O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave?
O'er the land of the brave?
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave?
Let's turn in our songbooks to song 184, I Love Thee, My Jesus.
Song 184, I Love Thee, My Jesus.
Song 184, I Love Thee, My Jesus. On the first.
What words can I find to tell Jesus I love Him
Because He first loved me
Because of my ransom He paid with such suffering
Upon the cursed tree
In the morning, at the noontime
And when come evening shadows
I love Thee, my Jesus
I love Thee, my King
In rejoicing and in sorrow
Today and tomorrow
I love Thee, my Savior and Lord
184 on the second.
O come, let us magnify Jesus together
For praise becometh thee
And blessings about me
I owe to my Savior
Who all things bought for me
In the morning, at the noontime
And when come evening shadows
I love Thee, my Jesus
I love Thee, my King
In rejoicing and in sorrow
Today and tomorrow
I love Thee, my Savior and Lord
May never my praises be slow or be silent
Nor e'er my love grow dumb
This sinner is saved and my sins all forgiven
The Savior's work is done
In the morning, at the noontime
And when come evening shadows
I love Thee, my Jesus
I love Thee, my King
In rejoicing and in sorrow
Today and tomorrow
I love Thee, my Savior and Lord
O how can I love Thee enough
Dear Redeemer
How e'er we pay, my friend
I'll spread the glad sound of my praise
And my hard love on every joyful wind
In the morning, at the noontime
And when come evening shadows
I love Thee, my Jesus
I love Thee, my King
In rejoicing and in sorrow
Today and tomorrow
I love Thee, my Savior and Lord
Good singing. Let's have a word of prayer.
Lord, we thank you so much for this day
and the opportunity to be gathered together as a church
to sing praises to you, to hear your word preached.
I pray that you fill every person here with the Holy Spirit
and that you bless this service.
In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.
All right, for our next song, just flip the page.
185, My Savior's Love.
Song 185, My Savior's Love.
185, My Savior's Love.
I stand amazed in the presence of Jesus the Nazarene
And wonder how He can love me
A sinner condemned unclean
Oh, how marvelous, oh, how wonderful
And my song shall ever be
Oh, how marvelous, oh, how wonderful
Is my Savior's love for me
For me it was in the garden
He prayed not my will but Thine
He had no tears for His own griefs
But sweatdrops of blood for mine
How marvelous, how wonderful
And my song shall ever be
How marvelous, how wonderful
Is my Savior's love for me
He took my sins and my sorrows
He made them His very own
He bore the burden to Calvary
And suffered and died alone
Oh, how marvelous, oh, how wonderful
And my song shall ever be
Oh, how marvelous, oh, how wonderful
Is my Savior's love for me
When with the ransomed in glory
His face I at last shall see
Twill be my joy through the ages
To sing of His love for me
How marvelous, how wonderful
And my song shall ever be
How marvelous, how wonderful
Is my Savior's love for me
Good evening, good singing.
If you need a bulletin, you can lift up your hand real quick and an usher can come by and get a bulletin to you.
We're on Exodus 20-20 for a Bible memory passage.
On the inside we have our service and soul winning times.
And we have our church stats.
I'm going to get a quick count for any soul winning to report.
Is there anything from Monday to report for soul winning?
Okay, what about Tuesday? Anything for Tuesday?
Two for Tuesday with the ladies group.
What about today? Was there anything today by chance?
Alright, three for today.
Praise the Lord on that.
Also on the right we have a list of expecting ladies.
Please keep them all in your prayers.
We also have our prayer list.
I'm going to go ahead and read out a few things here.
And if you have any other prayer requests you can try to send those in
via our email SteadfastBaptistKJV or you can fill out a communications card.
We have Ms. Rebecca Negara if you continue to be praying for her health.
Ms. Camelia Hinckley if you'd be in prayer for her health as well.
A salvation for Annalise Wright, Cynda Owens, and Nancy Holmes.
This is Lana Proctor's friends.
And then also Ms. Lucy's mother's tumors and swelling if you continue to pray for her.
Continue to pray for Cameron Hall's leg.
He needs in health.
Also brother Matt Illy.
He asks for salvation in health for his grandmother as well as his aunt Joan's health in salvation.
And then also we had Sue Hale is still traveling if you'd just be in prayer for him.
We have brother Carlos Guzman put in there for more labors for Spanish ministry.
Ms. Kenneth Catherine Croker were asking for prayer for their new marriage and also God's guidance.
Also we had Ms. Eva Garcia is having a surgery on July 15th if you'd just pray that everything would go well.
Brother Malcolm Holden was also asking for prayer for safety and salvation for his brother.
And then also some Mackenzie Camille.
And so we have several different people that were mentioned here.
Also if you could be in prayer for Ms. Nexus Cooper's health.
So we have a few different things in there.
Just be in prayer for all of them as well as our expecting ladies.
Let's say a quick word of prayer for everybody that was mentioned.
Thank you Heavenly Father for our church.
Thank you so much for this opportunity to come here and to sing praises and hear the word of God preached.
I pray that you would bless all the people that are here.
You would also bless those that are not able to come.
That you would just give an easy pregnancy and just strength to all the ladies that are expecting.
That you would help them with their pregnancy and with their delivery.
I pray that you would also bless all those that were mentioned with other health concerns.
That you would give them strength.
That you would give them favor.
That you would give them wisdom.
I pray that you would also just bless all those other issues.
And that you would continue to give our church just wisdom.
That we would know how to behave ourselves.
In Jesus name we pray.
Amen.
Also we had our Ardmore Soul Wining Marathon.
We had 53 soul winners and 42 salvations.
So thanks to everybody that participated.
We had a really good turnout.
And a lot of cool stories and everything like that.
On the back we have a list of upcoming events.
We have a Soul Wining Marathon that's going to happen on July 3rd.
And we'll just meet here at the property for the morning.
And then I'll give you more details as far as lunch and everything.
But we'll provide the meals and everything like that.
And the evening we're going to do a cookout.
So we'll have hot dogs and stuff like that here at the church.
And just have a good time.
So whatever you can participate in.
You're welcome to participate in as little or as much as possible.
And we'll only give you a weird face if you just show up for the hot dogs.
Okay?
We'll just kind of be like, really?
Where were you?
No, I'm just kidding.
We'll even be nice to you.
Okay?
So you can just come for the hot dogs if you have to.
But it's going to be a great time.
And I don't know if we can celebrate freedom.
But we can celebrate spiritual freedom.
So that's what we can celebrate.
Alright?
And then October 6th through 10th is the Firebreathing Baptist Fellowship.
That's pretty much all I have in the bulletin.
One other quick announcement.
And this is something that I just announce every once in a while.
It's just a reminder.
But please make sure that if you are sick or if your children are sick
that you are being respectful of other church members.
And just stay home or stay out of their space.
I know everybody gets like, you know, really zealous about how the government inflates, you know, sicknesses and everything like that.
But people can still get sick even not from coronavirus.
I've heard that this is a thing.
And, you know, it's still important to make sure that you're not bringing your sickness with you
and being respectful of the rest of the congregation.
And so I just ask, you know, there's no shame in staying home because you're sick.
There's no shame in staying home because you're sick.
There's nothing, you know.
I obviously preach really hard and coming to church and church attendance.
But here's the thing.
I don't want to get sick.
You don't want to get sick.
And so if you're sick, your kiddos are sick, try to just, you know, be respectful of other people
and don't bring them to church just to get everybody else sick.
Because then we have even more people missing church because of sickness.
And so that's just my public service announcement.
Alright?
We're going to have a special Father's Day.
You know, lots of cool things are happening.
So I'd encourage you to show up on church on Father's Day.
It's not a day to go to the lake.
Alright?
So you can do that on Saturday or on Monday.
Alright?
That's all I have for announcements.
Let's go to our third song for the evening.
222 Moment by Moment.
In that song, 222 Moment by Moment.
Song 222 Moment by Moment.
In that song, 222 Moment by Moment.
Dying with Jesus by death reckon mine.
Living with Jesus, a new life divine.
Looking to Jesus till glory doth shine.
Moment by moment, O Lord, I am thine.
Moment by moment, I'm kept in His love.
Moment by moment, I've life from above.
Looking to Jesus till glory doth shine.
Moment by moment, O Lord, I am thine.
Never a trial that He is not there.
Never a burden that He doth not bear.
Never a sorrow that He doth not share.
Moment by moment, I'm under His care.
Moment by moment, I'm kept in His love.
Moment by moment, I've life from above.
Looking to Jesus till glory doth shine.
Moment by moment, O Lord, I am thine.
Never a heartache and never a groan.
Never a teardrop and never a moan.
Never a danger but there on the throne.
Moment by moment, He thinks of His own.
Moment by moment, I'm kept in His love.
