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Preached in Markham Baptist Church, August 31, 2008

BAPTISM: GOING DEEPER

Thank you Niroshan and Nadisha for your testimony today. Thank you for commitment to Jesus Christ and desire to follow Him. It is a great encouragement to us. We read of so much in our culture today of how young people are turning away from the church, turning away from God and the truth of Jesus Christ. And to see you two confess Christ as your Saviour and Lord is a great encouragement to us.

And more, to see that you were actually willing to be baptized. Wow! We know it’s not easy to get into that big tub of water in front of everyone and openly confess Jesus Christ as your Saviour and say that you will follow Him as your Lord.

But we know that it all springs from your desire to worship God ever more deeply. To walk with God ever more nearly, and to express your love for God and what He has done for you in Christ ever more clearly. You understand that baptism is an act in which a believer is able to go deeper with his/her relationship with God.

Let me explain. Because there are some who may ask, “Wouldn't it have been fine with God if Nadisha and Niroshan said what they said from the pulpit without going down into the water? Why baptism? How does it take us deeper in our relationship with Jesus Christ?”

To help us understand the wonder of baptism, we turn to the New Testament book of Romans. And there in chapter 5 we discover a whole discussion about sin and grace. Sin and grace. Those are two words we use a lot in the Christian church. Sin – not sins – there is a difference. Sins has to do with what we do. Sin has to do with who we are. It simply means that we have missed the mark. We have fallen short of the standard of holiness that God has set. It was a term originally used in archery. If you missed the bull’s-eye, you sinned. You missed the mark. It doesn’t matter if your arrow fell two feet in front of you or two centimeters from the bull’s-eye, you still sinned and missed the mark. So Scripture in Romans 3:23we read that “we have all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.” Every one of us has this sin nature in us. No boy, no girl, no man, no woman is free from this sin nature. We are all sinners. Sin is pervasive – it has contaminated us all.

Not the best news to start a sermon off with, eh?! But there is another great word in our Christian vocabulary and that is grace. It means unmerited favour. We believe that because of God’s unmerited favour we are forgiven, and made new. God’s grace, His unmerited favour, is just that – it is something that we cannot earn. It is given to us by God’s great love for His creation – to all who believe.

And Scripture says, “Where sin increased – where it was pervasive – grace increased all the more.” (5:20) Sin and grace two great words of the Christian faith.

Now there were some Roman Christians who said, “Hey, this is great. We understand that we are sinners. And we understand that God has forgiven us – even more when we do sin – God will forgive again.” Then they say, “If we experience God’s grace when we sin, and we all want to experience His favour, then why not sin all the more?! If every time we sin we can experience God's grace then why not keep sinning so that God's grace can abound?"

And at chapter 6 Scripture says, "Anyone who thinks like that doesn't understand the gospel.” And it goes on to ask, “Don't you know what happened to you?" "Through faith in Christ you are now a new creation."

Then, using the picture of baptism, Scripture seeks to take us deeper in our understanding and our experience of who God is and what He has done for us in the person of Jesus Christ.

Now of course, we can say in general before we study the Word of God in particular, that baptism is not a ticket to heaven. Baptism is not about who will be welcomed into God's presence and who will not. When we get to heaven there will not be two lines, one for the baptized and one for those who have not been baptized. God will not say to us, "You have been baptized? O, well, you're in." And say to others, "You haven't been baptized? Well, sorry - out of the pool." When we meet God in heaven and we stand before His judgment seat He will not ask us, "Have you been baptized?"

No, He will ask you, "Have you received Jesus Christ as your Saviour and Lord and with reliance upon His grace and strength borne His fruit in your life?" It is upon Christ's goodness, His righteousness, that our relationship with God depends.

The classic definition of baptism is that it is an outward expression of an inward reality. It expresses what Christ has done inside us. This is the wonder of baptism. It points to some very deep realities about who Jesus Christ is and what Jesus Christ has done in our lives. What are these deep realities?

Our text points the way. First, baptism takes us deeper in our understanding about God’s unmerited favour. We read in Scripture in Ephesians 2:8, “It is by grace that you are saved through faith.” Well if that is the case, does it matter where I place my faith? And the answer is “yes”. Scripture is very specific. You cannot place your faith in any old thing or any old idol and believe that you will experience God’s unmerited favour. The object of your faith matters. And Scripture very clearly teaches that our faith is be placed in Christ and Christ alone. Why? Because it is Christ and Christ alone who performed an act of sacrifice for our sins.

