All right, Donna's giving me
the okay, Betty's giving me the okay, and Rupert's giving me
orders, so. Let's get started. We'll start with prayer. If I
don't do the prayer first, I'll forget, so we're gonna do the
prayer right now, if you would, bow your head, please. Dear Lord, what a, Beautiful
day you've made for us. It just reminds us of how good
you are to us. When things are at their worst,
that's when you come to us. When we're at our lowest, you
raise us up again. We're gathered here this morning
with the hopes that that, too, will be what occurs. Raise us
up, dear Lord. Open our eyes and our ears and
most especially our hearts and turn them to you. Allow us to
learn more of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. And give it to
us to love him even more, dear Lord. Amen. They didn't see all right if
y'all would be making your way to Joshua 5, please I Told you
several Sunday school lessons ago that I was going to spend
some time there and I Skipped one turn because of just the
way things worked out, but I want to I want to make our way back
there once again So we're going to be looking I will have you
turn in a little bit this morning, but we're going to start in Joshua
5 just to remind us where we were and as a, I guess, a launching
point of where I'd like to go to today. But if you remember,
and it's been a while ago, you may not, but I just worked on
verse 1 of chapter 5 the last time for the most part. and it's
written, and it came to pass when all the kings of the Amorites,
which were on the side of Jordan westward, and all the kings of
the Canaanites, which were by the sea, heard that the Lord
had dried up the waters of Jordan from before the children of Israel
until we were passed over, that their heart melted. Neither was
the spirit in them anymore because of the children of Israel. Hebrews have now taken possession
of the promised land Canaan. But we see here in this verse
that these giants of the land, these people, these people whom
the spies feared so greatly 40 years before that they brought
this report back about these fearsome people of this land.
An entire nation took that report to heart and sinned. sinned against
God, did not trust God, and as a result, they forfeited their
inheritance. But these same giants, I doubt
they've shrank very much in 40 years. These same giants are
now reduced to hiding behind their fortified walls because
the tables are now turned. They're now the ones who tremble
in fear. They tremble as they see this
multitude cross the Jordan. Why? God has melted their hearts. It was with this verse that I
made what I admit to you. It was just a feeble attempt
at trying to show and explain to you the continued care and
provision that God has for his people. But I'd like to move
on in this chapter this morning and I want to address the next
topic that comes up. So we'll begin reading at verse
two. We'll just read seven or eight
verses here. At that time the Lord said unto
Joshua, make these sharp knives and circumcise again the children
of Israel the second time. And Joshua made him sharp knives
and circumcised the children of Israel at the hill of the
foreskins. And this is the cause why Joshua
did circumcise all the people that came out of Egypt that were
males, even all the men of war died in the wilderness by the
way after they came out of Egypt. When you show faith in others
and you show faith in yourself, you do not show faith in the
God who rules and controls all things. This is the sin that
this generation of Hebrews was guilty of. Think about it. They got the report. God had
made this promise. They believed man rather than
God. They only had faith in themselves.
They did not have faith in God. For this reason, they all died
in the wilderness. not allowed to enter the promised
land, save the couple of spies who brought the true report.
Verse five, now all the people that came out were circumcised,
but all the people, and that's all the people that came out
of Egypt, but all the people that were born in the wilderness
by the way, as they came forth out of Egypt, them they had not
circumcised. For the children of Israel walked
40 years in the wilderness, to all the people that were men
of war which came out of Egypt were consumed, because they obeyed
not the voice of the Lord, unto whom the Lord sware that he would
not show them the land which the Lord sware unto their fathers
that he would give us, a land that floweth with milk and honey.
And their children, whom he raised up in their stead, them Joshua
circumcised. And I'll make a side note here,
Joshua did not personally circumcise each one of these, but he had
the responsibility of making sure that it was done, that all
the males conformed to the law. And it says, for they were uncircumcised
because they had not circumcised them by the way. And it came
to pass, when they had done circumcising all the people, that they abode
in their places in the camp till they were whole. And the Lord
said unto Joshua, this day have I rolled away the reproach of
Egypt from you. Wherefore, the name of the place
is called Gilgal, and to this day. Now I found several different
definitions of this name Gilgal as I was studying, at least four
or five. But the one that made the most
sense to me and really to me seem to bring about what really
happened and what we're just reading about, I actually found
in my concordance. And it gave the definition of
circle, circle. And if you think about that,
this circle is now complete. God promised this land to Abraham
for his descendants. That was the start of the circle.
