Living By The New Identity

Introduction

It is on a very rare occasion that I will do what I have done today. As I preach a lesson that is tied Sunday morning to the lesson that I’m going to preach on Sunday night. And while they could stand independently, the thoughts of this morning’s lesson definitely flow into tonight’s lesson. There’s a couple of reasons why I don’t like doing that. Number one, I like sermons to be independent in and of themselves as a unit. And secondly, sometimes people look at that like he was so undisciplined that he stopped at a certain place because he had filled up the time, and so he just moves the rest of it. He didn’t really prepare well enough. And so now he’s got some more material. You know, he’s getting by really with one sermon, making it into two.

That is not what happened here. I realized early on that there was plenty of material for two lessons, and that’s the way we’re going. And there’s another reason why I don’t like doing that. Is that this morning there were people here who could not be here tonight, and tonight there are people here that were not here this morning. And I’m sorry about that. But I realize audiences change just in five hours, and that’s just the way it is. So I’m going to give you a very brief refresher course. And if you don’t understand this, or even if you don’t agree with it, well, you’re just going to have to hear lesson number one at a later time. It will be on the website. We were looking at the passage in Isaiah 62.

We were looking at the entire context of the promise of a new name for God’s people. And of course, immediately people think that is the term Christian that we see used three times in the New Testament. But there’s no passage in the New Testament that would say that’s exactly what Isaiah had in mind as he wrote this in Isaiah 62, or God had in mind when he revealed it to Isaiah. Actually, more consistent with the New Testament message and with the whole way the idea of the word name is used. It has to do with all that we are, our whole status in Christ. It’s not just the name Christian. Just like the new name Jesus has is not just the exalted name Jesus has is not just the name Jesus.

It’s all that he is. So it is of those of us in Christ. It’s our whole identity that is the new name of Isaiah 62. Again, if you don’t see that, you’re going to have to listen to the first lesson to see how I got to that conclusion. Now, I also talked about how we perceive ourselves is very important. And I just briefly introduce that at the end of the lesson this morning, and really we’ll be delving more into this perception of our identity tonight. As we talk about living by that new name. The fact that we have such an awesome status and we’re living by a new identity. What is that supposed to mean in our lives? And really, I want to begin by addressing this question.

Because of this new name, because of this new status, could it be said that we are no longer sinners? Now let me tell you why I raised this question. I love this when this happens in gospel meetings. It was the last night of my most recent meeting in Fort Worth, the North Beach congregation. And I was going to the last meal appointment of the week prior to the evening service at the home of John and Mary Ledbeth. And wonderful disciples of the Lord. And I was going there with the couple that I was staying with, Phil and Pat Lumpkin, one of the elders of the congregation there at North Beach. And so we arrive at this very awesome older house that they have. And we started eating the meal, and quickly the discussion went to spiritual things.

I sort of like that. And she started talking about this matter that she had been studying for some time. And Phil had known of her study in this matter, of whether or not it’s even appropriate to call ourselves sinners, those of us who have been redeemed by the blood of Christ. And she had been a little bit concerned and alarmed at some of the prayers that she had heard publicly about how we are sinners. And I want you to take that thought because, and I just want to say about guys who lead public prayer, it’s difficult. And we get a certain way of doing things, and we hear certain phrases and repeat them in our prayers. So we’ve got to cut the guys a little bit of slack as they try to lead us in public prayer, any aspect of public worship.

And she’s not being overly critical of that. She just wondered should we be saying some of the things that we’re saying in these prayers? And so let me talk about that for a second and say, I get concerned too, when some of the prayers I hear seem to suggest that Christians are sinning all the time. That we’re just seemingly sinning every day and almost every moment, it seems, and that God is just going to have to be merciful with us because we cannot know any real victory over temptation. Now that’s really what this lesson is about, to a great degree. Can we know some real victory, consistent victories over temptation? And I would make this observation right at the beginning. Instead of appealing to the mercy and grace of God, if we’re sinning all the time, there’s a word for that in the New Testament, and it’s not pretty.

