The Sufficiency of Christ in Colossians

Father, I thank you for this time of study.

I pray that it would be fruitful for your people And I pray ultimately that it would be accurate to your word and that it would be honoring to you I thank you for the book of Colossians and the fact that you have inspired such a book for us to have And I pray that we would seek to understand it a right in Jesus name.

We pray Amen last week we began actually two weeks ago with an introduction to the book of Colossians and I mentioned in the introduction that Colossians has a very high Christology And what I meant and what I explained in that first session was that in this book the Apostle Paul Spends a lot of time stressing the nature and the the the The the nature of Christ and his being as Who and and and what Christ is and we know to us Christ is Savior But Christ is also Lord and in his being he is divinity.

He is deity He is God and we talked last week and if you weren't here, there is a audio of it We talked about the first chapter in verses 15 through 20 have what's known as the Christ hymn it talks about Christ as The one who is the firstborn of all creation the one through whom the creation was made and by whom creation was Established and for whom it was established.

It was created through him by him and for him and so this week We're going to look at chapter 2 in an overview and my purpose is to point out some very Specific and important sections of chapter 2 and I want to talk about how they are often disagreed upon The issue of Colossians chapter 2 is no small one because in Colossians chapter 2 there is the issue of What is it talking about when it refers to Jesus being the one in whom all the fullness of deity dwells? That's a huge Statement and a question mark that people have there's a section in it about the the the the issue of circumcision and baptism and how those two things are related and of course that creates somewhat of a division in in Christendom as to how we understand the connection between circumcision and baptism and then of course There is the section about not being judged regarding things like the Sabbath and Dietary restrictions and that of course raises its own set of questions Among those who would identify themselves as part of the body of Christ So there's a lot here and again I could do probably 15 sermons If we wanted to you know just sit down and go verse by verse and be very meticulous But today in an overview what I'd like to do is I'm going to start with reading and on your sheet You'll notice this on the front you have the ESV Along with my Sort of notes I've underlined certain sections I've bolded certain sections and even at one point I added the Greek with a English translation along with a very important Greek word and two Comments on that word But on the back you'll notice I actually have the full Greek text which has underneath it the English Translation word for word so you'll be able to look at that at certain points because I may point out a few things That might be of interest to you So this is this is our outline for today and as I said, we have a lot to go through I'd like to begin simply by reading the chapter.

So if we want to start on the first page, I'm going to read the English standard version This is the Apostle Paul talking to the church at Colossae.

Remember, this is not a church that he himself founded it was founded by a paphras who was one of his followers one of the ones who had learned from him and Paul had never been there.

He had not seen the people face to face and he's going to mention that in this chapter he says for I want you to know how great a struggle I have for you and for those at Laodicea and For all who have not seen me face to face That their hearts may be encouraged Being knit together in love to reach all the riches of full assurance of understanding and the knowledge of God's mystery Which is Christ in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge I say this in order that no one may delude you With plausible arguments for though I am absent in the body yet I am with you in spirit rejoicing to see your good order and the firmness of your faith in Christ therefore as you have received Christ Jesus the Lord so walk in him rooted and Built up in him and established in the faith just as you were taught abounding and thanksgiving See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit according to human tradition according to the elemental spirits of the world And not according to Christ For in him the fullness of deity dwells bodily and you have been filled in him who is the head of all rule and authority and him also you were Circumcised with a circumcision made without hands by putting off the body of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ Having been buried with him in baptism in which you were raised also with him through faith in the powerful working of God who raised him from the dead and You who were dead in your trespasses in the uncircumcision of your flesh God made alive together with him having forgiven us all our Trespasses by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands this he set aside Nailing it to the cross.

He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame by triumphing over them in him Therefore let no one pass judgment on you in questions of food and drink or with regard to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath there are these are a shadow of the things to come but the substance belongs to Christ Let no one disqualify you insisting on asceticism and worship of angels going on in detail about visions puffed up without reason by his sensual Mind and not holding fast to the head from whom the whole body nourished and knit together Through its joints and ligaments grows with a growth that is from God If with Christ you died to the elemental spirits of the world Why as if you were still alive in the world do you submit to regulate regulations do not handle do not taste do not touch Referring to things that all perish as they are used according to human precepts and teachings These have indeed an appearance of wisdom and promoting self-made religion and asceticism and severity to the body But they are of no value in stopping the indulgence of the flesh So ends the reading of God's holy and inspired word There's a lot there.

