living God will endure forever. So the people of God strive to hear and to heed that word faithfully together. Let's do that now from Hebrews 10. For since the law had but a shadow of the good things to come instead of the true form of these realities, it can never, by the same sacrifices that are continually offered every year, make perfect those who draw near. Otherwise, would they not have ceased to be offered since the worshipers, having once been cleansed, would no longer have any consciousness of sin. But in these sacrifices there is a reminder of sins every year, for it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins. Consequently, when Christ came into the world, he said, sacrifices and offerings you have not desired, but a body you have prepared for me. In burnt offerings and sin offerings you have taken no pleasure. Then I said, behold, I have come to do your will, O God, as it is written of me in the scroll of the book. When he said above, you had neither desired nor taken pleasure in sacrifices and offerings, and burnt offerings and sin offerings, these are offered according to the law. Then he added, behold, I have come to do your will. He does away with the first in order to establish the second. And by that, we will have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. And every priest stands daily at his service, offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God, waiting from that time until his enemies should be made a footstool for his feet, for by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified. And the Holy Spirit also bears witness to us, for after saying, this is the covenant that I will make with them, after those days, declares the Lord, I will put my laws on their minds and write them put my laws on their hearts and write them on their minds. Then he adds, I will remember their sins and their lawless deeds no more. Where there is forgiveness of these, there is no longer any offering for sin. Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way that he has opened for us through the curtain that is through his flesh, and since we have a great high priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart and full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold fast confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful. And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the day drawing near. For if we go on sinning deliberately, after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins. but a fearful expectation of judgment and a fury of fire that will consume the adversaries. Anyone who has set aside the law of Moses dies without mercy on the evidence of two or three witnesses. How much more punishment do you think will be deserved by the one who has trampled underfoot the son of God? and has profaned the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and has outraged the spirit of grace. For we know him who said, vengeance is mine, I will repay, and again, the Lord will judge his people. It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. Thus far, the reading of the word of God, please be seated. And let's pray. Our great God in heaven, we confess that all flesh truly is as grass. The wind blows over the flower of the field and it fades away, but your word shall endure forever. And so as your people, now we cling to it. And we ask that your Holy Spirit would open our eyes that we might see Jesus, the hope of our calling, even the promise that is made to us in our baptism. And help us, O Lord, now to walk by faith and not by sight. In Jesus name we pray, amen. So I imagine you're probably wondering at this point, what on earth does that text have to do with baptism? And how on earth is he gonna squeeze infant baptism out of Hebrews chapter 10? It's a very fair question. And I'll give you a little backdrop as we come into it. You should know, as you heard perhaps yesterday, I did not grow up in a Christian home, I did not grow up Presbyterian, and I did not grow up Baptist. I did, however, go to a Baptist Bible college. I married the president's daughter of my Baptist Bible college, which was like marrying into the Baptist mafia. And needless to say, when I decided to go to a reformed seminary, that did not go so well. And the day I came home and told my wife that I was convinced of Calvinism, she said, that's great. We're not having children. And it got only worse from there when I became convinced of things like Presbyterian church government, which include your version of the same, and infant baptism, which absolutely baffled my wife at first, baffled my in-laws as well, and in some ways baffled me. And if you're wondering what text was it that really persuaded me of infant baptism, believe it or not, it was the end of Hebrews 10 that we just read, verses 26 through 21. And as I was reading that, if you were paying attention carefully, I wonder if you got a little nervous. It's a scary text. Hebrews 10, 26 through 31, where people here are described as being sanctified. And then those people who are described as being sanctified are also described as those that become the enemies of God and experience his judgment. And so the question becomes, in many ways who is being described here. in Hebrews 10, 26 through 31, that have fallen away and experienced the vengeance of God. We're gonna talk about that. I actually have an outline. It's not the one in your bulletin, but I'm gonna talk about three things, the meaning of baptism, the mode of baptism, and finally, the membership of baptism. That's a little bit of a stretch, but the question of who ought to be baptized we'll get to last. So focus your attention again on Hebrews 10 verses 26 through 31. This is