Exodus chapter 4, verse 19. Exodus 4, verse 19. And the Lord said unto Moses
and Midian, Go, return unto Egypt, for all the men are dead which
sought thy life. And Moses took his wife and his
sons and he set them up on an ass and he returned to the land
of Egypt and Moses took the rod of God in his hand. Now Moses
here is beginning his epic journey back to Egypt and in obedience
to God's command, he goes forth with the rod in his hand. Accompanied by his wife and his
two sons, Moses returns to Egypt But one thing's gotta be dealt
with before he can. It seems that just out of nowhere,
these verses appear in this chapter. But an important matter that
has been long neglected must be attended to before Moses is
able to be God's ambassador. Now look at verse 24. And it
came to pass By the way, in the end, undoubtedly Moses and his
family had stopped for the night to rest. And it says that the
Lord met him and sought to kill him. Moses and his family, as I said,
got a room for the night to rest and refresh themselves. And while
there, the Lord met him in anger and sought to kill him. Why? What's going on here? Why
would God seek to kill his servant? Well, the short answer is because
the wages of sin is death. Disobedience to God brings about
death and judgment. The holy justice of God requires
that the soul that sins shall surely die. What a picture this
is of that. The sin of Moses here was the
neglecting to circumcise his son. Before God would allow Moses
to go and to minister to Israel, he must first have his own house
in order. Now, the circumcision of Moses'
son had been neglected for some time. I don't know how old this
boy was at this time, but it was to be done on the eighth
day, the eighth day after a male was born. He was to be circumcised
according to the covenant that God made with Abraham. And I
don't think there's any doubt upon reading these verses that
this delay was due to the resistance of his wife named Zipporah. Zipporah was just too indulgent,
too easy going concerning her child. And Moses was too lenient
concerning his wife. And because of this, God sought
to kill Moses. So again, I ask you, why did
God seek to kill Moses? Well, there's a lesson to learn
here, no doubt. First, the spiritual lesson.
God is intolerant with sin and disobedience. Folks say things
like God loves the sinner but hates their sin. Well, you cannot
separate the sinner from their sin. God is angry with who? The wicked. every day. The wicked, those who commit
sin. God sought to kill Moses because
of his sin. Now this sin's got to be put
away. It's got to be dealt with before
God can ever use Moses in any way. Secondly, and I sometimes
hate to use the terminology of a practical lesson, but I suppose
there is a practical lesson to be learned here. We have, and
it's spiritual too, it's a necessity. We have great need to watch carefully
over our own hearts, lest fondness for any other relationship or
any other priority to any other thing should prevail above our
love for God and our love for Christ. We need to be on guard
for that. Anything that takes us from our
service to God is wrong. And it's unprofitable for us.
I wish folks could get a hold of that. You remember the story
of Levi. It was charged upon him that
he honored his sons more than God. And our Lord said in Matthew
chapter 10, he that loveth father or mother more than me is not
worthy of me. And he that loveth son or daughter
more than me is not worthy of me." We must remember that Moses'
wife, and this is not a message to pick on her, Zipporah, she
was a Midianite. She was not at all accustomed
to the Hebrews' ways, especially circumcision. And I'm sure, and
I would have too, I'm sure that she thought the act of circumcision
was barbaric, And cruel. And Moses let her have her way. And God met him to kill him because
of it. I think sometimes we forget that
God will deal even with our sins of omission. They too must also
be judged and dealt with. There was a neglect here on Moses'
part in the circumcision of his son. It was a sign of the covenant
with God. Now the one who has entered into
a covenant with God, who's not willing to seal, not willing
to endorse, not willing to bow to God's command, and it's in
obedience to his command, is justly suspect that he neither
approves of God's command nor finds it greatly important. How important is it to God? Important enough for God to kill
even his servant who had not obeyed him. This is a serious
matter, obedience to God. God's people may expect to hear
from God concerning it by either conscience, providence, or both. For this cause, there are many
today who are spiritually sick and As many think, Moses was
physically here. The fact that Moses' son was not circumcised was an
act of disobedience on Moses' part. How important is obedience? I know that salvation is by grace.
I know that it's not by any work of righteousness that we do.
