All right, now let's open our
Bibles to Genesis chapter 17. Genesis chapter 17. We'll begin reading in verse nine. And God said unto Abraham, thou
shalt keep my covenant therefore, thine and thy seed after thee
in their generations. This is my covenant which you
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
betwixt me and you. He that is eight days old shall
be circumcised among you, every man-child in your generations.
He that is born in the house or bought with money of any stranger
which is not of thy seed. He that is born in thy house
and he that is bought with thy money must needs be circumcised. And my covenant should 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 God said unto Abraham, as
for Sarai thy wife, thou shall not call her name Sarai, but
Sarah shall her name be. And I will bless her and give
thee a son also of her. Yea, I will bless her and she
shall be a mother of nations. Kings of people should be of
her. Then Abraham fell upon his face and laughed and said in
his heart, shall a child be born unto him that is 100 years old?
And shall Sarah that is 90 years old bear? And Abraham said unto
God, oh that Ishmael might live before thee. And God said, Sarah
thy wife shall bear thee a son indeed. And thou shall call his
name Isaac. and I'll establish my covenant
with him for an everlasting covenant and with his seed after him.
And as for Ishmael, I have heard thee. Behold, I have blessed
him and will make him fruitful and will multiply him exceedingly.
12 princes shall he begat and I'll make him a great nation.
But my covenant will I establish with Isaac, which Sarah shall
bear unto thee at this set time in the next year. And he left
off talking with him, And God went up from Abraham. And Abraham
took Ishmael, his son, and all that were born in his house,
and all that were bought with his money, every male among the
men of Abraham's house, and circumcised the flesh of their foreskin in
the self same day, as God had said unto him. And Abraham was
90 years old and nine, when he was circumcised in the flesh
of his foreskin. And Ishmael, his son, was 13
years old, when he was circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin.
In the self same day was Abraham circumcised and Ishmael his son. And all the men of his house
born in the house and bought with money of the stranger were
circumcised with him. We'll end our reading there.
Let's bow together in prayer. Our father, we bow in your awesome
presence. We bow before you. King of Kings
and Lord of Lords is the Almighty God. And we come before you with
reverence, fear and trembling at coming into the presence of
the thrice holy God. We come carefully, reverently
and thankful that we can come boldly and confidently before
your throne of grace in the person of our Lord Jesus Christ because
of who he is and everything that he has accomplished for his people.
So Father, we bow before you thankfully. How thankful we are
for the Lord Jesus Christ, whose blood has cleansed your people
from all of our sin and made us accepted in thy sight. How
we thank you for his obedience, freely given to us, the only
way sinful men and women such as we are could be made righteous.
Father, we're thankful. Oh, how thankful we are for the
Lord Jesus Christ. And Father, I beg of you this
evening that you would send your spirit upon us and enable us
to worship, to truly worship from the heart, to hear of Christ
our Savior. And Father, I pray you'd give
us a heart of faith to believe and receive the things of Christ
the Savior that we hear preached, cause us to follow his feet and
cling to him, to beg him for mercy, to find in him all that
we need, and to want nothing else but him. Father, we're thankful
for this place, a place where your gospel's preached, a place
where your people meet together in peace and unity. Father, I
pray you'd preserve it. For your glory's sake, preserve
this as a lighthouse of grace in this dark, dark day. Father,
for our sake, for our children's sake, sake of our community,
we pray that you'd preserve this place as a place where sinners
can come and hear the Savior. Father, we thank you for the
many blessings of this life. We freely admit you blessed us
beyond measure, beyond all people. You blessed us, Father. You've
made us rich in material things, homes, our families, our jobs,
the things that you've given us. It's of your grace. It's
not because of our skill and wisdom. It's because of your
grace. And Father, we thank you. And while you've blessed us spiritually,
materially, physically, yet Father, we're just in this flesh. We're
still a poor and a needy people. And Father, we pray a special
blessing for those that you brought into the time of trouble and
trial. Pray for Novi as she awaits this transplant that, Father,
you'd move quickly on her behalf. Others who are facing tests and
surgeries and awaiting results in deep waters, Father, you know
the need of each one of your sheep. We pray you'd reach your
hand of mercy and protection down and provide for your people. Give us a special portion of
your presence, we pray. Now all these things we ask,
we give thanks in that name which is above every name, the name
of Christ our Savior. Amen. All right, I've titled the message
this evening, The Importance of Circumcision. Now earlier
in this chapter, we began looking at it a couple weeks ago. The
Lord appeared to Abraham by the name of the Almighty God. I mean, you think what a moment
that was. The almighty God appeared to
Abraham and he revealed to Abraham his covenant of grace. You might
remember I told you this. God's covenant of grace is not
a covenant between God and men where God says, man, if you will
do this, then I will do this. That's a covenant of law, isn't
it? We messed that up right off the bat in Adam. God's covenant
of grace is not a covenant between God and men. It's a covenant
between God and God. It's a covenant made with one,
the Lord Jesus Christ. And that covenant concerns many.
