I count it a great honour and a great privilege to be asked by Joey and Monica to not only preach here this evening, but also to carry out the sacrament of baptism, to administer the sacrament of baptism to the latest addition to the Dunlap family, Little Guthrie Alexander. And it is, brethren, my prayer that in observing this biblical sacrament this evening and in the preaching of the word of God in relation to it, that not only will this prove to be a blessing to Joey and Monica and their children, as it is for them a very important occasion, but also that it will be a blessing to all of us as a gathered congregation this evening. Like many ministers who have been in the pastoral ministry for any length of time, I've had the privilege of officiating of quite a number of baptisms. And over the years, that being the case, I preached from many passages from the Word of God relating to this subject. The passage we're going to consider this evening is a passage from which I have never previously preached. I was listening to a sermon online a few weeks ago on a completely different subject. But in the course of the preaching, the preacher who was expounding God's word quoted a reference from Malachi chapter 2. And upon hearing it, I thought to myself, that would be a very good passage of scripture to preach on for the baptism. And so I looked it up, considered its context, and thought about it, and decided, Yes, that's what I preach on, on the evening of Godfrey's baptism. And so having thought about this and thought about it and done As much study on it as I have been able to. We're going to turn to this passage this evening. Malachi chapter two, verses 11 to 16. Judah hath dealt treacherously, and an abomination is committed in Israel and in Jerusalem. For Judah hath profaned the holiness of the Lord which he loved, and hath married the daughter of a strange God. The Lord will cut off the man that doeth this. the Master and the Scholar out of the tabernacles of Jacob, and him that offereth an offering unto the Lord of hosts. And this have ye done again, covering the altar of the Lord with tears, with weeping, and with crying out, insomuch that he regardeth not the offering any more, or receiveth it with goodwill at your hand. Yet ye say, Wherefore? Because the Lord hath been witness between thee and the wife of thy youth, against whom thou hast dealt treacherously, yet she is thy companion, and the wife of thy covenant. Indeed, not he make one, yet had he the residue of the Spirit, and wherefore one, that he might seek a godly seed. Take heed to your spirit, and let none deal treacherously against the wife of his youth. For the Lord, the God of Israel, saith that he hateth putting away. For one covereth valance with his garment, saith the Lord of hosts. Therefore, take heed to your spirit, that ye deal not treacherously. John Benton. a Reformed Baptist pastor in England. He's also director of pastoral support at Blunton Theological Seminary. He's written a small but very helpful commentary on the book of Malachi. And the title that he gave to it is Losing Touch with the Living God. And the title of that commentary is a great summary of the substance of the prophet Malachi's message to the people of God somewhere around about 400 BC. After the reforms under Nehemiah and Ezra, sadly, as is too often the case with God's people, the people of God once again became very undisciplined, both in their moral life as a people and also in their worship of God. And so through the prophet Malachi, God says that he is weary of them. He's fed up with them as a people. They were not honoring God as their covenant God. They didn't appreciate his love for them. When it came to worship, they offered any old animal in sacrifice to God, and in so doing, profaned the worship of God. Instead of bringing him the best, they brought him just any old animal. They were failing to pay their tithes, the priesthood was corrupt, and the people, the men were divorcing their wives and marrying younger wives from the heathen nations around them. The whole worship of God had become formal and routine and was done with a view to just getting it over with to be able to, as it were, tick the religious box that they believed needed to be ticked in order that they would continue to secure God's blessing upon them. These were just some of the things that were commonplace during the time of Malachi's ministry and the people were losing touch in many ways with the living God. And it's against that backdrop, particularly the practice of the men of Israel divorcing their wives to whom they had been married for some years in order to marry younger, more physically attractive alternatives from the surrounding peoples. That's the background of this passage that we want to study this evening. Now it might seem strange to take a passage like this for a baptism. And yet, whilst the overall thrust of this section is a no-nonsense rebuke and condemnation of what these husbands were doing, and I say something about that in the course of the sermon this evening, nevertheless implicit in And underlying the rebuke from God through the prophet Malachi are some very important principles that I believe we need to take note of and I believe