Adult Sunday School - Going Public Part 4 (Chapter 4)

Let's go to the Lord in prayer. Father, again, it is a privilege to be gathered this morning on the

Lord's day to study thy word, that we may be worksmen approved by God.

We pray, Lord, that you would guide us, give us confidence in these things that we're about to venture into.

We pray, Lord, for the clarity of your word, the clarity of your spirit to lead our discussion. We also thank you,

Lord, for this church and those who've made the effort to be here this morning. We pray,

Father, that the time that we spend together would be for the glory of your name and the edification of your saints.

In Jesus' name, amen. So we're in chapter four.

It's about, I think, page 50 this morning, or 55, page 55, chapter four.

And this is a pretty long read, about, I think, 15, 20 pages. Lots of stuff to go over.

Lots of meaty content here for us to consider. And I think that the chapter brings some good questions that I think we have to bear in mind and wrestle with and grapple with.

And among the questions that chapter 55 opens up with is how does baptism relate to the church?

Is baptism purely a matter of individual obedience? Or is it intrinsically linked to a person's entrance into the church?

Does baptism have an ecclesial shape? What is meant by the word ecclesial?

Church, so the word in Greek for church is ecclesias, and we get the word church from there, congregation, assembly.

And it just simply means the congregation. So anything we talk about ecclesial, ecclesiastical, we are talking about things relating to the church, the local church in particular in this context.

I want us to go to a chapter that is in the Bible that is gonna be referenced quite a bit this morning.

And it's gonna be Matthew chapter 28. Let's go there for a moment. You'll excuse me,

I'm kind of stuffed up this morning. And we're gonna examine what's often referred to as the

Great Commission in Matthew chapter 28. This is a text that many of us are familiar with.

In fact, many of us have committed to memory. If you haven't done so, I think you should. This is a fantastic scripture.

And Jesus, after his resurrection and before his ascension to heaven, he gives these parting words in Matthew's account of the gospel.

And he says in verse 18, all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.

Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the

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

And behold, I'm with you always to the end of the age. Now, this is often called again the

Great Commission. Commission, but unfortunately, many take this to be the

Great Suggestion. What's the difference between a suggestion and a commission?

You know, I love that you said that, especially coming from you, because you're a military man, right? If you're given a commission by your superior officers, is it a suggestion or is it a command?

It's a command. What are the consequences for not following through with a direct command from a superior?

What's the brig? So the military's version of prison, right?

It's like the gulag of the Russians. Not exactly, but you know, for people who play

Call of Duty, they know what I'm talking about. The consequences for disobeying a direct command from a superior officer is great.

Jesus establishes the grandeur of this commission by first prefacing it in verse 18 by saying that he has all what?

All authority, not some authority, but all authority on earth.

No, heaven and earth, comprehensive. There's no place in all of creation that you can go to where his authority isn't supreme, okay?

So that means Jesus's authority here is absolute and it's comprehensive.

And so therefore is what he goes on to say. So as a result of me having all authority, here is your marching orders.

To whom? To whom does this commission apply to? That's right.

So in the immediate context, it's to the apostles, it's to the disciples. And is it only to the disciples?

Is it only to the, well, in this case, is it only to the apostles? How do we know that?

Go for it, Pastor. That's right.

Go for it. Yeah, yeah.

That's right. And it's, you know, this word is not commonly used in this context anymore, but the word commission, some of the things that may come to mind is a commissioned paid position, right?

So if you are a commissioned employee, which typically means you only make money if you make a certain sale, right?

There's a commission that is associated, which means if there's no sale, there's no money, right?

And it shows a severity of not getting the sale through. Likewise, in the economy of God's kingdom, the currency isn't money.

Isaiah 55 comes to mind where it's the promise of the free gospel that's gonna go forward into all the nations.

But the currency is in fact souls, and it's in fact making converts and disciples.

So ours is an evangelistic faith. This is where we get the term today in evangelicalism.

Ours is an evangelical faith. We demonstrate that by the fact that we go out and knock on doors.

We demonstrate it by our evangelistic efforts here when we preach before the food ministry.

We also demonstrate it every Sunday on the Lord's day when the gospel goes forward here from this pulpit.

And so we are in the evangelistic faith, and part of our commission is to declare, to preach, teach obedience unto the nations.

But in particular here, the focus of this morning will be on the issue of baptizing them.

