The Church and Infant Baptism, Part 6

Introduction and Prayer for Study

0:00 This adult Sunday school class was held on February 19, 1984, at the Trinity Baptist Church in Montville, New Jersey.

0:13 All right, now let's once again pray for the blessing of the Lord upon our study of this holy word.

0:28 Our Father, as we come to study the scriptures together, we pray that you would draw near. We ask for the light of the Holy Spirit to shine upon us. Give us light, O Lord God, and give us grace that we may understand and that that which is made clear to our minds may be written by your Spirit upon our hearts. Help us in everything that we do and say this morning to be characterized by a spirit of charity, love, fairness, and a desire to be honest with your holy word, to learn your truth, and to do what your word says.

1:06 We ask it in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen.

Recap: The Church's Spiritual Experience and the New Covenant

1:14 Now, in our considerations of the fourth major area of concern with respect to this matter of the inclusion of infants in the community of God's people, we're considering the whole broad topic of the biblical teaching concerning the Church of Jesus Christ. And we saw that we must take into account the biblical teaching and the biblical descriptions of the growth of the Church, the biblical descriptions of the membership of the Church, and the biblical descriptions of the spiritual experience, the religious experience of the Church. And we began last week to consider the biblical teaching concerning the spiritual experience of the Church. We looked at the experience of the Church in five areas throughout Jerusalem. Jerusalem and Judea, Antioch, and throughout Paul's early missionary labors, Corinth, Galatia, and then Ephesus. And then we will complete, the Lord willing, this entire consideration this morning.

2:27 Now, I just wish to underscore the point of all this. If you'd turn with me, please, to one of the texts that we looked at last week, Galatians chapter 4 and verse 9.

2:41 Galatians 4.9. The text reads, beginning in verse 8, How be it at that time, not knowing God, you were in bondage to them that by nature are no gods, but now that you have come to know God, or rather to be known by God, how are you turning back again to the weak and beggarly rudiments wherein you desire to be in bondage over again? What he says concerning, this group of people, is that their experience has been distinguished or marked by this.

3:26 There was a time in their life history in which they did not know God, but now they are distinguished by the fact that they have come to know God. Now, what I'm saying is that such a description is incompatible with the idea that the identity, the identity of this group is to be defined as believers plus their infants, but rather that the identity of the group is to be defined as those who believe in the Lord. Because what the apostle is doing is he is giving us the distinguishing traits of the religious experience of that group of people whom he calls the church of Jesus Christ. And that, this is the case in particular, is underscored by that familiar passage in Hebrews chapter 8. Hebrews chapter 8,

4:34 verses, particularly verses 8 to 11, but I want to zero in upon verses 10 and 11.

4:44 Hebrews 8, 10 and 11. For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord. I will put my laws into their mind and I will make them into my house. And I will make them into my house.

4:57 And I will make them into my house. On their heart also will I write them and I will be to them a God and they shall be to me a people. So here he's speaking about the new covenant that will be made with the house of Israel, the new covenant that will be made with the people of God, the new covenant community, the new covenant people of God. Now notice what he says about this community.

5:22 And they shall not teach every man his fellow citizen and every man his brother, saying, know the Lord. For all shall know me from the least to the greatest of them. The distinguishing mark of the new covenant community will be this. All shall know me.

5:46 All shall know me from the least to the greatest. And then lo and behold, when we read these epistles addressed to the church, what does he say? There was once a time in your lives when you did not know God, but now indeed the covenant promise has been fulfilled. And the distinguishing trait of your religious experience is that you have come to know God.

6:15 All right, now, there's a great richness, a great breadth in the way in which the apostle describes the distinguishing religious experience. Experience of those whom he calls the church. But the point is that though there's a great breadth of terminology,

6:36 great variety and latitude of usage, yet the point is that without exception, when you put all the distinguishing traits together on the board, the group of people that you're describing is believers and it is not believers and their infants. And that's the point of the whole thing. So let's continue then through the five remaining areas of the biblical teaching and then I'll summarize it and try to bring the whole thing to a close with regard to this fourth unit this morning. All right, the sixth area is the church at Philippi.

