We've lost the meaning of baptism — The Mystery of Water, Fire and the Gospel

So I would like to do a few things today. We're going to talk about the gospel first, quickly, and then we're going to talk about baptism, and then we're going to have baptisms. So wherever you're at right now in your spiritual walk, I want you to keep the door open for the Holy Spirit to draw you and move you however he wishes this day, because this is his day. Amen. So I'm going to start by just reading a few scriptures regarding the Gospel. I think it is so imperative that we fully grasp what the Gospel is before we speak about what baptism is, because it's all one picture. Titus 3:3. I'm going to read a few scriptures beginning here. Titus 3:3. For we ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, led astray, slaves to various passions and pleasures, passing our days in malice and envy, hated by others and hating one another. We can think of our past lives and think of how that was. Maybe that's even where you're at right now. You're struggling. But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, he saved us not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out on us richly through, through Yeshua, the Messiah, our Savior, so that, being justified by his grace, we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life. And so here we see in TARDIS being spelled out clearly for us all, that we are saved by Him. We do not save ourselves. Our works of righteousness cannot save us. It is impossible to save us. Do you understand that? You cannot depend on how much you keep the Sabbath. You cannot depend on how much you avoid saying a bad word today to be the thing that saves you. Because here's the thing you say to me. Pd, I disagree with you. Okay, cool. Let's go on this. Let's just journey with this for a minute. Pd, I think that my works of the law of the Torah is what's going to give me the righteousness unto salvation. Let's try. Have you murdered in your heart? Have you stolen? Have you gossiped? Have you looked at a woman with lust? Have you done any? Have you broken any of the Ten Commandments? And have you broken any of the standards of righteousness that Christ has brought us? Which is even greater, which are the things pertaining to the heart? Have you broken any of these things in your life? I would say that in this last week we all hear stand guilty in one way or another, and that in of itself has already meant that you are disqualified from being saved by your own works. You could be saved by your own works if you were perfect. If you were truly perfect, as the Lord is perfect, then you can come before the Lord justified by yourself, and say, lord, I have never done anything evil, never in my life. And the Lord will say, well, welcome to my kingdom. But the truth is, the one who says I have no sin is a liar, and the truth is not in him. The one who says I have no lawlessness is a liar, and the truth is not in him. There is only one who was without sin, and that is Yeshua. That is why he was crucified on the tree, for our sake, so that by his riches in grace and mercy upon us, we can look upon him who was pierced for our transgressions, put our faith in that sacrifice. And because we deserved that punishment, we deserved the death and separation from God. But he comes in our place and becomes the propitiation for our sins. This is what the scriptures spell out clearly, that we are justified by his grace. But then we read this other, and this is where things get confusing for some of us. I understand. We read things like the book of James. We read where James talks about faith without works being dead. Right? Absolutely. You must have works that change. If you truly believe in the one. We spoke about this last night, that if you truly have this faith that we are speaking of, you believe that his tabernacle is here. That means that this must be real. That means he is real. And I encounter him as the real God who changes my nature by his Spirit, who writes his law in my heart, takes out the heart of stone, gives me a heart of flesh. And so by nature, then my nature changes. By nature of encountering him, my fallen nature changes from being fallen to being resurrected. Not just resurrected in the last day, but resurrected this day in spirit, as I am transformed from the inward outward. Okay, this is where James speaks of. He says, look, you can't say, oh, I have faith. I have faith. And there are many in the world who does this. They say, I. I have faith in Jesus. I love Jesus. And then they continue in their unrighteous rebellion and wickedness against God. And James is saying, don't be deceived. If you truly have true faith, your works will change. Amen. Okay, I'm going to read another 1. Ephesians 2:8. For by grace you've been saved through faith. And this not your own doing. And this not your own doing. Say it. All right. I want you to get this. Not your own doing. It is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For if it is my works, I could say, well, guys, I'm gonna see you in heaven because I didn't look at a woman of lust this week. Yeah, right. I'm gonna see you in heaven because I didn't lie this week. Yeah, right. We're gonna talk about the rich young ruler in a minute here. Because he was one who came before the Messiah and had to. The boldness. I don't know if I want to call it baldness. The guts to say, I've kept all the commandments. We'll speak about that in a second. He says then Next in Ephesians 2:10, finishing this off. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ, Yeshua, for good works, which God. Not me, not you, which God prepared beforehand so that we should walk in them. So God prepares the good works for us. He empowers us. He changes us. So that means if I'm struggling with sin, I'm struggling with jealousy, lying, whatever it is, that means that God is the one who has to change me. I have to depend on him, put faith in Him. And as long as I struggle myself apart from his glory and righteousness and power working in me, and I'm like, God, I need to stop doing this. I'm going to stop doing this. Just give me one more sec. I'm going to stop doing this. This is how we work sometimes. And then we just find ourselves in deeper and deeper slavery because we're trying to do it apart from him, apart from the workmanship which he has prepared for us, that he does in us and through us. Okay, let's talk about that rich young ruler. And I'm going to read it for us, because we need to read the story to understand it. Mark 1017. You can turn there if you'd like. Mark 1017. I'm sorry, I'm going quite quickly because we have quite a few things to go through here today. But thank you for bearing with me. All right. Mark 10:17. And as he was setting out on his journey, a man ran up and knelt before him and asked him, good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life? What must I do? And Yeshua said to him, why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone. Okay. He's first calling out something in this rich man's mentality that you are calling me good. So are you calling me God? Because God alone is good. Man is not good. It was good in the beginning. God created man and woman, and then man fell and it was no longer good. You are not good in of yourself. This is what he's saying. You know the commandments. He's answering, what shall you do? Well, this is what you'll do. You want to be saved. You know the commandments. Do not murder, do not commit adultery, do not steal, do not bear false witness, do not defraud. Honor your father and your mother. And the rich man said to him, teacher, I have done all of these things from my youth. I have been perfect. And he loved him. And he said to him, you lack one thing. Go sell all that you have give to the poor and you will have treasure in heaven. And come follow me. See, even when we think, I've got this, I've got that, I've got this, I've got that, I'm sorted. Like, obviously my works are righteous and holy and good. God's going to tell me, you did such a good job. Welcome of your. Of your own works. Welcome. Well, he says, look, there's something that you have not seen, and I want to submit to you with each and every one of us. There's something we have not seen. There's something that we've done, something we've walked in a behavior that God is still working on us with as I speak today. I've got stuff.

