TPW 38 Biblical Household and Infant Baptism Presented

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For if infinite wisdom once saw that it was right and fit that infants should be made the subjects of a seal of the righteousness of faith before they were capable of exercising faith, surely a transaction the same in substance may be right and fit now.
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Baptism. Theologian Louis Burkoff wrote, quote, moreover the
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New Testament repeatedly speaks of the baptism of households and gives no indication that this is regarded as something out of the ordinary, but rather refers to it as a matter of course, end quote.
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Welcome to the
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Protestant Witness. This is Pastor Patrick Hines here at Bernal Heights Presbyterian Church and today
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I'd like to post a sermon I preached on why we believe in household baptisms, why we baptize our covenant children, our infants, and this is a very important issue because it is sad that the sacraments that Christ gave us, the ordinances that he gave to his church to unify the church have become the issues over which the church is very tragically and sadly divided.
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However, I do think that coming to Presbyterian convictions as I did a long time ago,
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I read a lot of books by both sides from a variety of baptistic perspectives, but eventually was bowled over by Burkoff, Raymond, Robert Dabney, read a number of other books,
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Jeffrey Bromley's book on baptism was very good, listening to several debates, the
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Sproul -MacArthur debate and a bunch of other ones, Robert Strimple debated Fred Malone, listened to that a number of times and took notes.
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So all those things together really have convinced me that the
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Presbyterian, the Westminster Standards understanding of covenant theology is the best that's out there and it really makes the most sense.
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And I think that you'll see if you are not a Presbyterian in your convictions on these issues,
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I would just invite you to take a Bible and follow along in the passages and just listen carefully. This first sermon was one that I preached, it's been a while ago now, and then
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I preached a second sermon on that Sunday evening responding to what I think are some of the best arguments.
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Now I used to have a collection of weird quotes from Baptists, but I don't use those anymore because I've moved beyond that and I think that that's not helpful.
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If one side or the other uses boogeyman quotes or weird quotes. So what
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I focused on is the actual exegetical material that's out there from the other side and have tried to let them say what they have to say in their own words and respond to it in the second sermon, but that'll be uploaded.
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I might just do both of them today, but we'll see. And I hope that you find this edifying,
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I hope that you'll take a Bible and follow along and see which position makes more sense, which one is able to account for what the
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Old and New Testaments teach about the nature of the church and who is part of the visible church.
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And so I hope you find this edifying. Let us now pray for the Lord's blessing upon our minds as we read his word.
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Gracious Heavenly Father, we come into your presence again to request and ask that you would help us to understand these passages rightly, their proper application.
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We pray that we would understand baptism as you have revealed it to us in your holy word.
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And to that end, we humbly ask this in Jesus' name. Amen. Please take your Bibles and turn to Genesis chapter 17.
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Going to look quickly here at four passages of scripture for our scripture reading,
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Genesis 17, 7 through 13. Genesis 17, verses 7 through 13 is our first text.
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Genesis 17, verses 7 through 13, this is God's word.
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And I will establish my covenant between me and you and your descendants after you and their generations for an everlasting covenant to be
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God to you and your descendants after you. Also I give to you and your descendants after you the land in which you are a stranger.
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All the land of Canaan as an everlasting possession and I will be their God. And God said to Abraham, as for you, you shall keep my covenant, you and your descendants after you, throughout their generations.
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This is my covenant which you shall keep between me and you and your descendants after you. Every male child among you shall be circumcised, and you shall be circumcised in the flesh of your foreskins.
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And it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and you. He who is eight days old among you shall be circumcised.
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Every male child in your generations, he who was born in your house or bought with money from any foreigner who is not your descendant.
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He who was born in your house and he who was bought with your money must be circumcised, and my covenant shall be in your flesh for an everlasting covenant.
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Now look over at Acts chapter 2, verses 38 and 39. Acts chapter 2, verses 38 and 39.
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Acts chapter 2, verses 38 and 39. Acts 2, 38 and 39, this is
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God's word. And Peter said to them, repent and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and you shall receive the gift of the
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Holy Spirit. For the promise is to you and to your children, and to all who are far off, as many as the
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Lord our God will call. Now turn over just one more book to Romans chapter 4, verse 11 and 12.
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Romans 4, verse 11 and 12. Romans 4, verses 11 and 12.
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Speaking of Abraham here, this is God's word. And he received the sign of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness of the faith which he had while still uncircumcised.
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That he might be the father of all those who believe, though they are uncircumcised, that righteousness might be imputed to them also.
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And the father of circumcision to those who not only are of the circumcision, but who also walk in the steps of the faith which our father
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Abraham had while still uncircumcised. And then turn over to Colossians chapter 2, verses 11 and 12.
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Colossians chapter 2, verses 11 and 12. Colossians 2, verses 11 and 12.
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This is God's word. In him you are also circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ, buried with him in baptism.
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In which you were also raised with him through faith in the working of God, who raised him from the dead.
