Be Baptized

On verse 38, and I will read beginning with verse 29 down to verse 41.

Hear now God's holy and inspired word. Brothers, I may say to you with confidence

about the patriarch David, that he both died and was buried,

and his tomb is with us to this day.

Being therefore a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn with him an oath,

that he would set one of his descendants on his throne,

He foresaw and spoke about the resurrection of the Christ, that he was not abandoned

to Hades, nor did his flesh see corruption.

This Jesus God raised up, and of that we are all witnesses.

Being therefore exalted at the right hand of God, and having received from the

Father the promise of the Holy

Spirit, he has poured out this that you yourselves are seeing and hearing.

For David did not ascend into the heavens, but he himself says,

the Lord said to my Lord, sit at my right hand until I make your enemies your footstool.

Let all the house of Israel know for certain that God has made him both Lord

and Christ, this Jesus, whom you crucified.

Now, when they had heard this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter

and to the rest of the apostles, excuse me, brothers, what shall we do?

And Peter said to them, repent and be baptized, every one of you,

in the name of Jesus Christ, for the forgiveness of your sins,

and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.

For the promise is for you and for your children and for all who are far off,

everyone whom the Lord our God calls to himself.

And with many words he bore witness and continued to exhort them,

saying, Save yourselves from this crooked generation.

So those who received his word were baptized, and there were added to that day

about 3,000 souls. This is the word of the Lord.

You can be seated.

Let's pray together. Lord, we thank you now for the Holy Spirit,

the one who comforts, the one who walks alongside us, the one who helps us,

convicts us, and gives us light.

We pray for that Holy Spirit now, Lord, as we study your word in this passage,

that you might help us to see what we need to see and ultimately love our Savior more because of it.

This we pray in Jesus' name. Amen.

So we're at Peter's sermon, the close of the sermon, the conclusion of the sermon.

And as I've mentioned many times, it was the sermon of all sermons for a preacher

because he didn't have to have an altar call. They were already crying out, what shall we do?

And in answer to that, our verse, verse 38 says, Peter said to them,

repent and be baptized, every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the

forgiveness of your sins.

And you'll receive the gift of the Holy Spirit for the promise is for you and

your children, all who are far off.

So this passage, last week, we focused on repentance.

What is true godly repentance?

A sorrow and awareness of our sin because it's offending to God.

We want to hate and forsake it and turn away.

But you'll notice in our passage, it says a few things together here that sometimes

cause us a lot of difficulty. It doesn't just say repent.

It says repent and be baptized. They're both commands.

Every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ. Well, this passage,

and then it says for the forgiveness of your sins.

The passage is actually the focus of a lot of controversy for some people, some traditions.

The passage seems to teach that without baptism, there is no forgiveness of sins.

So if you're not baptized, you've never had your sins forgiven,

you need to be baptized in order to be saved.

For others, it presents a picture of a pattern.

Sometimes I'll mention a few, not to just be critical, but I think there's some

Church of Christ traditions that believe you must be baptized in order to be saved.

For our Baptist brothers, and let me preface this, just like everyone who's

trying to defend themselves, all my best friends are Baptists.

I love Baptists. I have nothing against Baptists today. This is not some sort

of anti-Baptist sermon.

When I was interviewed for this job, in fact, they asked me,

who were the most influential people in your lives?

They were both Baptists, my mom and my grandma.

So when I go to Thanksgiving or used to there, I was surrounded by Baptists,

and we didn't fight every day about Baptism.

It's not a doctrine that I'm trying to preach on because I want to really get

the Baptist or divide people.

It's not a doctrine worth dividing in terms of orthodoxy, but it's a doctrine

worth looking at because it's right here at the center of Peter's sermon.

It's right at the center of the Great Commission. Jesus doesn't just say, go out and get them.

He says, make disciples of the nation, baptizing them and teaching them.

Those are the two participles that go along at the very center of the Great Commission.

So it's worth looking at. The controversy is notwithstanding.

And I'll try to go through and answer some of these controversies.

Other controversial traditions believe that upon baptism, there is a kind of

grace that automatically comes to you, sort of a regenerative grace.

For our Baptist friends, by the way, they believe that this forms a pattern.

We'll just be honest, that repent and be baptized, that's the pattern for when you get baptism.

