Participants: Mark Howard & Jim Howard
Series Code: GBOTB
Program Code: GBOTB00002B
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00:07 Well welcome back, right before our break we have been
00:10 talking about the experiences of Abraham and how God had 00:14 promised Abraham he would be the father of many 00:18 generations and after some time it didn't come to pass. 00:23 Abraham and his wife Sarah, Sarai at the time, her slave 00:28 girl Hagar concocted a plan by which they thought they 00:32 had fulfilled the promise of God by their own devising. 00:36 They had a son, Hager had a son by the name of Ishmael. 00:41 Now we pick up in Genesis 16:16, "Abram was 86 years old 00:46 "when Hager bore Ishmael to Abram. " 00:48 They thought that that was the child and that the promise 00:51 what's fulfilled until we read the next verse. 00:53 We're coming to Chapter 17:1 "when Abraham was 99 years 00:56 old," so at this time Ishmael would have been somewhere 01:01 between 13 and 14 years old and for 13 years this is the 01:04 the child that Abraham has treasured in his heart as his 01:08 own son, he is going to be the one. 01:10 - they assumed everything was going according to plan. 01:13 That's right they did until God comes to Abraham here 01:17 and He says, verse two, "I will make my covenant between 01:20 "me and you and will multiply you exceedingly. Then 01:24 "Abram fell on his face and God talked with him saying: 01:27 "As for Me, behold, My covenant is with you, and you 01:30 "shall be a father of many nations. " 01:31 Now this is where he changes his name to Abraham, but 01:34 Abraham is beside himself and you pick that up in verse 01:36 18 where it says, "and Abraham says to God, oh that 01:39 "Ishmael might live before You!." 01:41 I mean he just couldn't understand because for 13 years 01:44 he thought that this was the promise and God shows up and 01:48 says okay Abraham now is the time. 01:49 - he had poured his whole heart into Ishmael, developing 01:52 Ishmael as being the one. 01:54 Yeah, and now God comes to him and says that Ishmael is 01:57 not the one and we pick up in verse 9 as God promises 02:01 this son to him in his old age. 02:04 In verse 9 it says, "And God said to Abraham: As for you, 02:07 "you shall keep My covenant, you and your descendents 02:10 "after you throughout their generations. This is My 02:13 "covenant which you shall keep, between Me and you and 02:16 "your descendents after you: Every male child among you 02:19 "shall be circumcised; and you shall be circumcised in 02:22 "the flesh of your foreskins, and it shall be a sign of 02:25 "the covenant between Me and you. " 02:27 What a sign. - when people look at that they say 02:33 why in the world of all things to make a sign of would 02:37 God appoint circumcision? 02:38 But the reality is God was dealing with a part of 02:42 Abraham's anatomy that was involved in his own concocting 02:46 of a plan and God wanted something to communicate to him 02:50 and every generation afterwards that until the flesh was 02:55 cut away, until Godhead done an operation in the situation. 02:59 Not until then would the works of man be acceptable to God. 03:03 And it's pointing to something, it wasn't pointing to the 03:07 outward type of circumcision as we find other places in 03:11 the Scripture like in the book of Deuteronomy. 03:13 That's right, maybe we can look there in Deuteronomy. 03:16 Deuteronomy gives us a little picture, a window into 03:18 what God's true intent was in circumcision. 03:21 So in Deuteronomy chapter 10:16 He says something very 03:27 interesting, He says, therefore circumcise the 03:32 "foreskin of your heart and be stiff-necked no longer. " 03:36 Now I think stiff-necked means stubborn and circumcising 03:41 the foreskin of your heart now is talking about not an 03:45 external change but an internal change. - that's right! 03:48 There is one other verse were He touches on this in 03:52 Deuteronomy and it's in chapter 30:6 and I think it is 03:55 worthwhile for us to look at efforts as well. 03:57 It says, "And the Lord your God will circumcise your 04:01 "heart", there is that again, " and the heart of your 04:04 "descendents, to love the Lord your God with all your 04:08 "heart and with all your soul, that you may live. " 04:11 So the idea of circumcision, was a sign, and outward symbol 04:16 of an inward reality of a lack of trust in self, 04:21 a lack of trust in the flesh, but a desire to trust God 04:24 with everything and to love Him with the whole heart. 