Baptism part 2

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This week on Trailer Park Theology we will continue our talk on baptism by looking at Acts 2:36-41.

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Matthew 24 part 3

Matthew 24 part 3

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Alright, and we are live.
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Welcome everyone to my second podcast, Trailer Park Theology, and tonight we will continue in discussing baptism.
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Now I'm looking at this from a Reformed Baptist position. I hold to what's called 1689
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Federalist. 1689
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Federalist. And so what that means is, is that, so the
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Presbyterians, well, let me read
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Genesis 315 real quick and then we'll kind of dive into that. So the covenant of grace is found in Genesis 315, and this is
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God speaking to the serpent after Adam and Eve were deceived and ate of the tree of knowledge and good and evil.
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315 is the curse given to the serpent. It says this, I will put enmity between you, speaking to the serpent, and the woman, between your offspring and her offspring.
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He shall bruise your head and you shall bruise his heel.
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And so last week, I kind of dove into the differences that we would have with our
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Presbyterian brothers. So Presbyterianism, when it comes to the covenant theology, they believe that it was inaugurated right here.
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And because it was inaugurated, that there's one covenant since this.
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So, so the covenant of grace is inaugurated in Genesis 315.
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God gave the covenant of works to Adam, the Adamic covenant. They fall, they break it, they break the covenant.
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God gives them the covenant of grace. And so every other covenant, the Abrahamic covenant, the
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Mosaic covenant, the Davidic covenant, and I would also add the
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Noahic covenant are all administrations of the one covenant, the covenant of grace.
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My problem with that is this, is that Genesis 315 does not teach that the covenant of grace was inaugurated.
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But what does it teach? It teaches a promise and a fulfillment.
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It promises the covenant of grace, but it gives the fulfillment.
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It lets you know when this covenant would be inaugurated.
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Let's read it again. God, speaking to the serpent, I will put enmity between you and the woman and between your offspring and her offspring.
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He, this offspring coming from the woman, will bruise your head and you shall bruise his heel.
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So we believe that this is speaking of the crucifixion of Christ.
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When Jesus Christ was crucified, when they nailed him hands and feet to a
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Roman cross, that this was Jesus bruising the head of the serpent while only having his heel bruised.
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So the crucifixion is the heel of our Savior being bruised.
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That was the inauguration of the new covenant.
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That the new covenant is the covenant of grace.
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The covenant that was seen in Old Testament is not the covenant of grace.
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So that's the Reformed Baptist 1689 Federalist view.
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The Old Testament, the old covenant is not, listen, is not the covenant of grace.
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The new covenant is the covenant of grace. It was inaugurated when
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Jesus Christ was crucified. And so I left off last week reading from our confession, the
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London Baptist Confession of Faith 1689 chapter 29.
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This is where it speaks about baptism. I'm going to read that again from the start.
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29 chapter 29 paragraph one says this, baptism is an ordinance of the
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New Testament ordained by Jesus Christ to those baptized.
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It is a sign of their fellowship with him in his death and resurrection of their being grafted into him of remission of sins and of submitting themselves to God through Jesus Christ to live and walk in newness of life.
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Paragraph two, those who personally profess repentance toward God and faith in obedience to our
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Lord Jesus Christ are the only proper subjects of this ordinance.
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Paragraph three, the hour element to be used in this ordinance is water in which the individual is to be baptized in the name of the father and of the son and of the
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Holy spirit. Paragraph four, immersion or dipping of the person in water is necessary for this ordinance to be administered properly.
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Properly. All right.
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So when it comes to salvation, so we don't believe in salvation by baptism and we will get into that when it comes to the text.
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I don't know if we'll get there this week because Acts 2 42 kind of, there's some language there that we have to work through.
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So as a reformed Baptist, this is what I believe about salvation. I believe that salvation has to be owed.
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I believe if salvation, like the way in which someone is saved, rescued, ransomed, reconciled to God has to be owed.
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It can't be new. All right. The same way Abraham was saved is the same way that you and I today are saved.
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So if, if being emerged, if being baptized into water is how a person becomes a
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Christian, then Abraham needed to be baptized and emerged in water to become righteous before God.
