SPEAKER_01: It's written in Genesis 17.
SPEAKER_01: When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the Lord appeared to Abram and said to him, I am God Almighty, walk before me and be blameless, that I may make my covenant between me and you, and may multiply you greatly.
SPEAKER_01: Then Abram fell on his face, and God said to him, Behold, my covenant is with you, and you shall be the father of a multitude of nations.
SPEAKER_01: No longer shall your name be called Abram, but your name shall be Abraham, for I have made you the father of a multitude of nations.
SPEAKER_01: I will make you exceedingly fruitful, and I will make you into nations, and kings shall come from you, and I will establish my covenant between me and you and your offspring after you throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and to your offspring after you.
SPEAKER_01: And I will give to you and to your offspring after you the land of your sojournings, and the land of Canaan for an everlasting possession, and I will be their God.
SPEAKER_01: And God said to Abraham, As for you, you shall keep my covenant, you and your offspring after you throughout their generations.
SPEAKER_01: This is my covenant, which you shall keep between me and you and your offspring after you.
SPEAKER_01: Every male among you shall be circumcised.
SPEAKER_01: You shall be circumcised in the flesh of your foreskins, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and you.
SPEAKER_01: He who is eight days old among you shall be circumcised.
SPEAKER_01: Every male throughout your generation, whether born in your house or bought with your money from a foreigner who is not of your offspring.
SPEAKER_01: Both he who is born in your house and he who is bought with your money shall be surely circumcised.
SPEAKER_01: So shall my covenant be in your flesh, an everlasting covenant.
SPEAKER_01: Any uncircumcised male who is not circumcised in the flesh of his fores foreskin shall be cut off from his people.
SPEAKER_01: He has broken my covenant.
SPEAKER_01: And God said to Abraham, As for Sarai, your wife, you shall not call her name Sarai, but Sarah shall be her name.
SPEAKER_01: I will bless her, and moreover, I will give her, I will give you a son by her.
SPEAKER_01: I will bless her, and she shall become nations.
SPEAKER_01: Kings of peoples shall come from her.
SPEAKER_01: Then Abraham fell on his face and laughed and said to himself, Shall a child be born to a man who is a hundred years old?
SPEAKER_01: Shall Sarah, who is ninety years old, bear a child?
SPEAKER_01: And Abraham said to God, Oh, that Ismail might live before you.
SPEAKER_01: God said, No, but Sarah, your wife, shall bear you a son, and you shall call his name Isaac.
SPEAKER_01: I will establish my covenant with him, as an everlasting covenant for his offspring after him.
SPEAKER_01: As for Ishmael, I have heard you.
SPEAKER_01: Behold, I have blessed him and will make him fruitful and multiply him greatly.
SPEAKER_01: He shall father twelve princes, and I will make him into a great nation.
SPEAKER_01: But I will establish my covenant with Isaac, whom Sarah shall bear to you at this time next year.
SPEAKER_01: When he had finished talking with him, God went up from Abraham.
SPEAKER_01: Then Abraham took Ishmael, his son, and all those born in his house, or bought with his money, every male among the men of Abraham's house, and he circumcised the flesh of their foreskins that very day, as God had said to him.
SPEAKER_01: Abraham was ninety years old when he was circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin, and Ishmael, his son, was thirteen years old when he was circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin.
SPEAKER_01: That very day Abraham and his son Ishmael were circumcised.
SPEAKER_01: And all the men of his house, those born in the house and those bought with money from a foreigner, were circumcised with him.
SPEAKER_01: And so read God's word.
SPEAKER_02: Welcome to you if you joined us while we were singing.
SPEAKER_02: My name's Mark.
SPEAKER_02: I'm one of the leaders here at City Church.
SPEAKER_02: Welcome to you if you're new or visiting.
SPEAKER_02: What a Sunday to visit on.
SPEAKER_02: As we talk a lot about circumcision.
SPEAKER_02: So we uh this is what we do, uh, not circumcision.
SPEAKER_02: Uh what we do in church is uh we we pick books of the Bible and we go through them.
SPEAKER_02: And sometimes you hit passages where you're like, Oh, if if it was down to me, I never would have picked that passage uh because it's weird and complicated, and what does it mean?
SPEAKER_02: Uh but we believe that actually God sets the agenda in a sense uh of what we should be thinking about on any given Sunday as we as we go through.
SPEAKER_02: And uh and so here we are talking about foreskins and circumcision and things like that.
SPEAKER_02: But before we get into all that, and I'm this is such a complicated and huge passage.
SPEAKER_02: I'm not even really gonna uh touch a lot of the stuff about uh about Isaac, because that's gonna come in more more next week.
SPEAKER_02: Uh, we're gonna kind of skirt over the surface a little bit and try and get a handle on some of the big themes that are going on because Genesis actually is all about big things.
SPEAKER_02: Uh Genesis is is the book of beginnings, yes, but it's also uh the book of the kind of the foundational things that you need to know about God and about humanity.
SPEAKER_02: They are uh the things that are forever true.
SPEAKER_02: That's what we've been saying as we've been running through the Abraham narrative is that Abraham is he's a very human, human being.
