Divine Covenant – Abraham Part 2
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[00:00:00] Genesis chapter 17.
We are gonna read the first 14 verses. So again, if you're able, please stand and again hear this for what it is, God's word. Genesis chapter 17. The first 14 verses. Now, when Abram was 99 years old, Yahweh appeared to a Abraham and said to him, I am El Shada. Walk before me and be blameless. I will establish my covenant between me and you and I will multiply you exceedingly.
Abram fell upon his face and God talked with him saying, as for me, behold my covenant is with you and you will be a father of a multitude of nations. No longer shall your name be called [00:01:00] Abraham, but your name shall be Abraham. For I will make you the father of a multitude of nations. I will make you exceedingly fruitful and I will make nations of you and kings will come forth from you.
I will establish my covenant between me and you and your seed after you throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant to be God to you and to your seed. After you, I will give to you and to your seed after you, the land of your sojourning, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession and I will be their God.
God said further to Abraham. Now as for you, you shall keep my covenant, you and your seed after you throughout their generations. This is my covenant, which you shall keep between me and you and your seed After you. Every male among you shall be circumcised and you shall be circumcised in the flesh of your foreskin and it shall be the sign of the covenant between [00:02:00] me and you.
And every male among you who is eight days old shall be circumcised throughout your generations. One who is born in the house, or who is bought with money from any foreigner who is not of your seed. One who is born in your house or who is bought with your money shall surely be circumcised. Thus shall my covenant be in your flesh for an everlasting covenant.
But an uncircumcised male who is not circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin, that person will be cut off from his people. He has broken my covenant. May God add a blessing to the reading the hearing. Most importantly, obedience to his word. Please be seated.
So we are in a series on the covenants, and what I want to ask right now as we get started this morning is why, why would I take the time to cover the covenants? And we've been looking at the various covenants and uh, we're gonna [00:03:00] continue to talk about 'em for a couple of weeks. And, and the stated premise was, it's gonna help us understand the rest of the book of Hebrews.
That's really the series that we're in, but we're getting ready to start chapter 7, 8, 9, and 10. And we need to know something about the covenant. So it made sense. So we're looking at the pieces and the parts and the consistency, but why is this important? Another reason I gave you is the word covenant is used almost 300 times in the Bible.
And interestingly enough, there's only four books in the Old Testament where you don't read the word and there is eight books. That was old. In the New Testament, there are eight books that you don't read the word other than that it saturates scripture. So why is this important? I think it's important because if you're aware of what's going on around us, there is a battle going on.
There's a battle going on in evangelicalism, and it is a battle between [00:04:00] two different forms of theology or two different ways of thinking. One has often been called covenant theology. Those who would see the covenants in how they run through scripture. The other one would be dispensational theology.
Those who see, not covenants so much, but Dispensations time periods that one run through scripture. And we could talk a whole lot about them. And I don't have time to do it this morning. If you come to Bible study, the topic's going to come up because of how we interpret the book of Revelation. But what I do wanna talk about.
What I do wanna make sure everyone understands as to why I wanna take the time to do this is what I consider to be the most important difference. What is the most important difference between those two evangelical schools of thought? And just so you know, those two schools are not monolithic. And what I mean by that is even within the schools, there are, even within those two views, there are schools of thought.
But what is the most important difference? And I submit to [00:05:00] you the most important difference is the concept of continuity over against discontinuity. How do we understand our Bibles? How do we interpret our bibles? You see one school of thought, the covenantal thought. And just so you know, if there's any question that would characterize this church that would characterize our Al statement and the elders here at the church, we would hold to a covenant theology.
And covenant theology stresses continu. We recognize discontinuity, but we would stress continuity. Dispensational theology, on the other hand, would emphasize discontinuity. They too would recognize continuity, but they would recognize or they would stress discontinuity. So what does that look like? Simply put, if you, if you're a covenant theologian, if the Old Testament says something, we believe it still continues.
And the only reason it would stop is the [00:06:00] New Testament says, stop. Give you a an example Circumcision. Circumcision was commanded in the Old Testament, but when we get to the New Testament, the New Testament says, stop circumcising your children. Another one would be the ceremonial law. The ceremonial law was commanded in the Old Testament, but when we get to the New Testament.
Scripture teaches us that it is fulfilled in Christ Jesus. So faith in Christ Jesus is how we would honor the ceremonies today. That would be an emphasis on continuity. Dispensationalist would emphasize discontinuity. So I'll give you an example there. Most dispensationalist, remember there are schools of thought, but they would argue that the 10 Commandments were given in the Old Testament.
