Sermon: Baptism - The Children Are Holy

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♪ Adore thee, casting down their golden crowns around the glassy sea ♪ ♪

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Cherubim and seraphim falling down before thee, who was and is and evermore shall be.

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♪ ♪ Thy works shall praise thy name in earth and sky and sea.

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Holy, holy, holy, merciful and mighty,

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God in three persons, blessed

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Trinity. ♪ Go ahead and take a seat.

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I want to sing a solo. That is a hymn we need to tack an amen onto.

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Not a solo amen. There's always one in every crowd.

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I want to start off by thanking Brother Jeffrey, he who rebinds beautiful Bibles.

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It arrived in time for preaching today, which means we'll be going for three hours. But this one comes with batteries in it, just because it's so bright.

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But this is my new legacy standard Bible. Thank you very much.

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It is as soft as it looks, it really is. And on the front, in Greek, it says the more sure word, from when

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Peter says we have that certain or more sure word. And then, just to make sure everybody knows, the spine is one long line of Greek letters that says, for he must reign, from 1

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Corinthians 15. So, yeah, we're ready to preach now.

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Unfortunately, I also brought my old man glasses so I can read it. Because it's not bad, but it does require a little something here.

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So, if you look at your bulletin, you may have sort of went, hmm, that's an interesting title for a sermon.

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But we're going to be in 1 Corinthians 7, which you may have looked at, you may have given some consideration to.

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We are continuing our series on baptism. We're almost done. I can only think of really one full -length sermon that needs to be done.

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Maybe if we, depending on how much time I spend on it right now, how many of you are aware of what happened about two weeks ago in regards to Baptists and transgenderism?

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Okay, how many of you don't know what I'm referring to? Okay, all right. I'd say that's about 25 % that do know and 75 % who don't.

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There was a comment made on a program that many of our people listened to.

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I've been on it a number of times. Our church has a close relationship, a very friendly, amicable relationship with a whole group of churches, actually, but a group of people up in Moscow, Idaho, Doug Wilson, Toby Sumter, Gabe the

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Waterboy, and, of course, our friend, Chocolate Knox. And it was on one of their programs that a guest made the assertion that Baptist theology was responsible for transgenderism.

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A number of other people did exactly what you did, yes. Most people were left going, really?

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And so, over the weekend, there were lots of memes produced, and in this particular instance, the

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Baptists flattened the Presbyterians in the meme wars. I mean, it wasn't even close, and they've admitted that.

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The memes were definitely on our side on that particular one.

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But there were articles written, and all sorts of things happened, and I was traveling when it first happened, and I commented on the dividing line, but I knew that eventually

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I would be... I was very quickly invited to be on a program, CrossPolitik, to discuss it.

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We did that last week, and I think there's been more than enough discussion of the subject up to this particular point in time.

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I'm not concerned about that. But it did raise issues, and it did, once again, highlight the fact that this subject that we have been addressing is an important subject, and it is always there when it comes to, in our fallen world, our seeking to cooperate with and work with others in the advancement of Christ's Kingdom.

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Now, there are Baptists who simply will not even make the effort.

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We are not amongst them. I have had people look at me and very much question my orthodoxy.

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There's a lot of people questioning my orthodoxy these days, for other reasons, given the fact that I will preach in Presbyterian churches, and I will work with Presbyterian people, and people that don't just look like me and talk like me on every single point.

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But this did illustrate why we have been doing this series on baptism for quite some time now, and it also illustrated the fact that most of our

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Presbyterian friends have not been listening to that particular series, because if they had, then the underlying thought, that being that we are somehow teaching the idea to young people, that they have the autonomy to determine their own future and even their own sexuality by saying, you need to repent and believe in the

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Lord Jesus Christ before receiving baptism and partaking in the Lord's Supper.

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Of course, they ask the same thing. They ask that people be baptized before partaking of the

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Lord's Supper, and they call their children to repentance and faith, and so it was obviously,

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I think, just a complete missing of the point that there is somehow a communication to young people that you have the capacity and power.

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We just read a catechism question, and who is responsible for showing people their sin and their misery, giving them knowledge of Christ, drawing them to Him?

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The Spirit of God. It's the result of God's decree of election. But it was interesting.

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In listening to some people, there was another man, I love his music, consider him a great brother in the

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Lord, but right in the middle of this, he tweeted the statement, my children from the point of conception have been holy.