SPEAKER_02: Uh and we all struggle with the whether it's the fear of man that he uh that he was dealing with or the the doubting God's goodness that we've seen before, that actually these things are always true for all of humanity, and equally the uh the God who is pursuing and guiding Abraham remains uh always true and always the same as well.
SPEAKER_02: And this chapter is central to our understanding of what it means uh to believe in God and to relate to him.
SPEAKER_02: I mean, lots of people say things like, Well, I believe in God, and and the using God in that kind of generic term, they might say, Well, I'm a I'm a spiritual person, or I'm a person who has faith, or a person of faith.
SPEAKER_02: Uh, you might be, uh, if you're one of the only um uh Christians or uh God followers or Jesus followers in your family, you might be designated in your family as the as the token spiritual person.
SPEAKER_02: Oh, they'd say that of me, like Mark's the spiritual one.
SPEAKER_02: Um, and maybe that's you.
SPEAKER_02: But what does that what does all of that mean?
SPEAKER_02: What do Christians mean when they say that they believe in God?
SPEAKER_02: And so if you're actually here this morning and you are visiting and you're new, and maybe actually you wouldn't call yourself a believer in God or a follower of Jesus, and you're just working out, well, what does that mean?
SPEAKER_02: Then actually, in the midst of all of this talk of circumcision and foreskins, it's a passage about what does it mean to believe in God and who is the God that we are believing in.
SPEAKER_02: And so we're going to look at four things really in that theme of what it means to believe in God, and who is the God that we are called as Christians in the Bible to put our faith and trust in.
SPEAKER_02: So here's point number one: to believe in God is to believe in a God like no other.
SPEAKER_02: To believe in God is to believe in a God like no other.
SPEAKER_02: People uh again like to say um things, particularly to me, and maybe have said to you as well, they're like, oh, I don't believe in God.
SPEAKER_02: And sometimes, if I'm if I'm feeling particularly cheeky, I might turn around to them and say, Okay, tell me about the God that you don't believe in.
SPEAKER_02: And uh nine times out of ten, the description that they give for God, I'm able to turn around and say, Well, I don't believe in that sort of God either.
SPEAKER_02: Like if that's what you think God is, I don't believe in him.
SPEAKER_02: So who is the God that we are called to believe in?
SPEAKER_02: The very first verse of Genesis seven, uh Genesis 17, and I encourage you to have it open in front of you.
SPEAKER_02: You can pull it up on your phone.
SPEAKER_02: If you don't have a Bible app, you can go to Biblegateway.com, uh, starts Genesis 17, you can follow it.
SPEAKER_02: Or if you're old school, you can look it up in one of these.
SPEAKER_02: But the very first verse says, When Abram was 99 years old, the Lord spoke, uh, the Lord appeared to him and said to him, I am God Almighty.
SPEAKER_02: Walk before me and be blameless.
SPEAKER_02: Now, some of you who uh I imagine who aren't from uh aren't from Ireland, who maybe are are from uh other cultures or who know their Bible will know what the term uh of God Almighty is.
SPEAKER_02: Anybody want to call out what's God Almighty?
SPEAKER_02: Anybody know?
SPEAKER_02: Any of any of the Nigerians know?
SPEAKER_02: El Shaddai, right?
SPEAKER_02: Amen.
SPEAKER_02: He is El Shaddai, God Almighty.
SPEAKER_02: Now, what does El Shaddai mean?
SPEAKER_02: What does God Almighty mean?
SPEAKER_02: Now, we immediately, I think, think in terms of power that to be Almighty is to be all powerful, and he is, and it's an important thing for Abraham that God is Almighty because it's been 25 years since he promised his son.
SPEAKER_02: And in later on in this chapter, he falls down and he laughs and goes, I'm about to be a hundred.
SPEAKER_02: Uh, are you really gonna bring a child from my loins?
SPEAKER_02: Well, you've got to be God Almighty in order to bring that about.
SPEAKER_02: And so there is an element of God's power going on in this name, but there's much more happening here.
SPEAKER_02: The name El Shaddai is uh much richer than merely a description of God's power.
SPEAKER_02: What is almighty about him is that God is utterly, and this is important, God is utterly self-sufficient.
SPEAKER_02: He is perfectly self-sustaining within himself.
SPEAKER_02: He has everything, he lacks nothing, he owns everything and owes nobody nothing.
SPEAKER_02: We are needy, but he is limitless in abundance.
SPEAKER_02: He is God Almighty, the self-sufficient one.
SPEAKER_02: Why is that important?
SPEAKER_02: Because if God is God Almighty, that is, that he lacks nothing, that he has everything that he needs, then he is able to truly be a God of grace.
SPEAKER_02: He doesn't have to be a God that needs to enter into a transaction with us as human beings, gaining something from us and giving it in return.
SPEAKER_02: If he's self-sufficient, if he's el Shaddai, if he is perfectly self-sustaining, he's able to be a God of grace and simply give generously out of his own love and kindness.
SPEAKER_02: Because he needs nothing from us, he never strikes a bargain with us.
SPEAKER_02: He is simply kind to us.
