The Gospel of Mark chapter 16, verses nine to the end. Mark 16, nine to the end. Now when Jesus was risen early the first day of the week, he appeared first to Mary Magdalene, out of whom he had cast seven devils. And she went and told them that had been with him as they mourned and wept. And they, when they had heard that he was alive and had been seen of her, believed not. After that, he appeared in another form unto two of them as they walked and went into the country. And they went and told it unto the residue, neither believed they them. Afterward, he appeared unto the eleven, as they sat at meat, and abraded them with their unbelief and hardness of heart, because they believed not them which had seen him after he was risen. And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved. But he that believeth not shall be damned. And these signs shall follow them that believe. In my name shall they cast out devils. They shall speak with new tongues. They shall take up serpents. If they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them. They shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover. So then. After the Lord had spoken unto them, he was received up into heaven and sat on the right hand of God. And they went forth and preached everywhere, the Lord working with them and confirming the word with signs following. Amen. Dear church family, If someone were to walk up to you tomorrow and say, are you baptized in the church? And you say, yes. And they were to say, well, what does it mean to you? What would you say? Or if they just said, what is baptism? What would you say? Well, that's what we want to look at tonight. From Lord's Day 26, Lord's Day 27, we'll look at, next week, one of the preachers will look at the defense of infant baptism. But tonight we want to just focus on Lord's Day 26, which is, what does baptism actually mean? What should it mean to you? And as text, we'll look at several texts, but particularly this one, Mark 16, 16. He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved, but he that believeth not shall be damned. Our theme then is, what does your baptism mean? Three thoughts. It's personal sign. That's mainly question 69. It's double benefit. That's mainly question 70. And third, it's solid foundation. Question 71, and we'll pick up on another part of 69. So it'd be good to keep the catechism open tonight because this is such rich material that summarizes the whole of Scripture, brings together many different texts. And so we'll be carefully following this argument, this doctrine of holy baptism and what it means. So let's read Lord's Day 26. You can find them back to the Psalter, Lourdes Day 26, questions 69 through 71. How art thou admonished and assured by holy baptism that the one sacrifice of Christ upon the cross is of real advantage to thee? Thus, that Christ appointed this external washing with water, adding thereunto this promise that I am as certainly washed by his blood and spirit from all the pollution of my soul, that is from all my sins, as I am washed externally with water by which the filthiness of the body is commonly washed away. Question 70, what is it to be washed with the blood and spirit of Christ? It is to receive of God the remission of sins freely for the sake of Christ's blood which he shed for us by his sacrifice upon the cross. And also to be renewed by the Holy Ghost and sanctified to be members of Christ that so we may more and more die unto sin and lead holy and unblameable lives. And 71, where has Christ promised us that he will as certainly wash us by his blood and spirit as we are washed with the water of baptism? in the institution of baptism, which is thus expressed, go ye therefore and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost. He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved, but he that believeth not shall be damned. This promise is also repeated where the scripture calls baptism the washing of regeneration and the washing away of sins. Sacraments, dear church family, are signs and seals that illustrate and seal the preached Word of God, the gospel. You've heard that, most of you, all your life. They're signs and seals. Signs means they're pictures of things. They don't give you salvation, but they picture salvation. And sometimes the Bible, as well as the catechism here in the last sentence, almost sounds like baptism washes you and gives you regeneration and the washing away of sin and sanctification automatically, by itself. But that's not the point of Scripture. That's not the point of the Catechism. Rather, they are signs of it. They picture it. The sacraments are so picturesque that they're so close to the essence of what you actually get when you are saved that they are pictures of your salvation. Signs of it. and seals that that salvation is really true. When you get a letter sealed officially, the seal itself doesn't add anything to the actual contents of the letter, but it gives you a visual guarantee that is to the receiver that this letter is authentic and it comes from the proper authority. That's exactly what the sacraments do. They give you a seal that the preached Word, the gospel, is authentic, and that when the Spirit works in the hearts of God's people, it has the proper authority. They seal home