Sound that good on them, so we'll
go to the singing and just go ahead and get to the scriptures.
If you have your Bible, turn to Genesis chapter 17. The title
of my message tonight is A Token. Genesis chapter 17, beginning
with verse 9. And God said to Abraham, thou shalt
keep my covenant therefore thou and thy seed after thee in their
generations. This is my covenant, which he
shall keep between me and you, and thy seed after thee. Every
man child among you shall be circumcised. And ye shall circumcise
the flesh of your foreskin, and it shall be a token 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 is born in the house or brought with money, or bought
with money, or any stranger which is not of thy seed. He that is
born in thy house, and he that is bought with money, must needs
be circumcised, and my covenant shall be in your flesh for an
everlasting covenant. And the uncircumcised man, man-child
whose flesh of his foreskin is not circumcised, that soul shall
be cut off from his people. He hath broken my covenant."
Now let's pray. Our Father, bless you and thank
you for mercy and grace through Christ. We thank you for the
shed blood of Jesus Christ, for that perfect sacrifice which
he offered to you, which satisfied your law and your justice, which
forever redeemed the people whom you chose before the foundation
of the world. We thank you, Father, that such
a thing is so, and we can gladly declare it and rejoice in that
fact. For we know, had you left us
to ourselves, there would be no hope for us. We were sinners
by choice, by practice, by imputation. Had no desire for thee. In fact,
our heart was full of hate for thee. But thou hast changed us
by your mercy and grace. You have converted us. You have
granted us repentance and given us faith to believe. And we do
thank you for it. Thank you for your word. It's
our help and our strength in these times as we look to you
to find peace and comfort. Father, we praise You for being
so kind and merciful to us. As we look at this passage of
Scripture tonight, I pray our hearts will be warmed to understand
and appreciate that which You've set forth in this covenant between
You and Abraham, which we see somewhat in the Old Testament,
but really set forth plainly and to be understood in the new.
Help us, we pray in Christ's name. Amen. Many years ago, I was talking
with one of my aunts who has no interest in the scriptures,
but she has a lot of things to say about them. And she said,
what's all this deal about circumcision? I keep hearing people talk about
circumcision all the time. She was a nurse, so she knew
the practical act of circumcision. She couldn't understand why it
had anything to do with the Bible. I tried to explain it to her,
but it didn't work. There is a great deal in Scripture about
it, especially in the New Testament, but here we have it introduced.
It is one of the first in the Scriptures. This is the first
mention of this passage. This portion of Scripture introduces
the first mention of the practice that will be a matter of extreme
consideration in the Declaration of the Gospel of the Lord Jesus
Christ. In the days that will follow, this practice will become
a matter of law and will be unlawfully employed to determine whether
or not a believer is accepted before God. Now the practice
of circumcision was given here to Abraham as a token of the
covenant that God had made with him. The Lord made this covenant,
not man. He instituted this practice,
not man. Several things are important
to note about circumcision. First, it was given as a distinctive
mark of separation. It made the followers of God
to be different physically from those who did not follow the
Lord. It had nothing to do with acceptance
before God because it was a mere token practiced among those who
were already in a covenant relationship with God. It had nothing to do
with standing right before God. It was given to those who were
standing right before God because of the covenant He had made with
Abraham. Though this was a physical practice, it was not necessarily
an obvious one. Once the operation was concluded,
There was no indication that the sons of Abraham went about
dropping their laundry to display that they had been distinguished
from those who were not sons of Abraham. Likewise, the practice
was not expressed as a basis for fellowship anywhere in Scripture,
such as show me yours and I'll show you mine type of mentality.
This was accomplished on the eighth day after a male child's
birth. Our Lord was circumcised on the
eighth day. and was given for every son of
Abraham. And those males that resided
in his house, whether they were bought or whether they were visitors
who decided to stay in the house, it was accomplished for everyone
in the house. It was thus a personal token. A personal token. Not seen, therefore pictured
in already existing faith and righteousness, and a righteous
standing before God. Circumcision made no one righteous,
though in the latter days, in the days of the New Testament,
in the days of the early church, it became symbolic to the Jew
as a symbol that you were actually righteous before God. circumcision
is never anywhere in scripture tied to righteousness. It was
given to the man whom God had given faith and that faith had
been accounted to him for righteousness back in Genesis chapter 15. You
want to turn back there just for a moment and look at that
incident which we've already covered but in verse 6 of Genesis
15 it says that he believed in the Lord and he counted it to
him for righteousness. Circumcision came much later. Paul dealt with that because
he was dealing with this onslaught of the Jews in Romans chapter
4 when he said these words in Romans chapter 4 beginning with
verse 6 he said even as David also described this is in Psalm
32 even as David also described the blessedness of the man unto
whom God imputeth righteousness without works because he has
just said that Abraham received righteousness before God without
works, without labor. Because if you actually get it
because of labor, then God owes you the glory that's due there.
