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Our Father in Heaven, we are blessed this morning to be here. We are blessed to be called your children, to be called out from among this world, to be sanctified by you. Father, we are blessed to be in Christ, that is to say, we are blessed to be placed in His body and to be called together here in West Boylston and to have the opportunity we have to meet here today.
Lord, we would pray as we look to what your word says about baptism and other things concerning Christianity and the confession of faith, that you would strengthen us, that you would lead us, that you would affirm to us again, not what men have said, but what you have said through your word.
In Jesus' name we pray, amen. Let me make sure I'm not providing any of that background noise here. Okay, so we're talking about baptism, and I shut this off, I don't know if that's, okay, it just sounds loud.
Okay, so we're talking about baptism last week, and we compared the Westminster Confession of Faith with the London Baptist Confession of Faith, and now we're going to walk through the London Baptist Confession of Faith, what it says about baptism, and some, I think, intriguing things about baptism.
Baptism, the confession says, is an ordinance of the New Testament, ordained by Jesus Christ, to be unto the party baptized, that is, the individual being baptized, a sign of his fellowship with him, with the Lord Jesus Christ, in his death and resurrection, of being engrafted into him, of remission of sins, and of giving up into God, through Jesus Christ, to live and walk in newness of life.
So when we say baptism is a sign, what do we mean? It points to something else, right? It indicates something else, I mean, the act of dipping a person in the water, in and of itself, is not really significant, right?
I mean, otherwise, there would be spiritual significance to every time we take a bath, or something of that nature, that's not the point, and the Presbyterians would take showers. So, it points to something else, and the confession tells us what it points to.
It's a sign for the person being baptized, of his fellowship with Christ, in his participation in the death and resurrection of Christ, right? When we talk about it, we say, listen, it is a sign of the person being dead to themselves, and then being raised with Christ, and that's what we do when we baptize somebody.
Baptism signifies our fellowship with him in death and resurrection. As we are now submerged in the water, we picture the Lord's death and ours. As we come up out of the water, we picture the Lord's resurrection and ours.
Baptism is a picture of our union with Christ, or as it is called here, our being engrafted into him. Let's go ahead and look at Galatians 3 .27 for a moment, because it brings up a number of points. For me, it's because I haven't been able to hear all week, but boy, that sounds loud.
Spidey senses, yeah, they've been heightened. I've been bitten by a radioactive something or other. And Galatians 3 .27, and this is not, I mean, let's just read it, and I'll read 3 .28 as well. For as many as you were baptized into Christ have put on Christ.
There is neither Jew nor Greek. There is neither slave nor free. There is no male and female. For you are all one in Christ Jesus. So when we talk about this identity in Christ, which is what we're talking about in Galatians 3, and we see it talking about the fact that there is no Jew, no Greek, male or female, what does that mean to us?
And how does that tie into baptism exactly? What does it mean that there's nothing? When Paul says, I mean, obviously, you come out of the water. Did you lose your nationality while you were in the water?
Okay. We have an equal standing before God. In other words, it doesn't matter if you're a Jew, a Gentile, you know, or a mutt like me. It doesn't matter what you are. You are in Christ, and that's the key point of this.
It's not even so much talking about the physical act of baptism, because it could be entirely a dry baptism, meaning just the picture of being placed into the body of Christ. You put on Christ, and in Christ, there is no particular hierarchy of individuals.
We are all one in Christ. And being engrafted into him, that part about neither Jew nor Gentile. When we think about the Gentiles, us, most of us, anyway, being engrafted into the people of God, what does that mean?
It means we were estranged by virtue of not having the law, not having these other things, but in Christ, we have been brought into God's family, as it were, engrafted, attached to him through Christ.
And it wouldn't have happened any other way. So, baptism signifies our union with Christ, his death, burial, and resurrection. It also signifies our giving up to God, our determination, or our self-determination, let's say, surrendering to him and submitting to Christ's lordship, our determination to live in newness of life, because we have been received into the body of Christ, and we want to follow Jesus.
Yes, that's a good point, you know, because when we think of the ancient world, or even some places in the modern world, you know, I think of India, for example, you know, with its caste system. I mean, think of the, you know, I know there's some, and maybe Pradeep should be teaching this morning, you know, there is a separation in society over there, right, still, that remains to this day.
