July 5, 2026

"Covenant Baptism for our Covenant Children" (Lk 18:15-17, Acts 2:38-39, I Cor 7:14)

Series: Heidelberg Catechism Scripture: Luke 18:15–17, Acts 2:38–39, 1 Corinthians 7:14

Here now the word of the lord from Luke 18:15, 17. Now they were bringing even infants to him that he might touch them. And when the disciples saw it, they rebuked them. But Jesus called them to him, saying, let the children come to me and do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of God. Truly I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it.

Our next text this evening is From Acts, chapter 2, verses 38 through 39 is on page 1082. In your pew Bibles you know the word of the lord from Acts 2:38, 39. And Peter said to them, repent and be baptized, every one of you, 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 for your children and for all who are far off, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to Himself.

Our third text this evening is from 1st Corinthians 7:14. This is on page 1135. 1135. Here now the word of the Lord from 1st Corinthians 7:14.

For the unbelieving husband is made holy because of his wife, and the unbelieving wife is made holy because of her husband. Otherwise your children would be unclean. But as it is, they are holy. This is the word of the Lord.

Please be seated, and as you're taking your seats, let's join our hearts together tonight in prayer. Gracious heaven, we pray. Gracious Father in heaven, we pray that you would help us to hear your word, to understand the precious promises that you have made to a thousand generations, to be God, not only to us, but to our children after us. To set apart our children as holy, to let our children come to Jesus in the knowledge that to them belongs the kingdom of God. For the promise is for them.

And we pray that our children would indeed not only be baptized, but in the course of their lives would learn to repent from their sins and lay personal claim to those promises that belong to them by birthright and baptism, that righteousness might come by faith to our children as well. And so now we pray as we study your word, that you would give us your spirit, that you would give us hearts to understand, eyes to see and ears to hear all that is contained in the good news of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, your Son, our Savior. In Christ's name we pray. Amen.

I grew up in churches that did not baptize covenant children and that I was born into, although maybe that's not the right way to say it because I wasn't technically a member of that church. I was born into originally a Mennonite church, a church of the Anabaptist tradition. These were some of the first to insist that it was not enough to baptize infants, that indeed people had to be re. Baptized. That's Anna again, baptized.

If you're learning Greek, you'll learn Anna as a prefix. Ana. It means to baptize again. So these Anabaptists said, you must be baptized again by profession of faith. And I was in that Mennonite church for a while until we moved.

And then I was in an evangelical free church. And there are some different practices in evangelical free churches. But in our church, there was no baptism of infants. There was only dedications. And I was baptized in that church when I was, I believe, 12 years old, although I can't remember the date, but it's in our membership information here somewhere.

But I remember I gave a profession of faith, and I was baptized then by immersion, not as a child, not by sprinkling or pouring. It's a very different kind of baptism. And I came to grow up to believe that the Scriptures taught that baptism was only for believers. It seemed very simple. Repent and be baptized.

The first thing you do is to repent, and then you are baptized. I didn't read the next verse about how the promise was not only for us, but for our children in high school. It didn't help that the only Presbyterians I knew were from the very liberal PC USA churches. There was not a good PCA church in the town I grew up with. And as I talked with them, it became very clear they weren't really all that interested in what the Bible taught about many things at all.

And so I came to associate Presbyterianism with liberalism. And I really wanted nothing to do with it. As for you Dutch Reformed, well, your cousins did not migrate much beyond western Iowa. That Missouri river was sort of a boundary, and you didn't bring the blessings of the Reformed faith much into Nebraska. So I was just awash in a sea of ignorance out there on this question.

And it wasn't until college. In college, I met, through Reformed University Fellowship, the college ministry, the PCA Presbyterians, but not like the Presbyterians I had known growing up, but Presbyterians who clearly took the Bible incredibly seriously. I mean, I was blown away by how seriously they took the Bible. But then as I talked to them. But you baptize infants.

I was blown away by this. I really could not square it for a long Time I say all of this to say I have actually a very huge appreciation for those who wrestle with questions about whether the Scriptures really teach that we should baptize our infants. I am absolutely convinced that the Scriptures command this. But I have a healthy appreciation for people who may not yet be there, who may be wrestling with that question, which is why I'm excited to preach about this topic tonight. Now, it's been an interesting process to sort of shift gears a little bit, but to talk about how I'm going to approach this question, it's been an interesting thing.

