What Shall We Do Series, Week 5

Men in brethren, what shall we do? You are familiar with this, I'm sure, certainly over the past several weeks, if not before. The question is asked in response to the sermon preached by the apostle Peter on the day of Pentecost. We often say that he was preaching Acts 238 or it may be presented as such, but really when you look to the scripture, this is not so. Peter's actually preaching the gospel as defined in 1 Corinthians 15, and he starts by reaching all the way back into the Old Testament to bring clarity to the question of the experience surrounding speaking in other tongues, and he preaches that this same Jesus, whom you have crucified, was buried, has been resurrected and ascended into the heaven, poured out the promise of the Father, which you now see and hear. And the Bible said when they heard this,

they were pricked in their heart, they were convicted. I think we should thank God for a conscience. The conscience is how God speaks, prior to God ever giving the law through the prophet Moses. How did God speak to his people? How did they know what was right and wrong? It was through the conscience. It's the place in which God speaks because we bear his image in likeness. They're convicted, their conscience is challenged by the holiness of God, by the proclamation of his word. And they ask the question, what shall we do? And that's a good question to ask. I would say that that really should be the response every time we hear the word of God. Whether it's a Wednesday night, a Sunday morning, if it's a series of revival services, a home Bible study, if it's fellowship around a table, anytime God speaks, the appropriate question

is what shall we do? What is my response to the word of God? What they're saying is how does this truth change me? How does this word compel me to respond? Peter has just told them what Jesus did for them and they're asking, okay, how does what Jesus has done for me or in the world? How does that personally get in me? How does this universal truth that has been declared to the world, how does that actually change me? And he answered, 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. And so this question, what shall we do? I would say I had coffee last week with a gentleman from the church here and we were talking on Friday morning and we were talking about the tendency

to allow preaching, the ministry of God's word and the danger I could say of reducing it to entertainment. This is what media has done. This is what YouTube has done. You can open YouTube and you can watch preaching anytime you want. It's readily available, it's easily accessible, but the danger of that is you can watch it while you're doing dishes and you can wash it while you're cleaning and while you hear it, you may not necessarily be attentive towards it or ready to respond to it as you would if you were in the house of God on a Sunday morning. Now I'm not advocating that we just neglect the value of it entirely, but I would admonish us that there is a danger in reducing the ministry of God's word to entertainment because when you're watching that on YouTube or you're listening on a podcast,

it's convenient because you're driving down the road or you're cleaning the house and you're making dinner, but that message was preached in a particular moment that somebody studied for, somebody prayed over it and they preached it or they taught that to an audience of people with the expectation that they would respond. But if we allow it to be reduced to some form of entertainment, we may consume but never respond. And so I would say every time we hear the word of God, now I fully understand and I hope that you don't respond driving down I-70 the way you would on Sunday morning because it might be the last time you respond. So the response may look different in measure, but every time we hear the word of God, the question ought to be asked, what shall we do? What is my response to what God is saying?

And on that note, I direct your attention to our handout, Philippians two and 12. Paul makes this statement, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. I would say to you like this, reverence always produces a response. If you revere, if you honor God and the word he's speaking, it will always produce a response. And according to 2 Thessalonians one, eight and nine, we will be judged based on our obedience to the gospel. It is not enough to profess a knowledge or have some measure of understanding, though this is good because understanding contributes to obedience. Ultimately Paul says it's those that obey not the gospel that will be judged and separated from God for eternity. And so what Paul is endeavoring to say in this letter to the Philippians is that we have this personal responsibility in our response to the word of God.

He is not saying that you get to choose your own method of salvation. He is not saying that you get to determine what salvation is to you. What he's saying is God has given to humanity a plan of salvation. And now the responsibility is on you to respond. And you should do so with fear and trembling. Matters of eternity, I know this is not always something that puts a smile on our face, but matters of eternity are sobering things. There is a weight to this. There's a little bit of confrontation to this and it ought to be so because we're talking about people's eternity. And so even ourselves as we come to the scripture and we begin to hear the voice of the Lord, we have to feel the burden of responsibility that we revere, we honor the word of God and we respond to it as such.

Second Peter one, he says, knowing this first, no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation, for the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man, but holy men of God's spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost. The amplified Bible says it like this, but understand this first of all, no prophecy of scripture is a matter of or comes from one's own personal or special interpretation. No prophecy was ever made by an act of human will, but men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God. Simply put, there is no personal interpretation. It's not my truth, it's not your truth, it's not their truth, it's God's truth. And the scripture says in John 17, thy word is truth. And so as we approach the scripture, we don't have the liberty to say, well, this is what I think. You're welcome to come to whatever conclusion you want.

