This morning we turn in our Bibles to Romans chapter six. Romans six. We read this passage in connection with our treatment of baptism and note how this passage gets at the essence and the reality of which the water baptism is a picture. We hear the inspired and fallible word of God. 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. 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. Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof. Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin, but yield yourselves unto God as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God. For sin shall not have dominion over you, for ye are not under the law, but under grace. What then? Shall we sin because we are not under the law, but under grace? God forbid! Know ye not that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey, whether of sin unto death or of obedience unto righteousness? But God be thanked that ye were the servants of sin, but ye have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered you. Being then made free from sin, ye became the servants of righteousness. I speak after the manner of men because of the infirmity of your flesh. For as ye have yielded your members, servants, to uncleanness and to iniquity unto iniquity, Even so now, yield your members, servants, to righteousness unto holiness. For when ye were the servants of sin, ye were free from righteousness. What fruit had ye then in those things whereof ye are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death. but now being made free from sin and become servants to God, ye have your fruit unto holiness and the end everlasting life. For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. May God bless the reading of his word to our hearts. We read this in connection with Lord's Day 26. Lord's Day 26, which introduces the subject of baptism. It's found on page 14 in the back of our Psalters. We have question and answers 69, 70, and 71. Lord's Day 26, question 69. how art thou admonished and assured by holy baptism that the one sacrifice of Christ upon the cross is of real advantage to thee. Thus, that Christ appointed this external washing with water, adding there to this promise, that I am as certainly washed by his blood and spirit from all the pollution of my soul, that is, from all my sins, as I am washed externally with water, by which the filthiness of the body is commonly washed away. What is it to be washed with the blood and spirit of Christ? it is to receive of God the remission of sins freely for the sake of Christ's blood, which he shed for us by his sacrifice upon the cross, and also to be renewed by the Holy Ghost and sanctified to be members of Christ, so that we may more and more die unto sin and lead holy and unblameable lives. Where has Christ promised us that he will as certainly wash us by his blood and spirit as we are washed with the water of baptism? In the institution of baptism, which is thus expressed, go ye therefore and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost. He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved, but he that believeth not shall be damned. This promise is also repeated where the scripture calls baptism the washing of regeneration and the washing away of sins. Beloved in our Lord Jesus Christ, what does it mean that you have been baptized? That's something good for us to consider and to think about. Of all the doctrines, of all the practices, of the church, baptism often is the most challenging one to grasp and to understand. And especially for those who grew up in churches that did not practice infant baptism. Many from non-denominational Protestant churches will endure much criticism when they embrace the Reformed faith over against the Arminian doctrines. But at least their families will often still consider them to be Christian. But when they start inviting family members to the baptism of infants, then questions start more and more being raised. And the questions have to do with the fact that are you not just practicing, in essence, Roman Catholicism? You're caught up in the superstition. You're caught up in the man-made doctrine that the Roman Catholic church began and that is baptizing infants and so by association then they make us guilty of the sins of Rome. The baptism form warns us not only of those errors but also of another error that similarly can plague us. And that is this, that we do it but we don't really know why. And if someone would press us, why do you baptize your children? We would be hard-pressed to give them a good answer. We know that it's not because it's going to save that child. We know that not all the children of baptism are saved necessarily. We know that that baptism is not the power by which God regenerates them. So then the question again is raised, well then why? Why are you baptizing infants? And so important it is for us not just to get caught up in something that the church has done or we've always done, but rather to understand precisely and clearly what it is that we do and why. Do we treasure