wasn't for the holy ghost i believe we could all raise our hand if it wasn't for the holy ghost i'll be doing the same stuff i used to be doing oh somebody give him praise if you've experienced the power of repentance and you've experienced the power of baptism in jesus name and you've experienced the power of the holy ghost in your life come on somebody just give him praise and give him honor and give him glory god i thank you lord i'm not who i used to be i'm not what i used to be i don't think the same way i used to think my motives are not the same as they used to be i'm changed i've been rearranged i got something that i'm following that's going to lead me out of darkness and into the marvelous light oh stand with me even remain standing if you're not standing already acts 5 and 32 says and we are his witnesses of these things and so is also the holy ghost whom god have given to them that obey him we preach about the plan of salvation like it saves but it doesn't it's just a plan if it's not obeyed it's just a plan there's a lot of plans out there y'all that there's a plan to build this building did we have to follow it well depends on who you ask you got inspectors that come out if you don't dig that foot in correctly they're not going to let you continue now now you can continue but bad things are going to happen to you and they're going to your building's going to be condemned they're going to take it and seize it from you the plan it's not just enough to have a plan of salvation there's got to be obedience to follow that plan and that's why i'm not preaching about the plan of salvation i'm preaching about the salvation experience because you've got to experience it oh if you're going to walk streets of gold one day if you're going to live in eternity with the one who died on a cross for you you've got to experience salvation and listen i i know this is wednesday night bible study and this is what i'm this is what i want to say we have bible studies that will further explain what i've been teaching tonight if something if there's been something in your mind that clicked revelation if a light bulb went on in your in your mind and you said you know i've never seen it that way before blood water fire i never really realized i never really realized that was death burial resurrection if you've never really realized how all this goes together we have we have some great bible says we have one called into his marvelous light he knows marvel's life begins with it begins with the gospels kind of talks about the gospels matthew mark luke and john and then then it moves on into acts and moves into the book of salvation and then from there it goes into the epistles it's just like a it's a three a three-week bible study just about 45 minutes each bible study we would love to teach you that bible study we have one called search for truth search for truth now now i was announcing this last night and i got i got made fun of a little bit i said it was a ten week bible study they're like i never heard it taught in 10 weeks it's supposed to be a 10-week bible study it goes from genesis all the way to revelations we've got teachers we've got amazing bible teachers in this church that can sit down with you week after week and here's the thing it's not it's not exhaustive believe me 10 weeks we we could we could take 10 weeks on one subject of the bible but in 10 weeks we're going to go from genesis all the way to revelations and in that time what's so beautiful about a bible study is this the more you study the bible then when you go back to read the bible more and more makes sense and stuff that you've read all your life you grew up you grew up in some in some church down the road i don't know where maybe another state another another country i don't know and you've read your bible through multiple times but you've always wondered about certain things get into a bible study because if you get into a bible study then all of a sudden things start to make sense that you read it's a beautiful thing revelation begins to happen we have bible studies and then we also have small groups we have our connect groups that meet each week pretty much every every evening of the week we have a connect group that's meeting we'd love to get you connected with other people the small groups are probably 10 to 15 sometimes 20 people that come together and they study the word of god it's a beautiful thing to ask questions they answer questions maybe even tonight you might have some questions and you know there's so many people you might not want to come up and talk to me you might want to but you might not and if you don't get into a small group if you go into the lobby you can sign up for a small group get into a small group ask your questions in the small group and i promise you having your questions answered brings so much revelation into your life god help us let's pray together father we love you lord i'm so thankful for salvation i'm so thankful lord god that you gave us away lord you made a way lord god that we don't have to live in sin we don't have to die in sin but god you gave us a way to come up out of sin lord you gave us away lord god that we could be resurrected into a new man into a new woman god that our lives could be changed forever lord i i thank you for the body of people in front of me who have already made that decision who have already made a decision to repent they've already made a decision to be baptized in your name they've already received your holy ghost and lord i'm also praying for those who have never repented god lord or maybe they've repented lord god but they've never received your holy ghost or or maybe they've received your holy ghost but they haven't been baptized as of yet god i pray that you would convict god i pray that you speak into hearts and lord god let them see your word lord god let it be real in their minds and in their lives so lord god they wouldn't just hear it but oh god they would hide it in their heart and they would obey your word god i pray all this in jesus name and lord will give you all the praise come on before we dismiss lift up hands to heaven let's love him father we love you so thankful for the relationship we have with you oh you're so good to us oh god you're so wonderful there's no one like you there's nothing besides you nothing can compare to your greatness oh i bless your name and your sanctuary today lord i i thank you lord god because you've been so good to me you've been so good to my family oh i cannot tell at all god you blessed us abundantly lord this life that i'm living i'm living my best life now lord because i've been saved oh god i've i've received salvation oh god i've had the experience oh god and i'm walking i'm walking day by day i'm walking in your spirit god i pray lord god as we leave this place lord god i pray that you protect every soul lord god i pray you bring us back lord god to worship you once again in jesus name we pray everyone said amen god bless you dismiss the night in jesus name sure do love each and every one