The following is an uncorrected transcript generated by a transcription service. Before quoting in print, please check the corresponding audio for accuracy.
00:00 house church leaders and some courses I would teach, some courses Suzanne would teach, some courses we would team teach.
00:08 One semester we were teaching on the book of Genesis and it was Suzanne's job
00:13 to do the teaching on Genesis because I was doing a systematic theology course the same semester and she came to me in
00:20 her preparations and she told me I am not going to teach Genesis 17 and I said
00:28 but you have to. This is a very crucial part of the Bible. You don't understand
00:33 the rest of the Old Testament. You don't understand Acts, Romans, Galatians if you don't teach about circumcision.
00:40 I am not going to teach about circumcision to a classroom that has a lot of men in it. Especially Hindu men
00:48 or people who have a Hindu background who don't even practice it. I'm not going to be explaining that to them. So
00:55 yes, I ended up teaching Genesis chapter 17. But today the tables are turned and we
01:01 have a room that not only has men, has also a lot of women. But I guess that's fair. I spoke about it, but in both
01:08 services, I don't know why, but Pastor Rama picked a female in both services to do the scripture reading.
01:15 Can be maybe a little uncomfortable talking about that. And when I first of all saw the topic assigned, I thought,
01:22 you know, it would really be better if we could find a medical person. You know, maybe we could find a urologist
01:29 who would be able to to talk about this and he could bring all of his medical
01:34 charts and drawings and pictures. Then I thought, no, no, no, no, no. Probably
01:39 better that we do not have a urologist talk about this because it might get a little bit too graphic.
01:46 I will try to keep it G or PG although possibly in one place slightly go over
01:52 into PG-13 but that will be the limit of it but while our topic today does
01:59 include circumcision that's several verses of the chapter we just read including three more verses that she
02:04 didn't read at the end our text does deal with that but that's not going to be our main emphasis but rather during
02:12 the course of sermon time today I would like each one of you to be asking
02:17 yourself this question. How will I respond to God's grace in
02:24 obedient faith? Now, 13 years have passed since last Sunday. You think, "Yeah, no wonder I
02:32 feel tired. It was sure a rough week at work." No, I'm not saying you look 13 years older today. I'm saying that 13
02:39 years have transpired in the life of Abraham since Genesis 16 concluded last
02:45 week and now Genesis 17 today. We've been studying the book of Genesis
02:51 since September with except for the brief break at Christmas time looking at some of the very important foundational
02:59 elements which are crucial in order for us to be able to understand the Christian faith. And beginning in
03:05 November, we started looking at some of the stories about Abraham. And we saw how God called Abraham, chose him to be
03:13 the father of a nation, but not just any nation, a nation through whom he would
03:19 then bring salvation to all peoples. Because through this nation of whom
03:24 Abraham is the patriarch, the law will come, the prophets will
03:29 come, the scriptures will come, and most importantly, the promised Messiah who
03:35 will bring salvation will come. And that's why God could tell Abraham through you through your descendants
03:43 or later he just says singular through your descendant all peoples of the earth
03:49 will receive blessing because that descendant he's talking about then is
03:54 Jesus who comes in the flesh as a descendant of Abraham
03:59 who then opens up the covenant for all people who respond in faith and we too
04:05 can join in. So when we look at the covenant that God made with Abraham, we need to realize we too can benefit from
04:13 that. This covenant can have a very important impact on our lives because if
04:18 we respond in faith to God as Abram responded in faith to God, we become
04:25 recipients of the spiritual blessings that God promised him and his descendants.
04:31 Also in looking at the life of Abraham, we see a great example of a man of faith.
04:37 And we saw last week that a man of faith is not always perfect. Last week we saw
04:42 that yes, even men of faith do have clay feet. They do mess up at times. But
04:48 Abraham does show us from the very beginning that faith is much more than
04:54 just head knowledge. Faith is accompanied by obedience.
04:59 We see that when God first calls Abram, he calls him to leave his family, leave
05:06 his country, leave everything that's familiar, which would include leaving his security, leaving his identity and
05:14 going to someplace where he didn't even know he was where he was going, where everything would be strange, where he
05:20 wouldn't know people. And he did. He believed God so much that he put it into action.
05:27 So in these stories about Abraham, we can see an example of how one person
05:33 responded in obedient faith to God's grace, to God's call. And today, as
05:39 we're looking at this scripture passage, let's be thinking about that. How will I respond to God's grace and obedient
05:46 faith? And we can learn some lessons from the life of Abraham. Let's go back
05:52 and look at the very beginning of our text. said, "When Abram was 99, the Lord
05:57 appeared to him and said, I am God Almighty.
06:03 Walk before me and be blameless that I may make my covenant between me and you
06:10 and may multiply you greatly." So here in this text, first of all, we
06:15 see that the Lord appeared to Abraham. God took the initiative.
06:22 That's very important in all the Abram narratives. But it's also very important
06:27 for us today also to realize God is the one who initiates.