the truths of the gospel. They're visual guarantees. of the doctrines, all the doctrines of grace, especially that cardinal doctrine that we are justified by faith alone that we heard about several weeks ago, saved by the blood of Jesus Christ. And so that's why, in these questions, you find the name Christ appearing again and again, the cross appearing again and again, and the blood of Christ appearing again and again. Because the sacraments begin with Christ, they continue with Christ, and they end in Christ. They're Christological through and through. And they're received by faith. The sacraments are not signs and seals of our doubt, but they are signs and seals given to the weak in faith, to strengthen our faith. They're given to poor, penitent sinners who, when they hear the gospel, are prone to say, I believe all that I hear of the gospel, but can that blood really be for me? I hear that Jesus came into the world to save sinners. I hear that his blood cleanses from all iniquity, even unworthy sinners. But can it really save me, a guilty, a hell-worthy sinner? And the resounding answer, signified and sealed by the water in baptism, by the wine and the bread in the Lord's Supper, by all that they picture, by all that they seal, is yes! Yes, in the sacraments, God visually affirms his gospel, his gospel promise to fearing, trembling, yet trusting sinners, sinners who must say, Lord, I believe, help thou my unbelief. So in the sacraments, God is calling to us as sinners, rise. The master calleth thee. The gospel is trustworthy. Be of good cheer, come to me. I come to seek and to save the lost. My gospel is true. I put my own seal upon it. Look at the sacraments. The blood of my son is sufficient for the greatest of sinners. The sacraments are sealing with the blood of Christ because the water in baptism symbolizes his blood. And the wine in the Lord's Supper symbolizes his blood. The sacraments are saying, this is a faithful, sane, and worthy to be received of all that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. That's why he came, to save exactly the kind of people that you and I are. And Paul goes on to say, of whom I am chief. If he can save me, a persecutor of the church, he can save anyone. No sinner too big, too bad, too long for him, too hard for him to save. So the sacraments are a picture book of the gospel. Well, you may say that may be well and true and it's good to hear that, but How do the sacraments actually get worked out then in the life of a sinner like me? Well, our instructor tells us, first of all, that they get worked out in the lives of God's people, not coldly, but warmly and personally. Personally. Isn't it interesting? When our instructor, remember he's speaking to God's people in the catechism, so he's speaking with language of assurance here. But when he speaks, when he opens the door to the doctrine of baptism, you would almost think, wouldn't you, that he'd explain the doctrine and several questions, and then he'd come to some personal part of it. But that's not how he does it. The very first question about baptism, how are you admonished and you assured by holy baptism that the one sacrifice of Christ upon the cross is of real advantage to you? Thou? Thee? It's personal. That's singular. That's not corporate here. He's saying, you personally, what does your baptism mean to you? Do you have an experiential answer that you've experienced what this baptism means for you? Are you benefiting from your baptism? Or as I mentioned in prayer, as the Puritans used to say, are you improving your baptism? They didn't mean to make it better. They just meant, are you applying it in such a way that you're drinking of its fullness? You see, do you know the benefit of it personally? Well, what is the benefit? It's this, that Christ appointed this external washing with water, adding to it this promise that I'm as certainly washed by his blood and spirit from all the pollution of my soul, that is from all my sins, as I am washed externally with water, by which the filthiness of the body is commonly washed away. So he says baptism signifies something much deeper, much more profound than water. But as water washes away the dirt from our bodies, boys and girls, you know that, the personal sign of baptism, what it really seals is that our souls are cleansed. Our souls are cleansed by that which the water signifies, which is the blood of Christ. So he that believeth and is baptized shall be saved. Shall be saved by the blood of Jesus. And he that believeth not shall be damned. So God is not emphasizing here just the outward form of water. But through the water of baptism, he signifies that there is salvation through the shed blood of Jesus Christ. So baptism is a picture. It's picturesque language. And that is better understood, no doubt, by people in the Middle East in Bible times than it is by us today. How so? Well, the Middle East, even until today, Israel is a very dry, dusty place, a hot place. And Middle Eastern people, even today, have to wash themselves much more than we do because of all the dust and the dirt. But in Bible times, you didn't allow anyone into your home. without washing them, without providing water so they could wash themselves. And that's why it was so rude of that Pharisee. You remember