Now, we are commanded to baptize. What then is the connotation?

The connotation is that baptism is not optional, right?

Do you hear that? And in particular to this context of what we've read this past week in chapter four, what does baptism signify?

Is it an oath? Is it a covenant? How do these things relate? And that's what we're gonna endeavor to answer today.

So again, keep your Bibles open to that text of Matthew because we're gonna reference it quite a few times today.

But again, some of the questions that will be answered hopefully this morning will be, how does baptism relate to the church?

So is baptism, we understand, we've set the tone, baptism is not optional, but what kind of obedience is it?

It is an issue of obedience. Jesus is teaching them to observe all that I commanded you. But is it simply about personal obedience or is there an ecclesiastical connection between baptism and our obedience and following the

Lord in that manner? So is it just for me to, so the way it's framed in many evangelical circles today, especially those who hold to what's called an open church model.

What is an open church model? Or open membership versus closed membership?

Anyone remember? Yeah, so open membership would be kind of more open.

If you attend long enough and they give you a cubby hole and your name on it and you're a member. I remember when

I was attending my first church after getting saved, it was an evangelical free church.

It's a great church and with really solid Bible teachers and pastors, but I remember

I told the youth pastor, I was like, well, I wanna become a member. He's like, he was kind of a cheeky guy, big burly guy, like huge, just a mountain of a man.

And he went, yeah, he went, you're in. And I was like, okay, cool, all right.

Because to them membership was just really easy breezy. It's like, well, you wanna be a member, great, you're a member and kind of lackadaisical, kind of just very informal.

There was a formal church process I eventually did take and became a formal member, but that kind of set the tone for my personal walk with Jesus for a long time to come for better or for worse in that it was just something, it was so easy.

And that's one of the things about modern evangelicalism is that we've lowered the bar. Everything is just so open, so free, wear your flip flops to church.

It's just a very free, open thing. And it's not very, it doesn't take into account the seriousness of the oath and the covenants that we're making as we profess

Jesus as Lord. And so church membership and baptism are intrinsically linked.

And that's gonna be the focus of today's lesson in relation to the idea of covenants.

And so for instance, there are two sides of this. Again, there's an open membership, there's a closed membership.

And so we're gonna engage with a little bit of all those two views this morning. But one of the things that ultimately comes up is the idea of covenants.

And this is gonna be an interesting discussion because we have to first define a couple of things.

What is a covenant? Okay, what is a covenant? Yes, Dale.

Yes, that is true. Anyone else wanna try to throw a definition out there?

Not that that was wrong, is it correct? Yes. Yes, yeah, so that's an important distinction, right?

So if you enter into an agreement, so if you've ever signed a contract, whether with an employer, whether it's for a house, for instance, if you buy a house, you often have to put what's called earnest money down.

What that earnest money does is it kinda keeps, kinda like a deposit. It says, hey,

I'm genuine about my intentions about buying this house. If I don't buy it, this earnest money is yours, essentially.

And so it could be $500, it could be $15 ,000, but it's to demonstrate, hey, this, I'm earnest about my desire to be here, and if I break this agreement, here's the consequences.

Right, and so there's often consequences associated with breaking an arrangement, breaking a covenant. You know, the word covenant basically just means arrangement.

It's an arrangement. Right, and one of the definitions given here by Gordon Hugenberger, he defines covenants as an elected as opposed to natural relationship of obligation under oath.

That's an important distinction. He used the term elected as opposed to natural. What would be a distinction between elected and natural obligation or relationship?

You have natural children. Are those elected, or is that natural? Natural. If you adopt, is that natural or elected obligation?

Elected. You see the difference? And so in that one, there is a choosing. Marriage is an example of an elected covenant, an elected obligation.

You chose to marry your spouse. You chose to enter into an arrangement, a covenant with them, and it is a relationship of obligation under oath.

What is an oath? Pastor? So both parties are covenants.

Generally, yes, yeah. Both parties. Generally, yeah. Yeah, that's just generally true.

Yes, yes. Oath, what's the definition of an oath? A promise and a commitment.

And it's usually, again, associated with a penalty should the oath be broken.

So for instance, if you go before a judge and you have to swear an oath, and the threat is perjury, right?

If you break, if you say something that's not true, if you break the oath, there's a consequence associated with it.

And so an oath, again, is pardon. Without the oath, you don't have a covenant, okay?

