Well, good morning. You guys missed the rain. This is the smart crowd. I know who you are. Hey, if you’ve got a Bible, go ahead and go with me to Romans Chapter Six. Going to continue our way through this series. This is going to be a bit of a different approach because it’s not going to be a standalone message. Title of this message is “Baptized Into Christ” part one (Romans 6:1-3). There’s no way to get through the concept and the understanding of what Paul’s doing in Romans six, in these first few verses related to baptism, without taking enough time to literally wring it out. All of the truth that’s in there, because it’s part of the authorial intent. If we don’t get all of it. Guess what? We won’t enjoy all of it in the later chapters. And so ,we’re going to take our time doing this for sure. So part one, this will perhaps end a bit abruptly. You’ll notice there aren’t any points involved or anything. But if you could say that suffices for a vital introduction, it definitely does.
So let me read the text, having made that pre statement starting in verse one Romans chapter six. And if you’ve been following the series, you know what these words mean now. If you’ve not go back and listen to some of the previous messages so you can hear the richness of what this is actually saying in response to the gospel presented in Romans chapter five under justification, he says, “What shall we say then?…” In other words, what do we say to all this? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? In other words, what does this mean? Are we to continue living in the old nature? That’s not talking about doing sins, that’s talking about the old nature. Can we continue to live there? Meno is that word “continue”. Can we have our discourse there? Can we have our friendship there? Will we be living there and forward our mail so to speak? No, “…So that grace may abound.” Verse two says this, “By no means!…” How can it right? How can we? How can we? It’s impossible. It’s impossible to do that. Why? Because we died. We can’t live there. Can’t live there because we died. Think about this statement. “How can we who died to sin still live in it?” Now, this is a concept that escapes people easily. It escapes them easily because what do they do? They look at their lives and you’re us, right? We’re all experiencing this, those of us that are being sanctified because we’re in Christ. You look at your life and you think, “I died to sin? Well, if I died to sin, why do I still do it? Why do I still struggle with it? Why do I still stumble? Why is this still hard? Why do I find myself still acting and reacting in some of the old ways, even though maybe it’s been decades and decades.” You’ll find the answer to that in this when we talk about being baptized into Christ, because if we get it wrong, we’ll have a superficial understanding of the text, and that will not help you. You will not grow in grace and knowledge with a superficial understanding of the text. You need to know the depth of the riches of the wisdom that he is speaking the Holy Spirit, speaking through the Apostle Paul. “…How can we who died to sin still live in it?” Well, it’s a rhetorical question, because the answer is this, we can’t. You can’t live somewhere you died to. And what it’s talking about is you the old nature, who you were before you came to Christ is, in fact, dead according to the Bible. I want you to see how that happened. It’s very important that you see this. How can we who died to sin still live in it? And then he makes this statement in verse three. Do you not know that’s not rhetorical. He’s actually going to give instruction. That’s a rabbinical way of teaching. They would do a lot of question and answer. It’s a very effective form of instructing someone. “Do you not know?” Don’t you know this? Is what he’s saying. “Do you not know that all of us who were baptized into Christ were baptized into his death (actually says “Christ Jesus”). I want to quote it correctly. All of us “…Who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?” Baptizo is the word here. It simply means to be immersed. Do you not know that all of us that were immersed or submerged into Christ Jesus were immersed or submerged into His death? I want you to notice it says “into” and it does not say “water”. This says “into” and it does not say “water”. Why? Because this is not talking about water baptism. This is not talking about water baptism. This is talking about your actual baptism into the body of Christ, which the Holy Spirit accomplished. Okay? You were baptized if you’re saved, if you’ve been regenerated. When you heard the gospel of Jesus Christ, you find yourself believing. You repent of your sin. You choose your Savior because you now love Him because you’ve been raised from the dead by grace through faith. If that’s you, you were baptized into Christ Jesus specifically into His death, then later on, in obedience, you take a step to be baptized in water, because Jesus commands it. But water baptism is simply an outward expression of an inward reality. That’s what it is. It is something that is a natural representation of a supernatural reality. We have those in our life. I’ll cover at least one of those here in a moment. But let me show you a few verses that pertain to this directly.
