Dive deep into the teachings of Adrian Rogers as he unravels the critical role of baptism in the Christian faith. Using the story of Philip and the Ethiopian Eunuch from Acts 8, Rogers expounds on the profound symbolism and method of baptism as practiced and commanded throughout scripture. This episode sheds light on why baptism, though not essential for salvation, is crucial for obedience and spiritual growth.
Known for his unique ability to simplify profound truth so that it can be applied to everyday life, Adrian Rogers was one of the most effective preachers, respected Bible teachers, and Christian leaders of our time. Thanks for joining us for this message. Here’s Adrian Rogers.
SPEAKER 02 :
Take God’s word and turn to Acts chapter 8, would you please? Acts chapter 8, you know how you end up? Has a lot to do with the way you began. Certainly is true in a race. It’s true in your pursuit of education. Many times it’s true in a business. It’s certainly true in building a church. And it’s really true in your Christian life. And so I want to talk to you today about how to start right. And very frankly, some of you have still not yet started right because you have not obeyed what the Bible has to say about believers’ baptism. Now let me give you the background for this passage of Scripture before I read it. God has taken His… Deacon, evangelist, preacher, Philip, And he’s taken him from Samaria where there was a revival crusade going. And the Spirit of the Lord said, Philip, I want you to go down to the desert. I have a special assignment for you there. And so Philip went down there and he saw a man riding in a chariot. Now this man was a man of great authority. He was a man who was a treasurer for Queen Candace of Ethiopia. And he’s riding in the chariot and he has the Word of God open and he is reading the prophet Isaiah. Now, he has been to Jerusalem to worship, but he still has not found the Lord. And the wells of religion were dry there in Jerusalem. And he’s reading, would you know it, he’s reading the 53rd chapter of Isaiah, which is the gospel according to Isaiah. It’s in the Old Testament. He’s reading this. And the Lord says to Philip, Philip, that’s the one. That’s that opportunity on wheels. I want you to go now and witness to this man. And so the Bible says that Philip went, he ran, found a chariot, introduced himself, and found that the man was reading the prophet Isaiah. And the man asked Philip a question. He said, what does all of this mean? And Philip said, what an opportunity. Let me tell you what this means. And now we break in in the story in verse 35. This is Acts 8, verse 35. Then Philip opened his mouth and began at the same scripture and preached unto him Jesus. And as they went on their way, they came unto a certain water. And the eunuch said, See, here is water. What doth hinder me to be baptized? And Philip said, If thou believest with all thine heart, thou mayest he answered and said i believe that jesus christ is the son of god and i want to say parenthetically so do i i believe that jesus christ is the son of god and he commanded the chariot to stand still and they went down both into the water both philip and the eunuch and he baptized him and when they were come up out of the water The spirit of the Lord caught away Philip that the eunuch saw him no more. And he went on his way rejoicing. I love this. Philip preached unto him Jesus. He didn’t preach to him denomination. He didn’t preach to him race relations. He didn’t preach to him economics. He didn’t preach to him about politics in Ethiopia. He preached unto him Jesus. And when the man believed on Jesus… As soon as possible, he baptized this man. Now there are two grave mistakes that are made about baptism. One mistake is since baptism doesn’t save us, it’s not important. That is a mistake. The other mistake about baptism is this, where there’s some who say if you don’t get baptized, you can’t go to heaven. That’s a mistake also. The truth is neither of those. While baptism is not necessary to salvation, baptism is necessary to obedience. and obedience is necessary to joy and growth and fruitfulness in the Christian life. And we as believers dare not minimize what the Bible has so emphasized. How did Jesus begin his public ministry? Anybody know? Well, you ought to know. He began his public ministry by being baptized. Jesus began his public ministry by being baptized. How did Jesus conclude his public ministry? By commanding baptism. He began it by being baptized. He only had a ministry of about three and a half years. And he began it by being baptized. In his baptism, he identified himself with us. In our baptism, we identify ourselves with the Lord Jesus. But Jesus commenced his ministry by baptism. Jesus concluded his ministry by commanding baptism. And what he has so emphasized, I dare not minimize. So keep that in mind and let’s look together in the passage and other passages today about believers baptism. How to start right? Because listen very carefully. There’s some of you who have never yet been baptized and you need to be. There’s some of you who’ve been Christians for 30 and 40 years, but you’ve been baptized, really not baptized the right way for the right purpose. Reason. So I want you to listen very carefully. Now, I’m not going to talk to you about what Baptists believe about baptism. What Baptists believe about baptism has nothing to do with it. I want you to see what the Bible teaches. And if the Bible teaches