We are a hypocrite. That’s what that term means. We confess one thing and we’re doing something else. If it is true that we’re sinning all the time, mercy and grace isn’t going to fix that. We are what the Bible calls hypocrites. And so that would be a concern. 1 Corinthians 10 and verse 13 says, no temptation has overtaken you but such as common to man. And God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you were able, but with the temptation will provide the way of escape that you may be able to endure it. We need to be realizing some victories. But some, it seems, are saying, God, you’re going to have to save me in spite of myself. And my very real lack of effort.

That’s not good enough. And I would say further, this leads to misconceptions about grace, and that’s a serious concern. I collected these quotes recently about grace that I think are important. Grace is not license. But it is a lifeline. And my friend Edwin Crozier posted this recently, came up with this, is really good. Grace gives nothing to those who long for freedom to sin. But gives liberty and power to those who want freedom from sin. That’s where we need to be headed. And we cannot start to think that God is going to just have to cover my inability to live righteously. If that’s the case, try that with your spouse in regard to repeated adultery and doing pornography. See if that works. Now, what I think we’re saying in some of these prayers that sort of sound like that we’re sinning all the time.

1. Sin Must Become Infrequent in Our Lives

What I think we’re saying is that we realize how God dependent we are, and we do sin from time to time, and we are going to need his mercy, and we want to express our humility, our indebtedness, and our dependence upon God. And all that is great. But I am confident that we can live consistently above sin. And defeat the adversary more than he defeats us. I want to take you to 1 John to demonstrate how that sin must become infrequent in our lives. I am certainly not going to get up here tonight and suggest that Christians should or will never sin. Should we never sin? Yes. But we will sin and fall short of the glory of God. But how frequent is that in one who has truly possessed this new identity that we talked about this morning?

Well, let’s look at 1 John 1 and understand some things about sin and darkness. God is light and in him is no darkness at all. And we’re called to be imitators of God. Ephesians 5 and verse 1. So we need to understand first and foremost that we are to be imitators of God, and in him is no darkness at all. And if we say that we have fellowship with him, yet walk in darkness.

And do not practice the truth. We’re talking about a consistent pattern of behavior. Sin when it is full grown brings forth death, as we saw in our Bible class in James 1 and verse 16. But if we, instead of walking in the darkness, a progression that is constant and steady in darkness, instead of that, if we walk in the light, a steady progression in the light, and that’s what our new identity calls us to. We have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his son cleanses us from all sin. That’s not as we commit sin, regardless of our response to sin. But we will have an answer for sins that we commit. There is cleansing available. If we say that we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves, and the truth is not in us.

I’m not sure that verse is clearly understood in its context all the time. And I don’t mean to go into a full Gnostic explanation of why John says this, but I think what he’s saying is, I’ll tell you what he’s not saying. He’s not saying that, well, you can’t say there’s no sin on your account. We need to be able to say that. Somewhat frequently is my point. That there is no sin on my record right now. All past sins have been cleansed and forgiven. That’s not what he’s saying. If he’s saying that I am incapable of sinning, and that’s what the Gnostic would actually say, that anything you do in the flesh would not affect your spirit. If we say that we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves.

The Gnostic doctrine was wrong. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. There is hope, even though we have sinned. If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us. And he says, I’m writing these things to you. Why? Verse 1. That you said not. But if any man sins, again, an infrequent commission of sin, if any man sins, we have an advocate with the Father Jesus Christ the righteous. He’s the propitiation for our sins, and not for our sins only, but for the sins of the whole world. But don’t stop reading there. Do you know Jesus? If we have come to know him, what?

We keep his commandments. Verse 3. That doesn’t sound like sinning all the time, does it? If we know him, we keep his commandments. And if we say we know him, and we’re sinning all the time, we do not keep his commandments, we’re a liar. More on that word in a second. We are a liar, and the truth is not in him. But whoever keeps his word, that’s a progression of steps, in him the love of God has truly been perfected. By this we know that we are in him. The one who abides in him ought also to walk in the same manner that he walked. Again, a more constant progression in righteousness than sinfulness. And he will go on to explain that further in 1 John 3.

As he talks about this hope that we have in verse 3, fixed on him. And everyone who has this hope purifies himself just as he is pure. Again, we’re going about the business of weeding out impurity. If we have our hope fixed on Jesus, we’re going to try to weed that out. We’re going to talk about how to do that in just a second. And then he says, sin is lawlessness. And he appeared in order to take away sins. In him there is no sin. And so therefore, no one who abides in him sins. Now he’s not, he’s obviously not saying never sins or infrequent sin. He’s already addressed that back in chapter 2 and verse 1. If any man sins, we have an advocate with the Father.