So if they apply to the New Testament, they must be repeated. And most Dispensationalist would argue that at least nine of the 10 have been repeated. Most many would say that the the Sabbath commandment has not been [00:07:00] repeated. Now, I happen to think all 10 have been repeated, but I also, and this is the difference, I also happen to think they don't need to be.
That's a huge difference. It really is. And it explains quite a number of theological disagreements, quite a number of why churches differ. And here's where it boils down today. Here's the point that I wanna make today. It affects our children. It affects how we view our children. It affects how we treat our children.
It affects what we allow our children to do at church, what we don't allow our children to do at church. And please, I am not pointing fingers, I'm not making accusations. I'm not saying anything wrong is happening here. I'm just stating fact. When you compare churches, I'll give you one example. Some churches will not allow children in service.
I know people that have gone to certain churches and they're met at the door, and if they have kids, they are [00:08:00] automatically whisk away. And if they say no, we want the kids to sit with us. I know of stories where the church will say, well, we just don't allow that. We've got things set up for the kids and we're gonna see this in Genesis 17.
Where do kids fit in? So I wanna give us a running start. So with that in mind, we ended last week in chapter 15 of Genesis, and we saw that in chapter 15 of Genesis, God confirms his covenant with Abraham. God confirms his covenant with Abraham with this covenant ceremony. And we see very clearly that in, in this covenant ceremony, God is taking on all the responsibilities of the covenant.
I've called you Abraham, but I will take on the responsibilities of the covenant on your behalf. And we saw the nature of that covenant somehow. And this is gonna get fleshed out later in scripture. It involves death. And the interesting thing is right smack in the middle of that chapter 15, we see that Abraham was [00:09:00] justified by faith.
We see that it's always been faith. And I've argued even going back to Adam, it has always been faith. Faith in the promised coming seed, faith in the promise of Messiah. They look forward. We look backwards.
Fortunately, we have actually infallible interpretation of Genesis 15. We have infallible interpretation of what it means for Abraham to believe and then be credited as righteous, and we find it in Romans and Galatians. It's touched on in Ephesians in James,
and once again, Abraham falls. It seems like two mountaintop experiences. Genesis chapter 12, and then Abraham goes to Egypt and messes up. And then we see another mountaintop experience in Genesis 15 where he gets to visualize Yahweh going through the, the, the, the dead animals. This smoking pot I will [00:10:00] take on the responsibility.
And what does Abraham do? He falls again. If you look at Genesis 16, Abraham and Sarah, the chapter begins. They're still barren. In fact, if you remember all the way back in Genesis chapter 11, the story begins by noting the fact that Sarah was barren. And they're still in that situation. And so they once again take matters into their own hands.
Instead of trusting God, they take matters into their own hands. And Sarah gives Abraham her maid servant, Hagar. And I always stop and I ponder here because I didn't bounce this one off of Stacey. And sometimes when I'm about to say something, I find it helpful to bounce it off of her. But I'm gonna go ahead and say this, so hopefully I don't get myself in trouble.
But the Bible has its humorous parts. Wives, how often do you ask your husband to do something and they ignore you? And you ask. And you ask and they ignore you. Look at [00:11:00] Genesis 16. I just, I find this humorous and I think it's meant to be humorous. In Genesis 16, we read in verse one. Now, Sariah, Abraham's wife had born him no children, and she had an Egyptian maid whose name was Hagar.
So Sariah said to Abraham, now behold, the Lord has prevented me from bearing. Please go into my maid. Perhaps I will obtain children through her. And then we read four simple words in the Hebrew. Abraham listened to the voice of his wife, Sarah Sariah. I can just imagine Sariah, 10 months later of all the things you listened to me about, it had to be this one.
Abraham Falls. He's not trusting God. God made it very clear. It would be Abraham and Sarah I who bore this child and he falls. And what does God do? And again, we can learn in terms of how God deals with us. God blesses him. And so often we read this verse [00:12:00] as if it wasn't a blessing. Abraham has a son. God tells Hagar, name your son Ishmael.
And I will give him a seed. He will be a, a mighty warrior and a king. He will have peoples and nations come from him. And we treat it as if there were that it wasn't a blessing, it was children. The Bible is very clear. Children are a blessing, and even in his sin, he blesses Abraham. That brings us to number one.
On your outline, in your bulletin, there's a couple of things. There's a fold in a half piece of paper. There's a sermon outline, uh, on your sermon outline on the fill in the blank. Number one is promise made clear. Promise made clear. So look at chapter 17 and we're just gonna start walking through it. So starting at verse one.