It concerns all of God's elect. Now God's covenant of grace,
it's a promise. It's a promise that God's going
to save a sinful people by his grace. It's a promise that God
made with God concerning how he's going to glorify himself
by saving sinners who cannot save themselves. And this covenant
is sure. God is the one who made all the
promises in the covenant, and God's the one that's gonna fulfill
every requirement of the covenant. That makes it sure. In this covenant,
it's a covenant of the whole Godhead. God the Father, he chose
the people to save. Out of Adam's fallen race, he
chose the people to save for no other reason than God decided
to set his love upon them and choose them. It wasn't because
they were any better than anybody else, it's just God simply chose
them, even though they didn't deserve it. In this covenant,
God the Son promised he would come in the flesh and he would
save those people. He'd make them righteous by his
obedience and he'd put their sin away by his death upon the
cursed tree. And God the Holy Spirit promised
he'll come and give all those people life and faith in Christ
through the preaching of Christ. Now I'm telling you, that's quite
a covenant. We ought to be so interested in this covenant of
grace What an amazing promise the almighty God made. He's going
to save a sinful people all by himself. It's by his grace. They're not going to contribute
one thing to it. He's going to do it all for them and give it
to them freely. See in this covenant, God says,
I will, and you shall, I will save you and you shall be saved. I will call you. and you shall
come unto me for life. I will keep you and you shall
be kept. Wonder why God told Abraham,
you're going to keep this covenant and your generations after you,
God's because I'm going to keep you. I'm going to keep you and
you shall be kept. These people, they're going to,
God reveals himself to, they're going to continue. They're going
to keep hoping and trusting in the Lord. They're going to trust
in the almighty God. They're not going to trust in
anything about themselves. They're going to trust in the
Lord. And I tell you why they're going to keep doing it. God's
going to make sure they do. He set his affection upon them
and he's not going to let them go. That's God's covenant of
grace. He revealed to Abraham. Now in
our text tonight, God gives Abraham an outward token of this covenant. It's circumcision. And circumcision
was a very, very important thing under the Old Testament law.
Very important to the Jews. And circumcision, served its
purpose as long as the law was in effect. But even while the
law was in effect, now we have to remember this, circumcision
was only a token of the covenant. Circumcision never saved anybody.
Circumcision never made anybody righteous. It never made anybody
holy or clean. All it did was cut away part
of the body. Circumcision never made somebody part of the covenant
of God's grace in Christ. because that would be by their
works, by something that they did. We can't enter into a covenant
of grace by our works. Doesn't that just make sense?
