As we turn again this evening to the instruction of our Heidelberg Catechism, I read from three passages, the first being just the verse of Genesis 17, verse 7. A text very familiar to you. It's in our baptism form, which we hear from time to time. Genesis 17, verse 7, and I will establish my covenant between me and thee, and thy seed after thee, in their generations, for an everlasting covenant, to be a God unto thee, and to thy seed after thee." Then we turn to Acts 2. And we read verses 38 and 39 of Acts 2. Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ, for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. For the promise is unto you and to your children, and to all that are far off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call. And now we turn to Romans chapter 9 and there we read the first 16 verses of Romans chapter 9. I say the truth in Christ, I lie not, my conscience also bearing me witness in the Holy Ghost, that I have great heaviness and continual sorrow in my heart. For I could wish that myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh, who are Israelites. to whom pertaineth the adoption, and the glory, and the covenants, and the giving of the law, and the service of God, and the promises, whose are the fathers, and of whom, as concerning the flesh, Christ came, who is over all, God blessed forever. Amen. Not as though the word of God hath taken none effect. For they are not all Israel, which are of Israel, neither because they are the seed of Abraham are they all children, but in Isaac shall thy seed be called. That is, they which are the children of the flesh, these are not the children of God, but the children of the promise are counted for the seed. For this is the word of promise. At this time will I come, and Sarah shall have a son. And not only this, but when Sarah also had conceived by one, even by our father Isaac, for the children being not yet born, neither having done any good or evil, that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works, but of him that calleth. It was said unto her, The elder shall serve the younger. As it is written, Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated. What shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness with God? God forbid. For he saith to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion. So then, it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth. but of God that showeth mercy." On the basis of those passages and the teachings of Scripture, we turn to Lord's Day 27 of our Heidelberg Catechism and questions and answers 72 through 74. Lord's Day 27 is then the external baptism with water, the washing away of sin itself. Not at all. For the blood of Jesus Christ only and the Holy Spirit cleanse us from all sin. Why then does the Holy Spirit call baptism the washing of regeneration and the washing away of sins? God speaks thus not without great cause. To wit. not only thereby to teach us that as the filth of the body is purged away by water, so our sins are removed by the blood and spirit of Jesus Christ, but especially that by this divine pledge and sign, He may assure us that we are spiritually cleansed from our sins as really as we are externally washed with water. are infants also to be baptized? Yes. For since they, as well as the adult, are included in the covenant and church of God, and since redemption from sin by the blood of Christ and the Holy Spirit, the author of faith, is promised to them no less than to the adult, they must therefore, by baptism, as a sign of the covenant, be also admitted into the Christian church, and be distinguished from the children of unbelievers, as was done in the Old Covenant or Testament, by circumcision, instead of which baptism is instituted in the New Covenant." Beloved in the Lord Jesus Christ, in Lourdes A. 26, The catechism began to treat baptism looking at the significance of baptism. And you saw that baptism is a sign of cleansing, spiritual cleansing that is being washed in the blood of Christ and of his spirit from the pollution of all our sin. By baptism, therefore, we are taken into God's covenant, something that can only be done by being made new, righteous in Christ. So that as circumcision was a sign and seal in the Old Testament of the righteousness which is by faith in Christ, and as such the sign of the covenant, So baptism in the New Testament bears the same significance. And because of that, it not only assures us of our salvation and of our life within God's loving embrace, but it marks us as separated unto God and impresses upon us the calling to live in holiness before the Lord. Today as we turn to the instruction of Lords 827, we continue our study of baptism from the viewpoint of what actually takes place in the sacrament of baptism, as well as examining more carefully the proper recipients of holy baptism. It's here, therefore, that we come before the Bible's teaching on the basis of which we present our children, even infants, to be baptized. So we consider this evening the sacrament of holy baptism, noticing, first of all, its spiritual operation, secondly, its proper recipients, and finally, its implied calling. In considering first of all the spiritual operation of holy baptism there is some overlap between the first two questions and answers of Lord's 827 and those of Lord's 826. As you have seen baptism is a sign of the covenant. Now there is no doctrine on which there has been more difference of opinion in reform circles than there is on the doctrine of the covenant. And that was impressed upon me many years ago when serving as a pastor in Grand Rapids, Michigan. I participated in several meetings with my Protestant Reformed colleagues and a number of those who would have been considered more conservative ministers of the broader Reformed community. They included ministers from the Christian Reformed Church, most of whom went at a later time to the newly formed United Reformed Churches. as well as a couple men from the Reformed Church of America, again no longer affiliated with the RCA for conscience sake, as well as Netherlands Reformed and a couple Independent