So in other words, Peter here has established, as it were, a formula for what

happens. You first confess, and then you get baptized.

Of course, they missed a little part that says for you and your children, but I'll get to that.

But the first one I want to look at is just this question where it says,

be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ.

Now, the question that there are some also oneness Pentecostal traditions that

say you should only be baptized.

And the formula that you should use is the name of Jesus Christ because of this passage.

I don't want to brush over it too quickly, but it's not as controversial as you might think.

The baptism that Jesus gave at the Great Commission, he says specifically,

baptize them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.

That's a Trinitarian baptism at the heart of the Great Commission.

This passage is not now saying there's another baptism or a different name that you use.

He's simply distinguishing other baptisms that had existed from the baptism of Jesus.

So in other words, there was John the Baptist baptism. By the way,

I used to think, as I was a kid, I used to think John the Baptist.

I thought we won the argument as Baptists because John the Baptist is a what?

A Baptist. It says it right there in the Bible. So I was actually taught that.

They had a little pamphlet called the Trail of Tears, I think.

We could trace your lineage all the way back to the first Baptist, John the Baptist.

Anyway, John the Baptist had a baptism.

And this statement, be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ,

is simply distinguishing that baptism from the baptism of Jesus,

which is a Trinitarian baptism given in the Great Commission.

Jesus said, make disciples of the nations, baptizing them in the name of the

Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I've commanded

you, and behold, I am with you always to the end of the ages. So what is baptism?

It's right here. It's a command. It's not something, by the way,

those of you who say, I believe in Jesus, but I'm not going to get baptized,

you are in disobedience.

Okay? I don't know how much more clear I can be. This is disobedience to Christ.

If you believe in Jesus, Peter doesn't say, repent and then do what you want about baptism.

He says, repent and be baptized. As we'll be saying throughout the sermon,

baptism is a central mark of our covenant unity with Jesus.

It is far more important than we sometimes give it credit for.

Not because it saves us, but because it is a central symbol of the saving work

of Jesus Christ in our lives. Well, what is it?

According to our, I'll go through a few catechetical definitions,

and then I'll try to figure it out, things from the Bible itself.

Baptism is a sacrament, okay? Well, what is a sacrament?

It's a holy ordinance that Christ has instituted wherein he uses sensible signs

like water for baptism, and bread for the body, and wine for the blood.

These are things we can taste and touch and see and feel.

And these are things that are representing, sealing, and applying to believers

the work of the grace of Jesus Christ in our lives.

Baptism is a sacrament. That's even a word sometimes that, I remember,

again, back to how much I love Baptists, and I know you're out there.

I was sitting down with my uncle once at Thanksgiving. I said,

I have this great class. I studied Reformation history.

And we looked at the sacraments. He said, don't use that word. I was like, what word?

Sacrament. I said, why not? He said, Roman Catholics talk like that.

So from the moment I started to actually seriously study the issue,

I realized there's a lot of fear around the issue of baptism because the fear

seems to relate to not being Roman Catholic.

And Roman Catholics use words like sacraments, and Roman Catholics baptize their

babies, so we can't be Roman Catholic.

At the time, I thought, okay, I'm a Baptist. That's what I do.

But the word sacrament is a good word. It's historic in the church.

It was used as early, I think, as the second century by Tertullian.

So it's a good word. And it's a sign and seal of the covenant of grace.

Baptism is one of those signs.

According to our catechism, it says baptism is a sacrament wherein with the

washing of water in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit,

it does signify and seal our engrafting into Christ and partaking of the benefits

of the covenant of grace and our engagement to be the Lord's.

That last part is what I'm going to highlight a lot throughout the sermon.

Baptism means that you belong to Jesus, and he belongs to you,

and it's a mark on you that you need to be aware of.

In other words, baptism is a rite of initiation into the covenant community of God.

In the new covenant community, which is the church, we no longer use circumcision

as they did in the old covenant. Baptism has replaced circumcision.

Baptism is this new covenant sign that God has given to his people.

Galatians 3.27, and it's a great sign that Paul uses over and over again to

distinguish us from those who are outside.

Paul in Galatians 3 says in verse 27, for as many of you as were baptized into

Christ have put on Christ.

There is therefore neither Jew nor Greek nor slave nor free.

There is no male or female for you are all one in Christ.

