Let us direct our attention to the word of God at this time. Our two texts that we're going to be looking at are from Exodus 19 and Romans chapter six. The sermon will be focusing specifically on Romans chapter six. And you notice in the bulletin, you have the right title and the wrong preacher, but I really am scheduled to do this tonight. So we're going to be looking at Romans six on Christian baptism and Christian living together tonight. And in the meantime, I want us to stand together in reverence for the word of God Preaching is an act of worship, so is hearing. And especially as we read the word, we have the privilege of hearing the voice of our God as though speaking to us from heaven. So I'm going to read for us first from Exodus, then from Romans. Beginning in Exodus 19, verse one. In the third month, after the children of Israel had gone out of the land of Egypt on the same day, there came to the wilderness, or they came to the wilderness of Sinai, for they had departed from Rephidim and came to the wilderness of Sinai and camped in the wilderness. So Israel camped there before the mountain. And Moses went up to God. And the Lord called to him from the mountain saying, thus you shall say to the house of Jacob and tell the children of Israel, you have seen what I did to the Egyptians and how I bore you on eagles wings and brought you to myself. Now, therefore, if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be a special treasure to me above all people for all the earth is mine, and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. These are the words which you shall speak to the children of Israel.' So Moses came and called for the elders of the people and laid before them all these words which the Lord commanded him. And all the people answered together and said, all that the Lord has spoken, we will do. So Moses brought back the words of the people to the Lord. And the Lord said to Moses, behold, I come to you in the thick cloud that the people may hear when I speak with you and believe you forever. So Moses told the words of the people to the Lord. We'll turn now to Romans six and notice the theme here. We have a holy people dedicated to a holy God through a mediator, namely Moses being the intermediary, bringing the people to God and God designs the people to reflect his own character, his own holiness. Now in Romans six, we read of the true mediator, Jesus Christ. the better intermediary between God and man who actually makes us holy by his finished work. And so beginning in verse one, what shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? Certainly not. How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it? 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, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we should walk in newness of life. For if we have been united together in the likeness of his death, certainly we shall also be in the likeness of his resurrection. Knowing this, that our old man was crucified with him, that the body of sin might be done away, that we should no longer be slaves to sin. For he who has died has been freed from sin. Now, if we died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him. Knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, dies no more, death no longer has dominion over him. For the death that he died, he died to sin once for all, but the life that he lives, he lives to God. 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 it in its lusts. Do not present your members 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. For sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under law, but under grace. Thus far the reading of God's holy and precious word, amen. Well, let us pray once again for the Lord's blessing this evening. Our gracious God, we pray to you that you would act graciously this evening. You have called us to be in your presence. You have promised to bless us in it. And we pray now that you would make it known that you are the only God in heaven above and the earth beneath. that your word would arrest our souls, that you would lift up our hearts to glorify your son, that your spirit would work heavenly affections within us, that you would convict us of sin, of righteousness and judgment, and in all these things shine the spotlight on the Savior and not on ourselves. We pray, Lord, that you would drive us out of ourselves, and if any have not yet seen the beauty of Christ, that you would open blind eyes this evening, that you would warm affections and hearts to see the loveliness of the Savior, and for all of us, give us the grace to fight against our sinful deeds and desires as we look to the majesty of the Savior, and we desire his character to be imprinted on our own hearts. And we ask for the Spirit to enable us to do all these things and many more as we sit at your feet and learn of you this evening. And we ask it for Christ's sake, amen. Well, as I mentioned before, we observed a baptism this morning and looking at the Old Testament covenant with Abraham and the sign of circumcision, we began to ask questions related to how God deals with our souls. Really in many respects, how God has always dealt with his people from the beginning of the world and how he will do so until he comes again. As I mentioned this morning, how we view the sacraments of baptism and the Lord's Supper can tell us very much about how we understand the gospel of Jesus Christ. Because of this, I've decided to preach this evening on another text related to baptism, namely Romans chapter six. And the real question that I want to