The first is 1 Corinthians 12:13, I hope that this will help elucidate what’s happening. We’re gonna let the analogous nature of Scripture be our teacher. It says this, “For also, (watch this) by one Spirit we were all baptized. We were all immersed into what into one body. Now I’m gonna ask you a question. You saw three baptisms. Those happened during first service, and we played that for you guys, so you guys could share in the grace of seeing that happen. But let me ask you this, did the Holy Spirit baptize those ladies, or did pastor, Matt? Pastor, Matt, did? I hope that’s clear. Hope nobody’s like, really, really, that was a human being, right? He’s awesome, but he’s not that awesome. No. Pastor, Matt, baptized them. This is not talking about water baptism. This is talking about the baptism where the Holy Spirit immerses you into the body of Christ at salvation. Because look whatever what it says afterwards, whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves are free, we were all made to what we were all made to drink of one Spirit. That’s salvation. That’s the context. I just want you to see that this is throughout Scripture. When you see the word baptized, or baptized or baptism, you have to ask, Which one is it talking about? Is it talking about the supernatural reality, or is it talking about just the natural picture that baptism water paints for all of us to see and all of us to enjoy that they are identified in the body of Christ. Here’s another reference, same, same context, Galatians, chapter three, verse 27 for all of you who were look here it is, again, immersed into what into Christ? That’s what it’s referring to. How do we know? Because it says all of you who were baptized into Christ. Of what you’ve clothed yourself with Christ, that water baptism is not when you get clothed with Christ. If that were the case, then that would mean that you were being saved by being dunked underwater. Now, if that’s the case, I have an idea. We need to buy a mobile swimming pool. Round up some real strong guys. Let’s go driving through Sherman and as we see people just grab them. What are you doing? Trust me, this is for your eternal good. Dunk them and tell them that they’re saved. Well, I don’t love Jesus. Doesn’t matter you’re baptized. Well, I don’t want to go to heaven. I want to go to hell. Too bad. You’ll get over it. Heaven’s really good. You’ll see it. That’s a ridiculous example. Yeah, it is, but it proves the point. If water baptism is meritorious in nature, if it’s salvific, if it’s effectual in nature, to accomplish salvation, that means that you did part of your own salvation. You get part of the credit. You get part of the glory. But we know that’s not true. Salvation is by grace, through faith. Ephesians, chapter two, verses eight and nine, right? It is not of works that no one can boast. It’s a gift from God, okay? He gives that gift. Now there are whole religions that would argue against this, the Catholic Church would argue against this. They believe that if you as an infant, or any age at all, are taken to the priest, that the priest can have someone stand in your stead, make confession and renounce sin in your stead, even if you’re an infant, and I was, I was baptized in the end of the Catholic Church, and that the when the priest pours that holy water over your head, you’re going to heaven. Listen to me, that’s a damnable heresy, and actually, it’s very cruel to have that doctrine, because you’re lying to people, and they’re going to find out one day when they stand before the Lord and they realize, Oh my gosh, I never knew him, or she had he never knew me. Read Matthew chapter seven. There’s a lot of people that are going to be in that condition. We don’t want you to be there, but that’s what the Catholics believe. Church of Christ believe it as well. The Church of Christ teaches that you cannot be saved unless you’re baptized in water. Well, there’s a lot of problems with that, because, you know, the thief on the cross, I don’t think he got baptized, uh oh, Jesus told him, this day you’ll be with me in paradise. And there have been other people who have come to Christ, and maybe because of physical, some physical ailment, they were not able to be fully immersed. I baptized a young man right over here. I’m he’s still my friend. We talk a lot, Brandon, Brandon Maya, quadriplegic, could barely even stand up. Some of you guys saw that baptism. What did we do? Well, we believe that God’s gracious, and we did what. We poured as much water on him as we could, but if he had to be fully immersed in water, you’re telling me he’s been saved by the Holy Spirit. He believes the Word of God. He’s looking forward to heaven. He loves the Jesus of the Bible, but he goes to hell because we didn’t get him wet enough. Anathema. That is a myth, and that is a lie. I that’s false teaching. That’s so somebody can feel like they had a part of it. Well, you know, I was noble, I was religious, and so I did my baptism. No, that’s not what this is talking about. Here’s another version, or verse rather, of where we see it from a different angle. Ephesians, chapter four. Look at four and five. Paul writes, There is one body and one Spirit. Now what’s the body, the body of Christ? So that’s the context coming into the body of Christ, just as you were also called to the one hope that belongs to your call of what salvation look next verse, one Lord, one faith, one baptism. That doesn’t mean there’s only one time people get wet. That means the baptism that the Holy Spirit does to bring a Christian into the body of Christ. That’s how someone is saved. This is the baptism that Paul is talking about in Romans chapter six. He’s not talking about water baptism. And I’ve heard, I’ve heard it taught wrong for decades. I mean this, and it’s the saddest thing to hear preachers say this. Look, here’s how you overcome sin. You remind yourself that you somehow mystically died to it at your water baptism, and get yourself a picture of your baptism and have it in your mind. And when you get tempted to sin, you just remember that time that