So he goes on to say, Blessed are they whose iniquities are
forgiven, and whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man to
whom the Lord will not impute sin. He said, Now cometh this
blessedness, or does this blessedness come then upon the circumcision
only? or upon the uncircumcision also. For we say that faith was reckoned
to Abraham for righteousness. Faith was reckoned to Abraham
for righteousness. How was it then reckoned? When
he was in circumcision or in uncircumcision. When was Abraham
considered to be righteous before God? That's what he said. He
said not in circumcision, but in uncircumcision. When he was
not a circumcised individual, Before circumcision was given
as a token of the covenant, Abraham was already considered righteous
because he believed God concerning the sea. He received the sign
of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness of faith. which
he had yet being uncircumcised, that he might be the father of
all them that believe, not all them that are circumcised. All
them that believe, though they be not circumcised, that righteousness
might be imputed unto them also by faith, or through faith. and
the father of circumcision to them who are not of the circumcision
not of the circumcision only but also walk in the steps of
the faith of our father in them which he had being yet uncircumcised
so he's saying all the standing of Abraham before God had nothing
to do with the circumcision this was a token later given to show
something else It says, for the promise that he should be heir
of the world was not to Abraham or his seed through the law,
but through the righteousness of faith. Through the righteousness
of faith. Now also, circumcision was not
given as an edict of the law. It's not in the book of Exodus,
except in one mention. The law of Moses, given at Sinai,
would incorporate circumcision, however. But it preceded the
law by centuries. This token given to Abraham,
the law is way down the line. Israel is yet to go into captivity
for 430 years and yet to be delivered from Egypt, yet to go into the
wilderness into Sinai and receive the law. And yet Abraham was
already righteous, so circumcision had nothing to do with it. It
was a token. What is a token? We have that
word in Romans 4 that we just read. It was given for a sign.
That's one of the meanings of the word token. The word means
a sign or a distinguishing mark. The root word means an agreement
or consent. So circumcision meant that Abraham
consented to and was in agreement with God concerning this token
of the covenant. This indicated that by circumcision,
Abraham revealed that he agreed with God. He believed God and
therefore walked with God. Why do I know that? Because two
cannot walk together except they be agreed. As the Old Testament
was the gospel in type, picture, and shadow, so circumcision was
a picture of some spiritual truth or truths. First, as it was a
physical act that resulted in the shedding of blood, It carried
with it the concept of suffering and the concept of sacrifice.
Combined with the fact of rending the flesh from the body, it pictured
putting away sin. Of course, this pictured the
work of Christ in the salvation of the elect. It also pictured
the mortification of the flesh by the Spirit of God. Combine
this with the fact that once it was done, it was not displayed.
It typified the work performed on the heart of man, even though
it was done on the foreskin of a man's flesh. about the heart
of man in Deuteronomy which is Deuteronomy means the second
law or the law that preceded them going into the promised
land. In Deuteronomy chapter 10 we have an interesting way
that our Lord puts this in reference to the people being stiff-necked
and uncircumcised in heart. In Deuteronomy chapter 10 and
verse 16 His command to the people is circumcise therefore the foreskin
of your heart So here we have a whole different application
to it. And be no more stiff-necked. Circumcise the foreskin of your
heart and be therefore no more stiff-necked. So that is also
set forth in Romans chapter 2. when the Lord talked about who
is a true Jew or who is a true Israelite. And we know the true
Israelite, the Israel of God, is the church of the living God.