06:33 God will speak. God will reveal himself. He appears. And it's only at the
06:41 initiative of God that we are then able to respond in faith.
06:46 And when we do respond in faith, it's because of God's grace, his mercy, the
06:52 fact that he has taken the initiative. And so God appeals, God appears and then
06:58 he reveals who he is. He says, "I am God
07:03 Almighty. I am." We hear that phrase when we get to
07:09 Exodus and God is revealing himself to Moses and he says, "I am that I am."
07:15 We hear those words used by Jesus in the gospels on many statements. He says, I am the bread of life. I am the light of
07:24 the world. And now God is saying to Abram, I am, and this time he uses the
07:30 Hebrew El Shadai, which is most often translated God almighty.
07:37 God the allsufficient one. God who is sovereign, God who is all powerful. And
07:44 God is doing more than just saying, "Hey, you can call me El Shadai." It's not this is who I am by name or title.
07:52 But when God reveals himself and he reveals a name, he's revealing who he
07:58 is. He's revealing his character. He's revealing his nature. So he's telling
08:03 Abram something about himself that he is the all powerful, allsufficient,
08:09 sovereign Lord of the world. Then after God reveals himself to Abram,
08:17 he instructs Abram on the response that would be fitting for Abram to make. He
08:23 said, "Walk before me and be blameless." Now, this is a pattern that we see over
08:30 and over and over again in scripture. God will reveal himself to someone for
08:36 the purpose that they then respond to that revelation.
08:41 God speaks, we listen and act. God speaks, we believe, we trust, we obey.
08:50 I give some other examples from scripture where God when he reveals himself then he expects an appropriate
08:57 response to his revelation. When we get to Exodus, God frees the descendants of
09:03 Abraham from slavery in Egypt. And he does this by revealing his great power
09:08 and all of the miracles he works. And then after the people are freed from Egypt, he speaks to them and says, "I am
09:15 the Lord who delivered you from Egypt." And then he tells them how they should
09:21 respond. Therefore, do not worship other gods. Do not bow down to idols. Do not misuse my
09:28 name. Deuteronomy, we see something very similar.
09:33 God speaks and then he expects an appropriate response. In Deuteronomy
09:39 chapter 5, chapter 6, God says, "Here, O Israel, the Lord your God is one
09:44 self-revelation." Then he tells him what he wants him to do. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with
09:51 all your soul, with all your might. So God reveals himself, he expects an
09:57 appropriate response. We saw this earlier in the Abram passages back in Genesis 12. The first time God speaks to
10:06 Abram, God reveals things about himself, but he also gives Abram something to do. He
10:14 said, "Get up. Leave your family. Leave your household. go to the land that I will show you. This is the expected
10:20 response in reaction to the promises that God then makes that God will direct
10:26 him and guide him and take care of him and bless him and that through him all
10:32 peoples of the earth can be blessed. So when God speaks, we need to be thinking,
10:39 okay, how do I respond appropriately in faith and obedience? And this is exactly
10:46 what's happening here in this passage. God reveals himself. I am God Almighty.
10:54 And then he's going to state the desired expected response which here in this case is walk before me and be blameless.
11:03 Now that's a big order. Walk before God. Walk in the presence of God.
11:10 Live your life in such a way that you're constantly in the realization that God's
11:16 presence is with you. In other words, in everything that you do, everything you say, everything that
11:23 you think, realize God is there. God's presence is right there. But it's more
11:29 than just a realization that yeah, God sees everything I do. But it's more of
11:35 therefore since he sees and knows everything I do. I want to live in a way that will bring glory to him. Live a
11:43 life that will be well pleasing as I walk before God.
11:49 Now some people when they hear that you know God is there seeing everything we do and knowing everything we think and
11:54 say that can be kind of scary. But I think for Abram, this was really
11:59 quite comforting to realize that he could live in the presence of Almighty
12:06 God. Abram had left his family. He'd left everything familiar. And now he's in a
12:13 strange land. Oh, sure, he's met a few people by now, but still it's not like where it was where he grew up. He's in
12:20 this new land. He's a stranger there. Never does really settle down permanently. He's here for a while.
12:26 There for a while. And so this is a great assurance to know that he can walk
12:31 and live in the presence of God. A great privilege that God would allow him to do
12:38 that. And then God says, "Be blameless." Now, this does not mean that Abram would
12:44 live in a state of sinless perfection. Neither he nor anybody since then. None
12:51 of us today will ever be able to live totally without sin.
12:57 But what he's talking about here is to let your faith mature. Let it be complete. Keep your commitment to God
13:04 with integrity. Be totally devoted to God. God is not
13:11 just something over here on the side, but we want to give ourselves wholeheartedly to God without
13:18 reservation. And today God speaks to us also through
13:23 his word, through speaking to our spirit. And he expects a similar
13:30 response of faith as we see from Abram here. God expects us also to walk in his
13:37 presence. He expects us to live a life that is wholeheartedly committed to him
13:43 and to his will and to his word. So God has revealed. This is who I am.
