You'll turn in your Bibles this evening to Romans chapter 6. I'll just read that chapter and then I want to think with you about the first four verses. Romans chapter 6, and then we'll be looking at Heidelberg Catechism, Lord's Day 32 this evening as well. Romans chapter 6, God's holy, inspired, inerrant, infallible word. What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means. How can we who died to sin still live in it? Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried, therefore, with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. For we know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. For one who has died has been set free from sin. Now, if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. We know that Christ being raised from the dead will never die again. Death no longer has dominion over him. For the death he died, he died to sin once for all. But the life he lives, he lives to God. So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus. Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal bodies to make you obey their passions. Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, But present your bodies, excuse me, present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life. And your members to God as instruments for righteousness. For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law, but under grace. We'll end the reading there this evening. Thus far the reading of God's word. May he write this word on our hearts and may he give us true understanding of it. It's the custom, as you well know, of the Reformed churches and has been since the middle of the 16th century. In the second service, sometimes in the afternoon, sometimes in the evening, to consider the word of God as it's summarized by the church and confessed in the Heidelberg Catechism in a series of questions and answers. If you're not familiar with the Catechism, think of it as the original FAQ, Frequently Asked Questions document on a website. These questions are the questions that Christians have always asked. And here we come tonight to the third part of our Catechism. It's in three parts. The first part is on the greatness of our sin and misery. So it's on the law and sin and death and what happened when we disobeyed God. The second is on how we are graciously, freely redeemed by God's sovereign good pleasure and favor toward us. And especially how we are accepted freely with God through resting and receiving and trusting in Jesus. But there's a third part to the Heidelberg Catechism, and that's the part that we're beginning tonight in questions 86 and 87. It's about the Christian life, which is one of the most important parts of the Christian faith and one of the most difficult parts. Even if we can all agree on sin and salvation, if we get down to the nub of it, coming to a clear understanding of the Christian life is one of the most important things we can ever do. And so we have a great start here. Questions 86, 87. So I'll read those for you just now. Since 86, since then we are redeemed from our misery by grace, that's God's free favor, through Christ without any merit of ours, why should we do good works? Because Christ, having redeemed us by his blood, also renews us by his Holy Spirit after his own image, that with our whole life we show ourselves thankful to God for his blessing, and also that he be glorified through us, Then also that we ourselves may be assured of our faith by the fruits thereof and by our godly walk when also others to Christ. And then 87, can they then not be saved who do not turn to God from their unthankful and impenitent life? By no means, for, as the scripture says, no unchaste person, idolater, adulterer, thief, covetous man, drunkard, slanderer, robber, or the like, shall inherit the kingdom of God. Through the whole history of the church, from the very beginning, one of the great struggles that we have always faced is how to balance what Scripture says about the high calling of the Christian life With what scripture also says about how we, as Adam's children, fallen, sinful, dead by nature and sins and trespasses, freely redeemed by God's sovereign grace, how we live the Christian life. What is the Christian life? I suppose if you took a poll, if you just went to the mall and you could figure out who were the Christians in the mall, and if you just took a poll and said, what is the Christian life? you would probably get as many answers as there are Christians. And that would be very confusing. And it's quite possible that tonight as you're sitting here, and maybe you've been a Christian for a long time, you're still not entirely clear what it means to live the Christian life. Sometimes if you ask people, they will say, it means to be like Jesus, which is true, but it's not very helpful. Well, what do you mean, be like Jesus? After all, if you know just a little about Jesus, you know that he did things that I'm guessing none of us have done. Some people have tried to be like Jesus, and it hasn't gone very well in some respects. You probably shouldn't try to walk on water. You can stand outside of tombs and say, come forth, and probably nothing's going to happen. If something does happen, I'll give you my cell number. You let me