Address—A.C. Hayhoe
DISCLAIMER: The following has been auto-transcribed. We hope it will help you to find the section of this audio file you are looking for.
The 19th of fact, and to be brief, I'll read the third verse.
Who has encountered some believers?
And in verse three of that chapter he says, Unto what then where he baptized?
I'd like you to take particular notice of it. Onto what were you baptized? He doesn't say when were you baptized? He doesn't say who baptized you. He doesn't say how much water was used. He says unto slush.
For you baptized my aquatic factors I look up and down these rules that there would be quite an assortment of answers if I were to say how old were you when you were baptized? Who baptized you, how much water was used? What a variety of answers I might receive. But if I asked one question unto what were you baptized, I believe I would get the same answer from everyone. I was baptized under the Lord Jesus Christ in the name of.
Of the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. Now I do believe, and I would like to make this very clear, that I believe the symbol of death and burial is much more fully displayed in total immersion. But the Word of God does not present that which cannot be carried out at all times and in all places.
If water is a symbol of death, which it is, and water is used.
The amount of water is not brought to our attention here. I remember one time visiting in a home in Dipper Harbor, New Brunswick. We had had a series of cottage meetings in that home many years ago, and the dear old lady's name was Mrs. Belding. A good many of her neighbors came in evening after evening as we read the word together. But I remember one time she said to me, Sir.
You wouldn't really consider it baptism.
Someone was totally immersed, would you?
And I said, well, I have baptized many and I have always baptized by total immersion, but I'm not saying I'll never vary that. But I believe that God would certainly recognize it as baptism if water, the symbol of death, were used. Oh, I can't accept that. The eyes can't accept that.
Well, no, I said. Mrs. Belding, you're quite an old lady.
But I said, Mrs. Belding, let me suppose that you're an English. Let me suppose that the doctor says by number means will I permit Mrs. Belding to be baptized by total immersion? I forbid it. And you, Mrs. Belding, just accepted the Lord as your Savior last night, and you do want to be baptized, Bob. Total immersion is out of the question.
Suppose I came along with a picture of water and sprinkled it, or poured it, and put upon you the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, in the name of God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, would that be baptism in? I never thought of it like that. I have an idea that if I were laboring among the Eskimos, I'd have a little problem with total immersion. Don't you think I would?
I believe it's the wisdom of God that has given us.
Water as a symbol of death and where it is possible to carry it out by total immersion. This, I believe is the way in which God's Word was presented to us. But almost certainly accept as baptism according to the word of God, the use of water as a symbol of death, that baptism under the Lord Jesus Christ in the name of God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. So the question here raised by Paul is.
Unto what will be baptized.
And I would just like to ask that question tonight. I don't even ask how old you were. I don't even ask if you can remember it.
But I do ask, unto what were you baptized? Could we now turn please to 1St Corinthians chapter 10?
And I believe you'll find something that is ever so precious. First Corinthians chapter 10 and verse one. Moreover, brethren, I would not that he could be ignorant how that all our fathers were under the cloud and all passed through the sea.
And we're all baptized unto Moses in a cloud and in the sea. Now let us remember, please, as we read this and look into it, that this is not simply the reasoning mind of the apostle Paul. It's not some application that I am about to make from the pages of the Old Testament. This is the Holy Spirit of God.
00:05:15
Refers to that event in Exeter.
As baptism.
We'll all baptize. The Holy Ghost uses that word under Moses in the cloud and in the sea. Have you turned back then, please, to the book of Exodus and get a little glimpse of that which is being referred to Exodus chapter 3 and verse 18?
Here the Lord is speaking to Moses. Exodus chapter 3 and verse 18.
And they shall hearken to thy voice, and thou shalt come, thou and the elders of Israel.
And to the king of Egypt, and ye shall send to him. The Lord God of the Hebrews hath met with us. And now let us go. We defeat the three days journey into the wilderness, that we may sacrifice to the Lord our God.
Chapter 5, verse one.
And afterward Moses and Aaron went in and told Pharaoh thus, that the Lord God of Israel let my people go, but then they hold a feast under me in the wilderness.