one of the two great, they're nicknamed terror texts of the book of Hebrews. And they're called that, Hebrews 10 and Hebrews 6, because in both Hebrews 10 and Hebrews 6, it sounds like Christians are going to hell. It sounds like people who have made professions of faith are gonna end up experiencing the wrath and judgment of God. And so a lot of ink has been spilled, a lot of work has been done attempting to answer this question, who is being referred to in Hebrews chapter six? where those of whom all these great things are said fall away and have no sacrifice available to them. And here in chapter 10, who did come down to the end of it, for we know him who said, vengeance is mine. I will repay and pay careful attention. And again, the Lord will judge his people, not his enemies, his people. And then climactically, It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of a living God. So I was really afraid of this text as a young Christian. And it's rightly been nicknamed one of the two terror texts of the book of Hebrews, because you read it and could easily come to the conclusion, Christians can lose their salvation. That's kind of what it sounds like. Earlier in that same section, these are people who are described as sanctified. What does that mean? Do I have your attention? This is a little bit of an unnerving text, isn't it? And the options are this, okay? One option is to say that real Christians are being described here that fall away and are lost. Another option is to say that these are not real Christians, they are professors of the faith, but not actual possessors of the faith. Now there's a little bit of a third view that I'm absolutely bothered by, really agonized by, angry about, to barely overstate it at all, and it's what's called the hypothetical threat view. And if you read a number of well-respected theologians on this text, this is the view that they take trying to dodge the two ditches that I just described. What they say is that when you read Hebrews 10, 26 through 31, This is God speaking to actual Christians, and he is threatening them with the possibility of going to hell, but only hypothetically. He wouldn't actually do it, but he's saying that he might to effectively scare them into obedience. I find that like a version of spiritual abuse. I have four adopted kids. It would be like me saying this to one of my kids. If you don't get your act together, I'm going to unadopt you and kick you out. Is God that kind of God? Is your father in heaven that kind of father that he would hypothetically threaten real Christians with the threat of hell in order to get them to straighten up and fly right? And the answer is no. So we're just gonna discard that view rather forcefully. But that doesn't yet tell us who is he actually talking to and about. Look up at verse 25, not dodging any of the difficulties of the text. He's talking about people who have made a profession of faith. One second. Verse 23, let us hold fast the confession of our faith without wavering, for he who has promised is faithful. These are people who have made a profession of faith. The question is, is it a genuine one? Is it a genuine one? And I'm gonna suggest in the end that the answer is no, but let me walk out why we should come to that conclusion. If you jump down now to verse 26 and get into the meat of our text, these are people who have deliberately turned away. They have indeed made a profession of faith, but now they go on sinning deliberately and they end up being described as those who have abandoned the faith altogether. So severe is their turning away that the author says in verse 26 that there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins. Why is that? Because they have turned their backs on the gospel. If you know the book of Hebrews, you know the general orientation of the book is this, that there were some in this first century church from a Jewish background, and they came into the church and were baptized and made profession of faith. Their kids were baptized, we'll get to that in a minute. in the context of persecution, they denied the faith. And they went back to the temple. They return to the Old Testament forms of worship and sacrifice that the whole book of Hebrews not only deals with, but shows how they all pointed their way to Christ. But now, having gone on sinning willfully and turning away, the author says, well, it's this simple. If you leave Jesus, there is no other sacrifice for your sins. There is nothing else that God is looking to that will satisfy the wages of sin, which is death. In fact, not only is there no sacrifice remaining, there is only an expectation of judgment. Jesus is the once and for all final sacrifice to satisfy for the wages of sin. And the author is saying, if you bail on him and you go back to blood of bulls and goats and rams and lambs, there's no sacrifice for you there. Why? Because when Jesus died and rose again, the veil of the temple tore in two. Those sacrifices, the moment Jesus was raised from the dead became null and void. His sacrifice was the final and climactic sacrifice that did away with everything else. It's all Him and only Him. But then the author of Hebrews invokes an argument that he takes from the book of Deuteronomy. If you come down and you look at verse 28, he begins to invoke a lesser to the greater argument, in Latin, a fortiori, lesser to the greater argument. Anyone who has set aside the law of Moses dies without mercy on the evidence of two or three witnesses. In the Old Testament, if you were accused of a crime that was worthy of capital punishment, being put to death, you could be put to death. but only if there was legal evidence and testimony, and that testimony would