And what a threat, overall, Christianity is to that system, right? Because if you say, everybody is equal, and there is no difference in caste, there is no difference in color of skin, there is no difference in your place in society, but you are all equal in Christ, that's a pretty revolutionary concept, and that could be a real problem.
And so, even in other societies, in, you know, in England, or whatever, if you go back far enough, and even today, I mean, you know, the Queen is one of the richest people in the world, but if you go back far enough, this whole idea of royalty, and, you know, common people, peasantry, and then even the kind of medium strata of, you know, a lord of a certain area, or whatever, all these things are done away with, these societal structures, in terms of our equality in Christ, and this would be a rather revolutionary concept, is that what you're getting at?
Very good. Yeah, it should ultimately do away with our, I mean, this could be a whole huge tangent, you just think about it this way, there are ministries around, that focus so much on tying being an American with being a Christian, right?
I mean, like, the flag is waving, and they're singing onward, Christian soldiers, you know, and etc., etc., and is that a correct way to portray Christianity? And I think the answer is no, right? Death, burial, and resurrection, engrafted into the body of Christ, not into the body politic of American thought, or, you know, the Republican Party, or what have you.
So, Charlie's right, ultimately, our identity is as Americans first, good job. As Christians first, and then whatever, American, German, Venezuelan, Valisuelan, whatever, you know, Venutian. Second, that's not the point, you know, the point is not your nationality plus Christ, the point is Christ, and Christ alone, and whatever else you are, you are.
But your primary identity is in Christ, other thoughts or questions? Should we not sing, I've never sung the Pledge of Allegiance, a one and a two. Say the Pledge of Allegiance, well, I don't know, that's a matter of conscience, I wouldn't take it that far, I would just say this, that I think it is, you know, not to stretch the point too far, I just think it's wrong to identify ourselves first as American, and then, secondly, as Christian, or to somehow conflate the two, because the two are not conflatable.
Erickson. Okay, Erickson says, you know, we still have our loyalties to our country, we pay taxes, etc. And my question would be, you know, I don't even know if I want to use the word loyalty, I mean, I do feel I like being an American.
I think it's more our obligations, right? We have an obligation under the law, and to glorify the Lord, to pay our taxes, and do those kind of things. I think the question is, ultimately, should anything rival our love for Christ?
And, you know, if I think, well, I'm more than Christ my country love, boy, that's bad, right? Nothing should come before Christ. So, and I think, you know, and that gets back to where we're talking about, you know, if the government commands us to do something that is unbiblical, sinful.
Okay, I'm just going to give the microphone to Charlie, and let him shame us all here. Yeah, well, I mean, because it's true, right? Well, I'm sorry, but, no, but I'm just thinking about what you're saying, and I'm going, I'm thinking of myself, and I'm going, what was the last time somebody said, tell me something about yourself, and I just said, I'm a Christian.
And I don't know when that was, you know? I mean, I might say, I'm a pastor, I'm a Bible teaching pastor, you know, or I'm an idiot on the radio. I don't know, you know, I might say a lot of different things, but I don't know the last time where I just said, I'm a Christian.
You know, so I think that is good, you know, what is our identity? And I think that's a good kind of exercise to work through. What is my identity? And it should be, I'm a Christian, and then everything else is down the list.
Other thoughts or questions? I definitely think it does help us relate to other Christians as well, sure. And I mean, it says something, too, about doctrinal differences, right? What Taylor's saying. Let's say that, you know, I'm getting together with somebody who is a Presbyterian, or somebody who is, you know, some other denomination that I don't necessarily agree with, everything that they believe, you know, what should I really, should I try to browbeat them into submission on baptism?
Or, you know, wrestle with them over eschatology? And I think the answer is no. I think we ought to just rejoice in the fact that we have fellowship with them in Christ, and just kind of let the secondary issues go.
So, I mean, you know, depending. If you guys got together to just argue about baptism, then be warm and be filled. Anybody else? Okay, that's a good point. So what about that? If Paul then talks about slaves submitting to their masters, Peter does as well, you know, what does that suggest?
Does that suggest that we, that there is still this structure, and that we do need to still be concerned about it as Christians, or not? Okay. Yeah, I think John's exactly right. I think that has to do with our legal obligation, our, you know, again, our obligation to the government and to society.
And not necessarily, it doesn't mean that you stop being a slave. It means that your identity, excuse me, isn't really about being a slave anymore. It's about you're a Christian. And it just so happens that you're also a slave.
