I'm going to talk about baptism
this morning. Really, the title of the message
is Union with Christ. Union with Christ. And my text
is going to be basically from the first few verses of Romans
chapter 6. But before I get there, I want
you to turn to Mark chapter 16. Mark chapter 16. And I want to read verse 15. This is the Lord speaking to
His disciples before He would ascend unto glory. He had already
come and spent His 33, 33 1�2 years here on this earth as a
God-man. He had already finished the work
that the Lord had given Him to do in the redemption of His people
and salvation. And then He says in verse 15,
Mark 16, he said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach
the gospel to every creature. Verse 16, He that believeth and
is baptized shall be saved, but he that believeth not shall be
damned. Now, we who know the scriptures,
who preach the gospel, we know that the act of water baptism,
that which we're going to do today, that act of water baptism
does not save a sinner. It does not make a person righteous
before God. It does not redeem. It is not
even the application, as some denominations say, it is not
even the application of the blood of Christ to our persons. You see, that application is
made by God in His mind, in His thinking. It's not by anything
we do. It has nothing to do with what we do or don't do. Look
over at Acts chapter 2. There's a denomination, as you
know, you're well familiar with, who use a verse out of Acts chapter
2. to claim that it is in the act
of water baptism that the blood of Christ is applied to the person
of a sinner. And that's not so. That's not
what this verse teaches. Now Peter, here he preached the
gospel at Pentecost. He made it clear that our salvation
is secured by the finished work of Christ on the cross. Who came
by the determinant and foreknowledge, the counsel of God. to save his
people from their sins. And at the end of his message,
it says in verse 37 of Acts chapter 2, it says, Now when they heard
this, when they heard the gospel of God's grace, how God is just
to justify the ungodly, not by works of righteousness which
we have done, are doing, plan to do, will do, but based totally,
founded totally, and conditioned totally, and finished totally
by the work that Christ did on the cross, to establish righteousness. When they heard this, they were
pricked in their hearts. That means they were convicted.
They were brought to see their guilt and their depravity. And
said unto Peter, and to the rest of the apostles, men and brethren,
what shall we do? Now look at verse 38. It says,
Then Peter said unto them, Repent. Now in the Old Testament, the
word for repent had the sense of a change of direction, like
a change of walk. It's like if you were going north,
you'd turn around and go the exact opposite, south. And most
of you think that that's pretty close to going to heaven. But
no, up north they don't think that way. But going in a change
of direction, a 180 degree turnaround, not just veering a little to
the left or veering a little to the right. Repentance was
a total change of direction. And that's what repentance is.
In the New Testament, the word relates more to a total change
of mind. And they go together. They're
not saying something different about repentance. What it's simply
saying is this. If you're going to walk differently,
you've got to think differently. And so that's what Peter's saying
here. Repent. Change your mind. Change your
walk. And we know that that's by the power of God's grace.
No sinner by their own will and their own power is going to do
that. But we command sinners to believe and to repent. That's
their responsibility. That's our responsibility. Well,
what have they got to change their thinking about? Well, he
says, Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name
of Jesus Christ. Now the baptism that he's speaking
there is confessing Christ. Now confessing Christ has to
do with acknowledging that I'm a sinner who in myself deserves
nothing but condemnation and wrath and my only hope of salvation,
my only hope of heaven's glory is the blood and the righteousness
of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's a confession of Christ.
When we come to Him and look to Him and rest in all that He
accomplished in His obedience unto death and to say, I have
no hope and no assurance and no peace, no salvation, no righteousness,
no glory apart from what Christ alone as my representative and
substitute accomplished for me. My favorite hymn. You know what it is, Winston?
You know what my favorite hymn is? No. Most people will say
I've made nothing. My favorite hymn is, My hope
is built on nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness.
I dare not trust the sweetest frame, but wholly lean on Jesus'
name. On Christ the solid rock I stand,
all other ground is sinking soon. That's my favorite hymn. And
my second favorite hymn is the one we sang first today. Washed
in the blood. This is all my hope and peace.
This is all my righteousness. That's what a confession of Christ
is. Now, water baptism, that's what a person confesses publicly. In that ceremony, in that ordinance,
in that identification. And we'll talk about that. But
look at verse 38 again. He says, Then Peter said unto
them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name
of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins. Now, it does not say
be baptized for the remission of sins. Does it? Baptism does not remit sins. It does not take away sins, bear
away sins. John the Baptist said in John
129, Behold the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world.
