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You have to recall from a couple
weeks ago, we met Peter as he preached the
gospel to thousands of gathered Jews. And he reminded them, he
revealed to them, that Jesus Christ was all that Jesus claimed
to be. They rejected him. They did not believe he was the
sent son of God. They did not believe he was the only source
of eternal life. They rejected him and ultimately crucified
him. Now, Some weeks later, the evidence that Jesus Christ actually
was all that he claimed to be was apparent to all, as those
in Acts chapter 2 received the Holy Spirit and began to speak
in languages they had never learned. This was quite the commotion.
It got the attention of the crowds. This is how God divinely orchestrated
this moment. So thousands of Jews who were
gathered for the Day of Pentecost began to listen as Peter preached.
He preached that Jesus Christ was, again, attested by God to
be his Son, which is verified by all the miracles that he had
performed, and now by his resurrection and ascending of the Holy Spirit.
As he preached this, the crowds at Pentecost became convicted.
You know what it is to be convicted. They were struck to their heart
that they were guilty. They had crucified the Son of God. They
rejected the Messiah. And they understood and felt
the turmoil they were in. The one that they had rejected
had now been exalted. The one who they despised now
had all authority. And so they respond to Peter
in Acts chapter 2 and say, Peter, what should we do? Peter responds
to them in Acts chapter 2 verse 38. He says, repent and be baptized,
every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness
of sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.
Not only is God merciful in that he would forgive their sin of
rejecting Christ, but he is so gracious that at this moment,
if they would repent and be baptized, they would actually receive the
gift of the Holy Spirit. And as we're going to learn,
what's happening here is this is an invitation to those who
had rejected Jesus, saying, if you were to repent and be baptized,
you will actually be welcomed into the new covenant. An amazing
act of God's mercy and grace. But Peter says, repent and be
baptized. And so we've been exploring what
it means to be baptized. And the intention here is that
we have a couple of lessons that can be shared with new believers
as they consider being baptized. This was our working definition
from a couple weeks ago, defining baptism. This is just the first
part of it. Baptism is the act of fully immersing
a new believer in water, through which they publicly declare their
repentance from sin, faith in Jesus Christ, and commitment
to follow him as his disciple. If you're unclear on any of that,
just listen to the sermon from a couple weeks ago, where we
dealt with that first section of our working definition. So
we learned that baptism is designed by God as His prescribed means
for a believer in Jesus to publicly declare their repentance from
sin, faith in Jesus Christ, and intention to live as His disciple.
Remember also that we learned that the entire conversion experience
can sometimes be spoken by invoking any number of its inseparable
parts, so that we could speak of faith, repentance, and baptism. Each of those we could invoke
as a call to salvation. So we could say, believe. Or we could say, repent. Or we
can say, be baptized. And the expectation is that no
matter which of those is invoked, the others are always assumed
to be present. The Bible uses language that
way when it comes to the conversion experience, and that'll become
important later as well. This is why Peter, when he's
asked how individuals should respond to his preaching, he
simply says, repent and be baptized, repent and be baptized. And what
will happen? They'll receive the forgiveness
of sins and the gift of the Holy Spirit. So, are the forgiveness
of sins and the gift of the Holy Spirit the product of being baptized? And the Baptist in you says,
no. Well, hold on. Are the forgiveness of sins and
the gift of the Holy Spirit the product of being baptized? We
can say yes if baptism is understood in its biblical usage, always
being inseparable from faith and repentance. Always being
inseparable from faith and repentance. No if one is attempting to do
the impossible by separating or extricating baptism from faith
and repentance. Baptism as an act, apart from
genuine faith and repentance, does not save, does not result
in the forgiveness of sins, does not result in the gift of the
Holy Spirit. But baptism, the only baptism the Bible knows
in the New Testament, is always an expression of genuine faith
and repentance. So, the forgiveness of sins and
the gift of the Holy Spirit are for all who repent and believe
the gospel, a repentance and belief that God commands be expressed
through baptism. This close, really inseparable
connection between faith, repentance, and baptism in the New Testament
reveals also that baptism was expected to be undergone by every
genuine believer. If you believed, then obviously
you'd be baptized. These things should never be
separated. So, when a genuine believer refuses to be baptized,
he or she is actually seeking to separate what God has joined
together. He's expressing a novel faith
and a novel repentance, a faith and repentance that's separated
from baptism. In addition to learning that baptism as commanded
by God is a public declaration of faith and repentance, repentance
from sin and faith in Jesus, we also learned last time that
baptism is a public confession of one's commitment to follow
Jesus as His disciple. This is why Peter commanded the
crowd not only to be baptized, but to be baptized in Jesus'
name. In Jesus' name. That's significant. Because what's happening there
is that these individuals are taking upon themselves the name
of Christ. They're taking on a brand new identity as his disciple. So some would try, and you might
not be familiar with this, but there are some circles who try
to separate salvation from discipleship. You can pray a prayer and be
saved, but maybe not necessarily go on to become a disciple. And
they think that's a biblically accurate way to present salvation
and discipleship. That's false. That's wrong. And so that's a
circle that might get you to pray a prayer, and then say,
okay, you can be assured of your salvation, you're a Christian,
with no care with whether or not you go on to become a disciple.
