I want you to turn in your Bible this morning to 2 Corinthians chapter 5. 2 Corinthians chapter 5. I'm looking at the clock this morning because we've got a lot to do and I want to make sure I don't take too much of the time this morning. But I love to see new believers baptized, and that's what we get to do this morning after the service. We get the joy today of baptizing Will Caldwell and Patrick Golden, who have recently professed their faith in Christ. And baptism speaks to us of the death-to-life change that God brings to those who trust and follow Christ. And so it's a great day to be looking at 2 Corinthians 5, verses 16 and 17. So please stand with me. for the reading of these two verses of the Word of God. 2 Corinthians 5 verses 16 and 17. Paul writes, From now on, therefore, we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we once regarded Christ according to the flesh, we regard him thus no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, He is a new creation. The old has passed away. Behold, the new has come. Let's pray. Our Father, we thank you for the opportunity that we have to open this book, which is your word, and that we have the opportunity this morning to think deeply on what you have spoken to us through the Apostle Paul. And we pray earnestly that we would have ears to hear and eyes to see, that we would have hearts to receive, to be able to think clearly about what it is you are saying to us and what these truths mean for us in terms of our living, in terms of our relationship with you, in terms of how we understand the world in which we live. Lord, help us because You know we need it. Help us because we need light in this dark world. Because we need to be guided by Your Word. We need to be instructed. We know that we need to be sure that we're not believing a lie, but believing the truth. We need to be sure that when that day comes, when we stand before You, We are fully assured of our right standing with Christ and of our eternal rest with you and our eternal joy with you and also to bring you glory right here, right now. So help us, God. Teach us. Help us to grow. And especially we pray for Will and Pat today that as they sit in the preaching of this service and prepare theirselves for their public proclamation of their faith in Christ through baptism that these verses about newness of life would speak powerfully to them about what you have called them to by calling them to yourself. And we pray these things in Christ's name. Amen. You may be seated. Now if we look, as we look in this passage of 2 Corinthians 5, And we were looking there last week, we've been looking there now for a number of weeks. What we see is that Paul has just spoken about how he is constrained by the love of Christ, how the love of Christ controls him, the love of Christ that is expressed in his death. He died in such a way that all His people died with Him. And in this way, the death of Christ for the believer brings about a change of position. That is, apart from the death of Christ, our position is we stand before God underneath His just wrath for our sins against Him. We deserve and have earned before God the penalty of our sins, which is God's justice, which is God's wrath and God's punishment eternally. The change of position that the death of Christ has brought about is that no longer, when God looks at us, does He see those, those whose faith is in Christ, no longer does He see those as those who are standing underneath the penalty that are standing underneath His wrath. But He now sees those who have actually stood underneath His wrath and born up under that which they deserve because they were united with Christ in His death. When He died, they died. So now He looks upon His people, those who are associated with Christ, as having been punished and having been reconciled to Him. That's a change of position. But there is more than just a change of position that comes from being associated with Christ by faith. The death of Christ not only brings about a change of position, there are also transformational changes as well. What I mean by transformation change is like if I had a piece of clay up here and I put it on this table, I would say I made a change of position by moving it from one place to another. Out of, let's say this is the table of wrath and this is the table of grace, I can move it from one place to another. But then there is still a change that you can make in clay by shaping it and molding it, smashing it down in this form and then remaking it. And that's the transformational change I'm talking about. That's what I mean by transformation. A change, not just of what we are worthy of, but now a change of who we are. And so Paul is talking about this particular aspect of the change of the death of Christ in us. He's talking about a transformational change that happens through the power and the work that comes from the love of Christ. There's two things in this passage that I want you to see this morning that Paul says were changes in him and that are changes in every single believer, everyone who is associated savingly with Christ. The first one of