Marching Defiant

Kongsvinger Lutheran Church

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May 30, 2023

Sunday school from January 8th, 2017

00:00: Okay, let's pray, and then we will get into it. We're going to be in Exodus chapter 14, if you want to get there in your
00:06: Bible. Lord Jesus, again, as we open your Word and we study the
00:11: Exodus, we ask, Lord, that you would help us to find Christ in these pages and see your mighty hand to save your people, and then understand that this story does not exclude us, but that we are intimately wrapped up in it.
00:26: We ask of all this in Jesus' name, amen. When we last left off, the children of Israel were just finishing up with the
00:38: Passover. Last time in the book of Exodus. Previously. Previously in the book of Exodus.
00:46: The children of Israel had celebrated the Passover. The final plague has come, and the final plague harkens to the death and resurrection of Christ.
00:58: Christ, our Passover lamb, has been slain, Scripture says. And now we're going to take a close look at Exodus chapter 14.
01:08: Since we do not have visual aids, we will not be cavorting with Google Earth.
01:14: I'll have to show you next week. We'll engage in the hermeneutical spiral and we'll come back through. But there's a very important motif in Scripture, and in the
01:23: Advent season, during one of the midweek services, I teased out this motif just a little bit. But I want to spend some time today unpacking the motif a little bit.
01:34: And when we look at the parting of the Red Sea, there is a governing passage in the
01:40: New Testament that helps us get that this is type and shadow pointing to a reality. So Exodus 14 and the crossing of the
01:49: Red Sea is a form of baptism. We'll talk about that in more depth next week.
01:55: But the motif I really want to drill in hard on is this motif that we see in Scripture where the high and exalted, and you have to almost say the self -exalted, they are brought to nothing.
02:09: And it's the great flipping of the tables. And so we'll see it in the actions of the parting of the
02:17: Red Sea, but we're going to hear the theology of the parting of the Red Sea in part because there's other passages of Scripture that help us understand the different facets of the theology of the event.
02:29: But in Exodus 15, we see what is called the Song of Moses. And the
02:36: Song of Moses has a New Testament parallel, and it's in a place where a lot of people would not expect it.
02:45: At least the theme is the same. You find it in what's called the Magnificat. When it is announced, when
02:52: John the Baptist basically proclaims that the baby in Mary's womb is the
03:00: Messiah and Elizabeth prophesies, and then you have Mary say the words of the Magnificat, my soul magnifies the
03:07: Lord and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior. The themes in the Magnificat follow the same themes that we see in the
03:15: Song of Moses. And this is great motif of those who are oppressed, who are under the thumb of evil, who are poor, exploited, and made to suffer.
03:27: All of a sudden, they are shouting for joy. They are released from bondage and their oppressors, the high and self -exalted, are brought to absolute nothing.
03:42: And this is a picture of our salvation, and it's important for us to get something here.
03:48: When we talk about salvation and who it is that truly is our enemy, Scriptures over and again make it clear that we battle not against flesh and blood.
03:58: So there isn't, and I mean this, there isn't a single person on this planet who is truly our enemy.
04:06: They may not like us and have become our enemies, but we are not theirs. And so when we talk about this motif, when we see the stand -in for the devil, which is
04:18: Pharaoh and the armies of Egypt, you have to see them for what they are. This is not somehow teaching us how to oppose somebody we don't like or somebody who is opposed to Christianity.
04:32: This is not what this is at all. This is cosmic. This is cataclysmic.
04:37: This is quantum stuff going on here. Pharaoh is a type in shadow pointing to the devil, his army pointing to the demon horde.
04:47: And this is a picture of God's victory over the devil, not our victory over your least favorite political party here in the
04:55: United States. It's important that we not misapply these motifs so that we kind of miss the point.
05:05: Now, it is true that those who persist in opposing God are siding with the devil, and God literally describes of them that oftentimes their schemes and the things that they hope for will come to ruin in a day.
05:22: And that's always true because everyone always dies. It's always funny that somebody's big, grand vision for the world always has a way of dying with them, does it not?
05:33: Yeah, so let's keep that in mind. The reason for that is simple because there's how many, seven billion little deities running around on planet
05:41: Earth right now? Yeah. And so when one of those little deities rises up and has some grand vision for the world, another one will always come up and they have a slightly different vision.
05:55: So, you know, right now our big, you know, kind of threat that is kind of lurking on the horizon is
06:02: North Korea. And, boy, that fellow is... Yeah, yeah.
06:08: Kim Jong -il or... Yeah, ill repute or something. Yeah. Is...
06:16: Un, un, Kim Jong -un, yeah. My Korean, I know none of it.
06:22: So I know Kim -shi and that's about it. But, you know, that guy, that guy is really quite an interesting piece of work.
06:30: He's got a little God complex. And so he's... All of his plans will come to naught in a day and that will be the day that he dies.
06:41: And so, you know, and don't worry, there'll be some other tin penny despot who will rise up who will want to take on the
06:47: US. It always seems to happen. It's just the way the world works. So, but this has nothing that we're going to study.
