======================================================================== WATER BAPTISM： A BURIAL by Keith Malcomson ======================================================================== Summary: This sermon emphasizes the importance of understanding the truths of being crucified, buried, and resurrected with Christ as outlined in Romans 6. It challenges believers to reckon with the fact that their old selves were crucified and buried with Christ, leading to a new life in Him. The sermon encourages practical application of these truths in daily life, putting off the old man and embracing the newness of life in Christ through faith and obedience. Topics: "New Life in Christ", "Transformation through Faith" Scripture References: Romans 6:6, Ephesians 4:22, Ephesians 4:25, Ephesians 4:26, Ephesians 4:27, Ephesians 4:28, Ephesians 4:31 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ DESCRIPTION ------------------------------------------------------------------------ This sermon emphasizes the importance of understanding the truths of being crucified, buried, and resurrected with Christ as outlined in Romans 6. It challenges believers to reckon with the fact that their old selves were crucified and buried with Christ, leading to a new life in Him. The sermon encourages practical application of these truths in daily life, putting off the old man and embracing the newness of life in Christ through faith and obedience. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ CONTENT ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Will you please turn with me here to Romans chapter 6. We're going to have our water baptism this afternoon but I want to preach to you for a few moments here from maybe my favourite chapter in the entire Bible. There are some that are more important but none thrill my heart and soul like Romans chapter 6. In all my old Bibles on my shelf, if you go to them or if I show you and you open up at that stained line down the middle of that Bible, you're going to find you'll turn to Romans chapter 6. That's down over the decades, that's where I spent more time than any other particular spot. It's a remarkable, it joys my soul and I just wanted to preach on two verses here and on one aspect of the truth of water baptism but I found last night as I meditated on this, I can't do that. I've got to do that to preach this. I've got to preach the whole thing to preach one truth. I'm sorry but I can't confine it because all of this is so vital. Every year I preach on this and I don't apologise for that. I'm going to preach an entire series on this chapter but bear with me while in order to get to one single truth in it, I give you the full sphere of at least half of this chapter. My message here this morning, water baptism, a burial. You've come to a funeral today and this afternoon and I'm not sad in this funeral. I am very glad, I'm going to tell you. I'm rejoicing over the person who we are committing to the grave today. Every one of you, all seven that are being baptised, I am rejoicing in your demise and the increase of the Lord Jesus Christ. Reading from Romans chapter 6 verse 1. What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? God forbid, how shall we that are dead to sin live any longer therein? Know you not that so many of us as were baptised into Jesus Christ, were baptised into his death. Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death. That like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. For we have been planted together in the likeness of his death. Sorry, if we have been planted in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection. Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him. That the body of sin might be destroyed. That henceforth we should not serve sin. For he that is dead is freed from sin. Now if we be dead with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him. Knowing that Christ being raised from the dead, dieth no more, death hath no more dominion over him. For in that he died, he died on the sin once. But in that he liveth, he liveth unto God. Likewise, or in the same fashion, reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through the Lord Jesus Christ, our Lord. Let us not sin, let not sin therefore reign in our mortal bodies. That we should obey it in the lust thereof. Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin, but yield yourselves unto God as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God. For sin shall not have dominion over you. For you are not under the law, but under grace. Let's pray together. Father, we thank you for this wonderful day of celebration, of rejoicing in the blood of the Lamb, in the power of salvation, in the new birth, in deliverance from self and sin and Satan. Lord God, we know the weakness of our flesh. We know how we are prone to fail. Lord God, we know the tendency, Lord God, of this flesh, of this old man. Lord God, we're asking for the power of this salvation to be manifest in this room this morning, that you receive all the glory and the praise and the honor. In Jesus' name, amen. My message, water baptism, a burial. I want to emphasize in this message this morning, and I've taught much on water baptism, what it means. But I want to emphasize, I want to home in on this truth. Water baptism is a burial. When we go through water baptism, it symbolizes a burial of your old life, of your past life before Christ. What burial in water baptism represents is the putting away of that old life, never to be seen again. And so when someone is baptized with water, what they're actually saying is, I put away the old life. I put away the old man. I don't want him to have any place in this life now. When we come to Romans chapter six, we see the spiritual teaching of an outward symbol. Let me explain. We have just had the Lord's table this morning, but the Lord's table is a symbol. It is a picture of a spiritual truth that we are to eat of the body of Christ and drink of the blood of Christ. The table is only a symbol. It is only a memorial. It has no power of its own self to change you. But the table, in the