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Romans 6:1-14
Amen.
We are commanded in the Scriptures to sing psalms. We saw that in Ephesians chapter 5. And so, it's a new thing that we've been doing and I appreciate Gunnar's leadership in that. What a beautiful psalm.
I encourage you perhaps even this afternoon to read Psalm 29 and think about that as we sing that psalm during the month of June.
This morning, I want to start out with this glorious truth and that is the Lord Jesus loves His church. The Lord Jesus loves His local churches. As a church, we have been in discussions, praying and thinking through a name change.
We're praying about this. To one extent, as I've thought about this, wouldn't it be nice today if we could just call ourselves a church without qualifiers? But this is not the context that we live in today.
We live in a day, in a time period, in a context where it is necessary to provide clarifying labels so that people understand who you are. And we are, as a church, we are unashamedly, unapologetically, unequivocally, a Baptist church.
J .C. Ryle, who was not a Baptist, by the way, wrote this. We ought to regard baptism with reverence. An ordinance of which the Lord Jesus Himself partook is not to be lightly esteemed. An ordinance to which the great head of the church submitted ought to be ever honorable in the eyes of professing Christians.
Beloved, I start this sermon by reminding you that there are a long line of godly men and women who have sacrificed much, even their very lives, for this belief that we celebrate.
Today.
Namely, believers' baptism by immersion. We turn to Romans chapter 6. Romans chapter 6. I thought that we would take the opportunity today at Trey's baptism to consider with reverence the weighty doctrine of Christian baptism.
We want to consider this morning the title of the sermon, A Picture Worth a Thousand.
Words.
A Picture Worth a Thousand Words, and we will examine from Romans 6 the biblical way that believers are to understand this beautiful and blessed ordinance that we celebrate today. And I encourage you with something that we will do here at the end of the sermon, I encourage you to understand that baptism is not merely something that Trey is doing today, but it is something that our entire church, in one sense, is participating in as we affirm and encourage Trey, and as we observe a picture, not only the gospel, but what the gospel does to a lost sinner.
Romans chapter 6 will be our text. Would you stand with me as we honor the reading of God's Word? Romans chapter 6, beginning in verse 1, and we will go through verse 14. What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound?
By no means!
How can we who died to sin still live in it? Do you not know 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, we too might walk in newness of life.
For if we have been united with Him in a death like His, we shall certainly be united with Him in a resurrection like His. We know that our old self was crucified with Him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin, 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. Death no longer has dominion over Him. For the death He died, He died to sin once for all, but the life He lives, He lives to.
God.
So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus. Let not sin, therefore, reign in your mortal body to make you obey its passions. Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness.
For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law, but under grace. Father, we thank you for this text. We thank you for the Apostle Paul writing under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.
We thank you that we stand before you today with the inerrant, infallible, sufficient, authoritative, necessary, clear Word of the living God. And we thank you, O God, that we have this text in our language.
We are deserving of wandering around in darkness, groping and rebelling and sinning against you, and yet here we are together, together under the preaching of your Word in a language we can understand, with the divine favor of the Spirit upon this place.
And we pray, God, that we would not make light of such a blessing. Help us to understand today the picture of baptism. Help us to understand the symbol and what it signifies, and showing forth the picture of Christ's death, burial, and resurrection, and so too our death, burial, and resurrection in Him.
We pray today that as we observe this ordinance, that we have been encouraged rightly by the grace you show us. We pray that we would understand the commitment that Trey is making publicly. We pray, God, that for those in this room who are not converted, they'd be convicted of wasting and squandering such mercy, and would even today repent and believe the Gospel.
We pray for today, for those who have not submitted themselves rightly unto the ordinance of believers' baptism, that they would be convicted and not seek to walk out of step with what your Word has for them, and even today would pledge to enter these waters for the glory of Christ.
We pray that you would be honored in the preaching of the Word, and we pray it in Jesus' name. Amen. You may be seated. Today, what a beautiful ordinance is believers' baptism. We consider this morning, in this baptism, three pictures, three things to consider from the ordinance of baptism, and then we'll do something different.
After I preach, we'll go into the baptism. So one reminder of baptism is this. Number one, it reminds us of, first of all, an overwhelming covenant. Number one, baptism this morning, pictures for us, reminds us, signifies an overwhelming covenant.
Now, we begin in verse 14, and we'll work our way backwards a little bit, but feast your eyes upon verse 14, where Paul says, For sin will have no dominion over you.
Who? Christians.
Why?
Since you are not under law, but under grace. So you're not under law, but under grace. Two words then to consider there, law and grace. Paul is arguing, believers are not under the law, but they are under grace.