it, then I expect you to agree with it. If the Bible doesn’t teach it, I don’t expect you to agree with it. We’re not talking about some denominational preference here. We’re going to be looking into the Word of God, so get your Bible out, a piece of paper to make some notes on, and let’s look at it. The very first thing I want you to see, therefore, is the biblical method of baptism. What is the biblical method of baptism? Look in verses 36 and following. And as they went on their way, they came unto a certain water. Now it takes water. And the eunuch said, see, here’s water. What does hinder me to be baptized? The word baptizo, as we’re going to see, means immersed. What does hinder me to be immersed? And Philip said, if thou believest with all thine heart, thou mayest. And he answered and said, I believe that Jesus Christ is the son of God. And he commanded the chariot to stand still. Now watch it. And they both went down into the water, both Philip and the eunuch. And he baptized him. That is, he immersed him. And when they were come up out of the water, the spirit of the Lord caught away Philip that the eunuch saw him no more. And he went on his way rejoicing. Now it is incredibly obvious that the Bible method of baptism is by immersion, placing a person under the water and bringing them out of the water. The scripture says they both went down into the water. It was the same way with the baptism of the Lord Jesus. This was not an incidental way or an optional way. I want you to see how Jesus was baptized. Now put your bookmark there in Acts chapter eight and turn to Mark chapter one. Mark chapter one. And if you don’t turn, then put this verse in your margin so you can refer to it later. Mark chapter one, beginning in verse nine. Now this is the baptism of the Lord Jesus. Now we’re to walk as Jesus walked. Mark one, verse nine. And it came to pass in those days that Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized of John in what? Jordan now Jordan is a river doesn’t say he was baptized near Jordan it says he was baptized in Jordan doesn’t say he was baptized with Jordan it says he was baptized in Jordan and the Greek preposition in literally means into Jordan and look in verse 10 and straightway coming up out of the water he saw the heavens open now if he came up out of the water you tell me where he was He was down in the water. He came up out of the water. He saw the heavens open and the spirit like a dove descending upon him. Jesus was baptized by John the Baptist in the river Jordan. He was baptized by immersion. Jesus was not baptized by immersion because it was convenient for him. As a matter of fact, it wasn’t convenient. It was about a 60-mile trip one way that Jesus took to be baptized by John. You see, why did he go to the River Jordan? Because there was a lot of water there. It takes a lot of water to baptize. Now, I want you to put this verse also in your margin, and this is one of the clincher verses. There’s some verses that just make it extremely clear. This one is in John 3, verse 23, and it also refers to the baptism of Jesus. Now, I want you to listen to it. This is John 3, verse 23, and it says, and John, now listen, and John was also baptizing in Anan near to Salem. And then he gives the reason because now I want you to look at your Bible and see what the reason is because of the beautiful scenery and what it says, because it just happened to be convenient. That isn’t what it says. Why did John go all the way down to the river Jordan out there in the wilderness? He was baptizing in Anan near to Salem for one reason. Why? Because there’s much water there. water there. Now John could have baptized everybody in Jerusalem with a 55 gallon tank of water if it were by sprinkling or pouring. But John went to this place because friend it takes water and it takes a lot of water. There can be no mistaking about it. It takes a lot of water to baptize. You can’t baptize somebody the biblical way with a few drops of water coming off a rose petal somewhere. John was baptizing in Anna near to Salem because there was much water there. I visited our wonderful missionaries in Kenya, Jim and Peggy Hooton. And Jim took me out there in his Land Rover and we went on the hard road and then we got on the gravel road and then we got on no road and then we kept on going further and further out there to the foot of Kilimanjaro. There in the Maasai country where those great, tall, magnificent Maasai warriors are. Jim Hooten had a tent out there. That was his church and he was… Telling those warriors about the Lord Jesus. And then he said, come over here. I want to show you this. And he had dug a pit in the ground. It looked so much like the graves that I have stood beside so many times when I would preach funerals. He had lined that pit with plastic and he had brought water on his Land Rover and fill that pit with water. And there he was baptizing those Maasai in that grave there. It looked like a grave because indeed that’s what the baptistry is. It is a liquid tomb. As we’re going to see later on. I’ve thought of the difficulty sometimes that we go through in baptism. You know, it would be so much simpler if we could just do it the easy way. I mean, if we just sprinkle folks or pour a little water on people’s head. The first church I pastored was the First Baptist Church of Felsmere, Florida. Now, don’t let the impressive title impress you. Because it was the first church, the last church, and the only Baptist