You know, that you're also, you know, a light bulb maker, or whatever it is that you do. Any light bulb makers in the room? That was probably pretty safe, I think. Oh, there is one, right back there. So there's a certain amount of compartmentalization that has to go on, as Andrew says, you know.
So we need to think, well, okay, I am a Christian. My identity is in Christ. I am one with him. Nevertheless, I have these other obligations, right? Okay. Yeah, I think Paul very much draws some lines there for us in the letter to Philemon.
I think he kind of does suggest to him fairly wink, wink, nudge, nudge. And just put it to my account. And that's a great point. You know, all the things that we deal with in this earth are temporal. They're temporary.
They go away. And, you know, I'm reminded of that all the time. And let me just illustrate it this way. Like, you're a slave. You're a, you know, a policeman, a fireman, whatever you are in this life.
All that stuff is done away with when you arrive in heaven. And I've just been reminded of that over the last several, well, last few years. Because I have some, still some contacts with the Sheriff's Department.
And it's funny. Because when I was on the department, I mean, I was, you know, I guess maybe a second level galley slave, whatever I was, you know. And, you know, there were people who were probably like, you know, in the eagle's nest and stuff like that that I rarely ever saw.
And when I did, I was like, please, please. And now we're all just buddies. You know, we all just used to work for the Sheriff's Department. It's all, you know, one big happy family. And in a real sense, I think, you know, it's a dim picture of what it's like in heaven.
You know, we consume ourselves with where we are and what the structure is and all these other things. And when we get to heaven, there is no structure. You know, we're all not going to go, oh, it's Pastor Mike.
I can't. This should kind of. So, good point. Let's see. Where were we? Okay. Baptism. Baptism is a sign and is not the cause or an instrument of fellowship with Christ. In other words, being baptized not only doesn't wash away our sins, it doesn't bring us into the body of Christ and it doesn't make us one with him.
That's not what it's about. This is just a sign that we are identifying with Christ, that we have identified with him, that we are in him. Back to the confession, it says, those who do actually profess repentance towards God, faith in and obedience to our Lord Jesus Christ, are the only proper subjects of this ordinance.
And that's important. Like we said last week, when we're talking about our Presbyterian friends, this is a major difference, right? It says here, you must profess repentance towards God, faith in and obedience to Jesus Christ.
And these are the only people who are subject to baptism, which is why we actually have an application that people have to fill out for baptism here. I mean, I've been places. You ever been to a place where they just said, okay, anybody who just raised their hand, come on forward and get baptized.
And I thought, while I was watching, I thought, well, that's really nice that they're just doing that, but they have absolutely no idea what this person is believing in or if they profess Christ before or what, you know, I mean, their lifestyle right at this moment might be entirely inconsistent with their profession and they might not even see a conflict.
You might be baptizing somebody who is a bank robber or whatever, you know. Yeah, well, robbed a couple of banks, but I believe. And so, you know, and I'm going to rob a bank tomorrow. No, let's look at Acts 2 .38.
We want to make sure that, I mean, we, you know, and I'll just give you this little insight here. The threshold for getting baptized here at Bethlehem Bible Church is lower than it is for church membership.
In other words, I'm willing to baptize somebody that I might not yet let join the church, but I'm not willing to let somebody join the church that I wouldn't baptize, if that makes sense. So we want to, I mean, we just take people at their word, you know, to a certain extent.
When they fill out a little application, they tell us if they've been baptized before, that kind of thing, you know, what their overall life has been like, and then they give their testimony. And what do you suppose I tell people their testimony should read like?
Like the ones last week. What should the testimony read like? Like a gospel, right? This is my life before Christ. This is how Christ arrested me, got my attention, how the Holy Spirit regenerated me, however, you know, it is that they frame it.
And now these are my new desires and affections. In other words, old life, change, new life. Acts 2 .38 says this,. And Peter said to them, Repent and be baptized, every one of you. This is after his magnificent sermon on the day of Pentecost, where he's just shaming these Jews and proclaiming Christ to them and telling them that the man they have crucified is, in fact, God, and the Lord, the Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ.
And so he says, Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. So the significance of that, a person, in order to repent, has to have cognition, right?
Has to be able to think, has to be able to listen and determine and evaluate. A baby cannot, you know, listen to a message, evaluate his truthfulness, and change his or her course of life. Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Babies can't repent. They cannot comprehend the gospel. Therefore, per the confession, they are not proper subjects of baptism. Yep. That's a good question. How would you apply it to a mental health? I mean, it's a difficult issue, right?
