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Sermon for Lord's Day October 15, 2023 Trinitarian Baptism
In Matthew 28, 18 -20, if you would please stand to honor the reading of God's Holy Word. Matthew 28, beginning in verse 18, these are the words of the living God. And Jesus came and said to them, All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.
Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.
Thus far is the reading of God's Holy Word. You may be seated this morning. And this morning, as most everyone knows, up until last night, we had two candidates that were going to be baptizing after the lunch today.
We're going to be getting in a procession, carpooling down to Eden Chapel. Eden Chapel is gracious enough to open their church for us to baptize today. And we're going to be baptizing Asa and Ruby. Last night, Troy and Carissa called and said Mason wanted to be baptized.
As of this morning, we examined him, talked with him and Troy and Carissa together as a family. And Mason is ready to be baptized upon obedience of the faith. So what a blessing we have a third to baptize this afternoon.
Amen.
That being said, I felt it important as a body, as particularly since we are in between books of the Bible right now, how providential this is that we are getting to observe this ordinance of baptism.
But I also realize and I also understand that there are a great many in the churches today, not just Reformation, but churches up and down the road who observe the ordinance of baptism and they truly have no understanding of what is going on or what is taking place.
So if you're taking notes today and would like to put a header on your notes, the header I have on my notes today is simply this baptism in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost. Trinitarian baptism.
This is what the scripture sets forth. This is the pattern that God has given his church, his people to follow. Just as observance of the Lord's Supper is a practice that we should ever be doing that reminds us, points us not just to the death of Christ, but to the fact that Christ arose from the dead and that he is coming back again.
No man knows the day, no man knows the hour, but we know this to be reality. But considering the fact that few, if few might be a strong word, I would say just the opposite. I think there are many in the churches today, many congregants who come in week after week after week in churches up and down the roads who have little to no understanding of the doctrines and the practices and the teachings that is observed in the churches that they sit in.
Adrian Rogers said this many years ago. He said concerning the church in America, he said many have joined the local church, but they never truly joined Jesus, who is the head of the church. They have religion, but they lack the relationship.
They had head knowledge without a heart change. And as Rogers put it this way, he said, there is a problem, a real problem. And that problem is this, that people attend church, they listen to sermons, they join churches, but they are never radically, dramatically and eternally changed.
This change that I'm speaking about to you today is the work of the Holy Spirit. It is the regenerating work of the Holy Spirit of God, which makes a man a new creature. He takes a man who is hateful.
He takes a man who is wicked. He takes a woman who is hateful. He takes a woman who is wicked. He takes boys and girls who are hateful and wicked, and he makes new creatures of them. And he does so at his will.
Man cannot say that a child this age cannot be saved, any more than he can say that an adult past this age cannot be saved. The Spirit moves where he wills. He works in the hearts and in the minds of those whom he calls and draws unto himself.
This is the work of regeneration. Adrian Rogers went on, he said this, They join churches, but they are never radically, dramatically and eternally changed. They have religion, but they have never met God.
Many churches today, and this is what Rogers said that really struck me, this quote, Many churches today are filled with baptized pagans. Baptized pagans, he said, and if you know Rogers' voice, it's such a deep, booming voice.
He said they have been vaccinated. Are you listening? They have been vaccinated with a mild form of Christianity, and they've never caught the real disease. Good statement. Amen right there. They've been vaccinated with a mild form of Christianity, and they've never caught the real disease.
And so the church may be full, but the people are often empty. They come, they go through the motions, they try to live outwardly a good life, but they have never really, truly found a new life. They have never been converted.
They have never been converted. That being said, our purpose today in teaching about baptism is twofold. Two reasons why we're teaching about baptism today. Number one, the number one reason that we're teaching on baptism is to teach the children who will be baptized today what baptism represents, to teach the children what baptism represents and what being baptized communicates to them.
Very, very important here. What baptism communicates to them. And number two, the second purpose in our teaching on baptism today, the second purpose is to communicate and to remind those who have been baptized already what being baptized represents and what baptism is meant and intended to have communicated to you.
If you're writing those down, you probably already caught on that those sound very much alike. They are. They are very much alike. A sad reality is that many baptisms have been done and little, little has been taught on the subject of baptism itself.
About three years ago or so, Matt Breeding and his family, they were coming for a little while. We had communion one Sunday. And so we took the entire service and we taught on communion. And what is the meaning of communion?
