Please turn with me in your Bibles to, once again, two passages. These are going to be Romans 6, verses 1-11 and Acts 2, verses 36-41. No, that's the reverse order they appear in the scriptures, but there's a method to my madness. There's a reason I'm going to read them in that order. For those following along in one of our pew bibles, these passages can be found first on page 1130 and then page 1089. So 1130 for the Romans passage, 1089 for the Acts passage. Last week, I gave an introduction to our understanding of sacraments. A Christian sacrament is a sacred sign and seal of the new covenant of grace in which the believer spiritually participates in Christ and His benefits. And for this reason, we say there is a sacramental union between the sign and the thing signified, such that one can be used interchangeably with the other. Nevertheless, there remains a true distinction between the sign and the thing signified, such that the efficacy of the sacrament does not merely depend upon our outward fleshly use of the elements, but upon the work of the Spirit, communicating its benefits to those who partake of it in true faith." And with those things in mind, we turn to the first of the two sacraments of the church, which is the sacrament of holy baptism. And so, with that, please stand with me now, if you are able, in reverence for the reading of the God-breathed Word. Again, Romans 6, 1-11, and then flipping back to Acts 2, verses 36-41. Hear the word of the Lord. What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin so that grace may increase? May it never be. How shall we who died to sin still live in it? Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death? Therefore, we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life. For if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, Certainly, we shall also be in the likeness of His resurrection, knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin. For he who has died is freed from sin." If we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him, knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, is never to die again. Death no longer is master over him. For the death that he died, he died to sin once for all. But the life that he lives, he lives to God. Even so, consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus. And now flipping back to our passage in Acts 2. Again, this is Acts 2. verses 36 through 41. We're picking up at the very tail end of Peter's sermon at Pentecost. And Peter says, Therefore let all the house of Israel know for certain that God has made Him, that is, Jesus, both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified. Now when they heard this, they were pierced to the heart and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, Brethren, what shall we do? Peter said to them, repent, and each of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off, as many as the Lord our God will call to himself. And with many other words, he solemnly testified and kept on exhorting them, saying, be saved from this perverse generation. So then those who had received his word were baptized. And that day there were added about 3,000 souls. Let's pray. Our Father, we come to you in the name of our Lord Jesus. And we pray now that you would help us as we approach We thank you for this God-breathed word, but we pray now that you would give us a right understanding of this God-breathed revelation. And we know that that will only happen if it is attended by the Holy Spirit. And so, by your Spirit, guide us into the truth. Grow us in a closer relationship with you. Grow us into Christ-likeness. Help us more and more to put to death the body of sin. Guard our hearts from anything false. Guard my mouth from speaking anything false. We trust you with all of these things. We trust that you will be glorified and that your saints will be edified by what follows. We pray all of this in the name of our Lord Jesus. Amen. You may be seated. Well, it may be helpful to begin at the beginning. The English word baptize is derived from the Greek baptizo. Thayer's Greek lexicon offers three primary definitions for this term. Number one, properly, to dip repeatedly, to immerse, submerge. Number two, to cleanse by dipping or submerging, to wash, to make clean with water. And three, metaphorically, to overwhelm. And so if we take these together, what we come away with is this. Baptism is properly, or literally, to immerse, and metaphorically, or figuratively speaking, to overwhelm. It would be something like, say, he was overcome with emotion. Okay, there wasn't literally some physical force, emotion that overcame him, right? We're speaking metaphorically when we say things like that. Well, same thing. It can mean, this word, baptizo, can metaphorically mean to be overcome or overwhelmed. And so what we see then is this. To baptize is to immerse. That's what it means. And this is why we believe and teach that the proper mode of baptism is immersion. Because words have meaning. And those meanings matter. If we do away with the meaning of words, then we do away with language and everything falls apart. Words have meaning. And that's why we stick with those meanings. To baptize is to immerse. And there is little debate on this point. Even a paedo-baptist as renowned as John Calvin himself admitted, quote, it is evident that the term baptized means to immerse and that this was the form used by the primitive church, end quote. Now, of course, Calvin would make the argument that that doesn't necessarily lock us in to having to use immersion. He would argue that pouring and sprinkling and so on and so forth would be valid forms of baptism. And on what basis? I don't think he has any sort of real firm foundation to make such