What is a Reformed Baptist..

Welcome to Cornerstone Reformed Baptist Church. Thank you for using and sharing our resources. What you're about to hear is God's Word from one of our teaching elders. We trust that God's Word will inspire, instruct, and bless you. For further teachings or information on our ministry, please visit us on our website at cornerstonerbc.

com. That's cornerstonerbc.com. Okay, so as I was saying before, we are continuing in our studies on what is a Reformed Baptist Church, and we do only have two more of these studies to go. And as you're probably already aware, that we said from the onset, this was three, four, five months ago, we said that what we want to do is we want to build our studies up like a pyramid, where we start at the bottom and we say, what is an evangelical church?

Because that is what, if you're going to be a biblical church, a church that worships in spirit and in truth, you must at least hold to the tenets of a evangelical church. And so we started at the bottom level, and then we worked our way up, and we said, what is a Calvinistic church? And we went through TULIP, right, the acronym TULIP. And then we went further up and we said, okay, we're getting more refined here. What is a reformed church?

And so we looked at what the distinctives are of a reformed church. So that is what we share with reformed churches, other reformed churches. Now we're in the distinctives of what is a reformed Baptist church. So now, no longer are we looking at broad categories, differences between, say, evangelical and Calvinistic churches, Now we're looking at what is the difference between a Reformed Baptist church, this is who we identify ourselves to be, and what is the difference between us and other Reformed churches, like the Presbyterian church for example. And so what you'll find is we have far more in common than what separates us.

So we have a lot more in common than what separates us. And the purpose for our studies, and I know we've said this many times, It's not that we come together and then we start saying, okay, this is how we are different to other churches. Because we're not meant to divide the body of Christ. We recognize that churches, although they don't look the same as us, if they're trusting in Jesus Christ for their salvation and they believe in the core tenets of the Christian faith, then they are true churches of Jesus Christ. And we don't want to separate ourselves from them.

We're united in Christ. Jesus shed his blood for these churches, for our brothers and sisters. is definitely not to make a division between us and them as though to say that we're better than the rest. We're not. We're not.

We're all Christian. We're all Christian. We've all been saved by the blood of Christ and we don't want to claim any sort of elitism amongst ourselves either. That's not our intention. Our intentions are just simply so that we get together and we identify why we call ourselves Reformed Baptists.

What are the distinctives? What are the characteristics? What are the properties of a Reformed Baptist church? What do we believe? And then we want to present that to ourselves, to us, so that we can collectively identify who we are and why we believe what we believe.

And from the onset, we've said that we've been trying to do this biblically. Because if we believe something that's not rooted in the Word of God, then that will lead us into error. So we want to get together and say we are Reformed Baptists because for the best part of our understanding, the wisdom that the Lord's given us and the understanding He's given us. we see the Reformed Baptist Church to be a biblical, faithful representation of what the Bible says a church ought to be. So when we can do that and we get together and we root our roots into the Scripture and show that what we believe is rooted in Scripture, that should free our conscience so that we can have biblical convictions in God's Word.

And that's what our intentions And so this evening we are going to go further, and we're going to look a little bit deeper, and we're going to look at the topic of baptism. Now the topic of baptism, it's been a topic that is quite divisive amongst the Christians, and you all know this. In fact, as Reformed Baptists, we are, as a Reformed Church in particular, we are probably the only of the Reformed churches that hold to a believer's baptism. Because for the majority of Reformed churches, they would hold to what we call paedo-baptism, or infant baptism. On the other hand, what we hold to is what we call credo-baptism.

Credo just simply means, I believe. So in other words, we baptize those who believe in Jesus Christ. Now, even though we're Christians and we get together and we open the Word of God, we know that every Christian has been commanded to be baptized. Even novice Christians, Christians who don't have a great understanding of the Bible, they know that Christ has ordered or has given commands that every Christian should be baptized. Now, there is a small percentage of churches out there that don't hold to baptism.