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My children from the point of conception have been holy. He got a lot of pushback on that.

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But what was he referring to? He was referring to the text that we're going to be looking at today. Actually, we're going to be looking at two texts, believe it or not.

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But the text we're going to be looking at today, in 1 Corinthians chapter 7. Now, if you, and I know that we have some good

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Presbyterian brothers and sisters with us today, once again, I hope you realize I'm simply presenting what this church believes in its confessional statement and in what we've always said in regards to the subject of baptism.

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We're not picking on anybody. And we are one of those Baptist churches that we do not require you to be baptized in a particular way, to partake of the

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Lord's Supper with us, and so on and so forth. We have an openness to our

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Paido -Baptist brethren that many of them, likewise, have toward us. And we feel that that's an appropriate thing to do, but that doesn't mean that we don't stop talking about what the issues are.

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We don't stop debating them. It's important, I think, to debate them. And if you weren't raised in a

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Paido -Baptist context, you might be a little bit surprised. The two texts we're going to be looking at today, let me just read the one.

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Verse 14 of 1 Corinthians 7. We're going to read up to it. I just want to read it for a moment. For the unbelieving husband is sanctified through his wife, and the unbelieving wife is sanctified through her believing husband.

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For otherwise your children are unclean, but now they are holy. That's 1

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Corinthians 7 .14. The other verse we're going to look at is the story, it's in all the

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Gospels, well, Matthew, Mark, and Luke. It's all the Gospels. Jesus said, Do not hinder the little children from coming to me.

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Let them come to me, for such is the kingdom of heaven. And if you were not raised within a

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Paido -Baptist context, you might be sitting there going, neither of those texts are about baptism.

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That's true. They're not. But in the Paido -Baptist context, when

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I mean Paido -Baptist here, I'm not talking about liberal Paido -Baptists. Progressive Paido -Baptists don't believe anything.

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They may still do infant baptism, but they don't really believe much anymore.

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I'm talking about believing Paido -Baptists, our brothers and sisters who are out there on the front lines with us, battling, proclaiming the

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Gospel. They do believe that these two passages are absolutely central to why they baptize infants.

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And as a result, we need to look at them. Now, as you know, if you've been here, what we started with is we started off looking at every passage in the

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New Testament on baptism. We defined the word, we looked at it as far as the lexicons and its history is concerned, and we went through the entirety of the

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New Testament looking at what it says. And of course, that's based somewhat upon the assumption, one of the differences between us, that is, if it is a

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New Covenant ordinance, or a New Covenant sacrament, if you want to use that term, then it needs to be defined by the

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New Covenant Scriptures called the New Testament. Most of our

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Paido -Baptist brethren will admit, no, the New Covenant ordinances are defined by a continuation of the paradigm of the

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Old Covenant into the New. That's one of the major differences between us, and we have discussed that before.

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But 1 Corinthians 7 and Mark 10, that particular instance we're going to look at, are very much a part of the mindset of the

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Paido -Baptists because they are reading the New Testament as if it is the Old Testament.

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Now, that raises the whole issue of continuity and discontinuity, and Baptists and Paido -Baptists will argue that until Christ returns, and however he wants to work that out.

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And I don't think we're ever going to come to a final conclusion in this life. But, they read especially verse 14, and they define the terms, especially verse 14 of 1

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Corinthians 7, within the language of the Old Covenant, not the

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New. So, let's look at what it's about. Let's get the context. It's always an important thing to do. Let's begin at verse 1.

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Now, considering the things about which you wrote, it is good for a man not to touch a woman.

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So, Paul is now answering questions that have been written to him by the church at Corinth.

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But because of sexual immoralities, each man is to have his own wife, and each woman is to have her own husband. The husband must fulfill his duty to his wife, and likewise also the wife to her husband.

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The wife does not have authority over her own body, but the husband does, and likewise also the husband does not have authority over his own body, but the wife does.

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Stop depriving one another, except by agreement for a time, so that you may devote yourselves to prayer, and come together again, so that Satan will not tempt you because of your lack of self -control.

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But this I say as a concession, not as a command. Yet I wish that all men were even as I myself am.

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However, each man has his own gift from God, one this way, and another that. But I say to the unmarried and to widows that it is good for them if they remain even as I.

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But if they do not have self -control, let them marry, for it is better to marry than to burn with passion. But to the married

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I give instructions, not I, but the Lord, that the wife should not leave her husband.