claims because by that admission, he did away with it. Words have meaning. Now, baptism as a religious rite arose in the intertestamental period. So, we look in the Septuagint, the Greek Old Testament, the word baptizo appears, but generally speaking, it's not talking about a religious rite. It's just literally talking about submerging something in water or some other liquid. So, baptism as a religious rite arose in the intertestamental period between the end of the Old Testament and the beginning of the New Testament narrative. As R.C. Sproul rightly asserted, quote, the ritual of proselyte baptism emerged in the intertestamental period. If a Gentile desired membership in the household of Israel, he needed to do three things. He had to embrace the truth of Judaism, get this, to make a profession of faith, as it were. Second, he had to undergo the rite of circumcision, the initiatory sign of the Old Covenant. Third, being an unclean Gentile, He had to go through a ritual purification, a baptismal cleansing rite. This baptism was only for Gentiles, not for Jews." In other words, it was for Gentiles wanting to convert to Judaism, but not physical descendants of Abraham. Not natural branches, to use an analogy. these were being grafted in. And so part of the grafting in process is, of course, you've got to believe the content, you've got to receive the initiatory sign of the covenant, which at that time was circumcision, and you've got to go through this additional thing to cleanse you of your dirtiness. Because, you know, by virtue of being a Gentile, you're dirty, you're ceremonially unclean. So you have to be ceremonially cleansed to be rightly considered a part of the covenant community. And that is why the baptism of John the Baptist was so offensive to many Jews, especially to the religious elites, such as the Sadducees, the Pharisees, the Scribes, all of those, right? As Sproul further explained, quote, John the Baptist's ritual was radical in that he called Jews to take the ritual bath. He said to them, in effect, you are dirty and as unclean in the sight of God as Gentiles who are strangers to the covenant and to the commonwealth of Israel. If you are going to be ready to meet your king, you need to take a bath, end quote. For this reason, the New Testament refers to John's baptism as a baptism of repentance, for repentance. It was meant to prepare the Jewish nation for the coming of Messiah. So, it is not identical with Christian baptism, which was instituted by the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. There is certainly a relation between the two, but there's not an identification between the two. There's a difference. John's baptism was a preparatory rite which anticipated the coming of Christ and His new covenant. John's baptism properly belongs to the old covenant dispensation. Christian baptism is a sign and seal of that new covenant in Christ's blood. As such, baptism signifies and seals several things. This is a sacrament. Sign and seal of a covenant. First and foremost, it signifies primarily to the believer, and secondarily to the world, the believer's union with Christ. particularly in His death and resurrection. This is taught most clearly in the passage I read to you from Romans, Romans 6, 1-11. We have been buried with Him through baptism into death. so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life. For if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall also be in the likeness of His resurrection." It also speaks of us being baptized, not just with Christ. In verse 3, those of us who have been baptized into Christ, And that's what's actually spoken of if you, I haven't read it, but if you go back to the Great Commission in Matthew 28, we are to be baptized into the triune name. There's a subsuming, there's a submerging and immersion, if you will, into that name, the name that you're being baptized into. Now, this participation is a real spiritual participation in the death and resurrection of Christ. We do not literally physically die as Christ did in baptism, nor do we physically resurrect from death as Christ did when we are baptized. Yet, The outward sign signifies a true spiritual participation in Christ's death and resurrection, which will culminate in us literally, physically rising from the dead when He returns. It is signifying, outwardly signifying, what is an inward reality, an inward spiritual reality. So it is real, it is not merely a symbol. Certainly it is a symbol, but it's more. Moreover, this union with Christ requires His covenantal headship over the believer. Now, I'm not gonna read it, but the context of Romans 6 is Romans 5, verses 12 through 21, in which Paul describes salvation in terms of being transferred from the headship of fallen Adam to that of the righteous, the perfectly righteous one, the Lord Jesus Christ. I encourage you to go back and read that later. For the sake of time, I'm not gonna read it right now, for later, again, Romans 5, 12 through 21. Those in Adam inherit sin, condemnation, and death. But those in Christ receive justification unto eternal life. And remember, eternal life, what is eternal life? How did Jesus define it? Eternal life is to know the only true God, the Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ. And that is not to intellectually know, that is to relationally know, that is to be in communion with them, or, to continue the analogy of baptism, that is to be immersed in them. To be immersed in the Father, immersed in the Son, and even immersed in the Spirit. The old man, who was under the headship of Adam, dies. Again, we don't physically die in baptism, but there is a death, a real, true death. He dies with Christ, spiritually, and is raised with Him in newness of life. We