The Church at Philippi: A Work of Grace and Obedience

7:16 Philippians chapter 1. Notice that this letter is written to the church. He says, Paul, Philippians 1.1, Paul and Timothy, servants of Christ Jesus to all the saints in Christ Jesus that are at Philippi with the bishops and deacons.

7:35 So he's not thinking about the saints in some amorphous way, but he's thinking about a definite and organized group of Christians with office bearers of the two ongoing offices, the bishops or elders and the deacons. Now, he's going to say concerning this group of saints, he says, in Philippi, about their experience. First he says, I thank my God upon all my remembrance of you. Then he speaks about his prayers for them.

8:08 Now, verse 6. Being confident of this very thing that he who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Jesus Christ. A good work has already been begun in the hearts of these people. That was their distinguishing religious experience.

8:35 A work of grace had already been done in their hearts. And the apostle says that this work of grace which has already been done in your hearts is a work which will continue, which will grow, and which God will not back off from until the very day of Jesus Christ. That this work of grace, this grace will continue, will progress until it is consummated at the second coming of Christ. And then also, Philippians chapter 1.

9:13 No, I'll skip the rest of Philippians 1 and we'll just go to Philippians chapter 2, verses 12 and 13.

9:21 Philippians 2, 12 and 13.

9:25 So then, my beloved, even as you have always obeyed, always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you both to will and to work for his good pleasure. First of all, he says that the overall pattern of the obedience of this, of the behavior of this group of people is one of obedience. Verse 12. So then, my beloved, even as you have always obeyed, you have always obeyed. Is that a way to describe the experience of believers plus their infants? Or is that a way to describe the experience of believers? So then, my beloved, you have always obeyed, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who is working in you.

10:34 It is God who is working in you both to will and to work for his good pleasure. You see again that this is the distinguishing experience of a group which may rightly be described as believers, but which only very awkwardly or inaccurately could be described as believers plus their infants. And we turn over in the seventh place to the book of Colossians. We find the same thing with respect to the religious experience of this group.

The Church at Colossae: Deliverance, Forgiveness, and Spiritual Circumcision

11:15 First of all, Colossians chapter 1 and verse 4. He says, We give thanks to God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ praying for you, having heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and having heard of the love which you have, toward all the saints, so that their faith was a present and existing reality and that their love was a present existing reality toward all the saints which was being manifested practically in the way that they lived. But then also,

11:57 verses 13 and 14, they had experienced a great deliverance. Verse 13, who delivered us out of the power of darkness and translated us into the kingdom of the Son of His love. We have been delivered. This distinguishes us and marks us as a group.

12:27 We've been delivered already out of the power of darkness and past tense have already been translated into the power of darkness. The kingdom of His love. Our sins have been forgiven. We have been redeemed.

12:43 Verse 14, in whom we have our redemption, we have and possess this great reality already, namely, the forgiveness of our sins. Then verses 21 and 22, again describing the experience of a religious conversion.

13:05 Verse 21, and you, being in time past alienated and enemies in your mind and your evil works, yet now has He reconciled in the body of His flesh through death to present you holy and without blemish before Him and unreprovable if you continue in the faith. So here, you see once again, He is describing the experience of a group which can only be described as believers. Those who have been converted, those who once were alienated, those who once were enemies, but who now have actually been already reconciled with the intent of presenting them holy and without blemish in the last day, if they persevere in righteousness, holiness and faith unto the end. It doesn't fit to say that this is the experience of believers plus their infants, but it does fit to say that this is the experience of believers. Another thing as well, in Colossians chapter 2,

14:30 and I'll just mention some of these, verses 5, 6, and 7 say the very same thing. He sees their order, their steadfastness of their faith in Christ. They have already received Christ Jesus the Lord. But the verse in particular to which I would address your attention or direct your attention is verses 10 and 11.

14:54 He says, In him you are made full, who is the head of all principality and power. Now here's a key text. In whom you were circumcised with a circumcision not made with hands, in the putting off of the body of the flesh, in the circumcision of Christ. And then we already looked at verse 12 previously.

15:19 Verse 13, And you, being dead through your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, you I say, did he make alive together with him having forgiven us all of our trespasses. Then in verse 20, he says they died with Christ. In chapter 3 in verse 1, he says you were raised with Christ.