There is a ton there and again I don't pretend to think that in 45 minutes, we'll be able to crack the shell, but I do want to make some Observations an overview that I think are going to be helpful The first going back up to the very beginning just a simple small Reference because I know we have been studying the Greek and in the very first verse Paul says I want you to know how How great a struggle I have for you and for those at Laodicea and for all who have not seen me face to face Well as I was looking at the Greek of that, I noticed that it doesn't say face to face But what it actually says is ta prosopon mu in sarki Ta prosopon mu in sarki actually says to my face in the flesh So actually this is where in some translations are translated better because the ESV is taking more of a dynamic equivalent The ESV is saying face to face.

You haven't seen me face to face But actually what it says is you haven't seen my face in the flesh You haven't seen me in person is the is the is the rendering and that's what seeing someone face to face mean So I'm not saying that ESV is wrong.

But this is one of those times where the English translators are making a decision to include a More modern way of saying something then someone would have said it in an ancient way Don you have the King James, right? Yeah, does it say see my face in the flesh? At chapter 1 or chapter 2 verse 1 Yeah, see the King James actually takes a more literal Translation at that point and I think that's good.

I tend to prefer in in situations like that I tend to prefer the literal versus the dynamic equivalent Not saying that it's necessarily wrong or it or it in any way affects the interpretation but in that sense I want to know what the original said and if I didn't have the Greek or I didn't have the ability to at least look At it and and and read read it Very basically, I wouldn't know that there was a difference there.

So that's just because of our study in the Greek I wanted to mention that but there's something else in the first passage and it's not underlined but you'll notice it mentions the Laodicean Church, is there any thing that comes to your mind when you think about the church at Laodicea? The book of Revelation, right? The only other time that we're really introduced to Laodicea Well, he's mentioned a few times But the time that we're we're actually given some information about Laodicea is in the book of Revelations And what do we find out in the book of Revelation about Laodicea? It's the yeah, it's the one that gets the most condemnation right? I mean they're they're all given a A praise and a and a and a and a and a and a Correction in the book of Revelation.

There's seven churches.

The only one that's not given a correction is the Church of Philadelphia the rest of them are given a praise and a correction or rebuke and you get to the book of or the the Church of Laodicea and There's not much praise It's correction on the subject of you are lukewarm and I would prefer that you either be hot on Fire for Christ or that you be cold dead, but you're lukewarm.

You have an appearance of life, but it's fake It's hypocrisy and the Lord will spit you out of his mouth.

So so what we know about Laodicea is That this church had problems.

It was a lukewarm church.

It actually represents so much of what we would call the church today If you look out at the church, there's a lot of churches that are filled with people who are very very spiritual one hour a week they're very very committed to the church and to Christ and to the mission of the gospel for one hour a week and then the rest of the rest of their lives they live like the world and they act like the world and they're committed to the things that the world is Committed to and so the Laodicean churches is is a Laodicean type You know that type of church or type of believer The person who we would identify as being lukewarm and so Paul in his writing here he's talking to the Colossians and the Laodiceans that were near one another and We'll find out later that he actually writes a letter to the Laodiceans that we don't have There is an epistle that the Apostle Paul wrote that has lost the time Now we can assume Based upon our understanding of God and his willingness and ability to maintain the integrity of his word We can assume that whatever Paul wrote to the Laodiceans wasn't intended for all time and for the whole church But it was intended for them and for that time Because it did not make its way through the annals of history to us had it been for us It would have made its way by God's providence to us, but it did not It is interesting though to consider the fact that there is a letter that was written That we don't know maybe one day we'll get to read it in heaven.