enjoy resurrection life now. Something of a first fruits of it, certainly. Certainly there's a now but not yet component to it. We're not experiencing it in its fullness because we still deal with our fallen flesh, but the new man is here. Regeneration has taken place. A new man is there, and a new man with a new nature, a nature which desires the things of God. As Paul explained in another place, for as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all will be made alive. And just as we have borne the image of the earthy, that is, Adam, just as we have borne the image of Adam, we will also bear the image of the heavenly, that is, Christ. Baptism signifies this transfer from the headship of Adam to the headship of Christ, and all of the benefits that come from that transfer of headship. And for this reason, we consider it to be the sacrament of entrance into the covenant community, which is concentrated in the local church. It is God's seal placed upon the believer to mark him out as belonging to God. And for this reason, we may think of baptism as an individual sacrament. And what do I mean by that? I'm not saying that it's completely separated from the church. When I say that, what do I mean by that? An individual sacrament in the sense that when we have a baptism, we don't all come up here and get baptized every time, right? No, the individual is baptized once and that is all, right? Now we may have multiple individuals be baptized at the same time, that can happen. Or we can just have one individual baptized at a time because it is an individual sacrament. It is God placing his seal upon this individual. This one is mine. This is an individual covenant transaction, or covenant ceremony, if you will. The way that Dr. Sam Waldron has put it, and I'm paraphrasing this, I should have grabbed the entire quote, but I'm paraphrasing this, what the body is to the soul, baptism is to our faith. The soul is faith. the inward component. The body is the water, the outward component. But these two must go together. So, for this reason, the New Testament knows nothing, nothing of the concept of an unbaptized disciple of Christ, an unbaptized member of the covenant community. Faith, regeneration, and all of the things signified by baptism are so intricately connected with baptism that it is assumed if the inward reality is there, the outward reality was applied. Now, closely related to our union with Christ is that believers receive the promised gift of the Holy Spirit in regeneration. that was alluded to in the passage in Acts, be baptized for the forgiveness of sins, right? Baptism signifies the believer's regeneration or his being born again or born from above. Regeneration means The Spirit comes to renew and indwell our hearts such that we love and trust God in Christ. It is the replacing of the old man with a new man. And these are diametrically opposed. The old man is an Adam. He is a member of the covenant that is now a covenant of death. The new man in Christ is now in a covenant of life, eternal life. Moreover, the Holy Spirit that we receive, once we are regenerated, He indwells us and He guides us and He makes intercession for us with groanings too deep for words when we offer up our pitiful excuse for prayers. And, He progressively sanctifies us, such that we are more and more conformed to the image of Christ over time, until we reach the final state, which is that of glorification. And then, what we are positionally becomes completely true practically. Shall we say, accomplished practically. Second, baptism signifies the remission of sins. That is why Paul described it in terms of washing away sins. And he described it as the washing of regeneration. It's why Peter spoke of baptism as being for the forgiveness of your sins. In fact, under divine inspiration, Peter boldly declared, baptism now saves you. But then he goes on to explain what he means by that, not as the removal of dirt from the flesh, but an appeal to God for a good conscience through the resurrection of Jesus Christ. In other words, the removal of dirt from the flesh, that is the outward washing, signifies the removal of the pollution of sin from the heart. Okay? Now, again, There is a sacramental union which makes it appropriate for us to speak of the things signified in place of the sign, and the sign in place of the things signified. They're that closely connected. But we need to be very careful that we don't fall into what has become an incredibly common error, that we do not fall into the error of believing that baptism is the cause of regeneration. We do not affirm the doctrine of baptismal regeneration. Rather, we say that baptism is the sign, the covenant sign and seal of our regeneration. And so, chronologically speaking, regeneration would come first and baptism would come second. But in baptismal regeneration, then we would have to say, chronologically speaking, either baptism comes first and then regeneration, or perhaps we could say they're simultaneous. Regeneration occurs at the same moment as baptism. But that's not the biblical doctrine. The removal of sin necessarily signals the believer's newfound righteousness in Christ. So, there's negatively a removal of sin, positively an infusion of righteousness. And not only an infusion, an imputation of righteousness. This is true both in terms of positional righteousness, imputation, and practical righteousness, infusion. Positionally, we are justified before God because we are in Christ. Christ is the propitiation for our sin that satisfies the just wrath of God against our sin, and Christ is our righteousness. And so by imputation, double imputation, our sin is punished on Christ's cross, and Christ's righteousness is imputed to us such that we are able to enter