that preacher dumped you underwater, and then you’ll have victory over sin. Nothing could be further from the truth. Nothing tell you what, if your life is struggling with sin, and if you’re still on Earth, you have some struggle somewhere, and you feel like, Man, I cannot accomplish this. That is not the right prescription. The right prescription is this. It is to realize not what you did, but what Jesus did, what he accomplished, that in him, you died. This is so vitally important. So we’ll say it again. Water baptism is a natural picture of a supernatural reality. Now, that shouldn’t shock us, because we have another ordinance in church, don’t we, called communion, or the Lord’s Supper that we take now that is a natural picture of a supernatural reality. Now, again, I hate to pick on the Catholic Church, but here we go. Catholic Church does not believe it’s a natural picture. They believe it’s a supernatural thing that happens. They believe that the body and blood of Jesus Christ are actually what’s in the cup and what’s in the bread, that when the priest holds those two things up. It’s called Transubstantiation. It’s their doctrine. Yes, it is. I was raised a Catholic. I love Catholics. That’s why I say this stuff the priests. When the priest picks that up and blesses it, it literally turns into the physical body and the physical blood of Jesus Christ, so that when you take that, you’re having fresh remission of sins which you committed over the past week, or since you were in church last time? Did you know that it is a re offering of the body and the blood of Jesus Christ to the Father for all those present, so that they can leave in what they call a state of grace? This is Catholic theology. That’s why every single mass you’ll ever go to, and I hope you don’t go to any that every single man at the end of every mass, the priest always says this, the mass has ended, Go in peace. Why? Because now you’re back at peace with God, and now you can just go out and do whatever you want. Because you can just come back next week and he’ll re offer it up. You see how foul, what a fallacy that is. That’s false teaching, dangerous. I want to show you where they get it, though. So we can look at this and understand it, and we can compare it to baptism. This is Matthew chapter, 2626 through 28 The Last Supper. This was the last Passover. Right now, as they were eating, Jesus took bread. Now, is there any question that Jesus took bread? It’s bread. Y’all, okay, it’s bread, the Greek. In the Greek, the Greek word bread. Jesus took bread, and after blessing it, he broke it. He broke what? He broke the bread. Why did he break it? Because it was a symbol of his body which would be broken for us. He would pay for our sin on the cross. He broke it and gave it to the disciples, and here’s what they what they land on, and said, Take, eat this. Take eat this is my body. No, it’s not. He’s saying this is my body in terms that it represents his body, but it’s not his physical body. And people will argue that, and they’ll say, wait a minute, you’re not allowing a clear reading of the text. No, what we’re not allowing is a superficial reading of the text, because we don’t just read one text. Read the whole Bible, and the whole Bible is very clear. Cannibalism is not allowed. Do you really you realize this? The early church was accused of being cannibals. Did you all know that it was the cause of much persecution? Because they would say, this is the body and the blood of Jesus. They were like, these people are cannibals. I’m not making that up. Give it a gook or better yet, give it a grok. Yeah. And so they thought they were cannibals, and the Catholic Church showed up and said, Hey, let us try it. We’ll say that it actually is. That’s a heresy that existed. Only it came in about 380 ad, he goes on and says, And he took the cup, he took a cup, and when He had given thanks, he gave it to them, saying, Drink of it. All of you for this. Look, here it is again, for this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins. Well, I have a question for you, when you take communion, when we share in communion here at Sherman Bible Church. Do you think those things transubstantiate, that their substance transfers into the very body and blood? No, it does not. It’s a terribly dry cracker with isn’t it? I mean, we can admit it’s bad. What it symbolizes is awesome, but what it will but what it actually is is quite terrible. It’s the juice should not happen. I’m in favor of real wine, but I feel like some people will get offended, not in third service, maybe first. We have no problem realizing that this is not efficacious. It’s not literal, and neither is that. Neither is being baptized. Now it is a means of grace whereby we remember and those, those visual, the things we hear as we hear the testimonies and people publicly associate themselves with a real church. Yes, those are means of grace, but they don’t save you. They can’t save you. That’s what Paul’s talking about. He’s He’s talking about the reality of what happened at your actual baptism into the body of Christ. Let me say it this way. Water baptism is not the means of salvation. It is the representation of it. It’s a picture of it. Okay, so if it’s a picture of it, what does it picture? Let’s think about it. Let’s think about water baptism here for a moment. What is it a picture of? Is it a picture of something good at first, or Bad? Bad? Why? Because the first picture is what you go under the water. What’s that a picture of death? Yeah, it’s not a trick question. That’s a picture of death. And you might say, well, I thought it was a picture of cleansing. Well, in some sense, it is. But let me ask you this, if we were to baptize people and hold them underwater until they really repent. Yeah, so if I ever tell you, you know, I’d like to baptize you, you know exactly what I mean. I’d like to hold your head underwater for a little while. Let me tell you this, if we put you under that water and hold you there, there would come a moment where you’d start to realize, I’m not getting clean, I’m dying.