few minutes that we break bread together, it symbolizes a feeding upon the Lord Jesus Christ every day, every hour of every week. Then we have anointing with oil. If someone gets sick in our midst, we bring them forth. We anoint them with oil and we pray for them. The oil is nothing. It's not special. It's not from Jerusalem. It's not holy. It is simple olive oil, but it symbolizes the Holy Spirit who heals. Or with head covering in our midst, the ladies covering their head when they pray or prophesy. That is an outward thing. If you get caught up in that, you don't know anything. All it is is a little physical symbol, visible. But you know what? It reveals a biblical truth that affects every single area of your life. When we come to water baptism this afternoon, we are going to do seven water baptisms with seven different individuals. For each one, it may take three minutes maximum. I think you'll be under the water for three seconds, maybe maximum. But don't think that water baptism is confined to one day. You see, we do believe in water baptism. It happens on one day, not to be repeated again. It happens in a few seconds and a few moments. But please, it is a type. It is a picture. It is not confined to that event and that time. The truth symbolized in water baptism should affect every day of the rest of your Christian life. It takes a lifetime to work out. I mean a lifetime of wrestling through what water baptism means. You're going to have days where you're defeated and days that are victorious. But you're going to live out the rest of your Christian life trying to live out what water baptism literally means. We are going to live out the message of our water baptism. And that isn't always easy. You see in chapters three to chapter five of Romans, Paul deals with justification by faith. In other words, you've been washed in the blood. You've been forgiven. All your sins been removed. You've been born again. You're made righteous in Christ. You're accepted in Christ. You've been brought into Jesus. And so for two chapters, three chapters, he teaches on this. You're changed. You're washed. You're forgiven. You've been born again. You're a new creature in the Lord Jesus Christ. But then he comes to Romans chapter six. Look with me at verse one how he starts. What shall we say then? He has dealt three chapters about being justified by one act of faith. You've been made perfectly righteous. You've been made clean. There's no stain of sin in your life. You are washed in the blood of the Lamb. It's forgiven. It's gone. But when he comes to verse one here, what shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? Do you know after dealing with your justification, being born again, he comes to this issue of sin, of dealing with sin. Does a Christian need to worry about sin or think about sin or fight sin or face sin ever again after they're saved? Yes, I am afraid so. And that's why Paul goes straight in to this issue of sin. You've been washed from your sin, but you're going to have to face sin in the future and get a victory of it. The blood washes you and cleanses you. But there's another work of God that deals with your old man, your Adam or your old nature. Now, what is water baptism? The word, the Greek word used for baptism, baptizo is used 77 times in our Bible. 13 of those times is talking about when John the Baptist baptized into a baptism of repentance. In other words, he plunged them beneath the water. These people had to repent, turn from their sin in order to be baptizo. It was an absolute, see it was a symbol. But his message, if you believed it, your entire life is going to get baptized into repentance. You're not sprinkled with repentance. Your entire life is going to get drenched. Repentance is going to turn you upside down. Six times this word is used of the pouring out of the Holy Spirit and fire upon individuals or gatherings of Christians. And believe me, I don't want a sprinkling of the Holy Spirit. I want a deluge and outpouring of the real Holy Spirit. And so we see this word baptizo is a very strong word. You can't get a stronger for being baptized in repentance or being baptized in the Holy Ghost. This means an all-encompassing saturation. Baptizo is a very strong word. It doesn't leave any of your life outside, not at all. Different words in the Greek New Testament are used for sprinkle, rantizo. So if he wanted to say sprinkle you, he would have used that word. There's another Greek word for pour, but he doesn't use that. Neither does he use the Greek word that means to wash your body. The word that Paul uses here in Romans chapter 6 is baptizo. What does it actually mean? It means to be repeatedly immersed below water, utterly submerged below water. That's what baptism means. Unless you're submerged below the water, you have not been baptizoed. No part of the body above the water. This word is used in the Greek for a boat when it sinks and it's resting on the bottom of the ocean. It's been baptizoed. If it was floating on the top, bobbing up and down, it's not baptizoed. When it's submerged, it's baptizoed. It's also used of dyeing garments. When you get a garment and you're dyeing it, there's the purple dye. You've got a white garment. And so you've got a baptizoed. You don't want it sprinkled half white and half purple. You want to submerge the white garment below the purple dye so that the white garment becomes saturated with the purple dye. That's what it means here. Or it means to totally cover with fluid or plunge beneath fluid. So baptizo is used of a man who's drowning in water. He actually drowns. Blub, blub, blub. He has been baptizoed. And so we see in the New Testament, whether speaking of the Holy Spirit or speaking of repentance or speaking about water baptism, when the word baptizo is used, it is talking about a very strong word. It's got to saturate you. You can't be baptized in the Holy Ghost and not know about it. You're going to be filled, immersed with the Holy Spirit. You're going to be immersed with repentance. Or in water baptism as a physical act, you are submerged, immersed underwater. When we