Well, we come this evening back
to Genesis chapter 17, and I want to speak to you tonight on the
covenant that God made with Abram. The covenant that God made with
Abram. Now, the Lord appeared to Abram,
we've already talked about this, 13 years before this. And now
he comes and appears to Abram again. Now maybe the Lord appeared
to him on other occasions during this 13-year interval. We're
not told. The Lord hasn't been pleased
to record them. It's the word of God. It is accurate
history, but it's not a history book of all the events that happened
with Abraham or any other of the the people of God. In fact,
it isn't even a full record of all of the things that the Lord
Jesus did. Because we read in the book of
John that if everything our Lord did when he was in this world,
if everything was written down in books, John said, I suppose,
the world wouldn't hold all the books that would record all the
actions of our Savior. And that was just during his
lifetime here on this earth. Well, he was active in the Old
Testament. He was always working in the
Old Testament, so there aren't enough books in this world to
hold all of the things that our Lord has done and is doing even
now. But we know this, that our Lord
Jesus was at work always, active in this world, even in the Old
Testament. And here in Genesis chapter 17
is our Savior. He's the Son of God. He's ministering
to Abraham. He's speaking to Abraham. And
we know it's the Lord Jesus because God's not going to speak to nor
is He going to be spoken to by any of us. Not even by Abraham. except through a mediator, and
the only mediator between God and men is the man, Christ Jesus. So as we look in this portion
of scripture this evening, the last time that we had the record
that God appeared to Abraham was 13 years before this. And
now those 13 years have passed by. Abraham is now 99 years of
age. And the Lord has appeared to
him again and he's introduced himself to Abraham by a new name. He says in the very first verse,
I am the Almighty God. That's the first time that title
is used for the Lord. And he identifies himself in
that way in order to further impress Abraham upon the greatness
of God. He is God Almighty or the Almighty
God. Our God is not, He's never powerless
to bring to pass His purposes. He is always at work and He is
always diligent to do Whatever it is that he's purposed to do,
nothing can stand in his way, nothing can hinder the Lord from
fulfilling his will. And so he immediately identifies
himself to Abram here as being the Almighty God. Now let me show you several things
that kind of stand out to me in this chapter. Number one,
God gives these a couple of commands to Abraham. Notice here in the
very first verse, at the end of it, he gives to Abram two
great commands. Number one, he says, walk before
me. Number two, he says, be thou
perfect. So what God gives him commands
about are his walk and his very being or his state before God. First of all, his walk. He says,
walk before me. Now, what is the walk of a child
of God? Well, in the Scriptures, it is
his life. It is his manner of living. God
says to Abram, walk before me. What is it to walk before God?
How do we walk before God? Well, in 1 Kings 2 and verse
4, God told Israel, walk before me in truth. If you're going
to walk with God, you're going to have to walk before God in
truth. The scripture says, can two walk
together except they be agreed? If you're going to walk with
God, if you're going to fellowship with God, if you're going to
commune with God, here's the very first thing, you've got
to be in agreement with God. You've got to agree with His
truth. You've got to agree with His Word. God says to Abram,
walk before Me in truth. In truth. The truth of God is
the gospel of His grace. The truth of God is who God is
in all of His perfections, in all of His attributes. The truth
of God is what God has to say about all of us. If you're going
to walk with God, you've got to agree with Him and say, Lord,
whatever it is you have to say about me, about my flesh, about
my sinfulness, it's true. I agree with you. And then you've
got to agree with Him, you've got to walk in the truth regarding
how He saves sinners. Not by works, not by works of
righteousness which we have done, but by His mercy He saves us. And He saves us through a substitute. He saves us through the Lord
Jesus. We've got to agree with what God has to say about the
truth. We have to walk before Him as
it says in 1 Kings 2 and verse 4 in truth. You remember reading, we've studied
this back earlier in the book of Genesis, Enoch did what? Walk with God. Enoch walked with
God. There's a lot in there. That
statement tells us a lot about Enoch. It means he agreed with
God. It means he walked with God in
truth. Whatever God had to say to him,
the Word of God passed along to him from Adam to Abel, and
then to Seth, Methuselah, and Enoch learning all of these things
concerning how God is to be approached and the way God saves sinners.
Enoch walked with God in the truth. If you don't believe what God
has to say, you can't walk with Him. He won't walk with you.