Yes, it’s
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a picture of what your death. It’s a picture of your death. Your death in the future. No, your death in the past. You died, your old nature died, not only that, it was buried, and not only that, you rose again in Christ, born again, a new creation. Listen to this. This is very important. It’s not a picture of just getting some sins washed away. Blood of Jesus does that the water in baptism is a picture of something quite different. What does the water represent? Does the water represent something that washes you? No, absolutely not. It represents one clear thing. It represents this judgment. That’s what it represents. How do I know that? Well, because, and I’m going to take you there, I’m going to take you to take you to First Peter three, and then we’re going to cross reference it with the story of Noah in the flood, because that’s what the Bible teaches about itself. But the water is a picture of a judgment. The water that you go into in your physical baptism is a picture of what happened to you when you were baptized into Christ. Jesus. You were baptized into, where into his death. That means you died. That means you faced the waters of God’s wrath and judgment. You say, Wait a minute. Wait a minute. I thought Christ took that. Yes, he did. But we want to see how, how exactly does that work? Is there a picture in the natural that can explain it to us? Fortunately, there is, I want to show you the New Testament, pointing to the Old Testament first. Okay, let’s pick up this verse totally out of context. Let’s just see what Peter’s saying here, and then we’ll get it in context. First, Peter, chapter three. Look at Verse 21 baptism. So we’re talking about baptism now. Which one are we talking about? That’s the key question. I’ll just let you off the hook. This is not talking about water baptism. Water baptism is a picture of this baptism, but watch this baptism corresponds to this corresponds to what it corresponds to the thing he’s talking about before this verse. There’s a reason why I’m not saying it yet, because I want you we got to land on this. There’s something that he just got through talking about. We’re gonna go back and see it that corresponds to baptism. And it’s in the Old Testament. I won’t tell you what it is, but it rhymes with the flood. Okay, baptism. Core. Spawns with this corresponds to this. And look which corresponds to this. It now saves you. So I thought you just said, baptism, does it? It’s not talking about water baptism. That’s why he goes on to say, not as a removal of dirt from the body, but as an appeal to God for a good conscience through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, you see, he’s making the delineation. This is not talking about water baptism. Now, somebody just pulls this verse out of context and doesn’t read the whole Bible. They don’t want to know what it actually says means and how it applies, then they can live in ignorance. And if you live in ignorance, you’re living in instability. Basically, that’s what happens. You say, Wait, but it literally says baptism saves you. No, it does not save you. Baptism can save you. He’s talking about the baptism of the Holy Spirit. That’s the one he’s referring to. And it’s a picture. It is a reality that your actual Baptism into Christ is pictured. Listen to me in the flood in Noah’s ark and the safe passage through the judgment of God. Let’s first. Let’s see first Peter 318, through 21 so we can get this in context. Okay, here I’m going to read up to verse 21 For Christ also suffered once for sins the righteous, for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the Spirit. So he died physically, but his spirit didn’t die. He entrusted it to God, right? He goes on in the next verse in which that’s in his spirit, he went and proclaimed to the spirits in prison. Don’t have time to cover the details of that, but at a later date we will. But that’s what Jesus was doing, was he was preaching, basically, that’s the same word for preaching. He was proclaiming to spirits that were in prison, spiritually that he was victorious. Verse 20 goes on because they that’s the spirits who were in prison. They formerly, formerly did not obey when God’s patience waited, when in the days of Noah, while the ark was being prepared, in which a few, that is, eight persons were brought safely through water. Now let me ask you this, people in the flood, were they saved? Were Noah and his family saved by the water, or were they saved through the water? Through the water, let me, let me tell you. Let me tell you this, everybody who got wet died. Yes, if the if the judgment hit you, you died. If the wrath touched you, you died. If the water touched you, you drowned. Everybody did, only those who were in the one safe place that God had created as a type and a shadow that would correspond to your spiritual baptism. Those young people that lived, and there were only eight of them, did they get wet? No, you see, it’s not talking about water baptism. It corresponds to this. And they came through that. Then look at verse 21 baptism. Now we know which one, which corresponds to this, to what the flood Noah’s Ark now saves you. That’s