Witness of the Water

Thank you Jesus for the privilege that we have in you. Thank you Lord. Amen. I know it's not just emotion but it is good to be in the presence of the Lord to stand in his presence.

And uh I'm going to launch this lesson today. Um, brother Spa has chosen 1 John 5:8 as a text. And he taught last week about the spirit and he'll teach next week about the blood. And I have water.

Water. My wife said, "How are you going to get a lesson out of water? What are you going to teach about water? First John 5:'8 says, "And there are three that bear witness in earth, the spirit and the water and the blood.

And these three agree in one." I made a kind of a provisional translation for myself. It says that there are three testifying in the earth. The spirit, the water, and the blood. And this kind of clarifies things.

And these three are all for or purposed for the same thing. They all three are purposed for the same thing. According to the Bible, they're all for cleansing body, soul, and spirit. the deeds of the flesh and the body, the thoughts and motives of the mind and spirit, that inner sanctum where God dwells, the naos as the the Greek term is the the naos, the inner sanctuary of God.

1 John 1:7 says, "But if we walk in the light as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his son cleanses us." So, we've got the blood cleansing. And then Acts 22:16, Ananas speaking to Paul. And now why terest thou? Arise and be baptized.

Get this. And wash away thy sins calling on the name of the Lord. So those who minimize the the impact of baptism. You hear this today.

It says that that's where your sins are washed away by the water. By the water. Ephesians chapter 4 verse 22 that you put off concerning the former conversation, the old man which is corrupt according to the deceitful lust and be renewed or cleansed in the spirit of your mind. And so the spirit cleanses our minds.

God wants to have complete control body, soul, and spirit. So physically and here's where I'm going to launch from. Physically water is uh it sits at top the heap of the chemical compounds. They're only it's very simple.

There's only two molecules in water. There's actually three but two of the same uh two diverse kinds. Hydrogen. We we're familiar with this, right?

Hydrogen. Two molecules of hydrogen and one of oxygen. And combined they they they make water. From an ecological standpoint, twothirds of the earth is made of water.

You're you're familiar with that, right? Twothirds of the earth is water. It's amazing to get out on the ocean and and to see the vastness of the ocean, how much actually covers this earth. But humanity, you sitting on these chairs today, you reflect the source of your creation in that you also are twothirds water.

Hello. For some of us, it's twothirds Dr. Pepper. I I don't get a whole lot of water, but I I I drink my twothirds weight in Dr.

Pepper. So, uh it it's not easily it's so common. It's water is so common. We take it so for granted.

It's so abundant and it's easily dismissed and and we we say it's it's only water, right? It's only water. So, I want to give us kind of a background. We we talked about it last week.

Uh brother Spa talked about uh the the background for this verse, the Gnostic Dositus uh argument that John was arguing against that Jesus only seemed or appeared to be a man, but he wasn't really a man. And and so John was trying to emphasize the point that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh that God that God of glory who is the spirit has actually manifest himself in the flesh. And so that's the background for this verse. And biblically uh the the the Bible talks about water being combined with blood as elements of our physicality, our existence.

The life of the body, the life of the flesh, the Bible tells us, is in the blood. If the blood goes bad, your life is going downhill immediately. Right? But blood is is largely the plasma at least is largely it's composed of water.

You've got platelets and all that kind of thing. Uh Lisa can tell us about that. But but the fact is its base is water. We are water.

It's so it's essential for the existence of life. I've heard scientists talk about they get all excited because they possibly have found water on Mars because to them in their mind water indicates the possibility of the existence of life as we know it. And so there was a great deal of excitement about finding water, water on other planets. So it's not a stretch at all to call water a witness or a testimony to life itself.

This is what science has used as a basis for their excitement. Jesus used it as a symbol of spiritual life. Also it's it's recorded in John chapter 7. On that last day, the great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto me and drink.

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 which they that believe on him should receive. And so he made a direct correlation between that which is spiritual and water, the natural water. So the ritual act of baptism was not a new thing.

The practice wasn't a new thing for the people of the ancient world in Greece and in Rome and even prior to that. Isis, Mithrus, Dionisus, all of their acolytes and and uh proteges and disciples practice ritual baptism in water. In Israel, people receive rights of baptism for various things. It was for purification and cleansing.