press home this evening is simply this. What difference does baptism make in the Christian life? More specifically, I don't simply mean what difference did your baptism make whenever you were baptized? And what experience did you have at the time? Do you remember a time in which you came to faith in Jesus Christ and God decisively called you out of the world and you came and made your profession of faith and you were baptized and joined to the church? Perhaps you've grown in the Christian church and you were baptized before you knew what baptism was about. But here you are this evening, worshiping the Lord with those who came later in life. Sometimes I think when we focus on baptism, we can focus too much on the moment. In other words, too much on the time in which baptism was administered and at which we received baptism. rather than the lifelong significance of Christian baptism? Maybe a different way to ask the question is this. How often do we think about Christian baptism? How often do we meditate on its significance and do we draw strength from it? as we live the Christian life? And I don't really intend those questions to be accusatory. In other words, some of us think about baptism all the time. As I mentioned this morning, maybe some people think about it too much and place too much stress on the sacrament rather than on the Savior. But on the other hand, we may say that we stress Christ and faith in Christ and we can easily run to the opposite extreme. Baptism is not the Savior. Baptism is a means to drive us to the Savior, and therefore we spend very little time thinking about our baptism. Well, what I want to say tonight is there is a middle way in the scriptures. Baptism is a poor savior, but it is a great means to drive us to the savior. And the significance of your baptism and mine, if you've been baptized, is not simply the moment at which you were baptized or the baptism that we all witnessed this morning. But baptism teaches us something about our relationship to Christ that should touch everyday life and should pull into the Christian life. So the point that I wanna bring to us from Romans chapter six is actually quite simple, and it is this. Romans six ultimately teaches us that baptism reminds us who we are, how we're to think, and how we're to live. To put it differently, baptism gives us an identity, it teaches us how to view ourselves in light of that identity, and it leads us to live Christian lives because of that identity. Baptism brings the gospel home, driving us into the arms of Jesus Christ. And if we understand baptism correctly, we will neither trust in it in place of Christ, nor will we neglect it as we use it to run to Christ. So that touches just about all of us. As I mentioned, almost all of us have been baptized. So this is for you. This is God's word aimed at your heart, whether young or old, and even those who can't yet hear, teach your children, bring them up in these things as they grow. Baptism teaches us our identity, who we are, how to think, and how to live. And notice where we are in Romans chapter six. The first thing that I note here is baptism reminds us of who we are. It's an interesting start to this chapter, isn't it? Paul says, what shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? Now it's an interesting question because the labor that Paul is engaged in at this point has really aimed at one simple thing. Maybe I should say two. You are very sinful and utterly helpless and you ought to be completely hopeless because the only solution to your sin is the Christ who justifies sinners. And what he's getting at is in order to understand the very good news of the gospel, you need to understand the very bad news of sin. And so think about the psychology of what's going on. Think about the thought process and how Paul is reasoning with us. What do we do? We put up our barriers, we put up our shields, and every time God aims his arrows at our hearts and convicts us of our sins, we have a way of deflecting them, we have a way of putting them away. The non-Christian does this entirely. If we even use the term sin at all, then we simply define it as something that may be harmful to ourselves or other people. Or maybe we blunt the terms, maybe it's not simply sin, maybe it's a bad choice. or maybe it's brokenness, or maybe a consequence, or something that affects our lives adversely. And we do this as Christians sometimes too. Maybe you children have noticed this in your families, children growing up in Christian families, have you ever had this scenario? Mom and dad tell you to do something, and immediately when you realize it hasn't been done, what happens? It's not my fault, it's my brother, it's my sister, They should have done this. They should have got it done. And your parents are usually just thinking, I don't really care whose job it is, I just want it done. But what do we end up doing? It's not me. I didn't do what you said. I didn't sin along those lines. And the tragic thing for us, even as believers, and I've said this before, and my kids have heard this many times, you never lose by confessing sin. Do you realize that? You never lose by having brutal honesty before God. Let the arrows pierce the heart. Receive God's rebuke. In other words, this is what Paul has been getting at, especially for the first three chapters of Romans. He has been using all of his skill, all of his power of argumentation to drive into our hearts and to drive us out of ourselves so that we recognize we have no hope. We have nothing to offer God. And we must begin on that plank if we're