need to come from two or three witnesses. That's the lesser. Gotta watch my hands for a minute, okay? In the Old Testament, you can be put to death on the evidence of two or three human witnesses, right? But then he builds on that with the how much more. If that could happen then, then he graduates what he's describing in verse 29. How much worse punishment do you think will be deserved? And then he has three dependent clauses. I'm giving you a little grammar here, but just work with me. You'll follow this. Three dependent clauses here of the how much worse punishment do you think will be deserved by the one who has done these three things, trampled underfoot the son of God, and has profaned the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and thirdly, has outraged the spirit of grace. In the Old Testament, you can be put to death. on the evidence of two or three human witnesses. But here, God sent his son, and you've rejected the son that God sent. You've rejected the father's provision. Secondly, the author is saying, you've rejected the blood of the covenant. Jesus gave his blood, and now you've turned your back on it. And thirdly, you've outraged the spirit of grace. You ever been outraged? It's like that moment when you are white hot with anger, almost irrational, furious. But here we're talking about the spirit, not sinners. Can you imagine encountering the spirit of God as the spirit of God is outraged, holy wrath, pure light, but burning in anger? But you also notice the father sent his son and it was spurned. The son shed his blood, and it was profaned, and the spirit is outraged. Let me ask this question, it's very important. Into whose name are we baptized? The name of the father, the son, and the spirit. What is the author of Hebrews doing here? He's saying that the Old Testament You broke the covenant and could be put to mortal physical death on the evidence of just, watch my hands here, two or three human witnesses. How much more dangerous and severe will it be if you are put to eternal death, not on the evidence of three human witnesses, but on the testimony of the father who sent his son, the son, who gave his life and the spirit. In other words, if the Trinity stands up to testify against you, how much worse will that death be? He's appealing to their baptism. He's appealing to that name into which they were baptized. They made a profession of faith, verse 23. They were baptized in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Now they are falling away, rejecting the Father's provision, the Son's blood, and the ministry of the Spirit. And the author is saying, when you stand before God to give an account for your baptism, what will you say to the one into whose name you were baptized? What will you say to the Father? What will you say to the Son? What will you say to the Spirit? And what could be worse than mortal death? Only one thing, eternal death, which is why he says climatically here towards the end, for we know him who said, vengeance is mine and I will repay. The Lord will not be mocked. We may not take our baptism seriously, but God does. We may think it's a light thing to fall away, but God doesn't. And when he says, vengeance is mine, when God talks that way, it ought to be taken very seriously. Vengeance is mine, I will pay. And again, notice so carefully the end of verse 30, I'm gonna read it, look at your Bible as I read it. And again, the Lord will judge his enemies, is not what it says. The Lord will judge the Gentiles is not what it says. It says the Lord will judge his people. Where does judgment begin? With the household of God. The Lord will judge his people. And then finally, it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. The author of Hebrews is a pastor. who's trying to draw back straying sheep. Those who have come into the church, but they've only sort of put their toes into the water. And when the first outer bands of the hurricane of persecution began to touch land, they said, nope, not for me. If this is what it means to be a Christian, if I actually have to take up my cross too, I'm out, I'm done. And so they're bailing on Jesus and the church. And the author is saying effectively, you can run, but you cannot hide. you will eventually give an account to the one into whose name you have been baptized. And that is why there's greater accountability for the people of God, those who have been baptized into the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, even you who've been raised up under this truth, right? Judgment begins at the household of God. It is something that we ought to take very seriously. very seriously when older Puritans would go and visit people that were wandering from the faith, a question that they would often ask in such a pastoral visit is this, what will you say to God when he calls you to give an account for your baptism? It's a really interesting question, isn't it? What will you say when God calls you to give an account for your baptism? your baptism. One of the reasons why this subject is not only so important, but it helps get at the question even of infant baptism, which I'm working there, but slowly is because often when we talk about baptism, it's like looking at a coin and we only ever see or talk about one side. Most of the time when people talk about baptism, we refer to it in many ways as something that we are doing. It's, it's my profession of faith. It's me saying something to the world. That is such a small part of the story and regrettably eclipses the accent of what baptism really is. Who is it that baptizes? It's God. It is God. And so often in the Bible, baptism is either a good thing for the one baptized, or it's actually a terrifying thing