Matt said after the service that he had been in church his whole life and never heard an entire sermon preached on communion and the Lord's Supper. And I thought to myself, then how can we go to churches every week, sit under the preaching and the teaching of the word of God and not hear about these basic doctrines and practices that we observe, that we give ourselves to?
Now, when baptism is brought up in Christian circles, in most cases, the first thoughts seem to always go from both sides of the debate. Do we sprinkle or do we immerse? Then there's the debate about whether participants of baptism must be believers or can they just be children of believers?
This is referred to as the credo Baptist versus pedo Baptist positions. There is wiggle room on the motive baptism. There is less give on the credo Baptist pedo Baptist view. However, I would say this.
It seems as though much time has been given to these distractions when the focus should be on what the scriptures tell us the true focus of the doctrine of baptism is. And that is what we want to focus on today.
So, first of all, baptism, according to God's word given to us here in Matthew 28, Christ said, Jesus said, all authority is given to me in heaven and in earth. He is king of kings and lord of lords. Not will be.
He is reigning from heaven as we speak. All authority on heaven and earth is given to me. And so he said, go, therefore, to his disciples. Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the father and of the son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you.
And behold, I am with you always, even to the end of the world. So, first of all, number one here, baptism is a command of our Lord. Mason answered this quick as he could. When we ask him this question, why do you want to be baptized?
Because the Bible says we should be baptized. Great answer.
Fantastic.
So we when we think about this baptism, number one is a command of our Lord that was given to his disciples as an ordinance to be practiced. And secondly, secondly, and most importantly, we have been told plainly in the Bible that baptism is to be done in the name of the father and of the son and of the Holy Spirit.
This is referred to Trinitarian, the Trinitarian formula of baptism. And it's very, very, very important for the new believer. It's very important for the old believer to know this. Our own confession, the Second London Baptist Confession, 1689, chapter 29 on baptism, states this paragraph one, two and three.
This is a fantastic outline. Baptism is an ordinance of the New Testament ordained by Jesus Christ. Good start right there. It's given to the and so to those who are baptized, to those being baptized, Asa, Ruby, Mason, and anyone else that may be thinking or have been pondering this thought.
Baptism, what it is, it is a sign of your fellowship with Christ in his death and in his resurrection. It is a sign of your fellowship with Christ in his death and his resurrection. It is a sign of your being engrafted into him, being one with Christ.
It is a sign of the remission of your sins, for the water represents cleansing. So we must understand and we must know when we go down into the waters here in about four hours, three or four hours, whatever time it is that we get there.
When we go down into those waters, Asa, when we go down into those waters, Ruby, when we go down into those waters, Mason, know this, that you are identifying with Christ. In his death, in his burial, in his resurrection, that you're being engrafted into him, that Christ, by the shedding of his blood, has forgiven you of your sins.
And next, what does it say to you? It says that you are submitting your whole life to him. It is a public identification and a public giving of yourself to the Lord. So you are committing yourself to walk with God, to live with Christ, to walk in the newness of life.
Next, in paragraph two there, under baptism, the next key to remember is this. Those who personally profess repentance toward God and faith in and obedience to our Lord Jesus Christ are the only proper subjects of this ordinance.
Again, there's debates. We're not having that debate today. What we're doing is focusing on the Trinitarian formulation of baptism. Those who personally profess repentance toward God and faith in and obedience to our Lord Jesus Christ are the only proper subjects of this ordinance.
Number three, the outward element to be used in this ordinance is water, in which the individual is to be baptized in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Very, very important.
The biblical formula of baptism is the Trinitarian formula of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Now, there is something that's very clearly communicated to all witnesses as the new believer is immersed beneath the water in the name of the Trinity.
Today, what we're going to do is examine things that are clearly communicated to the believer. We skimmed over them there. We're going to examine these things, the things that are clearly communicated to the believer.
Everybody, for years and years and years, all you hear about baptism is what it's saying to everybody else. But Christian, you need to understand and know what baptism says to you, because it is you who are professing faith in Jesus Christ.
It is you that have been born again, and it is you and you alone that must understand that this act of obedience is a serious act and that God intends for you to understand what you are doing. So there's something clearly communicated to all witnesses as the new believer is immersed beneath the water in the name of the Trinity.
