Deuteronomy 10:12-22; Romans 2:17-29

Circumcise Your Heart

Preached at Sycamore RPC

Kokomo, IN

November 18, 2001

Scripture Text

12 “Now, Israel, what does the LORD your God require from you, but to fear the LORD your God, to walk in all His ways and love Him, and to serve the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul,  13 and to keep the LORD’S commandments and His statutes which I am commanding you today for your good?  14 “Behold, to the LORD your God belong heaven and the highest heavens, the earth and all that is in it.  15 “Yet on your fathers did the LORD set His affection to love them, and He chose their descendants after them,  even you above all peoples, as  it is this day.  16 “So circumcise your heart, and stiffen your neck no longer.  17 “For the LORD your God is the God of gods and the Lord of lords, the great, the mighty, and the awesome God who does not show partiality nor take a bribe.  18 “He executes justice for the orphan and the widow, and shows His love for the alien by giving him food and clothing.  19 “So show your love for the alien, for you were aliens in the land of Egypt.  20 “You shall fear the LORD your God; you shall serve Him and cling to Him, and you shall swear by His name.  21 “He is your praise and He is your God, who has done these great and awesome things for you which your eyes have seen.  22 “Your fathers went down to Egypt seventy persons  in all, and now the LORD your God has made you as numerous as the stars of heaven.

Rabbis are still up to it. Circumcising, that is.

I found this out recently. When I was in Pittsburgh a few weeks ago, I was enjoying a meal with three of our seminary student families. One of these families had a newborn son. They explained that had had a midwife deliver their child at home, but having a boy presented an interesting dilemma. What about the circumcision? Well, seminary students are known for their resourcefulness and, gasping at the high cost of a doctor visit, they heard that a rabbi in the large Jewish community in Pittsburgh still did circumcisions. So they took their little son over, and with no fanfare the little guy found out right there on the rabbi’s dining room table there are significant differences between boys and girls. The father commented the rabbi was busy, and at $350/pop for a few minutes of work he had quite a business going.

Obviously this story shows us that circumcision has lost a lot of its religious meaning today, if even rabbis circumcise Gentiles with no questions asked as long as the fee is paid. Yet equally obvious is that circumcision was important in the history of the Bible, whether in the practice as it is found in the OT or the confusion it brought as the gospel was preached in the NT. Circumcision was to be a picture for us. It pictures for us the relationship between the doctrine of election and covenant theology. The Lord chooses those who are His followers, but His followers must exhibit holiness. Israel was the chosen people, and the sign of this covenant was put upon them. Yet what was it a sign unto? As we will see, it was a sign that was always to show them what needed to be done to their hearts. They were God’s people, yes, but they were to be the holy people of God. Jews on the outside had to be Jews on the inside.

Moses is once again urging Israel on to obedience (read verses 12-13). God’s choice and favor of them was to never be taken for granted, but to motivate them on to faithfulness and obedience as they came into the Promised Land. God requires obedience. Sitting around in the temple bragging about their chosen status was never the calling of the Israelite. Neither is sitting in church buildings bragging about our knowledge of election to be ours. In the words of the Jewish apostle Peter in his second epistle to the church, “you must be diligent to make His calling and choosing sure by practicing these things.” “These things” Peter was urging upon the church are the very types of things Moses speaks of here. What do we need to be practicing to show we are of the elect people of God?

I. You are to practice tenderheartedness toward the LORD because of His generational love (vss. 14-16).

Moses urges Israel to comprehend the glory of God in what He has done for them. In verse 14 he tells them that not only did the LORD their God make heaven and earth, but that they belong to Him. When God claims they belong to Him, He is claiming that He controls all that takes place in them.

This verse takes the tragedy of 9/11 and really confronts the idolatry of our nation. Many are wondering, “Did God ordain that tragedy?” Did He cause it to happen, or was He just an innocent bystander?” We need to be clear – this disaster was from the hand of God. Our Bible study group in Marion will be looking at Amos tonight, and we read in this book the verse featured on the back cover of a magazine recently covering this horror:

“If a trumpet is blown in a city will not the people tremble?

If a calamity occurs in a city has not the Lord done it?” – Amos 3:6

The perfect, holy God does not stop being God when hideous acts occur. He sovereignty rules over them to His glory. As Joseph said to the brothers who had mocked him, threatened his life, and sold him into slavery that led to a long period in prison, “You meant it for evil against me, but God meant it for good, to save many people alive” (Genesis 50:20). Joseph acknowledged God’s handiwork even in the evil that befell him.

