I titled this message, A MATTER
OF CIRCUMCISION. A MATTER OF CIRCUMCISION. As we see, and as I read here
in verse 24, and previously before that, God commissioned Moses, He appointed
to go to Egypt, speak to Pharaoh because he's going to deliver
his people Israel and he's going to use Moses to do so. And what Moses, one of the things
Moses doesn't realize is how serious obedience is in God's
servants. Moses didn't realize he was in
rebellion against God. HE DIDN'T EVEN REALIZE IT. BUT GOD MET HIM, IT SAYS IT CAME
TO PASS BY WAY IN THE END WHEN THEY STOPPED TO REST. GOD MET
HIM, AND GOD WAS GOING TO KILL HIM. PROBABLY MADE HIM VERY, VERY
SICK. AND IT WAS OVER THIS ISSUE OF
CIRCUMCISION. which is very, very, very important
to God, as we will see. Now evidently, Moses gave in to his wife, Zipporah. She didn't want to do this, it's
evident, she didn't want to do this. She didn't want to cause
her son pain. Without the shedding of blood,
There is no remission of sin without the shedding of blood.
There is no union and connection to the Lord Jesus Christ and
that covenant of grace without the shedding of blood. Moses
is not going to go free. Moses' life is not going to be
spared until the blood of the Son is shed. What a picture! What a picture! And God is going
to make Moses the lawgiver. Moses is the lawgiver. And he
was already in rebellion against God. But God is going to make
him KNOW. OBEDIENCE IS BETTER THAN SACRIFICE. OBEDIENCE, our Lord said, is
better than sacrifice. Matthew Henry said this, Matthew
Henry said this is what happens when we are unequally yoked to
unbelievers. She was a Midianite. She was of a completely different
tribe. She was too indulgent of her
son. Are we not guilty of being too
indulgent of our children? We do what they want. Well, I'll just leave that. We're
too indulgent of our children. I could go to town on that, but
I want to stay with the message. I don't want to get off. But
she was too indulgent with her son and Moses was too indulgent
to his wife. He said, okay, that's, that's
all right. If you don't want to do it, we won't do it. But that's
not what God said. That's not what God said. God's going to hold you responsible,
Moses, for that house. And this is a serious situation.
I'll tell you what, over in Exodus 18-2, listen to this. Then Jethro,
Moses' father-in-law, took Zipporah, Moses' wife, after he had sent
her back. I think this is the time that
after this all happened, he sent her back home. God had moved
him to send her back home. He that loves mother, father,
sister, brother is not worthy of me. Isn't that what the Lord
said? And Moses said, you need to go back home. Take my son
after she circumcised him. She was mad. She threw it down
at his feet. He said, go back home. I've got
a commission here and I've got to fulfill it. As our Lord said, there'll become
a time when those who have wives, it be as though they had none.
There's a time when the gospel is first. Worshipping God here
this morning, it's first, isn't it? If the family shows up at
your house on Saturday and they're going to stay all night, that's
fine. If they don't want to go to church, well that's fine,
they can stay there, but I'm going to church. I'm going, well
this is, you are the church. I wish I could say it that way.
We're going to worship, that's what it is. We're going to the
worship service. That's the way to say it. The
church goes to the worship service. You all can just stay here and
wait till we get back. It's amazing how we are tried
and we don't even know it. Trials come along so often and
we don't even realize God's trying us. But he met Moses here. Now, why was circumcision so
important to God that He sought to kill Moses? That seems extreme,
doesn't it? Does that not seem extreme, that
He would kill him? Not discipline him, not correct
him, He's going to kill him. And here's the reason. Circumcision
represents Christ, the Gospel of Christ, the Covenant of Grace,
it represents His people. you don't mess nobody messes
with the gospel of God's glory we don't mess with the gospel
of God's glory now if you want to play something go play games
go play this play that whatever but don't play around with the
gospel it's the glory of God it's the glory of his son it's
it's our salvation God's very jealous God's very jealous of
the glory of His Son. He's very jealous of it. That's
why Solomon said the preacher sought acceptable words, correct,
right words. You know, I stand here, I need
to search for and ask the Lord to give me right words. Biblical words, words in line
with the Word of God, not my opinion. You know, truth is not
an opinion, you know that? It's not an opinion, it's the
truth! It's the truth, it's not an opinion, but the gospel or
this matter of circumcision represents the gospel and that's why the Lord sought
to kill him. Now we're going to read a little
more today than probably usual, but you need to understand this.