It's very small. It's not actually any official churches. There are denominations such as the Salvation Army, for example. The Salvation Army have walked away from the sacraments and from the ordinances, baptism, and other things, because they say that they take away from what's important. But that's an overreaction.

Christ has commanded that his people to be baptized, and then we should take that command seriously. But it's also important that we recognize what baptism is. And that's what we want to do here this evening. So we probably realized also up until now that most of the distinctives that we brought up have been rooted in the Reformation. So not so much rooted in the Reformation, but have come to light through and in through the Reformation.

Everything we've spoken about lately and in the last five or six months has been rooted in what we would say is the Word of God and the Scripture. And that's the concern that we have. that everything we say, everything we do is biblical. We want to be biblical Christians. But during the time of the Reformation, we see that the Protestant Church pulled away from the Catholic Church.

And why did they do that? Because they found that the Catholic Church had been in error. They brought in religion, they brought in tradition, my apologies, and deviated from the Scripture. So we thank God for the Reformation, where we brought back, you know, the reformers said, let's go back to the Scripture. Let's go back to the Word of God.

Let's root out our theology, our practice, our faith back in the Word of God, not in tradition. And so we thank God for that. But having said that, not all the churches that came out of the Reformation, not all the Protestants that came out of the Reformation had a consistent theology. This is what happened. They'd come out, thank God.

They recaptured sola scriptura, which is a foundation that we go through the Word of God for faith and practice, and we praise God for that. But many, many in the Reformation started to divert. The Protestant churches went in sort of different directions, in particular when we're talking about baptism. And this has been a cause of heavy persecution in the 16th and the 17th century for many Baptists, because for the most part, most of the Reformed churches or the Protestant churches believed in children baptism, infant baptism, and they wouldn't tolerate believers baptism. So there was a lot of persecution amongst Baptists.

So when we look at that, and we see there has been some division in the past, we need to recognize that we ought not overreact. So tonight what we're going to do is we're going to have a look at what we believe in regards to baptism. But beloved, it is very important that if we know brothers and sisters who don't believe what we believe yet, don't cross the line of orthodoxy, in other words, they don't cross the line of the core Christian tenets, the foundational Christian truths, then we ought to be charitable towards our brothers and sisters and recognize that they have been saved by the blood of Christ, just like us, but it's okay for us to fellowship apart from one another. But still love them, still pray for their ministries, because we realize that we too could be in error in what we believe in some areas of what we believe as well. So we have to recognize that.

So now, this evening our concern, our main concern as Reformed Baptists is to see and understand our view and to be able to root our view in the Bible. We won't be exploring different nuances of infant baptism amongst Christian denominations, but we will find ourselves taking a little bit of a closer look at what our Presbyterian brothers and sisters believe. Why? Because we both hold to what we call covenant theology, and being able to at least understand the differences between what we have with our Presbyterian brothers and sisters will open our eyes to realize why we have different views. If you remember last week, our brother was explaining to us what covenant theology is, both last week and the week before.

The Presbyterian brothers and sisters also believe in that framework of interpretation of the Bible, as we do as Reformed Baptists. But tonight we're going to see where we deviate, where our thoughts, where our beliefs deviate a little from where the Presbyterians deviate, and then we'll begin to understand, oh, that's why they believe in infant baptism. And I'm hoping that we would then look at that and say, okay, but I know now why I believe that we should baptize believers only. So, as I said, we won't go into the nuances of Pato Baptist's view. But for the sake of clarity, I need to mention the following.

The Presbyterians do not hold to the Roman Catholic doctrine of infant baptism. Just because there are churches out there that baptize children or baptize infants, they don't all believe the same thing. The Presbyterians do not hold the same doctrines as Catholics. we must be sure not to place our Presbyterian brothers and sisters in that boat. The Catholic doctrine of baptism is called baptismal regeneration, held, and it's held in part, by the Lutherans as well.