We can do nothing that would appease God and would cause God
to be mindful of us. I know that. But I'm going to
tell you this. You and I will not be saved apart from obedience. The gospel is to be obeyed. And
the act of Moses letting his wife have her way here was an
act of disobedience. And it's so serious, I'll say
it again, that God would have killed Moses because of it. Now
again, verse 24, and it came to pass by the way in the inn
that the Lord met him and sought to kill him. Now look at verse
25. Then, now that's a key word here. Then Zipporah took a sharp stone
and cut off the foreskin of her son and cast it at his feet. Now it's pretty obvious here
that she's not happy about this. And as I said a moment ago, I'm
sure she thought it was cruel and barbaric. And this is further
evidenced by her statement. Do you see what she says here?
She says, surely a bloody husband art thou to me. But it was only
when God revealed. Now, we're not told that, that
God revealed this to Zipporah, but God is the one who reveals
things. And he revealed to Zipporah that
she perceived that this was why Moses was sick and that God was
about to kill him. That she then, then, oh, can
you imagine the discussions that had gone on about this? The possible
arguments, Moses said he's got to be circumcised. You're not
doing that to my boy. But then she took a sharp knife
and cut off the foreskin of her son. And immediately we see in
verse 26 that when the circumcision was performed, God let him, Moses,
go. He healed him, he had mercy on
him, and he let him continue on his journey to Egypt. Now
this was the reason for God's divine displeasure. The Lord
graciously reveals to his people what is amiss in their lives
and shows them that they must with diligence deal with those
things quickly. And we, often like Zipporah,
are not at all happy about it. Often we may think to ourselves,
what's the big deal about this? Well, there's a lot of things
that are a big deal to God. Did you know that? Oh, may God enable us. I'm telling
you, friends, may God enable us to be thankful for all the
divine interventions of chastisement in our lives. He chastises those
whom He loves. He deals with you and He chastises
you as children, just as we do our children. We discipline them,
we try to teach them for their own good, and it's no different
Even more so, more lovingly, God intervening with chastisement
in our lives. Now the putting away of sin,
this is a big part of my message tonight. The putting away of
our sin is absolutely necessary to the removal of God's judgments
against us. The smiting of God's rod always
causes us to return to Him that smites us, because we know He
loves us. We know that He has our best
interest at heart. We know that He's working all
things together for our good. That's where we can rest, isn't
it? We can rest there. In the service of God, we should
remove as far from us as we can anything, I mean anything and
everything that is likely to be a hindrance to us in the worship
and service of God. We know that the Bible has only
one message, and that's the message of the gospel, that's the message
of Christ and him crucified. It's not a message of ethics.
It's not a message of morality. It's not a message to prove things
about God. The Bible is definitely not a
book about how to live. It's not a self-improvement book.
It's a book about Christ. It's a hymn book. We say that
all the time, H-I-M. It's a hymn book. It's about
hymn. Christ said it himself, he said, beginning in the Law
of Moses, the first five books of the Old Testament, in the
Prophets, in the Psalms, are all concerning him, the Lord
Jesus Christ. It's a book about him. And I
suppose that's the real challenge in preaching. preach the same
gospel message of Christ and him crucified from all the scriptures,
what we must endeavor to do. I believe it was Mr. Spurgeon
that once said that just as all the roads in England lead to
London, so all the scriptures in the Bible lead to Christ.
And we do ourselves great service to find those places and head
straight to Him as quick as we can. So that's what I'm gonna
endeavor to do tonight, to show you the gospel from this passage
of Scripture. So let me begin by asking you
a couple questions. Why did God require circumcision? What is circumcision? It has
to be more than just an outward act of obedience, even though
the physical act of circumcision in the Old Testament was certainly
that. Turn back to Genesis chapter
17 with me. Hold your place in Exodus. I
don't know if we'll come back to it or not, but look at Genesis
chapter 17 with me. Verse nine, and God said unto
Abraham, thou shalt keep my covenant therefore thou and thy seed after
thee and their generations. And this is my covenant, which
ye shall keep between me and you and thy seed after thee.
