1689 London Baptist Confession (part 67)

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Father in heaven, we are blessed this morning to be here we are blessed to be called your children to be
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Called out from among this world to be sanctified by you Father we are blessed to be in Christ.
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That is to say we are blessed to be placed in his body and to be
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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
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Not what men have said, but what you have said through your word in Jesus name. We pray.
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Amen. We make sure I'm not providing any of that background noise here
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Okay So we're talking about baptism I Shut this off.
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I don't know if that's Okay, just sounds loud
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Okay, so we're talking about baptism last week and we compared
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The Westminster confession of faith with the London Baptist confession of faith And now we're gonna walk through the
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London Baptist confession of faith what it says about baptism and some I think intriguing things about baptism
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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
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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
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So when we say baptism is a sign, what do we mean it points to something else right it indicates something else
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I mean The act of dipping a person in the water in and of itself is not really significant, right?
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I mean otherwise There would be spiritual significance to every time we take a bath or something of that nature
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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
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Participation in the death and resurrection of Christ right when we we talked 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 and Baptism signifies our fellowship with him in death and resurrection as we are now submerged in the water
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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
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A picture of our union with Christ or as it is here are or called here are being engrafted into him let's go ahead and look at Galatians 327 for a moment because It brings up a number of points
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We may is because I haven't been able to hear all week, but Boy, that sounds loud
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Spidey senses. Yeah, they've been heightened. I've been bitten by a radioactive Something or other and Galatians 327 and this is not
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I mean Let's just read it and I'll read 328 as well
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For as many as you were baptized into Christ have put on Christ There is neither
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Jew nor Greek. There is neither slave nor free There is me 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
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And we and we see it talking about The fact that there is no
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Jew no Greek male or female what does that mean to us? And how does that tie into baptism exactly?
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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?
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Okay, we have an equal standing before God. In other words, it doesn't matter if you're a Jew a
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Gentile, you know Or a mutt like me it doesn't matter what you are
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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
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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.
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There is no A particular hierarchy of individuals.
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We are all one in Christ and being engrafted into him that part about neither
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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
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And grafted attached to him through Christ And it wouldn't have happened any other way so baptism
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Signifies our union with Christ's his death burial and resurrection it also signifies our giving up to God our determination or our
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Self -determination, let's say Surrendering to him and submitting to Christ Lordship our determination to live in newness of life
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Because we have been received into the body of Christ and we want to follow Jesus Yes That's a good point.
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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 this caste system.
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I Mean think of the you know, I 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
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Overall Christianity is to that system, right? Because if you say Everybody is equal and there is no difference in caste.
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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 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 if you go back far enough and even today
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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.
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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 over here getting that or very good.
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Yeah, it should ultimately do away with our
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I Mean this could be a whole huge tangent. You just think about it this way
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There are ministries around that focus so much on tying being an American with being a
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Christian right I mean like the flag is waving and they're singing onward
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Christian soldiers, you know, and etc, etc Is that is that a correct way to portray
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Christianity? And I think the answer is no right death burial and resurrection and grafted into the body of Christ not into the body politic of American thoughts or You know the
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Republican Party or what have you? so Charlie's right.
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Ultimately our identity is as Is as Americans first good good job as Christians as Christians first and then whatever
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American German Venezuelan Vala's Wayland, whatever, you know
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Venusian second That's not the point. You know, the point is not your nationality plus Christ The point is
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Christ in Christ alone and whatever else you are you are But your primary identity is in Christ other thoughts or questions
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Should we not sing? I've never sung the Pledge of Allegiance a one and a two Yet say the
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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
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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
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Secondly as Christian or to somehow conflate the two because the two are not conflatable
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Erickson okay, Erickson says, you know, we still have our loyalties to our country. We pay taxes, etc So my my question would be you know,
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I don't even know if I want to use the word loyalty I mean, I do feel I Like being an
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American, I think it's more our obligations, right? We have an obligation
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Under the law and to glorify the Lord to pay our taxes and do those kind of things. I think
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I think the the question is ultimately should anything rival our love for Christ and You know if if I think well,
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I'm more than Christ my country love Boy, that's bad, right?