going to believe the gospel. This is very important when we come to this point about identity and Christian baptism. Because starting around the middle of chapter three, Paul shifts the other direction in a radical way. In other words, now that the arrow has pierced your soul, now that you can look at yourself and say, I am the man, I am the woman, I am the child, the shields are gone, I've stopped deflecting the accusations, I admit, the Bible is accurate, I am whom God says I am. He knows me better than I know myself. What's the answer? What's the solution? What shall I do to be saved? And what does Paul tell us? There's a righteousness that God fulfills, that God gives, and that righteousness is in Jesus Christ. So Jesus Christ, the righteous one, obeys the law where you could not and you would not. Jesus Christ bears the curse and the wrath of God so that you don't have to. And the technical term for this that Paul uses, which every one of us should know because it's a glorious term, is propitiation. And it pulls back into the Old Testament. And it actually gives us something of the symbolism and significance that comes out in Christian baptism and our identity in Jesus Christ. What it means is to turn away the wrath of God. To turn away the wrath of God By God become man, dying as the God-man on the cross and bearing the wrath of God that we ought to bear. So what's he getting at? If you are in Jesus Christ, you must be utterly hopeless, utterly helpless in yourself and give up all excuses and lay yourself at the feet of God begging for mercy. And as you do this, God promises to save you full and free. He promises to welcome you into his family, to forgive all of your sins, and to look upon you as though you have obeyed as Jesus obeyed. That is what he calls justification. Now, chapter six, where are we with identity and Christian baptism, and what is Paul actually getting at here? What shall we say then, shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? Now I hope that some of you hear that question and your gut reaction is, that's a bit perverse. In other words, there's something off here. There's something wrong. How could someone respond to the grace of God in this way? And yet, isn't this exactly what has always happened every time the gospel is preached clearly? We tell people, we tell ourselves, we cannot lift a finger to save ourselves. It must be Jesus and only Jesus or nothing at all and no hope and no salvation. And the temptation then is to say, why does it matter how we live? Why does it matter whether we actually follow God or love God's commandments or obey God? Because after all, everything that I do is utterly sinful and praise God for Jesus Christ. You know, Martin Lloyd-Jones used to say that as he preached the gospel, when he simultaneously got accusations of legalism and antinomianism, he always felt like he was doing something right. And what does that mean? Legalism, because he's telling people you need to obey God. Christ says, if you love me, keep my commandments. You must obey God. So you're a legalist. You're telling me I need to obey. I contribute nothing to my salvation. But then on the other side, he tells people, salvation is only in Christ. Salvation is full and free. All you do is reach out your empty hand, lay hold of Jesus Christ. Now you're against the law. Now you're an antinomian. Now you tell me it doesn't matter what I do. I've had Roman Catholic friends tell me this. Protestants are lawless. They just don't care how you live, because what are they hearing? We're justified by free grace in Christ. And do you hear the pastoral question Paul's raising here? The gospel promises free forgiveness in Christ, but it promises so much more than that. Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? Well, the short answer is, Certainly not. Literally, may it never be. May no one ever impute this idea to Christianity. May no one ever say that a gospel of free grace and faith alone in Christ alone tells us that somehow we have a blank check to do whatever we want the rest of the time. You can't do that. Certainly not. Why not? Notice the answer, and this takes us to Christian baptism and the core of why baptism is relevant. Do you not know, verse three, that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? Now bring out the implications in just a moment, but maybe ask yourself this question. If someone comes to you and says, you believe and you're telling me that I'm much worse than I think I am, and I need to recognize that, and God's grace is much better than I knew it was, and I need to lay hold of God's mercy by faith alone, and I can't contribute anything, I don't trust in anything I've done, in any works, in any church, in anything else. And then they ask you, so why do I live a godly life? What answer would you give? The first thing Paul directs them to is Christian baptism. Now, some people are gonna say at this point, what he's really getting at is not water that washes the body, what he's really getting at is the heart, the spirit. In other words, this is not water baptism, this is what we can call true spiritual baptism. We must be circumcised in heart, we must have our hearts washed clean by the blood of Jesus Christ, we must have our hearts changed by the powerful work of the Holy Spirit, and it's really not the water that's in view at all here. Well, that's partially right. The inner reality is important. If you are in Jesus Christ, you must be identified with him. You are becoming like him. There is a heart change, there is a heart renovation, and certainly