these is reorientation. In verse 16, Paul speaks of a reorientation of his perspective. Because Paul has concluded that Christ Jesus died for all, so that all who live might not live for themselves, but live for him who died and was raised for them, he no longer looks at people the way he once did. He has been reoriented in the way he looks at people. He says it this way. From now on, therefore, we regard no one according to the flesh. And we need to understand just what Paul is talking about. What is it to regard someone according to the flesh? What is this he no longer does? What is it to regard someone according to the flesh? Well, the word regard speaks of looking or considering or thinking critically so as to make judgments. In other words, I see a flag back there on the back wall. Well, normally I don't even see that, but as I'm trying to explain this to you, I'm thinking, well, you know, what do I see when I see a flag? I could just say, well, it's blue, white, and red. But if I'm thinking critically, I'm looking a little more deeply, and I say, well, it says, Girls Basketball Conference Champions, 2005. That tells me more details, and I conclude something about that. Well, how do we look at people? Paul is talking about how we evaluate people. I no longer regard them according to the flesh, he says. He's talking about making judgments about people, according to the flesh, based on outward appearance, and according to a worldly perspective, precisely the way that the imposter apostles who had come to Corinth were looking at Paul. They were looking at Paul, and they were saying, remember we've stressed this over and over through this series, they were saying, he's unimpressive, He can't speak well. He has trouble. Look at that. That's the outward appearance. Paul says this now in this, we no longer look at anyone in that way. We're not looking at their outward circumstances. We're not looking at their weaknesses and saying, well, they don't matter or making judgments about them because of what we see on the surface. Paul has already emphasized the very reason that he experiences the trouble and the difficulty and the weaknesses so evident in his life is because God ordained it this way because God wanted to show that if there's any power at work in Paul, it's not Paul! It's God who is at work. And so Paul is setting himself apart from these false apostles who were seeking to influence the Corinthians. And Paul says that it is the love of Christ that has made the difference. It's the love of Christ displayed in his death that brought about a change, a transformation in his perspective, what we're going to call a reorientation so that he no longer looks at people the way he once did. So Paul does for us, you notice he does say he once did this. He no longer does it, so he used to look at people this way. Judging a people according to the flesh is something he used to do, but now he does it no longer. And to make it explicitly clear, Paul says that he used to look at Jesus this very way. He used to regard Christ according to the flesh, but he doesn't regard Him in that way anymore. See the way he says, even though we once regarded Christ according to the flesh, we regard Him thus no longer. Paul looked at Jesus He considered Jesus. He made a critical evaluation of Jesus based on his outward appearance and made certain determinations about him because of what he saw. Once Paul looked at Jesus in the flesh and what did he see? Well, he was a Jew of Jews. Paul was a Pharisee. What he saw when he saw Jesus was a troublemaker, a rebel. Somebody's not following all the rules that the Pharisees and the law teachers made to try to, you know, to be Lord over the people with and to try to tell them exactly, you know, they worked in all of these extraneous extra-biblical laws to guide their living. And so when Paul looks at Jesus, here's one who's not keeping these laws. So he's a troublemaker. He's a rebel against Judaism. When Paul looked at Jesus, he saw one who criticized the Pharisees and Paul was a Pharisee. He said of the Pharisees, Woe to you, you brood of vipers." Paul had said of the Pharisees, you are whitewashed tombs. You're all beautiful on the outside but you're death inside. So why would you like a guy who said things like that? Paul, like much of the world, looked on Jesus as somebody who, when he was dying on the cross, was being punished by God and was getting what he deserved for being who he was, a troublemaker in the life of Judah, of Judea, of the Jewish nation. So Deuteronomy 21, 23 says this, a man hung on a tree is cursed by God. And Isaiah 53, 4 says, we esteemed him, we thought of him in this way, as stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. And that's the way Paul and all the Jews tend to look at Jesus. Somebody who got what he deserved. And if he was hung on a tree and cursed, then he couldn't have been God's Savior. Because obviously if God is judging him, he's bad. So this is what Paul saw when he looked on the outside. And by fleshly judgment then Jesus would not be worthy to be followed. And so Paul's fleshly worldly judgment led him to