04:28 As long as that flesh, my own opinions, my own ideas, 04:32 and my own righteousness and devisings was getting in 04:36 the way, I couldn't love the Lord My God with all my heart. 04:39 We are getting a little picture now that circumcision 04:45 was intended to give an internal reality and what the 04:50 Jewish nation had began to do. 04:51 And Abraham understood it that way. - that's right! 04:54 but not all of his descendents. - right! 04:57 Then in time it began to be more and more looked 05:01 upon as simply a ticket, if you will, to a guarantee 05:06 to heaven if you want to look at it that way. 05:08 So rather than looking at the inward change that it was a 05:12 sign of, the Jewish nation began to rely upon 05:16 the external right of circumcision. 05:18 And the right of circumcision became their religion. 05:21 It became the substance, a sign that pointed to the 05:23 substance became the substance itself according to 05:26 the Jews and we see that in the book of Galatians. 05:28 If we go back to the book of Galatians Chapter 2 05:31 Paul is telling us and giving us this background for us. 05:35 He tells us of an experience there in Galatians 2: 11. 05:39 He says, "now when Peter had come to Antioch," 05:43 incidentally we're talking about Acts 15 when they 05:46 went back to Jerusalem in Acts 15 the church met 05:50 together and the church in that session decided as a 05:54 whole that we are not going to impose circumcision upon 05:57 the believers, but it was after that period of time we 06:00 find these things taking place. 06:03 After that period of time there were still those who 06:05 pushed the importance of circumcision. 06:08 Engrained in the culture. - so we see this in verse 11. 06:12 "Now when Peter had come back to Antioch, I withstood 06:15 "him to his face, because he was to be blamed; for 06:18 "before certain men came from James," this is James 06:21 the brother of Jesus who resided over the council in 06:24 Acts 15 and also the head of the early church. 06:27 These people came from James, in other words they came 06:31 from their Jewish church leaders. 06:33 "Before certain men came from James, Peter 06:36 "would eat with the Gentiles; but when they came, 06:40 "he withdrew and separated himself, fearing those who 06:44 "were of the circumcision. And the rest of the Jews 06:47 "also played a hypocrite with him, so that even Barnabas 06:51 "was carried away with their hypocrisy. " 06:53 This was the companion of Paul, his traveling companion. 06:58 So Peter when he sees these lifetime Jews coming in, even 07:01 though he had worked with the Gentiles, preached the gospel 07:04 to the Gentiles all of a sudden feels uncomfortable to be 07:07 with the Gentiles because they are this uncircumcised 07:10 class so he gets up and stops fellowshipping with them. 07:13 I mean he had been teaching them that they totally have 07:17 the same right to the gospel as the Jews do, but his 07:20 actions betray the gospel message. 07:23 As he moves over and sits with this other group of Jews 07:27 now leaving the Gentiles bewildered, even affecting 07:31 Barnabas and some of the other leaders there. 07:36 Keep in mind this is 17 years after Paul's conversion. 07:40 That was three to four years after Peter's because he 07:44 was in 20 years and it was so engrained in him that 07:48 it was still an issue. 07:49 That is some serious peer pressure really is what he was 07:53 experiencing and it was so engrained and he probably had 07:57 a lot of doubts even though in Acts 15 it appeared 07:59 he was very firm because God had shown him. 08:02 He gave him a vision in Acts chapter 10 to help 08:05 him see that the Gentiles could receive the gospel as 08:08 well and somehow this idea of the external rite of 08:11 circumcision being the pride of Israel, being the very thing 08:14 that if you do this then you are in and if 08:18 you don't have that then you are not one of us. 08:21 That was so strong that Peter was giving sanction to the 08:27 idea that circumcision was really an external rite 08:30 ignoring the reality that circumcision was a sign of an 08:36 actual real change in the heart. 08:38 When you think about it, which is more challenging? 08:42 Is it more challenging to change your external behavior 08:48 or to surrender your pride, your selfish will, the heart 08:54 issues that challenge every one of us are far more 09:00 difficult to yield. 