Tana City Church Preaching
Kim Midgley | Hebrews 10v26-33 - We must not shrink back
I'm going to pray and then share what God's put on my heart. Heavenly Father, as we gather around your world this morning, I ask that you would speak to us by your Holy Spirit. Lord, the waiting things that we think about, I pray that you would guide us by your Spirit to make decisions that would glorify you in Jesus' name. Amen. Someone once said, the kind of church that I would want to belong to is a church where people believe the Word of God enough to put it into practice. And that's a big ask because if we really do want to put the Word of God into practice, we have to wrestle with it to understand how to apply to our lives, that we understand it rightly and try to live it out faithfully. And that's not always easy because there's some degree of nuance in many of the discussions in Scripture. Some of them deal with how to have a keen conscience and how you should be fully convinced about what you believe even if somebody else is fully convinced of what they believe and you believe two different things. Paul takes us that deep in his explanations to the church about how to keep unity and have peace with one another when they disagree on something that is purely a matter of conscience, not a clear right wrong situation. So one person may want to eat meat in another, may say, the meat that was sacrificed to idols in the meat market, I'm not going to eat that meat because it's been sacrificed to idols. And one person is tainted by occultic practices to the other person. It has nothing to do with the occult. It's just meat. And he says that the person with the strong conscience, who is seeing everything as the same, shouldn't look down on the person with the weaker conscience, but should honor them and actually then not lead them into sin because if they violate their conscience, that's sin. And so in a sense, the battle then is for us to understand the word of God in a way that it awakens our conscience. And then we work out what is expected of us by God and live that out with the keen conscience. Now, what a great, great freedom Jesus has won for us. That by the end of the matter, all is saying, circumcision doesn't make any difference. Whether the meat was sacrificed to an idol or not, it's just meat. So he stands in a place of extreme freedom, a conscience that is so at liberty, that he's only consumed and is with how he relates to others in terms of their weaker conscience. He's like, "Oh, the circumcised, but I consider that rubbish." It's like, "I leave it behind. It means nothing." Jesus died in order to set us free from all sorts of constraints. He paid a huge price. You can think of that movie, Braveheart, and there's Mel Gibson, just an actor. Just acting, don't worry, he didn't really die. But he's screaming for Scotland, "Freedom!" And then they're going to torture him to death. And he's fighting and laying down his life for the freedom of his people. Now, Jesus actually died to give us a very great freedom. And Paul was very concerned if we ever went from a place of freedom back into a place of slavery, back under some kind of a bondage to something from this world, or the system of this world, or the law of Israel, or whatever it just said, it's for freedom's sake, you've been set free. So this is something that someone, Jesus, paid the ultimate price for. So it's offensive to actually shrink back from that. And I want to start with those ideas as a previous. And I want to add something for the sake of not being contentious, not trying to stir up trouble, but just to provoke thought. While would you circumcise your children? They don't have any say in the matter, you make that decision as a parent, your male children. While would you butcher them? Well, that's how it's viewed if it's FGM, you know what that is, female, gentle mutilation, practiced in certain African countries. So coming along to a human who is honorable and weak and then just performing some surgical procedure on them is like a kind of a violation. So if God didn't command it, should you do it? If God didn't command it, should you do it? That's a question that you have to wrestle with. Because we have to know the word of God and believe it enough to live it. That's the important thing. So at a time in church history, the church discussed these subjects in great detail and some of the church came to the conclusion that it's neither here nor there. It's not forbidden to be circumcised, but neither is it prescribed. But other thinkers, what we would call the kind of the theologians, the philosophers of the church, they wrestled over the question of the morality of the issue. If God has sent you free from it, are you not now inflicting harm on a human body when you shouldn't? Much later, of course, science came along and said, actually it could be possibly some studies indicate that it could be more healthy. So I get circumcised for health reasons. So some people use that excuse and I say, I just want to call you out on that