the fact that we've been baptized? Are we thankful for our baptism? Do we understand the obligation and the calling that that baptism lays upon us? And do we insist that our children in turn receive that sign and receive that seal? God sets here in Romans 6, probably one of the best passages that clearly lays out the teaching of Lord's Day 26. And it's a passage that emphasizes the importance and the power of this holy ordinance of God. The apostle is responding here in chapter 6 and 7 to the accusations of the critics. And their accusation has to do with this. What difference does it make that someone is justified by faith alone? The apostle's been developing that doctrine of justification by faith alone. And the question is raised then, what does it matter? And what difference, what does that look like in an individual? And would not someone jump to this conclusion then? If I'm saved by grace, it's not at all according to my works, then it doesn't really matter if I sin. As a matter of fact, I could even argue maybe, the more I sin, the better off I'm gonna be because I'm gonna get more grace if I sin more. And so that's the way the Apostle then opens chapter 6. What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? Is that the practical application of my knowledge that I'm justified by faith alone without works? And there's two answers that are given. First of all, God forbid! The child of God who loves God doesn't want to continue in sin. And immediately his response or her response is that, no, I love God. I want to do what God wants me to do. God forbid. That's not how the Christian is to live. But then the second answer, and that's really the focus now that we take up this morning, is this, you are dead to sin. So in other words, the child of God responds, no, I don't want to keep walking in sin. I understand that that's not the right answer to that question. But at the same time, what makes it so that I won't keep walking in sin? And the answer then is, I am dead to sin. Now it doesn't mean that sin is dead in me. We know that. Sin is very active in me. But what does it mean then to be dead to sin? How is that the case? And the apostle then turns to baptism, and he uses baptism as a picture. You've been baptized into Jesus Christ. And is it not true that by baptism, you were baptized into not only his life, but also his death? And by virtue of your being baptized into Christ, you've also been buried with him and raised again with him. And so that opens up all kinds of questions as to what that means and the significance of it. And that's what we look at this morning. Focusing really very simply on two main things. What does baptism picture? Number one, the fact that I am washed from my sin. I'm cleansed. And number two, that God now takes me and consecrates me to himself. So it's especially those two truths. If we were to answer very simply, what does your baptism picture? I have been freed from sin and from the power of sin and its dominion. And I have been joined to Christ. And now I seek to live out of Him. And so we look at that. Baptism. Buried and raised with Christ. And noticing the significance of the burial as that which Makes it so that sin now is such that we're dead to it. And the being raised, the idea of being consecrated to Christ. Noting the meaning, the significance, and the institution and the significance. It is to receive of God, the Lord's Day says, the remission of sins freely for the sake of Christ's blood, which he shed for us by his sacrifice on the cross. As I stated, Romans 6 in a beautiful way now digs into that. And immediately in verse 3 directs our attention now to Christ and to the burial that's in Christ. What does it mean to be buried? Now we've addressed that before and we've looked at that and we are aware, having experienced it personally, of how difficult burying the body of a loved one is. Burial is the end. from which there's no return. And when the body of a loved one is buried, is placed in the grave, we know and we're struck with the fact that we're never going to see the body of that loved one ever again. We're never going to see that one in the form that we knew that one. And even though we believe and we confess the resurrection of the body, we confess life everlasting, the bones and the flesh now of that one will turn to dust. And so in that sense, burial is the end. Difficult it is to watch that event when the casket is lowered down into the ground, when dirt is thrown over the top of it, and when that earthly life now in a very real way comes to a close. Now every one of us are heading toward that end. And the comfort that we have is this, Jesus was buried. Our Savior endured this humiliation. Wicked men took Jesus, they nailed Him to the cross, but then His followers took His body off the cross and they laid it in a tomb. They did so out of love and respect for their Savior. He was placed in a grave. Now why did Jesus have to be buried? It was not only a picture of the finality of death, It was not only that which depicted