ABC's of the New Covenant

So, we're going to talk about the ABCs of the New Covenant this morning, and it's going to be a Reformed Baptist understanding in light of Presbyterianism. So, although we love our Presbyterian brothers, we do disagree with them, so I want to do this politely and as accurately as I possibly can.

So the first question is, who are the proper recipients of baptism? Is it babies, or is it believers? This is the distinction. This is what makes us Baptists. We believe in believers' baptism. We don't baptize babies because they haven't made a profession of faith.

So, hopefully we're going to get to see that a little bit more clearly. So, rather than misunderstand them or misstate what they said, I'm going to put up the Westminster Confession, and this comes right out of their confession.

It says, His baptism is a sacrament of the New Testament, ordained by Jesus Christ, not only for the solemn admission of the party baptized into the visible Church, but also to be unto Him a sign and seal of the covenant of grace, of His ingrafting into Christ, of regeneration, of remission of sins, and of giving up unto God through Jesus Christ to walk in newness of life.

Which sacrament is, by Christ's own appointment, to be continued in His Church until the end of the world? So, they're pretty clear at that point. Not only those that do actually profess faith in and obedience unto Christ, but also the infants of one or both believing parents are to be baptized.

And finally, although it be a great sin to condemn or neglect this ordinance, yet grace and salvation are not so inseparably annexed to it as that no person can be regenerated or saved without it. So, they're saying that baptism does not cause regeneration.

But here's where I see an inconsistency. Right, exactly, right in their own confession, right? It says, Baptism is a sacrament of the New Testament, not only for the solemn admission of the party baptized into the visible Church, but also to be unto Him a sign and seal of the covenant of grace, of His ingrafting into Christ, of His regeneration, of remission of sins, and of His giving up unto God through Christ to walk in newness of life.

That's saying that people who are baptized are also in the New Covenant. In it. You can't have those things without being in the New Covenant. Yet, they say that all that are baptized are not undoubtedly regenerated.

So, how could you be in the covenant with the sign and seal of baptism and not be regenerated? Again, this, at worst, is a contradiction. At best, is a major inconsistency. So, here's how we look at it.

Baptism in 1689 is an ordinance of the New Testament, ordained by Jesus Christ, to be unto the party baptized, a sign of fellowship with Him, Jesus, in His death and resurrection, of His being ingrafted into Him, of remission of sins, and of giving up unto God through Jesus Christ to live and walk in newness of life.

Very similar. But, it's to believers. Those who do actually profess repentance towards God, faith in and obedience to our Lord Jesus Christ, are the only proper subjects of this ordinance. So, baptism is a sign and seal of something that's happened in the person's heart first.

You're regenerated and believe, and now you take the next step of baptism. Otherwise, we're reversing the process. We're putting the baptism before the Holy Spirit change in the heart. So, here's what I want to do.

I want to go through what the New Covenant, what's entailed in the New Covenant, and I called it the ABCs for a reason, because we're going to start with A. A stands for atonement of sin and an advocate with the Father.

1 Peter 3 .18,. For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that He might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh and made alive in the Spirit. In 1 John 2 .1, If anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ.

So now, do all babies who are baptized have atonement? If that was the case, if every baptized baby had atonement, they would all be saved. But not all baptized babies end up being regenerated or saved.

Atonement, Advocacy, and the First Blessings of the New Covenant

B. Baptism by the Holy Spirit into the body of Christ. 1 Corinthians 12 .13,. For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body, Jews or Greeks, slaves or free, and we were all made to drink of one Spirit.

So anyone who is a Christian, it's because the Holy Spirit has baptized you into the body of Christ. Spirit baptism, not water baptism. If it was water baptism, it would say that, right? It's a work of the Spirit done in the heart.

C. Circumcised by the Holy Spirit. You know, Romans 2 .29,. A Jew is one inwardly, and circumcision is a matter of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the letter. His praise is not from man, but from God.

So circumcision of the heart, a regenerate heart, is the work of the Holy Spirit, not of man dunking a baby into water. So again, we have to see what's entailed in the New Covenant. What are the benefits of the New Covenant?