reject Christ Jesus and then to persecute the people who preached Christ Jesus because they too were troublemakers to Judaism and they were troublemakers therefore in his mind to God. But what does Paul say in this passage? Not anymore. Something happened that reoriented the way Paul looked at Jesus. Jesus met him face to face on the road to Damascus, right? And he discovered that the one that he had decided had been punished and persecuted by God was actually doing it not for sins he committed, but was being punished for sins that others committed. His own sins. And so he stopped seeing that Jesus was crucified as a criminal in the eyes of God, but actually was submitting himself to the plan and purpose and will of God. Yes, he was punished by God, but he was punished by God for others. It's what Paul says in verse 21 of this very chapter, for he, for our sake, he made him who knew no sin to be sin, in our behalf so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God. And so Paul is reoriented, been completely changed in the way that he looks at Jesus. Instead of seeing a guy that suffered for what he deserves, he sees someone who suffered for what others deserve. and now he has hope for forgiveness and reconciliation for God he is owned up to his sin before God and he has been forgiven and he understands this forgiven forgiveness to mean reconciliation with God and he rejoices now to preach the very Jesus he once persecuted so what we learn at least from this is that what you think of Jesus how you regard Jesus makes all the difference in your life and in eternity people everywhere that You can go out on the street and most everybody would believe Jesus, this man named Jesus lived. And most people I think you talk to on the street, man on the street interviews, well, tell me about him. He was a good guy. Really? Yes, and he was a teacher. He's a prophet. You hear people saying things like this and agreeing to that. And so people think in these ways about Jesus, but a lot of people then also think that he must have been pretty, a pretty brilliant philosopher. I mean, he's had a great influence. But people also think that Jesus was probably somewhat pathetic. I mean, to have been willing to die by crucifixion for silly Jewish religious details? But in a single day, the Apostle Paul turned from persecutor to preacher. And it's because he became convinced of the truth about the person of Christ and the reality about the work of Christ. He was a sinless son of God. who died in the place of sinners so that those who trust in Him will be saved from the justice they deserve from God. And that goes for each one of us. The beginning of hope for us in our lives is the reorientation in our thinking about who Jesus is. And where we start getting that is to look at Him on the cross. This is coming into verse 16 out of verse 15 and 14 where He had talked about He's being controlled by the love of Christ. He knows it's his love that caused him to die the death of others. So his thinking is reoriented. If you don't look at Jesus that way, then you don't have a savior. He's not your savior. That's the beginning of trusting him is to seeing him for who he is. And He is that way. But the question is do you acknowledge Him to be who He says He is? All you have to do is read the Bible and you see Jesus presents Himself as the Savior who came not to be served but to serve and give His life as a ransom for many. Now the love of Christ then reoriented Paul in the perception of Jesus but it also reoriented Paul in his perception of people in general. He ceased to esteem or reject anyone based on worldly judgments. The love of Christ reoriented him. Paul says here, we regard no one according to the flesh. So his reorientation to Christ meant he looked at all people differently. When you are in control by the love of Christ, you don't look at people the way you once did. When the world looks at people, the world evaluates them largely in terms of appearance. What they look like, what they seem to have. I mean, I guess, would there be a magazine in America that kind of would tell us who are the people that America esteems? Is there a magazine in America that tells us that maybe here are the people that matter? Or would that possibly be a magazine called People? magazine. I heard one preacher today call that the devotional magazine of the United States of America. You want to find out what matters to America in terms of people, look at people. And when you look at that magazine, what will you see? Well, I haven't looked at it in a long time, but I remember it laying around here and there in a doctor's office. And I recall that when I open the cover, I see the people that are famous, wealthy, attractive, powerful, connected. And it's as though reading these articles, they tell you all about these people, because these are the people that matter, right? So you look at people on the surface, and these surface issues are what tell you their importance. The emphasis is on image, the emphasis on what do they look like, how impressive are they, and how lavishly do they live. But how much of what you covet do