And it's a great error. At its most basic sense, Catholicism teaches that baptism is the means of salvation. That is to say that when an infant in their theology is baptized by the priest, the guilt of original sin is removed and that child becomes born again. That child becomes a child of God according to what they say. This is shocking error and it goes against our Bible's teaching of what salvation is and it is by grace through faith in Christ alone.

It doesn't come through an act of a father or a mother deciding to baptize their child. But we won't spend any more time on that this evening, because our intention this evening is not to show who is in error, but to show what we believe and why we believe. And we need to also understand our Presbyterian brothers and sisters reject baptismal regeneration just as much as we do. So we have to recognize that. Also, I'll mention this evening, and this is a concern for us is that we won't be spending too much time dealing in Old Testament baptism for the proselytes, that is Gentiles converting into Judaism, where baptism along with circumcision was necessary for the conversion of the Old Testament, their old life, to be recognized as covenant members with the people of Israel.

Nor will we address this evening the baptism of John the Baptist, which was a different baptism to the New Testament baptism that we've been commanded by Christ. So John's baptism was a baptism of repentance of sin in preparation for the Messiah to come. And that's a different baptism than what's commanded by Jesus Christ for the Christians. So what do Reformed Baptists believe about baptism? Well, we hold that baptism is one of two ordinances, that is commands given by Jesus Christ for the church that they should observe until he comes back.

And the other is, you can tell me what the other ordinance is, the other command, communion, the Lord's Supper. And we ought to do these things until Christ comes back. One happens in the beginning, baptism, And communion happens as we enjoy regularly as a body of Christ, the Church of Jesus Christ, until He comes back. We have to realize these are outward signs that identify the New Covenant people of God, the Church of Jesus Christ. So now let's go a little bit deeper.

Let's go a bit deeper and ask ourselves three questions. The who, the why, and the how. who should be baptized, why we should be baptized, and finally, and very briefly, how we should be baptized. Who should be baptized? Let's open our Bibles to Matthew chapter 28, and we'll be reading from verses 19 through 20.

It's Matthew 28, verses 19 through 20. Now the 11 disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them. And when they saw him, they worshipped him, but some doubted. And Jesus came and said to them, All authority in heaven and on earth has been given me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to obey all that I have commanded you.

And behold, I am with you always to the end of the age. This passage in Matthew 28 makes three very clear commands that Jesus gives in defining the mission of the church. The first is to make disciples, and then baptize disciples, and then teach them to obey all that Christ has commanded. And to be fair, the text in the original language does emphasize greatly the Great Commission on making the disciples. There's more emphasis on that than the other two.

The gospel ought to be preached, beloved. This is the church's responsibility. And when the church carries out her responsibility by heralding the good news of Jesus Christ, both locally and nationally, to all nations, it says, of the earth, disciples are made. Faith comes from hearing and hearing through the word of Christ, Romans chapter 10. Now it's these new disciples that Christ commands to be baptized once, once only, in the name of the Triune God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

Okay, so we know that it's the disciples who ought to be baptized, but who are the disciples that Jesus speaks of? Listen to the words of Jesus Christ defining for us who the disciples are, and therefore, who ought to be baptized. In John 8.31, Jesus says, If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples. In John 15.

8, By this my Father is glorified, again Jesus speaking, that you bear fruit, or bear much fruit, and so prove to be my disciples. And in John 13.35, by this all people will know that you are my disciples if you love or have love one for another. Of course, there are many more passages that speak to the same point. But who are the disciples?

These passages tell us who the disciples are. It's who is able to abide in Christ's Word. Who's able to produce true, genuine fruit of the Spirit? And who's able to love God with a Christ-like love? Beloved, the answer is clear.

Only those who have been born again. Only those who have been born from above. Those who have trusted in Jesus Christ and in Christ alone for the forgiveness of their sins, only those who have been justified by faith or through faith and by grace of God. These, the Holy Spirit indwelled people, are Christ's true disciples and the ones who Christ commands to be baptized. In other words, those who have heard and understood the gospel, believed its truths, and trusted in the Savior for the forgiveness of their sins.