13:48 I'm God Almighty. He's told Abram the appropriate response that of walk with
13:55 him, be blameless. And then God goes ahead and says, "And then this is what I
14:01 will do." And he says that I may make my covenant between me and you and may
14:08 multiply you greatly. Now, that's a tremendous incentive that
14:14 will encourage Abram to continue responding to God in faith and
14:19 obedience. God is entering into a close
14:24 relationship with Abram, an agreement. God is promising Abram, I'm going to do this and this and this and this.
14:32 And when Abram sees the grace of God, it's only logical to want to respond in
14:38 gratitude. How else can I respond to the great God of the world who's interested in me
14:44 personally and wants to do wonderful things in my life? So, Abram responds in
14:50 gratitude and faith and in this loyalty, the wholehearted devotion that's implied
14:55 in being blameless, wanting to live a life in the presence of God that brings glory to God.
15:03 So, when God then says what he's going to do, let's see how Abram then responded.
15:10 Abram fell on his face. That's a fitting response for us also
15:18 today to fall down in humility before God acknowledging him as the rightful
15:25 ruler, sovereign, master, lord, the rightful authority,
15:30 God of our life. falling down in submission to Almighty God. Not trying
15:38 to resist his word, not trying to argue with him or reason with him or tell him we know something better than he does,
15:44 but being willing to listen, to believe, and then to act on that belief and trust and obedience.
15:52 And in the Old Testament, frequently we see that the posture, the body posture
15:57 for worship is that of falling down before God.
16:03 Now today you don't see that too often in many churches. Everybody stands up instead and that's okay. But remember
16:10 that in the Old Testament this was the posture that would then show God I
16:15 acknowledge that you are the one who is great and almighty. I am subservient to you. I am willing to
16:22 listen and follow you. Obey you. Here is my life. I submit that to you. I'm
16:29 acknowledging you as the rightful authority over my life.
16:35 So when Abram responded like this to God, then he was in a good position to
16:42 be able to continue listening to find out what else God was going to
16:48 say. And when we respond like Abram did in submission before God, that will also
16:54 help us to be able to better understand who God is and what his will is for us.
17:01 So then God continues and he says, "Behold, my covenant is with you and you
17:06 shall be the father of a multitude of nations." God reminds Abram of what he has already
17:13 done. God has already made promises to Abraham. He's already entered into a
17:19 covenant with him and now he is basically repeating some aspects of the
17:25 covenant but adding even more to it. God is going to do even more for Abram and
17:33 more through Abram than Abraham had earlier thought. Earlier God had said,
17:39 "I will make you a great nation." But look what it says here.
17:46 It will make you a father of a multitude of nations.
17:52 Earlier one nation, you will be the father of a great nation. And now
17:57 expanded beyond his dreams. It's going to be a multitude of nations. And we'll
18:02 come back to that thought in a moment. But the next verse very important where we see that God changes Abram's name. No
18:11 longer shall your name be called Abram, but your name shall be Abraham. For I
18:16 have made you the father of a multitude of nations. Abram meaning exalted
18:22 father. Abraham probably meaning father of multitudes.
18:28 So the name change shows this additional dimension to the covenant that Abram
18:34 will be the father of many many nations. Now, not only was Abram's name changed,
18:39 but also later in the text, we saw that his wife Sarah's name was also changed
18:44 from Sarai to Sarah. What does a change of names indicate?
18:51 What does it symbolize? Well, one thing it would indicate that God is in charge. He's the authority over Abram and Sarai.
19:00 only the owner, only the one with the right to control, only the rightful
19:06 authority can do something like change a name. So, this is showing that God has
19:13 authority over these two people's lives that they have willingly responded in faith. They're not resisting him.
19:19 They're letting him control them and they're letting him change them. So
19:25 that's another thing that the change of names could indicate is that now there's been an inward change, a change of
19:33 identity. Abram and Sarai are no longer the same people they were 25 years earlier before they ever left their
19:39 homeland and followed God on this journey of faithful obedience. God had
19:44 not only given them a new identity but he had given them a new purpose, a new mission and now they are part of God's
19:52 wonderful plan of salvation as Abraham is going to be the father of the nation through whom the promised messiah
19:59 through whom Jesus will come. So God has changed their identity. He's changing
20:05 them on the inside and undoubtedly this change of name also shows there's a new
20:10 expectancy. The promises of God have not only been renewed, they're even more specific and
20:18 they're greater and grander and more glorious than previously imagined.
20:23 So this new name emphasizes then that the promise has been expanded to the
20:29 fact that Abram will be the father of many many nations. So we see in this
20:36 text the multitude of nations is emphasized twice.