Reformed pastors. Those meetings were not just social gatherings. but meetings to discuss our doctrinal differences and to attempt to demonstrate the solid foundation, the biblical foundation upon which our particular distinctives are established. In one of those meetings, the topic for discussion was the doctrine of the covenant. And I was aware of differences in the doctrine of the covenant, having come out of the Christian Reformed Church myself. But we Protestant Reformed ministers, united as we are in that doctrine of God's covenant, found ourselves in the position of observing while several of the various other ministers present went at it so to speak concerning their various views of the covenant. And particularly the men who were members of the Christian Reformed Church at that time demonstrated that among themselves there was no unity in the doctrine of the covenant. One man took one position, and another of the same denomination would say, that's not what I believe. And so the discussion went on, on such a critically important doctrine, which has such far-reaching significance in the church, not just doctrinally, but practically. And besides that prevalent view of the covenant as a contract or an agreement between God and men, there are those who take the position that the covenant is just the way in which God saves his people. It's a means to an end. And in that case, when the end is realized, the covenant shall be cast aside. There are others who confuse the doctrine of the covenant with God's promise. So they take the position that the covenant is God's promise of salvation open to all who will receive it. Well that of course is Pelagianism, Arminianism. Some of the Puritans adopted the idea of a halfway covenant. And that was to address the problem of church members who would not testify or could not testify of their personal salvation in Christ and yet wanted to present their children for baptism. So various churches took the position that an unregenerate person could make a statement of faith that didn't require personal regeneration, but simply acknowledge the truth of the Bible and pledge to live in union with the church. even though unsaved and halfway in the covenant, they then could present their children for baptism. The hope was that many of those half-members of the church would be exposed to teaching and to piety, which would lead to a conversion experience and then full membership in the church. Well, that's a major departure from the doctrine of church membership long established in Reformed church history, and therefore the doctrine of baptism, which is a sacrament belonging to believing parents and their children, with the term believing having been clearly defined as one of true faith, not historical faith. There is in Scripture no idea of entering halfway into covenant fellowship with God, nor of unbelievers being permitted to present their children for baptism. This error, in fact, became a major factor in the rejection of infant baptism by many Christians. So with so many different views concerning the covenant, it's critically important that we be reminded from Scripture what is the meaning of the covenant, which the sacrament of baptism is the sign and seal. What does it actually mean? When in Genesis 17 verse 7 God says, and I will establish my covenant between me and thee and thy seed after thee in their generations for an everlasting covenant And the answer is found in that very text as it goes on to define what is meant by the covenant. In these words, to be a God unto thee and to thy seed after thee. The covenant is found in God himself, the triune God. He's the God of relationship, if you will. And that gets us to the essence of the covenant. The covenant speaks of fellowship with God. A fellowship that has its foundation within God's own covenant life. As Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, God is a covenant God. He lives a life of pure fellowship and love within his own triune being in the three persons of the Trinity. That is his covenant life. But God has purpose to reveal his own covenant life in all its glory And when he does that to those of his good pleasure, he causes his own covenant life to embrace the person so that he or she becomes a member of God's family in Christ. And that's our life. only in Christ can you and I be brought into God's covenant. That's the sign of baptism, a sign of being taken into God's covenant. The wonder of that is expressed in Psalm 25 verse 14 where we read, the secret of the Lord is with them that fear him and he will show them his covenant. Where the picture there in the Hebrew language is that of God sitting on a love seat with the one whom he loves, telling his secrets to that person. That's defined as God showing them his covenant. That's why the idea of the covenant as an agreement or a contract or a promise or a way to an end doesn't fit that biblical concept. We have before us the spiritual reality of a most blessed relationship between God and His people in Christ. If we understand that essential nature of the covenant, then we will also understand the idea of baptism. By nature, we are born outside the covenant. as far apart from the life of God's fellowship as we can be. We're dead in trespasses and sins. And if we are to be brought into God's fellowship, the fellowship's own covenant life, we have to be separated from the organism of the human race and to be planted in that new organism of which Christ is the head. and I use that term organism purposely. There is, after all, an outward manifestation of God's family in this world, an outward manifestation of the Church of Jesus Christ. That's the church as we see it, in which we baptize all the children of believing parents. And it's from that point of view that the catechism comes with the question, is then the external baptism with water the washing away of sin itself? Now to you and to me that might seem like a rather silly question. We would say of course not. The mere sprinkling with water cannot change one's spiritual condition but don't forget the catechism is looking now at baptism as a means of