You.

You've got stuff. And you can say, well, you don't know what you don't know. And this rich man didn't know what he didn't know. And Yeshua said, this is what you need to see. But then, of course, this was difficult for him to give up. For him, it was riches. Disheartened by the saying, he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions. And Yeshua looked around and said to his disciples, how difficult it will be for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God. And the disciples were amazed at his words. But Yeshua said to them again, listen to what he says, children. How difficult it is to enter the Kingdom of God. It's easier for a camel to go to the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God. And they were exceedingly astonished and said, then who can be saved? This rich man had all the commandments down. Now you're asking him to do something the Torah did not prescribe. The Torah never said, sell all you have and give to the poor. That's what Yeshua prescribed, because he comes with an even greater measure of righteousness that he reveals. And so the disciples say, well, then, who can be saved by our. If this rich man who's been probably, it seems like he's by his own word at least, been more righteous than all of us, who then can be saved by what we should be doing? And Yeshua said, with man it is impossible, but not with God. For all things are possible with God. With you, it is not possible to be saved. With me, it is not possible to be saved. With God, it is possible to be saved. And Yeshua was about to reveal that path of salvation to all of humanity when he was soon to get on a cross and die, bleed and be executed and resurrect from the dead. That's how you will be saved. And that's the only way, the only way that you will be saved. Are you with me? So Yeshua answered him rightly, when you ask me what must I do, I'll say, keep all the Commandments and you'll be well. But then you should rightly ask next for pd, I can't keep all the commandments without fault. I can't be perfect. Who then can be saved? And then I'll tell you, with you, it's not possible, but with God it is. Believe in the Resurrected One and you will be resurrected. So there's this. There's this saying we read about in the scriptures under the law, right? I want to read Romans 6:14, for sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under the law but under grace. What then are we to sin because we are not under the law, but under grace? By no means. Okay, so this is the last word I'm going to say on this. We see that Paul is here speaking in Romans, and he's talking about sin, right? He's saying, for sin, that's lawlessness. Lawlessness will have no more dominion over you since you're not under the law, but under grace. What does that mean, to be under the law? So if I drive a car down the street and there's a stop street, and I stop at the stop street, I'm in obedience to the law, right? But if I drive through that stop street, a cop pulls me over, drags me before the courts and says, look, he ran a red light. He ran over the stop street. The judge puts the hammer down and says, you need to be sentenced to a fine. I am held under the law of the land. The consequences of breaking that law of the stop street is now bearing down on my soul. I have to pay for that. That's what it means to be held under the law. We all deserve to be held under the law of God. We all deserve the punishment that our sin ought to bring upon our souls that ends in death. But because Christ has come to die for us, we are no longer under the consequences of the law. We're no longer under the law. For he beared the consequences of the law on his body. He was crucified for us so that we may live in righteousness and freedom and be saved. As Paul then said, are we to sin then because we're not under the law, but under grace? By no means, because I have now seen someone come and said, hey, you deserve this fine because you ran over the stop street. I am paying with this with my own life, is what God is saying, so that you do not have to go to jail. And so now next time you see a stop street, are you going to run over that stop treat? Well, he paid for my fine last time. So now you're going to say, the overwhelming grace of my God has captured my heart. I will not run over this top street. So therefore, by no means, I will not sin. Okay? Is the gospel difficult to understand? It should be clear by now. For we are no longer children in the spirit, right? We're no longer children in our understanding. So let us put away all ideas of trusting on our own flesh to justify us before God. We will walk in the righteousness of God, we will be saved by God, and we will see his spirit change us. But we will not trust in ourselves, for the one who trusts himself will have no salvation. So I'm going to talk about baptism now. Baptism is one of the most misunderstood things that we see in the body of Christ today because we have. We have lowered it to be a symbol. We have lowered it to be a picture of entering a church. And look, it can be a place of, wow. We all get together, we are excited because someone is coming to faith, and this is a signal of that. But the Bible is. Doesn't really say that's what baptism is, even though that's beautiful and it is part of the ceremony, if you will. There's something