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But if she does leave, she must remain unmarried, or else be reconciled to her husband, and that the husband should not divorce his wife.

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But to the rest I say, not the Lord, that if any brother has a wife who is an unbeliever, and she consents to live with him, he must not divorce her.

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And a woman who has an unbelieving husband, and he consents to live with her, she must not divorce her husband.

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For the unbelieving husband is sanctified through his wife, and the unbelieving wife is sanctified through her believing husband.

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For otherwise your children are unclean, but now they are holy. Yet if the unbelieving one leaves, let him leave.

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The brother or the sister is not enslaved in such cases, but God has called us to peace.

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For how do you know, O wife, whether you will save your husband? For how do you know, O husband, whether you will save your wife?

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Only as the Lord has assigned to each one, as God has called each, in this manner let him walk.

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And so I direct in all the churches. Now, let me just mention one thing, lest I forget it, that I think is important.

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Notice that verse 10 says, but to the married I give instructions, not I but the

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Lord. And then in verse 12, but to the rest

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I say, not the Lord, that if any brother has a wife. That has confused a lot of people.

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What you have here, I think is rather fascinating, personally. When he says, but to the married

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I give instructions, not I but the Lord, what he's saying is, the Lord Jesus addressed this topic. We have, in the teachings of Jesus, specific instructions on this issue.

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And so he's saying, I'm repeating what the Lord Jesus taught. Now remember something, when Paul's writing 1

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Corinthians, there's no New Testament. There's no Mark, there's no Matthew, there's no Luke, that's still in the future.

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And so what's really neat to me, and you all know I'm weird anyways, but what's really neat to me is here is an example that demonstrates that the apostle is well aware of the oral tradition of Jesus' teaching at this point in time, very early on.

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And what's interesting is, when we go to, when those oral traditions are written down, in Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, Paul has it right.

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Paul does know exactly what Jesus had taught on these things. In fact, he knows it so well that he has to differentiate.

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He says, on this subject, the Lord taught this. But, notice what it says, verse 12,

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But the rest I say not the Lord, that if any brother has a wife who is an unbeliever, and she consents to live with him, he must not divorce her.

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Where did Jesus ever talk about that? Well, he didn't. There's nothing in the

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Gospels that record for us anything that Jesus said on this subject. And so, Paul isn't saying, this isn't

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Scripture, this is a lesser Scripture, this has lesser authority, any of those things.

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He's an apostle, he's giving instruction to the churches, but he is saying, when we have specific teaching from Jesus, here's what he said.

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But now we have it, you've asked me a question, and it's a question that it's pretty obvious why it came up.

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I mean, Corinth was the Las Vegas of the ancient world. Okay?

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There were pagan temples on every corner. And so, as the

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Gospel goes forth, in a context like that, the result is you have people being converted, but, as Jesus said,

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I have not come to bring peace, but to bring a sword, and that that's going to divide families. And, now you would have a wife, who hears the

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Gospel, bows the knee to Christ, but her husband remains a straight up pagan.

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And vice versa. And so, the church in Corinth has some serious questions.

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And we can tell that basically, what the struggle was, is, well, if I have been made holy, if I have been called out of this world, where before I was worshipping demons,

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I was worshipping false gods, and I was eating meat sacrificed to idols, and I thought that that was my religious duty, and this was something that would get me in with the gods, and they might help me.

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Now I realize all that was foolishness. I was debasing myself.

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Now I've been made holy. What does that mean to all my other human relationships, and especially, what does that mean to my relationship to my unconverted spouse?

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So, the context here, is individuals who've already been married.

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They're a married couple, and one of them is converted. The issue is not that you have a

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Christian believer who goes out and marries a pagan. That's addressed elsewhere.

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Here is a much more practical issue. And the practical issue is, as the

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Gospel goes forth, in that pagan world, there are going to be many situations where you're going to have divided families as a result of the grace of God bringing salvation to one of those individuals therein.

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And that's why you have the discussion of, how do you know whether you're going to bring salvation to your husband or wife?

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You can't just automatically assume that. And so there's the context.

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And so when he says, not I, but the Lord, that doesn't mean it's somehow lesser authoritative.

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I've had Muslims and Mormons and others point to that text to say, see, there's stuff in the

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Bible that is uninspired. That's not what it's talking about at all. The exact opposite of the truth, that is it's demonstrating that what we have as Jesus' teaching in Matthew, Mark, and Luke is accurate.