And in Romans chapter 2 and verse 28, he says, for he is not a
Jew, which is one outwardly, that is to say, neither is that
circumcision, which is outward in the flesh. But he is a Jew,
which is one inwardly. And circumcision is that of the
heart in the spirit, and not in the letter, whose praise is
not of men, but of God. So here we see our Lord setting
forth this unique representation of the spiritual aspect of what
the physical aspect of circumcision meant. It preceded, remember,
the entry into the promised land. And both these mentions in Deuteronomy
are very informative. We just read that you were to
circumcise the foreskin of the heart, but in Deuteronomy chapter
30 and verse 6, again, Remembering that this is the law given before
they enter into the into the promised land in Deuteronomy
chapter 30 and verse 6 we read these words and the Lord thy
God Will circumcise thine heart The Lord thy God will circumcise
that heart and the heart of thy seed to love the Lord this would
be the response of the circumcision of the heart to love the Lord
thy God with all that heart with all thy soul that thou mayest
live and So here we see that this distinction is made. Circumcision,
though a physical act, was actually representative of a matter of
the heart, which God would accomplish. Now he was given to Abraham as
a token, but it says God's the one who will circumcise your
heart. God is the one who will cut you there. God is the one
who will make you bleed there. God is the one who will break
the heart. So the word circumcision is mentioned
once in Exodus, Now the word circumcised is mentioned more
than that, but the word circumcision is mentioned only once, and that
was when a strange incident had happened. It said the Lord was
about to kill Moses. Now he was about to kill Moses
because Moses had not circumcised his son. And so Zipporah, Moses'
wife, went and got a sharp stone and circumcised her son, and
threw the stone at Moses and told Moses, she said, you're
a bloody husband because of the circumcision. That's the mention
of circumcision. in Exodus chapter four. The word
circumcised and circumcised only gets cursory mention in the Old
Testament, but it's prominent in the New Testament. If you've
studied the gospel, if you've studied the gospels and the epistles,
you'll find that that word is often, we just read it several
times in Romans chapter four. It's very prominent in the New
Testament because of what it represents to religious people. It's prominent because of what
it represents to the Jewish people. Because it becomes a matter of
grace and works. And that's how it's set forth
in the New Testament. Also something to think about,
the women of Abraham's lineage, like Sarah, his wife, were not
circumcised. They were not circumcised. Yet
they were members of the descendants of Abraham. Like the woman with
the issue of blood in the New Testament was said to be a daughter
of Abraham. Well, who do they picture? They
not circumcised? Who do they picture? They picture
the church. They picture the church. Who
is the bride of Christ? She could not be circumcised,
but rather as a member of the body. because they're married
to Christ, one with Christ, and they are bone of His bone and
flesh of His flesh. This is why Sarah was accounted
as a member also. because she was married to Abraham.
This is why you, as a member of the body of Christ, are counted
as one who doesn't need to be circumcised, because you are
married to Jesus Christ, who was circumcised on the eighth
day, and that circumcision represented the shedding of His blood in
the very earliest of cases. We know that the bride of Jesus
Christ and Jesus Christ carry the same name. Over in Jeremiah,
chapter 23, this is set forth as the name
of the Lord Jesus Christ by which he shall be called Jeremiah chapter 23 and verse
5 it says behold the days come saith the Lord that I will raise
unto David a righteous branch and a king shall reign and prosper
and shall execute judgment and justice in the earth we know
that's the Lord Jesus Christ those things are spoken of him
throughout the scripture in his days Judah shall be saved Judah
shall be saved, and Israel shall dwell safely. And this is the
name whereby he shall be called the Lord our Righteousness."
That's Jehovah Sid Cano, the Lord our Righteousness. Now if you look over to the 33rd
chapter of the same book of Jeremiah, you find these same words not
applied to the Lord Jesus Christ, but applied to His Bride. The
same words. It says, in those days, at that
time, I will cause a branch of righteousness to grow up unto
David, in verse 15 of chapter 33, and he shall execute judgment
and righteousness in the land. In those days, Judah shall be
saved, and Jerusalem shall dwell safely, and this is the name
where she shall be called, the Lord our righteousness. That is why when women marry
men, they take his name, because they're one. They're one. The two shall be one flesh. So
this is how circumcision is set forth in the Old Testament. Now
finally, circumcision became the battleground of the gospel
of grace in the early church and in the New Testament, and
it's still the battleground today, though it may travel under another
name, because circumcision has become synonymous with keeping
the law. And men believe that you keep
the law for righteousness or rule of life or for justification
and they're all wrong when they believe that. But it was circumcision
that was used to sort of envelop all those ideas of keeping the
law and bring them down to one place in the scriptures. When
the gospel was taken to the Gentiles, you remember that, Acts chapter
13. First, Peter took the gospel to the house of Cornelius as
a Gentile. That happened when Peter was on the rooftop and
God handed down that sheet and a vision that had all manner
of animals on it. And the Lord said to Simon Peter,
take and eat. He said, not so, Lord. There's
some unclean animals up here. I'm going to keep the law. The
Lord said, don't you call unclean what I've made clean. And what
he was doing was preparing Peter to go down to have fellowship
and preach the gospel to and baptize the household of a Gentile. That's what this was all preparation
for. So Peter was the first one who brought the gospel to the
Gentiles, but Paul was called the apostle to the Gentiles.