that? When Jesus came to his house and he provided no water for him to wash. That was considered downright rude. You're always washing your body to take away all the dust and the dirt. So when Jesus says to his disciples, This is what baptism signifies, that as water washes away the dirt, so my blood cleanses the inward soul. This is a very vivid picture to those in the Middle East. Now, we understand it, of course, still today. We take showers every day or so, or a bath, to wash away. So we understand the principle. It's just not as strong in our culture. So what does that mean for us? Well, it means, first of all, that we are, may I say it this way with reverence, dirty people in the inward man. We've got dirty souls. We get dust and the dirt of sin clogged up in our souls because our foundation is filthy. We're sinners at the core of who we are. So baptism, first of all, points to our own sin, our own filth, our own need for the cleansing blood of Jesus. You remember how the baptism forum begins. 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 are children of wrath by nature. First opening line. We need to be washed because we are dirty, filthy sinners, unfit for the presence of God. And we know, of course, from all kinds of texts in the Bible, that without holiness no man shall see the Lord. Nothing unclean will enter into heaven. We need to be washed by someone who's our substitute who can truly cleanse us, which of course is Christ alone. So by nature, we're never fit for God's kingdom. We can never get into God's kingdom no matter how many works we do or no matter how hard we try. We need to be washed, washed by the blood of Christ. So baptism may I put it this way, points us to the filth of our sin and to God's hatred for sin. It teaches us that our hearts by nature are like a troubled sea that cast up mire and dirt. In fact, God says in Genesis 6 that we're so depraved that it repented the Lord that he made man on earth. It grieved him at his heart. So experientially, what do we need first of all? to really benefit from our baptism is we need to know, we need to be taught by the Holy Spirit that we're filthy. We need washing. This is the doctrine of total depravity. The guilt of Adam's sin is imputed to us and the pollution of sin is inherited by us through the line of generation from our parents and our grandparents and our great-grandparents. We were all conceived and born in sin. Psalm 51 verse 5 says. So this means not that we're always as bad as we can possibly be, because then we'd be robbing a bank or killing one another or doing drastic things all the time, but it means that when God looks at every part of who we are, when He looks at our mind, our will, our affections, our emotions, our soul, There's not a single part that God looks at you or me and says, you know, by nature, you're okay. You're good. You're righteous. And I can reward you for who you are. No. We're totally depraved. That means every part of us needs to be washed with the blood of Christ. By nature, we don't want to admit that in reality. In our mind, belonging to a Reformed church, we admit it. In practice, we only admit that we're kind of like a partial sinner. If you are different than that, and you think you really, really admit that by nature, you would fly right to Christ. And that's exactly what happens when the Holy Spirit teaches us that we're nothing but a fountain of corruption. We fly to the fountain of living water, as Zechariah 13.1 puts it, which is the blood of Christ. You see, the Holy Spirit really shows us that every part of us is depraved. Then we cry out with Isaiah, woe is me for I am undone. We cry out with David, behold I was shaped in iniquity, in sin did my mother conceive me. So baptism, I'm going to say this twice because it's important. You don't understand baptism until you understand that baptism is a blood balm for self-condemning sinners. Baptism is a blood balm for self-condemning sinners. What a comfort baptism is. That there's the blood of Christ that can wash me clean no matter how filthy I am. Baptism is God's declaration that Jesus' blood is more mighty than all your dirt of sin. It's God's visual proclamation, his sign to you, his seal to you, that the saving power of his gospel is greater than the condemning power of his law. It's God's seal to you, that the righteousness of Christ, through his blood, is greater than all our unrighteousness. It's the gospel. This is what the gospel is. Baptism is the gospel. Now, this gospel then is personal. That's my first point. The second point is how, though, does this gospel become personal experientially in the soul? What are the two major benefits of the gospel of salvation? Well, they are justification, aren't they, saved by the blood of Christ, and sanctification, in which we are made holy through that same blood of Christ by the Holy Spirit. So look with me now at question 70. What is it to be washed with the blood and spirit of Christ? It's to receive of God the remission of sins freely for the sake of Christ's blood, not because of anything you do or have done or will do, which he shed for us by his sacrifice upon the cross. That's a definition of justification. Remission of sins, and of course that includes also right to eternal life through the obedience of Christ. Justification. And then notice it says, and also to be renewed by the Holy Ghost and sanctified to be members of Christ that so we may more and more die unto sin and lead holy and unblameable lives. So, baptism, when you see a child, boys and girls, baptized in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost with water right here, when you see that, that water symbolizes the blood of Jesus, and it's through that blood that we can be justified and saved by faith in Christ. And it's through that same blood that we can be sanctified and made holy because He is our justification and our sanctification. It's all about Jesus. 