Let's not just read over it. I want you to turn to Genesis
chapter 17 and we'll see where this started and how important
it is. In Genesis 17, Look in verse 1, I'm going to
go 1-4 and then 9-14. And when Abram was ninety years
old and nine, ninety-nine, the LORD appeared to Abram and said
unto him, I am the Almighty God, walk before me and be thou perfect,
and I'll make my covenant between me and thee. He didn't say you
and I are going to make a covenant, did he? You and I are not involved in
making that covenant. God said I am going to make a
covenant with you and this is exactly what we have in Christ.
God has made a covenant with us in Christ. He made that covenant
with Christ and us in Christ and God says I will make my covenant
between me and thee and will multiply thee exceedingly. That's what God the Father has
done to the Son. He's multiplied His seed exceedingly,
hasn't He? People believe in every nation.
And Abram fell on his face and God talked with him, saying,
As for Me, behold My covenant. You see, listen, this matter
of circumcision has to do with the covenant. It has everything
to do with the covenant. It has everything to do with
the covenant before the law was given. You see circumcision was
given before the law was given. And as for me, behold, my covenant
is with thee, and thou shalt be a father of many nations.
Now go down to verse 9. And God said to Abraham, now
he speaks of the seed in all these verses before that. But
God said unto Abraham, Thou shalt keep my covenant, therefore thou
and thy seed after thee in their generations. THIS IS MY COVENANT
WHICH YOU SHALL KEEP BETWEEN ME AND YOU, AND I SEE IT AFTER
THEE. EVERY MAN CHILD AMONG YOU SHALL BE CIRCUMCISED, AND YOU
SHALL CIRCUMCISE THE FLESH OF YOUR FORESKIN, AND IT SHALL BE
A TOKEN OF THE COVENANT BETWEEN ME AND YOU. You see this has
to do with the covenant. And he that is eight days old
SHALL BE CIRCUMCISED AMONG YOU, EVERY MAN, CHILD, IN YOUR GENERATIONS. HE THAT IS BORN IN THE HOUSE,
OR BROUGHT UP WITH MONEY, OR ANY STRANGER WHICH IS NOT OF
THY SEED, HE THAT IS BORN IN THY HOUSE, AND HE THAT IS BOUGHT
WITH THY MONEY, MUST NEED TO BE CIRCUMCISED, AND MY COVENANT
SHALL BE IN YOUR FLESH FOR AN EVERLASTING COVENANT. the uncircumcised
man child whose flesh of his foreskin is not circumcised that
soul shall be cut off that soul shall be cut off MOSES he didn't realize the importance
of circumcision they're gonna be cut off from
his people he hath broken my covenant you don't break my covenant That's where it started, that's
the covenant of it. It was given to Abraham, it was
given to Abraham as a sign, as a seal of that covenant. A covenant sealed by blood. And
it was given to him before the law was given to Moses and given
by Moses. Now, the New Testament sheds
a whole lot of light on the Old Testament. Now turn over to Romans
chapter 4 and I'm going to read verses 7 through 14. As I said,
we're going to do a lot more reading this morning because
I want you to read it from the Word of God. I want God to open the Scriptures
to our understanding. Now in Romans 4, 7-12 He's saying,
Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins
are covered. Blessed is the man to whom the
Lord will not impute sin. Now we know why, if God does
not impute sin to you, we know why, don't we? Because He imputed
it to His Son. He laid all My iniquities on
His Son. every one of them even the ones
i'm ignorant of sins of ignorance they were laid on jesus christ
and he paid for them comes this blessedness now now this blessedness
this is a blessedness it's a blessing god doesn't charge you for your
sins isn't it no you wind up in hell if he does that's exactly
where you'll be now does this blessing come upon them or come
upon the circumcision only the jews only here he's talking about
the jews or upon the uncircumcision also. We say that faith was reckoned
to Abraham for righteousness, not works. Abraham did not do
one thing for God to impute to him righteousness." You know
what he did? He says, Abraham believed God.