Now the apostle Paul happens to be one of my favorite Baptists, and what we see him articulating for us here is an overarching view, if you will, of the two great covenants of the Bible, law and grace, the covenant of works and the covenant of grace.
By the way, let me just make a note for you. This is how your Bible is divided, right? You have a Bible that is divided into two sections. What are those sections? You have the Old Testament and you have the New Testament.
Now testament comes from the Latin word testamentum. It just means covenant. Your Bible is literally divided into two sections, first section, Old Covenant, second section, New Covenant, or law, first section, second section, grace.
Now don't think of this in the sense that there's only law in the Old Testament and there's only grace in the New Testament. Of course, that's not true at all. But what it does help us to see is that these two covenants, law and grace, help to give us a framework of the entire Bible.
I'll actually make the argument that it is Baptists who read the Bible the best, above all the other evangelical denominations, Protestant, God-honoring denomination, it's Baptists who read the Bible the best.
Paul says, for sin will have no dominion over you since you are not under law but under grace. In fact, I would go so far as to say, if we don't understand these covenants well, we don't read our Bibles well.
Listen to how Charles Spurgeon said it, the doctrine of the divine covenant lies at the root of all true theology. It has been said that he who well understands the distinction between the covenant of works and the covenant of grace is a master of divinity.
I am persuaded that most of the mistakes which men make concerning the doctrines of Scripture are based upon fundamental errors with regard to the covenants of law and grace. So again, brothers and sisters, I say to you from this text that baptism is a beautiful picture of an overwhelming covenant, and what I'm going to do is walk through that for just.
A moment.
So we have in verse 14, law and grace. You're not under law but under grace. All persons born in Adam are born into law. They are born, as it were, under the federal headship of Adam. They are born into, theologically, the covenant of works, and this covenant has been broken due to Adam's sin.
Now, if this is new for you this morning, and you're a little bit confused by that,.
That's okay.
Let me explain it to you this way. Turn over in your Bibles to the preceding chapter, Romans chapter 5 and verse 12. Here's what I'm saying. Here's what Paul's saying. Here's what the Bible is teaching.
Here is the covenant of works. Here is the identification of all persons in Adam, Romans chapter 5, verse 12. Therefore, just as sin came into the world through, who?
One man.
And death through sin, so death spread to all men because all sinned. All sin, that is, first and foremost, in Adam. Adam is what we call, what the Bible teaches, as our legal representative. He is the federal head of the human race, and in Adam, all die.
We are born, that is, under a broken covenant of works. We are guilty due to Adam's sin, all the while, the moment we're able to, we choose to rebel, we choose to sin, we choose to turn towards wickedness.
I'll just illustrate it this way. Lots of young kids, beautiful babies, right? In the service this morning. But you don't have to teach a child to sin. You don't have to teach a child to lie.
Who ate the cookie?
You don't have to teach a child to say, hey, just say it was your brother, right? Somehow, instinctively, it wells up within them. It wasn't me. It was them. Go back to the garden. God says to Adam, what have you done?
It wasn't me. It was the woman, by the way, that you gave me, right? And we've inherited such wretchedness from our first father. You don't have to teach a child mischief or lying or stealing or even a foul mouth.
It's our nature, what I'm saying, to run away from God, to sin. We have nothing left, the Bible teaches, nothing left within us that's willing or able to do any spiritual good before God. The covenant of works, being under the law, leaves us in a hopeless condition.
Being under the law shows us the perfection of God, and it shows us the perfection that God demands, but it only moves us to rebel. That's Paul's argument in Romans 7, I'll just paraphrase it when he says, I was once alive apart from the law, but the law awakened sin within me, right?
Not that the law is unrighteous, but that our sin is unrighteous. So it only moves us to rebel, and it is unable to remedy our situation. Illustration, you look in the mirror, and you see on the mirror there's dirt on your face, but you can't, no one pushes their face against the mirror and uses the mirror to clean the dirt off your face.
The mirror is not a tool to clean the dirt off your face. The mirror is just a tool to show you how dirty your face is, right? So too with the law. The law doesn't clean you. It only exposes your wretchedness.
It provides no power for salvation. It only provides your righteous condemnation. What then is left for us to do? Well, all that we can do and all that we want to do only heaps up more condemnation. But now, this gets us to the overwhelming covenant, and by that I mean the covenant of grace, because Paul doesn't stop with the law.
He says, you are not, you are not, those in Christ, you're not under the law, but you are under grace. So in eternity past, the triune Godhead agreed to save an unworthy people for his own glory. This is agreement the theologians call the covenant of redemption, but what you need to know is this is enacted in time by the promise of grace.
So you remember when Adam and Eve fell, immediately in Genesis 3 .15, God promises that the seed of the woman is going to crush the serpent's head. God immediately upon their rebellion promises grace.
