Alright brethren, let's turn
to Genesis chapter 17. Genesis chapter 17. Now let's read these first eight
verses again together. When Abraham was ninety years
old and nine, the Lord appeared to Abram and said unto him, I
am the Almighty God. walk before me, and be thou perfect. And I will make my covenant between
me and thee, and will multiply thee exceedingly.' And Abram
fell on his face, and God talked with him, saying, As for me,
behold, my covenant is with thee, and thou shalt be a father of
many nations. Neither shall thy name any more
be called Abram, but thy name shall be Abraham. For a father
of many nations have I made thee. And I will make thee exceeding
fruitful, and I will make nations of thee, and kings shall come
out of thee. And I will establish my covenant
between me and thee, and thy seed after thee, in their generations,
for an everlasting covenant, to be a God unto thee, and to
thy seed after thee. and I will give unto thee and
to thy seed after thee the land wherein thou art a stranger,
all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession, and I
will be their God." Sanctification is the work of
God's grace. It's the work of His grace whereby
He sets apart and consecrates to himself all his children. God the Father separated and
made holy his people, consecrated to himself in the mind and purpose
of God when he divinely elected them unto salvation in Christ. Ephesians 1 says that we should
be holy and without blame before him in love and truly in Christ. in his son, his children, have
always been holy and without blame before him in their surety. And then secondly, by the circumcision
of Christ, that which Christ did when he went to the cross
and took the sins of his people himself and bore those sins in
his own body on the tree, he put away the body of sins, the
filth of the flesh of his people. And then by the Spirit of God,
He comes and circumcises the heart and makes a new creature
so that we behold the work is done in our Lord. God Himself
is going to receive all the glory for sanctifying His children
unto Himself. He's going to receive all the
glory. And He's going to receive all the glory because it's God
Himself who purges the conscience from dead works to serve Him,
who makes us to behold His Son in righteousness and behold that
we are the righteousness of God in Him. And it's God who's going
to make it so that this everlasting promise that He's written on
our heart in the beginning, He continues to renew it and continues
to keep us looking nowhere but to Him and to wait on the promises
of God by faith. That's where He's going to keep
us. Now, what God did for Abraham in our text shows us the Lord's
work of grace in the hearts of His people whereby God sanctifies
his children from ourselves to Christ by whom we're saved. That's
what I want you to see tonight in our text. First of all, I
want you to see this, that sanctification is all of God's grace. Second thing, that sanctification
is accomplished in us by God making us to behold himself. and our Savior Christ Jesus.
And thirdly, He makes this everlasting promise, continually new, by
continually showing us, manifesting to us, through the Gospel, what
He has accomplished and shall accomplish for us. It's all of
grace, it's by beholding Him, and it's by Him continually renewing
these promises in our heart. All right, let's see the first
thing here, that sanctification is all of God's grace. Genesis
17, verse 1 says, when Abram was 99 years old, the Lord appeared
to Abraham. Now, this wasn't the first time
that God appeared to him. God appeared to him back in Genesis
12. Look back there. And this is
when God began His work in Abraham. And He did it by promise. I want
you to see this. Genesis 12, 1. 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 thee. 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 him that cursed thee. And in thee shall all families
of the earth be blessed. Now he, look at verse 7, the
Lord had said this to Abraham when yet his father was living.
When his father died, it says, verse 7, the Lord appeared unto
Abram and said, Unto thy seed will I give this land. And there
builded he an altar unto the Lord who appeared unto him. And
he removed from there and he left, just as God told him. Verse
4 again says, Abraham departed as the Lord had spoken unto him.
And Lot, his nephew, went with him. And Abram was seventy-five
years old when he departed out of Haran. And he took Sarah,
his wife, and Lot, his brother's son, and all their substance
that they had gathered, and the souls that they had gotten in
Haran, and they went forth to go into the land of Canaan. Into
the land of Canaan they came." Now, Abraham didn't do anything
to merit what God did here. Abraham was in a land of idolatry.