Doesn't say he believed in God, he believed there is a God. He
believed the God that is. Abraham believed God. And he
said here, it was reckoned to Abraham for righteousness how
was it then reckoned when he was in circumcision or uncircumcision
not in circumcision but while he was in uncircumcision while
he was just like the rest of the gentiles now listen and he received the
sign of circumcision a seal of the righteousness of faith which he had before God ever
gave him that sign of circumcision. He HAD that. This was just a
sign. In other words, it added nothing
to him. Circumcision added nothing to
him. See, the Jews made so much of that as a CEREMONY and as
their entrance into the Kingdom of God and they completely miss
that circumcision that God's talking about and the covenant
He's talking about is SPIRITUAL and it's a covenant of grace. He received the sign of circumcision,
a seal of the righteousness of the faith which He had being
uncircumcised, that He might be the Father of all them that
believe, whether Jew or Gentile, though they be not circumcised,
that righteousness may be imputed unto them also who believe. and the father of circumcision
to them who are not of the circumcision only but also who walk in the
steps of that faith that same faith you know the faith you
have right now in Christ if you believe the faith you have is
exactly the same as the faith of Abraham it's exactly the same
faith by which every child of God from the beginning to the
end is saved there's no difference in faith because faith is saved
by its object, the Lord Jesus Christ. It's not saved by its
act. We're not saved by the act of
faith. We're saved by the object of faith, the Lord Jesus Christ. We're going to see something
really interesting here in just a second. But circumcision here
did not improve, it did not improve his standing before God. It's
just a token. That's all it was. It's just
a token. But now here's the question,
how could we preach the gospel from this? How can we preach
the gospel from this? The New Testament, as I said,
would give us the answer to this. We wouldn't understand what true
circumcision represents apart from the New Testament. Turn
over to Colossians chapter 2. I'm going to read something here
that'll just put this all in the right place. We'll see it
for what it is. And you are complete in Him. I wrote an article in the bulletin
on complete in Christ. You ARE complete in Him. Though
we live, as I said in the bulletin, a thousand years, we add nothing,
nothing to our completeness in Christ. We are complete, we are
holy, we are righteous, we are accepted in the Lord Jesus Christ. We are complete. Now what's hard
about understanding what complete means? Ain't nothing hard about
that. I mean you don't you don't add
anything to it, you complete in Him, which is the head of
all principality and power, none is over Him, none is over the
Lord Jesus Christ, He's the head of all. Now listen, verse 11
gets very interesting here, in whom also you are circumcised with the circumcision made without
hands THIS IS THE WORK OF GOD. THIS CIRCUMCISION IS A WORK OF
GOD. THE OTHER WAS A SIGN, A SYMBOL, A TYPE. THIS IS THE REAL. THIS IS REAL CIRCUMCISION. THIS
IS WHAT IT'S ALL ABOUT RIGHT HERE. HERE IT IS. HERE'S THE
WHOLE PURPOSE OF IT. In whom also ye are circumcised
with a circumcision made without hands, and putting off the body
of the sins of the flesh, BY THE CIRCUMCISION OF CHRIST. Can
I read it like this? By the cutting off of Christ. He's our circumcision. BURIED
WITH HIM IN BAPTISM, WHEREIN ALSO YOU ARE RISEN WITH HIM THROUGH
THE FAITH OF THE OPERATION OF GOD. Faith is a gift of God.