Now, when Abraham was 99 years old. Yahweh appeared to Abraham and said to him, I am El Shada. Walk before me [00:13:00] and be blameless. And kids on your handout, there's a question about what God asks of Abraham. Walk before me and be blameless, but there's something else that I wanna point out that might be easy to, to miss.
And that's the name of God. Because if you'll remember from last week in Genesis chapter 15, the second verse, Abram prays, and how does Abram address God? Adonai Yahweh? And I've told you in the past, I try to translate the names of God for you because we need to learn them because they teach us something about God.
Tai Yahweh, sovereign master owner, covenantal, faithful, God, I'm childless. How am I gonna inherit anything? Chapter 15, and here in chapter 17 in God's grace, God comes to him and he responds with a similar name as if specifically answering Abram's prayer. You recognize me as the sovereign God and [00:14:00] I'm introducing myself here as Al Shada God Almighty.
This term shadai literally means omnipotent. In fact, the Latin vulgate translates it that way, omnipotent. God, I am the omnipotent God. I'm covenantal, faithful, and I can do all things. And God comes to Abraham. Yes, there's been a a 13 year stretch in time, but God is covenant faithful and he comes to Abraham in like manner you've prayed to awe.
El Shadai comes. I can do this for you. I will answer your prayers. We need to learn to pray the names of God. We need to learn to pray God's promises back to him because God is faithful. And so he addresses Noah with a name that Remi, I'm sorry, Abraham, with a name that would remind him of his faithfulness.
And he commands Abraham walk before me. And just so you know, we know what that [00:15:00] means. We know I want you to be obedient. That's pretty clear from the context. But if you follow this phraseology out throughout the scripture, it always pictures a servant serving his king. And Yahweh is making very clear to Abraham, I am king and you are servant, and I expect you to serve me faithfully.
One example, and this is the Queen of Sheba talking to Solomon in one kings chapter 10, verse eight, how blessed are your men? How blessed are those, these your servants who stand before you, who walk before you continually and hear your wisdom? So God is making clear, I am king. What if we said about covenants?
They are sovereignly initiated. God is in charge. God sets the rules. Abraham, you're to walk in those rules and be blameless. And there's a couple of things about this word, blameless. First of all, it was the word to describe Noah. Hopefully you remember, but in Genesis chapter six, verse nine, these are the records of the [00:16:00] generation, generations of Noah.
Noah was a righteous man, blameless in his time. Noah walked with God, and we pointed out when we were in Genesis six that Noah was righteous and Noah was blameless because Noah experienced the grace of God. Earlier in the chapter, Noah found grace with God and that grace transformed Noah, and so he was a righteous man.
Well, same thing with Abraham. Abraham found God's grace. He found it in chapter 12 when God picks him. Oh to, in our view randomly, it wasn't random from God's view, but he picks him and he established this relationship with him and he says, go. And we see that Noah or uh, Abraham experienced grace in chapter 15 when he is justified as a free gift by faith alone and God's commands.
God's expectation of obedience with his people always comes after grace. And now God comes for the first time and he [00:17:00] commands him walk before me. Yes, this has been implied before, but this is explicit. Walk before me and be blameless. Another thing that we need to understand about this word blameless is it was the same word used to describe animals for sacrifice and what's used to describe sacrificial animals.
One example, Exodus chapter 12, verse five. Uh, it's usually translated unblemished or perfect. God was telling Abraham, you were to be perfect before me. By the way, that's the same command that God gives you and me in Matthew chapter 5 48. Jesus says, therefore, you are to be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.
And there should be no one sitting here today that knows we fail. We are not perfect. And yet that is exactly what God demands and commands. That is why God promises from Adam all the way to Jesus. I will fulfill these conditions for you. [00:18:00] You must trust me. You must believe in me, but I will fulfill these conditions for you.
And Jesus was perfect. Jesus did live a perfect life. Verse two, I will establish my covenant between you singular. I'm entering into covenant with you, Abraham. And because I'm entering into covenant with you, I will multiply you exceedingly. And remember I told you that when we read these words, we need to find the connections.
If we're going to interpret them properly, we need to find the connections. It's not just that God was gonna make Abraham this mighty father. It goes back to Genesis chapter one, verses 26 and 28. Be fruitful and multiply. Adam, Adam and E failed and they failed at the Tower of Babel. And God says, I'm gonna do this for you.
I am going to make you fruitful. I'm going to multiply you. I will carry out the conditions of the covenant. It reminds us of chapter 12, the first three verses, I will make you a great nation [00:19:00] and the entire world. I will bless the families of the entire world through you. Abraham.