deeper that we miss about baptism, which the scriptures tell us that baptism is actually a burial. It's a death. It's specifically the burial of the old man to be resurrected with Christ. It's not just a symbolic thing that we do. See, I think we've been so scared of attaching, making it about, you know, the whole, you know, the church has been very scared of. We want to say we're saved by faith. And that's all. You just believe. You say, jesus, I love you, and that's what saves me. That's it. Don't add anything else to that, right? And I understand where that desire comes from. But at the same time, what we've done at times is we've, we've diluted some of the power of God that is manifest in some of the godly things he's given us, such as baptism. Then we lower baptism to just a little symbol. We do, we come together, drink coffee and have. But there's something more here. Look at what, what happens with the eunuch, with Philip, right? The eunuch hears the gospel from Philip on the way, and immediately he says, well, what prevents me now from getting baptized? See, there's this urgency in the heart of the eunuch to get baptized. It's not like, you know, Philip. Should Philip not have told him, well, if you go through this three month church program, you know, we can see if you're all right for baptism and then, you know, we'll get you into the pool. Then at the next baptism service, like, if doesn't do that, he's like, well, let's find some water right here. Okay, good, let's baptize. Because he understands himself, the urgency of baptism. So if there's urgency, that means that there's something more than just a symbolic picture for everyone to see. By the way, there was no one but Philip to witness it in that day. So he didn't even wait for his family. The eunuch was like, well, wait for my whole family to come so everyone can see now. And that's fine, that's beautiful. But do you see that that's not the objective here Biblically, there's something deeper going on. Look at Luke 12:50. Yeshua says, Great is my distress to give this baptism that I have to baptize with. Speaking of the baptism that he brought. Acts 22:16, it's written, and now why do you wait? Rise and be baptized and wash away your sins, calling on his name. Why do you wait? And then, of course, Yeshua speaking to his disciples in Matthew 28, go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I've commanded you. And behold, I'm with you always to the end of the age. Yeshua brings us into this thing called the Great Commission. For he sees baptism as an essential part of entering discipleship with him as our Messiah, right? So I want you to recognize that baptism is something that you do of your own faith. It's not about me. It's not about the guy who baptized you. It's about Judas recognizing who your Messiah is, recognizing the need that you have to repent of your sins and the need for you to be resurrected with Christ. See, people often talk about the thief on the cross. The thief on the cross didn't need to be baptized. Petey, it's not that important. Don't you see? Yeshua told the thief on the cross that, well, you will. You will be with me in the kingdom. I tell you today, right? But he didn't have any water. He was on the cross being crucified. I want to submit to you that the thief on the cross had the most real baptism that one can have. Because he was hanging on the cross alongside Yeshua himself. He was pierced with Yeshua himself, and there he gave his life to Yeshua right there. And he was buried as Yeshua was buried later. And he would be resurrected as Yeshua was resurrected later. See, the thief partook in the burial, the death, and then the resurrection with Christ, as Christ said, you will. You will be in the kingdom. And so this is what we see. Paul says, Romans 6:4. We were buried therefore with him by baptism into his death, in order that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. So baptism is the way that we can become as the thief on the cross. We all have been thieves. We have been adulterers, we've been liars. We have had covetous hearts. Whatever we've had, we have been. We have deserved the death. But we can now come and participate in the death, burial and resurrection of Christ so that we can be united with him in new life. That is what baptism is. But that means that we must have what the thief had. A repentant heart. A heart of. Think of me. Think of me, O Messiah, when you enter the kingdom. He professed his faith. He professed his regret at his life and his past sins. Acts 2:38. Peter said to them as speaking of baptism, repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Yeshua, for the forgiveness of your sins and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. Right? So we see that here Peter is speaking and saying, repentance and be baptized. For he does not see that it is fitting to divorce repentance from baptism. He sees these things as coming together. In fact, I would say that there is no baptism without repentance. There is a nice party around the pool. There is a bath in water for the flesh, but without inward repentance, there is not a bath of the inward part. There is not a cleansing for the inward. If there is not a repentance that cries out to God, for that is what baptism is all about. And then he says, of course you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. So