This morning we're gonna be in chapter 29 of our confession. It's on the subject of baptism. I've been asked to teach this chapter. I'm certainly feeling my inadequacies so you can be praying for me even as I teach. But let's go to the Lord in prayer and we will dive into this chapter. So let's pray together. Lord, we come to you this morning and we are thankful for this opportunity to gather in the name of Christ on your day, the Lord's day. Father, we thank you that you have appointed a day for us to come together, to be nourished by your word, to be edified, to have our faith strengthened. to be encouraged, Lord, for the week ahead, to perform the works that you have prepared for us to walk in. Father, we ask that you would bless this day, that you would bless all the teaching this day, that the word of God would go forth with power, with conviction, Lord, that it would shape us, conform us to the image of Christ. Father, we are dependent upon your spirit for that. We can preach your word, but unless your spirit comes with power, it will not affect us to our benefit, but only to our detriment, Lord. So please come, Holy Spirit, we ask, come, anoint this teaching, anoint this hour. Remind us of this sign and symbol of baptism and our union with Christ, we ask in Jesus' name, amen. I wanted to start this morning by reading Psalm 111. I got distracted by Pastor Ben bringing my requested whiteboard. Back in Montana, I taught Sunday school regularly, and I'm a fan of the whiteboard. Thanks, brother. That's all right, thank you. Yeah, it's good. I told Pastor Ben, I don't know if I'll use it, but it's sort of like a crutch for me. So if you see me like pointing and, well. So I wanted to start by reading Psalm 111, one through four. There's some relevance to our subject of baptism this morning. I hope you'll see it by the end of this talk. But Psalm 111, one through four, it says, praise the Lord, I will give thanks to the Lord with my whole heart, in the company of the upright, in the congregation. Great are the works of the Lord, studied by all who delight in them. Full of splendor and majesty is his work, and his righteousness endures forever. He has caused his wondrous works to be remembered. The Lord is gracious, and merciful. That last verse, he has caused his wondrous works to be remembered. The Lord is gracious and merciful. This has a great application for our study this morning of chapter 29 of our confession on baptism. I wish I had a PowerPoint for you or an outline or something. I don't. So I hope this is easy enough to follow. My objective today is going to obviously be to teach Chapter 29, but I have this. I'm wanting to teach this chapter with this focus. I want to show you that baptism is appointed by God for the increasing and strengthening of believers' faith. In other words, baptism is not a converting ordinance, okay? And our confession teaches this, and I think the catechisms, the Reformed catechisms, teach this even probably more strongly. So I'm going to be referring to both the Baptist catechism and the Orthodox catechism. I'm sure most of you are familiar with this. Catechism is really a Baptist addition of the Heidelberg Catechism put together or edited by Hercules Collins, one of our old particular Baptist forefathers. So I'll be drawing on both of those resources, the Baptist Catechism and the Orthodox Catechism, to show this point that baptism is appointed by God for the increasing and strengthening of the believer's faith. Why don't we start this morning by just reading our chapter like we've done in the previous weeks. I'll just have a couple volunteers go ahead and read. So if you don't have a copy of the Confession, it's in your hymnal. And we will go ahead and read Austin. Brother, would you read paragraph one for us? Brent, what's up? 685. Brent, would you read paragraph two? Brother Tim, would you read paragraph three? And Brother Ryan, would you read paragraph four for us? Go ahead. in obedience to our Lord Jesus Christ are the only proper subjects of this ordinance. The outward element to be used in this ordinance is water, wherein the party is to be baptized in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Immersion, or the dipping of the person in water, is necessary for this ordinance to be administered properly. Thank you. All right, so brothers and sisters, my point today, as I've already said, what I wanna show you, that it's appointed by God for the increasing and strengthening of our faith, but I wanna just make this comment too. I won't be addressing many, if any, of the objections to baptism. I know that might sound incomplete, like I'm not doing the confession justice, and that may be so, but I really wanna state the doctrine positively as it's found in our confession, leave those objections to be answered by somebody more qualified than myself. So with that being said, by way of introduction to the subject of baptism, I want to briefly explain the relationship of the ordinances or the sacraments to our trust or faith in Christ. What is their purpose? What has Christ designed them for? And I think the confession teaches this explicitly in chapter 14. That's the chapter on saving faith. If you wanna turn there quickly, you can. There are certain things you might benefit by actually seeing it with your eyes on the page. Chapter 14 of saving faith, paragraph one, I think provides the answer. What is the purpose of these ordinances? Listen what it says. The grace of faith whereby the elect are enabled to believe to the saving of their souls is