He was surrounded by the unclean and he was satisfied with the
unclean and all he was touching and eating and drinking and sleeping
was the unclean. That's all in a land of idolatry. But God came to him and he sanctified
Abraham. He made Abraham to know what
he had already done for Abraham when he put him in Christ before
the world began. He came to him and he made Abraham
to know that he was a chosen child of God's mercy. And he
did two things here. He revealed a promise to Abraham,
made him to know all this was by word of God's promise. I'm going to do this. I'm going
to do this. And he appeared to Abraham. Abraham
saw God. by faith. Now, that's what the
scriptures tell us in Hebrews 11, 8. By faith, Abraham, when
he was called to go out into a place that he should afterwards
receive for an inheritance, he obeyed. That's always the result
when God makes himself known and makes this promise in the
hearts of his people. He obeyed. That's what this sanctifying
work of God's grace results in. His people obey him. But I want
you to see that now. This work from idolatry to God
was by God's grace. God did it freely for Abraham
and he did it in Abraham's heart by word of promise. And Abraham
obeyed him through faith and he went out just as God said.
And then But over and over again, if you read through Genesis,
from Genesis 12 up to our text, you'll find that every time the
Lord appeared to him, He made this promise to him again. He
renewed this promise to him again and again. And then in Genesis
15, I want you to look there. Genesis 15, verses 1 through
6. All these promises that God made
to Abraham was in Abraham's seed, in a son that was going to come
forth from Abraham. Look now at verse 1. After these
things, the word of the Lord came unto Abram in a vision,
saying, Fear not, Abram, I am thy shield and thy exceeding
great reward. And Abram said, Lord God, What
wilt thou give me, seeing I go childless? And the steward of
my house is this Eleazar of Damascus. And Abram said, Behold, to me
thou hast given no seed, and lo, one born in my house is mine
heir. Abraham knew. This word was through
a son that God was going to give him. And he knew that son was
going to be the heir of all things. And he knew that these nations
that were going to be blessed were going to be blessed in this
son. But Abraham asked God, he said, God, as of yet, I don't
have a son. He didn't have a child. He's
75 years old or more at this time. Now look at this, and behold,
the Word of the Lord came. This is God's Word. Everything's
in the Word. You know why it's so important
to come and hear the Gospel? You know why God was pleased
to save through the preaching of the Gospel? Because God's
done everything through the Word. And He's going to do everything
through the Word. Christ is the Word. And he speaks through the
voice, through his word. And this is how he creates obedience
in his people, through the word. Behold, the word of the Lord
came unto him, saying, This shall not be thine heir, this Eleazar
of Damascus, but he that shall come forth out of thine own bowels
shall be thine heir. He's going to come forth from
you, Abraham, out of your lineage. And he brought him forth abroad,
and he said, Look now toward heaven. Tell the stars if thou
be able to number them." You can imagine that desert land
in the Delta in Arkansas. You can see from east to west. You can see from one end to the
other. And you can see stars from one side to the other. And
he said, look at all these stars. And he said, this is how many
children you're going to have, Abraham. And yet Abraham hadn't
had a son, not even one son. And he said unto him, so shall
thy seed be. and he believed in the Lord and
he counted it unto him for righteousness." Now this seed, this innumerable
multitude of children has a reference to all of the elect of God whom
God put in Christ before the world began. But this seed, this
one child in whom they're all going to be called, the immediate
child would be Isaac. But that Isaac was a type of
that firstborn son of God, that one who is Christ Jesus our Lord. He would come forth, the seed
of woman. He would come forth, the seed
of Abraham. He would come forth, the seed
of David. He would come forth and he, this
one who is the son of God, he would accomplish the redemption
of his people. That's what Galatians 3.16 tells
us. And I quote this to you a lot,
especially lately when we're looking at covenant. If you want
to look at it again, Galatians 3.16 says, Now to Abraham and
to his seed were the promises made. He saith not unto seeds
as of many, but as of one, and to thy seed, which is Christ. Do you see this seed? that he's
talking about is Christ. This son who's going to come
is Christ. This everlasting covenant that
God makes, this word that God speaks into the heart, it's the
gospel. And this is how he truly sanctifies
his people. this word. And it was all by
promise, all by God's covenant. And this covenant is ordered
and sure because God entrusted this all into the hands of His
Son before He ever made anything. Now, this work is the work when
we think of and we hear of the Lord before He went to the cross,
when He said, I have finished the work which thou gavest me
to do." He's talking about this work that Christ entered into
