Genesis chapter 17, for the Word of God this morning, beloved, Genesis chapter 17. It has been announced that we would be baptizing our daughter this morning. We will do that immediately following the preaching of the Word, and of course, Somewhat recently in Bible class we've been dealing with some of these issues. Most of you don't attend Bible class, so it's not much use to you. But I'm going to try and be a help to you this morning. See how that goes. It's a huge subject, but I feel somewhat obligated that you'll understand why we're doing what we're doing, if not really trying to make you come to our mind, as it were. But just that you'll have an understanding of what we do and why we do it. But we are turning to Genesis chapter 17. And if you're unfamiliar with the Old Testament, then It's going to be difficult for you to see where we come from, so we're reading from the Old Testament to try and help aid that. See why we see our children in a particular way, whereby we apply to them what would, in the mind of some, be the sign of those who are in the church. So Genesis chapter 17, reading from verse 1, And when Abram was ninety years old and nine, the Lord appeared to Abram and said unto him, I am the Almighty God. Walk before me, and be thou perfect. And I will make my covenant between me and thee, and will multiply thee exceedingly. And Abram fell on his face, and God talked with him, saying, As for me, behold, my covenant is with thee, and thou shalt be a father of many nations. Neither shall thy name any more be called Abram, but thy name shall be Abraham, for a father of many nations have I made thee. And I will make thee exceeding fruitful, and I will make nations of thee, and kings shall come out of thee. And I will establish my covenant between me and thee, and thy seed after thee in their generations, for an everlasting covenant to be a God unto thee and to thy seed after thee. And I will give unto thee and to thy seed after thee the land wherein thou art a stranger, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession, and I will be their God. And God said unto Abraham, Thou shalt keep my covenant therefore thou and thy seed after thee in their generations. This is my covenant which ye shall keep between me and you and thy seed after thee. Every man child among you shall be circumcised. And ye shall circumcise the flesh of your foreskin, and it shall be a token of the covenant betwixt me and you. And he that is eight days old shall be circumcised among you, every man, child, in your generations. He that is born in the house or bought with money of any stranger which is not of thy seed, he that is born in thy house and he that is bought with thy money must needs be circumcised. And my covenant shall be in your flesh for an everlasting covenant. The uncircumcised man child whose flesh of his foreskin is not circumcised, that soul shall be cut off from his people. He hath broken my covenant. Amen. Ending our reading there at verse 14. Let's just draw near to God in prayer, beloved. Our Father, we come to thee this day in the name of Jesus Christ. We are thankful for the fact that we can come and bring our homes to Thee, as we've done already today. We ask that Thou will hear our prayers for our homes. Many of us, perhaps all of us, can say there's room for improvement within our homes. And we pray that Thou will give grace to improve. Help us, Father, help us as husbands, as wives, as parents, Oh God, enable us to improve by the grace of God, the family, life, and the gospel as it emanates from our habitations. We pray that above all, thy presence will be known in our homes. Thou will be with us in our troubles. Thou will guide us in our difficulties and trials. And we will know the abundant blessings of the gospel within our places of habitation. Be with us today in the word. You know that we gather here to hear the word and be instructed, and I pray that thou wilt be pleased to give light to all and be gracious and help us to understand the word of God, each one. Lord, come now by thy Spirit, fill me with the Holy Ghost, and may the Word of God fall on all, and may, if there be, Lord, anyone outside of Christ that is here this day, we pray for their hearts to be smitten, and for the work of the Spirit to bring them to faith and repentance. So answer our prayer, and help us now in Jesus' name. Amen. Many of you are well aware, I am sure, that for years the subject of baptism has caused division throughout the churches of Christ. Those believing in infant baptism and those holding to believers only baptism fighting, it seems like, incessantly, certainly for the last half millennia. Before the Reformation, for the most part, most of the churches, the Christian, or Christendom if we might call it, didn't have a problem or certainly didn't as much fight about this issue. But over the last half millennia, there has been much infighting and debate and discussion on this topic. As some of you are aware, our church holds to a somewhat unusual position in its view of the subjects of baptism. Traditionally, if you walked into a Presbyterian church, you would assume, and this would be the case for most, that the view of all their members that they're expected to hold is that they would baptize their children. That infants would come along and they would baptize them. That would be expected from them. But in order to facilitate an environment more conducive to genuine Christians who hold to a Baptist position and to bring unity among the fellowship of Christ, our particular denomination has maintained an open