back to index2016-04-17 Why We Don't Baptize Infants
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Why don't we turn our Bibles to Romans chapter 4 and I'll be reading from verse 9 through 00:00:18.400 |
Is this blessing then only for the circumcised or also for the uncircumcised? 00:00:23.400 |
We say that faith was counted to Abraham as righteousness. 00:00:28.560 |
Was it before or after he had been circumcised? 00:00:31.920 |
It was not after but before he was circumcised. 00:00:35.260 |
He received the sign of circumcision as a seal of the righteousness that he had by faith 00:00:42.320 |
The purpose was to make him the father of all who believe without being circumcised 00:00:46.620 |
so that righteousness would be counted to them as well and to make him the father of 00:00:50.920 |
the circumcised who are not merely circumcised but who also walk in the footsteps of the 00:00:55.320 |
faith that our father Abraham had before he was circumcised. 00:01:05.000 |
Heavenly Father we entrust this time to you asking Lord God for your grace for your Holy 00:01:12.760 |
We pray that our time may be a pleasing sacrifice. 00:01:18.240 |
It would be worship, it would be a time that we offer more than just our flesh but our 00:01:25.440 |
very souls and our spirit that an overflow of thankfulness Lord God would cause us to 00:01:33.120 |
And so we pray for your grace this morning in Jesus' name we pray, Amen. 00:01:38.680 |
You know as you know I was out of the country for a couple of weeks and I know it's not 00:01:43.240 |
a long period of time but it felt like I was out forever. 00:01:47.200 |
I was up at a retreat out in Korea and I was there for a bit and then I went to China to 00:01:53.240 |
visit our team and I got sick while I was there. 00:01:55.320 |
I got sick before I went but I got sick especially when I was in China and then I visited Hong 00:02:00.040 |
Kong for a few hours on the way out and so I was able to fellowship with our brother 00:02:04.200 |
Peter and then we came back and then I didn't preach last Sunday. 00:02:09.200 |
The good thing I didn't because again I wasn't feeling that well coming back and you know 00:02:14.520 |
one thing I noticed a rare opportunity that I get to sit with my wife and I was sitting 00:02:19.080 |
in the back during worship and I read something really interesting this week and basically 00:02:24.520 |
a heart surgeon was talking about how some people who get surgery on their heart that 00:02:31.200 |
after the surgery they can actually hear their heartbeat for a period and they said that 00:02:37.080 |
the reason why is because any kind of shift any kind of you know like a minuscule change 00:02:42.320 |
in the heartbeat the brain is able to pick it up for a period and it takes a while you 00:02:47.240 |
know whether it takes days or weeks sometimes and then your brain just kind of adjusts and 00:02:51.640 |
then you stop hearing it you know and I was thinking about how you know when we first 00:02:56.200 |
moved into this place our greatest concern was the airplanes you know what I mean are 00:03:00.800 |
we going to be able to have worship and we're going to have to stop preaching when the airplanes 00:03:04.640 |
go by and I noticed that I only think about it now when we have new people come to church 00:03:10.920 |
and it's like oh doesn't that bother you it's like oh that's right we're next to an airport 00:03:13.760 |
you know so we've all I mean if you've been here for a while we've all just kind of adjusted 00:03:17.680 |
to our situation and certain noises like a you know clock ticking or water dripping those 00:03:24.840 |
are things that we just kind of we don't we just don't hear it anymore you know as I was 00:03:29.400 |
sitting back last week and I was just kind of thinking like how much of our worship has 00:03:36.840 |
if we're not careful can easily become like that you know those those of you who are new 00:03:41.960 |
to the church you know everything's kind of new and different and so you're a lot more 00:03:45.880 |
aware of little things but you know for people who've been here for a while five years ten 00:03:50.660 |
years or longer everything has become such a routine I mean you're the same guy preaching 00:03:55.520 |
in front of you for ten years how can it not become mind numbing you know I get tired of 00:03:59.920 |
hearing myself you know but after a while you just kind of like clock in and clock out 00:04:05.520 |
you know you ever sometimes you travel the same path maybe it's your work or school and 00:04:11.000 |
you just drive and just mindlessly you don't even think about where to get off or right 00:04:15.200 |
turn or left turn you just kind of zone out and then and then you kind of come back and 00:04:18.760 |
you're at home that ever happened to you all the time right because we were just so accustomed 00:04:23.640 |
to this path there's just not much thinking it's just automatic our faith and our walk 00:04:30.680 |
with God can easily get to that point where we're not really thinking through what we're 00:04:35.240 |
doing we're not really thinking through what we believe and why we believe you know especially 00:04:42.040 |
when when something has been in routine for a long period of time and again I was sharing 00:04:46.920 |
this with our leadership on Saturday morning thinking about that that we need to be careful 00:04:51.020 |
that we don't get to that and again you know how this is related to what we're talking 00:04:54.320 |
about Paul's been talking about the doctrine of justification by faith alone now he's been 00:05:01.720 |
pounding this all the way through and he's going to be he's going to continue to pound 00:05:05.720 |
this but justification by faith in other words salvation by faith alone if you've been a 00:05:12.000 |
Christian for one year you probably heard it several dozen times if you've been a Christian 00:05:17.040 |
for five years you probably heard it hundreds of times if you've been a Christian for more 00:05:20.720 |
than 10 years I'm assuming you probably heard this thousands and thousands of times you've 00:05:25.880 |
discussed it dissected it you've memorized scripture you've heard sermon after sermon 00:05:29.800 |
after sermon Bible study after Bible study and then it just becomes numb like yes you 00:05:35.920 |
know you only know when something is wrong it no longer affects your daily walk with 00:05:41.400 |
God doesn't affect the way you worship God doesn't affect your fellowship you only notice 00:05:45.880 |
it when something is wrong because you know it's so well that when somebody preaches something 00:05:50.760 |
off it's like oh you have to have works like oh that's wrong so we know how to identify 00:05:54.920 |
