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All right, turn to Genesis chapter 17 tonight, Genesis chapter 17. Genesis chapter 17, and as our custom is at Verity Baptist Church, we'll read the entire chapter of Genesis chapter 17. Genesis chapter 17, starting at verse number 1, the Bible reads in Genesis 17, and when Abram was 90 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 into space, 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 called 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. Now 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 thy seed after thee. Now give unto thee, and 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 on 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 that money, must need to be circumcised, and my covenant shall be in your flesh, for an everlasting covenant. The uncircumcised man child whose flesh of his foreskin is not circumcised, that soul shall be cut out from his people, he hath broken my covenant. 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 said 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 the foreskin in the selfsame day as God had said unto 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. And the selfsame day was Abraham circumcised in Ishmael's 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 open a word of prayer. Dear Heavenly Father, thank you for allowing us to be here today, and I ask you right now to help us to put aside distractions, give me boldness and clarity to deliver your message, help us to be attentive, and learn something tonight. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. So we're here in Genesis chapter 17, and the name of the sermon is The Commandment of Circumcision. The Commandment of Circumcision. Now, circumcision was something that was a commandment in the Old Testament. We'll talk about how it might apply to us today, or whether it does or whether it doesn't. But in the Old Testament, in this chapter, God told Abraham that, you know what, I'm making this covenant with you, and a sign of that is I want you to be circumcised. Well, notice what it says here, starting in verse one. And when Abram was 90 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. So in the first verse, he says, I want you to walk before me, and he says, and be thou perfect, be thou perfect. Now, to understand what he's saying, we have to understand what it means by the word perfect, right? We're not saying without sin, right? Obviously, welaasa atinang, perfect. But what it's saying, be thou perfect, is basically complete or whole. Go to James 1, and I'll show this to you. James chapter one in your New Testament. James chapter one. James chapter one in your New Testament. And in James chapter one, starting at verse number two, the Bible reads, James 1 verse two, my brethren, count it all joy when you fall into diverse temptations, knowing this that the trying of your faith worketh patience. But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing. And many times, the Bible actually defines itself. So when you're looking at verses and you don't understand things, if you look closely, sometimes things are restated, and it sounds like, well, God's being repetitive. Why is he restating it? But he's actually, what he's doing here in verse four is he's defining for you the word perfect, because it says perfect and entire. Now sometimes people think that if their word and is there, that they must be two different things, but that's not true, because many times they're synonyms, and it's kind of connecting them together. So he's saying perfect and entire, and entire is what the Bible's saying when it's saying perfect, being complete, being whole, being entire. So it's not saying without sin. Obviously, we should strive to be without sin, but none of us are gonna be without sin. But the Bible says it is possible to be perfect. The Bible talked about Job was perfect in his generations. Go back to Genesis 17. And I think it makes sense when you think about this, why he says, be thou perfect. And I'll show this to you in verse two, and I think it's gonna make sense to us. It says in Genesis 17, verse two, and I'll make my covenant between me and thee, and will multiply thee exceedingly. Now this covenant is something that gets repeated throughout the book of Genesis, and he says it over and over again to Abraham, and you say, well, why is he saying it again? Is it a different covenant? He's restating it, and I want you to realize that just because we're in Genesis 17, and last week we were in Genesis 16, and the week before that, Genesis 15, it doesn't mean that all of these events are just happening one right after another. Sometimes there's a gap of time, and so when God first told Abraham, you know, that was a long time ago where he first made the covenant with Abraham. And you know, Abraham is someone who's doing a lot of great things for God. He's served God, but he's also made a lot of mistakes. And he's telling Abraham, you know what, I'm gonna make my covenant with you. One thing to be reminded of is you need to be perfect. You need to be complete. Because here's the thing. If you serve God, but you have one major area of problems in your life, it can completely destroy your life just because of one area. And Abraham, obviously, you know, he ended up having a child with Hagar, which obviously Sarah kind of pushed him into that. But you see certain flaws in the character of Abraham, and I believe God's just kind of reminding him, hey, I'm making this covenant with you, but I need you to be complete. I need you to be well-rounded. Right? You need to be good at all things, right? Not just one thing, but you need to be complete. Be someone who prays to God. Be someone who reads the scriptures. Be someone who fights against sin. We need everything in our lives. Now, look, it's not easy to be perfect, as the Bible says. None of us are sinless, okay? Let us understand the distinction. None of us are sinless, but we should strive to be good at everything and not bad at one thing. And see, sometimes we can have this attitude, well, you know what, I'm a soul winner and I'm serving God, so it's okay if I just don't read the Bible because I'm still serving God more than