Aaron Andrade | Five Points for Infant Baptism

Sunday Evening, July 5, 2026

Given by Aaron Andrade | Pastor of Shepherding and Discipleship

Christ Covenant Church

Five Points for Infant Baptism

Heidelberg Catechism - Lord's Day 27

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Transcript

Will you pray with me? 

Lord God, your Word is perfect, reviving the soul. Your testimonies are sure, making wise the simple. We ask you, Lord, tonight to give us wisdom. Thank you for the wisdom of those who have gone before us to organize catechisms like the Heidelberg, where your truth can be accessed easier. Now, Lord, anoint my lips, that I would preach faithfully, and open our ears to hear your Word tonight. In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, we pray. Amen. 

So, we continue to make our way through the Heidelberg Catechism in our evening services. If you turn to the back of your bulletin or the last page of your bulletin, you'll see we're on Lord's Day 27. You'll also notice that questions 72 and 73 have large overlap to what Clay preached last week. Let me read them. 

Q: Does this outward washing with water itself wash away sins? 

A: No. Only Jesus Christ's blood and the Holy Spirit cleanse us from all sins. 

Q: Why, then, does the Holy Spirit call baptism the water of rebirth and the washing away of sins? 

A: God has good reason for these words. To begin with, he wants to teach us that the blood and the spirit of Christ take away our sins just as water removes dirt from the body. But more importantly, he wants to assure us by his divine pledge and sign that we are as truly washed of our sins spiritually as our bodies are washed with water physically. 

So, you can see – and if you go back and listen to Clay's sermon, you'll notice – that he's covered really the elements of those two questions, which are what baptism is. What exactly is baptism? It's a sign, and Clay went through what the sign symbolizes, which we'll have a little bit more to say about tonight. But the focus of my sermon this evening will be on teaching primarily who. Who should we baptize? And that is the focus of question 74, which is an important question, because there is, by and large, agreement in evangelical Christian circles that if someone comes to faith as a young adult or older that they should be baptized. There's no disagreement on that. Where it becomes tricky and where there [are] some things to work through is what about infants and children? How do they fit into the picture? And so that's what we're going to talk about tonight, if you look at question 74. So here we go. Here's how it starts off. 

Q: Should infants also be baptized? 

A: Yes. 

And that's it. I think we're done here. No, but I do want to take a minute to consider some of the different initial reactions that that question can have with people. Right? There's likely to be a few different audiences that are listening to this sermon. Some of you, when it comes to the question “should infants be baptized?” no doubt are not a yes at all. You're a no. And I want to say from the start, I'm glad you're listening. I hope you won't turn out for this sermon. Tune out, I should say. The issue of infant baptism versus believer’s baptism – it has been an ongoing debate in the church. More recently – obviously, I mean, this is something that has been the standard practice for the church for many hundreds of years – but more recently it's become an ongoing debate. Hopefully it's a cordial and loving debate though. I'm always interested to see how our very own pastor Kevin DeYoung interacts with John Piper, for example. Here's two men who agree on quite a bit theologically, but there is that one baptism question where they tend to differ. And so, it's always an encouragement, though, to see the fellowship they can still enjoy even though they differ on that particular question. And the truth is Christians who enjoy deep alignment on almost every other doctrinal issue can see biblical precedent for these two positions. Maybe you're in that category. 

Maybe you've studied it deeply yourself and you're just not convinced of infant baptism. Or maybe you come from a faith tradition where your baptism as a teenager or as a young adult was extremely meaningful to you or to your family. Or maybe you were baptized as an infant, and you disagree with how it was done, or you're no longer a part of that church. Whatever the reason, if you're here today and you're a no on infant baptism, I hope that you'll still tune in to what God is saying to us in his Word. Not only is it possible for you to be convinced, which happens sometimes, but even if not, I hope you catch some of the spirit of the Berean Christians. Remember them from Acts chapter 17? They examined the Scriptures daily to see if these things were so. It's a good practice for all of us to check and recheck our theology, especially when it comes to things that Jesus himself instituted. Baptism is a very important doctrine. So, being able to search the Scriptures and maybe something I say tonight will draw you deeper into studying these things with greater fervor. You know, like iron sharpening iron. 

