Letters to the Churches Part 13

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Sunday school lesson working through the book of Revelation

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Letters to the Churches Part 14

Letters to the Churches Part 14

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Thank you for joining us today, and let's see here. I'm gonna put the chat window up.
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If you had questions regarding the sermon or whatever you would like to ask questions about, you are free to do that.
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And let me see what I can do here just to kind of organize my screen properly.
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And let's see here. I'm actually feeling pretty good today. All right, now real quick, I made one small error in the announcements, and my wife let me know about my error, and she always does that.
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Josh says fact. Women's Bible study is at 9 .30, not 9 a .m., so it's at 9 .30
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in the morning. So all right, let's pray, and then we will get started.
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Lord Jesus, as we open up your word and study your word, we ask, Lord, that you would open our hearts and our minds to your spirit so that we might rightly believe, confess, and do according to what is revealed there.
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We ask in Jesus' name. Amen. Okay, real quick here. I think there's fresh coffee.
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Oh, did somebody fill this up? Thank you, sir. Thank you. I got myself some fresh coffee, kind of an important thing.
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So today will be the day where we find out just where the wall is as far as my physical abilities in a post -COVID life, because fatigue is a thing.
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All right, we are going to take a look now at Revelation chapter 14.
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When we last were in Revelation, which seems like a long time ago now, because it was last year, literally, we took a look at the concept of the mark of the beast and noted that really what the mark of the beast kind of signifies is the satanic kingdom, and the 666 is three times one short of the perfection of God, which is 777.
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Another thing to note here is that the concept of the mark is more akin, the first and second century readers of the book of Revelation would have seen the mark as being very similar to the mark or the logo, if you would, of the
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Roman Empire. You have to think of it kind of like a seal in that sense. So when you look at the
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United States of America, the seal of the United States of America has the eagle on it, you know, you see it on the back of the quarter.
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And so when you think of the mark, you have to think of it as kind of the logo or the seal, if you would, of the beast itself, of the satanic kingdom, of the realm of darkness.
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And the idea then is that people have taken the mark of the beast for two millennia.
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The most important aspect of this is a question of whose are you?
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Who have you been marked by? Have you been marked by God, or are you marked by the dominion of darkness?
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Now note, we're all born under the dominion of darkness. Hang on a second here. It says that the video is turned off for everyone.
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All right, I'm going to switch the security here. Start video.
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There we go. And hold on a second here. Security. Let's see.
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Can people turn their own videos on?
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There we go. Hey, there's Stephen Elliott. All right. And Diane, good to see you. All right.
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Oh, look at that. Okay. I feel like there's people here now. And there's
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Louise and Bill. Hello. Hello, you guys. All right. Let's see here. All right. Deanna Rose is here.
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The DeBoer family. Dawn. All right. Very good. All right. So, now that we've got people having the ability to turn their video on, that's good.
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Yeah. I like that during the Sunday school class, because it makes it feel like I'm not talking to nobody. Especially, I can see more faces online than I can here at Kongsvinger.
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At the moment, the only people allowed in Kongsvinger are those who've had COVID. So, everybody here is immune now.
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And so, it's really kind of nice. I mean, I got to admit, as bad as COVID was, to be able to say,
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I'm done with the pandemic, makes me want to dance. I serve a
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Norwegian congregation. I don't think that's allowed. Anyway.
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So, all right. Oh, and there's a baby. All right. All right.
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Let's see. Is video turned off? There we go. So, we're getting mine.
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There we go. All right. So, coming back here then. So, the question is, whose logo is on your head?
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Now, let me show you a text that we already read that I think is going to be helpful for us.
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Hang on a second here. I'm going to duplicate this tab. No. Yeah.
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So, and Damien, we're not talking about him. So, you know. Yeah. So, when we first heard about those being marked, and in fact, this is an important bit.
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In understanding the book of Revelation, you have to take a look at Revelation 7 and 14, and put them together.
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Because you'll note that what happens here in Revelation 7 is the sealing of the 144 ,000.
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And the 144 ,000, again, is a figurative number. Really, the figurative number of those who are sealed here on earth for their warfare against the beast.
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And then they later, when they finish their course, join the second group.
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The second group being, you know, the church triumphant. So, the 144 ,000, if you would, is a symbolic figure of the church militant.
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The great cloud, the innumerable multitude, is the church triumphant.
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Watch how this works. So, Revelation 7 for review. After this,
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I saw four angels standing at the corners of the earth, holding back the four winds of the earth, so that no wind might blow on the earth or the sea or against any tree.
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And then I saw another angel ascending from the rising of the sun with the seal of the living God. And this, again, think of the logo, if you would.
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And we're going to see in Revelation 14 what this seal is.
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And it's not one, it's not a looking for fish. It's not that kind of seal.
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Yeah, I still write my own jokes. Sorry. I had COVID. Obviously, it gave me
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Dame Bramage. All right.
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So, with the seal of the living God, and he called out with a loud voice to the four angels who had been given power to harm the earth and the sea, saying, do not harm the earth or the trees until we have sealed the servants of our
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God on their foreheads. I heard the number of those sealed, 144 ,000, sealed from every tribe of the sons of Israel.
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And if you remember when we talked about this list that I'll repoint out, there are two names that are missing that you would expect to see here.
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One is Dan, and the other is Ephraim. So, let me read the list.