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May God bless the reading of his infallible word. This morning's sermon is part one of a two part series on infant baptism, which will be the final two sermons of our series on a biblical theology of family.
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This morning's message will be a positive presentation of this doctrine, and this evening's will be an answer to common objections and questions that are raised against the practice of infant baptism.
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But there's a lot of biblical information that goes into this topic. The entire issue of covenant theology, our understanding of biblical sacramental theology, the unity of the covenant of grace throughout history since the fall.
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And a proper biblical understanding of the critical distinction between the visible administration of the signs of God's covenant of grace in the visible church and the invisible church, which is composed only of the elect.
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Now each one of those topics deserves really its own series of sermons, as there is so much in scripture about them.
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I would strongly recommend to your reading that you go through the Westminster Confession of Faith, the following chapters.
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I have these listed in your thoughts for Sabbath meditation, if you wanna look at those this afternoon. Chapter seven of God's covenant with man, chapter 25 of the church, chapter 27 of sacraments, chapter 28 of baptism, chapter 29 of the
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Lord's Supper. The divisions that exist within the church of Christ on the issue of sacraments are certainly tragic.
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The very gifts that Jesus gave to unite his followers have become very sadly the things over which true, honest
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Christians are divided. The great William Cunningham in his monumental two -volume work,
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Historical Theology, wrote, quote, in the whole history of our race, God's covenant of dealings with his people with respect to spiritual blessings have had regard to their children as well as to themselves.
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So that the children as well as the parents have been admitted to the spiritual blessings of God's covenants and to the outward signs and seals of these covenants.
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That there is no evidence that this general principle so full of mercy and grace and so well fitted to nourish faith and hope was to be departed from or laid aside under the
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Christian dispensation. But on the contrary, a great deal to confirm the conviction that it was to continue to be acted on, end quote.
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So the first point this morning I want to walk through is a point I've called sacramental language in scripture, sacramental language in scripture.
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Please turn back to Genesis 17 in your Bible there, Genesis 17, verses 7 through 13.
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Now in the chapter of the Westminster Confession of Faith, chapter 27, we have an entire chapter just on our theology of sacraments.
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And it's an extremely important chapter of our standards. Chapter 27 .2 of the
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Westminster Confession reads as follows. There is in every sacrament a spiritual relation or sacramental union between the sign and the thing signified whence it comes to pass that the names and effects of the one, namely the sign, the thing signified, are attributed to the other, to the sign.
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Now I cannot emphasize this point enough to you. If we do not understand what the
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Westminster Confession means by that, we will never understand biblical sacraments. We just won't. If we don't grasp that point, that sometimes
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God, in the way he talks to us in scripture, speaks of the sign as if it is what it signifies, we will always fall into one of two errors.
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And you see this over and over again if you study historical theology in church history. If we don't understand that the scriptures do speak that way, that God speaks that way about sacraments, we will either go one of two directions.
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One, we will misinterpret scripture and become sacramentalists and think that baptism effects regeneration.
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And that the Lord's Supper is some kind of a converting ordinance, which ought to be given to little children like the federal vision does.
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Or two, we'll look at sacraments as basically functionally useless and expendable in our experience.
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Our attitude will be like, we have baptism in the Lord's Supper. Yeah, you can take them or leave them. But everything is really just the invisible workings of the spirit.
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Yet we should do these things, we should have sacraments because of obedience to the Lord. But they don't really do anything.
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Both of those positions are unbiblical. Hyper -sacramentalism, as well as looking at sacraments as basically worthless signs, both of those are wrong.
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Now let's look at what the scripture teaches about what the confession summarizes so well in 27 .2.
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Look at Genesis 17 again, verse 7. And I will establish my covenant between me and you and your descendants after you and their generations for an everlasting covenant to be
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God to you and to your descendants after you. Also I give to you and your descendants after you the land in which you are a stranger, all the land of Canaan as an everlasting possession.
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And I will be their God. And God said to Abraham, as for you, you shall keep my covenant, you and your descendants after you throughout their generations.
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Now, listen very carefully to verse 10. This is my covenant which you shall keep between me and you and your descendants after you.
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Every male child among you shall be circumcised. Okay, stop there. Notice that God calls circumcision my covenant.
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He calls circumcision my covenant. Now I have a question. Is circumcision God's covenant?
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No. Look at verse 11. And you shall be circumcised in the flesh of your foreskins and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and you.
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Okay, stop there. This is exactly what the Westminster Confession is talking about when it affects of the one, the thing signified, being attributed to the sign.
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God calls circumcision what it signifies. This is my covenant. You shall be circumcised.
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God himself speaks sacramentally about the sign, circumcision, as though it was what it signifies, namely what verse 11 says explicitly.
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Circumcision is the sign of his covenant with Abraham and Abraham's descendants. So I hope that's clear.
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Do you see what sacramental language is? God sometimes, in the way he talks to us in his word, will speak of the sign as if it actually is what it signifies.
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That's why he calls circumcision my covenant. But we know that circumcision is a sign of the covenant.
