Well, if you turn in your Bibles
to Acts chapter 15, I just wanted to, in this first section of
our service this morning, just look at the issue of circumcision.
And you might notice that the cause of the controversy was
over. These brethren that had said
they came from James and they said they came with the authority
from the church in Jerusalem, they said that in verse 1 of
Acts 15 that said, and except you be circumcised after the
manner of Moses, you cannot be saved. And just to make it very
clear about what they were saying, in verse 5 it says, there arose
a certain of the sect of the Pharisees, which was the group
that Paul belonged to. There were about at least 7,000
of them in Israel at the time, so they were a very, very large
group of extremely zealous people, and to be a Pharisee was to be
officially one who was separated. You were separated from the evil,
idolatrous religion, even separated from something of the religion
of the Pharisees and others. They saw themselves as those
on an inside track with God because of their obedience, because of
their law keeping, because of their zeal, because of their
knowledge of the scriptures and so on and so forth. You can put
Paul's name in there and those that joined with him. But there
rose up a certain sect of the Pharisees which believed, saying
that it was needful to circumcise them and to command them to keep
the law of Moses. And so circumcision for these
Pharisees was something that was an inroad into keeping all
the law of Moses. They were saying that These Pharisees
who believed, they were saying that it's all very well, it's
all very well for you to have faith in the Lord Jesus Christ,
to have faith in Him as a saviour, have some faith in Him as a sovereign,
but no faith in Him as a sanctifier of His people. the Pharisees
of that day are the Pharisees of this day. But the thing that
I want us to note as we've been going through this is that the
apostles almost ignored all of that when they got together.
Paul went down there and he preached the wonderful works that God
had done, and Peter gets up and he preaches the fact that God
made choice among us, verse 7, halfway through verse 7, that
the Gentiles by my mouth should hear the word of the gospel and
believe. And God, which knoweth the heart, bare them witness,
giving them the Holy Ghost, even as he did unto us. And he put
no difference between us and them, purifying their hearts
by faith. Now therefore why tempt ye God? to put a yoke upon the neck of
the disciples which neither our fathers nor we were able to bear. But we believe that through the
grace of the Lord Jesus Christ we shall be saved even as they."
Then all the multitude kept silence and gave audience to Barnabas
and Paul declaring what miracles and wonders God had wrought among
the Gentiles by them. And after they had held their
peace, James answers, saying, Men and brethren, hearken unto
me. Simeon has declared how God at
first did visit the Gentiles to take out of them a people
for his name. And to this agree the words of
the prophets as it is written. After this I will return and
will build again the tabernacle of David which is fallen down
and I will build again the ruins thereof and I will set it up
that the residue of men might seek after the Lord and all the
Gentiles upon whom my name is called saith the Lord who doeth
all these things. Known unto God are all his works
from the beginning of the world. But James and the other apostles
write a letter to the Gentile believers, and in that letter
they mention what these Pharisees, these so-called believing Pharisees,
were saying in verse 24, for as much as we have heard that
certain went out from us have troubled you with words subverting
your souls, saying you must be circumcised and keep the law. And James and all the other apostles
gathered together declared these men to be liars. They are subverting
your souls by lying. To whom we gave no such commandment."
So I just wanted to look I wanted to look at the issue of circumcision
so that we actually have a clear understanding of what circumcision
in the scriptures is really all about. When it comes to the issue
of circumcision, those of you who know your scriptures might
realise that these men not only were subverting the souls of
people and lying about their association and authority that
came from the church in Jerusalem, which they had none of, but also
they were talking about circumcision after the law of Moses. But circumcision
goes way beyond that, and it's much earlier than that, and I'd
like us to turn in our scriptures to Genesis These men, these false teachers
are wanting people to live in a way where you can measure their
outward obedience. And by measuring their outward
obedience, you can measure how sanctified they are and how much
they are walking in obedience to God by the things that they
do. But Abraham is a great lesson for us. And if you are a child
of God, If you are a child of God, you are a faith child of
Abraham. That's what the scriptures say.