they have? Therefore you want to be like them. But when you see Christ Jesus as the risen Savior and Lord of your life, then you don't see the rich, the famous, the powerful, and the beautiful as the people who matter. You look at the world and you see sinners. Some are rich and some are poor, but they're all sinners. Every one of these matters. Every one. The rich, they matter. The poor, they matter. The powerful, they matter. The weak, they matter. Why? All are made in the image of God and all are in need of Christ. What does Paul see when he looks at the world? Christ has reoriented his thinking and now he's not looking at good people and bad people. He sees sinners who need what Jesus did when he died on the cross. You see people who are suffering, it doesn't matter what they look like on the outside, there are people who are suffering from cancer and sickness on the inside. And it doesn't matter what they look like or what their bank accounts have, there are people out there who are suffering heartache, disappointment, they are disillusioned, they're drinking themselves to death because they can't cope with life. They have no hope and they want to reject everything, they're cut off from God. They're pitiful. They need mercy. There are people in our world who are mired up in hate and immorality and selfishness and greed, but they're in need. And you see people who are suffering and have no joy, self-righteous and elitists who have locked God out of their worldview. But what you see in each one of these is a person whose greatest need is Christ. And you see people whose lives can be changed and whose hopes can be restored if they will but bow at the cross of Christ. You see people who can go from darkness to life. Self-righteousness and arrogance in your heart can be replaced with compassion and mercy when you look at Christ. Instead of holding up your fist at the world, you hold out your heart like Jesus did. You go to the world Not to receive from it, but to give to it. Mercy replaces prejudice. Forgiveness replaces the demand for my rights. And like Jesus, I live my life. I lay my life down for others. If I've seen Him, then that's how I see others. They need. It's not what they have or don't have. It's who they need. Every single one. And so how you look at others Think about this, how you look at others says a whole lot about how you really look at Jesus. So stop for a minute and just think, how do I look at the world? How do I look at the person who's driving the car, I come up to a stop sign, I'm stopped, and they're passing me on Beloit Road, okay? And I look and see a car. You know what, in every car that's moving down the road, at least most of them, there's a person sitting behind the wheel. What do you think? Are you aware of other people around you? It's not just another car that might be in your way on your, you know. It's other people trying to get places. What do you think about that person who didn't go when the light turned green and by the time he started to go it turned red and they got through but you were stopped and you had to wait? You know? Ah, yeah. If you're like me, you feel some frustration. But we need to stop and think. You know what? This world is not about inconveniences and hardships and me trying to get to my place in my life. It's me seeing the world in terms of Jesus. He came to people. And if I'm thinking about people that I'm thinking about, not what they're taking from me, but what can I give them? You know, I see differently. If you see people, everybody is in your way. Everybody's messing with you. Everybody is trouble. And I wonder if you've even been reoriented in your thinking about Jesus. You see, Paul was reoriented in his thinking about all other people because his mind had been reoriented in his thinking about Jesus. I exhort you today to look at Jesus as the one deserving of your life and loyalty, of obedience and worship, and then also look on people in general with compassion and care. Look at a lost and dying world who needs Christ. And that need is growing more and more apparent every single day. Every move that the people and the world around us makes further and further in the direction of degradation, immorality, and God rejection is just another exclamation point on the fact that people need Christ. And rather than being all balled up with animosity and hostility because of what they're doing with moral standards, we need to be mindful that what they're expressing is sin. The same sin that was in my heart. If I'm a believer now, the same sin that was in my heart before you came in. and cleaned it up and changed it and reoriented me towards himself. I would appeal to you in that way today. Look at this world and see people in need. See people who need Christ. And so what do you try to give them? The gospel. That's what we should be urgently trying to give them. Spread it. Even when they don't want it, they need it. So we can't make them. But we must put it to them so that they can hear and be confronted, just like Paul was. Here's the enemy of the church that Jesus came. And Paul was changed. And Paul began to preach. And