The Grafting of the Holy Spirit

Good afternoon, Mr. McNamee. Once again, good afternoon, everyone. Hope you're all having a wonderful Sabbath. This is such a beautiful day outside. I was commenting to Mr. Miller. I'll take a day like this in January any day. It was a little chilly this morning, but boy, the sun came out. It's just beautiful. Just beautiful. Of course, it'll probably be raining again by next week. So, you know, enjoy it while it lasts. Enjoy it while it lasts, right? This is the day the Lord has made.

We will rejoice in it. Some of you might be familiar with the website, Humans of New York. I don't know how many you are. I follow him on Facebook. Sorry, I'm on Facebook. As we are. The original project, which was a photographer's goal, kind of to photograph and to put together, in a way, a photographic census of New York. The original plan was he was going to photograph the diversity of about 10,000 people in New York.

And so his main idea was just to wander the streets of New York, and when he saw somebody who looked interesting, take a portrait. Of course, if you've been to New York, there's a lot of interesting people in New York. There really are. It is a place of incredible cultural diversity. It is a very interesting city overall. But as he went along this process, the plan, in his kind of his census, kind of began to morph into something very different altogether.

The photographer's name is Brandon Stanton, and he moved to New York from Chicago. He's originally from Georgia, but he moved to New York from Chicago with the goal of photographing 10,000 people. And again, what he was going to do was plot the location of the photo on a map of New York City. That was the intent of the entire project at that point in time. And I think in some ways it was just a way for him to kind of play around with the camera and have a little bit of fun in the process.

But as he progressed with his project and as he continued kind of with this plan, as he started talking with the people that he was photographing, he was blown away by their stories. He was blown away by their stories and their lives and what they'd been through and what they'd done. And so he started to just include little snippets and quotes along with each photo initially. And he found that those were blowing up on social media so much more than just the picture. You know, he would put the picture up and you know he might get a couple of shares or something.

But when the quotes started going on, he started to really see the blog begin to go viral. And so what he decided to do was he decided to really focus on interviewing the individual a bit when he took their photo, asking them poignant questions about their life, asking them about what their dreams were, what they... Just general overall idea of who this person is behind this photo. The sheer diversity of the city of New York was very beneficial to the project. New York's actually estimated to have 200 different languages spoken within New York City alone.

Forty percent of the people in New York have been born outside of the United States. So it is an incredibly diverse city. And as he began to interview people, he found people who had fled war-torn countries. He found people who had overcome incredible challenges. And as you might imagine, as we kind of mentioned before, some who were maybe more than a little bit eclectic. He might say a little bit different, but interesting to talk with. The mix of the photographs, the mix of the stories began to really power the success of his blog.

It's been about 10 years since he started it last. And his popularity really, in some ways, has placed Mr. Stanton in a position of influence and philanthropy. He was named to Time magazine's 30 People Under 30, changing the world, just in bringing an awareness to the things that people face. Because I don't know about you, but there are times in which we can walk down the street and we can pass people left and right, and not think, what is that person going through? They might cut us off in traffic, we might get upset about it, but how do we know what happened in their life that morning?

We don't. And so his point was, in New York City, you pass hundreds and hundreds of people every single day, and you don't give them another thought.

And so what he tried to do with this blog is to get people to either consciously, like purposefully think about it, or subconsciously, consider the types of invisible wounds that these individuals had, the different challenges in their lives that they faced as Americans. Everyone that he photographs has a story. Many of the stories are inspiring. Some are funny. Honestly, some of them, to be frank, are challenging to finish without a dry eye, or challenging to finish with a dry eye. They bring you to tears. People go through so many different challenges, they go through so many different difficulties in their lives, and again, they're carrying these invisible wounds that you just would not have any idea they were carrying until you took the time to dig below the surface and learn a little bit about them. The reason I bring this up, and the reason that I mention it, is it was a story on humans of New York that generally triggered this concept for this message. The story was that of a young lady who lost her father in a car accident. She described how in this car accident, she likely would have been killed as well. That ultimately, she was in the front seat of the car as they were driving home, and that she stopped to get a drink at a gas station. When she got back in the car and started getting the front seat of the car, for whatever reason, she decided to get in the backseat and read her brother a story. As she's reading her brother a story, all of a sudden, boom, big car accident, huge accident. She was a teenager at the time when this happened, and just a few cars down the road, the front of the car was just completely destroyed. I mean, just absolutely destroyed. Her father, who was an incredible skier and Air Force fighter pilot, and by her description, just the best father a person could ever have, she said he was just her best friend, was critically injured and never regained consciousness. Her brother was life flighted, and she said that when she looked down—I mean, she had a number of serious injuries as well— but she says when she looked down at her left hand, it was just pulverized. She said it began to just collapse right in front of her eyes. The bones inside of it had just been completely and totally destroyed. She was an accomplished piano player. She had a competition, actually, later that week. So in addition to losing her father, she also managed to, in many ways, lose the one passion in her life that gave her purpose and joy. Piano was who she was. It was her method of stress, relief, it was her method of coping, and it was a pursuit again that she loved absolutely dearly. She said, well, I can at least just play with my right hand.