And if you are Christ, then you are Abraham's offspring. I want you to notice

this baptism is a sign that is a massive opening up in the new covenant to multiple

numbers of people and kinds of people.

Women are now baptized as opposed to circumcised in the Old Testament,

they weren't. Jews and Gentiles.

Circumcision, you remember, was a mark of what it meant to be a Jew.

So who should get this mark? Who should be baptized?

According to the Baptist, Peter has this formula, repent and be baptized.

According to our catechism, baptism is not to be administered to anyone outside

the visible church until they profess faith in Christ. So that part, we totally agree.

A new believer needs to profess Christ before he's baptized. That's the formula.

But infants of such as are members of the visible church are to be baptized.

Wait a minute, says the Baptist brother, no, no babies, no infants,

because the Roman Catholics do that, and they teach that baptism saves you and

gives you regenerative grace. Wait a minute.

It's interesting that I ask someone this who said this, you know,

I will not baptize my children.

I ask a question, well, let's say a new couple becomes a Christian.

Husband and wife, yay, they become a Christian, they get baptized, and they have a baby.

I ask them a question, does everything you have in your life,

now that you belong to Jesus, does everything belong to Jesus as well? Yes.

I went through the list. It was a bit of a trap and it's meant to be,

but does your house belong to Jesus?

Yes. Does your car? Yes. Does your job? Does your money? Does,

hallelujah, everything? Yes, yes. What about your baby?

Your house belongs to God. Your car belongs to God. Your job,

but your baby doesn't belong to God.

I hope you see the flawed logic in that. They want to give everything to God

except their baby because of this supposed formula, repent and be baptized.

If it's true that when a couple repents and gets baptized, their babies also

now belong to Jesus, then they should be baptized.

Beyond obvious in the logic of it, but where you say, yes, but where is it in

the Bible, which you should ask? I hope you're always asking that.

For if many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ.

And again, I would remind you that in the old covenant, the sign of covenant

circumcision was given to children, male children.

It was simply a household matter. In the new covenant, now baptism has replaced

it. And you'll notice baptism is opening up everything.

The logic of new covenant baptism is a widening and an expansion.

No more Jew, no more Greek, no more male, no more female, no more babies.

Where are you getting this?

Everything else expands in the covenant, everything but children.

You have to understand the Bible as one book. And I think this may be the central

difference between our understanding of baptism.

If in the Old Testament, children were included in the covenant,

they were also, they should also, we should assume that they'll be included

in the new covenant. Why? Because that's the way God works.

And unless there's specific New Testament testimony that children are now out

of the covenant, we look to this passage where males and females and Jews and

Greeks, and everyone is expanding.

We look at it as the natural logic of the covenant.

Children were to be included in the covenant in the Old Testament,

and they're included now. Why? Because God works with households.

God's work, God works with households When you become a Christian Your whole

household is a Christian household That's why I said your house belongs to God

Your car belongs to Jesus Everything belongs to Jesus,

So when we move in the New Testament, we're moving from circumcision to baptism.

How do I know that? Did I just make it up because Presbyterians do that?

Shuffle the cards or move things around? No.

It's all throughout the sermons in the Bible, particularly Paul,

he's talking about. And Paul, by the way, remember, was a rabbi.

Circumcision was not something he was simply going to discard without sound warrant.

Galatians 6, 15, it says, for neither

circumcision counts for anything nor uncircumcision, but a new creation.

Circumcision is finished in the new covenant.

Galatians 3.27, for as many of you as were baptized, we mentioned that,

you were baptized into Christ.

Colossians 2.11. I know I'm reading these too fast, by the way.

I'll try to slow down for the references. Colossians 2.11.

In him, you were also circumcised with a circumcision made without hands by

putting off the body of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ,

having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him

through faith and the powerful working of God.

The sign has changed, but the place of children has not changed.

The burden of proof for those who would want to exclude children is to find

it somewhere in the Bible where they are excluded.

Actually, it's the opposite. In our very passage, some Baptists will say,

well, show me where children were baptized.

Well, how about when Peter says, this is for you and your children.

The very next verse, this promise is for you and for your children.

God worked with households in the old covenant. He works with households in

the new covenant. How do we know that?

Testimony from Acts, Acts chapter 16. We know the story of Lydia when she became converted.

Acts 16 · chapter mention

The Lord opened her heart to keep the things spoken by Paul.