Here's another aim. I'm hopeful that this sermon will at the very least help you to represent the infant baptism view more faithfully. Anyone can build a straw man of the other side, attacking arguments that aren't really a fair representation of what infant baptism believes. So, may God use this sermon to spur you on to greater love for your brothers and sisters by representing the view accurately, even if you're someone who's a no. 

Now, if you're a yes to this question I still want to pause, because we all know from experience when it comes to answering questions, not all yeses are the same. Here's a good example of what I mean. When you get married, there's a lot of skills you need to know as a young husband, but no one ever tells young husbands about the translation skill that they need. Here's the classic situation. Young husband gets invited by a co-worker after a long, hard week of work. Says, "Hey, I got these tickets to the baseball game. Box seats. 7:00 p.m. We’ll go right from work. We’ll enjoy the game.” So, that young husband's getting excited. Oh, hold on. Let me just text my wife real quick. You know, she's at home. She's got the three kids, all under seven years old. Let me just check – see if she's alright with this. Pulls out his phone. Hey, honey, you won't believe the opportunity that I have to enjoy this Friday night. Gives her the details. Says, "Are you okay with me going?" Her text back: just one word. Yes. No emojis, no punctuation, even. It's in this moment that he realizes what many of you husbands realize. He needs a decoder system, something that will help him translate what kind of a yes is this? Is this a “Yes, you deserve it, honey. You've worked a really long, hard week.” We call that the genuine yes. Or is it a “Yes, you go ahead and do that. See how it goes for you when you get home.” We call that the no-yes. You got to decode the difference. Very important. He'll learn. He'll learn. Which kind of yes is it? There's more than one kind of a yes. 

So, as it pertains to the question of whether we should baptize infants, let me address a couple different kinds of yeses that could be listening. I'd imagine here, July 4th weekend, Sunday evening service, we probably have a lot of enthusiastic yeses. Should infants be baptized? Yes and amen. I hear you. I see you. I'm excited to have you here with us, and I pray this sermon will edify and further convict you of what you already believe. My hope is that I'll offer you a good way to remember why you believe that so that we can always be mixing knowledge with our zeal. Right? Maybe you're here and you're more of a bored yes. Should infants be baptized? Yes. Maybe you've grown up in this or some other Presbyterian church, and maybe you really don't need convincing. You were baptized as an infant. Your eight siblings were baptized as infants. Your 45 cousins also baptized as infants and their fathers before them. You don't need any convincing. Or maybe you're here, and you're a bored yes because you're single, and you're not really thinking much about kids. That's way in the future. Or you're an empty nester and you've already been through that process, and you have no more kids coming, so what's the big deal? Well, my hope is that this sermon would remind all of us of the larger church community that we're a part of. Not everyone comes from a Presbyterian background. We all belong to the larger universal church, and God is saving people every single day, and some of them are coming from different backgrounds and different baptism practices. So, if someone who didn't grow up practicing infant baptism were to ask you, “Why do you believe that?” what would your answer be? Would you be able to explain it to them? Right? We are able to explain and teach something that we understand ourselves. Do you really believe that? Why do you believe that? That's something that I hope we can talk about and that you'll be able to go out of this sermon with something that helps to sharpen your thinking even more. 

Finally, another category. Maybe you're here and you're a confused yes. Should infants be baptized? Yes? The confused yes. You could be here as a newlywed, maybe just had your first baby, or maybe you're about to have your first baby. We have some of those in our church. Praise God. And suddenly, a topic that your whole life didn't seem very important has you up at night. Am I going to baptize my newborn baby? What does my spouse think about that? What do my parents think about that? What do my in-laws think about that? If we're not careful, something that God has given to us as a sign to help us, as a source of comfort, can become a weight on our shoulders, a source of anxiety. Who knew there were so many things to consider? Suddenly, a whole world of complicated layers has been revealed to you. How old do you have to be? Do you dunk, sprinkle, submerge, pour? Who can do it? Where can it be done? So many things. 

Well, if you're here tonight – especially if you're confused on infant baptism – I have good news for you. First of all, you're not alone. We all went through that process of working through this, and you're in the exact right place. The Heidelberg, just like other good catechisms, helps to bring clarity. It distills down much of the conversation into concise wisdom that will help put your mind at ease if you're here and you're a confused yes. But regardless of which type of yes you are, my goal with this sermon is this: I want the preached Word to transform more of us into a confident yes. A confident yes. Not a skeptical, bored, or confused yes, but to be able to give a confident yes to infant baptism. Is that something that you want? Well, let's take a look at the rest of question 74 here, which helps to instruct us, and we'll see that the Heidelberg shows us how to boost our confidence in this practice. Some of you are thinking, "Wow, he got a lot of legs out of that one word ‘yes.’" I hope he spends a lot less time per word on the rest of this, or we'll be here all night. Don't worry, we're going to ramp things up here. So, here's question 74. 