I'm going to speak about baptism of the Holy Spirit. Yeshua spoke. John the Baptist spoke about this. Matthew 3:11, I baptize you with water for repentance. But he who is coming after me is minor than I, whose sandals are not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire. Speaking of Yeshua, so here's the big question. What is the difference between being baptized in water and being baptized in the Holy Spirit? Some say that it's all the same thing and that we all receive the baptism of the Holy Spirit. The moment we believe in Jesus, we say, jesus, come into our heart. We get baptized in the Holy Spirit. That's what many believe. Let's look at some few biblical examples. We're going to see how it happened in the early church. We see in Acts 10:44. You can turn with me if you'd like. Acts 10:44, while Peter was still saying these things, he's speaking now to Cornelius household. Okay. While Peter was saying these things, talking to them about Christ, the Holy Spirit fell on all who heard the word. And the believers from among the circumcised who had come with Peter, who were amazed because the gift of the Holy Spirit was poured out even on the Gentiles, for they were hearing them speaking in tongues and extolling God. And then Peter declared, can anyone withhold water for baptizing these people who have received the Holy Spirit, just as we have? And he commanded them to be baptized in the name of the Lord. Yeshua. Then they asked him to remain for some days. So we see something really interesting happening in the story, right? The Holy Spirit just spontaneously falls upon the household. They start speaking in tongues, which was a sign of the Holy Spirit coming upon them. The believers there are amazed, wow, look at what's happening. And then Peter Offers water baptism. Do you see in this story that they received baptism of the Holy Spirit prior to being baptized in water, that these. This was not the same event in the house of Cornelius. Okay, I'm going to look at one more example just to show you that it can go many different ways. And so I'm going to read to you from Acts 8:14, just three or four verses. We see. Now this is the story where Samaria had heard the Gospel with Philip proclaiming it, healing people, casting out demons. Okay, the way is prepared. And now people are being baptized. It says in Acts 8:14, when the apostles at Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received the word of God, they sent to them Peter and John, who came down and prayed for them that they may receive the Holy Spirit, for he had not yet fallen on any of them, but they had only been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. Then they laid their hands on them and they received the Holy Spirit. So Philip was already baptizing people in the name of the Lord Yeshua, in water. Right? So these people are water baptized. And so now Philip and John comes down and they come and offer the baptism of the Holy Spirit. But I thought that it's all supposed to happen at the same time. Why were they not baptized in the Holy Spirit when they entered the water? Do you see that it did not happen yet. And so Philip and John, excuse me, Peter and John comes down and they. It says that they lay their hands on these people. They're not putting them in water again or anything, they're just laying hands on them that they may be baptized in the Holy Spirit. Okay, I'm going to go one more example just to drive this home for you all. Acts 19:1. I'm reading three verses here. And it happened that while Apollos was at Corinth, Paul passed through the inland country and came to Ephesus. And there he found some disciples. And he said to them, did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed? Well, why do you ask this question, Paul? Because the moment you believe in the Lord Jesus, you immediately do that. I mean, you get the Holy Spirit. Is that not the case? It seems not. That's why Paul is asking, did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed? And they say, no, no, we've not even heard that there is a Holy Spirit. They say, and he said, into what then were you baptized? They said, into John's baptism. Now look at what happens next. Okay, John's baptism. I recognize there's a difference between John's baptism and the baptism to water into Yeshua. So they were baptized to John's baptism. They had not heard of the rest yet. But look at what Paul does next. Paul said in verse 4, Acts 19:4, John baptized with baptism of repentance, telling the people to believe in the one who was to come after him, that is Jesus. And so now it says then on hearing this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Yeshua. And when Paul had laid his hands on them, the Holy Spirit came on them. They began speaking in tongues and prophesying. So here now we see an example where they believed in the Lord Yeshua, but they did not have baptism yet. And so Paul comes, baptizes them in water into the name of the Lord Yeshua, and he then separately lays hands on them. I'm not saying separately as in not the same time. I'm just saying as a distinct understanding that there is something to be given here that is not just a water baptism. He lays hands on them and they are baptized in the Holy Spirit. And so what all I am trying to say in these examples is that there are many