Baptism (John Reisinger)

Introduction: The Contentious Nature of Baptism and a Call for Love

0:03 Now, tonight we come to the part of the Confession of Faith which deals with the subject of baptism.

0:14 I would be quite remiss if I did not mention that probably everybody here isn't going to agree with me tonight. That would probably be an understatement. I remember one time I spoke at the Hillel Society, which is a Jewish fraternity and university. There was a hundred Jewish students and three rabbis there.

0:42 I witnessed to quite a few of the Jewish students and they asked me to come and speak on the subject why I didn't believe in evolution. And I said, no sir, I wouldn't do that because you fellows would run me up a tree and cut the limb off. I'm satisfied why I don't believe it, but you fellows might be experts and they'll have questions that I can't answer, so I'm not going to touch that. They said, well, what will you speak on?

1:04 I said, well, I'll speak on what a Christian believes about Jesus Christ, what he believes about the Jews, and what he believes about the Bible. So they invited me. I said, come. And when I got up to open my remarks, I said, now if you fellows think I came over here to try to convert you, you're right.

1:21 And if you who don't believe in baptism by immersion think I'm going to try to convert you to immersion, you're right. I'm going to do everything I can. I don't know if I can conceive, but I'm going to try because I really believe this is what the Scripture teaches.

1:36 I would always preach on baptism. Some people think that Baptists just harp on baptism. Maybe some of them do. Maybe some of them are like the Baptists.

1:46 I have a preacher who preached on it every Sunday morning for six months. And finally, the deacons got tired of this, so they're asking to preach on a text of Scripture. And they say, now, if we give you a text of Scripture, will you preach on it? And don't preach anything that isn't in the text.

1:59 And so he promised to do so. And they gave him the text, Enoch walked with God. And so he got up and he said, now, that text has three points. First of all, Enoch walked with God.

2:09 And secondly, you can't walk very far before you come to some water. And he stuck to the text. And you know what his third point was? Well, I don't believe that.

2:18 I believe, as I mentioned this morning, that baptism is in the Scriptures. And those who differ on it, it is not one of the essential doctrines in the Scriptures. And all I would ask tonight from those who would not agree would be that you look at the text of Scriptures which we use, and that if you don't agree, let's agree to disagree in love. I was preaching a week of evangelistic meetings recently, and I was preaching on the reasons that men lack assurance.

2:46 And one dear fellow was there every night and seemed to be thoroughly enjoying the meetings. And so on Wednesday night, I came to the doctrine of election. And men lack assurance because they've lost the mystery of God's salvation. And when I was finished, this fellow came up to me, and he shook his hands with me, and he said, Mr. Riesinger, he said, I didn't agree with anything you said tonight.

3:06 He said, I just can't accept the doctrine of election at all. But he said, you can really preach it. But he didn't accept it. But he said, I can preach it.

3:14 And we agreed to disagree in love. So tonight, if you don't agree with what I say, let's disagree in love. What is the Bible doctrine of election? Or the Bible doctrine of baptism, pardon me.

Defining Baptism: Symbol, Rite, and Ordinance

3:26 Next week we will take the era of infant baptism, because it's not possible to take both of these things in the same night and do justice to them. And so tonight I want to take what I believe the Bible teaches in the New Testament about the doctrine of baptism, and if you have any questions, or if you have any texts of Scripture that you feel that you would like to have somebody who believes in baptism by immersion explain or talk about, would you kindly see me after the service or get in touch with me this week? Because we want to do justice to the subject if we can. Now when we talk about baptism and we take a definition of baptism, I think that most people would agree with most of the definitions of baptism and most of the great confessions of faith. For instance, the Christian Reformed Church and the Presbyterian Church and the Catholic Church, I think I could take both of their definitions of baptism and I think I could have no difficulty with it at all. Let me read to you from the Presbyterian Confessions of Faith. Baptism is a sacrament of the New Testament ordained by Jesus Christ not only for the solemn admission of the party baptized into the visible church, but also to be unto him a sign and seal of the covenant of grace, of his engrafting into Christ, of regeneration

4:46 of remission of sins, and of his giving up unto God through Jesus Christ to walk in newness of life, which sacrament is by Christ's own appointment to be continued in his church until the end of the world. And the Christian Reformed Confession of Faith is basically the same thing. Now, the only thing I don't like about this definition is the use of the word sacrament. I don't like to talk about baptism as a sacrament.