And in Acts chapter 13, he set forth the fact that the gospel
was going to the Gentiles, and that was the great passage where
the Gentiles were so joyous over the word of God, and as many
as were ordained to eternal life believed in Acts chapter 13. But that became the issue. When
the gospel was taken to the Gentiles, the uncircumcised, they were
received as children of God without circumcision. and no circumcision
involved. Now the Jews fought against them
with the doctrine of circumcision. Circumcision to the Judaizers
was synonymous with keeping the law for righteousness, and the
Jews required the Gentiles to be circumcised as evidence of
salvation. They said, sure. And these were
so-called believing Jews that did this. They were Jews who
had supposedly converted to Christianity. The problem with conversion is
that most people think of it as salvation, but generally speaking,
conversion is going from one idea to another, one realm to
another. I remember the story of a dear friend of mine who
was a captain in the armed forces and was overseas during the Gulf
War. And before that he was in Bosnia
and he met a Muslim girl. Now he was a believer, he was
the son of a sovereign grace preacher and a believer but he
met a Muslim girl and she was a doll, she was a pretty thing.
And he liked her and she liked him and so they began to talk.
And he would let her read the Koran to him and then he would
read the Bible to her. Back and forth and back and forth
and they fell in love. And one day she said, I want
to convert to Christianity. He said, wait a minute, you can't
do that. You can't do that. There's no such thing as converting
to Christianity. That's just accepting another
idea. God's going to have to do something
in your heart and in your soul. And he was honest enough with
her. Well, they were in love. They got married and brought
her back to the United States. And she went under the ministry of
a solid, sovereign grace preacher out in Kentucky, Maurice Montgomery. And her and Maurice were driving
down the road one day, and Maurice, he'd been preaching to her for
some time now, and he said, what do you think of Christ? She says, I'm not worthy to mention
his name. He said, honey, you know Christ.
You know Christ. Now, if God had converted her,
unless she hadn't converted from one religion to another, God
had changed her heart and her mind. But up to that point, she
was a person who believed that keeping the law pleased Allah. And later, she probably even
believed that keeping the law pleased God. But she found out
it's all by grace. It's all by grace. But when these
Gentiles believed the gospel, The Judaizers who were traditionalists,
they didn't like that. They said, wait a minute, we
know you're a believer. I'm a believer too, but I've been circumcised.
Now you need to be circumcised in order to be righteous before
God, in order to be accepted with God. But the apostle refused
to have his people circumcised. These Gentiles that he had preached
the gospel to, he refused to have them circumcised as evidence
of salvation. And a battle ensued. Part of
that battle was fought at Antioch. You remember that when Paul went
down to Antioch and Barnabas and Peter had succumbed to the
spies and the espionage that the Judaizers were carrying on
trying to get these Galatian Gentiles to convert to circumcision
for righteousness. And Paul said, I withstood Peter
face to face and told him, you despise the grace of God. You're telling these people they
need to be circumcised when they don't, or at least you're siding
up with those who do, who preach that. And Peter knew better because
way back in the early church, Peter had answered that question
himself. The apostle refused and the battle
ensued and it's going on today. I've had people stand in my face
and tell me that I'm an antinomian, I hate the law. I tell them I
don't hate the law. I love the law. Every time I preach the
gospel I put flowers on this grave. But it's dead to me and
I'm dead to it. I preached in a church not long
ago and they had this big sign right behind it. This was a grace
church right behind it. It said the Ten Commandments
right there on the wall. Right behind a gospel church. And I tried to be nice but it
didn't work. I finally said you need to take this down or you
need to write across it. Rest in peace because it's dead.
