Let's open our Bibles this morning
to Romans, the sixth chapter. Romans chapter six. Our subject is baptism. Specifically,
baptism, the believer's confession. We'll begin reading at verse
one, Romans chapter six. 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. For
he that is dead is freed from sin. Now, if we be dead with
Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him. knowing that
Christ, being raised from the dead, dieth no more, death hath
no more dominion over him. For in that he died, he died
unto sin once, but in that he liveth, he liveth unto God. Likewise
reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but
alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord. Now the Scriptures
clearly teach us four things about baptism. Let me make these
four statements as we come to this text of Scripture in just
a few minutes. First, baptism is an act of obedience
to Christ. This is not something that's
subject to whether I want to do this or don't want to do this.
It is a matter of obedience. To all who believe on the Lord
Jesus, His first commandment to every believer is, arise and
be baptized. Listen to these two statements
found in Matthew 28 and then in Mark 16. You don't need to
turn there now, but this is in our Lord's giving the Great Commission. Jesus came and spake unto them
saying, all power is given unto me in heaven and in earth, all
authority, all might, All dominion is put in my hands as the God-man
mediator. Go ye therefore, knowing that
I have all power, knowing that everything is subject to my rule,
everything is controlled by my hands. Go ye therefore into all
the world, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of
the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, teaching them
to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you, and lo,
I am with you all way, even unto the end of the world." Our Lord
commands us as His church, as His people, to carry the gospel
into all the world. That's our privilege, that's
our responsibility. He promised His church, the gates
of hell shall not prevail against you. I wish somehow we could
be convinced, and only God the Spirit can convince us. As we
do the work of our Redeemer, failure is not even a possibility. Failure is not even a possibility. Gates are not weapons of offense. They are weapons of defense.
It is not that we are fearful of the gates of hell coming against
us and conquering us. Rather, it is our business to
assault the very gates of hell with the gospel of God's grace
with this assurance, because all power resides in the hands
of our Redeemer. Failure is an impossibility. He said, go ye into all the world,
and preach the gospel to every creature. Yes, we preach the
gospel seeking the Lord's sheep, seeking God's elect, but we have
no idea who they are. So we preach the gospel to every
creature, calling upon all men to believe on the Son of God,
and those who believe are his elect, called by his grace. that believeth and is baptized
shall be saved, but he that believeth not shall be damned. That's the
first thing. Baptism is an act of obedience
to Christ. Second, the one prerequisite
for baptism, the one condition for baptism is faith in the Lord
Jesus. You remember when our Lord sent
Philip to preach the gospel to the eunuch? After he had preached
the gospel to him from Isaiah 53, they came upon some water,
and the eunuch said, Here is water. What doth hinder me that
I should be baptized? And Philip's response to him
was, If thou believest with all thine heart, thou mayest. Faith
in Christ is the one prerequisite, the one condition before one
can be baptized. I stress this because there are
multitudes, multitudes, most all Protestant churches, all
Protestant churches, with few exceptions, practice this business
of what they call infant baptism. Now there are two things wrong
with it. Sprinkling water is not baptism. Pouring water is
not baptism. Baptism, by the very meaning
of the word, requires immersion, a burial. And the sprinkling
of water on infants, the pouring water on infants, is nothing
but a remnant of papacy in Protestant churches. And the very act itself
is an act in defiance of the gospel of God's free grace, one
of the most damning things practiced in religion in this day, even
by many who claim to believe the gospel of God's grace. For
by baptism, they presume that the child is one of God's elect,
and presume the child is regenerate, presume the child is born again. That's utterly contrary to the
Scriptures. Nowhere in this book is there
even a hint of anyone ever baptizing a baby. Nowhere in this book. You say, well, Brother Don, They
just think baptism's a good thing to do, and it's dedicating the
child to God. Listen carefully to the statement
of A. A. Hodge, who was giving his
exposition of the Westminster Confession of Faith, and he was
professor at Princeton Seminary in the days when Princeton Seminary
was pretty good. He said, by baptism, the baptized
babies of believing parents are sealed into the covenant of grace. That's called baptismal regeneration. And there's no reason for sprinkling
water on that baby and calling it baptism, except that you think
somehow that at least gives the baby one foot up toward God. That's utterly contrary to the
scripture. Infant baptism implies and teaches
baptismal regeneration, salvation by the mere sprinkling of water
on a baby's head. If you were baptized before God
saved you, before God gave you faith in Christ, you weren't
baptized. I made a profession of faith
when I was a seven-year-old boy, and I was baptized. I had no
idea what I was doing. I didn't know the gospel from
cornbread, and I didn't know God from a billy goat. But I
was baptized. That's not baptism. That's just
a religious ritual. The believer is baptized, only
the believer. Faith in Christ is the one prerequisite
for baptism. Here's the third statement. Peter
says, baptism is the answer of a good conscience toward God. It is the answer of a good conscience
toward God. This is the reason that I do
not press upon people things that they haven't experienced.