oath in eternity to fulfill. The Son of God entered into covenant
to fulfill. When He cried out on the cross
and said, this work that he promised the father he would do of redeeming
his people of making his people the righteousness of God in him
by putting away their sins by being sacrificed himself and
by his own death paying the wages of sin which is death for his
people and Christ did this so that everyone that he He died
for this work is finished for them because Christ finished
it. It's all together finished. We
see this work of sanctification being all of God's grace, not
only in the fact that God called Abraham when Abraham wasn't seeking
God. He was in a land of idolatry
and God came to him and spoke this word into his heart and
separated Abraham unto himself and made Abraham willing to follow
after him. We not only see it in that, we
see it in the fact that after God had made this promise to
Abraham, Genesis 16 tells us. Look at verse 1. Now Sarai, Abraham's
wife, bare him no children. And she had a handmaid, an Egyptian,
whose name was Hagar. And Sarai said unto Abram, Behold
now, the Lord hath restrained me from bearing. I pray thee,
go in unto my maid, and it may be that I may obtain children
by her. And Abraham hearkened to the voice of Sarai. And Sarai,
Abraham's wife, took Hagar, her maid, the Egyptian, after Abram
had dwelt ten years in the land of Canaan, and gave her to her
husband Abram to be his wife. Now look at verse 15. And Hagar bare Abram a son, and
Abram called his son's name which Hagar bare Ishmael. And Abram
was fourscore and six years old when Hagar bare Ishmael to Abraham. Now, Paul tells us in the book
of Galatians that these two women, Sarah and Hagar, represent the
two covenants. Don't let anybody confuse you
about how many covenants there are. There are just two covenants. You have your Bible is divided
into the Old Testament, the Old Covenant, and the New Testament,
the New Covenant. Abraham waited. He had this promise
of God and he waited, but no son came. And so Sarah and Abraham
come up with this plan. And so Abraham goes in and he
has a son by Hagar, the handmaid. But Hagar represents the old
covenant. Hagar represents that covenant
that Adam broke in the garden. Hagar represents the covenant
of works which God gave years later after this, 430 years later,
which He gave at Mount Sinai. Hagar represents that covenant
that came second, just like Hagar was second to Sarah, that covenant
came second. The new covenant, the everlasting
covenant of grace came first. And Sarah represents that covenant.
She represents the new covenant, that covenant that's written
on the heart by the Spirit of God as it was when Abraham was
called and this promise was made in his heart. That's the covenant
that God made with Abraham, and that's the covenant God makes
with all His children in the heart. This is what's pictured
in the circumcision that we see Abraham doing in Genesis 17. It's pictured the new birth.
It's picturing that putting off of the sins of the body of the
flesh by the circumcision of Christ, by Him. That's what this
typifies. But when Abraham took Hagar to
be his wife, It was the same as this. It's the same as you
today sitting here and you hear the Word of the Gospel and you
rejoice in the Word of the Gospel that God saves His people completely
in Christ Jesus the Lord alone. Through faith entrusting Him
to do all the work, we wait by faith for His promise. It's the
same as you hearing this Word and then you decide, well, Christ
hadn't come back yet. Maybe I need to do something
to just make sure. Maybe I need to turn back now
to the law and make sure that I've done everything that I can
do to help God out a little bit. He mixed His fleshly wisdom with
God's wisdom. He mixed His works with God's
work. He mixed law with grace. It was
an act of unbelief, not faith. It was touching the unclean,
is what it was. He turned back to the idolatry
of our carnal, fleshly reasoning, is what Abraham did. And the
result was he produced a child of his flesh, of his will, of
his works, of that bondmaker. And that wasn't at all the heir
of his house. It wasn't at all any work done
by God. But our text tells us 13 years
passed and yet God didn't destroy him. God didn't turn him away. God didn't let Abraham go. But our text says, Genesis 17-1,
when Abram was 99 years old and nine, the Lord appeared to Abram. Even though he had done this
thing. Even though he turned back to his flesh and to his
will. He's a child of grace. You see, God didn't choose Abraham
based on any works he had done, and God wasn't going to let him
go based on any works he had done. That's what it means to
be a child of God's grace. God gave these promises of salvation
to Abraham by promise, by grace, not according to Abraham's works,
and so God won't let Abraham go. He will not, even though
Abraham turned aside for a while and did this, He won't let Abraham
return to his former idolatry. He's going to keep him, and He's
going to do it not because of anything in Abraham, but by his
own grace. You see that? Sanctification
is all of the grace of God, all by the power of God. Now here's
the second thing. We talk about this word. Let
me just interject this. We talk about this word. I was
telling Emma and Will this week. That's why our word is so important.