God's people out of every tribe, kindred, tongue, and nation.
It's the Lamb of God slain on the cross that bore away our
sins. He redeemed us. He paid the price.
It's not our baptism that does that. It's not water baptism
that does that. Okay? It says, Be baptized every one
of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins. It's
Christ who bore the sins away. You see that? Not baptism. And
what we confess in believer's baptism is that we're in Christ,
that we believe in him, we rest in him, that he bore our sins
away. And then he says, you shall receive the gift of the Holy
Ghost. He says, for the promise, that's the gospel promise of
salvation, is unto you and to your children and to all them
that are far off, even as many as our Lord God shall call. So
now over here in Mark 16, he says, He that believeth and is
baptized shall be saved. Now if the act of baptism does
not save us, then why did our Lord say, He that believeth and
is baptized shall be saved? Why did he say it that way? Well,
doesn't that imply that if one is not baptized, he won't be
saved? Well, first of all, such a position cannot be supported
by the rest of Scripture. The Scripture is clear, the whole
context of Scripture from Genesis to Revelation is that salvation
is totally, totally, totally by the grace of God. Salvation is never at any time,
at any stage, to any degree conditioned on the sinner's works or acts. Not even his faith. Because you
see, we don't have faith in our faith. You have people come up
all the time talking about, well, do I believe enough? And I always
ask, enough for what? Enough for what? Do you believe
enough to be saved by your faith? And the answer is no. I can tell
you that right now. If I've never met you, I can
tell you right now. You don't have enough faith for
faith itself to save you. For your believing. You see,
it's not how much faith you have, it's in whom is your faith. The
Bible speaks of weak faith, little faith, and it speaks of strong
faith. But all faith, that evidence
of salvation, is in Christ, who is able to save us to the uttermost. You say, I'm not able to save
myself, but He's able. And the great illustration of
that when he healed the blind men, you know, when they asked
him, he said, Lord, heal us of our blindness. And he said, do you
believe? He didn't say, do you believe
that you can see? He didn't say that. That's what
preachers today in the faith healing movement say. Do you
believe that you can see? No. He said, do you believe that
I'm able to do this? And I know he's able. Paul said,
I know whom I have believed, and I'm persuaded that he is
able to keep that which I've committed unto him against that
day. I've committed my soul unto him. I've committed my whole
eternal well-being unto him, and he's able. So it's not salvation
by anything, but by the grace of God, and that grace reigns
through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord.
is not of works, including water baptism. The gospel is Christ
and him crucified to fulfill all righteousness for his people.
Now another thing, the negative of the commission back there
in Mark 16 The negative of the, remember he said, he that believeth
and is baptized shall be saved. He that believeth not shall be
damned. The negative, he that believeth
not shall be damned. The negative of that commission,
as stated there, in the damnation of sinners, mentions nothing
of baptism. He that believeth not shall be
damned. He didn't say, he that believeth
not and is not baptized shall be damned. He just said he didn't
believe them. Sinners are not damned because
they're not baptized. They're damned because they do
not believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. And then another thing we need
to understand is that multitudes were saved in the Old Testament
who were never baptized. That's right. Baptism is a New
Testament ordinance. It's a New Covenant ordinance.
And it is a confession. now they had ordinances under
the old covenant and in the Old Testament and those ordinances
were for that time they were manifestations of faith in Christ
if that person knew Christ who looked forward to Christ who
was to come but think about the thief on the cross he was saved
but he wasn't baptized in water now Another thing to understand
about this is the Apostle Paul stated clearly that his commission
from Christ was not to baptize, but to preach the gospel. You
know, the Corinthian church in 1 Corinthians chapter 1, they
were dividing and arguing over preachers. We follow this preacher,
we follow that preacher. Some say they're of Paul, some
say of Apollos. And I know they were talking
about, well, I was baptized by Paul. Or I was baptized by Peter. Or I was baptized by Paulus. And Paul essentially comes back
to them and he says this, he says, who cares who baptized
you? Big deal. It doesn't matter who
baptized you. Paul even said this, he said,
I thank God I didn't baptize any of that bunch except two
of them. So that you can't invoke my name for that. He said this,
he said, did Paul Die for you? Did he bring forth the salvation
that you need? Did Peter? Did Apollos? Did any
of these men? No. Christ did. And is Christ
divided? No. Then why should we be divided? If my salvation is wrapped up
totally in the person and work of Christ, why should any of...