The same language of a seed is used again in Genesis 12. The Redeemer will not only be the seed of the woman, he will be the seed of Abraham. Later it's used as well with David. He'll be the offspring of David.
Consequently, let me just mention this as a side note, the hero of the Old Testament is this Messiah. The hero of the Old Testament is not Moses. It is not David. It is not Samuel or Solomon or Jonah or Malachi.
The hero of the Old Testament is Christ. He is the promised one to come. And so these promises and so many more that we could examine point us forward to the covenant of grace, which is not enacted in the Old Testament, it's inaugurated in Christ, in his blood.
Jesus is the one promised of old. He is the one, the son of God, taking on human flesh in time, born of the Virgin Mary, fulfilling all righteousness. By the way, remember when he goes to be baptized, John's like, no way, man, I should be getting baptized by you.
And Jesus says, no, no, no, this is necessary to fulfill all righteousness, that Jesus would identify himself with his people. And so, he fulfills all righteousness. As the song we sang just a moment ago, he dies the death of covenant breakers.
That is, on the cross as Jesus died, the wrath of God was satisfied. He rises again in victory over death, over hell and the grave. The covenant of grace comes to us and says, essentially, there is nothing you can do.
In and of yourself, you cannot reconcile yourself to God. Not your going to a popish mass, not partaking of the Eucharist, not reciting the Bible, not your prayers, not reciting creeds. In and of yourself, there's nothing that you can do.
It's only unrighteousness and wickedness and sin. You are rebellious in and of yourself and hopeless and helpless. But the covenant of grace says, the Lord Jesus came. He completed the work where Adam failed, where Israel failed, where you and I have failed.
He fulfilled all righteousness. He substituted himself in our place. He bore the wrath of breaking God's law upon the wooden cross. He rose again in triumph. How much did he complete? He completed everything.
That's why on the cross, friends, he doesn't say it's mostly done, it's halfway done, it's 99 done.
He says what? It is finished.
This is the covenant head that we need. We are commanded to repent of sin and trust Christ. Friends, have you done this? Children, consider this morning. You'll not be saved by virtue of your parents.
Have you looked to Christ? Young man, young woman, have you looked to Christ? Middle-aged man, middle-aged woman, have you looked to Christ? Senior adults, have you repented and believed on Christ? For those who do, God's grace alone brings us out from under the law and places us within the new covenant, the covenant of grace.
For sin will have no dominion over you, back to our text, since you are not under law but under grace. We are now dead to sin and alive in Christ. Or to put it this way, apart from Christ, you're dead in sin.
This is why you should love prepositions, right? Because prepositions are theologically glorious. Apart from Christ, you're dead in sin.
In Christ, you're dead to sin.
God's grace is overwhelming. Now, we've said all this wonderful stuff. We haven't talked about baptism yet. So hear me. Under the law, the sign of the covenant of works is circumcision. It is a reminder, you can look at this in Genesis 17, for example, but it is a reminder that those who did not keep the whole law would be cut off from God.
That is, I don't think I have anybody that I have to argue with this about, but I'm happy to at lunch to discuss this. That is, the children of Abraham were not part of the covenant of grace unless they, by faith, looked to the coming Messiah.
That is, our Presbyterian friends and others would argue that Abraham's children received the sign of the covenant, therefore, believing children should receive the sign of the covenant. And it almost makes logical sense.
You can almost see how people are like, okay, babies receive the sign of circumcision, so babies should receive the sign of baptism. Now, I don't mean to be pejorative here. That almost makes sense until you read the Bible, right?
And you find and you understand that in the scriptures, these children of Abraham were not in the covenant of grace by virtue of their birth. Rather, it's only those who by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone, who are God's people.
Someone's physical birth or ethnicity does not bring them into the new covenant. Again, if this is over your head, let's let the Bible speak. So turn to Romans 4. So we're right here. So look at Romans 4, for example.
Real quick, Romans 4, verse 16. Romans 4, verse 16. Paul argues this, and there's a long argument here, but let me see if I can just highlight verse 16. That is why it depends on faith in order that the promise may rest on grace and be guaranteed to all his offspring, not only to the adherent of the law, which he's talking about Jews there, but also to the one who shares the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all.
Now, when I was growing up, we used to sing that little song, right? Father Abraham had many sons, and many sons had Father Abraham. And we wouldn't say, and the ethnic Jews are them. No, no, no, we'd say, and I am one of them.
And so are you, right? And so let's just praise the Lord. Needed all the silly movements with it. But the point is that Abraham is the father of those of faith. He's the true father of those, whether Jew or Gentile, who put their faith in the finished work of Christ.
