What is Independent Baptist? (Part 1)

[00:00:00] Okay, well, thank you again for being here. We'll dive right into our lesson today. We've been, of course, going through a study on just. We've been calling it our church, that is practical and biblical truths regarding the church in general as well as our church in particular. [00:00:23] And so I want to kind of go to a little bit of a new subject and. And this morning, well, let's just go ahead and pray and ask the Lord for his blessing upon our study and then we'll get into our subject this morning. Our Lord in heaven, we thank you for the opportunity to meet together with your people. We thank you for loving us. [00:00:43] We thank you for the gospel. We thank you as well, Lord, for the church of God, that you are among us indeed, Lord, you are in us by your spirit and that you are working within us and in our church and among us, Lord, to make us to have great unity and to give us and to teach us to love one another, to have fellowship. [00:01:10] And Lord, as we dive into these things, these practical truths today, Lord, I pray that you would guide our study and most importantly, that you would be pleased and glorified and that the truth of God would be made manifest and understood by all. And not only the truth, but also the truth in the right tone, in the right attitude and spirit as well. [00:01:32] So, Lord, we just commit this time to you. We ask for your help and your grace not only in our class, but also with the kids and their various classes. Please give grace there. Lord, we just. We look to you. We know that the church of God cannot grow without you nourishing it. And we pray that you would nourish us that we might grow in the grace of God. In Jesus name. Amen. [00:01:54] All right, well, the question I want to pose today is one of the practical questions regarding our church in particular, because as you come down the road, you drive by our church and you see the sign and it says Choice Hills Baptist Church. [00:02:16] And a lot of people, even yesterday when I was talking to somebody, they asked me when they found out I was a pastor of a church, they asked, you know, okay, well what denomination are you? And I said, well, we're Baptist. [00:02:28] And later in the conversation, the person asked, well, what kind of Baptist? [00:02:34] And I told him we're the crazy kind of Baptists. [00:02:41] So I told him we were, huh, the right kind. Yes, that's, you know, you're at the right church when they call it Unity Baptist love. Baptist love more than everybody else. Baptist. You know, it's the name of the church. Split, right? Yeah. So you know how that goes. [00:03:02] Our church. Just as a side note, you know, this has nothing to do with the lesson, but just as interesting, our church. [00:03:08] One thing I think is a. [00:03:10] A lot of people I talk to say, well, your church has an interesting name. I've never thought that, because this is the only church I've ever been a part of. So. [00:03:18] But your church has an interesting name, and a lot of people are curious about that. [00:03:23] Instead of being, you know, whatever. You know, like Grace Baptist Church or whatever, you know, kind of more generic name. [00:03:30] But the name goes back to the very first street that the first church meeting was held. I say the first church meeting. That's probably not actually correct, but the first official church meeting was held on a road called Choice Hill Road, which is about three quarters of a mile up the street here, off Old Buncombe Road here. [00:03:52] And then it moved from there to. The meeting, moved from there to Viewmont Drive. And it was there for several years until finally the building was built. [00:04:00] But the name came from Choice Hill Road. So it's an odd name, I'll give you that. And I'm glad they put the S on it, because if it was Choice Hill Baptist Church, that would be kind of weird, I think. I don't know. Maybe that's just me. But so people do often. Do often ask, well, I mean, what do you mean? Okay, so you're Baptist. What kind of Baptist? What kind of Baptist? That's an important question because there are so many different types. Even if you narrow it down to Baptist, within that category, you can get almost anything. All right, so that's what I want to look at is the question I want to pose to you is our church is an independent Baptist church. Right? And today I want to pose the question and kind of start into this subject to answer the question, what is Independent Baptist? What does that mean? [00:04:53] And we'll look at. We'll look at the word independent later, maybe next week, depending on how far we get this week. But today I wanna look at the word Baptist, because of course, there is a movement afoot to remove