and your salvation is wrapped up totally in the person and
work of Christ, why should we be divided? Because Christ himself
is not divided. So he said, Christ sent me not
to baptize, but to preach the gospel. And what Paul's saying,
Paul's not saying he never baptized anybody, he did. And he preached
baptism as a confession. But what he's talking about as
far as our salvation and our unity as believers and as a family
in Christ, it's not baptism, it's the gospel. It's the good
news of how God justifies the ungodly. How God saves the sinner,
and that's it. Now, we can complicate it, we
can figure it out, we can philosophize it, we can theologize it, we
can rationalize it, and I'll guarantee you we'll come out
on the other end just divided as anything goes. But if it's
just for gospel, if it's just sinners looking to Christ for
all wisdom, all righteousness, all holiness, and all redemption,
then we'll be together. We'll be together. So these issues,
was Paul denying baptism when he said Christ sent me not to
baptize? No. He's putting it in its proper
place. And that's what I want to do this morning. I want you
to turn to Romans chapter 6 now. Well, what I want to talk about
is the word baptism and union with Christ. Now again, baptism
doesn't save anyone. Baptism doesn't wash away sin.
Baptism does not convey grace. I'm talking about water baptism
now. Talk about the ordinance. Baptism does not regenerate a
person. Only Christ and Him crucified
has that exalted position in our salvation. He has the preeminence.
Salvation rests totally on His blood and His righteousness.
Now, baptism, water baptism. Let me give you these three things
and then I'll talk to you about Romans 6 here. Number one, baptism,
water baptism, the ordinance that we go through as a confession,
is a picture of what Christ himself alone as our representative and
substitute has already accomplished for us in his death, his burial,
his resurrection. That's what it pictures. And
that's, you know, the word baptism. Now a lot of times we say baptism
means immersion. And that's okay. Now what happened there, mostly
the Baptist denomination came up with that because they wanted
to combat sprinkling and pouring and baptizing infants. And of
course, sprinkling and pouring and baptizing infants is unscriptural. It's unscriptural. Water baptism
is by immersion, but the word baptism literally means placed
into. So you could say immersion, you're
placed into the water. The water is not poured upon
you, or the water is not sprinkled upon you, but you're placed into
the water. And that's what it means, placed
into. And what it pictures is, secondly, our confession of and
identification with Christ and what Christ accomplished for
us as our union with Him in His death and His burial and His
resurrection. So that we are confessing that
we have been placed into Christ. Our being placed into the water
is a confession that we've already been placed into Christ. That's
what it means. It's our union with Christ. Well,
union with Christ covers a large span of things in the scripture.
For example, we can talk about our eternal union with Christ. There is an everlasting covenant
of grace in which God chose a people and gave them to Christ. Christ
said, all that the Father giveth me shall come to me. The Bible
speaks of that in several passages. One that comes to mind clearly
is Ephesians chapter 1. He chose us in Christ before
the foundation of the world. That's an eternal spiritual union. God's people with his son Christ
is our representative back in the old covenant The high priest
who went into the holiest of all he represented the people
of God He represented national Israel Christ our great high
priest represents his people his sheep spiritual Israel Now
who are they? Well, they're everyone who comes
to faith in him. That's who they are by the power of God. So there is an eternal union.
And I do not believe that God ever thinks of or has ever thought
of or ever considered his people outside of Christ. And of course
we've talked about that, how God doesn't change his mind.