He’s talking about a constant progression or habit or practice of sin. If you stay in the habit and practice of sin, you don’t abide in him. You’re not walking as he walked. It is the devil who encourages that, he says in verse 8. Let no one deceive you. The one who practices righteousness, it’s not that he’s righteous all the time for the rest of his life. But that is the general practice and pattern of his life. He practices righteousness. No one who is born of God practices sin. So let’s not coddle ourselves and suggest that the grace and mercy of God is just going to fix anything. Everything. I just can’t have any real victory over sin. Alright, that’s the introduction. So we’re supposed to be sinning infrequently.

2. We Are Not to Be Defined by Sin

Hopefully not at all. So is it true that we can still wear the label sinners? Now, let’s get to this. How many passages in the New Testament speak of Christians, those who have embraced this new identity? How many passages in the New Testament mention Christians as sinners off the top of your head? What do you got? False Jesus.

Okay, that’s one of the first ones that comes to mind. That’s the one we thought of. Phil and I mentioned that one. There’s another one, and Phil and I both thought of this one, James 5 and verse 20. We’ll get to that in a second. And there’s one more, but you know what?

Three. Three that I can find. Now that might suggest it’s not inappropriate to refer to us on occasion as sinners, but those with this new identity are far more often called something else. Now let’s look at the 1 Timothy 1 passage that Jesse mentioned. It’s the first one that comes to mind. 1 Timothy 1, verse 15, when Paul says it is a trustworthy statement deserving full acceptance. Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am foremost of all. Now he doesn’t say I was foremost of all. He says I am foremost of all. But I don’t think in that passage, Paul is saying that he is continuing to sin constantly.

And he has a great sense of indebtedness as a result of that. I think he is speaking primarily of his past before the events on the road to Damascus in 1 Timothy chapter 1. Now, but even if I can argue that passage doesn’t apply to those who sin who are in Christ, what about James 5 20? That’s the first one that it really hit me. Okay, we have an exception here. James 5.19. My brethren, if any among you strays from the truth, okay, this is somebody in the truth, one who has this new identity, and one turns him back.

Have a hard time explaining that one away. And then when you go back to chapter 4, and the other reference that I found in verse 8, and again, these are the only three that I could find this week. There may be others. Where he tells these believers, James 4, 8, draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.

Well, sometimes Christians still delve into sin. And they need to fix that problem. James 5 and verse 20, James 4 and verse 8 suggests that so. So here’s my conclusion. I cannot say that it is wrong to refer to those who possess the new name, that it would be wrong in any case whatsoever to refer to them as sinners. However, it is used very infrequently of those who have possessed this new name. Christians do still sin from time to time, perhaps in a good number of ways. As James says, and we need to look at that contextually, we all stumble in many ways. James 3, 2. And he talks about the tongue, which no man can tame. And the tongue may be an area of more frequent struggle in terms of sinfulness.

The question is not, do Christians sin. Sometimes they do. They should not. They should know better. Even Peter did. Right? We saw that not very long ago. Paul had to withstand into the face. Even Peter knew better. Simon did. Simon the sorcerer, who was a recent convert to Christ in Acts 8, wanted to have that ability to lay on of hands. And Peter had to say, Your money perishes with you. You are in what? The gall of bitterness and the bondage of iniquity. Here’s a Christian, the gall of bitterness and the bondage of iniquity. Thanks be to God for what has been described as God’s second law of pardon. As demonstrated in the life of Simon the sorcerer. We don’t have to be baptized again for our sins to be cleansed.

He must simply pray that the thought of his heart might be forgiven him. And so while I cannot argue that the term sinner can no longer apply in any way to one who is a Christian, I will argue this. We are not to be defined by sin any longer. We have a new identity, a new focus, a new aim as God’s people. We have been translated. Colossians chapter 1 and verse 13. Look at this with me. Colossians 1 and verse 13. He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and has transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. And so I would just say, we are no longer of that realm. We’re in a new realm.