know. but there's real truth when we say, be like Jesus. What does it mean to be like Jesus? Well, Scripture tells us, Paul tells us, and then the Catechism very wonderfully summarizes for us exactly what that means. And I've got two words for you. I can boil the Christian life down. Remember that game show? I can name that tune. I can boil that down into two words. I didn't say no, no. It's simple, it's clear, but I didn't say it was easy. The first word is death, and the second word is life. The first thing you have to know about the Christian life is that it doesn't start with life, it starts with death. And then comes life. And that's what Paul says here in the first part of our passage. Look here for a minute at our passage, and keep your Bibles open. We're going to be looking at this passage, I hope, closely tonight. Here we are after chapter 4 and after chapter 5. What has Paul been doing in chapters 4 and 5? He's been laying out the great and glorious good news. The good news is that Abraham was not accepted by God because Abraham was good. Because, as Paul points out in chapter 4, Abraham was accepted by God even before he was circumcised. And Abraham was accepted by God freely. Not on the basis of anything that Abraham had done or anything that even God had done in Abraham. Not even because of the quality of his faith. Sometimes we're tempted to think, well, only if I had the right kind of faith, God will accept me. No, even Paul says that's not true. God accepted Abraham freely on the basis of what Abraham looked forward to and that to which we look in retrospect. That is the obedience and death of Jesus. Abraham trusted. Abraham believed God, Paul says. And it was reckoned to him for righteous. Not his faith, not the quality of his faith, but the object of his faith was credited, imputed to him for righteousness. And the good news is so good. It's so free. It's so liberating. It's so unexpected. And it's so unconditional that some people have concluded, in fact, throughout the history of the church, lots of people have concluded that, well, if where sin abounded, and it certainly has abounded, grace super abounded. If that's the case, then it might seem that there's a kind of correlation. The more sin, the more grace. And God is glorified by his grace, so maybe we should sin that grace may abound. And then God's glory would be even greater, you see. And that we get to sin and he gets to forgive. And as they say, it's all good. Except Paul says, it's not all good. It's not all good at all. In fact, he says it's he says, no, he uses an expression here that used to be translated somewhat loosely, but I think somewhat accurately. God forbid. Meaning it should never be. It should never be. And so Paul asked this question because other people were asking this question of him. What shall we say? Should we, and the word here he uses actually means to remain, should we remain in sin? Should we continue to live as we lived before we were renewed by the sovereign grace of God in the Holy Spirit? Before we were given new life, before we were given the gift of faith, before we were united to Christ by the Spirit through that faith? Should we continue to remain in that old lifestyle? Because if God is thereby glorified, maybe that's a good thing. And Paul says, no. Should we continue? Should we stay in it that grace may abound? Not at all. God forbid. May it never be. And then he asks a very telling question. How can we who died to sin still live in it? What do you mean? Died to sin. Evidently, your spy cam was not turned on, Paul, because you have not been watching me this week. If you had been watching me, you'd know that there's plenty of sin yet. What does it mean to say died to sin? Well, that gets to the first R this evening. We are redeemed. The second R is that we are renewed. And the third R is that we are consequently repentant. We have been redeemed, but we have been redeemed through death. Before we get to the second R, we need to have a clear understanding, because unless you have a clear understanding of what it means to be redeemed, you'll never have a clear understanding of what it means to be renewed and repentant. We've already touched on this, but we're going to get to this business of being baptized into his death. What I want you to know under this first R, redeemed, is that we have been bought, as Paul says elsewhere, with a price. We have been purchased, we have been saved, we have been delivered by God's free favor and power, not for anything done in us or anything done by us. And that is illustrated by the sacrament of baptism. We were buried, he says, therefore with him, in or through baptism. into death, that we might walk in the newness of life. We've been baptized into his death. Some people take this passage in a way that turns this sacrament of baptism, to which Paul is alluding, either literally or metaphorically, it doesn't really matter here. Some people have taken this to mean that now that I'm baptized, something magical has taken place. When the minister said, I baptize you in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, something magical took place. Well, let me ask you, when Abraham was circumcised or when Abraham's children, his sons, were circumcised, did