the reality that he had gone down into the depths of death for us, but the burial of Jesus was for sin. Now we know it can't be because of any sin that Jesus had. He's sinless. Jesus' birth was because of sin. His whole lifelong was because of sin. His crucifixion was because of sin. His burial was because of sin. And it was all for your and my sin. Why did Jesus have to come? Because he determined that he would save his people from their sin. And so my sin and your sin put Jesus on Calvary. Your and my sin put Jesus in the grave. He was made sin who knew no sin. He who was sinless was now made sin in the place of those whom he represented. And so when Jesus was put in the grave for sin, it was meant to depict this, the end of sin and the end of the power of sin, not only over him, but all those whom he represented. The sin of his people had no more power over him now. He had paid for it. He had completely realized it. And the sin for which he had come to die now had been realized. It was gone. It was put away. That's the wonder, beloved, of your and my legal relationship to Jesus Christ. When Jesus was buried, my sin went into the grave with him. And so over 2,000 years ago, your sin and my sin went into the grave with Jesus. It was put off. And the power of that sin was broken. So that that sin which required the soul that sins, that soul must die, that power now is broken. The bondage, the horror of sin was put away. Jesus paid for it. And that sin has no more dominion, it has no more power over us. I have been buried with Jesus Christ. And the wonder of that burial is marvelous, beloved. I have been buried with him. That is, my sin and that sin which condemned me has been put away through the wonder by which Jesus took upon himself that sin and then went into the grave with it to leave it there. By faith we lay hold on that wonder. We can't see, we can't confess, we can't know the full beauty of it yet. How difficult it is for us to make this our confession we know because we know our sin. We know the power of that sin. We know that that sin is still active. That sin is not dead within us. But by grace, through faith, we confess, I have been buried with Jesus Christ. And how do I know that? By faith. Again, beautifully, that's set forth here in the fact that I believe it. Believing that wonder I live in the conscious joy of that salvation How is it that I believe because God gives me the gift of faith and that faith joins me to Jesus Christ a wonder of God Baptism now is a sign and a seal of that wonder Burial with Christ takes place by baptism according to verse 3. Now we know the baptism that's being talked about here is the reality. It's not the sign, it's not the picture. It's not just the water being sprinkled on a baby or on an adult. What's being talked about here is the reality. At the moment of regeneration, I am incorporated into Christ. I'm planted together with him. And the wonder of that is I am dead to sin, I'm alive now to God. And through that wonder of regeneration, God accomplishes The knowledge of sin, the horror of that sin. He gives us to know that sin is forgiven. He works in us the faith by which we lay hold on Christ and know that my salvation is through Jesus Christ alone. He gives me to know the new life that's in Christ and the fact that The old life that I lived, of which, again, Romans 6 speaks much, that life that we lived in accordance with sin, given over to the bondage and the guilt and the shame of that sin, has been broken now, and God has delivered us. And now, as a new creature in Christ, I live unto Him. And by faith, I lay hold on that wonder." Now, God is talking here about an inward spiritual reality that every one of God's children experience. God works this wonder sometimes early on, sometimes already in infancy, sometimes even in the womb, so that we're not even conscious of the fact that God has worked new life in my heart. He's given me to know this wonder. But then, as time progresses, and as I hear the outward call, and it's confirmed by the inner call, God stirs that life and brings that life alive, and he makes it so that it grows, that it increases, and we understand the wonder of it. We come to know our sin. We come to realize the horror of that sin and the judgment that we deserve. And God gives us to know the spiritual connection that we have with Jesus Christ. The water baptism pointing us to that spiritual wonder by which God has cleansed me from my sins and incorporated me into the life of Jesus Christ. Now, God has established covenant with us in Jesus Christ. In Christ, all the elect are brought into the enjoyment of God's covenant friendship. The Holy Spirit dwelling in them and the Spirit giving them to know the Father and the Son and the joy and the blessedness of that union, enabling them to live their lives for the glory and honor of God. How does the significance of the covenant tie into baptism, we might ask? as one who's baptized, the formula of the triune God is used. Baptized in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. And