Brides would be baptized in order to purify them for their weddings and and people would be cleansed. lepers would be baptized and cleansed in order to cleanse to pronounce them clean from their leprosy. Procelites uh stood in the water as a uh a ritual and the water stood as a witness to a person's desire to convert to Judaism. If you wanted to become a part of Israel, you had to be baptized as a procelite into the nation of Israel.

In biblical times when Jesus walked the earth, the practice of baptizing disciples of a particular group or teacher were common practice. The Essenes, the the people of the Dead Sea Scrolls, other aesthetic groups use water as an initiation right into their particular sect or their group. Water was a testimony. Listen to me today.

Water was a testimony. It was a witness of identity and conversion. Transformation took place at least on the outward when they were baptized. But it was purely symbolic.

There was no virtue in that water. It lacked any true spiritual power. Nothing truly spiritual ever took place when they were baptized. It was merely an act and a ritual.

Are you with me? Water, being baptized in water was merely something that they went through and uh it was a testimony that they wanted to be identified with a particular group or a particular teacher. But I want to emphasize this. when they were baptized, there was nothing spiritual that took place.

Even in the Old Testament, if you read the Bible, the word spiritual is only used one time in the entire Old Testament. It's because they were not spiritual. The spirit was not yet given to them. The spirit would act upon people and move upon things.

But they were not a spiritual people because the spirit had not yet come. So anything that they did was more or less a ritual act when they were baptized. It was merely going in the water for the purification, right? And ritual.

So this explains uh this explains even up to the time of John the Baptist. This explains why years after uh Paul came to the coast of Ephesus and he met there certain disciples of John the Baptist and he asked them this question unto what have you received the Holy Ghost since you believed and they said we've not even heard about the Holy Ghost and he his next question was very telling unto what then were you baptized and they said unto John's baptism. In John's baptism, as a part of that precrucion economy, there was no empowerment. Paul understood this.

There was no empowerment to overcome or to remove sin. You were just baptized. They were baptized to become disciples of John the Baptist unto repentance. It was just a ritual.

It was not, it did not contain a supernatural element because that baptism was still under the law. It was prior to Jesus being crucified, buried, and resurrected. And so Paul recognized you, there's something greater than being baptized unto John's baptism. You're John's disciples, but John talked about one that was greater than he was that would come that would baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with fire.

And you need to be baptized again. It was as far as John's baptism an act of ritual significance identifying his followers but it had no spiritual impact upon them. And so when Paul baptized them in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, something significant took place. And when Paul had laid his hands upon them, the Holy Ghost came on them and they spake with tongues and they prophesied because associated with this baptism, unlike every baptism that was prior to this, there was a supernatural empowerment that came upon those who would be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ.

There was a witness when they began to speak with other tongues. That meant the water was witnessing that something supernatural was taking place. It was more than just a ritual. It was more than just being identified with something.

But God would put his stamp of approval upon this baptism and the water would be a witness to that. One day on the banks of Jordan River, everything changed. It was a pivotal point in human history. Something happened that shifted the very nature of baptism and would transform this right that had been previously executed.

the act of baptism would take on a new context. I want you to stay with me because right now I'm going to introduce you to something that you may or may not have heard before. Then come Jesus from Galilee to Jordan unto John to be baptized unto uh of him. But John forbade him, saying, I have need to be baptized of you of thee, and comest thou to me?

And Jesus answering said unto him, "Allow it. Permit it to be so." Now, just now, just this one time, we're going to step outside of the ordinary ritual. Just this time, John, I have need to be baptized of you because for thus it becometh us. Let me stop here.

He was not speaking of us in the sense of Jesus and John. He's saying it is proper for us flesh and spirit. Watch. It's proper.

this has to be done to fill up righteousness. And then John allowed him. Jesus was not, as John's disciples had been to this point, being baptized unto repentance. He had nothing for which to repent.

He was absolutely sinless. But the fact was there was no witness to his sinlessness. Follow me. Jesus could proclaim it all he would, but there was no witness to the fact that he was yet without sin.

And so he tells John the Baptist, "This has to be done. This is between us, my father and me. We're going to fill up righteousness right here. We're going to complete this righteousness right here.

