Let's take our Bibles and turn
with me to the book of Romans 6. Romans 6. Let's look at the
first six verses of Romans 6. What shall we say then? Shall
we continue in sin that grace may abound? God forbid. How shall we that are dead to
sin live any longer therein? Know ye not that so many of us
as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death?
Therefore, we are buried with him by baptism into death. That like as Christ was raised
up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also
should walk in newness of life. For if we have been planted together
in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness
of his resurrection. Knowing this, that our old man
is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed,
that henceforth we should not serve sin." Right after this service, Lord
willing, we plan to witness three baptisms. thrills my heart, that the Lord
in His infinite mercy and grace would call out of spiritual darkness those that He had everlastingly
loved in Christ. And what it pleased Him, gave
Him a heart to call upon Him by faith. That was not theirs. Not ours. It's given unto you
to believe. But then would have a desire
to want to confess the Lord in baptism. And I fought on that. And I believe
that the Lord has laid this passage of Scripture on my heart, and
it's concerning baptism. We say that baptism, and rightly
so, is the confession of our faith. Well, what are we confessing?
What are we saying? Well, this passage of Scripture,
right here, sets forth what we are confessing when we enter
the waters of baptism. I've entitled this message, Baptized
into Jesus Christ. Now, you know, Believers know
that all men born in Adam are totally depraved. Now, when I
say totally depraved, this is what I mean. There's no part
of that person that is exempt from sin. Every part of them,
their intellect, whatever, their body, There is no part of it
that is exempt. They know, secondly, that God
is glorified in showing mercy and having compassion upon His
people. Believers know that God is sovereign. They know that. Where is your
God, David? Our God is in the heavens. And
He hath done whatsoever He pleases. Nebuchadnezzar confessed, doeth
as he will in the army of heaven among the inhabitants of the
earth. No man stays his hand. No man holds him back. And they
know that where sin abounded, that is in man's fall, grace
did much more abound in man's redemption. Almighty God is omnipotent. That means He's all-powerful.
He speaks, it is. He calls, He comes. He says,
it's established. But now, before these truths
were taught to the new heart, that new man that's imparted
in regeneration, before these truths were taught, The natural
man says, and I know he says this for sure in his heart, he
may not outwardly say it, but he says it in his heart, and
as a man thinketh, so he is. Here's what he thinks. If man
has no part in regeneration, and he doesn't, and if God is
glorified in the forgiveness of sin, and He is, And the law is not the rule of
a man's life, and it isn't. The law is not the rule of a
man's life because you can't keep it. Then what difference does it
make? Let's just sin more and more. If God's glorified, if that's
what you guys are saying, then hear the gospel of free grace. If that's the way it is, if you
don't have anything to do with your salvation, and God's glorified
in the forgiveness of sin, well, let's just sin more and let God
be glorified more. Paul says in Romans 6, what shall
we say then? Shall we continue in sin that
grace may abound? What a preposterous thought!
Shall a man regenerated by the grace of God, what shall we say? Shall we? Shall a man called
out of darkness by God's grace even think that he should be
able to or have the freedom to rebel against Almighty God without
any restraint or care or conviction in order to give God glory and
forgiving that sin? Does a man think it doesn't matter
what I do? If God saved me by grace, it
doesn't matter. God forbid! God forbid, what a disrespectful
thought that that is. Shall we that are dead to sin? Now, notice he didn't say dead
in sin. Believers are not dead in their
sin. They're dead to it. Dead to its
penalty. dead to the penalty of sin. Shall
we that are dead to sin live any more therein? How shall we that died to the
penalty and to the guilt and to the dominion of sin live any
longer in that attitude of unchecked, uncaring rebellion before God? I put an article in the bulletin
today that Bruce Crabtree wrote. Good article. I highly recommend