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Nothing should become come before Christ So and I think you know and that and that gets back to where we're talking about You know if the government commands us to do something that is
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Unbiblical and sinful. Okay. I'm just gonna give the microphone internally and let him Shame us all here.
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Yeah. Well, I mean because it's true, right? Well, I'm sorry, but No, but I I'm just thinking about what you say and I'm going
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I'm thinking of myself and I'm going was last time Somebody said tell me something about yourself and I just said I'm a
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Christian and I don't know when that was You know, I mean, I might say I'm a pastor. I'm a
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Bible teaching pastor, you know, or I'm an idiot on the radio I don't know You know,
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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.
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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
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I'm a Christian and then everything else is Down the list other thoughts or questions,
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I Definitely think it does help us relate to other Christians as well. Sure, and I mean it it says something to about Doctrinal differences, right
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What Taylor's saying? Let's say that, you know, I'm getting together with somebody who is a
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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
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I really? Should I try to browbeat them into submission on baptism or you know wrestle with them over?
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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 but Anybody else yeah
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Mm -hmm Okay, that's a good point.
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So what about that if Paul then talks about? Slaves submitting to their masters Peter does as well, you know, what does that suggest?
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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
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Okay. Yeah, I think John's exactly right. I think that has to do with our legal obligation or you know again our
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Obligation to the government and to society and not necessarily it doesn't mean that you stop being a slave.
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It means that your identity Excuse me, isn't really about being a slave anymore.
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It's about you're a Christian and it just so happens Did you did you do that? You're also a slave? You know that you're also
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You know a light bulb maker or whatever it is that you do any light bulb makers in the room
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That was probably pretty safe. I think oh, there is one right back there
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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,
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I am a Christian my identity is in Christ I am one with him. Nevertheless. I have these other obligations, right?
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Okay Yeah, I think Paul very much Draws some lines there for us in the 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
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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,
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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
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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 over that over the last several
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Well last few years Because I have some
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Still some contacts with the sheriff's department and it's funny because when I was on the department,
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I mean I was You know, I guess maybe a second -level galley slave, whatever
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I was, you know And You know There were people who were probably like You know in the
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Eagle's Nest and stuff like that that I rarely ever saw and when I did I was like Please please and now they're we're all just buddies.
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You know, we all just used to work for the sheriff's department It's all you know one big happy family and and in a real sense,
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I think you know, it's a Dim picture of what it's like in heaven
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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
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No structure, you know, we're all not gonna go. Oh, it's pastor Mike. I can't This you kind of so good point
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Um, 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
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It doesn't bring us into the body of Christ and it doesn't make us one with him.
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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
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It says those who do actually profess repentance towards God faith in and obedience to our Lord.
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Jesus Christ are the only proper subjects of this ordinance and That's important.
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Like we said last week when we're talking about our Presbyterian friends, this is a major difference, right?
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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 you know
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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, you know, okay
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Anybody who just raised their hand come on forward and get baptized and I thought
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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
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Christ before or what that 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
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You might be baptizing somebody who is a bank robber or whatever, you know Yeah, well robbed a couple banks, but I believe and so, you know, and I'm gonna rob a bank tomorrow no
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Let's look at acts 238 We want to make sure that I mean we you know
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And I'll just give you this a little insight here the threshold for getting baptized here at Bethlehem Bible Church is lower
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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
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That I wouldn't baptize if that makes sense So we want to I mean we we just take people at their word
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You know to a certain extent when they they fill out a little application they tell us if they've been baptized before that kind of thing and You know what their overall life has been like and then they give their testimony
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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?
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It's this is my life before Christ. This is how Christ arrested me got my attention how the
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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
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Acts 238 says this and Peter said to them Repent and be baptized every one of you.
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This is after his magnificent sermon on the day of Pentecost where he's just shaming these
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Jews and proclaiming Christ to them and telling the man they've crucified is in fact
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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
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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 if evaluate a baby
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Cannot You know listen to a message Evaluate his truthfulness and change his or her course of life
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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.