SPEAKER_02: He is El Shaddai.
SPEAKER_02: And look how many times in these verses that God says, I will, unilaterally, of his own bad, without any transaction, over and over and over again, God says, I will do this.
SPEAKER_02: Have a scan down with me.
SPEAKER_02: Let's see.
SPEAKER_02: Uh uh verse six, I will make you exceedingly fruitful, and I will make you into nations.
SPEAKER_02: Verse seven, I will establish my covenant with you.
SPEAKER_02: Uh verse eight, I will give to you and to your offspring after you the land of your sojournings.
SPEAKER_02: Cast your eye down to verse uh 16.
SPEAKER_02: I will bless her, that is Sarah, Abram's wife.
SPEAKER_02: Or verse 20.
SPEAKER_02: Um, as for Ishmael, I have heard you, behold, I have blessed him and will make him great and fruit uh and fruitful.
SPEAKER_02: I will make him into a great nation.
SPEAKER_02: Verse 21, I will establish my covenant with Isaac.
SPEAKER_02: Do you see this?
SPEAKER_02: The self-sufficient one doesn't need us to make him more powerful.
SPEAKER_02: He's able to act on his own.
SPEAKER_02: I will, I will, I will, I will, regardless of Abram's strength or clarity of faith.
SPEAKER_02: This is something that God has determined to do.
SPEAKER_02: And we've seen this already, haven't we?
SPEAKER_02: In a sense, this is refresher for those of us who have been uh with us since Genesis chapter 12, when God first called Abram, and then in Genesis 15, with that weird situation where uh where God was was told, or uh God told Abraham to get the animals, and uh and Abram gets the animals and he cuts them in two, and then uh the symbol of God's presence, that is the the smoking uh fire pot and flaming torch pass between the pieces, that is God taking on that unilateral I will obligation to be faithful to the promises that he's made to Abram.
SPEAKER_02: And he's reinforcing that with this act.
SPEAKER_02: And here again, he is reminding with the giving of this name, God Almighty, El Shaddai, that he is the God who is able to be gracious because he needs nothing.
SPEAKER_02: This is so important for us, especially as we consider some of the later things that go on in this chapter about Abraham's obedience and the things that God is calling Abraham to do.
SPEAKER_02: That Abraham's obedience to God is a response to God's grace and not a way of earning God's favor.
SPEAKER_02: And you need to know that, particularly if you're working out what do Christians believe.
SPEAKER_02: We do not believe that you need to clean up your act morally, obey some laws, pull yourself up by your bootstraps before God will come and be your God and love you.
SPEAKER_02: No, the gospel of Jesus is God has come and he loves you where you are in all of the mess of your life, and then he begins to change you and calls you to respond and live differently.
SPEAKER_02: But you need to get that the right way around.
SPEAKER_02: It's not if you obey, I will love you.
SPEAKER_02: It's I love you.
SPEAKER_02: So walk before me in obedience to me.
SPEAKER_02: Do you see?
SPEAKER_02: That's what Christians believe, and that's what's going on here in this passage.
SPEAKER_02: God has already committed himself to Abraham before he ever requires Abraham to circumcise himself at the age of 99, poor fella.
SPEAKER_02: Um this is this is our God.
SPEAKER_02: He doesn't bless us because he needs us, he doesn't save us because he lacks something within himself, something that we can bring to the table by our own goodness.
SPEAKER_02: No, he saves us and blesses us and makes us his own simply because he loves us.
SPEAKER_02: And how is he able to do that?
SPEAKER_02: Because he's El Should I every other god, small g god, that you are tempted to serve and to follow, it will demand a transaction from you.
SPEAKER_02: If you make your life all about your career, you're making your career your small g god.
SPEAKER_02: And it will require a transaction.
SPEAKER_02: It will require that you sacrifice some of your time and some of the relationships that you have.
SPEAKER_02: There'll be a transaction involved.
SPEAKER_02: If you make your life all about money and the security that comes from having lots of money, you've made money, you're a small g god.
SPEAKER_02: And that god will demand a sacrifice.
SPEAKER_02: And again, that will be the sacrifice of time, of relationships, maybe even of your integrity, in order to gain it.
SPEAKER_02: Every other god that you're tempted to follow will demand a transaction of ye.
SPEAKER_02: Al Shaddai is not like that.
SPEAKER_02: He needs nothing, he can bring nothing.
SPEAKER_02: He is simply gracious, admitting gracious, because he loves you.
SPEAKER_02: That's the God that Christians believe in.
SPEAKER_02: To believe in God is to believe in a God like no other.
SPEAKER_02: Second, to believe in God is to put our trust in listen, in an indestructible future.
SPEAKER_02: To believe in God is to put our trust in an indestructible future.
SPEAKER_02: Now let's unpack what this means.
SPEAKER_02: If you've been with us through Genesis 12 and Genesis 15, you might have been sitting here thinking to uh thinking about the reading and thinking to yourself, is God just God just repeat himself?
SPEAKER_02: So it's like a broken record.
SPEAKER_02: Like, oh again, more land, you need land, offspring.