bad doctrine but it doesn't affect us in a positive way it doesn't affect us it doesn't 00:06:01.480 |
move us and that may not be this core reason why we are gathered together justification 00:06:09.200 |
by faith is at the core of Christianity if we are not affected by this doctrine you can't 00:06:17.440 |
be worshiping God and I'm gonna be talking about that right if justification by faith 00:06:23.640 |
is not the reason why we have fellowship your fellowship is no different than just human 00:06:28.680 |
friendship if justification by faith is not the ultimate reason why we do evangelism it 00:06:35.160 |
just becomes pressure it's extremely important we talk about here just in this short text 00:06:42.320 |
from verses 9 through 12 he mentions the word circumcision probably eight nine separate 00:06:47.400 |
times so obviously we know what the theme is here right he's trying to give us a proper 00:06:51.640 |
perspective of what circumcision is and what it is not in order to really understand what 00:06:59.400 |
Paul is saying here we have to understand what circumcision meant to the Jews today 00:07:04.200 |
you know when's the last time you actually had a discussion with somebody's like oh we 00:07:07.200 |
don't need to be circumcised we're not Jews right that just does not come up in everyday 00:07:13.280 |
life right you don't have discussions with you know warriors or Lakers and all of a sudden 00:07:17.840 |
by the way I'm curious do we need to be circumcised today right I don't think that discussion 00:07:23.240 |
forever naturally comes up it only comes up in the context of looking at the Bible and 00:07:27.960 |
say well this is what Paul says so let's study it today right but I want to convey to you 00:07:33.680 |
just how important what Paul is saying here to the Christian life again it's important 00:07:41.560 |
for us to understand how important it was to the Jews so that we understand why so much 00:07:45.160 |
time is dedicated in trying to properly understand this Genesis chapter 17 is where the commandment 00:07:51.440 |
of circumcision is given and in within that commandment he says that every person outside 00:07:57.960 |
of the Jewish community who wanted to worship God also needed to be circumcised so it wasn't 00:08:03.080 |
just the children born into the nation it was anybody who wanted to be a worshipper 00:08:07.200 |
of Yahweh had to be circumcised Genesis chapter 15 sorry Exodus chapter 12 48 it says that 00:08:15.880 |
those who are not circumcised can't participate in their Passover meal so that's just kind 00:08:22.040 |
of that's just equivalent to saying you know in our context that if you're not circumcised 00:08:26.240 |
you can't come to our Christmas party you know it's the biggest event of the year you 00:08:30.080 |
know very significant part of our culture but if you're not circumcised you can't come 00:08:34.600 |
well this is written into the law in the Old Testament Genesis 17 14 in the giving of this 00:08:41.320 |
commandment God wanted to convey just how important this was so he says the cutting 00:08:48.560 |
off of the foreskin and he says if if an individual refuses to be circumcised let him also be 00:08:55.920 |
cut off from the people because he has broken my commandment right so this was not just 00:09:01.120 |
some tattoo this was not just some cutting of hair we're talking about a major surgery 00:09:08.000 |
right was major then right and it says if they don't if they don't they refuse to get 00:09:13.360 |
circumcised he's going to be shunned from the from the society so for a Jew for hundreds 00:09:20.140 |
of years the identifying mark of a child of God in the Old Testament was circumcision 00:09:26.800 |
so we can understand when Paul all of a sudden says no we don't need to be circumcised that 00:09:33.240 |
we can't make people get circumcised in fact he was fighting this in the first hundred 00:09:36.920 |
years that was one of the biggest issues in the early church before we jump on the Jews 00:09:43.240 |
and say oh you know these guys are so blind and why would they make a big deal of this 00:09:47.680 |
think about how often we have certain things that we become accustomed to and it becomes 00:09:52.120 |
a problem when we see that we go to another church or somewhere else and they do a little 00:09:55.600 |
bit differently you know I've had people who came from another other backgrounds hey how 00:10:01.560 |
come you guys don't recite the Lord's Prayer you know and how come you don't recite the 00:10:06.960 |
Apostles Creed why do you guys use drums you know what I mean electric guitar how come 00:10:12.680 |
you guys don't have organs you know why do you wear a tie and then why don't you wear 00:10:17.880 |
a tie you know and so you think about like if you've been raised in the church there 00:10:22.200 |
are certain traditions that you've gotten accustomed to and when you go somewhere else 00:10:26.080 |
and you don't see it it's just like you don't know why you don't know you don't know what 00:10:29.480 |
it is that bothers you but it bothers you and something just doesn't seem right something 00:10:34.000 |
as trivial as a necktie or not wearing a necktie is style of music you know or something as 00:10:40.200 |
trivial as that we get bothered by it but imagine for a Jew where circumcision was the 00:10:46.240 |
identifying mark of every Jew and all of a sudden Jesus Christ comes and these Apostles 00:10:52.800 |
are preaching the gospel and he says no if you force people to get circumcised you are 00:10:57.720 |
nullifying the cross right this is not a debatable issue if you make circumcision a part of our 00:11:04.480 |
righteousness you nullify the cross there is no middle ground in fact Paul says if somebody 00:11:10.400 |
preaches a gospel that perverts the gospel in any way let him be anathema there is no 00:11:16.080 |
compromise with this you can't just hold on to some of it either you let it go you know 00:11:22.120 |
and embrace Christ or you hold on to it and you reject Christ that's how important this 00:11:27.720 |
issue was so Paul again beginning from chapter 4 1 has been addressing this issue but when 00:11:35.040 |
we get to verse 9 he asks two rhetorical questions to kind of set up what he was trying to say 00:11:42.560 |
the first one is is this blessing then only for the circumcised or also for the uncircumcised 00:11:49.560 |
so the blessing he obviously here he's talking about justification by faith forgiveness of 00:11:53.760 |
sins is this only for the Jews the answer is pretty clear no right the Abraham is a 00:12:01.840 |
father of circumcised and uncircumcised because righteousness is by faith and not by circumcision 00:12:09.320 |