heaven on the basis of His righteousness alone. We are judged as if we were Christ, in other words. And this is because we've been immersed in Him. So that's imputation. However, this positional righteousness, which is ours through imputation, progressively leads to practical righteousness or holiness, which I have described as the infusion of righteousness. In other words, we progressively put the sin in our members to death by the Spirit. Very key component there. We're not doing this on our own. This is the work of the Spirit in us. We are putting the sin in our members to death by the Spirit, and He, the Holy Spirit, conforms us to the image of Christ. So this practical righteousness that I'm speaking of, are we doing it? In a sense, yes. But are we doing it in such a way that we can take credit for it, and in any sense boast about it? No. Because without the work of the Spirit in our hearts, it wouldn't happen. As I read a few moments ago, even so, consider yourselves to be dead to sin. That's something practical. Be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus. That's resurrection life, righteous living in Christ. Now, having defined baptism, having spoken of what it signifies, we come to Acts chapter 2. The first thing to note in the context is the context in which it speaks of baptism. Baptism is not the main point of this text, I want to be very clear, but it does tell us something about baptism. The context for baptism in this passage, and I would even argue in every passage in which it is mentioned in the New Testament, the context of baptism is the proclamation of the Gospel. Remember, A sacrament is a non-verbal way of communicating the content of the gospel, which is another way of saying it is a non-verbal way of communicating Christ and His benefits. And so, it is appropriate that the non-verbal proclamation be accompanied by the verbal proclamation. Now in this context, Peter railed against the sinful treachery of the Jews in putting Christ to death. But he did not merely rail against their sin. He didn't excuse it, but he didn't stop there. He told them the good news that Christ had risen from the dead, and that He had ascended to the Father, and that He's currently reigning. And I would even add, He's also making intercession as our High Priest. And He's continuing to declare God's Word as Prophet through His Spirit. But Peter told the Jews the good news that Christ had risen from the dead and ascended to the Father. And the Jews who were listening to Peter believed his message. And then they inquired what they were to do in response. Because they knew apart from some radical, miraculous, saving act of God, they were guilty of the worst crime imaginable. They put to death the prince of life. Peter explained. that there was something to be done about this. Salvation was in their grasp. He explained that they must repent, that is, turn away from their sin, turn back to the God that they betrayed. Turn from their sin and be baptized into Christ for the forgiveness of sins so that they may receive the promised Holy Spirit See how these things are so closely attached. Baptism for the forgiveness of sin and reception of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is the agent of regeneration, right? And regeneration, what does regeneration create? Faith. All these things put really close together now in this one verse. So, repent. Step number one, repent. which we may consider to be the other side of faith, because you're not going to repent if you don't have a faith, a prior faith, logically. Chronologically that can be simultaneous, but logically faith must precede regeneration. So you have a faith, then you have repentance, then you have baptism for the forgiveness of sins and reception of the Holy Spirit. This promise of the Holy Spirit is for as many as the Lord calls to Himself by faith. In other words, the only proper candidates for baptism are believers. Because only those who are called believe. But it's only those who are called that are said to have this promise. The promise is to those called. Full stop. The end. This follows both from the fact of what baptism is and from the explicit teaching of the rest of the New Testament. If baptism is a sign and seal of our covenantal union with and participation in Christ by faith, Such union with Christ is only achieved by faith. If that's the case, then it follows that only those joined to Christ by faith should receive the sign and seal of the covenant. Now, our Reformed Pedobaptist brethren may object at this point by pointing out that the text says that the promise is for you and your children. This is one of the go-to texts for them when they're trying to give a biblical rationale for their practice of baptizing their infants. They root their understanding of New Covenant membership in the Old Covenant, and then they plop it down right here, in the context of the New, as Louis Burkhoff, who was himself a Reformed Paedo-Baptist, as Louis Burkhoff wrote, quote, up to the time of Abraham, there was no formal establishment of the covenant of grace. The establishment of the covenant with Abraham marked the beginning of the institutional church. Burkhoff continues, this covenant, that is the Abrahamic covenant, is still in force. and is, listen to this language, essentially identical. So let me reverse this just to make sure we get the meaning across. It's identical in its essence. Essentially identical with the new covenant of the present dispensation, end quote. The Abrahamic covenant was made with Abraham and his offspring. God told Abraham, this is my covenant, which you shall keep. between me and you and your descendants after you, so Abraham and his children, every male among you shall be circumcised. And of