20:42 Now one thing that this will include it goes
20:47 beyond just the physical descendants of Abram. Yes, Abram was the father of many
20:54 nations. If you look at okay he was head of the Israelites, the Judeans, the IshRaelites, the some of the
21:00 Arab tribes. But this is also a hint at the fact that
21:06 God is going to bring into Abraham's community of faith. People from many
21:13 many nations from all over the world all different tribes, tongues, races, ethnic
21:18 groups. All people who believe in Jesus will then be considered to be sons of or
21:27 children of Abraham. Abraham, the father of the faithful, includes not only his
21:34 biological descendants, but it includes people like you and me. So here we
21:39 already have a hint of the promise of the conversion of many Gentiles and
21:44 gentile nations to serve the God of Abram. This is made clear when we get to
21:51 the book of Romans when Paul is writing. He says the promise is according to grace in order to be guaranteed to
21:59 guaranteed to all Abraham's descendants not only to the Jews the biological
22:05 descendants but also to Gentiles who share the faith of Abram who is father
22:11 of us all as it is written I have made you the father of many nations.
22:18 Now undoubtedly Abram did not realize the extent of this promise when God gave
22:24 him that promise. But we see that inherent in that promise was this long
22:29 view towards the future where God is going to incorporate everybody who
22:35 responds to Jesus in faith into this community of faith of which Abraham is
22:40 now at the beginning. God continues back in our text chapter
22:46 17 verse 6. God promises Abram, I will make you exceedingly fruitful and I will
22:53 make you into nations and kings shall come from you. A new thought in this
23:00 verse is then the idea that kings are going to come from him. And yes, there
23:06 were many kings who came from the physical descendants of Abraham.
23:12 More specifically, the kings referred to here would be the the descendants of Abraham who reigned as kings over Israel
23:19 and then Judah. Even more specifically would be the king
23:25 who was a man after God's own heart, King David.
23:30 We studied about him about a year ago in some of our sermon series on 1 and 2 Samuel. David was promised by God that
23:37 his kingdom would endure forever. That someone would come as a reigning king
23:42 who would reign on his throne forever. Pointing to the coming of the King of
23:48 Kings, Jesus. Now again, Abraham would not have understood everything that was
23:54 being promised here. But we do see this being picked up then in the New Testament that Abraham is the father of
24:01 King David, ancestor of King David. and he is the ancestor of the son of David,
24:07 Jesus Christ, the promised Messiah. And this is the king that will then sit on the throne of David and reign forever.
24:14 So, an amazing expansion of this covenant to Abraham. And we'll continue
24:20 reading. God says, "I will establish my covenant between me and you and your offspring after you throughout their
24:28 generations for an everlasting covenant." And here we see another new concept
24:34 added to the covenant everlasting. A covenant that will transcend the
24:40 limits of time. It points to the permanence of this new and enduring
24:46 relationship that Abram and his descendants and those of faith can have
24:51 with God. And this covenant includes the physical descendants of Abraham. But it
24:56 goes beyond that. It includes this king we just talked about who will reign forever and all those who submit to King
25:05 Jesus acknowledging him as the rightful king of their life. So God is saying to
25:10 him that he will establish this kingdom. He will establish this covenant
25:17 and this covenant will have an everlasting dimension. Then he says something very important.
25:25 I will establish my covenant between you and me to be God to you and to your
25:32 offspring. Now, what a wonderful promise this is.
25:37 God is making a solemn agreement with Abram. Abram, you don't have to worship
25:43 some lesser deity. You don't have to worship something that's really not God and not worthy of praise, something that
25:50 is basically worthless and powerless. You can have a relationship with me
25:55 almighty God El Shadai all powerful all sufficient
26:01 and God is saying by saying I will be your God he's saying I will take care of
26:09 you you and your descendants you will be my own special treasured possession
26:16 and then because God will be their God that means they can trust him they can worship him they can relate to Almighty
26:23 God and they can serve him in faith and trust.
26:29 And this would also mean that the descendants of Abraham would have the opportunity and the privilege to
26:34 introduce the one true almighty God to the other peoples of the earth.
26:42 Verse eight, he reemphasizes some things he's already emphasized. And once again
26:48 he repeats for emphasis that this will be an everlasting covenant.
26:54 And this everlasting covenant is I will be their God.
27:01 What a wonderful what a fantastic promise God is making. All of Abraham's
27:07 physical descendants who believe plus all of those who are not physical descendants. All the Gentiles who
27:14 believe in Jesus will be able to be a part of this everlasting covenant and be
27:20 rightly related to the one true God, God Almighty.
27:27 So we have now seen what God is promising in this covenant. And like we
27:32 said earlier, when God reveals himself, when he speaks, then he's also wanting a response from the people he talks to.
27:40 So, how did a how did God want Abraham to respond now to this expanded
27:45 covenant? God says in verse 9, "As for you,
27:50 Abraham, you shall keep my covenant, you and your offspring after you
27:56 throughout their generations. You shall keep my covenant.
28:02 Believe my words. Trust my words. Act on them.
