of your Psalter. The first part of the form, the believing church looks back with gratitude at the goodness of God and the sign and seal of his covenant and then we apply that to our children. The principal parts of the doctrine of holy baptism are these three. First, that we with our children are conceived and born in sin, and therefore are children of wrath, insomuch that we cannot enter into the kingdom of God unless we are born again. This, the dipping in or sprinkling with water, teaches us, by which the impurity of our souls is signified, and we are admonished to loathe and humble ourselves before God. and look for our purification and salvation outside of ourselves. Secondly, holy baptism witnesses and seals to us the washing away of our sins through Jesus Christ. Therefore, we are baptized in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. For when we are baptized in the name of the Father, God the Father witnesses and seals to us that he makes an eternal covenant of grace with us. and adopts us as his children and heirs, and therefore will provide us with every good thing, and turn aside all evil, or turn it to our prophet. And when we are baptized in the name of the Son, the Son seals to us that he washes us in his blood from all our sins, incorporating us into the fellowship of his death and resurrection, so that we are freed from all our sins and accounted righteous before God. In like manner, when we are baptized in the name of the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit assures us by this holy sacrament that he will dwell in us and sanctify us to be members of Christ. Applying to us that which we have in Christ, that is the washing away of our sins and the daily renewing of our lives till we shall finally be presented without spot or wrinkle among the assembly of the elect in life eternal. Thirdly, whereas in all covenants there are contained two parts, therefore are we by God through baptism admonished of and obliged unto new obedience. Namely, that we cling to this one God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. That we trust in Him and love Him with all our hearts, with all our souls, with all our mind, and with all our strength. That we forsake the world, crucify our old nature, and walk in a new and holy life. And if we sometimes through weakness fall into sin, we must not therefore despair of God's mercy, nor continue in sin, since baptism is a seal and undoubted testimony that we have an eternal covenant of grace with God. And although our young children do not understand these things, we may not for this reason exclude them from baptism. For as they are, without their knowledge, partakers of the condemnation in Adam, so are they again received unto grace in Christ, as God speaks unto Abraham, the father of all the faithful, and therefore unto us and our children, saying, I will establish my covenants between me and thee, and thy seed after thee in their generations, for an everlasting covenant to be a God unto thee, and to thy seed after thee. This also the Apostle Peter testifies with these words. For the promise is to you and to your children and to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call. Therefore God formerly commanded them to be circumcised, which was a seal of the covenant and of the righteousness of faith. And therefore Christ also blessed them, laid his hands, embraced them, laid his hands upon them and blessed them. Since then, baptism has come in the place of circumcision, therefore infants are to be baptized as heirs of the kingdom of God and of his covenant. And parents are in duty bound further to instruct their children herein when they shall arrive to years of discretion. That therefore this holy ordinance of God may be administered to his glory, to our comfort, and to the edification of his church, let us call on his name in prayer. O Almighty and Eternal God, who hast according to thy severe judgment punished the unbelieving and unrepentant world with the flood, and hast according to thy great mercy saved and protected believing Noah and his family. Thou who hast drowned the obstinate Pharaoh and his army in the Red Sea, and hast led thy people Israel through the midst of the sea on dry ground, by which baptism was signified, We plead, be pleased of thy infinite mercy, graciously to look upon these children and incorporate them by thy Holy Spirit into thy Son, Jesus Christ, that they may be buried with him into his death, be raised with him in newness of life, may daily follow him, joyfully bearing their cross and cling to him in true faith, firm hope, and ardent love. We ask that they would, with a comfortable sense of thy favor, leave this life which is nothing but a continual death, and at the last day may appear without terror before the judgment seat of Christ thy Son, through Jesus Christ our Lord, who with thee and the Holy Spirit, one only God, lives and reigns forever. Amen. Parents, would you please stand? Beloved in the Lord Jesus Christ, you have heard that baptism is an ordinance of God to seal to us and to our children his covenant. Therefore, it must be used for that end and not out of custom or superstition. That it may then be evident that you are so minded you are to answer sincerely to these questions. First, you acknowledge that although our children are conceived and born in sin and therefore are subject to all miseries, even to condemnation itself, yet that they are sanctified, that means set apart as holy in Christ, and therefore as members of his Church, ought to be baptized. Second, you acknowledge the doctrine contained in the Old and New Testaments and in the Articles of the Christian Faith and taught here in this Christian Church to be the true and complete doctrine of salvation. Third, do you promise and intend to see these children, when come to years of discretion, instructed and brought up in this doctrine, or help or cause them to be instructed therein, to the utmost of your power? What