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We begin to read this evening in the book of Genesis, chapter seventeen. The book of Genesis, chapter uh seventeen. And when Abram was ninety years old and nine, the Lord appeared to Abram and said unto him, I am God Almighty, walk before me and be thou perfect, and I will make my covenant between me and thee, and will multiply thee exceedingly. And Abram fell on his face, and God talked with him, saying, as for me, behold, my covenant is with thee, and thou shalt be the father of a multitude of nation. Neither shall thy name anymore be called Abram, but thy name shall be Abraham. For the father of a multitude of nations have I made thee. And I will make thee exceeding fruitful, and will make nations of thee, and kings shall come out of thee. And I will establish my covenant between me and thee, and thy seed after thee throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be a God unto thee and to thy seed after thee. And I will give unto thee and to thy seed after thee the land of thy sojournings, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession, and I will be their God. God said unto Abraham, as for thee, thou shalt keep my covenant, thou and thy seed after thee throughout their generations. This is my covenant which ye shall keep between me and you and thy seed after thee. Every male among you shall be circumcised. Verse fifteen: And God said unto Abraham, as for Sarai thy wife, thou shalt not call her name Sarai, but Sarah shall her name be. And I will bless her, and moreover I will give thee a son of her. Yea, I will bless her, and she shall be a mother of nations, kings of peoples 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 Abraham said unto God, Oh, that Ishmael might live before thee. And God said, Nay, but Sarah thy wife shall bear thee a son, and thou shalt call his name Isaac, and I will establish my covenant with him for an everlasting covenant for his seed after him. 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. He left off talking with him, and God went up from Abraham. We shall read some verses from the New Testament now that form a commentary in part upon these verses from Genesis. The epistle of Paul to the Philippians and chapter three. The epistle of Paul to Philippians and chapter three, beginning at verse one. Finally, my brethren, rejoice in the Lord. To write the same things to you, to me indeed is not irksome, but for you it is safe. Beware of the dogs, beware of the evil workers, beware of the concision. For we are the circumcision who worship by the Spirit of God and glory in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh. Though I myself might have confidence even in the flesh. If any other man thinketh to have confidence in the flesh, I yet more. Circumcised the eighth day of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of the Hebrews, as touching the law, a Pharisee, as touching zeal, persecuting the church, as touching the righteousness which is in the law, found blameless. How be it, what things were gain to me, these have I counted loss for Christ. Yea, verily, and I count all things to be loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus, my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of mine own, even that which is of the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith, that I may know him and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings, becoming conformed unto his death, if by any means I may attain unto the resurrection from the dead. God illumine our minds through his words and translate these precepts into practice. We were thinking here last Sunday evening on how Abraham learned to believe God, and how that when he believed God in simple faith, daring to remove his faith from himself and all else, and deliberately put his faith in God, it was counted to him for righteousness. We were learning, in a word, how Abraham was made right with God and entered into that personal relationship that brings peace with God, which brings a true and secure standing before God. That simple way that God has devised for us all who will. Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him for righteousness. We see, therefore, says the learned apostle, how that a man is justified apart from the works of the law and simply on the principle of. But tonight we must move on. For Abraham was not only justified before God, but when he was justified, God began to teach him those next necessary lessons in his spiritual pilgrimage, and now began to teach him how to walk before God and live a life that was honoring to God and of blessing to himself and to others. It is a simple word, that ancient Hebrew word that we translate walk. Walk before me, said God, and be perfect. He means thereby our whole life, our whole manner of behavior, our whole course through this world, whether it be in things secular in weekdays or things sacred on Sundays, whether it be in public or in private, whatever it be, in business or in pleasure, it is the believer's responsibility and joy to walk before God, conscious that the eye of God constantly rests on him, conscious of all the resource that he has in God Almighty. It is the whole purpose of a Christian life that