a little bit and say like, have you had any complications yet? Well, that six-week-old maybe doesn't or that two-year-old maybe doesn't have complications yet maybe doesn't need to be circumcised. So to say it's for health reasons, if you're circumvented to health, are you are you troubled? Are you fit? In other words, if you say it's for health reasons for your kid, well, do you really prioritize health that much in your life? Are you super fit? Have you committed yourself to the same kind of pressure to be healthy? And this is asking questions to make us think deeply about why we do things. We could be justifying something as being scientific, but maybe we're actually just afraid of what the people around us think. We're afraid of what the community thinks. We're afraid of what society thinks, but I think personally you should be afraid of what God thinks most all. You should fear God, not man, and so you should wrestle with this issue as if it is a matter where God's word says something and where God's word does speak, it says in Acts 15, don't to the Jews, specifically because they were Jewish and they were going back to Jewish customs. So if they were coming under some kind of a yoke that was imposed by their culture, Christianity said Jesus died to set you free. You may be coming under some kind of a yoke that your culture imposes where Christianity says Jesus died to set you free. Has the gospel changed you that much that you have left behind the scripture you described as dead traditions handed down to you by your ancestors? Tough questions. Are we compromising? That's a question you ask. Because Jesus died to set us free from having to perform rituals. He did. So this is the passage we're considering today. It begins like this. Hebrews 10, verse 26 and 27. For if we go on sinning deliberately after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sinners, but a fearful expectation of judgment and a fury of fire that will consume the adversaries. So the writers say when you hear the gospel, if you continue in deliberate, that's willful, delighted. In other words, you continue on your path, ignoring it. There's no other sacrifice person. There's only one sacrifice that attains person. It's Jesus' sacrifice. So if you reject his sacrifice, there's no other way for you to be forgiven. All you can face then is an expectation of judgment and a fury of fire that will consume the adversaries. So it seems to me the writers got an idea that some people are actually setting themselves at odds with God. They're putting themselves up against him and he's going to win. God will always triumph over his enemies. But the way this is worded, it reminds me that, written to believers, they could also have been unbelievers there. And there's debates about how the scriptures to be taken, whether it is towards people who have rejected the gospel, having observed it close up, or whether they really believe us who are just choosing to ignore the gospel. In either case, the consequences are very serious. But the way it's worded reminds me a lot of the unportable sin because the dynamics are the same. So I want to share with you a little bit about blasphemy of the Holy Spirit, where Jesus was speaking in Mark chapter 3. And Jesus said this. He said, Mark 3 verse 27, "No one can enter a strong man's house and plan to his goods unless he first finds the strong man." Then indeed he may plan to his house. So Jesus is explaining that he is casting out demons and he's healing the sick and he's setting people free because he's more powerful than the devil. Because he has the authority of the kingdom of God and he is demonstrating that the kingdom has come upon the earth, that he has arrived. That's the significance of incarnation. Jesus came and he began to exercise the authority of God on earth and he took over, overpowered the devil and started to ransom people, set them free, where they've been held slaves to sin and fear and captivity of the devil. He comes and heals and he causes out demons. And the people witnessing the sum of the religious people said he's casting out devils by the devil. In other words, of course if Beelzebub or Satan can do these things he can put demons in, he can take demons out, what Jesus is doing is of the devil. And then Jesus says, "Truly I say to you, all sons will be forgiven the children of men and whatever blasphemies they utter can do all kinds of sinning, can all be forgiven. But whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit never has forgiveness, that is guilty of an eternal sin." That's the crux of the matter there is the Holy Spirit, empowers Jesus. Jesus does signs that testify to him being the son of God and the kingdom has come and then they say, "No, this isn't it. This isn't the kingdom of God. This isn't God's son. We reject Christ. Will that can't be forgiven? Do you know why it can't be forgiven?" Well, it's because your access to forgiveness is in Christ. So if you reject the very means to salvation, there is no forgiveness. So whoever blasphemes