the work of the Spirit of Christ in their hearts and is ordinarily wrought by the ministry of the word. By which also, that is by the ministry of the word also, and by the administration of baptism and the Lord's supper, prayer and other means appointed of God, it is increased and strengthened. Okay, this paragraph teaches two things concerning the nature of saving faith. First, it's produced or wrought by the Spirit ordinarily by the ministry of the Word, preaching. The preaching of the gospel is the ordinary means whereby the Spirit of Christ produces or creates saving faith in the believer. Secondly, this paragraph teaches that by that same ministry of the word, but also baptism, the Lord's Supper, prayer, and other means appointed by God, that saving faith is increased and strengthened, okay? So I think it's clear from chapter 14 here that Our confession views this ordinance of baptism as a means of not creating faith, but strengthening and increasing the faith that the believer already has. There's apologetic value even in that thought, obviously. This is not a converting ordinance, like I've already said. It should only be administered, we'll see, as to those who are professing faith in Christ, because it's meant to strengthen the faith they already have. I want to point now to the Orthodox Catechism, question 64, makes this point beautifully. Listen to what it says. Since faith alone makes us partakers of Christ and his benefits, from where does this faith come? Answer, from the Holy Spirit who kindles it in our hearts by the preaching of the gospel and other ordinances and confirms it by the use of the sacraments. Here the word confirm means to make firm or to strengthen. It's actually interesting. I often, when I hear the word confirm, I think of to make something certain, but really, even in your dictionary, if you go look, most likely the first definition that you'll find is to strengthen, to make something firm. So this is the way that the word is being used here, to confirm our faith by the use of the sacraments, to make more sure, to make more firm. So I wanna say this, it's easily understood and readily acknowledged that the private reading and public preaching of the word of God is used by him to produce and strengthen faith. That's readily acknowledged and easily seen. After all, Paul says, faith comes through hearing and hearing through the word of Christ. But how does the administration of baptism increase and strengthen faith? That's really the question I wanna ask and I hope to answer and show you from our confession. So to answer that question, let's get into chapter 29. Again, I'm going to reiterate, I wanna paint this chapter with the backdrop being that this ordinance is given by God to increase and strengthen faith. So keep that in view as we go through this exposition. This chapter really breaks down fairly easily. I have an outline here. I wish you could see it. I'm not going to draw it for you. But basically I have this as the outline of the chapter. Heading one, paragraph one. It's detailed description, baptism's detailed description with three subheadings. It's redemptive timing, it's authorizer, and it's purpose and signification. Paragraph two and subheading two, it's proper subjects. Paragraphs three and four, it's due administration. So then let's begin firstly with its detailed description, paragraph one, its redemptive timing. Paragraph one begins, baptism is an ordinance of the New Testament. Throughout redemptive history, God has governed his people by his covenants. These covenants come with particular commands or ordinances. That word ordinance has a more general meaning. It just means something appointed, a lawful command, right? Think of city ordinances. They're the kind of laws that govern a particular area. So covenants come with particular commands or ordinances, which are to be observed by the covenant community. I say, I bring up this point of its redemptive timing and the covenantal aspect because it says baptism is an ordinance of the New Testament. I'm sure all of you know the word testament means covenant. So our confession identifies baptism with the New Testament, the new covenant. Okay. So when we think about particular ordinances coming in the context of particular covenants, let's think first of all in the Old Testament. Think of God's covenant with Abraham and the ordinance or the sign of circumcision. Listen to Genesis 17 verses nine and 11. God said to Abraham, as for you, you shall keep my covenant. You and your offspring after you throughout their generations. Every male among you shall be circumcised. You shall be circumcised in the flesh of your foreskins, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and you. So you can see that this command to circumcise comes in the context of a particular covenant, the covenant that God made with Abraham. Think of the Passover and its covenantal context being the Mosaic covenant. In Exodus, sorry, in Deuteronomy 16, one, listen to this. Observe the month of Abib and keep the Passover to the Lord your God. Why? For in the month of Abib, the Lord your God brought you out of Egypt by night. Think of, again, the same Mosaic covenant context concerning the Feast of Unleavened Bread and kind of the Passover and Unleavened Bread came together really, these two feasts. So listen to this, Exodus 13, eight through 10. You shall tell your son on that day, what day? Well, the day of Unleavened Bread. You shall tell your son on that day, it is because of what the Lord did for me when I came out