One of the things that I'm learning to do as a growing Reformed and Presbyterian minister is to do this catechetical preaching, to spend the evening services preaching and teaching our doctrines, our confessional doctrines. And in part, one of the questions that I've had to wrestle with is how to do catechetical preaching. If you do a quick Google search, there are actually many models of catechetical preaching. Most of what I have tried to do this year and to model is to find a text that illustrates either much of what the catechism is teaching week by week, or maybe one particular point that I want to zoom in on. And I've been trying to focus in from, from the Scriptures and then bring in the catechism to sort of say, this is where we get this teaching, this is why we believe this from a fairly expositional sermon from the texts.

But when we talk about something like infant baptism or questions like the Trinity, there are not one clear. One or more clear passages, which just sort of lays it all out in. In one explicit place. And so we believe that not only do we believe that what is expressly laid down in Scripture, explicitly laid down in Scripture, is binding, but we also believe that what is deduced by good and necessary consequences, we try to say, well, all of this is God's word. And so if I'm going to believe this and this and this, we have to sort of reason out how to put all of those things together.

One of those areas that we have to do that for is baptism. Now, tonight we are going to then follow not one express portion of Scripture and sort of see this tackled in one shot, but we're actually going to look at the catechism logic. And some churches that do preaching through the Heidelberg Catechism, they will do this. They'll actually look at each section of the catechism and bring in scriptural text. I've tried to do it a little bit differently normally, but tonight I'm going to look at the catechism's logic and show biblically where we get each of these ideas.

And as we work through this catechism logic, I think it's a very strong defense for why it is that we do believe infants should be baptized. We do also have some resources about why infants should be baptized. I think there's some out there. I know there are some in this hallway if you want to read more about that. Really good.

It's a. It's a little pamphlet by Brian Chappell. It's one of the best introductory works on that topic. But our theme tonight is this, that in baptism, God promises Christ's salvation to covenant children. In baptism, God promises Christ's salvation to covenant children.

So we'll look at this in three parts that correspond to the three sections of this catechism. First, covenant promises. Covenant promises. Second, covenant children and third, covenant baptism. Covenant promises, covenant children and covenant baptism.

1. Covenant Promises (Gen 17:7; Gal 3:29; Luke 18:15-17; Acts 2:38-39; 16:31)

So let's start with the first paragraph of our catechism question regarding Covenant promises. Question 74 should infants also be baptized? And the first paragraph says this, yes. Infants as well as adults are included in God's covenant people. And they, no less than adults, are promised deliverance from sin through Christ's blood and the Holy Spirit who works faith.

Now, this is where we're going to start tonight. And this is actually the question that really convinced me. It's a question not first of all, who does baptism belong to? But first of all, the question is if baptism is a covenant sign, then who are the members of God's covenant people? And to put it another way, for our purposes tonight, do the Scriptures really teach that infants are included as God's covenant people in the New Testament?

It's that last part in the New Testament that really is what's tricky in Christianity today. Clearly, infants were included in God's covenant in the Old Testament. Even you don't, as far as I know, get any differences from this idea. The promises that we heard read from John van Drunen earlier tonight from Genesis 17, verse 7, are very clear to Abraham. God said, I will establish my covenant between me and you and your offspring after you.

God's covenant was established not only with Abraham, but also with his offspring after him throughout their generations. For an everlasting covenant to be God to you and to your offspring after you. God promised to be God to the offspring after Abraham. But what about the New Testament? And this is where we're going to differ from our Baptist brethren.

Again, this is a separation where we can acknowledge that Baptists or fellow believers. They teach and preach all of those creedal issues about the Trinity, about Christ, about justification by faith alone. However, this is a point of serious separation. We can't have a church together because some of us want to baptize infants and others would not permit that. So we have to separate.

And yet in God's kingdom, we are regiments in the same army. But tonight is a night to talk about why we take the particular position we take. There are a few reasons for believing that infants of believers are indeed included in God's covenant people, even in the New Testament. The first is that we are still the Scriptures teach, in the covenant that God made with Abraham. Galatians 3:29 is absolutely clear on this point.

Paul writes, and if you are Christ's, then you are Abraham's offspring, heirs according to promise. I want to explain what that means. In the Old Testament, there was a very clear understanding. Gentiles who came to faith would become Israelites. They would come into the nation of Israel, and they did so by faith.

And when they did so by faith, their children were not classified as Gentiles. Their children were classified as Israelites. Now, this is a very important issue because of one particular genealogy. David's. And from David's, ultimately, Jesus.

Is David an Israelite? You better believe he was the king of Israel. Is Jesus an Israelite? Well, salvation comes from the Jews. He's true Israel.