identifying terms and names from churches. [00:05:20] Like, there is a movement to just remove that. Remove whether it's Presbyterian or Baptist, just to remove it and just put so and so church. [00:05:29] Now, is that wrong? Well, not necessarily. There's nowhere in Scripture that says you have to have the word, the Baptist or Presbyterian. There's nowhere in scripture that says you have to have a name. Of course, in the first century, there were no names that we know of except Christian. And that wasn't a name that was chosen by the disciples. It was chosen by others to call them, to reference their association with Christ. [00:05:55] So it's not a matter of sin. Removing the name Baptist. I do think you ought to ask the question, what is the motive behind removing the name? And I think that's when you start to get into a little bit more the pertinent questions. [00:06:11] But then beyond that, there's a movement not only to remove the term Baptist, but to remove the term church at all. I don't know if you guys have noticed that. Then it just becomes like cross point, you know, it seems like 10 years ago everything was point, you know, so and so point, faith point. [00:06:30] What's that? [00:06:32] Yeah, all these points. And that was a thing, you know, and trends come and go, you know. You know, that's neither here nor there. But it does say something that when you are a church and you are seeking to remove the fact that you are a church, so not only do you remove the identifying word Baptist in this case, but then you remove the word church. So it's just, it's just, I don't know, something else. And at some point you start to ask the question, what are you hiding? Like, why are you trying to confuse what this is? [00:07:09] And I think that's a valid question to ask. [00:07:12] The truth is, I think from the biblical perspective, it's but by manifestation of the truth commending ourselves to every man's conscience in the sight of God. We are who we are. [00:07:26] We are not ashamed of who we are, but this is who we are, okay? [00:07:32] And you know, it's okay to do that. [00:07:35] Can I get an amen? It's okay to say who you are, Jesus. Just because you say who you are doesn't mean you hate everybody else, right? But you are who you are. [00:07:44] The identification it seems that we have in our society, it's a general more society level thing, but it seems like, you know, it's frowned upon to just identify who you are, you know, but there's nothing wrong with that. [00:08:04] So we are. Our church is a Baptist church. [00:08:10] That's not something to be ashamed of. I will say. [00:08:14] Well, let me give you kind of a definition of what we mean by the word Baptist, okay? [00:08:19] So when we say the word Baptist, I want you to understand what I'm saying. Now another guy might say something different, okay? And that's his problem. I'm just, I want to describe what the term Baptist means as, so that we understand what I'm saying when I'm saying it instead of what everyone else, you know, because terminology really gets confusing sometimes. So the word Baptist, as I use it, refers primarily to a historical doctrinal position. Okay? It's a belief. It's a body of faith that is distinct from, or I should say maybe specific within the broader Christianity. Okay. Which would include like Presbyterianism, Methodism or whatever, okay? So this is going to be a set of doctrines that are held, characteristic doctrines that are held that fall loosely under the term Baptist. Now, we use the term Baptist, but it's not just because the term Baptist is found in the Bible with John the Baptist. It's not like, you know, we, you know, we've got a trump card with everybody else because the word Baptist is found in the Bible and Methodist is not. So we're better than the Methodist because the word Methodist is not in the Bible. That's petty. It's not that John the Baptist was a Baptist because he baptized people. And that's what, you know, especially in the context of the Protestant Reformation, there were people who were baptizing people that is dunking them in water and held to that despite the opposition. [00:09:59] And so that's how the name Baptist, it originally was Anabaptist, which is rebaptizer from Latin, and then it became simply Baptist. [00:10:09] But here's the important thing to remember that when you're talking about Baptist as an historical doctrinal position. [00:10:16] These doctrines that we're going to look at today only matter if they are true to Scripture. [00:10:26] Just because Baptists believe something doesn't make it right or true. [00:10:32] Right. [00:10:33] Our loyalty must lie with the Bible and only the Bible, not a term. [00:10:42] And the truth is there are many, many Baptists that do not believe