policy for her members. And what I will do now is quote what is an additional statement to the Westminster Confession of Faith that's found in our substandards, and I trust it will help enlighten the position of the church here. It says, We equally admit into our fellowship those who believe that the sacrament of baptism, no less than the sacrament of the Lord's Supper, should be administered only to those who have come to a personal, credible profession of saving faith in Christ. He goes on and says, in dealing with this subject that has long caused bitter divisions among God's people, we pledge ourselves to hold our views with a loving tolerance and respect for differing brethren, all of us being united in repudiating the error of baptismal regeneration. So that's the stand of the church. It's one that has been held now for over 60 years, and we continue to uphold it. And when I came into the church, I didn't think much about it. I became a Christian at 19 years of age. I wasn't brought up in a family whereby I was baptized or taught the gospel at all, as many of you are aware, and so I was saved at 19 and a few months later I was baptized by believers, baptism, immersed and so on, and never thought anything about baptism at all until the prospect of our first child came along and I began to think I had read various things, reading theology, you come across differing views, I had been in different conversations as well, some people discussing this issue, but I hadn't given any serious thought until Elissa was on her way, Melanie was pregnant with our first, and I began to really think about it and to read more extensively about it. Most of you, I am guessing most of you, hold to a position of believer's baptism only. I may be wrong, but I think that is the case. And you consider that baptism ought only to be performed after a person has professed faith in Christ. You see that in the New Testament, you hold to that position, and that is perfectly fine. I am not about trying to change your mind. Honestly, that might, after I'm done, that might seem as if I'm being disingenuous. But what I'm really trying to do today, beloved, is help you to see that there is another view, and we are to hold these views in charity, and in loving understanding that there are things about which believers can differ, that they can have a different perspective upon these things, and yet they're still believers. And we don't separate from them and we don't get all angry about them and we don't call them names and be disparaging because they don't hold to the particular view that we hold to. Thank God, never once I can say before God I have never ever been disparaging to the other view. I have sat in the presence of those who believe as I believe and they can become quite Not vicious, but they can mock in a certain language. And I've also been in the presence of those and have been on the receiving end of the mockery of those who believe that what I believe is wrong. And that's fine. The Lord will help them to grow in due course in their maturity. But it's not my intention to change your view. If you walk out of here with your view changed immediately, then there's probably an issue with your study. You need to be a Berean. You need to study the Scriptures. And what I simply want to do is help you understand why Melanie and I choose to take the other path and to baptize our newborn child. I will not deal with everything in this sermon. It's impossible to do so. And I'm going to avoid, I'm going to avoid dealing with the natural objections, most of which I've heard, but I'm not going to spend time dealing with objections. If you have objections you want to bring, mention them to me at the door. Most of them are very simple answers, but I'm not going to get into that today. Inevitably, there will be questions in the mind of some by our use of pouring, sprinkling, rather than immersion. Again, I'm not going to get into that. I have touched on this in the past and all I can afford to say today is simply that the assertion that baptism is synonymous with immersion can only be presented by those who ignore how the scripture uses the word. You can bring before me books that talk about the etymology of the word and say the etymology of the word goes back and it means this. All I'm worried about is how scripture uses the term. And that's all you should be worried about as well. And it does not use it in a sense of being exclusively immersing. And so I leave it there rather than getting into that issue. So why are we baptizing our child today? Why are we baptizing our child? I'm going to present that case to you in a very, well, I can't deal with everything but in the way that the Lord has led me here this morning. First, because there has only ever been one people of God. There has only ever been one people of God. Now that may not seem relevant on the surface, but if you believe that Israel and the church are completely distinct entities then you will not see the unity in how we deal with our children and how children should be baptized. You won't take that position at all. You will wonder why are you reading from Genesis 17? It has no relevance. That's Abraham from his family come Israel. That has no connection with the New Testament at all. They were different people. God deals with them as Israel. We're Gentiles. We're living in the New Testament. We are the church. And they're completely different entities with no relationship whatsoever. And you will naturally then, for the most part, I think, not baptize your children at all. But that is