Circumcised heart, baptism into the body of Christ, an advocate, and atonement for sin. Do all baptized babies have an advocate, atonement, baptism in the Spirit, and being circumcised in their heart by the Spirit?

No. On to D. We're dead to sin. So also you must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus. Are those little babies dead to sin? Like 2 .30 in the morning when they're crying and screaming?

You know they're not dead to sin. They're very much alive to it, right? E. Elected by God. Even as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world that we should be holy and blameless before Him, in love He predestined us for adoption to Himself as sons through Jesus Christ according to the purpose of His will.

Is every baptized baby elected by God? No. So why would you baptize a baby if you don't know, right? Hoping that they would be elected by God or doing something that would make them elected by God? Seems opposite.

F. Filled with the Holy Spirit. Whoever believes in Me, as the Scripture said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water. So a true Christian is going to have the Holy Spirit inside of him and rivers of living water of that Spirit are going to pour out of him in word, thought, and deed.

That's not true of all baptized babies. Now there might be a baptized baby who later on in life comes to know the Lord and is elected by God and changed in his heart. Great. That's when he should be baptized.

Not beforehand. Okay, gee, you're given or granted eternal life. Whoever hears My word and believes in Him who sent Me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment but has passed from death to life.

Is that true of every baptized baby? Has every baptized baby been given eternal life? No. If baptizing the baby puts them in the New Covenant, then it's a work of man that puts them in the New Covenant and not a work of God.

We have to recognize that. Dare I say they'd be just called wet Arminians? Sorry. H. Given Jesus as our high priest. We have a high priest as believers. We're going to get to that in what? Three, four years?

Chapter 6? Excellent. Good timing. So we have this as assurance, steadfast anchor of the soul, hope that enters into the inner place. Jesus has gone as a forerunner on our behalf, having become a high priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.

So believers have a high priest that intercedes for them, and that I think is the next one. We're interceded for by Jesus. He's able to save uttermost those who draw near to God through him since he always lives to make intercession for them.

Now this is a real sticking point because if being baptized as an infant puts you into the New Covenant, do you have Jesus at that moment now interceding for you? If Jesus is interceding for you, is there a chance that you'll be lost?

No. No. Right? If there's a chance that you'll be lost, what good is the New Covenant? Even Jesus' prayers fail. I like to ask, especially my synergistic friends, do you pray for your unsaved loved ones?

Yes. I say, is Jesus interceding for them right now? Yes. Is there a possibility they won't be saved? Yes. I said, then if the prayers of the perfect, spotless, sinless Son of God isn't going to affect salvation in them, what makes you think your prayers are going to be effective?

Jesus intercedes for those whom he intercedes for his people. Remember John 17. I do not pray for the world. Pray for those you've given me out of the world. So again, baptism is a sign and a seal pointing to something that's happened, not done in hope of something that will happen.

J, we're justified by God. All believers are justified by God. You were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God. Again, this is a work of the Spirit in the heart, not a work of man doing a rote symbol in baptism.

Baptism is real and should reflect what has been done in the heart already. All believers know God and are known by God. This is eternal life. That they may know you, the one true God in Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.

Hebrews 8 .11. Again, this is very important. They shall not teach each one his neighbor and each one his brother, saying, Know the Lord. For they shall all know me from the least to the greatest. Do all baptized babies know God?

If the answer is no, then they're not in the new covenant. And if they're not in the new covenant, how can baptism in Presbyterian theology be a sign and seal of the new covenant? It's certainly not a seal because they're not in the covenant.

That's something that the Holy Spirit does to us. We're going to make more of the work of man in baptizing baby than we are of the work of God. L. We're loved like Jesus. Romans 8 .38. For I'm sure that neither death nor life nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus.

Does every baptized believer experience this same love that believers experience? All right. The love that God shows his elect, his people is the same love he's bestowed on Jesus. The love, the same love that God has for Jesus is the same love he has for us as his children.