This is the example that we're given throughout the book of Acts, which speaks of the birth of the church and how the church grew with the ministry of the apostles. Those who believed were baptized. Just listen to some of the verses in Acts. Acts chapter 2 verse 41 reads, and this is after Peter gives that great sermon on the day of Pentecost. And we're told in verse 41, were baptized and they were added that day about 3,000 souls.

Those who received the word were baptized. In Acts chapter 8 verse 12, spoken of the Samaritans after Philip spent some time there evangelizing among them. And he says, but when they believed Philip as he preached good news about the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ, they were baptized both men and women and of course Acts chapter 10 we're told that Cornelius and his whole household were baptized after they heard the word heard the word and that that implies hearing and believing of course and the Holy Spirit then descended upon them to to show that there is true regeneration true salvation to that household you see these biblical examples have one thing in common. They were all believers. In fact, the Book of Acts only ever makes explicit mention of believers being baptized.

Even in several cases where we're told households were baptized, such as the case with the Gentiles Cornelius or the Philippian jailer later on in Acts chapter 16, there's nothing in the text to suggest that being baptized was anything was for anyone other than newly converted Christians. There's nothing in the text that would suggest otherwise. So the biblical evidence that we see is clear that only those who are trusting in Jesus Christ alone for the forgiveness of their sins should be candidates for water baptism. Jew or Gentile? No problem.

Male or female? Absolutely Slave or free? Yes! Infants? Can infants believe?

Can they repent of their sins? Beloved, infants are unable to exercise faith. Unable. And the gospel tells us clearly that you need to believe and be baptized. But the only way one is able to baptize infants without violating the express teaching of the Bible is to redefine what baptism is and by doing so redefining who can be baptized.

Our Presbyterian brothers and sisters do this. Now to be clear they are very well intended and only wish to practice what in accordance to their understanding of the Bible just like us. But as our brother explained for us last week that the Presbyterian view of the covenants is different to ours. They see it fitting to baptize yet unbelieving infants. For them, baptism enters the child into a covenant blessings.

But I'll open this up later and I'll give an explanation why. But we need to know they're well intended and they're only following their view or their understanding of the Bible. But back to Matthew 28. Another very important point that is inherent in this text is this, because Jesus commands baptism as an act of obedience for disciples or believers who have already been saved, it means that baptism is not a prerequisite for salvation. In other words, baptism is not required to be saved.

Salvation, beloved, is by grace alone, through faith alone. For grace, you have been saved through faith. And this is not of your own doing. It is a gift of God, not a result of works, so that no man can boast. Ephesians chapter two.

No works, no works, nothing we do, our performance, our obedience, none of it play any part of our regeneration or our salvation, none of it. And this applies to baptism also. Think of the thief on the cross in Luke chapter 22. Jesus confirms him to be saved and says, tonight you'll be with me where? In paradise.

Was he baptized? No. Beloved, this is what makes the Catholic doctrine of baptismal regeneration so horrific. Even to suggest an act of the parents would save the child is to presume upon the grace of God. Salvation is of the Lord, not of the will of man.

I know I'm preaching to the choir, but we must make sure we understand this ordinance is a fruit of our salvation and in no way the means of our salvation. Because if we get this wrong, beloved, we'll do violence to the amazing grace by which all Christians have been saved. And in doing so, we'll be preaching a different gospel. And you know what Paul says about a different gospel? It's no gospel at all.

Now that's the who. Who should be baptized? Let's move to why. Why we should be baptized. Well, the short answer is this.

Jesus commands it. That should settle it, right? Honestly, that's enough. If Jesus commands it, it is enough. He is the head of the church, and if he's commanded for us to be baptized, then we do it lovingly, and it's a privilege to obey our Savior.

