Who You Are In Christ - Circumcised in Christ

33 riches in divine grace. How far are we along? Does anybody know? I think this is, I have my list here. I knew Roger was going to step up with the answer here. We're at 17. We're halfway there. We're crossing into the finish line here. Speaking of the finish line, did you hear about that horse that finished second last time? Interesting topic today. Circumcision in Christ. What comes to mind as you kind of think about circumcision in Christ?

So my kind of initial question is, let me get this thing to advance. Oh yeah, it's not on. It's this little switchy thing. I've only done it 14 times. Maybe there's another problem. I don't know. That was back. Anyway, mechanical problems. What do you think of first when you think of circumcision? What comes to mind? Probably the physical circumcision. Why?

Just because the Jews were so focused on that being if you weren't circumcised, you weren't Jewish. They had this elite status. Are you Jewish? I'm not. And why do you think of that first? Because I think that's what throughout the Old Testament was, and then the part of the Gospels of the New Testament, where you circumcise. And Paul talks about it a lot. Other answers?

Jerry Covenant, there was a sign, and this is the Okay. And what's a covenant? It's an agreement. A legal agreement. Okay. Between whom? Well, there's two different kinds of covenants. Okay. The one with God is a higher power to a lower power. A marriage covenant is between equals. Okay. What role does man have in the covenant? Receives. Yeah.

There are conditional and unconditional. Would you like to exemplify one of each type? The Ten Commandments require that they obey them. Is the Ten Commandments a covenant? I don't particularly think of the Ten Commandments as one of the covenants, but I guess you could think of it as something that God... The unconditional one is the Abrahamic covenant.

That's the big one. That's the one we're talking about here with circumcision, is it not? Okay, what's a conditional one? We're going to get to it today. The Palestinian covenant is a conditional covenant, but yet God is in control of that one too. But Israel must repent to allow that covenant to be fulfilled. And the question is, where does the power come for Israel to repent?

So in a sense, it's kind of quasi-conditional, if you will. Do most people think of the circumcision of the flesh when circumcision is mentioned? Is that a fair statement? I think so. I think of Jews. Okay, so you're along the path that Margaret has gone down. Little babies. Little babies.

We're not going to be taking any polls here. That's a decision that was interesting when we had our first son. We weren't sure about that. So actually we delayed it a few days and had him circumcised on the 8th day. We were thinking about it. We said, well, you know, we weren't certain at that time. I'm not sure we were walking with the Lord at that time. So, whatever. But it was interesting.

That was something that when you have boy babies, they used to think about that in this country. In some countries you don't think about it at all. In the Arab world, to my knowledge, they don't circumcise their boys at all. A large part of the world does not. But the Christian and Jewish world does, it seems like.

And maybe you know more than I do. Well, how would you advise the father of an infant boy today from both a spiritual perspective and from a medical perspective? I mean, is there any reason for circumcision today? I thought it was medical to some degree. There's a small amount of medical, but the medical implications deal largely with the future happenstance of a young man going out of God's will really is in a sense what the medical reason would be.

So do you think when the term circumcision comes up to this class that ultimately the fleshly or made with hand circumcision is what should come to mind? Not necessarily should. But it does, doesn't it? What's the title of today's class? That's not physical. Thank you, Roger. All right, let's move on here now. Made with hands. That was the answer, I think, for most of us. And by the way, that's the way I would respond also.

But I'm going to take us on to another level that when we hear circumcision, we're going to think about nothing but grace. I mean, remember, the class is 33 riches of divine grace. We're here to talk about grace. We're not here to talk about circumcision with hands.

Let's read Genesis 17, 1-14. We've got time today. This topic is fairly narrow, but yet has lots of implications. But we're going to be looking at the Bible a lot today, both in the Old Testament, in fact, more in the Old Testament than in the New. And whoever gets Genesis 17, 1-14, this is the Abrahamic Covenant by the way.

Stan, why don't you just take this and read it for us. You're the one that brought this up. I don't have my Bible with me today. You don't have your Bible with you today. Stan, we're going to have to ask him to leave the class. Isn't that the way it is? We knew you weren't prepared. We knew you weren't prepared. Does anyone have the word of God with them? Steve, go ahead. You've got your glasses on now. I usually hide it in my purse so I don't have to carry it around. Just think of bad people hitting a website during today's time. Is this guy going to get anywhere over this time?