he preached to many people who hated it. And he rejected it. Drug him out of town and stoned him. But he did it because eternity, their eternity and the glory of God is at stake. So the first thing we notice is this reorientation. But I secondly want you to see another emphasis on transformation that takes place in the lives of those who, by faith, are united to Christ. And that is re-creation. Verse 17 gives us an explanation for this re-orientation that Paul experienced. The explanation is found here. If anyone, if any one is in Christ. He is a new creation or a new creature. The old has passed away. Behold, new has come. That's to everyone who is in Christ. Everyone who has savingly connected themselves with him by faith. This verse has been called, and rightly so, the biography of every Christian. You want to know your life story? If you are a believer, in a nutshell, this is your life. Everyone, anyone who is in Christ is a new creation. And that tells us this, there will not be one. There will not be one person who is in Christ who is not a new creation. That's good news. It does not matter who you are or where you've been. It doesn't matter what you've done. It does not matter how hopeless you may be about yourself. It doesn't matter how great your sin. What matters is whether you are in Christ. Because if you are in Christ, you are a new creation. And you will not be able to hide it. Being a new creation is not something you can do as a stealth bomber. It's not something you put behind a bush and pretend you're not. Because if you're new, you're new. Now everyone who becomes savingly associated with Jesus then experiences re-creation, regeneration, to be born again. To use the language of verse 16, these are those who come to life. They live no longer for themselves, but they live for Him who died for them and rose again. Over in verse 6, Paul teaches the same point with these words. We were buried with Him by baptism into death in order that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life. We live and it's different. We have this reorientation how we look at people, but we also have this recreation of who we are as people. So we're not going to be like we used to be. There is a change. The word creation here is pivotal. It's important. It demands our attention here. Paul could have said, you know, if anyone is in Christ, he's a new man. Or if anyone is in Christ, he's a new person, a new Adam. I just throw something in there. But he says a new creation. That word needs to grab us. This word stresses a couple of things. One is power and the other is God. Creation. A new being specially made by God. This is an expression of the power of God. I mean, the first words in the Bible. in the beginning God created. The heavens and the earth. The Bible reveals to us that there was nothing until God decided that there would be something. I mean, there was God and nothing else. Here's God, which this is the mind boggle. I woke up this morning just thinking, why is there something? Is there nothing? And the reason is because God is, and God willed it. And if you think of the vastness of this universe, we can't even begin to fathom the distance that we can see into space with our telescopes and the planets and stars. And not only to not mention the things that are on the earth, that we're places where people haven't gone, that things exist and that God's created and God knows them perfectly and completely and they exist for His glory and we don't even know about them. This is amazing from as far out to as far in to the smallest tiny particle of the things that God has made and how it all works. It's a testimony to His power. It's a testimony to His greatness. And it's a testimony to this word, creation. God does wonderful things. And when He created, every day He says, good, it's good, it's good. Sin came into the world and made it not so good. But God is doing a work of recreation and He does it one life at a time. And so if anyone is in Christ, he is re-created. The power of God is exerted upon their life in such a way that they're not who they used to be. It is a glorious transformational change in belief, in understanding, and in action, in living. That's good news too. Because you know what? There is no power greater than the power of God. I think you'd all agree. If you agree there's a God, you agree in this creation, there's no power greater than the power of God. Some of you look at your life and you say, I am never going to amount to anything. I'm battling with this sin. I'm battling with this struggle. I've got so many scars in my life and in my closet and you know what? He's recreational work is greater than anything you can put up. Because God spoke to nothing and nothing became something. And when God comes into your life to rebuild and recreate and rework, He will do it. One day. gloriously completed. Until that day, it's a work in progress, but it's still, if you think of, this is a testimony really to what's going on. The power of sin and the power of temptation, but God's power greater to work in us in such a way that then we in the work, trusting in