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There were 12 ,000 from Judah, Reuben, Gad, Asher, Naphtali, Manasseh, Simeon, Levi, Issachar, Zebulun, Joseph?
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Yeah, see, I put Joseph with a question mark. That doesn't make any sense. And Benjamin were sealed. And again, this is a unique list because anybody who knows their
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Old Testament would sit there and go, that ain't the 12 tribes of Israel. Joseph is never mentioned as a tribe, not in that sense.
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And usually when the 12 tribes of Israel are listed, there are 13 names. And Joseph's inheritance fell to his two sons,
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Ephraim and Manasseh. But here's the issue. Ephraim and Dan, their inheritance, when the people of Israel came into the promised land, the inheritance of Ephraim and Dan are in the northern part of Israel.
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And it's Dan and Ephraim that led the way for the rest of the northern tribes to go into complete debaucherous idolatry.
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And so you'll note that they're not listed here. So this is part of the reason why we know this is kind of a symbolic list. And this again, so the 144 ,000, if you would, is a picture of the church militant.
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They are sealed to be protected in their fight against the dragon, the beast, and the false prophet, the unholy trinity.
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That's what they're sealed for. And eventually, the 144 ,000, they all die, or they're taken to heaven, and they then join the great multitude that cannot be numbered.
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So a good way to think of the 144 ,000 is that this is a symbolic picture of the church here on earth today in its warfare against the devil.
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So we're part of this group. And again, we know it's symbolic, and you'll see it in chapter 14 when you consider the symbolic aspects of this, that these are virgins, males from different tribes, which makes no sense.
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Again, these are all pictures of something. So we're all part of the 144 ,000 right now. And each generation of Christians is part of this.
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They're sealed. And when you see what the seal is, you sit there and go, of course, that makes perfect sense.
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That's why you have to let the text kind of work themselves out. And then here, he says, after this,
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I looked and behold a great multitude that no one can number. This is the church triumphant. This is the church that's not on earth today.
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This is the church that is presently in the presence of Christ.
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There from all tribes, people's language is standing before the throne, before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, crying out with a loud voice, salvation belongs to our
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God who sits on the throne and to the Lamb. And all the angels were standing around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures, and they fell on their faces before the throne and worshiped
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God, saying, Amen, blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power. It might be to our God forever and ever.
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Amen. All right. So you got the idea. All right. Let's see. Sylvester Hannah says, why have specific numbers when it's all symbolic?
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Or are the numbers also symbolic? The numbers are also symbolic. So you're going to note 12 tribes, 12 ,000, 12 times 12, or 12 ,000 times 12.
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These are the numbers of completion as it relates to the totality of the people of God. And so you'll note there were 12 tribes, there are 12 apostles, and that's kind of the idea.
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And so these are numbers that connect with those images in the scriptures.
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All right. Then coming then to Revelation 14, again, noting that the mark of the beast is really kind of the seal or the logo of the dominion of darkness.
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And it always comes up short. It doesn't have the perfection of seven, it's six, six, six.
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So then behold, I looked and on Mount Zion stood the Lamb and with him 144 ,000.
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Oh, all right. So the 144 ,000 have now made a second appearance. And you're going to note they were sealed for their warfare against the dragon and the beast and the false prophet.
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And now you're going to kind of see how on the opposite end of that warfare with the dragon, the beast, and the false prophet, that now they're getting ready at this point to join the great multitude that cannot be numbered.
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The heavenly host, you get the idea of all the church triumphant. And listen to what it says.
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So they stood, they were on Mount Zion. First mentioned Mount Zion in the book of Revelation.
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They stood with the Lamb and with him the 144 ,000 and had his name and his father's name, what?
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Written on their foreheads. Oh, now wait a second here. Okay. Remember I told you, you have to kind of think in terms of who are you marked by.
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And in baptism, you are baptized in the name of the Father and the
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Son and the Holy Spirit. God puts his name on you when? When you's baptized.
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That's bad English, but you get the idea. So you sit there and go, oh, I can see this now.
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I've been baptized. God has caused his name to be written on my forehead.
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Right? So it's a question of who you're marked by. And you know that we're born under the dominion of darkness and that it is in the waters of baptism where God's name is invoked and placed upon us.
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That's kind of the idea behind it. And so you can see then that this is a reference then to baptism.
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And you're going to sit there. If I were to take out one of those blue lights and stick it up to your forehead, I wouldn't see written on your forehead, the
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Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Okay, it doesn't work that way. That's not how that works. But you can tell then, the question is, who has marked you?
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Whose seal, under whose kingdom are you operating? Are you one who's had the name of the
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Father written on your forehead? Or are you the one that has the mark of the beast, the devil, the worldly, tyrannical, governmental systems, and the false prophet?
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That's the idea. So you can tell that these marks are symbolic. Now I want to point out, that does not rule out, and this is where we will be very careful exegetes, it doesn't rule out a potential final visible manifestation of the mark of the beast.
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It doesn't rule that out. But the thing is, it also doesn't rule it in. And so it's one of those things that we know that as we get closer and closer to the return of Christ, that the devil is going to have his little season.
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And there may be a time in the final days before the return of Christ that there's a complete embodiment of these things to where they will leave the symbolic realm and take place physically in the last days.
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Does that make sense? But even with the physical mark, it doesn't take away from the fact that the mark itself is something that people have had from the beginning of the church and still have to this day.
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Even if it takes on a physical manifestation, it doesn't take away from the fact that every generation of human beings have had people who, quote, have the mark of the beast.
