Okay, take your copy of the scriptures now for the New Testament reading, which will be from 1 Corinthians 10, starting in verse 1. And before we hear from the Lord, let’s ask his blessing upon the reading and the reception and the preaching of that word. Let’s pray once more. Our heavenly Father, we come now before you once more, and as we open now this your word, we pray that the eyes of our heart may indeed be enlightened, so we may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ which surpasses all understanding, that we may be filled to all the fullness of God. We pray, Lord, grace for those who are here and grace for the speaker now. In your name, we ask, Lord, give us a great hunger for this, your word, and for the bread of heaven, Jesus Christ. And we pray it in his name. And all God’s people said, Amen.

1 Corinthians 10, starting in verse one. For I do not want you to be unaware, brothers, that our fathers were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea, and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, and all ate the same spiritual food, and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank from the spiritual rock that followed them, and the rock was Christ. Nevertheless, most of them, God was not pleased for they were overthrown in the wilderness. Now these things took place as examples for us that we might not desire evil as they did. The word of the Lord. Thanks be to God. Amen, you may be seated.

Well, there’s a wonderful blessing that we can, this Lord’s Day, celebrate both sacraments ordained by the Lord Jesus Christ, baptism and the Lord’s Supper in a moment here. And of course, as a church, we celebrate weekly the Lord’s Supper, and we delight weekly, and we remember and praise God for the sending of the Savior into the world to complete all that redemptive history pointed for, pointed to. One of my favorite hymns related to the birth of Christ is that familiar old hymn, O Little Town of Bethlehem. O Little Town of Bethlehem. And in that hymn, there is that line that succinctly captures the beauty of redemptive history and the unfolding of redemptive history. When it says this, it says, you know it well, the hopes and fears of all the years are met in thee tonight. The hopes and fears of all the years are met in thee tonight. Speaking of Christ, and this of course is good theology, this is biblical teaching. The hopes and fears of all that redemptive history, all that unfolding are met in Christ and will be accomplished by the complex of his life, death, his birth, life and death and resurrection. And that’s it, right? All of God’s unfolding history drives and comes to Jesus.

We’ve just witnessed a baptism. Baptism is a rich and wonderful topic, and we’re gonna look a little further at it, a little closer at this sacrament this morning, so we can remember what God’s word says about this sacrament, and for our edification, and for our encouragement in Christ. We have just, of course, heard a few of the basic reasons why it is that we baptize adults and with them their children. This morning I wanted to point out from our text some things that maybe are not always obvious or thought about regarding baptism. Sometimes these are verses that we kind of just read over and think that we don’t really get it. We’ll get back to them when we don’t and we just move on. But I wanted to not move on and look at these verses as we do periodically. Here at Providence, when we look at the literature of the church, the historic church, and the practice of the history of the church, we find very common these prayers that would be prayed right before baptism was administered to a child or to anyone. And in those prayers, they would refer to God’s righteous judgment in the flood of Noah and the Egyptians being punished and judged as Israel crossed the sea safely on the other side. And so as baptism is administered, references are made to these Old Testament events that would seem, at least at first glance, they have nothing to do with baptism, much less the baptizing of a little baby. But as we look at the New Testament, we see that, of course, the church in history would refer to these events in redemptive history because they were following the Old Testament, following the New Testament. in its practice. The early church didn’t make these things up just to be different or just to be strange, but they did so according to the New Testament. And according to that New Testament, these do have to do with baptism, right? So this morning, I wanna look at 1 Corinthians 10 and see what we might learn from it there. We will see why the church of old following the New Testament could use these texts, even as we’ve seen this morning. We’ll also see that the text show us that God, what he wants us to do regarding baptism, particularly, right, he wants us to show us who are the subjects of baptism, who should come under the waters of baptism.

