Well, congregation of our Lord Jesus Christ last week, we began looking at the reform doctrine of infant baptism. And as we did, so we began with a very simple but consistent observation. And that is when the Lord makes a covenant with a man, he always includes that man's children in the covenant as well. In fact, as we went through the scriptures, we saw that in all of the major historical covenants, God always and without exception included the children in his covenant dealings with his people. And so we saw that this was true for Adam. It was true for Noah and Abraham and Moses and David. And based upon what we saw last week, we also know that this is still true for those of us in the new covenant as well. And when Peter picked up and utilized that classic Abrahamic language to describe the new covenant model, he showed us that the same pattern of covenant membership for the people of God continues to this very day. And of course, that pattern of membership is believers and their children. Now, last week, I think it's safe to say we made a pretty good start in our exposition of the biblical doctrine. But as I mentioned, there's so much that we could say here that it almost seems impossible to deal with all of the different arguments for infant baptism in just one or two brief messages. And of course, that's okay. Because, congregation, my purpose is not to give you a comprehensive treatment or a comprehensive and technical defense. My purpose is to give you just enough to demonstrate that our position is in fact grounded in the very Word of God. And so this morning, instead of picking up with a whole new line of argumentation for the same point, I've decided that we should go back and retrace the very same path that we've already walked. Only this time, I want us to think about things from a slightly different perspective. Rather than just looking at the fact that God deals with believers and their children, I want us to see this morning That another way in which the Bible presents this truth is by saying that God deals with believers and their households. It's the same truth, but it's seen from a slightly different angle, and it's very important that we understand this concept of believers and their households. the reason that this concept of the household is so important is that by the time we get through the New Testament, we will look back and realize that there is no passage where we see the actual baptism of any covenant child. We'll get all the way through the New Testament. We will look back and realize that there is not a single passage that gives us an explicit example of the baptism of a covenant child. And so here, Baptist Christians and Presbyterian Christians agree that in terms of biblical language, there is no mention explicitly of infant baptism. But what we do find are household baptisms. And so that is where the debate must take place. As we look at this question, I want us to consider this question in terms of the definition of what a household means biblically. Before we even get to the household baptisms in the book of Acts, you and I need to back up and ask this very simple and fundamental question, and that is, what is precisely the definition of a biblical household? As you think about that, you realize that it's not very hard to answer that question because it's almost a matter of common sense. I think every single person in this room, whether you're a Baptist or a Presbyterian, I think we can all agree. that the word household is really just a synonym for the family unit, regardless of the size of that family or even the ages of its members. The household is a synonym for the family unit. And so working from there, I would say that if we had to build the definition of a household from scratch, we could easily say that every man living on his own constitutes a household of one. Then we can say that if that man takes a wife, it becomes a household of two. And then we can finally say if and when they have a child, it becomes a household of three. And so very clearly, We can see that even by an application of basic logic, the definition of a household always includes the children if and when they are present. A household always includes a man. A household always includes his wife. And a household always includes their children if and when they are present. I think everybody can agree with that definition. But to demonstrate that this definition is biblical and correct, just consider the language of two passages from the Word of God. One passage from the Old Testament and another passage from the New. In Genesis chapter 45, we have the account where Pharaoh tells Joseph and his brothers that if they go back and get their families and return to Egypt, he would give them the best of the land. But the language that Pharaoh uses in this context is very instructive. In verses 18 and 19, here's what he says. Say unto your brothers, do this, load your animals and depart. Go into the land of Canaan. Bring your father and your households and come to me. I will give you the best of the land of Egypt and you will eat the fat of the land. Now you are commanded, do this, take carts out of the land of Egypt for your little ones and your wives. Bring your father and come to me. Now the key. to seeing what's actually going on in this passage is to recognize that in verses 18 and 19 Pharaoh is simply repeating the very same command and yet in the process, he switches up the terms that he decides to use. So first of all in verse 18, he commands Joseph and his brothers to bring their households back to Egypt and then in verse 19, he defines their households as quote their little ones and their wives. So here, there's no question that when the people of the ancient world spoke about a man's household, they always understood that it included his wife and his children as well. Now, in the New Testament, we see the same thing in 1st Timothy chapter 3. There, the apostle Paul is in the process of listing out all of the qualifications for elders in the church. And in verse 4, Paul says that an elder must be a man who rules his own household well. And here, the question that we have to ask and answer is, what does Paul mean by the term household? Is he referring to the structure of the building? Is he referring to the property that this man lives on? Well, no, because in the very next line, Paul explains what he means by the term household when he adds