Congregation of the Lord, this Lord's Day is about stating the Reformed Church's position on baptism, and that over against, since this was written in its historical situation, the Progeny Reformation, over against the Roman Catholics. who teach that water saves, and the Anabaptists who teach that baptism is not for covenant seed, but only for those who make profession of faith. If you don't know what the Reformed Church is, Reformed is the name given to it. The Protestant Reformation took place beginning about 516, 517 AD, and Reformed deals with taking away what we would say the accretions of the Roman Catholic Church over centuries in the West, and taking it away according to God's Word. So it means reformed according to God's Word. And it's a process we want to continue doing to reform ourselves, inside and without, according to God's Word. As Reformed Christians, we hold to a water baptism that does not wash away sins. That is, the water does not save you. We sing heartily the words of the hymn, Nothing But The Blood, right? Washes away our sins. And we should add to that, and, you know, the Holy Spirit. But why then do we baptize with water if water doesn't save? Or why does the Holy Spirit call baptism in Scripture the water of rebirth and the washing away of sins if the water doesn't give new birth, and if the water doesn't wash away your sins, cleanse you of your guilt, which then means that you're not liable to your sins and you won't be punished, but you can enjoy, be reconciled to God and enjoy Him forever in His kingdom. If the water doesn't do these things, why then would the Holy Spirit give it that name in Scripture? Well, as our catechism points out, God has two reasons for this. First, He wants to instruct us. God wants to teach us that as water removes dirt from our bodies, the blood, that means the sacrificial death of Jesus, his bloody sacrifice, as an atonement, as a penal substitution, that the punishment for sin is death. And substitution is when someone takes your place. So Jesus' sacrifice was his taking the place of sinners and being punished in their place. That blood, that sacrifice cleanses and the Holy Spirit cleanses. So as water cleanses the bodies, God's teaching us Jesus' sacrifice and Holy Spirit cleanses sin. And so then we should think of baptism in one sense, right? It's an object lesson for us. And we know how much our Savior loved to teach in object lessons, and in parables, and in pictures. And now I trust that the adults here this morning, young adults, adults that you all know baptism's lesson, But you need to make sure that your covenant child also knows baptism's lesson. You know, it'll be a duty and responsibility to you parents, or someday parents, as you get married and have children, to make sure they understand what their baptism means. And you could always do it when you're giving them a bath, right? I'm not saying baptize them, I'm saying explain, maybe on a specially rainy, muddy day, as they get in that bath and they see him getting cleaned, explain, we're sinners by birth, this is what we are in God's eyes, but God has provided something that can cleanse that filth, and then preach to them the gospel of Jesus' love, God's love, and Jesus dying for our sins, and His Holy Spirit that He pours out to renew us. So you can use, so you need to explain to them baptism in its teaching. Explain to them how God graciously cleanses us, and that then means we can draw near to God. Because of what Jesus has done, we can go to God in prayer. Because of what Jesus has done, we can go to God in prayer. It's because of what Jesus has done that we're here worshiping, right? We have no hope, no hope to draw near to God by anything we've done. It's because God has washed us with the blood of Christ, washed us by the Holy Spirit, As we've received that gospel and faith and belief, God has cleansed us and made us new, and so we can draw near to God in prayer, draw near to God in praise, draw near to God in just daily living. That's the object lesson of baptism. But baptism is, and secondly, as I think that as a catechism wants to say, and we've already received this teaching, how sacraments are signs and seals. I'm not going to review all that, but I will just make this point. it is very important you grasp their signs and seals to really understand the Reformed position on baptism, because it's not language you'll hear in a lot of other churches necessarily, that they're signs and seals. But they're signs and seals. But more importantly, God, he wants to assure us with our water baptism, he wants to assure the church, he wants to assure his people who are in Jesus Christ that by this divine pledge in sin that we are as truly washed of our sins spiritually as our bodies are washed with water physically. It's not only an object lesson, it's a pledge, it's an assurance to us of what God has done for us in Jesus Christ. You may have struck a deal with somebody before, and you may have stuck out your hand, or they stuck out their hand, and you sealed that deal with a handshake, right? Whatever bargain or deal that was. God seals His new deal with us, His new covenant with us, by baptism, assuring us of His promised grace. We've already learned, right, the sacraments don't create the faith in us through which we're saved. but they strengthen faith, and they increase faith. Baptism is not just for one moment in your life as Paul exhorts the church as we heard last week. Baptism is something that is constantly to call you to faith and repentance in Jesus every day, to instruct you in the gospel, to ensure you of God's promise, to urge you to live for the Lord to whom you were given to and consecrated to in your baptism. We need this because it is through these sacraments