15:50 In verse 12, he says put on therefore as God's elect, etc. Do you see how he describes these people? He describes them as those who have already experienced that spiritual circumcision of heart. There is a big difference between the way that this group is described and the way that the Jewish nation of old was described.

16:20 As a group, the distinguishing trait of their religious state and experience was that they were not circumcised in heart. But as a group, the distinguishing trait of the experience of these Colossians is that they already have been circumcised in heart. They once were dead, but they now have been made alive. They died with Christ.

16:48 They were raised with Christ. They are God's elect. That is their distinguishing trait and identity.

17:00 And I say that it is incompatible with these descriptions of the church to say that this group is to be defined as believers plus their infants. Unless we are prepared to say that believers plus their infants can be said to already have been circumcised of heart, that they all were once dead and now have been made alive, that they died with Christ, that they raised with Christ, and that they all are God's elect. Unless we are prepared to say this, we cannot define the group to whom he wrote as believers plus their infants. Because when he describes their distinguishing religious experience, he describes a religious experience which is incompatible with that definition. Not just in one congregation, but time and again, time after time, with a rich and broad variety of language, he uses such terminology which is incompatible with that definition. Now once again, Thessalonica, the church at Thessalonica,

The Church at Thessalonica: Election, Conversion, and Personal Faith

18:19 and first Thessalonians, chapter one.

18:32 And here again, this is addressed to the church, and he's going to once again describe the religious experience which distinguishes and marks out the church of Christ. Unto the church of the Thessalonians in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Again, he says, he gives thanks for the church, making mention of the church in his prayers. And now he goes on to describe the distinguishing experience of that group of people whom he has named the church.

19:03 And he says that he remembers the work of their faith, the labor of their love, and the patience of their hope.

19:14 Very well. But now look at verse four. Knowing brethren, beloved of God, your election. There it is again.

19:24 Knowing brethren, beloved of God, your election. He says the church, the church is God. God's elect people. Knowing brethren, your election.

19:38 And how does he know that they were elect? Did God, as it were, just capriciously pull back the veil of his eternal decree and say to him, Paul, these people are elect? No. That's not what happened.

19:54 Notice how he puts it in verse five. Knowing your election, how that our gospel came not unto you, in word only, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and in much assurance, even as you know what manner of men we showed ourselves toward you for your sake and you became imitators of us and of the Lord, having received the word with much affliction and joy of the Holy Spirit so that you became an example to me, to all that believe. You see the point. See what these people experienced.

20:39 The word of God came to them with power. They received the word of God. They were marvelously transformed and converted. They became imitators of the apostles and of the Lord.

20:49 And they were an example to the rest of those Christians throughout that area who had believed the gospel.

20:57 And then notice, he describes their conversion again in verses nine and ten. And here he says,

21:04 for they themselves report concerning you, they themselves report concerning us, excuse me, what manner of entering in we had to you and how you turned unto God, past tense from idols, to serve the living God and to wait for his Son from heaven whom he raised from the dead who delivers us from the wrath to come. This group of people was distinguished by already having turned, they were converted, they turned to God from their idols. They turned to serve the living God and they were characterized by the fact that they were presently waiting for the return of the Lord Jesus Christ who would deliver both Paul and them from the wrath to come when he returned. Now it's incompatible with this to describe or define this group, called the church, as believers plus their infants, but it fits it very well to say that the church that he has in view consists of those who believe.

22:18 And then also, notice this as well,

22:23 chapter 2, verses 9 to 11,

22:30 beginning in verse 10, he describes how he dealt with this group called the church. Notice, you are witnesses in God to, how holily and righteously and unblameably we behaved ourselves toward you that believe.

22:49 As you know, how we dealt with each one of you, with each one of you, with each one of you, as a father with his children, exhorting you, encouraging you, and testify to the end, testifying to the end that you should walk worthily of God who calls you into his own kingdom and glory. And you see, every one of them, every one of them was dealt with personally, every one of them believed, every one of them that constituted all of them was part of that group called the church. And so again, I say it's incompatible with this kind of language to say that the church, it equals believers plus their infants. Rather, it equals those who believe. Now, we go then to the, well, to the ninth text, and that comes from the book of Hebrews, the ninth congregation considered.