others. And see, it's a bad attitude to try to compare ourselves to other people. We need to look at our lives, find out what are our weaknesses, get rid of those weaknesses, get stronger at that. So look, in 2022, if your weakness is not reading the Bible, you should say, hey, you know what, that's my goal, to bump up my Bible reading. Or if your weakness is I don't have a good prayer life, you know, bump up your goal of having a good prayer life. Whatever it is that you're weak at, because you want to be perfect. You want to be complete, right? Go back to Genesis 15, Genesis 15. It kind of ties into my thought when I was talking about getting rid of, you know, your big addiction in 2022, and it's just like kind of a reminder because that's a tough thing to do. But find our weaknesses, remove those weaknesses. Now, we're never going to be 100% perfect, but one thing you can think of is just always try to work on the thing that you're worst at. And once you get better at that, then, you know, whatever you're worse at, get better at that, right? You know, work on whatever your weakness is. Genesis 15 verse 18, and it says here in Genesis 15 verse 18, in the same day the Lord made a covenant with Abraham, or Abram, saying unto thy seed have I given this land from the river of Egypt, unto the great river, the river Euphrates. So here we see him making this covenant, and it's said that he was 75 years old in Genesis 15. I can't dogmatically prove that, or at least I didn't notice something to prove that. But in Genesis 17, he's 99, right? Now even if that's not completely accurate, what I'm saying is a time period could have very well gone by, because, of course, in Genesis chapter 16, you know, we talked about him having a child with Hagar, and then some time has obviously gone by, okay? There's not just one thing right after another. Some time has gone by because he's in his 80s, 86, I believe, when he had the child with Hagar. So he's making this promise with Abraham, but some time is going by, and what I'm saying is Abraham's made some pretty big mistakes. In Genesis 15, he makes his covenant with him, and then, of course, Genesis 16, you know, he really kind of screws up, and then in Genesis 17, we see that he's reminding him, hey, be complete, be perfect, be well-rounded, okay? Now turn back to Genesis 17, Genesis 17, Genesis 17, and it says in Genesis 17, verse 3, And Abraham 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 called Abraham, for a father of many nations have I made thee. And there's that song they sing in Sunday school about Father Abraham. I can't remember the way the whole song goes. I heard that song in Sunday school growing up, but, you know, Abraham's given this promise he's going to be a father of many nations. That's a pretty big promise to someone who doesn't have any kids, right? But this is the promise, you know, other than obviously with Hagar, but this is the promise that God is giving Abraham, that you're going to be a father of many nations. This is something that we're going to see later on in the chapter. Abraham has trouble fully grasping, he has trouble believing this, because a long time has gone by. And sometimes we feel like, you know, God's going to answer us immediately, and yet decades are going by, and there is no answer yet, okay? Now verse number 6, And I will make thee exceeding fruitful, and I will make nations of thee, and kings shall come out of thee. Now 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 thy seed after thee. And I will give unto thee, and thy seed after thee, the land whereon thou art a stranger, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession, and I will be their God. So we really find the key here in verse number 8, he says, I will be their God, okay? This covenant was not an everlasting covenant no matter what happened. God says, no, no, no, I want a nation, a group of people that I can say, I will be their God. That God is the God of this nation. Now in 2022, I don't think there's any nation that you could accurately say that of. That this nation is following the laws of the Bible, and they're obeying the laws of the Bible, and they're, you know, reading the Bible, and serving God, and doing right. I don't believe there's a nation in this world today where God could really say, I will be their God, or I am their God, right? I mean, I don't see that in this world today, and you know, obviously the Jews were rejected and God uses the local New Testament church, but there are churches that God could say, you know what, I am the God of this church, like this church is really serving me and trying to do what's right, and of course that would be the goal of any church, to be a church that God would put a stamp of approval on. Now go to Hebrews 8 real quickly, Hebrews 8 in your New Testament. Let me prove to you that, you know, this covenant that was given, because people have this idea, they say, well, the Jews are God's chosen people, and God made this covenant, and God's not going to break his covenant. Well, here's the thing though, the people are the ones who broke the covenant. You can't blame God, because the Bible is very clear that the people didn't do their end of the bargain. Right, I mean, if I make a deal with someone, if I say, hey, Brother Raji, you know, we're going to make a deal, you know, I'm going to sell you, you know, I don't know, a tricycle, for 50,000 pesos or something like that, and I say, hey, you know what, it's in good condition, here's a picture of it and everything, and then all of a sudden, you know, you agree to it, we sign on it, then all of a sudden you look at the tricycle and it's all messed up and it doesn't look anything like the picture, it's like, well, then obviously I didn't follow through with what I said in that agreement, because I said I'd give you a tricycle that looked new, was in good shape, or whatever, and, well, in Hebrews 8, notice what the Bible says here in verse 9, Hebrews 8, verse 9, not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt, because they continued not in my covenant, and I regard them not, saith the Lord. So the Bible says they continued not in the covenant. There was an agreement signed, and God said, you know what, this land is