When Abram was 99 years old, the Lord appeared to Abram and said to him, I am Almighty God, walk before my covenant between me and you, and will multiply you exceedingly. Then Abram fell on his face, and God talked with him, saying, As for me, behold, my covenant is with you, and you shall be a father of many nations. No longer shall your name be called Abram, but your name shall be called Abraham, for I have made you a father of many nations.

I will make you exceedingly fruitful, and I will make and your descendants after you and 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. And God said to Abram, As for you, you shall keep my covenant you and your descendants after you throughout their generations. This is my covenant which you shall keep between me and you and your descendants after you.

Every male child among you shall be circumcised, and you shall be circumcised in the flesh of your foreskins, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and you. He who is eighty days old among you shall be circumcised. Every male child in your generations, he who is not your descendant. He who is born in your house and he who is bought with your money must be circumcised, and my covenant shall be in your flesh for an everlasting covenant. And the uncircumcised male child who is not circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin, that person shall be cut off from his people. He has broken my covenant. Just as an aside, in verse 13, do you think that a male convert to Judaism was required to be circumcised? An adult? I doubt it. Okay, that might deter conversion. Particularly in those days, right? All right. Thank you very much, Steve.

So that kind of sets the stage for circumcision made by hands, right? and that covenant between God and the nation of Israel was carried forth until the circumcision made without hands. Now let's turn in transition to Romans 4 9 through 12. You have this on your handout so you can read with me as I read from the screen here. Romans 4 9 says, cometh this blessedness then upon the circumcision only or upon the uncircumcision only. Those terms there imply the nation of Israel and those who are not circumcised.

For we say that faith was reckoned to Abraham for righteousness. How was it then reckoned? When he was in circumcision or in uncircumcision? Not in circumcision, but in uncircumcision. And he received the sign of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness of the faith. which he had yet been uncircumcised, that he might be the father of all them believed."

Note this is very important here because the circumcision was just an outward sign in Abram's response of what God demanded he do for all male offspring or those ultimately that would become part of the mission of Israel by conversion later. But yet that was a sign of something that had been done without any circumcision carried out by hands.

Important. That's a concept that we need to really get sold on here. Though they be not circumcised. Okay, I finished that previous sentence. I didn't highlight that. That righteousness might be imputed unto them also. Notice what's going on here. We're tying into Abram's righteousness here. 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. Everybody get the concept here. What was the circumcision made with hands? A sign. A sign. What was the circumcision really based on other than that made with hands?

Righteousness of faith. Thank you. Abraham's faith. Everybody okay with that concept here? Yes, Dan. I was going to say, in addition to that, it's the righteousness of the parent's faith. Correct. The eight-year-old child, eight-month, eight-day, or I think Steve said 80, but the eight-day-old child certainly has no ability to cognitively know what he's doing there. All right.

So I go on to ask you, isn't this the circumcision made without hands? And the answer is clearly yes. Is it not? So Abraham's Faith was really before God, the circumcision. The true circumcision is a spiritual one. It's not one made with hands. Let's turn now to the more relevant topic of today's class, Circumcised in Christ, and look at that circumcision made without hands.

In Ephesians 2.11 it says, Therefore remember that you once Gentiles in the flesh who are called, by the way, the name of the Gentiles in the flesh are called uncircumcision by what is called the circumcision made in the flesh by hands.

Okay, so paraphrase that first for me. Who's got maybe a different version that might read a little differently? Roger, what do you have there? It's basically the same. Therefore, remember that formerly you, the Gentiles in the flesh, who are called uncircumcision by the so-called circumcision which is performed in the flesh by human hands.

Alright, so it's the circumcision which is who? The Jews. The Jews. They're calling uncircumcision based on the act of the deed carried out by the hands, right? We're not now talking about spiritual circumcision. We're talking about the Jew calling the un-Jew or Gentile uncircumcised. And that's a name that could be given to them other than Gentiles. Alright.

And then Romans 2.29 goes on to say, but he is a Jew, which is one inwardly. We spent a lot of time on this when we did the Book of Romans. He's a Jew who's one inwardly, and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit, and not in the letter, whose praise is not of men, but of God.