And it is only those who are the true people of God, only those of faith by God's grace are brought into this new covenant under grace, the covenant of grace. If you rely on your works, if you say today, God accepts me or owes me, or is bound to something that I have done or accomplished, you're hopeless.
On Christ, the solid rock I stand. All other ground is sinking sand. Now, of course, we pick on Rome. Roman Catholics would say, well, I have this to stand on. I have this to stand on. Yes, I need grace.
Yes, I need faith. But these things in and of themselves are not sufficient. I need these things and works. But I want to warn you this morning, this can creep into Baptist thought as well. If you think that you can stand on God based on your works or based on your faith, plus your works, you are in a miserable condition.
It's only by grace that we're brought into the new covenant. So then those in the covenant of grace no longer have Adam as their representative, rather Christ represents him. They have died in Christ and now live again in him, having his righteousness credited to our accounts.
And so what is the sign of this new covenant, this overwhelming covenant of grace? What is the sign of that covenant? It's what we're celebrating today. Baptism, go back to verse three of Romans six. Romans six, Paul says, do you not know 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, we too might walk in the newness of life. Baptism points to the new covenant, it points to Christ.
In Christ we die, in Christ we live again. And baptism is a picture of this. Therefore it's not for unbelievers. It's not for infants. It's only for those who have been brought into the new covenant. It serves as a sign of God's glorious grace upon a person's life.
Now I know this is old fashioned and some of us in this room may have forgotten what these things are. But when I was growing up, there used to be these things that we called photographs. It's not like Facebook.
It's kind of like Facebook but it's different. It's hard to explain. I'll talk about it later. But you give this little piece of paper, not really paper, it's got someone's picture on it. Think of a profile, Facebook profile.
But you don't look at that thing. I don't hand you a picture of myself, right? And you don't look at that and begin talking to the picture as though that's me. You understand that's not me, that's not Quatro.
It's a picture of Quatro. It is a picture that signifies it, symbolizes Quatro, shows forth who he is. Well, this is the sign of baptism. That is exactly what Paul is saying in verse three and four. Do you not know 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 by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. Paul is saying, here is the gospel on display.
Friends, this is amazing. You have heard the gospel preached today and here in a minute, you're going to see the gospel preached. I know that churches talk about, let's show video in church or let's have a play in church.
Can I tell you that God has already given us, we don't need videos and we don't need plays in our main gatherings of our church, why? God has given us demonstrations to see the gospel. What are they? The Lord's Supper.
We see a visual of the broken body and shed blood, the symbol of that in these elements. And then in baptism, we see a picture. It's like you can see today the gospel on display. You can see as Trey goes down in the waters, so too did Christ die and He went into the tomb.
And as Trey rises up out of the waters, so too did Christ raise up again. And those who received Christ, like Trey, they died to sin and go down. There goes their sin, it's gone. And up is the picture of the newness of life.
You are now resurrected with Christ. This is the picture of baptism. Baptism is a picture worth a thousand words. It's a picture of our union with Christ. It shows forth our newness of life. It publicly identifies us with the life, death, burial, and resurrection of Christ.
Isn't it interesting? I'll just make a side note. Why would you want to be, not only is it unbiblical, but why would you want to be sprinkled or poured over or whatever in baptism when our Lord Jesus was baptized by immersion?
You symbolize our union with Christ and all that He's done. Now, baptism doesn't perform these things. It doesn't create within us a new heart. It doesn't bring us into union with Christ. If you go down into the baptistry unregenerate, you come out unregenerate, except now also wet, right?
Rather, it displays on the outside what God has done in His sovereign grace. This is why we baptize by immersion. Now, let me just make a note. I don't want to beat this to death, so to speak, but if you look at verse three, it says, "'Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized.'".
Now, I'm going to rock your world for just a second. That's just a made-up word, right? Now, we're a Baptist church, and I want to be a Baptist church. I think we should have Baptist on our name. But in reality, the English word baptized, it's really just a made-up word.
To say that we baptize by immersion is like saying we drink a drink because it's the same word. Baptism, what I'm saying is, baptism and immersion are the same word. Baptism is a word that's just transliterated.
That simply means it's just brought over directly from the Greek. The Greek is baptizo. So we take baptizo, and we just create a new word. We make up a word in English. So we call it baptized. But really, we could read it like this.
"'Do you not know that all of us "'who have been immersed into Christ Jesus "'were immersed into His death? "'We were buried, therefore, with Him "'by immersion into death, "'in order that just as Christ was raised "'from the dead by the glory of the Father, "'we too might walk in newness of life.'".
Friends, what I'm saying is, that's just what the word means. You can read John Dagg on that. I'll give you a quote from Henry Lawrence. He says, the word baptizo signifies properly to drown or sink in the water, to dip, to overwhelm.