yours, and by the way, you agree to do this, you agree to do this, you agree to do this, well, here's the thing, if they break that into the bargain, then the covenant's over, because let's say you do sign on a deal and make an agreement and everything, you say, okay, this is yours, however, in order to keep that tricycle, you have to do this six months from now, you have to do this one year from now, you have to do this two years from now, well, then here's the thing, if you don't do it, then you're going to lose that tricycle, right? This covenant had conditions on it. Now our salvation is eternal no matter what we do. This was basically given to them as long as they were following through with their end of the bargain. That's what the Bible says. Now go to Galatians 3, Galatians 3, Galatians chapter 3. And notice what it says in Galatians 3, verse 26. It says in Galatians 3, verse 26, for a year all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus, for as many as you have been baptized into Jesus Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus, and if ye be Christ's, then are ye Abraham's seed and heirs according to the promise. And so God gave a promise, and he says, you know what, when it comes to being the seed of Abraham, this is not a physical descendancy, where basically Abraham was your great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great grandfather. That's not what the Bible's saying. The Bible's saying is, you know what, if you believe on Christ, you are Abraham's seed and heirs according to this promise. Because before the time of Christ, they believed in the true God, the living God. They believed that God would one day come and die and pay for their sins. They understood certain things. They didn't know the name Jesus, but they were looking forward to the one who was gonna come and die. Now, we look back, but it's the same God that I believe in that Abraham believed in. The same God that we believe in today is the same God of Abraham, the same God of Jacob, the I Am, as the Bible says. Go back to Genesis 17, Genesis 17, Genesis 17. Genesis 17, verse 9, Genesis 17, verse 9, you say, Brother Stuckey, what's the difference between that and our eternal life? Because eternal life you can't lose no matter what, because God gave us a gift, and a gift cannot be taken back. But a covenant in agreement can have actually requirements in order to keep it. Now a gift, once it's given to you, it can't be taken back if it's really a gift, right? But a covenant can be something where there's built-in things that you must do to keep it. Now our salvation was a gift, though, it doesn't have any built-in requirements to keep it, okay? Genesis 17, I should say, Genesis chapter 17, verse 9, and God said unto Abraham, Thou shalt keep my covenant, therefore, thou and thy seed after thee in their generations. So he says, you know what, I'm making this covenant with you, I expect you to keep this covenant, both you and your seed after thee in their generations. Now God is telling this to Abraham, and here's the thing, he's saying it's not just you Abraham, but also your seed after you. Because if Abraham lives godly, but his lineage is ungodly, then the covenant's going to be broken. So here's the thing, one thing Abraham had to do was pass on this faith to his kids. Not just that they got saved, but a godly lineage, okay? Go to Matthew 21 in your New Testament, Matthew 21, Matthew 21, and it's a great passage to understand this idea, but there's this parable that Jesus speaks, and it kind of shows this idea of how this covenant was not this automatic, forever, no matter what, but it had requirements. It says in Matthew 21 verse 33, here another parable, there is a certain householder which planted a vineyard and hedged it round about and digged a winepress in it and built a tower and led it out to husbandmen and went into a far country. And when the time of the fruit drew near, he sent his servants to the husbandmen that they might receive the fruits of it. And so the Bible says there's this householder, and what he does is he lets out his house, he lets out his, I mean he's obviously got a big property, he's got workers, he's got a vineyard, and he lets it out to husbandmen, basically saying, you are in charge, okay? The husbandmen are in charge, I'm going to leave this to you, but you've got to do something, right? If I'm going to let you stay at my house, you've got to actually work, you've got to work and produce something, and he says he led it out to husbandmen, and eventually comes to the point in verse 34 where it's time to receive the fruits of it. Because if you actually have a literal vineyard, obviously you're going to have to get the grapes off and everything, you're going to have to actually use it. And so it says here in verse 35, and the husbandmen took his servants and beat one and killed another and stoned another. Again, he sent other servants more than the first, and they did unto them likewise. But last of all, he sent unto them a son, saying they will reverence my son. So basically, the householder sends servants to basically get the fruit, because the husbandmen are the ones that are supposed to be working on it and producing it, and the servants get there, they're just coming here to pick up the fruit that's been gathered by the husbandmen, there is no fruit. And instead, they end up attacking the servant. They end up just killing them, because they didn't get their job done, and all of a sudden the servant's going to check up on them, hey, let's get the fruit, there is no fruit, right? Another servant gets sent the same thing, they end up killing him, right? Last of all, he sent unto them his son, saying they will reverence my son. Now, look, this parable is, I think, very easy to understand, like you have to deny reality to look at this and not understand what Jesus is saying. And then he said, last of all, they're going to send his son, well, who is the son? Well, the son of God, obviously Jesus Christ. And then basically, the householder says, you know what, they didn't respect my servants, but you know what, they'll respect my son, they will reverence my son. Now, obviously this is just a parable, so we don't necessarily know, I mean, this