that many, many Baptists whose loyalty lies with the Baptist Church rather than with the word of God. [00:10:57] Now we'll look at the different points of the characteristic doctrines of the Baptist churches, but the first one being biblical authority. So the very underpinning of who we are as an identity, right. Is based upon the authority of Scripture. So if we have something other than the Bible as our authority, that is our, ourselves, the Baptists, we got a problem. [00:11:23] In other words, we're undermining our own belief. [00:11:28] These doctrines that we're going to go over, these characteristic doctrines and truths, are not authoritative because we believe them or because others before us, no matter how old they are, believe them. [00:11:40] The reason why they're authoritative is because they're scriptural, period. [00:11:45] And that's a key distinction. [00:11:47] Now, what's interesting is when you talk to people who are into Protestantism, the broader Protestant movement. You'll often find. You'll often hear them appeal to authorities due to their age. Well, this is what John Knox believed, or this is what Martin Luther believed or John Calvin believed. Okay, that's. [00:12:10] That might be true, that might not be true, but that is not the authority. But we must also take that standard and apply it to ourselves. [00:12:18] The standard is Scripture, period. [00:12:22] That's one of the characteristics of the Baptist people. Okay, but there are a few cautions before we go get into the actual points. There are a few cautions I want to make. The first one I already hinted at, which is that that there is nothing wrong with having an identification. [00:12:42] There's nothing wrong with having an identification. [00:12:46] And furthermore, just because a name, a lot of people say, well, we don't use the word Baptist because there's no Baptist in the Bible. There's no Baptist church or Presbyterian church. But that doesn't mean the identification of it is wrong. Remember, in the first century, the Christianity was not then as it is now. [00:13:08] Now there are many, many different groups, and identification is important now. Again, just because you have an identification doesn't mean you got to be a jerk about it, okay? [00:13:20] In our world, Christian groups have multiplied, and that's different than the first century. [00:13:27] But we also have to. The counterbalance to that is to remember that people in our world often view things through the lens of some identifying mark or identifying word, and they will judge us based upon that identity, whether it is true of us or not. And I'll give you the best example of that is the little three letters ifb. [00:13:54] Ifb. [00:13:56] IFB has in many cases earned a bad reputation. [00:14:05] It's true. [00:14:06] Ifb. If you don't know what I'm talking about, you're not missing anything. [00:14:10] IFB has earned, rightly earned a bad reputation in many cases. And so when people find out we're independent Baptists, they automatically, because of the identifier, they automatically associate us with all of those things, even though those things might not be true, hopefully the bad or not. [00:14:28] So, but that's true with any identifier. You put the word church on it, you're saying certain things, you put the word Baptist on it, you're saying certain things. [00:14:37] You put independent on Baptist. Now you're saying certain things. [00:14:40] And you don't get to you and I don't get to determine what they think about that term and how they associate it. So some people went to Baptist church, something bad happened to them when they were, you know, 15. [00:14:53] And now they hate all Baptists. There's nothing in the world you and I can do about that. [00:14:59] And you didn't do that. [00:15:01] I didn't do that to them. [00:15:03] But they are wrongly applying it to all Baptists and just painting with a broad brush. Nothing we can do about it. But the truth is, the same is true of Presbyterians and Methodists and Catholics and Islam and any other identifying mark American, you know that's true. You go overseas, you find out, well, here's the way people think of Americans. There's nothing you can do about it. You are an American. That's your identity, you know, so. [00:15:29] So you just have to understand that that's not an argument to remove the name. It's just. It's just something you got to live with, you know? All right, number two, the second thing you got to a caution is to remember that we are not right because we are Baptists. [00:15:44] Because it is not Baptists that are right. [00:15:48] It is only Scripture that is right. And that's a key point. [00:15:52] And insofar as we are aligned with Scripture, we are right. [00:15:56] And in whatever