not the position I hold. I hold, we hold, that there is one people of God throughout every generation. The word congregation in the Old Testament, you find it used many, many times, the congregation of Israel. That word congregation in the Old Testament is synonymous with the word church in the New Testament, and I can prove that. In fact, the very first time the word congregation is used in the Old Testament, whether you look at it in the English or in the Hebrew, the very first time the word is used is used at the time of the institution of the meal that identified who the people of God were, Passover. You find it first in Exodus 12, verse 3, where they are first referred to as the congregation of Israel. The term, therefore, is used to identify a visible body that belonged to God, that set themselves apart to belong to God. You won't find it before. Not before. Not before Exodus 12 will you find the term congregation of Israel. After it, you will find it used all the time. And it is the same, it is synonymous with the term church in the New Testament. Psalm 22 verse 22 says this, I will declare thy name unto my brethren, in the midst of the congregation will I praise thee. And that very verse is quoted in Hebrews chapter 2 verse 12 in this way, almost exactly the same with one difference. I will declare thy name unto my brethren, in the midst of the church will I sing praise unto thee. And the New Testament sees a correlation, a synonymous use of the term congregation. In the Old Testament, the congregation of Israel that wandered in the wilderness and came into the land of Canaan. And then church in the New Testament, exactly the same. In fact, Stephen When he stands up to preach, and he preaches in Acts chapter 7, as you're well aware, before he is martyred for the things that he says, he talks about the church in the wilderness. Not the congregation, not Israel in the wilderness, although that's, of course, what he's saying, but he says the church in the wilderness. He refers to it as the church. This unity that there's one people of God in every generation and that there isn't two distinct entities between Israel and the church is drawn out very clearly by the Apostle Paul in Romans chapter 11. Turn with me please to Romans 11. Romans chapter 11. Now in Romans 11, And previous to this as well, he has been dealing with Israel and the position of ethnic Israel. You can see from verse 7 of Romans 11, What then? Israel hath not obtained that which he seeketh for, but the election hath obtained it, and the rest were blinded. According as it is written, God hath given them the spirit of slumber, eyes that they should not see and ears that they should not hear unto this day. That's what he says. He's talking about ethnic Israel. By and large, the nation don't see the truth. And so, verse 10, let their eyes be darkened, that they may not see, and bow down their back always. And Paul then says in verse 11, I say then, have they stumbled that they should fall? God forbid. But rather, through their fall, salvation has come on to the Gentiles, for to provoke them to jealousy. There's a purpose in the blindness of Israel, and them not understanding and coming to the truth. Now, if the fall of them be the riches of the world, and the diminishing of them the riches of the Gentiles, how much more their fullness. For I speak to you Gentiles, inasmuch as I am the apostle of the Gentiles, I magnify mine office, if by any means I may provoke to emulation them which are my flesh, and might save some of them." In other words, as I preach to the Gentiles, and you receive the truth, I'm hoping it will make the Jews jealous of the blessings of God that you experience verse 15 for if the casting away of them be the reconciling of the world what shall the receiving of them be but life from the dead now note this but if the first fruit be holy that's Israel the lump is also holy and if the root be holy so are the branches and if some of the branches be broken off And thou, being a wild olive tree, were grafted in among them. Now you see the picture. There's an olive tree. The olive tree is Israel. There's a wild olive tree. Those are the Gentiles. And you don't have two trees. What you see is a wild olive tree being grafted into the original tree. And so, you grafted among them, and with them partakest of the root and fatness of the olive tree. Gentiles get the blessings that Israel knew. And so he says, boast not against the branches, but if thou boast, thou bearest not the root, but the root thee. Thou wilt say then, the branches were broken off, that I might be grafted in. Israel were cut off, that we might be grafted in. And he says, well, because of unbelief, they were broken off. And thou standest by faith. So he's saying, they were cut off because they didn't believe. Not just to make way for you, but they didn't believe. And you came in because you believe. That's the distinction. Faith is always the distinction of the people of God, the true Israel. And so verse 21, if God spared not the natural branches, take heed lest he also spare not thee. In other words, if you get proud like they, he'll cut you off as well. Verse 22, behold therefore the goodness and severity of God. On them which fell, severity, but toward thee, goodness. If thou continue in his goodness, otherwise thou also shalt be cut off. And he says then, verse 23, And they also, if they abide not still in unbelief, shall be graft in. For God is able to graft them in again. What's he saying? One tree, Gentiles come in through faith. Israelites cut off through