against the homeless but never has forgiveness, they never reach that point of being forgiven because they never receive Jesus. It's eternal. They just don't access life. In Jesus is life. No Jesus, no life. Don't get it. So verse 30, "For they were saying he has an unclean spirit." In other words, they were accusing Jesus of doing his fine evil means by witchcraft. And so the unforgivable sin is unforgivable because it blocks your access to forgiveness. When you reject Christ, there is no other means of salvation. And the writer to Hebrews is saying something very similar. He's saying, "If we go on sinning deliberately after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins. No matter how many goats or bulls or any other things you do to please God, it doesn't please him. He can only be satisfied with Jesus' sacrifice." So all that's left for you, if you reject Christ, is the expectation of judgment. As we continue in Hebrews, the writer explains using the consequences of ignoring God's Word as his example. Anyone that he says in Hebrews 10-28, anyone who set aside the law of Moses dies without mercy on the evidence of two or three witnesses. So you commit adultery, you ignore the law, you murder someone, you ignore the law, you get two or three witnesses against you, and the law will still put you to death. You're condemned by the law when you break the law. That's what the writer says. So if that's the consequence of rejecting God's law that he gave to Moses, how much worse would the consequences be if you reject Jesus? How much worse would the consequences be if you reject the only Savior? The law couldn't even save you, but it could condemn you. Christ can save you, and if he does, he won't condemn you, because the condemnation that saves you is put upon him. How much worse punishment do you think will be deserved by the one who has trampled and put the Son of God and has profaned the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified and has outraged the spirit of grace? I can see the similarities there where the spirit is involved, and the spirit is now outraged. The blood is profaned. It means I'm setting it aside. If you set aside the law, anyone who has set aside the law of Moses dies without mercy. Anyone who has set aside the blood of Christ dies without mercy. Verse 30, "For we know him who said vengeance is mine, I will repay, and again the Lord will judge his people. It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God." God judges his own people. He judges all humanity because we all ultimately his children, even the unsaved in a sense, virtually, were from Adam who was created by God. So humanity is often described as being offspring of God, some of whom, all of whom, sin, some of whom are redeemed. But God judges even his own people. The work tells us judgment begins with the house of the Lord. Believers and unbelievers will both appear before God at the judgment. Believers haven't received mercy. The mercy of God through the propitiatory sacrifice of Jesus. In other words, Jesus sacrificed a piece, the wrath of God, so we no longer come under the wrath of God. Believers haven't received the mercy of God through the propitiatory sacrifice of Jesus, are the ones whose names are written in the book of life. They will not be condemned. But there is still a judgment. Two Corinthians 5, verse 10, we have heard it recently, two Corinthians 5, verse 10. But we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body with a good or evil. This applies to believers too, in the sense that there is a reward for doing what's right. Your sins are put upon Jesus, no condemnation for you who are in Christ Jesus. You don't get judged between heaven and hell. You get judged for the deeds done and for reward. For the believer, the judgment is also terrifying. Why would I say this? Because earlier in Corinthians, Paul writes in one Corinthians 3 that our works with, and we build with gold, silver, or precious stone, or with wood, hand, stubble. Those works will be tested with fire. Now hands up, no one's to jump in a fire. Not me. It says that in the Bible that some will come into heaven, heaven be passed through that fire judgment. Believers, they enter into heaven with no nothing to show. Like, I looked for myself, thanks for saving me Jesus. I did everything the way we always did it. I just looked for, I didn't look for your word. I didn't obey your word. I didn't consider whether I should do this ritual or not do this ritual. I just thought about what people think of me. So I pleased my family guide instead of you. That's possible that that could be something God cares about. I'm a beast, I have to acknowledge, I apologize. That's South African way of saying something. Sorry, I'm South African. What I mean is God really does care about whether we grapple with His word and apply it in our lives. It isn't just about going to heaven. It isn't just about getting an altar called hand raised. It has to be Christ formed in us. And if Christ is being formed in us, then we