Episode Transcript
[00:00:05] Good morning. 11 o'. Clock.
[00:00:06] Good morning. If you have a Bible, open up to the book of Joshua. We're gonna be in chapter five. If I have not had the opportunity to meet you, my name is Michael Fueling. I am the lead pastor here at the village church. If you're looking for a handful of our ladies, they are on our women's retreat and so excited for them to come back.
[00:00:24] Amen from all the gentlemen whose wives are gone.
[00:00:27] Amen. Awesome. Good job. All right, so many of you grew up in a home that was not Christian. And so benefit of the doubt. Your parents probably did the best they could with the tools and the resources that they had.
[00:00:45] But when you kind of step back and you look at your life growing up, nobody taught you the Scriptures. You didn't go to church. You didn't even know the Bible. You might have even thought you knew the Bible until you actually heard the Bible.
[00:00:55] And then you were like, wow, I grossly overestimated my understanding of God's Word.
[00:01:01] And when you started coming to church at some time week after week, you began to realize that there are a whole bunch of pieces of wisdom and truth that you really wish you would have known sooner. In fact, as you kind of look at your life, there are things that were just normal. But now that you look at them through the lens of scripture, you realize they might have been normal, but they were unhealthy.
[00:01:27] And they actually sabotaged my soul, like, spiritually.
[00:01:31] Now you look back and you're able to see this. And then there are those of you who you grew up in church. You knew the Word, you knew what God expected, and you decided to rebel against God despite knowing exactly who he is and what he wants. Now, at some point in your rebellion, something broke and you realized that you needed to come back home to the Lord. And here's what I have found for almost every single person who grows up in the church knows who God is, knows what the Word says, and then rebels. It is almost always the same set of circumstances that bring them back to the Lord. It is usually God's judgment and discipline that brings you to the end of yourself and then ultimately back to Jesus. And really, it's the story of the prodigal son over and over again in so many people's lives. You grew up in a good home with a father who loved you, a heavenly father who gave you everything but the sinful desires in your heart. It was just not enough, and you needed to go figure it out for yourself. And so you did. And when you got brought to the end of yourself. You realized I had everything I ever wanted in my heavenly Father, and then you came back home.
[00:02:51] If you're a mom, a dad, a grandma and grandpa, and you've got a prodigal son or daughter, somebody who grew up knowing God's word and has rebelled and ran away, let me just give you what I think is one of the most effective prayers for a prodigal son or daughter. God, do whatever is necessary to bring my son or daughter to the end of themselves so that they might come back to you.
[00:03:13] When you get to the end of yourself, when you are ready to come home, when you are ready to trust in Christ, it might be for the very first time, you might be the prodigal who ran away and you're trying to come home.
[00:03:25] When you get to the end of yourself, there are going to be some humbling and very challenging decisions that you're going to have to make. Now with this context, open up your Bibles. Joshua, chapter five. And as we've read so far in Joshua chapters one through five, here's what we found, okay? There has been a palpable tension between Yahweh and the people that he's bringing into the Promised Land.
[00:03:52] So this group of people, we're gonna call them the Promised Land Generation. And their parents were what we call the Wilderness Generation. The Wilderness Generation. We have talked extensively about their sin, their rebellion, their hard heartedness, their stiff necked. This was a really challenging crew, the Wilderness Generation. And as a result, God punished them and said, you're all gonna die in the wilderness. None of you are gonna go into the Promised Land. But the Promised Land children, this is their children and grandchildren, okay? They are about to go into the Promised Land. What we don't talk about often enough is the actual real negligent, willful sin and rebellion of the Promised Land Generation. Let me clear with you. This generation going into the Promised Land, they are not saints. In fact, as we find them in Joshua, this Promised Land generation has a significant amount of unrepentant sin in, in their life that is standing between a fully right relationship between them and God. I wanna just point out for you a handful of the sin struggles that this Promised Land generation had. They may seem small at first, but then you'll watch it kind of build.
[00:04:59] First they criticize God at a place called Meribah. And this is what they said, would that we had perished when our brothers perish. Right? Not a big deal. But what you find in this context is this kind of complaining critical attitude toward God with would grow and grow. By the way, the story in Numbers, it's not about their parents generation. This is about the Promised Land generation.
[00:05:22] You get a second example is they spoke against God and despised the manna. They said, we loathe this worthless food. And again, they're criticizing the character of God. Well, then we get to the situation where they committed idolatry and sexual immorality at a place called Baal Pur.