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And Paul knew that even before they wrote it. That's an important thing to keep in mind. So, the key term, the key section, but to the rest

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I say, not the Lord, that if any brother has a wife who is an unbeliever and she consents to live with him, he must not divorce her.

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And a woman who has an unbelieving husband and he consents to live with her, she must not divorce her husband. So before we get to the use of terms like holy and sanctified and so on and so forth, that's pretty straightforward, isn't it?

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That's pretty basic. If you get converted, you don't use that as an excuse to get yourself a new spouse.

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If any brother has a wife who is an unbeliever and she consents to live with him, he must not divorce her. And vice versa.

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Now obviously, in the vast majority of ancient cultures and even up to the modern day, the woman's right to divorce is extremely limited.

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There are some cultures where she had no right to divorce at all. And then of course you have issues in cultures where polygamy was prevalent and all sorts of stuff like that.

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It can become extremely complicated. But primarily in Greece under the

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Roman Empire, there was some level of meaningful societal recognition of the importance of family and marriage.

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And so he is going to say in the next section, now if the unbelieving one leaves, let him leave.

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The brother or the sister is not enslaved in such cases, but God has called us to peace.

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So, what's the point? The impetus to the end of that relationship has to come from the unbeliever, not the believer.

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The believer has been called to peace. And that means by the Spirit within me, by my understanding of what

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Christ is doing in this world, I am to be at peace with those around me and even to be at peace with an unbelieving spouse.

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And I recognize and have been aware of many situations where tremendous animosity existed on the part of unbelieving spouses when the other spouse comes to understand what it means to live under the

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Lordship of Christ. There are certain things they won't do anymore. I understand how complex and difficult that can be.

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But the Apostle is laying out a fundamental idea here. And that is, marriage is still marriage.

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If you were married as an unbeliever, and you become a believer, that does not change the covenant of marriage.

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You may now understand it a whole lot better, you may be able to see the beauty and the pictures of it, all those types of things, but it doesn't change the reality.

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And it seems there may have been some in Corinth that were going, well, if I'm a new creature, if I'm a new creation, then aren't all my old relationships done away with?

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And the Apostle is saying, when it comes to marriage, no. Marriage was established by God in the garden.

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And when a man and a woman are married, that is a holy relationship.

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Now, if they are unbelievers, they are not in right relationship to God, that's true.

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They're in rebellion against God's way. But the marriage itself and the children that issue from that remains valid in God's sight.

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And so, he's saying to them, if there's going to be a disruption because of this, let that non -peaceful thing arise from the unbeliever, not from the believer.

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If they consent to live with you, then stay with them.

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Because, as he then goes on to say, how do you know a wife, whether you will save your husband?

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How do you know a husband, whether you will save your wife? It does happen. I'll bet you there's people sitting here right in front of me.

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They can testify, yep, that's how the Lord saved me. I was a wretch, and my wife was the one that introduced me to Jesus, and vice versa.

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And so, that can happen. But notice, if the unbelieving one leaves, let him leave, the brother or the sister is not enslaved in such cases.

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But God has called us to peace. So, that's our context.

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You say, you're spending a lot of time on that. Yeah, because that determines the meaning of the words in verse 14.

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You can't just pull it out and treat it like it's Moses on Sinai talking to the people of Israel.

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It's not. It's Paul speaking to the church in Corinth, and that church in Corinth represents a tiny little fraction of light in a dark pagan culture.

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That's a different context. It's a very different context. It's a context we're going back into in our own experience, isn't it?

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For the unbelieving husband, verse 14, is sanctified through his wife, and the unbelieving wife is sanctified through her believing husband, for otherwise your children are unclean, but now they are holy.

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Now, if you think this is Moses, and if you are reading this as if it is the

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Old Testament, then you're going to look at these words like sanctified and holy, and you're going to go, ah, this is the

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Levitical code. This is in regards to covenantal holiness and uncleanness and everything else, right?

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Now, keep something in mind. When it says sanctified twice in the first two clauses, and then says your children are holy, it's somewhat unfortunate that in English we end up seeing those as very different words.

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They're not. In the Greek language, they're all from the same root. Someone who is being sanctified is being made holy, is being set apart.

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And so anyone who would have been hearing this from the apostle would have understood that what he's talking about in regards to the relationship to the unbelieving husband or the unbelieving wife is directly parallel in regards to the children.