unbelief. But there's one tree. That's the point I'm saying to you. Through every generation, there's one entity. There's one tree. There's one people of God. And when the Gentiles come in, they obtain blessings that were known to the believing Israelite. And those who are unbelieving Israelites, they're cut off and they don't experience those blessings. Turn with me to Ephesians chapter 2. You'll see this as well. There, very clearly there. Ephesians 2, again speaking to a Gentile church. The Ephesians were largely Gentile, and the Apostle Paul addresses them, and you will be familiar with much of this. Verse 1, you hath he quickened who were dead in trespasses and sins. When time passed, you walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience. You were heathens without God. You had nothing, but God who is rich in mercy, verse 4, for his great love were with thee, loved us, and so on. He's brought us in, saved us by grace. So we come then to verse 11. And he says, Ephesians 2, 11, Wherefore remember that ye being in time past Gentiles in the flesh, that's what you were, who are called uncircumcision by that which is called the circumcision, the Jews call you uncircumcision, Verse 12, that at that time ye were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. Now I want you to see what they didn't have. They didn't have Christ. They didn't have any citizenship in Israel. They were aliens from the commonwealth of Israel. They didn't have citizenship. And they were strangers from the covenants of promise. They had no access to the promises of God. They weren't in the promises of God. No enjoyment of them. They had no hope, and they were without God. Five things they didn't have. And then it goes on and says, But now in Christ Jesus, ye who sometimes were afar off are made nigh by the blood of Christ. The point is, now you have these things. I mean, look at it. They were without Christ, we would say, now they have Christ. They were not citizens of Israel, now they are citizens of Israel in the Spirit. And they had no access to the Covenants of Promise, now they do have access to the Covenants of Promise. They had no hope, now they have hope. They had no God, now they have God in the world. You see the reversal of it. The five things they didn't have as unbelieving Gentiles, they now have as believing Gentiles. And among them, identifies them as being part of the blessings that Israel enjoyed, that were given to them. Go down to verse 19. Now therefore, ye are no more strangers and foreigners. but fellow citizens with the saints. Who are the saints? Believing Israel. Believing Israel were saints. And you're now fellow citizens with them. You are now with them, saints with them, and of the household of God. The idea is there was one household of God, Israel, in the Old Testament. Believing Jews and Israel were part of that household. There was a true Israel in the midst of the external Israel. And that Israel continues. That Israel exists to this day. And that's why Paul says to the Galatians in chapter 6, he calls them the Israel of God. There is still this one people of God. And when we understand that, now many people believe this but they don't baptize their children. That's fine. But you will not baptize your children unless you believe this. You have to understand that there is this continuity, this sense of one people, and that language that Paul uses elsewhere is very significant, such as Romans chapter 2, verses 28 and 29, he says, he is not a Jew which is one outwardly, neither is that circumcision which is outward in the flesh, but he is a Jew which is one inwardly, and circumcision is that of the heart. And so he's saying the true Jew, if we can use that, if we can preface it, if we can use the adjective true Jew to help distinguish those who were part of just the national identity and those who actually believed in their Messiah and had saving faith, there was a distinction. They called themselves Jews, but they weren't Jews if they did not believe in their Messiah and have faith in the true and living God. And so they were not Jewish just because they were circumcised. And so he says in Galatians 3, 7, they which are of faith, the same are the children of Abraham. They which are of faith are the children of Abraham, not those who are merely descended from his physical line. So that's an important truth to underline at the outset. There has only ever been one people of God. Secondly, because God gave a mark of identity for his people, there is one people and God gives a mark. And we believe God gives a mark of identity for his people. Now, back in Genesis 17, you see that Old Testament mark. From Abraham onwards, the community to which God had given his promises has always been identified by Mark. In the Old Testament, it was circumcision. After the ascension of Jesus, believing Jews were called out from their unbelieving Jewish brethren by what? By the mark of baptism. In the Jewish community then, circumcision and baptism ran side by side for a good number of years. You had circumcision and baptism running side by side as a mark of being God's people. But then you start getting Gentiles coming in. And the question arises among the churches, what is necessary to be marked as the people of God? And they throw away circumcision. They maintain baptism, but they throw away circumcision. And so the mark of the New Testament people of God is now baptism. And I don't think many, if any of us, would disagree with that. Indeed, we might argue that it was inevitable that there would be such a change after