Moment by moment, I've life from above.
Looking to Jesus till glory doth shine.
Moment by moment, O Lord, I am thine.
Never a weakness that He doth not feel.
Never a sickness that He cannot heal.
Moment by moment, in woe are unreal.
Jesus my Savior abides with me still.
Moment by moment, I'm kept in His love.
Moment by moment, I've life from above.
Looking to Jesus till glory doth shine.
Moment by moment, O Lord, I am thine.
Genesis chapter 17, the Bible reads,
And when Abram was ninety years old and nine, the Lord appeared to Abram and said unto him,
I am the Almighty God, walk before me and be thou perfect.
And I will make my covenant between me and thee, and will multiply thee exceedingly.
And Abram fell on his face, and God talked with him, saying,
As for me, behold, my covenant is with thee, and thou shalt be a father of many nations.
Neither shall thy name any more be called Abram, but thy name shall be Abraham,
for a father of many nations have I made thee.
And I will make thee exceeding fruitful, and I will make nations of thee, and kings shall come out of thee.
And I will establish my covenant between me and thee and thy seed after thee in their generations
for an everlasting covenant to be a God unto thee and to thy seed after thee.
And I will give unto thee and to thy seed after thee the land wherein thou art a stranger,
all the land of Canaan for an everlasting possession, and I will be their God.
And God said unto Abraham, Thou shalt keep my covenant therefore,
thou and thy seed after thee in their generations.
This is my covenant, which ye shall keep between me and you and thy seed after thee.
Every man child among you shall be circumcised, and ye shall circumcise the flesh of your foreskin,
and it shall be a token of the covenant betwixt me and you.
And he that is eight days old shall be circumcised among you,
every man child in your generations, he that is born in the house
or brought with money of any stranger which is not of thy seed.
He that is born in thy house and he that is bought with thy money must needs be circumcised,
and my covenant shall be in your flesh for an everlasting covenant.
And the uncircumcised man child whose flesh of his foreskin is not circumcised,
that soul shall be cut off from his people, he hath broken my covenant.
And God said unto Abraham, As for Sarai thy wife, thou shalt not call her name Sarai,
but Sarah shall her name be.
And I will bless her and give thee a son also of her,
yea, I will bless her and she shall be a mother of nations.
Kings of people shall be of her.
Then Abraham fell upon his face and laughed and said in his heart,
Shall a child be born unto him that is an hundred years old,
and shall Sarah that is ninety years old bear?
And Abraham said unto God, O that Ishmael might live before thee.
And God said, Sarah thy wife shall bear thee a son indeed,
and thou shalt call his name Isaac.
And I will establish my covenant with him for an everlasting covenant,
and with his seed after him.
And as for Ishmael, I have heard thee.
Behold, I have blessed him, and will make him fruitful,
and will multiply him exceedingly.
Twelve princes shall he beget, and I will make him a great nation.
But my covenant will I establish with Isaac,
which Sarah shall bear unto thee at this set time in the next year.
And he left off talking with him, and God went up from Abraham.
And Abraham took Ishmael his son, and all that were born in his house,
and all that were bought with his money,
every male among the men of Abraham's house,
and circumcised the flesh of their foreskin
in the selfsame day as God had sent it to him.
And Abraham was ninety years old and nine
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.
In the selfsame day was Abraham circumcised,
and Ishmael his son.
And all the men of his house born in the house,
and bought with money of the stranger,
were circumcised with him.
Let's bow our heads for a word of prayer.
Father, we thank you for Genesis chapter 17,
and Lord, I pray you would fill Pastor Shelley with your spirit
and help him explain this chapter to us,
and also give us ears to hear, minimize distractions for us
so that we can learn more about what this chapter is trying to teach us.
And we thank you so much for our church.
In Jesus' name I pray, Amen.
Amen.
So we're going through our Bible study of Genesis,
and in chapter number 16, we talked a lot about Ishmael.
And in chapter number 17, we're making a transition
where we're still talking about Ishmael a little bit,
but there's some other things that God's going to illuminate to us.
It says in verse number 1, it says,
And when Abram was ninety years old and nine,
the Lord appeared to Abram and said unto him,
I am the Almighty God, walk before me and be thou perfect.
Now, what's interesting about this verse is
the commandment found here of be thou perfect.
Be thou perfect.
And really, what you have to understand about God
and you have to understand about the Bible
is he does expect perfection.
He does expect perfection.
And really, we should be no different.
We should expect perfection as well.
Keep your finger here and go to Matthew chapter number 5.
Matthew chapter number 5.
And think about this.
Abram has already done a lot of things for the Lord.
Abram's lived a very long life.
He's already ninety-nine years old.
That's a really long life.
I mean, especially according to our standards,
very few people live to be ninety-nine years old,
especially nine hundred ninety years, right?
No one. Methuselah didn't even make it that far.
But being this old and God still telling him,
be thou perfect, meaning what?
Until your dying breath,
we should strive to be perfect with the Lord.
We should strive for perfection.
There's not a point where you just arrive.
There's not a point where you quit trying.
There's not a point where you say,
well, I've been there. I've done that.
No, I've been a Christian for a while.
Even Abram at ninety-nine years old
is still being told by God, hey, still walk with me.
Hey, still be thou perfect.
Look at Matthew chapter 5 and look at verse 48.
Be ye therefore perfect,
because your Father, which is in heaven, is perfect.
So notice it's not like this is a New Testament doctrine
here in Matthew chapter number 5.
This is all the way back to Genesis
where God is talking to Abram
and he's saying, be thou perfect.
Now, what does the word perfect mean?
It means a lot of different things.
Go to 2 Corinthians chapter 13 for a moment.
Go to 2 Corinthians chapter number 13.
One definition according to the dictionary is this.
To finish or complete so as to leave nothing wanting,
bring to completion or perfection
as to perfect a picture or a statue.
So in one way, the word perfect
could mean to complete something
or to finish it, essentially.
And a lot of times when we think of the word perfect,
we think of flawless, right,
as the synonym is flawless without error,
without any imperfection.
Nothing wrong with it.
And when it comes to our lives,
if we were going to look at our lives and say,
you know, how much sin would perfection be,
it would be zero, right?
It would be nothing, no sin.
The only person that was perfect
in the aspect of being sinless was Jesus Christ himself.
But even though Jesus Christ is the only one
that will be perfect in that regard,
the one that was without sin,
that had perfect lifestyle, never sinned,
never did anything wrong, had no flaws,
while he's the only one that will achieve that truly,
we still can strive for that.
We can still have that as the expectation.
We can still have that as the goal.
We can still have that as something that we're trying to do.
And even though we won't make it,
even though we're going to fail
and even though we're going to falter,
you know, the Bible says,
it rises up again, meaning it's not like he fell
and he's like, well, I'm going to fall again,
so I'm not going to get up.
No, he keeps getting up.
Why?
Because his goal is to keep trying to be perfect.
His goal is to keep on going.
His goal is to do that which is right
and pleasing to the Lord.
And God's perfect, so he wants us to be perfect.
He wants us to try and be like him.
And this process is what a lot of people call sanctification.
Sanctification is to sanctify means to set apart, okay?
Or to make holy.
What does it mean to be holy?
To be set apart.
Okay, to sanctify something,
to try and give something holiness,
to try and perfect something.
You're basically working on it and you're improving it.
You're removing flaws.
You're removing imperfections.
You're just trying to make it better and better.
And that's the process of sanctification.
And the Bible teaches that we should try to sanctify ourselves
as much as possible and strive to be as perfect as possible
and strive to be as godly as possible
and strive to be as holy as possible.
And that's what God is like.
And eventually that will come to pass.
Once we've fully shed this physical body,
once we've completely died,
we will then put on that incorruptible where we are perfect,
where we have no flaw, where we have no sin,
where we have none of this problem.
And some people use the fact that they're in the flesh
as an excuse to sin.
They use it as an excuse not to try to be holy.
They're just like, well, we're all sinners.
Well, I can't be perfect.
But here's the thing.
Just because you can't be perfect
doesn't mean you shouldn't strive for it.
It doesn't mean that you shouldn't use that as a goal,
as something that you're working on.
Look at 2 Corinthians chapter 13 verse 9.
For we are glad when we are weak,
and ye are strong.
And this also we wish, even your perfection.
Now, the word even in your Bible means specifically.
That's what it always means.
So specifically, your perfection.
So he's saying, this is what I want for you guys.
I want you guys to be perfect.
That's what I want for you.
Now, some people are like, well, you can't be perfect.
Okay, but you still want it.
You're still trying to get people to that place.
You know, someone would say,
can you understand everything in the Bible?
Probably not.
But shouldn't that be the goal?
To understand everything in the Bible?
I mean, you can't necessarily get everything right all the time.