as faith is strengthened and increased. God uses that so that we come more and more to trust in His divine mercy. As Paul says it in the Gospel, Jesus came as a minister, a servant of the circumcision. He came to serve God's circumcised promised people, Abraham and his seed. to make truth the promises to them, to fulfill all those promises, but also He doesn't leave the Gentiles out so that the Gentiles can come and praise God for His mercy. We need these to strengthen us in the divine mercy every day. We come to rest more and more, not in who you are, not in what you've done or doing, but in God and His mercies to us in Jesus Christ. that our hope will continue then to be strengthened as we believe His promise that He promised us not when we were good, not when we were deserving, not even when we were undeserving, but when we were ill-deserving. He promised us His grace. That we would continue then as God's believing people in Jesus Christ to stand in the only standing we have, His goodness. Continue in His loving kindness towards us, free, full, infinite, covenanted, promised, signed, and sealed to us as His people. Yes? Yes, am I the only one being stirred in my soul? The gospel is about what God has done. Yes, we've done a lot of bad things, but where sin increased, God's grace increased more. And our focus needs to be on God and His grace. So though water does not save, God does purpose by the waters of baptism to teach us and to assure us that Jesus' blood and spirit do save. And he does this when he calls baptism the water of rebirth and the washing away of sin. So that's our stance as Reformed Christians. against those who take a stance that water does save. But now also as Reformed Christians, we also teach that baptism is not only for those able to make a profession of aid. It is, but it's not only for them, but that children of at least one believing parent should be baptized as well. It's not always the case. In missionary context, when the gospel goes forth, because you're supposed to marry in the Lord. But in a missionary context, when the gospel is going forth, it's not always the case that both are converted. But if at least one is converted, one believing parent, God considers their seed holy and they should be baptized. Now, the catechism gives us two reasons for this. First, a reason why not only adults but infants should be, believing parents, should be baptized is that God includes not only adults but infants as well in his covenant and in his people. So God includes believers in his covenant, adults, and their children. Where do we get this from? Back in Genesis 17, God told our father Abraham, and I say our father Abraham, Because he is our father, Abraham, as Paul tells us in Galatians 3, Paul tells us in Romans 4. Abraham is the father of many nations now. If you are a believer in Christ, Abraham is your father. I will establish my covenant between me and you and your offspring after you throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant. And here's the covenant. to be God to you and to your offspring after you." That's Genesis 17, 7. And God had Abraham circumcise all the males of his household to give them the sign of the covenant, I will be God to you and to your seed after you, even those in his household who were only eight days old. So God included adults and infants in his covenant of grace with Abraham. And the reason we're calling this a covenant of grace is because not only was Abraham in his seed undeserving of God's favor, but as sinners fallen in Adam, they were ill-deserving of God's favor, of his grace. Nothing could commend Abraham or God to make that promise to him. I'm going to be your God and I'm going to be your seed's God. Nothing but God's free, sovereign grace and electing love ever moved God to make that promise to Abraham. And it is the same with us today who are the children of Abraham in Christ. Now this covenant that God made there, I'll be your God and the God of your seed, this was for spiritual, heavenly, eternal blessings. In Revelation 21.3, when it's all said and done, this is after the day of judgment, this is after the Lord's come and ascended and brought his kingdom with him and made all things new, We read in Revelation 21.3, And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them. They will be his people and God himself will be with them as their God. That same promise. I will be your God and you will be my people. That is fulfilled. That promise is fulfilled in the new heavens. and in the new earth. God promised this to Abraham and to his seed after him. God had in his mind its heavenly fulfillment in Christ. God was not promising this to Abraham in Adam. God was promising this to Abraham in Christ, because as Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians 15.22, all die in Adam, but all, all who belong to Christ, are made alive. God can't make a promise of life to you in Adam. but He can make a promise of life to you in Jesus Christ, because we are made alive. Those who belong to Christ are made alive with Him. All the promises of God are yes and amen in Jesus Christ. This is also then why Abraham himself, we saw this in Hebrews as we've been going through Hebrews 11, the hall of faith, Abraham and his children, Isaac, Jacob, confessed themselves to be strangers and pilgrims in the land of Canaan. Because they knew that God promised him was not a merely earthly inheritance, but an eternal one. The new heavens, the new earth. That's why David could say in several places that he and all of God's people were strangers and pilgrims in the land. And this was after the conquest and after they were settled there. Because God's promise to us isn't for a temporary earthly inheritance, no matter how long it