1 Corinthians 1 verse 30. He is made of God unto us wisdom and righteousness, which is justification, and sanctification and redemption. Our whole salvation, our whole salvation is Christ. And so baptism points to that wholeness. It doesn't just justify or sanctify us by itself, of course. It's not like the Roman Catholic system where, oh, if you're baptized, automatically all your original sin is taken away. But as Kelvin says, there is such a close connection between the sign and the seal, the symbolic meaning of baptism, with the actual work of the Spirit in the soul, justifying and sanctifying the soul, that it can almost sound or seem like baptism does these two things. But rather, baptism signifies these two things and seals these two things. by the Holy Spirit so that we can see them and feel them and say, yes, this is true for me. Every single time I see a baptism, if I'm a believer, I am to think, just as that water came on that child, so the blood of Christ cleanses me from all my sin. And just as that water came on that child, so by the blood of Christ I am sanctified and made holy and made fit for my eternal inheritance in Christ." So, baptism. Lord's Supper as well, but baptism in a particular way pointing to regeneration and justification, being born again through the blood of Christ, received by faith, signifies that God's people are brought to a closure with their own self-reliant lives. I no longer can rely on myself. I no longer can rely on anything I produce. I rely totally on the blood of Christ to cleanse me from the guilt of sin. And at the same time, as the baptism form says it directly, this calls me to a life of new obedience. I'm saved. I'm saved by the blood of Christ. This is glorious. This is the gospel. This is amazing grace. I give evidence that I'm saved by new obedience, by new obedience, cleaving, clinging to this one triune God, walking in His ways, saying farewell to sin, reckoning myself dead unto sin but alive to God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So this is the double benefit that baptism is picturing. It's really picturing the totality of our salvation. So in addition to baptizing with his blood by the Spirit, Christ also baptizes, you've heard that expression, right, in Scripture? He baptizes with the Holy Spirit and with fire, symbolic of the Holy Spirit. Now that we are baptized with blood, we understand that. I think all of us know by now that it's only by his blood do we receive the forgiveness of sins and by nothing else. But what does it mean to be baptized with fire? With the Holy Spirit. Well, it means exactly this, that Christ doesn't only justify you, but he also sanctifies you. He burns away the virus of sin by the spirit of purification. So that you more and more die into sin, and more and more lead a holy and unblameable life. You see, sin has a power, and that power must be broken. And that's why he gives his Holy Spirit to those whom he saves by the blood of Christ. So that we become a new creation. And our lives are changed from within in a growing way, ups and downs of course, but the trajectory is a growing way. More and more I hate sin. More and more I put away sin. More and more I live unto righteousness. So forgiveness of sin, justification, and internal renewal, sanctification, are the two sides of the one coin of salvation. You can't separate the two. You can't be justified and then not be sanctified. But God gets the glory of both. So Christ does not only give us the right to be called children of God by his blood, but he also gives us the characteristics, the traits of a child of God by stamping the Father's image upon our soul through his Spirit by means of that same blood. And so this is the beauty of baptism. It's a reminder. It's a picture. It's a sign. It's a seal of the totality of our salvation. Both justification and sanctification. So to be acquitted of guilt and punishment, well that's pleasing to anyone, of course. But this renewal of sanctification is not. And that's what gives evidence. Our sanctification actually visualizes our justification also to others. Because sanctification is not pleasant for flesh and blood, because it brings along with it the painful putting to death of the old man, the old nature. And that's why when we're truly baptized, you see, with the Holy Spirit, spiritually for our own soul, we're also baptized with fire. Because He's going to purge away, He's going to purge away that old nature bit by bit by bit to take away what is unholy within us. And so Isaiah 53 puts it this way, He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities, that's justification, and