We can't enter into a covenant of grace by our works. So circumcision
never made him by part of the covenant of grace. It was a token. It was a picture, and I'll show
you this in a minute. It's a picture of the new birth that God performs
in the hearts of his people. Circumcision only affected the
flesh. That's all it affected. So it
never saved anybody. It never affected anybody spiritually. But circumcision is a picture
of many, many blessings that God gives his people in the new
birth. And that's what I want us to look at tonight. So first
of all, circumcision, it's a picture of the new birth. Look again
here at verse nine, Genesis 17. 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 you
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
betwixt me and you. Now that's all it is, it's a
token. And he that is eight days old shall be circumcised among
you, every man child in your generations. He that's born in
the house or bought with money of any stranger, which is not
of thy seed. The only way for a man to be
a Jew, to be able to take part in the forms and the ceremonies
and things of the Jewish religion, was to be circumcised. A man
could not participate in these things unless he was circumcised. It was required. And if you weren't
circumcised, you were not part of this covenant. Look what he
says in verse 14. And the uncircumcised man-child,
whose flesh of his foreskin is not circumcised, that soul should
be cut off from his people. He hath broken my covenant. So
you can only be a part of this covenant if you're circumcised.
But circumcision was just an outward token. It was just an
outward token that man is part of the Jewish nation. It was
a token. Now the Jews lost sight of this,
especially by the time our Lord came, they lost sight of this.
It was just a token. I mean, the Lord said it here,
it's a token. It's a picture. It's an outward physical picture
of the new birth. just like every other picture
of the Old Testament. The sacrifice of the Passover
lamb. Killing that lamb never saved anybody, did it? No, that
Passover lamb is a picture of Christ our Passover, sacrificed
for us. When they caught the blood of
that Passover lamb, put it on the doorpost, well, that never
saved anybody. That never purified anybody from
their sin. It was just an outward picture,
wasn't it? It was an outward picture of
faith in Christ. When somebody put that blood on the doorpost,
the doorpost, it was an outward picture. I believe that the blood
of Christ is all it takes to save me from God's wrath. It's
the blood of Christ applied to my heart. God sees that when
he's coming in justice, when he sees that, he'll pass over
me because he knows there's already been death in this house. The blood of Christ is an outward
token, a picture of faith in Christ. And that's all circumcision
ever was. If you look over at Deuteronomy
chapter 10, we're going to turn to some scriptures tonight. I
know it's Wednesday. You've been working all day.
So if you want to talk, jot these down, look at them later. But
I think it'll be a benefit to turn and look at some of them.
You know, it wasn't, uh, the Lord didn't wait till Christ
came to the apostles or preaching to tell somebody, this is just
a token. He told him that in the Old Testament.
He made that clear. Look at Deuteronomy 10 verse
16. Circumcise therefore the foreskin
of your heart and be no more stiff-necked. See he told us
this circumcision is a picture of repentance and submission.
It's not of the flesh. He said circumcise your heart.
You need a new heart so you'll repent and you'll bow to Christ.
Look over chapter 30 of Deuteronomy. Deuteronomy 30, verse 6. And the Lord thy God will circumcise
thine heart and the heart of thy seed to love the Lord thy
God with all thine heart and with all thy soul that thou mayest
live. Now one of the commandments of
the Ten Commandments requires us to love the Lord our God with
all of our heart. All of our heart. all of our
soul. Well, man's natural heart is enmity against God. That heart
can't love God. The only way that you and I could
ever love God with all of our heart and with all of our soul
is if God gives us a new heart. He circumcises the heart. When
he talks about circumcising the heart there, he's talking about
the new birth, giving us a new heart, a heart that does love
God, does believe him. And if you look over at Romans
chapter two, Now that was there in the Old
Testament all along, wasn't it? Now in Romans chapter two, Paul
explains it, just to make sure we got this down. He explains
this, that this circumcision, it's the new birth. Romans chapter
two, verse 28. For he's not a Jew, which is
one outwardly, neither is that circumcision, which is outward
in the flesh, but he's a Jew, part of spiritual Israel, 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. So God requires that his people
have a new heart. Well, we can't produce it. But
because of God's covenant of grace, because God promised he's
going to save his people by his grace, God, the Holy Spirit is
going to give this new heart and the new birth to all of God's
people. And that heart, is going to love
Christ. That heart will believe Christ
and cling to him and will never believe in anything else. I'm not sure where this got started.
Yeah, I don't know if because we say the Trinity is God, the
father, God, the son and God, the Holy Spirit. I think somehow
people are mistakenly think, well, they kind of go down in
importance as you go. You know, the father is more
important than the son. The son is more important than the spirit.