these principles are eminently suitable for us to reflect upon on an occasion such as this, this evening, the baptism of a covenant child. So turning to verses 14 and 15 in particular, I want us to notice first of all that here there is a godly partnership, a godly partnership. In verse 14 we read, the Lord hath been witness between thee and the wife of thy youth. Now the problem the Lord was going to highlight, and it is in fact one of the reasons why the Lord had withdrawn his blessing from Israel as a people, was that The men of Israel were being unfaithful to their marriage covenant. In Israel, marriage was no longer regarded as sacred. It was no longer regarded as inviolable, not to be broken. This was what God had intended marriage to be. As the people of God became more mechanical in their religion and their worship was increasingly going away from what it should have been, they were less and less concerned about the absolute, unchangeable moral law of God. And that resulted in their high and reverent views of what marriage was and was intended to be deteriorating. In the past, in the days when God's people were living as they should, in the days, for example, of Nehemiah, they confessed their sin of intermarriage to non-Israelite women and put away their foreign wives. Now, in the time of Malachi, they were not only keen to get a foreign wife, and a much younger one at that, they were divorcing their own wives in order to do so. But here's the thing. Whilst these married men's attitudes to their marriage vows may have changed, and whilst they might have thought to themselves, I don't need to be tied to those vows I made all those years ago. Times have changed. I've changed. I'd prefer to be with someone else. Whilst that may have been their attitude, God's attitude towards marriage had not changed. His standards for marriage remained the same. When these men and women of God's covenant people entered into their covenant of marriage and formed that partnership of the man and the woman becoming one in spirit and body, God was there witnessing that union. The Lord hath been witness between thee and the wife of thy youth. Some of the translations have the Lord was witness. I think the King James version is more in keeping with the idea here. God is not merely saying that he had been witnessed back at the time when the marriage covenant was entered into between a man and a woman, but also that he continues to be a witness to this marriage relationship. And the violation of that Marriage covenant by these men was an act that was done before the very face of God who had been witness and was still witness of their marriage covenant. God was taking note of this. Now we haven't time this evening to go into every aspect of the biblical teaching on marriage but one thing that we must say is that marriage between one man and one woman was always intended by God to be a permanent, lifelong relationship. These men were violating that. That's the major truth that Jesus focuses on. For example, when he's asked a question about divorce in Matthew 19, Jesus answers and says to him, have you not read that He which made them at the beginning made them male and female, and said, For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife, and the twain shall be one flesh. Wherefore they are no more twain, but one flesh, and what God hath joined together, let not man put asunder. Now of course Jesus said other things in respect of this subject, but the main point that Jesus was making to those who came asking him about this is that marriage was meant to be a lifelong partnership. A permanent relationship. A godly partnership in that it was God himself who instituted this relationship and it is God himself who witnesses it when it takes place. It seems the men in Israel were making light of this godly partnership. They were no longer wanting to observe it. They're driven by self-seeking, self-pleasure, self-determination, rather than wanting to be God-pleasing and allow their lives to be determined by God's will and God's pleasure. Now we could probably spend the rest of the time that we have this evening working out various practical applications of that principle and see how our society has not just walked down the same pathway that God's people walked down in Malachi's day, but in actual fact our society is sprinting for all it's worth down the pathway of divorce. Men and women totally ignoring principles that underlie this godly partnership of marriage. Let me make this practical application of this truth relevant for the purpose that we're gathered here this evening. We're here to baptize a covenant child. A child who has been born to a child that is a gracious gift of God to Joey and Monica. And the only biblical legitimate context in which children are meant to be born and indeed in which they are supposed to be raised is the context of this godly partnership, this godly union of covenantal marriage and how that's being ignored today. Look at the end of verse 14, God describes marriage in terms of a covenant, yet she is thy companion and the wife of thy covenant. I'll be saying a little bit more about marriage in terms of covenant later. But here it's important to note that marriage