Verse three, Abraham fell on his face. What an appropriate response. We see that throughout both testaments, body language, body responds, body position matters and there are times when it is appropriate. Like when we go to God for confession to fall on a knee, there are times when it's appropriate. When you're praying at home to get on a knee.
There are times to literally lay prostate prostrate. I always get that one wrong. It's actually kind of significant. I didn't mean to, wasn't trying to be funny there, but my apologies when we lay flat, flat before God. Luckily God has a sense of humor as well. Look around you. That was meant to be anyway.
Uh, body [00:20:00] position, body language is important.
Abraham falls on his face and God continued to talk to him as for me. Behold, my covenant is with you singular. Again. Another key aspect of all biblical covenants is this idea of representation. Adam represented us in the garden. Jesus represented us on the cross. Noah represented his family prior to the flood.
Abraham represents all believers Here. I'm entering into covenant with you, Abraham. My covenant is with you and you will be a father of a multitude of nations. Verse five, no longer shall your name be called Abraham, which literally means exalted or lofty father, but your name shall be called Abraham for I've made you the father of a multitude of nations, and that's what Abraham means.
Father of a multitude, and I will make you exceedingly fruitful and I will make nations of you and kings will come forth [00:21:00] from you. Again, we should be thinking of Genesis chapter one. Genesis chapter 12. We should be thinking of continuity because there's continuity that runs throughout the covenants.
But there's one more thing that we need to recognize. And you can go home and you can look for all the different places where names were changed. But changing a name back then was very significant, especially if God changed your name and it, it was a rebirth. It was a picture of rebirth. It was a picture of a new creation.
It was a picture of life. There's something new about you now, Abraham, no longer will you be called Abram, but there's something different. I'm confirming my covenant and I'm expanding my covenant. And so I'm giving you a new name that symbolizes new life. Sariah will receive a new name before the end of the chapter and verse seven kids.
This is on your outline. This is the fill in the blank. You need to fill in the blank. And this may be one of the most important verses in chapter 17, [00:22:00] but God spells out his covenant promise here, and this is the first time that God explicitly spells it out. And just so you know, it's repeated throughout scripture.
We'll get to that in a minute. God says to Abraham, I will establish my covenant between me and you singular and your seed after you throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant to be God to you and to your seed after you. And so we need to break this down. What was God's covenant promise?
And just let the text speak. God says, I will enter into covenant. It will be between me and two other sets of people if we read the text carefully. I will establish my covenant between me and you singular Abraham and your seed. And I've already told you in past sermons that this word can have both a singular and a plural aspect.
And Paul makes very clear in Galatians chapter three that it [00:23:00] has both here. Ultimately, it refers to Jesus because he's the promised seed, but it also believes in all who believe in Jesus. Because according to Paul, if we believe in Christ Jesus, then we are Abraham's seed, fellow heirs according to promise.
So God is promising Abraham, here, I will be your God, but I'm also going to be the God of your children. And that's the second part I established my covenant between me and you and your seed to be God to you and your seed. What did God tell Abraham in Genesis 12? I will bless families because of you.
This is Christianity is not individualism. And we treat it that way in our country because we are a very independent, individualized country. And there are some good things concerning that and some bad things. And one of the bad things is we tend to treat Christianity that way. Now, I've heard this example before in all examples fail, [00:24:00] but.
And I'm, somebody's gonna get mad at me here, and that's okay. But if you're a Chicago's Bears fan, okay? And all the Green Bay Packer fans are not happy right now. But if you're a Chicago Bear fans and you have a child, do you treat them as a Green Bay fan? No. You buy little Chicago bear shirts and you put 'em on your baby.
When Jesse was born, I was expecting a boy. I bought her a football pacifier, okay? And I made her use it. Okay? Uh, but I mean, there are Chicago bears, but only in Christianity do we treat our children as if, oh, they're not Christians. We're waiting to find out. Well, it seems what God is telling Abraham here is I'm making a promise to you.
And yes, it is not an absolute, there are no exceptions kind of promise. We believe it. It's based on an assumption, just like much of what we do. But I'm gonna be your God and I'm promising to be the God of your children. Are you gonna believe me? Are you gonna trust me? [00:25:00] Are you gonna raise your children in such a way that you acknowledge I'm their God
and you will be my people? And as I said, this promise is repeated throughout scripture. I just did a quick memory type thing and came up with no less than 10 verses. It's found in Exodus, it's found in Leviticus, it's found in Jeremiah Psalms. Luke Acts one Corinthians, Hebrews revelation. And I just wanna share two of the promises with you just so that you hear them for yourselves in Jeremiah chapter 31, speaking of the new covenant.