Christ, walking with God, actually experience victory over the rebellion that we once had. We actually do have reorientations in our thoughts to where we used to just kind of hate people. and looked at them in terms of their problems and their, you know, all the negatives, which is almost everything you know, and just want to, you know, I'm better than everybody else. That's the way every human being thinks almost automatically. Even when we say, oh, I'm not good. The only time we really admit that we're not good is when we bow before the cross. We're saying, I'm a sinner worthy of your eternal punishment. And yet my hope is in Christ and Christ alone. And that transformational change that comes is a part of the recreational work done by God. And he begins to change everything about us. Every person in Christ displays a change by being a different person than what they were. Some of you might remember Kenny Onken. It's been a while since he moved to West Bend and then to Florida. He came to Grace Community Church through the ministry of the mission years ago. He went through the program. He got a job. He spent a number of years in worship and fellowship with us. His birthday was this past week. He's 30. And I noted something that he posted on his Facebook page. He said, basically, on his 30th birthday, 15 years ago, half my life ago, in essence, I wanted to kill myself because of past mistakes, seizure disabilities, and self-pity. I am thankful to our Lord, allowing me the learning curve. You see, you Lord alone made this possible to live, love, and be loved the following 15 years. Before Christ, 10 years ago, I was a pothead. a porn addict, a liberal, a stalker. I was in fornication. I was an abuser. I loved Satan. I was an evolution believer. I was into occultic practices. I was into mutilation. I was self mutilating. But Jesus came in to my life a decade ago and saved me. It's a new creature. That's a new creation. To be able to see what I was. But I am no longer. Because if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation of God. The old things passed away. Behold, new things have come. So to be in Christ is to be united with Him. How are we united with Christ? How do we be in Him? Well, you take hold of Him by faith. If you believe in Him, you rest in Him. You are being united with Him. How do you lay hold of Him? Well, it's something you can only do from your heart, and that's to trust Him. That's why the Bible says in so many different ways, if you believe God so loved the world, He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him might have eternal life. Salvation is a faith. And if your life is a life of faith in Christ, if you come to put your faith in Him, you will experience this kind of change. And that means if you haven't experienced this kind of change, you aren't united with Him. And you say, wait a minute, I prayed the prayer, I was baptized. That's not faith. Faith is a change of heart responding to the message of You're a sinner and you need Christ. Yes. And I repent and trust faith. These things are these things you can't split repentance from faith. It's one and the same thing. And repentance is a part, actually, see, of this fruit of this recreation, the determination to hate sin and every form of disobedience against God and to embrace Christ and trust in Him and obey Him out of the faith that I have in Him. So you see, if you have not experienced a change, then you're not in Christ. And if you look at your life today and say, you know, I've been coming to church, I've been doing this, I've been a church member, and you haven't really changed and transformed in your life. Then you need to get right with Christ. He is your only hope. And He is the means and the power of transformation in your life. Do not be deceived. Do not try to persuade yourself that all is well between you and God when you know very well in your heart that it is not. But on the other hand, if you see transformation in your life, then the reading of this text and this explanations we are giving today is an occasion for rejoicing in your life that like Kenny Unkin years ago or days ago or weeks ago Christ saved you and that's why you're not who you once were and that's why you will never be who you once were and that's why one day complete and absolute 100% from head to toe you'll be made new in His presence with Him in glory God is good. He saves sinners. He changes people. He changes distorted perspectives. He changes us powerfully, recreating us to serve Him humbly. And so what should we do? I mean, we need to respond this morning to this. If we're a believer and we've been changed, then we need to respond the way Kenny did. Praise God. God has done in me what changes have been made. And then pursue Him with all of our heart and see to it that we're submitting to Him more and more and more to see this newness come forth in passion and in honor and worship and living out for the people around us the way Jesus did. Truth, righteousness, compassion and a message the gospel message going to the world that's why we're here that's why he hasn't taken us up heaven to heaven