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If Abraham wasn't emerged in water, baptized to become righteous, then you and I do not have to enter the waters of baptism to become righteous before God.
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So as a reformed Baptist, we believe in one way of salvation that, that, that salvage, that there's continuity when it comes to salvation and that is trusting
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God, belief in God. And so when the Bible says that Abraham believed
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God, well, what did he believe? Well, he believed that, that, that, that through his offspring, he would inherit a land and that the whole earth will be blessed through him.
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The offspring would be the offspring of the woman, right?
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So this offspring that was coming from the woman is passed through Abraham. And so by believing in this offspring, who is
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Jesus, ultimately will be Jesus. Jesus will fulfill the prophecy of the offspring by believing in this offspring that would come and by whom would, would, would keep the covenant, would keep the law, and would earn the land and would, and through him, all the nations of the world will be blessed that, that is how a person was saved.
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That is how they were justified. That is how they are declared righteous before God.
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And so I believe that as Baptists, we hold this belief and it's unique to other denominations.
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So the same way that Abraham was saved, the same way that he was declared righteous before God is the same way that you and I are saved and declared righteous.
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Abraham believed in the promise of something that would happen. You and I today believe that the promise has happened, that it did happen, right?
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So they were looking for to something that was going to happen. We're looking back at what did happen.
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And what did happen was the offspring did come and it was
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Jesus Christ who lived the life that we could not live and who died the death that we deserve to die.
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In dying this death, he reconciled us to God and in living the perfect sinless life, he saved us from the wrath of God.
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That being said, when he done this, that was the inauguration of the covenant of grace.
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Let me get some coffee. All right.
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I'm out of coffee. Let me open my water. All right.
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So now let's get to the text. Acts chapter two. Again, I expressed this last week that in studying baptism are not like, like this portion of scripture is it's really something that I never wanted to deal with.
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And I didn't want to deal with it because it's so ambiguous. And we'll look at that.
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So Acts chapter two. Um, what do I have?
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Verse 36 through 41. So if you have your Bibles, you can turn there with me.
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Acts chapter two, 36 through 41. I will be reading from the ESV.
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Let's get this closer. All right. So here, uh, the context would be
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Pentecost. Jesus has ascended.
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He's with the father, promises throughout the book of John about them sending the
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Holy Spirit. They're in the upper room. They received the Holy Spirit. They start proclaiming the magnificent works of God and, and in doing so they were speaking in other languages.
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It talks about Jews from all over the earth were gathering together because of the feast and they were able to hear the apostles and those that were there preach and speak in their own language.
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They were not speaking gibberish. They were not speaking in unknown languages.
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They were speaking in languages of the people who were gathered together that day.
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Jewish people from all over the earth that were gathered together, who spoke in a different tongue, they were able to hear the apostles speak in the magnificent work of God in their own tongue.
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So this is what's taken place. This is the context and we'll get more into it. But verse 36 says this, let all the house of Israel therefore know for certain that God has made him both
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Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified.
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Now when they heard this, they were cut to the heart and they said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, brothers, what shall we do?
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Verse 36. And Peter said to them, repent and be baptized, every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ, for the forgiveness of sins, and you will receive the gift of the
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Holy Spirit. For the promise is for you and for your children and for all who are far off, everyone whom the
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Lord our God calls to himself. And with many other words, he bore witness and continued to exhort them saying, save yourself from this crooked generation.
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And those who received his word were baptized and they were added that day about 3000 souls.
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All right. So what I have here that we're going to go through, I have outlined the promise, the people, and the purpose.
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So as we go through here, we will see what the promise is, who are the people and what was the purpose of this.
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Now, I'm not sure if we'll get through all three points.
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As a matter of fact, it's not really my goal to get through all three points. I want to make sure that what
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I'm saying is clear. And then next week we'll go back.
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If I don't get through all three points next week, we'll go back and we'll look at it. So point number one, the purpose,
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I mean, excuse me, the promise. Remember point number one, the promise, point number two, the people, and point number three, the purpose.
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So right now we'll look at the promise. Verse 38.