The Bible does not separate salvation and discipleship. That is, to
be saved, one comes to Christ and says, I would be your disciple.
Matthew 28, 18, the Great Commission, Jesus says, all authority in
heaven and on earth has been given to me, go therefore and
make disciples. Not go, therefore, and have people
pray a prayer. Go, therefore, and make disciples
of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and
the Son, and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that He commanded
you. And behold, I am with you always
to the end of the age." So, Jesus does not separate salvation from
discipleship. In fact, the Great Commission
is, go make disciples. Also, as we learned last week,
since God has inaugurated the new covenant, and that's what
Peter's preaching here in Acts 2, through Jesus Christ, it is
Jesus who now has been exalted and established as the authority
over men. Under the New Covenant, if one
is to obey God, he must obey the Son. If one would honor the
Father, he must honor the Son. If one would do the work of God,
he must believe in the Son. If one wishes to glorify God,
he must bow the knee before Jesus and confess Jesus as Lord. So then, If one would receive
the salvation that the New Covenant promises, he must repent of his
sin, believe in Jesus, and be baptized in his name. In doing
so, he's confessing Jesus as his Lord, and he as Jesus' disciple. He's publicly declaring his new
identity as a follower of Jesus. And so we summarized all that
two weeks ago this way. When Peter commands men to repent
and be baptized, he's doing so as a preacher of the New Covenant.
He's calling men and women to turn from their sin, rebellion,
and unbelief into an obedient faith in God. Within the New
Covenant age, obedience towards God requires an embrace of Jesus
Christ as God's Son. It's an obedience which trusts
Jesus as the only Savior and submits to Him as the only rightful
Lord. It's a faith which believes that
through Him we might receive the forgiveness of sins, the
gift of the Holy Spirit, and adoption into the family of God.
And so, this brings us to the latter portion of our working
definition of baptism, and that's what we're going to deal with
this morning. So let's look at our definition again. Baptism is
the act of fully immersing a new believer in water through which
they publicly declare their repentance from sin and faith in Jesus Christ
and commitment to follow him as his disciple. And here's the
latter portion. As the sign of the New Covenant,
baptism pictures the cleansing from sin, union with Christ,
regeneration by the Holy Spirit, and one's addition to Christ's
Church. And so for the remainder of the
time, and we do have a lot to get through this morning, for
the remainder of our time, we're going to focus on what it means
that baptism is a sign of the New Covenant. When the Lord makes
covenants with His people, He often with those covenants provides
a visible, tangible sign of the covenant. These signs serve multiple
purposes. They serve to identify and set
apart God's people. They serve to remind God's people
of his promises. They serve to encourage their
faithfulness. They serve to give assurance
of their relationship with God. And they serve to point God's
people to greater spiritual realities. And so we're gonna start in Genesis
17 and we're gonna see a sign of the covenant that was given
by God to Abraham. Genesis 17 verse 9. God said
to Abraham, as for you, you shall keep my covenant, you and your
offspring after you throughout their generations. This is my
covenant which you shall keep between me and you and your offspring
after you. Every male among you shall be
circumcised. You should be circumcised in
the flesh of your foreskins, and it shall be a sign of the
covenant between me and you. He who is eight days old among
you shall be circumcised. Every male throughout your generations,
whether born in your house or bought with your money from any
foreigner who is not of your offspring, both he who is born
in your house and he who is bought with your money shall surely
be circumcised. So shall my covenant be in your
flesh an everlasting covenant. Any uncircumcised male who is
not circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin shall be cut
off from his people. He has broken my covenant. After Adam had failed as God's
representative on earth, when he failed in God's charge to
him to spread the knowledge of God over all the earth, thus
subduing all of creation for his glory. And after Noah failed
in the same task, the Lord chooses a man named Abraham. Abraham
then was called with the same calling to mediate God's blessings
to the earth. And so the Lord makes a covenant
with Abraham. He says to Abraham, I will make you a great nation.
Through you, I will bless all nations. And that covenant was
not just with Abraham, it was also with all of Abraham's descendants,
he says. And so from that time forth,
God says, I would have you, Abraham, as a sign of this covenant, and
as a sign that all of your offsprings are also included in this covenant,
I would have you ensure that each of your male children bear
a sign of this covenant, which was circumcision. And so at eight
days old, every male child was circumcised. And that circumcision
marked him out as a descendant of Abraham. And I think better
you should say like part of the household of Abraham, because
included with that, as we saw with the covenant, included anyone
who was part of his household, including those who were household
servants and so on. And so it marked individuals
off as descendants of Abraham, parts of his household, members
of the covenant community. So circumcision, the removal
of the male foreskin, that's the sign of the Abrahamic covenant.
This was not unique to the Jews, believe it or not. In fact, I
think God institutes the practice of circumcision in part because
it's informed by the cultures around. The Egyptians practiced
circumcision. The Egyptians practiced circumcision,
but it wasn't for every male child at eight days old. It was
actually for those who were either elites within the culture, or
it was for the priestly class. Those men who were set apart
to serve in Egypt as priests were circumcised to mark their
full consecration to their gods. God likely institutes circumcision
as part of the Abrahamic covenant with that idea in mind. But what
he's saying is, Abraham, I'm calling you and all of your descendants
to be an entire family and ultimately nation of priests, individuals
wholly consecrated, set apart for me to serve me with all of
their hearts. In fact, we see that in Exodus
19. These are God's words to Moses
after the Exodus. says, You yourselves have seen what I did to the Egyptians,
and how I bore you on eagles' wings and brought you to myself.