for the one who is baptized. And I think the second category we miss almost entirely. In other words, baptism, just like circumcision, had a promise unto life or a promise unto death, and the Bible illustrates both. In the Old Testament, you could be circumcised with a circumcision of the heart, that would lead to life by faith. Or you could be, same word, cut off from the covenant unto death. Circumcision was a dual-edged sword. It was a promise from God that those who were circumcised and kept the covenant would receive the promises of the covenant, but those who were circumcised and spurned the covenant would experience the judgment of the covenant. So here's my question. Does baptism talk the same way? Does baptism only make a positive promise? The answer is no. Let me give you a couple ways to unpack that. Where's the first baptism in the Bible? Where's the first baptism in the Bible? It's not in the New Testament. According to the New Testament, the first baptism in the Bible was actually the flood. In the days of Noah, 1 Peter 3.21 refers to the flood as a baptism when the world is consumed in a gulp of divine judgment. And Noah and his family are elevated above the floodwaters of that judgment and saved by the grace of God. Where's the second baptism in the Bible? I love asking questions that nobody knows the answers to. Where's the second baptism in the Bible? It's at the crossing of the Red Sea. 1 Corinthians 10.2 says, when Israel passed through the Red Sea, they passed on dry ground. Mud didn't even cling to their flip-flops, to their Birkenstocks, to their shoes. But when the Egyptians went through, they were consumed in that gulp of divine judgment. Why is it that Noah and his family rise above the waters unharmed? Why is it that mud doesn't even cling to the shoes of the Israelites? It's because the water was symbolic of God's judgment. That was the point. Salvation always comes through judgment. And the Egyptians were drowned, and the world was drowned, but the people of God actually remained dry at the flood. The people of God actually remained dry at the Red Sea. Judgment very often in the Bible takes place at bodies of water. At the end of the Bible, where are Satan and all that belong to him, cast forever into a lake. a lake of fire. You see the, it's an oxymoron, right? Usually water puts out fire, but in hell, it's as though the water has become fire and it never goes out because judgment often happens at bodies of water. Let me ask you another question. How many times was Jesus baptized? This will be fun over lunch. You're going to talk about this one. How many times was Jesus baptized? Now you can't answer because it's a sermon. You're just looking at me twice. If you want to turn there, look at Luke 12 50. This one will make your head spin. Go ahead and turn there. It won't hurt. You know, I'm not making it up. Luke 12. 50, I'll begin at verse 49. This is your Savior. I came to cast fire on earth, and would that it were already kindled, I have a baptism to be baptized with, and how great is my distress until it is accomplished. Beloved, this is a big deal. Jesus was not baptized once. He was baptized twice. When he is baptized by John in Matthew three, that is him receiving the sign of the covenant, the sign of the new covenant. But what he refers to in Luke 12 is the cross, where he again is baptized, but not with the sign, rather the reality to which that sign was pointing, his death, his being buried. That's what he is referring to here as his baptism. And the point of this in many ways beautifully portrays the gospel. Either Jesus goes through the waters of God's judgment on your behalf, or you swim it alone. He who was circumcised for us was also baptized for us, which is why Colossians 2, 11 and 12 say circumcision and baptism both are like arrows pointing to the cross and both find their fulfillment in the cross of our Savior. So either Jesus carries you through the waters of God's judgment, or you swim in alone, and beloved, you will sink. For four years, I was a lifeguard not far from here in Atlantic Beach. And I know what it's like to carry limp, helpless bodies out of the ocean. Grown men, trained Marines from the Midwest have never met a rip current before. Little kids don't realize that once you step off the bar, the sand beneath you disappears. and couldn't make it back. And what baptism says is either Jesus comes to our rescue and carries us safely home, or we traverse those waters alone and we will sink. And it is possible that some of you in this room could be sinking like bricks. And the author of Hebrews would say to you, look to Jesus. the captain, savior, and lifeguard of your soul. You must repent and believe. Baptism won't save you. If it's just water, you're just wet. But it does point to the promise, and the promise is this, Jesus saves. Baptism makes a promise that God has sent his son who has been buried in death who went across the river, the sea of God's judgment for you, and if you look to him by faith, beloved, you will indeed be saved. But even if you have been baptized, if you spurn the covenant and reject Jesus, you will swim the waters of God's judgment alone. What of the mode? Let's talk about that. How should a person be baptized? Does it matter to you? Do you care at all? Does the mode matter at all? I'll give you my bottom line and then I'll explain it using this text, Hebrews 10. Immersion, sprinkling and pouring are all in the Bible. You'd have a hard time persuading me that they're not. And even the reform standards recognize that all three are in the Bible. But the mode is not a big deal. It's like saying, does it matter if you get married inside or outside? If you're married inside, your