that's what Paul is getting at. But sometimes I think this illustrates where we demean and we undermine the outward sign. How can we dissociate the water from what the water teaches us? Paul's not saying the waters of baptism save you, he's clearly saying Christ is the hero. Christ is the center of the show. Christ is at the heart of the significance of Christian baptism, but he's telling you this, Christian baptism teaches you something about Christ and it teaches you something about yourself. Whether you believe that or not is another thing. Whether you have the reality in your heart is a different question. But you ought to. And this is what baptism teaches every single person who witnesses baptism. Baptism is our identity card. Baptism is our naming ceremony. In other words, what happens when someone is baptized or when we witnessed a baptism this morning. This little one was named with the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. In other words, it is God saying, whether to a child or to an adult, if you believe in the name of the Lord Jesus, you will be saved. All your sins will be washed away, God will be your Father, and the Holy Spirit will live in your heart. And children, that's a good way to think of your baptism. What does it mean? If I believe in Christ, God is my Father, Jesus is my Savior, and the Spirit lives in my heart. That's what baptism is saying. Baptism fundamentally is our identification. You realize that? Let me just illustrate this in one way, and I hope this doesn't drive us off the rails, off into the river, but basically, you ever wonder, when you think about the baptism of Jesus, You have the same question John had. Baptism points to washing away sin. And here's the sinless Son of God in human flesh coming to John and coming for baptism. And what's the natural question? Are you coming to be baptized by me? I need to be baptized by you. I'm the sinner. You're not. I need my sins washed away. You have none to speak of. And why did Jesus submit to baptism? Because baptism fundamentally means identification. It is identity. What is Jesus actually doing? He is baptized and receives the Holy Spirit from the Father because he identifies with you and me. because he identifies himself with sinful people. In other words, that takes us into the heart of this text. When Christ died, it meant something for you. Christ was baptized because he identified himself with your plight, with your problem, with your sins, with your needs, with all the baggage you bring to God. And so Christ identified himself with you, so what happens when you're baptized? God identifies you with Christ and with himself. So here's the question. Why should we not just continue in sin that grace may abound? Magnify the grace of God by our wickedness. Because you've been baptized. Because that's not your identity. Because your identity is that you've been baptized with Jesus Christ into his death. Notice how he continues in verse four. Therefore, we were buried with him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we should walk in newness of life. In short, baptism is teaching us this. Those who believe in Jesus are united to Jesus. I don't know how else to say that. There's more than I can say, I think. There is such a close association between us and Jesus, such a mystical connection, if I can even say that, beyond our description, that what's true of him becomes true of us. So why can I no longer live in sin as a Christian? Because it's against my identity. because I'm identified with Jesus Christ, because Jesus Christ died for my sin that I may not bear its curse, because Jesus Christ rose from the dead that I should walk in newness of life. Do you see what he's getting at with our identity and baptism? He's saying Christ identified himself with you to save you from your sins, and your baptism identifies you with Jesus Christ. Don't live in sin. Don't put the grace of God to shame or treat it as a cheap thing, because that is not who you are. That is not your identity. And notice the points that I gave in this text, and there is a logical progression and a step-by-step order that is fundamentally important in the Christian life. If we would make progress in godliness and obedience, we need to begin with our identity, We need to change the way we think and only in light of the first two things can we change the way we live. We want the five step or let's just say the 12 step program. I wanna do this, I wanna do this, I wanna do this. And if I go through all the steps, I'll end my internet pornography, I'll end my arguments with my wife, I'll become a better employee at my job and I'll be less lazy, I'll be a better student at school, I'll stop being an angry man or woman, whatever it is. And that's what we want. And the Bible often does give us tangible, practical things that we need to change and we do need to change them. But isn't it interesting how Paul begins? That's not where you start. You start by asking the question, who am I? Well, if I look at the label, what do I see? I belong to Jesus Christ. I'm not my own. I'm bought with a price. How do I know it? I've been baptized. My baptism, as it were, is a living symbol to me every day for the rest of my life. that I must be washed by the blood of Christ, that I am identified with him who identified himself with me, and that I have no right to do what I want. I have no right to go my own direction. The power of Christ is at work within me, and my baptism is a living reminder of it all the days that I live. So our baptism teaches us our identity. Notice