The Mutual History of God’s People

And so the first thing we’re gonna look at this morning as we look at this text is the mutual history of God’s people, right, the mutual history of God’s people. And you’ll notice how Paul begins this text in 1 Corinthians 10. He starts in verse one and he says, I want you to know, brothers, that our forefathers, right, our forefathers. And you see that there. Paul is writing to a church. You’re all aware of this, of the church of Corinth. It wasn’t the church of the holy people that never sinned. This is a church that’s riddled with pretty significant issues. It’s made up also, if not entirely, most Gentile members. And so it’s this pretty problematic group of people, plenty of issues, plenty of troubles, and Paul is still willing to call them brothers, brothers, even though some of the sins that were rampant at this time in the church would make us cringe and blush and wonder if they could be called a church at all. Yet Paul has no problem addressing them as brothers, the church of Corinth, saints by calling. And he says to this mostly Gentile church that’s struggling to behave, struggling in its behavior, struggling in its church life, he says, I don’t want you to be ignorant, brothers, that our forefathers, right? Again, he’s speaking to a church that has no Jewish heritage. There’s no common history, physical or nationally, with Israel, and yet Paul includes the whole church And he says this, you brothers share our history because you are now believers in Christ. In the history of the Old Testament becomes your history as well. And those people back there are your people. They have common faith and a common God. And so this is significant because in our day, there’s a dominant view that the church and Israel are two entirely different things. Not so according to Paul, not so according to scripture. And when we read the pages of the New Testament, we see that Paul has no problem joining this Gentile church into the story that is already being told. In fact, he’ll tell us in Ephesians chapter 2 that those faraway ones, Gentiles, and those near ones, Israel, become one new man. They become one new man. The faraway ones don’t become Israelites, and the Israelites don’t become faraway ones. They become together one new man in Christ. He says we have this mutual ancestry, this mutual faith, this mutual past. And the Bible shows us plainly that the Jews and the Gentiles are branches both grafted into the same root, and we’re being built up again into one man in Christ. It should be clear from the text that there is this unity now between believers in the Old Testament and believers of the New. And they are not separated by some different sort of faith or reality or plan or way. Scripture knows nothing of that. And this is the only place, I’m sorry, this isn’t the only place where we see this commonality, this continuity throughout the New Testament. When Paul comes to the core doctrines of the New Testament, you’ll remember. We know Paul. We’re probably most familiar, most of us, with the New Testament. When it comes to core important issues and matters and doctrines, key doctrines of the faith, when Paul is searching for an example, right? For about, for instance, justification by faith as he speaks of. Where does he go, right? And he’s thinking for an example. He points to Abraham. And he says, remember Abraham and what happened to him? He believed God and it was credited to him as righteousness. When he’s looking for an example of the blessed man who has his sins totally forgiven and has been purged utterly of all of his shame, where does he go? He doesn’t refer to the forgiven tax collector or to Peter in his constant stumbling or his denial of the Lord at the execution, the crucifixion. Instead, he goes all the way back to the Old Testament and he says in Romans 5, remember what David said? Oh, how blessed is the man whose sins are forgiven, whose transgressions are covered. Paul makes his case from the Old Testament because it is the history of God’s people, not two peoples or plans. It’s the one people of God. And this continuity, according to Paul, even flows into the sacraments of the church, baptism and the Lord’s Supper. And we see this, and we saw this in our text this morning. We see there this connection, this mutual history, this mutual past between God’s people of the old and into the new. What a wonderful truth this is as we think about this. What a wonderful truth, not disconnected as a sui generis, coming from nowhere, but part of God’s plan all along, even as we read in the New Testament. It’s part of God’s plan, his foreordination, he knew all along, he knew your days, he chose you before the foundation of the world, before that Old Testament. If you’re Christ, you’re a part of that. He calls us and he brings us into his history, into his story, this unfolding for the redemption of his people, of which he has made us a part. And that’s a glorious thing for which we should praise him and delight in him and in his love and give glory to him. So we see the mutual history of God’s plan, of God’s people.