wedding counts. But if you're married outside, you weren't really married. That's silly. And it would be silly to say the same thing about baptism, the mode. However, it is interesting that even in this chapter, if you'll look up Hebrews 10, go back there, look up at verse 22, it actually refers to two of the three biblical modes of baptism, Hebrews 10, 22, Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith with our hearts. Now watch the language here. With our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. Now I'm saying this is playfully. I want to volunteer to come up here and let me sprinkle your heart with water. How do you, how do you sprinkle a person's hearts inside their chest? Take their heart out, sprinkle it, put it back in. Silly, right? What is he talking about? He's talking about how they were baptized. When and how were their hearts sprinkled clean? When and how were their bodies washed with pure water? He just referred to in the verse before their profession of faith. Now he refers to this water language of sprinkling and washing. And this is just all over the Bible, Joel 2.28. and it will come to pass afterward that I will pour out my spirit on all flesh. Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, and your young men shall see visions. Even on the male and female servants in those days, I will pour out my spirit. Ezekiel 36, 25, I will sprinkle clean water on you and you shall be clean from all your uncleanness and from your idols, I will cleanse you. Isaiah 53, behold, my servant shall act wisely. He shall be high and lifted up and shall be exalted. As many were astonished at you. His appearance was so marred beyond human semblance. and is formed beyond that of the children of mankind. Now listen, so shall he sprinkle many nations clean. What are we talking about here? This is the work of the Holy Spirit, but it's being described as though being poured out, Joel 2, sprinkled, Isaiah 53. Same language that you have here in Hebrews chapter 10. If you actually wanted to get a little bit kind of pointed about this, what you'd actually have a hard time doing is showing from the New Testament that people are actually immersed. The burden of proof is actually harder to show that people being submerged underwater is the norm for all kinds of reasons. At the time of year when baptisms were done in the New Testament, the water was so shallow, it was at best a knee-deep creek. Secondly, the word baptoed or baptizo doesn't even always mean immerse. When Jesus at the Lord's Supper takes a big piece of bread and he dips it into the bowl, his hand still holding the bread, it's the word baptizo. When you dip your hand into a bowl with bread, we did something similar this morning at breakfast, does your hand go in with the bread? Does the whole piece of bread go under? No. There are lots of times the word bapto or baptizo does not talk about something that goes fully underwater and comes back up again, but perhaps Even more importantly, I hope you caught this earlier, when Peter refers to the flood as a baptism in the days of Noah, who was it that got submerged? Was it the people of God or the enemies of God? And at the Red Sea, when God parted the waters of his judgment, who was it that drank that day? Once and for all, was it the people of God that were immersed? Or was it the enemies of God that were immersed? This is why the Westminster Confession of Faith says, and it reads just like this, while immersion of the one being baptized is not necessary, baptism is rightly administered with sprinkling or pouring. It's very careful. It's not saying that it's wrong to immerse, it's saying it's not necessary. But it also says it is right to sprinkle and to pour. Why? Because the language of baptizo is in the Bible. If you want to argue that means immersion, okay. But you can't, pardon the phrase here, wash away. the significance of pouring and sprinkling that is so often not only associated with the work of the Spirit in the Old Testament, it's given in Hebrews 10 in the context of a profession of faith. And that'll bring me to my final point. Who should be baptized? The membership of baptism. Often people that argue for baptism, in my opinion, start in the wrong place. They start in the book of Acts and talk about household baptisms. And I'm not saying that those texts don't help when Cornelius and his whole family are baptized, Lydia and her whole family are baptized, there are others there. But arguably a better text to talk about is what Peter says on the day of Pentecost in Acts 2.39, for the promise is for you and for your children and for all who are far off, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to himself. When Peter preaches on the day of Pentecost, do you know what his text is? You know who he's preaching from? He's preaching from Genesis 17, when God said to Abraham, I will be a God to you and to your children after you. And Peter takes that up and he says, this is God's fulfillment of that promise. God was a God to Abraham and Abraham's children after him. And now in the days of the new covenant, God continues to be a God, not just to believers, but even to their children. To say it differently, there are two circles of the covenant, not just one. God is not simply in covenant with believers, He is in covenant with believers and their children, just like he was with Israel. He was in covenant with all Israel. The nation was holy and they all received the sign. And then there was true Israel inside, a smaller circle inside the big one. And the exact same dynamic is true in the New Testament. The church, is the new Israel of God, the holy people of God that are set apart. That's what the author of