He was not being baptized unto repentance because he had nothing to repent of. He was not being baptized as John's disciple because John had declared to his disciples, I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance. But he that cometh after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear, he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with fire. John was saying that there is somebody that's coming.

As a matter of fact, here he comes. Now, behold the lamb of God which takes away, doesn't cover up, but he takes away the sin of the world. But in order to do so, he had to be himself spotless. The lamb that was brought for the sacrifice had to be examined by the priest to be perfect and without blemish before he could go on the altar for the sins of humanity.

There had to be a witness, an attestation of his righteousness. And John, when John says, "Behold the lamb of God," he is speaking a truth that we need to latch on to. That Jesus Christ before he could take away the sin of others, he had to be proven to be spotless himself. There had to be a witness.

You're thinking, "I can hear the sounds of wheels and gears turning in brains right now." Jesus had to have a witness. He was justified in the spirit. That means he was deemed to be righteous in the spirit. And so, so he said, "John, allow me to be baptized, not to repentance, not to become your disciple, but to complete this this righteousness, to show the world that I am who you just said I am." and particularly to you, John, because the word of the Lord had come to John and told him this, that the one upon whom you see the spirit descending and remaining, that's the one that is to be followed, right?

And so he was being baptized because it was proper to both the flesh and the spirit for the completion of righteousness. Just before he began his ministry to others, he had to have a witness to his own righteousness. He would stand in the place of judgment. Let me tell you something about baptism.

When you are baptized in Jesus' name, you are standing in a place of judgment. Your sins are going to be remitted. They're you're going to you're going to go down in debt. You're going to go down in guilt.

You're going to go down in shame. But when you come up, all of that has been judged. All of that has been deemed gone. And you are now proclaimed because you have been baptized into Jesus Christ, righteous Jesus Christ.

And so he himself as an example for us stood in that place of judgment. It was a forensic term, righteousness, to be deemed right. It was a forensic, a judicial term. When standing before a judge, he was going to pronounce that you are either going to be convicted or you're going to be acquitted.

Thanks be to God that anybody who in this place today who has been baptized in the name of Jesus Christ, your sins are not covered. They are gone. You have been pronounced righteous by the blood and the water. You have been you have been shown not by yourself uh but because you have put on a new robe uh of righteousness in Jesus Christ.

So I stand in those waters and Jesus stood in those waters and he had to be declared either who he was as righteous or as a charlatan and a hoax that he was unrighteous. And the water that day on the banks of that Jordan River was a witness to something that had never happened in the history of baptism since the world began. Mark records it this way in verse 10 of chapter 1. And straightway coming up out of the water, he saw the heavens opened, and the spirit like a dove descending upon him.

And there came a voice from heaven, saying, "This, thou art my beloved son." We gloss things sometimes. We think we know what we just read. But I want to delve into this a minute. Up to this time, he was the son of the carpenter.

Up to this time in Nazareth, he was Mary's boy. Up to this time right here, there had been nothing, no declaration of this kind. But the water was witnessing something in this baptism. And the voice from heaven said, "This is my son." And this son of mine, he would never, God would never have declared him to be a son unless he was also declared to be righteous because no unrighteousness can stand in the presence of God.

And so when the voice came from heaven, it was a voice that was saying, "This is my son. He's righteous." John said, "And I saw and bear record that this is the Son of God. Thou art my beloved son." This obedient act of baptism in the flesh brought a response from the spirit. At various times in the Bible, Jesus was called John 1:14, the only begotten of the father.

In Colossians 1:15, he is the firstborn of every creature. In Colossians 1:18, he is called the firstborn from the dead. Watch this. But here is a significant firstborn statement from Paul's writing to the Romans 8:29.

For whom he did forno, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his son, so that he might be the firstborn among many brethren. He was not to be the prototype and stand alone. He was going through this act. When God pronounced him to be his son, he was opening a doorway that was big enough for all those who would come after him, who would be baptized in his name, would also bear his name in the spirit, and they would be themselves called the sons of God.

Thus Jesus baptism in water, this initial act of subjection to the spirit, he stood in the place where sins are judged, but he became a template and a pattern for others who would follow his act of obedient faith. Why do we baptize still in the name of Jesus? It is an act of obedience to the word and the will of God. And doing so, we become born again children of God.