might be. God has far more in store for us than 70 or 80 years. That just struck home. It's awesome, isn't it? He has so much in store for us. God has never promised to be a temporary God to us, to give us temporary blessings. He does have temporary blessings for us in His life. He just has so much more. Paul says in Romans 4.13 that God had made Abraham and his offspring heirs of the world, heirs with God and co-heirs with Christ. He says, for the promise to Abraham and his offspring that he would be heir of the world did not come through the law, the Mosaic law, but through the righteousness of faith. Because it's a promise. You just believe it. And God accounts righteousness to you, imputes the righteousness of Christ to you. the one in whom all of his promises are yes and amen. Even our Lord Jesus Christ, when he was confronted in his day in the Sadducees who denied the resurrection, he taught that from this promise comes the resurrection of the dead, because God is not the God of the dead or the living. If God is your God by covenant promise, then you are not of the dead. but you are of the living. You will rise again to glory. That's part of the promise. Now, I have been stressing to you the spiritual, heavenly, new creation, in Christ aspect of this promise so that we don't get tempted to think that all God promised Abraham was a bunch of old covenant stuff and it was all temporal, and it expired when he died, and it was nothing more than the land of Canaan. Because that's just not true. God was promising Abraham and his seed eternal life when he promised, I will be a God to you and to your offspring after you. And God sealed that promise to them, the heirs of that promise, by circumcision. If that was not true, right, if this was not true, that God was promising them spiritual things, the same promises that you and I are heirs of today, then we should not expect to see Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob sitting down with us in the kingdom of heaven. But Jesus says, in fact, you will see them, you who believe in me. So even the new covenant today which God has made with us, Jews and Gentiles and Christ, also contains the same promise. Jeremiah 31, 33, I will be their God and they shall be my people. We celebrate that every week at the Lord's Supper. Baptism and the Lord's Supper are signs and seals of this new covenant, which has that promise, I will be your God and you will be my people. As heirs of this covenant promise in Christ, we are heirs of our Savior's kingdom. Our Savior, as we heard in the gospel this morning, declared that even infants belonged to his kingdom. Now they were bringing even infants to him that he might touch them and when the disciples saw they rebuked them but Jesus called them saying let the children come to me don't hinder them for to such belongs the kingdom of God to such as these even infants and of course to such as those who will become like infants and he's dealing here with their absolute low status an infant had no status and the receptability of an infant to just take because an infant can't earn it he can't do anything for it, all he can do is receive. So he is using infants to teach us the manner in which to receive the kingdom, but he certainly isn't kicking them out of the kingdom. Otherwise, we would think any infant who dies will be automatically damned. There will be no infants redeemed. And whether you're on the Reformed side or the Anabaptist side, nobody wants to say that and should say that. And therefore, they must be regenerate at some point. They must have been justified at some point and united to Christ, because that's the only way they'll be in heaven and be in the Savior's kingdom by God's grace. You know, you can't get much more gracious, right, than to give the kingdom to an infant. I'm sure that probably upset some people. Because what has an infant done to deserve this? Well, what have you done to deserve God's grace? If we're still going, I've deserved it. We've not even heard the gospel. We are not only undeserving congregation, we are ill-deserving. But God shows us grace. You know, even for adults who are baptized upon a profession of faith, their baptism is still based upon a covenant promise. God attaches baptism to his covenant. God does not attach baptism to faith. Baptism is not a sign and seal of faith. Baptism is a sign and seal of God's grace, His mercies to us in Christ. So the question just is, who are God's covenant people? And that is believers and their seed. So believers and their seed should be baptized on the basis of God's covenant with them because they are the covenant people of God. That brings us to the second reason why infants should be baptized is that they're heirs of God's promised deliverance. No less than adults, infants are promised deliverance from sin through Christ's blood and the Holy Spirit who works faith. We read in the prophet Isaiah, we heard God say through his prophet Isaiah, I will pour water on the thirsty land and streams on the dry ground. This is why they shouldn't fear, be afraid. I will pour my spirit upon your offspring and my blessing on your descendants. That's what God's promised to do. And when did God do that? Well, he definitely did it at Pentecost, and he continues to do it ever since, as he continues to fulfill this promise to his covenant people. We read in Peter's sermon, quoting from Joel, in the last days it shall be, God declares, and I'll pour out my spirit on all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy. That promise, they shall prophesy, does not necessarily mean they'll be given the office of a prophet. We know some of these were given the office of a prophet in the New Testament church. But it means that, as Peter says later and