And we see in Hebrews, and when we get back there, we'll see it. The new covenant, quote unquote, replaces the old. And I would argue it doesn't replace it as much as fulfills it because shadows have always pointed to reality. We'll see the importance of that in a minute. But Jeremiah writes, this is the covenant which I will make with the House of Israel after those days declares Yahweh.
I will put my law within them. And on their heart, I will write it and I will be their God and they shall be my people. They will [00:26:00] not teach again. Each man, his neighbor, and each man, his brother saying No Yahweh, for they will all know me from the least of them. A phrase that if you trace the without scripture always means children from the least of them, from their children, to the greatest of them declares Yahweh, for I will forgive their iniquity and their sin.
I will remember no more. And in Acts chapter two, verse 39, for the promises for you and your for the promises, for you and your children and for all who are far off, and oftentimes you get in trouble 'cause of stopping there. I stop there on purpose. There's more to that verse. So let me read you the whole verse.
For the promises for you and your children, for all who are far off, as many as the Lord, our God will call to himself and oftentimes people will say, see, in the new covenant, it has to do with calling. It had to do with calling in the old covenant as well. There's nothing added to this promise here. It was always based on God's calling and the New [00:27:00] Testament repeats on the day of Pentecost.
The promise is for you and your children and for the Gentiles, all who are far off, as many as the Lord your God will call verse eight. I will give you and your seat after you, the land of your sojourns, the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession. And here's the promise again, I will be their God.
Now, a couple of things on this verse. Number one, we have to interpret the land of Canaan in light of how it functions in scripture and in light of all the promises that God has given Abraham. And remember, God promised Abraham the world. God promised Abraham, the world, all the families of the Earth will be blessed in you.
In verse six, we just read it earlier, I will make nations go. [00:28:00] That's the Hebrew word that's normally meant for gentile nations, but even Israel is included in this phraseology. I will make goyim and kings will come forth from you. It was always the world. Psalm two, the nations will come and worship at the feet of Messiah.
You see, we need to understand this and this is gonna help us understand. The next thing that I wanna point out, how is this covenant eternal? How is the Abrahamic covenant? Eternal later will read. Circumcision is eternal, and yet the New Testament says, stop circumcising. How is that eternal? How is the land of Canaan eternal?
They don't possess it right now. The church doesn't possess it right now. Israel doesn't possess it right now. How is that an eternal promise? I submit to you that in order to properly understand these questions, we must understand the difference between type and shadow and reality. The types and the shadows [00:29:00] were never meant to be eternal.
The reality is eternal. And guess what? Jesus owns the globe. Jesus owns the world. Jesus owns the calendar. Jesus owns every family. Even the disobedient ones. He owns it all. It is all his. And the nations will come streaming and the nations will bow down. And according to Psalm two, the nations will kiss the son.
They will worship him as God Almighty. The types and the shadows is not what's eternal, but it is the reality that is eternal. Canaan was always a picture of the world. Circumcision was always a picture and we'll get to it. Im, um, real shortly. It was always a picture of justification by faith. It was always a picture of death and resurrection.
Number two on your outline, promise made [00:30:00] visible. The sign of circumcision promise made visible a sign of circumcision. In verse nine, we read, God said further to Abraham. Now as for you, you'll keep literally guard my covenant, you and your seed after you throughout their generations. This is my covenant, which you shall keep, which you shall guard between me and you and your seed.
After you, every male among you shall be circumcised and you shall circum you shall be circumcised in the flesher of your foreskin, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and you and moms and dads. You may need to go home and do some explaining, and I will leave that to you in terms of the physical act.
There's a couple of things that we need to understand about circumcision being a sign, and I'm just gonna touch on it here and we'll conclude with it momentarily. We need to understand the meaning of circumcision. That's what I'm gonna hold off for a few minutes. But what he says clearly here is it's a sign, and a sign means it [00:31:00] signifies something greater than itself.
Just like the rainbow signifies something greater than a rainbow, it signifies the fact that God's war bowl is facing him and God is taking on the responsibility of fulfilling the covenant. So circumcision points beyond itself. In addition to this, and I, a lot of people don't seem to know this, this is not the world's introduction of circumcision.
We know for a fact that the Egyptians, during the days of Abraham circumcised. We know for a fact that many of the Canaanite tribes circumcised. We will read later in Jeremiah chapter nine, that multiple nations practice circumcision not for the same reason. You see, God takes something and he transforms it and he gives it new meaning, and that's important as we go further.