way, Baptists are not aligned with Scripture, they're wrong. I don't care. The rightest Baptist, lovingest unitest Baptist, you know, that might exist. You know the best, number one, we are the most important. You know what I'm talking about? [00:16:13] If it's not aligned with Scripture, it's wrong. Period. [00:16:18] And that includes ourselves. [00:16:20] And the third caution we need when we start looking at this subject, we need to keep in mind is we do not believe this idea that some people actually do seem to believe that only Baptists are going to heaven. [00:16:39] There are people that believe this. You know, if someone believes this, I just wonder, what do you think? [00:16:46] What is your hope of heaven? [00:16:48] Because it does raise questions. Do you think because you go to a Baptist church and you're a member of a Baptist church, you're going to. Is that. Because I can see how you could kind of project that onto somebody else. Well, you're not part of the Baptist church like I am, so you're not going to heaven. [00:17:02] That is not Scriptural. Right. [00:17:05] He that hath the Son hath life, and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life. That's the end of it. Right? [00:17:12] So this is kind of a. I think I just chalked this up to a misdirected kind of assumption. But remember, without Christ, even Baptists go to hell. [00:17:24] That's true. That's true. Okay, now let's look at the doctrines. [00:17:30] So as you probably have learned before, if you take the word Baptist, B, A, P, T, I, S, T, S, not B, a, B. We're not Baptist. We're Baptists. [00:17:43] I don't know. In the south, sometimes we want to say Baptist. [00:17:46] You guys know what I'm talking about, don't you? I'm a Baptist. [00:17:50] It's B, A, P, T, I, S, T, S. And you can use that as an acrostic for the characteristic doctrines of the Baptist. And so that's what we're going to look at. The first one is biblical authority. Biblical authority. And all this means is that the Bible is our sole rule for faith and practice. [00:18:11] The Bible is our sole rule for faith and practice. What does that mean? I remember when I was younger and I would hear preachers preach about Baptists and they would say, the Bible is our sole rule for faith, faith and practice. I always ask myself, what do they mean by rule? What is that talking about? All that simply means is what we believe and what we do is governed by and determined by the Bible and only the Bible. Okay? Now, if you remember, we won't look at it this morning, but you remember this truth is found throughout Scripture. For the word of the Lord is right. Psalm 30, I want to say Psalm 34 says that the law of the Lord is perfect. Converting the soul. The testimony of the Lord is sure making wise the simple. Right. You go back to Deuteronomy, and even the Lord even gave an example where if there were prophets who prophesied among Israel and they performed miracles even among Israel, the Lord said, if they. If they. If they tell you to do something contrary to this law, the written word of God that God had given to Israel, even if they had performed miracles to support their claim, the Lord says, I'll just. Yeah, basically. [00:19:33] In other words, what was the standard? The standard was the written word of God. The written word of God. [00:19:40] And this is something throughout Scripture. And what this means is when the Bible is your sole rule for faith and practice, that is a rejection of tradition and a rejection of ecclesiastical authority. That is authority of a church organization, Right. [00:20:01] As being of binding authority. So for, for instance, in Roman Catholicism, tradition is held at the same level of Scripture. And the way this goes, the way the logic goes, is basically, Jesus gave his church. And this is actually. Now, I'm not saying every Catholic believe this, but this is what Roman Catholicism teaches, okay? That Jesus came and started the church and Peter was obviously the first pope, right? [00:20:31] And the Lord gave power and authority to the church. Peter being the Pope and the Church gave us the Bible. [00:20:38] And this is why the tradition of the Church and the various decrees throughout history from the Catholic Church are on the same authority as the Bible, because the Bible itself is a product of the Church in their view. [00:20:55] So that's why they're on the same level. [00:20:57] But the issue is, the thing is, we, on a scriptural grounds, we reject that. Tradition is on the level of Scripture, Scripture is the rule. And when tradition and Scripture contradict, Scripture must win the day right now and then on the subject of ecclesiastical authority, in other words, what the powers that be in our denomination or whatever, whatever, they kind of tell you from the top down, well, if it contradicts Scripture, it's not. We don't have that problem. But you understand what I'm saying, Scripture is the final authority. Now, that is not to say that tradition is always bad. So look at 2 Thessalonians real quick. 