Without the oath, without the promise, there is no covenant.

So for instance, me and Pastor Conley were having this conversation a couple weeks ago when we were driving down to LA. We had a lot of free time on our hands as we were talking about marriage, for instance.

What makes marriage biblically valid? So is it the government stamp of approval when they say, okay, here's the stamp, here's your marriage certificate, now you're married?

Because that's not in the Bible, that's not a biblical concept per se. And it's probably not government's proper role to interfere into that covenant other than to be a referee in case there's a breaking of the covenant.

Government's role really is to uphold private agreements and contracts, and not much more than that.

But what makes a marriage a marriage is the oath. And it's the oath before witnesses, right?

So that if you get married on a private beach and there's no judge, there's no witnesses, and it's just you kind of making a verbal commitment to somebody, that may not constitute as a genuine marriage because it needs to have an oath associated with a witness seeing and testifying to the truthfulness and the validity of that commitment that was made before witnesses.

And so an oath is that promise to keep with, again, a series of consequences should it be broken.

So we understand what covenants means. Covenants, again, are arrangements. They are elected arrangements or relationships of obligation under oath.

So covenants can be made between people, but our concern in this particular topic is with covenants made between God and man.

What was the first covenant of Scripture? What's the first covenant?

What's that? Amen. Close. Close. Adam and Eve.

Creation. God made. See, we're just waiting for you to get here, man.

We're just... You're our apostle and our messiah. And so Scripture affirms that there's the

Adamic covenant, creation, God creates man in his image.

There's a covenant relationship there. God elected Adam to be the representative of humanity. There's also what's called, what's the second covenant?

Someone had it earlier. Noahic covenant. Noahic covenant, there you go. So you got

Noah's covenant. Are you guys familiar with the Noahic covenant? Yes.

That's right. Let's go to... Let's go to Genesis chapter nine.

So here is what's commonly referred to as the Noahic covenant. In Genesis chapter nine, verse two, well, starting verse one.

And God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them, be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth. The fear of you and the dread of you shall be upon every beast of the earth and upon every bird of the heavens, upon everything that creeps on the ground and all the fish of the sea.

And to your hand they are delivered. This is showing now man's dominion over creation. This is part of the dominion that God had established from Adam and Eve, but the fall broke that relationship between us and creation.

But God is establishing that again, here in the Noahic covenant. And it gives us the consequences of reckoning.

Verse five, it says, and for your lifeblood, I will require reckoning from every beast or require it for man.

And his fellow men, I require reckoning for the life of man. Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed.

For God made man in his own image. And you be fruitful and multiply, increasing greatly on the earth and multiply in it.

And then God said to Noah and his sons, behold, I establish my covenant with you. And your offspring after you.

So this is, who are the offsprings of Noah? Everybody.

So this is a covenant between God and humanity because again, God destroyed humanity under the flood.

And now there's a new humanity in Noah. And God is now making a covenant with all his offsprings, which should include us.

So everyone is honored in a way covenant. Okay? And every creature, verse 10, and every living creature that is with you, the birds, the livestock, and every beast of the earth with you, as many as came out of the ark, is for every beast of the earth.

I establish my covenant with you that never again shall all flesh be cut off by the waters of the flood and never again shall there be a flood to destroy the earth.

And God said, this is a sign of the covenants. There's a sign associated and notice what it is. That I make between you and every living creature that is with you for all future generations.

I've set my bow rainbow in the cloud and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and the earth.

When I bring clouds over the earth and the bow is seen in the clouds, I will remember my covenant that is between me and you and every living creature of all flesh and the water shall never again become a flood to destroy all flesh.

When the bow's in the heavens, when the bow's in the clouds, I will see it. And remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is on the earth.

And God said to Noah, this is a sign of the covenant that I have established between me and all flesh that is on the earth.

So this is the Noahic covenant. It includes everyone. It includes the creatures of the world as well.

So this is a comprehensive covenant. What was the sign of the covenant? Think about that for a moment.

What's the rainbow associated with today? LGBT. So sexual perversion, that's right.

And sexual sin. The sign of God's patience. The symbol of God's enduring love for humanity.

And notice what Satan does with it. Takes that symbol of God's patience because God is patient.

We see that God's not gonna destroy the earth again with a flood. But it said, as 2 Peter talks about, it will destroy the earth with fire.