yet display his glory and preach his gospel here and what a joy it is today like to to have a time of baptism where two people have come saying my faith is in Christ New creatures. New creatures. We're celebrating the new creative work that God has already done and looking forward to the future that He is bringing about in their hearts and lives. And it's a testimony to every person sitting in this room this morning. If you are not a believer, The promise is if you will come to Him, He will make you new. And if you are a believer, the promise is this, He made you new. Now live in agreement, live in cooperation, live in submission to the newness that He's made you to be. Let's pray together. Lord God, we thank you for the work of Christ on the cross. We thank you that it changes our position from being under your wrath to being under your mercy and grace. And we thank you that it changes us constitutionally also, who we are and how we live. And we pray that that change in those of us who love Christ will be manifest more and more and more. And we especially pour our hearts out today on behalf of those in our midst today who are separated from you still, that you would beat upon their heart's door, that they would hear and you would give them ears to hear and change their hearts to respond and to trust in Christ and experience and live out newness that you yourself will bring into their hearts today, this very day, if they will be proud to you. And we pray for Will and we pray for Patrick. We thank you for their profession of faith, this work that you've begun, and we pray that you will bring it to completion in the day of Christ Jesus. Lord, we celebrate what you're doing in the life of every believer as we celebrate what you have done in them this morning. We ask it in Jesus' name. Amen. So this morning, I'm going to turn this over to Randy, and he is going to prepare us for the observance of baptism. We're going to have testimonies from Will and Patrick. And what we're going to do is immediately following that, I'm just going to ask us please to be as quiet and orderly as we can because in order to not distract, we just want to go straight from here. We'll guide you through this, go straight out to gather around the baptistry. where we will baptize them there, and then you'll be dismissed. But now Randy's coming. So I want to talk about what it is first of all, and that would be, I guess you could put it in kind of a physical terms kind of thing, there's a drama that displays the glory of God in the gospel of Jesus Christ. Peter, the Apostle Peter, you might remember in 1 Peter 3.21 gives us a a definition of baptism. And he says in that verse, he says it's an appeal to God for a good conscience through the resurrection of Jesus Christ. So if you want a good baptismal definition, 1 Peter 3.21, you can take a peek at that at home. Why do we do it? We do it because Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior, commanded it. You might remember in the tail end of Matthew's Gospel, Matthew 28, 20, he says, Go into the world making disciples, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. So it is a command of Christ that we do that once we become a believer. And it is a sign and a seal, a sign and a seal of regeneration, of a new birth, and as what Pastor Ross was just talking about that, a new creature, a new creation, one becoming new in Christ Jesus. It's very similar, the symbol of baptism, to the symbol of this wedding ring. This wedding ring here doesn't make me married to my precious Demetra, it's a symbol of my being married to my precious Demetra. And so is baptism. Baptism doesn't make you a Christian, but it is a symbol of the one who you follow, your Lord and Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. And it is, as you see in the scriptures, if you read through the New Testament, it is an immediate It's an immediate inseparable indicator of salvation. When one became a believer, received the Word, treasured the Word, loved the Word, delighted in the Word, they were baptized almost immediately. We see that 3,000 in the very early part of the early church was. We see in Acts 8, the Ethiopian eunuch becoming baptized right away. We see Paul in the next sentence. In Romans 9, being baptized. And of course Lydia in Acts 16, so you can look at those on your own, they're being baptized as well. How and where do we do it? If we look at the Greek word for baptism, we find that that word is baptizo, and that's not necessarily important that you know the word, but what it does mean, and it does mean to immerse, to dip, to submerge into water. and we see that multiple times in the scriptures and if we can, there's obviously a few different views out there of baptism. We are going to try at Grace to Me Church to try to follow the early church and what the scriptures do teach as close as possible. We see John the baptizer. The word you might remember is he baptized where there was much water. We see Jesus going down into the water. We see the Ethiopian eunuch coming up out of the water. So you see that burial into the water and then coming out of the water the way the scriptures teach it. And it's an identification with Jesus Christ. He identified with us by becoming flesh and dwelling among us. And in baptism, we identify ourselves as a follower, as a servant, as a slave of the Lord Jesus Christ. Who wasn't baptized? The only person we can possibly see in the New Testament that was not baptized, that became a believer, that is with Jesus right now in heaven, is the thief on the cross. He didn't have time to get baptized once he became a believer. And that obviously all happened on the cross. So there's no power in this water that you'll see out there. There is no cleansing power from the water. 