06:54: It has nothing to do with that. So let's take a look at Exodus chapter 14. The Lord said to Moses, tell the people of Israel to turn back and encamp in front of Pi -ha -he -roth between Migdal and the sea in front of Baal -zaphon.
07:12: You shall encamp facing it by the sea. For Pharaoh will say to the people of Israel, they are wandering in the land, the wilderness has shut them in, and I will harden
07:21: Pharaoh's heart. He will pursue them and I will get glory over Pharaoh and all of his host.
07:28: And the Egyptians shall know that I am Yahweh and they did so.
07:33: Now, a little bit of a note here. If you were here last time, we opened up Google Earth and we showed where all this is taking place.
07:40: This is taking place at the Red Sea at the Gulf of Aqaba. There's literally a little beachhead that comes out that's formed by a wadi.
07:49: And this is where they're camped and they're going to cross the Red Sea at this point.
07:55: And historically, this is how Israel has recognized this to be the actual place where it took place. Now, what
08:01: I'll do next week is I'll bring a couple of links for you. Well, a link to a
08:06: YouTube, a documentary that has been published on YouTube that explains the archaeological evidence for where the crossing took place and where Mount Sinai is.
08:18: It's good to see this. And back in either the late 90s or early 2000s, there was actually an archaeological dive on the
08:27: Gulf of Aqaba in this region. And they have footage, and it's wonderful footage, footage of coral formations that literally look like the coral has grown into the wreckage of Egyptian chariots.
08:42: And the reason for it is simple. This is actual history. This is not some mythology. This is not a legend.
08:48: This is not something that took place a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away. This is not in the foggy mists of mystical time.
08:56: This was at a time and a place. It's important to also note this, and that is that there is a group, a pretty prominent group of Egyptologists and modern -day archaeologists who literally say there is not one shred of evidence for the
09:14: Exodus, as told in the Bible. And the way they do their archaeology is like this.
09:20: They cover their eyes, and they go, nope, I don't see any evidence for the Exodus at all.
09:27: And a couple years ago, a couple years ago, there was a documentary that was released in the theaters, and it's now on Netflix.
09:35: Those of you who like binge -watching Netflix, there's nothing to binge on on this one. It's a one -episode thing.
09:40: The name of the documentary is Patterns of Evidence Exodus, Patterns of Evidence Exodus, and it is amazing.
09:52: This is my kind of nerdy thing, but anyway, this is a great documentary, and it goes through and explains what is the reason why these particular
10:04: Egyptologists and archaeologists in the Middle East don't see any evidence. And it has to do with the fact that they have a false timeline regarding how the history of Egypt unfolds.
10:16: But if you lose their false timeline and you look for the evidence as you would expect to see it from what the
10:24: Bible tells, oh my word, we know where Goshen is?
10:30: They have, no joke, I'm not making this, they have found the original tomb of Joseph. They have found the original tomb of Joseph.
10:38: I have to say that because remember, Joseph's bones are moved. They even found the original tombs of the 12 patriarchs, the sons of the 11 remaining.
10:49: I am not making this up. And they even have documents from the time period, an eyewitness account from the
10:58: Egyptian point of view of the plagues themselves. And on top of it, we even have, this might seem like it's not a big deal, but it really is.
11:08: We have an Egyptian document giving a list of names of slaves at the time, and they're all
11:16: Hebrew names. They're all Hebrew names. In fact, even one of the names
11:22: I think is Shipra, which is one of the names of the Hebrew midwives given in the
11:27: Bible. And so when you look at the evidence that we actually do have, it's overwhelming, great documentary, worth the watch.
11:36: Does anyone here not have Netflix? Okay, I'll pray for you.
11:44: Patterns of evidence. Patterns of evidence, Exodus. Yeah.
11:56: Yeah. Is that supposed to be in the Red Sea? It is. It is in the Red Sea. Well, here's the thing.
12:08: We're going to read in just a second. And so up to this point, you know, the
12:14: Egyptians, they've let them go. Now the children of Israel are about to cross the Red Sea.
12:19: It's a miraculous crossing. And literally, this is the hand of God that's involved in this. And what ends up happening is that the armies of Pharaoh are going to pursue the children of Israel into the
12:32: Red Sea while the water is parted. They make it to the other side, and the water collapses in.
12:42: Yeah, so the wreckage of Egyptian chariots should be expected in the bottom of the
12:47: Red Sea. Remember, the children of Israel, they got no chariots.
13:02: Yep. So let's continue then, verse 5. When the king of Egypt was told that the people had fled, the mind of Pharaoh and his servants was changed toward the people.
13:13: And they said, what is this that we've done? We've let Israel go from serving us.
13:20: It's like, who's going to do my laundry? So, he made ready his chariot, took his army with him, and he took 600 chosen chariots and all the other chariots of Egypt with officers over all of them.
13:36: And Yahweh hardened the heart of Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, and he pursued the people of Israel while the people of Israel were going out defiantly.
13:45: I love how it describes they're going out defiantly. It just makes you wonder, were there hand gestures involved?
13:51: Were they singing songs? How did this go exactly? Because I can think of ways that I do things defiantly, you know.