the early church the very first problem that the early church had to deal with was this 00:12:13.280 |
issue because Peter and Paul they go off and they start preaching the gospel and the Holy 00:12:17.960 |
Spirit begins to fall upon the Gentiles and and Jews alike so when Paul and Peter comes 00:12:25.320 |
back from their missionary journeys there's a group of Jews saying how could that be right 00:12:31.120 |
for hundreds of years they had to be circumcised to be people of God and now you're saying 00:12:36.120 |
the Holy Spirit is coming upon them indiscriminately that can't be and this issue was such a big 00:12:41.740 |
issue was dividing the early church so they all convene in Jerusalem all the apostles 00:12:46.520 |
get together in Genesis sorry in Acts chapter 15 they have a meeting and say you know what 00:12:52.240 |
God's revelation is clear to all of us that the kingdom of God has opened to the Gentiles 00:12:58.200 |
and the whole reason why Paul goes on his second missionary journey is to take that 00:13:02.120 |
message and to begin to tell it to the Gentile churches that he went and planted churches 00:13:06.440 |
that you do not need to be circumcised that was the first question that he dealt with 00:13:12.840 |
the second question how then was it counted to him was it before or after he had been 00:13:17.520 |
circumcised again Paul's trying to again continue in his argument and the answer is resounding 00:13:25.120 |
before it was not after but before he was circumcised he said Abraham was considered 00:13:31.220 |
righteous before he ever was circumcised now I'm gonna connect this to our you know our 00:13:37.120 |
current situation so you know I don't want you sitting there thinking like okay circumcision 00:13:41.400 |
you know like that that problem's been dealt with a hundred years ago why do why are we 00:13:45.640 |
bringing this back up again again I'm gonna connect it I just want to be you to patient 00:13:51.000 |
be patient with me a little bit Abraham was called initially called in met God in Genesis 00:13:57.840 |
chapter 11 most commentators and scholars will say he was probably about 70 years old 00:14:04.280 |
by the time God calls him out of war of Chaldeans in Genesis chapter 12 it's about five years 00:14:09.520 |
have passed and then when we get to Genesis chapter 15 where God reiterates and and reconfirms 00:14:16.040 |
the covenant that he's making with him and the nation of Israel he's probably about 80 00:14:20.520 |
years old the commandment to be circumcised and to circumcise all the generations following 00:14:26.200 |
him is given in Genesis chapter 17 so the time between Genesis chapter 11 to Genesis 00:14:33.040 |
chapter 17 when he is actually circumcised is about 30 years so what Paul is saying is 00:14:40.160 |
way before he asked God even gave the commandment of circumcision God called him a righteous 00:14:45.720 |
man in Genesis chapter 15 he actually he he actually even says again this this passage 00:14:51.360 |
is quoted several times in the New Testament and he says and he believed the Lord Abraham 00:14:56.940 |
and he counted to him as righteousness he was counted righteous because of his faith 00:15:03.840 |
not because of some external circumstance if that was the case why did he command the 00:15:14.120 |
circumcision if circumcision has nothing to do with your righteousness then why command 00:15:20.400 |
it why make this big deal and have people cut off and and if they don't obey that they 00:15:24.360 |
can't participate in the Passover why was the big hoopla well he says and again Paul 00:15:30.240 |
answers it and it says is answered in Genesis chapter 17 11 that the circumcision was the 00:15:37.160 |
seal of righteousness it was the seal of righteousness Genesis 17 11 it says it was the seal of 00:15:44.920 |
the covenant today when we think about sealing something we're talking about wrapping it 00:15:50.840 |
up right like make sure that that Tupperware is properly sealed or you're moving or something 00:15:56.640 |
something is sealed right we don't use the seal like the way they used it in the Old 00:16:00.520 |
Testament or in the time of Christ the word seal that is used in that culture I'm just 00:16:06.200 |
going to read directly from the Bible dictionary and says it is a signet a fencing in or in 00:16:13.720 |
or protecting from misappropriation by implication it means the stamp that is impressed I mean 00:16:20.800 |
you've probably seen movies or something where you burn the wax and there's a seal of the 00:16:25.200 |
Emperor or seal of somebody important they put that stamp on it so that when they the 00:16:29.520 |
recipient gets the letter they know that authenticity of where this came from so it was in that 00:16:34.880 |
sense it was a seal is used as a mark of privacy but ultimately it was used to convey genuineness 00:16:44.680 |
whether something was genuine or not so when the Bible says that circumcision was a seal 00:16:49.560 |
it was a stamp of genuineness that that these people belong to God now let me illustrate 00:16:56.920 |
how we ought to understand circumcision or how they ought to understand again how that 00:17:01.440 |
applies to us you know years ago we would go back and forth to China and there was a 00:17:07.160 |
sister in our church who worked in coach coach bags you know and I have you know when I go 00:17:13.280 |
to China I can't distinguish between what is fake and what isn't what isn't fake everything 00:17:17.720 |
looks authentic to me but I remember like she would be able to tell right off the bat 00:17:24.400 |
she would walk through a shopping mall and say that's fake fake fake fake and then I 00:17:28.160 |
know how do you know it looks the same to me so she would tell because she was trained 00:17:31.840 |
while she was working here she was trained so she would tell me how the C's need to be 00:17:35.280 |
aligned a certain way and and then she would show me look at this one this one's the going 00:17:39.120 |
the other way you know she would look inside the bag and look at the seam and the tag so 00:17:43.320 |
she had like 10 or 11 different things that you can identify as whether it's whether it's 00:17:48.520 |
real or not right and then every once in a while you'll go through and you find a bag 00:17:54.240 |
where the where all those identifying marks seem very very similar right she could tell 00:18:00.880 |
right away I can't even after she pointed out to me it's like that looks authentic all 00:18:05.800 |
the C's are headed toward the right direction everything she pointed out I mean they did 00:18:09.280 |
a really good job they were committed to to this fakeness right so I can't tell but she 00:18:15.920 |