in the text, this sermon is ultimately about baptism. The text is not. And I'm trying to carefully qualify this. Baptism appears once in the text at this point. And this is crucial. Because baptism teaches you your identity in Jesus Christ. Let me put it this way. Are you identified with Christ? You are if you're baptized. You may live up to it, you may not. You may believe in light of it, you may reject it, but your baptism is screaming in your ears tonight. It is calling to you. It is telling you under the authority of God that everyone who is baptized ought to be dead to sin and alive to God and Jesus Christ. That is what this identity means. It is not simply something that puts us in a visible church. It is not a superstitious right to keep our children safe from harm in the future. But it is something that is preaching to us as clearly as a sermon that our identity is in Christ and in Christ alone. And if we identify with Jesus Christ, then everything that is true of him must be true of us. Do you use your baptism to direct you to your identity in Christ? That's the first thing. What's next? Baptism not only teaches us our identity and reshapes the whole Christian life, but the next step slides naturally out of the first, doesn't it? It teaches us to rethink things. How do we view ourselves? How do we think about our relationship to our sin, to our world? For that matter, to our husbands, our wives, our neighbors. Those around us. Well, notice what Paul basically says. You've established your identity, your baptism teaches you who you are in Jesus Christ, dead to sin, walking in newness of life in him. Now, how do you think? Well, notice in the section I'm about to go back to, verse 11 is actually the main point. Likewise, you also reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Jesus Christ our Lord. So what's he getting at? Certain things are true about you as a Christian. If the Spirit is in your heart, if Jesus is your Savior, and God is your Father, that's your identity. You're named by the name of the Triune God. Now you need to think like it. It needs to reshape your thinking. In other words, Christian living is something of a mental and spiritual reprogramming process. It's not just a matter of what we change and the steps we take. It's a matter of how we view ourselves and what our identity is and how it shapes our thinking and permeates our lives. Now keeping that in mind from verse 11, pull back into verse five and see how this works. If we've been united together in the likeness of his death, certainly we shall be in the likeness of his resurrection. Knowing this, that our old man was crucified with him." Now, what's he getting at? I mean, what's crucifixion? It's execution. It's death. And you see what he's saying. When Jesus died, he took your sins with him. And when Jesus died for your sins, he removed the curse. But at the same time, you went with him to the cross. And so as you are identified with him, it actually makes a difference in how you view yourself. How can I live in sin anymore when I'm dead? It's not my life. I'm not at my own disposal. Do we think of ourselves this way? and what a difference it makes. I'll try to illustrate how this makes a difference in just a moment, but just wrestle through the thought process. It's very important. Knowing this, that our old man was crucified with him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin. Your identity is in Christ. Do you realize, do you think, do you believe that you are free? Yes, but if you only knew what I deal with every day, if you only knew the sins in my heart, if you only knew how easily those sins come out of my mouth and into my life and hurt those I'm closest to and affect my relationships and work themselves out in so many different ways that Paul is saying, you're putting the cart in front of the horse. You need to back up. Yes, yes, all those things are true. I'm reminded here of Luther and I know some of you have heard me say this before, but it's good and it's worth repeating. It's not mine, it's Luther's. But as Satan came to him allegedly and brought every possible accusation he could to Luther's conscience, showing him all the sins he had committed, Luther's response was, yes, yes, I've done all those things and many more you forgot. But baptizatus sum. I am baptized, go away. You see what he's getting at? He's not saying my baptism is what's my ticket to heaven. He's saying my Christ is. And yes, you bring these reviling accusations, I can add to them. I can point to more things in myself than you brought to my conscience. But this is true and this I know. I am identified with Christ and I don't identify myself with that sin anymore. I do not think of myself as the sinner who does good occasionally. I think of myself as dead to sin and alive to God in Jesus Christ my Lord. Now we're gonna see how that makes a difference in just a minute. But notice he says, verse seven, he who has been died has been freed from sin. Now if we died with Christ, we believe, and this is the key phrase here, we believe. We shall live with him. Do you believe that? Our sanctification and our fight against sin and our progress in obedience always begins with faith in Christ, always. And if our obedience to God is not grounded in faith in Jesus Christ, it will fail a hundredfold. And we will never move forward and we will never make progress. And you see what Paul's actually doing. Your baptism teaches you your identity, your identification with Jesus Christ. Think like it. Retrain your mind. How do you consider yourself? Have you