The Meaning of Baptist

And then secondly, we see the meaning of baptism, the meaning of baptism. And so let’s look at what baptism means in the Old Testament according to the New Testament and what we can learn from that. And in doing so, we’ll also see who are the subjects of baptism, right? Who are those who are to come under the waters of baptism? And as we do so, we see Paul is very clear in his use of language here about whom he’s speaking in chapter 10, in 1 Corinthians 10, when he says, again, all Israel was under the cloud, and all passed through the sea, and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea.” Paul says that there was a baptism that took place there in the Old Testament. There’s a baptism that took place, and he uses some very interesting references, the cloud and the sea. When he does this, he teaches us about our present Christian life in telling us this part of history. We wanna understand what he’s talking about. What does it mean that they were all baptized into the cloud and into the sea? Well, what is the cloud as we look at the Old Testament? What is the cloud to which he refers? When we go through the Old Testament, you’ll notice that the cloud has a very particular reference in the Old Testament. The cloud is a sign and symbol of God’s presence with his people. So when Israel was led out in Exodus, out of Egypt. The cloud is there by day and a pillar of fire by night. That’s God’s way of showing that he is with them. He is protecting them and he is leading them. The cloud, the pillar of fire. And when the tabernacle is constructed or the temple is built, what do we see? This cloud comes and it fills the entirety of the temple or the tabernacle in order to show the God’s people that his presence has come. He is there with them. with his people. When the people gather at Sinai, recall, to receive the covenant, the cloud comes and it settles on the mountain, this incredible spectacle, so that they know that God has arrived. And so when Paul here refers to the cloud, he’s clearly making reference to God’s presence. It’s a specific incident that takes place in the Old Testament that we’re reading about this morning. And remember from our Old Testament reading in Exodus 14, God’s presence with Israel in the sign of a cloud. He’s leading them out, and they’re in a panic. The Egyptians are behind them. And as we see this cloud leading them out, and then it rises, and it goes to the back and becomes their rear guard to defend them. And Paul says regarding this cloud that they were under it and that they were baptized into it. Paul calls this moon and the cloud over them, oddly enough, a baptism. And then he goes on and he says that they were baptized in the sea. Now that may sound strange to us because who were the ones that were wetted or got wet in this baptism? It was the Egyptians, right? The Egyptians were the ones that got dunked. They’re the ones that had waters thrust upon them. They were the main ones that we think baptized, but he clearly refers to this as a baptism of the Israelites who went through. The sea is referring, of course, to the Red Sea, that sea which they crossed, and this is the well-known incident. Indeed, this is the great redemptive act of the Old Testament, the great redemptive act of the people of God If we look at what happened leading up to this passage in Exodus 14 that we read, we see that God has sent the angel of death on the night of Passover, and Pharaoh has finally said, take your people and get out of here. And the Israelites have made their journey, and they’re going in haste towards the promised land. And then they realize that Egypt is now following them. Pharaoh has changed his mind, and he wants to come after them and bring back his labor force. or else wipe them out. And remember our forefathers, right? These forefathers in the faith, these mighty, brave, and courageous men, remember their response to Moses as they realized this. They said, is it because there are no graves in Egypt that you have taken us away to die in the wilderness? What have you done to us in bringing us out of Egypt? Is this not what we said to you while in Egypt? Leave us alone that we may serve the Egyptians, for it would have been better for us to serve them than to die in the wilderness. Right, not quite faithful, not quite courageous. They’re saying to Moses, you brought us out here to be murdered by this army that we clearly can’t fight. Not the height of faith for the people of Israel. They’re panicked, they don’t know what to do. Yet God tells Moses to instruct the people that he’s going to be with them, and he is for them, and God is going to fight on their behalf. And notice when they come to the Red Sea, they don’t think, it’s great, it’s Baptism Sunday, right? This is what I’ve been waiting for. We make our profession of faith, and we make these professions, and everyone knows about our commitment to the God of Israel. That’s not what happens. No, what we find, what they find when they come to the Red Sea is certain death. either by the army behind, or they can die trying to get their children and their stuff across this sea, this impassable Red Sea ahead of them. It’s not salvation in their eyes. This does not look like good news to them. This is not the pure water of baptism that we are normally used to. These people are so certain that they’re going to die, that this will lead to their death, that they say it would have been better for them to have died in Egypt as slaves. but God commands and the wind comes. The east wind comes and it begins to separate the waters and dry land appears and then the whole nation marches through on dry ground. And where have we heard this similar thing, this similar theme before? This isn’t the first time a story like this is told to us in the Bible. Where else