13:58: So they're going out defiantly. Yes. You know, it says it took 600 chariots. Do we have 600?
14:08: That's a lot. So do we have enough? We're going to get to that in a little bit.
14:16: Okay, not in this chapter, but in the coming chapters, there's going to be a little bit of a census taken, which will give us a rough estimate of how many people we're dealing with.
14:26: It's well over a million. Yeah, because I mean 600 is a lot.
14:34: Yeah, yeah, yeah. The chariots at the time, by the way, were like the ancient world's equivalent of a tank. And against unarmed civilians, they're devastating.
14:47: Okay. So the Egyptian pursued them all, pursued them all, Pharaoh's horses, chariots, and horsemen, and his army, overtook them and camped at the sea at Pi -Hahiroth in front of Baal -Zaphon.
14:59: I'll show you this next week when we get our television back. When Pharaoh drew near, the people of Israel lifted up their eyes, and behold, the
15:06: Egyptians were marching after them, and they feared greatly, and the people of Israel cried out to Yahweh.
15:12: Now, this is just amazing trash talk here. This reminds me of the type of conversations
15:18: I had with my children when they were small and were traveling on long driving trips. Here's how this one goes.
15:25: Is it because there are no graves in Egypt that you've taken us away to die in the wilderness?
15:32: Mother, do you not care that I'm going to die because I haven't had lunch yet? Is this not what we said to you in Egypt?
15:41: Leave us alone so that we can serve the Egyptians. No, that's not what you said. For it would have been better for us to serve the
15:48: Egyptians than to die in the wilderness. Oh, man.
15:54: Now, if you are thinking in terms of what's possible in the natural world, unarmed people who've just been freed from slavery, who've never been trained for war, who don't have any swords, chariots, or anything at all, as far as army -wise, you think about it, there's no way they can defeat the
16:19: Egyptians. None whatsoever. But see, they seem to forget something here, and it is
16:27: God who has set them free. And God has not brought them out of Egypt with these ten plagues that we just saw that literally, utterly destroy the whole economy of the
16:40: Middle Kingdom of Egypt. It took them centuries to recover from this, by the way.
16:46: Centuries. And, you know, God's not about to just leave them to die.
16:51: So these statements show lack of faith. Lack of faith in God. Lack of trust in His Word.
16:58: Lack of faith in God's goodness towards them. As far as this goes, there's no way to defeat the
17:08: Egyptians. It would take a miracle. Hmm. I seem to think
17:13: God specializes in such things. It would take a miracle.
17:18: And no, we will not be visiting Miracle Max. So Moses said to the people,
17:25: Fear not, stand firm, and see the salvation of Yahweh, which He will work for you today.
17:32: For the Egyptians whom you see today, you shall never see again. The Lord will fight for you.
17:39: You have only to be silent. Wow. Who's going to win this one?
17:45: Yeah, those are some pretty strong words. Now keep in mind, what we're going to see happening here is a picture of salvation itself.
17:55: Egypt's armies and Pharaoh are a stand -in for the devil. And against Him who has us in slavery and oppression under His dominion, the dominion of darkness, there is nothing we can do to free ourselves.
18:09: Nothing we can do to fight against His horde. God is the one who has got to work this salvation for us.
18:16: So the Lord said to Moses, Why do you cry to me? Tell the people of Israel to go forward.
18:21: Now they're on a beach and in front of them is the Red Sea. Behind them is the armies of Egypt.
18:31: What do you mean go forward? Yeah. Yeah. I didn't do so well in geography class, but I'm pretty sure this is not going to work.
18:43: Lift up your staff, stretch out your hand over the sea, and divide it.
18:52: Now I want you to see this again. Pay attention to the physical act here. He's got a piece of wood in his hand.
19:00: He's going to go up to the sea and divide it. What does
19:08: He look like? He looks like the cross. Uh -huh.
19:14: Right. He's not only going to do this once. There's another story coming where He's going to do that exact same thing again.
19:23: And you're sitting there going, Whoa, wait a second. Are you saying, Pastor Rose, Bro, that Moses is kind of a stand -in for Jesus in this story?
19:32: Uh -huh. And there's the wood of the cross. And if you can't see the connection, just see
19:38: Him doing this. And the miracle takes place. The sign of the cross shows up all over the wanderings of Israel in the wilderness.
19:48: It's amazing when you start to see how many times it shows up. And here it is. Now there's another story where they're fighting some tribe that's come to attack them.
20:02: And as long as Moses' arms are out, they're winning. And as soon as they droop, they lose.
20:08: So what was the solution? Hold your arms out. Right?
20:14: So the whole time they're winning, there's Moses at the edge of a cliff with guys holding his arms up so he looks like he's being crucified.
20:24: This is all on purpose. The typology is amazing. So there's
20:30: Moses with a piece of wood symbolizing the cross, making the sign of the cross with his body. And then the sea parts.
20:36: Would you guys hurry up and win this? Okay. So, why do you cry out?
20:46: Tell the people, go lift up your staff, stretch your hand out over the sea, divide it. The people of Israel may go through the sea on dry ground.