He is the one who reconstitutes Israel. He is the Lord of Israel. But in the genealogy that we find in the Gospel of Matthew, we find a couple of curious figures mentioned in there. And normally you read about the fathers, except there are a couple of insertions of mothers along the way, long before you get to Mary. One of those mothers is Rahab, the Canaanite who came to faith and entered the nation of Israel by her faith.

The other is Ruth, a Moabitess. A Moabitess who again declared, your God will be my God. And by faith she entered the nation of Israel. Now, because these were women, neither of these received personally the sign of circumcision. But by their faith, they were engrafted directly and fully into the nation of Israel.

And their children after them were not excluded from the household of God. Their children were classified and counted as Abraham's offspring, David as well as Jesus. Well, if this is the case in the Old Testament, it's also our case. If believers are the offspring of Abraham, if you are Christ and you are Abraham's offspring, then the logic stands, then our children are also Abraham's. Offspring, heirs according to the promise.

They are children of promise. The second reason for understanding that our infants are still included in God's covenant people is that against still maintaining the terms of the covenant with Abraham. The covenant membership of the children of believers was never revoked in the New Testament. If you talk to Baptists, they will often demand clear, positive statements that children are covenant members in the New Testament. But the burden of proof actually rests on Baptists who would say that the covenant membership has changed, that infants are now excluded from membership in God's covenant people.

The question that we must ask them is to say, where was it? There's a lot of things that are overturned that are set aside. Circumcision is one of those things. The food laws were set aside. There are lots of things that are set aside that differ from Old Testament practices to New Testament practices.

But where do we ever read any hymn? The infants are now to be excluded from God's covenant people. The burden of proof is on them. And the problem with that is you start to ask this question is you land on these words of our Lord Jesus In Luke chapter 18, when they were bringing even infants to him, not children old enough to make for themselves a profession of faith. Although we pray that each of the infants we baptized will come to that point for themselves.

But they brought even infants to Jesus. And the disciples were starting to say, well, those aren't members of the covenant anymore. No, they weren't saying that. They were just saying, jesus is too busy. But they were trying to keep these infants away from Jesus and Jesus would have nothing of it.

And he said, let the children come to me. Do not hinder them. For to such. For two children like these to infants belongs the kingdom of heaven. Now, if you read the commentaries on this passage or the parallel passage in Matthew, I've read Baptists talk about this and they say, well, this means the kingdom belongs to those who are like children, who have a childlike faith, but not necessarily two children.

But that cuts against what Jesus says. What that means in their logic is that the kingdom belongs to everyone except Jesus children. Even though Jesus says to such as these belongs the kingdom. The kingdom belongs to infants. And if the kingdom belongs to infants, then they must be covenant members.

Okay, so as we think about this, we have to. And then ask the next question, kind of following that catechism logic. If we are saying that infants are covenant members, are we saying that infants are saved by their parents? They're just saved just by being born into the right family, as opposed to the wrong family. And the answer to that is absolutely no.

When we say that infants are members of God's covenant people, what we are saying is that they are rightful recipients, that we do believe by birthright. They have a claim to God's covenant promises. They may never exercise that claim. They may never lay hold to that claim by faith, but the promises belong to them. And this is where we come to the next text.

In Acts, chapter 2, verses 38 through 39, repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ, for the forgiveness of your sins. Those are the covenant promises. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. Again, those are the covenant promises, the forgiveness of sins, the gift of the Holy Spirit for the promise, Peter goes on to say, is for you and for your children. These gospel promises belong in a special way to the children of believers, that they do not belong to those who are far off.

However, what Peter then clarifies is these promises are also for all who are far off, at least for everyone whom the Lord our God calls to himself. Some will be called into the covenant community by faith. But for the children of believers, they start, they are born into covenant membership. And the covenant promises of righteousness by faith in Jesus Christ are the special claims, the special rights that children have to lay claim to. They may not exercise that right, but it belongs to them.

And so we also see in Acts, chapter 16, verse 31, which will come up in a few weeks, Lord willing, as we continue our sermon series through the Book of Acts, we read, they said, believe in the Lord Jesus and you will be saved, you and your household. These promises of salvation were extended to households. Now, when I was a Baptist and I was trying to think through all of these things, it seemed to me that all of the household baptisms in the New Testament were at best inconclusive. How do we know whether there was an infant in those households? And at worst, they were misleading.