with His stripes we are healed. That's our sanctification, newness of life. Now the problem with so many Christians today, also in our country, is that really they embrace an antinomian doctrine. They may say they're Reformed, and they talk a lot about justification, which is well and good, but there's no emphasis on sanctification for many. It's what you call antinomianism, antinomus, being against the law, Thinking, well, I'm saved, so it doesn't matter too much how I behave. I can kind of go out and do what I want, and God will forgive me. I just have to ask him to forgive. He's merciful, he's love, you know? And they forget the second half of what we just read from Belgian Confession of Faith, Article 16. He's merciful, but he's also just. And we need to be sanctified. We need to be ready for heaven. So how can I illustrate that from the Bible? Maybe there's no better way than just going back to the Old Testament tabernacle. Listen, listen very carefully to this and follow my reasoning here. When the Israelite came to present his sacrifice to God, that animal had to be slain to point to the blood of the Messiah to come. The blood had to be shed for his guilt. But on the way to the holy place, with a sacrifice, the priest had to wash in the laver. So the priest would help you, and the sacrifice would be killed and laid on the brazen altar, which symbolizes justification. Then the priest would take the remains of that, but before he'd take it into the temple, he had to wash in the laver. He had to wash in that laver, which is a symbol of sanctification. And you see, the whole point of the tabernacle is that Jesus is both. He's the brazen altar, and he's the laver. In baptism, we're taught he's both. He's the sacrifice for sin, and he's also the laver of breast to wash us away from our daily pollution. So everything. I'm dependent upon Him and His blood, by His Spirit. I can't justify myself apart from His blood. I can't sanctify myself apart from His blood. In baptism there's nothing left but the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. So the message of baptism is Flee to the blood of Christ. Find shelter in his blood. Find relief for your guilt in his blood. Find strength for your daily warfare against sin in his blood. Find everything in the blood of Jesus or you will perish. This is the life of new obedience. Finding everything in Jesus Christ. So, we are admonished of and obliged unto, says the baptism form, new obedience when we are baptized. And if we really understand rightly what's going on when we're baptized or when we see baptisms, We should say, today God's seal is upon my life, and as surely as that water has come upon the forehead of those children, so surely God will wash me, if I'm a believer now, from the guilt of all my sin, and so surely he will make me into a holy believer, his peculiar workmanship, zealous of good works, created to good works, in Christ Jesus. These are the benefits. of a right understanding of baptism. I understand through baptism my justification and my sanctification before God, and I thank Him for both. All right, now that is all solidified by a solid foundation in question 71. So what does your baptism mean to you? It's a personal sign and seal. to you of the gospel." It's a picture of a double benefit, justification, sanctification. And thirdly, it rests on a solid foundation, the promises of God. Question 71, where has Christ promised us? that he will certainly wash us by his blood and spirit as we are washed with the water of baptism. In the institution of baptism, which is thus expressed, go ye therefore and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved. He that believeth not shall be damned. This promise is also repeated where the scripture calls baptism, the washing of regeneration, the washing away of sins. So the meaning of baptism, the sign, the seal, the picture, it's all resting on the solid promises of the gospel themselves. And that's the foundation. And those promises are identical with the gospel itself, as we saw also a few weeks ago when we were talking about assurance from the promises. So God's people, in Hebrews 6, are called heirs of the promise. And that means heirs of Christ. That means heirs of gospel. One of the Puritans said this, gospel promises Jesus Christ. In the Bible, they're nearly synonyms. Jesus Christ is the promise. All the promises are yea and amen in Christ Jesus. Jesus Christ is the gospel. You can only be saved through him. He and God's promises are the good news, the gospel. So baptism testifies, this is the picture, through the washing with water, that God is faithful to his covenant promises. And he will bring in all his elect, and he's a covenant-keeping God, so normally he works along covenantal lines, saving children, saving grandchildren, saving great-grandchildren. Sometimes he converts people outside the covenant, but then they come into the covenant lines, they join the church. God's nature is to be a covenant-keeping God. And he solidifies that with his promises to Abraham. And these shall all the nations of the earth be blessed. So, the beauty of this solid foundation is that the promises of God are as strong as God himself. His character cannot fail. God cannot speak out of both sides of his mouth. God