We are going to continue the study in baptism from Jason Helopolis that we were going through a couple of weeks here. And this section, chapter three, is actually a pretty short chapter, but weighty in terms of it's about the blessings to the children. So let me open us in prayer and we will get into it. Heavenly Father, we thank you for your word. We thank you for Jesus. We thank you that you give us things in our worship and service as the body of Christ to help us in our walk with you. And we thank you that you give us signs and seals of your covenant so we have assurance and are reminded of your promises. We pray that you'd help us to understand all of that better through this study of covenant baptism. In Jesus name, Amen. Okay, as I was not here last week and I read the chapter but did not get a chance to listen to the Sunday School teaching, but you, if you were here, went through, I assume, the four-fold streams of testimony. Does that ring a bell? Anybody? And, and one of those was related to the children. Anybody remember how, how, uh, how there's a stream of testimony that's related to children and baptism? Just like very short summary or a few words. What, what, what, what was talked about? Anything covered at all? Maybe some talk about how Jesus welcomed the children. Because that is a thing. Jesus in Luke, there's a situation where children are around him, coming to him, enjoying him, and the disciples are like, no, no, back off. And Jesus says, no, to such as these are the kingdom of God. Now, I wouldn't use that as a proof text of infant baptism or covenantal baptism, but the point of it as a stream of testimony is the way not only Jesus welcomed them to himself, but to discussing them as part of the kingdom of God, part of the community that was supposed to be together. So certainly that is one of the blessings to the children, but we're going to specifically talk about the blessings of baptism to the children today. And as we get started, just realize that because of that, I point out here in my little intro note, yeah, children were part of the covenant community welcomed by Jesus. And another thing that that Helopolis points out, and is specifically related to baptism and children being in the covenant community, is that while we may look at the disciples and say, They were probably reflecting society there, you know, it's like we have the respected teacher and we, you know, the children are to be, you know, seen and not heard or maybe not even seen in that culture. I mean, there definitely was, you know, were brighter lines between different groups of people in society and children that did not have a lot of stature in society, but one, Jesus did welcome them, and two, it was still very important to the Jews. the status of their children. There were definitely places that were reserved for children, if you will, in worship. And of course, circumcision was one of them, and the Passover was another, where God specifically said, about the Passover, you know, when your child asks you this, so children were there and children who didn't understand what was going on were there and God said, when they ask you, why are we doing this? This is an opportunity to speak of me and what I've done and how that fits in your lives. So for them to, have known that children are in the covenant community, and if there was some change, that would be very significant. And we don't see anything about that. Now, we don't necessarily like to make arguments from silence, but there are times when that is an important either circumstantial or inferential argument. So, Let's, as we get into what baptism how it relates to blessings for children. Helopolis goes through what baptism doesn't do, because that's definitely a concern in people's minds and something that helps them or hinders them from seeing why covenantal baptism is a good thing. And then the blessings, we will go to those sections. What baptism doesn't do, and then the blessings of baptism. But as we look at it, I want to just kind of remind us of the importance of circumcision, which I think you've picked up on that we believe God's word teaches that baptism is essentially the continuation of circumcision in the new covenant. Because the new covenant is not a replacement of the old covenant. It's a new way of administering the same covenant, which ultimately is what? What is God's covenant? Starts with I. I will be your God, you will be my people. It's said expressed many different ways, but ultimately that is. We speak of Jesus, what he's done for us, our redemption from sin, living with God forever, all that, but ultimately that's it. I'm God, and I'll be your God, and you'll be my people, and that's incredibly special, all the ramifications of that. Let's look at Genesis 17. And this is one of the earlier statements of that new covenant. And I've got verses 9 through 14 highlighted. For the interest of time, I'm not going to read the whole thing, but it says, And God said to Abraham, As for you, you shall keep my covenant, you and your offspring after you throughout the generations. This is my covenant that you shall keep. and just skipping, every male among you shall be circumcised. Now, again, as I just said, the covenant is expressed a lot of different ways, but it's interesting. It's been very interesting to me, especially since I changed views on covenantal baptism. I and Cheryl kind of grew up in our Christian maturing in the contemporary evangelical group of people, and so infant baptism was a foreign concept and obviously a relic of potpourri and all that stuff, and not valid. I thought that was the case, but when I looked at passages like this, as I was learning very, very low-key, low-pressure teaching from our elders in our first official Reformed church that we were in, it was like, whoa, this is important