This circle is now complete. They're into this land. They've
taken possession of Canaan, just as God promised He would give
to them. But today my topic is going to
be on circumcision. It's all throughout these verses
here, so I want to just take a little time and work on what
we see here, and then go from there for a few other verses. I've stopped my reading here,
time's going to be short, I'm going to be up against it as
usual, but if you read the next few verses, the people will once
again observe Passover. In order for any male to take
part in the observance of Passover, he must be circumcised. That
was the law. That's what they had to do. It
came from Exodus, Exodus chapter 12, and the Lord said unto Moses
and Aaron, this is the ordinance of the Passover. There shall
no stranger eat thereof, but every man's servant that is bought
for money, when thou hast circumcised him, then shall he eat thereof. A foreigner and an hired servant
shall not eat thereof. All the Jews, when they were
born, the males were circumcised, period. But if you took a slave
or someone else into your family, a servant that you bought with
money, for him to observe Passover, he too had to be circumcised.
To take part, circumcision, no exceptions. Now, it's not directly
told to us anywhere that I read or can remember in the scriptures
why the rite of circumcision stopped, why the children wandered
about in the wilderness. But, of course, we can all make
a pretty good guess. They never knew how long they
would be at one place. When the cloud was taken up that
they followed, they must go. It may be one day, may be one
month, may be several months. They never knew. There's an inconvenience to perform
in this surgery. Painful. For those reasons, you think,
well, they just put it aside for a while. Plus, I can only
find one time when they observed Passover through those years.
So they had no need to conform to this law. They had no need
to perform the rite. But if memory serves, and I don't
know where I was told this and how I was told it or if I read
it or whatever, but I seem to recall somewhere in the back
of my brain that there was about a million people. When Pharaoh
let the people go, there was about a million people who exited
Egypt. You think about that, and it's
been 40 years since they left that time, just how many children
had been born in that period of time. Save for maybe one other
occasion, and it's not known for sure, and that would have
been within two years of them first exiting Egypt, none of
those children, none of those male children had been circumcised.
So we have a large group of people getting ready to undergo this
operation. We'll look at it closer, like
I said, next time, if I don't change my mind, into the Passover.
But Passover is not a floating holiday. It was observed at the
same time every year, the 15th day of the first month of the
calendar that they observed. Well, if you go back and you
look at your history and they figured out when the Israelites
actually crossed the Jordan River and entered into Canaan, And
when this 15th day of the month was about to arrive, they had
just a period of just a few days. The best guess I could find,
and I found this guess several places, they figure that they
circumcised all of these males, all the way from eight days old
to some of them being probably 40 years old, a tremendous amount
of people. They did them all on the 10th
day of their month. The 10th day, that gave them
three days to recuperate, three to four days to recuperate, and
they were ready to observe the Passover on that 15th day. That reflects back to God melding
the hearts. And I said this the last time
I spoke on this passage, God melding the hearts of the enemies.
It would have been easily to wipe out the whole nation. Now,
they were hid in their fortified cities, scared of what God could
do. So many times, it seems to me,
that God's enemies had more fear of God than so-called God's people. You ever notice that? But this large number of people
Most probably, like I say, as I studied and learned, most probably
all done on the very same day. Circumcised that same day. A
tremendous amount of a waste product was resulted in that. That's why they called the name
of this place, it was back there, we've already read it, the Hill
of the Foreskins. Evidently they piled them all
up, covered them all up, all in one place. I'll get back to that later.