And when she and her household were baptized, she begged us to stay. Household baptism.

Acts chapter 16, the Philippian jailer.

Acts 16 · chapter mention

Remember, he thought he was going to die, and then he said, what must I do to

be born again? And he said, believe in the Lord Jesus Christ,

and you'll be saved, you and your household.

This is the household principle carried over into the new covenant.

We're not even assuming it by logic, which you would. We're seeing it in the Bible itself.

Testimony from the word of God. Lydia was baptized, she and her household.

The jailer was baptized, he and his household.

Acts chapter 18, then Crispus, the ruler of the synagogue, believed on the Lord with all his household.

Acts 18 · chapter mention

The household, 1 Corinthians 1, 16, and I baptized the household of Stephanas.

You say, well, I don't, just because it says household doesn't mean that we

know that infants were in it, but a household includes infants.

A household always includes infants. So we also include our infants in the sign of the covenant.

This is the covenant pattern. This is the testimony of Scripture.

The covenant pattern is not lost to us in our passage today.

Again, it says this is for you and your children.

You and your children. The Old and New Testament are together with this.

The sign has changed, but the place of children has not.

So, of course, children are included in our baptism.

And I might also add, although this is not decisive, that when I was studying

the issue, I remember scratching my head because my Baptist pastor had told

me even John the Baptist was a Baptist.

How can you argue with that? I was like, well, that's about as far back as you

can go, John the Baptist.

But then I was looking at church history and I'm like, wait a minute,

from the beginning of the early church all throughout medieval ages and all

up to the Reformation and through the Reformation, almost all churches,

almost everywhere included infants in baptism.

Now, it's not a decisive argument. Our arguments have to come from Scripture, but it's compelling.

And it made me wonder, like, why am I thinking that everyone who really is a

true Christian only baptizes after you confess?

Well, quite frankly, it's because I grew up in a little town in Indiana,

similar to little towns in Ohio, where the vast majority of Bible-believing

Protestants are Baptists.

They're simply all over. But when you look at church history,

you see that what seems like everyone who believes this, it diminishes down

to only really the last few hundred years in America, where Baptists have been,

have more sort of a majority Protestant position.

Baptists are everywhere, by the way. I heard Tim Hawkins say once that even

non-denominational churches are just Baptist churches with cool websites.

I mean, they're really basically Baptist churches. They believe in the idea

that a believer has to be baptized after he comes to confession of faith in Christ.

But when you look at the word baptism, and this was another confusing thing

to me. Again, I grew up a Baptist. I grew up eating, drinking, breathing this stuff.

And I was always told the word baptizo, in Greek, means to dip or to immerse.

That's the end of the discussion. Don't argue with the Bible.

I mean, again, that's pretty powerful if that's true. But the word baptism doesn't

mean that in the New Testament.

The word baptism is the noun form of to baptize.

To baptize is to perform a baptism. But what is it? What are you doing?

Well, first we notice that the word baptize means to be associated with something.

1 Corinthians 10, one, moreover, brethren, I do not want you to be unaware that

our fathers were under the cloud, passed through the sea.

We're all baptized into Moses in the cloud, in the sea. Here we have the word

baptism used as a word of association.

They were closely united and associated.

Baptism doesn't mean to dip or to immerse here. It means to be associated with.

John 1, verse 33, upon whom you see the Spirit descending and remaining on him,

John 1:33

this is he who baptizes with the Spirit.

Again, baptism doesn't mean to dip or to immerse, not in either one of these passages.

So the first thing you'll notice is the word in the New Testament doesn't always

mean to dip or to immerse.

In fact, I'm going to argue today, it never means that.

It simply never does, at least as far as I have been able to find.

The word baptizo means to baptize.

That's what it means. It means to baptize. In ancient pagan classical literature,

the prominent dictionary definition, the first two is to dip or to immerse.

And that's where the Baptists get their argument from a dictionary of classical use of Greek.

But I looked at a dictionary this week too, just for the fun of it.

And I looked up the word immerse.

And I thought, okay, what does it mean? Well, it has two, I almost said three, two definitions.

One, to dip or to submerge in liquid. The two, number two, is to involve oneself

deeply in a particular activity.

Even a dictionary will have multiple meanings.

Now, how do you determine the use of a word from a dictionary? Got two definitions.

