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[ Music ] Can they take their seats as we sing the last stanza? ♪ Amazingly built in glory ♪ ♪ And I heard about the streets of gold ♪

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♪ Beyond the crystal sea ♪ ♪ About the angels singing ♪ ♪ And the old ancient story ♪ ♪ In some sweet, little secret ♪

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♪ The song of victory ♪ ♪ Oh, victory in Jesus ♪ ♪ Christ, King of the heavens ♪ ♪ To stop the enemy ♪

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♪ With His redeemed blood ♪ ♪ To the glory and beauty ♪ ♪ And the power of His name ♪ ♪ It must be ♪

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♪ Oh, victory in Jesus ♪ ("The Sorghum Tree" by AC/DC) ♪♪ ♪♪

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[music] Amen. May we bow our heads. Lord speak to our hearts we pray. In the strong name of Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. Our scripture I shall read using the Living Bible paraphrase

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recording the book of Acts chapter 16 verses 1 through 3. As you know in this particular service we have been preaching through the book of Acts so we invite your prayerful attention to chapter 16 verses 1 through 3. Paul and Silas went first to Derbe and then to Lystra where they met Timothy a believer

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whose mother was a Christian Jewish, but his father a Greek. Timothy was well thought of by the brothers in Lystra and Iconium, so Paul asked him to join them on their journey. In deference to the Jews of the area, he circumcised Timothy before they left. Everyone knew that his father was a Greek and hadn't permitted

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this before." It's in brackets. Associated with this passage is Galatians chapter 5 verse 6, "For in Christ there is neither circumcision availeth anything, not uncircumcision, but faith which worketh by love. For in Christ neither circumcision availeth

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anything, nor uncircumcision, but faith which worketh by love." Galatians 5 and 6. The subject of the message, a circumcised Christian. Paul took Timothy and circumcised him, a circumcised Christian. In many of our associations and experiences with various groups, there is

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a badge of acceptance. Certain norms, certain standards that must be met in order to be accepted. Every person who is admitted must present, so to speak, that badge. It must be seen in order to be accepted. Circumcision is considered a badge of acceptance. It is required of all Jewish males that they be

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circumcised on the eighth day. It's a means of acceptance into the covenant community. Only the circumcised person is privileged to participate in the Passover observance. Circumcision is a legal requirement. It's considered part of the law governing God's people. It is the divine command given to Abraham. It is reinforced

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by succeeding generations. We have our form of circumcision, certain external requirements for acceptance. We have a way of separating the circumcised from the uncircumcised. Sometimes race and color are used as a form of circumcision. One is accepted or rejected because race or nationality are because of the color of one's skin.

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Economic class may be a badge of circumcision. An individual's material possessions, his salary, his or her income, all of these things may be used as a badge of

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of acceptance in certain circles. Now this may also be true of religion. In the religious community, we have the circumcised and the uncircumcised, the disciple of the faith and the pagan, so to speak, the Christian and the non-Christian.

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In the church we have our circumcision. Baptism is a kind of circumcision. And we require that every person who accepts Jesus Christ would submit to baptism. And that communion here at the Lord's table is a kind of circumcision, that only the initiated

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are to commune at the table of the Lord. So we have a kind of circumcision that is required in order for one to have the privilege to enjoy fellowship within the covenant community. The uncircumcised are ostracized.

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They are outside the circle. They drew a circle that shut me out. Heretic, rebel, a thing to flout. Circumcision suggests that there are certain external signs

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by which we determine the ins and the outs, who's in and who's out. Judaism requires every male convert to be circumcised. The influence of Judaism was strong in the early church.

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In fact, that developed soon within the Christian movement two wings of Christianity. There was the Jewish wing of the church representing the circumcised,

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and there was the Gentile wing of the church that represents the uncircumcised. Paul and Bonobus were the prominent leaders of the Gentile wing of the church,

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the uncircumcised, so to speak, while Peter and James, the leaders of the Jewish church that circumcised. Now in this particular event,

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Paul is on his second missionary journey and he meets Timothy. Timothy is already a disciple of Jesus Christ. He has already made a profession of faith.