And this truth is magnified for us in the act of baptism – Christ died a sacrificial death for our sins.

We read in verse 3 and part of verse 4 of our text in Romans 6: "Don't you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death." (Romans 6:3-4) (NIV)

Many of you know that I have an active conscience. I find it is most acute in my relationship with God. It is said that preachers today need to spend a lot of time in their sermons convincing people that they are sinners, that we have wronged God. I don't seem to have that problem. Do you have that problem? Have you got a clean conscience before God? I don't. I am very much aware of my sin and that outside of Christ nothing good lives in me. When I read Scripture and it says, "All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God." I say, "Yes, that's me."

I see this sin in me especially when I come to the foot of the cross again. For there I realize that it wasn't the Jews who put Christ on the cross; it wasn't the Romans who put Christ on the cross. It was me. It was my sin that caused Christ to die. Do you ever feel that way?

I know I am a sinner. And I can identify fully with the lament, "What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death?" I cannot save myself from myself. I cannot cleanse myself from my own sin nature anymore than I can wipe mud off my shoes without getting it all over myself. Have you ever tried that? You step in a mud puddle then try to wipe off the dirt, but in the process the mud just gets spread on your pant leg, on your hands. It just becomes a greater mess.

So we cannot cleanse ourselves from sin. I need a Saviour. You need a Saviour -someone who will take away the just judgment of God. Thanks be to God for Jesus Christ who lived the perfect life, and died on the cross and through faith in Him took my sin nature and all your sin, all the sin of those who will believe in Him, to that cross. He died for you and me.

So, I am able to say to you this morning in all confidence that in spite of our sin, in spite of our wanting our own way, in spite of our neglect of God, God hasn't neglected you. While we were still sinners He sent his sinless Son to pay the debt that we were to pay, to die the death that we were to die - offer that perfect sacrifice for our sins. And we are forgiven and brought into a new relationship with the Lord our God.

Baptism is about Christ performing an act of sacrifice for our sin. When we go down into the water, we testify to that fact - we are saying this is what God has done to us; He has put sin to death in us. You see, it's as if Christ comes to us, takes all of our pride, all of our ungodly longings, and takes our sinful nature to the cross and nails it there so that it is done away with, and buried and rendered powerless.

That's why Niroshan and Nadisha were baptized the way they were this morning. They went down into the water, symbolizing death. The death of their old selves, the death of the power of sin over their lives.

Baptism takes us deeper in our understanding of God’s unmerited favor. Christ performing an act of sacrifice on the cross for our sin.

You will have noticed, however, that I was able to bring Niroshan up from the water. I’m quite proud of that fact. I was able to pick him up again - I didn’t leave him down there. He came back up out of the water. This is important!

Because as we are going deeper in our relationship with God we need to understand that - Jesus Christ has not only died for our sin but He is transforming us.

This is what we learn in verses 4 through 10 of our text. We have been buried with Christ; our sin has been put to death. And now we have risen into newness of life. He has transformed us.

Verse 4: "We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life."
(Romans 6:4) (NIV)

You know the old prayer which Martin Luther King used to delight to quote, the old slaves' prayer, "Lord, I ain't what I ought to be; I ain't what I'm gonna be; but thanks be to you, I ain't what I used to be."

And that is the testimony of everyone who has been touched by the grace of Jesus Christ. We are new creations. For not only has Christ taken our sin nature and nailed it to the cross, He has put in its place His Spirit, His will, His desires, and His life, His sinless nature in us.

Now as many of you know, I was raised in a Christian home. I had godly parents who modeled the faith for me. They took me to church with them – they didn’t send me – they took me with them. God has been in the atmosphere, the environment in which I lived. And sometimes I regret that. Sometimes I wish I had a fantastic testimony – you know the one where I was addicted to some substance and God miraculously saved me and rescued me. And sometimes I fall into that trap of wanting a spectacular testimony. But then I give my head a shake and say – who do you think you are Tom Cullen? You were just as lost as the crack-addicted pot pusher. You were just as sinful as the convict in cell block C. There is no difference – all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. And just as God has done a great miracle in transforming the life of crack-addicted pot pusher and made him new, so he has done a great miracle in my life and rescued me out of sin – there isn’t anyone here who had it all together and God said, “Well you are nice guy, I’m going to rescue you.” No we are all in much need of God’s grace – we are all in need of Jesus Christ’s saving power on the cross.

