Good morning, brothers and sisters.
If you would please turn with me to Psalm 70. For our call
to worship this morning, Psalm 70. Make haste, O God, to deliver
me. Make haste to help me, O Lord.
Let them be ashamed and confounded that seek after my soul. Let
them be turned backward and put to confusion that desire my hurt. Let them be turned back for a
reward of their shame that say, aha, aha. Let those that seek
thee rejoice and be glad in thee, and let such love thy salvation
say continually, let God be magnified. But I am poor and needy, make
haste unto me, O God, for thou art my help and my deliverer. Oh, Lord, make no tearing. Our most heavenly Father, we
thank you, Lord, not as we ought, not as often as we ought to,
but we thank you for raising the candlestick here, keeping
it here all these many years. We thank you for sending pastors
after your own heart, Lord, to give us your word to expose your
glory. Be with us and guide us. We'd
ask, Lord, that you bless the Word that we heard in the first
service to our hearts, we'd ask that you be with the brothers
he brings forth your message. Lord, allow us to see through
a glass darkly. If you don't keep us, we'll not
be kept. Be with the sick and infirm,
Lord, the ones that struggle, the ones that call out to you
to cry to you, Lord. Help us, be our help and our
shield and our buckler. Thank you for all these things,
the most holy and perfect name. Amen. Let's stand together again. We'll
sing the hymn that's on the back of your bulletin, on the back
of the bulletin. Stand together. To Christ the Lord let every
tongue its noblest tributes bring, and He's the subject of the song. Who can refuse to sing? Who can refuse to sing? Survey the beauties of His face,
and on His glories dwell. Think of the wonders of His grace,
and all His victories tell. And all His victories tell. ? Thou hast redeemed our souls
with blood ? ? Hast set the prisoners free ? ? Hast made us kings and
priests ? ? And we shall reign with thee ? ? And we shall reign
with thee ? The whole creation join as one to bless that holy
day. Him who sits upon the throne
and to adore the lamb, and to adore the lamb. Please be seated. Let's open our Bibles together
to 1 Samuel chapter 18. 1 Samuel chapter 18. I've titled
this message, The Dowry Paid. The Dowry Paid. Saul required David to pay a
dowry in order for David to have Saul's daughter. And in our text
this morning, we learn what that dowry is and what it means in
light of the Lord Jesus Christ making himself an offering to
his father as the dowry for his bride. That's the picture. The word dowry is used three
times in the Bible and in all three cases it has to do with
the husband paying the bride's family for her. We see it, even
though the word dowry is not used, when Abraham sends Eleazar
to get Isaac a wife, he gives to Laban, Rebekah's brother,
a dowry, gifts, and then brings Rebekah home. And later when
Jacob goes to Laban's house and Jacob falls in love with Rachel,
Jacob's daughter, Laban's sister, Laban's daughter, Laban's daughter. Jacob, you remember, works seven
years for Laban's daughter. That was
his dowry, paying his dowry to the family. And then being deceived
by Laban, he ended up with Leah and had to work another seven
years and stayed even after that. Jacob was with Laban for some
20 years working off his dowry in order to purchase a bride
to himself. Now, before we look at the text,
I want to contrast what the Bible teaches about a dowry to the
practice of dowry that is everywhere in the world. We don't do it
much in our culture today, but it wasn't more than a generation
or two ago that it was practiced even in our culture. But dowries
in every culture in the world are the money that the bride
brings into the husband's family in order to purchase her right
to be part of his family. Do you see the gospel implications
of that? Do you see how that the false
gospel requires the bride to bring something with her? Men
have reversed the order. They've turned it upside down.