And in the most hideous act of all, God claims ultimate responsibility. Listen to Peter preach the Biblical gospel at Pentecost

“Jesus of Nazareth, a Man attested by God to you by miracles, wonders, and signs which God did through Him in your midst, as you yourselves also know—Him, being delivered by the determined purpose and foreknowledge of God, you have taken by lawless hands, have crucified, and put to death;” -Acts 2:22-23

Then listen to the early saints pray the gospel when they are threatened, recognizing the hand of the Lord:

“For truly against Your holy Servant Jesus, whom You anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles and the people of Israel, were gathered together to do whatever Your hand and Your purpose determined before to be done .” -Acts 4:27-28

Jesus tells us “Are not two sparrows sold for a cent? And yet not one of them falls to the ground apart from the Father.” Certainly if a bird cannot hit the ground apart from the Father’s control, neither can a plane.

The point of stressing God’s control is this astounding point: In His awesome sovereignty over everything that happens in the heaven and earth, Moses is telling Israel that God chose to set His love on them. He controlled all things for their sake. This is not only true for OT Israel, but remember it is true for NT Israel – the church- as well.

• In I Peter 2:9 it is said to the church, “You are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God’s own possession”
• Remember II Peter 1:10 “you must be diligent to make His calling and choosing sure by practicing these things.”
• Jesus said in John 15:16 “You did not choose me, but I chose you, and appointed you that you would go and bear fruit.”

God’s affections have been stirred toward you, and He has set His love on you. The amazing love of God! That is why it is so encouraging to hear one another’s testimonies. Our children, growing up in the protection of covenant homes and under the light of the gospel, find it hard to believe. Some of us lived drunken lives. Some of us thought we had to walk down the aisle of the church every week to be saved. Others us worshipped Mary. Still others thought we were Christians though we never read our Bibles. We lived under false doctrines about God that caused us to trust in our own strength for salvation. God redeemed us by setting his love on us.

The beauty of covenant theology is that it takes election even deeper. God has chosen not only us, but our offspring. “He chose their descendants after them, even you above all peoples.” The second generation that follows believers is just as chosen as the first. Yet notice the mention of “fathers” here is not referring to just the immediate fathers of Moses’ hearers. No, he is going back to the promise of the Abrahamic covenant.

In Genesis 17:7-9 we read, “ And I will establish My covenant between Me and you and your descendants after you in their generations, for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and your descendants after you. Also I give to you and your descendants after you the land in which you are a stranger, all the land of Canaan, as an everlasting possession; and I will be their God.”

9 And God said to Abraham: “As for you, you shall keep My covenant, you and your descendants after you throughout their generations.

By faith in Christ, we have become sons of Abraham. Children, you should not only be amazed at how the Lord saved your parents, but how the Lord has saved you through His work in your parents’ and grandparent’s lives. Be grateful that He has spared you from lives of sin many of us have known.

For this helps explain why in the midst of this wondrous, beautiful truth of God’s sovereign love to us and our children, God brings up this embarrassing topic of circumcision (READ verse 16). Is that not what He did in the Abrahamic covenant as well? Immediately following the verses I read in Genesis 17 above, the very next verse says, “ This is My covenant which you shall keep, between Me and you and your descendants after you: Every male child among you shall be circumcised.” Why? Jesus shows us.

When Jesus was circumcised at eight days of age, He was given His name right before the act (Luke 2:21). His name is Jesus, which means “The Lord saves.” For centuries Hebrew boys went before the rabbi to be circumcised, to teach them and their families they needed the same thing to happen to their heart. They needed to be saved from their inner corruption, to have someone painfully and truly remove it from them. This is a work only the LORD can do. Listen to Deuteronomy 30:6 “The LORD your God will circumcise your hearts and the hearts of your descendants, so that you may love Him with all your heart and all your soul, and live.” Then in the fullness of time one little Hebrew boy came who did not have that problem, but was circumcised to show He would take care of the problem. In Jesus, the One who saves His people from their sins (Matthew 1:21), the defilement of our sins has been removed. So great is His identification in being the one who takes away our sins that the Scriptures even say He became our circumcision for us. People of God, children, how can you not be tenderhearted in light of that? Do not be “stiff necked” and resist the One through whom you must be saved. Don’t be a Christian on the outside but not an inner one. For you know what that is like? Hanging on to the results of circumcision. If that sounds gross to you, it is exactly what God thinks when He sees those who are in His church hard-hearted and resisting what He has provided. Practice tenderheartedness toward God.