This is just confusing the issue. But what I came to understand is that I was missing the biblical definition, the biblical pattern that God extends his salvation promises through households. Households were circumcised, and in the New Testament, households are baptized. The Old Testament is explicit that infants were to be circumcised in those households. But now when we come to the New Testament households, it's not a question of saying, well, we don't know if infants are really there.

The burden of proof is on saying infants at that time were excluded, excluded from those household baptisms. And we never find that exclusion. We're meant to read the New Testament household baptisms in the light of the Old Testament household circumcisions. But in both cases, the covenant promises extended that righteousness would come by faith.

But now you might have an objection here. And I started to talk about this a little bit, but we need to keep talking about it. If these promises can be extended to the ends of the earth, come on this week and serve. And we're trying to extend the covenant promises of God's blessing of salvation through Jesus Christ to the children of the neighborhood who will be coming here and come on Saturday when we go and try to preach this gospel at Lansing Cruise night on Saturday evening. If those from the outside can come in, then what benefit is there really for our children?

Aren't they just sort of lumped into all those who still need to believe into that category? And the answer and this brings us to our second section about covenant children, is that we must not downplay the great blessing. It is it is a serious thing to be drawn near to the Lord in these covenant promises versus to being cut off, cast off, far off from the Lord from those covenant promises, promises. It's much better to be close than to be far away. And this brings us to the second paragraph of the Catechism in 74.

2. Covenant Children (Deut 23:2; Mal 2:11-12; 1 Cor 7:14)

Therefore, by baptism, the sign of the covenant, they too, these infants too should be incorporated into the Christian church and distinguished from the children of unbelievers. There's an important distinction. God makes this distinction. And we make this distinction by incorporating our children into membership in the church. So the question is, does the New Testament really distinguish the children of believers from the children of the world?

Is the catechism correct on this point? Well, again, it's very important to read the whole Bible when we consider these questions. If we just start in the New Testament and we read about this baptism thing happening for believers, it's very easy to understand where we might come to a Baptist conclusion. Well, I guess believers are to be baptized and we certainly do baptize new believers who come to faith. We've done that here in First Church.

But we have to read the whole Bible to understand the pattern of households and of covenant signs and seals that was established in the Old Testament. And what's very interesting, if you read the Old Testament, marriage to pagans, marriage to unbelievers in the pagan world and the Old Testament meant the exclusion of your children from the assembly to the Lord. Now if you're you married someone who believed, you know, you think about Rahab, who was a Canaanite prostitute. And you think about Ruth, who was a Moabitess. Their children, if they had not come to faith, would be cut off.

But because they had come to faith, their children were counted as a part of Israel, which is so important because David, ultimately Jesus is from that line. But if the person you married was not a believer in the covenant God in the Lord, then your children were cut off. Deuteronomy 23, verse 2 says, no one born of a forbidden union may enter the assembly of the Lord. Even to the 10th generation, none of his descendants may enter the assembly of the Lord. It was not enough to have one believing spouse.

If you married a pagan, your children were cut off. They were excluded, excommunicated from the nation of Israel. If that comes from the beginning of the Bible. In Deuteronomy, if you go to the end of the Old Testament, in Malachi 2, verses 11 through 12, you see the same principle. The prophet proclaims, Judah has profaned the sanctuary of the Lord which he loves and has married the daughter of a foreign God.

That is someone who worships a foreign God. May the Lord cut off from the tents of Jacob any descendant of the man who does this, who brings an offering to the Lord of hosts in a marriage. If there was one believing spouse and one pagan, the children of that union were cut off. But in the New Testament, something does change. But the promises to the children of believers is actually strengthened.

Very often the idea is, well, all of that, who you're born to in lineages and genealogies, that's an Old Testament thing. All of that's done away with in the New Testament. But if, in fact, if you look at the Scriptures, the opposite happens. We have stronger promises in the New Testament. In First Corinthians 7, verse 14, Paul is advising and that if you find yourself married to a pagan idol worshiper, Corinth, don't divorce that person.

Stay married. Because, other words, the unbelieving spouse is made holy because of his wife, and the unbelieving wife is made holy because of her husband. But more so, if you divorce, then you will be leaving your children with someone whose influence you will remove from that situation. And as it is, your children are holy, otherwise they would be unclean. If you remove yourself from that situation, your influence no longer counts there.

Your children are no longer blessed by your covenant connection to the Lord. They would be unclean in that situation, cut off from the Lord, but by your presence, they are counted as holy. There are stronger promises for children of believers in the New Testament than there were in the Old Testament. So if the burden of proof is to say that infants of believers are now cut off from membership in the covenant, the Scriptures point in an entirely different direction. Children of believers are properly members of God's covenant with his people.