what it’s talking about. That’s what Paul’s talking about. I want to prove it to you. Let’s go take a look. Let’s go over here to Genesis, chapter six. Just a few verses on the flood. Most of you probably know the story, the history of this verse five of chapter six, the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And the Lord regretted that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him to his heart. Now this regret is not a regret that says, I would do it different if I could. That’s not human regret, that’s divine regret, and it’s there to show us that he’s grieved in his heart. He doesn’t. He does not. The Bible says he takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked. None. God is not in heaven, though, and can’t wait. No, he was grieved, and the regret speaks of what that it went this way that they were going to suffer the punishment of what his judgment go on to verse seven. So the Lord said, I will blot out man whom I have created from the face of the land, man and animals and creeping things and birds of the heavens, for I am sorry that I have made them again. That’s the grief of his heart. But Noah, verse eight, says, found favor in the eyes of the Lord. Now, how did Noah find favor in the eyes of the Lord. Well he had faith. Hebrews 11 says he has the righteousness that comes by faith. How did he get faith? God gave it to him. Think about this, the whole world is going to be judged, and God rescues a man and the people with him that he chose. He gave him faith. Everybody else, the thoughts of their heart were sinned continuously. And Noah, the Bible says, was a preacher of righteousness. Why? Because God had rescued him. God had chosen to preserve him by the water. No, through the water. Look at verse or chapter seven. Look at verse four through seven. You. God says this to Noah, for in seven days, I will reign on the earth, 40 days and 40 nights, and everything, every living thing that I have made, I will blot out from the face of the ground. And Noah did all that the Lord had commanded him. Noah was 600 years old when the flood of waters came upon the earth, and Noah and his sons and his wife and his sons wives with him went into the ark to do what
escape the waters of the flood.
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Let me ask you a question, because we saw in first Peter three. This corresponds to the true baptism, if you get clean and you get saved because you get wet, you just ruined that whole type and shadow, didn’t you? Yes, that is not a picture of safety. That’s a picture of death. That’s a picture of judgment. Are you getting that? Got to get this. So go down to verse 11 in the 600th year of Noah’s life, in the second month, on the 17th day of the month, on that day, all of the fountains of the great deep burst forth. That means all the water stored underneath subterranean came up. Now there had always been a mist that had watered the earth for all these years, and it had never rained. There was a firmament, a water in the air, not just clouds, but deep, heavy water suspended in the air, and a mist would come up from the ground, and that’s how the Earth was watered, and God broke it open. All the water came up from the bottom, and all the water from the top fell down. That’s not a picture of cleansing, unless you’re talking about the cleansing of the Earth. It cleansed the sin. How?
By killing those who were natural. Dare you seeing it, they were opened and rain fell upon the earth for 40 days and 40 nights. On that very same day, Noah and his sons, Shem and Ham and Japheth and Noah’s wife and the three wives of his sons with them entered the ark. They entered the ark. Now, how is that a picture of your baptism into Christ? It’s actually very simple. You deserved the holy, righteous, just wrath of God and it was coming. Why? Because the soul that sins will surely die. Your sin nature deserved death. But what did God do for you in Christ? Jesus, he put you into a safe place. He put you into something that would bear the water, if you will, something that would carry the judgment, something that would go through it with you inside. Therefore, you died in Christ. You died in Christ. You were in Christ on that tree when he bore the holy, righteous wrath of God. Why did you survive? Well, you didn’t. It killed you. It killed you. But who did it kill it killed the old man so that the new would be born, born again, born of who? Born of the Spirit of God you went through that. That’s what he’s actually talking about. Everybody who died were people that got wet. Now people read verses and they take them out of context. I want to show you one. This is Acts, chapter 22, verse 16. This is Ananias talking to the Apostle Paul shortly after he was saved. He says this, And now, why do you wait? Rise and be baptized and look and wash away your sins, calling on his name. This is an anthropomorphic statement. He’s saying. Number one, you can’t wash away your own sins. You know God has to do that. Number two, we know baptism doesn’t save what is he calling him to do? He’s calling him to put feet to his faith. He’s calling him to not just have some secret internal reality, but to bear fruit in keeping with