20:53: I will harden the hearts of the Egyptians so that they go in after them. I will get glory over Pharaoh and all of his hosts, his chariots and his horsemen.
21:01: And the Egyptians shall know that I am Yahweh when I have gotten glory over Pharaoh, his chariots and his horsemen.
21:07: Then the angel of God, who was going before the host of Israel, moved and went behind them.
21:13: And the pillar of cloud moved from before them and stood behind them, coming between the host of Egypt and the host of Israel.
21:20: And literally, it's like a bottleneck right there. There's no way for the Egyptians to get around the pillar of fire. There was a cloud in the darkness and it lit up the night without one coming near the other all night.
21:31: Now, you've got to think about this for a second. The Egyptians have just lost, and I mean every family has just lost all of their firstborn.
21:42: They just experienced nine other plagues on top of that. Blood, frog, gnats, darkness, hail that came down like fire, you know, work this all out.
21:53: And there they are, and they can't get to the children of Israel that are on the beach just beyond that pillar of cloud.
22:03: And that pillar of cloud literally came and moved and stood right between them. I've seen weather before.
22:13: I've never seen weather like this. What on earth has possessed them that they do not see this for what it is?
22:25: Literally, as soon as it got dark, if I were in the Egyptian army, I'm thinking, how do I get out of here?
22:31: We're all going to die. We don't stand a chance.
22:37: But God has hardened their hearts so that they do the most amazingly stupid thing ever.
22:46: So the Egyptians, okay. So then Moses stretched out his hand. All right, verse 21.
22:52: Moses stretched out his hand over the sea. The Lord drove the sea back by a strong east wind all night, made the sea dry land, and the waters were divided.
23:03: And the people of Israel went into the midst of the sea on dry ground, the waters being a wall to them on their right hand and on their left.
23:12: The Egyptians pursued and went in after them into the midst of the sea, all of Pharaoh's horses, his chariots, his horsemen.
23:20: And in the morning watch, Yahweh in the pillar of fire and of cloud, looked down on the
23:26: Egyptian forces, threw the Egyptian forces into a panic, clogging their chariot wheels so that they drove heavily.
23:32: And the Egyptians said, now it finally comes, now they finally connect the dots. Let us flee from before Israel for Yahweh fights for them against the
23:40: Egyptians. They're already in the middle of this. I've never seen water as a wall on either side.
23:51: There they are in the midst of this and they only now are figuring this out. So then
23:56: Yahweh said to Moses, stretch out your hand over the sea, that the water may come back upon the
24:01: Egyptians, upon their chariots and upon their horsemen. So Moses stretched out his hand over the sea and the sea returned to its normal course when the morning appeared.
24:11: And as the Egyptians fled into it, the Lord threw the Egyptians into the midst of the sea. The waters returned and covered the chariots and the horsemen of all the hosts of Pharaoh that had followed them into the sea, not one of them remained.
24:25: But the people of Israel walked on dry ground through the sea and the waters being a wall to them on their right hand and on their left.
24:32: Thus the Lord saved Israel that day from the hand of the Egyptians. And Israel saw the
24:38: Egyptians dead on the seashore. Israel saw the great power that the
24:43: Lord used against the Egyptians so that the people feared the Lord and they believed in the
24:48: Lord and in His servant, Moses. Now let me give you a governing text here that helps us to understand this in light of the
24:57: New Testament. And that's found in 1 Corinthians 10. 1 Corinthians 10.
25:05: We'll come back to this one next week, but I want to get this in your mind so that you can see there's a direct connection between what we just read and something that has happened for all of us.
25:16: It says, For I don't want you to be unaware, brothers, that our fathers were all under the cloud and all passed to the sea, and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and the sea, and all ate the same spiritual food, all drank the same spiritual drink.
25:32: For they drank from the spiritual rock that followed them, and that rock was Christ. Now you notice the first four verses talk about the events of the
25:41: Exodus. And we're going to see this literally in the chapters that come. 14, 15, 16, and 17.
25:48: We're going to see this baptism that takes place in the Red Sea. That's what that was.
25:54: That was a baptism. It's a picture of our baptism. We're going to see them being fed miraculous food from heaven, bread from heaven.
26:03: We're going to hear about them drinking from a rock. And Paul just said, that rock is
26:08: Jesus. So we can see then, this passage helps us understand what's going on in the
26:15: Exodus has everything to do with what's going on in the New Testament, because again, that's type and shadow.
26:23: The reality then is found in the New Testament. So if the parting of the Red Sea is a baptism, oh and it is, it's a picture of what
26:33: God does for you in your baptism. Years ago, I taught junior high and high school kids at an
26:39: LCMS church in Indiana. And when we worked through this text, and we got to the part where it says that they saw the
26:49: Egyptians lying dead on the seashore. I took all the kids and I said, let's go to the baptismal font.
26:55: And this is a church where when you walk into the sanctuary, you got these two huge doors going into the sanctuary.
27:01: First thing you see when you come in is a baptismal font. It's right there. You trip on it if you didn't know it was there.