come to Romans chapter 9, we are seeing the spiritual teaching of water baptism. And there's three truths here that I want to point out to you of what water baptism symbolizes. There's three different things it symbolizes. Number one, you find in verse three, we are baptized into Christ's death. So today when you're baptized in water, the baptism as you go down into the water, it represents you're being immersed in the death of Christ. Number two, you find in verse four, baptized into his burial. Number three, we find in verse four to five, we're baptized into his resurrection. So look at this, you're being immersed. You're being submerged. You're being drenched. And like the dye goes into the white garment. I want to tell you, you cannot be baptized into his death, his burial, and his resurrection without that saturating your entire life. Spiritually, it is showing us that real baptism, the born again Christian is baptized into the death of Christ. It's not mere outward ritual. Let's begin to deal with this here a little bit. And I know I've preached these things before, but it's like I never preached it in my life ever. Every time I come to this, I get so excited with this. I almost want to trip over myself. So you bear with me here this morning. Point one here, and I want to give you three points. Point one, prepared for burial. Look at verse three with me. Because verse three shows us how do you prepare for burial? Who do you bury? Why do you bury? Why is it that this water baptism today and today is your burial? It's the burial of your old life, of the old you, of who you were, your lifestyle. You're going to a funeral today and you're going to say, farewell, old friend. We walked very closely in the past, but I'm saying this is your funeral. I am celebrating your death. I'm not going to cry tears about you. I'm not sorry to see the back of you. So point one, prepared for burial. Who do you bury? Why do you go through the spiritual burial? It says in verse three, know you not that so many of us, as we're baptized into Jesus Christ, we're baptized into his death. Who do you bury? You only bury those who've been baptized into Christ's death. That's absolutely vital. You only bury a dead person. It's very elementary. But you know what? In the church, we don't know that. We want to baptize people in water. They have never experienced a spiritual death of that old man. There's no death to anger or bitterness or vengeance or unforgiveness. And to say, I believe in Christ, I want water baptized. Do you know what this means? Do you realize today to prepare for burial, to prepare for your water baptism this afternoon, you've got to be dead. You have to be able to look to a time where you were baptized spiritually into Christ's death. The old life was crucified with the Lord Jesus Christ. He says in verse six here, knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him. Knowing this, that our body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin. Notice in verse three and verse six, it uses the word no. Concerning you being baptized into death, you've got to know this before you get buried. You've got to know that your old man, the old you before you got born again, is crucified with Christ. He died. She died. Something happened where you were immersed into the death of Christ. You experienced the death where it was like that old you died. And when people come looking for you, you go, he doesn't live at this address anymore. You better keep going down the road. And they'll say, why don't you blaspheme anymore? And why don't you smoke anymore? And why aren't you getting drunk anymore? And why aren't you fighting on the high street? And why aren't you using the drugs and buying the drugs off me? Oh, that person died. Don't you know? Let me tell you about it. It's a very interesting story. And so Paul here, he says, you have to know this. It means to be conscious, to become aware, to perceive or resolve. It's not about feeling. Oh, I feel I was crucified. He doesn't say that. Your feelings will always deceive you. I'm talking about knowing facts, knowing what the Bible says, knowing what is true. Most people in the church are ruled by feelings. They get angry and they say, well, I'm going to let vent of my anger. I'm going to tell you at that point, you better not live by feelings. I'm angry with that person. Or you might say, I don't have enough willpower to kill myself. Who asked anything about willpower? Do you know what it says? It says you need to know that your old man was crucified with Christ. I'm not saying you need to look forward and accomplish something. I'm saying if you're going to be buried today, if we're going to celebrate the death of your old man, you need to know this thing. I know past tense I was crucified with Christ. I'm not trying to make this happen. Isn't it true the Christian always looks forward and says, I'm trying to kill myself. I'm trying to get the victory. I'm trying to crucify myself. Hold on a second. The central first primary truth to prepare you for a real. Are you struggling putting away the old man there? I'm in the spiritual living of this out day by day as a Christian. I go, I'm trying to bury the old life. I'm trying to hide. I don't want to see the old life, but I'm struggling. It just seems to be there. The old man, the old life. Do you know what you need to go back to? This truth that you know that your old man was crucified. What is the old man? What is it? In verse six, it is the body of sin. The body of sin, the old man, your old life. I'm not talking about your daddy, your old man. I'm not talking about that. It's your old life. What is this body of sin in verse six? It's the whole principle of sin. It's a spiritual body. It is sin expressed through a body called the flesh. You want to know what the flesh is? It is the body of the old man, the old you. When you go to chapter seven and verse five, verse 18, verse 25, you read the word flesh. The flesh is the old man. The flesh lives like the old man, but you're not flesh anymore. You're born again by the spirit of God. The flesh is the body through