become as free as He was. He was so free that He offended the Pharisees. He did disciples who washed their hands. He healed on the Sabbath. He called them whitewashed tombs, a brood of vipers. He said that the Pharisees went and made what found one person to make a convert of and made them twice the son of hell that they were. So he called the Pharisees sons of hell. He told people that your dead family members buried their dead. In other words, he went into a culture that cared about ceremony and he trampled all over it. Jesus was the most offensive person you could ever meet. Don't paint him as a diplomat. He was not diplomatic. He didn't pay respect. But he honored where honor was during the spoke of truth and he led people towards something far far greater that he was paying for, which is a freedom that we could easily disregard. We could easily start making rules again in the church about what we wear, about what we eat, what we drink. We could easily say it's forbidden to have alcohol in a church because we don't want to need anyone interested. But we better be very careful before we impose that rule if Jesus didn't prescribe it. Very, very important because otherwise we will create more and more of a religious order with less and less freedom. Pretty soon you'll be telling people that they should only wear black and they should fail their faces. That's what religion does. It takes away freedom and puts rules in the place. So we're called now to persevere. Not because we could lose our salvation, but because we have much to gain. We have so much to gain. So the writer turns to encourage them and says in verse 32 of Hebrews chapter 10, "The trip call the former days when after you were in light and you endured our heart's struggle with suffering, sometimes being publicly exposed to approach and affliction, and sometimes being partners with those so treated." In other words, sometimes you are standing alongside people who are being rejected socially because of your faith. You endured our heart's struggle with suffering as being publicly exposed to reproach. Do you know what that is? It's public dishonor shame. Why won't you come to the family whatever ceremony? First, first step is get rid of the turning of the bones. You've only done that. But did we just make peace at that point and say everything else we'll just compromise on? Or are we going to fight for total freedom because Jesus died to set us completely free? Sometimes being publicly exposed to reproach and sometimes being partners with those so treated. For you had compassion on those in prison, you joyfully accepted the plundering of your property. Man, please Lord, don't test me. I don't know. We've had stuff stolen before. I didn't feel much joy about it. But I didn't turn on God and say, "God, Chris, my brand new scooter." You know, our first automatic ask, I got a really shiny Suzuki 125cc scooter. And with it, like six months, that thing at the bottom, it was liberated by someone. Repossessed, I don't know what you call it, redistribution of wealth. It was given from the white privileged guy to somebody who needed it. God probably saved my life. I would have probably been killed on that scooter. But at the time, it was not a joyful experience to have my property taken. Anyway, the thing is, I'm still here. I'm still full of joy because I knew, says like, since you knew that you yourselves had a better position and an abiding one. That's where I'm anchored. I'm not anchored in the stuff of this world. I'm anchored with Christ in heaven. He is the anchor of my soul. And I have this anchor that takes me beyond the valence is everything on earth. Everything on earth is temporary and irrelevant. And all the customs of man, as such, are irrelevant. Do them, don't do them, but don't give up your freedom. Therefore, it was tender and steadfast. Therefore, do not throw away your confidence, which has a great reward. There is a great reward for holding on to your confidence that Christ is all that God requires. That His sacrifice is the sacrifice that God wants. That Jesus led a tone for all sin, and there remains now no other sacrifice that I need to make. For you have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God, you may receive what is promised. What is promised to the believer who overcome us? A crown. A crown. Don't forsake your crown. You can lay it at Jesus' feet in heaven. You will see all glory goes to him. But there is still a crown for the believer to compete for. Don't cast away the things Jesus died for and live a normal life. For yet a little while, and the coming one will come and will not delay it. But my righteous one shall live by faith. And if he shrinks back, my soul has no pleasure in him. It's not good to shrink back. We are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who have faith and preserve their souls. So we carry on, under pressure and persecution, faith is tested and proved genuine or false. The just shall live by faith. Endurance proves one is genuinely saved. Endurance is not