27:06: And they always have water in it. They got a little pump to keep it so the water stays clear. But I had them all gather around the baptismal font.
27:15: And I said to the kids, I said, I want you to look at the rim of the baptismal font. What do you see? And they were looking at me like I'd lost it.
27:24: I'm like, look, look, what do you see? Mr. Roseborough, we don't see anything. Look closer.
27:31: You see it? No. I said, look a little closer.
27:40: Do you see the dead demons lying on the rim of the baptismal font? When you were baptized, you were buried with Christ.
27:47: You were raised with Christ. Your heart was circumcised by Christ. Your sins are washed away.
27:52: You were united with Him in His death and His resurrection. And this crossing of the
27:57: Red Sea is the cosmic picture of God setting you free from the dominion of darkness by destroying the power of the devil and his demons.
28:09: You are brought through the waters of baptism and you are no longer a slave. And the devil has no power over you whatsoever.
28:16: And there are the demons lying dead at the baptismal font. It's a picture of our baptism.
28:25: It's a powerful picture. One that we ought to be embracing.
28:31: Because you'll notice the theology is very clear. Who did the saving that day? God did.
28:39: How many Egyptians died by sword that was wrought by one of the children of Israel?
28:46: Not one. This total victory, utter annihilation and destruction was wrought not by a single human being, but was wrought completely by God.
28:59: Same is true about your salvation. What you cannot do, could not do,
29:06: Christ has done for you. So that's the picture going on here.
29:12: Now, chapter 15 gives us... Yes? While we're on the thoughts, can you explain why
29:20: Christ... Oh sure, absolutely. That's a great question. And you're right. You're absolutely right. Your question that you ask is, why do baptismal fonts historically have eight sides?
29:30: And this is true. If you do archaeology, you can find old, old, old churches. You'll find baptismal fonts, and they had different types where you can stand in them or whatever.
29:40: But rarely was baptism ever done by total immersion. Instead, they had baptismal fonts, and they were always octagonal.
29:47: And the reason's simple. When was circumcision on the eighth day?
29:54: Eighth day is the first day of the new creation, and the eighth day, we're united with Christ, our sins are forgiven, and baptism is the reality that circumcision always pointed to.
30:09: Circumcision is the type in shadow. Baptism is the reality. So the reason why baptismal fonts always were eight -sided is literally because it's symbolic of that eighth day new creation stuff, and a recognition that circumcision has now given way to baptism.
30:25: And it's not just boys that are baptized. It's boys and girls now. In fact, there was a little bit of a fight pretty early on in church history as to whether or not they should wait until the eighth day to baptize children because of the circumcision thing.
30:43: And it took a little bit for that fight to kind of work itself out, but it basically said, no, we don't have to wait until the eighth day.
30:51: And so you'll see it very early in the early church's baptismal liturgy. Naming oftentimes was concurrent with baptism.
31:00: Some of the older hymnals within Lutheran churches still have that old baptismal liturgy where at the time of the baptism, the question is asked of the parents, what is this child to be named?
31:14: Uh -huh, yeah. And so naming goes along with baptism, and so when people say, what is your
31:26: Christian name? It assumed that you were named when you were baptized. Now, we did this with faith, and that was fun.
31:33: We were attending a church where they still had that older baptismal liturgy, and so Barb and I made the decision we weren't going to let anybody know what faith was named until her baptism.
31:44: So she was born on a Friday. Yeah, she was born on a
31:49: Friday, and Barbara, believe it or not, was ready to go to church on Sunday. I mean, everyone marveled at that miracle.
31:55: But we told my mother, oh, my goodness, what's this baby named? Come to church if you want to find out.
32:08: Told her if she wanted to know what the baby's named. So she was just Baby Rose, bro, for a couple of days, right?
32:14: And this was the first baptism at this church where they had done that. I heard that since then, several people had did the same thing.
32:22: So the pastor doesn't even know the name. The name's not in the bulletin. And so we get to the part of the baptismal liturgy where it's like, and what is this child to be named, the pastor asks.
32:34: And I got to speak faith's name for the very first time. Her name is Faith Marie Rose, bro.
32:40: And I swear, everyone was straining to hear. And the pastor, he actually had to quickly say it again in his mind so that when he said,
32:51: Faith Marie Rose, bro, I baptize you in the name of the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit, that he didn't drop the ball there because he had just heard it for the first time, too.
33:01: And so it was really a cool thing. And by the way, legally, that's not a big deal.
33:07: In some cultures, Nigerian culture and Chinese culture and things like that, children will not be named immediately.
33:15: You have to get input from family members and stuff like that. And it could take a little bit of time. So when we told the people at the hospital, you know, she's not going to be named until her baptism.
33:25: They gave us some form to fill out. They already had a procedure. It was pretty straightforward. We just sent it in afterwards. Well, not a
33:37: Social Security card before you leave the hospital, but they did do all that work for us after we gave her a name. All right.
33:45: Yes, sir. First and foremost, okay, this is a great question.
34:03: The question is, do Lutherans believe that if a child isn't baptized that they're not saved?