repentance. In other words, obey what Jesus has commanded. That’s what he’s telling him. Paul was saved before he got in water. Otherwise the water would not have meant anything. But if you don’t understand that, you’ll take this verse out of context, and now you’ll tell people, hey, get baptized, and you’ll be born again. It doesn’t work that way. Real washing takes place by the power of the Holy Spirit at salvation. Let me show you that this is in Titus, chapter three, five and six, talking about Jesus, but he he saved us, right? Not because of works, not even meritorious baptism, nope, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, look at this. By the what, by the washing of what, regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit whom He poured out on us richly through Jesus, Christ, our Savior. Do you get that? That’s the real baptism. That’s the real washing, because the sin was drowned under judgment, but you were in the ark and you survived. This is incredibly good news. Second, Corinthians 514 says it this way, for the love of Christ controls us, because we have concluded this, that one that’s Jesus, has died for all that’s the entirety of the church, all who will be saved. It wasn’t. For every single person, or they’d all be saved. Therefore all have what died? Died. That’s past tense in the Greek all have died. All who are in Christ experienced a death. How? Because we went through the judgment of God, yet we were safe in the ark. Which is Jesus Christ. He’s a picture of the one that bears us up over the judgment. He gets wet, he bears it, but we emerge. And this is foundational for our understanding. I understand that people like to say Jesus died so that I can live. And there’s nothing theologically wrong with that. It’s just not very specific. Can I be honest with you if you really want to cut the Bible straight and understand it. Let me say it to you this way, Jesus didn’t die that you could live. Jesus died so you could die. The wages of sin was death, and Jesus was buried so that you could be buried, yeah, because the old man needed to die, that nature had to die. That’s a mercy. But the good news is what he rose so you would rise a new creation. He ascended so you could ascend seated with Him in heavenly places. In Christ, he is the ark of God that carries us through the judgment of God that we rightly deserved. And when that door opened and Noah came out, it wasn’t because of his meritorious works, it was because of God. If you don’t believe me. Look it up in your Bible. Who closed the door?
God did. There was no way he could close the door. It was a supernatural origin, therefore it was a supernatural success. Oh, I pray you’re getting this. I pray I’m not talking too fast or saying too much. I’m just trusting God’s word to do its work. Let’s read Romans six, one through three. Again, under this under this light, what shall we say? Then are we to continue in sin live there that grace may abound? By no means. How can we who died to sin still live in it? We died. Yeah, we died. Verse three. Do you not know that all of us who were or have been, immersed into Christ by the Holy Spirit, right into Christ, Jesus, we’re immersed into his death. We are those who ran into the shelter of the Most High, who ran to the bulwark, who ran to the strong tower, who got under the wing of God, who ran to his son and said this, have mercy on me and put into Christ in the safe place that the wrath that you deserve, Jesus Christ bore. That’s a tremendous picture. When you realize that you are living now by faith in the Son of God, because he loved you and he gave himself up for you, everything starts clicking. Galatians, 220, right? I’m crucified. I have been crucified with Christ. Nevertheless I live. Yet not I, but Christ lives in me. Paul’s not psychotic. He’s not confused. This is what he’s talking about. There was a death. It was you, if you’re in Jesus Christ, He didn’t just die for you. He died as you and in Him, your old man died. You can’t go back to that. Not to mention, why would you want to? Would you bow your hearts? I’m going to lead us in prayer again. This is an introduction, and we’ll continue the study of this in more depth next week. Father. Thank you so much, Lord for opening our eyes to see wonderful things from your law when we depend on the Holy Spirit our teacher. And thank you that he’s been provided because of what Jesus has done. And Lord I thank you for your church, Lord that you nurture with milk and you and you feed to strength with meat. And Lord, I pray God that this would go in like good seed into good soil, into hearts that you’ve prepared, and that Lord you would receive all the credit, all the praise, all the honor and all the glory for having taken care of this our old nature, crucified with Christ, drowned in the flood of judgment, but We survived a new creation raised from the dead in Christ, Jesus, we thank you for that. It’s in your name. We pray Lord Amen. Amen.
KEYWORDS
Baptism, Romans, Holy Spirit, Water Baptism, Body of Christ, Salvation, Grace, Sin, Sin Nature, Death, Resurrection, Faith, Judgment, Noah’s Ark, Spiritual Baptism, New Creation, Immersion, Immersed, Baptizō, Meno
SPEAKER
Steve LeBlanc