I hope we don't ever forget this now. How important the new birth
is? How important is it we be given
a new heart? Gary, we can't be saved without it. Can't be saved
without it. This covenant is not complete
until God the Holy Spirit does what he promised to do, give
his people a new heart. And he's gonna do it. He's not
gonna break his promise. He's gonna give this new heart
to all of his people. It's a surety. Then secondly, circumcision and
repentance. You know, they're both painful
to the flesh. I'm gonna be delicate here. The
first circumcisions were not done on eight-day-old babies.
They were done, you know, an eight-day-old baby, I'm sure
that's traumatic, but they don't remember. This thing was done
to adults. I mean, full-grown men. 99-year-old
man. All of them were adults, and it was painful. But you know,
that pain, God required it, that they be circumcised, but that
pain had no spiritual merit whatsoever. I knew a man one time, many,
many, many years ago, as an adult, he was reading the scriptures
and saw the importance of circumcision, and this fella circumcised himself. I mean, you talk about one tough
old bird now. He's tougher than me, I can tell
you that. And he did it to keep the law. He did it to make himself
more righteous. And I just bet you this is subtle. He's pretty sorry about that.
When the Lord later on taught him, the circumcision is that
circumcision of the heart. It's a work of God in the heart,
not a work in the flesh. But that's how these first circumcisions
were done. And this pain, this torment that
they went through, that's a clear picture of how painful repentance
is to the flesh. I mean, I don't think there's
anything this flesh hates more than repentance toward God. Look
at Colossians 2. The only way you and I will ever
repent and turn to trust Christ is when God circumcises the heart. Colossians 2 verse 11. in whom also ye are circumcised
for the circumcision made without hands in putting off the body
of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ. Now this
putting off the body of the sins of the flesh, that's repentance. Repentance is to quit trusting
our works of the flesh. So those things in the circumcision
of the heart, when God gives a new heart, those things are
cut off. We quit trusting in the works of our flesh and we
turn to Christ to trust him. That's what repentance is. Repentance
is not just being sorry. I mean, I guess that's part of
it, but repentance is a turning. It's a 180 degree change. We trust the opposite of what
we used to trust him. We used to trust in the flesh.
Now that's cut off. Now we turn to trust Christ.
And only God can cut away the flesh like that. And he does
it by giving a new heart, a new heart that trusts Christ. Now,
to the new man, to you who believe, oh, that's a joy, isn't it? That
God gave you this heart so you trust Christ, so you believe
him, so you're thrilled hearing the gospel preached, so you love
reading his words. You couldn't do that unless God
gave you a new heart, could you? Oh, what a thrill that is. I
don't care how long you've been trusting Christ. That's painful
to the flesh. It's so painful to the flesh,
the flesh never quits, never quits. Because the flesh is just
not going to give up what it loves. It's so painful for the
flesh to give up what the flesh thinks it's gaining glory from.
The flesh thinks I'm gaining glory from keeping the law. It's
never going to give up, never ever going to give up, trying
to bring you back into captivity to the law. That's that civil
war that's going on inside every believer. The old man fighting
against the new man, trying to bring you back into captivity
to the law, and the new man will never surrender. He can't not
trust Christ. That new man loves Christ and
trusts him and will never trust anything else. Now, no one can
be saved until we repent and trust Christ. It's impossible. But we can't make ourselves We
can't make ourselves trust Christ. Our flesh can not do it. It's impossible. So God gives
repentance. He gives this gift of repentance
and faith to all of his people in the new birth. He gives it
to them freely so that we can't not trust Christ. Does that make
you glad? That makes me glad that I can
see somebody having some questions now about circumcision of the
flesh. Boy, the circumcision of the heart, that makes me mighty
glad. Mighty glad. Now look back at Romans chapter
three. Here's the third thing. Circumcision is a picture of
salvation by grace. Romans chapter three, verse 30. Seeing it's one God, which will
justify the circumcision by faith, and the uncircumcision by faith.