But shouldn't that still be the goal,
is to get everything right all the time?
Look at the next part of this verse.
It says, therefore, I write these things being absent,
lest being present I should use sharpness,
according to the power which the Lord hath given me
to edification and not to destruction.
Finally, brethren, farewell.
Be perfect.
Be of good comfort.
Be of one mind.
Live in peace.
And the God of love and peace shall be with you.
Now, don't just throw away these verses.
You know, you're like, oh, I'm done with 2 Corinthians
and it's just a bunch of citations.
No, he's given him some real clear instruction here.
Be perfect.
Now, why would he say this?
Because the Corinthian church is really screwed up.
The Corinthian church has lots of problems.
The Corinthian church is doing a lot of things wrong.
And so the apostle Paul is saying,
hey, I don't want to come in
and start having to rebuke you guys sharply.
You know, sharpness is really, really specific.
I mean, you want to talk about naming the names.
It gets real spicy real quick, OK?
And he just starts calling people out
and he's making it really clear what people are doing.
And he's saying, I don't want to use sharpness
even though I could.
And he's given me this opportunity
to do this through edification.
The point is not to destroy anybody.
The point is to make people better.
But essentially what he's saying is,
if you guys can just perfect yourselves,
if you guys can just get yourselves together,
I don't have to use sharpness, OK?
And think about if we were crafting something.
You know, it doesn't matter what we were crafting,
a pot or, you know, perhaps some kind of a brick
or we're crafting something, we're working on it,
maybe a statue, OK?
If you're working on a statue,
and we're not talking about a graven image, OK?
We're just talking about just some kind of a normal statue.
It's not necessarily a false god or anything.
But we're working on this thing
and it's got like a really rough edge
that's just protruding.
It's just got this rough edge.
What you need to do is get something real sharp
and just nip that off, right?
And that's basically what he's saying.
Sometimes people, they have some kind of a funky growth
on them, you know, spiritually speaking.
And they need the word of God to come
and just chop that off.
But he's saying, hey, if you'd go ahead
and chop it off yourself, I don't have to.
He's saying, hey, but again, what's the goal?
To be perfect?
You know, if you were going to make anything,
a garment, a dinner, a statue, a building, a chair, anything,
wouldn't you want it to be perfect?
Isn't that the goal, is to make it perfect?
Or is the goal to just make it, well, it's good enough.
Well, it's just, you know, it's there.
And couldn't we look at the New Testament churches
and just say, well, I mean, look, they're saved.
Why are you giving them a hard time, Paul?
Why are you bringing up all their problems, Paul?
Why are you bringing up all this other doctrine, Paul?
Why do you, you know, they're right on the essentials.
We all agree Jesus is good.
Let's just move on, right?
No.
The Bible teaches actually that we're supposed
to perfect ourselves, which means what?
We study every single verse.
We study every single chapter of the Bible
and every single word.
We don't even leave off the word.
You know, it's important that man doesn't live by bread alone,
but by every word of God.
Here's the thing, why would you need every word?
So you can be perfect.
But, you know, there's this apathy,
there's this attitude out there today
where if they have it 95%, they're good in their mind.
And typically the people that have it 95% of their mind
are like about 5% in reality.
Because none of us are anywhere close to perfection.
None of us are even close to being as sanctified
as we really need to be.
But some people get mad at a church like ours,
and they'd say, why do you have to bring up this issue?
And why do you have to nitpick about all these things?
And why do you have to major on the minors?
And why do you have to have a Bible study through the whole Bible?
And why do you care what Leviticus 2013 says?
I'll tell you why.
Because we want to be perfect.
Because the goal is perfection.
Because the goal is to improve
and to get better and better and better
and closer to the Lord Jesus Christ
and to know every single doctrine
and to understand all truth and all knowledge
so that we can draw closer to the Lord.
Look at 2 Timothy chapter number 3.
Go to 2 Timothy chapter number 3 for a moment.
You know, another way to articulate the word perfect
according to the dictionary
is to make perfect instruct fully.
To make fully informed or skilled.
Isn't that a kind of an interesting usage
that the dictionary has?
Now think about that when it comes to the Word of God.
To fully instruct.
Don't we want to hear everything the Bible has to offer us?
Don't we want to be fully instructed
in all the commandments of the Lord?
Don't we want to have all of the skills
that God can possibly give us?
That's why it's important that we preach the whole Bible.
And you know, it's a daunting task,
but at the end of the day,
you say, why do you have church three times a week?
Because preaching the whole Bible takes a long time.
I mean, if I preach a chapter of the Bible
every single week,
that's still 1100 weeks.
And most people will not come to this church for 1100 weeks.
I'm just being honest.
I mean, you look at the people that were here day one,
it's like a few left.
And five years from now, it'll be a few left.
And five years from there, it'll be a few left.
And five years from there, it might be no one left.
You know?
Who even knows?
God willing, I'll also be here preaching,
but you know, I don't even know.
No one knows.
But at the end of the day,
we need to go to church to hear the word of God
and to be perfected.
And you say, well, I don't like this chapter of the Bible.
It's boring.
Well, guess what?
It takes all of the word of God to be perfected.
It sounds like you have apathy towards being perfect then.
You have apathy towards what God is actually instructing you to do.
And you say, well, why would God choose someone like Abraham
because he wants to be perfect?
Very few Christians want to be perfect today.
Very few Christians want to be sanctified.
Very few Christians want to do that which is right with the Lord.
They're just interested in the things of the flesh.
They're just interested in what they're going to do
and their life and all the things that they have.
They're not interested in seeing how perfect they can get.
They're not interested in seeing how righteous they can get.
But why do we have the Bible?
Why do we even use the Old Testament?
I mean, isn't there some Christians who are like,
I just need the red letters.
But wait a minute.
What does the Bible say about it?
2 Timothy chapter 3 verse 16.
All scripture is given by inspiration of God
and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction,
for instruction in righteousness that the man of God may be perfect.
Look at that word, perfect.
Throughly furnished unto all good works.
So notice, why would God give us the whole Bible?
Why not just John 3.16?
All right, we're done.
We all got saved.
Move on.
No, he gives you other instruction.
Why?
So that you can be perfect.
You say, well, I want to be perfect.
Then you need every word.
Then you need all scripture.
You know, that's another reason why I use a King James Bible
is because it's the word of God preserved in English today.
And I ran into several people today out soul winning
and they were saved
and I brought up to them the King James issue
and you know, I hope that they continue to research that
but you know why someone would decide to not continue researching the King James issue?
Because they don't want to be perfect.
Because if you want to be perfect, then you want all scripture.
Then you want every single word.
Then you want to know what did God actually say, not just give me the gist,
I kind of got the basics, I kind of got the fundamentals.
No, you want all of the instruction.
You want all of the scripture.
You want every single word
and look, people that are apathetic are not going to want to come to a church like ours.
And you say, why do people not come to this church?
Why do they go to the other church?
Because they're apathetic.
Because they don't want to be perfected.
Because they don't want to be corrected.
Because they don't want to be reproved.
Because they just don't want to hear the word of God being preached.
Go back to Genesis chapter 17.
Look, Abraham is a special character
and all the Christians, we love to look at Abraham
and say, oh man, I want to be like Abraham.
But here's the thing, do you really want to be like Abraham?
Then you say, well what does that mean, Pastor Shelley?
Well, do you actually come to church as many opportunities as you get?
Do you actually read the word of God on your own?
Do you actually memorize scripture on your own?
Are you actually trying to improve yourself on a regular basis spiritually?
Or are you just coasting?
Have you already, I've already arrived,
I kind of just do the same thing over and over
and I got my little routine.
Or does your routine include some improvement?
Does your routine include getting better?
Does your routine have an area where you're getting more closer to the Lord,
sanctifying yourself on a regular basis?
You know, and you say, well how do I know this?
Because it's really easy for me to just say all this
and for you to just kind of be like glossing over
and thinking about dinner.
I am too, all right?
But how do you know?
Well, compare yourself in the past.
Just look at your life.
Just say, okay, what was I doing last year this time?
Last year.
Was I reading the Bible more or less than last year this time?
Was I going to church more or less in the previous time?
Do I know more of the word of God or less?
And here's the thing, you would think you would only increase,
but that's not true because you'll forget things.
You could memorize a lot of scripture one year
and then the next year actually know less scripture than you did in the past
because you forgot it all, because you're not working on it.
Do you go so many more or less?
Do you have more kids or less?
You know, what is your spiritual walk look like?
Hey, is your marriage improving or is it getting worse?
Are the areas you were like, that's how you can tell.
Am I getting stronger or am I becoming more of a soy boy?
Then you can check.
You know, am I getting bigger or smaller?
Am I getting, you know, obviously you're going to get older no matter what, right?
Am I getting smarter?