anything magical take place? Did they all necessarily come to faith because they were circumcised? No. Did everyone who was baptized in the New Testament necessarily come to faith? No. So nothing magical takes place, but something very significant takes place. What takes place is a public, visible expression of the good news. It's an illustration of the good news. Baptism is gospel, it's not law, is another way of putting it. Our Roman Catholic friends think that something magical takes place when we're baptized, And there are even folks in our Reformed churches who say that the moment we're baptized, we are necessarily, temporarily, historically, conditionally united to Christ by virtue of our baptism. Paul doesn't say anything of the sort here. In fact, if we pay attention to what he says, he says something quite to the opposite. Baptism here is being used in the same sense in which it's used in 1 Corinthians chapter 10. In 1 Corinthians 10, Paul says, in the first part of the passage, he says, I want you to know, brothers, that our fathers were all under the cloud and all passed through the sea and were all baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea. When they were baptized into Moses, were they all temporarily, historically, conditionally united to Moses? Were they given benefits that they could keep if they were good, sufficiently good? Did anything magic happen to all those who walked through the Red Sea on dry ground, as the psalmist reminds us again and again? No. But they did participate in an important sign, and even for those who believe, a seal, a promise of what God does for those who believe. Baptism, both whether walking through the Red Sea looking forward to Christ or whether being held up here or standing up here, is nothing more or less than a ritual death. Just like circumcision was a ritual death. Nobody actually dies unless circumcision is done really badly. No one actually dies in a circumcision. But it's a symbolic death, and no one dies in a baptism, ordinarily, as I say, unless things go horribly wrong. Certainly no one's intended to literally die. But we do die in a ritual sense, in a symbolic sense, as we are publicly identified with Christ in his death. And we receive him and all his benefits, as Paul has just finished telling us in chapters 4 and 5, by grace alone, through faith, meaning trusting, resting, receiving, leaning on Christ alone. So baptism is a sign of our union with Christ, our identification with him in his death. And it no more does anything magic than the Red Sea or than circumcision did anything magic. But still, that leaves unsettled. What's the nature of the Christian life? And what does baptism have to do with the Christian life? Well, we've also been renewed. That's the second R. Paul says, how can we who died to sin? Now, here, when he says died to sin, he doesn't mean just ritually, publicly, by identification. But he's assuming here that he's talking to people who believe all that he's already taught in the preceding chapters. He's counting on us to remember what he's already said in chapters 3, 4, and 5, that we are by nature sinners, but by God's grace is free favor. We've been made new, we've been given new life, and by faith united to Christ. And by virtue of that real union with Christ, by grace alone, through faith alone, we have died to sin. Christ died literally, actually, bodily. And when he died, Paul says he died to sin, he put to death the power of sin. And all of the sins that you and I and all of his people in all times and all places ever have committed, are committing or ever well or ever shall commit were all loaded on him. And for our sakes, he died. And in that death, he put to death the power, the reigning power of sin. He conquered sin. That's what Paul means when he says sin shall no longer have dominion. It's not that we don't ever sin. There are some folks when they hear that language, they say, great, how many weeks before I don't sin anymore? It's like this slim fast diet. How many calories do I have to cut out and what do I get to eat and what's in the plan today? And in 40 days I'll lose X number of pounds or 40 days I'll lose X number of sins. It doesn't work that way. But the power, the reigning power of sin has been broken. We need to appreciate that. We've been initiated into a brand new way of life, and a way of life that began with Jesus' death. So our Christian life begins with death. And our baptism is an illustration of that fact, that we are connected to Christ, and when he died, we died. He literally died, and we died in him. He died as our representative. He put to death sin, and we were, in the sense, inasmuch as we're connected to him by faith, We died with him. His death introduced a fundamental change in the nature of things. And we participate in that. Now, that's hard to imagine, children. It might be hard for the grown-ups to imagine how that could be, but that's what God's word says. Well, let's think how that might be. How many of you sit in the House of Congress in Washington, D.C.? Do we have any congressional representatives here, any of the 435? You might want to raise your hand, you might not, I don't know. But I don't think we have any members of Congress here, and