No, we are summoned by God to have the humility that we set our preferences and our ideas aside and we make sure that what we profess and how we live is in alignment with the word of God. No prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation. You don't get your truth and I don't get my truth. And it's this kind of teaching that if you've not already, as you endeavor to do the work of the kingdom in 2024, you'll discover that the idea of an absolute truth is not so widely accepted in our culture anymore. They operate by the philosophy called moral relativism, which means matters pertaining to morality, whether we're talking about the value of life, salvation, faith, religion, morality in terms of sexuality, the construct of marriage and family. Moral relativism would say that, well, that's just relative. You may say that's true for you,

but that's not true for me. And this, I would tell you, is a gross error. If you study the age of the Enlightenment and you look at history over the last a few hundred years, you would find a school of thought that emerged out of, they would call it the West. Certainly it's prevalent in the makeup of America now, but it began in Europe, where they talked about the fact value divide. And philosophers began to describe the construct of human thinking and the makeup of society as a house with two floors. And the first floor is the floor that everybody lives on. It's the place that is governed by science. But the second floor of the house is optional. Not everybody has to go to the second floor. That's the floor that's for preference, for opinion. That's for values. And so as this school of thought

began to infiltrate society and schools of thought within government systems and policies, they began to say, well, matters of faith, that's just, that's your preference. That's your idea. We don't entertain that conversation here. We don't entertain. You're not allowed to talk about that in this workplace because this is where we entertain science. You're welcome to believe what you wanna believe, but you're not allowed to bring that kind of conversation into this government. Well, said who? Said the philosophy that tried to separate this. And so basically what they're doing is they're saying matters of faith have to be isolated to the private sector of life. And matters of science or relativism, basically anything that doesn't impose absolute truth on me, well, that can be welcomed into the public sphere of life. Now I would say probably, I'm gonna go on the assumption tonight that all of us here don't buy into that philosophy.

We believe in one God, an almighty God. We believe in an absolute truth that this gospel is for everybody, regardless of where they come from, what they speak, that this is for whosoever will. But sometimes the reality of that philosophy that is present in our world, while we may not believe in it, in terms of the confession of belief, we do reveal our error in the practice of it. And what that means is this, is we profess it when we come to church, but we don't actually live this when we leave the church. And all of a sudden we allow our behavior to be seduced into this philosophy that separates the sacred from the secular. Well, yeah, that's what I do on Sunday, but I mean, it's okay, because I'm at work now, this is Monday. Well, that's what I do on Wednesday. No, the sacred, the spiritual,

the matters of morality and absolute truth are not to be relegated to a couple days a week. But you don't have to look far. You'll find churches all over America with people whose behavior reveals the fact that they have bought into this philosophy. And here's the problem with this. If morality is privatized, meaning if we try to, as a people, push faith out of the public sphere, then it relieves people of the responsibility to apply a Christian worldview to the public realm. Oh, well, who cares what the Bible says about abortion? You can think what you want, but I'm gonna do what's best for me. It's moral relativism. Well, who cares what the Bible says about salvation? This is what I think, and this makes me feel good. It's moral relativism. And it is a philosophy that has warred against absolute truth for centuries. And the end of that road,

if you let that philosophy have free reign in your life, here's the end of the road, Romans 1 25, who changed the truth of God into a lie and worshiped and served the creature more than the creator who is blessed forever. So all of a sudden we worship and we deify things and people that are in the created order and not the creator himself. We make gods of money and career. We make gods of possessions and politicians and sports stars. And all of this happens when we remove God from our worldview. And so I would say tonight that as we move into the scripture and in light of all of the things we have discussed in the last four weeks, we must confront the idea that there is no absolute truth. That is a gross error in the cause of much confusion in our world. And when you look at the early church,

prior to any identification like Pentecostal, the concept of identifying yourself as a oneness Pentecostal or an apostolic believer even before the title Christian had been given in Acts 13, the church was identified by this title, the way. It comes from Jesus' own words in John 14-6. Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth and the life. No man cometh unto the Father but by me. I am the way. There is exclusivity. I said this last week. There is exclusivity in the kingdom of God. Now anybody's welcome. The exclusivity is not geared towards anybody but any other way. That's why they said, why is the way that leads to destruction? Narrow is that gate to salvation. If you want God's salvation, this absolute and universal truth, there is only one way. And Jesus said, I am the way. And this, this stands in contrast to every other way.