Now therefore, if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant,
you shall be my treasured possession among all peoples, for all the
earth is mine, and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests
and a holy nation. These are the words that you
shall speak to the people of Israel, saying, unlike a select few set apart
to serve God, this is going to be the entire nation. The entire
kingdom will be like your priests and everyone will be equally
consecrated to me. That's the vision. Everyone worshiping
and serving God with all their hearts and with all their soul
and with all their minds. So Abraham and his descendants
were set apart as God's special people, bound to him by covenant,
heirs of his promises. And circumcision was the sign.
It was the sign of that covenant relationship. It served to identify
them, to set them apart from all other people, to remind them
of his promises, to encourage their faithfulness, to give them
assurance of their relationship with him. And as we're going
to see in a little bit, also, as a sign of greater spiritual
realities. Now, this is an important point,
so don't miss this. We should note here that with
this sign, every male descendant of Abraham was circumcised at
eight days old. This means that within the covenant
community of Israel, there was always a mixed population of
true and false worshipers. Not all of Abraham's offspring
would grow up to become genuine worshipers of Yahweh, right?
That's just not reality. Some would grow and they would
devote themselves to Yahweh and others would not, but they all
bore the mark of circumcision. So circumcision as the sign of
the Abrahamic covenant, continuing into the Mosaic covenant, was
an external marker indicating that one is counted as a member
of the household of Abraham and therefore part of the covenant
community. It was meant to signify that one was set apart unto Yahweh
as His unique possession, committed as His servant and heir of His
promises. The expectation when a child
was circumcised was that that child would go on to develop
a heart of genuine worship and obedience. And if that happened,
then that child would accurately reflect what the sign of his
circumcision was meant to signify. But of course, that was not always
the case. And so under the Abrahamic and Mosaic covenants, the people
of God were always mixed. Believers and unbelievers. Genuine
worshipers and false worshipers. But they were all circumcised.
This was a tension, and ultimately, we could say a weakness of the
old covenant. It was a covenant featuring amazing
promises from God for his people. I'll be your God, you'll be my
people, you'll be my treasured possession, you'll be a holy
nation, a kingdom of priests, set apart from all other peoples,
amazing promises. But with those promises, it did
nothing to actually change people on the inside. They bore an external
mark, circumcision, identifying them as God's people and heirs
of His promises, but the hearts of many remained far from God. So again, they were members of
that covenant community who never inherited the promises. They
bore the sign of the covenant, but they were not true worshipers
of God. And so the children of Israel
throughout the Old Testament constantly had to be reminded,
don't trust your circumcision. Don't trust the external sign.
Don't trust the fact that you're just an ethnic descendant of
Abraham, because ultimately it's about the heart. So, We find
a passage like this in Deuteronomy 10, where Moses is recounting
the rebellion of God's people and God's mercy. Deuteronomy
10 verse 12. Pay attention to the language
here. And now Israel, what does Yahweh your God require of you?
But to fear Yahweh your God, to walk in his ways, to love
him, to serve Yahweh your God with all your heart, with all
your soul. and to keep the commandments and statutes of Yahweh, which
I am commanding you today for your good. Behold, to Yahweh
your God belong heaven, and the heaven of heavens, and the earth
with all that is in it. Yet Yahweh set his heart in love on your
fathers, and chose their offspring after them, you above all peoples,
as you are this day." Now listen, he says, "...circumcised therefore
the foreskin of your heart, and be no longer stubborn." Interesting. In verse 15 there,
Moses alludes to the Abrahamic covenant. Yahweh chose him and
all the descendants to love them, to make a covenant with them.
A covenant marked by circumcision. But then in verse 12, what was
expected of them as his chosen people? Walk in his ways, love
him, serve him with your whole hearts and souls and keep his
commandments. Did they do those things? Many of them did not. And so the language Moses then
uses is this, this call, circumcised therefore the foreskin of your
hearts. What he's saying is let's move past just this external
mark. The external mark should be there
as a descendant of Abraham, but what it essentially points to,
the reality that should be in place, is a heart which is fully
consecrated and set apart for God. This is a message directed at
a nation whose males all bear the physical mark of circumcision.
But Moses tells them that they need to go beyond the outward
signs and circumcise their hearts. In other words, their internal
condition needs to reflect the dedication that their physical
circumcision was meant to signify. Don't be hypocrites. Physical
circumcision was always intended as a mark of being set apart
to God to love, worship, and serve Him wholeheartedly. And
so Moses here is challenging the people to rise to this calling
by cultivating a heart which is fully devoted to Yahweh. He's
urging them to remove any internal barriers, the foreskin of the
heart. Anything keeping you from a wholehearted devotion to God,
remove it. Anything keeping you from genuine
obedience and faith. It's not just about a physical
mark, in other words. What ought to be there is a transformation
from within. In essence, Moses is saying,
let your heart match the outward sign of your covenant. Be what
your circumcision signifies, a people truly set apart from
God. Now, sounds ideal, but did Israel do that en masse? You
know the sad account of Israel throughout the Old Testament.