isn't an actual thing that took place, it's just an example to understand, but if this actually took place in terms of a literal vineyard and workers and everything, I don't necessarily know if the householder knows the exact details of what happened to the servants. Maybe he thought they got paid off or something, they didn't come back, I'm not really sure if he knows, because if you kill somebody, you don't usually keep the evidence, right? So perhaps, obviously this is just a parable, so I'm really kind of thinking deeply into it, but I'm just saying, if the husband men are going to kill the servants, they probably just hide the body, and then the householder's thinking they didn't come back with a fruit, you know what happened? So then all of a sudden he's going to send another servant. It's hard to tell, I mean, it is a parable obviously, but he says, you know what, they're going to reverence my son, I can trust my son, I'll send my son, he'll get the job done, they're going to reverence and respect him, but when the husband men saw the son, they said among themselves, this is the heir, come let us kill him and let us seize on his inheritance, and they caught him and cast him out of the vineyard and slew him. When the lord therefore of the vineyard cometh, what will he do unto those husband men? They say unto him, he will miserably destroy those wicked men, and let out his vineyard unto other husband men, which shall render him the fruits in their seasons. So let us think if this situation took place. You're a boss and you have a company, okay? And let's say for example you're a businessman and you're very successful, so you're basically traveling all over the place, maybe to different countries, maybe you have this big hotel chain and you're starting it in other countries and everything, so you're going to leave people in charge here in the Philippines to run what you already have going, right? And you're going to expect them to do certain things, okay? And so you're doing all of this work and everything, you leave it out to certain people, but then you have certain people that you really trust and say, hey, you know what, I'm sending you, make sure that they're getting the job done, and then what takes place is they end up killing those people that you're sending. Well, what are you going to end up doing? Well, you're going to destroy those husband men, obviously. I mean, are you going to keep somebody as an employee if they're killing some of your other workers? They're killing your servants if they kill your son? Right? I mean, can you imagine having a company and somebody kills your son, well obviously you're at the very least going to fire him, you're going to try to get him arrested, right? So you ask this question, you know, what would the Lord of the vineyard do? And then it's like, well, he's going to destroy those wicked men, right? I mean, it's very obvious. So here's the thing. Let's say, for example, that God the Father let out his vineyard onto husband men, and he left with certain requirements like obey my rules and bring forth fruit, because as it says here with the symbolism that you might receive the fruits of it, and they weren't obeying God's rules, and they weren't producing fruit. And basically when somebody promoted the message, they basically persecuted that person. Well, what would God the Father do? Well, he would basically destroy those wicked men and let it out to other husband men. Look, it's just common sense the Jews are rejected. They even understand this when this parable is said. What's interesting is that when these parables are spoken, the Jews understood what he was saying, right? They wanted to kill Jesus when he said words like that. He has several parables like this. They always want to kill him because they understand he's talking about us. And yet today, Baptists who have the whole Bible, they don't realize it. It's like it's so obvious here in Matthew 21 what it's talking about, and Jesus says these words. They understand it. Look, in today's world, having the whole Bible, we should understand things very clearly, what the Word of God says. It's very obvious what he's saying, but see, here's the thing about this. The covenant that was given to Abraham in terms of actually having that physical land and his descendants, that was not something that was going to be guaranteed no matter what they did. There were requirements in order to keep it. Go to Genesis 17, Genesis 17. I mean, at the end of the day, God's desire is that the world might hear the gospel. He's not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance, right, the Bible says, meaning a change of mind, believing on Jesus. Obviously, we're not talking about repentance of sins. Well, here's the thing. If you're using a nation to do that work, and they're not getting the job done, God's like, you know, I have no place for them. Another example would be, let's say that you've got two churches, right? Two churches in a town, both churches are good churches, both of them preaching the gospel, both going soul winning, but one church over time just starts to kind of die out. The soul winning is just not happening anymore, becoming watered down, but the other church is still going soul winning, still doing the work. Well, if you have a church like this that's dying out, there are going to be people at that church that if they were a part of this church, they'd actually really serve God. They'd be excited to serve God because they've got like-minded people to motivate them. But when you're part of a church like this that is dying, it's hard to be motivated, right? You say, what would be the best thing in a situation like that? Well, that God would remove his candlestick and just those people would come to the church as actually doing something, right? And you know what, it's true with individual churches as well that if we stop doing the work of God, our church might exist, but God's blessing would be off this church. And honestly, it would be better if a church starts to die out, you know, honestly, this This might sound harsh, but sometimes it's best that church just gets completely dead because those that are at that church that want to serve God will actually find somewhere to