I always considered it an honor to be asked to preach. And that honor is special to me on Mother's Day. This is my mother's last Bible. Happened to be a New King James version, which is what you folks use here. My mother was very instrumental in my becoming a believer. She had been raised in a home where she was not taken to church. It was a very rare thing back in that era when she was growing up. And it was the result of her parents, my grandparents, Losing a child, four years old, I believe he was at the time, Charlie, died in his sleep. And grandma and grandpa blamed God for that and never went to church again except for weddings and funerals. So my mother grew up not going. My sisters, my two older sisters, started going to the Reformed Presbyterian Church. And eventually, they expressed their desire to be baptized and to become members of the church. But the church had already had that era for their age group, where the pastor had had the classes for them for membership. And so Paul Coleman came over on Saturdays and sat in our living room and taught my two older sisters about the faith, with my mother sitting there listening to that. And one day as he got up to leave, my mother grabbed a hold of his sleeve and said to him, I want what you have. And he shared the gospel very clearly with her there and in the living room of our home. My mother came to faith in Jesus Christ. And so then my sisters were baptized. My mother was baptized because she had never been baptized. And I was baptized. I was four years old at the time. So I very distinctly remember my baptism. Not all of you do, in all likelihood. I would imagine that most of you are, if not all of you, are baptized. You have all witnessed baptisms. But you know, there's a lot of confusion about what baptism is. I think I've also shared this with you, that there was a time when I would have described myself as a Reformed Baptist, still adhering to the Reformed faith that I had grown up with in the Reformed Presbyterian Church, but rejecting infant baptism. God took me through a series of experiences that brought me back and around to the conviction of the rightness of infant baptism. You'll notice that the title to my sermon, I hope it's familiar to you, that you've heard of this before. Improving My Baptism. That's in the Westminster larger catechism. It's the one we don't study as often as we do the shorter catechism. It's question number 167. How is our baptism to be improved by us? The answer is, the needful but much neglected duty of improving our baptism is to be performed by us all our life long. especially in the time of temptation, and when we are present at the administration of it to others. By serious and thankful consideration of the nature of it and of the ends for which Christ instituted it, the privileges and benefits conferred and sealed thereby, and our solemn vow made therein by being humbled for our sinful defilement are falling short of and walking contrary to the grace of baptism and our engagements, by growing up to assurance of pardon of sin and of all other blessings sealed to us in that sacrament, by drawing strength from the death and resurrection of Christ into whom we are baptized, for the mortifying of sin and quickening of grace and by endeavoring to live by faith to have our conversation in holiness and righteousness as those that have therein given up their names to Christ and to walk in brotherly love as being baptized by the same spirit into one body. Quite a long answer, isn't it? But when you think of that, the first time I remember that I came across this question in studying the larger catechism, improve your baptism? Can baptism be improved? Let me explain along this kind of line. I'm a house painter. That's how I've supported myself over the years. I don't build houses, but I do improve them. Painting improves a house. It doesn't make the house any larger, any more comfortable, I think sometimes it can add value to it if you're planning on selling the place. But improving on baptism is the idea of not looking back at that baptism of yours, whether you can remember it or not. It's kind of like that thing about taking your parents' word for it. Your mom could tell you you were born. She was there for sure. But you have to take her word for that. You weren't conscious of that. At least I've never met anybody who was. I've been present at three births, witnessing them. And I think it's a good thing that we don't remember all the things that went on in the process of our birth for our mother and for ourselves. But as you look back to that, not to look at it as one and done. Now, it is true that we do not repeat baptism. The Lord's Supper, we repeat. We do that often. There are different degrees of often. But we do that often. But we are not commanded to be baptized often. There's one baptism, one faith, one Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. But just because it's a one-time thing, and just because it's something that I can't remember, I can remember mine because I was four years old, my top of my head was wet. And I remember putting my hand up there and feeling that. I didn't understand. I was baptized on the basis of my mother's profession of faith. But that we see that baptism as a very real, meaningful blessing. that was placed upon us. And if we're going to appreciate baptism, if we're going to improve our baptism, I think first of all, we need to know what baptism is. I'm not the best at working with things like this. What is baptism? Baptism is a sacrament wherein the washing with water In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, doth signify and seal our engrafting into Christ, partaking of the benefits of the covenant of grace, and our engagement to be the Lord's. There are many who, in the Christian church today, who do not see baptism that way at all. Some view it as merely a symbol. And if you've heard that term attached to baptism, That's the term this morning that I'd like to erase from your list of things concerning baptism. Baptism is not a symbol. Well, I've got this blue banner here. There's a blue banner there. That's a symbol. Do you realize that? Is that the Reformed Presbyterian Church? Is that the Covenanters? This is, right? That is a symbol. When someone who's aware of the history of our denomination sees that blue banner, they recognize that. It's a symbol. It's not the thing