He doesn't. But we are eternally united to
Christ. But now listen to me. That high
priest under the old covenant When he went into the holiest
of all as a representative, he couldn't go in just by himself,
could he? He had to have something with
him. Now what did he have to have? He had to have the blood
of the sacrifice. Because God must be just when
he considers his people. He must be just when he justifies. He must be just He must be righteous. He must be both a righteous judge,
as well as a merciful, gracious, loving father. He's got to be
both a just God and a Savior. And in order to do that, he must
punish sin. Without the shedding of blood, there's no forgiveness,
remission, bearing away of sins. So therefore, there had to be
a substitute. Not only just a representative,
but a substitute to take our place. Well, Christ Himself,
the God-man, is both our representative and our substitute, for He is
the Lamb of God. Now look at Romans chapter 6
and look at verse 3. Now there's that eternal union
with Christ. We were placed into Him in eternity
by divine electing grace. But then there's that redemptive
union with Christ. And that's what this passage
is speaking of here. Verse 3. He says, No you 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 now Paul's not speaking
of water baptism here he's speaking of our redemptive union with
Christ and what that means is this when Christ went to the
cross in his obedience unto death and he said it himself in John
chapter 10 he said I laid down my life for the sheep He didn't
go in there for himself and by himself. He went there by himself
with our sins charged to him, credited to him, on him. And he substituted himself by
himself as the Redeemer, as the sin bearer, as the sin offering.
So that when he died, we died. When he was buried, we were buried. When he arose again the third
day, we arose again the third day. He did it alone, by himself
now, but he did it for us. And that's what Paul's talking
about. Therefore, verse 4, 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. Now he's talking about the fruit
and the result of what Christ accomplished. What is it to walk
in newness of life? It's to walk by faith in Christ.
It's to walk as a born-again person. It's to walk in the grace
of God. Now that's the fruit and the
result of what Christ has already accomplished as our representative
and substitute in redemption. Look at verse 5. For if we've
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, now that's our standing in Adam, that's what it's talking
about. is crucified with him. It's death. Christ bore away
our sins. He redeemed us. Christ finished
the transgression. Christ brought in everlasting
righteousness. And he said that the body of
sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve
sin. For he that is dead is justified,
freed from sin. All of it right there. And so
we were united to him redemptively. He died for our sins. Now I want
you to look over at Galatians chapter 3. Now in time, as a result of our
eternal union with Christ and our redemptive union with Christ,
there comes an experience of union with Christ. You might
call it a spiritual union because look here in Galatians chapter
3. And look at verse 26. He says, for you are all the
children of God by faith in Jesus Christ. In other words, we believe. And we have a right and title
to claim to be adopted sons of God. Now what is our right and
title? Christ and Him crucified. And
he says in verse 27, for as many of you as have been baptized
into Christ," referring to our union with Christ eternally and
redemptively, have what? Put on Christ. Now what is it
to put on Christ? That's when you come to faith
in Him. That's when you rest in Him. That's when that conscience
is cleansed by the blood of Christ as the Holy Spirit applies it
to the heart. And he says in verse 28, there's
neither Jew nor Greek, there's neither bond nor free, there's
neither male nor female, for you're all one in Christ Jesus.
In other words, our unity is not wrapped up in our sexual
differences or likenesses, it's not wrapped up in our national
differences or likenesses, it's not wrapped up in our state here
on this earth. You may be a free person, you
may be in bondage as far as a servant, that has nothing to do with it.
You're all one in Christ. And he says, and if you be Christ,
verse 29, if you belong to Christ, then are you Abraham's seed and
heirs according to the promise. That makes you a spiritual child
of Abraham. If you believe in him and rest
in him, you're a spiritual Jew, Paul said in Romans chapter 2,
verses 28 and 29. You've been circumcised in heart
and ears. And you've been brought to Christ. You've been united
to him by faith. And you're in Him. That's union
with Christ. And you did that because the
Holy Spirit gave you ears to hear and eyes to see and a heart
and mind to understand. He brought you to a conviction
of sin knowing that you cannot be saved, you cannot be right
with God, you cannot be righteous, you cannot be forgiven based
on anything that you do or anything done in you. You're totally at
His mercy and His mercy is in Christ. And He's commanded you
and brought you to know Christ crucified on the cross for your
sins. And so when we talk about water
baptism, now look at Acts chapter 8 with me. When we speak of water
baptism, the ordinance of baptism, it is an expression of our union
with Christ. It is an expression. It is an
identification publicly. It is an outward confession that
He died for our sins, that when He died, we died. When He was
buried, we were buried. When He arose again the third
day, we arose again with Him. He's our representative and substitute.
It's an expression, it's a confession that the Holy Spirit has already
done a work within us, the new birth, and brought us to saving
faith and repentance of dead works. It's a confession. In
the Bible, in the New Testament, there are two New Testament ordinances. The first one is Believer's Baptism. And that's exactly what it is.