calls and tells you she can tell little things you know here and there and and only she could 00:18:19.680 |
tell right but let's say somebody did a fantastic job that even she can't tell I mean it was 00:18:28.160 |
the knockoff was just done such a perfect job that even her even someone who's been 00:18:33.840 |
property chain trained can't tell right so if they do a really good job imitating the 00:18:40.600 |
original with all the marks does that make the bag real some of you guys like yes it 00:18:49.000 |
does of course it doesn't make it real right it wasn't made by coach if it wasn't made 00:18:58.160 |
by coach that doesn't matter how good of a job they did faking it it's not real right 00:19:03.040 |
so in the same way that the circumcision in itself doesn't make it real right circumcision 00:19:10.160 |
was only a seal to convey what was actually real and what was real was the faith it's 00:19:18.720 |
a faith in that individual that makes the circumcision worth something without it it 00:19:24.840 |
is worthless see circumcision was never meant to be a source of pride or righteousness when 00:19:34.200 |
we talk about justification by faith sometimes we think like oh god introduced justification 00:19:39.080 |
by faith in the New Testament but in actuality that was God's way of salvation always always 00:19:46.720 |
and we see it all throughout scripture we see it with Abraham where God declared him 00:19:50.360 |
righteous because of faith before he was circumcised in Jeremiah at 925 he says behold 00:19:55.960 |
the days are coming declares the Lord when I will punish all those who are circumcised 00:20:00.440 |
merely in the flesh again you're not going to be justified because you obey the law and 00:20:05.960 |
you would jump through the hoop and got these signs he says if you are just circumcised 00:20:10.920 |
in the flesh right there will be punishment Deuteronomy 36 and the Lord your God will 00:20:16.400 |
circumcise your heart and the heart of your offspring so that you will love the Lord your 00:20:20.680 |
God with all your heart and with all your soul that you may live again Jesus reiterates 00:20:26.480 |
that same commandment in the New Testament saying what is the greatest commandment is 00:20:29.760 |
to love the Lord your God with all your heart soul mind and strength Paul says in Philippians 00:20:34.800 |
chapter 3 - for the Pharisees who are circumcised in the flesh but not of the heart he says 00:20:41.280 |
these people are just mutilators of the flesh ouch he said that's all it was all it is is 00:20:49.680 |
mutilation that's all it does it counts for nothing in the eyes of God now how does this 00:20:55.480 |
relate to infant baptism those are guys who were on Facebook and I put it like why we 00:21:00.360 |
don't baptize infants well the whole sermon this morning is not about infant baptism right 00:21:05.480 |
but it is relevant in this text because the primary text that the people baptize infants 00:21:11.640 |
used to why we have to baptize infants which obviously you're at a Baptist church so we 00:21:16.240 |
don't agree with that is Colossians chapter 2 11 through 12 so if you're interested go 00:21:23.380 |
to that text right even if you're not please go to that text right Colossians chapter 2 00:21:28.920 |
11 through 12 and I want to show you why this comes up and again I'm gonna wrap it 00:21:37.760 |
all up and I'm gonna show I'm gonna try to convey why this is important Colossians chapter 00:21:43.080 |
2 11 through 12 it says in him also you were circumcised with a circumcision made without 00:21:50.300 |
hands by putting off of the body of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ in other words 00:21:56.600 |
that the circumcision that you guys are so proud of he says God the true circumcision 00:22:01.400 |
is not a circumcision of the hand but a circumcision that Christ does and then he says having been 00:22:06.720 |
buried with him in baptism in which you were also raised with him through faith in the 00:22:12.280 |
powerful working of God who raised him from the dead so the key text that they point to 00:22:17.280 |
is in verse 12 right is that here's the circumcision of the flesh but here's a real circumcision 00:22:24.280 |
that Christ performs and then he talks about having been buried with him in baptism so 00:22:29.520 |
the argument is that baptism has replaced the circumcision of the Old Testament right 00:22:36.800 |
now the problem with that is that interpretation is the point that Paul is trying to make is 00:22:42.680 |
that these Jews were holding on to a physical act of circumcision and saying in and of itself 00:22:48.880 |
has no authority has no power it is not the real seal and so to move that and then to 00:22:56.640 |
replace it with another seal with hands a physical baptism right so this physical circumcision 00:23:03.760 |
doesn't make you a child of God so now we're going to give a physical circumcised physical 00:23:08.840 |
application of baptism which is going to replace the physical act of circumcision you get it 00:23:15.320 |
doesn't make any sense because Paul is arguing against that he's saying that your your physical 00:23:21.480 |
act of circumcision does not make you a child of God so it doesn't make sense for him to 00:23:28.440 |
say we're going to replace that now we're going to replace it with physical act of baptism 00:23:33.080 |
right and all that has changed is the activity see the whole point of what he's trying to 00:23:39.160 |
make is that you're stuck on thinking that some act of religiousness somehow gives you 00:23:44.760 |
favor before God and Paul is saying no the real act of a child of God has nothing to 00:23:52.760 |
do with something you do physically so going into the water and coming out sprinkling of 00:23:58.160 |
some water on a child's head has no value in the eyes of God see and again what does 00:24:05.720 |
it have to do with the text that we're looking at if you look at chapter 4 11 this is another 00:24:09.640 |
text these are the two texts that is used by the infant Baptist to say why we baptize 00:24:16.160 |
infants in verse 11 it says he received the sign of circumcision as the seal of righteousness 00:24:22.560 |
right sign of circumcision in other words talking about Abraham and circumcision so 00:24:28.440 |
the way that this is interpreted in verse 11 is that the seal of of the covenant relationship 00:24:35.660 |
with God was circumcision so now we're in a New Testament the seal of the covenant relationship 00:24:42.120 |
in the New Testament is baptism that's how that this is interpreted is that what Paul 00:24:48.040 |
is saying here in no place in the scripture where it says that the seal that makes us 00:24:57.440 |