it should learn to walk before God and to be one hundred percent sincere and vigorous and rigorous and determined and resolute and constant in its attempt to please God through every step of life's journey. Walk before me and be thou perfect. So that at the outset of our meeting tonight, we need to emphasize to ourselves that there are two parts to a believer's life. There is the beginning, and there is what follows. And we need to get them clear and in their proper order, because sometimes we grow mistaken on these things, do we not, and get the proverbial cart before the proverbial horse. There are those who think that in order to be a Christian, you begin by trying to do the things that Christians do, and they are desperately trying to become Christians, honestly seeking to live according to the Christian ethic. And if you were to ask them, are you saved? Are you a Christian? They say, well, I, I hope so. I, I do my best. But then that isn't how one becomes a Christian, is it? We do not become Christians by doing the best to lead a Christian life. The first starting point of becoming a believer, of being a Christian, is to enter this personal relationship with God, to get ourselves right with God, or to let it God rather put us right with him. That is where Abram started. First of all, he was justified by faith. He was made right with God. He entered into relationship with God and knew the peace of God trapped in his heart, knew himself accepted with God, knew himself secure in his relationship with God. Abraham was justified by faith. And if we would live a Christian life, then we need to listen to this glorious gospel message. You don't have to strive to live a Christian way in order to become a Christian. You become a Christian by discovering that in and of yourself you never possibly could live a Christian life. And in your spiritual bankruptcy and misery and frustration with yourself, you learn to quit trusting yourself and to cast yourself on the mercy of God in Jesus Christ, and dare to believe him and his great salvation. The moment you, like Abraham, believe God, God receives you, God accepts you, God gives you his spirit, God justifies you, God, uh, regenerates you, and you'll become, in all the fullness of that term, a Christian. But when we have become Christians, when we have trusted Christ, when we have been justified by faith, then there is the necessary next part, is there not? And I want to stress it, because some people I find have another difficulty, at least the people to whom I talk, and it's probably my fault for I don't explain things as I ought to explain them. But I was sitting, for instance, with a colleague of mine the other day at dinner, and he was talking about the sundry religions that had come his way, knocking on his front door and offering their goods. And when opportunity arose, I said to him, but my good man, you have noticed I expect, haven't you, that there is one difference between true Christianity and all other religions. Well, he hadn't, so I had to tell him. And it is this, that religion says, it says it in many different ways and in many different forms, but it amounts to the same thing. Religion says, work out your salvation, discipline yourself, do this, do that, do this other, and by doing it at length, perhaps you will arrive at your goal. Religion is a matter of doing. But I said you will notice that when you come to Christ, he offers you salvation as a free gift, and therein is the great difference. The wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life. You may tell the difference between true Christianity and religion. In that simple matter, religion is due, earned, merit. Achieve. Christ says, come and receive a gift. But of course, my colleague immediately took me up. But he said, that can't be surely, because if salvation is a gift, you see, you would go out and do you please, wouldn't you, if you didn't have to earn salvation. Of course, it's understandable that people that are not saved should talk like that, is it not? But it isn't true. Because when we do believe God, and like Abraham, enter into a personal relationship with God, there begins a something new. The believer is required to walk before God now. No time off. No holidays from this holy occupation, but constantly and ever walking before God, in living fellowship with God. And the believer who knows himself accepted with God will find that God holds out before him this goal, walk before me and And be be thou thou loved. perfect. Now please notice which way round it is. God didn't say to Abram, Abram, I want you to try and walk perfect before me, and if you succeed in the end, I will receive you. No, he had it the other way round. Abram, I have received you. Therefore, walk before me and be patient. And there are those two pieces, but they come in that order. It is important, then, at the outset this evening, that we get those two pieces. There are two pieces. Receiving salvation as a gift does not mean that we are then free to go and live as we please, because receiving salvation is entering a relationship with God, and it's a relationship that is meant to be active every moment thereof. But let me tell a story to illustrate how important this is, that we get it