Now when he talks here about the circumcision, he means the
Jews. In uncircumcision, he means the Gentiles who never were circumcised. And this is what my friend who
circumcised his own self learned later on. Salvation is by grace. And it is by grace alone. And I'll tell you what that means.
I'd say about everybody here would give some agreement to
this fact, this statement. Salvation is by grace. Well,
here's what that means. What we do in our flesh, if salvation
is by grace, what we do in our flesh has absolutely no effect
on our spiritual state toward God. Absolutely none whatsoever,
because that would be a work. And both the religious, legalistic
person like the Jew, and the heathen, like the Gentiles, They're
all saved the exact same way. By grace. And the circumcision
that was done or not done in their flesh didn't affect that
one bit. You don't turn to this one. We're
flipping back and forth here. Let me read this to you in Colossians
3. Here it is in Christ. There's neither Greek nor Jew.
There's neither circumcision nor uncircumcision. Barbarian,
Scythian, bond nor free. But Christ is Christ is all and
in all. Now, since it's Christ is all,
salvation can't be accomplished by our works, can it? Salvation
can only be accomplished by the Lord Jesus Christ, because he's
all. He's all of our righteousness. He's all of our wisdom. He's
all. All the offices, prophet, priest, and king, he's all. It's
his obedience that brought in righteousness for his people.
It's his sacrifice that put away the sin of his people. In salvation,
I wish we'd get a hold of this. The only thing that matters is
Christ. I quit. I wish we quit quibbling
about junk that don't matter in salvation. All that matters
is Christ and our works don't contribute to that at all. And
you know, you know, good. Well, I'm not saying our car
conduct doesn't matter. Of course it does, but it doesn't
affect our spiritual state. It doesn't make us more righteous.
or less righteous. Salvation can only come through
faith in Christ by trusting Him to be everything that I need.
And if I trust Him to be everything I need, this is what I can tell
you. I'm not going to feel any need to add my works to Him.
Christ is all. Now, if the Lord makes us realize
this, we can't save ourselves. We can't put away our sin. We
can't make ourselves righteous. It's an utter impossibility But
by his grace, God freely gives that salvation to his people. What a covenant, what a covenant. And the token of it is not something
in the flesh, it's the heart that God gives, the heart that
God gives. All right, here's the fourth
thing. Circumcision is a picture of
purifying the heart. Now, we need a pure heart. If
we're gonna stand before God, we need a pure heart. Well, the
circumcision of the flesh never did anybody's heart any good,
did it? Their hearts, after they were
circumcised, their hearts were just as wicked, just as vile,
just as dead as they were before. And the very first day that they
were circumcised in anybody, Ishmael showed us that, didn't
he? Ishmael was circumcised, he's still a rebel. The men who
crucified our Lord, They hated the Lord so much. All those men
were circumcised, but they still had a wicked heart that hated
the Savior, and they hated God's Son when He appeared to them
face to face. They hated His message of salvation
by grace so much, they killed the Lord of Glory. And they worked
up people to lie in order to accomplish it. Now they are circumcised
in the flesh. Didn't do them one bit of good,
they still would not bow to Christ. But look at Acts chapter 15.
God gives all of his people a pure heart in the new birth and God
makes his people pure so he'll never cast them out. Acts chapter
15, you know, this thing came up, this question of circumcision.
Well, you know, the salvation by grace, but you also got to
be circumcised. This was such an issue, all the apostles got
together to talk about this thing, settle this matter once and for
all. Acts chapter 15 verse five. But there rose up certain of
the sect of the Pharisees which believed. Now these, you know,
I take God's word of what it says. They believed, they believed
on Christ, they trusted Christ, but they still said this. It's
needful to circumcise them and to command them to keep the law
of Moses. And the apostles and the elders came together for
to consider this matter. And when there had been much
disputing, Peter rose up and said unto them, men and brethren,
you know how that a good while ago, God made choice among us
that the Gentiles by my mouth should hear the word of the gospel
and believe. And God, which knoweth the hearts,
bear them witness, giving them the Holy Ghost, even as he did
unto us and put no difference between us and them. He purified
their hearts by faith. It wasn't something done in the
flesh. It purified their hearts by faith, faith in Christ. Now,
therefore, why tempt ye God to put a yoke upon the neck of his
disciples, which neither our fathers nor we were able to bear?