Oh Certainly there's a lot but just to think about one that see that's referenced and made reference to that We know exists is out there and people call these lost books of the Bible It's not a lost book of the Bible not intended to be a part of the Bible There are a lot of things that were written by many of the Apostles and other things that never were considered Yeah, they're there there are things that weren't intended to be part of Scripture and so Exactly so absolutely so there's so much, but it's just interesting You've got this church out there that is being mentioned in In the long lines with Colossians that we know would eventually have some serious problems that may even have those problems at this point And that's the Laodicean Church Colossians 2 1 for I want you to know how great a struggle I have those in Laodicea Yep, no worries no worries But he goes on to talk about this he goes on to say in verse 2 that their hearts may be encouraged talking about the those at Laodicea Being knit together in love to reach all the riches of full assurance of understanding and the knowledge of God's mystery Which is Christ I underline that phrase God's mystery Which is Christ in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge you'll notice the title of today's lesson is the sufficiency of Christ John MacArthur makes a great point on this chapter.

He says when when people come to you and And you talk to them about Christ What is it about Christ that you tell them? Or what is it about Christianity that you tell them that they are going to receive and He said a lot of times if you hear people describe Christianity You'll hear people describe Christianity is come to Chris become a Christian and and your life will be better you'll have joy and peace or come to Christianity and some people will will proclaim that you'll get healthy or wealthy or some other type of promise and MacArthur's point which I loved it when I heard him say it He said when someone says what is it about Christianity that I get what do I get for becoming a Christian? He said you get Jesus Christ is The blessing of being a Christian.

He is the he is our reward.

He is our is He is he is our blessing and everything is Christ and and it is this it's it's Christ Plus Nothing.

I just love that.

He said he this is what we get Christ plus nothing because Christ is our all-in-all and So he is the sufficiency.

He is everything we need Christ plus nothing You don't need anything else.

What you need is Christ and and then going back to here to verse 3 in whom are hidden all the treasure of Wisdom and knowledge That's what we get.

We get all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge because in Christ or in Christianity we get Christ and he is Ours and he's sufficient There used to be a song and we haven't sang it in so long But it was you are my all-in-all you are my strength when I am weak You're the treasure that I seek you are my all in all, you know Seeking you as a precious jewel Lord to give up.

I'd be a fool.

You are my all-in-all Jesus Lamb of God Worthy is your name Remember that song that's what the song was conveying is that he is the all-in-all he is the he's the goal and Once we have him we have everything that we need all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge and Then in verse 4 and this court it gets to the heart of what he's dealing with He says I say this I say that we have Christ and he is the sufficient one.

I say this in order That no one will delude you or may delude you with plausible arguments plausible arguments there simply means Actually, the word probably better is that they would delude you with Words that are that are persuasive persuasive Arguments looking at the other side looking down here It says in the in the in the in the Young's literal translation It says in this I say that no one may beguile you in enticing words That no one would beguile, you know what beguile means means to win you over to the wrong side or to or to trick you Eve was beguiled if you remember in the garden Satan, you know Said to Eve about regarding the Word of God, you know hath God said, you know And that's still the question of the of the unbeliever today has God really said these things and so Satan Says to Eve hath God said and that he beguiles her and he entices her you eat this and you will be like God that's the enticement of the devil to Eve and and Paul is concerned here that the people of Colossae will be tricked by people who are Enticing them and and the term plausible arguments Again, I don't know that the ESV is making the best use of the word there, but the word plausible does have in a sense an Idea that we could sort of grab a hold of because the idea of plausible simply means something that could be true Something that could be right or sounds right and that's the thing about false teachers False teachers rarely come in with devil horns and a pitchfork and a tail They almost always come in with some form of persuasive plausible argument something that sounds very reasonable something that sounds very right and Paul's biggest concern is not that there's going to be these devils coming in with pitchforks and and horns But there's going to be guys coming in who look and sound like us But they're going to be guiding you away they're going to be leading you into false teaching And then he goes on to say He said for though I am absent the body yet I'm with you in spirit rejoicing to see your good order and firmness of your faith in Christ Therefore as you received Jesus Christ the Lord So walk in him rooted and built up in him and established in the faith just as you were taught abounding in Thanksgiving Now verse 8 continues the thought of verse 4 because he says I say this in order that no one may delude you with plausible arguments Verse 8 picks up that idea verses 5 through 7 are sort of a encouragement.

