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Sunday Night, July 8, 2018 PM July 8, 2018 PM Michael Dirrim Pastor
Genesis 17, a refresher look at God's dealings with Abram. And we have come to the point where in chapter 17 we have looked at a few of the important occurrences, some of the important bits of conversation that God has had with Abram.
To catch us up, Genesis 1 through 11 speaks to God's dealings with humanity from Adam all the way to Abram. We encounter the genealogy leading up to Abram at the end of Genesis 11. And our attention time and again is placed on the person of the seed.
After Adam and Eve fell into sin, after they disobeyed God, after they believed the lies of Satan and gave in to temptation, they stood before God condemned in their sin, and yet God did not leave them without hope as he condemned the serpent for what he did.
The promise of Genesis 3 .15 is that the seed of the woman would crush the serpent, would crush his head even though the serpent would crush his heel, the heel of the seed. And in this first promise of the gospel, there is an attention given to this person, the seed.
And all the way through the rest of Genesis as we're reading, attention is brought time and again to who is this seed of the woman? Who is this one to come? And so we've come to Genesis 12 and following as we look at Abram, apparently through him will come the seed because in him all the families of the earth will be blessed.
That's in Genesis 12 .3. God deals with Abram who is, as we read this morning out of Nehemiah, he is of the Ur, he's from Ur, one of the Chaldeans. Abram is a Chaldean from the land of Ur at the end of Joshua.
It reminds us that Abram was a pagan, he was an idolater, and that God called Abram out of his idolatry, out of his sin, and called him to a new place and promised that Abram would be, and his descendants would be God's people living in God's place, blessed under God's rule.
Well, we're looking at the outworking of these promises that God has made to Abram. He makes them again, all over again in chapter 15, and in fact, we see, even though God does not articulate the promises, we see them in action in chapter 14 as Abram and his ragtag band are able to defeat Shittler and the Northern Coalition and rescue Lot and his neighbors, and then deals with Melchizedek, priest of God most high, king of Salem, or the city of Salem, or Jerusalem, and we just see that indeed, God's promises are being worked out right there in the life of Abram in chapter 14.
In chapter 15, God brings Abraham out into the evening to strengthen his faith and says, look up into the sky and see if you can count the stars, so shall your descendants be. And he promises, again, kind of expands the promises a little bit, but affirms to Abram that God is for him, that God will bring about the blessing of the seed.
Well, he talks specifically about the seed, and then it says in verse 6, so Abram believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness, which reminds us that salvation has always been by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone, where Abram believed the promise of the seed, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness.
In fact, that's what Paul says in Galatians, as he says the scripture, seeing beforehand that God would justify the Gentiles through faith, and even justify Abram's descendants through faith, preached the gospel beforehand to Abram, and it was the gospel of the seed, the gospel of Jesus Christ himself.
So, we see that Abram's attention is being put on the fulfillment of these promises, but his attention is being put onto the seed, so ours should as well. And then in chapter 16, we have this failure, we have this effort of man to bring about God's will, and Abram and Sarai and Hagar attempt by their own efforts, by their own wisdom, to bring about the promises of God, and what they get is a mess, and it's a mess that continues to this day.
And it becomes, for Paul, an excellent allegory, an excellent story of the difference between trying to work your way to salvation versus believing upon God and His promises. And we have Hagar versus Sarai, we have the efforts of man versus God's promise coming to pass, works versus faith.
And the mess that was made by the works, rather than by faith, is clearer in Genesis 16, then we come to Genesis 17, where God is going to do His work. Abram and Sarai, they try to do their work in chapter 16.
Now, God will do His work, and we see the outplay of that beginning in chapter 17. Now, God comes to Abram, verse 1, Genesis 17, now when Abram was 99 years old, this is 24 years after God called him out of earth and promised him descendants.
Now, when Abram was 99 years old, the Lord appeared to Abram and said, I am God Almighty, I am El Shaddai, I am God All-Sufficient, walk before me and be blameless. I will establish my covenant between you and I will multiply you exceedingly.
Abram fell on his face, and God talked with him, saying, ask for me, behold, my covenant is with you, and you will be the father of a multitude of nations. No longer shall your name be called Abram, no longer Abram, which means high father, exalted father, but your name shall be Abraham, father of a multitude.
Okay, all right, man without a legitimate heir, we're going to change the name from exalted father, even though you don't have an illegitimate heir, and now it's going to be father of a multitude, and you're 99 years old.
Now, this is the way God does his work. God delights in doing the impossible for the unlikely. The glory all goes to him. So, he changes it to Abraham, for I have made you the father of a multitude of nations, I will make you exceedingly fruitful.