the idea is not that we're baptized under the authority of it, the name being the authority of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. There's that sense. But more so the idea is that we are baptized into covenant friendship with God. We're brought into the covenant life of the living God. And the name of God is his revelation to his children. The invisible God has seen fit to make himself known to us through names. And each of those names reveals his glory, his majesty, his power. And most significant is the name of Jesus Christ. We are brought into Christ and the name of Christ depicting the love of God by which he sent a savior to deliver us. being united to Jesus Christ and knowing the wonder of God's covenant love, God assures us that not only have our sins been forgiven, but we've been taken now into a consecrated life with him. He'll never leave us, never forsake us, and He's gonna preserve and keep us to all eternity. We're united with Jesus Christ. And that union to Jesus Christ is what we confess is our only comfort. The fact that I'm not my own, I belong to Jesus Christ. I'm united to Him. And so complete that union is that we have this striking language in 2 Peter 1 verse 4 that God has made us partakers of the divine nature Jesus had a human and divine nature. We who understand the human nature and are human just as Jesus was, are now lifted into a marvelous wonder by which God now takes and brings us into the divine nature. Through Jesus Christ and the operation of the Spirit, God performs that wonder. Now baptism signifies that reality. That reality is a reality even for some who are not baptized. You don't need to be baptized in order to experience the wonder of that reality. As a matter of fact, many who are baptized as adults have experienced that reality long ago perhaps, and now finally they have come to the conscious wonder of it and are subject then to baptism in a Christian church. But God is pleased to use that sign as a picture of that spiritual wonder. God forgiving us, and then taking us and consecrating us to Himself in covenant love. When did baptism start? How did it originate? That's another question that we face with this Lord's Day. We know the Roman Catholic Church confesses seven sacraments. The Reformed confess two. Baptism and the Lord's Supper. And we do so on the basis of Scripture and the testimony of Scripture concerning the institution of these as sacraments. The significance of baptism, we understand, is connected with circumcision in the Old Testament, but circumcision was never a sacrament, so to speak. God established circumcision as a sign. It was a sign that pointed to the cutting off of sin in the life of an individual, pictured by the cutting off of the foreskin, and the fact that that individual now was consecrated, brought into covenant friendship with God. And so we understand the fact that the significance of circumcision is the same as baptism. And later, God made that clear. Jesus not only, but then the apostles emphasizing that baptism is the same as circumcision. Now circumcision was introduced by God in Genesis 17 to Abraham. God comes to Abraham with a command that Abraham is to circumcise now all the male children in his household. God speaks in that context of a covenant that he's establishing with Abraham as an everlasting covenant. And in that connection with that covenant, Abraham is to see to it that the sign of that covenant is given to his children as well as to the adults of his household. And so Genesis 17-7, importantly, is not just talking about a physical earthly covenant. It has an earthly sense to it in that the covenant talks about land. It talks about a promise with regard to land. But the key to understanding that that covenant already in Genesis 17 was not merely earthly or distinct from the covenant that is talked about in the New Testament is this, the simple word everlasting. God comes to Abraham and God says, I will establish an everlasting covenant immediately. That makes it so that there can't be now more than one covenant in a sense. There's one covenant with various aspects to it. we would say manifestations the one covenant that God gives to Adam reaffirms with Noah gives to Abraham reaffirms with David and continues one covenant as an everlasting covenant in which Jesus Christ is the head of that covenant and God promising the wonder of salvation to believers and to their seed in Jesus Christ another The thing that is made clear then is that God's promise according to Genesis 15, 16, 17 and elsewhere is to Abraham and to his seed. And later on in Galatians 3 we read that that seed is not many but one and that seed is Christ. God using many, many different passages to demonstrate the continuity between the Old and New Testament. The fact that God does not exist with multiple covenants, but one covenant with different manifestations throughout the course of history. And that one covenant, an everlasting covenant. Now as an everlasting covenant, so many truths are evident