How do you determine it? Its context and its use.

That's how you determine it. If I were to tell you that when I was studying

for my doctorate in Scotland, I immersed myself in everything there was in 17th

century Scottish covenant or literature.

I read everything that was extant that I could get my hands on.

Now, was I dipped or submerged in a liquid?

I was. Some of you are stubborn Baptists, I can tell you.

No, I was not. I'll answer. I just was closely involving myself in a particular activity.

So ferreting out the dictionary definition always comes by use.

Well, how does the Bible use the word baptizo?

Fascinating passage. And if you're still hanging on, Hebrews 9.10.

Hebrews 9.10 is an interesting word.

It says, the author of the Hebrews is talking about the various baptisms from the Old Testament.

Almost every English translation that I've found so far translates the word to washing.

It's a washing, but only deal with food.

This is verse 10 and various baptisms is the Greek word, baptizmois,

washings, regulations for the body. Well, what were these washings?

This is where I was. This is where I'm not going to argue that the mode is most important.

If you're baptized here, by the way, if you were sprinkled as a child,

if you were dunked or dipped or immersed.

If you were pushed three times forward, I know I think Grace Brethren do three

times forward, sometimes do three times back.

We don't care about the mode in your baptism. We do care in what we should do.

I will not baptize by dipping or immersing because that's not what the word

means. But we'll accept your baptism.

It's only the Baptists that won't accept the baptism according to their own formula.

They're the ones that say, no, you have to do it again. Just for the record, I was dunked twice.

So I have a high pedigree as far as like my Baptist.

And by the way, that second dunking was something that changed my mind about

baptism. I thought, I've already done this. I've already had this.

Why am I doing this again?

No, the formula says repent and be baptized. But I did when I was nine.

Yeah, but you weren't serious.

And I kept thinking, well, what if I get unserious again and get serious?

How many times am I going to be baptized and re-baptized over and over?

Your baptism, for the record here at this church, if you've been baptized in

the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, your baptism stands.

It may be irregular if you were dunked like me. I was dunked twice.

It may be irregular, but it's valid and we will accept it.

You don't make bones about that. But back to the word itself,

these various washings spoken of in Hebrews chapter nine included all these washings.

I have to watch my time because there's a lot of pages down here.

I have a lot to say, but I gotta be careful not to go too much.

Various baptism, like the day of the atonement baptism. Here in Leviticus 16,

14, it says, he shall take some of the blood of the bull and sprinkle it.

That's the word wash that Hebrews is referring to. Later, it says,

as he did with the blood and the bull and sprinkle it on the mercy seat.

Baptism in the Old Testament, in this case, was sprinkling.

Baptism from the dead. In Hebrews 9, 13 and 14, it says, For if the bloods of

bulls and goats and the ashes of heaven were sprinkling the unclean,

sanctifies the purifying of the flesh, how much more shall the blood of Christ?

Baptism or washings in the Old Testament were sprinkling or pouring or laving.

If they had a bowl of some sort, they would pour it onto the person.

And this specific baptism is outlined in Numbers chapter 19,

Numbers 19 · chapter mention

verse five and six, if you want more.

And in verse 13, it says, that person shall be cut off from Israel and shall

be unclean because of the water of purification was not sprinkled on him.

Baptism of leprosy. I won't go over all of them, don't worry.

I see you're drifting off already, but it's exciting if you used to be Baptist.

I'm telling you, it's exciting. But the baptism of leprosy, if someone had leprosy

and they were declared clean, they would go back to the priest and the priest

would go through a ceremony.

Leviticus 14 verse 7, and he shall sprinkle it seven times on him who is to

Leviticus 14:7

be cleansed from his leprosy and shall pronounce him clean and shall let the

living bird loose in the open field.

I love that because at the end of that purification ceremony,

when you return from the dead, the dove that should have been killed for you

flies off in liberty and freedom.

It's a beautiful sacrifice. It involves sprinkling.

Baptism of redemption. Exodus 12, 21, when they sprinkled the door of the blood.

Baptism of the book and the people. Hebrews 9, it says, Moses had spoken every precept.

And then it says, he took the water and the scarlet wool and the hyssop and

sprinkled both the book and the people.

Okay, baptisms in the Old Testament, Acts chapter 22.