the phrase, quote, having his children in submission with all reverence. So here, just like with Pharaoh, Paul uses the term household, and then he defines it in such a way that a man's children are necessarily included. And so then congregation, how do we summarize this point? We can say that children are always included in the biblical household if and when they are present. Now the question that we need to ask is what does any of that have to do with infant baptism? And the answer is also very simple. And that is if our Baptist friends could prove, which I would argue they cannot, but if they could prove that every member of the households that are baptized in the book of Acts was a believing adult, every member, even then those particular situations could never become the standard for households with covenant children. You see, the point here is that if and when children are present, they are necessarily included. And here's the key term, by definition. When children are there, you cannot take them out at your own will. As you process that, just consider the simple fact that not all household situations are the same. For example, one household may have no children and another household may have five children. This means that if you baptize the first household, no children would be baptized. But of course, it means that when you come to the second household, the children would be baptized and that by necessity. This is because even though the situations may vary, the definition never changes. Well, that's what I call the definitional approach. And the reason I want us to see things from this perspective is because it provides us with a solid theological foundation as we approach the household baptisms in the book of Acts. If we don't have our terms and definitions right, then when we come to these passages, which use these terms and definitions, we won't know what to do with them. We won't know how to interpret them. So here's the point, just like we can trace, like last week, the language of you and your children from Abraham all the way through to Peter. So we can also trace the language of you and your household as well. In Genesis chapter 7 verse 1, the Bible says, Then the Lord said to Noah, come into the ark, you and your household, because I have seen that you are righteous before me in this generation. And in Genesis chapter 18, the Lord says something similar as he mentions Abraham and the covenant that he made with him. In verse 19, he says, for I have known him in order that he may command his children and his household after him, that they too may keep the way of the Lord. And so clearly, when we come across this kind of language again and again in the Bible, we realize that God is giving us a pattern that he wants us to see. And he does that so that by the time we get to the baptisms of the New Testament, you and I will not be confused, but instead we'll understand exactly what is taking place. And so now as we make that transition, I do present the question to you, congregation, and that is what is taking place in the New Testament? What is taking place in these baptisms? The answer in summary is that every time the head of household comes to faith in Jesus Christ, That man or that woman in the case of Lydia is baptized. And at the same time, their entire household is baptized as well. This is the clear and raw data that we find all through the book of Acts. And this morning, brothers and sisters, we don't have time to deal with all of these accounts. But what we can do is look at the case of Lydia and her household to establish this point. And as we do so, just if you have your Bibles, you can turn with me to Acts chapter 16, where Luke provides us the details of Paul's missionary labors as he travels into Macedonia. Now, the reason he went there in the first place is that one night Paul received a vision from the Lord and Luke describes that vision as a man of Macedonia who comes to Paul and he begs him to come down into that region and to help him. Now, this brings up another interesting parenthetical question. If you received a vision from the Lord and some man was in the vision and he asked you to come down to where he was living and help the people there, what is the first thing that would have come to your mind? Maybe you would have thought, oh, are these people in some desperate situation? Was there some natural disaster? They need help. They need relief. Would you think philanthropically or would you think theologically? Interestingly, when Paul gets that vision, it says that the first thing he concluded was that God had called them to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ to those people. And so let us never forget that the way in which we are to help our fellow man, the greatest way. is not by giving him the food which perishes, but by giving him the food which endures unto everlasting life, which is the Lord Jesus Christ himself. And so our first priority as the Church of Christ is to preach the gospel to everyone with whom we come in contact. This is what Paul is doing. He receives this vision and he thinks to himself, God is calling me to preach the gospel. So he gathers his companions and he sets out on his missionary journeys. But it's so interesting because as you read through Acts chapter 16, you realize you never end up meeting the man in Paul's vision. But instead, we see that he ended up in the city of Philippi, where the Lord had a different person in mind. And of course, that person was Lydia. Now, in verse 14, we learned that Paul had been there for several days. We don't know how many, but then on the Sabbath day, as was his custom, he went out to preach to his Jewish brethren. However, given the details of this text, we can see that there was no synagogue in the city because normally Paul would go to the synagogue. And what that indicates is that there were not enough men to form a new congregation. In the ancient world, it took 10 heads of household minimum to establish a local synagogue. And until that time, there were only a few families who would simply meet up on the Sabbath day, go down to the river, they would fellowship, and they would pray. He says, and on the Sabbath day, we went out of the city to the riverside where prayer was customarily made. And we sat down and spoke to the women who met there. And so as Paul sets out on one course, we see that the Lord has a different plan in