then. It has to be then a covenant that is unconditional. Because if it's a covenant that is everlasting, and it would be conditional, so to speak, then some people might join that covenant by fulfilling certain conditions, but then get kicked out of it, perhaps, because they didn't keep those conditions. There would be no everlasting character to a covenant that was conditional. And so this covenant is an unconditional covenant established by God in Jesus Christ with all those who are Christ's. And God now comes to Abraham and says, I will establish my covenant, between me and thee and thy seed after thee, giving Abraham to understand the wonder that it's not going to be with every one of his children head for head, but it's gonna be to all the seed that is spiritual, the seed that's in Christ. And again, God affirming this, Abraham is not the father of Israel in the sense of earthly character that he's just from an earthly perspective is the father of all the Israelites, but the relevance of the covenant again has to do with the spiritual character of that. And this opens and explains so many questions then that rise up. How is it that so many Israelites perished? And the Apostle is struggling with that in Romans. And in Romans 8 and 9. And Paul is moved by that. He loves the Israelites. They're his Jewish brothers and sisters. And why is it that so many perish? When God made a promise. And then it becomes evident that promise was not to Israel head for head. That promise was not a temporal promise merely. It was a spiritual promise that had to do with Christ and in Christ all those who are found in him. And so the promise does not fail. God's promise to Abraham is being realized in you and me. Because we now are the sons and daughters of Abraham. In the beginning then, God establishing the covenant and God giving the sign of the covenant as circumcision. The cutting off, the bloody act of cutting off of the foreskin. Circumcision pointing to Christ and the reality of blood being shed for the sake of the realizing of that separation from sin and devotion to God. Baptism took its place in the New Testament. It was formally instituted at the time of the glorification of Christ and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. It was then that Jesus gave, as we read here in Lord's Day 26, the command of Matthew 28 19. Go ye therefore and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son of the Holy Ghost. Now, baptism already had been taking place in a limited sense under John the Baptist. God had sent John the Baptist to come and prepare the way for Jesus. From the account of John's baptism, as found in Matthew 3 and parallel gospel accounts, we can determine the significance of John's baptism was the same. It was for the remission of sins. It was pointing them to the Christ and to the coming of Jesus Christ. John 133 notes, the baptism of John was divinely ordained. And I knew him not, but he that sent me to baptize with water, he sent me to baptize with water. The same said unto me, upon whom thou shalt see the Spirit descending and remaining on him, the same as he which baptizes with the Holy Ghost. The importance of that is that the baptism of John was from heaven. It was authoritative. It was the same as the baptism that Jesus instituted. But now Jesus institutes baptism in a unique sense in this way, that now it's a sign of baptism through his own blood. He now will shed his blood. Jesus' baptism had pointed to his death. And as you children are aware, why did Jesus have to be baptized? We've been through this again and again in catechism, haven't we? Baptism is a picture of the forgiveness of sins. Jesus had no sin. Why is it then that Jesus had to be given a picture that his sins were forgiven? And it was because he carried our sins. And bearing our sins, he subjected himself then to baptism as a picture of the sins of his people now being Removed and that would take place then at his crucifixion and burial God instituted then a divine sign appointed by Christ himself to be used in the church and to be observed by the church. And Matthew 28, 19 is the most clear passage where God commissions the church, go out, teach, baptize in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. And we understand the order and the reason for that. As the church went out, Primarily, the baptism that's going to take place is going to be adult baptism, because these are individuals who have not yet been baptized. They've been circumcised, but they didn't even know of baptism. And so as they go out, they're going to teach, and they're going to instruct, and individuals are going to come to faith, and they're going to be baptized. But marvelously, it's not limited to the adults. As they go forth, they baptize households, as the promise of God remains the same as it was to Abraham. to believers and to their seed, as many as the Lord our God shall call. That's the qualification, not to every one of our children, but to every one of our children whom the Lord our God shall call. And we understand