is your answer, Adrian Fader, Cheryl Fader, Wilco Fanny, Jolene Fanny? The first question you answered, reminds us of something very painful, that our children are born in sin and subject to all miseries. Now, you know, none of you are strangers to life in a fallen world. Miseries describes this world in its history, in its relationships, and in its families, too. How painful those wounds can be in a family circle of sin. But there's the other half of that question, too, makes it worth having children in this world, and that's this. They are set apart as holy in Christ. And what that means, very simply, is that in the Lord Jesus Christ, plugged into the Lord Jesus Christ, there is a fullness, a grace, a help, a hope, and strength, even when we are at our least deserving, at our most frustrated, or broken, or helpless. God is not helpless. And God comes to claim your children so that you might know that you can go to him for everything you could possibly need in your family and in your home. You can go to him for the new heart your children need, for the daily forgiveness and strength you need as parents, for the patience and wisdom and every possible spiritual blessing. As we're preparing for baptism, we'll sing 425 stanza 3, and then afterwards we'll stand and sing 425 stanza 5. ♪ See the whole earth is covered ♪ ♪ Now sing his praises evermore ♪ ♪ The marvelous and great ♪ ♪ The ever-still and never-fade ♪ ♪ Of all the wonders of existence ♪ ♪ The judgment which is boundless ♪ Sophie Adriana Fader, I baptize you in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Nora Marielle Vanee, I baptize you in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. O come, O come, Lord Jesus Christ, His thunderbolts he will not shatter The work of which he commands Two thousand generations hence May they in days of old, may they proudly be We'll return to the prayer of Thanksgiving in a moment but first we turn to the scriptures and we'll turn to several Old Testament passages before turning to the New Testament for our text. So first Exodus chapter 19, then we'll turn to Leviticus chapter 20, and then lastly to 1st Corinthians chapter 7. Exodus chapter 19, reading the first six verses. And the word holy will be a key word in our text, so look for that when we read from the Old Testament. In the third month, when the children of Israel were gone forth out of the land of Egypt, the same day came they into the wilderness of Sinai. For they were departed from Rephidim and were come to the desert of Sinai. and had pitched in the wilderness, and there Israel camped before the mount. And Moses went up unto God, and the Lord called him out of the mountain, saying, Thus shalt thou say to the house of Jacob, and tell the children of Israel, Ye have seen what I did unto the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles' wings, and brought you unto myself. Now therefore, if ye will obey my voice indeed, and keep my covenant, Then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people, for all the earth is mine. And ye shall be unto me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. These are the words which thou shalt speak unto the children of Israel." And then we'll turn to Leviticus chapter 20. The book of Leviticus is about how God in his holiness makes a holy people. Leviticus 20 starting with verse 22. You shall therefore keep all my statutes and all my judgments and do them that the land where I bring you to dwell therein or spit you not out and you shall not walk in the manners of the nation which I cast out before you. For they committed all these things and therefore I abhorred them. But I have said unto you, ye shall inherit their land, and I will give it unto you to possess it, a land that flows with milk and honey. I am the Lord your God, which have separated you from other people. Ye shall therefore put difference between clean beasts and unclean, and between unclean birds and clean. And ye shall not make your souls abominable by beast or by bird, or by any manner of living thing that creeps on the ground, which I have separated from you is unclean. And ye shall be holy unto me, for I the Lord am holy, and have severed you from other people, that ye should be mine." And then we turn to 1 Corinthians chapter 7, and here we'll read verses 10 through 16, and our text will be verses 14 and 16. And unto the married, I command, yet not I, but the Lord. Let not the wife depart from her husband, but, and if she depart, let her remain unmarried, or be reconciled to her husband. And let not the husband put away his wife. But to the rest speak I, not the Lord. If any brother has a wife that believes not, and she be pleased to dwell with him, let him not put her away. And the woman which has a husband that believes not, and if he be pleased to dwell with her, let her not leave him. For the unbelieving husband is sanctified by the wife, and the unbelieving wife is sanctified by the husband. Else were your children unclean, but now are they holy. But if the unbelieving depart, let him depart. A brother or sister is not under bondage in such cases, but God has called us to peace. For what knowest thou, O wife, whether thou shalt save thy husband? Or how knowest thou, O man, whether thou shalt save thy wife?" So far, the reading of God's holy word. In addition to what was mentioned in the bulletin, we want to remember in our prayers Johan and Samantha van Ree who are moving to Ontario. I think they left yesterday already. Let us pray. Almighty God and merciful Father, we thank and praise Thee that Thou hast forgiven us and our children our sins through the blood of Thy beloved Son, Jesus Christ, and received us through Thy Holy Spirit as members of Thy only begotten Son, and adopted us to be Thy children, and sealed and confirmed the same to us by baptism. We plead through the same Son of Thy love, be pleased always to govern these baptized children by Thy Holy Spirit. We ask that they would be born again, that