the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ. Just as the Lord changed the bloody Passover to an unbloody communion feast, So he changed the bloody act of circumcision to the unbloody sign of baptism. Why? Why would he remove the blood? Because the significant blood had now been shed. Jesus had died on the cross. The blood that mattered had shed. Now any sacramentalism, any acts of sacrament or ordinances should be without blood because they're not pointing forward to a sacrifice anymore. They're remembering a sacrifice already offered. So that was the mark and you read about it in Genesis 17 when he is talking about his covenant made with Abraham. He says very clearly in verse 10, this is my covenant which he shall keep between me and you and thy seed after thee. Every man child among you shall be circumcised. This is a token, it says in verse 11, a token of the covenant between me and you. It's a sign, in other words. It's a sign of the covenant. I've made my covenant with you already, but I am establishing it with a sign, so you get further encouragement in your faith of what it signifies and what I'm going to do for you. Now, we come then not only to see the mark, but the meaning of the mark. Did circumcision signify the same truths as baptism? If they didn't, how could there be any continuity? It is rightly argued that baptism is a sign and seal of the forgiveness of sin and of being baptized into Christ. That is being in union with Jesus Christ. So the believer, when he is in union with Christ, he has a righteousness, he has a forgiveness of sins and righteousness. There are different things that baptism signifies, different things that circumcision signifies, but what I want you to focus on is the central, the central teaching of circumcision and baptism. As I will show you, that both of them signify forgiveness of sins and union, or fellowship with God, if you want to use that term. Forgiveness and fellowship, that might be easier for you to remember. How did circumcision point to forgiveness? How did they understand it to reflect forgiveness? Well, there's other passages we could use, but Jeremiah 4 is very clear. In Jeremiah 4, verse 4, Judah recalled to circumcise yourselves to the Lord and take away the foreskins of your heart, ye men of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem. Circumcise your heart. They had been circumcised for the most part. I would say the vast majority of them were circumcised as infants. And he is calling them to circumcise your heart. That's the problem. Your heart hasn't been circumcised. It was the same call Moses gave in Deuteronomy 30 verse 6. He also called them to circumcise their hearts. And so he's saying the same. But then he goes on in verse 14. O Jerusalem, wash thine heart from wickedness, that thou mayest be saved. Circumcise. Take away the foreskins of your heart. Circumcise yourselves. Take away the foreskins of your heart. Wash thine heart from wickedness, that thou mayest be saved. Cleanse yourselves. Get forgiveness. Obtain forgiveness through circumcision. True spiritual circumcision. So it symbolizes forgiveness just like baptism symbolizes forgiveness. People come and they're baptized as adults to signify the washing away of their sins. Forgiven. But it also signifies righteousness. If you turn to Romans chapter 4 please. Romans chapter 4. Perhaps this feels a little bit more like a Bible study than exhortation in a normal sermon you would get from me, but I trust you're following in the Word of God here as we present the reasons why we're doing what we are doing. In Romans chapter 4, Paul is making a very significant argument about the right way to be reconciled to God. He is establishing the fact that there's never been a change in how a man is justified. And he uses historical characters and Old Testament language to prove that there's no change in how a man is made right before God. So he says in verse 2, if Abraham were justified by works, he hath were of the glory, but not before God. what saith the scripture Abraham believed God and it was counted unto him for righteousness. So here we have Abraham obtaining righteousness. How? Through faith. Not through his own works. And so you go on down to verse nine. He says cometh this blessedness. That's the blessedness of forgiveness of of being counted righteous as verse five puts it using David's language. Um He says, cometh this blessedness then upon the circumcision only or upon the uncircumcision also? For we say that faith was reckoned to Abraham for righteousness. How was it then reckoned? When he was in circumcision or in uncircumcision? In other words, did he come to faith and was he seen as righteous before he was circumcised or afterwards? And so it says, not in circumcision but in uncircumcision. So, he had righteousness before. But then he's given a sign to signify it, verse 11. And he received the sign of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness of the faith which he had yet being uncircumcised, that he might be the father of all them that believe, though they be not circumcised, that righteousness might be imputed onto them also. So, forgiveness of sins established through the sign of circumcision. We see it very clearly in Jeremiah 4. It signified forgiveness. but it also signified righteousness or being right with God and having union with Christ and being seen as righteous before God. And so Abraham had it before he was circumcised because you obtain it by faith. But then he is given a sign of it. God gives him a sign. A sign of what does it say? A sign