course, that was the sign of that covenant. So the argument goes that since the children of believers received the covenant sign of faith in the Abrahamic covenant, that is circumcision, and the Abrahamic covenant is identical in essence to the new covenant, Therefore, the children of believers should receive the covenant sign of faith in the new covenant, that is, baptism as well. Pretty airtight logic as far as the logic of it goes. The sign is received in respect to the faith and covenant standing of the child's believing parent or parents. just as Abraham's descendants would have been circumcised based on his faith and the faith of their fathers. And this is because, as the text says, the promise is to you and your children. Here's the problem with this airtight logical argument, though. There's no biblical basis for this interpretation. Scripture does not equate the Abrahamic Covenant with the New Covenant. That's the problem here. There is an assumption that is made with no biblical justification. If the Abrahamic Covenant is essentially the same, then fine, they're right. But it's not. The Abrahamic Covenant was part of the Old Covenant. Okay? So you have the Abrahamic Covenant, which creates a people, a kingdom. You have the Sinaitic Covenant being added to it. The Abrahamic Covenant doesn't go away because of the Sinaitic Covenant. You have the Sinaitic Covenant that is added to it, giving it a law. And then you have the Davidic Covenant coming behind that, which gives it a covenant head and king. These three come together to form the Old Covenant. Okay? So the Abrahamic covenant is the old covenant. But scripture explicitly says that the new covenant is not like the old. Meaning, there is not an essential identity because if it's not like the old, it can't be the same. Words have meaning. Scripture says this, God, speaking of this new covenant, He says, But this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord. I will put my law within them, and on their heart I will write it, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. They will not teach again each man his neighbor, and each man his brother, saying, Know the Lord, for they will all know me. from the least of them to the greatest of them, declares the Lord, for I will forgive their iniquity and their sin I will remember no more. That's from Jeremiah 31, if you want to go read it. Interestingly, this corresponds with what we read in Peter's sermon at Pentecost. Peter told those who believed to repent and be baptized for what? For the forgiveness of sins. Only those who had received His Word were baptized. Verse what? 41. Yes, those who had received His Word were baptized. Okay, so those who had received His Word were those who were joined to Christ by faith, which means all of them Knew the Lord. Relationally. Not just intellectually. Relationally. It's an intimate sort of knowing. Sort of analogous to Adam knew his wife Eve and she conceived. The most intimate sort of knowing. Moreover, the promise Peter mentioned in verse 39 was the Holy Spirit. Now most of our Reformed Pedobaptist brethren would not be willing to say that their unbelieving children have received the Holy Spirit. But this is a blessed inconsistency on their part because that is the thing being promised to the children of believers in Acts 2.39. And that makes sense when we read all of verse 39 instead of stopping halfway through like they're doing. The promise is for you and your children. That's not where the verse stops. And for all who are far off, the Gentiles, as many as the Lord our God will call to himself. In other words, the promise is for those the Lord calls to himself by faith. And that faith itself is a gift of God, a result of the Spirit's monergistic work. That means working alone. We contribute nothing to it. His monergistic work of regeneration, new birth. We contribute just as much to the new birth as we did to the first birth. We were there. That was it. We were acted upon. At no point were we active. Now, just think about this for a minute. Surely, not all those who were listening to Peter's sermon were called and believed. And surely, not all the children of those listening to Peter's sermon were among the called who believed. And certainly, no Orthodox Christian would dare claim that all who are far off, that is, all the Gentiles, are called and believe. To affirm that each of these categories were all-inclusive would require us to affirm universalism. Because you, the Jews, your children, also Jews, and all who are far off, Gentiles. Yep, that covers everybody. So, if everyone in all three of these categories receives the promised Holy Spirit, then we must affirm Universalism. And Scripture clearly denies this. There are warnings of judgment. There are declarations that it will come to those who are not among God's elect. No, the final clause of the verse makes it clear that the promise was only for a fraction within each group. Now perhaps it was a high fraction. I happen to think, especially with regard to the last two categories, the children of those Jews, so that would be their descendants all the way through the ages, and then also those who are far off, so Jews and Gentiles in the modern day and moving forward, I happen to think that it will be a high percentage, but it's still not A thousand, we're not batting a thousand, okay? There's still some who will be lost. It was only for those whom the Lord would call to Himself by faith. That is, the promise was only for those the Lord would call to Himself by faith. And consequently, only those who responded in faith were baptized that day, as we've already seen. Now, in case this isn't already clear, the outward element to be used in this sacrament is water. We're speaking of