Baptism is the answer of a good conscience toward God. I urge
you who believe to be baptized, but you must be baptized conscientiously. John Gill, I think, made a tremendous
statement. He said, baptism is rightly performed
and its ends answered when a person conscious to himself of it being
an ordinance of Christ and of his duty to submit to it, does
so upon his profession of faith in Christ in obedience to Christ's
command with a view to his glory." In other words, it is something
that arises from one being taught of God, an act of a good conscience
toward God. Now, let's look at our text in
Romans chapter 6. Here in Romans 6, the Spirit
of God shows us that baptism is the believer's confession
of faith in Christ, his identification with Christ, his profession of
allegiance to Christ as his Lord and Savior. This is what Paul
teaches us in the first 11 verses of this chapter. Now, in this
place, God the Holy Spirit gives us his explanation of baptism. Anytime you want to understand
what this book teaches about any subject, it doesn't matter
what the subject is, you do not find understanding of the Word
of God by getting a concordance and a Greek dictionary and looking
up the meaning of words and going to this verse and that and saying,
now there's a proof of what I've said. That's coming to the Word
of God with a notion in your head. And I want to prove that
this notion is right. And so you pick scriptures and
put them together and say, there, that proves what I'm saying concerning
this. That's dishonest. That's absolutely the poorest
possible way of interpreting scripture. If you're honest in
dealing with the Word of God, any subject dealt with, you go
to the place in the Book of God where that subject is explained.
and you interpret all other relevant scriptures in the light of the
plain revelation. You do not interpret the other
scriptures where things are mentioned and force their meaning into
that passage where it's explained. Let me give you a couple of examples.
If you want to know what the scriptures teach about divorce
and remarriage, if you want to know what the scriptures teach
about it, plainly, clearly set forth, you don't go to Romans
chapter 7. Romans chapter 7 mentions it,
but Romans 7 is talking about law and grace. If you want to
know what the Scriptures teach about divorce and remarriage,
you don't go to Matthew 19. Matthew 19 mentions it, but in
Matthew 19 where our Lord mentions it, He's simply answering the
cavils of the Pharisees. If you want to know what the
Scriptures teach about the subject, there is one chapter where God
the Holy Spirit clearly instructs us, 1 Corinthians chapter 7.
And all those other passages are only honestly understood
in the light of 1 Corinthians chapter 7. If you want to know
what the Scriptures teach with regard to the Lord's Supper,
who should partake of the Lord's Supper, so on. You don't go to
various passages where it's mentioned, or even to the passages in Matthew
26 and others, or John 12 where our Lord first institute of the
supper. Rather you go to 1 Corinthians
chapter 11 where the Apostle Paul writes by divine inspiration
and explains to us what our Lord meant when he established the
ordinance itself. And if you want to know what
the scriptures teach about baptism, it is ridiculous, it is ridiculous
to look at passages in the Old Testament about circumcision.