earning that salvation. It is just revealing the genuineness of it. So as you are a Christian and you walk through your life, you will see that the more you stand up for the things of God, the more convinced you are of your salvation. It's like, I know I'm safe because I had a fight with my dad. And I told him I'm going to do what Jesus asked me to do, not what you want. I was not disrespectful. I was not dishonoring to my father. I had left his home. I was living in another city and my father did not want me to be baptized. But I read in the Word of God it said, "Go and be baptized." Not in exactly those words. I'm paraphrasing. Go and baptize, make disciples. I realized I want to be a disciple of Jesus. I was 20 years old or something. I saw people in the church being baptized. I knew I had been baptized. Certainly not by my choice. I was dry cleaned a lot earlier when I was an infant. That's a joke. It wasn't dry cleaning. It was called christening. They sprinkled water on me in the Anglican church. That didn't satisfy my conscience that I was baptized. For someone of you it has. That's okay. But did you wrestle with it? Did you just accept or did you pray in process? You must live what the Word of God combines, not what people talk about. So I saw in the Word of God be baptized and I said to my dad, "Hey, I'm going to get baptized." And he said, "Why? You don't need that." You were baptized when you were a baby. He was an unbelieving Anglican at the time. He wasn't even born again. He loved me. He was trying to control me. I said, "No, Dad. I love you. I'm going to get baptized." I loved my dad. He died a couple of years later after meeting the Lord in the last year of his life. He was born again and we could all see he got saved. But before then he was a religious man and he opposed to getting baptized. And I said, "I'm following Jesus now." I may have disappointed him. I think now that he's in heaven, it probably delights him. Did you realize that? That some of the people you disappoint on earth will actually be delighted that you disappointed them on earth if they get to heaven because they'll see that when you stood up for God you did the right thing. I will stand up to my dad for Jesus. Thank God I never had to do that more than about twice in my life. But I got baptized. So I know this. What I'm talking about is that the pressure that comes upon you to be a Christian is real. And when you're tested you should honor God, not man. The point is at the end of the day eternal rewards are crowns that we are going to fight for because Jesus paid the highest price for our freedom. And so we're going to live in it and then lay our crowns at his feet to worship him one day in heaven. So under pressure, persecution, faith is tested and proved genuine or false. Hey look, maybe you've caved a number of times to pressure already. Maybe you've fought some of these battles and lost. Maybe you've given in to people to like placate them. Don't come under condemnation from what I'm sharing. I'm talking about your future. I'm not talking about what happened in your past. Maybe you're circumcised, christened, all these things. Maybe you went to turning off the bones 15 years ago. It doesn't matter. That's under the blood of Jesus. Every mistake you ever make is under the blood of Jesus. He forgives all our sin. But we must not carry on sinning. We must not carry on doing what we were ignorant of. We no longer ignorant of. We no longer ignorant about the ways of God. We are unlearning the ways of man in order to learn the ways of God. And this is important. So it's about your future that I'm speaking. It's not about anything you've done in your past. Here is this endurance depicted in scripture. Philippians 3. I'm going to read Philippians chapter 3 so that you catch the heart of Paul as he writes to the Philippians. Finally, my brothers, rejoice in the Lord. To write the same things to you is no trouble to me and it's safe for you. Look out for the dogs. Look out for the evil doers. Look out for those who mutilate the flesh. For we are the circumcision who worshiped by the Spirit of God and glory in Christ Jesus and put no confidence in the flesh. Now I myself have reasonable confidence in the flesh also. If anyone else thinks he has reasonable confidence in the flesh, I have more. Circumcised on the eighth day of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews as to the law of Pharisee as to zeal, a persecutor of the church as to righteousness under the law, blameless. They said I was doing everything as best I could under the law. But whatever gain I had, I counted as lost for the sake of Christ. He separated himself from all of that religious stuff. Indeed, I count everything as lost because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus, my Lord, counts of all of us. For his sake, I've suffered the loss of all things and count them as radish in order that I make gain Christ. So there's the freedom of Christ. There's Christ himself to gain. There's rituals and ceremonies and