The Water That Divides- A Scriptural Understanding Of Baptism Week 3

All right, let's pray, okay? Father, thank you for our time together now. Help us to understand this. Help us that your name will be glorified. Help us so that we will have an understanding of what the scriptures say. But Lord, help us not to be proud in knowing things, but rather help us to be humble with the truth.

We thank you in Jesus' name. Amen. All right, last week we started talking about the case for paedo-baptism. I was hoping that I would be fair and accurate, and someone said to me last week, wow, after that, that's really cool, it would be great to be president here. So, I thought I did a good job. All right?

But we're not done yet. We're going to let them continue to make their case. Now, what we saw last week, of course, was that admittedly, and they will admit it, there are no biblical references to infant baptism in the New Testament. You can't find a record of one. And they openly admit that. Okay?

So what happens? Well, because of necessary and, oh, I can't, I always forget that phrase. Because it's a good phrase. That by good and necessary consequences, we can deduce from Scripture the truth. That's true. And so what they've done is they've said, okay, the Abrahamic covenant is central to our belief.

And if you understand the Abrahamic covenant, then the good and necessary consequences that give us the truth come from that. So we saw that God made a covenant with Abraham and basically promised him all these things and then said to him, this is for you and your household and your descendants after you. So that the household was circumcised and all the descendants that followed generation after generation were circumcised as members of that Abrahamic covenant.

Now they would say then that that circumcision, all that did was God's, remember, sign and seal. That if you meet the conditions of the covenant, which is faith, then you will be saved. Okay? Mosaic covenant, of course, has circumcision in it because they're all Abraham's descendants. and their deduction is simply this, that we are now Abraham's descendants and therefore because of that covenant, which is still in force, because of that covenant, then we have to give our infants the covenant sign.

Okay, so what's remained the same is the covenant and the fact that we, if you're descended from Abraham and we see in Galatians that we're Abraham's children, Therefore, we have to give the covenant sign to the infants. That remains the same. What has changed is the covenant sign. It went from circumcision to baptism. Okay? So that's where we were last week.

But again, there are other considerations that they give besides just the Abrahamic covenant. One is a particular view of the church. There's a particular view of the church that comes into play here. Now, they will say God has one plan of redemption and one people through all the ages. And again, we can agree there is one plan of redemption, granted, that's clear from Scripture, and one people through all the ages.

That's true too, but it's not the same as what they would say is one. We don't agree that it's quite the same. But here's what they would say. One plan of redemption, one people. So they have a tendency, at least the old Presbyterian theologians, of talking about the church in the Old Testament. The church in the Old Testament. or they might refer to Israel in the wilderness as the church in the wilderness.

So then they draw the following conclusions. This is from Charles Hodge, great Presbyterian, great theologian altogether, but particularly Presbyterian, and he says, if the church is one under both dispensations, now what he means by dispensations is the Old Testament and the New Testament. if the church is one under both dispensations, if infants were members of the church under the theocracy they are members of the church now unless the contrary be proven so you see what plays into this idea is this straight line God's people in the Old Testament are the church, God's people in the New Testament are the church so they will talk about the church in Israel, or the church in the wilderness, or the church here. They'll use that terminology, and it's just one straight line, so that if the church in the Old Testament gave the covenant sign to infants, then the church in the New Testament does the same.

It's just all the way straight across. Here's the next argument they'll make. There's a contrary command. You won't find a contrary command anywhere. There's an absence of it. And they would say, you credo Baptists face the absence of a specific command to deny children the covenant sign.

They say, there is no command that says, don't do that anymore. Because they argued this would have been an immense change for Jewish converts. The removal of the sign, the covenant sign for children. They say, that would just be totally radical. It would be like this imagine what happens when a Jewish convert who submits to baptism is told that his children cannot have the covenant sign That's just way too radical.

That just doesn't make sense. I mean, they've been practicing circumcision for 2,000 years of giving the sign to their infants. And all of a sudden you're going to say, no, no, no more children allowed. You see, that's just too radical. You've got to find a commandment that says don't do this before you can assert that only believers can be baptized. Alright?

And then, so there's these two views, a particular view of the church, the absence of any contrary command to stop giving the covenant sign to babies. Alright? And then there's the household baptisms in the New Testament. Okay? And when you look at the New Testament, you see that the apostles expected entire households to be baptized once the head of the home accepted the gospel.