Q: Should infants also be baptized? 

A: Yes. (And here's why.) Infants as well as adults are included in God's covenant and people, and they, no less than adults, are promised deliverance from sin through Christ's blood and the Holy Spirit, who works faith. Therefore, by baptism, the sign of the covenant, they too should be incorporated into the Christian church and distinguished from the children of unbelievers. This was done in the Old Testament by circumcision, which was replaced in the New Testament by baptism. 

So, there you have it. There's the Heidelberg’s answer to the question. Now, I titled my sermon today “Five Points for Infant Baptism” because I'm going to give you five biblical reason reasons that infants should be baptized. Five biblical reasons why infants should be baptized, and they're taken from Lord's Day 27 – things that help us have good confidence that infants should be baptized. Now, as we look at these five reasons, I want you to visualize your hand. We'll use the five fingers on your hand as a mnemonic device to help you remember my five points. The way I'm thinking about it, it's really hard to be confident in something if you can't remember in the moment what those things are. So, as we go through the five points, you’ll see that each finger represents one of the points. Alright? 

So here we go, first point. Why do we baptize infants? The first reason we baptize infants is because in Scripture they are included in God's covenant people. In Scripture, they are included in God's covenant people. Look at how the catechism puts it. Infants are included in God's covenant people, and then later they are incorporated into the Christian church. Those are the two key words, included and incorporated. So, to remember this point, we'll use the index finger, which is the finger we'd use if we were gesturing to someone. Point. Kind of have them come on in. That's the index finger. Included, right? Children are included in the covenant people of God. Now, where do we find this in the Bible? Let's start in the Old Testament. We'll be doing a little traversing today. So, if you want to turn with me to Exodus chapter 10, that's where we're going to start. Turn with me to Exodus chapter 10, and we'll see that in the Old Testament, children are included with God's covenant people – and not just in any activities, these children are included in spiritual activities for God's covenant people. 

So, if you look at Exodus 10:8, let me just remind you of the background here. The Lord has commissioned Moses to rescue his chosen people from the hand of Pharaoh and the Egyptians, and the reason he gives to Pharaoh for why he needs to let them go is so that they can serve and sacrifice to the Lord – basically to engage in worship as God's people. And you know the story: Pharaoh refuses, despite many different plagues being sent, and we pick it up here in chapter 10 after the seventh plague, which is the hail. And we'll see Pharaoh has a thought. 

Here's how it reads: “So Moses and Aaron were brought back to Pharaoh, and he said to them (this is Pharaoh talking), ‘Go serve the Lord. But which ones are to go?’ (It's basically saying, do you need to take everyone out there to worship in the wilderness?) Moses said, ‘We will go with our young and our old. We will go with our sons and daughters and with our flocks and herds, for we must hold a feast to the Lord.’ But he said to them, ‘"The Lord be with you if I ever let you and your little ones go. Look, you have some evil purpose in mind. No, go the men among you and serve the Lord, for that is what you're asking.’" So Pharaoh says, you go, take the men with you; leave the little ones. Now, if children are excluded from the covenant people and from the spiritual activities of God's people, shouldn't Moses have left them behind? What's the problem with that? Here's what Moses says: “No, we will go with our sons and daughters.” And we read later, not by accident, that when they actually leave Egypt, it says in Exodus 12:37 exactly who was rescued: 600,000 men on foot, besides women and children. God in the Old Testament, in no uncertain terms, includes little ones in the covenant community's spiritual activities. And this is a passage here to show us definitively these children were not an afterthought. They were not a tagalong, but they were such a vital part of God's people that he would not leave them or exclude them from the worship that was taking place. Think about that. This is the Bible teaching us how God views covenant children. 