Am I working harder or am I doing less?
And so that's a good way to look at yourself and say,
am I going in the right direction?
Am I getting better?
And if you're not, that just means you have an apathy problem
where you're not desiring to be perfect.
You're not desiring for the Lord to perfect you
and to walk before him and to try and sanctify yourself.
And really, that's the essence of this chapter.
Okay, look at verse number two.
The Bible says,
And I will make my covenant between me and thee,
and will multiply thee exceedingly.
And Abram fell on his face, and God talked with him, saying,
As for me, behold, my covenant is with thee,
and thou shalt be a father of many nations.
Now, what I like about this,
every time a real man of God encounters the Lord, he falls on his face.
All the Pentecostals, they fall on their back, all right?
Like a turtle, a turtle that needs help.
I've fallen and I can't get up.
Look at verse five.
Neither shall thy name any more be called Abram,
but thy name shall be Abraham,
for a father of many nations have I made thee,
and I will make thee exceeding fruitful,
and I will make nations of thee,
and kings shall come out of thee.
And I will establish my covenant between me and thee
and thy seed after thee
and their generations for an everlasting covenant,
to be a god unto thee and to thy seed after thee,
and I will give unto thee and to thy seed after thee
the land wherein thou art a stranger,
and I shall call the land of Canaan for an everlasting possession,
and I will be their god.
And God said unto Abraham,
Thou shalt keep my covenant, therefore,
thou and thy seed after thee in their generations.
This is my covenant which ye shall keep
between me and you and thy seed after thee.
Every man-child among you shall be circumcised,
and ye shall circumcise the flesh of your foreskin,
and it shall be a token of the covenant betwixt me and you.
And he that is eight days old shall be circumcised among you,
every man-child in your generations.
He that is born in the house, or bought with money,
of any stranger which is not of thy seed,
he that is born in thy house,
and he that is bought with thy money,
must need to be circumcised,
and my covenant shall be in your flesh
for an everlasting covenant.
And the uncircumcised man-child whose flesh of his foreskin
is not circumcised,
that soul shall be cut off from his people.
He hath broken my covenant.
And God said unto Abraham,
As for Sarai thy wife, thou shalt not call her name Sarai,
but Sarah shall her name be.
And I will bless her, and give thee a son also of her.
Yea, I will bless her, and she shall be a mother of nations.
Kings of people shall be of her.
Now, we have here the Bible giving us this portion of scripture
where God is making a covenant with Abraham,
and he's made a lot of different covenants throughout
as you read the book of Genesis.
You have to understand that he's constantly making different promises
and different covenants,
but they all are basically centered around the same things.
It's centered around Christ,
and it's centered around Abraham becoming the father of many nations,
but I believe the reason why God's going through
and giving us all these different covenants
and kind of giving us all these different promises
and going through all these different situations
is because being a saved child of God,
the moment that someone gets saved,
a lot of things happen simultaneously.
There's not just one thing that happens.
So when you're reading the Bible,
the Bible's giving you all these different scenarios and situations
to illustrate all the different things that happen
in the process of salvation
and all the different promises and things that God gives us.
There's other things in the Bible that are like this
where God kind of uses multiple illustrations to illustrate one event
like the cross or like Jesus Christ's death, burial, and resurrection.
Don't you have all kinds of different offerings?
You've got goats and you've got oxen and you've got pigeons
and you've got the wave loaf and the sheaf
and you've got all these things,
and you say, why is there all those different pictures?
Because there's so many different things
that are actually symbolizing what Christ did.
There's not just one thing.
There's all kinds of different things,
so God has used all kinds of extra examples
to illustrate all that happened.
So when you get saved, the same thing's true.
When you get saved, you get everlasting life.
There's one thing, right?
The moment you get saved, you get everlasting life.
The moment you get saved, you're dead from sin.
The moment that you get saved, you're a child of God.
The moment you get saved, the Holy Ghost comes
and seals you into the day of redemption.
I mean, the day that you get saved, you become a child.
I mean, there's all these things that are happening simultaneously.
You're becoming a child of God.
You've got the Holy Ghost inside of you.
Now you've been circumcised spiritually.
I mean, there's all kinds of stuff that happened
at the moment of salvation.
And so you have to realize that all these things
that God is telling Abraham,
they're kind of about the same event,
but they're just extra different things.
There are other things to consider.
You know, we become a child of Abraham, too.
We're the seed of Abraham.
We're the seed of Christ.
We get to be a joint heir with Christ.
I mean, there's all kinds of stuff that happens
at the moment of salvation.
And so when we look at all these pictures,
we have to realize that there's God using these
to illustrate all kinds of nuances and differences
and other perspectives when it comes to salvation
and what's actually taking place.
Now, circumcision is a very interesting covenant
that God's making with Abraham.
It's an interesting picture that we have here in the Bible.
But go if you go to Deuteronomy, chapter number 10.
Go to Deuteronomy, chapter number 10, for a moment.
And I want to show you a picture here.
Now, circumcision is a physical thing.
And obviously, it's only for males.
And it's not something that I want to go through, okay?
It's not something anybody wants to go through.
You know, my parents did it when I was a child.
They made, I'm so, you know, there's my fault or whatever.
I'm telling you now.
So it can't happen again, praise the Lord.
But being an adult male,
I can't even imagine what it would be like to be circumcised.
You know, that sounds terrible.
And plenty of people did.
Abraham, think about this.
Of all the ages to get circumcised,
99 sounds about one of the worst.
I'm just going to put that out there.
I mean, even Ishmael, he's going to get circumcised
about 13 or whatever.
And that would be rough too.
But 99 years old, he's got to get circumcised now?
It's like, oh man.
When you get older, healing's slower.
And things are just like more painful.
But he has to be circumcised.
And it's interesting because he's going to get circumcised
and then he's going to produce Isaac, you know?
Picturing a lot of different things
and a lot of different symbolism here.
But when it comes to circumcision,
while it's a physical act,
it illustrates a spiritual truth.
And you say, when did it illustrate a spiritual truth?
Always.
It's always illustrated the same spiritual truth.
You know, salvation's been the same
before the world began.
Always been faith in Jesus Christ, okay?
And salvation is illustrated through circumcision,
but God really makes it clear
that it's a spiritual truth that he's trying to expound to us here.
Look at January chapter 10, verse 16.
Circumcised, therefore, the foreskin of your heart,
and be no more a stiffneck.
So even in the Old Testament,
God is saying, you know what?
This circumcision thing is more important on the inside
than it is on the outside.
Go to Deuteronomy chapter 30.
Go to Deuteronomy chapter number 30.
Now what's interesting is,
let's focus on the physical here for a moment for the Old Testament.
God wanted them to be circumcised in their heart,
and that's a huge portion of this.
But the children of Israel,
if they're not circumcised in their heart,
or physically, because he uses physical
and carnal truths to expound spiritual truths,
they're not able to effectively serve the Lord.
They're not really, you know,
following his commandments.
They're not really sanctified,
and God's not going to really bless them
when they're not circumcised.
Look at Deuteronomy chapter 30, verse 6.
And the Lord thy God will circumcise thine heart
and the heart of thy seed
to love the Lord thy God with all thine heart
and with all thy soul, that thou mayest live.
Now go to Joshua chapter 5.
Now he's giving you in Deuteronomy chapter 30,
he's reiterating the law,
and he's then telling to get circumcised again
because there was a problem.
The children of Israel were not circumcised
when they went through the wilderness.
Now they went through the Red Sea,
they were wandering around in the wilderness,
but the Bible makes it clear that they were not circumcised.
And think about this.
When they're not circumcised,
and they have a hard heart,
and they're not circumcised in their heart either,
not physically or spiritually,
they're not allowed to do what?
Enter into the Promised Land.
God's not blessing them.
They're not able to enter into the Promised Land.
And entering into the Promised Land,
I've preached whole sermons on this,
Hebrews chapter 6 and other places,
Hebrews chapter 4,
but entering into the Promised Land
can illustrate getting saved,
and it illustrates the rewards of God
by serving him faithfully.
It illustrates both, okay?
And when you're not circumcised,
it illustrates both, not being saved,
and it can illustrate someone who's saved
who's not following God's commandments,
who's backslidden, who's not, you know,
sanctifying himself for the Lord.
So both are an applicable way to look at these stories,
but look at Joshua chapter 5, verse number 1.
And it came to pass when all the kings of the Amorites,
which were on the side of Jordan westward,
and all the kings of the Canaanites,
which were by the sea,
heard that the Lord had dried up the waters of Jordan
from before the children of Israel
until we were passed over, that their heart melted.
Neither was their spirit in them anymore
because of the children of Israel.
At that time, the Lord said unto Joshua,
Make these sharp knives and circumcise again
the children of Israel the second time.