[00:05:38] In fact, numbers 25 says this. They whored with the daughters of Moab and bowed down to their gods.
[00:05:44] It was so evil that the chief priests, many of them were killed and a plague came through. And 24,000 people from the Promised Land generation died in the wilderness. And so I want to say it again. Like this crew of people going into the Promised Land, they're not saints. The book of Ezekiel actually does a phenomenal job in describing the struggle and sin of the of the Promised Land generation. And Ezekiel, chapter 20, verse 18 says this.
[00:06:13] I said to their children in the wilderness, this is the crew going into the Promised Land.
[00:06:18] Do not walk in the statutes of your fathers, nor keep their rules, nor defile yourself with their idols. In other words, the homes you grew up in, they had idols, defilement. They didn't take God seriously. They neglected him. And basically God's saying, you know, your mom and dad and your grandma and grandpa, don't do anything. They did. If you want to have a shot in this new Land, you're going to have to do things very differently.
[00:06:45] Verse 21, though, says this.
[00:06:47] But the children, this is the Promised Land generation rebelled against me.
[00:06:52] They did not walk in my statutes. In fact, they profaned my Sabbaths.
[00:06:58] Most Christians don't understand the weight of the Sabbath in the Old Testament or the Old Covenant. The Sabbath was the sign of the Mosaic covenant. It was the sacred symbol. Every week you celebrated. This was your declaration that you are a part of the people of God and you worship Yahweh. In fact, it was so sacred that if you were to neglect or disobey the Sabbath, you would be put to death. It is sacred for these people. So when God says this, here's what he's saying. Hey, Promised Land generation, you are doing just what your parents did.
[00:07:30] You're not walking in my statutes, you're profaning my Sabbath.
[00:07:35] This generation going to the Promised Land willfully neglected some of the most important parts of God's commands. For example, they neglected the sign of the Abrahamic covenant, which is so you don't want to say circumcision in church. I get it. Circumcision. There we go. There we go. They defiled the Sabbath, God's sacred sign of the Mosaic covenant. They ignored the Passover, their most sacred and mandated holiday. They didn't even offer sin sacrifices throughout these 40 years, commanded by God for their sin. And you should be asking, okay, Pastor Michael, why didn't God just kill the whole Promised Land generation where they were at? Like, he allowed all of their parents and grandparents to die in the wilderness. And Ezekiel tells us exactly why. Here's what Ezekiel says, verse 22. But I withheld my hand and acted for the sake of my name, that it should not be profaned in the sight of the nations in whose sight I had brought them out. In other words, I already allowed all of the Wilderness generation to die. And if I kill all of these people, well, then my reputation is gonna be that I'm merciless and I just kill all the people who follow me. And that's not true. And so he essentially says, for the sake of my reputation in the nations, I'm not gonna kill you, but I'm gonna bring you into this promised Land.
[00:08:53] Into this promised land.
[00:08:56] Now, to be very clear, of this Promised Land generation, the ones who were the most gross, the most rebellious God had already killed. They had already died.
[00:09:07] So what you have leftover is a large group of people. It's the majority, but you have a group of people that I think a really appropriate term for them would be cultural Jews.
[00:09:18] And I think the best understanding that we have for this in our day is we have cultural Christians. And so the Promised Land generation, where the cultural Christians, if you don't know what a cultural Christian is, sit with me. By the end of this message, you're gonna understand it.
[00:09:33] Okay, so you're God.
[00:09:35] You have an actually willing, rebellious generation.
[00:09:40] Not just their parents. They're done. But you have this willing, rebellious generation.
[00:09:44] You promise to take them into this new land.
[00:09:48] What do you do?
[00:09:50] Here's the catch. Here's the difference between the Promised Land generation and their parents and grandparents, the Wilderness generation, The Promised Land generation, unlike their parents and grandparents, actually do have a tender heart.
[00:10:04] So what do you do if you're God and you do you look at this person and you see there's rebellion in you. You're willfully neglecting my word, but there is tenderness in your heart. He gives them another shot. And that's what's happening here now. Joshua 5:2, those church men, after you read this verse, you should praise God that you are under the New Covenant and not the Old Covenant. At that time, the Lord said to Joshua, make flint knives. Never starts off well with that. It's the beginning.