go. Right? And I would hope, I hope that would never happen to our church. But at the same time, the Bible talks about leaving your first love. So it is possible for any church to basically slowly die out, things can happen, you lose your zeal, you lose your excitement. And you know what, God is in the business of getting the gospel out. And if people aren't getting the gospel out, God's going to use someone who is preaching the gospel. Genesis 17, verse 10. So God tells Abraham, you know, every one of you, all of the men children, they're going to be circumcised. Okay? I want all the men, all the boys, and he's going to tell later on the age of the boys, I want them all to be circumcised. Now go to Romans chapter two, Romans two. A lot of people have questions about circumcision. And some people liken circumcision to baptism in the New Testament. And I'm not saying there aren't some similarities, but it's not the same thing because God said he wanted the men children to get circumcised. But baptism is something both for men and women, not just the men, obviously. And what baptism is doing is picturing the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus. That's why you go down in the water and you come up, you're picturing the burial and resurrection. That's why we don't just, you know, on top of someone's head, because that doesn't picture a burial. Right? There are religions, though, because we know there's religions like, you know, in the Catholic religion, obviously, they sprinkle water, whatever. I grew up Protestant, had water sprinkled on my head. You got the Orthodox religion, the way they do baptism, they baptize babies, but they do it by immersion. And they do it three times. And it's very brutal when you see this because, yeah, it would be humorous, except we're talking about, you know, a baby. So it's terrible to see, but the parents don't necessarily know what's going to take place because the parents are there, their kids getting baptized, but you know, a lot of these parents, they never go to church. They're just having their baby baptized because that's what you do. Because then all of a sudden, they're standing there when their baby's getting baptized, they don't know what's going to happen. And then all of a sudden, the priest is like, and they slam them. I'll show you a video on YouTube after the service. I mean, they slam those babies in the water. And like a lot of those, the parents are horrified, because it's certainly not safe for a child to be slammed. I mean, who would want their young baby to be underwater? It's like a torture technique. But the reason why they do that in the Orthodox Church is because you think of the Greek Orthodox Church, and you know, the Bible was written in Greek. And so they said, well, the word baptized means to immerse. So for whatever reason, they still baptize babies, but they say, it's got to be by immersion because that's what the word means. And so that's why they dunk them. But there's actually some Christian religions where basically they have you go out in water, you're basically waist deep, and then they pour water on your head, right? And it's like, why would you go out to the middle of an ocean, you're already wet up to your waist. And then all of a sudden, they're just like, then they pour some drops of water on your head. You're just like, what in the world? It's just like, just go underneath if you're going to do that. Right? You know, because when you're out in water, maybe you don't know this here, because in the Philippines, it's always hot. But in America, you know, oftentimes the water is very cold. So basically, if you don't get your head wet, you feel super cold, you need to just go fully under. Right? So I don't know why they do that. But some people like in circumcision, though, to baptism. Well, it's not the same thing, because baptism is actually picturing the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Let us see what it says here in Romans 2, verse 25. Now one thing, though, that is similar, just as in the New Testament, baptism had nothing to do with being saved, circumcision has nothing to do with being saved. But one major difference is baptism is to show that you believe, whereas circumcision is something you're going to do to babies, so they're too young to believe. They just grow up in a household that does believe. Romans 2, verse 25, For circumcision verily profiteth, if thou keep the law. But if thou be a breaker of the law, thy circumcision is made uncircumcision. Therefore, if the uncircumcision keep the righteousness of the law, shall not 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? And here when he's talking about uncircumcision and circumcision, you know, he says in verse 27, the uncircumcision, and he's basically referring to the non-Jews, the Gentile world, and then he says the circumcision, which are basically the Jews, and he says, well, the uncircumcision, those that grew up as Gentiles, are actually going to judge you if they're actually believing on Jesus and doing right. For he is not a Jew which is one outwardly, neither is that circumcision which is outward in the flesh, but he is a Jew which is one 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 says about being a Jew, spiritually speaking, it's about what you believe on the inside. It's not about being circumcised. It's not about having the lineage. It's about actually being Abraham's seed by believing on Jesus Christ. That's what the Bible says here, okay? And circumcision, it would profit if you kept the law, and what it's basically saying is this. I mean, if you are theoretically perfect and you did everything that the law said, then okay, but if you break the law, if you lie one time, then you're guilty and you need a savior. Go to Romans 4, Romans chapter 4, Romans 4, Romans 4, and it says in Romans 4, verse 9, "'Come with this blessedness then upon the circumcision only, or upon the uncircumcision also. For we say that faith was reckoned to Abraham for righteousness.'" So is this just for the Jews? I mean, are they the only ones that can be saved, or is it also the uncircumcision as well? How was it then reckoned when he was in circumcision or in uncircumcision? Not in circumcision, but in