Infants are not to be baptized. There is nothing in Scripture...
I had a fellow up in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, who was trying
to argue me into baptizing babies. Baby Baptism. And I told him,
I said, well, I've got one main problem with baptizing infants. And he said, what is that? And
I said, it's not in the Bible. It's not in the Bible. I have
no command in the scripture to baptize it. They say, well, it's
just a dedication. No, it's not. Don't listen to
that stuff. It's just religion. That's all
it is. Unbelievers are not to be baptized. It's true. We cannot look into another person's
heart. They must come of their own confession
and say, I believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and in good conscience
before God and us confess Christ. Can those who are baptized be
making a false confession? Yes. Peter baptized Simon Magus. And then Simon Magus' heart was
revealed. But here's the thing. Here's
the thing. Every believing sinner is to
follow the Lord's command to be baptized. Not to be saved,
but because he already is. Not to be made righteous, but
because he already is righteous. Not for the remission of sins,
but because sins have already been remitted. Now look here
in Acts chapter 8. This is the account of the evangelist
Philip. And he was called out into the
desert. This was after the martyrdom
of Stephen. Very trying time in the early
church. And Philip was led by the Holy
Spirit out into the desert to preach to an Ethiopian. And it
says in verse 26, The angel of the Lord spake unto
Philip, saying, Arise, and go toward the south, unto the way
that goeth down from Jerusalem unto Gaza, which is desert. And
he arose, and he went, and behold, a man of Ethiopia, a eunuch of
great authority, under Candacy, queen of the Ethiopians, who
had the charge of all her treasure, and had come to Jerusalem for
to worship." This man was a very important man in the kingdom,
had charge of all the queen's treasure, and he come to Jerusalem.
to worship according to the Jews religion. He had been converted
to the Jewish way of thinking. And like the Jews, having looked
at the law in a perverted way, he missed Christ. You see, that
whole law of Moses, the old covenant, was given as a schoolmaster to
lead them unto Christ. And he missed it. So it says
in verse 28, he was returning and sitting in his chariot, reading
Isaiah, that's Isaiah the prophet. You know the book of Isaiah.
Verse 29, Then the Spirit said unto Philip, Go near, and join
thyself to this chariot. And Philip ran thither to him,
and heard him read the prophet Isaiah, and said, Understandest
thou what thou readest? Do you understand what you are
reading? Verse 31, he said, the Ethiopian said, How can I, except
some man should guide me? And he desired Philip, that he
would come up and sit with him. And the place of the scripture
which he read was this, He was led as a sheep to the slaughter,
and like a lamb done before his shearers, so opened he not his
mouth. In his humiliation his judgment
was taken away. Who shall declare his generation?
For his life is taken from the earth." Now the portion of scripture
that the man was reading from, as you well know, was Isaiah
53. The suffering substitute the
servant who was bruised for our transgressions who says it pleased
the Lord to bruising he shall see of the travail of his soul
that's talking about Christ who would come on the cross finish
the work and redeem his people And it says here in verse 34,
And the eunuch answered Philip, and said, I pray thee, of whom
speaketh the prophet of this? Of himself, or some other man?
And then Philip opened his mouth, and began at the same scripture,
and preached unto him Jesus. He preached unto this Ethiopian,
God our Savior. That's what that means, that's
what the name Jesus means. His name shall be called Jesus, for
He shall save His people from their sins. It's not going to
mean He might save them. Or He's going to try to save
everybody. No, He shall save His people from their sins. What
is He able to do? Well, His name shall be called
Immanuel, which means, interpret, is God with us. The person and
finished work of Christ. Christ and Him crucified. And
that's what Philip preached to him. Well, look at verse 36.
And as they went on their way, they came unto a certain water.
And the eunuch said, See, here's water. What doth hinder me to
be baptized? Now, what does that tell you? You know, when you
read the historical books of the Bible, every detail is not
given out to us. You have to fill in the blanks,
but do it with Scripture. Fill in the blanks with Scripture.