they would know the power of saving grace in their own hearts and lives, that they would receive a godly upbringing, that they would increase and grow up as branches in the Lord Jesus Christ and not be cut off as fruitless but Instead bear fruit through the Lord Jesus Christ to the praise and glory of his name We pray that they would acknowledge thy fatherly goodness and mercy that they would become believers in the Lord Jesus That they would live in all righteousness under our only teacher King and high priest Jesus Christ and fight against and overcome sin the devil and his whole dominion so that they would be able to eternally praise and magnify Thee and Thy Son Jesus Christ, together with the Holy Spirit, the one only true God. We give thanks for the riches of Thy covenant of grace, that our children are not spiritual orphans, not covenant orphans in the New Testament, but still are holy, as we just read from this text. And we pray, Lord, for Thy gracious work, therefore, in us and in our children, match that covenantal holiness with a living faith in each one of us through Thy Spirit's ministry. We give thanks for what we sang. In them that fear Thee, Him He delights, in those who trust His love. We sang it several different ways. And children's children shall proclaim the glorious honor of His Name. Therefore, O Great Covenant Maker and Covenant Keeper, Covenant Applier, Covenant Establisher, we pray that the glory of Thy work may be mightily known and enjoyed this morning, that we might treasure this meeting with our God. We give thanks that we didn't come here because we felt like it. That the good news is not the condition of our hearts, the good news is the condition of thy heart. The God who calls us and says, come before my face for I have claimed you as mine. We marvel at thy gifts, thy word, the signs and seals of thy covenant, the mercies and the gifts and the blessings. showered so generously upon us. And we pray, O God, therefore, that Thy gracious Spirit would help us to respond with true faith, godly repentance, and diligent zeal. We humble ourselves to confess our sinfulness. The law of God reminds us that there is still so far to go that our sins still rise up against us, prevailing day by day. And when we stop to think about it, everything we have and are is polluted by sin. And even though we don't notice it, it is still true that sinners, to quote Psalm 1, cannot stand in the congregation of the righteous. We humble ourselves, Lord, to confess how easily we become idolaters. giving our whole life to all kinds of things or pleasures, desires, plans, hopes, and dreams, and getting upset or offended or bothered when people or thy hand of providence interrupts them. We are idolatrous people who so quickly twist the knowledge of God and make God into a mental image that suits us rather than bowing before the God who is. Cleanse us, Lord, from our idols. Sprinkle us, to quote the prophet Ezekiel, from our idols. Deliver us from a rebellious stiff neck. Deliver us from lust and greed and bitterness and anger and envy and a vengeful spirit. Deliver us from covenant breaking. Also, as parents, We made those vows to walk in the Lord's ways with all our hearts and to raise our children to the utmost of our ability. So often, Lord, we have fallen short of our utmost. We confess that with pain. We pray for those parents listening who have children who wander from the Lord and who want nothing to do with the Lord, who do not value the holiness with which God has set them apart. What a heartbreak and heartache that is as parents, an ache that never goes away, a grief, a longing, a hope, and a fear for the souls of our children and grandchildren. And we pray, Lord, remember thy mercy down through the generations to convert even the most unwilling and the most stubborn and the most indifferent people to the saving knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. We pray for those who've had miscarriages and who can rejoice with those who rejoice, but who also need us this morning to weep with those who weep. May thy covenant mercies reassure them and the remembrance that the covenant God receives such children as his own because of the covenant of grace. We pray, Lord, for whatever our spiritual questions and struggles and needs may be, we come burdened with the sins of a week, with the questions and busyness and struggles of a week, with the needs and difficulties of this past week. and we lay them all before thy face, thankful that we don't have to pretend, that we don't have to whip ourselves up to come to provide God with what he's looking for, to earn our way into favor. What a never-ending treadmill that would be in which we go backwards, not forwards. But we come to the God who has said, if you through weakness fall into sin, don't despair or continue in sin, but remember the covenant of grace. And so grab a hold of us, Lord, with covenant grace this morning, converting the unconverted, breaking our hearts, but most of all, healing us with thy word of grace and giving us as parents courage and wisdom to raise our children and to walk in the ways of the Lord. We pray, Lord, for the glory of thy name, in this world. There's so many people who are still far off from Christ and who need to be brought near. We come also with a prayer request we have. We pray for Peter Sinke as he continues to recover, having been in the hospital for some weeks now. Please bless, encourage, and help him and heal his body and use this to be a spiritual blessing in the life of this young couple. We pray for Johan and Samantha van Rey as they move to Ontario. Grant them thy blessing. Guide them, lead them, help them, Lord, and be their shelter and their strength. We pray for our nation, for this world, for the wars and rumors of wars, for the political upheavals, for the hostility and the challenges of life. Let thy grace and mercy pierce the darkness and grant us Thy light, grant us the joy of the Lord to be our