They've made the bride responsible for bringing something into the
marriage in order for the husband to accept her. But that's not
the way it is in the Bible. In the Bible, the husband pays
the dowry for the bride. And that's what David's gonna
do. Now you remember in chapter 17 of 1 Samuel, when Goliath
was threatening the children of Israel and Saul promised to
any man that killed this giant that he would give him three
things. He would give him great riches, he would make him the
king's son-in-law, he would give him his daughter, and he would
make his household free in all of Israel. In other words, his
father's house, his brothers, he, his children would not have
to pay any taxes and they would enjoy all the benefits of the
government in Israel. And what a glorious picture that
is of the promise that the father made to the Lord Jesus when he
came into this world and slew the giant of sin, of death, of
the grave, of hell. He did it all by himself. He
did it as a representative. And the father gave to him great
riches of grace. Oh, they are inexhaustible. The
riches of God's grace are sufficient for every need. He gave to his
son. His daughter. The Church of the
Lord Jesus Christ. Is the daughter of the father
chosen in the covenant of grace? Before the world ever was. And
the father gave to his son his bride. As the. payment for the dowry that the
Lord Jesus had paid in destroying death. And then he made his household
free. And that's a picture of the year
of Jubilee. In the Old Testament, every seven years was a sabbatical
year when the land was to lay fallow. And then on the 50th
year, the beginning of the 50th year, it was the year of Jubilee,
seven times seven, and then at the beginning of that, after
those 49 years, the 50th year was the year of Jubilee, and
it was an Old Testament picture pointing to the Lord Jesus Christ,
and what happened on the year of Jubilee? Any man that had
sold himself into bondage, into slavery, was set free. All debt,
all debt was canceled. And all property went back to
its original owner on the year of Jubilee. And that is a picture
of what the Lord Jesus Christ did when he got the victory for
his people. He made his household free. The
debt that we owe God has been canceled. It's been paid, paid
in full. That's what it is finished. When the Lord cried on the cross,
it is finished. The word there is the same word
that you would have found stamped on your bill after it was paid,
paid in full. And there's all slaves. Those who are in bondage to their
sin and cannot believe on Christ because they're dead in their
trespass and sin have been set free. And that which we lost
in our father, Adam, as a result of the fall, all property. All fellowship, all paradise
has been restored unto the church. So those promises that God gave
that Saul made to David were fulfilled in Christ, spiritually
speaking. The same thing's true here in
our text when it comes to this dowry. Now, some time has passed
from the time that David slew Goliath and Saul has not yet
given to David his daughter. And he promises him his eldest
daughter, but then before Saul gives to David the eldest daughter,
he gives that daughter to another man. And there we see a picture of
the fall of national Israel. In the New Testament the Lord
gave a parable about a man who owned a vineyard and he went
into a far country and he sent servants to get his rightful
earnings from that vineyard from the servants that he had left
it with and they beat the servants and then he sent his son and
they killed the son. And there's a picture of what
God did when he gave the vineyard of the gospel to Israel, national
Israel. and they beat the prophets of
the Old Testament and they killed the Son of God. And the Lord
Jesus asked those Jews, what should the owner of this vineyard
do with this vineyard? And the Jews pronounced their
own judgment when they said to the owner of the vineyard, he
should take it from them. They said this to the Lord. He
should take that vineyard from them and give it to another.
And the Lord Jesus said, and that's exactly what I'm going
to do. I'm taking the vineyard that I gave to Israel and I'm
giving it to another, the church. He came into his own, Israel. And his own received him not,
but as many as received him, to them gave he the power to
become the sons of God. So the vineyard of the kingdom
of God has been taken from national Israel and has been given to
the bride of Christ, the church. And that's what we have pictured
in Saul taking his first daughter and giving her to another. And
now Michael. Michael, whose name translated
means who is like God. Who is like God? Well. The bride of Christ is as he
is so are we in this world by virtue of our union with Christ
we have a righteousness before God that is acceptable in his
sight. So Michael now is a picture of
the church. And they go, the servants of
Saul, well, let's read it together. Let's read it together. You have
your Bibles open to chapter 18 and we'll begin reading in verse
22. And Saul commanded his servants
saying, commune with David secretly and say, behold, the king hath
the light in thee and all his servants love thee. Now therefore
be the king's son-in-law. He hasn't fulfilled his promise
to give to the man who slew the giant, his daughter yet. And Saul's servant spoke these
words in the ears of David, and David said, Seemeth it to you