water baptism when we speak of Christian baptism. The believer is to be immersed into the triune name of the Father, Son, and Spirit, indicating his total surrender to God and God's marking out of the believer as one of His people. This should be the normative, baptismal practice of the Church of Jesus Christ, that is, each local church. Nevertheless, we should acknowledge and allow for alternative modes when there are extenuating circumstances. For example, there are people with medical conditions which make immersion impossible. Are we therefore to deny them baptism? I think not. I think not. Pouring or sprinkling is permissible in such a case as this. But we should not take the extreme case like that and then try to change the norm. This should be an exception to what is normative. It shouldn't become normative just because there are these exceptions. In fact, our confession of faith even allows for such exceptions while upholding the norm. Listen to the way our confession says the mode is to be administered. Immersion or dipping of the person in water is necessary to the due administration of this ordinance. Okay? It should be normative, but there are Circumstances where it's permissible to do it otherwise. Now, the efficacy of baptism depends on the presence, or lack thereof, of the inward reality of the outward sign. And the efficacy of baptism is a work of the Spirit, communicating its benefits to those who partake of it in true faith. Baptism is a sign of regeneration that is efficacious to the regenerate. It is a sign of faith which is efficacious to the believer. However, the mere application of water to the body, apart from saving faith, apart from the regeneration that produces saving faith, this is not efficacious. In fact, it's not even properly to be considered a Christian baptism at all. Because apart from the inward reality, you're just taking a bath. You're just getting wet. You might as well go for a swim. That's all you're doing. For baptism to be efficacious, the thing the sign signifies must be truly present. So in closing, I want to kind of just bring all this together in a summary form. I've talked about a good bit of things. Perhaps it would be better if I could condense it down for you into a nice little package. So this is my attempt to do that. Baptism is the sacrament of entrance into the covenant community. Let me pause right here before I continue with this summary, because I just need to note this This is gonna be important next week. This is the sign of entrance into the covenant community. So it is necessary for you to have it if you are going to then take the sign of continuance in that covenant, because you can't continue in a covenant you never entered in the first place. So that's why when I give the warning when we do the supper, I will say, if someone is a baptized believer, because baptism is necessary for the proper administration of the supper. But that's for next week, so I'll stop right there for right now. So, baptism is the sacrament of entrance into the covenant community. And for this reason, it is only to be administered to the believer once. since those who are truly members in that covenant are guaranteed perseverance in it. You can't go in and out of this covenant. Once you're in, you're in. The proper element to be used in the administration of the sacrament is water. The believer is to be immersed in the water into the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit to signify his surrender and obedience to God as his master and Lord. Baptism is a sign and seal of the New Covenant. It signifies and seals the believer's regeneration and reception of the Holy Spirit, his mystical and covenantal union with Christ, Christ's possession and headship over the believer, the remission of the believer's sins in Christ, and the moral purification of the believer in Christ. As Dr. Sam Waldron observes, quote, baptism literally means to immerse and figuratively means to overwhelm. Baptism points to our being completely and spiritually immersed into Christ and overwhelmed by His Spirit." As a sacrament of the New Covenant, it is to be administered only to New Covenant members, which are none other than those joined to Christ by faith. In this sacrament, The believer spiritually participates in and receives Christ. That is the object of all sacraments, Christ. Only when there is a true sacramental union, that is only when the thing signified in baptism is present with the sign of baptism, is it efficacious for the one being baptized. And yet we can rest assured that for the true believer, baptism is always efficacious. Christ and his benefits are in fact received. Let's pray. Our Father and our God, we come to you in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ as those who are baptized into him. We thank you for this sacrament, which assures us of our covenant standing, of our not only covenantal union, but even mystical union with him, our participation in Christ, the new life that we have in him, the death of the old man, the remission of sins, all of the things we've talked about. We're thankful for this sacrament, which speaks these things to us in nonverbal form. And we pray. that we would look back to our baptism when we have doubts, that we would look back to our baptism and be reassured that we are in Christ. We pray for those who have not received this sign and seal of the New Covenant that if they have come to a place of true, genuine repentance and faith in Jesus Christ that they would seek this out. We certainly pray that we would see more and more baptisms here at South Baptist Church. And we are thankful for the ones that we have seen recently. And we pray all this in the name of our Lord Jesus. Amen. If you would please stand.