died with him? Do you believe that you'll live with him? Christ was raised from the dead. He dies no more. Death no more has dominion over him. Jesus Christ had no sin to speak of in heart speech or behavior. But he was in a grave for three days on account of sin. And it appeared to have dominion for a time. But it couldn't and it wouldn't. Because Christ, the righteous one, rose from the dead. The spirit of the Father raised Christ from the dead. And as Paul says in Romans 8, that same spirit is in your heart. And what he's done to Christ, he'll do to you. He appeared to be under the dominion of sin for a time. You were actually under the dominion of sin. You obeyed its lusts. That was the point of chapters one through three. Now you're convinced, but now recognize that all that I labored to show you was true of you is not true anymore. And it's gone. And it's as though Paul is literally grabbing us by the shirts and saying, do you believe this? What do you expect from Christ? But my prayers are so weak. My fight against sin is so half-hearted sometimes. You see, the first thing Paul is actually saying is stop thinking about yourself so much. Stop considering how well you do or how poorly you do. But do you actually believe in the power of a savior who's died and risen from the dead? Do you believe that he could change the things that trouble you so much in your hearts? You see why the order is important. Your baptism teaches you your identity, and then you begin to rethink things. And we must do this, and it's a lifelong process. The death that he died, he died to sin once for all, but the life he lives, he lives to God. And here's, again, the bottom line. Likewise, you also reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Jesus Christ our Lord. So the question for the first point is what's your identity? How do you view yourself? What does your baptism teach you about it? The second question is how do you think about yourself? Does it make a difference? There's an illustration here that I can't resist and it's really burned into my mind every time I open Romans chapter six. When I was in California as a young Christian, I had a friend of mine who I think at the time was in his mid 40s and he was a drunkard. And he was a recluse and had almost no contact with other human beings. He worked under a car changing oil and parts and didn't have to interact with people much until a few weeks before his conversion. He was drunk in the middle of the day. He was up in a tree throwing branches at police officers and hurling profanities after them and was arrested. And then a few weeks later was converted to Christ. And as the years stretched on, and as the Lord worked in his heart, he was no longer a drunkard, and he no longer lived the way he once did. As you can imagine, he was still rough around the edges. People don't get rid of social awkwardness overnight, even with the grace of God in the heart. But you could see the Lord working. And at one point, as the church was talking about the presence of wine in the Lord's Supper, the first thing they said is, well, we can't have wine because of this man. because he's a drunkard, he's an alcoholic, and we can't put it before him as temptation. And you know, that man, as a relatively young, immature Christian, gave profound theology that Paul would say amen to. You know what his response was? I'm not a drunkard, I'm a Christian. And if I'm a drunkard, if I'm an alcoholic, I'm not a Christian. Now that flies in the face of 12-step programs and years and years and years later, I'm still an alcoholic. He had it right. I'm not a drunkard, I'm a Christian. I don't drink alcohol because I have more temptation there than the rest of you do. But I believe the Holy Spirit can enable me to take a thimble full of wine once a month to celebrate the death and resurrection of Christ. That's what Paul's getting at. That's the difference this makes in the Christian life. How do you view yourself? How do you think? How does this carry you through Christian living? Does your baptism drive you to your identity in Jesus Christ, really your identity with the whole Trinity? And exercising faith in Christ, do you think of yourself this way? Do you reckon yourself dead to sin and indeed and alive to God in Jesus Christ our Lord? Does this make a difference? It must. And it is this that makes the biggest difference in the Christian life. That's why I think one of the most profound things that John Owen ever wrote was a little book called The Glory of Christ or Meditations on the Glory of Christ. You know what he basically says in that book? The primary reason. why Christians don't make more progress in personal holiness, dot, dot, dot, fill in the blank. You know where I'm going now with the text, but the primary thing, primary reason why we don't make more progress in holiness is what? Failure to meditate on the glory of the Savior. In other words, struggling with indwelling sin, we need steps to change our lives. We need to take immediate measures to get out of the pit we've fallen into, but it's not enough. We need to go back to our baptism to drive us into the arms of the Savior and we need to retrain the way we think. We need books on Christ. We need sermons on Christ. We need the glory of the Savior. We need a bigger Savior, a better Savior, a more majestic Savior who comes into the pit of sin with us and He breaks its power and who leads us in newness of life. Finally, Paul gets to the part that perhaps we wanted at the beginning. How do we live? Our baptism teaches us about our identity, an