And if you are a child of God, the blessings of Abraham are
your blessings now. which is why the circumcision
of Abraham is interesting, isn't it? You see, Abraham got a call
from God. Abraham was an Iraqi idolater,
and people want to sanctify the life of Abraham to make him much
prettier than he really was. The reality is that if you read
on in Genesis, you'll find that when Jacob's back there, living
with Abraham's nephew Laban, their house is full of idols.
In fact, when Jacob leaves and takes his wives and children,
Laban's more concerned about the idols that have been stolen
by his daughter than he is about his children and grandchildren.
So let's not play games with what the scriptures say. Let's
not add or detract. The reality is that Abraham is
a sinner. Abraham is a child of Adam, and
he fell in his father Adam, and Abraham came forth from his mother's
womb speaking lies, and he didn't have to be taught to be a sinner. In fact, he lied, if you read
these accounts. He lied twice to protect himself. He lied about his wife, Sarah,
twice. So Abraham is in so many wonderful
ways a picture of salvation by sovereign grace, that God reached
out and gathered Abraham to himself, because Abraham belonged to the
Lord Jesus before the foundation of the world. And Abraham received
this call in verse, in chapter, in Genesis chapter 12. Now, the
Lord had said unto Abraham, Get thee out of thy country, and
from thy kindred, and from thy father's house, unto a land that
I will show you. And I will make of thee a great
nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great, and
thou shalt be a blessing. And I will bless them that bless
thee, and curse them that curses thee, and in thee shall all the
families of the earth be blessed. So Abraham departed, as the Lord
had spoken to him, and his lot went with him. Abraham at this
stage wasn't circumcised. Abraham is a picture of God gathering
his people together. Abraham is a picture also of
God gathering his people together and blessing all of his people
in one man. The one man that he blessed all
of his people in is the great, great, great, great, great grandson
of Abraham. It's all a picture of the Lord
Jesus Christ. And Abraham had all of these
blessings. He had all of these remarkable
blessings in chapter 15. The word of the Lord, verse one,
the word of the Lord came to Abraham in vision. Fear not,
Abraham, I am thy shield and thy exceeding great reward. And Abraham said, Lord God, what
will you give me, seeing I go childless? And the steward of
mine house is this Eleazar of Damascus. And Abraham said, Behold,
to me thou hast given no seed, lo, one born in mine house is
mine heir. And behold, the word of the Lord
came unto him, saying, This shall not be thine heir, but he that
shall come forth out of thine own bowels shall be thine heir.
And he brought him forth abroad, and he said, Look now toward
heaven, and tell the stars, if you be able to count them. And
he said unto him, So shall thy seed be. And the next verse is repeated
four times in the New Testament to describe all the children
of God. And he believed in the Lord, and he counted it to him
for righteousness. Abraham believed God, and God
imputed it to him. God said, this is righteousness.
This is your righteousness. Abraham believed in the Lord
Jesus Christ, As the Lord Jesus says in John chapter 8, Abraham
saw my day. He saw my day and he rejoiced.
And see all this has happened before Abraham is circumcised
and all of this has happened 450 years before the law came
at all. Abraham simply walked with God
by faith. He was a friend of God. God came
to him and God met with him. And God gave him a great picture
of that work of God, that salvation is entirely from beginning to
end, from before the foundation of the world until all eternity,
salvation is all of the Lord entirely. Let's read on in Genesis 15. And he said unto him, I am the
Lord that brought thee out of all Ur of the Chaldees. Abraham
didn't bring himself out, the Lord brought him out. To give
thee this land to inherit it. And he said, Lord God, whereby
shall I know that I shall inherit it? And he said unto him, Take
me an heifer of three years old, and a she-goat of three years
old, and a ram of three years old, and a turtle dove, and a
young pigeon. And he took unto him all these and divided them
in midst. He cut them in half, he cut those
animals in half and he laid them out half on each side. It was
a covenant cutting ceremony in blood and what you did in those
days when you were making a very serious agreement, you cut the
animals in half and you and whoever you were going into the covenant
with walked between the dead animals and you were saying to
the person who was walking with you, if I break my promise, This
is what I deserve. It was a solemn thing. And he
divided them in the midst and laid each piece one against the
other and the birds, but the birds divided he not. And when
the fowls came down upon the carcasses, Abram drove them away. These carcasses, obviously, are
pictures of the Lord Jesus Christ and Him crucified. And when the
sun was going down, a deep sleep fell upon Abram, and lo, a horror
of great darkness fell upon him. And he said unto Abram, Know
of a surety that thy seed shall be a stranger in a land that
is not theirs, and shall serve them, and they shall afflict
them four hundred years. And also that nation whom they
shall serve will I judge, and afterwards shall they come out
with great substance, And thou shalt go to thy fathers in peace,
thou shalt be buried in a good old age, but in the fourth generation
they shall come hither again, for the iniquity of the Ammonites
is not yet full. And it came to pass, when the
sun went down, and it was dark." So what's Abraham doing? What's
Abraham doing while this covenant's being cut, brothers and sisters?