Today, as we examine these, we're going to focus on the doctrine of and the persons of the Trinity. Nothing in this Trinity is before or after concerning the triune nature of God. Nothing in this Trinity is before or after, meaning Jesus wasn't before God or the Holy Spirit wasn't before Jesus.
Forever eternally existing, in their entirety, the three persons are co-eternal and co-equal with each other. One of the best, one of the best historic creeds that we have to help us to understand the Trinity.
By the way, some of you might be thinking, is he about to give us some lame analogy about eggs or ice and water? No, that should never be done. Never. It should never be done. All we have are what the scriptures say and what the scriptures say are enough.
We must take the time to examine those things. The creeds and the historic confessions of church history throughout the years, however, have done an excellent job of giving us commentary without giving us foolish analogies.
For example, the Athanasian Creed states this. So in everything, as was said earlier, we must worship their Trinity in their unity and their unity in their Trinity. Anyone then who desires to be saved should thus think about the Trinity.
In other words, if you deny the triune nature of the Godhead, you will not be saved. Now, that's not to say you can't understand it and still be saved, but you cannot deny the triune nature of the Godhead and be saved.
Very, very important there. But it is necessary, they said in the Creed, for eternal salvation that one also believe in the incarnation of our Lord Jesus Christ faithfully. Now, this is the true faith.
This is the true faith that we believe and that we confess that our Lord Jesus Christ, God's Son, is both God and human equally.
That's the hypostatic union.
He is God from the essence of the Father, begotten before time, and he is human from the essence of his mother, born in time. He is completely God, completely human, with a rational soul and human flesh.
He is equal to the Father as regards divinity, less than the Father as regards humanity. Although he is God and human, yet Christ is not two, but one. He is one, however, not by his divinity being turned into flesh, but by God's taking humanity to himself.
He is one, certainly not by the blending of his essence, but by the unity of his person. For just as one human is both rational soul and flesh, so too the one Christ is both God and man. He suffered for our salvation.
He arose from the dead. He ascended to heaven. He is seated at the Father's right hand. And from there he will come to judge the living and the dead. At his coming, all people will arise bodily and give an accounting of their own deeds.
Those who have done good will enter into eternal life, and those who have done evil will enter into eternal fire. That is the truth. B .B. Warfield said this, This is the distinguishing characteristic of Christians, and that is as much as to say that the doctrine of the Trinity is, according to our Lord's own apprehension of it, it is the distinctive mark of the religion which he founded.
Christianity is not a polytheistic religion. We do not have many gods. Christianity is monotheistic. We have one God, one God, who exists in three persons, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. We can't explain it real good.
We don't have it all figured out. But when you, my friends, take a good, long, hard look and examine the scriptures, you will find that the scriptures teach that God is three in one. So, moving on. Josh Bice said this concerning salvation and the Trinity.
The salvation of every sinner is completed by all three persons of the Trinity. Did you know this? Again, I made the statement, it was a big statement earlier. You can't be saved if you deny the Trinity.
You can't be saved if you deny the Trinity, but you can be saved if you don't understand Him. But you must understand, and you must know this, that you're saved by all three persons of the Trinity. Therefore, it is most appropriate, Bice said, it's most appropriate that the sinner give praise to the triune God in the water as a profession of faith in the one true and the living God.
John Calvin said this, wherefore, we must hold this first, that it is God alone who washes us from our sins. The blood of His Son. It is God alone who washes us by the blood of His Son, and to this end, this washing may be effectual in us.
He works by the hidden power of His Spirit. Therefore, when the question is concerning remission of sins, we must seek no other author thereof but the Heavenly Father. We must imagine no other material cause but the blood of Christ.
And when we come to the formal cause, the Holy Ghost is the chief. We have Trinitarian language used throughout the Scriptures. And so when we pray, we pray to the Father. We pray to the Father through the Son with the help of the Holy Spirit.
This is what we've been learning on Sunday nights. The New Testament writers used Trinitarian language throughout their life and throughout their entire worship. And what was true, what was true of the biblical authors was also true of the early Christians.
It was true of the early Christians who received faith from them. I'm talking about late 1st century, 2nd century Christians who gained insight and knowledge from the inspired Scriptures that were given in that time frame.
For example, there's a writing called the Didache. The Didache, one of the earliest Christian writings outside the New Testament. It dates from within the lifetime of the first generation of Christians.