a light thing to be a king's son-in-law, seeing that I am
poor and lightly esteemed? Oh, seemeth thus a light thing
to be the children of God, seeing that we are poor and lightly
esteemed? What manner of love the Father
hath bestowed upon us, that we, we should be called the sons
of God? And it doth not yet appear what
we shall be, but we know that when he shall appear, we shall
We shall be made like him for we shall see him as he is." Oh,
here we are, poor and lightly esteemed. And who was more poor
of spirit? Who was more humble? And who
was more lightly esteemed among men than the Lord Jesus Christ? Seemeth to you a small thing
that a man like me, David says, Poor and lightly esteemed should
be the son-in-law of the king? And the servants of Saul told
him, saying, On this manner spake David. They repeated back to
Saul exactly what David said. And Saul said, Thus shall you
say to David, The king desireth not any dowry. You see, David
was thinking, Now he didn't fulfill his promise of me killing the
king. Now Saul hates David. Saul's jealous of David. Prior
to this, they come back from a battle and the women are singing,
Saul has killed his thousands and David his tens of thousands. And David now is being highly
esteemed, favored by God and favored by the people and Saul
is losing his position. And Saul, the scripture says
three times in this chapter that Saul is afraid of David. He's
afraid of David. Ain't that the reason why The
Jews had the Lord Jesus Christ crucified. They were afraid of
him. After the Lord in John chapter
11 rose Lazarus from the grave? I mean, as undeniable and miraculous
as that was, and there were people there that watched it, and the
scripture says at the end of chapter 11, and some believed,
and some ran back into Jerusalem and told the Pharisees. And the
Pharisees got the Sanhedrin together. And they said, what are we going
to do? If we allow this man to remain, we're going to lose both
our position, our place and our people and our nation. We're
afraid that people are going to follow him and we're going
to lose everything. And so it was out of fear. You know what,
brethren, for the last 2000 years, the world has been afraid. of
the church afraid of you? Why do your friends and family
members respond to your hope in Christ the way they do? Because
they're afraid. They're afraid. They're afraid
if what you say is true, then they're damned and lost and without
God in this world and without hope. The gospel always makes
men either afraid or makes them rejoice. It makes them find a
place of hope and comfort and rest or it'll make them afraid. They were afraid of Christ. They've
been afraid of him and his church and his gospel and his people
ever since. So Saul, sends word back to David,
I'm not gonna require dowry. He doesn't have the money to
pay, I'm the king, he's nobody. He realizes he doesn't have anything,
so I'm not gonna require a monetary dowry. But I'm gonna give him
a dowry, and here's where the picture of the gospel becomes
so glorious. I'm gonna give him a dowry. And here's the dowry. but of
the Philistines, a hundred foreskins of the Philistines to be avenged
of the king's enemies. But Saul thought to make David
fall by the hand of the Philistines. Saul thinks, I'm going to send
David out to battle the Philistines and I'm going to give him as
his dowry a hundred foreskins of the Philistines and surely
they'll kill him in his attempt to get that, to pay his dowry
and then I'll be done with David. And when his servants told David
these words, it pleased David well to be the king's son-in-law. David said, this is a dowry I
can fulfill. This is a dowry that I can pay,
and I'll be happy to pay it. I'll be happy to pay it to become
the king's son-in-law, to get the king's wife to myself. And the days were not yet expired.
I assume that Saul put some sort of time frame on how long David
had in order to bring this dowry back to Saul. Wherefore, David
arose and went, and he and his men slew of the Philistines two
hundred men. Very significant. In light of
the gospel, all these things have great significance. So David
and his men kill 200 Philistines, twice what Saul asked for. And we read in Isaiah chapter
40, comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith the Lord, speak
ye comfortably unto Jerusalem and tell them that their warfare
is accomplished and that their iniquity has been taken away
and that they have received of the Lord double for their sin. Oh, we see in this the sufficiency
of God's grace. David brings back 200 foreskins
of the Philistines. And they gave them in full tale
to the king. Open testimony. This thing was
not done in a corner. The Lord Jesus Christ died publicly. He rose and revealed himself
to 500 of his disciples. This is not some mysterious single
individual that went into the woods and came out with a word
from God like Joseph Smith on tablets of gold, which no longer
can be found. or somebody like Muhammad who
got a secret revelation from God and wrote the Quran and now
has millions of people around the world following after him.
This is not that sort, no. This thing was done in full tail
before the king. There's no way to deny the testimony
of what the Lord Jesus Christ did and the confirmation of that
testimony among witnesses. It was done in full tail before
the king. that he might be the son-in-law
of the king, the king's son-in-law. That's what it was all about.