grace and then it is taking into account the teaching of the Roman Catholic Church that as a sacrament baptism does have power to forgive sins and from that point of view the question is not so silly after all Because there are those in Reformed churches today who would look upon baptism as having such power so that all the children who are baptized are saved. And the question really isn't so far from us. Because you see, beloved, it is far easier to find our salvation in baptism or our place in the outward church than it is to be broken-hearted. It's far easier to be baptized than it is to take to ourselves by faith the essence of baptism, than it is to get down on our knees and repent. That's why there's so much externalism in the church, always. And the Bible warns us of such hypocrisy. The Bible warns us of it repeatedly. In the Old Testament, there were multitudes who said with pride, we are the children of Abraham. We are the circumcised. And Jesus smashed their hypocrisy and pride with the words, if ye were Abraham's children, ye would do the works of Abraham. John 8 verse 39. Baptism itself is a sign of the covenant. That covenant is not established with everyone who is baptized, not any more than it was established with every male child of Abraham that was circumcised. for with that unbreakable relationship with Jehovah that he establishes by taking us into his own covenant life is also the promise that he will be our God forever. The Apostle Paul in Romans 9 looked at all those who had fallen away and said It's necessary to face the question, does God's promise fail? And is the covenant that he established breakable? Can we cause it to fail? Is it so that God establishes His covenant with every child at baptism, but that it is possible and even likely that a child will fall away and thus make that relationship meaningless, even lost? And the answer is this, Romans 9, verses 6 through 8, not as though the word of God hath taken none effect. For they are not all Israel which are of Israel, neither because they are the seed of Abraham are they all children. But in Isaac shall thy seed be called, that is, they which are the children of the flesh, these are not the children of God, but the children of the promise are counted for the seed. so that the covenant is circumscribed by election. The children of the promise are not determined by the will of man, nor by the obedience of those who are marked by the sign of the covenant. They are counted for the seed according to sovereign election. as the following context in Romans 9 makes abundantly clear. God therefore gives baptism to the visible church as a sign of that which is invisible. That's why every sinner must be confronted by Christ's blood and spirit Because only in having our sins removed by the blood and spirit of Christ do we celebrate baptism every time a child is baptized. Because in baptism is not only the sign, but the seal of my entry into God's covenant of grace. And as surely as we enter the covenant, cleansed by Christ's blood, drawn by His Spirit, we surely more and more live in the joy of that covenant life, the joy of fellowship with our Redeemer, the ever-blessed triune God. That means also, people of God, you can't separate baptism from the Lord's Supper. Some are willing to be baptized, even present their children for baptism, but not willing themselves to come to the table of the Lord. They would claim life in God's covenant by baptism, but refuse to sit with Him at His table. That can only come about by a terribly misconstrued conception of God's covenant and of salvation, as I pointed out earlier, or a despising of his salvation, one or the other. You can't claim baptism, the sign of the covenant, and reject the sign of continued fellowship with God in the covenant. Lay hold, therefore, of the seal of baptism. lay hold of Christ's perfect work. That's what baptism testifies. So that the operation of baptism signifies to us, seals to us, that as surely as we are washed by water from the filth of the body, so our sins are removed by the blood and spirit of Christ. Yes, you must know your sins. The only way baptism touches me is that I'm truly sorry for my sins. But then baptism confirms the gospel proclaimed in the preaching that God has adopted us for His children and heirs, having incorporated us into the fellowship of Christ's death and resurrection, in order that I, by the Spirit, may live in the joy of fellowship with God. We have an eternal covenant of grace with God. That having been established, the catechism places us before the question, who are to be baptized? The proper recipients of the sacrament of baptism are said to be believers and their children, even infants. The reference, therefore, is to the church visible, and those who reject infant baptism say that children don't belong to the church. That's a terrible position. To view children as little unbelievers whom we must bring to true conversion? That's terrible. They are inconsistent in that. Because if a child dies, especially a young child, they want to insist that the child goes to heaven. regardless of whether that child belonged to believing parents or not. So somehow little unbelievers can go to heaven if they die, but they're not the members of the church and therefore can't be baptized until they make a credible confession of faith. The Church historically, including the Churches of the Reformation, have maintained that besides baptism being administered to all adult believers who have not previously been baptized, it must also be administered to the infant offspring of believers. That's true, as our Catechism explains, because those infants, as well as their parents, are included in the covenant and church of God and to them no less than to the adult is promised redemption from sin by the blood of Christ as well as the gift of the Holy Spirit the author of faith. We have seen that in the Old Testament the sign of the covenant, circumcision, has been now replaced by baptism. One sign of the covenant, essentially the same, takes two different forms, fitting with either the Old Testament or the New. And that's