But by God's grace, Jesus has also given the command, but he's also given us an explanation through the apostles to explain why we should be baptized. And this is part of the reason why you'll find that the word baptize, or the word that comes from that family baptize, baptizo in Greek, is commonly used in the scripture for both water baptism as well as spiritual baptism. It's the same word that is being used. You see, there's a profound reason for this. It's because physical outward public declaration of baptism is a symbol or a sign.

Hear this, if you hear nothing else tonight, just hear this and remember this. It's a sign of an inward spiritual reality. So the outward physical declaration, when you go into the waters of baptism, is a sign of a reality that's already taken place inside your soul. It signifies, not affects. It signifies.

So it's a symbol. It doesn't affect our membership in the new covenant, but it signifies it and it shows the world and declares to all that we belong to Jesus Christ. We belong to his church and it signifies our identification with our Savior in his death, in his life, in his death, his burial and his resurrection. So there's two main points I want to look at tonight. First of all, we want to look at the New Covenant entry, so it signifies that we are members of the New Covenant.

It doesn't bring us into the New Covenant, it just tells the world we are members of the New Covenant. And the second thing I want to look at is how we identify through baptism with Jesus Christ's death, burial, and resurrection. So firstly, it's a declaration of the reality that a person has already, by faith, been made. a member of the new covenant of the people of God. The new covenant is better than the old covenant because it's enacted on better promises.

As our brother explained for us last week, the old covenant of Israel was a mixed covenant. It was populated with those who are circumcised physically and others who are circumcised of the heart. They weren't all people of God. in the spiritual sense in the old covenant. Some were unsaved and some were saved in that covenant.

But Paul says in Romans 9, For not all who are descendants from Israel belong to Israel. And in Galatians 3, Know then, he says, that it is those of faith who are sons of Abraham. You remember, we've been going through in the Sunday Lord's Day morning, we're going through the covenant given to Abraham. Paul is saying it's the sons of faith. It's those who have true faith who are true sons of Abraham.

In other words, just because they were ethnic Israelites and descendants of Abraham, it doesn't make them true children of the living God. Children of God were always those who have faith. Now, because it was a mixed covenant, we're talking about the old covenant still, because it was a mixed covenant, then the covenant sign, circumcision, you remember we've been speaking about this for the last two weeks, could be applied to all males, no problems, right? Because it's a mixed covenant. But the New Covenant, the New Covenant's not the same as the old covenant.

The New Covenant is a better covenant. And the New Covenant, hear this, is not a mixed. covenant. Its members are all born again. This is the difference between the old covenant and the new covenant.

The old had a mixed population. Some were saved and some were not. You can go to Israel and they're all under the covenant and you look at the people, they're not all going to go to heaven. Some trusted in God with all their heart. They had faith and others did not.

Many, if not all of them, carried the covenant sign. All the males carried the covenant sign, but it didn't make them true children of the living God. Whereas in the New Covenant, all who are in that covenant are believers and they're born again. So let's open our Bibles to see this. Let's go to Jeremiah chapter 31, and we're reading from verses 31 through 34.

Jeremiah. Jeremiah is after Isaiah. You have Isaiah and you have Jeremiah. Jeremiah chapter 31 and we're reading from verse 31 through 34. Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, not like the covenant I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt.

My covenant they broke, though I was a husband or their husband, declares the Lord. For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord. I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people. And no longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, Know the Lord, for they shall all know me.

From the least of them, the greatest declares the Lord. For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more." This is where we differ with our Paedo-Baptist brothers and sisters. As Reformed Baptists, we believe this passage speaks to the new covenant ratified in the blood of Jesus Christ. The language here is what we call unilateral language.

It's God taking the initiative in and of himself to affect all the facets and accomplish everything in the new covenant. Listen to the language starting from verse 33. Listen to how many times we see the word I in here when God speaks. He says in verse 33, For this is a covenant I will make with the house of Israel. After those days declares the Lord, I will put my law within them.