It was all about getting the king's daughter, Michael, who
is like God. And Saul gave him Michael, his
daughter, to wife, and Saul saw and knew that the Lord was with
David and that Michael, Saul's daughter, loved him. What a glorious gospel picture
this is. Saul sees the Lord's with him,
with David. The Lord had departed from Saul.
Matter of fact, the scripture says, if you read this whole
chapter, the Lord sent an evil spirit to Saul. Saul had already
tried to kill David. tried to murder him. And Saul was yet the more afraid
of David and Saul became David's enemy continually. Then the princess
of the Philistines went forth and it came to pass after they
went forth that David behaved himself more wisely than all
the servants of Saul so that his name was much set forth. His name was glorious. You know, Herod was afraid of
the Lord Jesus. When he heard from the wise men
of the east that a king had been born in Bethlehem, Herod sent
the wise men to find out exactly where he was so that he could
have him killed. And when And when Herod realized that the
wise men had gone home another way and had deceived him, he
sent soldiers into Bethlehem and killed all the babies of
Bethlehem from two years old and younger in an attempt to
kill the Lord Jesus. Just like Saul, men have always
been afraid of David, the son of David, always been afraid. always trying to remove him however
they might be able. This dowry tells us something about what
the Lord Jesus Christ paid to his father for his bride. What the Lord Jesus did on Calvary's
cross was not to make himself an offering, an offer to us to
accept or reject. The world has it all wrong when
they believe that. God was doing business with God
on Calvary's cross. The Lord Jesus was offering to
the father the 200 Philistine foreskins as a dowry. And God accepted that offering. And God was pleased. And God gave to the Lord Jesus,
his daughter, Michael. He offered himself, the scripture
says in Hebrews 9.14, without spot to God. The Lord Jesus Christ offered
himself without spot to God. David is making this dowry payment
in full tail to the king. Saul required a hundred foreskins,
David brought two hundred. Do we not see a picture of the
sufficiency of God's grace in this? Oh brethren, His grace
is sufficient for our every need. Whatever our need is, His grace
is sufficient. Where sin abounds, grace does
much more bound. He is able to save to the uttermost. And you and I have never reached
the uttermost. He provided double what was needed. sufficient in every way. There's no lack on God's part
when it comes to our needs. The only thing lacking in having
our needs met is on our end. We're always crying, Lord, help
my unbelief. Oh, if we could just believe
God. We could believe God. Aren't you grieved that you don't
believe God like you ought? That you have fears and doubts
and worldly passions and desires and distractions and you can't
believe like you want to believe. May God be pleased to increase
our faith and grow us in His grace and in the knowledge of
Christ. and the dissatisfaction. We're satisfied with Christ for
all of our righteousness before God, but we're not satisfied
with our belief in Christ. We're not satisfied with our
faith. We're always striving to know him better,
aren't we? Paul said, oh, that I might know
him, the power of his resurrection, the fellowship of his suffering.
I've not yet apprehended that which has apprehended me. But
this one thing I do, I forget those things which are behind
and I press towards the prize of the high calling of God in
Christ Jesus. He is the prize. I am thine exceeding
great reward. He's the prize. Turn with me to Ephesians 3.
Ephesians 3. This is This is such an encouraging
word from God. And this goes along with David
providing 200 rather than 100. Ephesians chapter three, look
at verse 20. Now unto him, unto him, unto
God, that is able. to do exceedingly, abundantly,
above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh
in us, unto him be glory in the church by Jesus Christ through
all ages world without end. Don't you love the way the Holy
Spirit inspired the apostles to write those words? unto him
that is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we
ask or think." Oh we limit God, don't we? God's not limited.
Why don't we love as we ought? Why don't we give as we ought?