But she found that when she tried, it just resulted in her collapsed over the keys in tears of frustration and grief because she couldn't play like she could play before. And as you imagine, you put all this work into this task and all this work into this goal, and suddenly you can no longer do it. She began to be concerned and began to really think that perhaps my days of playing piano were over, that her hand just simply was not going to recover. She went through all these surgeries. They put hardware in, they put metal in, they took hardware back out. She went through all these different things to try to get these bones to knit back together fully and to get full function of her hand. But at one point, the doctors, after performing a pretty serious surgery, informed her that none of it was working, that her hand was in fact dying as a result of a loss of blood flow because of the ruining of the bone, and that they were soon going to have to face some very serious and very difficult decisions. The solution, they said, was a bone transplant, and it was at that point that her mother remembered. Her father was an organ donor, and when her father died, unfortunately he died so quickly they were unable to do anything with his organs, but they were able to use tissues and ligaments, his eyes, a number of different components, and ultimately the number of people that received these gifts was more than 50. People were given kind of a new lease on life as a result of his death. But her mom remembered that for some reason, after that had occurred, she's still not 100% sure why. She asked the doctors to reserve bone. No reason. There was nobody that was actually looking for it at the time, but it was put in a bank, a bone bank. I guess those exist. I didn't know that up to this point. And her mom said, we have bone from her father, and the doctor said, that's going to be the perfect match that we need. The doctor grafted that bone onto her wrist, and her wrist responded. It began to grow, it began to develop, the blood flow returned, her hand began to heal. She describes it. The hand literally came back to life. It was in this place of dying all of a sudden, and it came back to life, and she could play again. She says it's been 17 years since the accident and since her father's death. She has four children of her own. She plays her piano at church. That's where she plays.

She continues to make music as a result of that small part of her father who is living in her. A small part of her father that is living inside of her, that is growing, that is healing that part of her body that had been so destroyed and so ruined. Let's turn over to 1 Corinthians. Let's turn over to 1 Corinthians. Let's start today in the book of Corinthians. We know the letters to the church in Corinth addressed a number of issues that were relating to the Corinthian church. We know the Corinthian church was one that had issues. We know that it had challenges. We know the Apostle Paul, at one point at least, might have even been a couple of times, wrote a pretty strongly worded letter, which we actually have preserved for us. But a strongly worded letter asks for some of the issues that they were experiencing. We know that this particular congregation was predominantly Gentile. It was located on the southern tip of what is now Greece, and at that time was a part of the Roman Empire. But these issues that were relating to the church in Corinth, they weren't new issues. These weren't new issues, per se. These issues had been part of pagan religious worship for millennia. Certain aspects of what they experienced were new, but as a congregation that was made up of predominantly Gentile converts, there were certain aspects of Greek culture that had permeated this congregation and were causing issues. As we go through again this letter to the Corinthians, we see this very well-known warning to the church in 1 Corinthians 5, which addresses sexual immorality. But in 1 Corinthians 6, we see the reason why it was so critical. Let's go to 1 Corinthians 6, and we'll go ahead and turn to verse 15. 1 Corinthians 6 and verse 15 reads as follows. It says, He says, Or do you not know that he who is joined to a harlot is one body with her? For the two, he quotes from Genesis, for the two, he says, shall become one flesh. Verse 17, You know, Paul here connects the issues that the Corinthian church experienced, kind of the culture of the city around them, which can be so influential on those who live within the culture.

Talking very specifically here about a very common practice of ritual prostitution and pagan worship. But he was making the point that this sort of thing can't occur among God's people. Now, why? Why not? I mean, other than the obvious reasons, why not? Because he says, He who is joined to the Lord is already one spirit with him. It's already one spirit with him. God's spirit is joined with our own, causing us to be intertwined, so to speak, with our God.

When we marry physically, you know, when we marry one another physically, it explains in the book of Genesis, God's design was that in that marriage process, two individuals become one flesh.

They become joined in such a way that they approach, at least as close as we can in this physical life, they approach the oneness of God and of Christ. As a purpose for marriage, that's what we do in marriage.

We, as much as possible, work to fully understand that relationship that God and Christ have, the relationship that Christ has with his church. We see that mentioned in the book of Ephesians. We see it mentioned throughout Scripture in places that there is reasons for this union that exists here on earth. But marriage was created by God to enable two humans to become one and to have one mind, one purpose, and the same goals, and really working together to achieve those goals going forward.

You know, provided we do the things that Scripture outlines for us in our marriages, provided we as husbands love our wives as we love ourselves, you know, we care for them, provided we have, again, appropriate balance in our marriages, you know, we illustrate the fruits of God's spirit in our lives. Following God's system of marriage and the expectations for husbands and wives leads to trouble-free relationships. Now, the problem comes in when our personal desires get in the way of those goals of unity and oneness of mind. That's when we run into trouble.

Now, I want you to think about this for a minute. This is the best analogy I could come up with to try to explain it. It may make no sense at all, but hopefully it will. By way of analogy, it's like having two people driving a single body.