of circumcision. A seal of the righteousness. Something that was a token, as God uses the language in the Old Testament, a token of the righteousness of the faith which he had. A token of what relationship existed between he and God. He gets this sign. However, he is then told to give that to his children, who have not yet righteousness and have no faith. And this is where you see the connection. Abraham is a believer who receives a sign and applies the sign to himself and is told to apply it to those who can't do what he has done, which is believe God and obtain righteousness. No ordinance ever instituted by God is primarily about what the believer promises to do. I want you to understand that no ordinance ever instituted by God is primarily about what the believer promises to do. Circumcision was about what? Primarily, God's promises. Of course he had to do something, he had to circumcise. That was an act of obedience. But it was primarily to indicate God's promises to him. Circumcision was about God's promises. And Passover was what? It was about God's work, wasn't it? It was to remind them of God's deliverance of them out of Egypt. Not their work, God's work. And every ordinance, every institute by God is always about God primarily. Circumcision, God's promises. Passover, God's work. And it's the same in the New Testament. You come into the New Testament, people look at baptism and they say, it's me taking a stand for God, it's me. That's included, just like it required Abraham to circumcise his children, but it's not the significant part. Baptism primarily signifies the promises of God. What promises? Cleansing from sin and righteousness enables you to stand before God. And so it is with communion as well. What's communion? Just like Passover, it's a sign, a remembrance, a reminder, not of your work, but of the work of Jesus Christ. His death, His resurrection, His soon coming again. It's all about Him. It's not about us. If you have the idea that baptism is all about you, obviously you're going to just dismiss outrightly the fact that infant can't be included because they can't do it. But if you realize that baptism is primarily and predominantly about the promises of God, then you may be able to entertain the idea that children are also understood to be included. Just as circumcision, let me read this to you. Just as circumcision was the sign of the covenant that pointed to the promise of God, and Passover was the meal of the covenant that reminded them of God doing the most significant work necessary to fulfill those promises. For the New Testament believer, baptism is the sign of the covenant that points to what God promises in Christ And communion is the meal of the covenant that reminds us of God doing the most significant work necessary to fulfil those promises. I don't know if you follow that, but I trust that you do. There's a continuity in baptism with circumcision, the Lord's Table with Passover, and they're following on with each other. Those distinctions, they're following on in the significance of their meaning. Thus, while some view baptism as their commitment to God, we don't see that. Obviously, we don't. As part of it, we are hoping that our child one day will prove her commitment to God by very evidently obeying the Lord's Word, living in continual repentance, expressing faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. We desire that, we pray for that, we will look forward to that. But primarily, we see in baptism, God's reaching out toward her. God's promises to her and His mercy. Indeed, baptism of an infant truly depicts something of the Gospel that we need to be reminded of. Remember the language of the Lord Jesus Christ in John 6, 44. No man can come to me except the Father which hath sent me draw him. No one can come except the Father draws. Man has no ability to draw himself to God. So the idea that baptism is man coming to God, drawing himself to God, doesn't depict the gospel. Baptism is someone receiving the blessings of God, drawing them in to himself. And when you put a child, an infant before you, you're reminded this child can't bring itself to God. But God, if you understand it the way we understand it, has already reached out in mercy to that child. by placing it in a gospel home. He's already reaching out. He's already showing mercy. He's already showing us love, saying, Naomi, I'm putting you in with parents who love the Lord Jesus Christ. He's already shown kindness toward her in doing that. Thirdly and finally then, we have seen that we are baptizing our child first because there's only ever been one people of God, Secondly, because God gave a mark of identity for his people. And thirdly, because of the significance of believers children, the significance of believers children. This is just an additional few additional thoughts. It is evident, I believe, throughout Old Testament and New, that children are part of the visible body of the church. And I would argue that it's impossible that they cannot be, that it's impossible to exclude them from being part of the visible church. Paul argues in 1 Corinthians 7, verse 14, he says, the unbelieving husband is sanctified, that is set apart or made different, in a certain sense, by the wife. And the unbelieving wife is sanctified by the husband. Now what's he arguing against here? He's arguing that there's a difference. That no longer the way the Jews were taught, that they were to cut off from all unbelievers. They weren't to mingle with them. You read Ezra's response to hearing that they had intermarried with other