But in that same text, in 2 Peter 3, it says that God is patient, not wanting that any should perish.

And God's symbol of his patience is the rainbow. And the rainbow is now used as a perverse symbol of sexual perversion.

Isn't that interesting how Satan does that? Almost mocking God to his face, saying here's a symbol of your patience and we're just gonna parade around with it.

This is, that is a defiance of God's covenant. That is a spitting on God's promising covenant that is established in the

Noahic covenant. And so man's perversion will be accounted for and God's patience will come to an end for the ungodly at the coming of the

Lord Jesus Christ. And so, but what a dangerous thing it would be to use that symbol in such a degrading term.

My kids, I've taught them to anytime, because they see the rainbow and my girls especially love rainbows.

And so they get excited when they see rainbows. And so I have to explain to them what the rainbow actually means and what the world uses it as.

And they get a righteous anger when they realize that because they said, no, this is

God's symbol. And so that's the right mentality that we all should have. Mario? Right, right, right.

Doesn't say that. Yeah. How many days are there in a week?

Seven. How long has it been that way? Since creation.

But it isn't until the Mosaic covenant, which is the next covenant, well actually the Abrahamic covenant's next and then the

Mosaic covenant, but it isn't until the Mosaic covenant in which the seventh day is set apart for the public worship of God's people, right?

And so it isn't to say that there wasn't a seventh day before the usage or the establishment of the

Sabbath as the sign or oath of God's covenant people. So the seventh day of rest precedes the

Mosaic covenant. So it wasn't as if it was made by Moses.

There was always a seven day week because it goes back to creation. God created the heavens and the earth in how many days?

Six, and on the seventh day he what? Rested. And so this is a creation ordinance. And so I would say rainbows likely existed before the flood, but the sign is now associated with this promise, right?

So just as the seventh day existed before the Mosaic covenant, as particularly as a sign of the

Mosaic covenant, so then a rainbow could have existed before the

Noahic covenant and its association with God's promise. Does that make sense? Okay.

Pastor? That's right.

That's right. That's right. It doesn't, that's right. Yeah. That's right.

Amen. Amen. That's right. Great point. Great point. Anyone else have any thoughts or questions?

All right. Well, we're on page 57. All right, so you have the

Adamic covenant, you have the Noahic covenant, and then after that comes the

Abrahamic covenant. So Abraham being the father of the nation, being the father of the

Hebrews, of the Israelites, and God made a particular promise to him that by his seed, all the nations will be what?

Blessed. What was the sign associated with Abraham's covenant?

Circumcision. Yeah. Pastor? Both. Both.

That's right. And then Paul, in Galatians 3, teaches us that the seed is who?

The seed by which the nations will be blessed would be who? Jesus. So the promised seed is

Jesus. Jesus is the fruition of the Abrahamic covenant and the promises. All the covenants have their fulfillment in Jesus.

It all points us to Christ. So you have, again, you start with the Adamic, Noahic, Abrahamic, all have signs associated with them, okay?

And then you have, and what's the sign associated with Adam's covenant? We've skipped that.

Tree is certainly a symbol of it, but there's another, it's procreation.

You're made in God's image, you're made in God's image, and therefore, as a result of that, the command was, be fruitful and multiply.

That is reiterated in the Noahic covenant when he says, be fruitful and multiply.

It's reiterated also in the Abrahamic covenant because what was the issue in Abraham's life as God made this covenant with him?

Couldn't bear children. His wife was too old. They were bearing an old age. What was the key?

Be fruitful and multiply and I will make you a nation as numerous as the stars, okay? Again, multiplication.

Keep this in mind, okay? It's fruitful, multiply, okay? All these covenants have the same thing in common.

And then you have the nation of Israel as the next covenant that God makes with the

Israelites in the wilderness, okay? And in that covenant, you have a particular sign associated with that covenant, and it is the

Sabbath. The Sabbath is the symbol, the oath of the

Israelite covenant, okay? And also associated with the covenant of Israel is again, this idea of being fruitful, multiplying, particularly in the land that God was gonna plant them in, okay, so that they would become numerous and that they would be able to overtake, overwhelm the pagan nations surrounding them, okay?

So again, multiplication, still a big part of this covenant theme that is kind of the underlining structure of the plot line of scripture, okay?