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He has already been baptized. He has already received the Holy Spirit. Nevertheless, Paul has Timothy to submit to circumcision. Now circumcision is the practice

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that was prevalent among the Jews. Timothy is half Jewish, if you may put it that way. His mother's a Jew, his daddy's a Greek. and he had not been circumcised even though he's a Christian.

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But since Paul wants to take Timothy with him, since he wants him to be a companion in the way, a worker with him as they go forth in their missionary endeavors, Paul has Timothy circumcised. Oh, he doesn't have to do it.

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is one that we find preaching that saying that circumcision is not necessary. In fact, the first controversy in the church was over this matter that it's really not necessary to submit to circumcision in order to be accepted of Jesus Christ. Nevertheless, Paul has Timothy circumcised because he

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does not want the issue of Timothy's circumcision to be a matter of controversy between Jewish and Gentile Christians. Paul wishes to avoid having Timothy's circumcision become an obstacle in the progress of the Christian faith. It's good for us to see this because so often there are those

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who create controversy in the church. And here is Paul seeking to take whatever steps that may be possible in order to eliminate what may be a controversial matter. He is willing to somehow submit to this if it means that it's going to be an opportunity for him to promote Jesus Christ. Now I say circumcision is

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with us in many forms. It's really expressed in the things we say we do and we don't do. And some of us wear a badge so to speak of circumcision. A person who's always saying, you see, I don't smoke. I don't dance.

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I don't drink. I don't play cards. I don't belong, oh, I do belong. It's all a kind of circumcision.

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And sometimes we take a certain pride and really think that we are better because we don't do certain things. I often think of this Arab story of a man who lived a godly righteous and sober life and another man who seemed to have lived everything but a godly, righteous, and sober life. So the man who lived the

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godly, righteous, and sober life died and went to hell and the man who did not live the godly, righteous, and sober life died and went to heaven. And so the one who went to heaven was saying to Allah, "How is it that this man who seemingly lived the godly righteous and sober life went to hell and Allah said to him you see he

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trusted in his righteousness to save him but you trusted in the mercy of Allah. So we are saved by grace, not by works, not by our righteousness lest all of us be lost. It is by the grace of God. And sometimes we forget that. And this really was the controversy because people who do a lot of things, you

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know they want their merit badges, their stars, you know, you know I've done this, I've done this, I've done that, and people today they will remind you quickly about what they have done in the church. I've done this, I've done that, and some people expect to get all their pay here and none after. So this matter of circumcision

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first of all is the way to community. It's the way to community. That's the way of acceptance is circumcision. And I think we need to sort of examine it. Circumcision is performed on Timothy so that he may reach persons on both sides, Jews and Gentiles. He will be acceptable among Gentiles where circumcision is not

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considered necessary and he will also be accepted by Jews where circumcision is considered necessary. You know there are always persons who are looking for some defect, something they can criticize. There are those who knew Timothy's background and they would use it against him if he were not circumcised. You know

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I hear people say today, "You know, you know, I knew her when. I knew her when." I don't see why so-and-so can be a good leader in the church because so-and-so smoke cigarettes. I hear people saying that. And they're somehow using a kind of circumcision. Somebody said to me the other day, "Oh, Reverend, that fella you had up

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there, I smell some liquor on his breath." I said, "You know, if we examined everybody in our church that has some liquor somewhere around, we wouldn't have many people left." You know that's another kind of circumcision. And we get caught up with all of that, all of these badges of acceptance and rejection. And we try to destroy good people with some circumcision right that they have not submitted themselves to.

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Timothy is prepared to minister to the old and the new. Now there are a lot of people who have some rather warped ideas about what the Christian faith is. And if we're going to reach them,

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we have to put aside some of the things that we don't have any hangups about if we're really going to minister to them. I remember when we were in Brazil

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attending the Baptist World Alliance in 1960, that some of the people from Brazil came up to us. I was with someone who was smoking and they said, "Would you please not smoke?"