And Joshua made them sharp knives
and circumcised the children of Israel
at the hill of the foreskins,
and this is the cause why Joshua did circumcise.
All the people that came out of Egypt
that were males, even all the men of war,
died in the wilderness, by the way,
after they came out of Egypt.
So notice, while they were wandering around
in the wilderness, they weren't circumcised.
And you say, Well, how do you know
they weren't circumcised?
Because you can't do it again, okay?
It's kind of a one-for-all type operation, okay?
Either you've been circumcised or you haven't,
and if you already have,
then you can't get circumcised again.
But God's telling them to do it again
because there was a large group of people
that were not circumcised.
All the children of, you know, basically the men
that didn't want to enter in the Promised Land
because of unbelief.
Now think about what's happening here.
They go through the Red Sea,
which is a picture of what in the New Testament?
Baptism, okay?
Now, after you've been saved and you've been baptized,
what are you supposed to do?
Be thou perfect.
You're supposed to follow God's commandments.
You're supposed to continue in faith.
You're supposed to be faithful,
not just having this faith to get you saved,
but you're supposed to continue believing the Lord's promises
and continuing to walk by faith
and continuing to sanctify yourself,
and the children of Israel didn't do that.
And the Bible illustrates that they were uncircumcised
in the wilderness, okay?
Then all of a sudden they come to the Jordan again
and they do what?
They walk through that Red Sea again.
So now this is a picture of what?
Another group getting baptized,
but then what do they do right after getting baptized?
Now they get circumcised.
So now they're adding circumcision under their baptism,
and now what do they get to do?
What's the next part of this chapter?
Jericho.
And then they enter into the Promised Land
and they have victory after victory in their life.
And you say, why does it have so many battles
and so many victories?
Because that's supposed to illustrate the real Christian life.
There's a lot of Christians that are walking through the wilderness.
You say, where's that?
They're not in church.
Or they're in a bad church, okay,
where they're basically doing nothing for God,
and they see no victory,
and all they do is they sing songs about revival
even though they have no revival.
All they have to do is walk outside
and start preaching the gospel
and they could have revival all day long.
But what does the real Christian life look like?
It looks like Joshua where we're going through
and we're constantly going to battle after battle after battle,
and you know what we see?
The Lord giving us victory after victory after victory.
Why?
Because that's what a successful Christian life looks like.
You say, what was the difference between the two?
Well, one's circumcised and one isn't.
You say, what is the circumcision picture?
Well, it pictures salvation in some regards,
but it also pictures what?
Sanctifying yourself before the Lord,
trying to be perfect with the Lord,
trying to separate yourself with the Lord.
Go if you would to verse number five here.
Look what it says.
Now all the people that came out were circumcised,
but all the people that were born in the wilderness,
by the way, as they came forth out of Egypt,
them they had not circumcised.
Verse six,
The children of Israel walked forty years in the wilderness
till all the people that were men of war,
which came out of Egypt, were consumed,
because they obeyed not the voice of the Lord,
and the Lord sware that he would not show them the land,
which the Lord sware to their fathers,
that he would give us,
a land that flowed with milk and honey.
And their children, whom he raised up in their stead,
them Joshua circumcised, for they were uncircumcised,
because they had not circumcised them by the way.
And it came to pass,
when they had done circumcising all the people,
that they abode in their places in the camp,
till they were whole.
And the Lord said unto Joshua,
This day have I rolled away the reproach of Egypt from off you,
wherefore the name of the place is called Gilgal into this day.
And the children of Israel encamped in Gilgal,
and kept the Passover on the fourteenth day of the month,
at even in the plains of Jericho.
And they did eat of the old corn of the land on the morrow,
after the Passover, and leavened cakes,
and parched corn in the cell the same day.
And the manna ceased on the morrow,
after they had eaten of the old corn of the land.
Neither had the children of Israel manna any more,
but they did eat of the fruit of the land of Canaan that year.
So the children of Israel, they come out of Egypt.
They go through the Red Sea.
And it's a picture of the fact that they got saved,
they got baptized,
they're basically in a perfect position to serve the Lord.
But what do they not do?
They don't circumcise their children.
And so they're going through the wilderness
with a whole bunch of uncircumcised children,
which is an illustration of what?
That they're not sanctifying themselves for the Lord.
They're not following His commandments.
They're not trying to be perfect.
They're not trying to do that which is right.
And those children are not able to enter in the Promised Land until what?
Until all of them die.
And then what do they do?
Then they go through the Jordan.
Then they get circumcised, finally.
And now they're able to enter in the Promised Land.
Now they have their approach of Egypt taken off of them.
What does Egypt picture?
Your old life.
It's sin.
It's the picture of sin in your old life.
What is baptism?
It's the picture that you want to walk in newness of life.
But how weird is it for someone to get saved
and to get baptized
and then not walk in newness of life?
To keep walking around with the Egypt baggage that they have on them.
No, they're supposed to cut that off and get rid of that
and have nothing to do with that anymore,
get their approach of Egypt off of them
and start walking in newness of life.
That's how you have the victory in the Christian life.
But we see the other children of Israel, the older generation,
they didn't do that.
They didn't teach their children to get circumcised.
They didn't circumcise their children.
And again, circumcision is supposed to happen on the eighth day of a child's life.
So who's really at fault for not circumcising someone?
The parents or the child?
Sorry, but I know they say that Muhammad spake when he was a baby,
but babies can't circumcise themselves.
And that was a lie, okay?
He didn't talk.
He couldn't even read his whole life.
But here's the reality.
We have this great story to illustrate some spiritual truths here
that we need to be uncircumcised in our heart.
Now, I'm not saying that you need to do that physically, okay?
That will not help you in any way.
It'll only hurt severely.
And I wouldn't even do it without a doctor, okay?
I wouldn't do it at all, all right? I'm just saying.
But at the end of the day,
we do need to circumcise ourselves spiritually,
which is in our heart.
And while it is a one-time process in reality,
in a physical, carnal way,
just like salvation is kind of a one-time thing,
circumcision in the spiritual way
is something we need to do on a regular basis.
We're constantly sanctifying ourselves
and we're constantly separating ourselves.
Go back to Genesis chapter number 17.
Go back to Genesis chapter 17.
And what I like to illustrate this as being similar to
is the word faith, okay?
Faith is what saves us.
We get saved by simple faith in Jesus Christ.
All you have to do is, like a child, trusting their parents.
You know, we just trust the Lord Jesus Christ
and we're saved in that moment.
But the word faith, to say that that's the only thing
the Bible's talking about when it says faith
would be missing a huge chunk of the Bible
because faith goes beyond just salvation.
We also need to put faith in every commandment of the Word of God.
We need to be faithful in our lives as well.
And so just like circumcision is a one-time thing and a sense
and that could picture salvation,
it's also a perpetual thing
and picturing the fact that we need to constantly
sanctify ourselves and separate ourselves
and remove the old man
and put on the new man
and get rid of that old flesh
and try to walk in newness of life.
Look at what it says in chapter 17.
Then Abraham fell upon his face and laughed
and said in his heart,
Shall a child be born unto him that is 100 years old?
And shall Sarah that is 90 years old bear?
And Abraham said unto God,
O that Ishmael might live before thee.
And God said, Sarah thy wife shall bear thee a son indeed,
and thou shalt call his name Isaac,
and I will establish my covenant with him
for an everlasting covenant and with his seed after him.
Now, let's pause for a second and think about this.
Ishmael, was he born when Abraham was circumcised or uncircumcised?
Uncircumcised.
So you've got to think about this.
Ishmael is a child of uncircumcision.
But in this chapter,
Abraham is going to get circumcised
and then he's going to have Isaac.
So what is Isaac?
He's actually a seed or a product of circumcision.
Again, same kind of an illustration of
the children of Israel coming out of the wilderness
and them not circumcising their children
and them basically failing.
And so we have this picture of how Isaac,
the real seed, is done through this covenant of circumcision.
Look what it says in verse number 20.
And as for Ishmael, I have heard thee.
Behold, I have blessed him and will make him fruitful
and will multiply him exceedingly.
Twelve princes shall he beget,
and I will make him a great nation.
But my covenant will I establish with Isaac,
which Sarah shall bear unto thee
at this set time in the next year.
And he left off talking with him,
and God went up from Abram,
and Abram took Ishmael his son
and all that were born in his house,
and all that were bought with his money,
every male among the men of Abram's house,
and he circumcised the flesh of their foreskin
in the selfsame day,
as God had said unto him.
And Abram was ninety years old and nine
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.
And the selfsame day was Abram circumcised in Ishmael his son,
and all the men of his house, born in the house,
and bought with money of the stranger
were circumcised with him.
Now some of you guys get mad
because your boss wants you to get the vaccine,
but how about your boss wanting to get circumcised?
