Baptism: A Means Of Grace (John 17:6-19)
Rev. William L. Barron, June 11, 2017Part of the Morning Worship at North Greenville Church series, preached at a Sunday Morning service
Over the last 250 years, there has been a push in the church toward the practice of believers' baptism instead of infant or covenant baptism. This is unfortunate, because they are the same baptism. Baptism's roots go back to God's covenant promise to Abraham in Genesis 17, which was an impossible event for an aged couple--a land and a people. The fulfillment of this has been seen as the church of Jesus Christ, as testified by Peter in I Peter 2. Circumcision and its fulfillment in baptism is a sign and seal of this covenant. God sets his people apart by grace, within households, within families. It is a sign of what God has done, not what we have done. It carries with it God's very name as a seal of authenticity. It reminds us of the privileges that come to us through God's grace. It calls us to trust and dependence on Him. What can we do out of love? Teach the Word of God to everyone, including these little ones. Pray for them and their parents.
| Earlier: | Same day: | Later: |
|---|---|---|
| « The Church: Moving Forward | None | The Patience Of Providence » |
John 17:6–19 (Listen)
6 “I have manifested your name to the people whom you gave me out of the world. Yours they were, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word. 7 Now they know that everything that you have given me is from you. 8 For I have given them the words that you gave me, and they have received them and have come to know in truth that I came from you; and they have believed that you sent me. 9 I am praying for them. I am not praying for the world but for those whom you have given me, for they are yours. 10 All mine are yours, and yours are mine, and I am glorified in them. 11 And I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, keep them in your name, which you have given me, that they may be one, even as we are one. 12 While I was with them, I kept them in your name, which you have given me. I have guarded them, and not one of them has been lost except the son of destruction, that the Scripture might be fulfilled. 13 But now I am coming to you, and these things I speak in the world, that they may have my joy fulfilled in themselves. 14 I have given them your word, and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. 15 I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one. 16 They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. 17 Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth. 18 As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world. 19 And for their sake I consecrate myself, that they also may be sanctified in truth.
(ESV)