to God because Again, we have a lot of ways of looking at the covenant. Maybe you know the covenant as, I will be your God, you shall be my people. I think that is really maybe the best expression of it. But that really kind of encompasses everything. But we do focus on different parts of it. I'll be in heaven, and I'm saved from my sins, and all these things. But here, God summarizes his covenant in this way. And it just seems like so narrow, right? My covenant is circumcision. That's my covenant. We, we, I don't know, almost are taken aback by that. I, I was because it's so narrow and yet he stresses it here at so important. And he keeps saying, that's my covenant. And, um, So I think we want to take heed of that and recognize that. Now, depending on how our time goes here, and I hope you ask any questions that you have as we go through things, I'll come back to a few things. But I just want to look at Romans 4.11 real quick. And again, this general thread, if we have time, we'll come back to. But this is another kind of eye-opening verse, to me, anyway. Romans 4.11 talking about Abraham, Paul's talking about Abraham and he says, he received the sign of circumcision as a seal of the righteousness that he had by faith while he was uncircumcised. That is very, why do you think I think that's interesting? Do you find that interesting? What is that saying? He had faith and righteousness even before circumcision. Okay. He had faith and righteousness before circumcision, which is Paul in other places tells us that's how he can be. He's the father to the Gentiles as well as the father to the circumcised, to the Jews. Okay. What else? What does the seal of righteousness by faith sound like? Gospel, very new covenant language. And Paul directly says, that's what Abraham did. That's what God told Abraham to do. Apply this new covenant seal on your child. So, all right. Like I said, we'll talk about that more if we have time later, but those are two things that really have struck me as we're thinking about children in this idea of covenantal baptism. So, important to realize that baptism doesn't save people. And why is it important to stress that? Right. We see people trusting in it working magic, essentially. We see a confusion of whether God is doing this or I'm doing this through a work. And as regards of what we're doing now is teaching doctrine. And one of the hindrances to hearing that doctrine is the abuses of the idea of any work saving people, particularly baptism. It is very hard, and I can speak from personal experience, to accept that doing this thing to a child that has no idea what's even happening is somehow useful when I've learned the gospel and learned that there is no act that I can do to be saved. So clearly, people are going to reject that. They could learn a lot of stuff about covenants and then say, but hold on a second, people have abused this. So that's important. But let me ask you, Does baptism indicate salvation in anyone? If I know somebody is baptized, if I see them be baptized, what do I know about their salvation? Nothing, right? I can't see their heart. And certainly you could say, well, there's a lot of baptized children that go off the rails. There's a lot of baptized adults that go off the rails too, right? We all do know that, right? Just because somebody stood up in front of everybody and did the full ceremony and everything and made their statement of faith, that doesn't mean they're going to be saved. In fact, Barna's statistics who he keeps, George Barnett, keeps a lot track, always doing surveys, keepin' track of what are Christians thinking, 80% of children raised in the church leave the church. Now, a decent number of them come back, but they grow up in the church, and they leave, and a decent number don't come back. So, just important to remember that. Helopolis quotes Lagan Duncan, I'm paraphrasing the quote, but basically saying that a covenant sign does not effect, it does not make a relationship happen. It reflects a relationship that exists. or that is made or being made, it does not make that relationship happen. And we certainly here in this church, in the OPC, in Reformed faith, absolutely believe that, that the baptism does not save anybody. The sprinkling of water or immersion in water, however it's done, does not save anybody. Let's just take a look real quick at Hebrews 6. I don't know if you're familiar with this passage, and it's a good passage to be familiar with. Hebrews 6, 3 through 8. Actually, really, I guess it's four through eight, typo on my part there. I mean, three is a good verse, too. As he's writing to the church, he says it is impossible in the case of those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift and have shared in the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the goodness of the Word of God and the powers of the age to come, and then have fallen away. to restore them again to repentance since they were crucifying again, once again, the son of God to their own harm and holding him up to contempt. Okay. And it talks about the land drinking in the water and does it produce or not produce, you know, okay. This was, this was another kind of eye opener for, for me and it wasn't necessarily related to, to baptism, but, When we are in a covenant relationship with God, and I'm talking the visible church, does everybody know the visible church versus the invisible church? What's the visible church? Somebody who hasn't said anything. Okay. So right here, say this is visible church. What's the invisible church? okay, the elect, the people that God have chosen that are actually going to be saved. And we can't always see that. Lord willing, that's one in the same in this room, but it may not be, you know? So, but the thing is, if there were, you know, one or more people here, regularly in this