Okay? So think about that for a second. You got the husband driving the left side. You got the wife driving the right side. She's sitting up here in the seat in the head. He's sitting over here in the seat in the head. And the two of them are trying to make that body go forward. And so they're moving the controls and they're talking to each other about, all right, when... Okay, you need to swing the right leg out.

That means I've got to swing the left arm back. Okay, right leg out, left arm back. And... Wait. There it is. See, the driver's up top. They're not paying quite attention. What happens if one person in that scenario decides, nope, I'm jerking the wheel to the right? Down goes the body. Right? Down goes the body. If they're not working in unison, if they're not communicating with one another, if they're not operating the body complementary to each other, there will be problems. Period. There will be problems. If they've decided together that they're going forward, once again, somebody decides, nope, nah, I don't like that.

I'm going this way. We have a problem. We have a big problem. Because one set of legs and arms is going one way, and the other set of legs and arms is doing one of these. Right? And you're going to have a situation where that body teeters and it falls. In many ways, that is what marriage is. It's what marriage is. It's two people who become one flesh and are working together to go forward, not opposing one another, but in unison. Now, Paul's point here... why we bring this up? Paul's point here is that just as men and women come together, as it talks about again in Genesis, as these two individuals become one flesh, that when one is united with God's Spirit, just as a man and a woman come together, the Spirit of man and the Holy Spirit come together and join as one.

They become intertwined with one another, so to speak. And just in marriage, again, if those two spirits, so to speak, for lack of a better description, if the Spirit of man and the Spirit of God are working in the same direction, in other words, if that Spirit of man is allowing God's Spirit to lead and allowing it to guide, then it can do so without great struggles and problems. But if our human desires are constantly jerking at the wheel, constantly trying to drive the bus, so to speak, we create a great deal of trouble as we try to follow our own way.

Paul goes on in verse 18 of 1 Corinthians 6. 1 Corinthians 6 and verse 18. He says, Flee sexual immorality. Every sin that a man does is outside the body, but he who commits sexual immorality sins against his own body.

Or do you not know, verse 19, that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own? For you, verse 20, were bought at a price, therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God's. He goes on to explain the seriousness of sexual sin. He goes on to explain how these are sins that are against the body. And again, it's not to say that this is somehow more serious than other sin. It's not to say that all sin is serious.

But they are a sin that is very specifically against the body, against that spirit of God that is dwelling in us and has become one with us. Our body is a temple for that spirit to dwell in. And again, once that spirit dwells in us, we're no longer our own. We're no longer our own. At that point, we now live instead for God. And then we must, as Paul concludes, then glorify God in our body and our spirit, both physically and spiritually glorify God. Again, because we belong to and are dedicated to Him. So at its core, baptism is a marriage covenant.

At its core, baptism is like this marriage covenant. It's a committing of ourselves to Him and only Him in covenant relationship. And we become one spiritually. We become one spiritually. With His spirit, a very small piece of Him, it may not be that small, I shouldn't say very small, a small piece of Him, which we would consider a down payment towards eternal life, which then dwells into us. We might say, grafted into us. A small piece of our Father that is grafted into us, that causes that which was dead and dying to live again, to grow, to produce spiritual fruit.

Just as we mentioned earlier with the bone graft from the young lady's Father, that Holy Spirit brings that which was dead and dying, that which had no hope of eternal life and provides hope of eternal life.

It enables regenerative growth. And again, more importantly, it gives us the ability to now have the fruits of God's Spirit produced in our lives. I'd like to take the remainder of the time today to explore this concept and to really look at the essential nature of this baptismal covenant. The title of the second split today is the grafting of the Holy Spirit. Let's go over to Mark 16. Mark 16. And we'll take a look at some of the different things that occurred, kind of nearing the end of the time that Christ had been appearing to his disciples periodically, on and off during the about 40 days or so after the crucifixion and his resurrection.

We know he appeared to a number of people throughout that time period. And we know that right before, or soon before, his ascension, he provided his disciples with their commission. Mark 16 and verse 14 explains this commission, explains what Christ gave to his disciples to be done. Again, those who followed him, those who believed in him.

This was the role that they were then to take. Mark 16 and verse 14 says, Later he appeared to the eleven as they sat at the table, and he rebuked their unbelief and hardness of heart, because they did not believe those who had seen him after he had risen. We know that to a certain extent, some had a little bit harder time maybe accepting what they saw.

We know, especially notably, Thomas was one who kind of said, I'm not going to believe it until I see it. And so, you know, Christ provided that opportunity for Thomas to do so. But to an extent, they all struggled to accept the things that they had, the things that had happened and kind of what was, I guess, coming to terms with what had happened in the reality then that lay before them.

But when they realized during those times and those appearances, who exactly was there, you know, before them, they were overcome with joy. I mean, you see kind of the reactions at times when they finally made the connection that, it's a rabbi, you know, it's our teacher who is here and who is before us. He goes on in verse 15, it says, And he said to them, Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. He who believes and is baptized will be saved, but he who does not believe will be condemned.