of Egypt. And it shall be to you as a sign on your hand and as a memorial between your eyes, that the law of the Lord may be in your mouth. For with a strong hand, the Lord has brought you out of Egypt. You shall therefore keep this statute or ordinance at its appointed time from year to year." Notice that these Old Testament ordinances had particular reference to God's redemptive acts toward Israel. These weren't arbitrary commands given by God, but they were gracious reminders of God's redemptive purposes. On the Passover, they didn't eat a cow, they ate a lamb, because on Passover, they slaughtered a lamb and shed its blood, right? This ordinance had a particular significance to the historical moment that God did something for his people. Okay, and so there's this link between the historical act, the one-time irrepeatable act, the Passover in Egypt, and the continual remembering of that ordinance year after year. See that? Okay, I think that's significant. I hope to tell you why. Again, these signs and ceremonies corresponded in some way to the historic acts of God. And although they were reminders of God's past works, they were performed and explained that the people might not presently forget the Lord their God. In other words, just as New Testament ordinances are given to strengthen and increase the faith of God's covenant people, so the Old Testament ordinances were established for the same purpose. That's what I would maintain. I think Psalm 78 makes this abundantly clear. It's a wonderful psalm. I'm gonna read several chunks out of it. Listen to the way the psalmist conceives of the redemptive acts of God, remembering them, and the way they're supposed to presently create faith in the God of those acts. Listen. He established a testimony in Jacob and appointed a law in Israel, which he commanded our fathers to teach to their children. Why? That the next generation might know them, the children yet unborn, and arise and tell them to their children, so that they should set their hope in God and not forget the works of God, but keep his commandments. and that they should not be like their fathers, a stubborn and rebellious generation, a generation whose heart was not steadfast, whose spirit was not faithful to God. Or later on in the Psalm, listen to these words. Where do I wanna start? He's telling the history of Israel, right, and the ways that God would deliver him. He says, he remembered, God remembered that you were but flesh. This is verse 39. A wind that passes and comes out again. How often they rebelled against him in the wilderness and grieved him in the desert. They tested God again and again and provoked the Holy One of Israel. They did not remember his power or the day when he redeemed them from the foe, when he performed the signs in Egypt and his marvels in the fields of Zoan. He turned their rivers to blood so that they could not drink of their streams." And it goes on and on. But you can see that the psalmist is saying the Israelites failed in their present circumstance to remember the God who at one time did a marvelous act like delivering them or redeeming them out of Israel, they forgot these things and therefore their present disbelief is causing them to sin. God appointed these ordinances so that they wouldn't forget the redemptive works of God, so that they would presently walk by faith in the God who redeemed them years ago. You see that connection? This is vital, I think, to understanding the way these signs, like baptism, are to function in our life. Peter says, remember how Peter says baptism, which corresponds to this flooding of Noah and the ark and all that, baptism now saves you. There's a present. effectual work of baptism in the believer's life, and I believe it's in this that they're remembering what it means and the work that God accomplished, and it presently strengthens faith so that they walk in obedience to God. Baptism now saves you, not as a removal of dirt from the body, but as an appeal to God for a good conscience through the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Okay, I hope we'll see all that. I'm getting ahead of myself. So anyways, back to the point. Baptism is a New Testament ordinance. Just as God gave ordinance to his old covenant people, so he has given ordinances to his new covenant church. Baptism is one such ordinance. The old covenant church didn't celebrate baptism. The sign wasn't given to them, but to us. It wasn't until after the blood of Christ was shed and the new covenant inaugurated that Christian baptism was given to the church. Okay, this brings us to our second point, baptism its authorizer. This will be fairly quick. Confession continues. Baptism is an ordinance of the New Testament ordained by Jesus Christ. As a positive command and ordinance of the New Testament, baptism was established by Jesus, the head of the church, after he was crucified, buried, and risen from the dead. Having been given all authority in heaven and on earth, Christ commissioned his apostles to make disciples of the nations by baptizing and teaching them to obey all his commands. This command of Christ, the fact that Christ has established this ordinance, ought to be reason enough for all of us to see the significance of practicing it as a part of our Christian discipleship. It's necessary that we practice baptism. It was ordained by Christ. It was appointed by Him. Now on to baptism, its purpose and signification. I will spend a good portion of time here. This is really the meat of my lesson. So we're in paragraph one, we're in sub