Everybody okay with that? Does whose praise mean the Jew is praised by God? Can you ask that again? I'm not sure I understand the question. Well, where it ends, it says, well, no, you have to read the whole thing, but he's a Jew, right? Yeah, but the praise of the inward circumcision... Whose praise is not of men, but of God? Yeah, the praise refers to whom?

The Jew. The Jew. This is conditional, and what's the condition? God's praise for the Jew is conditional for the Jew. Is that a Jew who's been circumcised with hands? No, it's one who's heart has command of. Alright, so that's a Jew who is a born-again Jew and no longer a Jew, right? There's no longer Jew or Gentile. there's the body of Christ.

And that's what Romans 2.29 is clearly referring to. It's the inward circumcision, not that made with hands. Bob, that's why it's a sign, correct? Correct. It has nothing to do with the agreement itself. It's a reminder. It's really no different than the rainbow in the sky. You're right on, Stan. Couldn't be said better. It's just not effective. Absolutely.

So every time you go out and you see a rainbow, that's supposed to remind you of God in the flood and all the things that God has done, same thing. Any sign, it's a sign, period. But most of Judaism has been tied up with signs and still are, are they not? Right, but it refers back to like the law in the Old Testament. Absolutely, we're going to get into that in a few minutes. Why did the manual circumcision fail or really did it? Let's look at that question a little bit more in detail.

God wanted Israel to circumcise the skin of their hearts and not continue to be stiff-necked, even in the trials in Egypt. And we won't turn to those verses, but if you go back to Deuteronomy 10 and reflect on this, God has claimed Israel to be circumcised in their heart.

So God's concept of circumcision really was an outward sign of an inward change. And if you think about the walk of a believer, We all must be lights into darkness, outward signs of inward change. In a sense, the principle is the same. Not by law, but by grace, that light shines increasingly brightly in darkness.

The similar call of God to the backslidden Judah was given, and you can turn to Jeremiah and look at this. He's appealing to the Jude of Jerusalem in days in which that nation was really undergoing tremendous separation from the ways of the faith. And his appeal to them as backslidden.

Now keep in mind, backslidden is an Old Testament term. It's not a New Testament term. We sometimes describe believers who seem to be walking paths outside of grace and empowered by the flesh as backsliding. This is an Old Testament term. Remember, before God positionally, we're all in him. Now, unfortunately, sometimes our condition doesn't reflect our position, but backsliding is a common colloquialism for believers who have fallen astray for a period of time.

But in the Old Testament here, God's call to backslidden Judah was to be circumcised in their heart. And again, we'll not look at that specific verse. More law, right? I mean, what do you think the basis of God's appealing to Israel in terms of being circumcised in their heart by faith, how is Israel going to respond to that? If you're under law and God says, you know, be circumcised in your heart, how, yes?

I think the Jewish people looked at that like they did when they started talking about faith and not the law. It's much easier to grasp things that you can see. I mean, it's the flesh. It's being able to see things and actually not do it by grace or not do it by the spirit. So they would be against that. It's amazing how conforming legal matters can be. Are they not?

I mean, we all have jobs. Many of us have jobs. We have responsibilities. There's kind of a metric that needs to be ultimately there to have us be claimed responsible for the task at hand. And if God says, get your heart right towards me by faith, they're going to kind of probably start working on it, right?

Well, obviously that didn't work because this backslidden Judah had to backslide even further before ultimately any victory would ensue. And in fact, you could say victory has not ensued yet, except for a few who did respond to the message of grace. Let's look at Romans 2 a little bit more in detail now. It's going to build on what we looked at in 29 before.

For circumcision is indeed profitable if you keep the law. Here's the point I'm trying to make. Okay, so the circumcision of the flesh, so gee, I got this sign, God, that you've made me righteous. But God's saying, now get to work and get your heart right towards me.

And all they knew was law. And the flesh can live up to a certain measure of legal responsibility, but then we all know it fails. And it doesn't make it, does it? But if you're a breaker of the law, here's the condition. Your circumcision has become uncircumcision. So effectively, this sign they have which represents their righteousness by faith ultimately is going to fail. because they're ultimately going to be breaking the law in which the circumcision is intended to address. Therefore, if any uncircumcised man keeps the righteous requirements of the law, will not his uncircumcision be counted as circumcision? And will not the physically uncircumcised, if he fulfills the law, judge you who, even with your written code and circumcision, are transgressors of the law?