ways that the Lord works that the Lord can do. You can be baptized in water and not be baptized in the Holy Spirit, as in the example we read. You can be baptized in the Holy Spirit as Cornelius household was, and not be baptized in water yet as that household then received later. Or you could have believed in the Lord, Yeshua, but not have been baptized in water or in the Holy Spirit. And then you do get baptized in water and in the Holy Spirit. What we have to recognize is just because you said a prayer doesn't mean you're baptized not in water nor in the Holy Spirit. And these are three different things to believe, to be baptized in water and to be baptized in the Holy Spirit. Three distinct things as we've seen in these Scriptures. And the disciples and the apostles, they paid attention to make sure that those who did not have these things, whichever one was missing, had had that ministered unto them so that they can walk in the fullness of what Christ has brought. So what's the difference between it? Why do we need all of these things? See, Yeshua said, I have come to cast a fire upon the earth and wood that it was already kindled, I hope for it to be already kindled. He says, I have a baptism to be baptized with, and how great is my distress for it to be accomplished. So we know that our God is a consuming fire. Hebrews 12. We also know that the him who is joined to the Lord becomes one spirit. With him. 1 Corinthians 6 Now how do you become joined with the all consuming fire? You will die right like we mere man could not be joined with that all consuming fire. Besides, for if a way was made for that, Yeshua purifies us of our sins as we believe in him, and then we can be joined with the Lord. And then as it says in Psalm 104, he sends his messengers, and his messengers are a flaming fire. So suddenly we become set on fire with the Lord's fire, the all consuming fire that comes and sits up camp inside of us as his tabernacle. And we become the ministers of flaming fire. And so we see that the water baptism is for the remission of sins. This is what the cross accomplished. Buried with Christ, resurrected with Christ, our sins are dealt with. But the baptism in the Holy Spirit is to empower us with the power of God, the fire of God, so that we can minister as Yeshua did upon the earth in love and in power. And so we see. I'm going to give you a few markers of what Holy Spirit baptism does in our life. We see in Acts 4:31, when they prayed, the place in which they were gathered was shaken and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit. And, and I continue to speak the word of God with boldness. Boldness. This is what the Holy Spirit does. He comes and he brings boldness into your heart so that you standing before people who may not believe the way you do, that's hard. And the Holy Spirit has put something in your mouth and it's hard to speak truth in the midst of a world that hates it. But you need boldness. And so this is what the Holy Spirit comes and gives you. Boldness. Another thing we see the Holy Spirit's baptism brought is dreams and visions. Acts 2 When Peter gets up before everyone explaining what had just happened, quoting the prophet Joel, and he says, in the last days will be that God declares, I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh, your sons and your daughters that will have dreams and visions. There will be prophecy, old men alike, everyone. So we see that when we are baptized in the Spirit, like Rachel had, she started having dreams, she started having visions, started having the Holy Spirit speak to her in deeper and deeper ways. She became more changed. This is what God does when he gives us his Holy Spirit in a, in a baptism. We see spiritual gifts start being exercised in our life. In other words, we see the many, many as many gifts, gifts of miracles, gift of healing, speaking in tongues, gift of interpretation of tongues, gifts of Discernment. Words of knowledge, words of prophecy. Right? All of these the Lord gives us. Why? So that we can continue to spread that gospel upon the earth. So that that which has saved us can save those around us. Even, you know, there's. There's people who. Who try and keep the law of God, but they struggle to love. Have you ever met people like that? They're like I have. They have the law of God before them, and they're students of the law of God. But the fruits of the Spirit are absent. And so the Holy Spirit is the only One who can truly change us so that we are not simply students of His Word, but doers of His Word. Doers of His Word to the level of Yeshua. You see, sometimes we look at the Ten Commandments, and that's good. But that is kindergarten. Do we recognize that? Do we recognize the Ten Commandments are the mirror? When Israel were babies, as they were at the base of Mount Sinai, they were children of slavery. They just came out. That's what God gives them there. But that's just kindergarten. That's what Paul even says, the law. As a schoolmaster, it's what you like, what you learned when you were in grade 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and so on in school. And so, yes, today those things do help you. It really helps me to know what one plus one is. The answer is to that. But it's one plus one. There are greater things now that I'm an adult, that I have to learn and