uncircumcision. So the promise was given to Abraham before he was circumcised, and God uses that to show that, you know what, this promise is both for the circumcised and uncircumcised. "'And he received the sign of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness of the faith which he had yet being uncircumcised, that he might be the father of all them that believe, though they be not circumcised, that righteousness might be imputed unto them also. And the father of circumcision to them who are not of the circumcision only, but who also walk in the steps of that faith of our father Abraham, which he had being yet uncircumcised. For the promise that he should be the heir of the world was not to Abraham or to his seed through the law, but through the righteousness of faith.'" And see, Abraham, he got circumcised after he was already saved, okay? And so he's able to be the father of many people, both the circumcised and uncircumcised. Go to 1 Corinthians chapter 7, 1 Corinthians 7. So obviously circumcision has nothing to do with salvation. It has never had anything to do with salvation. But one question people ask is this, well, in the Old Testament, there's a requirement to be circumcised, not to get to heaven, but to obey God's rules. You'll have your children circumcised, your male children circumcised. So the question is, well, what about in today's world, should people get circumcised, okay? What does it say in 1 Corinthians 7 verse 18? Is any man called being circumcised? Let him not become uncircumcised. Is any called an uncircumcision? Let him not be circumcised. Uncircumcision is nothing, and uncircumcision is nothing but the keeping of the commandments of God. And so the Bible says that if you're called being circumcised, let him not become uncircumcised. And if you're called uncircumcision, let him not be circumcised. The basic idea is this, and obviously I do think you can apply this to the Jews and Gentiles, but to bring it to our modern day, let's say, for example, you grew up in a household and you got circumcised as a baby or as a child or whatever. You're circumcised as a guy. Well, that's fine, right? Or what if you weren't circumcised? And let's say you get saved when you're 18 years old and all of a sudden you want to start serving God, you're like, oh, do I have to get circumcised? The Bible says, no, let him not become circumcised, right? So basically it doesn't really matter, right? So if you get saved when you're 20 years old and you're like, oh, should I get circumcised now? This was something that God had Abraham do, but it's not something we have to do today because it said in 1 Corinthians 7, verse 18, is any man called being circumcised, let him not become uncircumcised. Now I don't think that's even possible, but is any called an uncircumcision, let him not be circumcised. So look, let's say that you get saved and you weren't circumcised, well, the Bible says you don't have to be circumcised then like Abraham was when he was 99 years old, right? If we get somebody saved out soul winning, we don't have to find out whether or not they've been circumcised. It doesn't matter, right? Now, of course, we want them to get baptized and show that they believe in everything, but it's not something that matters, okay? Whether or not you've been circumcised or not. Now things are done differently here in the Philippines in terms of the age, but biblically speaking, the age is eight days old. Someone who's eight days old or less than a month old or a baby, they can't make that decision on their own. That's up to their parents. The Bible says if you had parents that chose to have you circumcised, then that's fine. If you had parents that chose not to have you circumcised, that's fine. You don't have to all of a sudden when you're an adult say, oh man, you know, should have done it differently. It's just like it doesn't matter, you know, whether you're circumcised or not as a baby. That's what the Bible is saying. In the Old Testament, they were supposed to do it as a sign, the Bible says. It's not something that we have to do today, okay? Go to Galatians chapter two, Galatians two, Galatians chapter two. So let me give you an example of this in Galatians chapter two. And Galatians chapter two verse three, Galatians two verse three, 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 despite our liberties which you have in Christ Jesus that they might bring us into bondage. And so the Bible says that Titus, here's a person who was a believer and trying to serve God, but he was a Greek and the Bible says, Titus did not want to be circumcised because as a Greek, he was not circumcised as a child. It wasn't something that was done in their culture. And so he didn't have a reason to want to be circumcised. I mean, what grown man would just want to be circumcised? It's a kind of an embarrassing thing, right? It's not something that you would want done. And it's just like Titus, even though there was a lot of people that are trying to push the Jewish laws, Titus didn't want to get circumcised, right? He said, I'm a grown man. It's like, why do I need to do this? You're not showing me a Bible verse showing that I need to do this. So why would I do it? I believe on Jesus Christ. It's just like, I feel no need to do it. And why would he as a grown man feel a need to do something when he's been fine his first 30 years of his life or whatever, right? Go back to Genesis 17, Genesis 17, Genesis 17. So when it comes to this topic, you know, here's the thing. The Bible says that circumcision profiteth nothing. Now I believe the context is spiritually speaking. I don't believe the context is an argument about whether it's physically healthy or not. I'm not an expert at that sort of stuff. But I would say it really just doesn't matter, right? I don't think it's wrong to have your children circumcised. I don't think it's wrong to have your boys circumcised because I don't think that they were sinning in the Old Testament. God wouldn't have them sin. I don't think it's something, if it's done biblically speaking, I don't think it's something that would be particularly dangerous either because it's something that God was having every single one of his male children do. So if that's