Hundreds of years later, Jeremiah would use similar language in
Jeremiah 4, still calling God's people to faithfulness. It says,
for thus says Yahweh to the men of Judah in Jerusalem, break
up your fallow ground and sow not among thorns. Circumcise
yourselves to Yahweh, remove the foreskin of your hearts.
O men of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem, lest my wrath go
forth like fire and burn with none to quench it because of
the evil of your deeds. So the language there drives
home kind of what we've already been saying about circumcision
and what it signifies. He says, circumcise yourselves
to Yahweh. That speaks of consecration.
That speaks of being set apart for His service. He's telling
them, get your hearts right. Get your hearts right. Their
physical circumcision was not enough. They needed genuine hearts
of love and service. And so Jeremiah, a few chapters
later, escalates this even further in chapter nine. He not only
calls the people to move beyond that external sign and to get
their hearts right, but he proclaims that the day would come when
God would actually judge those who were circumcised but were
not circumcised in heart, who bore the external mark but did
not have hearts of genuine worship. Jeremiah 9.25, Behold, the days
are coming, declares Yahweh, when I will punish all those
who are circumcised merely in the flesh. Egypt, Judah, Edom,
the sons of Ammon, Moab, and all who dwell in the desert,
who cut the corners of their hair, for all these nations are
uncircumcised, they're gonna receive judgment, but then he
says, and all the house of Israel are uncircumcised in heart. Saying,
you're behaving just like the pagan nations, just like these
other nations who are uncircumcised, not part of God's covenant. You're
behaving just like them, and you are uncircumcised in your
heart. So your heart has the same condition
as them, even though you have the external sign of the covenant.
And so, the Lord is threatening judgment upon those who bore
the covenant sign. Genealogically, they're descendants
of Abraham, children of the covenant, yet they're not going to inherit
the covenant promises. Instead, they're going to receive
His wrath. The problem is that they were circumcised merely
in the flesh, while remaining uncircumcised in heart. So, we
learned that physical circumcision was always intended to point
to greater spiritual realities. It was never just about circumcising
the flesh. It was always meant to signify
that its bearer possessed a heart of genuine love and devotion
to Yahweh. Unfortunately, as the history
of Israel shows us, that was largely not the case. Unfortunately,
the weakness of the old covenant was found in the weakness of
man. Nothing wrong with the covenant as God designed it, but man was
weak. Israel's continual rebellion
and hypocrisy exposed the fact that they though they were to
be a kingdom of priests set apart to sincerely love and worship
and serve Yahweh, if they were actually to be able to do that,
they would need God to do something on the inside of them to actually
change their nature. They had a heart problem, and
that heart problem prevented them from faithfully living out
what their circumcision proclaimed. So the old covenant was weakened
by the inability of man. As a consequence of that weakness,
the covenant community in the Old Testament, as we already
noted, was always a mixed bag. It was always comprised of believers
and unbelievers alike, all of them bearing the sign of the
covenant. All claimed equally to be children of Abraham, all
claimed equally to be children of the covenant, but they were
not. In fact, as Jeremiah warned earlier, some would face the
same judgment as the pagan nation. These Jews may have been circumcised
unlike their believing neighbors, but they shared their neighbors'
unbelieving hearts. So, what do we do then? What's God's solution
to this? Is that it? God promises to Abraham,
you and your descendants will be my people, my treasured possession,
my kingdom of priests, a holy nation, all this, but man is
weak, man fails, they're not living up to the covenant sign,
so what then happens to God's promises? Are God's plans thwarted
because of the weakness of man? Obviously not. God, when He makes
promises, fulfills His promises. What we see throughout Scripture
is He often fulfills those promises at a time when it seems absolutely
impossible to fulfill those promises from a human perspective. So
in light of this continual rebellion and hypocrisy among God's covenant
people, God promised that the day would come when He actually
would solve the problem of that human weakness. The day would
come when he would do something entirely new so that he could
perfectly fulfill his promises to Abraham. And we find this
in Jeremiah 31. Jeremiah 31, verse 31. Behold,
the days are coming, declares Yahweh, when I will make a new
covenant. A new covenant over against the
Abrahamic covenant, over against the Mosaic covenant. This is
something new. I'm gonna make a new covenant with the house
of Israel and the house of Judah. He says, not like the covenant
I made with their fathers. It's completely different. Not
like that covenant, when I took them by the hand to bring them
out of the land of Egypt, my covenant that they broke. By
the way, you say, well, that's a Mosaic covenant. Well, yeah,
but he took them out of Egypt, remember, because the Lord heard
their crying and he remembered his covenant with Abraham. So
he says, my covenant that they broke, though I was their husband,
declares Yahweh. For this is the covenant that
I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares
Yahweh. And this is new. This solves the weakness of the
old covenant. I will put my law within them.
I will write it on their hearts, and I will be their God, and
they shall be my people. And no longer shall each one
teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, no, Yahweh,
for they shall all know me. From the least of them to the
greatest, declares Yahweh, for I will forgive their iniquity
and I will remember their sin no more. And so the Lord promises
he's gonna make a new covenant. And who's he gonna make it with?