point three, baptism, its purpose, and signification. Baptism is an ordinance of the New Testament, ordained by Jesus Christ to be unto the party baptized, a sign of his fellowship with him in his death and resurrection, of his being engrafted into him, of remission of sins, and of giving up unto God through Jesus Christ to live and walk in newness of life. The confession identifies first the beneficiary of baptism, that is, the person for whose benefit baptism is given, and you can see it's the party baptized. I'm gonna come back to that. I'm gonna skip over it for now. For the moment, I just wanna talk about baptism's purpose. You can see it because it says, baptism is appointed to be a sign. Okay, so I want to consider for a moment, what are signs? This might seem obvious, but it's important. Consider for a moment the meaning of a sign. This is the purpose of baptism, it's to signify something, to be a sign. Signs point away from themselves to other present realities, to some other present reality. They signify something other than themselves. Close your eyes for a moment and imagine that you're driving. As you go careening down a narrow, a much too narrow road I might add, a Kentucky back road you might think, you suddenly see a yellow sign and it's next to the road and on the sign there's a picture of a bridge. Now, nobody points to the sign except maybe your kids and says, look a bridge, right? Rather you see the sign and your eyes immediately move from it to the rather narrow bridge directly in your path. The sign only serves to get your eyes and your gaze to the reality of the thing signified. The sign isn't the bridge, the bridge is the bridge. The sign points you to that reality. In the same way, baptism, as our confession says, is a sign. So the question is, what does it signify? What does it point to? And here, I want to direct your eyes to the page of the confession and notice the helpful prepositional phrases that all begin with the word of, and they're set off by semicolons. It's very easy to see that the confession teaches that baptism is a sign of four things. Four things. Firstly, baptism is a sign of the person baptized fellowship with him. That's Jesus Christ. The sign of a believer's fellowship with Jesus Christ in his death and his resurrection. Okay, as I was preparing this, there's really, when you think about baptism, you have to understand that the doctrine of union with Christ is just, it's holding up this whole understanding of baptism, right? If we don't understand union with Christ, that our salvation is entirely comprehended in Jesus Christ, baptism makes no sense, okay? I will explain, I'll use my board that Pastor Ben so helpfully gave me. Union with Christ, okay. Now there's a way in which, there's a way in which, I hope you don't find these drawings crude. There's a way in which you could say, salvific benefits are given, this is like, we can say this is believers, or like an individual believer. That like saving benefits are given from God to us, like righteousness. There's a way that you can kind of think this way, right? Like in justification, God is granting to me the righteousness of Christ. So it kind of has this direction. But really, the way the New Testament really speaks of participating and saving benefits isn't so much that God gives us benefits, but that he brings believers into Christ. where righteousness, sanctification, redemption are found, right? God moves us out of the domain of darkness and transfers us into the kingdom of his beloved son in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. So righteousness, forgiveness, any other benefit that we have don't necessarily come to us as much as God brings us into Christ. That kind of movement is signified in baptism. So union with Christ, the believers finding himself in him, is where all these benefits come from. So notice, This sign of baptism is a sign of a believer's fellowship with Jesus, participation with Christ in his death and resurrection. Romans 6, 3-4. Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death. In order that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. Baptism is according to Paul, a baptism into Christ Jesus. Not that plunging a person into water actually puts them into Christ, but that everyone who takes the sign has already experienced that reality and it reminds them of it. Okay, but it's first a baptism into Christ, and then as a result, a baptism into the death and resurrection of Christ. It's by being united to the Christ who one time died and was raised that you too, believer, can understand that you have been united with Christ in his death and resurrection. Pastor Sam comments on these verses in Romans. He says this, we die to sin in the Lord Jesus' dying to sin. We die to sin by union with Christ in his death to sin. Baptism is mentioned in verse three of Romans, chapter six, because it is a symbol of the union with Christ initiated at conversion. And Notice that this baptism into Christ, which Paul speaks of in Romans 6, it's not only a participation in his death. Participation in Christ and in his death is only to get you to resurrection life. We don't stay in the grave. We don't stay united to Christ in the grave. We burst forth from the grave. We burst out of the water in newness of life. That's symbolized in baptism. Union with Christ, fellowship with Christ, both in his death and his resurrection. That's a wonderful benefit of New Testament baptism. Secondly, baptism is a sign of His, the person baptized, being engrafted into