You know, when we say we're going to do a thing, it's important
because the Word means everything to us. God's promise is everything
to us. This everlasting Word of God's
promise is all our salvation. It's all our salvation. So our
Word's important. A man's Word's important. Well,
here's the second thing. is by God continually revealing
Christ to us. Now look what happened when he
came to Abram. Verse 1. When Abram was ninety years old
and nine, the Lord appeared to Abram and he said unto him, I
am the Almighty God. Walk before me and be thou perfect. I am the Almighty God. El Shaddai. All powerful to bring to pass
that which He had promised, all-powerful to accomplish the salvation of
His people without any help from man's impotent hand. That's why
He sent Christ forth, because there's no way you and I could
do this work. And He's all-powerful to send
forth Christ, and through Christ He has accomplished His work.
And He's all-powerful, all-powerful to nourish His children in all
times of trial, in all our temptation. He's El Shaddai. And this is
his word that this all-powerful God nourishes us with and speaks
to into our hearts. Walk before me and be thou perfect. This word is first of all a statement
of fact. It's a statement of fact. The
only reason God didn't destroy Abraham was for looking to Hagar,
for looking to himself, looking to his will and to his wisdom
and to his works. And the only reason God won't
destroy any child of His grace who turns aside and turns to
the unclean thing and tries to sanctify ourselves and begin
to look at what we've either put away or what we don't do
anymore and start thinking, oh, this is good. This is good. We start looking at those things.
The only reason He doesn't cast us away when we do those things
is because We're perfect. The believer's perfect in Christ
Jesus the Lord. Perfect in Him. God's standard
of righteousness is absolute perfection. And Christ is that
perfection. And all His people are absolutely
perfect in Christ Jesus. Secondly, this word of promise
is because God put Abraham in... secondly, this is a word of promise.
Walk before me and be thou perfect. It's a word of promise. Because
God put Abraham in Christ, because God had begun this work of grace
in Abraham's heart, God would not allow Abraham's flesh and
his ignorance to dominate him and to turn him again to idolatry
so that Abraham could be turned aside and perish. He wouldn't
allow him to do it. That's exactly what the Scriptures
mean in Romans 6.14 when it says, Sin shall not have dominion over
you for you're not under the law but under grace. God's not
going to allow you to be defiled by your own doing. He will not allow one of his
children of grace to be so. And then thirdly, this is a command. And this is the command that
God speaks into the heart of his children, just like he did
with Abraham, and strengthens us in faith. This is what God
said to Abraham. He had just turned from faith
in Christ to the law. when he turned to Hagar. But God appeared to him and he
spoke this word of promise into his heart. Turn not from the
God of promise, Abraham. Don't turn from the God of promise.
Don't turn from the promise of God, from salvation in Christ,
from Him in whom we fulfill the law of God. Don't turn from Him. Don't turn from Christ in whom
we fulfill the law of God. have by faith. Don't turn from
Him back to your works of righteousness which
you think make you perfect before God. Don't turn back. This is
what Paul was saying in Galatians 5. Look there with me. Galatians
5. So many want to take a sinner
to Mount Zion and to Christ, and when they behold Christ,
then they turn around and take them right back then to Mount
Sinai and entangle them again in bondage, in the law. Well, this is what Paul said.
That's exactly what was going on in the Church of Galatia.
Paul said, Stand fast, therefore, in the liberty wherewith Christ
hath 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 that he is
a debtor to do the whole law. If there's one aspect of your
law obedience that's going to make you accepted of God, then
you're required by your law obedience to do everything. To do everything. If there's any one thing by which
you're accepted of God, then you're required to do it all.
We're required to do it all. That can't be now. Christ has
become of no effect unto you, whosoever you are, whosoever
of you are justified by the law, you've fallen from grace. For
we through the Spirit wait. Watch this. This is what God's
telling Abraham to do when he says, walk before me and be thou
perfect. We through the Spirit wait for
the hope of righteousness by faith. For in Jesus Christ neither
circumcision availeth anything nor uncircumcision, but faith
which worketh by love. You remember how when you were
younger and you used to, we'd sit outside sometimes under the
porch light. It'd be dark. All out there in
front of us. And I'm talking when you were
little. And you remember how you'd be
scared to even go out there and play under that porch light.