a choice that one of the parents in our room made, then there's nothing wrong with that, right? If a parent decided, you know what, we're not going to have our child circumcised, there's nothing wrong with that either. I don't think it really matters either way. And a large part of this circumcision thing, a large part is just like culturally what different cultures do because some countries they don't do circumcision, some countries they do do circumcision. And so it's not a sin either single way. It really doesn't matter either single way. Now I would say this though, if you make the decision to have your male children circumcised, you should follow the pattern of what the Bible says when circumcision was actually done. Here's what it says in verse 11, and you 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. Now when you're reading over this in Genesis 17, or when God is telling this to Abraham, I doubt Abraham knew why God picked eight days, right? I mean, anyway, here's the thing, when God gives us rules and laws or he tells us certain things, we don't always understand why. It doesn't matter though. If God says it, you do it whether you understand it or not. And God says, you know what, eight days old. That should be good enough for us that if we're going to have our children circumcised, pick the age of eight days old, or as close as possible to that date because that's the date that God said. Now you say, well, why would God say eight days? Well, here's from just a general medical article I saw online and said, and this is actually going to give some reasons why the eighth day would actually be the best for circumcision just medically and scientifically speaking. And it says, it is of significant medical importance that male circumcision be carried out on the eighth day after birth since the level of vitamin K is highest on this day and vitamin K plays a pivotal role in regulation and control of the important clotting factors and the coagulation pathway that helps in stopping bleeding. And so according to this medical article, eight days is the best because you have a higher level of vitamin K and it's basically saying it's safer at eight days old than any other time period. And I do believe that if a person did it just like God said, I don't think it would be a dangerous thing. And here's a scientific reasoning why that would be. Now, if you don't do it God's way though and pick a different time period, then it might be a lot more dangerous. As I said, different countries, their customs are very different. I know here the age is very advanced when people get circumcised. But here's the thing, the safest way would be at eight days old. That's when the vitamin K is at its highest level and that's what God specifically said. So I just say if somebody felt compelled to have their male children circumcised, you should pick eight days old or close to that age because that's what the Bible says. Now when it comes to making decisions of how you raise your kids, I don't try to tell people what decisions to make. I give various advice from the Bible, but people have a lot of different opinions and stuff. And I don't believe when it comes to circumcision it's either a good or a bad thing. It's basically just everyone kind of can have their own opinion, it's perfectly fine. Because it doesn't say circumcision is a bad thing, it doesn't say it's a good thing. We see that Titus being a grown man says I don't want to get circumcised, but the Bible said, you know what, if you were called in circumcision, hey, nothing wrong with that. It's not like, oh no, it's just like I got circumcised when I was a baby or oh no, I didn't get circumcised. It's just like whatever way is fine, it doesn't really matter. The rest of verse 12 it says, 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 so when it talks about a soul being cut off, cut off is a terminology of either being killed or being like taken out of the land, and the idea was that parents should make sure they're following God's laws. Obviously you can't really blame a child who is eight days old, or I mean a grown person if they weren't circumcised as a child, but the idea is that parents should follow what the Bible says, and just do what God says, eight days old, circumcise your children. And God said on to Abraham, as for Sarai thy wife, thou shall 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 a hundred years old, and shall Sarah that is ninety years old bear? And so God tells us to Abraham, and Abraham does exactly what Sarah's going to do later on, just laughs at what God says, and it's like, I don't believe it, right? And you know it's easy to criticize Abraham when you see this, but you know there's many things we see in the Bible, the Bible's very clear about it, we don't believe they're going to come true, and Abraham's like, you know what, I'm already a hundred years old, Sarah's already ninety years old, you know, we're not young. Now obviously they did live longer at this time than they do now, I mean Abraham lived a lot longer than this, he actually had children after this as well, so he was not too old to have children, I don't think just physically speaking, but I do believe Sarah was past that point where she could actually have children scientifically, medically, logically speaking, and so he's believing in a promise that all of the physical and medical and scientific science would say it's impossible at this point, right? Obviously you know women reach an age where it's like, okay, you're not going to have children after that point, right? And so when he's hearing this promise, he's like, it's a miracle that God is basically saying is going to take place, it's past the point of being able to have a child. Verse 18, 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 so he's very specific here in verse 21 now, he's not just saying Sarah's going to have children, but at this set time in the next year, so he's basically putting a number on it where here's the promise, it is going to happen, right? This is the time period that's going to take place. Genesis 17 verse 22, and he left off talking with him and God went up from Abraham. Now turn to Hebrews 1 real quickly and let me show you a verse, because I think