You're not a nobody today. You're a somebody. Your father is God himself. Born again sons of God who would identify themselves as being firstborn.

He was the firstborn among many brethren. But listen, Hebrews chapter 12 tells us this, to the general assembly and church of the firstborn, the church of the firstborn, which are written in heaven, and to God the judge of all, and the spirits of just men made perfect. That's you, and that's me today. If I'm in this church, I'm in the church of firstborns.

You're an heir of God and a joint heir with Jesus Christ because you bear his name. I tell you, we need to stand upright, square our shoulders to a world that is full of darkness, and tell them we are the sons of God. I'm not a nobody when I walk among the people of Walmart. I am a child of the living God.

I bear the light and the marks of him on my spirit. Jesus Jesus talked in John chapter 3 had this conversation. It's a wealth of information. when he spoke with Nicodemus, he said uh he spoke of the ne necessity of rebirth and and and that if you are not born again, you can't first of all he said this, you can't even see the kingdom of God.

It means you can't perceive it unless you're born again. And and this was confusing to Nicodemus and it prompted two questions from him. He said, 'First of all, how is it possible for an old person to be born? Second, to enter into the womb of a mother, a woman again at my age, that's kind of impossible, isn't it?

And so the error of Nicodemus was that he was locked into terms of flesh and not spirit. And so Jesus clarified this concept. This time he included the entire process. He said, "Verily, verily, I say unto you, uh, except a man be born of the water and the spirit." In Jesus baptized, there was both present, the water and the spirit.

In every baptism in Jesus' name, let me say, everyone that counts, there is the presence of water and there's a presence of spirit. Except you be be born of water and spirit, you can't enter. First of all, you can't perceive it. And secondly, you there's no way that you can enter into the kingdom of God.

And then he made a second statement to emphasize and clarify that. He said, "That which is born of flesh is flesh, and that which is born of spirit is spirit. Marvel not that I said unto thee, you must be born again." Born again, just like the natural birth is a process of transformation. I've heard this from religious leaders.

There's nothing to the water. They minimize the aspect of baptism and they'll tell you it's just water. There is nothing to it. It's only water.

There's no virtue in I I've stopped using this kind of terminology, okay? There's no virtue in the It's just water. It's just H2O. That's all it is.

And so it doesn't matter whether you're baptized or you're not baptized or how you're baptized or how you're not baptized. And so, excuse me for a moment while I disagree with scripture on my side. Okay? There are some glaring exceptions to it's only water.

I can imagine that it's only water in Noah's day. It's only water. Few days later, they're starting to get concerned because they realize it's not just water. Something's happening here.

It's only water. As the rain began to fall, but when that water was used for the purpose of God, it became judgment on the ungodly and it became salvation to Noah and his family. May I tell you that its only water becomes a line of demarcation between the between the old life and the new life. When you're baptized in Jesus' name, it becomes judgment on your sins and the beginning of a new life in Jesus Christ.

I'm sure that it's only water could be heard by the Israelites and the Egyptians when they came to the shores of the Red Sea. It's only water. It's only water until the wind began to blow. Until the supernatural moved upon its only water and the waters began to part and provided a corridor from captivity.

It provided a pathway and the water. It's only water, Pastor Brad. But now it's standing up like concrete walls on either side while the children of Israel march across on dry ground. It's only water, say the Egyptians as they walk in pursuing the Israelites, and suddenly it come true.

It's only water closed in on them and became a judgment to the enemies of the people of God. It's only water, said the lepers, non right are not Abana and Farpar waters, too. They're rivers that are much cleaner than the Jordan River. I can just dip in one of those and my leprosy be gone.

But the prophet said, Elder Gwyn preached a message about this. He called it seven ducks in a muddy puddle. Dip seven times in the Jordan River. It's only water.

What difference does it make where or how I'm baptized in the water? I'll tell you why. It's only water until the spirit of God moves on it and endows it with the power to cleanse your leprosy. Leprosy was a type of sin.

Leprosy was a type of debilitating sin. And when non went down and was cleansed from his leprosy, it's the same as us going down and being cleansed from our sins. You can't do it where you want and you can't do it how you want. You got to do it the way that God says to do it or it ain't going to work.