promises them, you'll receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. You'll be filled with God's Holy Spirit to know Him and to praise Him. Peter, again, he makes that explicit, repent. Be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ, forgiveness of your sins. You'll receive that gift of the Spirit. Why? For the promise of Joel, which he just read and they've seen poured out, is for you and your children. He's speaking to the Jewish people right here. And for all who are far off, that's us Gentiles, and as many that God will call to himself through this gospel as it's preached. And then we read there in verse 41, so those who received his word were baptized and there were added that day about 3,000 souls. Now there is nothing in that statement to indicate that of those 3,000 who were baptized there were not any infant children of believers baptized. Because in fact, later in Acts we read of the Philippian jailer, for example, that when he believed he and his whole family were baptized. And Lydia's households were the same, and so was Stephanus' household. As Paul says, I baptized Stephanus and his whole household. In Acts 16.31 we read, And they said, Believe in the Lord Jesus, you'll be saved and your household. And they spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all who were in his house. And he took them the same hour of the night and washed their wounds. And he was baptized at once, he and all his family. and he brought them up into his house and set food before them. And he rejoiced, along with his entire household, that he had believed in God." We know for certain he believed in God, and we know for certain his entire household had been baptized because he had believed in God. What you do not see in the New Testament congregation is a child born of baptized parents, growing up, and then being baptized upon the basis of his own profession of faith. You see in the New Testament missionary baptisms, because that's the context. New believing adults of Jews and Gentiles and their families' households being baptized as the heirs of God's promise. And that is why the Catechism will go on to say that it is by baptism, the sign of the covenant, that they too, our believing or our infant children, should be incorporated into the Christian church and distinguished from children of unbelievers. I'm sure that you know this text and are aware of this congregation, but God, he calls our children holy. 1 Corinthians 7.14. And Paul argues on the basis of that, then for a believing spouse, your unbelieving spouse is made holy too, and so you don't have to get a divorce. There's a federal holiness in God's covenant. They are set apart for God. God said through His prophet Ezekiel in chapter 16, verse 20, and you took your sons and your daughters whom you had born to me and these you sacrificed to them to be devoured. Were your whorings so small a matter that you slaughtered my children and delivered them up as an offering by fire to them?" We bear children to the Lord congregation. They belong to Him by His covenant and promise. Jesus says, don't hinder them from coming to me. And that's why we bring them to him, even in the waters of baptism, and give them to him and raise them for him. That's why Paul says, children, obey your parents in the Lord as you owe allegiance to him as your Lord, because you belong to him by covenant and promise. We should treat our children in no less a way than children reborn to the Lord. Children, the difference that God distinguishes you from in the covenant is not in yourself, but in God's grace. It's not in a reason to be puffed up, because we have to remember that God as Israel, that's where we are as a new covenant people of God in Christ Israel, we're His servants to bring this good news of His grace to the nation. Our job is not to stand over and exalt over them, Our job is to exalt in God's grace and go make it known that he might extend that covenant right to the end of the earth and bring us people in. Covenant children, you have a great privilege and a responsibility to live according to God's covenant, to have faith in and obedience to the Lord Jesus Christ. In Abraham's day and under the Old Testament, children were set apart and they were distinguished from children of the unbelievers by circumcision. God distinguishes His church from the world. The church is not to live according to the world. We're not to raise our children according to worldly standards. We're to raise them up in the fear and admonition and nurture of the Lord. That's your responsibility. That's what your covenant responsibility before the Lord is. I know that you can't always determine the results of your children. That's not on you. Your responsibility is to believe God's promises, rest in them, and raise your children accordingly. In the New Covenant, circumcision has been replaced by baptism. Paul had to arm the Galatians against the Judaizers there, who they had already baptized Christians and they wanted them to be circumcised. insisted that they receive a physical circumcision, but Paul said, why would you do that? You've already been circumcised in Christ when you were baptized and buried with him. So congregation of the Lord, I hope this is to remind you, you are in covenant with the Lord your God. His promise is true. He will be your God and you will be his people. You can trust Him in that. He is ever faithful to His promise. That means that we need to live as God's covenant people. We need to turn away from sin. We need to put our hope firmly in Christ. And we need to continue to draw on the infinite kindness of the Lord our God. So abide in Christ. Abide in His love. and keep doing all the things that He has commanded you to do, congregation. Amen.