I will write it on their hearts, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. No longer shall each one say to his neighbor or his brother, saying, Know the Lord, hear that, know the Lord, for they shall all know me. Hear that? Everyone in the new covenant, God is saying, they shall all know me. And then he goes on to say, from the least of them to the greatest, declares Lord, for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.

Beloved, there can be no doubt that this covenant is the new covenant in Jesus Christ. The author to the Hebrews, in chapter eight, he writes, that as it is, Christ has obtained a ministry that is much more excellent than the old, as the covenant he mediates is better, since it is enacted on better promises. For if that first covenant, talking about the old covenant, had been faultless, there would have been no occasion for the second." Straight after the author of the Hebrews writes these words, he then goes and recites the very passage that we just read in Jeremiah chapter 31. This points, beloved, to the new covenant members all being born again.

All of them. It's not a mixed covenant. Everyone in the New Covenant is a believer. Everyone in the New Covenant has been washed by the blood of Christ and by grace and through faith has been justified. Everyone.

They all have His law written on their hearts. They all have, they're all Covenant members of the New Covenant. How then, how then could we even imagine to give the Covenant sign of baptism to anyone who does not qualify to be a New Covenant member. Beloved, this is a very, very important point. The New Covenant is not mixed.

We must realize it's not a mixed covenant. Everyone in this better, unconditional covenant has been cleansed by the blood of Christ who is the mediator of the covenant. All New Covenant members have had their hearts circumcised, and now they are true disciples of Jesus Christ. And as true disciples of Jesus Christ, they are now subjects for baptism. We baptise only those who are truly born again and are true members of the New Covenant.

It's these people that we baptize. As I said before, that our Presbyterian brothers and sisters would have to change the definition of the new covenant as we understand it in order to baptize infants. And this is what they'll do. In order to keep the continuity of the old covenant with the new, they equate circumcision in the old covenant with baptism in the new. And they would call it the Covenant of Grace, rather than the New Covenant.

Making the New Covenant as we know it, a mixed covenant. So, the Covenant of Grace, in their opinion, is a mixed covenant. Like we know the Old Covenant, they would claim that that's like the New Covenant. It contains both believers and unbelievers. For them, the Covenant of Grace is both.

But does the language of Jeremiah 31, the passage that we just read just a few moments ago, can you imagine that passage speaking of anyone other than true born-again Christian? Does that passage sound like it's speaking to a covenant people or people who have covenant membership that can be in Christ and others that cannot? Listen to the words, it says, for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest declares the Lord, for I will forgive their iniquity and I will remember their sins no more." Who can claim those words apart from Christians? Who can claim those words apart from disciples of Jesus Christ?

Beloved, baptism is an outward sign of the new covenant and entrance into the church of Jesus Christ. Again, it's a sign. It doesn't affect it. it's a sign of these things only, then it must be only administered to believers who have understood the gospel and have been saved by grace through faith. These people are the people who enjoy the substance of grace and they ought to signify this through the waters of baptism in obedience to Jesus Christ.

But as I said before, Baptism not only is a sign of our membership into the new covenant, but it also signifies our identification with the Savior Jesus Christ. So Paul explains this beautifully in Romans chapter 6. So let's open our Bibles to Romans chapter 6 and we'll be reading from verses 1 through 11. Romans 6 verses 1 through 11. Romans 6, chapter 6, verses 1 through 11.

What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means. How can we, who die to sin, still live in it? Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death?

We were buried, therefore, with him by baptism into death. In order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. 5. For if we have been united with him in death like this, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like this. We know that our self was crucified with Him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin, for one who has died has been set free from sin."

Now if we have died with Christ, remember he's speaking about baptism still, if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with Him. We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again. Death has no longer any dominion over him, for the death he died, he died to sin once for all. But the life he lives, he lives to God. So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.

You see what Paul is saying here. The beautiful ordinance of baptism identifies the Christian with Jesus Christ in His death, in His burial, and in His resurrection into newness of life. It's a declaration that you've died to yourself and sin, and you've been raised with Christ in righteousness and holiness and life. This is what baptism symbolizes. This is the picture.