That realm should not define us any longer. We have been called out of darkness and into his marvelous light. And if we would appreciate that, perhaps we would know more victory over temptation. You know, it’s very easy to just say, well, this is a this is academic discussion. This isn’t really hard. The one who sins is a sinner. The one who sins is a sinner. Well, that’s that’s not necessarily a good explanation. Because you could argue, and we’ve talked about this before, if you teach anything that is false about a verse in Scripture that is untrue, and most of us who have taught have done that at one time or another said something about a verse, it may not lead someone to be lost, but we’ve said things that were technically false and untrue about certain verses.

I don’t want to list them all, the mistakes I’ve made.

But that doesn’t make a person a false teacher because he has once said something that is false. It’s not like the guy we read about in 2 Peter chapter 2 who is leading people to destruction because of the error that he teaches, damnable heresies and all the qualities of the false teacher that are described in 2 Peter 2. I also mentioned the word liar. Is it really true as the Bible talks about liars having their part in the lake of fire? That if you have told a lie, an untruth at some point, that you are this kind of hardened liar that the Bible talks about. And so one of the things I think is happening with this term in the New Testament, sinner generally is referring to the state of one who is in darkness.

Not generally, though it can be applied to us as we sin, James 4 and verse 8, James 5 and verse 20, it is not generally applied to those who have been called out of darkness and into his marvelous light. We are not to be defined by our sinful past. We are no longer, as we saw this morning, desolate and forsaken. We are Hefzeba. We are those in whom God delights. We have been married. We have come into a relationship with Him, the bride, the wife of the Lamb. And we need to live accordingly. So I want to make a few observations about this whole discussion about whether or not we’re sinners. Those of us who are in Christ. And I want to make a very brief point.

3. Turning From Sin

It’s an important point, I think. Oh, here’s the last part of Isaiah 62, the holy people, redeemed of the Lord, sought out a city not forsaken. I love that in Isaiah 62 and verse 12. First point. Turning from sin. Okay, one of the points that I’m obviously making in the introduction of this material tonight is that if we sin, yes, there’s an advocate, Jesus Christ the righteous, we can be fixed. Though we sin after we have been baptized into Christ. Sin ought to be infrequent. We cannot be walking and wallowing in the darkness all the time. We need to know some victories. We need to be walking in the light. This is an excellent point for those who are struggling with a particular sin. How can I know victory?

1 Corinthians 10 says we have to be able to endure it. God has provided a way of escape. We need to be looking for it. We can’t just sit back and say, Well, I’m a victim. Victim. Everybody’s a victim. I’m a victim. Can’t overcome this one. How can we defeat temptation? Jesus did not come to redeem us in our sin.

He came to redeem us from our sin. And he teaches us how to know victories. How are we going to do that? I’m going to offer some suggestions here. The first of which is to know victory over sin, we need to perceive the Lord’s presence. The Lord is near, Philippians chapter 4 and verse 5. And this is the one who will be our judge. We sin when we remove God from our thoughts. That’s when it happens. When God is like a million miles away. Because if we really perceived his presence, his hurt, his disappointment, his watching over us, though no man sees us, if we really perceive the presence of the Lord, we would know more victories over sin. And I’ll just give you ASAP as a quick example.

When he was almost stumbling over how good the wicked seem to have it and the righteous seem to be suffering. He says, When I came to the sanctuary of God, then I perceived therein. How they are destroyed in the moment. See, his perspective got right when he realized the nearness of God is my good. And this flows out of it. We said this morning, do you tremble? We’ll know more victories over sin when we realize it’s a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living God. That’s what the Hebrew writer was saying to Christians who were struggling with a sinful course. He was concerned about an evil heart of unbelief developing in them to their destruction. And he says, listen, folks, for willful sin there remains no sacrifice.

If you just persist in walking in darkness, and you consider unclean the blood of the covenant by which you were sanctified and insult the Spirit of Grace and trample underfoot the Son of God, it’s a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living God. We need to be impressed with that. We need to tremble at that. I know we talk a lot about fearing God being about reverence, and it is, but it’s also about understanding who we’re dealing with. And he will judge the world in righteousness. Acts 17 and verse 31. And I said this many times. We’ve got to watch out the things that are influencing us. We get into trouble when the media is dictating the way we think. When our friends who do not love God are dictating the way we think.