which sin is done. That's why in Romans 7, Paul says, I sin, yet it's not I, it's self. It is flesh. It is the old man. That old man is very real. If a real Christian ever sins, it's that flesh. It's that flesh coming alive going, I'm angry, I'm lustful, I'm jealous. You know where the problem is? That old man. Do you want victory over the old man? Do you want victory over sin here? Don't tell me there's no victory and a walk in holiness. It's not you accomplishing it. You need to stand still today. You need to look back to the cross. Can I ask you, 2,000 years ago, do you believe that Jesus Christ was crucified? Do you believe that? Who here saw it happen? Were any of you there? Any of you? Did any of you actually speak to a person who was there? Did you see a YouTube video that actually showed you the event? Why do you believe? Why are you utterly convinced that Jesus was crucified and died on Golgotha's Hill? How do you know that? Is it feelings? Is it emotion? Is it imagination? Is it your willpower? Or is it simply believing the word of God, reading the word of God, having a revelation of the word of God, and you go, oh God, I believe this. I am utterly convinced that Jesus died for me 2,000 years ago. Can I say it's the same about your old man? Do you feel your old man's dead? Have you seen a video of your old man crucified with Christ? Were you there when it happened? Why would I believe that my old man is dead and crucified? And it's past tense, not future tense. Do you realize this is about faith in the word of God? This is about having your understanding open. This is about saying, God, help me to see what happened. At Calvary, it says, is crucified, not will be crucified, not in the process of being crucified. Your old man, who you are, and everything attached to it, all sin is crucified, was crucified 2,000 years ago. You know what? It's a fact of history. It's something that already happened. It is the work of God doing it. And if you ever begin, I'm talking about preparing for a funeral today. If you want to be ready for this afternoon, I'm helping you. I am helping you. You know what? You've got to know. You've got to have your eyes open. You've got to understand here. I was crucified with Christ. And when you put faith in that and say, I believe you, Lord, do you know there's a mighty power in that to help you? You know why I said that you had to be crucified with Christ? There's a reason. Verse six, to destroy the old man. Destroy the old. What does being crucified with Christ mean? Saints, when all of us are born again, we don't understand this. We don't have a clue. We don't have an idea of most of the Bible's teaching. But as we walk with God, we begin to see this and understand it. And the Holy Spirit is teaching us. When it says in verse six, the old man is destroyed, not in the future, but in the past by the work of Christ. It is not talking about eradication. Some people in the church, they teach when you're born again, you have the old sin nature pulled out of you. And there's no old man, no old sin nature. They believe in eradication, annihilation. That isn't what this word actually means. To destroy the old man means something different. Listen carefully, because this is what's actually happened to you. If you're born again, say if it was eradicated, I'd say you'll never sin again. If you're born again or claim to be born again and you've sinned, then you're a liar. Because it was eradicated. But I want to tell you, I've rarely met a born again Christian who claimed to have never sinned. And I met a few who claimed they had never sinned, but not many. So I don't believe in eradication of the flesh, the old man. What does the word destroyed means? It means to render it entirely idle. Oh yes, it's real. You can feel the power of the old man. You can hear the voice of the old man. In fact, you can hear his thoughts. He doesn't have to open his mouth. You can experience thoughts from the old man, urges from the old man, suggestions from the old man. The old man will even take you by the hand and you can feel his hand in your hand saying, come with me. Let's go out tonight. The old man is that real. Yet the word destroyed by being crucified with Christ means to make entirely idle, render inactive, make of no effect, to become inoperative, to lose its power. Listen, to put it out of use, to put it out of business. This is what the word means, to throw out of the house. Some of you mummies should have thrown your kids out a lot longer before you actually did. Try telling any mummy that. You need to kick him out. I could never do that. I know a lot of Christians. You need to kick off. I could never. We've been around together a long time. I know. I'm fully assured of that. It means to be fired from your job, made unemployed, to say, I don't want you. So look at the old man. He is destroyed. It doesn't mean annihilation. It means you're fired. I don't want you anymore. You've been crucified with Christ. I haven't been crucified with Christ. The old man has been crucified. That's where the power of this is. I'm not going to bury a living old man. You know what? If I get my hands, Jason, you need to talk to the old man today and say, I am sick, tired of you, old man. I'm going to give you a good burial. Oh no, I'm alive. Oh no. Not according to Romans chapter six. You're dead. You died 2000 years ago. You're crucified. And you know what? You're fired. You're unemployed. I'm going to stick a sign up saying, old man fired, never wanted ever again. Don't let him in. Don't open the door. Don't even open the window to him. Do you hear me? We need to believe the word of God. No feelings. Not your experience. Oh, but brother Keith, my experience. Do you know how I feel this week? That old man, the power. Oh yes. That's why Paul writes a whole chapter Romans seven after Romans six, dealing with the battle. We're not playing religious games here. A positive confession. We're not doing that. Verse six, dealing with sin. Verse six, do not serve sin. Verse seven, freed from sin. Verse 14, sin shall not have dominion or power or rule over your