And listen to what they teach on baptism. Baptized into the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. And they said in living water. Now again, remember this is early writing. So what do they mean in living water?
Likely what that means is running water. If you can find a creek, if you can find a stream, if you can find a lake, baptize in that. But they went on. But if you have no living water, baptize in other water.
No excuses, right? And if you cannot do so in cold water, do so in warm. If you got cold or warm water, baptize it. If you got running water or still water, baptize it. That's what it says.
And they even went on to say this.
But if you have neither, pour out water three times upon the head of them into the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Ghost. Provision was made. Listen, we don't have to try to go to extremes to make this argument or that argument.
The scriptures teach baptism. And by the way, the water's probably going to be cold again.
Last time it was at Benedictine Chapel.
So we have cold water. So the point being on this. The point being that baptism, being taught as an ordinance to be practiced and perpetually observed by the Christian church, is to be done in the name of the Father, in the name of the Son, and in the name of the Holy Ghost.
To be done in the name of the Father, who sent his only begotten Son to die for our sin, and in the name and in the authority of the Holy Spirit who worked salvation in us. One could not enter into fellowship without an acknowledgement in the early days of the church.
One could not enter into fellowship without an acknowledgement that they were doing so in one name and singular authority of the Father, the Son, and the Spirit. Consider this. Consider there was an article back in 2017.
I think the guy's name was Luke Wayne. Not John Wayne, but Luke Wayne, who wrote this article. And this is what he said. Consider how in the early church they evoke the Trinity in blessing one another, such as in the salutation at the end of Paul's letters to the Corinthian church.
In 2 Corinthians chapter 13 and verse 14, Paul closes the letter by saying this. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all. We see this continually.
Now, there are no biblical passages where believers were exhorted to wish the grace of Moses, Elijah, or even the Archangel Michael on each other. Nor did they wish one another the fellowship of impersonal forces as the Holy Spirit has been made out to be in our day and in our time.
The Holy Spirit is the third person of the Godhead. He is not an impersonal force. He didn't find his beginning in Star Wars. He ever has and eternally shall be part of the triune Godhead who deserves worship, praise, honor, and glory.
So the grace of our Lord Jesus is a divine grace. The fellowship of the Holy Spirit is a personal fellowship with the individual who is equated with God and Christ. Now, this is thoroughly Trinitarian.
Wayne said this. The greetings in biblical letters also sometimes express this truth, such as the opening lines of Peter's first epistle in 1 Peter chapter 1. 1 Peter chapter 1 verses 1 and 2. Peter writes to those who reside as aliens scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, who were chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the Father by the sanctifying work of the Spirit to obey Jesus Christ and to be sprinkled with his blood.
May grace and peace be yours in the fullest measure. Not only did Peter greet the brethren in the name of the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit, he expressed the divine work itself of salvation as the Trinity's work.
The redemption of the saints in the choice of the Father is the sanctifying work of the Spirit. It is accomplished in and through the blood of Jesus Christ. The gospel itself is a Trinitarian message.
So salvation is the work of the Father, it's the work of the Son, and it is the work of the Spirit. So why? Tell me. Should we baptize by any other means or by invocation of any other name other than by the Trinity, the Holy Trinity, God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit?
Trinitarian baptism is what is taught and commanded. Now, to examine briefly what baptism says to the individual who is being baptized. Mason, what baptism is saying to you? Asa, Ruby, what baptism is saying to you?
Those of you who have been baptized. See, I'm not going to leave anybody out. This is what baptism has said to you, what it says to the individual who is being baptized. Now, I want to make a special note here.
It's necessary here for me to mention something. That baptism is a symbol and a sign that represents and sets forth in the natural what has taken place in the spiritual life of you as an individual. Baptism, as the Roman Catholics teach, is not the seal of salvation.
It does not matter how many times you were baptized. You are not sealed until the day of redemption by your baptism. You are sealed until the day of redemption by the Holy Ghost of God. He saves, He keeps, He preserves.
Ephesians chapter 1 verse 11 through 14 tells us this. In Him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of Him who works all things according to the counsel of His will.
So that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be to the praise of His glory. In Him you also, when you heard the word of truth, you heard the word, the gospel of your salvation, and you believed in Him, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit, a promise.
Who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it to the praise of His glory. In Ephesians chapter 4, Paul goes on, but he says, but that is not the way that you learned Christ, assuming that you have heard about Him and you were taught in Him, as the truth is in Jesus, to do this.