And these signs will follow those who believe in my name. They will cast out demons. They will speak with new tongues. They will take up serpents, and if they drink anything deadly, it will by no means hurt them. They will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover. Christ tells them the expectation here is that you will go out into all the world and preach the gospel to all. But notice his expectation of those who heard it and those who believed was that they would follow through in baptism.

That they would follow through and in faith accept Jesus Christ as their Savior in the covenant of baptism. That they would repent of their sins, that they would accept Jesus Christ as their Savior. They would undergo the act of immersion, and they would receive God's Holy Spirit. Belief in baptism, we can see in a number of locations throughout the New Testament, especially the gospel accounts, belief in baptism are connected hand in hand. But there are many in modern Christianity today who want to remove the second aspect of this relationship.

They want to remove the second aspect of it. And they believe very strongly that only belief matters. It's only faith that matters. There's no other condition upon us. There's no other requirements that God has given us in any way. Because if there were, well, then it means that we are now being saved by our works, which is at least the argument that is given. Now, what does the Bible say? Let's go to Romans 4. Let's go to Romans 4.

Romans 4, and we'll go ahead and pick it up in verse 1.

Again, we want to try to connect here the context to these verses as we go through Romans 4. So we're going to take a look at the beginning part of Romans 4. We're going to take a quick break. We're going to come back to it. So Romans 4, we'll go ahead and pick it up in verse 1 to get the context.

So Romans 4 and verse 1, Paul asks, What then shall we say that Abraham our father has found according to the flesh? For if Abraham was justified by works, then he would have something to boast about, for he has something to boast about, but not before God. For what does the Scripture say? Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness. Verse 4, now to him who works, the wages are not counted as grace, but as debt.

Now, a number of people want to stop right there and say, see? Abraham believed God. He had faith in him. He had trust in him, and that was accounted to him for righteousness. That's all that's needed. That's it. That's all you have to do. That's it. That's all it takes. Paul even says in verse 4 that if it was work, then the wages that a person receives wouldn't be grace. They'd be debt. It wouldn't be a gift. It would be earned, is what Paul says. Again, in other words, the gift of eternal life is the grace of God, not wages for our work. And we would agree with that, you know, but it doesn't tell the whole story.

It doesn't tell the whole story. We need to keep reading. Verses 5 through 8, Paul talks about the blessedness to those whom God imputes righteousness, that the faith of those who believe justifies or brings them into a right relationship with God. That's an important part of the process, and the rest can't follow until that point is there.

This is what Mr. Miller was talking about this morning. They've been brought into a right relationship with God. Let's go ahead and leave a ribbon right here. We're going to come back to this. But let's go over to Genesis 15. Let's go over to Genesis 15, because we want to look at this account that he's referencing in context. Genesis 15, let's go take a look here at what it specifically says here in Abraham's situation. Again, Paul is bringing to mind the story of Abraham to those who are hearing, or who are reading, I guess in this case, this particular letter that was sent to the congregation in Rome.

Genesis 15, we'll go ahead and pick it up in verse 1. Genesis 15 in verse 1 says, It says, It says, Or Abraham rather said, In verse 4, Sorry, I just took my eyes off it. There it is. Okay, so this is the same term that Paul used. This is a reference that he's making. We know Abraham believed God. He had faith in God. He trusted God. God had told him to leave his country. He told him to leave his family.

He told him to leave essentially everything that he knew, and to largely strike out on his own, trusting in God for his deliverance. And Abraham, as we see from Scripture, he absolutely did. He had full trust, full faith, full assurance in God, and the promise that God had given to him. Now, it doesn't mean that he was perfect in his application. You know, that's one of the interesting things about Scripture. We can see the ups and the downs in the lives of the individuals that are here. While he had great faith and great trust in God in this circumstance, we know that there were times when that faltered.

When that faltered a little bit. But his faith is one that was exemplary. And it was through that faith and through that trust in God that the promises came. Now, we see in the latter part of verse 15, latter part of verse 15, as we kind of skim down through Genesis 15 down into verse 15, we see that there was an elaborate process that occurred. We see that ultimately, as we kind of work our way down through this chapter, that God enters into this covenant relationship with Abraham.

He has a torch and an oven that passes between the pieces which had been divided as Abraham slept. And this was God sealing these unconditional promises with his word. So what God was telling Abraham in this process was these things would happen whether or not the people were righteous. These things would happen whether or not they obeyed. The land would be theirs. And they would be as numerous as the stars of heaven. Those were unconditional promises that were given to Abraham. And that process began. We see, you know, fast forward a few pages.

You go from Genesis 15 to Genesis 17. Abraham has a child with Haggai at roughly 85 to 86 years of age. So Ishmael is born. Abraham is 85, 86. And the reason I point that out is I want you to look at how old he was when he was told that Isaac would come. Look at what it says. Genesis 17. When Abraham was 99 years old, we're talking about a nine-year difference between this first covenant that God made with Abraham and what we see here outlined in Genesis 17. We see an eight- to nine-year period that passes between these two things.

God comes to Abram and he gives a specific promise of Isaac. This is where Sarai has a little chuckle at what was ultimately provided here. Notice again Genesis 17 and verse 1. When Abram was 99 years old, the Lord appeared to Abram and said to him, I am Almighty God, walk before me and be blameless. I will make my covenant between me and you and will multiply you exceedingly.