is a covenant. It is an entering into a legally binding relationship before God between man and woman. Little Guthrie, who is to be baptized this evening, prays God as the fruit of such A marriage. Joey, Monica is the wife of thy youth. And in your case, Joey, quite literally, still of thy youth. The marriage covenant into which you both entered the day that each of you said, I do, still stands. And praise God that it does. Here in the UK, and I assume it's similar in the USA, A couple being married have to have at least one and usually two witnesses to the marriage. And those witnesses have to sign their names on the marriage document, affirming that they have witnessed it. Well, there's always another witness who stands over every marriage that takes place, whether it's in a church, a hotel, on a beach, or wherever it takes place. And that witness is God. His eye is on a marriage from the day and hour that it begins. And those of us here this evening who are married should give thanks to God for such a godly partnership into which he has brought us. I am aware, of course, that not all marriages are as godly as they should be. And that is something that both parties have to continually work at by the grace of God. But marriage is a blessing from God. And it's intended for the good of those who enter into it. A godly partnership. But then secondly, we see here a godly picture. We see this in the mention of the word covenant in verse 14 to describe the relationship between the men and the women in marriage. And it's used deliberately here by God in order to point to and to call to mind the special unique relationship that exists between the Lord and his people. He is in covenant with them. Just as the husband and wife are bound to one another in the covenant of marriage, God and his people are bound to one another through the covenant of grace that God made with them. He had taken them to himself, he had chosen them out of all the nations of the earth to be his treasured possession, and their relationship with him was a loving, permanent, never to be broken relationship. Now we see that in several passages of course in scripture. Ezekiel 16 for example, 8-14 and it will not take time to read it, you can read it when you go home. God is depicted as taking and marrying Israel as his beloved bride. Or Jeremiah 31 and verse 32 where God, speaking of the covenant he had made with Israel, describes himself as Israel's husband. You get a similar Language in Isaiah 54 and 5, in Hosea 2 verse 7, and in Joel 1 verse 8. And of course, it's not confined to the Old Testament. You go to the New Testament, and we see through the further development and enlarging of Scripture that God describes the relationship between himself and his people in terms of a marriage. Christ is the bridegroom. The church is his wife. And this is the reason why in verse 16 in Malachi 2, God, through the prophet, says that he hates divorce. For the Lord, the God of Israel, saith that he hateth putting away. That's what putting away means there. He hates divorce. So when a man and woman in Israel got divorced, it trampled into the dust, the picture that marriage was intended to be of the beautiful, loving, permanent covenant relationship that existed between God and his people. In rejecting their wives and swapping them for other wives, these men were in fact rejecting God and turning to other gods. They were not only violating their covenant of marriage with their wives, they were violating their covenant commitment to God. by rejecting and disobeying God's commands regarding marriage. In every marriage ceremony that I have had the privilege of officiating at, and in every marriage that I have attended, there's always been some reference to the fact that Christian marriage is a picture of God's covenant of grace with his believing people. In other words, Christian marriage, marriage within God's covenant community is meant to reflect those wonderful important aspects of God's covenant with his redeemed people and that union is intended to highlight these things. It's a witness, it's a testimony of God's grace. And that's one of the chief reasons why it is so sad when a Christian marriage ends in divorce. And it does happen. And sometimes the cause can't always be remedied. It's a smashing to pieces of a picture of grace It's the defacing of a masterpiece of divine art and human relationships depicting God's relationship to his people, and God calls it treachery. Therefore take heed, he says, to your spirit, and let none deal treacherously with the wife of his youth. You're having your child baptized this evening. But can I remind you that your relationship with each other is a picture of God's covenant of grace with his people and it is something that is not only precious, it is something that needs to be protected. You committed yourselves to each other on the day you got married, continue to commit yourselves to each other. And all of us who are married need to take heed to God's warning here, and especially men, take heed to your spirit. The breakdown of marriages usually begins within, before it ever becomes concrete on the outside. Don't allow even the thought of breaking away from your wife into your