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Because many of the people in Brazil think that if a person is a Christian that they should not smoke and you Americans who are here who are smoking, it may mar the effect of the Christian witness here in Brazil, so would you refrain from smoking.

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There are some things that you may know all right. There are some things that you understand that they aren't going to keep you out of heaven. But somehow by the grace of God we can sacrifice doing those things if it means that it will

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enable us to reach someone for Jesus Christ. That's the attitude that Paul had. That's why Timothy is circumcised so that it becomes a way, it becomes a way of community. It becomes a way by which people who are separated from God, who are separated from the people of God become reconciled to each other and to the

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eternal God the Father Almighty. Secondly, it has to do with law and grace. By this action Paul recognizes the relationship of law and grace. You know some people want to get completely rid of law. They join the church and we do quite well with this as Baptists. You know, we are free and so

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So some people say it means that freedom means that I don't have to do nothing if I don't want to. Well that's not true. There's no way what the Bible says that that's what is meant by Christian freedom.

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That if I don't want to do anything, I don't need to do anything, that I can still be a good do-nothing Christian. That's the way some people think. And I don't want to give anything, I don't have to give anything.

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You know, Reverend, you know, we're free in Christ. just making a contribution can be a badge of circumcision but when one thinks that one is free of any law then one misses the point. God didn't write all these things in the Bible. He didn't write all those things down there just

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to have them written, just a good little story. But they are written. He didn't give the Ten Commandments to Moses just for the Ten Commandments to be used in a class and school. The Ten Commandments have to do with our life together, and the first section of those commandments is concerned about what God demands of us in our relationship

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with him, and the other section has to do with what is expected in our relationship with each other. That's not just something written to be written. It's law. And we couldn't We can't have community without law. We couldn't live, we have to have some laws to govern us.

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We couldn't have this city. In fact, you'd have people doing everything next door to you and you couldn't have any peace and quiet or anything if we didn't have laws to govern ourselves and others.

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And so there has to be law and there has to be grace. There has to be liberty in law. in law or law and liberty. You see, it has to be both law and grace. Now we have to recognize that the law has its limitations. You know, people have to

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learn to act right. Isn't that right? They have to learn to act right. They have to learn to act right whether they want to or not. And a whole lot of times, you know, in school and on your job and a lot of places, you act the way they want you to act, whether you really want to do that or not. Because you know that that's required, that you aren't going to be there unless you keep

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the law. That's the way it is. That's the law. But in the Christian faith, we are expected to act.

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We are expected to conform. We are expected to obey rules. that's not enough. There has to be grace. That somehow God looks behind our actions and he looks at our attitudes so that there is law and grace and that these two are

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brought together in the life of a circumcised Christian, one who embraces the law on the one hand and who embraces the liberty of the Christian faith or the other. That's what Timothy does. So he is a circumcised Christian. That's what we are called upon to do. Sure the Ten Commandments have

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relevance for our times. God wants us to keep the Ten Commandments and is just as concerned about the Ten Commandments for our day as he was in Moses day. Anyone who thinks they're outdated, that they're obsolete, that they're antiquated, that person doesn't understand God and his demands for his

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people. But on the other hand, as we have Mount Sinai, right along beside it, we have the Mount of Beatitudes, where Jesus gives us the law. That's based on grace, really. He tells us the attitude that we ought to have to live the Christian life. Not only does he want us to act right, but he wants us to have the right attitude behind those actions. So this is what it means to live

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the life of a circumcised Christian. A circumcised Christian. You know, Paul says, "I want you to understand," as he writes to the Galatians, "Y'all got all mixed up about this matter of circumcision. Somebody has come along and they've got you all confused about the significance of circumcision. I don't understand how

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it happened. When you were there we rejoiced and we had such a good time in the Lord and now you're all caught up with circumcision about who's circumcised and who's not circumcised, who has this and who doesn't have that. He says, but I want you to understand it's not your circumcision or your

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uncircumcision that really means anything. It's really not whether or not you've been down in that pool or whether you've not been down in the pool that really means anything. The real thing is whether or not you have Christ because a whole lot of people may go down in that pool and come up just like they went down, but not without Christ. And a whole lot of people may embrace the Christian faith and many of