Christ. This language of engrafting in our confession, definitely, I would say, most certainly comes from this same section in Romans, where Paul uses the adjective sumptuos, in Greek, to be grown together. You think probably one thing in your head, an apple tree, right, or a fruit tree, stuck onto another tree, and now that branch is inseparably united to that tree, okay? Or you think maybe later of, the olive tree in Romans, you know, the same kind of... language being used. So this engrafting into Christ is signified in baptism. To be honest, I have a hard time distinguishing between fellowship with Christ in his death and resurrection from engrafting. I mean, like I say, union with Christ is so, it's so thoroughly repletive in this sort of, this paragraph that you really can't separate any of these things from the idea of union with Christ. So this engrafting, you might think here we're obtaining all of the nutrients for our spiritual life by being engrafted into Jesus, the vine, the branches. I've already made my point here that I was gonna make at this point about being transferred out of and into. This is the idea of engrafting. You were once over here, God ripped you out of that and stuck you in Christ, and by doing so you are deriving all of your spiritual benefits. There is no benefit outside of Christ. There is no saving benefit outside of Jesus Christ. You don't get forgiveness of sins apart from being in Christ. I have to make that point because it's so significant. So again, in the biblical view of salvation, God doesn't give redemptive benefits to us so much as he brings us into Christ, where all the redemptive benefits dwell. This is engrafting into Christ. Thirdly, baptism is a sign of remission of sins. Here again, it flows necessarily out of union with Christ, because the Bible makes it clear. We were once in the domain of darkness, we were transferred out of that domain into the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have forgiveness of sins. Union with Christ signifies then, or baptism and our union with Christ signifies remission of sins. But additionally, obviously, being plunged into the water signifies a removal and a cleansing, the baptism of regeneration. It's this idea of a renewing by the Spirit, a cleansing by the Spirit. And this happens in the sign of baptism. Water symbolizes really the blood of Christ, which alone cleanses us from sin. Okay, but being washed in this water, being plunged into this water signifies that removal of sin. And fourthly, a sign of giving up unto God through Jesus Christ to live and walk in newness of life. I think I probably already made that point, but this sign of baptism doesn't only signify union with Christ in his death, but in the resurrection life, the life of the spirit, where we are enabled by the spirit to walk in obedience to God and all of his commands. We are both in his death and in his life. So these are four things that our confession identifies as the things signified by the sign of baptism. Okay? And now I told you when we were going through that first little phrase, baptism is to be unto the party baptized, a sign. I said I'm gonna skip over that unto the party baptized and I was gonna come back to it. I'm gonna come back to it right here. Listen, it says baptism is an ordinance of the New Testament ordained by Jesus Christ to be unto the party baptized, a sign. Remember, in my introduction, I made the point that the ordinance of baptism is given to strengthen or confirm the faith of the recipient, right? That's what I said. I hope you saw it in the confession as well. How does this sign strengthen our faith? you might think, well, you just got done explaining it. But I didn't. All I've done is I've explained what that sign symbolizes. It symbolizes union. But how practically does this ordinance of baptism strengthen our faith? And you might think that I'm splitting some theological hair here, but I don't think I am. There's a distinction to be made between looking That's the way I conceive of biblical faith, right? We're looking after a beholding of a spiritual apprehension of the satisfactory work of Christ. We're looking unto Jesus in that way. There's a distinction to be made between looking to our union with Christ and looking to Christ. That's a fine distinction. On the one hand, it's as if I'm looking to the thing that's attaching me to him, and in the other hand, I'm looking to him, the source, okay? That's a big difference. In baptism, we ought to think first of Jesus, who underwent the baptism of death, was buried, and on the third day came bursting forth from the grave. We ought to look first to his work, and see that baptism proclaims his death, burial, and resurrection, which becomes ours through faith. That's a big, I think that's a big, practically a big difference. If you think baptism is supposed to provide some kind of present benefit, and so you keep thinking of your baptism, it's not gonna do you any good unless you remember that when you were plunged into the water, it was supposed to signify Jesus's death, burial, and resurrection, to which you are united by faith. It's a looking to Jesus as the substance, and then only my union with him as the means of being benefited by Christ. So we look to Jesus, And we see that baptism proclaims his death, burial and resurrection first, and then my union with him second. In other words, I'm saying to the extent that we see baptism as a visible proclamation of the gospel, a visible reenactment of the work of Christ, faith will be increased and