It's a symbol alluding to what has already taken place in you spiritually. When you enter the waters of baptism to be baptized in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, you're acknowledging that the Father has predestined you in the Son from before the world began. The Beloved has become man and accomplished all the work of salvation on your behalf, and the Spirit of God has effected that salvation in regeneration, bringing you from death to life, to newness of life in Jesus Christ. It's an identification with Christ in His work, and that's why Paul can say, you've been crucified with Christ. So we die with Him, so that we can rise with Him as new people, with new motives.

We have a new righteousness, a new love. And like the Jeremiah passage speaks, and it says, His law is written on our hearts, the law that we once hated. The God that we once rebelled against is a God that now we love. It's the God we cherish. The law is now a law that we desire to fulfill, to obey.

We now desire to be holy as He is holy. Perfectly, no. Certainly not perfectly. But the desire is there. And not only is the desire there, the power is there also.

Because as Christians who have been resurrected with Jesus Christ, he has given us his Holy Spirit, which empowers us in the newness of life. The waters of baptism, beloved, is not where you and I have been given victory over death and sin. That's already happened. The Waters of Baptism is where we show obedience to the Saviour to declare to the world that we have been given the victory over death and sin. It's where we show the world that we belong to Jesus Christ.

So it's a symbol. It's an outward physical sign of what's already happened in us spiritually. And that's why John the Baptist is able to say, I baptize you with water for repentance, but he who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire. The baptism with the Holy Spirit comes first, and then the water baptism comes after that.

One of the objections that the Reformed Baptists get from people who baptize infants is unless we are, and they'll say to us, unless we are confident in saying that every single person who we baptize is truly born again, then we too have to acknowledge that the covenant or the new covenant is a mixed covenant. So the argument goes that if we baptize and we baptize people, at that person, and we all probably know people who have been baptized, and then later in life it's proven that they weren't really Christians. And they're saying that if you baptize someone who's not really a Christian, you've declared that they're part of the church, therefore the church is a mixed church. There are people in every church, possibly, that are in Christ and those who are not in Christ. And it's a valid argument.

But we have answers to that objection. And I would simply reply to that, that we cannot peer into people's hearts to give a guarantee of salvation before we put them through the waters of baptism. We can only go by the confession of that person's mouth and the fruits of their life, and then we must give charity. We must give them the benefit of the doubt. Because we don't know people's hearts.

Only God knows their hearts. And the thing is, The thing is, we're not baptizing people knowing that that person is not a regenerate person. That's not the case. We're baptizing based on the confession of their mouth and their profession that they are in Christ and they have been truly saved. And if they're not, then God will reveal that.

But we're not baptizing people. We're not saying that you've entered into the covenant. into the new covenant and we know full well that that person is a reprobate, that person is unregenerate. That's not what we're doing. But at any point, we know that God's given us also, he's given us instructions on how we should deal with these things.

Because if our brothers or sisters at any point are behaving in an un-Christian manner, those who have been baptised among us, if they behave in an un-Christian manner, then the elders of that church will now graciously come by them, and they will biblically exhort them, and if necessary, they will lovingly discipline the brothers or the sisters who have been baptized. The last resort Paul prescribes in 1 Corinthians 5 is excommunication. Why? Because we understand that the church is not mixed. The church is comprised of only true believers.

And therefore, we only baptize true believers. And if someone is baptized and they're producing bad fruit, the Lord in his wisdom, he's given us wisdom to deal with that. Instructions in his word that we can follow, and then we trust him for the rest. Well, we've examined now the who, and we've examined the why, why we should be baptized, who's to be baptized, why we should be baptized. Now very, very briefly, and I know we've almost gone out of time, I want to just examine the question, how?