I think it's very important. I think it's here for a reason,
but I wanted to bring it out to you to put it there in your
memory about this hill of foreskins. All, it all, this waste, this
refuse, all piled up and covered up. But to move along to my next
point, When circumcision was first instituted, it was not
tied to the Passover at all. In fact, it was many, many years
before the first Passover was ever observed. So if you would,
turn to Genesis chapter 17. I want to go to the first circumcision
and see why it was initially institute it and maybe we can
pick up a few things and learn there and then I can move from
there to help me make a couple other points. And if you'll notice these things
up here sometimes a lot like Sunday school lessons, sometimes
like sermons. I think I'm more in Sunday school
mode today. I'm going to read 1018. I'll
read a few verses here. I may cut it off. We'll see what
we get to. But I'm going to begin at verse
1. And when Abram was 90 years old and nine, the Lord appeared
to Abram and said unto him, I am the almighty God. And so many
I read said that this has the meaning of I am the all sufficient
God. Walk before me and be thou perfect. And this be thou perfect, it
has the sense of the meaning walk upright and sincerely, sincerely
in the acts of faith. And I will make my covenant between
me and thee and will multiply thee exceedingly. And if you
read Hebrews, this covenant we're talking about is referred to
as the covenant of circumcision. And Abram fell on his face, and
God talked with him, saying, As for me, behold, my covenant
is with thee, and thou shalt be a father of many nations.
Neither shall thy name any more be called Abram, but thy name
shall be Abraham, for a father of many nations have I made thee. And that's what adding that H
to his name means. He goes from a name that means
father of height, or great father, to a father of multitude. Verse six, and I will make thee
exceeding fruitful. And I will make nations of thee,
and kings shall come out of thee. Israel, Judah, Midianites, Edomites,
Arabs, Turks, all came from the lawns of Abraham. A multitude, just as God promised. And God says, and I will establish
my covenant between me and thee and thy seed after thee and their
generations for an everlasting covenant to be a God unto thee
and to thy seed after thee. And I will give unto thee and
to thy seed after thee the land wherein thou art a stranger.
all the land of Canaan for an everlasting possession, and I
will be their God." And we just read of that fulfillment in Joshua
5. And God said unto Abraham, thou shalt keep my covenant therefore
thou and thy seed after thee and their generations. 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. And you shall circumcise the
flesh of your foreskin. And it shall be a token of the
covenant between me and you of the promise of God to Abraham
that he should be the father of many nations. And he that
is eight days old shall be circumcised among you. Every man child in
your generations that is born in the house or bought with money
of any stranger which is not of thy seed. And that's good
news for us Gentiles. We too can partake of this circumcision
I'm going to speak about in a little bit. Verse 13, he that is born
in thy house and he that is bought with thy money must needs be
circumcised and my covenant shall be in your flesh for an everlasting
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. And
the simplest and plainest meaning of this final phrase or verse
seems to be that if he's cut off, he's deprived, that person
would be deprived of all civil and religious privileges. He'd
be reckoned as a heathen. Now, a lot of these notes I'm
about to come up with, some of them are my own thoughts. A lot
of them come from Matthew Henry and, you know, reinforced by
others. I've worked on it so long now,
I can't tell you what, well, I got this from here, I got this
from there, and this is my own, so just take it for what it's
worth, but I do want to give Mr. Henry some, to recognize
the fact that a lot of this work I did borrow from him, I'll put
it that way. circumcision did many things. At this time, it separated Abraham
and his descendants from all other peoples on the earth. They
were the only ones like this, made like this, made them different. Other cultures have since adopted
it, including this culture, for medical reasons. But at the time
Abraham did it, Him and those men and children in His family
and His household, they were it. They were different from
all the other people on the earth. This covenant is referred to
as a sign and a seal by the Apostle Paul. That comes from Romans
chapter 4 and verse 11. And he received the sign of circumcision,
talking about Abraham, a seal of the righteousness of the faith,
which he had yet been uncircumcised, that he might be the father of
all them that believe, though they be not circumcised, that
righteousness might be imputed unto them also. So it was a sign
and a seal to Abraham, a sign and a seal that he'd be the father
of a great nation. It was a sign and a seal to Abraham's
descendants, of God's promise that He made to their father,
their father Abraham, a promise that they would inherit the land
of Canaan. However, and that's the reason
I made that list of kingdoms that came from Abraham's loins,
not all of Abraham's descendants took possession of Canaan. The covenant was with Abraham
and the offspring that came through the promised seed, the promised
seed. It was not with the child that
was made by his own devices, that he took it upon himself
to make the child he had with Hagar. It was with the child that was
given to him by the grace of God and by the hand of God. The promise seed was Isaac. It
was through Isaac that all those blessings flowed. It was to Isaac
and his descendants that the promise was made. The covenant
was kept. And for this offspring of Isaac,
this circumcision was a constant reminder of this promise. and to their faithfulness to
believe that this covenant shall come to pass. Think about it. A constant reminder,
I don't want to get too graphic, but it's like a rainbow. There's
always a reminder that God will not flood this earth again. They
had an even more constant reminder that God will do as he said. We shall inherit the promised
land. But it doesn't just stop with
this, with the promise of Canaan. Circumcision gave a picture of
other truths and promises of God also. I said I don't want to get too
graphic. We've all seen medical shows on TV and in movies. What
does the doctor always say to the nurse? More suction, please,
more suction, please. Operations cause blood loss.