yet we benefit from or suffer from the actions of our representatives in Congress every day. We're not physically present. We weren't physically present when the Constitution of the United States was ratified. We weren't physically present, any of us, I don't think, when most of the amendments were added. But they all apply to us. It is as if we were there. And it's true on the local level. When the city council passes an ordinance, those are duly elected officials and they act on our behalf. They are our representatives. It is as if we were there. How much, if it's true on that level, how much more true is it on this level? Because city council ordinances change, but God's decisions never change. And God made a decision about what the meaning of Christ's death was. And that decision has the greatest consequence for you, because it changes everything. You have been renewed by his grace. You have been given new life, and all of that comes out of the death of Christ on the cross. And therefore, we who died cannot live impenitently in sin. We're going to sin, and we're going to continue to struggle with sin. And the very same catechism that tells us about the introduction of this brand new principle that changes everything is just wonderfully realistic about that. And so maybe it's a it's a good thing here just to think about that for a moment. I'm thinking about questions 114, 115, where the catechism is very honest about the nature of the Christian life. Will we reach Christian perfection? We might summarize question 114. And the answer is no. Even in this life, even the holiest have only a small beginning of this obedience. Nevertheless, it says we resolve with all seriousness, not only to live according to some of the commandments, but according to all of them. That's question 114. The catechism is very honest with us because scripture is very honest with us. We continue to sin. We continue to struggle with sin. And that's why I say the first aspect of the Christian life is death. The Christian life is a daily death. One of the grand things about the Reformed faith is that we, of all people, can afford to be honest. Because we believe in sin. And as I sometimes say, we not only believe in total depravity, we practice it. It's not a theory for us. It's what we do. And yet a new principle has been introduced. And now, in distinction from the way things were before we were a new creature, Now we struggle with it. And sometimes we win. Frequently we don't. But there's hope. Because before, there was nothing but death and darkness and hopelessness. I imagine there's someone here tonight who's struggling with sin. I hope there are a lot of people here tonight who are struggling with sin. If you're not struggling with sin, I have another word for you. Repent. You need to repent and believe. If you're not struggling with sin, it doesn't mean you've reached entire perfection. It means you don't know what you are. And you don't know who God is. And you don't know what his law says. And you don't know who Jesus is. And you don't know what he's done. But if you know who God is and you know who you are and you know what Jesus has done and you've trusted in Him and you know the greatness of your sin and misery, then you're struggling with sin. That's a good thing. Never feel bad that you're struggling with sin. That is in its own way a sign of life. If you rush up to a body that's not moving, you're hoping that there'll be some struggle, that there's still life there. What you don't want is for the chest to not be moving. Because that means there's no struggle, because that means there's no life. Children, all your life, you're going to trust in Jesus for what he did for you, but you're also going to do things that you know, that God knows, he doesn't like. Those are sins. You confess those to God and you tell him, Father, I did this horrible thing that you hate and I'm sorry. Please help me not to do that horrible thing. Give me your favor and your help by your spirit to do better. That when I feel like doing that horrible thing, give me grace to do something else instead. That's the Christian life. We've been renewed, and because of God's renewal, we can do those things. But there's another R in the Christian life. I said there's two words, but three R's. There's death and there's life. We've been talking about the life. But what's the nature of that life? Well, that's what question 87 is about. Can someone who walks the aisle, I don't know if you know this system, but some of us have been in churches in the past where the minister preaches a sermon of some kind and then at the end he issues what's called an invitation. And the congregation sings a song, not a song that God has given, but a song that people like and they sing it over and again and then people will be invited to come down the aisle. Now in Reformed churches, when we come down the aisle, typically it's to receive the Lord's Supper or to be baptized. But in some of these churches, people come down the aisle and they sit on the front pew and they wait to pray with the pastor after the service or maybe during the service. It's called an invitation and an altar call. And in a lot of places, you've seen this on television, there'll be probably