Faith is an operation of God. Faith is not something you and
I muster up. It's a gift of God. It's of the
operation of God. WHO HATH RAISED HIM FROM THE
DEAD, AND YOU BEING DEAD IN YOUR SINS, AND THE UNCIRCUMCISION
OF YOUR FLESH, HATH HE QUICKENED TOGETHER WITH HIM, HAVING FORGIVEN
YOU ALL TRESPASSES." Circumcision is the cutting off of the flesh,
it's the putting away, it represents the putting away of sin, it's
the shedding the blood, it's suffering, they're suffering
included in that. I'm sure that was painful back
then. Christ was put to death in the
flesh, wasn't he? That's what it says. It says
in Isaiah 53, He was cut off out of the land of the living.
He was cut off what it says in whom you also
you are circumcised with a circumcision made without hands and putting
off the body and the sins of the flesh by the circumcision
of christ when was moses allowed to live
when did god let him go when the blood of the son was shed
and that sin of disobedience was put away when that happened Now the circumcision we experience,
male and female, you know this should never be an embarrassing
subject for at all, it shouldn't. You know why anything is embarrassing? Sin. Sin. Sin. You're too embarrassed to talk
to your children and give them proper sex education. Why? Sin. And what do you do? You let the
worst thing in the world happen, you let the school teach them.
And that's the worst thing that could ever happen, is to let
somebody like that, let secular education handle it. You can
handle it by the Word of God in proper form and just, but
sin makes us embarrassed, doesn't it? And it shouldn't be, not
if you handle it properly. But now listen, here's the circumcision
we experience and it happens to male and female. IT IS SPIRITUAL,
IT IS SOMETHING SPIRITUAL AND NOT FLESHLY. IT IS NOT FLESHLY
NO MORE. I KNOW THE JEWS OVER THERE STILL
DO IT THINKING THAT IT HAS SOMETHING TO DO WITH THEIR PART IN THE
KINGDOM AND COVENANT OF GOD. THAT DOESN'T. IT IS SPIRITUAL. IT IS SPIRITUAL. IT IS OF THE HEART. IT IS OF
THE HEART AND NOT OF THE LETTER, NOT OF THE FLESH. Philippians
3, 3, For we are the circumcision, we are the circumcision, we are
the true Israel of God. You re looking at a true Jew. We are the true Israel of God,
which worship God in the Spirit, rejoice in Christ Jesus, and
have no confidence in the flesh. Turn over to Romans Chapter 2. Romans Chapter 2. All right, now listen, listen
to the Word of God. Verse 28, Verse 28, Verse 28,
Verse 28, Verse 28, Verse 28, Verse 28, Verse 28, Verse 28,
Verse 28, Verse 28, Verse 28, Verse 28, Verse 28, Verse 28, Verse 28, Verse 28, Verse 28, Verse 28, Verse 28, Verse
28, Verse 28, Verse 28, Verse 28, Verse 28, Verse 28, Verse 28, Verse 28,
Verse 28, Verse 28, Verse 28, Verse 28, Verse 28, Verse 28,
Verse 28, Verse 28, Verse 28, Verse 28, Verse 28, Verse 28, Verse 28, Verse 28, Verse 28, Verse
28, Verse 28, Verse 28, Verse 28, Verse 28, Verse 28, Verse
28, Verse 28, Verse 28, Verse 28, Verse 28, Verse 28, Verse 28, Verse 28, Verse 28, Verse 28, Verse 28, Verse 28, Verse 28, Verse
28, Verse 28, Verse 28, Verse 28, Verse 28, Verse 28, Verse 28, Verse 28, Verse But he is a Jew, which is one inwardly,
and circumcision is that of the heart in the spirit, not in the
letter, whose praise is not of men, but of God." It's spiritual,
it's a spiritual work of God. You see, this true circumcision
which has to do with the covenant, the covenant of grace. Christ,
whose blood is the blood of the covenant. His blood ratified
that covenant. But we, listen, we not only need
something done for us, which Jesus Christ did at Calvary,
we need something done in us, don't we? We need a work of God
in us. I need a new heart. You need
a new heart. God said, I'll give them a new heart. That's what
He said in Ezekiel. I'll give them a new heart and a right
spirit. I'll give them a new heart, a new spirit, then I'll
put my spirit, He said, within them. You want me to give you three
evidences of someone who's received this circumcision of the heart,
of the spirit, not of the letter? We have it right back there in
Philippians 3. Here's the three evidences that
God has done something in you. Here it is. Worshiping God in
the Spirit. It's not ceremonies. There's
no ceremonies going on here this morning. There's no rituals going
on here this morning. No hocus-pocus going on here
this morning. God's Word is being preached. Christ is being preached. and you're rejoicing in Christ.