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It's not actually the covenant. But that's the sacramental union between the sign and what it signifies, so that the names and effects of the one are often attributed to the other.
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The other one I'm sure you'll be much more familiar with. We do it once a month. Listen carefully to the scripture. Matthew 26, 26, and as they were eating,
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Jesus took bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to the disciples and said, take, eat, this is my body.
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Notice the sign bread is spoken of by God as if it is what it signifies,
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Jesus's body. I have a question for you. Is it Jesus's body? No, it is not.
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Verse 27 of that same chapter, and then he took the cup and gave thanks and gave it to them, saying, drink from it, all of you, for this is my blood.
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Is the wine of the communion Jesus's blood? No, it is not. Same thing here.
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God expects us to understand this. The Lord's Supper is bread, which remains bread.
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It is wine, which remains wine. But they signify the body and blood of Christ, and therefore the signs are sometimes called what they signify.
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Now Jesus could have said, to have taken the bread and said, this signifies my body. He could have taken the wine and said, this signifies my blood.
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But he's simply speaking sacramentally. Why does he do that? Because evidently God likes to do that.
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It really is that simple. Sometimes he talks about his signs as if they are what they signify.
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You see why I'm saying, you've got to understand that, or else you'll go one of two directions. You'll either think the sign is what it signifies, and Christians have made that error over, and over, and over again, and have believed in baptismal regeneration, but some have gone the other direction.
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They're so afraid of what these passages say that they'll say, well, let's just ignore them altogether and have basically no theology of baptism.
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All we need to understand is that God speaks sacramentally. That's why that portion of the Westminster Confession, it summarizes these passages so well.
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There is in every sacrament, there is a spiritual relation between the sign and the thing signified so that God himself sometimes speaks of the sign as if it is what it signifies.
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Hopefully that's very clear. Is the wine of communion the blood of Christ? No, God simply expects us to understand these things.
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In Titus chapter 3, you don't need to turn there, but Titus 3, but when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared toward men, not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy, he saved us through the washing of regeneration.
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Baptism signifies regeneration. It signifies the cleansing work of the Holy Spirit and making the sinner alive in Christ.
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It signifies our justification, our adoption. It signifies the whole work of salvation.
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And so it is called what it signifies, the washing of regeneration. Question, does baptism regenerate us?
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No, it doesn't. So why is it spoken of as the washing of regeneration? Why is it spoken of in such lofty terms?
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Because God's word sometimes speaks to us that way. It speaks of the sign as if it is what it signifies, and it's okay for God to do that, as long as we understand it.
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We know that people are not regenerated by baptism, or we know that people are not justified by baptism.
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Because when you go to the sections of the Bible that deal with how sinners are made alive in Christ and are drawn to God and are justified, there is no mention of baptism there.
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We are justified by faith alone. It is the effectual call of the Holy Spirit through the gospel that unites us to Christ and so on and so forth.
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Galatians, Romans, Philippians, Ephesians are very clear in that way. One more illustration of speaking sacramentally.
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When Paul, the apostle, addressed the Jerusalem mob in Acts chapter 22, he tells them about his own conversion on the road to Damascus.
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And he says, as he's recounting the story to the Jerusalem mob there, that when Ananias, that Christian that Jesus specifically told to go to him, when
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Ananias came to him while he was blinded and praying, Ananias said these words, Acts 22, 16.
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And now, why are you waiting? Arise and be baptized, and wash away your sins, calling on the name of the
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Lord. Now I wanna tell you, for the longest time, passages of scripture like this really bothered me.
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I really expected the next verse that Paul would have said something like this. After I sat
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Ananias down and corrected his gross errors about baptism, then I went on to Jerusalem, etc.,
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etc. And yet, Ananias had no problem telling Paul, be baptized and wash away your sins.
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Now I have a question, did Ananias believe that the water of baptism actually washed away people's sins? No, he didn't.
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He, like his God, is speaking sacramentally. Speaking of the sign as if it is what it signifies.
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The sign of justification before the coming of Christ, circumcision, was spoken of by God in the same way.
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Ananias is simply speaking of the sign of justification after the coming of Christ, baptism, in the same way.
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Paul, arise and be baptized, and wash away your sins. I wanna make this point of application.
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If we ever read something in the Bible and we don't like the way it's worded, the problem is us, not scripture.
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I used to read what Ananias said to Paul here and thought, I would never say that to someone, never.
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If someone felt convicted of their sins, I would never tell them, well, what are you waiting for, arise and be baptized and wash away your sins.
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You see, but there's nothing wrong with saying that, as long as you have an understanding, a biblical understanding of sacraments.
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And we'll never fall into either of those two errors I mentioned at the beginning, at this point, remember them?
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Either becoming a hyper -sacramentalist and believing baptism actually does what it signifies, and that the sacraments do what they signify.
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Or being someone who has almost no use for sacraments at all, and almost being willing to discard them as functionally useless for Christians.