is not a politician who has a position one day and changes it to get elected a few weeks later. God is unchangeable. This is his word. This is his promise, sealed in baptism. It's irrevocable. And because that is so solid in both sacraments, some of our forefathers used to speak about sacramental assurance, not because it's a different kind of assurance than you get in the preached word, but because it's so laid out before you, so picturesque, and it's so common that the assurance of God's people gets boosted by the promises of God through the blood of Christ in baptism, in the Lord's Supper, that they spoke of sacramental assurance. The promises of God. What a strength they are for a child of God. And they're connected directly with our sanctification as well. If you turn with me just a second to, this is a beautiful text, to 2 Corinthians 7. Look at verse 1 here. Having, therefore, these promises, dearly beloved, these gospel promises, which are signed and sealed in baptism and the Lord's Supper, as well as in the gospel, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God. You see, sanctification flows out of justification. So our foundation is not in our sanctification, it's in our justification, but it's evidenced in our sanctification. So this is the beauty of the sacraments. They picture the whole gospel, the same gospel that preaching does. Now, it's possible, you see, to not believe, not truly believe, savingly. In the blood of Christ is my only salvation. It's possible to warm a church pew your whole life and say, I believe in all the doctrines, but to have them not become personal to you. It's possible to go to church all your life and never appropriate, by the grace of the Spirit, these truths we're talking about tonight. And you see, then we're repudiating the foundation of the gospel. We're keeping ourselves outside of the gospel. So there's a two-sided flip to these promises. If you're outside of them, and you reject them, and you reject the gospel, the gospel then is not a savior of life unto life, but a savior of death unto death. And so this foundation is solid for true believers, but it's also discriminatory for those who are not truly believing. One of our forefathers put it this way, a person can intrude on the Lord's Supper when it is administered and can eat and drink condemnation to himself, but a person can also drown in the water of baptism, even as Pharaoh and the Egyptians drowned in the Red Sea by which baptism was signified. See, if you respond to the gospel all your lifetime with unbelief, This very promise, this very gospel, this very Christ, this very blood will all testify against you. So the question for each of us in our lives is really this question. Am I living out of the blood of Christ? Am I living by that blood, in and through and by it, whatever other preposition you can find. Is that blood central to me and to my salvation? Is it my sign, my seal, my promise, the totality of my salvation? Or am I rejecting that blood? So what baptism does, say for an infant, is it brands him. as being set apart covenantally in the external covenant relationship with God and called to seek that God as that child grows up and to know that that God is willing to be their God. So one definition of holiness, in fact an important definition of holiness, is separation. So the mark of the covenant is given also to infants as a seed of believers, you'll hear more about that next week, because the covenant includes children, always did, Old Testament, New Testament, promises them to you and to all your children, to all that are far off, so that that child needs to be told that's baptized. that this triune God who put his name side by side with your name in baptism is willing to be your God. But you must repent and you must believe in this promise, in this gospel, in this Christ alone for salvation. Let me illustrate it for you boys and girls. In the 1800s there was a A girl, a little girl, who was asked this question by some of her friends. What does it mean to you that you are baptized? And perhaps you know this, that in the past, on these big cattle ranches in the far west of the United States, there were often unbranded calves that roamed the prairies. And they were called by the local people, mavericks. These wild calves. Well, a rancher would try to capture them and claim ownership of these maverick calves. And then as soon as he would take them to his own farm and to the side of his own fences, he would mark them. And that was called branding. He branded the wild calf so anyone who would find the calf could say, that belongs to farmer so-and-so. So when this girl was asked this question by her friends, this is what she said. I was a little wild maverick out on the prairie and anyone could put his brand upon me and I would become his possession. But the Lord came in my baptism to be the first to brand me. He put his claim upon me in baptism to belong to him and to belong to his church. That's what God has done for you, children, teenagers. Even if you're not saved yet, he's done that for you. In baptism, when you were branded, you were marked by God, you were set apart. You're not to live like the world. You're to know that God is willing to be your God. Just the same way Israel was branded. You