Who is it a sign for? You See, why do we even ask that question? We know [00:32:00] from previous signs and from future signs that signs are meant to remind. Okay? And more often than not, as I've tried to establish in scripture, signs more often than not are meant to remind Yahweh of something, God, of something. Yes, they remind us as well.
And yes, God does not need to be reminded. He's omniscient. And so he establishes these signs for our sake so that we know when we go to the table, God hasn't forgotten that Jesus died for me. God hasn't forgotten that I am his child, that I am part of his family. That's what the table ought to remind us of because we are forgetful.
And I submit to you that this sign was for you and well, it was for the male Israelite. It was for his wife, but it was also for Yahweh to remember. And therefore the sign means more than just a physical [00:33:00] act. Verse 12. And every male among you who is eight days old shall be circumcised. Now let's stop for a minute.
'cause we've talked about this whole eight day concept, okay? And it's gonna help us understand that circumcision points to something else. Why the eighth day? Now I've read articles that, that, that doctors and biologists have argued that and, and I don't know the entire argument, but. I'm not off base here.
Doctors and scientists have argued that for some reason on the eighth day, the human body numbs itself faster than any other day of life. And some have argued that God circumcised on the eighth day because it would be less painful. But nowhere does the scripture say that yes, in God's wisdom and God's design, he made it all come together that way.
But what does the eighth day mean? The eighth day is a picture of life. The eighth day corresponds to the first day. Remember, [00:34:00] the Sabbath was on the first day, but there are all kinds of eighth day Sabbaths. When Adam and Eve were created, they were created on the sixth day, the first day of their full life.
The first day of their full week was day one. The eighth day and day one have always pointed to something. It points to Christ, it points to peace. It points to life. That's why God is commanding him. Have your children circumcised on the eighth day and in the, in the rest of verse 12 and 13, he talks about servants.
And I'm just gonna say one thing about servants so that you understand this. Because for an adult male to be circumcised, he had to profess faith. I'll have some verses for you momentarily. But if an adult male wanted to become an Israelite, wanted to celebrate the Passover, he had to profess faith before he could be circumcised.
That was not true of servants, that was not true of the rest of the household. Why? Two reasons. Representation in all of God's covenant is this idea of [00:35:00] representation. But secondly, servants, slaves were treated as children, not in a disrespectful sense, but they were simply, you're a slave. If you're a Hebrew slave, it's because you allowed yourself to get in trouble.
If you're a foreign slave, it is 'cause you weren't worshiping Yahweh. But you're a slave at your own fault. You've acted like a child. We're gonna view you as a child. And so adult male slaves could be circumcised under the representation of their master.
Verse 14, an uncircumcised male who is not circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin. That person will be cut off. And yes, there's a play on words. That person will be cut off from his people. He has broken my covenant. Now, what does it mean to be cut off? Well, some understand it to mean they would be excommunicated and likely they would be if they were discovered, okay?
But they would have to be discovered. [00:36:00] Most theologians, and I happen to agree with this, it has to do with being cut off from God. It is a divine punishment. It speaks of premature death, and it's a covenant or it's a punishment that God will carry out either in this lifetime or in the next. If you can hide it.
Verse 15. Then God said to Abraham, as for Sara, your wife, you shall not call her name Sara, but Sarah shall be her name. And kids, this is in your fill in the blanks. Sariah's name was changed, and I just read what it was changed to. But again, just like Abraham, it pictures new life. Abraham was 99 I, I forget Sarah's age.
Usually I look that up and write it down, but she was in her eighties and she's gonna have a child for the first time in her life. You see, God is creating new life in her, so he gives her a new name. Here's the interesting thing about the name, Saray and Sarah basically mean the same thing, [00:37:00] okay? But in the Hebrew language, the way Sarah is spelt, and I don't, I 100% understand this because Hebrew's not my native tongue, but in the Hebrew language, the way Sarah is spelt adds dignity to the meaning of rah.
Saray could be translated princess or princely, but Sarah is definitely princess. You see, Sarah is a princess. And then one more thing before we move on to a little deeper meaning on circumcision. Look at verse 19, because Isaac fulfills God's promise. Isaac is the promised seed, but he too is a shadow and a type.
You see, the seed of the woman was one who was gonna come and crush the head of Satan. That doesn't happen until Jesus. That doesn't happen until Messiah. So look at verse 19. God said, Sarah, your wife will bear you a son and you shall call his name [00:38:00] Isaac. Laughter. Why? Because both Sarah and Abraham laughed.
Abraham laughed. He didn't do it in a sinful way. Apparently Sarah did. God got angry with her. Sarah, your wife will bury you a son and you should call his name Isaac. And I will establish my covenant with him for an everlasting covenant for his seed after him. So we see the covenant continues, the promised seed hasn't come yet, but God is giving us pictures and types and shadows along the way to strengthen our faith.