The house of Israel, the descendants of Abraham. It's not gonna be
like the old covenant, since in this new covenant, God would
actually put his law on the inside of man. He's gonna write it on
the hearts. God will actually do an internal work necessary
to create a people who are genuinely devoted to Him. And notice what
it says in verse 34 there. It says, "...and no longer shall
each one teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, Know
Yahweh, for they shall all know Me, from the least of them to
the greatest." And so this new covenant is entirely different
from the old covenant in that every person under the new covenant
will be a genuine believer. They will all know Yahweh. Gone
will be the days of a covenant community, this mixed bag of
believers and unbelievers, each bearing the sign of the covenant,
but some having a genuine heart of worship and others not. And
you say, but wait a second, what about the church? Are there not
unbelievers at times included in the church? Unfortunately,
that does happen at times, but not by design. Whereas the Old
Covenant, by design, would circumcise those who, knowing very well,
many of whom would not go on to be genuine worshippers. Ezekiel
touches on this as well, Ezekiel 36-25. He says, I will sprinkle clean
water on you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleanness,
and from all your idols I will cleanse you, and I will give
you a new heart and a new spirit I will put within you, and I
will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you
a heart of flesh, and I will put my spirit within you and
cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules.
And so everyone who's a participant in the new covenant is sprinkled
clean from their sin. Everyone will be given a new
heart. Everyone will have God's Spirit put within them. All covenant
members will have their sins forgiven. Every single member
of this covenant community will be enabled by God, through His
Spirit, to obey Him. Moses looked forward to the new
covenant as far back as Deuteronomy 30, verse 6. It says, and Yahweh
your God will circumcise your heart. God will do it. And the
heart of your offspring, so that you will love Yahweh your God
with all your heart and with all your soul that you may live. So the new covenant would not
feature the circumcision of the flesh, but would bring about
the circumcision of the heart. In doing so, it would actually
bring about what circumcision under the old covenant was always
meant to signify and anticipated. It would fulfill the type. That
is, circumcision in the Old Testament, in one sense, served as a type,
anticipating its antitype, anticipating a later fulfillment. It would
fulfill the type by bringing about its antitype, and in fulfilling
it, would do away with it, ultimately. Now, that brings us through the
Old Testament somewhat. You follow that flow of redemptive
history, and you have the promise with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob
as descendants. You see it reaffirmed through
Moses and so on. And then you see that Israel's
not keeping that covenant as they ought to. They're not living
up to their identity as covenant community. And so a new covenant
is promised. And now we come to that new covenant,
or what we could say, the New Testament. Of course, this is that new covenant
which Jesus inaugurated by His death, burial, and resurrection.
This is that new covenant that Jesus spoke of when at the Lord's Supper with His disciples,
He raised that glass of wine and said, this is the blood of
the covenant which is poured out for many for the forgiveness
of sins. That's the new covenant. And so with Jesus and His perfect
life and substitutionary death on the cross, and His resurrection
from the dead, came all those promises of the New Covenant.
A new heart, the forgiveness of sins, God's spirit placed
within, a new ability by the power of God to live for Him.
Now that raises some questions. If the promises of the Old Covenant
were for everyone who is part of Abraham's household, And the
New Covenant is a fulfillment of those promises, which it is.
Who now receives those promises? Is it only for those who remain
physical descendants of Abraham? The answer to that, obviously,
is no. Galatians chapter 3. Paul explains who the beneficiaries
of the New Covenant will be. Galatians 3.7. He says, And the Scripture, foreseeing
that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel
beforehand to Abraham, saying, In you shall all the nations
be blessed. That's why we say that this is
a fulfillment of the Abrahamic Covenant. So then, those who
are of faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith.
For all who rely on works of the law are under a curse, for
it is written, cursed is everyone who does not abide by all things
written in the book of the law, and do them." He's saying, you
want circumcision, you want to keep the law, if you open that
door and say, I'm going to keep part of the law, you must keep
it all. Now it is evident that no one is justified before God
by the law, for the righteous shall live by faith. But the
law is not a faith, rather the one who does them shall live
by them. Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming
a curse for us, for it is written, cursed is everyone who is hanged
on a tree, so that in Christ Jesus The blessing of Abraham
might come to the Gentiles, so that we might receive the promised
spirit through faith. So who now are the beneficiaries
of the new covenant? Is it just descendants of Abraham?