mind. Don't for a second entertain the idea that you would be better off. A godly partnership, a godly picture. And then thirdly, we see a godly purpose. In the Reformed Presbyterian order of service for marriage, and I assume it's the same at most Christian marriage services, there's usually a statement about the divine purpose for marriage. And it goes something like this. Marriage was instituted for the lifelong companionship and devotion of husband and wife, for the mutual satisfaction, enjoyment, and fulfillment of God-given affection, for the procreation of children and their godly upbringing, and for the stability of society to which the sanctity and discipline of marriage makes an essential contribution. And if you were listening, you will have noticed that one of the purposes of marriage, not the only purpose, but one of the purposes is that of procreation. An important purpose. And that's clear not only from the original account of marriage in Genesis, where God tells Adam and Eve to multiply and fill the earth. but also from verse 15 of the second chapter of Malachi where God says that the purpose of him making them one is that he might seek a godly seed. Now the original Hebrew of this verse is very difficult to translate and I am not a Hebrew scholar but various scholars and commentators differ in their views but I think one thing that we can say with absolute certainty is that the raising of a godly seed was and is one of the main purposes of marriage. Parents in Israel in the normal course of events were to have children and they were to ensure that those children were trained in the ways of the Lord. Thus we sang Psalm 78. We will teach them to their children and not keep them from them that so the generation to come might know the ways of the Lord. Just as parents fed their children from their earliest days every day with a view to their physical well-being, so too those children were to be fed spiritually each day with a view to their spiritual well-being. God doesn't say that he wanted seed. In other words, it's not just a case of having kids. God says that he might seek a godly seed, godly children. And you children here in worship this evening, from the youngest of you to the oldest of you, The reason that you come to church, the reason that you worship here, the reason you're taught the things of God is that you might be that godly seed. A godly purpose. It's just a purpose that we are pursuing in our marriages. And then fourthly and lastly, a godly practice. Now it's not stated specifically in this passage, and I don't want to be guilty of eisegesis or anything like that, but it is certainly implicit in the text. And it certainly would have been understood by those to whom the prophet spoke that it was the duty of the parents to teach their children the ways of the Lord with a view to their children coming to own the Lord as their God through faith. They would have been very familiar with their God-given responsibilities towards their children when it came to teaching them God's word. Every parent in Israel would have been able to quote Deuteronomy 6, 4 and following. Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one. Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might. These words which I command thee this day shall be in thy heart, and thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, when thou walkest by the way, when thou liest down, and when thou risest up. And thou shalt bind them for a sign upon thine hand, and they shall be as trumpets before thine eyes, and thou shalt write them upon the posts of thy house and on thy gates. Deuteronomy 4.9 Take heed to thyself, and keep thy soul diligently, lest thou forget the things which thine eyes have seen, and lest they depart from thy heart all the days of thy life, teach them to thy sons and thy sons' sons. Psalm 78 We will not hide them from their children, showing to the generation to come the praises of the Lord and his strength and his wonderful works that he hath done. For he established the testimony in Jacob and he appointed a law in Israel, which he commanded our fathers, that they should make them known to their children. Why? That the generation to come might know them, even the children which should be born and who should arise and declare them to their children. Why? That they might set their hope in God and not forget the works of God, but keep his commandments. Ephesians 6, 4, Fathers, provoke not your children to wrath, but bring them up in the nurture and admiration of the Lord. Joy, Monica, God has blessed you with another child. And he's looking for this son of yours, along with your other children, to be sons and daughters, yes, but to be godly seed for him. It's not going to happen automatically, but it is something that you as parents can greatly encourage using the means that God himself has given to bring about that glorious purpose. And those means are to teach your children the ways of God, to set before them living, loving examples of godly parenthood, to urge upon them the claims of Christ upon their lives, to point them to Jesus as the only saviour of sinners, and to ensure that they know that they must embrace him by faith, and they must serve him as their