With all that darkness around you, you'd be afraid to do it. But, if your dad was sitting
out there, you'd just play. All right there and just have
a big time and wouldn't be afraid of anything. Why? Because you're
before Him. You were sitting there before
Him and you had this assurance. My Father's right there. He's
right there. That's what God's telling Abraham.
Abraham, I'm right here. I'm right here. Don't get scared
and turn again and start thinking you've got to try to save yourself.
You just wait for me to fulfill my promise. I'm right here. And
that's what God says to His people in the beginning and continues
to say it to us. And when He does this, we behold
El Shaddai in the face of Christ. That's who we behold here. We
behold Him who is the glory of God. in what He's accomplished
on our behalf so that we know God's with us. He's with us. So we can walk before Him and
trust Him by faith. Well, here's the last thing.
Sanctification is by God continuing. He makes this covenant in our
hearts and He continues to renew this everlasting covenant in
our hearts. Look at verse 2. He says, and
I will make my covenant between me and thee, and will multiply
thee exceedingly. Ah, see, there's a condition
to it. No, he's saying, Abraham, you
quit trying to make my covenant happen. He said, you walk before
me and be thou perfect. You walk before me and trust
me. And he said, and I will make
my covenant between me and thee. I will fulfill everything I've
promised to you and I'll multiply thee exceedingly. This is the, this is what's going
to mortify our flesh. You know what caused Abraham
to obey the Lord? God kept renewing this promise
to him over and over and over. The same promise He made with
him in the beginning. He kept renewing this promise to him
over and over and over. I will fulfill my covenant. And
He did. Christ came forth and He fulfilled
the covenant of redemption. He came forth and He fulfilled
all the promises He made to God the Father. And God the Father
What Christ wants, He said, ask Me, I'll give you the healing
for your inheritance. And Christ said, I will, that those that
you gave Me be where I am, that they might behold My glory that
I had with you from before the foundation of the world. And God the Father is going to
give His Son everything that He desired. Because the Son gave
the Father everything He desired. He said, I will multiply thee
exceedingly. Just like God brought forth Christ. Just like He brought forth Christ,
as He said He would, He brought forth Abraham. And He kept bringing
Abraham forth. He kept leading Abraham. Just like God brought Christ
forth, He brought forth Isaac. Just like He told Abraham He
would. Just like God brought forth Christ, He brought forth
all the children that He called in Christ Jesus by His grace,
just like He told Abraham He would. Everything God has ever
promised to any believer, God has made good on it. Because
He's the Word. He's the Word. And He shall. Notice here, Verses 4 through
8. Look at these wills and shalls
and this everlasting. This is the first place I think
everlasting is used in regards to this covenant. But he says,
As for me, behold, my covenant is with thee, and thou shalt
be a father of many nations. You see, he wasn't telling Abraham,
if you'll do this, I'll make my covenant with you. He said,
my covenant is with you. Now he's going to tell him what
he's going to do in fulfilling it. Neither shall thy name any
more be called Abraham, but thy name shall be Abraham. For I
am a father, for a father of many nations have I made thee. Abraham still don't have a child
yet. He's got this one boy Ishmael, but God don't even regard him
as a son. But he said, I've made you a father of many nations.
I will make the exceeding fruitful, and I will make nations of thee,
and kings shall come out of thee, and I will establish my covenant
between me and thee, and I cede after thee and their generations
for an everlasting covenant. to be a God unto thee, and to
thy seed after thee. And I will give unto thee, and
to thy seed after thee, the land wherein thou art a stranger,
all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession, and I
will be their God. True rest, true rest, from all
our vain works, True sanctification to God comes from God circumcising
our hearts from the filth of our flesh. Circumcising our hearts
by speaking to us personally in the heart. Just like He appeared
to Abram here. By declaring His name to us,
El Shaddai, God our Savior, making us to behold Him in Christ, and
by constantly making us to hear of the fulfillment of His covenant
promises to us. I feel so sorry for folks who
are constantly being told, don't do this and do that. Don't do
this and do that. for sanctification, and yet they're
never told this whole work is the work of God's grace. Without
this promise of God's grace, without beholding the person
of Christ Jesus, and beholding that all this work is accomplished
by Him, you've got no power and any strength at all. You've got
no wisdom at all, because Christ is all to us. And this is how
our flesh is mortified. Exactly how it's mortified. What
most speak about is sanctification. It's not much more than just
cutting the flesh. It's not much more than just
trying to cut away this thing or that thing and say, now I'm
clean. Is that how you're made clean?