strength this day. And we pray it in Jesus' name. Amen. After the preaching of God's Word, we'll sing 425, stanzas 1, 2, and 6. Beloved congregation of the Lord, when the text for the sermon was announced, it's not hard to imagine some head scratching in the pews. The text, after all, comes from the middle of a passage dealing with marriage and singleness as well as divorce. And how we should view the children of believers is mentioned almost in passing as a supporting argument for the main point about those new Christians who, because of their marriages or conversion, find themselves in a marriage with an unbelieving spouse. At first glance, it's hardly a baptism passage. And if that one little sentence were all the scriptures said on this subject, then there wouldn't be much to say during a baptism service. But we need to consider the quiet and yet important assumption made in our text. that the children of New Testament believers have a special status as holy. And that that's not something new, but it's the very same status that children have always had in every covenant throughout the Old Testament. This text only makes sense if you take into account what God says in many places about our children being holy. And that's why the very first question that's asked of parents today, and of every parent who's taken these baptism vows, is this. Do you believe that your children are sanctified, and it's another way of saying, holy in Christ? And the footnote of our form directs us to this text. as proof that when you answer yes, this isn't tradition, this is biblical. They are holy. Now, someone might be tempted to say, especially, almost skeptically, when you remember the temper tantrum or constant challenge of disciplining a strong-willed, strong-charactered child, my child? Holy? It sure doesn't look like it sometimes. You could have fooled me. I ever wondered if your child could say this about you too. But it's also one of the fears and burdens that parents have. Sometimes it can awaken in you a sense of guilt and shame. when you look at your own inconsistencies and shortcomings as a father or as a mother. But the text answers that burden too, because it tells us that the children of believers are holy, but also that that holiness flows via parents whom God has also declared holy. Not based, first of all, on your performance, but on an act of God. The holiness of this text does not begin with who we are or what we do, though it certainly is supposed to change who you are and what you do, but it starts with who God is and what God does. That's the beauty of infant baptism, that you begin with God, not with my profession or my activity, but an act of God. Therefore, we can listen to this text with this expected theme. The children of New Testament believers are holy too. We see that it's a needed holiness, a distinguishing holiness, and an incomplete holiness. The text comes in the middle of the instruction the Holy Spirit gives the Corinthians about family life, whether single and looking or thinking about marriage, or married, And the issue being addressed in this chapter is this. Imagine a woman who's come to conversion by the preaching of the Apostle Paul. Her husband isn't a believer at this point. And as she goes to the worship services and listens to the scriptures, which in those days was the Old Testament, because most of the books of the New Testament had not yet been written. In fact, the Corinthian letters are perhaps some of the very first books of the New Testament written. And so all the scripture readings in church every Lord's Day are from the Old Testament. And this woman begins to discover what God has said in the Old Testament about mixed marriages. He forbids them. He exiled Israel because of them. Now imagine that newly Christian woman in Corinth beginning to wonder, as she even reads in Malachi or in Ezra, that such children are considered unclean, the children of a mixed marriage, that she starts to say, am I now polluted also by the mixed marriage I'm in? Are my children unholy because of my unbelieving husband? And the answer that the Holy Spirit gives us in this text in 1 Corinthians 7.14 is this, there are differences between Old and New Testaments. These marriages should no longer be broken. God forbids a believer marrying an unbeliever. But someone who becomes a believer after marriage may not therefore end that marriage in divorce. Unlike in the Old Testament, the unbeliever is sanctified, meaning made holy, by being in the same family as a believer. And the very same thing is true of their children. The point about their children being holy is so well known in the Corinthian congregation that the Apostle doesn't have to explain it, he just has to mention it and recognize that they will get the point. But we'll stop and focus on this illustration of his main argument and ask ourselves, what is the biblical background that makes the Apostle so confident as the Holy Spirit expresses the holiness of the children of New Testament believers as a well-known truth. Clearly, then, the word holy, compared to unclean, is the key to this text. You also find the word sanctified, and that translates to make holy. What does that mean? It means to be set apart for special purpose or special relationship. Children, maybe your dad has a special chair that's his in the living room. When you sit down as a family or when your dad comes home, you know that that is dad's chair. It's set apart from all the other chairs in the home and dad can go to you and say, out, that's mine. Or maybe you have your own place at the dinner table. And if your brother sits there, you can say, that's my spot. That spot's holy because it means it's set apart for you. Sunday is a holy day. It's set apart by God from the other days of the week for special use, worship and rest. What seems like just any other day, God has made a different and a special day. And that act of setting apart is called sanctifying the person or