For we all have this sin nature within us and we need it to be put to death – and more we need to have the life of Christ put inside us.

The power of God to transform a life - we are new creations. Thanks be to God for this miracle that He has brought about in our lives. It is a steadfast truth.

The sad part is that many of us forget that we are new creations and we still let sin have control of us. We still let that old nature dominate, when in fact it has been put to death. It is so sad to hear of Christians who continue to live in such a way that the life and love of Christ is not evident in them. That the way they do business now, as a Christian, is the same way they did business before they gave their lives to Christ. That the way they talk and treat their spouse is the same way they treated and talked to their spouse before they gave their life to Christ.

Here's the truth: sin has been put to death in you by faith in Christ. So how can we let sin still have control of us? Scripture says in verse 11, "Count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus."

To be sure, we "ain't what we ought to be." We should not expect perfection this side of heaven, but there should be a growth toward it. So that people can look at us and say because Christ is in his/her life "he/she ain't what he/she used to be."

But, I am getting ahead of myself, for this leads us to the last sentence. How does baptism take us deeper in our walk with God? Well, through it we understand that Christ has performed an act of sacrifice for our sin. And through it we discover that He is at work in us transforming us into His image.

And then this – it is through baptism that we deepen our obedience to Christ.

So Scripture says, this is the amazing truth of what has happened to you. Sin has been put to death. You have now been made new. So therefore, in verse 12 and 13: "Do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires. Do not offer the parts of your body to sin, as instruments of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God, as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer the parts of your body to him as instruments of righteousness."
(Romans 6:12-13) (NIV)

The act of Baptism is itself an act of obedience to Christ's command to be baptized. Matthew 28:19, “Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit and teaching them to obey everything that I have commended you.”

Do you know that Jesus Christ never said that baptism doesn't matter? He never said that it was a mere ritual that you can ignore and put off if you feel like. Jesus commanded it and called us to submit to it. It is an act of obedience. And so, baptism symbolizes a desire on Nadisha’s part and Niroshan’s part and anyone who is baptized, to submit to God's will to tell Him they love Him and want to follow in the steps of His Son.

It is a fundamental truth that a Christian wants to obey Christ. The first question of a newly born Christian is the one put by Paul as he walked the Damascus road. Here he is walking down the road, and miraculously had a vision of Jesus and a conversation with Him. As soon as Paul learned that it was Jesus who was speaking to him, the first question he asked was, "Lord, what is it that you would have me do?"

The Christian wants to know what Christ wants done.

It would be a serious error on the part of a soldier if he obeyed certain commands of his superior officer and discarded the others saying, "I do not like those, I will reject them." It would be a serious error if the pharmacist, looked over the carefully prepared prescription of the capable physician and said, "Here are some elements that I will discard. I will cast them aside. I will fix up the prescription as I please."

That would be a great mistake. And it would be a serious mistake for us to say to Christ: "I hesitate here; I delay here; I refuse here."

Through baptism, we say to Christ and to the world, I belong to Him and I'm going to live my life for Him. All that I am and all that I have I will lay at His feet. Wherever He calls me I will go; whatever He asks me to do I will do. I belong to Christ, and take my stand with Him.

Do you want to go deeper in your relationship with God?

Then understand that Christ has performed an act of sacrifice on the cross. Christ is willing to transform our dead selves to all the fullness of life - His life.

And respond to those amazing truths and seeking to obey His Word so that His life can shine through us.

But still you may ask if I could prove the truth of all this. Well, as in science, so with Christianity, the proof is in the experiment. Someone asked Coleridge the same question, "Can you prove it?" to which came the reply, "Why certainly - try it."

If Christ should come down to this pulpit this morning I think He would tell me to stand aside and He would say confidently to us all, "Come and see; come and try me and see if I am not able to transform your life. Come and test me and see if I am not able to give you life to the fullest. Put me to the extreme test. Come and test me for yourself and see if I do not give you salvation and life abundant. Come and test me, and you will know, and when your fellows ask you what has happened you will reply, ‘I wanted to go deeper in my relationship with God and I didn’t trust Him fully – but now I understand – Christ has died for me. He lives in me – and He has called me to live for Him fully in obedience.’ ”