5:15 . . . Many people get the wrong idea of a sacrament.

5:19 We use the word symbol, we use the word rite, and we use the word ordinance, and I prefer not to use the word sacrament. When we use the word symbol, in the Scriptures or elsewhere, a symbol is a sign, outward sign, of an invisible truth or an invisible idea. For instance, the Scripture uses the lion as a symbol of strength, it uses the lamb as a symbol of peace. It uses the lamb as a symbol of meekness, the dove as a symbol of peace, and so on.

5:55 And when it uses these symbols, it doesn't mean that this is the thing, but rather it is a symbol of something else. And so, baptism is a symbol. It's a symbol which the Church uses. It's an outward symbol of an inward or invisible truth.

6:10 Now, when we talk about a rite, the r-i-t-e, which the Church uses or anybody else uses, the rite is a symbol which we use in a regular manner and use with a religious sense in which the Church attaches a specific religious, spiritual meaning to this. We have in different churches what we call the rite of laying on of hands at ordination and other rites. Well, baptism is a symbol, baptism is a rite, and baptism is an ordinance. And when we use the word ordinance, we say that this is something which is a symbol, it's a rite which is used over and over again, and an ordinance or a sacrament, if you want to use the word, as I prefer not to, it is something which was first of all instituted by Jesus Christ. It's not something the Church just thought up and decided to do. But to be valid for the Church to practice it, it must have its roots specifically in the origination of Jesus Christ himself. And an ordinance or a sacrament is a rite or symbol which is practiced by the Church that specifically sets forth the truth of Christianity, that sets forth visibly the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, and it is that which is to be used forever in this Church age.

7:31 In the Christian Reformed book, in there, let's see if I can find it here, I hope it's in the Canons of Dort, I was reading this this afternoon, and they have a very excellent section, maybe I can't even find it now, it must have been marked onto that page. Anyhow, they mention how God condescends to our weakness and to our ignorance, and he gives us visible things, things that we can look at, things that we can see, and how these things that we can look at and see visibly teach us the central truths of the gospel of Jesus Christ. And that is what the whole question is. That's what the whole question of sacraments are about. It's like an object lesson.

8:28 It's God condescending to give us a visible sign, something that we can look at and understand what this means, and it's administered time and again in the Church, but always was the idea to teach us visibly what the central truths of Christianity really are. Now when we think of baptism in a sense, and then we go to define it, we would say that baptism is an outward rite which was instituted by Christ. It's a visible sign of the sacrament. It's the saving truth of the gospel, and we call it a sign because it visibly expresses this truth, and it confends it to those who really believe the truth which is intended.

The Mode of Baptism: The Meaning of 'Baptizo'

9:06 Now, I would define baptism as the immersion of a professed believer in water, in token of his previous entrance into the communion of Christ's Church, and a belief in his death and resurrection, or in other words, I would say that baptism is the immersion of a Christian who has been a professed believer in water as a token that he has been regenerated by the Holy Ghost of God. And I use that definition because I think that's what the Scripture teaches. Now, the first thing to be discussed in the doctrine of baptism is how should we baptize people? By sprinkling?

9:43 Or by pouring? Or by immersion? And is the Bible really clear on this? I don't know what I'm going to do with Mr. Harry Mullins.

9:52 He comes here, and he's a Presbyterian. And he told me that there's a law in the country, in the federal, what is it? Federal something or other, that when you attack somebody, you have to give them equal time to retaliate. And so he said that he wants equal time to retaliate on the other side of baptism.