thing. The same is true of your property or yard, right? If you see a stranger wandering in your yard and nosing around in your tool shed, you're going to go and say to him, excuse me, but what are you looking for? Are you lost? Why? Well, that person's on holy ground. Not in the spiritual sense, but holy in the sense that it's yours, and it's not everybody's like the public park down the road. To come back now to the text, the children of New Testament believers are holy, just like their parents. They are set apart by God, separated from the ordinary masses of humanity. When your little ones were born, parents, There were probably other people in the hospital on the very same day who had kids too. And yet your children are set apart by God from those other children. If you would lay them all in a row, in Nigeria where my brother was born, one little white baby in a row of ten. They had a plank there in the delivery station and all the babies were laid in a row and being checked. You could see the difference then loud and clear. One little white boy, pale and pink amidst all the Beautiful little dark babies. You can't tell that difference spiritually. Why does God do that? Setting apart our children. Why is it necessary? It's necessary because our children are born no different. Conceived and born in sin, the form says, by nature children of wrath. They are unable to enter the kingdom of God because God will say, the unholy may not be citizens of the kingdom of heaven. Separated from God, born ready and eager and interested in sin. You'll find that out as your children grow older. It's your first one. It might be hard right now to imagine your child sinning. You don't need to be told that your children sin. when you already have children. It's what children do. Born hating God and our neighbor, loving ourselves above all else, selfish. Born under the curse of a holy God who hates our sin and sinfulness. Cut off from God's blessings. Cut off from a relationship with God because God can't be in a relationship with sinners. cut off even eventually from God's creation. That's why hell cannot be on the new earth. God looks at sinners in his beautiful creation the same way you look at a stranger poking around in your yard. They don't belong there. That's the painful part of every birth. Physical labor is painful, but it's over at birth and after some weeks of healing. But it's the sin problem of our children that cannot be cured by anything you can do. You cannot cure it by telling them, do this and don't do that, even though you need to do that. And that's why parents can feel so helpless and stuck. And when God comes to our children because of His covenant grace and says, they're mine, I set them apart, they are holy. then that is the best news you could possibly hear as a parent. Because God is saying, I will make a difference where there is no difference in and of themselves. I claim this child to belong to me in a special way. This isn't an ordinary child. This is a holy child. A covenant child. And that's the foundation and the miracle that you can fall back on as a parent when you are discouraged, when you are overwhelmed. To the naked eye, you might not see any difference. But what your eyes see are not important. What God has said is important. And what God has shown you in having your child baptized is important. He sanctified your children. and separated them from the world, meaning the sinful fallen world. Now that doesn't mean that they therefore are no longer sinners, and it doesn't mean your life is automatically easy as a parent, but it gives you a starting place, a foundation on which to begin your parenting, a foundation of hope, As your children grow up in such a world, do you anchor your hope as parents in the difference God makes between your children and the children out there? Or do you just say to yourself, well, I've got this parenting thing figured out. Usually it's only first time or inexperienced parents who think that. If I just do this and avoid that, and I've seen how other people do it, and you shouldn't do it that way, and you should do it that way, and then it'll turn out well, and the world will see I'm a great parent. Well, if that's your conscious or unconscious attitude, then God has His ways of humbling you through your children. The difference isn't the wisdom of covenant parents, but the declaration of a covenant God. We don't make, we can't make our children different or holy. God does so. Maybe as parents you see to your joy a sensitive conscience in your children and a real desire to honor those in authority, but most of all to honor God. Well, then don't pat yourself on the back and say as parents, well, we did a pretty good job, didn't we? Look back and up to the God who's making a difference in your family. who is revealing that what He said to you in baptism is true. That He does what He says. He made a difference. But what is that difference precisely? And that's our second point. It's a distinguishing holiness. Yes, it means being set apart. But what does that mean concretely and practically? And to do this, we need to look for help to the Old Testament passages in which this is rooted. Where do we find in the Bible? Because the Old Testament is just as much God's Word for New Testament believers as the New Testament is. And the New Covenant is still a covenant. It isn't turned into something else. Where do we find God separating people from the world? as his own and leaving others in their sin. Well, where don't you find it? Think of Abraham. He serves idols in Ur. God calls him, God claims him, God says, I'm going to give you children, I'm going to separate you from the land of your fathers and give you the new promised land. And God calls that relationship a covenant. That's a spiritual marriage, if you will, with the living God. And the covenant is simply another way of describing being set apart for God from all the other people of the world. There are only two kinds