And while some believers or children of believers will indeed apostatize, and that's a very tragic thing that happens, Jesus himself promises that other children of believers do possess the kingdom, even infants. No more. God is the one who distinguishes them from the world is unholy. That's directly what First Corinthians 7, verse 14 is teaching. Some are holy, some are unclean.

If there's even one unbelieving or one believing spouse in the marriage, the children are holy. Otherwise, the children are still differentiated, they are still unholy. God still makes this decision, this distinction, and so do we. But how does God distinguish them? How should we distinguish them?

3. Covenant Baptism (Rom 4:1-12; Acts 22:16; Tit 3:5; Col 2:11-13; 1 Pet 3:21)

This brings us to the third part of what our catechism is teaching. Drawing up these biblical doctrines, Covenant baptism, our third section, covenant baptism, we look to the third paragraph of 74. This was done in the Old Testament by circumcision, which was replaced in the New Testament by baptism. Now, there's no question that children in the Old Testament were distinguished in the world by circumcision. Again, we read Genesis 17, abundantly clear.

But one of the main questions is whether baptism really plays the same role, whether baptism has really replaced circumcision in the church of Jesus Christ today. Two weeks ago, in the evening service, I preached on Romans, chapter 4, verses 1 through 12, where it talked about circumcision as not just something that distinguishes ethnic Jews from Gentiles. Circumcision, the sign of circumcision, was a seal that is a confirmation or a ratification of the fact that righteousness comes by faith. It sealed that righteousness had come to Abraham by faith while he was still uncircumcised. And therefore, when circumcision was applied to the infants of Abraham's household and their offspring after them, and their offspring after them throughout the generations, the promise continued to be made that to these children, that if they look to Jesus Christ in faith or to the coming Messiah, they too will be saved.

Well, baptism confirms that sins are forgiven and that righteousness comes by faith, just as circumcision had been done. Again, that's what question 73 is getting at. Why does the Holy Spirit call baptism the water of rebirth and the washing away of sins? You see this in Acts 22, verse 16. Rise and be baptized and wash away your sins, calling on his name.

The sign is connected by a sacramental union to the things signified, to the washing away of sins. And then Titus 3:5 he saved us. God saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, neither circumcision nor baptism or works, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration, by the washing of rebirth and the renewal of the Holy Spirit, that washing of baptism, the sign is connected to what is done in the sacramental union. These aren't merely similar things to look at. Circumcision and Baptism the Scriptures explicitly teach that we were circumcised by our baptisms in the New Covenant.

In Colossians 2, verses 11 through 12, Paul writes this in him also you were circumcised. Every one of you, male and female alike, were circumcised. But this is a circumcision made without hands by the putting off of the body of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ. What that sign in the Old Covenant pointed to was a spiritual reality instituted and established by Christ. So how did that happen?

When did that happen? When were each of us circumcised? Verse 12 Paul continues Colossians 2:12 having been buried with him. Baptism when we are circumcised, it's when you were buried with Christ in your baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith and the powerful working of God, who raised him from the dead and you, verse 13, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh. God made us alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses.

Baptism has replaced circumcision. So then, let's draw out the conclusion. Are we saying that baptism saves infants? By no means. Circumcision didn't save any Jew in the Old Testament.

Baptism doesn't save any professing Christian in the New Testament, Christ saves. It's by his blood and his strength Spirit that we are saved. But there is a real connection. Baptism is a sign and seal of those gospel promises that righteousness comes by faith. Circumcision in the Old Testament was applied to infants proclaiming to that child that righteousness would come to them by faith, just as it had for Abraham, their forefather.

And some in the Old Testament would trust in the covenant promises of the covenant Lord for salvation, while others. And we have a number of stories in the Old Testament in this direction. Others would reject those promises, but the promises were true. God was true. Though every man were a liar.

And baptism does the same thing again. First Peter 3, 21. Baptism, which corresponds to this now saves you not as a removal of dirt from the body, but as an appeal to God. Looking to God, a longing, reaching to God for a good conscience for what he gives to us, not for what we offer to him through the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Water may wash dirt from the body, but only faith in Jesus washes sinners clean through the blood of Jesus Christ.