this summer up in Orange County another big meeting at the stadium and there'll be a preacher there and people will come out of the stands and all of that. It's all very exciting. And then people say, well, I prayed the prayer and I got a little card and I signed my name on the card and I'm in. I'm good to go. And I say that's exactly the kind of Christianity that we rejected in the 16th century. I signed the card. I put a little coin in the coffer and I'm good to go. I've done my thing. God is pleased. And now I'm relatively free to do as I will. Because I've signed the contract and nothing can change. Well, God's Word says something rather different. And the Catechism here essentially quotes 1 Corinthians 6, verses 9 and 10, to say the exact opposite. And we summarize that by saying, and we essentially quote it by saying, Can those be saved who walked the aisle and prayed the prayer but lived like they didn't? Can those be saved who walked the aisle and prayed the prayer, maybe prayed with a minister on TV? but in whose life there's no discernible difference. By no means. For as the scripture says, no unchaste person, idolater, adulterer, thief, covetous man, drunkard, slanderer, robber, or the like, shall inherit the kingdom of God. And that's what Paul says here. We were buried with him in baptism. Don't you know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus, identified with Christ Jesus, We're baptized into his death. We were buried, therefore, with him through baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, that's a reference almost certainly to the Holy Spirit, we too might walk in newness of life. We weren't raised that we might walk in oldness of life. The Christian life is a penitent life or a repentant life. It's not a perfect life, it's a repentant life. And to be repentant is to be sorry for sin, it's to be genuinely sorry for sin. It's not just to feel bad, although it should, sometimes at least, entail bad feelings. But it entails change. It entails honesty. We could just as well, I know it's not an R word and so it kills the alliteration, but the Christian life is an honest life. One of my great concerns about the forms of Christianity that I see being taught and preached and advocated is that it's frequently a dishonest life. Maybe that's one of the reasons why I'm so attracted to Martin Luther. There are few Christians in the history of the church who have been as honest about what he was as Martin Luther. And that's why I'm so attracted to the Heidelberg Catechism. It's so wonderfully honest about who we are and what we are, even though we have never kept any of them and still prone always to all sin. Yet God, of mere grace, without any merit of mine, grants and imputes to me. That's question 60. That's honesty. The first step in living the Christian life, which is a step-by-step process, it's a day-by-day process, it's a moment-by-moment thing, is in being honest with God about what you are, being honest with others about what you are, and to stop pretending. I really wish we didn't have to pretend. I know there's a lot of pressure that makes us have to pretend, and you can't tell everyone everything, and that's probably a good thing. But you can tell children, You can tell God everything and anything. In Jesus Christ, he hears your prayer. And that's true for you too, Grandma and Grandpa. All those ugly thoughts in your hearts, God will hear your forgiveness or your confession of sin and he'll forgive you for Jesus' sake. You don't have to pretend. You might have to pretend or feel like you have to pretend in front of people, but you can't pretend before God and you don't have to. That's a penitent life. Acknowledging your sins to God, acknowledging your sins to other people, living like someone who's been identified with Christ's death and who's been identified with and who is united to him in his life. And that's what I want to leave you with tonight. God doesn't accept you because of the quality of your repentance or the intensity of your penance. But he accepts you freely through Jesus Christ. And that's the power. That's why you can go to him. That's why he hears your prayers. That's why he's at work in you, by his Holy Spirit. God accepts you not because you're good, but you're striving to be good because he's accepted you. The Christian life, as I said at the beginning, is not easy, but it's simple. It's really two steps. It's death, and then it's life. Give thanks to God tonight that the principle of life, God's Holy Spirit, who hovered over the face of the deep, who raised our Lord Jesus from the dead, has also raised you from the dead and is at work in you even now. Don't despair. Have hope. Be of good cheer. Be confident. Because the Holy Spirit is powerful, and Jesus has not yet returned, and therefore, he's still at work in you. Let's give thanks. Father, we are grateful tonight for your mercies to us in Jesus Christ, in that while we were yet sinners, you did not leave us in our sins, but you gave us new life, freely and powerfully and irrevocably. And we accept that good gift again tonight. Hear our prayer. Continue to work in us. Forgive our sins. Grant us the gift of a penitent faith, a repentant faith. For we ask in Jesus' name. Amen.