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They are not proper subjects of baptism It's a good question
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How would you apply it to a million? Yeah, I? Mean it's a difficult issue right, and I think the it's a matter of I I think you know you just have taken a case -by -case basis to Determine as best you can and you know here's what
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I would say. I would always want to err on on The side of grace you know
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I don't want to say on the side of caution, but on the side of grace Now if if a person is clearly not able to comprehend what they're saying then
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I I don't really know that I baptize them at all and here's what we have to also think about is if If we baptize them or don't baptize them is that going to change their state eternal states, and I think the answer is no right
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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 rightly sort out the gospel, so I?
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Don't know I mean I have my own view of People with mental disabilities, and you know
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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 who die at birth kind of thing
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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
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But for our sake and for us to take care of them and that sort of thing so There are other thoughts or questions on that.
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I Mean, I 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.
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I don't think this is necessarily to do with Wet baptism per se, but I think it's a good
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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
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Romans 6 verses 1 to 5 What shall we say then are we to continue in sin that grace may abound by no means?
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How can we who died to sin still live in it? Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized 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
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For if we have been united with him in a death like his we shall surely or we shall certainly be
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United with him in a resurrection like his So again, it's that picture, but you just have to ask yourself well
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And when we're talking about Those who profess repentance towards God Are the only ones who are proper objects or subjects of this ordinance?
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Well 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
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And That that's what Christianity is right. It's not just tagging
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Christ onto your old lifestyle believers exhibit new desires heightened awareness of and hatred of sin
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I Added that because I just thought you want to actually hate your sin.
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I mean when we say Confess your sins. Well. What does that mean? it means to Some people say to say them
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I think there's some truth to that you know if I'm confessing in prayer my sin before the
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Lord I want to if I don't vocalize it at least you know think through it and But it is ultimately to think the same as to say the same as God does well.
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What does God think of my sin? Exactly he hates it. It's not just like oh bad job
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Steve Man just dust yourself off, and you know try better next time.
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I Need to have a hatred of sin just like God does in a
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Roman six Paul is not teaching that baptism is the vehicle which brings regeneration in the new life but that baptism signifies and symbolizes the truths of justification and regeneration and We need to remember that in the early church believers did not
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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.
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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
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Why do you make people wait at Bethlehem Bible Church? Well, why do you think we make people wait?
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Why would we make anybody wait to get baptized you know?
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My my 40 year old grandson wants to get baptized do we baptize him you mean a profession of faith baptize him
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Okay, we want to make sure it's not based on emotion good time and trials
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Okay, the parable of soils right there are people who appear to be Christians, and then they just fall away
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But again, I think you know we wouldn't just necessarily say you know what let's say Let's say
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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
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Christ Are we gonna tell her to wait two years to get baptized? Well we got to wait and see if it's for real or not no
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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
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But with children we have a different standard and the reason we have a different standard is because in part.
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I think it's because of experience Being in Los Angeles for a number of years at a gigantic church
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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 in the bat waters of baptism because they have a nice heated baptismal, but I digress
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And they would give their testimony. I'm gonna go something like this. I was baptized when I was 10 but you know then
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I turned out to be a Drug addict you know burglar Robber I killed a man went to San Quentin You know did it at a you know all this stuff
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And I realized at that point that I wasn't a Christian and then while I was in prison you know
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I went to a Bible study, and you know and now I've been out for five years and You know
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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
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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
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Consistency in their desire and everything else and you know generally speaking for younger people we like to think okay
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Could this person actually? function in the church if We baptize them
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You know could they then not do they have to but could they then function in the church have they exhibited?
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You know spiritual gifts etc. Etc. Etc. 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 the here's the thing we don't really know
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I mean because you can use that same argument and the Presbyterians do to say No doubt there were infants in there in this family and therefore even the babies would have been
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Baptized so it's it's difficult to know I mean for example on the day of Pentecost well or When 5 ,000 are fed when
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Jesus feeds 5 ,000 well those are 5 ,000 men Okay, well that doesn't count the women and so they had a different method of counting
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So you know when it says the centurion in his whole household well What did that mean his whole household all the women and children didn't mean all the male adults.
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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?
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You know and how old what is the age of accountability? So I mean in the and these are you know what is the what is the age at which people know their right hand from?