It's a matter of, I think, you know, you just have to take on a case-by-case basis to determine as best you can. And, you know, here's what I would say. I would always want to err on the side of grace.
You know, I don't want to say on the side of caution, but on the side of grace. Now, if a person is clearly not able to comprehend what they're saying, then I don't really know that I'd baptize them at all.
And here's what we have to also think about is, if we baptize them or don't baptize them, is that going to change their state, eternal state? And I think the answer is no, right? So, I mean, I think we'd have to try to comprehend, you know, try to understand whether or not this person can understand and, you know, rightly sort out the gospel.
So, I don't know. I mean, I have my own view of people with mental disabilities, and, you know, I think it depends on the extent of it. But I think to some extent, I think that they would fall in the same category as infants, you know, who die at birth kind of thing, because there's just no way of knowing.
And I think we just have to trust that the Lord brought them into this world, not for their sake, but for our sake and for us to take care of them and that sort of thing. So, are there other thoughts or questions on that?
I mean, I just think it's a really difficult issue, and I would want to, you know, weigh that fairly carefully, because I don't want to lower the bar for baptism, but I don't want to elevate it either.
So, let's look at Romans 6. And again, I don't think this is necessarily to do with wet baptism per se, but I think it's a good passage to just look at. Pretty much all good passages are good to look at.
If anybody has any bad passages that they'd rather not look at, just let me know. We'll talk after class. Romans 6, verses 1 to 5. What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound?
By no means. How can we who died to sin still live in it? Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried, therefore, with him by baptism into death.
In order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall surely or we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.
So again, it's that picture, but you just have to ask yourself, well, when we're talking about those who profess repentance towards God are the only ones who are proper objects or subjects of this ordinance, well, it would have to be people that realize that they are not to continue in a life of sin, that they have to fully identify with Christ, that they should want to exhibit that change of life.
That's what Christianity is, right? It's not just tagging Christ onto your old lifestyle. Believers exhibit new desires, heightened awareness and hatred of sin. I added that because I just thought, you want to actually hate your sin.
I mean, when we say confess your sins, well, what does that mean? It means to, some people say, to say them. I think there's some truth to that. You know, if I'm confessing in prayer my sin before the Lord, I want to, if I don't vocalize it, at least, you know, think through it.
But it is ultimately to think the same as, to say the same as God does. Well, what does God think of my sin? Exactly, he hates it. It's not just like, oh, bad job, Steve. Man, just dust yourself off and, you know, try better next time.
I need to have a hatred of sin just like God does. In Romans 6, Paul is not teaching that baptism is the vehicle which brings regeneration in the new life, but that baptism signifies and symbolizes the truth of justification and regeneration.
And we need to remember that in the early church, believers did not wait a long time or wait at all for their baptism after faith. So baptism came to be identified with the beginning of a new life. I mean, I think it's, I think there are people, we've talked about this, people who wait to get baptized, and sometimes people go, well, why do you make people wait at Bethlehem Bible Church?
Well, why do you think we make people wait? Why would we make anybody wait to get baptized? You know, my 40-year-old grandson wants to get baptized. Do we baptize him? He'll be in a profession of faith.
Baptize him. Okay, we want to make sure it's not based on emotion. Good. Time and trials. Okay, the parable of the soils, right? There are people who appear to be Christians and then they just fall away.
But again, I think, you know, we wouldn't just necessarily say, you know what, let's say Dallas was here and she was a new, by the way, I like her time and trials thing. I think she might have taught Pastor Mike that.
Maybe. Anyway, let's say she was here and she was an unbeliever and then she professes Christ. Are we going to tell her to wait two years to get baptized? Well, we've got to wait and see if it's for real or not.
No, we wouldn't. Here's what we would do, though, is we would talk to her and we would say, well, tell us about, you know, your conversion and life before, life after, you know, what makes you think you're saved or whatever, and then we're going to baptize her.
But with children, we have a different standard, and the reason we have a different standard is because, in part, I think it's because of experience. Being in Los Angeles for a number of years at a gigantic church that has baptisms on a frequent basis, the most common testimony would be something like this.
A person, roughly 28, 30, maybe 40, would get up and enter into the waters of baptism because they have a nice heated baptismal. But I digress. And they would give their testimony and it would go something like this.