wrestle with and grow in. And so it is with the law of God. So let us not just stare at the law of God and say, well, yes, I'm doing these. Let's stare also at the life of Christ. The life of Christ, who walked out the law of God absolutely without spot and blemish, but who told a rich young ruler to sell everything and give to the poor. We also see that then the Holy Spirit comes as he writes that law in our heart, that he convicts us to keep the law. In the spirit of the law, we start recognizing that there is a law, a spirit of the Law, which. That which the Pharisees in the first century so struggled to see as they accused this son of healing someone on the Sabbath. How dare you work in such a way? How dare you tell a man to pick up his mat and walk further than 10 meters on the Sabbath? But see, we with the Spirit who have the Spirit, we recognize the greater spirit of the Lord, that God has his intention with the Law to bring life. So let us, on the Sabbath, go and heal the sick. Let us go tell a man to pick up his mat and walk. Let us go. And even if it means walking through a grain field to get there, even if it means picking some grain. And that's. That's. That's kind of, you know, it's a little. That's going to work here. But I'm hungry and we're on a mission trip. We. We have ministry work ahead of us. But there are souls at the end of this grain field we need to reach. That is important. I am not going to let this Sabbath work against the gospel. I'm going to let it prosper with the Gospel in me. That's what the Lord intended. The Sabbath is to bring life. So let those who receive the Sabbath bring life to this world. And so Mark 16:16. I end, I conclude with this. Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved. Whatever does not believe will be condemned. And these signs will accompany those who believe in My name. They will cast out demons that will speak in new tongues. They will pick up serpents with their hands. If they drink deadly poison, it will not hurt them. They will lay their hands on the sick and they will recover. So the Holy Spirit, in whatever situation you will face, whether you are poisoned, whether you are attacked by serpents, whether you are faced with someone who is sick, whatever the trial is, whatever the situation is, what Mark is only telling us simply is that the Holy Spirit will move in unexpected ways and unexpected moments and places, and he will empower you to bring the Gospel forth in those moments and administer deliverance and freedom. But the best way to be equipped to do that is to not only believe, is to not only be baptized in water, is to be baptized, to believe, to be baptized in water, and to be baptized in the Holy Spirit. This is the fullness of life that Christ died for us to have. For when he was pierced in his side, blood and water came out. Blood for the remission of our sins, and water pointing to the Holy Spirit, whom we were to receive that living water. So this day we have water available here. We have a accommodation to baptize in this place, in this venue. This is a moment that the Lord has made available to you. Sitting here. If you are sitting here and you say, pd, I have been baptized before, but I did not understand what you are telling me. I did not understand that I needed to repent. Then I am going to ask you to become baptized today. True baptism accompanies repentance. True baptism, as has always been preached in the Scriptures, accompanied repentance and so I ask of you to come to the Lord this day and repent of your sins. Turn from that which the Holy Spirit has convicted your heart of and make a commitment to live a new life. But not because your works are going to accomplish that, but because you recognize that God's works is going to accomplish it, that his work on the cross is going to do it in you. And what you must do is surrender, humble yourself. Even the pride to think that you can save yourself. That pride must be repented of. That pride that says, I will stop watching pornography. I will stop being jealous. Yes, but not you. The Lord in you empowers you so that you can say, I have stopped. I have stopped. Do you hear what I'm saying? The nuance in what I'm saying? Let me say that again if you didn't get what I'm saying. We are called to repent of sin, to turn from sin. But you must recognize that you have no hope in of yourself, to turn from sin of your own accord and your own power. You cannot be free. You can only be free if the Holy Spirit does it in you. That means that you come before God and say, God, I repent where I myself, of my own ability and my own trust and my own flesh, my own. I'm gonna do these things. Yes, we do things. We put. We remove ourselves from sin. We remove ourselves from the temptations. We put things in place. We've put ourselves before accountability. There are things that we must do, absolutely. But I recognize that the power to resist sin is only going to come from the Lord. He's the only source of that. Do you now see the nuance? It's awfully quiet in this room. Is there anyone who has questions, who disagrees, who wants to know more and who. I really want everyone to be on the same page, understanding what I'm saying. Please let me know questions about what I just said, questions about baptism, questions about the Gospel, anything, Please. I have a question.