2nd Thessalonians, chapter 2. [00:21:41] I feel like this generation has really reacted, overreacted on the subject of tradition, where anything that is old is automatically and instinctively rejected. [00:21:55] But, well, that's not wise because tradition can be good, too. [00:22:01] Good traditions are good and bad traditions are bad. 2 Thessalonians, chapter 2. But how do you judge good traditions and bad traditions? Here we go back to the Bible. [00:22:12] 2nd Thessalonians 2:15. [00:22:17] Bible says this. [00:22:19] Therefore, brethren, stand fast and hold the traditions which ye have been taught, whether by word or our epistle. Notice the association of the tradition with the word. [00:22:37] You notice that. You see that? [00:22:39] So a tradition is just something that's passed down. Something like a practice. [00:22:44] Right? That's passed down. [00:22:47] We're going to have to put off the Lord's Supper to next week. We had planned on doing it today. We'll have to put it up to next week. But the Lord's Supper is a tradition. [00:22:55] But it's a scriptural tradition, and therefore it is good. So traditions are not bad. [00:23:01] Some traditions are just. They're neither good nor bad. The Bible doesn't say anything about it, and that's fine. [00:23:06] Like for instance, having the piano. The Bible didn't say to have that. Why do we have it traditional? [00:23:12] I'm glad we have it. It's not a bad tradition. It's a good tradition. So all tradition is not bad. [00:23:18] But at the same time, if any of you or anybody were to come to us and say, well, you have to have a piano in church, the Bible says it. Well, hold your little horses there, because that's not what it says. [00:23:35] Yes, well, the organ, that's different. [00:23:39] But technically this is not an organ because it has no pipes. [00:23:44] It's like a glorified keyboard. [00:23:47] You have to imagine. Because it's the wilt. Yes, yes, the Biltmore State. Now they have an organ with pipes like 50 foot high. [00:23:58] So that's an example of a tradition. That's not bad. [00:24:02] Okay, look at chapter three, verse six. Same book says this. Now we command you, brethren, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye withdraw yourselves from every brother that walketh disorderly, and not after the tradition which he received of us. So you could easily, you could easily lift that rod out of its context and say, see if they don't follow our traditions, then excommunicate them. Hold on. No, no. It's the tradition that you have received from us who are the apostles themselves. That's who's speaking. [00:24:33] So again, it's going back to the word of God. [00:24:37] Now look at Mark. This is an important verse. Look at Mark, chapter seven. [00:24:44] Because really, every other point in this, in our, in our study here goes back to this point, which is biblical authority. [00:24:54] You got to get this right or nothing will be right. Mark 7, Mark 7. 7. [00:25:10] Of course, the Lord dealt with tradition. There was a lot of tradition in his day among the Jews. Verse 7 says this. Howbeit in vain they do worship me and teaching for doctrines the commandments of men. [00:25:22] For now, notice verse eight. I want you to pay attention to the words. For laying aside the commandment of God, ye hold the tradition of men as the washing of pots and cups and many other such things. Like such like things ye do. [00:25:36] Notice in that in verse number eight, notice there is a mention both of the commandment of God which is authoritative to Christ and the traditions of men. In other words, they're distinct. [00:25:49] They're distinct. The commandment of God and the traditions of men are distinct in this case. [00:25:54] And what was happening in this case is they were using the traditions of men to overthrow the commandment of God. [00:26:01] That's the whole problem with tradition. [00:26:03] That's the whole problem with tradition. Again, biblical authority means the Bible is the authority. [00:26:12] But again, the caution is that does not mean that everything we do must have a black and white Bible verse that says you must have a communion table that says this do in remembrance of me at this size. [00:26:24] It's not that. [00:26:26] It's that none of your traditions are contradictory to scripture or its principles. [00:26:33] The Bible is the final authority. That's number one. Number two. [00:26:37] Number two is the autonomy of the local church. The A stands for autonomy