If you walk contrary to the Word of God, contrary to the message
of grace, if you walk contrary to the message of redemption
by the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ only, and the righteousness
that He has established by His own obedience unto death, if
you don't walk in the truth of God, there will be no fellowship
between you and God. There can't be. There can't be. The Scripture says if we walk
in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with
God and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all
sin. We're to live on the truth of
the Word of God. We're to believe what God has
to say and we're to believe Him who is the full embodiment of
the truth, even the Son of God. It's written in Jeremiah chapter
6 and verse 16. Thus saith the Lord, and this
is what Jeremiah was to give the message to the children of
Israel. Thus saith the Lord, stand ye in the ways, and see,
and ask for the old paths, where is the good way, and walk therein.
Walk in the good way. Walk in the good way. What's
the good way? God's way. God's way. And He said, then
you'll find rest for your souls. But they said, we won't walk
there. To walk in the old path is to
walk before God according to what He says. It's to walk in
the good way. There's only one good way. That's
the way of Christ Jesus crucified. And then Romans chapter 6 verse
4 says we're to walk in newness of life. God has given us life. He's given us spiritual life.
He's given us who were dead in trespasses and sins, He's given
to us, He's breathed into our innermost being spiritual life. Now walk in the newness of that
life. Walk as children of God. That's
what He means. And then further in Romans chapter
8 in verse 1, we read, there is therefore now no condemnation
to them who are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh,
but after the spirit. What is it to walk after the
flesh? Well, he's talking about no condemnation
there. He's talking about salvation.
And to walk after the flesh It's to walk after the reasoning of
the flesh. It's to walk after the conclusion
of the flesh that the more we do for God, the more God will
do for us. That's what the flesh says. Don't
walk after the flesh. That's the way the whole world
thinks. This is worldliness. Worldliness is thinking that
you earn your salvation by something you do for God. That's wrong.
Don't walk in that way. If you walk in that way, you're
walking on the broad way that leads to destruction. Walk in
the narrow way. Not according to the flesh, but
according to the Spirit. And then we're told in 2 Corinthians
5 and verse 7, walk by faith. Walk by faith and not by sight. Are we to live our lives as the
children of God? Now admittedly, this is easier
said than done, but we are to do it. Walk by faith. Walk just believing God, embracing
the promises of God, He said, I'll never leave you and I'll
never forsake you. He said, My grace is sufficient
for all of your needs. Walk by faith, not by sight. Walk believing God. Walk trusting
His wisdom. Walk trusting His grace. And then Ephesians chapter 5
and verse 2 says, Walk in love. Love! Even as Christ hath loved us
and hath given Himself for us and offering in a sacrifice to
God for a sweet-smelling Savior. Walk in love. God says to Abraham,
He says, I am the Almighty God, now walk before Me. Walk before
Me. And the second thing He says
is, Be thou perfect. Now, this has to do with his
being, with his state before God. Now, as the children of
God, we all want to be perfect. We want to walk perfect. We want
to live perfect. And we know that's something
way beyond our grasp or beyond our ability. But all of the children
of God want to be obedient to the Lord. I want to honor him
in my life. Don't you want to honor him in
your life? Surely you do. But as we seek to do that, we
find we fail. We fail miserably. In the margin, you'll read concerning
that word perfect means upright or sincere. Well, I disagree
with that because it's more accurate accurately translated, be thou
perfect. Now, there is a degree of sincerity
that certainly as we walk before God, as we believe Him, as we
come to Him, we've got to be sincere, not hypocritical, but
sincere. But sincerity is not enough. Here's what God demands, not
sincerity, but perfection. That's what God demands. Be thou
perfect. It's not about good intentions.
It's not about, well, I'm trying to live right. Well, that's fine,
but that's not what Christianity is about. It's about perfection. It's about righteousness. That's
what it's all about. This is more than your efforts.