Look at Proverbs 14 and 12. There is a way which seemeth right unto a man but the end thereof are the ways of death. This is the scripture confronting the philosophy of moral relativism. That truth is subjective. Well, you think what you want, I'm sorry. That's not how the Bible works. And we have to have the humility as we come to the scripture to humble ourselves regardless of what we have been taught and what we may think and allow the scripture to inform our thoughts, whether that is our thoughts on salvation, marriage, things like abortion, morality, the scripture speaks and it speaks with no consideration of our preference or our opinion. And it certainly speaks with no consideration of moral relativism. There is a way that seems right to a man. You may be able to justify it. You may use man's philosophies and with eloquent words

and as Paul said, enticing words of man's wisdom. You may be able to convince the masses it may sound good but the Bible said there is a way which seems right unto a man but the end thereof are the ways of death. Acts 24, this is Paul standing before the Roman governor, Felix, in defense of his life and his testimony. This is what he says. But this I confess unto thee that after the way, the way, which they call heresy, the government called it heresy. The government tried to silence it. The government tried to persecute it. The religious zealots have called this heresy and he says, but I wanna confess to you after the way so worshiped by the God of my fathers, believing all things which are written in the law and in the prophets. I put this little introduction before we jump back into the New Testament

in some matters pertaining to salvation. To highlight this fact, we are not at liberty to all just have our own truth. Now I know even within this city you could probably find me 12 different churches and all 12 of them would give you a different definition of morality, what's acceptable in the realm of morality, what does marriage look like, is this okay, is this not okay? What does the Bible say about salvation? I'm not trying to be unnecessarily hard or crude, but I wanna be plain to you tonight. That is not acceptable. The Bible speaks and we have a responsibility to work out our salvation with fear and trembling. To come to the scripture with the humility and the soberness of mind recognizing eternity is at stake here. People's eternal destination hangs in the balance and we have to let the scripture speak. I know sometimes this causes people to be confronted

with ideas and concepts that are contrary to what people they love have lived, believed and maybe even taught them. But the scripture speaks with no consideration of somebody else's opinion. We have to have the soberness of mind, the sincerity of heart to come to the word of God, let God speak and ask the question, what shall we do? Now on that note I wanna move into rightly dividing the word of the Lord. This statement comes from Paul's letter in 2 Timothy. He says, study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. The NIV says it's one who correctly handles the word of truth and I would tell you that the root cause of every major theological error concerning the doctrine of salvation is the result of somebody not rightly dividing the word of God.

And so in a broad sense, he's certainly saying that we have to handle the word of God, all of this from Genesis to Revelation, we have to handle this correctly. But the translators do capture this quite well when they talk about rightly dividing the word of the Lord. And we understand that this book has divisions in it. The most noticeable is the Old Testament and the New Testament. But even within those testaments, there are ways in which we can categorize the Bible, the first five books of the Old Testament, Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy. This is called the Pentateuch or the Torah. And so for the Jews in the Old Testament, when they're talking about the scripture, that's what they're referring to. And we can move through the Old Testament. We have minor prophets and major prophets. We have books of poetry and the Psalms

and we have historical books like the Kings and the Chronicles. All of this is helping us make sense of the Bible by rightly dividing the scripture. Well, what is it that separates the Old Testament from the New Testament? Well, it's that the people of God would not hear the voice of the prophet. They had gone through cycles of repentance and restoration and rebellion. And then they go through a period of 400 years of silence. And then John the Baptist comes. He's the voice crying out on the wilderness, preparing the way of the Lord. He is the voice preparing the way for the Messiah. And then the Messiah comes and this is our introduction to the New Testament. Now, when we're looking at the New Testament, there are three divisions. The first is this, the Gospels. Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. If you immerse yourself in these four Gospels,

you're gonna find out there's a lot of similarity and some places there's great overlap. They're almost identical. And then in other places, you'll find that they may write of the same story, but with very different detail. And here's why. It's not that there's contradiction. It would be no different than if at the conclusion tonight, I said, all right, I'm gonna select four people. I need you to write me five pages on what Wednesday night Bible study was to you. I want you to describe what you saw from the moment you came in the door, who you talked to, what you heard, what it looked like, five pages. I want you to bring it on Sunday and we're gonna read the report from these four different people. Well, they're all gonna say different things. It is one right and one wrong, no. It's that they're speaking