This is not the only place in the Old Testament where we see this. We see this in other places, descriptions of spiritual activities where God's covenant people include what the Bible calls little ones. They're included. Deuteronomy 31, Joshua 8 says, "Men, women, and little ones gathered around to hear the law of the Lord read." Ezra 10, they have a very great assembly of men, women, and children gathered in corporate confession for God's people. God's covenant people include children. Now you say, "Well, that's the Old Testament." It's not just the Old Testament. If you look in the New Testament, we see in Luke 18, here's what it says. Jesus is there, and it says, "Now they were bringing even infants to him that he might touch them." This is in Luke 18:15. Now, I want you to imagine this scene. Jesus has got the crowds pressing in, dense crowds, moms with their babies are trying to get close to Jesus in the sea of people, and maybe Jesus is sticking out his index finger saying, “You, come here. Come,” he says. “Come.” This is what he says: “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them” – and listen to this – “for to such belongs the kingdom of heaven.” Doesn't say “to such will be the kingdom of heaven at some point in time.” He says “to such belongs the kingdom. So he, the Son of God himself, reiterates in no uncertain terms what God has already revealed throughout the Old Testament. Children are included and incorporated within the spiritual activities of God's covenant people. This is biblical. 

Now, how are these children included and incorporated into our covenant community? Here's how: by having at least one believing parent. If that is the case for any child, they get a special status, which brings us to our next point, the tall finger. So, if you look at your hand, the tall finger stands above all the other fingers, the tallest. It reminds us that children of believing parents stand out. They have some kind of a special status that is conferred on them. Here's how the catechism states it. Infants are distinguished from the children of unbelievers. This is a very helpful phrase, and the way I want you to remember it is, again, the tall standing. They're distinguished from children in non-believing homes. 

Now, where do we find this in the Bible? I want you to turn with me to 1 Corinthians chapter 7. 1 Corinthians chapter 7. We're going to look at verse 14 in 1 Corinthians 7. Now, this is Paul. He's teaching the Corinthians. He's correcting the Corinthians. Here's what he says, “For the unbelieving husband is made holy because of his wife, and the unbelieving wife is made holy because of her husband. Otherwise, your children would be unclean, but as it is, they are holy.” So, Paul teaches here very clearly that the children of at least one believing spouse are holy. Now Paul does not mean that they are holy in the sense that they are believers yet. What he means is they're holy in the sense that they're set apart. There is a status that is conferred on our covenant children as young as infants that distinguishes them. They're in a special, privileged category. 

Maybe you've done this before and bought tickets online for an event somewhere. I did this before for a basketball game. And when you go online to try and pick seats, I don't know about you, but I just – I have trouble. It's just this sea of open seats, and so I usually – my strategy is let's just go with a letter of the alphabet that's a little closer to the front. So, in this particular case, I picked the C. I was like, "Alright, row C seems like it'll be good.” So, I get to the arena. I'm trying to find my seat. Get out. I knew I was not down below. I knew I was up a little far, but I didn't know how far. So, I'm walking up, looking at my tickets, walking up, get to the first landing. Okay. Alright. Not there yet. No problem. Go up a bunch more stairs. Get to a second landing. Still haven't found my seat. Like, what is going on here? I'm out of breath. I'm looking at it thinking, "Okay, I thought it was C." Oh, okay. It's two C's, double C. So, we've made it all the way through the alphabet and now we're going back through the alphabet. Alright, that makes more sense. So, I keep going, keep going. Wouldn't you know it, I am in the very last row possible at this basketball game. I can touch the concrete behind me. That's how far back my seat was. I mean, when you can notice the HVAC system in an arena, that's probably an issue for you. So, I get there, and I try my best to console myself. Me and my buddies are there. We're going to enjoy the game. We'll make the best of it. I look up at the jumbotron, and what do I see? I see a mom with an infant son sitting courtside, right next to the action. Here's a young baby who doesn't even know where he is. Better seats, closer proximity than I'll ever have in my life. Just mixing it up with the players right there in his mom's arms. Special status. I'm way back here, and that little baby has proximity. 