Let's look over Colossians 2.11. Colossians 2.11. We saw this on Sunday. Look here, 2.11. He said there in verse 10, in
Christ dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead, all the fullness
of glorified body, the man. And you are complete in Him,
which is the head of all principality and power, in whom also ye are
circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, and putting
off the body of the sins of the flesh, how that happened? By
the circumcision of Christ. what He did. Buried with Him
in baptism, wherein also you're risen with Him through the faith
of the operation of God, who hath raised Him from the dead.
That's when it happened. And you being dead in your sins,
in the uncircumcision of your flesh, This is the second thing. He's quickened together with
Him, having forgiven you all trespasses. You see, circumcision
is by Christ, what He did on the cross, and it's through the
Spirit of God giving you a new heart. This is what Paul said. He's a Jew which is one inwardly,
and circumcision is that of the heart and spirit, not in the
letter, whose praise is not of men, but of God. Of God. That circumcision that Abraham
was given here, that would be a sign of the seal of the righteousness
of faith which he had while as yet before he was physically
circumcised. That was a sign of what the Spirit
of God had done in his heart, and it was a sign of what Christ
would do, His surety, when He came forth and went to the cross.
Let me show you that. Ephesians 1, verse 14. This circumcision was exactly
the same thing to Abraham and to his descendants that the new
birth means to me and you. Look at this. Ephesians 1, verse
14. He says, verse 13, "...in whom
ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, after
that the gospel of your salvation, in whom also after that you believed,
you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, which is the
earnest of our inheritance, until the redemption of the purchased
possession, unto the praise of His glory." Look over at chapter
4, look at verse 30, Ephesians 4.30. Grieve not the Holy Spirit of
God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption. Look over at Romans chapter 4 verse 11. Abraham received the
sign of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness of the faith
which he had, yet being uncircumcised. This was a token. It was an outward
picture of exactly what God had done for him in Christ Jesus
through the Spirit in his heart. See that? It was a mark whereby
his covenant was sealed. It was a mark distinguishing
God's people from the rest of the world. That's what the new
birth does. It's a mark that's painful in our flesh because
Ishmael said, Abraham said, Lord, let Ishmael
be the boy. And the Lord said, that old covenant,
you can't come to me in that old covenant, Abraham. That old
covenant and all the fruits of that old covenant have got to
go. And you know what that is to
a man's flesh? Just as painful as that was for
Abraham to take a 13 year old boy and pack up everything, him
and his mother, and send them away. That's how painful it is against
that carnal reasoning and flesh of man to let go of all our works
of righteousness and say, you're true, Lord. Salvation's in you. Painful to the flesh. To the
flesh. Not to the Spirit. It's rejoicing
to the Spirit. It was a purifying mark. This
is what separated Abraham and made him purified from that ignorant
way of trying to come to God. And it was permanent. He couldn't
remove it. And this is always the result.
Look back at our text now and we'll close. Genesis 17-3. And
Abram fell on his face. See that? He fell on his face.
And God talked with him. Communed with him. He prayed
for his son Ishmael. He bowed to the will of God.
He obeyed the Lord. Everything the Lord told him.
Look at Philippians 3 verse 3. What does sanctification look
like? What does it sound like, look like? Philippians 3.3. This is what
Paul said when he had been separated from Hagar, when he had been
separated from all his will and his works and all the vain confidence
that he had accomplished by his flesh through the law. This is
what he said. We are the circumcision, which
worship God in the spirit. That's how this promise was made
and continued in Abraham's heart. Rejoice in Christ Jesus. That's
who Abraham was made to behold and in whom he rejoiced and was
saved. And have no confidence in the flesh. That's what growing in grace
is. growing in grace is, more and more, to know that we worship
God in the Spirit, rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have absolutely
no confidence in the flesh. Amen.