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Now, there are some of our paedobaptist brethren, and again, let me just remind you,

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I know it's been a number of months. In fact, I don't even remember when it was, but we did two or possibly three sermons.

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I think it was just two, on church history and baptism and things related thereto.

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And so we know that there are differing views on all of this. And let me just remind you that the modern view of our

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Presbyterian brothers coming from John Calvin was unknown in church history until Calvin.

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Just unknown. So the idea of a covenantal, an idea where one believing parent is sufficient to place the children into the covenant, unknown in church history.

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That's just a new idea. But the problem is, while you look at the children like this, to see the children are to be part of the church and have the right to baptism.

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Now, then they go off and argue about the Lord's Supper, and we'll let them argue about those things. But this means that they are a part of the church and have the right to baptism.

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What about the unbelieving husband? They're sanctified. They're made holy.

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What about the unbelieving wife? Should an unbelieving adult have the right, as an unbeliever, to baptism?

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Why would they even want it? Given what it represents. But whatever you do, when someone said from conception, my children were holy,

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I have to go, what do you mean by that? Because the reality is, within the context of which

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Paul is speaking, he's talking about the legitimacy of the marriage and the resultant children.

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The unbelieving spouse is still your husband, is still your wife.

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That relationship has not changed. And your children are still legitimate children.

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They do not lose what you thought they had the day before you were converted.

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They don't lose that legitimacy. They're not unclean, but they are holy.

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That is, they are legitimate children. The relationship continues. It abides.

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That's the whole context of the text. That's all he's talking about. The word baptism doesn't appear anywhere in this text, does it?

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No, it's not going to for many more chapters. He's answering a very basic question, and he's using terminology of legitimacy that you're going to completely misunderstand if you try to read it as if this is the

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Old Testament. It's not. What he is saying to the church at Corinth and to confused people who are hearing about how they're new creatures, and they have been made holy before God in Jesus Christ, but that means my husband's...

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He's still going to the temple. He still brings home the meat from the temple. He's unholy.

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Doesn't that mean that our relationship has been fundamentally and completely altered and changed?

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And what about my children? Are they now unclean in the sense of no longer properly related to parents?

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Have they become unclean things? And Paul's saying, no.

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That is not how it works. There is a recognition of a sanctification.

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Now, what does that mean? Does that mean they're saved? Does that mean they're regenerate? Of course not. Not even our...

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Well, the vast majority of our Paedo -Baptist friends will say no.

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And it's somewhat frightening, to be honest with you, because we've raised this issue before. We have some of our

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Paedo -Baptist friends who do have some very interesting views about covenant children.

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I've mentioned to you, for example, a man by the name of Pierre Marcel, who in his book on infant baptism teaches us that, and he uses this text as a primary proof text, that infant baptism, that the children of the covenant, children of the covenant, are in essence removed from the power of original sin so they can make a free choice for Christ.

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So unlike the pagan in the street, if you go to Mill Avenue and you run into someone with 47 different colors of hair, with rainbow flags, shouting their abortion, with a

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Charles Darwin t -shirt on, and you somehow, in the midst of all that, the Lord's merciful and this person comes to know the

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Lord, man, there was a lot to get over there. But not nearly so much for a covenant child.

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Because the covenant child, all that original sin stuff, things like that, that's not an issue for them.

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They're different. It's almost like there's a different gospel. You've got the gospel for the rough ones, and then the gospel for the easy ones.

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Thankfully, most of my bitter Baptist brethren don't believe anything like that. But there is a real strong temptation

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I've spoken to many former Presbyterians who became Baptists, for example, and they've spoken of the assumption that was theirs that my children are regenerate and I will assume that they are until they prove me otherwise.

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That's a big assumption. That's a big assumption. And so there are all sorts of different understandings and different spins on the part of our

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Presbyterian and other paedo -Baptist brothers and sisters as to just what it means that children are holy.

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Does that mean they're regenerate? Does that mean they are indwelt by the

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Spirit of God? That there is a promise of an effectual calling that they experience at a very young age?

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What does it mean that they're holy? And what does it mean that the unbelieving husband is holy?

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Or the unbelieving wife is holy? Because that's what's being said. If we read these as soteriological terms, terms having to do with salvation, terms having to do with regeneration, rather than the context provided by the text itself, which is in regards to the marriage relationship and family relationship, we will be left with some real questions.

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And only a very few people that I've ever encountered have been willing to go, you know what?

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As long as you get saved, then your spouse and your kids get an automatic ticket into heaven.