09:01 Just like for a job example, people can conform to 09:04 outward things, like if I get a job and my boss wants me 09:07 to do a certain, follow certain behavior I can do it to 09:10 keep my job, but it doesn't mean I'm going to do it all the time. 09:13 It doesn't mean that it is in my heart. 09:14 That's right, that's right and if you look at Galatians 09:17 5:11 there is a verse there that really strikes me about 09:21 this and he says, "and I, brethren, if I still preach 09:24 "circumcision, why do I still suffer persecution?" 09:28 So apparently to preach circumcision would be to preach 09:32 the easy way. - that's right! 09:35 In other words to preach just making an outward changes 09:38 would be the easy way because he was calling on them to 09:41 realize the meaning of circumcision and to surrender 09:44 their will to the will of God, their heart to God. 09:47 That was creating the need for persecution. 09:50 That's right it's exactly the opposite of the way 09:52 people take it today, they that Paul in Galatians 09:54 is saying you guys are doing it too hard you have to 09:56 go the easy way. 09:57 The reality is he was speaking about the fact that you 09:59 guys are to surface, you have to go deeper. 10:01 That is exactly right, Amen. 10:03 Now circumcision is a sign as it were, of something much 10:08 more meaningful. - that's right we can pick it up in 10:14 Romans 4:11, the apostle Paul talking about Abraham 10:19 and his experience here says in verse 11 of Romans 4. 10:24 "And he received a sign of circumcision, a seal 10:28 "of the righteousness of faith which he had while still 10:32 "uncircumcised, that he might be the father of all those 10:35 "who believe, though they are uncircumcised, that 10:39 "righteousness might be imputed to them also, and the 10:42 "father of circumcision to those who not only are of the 10:44 "circumcision," in other words it wasn't enough to be 10:47 circumcised, nothing wrong with being circumcised. 10:49 "But who also walked in the steps of the faith which our 10:53 "father Abraham had while still uncircumcised. " 10:56 In other words the circumcision was about a faith 11:00 experience, it wasn't an outward, the outward symbol was 11:04 only something that was tied to an inward reality. 11:07 You see these doctors and hospitals that go around with 11:10 this little badge that says they are a doctor. 11:11 Well I can steal one of those badges and put my picture 11:13 on it and walk around, but it means nothing because 11:15 I'm not a doctor. - I wouldn't be your patient! 11:17 - I appreciate that because there's not the reality. 11:20 So the sign means nothing unless there is an inward 11:23 reality there, but if there is an inward reality 11:26 the sign means everything. 11:28 It appears here in the issue that was driving the letter 11:32 to the Galatian church, they had essentially replaced 11:36 the substance with the sign. - that's right! 11:39 The apostle Paul continually is trying to take back the 11:44 true meaning of salvation and help it to become that 11:47 inward reality again because as long as we are telling 11:51 people that an outward change is going to do it, 11:54 we are robbing them of peace with God. 11:56 We are robbing them of the harmony they can have when 11:59 there will is called to be yielded to the will of God. 12:02 There is a few verses where he touches on this and 12:05 I would like to close our time here with those verses. 12:10 In Galatians 5:6 it says, "for in Christ Jesus neither 12:15 "circumcision nor uncircumcision avails anything, 12:18 "but faith working through love" 12:20 That's powerful and if you go to chapter 6:15 it says, 12:25 "for in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor 12:28 "uncircumcision avails anything, but a new creation. " 12:32 In 1 Corinthians 7:19 it says, "neither circumcision 12:35 "or uncircumcision avails anything but keeping the 12:39 "Commandments of God is what matters. " 12:40 The apostle Paul keeps taking them to the real issue 12:44 and ultimately circumcision is a matter of the heart. 12:47 That's right it wasn't about circumcision, it is about 12:50 heart religion, it wasn't whether they were or weren't 12:52 circumcised but is the heart circumcised. 12:55 Has the heart been renewed through the grace of Christ? 12:58 Wow what a powerful message and we are out of time 13:02 here today, but we are going to dive back into the book 13:05 of Galatians and the next time we will open up and talk 13:08 about what justification is all about. 13:11 So I hope you'll come back and God bless. |
Revised 2014-12-17