life. You know, for the real Christian, you must know we're preparing for a burial here today. And you know what? You've got to know today before we go to those waters. You've got to know and believe and understand. I was crucified. You know what? It's not my power against the old man. It's God's power. God's word. He done this. I know it. I believe it. Like I believe Jesus Christ died 2000 years ago. I believe that my old man that I know so well is crucified. Where is he? He's hanging on a tree in Jerusalem. My old man is hanging on a tree and Christ did it. Christ carried him there. It says in verse five here, planted together in the likeness of his death. It means that we grew up together with Jesus, closely united with Jesus in his death. Are you one with Christ in his death? Do you believe in the unity of the source of your life being that Christ's death is my death? That's where the power is. Remember when we believed and got born again, we said Jesus' blood shed on the cross was shed for me. My sin was laid upon him that I could be forgiven. Well, here's another truth. You also look to the cross in the same way that you're forgiven by the blood. The exact same way. You looked and you believe what the Bible said. Not feelings, not emotions, not experience. You go, Jesus died for me that I could be forgiven. You also need to look to the cross and say, my old man that's causing me so much trouble. You're crucified. You died there. It's more than a feeling. It's more than a theology. There's power in this. And I want to be identified with Christ's death. Number two, and this is what I'm getting to. It's very hard to confine this. Number two, the true meaning of spiritual burial, of having a funeral, of your old man who was crucified 2,000 years ago, is to be buried, put in a tomb, laid to rest, put away, put out of sight. And you know bodies decay. You don't want to smell it. If you leave him lying around the house, no one's going to walk into your house because you've got a stinky, smelly, visible old man that's decaying. You know, I met some people in the church and I went, I don't want to be around them. They stink. There's something corrupt. You walk into their house and you go, it's rotten. You get some time alone with them and you go, this is rotten. They don't even want to speak about Christ. All I can smell is decaying flesh. It's rotten. The second great truth, we're not only crucified with Christ, we're buried with Christ. Are you struggling putting the old life away? Is it very in your face? Is the old you that was there before you got saved, do you hear his voice? Do you see him? Do you feel him? Is he suggesting things to you? You need to bury him. If you know that he was crucified with Christ, you also need to go a stage further. You need to know this, that you're buried with Christ. Your old man is buried with Christ. What did Christ do? Christ was carried into that tomb. The stone was rolled. It took two angels to move that stone. Do you know what? They so put that old man, that dead body away, that you couldn't get near it. That's what they done. Do you know here we buried deep under the ground. We don't leave bodies lying around everywhere. You bury it that you can't see it. It's gone. You can't go to a burial and next week sit down with that body. You can't do it. You have definitely deliberately buried that old man. And you know what it says? It was done 2000 years ago. The burial, the putting away of that old life, that old man, do you know where the power is at Calvary? You actually need to go back there and say, he was crucified. I was buried in that tomb 2000 years ago. My old life, when Jesus went in there, my old man was carried into the tomb. Do you believe this? Do you actually, when you're struggling with the old man, are you there going back to that sepulcher, that tomb in Jerusalem and saying, I was buried with Jesus Christ. I identify with it. I believe this. What do you do when someone dies? Bury them. There's the natural response to death. If you're convinced that someone's dead, you bury them. Do you hear me? But if for one moment you go, this person's still breathing. They don't look like much. They can't move around much, but they're alive. You'll never bury them. Never, ever, while there's life. Do you know why some of you don't bury the old man? Do you know why this truth hasn't gripped you and hasn't become clear to you? Because you're not convinced the old man's dead. You're actually fully convinced he is alive, he is real, he is operating. In fact, you sit down and hold conversations with him. He actually gets in your mind and he says, you should do this and you should do that. You wake up at two in the morning and have a conversation with the old man. You're not even convinced he is dead. You're not there saying, hold on, what are you doing here? You're crucified. Get out of my house. Get out of my job. Get out of my family. Get out of my head. You are crucified. And so what is the natural response? If I'm convinced he's dead, I'm going to have a burial. Are you convinced your old man is dead? Then you're going to have a burial this afternoon. If you're saying, I'm putting away that old man. I know he's crucified. I know he died. I know I'm born again, but I want a burial. I want a time this afternoon where I go down to that water's edge and we're going to submerge you and you're going to say, old man, you make sure you stay down there. Now I'd get in a lot of trouble if I kept you down there, but do you know what you need to do? As you're just going under that water, I'm saying farewell to you, old man. You're going to be buried here. I believe what the Bible teaches. In fact, I'm going to act on it. I'm tired of you. I'm putting you away. What is burial with Christ? It's putting away the old life. There is a finality of saying, I don't want to see you, hear you, I don't want you influencing my life. It is settling the biblical truth of this. It is to treat your old man as dead. Are you treating your old man as dead or treating him like he's alive with more power than you? Isn't that a danger to us? That