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Both sides of that are grievous errors. And all one needs to do to avoid those errors is to look carefully at the way in which
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God speaks of the signs of his covenant of grace from the beginning of scripture to the very end. So in summary of this first point,
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God calls the sign of the Abrahamic covenant circumcision, he calls it my covenant.
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Is circumcision God's covenant? No, it is the sign of the covenant, but it is sometimes spoken of as if it is what it signifies.
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The parts of the Lord's supper, the bread and the wine are called my body and my blood by Jesus.
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Are they his body and blood? No, they are bread and wine, they stay bread and wine the whole time we're doing the sacrament.
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But they signify his body and blood, and in the mind of God, it is perfectly appropriate to call the signs by what they signify.
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Ananias told Paul to be baptized and wash away your sins. Was Ananias making a gross error in saying that?
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No, was he a sacramentalist? No, Ananias understood God's covenantal, sacramental way of speaking of the signs of his covenant.
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What Ananias said is perfectly appropriate as long as we understand it properly.
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The text of scripture is perfectly fine and infallibly true exactly as it stands.
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The law of the Lord is perfect, we're told in Psalm 19. We are imperfect. If we recoil from something in scripture, the problem is always ours.
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We either have unbiblical beliefs that are preventing us from accepting what it says, or we just don't understand what the text itself is saying.
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The problem is never that we have a better understanding of things than God does. Point number two, the pre -advent sign of personal salvation.
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Look at, turn to Romans 4 .11, please. Romans 4 .11,
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Romans 4 .11, and let's look at these two verses here again.
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Paul, in his discussion of justification, wants to make it very, very clear that Abraham was not justified by being circumcised.
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And so he gives his understanding directed by the Holy Spirit of what circumcision was all about,
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Romans 4 .11 says. And he received the sign of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness of the faith which he had while still uncircumcised.
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That he might be the father of all those who believe, though they are uncircumcised, that righteousness might be imputed to them also, and the father of circumcision to those who not only are of the circumcision, but who also walk in the steps of the faith which our father
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Abraham had while still uncircumcised. Okay, here we're given a more specific explanation of what circumcision signified during the 2 ,000 years in which it functioned as the sign of God's covenant.
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Circumcision was a sign and seal of the righteousness of the faith which Abraham had while still uncircumcised.
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Paul's point here is that Abraham believed and was justified first, and then circumcision as a sign of his personal salvation was applied to him.
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It was a sign of his personal justification before God. Remember that scene in Genesis 15 when
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God takes him outside and says, look at the stars and count them if you can. Verse 6 says, and he believed the
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Lord and he accounted it to him for righteousness. That's where Abraham was justified before God, by faith alone.
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A couple of chapters later, Genesis 17, circumcision is given to Abraham and to his household.
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And in Paul's mind, which is being infallibly guided by the Holy Spirit in Romans 4, circumcision signified and sealed personal salvation, justification by faith, the imputation of righteousness to the believing sinner by faith.
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In other words, circumcision signifies exactly the same thing that baptism does, personal salvation by faith.
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Circumcision was not a sign of genealogical connection to the people of Israel. Circumcision was not an ethnic identity marker.
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It was not a sign of land promises either. It was for 2 ,000 years the sign and seal of justification by faith.
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That is the apostolic position given to us by Paul. Circumcision is the sign and seal of personal salvation.
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And yet, this sign of personal salvation, this sign of justification by faith was given not just to believing adults, but also to all the males in the household of that male adult.
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God specifically commands this sign of personal justification to be given to male infants eight days old and older.
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Circumcision is just as associated with faith and personal salvation as baptism is.
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And yet, it was given to infants who neither understood what was happening to them, nor could they make a profession of faith or show any signs of repentance or regeneration.
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And it was given to them, please understand this, it was given to them by divine command. God commanded this to be done.
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And the Abrahamic covenant, as we saw in the text, is an unchangeable and everlasting covenant.
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And this evening, we're going to look at some of the alternative interpretations of Romans 4 .11. I hope you'll come back for that.
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Point number three this morning, I've called household circumcision, household baptism. Let's look at Acts chapter 16, verses 14 to 15.
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Just to turn to that, we're going to be coming to that here in just a moment. Dr. Samuel Miller, who was once professor of ecclesiastical history and church government at Princeton Seminary long ago when it was still a good
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Calvinistic seminary, wrote this, quote, this covenant seal was solemnly appointed by God to be administered and was actually administered for nearly 2 ,000 years to infants of the tenderest age, in token of their relation to God's covenanted family and of their right to the privileges of that covenant.
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Here then is a fact, a fact incapable of being disguised or denied, nay, a fact acknowledged by all, on which the advocates of infant baptism may stand as an immovable rock.
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For if infinite wisdom once saw that it was right and fit that infants should be made the subjects of a seal of the righteousness of faith before they were capable of exercising faith, surely a transaction the same in substance may be right and fit now.
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Baptism, which is, in like manner, a seal of the righteousness of faith, may, without impropriety, be applied equally early, end quote.