we've got a little bit of time left, let me go to Hebrews 1 and I want to show you this verse here real quickly. In many times in the Old Testament you're seeing God speaking to various people, to Abraham, you know, to other characters, to Moses, and it doesn't always specifically state how he's speaking to them, right? Let me show you Hebrews 1 and I'll explain real quickly. It says in Hebrews 1 verse 1, God who had sundry times and in diverse manners, spake in time passed on the fathers by the prophets, hath in these last days spoken unto us by his son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds. And it says he spake on time passed on the fathers by the prophets, but it says in diverse manners or in different ways or different manners in verse number 1, and the idea is that God spoke to his people and taught his people in different ways in the Old Testament. In our modern day we have a New Testament, the local New Testament church, but we have the word of God. Look, God's not going to speak to you up in heaven today where you're going to hear some sort of voice. You're not going to have God come down from heaven and speak to you either, right? God speaks to us through his word, but in the Old Testament he spoke in diverse manners in different ways. And sometimes he would speak to specific people that were serving God and they were the person who would then bring the message to the people. Now go back to Genesis 17, Genesis 17. So sometimes when you're seeing God speaking to man, it could be that they're hearing a voice up in heaven. It's hard to tell because the Bible says diverse manners are different ways that God spoke to them. And I think oftentimes, you know, whenever it comes to like movies or Christian movies or things like that, it's always like they're hearing a voice up in the sky. I don't believe though that's what's taking place in Genesis 17 because in Genesis 17 verse 22, and he left off talking with him and God went up from Abraham. When I read that, it sounds like God is speaking to Abraham face to face because God went up from Abraham. It sounds like he's right there, right? He left off talking with him and God went up from Abraham. Kind of like they're just side by side talking to one another. Now if that's the case, then when it says God here, we're referring to God the Son because God the Father cannot be seen. The only begotten son which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him. And so you do see times in the Old Testament and especially in Genesis, right? Because in Genesis, you know, they heard him walking in the garden in the midst of the day or the cool of the day, the Bible says. And so basically he was walking in the garden in Genesis 3, well that would have been the Son of God, right? It wasn't just a voice they heard up in heaven. Now sometimes I do believe that they're hearing a voice or he's speaking in different manners, diverse manners, different ways that means. We don't necessarily know all of those different ways. We just know that God is communicating with, you know, his people from time to time. But here in Genesis 17, I believe that God is actually literally just one on one talking to Abraham and we're going to see it later on with God speaking to Abraham with the angels and then Sarah hears in the next chapter of Genesis 18. I believe here when it says God went up from Abraham, that sounds to me like God's actually talking to him one on one. It sounds like then God left him and then I don't know if Abraham saw him go up to heaven or, you know, whatever, but God went up from Abraham. It sounds like they're just having a one on one conversation rather than a voice in the sky. That's the way I would interpret that. I'm not 100% dogmatic with a phrase like went up. I mean, it could be. I'm just misinterpreting what it's saying, but it sounds like they're actually talking kind of face to face. And then it says in verse 23, 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 said unto him. So Abraham obeys the commandment. Everybody gets circumcised. And then from then on, all families are going to have to circumcise their male children at the age of eight days old. Now that doesn't necessarily mean that the parents are going to do that. It could be a medical doctor or whatever, but the male children will be circumcised at eight days old. Verse 24, and Abraham was 90 years old and nine when he was circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin, and Ishmael's son was 13 years old when he was circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin. In the selfsame day was Abraham circumcised and Ishmael's son and all the men of his house born in the house and bought with money of the stranger were circumcised with him. So what we see is that Abraham was a man that, as God had said, would teach his children to follow God and everybody born in his house. We saw before that those that were in his house were already trained and ready for battle, and Abraham was someone who was passing on that lineage to the next generation, which is going to be important because God said, you know what? You've got to obey what I say, but also the generation that follows you and the generation after that and after that, meaning that godly faith has to be passed down. One thing we can take away from the life of Abraham is we need to make sure we pass down a godly heritage to our children because the next generation's the future. And honestly, when someone's a young child, and we have a lot of very young children at our church that are even too young to be saved, but they're presumably going to be around a lot longer than us. They have more time to serve God. They can read the Bible probably a lot more than us and start sowing at a younger age and everything. They're the future. We need to make sure we're passing down a godly heritage onto them. Let's go to the Lord's Prayer. Dear Heavenly Father, thank you for allowing us to be here today and getting to see your word on this topic and help us just to meditate upon the things that are in this chapter and help us to understand things and teach us things from your word and help us to pass on that godly heritage to our children. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.