have we seen chaotic waters that are commanded to be separated by the presence of wind? Well, it’s the very opening pages of Scripture, of course. It says that the earth was formless and void and the Spirit was hovering over the surface of the waters. Creation is covered entirely in water and the very Spirit of God The same word used for wind in Hebrew, ruach, is the word. The spirit of God, the ruach Elohim, is hovering, blowing over the waters and God commands and the waters separate. And he separates the waters and finally what appears in those opening chapters? Land appears, dry land. It’s a place where his people can be established. where Adam and Eve can live and dwell and live after his commandments and glorify his name and his presence. And the same thing is taking place here in the crossing of the Red Sea. The God who commanded light to shine forth from darkness, the God who commanded that waters be separated at creation, separates these waters and dry land appears. And the people walk through, ultimately walking forth to a brand new creation. They’re leaving behind that old world that they’re coming from. And again, this isn’t the only place where we see these events taking place very similarly. Remember also at the great cataclysmic flood of Noah, remember at the time of Noah, where God ultimately undoes creation. with the deluge, and then he recreates that creation. And like in creation, the world is covered in water once again, and there’s only one family floating atop of those waters to safety. And what does it take, ultimately, for dry land to appear? God sends a wind, ultimately, for dry land to come. He sends a wind, and the waters recede, and behold, dry land appears, and Noah and his family walk out onto what is literally a new creation. It’s a place where they are established to walk in God’s ways and to live before him by faith. And we see, you know, in the apostle Peter, in 1 Peter 3, he refers to the flood. He refers to the flood in reference to baptism. He’s able to look back at the flood and he says, that’s a baptism. Like Paul looks to the Red Sea and also says, that’s a baptism. And as these people of the Exodus walk through the waters of the sea on dry ground, because God sends a wind and that dry land is created, behold, a whole new creation is being entered into by God’s people. And notice as Israel passes through these waters, Egypt is left behind and renounced. Israel is done with that old way of life. They’re being issued forth into a whole new way of life. And God is calling his people now by his name through this action. They renounce that old life. God’s name is placed upon them. They become his people through this action, you see. And they are called forth from that time to live for him in faith and in reality. You see the connection there with baptism and the call on our life, right? You notice in Exodus 14, before he parts the sea, they have no faith, which is interesting. Prior to their baptism, they don’t give a grand profession of faith. The point is not what they believe. They have very weak faith, or any faith. They say it would have been better for them to have died than for God to have led them out into the slaughter. It’s only after the Red Sea Crossing that they turn back and they see Egypt dead in the water and on the seashore, and they say, now we believe. Now we believe. Notice faith comes after baptism. The New Testament clearly calls this action in Exodus a baptism. And so we see this pattern going on here. God is teaching us here in this pattern that comes again and again. We see the mutual past of God’s people, mutual history. We see the meaning of the sign of what this is even talking about. And we also see the mutual meaning for us today in our lives. So let’s take a few minutes to look at a number of things about this as we go forward and see what this means for us. May we never succumb to that idea that the Old Testament is just old and we don’t need it and it’s meaningless to us. It’s just a placeholder for our New Testament. May we never do that. It is all for us. It is God’s Word from start to finish. Notice primarily that baptism is not first and foremost about our profession of faith. That’s not the main chief meaning of what baptism is. Many times when we look at it, we think the core of baptism, the very center of it is our announcing to the world that we’re going to follow God, that the one being baptized is the active party. Surely we’re all aware of this, we have all seen this before. And that sentiment is somewhat understandable, right? There’s definitely a responsibility to follow God that flows from baptism. Even as we heard this morning, in the words of the institution, and we’re in the promises given and the vows taken. That is not its essential meaning. That’s not what is happening in baptism. That’s a byproduct of baptism. Instead of being a sign of profession of faith from the one being baptized, it’s a sign of what God is doing for his people. God is the active, primarily the active party in baptism, in the sacraments, in general, Lord’s Supper as well. It’s a sign of what God is doing for his people. It’s a sign of his presence with and for his people and his promise to that person. It’s God’s way of saying, I am doing something for you. I’m opening up a whole new way of life for you. I’m bringing you through these waters. I’m establishing you as a nation. God is the active participant. They don’t even wanna be there in Exodus, you’ll recall. They wanna be back as slaves in Egypt. And yet after God does these things, they begin to change their view of him. And notice that baptism in this text is a sign of judgment through which salvation comes, right? Salvation through judgment. These things that are called baptisms, again, the flood of Noah. Clearly the waters there are judgment