I know you have a strong faith I know you're and I want to encourage you in that faith, but see to it verse 8 that no one takes you captive That's the same idea as the person who's wanting to delude you.

It's the same sort of a parallel verse See that no one takes you captive by philosophy Now if you do want to look over at the Greek I'm sure you know what this is in verse 8 It's the word Philosophia's and you remember what that means? Phila means what what's Phila means love? We talked about Philadelphia is the brotherly love right phila or philos is one of the two words for love in Scripture there's agape and Philos or philos.

So phila is the prefix and then the word is Sophia Sophia means wisdom.

So we have phila and Sophia and the two together philosophia means the love of wisdom Now that sounds like it should be a good thing Philosophy the love of wisdom doesn't the Bible say seek wisdom doesn't the Bible say that wisdom is one of the one of the things That we get by coming to God and faith is the beginning of fear of God is the beginning of knowledge You know that we seek out knowledge and wisdom.

It's not a bad thing But the love of wisdom in this sense Is the and it's implied it's not stated but it is implied is it is the love of Worldly wisdom and again, it's not stated it is implied because the love of godly wisdom is not a bad thing but what we have is people who seek to take others captive by man's wisdom by the wisdom of the world Yeah, mm-hmm and where do we find that we find that in the Academy today They have philosophy departments, right? The whole idea is is to come up with man's ideas of what is and what is not true And what is and what is not? Right.

I remember and I think I've told this story before but when I was in class I was in I Have a degree in social science and one of my first classes was Was human behavior You know, why do people act the way they act and I'm like cuz they're sinners But that was I gotta sit my back's hurting.

So I'm gonna sit for a minute but I remember The the the class, you know human behavior Why do people behave the way they do and I was already Christian had already actually been in seminary I was taking this as a secondary degree and The very first page of the book it says, you know For ages men believed that they were born as sinners and that the reason why they were Acting the way they were was because of a sinful nature, but now we know And I just love that phrase but now we know and I thought wow this book starts by Throwing everything I believe about human behavior and everything the Bible teaches about human behavior under the bus Yeah Exactly so I kind of knew right at the beginning.

This is this is gonna be an issue From it's from the starting point, but it's that's that's the philosophy of our world Yeah, there is no more sin in our world.

Everything now is a disease If you've noticed people are people, you know people who are Adulterers no, they're sex addicts, you know people who are drunkards.

No, they're they have a disease Drunkenness is the disease not a choice It's not a sin It's a disease People who beat their children.

Well, they have a disease of anger, you know, or whatever there they have anger You know, they need anger management classes You know because it's a disease everything everything now has changed how we view people how we view sin And and this is certainly not the philosophy that Paul is here addressing But it is show you how our world continues even to this day to be in love with philosophy, but he goes on to say see no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit According to human tradition according to the rudimentary or elementary Elemental spirits of the world and not according to Christ Paul is addressing here the subject of human tradition.

I didn't underline that but I should have because What was happening and it's still happening today is Rather than being committed To what Christ had said and what the word said the people were being influenced by all of these external Factors and all these human traditions and these things were seeping Into the church and Paul is saying you you don't need to be taken captive by that.

You need to be taken captive by Christ and That's where verse 9 finds its context verse 9 is hugely important by itself would be enough to study For several weeks, but it says for in him the fullness of deity dwells bodily you see That phrase we could use to talk about Trinity We could use to talk about the dual nature of Christ having both human and and and divine nature We hypostatic Union we talk about a lot from that phrase But how Paul is using that phrase as he is saying this he's saying you're being influenced by this outside human tradition and Not by Christ Christ is who you need to focus on because in him is God in him is the truth and when you're allowing these human traditions to come in and influence you You're not being influenced by him who is God himself and then he goes on to say verse 10 and you have been filled in him Who is the head of all rule and authority? So the whole idea of fullness here, he's saying God is in Christ and Christ is in you God is in Christ and Christ is in you now there is a sense in which there's a difference in how God is in Christ and how Christ is in us because God is in Christ by nature and God is in us or Christ is in us by regeneration and the filling of spirit Which is there's a difference ontologically how those things work out, but in reality the point he's making is you have two Essentially two things you've got the the world and you have Christ and the world will constantly be telling you Christ is not enough But how can we think for a second that Christ is not enough when in him dwells the fullness of God? How could we think that he is insufficient when he is the fullness of? God and So again, the world is constantly telling us Christ is not enough and this is how honestly you can tell when you're dealing with a cult group If you're ever dealing with a cult group, you'll find that their main thrust is that Christ is not enough You've got to add something You've got to say Christ plus Something whether it's the publishing of the Watchtower books and in literature Whether it's the going out on your mission as two young elders in the Mormon Church or whether it's the adding of baptism Whether it's the adding of keeping the Sabbath or whether it's the adding of some law that you must keep.