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And Peter said to them, repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of the
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Lord Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the
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Holy Spirit for the promise is for you and for your children and for all who are far off, everyone whom the
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Lord God has called to themselves. So I'm not going to skip repentance and being baptized, but I'm going to come back to it in just a second.
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Right now, I just want to look at what is the promise. So the nearest antecedent to the promise is not repentance and it is not baptism.
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The nearest antecedent to the promise is the Holy Spirit. All right.
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So he says, repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins.
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And you will receive the Holy Spirit for the promise. The Holy Spirit is for you and for your children and for all those who are far off.
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So here it's not saying that repentance and baptism is the promise, but it's saying that the
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Holy Spirit is the promise. Now, I'm not throwing away repentance, faith, and baptism.
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I'm just showing the nearest antecedent. What is the promise? And so Acts was actually written by Luke.
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And if you look at Luke chapter 24, beginning in verse 45.
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So this will be the road to Emmaus. Jesus has been crucified. He has three days have passed.
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He has resurrected. He is walking with his disciples, but they did not recognize him.
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But he says this, and I won't get into everything. I don't have the time to flesh all that out. But verse 45 says this.
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Then he opened their minds to understand the scripture, speaking about the disciples.
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Jesus opened their mind to understand the scriptures. And he said to them, thus it is written that the
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Christ should suffer and on the third day raise from the dead.
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And that repentance for the forgiveness of sins, notice it didn't say baptism, that repentance for the forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all the nations beginning from Jerusalem.
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You are my witnesses to these things and behold, I am sending the promise of my father upon you.
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But stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high.
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Now, what does Luke say that the promise is? And behold, I am sending the promise of my father, but stay in the city until you're clothed with power on high.
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Now, remember in our, excuse me, remember in our text that they were in the upper room, they were filled with the
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Holy Spirit, power came upon them. Trace back to Luke, I mean to Acts chapter 1, beginning in verse 1,
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Luke writes in the first book, first book being Luke, O Theophilus, I dealt with all that Jesus began to do and teach until the day when he was taken up after he had given commands through the
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Holy Spirit to the apostles whom he had chosen. He presented himself alive to them after his suffering by many proofs appearing to them during 40 days and speaking about the kingdom of God.
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And while he was staying with them, he ordered them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the father, which he said, you have heard from me for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the
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Holy Spirit, not many days from now. Also, let's look at Acts 2, 33.
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This is in the sermon that Peter's preaching says this, being therefore exalted at the right hand of God, having received from the father, the promise of the
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Holy Spirit, he has poured out this. You are seeing you yourselves are seeing and hearing.
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So the promise is clear. Like it's clear. The promise is the
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Holy Spirit. The promise is not baptism and the promise is not repentance.
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The promise is the Holy Spirit. So let's go back because I don't want to skip over.
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For some reason, I am just really caught in now. I do not want to skip over repentance and baptism.
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So I mentioned last week how, how this is, this text is very ambiguous, that there's so many different interpretations taken right here in verses 38 and 39.
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So we have our, our friends, the churches of Christ, and I have some really good friends in the churches of Christ, you know, preachers there whom
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I, who I've, you know, connected with on Facebook, who I love dearly.
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But I, I disagree 100 % with when it comes to, when it comes to this and they know it, right?
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You know, I don't, I don't hide my disagreement. Where it talks about, and Peter said to them, repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ.
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And you will receive, I mean, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins.
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And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. So the argument here is that in order to receive the
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Holy Spirit, and in order to be in Christ, meaning salvificly, you have to be baptized, emerged.
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That, that, that you're not, like, if you haven't been baptized, like you're not a
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Christian, you're not a brother in Christ until you are baptized and come up out the water.
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That somehow in the waters of baptism is how you, is how the blood of Jesus is applied to your life.
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So if you haven't went under water baptism, then the blood of Jesus is not applied to your life and you have not received the forgiveness of sins.
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Now my problem with that there is, again, Abraham was not baptized.
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In order for Christian salvation to be true, then Christian salvation has to be owed the same way
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Abraham was saved is the same way that we are saved. And I would add,
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I kind of hinted at it earlier, Luke chapter 24, verse 37.