28:07 In a relationship of faith with God. Trust God. Obey him. The opposite of
28:13 keeping a covenant would be to break a covenant, to be disobedient. And later
28:18 we'll see that that is a possibility. You can choose to either keep or to
28:24 break. When we keep, there are wonderful blessings. When we break, there are
28:30 serious consequences. God continues, "This is my covenant
28:35 which you shall keep between me and you and your offspring after you. Every male
28:41 among you shall be circumcised. You shall be circumcised in the flesh of your foreskins, and it shall be a sign
28:48 of the covenant between you and me." Now, if we just looked at verse 10, it
28:54 would appear that the covenant is limited to circumcision. This is my covenant. Every male shall be
29:01 circumcised. But when we read verse 11 and read the context together, it appears that the covenant is much much
29:09 broader than just circumcision because we've already seen so much that's part of this covenant. And so circumcision is
29:15 pointed out in verse 11 that this is a sign or this is a token
29:20 of the covenant. The covenant would include all of God's promises that he's made up to this point to Abram.
29:27 Have many descendants. You will be the father of the nation through which the Messiah will come
29:33 through which salvation comes to bless all peoples. Kings will come from you.
29:39 The covenant will extend to many, many multitudes of nations. There's an
29:44 everlasting nature to this. I will be your God. All of these promises are
29:50 included in the covenant. In this covenant, it's also included
29:56 Abram's responsibilities that he's already had up to this point. That of faith and trust and walking with God,
30:03 being blameless. But now we have added to the covenant something new. We have a
30:09 sign or a token of the covenant. Now circumcision in it circumcision was not
30:15 an end in itself. But rather it was a token of the wholehearted devotion to
30:21 God. That is to characterize God's people. But some of you might ask why
30:28 circumcision and what does it signify?
30:34 Unfortunately, that's not spelled out in great detail in the Bible exactly why
30:39 circumcision instead of something else or exactly what it signifies in detail.
30:46 But there's many different ideas, many of which are good really. One person wrote said that circumcision is like a
30:53 brand. Like when I grew up on a farm, we had
30:59 many cattle and to brand the cattle, we had this iron. You put it against the side and it left a mark on the side of
31:06 the cow. And then we knew, hey, if any cow that has that mark belongs to us. So
31:13 circumcision is like a brand or a mark in the fact that anybody bearing that sign in their body, they belong to God.
31:23 Okay. So circumcision is a mark of ownership. That's good. But that still doesn't answer the question,
31:30 why is the mark that particular mark? I mean we could have a mark in the
31:36 forehead like in revelation we see people with mark on the forehead or it
31:41 could be a mark in the forearm but instead of being forehead or forearm
31:47 it's for well you know what it is. Why is the mark
31:55 specifically that particular mark? Again, the scripture does not spell it
32:01 out in detail, but I think there are several good ideas that are worth at least looking at. One explanation is
32:08 that circumcision deals with a very intimate personal part of the body. Therefore, this could
32:16 symbolize that God wants to have an intimate personal relationship with his
32:22 people. The mark is while it's visible, it's not
32:28 visible to everybody. It's somewhat hidden. And our faith should not be a
32:35 hidden faith in the sense that nobody knows we're Christians, but our faith should be something that springs from
32:40 within us and not just consist of outward rituals or putting on a show.
32:46 It's something that's more intimate and personal. Tim Keller in his writing about this
32:53 says that a person who is circumcised becomes quite vulnerable at the time of
32:59 the operation. And not only at the time of the operation are they quite vulnerable, but for some period of time
33:06 thereafter because it takes a while to heal. This could be showing that God wants us
33:12 to be vulnerable to him. Another commentator points out
33:18 that the fact that since circumcision is done on the organ of reproduction, it's
33:23 to remind us that all life is a gift from God and all life is to be dedicated
33:31 to God. God is responsible for all life, not we people. And at the end of our
33:38 story, we see that Abram does get circumcised. He circumcises himself
33:44 and then after that heals he has relationship with his wife and nine
33:50 months later his wife brings to birth their son
33:56 and when that happens Abram undoubtedly is thinking yes God is in charge of all
34:02 life. All life belongs to God. Another point of view on why this
34:09 particular mark when it could possibly be a different mark would be many people tend to let their sex drive
34:18 be the dominant driving force in their lives.
34:23 Just think back as an American, I can think back on American history, and I won't mention any names, but if you know a little American history, you do. One
34:30 of our presidents when I was a boy really endangered our national security
34:36 because when he should have been being briefed on a very urgent situation, he
34:41 was in bed with a lady he was not married to and his sex drive was more important to him than the well-being of
34:47 the country. Another president who most of you would have been alive during his tenure was impeached because he let his
34:54 sex drive out get out of well I shouldn't say that either. uh he let it out of control.
35:01 So with this being such a strong dominant drive, possibly circumcision is
35:08 to remind us that all parts of our body belong to God. And Paul does say that
35:14 very thing. Paul talks about the fact that all the members of our body belong to God. Therefore, we should use all of
35:21 our members to glorify God and not let our bodily parts be involved in sin.
35:28 And closely related to this would be the situation that was in Canaan at the time that God was giving this covenant.
35:36 God does tell Abram that your descendants will receive this land, but they're not going to receive it yet.