waters. God has judged the whole world, but salvation for God’s people comes through those waters of judgment. the Red Sea. Israel, they aren’t the ones under the water, it’s the Egyptians. Those are the waters of judgment through which salvation comes to God’s people. And so water is, this water here is first and foremost a sign of God’s judgment, but that judgment is thankfully borne out on others and not on the recipients who are blessed with the blessing of baptism. Important point to remember. This goes all the way back to the beginning. And notice who is there, who is there as they cross this Red Sea, as they’re baptized into the sea in the cloud. Their children are there. All of them are there, their children, literally children were baptized in this event. There’s no way around this. When the Israels go from Egypt, they’re clearly instructed to take their kids with them. And notice what Paul says again, all of Israel was in the cloud than in the sea, all of Israel was baptized, all of them did these things. So literally small children, infants were brought through baptism way back then. And we see that there’s this historical community that we are connected to. And they have this historical baptism that the Bible presents in the New Testament to us, clearly calling it a baptism. and everyone involved, young and old, is involved there. And we have to ask, what are the implications then? This being the case, what are the implications of that baptism? What is the requirement of that baptism and what does it ask of us? Not just ceremonial, there’s a promise and there’s a command, there’s a demand. Well, what is required after they are baptized is faith, it’s faith. I’ve done this to you, now believe, believe, trust and follow me. How do we know this? Well, look at the Corinthians, right? Paul is trying to teach them something, right? He starts off, I do not want you to be unaware, do not be unaware. Verse six, these things took place as examples for us. Verse 11, these things happened to them as an example, but they were written down for our instruction. And he uses this illustration of Old Testament Israel, and he says, look, these people had a baptism. They had a meal, spiritual food and spiritual drink, and they drank from the spiritual rock, the rock that followed them, and that rock was Christ. And Paul’s telling us to look at these similarities here. They were God’s people. They had sacraments like baptism and Lord’s Supper. We have Christ. I’m sorry, they had Christ with them in the wilderness. And then in verse 9, he says, we must not, like they did, put Christ to the test, right? What did Israel do? They put Christ to the test. A wonderful text showing indeed that yes, Jesus is in the Old Testament. Paul says they had all of that, but some of them did not mingle all of those benefits with faith, and what was the result? They perished in that wilderness. Paul is definitely giving us a warning here in 1 Corinthians 10. It’s a very stern warning. He says, beware, you do not do like they did, lest you fall in the wilderness like they did. So there’s this historical community that we are connected to. They had a baptism. That baptism included even the babies, all those in the covenant community, and it required faith after baptism. And what does that mean for us? We saw in the Old Testament that baptism refers not to signs of the participant’s faith first and foremost, not even signs merely of salvation, but rather they were sign of the judgment by water through which salvation comes. They were redemptive judgments. In each of these examples, both adults and their children were involved in baptisms, watery judgments that led to their salvation and ultimately into a new creation. So that’s the pattern. And the question is, Is that still true in the New Testament? Is that still, for the church today, true? Is that how baptism is spoken of in the New Testament as well? When we look at the imagery that’s used in the New Testament, and in Mark 10, and in James and John come to Christ, and they say, when you come into your kingdom, we want to sit at your right and your left. And how did Jesus answer them? Remember. He says, can you be baptized with the baptism that I’m about to be baptized with? Remember that? He’s referring here to what’s coming at his crucifixion. Christ looks forward to the cross and he says, there I will be baptized. Can you do the same thing? So it shouldn’t surprise us that the cross is looked at in the scriptures as a baptism. How does that make sense? How does Jesus refer to what’s coming, his crucifixion, to a baptism? Well, it makes sense when you realize that the flood of Noah, the crossing of the Red Sea, those judgment waters came and destroyed the enemies of God for the salvation of his people. And that’s exactly what’s happening at the cross, isn’t it? This makes perfect sense. God is pouring out his wrath and judgment upon his enemies, and he’s doing so through the crucifixion of his son. Our sins, our death, our destruction is being borne by this Holy One, this One on the cross, and He is baptized with the wrath of God. And God pours out on Him all His fury for the sins that we have committed. And that shouldn’t surprise us when we talk about baptism. Those images, in one sense, come to mind even if we don’t make the connections. When Paul says things like, we are buried with Him in baptism, buried with Him in baptism. How do you get buried? Hopefully you die first, right? Paul is already making the link between Christ’s death and our baptism. And so when we look to the cross, we see that that was the judgment waters of God being poured out upon his son in our place. It’s a redemptive judgment, praise God. And it’s also interesting what happens once these judgment waters are poured out. If the Old Testament pattern is