of people in the world, God's covenant people and those sinful peoples who do not know or serve him. And while God certainly reaches out to them and wants us to do the same, He always does so by bringing them into His covenant with their families. That's why we have the stories of Ruth, Rahab, Naaman. So being holy means being separated from the world by the claim and call of God's covenant, as well as the promises with which the covenant is made. And it's God's promises that separate Abraham from those around him. Do you teach your children this? This is a key truth to be emphasized. Son, daughter, God's promises made to you personally, the check of God's promise has your name filled on it. These are promises from which to live and by which to live. They need to make a difference in your life. It doesn't have to strike you that the covenant starts with the gifts of grace rather than God's demands. It's a covenant of grace. Do you do this as parents? Do you start with the promises of blessings which are to lure your children out of the world to be holy and different? Sometimes there are parents who seem to think that the most important part of being a father and mother is to warn your children about the sins and the dangers that come from them. I remember once one father who was so upset that his daughter was walking in sin and living in the world and no longer coming to church. And he said to me, I guess I should have warned her more. Maybe. But that's not the most important thing. Yes, we need to tell them about right and wrong. But that's not where you start. You start with the promises by which God has separated your children from the world. Promises full of the love and grace of God. It's the promises that make room for the commandments, not the other way around. It's when you learn that God is your God, who gives Himself to you before He makes any demands. That is what, with the blessing of God's Spirit, can ignite in the hearts of covenant children a desire to respond with obedience to the God who's done so much for you. And the fascinating thing is that God, in calling his people out of the world, continues in later generations and fills this out. This time not just with his voice, but with acts of redemption by blood and by power. Let's turn to Exodus chapter 19, to our first scripture reading. We want to zero in on Exodus 19 on verses 4 and 6. Israel's at Mount Sinai, having been delivered by covenant grace and blood, God reminds them what He did, like this in verse 4. You have seen, He says, what I did to the Egyptians. But also this. You could paraphrase it like this, I airlifted you out of Egypt with eagle's wings and I brought you to myself. Why? Verse 6, that you shall be, and he's speaking out to the whole people, the families, the children, the adults. Ye shall be unto me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. That is, people set apart to serve him. This is the difference. God's covenant people, by deliverance, now belonging to God rather than slaves of Pharaoh. We know from the New Testament that Christ is the real Passover of His people. This is all rich with the symbolism of the blood of the cross. God's wrath passes over those covered by the blood of the Lamb. And in the New Testament we have greater reason, not less. to see Jesus Christ himself as the dividing line between two kinds of people in the world, those under the blood and those facing the wrath of God on their own. So these are the first couple of parts. Covenant, grace and promise. Then God's covenant deliverance. But now thirdly, that was the entire point of circumcision. And by the way, the New Covenant, the New Testament replaces Sinai, it does not replace Abraham. This too is the background of our text to the Corinthians. Israel is marked on their bodies to show the difference, the separation from the world that the Covenant creates. Look at Joshua chapter 5. Joshua chapter 5. Here Joshua, before Israel can take possession of the land of promise, has to circumcise the people. Apparently, the covenant sign had not been applied, or at least not consistently, during the 40 years of wilderness wandering. And notice how God views this matter in verse 9. He says, this day I have rolled away the reproach, meaning the shame or stain of Egypt from you. And again, separation is being made. They should have been marked with the covenant to mark their deliverance and separation of Egypt. And those who tried to be separate without the sign, who claimed that the holiness didn't need the sign, were not listening to what God said. That's why God said to Abraham in Genesis 17, the person who refuses the sign of the covenant is cut off from the covenant. No longer set apart is one of my holy special people. And that's exactly the point that baptism makes too. And that's why we have in the New Testament recorded a number of times the baptism of households without saying that they were all believers. When you read in our text in 1 Corinthians that the Old Testament demands the sign of the covenant so that the shame and stain that's the opposite of holiness be removed. What else can it mean than this? that the children of the New Testament believers must also have their holiness visibly marked by the New Testament sign and seal of the covenant, baptism. Do you ever make this point as parents to your children? Do you tell them that they are to be different from the world in the sense of where they came from and where they are supposed to be headed spiritually through Jesus Christ God sets the children of believers apart, and through the deliverance of Christ, symbolized in the waters of baptism, God marks our children permanently with the mark of his separation. Children, sometimes if you grab that particular fat black marker from your mother's drawer to color with, your mom will say, don't take that one because that one's permanent, and if you get in your clothes, I can't get it out. God's mark of baptism. permanent. It's the