Is it just those who have been circumcised? Paul is saying,
no, everyone who believes by faith is counted now as a child
of Abraham. Because what? Abraham believed
before he received the sign of circumcision, and your belief
and your faith makes you a child of Abraham. And what? Circumcision
is not necessary. And he actually says that through
Jesus Christ, the blessings of Abraham might come to the Gentile,
the uncircumcised Gentile. when they believe by faith, receive
all the blessings of the new covenant. Paul explained this
to the Romans. I know we're dealing with a lot
of scripture this morning, maybe a little bit more theological
than what you were expecting. But as I said, the intention
here is to provide some resource for new believers so that they
can understand baptism before they get into the waters of baptism. Romans 4.1, Paul says, what then
shall we say was gained by Abraham, our forefather, according to
the flesh? For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something
to boast about, but not before God. For what does the scripture
say? Abraham believed God, and it
was counted to him as righteousness. Now to the one who works, his
wages are not counted as a gift, but as his due. And to the one
who does not work, but believes in him who justifies the ungodly,
his faith is counted as righteousness. Just as David also speaks of
the blessings of the one to whom God counts righteousness apart
from works, blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven
and whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man against whom
the Lord will not count his sin. Is this blessing then only for
the circumcised or also for the uncircumcised? For we say that
faith was counted to Abraham as righteousness. How then was
it counted to him? Was it before or after he had
been circumcised? It was not after, but before
he was circumcised. He received the sign of circumcision
as a seal of the righteousness that he had by faith while he
was still uncircumcised. The purpose was to make him the
father of all who believe without being circumcised, so that righteousness
would be counted to them as well, and to make him the father of
the circumcised, who are not merely circumcised, but also
walk in the footsteps of the faith that our father Abraham
had before he was circumcised." So he's saying Abraham would
be the father of all those who believe by faith. The uncircumcised,
the Gentiles who believe by faith, Children of Abraham and those
who are circumcised, but also walk in the footsteps of Abraham. In other words, those who are
physically circumcised, but are living as those who are fully
consecrated, well, they're children of Abraham as well. For the promise
to Abraham and his offspring that he would be heir of the
world did not come through the law, but through the righteousness
of faith. So through the new covenant,
God has made a new covenant people, a people who are not marked by
circumcision, but who are marked by faith. All those who believe
are saved by grace through faith and receive all the blessings
of the new covenants. And that might be a Jew who circumcised
and he's got genuine faith, child of Abraham. Could be a Gentile
who believes in Christ as genuine faith, becomes a child of Abraham.
Paul writes of this in Titus chapter three, as he speaks about
this new covenant people. And this is a Gentile audience.
It says, For we ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, led
astray, slaves to various passions and pleasures, passing our days
in malice and envy, hated by others and hating one another.
But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared,
he saved us. Not because of works done by
us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy. by the washing
of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, whom he poured
out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that, being
justified by his grace, we may become heirs according to the
hope of eternal life. No longer are they only circumcised
Jews who become heirs of God's promises. Now it's all those
who believe, who receive all the blessings of the new covenant.
The washing of regeneration by the Holy Spirit, being made new
on the inside, become heirs of eternal life. Through Jesus, God has made a
new covenant people. These would not be people merely
bearing an external mark, signifying that they were set apart for
service to God, but a people actually made new on the inside
by His Spirit. Paul says that these believers
will have their sins washed away. He says they'll be regenerated,
made new by His Spirit. These believers would be declared
righteous by His grace. It's these men and women of faith
who would be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life.
These are the people who make up God's new covenant community.
Peter wrote to the Gentiles this way in 1 Peter 2, but you, now
listen to what sounds like Old Testament language, something
that would be spoken to the Jews, but now being spoken to the Gentiles.
But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a
people for His own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies
of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light.
Once you were not a people, but now you are God's people. Once
you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy."
He's saying to Gentiles, to the church, You now are everything
that circumcision under the Old Testament was meant to signify
about God's people. But you are now all of that without
circumcision, but through faith. But through faith. So now what
of circumcision? Should new covenant believers
be circumcised? And you say, well, that's a silly
question. Is that really something we argue about today? No, but
they certainly did in the New Testament. They certainly did
in the early church. This was something they had to
grapple with. Should those who have received the regeneration
of the Holy Spirit, who have been made a new creation on the
inside, should they be circumcised? Should those who have received
the fulfillment of what circumcision always anticipated, should they
be circumcised? Easy question to answer. Paul
in Galatians 5. For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision
nor uncircumcision counts for anything but only faith working
through love. Galatians 6.15. For neither circumcision
counts for anything nor uncircumcision but a new creation. All that matters here is that
you're regenerated by the Holy Spirit, a new creation on the
inside. Cutting off of the foreskin of
the flesh as an external mark, that means nothing. What matters
is internal regeneration. So now that the new covenant
has come, which brings a new creation through the regeneration
of the Holy Spirit, circumcision is nothing. Doesn't count for
anything. It was a sign signifying that
one was a physical descendant of Abraham and therefore a participant
in the old covenant. But now under the new covenant,
everyone who believes by faith is counted as a member of Abraham's
household. Not marked by circumcision, but
marked by faith. By faith, everything that circumcision
was meant to symbolize has actually come to pass. The promise has
been fulfilled. The type has been satisfied,
and it's anti-type. Circumcision has now been done
away with via fulfillment. So the people of the new covenant
are those who have placed their faith in Jesus Christ. And you
can ask yourself this morning, am I a member of the new covenant?
The people of the new covenant are those who have placed their
faith in Jesus Christ. By faith, all the benefits of
His perfect life, His substitutionary death, and His resurrection are
granted to them. The New Covenant community is
a community of men and women who have all come to Jesus in
faith, who have all had their sins forgiven, and who have all
been made new by the Holy Spirit. Okay. Now we get to the point
of this sermon. We introduced the idea of covenant
signs. And we said the Lord, when He
makes covenants with His people through redemptive history, often
marks His covenants with visible, tangible signs. Signs which served
multiple purposes. Identify and set apart God's
people, remind them of His promises, encourage faithfulness, give
assurance of the relationship to Him, and point to greater
spiritual truths. Is there a sign of the new covenant? Is there a sign? a visible, tangible
sign which reminds us of God's promises in the New Covenant?