The Church in Hebrews: Firstborn Enrolled in Heaven

24:02 Hebrews chapter 12. In Hebrews chapter 12, we really find an amazing statement in verse 23. Beginning in verse 18, the apostle is contrasting the two covenants and the two mountains. He's contrasting Mount Sinai with Mount Zion.

24:32 And he's contrasting the old covenant and the new covenant. And after he outlines the old covenant in verses 18 through 21, Mount Sinai and all of those frightening phenomena associated with Mount Sinai, then he comes in verse 22 and following to describe Mount Zion. And those things, those things identified with Mount Zion. He says, you've not come to Sinai in the old covenant, you've come to the heavenly Zion and the new covenant.

25:05 And in coming to the heavenly Zion, you've come to all of these great things. And notice what they've come to. Here it is. But you're come to Mount Zion, to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable hosts of angels, to the general assembly and church of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, to God the judge of all, to the spirits of just men made perfect, to Jesus, the mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood that speaks better things than that of Abel.

25:48 He says, first of all, that in coming to new covenant life and reality, they've come to an innumerable company of angels, in festal array, or general assembly. Second, he says, you've come to the general assembly and church of firstborn ones who are enrolled in heaven. Thirdly, you've come to God the judge of all. Fourthly, to the spirits of just men made perfect.

26:15 Fifthly, to Jesus, the mediator of the new covenant. And sixthly, to the blood of sprinkling that speaks better things than that of Abel. All of these things, are identified with the heavenly Jerusalem. All are identified with Mount Zion and new covenant life and reality.

26:39 And in the midst of these things to which they have come, he says in verse 23, they've come to the church. And this is a glorious text. I don't intend to take the time this morning to expound this text in detail like I attempt to do in the academy, but it's a glorious text. Because it indicates that when you come to the church, you do not simply and merely come to a group of people on earth.

27:06 But this apparently modest group of people is in reality the tip of a great iceberg. It's that which, as it were, stands out above the spiritual waters. It's that visible dimension of new covenant life and reality. But the angels are identified.

27:27 And God is identified with that church. And God is identified with that church. And Jesus is. And the blood is.

27:35 And the spirits of the departed righteous men now in heaven are all bound together with the church of Jesus Christ as one company that indwells the heavenly Jerusalem. And that's a glorious concept of this, in some ways, motley group of nobodies, whom God has taken from the world and brought together to be his church. But notice how he describes the church. And I won't again go into the detail, which the commentators do, but just simply to say that these two descriptions are descriptions relating to men on earth, that they're called the church of firstborn ones who are enrolled in heaven. who are enrolled in heaven. And if you would like some interesting reading for the opening up of these two phrases, I would commend to you Hugh's commentary and Owen's commentary on the matter. Owen's commentary on Hebrews pages 344 to 346 and Hugh's on pages 549 to 551.

28:50 and Hugh's on pages 549 to 551. But there seems to be here a real parallel between the old covenant and the new covenant. between the old covenant and the new covenant. between the old covenant and the new covenant.

28:59 Perhaps you'll remember that in the book of Numbers, the firstborn of Israel were all enrolled. And this had to do with the Passover and the fact that God on the night of the Passover killed all of the firstborn in the land of Egypt. And when he did that, he said, all the firstborn belong to me. And the firstborn of the Egyptians are consigned to death, but the firstborn of Israel are my possession.

29:26 They're my special possession. They're my special possession. They belong in a peculiar way unto me. And then God made provision for the redemption of the firstborn.

29:36 He said, count up all the firstborn. Very well. Then he said, count up all the Levites. Very well.

29:43 They counted up the Levites. They counted up the firstborn. And then God said, the firstborn belong to me. But I will accept the Levites as the ransom for your firstborn.

29:55 And the Levites will be mine. and you may have your firstborn. And that's what happened. The number of the Levites was very close to the number of the firstborn, and then God said, I must get exactly pound for pound, and they had to make provision to bring the number to the exact amount of firstborn who were redeemed by the Levites.