pride and standing in the Jewish community and reputation as a Pharisee and all that stuff, he says, I counted as Dan. That is the word, I think, in Greek. You scholars, you're just listening very carefully, correct me if I'm wrong. I think the word for radish there was was Dan. So I count them as rubbish that I make gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith, that I may know him and the power of his resurrection and may share his sufferings becoming like him and his death that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead. Not that I've already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own. This is what we must be doing. We must be making Christianity our own, making the gospel our own, possessing Christ. Because Christ Jesus has made me his own, says the writer, so we are possessed by Christ. I am possessed by the Holy Spirit, not a demon. Can a Christian have a demon? Can a demon have a Christian? No, because the Holy Spirit has the Christian. I'm possessed by the Holy Spirit. I belong to Jesus. I'm owned by him. He has made me his own, but to what extent have I realized that I must make him my own? I must push on and push on. I must not shrink back. I must not compromise. I must not be hidden, half heartedly, jycling culture and tradition and all my identity and my old life. No, I count it all done. Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own, but one thing I do, forgetting what lies behind and straining forward toward lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Let those of us who are mature think this way. And if in anything you think otherwise God will reveal that also to you. He is so cheeky. He is poking at the guys and saying if you disagree with me, you just haven't seen what God's saying it. He'll reveal it to you in time. He's just saying he looks slow. Like if you have an argument with me about this, just wait, God will show you. Just be more tired. So always he was scathing. And it's scathing. He was shocked. I think we would not have got one maybe. I don't know. Probably clashed. Let those of us who are mature think this way. And if in anything you think otherwise God will reveal that also to you. Only let us hold true to what we have attained. That's exactly what Hebrews 10 is speaking about. Let us hold true to what we have attained. And then in Philippians 3 verse 17 we see Hebrews chapter 11. Brothers, join me in imitating me and keep your eyes on those who walk according to the example you have in us. So someone sends an example and we follow them as they follow Christ. And Hebrews 11 is this record of those who are men of faith who left things behind in order to pursue the things of God. Now this has concrete relevance to you and me. We can see this when Paul writes in the Galatians. He writes to the Galatians about Peter. And he dishes out some public slaps in a way. He says in Galatians 2 verse 11. I'll read from Galatians 2 verse 11 quite a few verses. When Zephas says Peter came to Antioch I opposed him to his face because he stood condemned. Or before certain men came from James. He was eating with the Gentiles. Freedom. But when they came he drew back. Some men from James were Jews. Jews came from where James was in Jerusalem down to Antioch where Peter was. Peter was hanging out with Gentiles. Then he drew back from his Gentile friends because he was concerned about what his Jewish friends would think of his freedom to eat with Gentiles. So Paul says I opposed him to his face. He drew back and separated himself fearing the circumcision party. They don't mean the feast. They mean the group like a political party. It's not not fearing having a party. You should never fear having a party. The rest of the Jews acted hypocritically along with him. So even Barnabas was led astray by his hypocrisy. So we as Christians can lead other Christians astray by our shrinking back into pleasing the circumcision party. And I want to show you the circumcision party is still alive. They're still on earth today. They wrote nearby the church some of them are in it. And the rest of the Jews acted hypocritically like verse 14. When I saw that their conduct was not instead with the truth of the gospel, I said to several before them all, "If you, though a Jew, live like a Gentile, not like a Jew, how can you force the Gentiles to live like Jews?" In other words, don't keep going back and forth. Either be free or you play against you. Pretend you. We ourselves are Jews by birth and not Gentiles sinners. Yet we know that a person is not justified by works of the law, but through faith in Jesus Christ. So we also have believed in Christ Jesus in order to be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law because by works of the law no one will be justified. But if in our endeavor to be justified in Christ we too are found to be sinners, is Christ then a servant of sin? Certainly not. For if I rebold what I taught down, I proved myself to be a transgracer. That is a key verse. If you start rebuilding ceremony ritual into