This operation is no different. There is a shedding of blood
when this operation is performed. Hebrews 9.22, for almost all
things by the law were purged with blood, and without shedding
of blood is no remission. The blood of circumcision is
a reminder of the shared blood of the sacrifices for sins, and
ultimately, the one sacrifice for sin. And speaking of that
one sacrifice, the one coming to make that sacrifice, it's
a reminder of Him most especially. The Messiah, the Messiah was
to be a man. Is this why circumcision was
only done to males? Women did not take part. It was
to males only. When we read Joshua 5, I made
a note to tell you about this hill of four skins. I told you
I wanted to come back to it. With that, we too see, we see
also circumcision as a picture of the Lord Jesus Christ. You think of that hill of foreskins,
dirty, polluted, refuge, waste, piled up, covered up. To me, it gives me the picture
of the sins of Christ's people laid on his shoulder, carried
to the cross, and put away, done away with, covered up to be seen
no more. It speaks to the sacrifice of
our Savior, the work that he's done, And with the sacrifice,
circumcision looks to another inheritance for the people of
God. As I've said, the first circumcision
looked to the promise of the inheritance of Canaan. Joshua
and all the people have now entered that land. The promise has been
fulfilled. Why did they have to submit themselves
again? That's what circumcision was
to remind them of. Look to that day that God will
give you your inherited land. That day has arrived. Turn to
Hebrews chapter 4. Why did they still need to observe
circumcision? Hebrews chapter four. I'll start at verse four. For he spake in a certain place,
for he spake in a certain place of the seventh day on this wise,
and God did rest the seventh day from all his works. And in
this place again, if they shall enter into my rest, Seeing, therefore,
it remaineth that some must enter therein, and they to whom it
was first preached entered not in because of unbelief. Again, he limited a certain day,
saying in David, Today, after so long a time, as it is said,
Today, if you will hear his voice, harden not your hearts. For if
Jesus had given them rest, then would he not afterward had spoken
of another day. And these are the two verses
that I really wanted you to pay attention to. There remaineth,
therefore, a rest to the people of God. For he that is entered
into his rest, he also hath ceased from his own works, as God did
from his. Circumcision looks to the promise
of this rest. This rest that I just read of
in verse 9 and 10. This rest, this rest that is
found in the Savior, the rest that one gets, like that rest
that the lost lamb has, lost, utterly afraid, but then the
shepherd finds him and picks him up. He finds rest in the
shepherd's arms as he's carried back to his sheepfold. That's
the picture of this rest. that circumcision points to.
This rest that will come when all of these earthly labors are
over. All of this burden of sin is
gone. This rest that's going to come
to the bride when she goes to sit at the bridegroom's feet. This rest that comes when this
bride goes to the true land that flows with milk and Now one of the things that caught
my attention as I studied this passage, it came from verse 2
of Joshua 5, the first verse I read to you in this section.
At that time the Lord said unto Joshua, make these sharp knives
and circumcise again the children of Israel the second time. And the reading I did in preparation,
Mr. Gill, John Gill, he was the only
one who really addressed what caught my eye in this verse.