Then Abram fell on his face and God talked with him, saying, As for me, behold, my covenant is with you, and you shall be a father of many nations. No longer shall your name be called Abram, but your name shall be Abraham, for I have made you a father of many nations. I will make you exceedingly fruitful, and I will make nations of you, and kings shall come from you. And I will establish my covenant between me and you and your descendants after you and their generations, for an everlasting covenant to be God for you and your descendants after you. Also I give to you and your descendants after you the land in which you are a stranger, all the land of Canaan, as an everlasting possession, and I will be their God. God said to Abram, as for you, you shall keep my covenant, you and your descendants after you throughout their generations. This is my covenant which you shall keep between me and you and your descendants after you. Every male child among you shall be circumcised. You shall be circumcised in the flesh of your foreskin, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and you. And it goes into some of the specifics here of the timing and all of that that goes into this particular aspect of this covenant with God. But this is the promise that God gave to Abraham. It had been promised. It had been sealed by God in covenant nine years prior. And now God is giving Abraham some terms of that covenant.

So this is what, again, Paul is referencing, this previous promise, is what Paul is referencing that was accounted to Abraham by faith. Okay? Verse 9. Let's go ahead and once again take a look here at verse 9. Specifically, God said to Abraham, as for you, you shall keep my covenant, you and your descendants after you throughout your generations. This is my covenant which you shall keep between me and you and your descendants after you.

Every male child among you shall be circumcised, you shall be circumcised, the flesh of your foreskin, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and you. Verse 12. He says, he who is eight days old among you shall be circumcised, every male child in your generations, he was born in your house or bought with money from any foreigner who is not your descendant. He who is born in your house and he who is bought with your money must be circumcised, and my covenant shall be in your flesh for an everlasting covenant. The uncircumcised male child who is not circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin, that person shall be cut off from his people. He has broken my covenant. You know, just take a look at this particular blessedness of justification that Paul mentions in Romans, this right relationship ultimately that we see here. You know, God tells Abraham as a sign of the covenant between he and Abraham that Abraham's descendants, the male children of Abraham, would be circumcised. We see that Abraham obeyed. We see that he and all the males of his household, all the servants as well, you know, whether they were domestic or foreigners that had been purchased, we see that all of them were circumcised. Let's go back to Romans 4. Had you leave a ribbon there? Let's go ahead and go back to Romans 4.

Romans 4, we'll pick it up in verse 9. Again, we've just gone through this section that talks about the blessedness of righteousness. Romans 4 and verse 9 says, Paul answers his own question. Paul often does that. He asks the question, then he answers it. Kind of a rhetorical device, I guess. But he says, not while circumcised, but while uncircumcised.

So again, this faith being accounted to Abraham for righteousness was prior to the circumcision. Verse 11, he received the sign of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness of the faith with which he had while still uncircumcised, that he might be the father of all those who believe. Though they are uncircumcised, that righteousness might be imputed to them also. Verse 12, So does this blessedness of justification or this right relationship spiritually with God, does it only come upon those who are circumcised? No. At that time, there was an incredible thing happening in which the Gentiles were receiving the Holy Spirit, where they were being called, they were being justified, they were being brought into this right relationship with God. Paul had seen it with his own two eyes. In fact, the folks in Antioch sent Paul and Silas back to Jerusalem because they didn't believe him. They said, go back and tell us, you know, they're trying to tell him the whole situation here. And they said, go back and talk this over and we want to hear official. We want to hear the official ruling from those in Jerusalem. But they had seen this in Judea and Samaria, Asia Minor, the Greeks and Corinth. Throughout the known world, the word was going out and the gospel was being preached. Justification by faith, so to speak, was being witnessed. The Gentiles were being brought into this right relationship with God. And he uses the example of Abraham that his faith was accounted for righteousness and that that occurred before his circumcision.

It didn't come as a result of his circumcision. It was before he was circumcised.

Abraham didn't create the relationship. God did. As Mr. Miller mentioned this morning, Abraham was chosen. That relationship was established by God. Now, yes, Abraham had to respond to the call. He had to actually step out on faith and do what God asked him to do.

But God created that relationship. God started that process with Abraham.

And we remain in a right relationship with God when we believe God. We remain justified when we believe God, when we have faith in him and that we trust him. But it is important for us to keep in mind.

Even though that originally started before Abraham's circumcision and that that was accounted to him for righteousness, what did Abraham do?

He was circumcised. He in all of his household. He in all of his household.

Again, the circumcision didn't justify his faith and God did, but he still was circumcised after all of that.

Now, Paul points out here that the circumcision itself was a seal, quote-unquote, of the righteousness of the faith which he had while uncircumcised.

That's mentioned right here in Romans 4. The Greek word that's used for seal here in Romans is from the Greek word, and I'm going to mispronounce this because it's got a lot of weird words or weird letters that are hard to make your tongue do it.

Sphragus. It's an S, a P, an H, and an R all together. Sphragus.

And what it describes is it describes a mark or a seal that is put upon something to identify its author.