Go through the word baptism versus Mikba.

Can you? Absolutely. So we had mikveh and the Torah, right? Which was a washing. Washing for appearing before the temple, coming near the temple, washings for the priests and people alike. That's Mikveh, right? Then you have John the Baptist come. He prepares the way for Yeshua. He starts with this baptism of repentance and water which many people partook in in the first century. But that was to prepare the way for Yeshua, who brought a baptism, a baptism in water of repentance into Yeshua and a baptism into the Holy Spirit. Okay, so mikveh is different from baptism into Yeshua. Okay, it's different. Mikveh is what we did is what was done in the Torah according to the Levitical law. And that's good and holy for what it is. But a mikveh is different from being baptized into repentance, into the life of Christ. Yeshua was buried. He was resurrected, and that's what baptism into Christ is, for us to be buried and resurrected. Now, there are parallels with mikveh, and that absolutely. Mikveh is a foreshadowing of it. It points to it, just like John the Baptist points to Yeshua. But Yeshua is the reality, okay?

If a person truly repents and is baptized, and then because of either another person or circumstances in a picture, and then along the way, the person starts backsliding.

Okay?

I have been taught from a church that I was in for years that backsliding is still covered as long as it's not like a daily lifestyle that. Like a daily habit, like rebellion. Okay, so then let's say the person or circumstances are removed at some point in time, and that person who had repented earlier and was baptized, then, you know, makes all of it right, gets right with God and. And repents again and purges and gets rid of things and like that. Does that person need to be baptized again or is it seen as backsliding?

Good, good. Thank you so much for that question. Let me qualify a few things. If we're talking about backsliding as defined by the person rebelled against God, walked away from God, not someone who's struggling with wrestling with a sin, someone who is in rebellion against God. Now, I would ask that person, right? Did you truly repent before the Lord? Because remember what it means. Repent. It means, I am giving my life to you. This is it, Lord. Okay, okay. So in that case, in the case of struggling with particular sin but not walking away from God, not rebelling, but struggling, all of us struggle with the Lord. We wrestle. We wrestle our flesh. So there. And there are degrees of that. But yeah, if someone. If we are. If we got baptized and we're wrestling, we will wrestle with certain sins still. So, no, that doesn't mean you should get baptized again. If your baptism was in repentance the first time, you don't need to get baptized. No, I would say no. Right? But if you were in rebellion against the Lord, as we all once were, then we get baptized into repentance and repent There isn't really a biblical thing that's. This is not biblical, right? This lifestyle of rebelling against God with God rebelling against. That's not. We can struggle with sin while being in covenant and communion with God, but the Lord is not allowing this rebellion and reunification. Rebel, that is. There's. You've always been rebellion. In that case, you have to come to the Lord and truly come to the Lord. That's what the Lord calls us in baptism. Not talking about struggling with sin, but rebellion is different from struggling with sin. Okay.

And that also brings up the question about. Most of the baptistries and churches are stag water where others use living water. Does it make a difference or not?

Look, I would always prefer. I would prefer a river, sure. But absolutely. If I have a bathtub in my house and there's someone who. What prevents me from being baptized this day, I will use my bathtub. If I'm in a prison and I have nothing but a few drops of water and that's all I have, then I will do that. Right? Because God isn't. Guys, I think, you know, sometimes we. We limit the Lord. Yes, that's the word. It's the Lord. He sees our circumstances. He sees what we have and he works with what we have. And he is not. His hand is not short to work with what we have. I'll tell you this story, okay? Just. Just a short story. I was in South Africa. We were at. Ministering at a church. We were in the inner city. There was not a river anywhere near. We were in a poor community. There was nothing but a little kiddies pool that I brought an inflatable because they had nothing else. And we carried buckets of waters up five stories. With buckets like that filling up that kiddies pool, we couldn't get it filled all the way because we were an hour in a few men doing this. We had it filled like probably half, three quarters. I don't know. My point is we could get people just under that water line. Okay? But we did the best we could. I will say this before you all. That is the most powerful baptism that I have seen in my entire Life. There were 21 people in the 21ish. I didn't count, but I surrounded 21ish people who when they were into. They were placed in the water. They came out of the water and started manifesting demons one after another. And we casted out the demons out of them at that little kiddies pool. Okay? So for some reason, even as the people started walking up to the pool, they started manifesting this demon inside of them. So let me say this. If we are saying to ourselves, well, this kitty's pool is not good enough. Well, for some reason, the demons were terrified of the water, for they know that this person is about to die and they can't come up out of the water with and staying with them. The demon must come out. Because of the faith of those who are assembled. I actually think there are greater miracles that sometimes happens when things are not ideal. Okay, any last question? Yes, ma'.