30:15 You remember that story. Some of you probably do. In any event, the point is that the firstborn of Israel were enrolled, and with the old covenant, and they were the peculiar possession of God because of the very way in which that group was delivered from bondage. And now God says, the firstborn are mine, but in the new covenant, the firstborn is not simply part of the group, but the entire church is characterized by being spiritual firstborn ones who have the rights and privileges of the firstborn and who are all the peculiar possession of God.

30:55 It's a church composed of those who are firstborn ones. In the old Israel, in the old covenant community, only some were firstborn, but now the entire church, the entire community, is composed of those who are firstborn ones. And now, even as the firstborn of Israel were all numbered and all enrolled, so also this new covenant group of firstborn ones, called the church, are all enrolled, are all numbered. Where are they enrolled?

31:31 Their names are enrolled in heaven. Notice. A church of firstborn ones enrolled in heaven. Now there's one parallel passage found in the Gospels in Luke chapter 10, which indicates that the usage of this idea of having your name written in heaven or being enrolled in heaven is something which describes men on earth.

32:05 It describes the disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ. Perhaps you'll remember this text, Luke chapter 10, verses 17 and following. Who are the ones whose names are written in heaven? Well, in this context, it's the 70 disciples of the Lord.

32:23 And the 70 returned with joy, saying, Lord, even the demons of the world, are subject to us in your name. And then the Lord says this to them. He says, verse 20, Nevertheless, in this rejoice not that the spirits are subject to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven. But rejoice that your names are written in heaven.

32:55 This is the distinguishing trait of that group, which is the disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ. Their distinguishing trait is that their names are written in heaven. And this is precisely and exactly the distinguishing trait of the church described in Hebrews 12. It is that their names are enrolled in heaven.

33:23 Same group. Those who believe, the disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, this type of a description is compatible with saying that the church equals believers, that the church equals Christ's disciples. But it's not compatible with saying that the church equals believers plus their infants.

33:48 Unless you are prepared to assert that all of your children, as a group, as a class, have as their distinguishing trait that their names are enrolled. In heaven. And unless you're prepared to assert that, it's incompatible with such a definition of the church. Now, some of the children may have their names enrolled in heaven.

34:15 But that is not the distinguishing trait of the children of Christians. Rather, that is the distinguishing trait of Christians. You see the difference?

The Churches in Asia Minor: Repentance and Discipline

34:26 All right, then, the final passage that we need to consider, the final passage, the tenth one, has to do with the churches in Asia Minor. Revelation, chapter two and three.

34:41 And what I will do in this case is simply to summarize

34:47 what the apostle says concerning these seven churches

34:52 scattered throughout Asia Minor.

34:57 Beginning in Revelation, chapter one and verse eleven, we find the names of these churches. He says, write to the seven churches, to Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, Laodicea, and then in chapters two and three, we find the specific message which is given by the Holy Spirit to each one of these churches in order. He says to the angel of the church. And then in each one of those places it's mentioned, that he says, write.

35:32 And then somewhere in each of the messages he says, he that has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says, says to the churches. Now, how does he describe the experience of these seven churches? Well, several things characterize their experience. Number one, they had plenty in their church life that required repenting. There seems to be little question about the fact that there was sin in the midst, in the life, and in the experience of these churches. However, not all of these churches was rebuked, most of them, but only one of them received a word of commendation alone. Some of them received both words of rebuke and commendation, and some of them just received words of rebuke. So some had large-scale repenting to do. Others were walking,

36:33 in a way which in terms of their general lifestyle was pleasing to the Lord, and others were being severely chided, were being severely rebuked, and were being warned of their own eminent discipline, that imminent discipline, that they were just about ready to be, as Jesus says, spit out of his mouth and having their candlestick removed from its place. They were just about ready to be cut off from the universal, holy, Catholic Church of Christ because of the wickedness and the toleration of wickedness which was manifested in their midst. So that's a brief summary of the experience of these churches. Now what I say to you is this, that there's nothing here in Revelation 2 and 3 which mandates the idea that we should tolerate the unconverted. Or that the unconverted by right have a place in the Church of Jesus Christ. As a matter of fact, exactly the opposite is true in these texts. Furthermore, you do not have to resort to the notion of a Pato-Baptist church, including believers and their infants, in order to find examples of churches that require large-scale repenting.