Well, when it comes to our children, they have a special status, special proximity – not to celebrities, not to basketball players, but they have a proximity to the things of the living God. When they grow up in a Christian home, there are incredible spiritual blessings that these children enjoy. And I don't want us to miss this. You got to take a step back and think about it. They have access to know who the one true God is. Who is the one true God? You're teaching them about God, the God of the universe. Kevin talked about this in his sermon with Romans. He said the Jews, they had the oracles of God. It didn't guarantee that they would be saved, but there was something special about having the oracles of God. Our infant children, our children all the way up until the age where they can understand what's going on, they still have a special privilege. The Ten Commandments, the way of salvation. I have a six-month-old baby that already has two books on his shelf. One is the gospel with pictures. The other one is the Ten Commandments. And I'm thinking to myself, the status, the privilege, the proximity that our children have as infants in our families is wonderful. That's exactly what the Lord is teaching us here. It puts them in a privileged position, one that children in non-believing households don't get, because they don't have the proximity to the things of God. There is a difference between the nosebleed section and courtside seats. And we see in God's Word here in 1 Corinthians 7 and in other places in Scripture that there is a distinction – and God makes that distinction – that these children belong to the covenant, and they belong to the covenant because of believing parents. So, we baptize infants because they're included in the covenant community (index finger). They have a tall standing, and they are distinguished from other children of non-believing households (the tall finger). 

Now how do we make that known? And we come to the ring finger. So, the ring finger. I want you to envision the ring finger. It shows unity of two people in marriage. You think about a ring on your ring finger. What does it show? It shows the unity of two people getting married. And what I want to use it for is to remember the unity between the Old Testament and the New Testament when it comes to signs. There is a unity and a continuity between the Old and the New Testament. Notice how the catechism connects the two. Here's what it says: “This was done in the Old Testament by circumcision, which is replaced in the New Testament by baptism.” One of the reasons we baptize infants is because of the tight biblical connection between circumcision and baptism. The key question that needs to be asked when it comes to baptizing infants is this: “Do we have biblical precedent for applying a sign and a seal to a member of the covenant family before they can express their faith? Is this kind of thing allowed in Scripture anywhere?” And the answer is yes. Yes, it happens in the Old Testament. When God gave the sign of circumcision that he commanded to be administered, he said it should be given to all eight-day-old infants within the Jewish household. This is Genesis 17. These babies could not talk or understand anything, and yet, God set the precedent. Here's what it says: “Be circumcised in the flesh, and it shall be a sign of the covenant.” That's Genesis 17:11. This was a sign that was administered to both Isaac and to Ishmael, and we know from Genesis that Isaac was the son of the promise. He was the believer, so to speak, and Ishmael was not. He was going to grow up to not be a believer. Even before they could articulate that faith, God knew what their futures held, and he still said not only just that they were allowed to apply the sign, but that they were required to apply the sign. And here's the thing, the timing of that was God's idea. He could have decided that this was something that should have happened way later in their life, but he didn't. He didn't. He said – he blessed this sacrament, and he said, “8 days old, you will apply this sign to all of your infant boys.” And here's the important piece as well. On what grounds was he applying that sign? They were Abraham's sons, and Abraham had believing faith. That's it. No more requirements besides that. Abraham had faith, and God said, "These are your sons. You apply the sign." 

Now, if that's true about God's sacramental sign and how it worked in the Old Testament, how does baptism in the New Testament relate to that? How do we know from Scripture that they're related, that they're equivalent? I want you to turn with me to Colossians chapter 2. Let's go to Colossians chapter 2, verse 11. Colossians 2:11. Very, very important Scripture as it pertains to these doctrines. Here's what it says in Colossians 2:11, “In him also you were circumcised with a circumcision made without hands by putting off the body of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ, having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the powerful working of God who raised him from the dead.” Did you catch that? It's right here. We see in Christ that Paul is describing the spiritual realities of circumcision from the Old Testament (putting off the body of the flesh) and directly equating that with the spiritual realities of baptism. One takes the place of the other. That's exactly what the catechism teaches. That's what the Bible teaches. And both signs, even though they were different in terms of their outward physical sign itself, they shared the same spiritual things that were being signified. Okay? 

Which brings us to our next point. We baptize infants because they're included (index finger), because they're distinguished from other children (tall finger), because of the unity between the Old Testament and the New Testament covenant signs (the ring finger), but also because of what the sign actually signifies (the pinky finger). This reminds us of the word “promise.” Think of someone giving a pinky promise. Okay? Think promise. Pinky finger. Promise. Here's how the catechism puts it: “Infants are promised deliverance from sin through Christ's blood and the Holy Spirit.” One of the absolutely vital keys to understanding why we baptize infants is because the sign at its core points to a promise. The sign of baptism, at its core, it points to a promise. Here's a question worth asking: what is actually being signified in baptism? What is actually being signified in baptism? Sometimes a sign, over many years, can take on many different meanings. People can forget what exactly the sign was intended to signify in the first place. 