II. Practice compassion upon the stranger because of His impartial works (Vss. 17-19)

Knowing that God chose us, the temptation is to try and to attach a reason to it. We can subtly think it is because we are smarter, better behaved, or come from a better background than the next guy. Yet the LORD did not show partiality nor take a bribe in choosing you. You did not buy God off by any acts of religious duty. You did not fool God with how well you were dressed. He was not impressed by your family lineage. None of that had anything to do with God electing you. He chose to set His affection upon you for reasons of His own making, not for reasons of your making. While you were alien in Egypt, Moses says, He loved you. While you were yet His enemy, God showed His love to you in Christ.

And if you truly understand that, it will be evident Moses says. God cares for the orphan and the widow. He gives the alien in your midst food and clothing. So then, as His elect people, you are to do likewise. This demonstrates whether your heart has truly been circumcised.

How important it is for your children to see your treatment of strangers. If we insulate our children, and never practice our religion by caring for the poor, the widow, the orphan around us, our children will miss seeing the tenderhearted nature of our God and they will grow to be proud. Are we as a church practicing true compassion?

We can often see needs in the wrong way. Someone comes to us with a lack of food or other necessity. We can think that God is testing that person by putting them in this need. We can tell them to just go to a local relief organization. We can wonder if we should bless them by giving to them. But in reality they are a test of us. We should perhaps instead be asking, “I wonder if God is wanting to bless us by letting us give to them?“ For our Lord has told us that it is “more blessed to give than to receive.”

The word for alien in verse 18 means someone who is a stranger to us, which raises a question. When is the last time you helped someone really “strange” to you? The word for hospitality found in the New Testament means literally to “love a stranger.” We hear this come out in Hebrews 13:2 as it reminds us that God is often testing our faith in caring for strangers “Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for by this some have entertained angels without knowing it.” May the LORD grant us grace to give a meal, provide a gift, offer help to someone who is a stranger to us. One who has had his heart tenderized by having his sin circumcised will show compassion on others. Demonstrate the reality of your circumcised heart.

III. Practice allegiance to the LORD because of His manifold blessings.

In the last verses Moses tells us that our allegiance to God is to be unwavering. Look at verse 20 particularly. We are told that we are to swear by His name. Having just memorized as a congregation these words from Matthew 5, “Make no oath at all, either by heaven, for it is the throne of God, or by the earth, for it is the footstool of His feet, or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the Great King,” we might question what this is to mean to us.

Recall Jesus’ words were condemning the trivial using of the Lord’s name. Men who were swearing by heaven or earth and then not keeping their word. Yet that does not negate making solemn covenantal vows to God and swearing our allegiance to Him. Beloved, that is the purpose of worship. It is a sacred assembly where we come before our God and confess our loyalty to His cause. We are the armies of the heavenly King coming before our Commander and Chief to receive our marching orders. We are to be “at attention” as we stand before Him. When we come to worship and use His name in prayer and song, as we profess faith in Christ and promise to follow Him, then we better be faithful to those words that we speak. He alone is to be “our praise.”

You will most likely be given opportunity to practice this show of allegiance this week as you celebrate Thanksgiving with friends and family. We are told even by our political leaders to give thanks this week. Yet the great question is “To whom?” Many use the name of God and yet mean many things by it as they use His name trivially. For instance, during this crucial time in our nation’s history our leaders are telling us to honor Islam as a great religion, which means giving give credence to the god of Mohammed. Yet what blessing do we have that Allah has bestowed? Name one reason we should give thanks to Buddha? What Hindu idol has made the rain fall, the sun to shine, the harvest to come? The Lord, who has been faithful to multiply His church through the centuries, is the only One worthy of honor (see verse 22). As you have opportunity, because your heart has been circumcised by the Only True God, thank the exalted Lord your God in an unwavering fashion!

For remember, as we read in Romans, he is a Jew who is one inwardly. And what is in your heart will be seen in the life you live, in the way you love, in the allegiance you show.