And then we deal with the whole issue of the Jew. The Jew who is one outwardly, for he is not a Jew who is one outwardly, nor is circumcision that which is outward in the flesh, but he is a Jew who is one inwardly, et cetera, like we've dealt with up above. Concept clear? The nation of Israel saw circumcision as part of the legal principle, and when God called them on that, they didn't respond by faith. They responded like they did to any other legal component of their Jewish system. Yes?

A corollary today might be people who wear the cross or have the cross tattooed on their body or have the sign of the cross in a lot of different non-Christian environments and situations. I mean, that's not a covenant and it's not a sign, but still, To us, it's a sign that Christ came and forgave our sins, okay? But if it doesn't, the cross doesn't do anything. It's just that, it's just a sign. It hasn't done anything to the heart. It's a nice point, yep. Very true. Calvary's been there for all times, at least for 2,000 years, ultimately, prophetically, to man from the beginning of time, right? The cross, is not simply a place in time and an event, right?

It's a lot more to it than that. And I can carry it around with me all day if I want, but it doesn't really have any effect on me until it reaches my heart. How many bracelets and necklaces? I mean, you can't judge somebody based on whether they've crossed in terms of... But anyway... You mean you can't even hang it on your rear-view mirror? Absolutely. What we need is one in the heart that continues to expand in terms of God's grace. Yes?

So, if it's making a Why do you think in the Romans 2.25 section there it would say, he is a Jew who is one who would live? It would say there is no distinction between Jew and Greek now. Well, let's go back to basic principles.

What has God always demanded of mankind? So only one thing God's asked us to do. Believe God for what He's revealed. Remember that principle is unchanging from the garden to eternity future. Do you believe what I've revealed? And God's intention wasn't for Israel to respond by a law or responding to legal principles.

He calls a Jew a Jew inwardly who in fact inwardly responds to God by faith. And there's so many examples we have in the Old Testament about men and women who responded by faith. And God's put those there to show us that's been the principle from time one on even to today right now. So if you're a Jew and you're really a saved Jew, and the term's a little bit weak used in the Old Testament because salvation clearly wasn't clear in terms of what Calvary would be, in terms of representing and really accomplish on God's behalf.

But yet, you know, from Genesis 3.15 people look forward to this point at which, in history, God would prevail.

Let me remind you in Hebrews 2.14, again, a verse I love, is Satan himself was made powerless. before God at Calvary. Now Satan's still alive and well, but his power before God in the life of the believer has been crucified. And his future is clear.

But do we believe that? I mean, can the believer be indwelled by Satan? Absolutely not. We're positioned in heavenly places. What God has said to the Jew by outward circumcision is that as a parent, when you have your son circumcised, you believe by faith that that sign of an inner righteousness granted by God's grace through our faith. That principle has never changed.

I mean, the animal sacrifice, just think what was happening. That was an atonement. But the believing Jew who went to the sacrifice and saw the high priest go through that ritual believed that through that sacrifice, their relationship with God was sustained. And it was what God wanted it to be.

Stan? I think, going back to his question, Paul, when he refers to the real, quote, Jew, that's the believer. Right. So, even the Gentile or the unbeliever, once they become a believer, in Paul's eyes, they're a Jew. Because they're a follower of what God teaches, right? A true Jew, because of his or her n-word. Right. Nothing to do with a sign. Right. Which is... Right. Okay, Steve?

All right, now we're going to go into the Palestinian covenant as promised. In the Palestinian covenant, the Lord promised them the land, the circumcision, and the circumcision of the heart to follow. So this concept of an inward circumcision was actually part of the Palestinian covenant.

Turn to Deuteronomy 30, and we're actually going to, I think, read from 1 to 9. I put 3 to 6 here, so you can just jot in your notes there. 1 through 9 is probably more inclusive in terms of the entire covenant. Who can read that? Chapter 30, verses 1 through 9.

When all of these things have come upon you, the blessing and the curse which I have set before you, and you call them to mind in all nations where the Lord your God has banished you, and you return to the Lord your God and obey Him with all your heart and soul, according to all that I command you today, you and your sons, then the Lord your God will restore you from captivity and have compassion on you. and will gather you again from all the peoples where the Lord your God has scattered you. If your outcasts are at the ends of the earth, from there the Lord your God will gather you, and from there he will bring you back.