Okay, so the word in our text literally means immersion. You cannot signify the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ by sprinkling. You can't do it by pouring water over someone's head. Baptists baptize.
And this is why we immerse believers whole body. Hold on, quick note to Jacob. Whole body, all the way under, right? Make sure, all the way. All the way under, we baptize.
Because this is a sign of being in Christ, under grace, and not under the law. Okay, number two, that was my longest point, just so everybody, sigh of relief. All right, two more points. Baptism reminds us of an overwhelming covenant.
Secondly, it reminds us of an obligatory commitment. An overwhelming covenant. Second, an obligatory commitment. Look at verse five. For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.
We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. For one who has died has been set free from sin.
So I love this quote from Sam Rennihan. Baptism is a two-way declaration. On the one hand, it is God's visible promise that all who are in his son are new creations by virtue of their union with Christ in his death and resurrection.
And on the other hand, it is the individual's profession of faith in those very promises. So what I need to do now in the sermon is speak a word to Latravius. God, in this ordinance, reminds you of his precious son.
He declares to you, Trey, in this ordinance, his gospel and all the promises therein for those who lay hold of this gospel by faith. And, Trey, by committing to this ordinance of baptism, if you're having the feeling like, man, I feel like he's preaching right to me right now.
It's true, I am. What you're doing in this ordinance of baptism is you are declaring before us your death to sin and your new life to Christ. We believe this has already happened to you, of course, right?
It's not happening during the baptism. What you're doing in the baptism is declaring these things to us. You are declaring today, brother, your commitment to follow Christ no matter the cost. You are declaring today that the old Trey, he ain't here no more.
He's gone, and the new has come, being created anew in Christ Jesus by God's grace. In church, in baptism, we have symbolized taking off that old man, putting on the new one, and now it is our fight every day to continue to do this.
Every day, we continue to mortify the deeds of the flesh. We continue to look to Christ and seek to walk in newness of life. Guys, this is Paul's argument in the text in verse one. What shall we say then?
Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound?
By no means.
How can we who died to sin still live in it? Now, hold that tight for a second and think for just a second what Paul's done. He says, if you've died to sin, you can't still live in it. We don't keep sinning so that grace may abound.
No, we're dead to sin. Now, how does Paul illustrate to us that we're dead to sin? He reminds us of something that ought to be more precious to us, which is what? Our baptism. So he says, do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?
We were buried there with him by baptism into death in order that just as Christ was raised from the dead, by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. Okay, so what he is encouraging the church at Rome with is to essentially remember their baptism as a way of fighting sin in the present.
Okay, quick illustration. You're tempted to sin, right? The guy cuts you off in traffic, and I know he's wrong, right? You're tempted to tailgate him. Paul says, remember your baptism. Don't you remember?
Heck, you can't tailgate that guy. You can't throw a golf ball at the window and hit his windshield. You may feel justified in doing it, but you can't do it.
Don't you remember? You've been baptized. Don't you remember? Don't you remember this visual that God has given to you? You died to sin. Remember under the water? If you'd have stayed under there too long, you would have physically died.
Symbolic of your death to sin, and you've risen to new life. Your baptism is a reminder to fight sin in the present. Let me put it to you this way. In Perry County and beyond, we have a ton of people who profess to be Christians, right?
And one of the things we find when we go door-to-door evangelism, we talk about, are you a Christian? One of the reasons many say they are a Christian is this. I've been baptized, right? And so they look to their baptism as a trophy instead of a flag.
Again, I'll illustrate. In the movie, The Patriot, right? Benjamin Martin's oldest son, Gabriel Martin, in the movie, you don't have to have seen the movie to get this, but just know, in the movie, he's sowing an American flag over and over.
And even in the midst of despair, you have clips of him sowing this flag, and the flag is a symbol of what they're fighting for in the American Revolution. And actually, at the end of the movie, it's looking at the flag.
They look at the flag, and it's looking at the flag that kind of turns the battle at the end of the movie. Okay, so keep that in your mind. In a similar way, we look to our baptism to be reminded of what we're fighting for, right?
And the power that we have in Christ to fight. Like, we keep fighting sin, and we're reminded the fight is worth it. So we press on, we're dead to sin, we're alive to Christ. Christ is king.
He's king of my life. He's king of the universe.
He's coming again, and we'll live with him in glory. We keep it up. We keep fighting, we keep fighting, we keep fighting. But if you look at baptism as just your trophy, not a flag, just a trophy, you say, well, I've already, I've got my ticket into heaven.