that God is pleased then to work the wonder of saving his church from among our seed. The washings, the purifications of the Old Testament, we're all preparing for this. event. And from that perspective, we realize that God was using all of those washings, all those purifications to point Israel to the need for the blood and the need for the wonder of the blood. God raised baptism to the level of a sacrament in that it was instituted by Christ then and observed by the church. And that's really important because there are those who would say this is just something that is a formality. It's just something that the church started doing on her own throughout the years. And therefore it's not something that ought to be continued. Some would say baptism is just a matter more of christening a baby. And perhaps some would say that the idea of it is just simply to put them on the rolls of the church. So that the significance only has to do with the fact that now they're, so to speak, christened and now they become members of a specific local congregation. But there's nothing more than that. Others deliberately reject any water baptism due to the fact that I've been baptized by the spirit and being baptized by the spirit is way more important and significant and therefore because of that there's no need for water baptism. Beloved, we hold in faithfulness to Christ and to the apostles the wonder of baptism as a divinely ordained sign and seal of incorporation into God's covenant. There's only one way to enter the covenant and that's by grace. We are members of the covenant only by virtue of our union with Christ and the wonder of God's grace. And our union with Christ is a wonder that God's worked from eternity. It's not anything that has to do with our willing, our running, our doing. God chose us all of grace and God gave us to Christ. And in time, we become conscious of that covenant life through faith. God works the joy of salvation, he gives us to know our sin, he gives us to be made aware of what Jesus has done for us, and we lay hold upon that wonder. And God causes then our baptism to serve as a sign and a seal by which we believe I've been washed from my sins through the blood of Jesus Christ and his perfect sacrifice, and I have been brought into the life of God, the covenant life of God, into an everlasting covenant that has no end, in which God will preserve and keep me forever. The sacraments then, beloved, are holy, visible signs and seals appointed of God to declare and seal to us the promise of the gospel. And what's the promise of the gospel? The promise of the gospel simply is this, salvation in Jesus Christ to everyone who believes. Now that's not a general promise, it's a promise to everyone who believes. It's a particular promise. And God gives the promise of the gospel, salvation, to all who believe. And that promise is powerfully proclaimed. But that promise is set forth also in connection with the sacraments. And by God's grace, we lay hold on it, we believe. And believing then, we are assured of the wonder of what Christ has done for us. Christ instituted baptism with a very specific formula. We're familiar with it. He calls us to baptize in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. In Matthew 28, 19, literally we read of the idea of baptizing into the name of. And so we understand, again, the beauty of that. Our baptism, then, is a sign our sins are forgiven. And then secondly now, we are brought into, we are incorporated into fellowship and communion with a living God. We stand in a relationship with a triune God, a relationship of love, a relationship by which God as our God takes us into the enjoyment of His very life. He makes us partakers of the wonders of salvation, and he gives us to know that we have been brought into his family, not just temporarily, but to be kept and preserved to all eternity. God draws us into that covenant life. Baptism is not a means by which God draws every child of believers. And again, we realize there are children who are not even baptized who are able to enjoy the marvelous wonder of this work. All who have been chosen by God, His elect, the spiritual seed of Abraham, enjoy that reality. And again, Galatians 3.16 emphasizes that. And then what did God do? God then used in that inspiration now to identify. He used Paul to identify the seed of Abraham. Galatians 3.29, And if ye be Christ's, then are ye Abraham's seed and heirs according to the promise. that promise leaving parents cling to. And there are times when God takes from us infants as he did in this past week with the Haystack and the Coima family. God gives us the comfort and the faith to lay hold on the wonder by which he is faithful to gather to himself even those little ones that miscarry never make it to be born even those little ones that are born never have opportunity to be baptized god in his faithfulness is a god to believers and to their seeds We know that the line of election and reprobation still runs through our family. So how is it that we can have that