It's the adding of something Anything yeah, yeah, and and there are those who say unless you speak in tongues you are not saved And you say well then it's not Christ alone, it's Christ plus This experience that I must have to become a Christian so so this is a huge issue and this is a huge part of the Purpose of that whole section of text is if God is in Christ and Christ is in you then you have everything that you need the idea of Of Looking to man's wisdom the idea of looking to these external things You're you're you're trying to add something to Christ and that's not necessary It's not necessary I Want to just jump down for a second you'll notice I gave you the Greek Hottie and out to Katoki pawn ta Play Roma taste they are to toss So much costs so Maticos so Maticos, okay, that's the bodily so much the body It says that's the phrase in him doth tabernacle all the fullness of the Godhead bodily the word I wanted to just mention to you there is the word they ought to cost they ought to they ought to toss rather thought cost Is different they ought to toss here Is the nature or state of being that is God the divinity? of God the state of the Godhead and this is why the King James Version does say in him dwelleth the fullness of the Godhead bodily and it uses the phrase Godhead and some people have an issue with the term Godhead But God had simply references the divinity or the full deity of God dwells in Christ Christ doesn't have a piece of God as If he could be divided up into sections and sort of passed out as it were like a deck of cards Okay, we got 52 cards I'm gonna give a little bit to you a little bit to you a little bit to you and so Christ got a Few of the God cards in his deck.

It's not how it worked the fullness of God dwelt in Christ But the fullness of God is also not limited so that which was divine Regarding Christ was unlimited not limited to his human flesh, but it was unlimited And this is why he can speak at certain times in his unlimited nature.

He can talk about having seen Wasn't Nathanael who he saw under the trees and he said, you know, I saw you before, you know and and in referencing being able to to to have a full understanding of all that's happening around him and yet still be limited in his humanity by his act of submission Becoming a man as it says in Philippians chapter I am that's right.

Not talking about his physical Humanity but in his divinity, he's always been and so before Abraham was he in that he I am Should not be teaching grammar I guess Now verses 11 and 12 Raise an entirely different issue that I did want to mention in passing Because it's it's it's talking about us being in Christ and Then verses 11 and 12 talk about the fact that by being in Christ.

We have a circumcision.

That's different and new it's not like the circumcision of the past the circumcision of the Israelites was done to every male child as a sign of him being entered into the covenant community the community of faith the community of Israel and That act of circumcision is no longer the way that someone enters into the community of faith it's not the Method by which someone enters in the community of faith And so he says you've been filled in him who is the head of all rule and authority in him Also, you were circumcised with a circumcision made without hands Well right then we know that he's talking about something spiritual not something physical because he's saying it's not something that was done by hand It was something that was done in the heart and there is another Scripture that talks about being circumcised in the heart.

So we know what he's referring to And then he goes on to say by putting off the body of flesh by the circumcision of Christ now verse 12 Goes right into this section says having been buried with him in baptism In which you were raised with him through faith in the powerful working of God who raised him from the dead That Would indicate to us at least on its face a Connection between the concept of circumcision and the concept of baptism in fact This is the the one place in Scripture where the tooth the two subjects are really closely connected as as in this way Because he's talking about circumcision.

He's talking about it being something that's done without hands and he's talking about something that's done In Christ this circumcision is in Christ and then he says having been buried with him in baptism And so that has led many people to say, okay.