this, it’s waters of judgment, God sends a wind, then new creation. Is that what we see in the New Testament? Or is that something that’s left behind in the Old? Well, notice once that Christ has died, and once God, by the power of the Holy Spirit, the ruach, the wind, raises him from the dead, he comes forth as the first man into a whole new creation. He comes forth as the first man of the new creation. And as Christ ascends, what is the first thing that takes place? Acts says that suddenly they came from heaven to sound like mighty rushing wind. that filled the entire house where they were sitting. And they began to speak in tongues, and fire sat over their heads, and the spirit comes in the form of what sounds like a rushing wind. And what is the result of this wind, this spirit coming down on the people, all speaking in languages others couldn’t hear? We read that 3,000 people are added to the church. Judgment comes, the wind comes, new creation begins. And all of a sudden, those who are lost and dying are being born anew. And by the end of this event, we see the mighty rushing winds come down, the Spirit comes down, and Peter then, under the inspiration of the Spirit, he decides on that day, at the end of his sermon, to say this, in Acts chapter two, the promise of the Holy Spirit has been poured out that you both see and hear. The promise is for you and for your children and for all who are far off. And remember, who is Peter speaking to? Who is he speaking to primarily? He’s talking to Jews from every nation under heaven, Jews that have been raised on the Old Testament, Jews that knew the promise given to Abraham, which was just that, I will be a God to you and to your children, and through you, all of the nations will be blessed. Jews who knew that when God redeemed them from Egypt, their children were part of those promises. These are Jews who knew that on the eighth day, their sons are set apart from the world by receiving the sign of the covenants and are circumcised. Proper members of God’s family, Jews who teach their children from their youngest years, you are part of God’s family, child. And these Jews here in the first sermon in the New Testament church, the new creation church, and at the end of it, Peter says, the promise is for you, for your children, and for the Gentiles. Would they at all be shocked that their children were included into something that God was doing? Of course not. That would have been completely normal to them. It’s what they’ve known all their lives. It’s the God they’ve known. unshocked by that. But what are they shocked by? What is it that shocks them? They’re shocked that the Gentiles are coming in. Not that all the children get to come in. It’s always been part and parcel of their faith. And so Peter tells us here that that is going to continue on, because God is the same yesterday, today, and forever. And that is why we see in the rest of the book of Acts, when an individual believes and they have a household, who else is baptized? everyone in the household, because that person is the covenant head of that home. They’re all brought into the visible church and receive the sign of the covenant. And that way of faith continues from the Old Testament into the New. And you’ll notice not only in the book of Acts, the same thing that’s being borne out. When you open the epistles, Ephesians, for example, and Paul begins to instruct the church, remember what he says. Listen, as I tell you about all the blessings that you have in the heavenly places, you’re seated right now with Christ in heaven, God who foreordained all these things before the foundation of the world. He chose you before you were born to be a part of God’s family. who were dead in your sins and you’ve been made, in trespasses, you’ve been made alive together with Christ. And then he goes on with all these other blessings of salvation. And then when he begins to instruct the church, he says, husbands, love your wives like Christ loves the church. Wives, submit to your husbands as to Christ. And he gets to the children and he says, someday in the future, children, when you get bigger and you reach a mysterious age of accountability and become Christians, obey your parents and the Lord for this is right. He doesn’t say that at all. It’s not the words of the children. Notice Paul doesn’t make any differentiation in the congregation between the old and the new. He even goes on to masters and servants. And as Paul in Ephesians covers the whole household, he says, all of you have the same promises from those first three chapters of this book. All the blessings I told you about in Ephesians one to three, I’m speaking to each one of you. And he says to the children, obey your parents. Notice, in the Lord, for this is right, this is the first commandment with the promise. And he goes on, and he quotes the promise of the 10 commandments that was clearly given to Israelite children because they were part of that covenant community. This doesn’t change as we come into the New Testament as far as how God views our children. And that’s why, brothers and sisters, we brought this covenant child this morning for baptism without shame, without apology. We affirm what God has done and what he has said through all of history, that he is a God for us and for our children after us. And notice these waters are just the beginning of their walk with Christ. These waters will call them to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ day after day after day, and to repent of their sins day after day. These waters will name them. These waters were where judgment for Christ, their savior, will become for them a sign of their salvation. But they’ll also be for them a warning, just like we’re seeing here in 1 Corinthians 10. So dear brothers and sisters, you who yourself have come