That would be kind of awkward too, right?
But you got to think about this.
Ishmael is the seed of circumcision physically,
whereas what?
Isaac is the picture of circumcision, what? Spiritually.
And what do the Jews have?
The Jews have physical circumcision,
but you know what the Jews don't have?
Spiritual circumcision.
They only have the fleshly circumcision,
but you know what?
The fleshly circumcision is not going to profit you.
You need the spiritual circumcision.
Go to Romans chapter number two.
Now it's not going to profit you
because you weren't born a Jew.
You weren't born into that particular religion.
If you were born into that particular religion
in the Old Testament,
you did need to be circumcised physically.
Absolutely.
You need to be circumcised physically.
That was one of God's clear commandments.
But since we're in the New Testament,
and on top of that,
y'all are all a mix of Gentile anyways, okay?
Circumcision in the flesh is nothing.
There's no benefit.
Look what it says in Romans chapter two, verse 24.
For the name of God
is blasphemed among the Gentiles through you.
Now he's talking about Jews.
As it is written,
for circumcision verily profiteth if thou keep the law,
but if thou be a breaker of the law,
thy circumcision is made uncircumcision.
So he's saying, hey, yeah,
if you are circumcised and you keep the law perfectly,
then it'll be good.
But guess what?
If you break any commandment at any point,
your circumcision becomes null and void
and is meaningless.
It doesn't profit you in any way.
You're now actually pictured as being uncircumcised.
Why?
Because it's a spiritual thing.
Verse 26.
Therefore, if the uncircumcision keep the righteousness of the law,
shall not his uncircumcision be counted for circumcision?
And shall not uncircumcision, which is by nature,
if it fulfill the law, judge thee,
who by the letter in circumcision dost transgress the law?
For he's not a Jew which is won outwardly,
neither is that circumcision which is outward in the flesh,
but he is a Jew which is won inwardly,
and circumcision is that of the heart and the spirit
and not in the letter whose praise is not of men but of God.
So the Bible makes it clear.
You could be physically circumcised
and it matters nothing because you're not saved.
And you could never be circumcised your entire life
and you can be just as saved as the next guy.
You can be just as saved as the guy
that was physically circumcised too that's saved
because it doesn't matter.
And in fact, I will say this.
Circumcision is unnatural when you think about it
because what does the Bible say?
It says very clearly in verse 27,
and shall not uncircumcision, which is by nature.
And what is that meaning?
It's meaning that you should naturally, normally,
not desire circumcision, okay?
Now, some people I've heard this argument,
and it's really just coming from Jews,
is because there's a lot of Jewish doctors
and a lot of Jewish influence in our culture,
they try to encourage every child to be circumcised.
And they'll say, oh, because there's all these health benefits.
And I'm like, I don't know if I agree
because the Bible's saying, naturally speaking,
you wouldn't want to do it.
Now, if there's a health benefit associated with something,
then I would say it's natural to want to do it.
Things that are natural would be good.
They would be some kind of a benefit.
And they'll try to say, oh, well, if you get circumcised,
then you're less likely to get infected
or have disease or have problems or whatever.
But you know how you don't get infected?
You wash your body, okay?
That would be the same argument if I said this.
You know, if you have a third arm, it can become infected
if you don't wash it.
Yeah, so having extra body parts or extra pieces of your body
could have problems with that extra part of your body, sure,
because any part of your body could have a problem at any point.
But it's not because of the extra body part that's the problem.
What if I said, hey, do you really want two ears?
If I chop both your ears off, you'll never ever get your ear infected.
That's a benefit.
You'll never have to hear someone talk with a lisp.
You'll never have to hear Joe Biden.
These are benefits.
That's not a benefit.
That's a shifting of the truth.
So if they say, well, if you get circumcised,
that means you have a less chance of getting infected.
That's a weird argument, okay?
Having surgery is always going to be a possible negative,
or there's possible side effects, or there's something that could go wrong,
or there could be some kind of an issue that's associated with it.
And I will submit, as the Bible teaches, that uncircumcision is natural.
Desiring to cut that off is unnatural, okay?
It's not normal.
It's not something you would do unless God's saying do it,
and then you're like, yes, sir, and then you do it.
But obviously God asks us to do some things that are a little bit out of the normal.
I mean, Abraham's asked to sacrifice his son.
That's a little bit out of the normal.
He's telling Isaiah to marry a whore.
That's a little out of the normal, right?
So obviously God is going to have people do things
that are not necessarily always the normal course of action
according to those specific prophets or those specific times or pictures.
I mean, hey, deciding to slay a bunch of cows and put them on an altar,
that's not something you would just normally dream up.
But as a spiritual truth, that's why God's giving it to them.
That's why God's using it as an illustration.
But I will submit to you that in the New Testament,
I believe that getting circumcised is meaningless.
There's no point to it.
I don't believe in the supposed health benefits or whatever,
and I'm not giving you medical advice.
You make your own decision.
I'm trying to tell you what the Bible's saying.
That's what it means by saying it's by nature.
If circumcision was just a normal thing that everybody wanted to do,
or it was somehow really superior than not being circumcised,
then you'd have a lot of unsaved Gentiles just getting circumcised all the time, wouldn't they?
I mean, why not?
And then you wouldn't have this separation of the uncircumcision between the circumcision.
Now think about it in a spiritual context.
Why would God give us this?
Following God's commandments is not by nature.
It's unnatural.
You and your sin nature will want to do things that are wrong.
That's why you don't see the unsaved just accidentally following God's commandments,
accidentally doing that which is right, accidentally,
well, I just don't drink, and I don't smoke, and I don't chew,
and I don't go with girls that do.
That just doesn't happen.
People aren't just following God's commandments on a whim.
What do they do? They sin.
They lie, they steal, they cheat.
Look, I didn't even have to try hard, and my kids lie like just drinking water.
It's just water out of a duck's back.
They lie, they steal, they're manipulative.
You're like, man, they want their brother and sister to get in trouble.
And look, my kids are little.
Teenagers, kids that go to college, I mean, all sin's on the table.
And you say, why? Because it's natural, because it's normal.
Now, there are some sins that are not normal.
There are some things that are against nature.
Go to Romans chapter 1.
And I forgot last Sunday.
You're like, where is he going with this?
Hey, we're in Romans chapter 2.
I'm telling you, there's things that are natural, and there's things that are unnatural.
You know what's natural? For a man to be attracted to a woman.
It's called fornication.
That's why like 98 or 99% of people today commit fornication before being married.
Why? Because it's really easy.
Because it's what your body wants.
It's because of what your sin nature desires.
The Bible calls it burning.
Why? Because it's a normal feeling.
It's a natural thing.
But people that decide to wait, what is that?
That's subduing the flesh.
That's not natural.
That's not what most people do by just normal course of action, is waiting.
Now, there are some things that people do that no normal person would ever do.
Ever.
Now, why would they do this?
Well, let's look at verse 25.
Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator was blessed forever. Amen.
For this cause, God gave them up unto vile affections, for even their women to change the natural use, and to that which is against nature.
Now look, I'm telling you, hey, following God's commandments is a little bit against your sin nature,
but then there's an opposite side of that spectrum, too.
There's following God's commandments, which is not something that you would normally do,
but then there's another group of sin that no one would ever do,
and the Bible says they're called vile affections.
They're called disgusting affections.
And what does that look like?
Well, it very clearly articulates in verse 27.
And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman,
burned in their lusts one toward another, men with men working that which is unseemly.
What is unseemly?
It's something that's just not appropriate.
And really, when I think about the Pride Month that we have, I think the best words are just not appropriate.
Unseemly.
How filthy and abominable and degrading and disgusting.
Why is every single company in our nation changing its logo to literally praising and supporting the most disgusting and most vile and putrid thing imaginable?
And you know, people get mad at me and they get mad at us for saying things like this.
They get mad at preachers for saying this.
But you know and I know that every normal person thinks it's gross.
I mean, 95% of America thinks that the most disgusting thing imaginable is being a faggot.
Because it is.
It's so gross.
I don't even have to convince people.
And then you have to think like, why in the world would every single company and our government and the media and just all the social media be constantly saying like,
let's support the most gross and disgusting thing ever.
Because it's a spiritual blindness.
Because fags are in control of the media.
Because fags are in control of the government.
Because fags are in control of these businesses because they love money, they love power, they love influence,
and they're a bully and you know what?
They're bullying all these companies and they're bullying our country and they're bullying our leaders and they're doing what?
Doing their bidding for them.
And you know, the right thing to do to a bully is put a bullet in his head.
It's not to back down.
It's not to apologize.
It's to put a bullet in his head.
And you want to save America?
Start there.
And I would love for America to expose all the corruption in our government and everything.
