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.