This is about your state of being before God. And the only way
to be perfect before God is for perfection or righteousness to
be imputed to you and received by faith. We know a righteous
God cannot walk with anybody who's unrighteous. We've got
to be made righteous and the issue is how can you and I who
drink iniquity like water, how can we be made the righteousness
of God? And the answer is to be found
2,000 years ago at Golgotha's Brow when the Savior died for
us. For God made Him to be sin for us who knew no sin that we
might be made, that we might be sinners, that we might be
made the righteousness of God in Him. He is the Lord our righteousness. So the only way for this perfection
to be given to us is for it to be The only righteousness that
is perfect is the righteousness of the Lord Jesus. In fact, our
Savior said in his Sermon on the Mount, he said, except your
righteousness exceed the righteousness of the scribes and the Pharisees,
you'll in no way enter into the kingdom of heaven. How holy,
how good, how righteous have you got to be to be received
by God? You've got to have a righteousness
equal to God's. And in the Lord Jesus, you have
that righteousness. He is the Lord our righteousness
and that's our name as well. Now here's the second thing let
me talk to you about. This covenant is God's covenant. You'll notice in the second verse,
God says, and I will make my covenant. This is not Abraham's
covenant. It's not a covenant he made with
God. It's God's covenant. He said,
I'm going to make it between me and thee. And then many more
will be the recipients of the mercies of this covenant. And that's the reason that Abram
fell on his face and God talked with him. And God said, Behold,
My covenant is with you. My covenant, now get this, God
said, My covenant is with one man, but many people will be
blessed by this covenant. It's a beautiful picture of the
everlasting covenant of grace. God the Father entered into a
covenant with God the Son. He was our surety. The Scripture
says in Hebrews, He's the mediator of a new covenant. And when God,
Father, Son and Spirit convened in old eternity in this council
of peace, it was God's covenant that He made with the Lord Jesus
Christ, our substitute, our Savior, the Son of God, And as God made
that covenant with him, he then put in Christ Jesus a multitude
of people who would be blessed as a result of that covenant. The covenant of grace was made
with one. But many people were blessed
by it. A people of every nation, kindred, tribe, and tongue. Our
Lord Jesus Of him it was said in Isaiah, I the Lord have called
thee in righteousness and I will hold thine hand and keep thee.
And the father said, I will give thee for a covenant of the people
and for a light of the Gentiles. And our savior dealt with the
father in that covenant. When that council of peace was
made, and this is back in the endless eternity, it's always
been that way. But in that covenant of grace,
we had a representative. We had somebody who stood for
us. We had somebody who stood face-to-face, as it were, eye-to-eye
with God, one equal with God, dealing with God and dealing
with God on our behalf. even when we existed only in
the mind and purpose of God. And this is seen in verse 19.
Look over at verse 19 of this chapter. God said to Abram, Sarah thy
wife shall bear thee a son indeed, and thou shalt call his name
Isaac. And Isaac is a picture of the Son of God. He's the promised
Son. He's the miracle Son. And I will
establish my covenant with Him for an everlasting covenant and
as a result with His seed after Him. The covenant was made with
Christ and with all of His spiritual
seed. which includes everybody here tonight who's a believer.
And those of you who are watching who are believers, you are included
in this covenant because you had somebody representing you.
You had somebody standing for you. You had someone who was
equal with God in every way, who stood there and said, I will
be their Savior, I will be their righteousness, I will be their
sacrifice, I will be their substitute. And in time, He did come into
this world to save His people from their sins. Well, here's
the third thing I want to show you. This covenant is in fact
called a covenant of circumcision. Look with me in the book of Acts.
Look in Acts chapter 7. It's called the covenant of circumcision. And of course as I read down
through verse 14, you notice that the word circumcision or
circumcised in various forms was frequently stated. Well, if we go back over here
to Acts chapter 7, And this is where Stephen is giving his answer
to the Sanhedrin. And he's speaking about Abraham.
Acts chapter 7. Look at verse 6. I'll go to verse 4. Then came
he out of the land of the Chaldeans, that is Abraham, and dwelt in
the Koran, And from thence, when his father was dead, he removed
him into this land wherein you now dwell. And Stephen said,
and he gave him none inheritance in it, no, not so much as to
set his foot on. Yet he promised that he would
give it to him for a possession and to his seed after him, when
as yet he had no child. And God spake on this wise, that
his seed should sojourn in a strange land, and that they should bring
them into bondage and entreat them evil for a hundred years.
And the nation to whom they shall be in bondage will I judge, God
said, and after that they shall come and serve me in this place.
And he gave him the covenant of circumcision." And that's
right from Genesis chapter 17. He gave to Abraham the covenant
of circumcision. And so Abraham, he begat Isaac,
and circumcised him the eighth day. And Isaac begat Jacob, and
Jacob begat the twelve patriarchs. This is the covenant of circumcision. It was the outward physical token
of God's covenant with Abraham. And it distinguished the men
of Israel from all the other men upon the face of the earth.