a child of God or at least covers us with some special grace is baptism the physical 00:25:03.320 |
act somehow places us in a community of covenant people and there's a special privilege that 00:25:08.480 |
we have the problem with that interpretation is in the Old Testament circumcision was for 00:25:14.880 |
the physical people of Israel physical people of Israel so God says to the nation of Israel 00:25:20.880 |
if anybody touches you they're touching the apple of my eye he wasn't talking to a particular 00:25:25.720 |
person he wasn't talking to a group of prophets he was talking to the physical kingdom of 00:25:31.120 |
Israel because his plan was that by blessing them he was going to bless all the other nations 00:25:37.560 |
and that through that physical nation that the seed of the woman was going to come through 00:25:43.320 |
the tribe of Judah so his intention was to preserve this nation because of the coming 00:25:48.880 |
of Christ so the seal of circumcision was for a physical group of people when we come 00:25:56.480 |
to the New Testament is that is the physical gathering of the church is this the real church 00:26:03.160 |
of God yes and no when Jesus said I will build my church and the gates of Hades will he will 00:26:11.560 |
not prevail against it is he talking about is he talking about the church of Ephesus 00:26:20.200 |
the church of Laodicea church of Berea church of Thessalonica is he talking about a physical 00:26:27.680 |
church no he's not because none of those churches exist today when he said I will build my church 00:26:34.520 |
and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it he was talking about the universal unseen 00:26:38.800 |
church is he talking was that a promise is that you know what God said he was going to 00:26:43.560 |
build Berean and Berean is going to last forever is that true no it's not because the promise 00:26:51.640 |
he made about his church was about the unseen universal church does that mean the local 00:26:58.760 |
church doesn't matter of course it matters because the local church is a physical manifestation 00:27:04.040 |
of the church that he was talking about but not all in the church is a part of the real 00:27:08.800 |
church so it is the spiritual church he's referring to so it doesn't make sense to take 00:27:14.920 |
the physical act given to a physical kingdom and then to apply it to the physical church 00:27:21.760 |
when the true church is a spiritual church now why is this important why do we need to 00:27:29.800 |
say this other than to say we're right right other than to say you know this I believe 00:27:35.000 |
that this is the right doctrine see that when we come to the New Testament the seal is not 00:27:42.240 |
baptism what is the seal of the New Testament believer you can't fail maybe you can't fail 00:27:53.680 |
what is the what does the Bible say is the seal of a New Testament believer the Holy 00:27:59.200 |
Spirit the Holy Spirit not some physical act right not sprinkling of water not baptism 00:28:06.800 |
he says the Holy Spirit Ephesians 1 13 in him you also when you heard the word of truth 00:28:11.800 |
the gospel of your salvation and believed in him were sealed with the promised Holy 00:28:16.280 |
Spirit so if there is any replacement of the seal of the Old Testament circumcision it 00:28:21.840 |
is the baptism of the Holy Spirit that's the seal not another physical act Ephesians 4 00:28:29.080 |
30 and do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God by whom you are sealed for the day of redemption 00:28:36.080 |
again the seal in the New Testament that identifies a child of God with people who are not maybe 00:28:42.040 |
not a child is the Holy Spirit that's why Paul says in Galatians 3 3 are you so foolish 00:28:47.200 |
having begun by the Spirit are you now being perfected by the flesh now we're going to 00:28:53.280 |
get to practical application like what does this mean when we make a physical act the 00:29:00.120 |
identifying mark of what it means to you a Christian we're kind of hanging our hats on 00:29:06.400 |
some activity and say you know what I go to church and I read my Bible and I've given 00:29:10.360 |
to the church and I went to small group and I did all of these things and so that identifies 00:29:15.240 |
me as a Christian you can do all of that and still not be a Christian remember 1st Corinthians 00:29:23.880 |
chapter 13 it talks about like you can speak of tongue of an angel angels and have not 00:29:28.920 |
love it's nothing you can speak prophecies you can have faith that moves mountains you 00:29:35.600 |
can actually give your life to be martyred and still have not loved it means absolutely 00:29:40.720 |
nothing in other words if if your what identifies you what mark the seal that identifies you 00:29:48.080 |
is just these physical acts even if you're martyred right even when you are martyred 00:29:54.320 |
he says it could mean nothing why is this so important to us is important to us because 00:30:05.000 |
what identifies us as a Christian is what causes us to grow and to mature and it is 00:30:11.240 |
a foundation for everything that we do so you and I have a tendency that when we ask 00:30:16.920 |
somebody how are you doing spiritually I did my quiet time I didn't do my quiet time I 00:30:21.480 |
haven't been to church for a while you know I haven't been participating in small group 00:30:26.520 |
you know I or I went to missions or I've been giving and I've been serving and we have these 00:30:31.520 |
physical identifiers and we hang our hats on that and say well I'm doing these things 00:30:37.440 |
so therefore I'm a child of God the problem with that is Jesus comes and says not everybody 00:30:43.520 |
who calls me Lord Lord shall enter the kingdom of heaven that didn't we cast out demons in 00:30:48.640 |
your name didn't we perform miracles and heal the sick in your name right he says none of 00:30:55.120 |
these things you would did for me I never knew you so he looks at all these external 00:30:59.400 |
activities but he breaks through all of that and he's looking for faith he's looking for 00:31:05.440 |
genuine faith that is causing people to do all of these things see he says oh why why 00:31:11.560 |
was the circumcision was so necessary what was important about this and why is this doctrine 00:31:15.920 |
of justification by faith so important well he says later on verse 11 the purpose was 00:31:20.280 |
to make him the father of all who believe without being circumcised right circumcision 00:31:24.880 |
was temporary for the kingdom of Israel so that it would prepare the coming of the seed 00:31:30.040 |