If you think about the old movies that you see where they're rolling up a scroll and they're sealing it, they're providing the identity of the person who is sending it.

They melt the hot wax and they put it on there, and then that person takes their signet ring or their seal and they impress that seal into that hot wax, and they say, This letter is from me, and you know it's from me because I'm the only one with a signet ring that looks like this.

What Paul is saying here is that that seal identifies the relationship and the identity, or identifies, I should say, the ownership and the involved, the person that's involved in the authorship of that individual, so to speak.

It identifies that it was God's covenant. It was his relationship, and it was his terms. It was his terms, and that that was the expectation.

For lack of a better description, it represented the signature, so to speak, on the agreement. It identified the signature on the agreement.

The circumcision of Abraham and his children was the seal, was the identifier of their covenant with God. That was God's identifying mark, so to speak, upon Abraham and his people.

They'd been identified as his. Abraham believed God, and he ultimately fulfilled the terms of that covenant that was given to him.

Now, in Acts 15, as we mentioned earlier, you can turn there if you'd like, but in Acts 15, we see that there was a decision that was made by the Jerusalem Conference.

So we have Paul and Silas end up in Jerusalem. They talk this whole thing out.

And ultimately, there was a decision made that physical circumcision at that point in time would not be required of the Gentiles to enter into a spiritual relationship with God.

That that was an identifying mark of Abraham and his descendants. It was absolutely something that identified them, set them apart for physical blessings. But when it came to the spiritual relationship with Jesus Christ, it was their faith that brought them into that relationship initially, just like Abraham's faith brought him into that relationship initially.

It justified him. It brought him into right relationship with God.

But Abraham had terms of his covenant. There were certain things that Abraham was expected to do because, again, God set the terms.

God established a relationship. He set the terms.

So that does not mean that for the Gentiles, there was not a sign that was needed to seal that covenant. There absolutely was.

There absolutely was a sign, just as there was with Abraham. But the expectation of them was that that acceptance of that covenant would be entered into.

Let's go over to Colossians 2.

Go over to Colossians 2. Colossians 2, and we'll go ahead and pick it up in verse 11.

Colossians 2 and verse 11.

I'll tell you, I'm feeling what Mr. Kester was mentioning last week. You can't do one of these.

You've been in the produce aisle at the store lately?

You ever notice people trying to get those bags that they have at the store?

Mr. McNamee, the bag, was doing it. He was sitting there trying to figure out how to get a bag open so you can get apples in it.

And I caught myself the other day going, Oh, wait. Don't do that. You've just been touching things that everybody else has been touching. Probably don't want to lick your hands. Anyway, it's a little harder to get through some of the pages sometimes without that.

Little deal. Colossians 2, verse 11. Colossians 2, verse 11 says, Verse 14, having wiped out the handwriting of requirements, it was against us, which was contrary to us, which was against us. And he has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross.

You know, that circumcision, which serves as a seal upon us today, is not done with hands.

It is not a physical circumcision. It is a putting off of the body of the sins of the flesh through the circumcision of Christ, which is repentance.

It's baptism. And it's grafting God's Holy Spirit into us and letting God live in us.

Letting Him heal us. Letting Him grow us. Letting Him develop fruit within us.

And allowing, again, that spirit that He has placed in us to lead us going forward.

You know, forgiveness of sins by the blood of Jesus Christ on our behalf is wiped out, the handwriting of requirements against us.

The consequences of our sin, the death that we have earned. That has been nailed to the cross. That has been taken care of for us.

You know, that death that He had on our behalf, kind of once for all, freed us from that penalty if we accept that sacrifice and that blood on our behalf and we submit ourselves to the terms of that covenant.

You know, throughout Scripture, we see baptism, examples of it all over the place. We see examples of baptism in the laying on of hands. That's the rule, so to speak. Baptized, hands laid on, receipt of God's Holy Spirit. That's the rule that we see within Scripture overall. Now, are there exceptions to the rule? Yeah. Yeah, there are scenarios we see in Scripture in which the Holy Spirit was given first. We see a couple of scenarios in which somebody was baptized and didn't receive the Holy Spirit because they didn't know.

Once they were informed of that, they were rebaptized and hands were laid on them and they received the Holy Spirit. But what we don't want to do is we don't want to take the exception and make it the rule. We don't want to say that just because God poured out His Holy Spirit on Cornelius and His family before they were baptized, that that's somehow what He's going to do with us.

We don't necessarily want to say that just because Paul was struck blind in the way of Damascus, and then when Ananias laid hands on him and God's Holy Spirit entered him and the scales fell off and he could see that that's a good thing.

But again, the rule that we see in Scripture is we see baptism for the repentance of our sins, we see the laying on of hands, and we see the receipt of God's Holy Spirit.

Now, all three of these examples, if you want to look at the one of Cornelius, it's in Acts 10.

Apostle Paul's example is just right there in Acts 9. But ultimately, what do we see in all of those examples? Let's turn there, actually. Let's take a look there real quick. What do we see in all of those examples? Acts 10.

Acts 10. We'll look at the example of Cornelius first.