In fact, when you read the New Testament accounts of baptism, every person identified as having a household present at his or her conversion also had the entire household baptized. They say, look, at every instance where someone is converted, his entire household was baptized. Okay? And so they say, okay, so the household has to be baptized. Now, what's the household?

We saw it last week. Here's their contemporary definition. This included all of one's resident dependents, spouse, children, resident relatives, and dependent servants not earning regular wages. Now it interests me, just as a footnote here, because I'm not going to critique this yet, just kind of. What's interesting to me is how this not earning regular wages has slipped into the definition.

And I don't understand why that is, other than they're trying to make the point it was just the slaves that were in the household who got it, and they were servants not earning regular wages. So that may be where it came from. it also delivers them from having to baptize the nanny that's living in your household and taking care of your kids. Anyway, that's just a throw-off thought.

It's a throwaway line. You can tuck it away, do what you want with that one. We may come back to it later. Let's look at some of these. Look at Acts chapter 16, verses 30 and 31. here's the Philippian jailer you remember the story Paul and Silas have cast out a demon from a woman who's been making a lot of money for her masters and they get really mad and they have Paul and Silas thrown in prison and you remember they're in the stocks and it's about midnight and they're singing and all the doors fly open and the jailer comes walking in he's running in he's ready to commit suicide and he says, what must I do to be saved?

And they give him the gospel and he is converted. And then we get down to verses 30 and 31. We read, where is that? Then he brought them out and said, sirs, what must I do to be saved? And they said, believe in the Lord Jesus and you will be saved, you and your household. And they spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all who were in his house.

And he took them the same hour of the night and washed their wounds, and he was baptized at once, he and all his family. Okay? Then he brought them up into his house and set food before him, and he rejoiced, along with his entire household, that he had believed in God. So they say, look, there it is. He believed, and his whole household was baptized. Now they would say, If you look at that, Paul's words do not mean that the rest of the household would express genuine faith, but that the faith of the household head would now govern the life and faith patterns in the rest of his family.

So there's where they would point. They would also point to Cornelius in Acts chapter 10. It says that all of his household was baptized. In Acts chapter 16, verse 15, and she, that is Lydia, and after she was baptized, and her household as well, she urged us saying, if you have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come to my house and stay. And she prevailed upon us.

So again, Lydia's baptized and her household. Later on is the Philippian jailer. You look at Colossians 1.16. Wait a minute. Okay. Here we go.

All right. Cornelius, Lydia, Flipping Jailer, Stephanus, and 1 Corinthians 1.16. 1 Corinthians 1.16. verse 14 I thank God that I baptized none of you except Crispus and Gaius so that no one may say that you were baptized in my name I did baptize also the household of Stephanas beyond that I do not know whether I baptized anyone else so he mentions the household of Stephanas there.

Okay? So, he talks about his household. Another one that's implied is Crispus we find in Acts chapter 18. Chapter 18, verse 8. Crispus the ruler of the synagogue in Corinth now Crispus the ruler of the synagogue believed in the Lord together with his entire household And many of the Christians hearing Paul believed and were baptized. And then when you turn over to 1 Corinthians 1, verse 14, it talks about, yeah, he baptized Christmas. so they draw the conclusion well it says that his household believed and Crispus is baptized and so Crispus believed that his household was baptized and here well no in Acts 18 it says Crispus believed in 1 Corinthians it says he was saved household is mentioned in Acts but Crispus is mentioned in 1 Corinthians now they say to us credo baptists why do you resist household baptism so much?

They say, you're too individualistic. You've forgotten the representative principle. Remember we talked about that last week. The representative principle, where the household head represents the entire family, so when he's baptized, the whole household is baptized. And they said, you're just too individualistic. You just bought too much into the American view of individualism, and you forgot the representative principle. and that you don't understand how a covenant sign is a seal or a visible pledge that promises apply when you meet the condition of faith.

Okay? You just don't get that. Okay? All right. Now, we'll talk now also, so those are some other biblical considerations that come into play. Household baptism is a real big one for them Because they think that, aha, see, whole households are baptized.

Just like in the Old Testament. Okay. I'm not going to deal with that now. You have to come back later for us to deal with that. I would just suggest to you, let me suggest to you that you read those accounts and pay attention to everything in those accounts. Okay?