Now what was the significance of the circumcision? It portrayed
or it pictured regeneration, the token of the new covenant.
It portrayed or pictured the new birth, the quickening power
of the Spirit of God, which is the evidence that you are included
in the covenant of grace. We know the Savior said ye must
be born again. That's circumcision that is of
the Spirit. It isn't something that we do
for ourselves. Look with me in Romans. You're
over here next to Romans. Turn a few pages over to the
book of Romans, the second chapter. Romans chapter 2. Look at verse
28. Romans 2, 28. for he is not a Jew which is
one outwardly." Now all the Jewish men had to be outwardly circumcised. But now here's what the apostle
says, and he is a Jew, he's a natural born Jew himself. And he was
circumcised the eighth day of the tribe of Benjamin. But he
says, he is not a Jew which is one outwardly. And you kind of
find yourself scratching your head and say, what are you saying
here? He is not a Jew which is one
outwardly. He says, no, neither is that
circumcision which is outward in the flesh. But he says he
is a Jew, he is a true Jew. He is of the true Israel of God
which is one not outwardly but 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, because God's the one who
does it. Now in physical circumcision,
as you could read at the end of Genesis chapter 17, Abraham
circumcised all the men. He circumcised Ishmael when Ishmael
was 13 years of age. And then we read that he circumcised
Isaac on the eighth day. And all the men in Israel and
everybody who was bought into slavery, they were all circumcised
and Abraham himself when he was 99 years of age was circumcised. But that was a physical circumcision. That was a physical cutting of
the flesh. But he says he is a real Jew
who has experienced the knife of the Spirit, the sword of the
Spirit wounding the heart that is in regeneration in the new
birth. Our Lord Jesus said you must
be born again. The same thing, you must be circumcised
in the heart. Turn with me a few pages over
to the book of Philippians chapter three. Philippians chapter three. Philippians chapter three in
verse, well, look at verse one. Finally, my brethren rejoice
in the Lord. write the same things to you,
to me indeed is not grievous, but for you it is safe, it is
necessary." Then he doesn't speak too kindly of false prophets. He says, beware of dogs, beware of evil workers, beware
of the concision, that is who were out to mutilate the flesh. who is zealous for the law of
circumcision physically. He says, for we are the circumcision,
we're the true people of God. We have experienced that circumcision
which is of the Spirit. Well, how are these people identified? How do we know who the true circumcision
are? Well, they have three notable,
very notable characteristics. Number one, they worship God
in the spirit. Number two, they rejoice in Christ
Jesus. And number three, they have no
confidence in the flesh, not theirs or anybody else's. Oh, this covenant then is a covenant
of circumcision. You know that under Jewish law,
that person who is uncircumcised was considered an enemy of God? When David looked upon Goliath,
he called to him or called regarding him and he says to all, to his
brothers and to King Saul and the rest of them, who is this
uncircumcised Philistine? That's what he said. That should
defy the armies of the living God. Under Jewish law, the person
who was uncircumcised had to be cut off from the people. Notice,
go back to our text in Genesis 17, you'll notice that in verse
14. The uncircumcised person had to be cut off from the congregation.
Chapter 17 verse 14, and the uncircumcised man child whose
flesh of his foreskin is not circumcised, that soul shall
be cut off from the people. He's broken my covenant. Put
him out. Put him out of the congregation. Even so, the Lord Jesus said,
except a man be born again, he can't see the kingdom of God.
You're not going in the kingdom of God. uncircumcised in the
heart. None will enter into the presence
of the Lord except those who have been born of the Spirit,
quickened by almighty free and sovereign grace. And then we
know this under Jewish law, a male child was not named, was not
named until they were eight days old. as was true of our Lord
Jesus who was made under the law. When he was circumcised
at the age of eight, he was officially named Jesus because he would
save his people from their sins. Even so, we're not officially
called the children of God until we're birthed into the kingdom
of God. Then we have the life of a child
of God 1 Peter 2 and verse 10 says, which in time past were
not a people, but are now the people of God, which had not
obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy. And then one
other thing, and you don't have to turn to this reference, but
it's quite interesting in Exodus 12 and verse 48, no uncircumcised
person could ever eat the Passover feast. They couldn't partake
of it. Even so, there's something that
must precede faith. Faith is eating Christ the bread
of life, drinking the water of life, but there's something that's
got to precede faith. It's absolutely necessary, and
that which precedes faith is regeneration. Regeneration. There is no eating of the Passover.