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Well, let's go to verse 46. Verse 46 says this, and he said to them,
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Jesus speaking, thus it is written, right here he's going to give you the gospel, that the
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Christ should suffer and on the third day raised from the dead, and that repentance for the forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all the nations.
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So Luke writing, same author, and Acts, he says, repentance, 38, repent and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins.
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Luke chapter 24 says that repentance for the forgiveness of your sins.
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So before we dive in that any deeper, let's look at repentance.
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What is repentance? Well, I'm going to say that repentance is turning from self -righteousness.
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When it comes to salvation, right? Salvificly, at the moment of salvation, repentance is turning from self -righteousness.
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And I believe that's what the context teaches. Repentance is not stop sinning, like, like that's impossible.
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First John tells us, hey, hey, you don't sin, but when you do sin, confess your sins and never say that you have not sinned.
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And know that when you sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. Now I'm not telling you it's okay to sin.
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Don't walk away thinking that I'm telling you it's okay to sin. It's not okay. Stop it. But when you do sin, because you will, confess it and know that you have an advocate with the
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Father and never say you don't sin. So repentance is turning from something to something.
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And in our text, we see that it's turning from self -righteousness to the righteousness of Christ.
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Notice with me, verse 36.
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And let all the house of Israel know, therefore know for certain that God has made him both
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Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucify. Notice verse 37.
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Now when they heard this, they were cut to the heart. And they said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, brothers, what must we do?
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Now let me ask you something. If they were not given faith to believe right here, would they say, what must we do?
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Absolutely not. I've been preaching the gospel on the streets, I don't know, 12 years now.
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And I've never had anyone who wasn't interested in Christianity, who
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God hasn't sovereignly removed from the fire, ask me those things.
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Them asking what must they do, tells me that as Peter was preaching,
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God gave to them faith to believe. And Peter's response to them was to repent, to turn from self -righteousness.
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You say, how do you know that? Because their self -righteousness was in the
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Mosaic system. It was in the sacrificial system that at this time, in order to receive forgiveness of sins, you would bring to the priest, you would go to the temple, you would bring the priest a lamb, a turtle dove, a pigeon, whatever the sin was, whatever it required, you would bring to him these things.
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And that the priest would sacrifice, would kill this lamb, would kill this turtle dove on behalf of your sins.
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All right? So to them, that was their righteousness.
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Their righteousness, they were dependent upon themselves to bring an offering to the priest at the temple to be sacrificed.
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They were trusting in something that they could do. And Peter makes it clear, he says, let the house of Israel therefore know for certain that God has made him both
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Lord and Christ, whom you, the Jews, not me,
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I didn't crucify him, not you, you didn't crucify him, but the Jews of that generation crucified our
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Lord. Not the Jews today who are in Jerusalem, they didn't crucify him, but the
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Jews then at that time, crucify him, crucify him, give us
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Barabbas. They crucify the Lord, and he is telling them to repent, to turn from their self -righteousness, to stop trusting in the sacrificial system, and to trust in the one who died for their sins, to trust in Jesus Christ.
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Self -repentance is turning from yourself and putting your trust in the sacrifice,
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Jesus Christ. And I believe that when you do that, you will receive the forgiveness of your sins.
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Now, I say that in two ways, um, because I, you know,
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I don't want to get into Calvinism right now, so we're, we won't touch it, we won't touch it.
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That's another video. So, you and I, we have to repent, we have to believe in Jesus Christ.
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Now, I'm not forgetting baptism here, but I want to touch on some other things dealing with baptism, why the text is so ambiguous.
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So, back to our Churches of Christ, brothers. So, they would say, it's clear right here that you have to be baptized in order to receive forgiveness of sins, but notice what it says.
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It says, in the name of Jesus Christ. Now, there's another group of people,
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Oneness Pentecostals, who would say that you have to be, that your baptism has to be in the name of Jesus Christ only.
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So, if you're baptized in the name of the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit, then you really haven't been baptized.
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They would say, see, right here, it's clear. In order to receive forgiveness of sins, you have to be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ only.
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Well, wrong. Like, I would say wrong, but they would say, look, it's in the text.