If you're a child of Abraham, you're a child of God, you're
a faith child of Abraham, consider yourself there. What were you
doing? You were asleep. You were doing
absolutely nothing. The sun went down, verse 17,
and it was dark, and behold, a smoking furnace and a burning
lamp. that passed between those people. These are representatives, obviously,
of the Lord Jesus Christ and Him crucified. That fire of God's
wrath that fell upon the Lord Jesus Christ, that burning lamp
of these promised words of God. In the same day, the Lord made
a covenant with Abram, saying, Unto thy seed have I given this
land from the river of Egypt to the great river, the river
Euphrates. He gives him that land. In chapter 17, he renews
that covenant. And when Abraham was 90 years
and nine, so God now waited. Abraham had been in this place
and been traveling with the Lord for 24 years. The Lord appeared
to Abraham and said unto him, I am the almighty God. Walk before
me and be thou perfect. That's what God requires of you.
That's what God requires of all of you faith children of God,
isn't it? Walk before me and be thou perfect. People say, well, I'm doing the
best. God says, walk before me and be thou perfect. Abraham believed God. Abraham
met with the Lord Jesus Christ to walk before Him and be perfect,
to be holy, as 1 Peter says. I remember the first message
I heard when I came back from India just horrified me. Someone
spoke on this verse out of 1 Peter as It says, but as he which hath
called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation,
all of your walks and all of your activities, because it is
written, be ye holy, for I am holy. And the preacher went on
to tell us what holiness was like, what we could do, how we
could live, how we could conduct ourselves. Holiness is not something
you can do, brothers and sisters. Just like perfection is not something
you can do. Abraham was in a covenant relationship
with God. God said, I am your shield. I am your shield. I am your shield to protect you
from myself. and on your exceeding great reward.
To be perfect, to walk before Him and be perfect, is to simply
trust the One who is perfect. To walk before Him and be holy
is simply by faith to look to the Lord Jesus Christ. It's not
about your doing, it's about His doing. He's the only person
who ever lived on this earth who was perfectly holy. In everything
he thought, in everything he did, he was perfectly holy. He
perfectly obeyed the law of God, and it was easy. He perfectly
obeyed the law of God, and it was daily his delight to do so. And the wonder, the wonder of
salvation is that all of God's children were in Him when He
did it. Just as that seed, the promised
seed, was in the loins of Abraham, the Lord Jesus Christ was in
the loins of Abraham, we walk before God and be perfect simply
by looking to the Lord Jesus Christ. But this covenant, this covenant
is the covenant that God has cut. This is the covenant that
God's actually going to cause his people to walk in. That's
one of the delights of the everlasting covenant and the covenant of
grace, is that God provides everything that he requires and he provides
it in his own. Look down at verse 10 of chapter
17. 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." See, Abraham at this stage wasn't
circumcised. Abraham, prior to this in chapter
16, has done what all of us do in this flesh of ours. We try
always to do something to make ourselves right with God. That's
exactly what Hagar is about. In Galatians 3 we'll see that's
exactly what Hagar is, is a picture of the law. It's a picture of
you going back to your obedience. See, Abraham had a promise from
God, and Sarah had a promise from God, and the promise took
a long time to come. You know some promises like that?
