Because churches are full of people, and churches are filled with problems, and first Corinthians is one of these helpful books that gives us a deep biblical realism about how we know God in the world in community with flawed people all around us, nonetheless able to come together and really know the life of God. Now the Apostle Paul, when he wants to encourage people about the mystery and the myths of the myths, one of the things he frequently points out to them is the promise, the truth of baptism, and what it means and why in the midst of anything you may go through in life or anything you might experience in a church, what baptism means ought to deeply, deeply encourage you. Now let me ask you a question. I work to say to you, take out a piece of paper and a pencil, and I want you to write down five things that you think will help you grow in your faith, that you think you need to focus on. Write down five things, I don't do it, this is like that. I appreciate that attentiveness, but you don't need to do it, but if I were just to say to you, five things that you think will help deepen faith in your life. How many of you would write down anything having to do with a deeper understanding of your baptism, thinking about or meditating on your baptism? How many of you would even say, for really grocery, I need to be baptized? I doubt very many people would, and sadly I think it's because we fail to appreciate how profound the meaning of baptism is in the New Testament. And what a gift it is for those who believe in Jesus Christ. The prominence of baptism in the New Testament is nothing less than astounding. When Jesus Christ talked about his work in the world to be the shepherd who would draw sheep to himself, making disciples of all nations and all kinds of people, right there he says to his disciples, go and make disciples baptizing them. The act of being incorporated into him is described as baptizing them. The apostle Paul, when he comes to know Jesus Christ, is told by Ananias, get up, be baptized, and wash away your sins, calling on his name. And the New Testament, when Christians become weak or sinful, and in any way begin to turn away from the way of Christ, one of the most frequent admonitions of the New Testament is something like this. Don't you remember what your baptism means? Don't you remember that you were baptized in Christ and have clothed yourself in Christ, or don't you remember that you've died to the power of sin and baptism and have risen to New life in baptism all through the New Testament? In fact, the only time it's spoken of in any way that would denigrate it here in 1 Corinthians is when people misunderstand baptism at which point Paul speaks of their misunderstanding and says, I'm glad I didn't baptize you since you misunderstand it so frequently, but rather proclaim the gospel to you. And of course, his point that he makes throughout this letter is that the gospel is exactly what baptism is all about. Baptism, sadly, is one of the most misunderstood things in Christian practice. John Calvin had a helpful way of breaking down the errors. He said on the one hand, people sometimes look at baptism with the mistake of magic. That is, the magic water that if you say the magic words and use the magic water, what happens? It will just bowl you over with grace. You know, come hell or high water. This would in fact be the high water and your sins are washed away, you know, do not pass go, do not collect $500. That's it, done. Literally magic. That's all it takes is a little water and you're clean, period. Or the opposite error, and frankly, an error which not in the early reformation, but now throughout the world, many Protestants fall in the opposite equally dangerous error. Not saying baptism is nothing but a mirage. Not magic, of course, but a mere symbol. Something that simply, you know, something you're supposed to do for some reason or other to say, look what happened to me, I became a Christian. That's all it is. It doesn't really do anything. It's just a mere ceremony. I think what you see in the New Testament, the instrumental language, the attachment to the gospel and the new life that baptism has, the reformers very properly called a mystery. Not magic, not mirage, but a mystery, an amazing gift through which God seals and communicates to his children what it is he promises us in Jesus Christ. And I think one of the best ways to understand why he does that is to think of stereo. Now, one of the things that annoys me about classical music, which is my passion, I love it, is that the radio stations all have pathetically weak signals. In New York, it was weak here in Atlanta. It's weak. It drives me crazy. If you're in the wrong place of town, you never can't quite tune it in the way you wanted to. Give them money or something. Just pipe up the signal. But what you can do, if the signals weak, is you can tune it in on the regular band and you can get the music. But if the signal is strong, you can get it in stereo. And when that little red light in the stereo comes in, you know what happens with the music. You start getting the woofers and the