church in that little town. about as many people in the town as are in the choir up here, maybe a few more. And I went to talk to Miss Willie Vereen. Her first name was Willie. Sweet lady. Somebody told me that she was interested in the things of God. I went and visited her and I tried to tell Willie about Jesus. She said, but… I know what you say is true, but how do you believe? I said, well, just believe. She said, but how do you trust him? I said, just trust him. And I was so frustrated because I wanted to say, oh, Willie, just trust the Lord. She never could seem to quite get it. And I said, well, let me pray for you. And I prayed for her and left. And she had this burden on her face. When I saw her the next morning, when she came in the church, she had a face that was shining like the noonday sun. And she said, oh, pastor, I got saved last night. I trusted Jesus after you left. I trusted him. He saved me. And so I had to baptize Willie, got to baptize her. We didn’t have a baptistry in that church. We didn’t have any running water in that church. We didn’t have even restrooms in that church. A little church building there. I was just a 19-year-old boy pastoring that church. First lady I’d ever baptized. I didn’t know where to grab hold. I didn’t know what to do. I said, oh, I wish I’d have watched my pastor a little more. I said, well, I’m going to baptize her. Where are we going to baptize her? Well, we’ll baptize her in a canal out there by Felsmere where they drain those sugar cane fields. And I remember that day, went down there and went down that slippery bank. And there was a little swimming hole there where the kids would swim. And the bull rushes were there and the flags and the frogs and all of those things there. And it was for Florida. It was kind of chilly. I think it was a February. And we went down that bank. And I remember when Ms. Vereen, when she put her feet in that water, she said, it was like ice. But oh, the joy of baptizing that woman as a believer in Jesus Christ. We could have done it so much more simply, but oh, we could not have done it more biblically as the baptizer. One time I advertised in another church I was pastoring, we’re going to have a baptismal service. And the people came, it was Sunday afternoon and there was no water in the baptistry. We had a pipe that went in that baptistry about as big as my thumb. It looked like it’d take 40 years to fill that thing up. It actually took all afternoon and there was no water and the people were there and the people were ready to get baptized. I said, Oh God, give me wisdom. What shall I do? Had an idea. I called the fire department. I said, I have got an emergency. What is it? I said, I’ve got to have some water. And in a hurry, they sent a pumper truck over there and put that big hose in there. And in no time, we had that baptistry filled with rusty water. And I got those folks baptized. Now, I want to tell you, folks, it would have been a lot simpler just simply to sprinkle a few drops of water upon somebody’s head, but it would not have been biblical. They need much water. They went down into the water. They came up out out of the water. That is the biblical method. The word baptizo means to immerse. There’s another word for sprinkle, rantizo. There’s another word for porluo. But the word baptizo literally means to immerse. It was an ordinary word, not necessarily a religious word. Two little boys would be out swimming. One of them would say, I’m going to dunk you. But if he were speaking Greek, he’d say, I’m going to baptize you. Nothing to do with religion. A woman washing her dishes and She might say to her daughter, baptize those dishes. That is, put them under the water. It’s just the word itself, the literal meaning of the word, means to immerse. Did you know that when you pick up your Bible and read the word baptism, that is still basically an untranslated word? What happened is this. King James of England… When he was going to take the Bible and have it translated into the language of the people from Greek to English, he got some scholars and said, we want you to translate the Bible. In 1611, we got the authorized version, the King James Version of the Scripture. The one that I preach from, I love it. I think it’s beautiful. It has the poetry, the symmetry. I just love the King James Version of the Bible, and I preach out of the King James Version of the Bible. Well, these were good scholars who were translating, but when they came to the word, baptizo they had a problem because the greek meaning of the word is to immerse but the king did not practice immersion the church that he was a member of did not immerse now why didn’t they immerse well they they learned it from the traditions of men rather than the word of god and these scholars said now we have a problem we’re between a rock and a hard place if we translate this word immerse it’ll be embarrassing for the king But if we translate it anything but immerse, anyone who knows Greek would laugh us out of the kingdom. So you know what they said? We just won’t translate it. We won’t translate it at all. So rather than translating the word, they transliterated the word. What is transliteration? That means to take a word from one language and put it into another language. And every time you read the word baptize in your Bible, It’s still to be translated. It has not yet been translated. It’s just simply been transliterated. It is a Greek word jammed into English because