It doesn't matter how I live. I got this trophy I carry around in my pocket. And if anyone ever asked me if I'm a Christian, I pull out the trophy, and I say, yeah, yeah, yeah, I've been baptized. If you remembering your baptism means you just live a life of unchecked rebellion, you live a life of sin, you're an idolater.
You harbor hatred in your heart towards others. You cheat at work, but you keep pointing back and say, yeah, but I've been baptized. Then I say to you, you're clinging to your baptism as a foolish hope, because this is not the purpose of our baptism.
And if this describes anyone here, I must tell you in love that your baptism is worthless because you're not born again. But those who have been born again, our baptism serves as a reminder of who we are so that we continue our growth in the Lord Jesus Christ.
This is Paul's argument. Should we keep on sinning? Paul's like, no, you've been baptized, right? Understanding that we've been converted, saved, we followed the Lord and believers' baptism, and we look to that as a symbol to continue to fight.
Baptism reminds us of the covenant that we are in. I won't go there, but I will just mention Jeremiah 31. In Jeremiah 31, God gives us a picture of the new covenant. And there, Jeremiah 31, 31 through 34, he tells us that those in the new covenant, they know God.
They have the law of God written on their heart. Their sins are forgiven. What a gracious symbol this new covenant sign of baptism is. And what I'm saying in this point, obligatory commitment, committing ourselves to baptism shows that being in this covenant does not produce passivity or carelessness, but a commitment to holiness.
Look at verse 11. So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus. Verse 12, let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body to make you obey its passions. Do not present your members to sin as instruments of unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life and your members to God as instruments for righteousness.
Baptism is an obligatory commitment in that it is our commitment before others that we are following Christ, dying to sin, living in newness of life, no matter what. He is worthy. And it's obligatory in this sense.
I'll read to you from my friend, Jeff Johnson. He says, although baptism is not essential to salvation, it is highly unlikely that a person who has been truly born again without an eager desire to follow the Lord in this first command that God gives the new Christian.
In other words, it's highly unlikely that a person is truly born again if they refuse baptism. He goes on to say, baptism is a public confession of Christ that evidences to the church and the world that there has been a radical transformation within.
Baptism is also a visible sermon. It demonstrates a spiritual reality of one's death to sin and resurrection to the newness of life in Christ Jesus. It's a beautiful reality. You've never seen regeneration.
You can't see it. It happens in your heart. You can't see what God's doing in there. But in just a few moments when we observe this baptism, we see as close a picture of regeneration as we can see. We see the old heart being removed and we see the new heart coming and shining forth.
Let me give you a couple application points and then our final point. First, if you're in here this morning and you say you're a Christian, but you're refusing baptism, why is it that you say you're a Christian?
You are saying you're a Christian while not publicly committing to Christ. So my question to you would say, if you're refusing baptism, in what way are you a Christ follower? Secondly, some perhaps in this room need to consider when it was they were baptized.
So here's a problem in the Bible Belt. Many children go through the motions and they get baptized, but they actually aren't in Christ. And then maybe later we have this weird vernacular. It's not in the Bible, but we have this weird talk, we rededicate our life or whatever.
And it's actually at that point, I believe that some people actually get converted. So if you've been converted after your baptism, you don't need to be re-baptized. You need to be baptized. You haven't been baptized.
You understand what I'm saying? People accuse Baptists of re-baptizing people. Let me just tell you something. That is an endeavor. We endeavor not to do that. We don't do that. We don't re-baptize people.
We just don't acknowledge improper baptism as baptism. So if you've been converted after you were dunked or sprinkled or whatever, you have not been baptized biblically. And you need to follow the Lord in believer's baptism.
So I'll leave that between you and the Lord as we go to our third point. Baptism reminds us of an overwhelming covenant. It is an obligatory commitment. And finally today, it is an open commemoration.
An open commemoration. Look at verse three. Paul says, do you not know that all of us, that's key. All of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death. All of us. Paul is able to speak here to the church at Rome with the common understanding that baptism is an ordinary part of the Christian life.
That is, all of us were baptized. All of who?
All Christians.
Not that baptism is what formally makes a Christian, but baptism is what in essence publicly commemorates one as a believer. In the New Testament, you'll read and you'll see that baptism and conversion are very intricately linked.
It's why some people have wrongly assumed that regeneration is caused by baptism. It's not. But our regeneration is closely linked to following the Lord and believers' baptism. These things are close in the New Testament.
But Paul says all of us were baptized, Christians. This is why baptism, by the way, is an ordinance of the local church. The local church has the keys to the kingdom from Christ her Lord. And it is her duty to open the door of baptism, as it were, for all who repent and believe the gospel.
So church, I'm talking about, for just a moment, members of Perryville Second Baptist Church pay very close attention to what's fixing to happen. As we baptize Trey this morning, this church is publicly declaring that we receive this man as a brother in Christ.