Why don't we believe as we ought? Unbelief, isn't it? Which is
the root of all our problems, all our sin. I want to believe God more than
I do. I want you to believe God. The Lord said to Sarah, after
he told her at 90 years old that she was going to have a child,
and she laughed, and the Lord said, is anything too hard for
God? Anything too hard for him, a
90-year-old woman having a child? Anything too hard for God? Oh, ye of little faith, why have
you doubted? The disciples were afraid they
were going to die. The Lord was in the boat with
them. Why are you doubting? Did the
Lord Jesus Christ not raise Lazarus from the dead after he'd been
in the tomb for four days and stunk? Did he not say, Lazarus
come forth? Did he not put that demon-possessed
man in the gatherings who was chained and cutting himself with
rocks and a madman, a wild man, put him
in his right mind. Did he not do that? Can he not put us in our right
mind? He's done exceedingly abundantly
above all that we should ask or think. Mary Magdalene, I love
this story. Mary Magdalene on the morning
of the resurrection was the first one to the tomb. And the scripture
says she was the one that the Lord Jesus cast seven demons
from her. She was completely possessed
with the devil and she loved Christ. She loved him. She just wanted, she wanted his
body. Oh, the Lord spoke her name, oh,
Rabboni. She didn't want him to ever leave
again, did she? They have been forgiven much,
loved much. The Lord has done abundantly,
exceedingly abundantly above all. He cleansed the leper. He caused the blind to live,
to see. He took a persecutor by the name
of Saul of Tarsus, who was murdering believers and turned him into
a follower of Christ, a disciple that would ultimately lay down
his own life for the gospel. Oh, he does exceedingly abundantly
above all that we could ask or think. David brought two times
what was required. Did he not divide the Red Sea
and cause his children to walk on dry ground? Did he not bring
forth water out of a rock and sustain them for 40 years in
the wilderness, shading them with a cloud by day and guiding
them with a pillar of fire by night, so that after 40 years,
the scripture says, their clothes look the same as they did when
they walked out of Egypt 40 years ago? and their shoes looked exactly
the same as they did when they walked out of Egypt 40 years
ago? Did God not sustain them? The Lord Jesus has blessed us
doubly, abundantly, sufficiently, exceedingly abundantly above
all that we should ask or think. The problem is not with His ability,
the problem is with our faith. It's with our faith, isn't it? Oh Lord, help our unbelief. Did he not sufficiently, abundantly
put away all the sins of all of his people once and for all
by the sacrifice of himself? Did he not do that? Did he not
pay the dowry in full and sufficient enough so that there would never
be lacking? What exactly was this dowry? The foreskin of dead Philistines. What's that represent in the
Bible? Circumcision. What is circumcision a picture
of? We know that the Old Testament law required that they circumcise
their male children at eight days, and that the Lord Jesus
was taken to the temple. And I love that story. The man
by the name of Simeon, who just happened to be in the temple,
an old man, and God had promised him that he would not die until
he saw the Messiah. And when he saw Mary and Joseph
bringing this eight day old baby in to be circumcised, He said, I'm ready to die. I've
seen the consolation of Israel. Lord, you can take me now. I
know all as well. I know all as well. And the Lord
Jesus performed that physical circumcision because the law
required it. And he came not to destroy the
law, but to fulfill the law. And all the jots and tittles
of the law, he fulfilled perfectly. But that wasn't the law that
he was fulfilling. It was his spiritual circumcision. What is circumcision? It's the
cutting off of the flesh. What happened? Isaiah chapter
53 verse 8 says that the Lord Jesus Christ was cut off from
the land of the living. God can't die. But the God-man
can die, which is why the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God,
had to be made in the likeness of sinful flesh. He had to be
born of a woman, born under the law. He had to become a man so
that he could die. That was his purpose. His purpose for coming was to
pay the dowry in the cutting off of his flesh on Calvary's
cross. And he paid double. He paid double. Nothing lacking in the dowry
that he paid to his father. The incarnation of the Son of
God was necessary in order for the God-man to pay our dowry
and win to himself the king's daughter. And that's what he
did on Calvary's cross. And like David, when he heard
what the dowry was, he was pleased. The Lord Jesus Christ, no man
took his life from him. He laid his life down freely. He so loved the world that he
gave. No greater love hath any man
than this, and he laid down his life for his friends. The Lord
Jesus Christ went to the cross gladly. When he was going to
the cross, you remember the women were weeping? He said, don't
weep for me. Don't feel sorry for me. This is the purpose for
which I came into the world. Weep for yourselves. You know,
the religious world wants us to feel sorry for what Jesus
did. You know, they put him on a cross
and make his body all bloody and they, you know, they want
you to look at him and just feel sympathy for him. He said, don't
weep for me, don't feel sorry for me. I'm doing this gladly. I'm paying your dowry. You don't weep for anybody, weep
for yourself. Mourn over your own sin. That's the only hope
we have. Philippians chapter 3, this is
not the only circumcision spoken of in the dowry that the Lord
Jesus paid. You see, without him providing the abundance of the dowry to
his father, there would be no hope of you and I being circumcised. Now, there are men who want to
correlate Old Testament circumcision to New Testament baptism, the
two have nothing to do with each other. Well, I won't say nothing,
but they're not to be correlated. Old Testament circumcision was
always a picture of spiritual circumcision, always, from the
very beginning. It's the circumcision of the
spirit performed in the heart. the cutting away of the flesh. And only if the Holy Spirit causes
us to be born again by His grace and by the power of God will
we give up any hope of being saved by anything
that we do in the power of our flesh. That is the circumcision of the
heart. Let me show you that. Philippians
chapter three, beginning at verse one. Finally,
my brethren rejoice in the Lord to write the same thing to you.