identification with God who identifies himself with us. Our baptism also teaches us how to think, but finally, our baptism teaches us how to live. And by the way, one thing I wanna interject here that I mentioned in passing this morning, is important as well, is notice how baptism's functioning here. Whose profession of faith is it? It's not mine. It's not yours. It requires ours, doesn't it? It requires our faith, it requires our thinking, but this is God's pledge. I read a book this last semester on the doctrine of the church, and I'll leave the author out to protect the guilty, but basically he says at one point, baptism is a human act. I almost fell out of my chair. I just wanna say, have you read Paul? Baptism is a human act. Baptism is my badge of profession, not according to this. Baptism is God saying, this is what I have done to save sinners. This is what I am telling you through the sacrament just as much as I'm telling you through the gospel. Your posture is to receive it and believe it and to repent of your sins and to know me and to walk with me. But it's not your profession of faith, it's God's. And that's Paul's point. What is God telling you? What is your actual identity? How does it shape your thinking? And then how does it drive your life as a result? So how does he conclude? Therefore, here's the first real imperative other than reckon yourself. Think this way. This is the first time he actually tells you to do something. Verse 12, therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body that you should obey it in its lusts. Do not present your members as instruments of unrighteousness to sin, but present yourselves to God as being alive from the dead. Chapters one through three, you were dead. Chapters three through five, you're alive. Chapter six, act like it. That's where he's going with this. and your members as instruments of righteousness to God, for sin shall not have dominion over you. You are not under law, but under grace. And that last phrase, what's he getting at? The law that I hounded you with for the first three chapters to drive you into the darkest recesses of your hearts and leave you nowhere to go It can no longer get at you. It can no longer condemn you. It can no longer drive you away from God because it served its purpose and drove you to Jesus Christ. So you are no longer under law, but under grace. And that doesn't mean that now you have the freedom to finally do whatever you ever wanted with your life. Now what it means is what you want with your life is totally different than what it used to be. Have we not died to sin? Are we not servants of Christ? Are we not attracted to Christ? And is it not our highest joy to imitate him and be like him? See what we're really saying is, now that I'm no longer keeping the law to gain favor before God, I can really love it. And I can truly delight in it freely. Because now it shows me what my God is like. Now it shows me what his character is like. Do we identify ourselves with a God who identified himself with us in baptism? Do we reckon ourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Jesus Christ? And then, practically and personally, do we live out these realities in the Christian life? If I'm gonna give examples here, and I maybe should, probably be here the rest of the week, because this touches everything. So I wanna go back to my opening question. How is baptism relevant to Christian living? Every day in everything. If you trust in the fact that you're baptized and you're simply a member of the church, then you've not only lost Christ, but you've lost your baptism. And what a great tragedy. But let me turn that around positively. And maybe you have grown up in the church and Christian homes. There's a lot of you out there and you're becoming adults. This is the time to take ownership of this, to think of these things. God has set his name upon you before you knew what his name was. God has given you the greatest privileges that could be imagined in heaven and earth. Does this shape your identity as you grow towards your own jobs, your own families, Does this dominate the way you think? Does it direct the way you live? Everywhere you go, everywhere you live as a Christian, everything you think, do you say my identity is with the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit? I've died to sin, I'm alive to God in Jesus Christ and I will not and I cannot present my members, my body, as a slave to obey sin, but I want to, and I must obey Jesus Christ. This is putting Christian living on the right foot. And this is why Martyn Lloyd-Jones, who I cited earlier, said at one point in the churches in the UK in the mid 20th century, even where the gospel was no longer preached from the pulpit, the sacraments were still preaching the gospel. because baptism here tells you that Jesus not only washes you from your sins, but in Jesus you died to sin and in Jesus you live. Let's pray. Father in heaven, we thank you for blessing us with such exceedingly great and precious promises. We pray that you would teach us to improve our baptisms this very night, And we pray that you would drive sin from our hearts and from our lives, that you would fill us with confidence in the Savior, who is not only able to save us from the guilt of sin, but to remove its presence and its power from us. Bless us now as we close this Lord's Day, looking to and hastening the return of our Lord and Savior. And we pray that you would fill our hearts with joy as we end the day singing your praises and enjoying fellowship together. In Christ's name we pray, amen.