through the uniqueness of their personality and they're probably writing with a particular audience in mind. And this is what we see when we look to the four Gospels. Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. They're writing of the same person, the same teachings. They share in the same experiences, but their personality is reflected in each letter. And the audience in which they write makes each letter a little bit unique. And so where we see differences in the four letter is not because there's error or contradiction. It's just, this is it. So the Gospels. The second is the book of Acts, which is the Acts of the Apostles. And the title is significant because Luke, who is a doctor, highly educated, unlike some of the other apostles, he writes in great detail, the Gospel of Luke and the Acts of the Apostles have detail in a measure that no other writings have

and this is reflective of his personality. It is written to convey the Acts of the Apostles. And so this is significant because in the Gospels, it's the actions or the works and the words, the teachings of Jesus Christ. And now in the Acts of the Apostles, we are seeing what they did with Jesus' teaching. And so the book of Acts is actually the only history book of the New Testament. And third, we have the epistles, which are letters written by church leaders, by the apostles to local churches that were started in the book of Acts or to those that will assume leadership of those churches. So this is the New Testament. If we are rightly dividing the word of God, we have to know this. Otherwise, we may look to a portion of scripture and think that I can draw my teaching from salvation out of that scripture when it may not be relevant to me.

Now, do you understand tonight, listen, if it was expected of us that we had to bring a lamb to slaughter, number one, pastor would probably be mad that we got blood on New Carpet. And number two, you'd be wasting your time. Well, someone could say, but I can find scripture in the Old Testament that says I have to do this. Yes, you can, but you have to know how to rightly divide the scripture. Now, that law, that ceremonial law has been fulfilled by the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. That's what the book of Hebrews is about. We have a high priest, he was our sacrifice, he made a sacrifice once and for all. And so we don't do that anymore because Jesus is the better sacrifice of a better covenant. So all of that's been fulfilled. You have to know how to rightly divide the word of the Lord.

Otherwise, Sunday would look a lot different than we're used to. But even when we come to the New Testament, you have to know how to divide the New Testament. Now, while we look at Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John in your Bible, these are categorized as the New Testament, which means the New Covenant. The New Covenant had not actually been enacted yet. Hebrews tells you that that Testament or the Covenant required the death of the testator. And Jesus had not yet died. So the New Testament in your Bible starts with Matthew, but the New Covenant in terms of salvation doesn't begin until after Jesus has died, been buried and resurrected. So when we look to the Gospels, what's so unique is all of this stuff later in the New Testament, they're talking about the church everywhere you go. Well, where did the church come from? Well, if you wanna know where something comes from,

you have to go back to the beginning. This is what I said last week. You gotta go to the beginning and line upon line, precept upon precept. Well, when we look to the Gospels, there's no record of a church in the Gospels. There is reference of a church in the future sense. Jesus speaks of it in Matthew 16 and Matthew 18. So Jesus speaks in a future sense and says, I will build my church, but when did the church start? And this is an undisputed fact amongst every theologian, it doesn't matter what they call themselves. Everybody agrees on this fact. Well, the church started on the day of Pentecost, Acts chapter two. And so when we look from Romans to Revelation, these are epistles, they're letters written to the church. So I want you to look at this because we're rightly dividing the scripture. In Matthew, Mark, Luke and John,

Jesus says, I'm going to build my church, future tense. In the epistles, these letters are written to people who are a part of the church. Well, where did the church come from? You only find that answer in the book of Acts, the historical document of the New Testament. And it begs the question, if I want to be a part of this church, how do I get to be a part of it? You only find those questions in the book of Acts, the historical document of the New Testament church. I want you to look on your handout. I'm not going to read all these scriptures, but I'll put the references there for you. This is the summary of Jesus' teaching as he is on the earth with his disciples. I do want to read Luke 24, 47 through 49. The Bible says that repentance and remission of sins

should be preached in his name among all nations beginning at Jerusalem. And you are witnesses of these things and behold, I send the promise of my Father upon you, but tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem until you be endued with power from on high. So what Jesus says is the salvation message is going to begin at Jerusalem. And he really says quite a bit more. He said that repentance and remission of sins would be preached and it would be in his name, the name of Jesus that all nations would be present. It would begin at Jerusalem. And he said, I would send the promise of my Father upon you. He also called this same experience. He described it as being endued with power from on high. So look at this, repentance, remission of sins. It's in the name of Jesus. All nations will be present.