To me is indeed not grievous, but to you, it is safe. And we'll
keep telling you the same story over and over again. It's not
grievous to me to do it. It's your salvation. Beware of
dogs, beware of evil workers, beware of the concision. These
were the men coming in behind the Apostle Paul saying, yes,
the Jesus that Paul is preaching is the Christ along the way to
Messiah, but you also have to experience physical circumcision
in order to be in the kingdom of God. They were called the
concision. They were the Judaizers. They
were the ones who were insisting that Christ wasn't enough. Christ
was necessary, but not sufficient. You had to also have this work
of the law performed in the flesh, which is the message of the gospel
that's being preached by religion today. Christ is necessary, but
he's not sufficient. You have to do your part. make a decision, you have to
perform a work, you have to pray a prayer, you have to live a
certain way, you have to abstain from certain things. So this is not just an old picture
of something, this is exactly what's happening today, isn't
it? Beware of the concision, these false prophets For we are
the circumcision which worship God in the spirit, rejoice in
Christ Jesus, and what? Have no confidence in the flesh. We cannot come before God with
any confidence in anything that we have done. Our confidence is in Christ.
We come boldly before the throne of grace, looking on to Jesus,
who is the author and the finisher of our faith. Who for the joy that was set
before him, suffered the shame, endured the cross, paid the dowry,
and he paid it all. David bring 100, God bring 200. Not gonna be the question about
whether or not this dowry is paid in full. No confidence in the flesh. We
must, if we've been circumcised in the heart, we must look in
faith to the Lord Jesus Christ for all our righteousness before
God. We can't find any hope of salvation
outside of him. He's everything in our salvation. We cannot find anything in ourselves
that would recommend us to God or that would give us any hope
of salvation. It's all in him. This is the circumcision of the
heart performed by the Spirit of God. true children of Abraham are
not those that have been circumcised in the flesh by the hands of
men but those have been circumcised in the heart by the Spirit of
God. By the dowry that he paid and
the work of grace that he's done in my heart he has cut away all
my hope of being saved by anything that I can do. He paid the dowry
and he paid it in full. The circumcision of the heart
is also a God-given desire to mortify the deeds of the flesh. That is the circumcision of the
heart. See, he doesn't just take away our hope in our works for
our salvation. He works in us. The Spirit of
God producing the fruits of the Spirit. The trees of righteousness,
which are the plantings of the Lord, produce the fruits of the
Spirit. Love, joy, peace, long-suffering,
temperance, patience. These are the fruits of the Spirit. He works in us, causing us to
will and to do after His good pleasure. If these things are,
you see, if God's producing fruits of the Spirit, then God gets
all the glory. The desire And the power to mortify
the deeds of the flesh does not give the believer something to
be proud of. He says, Lord, I'm an unprofitable
servant. Lord, when did we do those things?