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, but he still hasn't made it happen.
SPEAKER_02: He's coming again and saying, Don't worry, Abraham, you're gonna have a son.
SPEAKER_02: It's like, yeah, you told me that 25 years ago.
SPEAKER_02: Don't worry, Abraham, I'm gonna give you land.
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, well, you've already spoken about that.
SPEAKER_02: Are you just you just forgetful?
SPEAKER_02: You keep on repeating the same thing.
SPEAKER_02: And yes, in Genesis 17, those things are reaffirmed, but there's something way more going on here.
SPEAKER_02: God expands the promises in verse 7.
SPEAKER_02: Let me remind you, he says, I will, there's that unilateral, I will establish my covenant, that is binding promise, between me and you, and between your offspring after you throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant.
SPEAKER_02: So he's saying, I'm not just making this promise with you, Abraham, I'm making it now with your descendants after you as well.
SPEAKER_02: And that that commitment is not going to run out.
SPEAKER_02: It has no time limit on it, it is everlasting, it is eternally true.
SPEAKER_02: Now that's strange.
SPEAKER_02: That's worth bearing to thinking about.
SPEAKER_02: And then in verse 8, he says that he will give the land of Canaan to Abraham and to his descendants eternally.
SPEAKER_02: Let me remind you.
SPEAKER_02: And I will give to you and to your offspring after you the land of your sojournings, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting and eternal possession.
SPEAKER_02: And I will be their God.
SPEAKER_02: But, friends, there's a big problem with God saying that.
SPEAKER_02: And the big problem is this God has already told Abraham that he's going to die before his descendants enter into the land.
SPEAKER_02: It's two chapters before in chapter 15, where again God is reiterating his promises.
SPEAKER_02: And he says these words.
SPEAKER_02: He says, Know for certain that your offspring will be sojourners, that's in they'll stay temporarily, in a land that's not their own, and they will be servants there.
SPEAKER_02: They'll be afflicted for 400 years, and I will bring judgment on the nation that they serve, and afterwards they shall come out with great possessions.
SPEAKER_02: As for you, you shall go to your fathers in peace.
SPEAKER_02: You shall be buried in a good old age, and they shall come back here in the fourth generation and take possession of the land.
SPEAKER_02: So, how is it that God can say, two chapters before, Abraham, you're actually not going to get the land, you're going to die, and not even Isaac, your son, or Jacob, your grandson, they're not going to possess the land either.
SPEAKER_02: It's going to be in about 400 years' time, after they've gone through slavery in Egypt, then they're going to possess it.
SPEAKER_02: How can God say that?
SPEAKER_02: And then say here in Genesis 17, I'm giving this land to you as an everlasting possession.
SPEAKER_02: You will possess it, and so will your offspring after you.
SPEAKER_02: There's a problem here, isn't there?
SPEAKER_02: If Abraham had been told that he will enjoy the land and that he will die before he ever possesses it, then here's the answer.
SPEAKER_02: We must conclude that God was called.
SPEAKER_02: Abraham to look with the eyes of faith beyond death.
SPEAKER_02: He was calling Abraham to look beyond death to a future hope that death cannot take away.
SPEAKER_02: Friends, this is a shadow of the resurrection of the dead that we see more clearly in the New Testament.
SPEAKER_02: Because how is it that Abraham can die and then possess the land of promise only if it comes after his death?
SPEAKER_02: Only if God is able to raise the dead.
SPEAKER_02: If Abraham is going to die before he receives the land, but God is saying, Well, you're going to get it, we must conclude that this happens after Abraham's death.
SPEAKER_02: Now this sounds strange to our ears, doesn't it?
SPEAKER_02: But actually, that's exactly where the New Testament goes with this.
SPEAKER_02: When the writer of the Hebrews is reflecting on the great heroes of the faith and is talking to us about Abraham, the writer of the Hebrews says that's exactly what Abraham was doing.
SPEAKER_02: That when God promised him a land, he wasn't looking around ancient Near Eastern Canaan, going, Oh, can't wait till I'm a king of this joint.
SPEAKER_02: No, the writer of the Hebrews is saying that Abraham looked to a better country, a heavenly one, a new heavens and a new earth, of which Canaan would be a part, and there he would possess it.
SPEAKER_02: He wasn't looking to the cities of Jerusalem and Zor and Sodom.
SPEAKER_02: He was looking, the writer of the Abraham says, to a city whose builder and architect is God.
SPEAKER_02: He was looking beyond death.
SPEAKER_02: He was looking to promises that would only be realized after he died.
SPEAKER_02: And here, God says that Canaan will be an everlasting possession for Abraham.
SPEAKER_02: This is not a geopolitical comment.
SPEAKER_02: It's a theological one.
SPEAKER_02: The only land that is everlasting, the only land that is eternal in the Bible, is the new heavens and the new earth that awaits all who believe in this God who is like no other.
SPEAKER_02: Where there is a renewed and perfected promised land as part of that.
SPEAKER_02: And there with resurrected body, Abraham will enjoy his inheritance.
SPEAKER_02: It is kept in store for him.
SPEAKER_02: Why does any of that matter?