itself. The catechism so clearly says that baptism is a sign and a seal. That's different than a symbol. There's a sign out here that says Reform Presbyterian Church. And what's the purpose of that sign being there? Signs, the biblical sense in particular, point to something. A sign is something that points to a reality. And that's what that sign out there is. But then we get to the issue of a seal. And the seal is a little bit different. I intended to bring my degree from either the seminary or Geneva College, either one. I didn't bring it with me. But have you ever seen one of those? Those official documents have a seal on them. Now, I could take some nice paper and make a photocopy of somebody's PhD or PhD degree from Princeton and change the name on it so that my name's there. But you know how you could tell the difference? Between that and the actual thing, you rub your hand over it. The seal is impressed. It's raised. It's there. You can feel it. Baptism is real. It's not just some notion of something Because here in our passage in Romans, we were looking at that. I know a lot of my Baptist brethren make much of the fact that it says here in verse three, Romans six, or do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? Therefore we were buried with him through baptism into death just as Jesus just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father even so we also should walk in newness of life and So many believe that total immersion is necessary Because we're buried with Christ and I always thought that there were the three modes of baptism, sprinkling, pouring, and immersion, until I heard two guys debating immersion. They were both in favor of it. And one fellow was insisting that when you baptize someone in the water, You had to lay them back in the water. This is often the way you see people baptized. Lay them back in the water. Because we're buried into his death. And when Jesus was put in the tomb, he was laid on his back. The Bible doesn't say he was laid on his back, but we know customs of that time. And we know customs of our own day, that that is the way. that people end up, you could ask Jim, on your back, right? It's the way we bury people. Unless we cremate them, and then you don't know which way's up. So the one guy was saying, you had to do it that way. And the other guy said, no, no, no. And I thought, this is interesting. He says, no, you must put the person in the water and put them forward into the water. Because when Jesus died on the cross, his head could only go forward. It couldn't go back. The debate there is over symbolism. And the truth of the matter is that when Jesus died, he wasn't immersed. And when Jesus was buried, he was not immersed. That's another thing that we're aware of. There are people out here in the cemetery, right out here. They're buried in the ground, aren't they? There's someone who comes and digs, and the casket is lowered into the ground, and the dirt is placed back over it. But when Jesus was buried, he was buried in a tomb on a slab of stone. I believe the proper term today would be mausoleum. It's something that is not in the dirt, buried. The point of Paul here talking about being buried with Christ is not the symbolism, but it's the reality that we died. Because he goes on to say that. If we have been united together in the likeness of his death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of his resurrection. Think about that. Has anyone ever pointed that out to you? Have you ever heard someone say that from the pulpit concerning the baptism, that this child who's being baptized or this adult who's coming forward to be baptized, that they are dying? It's a death. It's a real death. It's not a physical death. It's a real death. It's a death to self. The old self is being put away. And we're not looking at something that just symbolizes that, because we're not dealing with symbols. We're dealing with a reality. I'd like you to turn with me to a passage in 1 Peter 3. One that I'm sure you've heard before. It's one, interestingly, that connects our Old Testament and New Testament reading. Because the Old Testament was about Noah's ark. And Peter here in chapter three, and the middle of verse 20 there, he's talking about the days of Noah. While the ark was being prepared, in which a few, that is eight souls, were saved through water. Noah on the ark is an example of baptism. But it's always humorously interesting to point out that the only people who experienced total immersion were the ones who were outside the ark. But that ark, we're told, Verse 21, there is also an anti-type which now saves us. Baptism, not the removal of the filth from the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience towards God through the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Now I know that there are those who take this verse and they make this into baptismal regeneration. And they teach, my Lutheran brethren teach this, the ones who follow their creed, teach that when they baptize an infant, that infant is born again. And then because they painted themselves into that corner, they have to say that if that infant grows up, rejects the faith, dies in that state, that they lost their salvation. We do not believe that you can lose salvation, because we do not believe in baptismal regeneration, where it's an automatic sort of thing like that. But here we're told, verse 21, there is also an anti-type, which now saves us baptism. Type and anti-type. Now, if you happen to have a new international version of this verse, it actually says there that it's a symbol. It uses the word symbol. I don't know why they translate words the way they do sometimes in English translations. This is a very faithful one in the New King James Version because the Greek word here is, I'm trying to pronounce this properly, antiopos. Sound familiar? Let me spell it out in English letters the way you would spell the Greek word. A-N-T-I-T-Y-P-O-S. Antitype. That's where we get the word. It's not the word symbol, which is symbolon, where we get our word symbol from. That's a different Greek word. The word here is the antitype. And understanding antitypes, you have to first understand what's a type. You've heard of typology in the Bible, in the Old Testament, that there are various characters in the Old Testament that we refer to as a type of Christ. They're not Christ. David was not Christ, but