The church is the foundation for the Truth. The Truth is housed in the church. The church is a temple for the Truth—and here are the columns, and here’s the foundation, and that’s the superstructure of the church, which is what? The pillar and ground of the…TRUTH! Let the church preach the Truth. Let the church disseminate the Truth into all of the world. Let all of us as members of the Lord’s church practice the Truth. It’s been a long time since I heard a sermon on TRUTH. That’s why we’re here. We love the Truth. We’re going to try to pass it on to as many people as possible. We’re going to try to practice the Truth. “Worship in spirit and in Truth,” [John 4:24].

And that’s the other passage that describes the church. When the church comes together, the church worships in spirit and in Truth. We don’t have any options. These things cannot be changed. I like to believe that the Lord’s church has always been on this earth through all these difficulties and persecutions throughout history, and that if they were in caves, or in holes, or in the mountains, or hiding, they partook of the Lord’s Supper. They preached the Word. They prayed. They gave. And the First Day of the Week was the day they came for the assembly.

Now I hear about some very large denomination in our city where the “pastor” said, “We don’t serve the Lord’s Supper on Sunday because it would take us too long to serve it to all of our people. So we have it on Thursday night for those who want to come.” Our Lord was resurrected on the First Day of the Week. The memorial supper was instituted by Him. “As often as ye eat this bread and drink this cup, you do show forth My death until I come again,” [1 Corinthians 11:23-30].

Then we see the example of the early church, that on the First Day of the Week, the Holy Spirit came upon them, and that was the Day of Pentecost. Our Lord was already resurrected. The people from many nations who were listening to the apostles preach wanted to know what to do to be saved. Peter said, “Repent ye, and be baptized every one of you…, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit,” [Acts 2:38]. And about 3,000 souls did exactly what the Holy Spirit inspired the apostles to say. Friends, we’re still teaching that. I dare not change it, because those people who did those things—obeyed those commands—were added to the Lord’s church by the Lord Himself. The church is the pillar and ground of the Truth, and it’s made up of all of us who have been added to the eternal kingdom of our Lord BY our Lord, [Acts 2:47].

Now, that makes sense. That’s not hard to understand. Basic Truth usually is very simple. When we get right down to what Truth is all about, our Lord has put Truth on a level where a young boy or a young girl, when they reach the age of accountability, can make the decision to be baptized into Christ because of what they’ve been taught. They’re not joining the church. They know that they’re being buried with Christ in the waters of baptism, which is emblematic of His blood, which washes away our sins. Just as Jesus died and buried, we join Him in a death and a burial—we are dead to our old life of sin. We’re united with Him in the likeness of His death, and we’re raised up to walk in newness of life—and all of those words are Scripture. [See Romans 6:3-10.]

Would we change that? Have I heard some of my preacher friends in the church say that we’ve made too much out of baptism? Have I heard them say that if a person has come as far as he can by faith, and he rejects baptism, that “I don’t believe God would condemn him over a little bit of water?” The Truth is that he or she has “missed the boat” all the way around. We do exactly what God said. We recognize that in the water, we join Him in a death, and a burial, and a resurrection, and our sins have been “washed away,” to use the words of Paul. [Paul telling of his own conversion in Acts 22:16; see also Titus 3:3-7.]

Friends, these are not slight, meaningless or insignificant things. These are not choices. They are not incidentals. This is what Christ instituted. This is what the Holy Spirit inspired to be recorded, and it’s what we must preach. I magnify the plan of salvation. It came from our sweet Lord. It is inspired by the Holy Spirit. Church history testifies that obedience to these commands is what the early church did for centuries before departures were made.

Now, when you misunderstand Scripture, and you think a baby is a sinner… A baby is not a sinner. They’re not accountable yet. Our courts recognize that. So, we don’t baptize a baby. The “original sin” did not pass upon each one of us as an individual. We all shall be made manifest [known for what we are; shown for what we truly are by evidence; displayed clearly and openly] before the judgment seat of Christ to receive the deeds done in the body. [See 2 Corinthians 5:10; also see Romans 14:10-12; Revelation 20:12-15.] That’s all we’ll be judged for. And that’s fair—that’s just. I didn’t inherit my father or my mother’s sins. They’re accountable for those. And if I’m accountable to God, and I understand the plan, and I obey the Gospel, my sins have been taken away. There are about 105 passages in our New Testament that deal with this subject of “baptism.”

What is the Truth? God’s Word is the Truth. Jesus is the embodiment [Jesus made flesh—God with us] of the Truth. The Holy Spirit brings and reveals the Truth. And we, as the church, try to live the Truth, and we try to worship in such a way that we are pleasing to our Father. 1 Timothy 2:3-4, “This is good and pleases God our Savior who wants all men to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the TRUTH.”