Is there a sign that encourages us to faithfulness? Is there
a sign which signifies that we have believed in Jesus? Is there
a sign that represents the fact that we've been cleansed from
our sin? Is there a sign signifying that we've received the Holy
Spirit? Is there a sign indicating that we've received all the blessings
which Christ has secured through His death, burial, and resurrection?
Yes. You can probably guess what it
is. Peter preached at Pentecost to those who believed, repent
and be baptized. Every one of you, in the name
of Jesus Christ, for the forgiveness of sins, and you'll receive the
gift of the Holy Spirit. As Peter preached that the new
covenant had arrived, he answered those who believed that they
must be baptized. Baptism was a visible, tangible,
external sign that one had believed in faith. That that one has been
included in the New Covenant community, the Church. It was
the sign of the New Covenant, symbolizing that that individual
had received all of its blessings. So then, is it accurate to say
circumcision of the old has now been replaced by baptism in the
new? Yes and no, mainly no. Paul wrote
about the connection between circumcision and baptism in his
letter to the Colossians. Colossians chapter 2 says, In
him also you were circumcised with a circumcision made without
hands, by putting off the body of the flesh by the circumcision
of Christ. He's talking about, you could
say that that's regeneration. That is, he did something on
the inside of you by his Holy Spirit. Not circumcision made
with hands, but one made by his Spirit, right? He worked inside
of you, the putting off the body of the flesh. Not the cutting
off of the foreskin, but what? Putting off the whole body of
the flesh. That's your sin nature. Dying to your old self. That's
the circumcision of the heart. And that's what we could call
regeneration. Having been buried by him, he says, in baptism.
in which you were also raised with him through faith in the
powerful working of God who raised him from the dead." So Paul explains
how this greater circumcision takes place. He says, having
been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised
with him through faith in the powerful working of God who raised
him from the dead. Now, remember what we said when we started.
We said that the terms of faith and repentance in baptism are
inseparable. And that in the New Testament,
when one is invoked, you can assume that the others are all
implicit. And that's true in this text as well. The entire
conversion experience can be spoken of as faith, repentance,
baptism, and even the reception of the Holy Spirit. And it can
be spoken of by one of those at any given time. What Paul
is saying in Colossians is that through baptism, Assume, including
faith and repentance, the believer is united with Jesus in Jesus'
death, burial, and resurrection. He expects us to understand that
that's not a baptism divorced from faith and repentance, but
baptism as an expression of faith and repentance. The point is
that when one is converted, he's united to Jesus Christ so that
they die to their old self and they rise again to live a new
life for Jesus Christ. That's that putting off of the
body of the flesh. He describes that as receiving circumcision
from Christ. This is the circumcision of the heart. This is the circumcision
that those Old Testament prophets and Moses anticipated and looked
forward to. And according to Paul, baptism is the external
sign that this internal work of heart circumcision has taken
place. Romans chapter 2. Paul says, for no one is a Jew
who is merely one outwardly, nor is circumcision outward and
physical. But a Jew is one inwardly, and
circumcision is a matter of the heart, by the Spirit, not by
the letter. His praise is not from man, but
from God. So, baptism then, according to
Paul, is the sign that the spiritual realities which circumcision
anticipated had actually been applied to the believer. The
heart had been circumcised. They had entered the new covenant.
They have been regenerated. So then does baptism replace
circumcision? No. The circumcision of the flesh
in the old covenant is not replaced by baptism. The sign of the circumcision
of the flesh is fulfilled in the circumcision of the heart.
Baptism then being the outward sign that that spiritual reality
of heart circumcision has taken place. That's an important distinction
to make because much confusion arises when people get this wrong. Those who would make a direct
parallel between baptism and circumcision make serious errors
and frankly arrive at a faulty understanding of what the church
is. even sometimes baptizing babies. In their minds, baptism
functions similarly to circumcision. They believe that since circumcision
was applied to the children of covenant members under the Old
Covenant, Baptism, then, being a direct one-to-one parallel
to circumcision, should also be applied to children of covenant
members. They don't believe it saves,
necessarily, but because this child is the child of a new covenant
member, they should also be baptized since, in the Old Testament,
children were circumcised. The problem with that thinking
is that they are underestimating the newness of the new covenant.
Remember what Jeremiah said? Under the new covenant, You won't
have to say to your neighbor and to your brother, No, Yahweh.
For they shall all know Me, from the least of them to the greatest,
declares Yahweh. For I will forgive their iniquity and remember their
sin no more." The great weakness of the Old Covenant was that
it included individuals who were circumcised in their flesh, but
not in their heart. These were people who were physical
descendants of Abraham who bore the sign of circumcision, but
they were unbelievers. The New Covenant would solve
that problem. That's one of the reasons that
necessitated the New Covenant. Everyone under the New Covenant
will be a believer. They will all genuinely know
God. And so that's why we say that the church is a community
of regenerate believers. those who have been made new
on the inside. This is why baptism is only ever administered to
those who are genuine believers. It's only administered to those
who believe, because it's meant to reflect the reality, inward
reality of regeneration. It's a symbol representing that
one has been united to Christ in his death, burial, and resurrection.