What I see from this is that Philip, in his preaching to this
Ethiopian, he said something about baptism, the ordinance
of baptism. Well, what did Philip say about
baptism? Well, he said what the rest of the scripture says about
the ordinance of water baptism. That it's a confession of our
union with Christ. It's not for salvation. You see,
if Philip preached unto this man Jesus, he had to preach salvation
by grace. And if he said anything about
baptism, which it says here, he must have. I mean, how would
this Ethiopian know anything about baptism unless Philip had
said something to him? He had to preach it the way our
Lord preached it. He had to preach it the way Paul
preached it. He had to preach it the way the Apostle Peter
preached it. It's not for salvation, but it's the answer of a good
conscience. In other words, I want to follow Christ. And he commanded
me to be baptized. It's not an option. You say,
well, you just said you don't have to be baptized to be saved.
No, you don't. But it's still not an option.
It's a command for Christ's sheep who have been saved to follow.
Somebody said, well, I'll be baptized if I feel like it. Well,
don't get baptized then. Because that has nothing to do
with it, whether you feel like it or not. Christ commands us
to do a lot of things that we don't feel like doing. Did you
know that? For example, he commands us to love our enemies. Do you
ever feel like doing that? You know you should. You might
be convicted in your conscience that you don't. And you might
try to do better, and you should. But that's not what saves us.
So be baptized, he says. Well, look here, he says, what
does hinder me to be baptized? Now, what's stopping you? Well,
listen to Philip's answer. Look at verse 37. Philip said,
If thou believest with all thine heart, thou mayest. Now there's
the requirement of baptism. Do you believe? Are you resting
in Christ for all your salvation? Are you resting in Him and what
He accomplished at Calvary? Now if you're not resting in
Christ totally for your whole complete salvation, then don't
be baptized. But if you see that He's the
author and the finisher of your faith, In other words, you believe
you're going to be saved. Was he the author and the finisher
of that? Or is he just the author and
you're the finisher? If he's the author and you're
the finisher, then you don't believe in the true Christ. He's
the beginner. He's the completer. He's all
my righteousness. He's all my hope. He's all my
redemption. He's all my forgiveness. It's
all conditioned on Him, and He fulfilled all those conditions.
He met every requirement. Listen, here's what I believe,
and this is what I preach. Everything that God requires
of me to be saved, I find completely and fully in Christ. Everything. You say, well, don't you have
to be born again? Yes. But that's the fruit and effect
of what Christ accomplished. Don't you have to believe? Yes.
But that's the fruit and effect of what Christ accomplished.
That's what we're confessing in baptism. And the Ethiopian,
here he says that he answered and said, I believe that Jesus
Christ is the Son of God. And that's a big statement. Verse
38, He commanded the chariot to stand still, and they went
down both into the water, Both Philip and the eunuch and he
says that he baptized him. He baptized him. That's what
baptism is. Now with this in mind, what I
want to say in closing is this. It would be terribly wrong to
regard baptism as unnecessary. Or as just a mere option. It's
not essential for salvation. But it is essential to faith.
and obedience. That's what it's about. That's
what Peter meant when he dealt with it. He says, not for the
washing away of sin, but for the answer of a good conscience.
You see, baptism is connected, water baptism is connected to
faith. Not as securing salvation, but
the confession of salvation already secured by Christ. You see the
difference? Baptism becomes essential to
faith and obedience as soon as our Lord commanded it. Our Lord
didn't say, do it if you want to. He said, you go into all
the world and preach the gospel. And he that believeth and is
baptized shall be saved. Well, I hope that's been helpful
to you. And I'm going to ask the candidates for baptism, if
you'll go on back and start getting ready. Winston's going to come
and lead you in a hymn while we're preparing for this wonderful,
wonderful confession of the Lord Jesus Christ. And that's what
we Keep in mind as we go through this, as we, you know, many who
consider it themselves, you know, go to the scripture and see what
God's word teaches on these subjects. All right. Let me just have a
word of prayer as they're going back. You all go on back and
get ready and we'll have a word of prayer. And then Winston,
you come and lead in a hymn. Our Heavenly Father, we thank
you for the blessings of your grace in Christ and for all that
he accomplished at Calvary according to your eternal purpose and command,
that he finished the work, that he made an end of sin, finished
the transgression, brought in everlasting righteousness, and
that all that he did in his death, burial, and resurrection as the
author and finisher of our faith so that we might know for sure
in the security of your mercy and grace in him. that we are
thy children. We thank thee, Holy Spirit, for
giving us eyes to see and ears to hear and bringing us to faith
in him and repentance of dead works. Now guide us and direct
us in all things. For it is in his name we pray.
Amen.