mark of separation to be God's special people. We've seen so far that God separates Israel from the world through covenant, through deliverance, and through the sign of the covenant and forth. The holiness of our text means God sets his people apart through the laws and commandments he gives them. And this is where we need to go back to Leviticus chapter 20. Leviticus chapter 20. This comes in a book that's full of God's do's and don'ts. And God says this to Israel in verse 22. Ye shall therefore keep all my statutes and all my judgments to do them. Verse 23. You shall not walk, meaning you shall not live in the same way as the nation. which I cast out before you, because they commit all these sins, and therefore I abhor them. And then the last words of verse 24, I am the Lord your God, which have separated you from other people. The same root word there of holiness. Then verse 26, Ye shall be holy unto me, for I the Lord am holy, and I have severed or separated you from other people, that you should be mine. This is very practical. In fact, this is where the holiness of God's people becomes visible to our eyes and to the world around us. This holiness starts with what God has done, His deliverance, His promises, His covenant, His sign, but it doesn't stop there. All these things are supposed to motivate and move you to obey and do the things that God has said. Parents, God in his covenant gives you a handle with which to grab a hold of your children. Use it. When you teach them do's and don'ts, don't just isolate those do's and don'ts and say, because I said so. Of course they have to do what you say because you're their parent. But why? Because God said so. How important, children, therefore, that you don't sin, that you don't be selfish, that you don't live like the world around you. There needs to be a visible difference between us and the world, especially now that we no longer live in a so-called Christian nation. How do you live? How do you talk? How do you walk? What are your lifestyle choices? Do you hate what God hates and love what God loves? That's the whole point of verse 26. God says, I'm holy and if you're going to be my people, you need to be holy like me. It needs to become visible in how you live. That means you can grab a hold of your children and your people and say, but the God who gave you promises, Covenant, signs, seals, now says to you, you be like me. It's also true in the book of Corinthians. One of the main goals of the Apostle Paul is to get these Corinthians to think and act differently from the people around them. Unlike in the Old Testament where God keeps his people separate by driving out the nations before them, In the New Testament, God keeps his people separate by having them live as salt and light right in and among all the nations of the earth. That goes so far that when one spouse becomes a Christian, the rest of the family is also called holy, set apart to serve the Lord. And it's the pouring out of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost that makes it possible to do what could never have worked in the Old Testament. To be in the world without being of the world. To be separate among unbelievers rather than away from them. Do you have a holy zeal about this? Are you bound and determined to test your life? And to make sure that you're marching to the drumbeat of God and not the world. Some years ago my family vacationed on Mackinac Island in Michigan. We toured there, an old fort. You watch some young men who had it as their summer job dress up as soldiers and show us how the soldiers lived back then. And one of them had a drum, and the marching had to happen according to the beat of the drum. So they asked for volunteers, and they grabbed me from the crowd and several other people. They said, you're our new recruits. We're going to teach you how to march. And every time you hear the drum beat, your left foot was supposed to take a step forward. Now we live in a world where everyone else is marching to the drumbeat of Satan and of sin. But God's commandments are a different drumbeat. And it's hard to march to one drumbeat without falling out of step when another drumbeat starts up close by. But being holy means you keep in step with God's drumbeat. So far we've seen what it means for God to call his covenant people holy. He calls you into relationship with him through his promises. You said, yeah, but I don't feel like it and I don't feel it. Well, the act of God takes precedence over your feelings. He does it through covenant deliverance by blood and by power. He puts the mark of His covenant on you through baptism. And He provides the drumbeat by which you're supposed to march through life. That is what it means to be holy. And there should be an emphatic exclamation mark behind this statement in our text. Our children are not unclean. They are holy! Exclamation mark! Someone says, yeah, but when I hear all this, it sounds an awful lot like you're saying all our children are saved. No, if you look at the text in its context, the holiness spoken of is great, but it's also incomplete. And that's our last point. Briefly, let's turn to first Corinthians 7, 14, the unbelieving spouse and children of a believer are called holy. specifically notice that the unbelieving spouse is called in some ways holy, even while still an unbeliever. The unbeliever is exposed to the covenant of God, the promises of God, the claim of God, the sign of God, the commandments of God, and the children even more so. But that doesn't make an unbeliever a believer. That's why the question can be asked in verse 16 like this, How do you know, O wife, whether you will save your husband? How do you know, O husband, whether you will save your wife? Covenant holiness is not automatic saving holiness. It's hope-giving holiness. It's helpful holiness that gives you a sense of direction in your home and for the future. But it needs to become saving holiness. And the emphatic exclamation mark