How are we to be baptized? Or otherwise, you might have heard, what is the mode of baptism? And it's unfortunately not that straightforward, because many brothers and sisters in the Protestant Church do differ on this point as well. Some, you may know, sprinkle. Some pour some water over a person, and yet others, like us Reformed Baptists, we believe in full immersion in the water, that is when the whole body goes into the water and then comes back out.

The word baptizo means to plunge, dip or immerse someone or something into the water and that is normally the standard meaning that we find historically both in the secular writings and also in biblical writings. Now although our Pado-Baptist brethren may object to this, and they do have some valid arguments out there, but it would be difficult to understand some of the passages in the New Testament that speak to baptism if you were to take any other definition than for immersion. John the Baptist, for example, he went to the Jordan and he baptized in the Jordan, a big body of water, quite a distance away from the towns and villages. Why? because there was lots of water, it tells us in John chapter 3, he baptized in the Aeon near Salim because the water was plentiful there, suited obviously for immersion.

The next text in the New Testament alludes to the fact that the water is deep and natural reading of the text would also suggest that Jesus himself in Mark chapter 1, when he was baptized, listen to what the text says, it says here, and when he, that's Christ, came up out of the water, It's indicative of he was fully down in the water. The same could be said in the book of Acts, in Acts chapter 8, when the Ethiopian eunuch was baptized. The text tells us, and this is what it reads, and as they were going along, if you remember the story, Philip was walking along the road and the Holy Spirit took him to a place. The Ethiopian eunuch was in a carriage and Philip was walking along the carriage and heard him read. Isaiah.

He said, do you understand? He said, how can I understand if no one can explain? So Philip jumps into the carriage with him and explains Isaiah chapter 53, that is the gospel in the Old Testament, speaking about Jesus Christ. And the Ethiopian eunuch believed in Jesus Christ. And listen to what he says.

And as they were going along the road, they came to some water. And the eunuch said to Philip, see, here's water. What prevents me from being baptized? Why wait for a body of water? If pouring or sprinkling was an option, could Philip not have taken some of the water from the carriage and sprinkled this new believer?

And just think about it. He's the treasurer of Ethiopia heading back home. Surely he had plenty of water for his return journey. But listen, when the text goes on, listen to how it describes the baptism in verse 38 of chapter eight in Acts. And he commanded the chariot to stop.

So the eunuch said, he commanded the chariot to stop. And they both went down into the water, and they both went down into the water, Philip and the eunuch, and he baptized him. And when they came up out of the water, the spirit of the Lord carried Philip away. Pretty convincing that it was deep water that they entered into. And the most likely natural reading is so that it can immerse the whole body in the waters of baptism.

But more than that, think about the picture Paul gave us in Romans chapter 6. We read that earlier. I think that passage probably gives, in my opinion, one of the clearest illustrations of what baptism is and what is the mode that needs to be practiced. Buried with Christ in his death. in the waters of baptism and then raised into newness of life.

It's hard to see how that symbol can illustrate accurately what Paul is trying to say if you only sprinkle or pour some water on a person. Now as Reformed Baptists, we do believe in full immersion in baptism because we believe that this best fits the biblical description of baptism. But beloved, we need to be gracious towards our brothers and sisters in Christ who do not see eye to eye with us on this matter. Our discussions and our debates on baptism in general are very healthy only, only if done in love, with the intention to edify one another, not with the intention to win an argument. Because if that's our intention, it's best we walk away.

If we truly love our brothers and sisters and want to see them edified in truth, then we should engage in loving, gracious dialogue. Because we must never forget and we must never lose focus of the reality of baptism and what it really represents. That reality belongs to Christ and his finished work that he has accomplished for his church. And there are many in his church that differ to us in our view on baptism and we need to recognize that reality. We must remember this and we must be charitable towards our brothers and sisters because we haven't entered into the new covenant because we are smarter or because we are wiser than the rest.

As Christians, we've entered into the new covenant because the grace of God of which baptism signifies. Jesus died and rose from the dead so that in Him we would have newness of life. That's the Christian faith. To Him be all the glory. Amen.