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This evening, we're going to look at an issue that's very often raised. Baptism is never called a seal in the
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New Testament. The problem with that argument, of course, is that baptism is never called a sign either. In the
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New Testament, the Greek word for sign, semeion, is never, not one time, applied to Christian baptism.
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Just as the Greek word sphragis, seal, is never applied to Christian baptism in Scripture. And yet, if you look at the 1689
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London Baptist Confession of Faith, paragraph 1 of chapter 29, refers to baptism as a sign, even though it's never called that in Scripture.
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And so, when the demand is made that we show that baptism is called a seal in Scripture, we can simply reply that our friends are not being consistent in that, because the term sign is not applied to baptism either.
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And of course, both the Westminster Standards and the Baptist Confession refer to baptism and the Lord's Supper as ordinances.
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Another word, which in Hebrew and Greek, is never applied in Scripture to baptism or the Lord's Supper. But more on that this evening.
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One grand point here that must be grasped is that there is a difference, and you've got to understand this, you have to see this.
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There is a difference between those who are outwardly and visibly connected to the Christian church and its membership.
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Those who are part of the visible church in this world, and those who are actually regenerate and part of the invisible church.
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What the Scriptures teach so very clearly is that the inclusion of the children of believers in the visible membership of the church has not changed since Jesus came.
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Children are addressed directly in Scripture as members of the church.
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In Ephesians 6, verse 1, children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right, this is a letter that is addressed to the saints who are in Ephesus.
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Colossians 3 .20, children, obey your parents in all things, for this is well pleasing to the Lord. Colossians is addressed to the saints and faithful brethren in Christ who are in Colossae.
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Theologian Louis Burkoff wrote, quote, moreover, the New Testament repeatedly speaks of the baptism of households and gives no indication that this is regarded as something out of the ordinary, but rather refers to it as a matter of course, end quote.
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This is nothing new. The concept of the corporate solidarity of the family unit in the visible administration of the covenant of grace is something which clearly has not changed in the new covenant era.
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The Abrahamic covenant, brothers and sisters, is still in effect right now. This is why the
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New Testament scriptures repeatedly and emphatically point this out. Every time a sinner repents and comes to Christ, they are a fulfillment of the
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Abrahamic promise. Remember, the scripture teaches us that the Abrahamic promise is immutable.
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It is unchangeable, and it is everlasting. The Abrahamic covenant was a spiritual covenant that was made only with the elect.
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And yet, its sign, circumcision, was always administered to entire households when the head of that household believed, not just individuals that could make a profession of faith.
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The entire books in the New Testament of Romans and Galatians, as well as scores of other passages. Jesus' heated arguments with his
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Jewish opponents, John the Baptist's rebukes of the scribes and the Pharisees make this so very clear. What they make clear is this, you could not be born into the
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Abrahamic covenant. You could not be born into that covenant. Now, could you be born into the visible administration of the covenant of grace in that time?
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Yes, but could you be an actual member of that covenant by birth? The answer is clearly no.
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Paul says in Romans 4 .16, therefore it is of faith that it might be according to grace, so that the promise might be sure to all the seed, not only to those who are of the law, but also to those who are of the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all.
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As it is written, I have made you a father of many nations. And there he is quoting Genesis 17 .5.
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Every time a person repents and believes, we fulfill the Abrahamic covenant, every time.
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Why? That covenant was made with the elect alone. The Abrahamic covenant was made with the elect, not the nation of Israel.
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Notice how Paul concludes his exposition of justification in Romans 4. At the very end of that chapter, he says, and therefore, it was accounted to him for righteousness.
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Now, it was not written for his sake alone that it was imputed to him, but also for us. It shall be imputed to us who believe in him, who raised up our
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Lord Jesus from the dead. When Jesus argued with his Jewish opponents, who were the physical descendants of Abraham, who had been circumcised as eight -day -old infants, in John chapter eight, they answered and said to him,
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Abraham is our father. Jesus said to them, if you were Abraham's children, you would do the works of Abraham.
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Jesus said to them, if God were your father, you would love me, for I proceeded forth and came from God, nor have
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I come of myself, but he sent me. Your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day, and he saw it and was glad.
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Jesus is telling them that they aren't the spiritual children of Abraham, even though they bore the sign of that covenant with the elect.
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These were men who had that sign, but they did not have faith. You could be born into the visible administration of the covenant community, but without faith and repentance, one could not possess what the covenant promised.
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That has always held true. The promise is by faith, and you gotta get that as well.
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The people of Israel could not be justified, and they couldn't enter the land either, unless they had faith in the
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Lord. The very last verse of Hebrews chapter three tells us why.
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That entire generation that came out of Egypt during the Exodus, they did not enter the land, even though they had been circumcised, even though they were born into that covenant.
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It says, therefore we see they could not enter because of unbelief. You didn't get the land, not a single promise
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God ever made was guaranteed by birth, you had to have faith. And yet in the visible administration of that covenant of grace, children have always, always been included.
