The Baptism of the Children of Believers
Minister: |
Rev. Ronald Van Overloop |
Date: |
9/3/2017 AM
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Text:
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Romans 9;
Lord's Day 27
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Psalters: |
177, 89, 234, 396 |
- The Biblical basis.
- God promises to be the God of His people and of their elect children (Gen. 17:7 and Acts 2:39).
- God’s promise of redemption and forgiveness is directed to elect children as well as to elect adults (Luke 18:15,16).
- Third, God promises the Holy Spirit, the author of faith, also to the elect children of believers (Acts 2:38,39).
- Infants can partake of God's grace without conscious knowledge (cf. Ps. 139:13; Jer. 1:5; Luke 1:15).
- The children of a believing parent are called “holy” (I Cor. 7:14b) or “sanctified in Christ.”
- The biblical practice.
- Jesus commanded that when the elect were converted, then they were to be baptized (Matt. 28:19; Mk. 16:16).
- When the apostles obeyed, they baptized new believers and their households: Acts 16:15,31,32; I Cor. 1:16.
- The apostles included households because they saw that God saved in the New as He did in the Old.
- There is a Biblical answer to the difficulty that not all those baptized (adults and children) are saved.
- This does not deter us from baptizing the infants of believers because God commands us to do so.
- Serious errors have arisen in the attempt to deal with this difficulty.
- The Bible answers this problem by pointing to the Israelites who did not believe (Romans 9:1-8).
- Why is it that God's promise is only for some of Abraham's children (the elect among them) and not all of them?
- The biblical responsibility: keep bringing your children to Jesus (Mark 10:13)!!
- In obedience to God's commands we baptize and teach them the truth along with the command of God to obey (Gen. 18:19).
- We teach our children to consider themselves saved only in the way of their repenting and believing.
- We constantly praise God for His gracious goodness, and constantly pray that He will not cut us off in our generations.