In baptism, the church is publicly declaring this person is a Christian. That's why we believe pastors are the ones that should baptize, because pastors are the ones who represent the church and are making this declaration physically in the baptistry on behalf of the church.
So in this baptism, Trey officially unites with us in church membership, and we are committing to love this man as a brother in Christ. We are committing to watch over this man in the Lord. We are committing to holding him accountable in the Lord.
And we are committing to humbly have him watch over us and love us and hold us accountable as well. We're seeking to walk together in Christian harmony and unity as we seek to further the mission of Christ together.
Baptism is, I'm saying, an open commemoration. It's not to be done in the closet, unbeknownst to anyone else. It's not to be done on a whim in someone's backyard separated from the local church. Baptism is a local church ordinance where we perform this great event in the midst of the gathered church.
Now, it doesn't have to be in a baptistry. The church can gather down at the river. The church can gather at a lake. The church could even gather in someone's backyard at a swimming pool. All of these things are certainly permissible, but what's not permissible is for us to just go rogue, dunking people in the water apart from the gathered church.
Now, I know if you're biblically literate, you know that there's aspects of Acts where it seems that they did that. My pushback would be this. You can't take the book of Acts where God is doing a special work in the transition between the Old and New Testament and apply that today and just say, well, I have authorization.
If I see Bob out in the backyard, I can run and form-tackle him into his pool and say that I've baptized him. You can't do that because this is a local church ordinance. Remember, remember verse three and four and the beauty of it.
Do you not know 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, we too might walk in newness of life.
This beautiful ordinance is the entryway into local church life. Fred Malone reminds us. He says, away with the individualistic ecclesiology plaguing America, which minimizes baptism and church membership, leaving Christians the freedom to float around without feeling responsible to a pastor or a church.
Such an attitude feeds the antinomianism spirit we see growing today. Yet the whole teaching of the New Testament is that Christians need the ministry of a committed body of believers, which baptism calls them to.
Church membership is required after baptism and believers' baptism is required for church membership. Thus, what I'm saying in this point is baptism is an open commemoration. It is a public ordinance of the church whereby those baptized as well as the local church celebrate Christ together even as they mutually pledge themselves to one another in the grace of God.
This reminds us that baptism really is a picture worth a thousand words. It cannot save in the sense of effecting regeneration or faith or justification or any such thing. Rather, it points us to Christ and is a picture of new life.
Verse 14, for sin will have no dominion over you since you're not under law but under grace. Friends, as we celebrate the wonderful ordinance of baptism today, I wonder if you are looking to the one that this picture points to.
Are you looking this morning to Christ alone as your only suitable and all-sufficient Savior? Friends, did you know that as we see this ordinance of baptism, did you know that baptism reminds us there is grace today?
There's grace.
There's grace for you. And I want to tell you, folks, it's not in these waters. It's in the blood of Christ. There is grace for you. For those who will repent of their sins, turn from their sins and turn to Christ, receiving Him by faith for all that He is and all that the Scriptures promise Him to be for us.
Is there anyone here even today who needs to repent, to turn away from their sins, to stop trusting their good works, to turn away from all self-righteousness and turn away from all measures of good works and turn to Christ and all that Christ has done.
For us in the gospel?
Is there anyone here who needs to look to Christ today and be saved and see Him alone as your only suitable and all-sufficient Savior? There is redemption, baptism reminds us, in the blood of the Lamb.
Further, is anyone here today a professing Christian? But perhaps you realize today, you've never actually been baptized rightly and you're not a member of a gospel-preaching church. Friends, if this is you, you need to do business with the Lord.
You need to make this right as soon as possible. Otherwise, we put serious doubt upon your profession. How can you say that you're a follower of Christ? Jesus says in Luke 6 46, why do you call me Lord and not do what I say?
And then finally, is anyone here fighting sin? That needs to be reminded that our baptism is a picture of God bringing us out of death and into life. To be reminded today of our death, the sin in Christ and resurrection in Him and newness of life so that we might have the victory.
If you're fighting sin today and you're a Christian, I say to you, remember what your baptism symbolizes and repent and go to Christ. I wonder today how the Lord is calling you to respond to this message.
I'm going to lead us in prayer, but a couple of things I want to announce. First, as I lead us in prayer, I invite Brother Jacob and Trey to dismiss to the baptistry. Secondly, as you look at the baptistry where you're sitting, you may not be able to see it well.
And so as we sing this final song, I encourage you to move, it's okay. You can move seats to move and get to a spot where you can see this, what's about to take place. So let me pray. And then Gunnar, you lead us in our final hymn.
Father, I thank you for the word that you've given us today. I thank you that baptism shows us an overwhelming covenant, the covenant of grace, the sign and symbol of all that you've done for us in Christ.