37:53 As a matter of fact, I could say to you that most of the Baptist churches in the United States require large-scale repenting and have many things in their life which are very questionable and many more things which are outright wicked and displeasing to the Lord. Furthermore, the fact that a church tolerates wickedness in its midst does not necessitate the premise of a Pato-Baptist definition of the church. There are many Baptist churches who tolerate wickedness in their midst. There are many Baptist churches who refuse to exercise church discipline and who are guilty of the very coldness and of the very other wickedness mentioned in these texts. And you can find all these things, sad to say, in Baptist churches and you do not need to resort to a Pato-Baptist definition of the church to find any of this stuff.

Summary: Incompatibility of Infant Membership with Church Description

38:51 It all exists today in Baptist churches all over the United States. Tragically, it's true. Now, therefore, just by way of summarizing what I've said, bringing it to a close, answering objections, etc., the distinguishing experience of the churches of Christ as it is described in the Bible is such that it is incompatible with defining the church as believers plus their infants.

39:34 There's no way. There's no way. That that can be made. That that can be made to fit with the description of what the church has experienced.

Addressing Objections: Infants in the Church Letters

39:43 Now, I would just then like, in the last 15 minutes, to answer some of the possible objections or questions that could be raised. One of them was raised last week, so I know that it could be raised. One was raised by Pastor Martin last week, and I'll take that one first. Is it not possible that...

40:10 Someone says, Pastor Martin asked last week, that infants were members of these churches but were not addressed in the letters because they simply can't read.

40:20 Isn't it possible? Well, what I'm getting at is, no, it's not possible because he's describing the church and he's describing not only the membership as disciples, but their experience in such a way that it does not permit it. Now, let me give you an example. Suppose someone were going to write, let's say, and I picked someone, I picked Frank Chisholm.

40:49 Suppose, because he writes to us once in a while, suppose Frank Chisholm was to write a letter to my household, those who are now currently living under my roof, and this is what he says. He says, Dear Ginger, Greg, Grace Marie, Mindy, Renee, and Betsy. Now, he might say that. Frank Chisholm might do that.

41:17 I could conceive of Frank Chisholm addressing a letter to Betsy. I could conceive of him doing that. I am thankful that you continue steadfast in your faith and that it continues to grow. Maybe.

41:37 I remember with joy the time I spent in your home. I remember, too, how I exhorted each one of you. Wait a minute. How I testified to you.

41:52 I remember, too, how I exhorted each one of you. Wait a minute. Frank, I remember you were here, and I don't remember you exhorting Betsy. I don't remember that.

42:02 And encouraged you. And then he goes on to say, Now, you all once were hippies, but were marvelously transformed. Well, so wait a minute, Frank. Ginger wasn't a hippie.

42:25 And Betsy wasn't ever once a hippie, and marvelously transformed. And furthermore, as I think of your household, the things which distinguish you as a group stand out in my mind. I rejoice that your names are written in heaven. Oh, I wish I could say it with absolute certainty, that Betsy's name and Mindy's name and Renee's name were written in heaven.

42:55 But I can't. And neither could Frank. And says, I rejoice that you have all already received the Holy Spirit, the earnest of your inheritance. So wait a minute, Frank.

43:08 That doesn't distinguish us as a group. I rejoice that Christ died for your sins. I rejoice that you wait for Christ to come. You see the point?

43:19 That just is not the way Frank Chisholm would write to our household if he were about to describe the distinguishing truth. The distinguishing traits of our experience. Betsy's six months, Renee's three, and Mindy's five. I'm not going to tell them how old Grace Marie is.

43:44 I'm not going to tell them how old Ginger is either. I got to go home today. Now, this brings me back. He did say three.