Every man child among you shall be circumcised. And you shall
circumcise the flesh of your foreskin and it shall be a token. That word means evidence. It shall be evidence. It shall
be a sign of the covenant between me and you. 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 or any stranger, which is not of thy seed. And
he that is born in thy house and he that is bought with thy
money must needs be circumcised. And my covenant shall be in your
flesh for an everlasting covenant. And the uncircumcised man child
whose flesh of his foreskin is not circumcised, that soul shall
be cut off from his people. He hath broken my covenant. Every time the word covenant
is mentioned in the scripture, it refers to God's everlasting
covenant, the covenant of grace, the covenant of mercy. Circumcision
was a token of this everlasting covenant. It was evidence, it
was a sign, a seal of being under that covenant. Now, according
to verse 11, circumcision was just that. It was a token, a
sign, a seal of assurance that righteousness would be wrought
out by Christ. I know when we used to take our
children to some of these pizza places and stuff, they would
give you tokens to use on the machine, or you would receive
a token that you would later redeem for some little plastic
toy that didn't amount to much. But a token in and of itself
is really pretty much worthless. It doesn't have any real value. Just the same as the act of circumcision
in and of itself is not pleasing to God. If you give me a token,
that token represents something else. You follow me on that? It represents something else. In verse one here, we're told
in Genesis 17 that when Abraham was 90 years old and nine, 99
years old, the Lord appeared to Abram and said unto him, I'm
the almighty God, walk before me and be thou perfect. And he said, I'll make my covenant
between me and thee. He didn't say we're going to
make a covenant together. This is not two people making
a covenant with one another. This is a covenant where God
does something for the other party. God said, this is what
I'm going to do. First of all, I'm going to multiply.
I'm going to increase you exceedingly. This covenant has to do with
God multiplying Abraham exceedingly. God does the increasing. Isn't that what Paul said? He
said, oh, I plant Paul's waters, but God gives the increase. This covenant has to do with
God giving. Abraham and Sarah were going
to have a son. That was the promise of God. He was 100. She wasn't much younger. Scripture
said his body was now dead. Her womb was barren. God said, you're going to have
a child. You're gonna have a son. And the savior, the seed, the
Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ would come through that son.
Now verse three, and Abram fell on his face and God talked with
him saying, as for me, behold, my covenant is with thee and
thou shall be a father of many nations. Now in this covenant,
Abraham would be the father of many nations, many, would be
the children of Abraham who would be redeemed by the Savior who
was to come. And this is very well established
in verse 7, look at it, and I will establish my covenant between
me and thee and thy seed after thee and their generations for
an everlasting covenant, an eternal covenant to be a God unto thee
and to thy seed after thee. In this eternal covenant of grace
that God made with Abraham, God promises to be a God unto Abraham
and to all Abraham's seed after him. That's talking about all
the elect of God. That's talking about all who
believe and trust in the Lord Jesus Christ. All who trust in
Christ as their substitute, their sacrifice, and their Savior. God will be their God. And I
don't know sometimes if we really fully understand what it is for
God to be our God. Can we really fully comprehend
what God means when he says he will be our covenant God? Well,
I know this much. It means that God will do everything
for us in order to be redeemed. And that's exactly right. Look
at verse eight. And he said, 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'll
be their God." Friends, heaven's glory is a sure possession for
all God's children. Now circumcision represents the
covenant of grace. It's a token of what is to come
and what was to be wrought, worked out by Christ. All our hope as believers, all
of it, is found in this covenant of
grace. And God does these marvelous things for all who are in this
covenant of grace. In the covenant of grace there
are always and at least three things that God does for His
chosen people. He does something for them, He
does something in them, and He does something to them. What is it that God does for
a sinner that He's in covenant with? Turn with me to Romans
chapter 11. I want to turn you to a few passages
of scripture tonight because I want to endeavor for you to
see this and how circumcision represents God's grace to us. Romans chapter 11. Look at verse
26. Romans 11, 26 says, and so all
Israel shall be saved. As it is written, there shall
come out of Zion the deliverer, that's Christ, and shall turn
away ungodliness from Jacob. Verse 27, for this is my covenant
unto them, when I shall take away their sins. Now this is
something that God does for his people. He takes away their sins. It's called justification. It
means that for those whom Christ justified, they have no sin. We still struggle with getting
hold of that, don't we? Why? Because we constantly look
within. We constantly see our guilt. It's very difficult, very difficult
to enter into what it means we have no sin. But our sin has
been taken away. I'm not guilty before God. But
God also does something in a believer by his everlasting covenant. Turn over to Hebrews chapter
8 with me. Hebrews chapter 8. I'll give you a moment to get
there. I've got mine marked, so I'm cheating a little on you,
but Hebrews chapter eight, I want you to look at verse seven. For if that first covenant had
been faultless, then should no place have been sought for the
second. or finding fault with them, I
suppose that's the covenant and the people, he saith, behold,
the days come, saith the Lord, when I will make a new covenant
with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah. Now,
the problem with the Old Testament, if I can use the word dispensation
or how it was dealt with in the Old Testament of the covenant,
and that was, the sacrifice of the blood of bulls and goats.