of the woman but really that Abraham was not simply a father of Israel but father of all 00:31:36.960 |
faith so that the righteousness will be counted to them as well verse 12 and to make him the 00:31:42.640 |
father of the circumcised who are not merely circumcised but who also walk in the footsteps 00:31:47.880 |
of the faith right now we're talking about all these acts and what we do in obedience 00:31:53.000 |
does it matter yes it matters right but it's why we do these things that make the act worship 00:32:01.960 |
or drudgery prayer without faith is just meditation worship without faith it's just duty fellowship 00:32:17.240 |
without faith it's just friendship like any other place everything that we do if it is 00:32:24.640 |
not done in faith we can do it well we can be disciplined and will ourselves and organize 00:32:28.880 |
and and be smart enough to get all of these things done but if it is not done in faith 00:32:34.040 |
if it is not because we've been moved by Christ it's not because we are attracted to him reading 00:32:39.320 |
the Bible just become study it's just study a document that was written 2,000 years ago 00:32:47.360 |
and we're just studying it like we would study you know biology or chemistry whatever we 00:32:52.200 |
just study and then at the end of it you're no longer closer to God than you did when 00:32:56.360 |
you first began you just have more knowledge that's it anything done and it is not founded 00:33:04.200 |
upon faith will lead to more enslavement it will lead to more enslavement more things 00:33:13.520 |
to to do that's why it says in Galatians 5 16 but I say walk by the Spirit and you will 00:33:20.040 |
not gratify the desires of the flesh it is the Holy Spirit that is a seal in you Galatians 00:33:26.320 |
5 22 23 but the fruit of the Spirit is love joy peace patience kindness goodness faithfulness 00:33:35.720 |
gentleness self-control against such things there is no law there is no standard that 00:33:42.520 |
is created that if you meet these standards then you have assurance and if you don't meet 00:33:47.760 |
these standards right you have no assurance that's not what he says you know what's interesting 00:33:54.920 |
is Paul writes two letters to the Corinthians and it's probably the harshest letters that 00:33:59.560 |
he writes in all the New Testament I mean these people were fighting each other they 00:34:05.800 |
allowed immorality in the church but it was all in the context of doing God's work it 00:34:12.080 |
was all in the context of preaching the gospel established the early church they were being 00:34:15.160 |
persecuted while they're doing this and yet he says all of that means nothing and at the 00:34:20.000 |
end of the two letters that he writes he concludes by this warning 2nd Corinthians 13 5 examine 00:34:28.000 |
yourself to see whether you are in the faith test yourself or do you not realize this about 00:34:34.000 |
yourself that Jesus Christ is in you unless indeed you fall to you fail to meet the test 00:34:41.880 |
so in other words what Paul is saying is or everything I've said in conclusion the reason 00:34:47.000 |
why that you may have been going astray is for two reasons one either you don't have 00:34:52.520 |
the faith and that's why the church is being becoming corrupt and you're allowing all kinds 00:34:57.920 |
of sin into the church or you have forgotten what you have in Christ you have forgotten 00:35:05.360 |
justification by faith that you somehow you think by by doing and meeting these standards 00:35:11.440 |
and you're gonna one up each other if the greatest sin of mankind is self-exaltation 00:35:19.920 |
which it is then the greatest gift that God gives us is to humble us and that's exactly 00:35:26.960 |
what it says in Ephesians 2 8 and 9 for by grace you have been saved not of yourselves 00:35:30.680 |
but as a gift of God that no one may boast nobody at the core of human sin is self-exaltation 00:35:40.480 |
now don't you don't have to answer because I already know the answer because I know it 00:35:45.520 |
even in myself that everything that we pursue is about exalting ourselves we work harder 00:35:54.640 |
because we want to get more money so we can have an easier life we want to be recognized 00:35:58.760 |
we want to be better we get better education so that we can be better have a nicer place 00:36:03.640 |
better house more opportunities to be honored and even in the church even in the church 00:36:09.840 |
we work hard and we want to be recognized even as we plant churches we want to have 00:36:15.840 |
a big church even as we evangelize how many converts do you have how many mission fields 00:36:22.680 |
how many missionaries did you send out even in the context of honoring and glorifying 00:36:27.960 |
God that the core of it if we're not careful that we end up with the same sin that brought 00:36:35.520 |
condemnation to the world the self-exaltation you see somebody who is motivated by external 00:36:45.760 |
you know external markers will always try to meet that marker and that's it did you 00:36:53.760 |
do quiet time I did it did you pray I'm praying about 10 minutes a day or 15 minutes 30 minutes 00:36:59.680 |
I did it I've done it right and if you meet it you become proud if you meet it because 00:37:06.400 |
you did it and then and then you're very impatient with people who don't meet this marker right 00:37:10.760 |
and then those who don't meet it live with guilt oh I didn't meet it I should meet it 00:37:16.280 |
the difference between somebody like the Jews who were circumcised and say well we're circumcised 00:37:21.160 |
we're from the tribe of Benjamin and you know and they're proud of all of these things we 00:37:25.080 |
have this but Jesus says you're doing all of this but it has nothing to do with me even 00:37:29.920 |
when you pray you pray so that everybody else can see is that wow that guy's a man of prayer 00:37:34.320 |
even when you give you give publicly so that look what I've done is that all of that is 00:37:38.920 |
not worship it's your self-exaltation you're just doing it in the name of God see but people 00:37:46.360 |
who pursue him in faith is not about meeting standards right we we end up pursuing God 00:37:55.000 |
the same way but even with more fervor because it is not about appeasing God it's not about 00:38:01.000 |
meeting expectations of people people who worship in faith worship because that's my 00:38:07.320 |
source of life I feel alive when I am with God I trust in his promises more than any 00:38:15.600 |
promise that my boss has given me I I am looking more forward to eternity than I am for my 00:38:22.280 |
retirement and so an individual who is working in faith will always give above and beyond 00:38:30.600 |