Can that be said of every single baptized baby? I don't think so. I think it's done in hope and they're going to raise their children, you know, in the fear and admonition of the Lord. And that's great.

And bring them into church and bring them to Sunday school. Again, these are all necessary things. We're supposed to train up our children in the way they should go. But at a certain point in time, something has to happen in their hearts.

OK. Again, baptizing an infant, I think, is done in hope, not in confidence. Right. They're not they can't be confident that every single baptized baby would be saved because Scripture doesn't doesn't say that.

That's number one. And experientially, we know that all baptized babies don't end up saved. So any questions at this point? We're good. Mediator. Right. Every believer has Jesus as their mediator. There's one mediator between God and man.

The man cries Jesus. Again, Hebrews 8 .6. Christ has obtained a ministry that is much more excellent than the old as the covenant he mediates is better since it is enacted on better promises. So, again, do baptized babies or do they experience these better promises that Jesus is acting as a mediator for?

Again, if he is mediating for baptized babies and some of those baptized babies don't end up knowing God and are saved, then is Jesus mediation enough? It would have to be something in addition to Jesus's mediation that would cause them to be born again.

Again, this is very important. So, as believers, we have an advocate. We have atonement. We have an intercessor. We have a mediator who makes that covenant happen to us. And we're a new creation. 2 Corinthians 5 .17.

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away. Behold, the new has come. Every believer is a new creation. And the old has passed away. You are crucified with Christ on that cross.

Like Paul says, it is no longer I who live, but Christ in me. The life I live, I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. Not every baptized baby can say that. They are not new creations.

You are not a new creation when you're baptized. You're only a new creation when the Holy Spirit comes in and changes your heart. Is that making sense? Okay. Oh, ordained salvation by God. Acts 13 .48.

As many as were appointed, the words ordained, to eternal life believed. And the word of the Lord was spreading throughout the whole region. So, obviously, we know as good Calvinists that God is the one who ordains salvation.

Salvation is of the Lord. He's the one who does the work. He begins it. He ends it. He's the author and finisher of our faith. Baptism, at that point, would be a sign and seal of what God has done on earth as it was in heaven.

Right? Baptism is like the wedding ring that a husband would put on his wife to show that she's married and to show that he's married to her. The ring becomes a sign and a seal of the promise of their marriage together, of their covenanting with one another.

Why would you put a ring on someone who you don't know you're going to marry? You know, that's what baptism symbolizes. That union with Christ. P. We have propitiation for sins. Hebrews 2 .17. He might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God to make propitiation for the sins of the people.

Now, propitiation is the absorbing of God's wrath. Okay? On our behalf, such that God's disposition towards us is favorable now. It's something that happens to God. Propitiation is not something that happens to us.

Jesus makes propitiation so that God is satisfied that the payment for our sins is made. And now he can look favorably upon us because our sins have been paid for. We're going to get to expiation in a little while.

So, does every baptized baby have propitiation for their sins? If God's wrath abides on any of them, then no, they don't have propitiation for sins. And again, why would you baptize a baby who we don't know is elected by God?

Q. We're quickened by the Holy Spirit. Quickened means brought to life. Ephesians 2 .5. Even when we were dead in our trespasses, he made us alive together with Christ. By grace, you have been saved. So, every believer has been quickened.

We've brought to life when he was dead in his sins and trespasses. Again, I don't think every baptized baby experiences the quickening of the Holy Spirit. When I went through these scriptures, it's clear that salvation is obviously 100 a work of God from beginning to end.

R. We're reconciled to God. Colossians 1 .21. Again, this is a work done by God. He reconciles us in his body of flesh by his death. So, at the cross, Colossians earlier would say that the sins were nailed to the cross.

The law was nailed to the cross. It's done. And it's done in order to present us holy and blameless. So, it has an effect. When Jesus died on the cross, that was the cause of our salvation. The effect is us coming to life because of what Jesus did.

Again, to presume and baptize your child before this happens to him or her, it does not show that it's a sign and a seal for what has happened already. It does not put them in the new covenant. If they were in the new covenant, they would have propitiation.

