Baptism And Commuion LBCF Chaper 28-1

Chapter 28 is titled, Of Baptism and the Lord's Supper. And the first paragraph reads, Baptism and the Lord's Supper are ordinances of positive and sovereign institution appointed by the Lord Jesus, the only lawgiver, to be continued in his church to the end of the world. And the scripture references given are Matthew 28, 19 and 20. So Matthew 28, 19 and 20 is, Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. and behold, I am with you always to the end of the age.

And 1 Corinthians 11, 26, for as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes. So baptism and the Lord's Supper are positive and sovereignly instituted ordinances. So what does that mean? A positive ordinance would be something that you don't derive from natural law. So you wake up in the morning and there's something that's built inside of every person in the world that knows that we aren't supposed to steal.

We're supposed to respect our elders. We're not supposed to commit adultery. We know that dudes don't do stuff with dudes and chicks don't do stuff with chicks. We know that we're not supposed to murder. We know we're not supposed to lie. There's things that are built in us, basically the Ten Commandments, that are understood naturally because they've been written on our hearts.

A positive ordinance is something that you would not expect someone to just figure out by looking around. You don't wake up, see a sunrise and figure out, hey, we better dunk people to profess their faith in Christ. And so it's been given to us positively in the sense that God has said, hey, this is not necessarily an inherently moral act. Getting baptized or not getting baptized doesn't make you inherently immoral. until God tells you to, and now you must obey it.

And so it just means that God has put something forth that we need to know and we need to obey And we agree that there wasn really a way we would have known this apart from God simply telling us so sort of like telling Adam and Eve not to eat from one of the trees in the garden you know they would have had no reason to look at that tree and think oh that's the bad tree you know that's the one that's going to bring a curse on the world if we eat from it so God gave them a command and and it's okay for God to do that it's okay for parents to do that with children. It's okay, even in a sense, for elders to do it with members and for governments to do it with their people. You know, it happens sometimes where you're asked to do something or told you need to do something a certain way, and you may not totally think it's necessary, but that's what's called a positive command.

And it's a sovereign institution of our Lord Jesus Christ in that he's the one who has the authority. He is sovereign over his church, and so the church will do whatever he tells the church to do. He is the one who's over all. And then it says these are appointed by the Lord Jesus, so he's the only lawgiver. And so I think, you know, without doing an in-depth study of all the different people that talked about it, this is a bit of a jab toward the Catholic church for sure.

But as well, it's just another positive way of stating like Jesus is head of the church, but he's the only head of the church. And so there's not going to be someone other than Jesus who comes along and says, hey, we're also going to do this other thing and you have to do it or you're not considered part of the church. And so, you know, you've probably heard of churches that do foot washings and they treat foot washing as an ordinance or a sacrament at the same level of baptism in the Lord's Supper.

When they talk about it, you can tell that that's how they view it. And and and so I'm sure they mean well, but I just you know, I don't see that exegetically. I wouldn't say foot washing is a bad thing. I mean, if you read the Bible and you come away with, I want to go serve my fellow Christian by washing their feet, then I guess by all means do it. I'm not sure that, I'm not sure people have the same need for that as they did in the time of walking through sand in the Middle East.

And I not sure that I sure there may be other ways you can serve people that are more helpful and actually more akin to categorically what was going on then But the point is this, that when we talk about baptism in the Lord's Supper as positive commands that God has given, we are putting these things at the same level as the other commands of the New Testament that Christians are to be walking in. And so it is right to say, so let me preface this with, we believe in justification by grace through faith alone in Christ alone. So we believe that you will persevere and you will go to heaven.

If you've been justified, you will be glorified. We believe that because of Jesus Christ, and it's not our works that earn us this justification and ultimately our salvation, our final salvation. But it is right to say that if a person refuses baptism, having heard about it, it's a positive command, that we can not expect that person to go to heaven.

It doesn't mean we're telling them you can't go to heaven unless you're baptized in the sense that it's a work they need to be forgiven. But we can say if a person refuses to be baptized, having understood what the New Testament teaches about it, that we have no reason to believe the Holy Spirit is sanctifying that person. And it's the same with the Lord's Supper.

If a person does not take the Lord's Supper, we have no reason to believe they're really a Christian. It sounds like we're saying it's by works, but that's not what I'm saying. in the same sense, if a person refused to stop sleeping with his girlfriend after he got saved, we wouldn't say, well, you have to stop sleeping with your girlfriend in order for God to forgive you of your sins. But what we say is, if you don't stop sleeping with your girlfriend, we're having trouble believing that the God who justifies, sanctifies, and glorifies, and guarantees all of those things as one block of stuff that's going to happen in his decree, we have trouble believing he really did the justification part.

If you're not being sanctified, if you're not being sanctified, we don't have any reason to believe you'll be glorified. So that is why this becomes so important that the only lawgiver has appointed these institutions to be continued in his church to the end of the world And it why we make a big deal out of them in Baptist churches It why we make a big deal in the mode of baptism in Baptist churches. And also it's why a church like mine decides to do weekly communion.

And it's why we talk about how we are meeting even if the government tells us not to meet. Because we believe we have a sovereign institution of positive command from the only lawgiver over the church that says, you know, take communion. And there's a healthy fear that says, hey, if we're not working to take communion on the frequency we believe the New Testament has told us we ought to try to take it, providential hindrances being understood, we have a healthy fear that we're not zealous for good works like we ought to be.

Baptism and the Lord's Supper are good works that God has foreordained that we should walk in them. And it says to be continued to the end of the world. So these are things we don't stop doing, which I just sort of commented on, that even if things get bad, even if baptism means you lose your job or whatever reason, if you live in a cold area and the water's always cold, like whatever the reason is, you still do the things.

And then second of all, what's interesting is that these things will end. These are signs for us to do in this world. we will not take communion in when we go to glory with Jesus. When you see Jesus face to face, you will no longer eat a little cracker or a piece of bread and drink some, some wine or grape juice in order to remember his death. That is, that is not how we get to know Jesus in heaven in that sense.

And we won't be, we won't be baptizing people. in heaven. So, anyway, that is paragraph one. Thank you for listening to Be a Berean with your host, Michael Coughlin. I am a writer at thingsabove.us and I also have a personal website, michaelcoughlin.net you can contact me by emailing me michael at thingsabove.us I hope that you have been encouraged to search the scriptures.