I will turn over with me, please, to chapter 10, verse eight. And Moses and Aaron were brought again unto Pharaoh. And he said unto them, Go, serve the Lord your God. But who are they that shall go? And Moses said, We will go with our young, and with our old, with our sons, and with our daughters.
That our flocks and that our herds will we go, for we must hold a feast under the Lord. And he Pharaoh said unto them, Let the Lord be so with you, as I will let you go, and your little ones look to it, for evil is before you. Not so go now.
Ye that are men, and serve the Lord. For that you did desire, and they were driven out from Pharaoh's presence.
I want to raise a question here.
The Lord had told Moses, and he and the elders of Israel considered this together.
We we must go and hold a feast under the Lord.
In the wilderness.
Pharaoh comes along and says, Who are they that shall go now?
Who told Moses to answer as he did here? Had the Lord specifically told Moses look?
You are to take all your children with you out of the land of Egypt. Don't leave one of them behind. The Lord had said no such thing. The Lord had told Moses that He was to lead the people of Israel out, that they might sacrifice an offspring of the Lord in the wilderness.
But the faith of this dear man of God laid hold of.
That which others have laid hold of to this day must we leave our children back in Egypt.
And we shall we take our children with us through the waters of the Red Sea. He had no specific command from Jehovah to do this, but faith laid hold of the promise of Jehovah, not only for Moses and for his wife, but for all those dear children. And when Pharaoh said, no, you're not, you cannot take those children with you.
Moses said, We will indeed take our little one with us. You know, I believe this looks back to the time when dear Moses himself by faith was placed by his own beloved parents into the waters through which every male child was consigned. They were to be thrown into the waters of the river Nile, and those parents recognized that the sentence of death belonged upon their little son.
The same as it belonged upon every other. And so they put their boy in the water, but he was taken up again out of that water. And just let me pause here, for I believe the picture is so beautiful. When dear little Moses crying, he was, the Scripture says so crying, he was placed into the arms of his mother.
With the mother is here. Take heed to this, please. He was picked up out of that water as a crying little fellow put in the arms of his mother with these words.
00:10:03
Take this child away and nurse him for me.
I will give thee thy wages.
Oh, let me address this to the mothers who are present. That dear little boy, crying, lifted up out of those waters, was put into the arms of his mother with a double instruction, a negative and a positive instruction. Take this.
Child away.
Children don't like to be taken away. I sure didn't like it when I was a boy. My father and my mother, it seemed to me, were always taking me away from something. Something that I wanted, something that other people were attending or doing and I wanted to attend to, and I wanted to do it too. But I believe those words rang in the ears of my father and of my mother. Take this child away.
Don't expect your children to be very happy, perhaps.
When you are taken away from those things which naturally they might wish.
To share in but that's only half the instruction and nurse him for me.
May I say this I trust with all discretion.
A mother can only nurse her child from that which she herself has taken in and made her own.
And a mother is very careful.
What she eats when she's nursing a little one.
Let me pass this thought on to the dear mothers who are present.
If you have had that little one placed in those waters, if you have had that name put upon that little one, could you pick for that little one put back in your arms with that double that negative and positive instruction? Take this child away and nurse him. Nurse her for me, and I will give thee thy wages.
I stand here to thank God.
For a father and mother.
Who heard those instructions from the Lord?
And sorry to say, I didn't appreciate what was going on. I didn't like being kept away from.
Those things that I wanted to become involved in.
Our children are no exception. They didn't like it either.
I hope they won't be offended if I tell you.
That they have individually.
And personally thanked us for taking them away.
Things that they would have become involved in just the same as I. But we don't think the words of the Lord, but they were addressed.
To a mother whose little lamb has been placed in the water and brought up out again. And there is the very man who stands here face to face with Pharaoh, who says, no, you're not going to take those little ones. Moses, thank God for his faithfulness, says, indeed we will, beloved.
10 new pictures.
The fathers and the mothers crossing through the waters of the Red Sea, standing over there on the other side and looking back across those waters. Yonder is the land of Egypt. Yonder is the dominion of Pharaoh. They say. Too bad that our children must. They must remain there.