It took a long time to come. And Abraham grew impatient because
it wasn't happening at the pace that Abraham wanted it. And Sarah
grew impatient. And so what did they do? What
did they do? Abraham went into Hagar. by the will of man and by the
acts of man. And he produced, with Hagar,
he produced Ishmael, which is exactly what we produce all the
time by the activities of our flesh. But Abraham is still not
circumcised. So Abraham is circumcised after
all of this has happened. You see, the child of promise
comes after the circumcision. The child of promise comes after
all human effort is shown to be worthless again and again
and again. The child of promise comes after
man has been shown that it is like Abraham and Sarah, both
of them barren. The child of promise comes after
it's impossible for man to produce fruit. The Lord God gave Abraham life
and faith to believe in Christ, the coming Messiah. As I said
earlier in John 8, Abraham saw the day of the Lord Jesus Christ
and he rejoiced. See, Abraham's circumcision is
a picture of the circumcision of the heart that God does in
the lives of his people, where he cuts away that polluted, fleshly
old nature. But he doesn't remove it altogether,
but he creates a new nature. He creates a new nature. See,
the circumcision, the real circumcision, was done in Abraham's heart. The circumcision that was done
in Abraham's flesh before he produced Isaac was just a picture. If you turn to Romans 4, there's a New Testament commentary
upon this. So when you read circumcision
like these Pharisees did, you need to read works that you have
to do. Romans 4, he speaks of David
and Abraham. Abraham was not justified by works. Abraham was justified
by faith, as you read earlier, and David talks in verse 6 about
the blessedness of the man unto whom God imputes righteousness
without works, saying, Blessed are those whose iniquities are
forgiven, whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man to whom the
Lord will not impute sin. So how do you get this blessedness?
Does this blessedness come upon the circumcision or upon the
uncircumcision also? Verse 9, for we say that faith
was reckoned to Abraham for righteousness. How then was it reckoned? When
he was in circumcision or in uncircumcision? Not in circumcision,
but uncircumcised. Abraham wasn't circumcised. The
question in Acts 15, of course, is that these Jews are saying
that you have to be circumcised, you have to be like us to be
saved. You have to be like us and keep
the law of Moses to be saved. Let's read on. Abraham wasn't
circumcised, and he received the sign of circumcision, a seal
of the righteousness of faith which he had, yet being uncircumcised,
that he might be the father of all them that believe, though
they be not circumcised. that the righteousness, that
righteousness with Abraham had by faith, the righteousness of
the Lord Jesus Christ imputed to him, might be imputed to them
also, and the father of the circumcision to them who are not of the circumcision
only, but who also walk in the steps of that faith of our father
Abraham, which he had, being yet uncircumcised. for the promise
that he should be the heir of the world was not to Abraham
or to his seed. Through the law, because the
law didn't come at this stage, it was 450 years later, but through
the righteousness of faith, For if they which are of the law
be heirs, that word of designates origin. If you attach anything
in your Christian life in origin and in reward or in work right
now to something that you do, it's law keeping, it's works
and God won't accept it. For if they which are of the
law be heirs, faith is made void, and the promise made of none
effect. Because the law worketh wroth. For where there is no law, there
is no transgression. Therefore it is of faith that
it might be by grace to the end that the promise might be sure
to all the seed, not to that only which is of the law, but
to that also which is of the faith of Abraham, who is the
father of us all. Abraham received the sign of
circumcision as a seal of the blessedness that he already had
with God. He'd received the promises years
and years before that. He'd received the very presence
of God. It was a seal of the righteousness
he had while he was yet uncircumcised. His circumcision didn't add anything
to his righteousness before God, one little tiny bit. I love Verse
5, while you're in Romans 4. To go back to verse 4. Now, to
him that worketh is the reward not reckoned of grace, but of
debt. And that's what people are doing with their works all
the time. They're trying to put God under some debt, some obligation
to them. But grace comes without any works
of ours. But to him that worketh not,
So this is a qualification for being a child of Abraham. This
is a qualification for entering into heaven. But to him that
worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly,
his faith is counted for righteousness. So there are two qualifications,