I thank you that baptism is a picture of an obligatory commitment. You commit to us showing the gospel and promises of the gospel are all those for those who take of them by faith. And it's our commitment to you and to the church that we're gonna walk dying to sin in newness of life.
And finally, it's an open commemoration, commemorating what has happened in the believer's life and accepting them into church membership, commemorating the church and their love for the believer and the love for the believer to the church.
Lord, I know that in a congregation this size, there is certainly one or more people in our midst who need to do business with you. Pray that you would move over them by your spirit in such a way that even as we sing this last song, that they repent or commit or put their faith in Christ, whatever it is they need to do, that you would work for your glory.
We pray it in Jesus' name, amen. We'll stand for this song and then we'll be seated in just a moment when the song's over.
This holy bride, with his own blood he bought her
And for her life he died Elect from every nation, yet one o 'er all the earth Her charter of salvation, one Lord, one faith, one God One faith, one birth, one holy name she blesses Partakes one holy food, and to one hope she presses With every grace endued, mid-spoil and tribulation She waits one consummation of peace forevermore Still with the vision glorious, her longing eyes are blessed And the great church victorious shall be the church at rest
Amen, you may be seated.
Anybody hear me? Test, test, test. All right, so Trey is gonna read his testimony, and as Trey and I were praying in the back, I'm so thankful to God that he worked out the way that he did that I could call Trey my son, but I'm so much more thankful to God that he saved his soul enough to call Trey.
A brother in Christ.
And so Trey's gonna read his testimony, and then we're gonna baptize him, so y 'all listen closely to Trey.
All right, I am a sinner,.
A sinner who hated God and his holiness, a sinner who loved his sin and put the things of the world above all else, especially Christ our King. I come from a wicked, broken place where people give approval to the most sinful actions like murder, which is worn as a badge of honor, adultery, which was a natural deed among the people, people lying on every corner seeking self-righteousness, and thieves flooding the streets.
Even a year ago, that was the life I lived, lusting after my flesh, carnal desires flooding my mind constantly with filth. I was caught up in the wiles of the world, so much so that I could never see myself in this life-changing situation.
Before I realized it, the Lord had begun working in my life by giving me wonderful people like my parents and getting introduced to him. How amazing of a God to bless me beyond belief. He has led me to a spectacular church full of godly men and women so that I'm able to grow alongside them, alongside my fellow brothers and sisters in Christ.
Amen. This is the best thing to ever happen to me. No longer will I have to deal with the hopelessness. No longer will I have to depend on worldly outlets for comfort and security. No longer will I go through life with no direction or purpose, for I have all that I need in my God.
This world is a place where God isn't an afterthought, let alone feared. Thanks to God's spirit, he was able to work in me, wash away the scars of the past so that I am no longer shackled by the lusts of the world.
This is a very lost and dying place with no other hope but Christ, Lord of my life. Thanks to the Lord, I've been struggling and fighting with the idea of if I truly desire to be a Christian, or is it because those around me are Christians?
I've lost sleep trying to come to a conclusion until finally I rested in Christ and trusted that he is faithful to his promises. Now, even through all of today's misery and sin, God saves and is reigning.
I know that I'm not worthy of the Lord's salvation. I am not saved through any work of mine or any self-improvement, but by the grace of a holy God. Through faith in Christ, I am redeemed in the eyes of God.
Christ our Lord, a holy king, perfect in nature and the standard for all Christians, gave his life for the glory of God the Father. There's no greater purpose in life than realizing you are deserving of death and naturally wicked.
But thanks to a gracious God, I have been born again, and my only hope is Christ Jesus. Glory be to God.
So, upon this testimony and this confession of faith and obedience to the Lord and his word, I will now baptize my brother in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. And now, I'm going to lay this in word prayer.
Father God, I'm so thankful for your grace and your mercy. I'm so thankful, Father God, that, Lord, we were dead in our trespasses and sin, that even though we were dead in our trespasses and sin, it's Father God.
Lord, when we see your law, as Brother Quatro talked about it this morning, we see your law as a mirror that shows us our sin and shows how far short we have come. But, Father, in your love and your grace and your mercy, you sent your Son to die at our place that we might be saved.
And so, I'm so thankful for your salvation. I'm thankful for saving Trey, for you saving Trey. Lord God, I pray that Trey would live a life desiring to glorify you, that you would strengthen him, Father God, empower him, that he would, the Lord presents all that the world has to offer and run after you.
And we thank you for this. We thank you for those gathered. We thank you for this service that we've had. And we pray that it would all be done in a manner that's pleasing to you. We love you and we praise you.
In Christ's name, amen.