They would be made alive. They would be reconciled to God. The only way to really make that work in your theology is to hold to baptismal regeneration, which Lutherans do, which Catholics do. They say that you're born again in baptism.

And again, I don't see that in the scriptures. And then it would make salvation initially the work of man. If I baptize my baby, now they're regenerated. Hopefully, they can hold on to it for the rest of their lives and work their way through it.

Again, that's not a work of God. That's a work of man. S, in the new covenant, we're sealed and we're sanctified by God. Ephesians 430, do not grieve the Holy Spirit by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.

It's on the day that God opens your heart that you confess him as Lord. You repent of your sins. It is evidence that the Holy Spirit has done something to you. You've changed. He's changed you. And it's at that moment that we're sealed.

Once the Holy Spirit comes in and indwells us, we are now sealed for the day of redemption. He's never going to leave us or forsake us. He began that work in our heart. The process of sanctification now begins as we work out our salvation with fear and trembling until that day that we're taken home.

And in 1 Corinthians 1 -2,. So, baptized babies are not sealed, are not being sanctified at that moment. The Holy Spirit doesn't indwell in them. Okay? T, we're transferred out of darkness. Colossians 1 -13,.

Now, if that's true, why would you have to evangelize a baptized baby? Right? They've already been transferred into the kingdom of light. They're not in darkness anymore. They would understand the things that you would be teaching them as a pastor or teacher or a parent.

They would understand them. They would accept them. They would encourage and want to be in that more. But it's not necessarily true. I know I was baptized as a baby, and I didn't want any part of God until He grabbed me and opened my eyes and my ears and changed my heart so that I could now be pulled, drawn to Him.

That's another thing we had talked about on Wednesday. That word, draw, means to drag. And the people, oh, God, your God drags you and pulls you kicking and screaming. I'm like, no, man. But if you were in a burning building and you were knocked out on the floor, would you want the guy to go?

Come on out. Come on out. Would you want to go in and drag you out of the burning building and save you? That's what God does. He drags us out of the kingdom of darkness and brings us into the kingdom of light.

And it's an act of mercy and love because he doesn't have to do it because really, we're not knocked out. We're alive in the burning building and loving it. That's the problem. Our hearts are inclined towards you.

We love darkness and hate the light. OK, so that's the T. You were united to Christ in His death, burial, and resurrection. Again, this is big, Romans 6. Now, they're going to say that this applies to water baptism, right?

All of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death. We were buried, therefore, with Him by baptism into death. And just as Christ was raised from the dead, we, too, might walk in newness of life.

OK, I see that as a work of the spirit done in the heart. OK, that's where we're united to God. He's the one who circumcised us. He's the one who brings us to life. We're quickened. OK, but we are as believers.

We're united to Christ. Not every baptized baby is united to Christ until he believes. OK, we're vindicated by God, Acts 13 .39. And by Him, everyone who believes is freed. That word is vindicated from everything which you could not be freed by the law of Moses.

So, are baptized babies free from the law of Moses? Are they free to keep the law, or are they still bound up in their sin? If they're still bound up in their sin, then they're not freed yet. John 8, He whom the Son sets free is free indeed.

You need to be set free by Jesus. Otherwise, you're going to be a slave to your sin. So, again, every believer, every true believer who's been regenerated by God is vindicated. They're freed from everything which you could not be freed by the law of Moses.

That's one of the better promises of the New Covenant. So, baptizing your children does not put them in the New Covenant. Otherwise, you would not have to be freed. You're freed already. W, you're washed by the blood of Christ.

Revelation 1 .5, to him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood. Hebrews 10 .19, therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus. The blood of Jesus is applied to the lives of the believers by the Holy Spirit.

We are drawn to God. We are saved by God. We are washed by the blood of Jesus. Again, it's something done by the Spirit of God, not something that we do in a ceremony or perfunctory type of service. X, here's where we get expiation, expiation of our sins.

Our sins are removed from us. Psalm 103 .12, as far as the East is from the West, so far does he remove our transgressions from us. So, the sins that we've committed, he moves them away. That's something that happens to us.