mind. And here he is standing before a group of women who are there to pray. They are there to worship the Lord. And Paul begins to preach the gospel of Christ. Now, when he gets there and he begins to preach the gospel, Luke gives us some valuable information. In verse 14, Luke says, Now a woman named Lydia heard us. She was a seller of purple from the city of Thyatira who worshiped God, and the Lord opened up her heart. to heed the things that were spoken by Paul. And it's interesting because Luke tells us that she was already a worshiper of God, meaning not that she was a Jew, but most likely it means that she was a Gentile convert to Judaism. In fact, Matthew Henry refers to her as a proselyte of the gate. So she's a convert. She's a God fearer, a God worshiper. But up to this point, she has never heard a clear presentation of the gospel of Christ. And so Paul preaches that gospel. And Luke says that by the sovereign grace of God, Lydia took heed to the things that were spoken by Paul. as you read that, it's pretty clear that when Paul issued the call of the gospel, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved, Lydia obeyed that call. That's what it means that she heeded the words that were spoken by Paul. Paul issued a command and a call and she obeyed right then and there. She repented of her sins and she put her trust in Jesus Christ and was saved. But you know what takes place next is very instructive for our overall lesson for today. In fact, this is where everything should come to a head if you've been paying attention through this message. Because even though Lydia is the only one mentioned in the text, even though Lydia was the only one whose heart was opened by the Lord, even though Lydia was the only one who took heed to the call of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the text says Lydia was not the only one who was baptized. But instead, the outcome of her conversion is described in very clear and unmistakable terms in verse 15. There Luke says she and her household were baptized. Isn't that interesting? The members of her household, nowhere mentioned. We don't know who they are. We don't know how old they were. We don't hear about their faith, their profession of faith, their repentance. We don't hear a word about them. We see this woman being converted by the Lord. She's baptized, but her household is baptized too. Here I think we can see the same covenant household model that we find in the Old Testament. As you think about that, you should remember that it really does no good to debate the question of whether or not there were any little children in Lydia's household. Why is that? Why should we not even debate the question of whether or not there were little children in Lydia's household? It's because again, we've already seen the definition of a household and that definition always includes children if and when they are present. And so what that means is that maybe Lydia didn't have any children so that when her household was baptized, there was no infant baptism that took place on this specific occasion. That's a real possibility because we'll never know all of the details of what her family structure looked like. But you know what, congregation? You know what your family structure looks like. You know what it would mean if your household was baptized. You know who would be included in that baptism when you brought your household into the covenant of the Lord. And because of that, you yourself are responsible for how you respond to the teaching of the word of God. And here, let me be just about as clear as I possibly can. This means that if you yourself are trusting in the finished work of Jesus Christ and you do have children in your home, then on the basis of your own conversion, you need to have your children baptized in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. This is the pattern that we find in scripture, and it is inviolable. It's unbreakable. There are no exceptions. Head of household believes the whole household is baptized. And you know, as you think about just that, consider the comment that Lydia makes now in verse 16, in her great desire to respect the apostle Paul and to be hospitable to him and his companions. She said, if you have judged me to be faithful unto the Lord, come to my house and stay. The question here is what does she mean by faithful unto the Lord? If you look at all of the details of our text, you don't see anything that Lydia actually did that we could point to and say that was faithful. What action then could she possibly be referring to here that would prove that she was being faithful unto the Lord? That's right. I think the answer is that. Because there's only one thing that we know she could have done, and that is she responded to the covenant promise of God and submitted her entire household to the waters of baptism. That's the only action that she could have taken to show that she's a faithful woman unto the Lord. And so here, I think there's a word of encouragement to all of us. But in particular, there's a word of challenge and exhortation to the women and to the mothers who are among us. As you look at the grace of God in Christ that's been shown to you, as you think about the children that God has placed as a sacred trust in your home, don't you also want to be able to say, just like Lydia, that you are being faithful to the Lord? If you do, then consider that you need to follow in Lydia's footsteps. You need to follow her example and see to it that your entire household is baptized in the Lord. This will prove that you are faithful. But what about the men and the husbands who are here among us? I would encourage you as well. This passage has everything to say to every one of us. As you search the scriptures and you see the patterns that we've seen today and last week unto you and your children, unto you and your household, you too should be eager to demonstrate your faithfulness unto the Lord. But instead of using Lydia as your example, You might do well to go back and listen to the words of faithful Joshua, who also gives you the pattern of covenant faithfulness as well. And so men. As we go our way today, let the words of Joshua chapter 24 and verse 15 ring loud and clear in your hearts and in your minds, because there Joshua declares to all the people of God, not just as for me, but he says, as for me and my house, we shall serve the Lord. Amen.