the right way round. For many, I say, labor under the mistake, getting it the wrong way round, thinking that they must try and walk before God as best they can so as to earn their acceptance with God at the end. There was a friend of mine once who told me the following little homely story. He went upstairs one night to find his little girlie in bed and deeply distressed. And when he inquired why, it turned out to be that she was deeply distressed at the prospect of the eleven plus. What dad would say if she didn't pass the eleven plus? Or would he be terribly angry and offended? The father was concerned to find out that she had those kind of thoughts in his mind, in her mind, whoever put them there. Just imagine the little girlie thinking that her father's acceptance of her depended on whether she passed the eleven plus or not. What would you have said if you'd have found your girlie in distress like that? Would you say, that's right, my dear, you get down to your studies, you do that algebra a hundred percent and the essays ten out of ten, and I'm not going to tell you that I accept you in my family, not just like that. I'm going to leave it uncertain. You get through that eleven plus, and if you don't, well, it's a very real possibility I should throw you out. You say no father would talk like that. No, nor did my friend either. But did the obvious that a father would do and said, my dear good girl, I shall love it if you get through the eleventh plus, but I shall love you still if you don't get through the the eleventh plus. Child of the father first, and a right in his home because she was his child. And because she was his child and will never cease to be his child, and knew the strength and security of a father's love. Then she found the courage to go out and face the eleven class. But it's curious, the parents there are who would never treat their children like that, but imagine that God is proposing to treat them like that. Pass all your spiritual examinations, and then at then's finals will come with the great final judgment. They imagine God is saying to them, and it will all depend on whether you pass final exams, whether I shall accept you into my presence or not. Oh, how cruel it is. Not that way round, friend. God isn't like that. God isn't as cruel as you think God is. God's way is to give us salvation first, though we are indeed wretched and miserable sinners. To give us salvation for Christ's sake, to give us his love for Christ's sake, and to receive us and accept us for Christ's sake, and to assure our timid hearts that we have been accepted, members of his family, born again children of God, and heirs of that kingdom. And because we are secure and loved for Christ's sake, then asked in that security and strength to face our spiritual training in the family and school of God. Walk before me and be thou perfect. But then in our study last evening, we found that when Abram set about this lesson, he discovered an unexpected difficulty and enemy. He set about it thinking that in the last analysis it was a fairly simple matter, and that his own strength would suffice to live decently and fulfill the promises of God, and found, indeed he had to be taught it over many a bitter year, that his own strength, what the Bible calls his flesh, is insufficient to do the will of God, even as a believer. He discovered what Saint Paul has discovered, and what many of us have discovered since we trusted the Savior, that in our flesh there dwells no good thing. And just as before we were saved, we were in the flesh and could not please God. So since we trusted Christ, our flesh is just the same. We're no more able now of ourselves to please God than we were before. So that if we are to walk before God and be perfect, we shall need to discover the great provision that God has made for us, so that we can, in fact, walk before God and be perfect. And the provision that God has made for us, we can get it right clear right from the start, for the New Testament tells us what it is. It is this. If we were to walk before God and be perfect, then here it comes. Says Saint Paul, walk, walk in the spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lusts of the flesh. For these two are contrary one to the other, the spirit and the flesh, and the flesh lusts against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh, so that you should not do the things that otherwise you would do. Walk in the spirit. Now, again, we need to get it clear what he means, do we not? When the Bible says walk in the spirit, it isn't merely saying, oh, come now, my good woman, show a little bit of Christian spirit, do. You know how it is Christmas time, don't you? And you're going down Royal Avenue with five baskets fulls in your two hands of presents and whatnot, trying to be cheerful, and somebody barges into you and spills all the packages in the mud, and an omnibus runs over them, and you feel like saying exactly what you think, and they say, but have a good bit of Christian spirit. Do, isn't this Christmas? You know, show a bit of Christmas spirit. But thank God, when God says walk in the spirit, he isn't talking about that kind of thing. Some sort of superficial effort to put on a nice smiling face when you're feeling