35:42 We're going to wait a while and then later after they've been in Egypt, they will come back and they will rid the
35:48 land of the inhabitants. And the reason the land will be rid of its inhabitant is because of their great sin. And some
35:55 of the major sins that are listed have to do with the sexual behavior of the
36:00 people in the land of Canaan. And that is listed specifically in Leviticus chapter 18. There's a big long basically
36:07 a whole page of different types of sexual practices that the Canaanites had been involved in that God is saying you
36:14 should not be involved in. Canaanite men and women had been
36:19 involved in relationships with animals. God says, "Don't do that." Incest in all
36:25 types of forms is very prevalent in Canaan. So God goes through a long list. Don't be involved with your daughter,
36:31 your mother, your sister, your stepmother. No relative in just extreme,
36:36 just a long detailed list. Avoid this. Homosexual behavior was common in Canaan. God said, "This is not right. Do
36:44 not do this." men were sleeping with other men's wives and God says no don't do this. So possibly
36:52 one explanation on why circumcision was the mark was just to remind people you
36:58 do have moral responsibility before God and before other people.
37:04 One explanation of why circumcision when I first heard it I thought man this is pretty far-fetched
37:10 but when I looked at it they made a point. One person said that circumcision
37:17 in a way points to Christ and his crucifixion. Now you might be like me and say how in
37:24 the world does that happen? They point out two things. One, they said circumcision was painful and bloody. So
37:31 it could be pointing to the painful death that Jesus experienced on the cross. But there's also one passage in
37:39 scripture in the New Testament that I had really never even thought about in this context. But when you look at it,
37:44 yeah, there it is. Colossians chapter 2, it says, "In Jesus, you were circumcised
37:50 with a circumcision made without hands by putting off the body of the flesh by
37:56 the circumcision of Christ." Now, it's not talking about the fact that, well, since Jesus was circumcised when he was
38:02 8 years old, then we can become right with God because of his circumcision.
38:08 No, we become right with God because of Christ's death on the cross and his resurrection. And the verses following
38:14 go on and talk about Jesus being nailed to the cross. And so the comparison there,
38:22 the crucifixion with circumcision, and then when we respond in faith, it's
38:29 like our hearts have been circumcised. We have been cleansed. We've been made
38:34 new. We've been changed. One final thought on why circumcision,
38:41 and this might be the part that could go over into the PG-13, so I'll be very brief, but circumcision cuts away the
38:50 outer covering and exposes the most sensitive part.
38:56 Now, why am I saying that? Because frequently we see in scripture
39:02 that circumcision is applied not only to the physical circumcision we've been talking about but it's also used in a
39:09 symbolic term where God says that we should circumcise our hearts.
39:15 Deuteronomy 10:16 circumcise therefore the foreskin of your heart and be no
39:20 longer stubborn. Now medically speaking that's impossible. The heart does not have a
39:26 foreskin. And even if it did, you don't want to be cutting around on your heart. So medically, of course not. This is
39:33 symbolic language, but it's saying get rid of any outer covering that is keeping your heart from responding
39:41 sensitively to God's voice, to his word, to his leading, to his spirit.
39:47 So when we see that the most sensitive part is exposed, that's how God wants
39:52 our hearts to be sensitive and responsive to him. So that when he
39:58 speaks, we hear, we listen, we trust, we obey.
40:06 Continuing with the idea that circumcision includes not only the
40:11 physical aspect, but really the most important part is what happens within us.
40:16 In Jeremiah, God says that he is going to punish those who are merely
40:22 circumcised in the flesh. In other words, we see that yes, this
40:27 sign of circumcision is very important. The physical act of circumcision for all
40:33 of Abraham's physical descendants is important, but that's not the end goal.
40:39 more important than the physical symbol is that it should represent something
40:44 that has happened on the inside, a change of heart. And so it says, "The
40:50 people of Israel are uncircumcised in heart. Therefore, they will be
40:56 punished." Going back to our text in chapter 17 of
41:01 Genesis, he who is 8 days old among you shall be
41:06 circumcised. every male throughout your generations, whether born in your house
41:11 or bought with your money from any foreigner who is not of your offspring. And then he repeats the same thing in
41:18 the next verse, talking about everybody who was born in your house shall be circumcised, plus everybody who was
41:25 bought with money, your servants, all people, all males are to be circumcised.
41:32 Now the important part I have highlighted because we see that people
41:38 who are not physical descendants of Abraham are included in the covenant from the very beginning. Back in Genesis
41:45 12, God said through you, through your seed, all peoples of the earth will be blessed. God did not choose the
41:51 descendants of Abraham, the Israelite people, just to sit around and look at, hey, look how great I am. God loves me
41:58 more than he loves everybody else. I'm superior to you. God loves me. He
42:04 doesn't love you. No. No. That was never the purpose. The purpose was God was going to use the Israelite nation to
42:10 make himself known and to bring his salvation plan to all peoples. And we even see evidence of that from the very
42:17 beginning of the sign of the covenant of circumcision that foreigners,
42:23 non-Jewish people, non people who were not physical descendants of Abraham can
42:28 be involved. And then when we get to the next verse, we see that there is a serious penalty
42:36 for not responding as God wants. God has offered all of these wonderful
42:42 blessings. I will be your God. You can be in covenant with me. I'm going to bless you and your descendants.