nations. And he's calling them to separate from them. They're not to do that, but in the New Testament, the church is being encouraged not to follow that practice, but to maintain the marriage with the unbeliever. And he says, he goes on and says, that this is what makes your children different. If you were in a mixed marriage, your children couldn't really grow up in the covenant community. I mean, if your husband was an unbeliever, was a foreign, the child wouldn't be circumcised and there'd be no Passover, there'd be nothing. You wouldn't be part of the community at all as a child. But he argues that if there would be one that is a believer, this makes the children different. He says, else were your children unclean, but now are they holy. holy in that they're saved, but there's a ceremonial holiness in them, that they can participate in the life of the church in a certain sense. The idea of holy there is a ceremonial term used to indicate one's right to participate in holy activities. Thus, the faith of one parent puts children in a position of being rightful recipients of New Testament ceremonies, of which we would argue baptism is the most significant for infants. When Paul addresses the church in Ephesus, He says, at the beginning, to the saints which are at Ephesus. That's how he talks to them. To the saints which are at Ephesus. And through the letter addresses those saints in various capacities. He addresses wives in chapter 5, 22. Wives. Submit yourselves to your husbands. He addresses them. Husbands, in 5.25, husbands love your wives. Fathers, in chapter 6, verse 4, provoke not your children to wrath. Servants, he addresses them directly, how servants should live in chapter 6, verse 5. Masters as well, in chapter 6, verse 9. But in the middle of that, in the middle of all those groups who are part of the visible body called saints, there's another group that he addresses. He says, children, Obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. Begins the letter, Saints, and has no problem saying children. The question is, has God removed the covenant sign that marked out the church in Israel and given a replacement? Or has he removed the covenant sign and given no replacement? If God has removed the covenant sign and provided no replacement, if he has removed circumcision, as he has done, Acts 15 makes that clear, it's no longer necessary. But if he has removed the sign and said there's nothing else that your children should receive, we might expect to hear that iterated and made mention of. But we don't. Quite the opposite. Peter, when he addresses his nation, the thousands that gather to hear him on the day of Pentecost, In Acts chapter 2 verse 38 and 39, when they hear, when they understand the horror that they have crucified their Messiah, I sometimes wonder. You know when they say, men and brethren, what shall we do? I mean, we read over that and we don't really think much about it. We imagine that perhaps even in church one day, you'd love to hear someone stand up and say, what shall I do? I may inherit eternal life or someone, but you can't, you have to understand the context. They are coming to the understanding and the conviction they have just killed their Messiah. That what shall we do is complete horror. The reality of what they have done. And so, Peter says to them, repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins. And ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. For the promise is unto you and to your children and to all that are far off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call. Now, some will look at that and say, well, you know, it's expressing the promise of the gospel to everyone, not just to them, but to everyone. That's true. But he says specifically it's to their children. And the mind of the Jew, if you can think Jewishly, just for a moment, if a promise, if a promise is to my child, shouldn't they have a sign of it? Abraham did. Now, in those early days, they would just continue with circumcision. Whether or not they baptized their children, we don't know. It doesn't tell us. But there's a continuity in the application of a sign that signifies that something is promised to you. That's how we are understanding it here today. So we would say that What was that promise, the promises to you? What was that promise? It's the promise that Luke talks about all over the place. It's the promise of the Father that he mentions at the end of his gospel. It's the promise that he mentions at the beginning of Acts chapter one, the promise of the Father shall come upon you, ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost. That's the promise. You say, well, what relevance is that? The promise of the Holy Ghost is everything in our religion, beloved. It goes right back to what God promised Abraham and to his children. I will be your God and your children as well. And I will dwell with you. I will live with you. What is that? It's the abiding presence of the Spirit. And so when you read Galatians chapter 3, you will see that Paul argues that the promise that was given to Abraham was the promise of the Spirit. It's the presence of God in his life. Signified through circumcision, promised to his children. if they would only believe. B.B. Warfield, the last of the Princeton theologians, he will summarize it for us here today. He says, the argument in a nutshell is simply this. God established his church in the days of Abraham and put children into it. They must remain there until he puts them out. He has nowhere put them out. They are still the members of his