On my short list of places that I'd like to go is Hawaii. Never been there, but if I ever do go, I'm going to be sure to use something that I've learned, which is called the shaka sign. You know about this sign here. Some of you have probably been to Hawaii. You know about the shaka sign. Shaka is a sign where you basically make a closed fist, and you extend your pinky in your thumb out, you kind of twist it, or there's different ways that you do it. But if I ever go, I'll land on Hawaiian soil, I'll give a good shaka, you know. I did a little research on this sign and tried to trace back what were the origins of this sign? So, it turns out it came to be back in the early 1900s when a group of Hawaiian children were imitating a man who had actually lost his three middle fingers, these three fingers. And so, in the accident, they were gone. So, he was working at a train factory, I believe, and he would shoo them away when they came towards the trains, and the kids basically started to make fun of him a little bit and do the same sign. Well, sure enough, the more they used it, it caught on. It started to spread, and now all of a sudden, you know, the shaka is a thing. And you've probably seen it, right? I remember surfer culture. I don't know if people remember this, but it was like “hang loose,” you know, and they do the shaka symbol. It sounds like in Hawaii they also use this for hello and goodbye. It sounds like also if you're driving, you know how we give the wave if someone lets you go and give them thank you, you know – they give the shaka when you're driving and they let you go. So, it's become a sign that's over time not only spread across the island of Hawaii, but it's actually spread across the world. Everyone's using the shaka. Everyone knows what it is. It's become a worldwide phenomenon. Objectively, it had a meaning, though. In its original context that had a meaning. It was being used in the context of those kids, and they were making fun of the guy who had lost his fingers. Terrible. But subjectively, the sign has taken on all kinds of different meanings over the course of the years. Right? 

When it comes to baptism, the American church especially is at risk of importing our own individual meanings into the sign of baptism. Thinking about baptism primarily as pointing to my public profession or my decision to follow Christ is very common. But we baptize infants because while there is a place for subjective and individual experience – I don't want us to discount that. Of course, the Lord allows the experience of baptism for those who are of age and believers, you know, at that age of 12 or above. That sign can be a very great experience for them. But we baptize infants because while there's a place for that and that individual experience, we're careful. We're careful not to lose focus on what the sign of baptism intended to point to in the first place. And the Bible tells us objectively, it points to a promise. When you go back to the original establishment of the sacrament in Genesis, God made lavish promises to Abraham. Chapter 12, chapter 15, chapter 17. And where did they point? They pointed to Christ, and the circumcision was the seal of those promises that found their fulfillment in Christ. Let's look at Galatians chapter 3. If you'll turn with me to Galatians 3, we'll look at verse 27. Galatians 3:27. “For as many of you who were baptized into Christ have put on Christ, there is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you are Christ's, then you are Abraham's offspring, heirs according to the promise.” Now, this phrase “heirs according to the promise” in verse 27 is very significant. Your children – your covenant children, those cute, beautiful bundles of joy – they are heirs to something. And when they get baptized, we're pointing to the fact that God promised and made a promise to Abraham, which is fulfilled in Christ. So, despite how common it is to hear people talk about the symbolism of baptism for them personally – and again, there's a place for that – we must recognize the original intention of these sacraments were to point us where? To Christ, the promised messiah. And they still do. So, we baptize infants because we understand and still hold to the objective meaning of the sign. It points to Christ and his promise, not primarily to us. 

Now, our infant children must, when they are of age, lay hold of that promise for themselves. You think, well, how does that fit into infant baptism? And this brings us to our last point. And I'll signify it by the thumb. I want you to think theology – thumb, theology – specifically Reformed theology, which is another big reason why we baptize infants. We baptize infants because we are Reformed in our theology. Let me say what I mean by that. Notice three words that the catechism puts at the end of the phrase we just looked at. And I don't want you to miss these. It says infants are promised deliverance through the Holy Spirit, who works by faith. The Holy Spirit, who works by faith. Our children do indeed need to show the fruits of faith when the time comes. And those who practice infant baptism in our tradition don't believe that there is something magical about the water used in baptism, as if somehow it saves them automatically. Question 72 we even read through, “Does this outward washing with water itself wash away sins? No. Only Jesus Christ's blood and Holy Spirit cleanse us from all sins.” And this is a really important distinction, as some traditions do believe in baptismal regeneration, and this can cause a lot of the confusion about infant baptism. We are not in that stream or that tradition where we believe that baptism automatically regenerates our covenant children. 