it. Somebody ask him. Well, read
it. How shall we that died to sin
in Christ live any longer in the love of it? We don't. God's people don't. Now, they'll admit what they
are. No believer is going to say, well, I just don't sin anymore. They know better than that. But
they don't love it. Jeremiah, I think, was one that
said, I loathe myself. I hate, I hate the way I think. I hate, I hate the way that I
see myself just so easily going. We know that we're not free from
the presence of it. We know we're not. But we're
free from the penalty of it. We're free from the dominion
of it. Look at verse 3, chapter 6. Know
ye not that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ
were baptized into His death. And if you've got a marginal
reading there, you may see where the word were. Know ye not that
so many of us as, and the word is actually are. Know ye not
that so many of us as are baptized into Jesus Christ are baptized
into His death. What does that mean? Now, the
Apostle Paul is teaching something that happened spiritually in
eternity. God's people, God's elect. Ephesians
1-4, we've read that and looked at that so many times, being
chosen in Him. That choosing. is actually a
baptizing into the Lord Jesus Christ. Paul is speaking in this
verse and the remaining verses of this baptism that we talk
about as being baptized into Jesus Christ, that is in itself
that baptism whereby Almighty God immersed us into the Lord
Jesus Christ in electing grace. Joined with Him with an unchangeable,
an unalterable union. Know ye not that so many of us
as are baptized spiritually into Jesus Christ, immersed by the
grace of God and placed in Him in electing mercy, eternally
joined to Him according to God's eternal covenant of grace, are
baptized, are placed into His death? Well, Paul, what are you
saying? What do you mean when you say
that? Here's what it says. We that Almighty God has chosen
to show mercy to, God's bride, God's church, God's elect, God's
people. We sovereignly and mercifully
were joined, baptized into Christ eternally that we might die with
Him in His body. That we might die when He died
for us to live. For us to have life, for us to
have spiritual life, our sin must be paid for. Now, you know
that. For us to have life eternal,
something is going to have to be done with our guilt. Now, for us to have our guilt
paid for, and the Scripture, if you understand what this Scripture
is saying right here, This is going to end all the false thinkings
that the Lord Jesus Christ went to the cross and just died just
to kind of make salvation possible. That He just died. He died, you
know, a man. The God-man. I mean not to be
disrespectful. I'm talking about when people
believe that the Lord Jesus Christ died as a man to make salvation
possible. So that if someone decided to
exercise their will and accept what he did, then that would
make it effectual. That is not what the Scriptures
are teaching. Here's what the Scriptures are
teaching. Know ye not, So many of us as are baptized into Jesus
Christ, in electing grace, were put there, when it says, were
baptized into His death, were put there so that we could die
with Him. If we were not there in electing
grace eternally, we wouldn't be there in His death. That makes
sense. We were baptized into His death. That means when He died, we actually
died in Him. Someone will say, well, I don't
understand. That's okay. I can't tell you the depth of
it either. But I can tell you this according to God's Word. It doesn't matter what my understanding. I cannot grasp hold of the depth
of every person chosen in Christ. Chosen unto salvation. Chosen to life eternal. Saved
from the foundation of the world who has saved us and called us.
I cannot explain the depth of the entirety of God's church
all being in Christ, but the Scripture says that we were.
That Almighty God chose us, baptized us, immersed us in grace, in
mercy, in compassion, in election, in Christ before the foundation
of the world that we might die with Him. No you're not, so many
of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into His
death. He died and we died in Him. God's
judgment, justice, and wrath was exercised on our federal
head for our sake. He was dying in the stead of
His people. How could all of His people,
how could the entirety of God's elect suffer the judgment of
God and still live? They died in the substitute.
And Almighty God looked upon them in Christ and looked to
Christ. for the justice that was due.