Well baptism is the new circumcision baptism is taking the place of circumcision because circumcision had the purpose of The demarcation point where a person became a member of the covenant community and now we no longer use Baptism as that covenantal sign, but now we have I'm sorry We no longer use circumcision as a covenantal sign But now we've been given a new covenantal sign by Christ who himself was baptized and baptism is the new covenantal sign That is certainly a plausible explanation for this passage and I don't necessarily disagree with it but where it becomes an issue then is how that is then applied to the method and the timing of baptism Because baptism as you know is debated among believing Christians as to when it is to be applied the Presbyterian would say baptism is to be applied to the infant because The infant is born into a covenant home with a believing parent they're sanctified by the believing parent according to first Corinthians and as a result and The same way that in the Old Covenant a newborn child was circumcised because they were born into the covenant family the new covenant Home would baptize that child in a one-to-one Connection saying okay.

Well, this is what was done in the administration of the covenant of grace in the Old Testament This is what it's done in the administration of covenant of grace in the New Testament, but both have the same function both have the same function of Showing the promise of God to the child of the family of faith being part of the covenant community, that's how The Presbyterian would say so this is why we baptize the infant so as to ensure That we're marking him as part of the covenant community because we no longer circumcise Baptists tend to look at it differently and say okay, even if we accept that as the explanation for verses 11 and 12 That there is that one-to-one connection between circumcision and baptism that the covenant community is made up in the New Covenant of Believers and not of unbelievers the Old Covenant community was made up of a mixed multitude It was made up of believers and unbelievers.

We know that even Ishmael was circumcised you have Jacob and Esau Esau was circumcised, but the Bible says Jacob.

I've loved Esau I've hated so we know that the Old Covenant community was made up of both believing and unbelieving both of the righteous and the wicked But all received the sign of the covenant In the New Covenant we have no No place in the New Testament where it can be particularly defined that anyone who wasn't a believer received the sign of baptism as a sign of Entering into the covenant community now.

There are places where households are mentioned It says that the the jailer was baptized and at his house that the house of Stephanus Was baptized and so oftentimes they say well it it stands to reason that there may be infants in those Houses and if there was then they were baptized, but that's that's that's an argument from silence.

It's not it's certainly not a proof It's certain.

It's just something that's pointed to and says well this certainly could be and so you can see how When you connect the circumcision and baptism in such a way that one could easily Begin to say okay Well, this is why we would baptize an infant is because we would have circumcised an infant And if we and I've heard it argued this way if we don't sir if we don't baptize the infant then we are limiting the covenant community further than The Old Covenant and the New Covenant is supposed to be more open not more closed You see and so that's one of the arguments if the New Covenant is Is broader than the Old Covenant, then why would we not broaden? Because now even girls can be baptized whereas in the Old Covenant only boys could be circumcised so there's a broadening then of every child of a believing Yeah Well that that's kind of where I was going to get to because if we go back and read verse 11 It does say that the circumcision of Christ is made without hands So there does become the question of is there a one-to-one connection Between baptism and circumcision even in this passage, and I think that that is somewhat Arguing arguable.

I think that we could say that the circumcision in this passage is referencing a spiritual reality Something that we receive at regeneration And and that's the focus and baptism is simply the the result of Having received because I don't believe anyone would ever desire baptism Well, let me back up.

I'll make sure I'm because I'm about to lie.

I'm not gonna lie.

I Was gonna say I don't think I was gonna say I don't think anybody would desire baptism Unless they've been born again.

That's not true.

A lot of people want to be baptized for social reasons other things My I don't think that a person who's been saved wouldn't want to be baptized.

That's what I was trying to say a believing person Would want to be baptized There are people who want to be baptized for other reasons and certainly there are people who do get baptized for other reasons And shouldn't be but I don't think that a person who's a believer Would say I don't want baptism You know and whether they understand it as an infant or an adult You know, there's people who renounce their baptisms There are people who were baptized as infants and they'll later say I renounced that it was done without my approval It's not a lot in Roman Catholicism.

They renounce it The a there's a lot of atheists out there who you know Yeah I've even heard of people, you know talking about suing parents because of the Submitting them to a religious right that they had no control over.

It's really crazy Why are they worried about it well, they're saying it was done it was a it was a Something done to them sort of like circumcision.