Until they are intelligent enough to know where they are and where they want to be.
Until they ask that they too might be found on the other side of those waters. Ah, beloved, I thank God as I stand here, that my father.
And my mother had that united desire which they felt they saw so plainly in this precious book, the Word of God, that the household was associated with the responsible ones in that household, that we might share together the privilege of an upbringing in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. They were all baptized under Moses, in the clouds and in the sea. Let me try, please, to use from this a little illustration.
Sometimes is a bit bewildering to focus Suppose.
Well, there was a mixed multitude that went out of Egypt with Moses. Suppose that among them, and I'm sure this was so, there were those who had no faith at all. They just followed the crowd. They just went because everybody else was going, and they carried their children too.
00:15:06
So halfway across the wilderness, 20 years later, if you wish, the father and mother are dead and the 20 year old son, he says. I don't remember that night when we left the land of Egypt. I heard about it, but I don't remember crossing the waters of the Red Sea. I guess my father and mother took me through simply because everybody else was doing it. They had no faith. They didn't do it because they knew what they were doing.
They simply kind of followed the crowd.
So I guess I'll have to go back to Egypt and cross the Red Sea again and start all over.
How does that sound to you? The Word of God says 1 baptism, 1 baptism. And I have spoken to many a child of God who, having put his or her faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, looks back and says, you know, when I was a little fellow, my father or mother had that name put upon me in the church which they attended. I really don't think they knew what was being done, but I.
If the water was used as a symbol of death, if that most precious name was put upon the child, where do they stand? They stand where God wants them to stand, and I am very, very thankful.
When my dear mother was brought to know the Lord Jesus as her Savior in the city of Toronto, she looked back to that very condition. She had been baptized by a Bishop in the city of Toronto, with water specially brought all the way from the River Jordan, in order that somehow or other it might qualify for a little better. Did she have to be baptized over again?
No, she had that name put upon her.
And the repetition of such a thing would be a very, very strange picture indeed.
Could we turn please to?
Ephesians chapter 6.
We have seen, in the case of the mother of Moses, the responsibility that was directly led to her charge.
When her dear little boy was picked up out of the water and put in her arm. Do you remember those words?
I'm going to pause a moment to let you see if you can remember them. What was said to Moses mother when her little son was picked up out of the water and put in her arms. Do you remember? Take this child away and nurse him for me. A negative and a positive charge laid to that dear mother. Now in Ephesians chapter 6 and verse 4.
And he fathers.
Here is where we find the responsibility. Ye father, provoke not your children to rest, but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. Again, I believe a positive and a negative responsibility that rests upon the shoulders of father as well as mother. Bring them up in the nurture and admonition of.
The Lord whose name is this?
This is none other than the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. How can I carry this out?
Can I leave them over Yonder in that position where the name of the Lord Jesus does not belong? Can I leave them Yonder where the name of the Lord has never been put upon them, and consistently and according to Scriptures bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord? Will we not see here that those children are looked upon as having been brought inside that circle where the name of the Lord Jesus Christ?
Stands. I'm going to quote what I heard my father say when I was growing up.
He said. Son, I am thankful.
That those who reject.
Christian household, baptism are all inconsistent. Now. I thought that was a very unkind remark for him to make and I told him so. I said, Father, that's not a kind thing to say. Why do you say that now, son? He said, I'm very glad they are inconsistent. Well, I said, I still don't understand you. He said, son.
They all bring their children up as though they had been baptized.
Even though they leave them outside of that place, even though they have not yet had that name put upon them. Do you see what I mean? Oh, you have visited in many a home where perhaps the children have not been baptized. Or what do you hear the parents say? You hear them say? Now remember the Lord Jesus will be watching you. Remember, the Lord Jesus is listening to what you say.
00:20:19
I say this with a very thankful heart.
That I do not believe one of our three children ever left the front door of our home.
To go to school.
Without hearing these words.
Remember Gracie, the Lord Jesus will be watching you today.
Remember Charlotte, the Lord will hear every word you say to me.
Remember Danny?