assurance? The scriptures teach and emphasize that those who are reprobate among believers reveal themselves in time. In time, they show themselves to be rebellious. They give evidence of that hatred toward God. And they are exposed then as those who hate God, who are not part of His covenant, and they're put out, or they leave the church of Jesus Christ. God teaches us to pray. He teaches us to submit to His will as we train up our children, as we raise them. And we raise them with that spirit that God is pleased to gather His own from among our children. as many as the Lord our God shall call, and that he is pleased to use our feeble efforts to impress upon our children and to lead and to guide them, to know and to believe this wonder of grace, to know that their salvation is not according to their willing, it's not according to their running, it's all of God's grace. It's all of God's goodness and mercy. And so we look back to our baptism, water baptism, a sign of that real baptism, which is the power of the Holy Spirit washing us and drawing us into the life of Jesus Christ. Christ assuring us as we look back and by faith we lay hold upon that wonder. We realize my sins are forgiven. In the face of temptation and struggle, I realize my hope and my joy is that I belong to Jesus Christ, and I seek to live unto Him, and I desire to show forth His praise. And baptism then is a sign, it's a seal of that which God has promised in His word, that He will be a God to those who believe. And by faith, I believe. The sprinkling as such is a symbol that is maintained and used by Christ's church. It's a mode that's well established in scripture. doesn't have any problem with or will willingly receive those who are immersed, but we recognize that sprinkling is that clearly established in Scripture as a legitimate and even preferred sign of baptism. Ezekiel 36, 25, Hebrews 10.22, Then you're familiar with the account of Peter's being Peter's feet being washed by Jesus in John 13, 4 to 10 records that incident. And you remember Jesus washing the disciples' feet. He comes to Peter and at first Peter says, no, no, no, he doesn't want Jesus to wash his feet. And then Peter explains, Peter, if I don't wash you, you're not going to be clean. Then all of a sudden Peter wants Jesus to wash his whole body. And Jesus has to say, no, no, no, it's only symbolic. This is not the reality, this is a picture of that which is the reality. And so it is with baptism. Baptism is not the reality, it's the picture. Therefore, the washing of the feet was sufficient, the sprinkling is sufficient. Now from an earthly perspective, was Peter clean, his whole body clean, when just his feet were washed? No, he wasn't. If bodily washing is a symbol and a sign of a spiritual reality, Foot washing is entirely significant and sufficient. He that is washed needeth not save to wash his feet, but is clean everywhere, Jesus says. Your feet are clean, your whole body is clean. Not from a physical perspective now, but from a spiritual perspective. To be sprinkled with water, therefore, is a sign of being completely cleansed by the perfect work of Jesus Christ on the cross and incorporated into the family of God by the power of the Spirit. And so, beloved, we lay hold on that significance. Baptism is a sign of separation and consecration. Separation from sin and consecration to God. We're buried with Him. That is, we're separated, in that sense, from the dominion and power of sin, and we're raised with Him. We're consecrated to Jesus Christ. The purpose of our being buried with Christ is so that we might be consecrated. So that we might walk in newness of life. The two go together. God doesn't just forgive us. He forgives us and he brings us into Christ so that now we walk in newness of life. Now that seems strange. How can a one who's dead now walk? And that's the emphasis here that Romans 6 is making. We who are dead to sin, walk. But the point is that we don't walk in the ways of temptation and in sin now, we walk in newness of life. We're no longer slaves to sin. We're no longer bound to the pursuit of that which is rebellious and sinful. We're now walking in fellowship with God, communion with Him. We're enjoying all the blessings of salvation and we're living now for His glory. The fruit then of being buried with Christ is that now we walk a walk that has its source in Christ and in the life to come. It's a life that's new. This is the must of the gospel, beloved. The gospel comes to us and says, repent and believe in Jesus Christ. We turn from our sin, we believe in Jesus Christ, and we now live a life that is to the glory and honor of God. We must not serve sin. And remember, the response of the child of God is to that, no, God forbid. But then the question is, how? How can I be assured that I will not keep serving sin? Because I now have been buried with Christ. And having been buried with Christ, I've been raised with Him. And now my life is to the glory and honor of His holy name. God's children live as those who are chosen and