John preached a great lesson, I’m sure, while I was gone. I preached a lesson right before I left about evil companions, corrupt good morals. He took the flip side of that and said, we can’t go out of the world. We have to be good examples to those who are outside of Christ. And we have to show light to them. And that’s that was a great sermon, too. But when we’re doing that, we need to make sure we are the influencer and not the influence. We have to be careful of the evil influences. And you need to know where you’re vulnerable. Where you’ve stumbled in the past. And if there is a frequent sin in your past, that’s where you are particularly vulnerable. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure that out.

And if you’ve struggled with something quite a lot in your past, you need to take special care. If your hand offends you, cut it off. If your eyes offend you, pluck them out. If you’ve experienced particular problem, you’re going to have to give special attention to the defeat of that particular sin. And you need to be praying about this. Ask God to help you find the path to victory over this temptation. And not only that, we can confess our sins one to another so that we can be healed. James 5 and verse 16. There’s all kinds of things put in place with those who have this new identity to be victorious over sin. If you’re struggling with persistent sin, here’s your recipe. Let me get down to the final nuts and bolts of this.

4. Embrace Our New Identity Fully

This is real deep. You want to defeat sin. You just need to resist. That’s simple. Resist the devil and he’ll flee from you. Resist him. Peter said in 1 Peter 5, that adversary of the devil that we have, James 4 in verse 8. You’ve got to put up some resistance. And that’s what Jesus demonstrated in his defeat of the adversary. But there’s one more thing. And I think this is where these sermons are headed today. If we embraced our new identity fully, look at what God’s done. He’s taken the forsaken and the desolate and the outsider, the Gentile, those who are far off. And look what he’s done for us. We’re now, he delights in me. That’s a remarkable fall. I’m married to the Lord. Bewalan.

We’re the life, the bride of the land. If we realize what this new identity has done, this new name, this exalted nature of what we have come to, as the Hebrew writer says, we have come to Mount Zion.

We have been exalted to a higher plane. And that’s important in defeating sin, I think. Habakkuk talks about God makes me walk on my high places. Isn’t that interesting? Even though there be no cattle in the stalls, and the fields don’t produce their fruit.

The Lord has elevated my life. And therefore I am going to trust him. As we saw in our study of Ephesians, he has seated us in the heavenly places, or the heavenlies. We who were, and look at this. This goes to the point I was making at the very beginning. We who were dead in our trespasses in sin. And were by nature children of wrath. We are not that anymore. We have not been destined to wrath. But to salvation, Paul tells the Church of Thessalonica in 1 Thessalonians chapter 5. We’re not children of wrath anymore. We were dead in our trespasses and sin. But we’ve got a new identity. And man, look where we’ve come to. We’re sitting with Christ. And what about our baptism? What did it mean?

You were dead in your trespasses and sins, but you were made alive. Together with him, raised up with him. We were resurrected just as Christ was raised from the dead. We were raised to walk in newness of life. And not only that, we have passed out of death and into life. Eternal life. John 5, verse 24 said, Well, we don’t have eternal life yet. That’s still future. It’s still conditional. Yes, it is. But there is a sense in which we possess it now. As we continue this walk. He who began a good work in you will complete it at the day of the Lord Jesus, Philippians 1 and verse 6. To know Jesus and the Father is eternal life. As long as you keep pursuing knowing Him, knowing the Father and knowing the Son and being faithful and committed to Him, this is all going to end up in that eternal life.

5. Set My Mind on the Things of the Spirit

And I think sometimes we just think of eternal life as way down the road somewhere. If we’re living righteously, we’ve embraced a taste of it now. We have tasted of the heavenly gift, of the good word of God and the powers of the age to come. We who have been enlightened. Hebrews 6, verses 4 and 5. And therefore we should not crucify afresh. The Son of God. What a great passage. And again, this is just the short of that. My new identity from darkness to light compels me to set my mind on the things of the spirit and not on the things of the flesh. This is the final point. You listen well. There’s a lot of material here. But this is where the sister was focused in her study was on Romans.