[00:10:34] And circumcise the sons of Israel a second time. We'll explain that in a moment. So Joshua made flint knives and circumcised the sons of Israel at Gibeath.
[00:10:47] Okay, one little context, fact, and one thing that I think is very humorous. Okay, first context. They are at a place called Gilgal. They have just crossed the Jordan River. They're now in the Promised Land. In Gilgal, you can see Jericho, the city that they need to go take over. Jericho can see Gilgal. So they're camped at Gilgal. This is their military headquarters just outside of Gilgal. Okay, and this is where it gets really funny. There is this hill, this area called Gibeath Haroloth, that you see in verse two. And in the Hebrew, this is literally, quote, hill of the foreskins. End quote.
[00:11:27] All right, True story. Not making it up. It's in the Bible. Here we go. All right, so let me ask you. Let me ask you a question.
[00:11:33] And the answer to the question is yes, by the way. Okay?
[00:11:36] Did every single one of those Hebrews that cross over the Jordan know that God required circumcision for every male who was dedicated to Yahweh? The answer is yes.
[00:11:51] Let me interpret for you what this verse is communicating.
[00:11:55] This means that every single one of the male Israelites willingly chose for their entire life not to be circumcised.
[00:12:07] They had a heart of willful, intentional rebellion and disobedience about what they knew God's word said. Verse 4 tells us where this disobedience began. Verse 4. This is the reason why Joshua circumcised them.
[00:12:23] Verse 5. Though all the people who came out, that's the wilderness generation, their parents and grandparents. Though all the people who came out had been circumcised, yet all the people who were born on the way, the Promised Land generation in the wilderness after they had come out of Egypt had not been circumcised.
[00:12:40] In other words, I need you to slow down and hear what they're trying to tell you.
[00:12:46] The singular sign of every Hebrew parent, that they were God's people and that they would raise their kids to be God's people, was completely and willfully ignored.
[00:13:01] And what I need you to hear are the spiritual climate of the homes that all of this Promised Land generation grew up in.
[00:13:09] The vast majority, if not the totality Outside of Joshua and Caleb, the vast majority of parents in the Wilderness generation despised Yahweh so much that they refused to pass their faith down to the next generation.
[00:13:27] God negotiating with the Wilderness generation, the parents and the grandparents, was so useless that God did something actually striking.
[00:13:36] God suspended all of the consequences for them, violating his laws for the most part. Circumcision didn't kill them. Sabbath breaking didn't kill them. Idols, sometimes they died. But he suspended all of these consequences. That because the judgment was, you're all gonna just die anyways in the wilderness. This will be your consequence. One by one, you're all going to die.
[00:14:02] Here's the irony about the parents in the Wilderness Generation and circumcision.
[00:14:08] The parents were physically circumcised, but they hated God in their hearts.
[00:14:13] The kids and the grandkids were not circumcised, but they had a tenderness to God in their heart.
[00:14:20] Now, I want you to maybe understand circumcision like this. It is similar, not identical to, but it's similar to baptism in the New Testament. And so when somebody trusts in Christ, Jesus is clear, believe and be baptized. But baptism is a really significant symbol. And so what happens in baptism is you take somebody and you dunk them underwater. Okay? But the word baptizo, it actually in ancient Greek literature, can describe ships that are sinking, can also be used to describe somebody who's being drowned to death. And so here's what's happening in baptism. It's not literal. We don't drown anybody in baptism, but metaphorically, we take them. And the metaphor is that the old sinful man is being drowned to death.
[00:15:01] And when they come out of the water, there is a new man, the person in Christ that is resurrected to new life.
[00:15:10] It's a symbol, it is a metaphor, but it's sacred and it's holy. It's a command that every believer is, is to be baptized. And in the same way circumcision was similar, it was an external symbol of an internal reality. And by the cutting off of the skin, what you're actually saying is like, the Lord needs to cut off the sinful parts of my heart. They need to be gotten away of and thrown out. And so the same idea. Now here's the deal. Does baptism save you? Water baptism, does it save you? Of course not. And did circumcision save them? Of course not. That's not how it worked. They are external symbols of inward realities. And if you haven't figured this out, God really loves to command his people to Celebrate with external symbols that point to inward realities. Now, verse seven goes on. I want you to see this.
[00:15:58] So it was their children whom he raised up in their place that Joshua circumcised.