He looked to Christ. He looked to the surety. He looked
to the federal head. Verse 4, therefore, we are buried
with Him by baptism, not this water that we're going to look
at in a few minutes. That isn't a confession of this. When you go into the water, This
is what you're confessing. You say baptism is a confession
of faith. This is what you're saying. If
you believe Him, this is what you believe. I believe that I
was buried with Him by baptism, spiritual baptism, electing baptism,
immersion into Christ. into death. I believe that God
Almighty put me there to have union with Him by baptism spiritually. It is pictured, but here is what
He is talking about, spiritual. That means that we were planted
with Him into the likeness of death. That like As Christ, verse
4, was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even
so we also should walk in newness of life. By God's grace, we were
baptized into Christ that we could die with Him and live with
Him, be raised with Him. If I was in Him from before the
foundation of the world, And Almighty God judged him, then
He judged me in Him. When He died, I died, because
I was in Him. When He was raised, I was raised,
because I was in Him. When He ascended, I ascended,
because I'm in Him. These are deep things, secret
things that believers believe by faith, and they do not set
forth that they understand the depth of them. But let me tell
you, this is all of our hope. This is all of our hope of glory
that we were placed in Him, and that we're going to rise like
He did in newness of life, I absolutely believe that when He came out
of that ground as the first fruit of His people, He was the first
one, raised from the dead on His own merit. We're going to
rise in His likeness on His merit, not ours, His. When Almighty
God, Trump of God is sound and God Almighty says it's over,
Those that have been baptized into Christ spiritually, immersed
in Him spiritually, that died with Him, buried with Him, raised
with Him, when He came out, they came back. They're going to rise
just like that in His likeness. Verse 5, For if we have been
planted together in the likeness of His death, we shall be also
in the likeness of His resurrection. planted together like Him in
resurrection, raised to never die again. Can you imagine? Raised to never sin against Him
again. And that resurrection glory,
a new body is going to come out. That glorified body that He came
out in, we're going to come out just like Him. We're going to
be like Him. Oh, there's a thought. Be like
unto Him who is our Lord. So baptism, baptized into Him
spiritually, is absolutely necessary. I must be elected in Him. I must
be chosen in Him. I must be placed in Him eternally
that I might die with Him, be raised with Him. Verse 6, knowing
this, that our old man is crucified with Him, that the body of sin
might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin. Our
old man. Who died with Christ? Who died
there? The Scripture says our old man. Crucified? Here's an amazing
thought. This old man, this one that I was born from Adam, this old man, that old man that Almighty God,
the Scripture sets forth, that He everlastingly looked upon
as worthy of judgment. That old man was at Calvary, crucified with
Him, received the just penalty that was due in order that the
body of sin, the old man, That's what Paul said, who shall deliver
me from the body of this death? Who shall deliver me from this
soul? The Lord will. That the body
of sin might be destroyed in order that the power of sin,
eternal death, might be put away. I had to be baptized into the
Lord Jesus Christ in order that that body of sin might be destroyed. If my body of sin is not destroyed
in Him, do you know who is going to suffer the penalty for it?
Personally. In eternity. In hell. If I have not been elected into
Christ, If God Almighty didn't choose me for the foundation
of the world and put me in Christ, I don't have any hope. You know
why? Because God doesn't change. If
He put me and baptized me in Him eternally, then I died with
Him. Buried and raised with Him. Because
God Almighty never changes one hour. He never looks upon a man
differently ever. If he looks upon a man one way
right now, he's always looked on that man that way. God doesn't
change. Our old man is crucified with
Him that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth
we should not serve sin. that we should not be in bondage
to. When I say serve it, it shouldn't
be a slave to it. Again, I've said this so many
times, the presence of sin is there. And a believer despises
it, hates it. He does not. He doesn't cherish
that old man that's there, that presence of sin. He does not.
He hates it. But we do not serve Him. We are
not in bondage. Look at verse 16 and 17 in closing
in Romans 6. Know you not that to whom you
yield yourselves, servants to obey. His servants you are to
whom you obey, whether of sin unto death or obedience unto
righteousness. But God be thanked that you were
the servants of sin. But you have obeyed from the
heart that form of doctrine which was delivered unto you. God's
people called out of darkness, they're taught the truth. God
gives them a heart to believe God. Believe God and He's put
away that guilt in the person of their blessed son. So being
baptized into His death is the only way a sinner is delivered
from the bondage in slavery. of sin. And this is what we confess. In just a few minutes, these
three brethren will enter the waters of baptism as a confession
of their faith. What are they confessing? What
do they say? Well, they're not saying, they're
not giving any merit to themselves, I can tell you that. Or if they
are, they're really not being baptized. No believer is. No believer confesses that. They're
not saying, upon my merit, here's what they're saying. I believe,
that is being pictured in these waters right here, that I was
baptized into Christ from before the foundation of the world in
electing grace. That when He died, I died. When
He was buried, I was buried. When He was raised, I was raised.
When they come out of that water, they're saying, I'm walking in
newness of life to His honor and His glory and His praise.
There's no merit in that water. It's water. It's water. It has no efficacy to it. It's water. But what it pictures
is the confession of faith in Christ according to these Scriptures
that God baptized me into Christ from before the foundation of
the world. And all of my hope, all of my life is that He died
for me. He put away my guilt by His blood,
buried, raised to His honor and His glory and His praise. Now
that's the confession of our faith. that is pictured in baptism. Lord, bless these words to our
heart for Christ's sake. Amen.