Acts 22 · chapter mention

Now, why do I say all this? First of all, because in this church,

we sprinkle or pour. Why? Because that's the biblical mode.

I was never told that as a child. I was always told baptizo means to dip or

to immerse. Look at the dictionary, buddy. But it doesn't.

A dictionary gives that as one option, but the context and use in scripture never gives it.

As far as I have found, there are no baptisms in the whole of the Bible by dipping or immersing.

If you find one, see me afterwards I'd love to find out what you found that

I haven't That's why we So now we know why we include our children They're members

of the covenant community Now you know why we sprinkle and pour Instead of dick dumping.

Dunking or immersing How do the sacraments become effectual? Why do they matter?

There's another question of is there grace in them Another question from the

Roman Catholic perspective Or Baptist perspective or ours According to our catechism

Question 91 the sacraments become effectual means of salvation. Listen carefully.

Not from any virtue in them. There's no power in them.

When I put water on someone, it's not holy water. It's not anointed in some

special way. It has no magic.

Nor, thankfully, by any power in the one who administers them.

It doesn't matter whether I'm thinking bad thoughts or sinned the day before or whatever.

So nothing in them or the one who administers them, but only by the blessing

of Christ. and the working of his spirit in them that by faith received them.

The efficacy or the effectiveness of baptism, the grace that comes to us through

baptism doesn't come through the water per se or automatically.

The Catholics used to have a phrase, ex opere operato, which means literally,

I think, from the work worked.

In other words, from the operation itself comes the operation.

From the water of baptism, grace automatically is infused into the person.

We do not teach that. We do not believe that.

So don't leave from here saying Presbyterians believe that baptism saves their

children. We don't teach that.

But baptism represents washing that we do believe in.

Washing like the Old Testament washings. You realize no one was ever able to

enter into the presence of God or enter into the company of the camp with leprosy.

They had to be washed first and made clean.

And then upon the washing, they're able to enter into the covenant community.

And what a blessing it is to have entrance to the covenant community.

No man enters into the presence of God without washing. That's why baptism is

closely connected to our identity.

And that's why it's more important than perhaps you've even thought of.

Baptism is a symbol of who we are. We belong to Jesus, and Jesus Christ washes away our sins.

This is who we are, the forgiven, loved people of God.

Remember from our sermon in Acts when the apostles were forming the foundation of a new tribe.

Our new tribal identity wasn't in Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob,

but in Jesus Christ as the beloved of God.

From every tribe and every tongue and nation of the earth. This is the sign

now of baptism given to all people who come to Jesus and to their children.

Let us draw near, Hebrews 10, 22 says. Let us draw near with a true heart in

full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience

and our bodies washed with pure water. I love the sprinkling analogy.

It's so much better than dunking or dipping.

A lot of times Baptists will argue from Romans 6, which I'll come to in a moment,

where it says, we're associated, baptized into his death, burial, and resurrection.

By the way, that has nothing whatsoever to do with the mode,

how you sprinkle or dip. It's simply a word of an association.

In baptism, we are now closely united with Christ in his death,

burial, and resurrection.

It's a sign of a covenant marking. Baptism by sprinkle or pouring is so much

more beautiful than dipping or immersing. Why?

Because in all of the washings of the Old Testament, in the anointing of the

priest or anyone who wanted to enter the tabernacle from above,

representing the sovereign God coming down by his spirit, the water would be

poured, the oil would be anointed, a sign that it's not the work of the person

about to enter, but the work of a sovereign God.

What a powerful sign this is. We baptize by sprinkling or pouring because it's

the mode given, and the mode given is wonderfully representing our own salvation.

It rivets our soul on the sovereign grace of God. Too amazing to even contemplate.

God does the work in baptism. We don't do it. That's why we're not gonna ask

you to get re-baptized and re-baptized and re-baptized.

The mark of baptism, once it's upon you, is a work of God, a mark of God.

Well, does it do anything? Does it do anything? The answer is yes, it's very powerful.

Yeah, but what about the baby? That's what everyone wants to know.

Does it do anything in the baby?

Our confession says that baptism, the work of the Holy Spirit is, are you ready?

Not necessarily tied to the moment of administration.

There could very well be the work of the Holy Spirit somehow mysteriously that

we don't know, but we don't teach it's automatic.