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One could be born into the visible administration of the gospel, the Abrahamic covenant in its visible manifestation, and receive its sign, circumcision, but you could not be born into what that covenant promised without repentance and faith.
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And that's why John the Baptist said to his Jewish opponents, bear fruits worthy of repentance.
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The Apostle Paul calls the Abrahamic covenant the gospel in Galatians 3a.
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He says, Abraham had the gospel preached to him. The new covenant in Christ's blood is the gospel after the coming of Christ.
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In essence, the Abrahamic covenant and the new covenant are identical to one another. Indeed, in the book of Hebrews, before the writer speaks of the new covenant in chapter eight, he makes so very clear that the
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Abrahamic promise is itself the very foundation of the new covenant. In Hebrews chapter six, verse 13, listen carefully to this.
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If you wanna turn there, please turn to Hebrews 6 .13, I want you to see this. Hebrews 6 .13 through 18, Hebrews 6 .13
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through 18, the scripture says, for when God made a promise to Abraham, because he could swear by no one greater, he swore by himself, saying, surely a blessing
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I will bless you, and multiplying I will multiply you. Thus God, determining to show more abundantly to the heirs of promise the immutability of his counsel, confirmed it by an oath.
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Okay, stop there. The Abrahamic covenant is immutable. It cannot change. No part of it can ever change.
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The new covenant cannot, does not in any way modify the
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Abrahamic covenant. And that's one of Paul's big arguments for justification by faith. In the book of Galatians in chapter three, he says in verse 17, and this
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I say that the law, which was 430 years later, cannot annul the covenant.
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The Abrahamic covenant that was confirmed before by God in Christ, that it should make the promise of no effect.
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In the writer to the Hebrews also in chapter four says that Israel in the wilderness had the gospel preached to them.
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Do you see the unity there? This is what covenant theology is all about. There is one people of God, one gospel, one covenant of grace, one way of salvation from the very beginning to the very end.
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Now my purpose in going through all that biblical material, I know that's a lot to take in all at once. But my purpose in going through all of this biblical material in this section of the sermon is to show you how perfectly consistent it is.
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That we find household circumcision practiced in the visible church prior to the coming of Christ by God's command.
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And you see household baptism practiced in the visible church after the coming of Christ.
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There is perfect consistency in that practice because the gospel has not changed, the
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Abrahamic covenant has not changed. The way of salvation has not changed. The justification of sinners has not changed.
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The church has not changed. In fact, the Greek term for church, ekklesia, is used 75 times in the
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Greek translation of the Old Testament, the Septuagint version. And when Jesus spoke of the ekklesia in Matthew 16 and Matthew 18.
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And when Stephen in his sermon to the Sanhedrin in Acts chapter 7 verse 38, he called Israel in the wilderness, the ekklesia in the wilderness, the church in the wilderness.
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Everyone knew what that meant. Everyone knew exactly what the term church, the Greek word ekklesia, meant.
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Contrary to what our dispensational brethren tell us, there's a big distinction between Israel and the church.
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There isn't. Israel is the ekklesia. It's called that 75 times in the
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Old Testament. The word church was nothing new. There is one church, one people of God across both testaments.
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Failure to understand this point means a failure to understand the very essence of covenant theology over against dispensationalism.
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The administration of the covenant of grace has not changed in the visible church. Households were circumcised just as households are now baptized.
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Notice how consistent scripture is before and after the coming of Christ on this point. As we go through these passages, ask yourself this question, please.
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If the concept of the corporate solidarity of the family with regard to the sign of the covenant of grace has been terminated, which is what our
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Baptist brethren are saying, it is over. It is terminated in the new covenant. Where is the evidence of this?
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Household circumcision, household baptism. Notice, before the coming of Christ, we just read it in Genesis 17 verse 12.
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He who is eight days old among you shall be circumcised. Every male child in your generations, he who was born in your house or bought with money from any foreigner who is not your descendant.
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He who was born in your house or he who was bought with your money must be circumcised, Acts 2 38 and 39.
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Peter said to them, repent and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins and you shall receive the gift of the
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Holy Spirit for the promises to you and to your children and to all who are far off, as many as the
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Lord our God will call. Genesis 17, 7, listen to the parallel again, and I will establish my covenant between me and you and your descendants.
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You and your descendants, you and your descendants, you and your children. You see that consistent language all the way through Genesis, all the way through the prophets, even in the prophecies of the new covenant itself.
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You see, you and your children, you and your children's children, you and your descendants, over and over again.
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This is something that has not changed. Acts 16 verses 14 and 15,
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I know that's where I told you to turn, now we're finally to it. Now a certain woman named Lydia heard us. She was a seller of purple from the city of Thyatira who worshiped
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God. The Lord opened her heart to heed the things spoken by Paul. And when she and her household were baptized, she begged us saying, if you have judged me to be faithful to the
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Lord, come to my house and stay. Notice, Lydia believes and her household is baptized. No mention of anyone else's faith is made in the passage.