tweeters and all the sort of colors, the deeper colors of what's in the music start to come out. Well, the sacraments of baptism in the Lord's Supper, and this morning we're talking about the Lord's Supper next week, baptism today are exactly that for the Christian life. God wants you to understand his commitment to you in Jesus Christ. If you believe in him, he wants you to know that he knows you're not just a being with ears. You need a word of promise, but frankly, a word of promise is not enough. He wants you to experience that promise. St. Augustine said, a sacrament is a visible word. That is, he wants you to see it, experience it, feel it, sense it. That with every fiber of your being, you would know visibly. Here it is. Touch it. And the Holy Supper tastics. Jesus Christ has died that you might live. In other words, as the Old Testament says, he remembers that we're death. And in our weakness, now here's the thing, you may think of yourself as a highfalutin intellectual and you may be a Christian who thinks you've got all your tees crossed and your eyes dotted, but the fact is God knows your weak. And in your weakness, he gives every believer this gift. To say in the water, this is the way to know that as surely as this water is poured out, if you believe, this is what I will do for you. Now Americans, I think Americans especially, but many evangelicals around the world, tend to think of baptism as primarily something we do to talk about something we've experienced. You will never find that in the New Testament. There is never a place. There is not a place in the New Testament where baptism is spoken of as something that you say or something that you're here to declare and you're here to do. That's very popular. That's very common. It's just that's what happened to be biblical. You won't find it. It doesn't happen. What you do see is this. Not you with a microphone. You know, it's American, right? It's an individual going, hey, let me tell you, you know, we even take sacraments and do that with it. Give me the microphone. I've got something to say. No, sacrament is God with the microphone. God making a pledge. God making a promise. And God saying, if you believe, yes, of course, you must respond. You must have faith. You must believe, but understand that when the sacrament happens, this is about me. This is a covenant. And I am here sealing in a fixing my word of what I will do and nothing will stop me from doing it if you receive it in faith. Now what is it that he promises us in baptism? And this is going to be fortunately a two point sermon. If you count them off and get your watches going, the encourage is a two point sermon. The first thing is this, baptism is a promise from God that says that if you believe the gospel of Jesus Christ, you are absolutely one with his son Jesus. If you believe you are absolutely united and one with his son Jesus. Now the way the Apostle Paul chooses to tell this and remind the Corinthians of this is here in verse two of 1 Corinthians 10. Notice what he says. He is speaking of biblical history, the children of Israel in the Exodus. And how when they were out wandering in the desert, God showed his kindness to them to keep covenant with them by sending a cloud by day. And then most dramatically by parting the waters of the sea to lead them through from the threat of the Egyptians onto the other side. And Paul sees in that cloud, if you will, the presence of the Spirit and in the water an image of baptism. And what he says, and I will just read those first two verses, I don't want you to be ignorant of the fact that our forefathers were all under the cloud and they all pass through the sea and they were all baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea. And in the sea, what a strange set of words. They were all baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea. Well, what happened? Let's face it, if you are out in the desert, you don't know where your water is coming from. You don't know where your food is coming from and there is some guy standing there who says, I can show you God, I speak for God, and you follow him out into that desert. There is some sense in which you are identifying with him. There is some sense in which you are committing yourself to him. And let me tell you something, not only when you go out in the desert, but when the enemy is pursuing you at your heels and you see the water part on either side and you make that decision to walk through the dry ground. You have just made what might be called a commitment. You have committed to this person. You have committed to what he is saying and Paul says that is exactly what baptism is. Now notice in Exodus chapter 14, we read something like this, when the Israelites saw the great power of the Lord, displayed against the Egyptians, the people feared the Lord and put their trust in him and in his servant. Moses, so when they saw God saving action, they were baptized as that action led them into committing and following him. In the first century, the word baptized is often used for people who die cloth. It is a word that is often used to refer to taking