So, if you go back and read Genesis 1, 26 -28, and you read in Genesis chapter 9, what God says again to Noah, pretty much the same thing he said to Adam, and then you read this, you're hearing the same thing over and over again.
Be fruitful and multiply. God blessing his chosen servant. So, he's dealing with Abraham in a way that signals that God's covenant with man, God's arrangement with man, is going to focus in now on Abraham and his descendants for the express purpose that the seed is going to come from the lineage of Abraham.
So, God's dealings with man are in view here, and it's going to be very important in the life of Abraham that we keep our focus on the seed. Now, God says in verse 6, I will make you exceedingly fruitful, and I will make nations of you, and kings will come forth from you, and I will establish my covenant between me and you and your descendants after you throughout the generations for an everlasting covenant to be God to you and your descendants after you.
Paul makes it clear in Galatians who these descendants are. It is those who are of faith who are the seed, who are the offspring, who are the descendants of Abraham, and Paul says the same thing in Romans 4.
Verse 8, I will give to you and your descendants after you the land of your sojournings, all the land of kin for everlasting possession, and I will be their God. God said further to Abraham, now is for you, you shall keep my covenant, you and your descendants after you throughout their generations.
This is my covenant which you shall keep between me and you and your descendants after you. Every male among you shall be circumcised, and you shall be circumcised in the flesh of your foreskin, and it shall be for the sign of the covenant between me and you, and every male among you who is eight days old shall be circumcised throughout the generations, a servant who was born in the house or who was bought with money from any foreigner, who is not of your descendants, a servant who was born in your house who was 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 shall be cut off from his people.
He has broken my covenant. Now, this may not be in your recent memory because it's been a long time since we looked at Genesis, but we went ahead and read on past that. We've talked about the name change from Abram to Abraham and from Sarai to Sarah, and we've looked at the way in which God is making his promises, what God is saying here, even about Ishmael.
But let's talk about circumcision. Let's talk about the sign of circumcision. Abraham has waited 24 years, 24 years for specifics. God has been promising, and it's been in general, but he doesn't know the details yet.
He doesn't have a specific detail. God goes on to say in the following verses that Sarah, she's going to have the child through whom the seed will come. And the name of the child will be Isaac because of Abraham's and Sarah's laughter at the preposterous notion that they're going to have a child at their age, and also laughter at the astounding way in which God works.
So, finally, he gets specific details, and let's back up just a little bit because this happened in Genesis as well, in Genesis 3. But I want you to see in chapter 17, verse 1, look at this. The Lord appeared to Abram.
Why is Abram not dead? What did God say? No man shall see my face and live. And even when revealing himself to Moses, he said, you will see only the trailing glow of my glory. No man will see my face and live.
So, why is Abram still alive? Because time and again as we find when the Lord appears to people in the Old Testament, I don't know whether they can see him and relate to him. This happens again in Genesis 18, that this is the pre-incarnate appearance of Christ, the second person of the Trinity, who is the one mediator between God and man.
No one has seen God at any time. The only begotten God who is in the bosom of the Father, he has explained him. So, this is the word. This is the Logos. This is the Son of God appearing to Abram, naming him Abraham, and then clarifying for Abraham that the seed will come through Isaac.
And again, even as with Genesis 3 .15, it's Christ himself telling his ancestors of the lineage through which Christ will be born. God has it all in hand. And he gives them a sign, the sign of the covenant.
We think about the details here about this covenant. What is this covenant that God is talking about? He's saying, you're going to be my people, you're going to live in my place, and you're going to be blessed under my rule.
This is the way it's going to go. And he's doing this because that's the way in which we are made in the image of God. We're made to love God supremely, love others rightly, steward the creation responsibly.
And that's there in the text. It matters how Abram is going to deal with God. Walk before me and be blameless, he says. It matters how he deals with God. It matters how he deals with others, that Abraham is going to be a father of a multitude.
It matters how he's going to relate to Ishmael and to Isaac, what he's going to say to Sarah, now the new name of his wife, how they're going to treat those, even the servants that they pick up along the way in their many wanderings.
It matters how they deal with others. And it matters how they view the land, the resources, the property that God gives them. They are to be responsible stewards of it and to understand that this is all a gift from God.
And if you zoom in even farther to the sign of circumcision, all three of these relationships are still in view. Because the sign of circumcision is something very private and it's only between God and the person.
And so it's all about, am I going to honor God or pretend like it doesn't matter? And as we had that question, I think it was a week ago or two weeks ago, God met Moses and after commissioning Moses to be his mouth to Pharaoh, giving him spectacular signs, laying out the agenda for Moses, how important is Moses to God's plan?