behind verse 14 needs to be made complete by the question in verse 16. Notice these two things next to each other. Holy! Exclamation mark! But also saved? Question mark? And it's by living with both the exclamation mark and the question mark that a balanced biblical covenant view will mark your home. Some people want to put an exclamation mark behind both the words holy and saved. And really that involves putting an equal sign between the words holy, equal, saved. And others want to stress the question mark and put it behind both the words holy and saved. And in such baptism services, the stress is always on how incomplete the holiness of the baptized child is and the huge question mark that overshadows everything else. And both approaches are wrong. We must raise our children with both. They are holy! Exclamation mark! And then the question mark. Are they saved? And someone may want to protest, yeah, but that makes the covenant an iffy thing. Yes, it does in some ways. Glad you noticed. Remember once again, Exodus 19 verse 5 and 6. We noted a moment ago how the Lord stresses obedience there, but listen to this in verse 5. Therefore, if ye will obey my voice indeed and keep my covenant, then ye shall be a special treasure to me above all people. And there are countless Old and New Testament passages with these covenantal ifs that God uses as he makes his demands on his people. The holiness God seeks in the covenant is not complete until those holy people become believers and for themselves love, seek, and serve the Lord. That's why verse 6 says, and you can translate it like this in Exodus 19, In this way or so shall you be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. Now this incompleteness does not mean God leaves the job of making His people holy half-finished. But it does mean that God does allow some covenant children to turn their backs on Him and His covenant. He even hardens their hearts as they harden their own hearts. He cuts them off from His covenant because they turned their backs on Him. And in doing this, He's the righteous judge of sin and the righteous avenger of the claims of His covenant. Outward holiness that does not become inward holiness. becomes deadly holiness. So how can we teach our children to move from the outward to the inward holiness? The secret is in the work of Jesus Christ. As the outwardly promised deliverance is inwardly applied through the Holy Spirit, as God turns careless boredom or annoyed indifference found in our hearts by nature to His commandments, into broken-hearted confessions of sin and longings after obedience so that you start to sound and sing like Psalm 119. And at that moment, the demands of the covenant cut into a heart made alive by God's gracious Holy Spirit, and the question of your heart or your children becomes, I can't live up to what God demands. I'm a miserable, sinful, stumbling wretch. What shall I do? And here the context of our text is so beautiful. 1 Corinthians 6 verse 9 and 10. The Apostle Esther warned the Corinthians about what kind of people will not enter the kingdom of God. And he makes a whole list. And then he says this in verse 11. And such were some of you, but ye are washed. but you are sanctified, but you are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God, you can say to your children, as you turn to the Lord Jesus Christ for relief from yourself, you discover again that the God who demanded also promises, that He fulfills His promises of grace, that you become holy on the inside, wanting to march to God's drumbeat. tasting the grace of God, your holiness becomes personal and one day in heaven complete. So the ifs of the covenant find their solution in the Christ of the covenant. And the question mark of the covenant points you to Christ and His Holy Spirit. What about you? Most, if not all of you, were born and raised in the covenant. Most have had this wonderful outward covenantal holiness. Let there be an exclamation mark behind it. But how do you answer the question mark which must follow? Saved, has your holiness begun to be inward too, as a matter of your heart and life? Do you know what will happen if you ignore the wonderful holiness God gave you? with its promises and demands. Let's go back to the original meaning of holy, set apart. Suppose your mother sets apart some food in the pantry for guests, and she says to the teenagers, when you're scrounging for a snack, don't touch that, that's for tomorrow night. What happens if they eat it, or worse yet, if they take it on the floor, throw it on there, and then with their muddy boots from the farmyard, step and scrape over it? The holy has become unholy, fit for only being thrown away. What happens if you take what God said is holy and you make it ordinary? If the God who has set you apart, you turn to him and say, but I'm not interested, I don't want it, and I don't care. If your separation from the world turns into imitation of the world. then the blood of the covenant with which you were sanctified is considered an unclean thing, to use the words of Hebrews 10.29. And the Holy Spirit in whose name you were baptized is insulted. And the holy covenant child who answers the saved question with a no is cast out. And the very covenant given to point you to salvation makes your condemnation in hell the heavier. than a person not born and raised in the covenant. Even in hell, covenant children are separate from the world, separated by the depths of their condemnation. Once a covenant child, always a covenant child. Don't you leave here answering the question mark with a no. But turn to the Lord Jesus Christ before it's too late. But oh, if the covenant through the applying work of the Holy Spirit turns to your salvation, then what a wonder. To use the words of Exodus 9, then shall you be to me, the Lord says, a special treasure above all people. Holiness means living, knowing God has made me his special treasure. And what more could you want than such a God? Amen.