church, hearing the Word of God, doing these things, and you look at the language. It's not just, you know, you heard the Word of God. Look at what he's saying. They've been enlightened. They've tasted the heavenly gift. They've shared in the Holy Spirit. Now, we believe rock solid and it has to be that the word of God teaches that when God saves you and because God saves you and you don't save yourself, you don't have to worry about losing that salvation because it's not a work that you did that maybe you did wrong, right? And maybe you messed up, maybe you jumped the gun and you said you believed when you didn't. You can do that, but if you are elect, and God saves you, and He will if you are elect, then you can count on that. But yet, there is all this blessing that you are receiving as being part of the community of God. And The judgment for you, if you are not elect, but receive those blessings, is, as we think about different places with the millstone, if you lead a child astray and so on, you're just like, okay, hell is hell, right? How could it be any worse for some people than others, right? But somehow it will be. And I was thinking about this yesterday, And for whatever reason, I had never spent a ton of time trying to figure out what that might mean. But when I was reading this, I thought, you know, what would be worse than being in hell, than being in hell and having tasted having eaten the fruit, having had a relationship with God, but not a real relationship with God, but knowing all the truth, and spending eternity with that regret. I mean, you know how we are when we just have a conversation with somebody and it doesn't go the way we want, and we eat on that ourselves for the next three weeks about it, right? What about being in hell? because you didn't do what you know now you should have done and wanted, you should have wanted that wonderful gift, and you didn't. And now, forever, you're going to have to live with that. That's probably worse, you know, with the fire licking at you all the time. It makes it even worse. Okay, that's maybe one way that that could be. But the point being is that those who are here in this room will be held to a greater account if they actually are not the elect, if they do not respond to the gospel. All right. Now, That might call into question, especially reading something like Hebrews 6, this whole Calvinism thing, if you will, where God elects people and He saves them and He helps them, He makes them persevere to the end, there's assurance there. Well, You know, God says this baptism means something, and it doesn't always, quote, work. And being in church, hearing the Word of God doesn't always work. So, I don't know, your theology doesn't seem to line up. Helopolis talks about this. He doesn't use this reference, but it's one of my favorite references, Isaiah 55, 10 and 11, which God is talking about when, you know, just like when the rain and snow comes down and the earth brings forth what it's supposed to bring forth. He says, my word goes out for me and it will not return void. It will accomplish the purpose for which I sent it. Now, does that mean if we have a sermon today and we have all various aspects of God's word in song and prayer, in an assurance of salvation, reading scripture readings, and there's somebody that leaves the church as unsaved as they were when they came in, does that mean, well, this is not true? Isaiah 55, 10 and 11 is not true? Or does it mean that God's purpose does include people not being saved, right? Do we understand that? I mean, if God is sovereign and people are not saved, then that is part of his purpose. And where does God give us the answer to why that happens? Very specifically, he says, he explains, I know you're worried about this, I know you don't like it, but I'm gonna tell you the answer to your question, right? Yeah, and that is where? If you really wanted to make sure you got the words right. Jenny? Romans nine, Romans nine, yes. And of course, what is the answer? Liz was referring to it. What is God's ultimate answer to that question? What's his initial answer? Yes, he's made some for condemnation, some to see the condemnation so they see their mercy, but high level, what's his big answer? Not so much where were you, who were you, right? You were a pot. I made you. Why are you talking back to me? Why do you even think you can talk back to me? And so he doesn't explain his reasoning. but he does say, this is my purpose. So these things, baptism not saving, the word of God not saving, the word of God does change people, but not every single person that hears it. Otherwise, all those people that went to football games and saw John 3, 16, that guy holding it up, or on Tim Tebow's eyes, or wherever he puts the black mark, there'd be a lot more people saved, right? Because they found out about God's word. Okay, what is the difference? What's the difference between the one that hears God's Word and or is baptized, is saved, and the one who is not? The Spirit's working through these things that God gives us, these graces that God gives us. And I just note 1 Corinthians 2, 11 to 14, when we were talking a few weeks ago about the covenant salvation, a lot of these verses came up, and I told you at the beginning of that talk, you really need to understand this and wanna pay attention because it's really related to the whole baptism thing. And 1 Corinthians 2, 11 to 14 tells us, How do people know basically what Elder Elliot just said? We only know by the Spirit. All this stuff I'm talking about, all true theology is foolishness to people who do not have the Spirit. Okay, so we don't rely on baptism or the word of God to just go up and change people. We expect that they will change people because those God has elected at the appropriate time, he will send the spirit to and they will be able