And after all, the spirit worked in the heart of John the Baptist in the womb

and he leapt in the womb. We don't know, it's a mystery, but we don't teach

automatic grace, that's the key.

There's nothing automatic about baptism that makes a baby alive in Christ.

It marks the child, however, even as it marks us. And what a wondrous gift the

mark of baptism is for us.

It's a mark and call to believe. You are now baptized.

You remember in the Old Testament where the Jews would speak of themselves as

the circumcised and those outside as the uncircumcised?

And that circumcision mark called them to follow the Lord.

We don't do that because we're circumcised. We don't eat that because we're

the circumcised people of God.

We don't go there because we belong to God through this mark of circumcision. How much more baptism?

We are baptized people. We are people with the mark of God on us,

called to discover the high calling of Christ Jesus.

It's a mark of submission, full submission to the Lord.

And it marks all of you out if you've been baptized as belonging to Jesus and

needing to be in full, complete submission.

You turn away from your former ways and submit wholly unto Jesus Christ.

The former ways have passed away. They've been washed away by the waters of

baptism. No, not automatically, but symbolically.

This is a powerful symbol that the Holy Spirit uses to help us.

Notice what Romans 6 says. This is powerful. It has nothing to do with the mode.

Just because he talks about being associated with the death,

burial, and resurrection.

By the way, this passage doesn't help me any more than it helps a Baptist.

It doesn't deal with the mode.

It's not how you baptize. It's what baptism associates us with.

Listen to this. Romans 6, it says.

Walk in newness of life. Whether you've been dipped or immersed or sprinkled,

if the waters of baptism have come to you, Paul says, you are no longer to walk in sin.

Our larger catechism has a great question, and I hope you'll all listen, especially adults.

How is baptism to be improved by us? In the end, you know, in preaching classes,

people would always say, so what?

So what? You really showed the Baptist what for? So what? Listen to what it says.

Improving your baptism. This is what I would call, and everyone here who is

baptized, children, adults, old people, young people, mothers and fathers.

Improve your baptism. How? It says this needed but much neglected duty of improving

our baptism is to be performed by us our whole life long.

Every time you see a baptism, it's a beautiful thing.

Maybe you cry because the baby's so cute or it's just a wonderful momentous moment.

It's a powerful moment in the life of that child and of that family and of our

church and of everyone who's baptized.

You're to be reflecting on the grace that also came to you through those waters.

You're to be reflecting on the call that is also on you through those waters,

on the righteousness and holiness and faithfulness that God is calling every

baptized person to follow.

The privileges and the benefits conferred and sealed thereby and our solemn

vow made therein, whether it's the parents or the adult, that you vow to forsake

the devil and forsake the flesh.

And I think sometimes baptism is actually better appreciated by non-Western

cultures than we in the West.

We no longer think that symbols and rites and ceremonies matter at all to us.

What's it matter if you get baptized? What a Baptist friend said to me,

I'm saved. Of course, they're always used. The thief on the cross, I know.

Or the guy on the desert island. Those two are the classics.

Did the thief on the cross get baptized? No, he didn't get baptized.

Let me just use the word ordinarily.

Ordinarily, a faithful believer is always baptized. Of course,

you're baptized because you come into submission of Jesus Christ and you want

to mark yourself out because we don't value symbols as a culture or a tribal

culture with covenant signs.

Many people outside the West mark themselves in a way that is identifiable with everyone else.

We worked with tribes from the newer and the Dinka tribes in South Sudan.

And when those boys came around, not only were they about seven feet tall,

so you could tell, But they also had these big tribal marks,

scars, all the way across their forehead. Ah, he's newer.

Oh, he's Dinka. They actually used these marks in the Civil War in 2013 to know who to kill.

Non-Western cultures are very aware of marks and signs and symbols and rites.

We sometimes forget about it. Our own missionaries in Korea were teaching and training people.

And during the Japanese occupation, they were told, you can teach,

you can preach, you can take families under your wing, have Bible studies,

prayer meetings, but you may not baptize. But what?

To an evangelical in America who doesn't care, what's the big deal?

Because the Japanese and the Koreans knew that these covenant symbols meant something.

They marked you out as no longer belonging to the government.

Do you realize your baptism tells you that there's no government above you, but Jesus Christ.

You don't belong to a government. You don't belong to a people anymore.