king. Now I've got to know you, Joanne Monarch, over the last wee while, and I know you do these things. You're using the God-ordained means that have been given to you. In faith, you're looking forward to the promise of God being fulfilled in the lives of your children. That he not only be a God to you, but also to your children, and in the will of God, in time, to your children's children. Joanne Monaghan, keep doing that. Keep doing that. And of course, what's true of Joanne Monaghan, is to be true of all of us. All of us who are here tonight, who are parents, we're to remember the vows that we took when we had our children baptized. We're to make sure that we are committed to and that we recommit ourselves to fulfilling those vows. Those of you who have children who are now grown up and left home, Perhaps they have not yet bowed the knee to Jesus Christ and believed in him for salvation. Recall God's covenant promise in baptism. Take that promise to God in prayer. Beseech him earnestly to bring about the fulfillment of that promise. Pray for your son and daughter who are unsaved. And what about those of you in church this evening who are not married? You don't have children of your own. You're to recognize that this child, Guthrie Alexander, is a son of this family, this church family. And as with all the children here in this church family, you or to ensure that you teach them by word and example with a view to encouraging them as part of your spiritual family to make what is signified in baptism a reality in their own lives. I've had the wonderful privilege of seeing some of the children of this congregation doing that publicly. publicly professing their own faith in Christ as Savior and saying the promise that God gives us in his word to be a God unto us and to our children after us being fulfilled as those young people have come into communicate membership in this congregation. And brethren, it is in the expectation of faith that we look forward to and we await others of our covenant children in time doing the same. This is our hope. This is our prayer. And this great salvation, this seeking of a godly seed, is all part and parcel of what is included in the sacrament of baptism for those who are the people of God. May God bless the exposition of his word to us and help us to benefit from it. I'm going to ask Joey and Monica to come forward with Guthrie in order that we might now administer the sacrament of baptism. The session has been constituted for this occasion. So I'll ask Joey and Monica, please, if you would come forward. Julia and Monica, as part of our responsibility as we come to the Sacrament of Baptism, you are required to reaffirm your commitment to the terms of membership in the Uniform Presbyterian Church. I'm therefore going to ask you to do so under each of the four terms. Do you accept the Scriptures of the Old and New Testament as the Word of God and the Holy and Fallen Word of faith and practice? Do you believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, the only Redeemer of men, supreme in church and state, and independent of His own divine grace? Do you take Him as your Saviour and Lord? I do. Do you promise by divine grace to show a teachable and submissive spirit to the teaching of Holy Scripture as set forth in the testimony of the Reformed Presbyterian Church of Ireland? I do. And do you promise that by the help of the Holy Spirit you will endeavour to live a life consistent with your profession? I do. The sacrament of baptism is an outward, visible expression of the covenant of grace. It is instituted by Christ as the seal of the covenant of grace. It is a sign of our union with Christ, and it is properly administered by the sprinkling and pouring of water on the head of the one to be baptized. Joey and Monica, as Christians who believe in Christ, are presenting their child, Guthrie Alexander, this evening for baptism. Before that can proceed, Joey and Monica have vows to take before God and before this congregation. Those vows are as follows. Do you acknowledge your child as a covenant child? And according to the gracious design of Christian baptism, do you dedicate your child to God and present him for recognition as a member of the Church? Do you promise to perform the following parental duties? To pray that your child may be renewed and brought to the same knowledge of Jesus Christ as signified in the sacrament. To say that your child may come to know the Holy Scriptures and to know the duty of committing himself to God. To rule it well in your household. exercising parental authority of firmness and love, setting the example of a holy and consistent life, and attending with regularity to your personal, family, and public worship. Amen. To seek that your child may, while young, come to understand the history, doctrine, and practice of the Orthodox Episcopalian Church, and may be helped to experience the blessings of loving obedience to the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. The following question is addressed to the members of the congregation in which the child is being baptised and into which he is being brought. I would ask the members of the Brooklyn congregation please to indicate their assent to the following