those fellas didn’t have the courage to make it say what it literally says. But you go get any Greek dictionary and look it up and you’re going to find out that the word itself means to immerse. So every time you read that, you can just put in there to immerse. That’s what the word itself means. And early Christians practiced baptism by immersion. All of them did. As a matter of fact, if you go to the cathedrals, sometimes when you go to Europe, if you go to those cathedrals that were built back before the 13th century, you’ll find they have baptistries in them like this one. I’ve gone and stood in those baptistries. They have baptistries just like we have baptistries where they baptize those people in obedience to the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Now that’s the method of baptism. Well you say big deal. Who cares about the method? I care about the method. Why? I’ll tell you why I care about the method. Because the method is wrapped up in the meaning. The method and the meaning are inextricably interwoven. And you cannot change the method without destroying the meaning. Now, what is the meaning of baptism? Well, baptism speaks about what God did for you When he saved you, I want you to take and turn to another passage of scripture. I want you to turn to Romans chapter six. This is a key passage. And if you’re in Acts, just fast forward to Romans chapter six. And I want you to begin reading with me in verse one. What should we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? God forbid. How shall we that are dead to sin live any longer therein? Now that’s the key to the whole passage. When we get saved, we die to sin. That’s the old way. And being saved is dying to the old way. And God forbid that we who have been saved should continue to live sinful lives. That’s what he’s saying. And then he explains it in verse 3. Know ye not. That so many of us, as we’re baptized into Jesus Christ, we’re baptized into his death. Therefore, we are buried with him by baptism into death. We’re talking about the meaning of baptism now. Therefore, we are buried with Him by baptism into death. That like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so, we also should walk in newness of life. Now look in verse 5. For if we have been planted together in the likeness of His death, we shall be also in the likeness of His resurrection. Now here is your biography, so pay attention to it. Here is pictured your past life. your present and your future. Now, what is your past? Well, here it is right here, verse four. We are buried with him by baptism into death. When you get baptized, that pictures that the old person you used to be died. There was a teenage boy lived in West Palm Beach. He gave his heart to Jesus Christ. And when he did, that teenage boy died. His name was Adrian Rogers. And the old Adrian died. When did he die? Well, he actually died not as a teenage boy, but he died 2,000 years ago when Jesus died on that cross because his death had my name on it. He took my sins. He carried my sins to the cross. He was hung up there for me. He suffered, bled and died in agony for me. And he bear my sins in his body on the cross. He paid my sin debt. He paid it in full. And when he died because of faith in him, I died with him. And that’s so wonderful because you see, look in verse six, knowing this, that our old man, that’s the old Adrian is crucified with him. I was crucified with him. When he died, I died. That the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin. When Jesus died, hallelujah, I died. And so when I got baptized, they put me beneath the water. You know what that was? That was my funeral. What do you do with a dead man? You bury him. We are buried in baptism. Isn’t that what it says? Look in verse four, therefore we are buried with him. Now, if I died physically and you drug me out the graveyard and put a few grains of sand on my head and said, we buried the preacher, that’d be a disgrace. Leave me out there to bake in the sun. At least put me under. We are buried with him by baptism. That was my funeral. The only mourner there was the devil. He hated to see me die. That spoke of my past. Thank God. Listen, hallelujah. My sin is in the grave of God’s forgetfulness. Isn’t that wonderful? Listen, your sin is gone. You don’t need to be haunted by the ghost of guilt. When Jesus died, you died. Baptism is a picture of your burial. Just as Jesus Christ was put in that grave, you were put in a liquid tomb. That speaks of your past. But now look, if you will, in verse 4 again. That like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. Jesus didn’t stay in that grave. He came out of that grave. And I did not stay under that water. Thank God for that. I came up out of that water. You see, we don’t believe in submersion. We believe in immersion. The difference is you submerge something, it may stay there. You better thank God for the difference. We come up out of the water and that pictures our new life in the Lord Jesus Christ. We should walk in newness of life. And my baptism says I have a brand new life. Christians are not just nice people. They are new creatures. And baptism portrays that. When you come up out of that water, you’re saying, I have come out of the grave of that old life. I have been risen to walk with the Lord Jesus. Because I’ve been born again, I have a new life. Now, not only does it speak of your past, you’re buried. Not only does it speak of your present, a new life, but