You're rejoicing in Christ. Worshiping God in SPIRIT, here's
a second one, and you're rejoicing in Christ Jesus. You rejoice in Him for all that
He's done for you, all that He is to you. You know, He IS wisdom,
righteousness, sanctification, and redemption for us. Now listen,
this is important. HE DIDN'T JUST GIVE US THESE
WISDOM, RIGHTEOUSNESS, SANCTIFICATION, REDEMPTION. HE IS THIS TO US. HE IS THIS TO US BEFORE GOD.
HE IS MY WISDOM, HE IS MY RIGHTEOUSNESS, HE IS MY SANCTIFICATION, HE IS
MY REDEMPTION. THIS IS WHAT HE IS TO US. And then the third thing is this,
HAVE NO CONFIDENCE IN THE FLESH. There's the three marks that
God has done something for you, and God's done something in you.
That's the three marks that your heart's been circumcised. And there's something else here,
a few things I'm going to say about circumcision. Number one,
it was not visible to everyone. You know that? It wasn't visible. IS THE WORK OF CHRIST IN YOUR
HEART VISIBLE TO EVERYONE? NO. I CAN'T SEE YOUR HEART. I CANNOT SEE YOUR HEART. THAT'S
WHY THE LORD SAID ABOUT THE TEARS IN THE WHEAT. THEY SAID YOU WANT
US TO TEAR UP THE TEARS? HE SAID NO. YOU'LL MESS IT UP. YOU'LL
PULL UP THE WHEAT TRYING TO PULL UP A TEAR. THEY LOOK SO MUCH
ALIKE. BUT IT'S INVISIBLE. I MEAN IT'S
NOT VISIBLE. something you you can see it's
a hidden thing it's a hidden thing and there's something else
here that's really interesting and i'm going to reach back in
the old testament and i'm going to point out something interesting
i'm not going to ask you to turn over there but whenever you go
home you can read joshua chapter 5 In Joshua chapter 5, remember
Moses couldn't take them into the promised land because Moses
represented the law. Moses disobeyed God when it came
to circumcision and Moses disobeyed God again when he struck the
rock the second time. Christ crucified ONE TIME, not
twice! He said the second time, SPEAK
TO THE ROCK! Don't strike that rock the second
time, Christ is crucified ONE TIME! but he struck it the second
time out of anger. And God did not let him go into
the promised land, but God didn't let him go into the promised
land because the law can't deliver you into the promised land. Only
grace can do that. And Joshua, whose name represents
Jesus, Savior, HE delivers into the promised land. But here's
something just jumped out at me. The children of Israel went
through the wilderness for 40 years. And all those men
who came out, men of war, all those older ones who came out,
they didn't enter the promised land, did they? It said those
20 years old and younger. And those 20 years old and younger
were not circumcised in the wilderness. But when Joshua delivered them
into the promised land, what's the first thing he did? He circumcised
every one of them. What a beautiful picture of regeneration. What a beautiful picture of the
new birth. What a beautiful picture of salvation. They were not circumcised
in the wilderness, but when they went over to the promised land,
they were. What a beautiful picture of salvation,
regeneration, the new birth. That's such a beautiful picture.