a person who is trying to appease the standard will just give what the absolute minimum that 00:38:35.920 |
he needs to give so I've done my part right if you look at the Old Testament there is 00:38:43.000 |
a mandatory sacrifice and there's a free will sacrifice mandatory sacrifice the whole offering 00:38:49.440 |
the guilt offering the sin offering all of these things were fulfilled in Christ there 00:38:54.640 |
is no barrier there is no more sacrifice that is needed for me to be able to call him my 00:39:00.080 |
Abba Father but the new it also has a free will offering where God says when you are 00:39:05.200 |
moved when you want to give a Thanksgiving offering you give sacrifices to God as simply 00:39:09.200 |
as an act of worship it is not commanded but it was out of the abundance of your heart 00:39:15.040 |
we come to the New Testament the mandatory sacrifice has been made in Christ so therefore 00:39:21.320 |
he says whether you eat or drink do it for the glory of God meaning what he wants from 00:39:27.120 |
us is not to not to appease or reach some standard but worship that whether whatever 00:39:34.640 |
we are doing whether we come into church whether we're giving whether we're sacrificing whatever 00:39:38.640 |
we're doing it is an act of worship it is a reasonable response to justification by faith 00:39:47.760 |
see the moment that we forget that what it is that we have in Christ we become we become 00:39:56.320 |
proud some people are better at hiding the pride than others those of you who are outgoing 00:40:03.200 |
you talk a lot like I do it's pretty easy to see the pride even as I preach here I'm 00:40:08.800 |
sure you you've noticed me boasting about something like that guy he's always talking 00:40:12.920 |
about what he's been you know I'm pretty sure that's one of the downfalls of being up here 00:40:16.880 |
all the time right for after so many years you know everything that guy is so proud of 00:40:22.560 |
this important like it you know some of you guys are better at hiding because you're introverted 00:40:25.920 |
so you don't say a lot you don't say a lot so you just seem to be humble right then you 00:40:34.880 |
get in the car and have a long drive and then you start hearing things like dang you know 00:40:38.440 |
like some people are better some people are better than others at hiding it some people 00:40:43.880 |
are you know boastful right but we all wrestle with it right to different degrees we all 00:40:49.800 |
wrestle with it right you ever you know the Bible says that God opposes the proud and 00:40:54.680 |
gives grace to the humble and you notice how that's all inside of us too right whenever 00:40:58.800 |
somebody is always boasting our natural instinct is we want to see him humbled admit it right 00:41:05.760 |
that's that's in our hearts right and then we see somebody really humble and then we're 00:41:11.040 |
like did you that guy's so humble like we're we're like we're eager to to lift them up 00:41:15.880 |
and put them on a pedestal because they're so humble right it was meet one of those people 00:41:19.960 |
like no matter what story you have their story is better you know I mean no matter what your 00:41:23.960 |
kid did their kid did even better you know what I mean it's like oh they're talking and 00:41:28.200 |
you know three words are putting put together my kid can do four you know at the core of 00:41:34.560 |
who we are see there's four things that it when when we forget and we drift away from 00:41:40.800 |
justification by faith and we have some external sign whether it's circumcision whether it's 00:41:47.240 |
anything that we do physically right we're praying more we're doing this and and it kind 00:41:54.000 |
of hardens our heart it ruins everything there's four things that I want to mention and let 00:41:59.200 |
me wrap up this morning when we forget justification by faith and we are not humble boasting makes 00:42:05.960 |
us the object of worship rather than God even as we are serving God boasting makes us the 00:42:14.880 |
object of worship rather than God instead of pointing finger and say well how great 00:42:18.200 |
he is we we talk about like what I've done my experience my knowledge you know like what 00:42:24.480 |
I've accomplished what I'm able to do the insights that I have and we take away from 00:42:29.120 |
his glory when the scripture says that his whole point in history is to is for him to 00:42:36.120 |
be magnified because when he is magnified and we see his glory we live but anytime boasting 00:42:43.280 |
comes in we try to take that glory one number two boasting causes us to minimize his glory 00:42:51.920 |
and jeopardizing our life if salvation is the blinders that cause us not to see the 00:42:59.880 |
glory of the gospel of Jesus Christ and by the grace of God he takes that away and we've 00:43:04.960 |
seen his glory and we were changed boasting minimizes his glory so when his glory is minimized 00:43:14.080 |
what happens to our joy it gets frustrated right because art the scripture says that 00:43:20.480 |
in him is life Zoe he came to give life he came to give life not this world not your 00:43:27.120 |
experience not your knowledge he so when his glory is minimized so is your joy so when 00:43:34.600 |
there's boasting we take away from his glory and we take joy away from ourselves third 00:43:43.200 |
boasting ruins fellowship people who are affected by justification by faith tend to be more 00:43:50.400 |
gracious the text that we read in in Psalm 51 he says what God desires to worship is 00:43:56.920 |
a broken and contrite heart a person who is justified by faith and has been affected by 00:44:03.600 |
that every day his response is thank God he saved me see if somebody who's not affected 00:44:10.360 |
by I mean you may know it you may recite it with your mouth but you're not affected by 00:44:13.880 |
it we're always looking to see why aren't they doing what I'm doing see a group of people 00:44:21.080 |
who are affected by justification by faith are people you'd love to be around because 00:44:26.640 |
they're broken you can be open with him you can you can share your struggles with them 00:44:33.600 |
because we're sinners on the same path and just as much as I need grace you need grace 00:44:42.480 |
it ruins fellowship when you have a room full of people who are religious who've done the 00:44:48.200 |
right thing you have people who've done who were doing the right things who were looking 00:44:51.680 |
down at people who are not doing the right things and you have the people who are not 00:44:54.040 |
doing the right things just guilty and you know burden because they're not meeting these 00:44:58.320 |