The Lord's eye will be upon you all day today. What right did my wife or myself have to address our children in such a manner? What right did we have to exhort them to bring them up under the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, and yet leave them away over Yonder in a place where that name does not belong? All beloved fathers and mothers.
I do not wish to press this upon me. It was the faith of Moses parents.
Nobody else put their little boy in that water and put him out again. It was the faith of Moses who said we will not leave our little ones behind. And he didn't have a word from God to tell him that he must do this. It was faith in the promises of beholder. He laid hold of those promises. He knew the heart of Jehovah, and so all those little ones came with them.
And beloved, I feel we see in the Word of God that which faith can we hold on and I don't want.
I don't want to tell any father or mother in this company tonight that you ought to have your children that time. But I do say this, that I see it so beautifully presented in pictures and in shadows in the Word of God, so that a praying father and a praying mother may well see the beauty of it for his or her own.
Let me take you again, please, if you will, to a faraway land. Let me take you off to India, where they're all Hindus. And I say again, they understand it far better than we do.
Very well. We're a Hindu household, my wife and myself. We have in our home both idle, peculiar to Hinduism. We bow down before those idols, my wife and myself and our children, and I accept the Lord Jesus Christ as my Savior. What do I do?
Well, I'm alone in this. I guess I'll have to leave the idols where they are. I guess I'll just have to see all the rest of my family still carrying on with idolatry. I have to see those idols in my own home. Is that the way you would recommend that I, as a father, act in a Hindu home? Ah beloved, I have seen it in those far away land. I have seen.
A father in a heathen home, except the Lord Jesus Christ as his Savior, and the earnest and yearning and immediate desire of his heart is.
What about my home? What about my household? It is going to remain a heathen family. A heathen household. Am I going to see those idols and see my wife and family bowing down before those idols? Oh, what a precious privilege to see to it.
That a Christian household begins right then and there.
Before I turn to another scripture, I want to give you an illustration and happen.
Right here in this area.
A very near couple whom I know very well, although I will disguise the name.
They were visiting in a home. What a wonderful and precious privilege.
Our Christian household baptism.
Was unknown.
And at the supper table, the little girl in that family misbehaved. Knowing her very well, I'm sure her misbehavior was not very serious, but at any rate, her mother turned to her. And I'm going to invent a name so I won't be training by instead. Josephine, don't do that. That's not pleasing to the Lord Jesus.
And the people in whose home they were visiting said, what did you say to your daughter? Well, I just said don't do that. That's not pleasing to the Lord Jesus. You have no right to address your daughter like that. She's not yet 12 years of age.
00:25:13
What do you suppose they meant by that? They went on to say.
Until she has accepted the Lord Jesus as her Savior and been baptized, you have no right whatever to address her or to admonish her in the name of the Lord. Now those parents were right here and one night after meeting they asked me, can we come home with you? This was the problem they laid before me. What did these people mean by their comments? Well, I said, what was your answer?
Well, they said our answer was yes, indeed, we have had our little girl baptized and have had that name put upon her.
So that we feel quite free to address her, to admonish her, to instruct and to correct her in the name of the Lord Jesus. All he said. Then we got a most rightful scolding, reminding us that until that child had come of age and had accepted and confessed the Lord Jesus Christ as Savior, you have no right whatever to address, correct or admonish her in the name of the Lord Jesus.
Shall I say that is being consistent?
With leaving our children outside that place, I'm thankful that all such parents are, shall I say, inconsistent. I am thankful that they bring their children up under that most precious name. Could we take time, please, to turn to Acts chapter 16 and verse 14?
And a certain woman named Lydia, a seller of purple of the city of Thyatira, which worshipped God, heard us, whose heart the Lord opened, that she attended unto those things which were spoken of Paul. And when she was baptized and her household, he besaw us, saying, If ye have judged me to be faithful to the Lord.
Come into my house. Now again we go down to verse 30. I think you know this, the story of the Philippian jailer.
And he the tailor, brought them out and said, Sir, what must I do to be saved? And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy hope.
And they spake unto him the word of the Lord unto all that were in his house. And he took them the same hour of the night, and washed their stripes, and was baptized he and all his great way. And when he had brought them into his house, he set meat before them, and rejoice, believing in God with all his house. In both of these instances. Libya and the dealer.