to understand and comprehend. And of course, to us, it looks like what? What do we see happening? What do we feel happening? We feel understanding. We think, oh, now I get it. And we feel like we need to respond. And those are appropriate things. But it's not the understanding and it's not the response that saves you. It's the spirit who changed your heart. As God says over and over in scripture, I'm gonna take out your heart of stone that can't Use any of this material and I'm gonna make it a heart of flesh that responds to my love So, yes, and I just if you want to read more again on on this idea of How people are saved Romans 9 Ephesians 1 are our great verses for that The bottom line is God God saves people that he elects Okay, any questions on that? Anything we've covered so far? Any thoughts, side remarks? Elder Bob, you're right. And we're going to come back to that in a second, because that definitely could be a response to the basic idea of the ideas of the points of Calvinism, where we're totally depraved, but God unconditionally elects. Not because we're good, not because we're especially bad and we need to be saved. He makes a decision. to who he's going to save. That's his decision. He's very, very clear about that. But that doesn't mean that we don't have to do anything. We'll be to that in just a second. Let's look at the blessings here of baptism. The first one is a call to faith. If you are part of this community, You may have heard people say, I remember George W. Bush used to say this, that somebody came up to him once and said they didn't vote for him and said, well, you never asked for my vote when you're giving these speeches. So he's like always making a point to ask for your vote. Well, you can be here. But if you never have a call to faith, you may not turn that corner. Even though you're understanding a lot, you may not turn that corner and say, oh, yes, I need to do something. I need to express my faith. I need to start particularly growing in my faith, seeing how it applies to me. And so baptism, Yours and all the ones that you see are a call to that, a call to faith. It's constantly reminding you of God's promises that He has made to you and the need to respond to those promises. And that happens in conjunction with life in the Christian community. Because what I mean by that is, well, what do you think I mean by that? Why is that important? Well, that's one of the things you get in the Christian community is accountability and people reminding you of things. Because if you just get baptized, because that's what we're talking about, and that's it, do you think you're going to grow up to be a solid Christian or even a Christian at all? It's not like it happens in a vacuum, okay? God made community for us and put us in community to learn those things. Remember, the original covenant community of the Jews, within one generation of the greatest miracles ever seen, had no idea who God was. Right? They did not, the parents who saw God following them around or in ahead of them fighting their battles, opening the sea, sending the plagues, did not teach their children. And by the time they all died off, nobody knew what was going on. So that's, I think, a great testimony that if we think, especially as parents or as young people who are hearing the gospel and we think we don't actually have to do anything, I sit in church and somehow either I get credit or I just have to do it, and it means I don't get punished by my parents, that you're gonna come out as bad or worse than you went in. Okay, garbage in, garbage out, right? The only reason that garbage is transformed is because of the working of the Spirit on you. And again, that generally doesn't happen in a vacuum. Occasionally, people get struck by lightning and shown the full gospel and they know it in a very quick order within a few days. But I only know of one of those. So don't count on that. OK? And as Jenny pointed out, don't count on being able to say, well, I know this stuff, and I'll be able to deal with that before I die. One of the scariest things I had early in my career, a young Army Sergeant Corporal, who was a Corporal, We were on watch late at night, spiritual things came up, and he was raised a Baptist and knew all the stuff, and I'm not picking on Baptists because of this, but he rejected it. And I'm like, so what do you think happens to you if you die? He's like, I'll go straight to hell. I'm like, that's scary, but he's right. So call to faith, call to faithfulness, okay? This is what Elder Bob was talking about. We do have to do things. If I want to read this book, I have to open the book, and I have to spend time thinking about it. I can't just hold it in front of me. But whether I do that or not, yeah, God has ordained. He's sovereign. But OK, we're going to go back there again. So to us, in our humanity, the way we have been made as creatures of time and space, we have to do things. It is important that we understand that the doing things doesn't get us credit, but again, in our humanness, we must respond, we must learn, we must grow, okay? And... You know, heard in ad infinitum. But what I tell my kids, you know, if you if you don't get up off the couch at dinnertime, you're going to starve. Now, angels came and ministered to Jesus after he was fasting and ravens brought food to Elijah. But if you're going to again, if you're going to count on that, it's probably not going to go well for you, especially with your salvation. So you need to respond, and the baptism is a calling of that all the time. Hopefully something that you think about, and we'll talk about in assurance. Another aspect of being baptized and therefore being in the church community, being part of the body of Christ is the shepherding and protection that comes with that. God has ordained shepherds to be there to