your life after you tore it down because you found Jesus and you found freedom, then you are shrinking back. If you start to live for the fear of men and the traditions of your ancestors, you are shrinking back. You're rebuilding what you tore down. When you came to Jesus, it was just you and him and you were free of your sins and you knew it. For through the law I died to the law so that I might live to God. I've been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live but Christ who lives in me and the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. I do not nullify the grace of God for if righteousness were through the law then Christ died for no purpose. You could nullify the grace of God in your life. In fact these Galatians were in danger of nullifying the grace of God by going back to circumcision. Galatians 5 verse 4 he continues. You are severed from Christ, you who would be justified by the law, you've fallen away from grace. So if you go that way, you Hebrews, if you shrink back, God's not pleased with you. If you tremble underfoot the blood of Christ, you're facing judgment because this other path doesn't take you to freedom. Only Jesus takes you there. And so you're falling from grace. You're going back. For through the spirit by faith we ourselves eagerly wait for the hope of righteousness. When Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor end circumcision comes for anything but only faith working through love. So you're definitely free. So why would you go back to it? So if someone says to you I want to do something, a certain thing, I want to say what's your theological motivation? Why are you doing it? And we have to look deeply. You were running well who hindered you from obeying the truth. This persuasion is not from him who calls you. Because these thoughts don't come from God. These pressures, the persuasion, the pressure on you to do these things doesn't come from God. Why is it, if you're free not to get circumcised, why is there pressure on you to get circumcised or to circumcise it to you? When does the pressure come from? Ask it. If you're free to do it, you do not prescribe to do a particular ritual, why do you feel under pressure to do that ritual? Like a groundbreaking ceremony when you're going to build a property. This persuasion is not from him who calls you. A little leavens the whole land. I have confidence in the Lord that you will take no other view and that the one who is troubling you will bear the penalty, whoever he is. But if our brothers still preach circumcision, why am I still being persecuted? What he's saying is he doesn't. He's being persecuted because he doesn't preach circumcision. In that case, the offense of the cross would have been removed. We are trying to remove the offense of the cross from our lives. Sometimes we are trying to get away without opposed anyone's opposition. We sometimes try to live a life that other people are all happy with us. But the cross is offensive to them. The freedom Jesus offers us is offensive to those who don't have it. Then he says one of my favorite verses in the entire book. This is because I have a sense of humor and my sense of humor when I was less saved, I'm saved, was more crass than it should have been. I wish those who uncertain you would emasculate themselves. In another translation he says, "I wish they would go the whole way." In other words, don't just stop at circumcision, just a little bit. Just go further, cut it all off. If you think it's graphic, it's funny, you say like if you think this is helping you, then go the whole hub. Just emasculate yourselves. If you think your flesh can save you, for you were called to freedom brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh but rather through love so one another, for the whole law is fulfilled in one word. You shall love your neighbor as yourself. So we should get back to how do we really treat the people around us and do we love or are we doing things in order to just carry reputation, respect, honor. What does it mean to shrink back? I guess it's believing and behaving like you did before you received the gospel. For the Hebrews it meant going back to the ceremonies and sacrifices of the Old Covenant and the law. All despised as we just saw in Galatians. For Peter it was pandering to his Jewish friends. For us it could be pandering to tradition. I did receive an email, someone asking and this person is a good person I'm sure, don't misunderstand anything I share now. They asked if we could send a pastor to go and pray at the home that they were building and it just put me in all kinds of constellations because everything inside of me says no why would I do that. I said it's a good thing to pray for peace in your home but you're going to have to pray that on going every day. Is there any need to gather there and have a ceremony? It's not prescribed in scripture so why wouldn't this be a good test if I said let's pray but yeah the church. Look I'm over 10 coffee also but you and your wife will meet you will chat