But you know, after thinking about how much 9-11 was just such an obvious inside job and nothing happened,
I just have about zero hope that that'll ever happen.
And look, I'm not saying that I don't hope it happens. I hope it does.
I hope God roots out and exposes every criminal in our government and they get crucified and they get hung for treason.
And I hope that God basically gives us like a Josiah generation where we basically just get to like revive our nation
and we get to go out and do great exploits and basically we let someone else go into the end times or whatever.
Hey, I'm fine with that.
You know, some people are all like, man, I just want to be in the end times and I just want the end times.
And I'm like thinking, eh, you know, the Bible's saying like pray that you may be worthy to escape.
Like why would it give you that if it's just so exciting?
It's like, you know what I think would be kind of exciting too?
Is having just a revival and going into all the world and preaching the gospel and getting tons of people saved, you know, before the end times.
And turning a whole bunch of people to righteousness and getting a whole bunch of people saved.
And, you know, I would love for God to put the wheel on all these Sodomites and bring the wheel on all the corrupt politicians we have in our government
and just keep exposing them and keep shining the light and, you know, everything that's in darkness will eventually be exposed anyways.
But I'm just saying this, you know, the reason why this is happening is because there's so many fags in our government.
And if they can't get this issue right, eventually we're going to become Sodom and Gomorrah.
That's why it's important to preach against it.
You say, why do you preach against it?
Well, I preach against it so to bring everybody back from the far left that they're in already.
I mean, you have Christians and Christian churches today that won't even say it's like a sin.
They're putting a literal faggot behind the pulpit.
And multiple churches today, the United Methodist, they're putting faggots behind the pulpit.
How do you do that?
It's the most gross and disgusting thing on the planet.
I don't know why this is, you know, let's go back to our sermon.
This is a special, you know, broadcast just brought to you in part by every company that changed their logo to a rainbow flag.
Just all of them.
But in Romans chapter number 2, again, circumcision, when we think about it, is a little bit against your sin nature.
It's a little bit against something that you would normally do.
And so it's kind of illustrating a spiritual truth of what?
Following God's commandments is not going to be easy.
Doing that which is right is not necessarily going to be easy.
And obviously here in Romans chapter number 2, he's really honing in on salvation, okay?
Because salvation is this circumcision of your heart.
And notice what he says I like here in verse 26.
Therefore of the uncircumcision, keep the righteousness of the law.
Now think about this.
Flip the next page and look at chapter 3.
And look what the Bible says in verse number 21.
But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets,
even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe.
So real righteousness, the righteousness of God, doesn't come through the law.
It comes through what?
Faith in Jesus Christ.
It comes through believing and getting imputed righteousness.
Now it says, therefore, if this uncircumcision, keep the righteousness of the law,
shall not his uncircumcision be counted for circumcision?
So it's illustrating a point of, hey, if someone that's not circumcised,
a Gentile is, you know, following the commandments of God,
should not he, you know, basically be still counted as circumcised?
Now you say, well, how does that work?
Because the circumcision being referenced is spiritual.
Meaning what?
The Gentiles that are going to get saved in Romans,
this is an epistle written in Romans, okay,
they don't have to now get physically circumcised to keep following God's commandments.
Because they've been circumcised spiritually,
now they can just keep the righteousness of the law
and still be right with God even though they're uncircumcised.
And that uncircumcision, hey, it's just counted as circumcision.
Because God doesn't need you to get physically circumcised.
Go to 1 Corinthians chapter 7, 1 Corinthians 7.
And I think this is a great time to just talk about this for a moment
because a lot of people, you know, ask the question,
should I get circumcised or should I, I'm not, well, not that.
My children, should I circumcise my children?
Let me correct that.
I've never had a single person ask me to basically get circumcised.
But I have had people ask me if they should circumcise their child, okay?
I want to think like you're weird, you know.
Don't even ask me as a joke, all right.
1 Corinthians chapter 7, look at verse 17.
But as God has distributed to every man as the Lord has called every one,
so let him walk and so ordain I in all churches.
Is any man called being circumcised?
Let him not become uncircumcised.
Is any called an uncircumcision?
Let him not be circumcised.
Circumcision is nothing.
An uncircumcision is nothing but the keeping of the commandments of God.
Now, isn't that fall in part with what Romans chapter 2 said already?
Go to Galatians chapter 2, go to Galatians chapter 2.
The Bible says circumcision is nothing.
And look, if you find yourself saved and uncircumcised, stay uncircumcised.
I have no idea what the opposite of that one meant, okay,
where it's like if you're circumcised, don't become uncircumcised again.
I don't know what he meant there, all right, you figure it out.
Galatians chapter number 2, look at verse number 1.
Then fourteen years after I went up again to Jerusalem with Barnabas,
and took Titus with me also,
and I went up by revelation and communicated unto them
that gospel which I preach among the Gentiles,
but privately to them which were of reputation, lest by any means I should run or had run vain.
But neither Titus, who was with me being a Greek, was compelled to be circumcised,
and that because of false brethren unawares brought in,
who came in privily to spy out our liberty which we have in Christ Jesus,
that they might bring us into bondage, to whom we gave place by subjection,
no, not for an hour, that the truth of the gospel might continue with you.
So the apostle Paul is bringing up a very specific example.
He's saying, hey, there was me and Titus, and he's a Greek, and neither of us,
not me, Paul, who's circumcised, and neither Titus, who's not circumcised,
thought that he needed to get circumcised.
But you have some disgusting, reprobate faggot coming in and spying on them
to try and figure that out, and figuring out that they're not,
and then trying to tell them that they have to to get saved, which is a false gospel.
And he says he wasn't going to put up with it.
Talk about vile affections that you want to go and spy on people like that
to try and figure out what they're doing.
Look, false religion breeds reprobates.
And what do reprobates like to do?
They like to spy on you.
They like to try and figure out anything they can possibly dream up to use against you
to try and attack you, because they're not doing anything.
Think about this.
An unsaved false prophet, are they worried about going out and preaching the gospel?
No.
Are they worried about preaching the truth?
No.
They have nothing good to busy themselves with,
so what are they busy themselves with?
Figuring out all the scuttlebutt, trying to attack good men of God.
Look, when you find somebody and all they do is just attack good men of God,
that's like 99% of chance of a bad person.
Probably 100%, but I'm just basically, in my opinion,
look, when you see someone, they're not going to church,
they're not reading their Bible, they're not going soul-winding,
they're doing nothing, they're a zero,
and all they do is attack good men of God,
that person's a bad person.
You'll even see pastors like this.
You'll see pastors that are basically a do-nothing,
but all they like to do is just attack other people
that are doing great works for the Lord.
Look, this is a wicked person,
and when it comes to circumcision,
the apostle Paul's making it crystal clear,
you don't need to be circumcised.
Now, who are these people that are attacking them?
Jews.
And you want to see who's the worst people today?
I don't know, Hollywood?
What's full with what, Jews?
How about modern-day Israel?
Filled with faggots and Jews?
How about the Catholic Church?
Look, there's a common denominator
between false religion and reprobates.
False religion and sodomites.
Look, there's lots of synagogues of Satan
even called churches today.
You know, and there's these Bible colleges
like Bright Divinity School, which I brought up,
I think in my documentary, I don't know.
They're so evil, it's hard to even talk anything about them
because they're so wicked.
But they're literally a seminary producing
sodomite reprobate pastors on a regular basis.
And look, it's only going to get worse
as time grows on.
And we have to be aware of these people,
but I'm not going to go listen to them and say,
oh, yeah, let's get circumcised.
Why would I want to listen to that person
that believes in a false gospel
that is the synagogue of Satan,
that's changed the truth of God into a lie,
that's been given over to vile affections.
I mean, you realize that Sodom and Gomorrah,
you know, had God's, quote unquote, people in it.
And then Jerusalem, he said, was worse.
He said that Israel was worse.
Why? Because they had false religion.
And you know what? There's a lot more reprobates,
it seems like, in America than some other countries,
and you say, why?
Because we have more false religion.
Now, there's some religions that are just ignorant
of the word of God.
They're ignorant of things,
and they kind of seem to get a pass.
But when you get false Christianity,
when you get fake Christianity,
when you get close to the truth,
it's just like a reprobate-making machine.
The Catholic Church, the Mormon Church,
the Jehovah's Witnesses,
I mean, these places are filled with reprobates.
They're filled with Sodomites.
They're filled with people that hate God.
The Jews, they're filled with these reprobates today,
and that's why it's important
to get as far away from them as possible.
Go to Galatians chapter 6, just flip the page.
Galatians chapter number 6,
and they don't follow God's commandments.
They may be physically circumcised,
but it's funny how they get physically circumcised,
and they follow none of the commandments.
And then there's a lot of Gentiles
who have never been circumcised physically,
and they do follow the commandments.