strengthened. And I think this is exactly, I hope you'll see, this is exactly the way this Orthodox Baptist Catechism conceives of this confirming work of the sacraments. Listen how it says, I'm gonna read straight through questions 64 through 66. Listen how beautifully it puts it. Since faith alone makes us partakers of Christ and his benefits, from where does this faith come? I've already read this, but hear it again. Answer from the Holy Spirit who kindles it in our hearts by the preaching of the gospel and other ordinances and confirms it by the use of the sacraments. What are the sacraments? They are sacred signs and seals set before our eyes and ordained of God for this purpose that he may declare and confirm by them the promise of his gospel unto us. To this, that he gives freely remission of sins and life everlasting to everyone in particular who believes in the sacrifice of Christ, which he accomplished once for all upon the cross. Question 66. Do not then both the Word, preaching the gospel, and sacraments tend to that end, to lead our faith to the sacrifice of Christ, finished on the cross, as the only ground of our salvation? Answer? It is even so. The Holy Spirit teaches us by the gospel and assures us by the sacraments that the salvation of all of us stands in the once-for-all sacrifice of Christ offered for us upon the cross. I think that's awesome. I mean, it's so good when we recognize these things and we're, you know, running ahead. The Lord's Supper, how much more clearly do we think of these things? But I think this idea of looking to Jesus first and then my union with him second is really the way that we experience a present practical benefit and increasing of our faith from the ordinance of baptism. I hope that's made clear. If we're trusting in the sufficiency of Christ, we all ought to hear the voice of God as we come out of the waters of baptism saying of us, you are my beloved son in whom I'm well pleased. I believe Benjamin Keech makes this point in one of his treatises on baptism. God doesn't speak on behalf of His Son, but for all those who are in Him. You are my beloved Son, in whom I'm well pleased. Not for our own sake, not for anything righteous in us, not for anything we've done, but because the Father looks on us in Christ. 1 Corinthians 1.30 and 31, and because of Him, God the Father, you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption, so that as it is written, let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord. I am in Christ. Praise the Lord, right? If this is what baptism means, and it is, then I trust that you'll see that both the proper subjects and the due administration logically follow. Remember I said I was gonna spend the bulk of my time here in paragraph one. And that's because I really do think if we get baptism right, if we understand what it is, then who it's for and how it ought to be done really logically and necessarily follow. And I know there's objections that can be raised. But as I said, I'm only going to state positively the doctrine and leave the objections to others. So that's what baptism is. It's gonna, we're gonna see that it, very quickly we're gonna see that it follows, that the subjects and the way it's to be done really do follow naturally from it. Paragraph two, those who do actually profess repentance toward God, faith in and obedience to our Lord Jesus Christ, are the only proper subjects of this ordinance. Since baptism testifies or signifies to the party baptized that he is in union with Christ through faith, then the only proper subjects are those who profess faith in Christ, those who consciously and knowledgeably understand and believe in the sufficiency of Christ's once and for all sacrifice. Pastor Sam, again, in his modern exposition, puts it this way. What does baptism say to and about the party baptized? It says that he or she is in union with Christ, is forgiven, and has a cleansed heart. Thus, when infants are baptized, it is proclaimed to them and about them that they are in union with Christ, forgiven, and have pure hearts. While many paedo-baptists would be horrified by such an implication, only this implication is consistent with the biblical meaning of baptism. This implication should prevent such brethren from practicing infant baptism. If I'm understanding correctly about the way paedo-baptists kind of get around this, again, if I'm understanding correctly, there will be somebody who can correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm understanding that they'll say, baptism, we agree, that is exactly what baptism means. when it's concerning the believing adult, but it only proclaims the promise of those benefits to the infant, which they will, of course, participate in should they come to saving faith. We're saying, well, why separate the meaning of the sign on behalf of the parent and the child? It doesn't seem that scripture allows for any of that. It means this. Therefore, it ought to be applied only to these. So. So then paragraph two logically follows from the sign what it symbolizes. Only those professing faith, only those resting in Christ, and in that way are united to him by faith, should be baptized. Well then also I would say that these final two paragraphs, the due administration of baptism, they follow necessarily as well. Here now, I'm gonna cover myself. Concerning paragraph three, which I'll read in a moment, it deals with the baptism, the proper element, the outward element is water, and it's to be done in a triune name, in the triune name of God. You're