I saw someone asked recently, what, like, I hate questions like this, but if you can sum up the

Bible, like the story of the Bible, like a sentence, what would it be or in a word? And there really isn't a perfect answer that I can precisely say, but among the contending things that I would say is it's covenants.

It's God's relationship with man through Jesus Christ and how that story is unfolding throughout the narratives of history and scripture.

And so really what's underpinning the structure of scripture is this idea of covenants, arrangements that God is making with humanity, particularly in creation, he makes them in his image, and then the subsequent covenants that he makes with humanity.

After the covenant that God made with the nation of Israel, the next covenant is the

Davidic covenant. And what promise did God give or make with David?

What promise? You see that in 2

Samuel chapter seven. Say again? David will rule forever.

Yeah, in particularly, it says that David will rule forever.

How will David rule forever? By means of his seed, by means of his offspring, okay?

And just like with Abraham's promise of a seed and offspring, the New Testament makes it clear that that offspring, that seed is

Jesus. So Jesus is the fulfillment of the Abrahamic covenant and the

Davidic covenant. Jesus is the king. Now what's the sign or symbol of that covenant?

Yeah, what's the sign of that one? No, that starts with Abraham, that's

Abraham's. The sign of the

Davidic covenant is the throne. That's, it's the throne. The throne is the sign of the

Davidic covenant because it says that there will be someone sitting on David's throne, okay?

The Psalms is filled with that language. The prophecies in Jeremiah and Isaiah also use the language of David's throne.

In fact, I think it's in 2 Chronicles that it refers to David's throne as Jehovah's throne, right?

And there's a scripture in Ezekiel that says that the rulership of the one who, so it says in Ezekiel, I'll have to give you the,

I think it's chapter 23. I'll have to give you the exact reference later on. But it says that David's throne essentially would be empty until he who has a legal right comes.

And the one who has a legal right is Jesus. Jesus is the one who fulfills the rule and fulfills the oath and the symbol of God's promise to David because he is right now ruling on David's throne.

Because what's, where's David's? Remember, 2 Chronicles says that David's throne is Jehovah's throne. Where is

Jesus seated right now? The right hand of majesty in the throne room of God.

Jesus is sitting at Jehovah's throne and he is ruling and reigning right now today. He is fulfilling the

Davidic covenant today. Isn't that great news? That Jesus reigns today, king of kings and lord of lords.

And this is good news. Yeah. He is tied to David.

I preached on this in my earlier chapters of Luke when we looked at the two genealogies that are presented in scripture.

One would be, one is associated with Joseph's legal lineage, which traces back to David.

And also Mary's lineage also traces back to David. So he has a legal right by bloodline and by legal right through adoption.

And so Jesus is the one who has the legal right through bloodline and through birthright as an adopted child of Joseph.

So, any other thoughts or questions? Great question. Yeah. So now we're starting to see kind of this theme emerge.

Part of the Davidic covenant as well also has the connotation of multiplying.

David, David's son was who? He has many sons, but in particular, who do we think of?

Solomon. Solomon's reign superseded David's reign in glory and majesty, okay?

Solomon's reign was more glorious than David's for two reasons. One, he was the one who established the temple worship.

He's the one who was able to establish the worship of the true God through the temple.

And also because he had amassed such wealth, such power, such prestige, but the nation of Israel grew under his dominion, under his rulership.

It is after Solomon, who comes after Solomon? Anyone know? Rehoboam. Rehoboam.

And Rehoboam is under Rehoboam and then Jeroboam, where you have the split between Israel and Judah.

And at that time, it would seem as if the

Davidic covenant was broken because you had a split in the kingdom. You had two different rulers.

You have two different kingdoms now. But Jesus comes and he fulfills that as being the one who has a legal right.

And he now reigns over the nations today in fulfillment of the promise made to David. But the idea with all these covenants underlining these things is multiplication, okay?

Be fruitful and multiply. Be fruitful and multiply. God's seed will take over the world. That's kind of the underpinning tone of these covenant arrangements is

God's influence, God's people growing upon the face of the earth.

Because what is the inheritance of Jesus, but the inheritance of the nations? What is the inheritance of God's people?

The nations. We shall inherit the world, the Bible says. And so again, these are all things underpinning this concept of covenants.

Any questions so far on covenants? Is that it?

Is that where it ends with David's covenant? Or was there a promise for a new and even better covenant for the future?

Yes. Yes, there is. Jeremiah in page 60. Quotes from Jeremiah 31, verse 31 and 34.