[00:16:05] All right, let's talk militarily for a moment. Some strategy I don't know about, y'. All. I would consider it a very poor strategy when you are within eyesight of your enemies whom you're about to go take over their land to circumcise all the men and then leave not just yourself vulnerable, but all your women and children. I would advocate that this is not a wise strategy, but the Lord is always, always up to something bigger. I'm trying to imagine the conversation between the king of Jericho and one of his spies, I think. Imagine it goes like this. Spies. Give me a report.
[00:16:39] Your majesty.
[00:16:41] They're circumcising all the men as we speak. I'm sorry, all of them?
[00:16:46] Yep. Like, every single one of them.
[00:16:49] What could this mean? Okay, well, thankfully, we know exactly what this means. If you go to the first verse of chapter five, I want to read this to you. Here's what it says.
[00:16:59] As soon as all the kings of the Amorites who were beyond the Jordan to the west in the promised land, and all the kings of the Canaanites who were by the sea, heard the Lord had dried up the waters of the Jordan. And for the people of Israel, until they had crossed over, here it is. Their hearts melted, and there was no longer any spirit in them because of the people of Israel.
[00:17:22] Again, talk of circumcision. It's weird for us. It wasn't weird for them. I mean, it's painful, but it's not weird. And so the kings of the other nations, they knew that Israelites who were devoted to Yahweh circumcised their males. This was common knowledge.
[00:17:40] So when the king hears this, here's what he's probably hearing. I'm already petrified of Yahweh. I was curious what he would do with these people because they're not circumcised. But now they're devoting themselves fully to Yahweh, they're going to be unstoppable.
[00:17:59] And here's what this communicates. God is actually putting more fear into the hearts of of his enemies.
[00:18:06] In verse 8, pay close attention to the scope of circumcisions. When the circumcising of the whole nation was finished, they remained in their place in the camp until they were healed. Verse 9. And the Lord said to Joshua, today, I have rolled away the reproach of Egypt from you. And so the name of that place is called Gilgal. To this day, most of you don't use the word reproach in your everyday language. The Old Testament and the New Testament use this. Quite.
[00:18:37] Let me give you, like, a synonym for reproach.
[00:18:40] Reproach would be a credible accusation.
[00:18:45] So if you are under reproach, it means you are under credible accusation and you are probably guilty.
[00:18:55] If you are above reproach, then you might still be accused, but there will be no proof because you are innocent.
[00:19:04] The men of Israel were under reproach, not above it, because they had visibly and publicly disobeyed God and they were guilty before God. Like, have you ever had something in your life where you know the Lord has commanded you to do something and you haven't done it, and the weight of that thing just hovers over you, and, you know, the Lord is, like, not pleased with it.
[00:19:29] In this moment, when all of these men got circumcised, this huge act of disobedience that they knew was wrong, they dealt with it. They dealt with the core issue. They dealt with it decisively. God called them to it, they responded. And here's what he's saying. So Gilgal in the Hebrew sounds like the word roll off. So it's like what he's saying is that guilt that weighed so heavily on your soul for your willing disobedience, that reproach, that, like, heaviness, I am taking it off of your soul. You're free from it. And I don't know if you've ever been in a situation where there's like a huge just thing, a sin you need to stop doing or repent of or get out of your life. And the moment you deal with it, that feeling of peace, that feeling of, like, freedom, this is God rolling reproach off of your soul. Guys, I just. I would want nothing more for every one of you to know the feeling of a clear, clean conscience before your God. When you go to bed at night, that sin that you struggle with over and over again, the big thing that you know God's asking you to do doesn't roll around in your head, but you can lay down at night and you are free.
[00:20:41] Like, there isn't this thing where you're wondering, like, I'm so sorry I did it again. Oh, Lord, to be free from that is a beautiful gift. And that is what these Israelites are experiencing.
[00:20:51] One of the things I love about obedience is that it just seems to be like a domino, like a snowball effect. And we're gonna kind of watch this snowball grow. Like, when you take one big act of obedience, then there are other acts of obedience that often follow it. So verse 10, this is a really big deal.
[00:21:09] While the people of Israel were encamped at Gilgal, Circumcised healing, it says this. They kept the Passover on the 14th day of the month, in the evening on the plains of Jericho. Again, if you're in your Bible reading plan, you're like, got it, got it. Passover, good. Now this is huge. I mean, most of you are not scholars at Old Covenant law pertaining to circumcision. Most of you, okay, if you are, good for you.