And the Lord your God will bring you into the land which your fathers possessed, and you shall possess it, and he will prosper you and multiply you more than your fathers. Moreover, the Lord your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your descendants to love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul in order that you may live. And the Lord your God will inflict all these curses on your enemies and on those who hate you, who persecuted you. Through nine? And you shall again obey the Lord, and observe all His commandments which I command you today. Then the Lord your God will prosper you abundantly in all the work of your hand, in the offspring of your body, and in the offspring of your cattle, and in the produce of your ground. For the Lord will again rejoice over you for good, just as He rejoiced over your fathers. Isn't that kind of profound in terms of what we're studying here today? Notice the conditions that's required of the Jewish nation here, but yet also look who circumcises their heart. I mean, unbelievable.

God says, you know, get your act together and repent. And oh, by the way, this whole issue of your righteousness, I'm in control of that anyway. So the question that you might ask is, where does the ability to repent come from without God's righteousness written on their heart? What do you have to do to be saved? What do we have to do to come to a saving relationship to the Lord Jesus Christ? Believe!

And so, do you think that's any different for Israel as they look into the future of how the Palestinian covenant is going to come to be? No, but once they believe, then their righteousness will be circumcised in their hearts. The righteousness made or circumcision made without hands. Let's look at this covenant just briefly. I don't want to spend too much time here, but I think it's always kind of refreshing, don't you, to kind of look and see how the Old Testament really plays out and where we're at today and what things are really relevant to the circumcision that we've experienced versus that the Jew had not experienced but one day will.

What events are we talking about here? What does the Palestinian covenant entail? It's got seven points, and I use Schofield as a help here. The first is dispersion for disobedience. And all of this, for the most part, is in Deuteronomy 31 through 9. There are other texts I'm also listing for your ability to survey them later. Dispersion for disobedience, future repentance of Israel while in dispersion, the return of the Lord, restoration to the land.

Now keep in mind, 1948, the Jew looks. as the nation being restored to the land. Is that what we're talking about here in terms of the Palestinian covenant? Absolutely not. This is not 1948 Israel. Yes, the country was again formed in 1948 by all the acts that preceded it, and Israel now has a land, but the restoration to the land promised by the Lord is not what we're talking about in the Palestinian covenant.

National conversion Judgment of Israel's oppressors. National prosperity. All of these are end times kinds of things. But again, look at the sequence of events. Israel, by belief, will repent and then God will circumcise their hearts. The circumcision made without hands.

Stan? I'm familiar with Palestinian covenant. Who is that made with? I mean, who is the individual that It was made with a nation. I don't know that I can identify a particular individual in Jewish history. Roger, anybody else know about that? With Israel, I believe. Yeah, I think it's the entire nation, the covenant that's made. Do you know where specifically that's where it was made in scripture?

I mean, it must be some of these passages. Well, Deuteronomy 31-9 is one of the better texts for the Palestinian covenant. Was it given to Abraham The Abrahamic Covenant? Well, the Abrahamic Covenant in its broadest sense would include the Palestinian Covenant.

Yeah, because it sounds like it does. But these are separate covenants in terms of God's relationship to... So this is actually coming from Moses to the Israelites, right? Well, Moses wrote Deuteronomy. Right. And ultimately the Palestinian Covenant is really stated most clearly here in the Bible.

Was it to a specific Jew? I don't see any evidence of that. It was to the nation. So this is when he came out with the law and the blood and the blessings and the cursings and all that. You're saying that's the Palestinian covenant, right? Right. Okay. I mean, in a sense, this is when Israel had fallen away and this covenant was an attempt to be restorative. This was encouraging. This was something to bring them back to the faith and that God has promised this in your future dwellings and your future nationality.

Now let's get to where we're at today and look at how what we've studied in terms of the Jew and the circumcision made with hands versus that made without hands relates to the church today. I'll read this follow along if you will. Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit after the tradition of men. after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ.

For in him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily, and ye are complete in him, which is the head of all principality and power, in whom also ye are circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, and putting off the body of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ. Let me just pause right there. What is the circumcision of Christ? Does that mean that his foreskin was removed? Yeah, well we know that it was at day eight, right? But if the circumcision is without hands that we're speaking about here, what is the circumcision of Christ?