I was reading, I read, I couldn't tell you how much I read. I went
home yesterday, I told Vicki, I said, My brain is about to
explode. I have read so I have read and I've read and I've read
and I've read and my brain was about to explode but but I'm
glad I did I can see it I can see it I see more now preaching
it than I did when I was writing it but then listen circumcision
also has something to do with this covenant this was a sign
a seal of the covenant Acts 7 to 8 And he gave him the covenant. God gave Abraham the covenant
of circumcision. And so Abraham begat Isaac and
circumcised him the eighth day and Isaac begat Jacob and Jacob
begat the twelfth patriarch. But he says he gave him the covenant
of circumcision. It has to do with a covenant.
We are saved by Christ through a covenant. God is a covenant God. GOD DOES
NOTHING APART FROM THE COVENANT THAT HE MADE WITH JESUS CHRIST.
NOTHING. You know what it says in Isaiah
49a? Listen to this. Christ, listen,
Christ is our circumcision. He was cut off from the land
of the living. His blood was shed. The blood of the Son was
shed. But now listen to this in Isaiah
49 8. Thus saith the Lord in an acceptable time have I heard
thee, and in a day of salvation have I helped thee, and I will
preserve thee and give thee, give thee for a covenant of the
people. He's also the covenant because
He embodies the whole covenant of grace. That whole covenant
of grace is embodied in Christ. he's everything to us he's our
all in all our all in all and i'll give thee as a covenant
to the p of the people to establish the earth and the cause to inherit
the desolate heritage and heritages and i'm going to close with this and i want you to notice what
zephyr called moses Now she had a little attitude going on here. She got her way up to this point.
You know, you can get your way with your husband a lot, but
when God steps in, you're in trouble. God steps in, you're in trouble.
Because it's going to be His way or no way. Isn't it? Christ said, I'm the way, the
truth, and the life. You try to go another way and find out how
that works. Then Zipporah took a sharp stone
and cut off the foreskin of her son. CAST IT AT HIS FEET, THREW
IT DOWN AT MOSES' FEET, AND SAID, SURELY A BLOODY HUSBAND, A BRIDEGROOM,
IS WHAT THAT MEANS, ART THOU TO ME? SO GOD LET HIM GO, AND
SHE SAID, A BLOODY HUSBAND, NOW HERE'S THE TRANSLATION, A HUSBAND
OF BLOOD, YOU ARE TO ME, BECAUSE OF THE CIRCUMCISION. CHRIST IS A BLOODY HUSBAND TO
HIS CHURCH, ISN'T HE? HE'S A BLOODY HUSBAND TO US.
WE ARE SAVED BY HIS BLOOD. HE'S A HUSBAND TO US, HE'S A
HUSBAND TO US BY BLOOD. HE'S A BRIDEGROOM TO US, OR NOT
A BRIDEGROOM, BUT THE BRIDE TO US, THE GROOM, GET THIS RIGHT,
the bridegroom. I'm going to marry a couple here
at Emily and Austin. I hope I don't get that messed
up. Henry married somebody one time
and used the man's wrong name. He's like, I guess you get a certain age,
you better stop doing funerals and marriages. You bury the wrong
person and marry the wrong person. All right, back back to the end but he's a husband by blood to
us we've entered into a covenant by blood to Christ and the signature
on that covenant that marriage let me say marriage contract
the signature on that is signed in blood his blood It's signed in HIS
BLOOD. That's why God said, I'll never
break my covenant over in Hosea. I mean, she turned out to be
a harlot, and she broke the covenant, but God said, I'll never break
my covenant. Haven't we sinned enough? We've
sinned enough today to be sent to hell. If you understand what
sin really is and who God is, you understand that. But God
has made a covenant with us by BLOOD. And he won't break it. It's signed in blood. I hope I didn't muddy that up.
But I understand it better now than I read about it all week.
It gave me a little more light on it.