SPEAKER_02: Here's the point for you.
SPEAKER_02: Abraham understood that death could not thwart the promises of God.
SPEAKER_02: Death cannot, will not disrupt God's commitment to you, even though you die.
SPEAKER_02: That's what Christianity is all about, in a sense.
SPEAKER_02: That God is eternally committed to all who trust in him.
SPEAKER_02: And death, the thing that feels so final for us, cannot thwart the plans and promises of God.
SPEAKER_02: Do you see?
SPEAKER_02: And in the midst of all of this talk of land and children, God makes this explicitly clear at the end of verse seven and at the end of verse 8.
SPEAKER_02: Because he doesn't just talk about land, he doesn't just talk about descendants.
SPEAKER_02: He says, And I will be God to you.
SPEAKER_02: Twice.
SPEAKER_02: I will be God to you and to your offspring after you.
SPEAKER_02: The end of verse seven.
SPEAKER_02: And I will be their God.
SPEAKER_02: Here God pledges his unwavering commitment to Abraham.
SPEAKER_02: But not just to him.
SPEAKER_02: He pledges his unwavering commitment to Abraham's descendants.
SPEAKER_02: Who are Abraham's descendants?
SPEAKER_02: We looked at this way back in the very first sermon that we did on this series when we looked at Galatians chapter 3 as a setup for the life of Abraham.
SPEAKER_02: Where Paul, there writing in the New Testament, says that the descendants of Abraham are not those who come from his flesh, but those who share his faith.
SPEAKER_02: The descendants of Abraham, the children of Abraham, are those who share in Abraham's faith.
SPEAKER_02: That means that if you hear this morning, though you are not of Jewish ethnicity or extraction, that if you are trusting in Jesus, you are a descendant of Abraham.
SPEAKER_02: And God here in this passage is eternally committing himself to you in a way that death cannot thwart.
SPEAKER_02: And that's pretty amazing, isn't it?
SPEAKER_02: Now, just very parenthetic, I want you I want you just to see something that I'm doing, okay?
SPEAKER_02: I'm coming out of the sermon and I'm showing you how I'm reading the Bible right now, okay?
SPEAKER_02: And this is important for you because I don't want you to come here and just think that I'm some sort of wizard that brings all of this magic out of the text.
SPEAKER_02: I want you to show to show you that you can do this too.
SPEAKER_02: And here's what I'm doing: I'm using the New Testament as an interpretive lens for the Old Testament.
SPEAKER_02: Do you see?
SPEAKER_02: That's why I say, and Hebrews, the writer of Hebrews, was looking back and saw this.
SPEAKER_02: Or Paul in Galatians 3 was looking back at Abraham and saw this.
SPEAKER_02: This is how Christians read the Bible.
SPEAKER_02: We, in a sense, we read the Bible backwards.
SPEAKER_02: We look at the New Testament because the New Testament is the is the high definition technicolor fulfillment of everything that is foreshadowed in the Old Testament.
SPEAKER_02: And so one of the helpful interpretive tools is we read the New Testament, get to know the New Testament really well, and then when the New Testament writers who are being carried along by the Spirit of God, as they look back and as they read the Old Testament, they're the ones that give us the uh the authoritative Christian interpretation of what's going on in the Old Testament.
SPEAKER_02: Do you see?
SPEAKER_02: Okay, so get to know your New Testament really well, and it will help you to interpret the Old Testament.
SPEAKER_02: So just a little uh methodological comment there of what it is that I'm doing.
SPEAKER_02: God is pledging himself to all of Abraham's descendants.
SPEAKER_02: All of Abraham's descendants are those who share in Abraham's faith.
SPEAKER_02: And there can be no more precious promise than this for a human being.
SPEAKER_02: God saying, I will be for you, I will be God to you.
SPEAKER_02: Imagine it.
SPEAKER_02: He's saying, I will be God to you.
SPEAKER_02: That is, I will exist for you, I will direct and divert all of my self-sufficient godness to you.
SPEAKER_02: I will bless you.
SPEAKER_02: I'm inviting you into a relationship that no time can exhaust, that no circumstance can change, that no disaster can destroy, no catastrophe can crush, and no human grief can alter.
SPEAKER_02: To believe in God is to be in a relationship with one who is eternally committed to you, who, even though death may come, will bring you again to life, and whose promise of restoration and renewal cannot be undone.
SPEAKER_02: And how do we know as Christians?
SPEAKER_02: We've already been given the down payment because the Lord Jesus got up and walked out of his grave.
SPEAKER_02: The New Testament says that's the first fruits, that's the indicator of more to come.
SPEAKER_02: We stand in a better place than Abraham.
SPEAKER_02: Abraham was was really, he was peering through the uh through the darkness of human history and kind of perceiving these shadows we see much more clearly through the resurrection of Jesus from the dead.
SPEAKER_02: To believe in God is to trust in an indestructible future.
SPEAKER_02: Thirdly, uh much more briefly, and then we'll talk about circumcision, and then we'll be done.
SPEAKER_02: Uh, very briefly, to believe in God is to be changed by him.
SPEAKER_02: To believe in God is to be changed by him.