And that leads us to number three on your outline, the meaning of circumcision in your bulletin. There's a sheet folded in half. You might want to grab that. I think it'll be helpful. Looks like this and I've broken it down and you'll have to study some of this on your own 'cause I don't have time to read over every verse.
But let me just give you an overview on the meaning of circumcision and we'll do this fairly quickly. 'cause you'll have to study this [00:39:00] on your own. But let me just give you an overview. We already talked about the fact that circumcision is a sign. In other words, it points to something greater than itself and we have to keep that in mind.
And Abraham would've known something about this 'cause he would've known of the sign of of, of the rainbow. So circumcision is a sign. Secondly, and I'm, I'm gonna be just frank here, moms and dads, you can explain later, but th this sign involved the male organ of generation. It was a body part on the male that produced new life.
So it must mean something of new life. It might must mean something of a new creation. And add to that the eighth day. And it's a pretty sure thing and we're gonna see this played out in the rest of scripture. But I mean just, just in looking at it, these things are easy. Bringing some biblical theology to the passage to understand it was a bloody rite.
So is also a picture of death. And sin [00:40:00] because sin causes death. Flesh is removed and it flesh being removed has something to do with the removal of shame and sin. We'll see that develop throughout scripture. But think of Adam and Eve. Adam and Eve were naked before God. They weren't ashamed and then they sinned and they became ashamed.
And what did God do? He took away their nakedness. He clothed them. He covered 'em up.
Removing the flesh has something to do with the removal of shame and sin. And then finally again, we have an infallible interpretation found in Romans chapter four, verse 11. Circumcision is the sign and seal of the righteousness of faith. Or another translation that helps us understand it is the sign and seal of faith, righteousness.
It pictures what we're supposed to believe in. It seals us. It guarantees that if I brought my little boy [00:41:00] and I had him circumcised in faith, if he grows up and he actually acknowledges faith, if he comes to faith, then that that sign just like baptism seals and guarantees the truth of what happened when I pour water over a baby or a child and it pictures the washing away of dirt when that child grows up and he exercises faith in Christ Jesus that sign seals, that signs of promise, it's God's promise to us that if you come to this in faith, it's true of you, we'll see it with the table.
The main requirement to come to the table is to be in in covenant with Christ. Many people can profess faith. I can't see into your hearts. I don't have x-ray vision to know if your heart's been changed. You can come to this table year after year, after year if you're not saved. If you truly have an exercised faith, it means nothing.
All the while it's holding out a promise. If your heart has been transformed and you come to this table, then it is guaranteeing you [00:42:00] that your faith in Christ is pictured in this table. His body was broken for you, his blood was shed for you. So first on that outline that I've given you, there's just the physical aspect of circumcision.
I gave you a whole bunch of verses. You can look at those. It's just the physical aspect, but there's also a spiritual aspect. It refers to death and resurrection and rebirth. And we see this in Philippians chapter three. We see this in Colossians chapter two. We'll briefly look at Colossians in a minute, but just listen to Philippians chapter three, verse three, for we speaking to the Christian Church, speaking to a gentile church, by the way, for we are the true circumcision.
Who worship in the spirit of God and glory in Christ Jesus and put no confidence in the flesh. We are the true circumcision. What else does God call the church? Well, in two Corinthians chapter five, we're called a new creation. And again, there's no mistake, and it's not like, okay, we have to understand true [00:43:00] circumcision apart from new creation.
No, we need to understand them together. The fact that we're the true circumcision indicates we've been recreated in Christ Jesus. So it refers to death and resurrection. It refers to cleansing and the removal of shame or wholeness. There's an interesting passage in Joshua chapter five. It's on your outline.
I'm just gonna look at chapter nine. If you want to turn there, feel free, but we're gonna go quickly. Joshua and the people, they're at the border of Canaan, they're getting ready to enter Canaan and they're gonna take possession of the land. But there's a problem because the second generation of Israelite children were never circumcised.
Joshua stops and all the adult males and the children are circumcised right before they entertain And listen to what Joshua says in verse nine. Actually, it's what the Lord says. Then Yahweh said to Joshua, [00:44:00] today, I have rolled away. Yes, it's a play on words. Today I have rolled away the reproach of Egypt from you.
So the name of that place is called Gilgal to this day, and the word gilgal means to roll. So that city where they did all this was called Gilgal. But what is the reproach of Egypt? What is it that God rolled away? Well, if you study your Bibles carefully, it wasn't that the Israelites were in Egypt. God took 'em there.