Hebrews means in Hebrews 10, when he says they have been sanctified, they have been set apart, distinguished from the world, how? By their baptism. Baptism distinguishes the church from the world. Peter takes up this preaching, showing that not only is God fulfilling the promises of the covenant, this is very important, please capture this, it's really important, okay? If God wanted to say that children are no longer in the covenant, now, the way they were when God made covenant with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and Joseph and Moses and all through Israel, if God wanted to erase the outer circle and say, covenant kids, sorry, but you're out. You are no longer covenant kids until you make a profession of faith. In the Old Testament, they were in until they proved themselves out. If God wanted to reverse that and say that now our kids are out until they show themselves in, not only could he have done it if he wanted to, he would have said it. And there is nowhere, anywhere in the New Testament from Jesus to Acts, to the church letters, that ever says God has kicked kids out of the church, that they are no longer in the covenant, that they are no longer distinguished from the world, that God was a God to Abraham and his children, but that promise has changed, and he is now just a God to you, but your children are not in this deal. If God wanted to do that, not only could he have done it, he would have said that he did it, and it would have become the biggest splash, pardon the pun, in the New Testament. Why? Because there's so much energy on the question of what do we do with the Gentiles? Do they get circumcised? Do they keep the law? What about the Gentiles? Do you think if the Jews cared about the Gentiles that much, they would not have had questions about their kids? That promise that God made so long ago, commanding us to raise them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. Covenant kids, God has not kicked you out. You are tender in his sight. You are precious in his sight. And this is one of the reasons why I think about the two places in the New Testament where kids are spoken to. There are only two, Ephesians 6 and Colossians 3. And in Ephesians 6, they are described as in the Lord and told to obey their parents in the Lord. and encouraged to keep the same fifth commandment that were given to the children of Israel, to honor their father and mother. The point is real simple. New Testament kids in Ephesus are treated like Old Testament kids in Israel. They're part of the covenant. They're part of the covenant. And Colossians 3 is arguably even more beautiful, Colossians 3.20. And this is the last text I'm gonna read. I know this has been a long sermon, but the good news is you probably won't see me for years. Colossians 3 verse 20 in the ESV reads like this. Children, covenant kids, listen to me. This is God speaking to you. Children, obey your parents in everything, for this pleases the Lord. But it reads a little differently in the NASV that actually I think captures the Greek and its intent better. Hear this little nuance. Children, be obedient to your parents in all things, for this is well-pleasing to the Lord. Why does it matter? What was said from the Father in heaven when Jesus was baptized. This is my beloved Son with whom I am," what? Well-pleased. So when Paul, one of two times alone in the New Testament, speaks to you, covenant kids, speaks to our covenant kids, he addresses them through the lens, through the vehicle of baptism. He's saying, you have an elder brother that was baptized for you. And as you obey your earthly parents, you are reflecting your union, your communion, your covenant obligation to the one who was baptized for you. It's saying, be like your older brother, Jesus, but know who you are as even your baptism says that you are well-pleasing in the sight of the Lord. Older Puritans in talking to covenant children, on pastoral visits would sometimes ask this question, what are you doing to improve your baptism? Is that a word question? What are you doing to improve your baptism? What do they mean by that? By growing up in the covenant, studying the word of God, hiding it in our heart, we are making more and more true of us what was declared true of us, what was declared true of us. is that we do not belong to the world. We belong to the church. We do not belong in the world. We belong in the church. And we are to grow in the nurture and the admonition of the Lord. Improving your baptism was like a code for saying, how are you growing spiritually? Are you living out your identity of who you are in the covenant? Are you growing in faith? The promise of God. is that if we look to Christ as the one who underwent baptism for us, we are not his enemies, we are his children. And as we come into the kingdom of God like little children, beloved, how fitting it is that most of you in this room don't remember being baptized. And it's a beautiful portrait of a new birth, but God remembers. because he is the one who is most active in our baptism. So in conclusion, Hebrews 10, 26 through 31 is only a terror text to those who spurn their baptism. But to the one who clings to Christ by faith and possesses what they profess, it's actually a beautiful promise. Baptism says a loud and beautiful word to you. It makes visible the verbal promise. No thin promise to believers. It's as thick as blood, the blood of Christ, the one who was baptized for you, beloved, not once, but twice, so that we would be baptized into him once and for all. Let's pray. We marvel, Lord, that you are a God who illustrates well. Some of us struggle to find ways of communicating that make the point, that say it loud and say it clearly.