established especially, though not exclusively, in Colossians 2, verses 11 and 12. We've also seen that God establishes his covenant in the line of continued generations. That's not simply his promise, Genesis 17 verse 7, that's established in his continued work throughout the history of his church. The church is not just the gathering of individuals, it's the gathering of believers and their children. households as we read in the New Testament, even in the account of the mission labors of the Church in the book of Acts. We read from Acts 2 verses 38 and 39. Listen to that passage once again as Peter responds to those who having been pricked in their hearts by the Spirit through the preaching of the Apostle ask the question, men and brethren what shall we do Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ, for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. And now notice the connection. For the promise is unto you and to your children and to all that are far off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call." Notice that. The call to repent and be baptized presses upon us with the result that we receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. But the reason for that is because the promise which was given throughout the Old Testament and fulfilled in Jesus Christ is a promise to you and to your children, to all that are far off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call. And so Jesus had said in Mark 10 verse 14, as referred to in our baptism form, suffer the little children to come unto me and forbid them not for of such is the kingdom of God." The denial of infant baptism comes down to two perspectives. One, under the influence of Pelagianism, says that children, infants at least, don't need to be baptized because they're innocent. And I grant you If you say that infants are innocent, they don't need to be baptized. Those who are innocent have no need of a sign and seal of the cleansing of their sins. Because Jesus didn't come to save the righteous, but to bring sinners to repentance. But I trust you realize, people of God, and certainly you parents realize, those who teach the salvation of all children because of their claim that children are innocent, certainly don't have the teachings of Scripture behind them. And I wonder how they explain their own experience with their children. The Bible points to our children as those that are conceived and born in sin. An infant who dies in infancy is not saved merely because he's an infant. Your newborn child is born in the guilt of Adam and therefore is full of corruption. That's his very nature as a child, as an infant. And for that reason, a child must be saved. He must be saved by Christ. The other perspective, which would deny infant baptism, would hold that a child, a young child, cannot be saved because he's not yet able to believe. And if a child cannot be saved, cannot be baptized, If a child cannot partake of the gift of faith, if the Spirit cannot bring that child into union with Christ by the power of a living faith, that child can't be baptized. Baptism in such a case would be a pretense, a fake. But it simply is not true that a child cannot be saved if the promise is unto children. If the word of God's law is addressed to children as it is in the fifth commandment, then those children must belong to Christ. Delivered from the bondage of sin, they are members of God's covenant by virtue of their union with Christ and therefore they are saved and must be baptized. this position being taken, the question that always arises is this, are then all the children who are baptized saved? And the answer is no. Without question, no. And this is where the biblical presentation of the church as an organism is so critically important to our understanding. Think of how often the Holy Spirit, in the inspiration of Scripture, uses the figure of an organism to describe the church. A living organism, the vine and the branches, a tree, the body, an organism. This question comes to the foreground when we stand before the very factual presentation of our form for the administration of baptism used in reformed churches now for centuries. The form speaks in terms of our children being saved. In fact, in the prayer of thanksgiving, immediately following baptism, the form has us begin our prayer with these words, Almighty God and Merciful Father, we thank and praise Thee that Thou hast forgiven us and our children all our sins, through the blood of thy beloved Son Jesus Christ, and received us through thy Holy Spirit as members of thine only begotten Son, and adopted us to be thy children, and sealed and confirmed the same unto us by holy baptism." How are we to understand such a statement? How can you pray that petition? Some reformed churches have done away with that petition. Many seem to think there are only two possibilities. The one of which we are often accused is that of presupposed regeneration. Presuppose that all the children are saved. The other possibility By far the more common teaching in Reformed circles today is to say that in baptism, every child is given the objective right to God's promises, all the blessings of salvation, but there's a condition attached to those promises. whether the child continues in God's covenant of grace depends upon whether or not they are willing when they grow up to meet those conditions of faith and obedience. It was that teaching that entered our churches in the late 1940s and early 1950s. following the teachings of the liberated churches in the Netherlands, the covenant was erroneously defined in terms of a general conditional promise. And that was seen to be the solution to that factual statement in the prayer of thanksgiving of the baptism form in light of the fact that we know that not all children of believers are saved. And so some taught that all are taken into the covenant but all don't remain. All are taken into the covenant given all the promises and blessings of God but some fail to meet, to fulfill the conditions of the covenant. Thank God He preserved our churches from that error, even though through great grief. The basic error of