What do you want to put them under the law for? We're miserable
under this. Don't do that to them. But we believe that through
the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, we shall be saved even as they. that all the multitude kept silence
and gave audience to Barnabas and Paul, declaring what miracles
and wonders God had wrought among them, among the Gentiles by then. See, God sent this thing, the
gospel and salvation to the Gentiles, and he purified their hearts,
and this is what Peter found. Peter struggled with this difference
between Jew and Gentile, didn't he? Peter struggled with it.
And this is what Peter learned. Oh, salvation is by grace. I love the way Peter said that.
We should be saved even as they. It's not, well, you know, those,
those Gentiles, those low down, filthy Gentiles, they're going
to be saved same way. No, we're going to be saved even
as they. Because circumcision didn't matter
in this thing. I'm just as sinful. I'm just as dead. I'm just as
lost as a heathen who never ever has heard of the name of Jesus
Christ. I'm just as lost. And if I'm going to be saved,
I'm going to be saved the same way that man is who never heard
of Christ before. Somebody's got to come and tell
him, and God's going to give me faith to believe. Same way
with me. Same way with me who knew the
name Jesus before I knew the name of my sister. I knew the
name Jesus, but I'd lost. I'd just as lost as the man who
never had heard of Christ. We should be saved, even as they. Salvation and purification. of
the heart by grace. That's a whole lot better than
something done in the flesh, isn't it? Then you look back at our text, Genesis
chapter 17. Circumcision is a picture of
God's eternal covenant of grace. He says here in verse 13, he
that is born in thy house and he that is bought with thy money
must needs be circumcised and my covenant should be in your
flesh for an everlasting God's telling Abraham this covenant,
this covenant of grace is everlasting. It's not going to end. But now
if we think here about God talking about this covenant, the token
of circumcision and so forth, and God calls it everlasting.
Well, somebody might fairly ask this question. Well, now the
law has been done away with in Christ, hasn't it? This is not
required anymore. So it doesn't look to me like
this thing's everlasting. What's going on here? Well, here's
the thing. The token of circumcision has
ended, just like all the pictures of the Old Testament. We're not
offering sacrifices and lambs and bullets, and we don't got
the altar of incense and all these things anymore, because
all those pictures have been done away with. Christ made an end
of the law. Those things aren't required
anymore, but the evidence of salvation that's in the heart
has not ended. The token of salvation that all
of God's people have is God's given us a new heart. And that
is everlasting. That will never end because salvation
in Christ is eternal. If you care, look over at Hebrews
chapter 8. Brother Wayne read this for us
Sunday morning. We were talking about it's hard
to say. You want to read Hebrews 8, Hebrews 9, Hebrews 10, where
are you going to stop? But he read this and I thought
about what I had kind of in my mind for tonight. Hebrews 8,
verse 8. For finding fault with him, he
saith, behold the days come, saith the Lord, when I'll make
a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house
of Judah. Not according to the covenant I made with their fathers
in the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of
the land of Egypt, because they continued not on my covenant.
And I regarded them not, saith the Lord, For this is the covenant
that I will make with them, with the house of Israel after those
days, saith the Lord. I'll put my laws into their mind. I'll write them in their hearts.
I'm going to give them a new heart. I'll write these things
in their hearts. And I'll be to them a God, and they shall
be to me a people. And they shall not teach every
man his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, know the
Lord. For all shall know me, from the least to the greatest.
For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness. and their sins
and their iniquities will I remember no more. Now this is God's promise,
his eternal covenant of grace. He's going to put it in the hearts
of his people and it can't end. It can't even be changed. It
can't even be altered. It's eternal. Their sins and
their iniquities will I remember no more. I'm not going to get
many millennia down the road and start remembering again.
I'll remember him no more. And we have a picture of that
in circumcision. The circumcision of the flesh
is permanent, isn't it? Once it's done, it can't be undone.