Isn't that what the believer is going to say on the Day of
Judgment? Lord, when did we do those things? When you did it unto
the least of these, my brethren, you did it unto me. This is circumcision. Let me
show you this. And I said that this circumcision of the flesh
performed by the Jews in the Old Testament was always a picture
of the circumcision of the heart. Let me show you that. Deuteronomy
chapter 10. Yes. Verse 12, and now Israel, what
doth the Lord thy God require of thee? But to fear the Lord
thy God, to walk in all his ways, to love him, to serve the Lord
thy God with all thine heart and with all thy soul, to keep
the commandments of the Lord and his statutes with I command
thee this day for thy good, Behold the heavens, and the heavens
of heavens is the Lord thy God, the earth also with all that
is therein. Only the Lord had delight in
thy fathers to love them and to choose thy seed after them,
even you above all the people as it is this day. Circumcised
therefore the foreskin of your heart, and be no more stiff-necked. Now, turn with me to Deuteronomy
30. God's commanding his people to
circumcise the foreskin of their hearts. They cut off those fleshly
things that would be contrary to the things of God. Deuteronomy
chapter 30, verse six. And the Lord thy God will circumcise
thy heart and the heart of thy seed to love thy God with thine
heart and with thy soul that thou mayest live. What's God
saying? I'm gonna take out your heart
of stone, I'm gonna put in a heart of flesh. I'm gonna cause you
to love me. I'm gonna cause you to love the
things that I love. And I'm gonna cause you to hate
the things that I hate. And you're gonna mourn over your
sin. And you're gonna continue looking to me What God, the first passage we
looked at in Deuteronomy 10, the Lord says, you circumcise
your hearts. And then in chapter 30, he says, I'm going to circumcise
your heart. What do we learn? What God requires, God must provide. The evidence that he has provided
a circumcision of my heart is the desire that he's given me
to circumcise my heart. O Lord, circumcise the flesh
of my heart. Cut away, doubly so, any trust
that I have in fleshly means for the hope of my salvation.
And take from my heart unholy desires for gratifying the lust
of my flesh and cause me to follow after Christ? Lord, circumcise
my heart. Is that not the believer's desire? Turn with me to Romans chapter
6. Romans chapter 6. Verse 11, likewise, reckon yourselves to be dead
indeed unto sin. Reckon it to be so because it
is. You died in Christ. He died to destroy the works
of the devil. The works of the devil is sin,
death. Reckon yourself to be dead indeed.
This is who you are. but alive unto God through Jesus
Christ our Lord. Let not sin therefore reign in
your mortal body that you should obey it in the lust thereof,
neither yield to your members as instruments of unrighteousness
unto sin, but yield yourself unto God as those that are alive
from the dead and your members as instruments of righteousness
unto God, for sin shall not have dominion over you. Why? Because
you're not under the law, you're under grace. Now here's the truth,
brethren. We don't live our lives for righteousness, but we do live them from righteousness. We live them from righteousness.
It's God saying to you and me, this is what I did when I paid
your dowry. This is what I did when I gave you my spirit. This
is what I did when I cut off all your hope of salvation. by
any works of your flesh. This is what I'm doing right
now, working in you, causing you to will and to do after my
good pleasure. This is who you are. Jeremiah chapter 3, chapter 4,
verse 3 says, break up the fallow ground of your heart and sow
not among the thorns. Circumcise yourself to the Lord
and take away the foreskin of your heart. Child of God, I know that's your
desire because God's put that in your heart. And it's all of his grace, not
something you came up with. Not something you disciplined
yourself into. And it's certainly not something
you can take any pride in. But it is the circumcision of
the heart. Lord, take away those fleshly things
that would take me away from you. That's your desire, isn't it? And you've had enough experience
with sin to know that that's exactly what it does. Exactly
what it does. All right. I pray the Lord will comfort you one another with
these words. Oh, he paid the dowry in full. He was happy to
do it. And he got Michael, who at least
at the beginning, we're going to find out more about Michael
later on, but at least at the beginning, Michael loved it.
And we'll just leave it at that as far as a picture of the gospel. All right. Our Heavenly Father, thank you
for the hope that you've given us. Thank you for the work of
grace. that you do in us. Lord, forgive us and keep us for thy name's sake, we ask it
in Christ's name, amen. Number 127. 127, let's stand
together. Thank you. ? Man of sorrows, what a name ?
For the Son of God who came ? Ruined sinners to reclaim ? Hallelujah,
what a Savior ? Bearing shame and scoffing rude ? In my place
condemned he stood ? Sealed my pardon with his blood ? Hallelujah,
what a Savior ? Guilty, vile, and helpless weep ? ? Spotless
Lamb of God was He ? ? Full atonement can it be ? ? Hallelujah, what
a Savior He is ? ? Lifted up was he to die ? It is finished
was his cry ? Now in heaven exalted high ? Hallelujah, what a Savior
When He comes, our glorious King, All His ransomed home to bring,
Then anew this song we'll sing, Hallelujah, what a Savior!