The whole household was immediately.
That time and brought into that same position.
As the one who had believed, now I know that when you reverse 33.
You might say, well, it looks to me as though verse 34, I should say.
As though the whole household also believed. And I will say that from the way it is written before us tonight in English, that's the way it appears. But I think you know that in most languages there is a distinction made between singular and plural verb. There is a distinction made that is very promptly recognized, as you know, in Latin.
And in French.
And I remember recently when visiting in India, I asked our dear brother.
Johan to read this verse to me in Telugu and he read it in Telugu and when he came to this he was so astonished and I said why are you astonished? Why it says here he said that believing in God is.
Singular masculine. He said it was only the dealers who is spoken out here as having believed in God. This is the way it is in the original Greek in which it was written. This is the way you would find it in most languages to take that distinction. And it's true, beloved, that this beer tailor, when he accepted the Lord Jesus Christ as his Savior, he wanted his household.
Share in the wonder of that position, which was now a fresh delight and joy to his heart. He laid hold upon this most wonderful promise even as Lydia did in verse 15 of this same chapter. I don't need to pursue the matter any further. I just wish to leave it to the powerful exercise.
00:30:17
And to the faith of any fear who might have a concern about this matter.
I remember a dear couple. The azet had no children.
They asked me about this matter.
And I gave them a few scriptures to pray about and to consider. And I said, I know that at the moment your considerations may not give you many answers, but I know this, that if the Lord gives you a family, you will find these exercises to be very real and very 13 in your heart. Now the Lord has given them a family and their exercises have been.
Very real and very pristine and much owned the Lord, but a family is going on happily in the sea of the Lord.
Oh, I just want to say this. Our time is gone, beloved, more than gone. But I do want to say this, if I might just try to go over again what we have shared together, and that is that God away back there in the Old Testament.
Have a people whom he very, very dearly loved.
And he wanted them to be identified by his name. Now when we come to the New Testament.
We find that the Lord Jesus Christ has redeemed to Himself a people, and we find that He do life and give the privilege to those who are responsible in their household of having their household share with them that precious place to have that name put upon them. I have the memory, beloved.
Day of my baptism, but I have a memory of being brought up in the nursery and admonition of the Lord.
Why? Because that name was put upon me before I can ever remember it. And I thank God that my beloved Father and my beloved mothers took it upon themselves in the fear of the Lord to remember that which they had done, to remind me as I grew older, that that name had indeed been put upon me.
And all eyes say this, for the days are so dark, the difficulties are becoming so very, very great. But if you, beloved fathers and mothers, would not take my word for any of the things that we have said this evening, but that if you will, just take this precious book, the living and precious and infallible Word of God.
And carefully seek help for yourselves in this wonderful book.
That which would give you the precious privilege of bringing up a family.
In the nature and admonition of the Lord I believe you find many answers there that would be like your heart. But I again wish to repeat this past our faith have A to myself before that, and I have no right whatever to tell any other family here what you ought to do. I will say this.
I will say that.
But I thank God that my own beloved father and mother, though I knew nothing of it at the time, prayed over this over the front of His honey, with a tiny little gift from God to them in their home.
And they felt something of that which was around in this ungodly world. They felt something of the precious patterns that were put before us in the Word of God. They knew very well that baptism did not impart life, but they knew also that baptism did bring into a position where the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Rightly and properly belongs.
And until you or I have been baptized, we do not belong in that place where the holy and precious name of the Lord Jesus Christ has truly been put upon us. Isn't it a privilege for parents to be able to encourage and to correct their children in the name of the Lord in the sphere of the Lord?
00:35:07
Oh hi, thank God for the memory of my early childhood.
When these things were put before me because it was either pleasing or displeasing to the Lord Jesus Christ. And I believe my dear parents were entitled to do this, because not long after I was given to them, they had me placed beneath those waters.
In the means of the Lord Jesus Christ put upon me, I will say this to, but I have received to baptize.
Yes, I have these things about private It's not very easy to do. Why have I received? Because I have had parents say to me I would like to please to baptize my children.