a fabric, putting it in dye, so that it completely changes its color. It gets a whole new identity. And that is exactly the idea of this word that refers to washing or dipping or pouring. It is used in all sorts of different ways. But one of the fundamental connotations is a word that changes, a word that gives you a new identity. And that is what happened because of God's act. The Jewish people were given a singular new identity with Moses. And Paul says that is exactly what happens to those who believe in Jesus Christ. Just as they were baptized in the Moses, so we are baptized in the Christ. Now what does that mean to be baptized in the Christ? How is it that we are identified with him? Well I wanted to say a couple of things, the New Testament brings out that are important. And those two things are what we call justification and sanctification. Justification and sanctification. What is justification? Justification is how it is we are made right with God through Christ. In Acts chapter 2, verse 38, the apostle Peter on the day when the gospel was first proclaimed to the church, and the spirit fell in the church, the Holy Spirit was given, said, repent and be baptized every one of you, and the name of Jesus Christ. And you shall, and wash away your sins. In other words, repent and be baptized, and wash away your sins. Acts 2.38, for the forgiveness of your sins. I'm sorry, it's what he says. Now what he's saying is that Jesus Christ somehow, by believing in him, you can be forgiven of your sins, and baptism is a picture of your washing away of those sins. How is that possible? Well Jesus Christ, what did he do? He came into the world and he died on the cross. And when he died on the cross, what happened? He was judged in our place. The Bible tells us that God put our sins on Jesus when he died on the cross. He was judged in our place. He was, if you will, circumcised there. The Old Testament symbol of circumcision, the Old Testament symbol of what made you right with God. Your sins got to be put away. Your sins got to be cut away and cast off before you can be right with God. Well, that was fulfilled when Jesus went in our place, and rather than something from us being cut off, he was cut off, and he was judged. Jesus was judged on the cross, and often he spoke of the cross as the baptism which he must endure. The image of judgment is present in all of these water stories from the Old Testament that the Bible often uses when talking about baptism. The Exodus, what took place there? There was a great water judgment on the Egyptians. Yes, there was deliverance for the people of Israel, but there were judgment on the Egyptians. Peter likened baptism to the flood that saved Noah. Noah was in the boat, he was in the ark, and he was saved. But if you were in the ark, you were judged. And baptism brings up the same images, but it's Jesus who's the one who's judged. He is baptized with fire on the cross so that we might not be judged. So the writer, the apostle Paul in the book of Romans, says he was raised for our justification. That is, he died and rose again so that our sins might be put away. And so, that just as he is now raised, approved by God at God's right hand, in union with him by faith, we sit at God's right hand. And a Christian is someone who can look at Jesus Christ and by faith say that everything that happened to him, his judgment, his circumcision, the judgment that that place on him, so I might not be judged, his resurrection to God's right hand so that he is now fully there in the heavenly presence of God. That is all mine by faith, and that is what baptism promises Danny who believed. Baptism is a washing of justification. Peter says, repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. It simply says, you can be forgiven, but it says more than that. It's also a washing of sanctification. Baptism is a washing that says, not only can you be forgiven, but you can also be made new. When Peter announced baptism on that day, he said, repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And, he continued, you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. In other words, it's not just a washing that says you can be clean and right with God, but it's a washing that says you can have a new life. You know, water is a powerful picture because water is what you need if you don't want to be dirty. Right? I mean, assuming we have agreement there. And secondly, water is what you need if you're going to live. Water is that most fundamental element we need to be alive. And the water of baptism says that is exactly what Jesus is. Jesus is your way to be clean, and Jesus is your way to truly live. You see, the Bible says that every human being is the descendent of Adam, and in Adam everything about us is tainted with sin and brokenness. Everything about us, even the little babies, to the wise older adults, there's a sense of which our mind, our will, our emotions, everything about us is in union, if you will, with Adam. That is, there's a heart that rebelled against God and that turns away from him. And the gospel says that in Jesus Christ, when you believe, it's