COME TO THE PREACHING FESTIVAL

The Circumcision of Christ
April 13th and 14th, 2012
At the building of
Southlake Fundamental Baptist Church
125 N. Court
Crown Point, IN 46307 

 Friday April 13, 6:00 – 6:15:  Introduction 

 6:15-7:00: The Utter Gravity Associated with Participation in God’s Covenants, Daniel Brueck

The Utter Gravity Associated with Participation in God’s Covenants in General, and graphically seen here in the Establishment of the Covenant of Circumcision.  “This is my covenant, which ye shall keep, between me and you and thy seed after thee; Every man child among you shall be circumcised . . .A token of the covenant. . . And the uncircumcised man child whose flesh of his foreskin is not circumcised, that soul shall be cut off from his people; he hath broken my covenant” (Gen. 17:10-14; Exod. 4:24-26). 
a)    “A token of the covenant” (Gen. 17:11).  The designated token stands for the covenant. Respect for the token is equated with respect for the covenant.  Similarly, neglect of the token is equated with neglect of the covenant.
b)     Acceptance with God hangs entirely upon the maintenance of the covenant. “Because they continued not in My covenant, and I regarded them not, saith the Lord” (Heb. 8:9; Jer. 31:32).
c)     The impartial acceptance of any and all who, from the heart, keep God’s covenant. 
d)    The impartial rejection of any and all who despise or ignore God’s covenants. 
e)     The necessity for removal of that which is offensive to God, in order to be received of Him.  
f)      The removal of the foreskin of the flesh foreshadowed the removal of the “foreskin” that is upon the heart (Deut. 10:16; 30:6; Jer. 4:4), and ultimately, the removal of the body of the sins of the flesh (Col. 2:11), which was abundantly provided for in the sufferings of Christ, and in His resurrection and exaltation which have followed.
 

7:00 – 7:45:  The Grievous Involvements of Being Cut Off. Silas McCulfor

 
The grievous involvements of being “cut off from Israel”, “cut off from the congregation of Israel”, “cut off from” one’s “people”, “cut off out of the land of the living” are in complete harmony with the nature and character of God. 
a)     God cannot deny Himself.  He cannot be other than Himself.  He cannot, and therefore, certainly does not, act contrary to His Nature and Person.
b)     In the law and in the Prophets God continually warned Israel of the danger of being cut off from their people. 
c)     But, in the fullness of time, the Lord Jesus Christ, a Member of the Godhead, the Word who was made flesh and dwelt among us, was Himself cut off out of the land of the living in the stead of His people.

7:45 – 8:00:  Break
  
8:15 – 9:00:  The Promise and Heirship of the World, Larry Paulus
  

The promise and heirship of the world.  “For the promise, that he should be the heir of the world, was not to Abraham, or to his seed, through the law, but through the righteousness of faith” (Rom. 4:13).
a)     The promises of God are exceeding large in scope.
b)        Their benefits certainly embrace the one who is believing them, but they also draw the believer, as it were, into “a large place” (Ps. 31:8, ASV) of fellowship with the Father and the Son, of liberty from the bondage of corruption,  of dominion, of heirship.
c)     The connection of this with the circumcision of Christ is that the exceeding great and precious promises, by which men are partakers of the divine nature, cannot effectually minister to men, where sin is yet imputed.
 
 

Saturday, April 14, 7:45 – 8:30:  Breakfast
 
8:30 – 9:00:  Singing and Introduction
 
9:00 – 9:45: The Circumcision Made Without Hands, Tim McCulfor

 
The Circumcision Made Without Hands
a)     Without hands, that is, without human hands
b)     the involvements of that circumcision, or cutting off, for the Lord Jesus and for all who are in Him,
c)     the removal of sin and the removal of the body of the sins of the flesh
d)     Christ, the last Adam, and the second Man
e)        Christ, being cut off, is the reason why there presently is the old man and the new man.
f)      Old things are passed away, and behold all things are become new.

9:45 – 10:30: The Circumcision of Christ, John Bertsch

 
The Circumcision of Christ
a)     The end to which circumcision was from the beginning pointing,
b)     The connection with faith and baptism into Christ (the divinely appointed means for men participating in this circumcision).
c)     These thoughts are joined together by Paul in Colossians 2, as well as elsewhere.
d)     In the circumcision of Christ those who obey the gospel lose their identity with Adam, who was of the earth, earthy, and are now identified with Christ, the Second Man, the Lord from Heaven (as Paul declared in First Corinthians 15).
 

10:30 – 10:45: Break

10:45–11:30: The Steps of the Faith of Our Father Abraham, Al Stoner

 
The Steps of the Faith of our Father Abraham
a)     He staggered not at the promise of God, but was strong in faith, giving glory to God. 
b)     Against hope, he believed in hope, that he might be the father of many nations, a multitude which no man can number, from a every kindred, tongue, tribe, and nation.
c)     This is the kind of faith saves, the faith of God’s elect, and the faith that is authored and finished by the Lord Jesus Christ. 
d)     Abraham exemplified the kind of faith that is well pleasing to God, but it is also the kind of faith that Jesus authors and finishes.
e)     The steps spoken of here are not procedural steps, but rather steps of unwavering confidence in God Almighty, through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ.
f)      Abraham is the “father of circumcision” of those who are found walking before God in this manner, and it is to them alone that righteousness is imputed.
g)        Abraham is the “father of circumcision”, not only to those who are of the law, but also unto those who walk in the steps of the faith which Abraham had being yet uncircumcised.

11:30 – 12:30:  Lunch
 

12:30 – 12:45: Singing
 
12:45–1:30:  Therefore It Is By Faith, That It Might Be By Grace, Robert Cobb

 
Therefore it is of faith, that it might be by grace, to the end that the promise might be sure to all the seed.
a)     The preacher will give a thorough exposition of the working together of faith and grace, and the end to which these co-laborers are advancing in the purpose of God.
b)     That the promise might be sure
c)     That it might be sure to all the seed
d)     The connection of this with the circumcision of Christ is that faith cannot operate where sin is yet imputed.

 
1:30–2:15: Now it was Not Written For (Abraham’s) Sake Alone, Mike Knapp

 
“Now it was not written for his sake alone, that it was imputed to him; But for us also, to whom it shall be imputed, if we believe on Him that raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead; Who was delivered for our offences, and was raised again for our justification” (Rom. 4:23-25). 
a)     The preacher will develop the thought of the faith of Abraham and the end to which it was moving in the purpose of God,
b)     In Abraham’s being justified by faith, God was laying a foundation of understanding for men as to the means of acceptance with Himself.  It was not for Abraham’s sake alone that the things regarding him were written.
c)     The wellspring and foundation for justification before God, appropriated by men through faith, are the sufferings of Christ, and the glory which has followed.

2:15 – 2:30:  Break
 
2:30–3:15: That Righteousness Might be Imputed Unto Them Also, Pat Woods
 

“That righteousness might be imputed unto them also”. 
a)     The purpose of God from the beginning
b)     The inclusion of the Gentiles in God’s purpose
c)     The imputation, the accounting, the crediting of righteousness to men. 
d)     The connection of this with the circumcision of Christ is that righteousness cannot be imputed where sin is yet imputed.
e)     The preacher will clarify and develop the absolute need for such righteousness, the blessedness related to its reception, and the involvements of its impartation unto men by God. 

 
Final Prayer and Dismissal

"Let your loins be girded about, and your lights burning;  and ye yourselves like unto men that wait for their lord, when he will return from the wedding; that when he cometh and knocketh, they may open unto him immediately" (Lk. 12:35-36).