SPEAKER_02: From this chapter on, he's no longer Abram, but Abraham.
SPEAKER_02: I don't need to switch back and forth or kind of pay attention to what the what it is.
SPEAKER_02: It's now Abraham from now on.
SPEAKER_02: He's been changed.
SPEAKER_02: He's had his name changed.
SPEAKER_02: His name Abram meant exalted father.
SPEAKER_02: Speaking of his status within his community, within his tribe and former culture, but now he's Abraham, that is, the father of a multitude, or the father of multitudes.
SPEAKER_02: That's why God says, nations will come from you.
SPEAKER_02: This new name speaks of a new identity which is gifted him by the gracious El Shaddai.
SPEAKER_02: Abraham is no longer defined by his family or by his culture or by his status within the community, but defined rather by God.
SPEAKER_02: He's defined by the God of grace.
SPEAKER_02: And who is he the descendants of?
SPEAKER_02: He's the descendants of all who would share in Abraham's faith.
SPEAKER_02: That's why he is the father of multitudes.
SPEAKER_02: That multitude we know is from every tribe and tongue and nation.
SPEAKER_02: Irish and South African, congratulations last night.
SPEAKER_02: Korean and Nigerian and Ugandan and Romanian and American and on and on and on and on and on it goes.
SPEAKER_02: That each of us receives a new identity.
SPEAKER_02: That God says, no, no, you are.
SPEAKER_02: You're no longer defined by the things you have done or the labels that you have taken to yourself.
SPEAKER_02: You're no longer defined by what people have said you are, you're no longer defined by your career or by your family.
SPEAKER_02: You're defined by who I say you are.
SPEAKER_02: You're a beloved child of the Father.
SPEAKER_02: You're a son, a daughter, an heir, adopted into my family because of Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: That's an indestructible identity.
SPEAKER_02: Do you say every other label that you'll take to yourself, it'll fade and it'll tarnish and it'll change it all and not quite fit.
SPEAKER_02: But when God gives you a new identity, it's a game changer, isn't it?
SPEAKER_02: It sticks forever.
SPEAKER_02: It's unshakable, it's unmovable, and it completely redefines all of your values and priorities.
SPEAKER_02: And it blesses you.
SPEAKER_02: To be a believer in God is to receive a new identity.
SPEAKER_02: Told you that one was short.
SPEAKER_02: Fourthly and finally, though, there's one or two things to say here.
SPEAKER_02: To believe in God is to respond to him in wholehearted obedience.
SPEAKER_02: Remember where we've come from?
SPEAKER_02: To believe in God is to believe in a God like no other.
SPEAKER_02: He is El Shaddai, who requires nothing from us.
SPEAKER_02: It is to believe in a God who offers us an indestructible future that death cannot thwart or take away.
SPEAKER_02: To believe in God is to be changed by him, and now finally to believe in God is to respond to him in wholehearted obedience.
SPEAKER_02: Right back to the start of the chapter.
SPEAKER_02: I am God Almighty, walk before me and be blameless.
SPEAKER_02: God does not establish his relationship with Abraham on the basis of Abraham's obedience.
SPEAKER_02: But the response of true faith, the response of being in a relationship with God is to live a life that pleases him.
SPEAKER_02: You see, he's already come to Abraham in Genesis 12 and said, I'm going to be with you.
SPEAKER_02: Didn't call him to do anything.
SPEAKER_02: It's only after the relationship has been established that he says, Walk before me and be blameless.
SPEAKER_02: What does this idea of blamelessness mean?
SPEAKER_02: It doesn't mean that Abraham should be sinless, though God is holy and that's ultimately what he requires, but he understands.
SPEAKER_02: To walk before me and be blameless is God to say, let me have it all, Abraham.
SPEAKER_02: Don't shut off an area from me.
SPEAKER_02: Wholehearted obedience is what God is calling Abraham to do.
SPEAKER_02: An all in commitment to God and to his promises.
SPEAKER_02: And to help Abraham remember God's promises, he gives him a sign.
SPEAKER_02: Verse 10.
SPEAKER_02: This is my covenant, which you shall keep between me and you and your offspring after you.
SPEAKER_02: Every male among you shall be circumcised.
SPEAKER_02: You shall be circumcised in the flesh of your foreskins.
SPEAKER_02: I mean, where else would you do it, but okay?
SPEAKER_02: Um, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and you.
SPEAKER_02: He who is eight days old among you shall be circumcised.
SPEAKER_02: Every male throughout your generations, whether born in your house or bought with your mother, money, from any foreigner who is not of your offspring.
SPEAKER_02: Both he who is born in your house and who is bought with your money shall circum shall surely be circumcised.
SPEAKER_02: So shall my covenant be in your flesh as an everlasting covenant.
SPEAKER_02: Then we scan our eyes down, we read, verse 23.
SPEAKER_02: Then Abraham took Ishmael, his son, and all those born in his house, and bought with his money, every male among the men of Abraham's house, and he circumcised them in the flesh of their foreskins that very day.
SPEAKER_02: What a day that was.