It's going to start in Jerusalem and this power, this Holy Ghost experience is going to be there. Six things. The only place in your entire Bible that those six things come into alignment and you find the fulfillment of Jesus' words is in Acts chapter two. So this is Jesus teaching. Now salvation as we know it had not yet, the covenant had not started. He's teaching them. He's preparing them. We know from Matthew 16 that it was Peter who had a revelation of the identity of Jesus Christ. Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. You are the Messiah. And Jesus said, you're blessed. Simon flesh and blood didn't reveal this to you but my Father which is in heaven and he gives him keys to the kingdom of heaven. Now what do keys do? Keys open doors. They lock doors. And he's given him keys because he's entrusting him.

Now it's not a physical key. It's not a literal key. It's figurative. What he's saying to him is you have the understanding. You have the revelation that is going to open the door of salvation to all people in the new covenant. So Peter has the keys. This is important. Not just anybody has the keys. Peter has the keys. We know that we must believe. Scripture says that. Now I would stop here and I would tell you that there's a lot of people that they're gonna tell you all you have to do is believe. That's not in the scripture. Now I'm not minimizing the necessity of belief. You have to believe. But rather than just taking what one scripture says about the subject of salvation and formulating a doctrine on one or two scriptures, we have to take all that the scripture says about salvation and let the entirety of the scripture

and what we'll discover is the harmony of the scripture. They're not in conflict one with another. So yes, we must believe. And James said this. That you show me your faith without your works. You can't. You say you believe. But it's not really belief if there's no action. I'll show you my faith by my works, he said. So yes, we must believe. Jesus said that in John seven. We must repent. We must be baptized. He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved, Mark 16. He said that remission of sins would happen in his name, the name of Jesus. In John seven, he talked about rivers that would flow out of their belly. And then he said, this spake, he of the spirit that they which believe on him should receive but it had not happened yet because Jesus had not yet been glorified. What that meant, he was teaching them

about this Holy Ghost experience. He was teaching them about this experience of speaking in other tongues. This is the conversation with Nicodemus in John chapter three. You will hear the sound. It's the Greek word phoné, where we get the English word phonics. It literally means language. He said to Nicodemus, here's how you're gonna know when somebody's born of the spirit. You will hear a language, and John three and eight, so is everyone that is born of the spirit. Everyone, it doesn't matter what the name on the church sign says. It doesn't matter what grandma said. If your dad told you something, it doesn't matter because the scripture speaks without consideration of your feelings. That's hard, preacher, I know it's hard but I'm talking about eternity. So is everyone because this is an absolute truth. Believers should receive but it's not gonna happen until Jesus is buried, resurrected and ascended

and pours out the promise of the spirit. So all of these things that he teaches. Now this is, as he's teaching through his earthly ministry, he's teaching these things, and at the conclusion of his ministry, just prior to his ascension in Luke 24, this is what he's telling them. These are his final statements, his last words. And all of these things, the harmony of all this teaching, the fulfillment of all these words, we find it in Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost in Acts chapter two. I'm not gonna work through that in length, I think we've covered Acts two enough in the past four weeks. But let's look at Hebrews two and three. The writer says, how shall we escape? There is no way of escape. There's only one way. How shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation? Now you can ask anybody in this house tonight

who has experienced the life changing power of Jesus Christ. We could get the testimony of 150 plus people who just in the past few months have been baptized right there in the name of Jesus Christ who can tell you what it feels like, how it changes you, who can talk to you about how great this salvation really is. Hear the scripture. Which at first began to be spoken by the Lord. So whatever you're teaching, you have to be able to take me to the Bible and show me where Jesus taught his disciples and was confirmed unto us by them that heard him. And then you need to take me to the book of Acts and show me where they practiced it. If you can't do that, then I'm sorry. You ain't in the Bible. The salvation that Jesus made available is evidenced in the form of teaching in the Gospels

and is revealed by the testimony of experience in the book of Acts. And we see this, it's on your handout as we move down under the heading baptism in the name of Jesus. I wanna spend these next 15 minutes and I want us to look at a scripture in particular that we often get questioned about. And I know Pastor touched on the subject of baptism a couple of weeks ago. But I wanna come back to this. He made a statement when he was teaching that Wednesday night about a lady at the Jesus tent revival that he spoke to about baptism. I can't recall if he invited her or compelled her, but certainly addressed her and spoke to her about the opportunity and the necessity of being baptized in Jesus' name, to which she responded, oh, I don't need to do that. I've been baptized in the titles,