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Later on that same chapter, look down at verses 30 through 33. And he brought them out, this is the Philippian jailer, and said, sirs, what must
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I do to be saved? So they said, believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved, you and your household.
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Then they spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all who were in his house. And he took them that same hour of the night and washed their stripes.
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And immediately he and all his family were baptized. Notice there is no mention of the faith of anyone in this household.
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All his family were baptized. So often when we speak of the baptisms of households, we're told you're assuming that there were babies and children in those households, you're assuming that.
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And then the guys on our side will say, well, you're assuming that there weren't any in those households. I think both sides are missing the point.
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The point is this, the people were baptized because they were members of the household. Not because they made a profession of faith, because none is mentioned in the passage.
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That is incontestable from the passage, from the text. First Corinthians 1 .16,
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Paul writes, yes, I also baptized the household of Stephanas. Besides, I do not know whether I baptized any other.
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Now when he says any other, he's not talking about individuals. That pronoun alon in Greek, if you look at it syntactically, it's antecedent is households, oikon.
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I don't know if I baptized any other households, is what Paul is saying there. Now, why is he willing to say things like that?
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Because the baptism of households was the practice of the apostles of Christ. Paul baptized the households of adult believers.
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Even when Jesus saw individuals come to faith, he spoke of salvation coming not to the individual, but to the individual's house.
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Remember the conversion of Zacchaeus in Luke chapter 19. Then Zacchaeus stood and said to the
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Lord, look, I give half my goods to the poor, and if I've taken anything from anyone by false accusation,
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I restore fourfold. And Jesus said to him, today, salvation has come to this house.
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Not to this guy, not to this man, but to this house. Because he also is a son of Abraham.
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Households were circumcised before the coming of Christ. Where is the evidence that this has changed with regard to baptism?
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There is none. Households were and are baptized too in scripture. In the practice commanded by God of including children.
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If that practice in the visible administration of the covenant of grace has been terminated, we would expect to see in the scripture, in the
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New Testament, a radical focus in the scripture, in the New Testament, upon individuals, not households.
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If it's been terminated, that's what you would see. Lydia believes she's baptized, end of the story.
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Cornelius believes he's baptized, end of story. The Philippian jailer believes he's baptized, end of story. And that's exactly what we do not see.
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God continues to deal with households. As R .C. Sproul has said, quote, it's just business as usual.
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Nothing has changed on that front, end quote. Now, you might be thinking, what's the big deal with all that?
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Why is this such a big deal for us? The issue, obviously, is twofold. Number one, obedience to God.
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Obedience to God and that baptism, just like circumcision before it, it marks out our children to be discipled to know, love, obey, and believe
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Christ. When Abraham was circumcised, it was done after he believed, just like a missional situation.
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And his children, although they were too young to understand or even to be taught, they received the same sign of justification by faith.
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Why? Listen to the way the scripture describes this in Genesis 18, 19. God says of Abraham, for I have known him in order that he may command his children and his household after him, that they keep the way of the
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Lord, to do righteousness and justice, that the Lord may bring to Abraham what he has spoken to him.
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Our children are set apart as covenantally holy, covenantally set apart, because they are born into a covenant household.
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Now, what is a covenant household? We use that term covenant all the time in our circles here. It is a household where the head of that household is under the obligation to command his children and everyone else in his household to keep the way of the
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Lord, to do righteousness and justice. The parents of that household have this obligation to the children that God chooses to give them.
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Those children are not ours. They are the
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Lord's. And therefore, we are commanded by God to command them to keep the way of the
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Lord, to do righteousness and justice. Our attitude cannot indeed, it must not be.
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Well, God is sovereign. If he wants to save him, I guess he will. And I don't need to really do anything. Nothing I do matters anyway.
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And I would never accuse the other side of having that mindset. But we cannot have that kind of mindset ever.
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Our creator has commanded us to command our children and our household to keep the way of the Lord, to know him and to believe on him.
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Now, listen carefully to me. This is very important. This means that we teach our children to do things which we know only real
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Christians can do, to pray and to worship. Unbelievers cannot pray because there is no mediator between them and God.
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And in fact, every time they bow their heads and try to pray, they're only provoking his wrath. Unbelievers cannot worship because they are
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God's enemies and they're under God's just condemnation. And yet, we are to teach our covenant children how to pray and how to worship.
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We must require them to do both. As soon as they can open their mouths and say anything, dad, dad, mama, we're teaching them to pray, to talk to God, to believe in Christ, to repent, to pick up the hymnal, to turn to the page, to raise your voice to God and worship.
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We teach our covenant children to do those things. We have to require them to, even though we know that such can be done only by true born -again
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Christians. And while we're doing this with our children, as God commanded us, we must constantly be calling them to repent and believe.
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Repent and believe. Repent and believe. Remarkably, even when the prophets of God foretold the new covenant itself, children are included in those prophetic announcements and the prophets.
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In Isaiah chapter 44, all these references are in your thoughts for Sabbath meditation. I would encourage you to look them up. Isaiah 44, 3 and 4.