Baptism has got nothing to do with circumcision. If you want
to know what the Scriptures teach about baptism, it is absurd to
go to passages where children brought their children to the
Savior and the Lord said, forbid them not. It doesn't say a word
about baptism. If you want to know what the
Scriptures teach about baptism, you go to Romans chapter 7. That's
the place where God the Holy Spirit gives us instruction in
this passage. Now in the context, the Apostle
Paul has been teaching us about God's free justification by his
grace given to sinners through faith in Jesus Christ the Lord
without works. And here in chapter 6, he shows
us our responsibility as believers, having been saved by God's free
grace, to live in this world for the glory of God. Now let's
look at five things in these 11 verses, and I will obviously
be very brief in doing so. First, in verses 1 and 2, the
apostle addresses a controversy and settles it. The controversy
is just this. As it was in Paul's day, so it
is in our day. Every time you preach or declare
or assert in any way with dogmatism that salvation is by grace without
works, people jump back and say that's antinomianism. That'll
lead to licentiousness. That'll cause people to live
in ungodliness. But the Apostle Paul addresses
that issue with utter contempt, showing how ridiculous a thought
it is. What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that
grace may abound? God forbid. That's utterly ridiculous. How shall we that are dead to
sin live any longer therein? In other words, Paul is telling
us that no saved man, no man taught of God would ever imagine
that grace promotes licentiousness. Indeed, Jude tells us in Jude
4 that those who do this turn the grace of our God into lasciviousness. Legalistic, self-righteous folks
who say, well, you've got to give people rules to live by.
You've got to give them laws to rule by. You can't tell them
that works have no place in the whole scheme of grace. That leads
men to commit evil. Jude says, such men turn the
grace of our God into lasciviousness. Grace is glorified not by the
commission of sin, but by the forgiveness of it. And God's
people know that. Grace doesn't encourage ungodliness,
not in anyone. Grace never causes men and women
to love and pursue filthiness. Grace causes us to hate sin,
to seek to be done with it. How shall we that are dead to
sin live any longer therein? Such a thought is as repulsive
as it is contrary to reason. Be sure you understand what Paul's
teaching here. Every believer, all who trust
Christ, are dead to sin. We know and we acknowledge with
painful honesty we're not dead to sin's influence. And we're not dead to sin's presence.
When I would do good, evil is present with me. And we're not
dead to the effects of sin. That is to sin causing us to
commit evil. The sin that's in us. David acknowledged that he was
born in iniquity, conceived in sin. And he acknowledges against
thee and thee only have I sinned and done this evil in thy sight.
We know that we're not dead to sin in that sense. Lord Jesus
taught us as his disciples to pray and pray continually Forgive
us our sins Hold your hands in Romans 6 and turn to 1st John
chapter 1 1st John chapter 1 Verse 9 if we confess our sins
and He's faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse
us from all unrighteousness. Now notice John, the beloved
apostle, includes himself in this word. Verse 10, if we say
that we have not sinned, we make God a liar and his word is not
in us. Every believer realizes that
sin mars everything about him. Sin is mixed with all he does
and if we say we've done anything and have not seen it You're sitting
here listening to me I'm trying to admonish you from the Word
of God and those things in themselves as we seek to worship God We
look at that. That's a good thing, but don't
ever don't don't ever get the idea This this doesn't involve
seeing you know better and I do Sin bars this very thing itself
If we wipe our mouths and say, I haven't sinned, we make God
a liar, and his word is not in us. But thanks be unto God, we're
dead to the guilt of sin and the penalty of sin. Blessed is
the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin. Now, I've said
this to you a hundred times. I hope you will remember it.
Don't ever forget it. acknowledging our sin and knowing
God's free forgiveness of sin. God our Father will never treat
us any the less graciously in time or eternity because of our
sin. God our Father will never treat
us any the less graciously in time or eternity because of our
sin. He satisfied his justice in the
sacrifice of his son on our behalf so that justice says sin shall
not be imputed to us. All right, look at verse three.