And therefore we baptize infants to proclaim this gospel. Every child we baptize, we are proclaiming, we are instilling, putting upon their bodies a sign and a seal that's declaring to those children, by faith Christ will wash your conscience clean as surely as waters wash away dirt from your body. Brothers and sisters, in baptism, God wants to teach us about the gospel, to assure us in the words of the catechism, that by this divine pledge and sign we are as truly washed of our sins spiritually as our bodies are washed with water physically. This is the great hope of the gospel for all believers. The blood and spirit of Jesus Christ really does take away all of our sins.

Because Christ shed His blood for you at the cross. You can be washed clean. You can be cleansed from your sins. Children, do you know why you were baptized? Do you know the promises that have been made to you at your baptism?

Do you know that God loved you so much even before you were aware of Him? That your parents, looking to God for your salvation as they were for their own, brought you to the baptismal font, where you received God's divine pledge, his promise stamped upon your bodies, that righteousness will come by faith, that you can be saved by looking to Jesus by faith. You see, it's a good start. It is the blessed start that God commands for you to be baptized in this way as covenant members. But God does this to point you to him, to lead you to him, to lead you to faith in Jesus Christ, to lay hold of him, so that the day comes when you will make profession that what has been put upon your body by baptism is now something that you believe and cling to for yourself by your own faith, that you're looking to Jesus to cleanse your souls.

Just as those waters at one point in your past cleansed your bodies.

But not only children, but to all of you. Do you know the goodness of God in the gospel? Do you know what these promises hold out to you? Do you trust in him for his mercy? What a kind Savior we have.

He promises us that his yoke is Easy and his burden is light. He declares even to the ends of the earth, to the unwashed, uncircumcised, gentile world. Come to him, all you who are weary and heavy laden, and he will give you rest. Find rest for your weary, heavy laden conscience. Find rest for your sin, sick, sin burdened hearts.

Come to Christ and find rest for your souls. Parents, continue bringing your children for baptism. Encourage other parents to do the same. You know, infant baptism was practiced by the vast majority of the Church throughout history. If you read through Church history, it is only in the last few hundred years that anyone has ever argued in the history of Christianity that we should delay baptism until children could make a profession of faith.

That's unheard of until the last few hundred years. It's a brand new idea that did not find its root in the Scriptures or in any teaching of any group. In the earliest Church, there were those who delayed their baptism. You may know the great church, Father Augustine, for example, we write that he delayed his baptism. Why?

Well, because his view of baptism was the Roman Catholic view that the baptism would actually wash away his sins. And he wanted to get through the sins of his youth so that that one shot opportunity to get everything cleansed, to start fresh could cover all of the sins of his youth before he could move on with the rest of his life. It wasn't so that he could come to a point of making his own personal confession. It was an erroneous, unbiblical view of baptism. But the Scriptures hold out a positive vision for baptism, and this vision is not always clear.

If you still have questions again, I'd encourage you to pick up the little booklet by Brian Chappell that we make available or come talk with me. But what I want you to hear, if nothing else, is that baptism holds out a promise. The promise that righteousness comes by faith. And this is a promise that Christ extends not only to you, but to your children after you. And it's a promise that we preach to the ends of the earth for all those who are far off.

As many as the Lord our God will call to himself the promise that is sealed, pledged and guaranteed in baptism. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, I pray that we would now remember our baptisms and improve upon our baptisms. Not to improve beyond what you have given us. But.

But that old language simply means to make use of our baptisms, to fall back on those promises that righteousness comes by faith, to look to Christ again tonight for our salvation, praying that the children who have received this baptism would come to the point of making their profession of faith for themselves, claiming what belongs to them by birthright sealed to them in baptism. And we pray that you would draw many in through new faith who have been far off and cut off from the household of Abraham, from the household of faith. And we pray that you would reach as many as the Lord our God will call to Himself. Even this week we pray for that Gospel proclamation of vbs and at Lansing cruise night. And we pray that the Gospel would be heard and believed upon by all those who hear that all of these things we look to Christ and we pray that you would make us so dependent upon our Savior.

It's in his name we pray. Amen.

other sermons in this series

Jul 12

2026

"Delivered to Us" (I Cor 11:23-26)

Preacher: Rev. Jacob Gerber Scripture: 1 Corinthians 11:23–26 Series: Heidelberg Catechism

Jun 28

2026

"A Fountain of Blood"

Preacher: Wybren Oord Scripture: Zechariah 12:10– 13:1 Series: Heidelberg Catechism

Jun 21

2026

"Seals of Righteousness by Faith"

Preacher: Rev. Jacob Gerber Scripture: Romans 4:1–12 Series: Heidelberg Catechism