we have more faith to believe that our old man's alive than he's dead. We are utterly convinced, what? By feelings and by experience and by what we sense. I go, he's alive. Try convincing a Christian who's that determined to believe the old man's alive. I'll say, but the Bible says, yes, but this is my experience. But the Bible talks about power over sin. Yes, but this is what happened to me. You can't talk to them. It's almost impossible. I once heard a story of a lady whose husband died. Her mind wasn't very clear. She was a bit older, but she was convinced he was still alive. He'd taken a heart attack in the armchair and died. He was gone. And the neighbors started to come in and go, Jimmy's dead. But she didn't believe it. She sat in the chair and talked to him and rocked him and brought him a cup of tea. All the cups of tea untouched were piled up. She wouldn't let anyone bury him. She argued, she fought the doctor. She tried to throw them out. She was so convinced that he was still alive that she refused. No, no burial. Some Christians are like that. Have you let go of the old man? Have you released the old man? Have you said farewell to the old man? Have you drawn the line and said, the old man has no rights in this life? Do you know what burial is? It's immersion. Remember what baptizo means? Baptized into his death, baptized into his burial. Have you even considered this before? This importance of preaching an aspect of truth. Do you know you're going to be immersed, baptizoed into the burial of Christ? Have you embraced this truth? Do you believe it? Have you meditated on it? Have you prayed over this truth? That you're to be immersed. Your old man is to be immersed in the burial. He is to be in that tomb out of sight. He is to be dead I'm not looking for a sprinkling of water here. I'm looking for a real baptizo. I think some of your old men just got sprinkled and you've got a doctrine of sprinkling or rubbing or pouring. Do you know what? You need a real baptism of burial. Maybe today as we go down to that river, you're saying, this is it. I had enough. I've had it. I hate you. Do you know you're allowed to hate the flesh? You're allowed to hate sin. And in verse 11, do you know what he says? Reckon, likewise reckon ye also yourselves dead. Act like it. Believe it. It's a legal term. It's a banking term. Brother Souf would understand this in banking. It's going to do with feelings or your thoughts or your opinions. Let's find out. Are you dead? And if you reckon, if you believe, if you calculate, if you understand that you're dead, let's bury the old man. But the power of that old man is so strong that you have not drawn a line in burial. I'm not talking about positive confession or mind over matter. I'm not talking about that. I'm talking about believing the Bible, what it says about your old man. Where is your old man? Do you listen to him and give him ground? You need to be... I hated maths at school. I hated it. I dreaded it. I was awful at it. But I love Christian maths. Two plus two makes four. Jesus plus the cross equals the death of my old man. There's power. This is the secret to holiness in Romans 6. This is the answer to your fight with flesh and with sin. I'm telling you what the answer is to your failure. Have you failed this week and went, man, no Lord. This grieves me. You know what? You need to spend time in Romans 6. There's gotta be a burial. Verse three, know ye not that so many of you, as were baptized into Jesus Christ, were baptized into his death. Listen to this word, verse four. Therefore, and he goes on to talk about your burial. Burial depends on death. Since you need to understand the truth, there's power in this truth about burial, but you can't even consider burial unless you know he's crucified. The power of the old man's crucified. You've gotta know this. You've gotta believe it. You've gotta reckon it to be true. You've gotta have an understanding or you'll never do away with the old man. He's gonna be a close companion to the day you die. And God will say, sure, I crucified him. Why did you never walk this side? You'll say, I didn't believe it. Not reckoning towards a future death, a past death. Not trying to bury the old man in the future, saying, I hope there's a burial for him. I hope to have a funeral in the future. Can I dare say even this afternoon isn't his burial? He was buried 2,000 years ago. But you need to settle it in your mind. You need to draw a line on this. You need to start saying, I believe this. You need some dirty pages at Romans chapter six from the oil on your hands and the sweat of your brow and the mire of the day's work where you keep turning and going, help me, Lord, to understand this. Help the power. Faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God. Do you realize in the past 45 minutes or thereabouts, I've been preaching the word of God and your heart's being stirred and challenged. And you start going, hold on, my thinking needs changed here. And your heart starts to rise up and go, I'm gonna stand. I'm gonna fight. I'm gonna draw that. Do you know what's happening? Faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God. That's why I preach the word of God. It says in Ephesians chapter four, verse 22, that ye, what is this burial? What is it practically? It's the putting away out of sight of the old man. You're sitting there staring. I'm going, no, no, Malcolmson, look at him. Look, he's sitting here. Can't you see him? You know, people who try to tell me someone's there who isn't there. You know, you look at someone and go, better watch out for this person. But I'm actually sitting in a room of people who are very aware of that person. And they'll try to tell me by different means. He's alive. He's real. He's there. I'm going, no, he's gone. He's crucified. He's buried. Don't you believe the Bible? You're going, he's here. Bury him. Bury him. What does it mean to bury? Put away the old man. That's how you practically do it day by day. How do you live out the truth of burial today? You put away. You put off the old man. You see, just because this was done 