which is to say somebody baptized me in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Now, I'm not nervous of the scripture. I'm not afraid of Matthew 28, 19 because there is perfect harmony in the scripture. So we're gonna look at Matthew 28, 19 now and see what baptism according to the Bible says. And we're gonna just make sure that we've got no confusion here. I don't deny that Jesus said that. Here's what he said, go ye therefore and teach all nations baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost. Jesus said this, we don't deny this, but there's several things I wanna point out here. Nobody in this passage is actually being baptized. This is not a baptismal ceremony. He is standing with his disciples and he is teaching them. Further, Jesus was not telling his disciples,

repeat what I'm saying. He was admonishing them or compelling them it was a directive on what to do. Well, what do you do with the directive? You obey it. This would be the equivalent to me, me saying, you know, Brother Larry, please stand. And he looks back at me and goes, please stand. Brother Brown, please stand. And he looks back at me and goes, please stand. How silly would that be? Well, this is how some incorrectly interpret the scripture. Jesus wasn't saying, and this is what people do. They think this and so they repeat the conclusion. Well, my question is, why don't you repeat the first part? Why, it'd be like, go ye, go ye. No, I'm telling you, you go ye, go ye. It's like peat and repeat fell off a boat. You've heard that one, yeah. It was not meant to be repeated.

It was meant to be obeyed. Now there's more to dig out here because I've already explained to you the uniqueness of the four gospels. Well, Matthew is unique in that Matthew is writing to a Jewish audience. And so he's under the inspiration of the Spirit. He's writing as he's been moved on by God. He is conveying to a Jewish audience some truth about the identity of God. And I think we covered that in depth last week. And so because he's writing to a Jewish audience, he's talking about these manifestations, which is a Bible word from 1 Timothy 3 of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. This is not a baptismal ceremony. It's theological teaching concerning the nature and the identity of God. And further to this, did you know that Matthew wrote this gospel in AD 62? And the book of Acts, Acts chapter two, happened in the year AD 30.

So by the time that Matthew actually wrote these words, the church had already been baptizing in the name of Jesus Christ for 32 years. What we read in the book of Acts had already occurred when Matthew writes this letter. Now, when Peter stands up on the day of Pentecost, Acts two and 14, I think it is, it says that he stands up with the 11. One of those 11 was Matthew. And if Matthew had an understanding that differed from Peter, what do you think would have happened? I'll tell you what would have happened. There'd have been a fight. Because these followers of Jesus understood the value, the necessity, and dare I say, the burden of absolute truth. These guys believe this truth so exclusively and so devoutly, they died for it. Talk about some other way to these guys. No way. And if Matthew had some understanding

that differed from Peter, when Peter started preaching Jesus' name baptism and started baptizing them in the name of Jesus Christ, I can assure you the first council in church history would have happened a lot earlier. But he stood up with the 11, which means he stood up in solidarity. Unity of mind, singularity of thought. They were in perfect agreement because Jesus had taught them for three and a half years. Now they have experienced this salvation experience he had told them about, and he is preaching this truth with absolute confidence. People from all nations, different races and social classes and different languages. And he tells them, hey, it doesn't matter who you are and where you've come from, I'm declaring you a universal truth. Repent and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins. And there's more. Now this moves us outside the realm of

theology a little bit into grammar, which has been a long time since I went to school, but I do have grammarly on my laptop and it made sure that I was gonna teach you the right thing. Go ye therefore, teach all nations, baptizing them in the name. Well, what name? Name is singular and the significance of that singularity again, we covered that at length last week. But then these prepositional phrases that follow it, this is what it tells us, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost. So there is a singular name and whoever this is, is a Father, is a Son and is the Holy Ghost. So I'm not gonna go over that in too much detail, I think we covered that in much detail last week, but what he's saying is there's a singular name

that encapsulates all of this. Well, what is it? Acts four and 12. Neither is there salvation in any other, for there is none other name, no other name. There's only one name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved. Well, okay. You've communicated from Matthew 28 in Acts four that there's only one name and it's been given under heaven, that's what the scripture says. What is that? Look at Philippians two, nine through 11. Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him and given him a name which is above every name, colon. Which means all of these statements, this is Philippians two. Means that colon means this next sentence is about to explain what he just said. So he says he's given him a name, it's the same language of four and 12 that there's a name given under heaven, Philippians two and 10. That at the name of Jesus,

every knee should bow of things in heaven and things in earth and things under the earth. That every tongue should confess, Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. There's only one name. The name of Jesus is that singular name. It is that one name that God has chosen by which to reveal himself. It is the covenant name of New Testament salvation. And so this is what Jesus taught them. We know what happened on the day of Pentecost but as you look to the book of Acts, the historical document of the New Testament church, what did they do? They always baptized in Jesus' name. The day of Pentecost, Acts two, Philip with the Samaritans in Acts eight, Peter with the Gentiles, Acts 10, Paul and Ephesus in Acts 19. Simply put, there is no other way of baptism. It is by immersion in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.