[00:21:30] Here's the rule. If you are not circumcised, you and your family cannot partake of Passover.
[00:21:36] So here's what this means. Their entire life, none of them have been obeying the Passover laws and celebrating this.
[00:21:44] And so now they have gotten circumcised. And then the next thing that they do is now they can obey Passover.
[00:21:50] Verse 11. The news just keeps getting better for them. And the day after the Passover, on that very day, they ate of the produce of the land, unleavened cakes and parched grain. Again, don't read too quick. Slow down. Look at verse 12.
[00:22:03] The manna ceased the day after they ate the produce of the land, and there was no longer manna for the people of Israel, but they ate of the fruits of the land of Canaan that year.
[00:22:16] Listen to this. For 40 years, almost totally, all they would eat is manna. I mean, take your favorite food, Even if it was the best food you could ever possibly imagine, and you had to eat it every day almost exclusively, would you get sick of that food?
[00:22:33] Yes. And I love this. On this day, they were finally able to eat something other than manna. And they were able to eat the fruit, the good fruit of the land of Canaan. Now, I don't know if you know this. I like food. My whole family likes food. Kind of foodies eat too much sometimes. But in the world of food, you do know this. We eat better than most of the kings of human history.
[00:22:57] The vast majority of people, they don't ever get to eat. Throughout all human history, anything that wasn't grown in the immediate land they lived in. Most people didn't Even, like, travel 5 to 10 to 12 miles outside of the place they were birthed for all of human history. Guys, you're gonna eat incredible food this afternoon. And it is gonna be as good, if not better, than what kings of old would have eaten. You wanna eat food from any ethnicity, like, on the planet, you can probably find it within 30 minutes of right here. Chicago is the best food this week. I was making a soup at a crock pot. And let me just read to you the ingredients. Paprika, cumin, oregano, coriander, cayenne, pepper, black pepper, salt, cilantro, garlic. All of them are in my cabinet. What wars were fought over pepper. And I'm sitting here just unending. More, more. You know, if people from antiquity could watch you and me, they would be in awe. To be clear, I didn't put garlic in it because that's anathema in my home. My wife is allergic.
[00:23:53] So you're gonna ask me about that now? You know, I want you to notice this, though.
[00:23:58] All these years, they're living in willful rebellion and negligence.
[00:24:02] And do you know what God did every single year?
[00:24:05] Gave them food.
[00:24:07] And one of the things that I just. That this, like, passage provoked in my brain is like, when you were in that season and you might be in it right now, of rebellion against God.
[00:24:17] Even while you were rebelling, do you know what God still did for you?
[00:24:20] Provided for you, gave you food, shelter, probably relationships, work, money, sleep, like you might think to yourself. No, I did all that for myself. Let me be clear. Nothing gets to you unless it goes through Jesus number one.
[00:24:37] And what I love about our God is that even while people are in rebellion against him, his kindness and mercy are so unbelievable that even in those moments, he is still providing you every.
[00:24:50] And this is what he did for Israel as well. Even while they were willfully negligent, he still provided for them. And then, I love this. As they obeyed him, he responded by pouring out blessing to them.
[00:25:03] The men of Israel, they knew that if they were going to be in a right relationship with God, if they were going to go into this promised land, if they were going to have victory, like things were going to have to change between them and their relationship with God.
[00:25:17] I don't want you to miss the scope of this promised land generation's repentance. A lot of times when we read the Old Testament, it's like, oh, man, they screwed up again. This is one of those moments where they're actually doing something incredible. And so their repentance has started, really in chapter three with a week of consecration. In chapter four, they're building a monument to the stones of the Jordan river in honor of Yahweh.
[00:25:42] Then Their repentance went public with circumcision, the sign of the Abrahamic covenant, and then it moved to keeping the Sabbath, the sign of the Mosaic covenant, and then moved to Passover, the sign of their salvation. And as they obeyed, God's response to them was to clear their conscience, to clear their guilt, to clear their reproach, and to bless them and to be with them. Guys, again, I cannot think of a better gift to give most of you than encourage you to whatever that big one or two things are in your life that just hovers over you. You know, the Lord either wants you to do start or get rid of. The gift that God has for you is to roll away your reproach. What a wonderful gift and I hope you are willing to walk out of here and take that next step, whatever it might be.