So you need to ask yourself, why were they there for so long? Why were they there for 400 years because of sin? We read in Ezekiel and in the Psalms that Israel, while they were in Egypt, instead of honoring Yahweh, they began to worship the idols of Egypt. In fact, they brought the idols with them into the wilderness.
The reproach of Egypt was the sin of Egypt, the sin that kept you in Egypt and circumcision is a [00:45:00] picture of cleansing. It's a picture of removing that sin. In John chapter seven, beginning in verse 22. This is a fascinating New Testament example in John chapter seven, verse 22. Uh, these are Jesus' words.
For this reason, Moses has given you circumcision, not because it actually came from Moses, it came from the fathers, and on the Sabbath, you circumcise a man on the Sabbath day. When you're not to do any work, you're allowed to circumcise a man. If a man receives circumcision on the Sabbath so that the laws of Moses will not be broken.
Why are you angry with me? Because I made an entire man. Well, on the Sabbath, you see Hebrew parallelism. Circumcision was a picture of being made. Well, Jesus makes an entire man. Well, he heals his body and he makes him well on the Sabbath. Why are you Pharisee's mad at me? Why are you Jews mad at me? I simply carried out what circumcision means.[00:46:00]
Circumcision refers to the removal of a hindrance, and so we read in Deuteronomy about the circumcision of the heart. We read about it in Jeremiah and elsewhere. We read. Somebody who can speak really well is described as someone as having uncircumcised lips. Somebody who is humble is spoken of as circumcised.
If you listen to God in obedience, he's described as having circumcised ears. We read in Jeremiah chapter nine, verse 25, and this is kind of important. So chapter nine, verse 25 and 26. Behold, the days are coming declares Yahweh that I will punish all who are circumcised physically and yet uncircumcised.
You see, circumcision always had a spiritual meaning always. And Jeremiah is talking to Judah and Jeremiah is admitting, yes, your men are circumcised, but they're [00:47:00] uncircumcised because their heart is not circumcised. Verse 26, he names countries that are circumcised and yet uncircumcised, Egypt and Judah and Adam Edam and the sons of Amon and Moab, and all those inhabiting the desert who clipped their hair on their temples.
For all the nations are uncircumcised and all the House of Israel are uncircumcised of heart. Circumcision meant taking away something to not be circumcised was to be cut off from your people. And ultimately in Romans chapter four, verse 11, it was the seal of the righteousness of faith. And the interesting thing, and I'm running outta time so we can't look at the passage, but the interesting thing, go back and read verse chapter, Romans four 11.
It's not a picture of Abraham's faith. It's not what Paul says. It is a picture of justification by faith. It is a picture of the faith or right here, it's a picture of the [00:48:00] righteousness that comes through faith. That is always what circumcision pictured. And then finally, in terms of what it means, it was it.
Jesus's crucifixion. In Colossians, chapter two is described as a circumcision. I've preached on this passage so I don't have to get into detail. I'll just read it to you. Him, you were circumcised, you gentile Christians, you were circumcised in Christ with a circumcision made without hands. He's not talking about physical circumcision.
He's talking about what the sign pointed to in the removal of the body, of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ. Now, there's only two possibilities here. Either this is referring to Christ's actual circumcision on day eight, which the Bible says nothing about other than it was in obedience to the law or it's speaking of the cross.
And I can point you to some previous sermons where I argue that it's speaking of the cross. And when you were circumcised spiritually, [00:49:00] what else happened? You were baptized spiritually having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised up with him through faith in the working of God who raised him from the dead.
Last but not least, and then I will conclude, and this is kind of the big one, kind of. Circumcision was never meant to be a national sign. I can't tell you how many people who reject covenant theology will say that circumcision was a national sign and that's why it was applied to kids. No, it was always a marker of righteousness by faith, nowhere is it used as a national sign, and what a silly sign.
Why would you have a national sign that would never be seen?
God is faithful. I need to wrap this up. The Bible is a covenant document and as we trace these covenants out, we see the faithfulness of God. We see that God [00:50:00] humbles himself. God binds himself. God goes to the cross to fulfill the conditions of the covenant,
and he took that on beginning with Adam when he sacrificed those animals and he covered Adam when he promised the seed of the woman. I'm simply gonna conclude with this, and again, I have way more, and I'm sorry for going along. We need to be faithful. That's what we learn in the covenants. That's what we learn in all these covenant accounts.
God is faithful. God binds himself to us. We are to be bound to him, and we are to strive for faithfulness. Let's pray. Father in heaven,