Let's continue. without anyone blurting out the answer, we should go ahead and sustain the verse. Alright, so pay attention. Buried with him in baptism, wherein also ye are risen with him through the faith of the operation of God, who hath raised him from the dead, and you being dead in your sins, and the uncircumcision of your flesh. Notice that. hath he quickened together with him, having forgiven you all trespasses, blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross, and having spoiled principalities and powers, he made a show of them openly, triumphing over them."

What is the crucifixion of Christ? circumcision of Christ, right? Circumcision. Again, it's a sign. I mean, what Bob's talking about here about dying, being buried, and risen. Again, it's a sign of this covenant that Christ is made with the believer. Alright, so let's think about circumcision in the flesh now made with hands. And now we're saying that Christ is circumcised. And we read the text in terms of what that means to us as believers.

What was the actual circumcision in Christ relating to? And everything that's part of the flesh. I mean, he was bodily crucified. Is the body sinful? No, the body's a temple. But the body has flesh. And that is the fleshly spirit, the Adam nature. and it's the acts of the flesh which ultimately fall short of the glory of God. The circumcision of Christ was all that is wrapped up in the Adam nature and everything that comes forth from outside that Adam nature.

Stan? It's really interesting because this goes back to Vern Sherman a few months ago or maybe a month ago and he was talking about how Jews see things and how Gentiles or Greeks see things. Jews see things in You know, and the Gentiles, I forgot what he said, I think you have to see things through reason or understanding or making sense or logical.

But you see things through signs. Again, the sign of the covenant. The sign of circumcision. What Christ did through the sign, you know. It's really interesting. What about the body of Christ? Are we still looking for signs? Is anybody here looking for a healing to happen this afternoon someplace? Be nice. Are they casting out of demons?

Are those our expectations? Are there members of the body of the Christ who in fact live for these expectations? What's this declaration called? What do we call this declaration of God in terms of this passage of this circumcision in Christ or love Christ?

Grace. It's all grace. Jesus paid it all. It's all grace. That's what we call this. This is nothing other than the title of the class, 33 Riches of Divine Grace. It's grace, it's more grace, and it's grace. There's nothing on our behalf except what? Believe. Do we believe this? That ultimately Christ was circumcised without hands, that ultimately we are positionally right there with us, included and accepted in the Beloved. Bob? Yeah. I think also in view here is the fact that Hal's picture always did it so wonderfully, I thought.

We were in union with our fleshly nature, but now because of our faith in Christ and His death on the cross, that's been cut or you could say that's been cut away. We've been cut loose from our old fleshly nature and now we, you know, It's still there, but we're cut loose from it. That picture is in view too. Circumcision is more than a sign. It's actually an act of the cutting loose of us from our fleshly nature. And now we have a choice. We can choose to walk with God by faith. Unfortunately, we may choose to walk with Adam. by faith as well, and that you're probably going to get there.

I'm going to get to Romans 6.6 which is really relevant to this, but I do think the concept is good. I wish I had the diagram. I probably need to find out ways to get it. Actually, I can send it to you. That would be great, because Hal did a great job with diagrams. Jesse.

Where were you just starting to go there about the comparison of where some believers today are still looking for signs? Well, what would be examples of believers looking for signs? Some people are looking for miracles. They live their lives looking for miracles. They want another miracle tomorrow. There are a lot of believers that are looking for another healing.

Well, wouldn't you say speaking in tongues is an example of someone looking for a sign? When I read the Bible, I find that speaking in tongues was known languages and used purposely for a very brief period in history to further the gospel at the time when, in fact, the Pentecost had occurred and shortly thereafter. But is that a sign that ultimately was promised for us today that we need? I don't think so.

Healings, miraculous healings. You know, it's funny, all these healings. If you look at some of these ministries, the healings are always people with a bad back or bad knees or, you know, there's some kind of disability that relates to kind of function of the body.

I haven't seen type 1 diabetes healed yet. I haven't seen amyotrophic lateral sclerosis healed yet. These chronic disorders, which are a deficiency of a hormone or a deterioration of the neurons that feed skeletal muscle, the Lou Gehrig disease, that's an irreversible, untreatable condition. I haven't seen any of those things healed.