[00:26:28] I think it's easy to read Joshua 5 and just kind of be like, ah, circumcision, oh, Passover, oh, this is actually an incredible celebratory moment. If all you had ever eaten for your whole life was manna, do you feel like having a good steak and the produce of a land that is good might bring you some delight? I would, would. For me, this is actually a moment where the repentance that God has called them to, they have obeyed, they have followed through, and now they are able to worship and celebrate and rejoice.
[00:27:00] I want to share with you three. So what's as we close here and what I'm going to try to do is bridge the gap between Old Covenant and New Covenant between like what happened a few thousand years ago and how this could apply today.
[00:27:13] Before this generation's repentance. We identified earlier in the message that these can be called cultural Jews.
[00:27:21] Here's my question for you.
[00:27:24] Are you a cultural Jewish?
[00:27:29] Now what I have found with cultural Christians is that most don't know that they're cultural Christians. So Pastor Michael, how would we be able to answer that question if we don't know? I'm gonna help you.
[00:27:39] And as we do this, the follow up question would be this is the Holy Spirit provoking your conscience right now? So a cultural Christian is someone who thinks they are a Christian because.
[00:27:50] Fill in the blank, we're gonna fill this blanket in a moment.
[00:27:52] But if they died today, they would not go to heaven. Some of you might be like, that's offensive to call me a cultural Christian. I'm not calling you it, I'm gonna ask you to call yourself it. But I think one of the greatest kindnesses that you can do for yourself is that if you are a cultural Christian, identify that now. Because here's the implication. Cultural Christians don't understand nor do they believe in the gospel. And if you die as a cultural Christian, you'll go to hell.
[00:28:19] And so if you are a cultural Christian, get over the offense, identify it, and let's figure out how to move from a cultural Christian to a real Christian. So cultural Christian, somebody who thinks they are Christian because I grew up Christian or I have fond memories of church, or I was baptized when I was younger, or I was a deacon, a treasurer, a leader in my church. I'm a good person and I'm definitely better than Hitler. So we're good. Okay, Got it. I went on a mission trip. My dad was a pastor. I went to a Christian school. I was confirmed. I took my first communion, guys. I was homeschooled. Like, of course I'm going to heaven, right? Is that how it works? No.
[00:28:57] All right. Because I think this is so important. Because if you are a cultural Christian, I want to do everything within my power to help you identify it. Let's flip this question on its head.
[00:29:08] You might be a cultural Christian if now all true Christians, we struggle with sin all the time. You might see a couple of these. You're like, yeah, that's a struggle. But as I start kind of reading through some of this, if you're like, there's like three of those that apply to me. No. 4. Wow. 5. Ooh. 6. Like, if these start accruing, I just wanna. I really wanna challenge you. If you start recognizing that maybe you're a cultural Christian, I wanna strongly encourage you to have a good hard conversation with somebody about this. Because if you are, you want to do everything within your power to become a real Christian. You might be a cultural Christian if you made the decision to become a Christian when you were younger, but it made no observable difference in your everyday life.
[00:29:52] You only go to church when you don't have other things going on, which happens to be most of the time. If we're being honest, Most people in your life, they don't know you're a Christian. And if they do, they could not distinguish your behavior from a non Christian.
[00:30:05] For some, you cannot quickly and easily answer the most basic fundamental question of true Christianity.
[00:30:12] How can I go to heaven when I die?
[00:30:15] Financial generosity has always been erratic and revolves primarily around tax write offs.
[00:30:21] Serving your church and community are usually erratic and rare. But if you do, you prefer to study subtly, brag about it in conversation with neighbors and co Workers and triple brownie points if you do it on social media.
[00:30:33] Reading the Bible or generally pursuing spiritual growth has never been super interesting to you.
[00:30:40] For some, you believe the Bible has errors and is a bit outdated. You prefer to believe popular ideas about morality, especially around sexuality and gender.
[00:30:49] If you're being honest, you do not understand missionaries and what would drive them to give up everything and possibly die.
[00:30:57] If you're being really honest, you just think they're stupid.
[00:31:00] Your life passion has never once been Jesus, really. It's always been hobbies or work.
[00:31:06] You willingly date non Christians because faith isn't your highest priority for your future marriage.
[00:31:12] You have very few, if any Christian friends because faith isn't a high priority for your friendships.
[00:31:19] I say all of that not to even sound judgmental or condemning, but to put up a mirror. Because if you are a cultural Christian, I could want nothing more for you than to have a true, real relationship with God through faith in Christ.