And I go and visit in the home. And what do I find in the home? Anything but a Christian atmosphere, anything but an evident desire to bring those children up as those who are under the name and in the sphere of the Lord Jesus Christ.
And it's not easy to say no, but I have said no because I feel it would be a mockery.
They take a child and put him or her down beneath those waters, but the name of the Lord Jesus Christ upon that child and then stretch him down into a situation for everything that was ungodly would be poured into his eyes or ears someday today. Ah, dear fathers and mothers.
Make our home, your home and my home be a sanctuary for our children.
That would meet with the approval of the Lord Jesus Christ.
And if you have had your children baptized, remember this.
But you have had a wholly and a precious name, but of my most dreams. And let not our homes be a contradiction to it. Let there be with you and me, beloved fathers and mothers and grandparents, that continual and prayerful and yearning design.
Now they're saying may grow up to live, to please the one whose name was put upon them. Let us once again look back to the waters of the Red Sea. Let us see those dear fathers and mothers as they stand there with their hearts full of strong. And he looks back and they say Yonder on the other side is the land of Egypt. And its leader fell. And thank God my children are not there.
Thank God my children are right here with me on this side of the warriors, with the Spirit of God called.
OK, I know that there is a great deal more to the subject, but it's 20 minutes to 10. And if there are questions, your brothers and sisters, if you feel I have not answered faithfully or have not even touched upon, please be free to bring them to my attention. And again, I wish to conclude by saying this, I do not believe it would be right before God for me to tell.
Anyone here what you ought to do? Half style face? Have it to thyself.
Before them.
Believed in the light of the precious Word of God, any view of the increasing evil and darkness that is all around us. The precious privilege that Moses, father and mother, felt on his behalf, and that Moses felt on behalf of the children of Israel in his day. The faith that the Philippine jailer had. The faith that Cornelius had. The faith that Lydia had.
May it be granted to you is the prayer of my heart.
The female bring your children up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord, reminding them that that name has been put upon them. And I pray once more that the name of the Lord Jesus Christ for hanging right around here. As many of you as have been baptized under Christ have put on Christ. If that name were hanging around my neck, where would I go?
In what company would I be found?
And go without children.
Yes, through the prayerful and journey and fearful.
And I secretly spread him, but fearful exercises.
The result for our children?
It's because of this we had that name for the common, for our responsibilities goes along with it. And when our son or our daughter would come and say can I go here, Can I go there? Can I join this? Can I do that all that we might be the name of the Lord Jesus which had been put upon me and remind them that we have a responsibility.
00:40:12
A solemn responsibility before God.
God grant that these things may stir afresh within the heart of each one of us a desire to be more true to the one who went beneath the waters of death. Alone for me, alone for you. And He put before us the privilege of going down into those waters and up again, that we might live in meanness of life. May I just add one more thought? I know that there have been times when I have taken little ones from the arms of.
Or a mother, and prepared to put them beneath those waters. And I see her hesitation of fear and uncertainty in the face of the father and of the mother. And I will understand it. There are poor little fellows. Their poor little girl is now in the arm of some stranger who is going to put that tire right under those waters. And you can just fence the distress on the face of the father and the mother.
And when I see.
I think of what it costs God.
The census fund, the wisest Calvary for me. And then that little crowd goes down under waters and comes up again and sometimes comes up with a cry. And I used to say to myself, oh, I wish they wouldn't cry like that. I wish they would come up with a smile. It would be so much easier for the parents and so much easier for me.
But I really don't feel like way anymore when that crowd comes up with a cry.
I think you know what comes to my heart.
I think of what assemble it is of death.
Let the cry be what it may, that pile is put in the arms of mother, to be nourished and brought up in the fear of the Lord. Oh, when I see the picture from my own soul.
I trust you will not be disturbed with me, my brethren, for presenting to you.
That which has been so meaningful and so precious to me for many years now.
May God grant that it shall be a blessing to everyone of us.
And again, if I have said things which are confusing to you, please don't hesitate tonight or any other time.
They'll ask for further comments on this important matter.