Cornelius was a pretty important guy. He was a commander in a centurion regiment. He had a number of men underneath him, so he was a man who was used to authority. He was a man who was used to people following what he told them to do. We see ultimately, and I won't get into all the details here, but Cornelius goes to Peter, and Peter has his vision in which he realizes that he shouldn't be calling things unclean. He realizes he shouldn't be just concluding automatically that the Gentiles are unclean because that's what they believed for as long as they had. He says instead, go and meet with this man. He shows him the whole scenario. Verse 44 of Acts 10 says, while Peter was still speaking... Peter's going through and explaining all these things, and he's preaching the gospel.

And he says, while Peter was still speaking these words, the Holy Spirit fell upon all those who heard the word, and those of the circumcision who believed were astonished. Peter had taken some Jews with him, and individuals who were of the circumcision, who were Jewish descent and Israelite descent, were astonished. Those that came with Peter because the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out on the Gentiles, too. Verse 46, for they heard them speak with tongues and magnify God, and then Peter answered.

I love Peter's point here in verse 47. He says, kind of talking to those folks who came with him, Can anyone forbid water? Like, anybody got a problem here if we baptize these guys? Because look what God has done. Look what he has done. He's done something completely unexpected here. This is big. And so what does he say? He says, Can anyone forbid water that these should not be baptized, who have received the Holy Spirit just as we have? He didn't say, Oh look, God skipped a step. Fantastic! You got a shortcut. Good work.

They went out and they were baptized. Same thing with Paul. Let's go over to Acts 9. Just a page back here real quick. Page back in Acts 9. Acts 9, we'll go ahead and pick it up in verse 10, because it's fun.

I want the fun context. I love Ananias's response here. I mean, Paul at this point has been breathing threats. He's been, you know, threatening legal action and murder and all kinds of things for the disciples or for those who believed in Christ. It says, Now there was a certain disciple at Damascus named Ananias, and to him the Lord said in a vision, Ananias, here I am, Lord, Ananias says, So the Lord said to him, Arise, and go to the street called Strayed, and inquire at the house of Judas, for one called Saul of Tarsus. For behold, he is there praying.

And in a vision, he has seen a man named Ananias coming in and putting his hands on him so that he might receive his sight. Notice Ananias's response in verse 13. Ananias said, Lord, I've heard from many about this man, about how much harm he has done to your saints in Jerusalem. And here he has the authority from the chief priest to bind all who call on your name. That's the reason Paul went to Damascus, was he sought papers to imprison those who were there.

But the Lord said to him, Go, for he is a chosen vessel of mine. He was selected to bear my name before Gentiles, kings, and the children of Israel. For I will show him how many things he must suffer for my name's sake. So Ananias follows. Ananias went his way and entered the house, and laying his hands on him, he said, Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus, who appeared to you on the road as you came, has sent me that you might receive your sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit.

Again, he lays his hands on him. Immediately there fell from his eyes something like scales, and he received his sight at once, and he arose, and what? went on his way and did his thing? No. He arose, and he was baptized.

These things go hand in hand.

The receipt of God's Holy Spirit and baptism are intimately connected, because baptism is fulfilling the terms of the covenant.

Just as the faith of Abraham was accounted to him for righteousness, he still was circumcised. Just as the faith has brought us into this relationship with God, our process of going through and entering into this baptismal covenant, receiving God's Holy Spirit, is what places that seal of God upon us.

It's what provides that seal. Again, through Christ we have this redemption. We have forgiveness. We have this incredible grace and this incredible mercy.

What do we see in Acts 2, verse 38? That's common. We won't turn there. But Acts 2, verse 38, you know, Peter's preaching and the Jews that were gathered there were cut to the heart as a result of what he was saying, and they said, what should we do?

Peter said, repent, let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ, for the remission of sins and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. Again, these are connected. God says, accept the terms of the covenant. Accept the seal of God upon you.

Be spiritually circumcised. Become a part of the body of Christ. Fulfill the terms of that covenant. Let's go to Ephesians 1 and verse 7. Ephesians 1 and verse 7.

Ephesians 1, and we'll go ahead and pick it up in verse 7. It says, Being selected, being elected, if you will, according to the purpose of him who works for all things according to the counsel of his will. It was according to God's purposes that we were chosen. That we who first trusted in Christ should be to the praise of his glory. Verse 13, You also trusted after you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, in whom also, having believed, having begun that process, having been, you know, accounted to us for righteousness, having that faith like Abraham had, in whom also having believed, you were sealed. But with what? What were you sealed with? You were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise.

So where physical circumcision was the seal of the covenant of God with Abraham, what is the seal of our covenant with God today?

It's the receipt of his Holy Spirit. It's the acceptance of the terms of his covenant. It's us going willingly into the acceptance of that and God pouring out his Holy Spirit upon us.