If there are believers out there that the Lord had blessed somehow that could heal people, they should be going into the hospital. They should be coming to Bob and saying, Bob, the Lord is showing me I can heal these patients. And they should be there working with medicine to heal people, but they're not.

They're kind of focused on themselves, saying, look at me. They're not wanting to help people. They want to focus on themselves. It's totally backwards. Send more money. Send more money. Focus on me. I can heal people. And it's all this kind of charade and charade and whatever. And it's sad. It's sad that if the Lord had blessed a person in this day and age, a believer that could heal people, he should be out there helping people. You know, not just focus on himself.

I think it's important to certainly give God the capability which he deserves of doing anything he wants in any life at any time to glorify himself. I mean, we're not limiting God. The issue is, do we need any more than the written word and the Holy Spirit? And the answer is no. We need nothing more because remember, our citizenship ain't here anyway, right? I mean, for me to live as Christ and die as Gain, that's got to be our view. Either way you win. Right? Other points? Stan?

I would add to that, though, that we don't need any more than the Word of God. But if someone is healed, it's not a sign. Praise God. God's able to do what He's able to do when He's able to do it. Absolutely. And believe me, you know, it's all in His perfect timing. Who does and who doesn't. We don't understand it. Yeah, Kay? And, I mean, it's not...

We can still pray for him. Like, if Lavin has a disease, I'm going to pray. I'm sure you will. You bet. But the issue, we're kind of getting tangential here a little bit, but when we pray, what's the purpose of prayer? I remember writing Miles Stanford about 20 years ago, and I said, Miles, can you help me and tell me how to pray? And he said, Brother Bob, you've asked a wonderful question. That was his answer. Thank you, Miles. That was his response. You've asked a great question.

So when we pray, I mean, you're praying for Laban and his illness or his condition or whatever, but where's the benefit of prayer occurring? I mean, not that God can't. In other words, they say if we all pray hard enough, we're going to get God to do what we want. I don't think that's what prayer's all about. God will allow to happen or do what he needs to do to make things consistent with his being glorified, whether it's a good outcome or a bad outcome.

I mean, I've prayed like crazy for a wife who's with the Lord and been there for 14 years now. Was my prayer failing? No, because during that process I increasingly became conformed to the image of his son. Prayer is for us. You pray for the other person. I pray for Margaret all the time. I pray for my children all the time.

But yet the prayer is to conform us to the image and bring us into fellowship with the Lord Jesus Christ, making sure he knows, we know he knows what we're thinking and doing, but yet now we're acknowledging to ourselves that he knows what we're thinking about, what our needs are. So pray, but we realize that the answer to prayer is God's perfect providence, and we benefit either way. So grace here is entirely Christ and everything he represents, who he is, what he's done, and how we enter into that great truth.

Our sin nature was judged. Our flesh judged. Deliverance from the dominion of the flesh has been secured. This whole bit of him being circumcised. And us being circumcised with him. Romans 15.8. Now I say that Jesus Christ has become a servant to the circumcision for the truth of God to confirm the promises made to the fathers. So in a sense he reflects back on the Jewish tradition of the circumcision made without hands. And for us, as Roger indicated, knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed and that henceforth we should not serve sin.

And we go on to Romans 6.11, reckon therefore all this to be true, right? In terms of our daily walk.

And finally, Philippians 3.3, for we are the circumcision which worship God in spirit and rejoice in Christ Jesus and have no confidence in the flesh. And that circumcision certainly isn't made with hands.

Any other thoughts, any points, any questions? This was fun, I think. There's a, as we've mentioned before, there's a tremendous amount of overlap between the topics that we're covering here, but each has kind of its little... a set of messages and nuances that make it quite special. And I think to kind of reflect back on what circumcision really was meant to indicate from the very beginning is an important thing for the leader to put in context here.

All right, if not, let's close in prayer. Father, we're grateful to gather together around the word, and your word is truth, and that truth prevails. If we respond by faith, which you've taught us to, ultimately things become clear. and that we're very, very fortunate to benefit by your great grace all wrapped up into this process and this scenario of the circumcision made without hands. We're thankful that we're fully accepted, placed in Christ, positioned above, that we may ultimately, as we live day to day by faith, glorify you. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.