Okay? Just read it, read it carefully, read it over many times, and see if it holds. All right? Now, now they want to talk about the benefits of infant baptism. What are the benefits that they have that we don't have? Well, first of all, they might talk about the devotion of parents.

And Brian Chappell writes this. Should we baptize infants because the sacrament will guarantee that our children will become genuine and eternal citizens of heaven? The answer is no. Because no sacrament automatically creates or transmits the grace of salvation. No mere ritual will save anyone. And so they agree with us wholeheartedly that faith is necessary to be reconciled to God.

They'll never deny that. They'll agree with us, and I'm thankful for that. So if it doesn't confer salvation, then why do it? Because God makes covenantal promises to believers and their children. Well, we talk about devotion of parents, okay, in an infant baptism. Abraham devoted all that he had to God in the covenant faith.

So what? What's the conclusion? So Christians should do the same. So Christian parents should do the same. So Abraham devoted all that he had to God in the covenant, so we should too. It demonstrates very tangibly the commitment to be faithful stewards of our children's souls.

It means to trust and to follow God in raising children. okay it's saying that I've devoted my children and my whole household to God and I'm going to lead them in the way of God alright salvation truths are signified in baptism parents humbly acknowledge that they're dependent on God's grace not only in the duty to raise the child according to scripture but also to do what they cannot do just to save them okay it signifies that we're dependent on God's grace right this covenant because remember the covenant you remember that little baptismal ceremony we went through last week where the pastor addresses the child and essentially says to him if you believe you'll be saved and this is God's promise that he'll save you and so it's a promise from God that if you believe you'll be saved. Okay? This public act of devotion makes the parents accountable to the church before which they take their vows.

So in that baptism, and I didn't do this last week because it would make it too long, but in the baptism, the parents make vows and the church makes vows. The parents make the vows that before the church body, that they're going to raise these children up in the admonition and nurture of the Lord. So now the whole church, the whole congregation has witnessed their vows to do this.

And so they have vowed that they would help them. So that if you're not raising your children the way you promised, we're going to talk to you about it. They're accountable now. Because they very publicly did this. So they're accountable. and it is the seal or pledge from God. This is God continuing visible pledge to his church that he will fulfill his covenant promise if that child puts his faith in the Lord Jesus Again, one of the Presbyterian writers says, by the marks of this sacrament, I promise that any...

This is God talking in baptism. So God essentially says in baptism, by the marks of this sacrament, I promise that anyone who trusts in my mercy through the blood of Christ will have his sins washed away and will be as pure before me as the water that flows from this font so that we will be in holy union forever. Again, a visible pledge of God's merciful grace.

It's evident in baptism. It's there for our children to claim. Okay? So, what's the benefit of infant baptism? The devotion of the parents. what they're going to say they're going to do. Then there's the blessing to the children or of the children.

They are blessed as well. Blessing places each child into a privileged position of being raised in a Christian home, in a Christian home where they will hear and understand the truths of the gospel. Okay? He lives in a home that through baptism has promised to provide Christian nurture. In baptism, you're making a vow before God that you're going to raise them in a way that, in the fear of the Lord.

And so these parents have, through baptism, promised to use the resources of the church to make the nurture truly biblical in character. So, puts them into a Christian home. And the parents publicly promise in this sacrament to pray with and for their child so that early in life the child might know the realities of God's saving grace in Christ. So it puts them into a privileged position of a Christian home.

It also places the child into the privileged position of church membership so that he is exposed to the gospel. Now listen, some of us, you know, well, a lot of us who are Baptists, this just kind of doesn't sound right. Because we have so solidly stood on believers are baptized and brought into membership. But you have to remember that when an infant is baptized, and as we're going to see later in a few more weeks, I use that term loosely. when a child is sprinkled or water poured on them, they become officially a member of that church.

Okay? You've got to get that into your mind. They then become a member of the church. So if... Let's say we practice this. Let's say we're a Presbyterian church.

All right? the baby that Sarah is going to bring into the world in a couple more weeks. Don't say it. Don't even draw the picture, Andrew. Is that what you're saying? I don't want you to put my child under that. It's just an illustration.

I'm fine with it. So that little boy is going to be just as, when he's baptized, and I use the term loosely, he is just as much a member of this body as I am, as you are. He is a member of the church. So what's the advantage of that? Because it's within the covenant community that the child has all the advantages of hearing the word of God. The child also has the promise of the church to support the parents in their spiritual nurture and admonition.