It was not possible that they should take away sins. I don't
know how many of you were here with Larry's Sunday school lesson,
but he dealt with this very, very clearly, very clearly. But in those sacrifices, if you'll
remember what the writer of Hebrews said, there was a remembrance
again made of sins every year, Hebrews 10, three. But God said,
here, I'll make a new covenant. It's still a covenant of grace.
It's still that everlasting covenant. And he says in verse nine, he
said, not according to the covenant that 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 in my covenant.
And I regarded them not, saith the Lord, They promised through
weakness and inability that they would keep the commandments of
God. They didn't observe the covenant. They didn't keep His commandments. You see, having God take us by
the hand to lead us out of our Egyptian bondage is a marvelous
thing. I love the thought of that. But
I still need for God to do something in me, and that's in my heart. We just looked at this this past
Sunday, but you remember what David said? He said, create in
me a new heart, oh God. I need God to put a new heart
within me. I do. "'Mine is deceitful above
all things and desperately wicked.'" Now look at verse 10. "'For this
is the covenant that I will make "'with the house of Israel after
those days, saith the Lord, "'I will put my laws into their minds,
"'and I'll write them in their hearts, "'and I'll be to them
a God, "'and they should 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
here it is again, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember
no more. Now that's what God does to a
believer. He gives them a new heart that
pants and beats after him. So what does circumcision have
to do with all this? Well, the Bible answers that
question. Circumcision depicts the taking
away of our sins. In circumcision, something's
cut off, it's cast away, and it's no longer a part of what
it was. It's gone. It's gone. Look at Colossians chapter two,
you're pretty close there, turn back a few pages. Colossians
chapter two, verse 11. In whom also ye are circumcised
with the circumcision made without hands. and putting off the body
of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ. In whom? Who's that speaking of? Well,
look at verse 9. For in him, Christ, dwelleth
all the fullness of the Godhead bottle. Look at verse 10, and
ye are complete in Him. Who? The Lord Jesus Christ, which
is the head of all principality and power. And again, verse 11,
in whom also ye were circumcised with the circumcision made without
hands. And putting off what? The body
of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ. You know,
I don't know that I've ever really paid much attention or given
much thought to the circumcision of Christ. What does that mean? The cutting of Christ. What's
this talking about? The shedding of Christ's blood?
Just as the foreskin was cut off in circumcision, our sins
are cut off and put away by the circumcision of Christ. They're
cut off, put away, and separated from us. They are no more. Zipporah said, thou art a bloody
husband to me. And I say this with all the reverence
that I have. Christ is a bloody husband to
me. And I'm thankful. Without the shedding of blood,
there is no remission. Blood must be shed. God's covenant
involves the cutting away of our sins, and that's accomplished
only by the shed blood of Christ on the cross. Circumcision depicts
the perfect work of Christ's righteousness for us. But circumcision
also depicts the work of God in us. You know, many times in
the scripture, God refers to the house of Israel as being
uncircumcised in heart. Uncircumcised in heart. God commands
us to circumcise the foreskin of our hearts, Deuteronomy 10,
16. You see, this is heart work. It's a heart work. When Paul
talks about a true Jew, He's not talking about those who live
in the nation of Israel today. Look at Romans chapter two. I
know I'm turning you here and there, but I want you to see
this. Romans chapter two, verse 28. For he is not a Jew, which is
one outwardly, And then notice what it says here. Neither is
that circumcision, which is outward in the flesh. That's not real
circumcision. This is the real circumcision,
verse 29. But he is a Jew, which is one
inwardly. And circumcision is that of what? The heart, in the spirit. And not in the letter, whose
praise is not of men, but of God. This is the result, the
result of a new heart given in men. God said a new heart will
I give you. This is a work in you. Christ
in you is what? The hope of glory. This is that
new heart within. Circumcision is a token of the
covenant. It represents the work of Christ
for you. And it represents the work of
Christ in you. It's a token of the covenant.