10:12 I don't know if we're going to give it to him or not. Well, let's take in the New Testament the meaning of the word baptizo. If I were to say to you tonight, and I were to open my Bible, and I would read a text of Scripture, and I would say, Jesus parapoteoed around Jerusalem, how many would know what I meant? Would anybody know what I was saying?

10:32 Would anybody be able to tell what Jesus did? One person would. Would anybody else be able to tell what Jesus did in Jerusalem? What would he have been doing?

10:41 He would have been walking. Well, the reason nobody knew, except him, is probably nobody knew Greek or was able to figure out parapoleo from this. But all I was doing was taking a Greek word, and I was staring it at you. I wasn't telling you anything, and I wasn't translating it.

10:58 I was saying Jesus, and then I was using a Greek verb. Well, when I stand up here, or somebody else stands up and reads the Bible, and they say Jesus, or they say his disciples baptized, that's exactly what they're doing. All they're doing is throwing a Greek word at you. The only Greek verb in the whole English Bible which has never been translated into the English Bible is the word baptizo.

11:24 It's the only verb. Every other verb in the whole Bible, when they come to it, when they come to parapoleo, they translate it wrong. But when they come to baptizo, they don't translate it. They just bring the verb over into English.

11:39 Now, I'll tell you why they do that. They do that because there is only one action which the verb baptizo denotes, and that is immerse or dip. It is impossible to translate this word any other way than to mean baptizo, dip. Dip or immerse.

11:58 Now, if you don't believe me, I'll tell you what you do. If you want to find out what the New Testament means when it uses the verb baptizo, not the noun, the verb baptizo, you take a concordance and you find every place in the New Testament that says baptizo, and you translate it yourself. Just put in there immerse, put in there sprinkle, put in there pour, and see which one makes sense to you. Now, I say this is the only verb that this is done with.

12:24 It means one of these three things. You who are Dutchmen, I wish one of you would check up on this. I'm not sure. I was preaching one night, and I said, if men would just translate this verb baptizo, then the whole argument of mode would be ended.

12:40 And the Dutchman comes up to me and says, Pastor, you're wrong. I said, what do you mean I'm wrong? He says, in the Netherlands, the Dutch Bible does translate the word baptizo into the Dutch language. It doesn't do like the English does.

12:54 It translates it. And it translates it by what? Does anybody know? I'm not sure.

12:58 Immerse, dip. So they translate it dip. And he says, it's very strange in the Netherlands to see the pastor stand up and say, I dip you in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost. But they are consistent with the word.

13:16 Now, my whole approach to this question with people is I believe in the verbal inspiration of the Bible. I refuse to believe that the Holy Ghost of God gave us a word that is a word which denotes an action for which there is no action. I refuse to believe that the Holy Ghost of God used a verb which I can't bring over into the English language. And I say, let's translate the word and translate it by what it means.

13:44 Dip or immerse. The other thing about this word is in all the secular areas of our life, in all the secular writings which we have at the time of Christ and also today, and we have letters which doctors wrote back and forth. We have the different Greek writers and the different plays and so on. And when they used the word in the days of Christ, in conjunction with other things, it always meant to dip.

14:10 As you would take a piece of cloth and dip it into the dye to completely dye it. Or if a ship was sunk, the verb baptizo was used. The ship was baptizoed in the oceans. Or if a boy was, well, he was baptizoed with questions.

14:26 Or if a man was so much... in debt that he could never pay his way out, he was baptizoed in debt.

14:32 We would say he was head over heels in debt or he was completely covered by debt. Every Greek lexicon which ever has been written has always said that the meaning of baptizo is to dip or to immerse. And so the first thing to me is the very meaning of the word. It means to immerse.

14:49 It means to dip. Therefore, why don't we do that in conjunction with what the word of God says? The second thing is there isn't, as I mentioned, a single New Testament passage which would where the verb baptizo is used where dip or immerse will not work. But there are many passages where sprinkle just absolutely will not work at all.

Biblical Evidence for Immersion: Prepositions and Circumstances

15:07 The third thing about the meaning of the verb is this. That nowhere in the New Testament is the verb used in the passive voice. By that I mean nobody was ever baptizoed with water. The verb is never used in the voice where somebody had something done to them.