2000 years ago and it happened when you're born again, doesn't mean you don't need to do this in the future. In fact, Paul in the New Testament regularly talks about this act in your Christian life where today you're going to have to put off the old man. Oh, but you said he was crucified. I know that's the basis. But today you need to put off the old man and are what you're implementing these three truths, death, burial, resurrection today in your life. It says in Ephesians 4.22 that ye put off concerning the former conversation, the old man. He's speaking of born again Christian, washed in the blood, indwelt by the spirit. What's he saying to them? A real Christian. And yet he has to say to them, put off concerning the former conversation, the old man. But I thought he was dead. He is. But you're facing him today. And you know what? Monday morning, you're going to meet the old man and your heart's going to be proved. Do you believe the word of God? Will you make a stand? Will you fight? Put off concerning the old man, his lifestyle, the old man, which is corrupt. How do you do that? Verse 25, wherefore putting away lying. You want to get rid of the old man. You want to enforce the death and crucifixion of the old man, the burial of the old man. So you get, you're in a situation, you know, you can minimize truth and you've just lied. There's certain things, facts you leave out. You've lied. You're a liar. Paul's speaking to Christians saying, don't lie. You want to put off the old man. You want to implement this truth. Don't lie. You're faced with a choice. You can either lie or tell the truth. Tell the truth to your own heart. That's what a Christian does. You know what you've done? You've just buried the old man. That's how you implement it day by day. I've got an opportunity to lie or act sparingly with the truth. But you know what? I'm going to bury the old man. You've just hammered the lid on the coffin. That's what you've done. I'm not going to lie. I don't know what, I care what the consequences are. Or in verse 26 of Ephesians 4, be not angry. Or sorry, be angry and sin not. Don't let the sun go down on your wrath. Or verse 27, don't give place to the devil. Or verse 28, there's a whole list of these. Verse 28, let him that stole, steal no more. Was your old man a thief? But you're not. Him that stole, do not steal any more. But rather, let him labor, working with his hands, the thing which is good, that he may have to give them that needeth. You've just buried your old man. Your old man stole, lied, got angry. And there's a continuing list here, right the way down to verse 31, put away from you all malice. It's given list after list. Do you want a practical way on how to bury the old man? This is it. You're going to face it Monday and Tuesday and Wednesday and Thursday and Friday. This is why it's complete, the power, the victory is at the cross. I'm crucified, I'm buried, but also I'm implementing this day by day. It takes faith. It takes courage. It takes reckoning. It takes to say, I believe the word of God. You're dead. Oh no, I am you. Oh no, you're dead. You're my enemy. You're a betrayer. You're a Judas. You're a liar. You're a deceiver. You're a hypocrite. And you know what? You're good for nothing. You need buried. Third and lastly, life beyond the grave. In a normal burial, in a normal funeral, you'll never see that person again. But this is a funeral that you go to where there's a person comes to life in the midst of this, life beyond the grave. Have you been crucified with Christ? Have you been buried with them? Then there's another portion. There is a life now to live. Do you know why most Christians do not live out the Christian life? Do you know why they don't have any power and experience the power? Because they don't get these first two points right. Crucified with Christ. Buried with Christ. That's why they can't live like Christ. It says in verse four, that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. Death, burial, resurrection. It was accomplished at the cross. When you're born again, the power of it comes. Then you're going to spend the next five years, 10, 20, 30, 50 years walking this out. And it's not always easy. I like to preach the truth. I tell you, facing the flesh. Your flesh can so arise up that you think you're demonized. I mean someone who knows they're really born again. Walking with God, loving God. Your flesh is so dark. Don't minister to the flesh. Do you know what we try and do in the church is the flesh. Someone's feeling sorry for themselves. So we minister to the flesh. I'm trying to get your flesh to have a good self-esteem. Oh, it's got a high self-esteem. Your flesh actually has a very high view of itself. Oh no, I've got a very low self-esteem. No, you don't. Do you know how I know? Because it's all centered around your low self-esteem. I've got a very low self-esteem. You think too much of yourself. So we in the church, we minister. Oh, did someone hurt? I'm, I got very hurt. Scar for scar. You don't know what people done to me. That's why I'm so miserable. That's why you can't talk to me. That's why I hate everyone. That's why I won't forgive. I have a right. Do you know what that is? That's a flesh. I don't minister to the flesh and pamper the flesh. I don't say we need counseling sessions and we need a lot of deliverance. Boy, you're a real problem. We need an awful lot of deliverance ministry and we're going to have to break all the curses and we need to renounce lots of things and we need to go through your family line. We'll be here all day. On the day of Pentecost, 3,000 people were born again through a short sermon. You know what? Their hearts were convicted. Can you imagine Peter? There's only a church of 120. 