he was a type of Christ. Joseph was not the Christ, but he was a type of Christ. That these characters in the Old Testament looked forward to the one who was coming who was the reality. Jesus is the anti-type. He was the one who was being prefigured, the one who came. He was a prophet like unto Moses, but Moses was not the Christ. And so when we look at baptism here, what Peter is saying is the ark was a type of baptism. But we have the reality. And the reality is not the outward form. That perfectly clear, it's not washing dirt off your body. I remember saying something to someone one time about, they told me that Baptism is immersion and that's all it means. That's it. And so I said, okay, so you're telling me that if I'm in the swimming pool with somebody and I dunk them under the water, I baptize them. No. Why? because the words were not spoken, because we're called upon to baptize in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. And if you don't say the words, you can dunk as many times as you want. It's not a baptism. It's the same would be true if you were sprinkling or pouring water on someone. It's those words that are spoken. I was at a church service with my sister. I got her to going to a reformed church as a result of this. But in the congregation that she was a part of, this is Calvary Chapel, and they had communion, Lord's Day, that I was there. And the pastor asked the ushers to come forward. And they started passing around crackers and little things of grape juice. And then he said, we're all going to take communion. And when they passed the things past me, I refused them. And my sister looked at me and she said, aren't you going to partake? I said, this is not communion. If there are no words of institution, there is no communion. If there's no word of baptism, the water alone is not the baptism it's the reality and that's what he talks about here in first peter where he says it's the answer of a good conscience towards god through the resurrection of jesus christ do you realize how essential the resurrection of jesus christ is to our salvation I have heard presentations of the gospel by preachers and by individuals where someone was sharing with someone else about Jesus and they were saying, did you know that Jesus died for your sins? And when they get through with their gospel presentation, if I were not a believer, and understood where they were trying to go with this, I would assume, yes, Jesus died for my sins and he's still dead. We're told in the scriptures that we must confess with our mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in our heart that God raised him from the dead. If you don't believe that, you're not saved. But that's what your baptism was all about. That's the point that Paul is making here with all of this. He's saying that baptism so identifies you with Jesus that when he died, you died to sin. And he died once for all. He doesn't die over and over again. That's why we reject the Roman mass because they are offering again the sacrifice of Christ to the Father. We do not. We do not offer the sacrifice of Christ. The Father has already accepted his sacrifice. We put our trust in that. And that sign that we've done that is baptism. But it's also a seal. It's not just some outward sign, but it is an inward seal. Just as that paper is pressed in such a way that anyone can take that paper in the future and place their hand on it and feel those raised letters, that seal, that assurance that this is a real degree that you received from a real institution. So it is with our baptism. And so John, I mean, Paul goes on to say in Romans 6, likewise, you also reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord. Therefore, do not let sin reign in your mortal body that you should obey its lusts. Do not present your members, that's the parts of your body, as instruments of unrighteousness to sin, but present yourselves to God as being alive from the dead and your members as instruments of righteousness to God. Sin shall not have dominion over you. For you are not under law, but under grace. There's a problem verse that people have used to distort the gospel and to imagine the antinomian position, that I'm no longer under law. I don't have to keep the Sabbath. Well, it's interesting, that's one of the laws that they'll kick out. But there are many other laws that they kick out as well and say, I don't have to do this, I don't have to do that. That's not what Paul is driving at here. What he means is that you are not under that curse of the law, that the one who keeps the law has to keep the whole law all the time. There's only one who ever did that, and that is Jesus Christ. But when we're baptized into Christ, we are baptized into his life as well as his death. And his obedience is accounted to us as righteousness. He pays the penalty for our sins. but he gains heaven by his obedience, something we could never accomplish. Because we struggle, we struggle constantly. And so Paul here is not denying the struggle, he talks about like a slave. And he said, you're going to be slaves either, slaves to the flesh, to sin or slaves to righteousness? And he asked the question, what fruit have you then from the things of which you are now ashamed? The end of those things is death. But now having been set free from sin, And having become slaves of God, you have your fruit to holiness and the end everlasting life. Good works have a place in the life of a believer. It's that whole thing of not getting the horse before the cart. or the cart before the horse. Excuse me, I got that backwards. That our good works do not gain us salvation, but our good works are a result of being in that state of salvation, because apart from that, we could do no good works. Nothing to please God whatsoever, apart from trusting in Jesus and being in him Because, verse 23, which we've all heard over and over again, that the wages of sin is death. I know what wages are. I've been paid wages over the years. There was a time when I actually punched a time clock. I don't do that as a painter, but I actually punched a time clock and got paid accordingly. I earned it. I had it coming. And that's what Paul is saying here about death. We earned it. We have it coming. But the gift of God is eternal life. In Christ Jesus. Our Lord. And that. For that we have this sign. And this seal. that we are his, and it is our baptism.