42:49 But in order to receive this blessing, there's got to be the appropriate response. And if a person refuses to
42:56 respond as God says, if a person does not respond in obedient faith, but instead just turns their back on what
43:03 God says, they will be cut off. They will not be part of the covenant
43:09 family. They will not be recipients of the covenant blessing. They will not be
43:14 able to participate in the salvation that God is offering.
43:20 So up until now, God has revealed himself as God Almighty. He shared what
43:26 he is going to do in the covenant. He's expanded it. He's also told Abraham what
43:31 he expects Abraham to do. Walk before me, be perfect, be circumcised, and
43:36 circumcise all the males. And then God goes ahead and adds even more to the
43:42 covenant as far as what he's going to do. We've already seen that God has changed Sarah's name. But verse 16, he
43:49 says, "I will bless her and I will give you a son by her." Now earlier, God had
43:56 promised Abram would have a son, but he never specifically spelled out it will be a son through your wife Sarah.
44:03 Now, logically, we would think he should have figured it out. And I think he probably did figure it out. But last
44:08 week, we saw that he got desperate and he decided to try through a handmade through a servant girl to see if God
44:15 might bless that. But now, a specific explicit promise.
44:20 God is going to bless Sarah and through her she will have a son. And it gets
44:26 even better, even more specific. It's going to happen at this time next year.
44:33 So basically, Abraham gets circumcised, takes a while to heal, he gets with his wife, and nine months later, the baby of
44:40 promise, the child of the covenant will be born.
44:46 This takes place 24 years after God first promised Abram that he would have a son.
44:54 Do you ever think you've had to wait a long time on God? Have you prayed and prayed and God I want you to answer my
45:01 prayer now? Anything that God promises he will
45:07 deliver on. Now sometimes we think God has promised things that he hasn't. But if God
45:12 actually does promise like he did to Abram, he will deliver. Maybe not on our
45:18 time schedule. Abram would have much rather had a son 20 some odd years earlier. But we see that God does answer
45:27 his keep his promises. He does answer prayer.
45:35 And then the conversation's over and it's time for Abram once again to
45:41 respond to God. God has told him what to do. So what does Abraham do?
45:48 Well, we see that Abraham believes God. He takes God at his word. And because he
45:53 trusts him, he acts on that. He obeys God and he circumcised himself. And
45:59 every male in his house that very day, he didn't wait. He didn't procrastinate.
46:06 Right now, at that moment, Abraham then responded in obedient faith to God.
46:15 Well, how does this story affect us? You might ask. Well, first of all, let me answer the question that some of the men
46:20 in my class in India had. And the reason my wife didn't want to talk to them. Most of these people, they were
46:27 Christians, but yet they had come from Hindu backgrounds and none of them were circumcised. And so they here they are
46:33 new in their Christian walk and they start reading from the beginning of the Bible and then not read the New Testament yet maybe. And who does this
46:40 apply to us? What how should we react? Should we be circumcised in order to be
46:47 children of faith, children of God? Do we have to have this done? Well, it's a good question, a legitimate question.
46:54 And yes, we see throughout the Old Testament, all physical descendants of Abraham were expected to have this sign
46:59 done in their body. But for those who are not physical descendants of Abraham,
47:04 we see in the book of Romans that really what the most important thing is is faith. Just like faith was counted to
47:11 Abraham as righteousness. Even before Abraham was circumcised, God counted him
47:17 as being in a right relationship with him because he had responded in faith. So the question is raised then is this
47:24 blessing then only for the circumcised, the blessing of being justified by
47:29 faith, or is it also for the uncircumcised? Well, the answer's clear. Abraham was
47:35 justified in God's eyes before he was circumcised.
47:40 So the same applies to us. Abraham becomes the father of all who believe,
47:46 even if they're not circumcised, as well as being the father of all of the circumcised if they also believe.
47:56 And so we see the actual physical thing, while it was very important the Old Testament, much more important than the
48:02 physical aspect is the circumcision of the heart, letting God change us on the inside.
48:09 And then the physical sign for those of us who are not physical descendants of Abraham, that's not so important. What's
48:18 important is that we respond in faith to God like Abraham did.
48:28 In conclusion, let's think of some things that we can learn from this story related to God's grace.
48:35 We started off saying that everything in the life of Abraham that happened for good happened as a result of God's grace
48:42 because God is always the one who takes the initiative.
48:48 Not only does God take the initiative, he does everything that's needed. This
48:54 covenant with Abraham, he made the provisions. The covenant later that is followed up the covenant through Jesus
49:01 and the offering shedding of his blood. God did that for us. He initiated. He
49:08 brings it to fruition. God in his grace established the
49:14 covenant. But he also sets the terms of the covenant. And when we see God's
49:20 grace and what he's done, the only fitting response is out of gratitude and thanks to God respond in
49:27 the way that God asks us to respond. And so we see that God has provided a
49:34 way of salvation through Christ through the new covenant which is based on his
49:40 grace, his mercy, his love. There's nothing I can do to contribute to what God has done. It's not that God does so
49:47 much and then I have to complete the work of Christ. I cannot do that. I cannot earn my salvation. I cannot do
49:55 enough good to get God to somehow be convinced he needs to love me and let me into heaven. That doesn't work.
