Rites Without Reality

About this sermon

Introduction: Where spiritual reality is missing, the stress on external rites and pageantry increases. When I talk about rites, I’m talking about religious ceremony, religious observances. I’m also talking about the external things associated with those ceremonies and observances. Things like instruments used in worship, and special clothes that are worn, etc. WHEN TRUE RELIGION IS MISSING, THE EMPHASIS ON THE EXTERNAL AND THE SENSUAL INCREASES. There are two kinds of religious rights and activities. You have some that were of divine origin. God gave them. Under the Old Covenant God prescribed a place of worship, sacrifices associated with worship, a priesthood, priestly garments, and all the rest. You have some that were completely invented by men. Men create their own ways of worship, sometimes substituting for what God gave, or inventing something where there was nothing. But in both cases, when true religion is missing, when spiritual reality is missing, it leads to the magnification of what is merely external. EVEN WHERE THE ACTIVITY WAS PRESCRIBED BY GOD THERE’S A DANGER. The danger is of people holding on to the rites but having no experience with what the rites were intended to signify. You have rites without righteousness. You have ceremony or signs without substance, without the reality that the signs were meant to speak of. This is what we talked about last week. The perversion of privileges. A misunderstanding of, and a misplaced confidence, regarding good things that God gave. If the unbelieving Jew had a misplaced confidence in the mere possession of the law of God, he an equal confidence in the sign of the Abrahamic covenant. He took pride in a special status that was marked in his own body. He felt that he had a special relationship with God based upon the sign of circumcision. And that is where Paul goes next. THE VALUE OF CIRCUMCISION CLARIFIED (vs.25) The key to grasping this section is to remember that Paul’s focus is on demonstrating the guilt of the entire world, showing the universal need for the gospel of Christ. His special focus is on the lost Jewish religious moralist. This is not a place where he’s focused on declaring the glories of the New Covenant. This is not a place where his focus is on the glorious blessings that have been poured out upon believing Gentiles. That’s coming! But that’s not his focus right here. This is a place where he’s destroying the Jew’s false confidence in the mere possession of the law, and in the mere possession of the physical sign of the Abrahamic covenant. HE’S SHOWING THAT A RELIGIOUS RITE DOESN’T EQUAL RIGHTEOUSNESS. A RELIGIOUS RITE DOESN’T EQUAL THE SPIRITUAL REALITY THAT THE RITE SPEAKS OF. THE PURPOSE OF CIRCUMCISION Now, as you know, God gave circumcision as the mark, as the sign of the Abrahamic covenant. We read about this in Genesis chapter 17:1-14. ESV Genesis 17:1 When Abram was ninety-nine years old the LORD appeared to Abram and said to him, "I am God Almighty;1 walk before me, and be ablameless, 2 that I may make my covenant between me and you, and amay multiply you greatly." 3 Then Abram afell on his face. And God said to him, 4 "Behold, my covenant is with you, and you shall be athe father of a multitude of nations. 5 No longer shall your name be called Abram,1 but ayour name shall be Abraham,2 bfor I have made you the father of a multitude of nations. 6 I will make you exceedingly fruitful, and I will make ayou into nations, and bkings shall come from you. 7 And I will aestablish my covenant between me and you and your offspring after you throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant, bto be God to you and to your offspring after you. 8 And aI will give to you and to your offspring after you the land of your sojournings, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession, and bI will be their God." 9 And God said to Abraham, "As for you, you shall keep my covenant, you and your offspring after you throughout their generations. 10 This is my covenant, which you shall keep, between me and you and your offspring after you: Every male among you shall be circumcised. 11 You shall be circumcised in the flesh of your foreskins, and it shall be a asign of the covenant between me and you. 12 He who is aeight days old among you shall be circumcised. Every male throughout your generations, whether born in your house or bbought with your money from any foreigner who is not of your offspring, 13 both he who is born in your house and he who is bought with your money, shall surely be circumcised. So shall my covenant be in your flesh an everlasting covenant. 14 Any uncircumcised male who is not circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin shall be cut off from his people; he has broken my covenant."