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them may have their name on the church roll somewhere, but they may be a part of the tear because the wheat and the tear are all together. So it's really not your circumcision or your own circumcision that matters, it's whether or not you have Christ, that's everything. But if you have Christ, maybe you didn't get to any water like

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the dying thief, but he had Christ in his life. So when we accept Christ, that's the main thing, our relationship to Jesus Christ. So let us not get caught up with circumcision, that circumcision of the flesh, be sure, be sure, be very sure that we have the circumcision of the Spirit, that we have been initiated by the Spirit of Jesus Christ, that

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somehow His Spirit has caught us and it has cut us off from doing certain things and connected us up with doing other things. If anybody would have confidence in the flesh, because you see circumcision is of the flesh, a whole deal of circumcision is a fleshly matter, circumcised on the eighth day. But

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Paul says don't really put your trust in those things. He said because if anybody were to do that certainly I ought to be able to do that because I was circumcised on the eighth day. Let's just look at my credentials. I was circumcised on the eighth day. Sure I was a Jewish male, circumcised according to

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their practice on the eighth day. I am of the stock of Israel, of Abraham. I am of the tribe of Benjamin. I was named after the first king of Israel, Saul. I'm a Hebrew of Hebrews, and concerning the law of Pharisee, I was zealous in keeping the law. I sat at the feet of Gamaliel. I persecuted the church because of my

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zeal, but as to righteousness I was a meticulous observer. I believed that I should dot every I and cross every T. I observe the law, but it is not circumcision or uncircumcision that matters, it's Christ. To the Jews I became a Jew that I might gain some for Jesus Christ under the law, that I might gain

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those under the law. And to the weak I became as weak that I might gain the I am made all things to all men that I might by all means save some for the gospel sake." Brothers and sisters, that has a message for us. That has a message for Ebenezer, that has a message for every one of us to be done with glory

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and the circumcision of the flesh. That's not enough. That somehow our glory as the people of God must be in the circumcision of the Spirit that Christ's Spirit reigns in our lives, that there is something within, that Christ has changed us, that he has taken possession of our hearts so that the heart has been

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circumcised by his Spirit and so that we have become a new creature in him so that everything is new. Our eyes look new. We have a new vision. That our mouth is new. We have a new way of talking. That our hands are new. That we have a new way of working in the world. That our feet are new. We have a new way of walking. And

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that's all because something has happened, something within, something that has changed us so that we have a new city called New Jerusalem and we have a new destiny through Jesus Christ our Lord. That's what it means to live the life of a circumcised Christian. And we only do that when we come to the cross.

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There's room for everybody at the cross, not as we get today. [MUSIC] [MUSIC] (piano music)

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[ Music ] The cross upon which Jesus died is a shelter in which we can hide. A disgrace so free, Insufficient for me.

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Undeep is the fountain, As wide as the sea. There's room at the cross, ♪ For you ♪

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♪ There's room in the crowd ♪ ♪ For you ♪ ♪ The millions have come ♪ ♪ They still rule for you ♪

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[MUSIC] ♪ Though millions have found Him a friend ♪ ♪ And have turned from the sins they have sinned ♪ ♪ The Savior still waits to hear His voice ♪

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♪ To open the gates ♪ ♪ And welcome our sinner ♪ ♪ Before it's too late ♪ ♪ And who can compromise ♪

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♪ Our youth ♪ ♪ Yes, let's do it at the cross for you ♪ ♪ Though millions have come ♪ ♪ There's still more one ♪

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♪ Yes, let's do it at the cross for you ♪ ♪ For you ♪ ♪ There's room at the cross ♪ ♪ For you ♪

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♪ There's room at the cross ♪ ♪ For you ♪ ♪ The milkmaids have come ♪ ♪ They're stealing the wine ♪

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♪ Yes, they're stealing ♪ ♪ They're going to steal ♪ ♪ The wine ♪ (upbeat music)

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(door slams) [ Silence ]