not just an act of the mind, it literally changes you, not only physically, but in the deepest sense. Not only is there a washing on your body, but there is a deep spiritual transformation, a deep spiritual washing so that your very nature changes because you're no longer in union with Adam. You're now in union with the living, risen, victorious Jesus Christ. Now, how different is this in theology? We call this regeneration. That is, baptism says that if you believe in Jesus, not only will you be forgiven, but in union with him, the one who died and rose again, you will have his life within you, the presence of his spirit, literally changing you. The Apostle John in his first letter, chapter three, says this, the person who is born of God, that is, who's believed in Christ and has had this new birth, cannot continue in sin. That is, you will not remain under the power of sin because the seed of God remains in you. The word seed there is the Greek word spherma. And from that, we can determine the idea, if you will, of DNA. That a Christian is someone who literally, because they're united to Jesus, and Jesus' spirit is within them, has a new spiritual DNA. There is a new life transforming principle, the life of Christ within you that will absolutely overcome the power of sin. That is what baptism promises you, not just that you're clean, but that you have a new life, and that life will result in sharing in Jesus' resurrection. Today, you're going to be resurrected because you have a new DNA, you have a new life within you. There has been a radical breach with sin. Now, you still have Adam in you. You still have a simple nature. There are still many battles. The Christian life is not one of floating up to heaven, but of hacking your way through the jungle. But as you hack your way through the jungle, the reason you're able to swing the machete is because there's a new life force within you. There's a new DNA. I'm not have said this a year ago, but I now know about Zoysia Grass. And what a liberating thing it is. Chatvots say in my yard, it's a horrifying thing. There are weeds in there that I don't think, if you were a horticultureist, you couldn't identify what some of these things are, but I committed to Zoysia. Why? Because it's a hearty grass. And you plugged that stuff in there. So I'm told, I believe them. And you just, you just, you watch it work. It's harder than the weeds. And what does it do? It takes over. It eventually roots them out. And it becomes the dominant life force. That is what baptism promises. That when you're united to Jesus, his life will more and more reign in you as you believe in him. And that's why the Apostle Peter, listen, puts it in astounding words. He literally can say he wants you to see the promise of baptism so clearly that he says it is now baptism that saves you. That makes people very nervous because it sounds like the old magic view. That's not what he's trying to say. He wants you to understand how real that picture is of what Jesus wants to do in your life. It is baptism that saves you how? It saves you by the resurrection of Jesus Christ who has gone into heaven and is at God's right hand with angels, authorities, and powers in submission to him. Do you understand what he's saying? Believe the gospel. And God wants you to see, to experience and stereo if you will. This is what he's going to do. You can know that you're right, that you're forgiven, and you can know no matter how deep your struggle or how long you can believe the gospel. You know that his life is at work. The promise is what? You are one with Jesus and the power of his death and the power of his resurrection. I think that one of the beautiful things about baptism is that it is personally administered. There are probably people here who are Christians who have been frustrated by your long struggles with sin and problems. And you hear everything I'm saying and you're saying, yeah, I can believe that. I believe the gospel is true. I believe Jesus died. I believe he rose again, but not for me. You don't understand how habitual my sin is. How besetting that is why God insists that the water go on every single one of you. So that you'll know that it's true for you. Believe the gospel. Now, I'm going to draw out another principle simply because I think it's really important. And it's this. This text tells you, he's reminding them in their struggle, in their case it was the struggle with idolatry. And he's saying, remember, as our spiritual ancestors were, as they were baptized with Moses, so you've been united with Christ. I would also draw out that not only are you one with Jesus, but this text is an encouragement that your children are one with Jesus too, that baptism is intended as a message not only for you, but also as a message for your children. Now, I'm going to talk about this for just a minute. And I realize that this question of whether or not infants should be baptized is an emotional one, a divisive one for some people. And there are probably plenty of people here who would say that you've committed your children to God. You just dry cleaned them. You weren't