help with this growth that you're supposed to be doing and also protection to keep the wolves that would try to deceive you from having access to you. Or if you hear things as you live in the world, helping you understand those things and understand the truth about the things, the deceptions that Satan is bringing to you. And then, as I just mentioned, number four, assurance. You are God's because of his promises and his decision. Again, not yours. And because of that, because you wear the mark of Christ, you can be assured that, in fact, you are saved, okay? Not because the mark did something for you, but because you understand the mark, you understand the need for repentance, and you know, again, it's not because I'm smarter than the other guy, The fact that I can understand this shows, is a reflection of the spirit working in me. And the spirit working in me is a reflection of God saying, this is an elect person's spirit. Go change that person's heart. Okay. So that's the kind of full cycle there where This I'm sure will come up in the next chapter, which is blessings to the parents. But you know, it's a thing that when you have that mark, and again, you're teaching about that mark. You're not just saying you had water sprinkled on you and so you're covered, okay? You're teaching, you're looking at Genesis 17 and saying, God, this is what God said to his people and he made a covenant that the people that follow that covenant will be saved. Now, who were those people? How were those people saved? How were the Jews saved? Who said that? Yeah, Trent, gotta raise your hand. Thanks for being here. I was almost gonna let an elder answer that. Don't wanna do that. Try to not let the elders talk in Sunday school. Yeah, what'd you say? The same way we are, and that is by what? In Christ, okay? Again, looking back to Abraham, he received this, Genesis 17, as a seal of righteousness by faith in Christ. So now, So God told people who yes, actually at this point, they were a long ways away from having all the rules and everything for the temple. They're all the way on the other side of Egypt until they get those rules. But faith is already in play. And God told people that are supposed to believe in Him by faith to do their part of the covenant, to put this mark on their children. Did all those children grow up as Christians? Esau was circumcised, almost certainly. I don't think we actually have it described. But yeah, we know, the Pharisees, you can count on them having been circumcised and we can count on a lot of them not being, count on not seeing them in heaven, right? So that's another thing that throws us off, right? Saying something like that, if you have the mark of God, you are going to be saved. Brothers and sisters, we can expect that. But we can also recognize that God is sovereign and he will do as he pleases. And we have to recognize that, again, it's not because you had to mark it that covers it and you're done. OK, so so we can't we can't claim God is not faithful because every single person doesn't end up that way, but it also means we don't have to doubt His promise. It's what we can expect. And just like baptism is a call for the faithfulness of the person, it's a call for the faithfulness of those around the person to teach them and make sure they have opportunity to do what's in Hebrew six, to make sure they're tasting the Word of God and tasting, participating in the Spirit. and coming to know our wonderful Lord. So one note, I didn't mention this on Hebrews 6, 3, 8, I wrote, not everybody in a relationship is committed to it. And that is true. But their lives and their futures are affected by it and the obligations of the relationship. And that's what The writer of Hebrews is talking about when he says there is no redemption for that person who has been in that relationship. He's had every opportunity. To whom much is given, much is required. And this is the ultimate, to whom much is given, much is required. All right, we are out of time, not surprisingly, because that always happens. We got like one minute, any question, any last question? Okay, if you guys have any questions on these, talk to any of the elders. I'm happy to talk to you about this. Call me, my phone number's on the back of the bulletin. Email me, talk to me in the breaks, whatever. Definitely love to talk to you about it. I know this can be, it can be kinda hard because we, and it was for Cheryl and I to turn this corner And ultimately, it's because we want to do something. We want to do something and we think that the fact that I did it makes a difference. And it's kind of the last step before you really believe in the sovereignty of God. Not accepting infant baptism necessarily, but recognizing that really, You don't do this. You were dead, dead, dead, dead in your trespasses and sins. And dead people don't make good decisions. They don't make any decisions. Okay? They don't do anything. They don't learn anything. They're dead. So, you gotta give this last piece over if you're struggling with this. And again, I'm happy to talk to you about that. Obviously, much, much more can be said. So, all right, let's get ready for worship now, which is exciting. We'll have another guest pastor, Pastor Danny Olinger from the OPC, just like Al Trocarico last week from the OPC was here. Let's pray. Father God, we thank you for your word. We thank you that you are sovereign, that you have a plan, and it is a perfect plan. We pray that we would trust that, and we pray that as we break now and we come together to worship you, that we will rejoice that the one who is in control is the one who is able to control perfectly and has already proven that he controls in love. Thank you for that, Lord. Thank you for that assurance and help us to just revel in it and enjoy it and rest in it. We pray in Jesus name. Amen.