and then we'll pray for you on your home but these are the pressure because people want to gather because they want to have a ceremony to break ground in accordance with an ancient tradition in this nation which is occultic. It's very occultic not just a little demonic it's not a little bit of demon it's demon. Okay and they want to do that because people have a pressure and they want blessings and they've Christianized an old tradition maybe like we even did with Christmas I don't know but they're taking something that's still a need we must do this because if we don't pray blessing over the land maybe we'll have curse that's not relationship with God that's transactional that's superstitious that's treating God like you treated the demons you worship through the occultic ways by doing ceremonies to appease the spirits you're appeasing God the same way that's not the gospel we don't have to do ceremonies to appease God he set us free from that in Jesus and so if I can test that person's motives I can say you want to pray for your property the hope that's being built let's do that church this school is not even a church we'll sit together we'll pray because like the centurion he had great faith and said to Jesus could you heal my servant he said I know how this works you don't have to go there why do you think you want to go there it's a question to ask why do we love ceremony or ritual and do we stand up and say I'm going to stand in the freedom and the full breadth and depth of it that Jesus brought for me I'm fighting for that not fighting with the human being and in fact some guys would go to that event they would have a moment they would pray for God's blessing on the land and then they would try to evangelize the people around me and that's okay it's not a sin it's not forbidden but does it communicate the gospel sufficiently I don't know maybe we're just saying it's up to me that's taking the easy way out that's keeping peace with man I would rather fear God I would rather say let's test whether there's a motive together and do a ritual or not and if there is a motive together and do a ritual I want no part in it because Jesus died to set me free and you so could it be that we're settling we calming down and becoming de-radicalized there's a word for you we mustn't as believers I want to love people enough to fight for them to be free I don't want them kept in slavery to dead rituals I don't want our lives to be under the fear of man manipulating us and feeling that we lose social credibility if I lose if you lose social credibility you lose it for the glory of God so my questions to myself as I close am I still willing to do whatever I ask am I willing to go wherever he calls am I able to praise him enduring hardship do I still have a song in my heart when I'm hurting would I leave someone for God would I stay with someone for God do I still want a word from God am I pray listening reading my Bible making notes and making changes in my life you see God takes you out to take you in he is leading us somewhere he is leading us somewhere he's leading us out of those things of Egypt and into his ways do you decide to follow swiftly what you need a ring in your nose that's not an attack on anyone who is doing I mean there's this there's this verse in the Bible that talks about it talks about the pull although the the the cow needing a ring in its nose to pull it and we shouldn't be like that of God we should go readily in the direction that he's pulling us in so are you willing to unlearn the ways of man in order to learn the ways of God have I grown ask myself this question have I grown entitled have I started to reward myself or do I still wait for God's reward see if you sometimes become older you think I fought my battles I paid my price don't tell me anything it's like I don't want to be that guy I want to be like the song from the carpenters we've only just begun that's what I want between me and God we've only just begun we've only just begun to understand how greater freedom Christ has won for us but we must make it precious we've only just begun to understand what it means that the law has been put away Jesus fulfilled it now we fulfill it in love we uphold it not because we try to earn holiness by assessment because we love Jesus let's pray when you stand the band can come up even if either Jewish culture changed when Jews became Christians their culture was new Lord help us not to be compromising in our lives out of diplomacy political correctness secular honoring of culture culture isn't God you are God Jesus you died to set us free and trouble though because you are mighty God you are the one who delivered us you're the one who paid the price Jesus you're the one who was beaten you died on that cross so that we could be free Jesus help us not to submit to a yoke of slavery not to our flesh not to lust not to sin and not to systems that come to shackle people may we love people and to lead them to you Jesus that they too can be free in Jesus name that's what it should be