And that was that this occurrence, this large, great circumcision
among all of these males is referred to as the second time, the second
time. Now apparently with his thoughts
and among the people he read and studied, there's no consensus
of when the first time was. If there's a second time, there
has to be a first time. He was almost certain that it
did not refer to the time when Abraham and all the males of
his household were first circumcised. But he just couldn't ever convince
me of that. I couldn't get, and here again,
I will admit to you, this is my own thought. I found no cooperation
with it. But I just couldn't get away
from the fact that the first circumcision was with Abraham
and with his household. And that first circumcision speaks
to the first covenant. But this second circumcision
speaks to the second covenant, the new covenant, this covenant
that has Christ for its surety. And take that for what it's worth,
that that was the thoughts I had on it. But as far as a second
circumcision, the scriptures do speak of a different type,
a circumcision that is not of the flesh, that is not of the
outward man. But it goes much deeper than
that, than even that. So for our last few minutes this
morning, I want to take our attention to that, if you would. Try and
quickly turn to Romans, Chapter 2. Romans, Chapter 2. It is amazing
how time goes up here. I need to get away some of this
southern drawl, I guess, and talk a little bit faster. Romans
2 verse 25 through 29. We're going to begin to work
on this second circumcision, this different type of circumcision.
Paul writes, for circumcision verily profiteth if thou keep
the law. But if thou be a breaker of the
law, thy circumcision is made uncircumcision. If you keep the law perfectly,
then circumcision done for religious reasons will stand you in good
stead. That's a law you must keep. But
if you break just one law, then circumcision is worthless to
you. Being circumcised only keeps
one law, but it does not cover up your failure to keep the law
in all the other parts. And as you talk to people, and
Maria's had some well of conversations with a lady here lately. I couldn't
believe some of the things she was relaying to me, but people
just all mixed up. And if you get to them, and they
don't even admit it to you, and I don't think they realize it,
but a lot of people treat the law and their salvation almost
like school. I think if they keep nine commandments,
but one gets a little away from them, they get 90%. They're going
to pass. They're going to go to heaven.
It's not that way. To break one is to break them
all, and it's to stand in condemnation. Verse 26, therefore if the uncircumcision
keep the righteousness of the law, shall not his uncircumcision
be counted for circumcision. Paul adds to his argument that
if a Gentile could keep the law perfectly, then he is as good
as circumcised. Verse 27, and shall not uncircumcision
which is by nature, if it fulfill the law, judge you who by the
letter and circumcision does transgress the law. It is later
in this book that Paul refers to circumcision as a sign and
a seal. I believe it's chapter four or
five. I forgot my reference. To the Jews, circumcision is
a constant reminder that they are required to keep the law
and keep it entirely. But the key word in verses 26
and 27 is that little word, if. If they can keep the law. We
know that no one can. This begins to lead us to this
second circumcision and the necessity of it. Verse 28, for he is not
a Jew which is one outwardly, neither is that circumcision
which is outward in the flesh. Paul, with his argument, just
told us that circumcision does you no good. But he is a Jew,
which is one inwardly. And circumcision is that of the
heart, in the spirit and not in the letter, whose praise is
not of men, but of God. Now, I've said in the last few
minutes that there is a second circumcision and a new role for
circumcision. We have it here. The second circumcision
is a circumcision of the heart and its role. The first one was
to remind them of God's promise. The role of this second one is
to give praise to God. The first circumcision looked
to a better day. The second circumcision shows
us or tells us that a better day has already arrived. The
first was a work of man's hands. Man performed it on man. There
was no restrictions. Women could also do it, but you
get what I mean by that. But this second circumcision,
it's a work of God. Paul's argument back in his day
was that it's God who makes the difference. That's what he's
telling them, folks. It's God that saves sinner. Salvation
is a work of God's doing. And to add anything to it, in
this case circumcision of the flesh, has anything to do with
your role spiritually, is to rob God of His glory. To Paul, to account circumcision
of the flesh as having anything to do with aiding yourself in
salvation, It was a complete denial of the work that Jesus
Christ had done. The more things change, the more
they seem to say the same. Modern day religion is the same
as the religion in Powell's day. They want to keep adding to the
work of Christ. His work is not sufficient to them. Circumcision of the flesh made
the man in Abraham's day unique. It set him apart from all others.