church, and as such, entitled to its ordinances. Among these ordinances is baptism, which, standing in similar place in the new disposition to circumcision in the old, is like it to be given to children." End quote. Whether you baptize your children or not, whether you believe it or not, I think the takeaway for us all, beloved, is to be very deliberate in our instruction of our children, in their hearts, and in their minds. We are not to have children and then act as if there's little heathens running around our feet in our homes that God might save or might not save. We are to believe that God has already graciously, already graciously put them in a home where the gospel ought to be lived out and taught. And based on that, expect that His purpose to put them in our charge is that He would bring them to saving faith. That we would raise a godly seed, not an ungodly seed. As I argued some weeks ago in the Bible class, that if we believe that they're heathens and all we are doing is propagating Adam's sin and the fall and corruption by having children, stop having children! You're only making the world worse. But if you believe when godly people, Christian people, believing people have children, that God intends by and large, as is His purpose, to save them and raise a godly seed that will live as lights and salt in the world, and have children and believe that God will make them his own to serve him through their day and generation. There is no encouragement to have children unless we believe that God intends to save our children and has given many exceeding precious promises to them. Let us therefore, as I say, be very deliberate. And while it is rarely applied in the context of our children, the Great Commission is a profound command to parents. Matthew 28 verse 20, teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you. And I'm going to suggest that 99% of Christians are never able to fulfill that command with anyone more than they can with their children. Teaching them to observe, not just the gospel, not just appointing them to Jesus Christ as the savior of men, but actually to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you. Indeed, how we instruct our children as parents As Christian parents, it's completely different to how we evangelize the world. Oh, we bring the gospel to them. But we go far further than that than we would if we were going out into the world, don't we? We catechize them. We get them to memorize scripture. We get them to learn all these things that you might say, well, it's not really important when you're trying to evangelize the world. We believe it's absolutely crucial that in pointing them to Christ, we also teach them to observe all things. whatsoever Christ commanded. Everything. So that's what we do. If we reject this, and I talk to those and address maybe young people here this morning, who have yet to exercise faith in Christ and make known that they are truly followers of Him. Or anyone here who has been blessed with the Gospel. I want to read to you the warning of Hebrews chapter 10. Hebrews chapter 10. And I read this for the warning of my own children as well. My own children need to keep this in mind. Hebrews chapter 10 verse 26. He is addressing a covenant community. He is addressing believers. He is addressing those who have stepped out and said, we believe in Christ. He is addressing them. Those who have sat under the gospel, those who have enjoyed the privileges of the gospel. And he says in Hebrews 10, 26, if we sin willfully, after that we have received the knowledge of the truth. There remaineth no more sacrifice for sins. but a fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation which shall devour the adversaries." What's he saying? He's saying that if we sin against the gospel presented to us faithfully and clearly, we will apostatize to the point that there's no getting back. Look at verse 29. Mark says, of how much sorer punishment, suppose ye, shall he be thought worthy, who hath trodden underfoot the Son of God, and hath counted the blood of the covenant, wherewith he was sanctified. That is set apart. He's in a community. He's been set apart. He is different from the world. But if you count that blood of the covenant an unholy thing, and hath done despite unto the Spirit of grace. For we know him that hath said, vengeance belongeth unto me, I will recompense saith the Lord, and again the Lord shall judge his people. His people. His people in the community, the congregation of the Lord, the church of the living God, he will judge his people who take the gospel and walk away from it. who deny the faith that they have been brought up in or have been brought under in the mercy of God. And I say to teenagers, I say to young people, children of believing parents, make sure you're not guilty of such a crime. You will have the worst judgment possible. That's what he's saying, sore punishment. You will have a sore punishment if you've trodden underfoot the Son of God counted the blood of the covenant, wherewith you were sanctified, set apart an unholy thing, and have done death's bite unto the Spirit of grace, the Lord shall judge his people." The Lord shall judge his people. Yes. So it's a solemn thing that we do when we baptise, as we will do in just a second. But it points us to all the glories of his promises. And so as a father, I'm thankful for promises whereby I present before my children the gospel every day and remind them that though they be the fallen sons and daughters of Adam, yet Christ offers a full and free pardon to them. Let us pray.