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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 it's oh
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And it's so it's it's a little bit of a subjective call But I think
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I would rather Err on the side of let's try to avoid you know
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Having nine year old Johnny baptized, and then you know 16 year old Johnny getting bailed out of jail jail
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Etc. Etc. You know as much as is possible. Let's just kind of let's sort of Make sure that they're
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I mean even if we think about it this way You know at what point because if we if we go back to the time of Christ people died much earlier in life
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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?
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They didn't wait till they were 21 or 30 or like these days. You know it's like you're not really growing up until you're 40
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You know I think that's when you get off your parents medical plan isn't You absolutely have to be out of the house by the time you're 50
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So I don't know things are a little different these days Charlie well, and I and I think that's true I mean,
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I think there's certainly a sense in which they they recognized It was easier for them to recognize the regeneration of somebody, but I think too.
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Let's just think about it this way We're dealing with a young child. Let's say for the sake of argument
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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 any that those those period time periods where being a
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Christian was Basically to to say I want to be a social outcast right
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So completely different than you know here. We are in our own little BBC bubble with our our you know
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Children that live in Christian homes, and we want them to be baptized at four or five and six well, okay?
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But when they get exposed to the world are they still going to say you know I love the Lord Jesus Christ Etc etc etc we don't know
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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 when they're born any difference
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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 we don't know these things right and and that's exactly right.
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They're not being they're not being disobedient to God Maybe the elders are you know? But they're not being disobedient to God there in fact
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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
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But I think sometimes we're just in too big of a hurry. I mean I I think You know the
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Mormon Church is basically pro forma that the at the age of eight the first Sunday after you turn eight you get baptized.
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You know if your parents are active within church That's just what you're gonna do and then the next day.
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You're gonna 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
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Say you know I believe this is the true church. I believe Joseph Smith is a prophet of God Did it you'll never hear anything about Christ of course in that?
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But You know we don't we don't want to be Just formulaic in our
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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
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I mean we I I get so Critical that's a 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
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Where are they you know they're they're 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
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And we're doing all this and we're gonna look into surgery of course we are You know to which I always say listen we have
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Kids in our family that you know think or have thought and we're convinced in our own minds that they're unicorns
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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
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I Mean kids are prone to foolishness right so in our kids even if it's holy foolishness, right?
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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.
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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
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Want to some of them anyway believe it or not some kids want to please their parents Some some are less desirous of pleasing you know and You don't want to give that child for all their
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Good desires a false sense that somehow now they are saved Because it's not the baptism the safety you want to encourage them to go ahead and keep professing
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Christ But to keep growing and learning and you know if they're if they're saved the evidence will show itself over the long haul time and trials like Joni said right
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And other thoughts or questions before we close her well She spent the first semester talking to him about hell then you know let me tell you kids about the fires of hell
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How many of you want to go to heaven? Yeah, I want to be baptized daddy why you know
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I love the Lord Jesus Christ will 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
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Encourage them to keep growing You know wouldn't it be great? you have some 10 11 12 year old who can you know pretty much pass a ordination
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Examination because they've been studying so much. Well. I mean I I I think and let me just give you this little
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Thought before we close. I think there's a sense in which some people think that You know baptism is like graduation from college
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You know that's that's pretty much the peak of Christianity is to be baptized, and I'm going to suggest instead
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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
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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
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Charlie that's a good question is there any warning about being baptized falsely you know
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I Don't think so there is the you know the false Take your silver, and you know me or silver perish with you kind of thing that was but that wasn't baptism
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And I mean you know there's an anise and sapphira Yeah I wouldn't say it's more significant because the
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Lord gave him both and I I don't think he would say that one is more important than the other but I would say
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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
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I can see why people would want to get baptized even though they weren't believers. You know miss Understanding it or wanting to impress somebody else.
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Well. You know let's say a young man. I I'll leave names out, but let's say a young man wanted to impress a young woman.
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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
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You know it's not just Like I said, I mean I was I was literally at a park for an
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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, so they could not be real believers
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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
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Lord Jesus instituted and gave to the church we think of baptism and the Lord's table
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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
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We want to encourage them. We want to teach them. We want to have them love the Lord Jesus but let us
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Encourage them to just keep on loving him and keep learning and keep growing and father not
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Be in a rush To have them be baptized but to have them be baptized at the appropriate time father