When the circumcision of the heart, God gives a new heart
of faith. And that heart can't be changed. Just like the flesh can't be
changed. The Lord told Nicodemus, that which is born of the flesh
is flesh. It is flesh, that's all it will
ever be. It can never be improved. But
that which is born of the spirit is spirit. It'll always be spirit. And that new heart God gives
his people will always love Christ, will always believe Christ. And
we might be like those Pharisees which believed but still wanted
to keep some of the law of Moses, you know. We might get fuzzed
up on something here and there. But the preaching of the gospel
will straighten it out. That new heart God gives us say, I
believe it. I believe him. Grave clothes
are hard to get rid of. They'll come off eventually,
won't they? That new heart's gonna hear and believe and bow. I believe that. The circumcision
of the heart, oh, that's much better than the one in the flesh.
That gives us eternal forgiveness of our sins. Then here's the
last thing, Romans chapter 11. Circumcision is a picture of
this. You cannot mix grace and works. The circumcision of the
flesh is not a partial thing. It's all or nothing. Well, salvation
is not a partial thing. Salvation by grace is not a partial
thing. It's all or nothing. It's all
of works or it's all of grace. You can't mix the two. This is
what Paul says in Romans 11 verse five. Even so then, this present
time also there's a remnant according to the election of grace and
if by grace then is it no more of works otherwise grace is no
more grace but if it be of works then is it no more grace otherwise
work is no more work and you know what Paul's saying there
salvation is all of works or it's all of grace you mean if
it's all of grace but you got it got out of work to it well
it's not grace anymore is it If it's all of works, but you
add a little bit of grace to it to help finish the job, it's
not of works. You can't mix the two. He said
the same thing in the book of Galatians chapter five. Let me
just read it to you. Stand fast, therefore, in the
liberty wherewith Christ has made us free. And be not entangled
again with the yoke of bondage. Behold, I, Paul, say unto you,
that if you be circumcised, Christ shall profit you nothing. For
I testify again to every man that is circumcised, If he's
been circumcised to try to make himself righteous, that man is
a debtor to do the whole law. And Christ has become of no effect
unto you. Whosoever of you are justified
by the law, you're fallen from grace. For we, through the Spirit,
wait for the hope of righteousness by faith. For in Jesus Christ
neither circumcision availeth anything nor uncircumcision,
nothing done in the flesh availeth anything, but faith which worketh
by love. Now Paul's saying if you're circumcised
in an effort to make yourself righteous or make yourself more
righteous or make yourself more accepted of God, and that applies
to any law you can think of, anything that you can think of,
if you think, you know, if I do this, I'll be more righteous.
If you do that, then Christ has become of no benefit to you. His blood, His obedience is of
no benefit to you. If you think if I do this, that
or the other, I'll be more righteous. And that's how serious this matter
is. If a person is circumcised in
an effort to make themselves just a little more righteous,
then Paul says, now, now your debtor to do the whole law of
God, you've got to obey the whole law of God. And if you try that
route, you're going to be damned because man cannot obey the law. All the law can do, is show us
how sinful we are and how desperately that we need Christ. Now again,
I say, give me this covenant of grace. Give me this circumcision
of the heart. A whole lot more than any part
of the law. Wouldn't you say? All right,
now look at Philippians chapter three again. You know, I like to always hope
that as I preach, I take the things that we see and are able
to apply them to our hearts, take them, like Brother Cecil
Rope said, put them on my lunch bucket, take to work with me
tomorrow. I want us to be able to apply now what we've been
taught about this matter of the circumcision of the heart. And
here's the question I believe we should all be asking ourselves.
Has God circumcised my heart? Has God given me a new heart?
I mean, this is vitally important, so I'd like to know the answer
to that. I hope you would do. We know every one of us can leave
here tonight knowing the answer to this question. Has God given
me a new heart or not? And here is the evidence of it.