43:59 He didn't say five, did he? That's true. Now, this brings me back to my tire illustration. my tire illustration it's like you play when your children you play the game who am i you know we play this game with the children who am i and we describe the various distinguishing traits of an individual and then they guess who it is right and that's what we did last week remember we looked at a tire and we said who am i and the tire said i'm round and i have a hole in the middle and some people thought it was a donut or a bagel but they didn't have all the facts yet then it said well i'm black a burned donut no but made out of rubber no i have treads on my surface and i fit on the rim of the wheel who am i i'm a tire right that's what that's that's what we do we recognize distinguishing traits and we identify things from their distinguishing traits all right now let's look at it again we've got all a whole bunch of distinguishing traits now the question is who am i

45:01 listen to these things we have all come to know the lord the question is who are we we have all come to we have come to know god all of us from the least to the greatest of us we have received the gift of the holy spirit as the earnest of our inheritance our names are written in heaven christ died for our sins we wait for jesus second coming our faith is growing god has already begun a good work in us and will continue it until the day of jesus christ we have been called out of darkness into the fellowship of his son our hearts have been circumcised we have turned away from our idols to serve the living god we were all once dead in our sins but have been saved by his grace each of us has been exhorted encouraged by the apostle who are we who are we who are we are we believers plus infants or are we those who believe are we the disciples of the lord jesus christ you see the

Addressing Objections: Hypocrites and Apostates in the Church

46:16 point now does this mean that every single member of these churches was for certain saved well hebrews 10 29 addresses that apparent anomaly hebrews 10 29. look at this text frightening text

46:46 it says of how much sorer it says of how much sorer think ye shall he be judged worthy who has trodden under foot the son of god and has counted the blood of the covenant which covenant the new covenant the blood of the covenant with which he was sanctified an unholy thing and has done despite to the spirit of grace verse 39 but we are not of them that shrink back to perdition but them that have faith to the saving of the soul he does describe the frightening ugly reality of apostasy from the church of jesus christ and apostasy from the new covenant community people who have been sanctified by the blood of christ that is they have been set apart unto a new relationship to god and his people through the blood of christ so покor that spirit of christ and the holy spirit disruption they weren't 102 37 that

48:04 really happened they were separated from the world separated from sinners and joined the church and were entered into the new covenant community and it describes their experience in chapter 6 those who were once enlightened and were made partakers of the heavenly gift and tasted of the power of the word of god that it was good and the powers of the age to come It is conceivable. But what's the point? What's the point?

48:35 The point is that what is being described in all of these texts is the distinguishing trait of this group to which these hypocrites and apostates have been wrongly admitted.

48:56 And you see, the point is that unless someone truly possesses the distinguishing traits of this group, he has no right to be in the group or to remain in the group, and the result will be the greater and sorer punishment for any who have ever come within the confines of the church and then done despite to the spirit and the blood and gone back into the world. If after they have escaped the bondage of the world that is through lust and then they turn back and were entangled again in it, the last state is worse than the first.

49:41 So you see, the writer to Hebrews does recognize the possibility of an apostate getting into this group distinguished by the fact that its names are written in heaven. And also, he says something else. Not only is the distinguishing trait of the group that its names are written in heaven, he expresses his conviction several times in this epistle that the group as a whole, did possess these distinguishing traits. The group was fundamentally what it ought to be, but it was not necessarily perfectly what it ought to be.

50:22 The group was, in fact, fundamentally what it ought to be. Fundamentally, basically, it was composed of those whose names were written in heaven. But it was not. It was not necessarily perfectly what it ought to be.

50:43 And there's the tension. There's the tension of the ugly reality of the possibility of hypocrites and apostates gaining admission and toleration in a community marked out by the distinguishing trait that its names are written in heaven. But now then, there's something that grows out of this, and it is this. Whenever hypocrites are discovered or known to be in the fellowship of the church, we recognize they don't belong there.

51:18 And we recognize that we must deal with them and remove them. And now, in the history of the church, brethren, Christians have not always been prepared to do that. If that were not true, 1 Corinthians 5 and 6 wouldn't have to have been written. Neither would Revelation 2 and 3.

51:37 And today, some true churches are very reluctant to exercise discipline involving the removal of hypocrites from the midst. And the doctrine of the carnal Christian, the doctrine of easy believism, the practice of adolescent confirmation and toddler communion have filled the churches of Christ today with those who have no right to be in them. And there is no need to resort to paedo-baptism, et cetera, to find churches which tolerate evil and which require large-scale repenting. And recognize that though we may be fundamentally and basically what we ought to be, that the time may come when we need to say we're not perfectly what we ought to be in terms of our membership, certainly not in terms of any other aspect of our church life, and we need to be committed by the exercise of biblical church discipline. To be what we ought to be as far as membership is concerned. And then the second and final point, which I'll make just briefly in closing and tying the thing to a close. In two of the epistles that I read, children are mentioned.