And when you look at American history,
basically American men were never circumcised.
I mean, the 1600s, the 1700s, the 1800s, the 1900s.
Then, after World War II,
and we rescued the Jew,
guess what we brought back with us?
The doctrine of circumcision.
And you get a bunch of Jewish doctors
convincing all that baby boomer generation
to do what?
To circumcise their children.
Now, it's funny because when you think about
how the children of Israel,
they didn't want to circumcise their children
in the wilderness,
and they basically were forsaking God's commandments,
and it's a picture of how they were rebelling against God.
Then you get the baby boomer generation,
who literally is circumcising their children,
but then they're not following the commandments,
and they're just letting all their children
and their generation and their country go to hell
in a hand basket. Why?
Because it's always a picture,
like, whenever it was right to do circumcision,
they don't do it.
And then when it's wrong to do circumcision,
they do it. Why?
Because it's the same problem.
Those that are unsaved just basically
just hook, line, and sinker do that which is wrong.
So why would I then want to yoke up with that
and be like, well, let's circumcise all of my kids too?
It doesn't make any sense.
Galatians chapter 6, look at verse 12.
As many as desire to make a fair show in the flesh,
they constrain you to be circumcised,
only less they should suffer persecution
for the cross of Christ,
for neither they themselves who are circumcised
keep the law, but desire to have you circumcised,
that they make glory in your flesh.
But God forbid that I should glory,
save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ,
by whom the world is crucified unto me
and I unto the world.
Look, if we actually had physical circumcision
and brought it back into the church,
people would literally believe
that you had to be circumcised to be saved.
People would teach that.
People would use that.
And look, the Jews still teach that.
I mean, if you want to be a Jew,
you have to be physically circumcised.
And, you know, they kind of do it different ways.
Some Jews are a little more orthodox than others.
But at the end of the day, you know,
there's going to be a lot of false religion
that's going to be crept in.
And think about false religion today.
I haven't seen any Christian churches saying
you have to be circumcised to be saved,
but I have seen this.
You have to baptize to be saved.
Well, you have to be willing to follow God's command.
They just add a little bit.
But isn't getting circumcised one time
about as little as you could possibly add?
And, in fact, it only affects half of the congregation
because the women can't even be circumcised.
But it's just adding that.
And then what is that?
It's a slippery slope into adding all the works
because he's saying,
hey, if you have to be circumcised to be saved,
then you have to keep the whole law.
And if you're going to keep the whole law,
then Christ profits you nothing.
Go to Colossians chapter number 2.
I'm almost finished with my sermon this evening.
And when we think about Abraham,
we have this great, you know,
truth here about circumcision,
and we have this picture of circumcision,
and how we are the circumcision.
And you say, well, I've never been circumcised.
Yeah, but if you've been saved, you're circumcised.
You are the circumcision.
Not made by hands,
but you're the circumcision in your heart
and in your spirit, okay,
which was through Christ.
Now that you've been circumcised,
you need to actually work out that circumcision.
You need to work out that faith.
You need to constantly sanctify yourself
and separate yourself.
Look at Colossians chapter 2 verse 10.
So he's illustrating something for us.
And when you think about circumcision,
what does circumcision do?
It removes flesh, okay?
So what is the spiritual picture of circumcision?
The spiritual is how you're supposed to put off the old man.
You're killing the old man.
You're dying in the old man.
You're putting that off,
and now you're supposed to what?
Walk in the new man.
And now you're supposed to walk in that newness of life,
and you're supposed to be a new person,
and now you're complete in Christ,
and you're supposed to continue to do that
for the rest of your life.
And you think about this.
Why put off the flesh?
Because it's what's on the inside that matters.
Just like in physical circumcision,
just like what it is in spiritual circumcision,
if the inside that matters,
it doesn't matter on the outside,
and we need to die to ourselves on a regular basis.
Go over to James chapter 4,
the last place I'm going to have to turn.
I'll just read for you another verse,
but think about another thing that happened in that chapter.
Didn't Abram and Sarai get renamed?
They got renamed.
That's kind of an interesting thing.
Now, think about this.
In Revelation chapter 2, I'll read for you.
He that hath an ear,
let him hear what the Spirit saith in the churches.
To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the hidden manna,
and will give him a white stone,
and in the stone a new name written,
which no man knoweth, saving he that receiveth it.
So the Bible says that at some point in the future,
we're going to get a new name.
The Bible says when you get saved,
you're a new creation.
You're a new creature.
You have the new man.
The Bible says you're going to get a new name.
Okay?
Now, why would God change the name of Abram and Sarai?
I believe it's to illustrate the fact
that there's something different about them.
Now they're a new person.
Now there's something new that came with circumcision.
And what I love about this
is he didn't just rename Abram.
He renamed Sarai too.
Sarah never got circumcised.
But you know what?
There was a change.
To illustrate what?
A spiritual change.
Because women don't need to be physically circumcised,
but they need to be spiritually circumcised.
They need to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ
and to get saved.
And then they need to what?
Constantly sanctify themselves.
And think about this.
Your new man is a completely different person
than your old person.
The old you is 100% different
than the new you.
And every single day,
you get to decide who's in the driver's seat.
And I have to decide,
hey, am I going to be old Jonathan today?
Or am I going to be the new person
that I don't even know his name?
Whatever the new Jonathan is.
Am I going to be Abram?
Or am I going to be Abraham?
Am I going to be Sarai today?
Or am I going to be Sarah?
And think about this.
Sarai?
Think about Sarah's life, okay?
She does a lot of weird stuff.
Doesn't Sarai do some weird things?
I mean, she's even saying like,
hey, why don't you lie with my handmaid?
But then in the New Testament,
1 Peter 3,
Sarah is a picture of the greatest wife,
the greatest woman.
And the inside, the new man, you're great.
And the old man, you're not as great.
How are you going to live your life?
Are you going to live the old person
the rest of your life?
Or are you just going to go ahead
and die to him now?
You will eventually shed him.
But you know what?
You can decide to shed him right now.
You can shed him every single day.
You can walk in newness of life every single day.
You can walk according to the new name
that God has for you
every single moment of your life.
And you say, what does that look like?
Be thou perfect!
Look at James 4, look at verse 7.
Submit yourselves therefore to God.
Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.
Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you.
Cleanse your hands, ye sinners,
and purify your hearts, you double-minded.
Be afflicted and mourn and weep.
Let your laughter return in mourning
and your joy to heaviness.
God constantly told them to, what?
Circumcise their heart.
We need to circumcise our hearts by going to church.
We need to circumcise our hearts by reading the Bible.
We need to circumcise our hearts
by memorizing the scripture today
and put off that old man.
And if we draw nigh to God, he'll draw nigh to us.
We have to cleanse ourselves.
We have to purify ourselves.
We can't be double-minded, meaning what?
You can't live for both guys, for both gals.
You're either going to end up being the old you or the new you.
And you have every single moment of your life
to decide what you're going to do.
And it's not automatic.
And I'll say this.
Maybe you've been living like the old you recently.
Well, you need to start trying to live like the new you.
And it's going to be a fight every day, every moment,
every opportunity.
But think about it this way.
I don't know what your name is.
Just add am to it, though.
Instead of Abram, you're Abraham.
So instead of Jonathan, it's Jonathan am.
I need to be like Jonathan am today.
I need to start being more like the am self of me.
Rather than the I, I need to be the am.
Let's close in prayer.
Thank you, Father, so much for your Word.
Thank you for giving us this great chapter of the Bible.
Thank you for giving us the opportunity to walk
in newness of life when we get saved.
Thank you for circumcising our hearts
and giving us spiritual salvation.
And thank you for making all these spiritual truths
that we could understand them in the Bible.
I pray that you would help motivate us to be perfect,
to walk before you in holiness and in righteousness,
and that we would actually try to purify our hearts,
that we'd actually try to circumcise our hearts on a regular basis
so that you could use us in a great way
and that we could give you all the honor and glory.
And in Jesus' name we pray. Amen.
All right, for our last song of the night we'll go to 472,
This Is My Father's World.
Song 472, This Is My Father's World.
472, This Is My Father's World.
This is my Father's world
And to my listening ears
All nature sings and round me rings
The music of the spear
This is my Father's world
I rest me in the thought
Of rocks and trees
Of skies and seas
His hand the wonders wrought
This is my Father's world
The birds, their carols raise
The morning light, the lily white
Declare their Maker's praise
This is my Father's world
He shines in all that's fair
In the rustling grass I hear Him pass
He speaks with me everywhere
This is my Father's world
Oh, let me ne'er forget
That though the wrongs seem oft so strong
God is the ruler yet
This is my Father's world
The battle is not done
Jesus, who died, shall be satisfied
And earth and heaven be one
God bless, you are dismissed.