15:28 Every time in the New Testament that the verb baptizo is used, it is always used with the preposition ice or the preposition en which means in or into. Nobody was ever baptized with water or with the Holy Ghost. They were always baptized into water or they were baptized in water or in the Holy Ghost or into the Holy Ghost. Let me give you a couple of illustrations of this.

15:51 The Gospel of Mark, chapter 1. The Gospel of Mark, chapter 1. By the way, when anybody says, to you or to me, do you baptize by immersion, that really is most incorrect to talk like that. That's like saying, do you run by running?

16:10 Or do you walk by walking? To say, do you baptize by immersion or do you baptize by sprinkling, is to use the word as a noun instead of as a verb. That's like saying, do you walk by perpeteoing? That's really what you're doing when you say that.

16:24 Mark, chapter 1, verse 5. And there went out unto him all the land of Judea, and they of Jerusalem, and were all baptized of him in the river Jordan. In the river Jordan. Also in verse 9.

16:37 And it came to pass in those days that Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized of John in the Jordan. Now, there are a couple of places in the Gospel of Matthew where it says that they were baptized, I indeed baptize you with water and he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost. But the verb or the preposition is not which is with, again, it is ice, into, and an in. And it's the only place in the Scriptures where mitah is translated with.

17:08 And it's not correct. You read most translations, they'll say, in or into, which is the only way it really can be translated. The other thing that confirms that this is really the mode which was used in the New Testament is from all of the circumstances that attended the actual baptisms in the New Testament. For instance, go with me to the Gospel of Mark again, chapter 1, verse 9.

17:30 It says, It came to pass in those days that Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized of John in Jordan, and straightway coming up out of the water he saw the heavens opened and the Spirit like a dove descending upon him. Now, always in connection with the baptism in the New Testament, when the instant takes place, always there is the connotation that it was by immersion or it was in a river or into a river. Never is the idea, with water, ever introduced at all. In fact, in John, chapter 3, verse 23, we are specifically told that a place was chosen to baptize because John, chapter 3, verse 23, and John was also baptizing in Aiam near to Salem because there was much water there and they came and were baptized. Now, I'm aware that people say, Well, they had to have a lot of water to water the horses and the cows, and everything that people brought and so on and so forth. But my dear heart, I think that's stressing it. The Bible says they picked that spot for one reason, because there was enough water.

18:38 It doesn't take much water to sprinkle, but it does take water to immerse. And I think that anybody who runs away from this, you're really running away from the obvious meaning of the text. Then in the book of Acts, chapter 8, again we have the circumstances surrounding the baptism. In the book of Acts, chapter 8, verse 38, we have these words, beginning at verse 37, And Philip said, he asks in verse 36, And they were on their way, they came to a certain water, and the eunuch said, See, here is water.

19:08 What does hinder me to be baptized? And Philip said, If thou believest with all thine heart, thou mayest. And he answered and said, I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. And he commanded the chariot to stand still, and they went down both into the water, both Philip and the eunuch, and he baptized him.

19:25 And when they were come up out of the water, and I don't think that these words can mean anything other. They went down into the water. They came up out of the water. Now it may be that they went down in the water, and he took some of the water and sprinkled it on his head.

19:36 That may be. But it seems to me that if that's what they did, it would be much easier just to get a dipper full of water and either pour it on his head or sprinkle it on his head. But the very things that accompany baptism in the New Testament always was that it was done in a river or at a place where there was a large body of water. Another reason that confirms that immersion was the mode was the figurative meaning of baptism.

Figurative Meaning and Historical Support for Immersion

19:59 Go with me to the book of Romans, chapter 6. And baptism has a figurative meaning. And it is to preach to us the gospel. What is the gospel?