You say, but some people say this or this church said this or I saw this video online. Well, the scripture speaks with no consideration of our preference, our opinion or our feeling. This is a universal truth, an absolute truth. And I would tell you that those who historically have identified as Christian and I honor them, I think there are sincere God-fearing, God-loving people just like Cornelius who perhaps just haven't heard of the way more perfectly. And I honor them for their faith. But these branches of Christianity that have allowed the doctrines of the church to be diluted by man's philosophy, that corruption ultimately leads to a collapse. And that's why there are churches around this country, probably some even in this town. The sign says church, the building looks like a church, but nobody's there. And they're selling buildings and giving buildings away.

I know people personally who have received pastors, who have received properties from United churches and Methodist churches, well, why? Because you have allowed the doctrines of the church to be diluted with man's philosophies. And so it's imperative that while we preach the truth, we do it in love. We love people, we are kind to people, we serve people, we make ourselves available, that this is how we reach the lost. But one thing we don't do is waver on this absolute truth. A word that is forever settled in heaven. There is no room for change. And I'll close here. Not only is the Bible very explicit in the mode or the formula of baptism, which is to say that it must be by immersion and it must be in the name of Jesus Christ. But the language surrounding the subject of baptism conveys to us the urgency of our response.

And again, this is necessary because we're talking about eternity. I put the list there on your handout, you can see it. We're not gonna read those scriptures at length. But look at this. When the word of God was declared, the response was, and they were baptized, the same day, the same hour, immediately, Acts 10, the Bible says he commanded them. Now listen, be kind in your commandment. But this was so important. This is not just, well, if I feel like it, if I get around to it, or at a convenient time, no. No, the convenient time is right now. If you're here tonight and you have never been baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, the convenient time is tonight. And on the precedent of scripture and by the authority of the word of God, if you're watching online and you've not been baptized in the name of Jesus Christ

for the remission of your sins, I'm commanding you to be baptized. That's how important this is. Acts 22, he asked the question, why terriest thou? Arise and be baptized, washing away thy sins, calling on the name of the Lord. Why are you waiting? You wanna talk like the Bible talks, that's a good question to ask. Why haven't you been baptized yet? My wife was telling me about some ladies she's doing a Bible study with in the Jesus tent revival. And one of them was telling her how she spoke to another lady at the tent revival. She said, I just, I'm such a shy person. But she said in that moment, I felt so compelled. I asked her, well, what would keep you from being baptized right now? She said, that's strong. Yeah, but the Bible is strong. This is an absolute truth. And so, yeah, baptism, there's a right way

and there's a wrong way. And it's imperative that regardless of what we heard or we've been taught that we come into alignment with what the scripture speaks and we are obedient to the word of the Lord. Because we'll be judged. Listen, there's not gonna be a test when you get to heaven. God's not gonna say, well, you know, based on all those Wednesday night Bible studies, you had a 10 question multiple choice test and I'm sorry you failed. No, it's based on obedience. I recall many years ago, it was actually my wife's home church, which this couple here, they pastor there now. And I remember Wyatt, right around the time we got married, Wyatt Newman was being baptized. And just a young kid, and they were talking to him about baptism. And he made this statement. He said, well, I wanna be clean on the inside

so I can have Jesus in my heart. That's pretty good Sunday school theology. That's really kind of the essence of what you need to know to be obedient. Now, I hope if you've been around this 10 years or 20 years that your theology goes a little bit beyond that. But you don't need to be the most knowledgeable, but you do have to be obedient. And he said on the day of Pentecost, that this promise was unto you and your children, all that are far off even as many as the Lord our God shall call. And then he said, save yourself from this untoward generation. There comes a moment where you have to let truth confront you and you have to ask the question, what am I gonna do now? All right, am I gonna repent? Am I gonna be baptized? Am I gonna seek the Holy Ghost?