1 John 1.7 says that the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ cleanses us from all sin. Infants, what about infants? We do not baptize infants at Grayson Reed Church. A few reasons, I'll try to make a long story short so to speak. But some people will say that like in Genesis 17, if you were a child born into an Old Testament covenant family, you were circumcised, at least the boys. So you take that over into the New Testament, and if you were born into a new covenant, New Testament family, that you were baptized then as a child. I guess we really don't see it that way. It's not, I don't believe baptism is the counterpart to Old Testament circumcision, but there is a circumcision of the flesh, and you read about that real carefully in Colossians 1, 11, and 12 there, take a peek at that. It's a circumcision of the heart by the spirit. and without hands, and that is through faith. So we do not see in an infant the capabilities of being born again, of course, repentance, looking away from sin, knowing that right from wrong type of thing there, and following Jesus at that time of their life. So circumcision, if we can recap, was a sign of ethnic continuity where we believe baptism is a sign of spiritual reality. And how do you show an ordinance? There are two of them. One that we do continually, as Jesus says, as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you do proclaim the Lord's death when he comes, communion in the Lord's Supper. We do baptism just once. And there are no cases in the New Testament where we see anybody being rebaptized. So we do it just once. So how do you do it in an ordinance? You do it in the ordinance you do it in baptism where outwardly you see in the ordinance what Lord has begun inwardly and you do this in baptism. So with that second ordinance we do celebrate a couple of baptisms today. We have two young candidates for that. And I'm the lucky one at Grayson Nutrition that gets to teach and share with these people as they come our way. So I am very blessed to be able to do that. So we'll introduce them one at a time. And they're just going to share a little testimony with you. And the first one we'll have come up is William Gabriel Caldwell. Hello, everyone. I recently accepted Jesus Christ as my Savior, because I love God, He died on the cross for my sins, and my hope is in Him. That night, when it happened, I prayed that Jesus would come into my heart. My parents were there with me when this happened. After I accepted Jesus, I said, I feel different. My parents said, well, that's the Holy Spirit. After that night, I felt really happy. I wanted to learn more about God. I felt that I could stand up for God in my school. My parents and I talked more about my spiritual birthday, and I said celebrating my spiritual birthday was better than celebrating my actual birthday. I remember a verse, Romans 5.8, but God demonstrates his own love for us in this, while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Isn't that amazing? This is my story, for I am a child of Christ. Thank you. And secondly this morning, we have Patrick Brian Golden. Good morning, GCC. Good morning, Patrick. I'm a little nervous, so give me a break here. I said, hello, my name is Patrick Golden, and I stand before you today confessing that I am a sinner saved by God's grace. I was saved in April 2015. 25 years of my life, I grew up doing what I wanted to do. I was my own God. Growing up, I grew up in a home with a single parent mom, Shonda, and some basic knowledge of God. But it was never enforced. We would pray sometimes, have Bible study sometimes, say grace over food sometimes. Never really found a church home, therefore getting lost in the world. Caring more about material stuff more than the word of God. I was a partier. I had to be where the party was. I drank a lot, spent a lot of time in clubs, bars, gentlemen clubs, and downtown on Water Street, the nightlife. My then-girlfriend at the time brought me here two years ago with my two beautiful boys, Malik and Patrick III. They changed my life. This place had a hold on me, so I kept coming back. It didn't really strike until now when the veil was removed. And I had a vision of my whole life that I was not living and pleasing to God. First time I came here, I saw Pastor Jared speaking. He drew me near. I'd like to close by thanking God first and Pastor Jared and Pastor Ross for working in my life. They've been huge influences in my life. I love them too. Thank you.