20:15 Well, the gospel is that our Lord Jesus Christ was put to death for our sins, that he was buried for our sins, and that the third day he rose again from the dead, and he lives at the Father's right hand for us. The death and the burial and the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ is the center and the core of the gospel. And if the sacraments of the church are to visibly set before us the central truths of the gospel, then the only way that these can be effectively set forth is by immersion. Because the two things that happen in God's salvation is there is a radical change takes place in the individual.

20:54 He's delivered from death to life. My friend, if you're a Christian tonight, a radical change took place in you. You were brought out of the kingdom of darkness into light. God gave you a new heart to love him, to praise him.

21:06 Your old life was forever put away. When Jesus Christ died, you died with him, and your old life was put away by his death on the cross. You were united to him in his burial. When he went into the tomb, your sins and your old life went into the tomb with him.

21:22 And when he rose again from the dead, you were in him and part of him. And the life which he had by virtue of his resurrection, you share tonight, through union with him. This is what the gospel is. And baptism according to Paul in Romans chapter 6, and some people say this is spiritual baptism, and yet all of the reformers, even though many of them baptized by sprinkling, all of them said that this was teaching water baptism.

21:45 And even if it is teaching spiritual baptism, behind the emblem there is the reality. And whether Paul is here teaching that we are united to Christ by spiritual baptism, or whether he's saying in your baptism you confess your faith in Christ, it makes no difference, because the terminology is the same. And this is the symbol, or this is the meaning of baptism. Romans chapter 6, verse 2, or verse 3, Know ye not that so many of you as were immersed into Jesus Christ were immersed into his death?

22:17 Therefore we are buried with him by baptism. And you can't get any connotation of sprinkling here at all. When he uses the words buried with him in baptism, when he uses the words raised again in newness of life, nothing will symbolize this and nothing will typify this except immersion. And this is the central truth, the death and the burial and the resurrection of Christ.

22:41 And this is meant to be symbolized in the body going under the water, identified with the death of Jesus Christ, buried with him, risen again in newness, to walk in newness of life. And then another reason for the mode is that all of church history and all of the church historians agree that respecting the mode of baptism that the early church practiced immersion. You will not find a church historian Philip Schott himself a Presbyterian probably the most respected church historian. There is said respecting the form of baptism the impartial historian is compelled by exegesis and history substantially to yield the point to those who immerse.

23:21 And then one of the last reasons that I'm convinced that they immersed in the New Testament is because of the Greek church. Now if anybody ought to know what the word baptizo means, that would be the Greeks. They ought to know. And the Greek church to this day immerses even babies.

23:40 They cover them with oil and stuff their nose with cotton and stuff their ears with cotton and completely immerse them. And they accuse the Latin church or the Roman Latin church of not really believing in baptizo because they don't immerse. Now if anybody ought to be able to settle the meaning of the word, go fight with the Greek church because they say it means to actually immerse. And I say one authority does the church have to take a verb and say history says it means this, secular Greek says it means this, the Greek church says it means this and say it doesn't make any difference.

24:15 The verb really doesn't matter at all because it says this action but we can do it by another action. I say this is questionable and I say that really we're saying does the Holy Ghost know how to take a verb? Does the church know how to take verbs at all? This is a testimony, I think, to the truth of God.

The Subjects of Baptism: Only Believers

24:32 When we are baptized, we are like the man who joins the army and we put on a uniform and we pledge allegiance to our country and we say I am now under its laws and I seek to serve it. And this is what a man does in baptism. He identifies himself with Christ and with Christ's people. It's like a marriage ceremony.

24:51 But you don't have the ceremony before people fall in love. They fall in love and they give themselves to each other and then you have the ceremony to confirm it. And we believe the same thing about baptism. Well, you say you're making a lot of fuss over the mode.

25:05 Well, let's go to who should be baptized. Who may be baptized? We'll look at this carefully next week but let's look at a couple of texts tonight. Matthew chapter 28.

25:16 I think it's pretty clear that only believers should be baptized. In Matthew chapter 28 we have the commandment and the commandment goes like this. Go ye into all the world that's the first thing and preach the gospel and make disciples of all men baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost. The commandment was to make disciples or teach all nations and then baptize them in the name of the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost.