We'll read that. Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah.

Remember, these were two nations at this time in Jeremiah's ministry. Not like the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day when

I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt. My covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, declares the

Lord. For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord. I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts, and I will be their

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

Lord, for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the Lord. For I will forgive their iniquity and remember their sin no more.

So there is a promise of a new covenant. The book of Hebrews in chapter eight of Hebrews calls it a new and better covenant.

He says that the old covenant is obsolete and fading away. What will be the sign of this new covenant?

Certainly part of it, but this sign is unique, or this new covenant is unique, in that it actually sort of has two signs associated with it.

And how do we know this but from the New Testament? The New Testament says what about the sign of this new covenant?

Baptism. Baptism, because what institutes the new covenant? Jesus says at the

Lord's Supper, which is a sign of the new covenant. He says that the bread and the wine signify what?

His body and blood, which is pointing to what exactly? The cross, exactly.

So it's pointing to the cross, so his death. What is the initiating sign or oath in which we associate with Christ in his death?

Romans six says it's baptism. So we are immersed into the death and life of Jesus at baptism.

We talked about this last week. Remember the imagery that is associated with baptism. Again, the preacher holds you, he dunks you into water.

That is signifying death. Water in scripture often represents two things, and two things are sometimes you would assume detimentally opposed to each other.

It represents life and it represents death. The sea in scripture represents the abyss, the place of darkness, a place where a

Leviathan dwells. It's a place where wickedness springs forth from, from chaos, right?

So ancient people looked at the sea and they said, this is no good. This is dangerous out there. People go out there, they never come back.

It's chaotic out there. There's storms that sweep in and destroy ships and destroy people. You know, there's great sea monsters and sea creatures.

You know, the sea was unpredictable. It was a place of chaos, but it was also associated with life, why? Because civilizations sprang out of places where there was water, and particularly, you know, you think of the

Euphrates River Basin where some of the earliest civilizations sprang forth out of.

You think of the Nile River in Egypt where civilizations sprang forth. Anytime there's a river, anytime there is water, you'll have civilizations that will come up as a result of that.

So life in multiplication, out of chaos, out of darkness. Water represents both things.

You go into the grave and then you come out with new life. Okay? Beautiful imagery.

And these are the initiating oaths of the new covenant.

So baptism and the Lord's Table is a continuation. It is a reaffirming of that oath that we partake in.

And so what needs to proceed? We have two signs.

Which one needs to come first? Okay, baptism, Lord's Supper, which one comes first?

The initiating or the affirming? Initiating. Initiating, which is baptism. And then it is affirmed in the

Lord's Supper. Does that make sense? Okay.

So I'm saying there are chapters. That's a tough question to answer.

I'm not sure that the chapter addresses that well enough for me to make a concrete answer. What seems to be at play here, so we have to, we understand that salvation, there's an order of salvation.

We understand that there is a, so let's put it in biblical reform terms.

There's regeneration, okay? Justification, sanctification, glorification.

Are these four completely different things or are these four things accomplishing one true, beautiful, big thing?

I think the latter, right? Because ultimately, what are those four things working together congruently to accomplish but our salvation and redemption in Jesus Christ, right?

And so if you want to look at the covenants, at the covenant of the new covenant in particular and the things associated with it, whether it be regeneration, whether it be baptism, whether it be

Lord's Supper, I look at this really as I look at it from the big picture of what it is accomplishing and what it is doing in relation to our walk with the

Lord. And so I would say this is really, there's components to it, but it's really one big picture. It's really one big thing.

And it's the obedience unto the Lord for the multiplication of God's people, okay?

Again, underlining this theme of covenants is still multiplication.

Be fruitful, multiply. And we're gonna see how that connects with what Jesus says about the new covenant, what

Jesus says about baptism and what Jesus says about this new arrangement. You got something to cook, Pastor? Well, I'm interested in trying to do it twice.

Right, yeah.

And maybe we'll pass, yeah.

No, to that end, I don't know what the Holy Spirit is.

And I think maybe what you might be thinking of rightly is Ephesians 1 .13 where it says the Holy Spirit is the seal of our redemption, right?

And so seal kind of is like a, you know, yeah, kind of using that language of what we're talking about today in that imagery.

And so I can see how one could associate it with it. But again, I would lump this all with our redemption and salvation, right?