34:08: We do not believe that baptism is absolutely necessary for salvation. And so the idea then is that as a pastor, when you are speaking with and consoling parents who've lost a child, maybe they've had a miscarriage or the child has died prior to baptism.
34:27: What we do is we first and foremost look at the passage that says that it's not
34:32: God's will that any should perish, but that all should be brought to repentance and faith in Christ. This is
34:38: God's expressed will. So then we look for the means of grace. And so the idea is
34:44: I've actually had the opportunity to comfort somebody who's lost a child under these circumstances.
34:52: And where we go to is we go to this. We know that God works through means. And so baptism is one of the means by which
35:00: God works repentance and faith in a human being. But what is baptism?
35:05: According to Ephesians 5, baptism is water and the word. So that's what baptism is, water and the word.
35:14: Well, it's the word that's doing the work, not the water. So now we're going to fall back. And we all know from science and recent studies have shown that children in utero, they hear our voices.
35:25: They become familiar with who their mother is. They can recognize their dad's voice if dad is around a lot.
35:32: They can hear music and all these kinds of stuff. You ever see pictures of mommies with headphones on their pregnant bellies?
35:39: Those are very cute. But we know this about these human beings. And so our fallback position is we're going to tell those parents, listen, you've been coming to church.
35:49: Your unborn child has heard the Gospel. Your unborn child has heard of the death and resurrection of Christ and has heard the
35:59: Word of God. And because of that, we're going to trust that Word to have done its work because God cares intimately about the children of His believers.
36:13: Now, with a non -believer who doesn't come to church who despises God's Word, the only thing we can do at this point is we can say, listen,
36:22: I'm not the judge. We can trust the Maker of the universe. I don't think you do anybody any good when you step into God's shoes and you say,
36:30: I know for certain your child just went to hell. And I would say, I know for certain you're an awful pastor.
36:35: Get out of the pulpit and get away because you're not leading people to Christ. That's law.
36:42: And so the best way I can put it, when we read Scripture over and again, one of the recurring themes that we see is that God is ridiculously patient and kind and long -suffering even against those who oppose
36:59: Him because it's not His will that they should perish. So much so that God's patience and loving kindness even towards His enemies oftentimes exacerbates
37:11: His saints who feel that there's no justice in the world because of just how patient and long -suffering God is. This is kind of the whole subtext of the story of Jonah.
37:19: When we think of the story of Jonah, all we think about is the fact that there's a big fish involved. Well, there's a bigger story than the bigger fish.
37:26: And the story is this, is that the reason why Jonah doesn't want to go to Nineveh is because those
37:32: Ninevites, they make the Nazis look like schoolgirls. These are war criminals, cruel people who impaled their victims and let them suffer and languish and die in the most horrible ways.
37:48: When they would conquer a city, they would cut off all the heads of all of the soldiers and the officers and stack them up like cords of wood.
37:54: And so when Jonah gets the call to go and preach repentance, to tell that God's going to judge Nineveh, why does he head the opposite direction?
38:04: Well, it says later in the text, later in the book, the reason why is because Jonah says,
38:09: I knew you, God, to be slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and forgiving.
38:16: And he was upset. The reason he was upset is because they repented and they were forgiven. He wanted them all to burn in hell.
38:24: So over and again, the Scriptures reveal that God does not desire our destruction. He desires to be merciful and kind to us.
38:33: And so today is the day of salvation. Today being the day of salvation, I seriously doubt the
38:39: God who has taken it upon himself to go so far as to be incarnate, born of the
38:46: Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, buried, and raised from the grave.
38:51: I have a hard time believing that that God, who went so far to save us, is going to take an infant who never got baptized and send them to hell because of that.
39:05: That's not the God I believe in. And that's not the God that's revealed in Scripture. But that's you.
39:13: Yes, of course. But you're different than the Lutherans. Am I? No, no, no, no, no.
39:19: If I'm different than the Lutherans, I've got a problem. Somebody's going to come and defrock me. Does the
39:30: Lutheran doctrine state that if a baby is not baptized...
39:35: No. ...it will not be... No, it does not state that. In fact, what
39:40: I laid out for you is exactly what the Lutheran teaching is on this. Sometimes you lose me because you go off over here and I get confused.
39:51: Yeah. A related question. Should a pastor baptize an infant who's brought to him?
40:06: That's a good question. This is a question of practice now. And this is where we're going to look at a passage and there's going to be a divide here in practice.
40:15: And I note this, and here's the reason why. Matthew 28 says, Make disciples baptizing teaching.
40:21: There's no and, by the way. There's no conjunction. It doesn't say baptizing and teaching.
40:27: It says baptizing teaching, which the grammar there is important. And so I know some
40:33: Lutheran pastors where if a parent says, I want my infant baptized,
40:39: I know we haven't been to church for the last 20 years. We probably won't be back until Christmas of 2035.
40:47: But we want our baby baptized. I know pastors who will say, Listen, I can't do that.
40:53: And I know other pastors who will say, Sure, I'll be happy to screw your kid up for you because your kid's going to have a hunger and thirst for the
41:00: Word of God. And as a result of that, it might drive you back to church.