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Does that make sense? Okay. All right. So I heard a voice then from heaven like the roar of many waters, like the sound of loud thunder.
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And the voice I heard was like the sound of harpists playing on their harps. What kind of harps are those?
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Some kind of aqua harps here. Yeah. Maybe they're like electric harps hooked up to a guitar amp.
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I'm not sure what's going on here. All right. I'm joking. And so the 144 ,000, they were singing a new song before the throne and before the four living creatures and before the elders.
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So you're going to note here, now we see that the 144 ,000, they are no longer the church militant.
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They have joined the church triumphant. And their worship is now in the heavenly kingdom. No one can learn that song except the 144 ,000 who have been redeemed from the earth.
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It is these who have not defiled themselves with women for they are virgins. Now this is not saying literally that there's 144 ,000
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Jewish descendants who are males. And by the way, the word for virgin here in the
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Greek is they're male virgins. Okay. So I mean, everything is as masculine here.
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Again, this is a symbolic idea here. And that the virginity has to do with their purity.
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It has to do with their fact that they've been holy and sanctified. All right. It is these who follow the lamb wherever he goes.
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They have been redeemed from mankind as first fruits for God and the lamb. And in their mouth, no lie was found for they are blameless.
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And we know that no human being is blameless before God apart from the imputed righteousness of Christ.
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So this again is a picture of, this is a total picture of how the bride of Christ, those who are
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Christians, are holy before God. And so it's using imagery like this to depict that concept.
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All right. Let's see here. Bennett says, what if you haven't been baptized? Good question.
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All right. So we Lutherans get questions like this often. And the reason why we get them is because we tenaciously hold on to and proclaim the promises that are in baptism.
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And oftentimes we get misheard. And the way we get misheard is this. So what you're saying,
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Rose, bro, and all you other confessional Lutherans, is that if you're not baptized, you're not saved. And you sit there and you just roll your eyes and go.
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Yeah. Okay. It reminds me of like those challenge questions that my wife would ask me in the early days of our marriage.
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And the challenge question would go something along the lines like this. Does this dress make me look fat?
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And what I learned really quickly is that it's not a safe question to answer. Okay.
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Because however you answer this question, if you take it at face value, then she's going to accuse me of things that I haven't said.
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So if I hesitate and I say, well, no, I don't think it does. She goes, so what you're saying is that it does.
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But I didn't say that. So I've learned that when the wife asks the question, does this dress make me look fat?
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You say without hesitation, oh, honey, you look absolutely stunning and beautiful. You haven't got an ounce of fat on you.
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Okay. You lie through your teeth, even if she, you know, yeah. Okay.
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And so you'll note that when we Lutherans, we proclaim what's true about baptism.
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We oftentimes get accused of saying you can't be saved if you're not baptized. Scripture doesn't teach this.
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And so here, let's take a look at a text that'll help us out along these lines. Let me close that.
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And we're going to look at Acts chapter 19. And here's your definitive text that teaches that there are people who are saved who are not baptized.
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But the best way I can put it is we say that it's not the lack of baptism that would be a dangerous position.
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It is the despising of baptism that would be a problem. Okay. So here we've got in this passage in Acts 19, we are going to come across some people who are already described as disciples of Jesus.
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Disciples. And they haven't been properly baptized.
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All right. And here's what it says. So it happened that while Apollos was at Corinth, Paul passed through the inland country and came to Ephesus.
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There he found some disciples. Note, it says disciples. These guys are already disciples of Jesus.
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All right. So he said to them, did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed? And they said, no, we've not even heard that there is a
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Holy Spirit. And you can just see Paul's head explode. You know, what? What?
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You've never even heard of a Holy Spirit? And then he, so he asked a logical question. Into what then were you baptized?
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Okay. Here's the assumption. If they had been baptized, they would have been baptized in the name of the
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Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Right? All right. So there you go.
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They would have been baptized in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Well, they said into John the
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Baptist's baptism. And you get to see Paul's head spinning and smoke coming out of his ears. John baptized with the baptism of repentance, telling people to believe in the one who was to come after him.
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That is Jesus. So on hearing this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. And by the way, when you see this phrase, baptized in the name of the
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Lord Jesus, this means to be baptized according to the way in which Christ has commanded us to be baptized.
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In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. And his name is a reference to his authority and to his command regarding baptism.
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So when Paul had laid his hands on them, the Holy Spirit came on them. They began speaking in tongues and prophesying.
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And there were about 12 men in all. So here you see, this is very clear. This is an example then of people who are already disciples, believers in Jesus, and they haven't been baptized.
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And had they died prior to running across the Apostle Paul, since scripture says they are disciples, we would say they were absolutely going to be saved.
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There's no way that Christ was going to say, you're out of here. Now, the question then comes up, well, if that's the case, then why should we be baptized?
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The answer is because Christ wills for us to be baptized. And here's an important thing. I guess a good way to think of it is that baptism, there are so many sure and certain promises given in baptism that to not have them as a
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Christian is to basically leave you with missing pieces of armor that you need in the daily battles against sin, death, and the devil.
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And so that's kind of the way to put it. Because here's the thing, you're going to note that always when the question comes up, you know, what about the person who isn't baptized?
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You already know because of what I'm saying about baptism that you sit there and go, oh,
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I have doubts. I have insecurities. I have uncertainties about either myself or somebody else because they haven't been baptized.
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And see, you're going to note then that that works against and undermines faith.
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So if you have not been baptized, please send me an email and send it to the secretary at kungsvingerchurch .org,
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and we will find a way for you to be properly baptized for your own benefit. Now consider then the gifts that are promised in baptism.
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I know for a minute here that this wasn't originally the topic, but since we're on it.
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Yeah, I've derailed myself. Yeah, is Bruce even in the audience? Is he in the congregation?
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Yeah, Bruce is here in spirit. Okay, all right. I have to check the list. Yeah, okay.
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Okay, so Tony asks, all right, so was the baptism of John a ceremonial Jewish version dealing with general repentance?
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It was a little bit more than that. His was indeed that, kind of a mikvah type baptism, but it also was for the forgiveness of sins.
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So let's take a look at what the texts say in regards to baptism. And I'm going to use as my foil, and those of you who've never heard this,
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I'm going to ask you to do one thing, and that is that hear the biblical case first. And let's let the scriptures tell us what baptism is, what it does, who does it, and who it's for.
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All right, we might as well go this route, because I think this is going to be very helpful in this regard. Because in talking about being sealed, you're going to note then the sealing then was a vital thing in preparing the 144 ,000 for their battle against the devil, the beast, and the false prophet.
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All right, it's a vital thing. So if you've spent time in evangelical churches or the charismatic churches, over and again the claim is baptism is the thing that you do in order to show the world that you have made a decision for Jesus.
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Here's the issue, no text says that. There isn't a single text that says it.
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Here's the other issue, all right, and this is the other argument. And people will basically say this, if you believe that God does anything in baptism, you are turning baptism into a work, and you are no longer saying that you're saved by grace through faith apart from works.
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Those are the arguments. Now we're going to deal with the second one with an actual text that addresses it straight on.
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But I want you to consider that what we as Lutherans do, we do not have what
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I would consider to be a super sexy philosophical theological wonder of a hard hammered out great doctrinal statement on baptism.
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We are about as backwoods as they get when it comes to baptism. Our theology basically says we are only going to say what baptism is using the same words as scripture, and no other words.
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It's really kind of that simple. And I'll walk you through how it works as we go through these passages, and I'll ask questions back and forth.
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And understand that those of you online, you don't really quite have the ability to interact with me, but you'll get the idea.
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So if you would, our core text, our beginning text, is going to be the one that gets part of it gets confessed in the
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Nicene Creed. And here it is from Acts chapter 2, in Acts chapter 2, and it's the day of Pentecost.
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And Peter has preached his great Pentecost sermon, and God the
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Holy Spirit is now present and convicting people of their sin and unbelief, as Jesus said the
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Holy Spirit would do when he sends the Holy Spirit. And so with that being the case, listen to what
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Peter says. Now when they heard this, they were cut to the heart, and they said to Peter and the rest of the apostles,
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Brothers, what shall we do? Peter said to them, Repent and be baptized.
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Now I'm going to note something here. Be baptized, baptistheito is how it shows up in the text.
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This is a passive verb. This is in the passive, which means you ain't doing the doing, all right?
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And if you don't understand how passive verbs work, they're a little bit odd in the
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English language, but in other languages they're more pronounced. But if I were to say to you,
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I went and got a haircut, that's kind of speaking in the passive, and you would all sit there and go, okay, that makes sense.
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Let me change it to the active voice. I cut my hair. If I said those words, you'd be all looking at me going, oh, that explains everything, okay?
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So note that the difference between the active and the passive is the passive, you're speaking it in a way that something's being done to you.
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In the active, the active is something that you are doing. And baptistheito in Greek is passive.
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You ain't doing the baptizing. You are receiving it as being done to you, okay?
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And you're going to note then that the person pouring the water or dunking or sprinkling is the person doing the least amount of work when it comes to baptizing, and the one being baptized is doing nothing, okay?
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So I want you to keep that in mind, all right? The one who is doing all the heavy lifting in baptism is
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Christ, and you'll see that. So repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus, and listen to what it says, for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the
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Holy Spirit. Now, here's the Lutheran position. We are going to confess what baptism is by saying the same words as scripture.
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Hama legao is the Greek word for confess. Hama, same, legao, say.
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To confess something is to say the same thing. So work with me here. If I were to say to you, baptism is for the forgiveness of sins and the receiving of the
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Holy Spirit, have I said anything different than the scriptures? No, I've said the exact same thing as the scriptures.
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And you sit there and go, you can't receive the Holy Spirit in baptism? Really? What happened to Jesus when
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He was baptized? Okay, the Holy Spirit descended in the form of a dove and remained on Him.
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Jesus received the Holy Spirit in baptism. Why can't I? Why can't you?
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Okay, that's kind of the idea. So baptism is for the forgiveness of sins.
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It is for the receiving of the Holy Spirit. Now, here's the question. Who is it for?
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For the promise is for you and for your children. Oh, wait a second.
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Now, one of the other things that happens is that we Lutherans, we get accused of being crypto -Roman Catholics, and then people say, there isn't a single text in the
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Holy Bible that teaches that children should be baptized. It says it right there. Okay, baptism is for you and it's for your children.
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Yeah, okay. All right, so it's for the forgiveness of sins, the receiving of the
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Holy Spirit, and children are included. And notice there is no age requirement. Peter doesn't say your kid has to be this tall to get baptized.
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Okay, this is not a ride at Disneyland. Do I sound ornery today?
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I feel ornery. Yeah, a Greek word for children here is technon.
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Technon, and that's an all -inclusive word. It can include tiny little kids. It can include infants.
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It can include toddlers. It can include 10 -year -olds. Can parents baptize their children?
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Yes, they can. Here's the idea. Normally, children are baptized by an ordained pastor.
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In an emergency situation where you do not have access to a pastor, any
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Christian can baptize. Any Christian can baptize. My request would be this. If you are one of our remote people and you don't have access to the ability for somebody to baptize, and note this, that now that I've had
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COVID and I'm immune, my intention is to start doing some traveling. And I'm going to be traveling down to Louisiana and baptizing an infant there.
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And so if you have the ability to get to you to baptize a child, then let's go that route.
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If not, then you can baptize, but you need to let the pastor like me know. And what we will do is we will then acknowledge that baptism within the congregation so that people know that that's taken place.
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And so that's absolutely how it goes. Now, here's so again, the promise is for you and for your children.
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The promise of what? The forgiveness of sin and the receiving the Holy Spirit. And people will sit there and say, well, infants can't.
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They don't have the cognitive ability to believe in Jesus. And you sit there and you go, no adult does either.
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We're all dead in trespasses and sins. And unless God gives you faith, you ain't going to believe in Jesus.
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Faith is a gift given by God. It is not a skill that you learn to attain by your mental prowess.
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And God gives that to anybody he chooses. And you'll note in scripture, Jesus says, do not forbid the little children from coming to me.
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And in scripture in the psalm, it talks about the fact that infants are that they trust in God while nursing on their mom's breasts.
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This is a very clear thing in scripture. And Christ, when he said, go and make disciples of all nations, let me ask you this.
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We all just had to this past year. Wasn't 2020 just a great year? We all, on top of COVID, we all had to, you know, in the
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United States, register for the census. We have to do that every 10 years. Those of you with infants and small children, did their names get put on the census roll?
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And you sit there and go, well, yeah, of course. You mean they didn't have to hit the age of accountability to be considered an
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American citizen? Okay. If the United States of America considers an infant child one day old to be a citizen of the
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United States, then why are they more generous than God? Okay.
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Because some people sit there and say, well, they can't do this. Nobody can do it. God is the one who gives faith.
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All right. Now, since I'm on this topic, I am really, I'm a little wound up today.
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It's been a while since I've been able to preach and teach, and so I'm kind of just feeling a little ornery.
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Now, little note here. People will say, there isn't a single text that talks about baptismal regeneration.
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No, that's not true either. It's just not in the place you would expect it. All right. Let me find it real quick.
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All right. Story of Naaman. All right. Let me explain something to you. Scripture is clear.
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We're dead in trespasses and sins, and it is God who gives us faith in Christ.
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Okay. And that is, that's consistent in both the Old and the New Testament. And here we have the story of Naaman the leper.
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All right. You familiar with this guy? All right. In 2 Kings chapter 5, Naaman, the commander of the army of the kings of Syria, was a great commander with his master, high favored because by him
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Yahweh had given victory to Syria. But we know that this guy is not a believer at this point, and you'll note that yet the
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Lord is the one who is ordering his steps. And he works as the head of the army for Syria.
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He was a mighty man of valor, but he was a leper. Now the Syrians on one of their raids had carried off a little girl from the land of Israel, and she worked in the service of Naaman's wife.
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She said to her mistress, Oh, would that my Lord were with the prophet who is in Samaria, he would cure him of his leprosy.
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Who is this little girl? And wow, what amazing faith she has. Right? Okay. So Naaman went, told his
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Lord, thus and so spoke the girl from the land of Israel. We don't even know her name. And the king of Syria said,
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Go now, and I'll send you a letter to the king. I'll send the letter to the king of Israel. So he went taking with him 10 talents of silver, 6 ,000 shekels of gold, 10 changes of clothing.
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And he brought the letter to the king of Israel, which read, When this letter reaches you, know that I have sent to you
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Naaman, my servant, that you may cure him of his leprosy. And when the king of Israel read the letter, he tore his clothes and said,
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Am I God to kill and to make alive that this man sends word to me to cure a man of his leprosy?
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Only now consider and see how he's seeking a quarrel with me. So basically the king of Israel, northern kingdom, thinks that this is a letter designed to provoke a war because nobody can heal a leper.
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But when Elisha, the man of God, heard that the king of Israel had torn his clothes, he sent to the king saying,
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Why have you torn your clothes? Let him come now to me so that he may know that there is a prophet in Israel.
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So Naaman came with his horses and chariots and stood at the door of Elisha's house.
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Now Elisha knows full well if he's in the direct presence of Naaman that he would be considered ceremonially unclean, which is kind of an annoying thing and it would require a trip to Jerusalem to fix that.
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And so Elisha stays in his house and doesn't come in direct contact. So he's social distancing at this point.
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All right. So Elisha sent a messenger to him saying, Go and wash in the Jordan seven times and your flesh shall be restored and you shall be clean.
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Now, let me ask you a question. I've never been to Israel, but I've seen how murky and mucky the waters of the
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Jordan are. Are the waters of the Jordan River, are they special? Are they holy?
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Do they have the ability to cleanse lepers today? No, they don't. If anyone's selling you
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Jordan water for something, don't buy it. Don't drink it. Whatever. You're going to end up with some intestinal problems if you drink it.
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Okay. So you'll know the waters of the Jordan, there's nothing special about them. What is going to make the waters of the
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Jordan special in this occasion? Answer. The waters of the Jordan at that moment had been joined with a word from God.
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All right. It is the word of God that is the active ingredient in baptism.
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So Naaman, now he's angry and he went away saying, behold, I thought that he would surely come out to me, stand and call upon the name of Yahweh, his
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God, and wave his hand over the place and cure the leper. And you could just hear the sarcasm and cynicism just dripping out of his mouth at this point.
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And then he asked an important question. Are not the Abana and Farpar rivers of Damascus better than the waters of Israel?
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Answer. Yes. Okay. The Red River here in North Dakota is better than the
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Jordan. Okay. But that's not the point. Could I not wash in them and be clean is his second question.
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And the answer is no. Why? Because God told him to wash in the
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Jordan. God did not tell him to wash in the Abana or the Farpar or the
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Red or the Mississippi or the Colorado. He said you wash in the Jordan. The promise is waiting for him in the waters of the
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Jordan. So he turned away and went in a rage. And the
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Shema here, rage. His head is exploding. The volcano is still going off.
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The pyroclastic flow is about ready to come down on his head. All right. That's what we're talking about here. This is a huge volcanic rage.
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So his servants, these are brave servants. His servants came near and said to him, my father, it is a great word the prophet has spoken to you.
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Will you not do it? He has. He actually said to you, wash and be clean.
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So he went down and he dipped himself seven times in the Jordan. Now it doesn't say this in the text, but I always like to picture
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Naaman going down, going fine. I'm going to go and wash in the Jordan. So you just see him marching down there, you know, all insolent and you can just see him going into the water.
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And the first time he dips himself, you can see him go in and come out and he's going one. Right. And he does it again to, you know, you just totally see this now.
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Quick question. Is he a believer in the one true God at this point? No. Okay.
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And here's the thing. The big miracle is not the cleansing of his leprosy.
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The cleansing of his leprosy is a type and shadow of God cleansing us of our sin.
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Okay. And watch what happens. So he washed, he dipped himself seven times in the
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Jordan, according to the word of the man of God. And his flesh was restored like the flesh of a little child.
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And he was clean. Flesh of a little child. Huh. And then he returned to the man of God and all his company.
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And he came and stood before him and he said, behold, I know there is no God in all the earth, but in Israel.
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So accept now a present from your servant. So now he confesses his complete devotion and faith and trust in the one true
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God. He's been regenerated. God has given him faith. Where did that happen?
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In the stinking Jordan river. Okay. That's where it happened. And you sit there and go, but water, water can't do that.
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Of course it can't. Okay. When we baptize here at Kongsvinger, we use tap water out of the sink in the kitchen.
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Okay. And if the kids are lucky, I warm it up. If I'm feeling ornery, they're going to get cold water on their head.
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Okay. There ain't nothing special about this tap water.
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So with this then comes to our next verse. Now, remember the question I asked, okay, what does the scripture say baptism is?
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It's, it's a washing. It's for the forgiveness of sins. It's for the receiving of the
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Holy Spirit. It's for adults and it's for children. Have I said anything other than what the scriptures say?
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No. All right. Next text then Ephesians five, which explains to us why baptism is at least how it works.
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Let's see here. Ephesians five, 25, husbands love your wives as Christ loved the church.
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That's a whole other sermon by the way. And gave himself up for her so that he might sanctify, sanctify, hagiase, here means to make holy, that he might sanctify her having cleansed by the washing of water with the word.
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All right. So here's our next thing. What is baptism? Baptism is a washing of water with the word.
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Have I said anything different than scripture? Okay. I haven't said a thing different than scripture.
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Next text. All right. Romans chapter six. Do you not know that your baptism is a weapon that God wants you to wield against the temptations of the devil in your own sinful flesh?
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You sit there and go, huh, what? All right. Let me explain. So Paul asks the question, what shall we say?
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Are we to continue in sin so that grace may abound? No, by no means.
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How can we who died to sin still live in it? Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized, again passive, into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death.
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We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death in order that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the father, we too might walk in newness of life.
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For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.
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We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of flesh might be brought to nothing so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin.
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For one who has died has been set free from sin. Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him.
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We know that Christ being raised from the dead will never die again. Death no longer has dominion over him.
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And so you'll note then that here's what the text says. Let me say, when you are baptized, you were united with Christ in his death and his resurrection and your old sinful flesh was crucified with Christ.
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Have I said anything different than the scriptures? No. Baptism is for the forgiveness of sins, the receiving of the
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Holy Spirit. It is for adults. It is for children. It is for us to be united with Christ in his death and his resurrection.
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And you kind of get the idea here that there's a lot going on. Now let me give you another text. All right, let me see if I can remember where this one is off the top of my head.
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All right. Yeah, let's see here. All right.
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So the Apostle Paul in Acts 22, in Acts 22, talking where he's on trial and giving his testimony about how
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Christ appeared to him on the road to Damascus, how he spent three days in the city of Damascus at a house on Straight Street.
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Listen to what Paul says, Acts 22, 12. One Ananias, a devout man, according to the law, well -spoken of by all the
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Jews who live there, came to me standing by me and said to me, Brother Saul, receive your sight.
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And at that very hour, I received my sight and I saw him. And he said, the God of our fathers appointed you to know his will, to see the righteous one, to hear a voice from his mouth, for you will be a witness for him to every one of what you have seen and heard.
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And here's the important verse, 16. And now, why do you wait? Rise and be baptized, passive, and wash away your sins, calling on his name.
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Okay, so let's walk through this again. If I said baptism is for the forgiveness of sins, am
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I saying the same thing as Scripture? Yes. If I say baptism is for the receiving of the Holy Spirit, have
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I said the same thing as Scripture? If I said baptism is for the washing away of your sins, have
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I said anything different than Scripture? No. If I say baptism is for you to be united with Christ in his death and his resurrection, have
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I said anything other than Scripture? No. All of these things are true.
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Now, that being the case, already let me ask you this, who's doing the heavy lifting and baptizing?
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God is. I can tell you, when I went to seminary, they never once taught me how
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I can spiritually somehow unite somebody with Jesus in his death or his resurrection.
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The only thing they taught me is when you baptize, baptize in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. And you can dunk, you can sprinkle, you can pour, it doesn't matter.
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All right? So you can see here, all right, all of these things are absolutely true. Now, let's address the topic.
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Well, if you believe that, then you're making baptism work. I'm glad you say that because we have a text that addresses this directly, okay, which is so helpful.
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And here is our text, Titus 3. And we're going to start at verse 4, and we're going to pay attention to a little bit of Greek grammar here.
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But when the goodness and the loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, he saved us.
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What's the subject of the sentence? God, right? The verb saved, who's doing the saving?
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God is doing the saving. The text says, God saved us.
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All right? And note then, here's what the next part of the sentence is going to rule out works of any kind, not because of works done by us in righteousness.
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So you're going to note, all right, God saved us, and it's not because of any work that we've done, but it's according to his own mercy.
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And here now we get an interesting phrase. And let me highlight it in the
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Greek, dia lutru palingenes. I know that's a mouthful.
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And for some of you, that's just nothing but a little bit, nothing but Greek, but that's okay. Let me explain.
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So our first word here, dia in Greek is used as the means by which something is accomplished.
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Okay? So I threw the ball, dia, by means of a remote pitching machine.
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Okay? I would use dia to explain the means by which I pitched the ball. I didn't pitch it, but I pitched it using something else.
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So it's talking about the means, the mechanism for it. So note that this is part of the sentence that says
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God saved us, sub -sentence, not because of works done by us. How then?
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What was the mechanism by which God saved us? Answer, through, and then you have the
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Greek word lutron. And let me show you what this means. Lutron, and I've got to make this bigger.
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Okay? This is a very special word in Greek because it can only refer to one thing.
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It means bath or washing of baptism, and note what it says in the parentheses, for ceremonial usage.
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It is the washing in water. So it is a ceremonial washing.
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In other words, lutron is very specific. It is a word used for the actual religious rite, the
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R -I -T -E, the religious ceremonial rite for baptism.
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That's the only thing it can mean. And when I first translated this text, I didn't believe this.
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And when I saw this word and what it meant, I thought it was a mistake. So I checked it with a different lexicon.
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Eric, this is a brown driver in Briggs. I would also note that I cross -referenced this with Liddell and Scott and others since then.
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Lutron is the actual physical religious ceremonial washing rite.
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That's the only thing it can mean. And so let me show you, coming back then to the text, when the goodness and the loving kindness of God our
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Savior appeared, he saved us. God's doing the saving, not by works done by us in righteousness, according to his mercy, dia, through the washing, this religious ceremonial baptism.
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And here is in the next word, and this word only appears twice in the New Testament. Polygynosis is the word for regeneration.
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What is baptism then? Baptism is the washing of regeneration.
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That is what it is. So you get the idea here. This is unmistakable.
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And watch what it says, by the washing of regeneration and the renewal of the Holy Spirit. Now wait a second, remember what
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Peter said. Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the
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Holy Spirit. So coming back to it then, when I say baptism is for the forgiveness of sins, have
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I said the same thing as Scripture? Yes. It's for the receiving of the Holy Spirit. Have I said the same thing as Scripture?
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Is it for the washing away of sins? Am I saying the same thing as Scripture? If I say baptism is the washing of regeneration, have
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I said the same thing as Scripture? That it's promised the renewal of the Holy Spirit, am
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I saying the same thing as Scripture? Yes. And then watch where the text goes, whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ, our
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Savior. Now the enterprising evangelical who doesn't know their Bible at this point is going to object.
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Okay, I see what you're saying, but there is no text that says that baptism saves.
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I'm glad you said that. Okay, so let me ask you a question, all right? Here's the question.
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If your sins have been washed away, you have been regenerated, you have been forgiven, you have been united with Christ in his death and his resurrection, and you have received the
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Holy Spirit, are you numbered with the damned or with the saved? Yeah, right.
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You sit there and go, well, now that you put it that way, okay, now that's just prep, okay?
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Here's the text that we're going to look at next, okay? Is it any wonder then that 1
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Peter 3 says what it says, all right? All right, and this one takes a little bit of work because this is one of these grammatical sentences that it's not that easy to see how it works in the
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English. It's much easier to see in the Greek. All right, so we're going to apply our three rules for sound biblical exegesis, context, context, and context.
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Here's our text, 1 Peter 3, 18. For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, so that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh and made alive in the spirit, in which he went and proclaimed to the spirits in prison.
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Now, we remember in the creeds, we talk about Christ's descent into hell. He descended into Sheol, that's the place of the dead, for the purpose of proclaiming his victory to the spirits that were in prison in Sheol, all right?
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That's part of what Christ did there because here's what he says, because they formerly did not obey when
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God's patience waited in the days of Noah while the ark was being prepared, in which a few, that is, eight persons were brought safely through water.
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Now, a little bit of a note here. What Peter is going to be making very explicitly clear, and I'll show you how it works in the
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Greek, is that the story of the flood is a type and shadow of baptism, the idea of being saved through water.
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Other famous texts that the New Testament connects to baptism is the crossing of the
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Red Sea by the children of Israel, that they were baptized into the Red Sea. The scripture teaches this.
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So the flood itself is a picture, a type and shadow of baptism, and here's how
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I know it because of how the Greek reads next. Verse 21 says, baptism, which antitupon, and let that word just roll around in your head for a second here.
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The English says, which corresponds to this. I think a more wooden translation would be helpful.
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Baptism, which is the anti -type of the flood. The flood is the type, baptism is the anti -type.
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Baptism, which is the antitupon, which corresponds, it's the anti -type to the flood, and watch what it says.
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Now saves you. Okay, now let me explain something else in the
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Greek. In the Greek, whatever noun takes what's called the nominative case.
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In Greek, nouns will take one of four cases. So one is your nominative, then you're going to have your dative, genitive, or accusative, and whichever form it takes is going to be contingent upon the purpose that it serves within a sentence.
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So nominative nouns always are the subject of the sentence, and the verbs have to agree with them, and the verbs are being done by the nominative nouns.
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Does that make sense? Genitive nouns oftentimes show possession. Dative nouns are used for indirect objects in a sentence.
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Accusative nouns are used for the direct objects in a sentence. I know you're sitting there going, it's been a while since I've done grammar.
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Me too, but you get the idea, okay? So here's the thing. Verse 21, baptisma, this is in the nominative.
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It is the nominative neuter singular of bapto, which means baptism.
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That's the subject of the sentence. What's the verb of the sentence? Sozo, saves.
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If you were to just pare the sentence down to its smallest components, the sentence says, baptism saves.
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Who does it save? You. When? Now. Okay? So if I were to say, let me kind of walk through this now.
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Baptism is for the forgiveness of sins. Have I said anything different than scripture? No. Baptism is for the receiving of the
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Holy Spirit. Is that anything different than the No. Baptism is a washing of regeneration.
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Have I said anything different than the scripture? No. Baptism saves.
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Have I said anything different than the scripture? Nope. And this is where the evangelical throws up his hands and goes, you're a moron,
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Roseboro, because there are all kinds of baptisms. This isn't referring to water baptism, to which
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I say, au contraire, because Ephesians 4 says there's one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one
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God, and Father of all. How many baptisms do you believe in? Okay? So they try to escape this and say, but this is talking about spiritual baptism.
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And I sit there and say, you are guilty of a dehydrated hermeneutic. Okay? Anyway, you get the idea.
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So, all right. So now, I want you to consider this in light of Revelation 14.
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Revelation 14 says the 144 ,000 are sealed when God's name is put on their forehead.
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All right? Which leads us to our final verse, because we're going to talk about baptism in this context.
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Let's come back to this then. All right? Hear again the words of Christ in the great gospel.
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I went too far. I just scrolled too quickly. All authority in heaven on earth has been given to me,
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Jesus says, go therefore make disciples of all nations, that includes children, okay?
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Baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. When you're baptized, guess whose name gets put on you?
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Now, if you are not baptized, that doesn't mean you're not saved.
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But I will say this, it does mean that you haven't received all the gifts that Christ wills for you to have.
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And when you are baptized, you have all of these things given to you by God, and this gives a sure and certain anchoring for your faith, so the devil doesn't try to knock it out of you.
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Gives you something to hang on. And you'll note that Romans 6 clearly says that our baptisms are to be used as a weapon against the temptations of the devil.
01:00:00
All right? Is it any wonder then that the sealing of the 144 ,000, which we learn in 14, was put in their name,
01:00:08
God's name was put on them, is clearly a reference to baptism. You sit there and go, I've never seen this before.
01:00:15
I know. Unfortunately, in evangelical churches, they find every way possible.
01:00:21
It's like playing the game of hermeneutical twister, watching them bend these texts to make them say what they don't say, or to deny what they do say.
01:00:30
But we as Lutherans, what do we do? We just say the same thing in Scripture. It's for the forgiveness of sins, the receiving of the
01:00:35
Holy Spirit, to be united with Christ in His death and His resurrection. Colossians 2 says that our flesh is circumcised by the hand of Christ in our baptism, and that it saves.
01:00:46
All of these things are true, and we would be foolish to think otherwise. And here's the thing, the ancient church has always believed this.
01:00:55
Always believed this. If you go to fightingforthefaith .com and in the search bar, look in the archives of Fighting for the
01:01:02
Faith, just do a search for Lutheran doctrine baptism. There is a PDF that I've made available called
01:01:08
What the Scriptures Say Regarding Baptism and How the Earliest Christians Understood These Texts.
01:01:14
Download that PDF, and that would be a good thing. Bennett says, come baptize me and my son.
01:01:21
My wife was baptized when an infant. Bennett, send us the information, because now that I am
01:01:27
COVID -free and immune, and I've got my get -out -of -jail free card, I want to go travel and do stuff like that.
01:01:34
So yeah, so send an email to the secretary at kungsvingerchurch .org, and we'll talk.