What does he go on to say? Again in verse 11 here. We'll pick it up in verse 11. Sorry, verse 1, not verse 2. In him also we've obtained an inheritance. Remember that inheritance, that promise that we've been given, being chosen according to the purpose or predestined according to the purpose of him who works for all things according to the counsel of his will, that we who first trusted in Christ should be to praise of his glory. But in him you also trusted. After you heard the words of truth, the gospel of your salvation, in whom also, having believed you, were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, who or which is the guarantee of our inheritance, until the redemption of the purchased possession to the praise of his glory. Through Christ we have his redemption. We have forgiveness through his blood. And it's incredible. It's an incredible grace and it's an incredible mercy.

But he who trusted in Christ, we who have faith in the promises of this forgiveness that it is and what is to come, the gospel of our salvation, in which we've believed and we've trusted, fulfilling the terms of that covenant, ultimately receiving his spirit, we were sealed, we were sealed with the signet ring, so to speak, of God's spirit in us. We were given that sign. In fact, it talks about in Romans that those who are led by his spirit are what? They're his children. It is those who are led by his spirit that are his children. That spirit has to be present. It needs to be present within us.

But that spirit serves as a sign. It serves as a guarantee. It serves as a down payment. We might say earnest money. In today's terminology, you know you're going to go purchase a house and you put down earnest money that says, yes, I'm serious about purchasing this house. I'm not just messing around. I'm not just telling you I'm going to buy it and then I'm going to renege on that. No. I'm telling you I'm interested. And the way I'm going to prove it is by putting money down.

I'm going to prove it by putting money down. And that's what God's done with his Holy Spirit. That he has the intent to buy.

The deposit of that Holy Spirit in our lives is his intent to purchase. That is his earnest money, his down payment, so to speak, toward the eternal life that he is going to provide us. He intends to redeem us. He intends to purchase us.

The grafting of that Holy Spirit within us marks us as God's.

It places his seal on us. That spirit, again, intervates with our human self. And it begins the process of redemption. It begins the process of our becoming like our Creator.

Again, it's him living in us that is doing those things. It's him that's doing it. It's not us. You know, we don't get to boast. It's God's Spirit in us that's helping us to be less and less carnal as time goes on and as we replace that carnal human nature with the nature of God.

But it's just like the bone graft that was in the wrist of the young lady that we began with from her father.

A small piece of his bone grafted onto her wrist began to grow. It was literally him living in her. But by him living in her, it began to regenerate and to restore and to heal and enable her to be able to return to the things that she loved so much.

She spoke of how it was like a little piece of her dad was still here and that she knew that it was, you know, that donation, so to speak, that helped her to be able to receive those things.

We know God ultimately heals, and he heals in incredible ways.

But when we allow God's Spirit to lead us, we are the children of God.

And when we allow that to occur, it causes fruit in our lives. It enables us to be able to put on the right attitudes, to be able to act as a Christian is expected to act.

But more importantly, it begins that conversion process in our lives that God will ultimately complete.

Without that Spirit of God dwelling in us, without that covenant of baptism, again, that marriage covenant that gives us that spiritual oneness with our Father through the indwelling of His Spirit, it's as though we're telling God, I appreciate your blessings, I appreciate your relationship, I trust you, I believe in you.

The terms of that covenant, it's just a bridge too far.

The requirements that you're asking me to do, it's just too much for me to fulfill.

God told Abraham, very specifically, that those that did not enter into the terms of that covenant would be what?

They would be cut off from their people.

This is serious stuff. This is serious stuff.

Let's go ahead and close today by turning to 2 Corinthians 1 and verse 21. 2 Corinthians 1 and verse 21. 2 Corinthians 1 and verse 21. Paul writes, Moreover, I call God as witness against my soul, that to spare you I came no more to Corinth.

He kind of gets on to this idea that he was trying to work with them, again, not to have dominion over their faith, but talking about how their fellow workers for their joy.

And ultimately, by faith, you stand. And that's similar to how we operate.

We're in a circumstance and we're in a place where we are fellow workers together. We're all trying to go down this path and go down this road and stick to the road that God has called us to.

We're all working together on this.

But God the Father's anointed us. He has set us apart. He's assigned us. He's appointed us, so to speak.

He's sealed us. He's marked us as His own. He's applied that signet to us.

And He's given us the Spirit in our hearts as a guarantee of what is to come.

That not only is this the beginning of the process of the receipt of God's Holy Spirit, but it is His absolute intent to purchase.

That He has said that this is the down payment, this is the earnest payment, and I plan to buy.

That's such an incredible blessing, brethren. It's such an incredible blessing.

I hope we can all continue to renew this Spirit in us.

We're getting kind of close to the beginning of the spring holiday season.

It's crazy to think that we're just a couple of months away now from Passover and coming in towards the tail end of March there.

I hope we can all continue to renew this Spirit in us. I hope we can stoke that fire.

I hope we can absolutely stir it to the point of a conflagration, if you will.

A nice big bonfire.

But let us remember the purpose of baptism. Let us remember, just like our marriages, it is for us to be one.

It's for us to be one with God, one with God and with Christ.

Let us remember what it symbolizes, what it means, and let us recognize that the grafting of His Spirit, the application of that signet ring to us, so to speak, allowing that graft to live in us and bring to life the parts of us that are dead, that are dying.

Let us pray that they restore to vibrant life in God and in Christ, that they can ultimately bear much fruit.