I was baptized when I was 10. But, you know, then I turned out to be a drug addict, you know, burglar, robber. I killed a man, went to San Quentin, you know, da-da-da-da, you know, all this stuff. And I realized at that point that I wasn't a Christian.
And then while I was in prison, you know, I went to a Bible study and, you know, and now I've been out for five years and, you know, I want to be baptized in obedience to the Lord. Okay. The point is people get baptized not understanding they can't count the cost.
So what we try to do here is we try to think to ourselves, okay, how do we, as much as we're as possible, know or, you know, see that there's a consistency in their desire and everything else. And, you know, generally speaking, for younger people, we like to think, okay, could this person actually function in the church?
If we baptize them, you know, could they then, not do they have to, but could they then function in the church? Had they exhibited, you know, spiritual gifts, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. Could we see this person potentially join the church?
And if so, then we baptize them. So questions or thoughts about that? Yes. And, you know, here's the thing. We don't really know. I mean, because you can use that same argument and the Presbyterians do to say, well, no doubt there were infants in there, in this family, and therefore even the babies would have been baptized.
So it's difficult to know. I mean, for example, on the day of Pentecost, well, or when 5 ,000 are fed, when Jesus feeds 5 ,000, well, those are 5 ,000 men. Okay. Well, that doesn't count the women and children.
So they had a different method of counting. So, you know, when it says the centurion and his whole household, well, what did that mean, his whole household? All the women and children? Did it mean all the male adults?
What did it mean? Okay. And so I'm saying, what does that mean, though? Does it mean only male servants? Does it mean female servants? Does it mean, you know, and how old? What is the age of accountability?
So, I mean, and these are, you know, what is the age at which people know their right hand from their left? Well, obviously there's a moral accountability that the Bible imputes to that, right? You know, we would know that from the story of Jonah.
But the question is, you know, and so it's a little bit of a subjective call. But I think I would rather err on the side of let's try to avoid, you know, having nine-year-old Johnny baptized and then, you know, 16-year-old Johnny getting bailed out of jail, et cetera, et cetera.
You know, as much as is possible, let's just kind of, let's sort of make sure that there, I mean, even if we think about it this way, you know, at what point, because if we go back to the time of Christ, people died much earlier in life.
Therefore, they had responsibilities earlier in life. I mean, it was a hard life. So at what point would you consider somebody an adult? Well, they didn't wait until they were 21 or 30. Or like these days, you know, it's like you're not really growing up until you're 40.
You know, I think that's when you get off your parents' medical plan, isn't it? You absolutely have to be out of the house by the time you're 50. So I don't know. Things are a little different these days, Charlie.
Well, and I think that's true. I mean, I think there's certainly a sense in which they recognized, it was easier for them to recognize the regeneration of somebody. But I think, too, let's just think about it this way.
We're dealing with a young child, let's say, for the sake of argument. That child, being in a Christian environment, is entirely different than what we're talking about in, you know, Acts or Acts or, you know, those time periods where being a Christian was basically to say, I want to be a social outcast, right?
So completely different than, you know, here we are in our own little BBC bubble with our, you know, children that live in Christian homes, and we want them to be baptized at four or five and six. Well, okay.
But when they get exposed to the world, are they still going to say, you know, I love the Lord Jesus Christ, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera? We don't know. And, you know, to some extent, I don't think, you know, necessarily baptizing them at six or seven or whatever is any better than baptizing them when they're born.
Any different. Sure, they can articulate it, but do they really believe it? Does it really control them? Do they have the Holy Spirit? We don't know these things. Right. And that's exactly right. They're not being disobedient to God.
Maybe the elders are, you know, but they're not being disobedient to God. In fact, they're submitting to the elders and just waiting. But I really do think it's just a matter of wisdom, and we don't want to, you know, unnecessarily delay things, but I think sometimes we're just in too big of a hurry.
I mean, I think, you know, the Mormon church is basically pro forma that at the age of eight, the first Sunday after you turn eight, you get baptized. You know, if your parents are active in the church, that's just what you're going to do.
And then the next day you're going to be confirmed a member of the church. It doesn't really matter if you believe it or not because anybody can get up there, and they do, say, you know, I believe this is the true church.
I believe Joseph Smith is a prophet of God. You'll never hear anything about Christ, of course, in that. But we don't want to be just formulaic in our Christianity either. We want our kids to not just confess it, but actually to possess the faith as well.