Am. The baptism of the Holy Spirit, sometimes.

That can be a difficult subject for people to grasp. Yeah. Like if you did a quick summary, like a punchline, what would that be? Okay, so we discussed a bit of what it. What. What it changes within us. But when you're saying, what is it? Are you speaking of how it's received or what, what aspect?

Yeah, well, someone say, well, you need.

To speak in tongues of, you know.

Kind of like all the details that they try to connect with.

Okay, so as I mentioned, a few things, right. We talked about boldness and we talked about spiritual gifts, amongst other things. Now, we see in the scriptures that there are signs that accompany the baptism of the Holy Spirit. Oftentimes we see speaking in tongues come up. We also see prophecy comes up. We see speaking the words of God come up. There are these external signs that oftentimes accompanied in the scriptures. It is not written every single time someone's baptized in the Holy Spirit that there was such a sign, but it is written at times that it happened as well. So I believe that when we are dealing with the absence of the Holy Spirit, that we do see an external sign, but that sign's timing may not always occur in that very moment. I can tell you that in my personal life, that sign came not the very day that I was baptized in the Holy Spirit, but it came in that week thereafter. Right. I started seeing spiritual gifts start manifesting in my life in a greater way. I personally did speak in tongues, but not all will. Not all will prophesy. Not all will operate in the gift of healing. There's a lot that can be said on all of those things. We don't really have the time for that in this session, but the Holy Spirit does is this one Spirit who does all these things through us. But we will have a gift. We will have an area of expertise in the kingdom, an area that the Lord empowers us in and uses us in often. And the Holy Spirit's baptism absolutely empowers that. And that, yes, I would say that is a sign of baptism of the Holy Spirit. If you are receiving prophecy, if you're receiving words from the Lord, if you've got a discernment of spirits and so on, whatever that is. Yes, repentance, not just the water, but the baptism of the Holy Spirit, even just to even have you to enter or see the people. So, look, we are saved by faith in Christ. End. Okay? We're saved by faith in him. But then if that faith is genuine, it will result in certain things happening in our life, right? True faith means that I read about, you know, you're sitting here, you have true faith. You're hearing the words of the Lord encouraging you, well, calling you to be baptized because you have true faith. You say, that's me. I have not repented. I have not. I'm going to follow the instruction. I'm going to do it. So we see that true faith leads to this journey of things, but the baptism doesn't save you, right? And I would say that if a person does not have the knowledge, as we did read some examples, right? We read examples of people who heard of Yeshua and believed in him, but they did not hear of these other things yet. They have not heard of the Holy Spirit. They have not been baptized into Yeshua's water baptism yet. But they are saved by faith. Now that they did hear from Paul, Paul brought these to them. But they are still saved by faith, but yet now empowered in a new way to walk a new freedom and to walk a new empowerment. We are saved by faith. The end. Okay, So, yeah, I guess the thing that we struggle with is we are like, we think of all the people who say, I have faith, but they don't live like it. And so that makes us uncomfortable. Then when PD says, we're saved by faith, and that's it. But, you know, I'm qualifying it. True faith. True faith. For faith without works is dead. Okay. Yes, last question. Okay. She's asking if we were baptized in the name of Jesus, and now we realized, oh, he has a name, Yeshua, in his Hebrew tongue. Should I get baptized again? I will say, no, you do not need to be baptized again because there's nothing wrong with the name of Jesus, okay? There's nothing wrong with it. It's not evil and it's not Zeus. Please. Okay? I was saved in the name of Jesus. And I say hallelujah. And many of you were. Now, look, of course we can study and we can recognize how languages work and we can recognize that, you know, my name. I travel to this country, many people get their name changed when I became a citizen of the US they're like, hey, do you want to change your name? I can tick a box and say, yeah, I want to change my name. See? So the languages, that shift in this world causes these things, but the person remains the same. The person of Yeshua is who he is. And when I say Jesus, he hears me. When I say Yeshua, he hears me. Now, there's value in his Hebrew name. Don't get me wrong. There's value in these things, but not when it pertains to am I saved or not? Thank you so much for this time, Lord, that you've given us to speak of your gospel and baptism that you've given us. Holy Spirit, I pray that you would come and speak to every heart in this room. And Father, I pray, Lord, that your words of the scriptures right now would just illuminate the truth of the Son. Father, I thank you for giving us your peace and your strength and your boldness to step forward as you draw us, as you convict us. And Holy Spirit, I ask that you would have your perfect way in each person, in each moment. Name of Yeshua. Amen.

Sam.