It's dead. The epistles to the Romans, to
the Galatians, to Colossians, they all deal heavily with this
conflict. It was the issue confronted in
the first recorded Bible conference in Scripture, in Acts chapter
15. Peter has brought some of these Gentiles that the Lord
has saved by grace up to Jerusalem to meet the big boys, up to Religion
Central. And he's introducing them. Well,
the Jews had something to say about that. And again, these
people were Jews who believed they were believers. They said
they were believers. In Acts chapter 15, it says this
in verse one, and certain men which came down from Judah, or
Judea, taught the brethren and said, except you be circumcised
after the manner of Moses, you cannot be saved. Now, they're
doing this in the church. When therefore Paul and Barnabas
had no small dissension and disputation with them, they determined that
Paul and Barnabas and certain other of them should go up to
Jerusalem unto the apostles and elders for this question. Now
Peter was head dog up there in Jerusalem. And being brought
on their way by the church, they passed by Phoenice and Samaria
declaring the conversion of the Gentiles. And they caused great
joy to all the brethren. And when they were come to Jerusalem,
they were received with the church, and of the apostles and the elders,
and they declared all things that God had done with them through
the preaching of the gospel only. And there rose up certain of
the sect of the Pharisees, which believed, now these were believing
Pharisees. So just remember that just because
a person grabs a hold of the law, that don't mean he's lost.
He could be a believer who just hasn't learned it yet and needs
to learn it so he can be set free. But anyway, the Pharisees
which believe saying this is needful, that it is needful to
circumcise them to command them to keep the law of Moses. We
need to do that. These folks, you just can't preach
the gospel to them and tell them they're saved if they believe
the gospel. We got to have some kind of evidence.
We believe that circumcision and keeping the law. That's what
they're saying. And the apostles and elders came
together for to consider this matter. So it was a conference,
a Bible conference. And when there had been much
disputing, Peter rose up and said to them, men and brethren,
you know how that a good while ago God made choice among us
that the Gentiles by my mouth should hear the word of the gospel
and believe. Now he's talking about Cornelius. And God, which
knoweth the hearts, bear them witness, giving them the Holy
Ghost, even as he did unto us. He's saying, these folks are
saved. And put no difference between us and them, purifying
their hearts by faith. Now therefore, why tempt ye God
to put a yoke upon the neck of the disciples, which neither
our fathers nor we could bear? And that was the law. But we
believe that through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, we
shall be saved even as they. And notice the order here. He said, He didn't say they shall
be saved just like we're saved. He said, we'll be saved just
like they're saved. How were they saved? Not by the
circumcision, not by keeping the law. They were saved by hearing
and believing the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. You don't
force them to be circumcised. There, Peter set forth set forth
the truth but the battle did not die and the war still goes
on it's engaged every time that the gospel is preached Paul settled
it this way in the book of Galatians and I'll finish up with this
in the book of Galatians chapter 6 he talked about these who would
have men circumcised and why they do it why they do it Galatians
chapter 6 and verse 12 It says, And as many as desire to make
a fair show in the flesh, they constrain you to be circumcised,
only lest they should suffer persecution for the cross of
Christ. You see, the cross of Christ, when properly preached,
simply says this. There is nothing else in salvation
but Christ alone. There ain't no circumcision.
There ain't no keeping of the law. There's nothing but Christ.
And these who want to make a fair show in the flesh because they
fear persecution. Why do they fear persecution?
Because they are saying the gospel. And men say, wait a minute, we
have to be able to do something. No, you can't do anything. You
can't do anything. For neither they themselves who
are circumcised keep the law, but desire you to be circumcised
that they can glory in your flesh, that they are controlling your
life, that they are making you to do something. Now listen to
what Paul says, but God forbid, that's the strongest negative
in the Greek language, means no, not never, no never let it
be, but God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of the
Lord Jesus Christ, by whom, the Christ, the world is crucified
unto me and I'm crucified unto the world. That's what I'm gonna
glory in, for in Christ, This is as simple as it gets. In Jesus
Christ neither circumcision availeth anything, nor uncircumcision,
but a new creature, a new creation, a new life, a new person, a new
you. That's the only thing that matters.
So he's saying this. If you're circumcised, it don't
matter. If you're not circumcised, it don't matter. It just don't
matter. Only believing Christ does. And
as many as walk according to this rule, peace on them. Peace
on them and mercy upon the Israel of God. This was a token, a sign
given to Abraham that meant so much more than most people think
it did. It's about the gospel of God's
grace and the glory of Christ and His salvation. What you do,
this is what it says in Galatians 6.15. What you do and what you
don't do doesn't matter in your salvation. What matters is that
did Christ pay your sin debt and redeem you by His blood.
This is what matters. This is the only thing that matters.
So we say with Paul, God forbid, that I should glory. Say in the
cross, of the Lord Jesus Christ. Father bless us to understand
and pray in Christ's name. Amen.