To put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life. And it is corrupt through deceitful desires and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds and to put on the new self created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and true holiness.
Just in those couple of verses right there, we see a whole lot. We see Christ, us being commanded to put off the old self, to take off the old. To take off the old, why? Because it's corrupt through its deceitful lusts and desires.
And then to be renewed in the spirit of our minds, which is the work of the Holy Spirit. And then to put on the new self, which in of that is the work of God created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.
And he goes on and he says this, therefore, having done this, having put away falsehood, having put away lying, having put away falsehood, let each one of you speak the truth with his neighbor. For we are members of one another.
Be angry and do not sin. Do not let the sun go down on your anger and give no opportunity to the devil. Let the thief no longer steal, but rather let him labor doing honest work with his own hands so that he may have something to share with anyone in need.
Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up as fits the occasion that he may give grace to those who hear. And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God by whom, listen to what he says, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.
Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you with all malice and be kind one to another, tender hearted, forgiving one another for even as God for Christ's sake has forgiven you.
Next, it's important for you to understand and to know that neither the waters nor the act of baptism, nor the location that you're in, whether you're in the creek or in a baptistry or in a horse shop, in a swimming pool.
We've done baptisms in all those places that the waters do the act, nor the location, nor. And please, please pay attention to this. Everyone nor is the one who administers baptism. All of those are nothing, nothing.
You may think to yourself, and if you even said it, when I got back to looking back on your life, you may think, and this is just honest, you may think I got baptized by a dud. There's no power in the man that baptized you.
There was no power in the water you were baptized in. There's no water in the place that you were baptized in. It's important for you to know this, that baptism typifies, or to make it plain, baptism is a picture of the death, burial, and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Baptism is a picture of the death, burial, and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. And it is a picture of you as the believer saying, I'm dying to myself. I am presenting myself a living sacrifice unto God.
And thirdly, so number one, it's a picture of the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ. Number two, it's a picture of the death of the self to the believer. And number three, it's a commitment of you as a believer to walk in holiness and in uprightness all the days of your life.
That's what baptism is.
Baptism says everything to the believer, to the individual being baptized. Those of us who witness it, that's just a blessing and a bonus. But what's taking place in baptism is the one being baptized is being reminded and made aware that this is serious.
Back in Jesus' day when they were baptized, it was a death sentence for them. Their family would leave them. I wonder if there were folks with guns on us or we had an inkling that a family member was going to turn their back on us if we were baptized.
Would you have been baptized when you were baptized? No, probably not. Nor would it have mattered because the idea and the thought process in many Christians' mind is if I don't feel like it worked that last time, I'll just have it done again.
It's not about that. It's about you, believer, understanding and knowing that you have sinned against God. And that you need salvation. And that God provided the means of salvation for you in sending his son to die on the cross.
And that his Holy Spirit convicted you of your sin, regenerated your heart and mind, made you a new creature in Christ Jesus. That is what baptism speaks. That is what baptism says. Believer's baptism is the standard set forth in the scriptures.
For example, just a couple more passages here and we'll close. But it's so very, very important.
So very important, church.
In Acts chapter 22.
Again, I want to reiterate my statement there. Believer's baptism is the standard set forth in the scriptures. Paul. Paul is giving his testimony. After having been taken captive. Paul says this in Acts chapter 22, verse 1.
Brothers and fathers, hear the defense that I now make before you. When they had heard that he was addressing them in the Hebrew language, they became even more quiet and said. And he said, I'm a Jew, born in Tarsus in Cilicia, but brought up in this city.
I was educated at the feet of Gamaliel, according to the strict manner of the law of our fathers. Being zealous for God, as all of you are this day. I persecuted this way. That was a reference to the Christians.
He said, I persecuted this way to the death. Binding and delivering to prison both men and women. As the high priest and the whole council of elders can bear me witness. For them, or from them, I received letters to brothers and I journeyed toward Damascus to take those also who were there.
And bring them in bonds to Jerusalem to be punished. So here we have Paul talking of his life before Christ. He said, as I was on my way and I drew near to Damascus. About noon, a great light from heaven suddenly shone around me.
And I fell to the ground and I heard a voice saying to me, Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? And I answered, who are you, Lord? And he said to me, I am Jesus of Nazareth, whom you are persecuting.