Addressing Objections: Children Addressed in Epistles

53:04 In the epistle to Ephesians and in the epistle to the Colossians. Both in Colossians and Ephesians, the Apostle Paul is listed, laying out domestic duties. I've already dealt with this text. I dealt with it earlier under the general witness of the New Testament.

53:22 But I'm just going to mention it again because it applies here too. And the Apostle is laying out domestic duties in Ephesians 6 and Colossians 3. And in these passages, he addresses children. And he says that the children are to be obedient to their parents.

53:41 Now there are two things that I want to say in reference to these two texts. First of all, is that if the children mentioned here are included in the membership of the church, then the children must possess the distinguishing traits of the church and its experience. The children, if they are included in the church, were saved. And he is addressing children who were once dead and were now alive.

54:12 So far from proving infant membership, the text proves the opposite, that the experience of the membership is uniform. Now some take that position on those texts. Now that position may be the explanation, but that's not the only possible explanation. And I even question whether it's the most plausible explanation, although it is a possible explanation.

54:36 It's certainly not mandated. And there's another possibility. And the issue here, I believe, is the context in which the letter was read. One thing is very clear.

54:47 One thing that's very clear is that when these letters were read, children were present. Children were present. Children were present in the gathering of the church. They were addressed.

55:05 And these apostolic letters were not intended to be read in a members-only meeting. And I think that's the point. The churches then and the churches now hold both kinds of meetings. Members-only meetings and open meetings for worship.

55:27 And in all of the open meetings that we hold for worship, our children are present. And in many of them, our children are addressed. And they're told the same thing that Paul told those children. He told them to obey their parents.

55:42 Now that's what he said. Our children are always present at our worship on Sunday. And it's in that context that we read the apostolic letters. It's there that we read the scriptures in our worship on Sunday.

55:55 They're not restricted to a private congregational meeting. So really, the fact that the children are addressed tells us nothing about how they relate to the church, whether they're members or whether they're simply present every week when it gathers for worship. And I just, last week, as Pastor Martin read his letter at prayer time, it struck me how true that was. It was very similar.

56:21 You probably wouldn't have noticed unless you were listening for it, and I was listening for it because I knew I was going to have to speak about it this morning. But Pastor Martin said in his letter, he addressed the congregation, and he said how appreciative he was to be a pastor of this congregation, etc. And then he said, and you children, thank you children for your cards, etc. Now if someone just got a fragment and all that was found 200 years from now of Trinity Church, was that letter that Pastor Martin read on Sunday morning in which he gave thanks, and he said the congregation of which he was a pastor and children, what could you conclude?

56:57 Could you conclude that the children were members of the Church of Christ here in this place, and that Trinity was a Paedo-Baptist church? If you made that conclusion, you would have been wrong, because it isn't. Even though the children were addressed and there was no special statement to qualify the fact that the children were not members of the congregation, but they were addressed right in the middle of the congregation, they were thanked for their cards, they were involved in the overall life, they were concerned for Pastor Martin when he was sick, and they expressed their love to him, but they're not members. And yet when that letter was read, they were addressed, and no big distinction was made.

57:38 So you would be wrong to draw conclusions from that fact. Well, let's pray, and we'll draw our time to a close here. Just one word maybe is that the children should be present in the public meetings. If it teaches that anything is wrong, it's the idea of the children's church.

Conclusion and Prayer

57:55 So let's pray and bring our concerns before the Lord.

58:05 Our Father, we give you thanks for your holy word, and we thank you especially, Lord, for the glorious promises that we have received as the new covenant people of God. We bless you for the wonderful privilege of being part of that family of God. We thank you for what you've done for us. We thank you for what you've done in us.

58:26 And we pray that as we come before you this morning, our hearts may be thrilled at the thought of your great blessing and that we may bring to you acceptable worship. We thank you also, Lord, for our children. And we pray that as they sit under the ministry of your word this morning, that a word would come home to their hearts for their good and their eternal well-being. We ask it in Jesus' name.

58:51 Amen.