SPEAKER_02: And God said to him, Abraham, just as God had said to him, Abram was ninety-nine years old when he was circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin, and Ishmael his son was thirteen years old when he was circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin.
SPEAKER_02: Can I feel for Ishmael?
SPEAKER_02: Why not a tattoo?
SPEAKER_02: Could I not just get a tat?
SPEAKER_02: God, and I can, you know, remind you, I am always with you.
SPEAKER_02: Walk before me and be blameless.
SPEAKER_02: I'll do that on my forearm.
SPEAKER_02: No, not forearm, foreskin.
SPEAKER_02: Why?
SPEAKER_02: Why circumcision?
SPEAKER_02: Circumcision, we are told here.
SPEAKER_02: If you're visiting, I'm welcome.
SPEAKER_02: Hands up, all of you.
SPEAKER_02: No, no.
SPEAKER_02: Um circumcision is a sign, right?
SPEAKER_02: What do signs do?
SPEAKER_02: Signs point to things, right?
SPEAKER_02: What does the sign of circumcision point to?
SPEAKER_02: That's the best way to approach this.
SPEAKER_02: Circumcision is a sign.
SPEAKER_02: What does the sign point to?
SPEAKER_02: Three things, and then we're done.
SPEAKER_02: First, it points to the unwavering commitment of God.
SPEAKER_02: Circumcision isn't, first and foremost, a sign of a person's faith.
SPEAKER_02: It is not a sign of faith.
SPEAKER_02: It wasn't even really primarily a sign of Abraham's faith.
SPEAKER_02: No, it is a sign, not of Abraham's faith, but of God's commitment to Abraham, of his pledge and his promise to bless.
SPEAKER_02: That every time he goes to the bathroom, he goes, God is for me.
SPEAKER_02: God is with me.
SPEAKER_02: I know it sounds weird.
SPEAKER_02: I know it's funny, right?
SPEAKER_02: And you're like, well, what a point to remember God's faithfulness.
SPEAKER_02: Great, God's with me.
SPEAKER_02: But that's what it was.
SPEAKER_02: It's a reminder not of our faith, but of God's unwavering commitment to us.
SPEAKER_02: How do we know that?
SPEAKER_02: Yes, it was given to Abraham, but it was not given to Abraham only, it was given also to Abraham's descendants.
SPEAKER_02: Male children who were born in his house were circumcised when?
SPEAKER_02: When they were eight days old.
SPEAKER_02: It was very common in the ancient Near East, and certainly still is in some countries, for boys to be circumcised when they are 13 years old, as a sign of their entry into manhood and sexual maturity.
SPEAKER_02: But here, God says very explicitly, every male that's born to your house must be circumcised when they are eight days old, when they are newly born.
SPEAKER_02: Why?
SPEAKER_02: Because the promises of God pursue us when we are weak and when we are ignorant of Him.
SPEAKER_02: That's when God comes to us.
SPEAKER_02: Why didn't Abraham turn around to God and say, hold on, can we not wait until the boys have been through like a Bible study course course?
SPEAKER_02: Could we not wait until the boys have have made a made a decision, a commitment to follow Jesus?
SPEAKER_02: I said, no, no, because it's not about the individual's faith, it's about God pledging himself and pursuing us in grace, coming to us in grace while we're still far off.
SPEAKER_02: While we're still weak and ignorant and have no strength within us and have no thought of God, but we were on his mind and he was pursuing us.
SPEAKER_02: That's why the signs for child for children, that's why the signs for a baby.
SPEAKER_02: Because God pursues us when we're weak.
SPEAKER_02: And that was true of Abraham back in Genesis 12.
SPEAKER_02: Abraham in Genesis 12 wasn't given a thought for God.
SPEAKER_02: He was a moon-worshipping pagan over an Ur of the Chaldeans.
SPEAKER_02: He was out in Iraq, bowing down to the moon, completely spiritually ignorant, weak in his faith.
SPEAKER_02: And what happened?
SPEAKER_02: God came to him, pledged himself, made promises to him.
SPEAKER_02: It's a sign not of a person's faith, but of the grace of God.
SPEAKER_02: Do you see?
SPEAKER_02: All of the Baptists are freaking out right now.
SPEAKER_02: Let's see if we can make it slightly better for you all.
SPEAKER_02: It's a sign of God's commitment.
SPEAKER_02: Second thing that it's a sign to.
SPEAKER_02: It is a sign of the necessity of faith.
SPEAKER_02: While circumcision is not primarily a sign of a person's faith, it is a sign pointing to the necessity of faith.
SPEAKER_02: The faith is necessary, essential for a relationship with God.
SPEAKER_02: God, in giving this sign and saying, I am pledging myself to bless you.
SPEAKER_02: What's the flip side of the blessing coin?
SPEAKER_02: The flip side of the blessing coin is responsibility.
SPEAKER_02: It's that you have responsibilities to do what?
SPEAKER_02: To respond to me in faith and obedience.
SPEAKER_02: That all the things that this sign points to, that I'm committing myself to you, that I have made promises to you, what's the appropriate response?
SPEAKER_02: It's faith.
SPEAKER_02: It's always been faith.