Am I gonna make a lifestyle change? Am I gonna come into alignment with the scripture? This is the question. It's the question for tonight. It's the question you're gonna have to ask on Sunday. And you're gonna have to ask it again next Wednesday and the Wednesday after that. Because every time God speaks, the question is, what do I need to do now? Amen, stand together with me. I put that last scripture on your handout from Colossians two. Paul said, in whom also you are circumcised with the circumcision made without hands. What's he saying? Well, you have to again, rightly divide the scripture. For thousands of years, God had dealt with those Jewish people. And he required them to come into an exclusive covenant. In the seal or the sign of that covenant was the act of circumcision. And in fact, in Jewish custom, that male child would not even be given their name

until they were circumcised. And that was the sign of the covenant. You go read Genesis 17, how serious God was about the covenant. God said this, either you're in it or you're not. I want you to hear me. There is no gray area as it pertains to salvation. You're in it or you're not. But Paul writes because of the sacrifice, the cross of Jesus Christ. He says, in whom you are circumcised, but it's made without hands. It's not of the flesh. It's not of the physical body. And then there's a colon, which means I'm about to describe or explain the statement I just made. Buried with him in baptism, with who? Who was buried? Jesus. Buried with Jesus in baptism, wherein also you are risen with him through faith of the operation of God, who has raised him from the dead. So this is what he's saying.

Just as the Jews in the old covenant had the physical sign of circumcision, that was the sign that they had come into agreement with God on the terms of the covenant. In the new covenant, because of the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, it's not of the flesh, it's not of the body anymore. The circumcision of the new covenant happens when you are buried with him, when you are baptized in the name of Jesus Christ. This is why the scripture said, He that believeth in his baptized shall be saved. We're in like manner. Doth baptism now save us, 1 Peter 3. Listen, I'm not trying to be an enemy of anybody, but I'll borrow the words of Martin Luther who in the midst of that great Protestant reformation, he said, peace if possible, but truth at all costs. I'm gonna love everybody. I wanna be friends with everybody,

but I'm gonna tell you there's some things the scripture speaks that we have no room to wiggle on. And so if you're here tonight, and you've never been baptized in the name of Jesus Christ, I'm commanding you, and I'm asking you the question, why are you waiting? And if you're here tonight and all this stuff we've been talking about for the last five weeks, you're thinking, that's good teaching, but I've already experienced that. I've been baptized, got the Holy Ghost, I talk in tongues all the time. I feel like Paul who said, I thank God that I speak in tongues more than you all. That's awesome, but the promise wasn't meant to stop with you. He said it's unto you and your children and all that are afar off. So I'm just gonna echo what pastor says. We need a hundred Bible study teachers. We've got a thousand soul revival we're pushing for.

Come on, it wasn't meant to stop with you. We've gotta find some people. Listen, let me tell you this, and we're gonna close in prayer. On Monday morning, the office phone rang, or so I don't even know if she called, maybe she just walked into the office. An 18-year-old girl born and raised, living here in Terre Haute, just showed up wanting some spiritual direction, wanting to, God, to help her. Sister Lori took her in the prayer room, taught her a Bible study, and she was baptized right here Monday morning. Come on, this is what God is doing. She just showed her the scripture and she said, I see it, this is what I need. This is what I have to do. And I say, yeah, there's 106,000 people that have to do this, and we have a mandate to go and compel them

to preach this absolute truth. Preach it to the rich, preach it to the poor. Preach it to the successful. Preach it to the drug addict. I say, let's have revival. Would you lift up your hands and let's pray. Lord Jesus, I thank you for everything you're doing. I thank you for every life that's being changed, every Bible study that's being taught. I pray, Lord, your word would be like a fire shut up in our bones. I pray, God, you would order our steps to those who are asking questions, those who are hungry and seeking. They may not even know what it is they're looking for, but that is eternity. That is the inner man crying to be in relationship with their Creator. And I'm praying, Lord, that the fire of revival that's been burning in this church, let it keep on burning. I thank you for every good thing that you have given us.

I thank you for the opportunities that you are presenting. I pray against every distraction, let our eyes be fixed on the field. I pray, God, that you would give us courage, give us grace. I pray, Lord, in the next seven days that there would be people in this house who are presented with the opportunity to teach a Bible study like never before. Give them conversations with coworkers and families. Open an opportunity at the restaurant and in the grocery store. I pray it right now in the name of Jesus Christ. And everybody said in Jesus' name, amen. Let's go find somebody and have revival. God bless you tonight.