Here the apostle shows us a connection between believers' baptism and
the death of Christ. Know ye not that so many of us
as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death. Now let me help you a little
bit with this verse of scripture. If you pull down your commentaries,
modern commentaries, and start to read them, this is not true
of any of the older commentaries. It is not true of any of the
writers of days gone by who were in any way dependable. You will
read them talk about baptism here in verse 3 as being spirit
baptism. Now, please make this a note
and understand it. Nowhere in the Word of God is
there any mention of something called spirit baptism. Nowhere
in the Word of God. There is nothing but something
that's been hatched in this charismatic, dispensational, fundamentalist
day. It is nowhere taught in the Word of God. Ninety-three
times in the New Testament, the words baptize, baptized, and
baptism are used. Not once are they used in connection
with anything done by God the Holy Spirit. There is no such
thing as spirit baptism. Our Lord Jesus, on his ascension
into glory, baptized his church into the Spirit on the day of
Pentecost. God the Holy Spirit never baptizes
anyone into Christ. God the Holy Spirit performs
a work of grace in us, creating Christ in us, but he doesn't
baptize anyone. So this is not talking about
some imaginary spirit baptism, it's talking about water baptism.
And the Apostle is telling us that we were baptized into, that
is, with reference to the Lord Jesus Christ. Baptism, if it
is true, is an act of faith. It looks to Christ. It's obedient
to Christ. It is following the example of
Christ. Baptism has reference to the death of our Lord Jesus
Christ, picturing His death as our substitute. It is an outward,
visible picture of grace experienced in the heart. Until grace is
experienced in the heart, baptism is meaningless. It's nothing
but a religious symbol, a deceiving ritual. This is the reason why
we've been baptized. We are one with Christ. When
He died, we died with Him. When He was buried, we were buried
with Him. When He arose, We arose with
Him, and we arose with Him in the anticipation of resurrection
glory. Now look at verses 4 and 5. Here
the Apostle shows us the nature and meaning of baptism. Therefore
we are buried with Him by baptism unto death. No other way to be
baptized. like as Christ was raised up
from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should
walk in the newness of life. For if we have been planted together
in the likeness of His death, we shall also be in the likeness
of His resurrection." In other words, our baptism confesses
this. I died with Christ, so I'm buried
with Him. And I arose with Christ, quickened
together with him. When he took his seat in heaven,
I did too. And now, being risen with Christ,
it is my privilege and my responsibility to walk with God in newness of
life, ever walking in the Spirit, not in the flesh. Living not
unto sin, but living unto God, my Savior and my Redeemer. And
I do so in anticipation of resurrection glory. And then Paul gives us
a confidence. A confidence which we ought to
walk in in this world all the time. Look what he says. He says,
Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin. but alive unto God through Jesus
Christ our Lord. Reckon ye yourselves dead indeed
unto sin. God reckons us so. I reckon he's
right. God reckons us dead to sin. What's
Paul telling us? When Satan tempts you, reckon
yourselves dead indeed unto sin. but alive unto God through Jesus
Christ when you fall. Reckon ye also yourselves to
be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus
Christ our Lord when your own heart condemns you. God is greater
than our heart. Reckon ye also yourselves to
be dead indeed unto sin but alive unto God through Jesus Christ
our Lord. When you feel your soul empty
and your heart hard, you feel deadness stealing over you, reckon
ye yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God
through our Lord Jesus Christ. And when you attempt to worship
and serve God, reckon yourselves dead indeed unto sin, but alive
unto God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Brother Don, that would
make it appear that what we do has nothing to do with our relationship
with God. Aren't you thankful? Our relationship
to God has to do only with the doing and dying in person of
Jesus Christ our Lord. So reckon yourselves dead indeed
unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen.