Jeff Durbin on Baptism Part 2

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Calvinism Sermon: Unconditional Election (Part 3 in series)

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Let's talk about the issue of baptism in many ways today, talking about the meaning of baptism, the sign of the covenant, how baptism is administered in the

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New Testament scriptures, and really using an example, a contrast between credo baptism and pedo baptism or believers -only baptism versus infant baptism as well.

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We're going to talk about Jeremiah 31, 31. You might wonder why

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Jeremiah 31 in the context of baptism. And I think you'll see, hopefully, if the

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Lord allows me to be clear during this message, you'll see the importance of this particular text in the light of baptism, the covenant.

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Jeremiah 31, 31, hear now the words of the living and true God. Behold, the days are coming, declares the

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Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah.

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Not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, declares the

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Lord. But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord.

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I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts, and I will be their

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God, and they shall be my people. And no longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, know the

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Lord, for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the

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Lord. For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more. As far as the reading of God's Word, let's pray together as a church and ask

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God's blessing. Father, we come before you, Lord, humble. Lord, recognizing that any truth that we have,

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God, is truth that you've given to us by your grace. God, we recognize in ourselves,

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God, that we are fallible. That, God, we have sin. Lord, we recognize that we have traditions, we have beliefs that we've carried with us into this relationship with you.

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God, we haven't often tested, and maybe even to this day we don't test. And so,

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God, I ask that you please bless this time. By your Spirit, open your Word to our understanding.

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Help us, God, to look to you and your Word as a source of our knowledge, wisdom.

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Help, God, me, Lord, to speak clearly. God, guard my mouth and my heart from error and sin.

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And I pray, God, that you'd bless this by your Spirit, this message for us today in this body and for those who watch it later.

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I pray that you would bless it, that you would put your hand on it. And, God, that you would cause me to get out of the way, let

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Christ be glorified, and my name be forgotten. In Jesus' name, amen.

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So, Jeremiah 31, 31. So, think for a moment now about the context. This is pre -Christ and his ministry on earth.

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So, this is at a time period where the people of God have to face

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Babylon, they have to face exile. You've got the national people, Israel, who do not have what you have today as a

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Christian. They do not have those new covenants. They don't have the finished work of the Messiah. They remember now a temple.

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They know there is these stone tablets. They know there's a priest. They know there's a sacrifice and an offering. Yom Kippur, the day of atonement.

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They know the law of God dictates how they're supposed to worship God and what all these promises are.

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They know. And so, now you have this beautiful promise that you look now back in hindsight at, and you look now actually as the present reality.

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You say, no, I'm in that new covenant. I have a perfect mediator now of this covenant. I have this once for all sacrifice.

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I have the law of God now within me. I'm regenerate. God's taken out my heart of stone. He's given me a heart of flesh.

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You look now back at that promise and you say, it's fulfilled. I'm the recipient of this grace on this side of the cross and the resurrection and the ascension.

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All they know now is here's this promise of a new covenant that's not going to be like the old one.

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In this new covenant now, the stone tablets aren't going to be outside the people of God impressing upon them.

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Now, this law that they knew is actually going to be internalized and they have forgiveness of sins, complete forgiveness of sins promised in this new covenant.

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And you have this distinct nature of the old covenants. Think for a moment now, because this is going to answer a lot of questions in terms of baptism and the people of God and a new covenant and who gets its sign.

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Think for a moment about the old covenant people of God. You had people that actually received the sign of the covenant that weren't necessarily submitted to Yahweh and had faith in Yahweh.

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You had people who got this covenant that were part of people's households. You had slaves that would get the covenant.

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You had these children who would get the covenant. You had people who would just get the sign of the covenant. They're part of the national people of God, and yet they have only before them this reminder that it's not done yet, that we don't have full redemption yet.

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We don't have this full forgiveness. I mean, every year I remember my sins. They're not done yet. I have this animal sacrifice.

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Can't take away my sins. The blood of bulls and goats can't take away my sins. You have the promises of land in this covenant.

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You have all these things that they know are these temporary things waiting for Mashiach, the Messiah, to come.

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They know that there's people in the people of God identified as the people of God who got this old covenant sign that are not truly the people of God.

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They know they weren't really circumcised in the heart. You have people who actually received the sign that may not necessarily believe in Yahweh.

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They know that and they got the sign. They're part of the people of God. They're part of the old covenant community, and yet you have a promise in a new covenant that God's gonna do something different that He didn't do in the old covenant.

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It's a new and better covenant, like the writer of Hebrews says. And this time now the law is inside, and now you have it being said.

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It's beautiful. Look at the end of it right here. It says this. It says, and no longer shall each teach his neighbor and each his brother saying, know the

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Lord, for they shall all know me. From the least of them to the greatest, declares the Lord.

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For I will forgive their iniquity and I'll remember their sin no more. God forgives the sin of His people in this new covenant with His law within them, and there's no reason now for the new covenant people of God to say to other people, know the

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Lord, for they're all gonna know me. Who's all? Those in the new covenant whose sins are forgiven, who have this law internalized.

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Now again, that's what was promised ahead of time. They knew it was coming. They have all the promises about the

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Messiah, and there's so many we can do. Talking about His forgiveness and redemption, salvation, His death and resurrection, they knew.

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But Jeremiah 31, 31 is powerful, because it really talks about what God is gonna do in a new covenant and the nature of it.

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What's it about? What's God gonna accomplish in a new covenant that's different than the old?

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So as we enter into the state, as we enter into the message today, consider that. Jeremiah 31, and what

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God says about the nature of the new covenant. And I want to say as we start, the first message is already online.

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You can go back if you missed it. I would encourage you to go take a look at it. So I'm not gonna spend a lot of time talking about everything that I did there, but assuming that not everybody was in that message or you've heard that message, and those who hear this later maybe don't spend the time to go back to listen,

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I do want to highlight some things that are very, very important, because you might be tempted to take what I say today and to distort it and to run off into a direction that we ought not go as believers in this subject of baptism.

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In this room today before us, you have a church of people that are fighting, a fighting church in terms of fighting the world and bringing the gospel to the world.

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The Apology of Church is unique. It's a really unique church. Not only does it have this strange group of people that are willing to do dangerous things for Jesus, where everyone just sort of accepts the fact that we live lives of godly, risky missionary sacrifice.

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We have this amazing heritage as a church. We came out of darkness. I mean, drug and alcohol addiction in the hospital, and now this church is formed out of darkness, and God does it all, and He's taking care of all of our needs in ways that are just purely miraculous.

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It's a unique church. It's a unique church in many ways. It's a unique church, I think, also because you have within this body members of a

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Reformed Baptist church that are confessing Presbyterians, and that this is their home, and they're equal members of this church, and they serve

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God together at this church. They're not seen as that Presbyterian member. They're seen as a member of Apology of Church.

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They're just part of our family, and so it's really interesting. You have a church where there's actually, it's allowed, you're allowed to be

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Presbyterian at Apology of Church. I'd like to convince you otherwise, but if you never changed, that's okay, and it doesn't change anything in terms of your membership and your service to Christ here as a body.

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That's unique. It truly is tremendous, and I want to just highlight something that's very, very important.

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Let's use as a contrast today, because I think it's good to have something to aim at, okay? There are other issues. You could talk about Anglicanism.

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You could talk about all kinds of issues, but let's use it as a springboard contrast today. Reformed Baptist view of the covenant and baptism versus a

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Presbyterian view of the covenant and baptism. Take those two today to take an aim at.

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What do we agree on? So much. We agree on the solas of the

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Reformation. I mean, if that was it, that's a lot. Think about what you have when you have agreement, fundamental agreement on the solas of the

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Reformation, the pillars that we all say, you need to have these things. These are in the Bible, and you better hold on to these, or you lose the purity of the faith.

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Sola Scriptura. The Scriptures alone are the only infallible rule of faith and practice. How do you know what's true?

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The Bible. What does it say? Not some counsel, not some creed, not some confession, not

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Jeff Durbin, not James White, not Charles Spurgeon, not John Calvin, not any of our heroes of the faith.

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You have what? The Bible is the Word of God. The Bible is an authority over us. It's the truth.

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How do you know what's true? The Word of God. Sola Scriptura. You have sola gratia, we are saved by grace alone.

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Sola fide, through faith alone. Solus Christus, through Christ alone. He is the only mediator, the only way to salvation, and it is soli deo gloria, to the glory of God alone.

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Salvation is not brought about because people pull themselves up to get into a relationship with God.

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It's not made possible because anything in us, from beginning to end, and I'm talking about before creation,

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God determined to save, and all the way to the end, He is the one who brings it about, and He saves.

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So, when you think about that fundamental unity between a Reformed Baptist and a Presbyterian, that is some essential unity.

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And oftentimes, if you were out on the street with a Reformed Baptist and a Presbyterian preaching the gospel, you'd never know the difference.

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You'd have to ask questions to know that there was actually a difference. One of the great joys of my life is standing outside of an abortion mill, or standing outside a downtown university area, or standing outside of a

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Mormon temple, standing outside with Baptists and Presbyterians preaching the gospel, the same gospel, the same

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God with the same Scriptures. Oftentimes, you have Mormons that will think there is so much real division within the body of Christ that they actually use it as an argument against the

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Christian faith. All these different denominations. You've got Presbyterians, and Baptists, and Anglicans, and you've got all these different denominations.

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How do we know you guys are the church of God? You've got all these different denominations. I love it when I'm out on the street with a

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Mormon, and they actually bring that up. Because I can just look over to my side and say, what are you again?

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They say, I'm Presbyterian. As a Presbyterian, I'm a Baptist. And you notice we're both standing here together with the same

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God, and the same gospel, and the same Scriptures, the same message. We have fundamental unity in the midst of diversity.

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When we're on the street, it's total unity. You almost wouldn't know the difference. We only fight later.

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We fight at a coffee shop. We fight over dinner. We fight somewhere else. And what do we fight over? We fight over non -essential issues.

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We fight over issues that are not ultimately gospel issues. So I want to say as we move forward, we agree on so much the soul is.

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We believe in the Trinity. That's fundamental. That's the God that we worship. We believe in the

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Trinity. Together we fight for that. Together we believe in justification through faith alone, in Christ alone, by God's grace alone.

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That's the heart of the gospel. What's in the middle of the gospel? What makes it work? How does reconciliation with God take place?

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Because of justification through faith, because of the work of Christ. And what do we agree on? That. And so I want to say

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Presbyterians and Reformed Baptists are not enemies of the faith in any way. We're part of the same faith.

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One of us is just more right than the other, and we all know who that is. We believe that the scriptures are in the infallible word of God.

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We believe in the resurrection of Jesus Christ, His physical resurrection. We believe in final judgment, a day of final judgment, and a day of final resurrection, where those of us who have been resurrected already with Christ in the union with Christ sense will actually experience physical resurrection by the same

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Lord Jesus Christ. We believe that the gospel is to be proclaimed as repentance and faith.

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Baptists, Reformed Baptists and Presbyterians do not believe in the modern evangelical messy gospel that says that somehow somebody could acquiesce to facts about Jesus, never truly repent and turn to Him as Lord, and you're still saved.

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We believe that there has to be genuine repentance and regeneration by God and true faith in Jesus Christ.

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We believe in that together. Reformed Baptists and Presbyterians are part of the same family of God, and I want to say that if we allow this issue of baptism to divide us as a universal body of Christ, if you allow baptism to make you feel like you're here and that other person is here, then it displays a fundamental immaturity of the faith.

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And it also says something. It says that, yes, salvation is through Jesus Christ, but if you truly want to be in with Jesus, if you truly want to be a real

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Christian, a full -orbs Christian, you must be of this mind in the area of baptism.

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You see, that actually creates a distinction in Scripture that the Scriptures know nothing about. What does the

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Bible say about all of us in Christ through faith is that we are united to Jesus in His death and resurrection, and we are all one body in Jesus Christ, recipients of the same grace, the same blessings, and we are all raised up with Christ together.

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The Bible knows nothing about a Christian here and a substandard Christian over here, because they just don't know enough.

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It's faith in Jesus that joins you to Jesus Christ and brings about salvation, not a perfect knowledge of particular views on baptism or eschatology.

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Now, finally, I'll say this. Does that mean that the issue of baptism is not really important?

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No. Actually, the issue of baptism is really important. As a matter of fact,

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I'm going to show you today, even playing some clips for you guys up here, that there are actually serious implications in terms of practice.

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If you get this wrong, I believe that it actually is a bit destructive to the practice of the church in terms of how we see our children and repentance and faith.

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Now, do I believe that I should divide with my brothers and sisters in Christ who disagree? Absolutely not.

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As a matter of fact, you guys all know it. I said it last week. Some of my greatest heroes of the faith are

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Presbyterian. And I think I, maybe I wasn't clear about it, but I, of course, I have Baptist heroes.

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But I think that on the whole, I think the majority of my heroes are Presbyterian ministers. The people that taught me the most in terms of full -orb views of Christianity and epistemology and covenant, those sorts of things,

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I gleaned so much from Presbyterians. As a matter of fact, in February, I'm going to be doing a conference side -by -side with Douglas Wilson.

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He's somebody that I think is a friend of mine, somebody that I greatly admire, that I've learned so very much from.

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I love just being with him. I love sitting down to meals with Douglas Wilson and just sitting and listening to him talk.

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I think he's one of the greatest blessings to the church today in this modern era. Do I agree with him on this issue?

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No. Do I ever want to separate from him on this issue? Absolutely not. I'm going to serve

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God together. We can do more damage, brothers and sisters, as a body together than apart.

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And that's an important thing to keep in mind. And so let's move towards first point today, justification.

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How are we justified? What does the Bible say about justification? We're not going to talk today, by the way, so much about baptismal mode today.

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That's a whole sermon by itself, which I'm happy to do. But in terms of what I'm actually able to handle today, to answer questions,

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I want to do my best to talk about what is baptism? What does the Bible say its meaning is? Who was it given to in a

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New Testament context? So today we're not going to talk so much about baptismal mode. Is it sprinkling?

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Is it pouring? Is it dipping? Is it immersion? We're going to talk today about baptism in a different way in terms of the larger issues.

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First and foremost, let's go to the scriptures and talk about justification. It's important to lay that down before we go anywhere else on this issue, because believe me, if you get this wrong, you're going to get baptism wrong.

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Two, go to Romans chapter three. Romans chapter three. Now we did a bit of this,

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I believe, last week. Romans chapter three. I'm just going to do it quickly today. Romans three.

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After Romans one and two, Paul lays down this universal indictment upon Jews and who?

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Come on now, you join with me here. Jews and who? Gentiles. Jews and Gentiles.

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That's very, very important, because that's a distinction that Paul makes constantly and the New Testament scriptures make constantly, is there's a distinction between the

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Jews and the Gentiles. Those are whole peoples, Jews and Gentiles. Remember that, because that's

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Paul's point in Romans chapters one, two, and getting into three. This Jew and Gentile, of course, everybody is in Romans one, but then you have

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Jews specifically addressed and then the Gentiles as well. And what does the Bible say about Jew and Gentile?

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Romans three, verse 10. As it is written, none is righteous.

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No, not one. No one understands. No one seeks for God. All have turned aside. Together they have become worthless.

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No one does good. Not even one. You know the list of texts. What's he doing? He's pulling from the Old Testament. He says all of us,

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Jew and Gentile, all are under sin. And what's it say? All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.

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And what's it say about the law? Read the text. Romans 3, 19. And now we know that whatever the law says is speak to those who are under the law so that every mouth may be stopped and the whole world may be held accountable to God.

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For by works of the law, no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes the knowledge of sin.

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Important element now. Hold on to this. It never has been the case that somebody was reconciled to God through their good deeds, through their obedience to the law.

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That is fundamental. And if you're new today to church, if this is one of the first times you've opened your

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Bible, if somebody dragged you to church today kicking and screaming, you need to hear this.

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It's very important, but despite the issue of baptism, please listen to this. Jesus came into the world to save sinners, not righteous people.

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And the law of God was really a tremendous gift to the people of God because it was God revealing

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His standards of justice. It was God revealing His character to His people. It was God revealing

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His law, condescending. That's not something that pagan, false gods did. They didn't know the will of their

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God. They didn't understand. Their gods were capricious. They didn't understand what they wanted.

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They didn't understand what they believed. They didn't understand their will. God responds to His people, and He gives them His law graciously.

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However, that law also came with curses, because if the national people of God did not obey,

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God told them they would not inherit the land. They would receive the sanctions of the old covenant. And the problem was, is that this national people of God were all fallen sinners, just like every single one of us.

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They didn't have the Spirit of God indwelling them in the same way that we do today with the law of God and the new covenants written within us.

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They didn't have those blessings, and that law could not save anybody. So if you want to take away one thing from today's message, if you forget everything about baptism, know this, that Jesus saves sinners by His blood.

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It is not through any work of law. It never was. That circumcision of the old covenant did not save a single

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Jew. What they needed was a circumcision of the heart. They needed a true circumcision from within.

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They needed a change inside of them. They were saved by the same faith that we are.

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The law of God saves nobody. You can't be righteous in God's eyes through your obedience, and Paul says as much here.

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He says, by the works of the law, no human being will be justified in His sight, for through the law comes the knowledge of sin.

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If you want to know what the message of Jesus is fundamentally about, it's about, ready? Peace with God. And how's that come about?

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Through faith in Jesus Christ. Well, what else, Jeff? Is it baptism? Is it some other work of law?

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Nothing. It is Jesus plus nothing. It is all

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Him, and we receive Him and His blessings through faith, not through any work of law in the

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Old Testament or the New. Now, onward. As you move through Romans 3 from verse 24 on, he talks about how

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God's righteousness, the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law through the law and the prophets, though the law and the prophets bear witness to it.

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Now, what is this? He says that Jesus was put up on that cross publicly as a propitiation.

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Now, it's a big word. What's it mean? It just means that Jesus fully absorbed the wrath of God in the place of His people, fully absorbed.

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It was exhausted in Jesus, and God the Father placed Jesus there publicly to display to all the world what

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He was doing. Even the sign of the fall was on His head, thorns, so that God would be just and the justifier, the one who has faith in Jesus.

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That's what the cross is about. That's what faith is all about in Jesus Christ. Christ taking my sin, me getting

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His righteousness, me not deserving it, God getting all the glory. And who's the primary actor in all of this?

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God. It's His work. But what does He say? Romans 3 28, therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith apart from the works of the law.

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Now, Romans 4, watch closely. What then shall we say was gained by Abraham our forefather according to the flesh?

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For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God.

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For what does the scripture say? Here it is. Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness.

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Now, to the one who works, his wages are not counted as a gift, but as his due. And to the one who does not work, but believes in him who justifies the who?

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The ungodly. Some translations say the wicked. Pause.

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Everything about baptism, set it aside for a second. All what we think about baptism mode and everything else, listen, it says that God declares righteous ungodly people, not righteous people.

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He doesn't look at a person and say, okay, you're good enough. You're righteous enough. It says that God actually does something that seems really perverse.

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It seems perverse for a judge to look at a person who is guilty and to say to a guilty person in a court of law with full knowledge of their sin,

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I declare you righteous. That is according to God in the Proverbs, an abomination for a judge to acquit the guilty.

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How does God get away with what he calls as an abomination? Here's how, because he is not calling guilty people righteous because they are.

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He's calling guilty and wicked people righteous because they are wrapped up in Jesus.

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The declaration of righteousness is based upon not my righteousness itself, but upon the righteousness of Jesus Christ and Christ absorbed my sin and the wrath of God on that cross.

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So what's that mean? God declares people like you and me righteous through faith because we are in Christ, in him.

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There's nobody in this room that's ever going to stand before God, ever, and have

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God say, well, now you're pleasing to me because you did such and such. You're pleasing to me because you were good enough. You're pleasing to me because you obeyed enough.

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Nobody, not me, not anybody will ever stand before God with a righteousness of their own that is acceptable to God.

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That's the sum of the story in Christ, declared righteous through faith.

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That's the story. But then Paul actually begins to talk about the blessings. Look, Romans 4, to the one who works, his wages are not counted as a gift, but as his due.

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And to the one who does not work, but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness. Just as David also speaks of the blessing of the one to whom

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God counts righteousness apart from works. Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven and whose sins are covered.

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Blessed is the man against whom the Lord will not count his sin. That's what we call double imputation, baby.

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That means that God, ready, counts you righteous apart from works, and then he doesn't count your sins against you.

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He imputes righteousness towards you, to you, and he doesn't count your sins against you.

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Blessed is the man. Blessed is the woman. Are you the blessed man?

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Are you the blessed woman? Are you counted righteous because you have his righteousness?

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Will God never count your sins against you ever? That's the blessing of justification.

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Is this blessing, here it is, verse 9, is this blessing then only for the circumcised or also for the uncircumcised?

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We say that faith was counted to Abraham as righteousness. How then was it counted to him?

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Was it before or after he had been circumcised? It was not after, but before he was circumcised.

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Here it is, he received the sign of circumcision as a seal of the righteousness that he had by faith while he was still uncircumcised.

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The purpose was to make him the father of all who believe without being circumcised so that righteousness would be counted to them as well.

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Here's the deal, Abraham's the father of our faith. If you want to know whether you're truly in Christ, you have to have a faith like Abraham.

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What did Abraham do? What'd he do? Tell me, what'd he do? He believed.

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He's the son of pagan parents. He's the son of pagans.

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What does he do when God does this really amazing little covenant symbol and arrangement?

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What's he do? God puts Abraham to sleep while he makes a covenant with him.

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So what's Abraham's part of this covenant? Nothing. He is passive.

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He is completely passive. He's... And what's God doing? God goes through these animals, this ritual they had to essentially swear and make a covenant.

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He goes to the animals himself to swear by himself and Abraham's asleep. What's Abraham do?

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He believes God and it's counted to him as righteousness. And this was before, ready? The sign of circumcision of the old covenant and it was also hundreds of years before Moses gave the law.

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So what's Abraham got to offer God? Not a thing. What did he do? Not a thing.

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Are you his child? Are you his child? Because let me tell you right now, that's the substance of the

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Christian message. It's not about baptism. It's not about your good deeds.

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Are you that person? Pause. Are you that person that sits passively before God and is the recipient of his blessings?

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Is your mouth open to receive the living waters? Are your hands open just to receive the gifts?

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Because you see, if you are the person who is working for justification, you are not a child of Abraham and nobody in the old covenant who was doing that was a child of Abraham.

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Truly, what did Abraham do? He got that internal circumcision of the heart before he ever received the symbol.

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Now that's justification. Now let's go quickly and talk about baptism for salvation.

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I'm just going to spend a moment on this. It is important, however, to do it because you are going to run into people probably who think that you have to have baptism, the sign in order to receive forgiveness of sins.

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They believe in things like baptismal regeneration, that somehow when you get into that water or you receive the water that you are then regenerated, then you're saved.

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And they teach essentially that there is faith in Jesus plus the sign of the new covenant for salvation.

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This is a deadly heresy. It destroys the gospel. It's fundamentally important to see that is not how the

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Bible says you receive justification. That's not how Abraham received it. That's not how you're going to receive it.

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It is through faith and faith alone. So quickly, I'm only going to do this for a minute. I apologize for not spending a ton of time on it, but we have lots to do today.

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So just quickly go to first Corinthians. First Corinthians and see how the apostle

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Paul saw baptism. First Corinthians, besides how

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Abraham was justified, besides how the Bible speaks of justification taking place, reconciliation and peace with God, what does the

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Bible say about the gospel and baptism? Here's Paul. I think we can all agree, don't you think, that Paul is the master evangelist.

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Would you agree with that? He's the master evangelist, turned the world upside down, led people to Christ, wrote most of the

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New Testament. He's the master evangelist. I'd say Paul knows the gospel. I'd say

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Paul knows how a person is reconciled to God. And now when there's a controversy that happens in the first century, the same kind of thing that happens to us often today in the

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Christian church, we have celebrity preachers. We have celebrity pastors, even in the 21st century church.

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People say, I'm of MacArthur, right? Or I'm of Martin Lloyd -Jones, or I'm of Dr.

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White, or I'm of R .C. Sproul. We have our heroes. We have our celebrities. I'm of Piper, right?

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People have their celebrities. And in the first century, that's what took place as well. People say, I'm of Apollos, or I'm of Paul.

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And Paul has to address that problem in first Corinthians chapter one, verse 10.

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I appeal to you brothers by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all you agree, and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be united in the same mind and the same judgment.

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For it has been reported to me by Chloe's people that there is quarreling among you, my brothers. What I mean is that each of you says,

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I follow Paul, or I follow Apollos, or I follow, and that's Peter, or I follow

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Christ. If I was in one of those teams, I'd be like, I follow Christ, right? People say that today.

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I'm just a Christian, right? Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul?

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I thank God that I baptized none of you except Crispus and Gaius, so that no one may say that you are baptized in my name.

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Now notice, he is thanking God that he didn't baptize certain people, some people.

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I thank God that I didn't baptize any of you except this guy, this guy. He names here, and there's more. He said,

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I did not baptize. I did also, I did baptize also the household of Stephanas. Beyond that, I do not know whether I baptize anyone else.

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For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel. Embrace that, because it's big.

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I thank God that I baptized none of you. Now, if baptism was essential for salvation, if you needed faith plus baptism for salvation, then how does the master evangelist get away with saying,

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I thank God I baptized none of you? Because if it was essential as part of justification and salvation, then he would need to have baptized, and he wouldn't have been saying,

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I thank God. And what does he do? He separates the gospel and baptism. He says what?

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Christ did not send me to baptize, but to what? But to what? He has baptism as a separate category from the gospel.

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Now, brothers and sisters, that ought to speak something to us very clearly. Now, watch. Do I believe that if somebody says they believe in Jesus Christ and they have not been baptized and do not desire to be baptized, do

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I believe that that is consistent Christian practice? No. As a matter of fact, if you have believed in Christ and have not been baptized and you refuse baptism, do not want to be baptized,

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I do question your profession of faith. I don't think you're a Christian. If you say,

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I don't want to get baptized, have no desire to get baptized, no desire to get wet, I would say, I think you're not a

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Christian. People who believe in Jesus Christ desire to get baptized.

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Christ commands it. However, if you are a believer in Jesus Christ and you do not get baptized and you go walking out there and get hit by a truck and you truly believed, will you spend eternity with God in heaven?

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Of course you will. Case in point, the thief on the cross. He's hanging there dying and he, on his deathbed, people say, you believe in deathbed conversions?

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Well, yeah. It's right there on the cross next to Jesus. First they're railing against Jesus and then something happens in the midst of it.

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He's like, ah, remember me when you're coming to your kingdom. He believes in Jesus.

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And what's Jesus say to him? This day you'll be with me where? In paradise. What did he get off the cross and get baptized?

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No, he died with no Christian baptism, nothing. He just believed in Jesus and he died.

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He was a bit providentially hindered, you can say, from baptism. Now here's the thing.

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If somebody says, well, yeah, that was a unique case. I would say, how many gospels are there? How many different ways to God?

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Is it some people need to have a certain level of obedience and do certain rituals and then they're saved and others not?

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Which is it? Here's the point. Paul says, gospel baptism. Now here's the thing. I got to stress this.

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If you say you believe in Jesus and you refuse baptism, I question your confession of faith because believers get baptized.

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Okay, quickly, let's look at Old Testament in Israel. Let's think about them as a people for a moment.

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Now for this, mostly just do some listening and some consideration, please.

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The Old Testament people of God, what did it look like? Let's think about the

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Old Covenant, what the people of God look like in the Old Testament. They were a national people.

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Israel was a nation. They were a national people that consisted of people who received circumcision that were part of households.

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You did have slaves receiving circumcision. You did have even enemies receiving circumcision and being brought in.

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You had people receiving the sign of the covenant people of God under the terms of the

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Old Covenant. You had particular land promises to the national people of God.

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You had typological shadows, like what? We had a temple that could be taken apart stone by stone.

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You had a priest who was a sinner. He represented you before God and he was sinful.

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Think about it, Yom Kippur, what's the high priest have to do on Yom Kippur? The first thing he has to do, he has to kill an animal for himself.

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And what's he have to do? When he actually does the ritual with the goat, one dies, one's a scapegoat, putting his hands on one, confessing the sins of the people.

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When he does go into the Holy of Holies, there's a good chance he's not making it out.

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Now, that's not a lot of hope in terms of this guy's my representative. You're like, I wonder if he's going to make it.

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And you know, and you got this story. He goes in, people are like, right?

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And the story of the rope around that priest, right? And the bells and he never sits down in the temple.

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He's never in the Holy of Holies actually seated, his work isn't done. And there's the concern he may not make it, right?

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And every year it's a constant reminder of sins. It's this blood of the old covenant could not take away sins really.

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It was the blood of bulls and goats, couldn't remove sins. You got a sinful priest.

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And here's another problem is that he dies. And then another one comes to take his place. He doesn't live forever to make intercession for you.

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You've got animal sacrifices, the blood of bulls and goats. Again, they can't take away sin. You've got a temple that can be destroyed.

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You got a people in the covenant community who received the signs, who were not truly circumcised in the hearts.

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Now, if you want to know what do I need to hang on to today? If you're checking out, check back in.

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People in this covenant received the sign of the covenant who were not circumcised in their hearts.

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You had communities that were receiving the sign of the covenant to be part of this national people who were not even really submitted to Yahweh.

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And they knew it. They knew that there was a remnant of the people of God, a remnant within this national covenant people who were the true believers, but others who had received a sign that didn't really submit to Yahweh, but they received a sign.

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They were part of national Israel. That's the old covenant. That's what it looked like.

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Deuteronomy 10 verse 16, Jeremiah 4, 4, Jeremiah 9, 23 through 24, people who received the sign who were not truly circumcised in the heart.

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Note something, note something. What was needed to be redeemed, listen, was the circumcision of the heart.

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Deuteronomy 30 verse 6, and listen, and this circumcision of the heart is a promise to all who are part of the new covenant.

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Now, hang on, because you might say, Jeff, that's basic Christian teaching. That's basic Christian understanding.

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That's what Jeremiah 31, 31 says, but brothers and sisters, don't you understand? In this debate between infant baptism and credo baptism, in the debate about how the covenant works out, this is a huge issue.

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Listen closely again. The circumcision of the heart is promised to all who are part of the new covenant.

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Now, let's talk briefly about the newness of the new covenant, the newness of the new covenant.

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Jeremiah 31, 31 and on, we already did, and what's it say? Tell me something about the new covenant promise.

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Tell me something. Speak up so I can hear you. The law is going to be within us.

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What else? Everybody who's in that, everyone who receives that, they'll all know me from the least to the greatest.

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What else? We're going to get to that in one second. Ezekiel, thanks for jumping ahead of me,

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Mr. Seminary. Okay. Okay. What's Jeremiah 30?

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Give me another promise. Give me another promise of Jeremiah 31. The new covenant promises what to those who are part of it?

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Tell me. Forgiveness of sins to those who are in the new covenant.

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Now, whatever your view on covenant is, Jeremiah 31 on says that those who receive the blessings of this new covenant have the law within them.

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They have forgiveness of sins, and they don't need to tell others there, know the Lord, for they'll all know me.

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Those who are in this new covenant, who have the law within them, have forgiveness of sins. That's the blessings of the new covenants.

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Ezekiel 36. Okay. Now you can say, what's Ezekiel 36 say? What's it say? Got it.

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So Ezekiel 36, the promise of the new covenant as well is that God's going to do something. And what's it say?

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He's going to remove a heart of stone and give you a heart of what? So what happens in a new covenant that's different than the old?

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Why even mention it? Listen, why mention it if it's the same thing as the old covenant?

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Why mention the new covenant blessings is that God's going to do something different. Not like I did before.

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Not like the ones who broke my covenant, even though I was their husband. Why mention it?

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If the old covenant is supposed to be the paradigm that you push into the new, then why mention that the blessing of the new is that God actually removes a heart of stone and gives a heart of flesh.

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Why mention that God does this new cleansing? Why mention that God actually says he puts his spirit within them and he causes them to obey his statutes.

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Here's why some of you guys are saying, I have no idea what you're talking about. Here's a summary.

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Our Presbyterian brethren that I love with all of my heart, and if you're in this room, know this.

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If you never changed your mind, I'm going to love you the same. I'm going to fight with you the same.

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But our Presbyterian brethren will say that the old covenant operates as the paradigm that you now look through for consistency in terms of there has to be an organic unity between the old and the new, which by the way,

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I fully agree with. There is an organic unity within the covenants.

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We believe in covenantal theology, but we don't agree that the old covenant's old way is better than the new covenants.

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And we don't believe that the old covenant operates as the paradigm through which now you actually view the new.

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We believe it's actually reverse. The new covenant is the paradigm through which you see the old.

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We don't believe that you take old covenant categories and paradigm, and you push them into New Testament practice saying this is how it was always done.

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So therefore we do it now that way for good. So onward.

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Next point. This is big. Hebrews chapter seven and eight. Now by the way, again, there are a few things

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I know. Listen, I know this. I know. There's no way if you're new to this discussion that most of what

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I'm saying makes any sense to you at all. And there's no way that you're going to remember everything you heard in this sermon. There are particular points that I want you to not forget.

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And if you're asking questions right now, like I want to know, I truly want to know what does God say? Not what was my tradition, not what my church is now, not what

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I have believed. What does God say? Listen, here it is right now. Hebrews seven and eight.

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If your view is to be consistent about the covenants, then it better be consistent with this, because this is what

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God says are the blessings of the new covenant, and it says about Jesus' mediation of that new covenant.

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And here, let's go to it. Hebrews seven and eight. Again, if you're checking out at any point, this is one of those times you need to come right back.

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Hebrews seven and eight, chapter seven, talking about Christ's priesthood in verse 22.

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Go to it. Go to 722, Hebrews. Now, follow with me in the text.

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This makes Jesus the guarantor of a better covenant. What's he called a covenant?

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Come on now. What's it say? Better. Now, listen, that can't just be a meaningless statement.

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It can't just be, well, of course, it's better because Jesus. It's a better covenant for a reason.

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It says he's the guarantor of a better covenant. The former priests were many in number because they were prevented by death from continuing in office, but he holds his priesthood permanently because he continues forever.

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Consequently, he is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them.

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This is covenantal language. And what does it say about Jesus' mediation of this new covenant?

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Is that he is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him.

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Brothers and sisters, I want to suggest to you humbly that if we suggest that there are people who are in this new covenant according to God who are not truly saved, then our view of those who are in the new covenant does not match

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Hebrews 7. People often ask me and I say it, but honestly, if you're a

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Presbyterian and we get into a relationship with each other, I generally just avoid this conversation because I'd rather have unity than disunity and I don't want to blow us apart.

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But when I want to give a healthy jab to my Presbyterian brethren, when they say, well,

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I'm Presbyterian, I believe in paedo -baptism, why don't you? I'll say, well, not everybody wants the perfect mediator of the covenant.

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And oftentimes they'll go, huh? And here's the thing, and I say this in love,

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Presbyterians will say that infants receive the sign of the covenant and are declared by God via that sign to be members of the new covenant community.

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And they say that you can be a member of the new covenant and God's declaring it.

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And you could ultimately fall away from that covenant, that you could be a member of the new covenant and not be regenerate.

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What we say to our Presbyterian brethren is that's not what the

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Bible says about the new covenant and Jesus' mediation of it. It's a better covenant and He mediates it perfectly.

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And what is He able to do? How does He save people in this new covenant? He saves them to the what?

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Come on now, say it again. To the uttermost. He saves to the uttermost those who draw near to God through Him.

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If you believe that God declares in baptism that somebody is actually part of His new covenant, then that means that Jesus is their mediator.

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And if they fall away, they were not saved to the uttermost. If they fall away, how was

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God's law written within them? How do they fall away from having a heart of stone put with, sorry, removed from them and a heart of flesh put within them?

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If you say this is about covenant theology, that's the language of the covenant. He mediates perfectly.

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Now onward, it says, for it was indeed fitting, verse 26, that we should have such a high priest, holy, innocent, unstained, separated from sinners, and exalted above the heavens.

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He has no need like those high priests to offer sacrifices daily, first for His own sins and then for the sins of His people, then for the those of the people, since He did this once for all when

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He offered up Himself. First of all, listen. Yes, it's done.

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It's over. Take that, mass. Okay. For the law appoints men in their weaknesses.

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Weakness is high priest, but the word of the oath, which came later than the law, appoints a son who has been made perfect forever.

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Here we go. Ready? Now go to 8, verse 5. No, 6.

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But as it is, Christ has obtained a ministry that is a much more excellent than the old, as the covenant

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He mediates is what? Come on, say it again. The covenant He mediates is better.

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Pause. Why? Use the language. If the old covenant paradigm is essentially the paradigm that gets pushed into the new, the text says that His covenant is better, which means what?

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It's different. There are aspects to the new covenant that are different. It's better than the old.

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It's more supreme than the old. And it says what? Since it is enacted on better what?

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Better promises. For if that first covenant had been faultless, there would have been no occasion to look for a second.

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For He finds fault with them when He says, now look, tell me if you're following. What is quoted right here in Hebrews?

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Tell me the text. Jeremiah 31. Do you see it?

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So this better new covenant built upon better promises quoted with Jesus as a perfect mediator who does never fail to save anybody who's in it is referred back to Jeremiah 31.

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And what to say in verse 13 of chapter 8 quickly? And speaking of a new covenant, He makes the first one what?

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Obsolete. And what is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish away. That's, of course, because when the writer of Hebrews wrote this, the temple was still standing.

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It was still there. The remnants were still hanging around, ready to vanish away. It was about to be destroyed.

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By the way, that's prophecy. Did you know that? That's the New Testament writer telling you it's about to go away.

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That's about to be destroyed. Who was the first to say it? Well, it's in the Old Testament, but in their time, it was

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Jesus. He said that stone was going to be taken apart. Not one stone left upon another.

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Very good. Okay, so just a couple points to pay attention to. Now, that's

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Hebrews 7. Now, quickly, baptism in the New Testament. Let me draw you in here for a moment.

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I know this is a longer message, but it's important we get this right. So hang with me now on this. Now, think for a moment.

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Now, this is where I want you to join in the conversation by participating right now in thought.

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Can I ask you a question as a Christian? Say, for example, you have a

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Seventh Day Adventist in your family, or a Seventh Day Adventist at work, or you run into a

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Seventh Day Adventist online, and they say to you, hey, are you a Christian? You say, yeah.

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So you believe in Jesus? Yeah. You believe in the law of God? You say, of course I believe in the law of God.

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They say, great. When do you do worship? When do you gather for worship? And you say,

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I gather on Sunday. And they say to you, what are you doing gathering on Sunday?

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Don't you know that the Sabbath day is on the seventh day?

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And you say, well, that's Sunday according to the American calendar, is it? Isn't Sunday the last day of the week?

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It is for us in our work week, right? Five days of health and two days of rest, right? And they go, no, no, no, no, no.

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What's the calendar? What's God's calendar? Oh, yes. Sunday is actually the first day of the week.

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So when does God say to do Sabbath? Saturday. And so you see

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Seventh Day Adventists who celebrate or practice Sabbath rest according to the Old Testament law, and they do it from Friday sundown to Saturday sundown.

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Now let me ask you a question. Don't shout it out loud. I just want you to think. You run into this Seventh Day Adventist, and I want you to think whether you're

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Baptist or Presbyterian. I need you to come with me now. What is your answer to the

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Seventh Day Adventist when they tell you that the law of God says that Sabbath is on the seventh day and you,

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Christian, are doing your worship on the first day of the week?

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Think through it for a moment. What's your answer to them? Why don't you do it

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Friday to Saturday? Give me the verse. Give me the verse that tells you that you are to do now worship on the first day of the week.

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Give me the verse. Give me the verse that says that the seventh day is now transferred to the first day.

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Christians, now, I know it was the seventh day. Now do it on the first day. Where's the verse? You're not going to find it.

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You might be saying, Jeff, what are you saying? Are we now going to start doing Sabbath, Friday sundown to Saturday sundown?

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No, I'm going to tell you what you all know that we do as Christians. What do we do? We look at the

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New Testament practice and we say, how did the apostles and their apostolic witness and the

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New Testament believers, how did they now view Sabbath? And you look into Hebrews in the first couple of chapters and you realize that the writer of Hebrews tells you what the

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Sabbath pointed to, how Christ is our Sabbath rest. And we are to cease from our labors and enter into that rest with Jesus Christ.

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And you see, okay, that was the meaning of Sabbath. But let me ask you a question. Where's the verse that says that you're supposed to do

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Sabbath now on Sunday and not Saturday? Where's the verse?

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It isn't there. And you might be saying, well, then why don't we do it?

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Answer, because the New Testament practice shows us that they saw in Jesus, the fulfillment of the

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Sabbath and they started all no longer meeting on that seventh day, but meeting on the first day of the week, recognizing what the

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Sabbath pointed to. And they saw Christ as its fulfillment. And they now practice their corporate worship on the first day of the week, commemorating what?

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The resurrection of Jesus. It was New Testament practice not to go back to the symbol of the

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Sabbath, but now to see the fulfillment of the Sabbath. But here's the point I'm making. What's the whole point?

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Presbyterians and Baptists gather on Sunday. Why? Because the New Testament practice of the apostles and believers dictates the practice of worship today.

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And you won't find a single verse that tells you change Saturday to Sunday. But what do you see?

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The practice of the apostles and the believers was now to meet on the first day of the week. Hang on to that important point.

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Now, how was baptism in our New Testament? I'm going to go through these rather quickly. One, what does it mean?

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Romans chapter six, we did last week. What is baptism according to Romans six symbolize?

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Help me now. Our union with Christ, what?

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Death and His resurrection. Our union with Jesus, death and resurrection.

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And it says in Romans chapter six, I'm actually going to read it for you here. Romans chapter six, it says, what should we say then?

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Are we to continue in sins that grace may abound? By no means. How can we who die to sins still live in it? Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized 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

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Father, we too might walk in newness of life. It says that those who are baptized were joined together with Christ in His death and resurrection.

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That's what the apostle says. In Galatians, sorry, Colossians chapter two, go there quickly.

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We're going to do it together. Colossians chapter two, this is an important one in terms of what has taken place in our new covenant, who's in the new covenant.

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Colossians chapter two in verse 11, in Him also you were circumcised with a circumcision made without hands by putting off the body of the 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

01:00:24

Him from the dead. And you were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh,

01:00:29

God made alive together with Him, having forgiven us all of our trespasses.

01:00:35

Pause. It says that those of us who are part of this new covenant, those of us who have been baptized have received what?

01:00:46

Those who are baptized have received what? Come on now. Circumcision of the heart, forgiveness is a part of that.

01:00:55

And so pause now and mark it down. Colossians two says that those who've been baptized have received the circumcision of the heart.

01:01:05

Now Galatians 327, another passage about what takes place in baptism, talking about our death, our union with Christ's death and His resurrection.

01:01:17

I'm going to read to you a quote here real fast from a good book I highly recommend to you guys, Believer's Baptism by Thomas Schreiner.

01:01:26

And here is what J .I. Packer says about Christian baptism. Listen, Christian baptism is a sign from God that signifies inward cleansing and remission of sins,

01:01:36

Acts 22, 16, 1 Corinthians 6, 11, Ephesians 5, 25 through 27, spirit wrought regeneration and new life,

01:01:46

Titus 3, 5, and the abiding presence of the Holy Spirit as God's seal testifying and guaranteeing that one will be kept safe in Christ forever, 1

01:01:56

Corinthians 12, 13. Baptism carries these meanings because first and fundamentally it signifies union with Christ in His death, burial, and resurrection,

01:02:06

Romans 6, Colossians 2. And this union with Christ is a source of every element in our salvation, 1

01:02:14

John 5, 11. Receiving the sign in faith assures that persons baptized that God's gift of new life in Christ is freely given to them.

01:02:23

That's the meaning of baptism, New Testament. Quick question, who received it? Who received baptism in our

01:02:30

New Testament? Now we're getting to the nitty -gritty. Now we're getting to the nuts and bolts.

01:02:36

Now we're going to get to, okay, what's it look like? Who received it?

01:02:41

First, let's go to the premier text. You probably already know it. Don't bother turning. Matthew 28, 18 through 20.

01:02:49

All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the

01:02:56

Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I've commanded you.

01:03:03

When Jesus tells people to preach that gospel and make disciples, to baptize them, what does

01:03:09

He say you must do to those you baptize? Disciple them.

01:03:15

Teach them to what? Teach them to obey. So it's a prerequisite.

01:03:22

Baptize them, teaching them to obey. The understanding there, the implicit understanding is that those who have received baptism can understand the commandments of God and be disciples.

01:03:39

Acts 2, here we go. Acts 2. My Presbyterian brethren will often quote this passage.

01:03:47

Go to it. You want to see it. Acts chapter 2, and this is how it's quoted in the debate.

01:04:00

Acts chapter 2 verse 39. Here is how it's often quoted.

01:04:07

For the promise is for you and for your children. Jeff, why aren't you baptizing babies?

01:04:19

But it says in Acts for baptism, the promise is for you and your children. Now here, let me say this first.

01:04:26

To my Presbyterian brethren, I feel the weight of that. I feel the weight of the charge that Baptists often treat their children like second -class citizens in the kingdom of God.

01:04:43

I feel the charge that we often do baptism in such a way that we make our children earn their baptism.

01:04:52

They believe in Jesus. They repent and believe. And then we say, well, let's give you another 10 years to see if you're really a

01:04:58

Christian. I want to first confess, like I did last week, that's a failure in Baptist culture.

01:05:04

It's just a failure. When we have one standard for the regular person, we call the repentance in faith and we get them baptized when they give that profession of faith.

01:05:13

And there's, you know, least elementary signs of regeneration. We give them baptism.

01:05:19

But when we get to our kids in Baptist culture, we say, wow, there's genuine, like they understand who

01:05:24

Jesus is. They understand their sin. I see some signs of faith and fruit.

01:05:29

And we say, well, let's give you 10 years. Let's give you eight years. That's a failure. Let's go ahead and say it like it is.

01:05:35

It's a failure. It's not biblical, right? So when you come to me and you say, but your children,

01:05:42

Jeff, don't you want your children to be part of the covenant? Don't you want your children to be brought in these promises? My answer is yes.

01:05:49

But in the way that our new Testament tells us to do that, by calling them to repentance and faith so that they experience what

01:05:57

I've experienced in Jesus Christ with a new heart and they get baptized because they tell me,

01:06:02

I believe. Now let's go to the text and let's read the whole text and not just a verse.

01:06:09

Let's start now in verse 37. Now you want to see this text.

01:06:14

So if you don't have your Bible open, you need to get it open. Acts 2 37.

01:06:19

Now, when they heard this, Peter just preached the gospel to them. They were what?

01:06:27

They were cut to the heart. So they heard the message and something happened.

01:06:33

They were cut and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, brothers, what shall we do?

01:06:41

And Peter said to them, repent and be baptized. Every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins.

01:06:49

And you will receive the gift of the Holy spirit for the promise is for you and for your children and for all who are far off.

01:07:00

Here it is. Everyone whom the Lord, our God calls to himself.

01:07:05

That sound familiar? Everyone, the Lord, our God calls sound familiar in Paul's theology.

01:07:12

What does he say? Those whom he foreknew, he predestined those to be predestined. He what called those whom he called.

01:07:20

He justified those who be justified. He also want glorified. What happens to somebody who's called?

01:07:27

What happens? It's in the golden chain. It says called, justified, glorified.

01:07:36

And this text says the promises to you and to your children and to all who are far off, as many as the

01:07:44

Lord, our God will call to himself. And with many other words, he bore witness and continued to exhort them saying, save yourselves from this crooked generation.

01:07:55

So here it is. So those who received his word were baptized question with humility, complete humility, recognizing my own fallible nature as a human who received according to this text, baptism this day, those who received his word.

01:08:24

Now the text tells you who got baptized and it says they were cut to the heart.

01:08:31

They received that word. They were baptized. Now, what of this to you and your children?

01:08:39

That's a common way of speaking for the apostles. You already saw it in Romans and what does

01:08:45

Paul do in Romans chapters one through three? I told you the beginning. He contrasts two people, two peoples.

01:08:51

Who are they? Jews and Gentiles. Jews and Gentiles is the common way that the apostles would speak of the work that God was doing in the world.

01:09:03

Now look at the text. He says to you and your children and who all who are far off, everyone whom the

01:09:09

Lord our God calls to himself. Now let's look at the text and pay attention to details here.

01:09:17

Matthew 27 25. You don't need to go, just write it down. Matthew 27 25.

01:09:23

The Jews speak this way at the crucifixion of Jesus. Remember it? What they say at the crucifixion?

01:09:29

Pontius Pilate says what? Shall I crucify your king? And they say what?

01:09:36

We have no king but Caesar. And then what does he do? He washes his hands publicly at the trial of Jesus and says,

01:09:43

I find no fault in him. You see to it. And what do they say? His blood be upon us and our children.

01:09:51

That's how they spoke of the Jewish people. They didn't mean let the judgment fall on our infants.

01:10:00

Did they? Did they mean let the judgment of this great sin fall on our kids?

01:10:07

They mean the Jewish people. And that is precisely what's being spoken of here.

01:10:14

Jew and Gentile. But it says specifically those who are called by God and those who receive the word were baptized.

01:10:22

This text does not, in fairness, teach that the infants were baptized and children were baptized.

01:10:31

It actually says, it says the opposite. It says those who receive the word received it. Okay quick again, another text.

01:10:40

Oh actually I don't want to miss this point. Look at the text and let's do some some thoughts and exegesis in the text.

01:10:46

Let's draw out of its meaning. When it says the promise is for you and for your children, what's the promise?

01:10:54

Look at the text. What's the promise? Forgiveness of your sins and the gift of what?

01:11:02

The Holy Spirit. So if we say this text means that all of our kids are part of the new covenant, which is nowhere in this text.

01:11:10

It's nowhere in the text. If it means that our children are part of the new covenant, the promise they receive is forgiveness in the

01:11:17

Holy Spirit. In that case, if you draw it out by logical conclusion, you would have to say, if you think it means that, that all of our children receive forgiveness of sins and the gift of the

01:11:28

Holy Spirit. And I don't know any Presbyterian that wants to go there or that believes that. Now quickly,

01:11:35

Acts 8 26. Another text that's a popular one. Acts 8 26.

01:11:40

I know I'm keeping you here late, guys, but I want to be a faithful minister to you and give you the full explanation.

01:11:45

Acts 8 26. Another popular one. And our

01:11:52

Presbyterian brethren, this is the, actually this isn't the popular one.

01:11:59

This is just an example. We'll just glance at it. We did last week. This is about the Ethiopian eunuch,

01:12:04

Philip. What happens in the text? He hears the gospel and then what happens? After hearing the gospel, he's baptized.

01:12:12

That's just by means of pattern. Acts 10 43. Another example.

01:12:18

When Peter goes to preach the gospel to the Gentiles, what happens? In verse 43 of chapter 10, to him, all the prophets bear witness that everyone who believes in him will receive forgiveness of sins through his name.

01:12:30

While Peter was still saying these things, the Holy Spirit fell on all who heard the word and the believers from among the circumcised who had come with Peter were amazed because the gift of the

01:12:38

Holy Spirit was poured out even on the Gentiles. But they were hearing them speaking in tongues and extolling God.

01:12:44

Then Peter declared, can anyone withhold water for baptizing these people who have received the

01:12:50

Holy Spirit just as we have? And he commanded them to be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ.

01:12:56

Let's look at the pattern. What was it? Gospel, repentance, faith, baptism.

01:13:02

That's how it is in Acts. The pattern is gospel, repentance, faith, baptism.

01:13:07

That's all you see. Gospel, repentance, faith, baptism. Now Acts 16.

01:13:14

Last one. Last text. Acts 16. Go to verse 30.

01:13:24

We know the story, right? It's the jailer. It's actually pretty awesome. I'll start in verse 29.

01:13:33

And the jailer called for lights and rushed in and trembling with fear, he fell down before Paul and Silas. Then he brought them out and says, sirs, and this is the classic statement, right?

01:13:43

Come on, Presbyterian or Baptist, we love this text, right? Together. What must

01:13:48

I do to be saved? What's the answer? And they said, believe in the

01:13:54

Lord Jesus Christ and you'll be saved, you and your household. And they spoke the word of the

01:14:00

Lord to him and to all who were in his house. If you're taking notes, if you're highlighting, notice that it says, and they spoke the word of the

01:14:10

Lord to him and to who? All who were in the house.

01:14:17

And he took them the same hour of the night and washed their wounds and he was baptized at once, he and all his family.

01:14:28

Our Presbyterian brethren will say, here's an example of a guy being told, you'll be saved and your whole house.

01:14:37

And he was baptized with his whole family. But brothers and sisters, the only way you could actually see this as a different methodology and pattern for the rest of the

01:14:48

New Testament is if you go to the text with a presupposition already in place, because the text says, what about them?

01:14:56

It says, he preached the word to him and to all who were in the house and they were all baptized.

01:15:04

But the text tells you something about those who were baptized. What's it say? They all heard the word and it says, verse 34, then he brought them up into his house and set food before them and he rejoiced along with his entire household that he had believed in God.

01:15:26

So the word was preached to all of them and it says, what about the house?

01:15:31

They were baptized and when the guy is finished, it says that he rejoiced along with his whole household that he believed in God.

01:15:40

Can I ask you a question? Do you know of any other times in your own experience when you turn to Jesus and your unbelieving family members were like, yay, yay.

01:15:54

That's not my experience, brothers and sisters. I got exactly the opposite. And I would go out on a limb here and say, most of you got the same too.

01:16:03

So the text says, the word is preached to all of them. The house was baptized. But what does it say about those who are baptized?

01:16:10

They all rejoiced. When our Presbyterian brethren say household baptism right there, he heard the word, his house was baptized.

01:16:21

The text tells you they all heard it and they all rejoiced together. Brothers and sisters, if baptism is given to unbelievers in this text who don't really believe in Jesus, haven't made a profession of faith, what are they doing rejoicing?

01:16:38

Why are they rejoicing? We can't simply come to the text and say, oh look, household, you and your children, see, we're all included.

01:16:48

The text tells you what the nature of the new covenant is and who's receiving baptism in the new covenant.

01:16:55

And there are no examples, brothers and sisters, no explicit examples of infants ever being baptized.

01:17:03

Joy, let's give us one of my heroes, truly one of my heroes of the faith,

01:17:08

Dr. R .C. Sproul. My working assumption when this debate arises among believers and of those who are committed to the doctrine of sola scriptura from the

01:17:23

Reformation, my working assumption is that both sides want to do what is pleasing to God and to be faithful to the

01:17:35

Word of God. And unfortunately, those of us who disagree on this point, though we both desire to be pleasing to God and faithful to the

01:17:48

Word of God, obviously this is one of those places where we both simply cannot be right.

01:17:55

And in fact, it's one of those also where we both cannot be wrong. Somebody's right and somebody's wrong.

01:18:02

And we all know who that is, so we can take a break. One of the things that John has made absolutely clear in his excellent presentation today is that there's nowhere in the

01:18:18

New Testament that explicitly commands the baptism of infants or explicitly mentions the baptism of infants, and so he concludes it's simply not in the

01:18:37

New Testament. And from an explicit perspective, I agree with him completely.

01:18:43

We also have stipulated and agreed that there's no explicit prohibition against infant baptism to be found anywhere in the

01:18:54

New Testament either. So there's a good example, and you can listen to this on your own.

01:19:01

You can go listen to the whole discussion between MacArthur and Sproul. I honor this man.

01:19:06

He is a man that's taught me much of what I know about the faith. I love Dr. Sproul, and I said last week when we lose

01:19:14

Dr. Sproul, we're going to lose a great gift to the church, and I mean that. But here's an example of a

01:19:22

Presbyterian saying there are no explicit examples of infant baptism in our New Testament. Now, I want to suggest something.

01:19:31

When you say that a practice is required of Christians under a new covenant for all of our children and that we must do it, and in some cases the

01:19:42

Westminster Confession says that we're in very serious sin for not doing it, I want to say it is not explicit, but it's also not implicit.

01:19:51

When you look in the New Testament cases of baptism, it's not even implicit. The only way you can get infant baptism, and I mean this with respect to my

01:20:00

Presbyterian brethren, is if you go to the text with a system already in place and you go to the text to say, let's fit the system in.

01:20:11

It doesn't come from a plain reading of the New Testament text, the passages on the

01:20:17

New Covenant, all the examples of baptism in our New Testament. You don't see it there explicitly.

01:20:22

I don't believe it's even implicit in the text. Calvin's view of infant baptism, the

01:20:29

Presbyterian view today, is a theological novum. It is a new view in history.

01:20:36

Does that make it wrong because it starts with Calvin? Does it make it wrong?

01:20:42

No, I'm not saying it makes it wrong because it's new. I am saying that we ought to be, as Christians, biblically suspicious of new practices and new views like this in history.

01:20:55

Again, am I making that as the force of my argument? No, I'm not. I think it's important for us to pay attention to what does the text say.

01:21:02

Okay, quick points to make and we're going to let you go. My Presbyterian brothers and sisters will say

01:21:09

Baptists exclude their children from the covenant. Again, I feel the weight of that.

01:21:16

I feel the weight of it and I think that Baptist culture, the way we've treated our children, specifically this last generation, is shameful.

01:21:26

And I feel the weight of the Presbyterian criticism when they talk about how Baptists treat their children.

01:21:33

I feel the weight of it. We need to stop. We need to repent of it. We need to have the same standard for baptism we have for everybody else.

01:21:40

We need to also have it with our kids. I feel the weight of it completely. However, it's not true that Baptists exclude their children from the covenant.

01:21:49

I believe that children are included in the covenant in the very same way adults are included in the covenant.

01:21:56

And how is that? By election through faith. There are children in this room right now, ready, that believe in Jesus Christ and are saved and are part of the community of faith, part of the new covenant.

01:22:12

And they're little, little Christians. They're little covenant, new covenant believers.

01:22:17

And they're really, really small. We got them too, Presbyterians. You're not the only ones.

01:22:24

We got little Christians too. We don't exclude children from the covenant by any means.

01:22:30

They are included in the covenant in the same way we are, through faith. And they experience the same covenantal blessings that we do, whether you're old or small.

01:22:38

Here's what we're saying. The only people who are part of the new covenant are those who've received its blessings from God through faith.

01:22:44

And those are kids and adults. And the only ones that receive baptism in the New Testament are those who profess the faith, hear the word, and they respond.

01:22:54

And here's where we get to some damaging stuff, and I'm going to let you go. But this is important to hear. You're going to want to hear this. This is important.

01:23:05

Baptism in the Lord's Supper. Two ordinances. People like to call it sacraments. My point is here, the pattern in the

01:23:13

New Testament is repentance, faith, and baptism for baptism. There is a conflict among our Presbyterian brethren, and it is whether or not children who receive baptism as babies should receive communion as well when they're small.

01:23:27

Now, I believe, just for the record, that my Presbyterian brethren who hold to pado communion, that infants also receive the table,

01:23:37

I think you're being consistent. Congratulations. I think that Presbyterians who do pado communion are the most consistent

01:23:45

Presbyterians, and I respect the position. Because they're saying, hey, they receive baptism.

01:23:51

They're part of the new covenant community visibly. How can you withhold the table? I want to say, though, that when you believe that infants receive baptism and are part of the covenant community, even though they haven't professed faith, it creates an irreconcilable contradiction and conflict in your system.

01:24:09

Because 1 Corinthians 11 -23, Paul commands something we do every weekend here on Sunday.

01:24:16

What do I say before you come to this table? What do I say? Come on now, what do I tell you when you go to this table?

01:24:21

What do I say to you? Confess your sin, get your stuff right before God. Don't come to this table if you're not a

01:24:28

Christian, and don't come to this table if you're holding on to sin as a Christian. Don't do it. How many of you guys have passed this table up?

01:24:37

Come on now. I've passed the table up. I have.

01:24:44

Conflict with your spouse, you're both coming to church, not at a good place, and you're coming to church, not reconciled.

01:24:53

You're sitting next to each other like there's seats between you guys, right? Or you got your

01:24:59

Bible open, you're reading it, but trying not to touch your spouse, right? You better not come to this table.

01:25:05

Did you know that? Don't come to this table if you're not reconciled with your spouse. But we all know that, right?

01:25:11

1 Corinthians, Paul says that. He says that people actually are bringing judgment on themselves because they're coming to this table and receiving the elements without discerning the body and blood of Jesus.

01:25:23

What does it mean? You're coming to take this ordinance, and you come to this table in a way that doesn't recognize you got to get your heart right.

01:25:30

And Paul says people are bringing judgment on themselves by coming to this table and not being discerning about it.

01:25:36

That's why I always warn you. But here's the problem. With paedo -communion, the challenge comes.

01:25:44

You have people receiving these elements who cannot discern the body and blood of Jesus.

01:25:53

Small babies receiving these elements, which Paul says, don't you dare take it. Don't you dare unless your heart is right with God.

01:26:02

So how does an infant receive these elements and discern the body and blood of Jesus?

01:26:12

Something to think about. If the new covenant table of Jesus has to be received with discernment, how can we say that we give the sign of the new covenant to people who do not believe and profess faith in Jesus?

01:26:25

Here's some dangers of the practice of infant baptism. I've already talked to you about an imperfect mediator.

01:26:33

If you believe that the sign of the covenant is given ultimately by God and these babies are part of the covenant, but some of them fall away and are not true believers and not really part of the new covenant at the end, you have an imperfect mediator of the covenant.

01:26:48

Jesus did not save them to the uttermost. Baptists don't believe that it's possible for someone to truly be part of the new covenants and fall away.

01:26:57

You are a part of it through faith, true faith. Are there false professors in the church?

01:27:05

Come on now. Are there false professors in this room? Most likely.

01:27:11

There are people in this room who say they're believers, say they're part of the new covenant, and they are not.

01:27:16

Is that true? Yes. That's why there's warning passages in the scriptures. But are they part of the new covenant according to God?

01:27:25

No, not according to God. Now, I'm going to ask you a question that I asked this week to a number of Presbyterians, but I did not let them know why

01:27:38

I was asking it. And it is nice when we can allow ourselves to just let go of tradition for a moment and just think.

01:27:47

Let me ask you a question. How does a person become a Christian? What's that?

01:27:58

Go ahead and tell me. How does a person become a Christian? Repent and believe? How do you become a

01:28:06

Christian? Through faith. I've asked this question this week to Reformed Baptists.

01:28:13

I've asked it to Presbyterians. I haven't asked, I haven't told anybody why I'm asking the question. I say, how does somebody become a

01:28:18

Christian? And everybody, Reformed Baptists and Presbyterian has given me the same answer, and it was glorious.

01:28:25

They said repentance and faith, or they said faith in Jesus Christ. People said trusting in the blood of Jesus, trusting in the work of Christ.

01:28:33

That's how you become a Christian. Well, if you actually hold,

01:28:39

I believe, to a consistent Presbyterian position, it leads to some pretty significant consequences in terms of how you view this subject.

01:28:50

It leads to what you're going to see one of my heroes say, and that is that you are born

01:28:58

Christian. So go ahead and pull that clip up from Wilson. Now, by the way, there are

01:29:09

Presbyterians who disagree with Wilson, but I believe that Wilson is being most consistent with the

01:29:14

Westminster standards, and I think that Wilson is the most consistent Presbyterian I've ever met.

01:29:22

He brings it to its logical conclusion. I know there are Presbyterians who do not agree. I respect that, but again, let's listen to Wilson.

01:29:31

Enjoy the volume. That's a fun question. First, wouldn't you say, according to the federal vision, there's no definitive handbook or somewhere where I can answer the question from my perspective.

01:29:48

The Westminster directory says that children of covenant members are to be baptized because they are federally

01:29:55

Christian. So when Christian parents bring a baby to me and ask me to baptize the baby,

01:30:02

I have to have warrant to baptize them. And I believe, together with the

01:30:08

Credo Baptists, I believe that I don't have any business baptizing anybody who's not a Christian. Right?

01:30:14

If someone professes faith, I believe them to have confessed the Christian faith. I believe them to be a

01:30:19

Christian. So I baptize them ratifying their Christian confession.

01:30:26

It's sort of putting God's sign and seal on that confession. But they make the confession first.

01:30:32

So like the bride and groom exchange vows, and then they put on the ring. All right. So what is my warrant for baptizing an infant who hasn't said anything?

01:30:43

All right. My only warrant, I think, for baptizing a child, making the declaration that this child is covenantally a

01:30:51

Christian, formally ratifying that they're a Christian, is that they were by their birth federally

01:30:57

Christian, federally holy. So in 1

01:31:03

Corinthians 7 .14, I think it's 7 .14, where it says that the child of at least one believing parent is holy, or the word is hagia, which overwhelmingly in the

01:31:17

New Testament, when hagia is the word describing persons, it's rendered as saints.

01:31:24

So when a Christian couple brings a baby to me, I baptize that baby because he's a saint.

01:31:32

I don't baptize him to make him a saint. I ratify his sainthood with the sign and seal.

01:31:39

But it's like the engagement in marriage, you know, or the bride and groom having made the vows, they have a certain status, but then you seal with the ring.

01:31:50

So I don't regard infant baptism as a transition between paganism to Christianity, because then

01:32:03

I would need warrant for on what basis do you think this pagan baby has become a

01:32:08

Christian baby that you may now baptize them. And that's where the Baptists, I think, have a good, a strong argument.

01:32:14

When you're assuming that that's what's going on, it's a problem. But when you assume that the child is by nature an object of wrath, he needs to be converted to God, just like everybody else in the world.

01:32:25

But by virtue of the fact that they're born into a covenant home, you treat them as a Christian.

01:32:30

And my first act in treating them as a Christian is to baptize them. Okay. And your exegesis from that is relying a lot on the

01:32:38

Westminster Confession. Yes, me and the Westminster, the fountainhead of all

01:32:46

FV doctrines. So your exegesis is based upon the

01:32:53

Westminster Confession. And here's the point. It's not in any way to try to take down a brother in the

01:33:01

Lord and one of my heroes of the faith. It's to point something out. Brothers and sisters, where do we ever find in the scriptures that you are born

01:33:10

Christian? As a matter of fact, there were people in the Bible who actually thought that they were born by nature of their birth, by nature of their heritage, had a right to the name of the people of God.

01:33:25

What's John the Baptist say to people who said that? We've got Abraham as our father. What's he say? Abraham can raise up from these stones, heirs to himself.

01:33:35

You repent and bear fruit in keeping with repentance. With all due respect to my brother,

01:33:41

I believe he's being consistent with his confession there. And if we say you become a

01:33:46

Christian through repentance and faith, except if you're born the child of Christians, then you're automatically

01:33:52

Christian. I think we have a problem, an irreconcilable contradiction within our view.

01:34:01

Last point, honestly, this is huge. I just want to make sure we get it all done.

01:34:08

I don't want to leave you hanging. This one I think is the most devastating in terms of what a consistent infant baptism, paedo -baptism view will do.

01:34:20

I think Greg Strawbridge is also a very solid man and a very amazing brother in the

01:34:33

Lord. I also think he is an incredibly consistent Presbyterian, and I respect him.

01:34:40

Because though I do not agree with him, and I think his position is fundamentally flawed and unbiblical,

01:34:46

I think that he is trying his very best to be consistent with his Presbyterian commitments.

01:34:52

The problem is, I think if you're consistent with Presbyterian commitments and you say the Old Testament paradigm gives us the paradigm for new covenant sign of baptism, it leads to this.

01:35:03

I'll let you hear it. Thank you. Dr. Strawbridge, question to you. Do you baptize unbelieving spouses of believing husbands?

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Yes. Just for shock value there. I understand 1

01:35:23

Corinthians 7 .14. There is a minister of the gospel who loves

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Jesus, faithful man of God, who because of his commitments as a Presbyterian, because he wants to be consistent, and I respect him for it, but I think we can all recognize the problem.

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He has to say, if he wants to hold to the old covenant paradigm of who receives the sign of the covenant, that he would baptize somebody who told him,

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I do not believe in Jesus. I do not trust in Jesus.

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I do not have faith in Jesus. He says that he would give the sign of baptism of the new covenant to somebody who says,

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I don't believe in Jesus. On the basis of they have a believing spouse.

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Let me just say, any view, when we hold to most consistently, consistently that leads us to this position, we have to see, brothers and sisters, not in any to harm or take you down.

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We have to see that this is not biblical. To give the sign of baptism to somebody who says,

01:36:38

I don't believe in Jesus. Let me ask you a question. Where in the New Testament do you see baptism given to unbelievers, professed unbelievers?

01:36:50

Now you have to have respect for Dr. Strawbridge. He is being most consistent with his commitments as a

01:36:57

Presbyterian. If you want to use the old covenant paradigm, you got to give it to the whole house.

01:37:02

You got to even give it to the slaves. Back in the day when people were in sin in the area of slavery in the

01:37:08

United States, Presbyterian landowners should have given the sign of baptism to all their slaves.

01:37:15

That's most consistent. Now let's continue to listen to Dr. Strawbridge. The sanctifying does refer to the legitimacy of the marriage that is now the power of God in new covenant is stronger than it was say back in Ezra's day where you had to put away your pagan wife.

01:37:34

I do think that it's referring to, in one sense, kind of sanctifying influence. That's possibility on it.

01:37:41

I think also it's just setting apart, just a setting apart of this person so you don't have to reject it.

01:37:47

I do think that children are holy. The answer to the question is also, I would say, just as in the case of household servants in a former era when there were such things, slaves and such, that anyone that will come under the terms of the covenant may be brought under the terms of the covenant.

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If a spouse is willing to be baptized, then we should baptize him.

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What I can't do is pull out the regeneration glasses and see whether that person is regenerate before I baptize him.

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So I would baptize anyone. Wasn't the question an unbelieving spouse?

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The person told you, I'm not a believer. You don't need your regeneration glasses.

01:38:31

They told you they're not Christian. And this is a consistent view of infant baptism is you've got to give it out to the whole household even when they tell you,

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I don't believe. Now listen to what he says as to the reason why. So, I would baptize anyone that would be willing to become a disciple of Jesus.

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So, little baby, disciple of Jesus, let's baptize him. Big baby, disciple of Jesus, let's baptize him.

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Adult, disciple of Jesus, let's baptize him. Wife, that's a little unsure, doesn't understand everything, but willing to become a disciple, baptize him.

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Husband, willing to do that, baptize him. Household servant, willing to follow the master, baptize him.

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Because then the hard work begins. The hard work of discipleship begins. I don't call people to make a decision once for Christ.

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I call people to be disciples. And that can start an infancy as the Bible clearly, clearly teaches.

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Dr. White. Baptism is never given in hopes that it may someday actually represent the reality that it's supposed to communicate.

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That's not New Testament baptism. That's just the only thing that can be said.

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I mean, if you're really going to follow the Old Testament paradigm, then you need to baptize everyone. The old slave owners should have baptized all their slaves, etc.,

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etc., if there was really a parallel. But we recognize there really isn't. But the reality is that the important thing to hear here is, if you baptize an unbeliever, that's not

01:40:09

Christian baptism. Because it's not pointing to the reality of their death, burial, and resurrection with Jesus Christ.

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You're saying, I hope it happens someday. That's not how the New Testament ever defines baptism.

01:40:24

Just for shock value. Finally done. Long service today. Was it helpful?

01:40:29

Praise God. I want to end with something that I've said already so many times.

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If you're in this room tonight, you're Presbyterian, you probably felt pretty uncomfortable. Let me just invite you to take a breath and know that you are loved completely, irrespective if we ever agree on this.

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But I hope that today has helped with clarity and understanding as much as we can do in a single shot in terms of what baptism means in the

01:40:58

New Testament, who is administered to, and what the difference is between a credo view and a pedo view.

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These are things we should all think about. And we should all be willing to be corrected by the Scriptures on.

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Let me point us all to something we say as a basic confession, no matter where we're at on this issue. We all agree that the

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Scriptures operate as the standard. And can I ask you one question before you leave, before we come to this table together?

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Are you really willing to change your view on this?

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We say all the time, sola scriptura. But are we willing, are we really willing to be humble enough, even after years of holding a view, to say

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I was wrong and I've changed my view? We should all be willing to do that.

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Amen? All of us be willing to be changed by the Scriptures, even if it was something that we held our entire lives.

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If the Scriptures speak differently, we have to change. Let's pray.

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Father, thank you for the message, the time, and your word. I pray you bless the word that went out in Jesus' name.