vow by raising your right hand. Do you promise, as a congregation, to pray for this covenant child and to seek by example and precept to encourage him to walk in the ways of the Lord. Thank you. Let us unite our hearts in prayer. Let us pray, let us stand. Father in heaven, we thank you this evening for the wonderful privilege that we have tonight of being here in your presence in the company of your people, and to bring this little child before you, a child whom you have gifted to Joey and to Monica, and to his brother, Rennick, and his sisters, Marion and Isabel. And we pray, Lord God, that you would be gracious to this family, even as you have already been. Continue your favour upon them. joy and moniker, the grace they need to bring their children up in the ways of the Lord. And grant, Heavenly Father, that your Holy Spirit would work early in life in each one of them, bringing them to that experience of regeneration, to that wonderful personal confession of Jesus Christ as their Saviour and Lord, and Lord, into the full communicant membership of the body of Christ. We thank you for the sacrament of baptism, for the way in which it speaks of cleansing from sin, for the way in which it points to our union with Christ, for the way in which it speaks of the covenant of grace. Lord, you have promised to be a God to your people and to their children and to their children's children. Father, bring this to realisation in the life of Joey and Monica and their family. We thank you, Heavenly Father, for the willingness of this congregation to enter into covenant with you, to pray for, and by example, to teach these children the ways of the Lord. Use all these means to bring about, Lord, that which is the heart's desire of every parent. Hear us as we bring these prayers to you. In Jesus' name, Amen. Sacrament may be seated. The Sacrament of Baptism does not make a child a Christian. The Sacrament of Baptism is a sign and a seal of the Covenant of Grace. It points to spiritual realities. It does not necessarily impart those realities. God works by His Spirit in the lives of His elect. It is our hope and prayer that each one of our children are included within that promise. When we administer the sacrament of baptism, we are affirming that the parents are in covenant with God, that they are presenting their children to God and wanting God to work in their hearts to bring about in the life of the child the realisation of that which is symbolised in baptism, the washing away of sin. in union with Christ. With that in mind, it's our privilege to baptize this little one. Godfrey Alexander, I baptize you in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Let us once again stand and pray. Father in heaven, you are a gracious and merciful God. We rejoice this evening, Lord, in being able to administer this sacrament. And Father, we do pray not just for Joey and Monica and for their children, but for all the families of this congregation. For those, Lord God, who have resented their children for baptism in the hope that that which is symbolised in this sacrament will become a reality in their lives. For those who have come to faith and who have entered into that experience, we praise and worship you, Lord God, for your mighty work. for those of you who have yet to come to that point in their experience. Lord, go with them. And in your mercy, and in your time, and in your way, bring them into the family of God. And even Lord, for those who have gone astray, we pray that you, by your Spirit, would go after them. And there may come a point in their lives where, like the prodigal son, they come to themselves, and they come back to the things that they have abandoned. that they are once again welcomed into the family of spirits of grace that many of us know. So accept our thanks, Lord, for all that has taken place this evening. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen. Congregation, you may be seated. It's always a wonderful occasion when a little child is baptised into the family of God's people. And I do trust that we will indeed fulfil our vow to the Lord and continue to pray for and set an example to not just little Guthrie Alexander, but also to all the young people in this congregation. Let's bring our service of worship to a close. Turning to Psalm 127. Psalm 127. We're going to sing the whole of the psalm using the tune number 121. Psalm 127. Singing the whole of the psalm and the tune is number 121. Let us stand. as we sing praise to God. Accept the Lord, yes indeed, And watch, make watch in vain. It's made for you to rise three times, or eight, from rest to peak, to peak. In His beloved sleep. Those who frame our false heritage, the wordsworthiness we warn. salute as our Alma Mater, our strong men's hands prepare. O happy is the man that hath his favor given The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, rest and abide with you, God's redeemed people, this night and always. Amen. As moderator of the Loch Bricklin Reformed Presbyterian Church, I do declare ourselves By the name and authority of Zion's husband and only King, the Lord Jesus Christ dissolved from our constituted capacity. th th th th Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Thank you