comfortable bringing them to the front. And I understand some people believe that, but our church adheres to the historic Christian faith and the practice of the church, at least for the first 1500 years. And I'm going to say a word to you about why. And I see it here, this is just one text, but here in the very beginning because he takes this Gentile Corinthian church. People who've come to be Christians who are not Jewish and he takes the biblical covenant story and says it's theirs. Did you notice that? He says I do not want you to be ignorant of the fact brothers that our forefathers were all under the cloud. In other words, the history of Israel, the heritage of Israel, he's saying to anyone who's in Jesus, that's your story. That covenant is your covenant. There's a unity of God's people. And what he says to them is they all passed through the sea. Believers and their children were baptized into Moses. They were all given this. And this is very consonant with what we read about God's saving purposes in the Old Testament. In Genesis chapter 17, the promise of salvation was given to Abraham and to his seed. And a sign was given that was to represent his salvation. It was the sign of circumcision, which was of course only given to males, but it was to be covenantal for the whole family. And that sign said, if you believe in God's promises, that is if you believe the gospel, just as surely as you physically see this old being cut away and disposed of, no, that I will put away your sin, it will be credited unto you for righteousness as you believe, and you'll be made holy and made my people. It was a sign, not of the works, it was a sign of faith. Romans chapter 4 says that circumcision was a seal of the righteousness which comes by faith. Now Abraham was someone who came to trust God as an adult and because of that, he received the sign after he believed. But his children were given the sign before they believed because the promise was, I'll be a God to you and to your children. Now in the New Testament, here's the problem that we have. There's no clear example of an infant being baptized, just as their examples of infants being circumcised. Neither is their example of a child being baptized after coming to faith. Let me just point that out to you. Neither one is president of New Testament. Neither is there an example of women eating communion. I've never heard anybody have qualms about that. In other words, there's no biblical instruction about women receiving communion. There's no biblical instruction. There's no example of a child of a believer coming to faith later in life and then being baptized. Neither is there a specific example of an infant being baptized. Now we know that the New Testament sign of baptism is a fulfillment of the sign of circumcision. Colossians 2 says that baptism shows us more clearly what circumcision always says. That is because Jesus fulfilled circumcision on the cross. He showed how he fulfilled the way the old nature has cut away and the new life has given. Now baptism, if you will, goes from that black and white sign to color to say that it's in Jesus that this happens. But the old sign was about faith looking forward to Jesus. The new sign is in faith looking at the finished work of Jesus. The question then remains, has that covenant sign become more restrictive now so that children are no longer included in God's covenant? Or has the side become more broad so that children, male and female of believers are included? In other words, has God's covenant become more inclusive as a promise of what can be ours through faith? Or has it become constricted so that children are no longer included in the covenant? I think what you will see on the New Testament is that children are treated, the children of believers are treated exactly as they are treated in the Old Testament. We're told in the book of Romans chapter 15, verse 8 that Jesus came to confirm the promises given to our fathers. That is to make the more sure, to make the realities in the promises more sure than they were before. And you see that in His ministry. In Matthew 19, we read a story of Jesus where probably on the day of atonement when Jewish people would bring their children to the scribes on the day of atonement, the day when forgiveness was promised, the scribes would lay their hands on the children and bless them. And they would pray a prayer that this child would grow up in the covenant with God's blessings and would always love the Torah. And on that day, these believers in Jesus, these new believers in Jesus instinctively took their children rather than to describe, they took them to Jesus. And the disciples thought it was a mistake. They thought it was a waste of time. And Jesus rebuked them and said, no, bring the little children to me. And we're told that these children of believers in hand, he took the children and he blessed them. That is he confirmed God's covenant blessings for the children of believers. And in 1 Corinthians, this story here in chapter 7, there were many people who were new believers in Jesus, but their spouses were not. And I wondered, what does this mean for our children? This is different than it might have been in the Old Testament. I'm an outsider who's come to Christ. My spouse doesn't believe. What about my children? 