There's no feasting on Christ Jesus. There's no believing on
the Lord to salvation until you've been born again. And with the
new birth comes repentance toward God, the gift of repentance toward
God, and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. And then notice this. The blessings of this covenant
were all dependent upon God. That's always the way it is.
At the beginning of the chapter, well, look at verse 6. God says,
I will make thee exceeding fruitful. I will. I will make nations of
thee. Verse 7, I will establish my
covenant. I will. Look at verse 8. I will
give unto thee. The end of verse 8, I will be
there. I will. I will. I will. The very promises of God. On whom is the fulfillment of
the covenant dependent? God Himself. But then notice this. This covenant
was to be kept by Israel. Look at verse 9. And God said
unto Abraham, thou shalt keep my covenant, therefore thou and
thy seed after thee in their generation. It doesn't mean there's
something you've got to do to validate the covenant, but rather
it means guard the covenant, watch over the covenant. Don't
be ashamed of the covenant of grace. Don't be ashamed of divine
election and salvation. Don't be ashamed of redemption
by the blood of the Lord Jesus. Don't be ashamed of the necessity
of the work of the Holy Spirit. We believe unashamedly in the
everlasting covenant of the grace of our God. And that's where
we trace our salvation back to that covenant. It's like David
said in 2 Samuel, that's all of our peace, that's all of our
hope, that's all of our rest, it's all of our assurance, God's
covenant. My assurance is not in what I've
done or will do or shall do, or am doing. My assurance is in the I wills of
God, what God said He would do. And then along with the covenant
promises came name changes. From Abram, well, he was called
Abraham. He's the father of many nations.
He's the father, he's the spiritual father of all who believe on
the Lord Jesus Christ. And then his wife Saria, her
name was changed to Sarah. She's the mother of many princesses. And it's interesting even in
the New Testament she is mentioned as being that in 1 Peter 3 and
verse 6. Even as Sarah obeyed Abraham, calling him Lord, whose
daughters you are, you ladies in here tonight, whose daughters
you are as you do well, and as you're not afraid with
any amazement, you're not afraid to confess Christ Jesus as your
Savior, you're the daughters of Sarah. She believed God. Abraham believed God. Sarah believed
God. Scripture says that in Hebrews
chapter 11. And then one last thing, Ishmael will be great. God tells Abraham that because
Abraham, he hears the promise of God regarding Isaac. And of
course, he loves Ishmael. Even though Ishmael, he was a
child of Abraham's impatience. and of Sarah's impatience. But Abraham still loved him. And when God told Abraham, you're
going to get the promised seed, Isaac. Isaac will be his name. Abraham said, oh, that Ishmael
might live before thee. And God said, I'll bless Ishmael. and I will make of him a great
nation. However, my covenant will not be established with
Ishmael, but with Isaac. For in Isaac shall thy seed be
called. For Isaac is seed, not Ishmael,
but Isaac was a picture of our Lord Jesus and that covenant
of grace made by the Father with His Son. So to kind of give a summary
of all of chapter 17, here are four things. Here's the character
of God, the Almighty God. Number two, here's God's command,
the command of God. Walk before me. Be perfect. Folks, you got to be perfect.
You just got to be, and you can't be perfect in yourself. And you're
shut up to the grace of God in Christ Jesus. That perfection
is only found in Him. Thirdly, the covenant of God,
the character of God, the command of God, the covenant of God.
God said, I will be a God to thee and to thy seed after thee. And then the covenant child,
Isaac. And he points us to Christ, who
is the promised seed. in whom a people out of every
nation, kindred, tribe, and tongue would be blessed. Well, next
we'll go into chapter 18, and we'll see what the Lord has for
us in this next chapter. Let's bow and close in prayer.
Father, bless the word that's gone forth. We thank you for
the everlasting covenant of grace, established in all things and
sure, It consists of all of your I wills. I will choose. I will bless. I will redeem. I will quicken. I will call. I will save. I will keep forever
and ever. Oh God, how thankful we are that
all of our salvation is fully dependent upon thee. We bless you, we thank you, and
we ask that you would take the word that's been delivered this
evening and, Lord, thrust it into our hearts. And may we go
away rejoicing in the everlasting covenant of grace, and most especially
in that one with whom the covenant was made. and in whom the covenant stands
sure forever and ever. And in that one is our assurance
and our salvation. We ask these things in the name
of our Savior. Amen. you