That new heart, that new man that loves and worships God perfectly. Now the real question I need
to ask myself, and you need to ask yourself, is are we circumcised? Philippians chapter three, and
I'll finish up. Philippians chapter three. This is the true circumcision
made without hands, verse three, for we are the circumcision. Who? Every believer. Every chosen
child of God. For we are the circumcision. And here's what the believer
does. Three things mentioned here. For we are the circumcision,
which what? Worship God. You wanna know if
you're circumcised, do you worship God? This is the
first mark of circumcision. We worship God. We worship God
for who He is. He's God. There is no other. We acknowledge who He is. You
know, you'll only worship a sovereign. You'll only worship a true sovereign.
We bow down before Him. We submit to Him in all things. We put all our confidence in
what He's done for us. Isn't that where all your confidence
is? in Christ and what He's done for us. He died the just for
the unjust. He did so to bring us to God.
And for that we worship Him. Secondly, we are the circumcision
which worships God in the Spirit. There's only one way that we
can worship God and that's in the Spirit. It's impossible to
worship God in this flesh. It's impossible to worship God
in my sin. It's the new nature that worships
God. It's with a new heart that we
worship Christ. I've been guilty of this in years
past, but folks say things like, come worship with us. That's
probably not a good thing to say because only a true believer
can worship God. We invite folks to come hear
the gospel. We want them to hear the gospel. We want God to show
them grace and mercy and have compassion on them. But none
can worship God apart from the Spirit of God in them. And then
thirdly, we are the circumcision which rejoice in Christ Jesus. There are actually four things,
I said three. And the word rejoice here means glory. We glory in
Christ. We rejoice in putting all our
confidence in Him. Why? Because He's the only one that can save
us. He's the only one that can put away our sins. He's the only
one that can cut that flesh and put it away. That's where our
confidence is. We rejoice in Christ Jesus. No
confidence anywhere else. And that's where I want to be
found. I'm telling you. And again, I thought of Larry
today. He was rejoicing in the Lord Jesus Christ. And fourthly,
we're the circumcision which has no confidence in the flesh.
How much confidence does the believer have in their flesh?
None. None. Don't put any confidence
in my flesh. Anything that is a product of
our flesh, we should have no confidence in. And we have good
reason. Like Paul, we say, and we know
that in me, that is in my flesh, dwells no good thing. Nothing
there to appease God, to satisfy God's justice. Nothing, absolutely
nothing. The true circumcision has competence
only in the Lord Jesus Christ. So, let's try to answer that
question I asked. Do you worship the God of the
Bible? I mean the God that we speak of every week here. The
God who does what he wills in the armies of heaven and among
the inhabitants of the earth. The God who saves and has mercy
on whom he will. The God who has compassion on
he on whom he determines to have compassion. Is that the God you
worship? Do you see that you can only
worship him in the spirit? The Lord Jesus himself said,
those that worship me must worship me in spirit and in truth. Do you worship God in the spirit? Do you worship him in the truth
of this book? That's a good question. Do you
rejoice? Do you glory and find all your
confidence in Christ? Oh, I'm so encouraged because
I believe by God's grace I do. I believe that I'm putting all
my trust and all my confidence in Him in order to be redeemed
and saved. I'm not looking to anything at
all that I do because all my works of righteousness are what?
Filthy rags. God won't have them. And do you put no confidence
in the flesh? Do you put all your confidence
in Christ? If you can truly answer yes to
those questions, then I'd say that you've been saved by the
circumcision of Christ.