it also speaks of your future. Look in verse 5. For if we have been planted together in the likeness of His death… We shall also be in the likeness of his resurrection. One of these days I am going to die physically. One of these days they are going to put me in that grave. But I want to tell you that grave that could not hold the Lord Jesus will not be able to hold me. And I am going to be in the likeness of his resurrection. And the God that raised up Jesus Christ from the grave is the God who is going to raise me up. And therefore, we don’t need to fear death. I heard of some caterpillars who were crawling around on the ground and they saw a former caterpillar up there, a beautiful butterfly flitting overhead. And one caterpillar said to the other caterpillar, you’d never get me up in one of those things. But I wanted you to know one of these days, friend, we are all going to be caught up to meet the Lord Jesus in the air. And we’d be as foolish to be afraid of death as a grubby, wormy caterpillar would be afraid of being a butterfly. We’re going to be in the likeness of his resurrection. That’s what baptism pictures. It pictures the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus for us. It pictures our death, burial, and resurrection with him. Now, I want to ask you a question. If you were the devil, wouldn’t you want to take that message out of the church? Wouldn’t you want to take that message out of the church? Wouldn’t you want people to forget that? You see, what is the gospel? The gospel is that Christ died for our sins, that He was buried, that He was raised again the third day. That’s the gospel, 1 Corinthians 15. That is the gospel. That’s the core of all that we do. Why is it that the Bible commands that we be baptized? Because God. God wants to constantly make real to us what happens when we get saved. We die with Christ. We’re buried with Christ. We rise with Christ. We live with Christ. We’re going home to be with Christ. That’s what it’s all about. And baptism is the graphic illustration of that. Well, you say, well, Pastor Rogers, it’s only a symbol. Any symbol will do. Oh, Suppose you said to me, pastor, do you have a picture of your wife? I said, yes, I’ve got a picture of my wife. May I see it? Well, yes. And I pull out a picture and maybe there’s a picture of a race car or maybe a waterfall or maybe Lassie. He says, is that your wife? Well, I say, not exactly, but any picture will do. That’s ridiculous. If it doesn’t look like her, then why do I call it a picture of her if it’s not a likeness of her? Baptism, the Bible says, look at your Scripture. It is in the likeness of His death. It is in the likeness of His resurrection. That is symbolized. The emblem of that is immersion. That is the meaning. Now you understand what I’m saying when I say that the method and the meaning are so wrapped together. Very quickly, I want to say one more thing. What about the motive for baptism? Why should we be baptized? Three reasons. Now, if you’ve not yet been baptized, here is the motive for baptism. First of all, it proclaims your commitment to Jesus. It proclaims your commitment to Jesus. The Bible says we are buried with Him. It says, Jesus… I am identifying myself with you openly and publicly. You say, does it make you a Christian? No, but it sure does show you’re a Christian. You see that ring I wear right there? That ring right there. That ring. You know what that ring means? That means I love Joyce. And friend, I do love her. I am a one woman man. I love that gal. And that ring says I love her. And that ring says I belong to Joyce. It doesn’t make me married. But friend, it shows I’m married and it shows I’m not ashamed to let everybody know I’m married. I’m not trying to pass myself off as something or somebody that I’m not. I belong to another person. I belong to a girl named Joyce that I love with all my heart. And when you get baptized, you’re saying, I belong to Jesus. Amen. I belong to Jesus. When he was baptized, he identified himself with us. And when we get baptized, we identify ourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ. A little boy got saved in one of these churches where they have children’s church. And so the director of the children’s church said, go over to the big church and tell the pastor you’ve been saved and you want to get baptized. He didn’t quite understand it. So he went over there and he told the pastor, he said, I’ve been saved and I need to get advertised. I like that. I like that. That’s exactly it. I have been saved and I need to get advertised. I belong to the Lord Jesus Christ. And so it is a commitment to proclaim. It is a conversion to portray. Not only a commitment to proclaim, but a conversion to portray. Listen, everybody, here’s my testimony. I want you to know what has happened to me. Thank God this is my way of testifying. I want everybody to know that when Jesus died, I died. He suffered for me. He bled for me. He died for me. He rose for me. I am in Him. I want everybody to know that I have been saved. Now, I can tell you over and over and over and over again about people who’ve been saved by seeing somebody else baptized. They see their friend, their old buddy, their old companion up there getting baptized. Some society lady sees another lady up there with a $35 hairdo going under. They said, what’s she doing? What is all of that? Has she become a religious fanatic? She said, oh no, I’ve been saved. I have been saved. And I am