both positions, that of presupposed regeneration and a conditional view of the covenant, is that both attempt to say something about the salvation of all children of believers. presupposed regeneration must be rejected because it's contrary to the teachings of Scripture and our Reformed creeds which teach that God's sovereign predestination cuts right through the generations of believers. Therefore, not all are nor shall be regenerated. We cannot presume What the Bible teaches is false. But the conditional view of the covenant also is rejected by Scripture's teaching. A person's place in the covenant of grace is not dependent on his or her will, nor fulfilling a condition of faith, nor of obedience. To teach that, if consistently maintained, is to fall into the errors of Pelagianism and Arminianism. Our place in the covenant is dependent upon sovereign election and upon the sovereignty of God's work of grace in uniting us to Christ by the living bond of faith and by the author of faith accomplishing his work in us. But both those errors fail to grasp the Bible's presentation throughout. Israel and the church is viewed organically, never individualistically. So when you view the church organically, If we view the church as that tree, for example, we stand before the church and we see this glorious tree. And we come up underneath that tree and we look up and we see that tree is loaded with dead branches. Do we then step back and say, that's not a tree? Of course not. We view that tree as the organism that it is. We don't define the tree by the dead branches. We don't define the church by the ungodly element that might be in the church. We define the church by Christ's beautiful work. We see the glory of Christ's body, the beauty of his bride. There are branches in the vine that don't bear fruit and must be cut out. And the reference is not to a falling away of the saints, but rather that in the organism of the church, there are reprobate generations that bear no fruit and are cut off. doesn't make the church any less the church. The church is Christ's church, regardless of the reprobate seed that are mingled in with the true seed at the present time. That church, organically considered, is partaker of God's covenant life sanctified in Christ, children included, and therefore marked by the sign of the covenant by the ordinance of God. Always God looks at the whole organism from the viewpoint of his own purpose in Christ, which is the salvation of his elect heirs. With those truths in mind, We can also understand the implied calling that is established in holy baptism. Living in the faith that God established in covenant in the line of continued generations, we rejoice in the church's children. Subject to the perfect will of God and within the institution of holy marriage, We look to bring forth the covenant seed. God has his way and his purpose in those who cannot bear children. And we don't question the wisdom of God in that way, but we realize with Psalm 127 that children are an heritage of the Lord and the fruit of the womb is his reward. And that's why to murder our children before they are even born is incomprehensible. But when we truly understand the place of children in the church, we won't fight God's will to bear those children either, preventing their birth for our own selfish and carnal motives. in addition rejoicing in the church's children, we promise and we labor to bring up those children in the fear of the Lord and the truth of His Word. It is the truth of the organic development of the church and the covenant established by God in the line of continued generation that compels the church to ask the question of parents presenting their children for baptism, do you promise and intend to see these children when come to years of discretion instructed and brought up in the aforesaid doctrine or help or cause them to be instructed therein to the utmost of your power? The covenant and our calling within the covenant is the basis for all Christian education in home, in church, in schools. Faithfulness to God in this demand to lead our children in the way of his truth is the way in which he is pleased to gather and preserve the church's children. And finally, besides our rejoicing in the Church's children and embracing them in faithfulness to our calling, there is also this calling implied in our baptism, we must lay hold of the significance of our baptism. Everyone who is baptized grows up taking a stand with regard to that baptism. We either embrace the significance of that baptism or we despise it. We are either captivated by it as a means of grace or we are hardened by it. Because remember, just as with the preaching of the gospel, so with the sacraments there's always a two-fold effect in them that believe and in them that perish. You either say, yes, I'm washed with the blood of Christ from all my sins, or you have no regard for your sins and the necessary cleansing of those sins before God. You either say, I trust Him and love Him with all my heart, or showing that the love of God is not in your heart, and being so caught up with the love for your earthly treasures and pleasures, you have no room for living and loving Christ. You either crucify your old nature, fighting against that old man of sin and grieving your shortcomings, or you love your sin, though the pleasures of it be for a moment. You either confess the name of him who bought you with his precious blood, or you deny him. And confessing his name, you also will live in his fellowship, coming to the Lord's table, as we shall see in our continued study of the sacraments the Lord willing. So in all these things, We who are received into fellowship with God show ourselves distinguished from the world to the glory of our Redeemer. To Him be the praise. Amen. Gracious Father, we give thanks to Thee for the sacrament of holy baptism. but more especially for what baptism signifies and seals to us and our children. Grant, Father, that we may live in the true knowledge of the wonder of our salvation as signified and sealed in the sacrament. and live to Thy name's honor and glory, for Jesus' sake, amen.