I think about one of our favorite movies as a family, Nacho Libre. Maybe you've seen it. At one point – it's about a cook. It's a movie about a cook at a Mexican monastery named Nacho. At one point, Nacho gets concerned for his close friend, the fact that he's not baptized, and in the scene, we hear him say, "I'm a little concerned about your salvation and stuff. Why are you not baptized?” And so, his friend kind of shrugs him off, and you see Nacho in the background, and he's got this big plastic bowl. His friend's just sitting there eating a salad, and he goes over to the sink, and he fills it up, and he sneaks behind his friend, and then like a ninja pie in the face, he tries to baptize him. That's not what we believe. We don't believe that you can just sneak up on someone, and the baptism is all we need to do, right? That's not what we believe. The Bible teaches us that our children are not saved by purely putting the act of water on them. We don't believe that. We are fully aware that when our children are of age, they need to understand and articulate the faith, and we need to look for that evidence of faith. But here's the key. Where does the faith come from in our infants who grow up to be children and young adults? It is a faith that comes only from the work of the Holy Spirit. 

Turn with me to Ephesians chapter 2:8-9. Ephesians 2:8-9. Here's what it says: “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing. It is a gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.” Our Reformed theology directly informs our willingness to apply the sign to infants, because we recognize that the work of salvation is something that the Holy Spirit does. All throughout our confessions, the Westminster especially, our definitions of the salvation process begin with a phrase, “an act of God's free grace.” An act of God's free grace. And we get that from Ephesians. He does it in his own timing, granting our covenant children the gift of saving faith. And though we all would love to pinpoint the exact moment when that happens, we can't. John chapter 3, the Spirit blows like a wind. Don't know where it comes from, but that's okay, because the efficacy of baptism is not tied to that moment in time when it is administered, and we've seen that through our teaching today. Will our children grow up and make the choice for themselves? Yes, in a certain sense they will, but only because of God's free, unmerited grace, opening their closed eyes and bringing to life their dead hearts. They cannot do it in and of themselves. Nor can we. And that's going back to our Reformed theology. We know that that's not how it works. We understand they are totally depraved, and without the irresistible grace of God opening their eyes, they're unable to turn to him. So, we look for this, and we wait for this, but we do it in God's timing. As Jason Helopoulos in his book Covenantal Baptism puts it – here's what he says. I really like this. “The baptism of a small child pictures the helplessness of man and his desperate need for God better than almost any scene that we witness at church. It testifies to all who are watching that only an act of God can save the small child being baptized.” And so, infant baptism is a practice that fits tightly in line with the priority we place on the sovereignty of God within our Reformed theological heritage. 

So, those are the five reasons we confidently practice infant baptism. We practice it because it includes them in the covenant family (the index finger). It distinguishes them with their special status before the Lord (the tall finger). It shows the unity between the Old Testament sign and the New Testament sign (think the ring finger). It points to the promise (the pinky finger). And lastly, it aligns best with our Reformed theology. 

Now, this Heidelberg Catechism is well known for its theme of comfort, and that's really what I want to leave you with. This question number 74 is no exception to that. Really, what I want you to think about with infant baptism is this idea that God has it. He set it up this way. We don't need to obsess about exactly when and how he's going to do his work, but we can be invited to and encouraged by the fact that he calls us to baptize our covenant children. We get to do this. And infant baptism gives us that opportunity to do it in a way that helps us to rest assured, to rest in the knowledge that God has given this guidance in his Word. It's not something that we made up ourselves. It's not an empty tradition passed on without biblical foundation. To rest in the incredible promises of God, which are given to us and to our children and to rest in the pleasant thought that God, and he alone, knows who are his, and no one can snatch them out of his hand. I hope tonight as you receive this Word, as God says, "Will you rest in my promises?” that you will be a confident yes. Let's pray. 

Heavenly Father, we thank you for all that you show us in your Word. We thank you for the wisdom that you show us here. And we thank you most of all for our covenant children. How sweet they are to us. How wonderful the privilege and the honor to raise them in the things of God. We ask tonight that you would help your Word to get down deep, that the seeds that have been planted would bear fruit. We ask this in your name. Amen.