redeemed, called out of darkness into light. Now, we're still going to fall into sin. We're still going to give in to temptation. But again, what's going to be our reaction? What will be our reaction as young people, as adults? Will we be proud of ourselves? Will we brag about all the sins that we've done? We're gonna be ashamed. There's guilt, there's shame. I wasn't walking in newness of life. I wasn't living out of the spirit of my baptism. What did I do this past week? Am I proud of what I did last night? Did I walk in newness of life? If not, I confess my sin. I know that there's gonna be no peace, there's no joy in that continued walk that's in the slavery and bondage of sin. but I walk in newness of life. I rejoice in the victory that's in Christ." In the Old Testament already, the type set forth that two-fold aspect, being separated from sin and consecrated to God. And we can just note a couple of them. The flood was one of them. The flood is used in the Bible as a picture of baptism. And what was the significance of it? It wasn't The ark that primarily saved Noah. It was, right? Noah was in the ark. But what saved Noah? The waters that destroyed the wicked people who were threatening the church. The church's threat was the wicked people. They were threatening to kill and to destroy the church. And so it was the water that washed away sinners and the sinful individuals that then was. cleansing them, freeing them from those sinners who were threatening to destroy them, and bringing them then safely to the haven that God had ordained. cutting them off from the filth of the world, and God bringing them then safely through the water to the victory that would be in Christ. Now, we realize it didn't work because sin was still within individuals. Something more was necessary, the reality. Similarly, the passage to the Red Sea was an Old Testament picture. And again, it fails in terms of it doesn't accomplish the reality, but it points to the reality. Israel walked through the Red Sea and dry land. What was their threat? Their enemy was Pharaoh and his whole host. God sends the water back and destroys Pharaoh and his whole host. God freeing them from the dominion of Egypt and the dominion that was present under these wicked individuals. And God then brings them out into the land of Canaan, the land of promise. Setting them apart by cleansing them and now bringing them into glory. God does that. through Jesus Christ. The significance of baptism is not that I was regenerated at that moment when I was baptized. I don't point to the wonder that I got converted at that moment that I was baptized, for instance. Rather, the significance of baptism is this, by faith I believe. that I have been separated from the dominion and power of sin through the blood of Jesus Christ. And as a result of that, I have been consecrated now to God. And now I live in the joy and the freedom that the life that I live is not that old life, but it's a new life. It's a life of thankfulness. It's a life of joy. It's a life that has no end. The child of God appreciating and by faith laying hold on His baptism does not say, I'm going to continue in sin. I've been baptized. I'm good to go. God forbid! And why won't He say that? How shall we that are dead to sin live any longer therein? The power of the Holy Spirit is such that the Spirit is at work in our lives directing and guiding us to the glory of God. And so in the midst of all the unrest of sin and all the struggles in our lives, we lay hold upon the wonder of the cross and the burial that's in Jesus Christ. We lay hold on the fact that I am not my own. I am found in Jesus Christ. And He, because of my sin, was buried in order that my sin could go down into the grave and I could be raised again with Him in newness of life. That work that God has performed on my behalf is a work that He is accomplishing in and through me. He has begun it by His grace, He'll bring it to its conclusion. And as such then, He's the one who is consecrating me to Him and working in me the faith to believe and to lay hold on that wonder. Beloved, with that blessing of salvation as our confidence, that new life of Jesus Christ as our inspiration, we willingly and we joyfully take up the obligation of our baptism. Baptism lays obligations on us. When the Spirit works in our hearts, we receive those obligations to love God, to pursue His will, to honor Him. and we do so clinging to Christ, knowing that through him, not only have we been separated from sin, but we've been consecrated to God, amen. Our Father who art in heaven, forgive us our worldly mindedness, our tendency to return to the mire of the flesh, and strengthen us in the spirit and grace of obedience, and grant that we might by faith lay hold upon the wonder by which we have been forgiven all of our sins and trespasses through the perfect shed blood of Jesus Christ, and by which we have been consecrated unto thee to live unto thee and to show forth thy praise now and to all eternity. Strengthen us and bless us for Jesus' sake. Amen.