Today's religion, it's also trying to do that. They do it with T-shirts
they wear around, with necklaces with crosses on them, bracelets
with, you know, WWJD on it, 101 other things. They're always coming up with
something new to say, hey, look at me. To me, and maybe I'm wrong on
it, I don't think, but it's nothing more than their attempt to show
to me and to you and the rest of the world that they're just
morally superior to the rest of us. But the right of circumcision
in Paul's day, it's turned into the right of good works in our
day. Modern day religion has put the
cart before the horse. Religion preaches today that
you must have good works to be saved. The Bible teaches, our
only source, It teaches that any good works that you might
have, and this is good works as we view them between each
other as man to man, they're the result of salvation.
They're the work of God in you. So therefore, any praise for
those works, they too belong to God and God alone. And sometimes I think that I
too often give you all a warning. I do it, seem like, every time
about modern day religion and comparing it to old times. But
I don't know that you can do it too much. You read the four
Gospels. What's the one sin that crops up page after page after
page after page? Self-righteousness. Self-righteousness. And you read the epistles. Argument
after argument. In the case of Romans, it was
circumcision. It was always trying to bring
something from the Jewish religion, a type of work, and add it to
what Christ had done. Be wary of them. Be afraid of
them. They're to your detriment. And
as you speak to other people, explain the danger of it to them. All of these things. You know,
you think about the Catholic, every time you turn on TV, last
few days, the Pope's on there, the media's glad that the communists
are now in the League of Nations. But it's the Pope going in there
and welcoming in and all this stuff. Nothing is worse than
them. Everything they do is show. It's
adding something on top of it. Everything. It's terrible. None
of that is needed. None of that's needed. We only
need to look to Him. Period. That's what this circumcision
points to. Him and Him alone. Time's gone. I've got just a couple minutes.
If you can get there, Colossians chapter 2. One more passage, and this is
the one circumcision that is now necessary. the one circumcision
that's necessary since we have the cross, since we have the
work that Christ has done. Verse 10, Colossians 2, and you
are completing him which is the head of all principality and
power, and whom also you are circumcised with the circumcision
made without hands, and putting off the body of the sins of the
flesh by the circumcision of Christ. buried with him in baptism,
wherein also you are risen with him through the faith of the
operation of God, who hath raised him from the dead. Christ has
kept the law on the behalf of his people. They couldn't, he
did. The only circumcision of the
flesh that has ever mattered is the one that Christ Himself
subjected Himself to do. He kept that law. So therefore,
all of His people have kept that law in Him, whether you are physically
circumcised or not. And by Him doing that, we once
again, I point you back to that hill of foreskins, as you see
that sin put away. as it was put away when he was
circumcised. Put away, discarded, done away
with. This circumcision, this circumcision
that's made without hands, it's a circumcision of the heart.
It's an operation on the heart whereby the ones whom he loves,
God loves, Christ loves, they're separated. And what are they
separated from? They're separated from the love
of this world, the wickedness of this world, the idolatry of
this world, the hatred of God, and they're brought unto God.
They're brought unto Him to bow at His feet. Those who are born hating God,
and this is all men, But the ones who have had their
hearts circumcised, their hearts have been changed. And that hatred has now turned
to love. But they're also circumcised
from themselves. They no longer have any pretense
that they can do anything for themselves to aid in their own
salvation. They know that they're complete
in Christ. As it's told to us in verse 10,
they know that it is His work and His work alone and they have
no part on it. So therefore, any praise that
belongs to anyone, it belongs to God and it belongs to Christ. The death was His. and any merit
warranted and earned is his. Time's gone. I'll just end with
Joshua 5-9. And the Lord said unto Joshua,
this day have I rolled away the reproach of Egypt from all few. Those whose hearts have been
circumcised, the reproach of this sinful, idolatrous world,
it's gone. It's been removed. and the reproach
of their sins is piled up and covered up, thrown away, discarded,
and best of all, forgotten. Thank you.