25:45 In the book of Acts chapter 2 we see how that this commandment was carried out. In the book of Acts chapter 2 verse 41 we read these words Then they that received his word were baptized in the same day that were added unto them about three thousand souls. Go with me to the book of Acts chapter 12 and I think this is a pretty key text in the New Testament as to who should be baptized. Acts chapter 8 verse 12 When they believed Philip preaching the things concerning the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ they were baptized both men and women.

26:24 It would be a wonderful place to end. But it makes these two categories. When they heard Philip preaching they believed and they were baptized both men and women. But it doesn't mention children.

26:37 But aren't there household baptisms in the New Testament? Well, yes there are. We'll look at that next week but just let me look at one of them with you this week. The book of Acts chapter 18 This is just one of them and all the rest of them are the same.

26:54 The book of Acts chapter 18 verse 41 It says, Acts chapter 18 verse 8 And Crippas the chief ruler of the synagogue believed in the Lord with all his house and many of the Corinthians hearing believed and were baptized. Did you notice specifically it says he believed in the Lord with all of his house. There is not one single instance nor is there any kind of a commandment in the New Testament for anybody to be baptized except a believer. Every time without exception the commandment to baptize is given is always given to baptize on the basis of faith.

27:35 And every instance without a single exception in the New Testament when anybody was ever baptized he was always baptized upon a confession of faith. There is no indication or instance of an infant ever being baptized in the New Testament. Now the carryover from Abraham I will be thy God and thy seed to you as the promise unto your children and those that are far off and so on. My friend that does not give us any ground to baptize babies.

Challenging Infant Baptism: Biblical and Theological Objections

28:03 Next week I want to look at these particular arguments if we have time and I hope we have time to do all of them next week. There is no wise in the New Testament by command or by example in all the words of God to baptize a baby. Secondly that doctrine is expressly contradicted in the scriptures very expressly contradicted. Thirdly it grows out of the Bible and we have a wrong view of what the church of Jesus Christ is.

28:33 Somebody fusses with me all the time I can't go any place and as soon as somebody finds out that I believed in Reformed theology and I am a Baptist they say how can that be? If you really believe in Reformed theology why aren't you truly Reformed? And when they are saying that they say how might others think that Reformed and Covenant theology of the children are one and the same thing? And when they say this to me this really makes me wonder if they really know what Covenant theology is.

28:59 Next week this is what I want you to think about if you believe in infant baptism. Is the child in the Covenant? If so, what Covenant? Is he in the Covenant of Grace?

29:09 Or isn't he in the Covenant of Grace? If he is in the Covenant of Grace can he ever be out of the Covenant of Grace? If we say that Abraham and his children were made this promise what promise was it? To whom was it given?

29:24 What was the basis of it? And then we want to look at this we want to look at the positive evil effects of infant baptism down through church history and I think they've been bad. I think they've been bad. I really do.

29:39 I love the doctrines of grace. I love the doctrine of election. I love the doctrine of particular redemption. But one of the greatest accusations that's ever thrown against the people who believe them and justly so is that they aren't evangelistic.

29:57 That they do not preach to sinners. And I refuse to believe that there's anything about the great doctrines of grace that cuts evangelism. It seems to me that believing in election particularly redemption gives an impetus to evangelism. It makes men want to preach and witness and gives them courage.

30:19 Why is it that most of the people who hold these great doctrines are accused of not believing in evangelism? And I believe the problem is not the great doctrines of grace. I believe the problem is infant baptism. I believe the problem with the man named Mr. Decker out in Calvin College is not particular redemption and is not universalism. But the problem is a wrong concept of covenant theology. A wrong idea of what the gospel of Jesus Christ is and how it should be preached. Let's go back for just a moment to that passage in Romans chapter 6.

The Impact of Infant Baptism on Evangelism and Covenant Theology

30:55 Romans chapter 6. Know ye not, verse 3, that through many of us as were baptized into Christ, were baptized into his death, therefore we were buried with him? For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall also be in the likeness of his resurrection? What's Paul saying here?