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For I will pour out water on him who is thirsty and floods on the dry ground. I will pour out my spirit on your descendants and my blessing on your offspring.
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They will spring up among the grass like willows by the water courses. Does that mean that God guarantees the salvation of our children?
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No, but it does mean they are part of the visible administration of it.
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Inherent in the new covenant is a promise to you and your children. Why is that? Because the Abrahamic covenant is unchangeable and everlasting.
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It is what underlies the new covenant. Isaiah 59, 21. As for me, says the
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Lord, this is my covenant with them. My spirit who is upon you and my words, which I have put in your mouth, shall not depart from your mouth, nor from the mouth of your descendants, nor from the mouth of your descendants.
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Descendants, says the Lord. From this time and forevermore. Jeremiah 31, verse 1.
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At the same time, says the Lord, I will be the God of all the families of Israel, not the just individual believers, but the
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God of the families of Israel, and they shall be my people. Jeremiah 32, 38.
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They shall be my people and I will be their God. Then I will give them one heart and one way that they may fear me forever for the good of them and their children after them.
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Ezekiel 37, verses 24 and 25. David, my servant, shall be king over them and they shall all have one shepherd.
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This is so beautiful. It's talking exactly of Jesus Christ and his kingly office. David, my servant, shall be king over them and they shall have one shepherd.
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They also shall walk in my judgments and observe my statutes and do them and they shall dwell in the land that I have given to Jacob, my servant, where your father's dwelt and they shall dwell there.
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They, their children and their children's children forever. And my servant David shall be their prince forever.
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The view that you hold of the new covenant must be able to account for everything that the scripture says and prophesies about the nature of that covenant in its visible administration.
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I submit to you that based upon the teachings of the whole word of God, any position that does not see that continuity simply cannot make sense of these passages.
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In the visible administration of the new covenant, children are included in it. They are included in the sign and they are to be considered part of the visible church.
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Now, in conclusion this morning, I believe very strongly that God gave visible signs and seals of his one covenant of grace to his people to be a source of great encouragement and comfort to them in their battle with unbelief and sin in this world.
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Baptism in the Lord's Supper ought to be issues around which Christians are united. The defect is quite obviously not with God.
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The problem is our own theological presuppositions and traditions which prevent us from seeing what scripture presents to us.
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When a man repents and comes to Christ, he does not come all by himself. He comes with all that he has.
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He is the leader by God's creation, order, design and decree of a household. If he's married and has children, he is the head of a household and everything in his household becomes the
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Lord's when that man is saved, especially his children. The head of the Christian household is given this special command in Ephesians 6, 4, and you fathers do not provoke your children to wrath, but bring them up in the training and admonition of the
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Lord. It's not general training or general admonition. It's not just remembering to discipline them when they get out of line.
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It's the training and admonition of the Lord. The father is commanded to bring up, not to bring up children in general or to bring up other people's children, but his children are to be brought up in the
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Christian way of life. They are to be taught to believe, to repent, to act, pray, worship, think and live as Christians as soon as they can understand anything.
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Since God first spoke to Abraham and made those glorious promises to him, the visible church on earth has consisted of believers and their children.
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For 4 ,000 years, God's people have brought their children to receive the sign of his gospel and it's the same gospel that Abraham believed, the same gospel
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David believed, and the same gospel by God's grace that we have believed. For this reason, baptism is even called the circumcision of Christ in Colossians 2 11 and 12 and I'll close with this.
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In him, you are also circumcised with the circumcision made without hands by putting off the body of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ buried with him in baptism in which you also were raised with him through faith in the working of God who raised him from the dead and just as the children of believers received the sign of the gospel before Christ came, they are to receive it now as well.
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The essence of that covenant promise and gospel being exactly the same now as it was then.
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Let's close in prayer. Dear Heavenly Father, we thank you for your faithfulness to the unchangeable nature of that promise and that unconditional promise that you made where you swore the oath, the smoking fire pot in the oven that passed between the pieces, the severed halves of those animals, that immutable, unchangeable covenant covenant where you take full responsibility upon yourself to secure the faith and repentance of every single one of your elect people.
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That is the very basis of our salvation and yet in its visible manifestation in the world, you've always set apart children with the sign of that immutable covenant and just as it was signified by circumcision of all it is signified by baptism.
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Now, what we pray that you would help us to be faithful in the execution of our covenantal duties towards those precious gifts that you've given to us our children that they too might embrace with that sign signifies that they would take their place as part of the invisible church in your time.
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We ask in Jesus name. Amen. This is
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Pastor Patrick Hines of Brittle Heights Presbyterian Church located at 108 Brittle Heights Road in Kingsport, Tennessee, and you've been listening to the
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Protestant Witness podcast. Please feel free to join us for worship any Sunday morning at 11 a .m. Sharp where we open the word of God together sing his praises and rejoice in the gospel of our risen
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Lord. You can find us on the web at www .brittlewellheightspca .org
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and may the Lord bless you and keep you the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious unto you the