But Moses had not circumcised his own children. And so God met him in the wilderness to kill him. Well, it goes back here to Genesis, right? That's what God says. We cut off from my people. This is a grievous breach of a covenant if you don't keep this sign of circumcision.
And so Abram must deal with God rightly in the matter of circumcision and with others, because he's going to have to deal with all the male servants and his own children. And it's even a proper understanding of his own flesh.
The knife which threatens sterility is actually the promise of life. You're going to have children. You're going to bear a son and there's going to be a continuation of your line. And so as we zoom in on the sign, we discover that circumcision is a vital sign that Israel will need to observe.
It precedes Jacob, precedes Israel and his sons, but it's something that continues all the way throughout their history. As you read about that, you can understand why it was so important for Jews who came to faith in Christ and the new church there in Jerusalem.
As the church began to spread, especially in places like Antioch, where the gospel was preached and Gentiles turned to Christ in faith, who did not have this background, this Jewish cultural background, this religious background of circumcision, it was a big question mark for the church, the church leaders who by far were Jewish.
What do you do about circumcision? After all, it says, I mean, what does it say? It's an everlasting covenant. An everlasting covenant. How can you just toss that out the window? Well, the solution is clear.
All these Gentiles have to become Jews first. Then they can be saved. Now, what could be more logical? What could be more logical? I mean, he's a Jewish Messiah, so you've got to become a Jew first. And this is the battle that, I mean, there are things that you draw a line in the Sandover, and this is what Paul drew a line in the Sandover in Galatians, not just Galatians, but also we find in different incidents in the book of Acts, which he writes about in Galatians, and then you also find it in the book of Colossians, that all the Jewishness you need, if you need any at all, all the circumcision you need, all the qualifiers you need to be saved is all found in one person, and that's Jesus Christ.
Yes, it's an everlasting covenant. Yes, it's an everlasting sign, but guess who's our circumcision? It's Christ. For that clarity, we go to Colossians. We go to Colossians chapter 2, and of course, we could read the entire book of Galatians, which would be a wonderful thing to do, something that we ought to do, and you'll find in the interactions there in Galatians that Paul thinks it's a rather big deal.
When you read the first chapter of Galatians and you get when you get down in the verses 8, 9, and 10, when you realize what he's talking about, about those who are preaching another gospel, but it's not really a gospel, and those who preach this other gospel are anathema cut off from God, what is he so worked up about?
Did somebody say that in order to be saved, you have to make a large donation? That isn't something you get worked up about. Did somebody say in order to be saved, you have to go do these mighty deeds first?
No. Did somebody question the deity of Jesus Christ? Did someone question his humanity? No. Someone, in fact, a lot of people, a lot of respected people who were being very, very biblical about these things, were simply saying this.
If you're going to believe in the Jewish Messiah and be saved, then you need to be a Jew. Just get circumcised first, because it's an everlasting covenant after all. And Paul says, you add that, you're preaching another gospel.
He says, you're anathema cut off from God. That's surprising. We tolerate so many things in our day, and Paul's fighting, fighting for the purity of the gospel. Now, we come to Colossians 2, verse 8 says, see to it, which means it's your responsibility, see to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deception according to the tradition of men, according to the elementary principles of the world, rather than according to Christ.
What an excellently phrased verse. Listen to all the things on this side of the scale, and then listen to what's on the other side of the scale. Listen to that again. Philosophy, empty deception, tradition of men, elementary principles of the world, Christ.
Right away, I want to follow Christ, because I don't know how I'm going to keep up with all that. You know, that sounds awful. Come unto me, all you who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest, he says.
Well, for in him, verse 9, for in Christ, why should we, why should we pay attention to him? In him, all the fullness of deity dwells in bodily form, and in him, you have been made complete. What do you need?
What do you lack? What does it require that you be saved, that you be forgiven, that you be the child of God, that he would love you and show his smile on you? Whatever it is, whatever it is that we need to be right with God, whatever it is that we need to be being renewed into the image of God, whatever it is in Christ, we have been made complete.
And he is the head over all rule and authority. No matter what authority is cited over here, no matter what person by their own, well, influence or their own place of authority, no matter if the pope says such and such, no matter what it is, Christ is the one who has all rule and authority, so trust him.
Now listen, and this is a very big, this is very important for how we read Genesis 17. We should read Genesis 17 like Christians. In him, in Christ, you were also circumcised. You were also circumcised with a circumcision made without hands.
You know that that is not a new idea in the New Testament, but that was talked about in the Old Testament, that Moses proclaimed that and said, that's what you really need. You need a circumcision made without hands, a circumcision of the heart.