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It's clear. Jesus Christ. You have to be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ, and my
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Church of Christ friends would say, yeah, we don't believe that. You know, it doesn't have to be in the name of Jesus Christ only.
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It's the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Matthew chapter 28 tells us the formula of how you baptize.
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You baptize them in the name of the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit, but yet when we get here in this ambiguous text dealing with baptism, it says you baptize them in the name of Jesus Christ.
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So, baptism at this time, again, so there's two main baptisms that's taking place in the book of Acts.
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The baptism of John and the baptism of Jesus. John speaks about a different baptism.
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So, John's preaching. He's calling the Pharisees to repentance. He says, Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand, for I am he who was spoken of by the prophet
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Isaiah, a voice crying out in the wilderness, prepare the way of the Lord, make straight his path. I see you Pharisees and Sadducees coming down to the waters of Jordan, you brood of vipers, who warned you to flee from the wrath to come.
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Therefore, do not think to say to yourselves, do not say, oh, we have Abraham as our father. For I tell you that God is able to raise up children from Abraham from stones, and even now the ax is at the root of the tree, and every tree that does not bear good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire.
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Listen, he says, I baptize with water into repentance, but he who comes after me, whose sandals
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I'm unworthy to carry, he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.
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The will and the fork is in his hand, and he will thoroughly cleanse the threshing floor, and he will gather his wheat into the barn, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.
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So John's speaking about he baptizes with water, and Jesus is going to baptize with Holy Spirit and fire.
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Two different baptisms for Jesus. One is the Holy Spirit. Some people are going to be baptized in the
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Holy Spirit, and some people are going to be baptized in fire. So if you look at verses, so it's 10, 11, and 12.
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Verse 10 says the ax is at the root of the tree, and any tree that does not bear good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire.
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So what does that fire mean? Does it mean passion for God?
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No, it means judgment. Verse 12, the will and fork is in his hand, and he will thoroughly clean the threshing floor and gather his wheat into the barn, but the chaff he will burn with an unquenchable fire.
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Is verse 12 talking about passion or judgment? It's judgment.
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It's hail. So when you get to verse 11, the verse that's sandwiched in between two passages speaking about judgment and hail, and it says that Jesus baptizes with Holy Spirit and fire, that fire is not passion.
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It's judgment. Some people are going to be baptized with the Holy Spirit, and some people are going to be baptized in judgment.
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They're going to be judged. They're going to be accountable for the life that they lived. So right off the bat, there's baptism of John, Jesus carrying two baptisms,
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Holy Spirit and judgment, but yet we see Jesus and the disciples, mostly the disciples, baptizing a
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Christian baptism in the name of Jesus, and it's with water, and they're being emerged.
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And so right here where it talks about in the name of Jesus, when you read the book of Acts, it speaks about two baptisms.
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It speaks about the baptism of John. Were you baptized in the name of Jesus or in the name of John?
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Ladies and gentlemen, trust me, whenever John was baptizing and John's disciples were baptizing, they were not saying,
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I baptize you in the name of John the Baptist. No, it's just that their baptism was in reference to the ministry of John.
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So same thing here, whenever people in the New Testament are being baptized in Jesus' name, it was not that they were,
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I baptize you in the name of Jesus. It's pointing to the ministry of Jesus.
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Matthew 28 gives us the formula, the name of the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit. And so this baptism is basically just speaking of Christian baptism versus the baptism of John, the baptism in the ministry of baptism of John versus Christian baptism.
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And so if my churches of Christ brothers want to be consistent and hold that repentance and baptism for the forgiveness of sins, then they have to be consistent with Jesus Christ as well, because if they take my interpretation, then they have to take my interpretation when
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I speak about what baptism is momentarily, if I get that far than I just wanted to lay that out.
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So the promise is the Holy Spirit. Those who have been given faith, they, because as a
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Reformed guy, I believe that faith is preceded by regeneration and followed by repentance.
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You're saved by grace through faith, not of works. So I believe that upon hearing the gospel,
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God gives you faith to believe, and when he gives you faith to believe, we turn from our selfishness, we turn from our self -righteousness, and we turn to God and Jesus Christ.