41:07: Okay? And so when it comes to practice on this, I've seen both. I've seen both.
41:13: I will say this, that I was baptized, and my parents never went to church.
41:21: And it really kind of made my childhood very challenging. Very challenging, because I had a hunger and a thirst and a desire to understand the things of God and didn't know why.
41:32: And so I trust. Here's the thing. God is faithful in situations like that. And so I tend to lean towards the, let's err on the side of the gospel and trust that God's going to work this out.
41:43: But I'm going to be in the faces of those kind of parents. It's probably going to be a tough conversation.
41:50: And I might even have a little bit of passion in my voice. You're seriously going to have this child be given the gift of salvation and the
41:59: Holy Spirit, and you're going to keep them from the Word of God? What kind of people are you? I might have that conversation.
42:05: All right? Yeah. Yep. Right.
42:21: Exactly. That's true. So, yeah. I kind of work from the idea of let's get as many people as we can by any means possible, by hook or by crook.
42:36: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So I'll say this. There's a divide in the practice, and the dividing line is how do we reconcile something like that with Matthew 28?
42:48: Because it's baptizing teaching. The two need to go together. They do. All right?
42:54: Fascinating. Interesting questions. All right. Looking at my time here.
43:00: Let's get into Exodus 15. Let's get into Exodus 15. We'll go for maybe about...
43:05: I think we can almost go 15 minutes. Do I think...
43:11: That's kind of... Okay, now this is important. You've got to understand something. Lutherans believe that it is possible for somebody's faith to be lost.
43:24: We do not believe in the doctrine that is called once saved, always saved. Let me give you a text on it so that you can see it.
43:30: And so Hitler, although I think he may have been christened, there's no sign that he had faith.
43:39: None whatsoever. Okay? Yeah. Have any of you guys...
43:45: The difference between baptism and christening. It's the same. Yeah, synonyms here. But let me give you a text so you kind of get it.
43:52: Galatians chapter 5. Paul writes in Galatians 5. I'll start at verse 1 for our context.
43:58: It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm therefore and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.
44:05: Look, I, Paul, say to you that if you accept circumcision, Christ will be of no advantage to you.
44:11: So he's talking to people who are Christians, who are baptized, who are being tempted into theological apostasy by the heresies of the
44:21: Judaizers. And the Judaizers are saying you are not saved by grace through faith alone.
44:26: You must keep the Mosaic Law or you're not saved. That's what they're saying.
44:32: And your cross -reference is Acts 15 here. Paul then says, I testify again to every man who accepts circumcision that he is obligated to keep the whole
44:41: Torah. You are severed from Christ, you who would be justified by the law.
44:48: You have fallen from grace. So this is one of a handful of passages that speak in this way.
44:58: And so the idea here is that faith is a gift given by God and the person who persists in despising
45:05: God's Word, hearing God's Word, believing God's Word, and now the object of their faith is no longer
45:12: Christ, but their own good works or some false doctrine of theology, they've shipwrecked their faith.
45:22: Does that make sense? Yeah. So the reason why baptism is a thorny subject for some is that every one of us can look at somebody that we all know was baptized and that person is living like hell.
45:42: We all know that person. And if some of us are honest, some of us can say, yeah, that person was me for a while.
45:50: And so we look at these things and we sit there and go, how do we reconcile that with the evangelical doctrine, once saved, always saved?
46:00: Scripture doesn't teach this. Once saved, always saved is a human doctrine and it's a very dangerous one.
46:08: It's a very dangerous doctrine. It basically teaches you that you can become a
46:14: Christian and then take the grace of God and turn it into a license for all kinds of sin and vice.
46:23: No way. Yep. Yeah, it basically says, all right, so let me see if I got this straight.
46:30: God likes to forgive sins. Right. Man, I like to commit them. Yeah, I like to sin.
46:36: So it's like, me and God, we should get together, man. Yeah, you know, that Jesus, man, he makes it so I can just go out and forno -caboodle it all
46:44: I want, no big deal, just, you know. If you don't know what that word means, just...
46:56: Yeah, forno -caboodle it. I don't think you can Google it, but... Yeah, by no means.
47:03: And let me do this. Are you ready? Okay. Should we sin so that grace may abound?
47:11: No. You want to know the Bible's answer to this? Watch what it's connected to. It's Romans 6.
47:17: Romans 6. Should we sin so that grace may abound? Paul, verse 2 of Romans 6.
47:26: By no means. How can we who died to sin still live in it?
47:35: That kind of begs the question. When did you die to sin? Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ, we were baptized into his death?
47:45: We were buried, therefore, with him by baptism into death, in order that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the
47:52: Father, we too might walk in newness of life. You think baptism is a big deal?
47:58: Paul seems to think it is. Is baptism a license to sin? No, it's the reason why you don't turn the grace of God into a license to sin, because you died with Christ.
48:09: And that's his whole argument. In fact, let's just end up on this thought. Let's finish Romans 6 in the beginning part of 7, and you'll see it.
48:17: For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.
48:27: Have you been united with Christ, yes or no? Where? Baptism.