3,000 got born again on the first day of the church. Peter must have rolled up his sleeves and went after that mighty sermon that got 3,000 saved. Man, how am I going to counsel all these 3,000? Man, everything is in this 3,000. I'm going to have to counsel all of them and all of the inner healing from what their mommy said to them. This is going to take decades. I'm going to have to be as old as Methuselah. And that's only the first harvest. Do you know your flesh, your old man, was crucified, buried. But the good news is there is a power of resurrection. We miss the power of the Christian life. There is no power to live in Christ. You know why? Because we don't have the other truths in place. We don't know that we have been crucified. We don't reckon our old man to be buried with Christ. Therefore, we cannot walk with Christ. It says that if we are raised up in newness of life, and you know how you tell a resurrected man, he speaks like Christ, and he thinks like Christ, and he acts like Christ, and he desires Christ. That's the new man. The flesh gets better. Do you know if I'm dealing, and I know, of course, I never have to deal with it here, but I'm in way out there somewhere in some other church, and I have to deal with someone and there's bitterness. I'm not dealing with the new man, that's the old man. And see if you're a preacher or a ministry, this can change your thinking. Because if you think you're dealing with the person, there's bitterness. Well, I've got to help this person with their bitterness. Hold on, that's the old man. If you pamper to that, you're not helping them. You need to say, do you know where that bitterness comes from? And that anger and unforgiveness and that lust towards women, do you know where it comes from? It's your old nature, your old man, and that's your enemy. Don't go in the years of ministry to find the key to get out of this. You'll be there 30 years and longer. But I'm telling you, you'll get set free when you realize there's a new life in the Lord Jesus Christ. Man, I've got a whole series to preach, but we've got a baptism to go to, a burial, a funeral. Are you ready for a funeral? You seven that are going to get baptized and water, can I ask you, you were buried 2,000 years ago. As we go out there and stand there, I want you to believe the word of God. You may never have thought this, heard of it ever, but all of your old man with all of its lusts and thinking and desires, you know what you're going to go? You're going to go, I believe the word of God. I reckon it to be true. I know what the Bible says. I understand where the answer is. It may take me time working through this week to week, month to month, but you know what? This is going to be my Christian life. I may fall down, but I'm going to get up again. How do you recognize a righteous man? It says a righteous man falls seven times and he gets back up again. That's the mark of a righteous man. I'm not asking, have you failed since you got born again? I'm not asking that. I'm saying, are you getting up again? Do you want this that you read about? Victory in Christ, life in Christ, Christ living himself in and through you. Do you want to enjoy the freedom and the blessing and the power of God? Then I'm showing you, it's not easy to walk through this any more than Israel going into the land of promise and saying there's walled cities and there's giants and there's armies. And see if you want that valley down there. See that beautiful valley? And you go, boy, I'd like that. Just one thing, that valley that you would like to live in and spread yourself out in, do you know what it's filled with? It's filled with Philistines and they each have an iron chariot. But that land's yours. Go fight for it. Remember the Ephraimites last week? Joshua knew how to do. We need more room. We need more space. We're the best tribe. Great, then go fight those Philistines and you'll probably spend the next 10 years and some of you will die along the way. But it's worth it for the fight. Do you want the real Christian life? You may spend a Saturday night in utter discouragement because of that battle. But I'm telling you, fight on. Stand up. This preacher is going to be here to help you, to preach to you. This church is here to encourage you in this fight. It's not going to be finished in a day. It's not going to be finished in seven years. But this is a fight until we see Jesus Christ face to face and saying, so fight this battle that the sword of God's word cleaves to your hand in the battle like Eleazar in the Old Testament. Please stand with me. Thank you, Lord Jesus. Oh, thank you, Lord Jesus. What wonderful truths. What wonderful Bible that you've given unto us. We love the word of God. We love the Bible. Lord God, thank you that there's far more in this than we naturally see or perceive or understand. I feel like a child standing on the edge of Canaan. Lord God, I feel like I'm barely embarking on this warfare and this battle to inherit the land. You said go in and possess the land. I have given it unto you. Wherever your foot treads, that will belong to you. Saints, go in and possess these truths. Claim these Bible truths as yours. Don't settle for anything less. Don't settle into a defeated Christian life. Don't settle down into the normalcy of Christianity, but hear the word of the Lord. Go in and possess the land. Go in and fight the giants. Go in and march around those walled cities of Jericho. You may have many thoughts, but I want to tell you, when you believe that God has given you the land, God has sworn down through the generations, this is the Christian life. And I swear the power is with me. It's my power. It's my spirit that will work it in you. If you trust me, if you believe, if you don't stop fighting, then I'm going to walk with you and in you, and I'm going to work this out in your life. Father, we love you. We bless you. Thank you for what was accomplished at Calvary. We were crucified with Christ. We were buried with him, and we rose again. His resurrection is our resurrection. The same power that raised him up is the same power here this morning that raises us up to walk out our Christian life day by day in Jesus' name, hallelujah. ======================================================================== Video: https://sermonindex2.b-cdn.net/TOOv3nnZayE.mp4 Source: https://sermonindex.net/speakers/keith-malcomson/water-baptism-a-burial/ ========================================================================