The church, again, remember, has vowed to be a part of this. And so has the resources of the church. And when the church is truly one in this effort, a child is surrounded and embraced by the testimony of Christ at every turn. One writer writes this, to hear a child say, well, I've always believed in Jesus. Okay? And the last thing is they cannot be treated as unbelievers.

You'd never treat them as unbelievers, but as part of the covenant people of God in a special position before God. In a special position before God. Okay? So they're not like kids that are not in church or have been baptized. They're not like non-members. and so you don't treat them as unbelievers. You say, but I don't know whether they believed or not.

In their way of thinking, you're treated as a believer until you do things that would say otherwise and then discipline follows. Okay? They do believe in church discipline. But it's exercised when you start showing that you really don't belong. Okay? So, in fact, they quote 1 Corinthians 7.14 oftentimes in this regard.

Let's look at that. This is in the passage that has to deal with marriage and singleness and divorce. So it's set in that passage. And in 1 Corinthians 7.14, and this is another proof by the way, here's what you read. Okay, now this is having to deal with divorce when a believer is married to an unbeliever and the unbeliever says, I'm done with this marriage, I'm out of here. the believer is told to let them go.

Just to let them go. Don't fight about it. Let them go. So he says in verse 12, To the rest I say, I not the Lord. In other words, he's just got done talking about what the Lord had taught. Now he's going to say, this is something the Lord didn't teach, but this is what I'm going to say on my apostolic authority from Jesus himself.

To the rest I say, I not the Lord. That if any brother has a wife who is an unbeliever and she consents to live with him, he should not divorce her. If any woman has a husband who is an unbeliever and he consents to live with her, she should not divorce him. For the unbelieving husband is made holy because of his wife, and the unbelieving wife is made holy because of her husband.

Otherwise, your children would be unclean, but as it is, they are holy. Now do you see that? Your children are holy. And they say, look, there you go. Right? there it is baptism makes them covenant members so they're considered holy alright you see there's got to be more to that yeah there is but we're not going to get into it this week ok here's the last benefit they talk about when a child is baptized God enters the scene God now becomes involved he promises to strengthen and enable the testimony and training of parents who seek his aid okay he promises to strengthen and enable the testimony and the training that the parents give to their children when they seek his aid he promises to walk with and fulfill the covenant promises to the child who matures in faith alright and lastly God uses the devotion of parents and the church to further the spiritual nurture of the child.

Okay? So there we have it. The Abrahamic covenant is central. Many deductions are drawn from that. And then, you've got all these other considerations to take into mind from the Bible, particularly household baptisms. Okay?

Alright. That's it for today. We're done. You're saying, how can that be? Because I went long last week. Okay?

All right. Okay. I haven't even asked the questions. Yes, Steve. How does this correlate with other sacraments, say, communion? I mean, I know they do communion every week.

So the 80 communion since they been baptized into into fellowship all those other things Interesting question that Presbyterians themselves don agree on There's some guys like Doug Wilson, you've all heard of Doug Wilson, most of you have, some of you have. Doug Wilson who's very reformed makes the case for paedo-community that children should, because they're covenant members, they should be allowed to the Lord's table what's the problem? but that's a very minority view within Presbyterianism most would say oh no, absolutely not no no because when you read 1 Corinthians 11 there has to be knowledge of what you're doing that's clear the question is on what basis do you make that distinct, that's the question I ask what basis do you make that distinction it's entirely consistent for Doug Wilson to say babies should be part of the community right so, Bethany um, is baptism actually needed for all those benefits you said, because I feel like our church does also be posted those things, obviously not that great because of the fact that but we are God enters the scene as if he has to be baptized okay now Jesus can come on stage and it's like oh that's great yeah is that really yes this way right we'll have to ask that question later because I think that's a good question you know what years and years ago any of you remember Robert Jones Robert did our Bible conference here several years ago he was a pastor in West Virginia he went on to become he's now a professor of counseling at Southern Seminary he's in their program down there and Robert and I Robert's a good friend and we were teaching together at a counseling event where Jay Adams was the plenary speaker and Jay's a Presbyterian and I'll never forget Robert saying this to Jay Jay I got just one question for you What advantages do your children have over mine? Don't hang on.