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That is salvific repentance. It can't be anything else or else it's works -based, and I'll get to baptism later on.
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I don't think it'll be tonight, but we'll eventually get there when it comes to the churches of Christ and the one is
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Pentecostals. All right, so our second point is the promise.
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I mean, excuse me, not the promise, the people. So the promise is the
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Holy Spirit. Who are the people? So let's just read verse 39.
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For the promise, which is the Holy Spirit, is for you and for your children and for all who are far off, everyone whom the
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Lord God calls to himself. All right, so the people are the
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Jews who were there. Remember, all the Jews from around the world were gathering together in Jerusalem because of the feast.
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So whenever he says the promise is for you, he is speaking about the
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Jews that were there. He wasn't talking, look at me, he wasn't talking to you. He was talking to the
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Jews that were there. The promise is for you, the ones who crucified their
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Lord. And then he says, and to your children, the children of the
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Jews who were there that crucified their Lord. He wasn't talking to your children.
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Right? I mean, am I an idiot? Am I missing something? The promise is for you, the
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Jews whom he's speaking to, and to your children, the Jews who crucified their
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Lord, the Jews that were there. Now right here, and to all those who are far off.
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Now this is you, this is me, this is the Gentiles. And then he sums all three of these up in this sentence, everyone whom the
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Lord God calls to himself. So it's for the Jews, those that were there, those that took part in this crucifixion, those who were hearing the apostles proclaim the magnificent works of God in their own tongue, and for their children who were probably,
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I would say, were there with them. Like their children would have not been absent.
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Their infants would have been there with them. And all who are far off, those that were not there, the
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Gentiles, everyone, all y 'all, all humans, the
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Jews, you who are hearing me, your children, your infants, and the Gentiles, all whoever that the
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Lord calls to himself. Now I want you to ask yourself, being that there were
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Jews there, being that there were infants there, there were children there, and yet verse 41 says this, so those who received the word were baptized.
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You have to receive the word to be baptized. Now if this was the sign of the covenant, and the sign pointing back to circumcision, why didn't they at this moment baptize their infants?
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Don't tell me that there weren't infants in this group of 3 ,000
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Jews. Listen, if you try to tell me that there weren't infants, we got major problems.
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Major problems. They were infants at this time with them, and they did not get baptized.
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Why? Because they could not receive. If you can show me here where infants were baptized,
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I would be a Presbyterian. I would. Hands down.
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Absolutely. But it says all those who received were baptized. Ladies and gentlemen, 3 ,000
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Jews, families coming to Jerusalem, families, households, no infants were baptized.
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Only those who received were baptized. And I would also add, since I'm harping on this real quick, that this could have been really settled.
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So, and I'm fixing to get into Colossians real quick, but before I do, I want to kind of throw a punch at my
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Presbyterian brothers. If circumcision is, or if baptism is circumcision, you know, if it is the new covenant sign that points to circumcision, how come in Galatians, Paul dealing with the
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Judaizers who are preaching circumcision, how come Paul didn't say, hey brothers, why are you tripping?
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We baptized them. Baptism is the new covenant sign for circumcision.
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Baptism is circumcision. Circumcision is baptism. Why are you tripping? We don't have to circumcise.
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We have to baptize them now. Why wasn't that argument made?
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It wasn't made because circumcision and baptism don't point to each other.
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Circumcision was not pointing to, I mean, baptism was not pointing back to circumcision.
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That's how, yeah, that's how I should say it. Baptism is not pointing, because circumcision is pointing to something greater, but baptism is not pointing back to circumcision.
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Baptism is not, does not come from circumcision.
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Now, if you believe that there's only one covenant, you have no choice but to believe that that is true.
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If you believe that the covenant of grace was inaugurated in Genesis 3 .15, which
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I've shown that it's not, it has not been, it cannot be, there's no way you can view it as that.
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That if you believe that, you are blinded by your traditions. Paul does not make the argument in Galatians when he's speaking to the apostles, when he goes to the apostles and the church in Jerusalem, or when he's speaking against the
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Judaizers, he doesn't say, why are you tripping? We don't have to circumcise them because we baptize them.