They don't believe then really it was nothing done to them Well, it is of nothing if that's what they believe then Well, like I said Circumcision could be argued though.

That is a physical physical thing but my my point simply being is that when we talk about the subject of baptism a believer who is genuinely in Christ will want to submit to Christ and So baptism is a natural desire for the believer versus The unbeliever so I do think that a person who is circumcised in the heart Would want the external Reality Or the external right that goes along with that internal reality the external right that goes along with the internal reality is baptism It's no longer circumcision, but the circumcision made without hands I think is regeneration Because that's the change of heart That's the the the outworking of the taking out of the heart of stone putting in the heart of flesh and and we know this Regeneration takes place apart from baptism whether you believe baptism should be done as an infant or whether you believe baptism should be done as a believer That's not the debate right now What I'm saying is that if you are regenerated circumcised in the heart that is Absolutely separate from when your baptism takes place Absolutely, and that's the that's the that's the one that is is what defines you in heaven yes The external right is important, and we should never downplay the importance of baptism, but the baptism itself is not what is going to save the soul and That's a confusing thing in certain movements such as the restoration movement Which is the churches of Christ who argue that you must be baptized? because that's where You're regenerated They say you go under the water a sinner and at that moment you come out of the water raised as a new believer as a Regenerated person they believe regeneration accompanies baptism as A one you know I keep saying one-to-one, but as at the same time The Bible the Bible doesn't teach that and I'll give you two things and we're gonna stop here We'll just we'll continue next week.

There's no reason to try to rush it even though I There's a lot more I want to say But I do want to mention this though there's at least two places in Scripture where we see baptism and the regeneration of the soul happening at different times one is the situation with Cornelius when the Apostle comes to Cornelius and is preaching to him and they start speaking with tongues and they have received the Holy Spirit and Peter says to those with him who would forbid baptism or who would forbid water for these to be baptized who have received the Spirit the same as we have and And he's saying that in the past since they have received the Spirit not that they're going to But they already have and it was separated devoid from their baptism now some people would say well That's the book of Acts and Acts is and I would argue this acts does have some things in it that seem to Be a transitional time, right? and so That it was true and I believe that it was transitional So don't I wouldn't necessarily downplay that but it is important that we do see an axe at least once and there are several times actually, but at least once there is a division between baptism and This but also in the writings of the Apostle Paul.

He talks about the fact he says I didn't go out to baptize But I went out to preach the gospel if baptism Is the South then Then he's holding back the essential part of the gospel When he says I didn't go out to baptize, but I went out to preach the gospel if baptism is the Thing that causes the circumcision of the heart, which I don't think it is I think circumcision the heart baptism have a link and I think they're linked in this passage But I think that they're linked in The how circumcision worked among the people as a as a mark of entrance in the covenant community I would agree with that.

I would agree with pressure I would disagree I would disagree with who is in the covenant community But I would say they both have that mark of Entrance into the covenant community.

The question though is does baptism cause the circumcision of the heart? I would say no, I would say the circumcision of the heart is is the work of the Holy Spirit of God.

Yes Well Then the thief on the cross and that and that's another great example because he was never baptized that we would know And I would hurt and I've heard him also say well Maybe it was raining and I said well now you're but now you believe in sprinkling and that's a whole other Conversation because most of them who would argue for baptismal remission Also would argue and they'd usually don't call it baptismal regeneration They call it baptismal remission because in the baptism is where the sin is Remitted or the remission of sins takes place.

The argument is That the thief on the cross is under the old covenant dispensation.

There's a you know changing over there's that transition but also this this idea of Baptism and everything It's established in Acts to repent and be baptized for the forgiveness of sin So it wasn't even established then so there is this there is a lot of arguments that that happen That don't know water no, I don't think they do and I think because ultimately again it becomes it's either Christ plus Something or Christ plus nothing and The and the and the teaching I believe of Scripture is it's Christ plus nothing equals everything and Christ plus anything else Equals nothing most of their teachings.

You have to go around the block to get across the street To that's too much of that in your well, I have too many There was a show host that it actually talked to one of their elders and he posed them the question if somebody is Such Christ is saved, but then they're on the way to the church to be baptized.