1 Corinthians 7, Paul says, no, if you believe your children are holy. That is, they are in the covenant. They are in the sphere of the place where God blesses. And finally, on the day of Pentecost, I think it is astounding that on that day of great change, when the spirit comes, that Peter would stand there and declare in Acts 2, verse 39, when he says, to repent and be baptized every one of you for the forgiveness of your sins and you'll receive the promise of the Holy Spirit, he says, for the promise is unto you and to your children. You see, it's an echo of the language of Abraham. Now, there's so much to talk about, so much in that question. Let me just try to encourage you to say that what the church has done without dispute for its first 1500 years and what the vast majority of all believers in the world do now is an assurance to say this. Just as the only hope you have for yourself is union with Jesus Christ, guaranteeing you that you're right with God and union with Jesus Christ that says you can change. So, that's the only hope you could ever have as a parent. To know that Jesus says, bring this child to me and I can knit to him. Know that as you pray and nurture that child, that that child is united to Jesus and your hope for that child changing is not in your good parenting, but it's in the promise of God's pledge. Now, this text ends on a downer and I say that last little bit for last, the downer of verse 5, because he begins with this great promise of baptism and he speaks also of communion, we'll deal with that next week. But he says, nevertheless, God was not pleased with most of them and their bodies were scattered over the desert. In other words, the sign alone won't save you. The sign alone won't do anything unless you listen to what it says. Salvation is a gift. Baptism is the box in which it's wrapped up in, but the gift has got to be received in faith. And if you don't respond in faith to Jesus Christ, you're not going to know and listen, don't be like so many of them were, which is to think just because you're a church, just because you're a good person, just because you've had some words said over you that somehow you're right with God. The being right with God will only come through faith and repentance. But let me close with this. I don't want to end on a downer. Paul kept writing. He didn't end on a downer, but we're not reading anymore, and it's this. The promise is this. Yes, you must repent. Yes, you must believe, but know this. God wants you to know that no matter what you face in this life, he is committed to you. You know the one Martin Luther was hauled before the Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire over the gospel he was proclaiming. And his life was going to be told to give an account for these things he was saying. He was hauled before the Emperor. We're told that on those days he wrote in his journals, later in table talk as he spoke to students, he said, what I kept saying to myself was this, baptism was asked. I am baptized. Now, was he being superstitious? Was he holding to some magical view that said, I'm so good, the magic words in the water have been said to me, no. What he was saying right now, I'm not going to find my confidence in my own shaky feelings. I'm not going to look to Martin Luther to find my hope, to look inside of me and make sure I'm believing in doing all the right things. He was looking to God's promise to him. God's word, God's promise to the gospel and saying God's promise is unshakable, and that is where I'll stand. Even though the world was really shaken last week, when the news was released that one of the great authors and preachers, I think of the century, James Montgomery Voice, was diagnosed with terminal cancer, told that he only had a couple of months to live. And those of us in the Presbyterian Church, it was all going through the emails, people sharing various details. This past Sunday, Jim stood up in front of his church in Philadelphia, the congregation had, of course, all heard what he was facing. And he said this, I've been preaching the sovereignty of God my whole ministry. God is still sovereign and God is still good. What I am facing is good for the glory of God, and it is good for Jim Voice. How is it he could say that? It's because he could claim the promise of his baptism, that no matter what came into his life, no matter what he experienced, no matter what was thrown at him, he was united to Jesus. Let's pray. Lord, would you make the pledge that we're about to see in baptism clear to each person here? I particularly want to pray for people who do not yet believe, people who don't know you, that they would see that you are a God who wants to speak in ways that are absolutely clear and empathic, that say, come to me, and you'll be washed and you'll receive in your life. You strengthen us, strengthen our children to believe this word of the gospel. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.