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That argument is not made, and it's not made because baptism does not derive from circumcision.
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Now, I do believe that baptism is the sign of the covenant, but I don't believe that it points back, that it has any, any relation with circumcision, the, the, the cutting of the foreskin.
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And this is where we'll go to, we'll go to Colossians, Colossians chapter one, no, excuse me,
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Colossians chapter two. So, I will read this and I will give you the interpretation that my
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Presbyterian brothers take. Y 'all can probably hear my son crying, waking up for a bottle.
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So verse 11, Colossians 2 verse 11 says, in him also you were circumcised with a circumcision made without hands by putting off the body of flesh by the circumcision of Christ, having been buried with him in baptism in which you were also raised with him through faith in the powerful working of God who raised him from the dead.
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So they see right here, they see verse 11, circumcision, verse 12, baptism, baptism and circumcision, circumcision, old covenant sign, new, new covenant sign, baptism.
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We circumcised our infants. Now we baptize our infants.
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Again, this is bad interpretation. And so I want to look at it.
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I'm going to go up a verse, verse nine. Notice right here, it says for in him, the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily.
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So who is the nearest antecedent to the in him? Verse eight, the very end it says, uh, not according to Christ for in him, which is
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Christ, the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily.
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Verse 10, and you have been filled in him. In who?
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In Christ, whom is the head and rule of all authority.
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Now, verse 11, in him, Christ, also you were circumcised with a circumcision made without hands.
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So what is the circumcision that's made without hands?
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What's not circumcised? It's not the cutting of the foreskin. Go back to it.
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Look at it. In him, also you were circumcised with a circumcision made without hands.
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Right here, it answers you by putting off the body of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ.
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So our being circumcised, our circumcision without hands is us being, is our body of flesh being put off, and it's called the circumcision of Christ.
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So what is the circumcision of Christ? Verse 12, having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the powerful working of God who raised him from the dead.
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Right here, and you were dead in your trespasses and uncircumcision.
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So when we were uncircumcised, we were dead in our trespasses and uncircumcision of our flesh, but God made us alive together with him, having forgiven us of our sins.
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How did he do that? By counseling the record of debt that stood against us and its legal demands.
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This, he set it aside and he nailed it to the cross. The circumcision of Christ, our circumcision of Christ, the circumcision of Christ is, listen to me, the circumcision of,
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I don't know which camera to look at, the circumcision of Christ is the crucifixion of Christ.
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It's what Paul says in Galatians, I have been crucified with Christ. This is speaking of baptism.
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I have been crucified with Christ. It's no longer I who live, but it's Christ that lives in me and the life that I'll live in the flesh.
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I live by faith in the son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. The circumcision of Christ is him.
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It's him being crucified on the cross.
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It's his heel being bruised while it's bruising the head of the serpent. The circumcision of Christ is the crucifixion of Christ.
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It says in him, you were circumcised. I have been crucified with Christ.
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It's no longer I who live. In him, you were circumcised with the circumcision made without hands by putting off the body of flesh.
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Right here it says, verse 13, and you were dead in your trespasses in the uncircumcision of your flesh.
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God made us alive together with Christ, forgiving us of our trespasses. Go back to verse 11, having put in off the body of flesh by the circumcision of Christ.
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What's the circumcision of Christ? It tells you having been buried with him in baptism.
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Buried? Christ died for our sins. He was buried, and he rose again. Buried with him in baptism in which you were raised with him through faith.
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Now let's go Romans chapter 5, verse 3.
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No, I'm sorry. Romans chapter 6, verse 3. Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?
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Let me read that again. Do you not know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?
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We were buried, therefore, with him by baptism into his death, in order that just as Jesus was raised from the dead by the glory of the
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Father, we too might walk in newness of life. I have been crucified with Christ.
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It's no longer I who live, but it's Christ who lives in me. In the life that I live in the flesh,
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I live by faith in the Son of God. That our being crucified with Christ is in our baptism.
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That our baptism does not point to circumcision. Our baptism points to the crucifixion of Christ.
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Last week I said that baptism isn't a symbol, that it isn't a cross that you wear around your neck, but baptism is a sign it's the sign of the covenant.