[00:31:33] A true Christian is someone who has zero. And I need you to pay attention to that word. Zero reliance on. We're gonna fill in the blank in just a moment for salvation, but has personally and sincerely apologized to God for their sin and professed faith in Jesus, death and resurrection. A true Christian is someone who has zero reliance on good works for salvation. The Bible never teaches that good people go to heaven.
[00:31:59] If that is your belief, you are a cultural Christian and that is a doctrine, an idea, a belief you need to abandon and throw in the trash.
[00:32:09] A true Christian is someone who has zero reliance on family heritage for salvation. I don't care if your grandma was the godliest woman you know, your mom or your dad. Their faith can't save you. Only your faith can save you. Past ministry, serving or generosity, friends. All your friends might be Christians. They might love Jesus. That doesn't mean you love Jesus.
[00:32:28] Church attendance, sacraments or ordinances like baptism or communion for salvation, like, none of these have the power to save you. So if you're relying on those to save you, then I need you to hear me. You're a cultural Christian. It's not real.
[00:32:43] Those will not save you when you get to heaven. If Jesus says to you, like, why should I let you in? And you go, I was baptized. Not gonna happen if you say I was good enough. I wasn't as bad as the worst person I know. Not good enough.
[00:32:54] The only way that Jesus saves people is if you come to him, apologize for your sin, and make Jesus your God. Like, that's it. Like the crucified, risen Savior, like you don't get any other way to have salvation but through faith in him. I think there are probably a handful of you in this room who really need to hear this and really need to step back and you need to sit down with somebody who, who can help you process what this means. This brings me to so what? Number two.
[00:33:23] There's only one singular remedy for everybody. This is cultural Christian, Cultural Jew, atheist, agnostic. I don't care where you're at. There's only one singular remedy for everybody whose heart does not love Jesus. Okay, so we've talked about circumcision quite a bit more than probably most of you desire to.
[00:33:40] There is a funny term in both the Old Testament and the New Testament, and it's a funny term because it describes what salvation looks like on the inside.
[00:33:54] It's probably not a term that if you're gonna go share the gospel with somebody, you're gonna lead with. But I think when you understand circumcision and the context of the Bible, it's really helpful. The term is this circumcision of the heart in Deuteronomy 36. I want you to see this because I think it describes it perfectly.
[00:34:14] The Lord your God will circumcise your heart. Now, is this a literal surgery, guys? No, it's a metaphor.
[00:34:21] And the heart of your offspring so that you will love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all of your soul that you may live. Here's what's interesting.
[00:34:34] Who does the heart surgery, you or God?
[00:34:38] God. And when he does the heart surgery, the effect of it is, is that you love God. Now, here's the deal. You might be here, you might be a non Christian, you might be a cultural Christian, right? And you might be like, listen, Pastor Michael, how do I just manufacture love for God? Like, I would love to have love for God, but I don't have love for God. I don't even have a lot of interest in God. Like, how do I do this? And I want you to hear me. You're hitting the limit that so many people hit. Like, you have jurisdiction over parts of your heart, but you don't have jurisdiction over all of your heart. There are problems in your heart that you don't have the power to fix. And one of those problems is the ability to love God from your heart is the result of a surgery that only God can do. And so here's what we tell people. If you want those parts of your heart that you are unable to overcome, you are unable to fix, you are unable to Heal. Like, you may be just hitting the edge of your limit and the beginning of where God can only work.
[00:35:36] And so we look at everybody like, listen, if you want God to work in your behalf, here's the first thing you need to understand. You have sinned against your holy God and offended him. And you're like, fix me, help me, save me. But you and him aren't in right relationship. And so here's the tension. If you want him to forgive you or save you or heal you, or help you, you need to ask him to forgive you first. And this is why we tell everybody, if you're gonna become a real Christian, here's where it starts. It starts with you taking ownership and responsibility for your sin and making right that relationship with God. But here's the next part, right? This idea that you can somehow ask God to forgive you and get into heaven. Free Card. And then you're like, but I'm not gonna worship you, love you, live for you, or pay attention to you. I just wanna get out of hell. Free Card. And then live my life the way I want it. No. In fact, people who come to Christ trust in him. They don't just believe about him, they trust in him. And so this is like, the best way I think I can break it down. I apologize and give Jesus your allegiance as your God. Like, those two things are so important. Like, the devil knows he's a sinner. He has not apologized, and he hasn't made Jesus his God. But even if the devil was like, yeah, I know it was wrong, he's still not gonna make Jesus his God. And that's sort of like what cultural Christians are like. Like, yeah, you know, you're wrong, but you're like, no, I'm my God. I'm gonna do what I want, when I want, how I want. And that's just not the way it works. If you want God to do heart surgery on you, you need to come to your God and apologize and then make him your God. I mean, he already is your God, but you need to give your allegiance to him. And this is what I love. God's promise to every single person who apologizes and will make Jesus their God is, yes, forgiven. And I'm gonna start to do the heart surgery. I'm gonna start working on your heart because you've tried and you failed. All those things that you've wanted so badly to try to overcome, all the sins that have just haunted you and the guilt that hovers over you. I'm gonna start working on your heart Piece by piece. And we're gonna do the surgery that you have desperately wanted and needed. Here's the deal though. It doesn't start until you get reconciled with God. So number three, getting right with God has always required the same next steps.