It's a picture of one having their sins washed away. Unlike
circumcision, which hoped for future faith from its bearer,
baptism signals that that faith is already present. By baptizing
someone of whom none of that is true, we introduce into the
New Covenant the very same weaknesses that plagued the Old Covenant
and that necessitated the New Covenant. We carry over from
the Old Covenant one of the very problems that the New Covenant
was meant to solve. The church... or the New Covenant
community is comprised of genuine believers only. Now, you say,
well, hold on, I know some people in the church who turned out
not to be genuine believers. And yes, I say, there are those who
make a profession of faith, we baptize them, assuming that those
inward realities are true, because that's the profession of faith,
and over time it proves that that's not the case, but that's
not by design of the Covenant. Whereas in the Old Covenant,
children were baptized having no ability to profess any faith
in Jesus. Or, I'm sorry, any faith in God. So, the church is comprised of
genuine believers only. It's a regenerate community.
This means that although we seek to raise our children, to embrace
Christ as Savior and Lord, we don't baptize them until they
do. Otherwise, we needlessly introduce so many of the tensions
and weaknesses which characterize the Old Covenant. So, I'm going
to summarize it this way. Sound familiar? Baptism is the
act of fully immersing a new believer in water, through which
they publicly declare their repentance from sin, faith in Jesus, and
a commitment to live as His disciple. As the sign of the New Covenant,
it pictures the cleansing from sin, union with Christ, regeneration
by the Holy Spirit, and one's addition to Christ's Church,
the New Covenant community. So in conclusion, baptism is
a powerful sign of the New Covenant. It's administered in water because
it symbolizes sins being washed away. That's why Ananias could
say to Paul, rise, be baptized, wash away your sins. Also Ezekiel
speaks of us being sprinkled with clean water. By being immersed
in water, it symbolizes also being immersed into Christ, being
united to him in his death, burial, and resurrection. Further to
that, it symbolizes dying to one's old self and rising again
to live a new life for Jesus. That's Romans 6. Do you not know
that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were
baptized into His death? We were buried, therefore, with
him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was
raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk
in newness of life. For we have been united with
him in death like his, we shall certainly be united with him
in a resurrection like his. We know that our old self was
crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought
to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin,
for one who has died has been set free from sin. And so baptism
pictures that spiritual union where we are united to His death,
burial, and resurrection, rising again to walk in newness of life.
Further, being immersed in water is meant to symbolize our being
made new by the Holy Spirit. Titus speaks of us being washed, receiving the washing of regeneration
and renewal of the Holy Spirit, and so it pictures regeneration.
With the union of Christ also comes a picture of uniting with
every other believer who is united to Jesus. 1 Corinthians 12, for
in one spirit we were all baptized into one body. Jews or Greeks,
slaves or free, and all were made to drink of one spirit.
And so it pictures being added to the covenant community of
the church and united to everyone else who's united to Jesus. Baptism
then, this is our last paragraph. Baptism then is the powerfully
symbolic sign of the new covenant. Unlike circumcision, which was
anticipatory, baptism is revelatory. It reveals a faith that does
exist and a regeneration that has taken place, whereas circumcision
anticipated that that might occur in its bearer. He reveals genuine
faith and repentance, all the spiritual realities which God
promised to those who believe. It signifies that one has entered
the New Covenant and has received its blessings. It's a mark which
sets one apart as a member of the New Covenant community. It's
performed in Jesus' name because it represents one's full immersion
into Christ, being united to Him in His death, burial, and
resurrection. It's administered publicly because it's meant to
be a public confession that one has died to their old self and
has risen again to live a new life as a disciple of Jesus,
whose name they take upon themselves through baptism. And so baptism
is for believers and every believer must be baptized. It's the essential
initiatory right into the new covenant. Let's pray. Father,
we thank you for your word. And Lord, we pray that This rapid overview of baptism would
be helpful to those who maybe have received Christ, they do
have genuine faith, trusting Him as Savior and Lord. I pray
that these would make their faith public and that they'd be baptized,
now having a better understanding of its importance and its command.
For those of us who have been baptized, we pray that we would
not make the error of those in the Old Testament who bore an
external mark, but whose heart was far from you. But instead,
we pray that you'd help us to walk as those who have been made
new. Help us to walk in your spirit
that you've granted us. Help us to abide by the word that
you've written on our hearts. Help us to lean into the covenant
community that you have added us to. So we pray that you'd
help us to live as followers of Christ, what our baptism proclaimed. And then, Lord, we pray for those
this morning who are not yet saved. We pray that maybe, even
through a sermon on circumcision and baptism, they've come to
understand their need for Jesus. We pray that these would make
their faith public and that they'd be baptized in Christ's name.
We thank you that you are continuing to build your church. We thank
you for those who are presently, even now, working on their salvation
testimonies so that they can make that public declaration
of their faith through baptism. We pray that you continue to
build your church this way. Lord, we thank you for Jesus and all
that you've done for us through him. It's in his name that we
pray. Amen.
What is Baptism (Part 2) - Acts 2
Series Topical
| Sermon ID | 1111241419251775 |
| Duration | 57:26 |
| Date | |
| Category | Sunday Service |
| Language | English |
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