You belong to Jesus Christ and all those who are marked with baptism.

It meant unmistakable submission to a rival power. That's where the Japanese

couldn't brook it and the Koreans understood it.

And that's why a lot of cultures understand this better than we do.

I had a friend from Syria, Bassam Shadid, who told me the same sort of thing.

And right in the heart of Islamic culture, he said, I could go to church.

I could go to sermons. I could go to Bible studies. I could even date a Christian

girl, which he did. He was radical.

But I couldn't get baptized. Baptism in Islamic culture is a mark of death. It's a mark of death.

I think pagan cultures and non-Western cultures have appreciated it somehow

far more than we have as a Christian community.

It means that you are marked as fully, completely, and wholly belonging to Jesus

Christ. That's powerful, brothers.

Does baptism matter? It matters a lot. And we ought to be talking like this.

We ought to speak this to our children as well.

That's why it's wonderful to baptize your children, because when they have the

mark of Christ upon them, you call them to that mark.

Don't say one day this or one day that. You say you belong to Jesus.

You won't do that. You're not supposed to do that.

Come to Jesus, not to get saved, but to follow the mark by which Christ has saved you.

Again, no, the baptism hasn't saved them, but it marks them as belonging to Jesus Christ.

It always baffled me too that many of my Baptist friends were in a lot of tension with regard to this.

What do you do with a little child that wants to pray?

If you're a Baptist, He's not a Christian yet. About a two-year-old who wants

to thank God for the food. No, no, sorry. You have to profess Christ first. Really?

Don't you train them the Bible? Don't you teach them memory verses?

Don't you give them the catechism? I have two-year-old grandsons,

twins, who are the cutest kids in the world.

And I sometimes ask them, who made you? They say, God, what else did God make?

All things. They're two years old.

They've been baptized. They belong to Jesus. They're learning the faith as they grow up.

And they're being called day after day, week after week to the baptism,

which has marked them out for Jesus Christ.

And when they fall, and when we fall also, we improve our baptism by remembering

it wasn't us that saved ourselves. It was God who marked us.

And it's God who did this work and will complete this work.

Baptism is powerful that way, beloved. We need to think of it more.

We need to meditate on it more.

Every time there's a baptism, all of these thoughts should be swirling through our minds.

God saved me. I can't believe it. I need to renew my life. If I need to be more

committed, God will be the one that helps me through.

And God will be the one that takes this little child in the same journey.

Baptism in baptism is the preaching of the gospel, the good news that Jesus

Christ washes away our sins by the blood of his own son, of himself.

I'll close, I'll close with Romans 6.

I wanna just read through what Paul says in the same sort of way,

except scripturally, about our baptism.

Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? Certainly not.

How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it? Or do you not know that

as many as were baptized into Christ, Jesus were baptized into his death?

Therefore we were buried with him through baptism in death, that just as Christ

was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we should walk

in newness of life. Your baptism calls you to that.

For if we have been united together in the likeness of his death,

certainly we shall also be in the likeness of his resurrection.

Knowing this, that our old man was crucified in him, that the body of sin might

be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin.

And if you're baptized, it's a reminder that you're not.

For he who has died has been freed from sin.

Now, if we died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him,

knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, dies no more.

Get this now, baptized believers, death no longer has dominion over him.

For the death he died, he died once for all, but the life that he lives, he lives to God.

Likewise, baptized believers, reckon yourselves dead indeed to sin,

but alive in God through Jesus Christ, our Lord.

Therefore, do not let sin reign in your mortal body that you should obey its lusts.

And do not present your members as instruments of unrighteousness to sin,

but present yourselves to God as being alive from the dead and your members

as instruments of righteousness to God. Amen. Let's pray.

Heavenly Father, we thank you so much for the kind of God that you are.

You don't just merely give us words. You literally give us water that comes

down upon our heads, upon our children and reminds us that you've washed away

our sins through the blood of Jesus Christ.

What a glorious, precious gift our baptism is.

Help us to never forget it. Help us to always improve it and call our children to it as well, Lord.

We thank you that you have not left our children out, that you've given them

to us and they belong to you.

Bless them and bless the children of this church and bless all of us who are

baptized this morning, even as we receive another sacrament.

The body and blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. Encourage and strengthen us thereby.

We pray in Jesus' name, amen.