So this is all things that are ultimately working for that purpose. And similarly, we have a triune

God, Father, Son, and Spirit. We're not talking about three gods. We're not talking about, you know, three, you know, agents in that sense.

We're talking about one eternal God who has revealed himself in three distinct persons. And so it is appropriate to speak of the triune

God in his unity, not just in the complexity of his being in terms of being three in one.

And so I think, you know, it could be appropriate to look at these covenants and salvation holistically than just try to always slice it in pieces.

Yeah, exactly. And so let's go to page 61 in that middle paragraph there.

Kind of what we've been talking about, those signs associated with those particular covenants. So the question is, is baptism also a sign of the new covenant?

So he says, I'd argue it is for four reasons. And we're gonna examine what those four reasons are. First, remember that Jesus inaugurates the new covenant.

And baptism pictures a believer's union with Christ in his death, burial, and resurrection. We just went over this. If Jesus' death inaugurates the new covenant, it is fitting to infer that a sign of his death is a sign of that covenant.

Second, consider that all of the spiritual realities baptism symbolizes are bound up with the new covenant, namely forgiveness, cleansing, resurrection, and the gift of the spirit.

You know, Jesus associates baptism with the gift of the Holy Spirit in John chapter three, when he talks about being born again, being born of water and spirit.

These are signs that are closely associated with each other. So he says, the new covenant is what baptism means.

Third, note that baptism was instituted immediately after the death and resurrection of Christ.

It wasn't a standing religious rite that just happened to make it into the new covenant era.

Instead, it began with the new covenant when the new covenant began. Fourth, while baptism doesn't exactly replace circumcision, the two rites both identify

God's covenant people and mark them off from the world. Just as circumcision was a one -time act which conferred a lasting covenantal identity, so also baptism is a one -time act which marks a person as belonging to the new covenant.

And so I think this is pretty convincing as to why baptism is a sign of the new covenant and it's the initiating sign of the new covenant.

Any thoughts or questions or pushback on that? Yeah, I feel like you're exactly right.

Yeah, that's right. I feel like circumcision can be a one -time act.

Yeah, you know, the spirit is an inward sign that you have, that you're a new covenant member, but baptism is the outward sign because it declares to the church and to the world that I've received the spirit,

I've been regenerated, and being sanctified, and justified, and therefore I can now be considered a part of the new covenant community of faith, right?

And so obviously faith precedes baptism, and so regeneration precedes baptism.

We don't believe in what's called baptismal regeneration. I think we talked about this a little bit last week. Anybody remember what baptismal regeneration is?

Yeah, so it's basically, it's once you're baptized, that's when you're saved, where we believe that regeneration precedes baptism.

And so there's the baptism of the spirit that precedes baptism of water, and so that would be the initial conversion of the believer by the spirit.

So, Pastor? Pastor? You mentioned last week, the vibration of the sick, where a pastor can stop, and that will enable someone to escape.

That's right. It's an incision to make that declaration more powerful.

That's right, that's right, that's right.

Emmanuel? Okay. You know, and so in the, in page 63, again, we're not gonna get through all the material, so I'm just trying to put a nice, no pun intended, bow over all of this, in order to kind of concisely express what the intent of this chapter is in relation to the initiating oath sign of the new covenant.

And in page 63, in that second to last paragraph there, in the bottom, the initiating oath sign of the new covenant, it says this, and I think this is important.

With these foundations in place, we can put our previous point more precisely. Baptism is initiating oath sign of the new covenant.

That is, baptism is a solemn, symbolic vow, which ratifies a person's entrance into the new covenant.

So what we're saying is that, okay, a person receives Jesus Christ, saving faith, regeneration.

Now, as a result of that, they're inwardly Christian. They're inwardly born again, okay?

But in order to ratify, it's like in the, I always liken it to this thing. It's like in the point in the marriage or in the wedding ceremony.

You know, I love weddings. I always cry at weddings, okay? So if you wanna see a pastor cry, I always cry at weddings.

And one of the things that I love is that point in the service where they say,

I do, right? And at that moment, it's like, whoa, it's beautiful.

Like they've said the words, they're married, but there's a sign that's missing.

And what's the sign that's missing? The ring and the kiss, you see?

And so the ring symbolizing the dedication, symbolizing the union coming together, and then it's sealed with the kiss, isn't it?