50:03 But even though God has provided this way of salvation, we need to remember that we can be a recipient of the
50:09 covenant and receive God's offer of grace and salvation only when we respond
50:16 to God in the manner that he desires. And that is through faith.
50:22 God made a covenant with Abraham. Jesus in his blood made a new covenant.
50:28 But that doesn't make one bit of difference in my life if I turn my back on God. The only way I can benefit from
50:37 what God has done is if I respond in faith to God. So let's think for a
50:43 moment just a little bit about faith. When I respond in faith to God, that too is a gift of God. That is a result of
50:50 God's mercy and his grace. He makes it possible for me to respond as his spirit
50:56 moves in my heart and as his word convicts me. So this faith is a response to God's
51:02 grace. We see that God wants to have a relationship with us. He wants to be our
51:08 God. He wants to live in covenant with us. So we respond in gratitude to this
51:14 grace. And it's a response to God's word. God speaks
51:21 through the scripture. We know what God's will is. We respond in faith.
51:28 Faith also includes that we submit ourselves to God. In many denominations, it seems like
51:35 faith has been relegated to just something in our mind kind of like an intellectual activity. And growing in
51:42 faith seems to be just learning more knowledge with our minds. Well, we want to use our mind. God gave us minds. But
51:48 faith goes beyond just knowing facts. The response that we see from Abraham at
51:54 the beginning of this passage today where he fell on his face before God, submitting himself to God. That's an
52:01 integral part of faith. If there is no submission to God and his right to be the Lord, the master, the ruler of our
52:08 life, there is no faith. You're still trusting yourself because you're the top man in your life. Only when God is
52:16 allowed to call the shots in your life is there truly trust dependence faith in
52:21 God. And true faith will then result in change. Just like God changed Abram's
52:29 name and changed Sarah's name, God will change us. He won't change us
52:35 if we don't let him. But when we respond in faith, he will then make changes on
52:41 the inside. In Deuteronomy, back to the theme of circumcision. There it says,
52:48 "When you return to the Lord your God, return to him in faith, then the Lord your God will circumcise your heart. He
52:56 will make the changes." True faith will bring about a change of
53:03 our heart because we're allowing God to change our lives. And then the last
53:08 thing I would add to that list is that faith is evidenced in obedience.
53:13 James says, "Faith without works is dead." In other words, there is no such
53:18 thing as faith that does not result in some kind of evidence by the way we live. If there are no good works, if
53:26 there is no change in our life, that just proves there has been no response in faith to God.
53:36 Faith is not the same as good works. But faith, but good works are the
53:42 inevitable result of faith. Faith does produce obedience. We see
53:50 that with Abram. God spoke to him, "Get up and leave your country." What did he do? He got up and left his country. Why?
53:58 Because he had faith in God. Couple of weeks, we'll see another story about Abram where he's asked to sacrifice his
54:04 son. And because of his faith, he acts in obedience. faith will always be
54:11 evidenced in obedience. And if there's no change of heart, if there's no obedience,
54:18 probably no faith there either. So faith is the response that God wants
54:24 from us. And this faith will lead to changes in our life.
54:29 As we close this morning, think again about the idea of covenant. Not only the covenant of Abraham, but realize that
54:37 this covenant of Abraham has been fulfilled with the covenant that Jesus made that all who believe in
54:45 what Christ has done for us on the cross as he gave his life as a sacrifice for
54:50 our sins and was raised from the dead. When we believe,
54:56 we enter into this covenant today. God is wanting to make a covenant
55:04 with each one of us. He's wanting us to walk in this covenant in obedience and
55:09 in faith. So, I want to close with the same question I started with. How will
55:15 you respond today to God's grace? Will you respond like Abram did in obedient
55:22 faith? Let's pray together. Almighty God, we give you thanks. We
55:29 give you praise for your grace, for your mercy, for your love. We thank you that
55:35 you do love each one of us, that you call us, that you take the initiative to reveal yourself and your love to us.
55:42 Father, we thank you that you want to live in a relationship with us. You want to live in a covenant with us. So,
55:48 Father, if there's someone here this morning who has never responded to you in repentance and faith and accepted Christ as Lord and Savior, pray that
55:55 they would do that this morning. And those of us who have made that commitment of our life to you, pray that
56:01 you would help us to live as you asked Abram to live walking before you blameless in a
56:07 wholehearted devotion to you. Pray that you would help us like Abram to step out
56:13 in trust, letting you continue to change our lives, letting you direct our steps
56:19 as we go into the future trusting you and obeying you. In Jesus name I pray.
56:25 Amen.
