What's the Point of Baptism? Pt. II
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Overview of Pt. I
Overview of Pt. I
Covenant of Grace Defined
Revealed in the Gospel
First to Adam and progressively until the NT
Based on eternal Covenant of Redemption
Only through this Covenant has anyone found salvation
Baptism Defined
NT ordinance ordained by Christ
Sign of fellowship with Him in His death and resurrection, of being grafted into Him, of remission of sins and of submission to God through Jesus Christ to live and walk in newness of life
Church Membership Defined
Only regenerate members of CoG are members of the Church
Only members of the Church are to be baptised
Children are not members of the Church
Baptists see discontinuity in the OT and NT in how God uses families to fulfill His covenant.
How does God use families to fulfill his covenant differently in the NT as opposed to the OT?
14 But Peter, standing with the eleven, lifted up his voice and addressed them: “Men of Judea and all who dwell in Jerusalem, let this be known to you, and give ear to my words. 15 For these people are not drunk, as you suppose, since it is only the third hour of the day. 16 But this is what was uttered through the prophet Joel: 17 “ ‘And in the last days it shall be, God declares, that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams; 18 even on my male servants and female servants in those days I will pour out my Spirit, and they shall prophesy. 19 And I will show wonders in the heavens above and signs on the earth below, blood, and fire, and vapor of smoke; 20 the sun shall be turned to darkness and the moon to blood, before the day of the Lord comes, the great and magnificent day. 21 And it shall come to pass that everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.’ 22 “Men of Israel, hear these words: Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested to you by God with mighty works and wonders and signs that God did through him in your midst, as you yourselves know— 23 this Jesus, delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men. 24 God raised him up, loosing the pangs of death, because it was not possible for him to be held by it. 25 For David says concerning him, “ ‘I saw the Lord always before me, for he is at my right hand that I may not be shaken; 26 therefore my heart was glad, and my tongue rejoiced; my flesh also will dwell in hope. 27 For you will not abandon my soul to Hades, or let your Holy One see corruption. 28 You have made known to me the paths of life; you will make me full of gladness with your presence.’ 29 “Brothers, I may say to you with confidence about the patriarch David that he both died and was buried, and his tomb is with us to this day. 30 Being therefore a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him that he would set one of his descendants on his throne, 31 he foresaw and spoke about the resurrection of the Christ, that he was not abandoned to Hades, nor did his flesh see corruption. 32 This Jesus God raised up, and of that we all are witnesses. 33 Being therefore exalted at the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, he has poured out this that you yourselves are seeing and hearing. 34 For David did not ascend into the heavens, but he himself says, “ ‘The Lord said to my Lord, “Sit at my right hand, 35 until I make your enemies your footstool.” ’ 36 Let all the house of Israel therefore know for certain that God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified.” 37 Now when they heard this they were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, “Brothers, what shall we do?” 38 And Peter said to them, “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. 39 For the promise is for you and for your children and for all who are far off, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to himself.” 40 And with many other words he bore witness and continued to exhort them, saying, “Save yourselves from this crooked generation.” 41 So those who received his word were baptized, and there were added that day about three thousand souls.
Acts 2:14-41
This leads us to our text tonight: (read 14-41)
Who and what is the Church?
This verse is often used by Presbyterians to proved a case for infant baptism
There is NO scriptural evidence of infants ever being baptised
Does God
Clarity and finality of the NT over the OT
We need to ask two questions in this text:
What is “the promise?”
The pouring out of the Holy Spirit
vs. 33
No longer the promise of the seed to come
God
Cannot separate salvation from HS
This is the promise of actual salvation by faith in the Seed that HAD come and lived and died and was resurrected
Not a future promise to be carried on by physical descendants
To whom is the promise made?
God’s people (the church)
Who are God’s People?
Who are God’s People?
Those that the Father promised to the Son in the Covenant of Redemption (The Elect)
CoR involved two parties: Father and Son
Father promised a people to the Son
Son agreed to the terms
Covenant of Redemption
Evidenced by the eternal purpose of Father
3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, 4 even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love 5 he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, 6 to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved.
Ephesians 1:
9 who saved us and called us to a holy calling, not because of our works but because of his own purpose and grace, which he gave us in Christ Jesus before the ages began,
2 tim 1:
Realized through the obedience of the Son
5 Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, 6 who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. 8 And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. 9 Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, 10 so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
Phil 2:
1 When Jesus had spoken these words, he lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said, “Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son that the Son may glorify you, 2 since you have given him authority over all flesh, to give eternal life to all whom you have given him. 3 And this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. 4 I glorified you on earth, having accomplished the work that you gave me to do. 5 And now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed.
These chosen people are the members of the CoG
Once alienated/grafted in
12 remember that you were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world.
Beneficiaries of a New Covenant mediated by Christ
6 But as it is, Christ has obtained a ministry that is as much more excellent than the old as the covenant he mediates is better, since it is enacted on better promises. 7 For if that first covenant had been faultless, there would have been no occasion to look for a second. 8 For he finds fault with them when he says: “Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will establish a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, 9 not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt. For they did not continue in my covenant, and so I showed no concern for them, declares the Lord. 10 For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my laws into their minds, and write them on their hearts, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. 11 And they shall not teach, each one his neighbor and each one his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest. 12 For I will be merciful toward their iniquities, and I will remember their sins no more.” 13 In speaking of a new covenant, he makes the first one obsolete. And what is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish away.
True Israelites
Christ is Israel
Hosea 11:1
1 When Israel was a child, I loved him, and out of Egypt I called my son.
Jesus was called out of Egypt
Jesus went through the water
Jesus was tempted in the desert
Isaiah
3 And he said to me, “You are my servant, Israel, in whom I will be glorified.”
Christ is the head of a spiritual nation
No longer an ethnic nation
In Him we are true Israelites
Dispy/Covenant
Christ centered hermeneutic vs. Israel centered hermeneutic
The Church
Always God’s Plan A and Goal
Not replacement BUT fulfillment
13 Now when Jesus came into the district of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?” 14 And they said, “Some say John the Baptist, others say Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.” 15 He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” 16 Simon Peter replied, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” 17 And Jesus answered him, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven. 18 And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. 19 I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.” 20 Then he strictly charged the disciples to tell no one that he was the Christ.
Matthew 16:1
The Church had always existed in the form of a Promise
But had not been realized in the OT
God used ethnic Israel to bring forth the promised Seed (Christ)
Done by passing down the Covenant of circumcision generationally
Now that Christ has come and His church is being built we see a change in the role of the family in regards to Covenant membership
An Emphasis on Bearing Children is No Longer Expressed in the NT
1 “No one whose testicles are crushed or whose male organ is cut off shall enter the assembly of the Lord.
Ethiopian Eunuch in
Loyalty to a Physical Family is Upended in the NT
We see examples of familial loyalty throughout the OT
Noah and his sons
Ruth and Naomi
Jonathan and Saul
35 For I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law.
We belong to the spiritual family of God by adoption
15 For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!”
4 But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, 5 to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. 6 And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!”
It is this Spirit that dwells in our hearts that make us covenant members of the spiritual family of God.