SPEAKER_02: Abraham wasn't saved because he circumcised himself at the age of 99.
SPEAKER_02: He was saved by the faith that he had that we read about back in Genesis 15.
SPEAKER_02: Genesis 15, verse 6.
SPEAKER_02: Abraham believed God and God counted it to him as righteousness.
SPEAKER_02: That's what saved him.
SPEAKER_02: But for every male in his house, as the boy grew up and looked down and remembered, he remembered two things.
SPEAKER_02: He remembered that God pledged himself to that child, and he also remembered, oh, I have a responsibility, therefore, to respond to God in faith, just as my ancestor Abraham did long before he was circumcised.
SPEAKER_02: The act of physical circumcision, let me say it again the act of physical circumcision saved.
SPEAKER_02: No one.
SPEAKER_02: It was a pointer, rather, towards an inward change that needed to happen.
SPEAKER_02: And that inward change only happens when we place our faith and trust in the promises of God.
SPEAKER_02: The Bible calls this the circumcision of the heart.
SPEAKER_02: This is what the people of the Old Testament, this is what the Jews had forgotten in Jesus' time.
SPEAKER_02: This is what they had lost sight of.
SPEAKER_02: They thought that if they simply went through the ritual, that that was enough, that God was for them, that God was their God, and didn't matter what their hearts were like.
SPEAKER_02: They forgot that they just looked at the blessing part and said, Well, we're God's people, and all of the gentiles, everybody else is just tinder for the fires of hell afterwards, right?
SPEAKER_02: But they've forgotten that actually it was a pointer to the responsibilities that they had to cast themselves on the mercy of God and cry out to him, Be gracious to me, a sinner.
SPEAKER_02: It's a sign of the responsibility, of the necessity of faith, that they needed to be changed on the inside, not just in their flesh, but to be changed, to be circumcised in heart.
SPEAKER_02: Final thing of what circumcision points to.
SPEAKER_02: Circumcision points to how God in the end might circumcise our hearts.
SPEAKER_02: It goes without saying that all of this talk of circumcision is gross and intimate and bloody.
SPEAKER_02: And in some senses, that's the point.
SPEAKER_02: It's supposed to be like that.
SPEAKER_02: It's supposed to be painful and gross.
SPEAKER_02: There's supposed to be the shedding of blood.
SPEAKER_02: Why?
SPEAKER_02: Because it's teaching something, teaching us something about our sin.
SPEAKER_02: But that stuff that infects our heart, that addiction to me, myself, and my, that actually, it's gross and it's disgusting.
SPEAKER_02: And the only way that we can be brought into right relationship with God is by pain and the shedding of blood.
SPEAKER_02: There's a warning in these verses that anyone who is not circumcised would be cut off.
SPEAKER_02: In essence, such a person is saying to God, God, I don't want you to pursue me.
SPEAKER_02: I don't want your loving promises.
SPEAKER_02: I don't want to respond to you in obedience and faith and faith.
SPEAKER_02: And God in the end confirms that desire and says, Okay.
SPEAKER_02: I will send you away from my people, I'll cut you off from my covenant family.
SPEAKER_02: In the New Testament, Paul talks to the Colossian Christians about circumcision.
SPEAKER_02: Let me read you just a couple of just one thing that he says.
SPEAKER_02: He says that in Christ, in him, we, that's Christians, were circumcised with the circumcision of Christ.
SPEAKER_02: What does that mean?
SPEAKER_02: What Paul is saying is your heart was circumcised, your internal heart was changed by the circumcision of Christ.
SPEAKER_02: Paul is not just saying that we get a circumcised heart, he's saying that we get a circumcised heart by the circumcision of Christ.
SPEAKER_02: And so we've got to ask ourselves, well, what's the circumcision of Christ?
SPEAKER_02: It's the cross.
SPEAKER_02: It's Good Friday.
SPEAKER_02: Because on the cross of Jesus, that is where Jesus was cut off.
SPEAKER_02: Where he was cut off from the blessing of God, when he was cut off from the people of God.
SPEAKER_02: He suffered the curse of breaking the covenant promises.
SPEAKER_02: He suffered the punishment for our faithlessness and was cut off.
SPEAKER_02: It was gross, it was painful, it was bloody.
SPEAKER_02: But why was he cut off?
SPEAKER_02: So that we could have that internal change that it's necessary, so that we could have a circumcised heart.
SPEAKER_02: So that everyone who places their faith in him would be changed, not on the outside, but on the inside, where it matters.
SPEAKER_02: In the heart.
SPEAKER_02: That is what it is to believe in God.
SPEAKER_02: We believe in a God who is like no other.
SPEAKER_02: And so he can be completely gracious to you.
SPEAKER_02: We believe in a God whose promises cannot be thwarted by death.
SPEAKER_02: And we know that because after Jesus died, he rose from the grave, bodily in history.
SPEAKER_02: Not a metaphor, actual event.
SPEAKER_02: And to believe in him is to believe in the one who changes our hearts and who therefore calls us to respond to him in wholehearted worship and obedience.
SPEAKER_02: That's the God that Christians believe in.