And Jesus' propitiation is something that the wrath for those sins are absorbed. Okay, so now God can look favorably upon us. Our sins are no longer there and we're in union with him because of what Jesus has done.

Expiation pulls them away. Propitiation appeases God's wrath. He can look favorably upon us and have relationship with us. Why? You will be saved, right? Romans 10 .9, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.

For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved. Every regenerated believer will be saved. Everyone changed by the Holy Spirit, adopted into the family of God, have their sins atoned for, have Jesus as the intercessor and the great high priest, will be saved.

Jesus will not lose any that come to him because all that the Father gives him will come to him. And he will by no means cast any out but raise them up on the last day. It's my Father's will that I shall not lose any of all those given to me.

So, can we safely say with confidence that every baptized baby has been given by the Father to the Son? No, no. If that was the case, then they would be saved, right? And it would have something in some way, we would place some part in that.

If we were the ones who baptized that child, if we knew that baptizing the child resulted in regeneration, would we not all just baptize our children? Of course. But it's not something done by us. We need to be baptized by the Spirit.

The Spirit is the one who moves our hearts, changes our hearts, and puts us into the body of Christ. Z. This is a tough one. I couldn't think of anything with Z. Zero wrath, right? Zero wrath left for his saints.

John 19 .30, when Jesus had received the sour wine, he said, All right. Music to our ears. Paid in full. There is nothing left to be paid. Can we truly and honestly look at a baptized baby and say, Your sins have been paid for in full without knowing?

No. 1 Thessalonians 1 .10, we wait for the Son, for his Son from heaven, Jesus, who delivers us from the wrath to come. There is no more wrath for the believer. Praise God. So we went from A, which is atonement, the appeasement, the reconciliation between us and God, our sins being forgiven, to Z, zero wrath.

We've covered the gamut, A to Z. So, and I know I went probably a little faster because I knew we were running a little late. Based on what the New Covenant entails, Only believers as recipients of the baptism of the Holy Spirit are made members of Christ and his church and experience all of the blessings of salvation from A to Z.

Right? Baptized babies do not experience all those blessings. Therefore, only believers should receive the sign and seal that points to the reality of that membership in the New Covenant. Therefore, only believers should be baptized.

Any questions? Concerns? What do you think would be their pushback?

The Westminster, I'm so glad you put that up there because, I mean, according to the wording, they do believe in regeneration by baptism. I mean, it says it right in there.

Well, they said, down here. Yeah, I know. Down here. They contradict themselves. Yeah, I'm saying, I don't want to go full bore and say, oh, they're contradicting themselves. Worst is contradiction. At best case, it's an inconsistency.

They can't say that when someone is baptized, it's a sign and seal of the covenant of grace. Because if it was, then everyone who's baptized would be in the covenant of grace. But they're not. They go on to say, the baptism points to his ingrafting into Christ, of regeneration, of remission of sins, of his giving up unto God through Jesus Christ to walk in newness of life.

No infants have done that. Now, can God save an infant? Of course. He can save whoever he wants. That's the point. So, when we get down here, it says, So you can be saved without being baptized. Or that all that are baptized are undoubtedly regenerated.

But if they're not regenerated, how does that work out with the first paragraph?

There's an inconsistency. Because of where it says, unto him. That's how. But also, to be unto him a sign and a seal of the covenant of grace. It's from where Peter says, the promise is to you, to your children, and to all who are far off, as many as God will call to himself.

As many as are called, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, but the promise is for them, and for their children, and so on, you know, whatever. So it's a sign unto them, as it were. They take it as a promise, if I'm not mistaken.

You know what I mean?

It's interesting. If you read Calvin on baptism, when you just read how he describes baptism, you would swear he was a reformed Baptist. Just on that. Then, he goes into defense of infant baptism. And that's where you start to see inconsistencies, even in Calvin.

But when you look at Calvin, when he defines what baptism is, we have no problem with his definition. Until he gets to the point where he says, however, now I'm going to explain why we should baptize our infant.

And of course, that's what we have problems with. Okay.