of the local church. And, and all this is, is a rejection of a structure of hierarchy above the level of this church. [00:26:51] That's what that means. [00:26:53] Now, I'll be honest with you. This is kind of a difficult. [00:26:56] This is kind of a difficult point. You know why? [00:26:59] Because the argument that many people that are involved in denominational structures, that are members of denominational structures, the argument they make is, well, the Bible doesn't say you can't have a denomination. [00:27:14] Okay, I'll give you that. That much. The Bible doesn't directly say you can't have a denomination. But by example and by principle, the only thing you see are local churches. And that's why we went, we studied. [00:27:32] When we started this study, we. We asked the question, what is a church? [00:27:37] Because we looked at the Scripture and we saw that there is a church composed of all believers, right? That's the church of God, the body of Christ. Right. But in every practical way, that church only is functional in a practical sense in a local setting. And that's all that you see. You don't see denominational regions and you don't see any of that. You don't see the leaders in that way. You don't even the very apostles themselves. There are verses that we've looked at that indicate their deference for the local church. [00:28:09] You see that now. [00:28:14] So that means when you have the autonomy of the local church, that means the leaders and the decisions are all made at that level, not the next level up, as the case might be. [00:28:28] So the argument in this point is basically this. [00:28:34] The Bible does not. [00:28:37] The Bible knows nothing of a denominational structure. So any kind of structure that is created by man, and I'll be honest with you, and we'll get into this later, but the Southern Baptist Convention was originally started not as it is now. [00:28:55] It originally came out of a huge revival that led to what we have today, which is Baptist churches throughout the south from the likes of Schubel, Stearns. And that was a revival that came out, I think it was, came out of Connecticut or Massachusetts, one of those, it was one of the New England states, I think it was Connecticut, was it. Edwards kind of sprung out of that. But there were people who, in that time, I mean, very early and early before the nation was a nation, who were sending missionaries to the south from the north to start churches. Those churches were Baptist churches. And later those churches became the associated together in Southern Baptist Convention. And from there it grew into what it is now. [00:29:49] But what it is now is what it is not what it started as. [00:29:53] Okay? So that's the issue. [00:29:56] So. [00:29:57] But again, all we see in Scripture is local New Testament churches. There's no other animal. [00:30:06] There's no other even allowance for any other type of type of setup. Okay? So that's the autonomy of the local church. [00:30:14] Number three is the priesthood of the believer. Look at First Peter, chapter two. Some of you know this already, but we'll cover it anyway. First Peter, chapter two. [00:30:25] One Peter, chapter two, verse five. The Bible says this. [00:30:36] Ye also as lively stones are built up in a spiritual house and holy priesthood to offer up spiritual sacrifice acceptable to God by Jesus Christ. [00:30:47] So the Church of God is actually a priesthood. [00:30:50] And that means we're all priests. [00:30:53] And a priest is primarily a priest's job is to offer sacrifices. But the key with this is that it also says it in verse nine, by the way. [00:31:03] The priest is the person who has direct access to God. He is the mediator in the Old Testament. [00:31:10] And that's true of every Christian. [00:31:13] You know what this means? [00:31:15] Because you and I have no mediator between us. Outside of the Lord Jesus Christ himself, every believer has direct access to God without the need for any other intermediary. [00:31:28] You know what that means? That means any human priesthood is useless. Why do I need it? I don't need it. [00:31:37] And what that also means is there is no such thing as a clergy class in the church. [00:31:43] Now here's the thing that is true. [00:31:46] But people treat the pastor as if he is some sort of priest. [00:31:52] That's not right. [00:31:54] But in two ways. Number one, they look to him. They think his prayers are extra special. Right? His prayers are magic. Almost right? [00:32:04] But that actually brings harm upon you as a believer because you fail to understand that you enjoy the same privilege that I do. [00:32:17] I just serve in a different capacity. [00:32:20] That's it. [00:32:21] That's really it. [00:32:24] And every believer