48:33: Right. We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin.
48:43: See, the slavery thing, the motif here. Israel is set free from slavery in Egypt through the waters of the
48:51: Red Sea. Hmm. We are set free from slavery to sin, death, and the devil in the waters of the
49:01: Red Sea. Hmm.
49:08: That's what's going on. We know that our old self was crucified with him. For one who has died has been set free from sin.
49:17: Have you died or not? You have. For if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him.
49:25: We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again. Death no longer has dominion over him.
49:31: For the death he died, he died to sin. Once for all, the life he lives, he lives for God. So you must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ.
49:40: Why must you do that? Is it because it's a farce? Is it because it's a fantasy or a hope?
49:48: Or is it because that's the reality? You are dead to sin, and you are alive to God in Christ because you are baptized.
49:59: So let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body to make you obey its passions. Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness.
50:08: Instead, present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life and your members to God as instruments for righteousness.
50:17: For sin will not have dominion over you since you are not under the law, but you are under grace. So what then?
50:22: Are we to sin because we are not under the law, but under grace? No! Sin equals slavery.
50:35: When we get later in the Exodus, you're going to see the children of Israel wandering through the wilderness and going,
50:41: Oh man, I miss slavery. Slavery was the best thing ever. There was food everywhere.
50:49: There were pots full of meat. And all we get out of here is this manna. I can't stand manna.
50:58: And so they say, Let's go back to Egypt. The person who says,
51:06: I want to sin, is saying, I want to go back to slavery under the devil.
51:13: No thank you. That guy is crazy. Totally nuts.
51:23: Alright, so, Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves to the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness?
51:34: But thanks be to God that you were once slaves of sin and have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you are committed, and having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness.
51:49: When were we set free from slavery to sin? In our baptism.
51:56: I'm speaking in human terms because of your natural limitations. For just as you once presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness, leading to more lawlessness,
52:06: It's funny how that sin has a way of growing. So now present your members as slaves to righteousness, leading to sanctification.
52:13: For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness, but what fruit were you getting at the time from those things of which you are now ashamed?
52:21: For the end of those things is death. But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification, and its end is eternal life.
52:32: For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus.
52:37: Chapter 7 Or do you not know, brothers, for I am speaking to those who know the law, that the law is binding on a person only as long as he lives?
52:46: For a married woman is bound by her husband while he lives, but if her husband dies, she is released from the law of marriage.
52:54: Accordingly, she will be called an adulteress if she lives with another man while her husband is alive, but if her husband dies, she is free from the law, and if she marries another man, she is not an adulteress.
53:06: We all understand this, right? How many of you have ever been scandalized by the fact that such and such a widow out there found another guy and they got married and are living happily ever after?
53:15: None of you are scandalized by such a thing. You sit there and go, that's great! That's a great story.
53:21: I'm so glad she's happy. But if her husband was still alive and she was running around with a bunch of guys and then decided to shack up with one of them and eventually got married to him, we have words for that woman.
53:37: Because we all know she's an adulteress. She's a hoe. Maybe that's a little too earthy.
53:46: And if the guy does it too. Of course, yes, right. And for the guy doing the same thing, he's a man hoe.
53:57: We know this. But the guy who's widowed, the woman who's widowed, it's till death do us part.
54:06: Once the death thing takes place, there is no sin in remarrying. And this then is the parallel that informs our minds.
54:15: Verse 4, So likewise, my brothers, you also have died to the law through the body of Christ so that you belong to another, to Him who has been raised from the dead in order that we might bear fruit for God.
54:28: For while we were living in the flesh, our sinful passions aroused by the law were at work and our members to bear fruit for death.
54:34: But now we are released from the law, having died to that which held us captive so that we serve the new way of the
54:41: Spirit and not in the old way of the written code. You'll notice here, Paul is not talking symbolically. He isn't saying, well, you've been symbolically set free.
54:50: This is all symbol. He's talking as if, for real, you were in bondage, in slavery, in captivity.
54:58: And now you've been set free. And the opening portion of 6 explains where this takes place.
55:03: In the Red Sea. In the waters of your baptism. Buried with Christ.
55:09: Raised with Christ. Sins washed away. Hearts circumcised. All of these things that God's Word says about this.
55:16: And it's not a symbol, it's a reality. And if you don't see it as a reality, then you never use your baptism as a weapon against the devil.
55:25: So the devil comes to your door and says, Hey, you want to come out and play? I've got some really cool sin for you today.
55:33: You say to the devil, get lost. I'm not your slave anymore.
55:38: I don't have to obey you. I'm a slave of righteousness. I'm baptized. When you understand what
55:44: Scripture says, then you sit there and go, man, that baptism thing isn't small.
55:50: It's huge. It's as big as the destruction of the armies of Egypt in the
55:56: Red Sea. Right. You see, those of us who've been baptized, we know with certainty, we are not slaves to the devil and to sin.
56:09: We have been set free. And because of that, when the devil comes along and tempts us, we go, meh.
56:16: We go out defiantly. So, yeah, that's my, anyway, you get the point.