31:24 He's saying, man, if you're a Christian, something happened to you. When did this happen to you? How did this happen to you? And what was it?

31:35 He's saying you were united to Jesus Christ. And you confessed this in your baptism. Now the problem I have is how can I take people and I want to preach to them. And I want to tell them, unless you repent, you're going to perish.

31:50 And I have a little baby here whom I love. And I baptize him. And I go to the words of the confession. And I say, you're in the covenant.

32:06 God has promised to forgive you. And then I tell the pair that that means nothing unless you repent and perish. And I say, this is a covenant child. And the first thing you know, I'm going to wind up with two ideas in my head.

32:23 There's a gospel for the covenant child. And there's another kind of a gospel for the child across the street. And I'm not going to be able to really preach the gospel and apply the gospel to my sons and my daughters and your sons and your daughters after I have baptized them into the covenant of grace. I think, and I think I can show this biblically and historically, that this is the thing that has cut the thread of evangelism.

32:52 This is the thing that has killed true evangelistic preaching because it has built up a wrong concept of what the church of Jesus Christ is and who is in the church of Jesus Christ and who the blessings of Christ belong to. One text, very quickly. The book of Acts, chapter 2. And then we'll have to quit.

Faith as the Basis for Church Membership and God's Blessings

33:13 The book of Acts, chapter 2. Verse 30. No, verse 40, pardon me. And with many of his signs did he testify and exhort, saying, Save yourselves from this untoward generation.

33:30 Then they that received his word were baptized, and the same day there were added unto them about three thousand souls. And they continued steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine and fellowship and in breaking of bread and of prayers. And fear came upon every soul and many wonders and signs were done by the apostles and all that believed were together and had all things in common. Verse 46.

33:57 And they continuing steadfastly with one accord in the temple and breaking bread from house to house to eat their meat with gladness and singleness of heart, praising God with all the people. And the Lord added to the church daily such as should be saved. And there's no notion in any of this context that the church of Jesus Christ and the blessings of Jesus Christ were given to anybody except those who believed. The whole idea of the blessing of God was upon the basis of faith.

Romans 9 and the True Seed of Abraham

34:29 One more text I guess we better look at before we go. Romans chapter 9. Romans chapter 9. Beginning at verse 1.

34:44 I say the truth in Christ I lie, not my conscience also bearing me witness in the Holy Ghost, that I have great heaviness and continual sorrow in my heart, that I could wish that myself were accursed from Christ, from my brethren, my kinsmen, according to the flesh. Who are they? Who are Israelites to whom pertaineth the adoption and the glory and the covenants and the giving of the law and the service of God and the promise? Whom are the fathers and of whom concerning the flesh Christ came, whose overall God blessed forever?

35:16 Not as though the word of God have taken none effect. He says here are these Israelites and a lot of them aren't converted. Well, he says does that mean that God has gone back in His covenant? Does that mean that God hasn't fulfilled His word?

35:32 He's saying here if these people are not believers they had the promises of God. The covenants were given to them and yet here they don't believe. Then he says in verse 6 not as though the word of God have taken none effect if God hadn't kept His word. But if God had entered into covenant with these people and He had given them the sign and the seal of His covenant and then those who were the recipients of this sign and seal were not saved it certainly would look as if God had gone back in His word.

35:58 For they are not all Israel which are Israel. What's he saying here? Neither because they're the seed of Abraham are they the children. But in Isaac shall thy seed be called.

36:11 He's saying this. He's saying dear hearts. He's saying dear Israelites. Just because you are in the family of Jewry does not mean in any way shape or form that God has ever promised you anything.

36:28 He's saying here that because some Jews perish that does mean that God's covenant has been broken. Because God's covenant was never given to a man on the basis of parities and lineage. But God's covenant was given to those who were the true seed. The seed of faith.

36:50 The seed of the election. And the only way a person can know that is by repentance and faith. And the great mistake of the Jews the great tragedy of the Jewish nation was to teach their children because Abraham is your father and you are circumcised you're a covenant people with God. And that's why they went to hell.