So that's a great point. I mean, I get so critical. That's really an excellent point. I get so critical of these, you know, it seems like they're all in Hollywood or England or some crazy place, where they, you know, their four-year-old has decided, four-year-old girl has decided she's now a boy.
And so the parents are like, well, of course we're putting the child on, you know, blockers, and we're doing all this, and we're looking at surgery. Of course we are. You know, to which I always say, listen, we have kids in our family that, you know, think or have thought, and we're convinced in our own minds that they're unicorns, or they want to be unicorns or whatever.
So the right thing to do is take them to the doctor and, you know, get a horn implanted on their forehead and start, you know. I mean, kids are prone to foolishness, right? So in our kids, even if it's holy foolishness, right, they want to believe, and we want to encourage them to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ.
I think that's what we all want. Believe me, there's nothing better than watching your kids grow up and love the Lord Jesus Christ, right? But baptism isn't what saves them, and we have to kind of convince ourselves of that, right?
And kids want to, some of them anyway, believe it or not, some kids want to please their parents. Some are less desirous of pleasing, you know. And you don't want to give that child, for all their good desires, a false sense that somehow now they are saved, because it's not the baptism that saves them.
You want to encourage them to go ahead and keep professing Christ, but to keep growing and learning. And, you know, if they're saved, the evidence will show itself over the long haul, time and trials, like Joni said, right?
Other thoughts or questions before we close here? Well, she spent the first semester talking to them about hell. Then, you know, let me tell you kids about the fires of hell. How many of you want to go to heaven?
Yeah, I want to be baptized, Daddy. Why? You know, I love the Lord Jesus Christ. Well, tell me about Jesus. Tell me what you know, what you believe. You know, just encourage them in their faith. Encourage them to, you know, their profession of faith.
Encourage them to keep growing. You know, wouldn't it be great if you have some 10, 11, 12-year-old who can, you know, pretty much pass a ordination examination because they've been studying so much?
Well, I mean, I think, and let me just give you this little thought before we close. I think there's a sense in which some people think that, you know, baptism is like graduation from college. You know, that's pretty much the peak of Christianity is to be baptized.
And I'm going to suggest instead that, you know, baptism is like congratulations, you've just entered kindergarten. You know, the rest of your life is to learn to love the Lord Jesus Christ more and more.
And the way that you learn to love him more and more is by learning more and more about him. Charlie. That's a good question. Is there any warning about being baptized falsely? You know, I don't think so.
There is the, you know, the false take your silver and, you know, may your silver perish with you kind of thing. But that wasn't baptism. And I mean, you know, there's Ananias and Sapphira. Yeah, I wouldn't say it's more significant because the Lord gave them both.
And I don't think he would say that one is more important than the other. But I would say, you know, the one is for the individual and the other is for the body, right? They're both practiced in the body, but they're the baptism is for the individual.
But I would say this, that, you know, I can see why people would want to get baptized, even though they weren't believers, you know, misunderstanding it or wanting to impress somebody else. Well, you know, let's say a young man.
I don't know. Let's just I'll leave names out. But let's say a young man wanted to impress a young woman. She was a believer. And he says, well, I want to be a believer, too. And so I want to get baptized, you know, that kind of thing.
So I could see that sort of thing happening. And that would be erroneous. And that's kind of one of the reasons why we have the process we do and why we talk to the candidates before we bring them out here.
You know, it's not just like I said, I mean, I was, I was literally at a park for an Easter service. And this church had this thing and they called people forward and people walked right out into the waters of the park and got baptized.
And there was no kind of screening or anything else. And I'm like, I, I would not want to be a party to that because you just don't know what you are doing in terms of those could be real believers or they could not be real believers.
That could be a real issue. But anyway, we need to close. Father, we thank you for your word. We thank you for just the ordinances that the Lord Jesus instituted and gave to the church. We think of baptism and the Lord's table.
Lord, we pray that we would think through these things. And even as we think about young children, all these things, we have so many kids at the church. We want to encourage them. We want to teach them.
We want to have them love the Lord Jesus. But let us encourage them to just keep on loving him and keep learning and keep growing. And Father, not be in a rush to have them be baptized, but to have them be baptized at the appropriate time.
Father, we thank you for all the things that you've granted us in Jesus Christ. And it's in his name we pray. Amen.