standards but people who are affected by our salvation what Christ has done it affects 00:45:05.600 |
our fellowship and finally number four boasting prevents others to come to Christ boasting 00:45:12.280 |
presents prevents others from coming to Christ Paul says the first Timothy 1 15 16 this saying 00:45:19.080 |
is trustworthy and deserving of all full acceptance that Christ Jesus came into the world to save 00:45:24.000 |
sinners of whom I am the foremost right so not only did he come to save sinners he came 00:45:30.760 |
and saved the worst and he really was the worst right if you come to the New Testament 00:45:35.680 |
I mean he's the guy responsible for the first martyr in the New Testament he is responsible 00:45:40.160 |
for the first great persecution where hundreds even thousands of people had to leave Jerusalem 00:45:44.640 |
because of this guy he gathered a group of people he's willing to kill slaughter drag 00:45:50.400 |
them into prison I mean he devoted himself to persecute and so he says not only did he 00:45:55.640 |
come to save sinners he chose me the worst but I received mercy for this reason that 00:46:00.520 |
in me as the foremost Jesus Christ might display his perfect patience as an example to those 00:46:06.800 |
who were to believe in him for eternal life God chose a man who didn't deserve I mean 00:46:13.320 |
of course none of us deserves it but that guy you know there's some people that we can 00:46:17.120 |
think of like you know I'm a sinner but that guy is a real sinner you know I mean I'm a 00:46:22.480 |
sinner I admit I'm a sinner but that guy's a much worse sinner than I am it would have 00:46:26.040 |
been this guy right there a group of people chose like yeah we're all sinners but there's 00:46:30.680 |
the different degrees of sin Paul would have been the foremost is that God didn't choose 00:46:36.320 |
him because of his farisite background but because he was well connected or you know 00:46:40.560 |
oftentimes all he had Roman citizen of course all of that helped him out right God made 00:46:45.600 |
him make tents this guy had access to money and he had to make tents this guy's going 00:46:52.560 |
out preaching the gospel and God puts a thorn in the side for what reason just to keep him 00:46:56.960 |
humble just to remind him who he is just so that he can say in my weakness he is strong 00:47:05.800 |
it doesn't make sense for ambassadors of Christ where he came and humbled himself the image 00:47:11.660 |
that we have of Christ the last image that Jesus left with us is with his disciples washing 00:47:17.040 |
his feet the most menial most humbling of task that's the last image he gave to his 00:47:23.600 |
disciples and then the very last is him hanging on the cross humiliated in front of the world 00:47:28.520 |
and it doesn't make sense for the people of God preaching this gospel to be doing it in 00:47:36.400 |
pride how do we how are we ambassadors of Christ if we invite people sit and then and 00:47:44.160 |
then we we step aside we introduce Jesus that he doesn't look anything like the church he 00:47:49.800 |
doesn't look anything like the fellowship of the church see pride prevents the preaching 00:47:55.760 |
of the gospel the justification by faith it affects everything that we do if we are no 00:48:05.400 |
longer affected by it there's a reason why you can't pray if we're not affected by justification 00:48:13.480 |
by faith you're just you just become numb maybe even what I'm saying this morning is 00:48:20.820 |
just like how many times I heard this right and just like you don't like you're sitting 00:48:26.640 |
there you don't hear your heart right it's beating there's noise there you ever notice 00:48:31.260 |
that you get a stethoscope or you put it in your heart and boom boom boom boom it's pretty 00:48:36.320 |
loud right but as soon as you take that away you don't hear a thing when's the last time 00:48:41.480 |
you actually heard your heart beating but it's there the sound is there but we become 00:48:47.880 |
the our brains have adjusted to it we no longer hear it the most important thing that you 00:48:54.280 |
and I need to hear and to be affected by every single day is what he has done you and I did 00:49:02.140 |
not deserve this Christ came and pursued sinners I know you know like how hard it is to love 00:49:12.240 |
sinners right and it's not just me you know it as much as I do loving sinners is a lot 00:49:18.880 |
of work right you know get you on your knees crying out to God right reading the Bible 00:49:25.480 |
you just read it like praying going along and I just do it love sinners see see how 00:49:32.200 |
hard that is right just and in fact the longer I live you would think you would get easier 00:49:38.760 |
doesn't get easier it gets much harder so something to look forward to right it gets 00:49:44.400 |
much harder because you have more and more memories of being disappointed with people 00:49:49.160 |
you know like I can't trust people you know you give all yourself and then you know it 00:49:54.200 |
doesn't take much I mean human relationships are so fragile you know there is no you know 00:50:00.800 |
I was just thinking about that you know that saying there's no honor among thieves because 00:50:04.760 |
they're already like breaking the law and doing all this stuff there's no honor so their 00:50:07.800 |
promise means nothing because they're they're a group of people who are already breaking 00:50:11.800 |
the law so what honor is there and I was just thinking isn't that us there's no honor there's 00:50:18.720 |
no loyalty among sinners right there's no loyalty there's no honor among sinners we're 00:50:26.200 |
we're you know we're selfishness and and anger and bitterness and self-protection self-exaltation 00:50:32.280 |
is at the core of our hearts there's no innate honor in that and yet Christ chose to love 00:50:39.480 |
us in that while we were yet sinners he pursued us and so if we're not motivated by the justification 00:50:48.800 |
by faith for what he's done for me where do you get the help to love others what's going 00:50:56.880 |
to motivate you to love a sinner what's going to cause you to persevere with other sinners 00:51:02.760 |
it is not in you it's not in me only people who have been affected by the cross can love 00:51:12.480 |
as he loved so why this justification by faith is at the core of what you and I do every 00:51:20.040 |
single week so if we become numb to this it just has become noise nothing else you do 00:51:27.160 |
in life is going to matter it's an emergency just like Paul says take a step back examine 00:51:32.320 |
yourself examine if it is faith that is causing you to do what you're doing or is it circumcision