As they say, you'll go down dry and you'll just come up wet. It became a river of healing and cleansing not found anywhere else. It's only water, say the servants at the feast of Kaa. What are we doing here?

Taking water to the governor of the feast. It's only water until Jesus, brother Brad, makes the pronouncement and suddenly the entire molecular structure of that water was changed into something that was good and sweet. Hallelujah. Hallelujah.

It's only water until Jesus enjoins himself to the water. Why are we doing this? Why are we bearing just water to the guest? And suddenly it's only water in an earthn vessel until you obey the word exactly as Jesus said.

And when you obey that word, there is something transformative that takes place in the water internally. And the water bears witness to this miracle of transformation. And what was simply H2O now is a complex mixture of ethanol and sugar and organic acids and phenolic compounds and minerals. It becomes something sweet when they bear it to the governor of the feast.

And he said, "This is the best that I've ever had." Let me tell you something. When you go down in the water, it bears witness to the fact it don't get any better than this. The best thing that ever happened to us was when we went down in the waters of baptism. He took lives that were bitter.

He took lives that were common. He took lives that were unclean and transformed them in the name of Jesus into something sweet and something good. Sorry, I've leapt into my preaching voice. This is the witness of the water.

You with me? It's only water could be heard 99.9% of the time by those sitting around the pool of Bethesda. It's only water. But then Jesus showed up.

Jesus showed up. Except for those times when the desperate one makes it into the water when it's troubled, when it's agitated, when the water was being moved upon by a supernatural force. It became a witness to the miraculous. It's only water until baptism is administered in the name of Jesus.

I got to look at my watch. Three minutes. Listen, it's only water. Jesus name is not a magical incantation.

It's not a part of a ritualistic statement. No. Because he said, "If I can get two or three of you together in my name, I'm going to join you there. I'll be in the midst." When you speak the name of Jesus, there is a joining.

There is a communion. You speak the name of Jesus, he shows up. He shows up. It's only water until Jesus shows up.

You go in in your baptismal robe, but Pastor Brad, when you speak the name of Jesus, the one that you're talking about shows up, uh, and the water attests to the fact my sins are gone. I've been cleansed by the power of Jesus' name. Jesus showed up in my life. In repentance, a sinner finally comes to an agreement with God.

Homageo is the Greek term. It means to speak the same thing. I stand at an altar and I agree with God and I say, "I am what you said I am. I'm a sinner.

I'm rank and I need salvation. Peter says this in chapter 3 20 and 21. He's talking about baptism which sometime were disobedient when once the longsuffering of God waited in the days of Noah while the ark was preparing wherein few that is eight souls were save everybody say saved by water. Woo.

You can't get around it because he goes on and says, "The like figure where into baptism doth also now save us. It saves us." Not the putting away of the filth of flesh. He said, "You're not just washing the dirt off your body when you get in waters of baptism." This is the answer. The word there is epirotow.

It means a further appeal. An appeal. another forensic judicial term, an appeal on the basis of your conscience that when you repented, it now is activated. Your conscience is activated and on the basis of that conscience, you now make a further appeal in waters of baptism for the forgiveness of sins.

Listen, don't stop with repentance. That just makes you you just unloaded and confessed. Your sins aren't gone. Sorry.

Your sins are forgiven, washed away in waters of baptism. There's a witness of the water. Let's stand together. So, in waters of baptism, that's where your debt and your penalty.

I don't know if you've ever seen this. I I I mess with guitars somewhat. refinish some. And I I watched this process that they have of dipping.

They dip guitar bodies. They'll put the paint on the surface of the water and then they and they do this with like motorcycle helmets and stuff. They they put graphics on top of the water and they dip the helmet and when it comes up it's it's completely covered with the graphic. That's Jesus in there.

And when you go down, you don't come up as you. When I appear before God today, when I stand before the throne today, I'm not coming as Dennis Carton. I'm coming in Jesus Christ. I have put off the old man and I've put on the new in waters of baptism.

I've been dipped and now I put on Jesus Christ. Let's just thank him together. Hallelujah. Hallelujah.

Thank you, Lord, for the witness of the water. Baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of sins. God bless you. Thank you for your faithfulness, your attentiveness.

You can take a little break here.