And that kiss is a symbol of the two becoming one. It's beautiful, isn't it? We'll have to Google that later.

Yeah. Emmanuel, say again.

There's always that one guy. So the wedding ring serves as a sign.

The scripture doesn't give us any instruction on what a sign can look like.

And so it's not a foregone conclusion that it needs to be a wedding ring. But yes, the ancient

Greeks believed that there was a vein that would go from the wedding ring all the way to the heart.

And this is why this particular finger was chosen as the sign for that particular covenant.

And so it does come from Greek mythology and paganism, but so does a lot of things.

And I don't think that that necessarily disqualifies us from having to use a similar tradition.

I think the importance is the outward sign, because again, when you're married and you got a ring on, it demonstrates an outward sign to the world that I'm in covenant,

I'm taken, right? Similarly, baptism is that outward sign which declares to the world, which declares to the spiritual powers and principalities, which is oftentimes overlooked, because Colossians 2 and Romans 6 talks about baptism being a sign also to the powers and principalities, because we're joining

Jesus in his death, birth, and resurrection. There's no mark on your forehead that says I've been baptized, right?

No one, unless some churches, and I've done this, they'll give you a certificate that says you're baptized on this day, but you don't go around with that certificate everywhere you go, right?

But it's a spiritual mark, okay? It's a spiritual mark. You've been marked. And also, it is demonstrated in your membership in the local church.

I'm a member of such and such church, and this is an affirmation that you've been born again, affirmation that you've been baptized publicly upon profession of faith, okay?

And so, I think we have a pretty solid case here for the thesis that baptism is the initiating sign of the new covenant, okay?

I think it's clear, and there's so much more things that we can say on this. There's so much more evidence here, and if you're doubting any of this,

I really encourage you to come chat with me or any of the pastors, because I think that the implications here are just very strong.

So let me close with this. Back in Matthew chapter 28, let's again look at that text and look at how this theme of covenants comes to fruition in the

Great Commission, okay? So again, underlining every covenant is this idea of being fruitful and multiplying, okay?

Essentially, it's dominion. That is the underlining theme of the covenants,

God's dominion over creation. We see that with the Adamic covenant when

God made Adam and Eve in his image, and he says, go have dominion.

Go be fruitful and multiply. Rule over the earth. Same thing with Noah. Be fruitful and multiply.

Same thing with Abraham. Be fruitful and multiply. I'm gonna give you seed that will fill the earth.

There'll be as numerous as the stars. See it again with Israel, that though they were as, I forget what the term is in Exodus that's used, but he uses the same terminology.

Though you are few, you will become many, essentially. You'll be like the sands of the sea was a promise that God made to the

Israelites. Again, expansion, dominion, growing. Again, with the

Davidic covenant that God's rule through David would fill the earth, that not only would he be a geographical king over a certain particular area, but that his reign will be over the nations that is fulfilled in Jesus Christ.

In the new covenant, this is how it's fulfilled. Jesus having all authority in heaven and earth, he says, go therefore and make disciples of all nations.

Multiply, multiplication, baptizing them. That's the initiating sign of the new covenant.

In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you. And behold,

I'm with you always to the end of the age. You see how that is fulfilled in this covenant theme of dominion, of growth, of multiplication, comes to fruition here in the

Great Commission. Ours is a call, a decree, a command, a calling, a commission to go and make disciples of all nations and to baptize them, which is why we are

Baptists. Okay, just a play on words here. This is our commission, this is our job, is to make disciples and baptize them.

Not baptize babies, baptize those who will walk onto the obedience of the Lord Jesus Christ.

And this is, again, the initiating sign of the new covenant. Therefore, God's covenant with man will be sure it shall fill the world until he returns.

And what a glorious day that will be. Any last thoughts or questions on this subject? Did that put a nice bow over it all?

Right, amen? All right, well, let's pray. Father, thank you for your word, which is so consistent, which is a true reflection and a revelation of your heart and your mind.

And Lord, we thank you that it is clear. And Father, we thank you for the clarity of your word. We thank you,

Lord, for this material that you've given us through the study of this book and, of course, chiefly and principally in your word.

Father, we pray that we would continue to walk unto the obedience and teaching the nations the obedience of Christ until the whole world is filled with the knowledge of the

Lord as the waters cover the very sea. We say, Lord, may you have your way in our hearts and our lives and do with us as you may for your glory and your kingdom's sake.