is a priest. And so this is what directly affects how we see leadership. And this is why the different denominations and things see it differently is because of the way they view the priest or the clergy differently than everyone else. That's also why I really, really, really dislike special clothing for the preacher. [00:32:52] I really don't like that because it implies there's a difference. [00:33:00] It implies there's a clergy laity division, but there's not. [00:33:04] So the preacher, in my view, just dresses like everyone else does. And everyone else knows that he is us. [00:33:13] You know, because that's what I am. That's all I am. All right, all right. The next one is the T is two ordinances. [00:33:22] The Two are. Does anybody know what they are? [00:33:26] Oh, come on. You got to be more specific than that. It's not just baptism by aversion. Thank you. [00:33:35] Thank you, believers. Baptism by immersion. [00:33:41] But when you say we have two ordinances, believer's baptism by immersion and the Lord's Supper, you know what you're rejecting? You're rejecting, of course, baptism by other modes, which is effusion and sprinkling, that kind of thing. But you're also rejecting infant baptism. And that's the. That's where the rubber meets the road. [00:34:02] To say we believe only baptism is suitable and proper for someone who has believed in Christ means that a baby can't be bap, no matter if you how you do it. You can dunk them like the. Have you ever seen the baptism of the Greek Orthodox? [00:34:19] Because they baptized by immersion babies, and it is violent like you think. You know, in the Catholic Church, they just pour a little cup over their head. But in the Greek Orthodox, they're like. [00:34:31] It's like they're washing clothes on a washboard or something. Have y' all ever seen this? It's crazy. It's like, I don't want my kid get baptized. [00:34:43] I don't know. I might get brain damage. [00:34:47] Scary. [00:34:49] But if you require a person to be a believer and to testify to their faith prior to baptism, that means you don't baptize babies. And this is an important point. This is many, many believers in Christ have suffered actual persecution as a result of this point. Because it matters when you reject. [00:35:11] Now the question is, why do we believe believer's baptism? It's simple. That's the only thing you find in the Bible. And there is no other kind. That's there. [00:35:20] No other kind. The only people, the only way you see people being baptized is by immersion. And the only people you ever see being baptized are believers. [00:35:28] It is the or. And not only that, it's the order given in the Great Commission. Go ye therefore and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and Son of the Holy ghost. [00:35:40] Mark chapter 16 says, Go ye therefore and preach the gospel. Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved, but he that believeth not shall be damned. The order is clearly spelled out in Scripture. Not only that, but the example and the way it was actually performed and worked out in Acts was also seen. [00:35:59] You all know this. [00:36:01] You know, for the most part, I think everybody knows that. [00:36:05] Furthermore, there are people that use different verses to justify baptism of a non believer, specifically an infant. But I want to tell you, if you examine the verses they use, you will laugh at how pathetic the proofs are, because they're really. It is incontrovertible. [00:36:28] And so. [00:36:29] But the question is, why? [00:36:32] Ari, can you help them? Come in? Find a seat. [00:36:35] So the question is, why do people do something different? And there's one answer. Here's the answer. Tradition. [00:36:42] Tradition. [00:36:43] And that goes back to the first point. [00:36:46] Not only that, the second ordinance is the Lord's Supper, which we'll do next week, is a memorial of Christ's sacrifice. [00:36:57] It's open only to believers. And there's no efficacy regarding our salvation in the Lord's Supper. It's a memorial. It's a memorial. It's a way to remember and to keep before us, constantly before us, that Christ has shed his blood for us and his body was broken for us. That's all. Now you say that's all. It is vital for a church to practice. [00:37:19] But the soul has to be saved before that. [00:37:22] The soul has to be saved before that. [00:37:24] Now, why do these ordinances matter? When you talk about infant baptism and you talk about believers baptism, why does it matter? [00:37:33] We'll see that in just a second. Oh, man, we are out of time. [00:37:37] Somebody should have reminded me so I didn't get carried away. All right, we'll have to pause there and pick up with individual soul liberty next week. Let's pray together.