gonna have to talk to either Pastor Ben or somebody else about the significance of that and why in Acts we might see people being baptized only in the name of Jesus, but I'm just gonna make this point after I read paragraph three. Paragraph three says, the outward element to be used in this ordinance is water wherein the party is to be baptized in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. I'm just going to make this point. In the Great Commission, when Jesus appoints this ordinance, he makes the explicit statement that you are to baptize them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. So it seems that whatever's going on in Acts, it's either an incomplete, in the sense of Luke didn't see fit or necessary to write the prescriptive statements of the one baptizing, they use this triune name. It's a narrative and it doesn't need to have that kind of doctrinal specificity at that point. We're just recognizing that the professing, those who heard the gospel, repented and believed were baptized, and they were united to the church. Okay, so from the Great Commission, we see clearly that Christ in this institution says, baptize in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Paragraph four, immersion or dipping of the person in water is necessary to the due administration of this ordinance. Again, if we're understanding that baptism is a sign of union with Christ and we look throughout the Bible, at the way that the word baptizo in Greek is kind of, the way it's described, the prepositional phrases that are joined to it. It's this idea of into, and the word baptize, baptizo, means submerge or immerse. And so we don't say we are immersed with something, but into something. And there's lots and lots of people who will make these arguments, Baptists who will make this argument, that really simply by the word baptizo in Greek and the way it's used, it seems clear that any kind of sprinkling or pouring over the head is not If baptism is a sign, that doesn't communicate what it signifies. It's sort of like eating a calf on the Passover. It just doesn't really correspond with the work that it signifies, right? Baptism is a submersion into Christ, and so it ought to be the immersion of the person in water, and that's why it's baptism. Brother Austin McCormick gave me a book by Thomas Patient. He offers 10 really good arguments why baptism must be by immersion in this book called The Doctrine of Baptism. It was recently republished, but I'm not gonna read them for you because they're lengthy, but really good points he makes. So really, I'm wrapping up. That's really the confession's teaching on baptism. And as I say, I didn't answer objections, but I hope with a heart of submission to the scripture and to this confession, we can see like, if we understand what it signifies, these other things do seem to practically and naturally follow. And so I'm gonna read again for you Psalm 111, one through four. And I want you to consider these words and the significance of verse four, especially for our conversation this morning. Again, praise the Lord. I will give thanks to the Lord with my whole heart in the company of the upright in the congregation. Great are the works of the Lord, like the sending of his son, taking on flesh, dying in the place of sinners. Great are the works of the Lord, studied by all who delight in them. Full of splendor and majesty is his work, and his righteousness endures forever. He has caused his wondrous works to be remembered. The Lord is gracious and merciful." What's one of the ways that the Lord has caused his wondrous works to be remembered? Well, in the particular ordinances that he gives to his church to practice. He has caused his wondrous works to be remembered. And then the Lord is gracious and merciful. These signs and seals given to us are gracious gifts of Christ to his church for the strengthening and edifying and building up of our faith and encouraging us for the work ahead. So I hope in remembering your own baptism, you might be benefited presently, since baptism now saves you, not as a removal of the dirt from the body, but as a, I'm forgetting my, appeal to God for a good conscience through the resurrection of Jesus Christ. So I hope as you consider your own baptism, if you've followed Christ in obedience to this ordinance, that you can have a present benefit by looking to Him and His perfect work and our union with Him symbolized in baptism. So, I don't have time for questions, but let's pray and thank the Lord for this ordinance of baptism. Father, we are thankful that you have not only sent your son Jesus in such a marvelous way, condescending to us, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men and being found in that form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on the cross. And we thank you, Father, that you have therefore exalted him to the highest place and given him the name that is above every name. so that at the name of Jesus Christ, every knee should bow and tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. We thank you for this gracious gift of baptism that you command us to administer as a local church. We thank you for all those who by faith and through the work of the Spirit are united to Jesus Christ and are presently receiving the benefits of his perfect work. And we ask that as we hear your word preached today, that you would indeed increase and strengthen our faith. Father, thank you for this blessed day, and may we continue to be edified and nourished by your word. We pray in Jesus' name, amen.