I don't remember what Jay said. So just, okay, it was just a good question, and I wish I remembered the answer. I do. Maybe it's because I was so overwhelmed with the thought of, hokey, smoky, are you really going to ask Jay Adams that? How can you even question this guy? I don't believe it either, but I'm not going to ask him that question.

You know, what's interesting is when Jay was here speaking, and some of you kids remember that. You took a shot at Jay here. I did? Yes, you did. When he was here? Oh, yeah, but he got me on that.

You know, if you don't remember, I took, remember our old green cups we had that someone gave us as American Baptist men on it? So he's back here just yucking it up with everybody in the congregation, having a good time. And I walked up and I said, okay, I'm going to get it. And I said, Jay, I want to present you with this cup. Right? It says American Baptist Manana.

He looks at it and he says wow this is great I use it at my next baptism Can get you up handed that guy Anyway, but when Jay was here, I'll never forget that we had tons of people come, we had people from Cleveland come and stuff, and I remember, we're trying to get to the back for fellowship and there are two Baptist guys here, just really trying to convince and how wrong he was. It's like, that's not the time or place. Let the poor guy go so we can have some coffee.

Yes, first Dennis. So, let's say you have a family of underlingers and the husband or wife comes and says, yeah, would you, would a Presbyterian baptize the other part of that couple even if they were very explicit in their own meaning? Just because... You know, that's a question that I've never heard anybody ask or answer. I've been reading, and I haven't heard anybody.

You know, and again, I was maybe saving this for later, but I may mention it later. So what happens when your unbelieving brother who's made you the guardian of his kids is killed? he and his wife are killed and those unbelieving teenagers now come to live with you do you take them to church and have them baptized? I would say you'd have to but I don't know of anyone who's ever done that I may be wrong, I don't know if they've ever done that, I need to ask Rhett about that see what he says so I have at least an answer from the Presbyterian side but I just wonder about that or your unbelieving mom comes to live with you she's living in your household now mom we're going to church today why? because you're going to get baptized blankety blank you know what I think of your blankety blank church right?

I don't know what they do with that I have to ask Andrew Oh, it's not quite baptism, but when it comes to saying Israel's church, using, calling Israel the church in the Old Testament, would you, because there's Baptists, you know, the Puritans, Baptists would do that, but they would qualify it as, because it foreshadowed the church, right? Would you, does that give you heartburn, or would you? Yeah.

So even as a foreshadowing tool, like, since it foreshadows... Well, I mean, are they going to say that... Here's my question then. So are you going to call circumcision baptism? It's foreshadowing baptism, so are you going to call that baptism? I don't know if I would say foreshadowing baptism.

It's foreshadowing a change in heart. Well, I understand that. I understand that. Yeah. But you don't have to discuss this. I still think baptism is connected to that. yeah 92 but it's not correct no but I've never heard a Presbyterian call circumcision baptism you never what heard a Presbyterian call circumcision baptism that doesn make any sense Never mind Forget I said that Alright Alright Is that it?

Yes. Let's say you grew up in this church and you move away to, let's say, North Carolina. Oh, I know what you're going to ask. And you go to a place like North Carolina. Yeah. Yeah.

And you decide that you're not going to baptize your kid. Would it be appropriate for the church to exercise discipline? You mean if you go to a Christian daycare? Yeah. But you're not a fatal baptist. No.

How does the church government respond? I don't know of any who do that. They allow cradle baptism in its members. But they don't discipline you if you don't have your children baptized. I don't know why not. I'll have to ask that one too.

Someone write down all the questions I need to ask. Maybe it's the Southern Presbyterian nomination. so alright you're asking good questions anyway so there's the case for Paedo-Baptist and I've given you just the highlights okay they'll dive deep into a lot of stuff for that. Levi do you have a question? okay just scratching your head alright alright so next week I hope to do some critique and I also want to talk about mode of baptism why dunking as opposed to anything else I want to spend some time in that as well so what is this the third week I have three more weeks yeah okay well someone want to close this in prayer besides Andrew alright Levi thank you we praise the lord for the unity that we have with the church even on things that are that is controversial we do thank you for the time that we have to consider these issues, Lord, and be more sure of what it is that the words reveal.

We pray, Lord, as we go out into the end of the week, that we would be glorified as you do. In Jesus' name, amen. Amen. Thank you. Thank you.