The New Covenant and Paedobaptism (Sam Waldron)

In this part of the sermon: Martin delves into Jeremiah 31:33-34, addressing the apparent difficulty that Old Covenant saints also had the law written on their hearts, knew the Lord, and were forgiven. He…

Martin uses the analogy of a 'wee Scotsman' versus a 'large Scotsman' (quantitative difference) compared to a 'Scotsman and an Englishman' (qualitative difference) to explain the distinction between quantitative and qualitative differences in the covenants, arguing the New Covenant is qualitatively different.

They will tell you that really what you have here is only a quantitative difference and not a qualitative difference between the two covenants. You know what the difference between quantitative difference and quantitative and qualitative is? I had a perfect illustration of this when I preached this series of messages in Scotland. Notwithstanding that they're called the United Kingdom, there are still some differences between those different nationalities over there in the British Isles.

25:29 - 25:57 Read in full sermon

Driving home: It is clearly this. While assuredly as we have seen some knew the Lord among God's old covenant people, many did not. The sons of Eli got circumcised the same way Samuel did. But the sons of Eli never knew the Lord.

He uses the example of Eli's sons and Samuel to illustrate that not all Old Covenant members savingly knew the Lord, even though they were all circumcised members of Israel, highlighting the mixed nature of the Old Covenant.

It is clearly this. While assuredly as we have seen some knew the Lord among God's old covenant people, many did not. The sons of Eli got circumcised the same way Samuel did. But the sons of Eli never knew the Lord.

30:37 - 30:56 Read in full sermon

Driving home: It is clearly this. While assuredly as we have seen some knew the Lord among God's old covenant people, many did not. The sons of Eli got circumcised the same way Samuel did. But the sons of Eli never knew the Lord.

Martin further illustrates the mixed nature of Old Covenant Israel by contrasting figures like Jonathan and Abner, and David and Joab, who were all legally circumcised but had vastly different spiritual conditions.

Because the covenant was made with the physical seed of Abraham, because the physical nation Israel was constituted by people being circumcised into it at the early age of eight days, many with whom God was actually in covenant in the Old Testament and under the terms of the Old Covenant, many of them did not savingly or spiritually know the Lord. There were both Samuels and sons of Eli in the Old Covenant. There were both Jonathans and Abners legally and properly getting circumcised in Israel. There were both Davids and Joabs living alongside of each other in God's Old Covenant nation. And th...

31:30 - 32:47 Read in full sermon

Driving home: It is clearly this. While assuredly as we have seen some knew the Lord among God's old covenant people, many did not. The sons of Eli got circumcised the same way Samuel did. But the sons of Eli never knew the Lord.

He refers to Moses shattering the tablets of the law as a symbol that the Old Covenant, written on stone, could be broken, contrasting it with the unbreakable New Covenant written on the heart.

Now that this is the case, that this is the new thing about the New Covenant is confirmed by what we saw several weeks ago about the unbreakable character of the New Covenant. In the Old Covenant, we saw God's law was written on stone. Consequently, it could be broken. And Moses, when he came down from the mountain and saw the people violating the second commandment and many of the others shattered the tables of the law in symbol that they did and had broken the Old Covenant.

32:47 - 33:18 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: This section argues that the New Covenant cannot be broken and only genuine Christians are in it, directly refuting paedobaptist claims of external covenant membership for unsaved…

Martin quotes an unnamed man who said John the Baptist, by preaching repentance and baptism to Israel, 'excommunicated the whole Jewish nation,' emphasizing the radical shift in covenant requirements.

And when the Jewish leaders came, he practically drove them away with a stick. What's the point? One man has said that in preaching repentance and baptism to Israel, in fact, he excommunicated the whole Jewish nation and said, God is starting over. God's now going to only receive those who bear good fruit, who repent and only if you repent and bear good fruit, not if you've had the right to circumcision, not if you can even get your own children circumcised do you have the right to my baptism.

41:01 - 41:30 Read in full sermon

Driving home: You see, to teach that the Bible would have us presume something to be true that is plainly false in the vast majority of the cases is to teach paid nonsense. And there's no better word for that no matter how great the m…

Martin shares his personal experience of having five children, none of whom were regenerate at birth, to refute the paedobaptist theory of 'presumptive regeneration' as contrary to practical experience.

I have had five children and let me tell you that none of them were regenerate when they were born. And many of you have had children and some of you were pedo-baptist when you did. And you know for sure that they weren't regenerate many of them too don't you? Somebody says you're just a baptist that's why your children weren't regenerate.

50:22 - 50:48 Read in full sermon