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There is nothing that I can see anywhere in the New Testament that would give you an idea that there are different kinds of salvation.

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And there are some believers who are saved because they repented and believed, and others who are saved because somebody else repented and believed for them.

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That's an extremely dangerous concept. Like I said, I've encountered it, but it's rare, thankfully.

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So what we have here then is simply a recognition of what the marriage relationship is all about.

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It continues to exist even when one becomes a

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Christian. And as much as it is up to the believer, if the unbeliever will stay in that relationship, then they are to stay in that relationship.

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But if they leave, they are not to be considered themselves enslaved. That's the very term that he utilizes himself.

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So there is one of the two texts. And so when you hear it, hopefully you'll know what the context is, and you'll be able to give some response to it.

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But let's turn back to the Gospel of Mark while we have time to do so.

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The Gospel of Mark. And in chapter 10, it's interesting to me that the section we're going to be looking at is verses 13 -16.

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But notice what the context is. Verses 1 -12 is actually another discussion of marriage.

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And in fact, it's the same discussion of marriage that Paul draws from in 1 Corinthians 7 that we looked at.

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And so you have there, and this is of course Matthew 19, same material.

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Jesus said in verse 5, "...because of your hardness of heart He wrote for you this commandment, but from the beginning of creation

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God made them male and female. For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother, and the two shall become one flesh.

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They are no longer two, but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let no man separate."

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We've all heard it. It was a part of the book of common prayer.

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And so it's just been something that we have imbibed in our society that has been a great blessing to our society until modern times.

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And yet it also taught what? It teaches the gender binary.

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It is considered hateful now. In fact, someone stood behind a podium this week.

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The only thing missing in the background were swastikas yelling and screaming about the dangers to our society.

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And let me tell you something. The danger to any society is when you promote and demand that people celebrate the fundamental confusion as to who men and women are and what the family is.

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That's the end of that society. So here,

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I hope you know where to go. When someone says to you, oh, I don't think you should say those types of things.

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We need to be loving. There has never been anyone who walked the face of this earth that was more loving than Jesus.

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He proved it by allowing himself to be nailed on a cross.

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And yet, he taught, from the beginning, God made them male and female and the only relationship that God will ever bless is one man and one woman together.

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That's the only relationship that God will ever bless. So that's the context, interestingly enough.

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There, then, in verse 13, after this conversation, and if you go over to Matthew 19, there's a little bit of follow -up more than Mark gives.

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Verse 13, And they were bringing children to him so that he might touch them, but the disciples rebuked them. But when

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Jesus saw this, he was indignant and said to them, Permit the children to come to me. Do not hinder them. For the kingdom of God belongs to such as these.

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Truly I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child will not enter it at all.

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And he took them in his arms and began blessing them, laying his hands on them. Now, the first Bible...

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I should have grabbed it. I was thinking more about this Bible. The first Bible that I ever owned was a...

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well, it would cause some Reformed people to shiver and quake a little bit.

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But on the front cover, and it was a zip -up Bible, and on the front cover was a picture of Jesus with the little children.

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And Jesus was blessing the little children. And we've all seen it.

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We've all heard the story. We all understand the context.

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But for many, what's being said here is baptize your kids as soon as possible.

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Now, I think I've mentioned to you before that the first debate that I did, now it was not how

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I would debate this subject any longer. This was a long time ago. This was 1995.

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1995. Let me guess, you were born in 1995?

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Yeah. Is there a chair up here I can sit on? 1995.

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The Baptists sat over here. The Presbyterians sat over there. In this room.

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In this church. And we had a debate on baptism. And yes, this text was cited.

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And basically, the argument was very much an emotional argument as it was framed.

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What am I supposed to say to my kids? You see. And the idea was, permit the children to come to me.

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You as a Baptist are not allowing children to come to Christ. Well, obviously we know that the term children here in the original language has a wide possible application.

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It's probably not talking about nursing infants. It's probably talking more about the kids that we saw running around before the service started in here.

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But it might have been little ones that had to be carried. Because they were bringing children to him so that he might touch them.

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But the disciples rebuked them. They were not bringing the children in that he might baptize them.

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This would have been primarily Jewish context. The little boys already would have been circumcised. It wasn't anything about covenants.

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It wasn't anything about asking Jesus to take them down to the Jordan River and sprinkle them, effuse them, dip them or anything else.