proclaiming, not only do I belong to Jesus, but what Jesus has done for me. It is a commitment, friend, to keep. It is a conversion to show. But thirdly, it is a command to obey. pay much attention in the Bible baptism is not a suggestion it is a command write these scriptures down Matthew 28 verses 19 and 20 these are not the words of a Baptist preacher per se these are the words of our sovereign Lord in the first century go ye therefore And teach all nations. Baptizing them. In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost. Teaching them to observe all things. Now listen to this. Whatsoever I have. What’s that next word? Commanded you. Whatsoever I have commanded you. And lo I’m with you always even to the end of the world. Look in Acts chapter 10. Verses 46 and following. Peter had preached the word of God to the household of Cornelius. God gave them the supernatural gift of languages for they heard them speak with tongues and magnify God. Then answered Peter in verse 47, can any man forbid water that these should not be baptized which have received the Holy Ghost as well as we? Which tells me you can receive the Holy Spirit before you’re baptized. Which means you certainly are saved before you’re baptized. And he commanded them to be baptized in the name of the Lord. Not suggested. He commanded them to be baptized in the name of the Lord. And then the Bible says they prayed with him to tarry certain days. You know, obedience always brings joy and it brings fruitfulness. Many Christians are lacking in their Christian joy because they’ve not been obedient. In this eighth chapter of Acts where we began, after this man is baptized, the Bible says that when Philip left him, he went on his way rejoicing. In Acts chapter 16, the household of the Philippian jailer, when these folks got baptized, the Bible says they rejoiced. believing in god with all of their heart obedience brings joy and fruitfulness now that some of you are saying god help me to understand the bible lord help me to be fruitful in my christian life well i want to ask you a question have you already obeyed what you already know Why should God give you more light until you’ve lived up to the light that you have? Why should God give you joy and fruitfulness when you don’t begin right? I am telling you, friend, that the motive for baptism, if there were no other motive except that Jesus Christ commanded it. I want to say again that while baptism is not necessary to salvation, it is necessary to obedience. Being baptized doesn’t make me a Christian any more than wearing this ring makes me married. But it shows that I am married. It shows that I belong to a girl named Joyce. And baptism shows that you belong to your Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. It’s only a symbol. And don’t ever let the symbol take the place of the reality. Let me just tell you this story and I’ll be finished. We had a denominational worker. who took his family, he took his family to Washington. Have you ever gone to the Smithsonian? If you go to Washington, go to the Smithsonian. It is incredible. And he was in that part that dealt with American history. This was back when Lyndon Johnson was the President of the United States. And he was in that portion of the Smithsonian. where they have the wives of the presidents, and the wives of the presidents are wearing these very special dresses. It’s a very interesting thing. And at this time, Lyndon Johnson was the president of the United States. And this man worked for our denomination, had his children there, and he was showing them this thing, and there was a lady who was standing next to him, and he was telling, he said, now there’s Lady Bird Johnson right there. And then he turned and looked. And you know who was standing right next to him? Lady Bird Johnson. Right there. They were looking. I mean, it was just incredible. He said, how could God be so good? Let me be here in Washington showing my kids this. And here is the wife of the President of the United States. And they fellowshiped and they talked. He said, this is wonderful. But here’s the funny part. About that time, a man came and set up his camera. And he said to this denominational worker, his children, and to Lady Bird Johnson, would you folks mind moving aside? I want to get a picture of Lady Bird. And the president’s wife never said a word. She just stepped to the side. And there that man focused his camera on a wax figure. And Lady Bird, the president’s wife, standing over here in the shadows. Now, I want to say to every one of us, baptism is only a picture. Don’t fail to focus on Jesus. Don’t put Jesus to the side and focus on the picture. It’s only an emblem. It’s only a symbol. Thank God for it. Thank God for who it represents. But baptism, whether spoonful or tankful, can never save anybody. You’re saved by trusting Jesus Christ as your personal Savior. And if today you give your heart to Jesus and say, Jesus, I receive you, you’ll be as saved as you’ll ever be. And if you don’t get saved, you can be baptized so many times that tadpoles will have your social security number. And you still won’t be saved. Salvation is in the Lord Jesus Christ. And the Bible says simply, sweetly, sublimely, surely, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. And I promise you from the authority of the Word of God today, if you’ll trust Jesus, He’ll save you. I mean, He’ll save you today.
SPEAKER 01 :
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