are my people. You only have I known of all the nations of the earth. Not everyone in Israel was saved, but they were all branded. They were all set apart. They had no business not living for God. God's brand was upon them. But many of them rejected it. They cast it away. And you see, that's the warning of this solid foundation. The warning is, what will it be to be branded by God, to have heard many sermons, to be baptized, but never to repent, and never to believe alone in Christ and His blood, never to surrender my whole heart to God's Son, never to obey the voice of God, the command of God, my son, my daughter, give me thine heart. What a tragedy. That would be to go lost, branded by God on your forehead. But now perhaps you also know that in the West when a rancher branded a wild maverick and another rancher would find that branded animal outside of the rancher's territory, That second rancher would often get hold of that animal, and he would put his brand over the top of the first rancher's brand, trying to erase it. And he says, this maverick belongs to me. And you see, children, young people, that's what the devil tries to do to you. He wants to put his branding on you. And so he wants to erase that brand of God upon you. You don't belong to the world because God has branded you. But he says, no, no, you belong to the world because you're not saved yet. And I will be your God. With a small g. You see, you've been branded by God. You've been called to be set apart by God. Therefore, you have no business allowing Satan to brand you. That's why our instructor says already in question 69, how art thou admonished? I'm using my index finger now. We use our index finger when we warn people, right? So baptism is not only a promise, but it's also an index finger saying, you are admonished not to give your life to the world. You're baptized. You've got no business going back to the world. The only business you have that you're called to do is to bow before God and say, be my God and save my soul and baptize me with the Holy Spirit and fire. Keep me, don't let anyone else pray in me, Lord. That's the way to pray. In baptism, God points His fingers when this child is baptized up front here. God is pointing his finger in that service at every unconverted person and saying, don't, don't, don't. Deny my promises, the blood of my son, the grace of God, the gospel. I admonish you by baptism to flee to me and my blood now. So if we are all baptized here, and I imagine nearly every person is, either as an infant or an adult, There's none of us who can say, the Lord has said to me, I won't have you. I don't want you. But you see on the day of judgment, if you've never fled to the real meaning, the real sign, the real seal of baptism, the blood of Christ. You will hear from Christ's mouth, and I say it to you with love, sinner, I want to have nothing more to do with you now. You freely chose all your life to have nothing to do with the blood of my son, and now it's too late to seek him. The door is shut. You must be born again. You must experience what Toplady said in his famous poem, Foul I to the fountain fly, wash me, Savior, else I die. Either you will fly to the blood of Christ or you will despise the blood of Christ. There's no in-between way. There's no in-between way. So I close with this question. What are you doing with your baptism? What does it mean to you? Are you improving it? Or you say, well, there's nothing I can do with my baptism. Well, most of us grew up under Reverend Hellenbrook's question book in catechism class. That's not the answer he gives. He says, what does the baptized person have to perform He didn't say, nothing. He didn't say, my baptism means nothing. He said, they have to examine, being baptized, whether they have with their whole heart recommended themselves to the triune God. In other words, you fall before God. Say, here I am, a sinner. With my whole heart, I want to belong to thee, Lord. Take me, not only with the external branding, but internally brand. the blood of Christ in my soul, that it may be my life and my salvation. Oh, baptize me internally, Lord. I have Thy promises sealed to my forehead. I need them sealed to my soul. Be merciful to me, a sinner. Wash me, Savior, else I die. Recommend yourself to the triune God. turning your baptized forehead to Him and saying, Thou all, I to the fountain fly, wash me, Savior, or I die. Amen. Gracious God, we thank Thee for the sacrament of baptism, for its clear picture, its sign, its seal, its certification of the gospel. And help us all to realize if we are baptized, we never get rid of our baptism because if we die unsaved, if we die only in the external circle of the covenant and have not been born again and brought into the inner solid circle, we will perish forever and our hell will be a double hell because we've rejected all our life the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. And what a tragedy that would be. O Lord, please save all those who are baptized, the children among us, the teenagers, but also adults. who were baptized many years ago but have not yet fled for shelter to the blood of Christ. Please, Lord, save sinners through this sermon tonight and be a wonder-working God. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.