[00:37:43] Getting right with God requires number one, repentance. And we're seeing this with Israel. It's the same today. You make right what you made wrong.
[00:37:52] You take responsibility for your sin.
[00:37:56] One of the ways you can identify that somebody's moving in a direction of repentance is that they stop blaming their parents for all their issues.
[00:38:05] And at some point, this promised land generation has to stop blaming. But you don't understand how hard it was to grow up and you didn't have all the things that you have. At some point, this generation had to take responsibility for their sin.
[00:38:16] And I don't know who you're blaming so that you can postpone repentance. Whether it's an ex girlfriend or ex boyfriend or a pastor, at some point you gotta get to a point where you take full responsibility before your God. It's huge. Getting ready with God requires number two, consecration.
[00:38:32] Giving your whole life to Jesus. And again, we've said this one just beat the dead horse.
[00:38:39] Most cultural Christians admit what they're doing is wrong, but will not give Jesus their life. And one of the ways I like to think about this is like making a vow at a wedding this afternoon, we have a couple from church getting married.
[00:38:52] And so we're gonna repeat some vows. And here's the deal. If you've been married, do you think that this couple's gonna keep those vows? Not a chance.
[00:39:02] I mean, they're gonna be like, I'm gonna be perfect. I'm gonna love you. It's gonna be awesome. It's gonna be the best. No, it's not. It's gonna be hard. You're gonna sin, you're gonna fail, you're gonna let em down. Right? The nature of vows is not a commitment to perfection, but it's a commitment to trajectory. And so even what this couple understands is they're gonna get married and they're gonna sin against each other. But when they sin, they're gonna committing to repent and then move in the direction of love. And so when you come to Christ, here's the deal. Like, you're gonna struggle, you're gonna fail. What you're committing to is moving in a direction of love and faithfulness to God. You will mess up. And that's why you have the blood of Christ that covers you getting right with God requires public allegiance. For them it was circumcision. For us, it's baptism, which symbolizes very similar to circumcision, what it represents. We celebrate communion, which is built off of their Passover meal.
[00:39:51] Getting right with God requires obedience, doing what you know God wants.
[00:39:58] I think for most of you, you know the one or two big things that God is asking you to do. They might even be the things that have held you back from trusting him. Like, if I trust in you, I know that you're gonna force me to deal with this stuff and you don't wanna do it. And I just wanna look at you and say, the single greatest decision you'll ever make is facing those sins, those struggles that are holding you back from trusting in Christ. What God wants to do is roll your reproach, your guilt off of your soul so you can be free in Christ. Amen, village. Amen. Let's pray together. Father, thank you for these stories. The New Testament says they're written for our instruction.
[00:40:36] Sometimes it feels like it's just bad story after bad story. This is one of those sections of scripture that is beautiful to read.
[00:40:43] In the same way that you took their reproach, their guilt off of their souls, you've done that for so many of us. And we just want to say we love you and we thank you and Lord for those who have never trusted in you.
[00:40:55] Lord, your desire is to take their guilt and reproach off of their souls. The weight of that.
[00:41:00] Lord, if there are any people here who maybe realize that they're cultural Christians and they were relying on something other than the faith in the blood of Christ to save them, God, would you move them to a next step, show them what it means to trust in you. And we could want nothing more than for their guilt and for their reproach to be removed off of them and for them to be free in Christ. We love you, we honor you, we worship you. We do all this in Jesus name, Amen. Amen.