Philippians chapter three, verse two. Now Paul's still on this
subject. Beware of dogs. Beware of evil
workers. Beware of the concision. And
what Paul's saying is beware of those people who try to make
you be circumcised or try to make you keep certain parts of
the law in order to be righteous. What they're doing is mixing
grace and works. And if you mix grace and works,
if you allow somebody to mix grace and works, they're going
to mutilate your body. And they're going to mutilate
your soul. Because salvation can't be by this mixture of grace
and works. So run to Christ. This is what
Paul's saying. Beware of these dogs. Beware
these people. I know they look religious. I
know they sound religious. I know they look so moral. But
they're dogs and they're evil workers. You run from them. Run
away from them and run to Christ begging for a new heart. And
if God's given you a new heart, first thing you'll do, Paul says
in verse three, for we are the circumcision. We've been circumcised
in the heart, which worship God in the spirit. If God's given
you a new heart, your worship, the way that you approach God,
is not gonna be by what you do in the flesh. It will only be
by the spirit of God. That's the only way you can approach
God. You never attempt to approach God by your works, but you approach
him by the spirit. in Christ, because of who Christ
is and what He, by faith in Christ. You come to Him in the heart.
Is that the only way you can worship God? From the heart?
That you've been born again. Second, if God circumcised your
heart, Paul says here, you rejoice in Christ Jesus. I thought about
that. Rejoicing in Christ Jesus. What
a thing. And every believer does it. I
mean, just get started. If God's given you a new heart,
you rejoice in Christ Jesus, in who He is. He's the God-man
who became what He was not. He became flesh so that He could
save sinners in the flesh. What a miracle. I rejoice in
that. This sinner in the flesh, the
only way he can be justified is if the Son of God came in
the flesh. That's what He did. What an amazing thing. That not
just that Christ would come in the flesh, but who would He come
in the flesh to save? The worst! The worst. If God's given you a new heart,
you rejoice in what Christ Jesus has accomplished. As a man, made under the law,
He obeyed it perfectly and brought in everlasting righteousness
for His people. And by His sacrifice, by His
blood, He made the fathers say, their sins and their iniquities
will I remember no more. He made them not to exist anymore.
The Father talked in language maybe you and I could understand.
God is Spirit. He doesn't have a front and a
back, but this is what God said. There are sins I've cast behind
my back. Well, where's that? God's everywhere. The blood of Christ made the
sin of His people to not exist. Boy, a sinner can rejoice in
that, can't you? We rejoice that God has justified His people
and made them without sin. So the Father will accept us.
It's because of what Christ... I rejoice in who He is and what
He's done. If you rejoice in Him, God's
given you a new heart. And third, if God circumcised
your heart, Paul says, you have no confidence in the flesh. Now,
I mentioned this a little bit ago. Our flesh is going to constantly
try to get us to trust in what I do, what I don't do. But if
God's given us a new heart, That new nature is going to constantly
turn away from what the flesh wants to trust in. Constantly
be turning to Christ. Constantly turning to Him. Constantly
think, why do I think that? And we turn to Christ. Lord,
forgive me. It's constantly turning to Him. I know I can't trust
in my works. I know this. My works can only
damn me. But I also know this. Christ
can save me. In Christ, I can't be lost. And
by my works, I can't be saved. But in Christ, I can't be lost.
So I'm not going to trust my works. I trust Christ and Christ
alone. And if you find you can only
trust Christ, you can only find any comfort for your soul by
trusting Christ, God's given you a new heart. And I like the
real thing a whole lot better in the picture, don't you? I
like a new heart a whole lot better than that circumcision
of the flesh. But God gave it to us as a picture.
that we might learn something important about our Lord Jesus
Christ. And I hope God will put that
in our hearts tonight. Let's bow together. Our Father,
how we thank you for this time that you've given us to read
and study your word, to have Christ preach to us. Father,
how we thank you for this blessed opportunity. I pray that, Father,
you take your word as it's been preached. Cause it to go forth
to your glory. that each of us can leave here
tonight seeing more of the glory of Christ our Savior and rejoice
in Christ Jesus. Rejoice, have our hearts thrilled
in resting in him. It's in his precious name, for
his sake we pray, amen. All right, Jonathan.