And she was going through all these passages with us, and I was thinking ahead of her. I was thinking about all the things that I knew Romans said as she was going through this. We talked about this verse this morning. God commended his love toward us in what? While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. And then you come to chapter 7 and verse 24, when Paul is describing his life under the law, and he says, Oh, wretched man that I am. Who will deliver me from this body of death? And I think sometimes we look at that passage and we say, in our struggles with temptation, I feel just like Paul. And in fact, well, I don’t want to get to that yet. I’ve getting ahead of myself.

But I okay, I’ll go there and then I’ll come back. Oh, wretched man that I am, who will deliver me from this body of death? But he says, thanks be to God. Okay, whatever he’s talking about. God’s done something. Thanks be to God. And then what does he say in chapter 8 and verse 1, two verses later? There is now, therefore, no condemnation.

There is now, therefore, no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. They have the new name. No condemnation. Now back to seven. But you know, I still feel like this sometimes. Where Paul says, I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is my flesh. For the wishing is present in me, but the doing of good is not. You know, sometimes I have good intentions, but I just can’t seem to follow through. The good that I wish, I do not do. But I practice the very evil that I do not wish. But if I’m doing the very thing I do not wish, I’m no longer the one doing it, but sin which indwells me. So I felt like that. And I don’t doubt that we do sometimes feel like that when we’re struggling with a particular sin.

But that’s not what Paul’s talking about in Romans 7. Paul is saying that all of his best attempts to be righteous were not good enough. Because he was a sinner. And there was no solution for that under the law. It doesn’t matter how good he wanted to be, he could not be good. And so he is describing what we sometimes feel, but he’s saying it in a context of under the law, it was a hopeless situation. There was no justification, there was no fix. And he says, I was wretched because I had sin on my account. And sin, sacrifices for sin were only a reminder year after year. They didn’t take away sin. But he says, not so now.

There is no condemnation. And it’s not that he’s not ever going to sin again. I’m sure Paul did. But now there is a very real fix. And a sin, an infrequent sin, a sin doesn’t have to mark the end of it. And even if there is a bunch of sins back here, if I would take the second law of pardon, I can get back up on the high road and keep going. But I can’t stay there and waddle. But let me tell you what you are now. Again, this body of death has been done away with. We have arisen to walk in newness of life. And then look at all of these terms that follow. No condemnation. We’re indwelt by the Holy Spirit. We’re indwelt by Christ.

We’ve been adopted as sons. We’re heirs of Christ. We have been called, predestined, and justified. There are a lot more terms like this to describe us in the New Testament than the term sinner.

Conclusion

And so I preach this lesson to tell you. We need to live by our new identity. Responsibility. We have an awesome responsibility because of our new identity. Others are looking at me to determine the validity of what I am confessing with my lips. Let us live the new identity. I am still susceptible to sin. But I will not be dominated and controlled by sin any longer. That must be my mindset. I will not be dominated and controlled by sin any longer. I have been called to make my calling and election sure and to be diligent to make certain of his calling and choosing me. 2 Peter chapter 1 and verse 10 says.

And if we appreciated that, I believe there would be more victories and fewer defeats. We would find more fulfillment in our worship and more fervently as we do it. And we would not be so negatively affected by adverse circumstances. But we would truly accomplish what James says in chapter 1 and verse 2 to count it all joy when you fall into various trials. I conclude this morning by this evening by asking this question. Who or what are you? Are you a person that is no longer defined by sin?

What did Jesus offer? If you abide in my word, then you are disciples of mine, and you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free. How are we doing? Living above sin. That may, the answer to that question may well relate to how much we appreciate this new name that we possess in Christ. Be set free to pursue your creator’s intentions and embrace the marvelous hope of glory.

I don’t want somebody to have to speak to me and say, Cleanse your hands and purify your hearts, you sinners.

Thanks be to God that those who will do that work. We have been called to something higher and better and richer and deeper. We have a new name. And may we go out there and live like people who have an exalted and extraordinary existence. Because we have been raised up to live with Christ. Is sin still on your account? Have you been baptized in the cleansing blood of Jesus so that you too can possess the new name and be raised up with him who has the name that is above all names? Can we assist you this very hour in your response in Jesus’ name to be baptized for the forgiveness of your sins? Won’t you come while we stand second?