aren't there? You have to be ungodly, to be ungodly. To be ungodly is to be someone
who doesn't worship God, is what that really means. To be ungodly
in yourself. You see, nothing in yourself
that causes God to want to reward you in any way at all. You have
to be an ungodly believer. An ungodly believer. Any of you
here ungodly believers? Don't tell me I am the one speaking
to you is an ungodly believer. And so the big issue for these
Judaizers who will plague the church and have plagued the church
of God for the next 2,000 years is that they always look at external
things and not look at internal things. If you go while you're
in Romans there, if you go back to Romans 2.28, For he is not a Jew which is
one outwardly, neither is that circumcision which is outward
in the flesh, 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. See, truly circumcised
in the heart people know that there's nothing in them worthy
of any praise whatsoever from men, and they're not looking
for it, they're not desiring it. It is remarkable, isn't it, that
these false teachers, as they have abounded in this last 2,000
years, they've ignored the circumcision of Abraham, and they've ignored
what God says about it, and they've attributed this circumcision
to Moses and entry into all the law. They've just ignored what
Moses said. Moses said in Deuteronomy 10.16,
he says, circumcise therefore the foreskin of your heart and
be no more stiff-necked. Well, how on earth do you do
that, brothers and sisters? How do you circumcise the foreskin
of your heart? How do you cut around your heart? It's the work
of God entirely. Deuteronomy 30 verse 6 says,
and the Lord thy God, this is how it happens, will circumcise
your heart and the heart of your seed. And when he circumcises
your heart, brothers and sisters, you read it in Deuteronomy 30
verse 6, he circumcised your heart. to love the Lord your
God. So you can't love the Lord your
God and look to your works at all. You love him with all your
heart and with all your soul. You love him internally. You
love him from the heart that thou mayest live. See these people, see the word
of God just through carnal eyes, and they see it as a book of
rules about doing and living, and not doing and dying. But embedded in the very law
of God is an impossibility. I'll just close with this. In
John chapter 7, the Lord Jesus Christ brings this whole issue
to them. They criticise him, they criticise
him because he said to them, he healed a man on the Sabbath
day. And then he tells them what's really going on in their hearts.
Did not, in verse 19, did not Moses give you the law? And yet
none of you keeps the law, so why are you going about to kill
me? And the people answered and said, thou hast a devil, who
goeth about to kill thee? Dear, oh dear, who was right
there? Jesus answered and said unto them, I have done one work,
and you all marvel. Moses therefore gave unto you
circumcision, not because it is of Moses, but of the fathers. And ye on the Sabbath day circumcise
a man, so a male baby had to be circumcised on the eighth
day. If a man on the Sabbath day receives circumcision, that
the law of Moses should not be broken. And ye are angry at me,
because I made a man every whit hole on the Sabbath day. Judge not according to appearance,
but judge righteous judgment. So embedded in the law of Moses
that these men were wanting the believers in Antioch and the
believers throughout time to do, to be doing, doing, doing,
the very law of Moses made it impossible. You cannot keep the
Law of Moses of circumcision and not break the Law of Moses
on Sabbath. It's impossible. And it's written
into the Law of Moses. So what does the believer do?
Like Abraham and Sarah, what's impossible with man is possible
with God. In closing, I'm now looking at
our friend Abraham. Let's turn to Hebrews chapter
11. lovely description of Abraham
and his walk of faith. Abraham was put in a strange
country, wasn't he? Sojourned in a land of promise,
as in a strange country, verse nine. Dwelling in tabernacles
with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise.
For he looked for a city which has foundations. There were plenty
of cities around, and there were plenty of foundations around.
Walls and things, they were great builders, they'd just come from
building the Tower of Babel and been scattered, these people,
they knew how to build things. Abraham was looking. Verse 10
of chapter 11 of Hebrews, for a city that has foundations,
whose builder and maker is God. Verse 16, they desire a better
country, that is, a heavenly country. Wherefore God is not
ashamed to be called their God, for He has prepared for them
a city." See, Abraham was looking away from all the things of the
flesh of this world, and he was looking beyond the things that
he could see around him. He was looking way beyond the
things that he did in his own flesh. He just simply trusted
God. He met with Him. He knew Him. and he trusted him. Okay, let's
sing again.