under these waters, these same waters of baptism, Christ has named you with his very own name. to you are the promises of God. They demand that you repent and believe every day of your life as you look to Christ, your Savior. You see, it doesn’t just demand that for the little ones. It demands the same for all of us, which is, by the way, when we pour out the water in baptism, we’re required to warn the congregation, you remember, you who are baptized, do well, remember your baptism by which you were vowed to God. You passed through those waters. You renounced the world, the flesh, and the devil. And now God is calling you. He’s saying, I’m blessed. I’ve blessed you with myself. Don’t turn back on those blessings. Continue to repent. Continue to believe. You see, it’s not some sort of strange, magical guarantee. It’s the promise of God and blessing for himself to us. And it requires of us faith in the God who gives the gift. And that requirement is all lifelong. We throw ourselves in the work of the Savior. Again and again, we rest in his strength. We rely in his provision for us. And gloriously, he receives us and gives us rest, and he provides for us. Because in those waters of baptism, the very judgment that you and I deserve were already poured out on Christ, this one who bore the sins, bore those floodwaters, and was drowned underneath them so that you and I might be set free. free not to sin, but from sin, that we might live before the face of God as new creations, as we’re called, that we now are. And if we have failed in those things, and when we have failed to do so, the glory is that we look back at that calling, we look back and we cling to those promise that God made, where he marked on us, that we might affirm through repentance and faith that Christ is ours and we are his once again. You see, baptism shows us that we are God’s all life long, not in just that baptism Sunday. We’re God’s all life long. He’s made his claim to you and he’s put his name on you. Baptism says to us that God calls us to make every decision for Jesus, not as part of our life, all of our life. we might all lifelong look to the one who bore our judgment, and in gratitude give ourselves to him afresh again and again, and if we have fallen, when we have fallen, and as we have fallen, to repent of those things, as we look to who we are through baptism once again. This water defines you, and baptism tells you again who you are, even when you don’t feel like it. His promise, His gift is greater than our feelings of failure. So may you remember who you are this day and every day and look to Christ afresh for your salvation and for your very life. And may we pray and plead these promises for all of our children, that they all lifelong will believe in the same faithful Savior who has claimed them in these waters of baptism. as we too remember and rest upon Jesus Christ, who is our life and is our peace. Amen. Let’s pray.

Our great God and Heavenly Father, we praise you once more, that you are great, that your promises are sure, that you are not a changing, bending God, Lord, but that you are our rock indeed. We praise you for your work in our lives. We praise you for calling us out of a dead and dying world and giving us life in Christ, eternal life, and a home in glory. We ask that you would help us anew to believe who we are, just who we are, by virtue of your work in our lives, in calling us and naming us, and that we are new creations. Help us to believe this truth. Help us, Lord, to walk after you with all of our lives.

We pray, Lord, as a congregation, for those who you have put into civil authority, as you build them up and strengthen them, that they may rule righteously in the world that you have created, knowing that you have not ordained the sword in vain. Grant them repentance, we pray, Lord. We do pray, Lord, that you would put an end to the wicked practices established and encouraged and made laws like the ghoulish practice of infanticide. We pray that you would do a mighty work in convicting hearts and renewing lives as you pour your spirit out. We pray, Lord, that you would direct them for the benefit of the gospel, for the good of your people, and for your glory. And we do pray, Lord, this morning, for the children of this church, that you would bless them, that you would love them, and that they would love you, Lord, with all of their hearts, even as they grow and as they develop. that as they go through this life, they would cling to you more and more. We pray for their parents here today, that they would love their children and rear them according to your word. Lord, grant for husbands and wives to love each other with a Christ-like love and sacrificial service, one to another, for your glory to witness to the world. We pray for those who are single. Grant them the comfort of your love and provision and providence in their lives. We pray your perfect will in their lives. And if it’s your pleasure, bring others to bless them, to be with them, companionship, relationships that would bring you glory. But whatever your will, Lord, we pray help all of us to delight in you and to revel in your love and find our satisfaction and contentedness ultimately in our Savior, Jesus Christ. All of us, Lord, we pray, help us to have hearts filled with your love, caring and loving one another in a way that would be a witness to that dead and dying world outside that is in such need of the gospel. Use us in our lives to witness to that, Lord. We thank you for your promise to have fed us afresh this day and that your word will feed us and that you will feed us in the supper with the Christ, the bread of heaven. And we see that that is our life and our sustenance through all of our life, even into the next. Be with us now as we continue in worship, we ask in Christ’s name, amen.