You need to be set apart unto God and made alive by God himself. That's what you really need. Well, Paul's picking up on that here, a circumcision made without hands and the removal of the body of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ.
In other words, here we have Christ, what was the circumcision of Christ? When he died on the cross, all of our uncleanness, all of our sinfulness, all of our filth is taken away in Christ's death upon the cross, and it is taken away as far as the east is from the west.
Even as in the image of the scapegoat, there was two goats in the day of atonement. Upon one, the priest laid his hands, symbolically transferring the sins of all the people to the head of that goat, whose throat was then slit and the blood was sprinkled on the altar and on the Ark of the Covenant.
Blood was shed. Then also there was the other goat, and all the sins of the people were also laid upon this goat. The first goat speaks of propitiation, the satisfaction of God's justice concerning the guilt of our sins.
But the second goat, the scapegoat, again, the priest puts his hands over the goat and symbolically the sins of all the people are laid upon that goat, and the goat goes out, in the words of Paul Washer, to wander and stagger and die.
Expiation, the guilt of our sin, the sin taken away as far as the east is from the west to be dealt with no more. This is also another way of talking about it is in the circumcision of Christ in that our sins have been taken out of the way, having been nailed to the cross.
Okay, now, verse 12 continues, having been buried with him in baptism. If we have died with him by faith, we have the circumcision made without hands, circumcision of Christ. 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.
What we have here is not, it is not an expression to say that, number one, it's not that baptism replaces circumcision. Okay, that's not what the text says. It also doesn't say, it also doesn't mean that baptism is what saves you any more than circumcision is what saves you, because in the context, it's circumcision made without hands, so also is the idea of this baptism of being immersed into Christ by faith.
It's through faith in the working of God who raised him from the dead. And so, but what's important is the transferal of the focus on circumcision to baptism happens only in this way. If you were born into Abraham, what was supposed to happen?
If you were a male, then you got circumcised. The focus is not on Abram or Abraham as the shadow of Christ anymore, is it? Christ has come. The shadow resolves in the soma, the body, the substance of Christ.
It's not about being born into Abram, is it? It's about being born into Christ. That was the whole idea anyway. That was the whole direction of the thought in the Old Testament anyway, about being born into Abraham was about looking forward to the seed who was promised.
When we're born into Christ, when does that happen? Does it happen when a Christian mother gives birth? Is that infant born into Christ? When does it happen? What did Jesus say to Nicodemus? You must be born again.
You must be born again. You cannot even see the kingdom of God unless you're born again, which means, which comes out on, you know, that the Spirit will do what the Spirit, he wants to do. That which is born of the Spirit is spirit.
And you know, you hear the wind blows, you know the feel of it, you hear the sound of it. You have no idea where it comes from or where it's going, so also who are all who are born of the Holy Spirit, Jesus says in John 3 .8.
But what does the new birth look like in our lives? It looks like this, repentance through faith in Christ. Repentance through faith in Christ. And that's exactly what Jesus said in Mark 1 .15. Time is fulfilled, the kingdom of heaven is at hand, repent and believe in the gospel.
And when people are truly born again into Christ, after they're born again, guess what? We baptize infants, spiritual infants who are born again in Christ, who are real disciples of Jesus Christ, and we baptize them.
We baptize them, okay, because our focus is on Christ. And this way we avoid talking about such nonsense as having unregenerate members of the new covenant. Keep the focus on Christ and it's not confusing, being born again to him.
Well, when we look at this passage in Genesis 17, we see that God is careful to give Abraham very clear direction how he's to relate to God, how he's to relate to others, and what to think about this inheritance, this land that is promised to him, and this sign of the circumcision, and this covenant that God makes with Abraham.
Everything that's in this passage ultimately is to direct our attention to the way that God does his work. And the way that God does his work is by this miraculous, powerful intervention into this otherwise hopeless situation.
And our attention for now is going to be on Isaac and how Abraham and Sarah deal with those promises, and then the outflowing of Isaac's life as is promised in Genesis 18, and we read about it in the following chapters.
Okay, any questions or thoughts before we close? No more paedo-baptists here? Okay, good. Not going to baptize infants, not physical infants, only spiritual infants. Okay, well, let's close in a word of prayer, and if you would, please go ahead and make your way back to the fellowship hall, and we will enjoy time together in honoring Doris and Yvonne and thanking God for the blessings of this church.
Okay, let's pray. Father, I thank you so much for the time that you have given us here this evening. I pray that we would be a blessing to you in our time together tonight as we rejoice in your goodness, and we give thanks to you for faithful servants, and we pray these things for Christ's sake.
Amen. We are dismissed.