37:13 Believing in their parentage and believing that because they carried a mark in the flesh therefore they were alright. And Paul in this passage of scripture is saying no dear hearts. God never promised to a son of Abraham anything that he didn't promise to anybody else. He promised that he would save every person who came to faith in Jesus Christ.

37:42 And when the apostle Paul or when the apostle Peter in the day of Pentecost gave that great text for the promise is to you and to your children. And what's the rest of it? Anybody quote the rest of it for me? And to those that are far off.

38:05 You see the children are in no different category from those who are far off. The promise is to you. The promise is to your children. The same promise is to those who are far off, the heathen.

38:18 What is the promise? What is the promise? Well if you look up the text from which Joe is quoting he's quoting whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. That's the promise.

38:34 The promise to you dear heart tonight is if you believe in Jesus Christ you'll be saved and if you don't you'll be lost. The promise is to the heathen. If you believe in Jesus Christ you'll be saved and if you will not you're lost. What was the promise to Abraham?

38:51 Believe and thou shall be justified. What was the promise to Abraham's son? Believe and thou shall be justified. And if you is to believe and you'll be lost no matter who your parent is no matter what mark you bear on your body.

39:06 Well, you look up the text in fact I confused you tonight. We'll take this next week and we'll take the whole concept I will be your God and I will be a God to your seed. I will be your Father. I will be a God to your children.

39:23 And we'll look at the promise to you to your children to those that are far off. What does the doctrine of election have to do with baptism? What does the doctrine of election have to do with infant baptism? To whom is God's promises really made in the scriptures?

39:43 I as a father have three children. One of them are not baptized. One of them is baptized. Two of them aren't.

39:51 Because they have not given evidence for professed faith in Christ. What promise have you if you've baptized your children entered into them God that I haven't? What promise have you claimed by baptism that I haven't? That's where we'll go to prayer and then we'll go home.

Prayer for Grace and Biblical Conviction

40:09 Our Father we thank thee that you've given us your word. We thank thee that you've given us your spirit. We would be delivered by your grace from traditionalism just to believe something just because we've been taught it. And also we would ask for grace to be delivered from believing something just because somebody said it.

40:34 We pray our Father for that grace which Martin Luther had when he stood and he said here I stand so help me God. And he bound his conscience to the word of God. Every generation every group of people we have a tendency to think in one line. We have a tendency to think in one circle.

40:53 And it's so difficult for us to bind our hearts to nothing but the scriptures. To just let the scriptures speak for themselves. We always have a tendency to build a system and then seek to impose it upon your word. God we pray for grace not to do this.

41:09 We pray for grace tonight for those texts of scripture which we've looked at. And again we ask for that even as we started. That if we have misrepresented truth we pray that your spirit would cause us to forget it. That if we looked at texts of scripture and looked at them honestly then we pray that your spirit would take those texts and drive them into our hearts and into our minds.

41:32 We're aware that this is not a first order truth. This is not something that men have to agree on in order to go to heaven. We are aware that in seeking to build a local church it is important. Because men do have different views and they have different ideas and so they must be discussed and so they must be presented.

41:50 We would ask our Father for grace to do it in that light and to listen in that light. And if we disagree we pray to disagree in love. To disagree in charity. And then our Father we would pray for any whether they would be of a background that believes in immersion or doesn't believe in immersion.

42:07 But regardless of who we are that each of us would look in our hearts and know that the foundation of our faith is nothing but the blood and righteousness of Jesus Christ. To know that there's nothing we can trust in except our Lord Jesus Christ alone. Deliver us our Father from a sentimental or also a superstitious view of baptism regardless of what mode it is. Whether it was done to us as a child or as an adult.

42:31 That circumcision avails nothing but only a new creation in Jesus Christ. For our name's sake help us to understand this and discern in us whether we have the true marks of the true children of God. Faith and repentance. For our name's sake hear us and help us.

42:50 Amen.