Now those who were with me saw the light, but did not understand the voice of the one who was speaking to me. And I said, what shall I do, Lord? And the Lord said to me, rise and go into Damascus. And there you will be told all that is appointed for you to do.
And since Paul said, and since I could not see because of the brightness of that light, I was led by the hand by those who were with me and came into Damascus. And one in a night, a devout man, according to the law, well spoken of by all the Jews who lived there, he came to me.
And standing by me, said to me, brother Saul, receive your sight. And at that very hour, I received my sight and I saw him. And he said, the God of our fathers appointed you to know his will, to see the righteous one and to hear the voice from his mouth.
For you will be a witness for him to everyone of what you have seen and what you have heard. And now, why do you wait? Rise and be baptized and wash away your sins, calling on his name. So concerning that last sentence there in verse 16, rise and be baptized and wash away your sins, calling on his name.
We see that the Apostle Paul himself was not being baptized to be saved, but he was going to be baptized because he had been saved. No power, no saving efficacy, nothing salvific is in the water of baptism, nothing whatsoever.
John Calvin said this concerning verse 16. But when he said, wash away thy sins, Calvin said by this speech, he expressed the force and the fruit of baptism. As if he had said, wash away thy sins by baptism.
But because it may seem that by this means more is attributed to the outward and the corruptible element than is meet for the question to be whether baptism be the cause of our purging. So he went on.
That was a curious statement there. Surely for as much as the blood of Christ is the only means whereby our sins are washed away. And it is as it was once shed to this end. So the Holy Ghost, by the sprinkling thereof through faith, does make us clean continually.
This hour or dishonor cannot be translated into the sign of water without doing open injury to Christ and to the Holy Ghost. And experience does teach how earnestly men be bent upon this superstition.
He was speaking about the Roman Catholic superstition of water regeneration, of the fact that when they took the infants and they baptized them, that they were given a measure of grace on which they could go.
Which we all know this. It doesn't take long for even our little ones to run out the little bit of grace that they seem to have. John Gill said this concerning the statement calling on the name of the Lord.
The name of the Lord is not only to be used by the administrator of baptism in the performance of it, but it should be called upon by the person who submits to it. Both both before and at the administration of it for the presence of Christ in it.
And this invocation of the name of the Lord and baptism signifies an exercise of faith in Christ at this time, a profession of him and obedience to him. So how can anyone be saved by calling on the name of the Lord?
You call on the name of the Lord. The scripture tells us whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved. All that come to me, I will in no way cast out. Christ has said this. You call on the name of the Lord to be saved.
You call on the name of the Lord in the waters of baptism because you are saved. And you call on the name of the Lord the rest of your waking days because you are saved. Last passage, Romans six, Romans chapter six, beginning in verse one, Romans chapter six, verse one.
The apostle Paul states, what shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound?
Rhetorical question.
The answer is no. God forbid.
By no means.
How can we who died to sin still live in it? Big statement. He makes big question that he asked there. Do you not know? Paul states that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death.
We were buried, therefore, with him by baptism into death in order that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the father, that we too might walk in the newness of life. For if we have been united with him in death, like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.
So the last thing that baptism communicates to the believer is this number one. Not only are you identifying with Christ in his death and in his burial, not only are you committing yourself to walk with Christ all the days of your life, but your baptism should signify and symbolize to you that just as Christ Jesus was raised from the grave.
So one day you believer shall be raised from the grave. At the last trump, when the trump of God shall sound, the dead in Christ shall be raised incorruptible and those who remain will be caught up together with them in the air.
And so shall we ever be with the Lord. That's what the scriptures teach us concerning baptism. We know that our old self, that our old man, our old girl, our old boy 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.
For one who has died has been set free from sin. Now, if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. We know that Christ being raised from the dead will never die again because death has no more dominion over him.
For the death he died, he died to sin once and for all, but the life he lives, he lives to God. So you, so you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus. Asa, Ruby. All right.
Yeah.
Asa, Ruby, Mason. Listen, let do not let sin run your body. Do not let sin run your life. Do not present your members of your body to sin. Do not give yourself to sin as instruments of right unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God.
Give yourselves to the Lord continually as ones who have been brought from death to life and give your members to God as instruments of righteousness. The apostle Paul states, the inspired word of God states this, sin will not have dominion over you since this, since you are not under the law anymore, but you are under grace.
Stand with us if you would this morning.