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Instead, they were seeking a blessing. They saw in Jesus a source of God's blessing and so they were bringing children to him.

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And the disciples rebuked them. Why? Well, we don't know for certain.

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It could be that they sort of went around the disciples and the disciples were upset that their role as sort of being the intermediaries was being bypassed.

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Maybe it was simply the fact that from the disciples' perspective this just simply wasn't important enough for Jesus.

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Don't you realize he's raising the dead? He's healing the sick. Why are you bringing kids just for him to touch them and bless them?

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And what does Jesus do? Well, he uses it as an opportunity to teach about the kingdom of God.

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He is indignant with his disciples. And he says to them,

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Permit the children to come to me. Do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these.

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Truly I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child will not enter it at all. What's his point? Well, we know he's spoken about this over and over again.

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True saving faith in many ways is childlike, not in all ways.

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It's not that there's not to be a growing up or a seeking maturity, none of those things. But there is a sense of absolute trust that very often we in our adult arrogance think is beneath us.

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But Jesus said, Kingdom of God, this is how you enter into the kingdom of God.

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With this kind of faith, this kind of childlike faith, this utter trust.

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Remember the rich young ruler? He went away sad. Why? Because he loved the things of the world.

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He could not grasp the simplicity. There was too much in his mind to grasp who he was even talking to.

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He didn't even get when Jesus said, Good teacher, why do you call me good? There's nothing good but God.

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I wasn't trying to get you to do anything. I was trying to get him to figure out who he's talking to. People say,

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Jesus was denying he was deity there. No, he wasn't. That's the whole point.

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Missed it. Childlike faith. And so Jesus, he took them in his arms and began blessing them, laying his hands on them.

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Ever thought, I think about this stuff too much. But have you ever thought,

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I wonder how many of those kids were converted in later years and then told the story that they had been blessed by Jesus, that Jesus had picked them up and held them in his arms.

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I wonder how many of them, over the next number of decades, told that story in the early church, the early persecuted church, the church driven out of Jerusalem.

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I don't know, but I think someday we'll find out. I think someday we'll find out. He took them in his arms, began blessing them, laying his hands on them.

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That did not cause regeneration. That did not remove from them the need for repentance and faith.

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It was not some magical act. It was an act of blessing. It was a recognition that their parents understood something about him.

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But it did not change their state. It was blessing, not baptism.

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And so I think that one of the reasons that both of these two texts, neither one of which even pretends to address the subject of baptism, have been pressed into service is because of the fact that when you allow the

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New Testament to define baptism, it is for those who hear the

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Word, repent, and believe. That is the consistent experience of the

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New Testament church. And as we saw, once infant baptism does develop centuries down the road, it's not an apostolic experience, but it comes centuries down the road.

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It came not for the reasons that we would want to see it come. It came because false understandings of what baptism accomplished were becoming prevalent amongst certain people.

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And of course, we understand the constant bent that man has toward inventing religious ceremonies by which you can control the grace of God.

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There's nothing new about that. But neither of these texts ever mention baptism or ever give us any basis unless you read all of the

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New Testament as if it is the Old. If you want to consider it to be some kind of continuation and that you've still got land to promises, you're going to be dragged back into the situation where you have a mixed covenant.

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Where in the New Covenant, you're going to have regenerate and unregenerate, and that's why we spent two sermons where?

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Where did we spend two sermons? You're not leaving this room until you tell me. Hebrews 8, that's right.

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The nature of the New Covenant as interpreted by the

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New Covenant apostles. That's why it is so central.

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That's why it is so key to keep us from the kind of error that we can so easily fall into.

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So, two texts. Interesting texts. The texts that have nothing to do with the subject of baptism.

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We must allow the New Covenant Scriptures to define the New Covenant ordinances.

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And that's what we want to stand for together. Let's pray together.

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Our gracious Heavenly Father, we do pray, not that we may be armed for conflict or battle or debate, but that when

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You do give us opportunity as brothers and sisters to engage with others who have a different understanding, that we might be able to give insight.

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That we might be able to handle the Word of God consistently. This is our desire.

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And Lord, we ask that even as we have these discussions, that You would help us to grasp hands with everyone who loves

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Your truth, loves Your Gospel, and wants to stand firm in the proclamation of the Kingdom of Christ.

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And even when we disagree, Father, may we do so in a way that honors and glorifies the name of Jesus Christ.

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We know that is so difficult in our world today. May we show how to do it.