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This is my body which is broken for you. This is my, this cup is the new covenant in my blood.
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The Lord's Supper represents the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ. And you go back to our confession, the 1689, chapter 29, paragraph 1, baptism is an ordinance of the
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New Testament, ordained by Jesus Christ to those baptized.
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It is a sign of their fellowship with him, listen, in his death and resurrection, of their being grafted into him, of remission of sins, and of submitting themselves to God through Jesus Christ who lived and walked in the newness of life.
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So when we say that baptism is a sign of the new covenant, we're not saying that it correlates with circumcision, the mutilating of the foreskin, the cutting off of the foreskin, but we're saying that baptism is a sign that it's pointing back to what
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Christ Jesus has done in our behalf, him standing in our stead, what he has done to justify us, to reconcile us to God.
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Our baptism is in him. It has nothing to do with old covenant circumcision.
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It has everything to do with the covenant of grace, Jesus Christ dying the death that we should die.
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Where am I at? Okay, 58 minutes. So at this moment, I would be going to the purpose, and we will conclude and get the purpose next week.
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So next week, I'll do a recap of what I said tonight, and then we'll dive into the purpose.
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So the three points that we were looking at were the promise, the people, and the purpose. So we looked at the promise.
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We looked at the people. The promise is the Holy Spirit. The people are in the text are the
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Jews who were gathered together. It was their children, not my children, specifically in that text.
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It was their children, the Jews that were gathered together, and then we are brought in, all those who are far off, and then he concludes with all that together by saying, everyone whom the
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Lord God calls to himself, and I pointed out that this group of people who believed, who received his word, were 3 ,000
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Jews. It was these families that were gathering into Jerusalem all over the earth, that they had infant children with them, and the only people who were baptized were those who received.
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Look again, Acts 2 41. So those who received his word were baptized.
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Infants cannot receive the word, so infants weren't baptized. So next week, we'll dig back into this.
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We'll look, we'll go to the purpose, and we'll hash out more with the, you know, of course, the
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Presbyterian covenant theology will deal more with the Church of Christ, idea of baptism, and also with Oneness Pentecostalism, but as always,
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I love y 'all. I'm not saying any of this to disrespect anyone or anything like that.
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I'm just asserting what we believe as Baptists. You know, a lot of times
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I'll get asked the question as a Baptist, they'll say something like, do you allow people who haven't, who hasn't taken, to take the
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Lord's Supper who hasn't been baptized as a believer, or would you allow someone to be a member of your church if they haven't been baptized as a believer?
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And I would, and so my answer is always this. Do you want me to be true to my confession?
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Because that's what we confess, that the Lord's Supper is for those who have been baptized as a believer, that membership into the church is for those who have been baptized as a believer.
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Or you want me to go against my convictions? Because if you do, then the one in the wrong is you, not me.
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I'm trying to hold true to what I believe. So I believe that if you have not been baptized as a believer, that the
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Lord's table is not for you. That's what I believe. That's what our confession teaches. I believe if you have not been baptized as a believer, that, you know,
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I can't welcome you into membership. Now, am I saying that you're not a Christian? No, absolutely not.
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Absolutely not. Because I don't believe that baptism saves you. But I believe that the
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Lord's Supper is for those who are baptized. That membership into the congregation is for those who are baptized.
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Now, if you disagree with that, that's fine. But don't expect me to back down from what
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I believe so I don't hurt anybody's feelings. Because I'm not going to do that.
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I'm not going to go against my convictions. It's not going to happen. And people should respect that, if anything.
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You know, so our Presbyterian brothers believe that if you don't baptize your child, that you're sinning.
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Well, I don't hate them for believing that. It's consistent with their view, because they believe that baptism points to circumcision.
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I would say that if you baptize your children, you're sinning. You're breaking the moral law.
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Thou shalt not steal. You're stealing your child's baptism. Now, if they want to hate me for believing that, that's on them.
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But I'm being consistent, just like they're being consistent. So I don't hate them. I love them.
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I know there's a lot of work that still needs to be done when it comes to this subject. But Baptists, listen to me.
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Do not back down from your convictions. I love everyone. Thank you for listening.