very different inside. It's something bigger than that. It is a relationship with God. God who is spirit. It is waking up to the fact that when Christ received us, he put us into his spirit, who is a divine person with all the resources of Godhood. We are to learn how to count on him in the partnership, that God might work within us by his spirit, the willing to do his will and the power to do his will. We in turn, laying hold of that power, learn to translate it in practical Christian living. And here is the glorious thing. There are folks who timidly stand on the brink of salvation. Afraid to let go, afraid to trust Christ, afraid to take that step of faith into Christ. And their fears are reasonable, in a sense. They say, look, I've known many a man who professes to be saved, to be a Christian, and he's a hypocrite. And I'm not going to profess to be something that I can't keep up. And I know, says somebody standing here, that if I were to say I trusted Christ, yet I couldn't keep it up. Here is the gospel for you, friend. And it goes like this, that certainly you can't keep it up. Your fears are very good, and they're very true. You never said a truer word. You couldn't possibly keep it up. In fact, you're far weaker than you think you are. If I were to tell you from God's word how desperately weak you are, you might at this stage be offended. Trust Christ tonight, in forty years time, you'll agree with me. You can't keep it up. But then God, who is a realist, has a salvation to meet your need. And this matter of trusting God and enter in- entering into a personal relation with him is a real thing. For God is a living God, and it is his spirit coming to abide within us provides the power to keep it up, as you put it. To illustrate this, God has written the history of Abraham in this ancient time. The lessons that God taught him had to be taught him as a lowly devil, with simple illustrations, but we shall use them tonight. They might help us to think this matter through. How can I walk before God? How can my life be a genuine Christian spiritual life and not a lot of outward pretence and thin veneer hiding frustration and failure within me. Said God to Abraham, Abraham, I must begin to teach you to walk before me. Therefore, first of all, I will make a covenant with you, and you with me. Every male in your household shall be circumcised. It must strike us Westerners as a very curious ritual and habit. Historically, we know it wasn't confined to the Hebrews. Many other nations in the Middle East were circumcised. What God did was to take what was a common, very common right amongst other nations and invest it with certain special significance for Abraham and his posterity. With the help of our New Testament, we are to consider what those varied significances were. First of all, this rite of circumcision was a covenant between God and Abraham as to his physical posterity. So that when you read in the Bible in many places of the circumcision, or those of the circumcision, it is another way of referring to the physical descendants of Abraham, the Jew. God marked them out. Just let's pause a moment to observe it. Circumcision basically a sign and mark and covenant to the physical descendants of Abraham. You say, why did God want to mark out Abraham's physical descendants as being special? All for a very good historical reason. It was God's good pleasure one day to send into the world Jesus Christ, his son, as our savior. And so that we might have absolute assurance that Jesus is the son of God. God, among other things, devised this method. He would choose a nation. He would prophesy that Jesus Christ, our Savior, should come by physical descent from that physical nation. And in the end, Christ was born, as the prophets prophesied he would, born of the seed of Abraham, born of the seed of David, and born in Bethlehem, the city of David. Would you say, why is that important? By this way, rather. Anybody can decide to be a philosopher if he's got the brain. And many people in the course of history have decided to be philosophers. God bless them. Anybody can start a religion, if you've got a bit of imagination. And many people in history have decided to start religion. But there is one thing people can't do. You can't decide to be born of Abraham's physical seed, can you? You have a go. This is quite beyond men's part. And therefore it becomes an exceedingly important piece of evidence, because it is so arbitrary. There were the prophecies of Messiah, that nobody could engineer being born as the Christ, nobody could arrange to be born of this particular physical. It's a small thing, it's a straw in the wind, but Matthew thinks it's important enough that in his opening chapter of his gospel, he invites you to consider how Jesus Christ was born of that physical nation, of the seed of David, of the seed of Abraham. For in our salvation, we have not a something that a human mind thought up and invented, as men have invented philosophies and religions. We have God intervening in history, arbitrarily intervening, bringing in his son to be our savior by the sovereign choice of that nation and of the Virgin Mother. But then circumcision, so the Bible tells us, was more than just a sign and covenant of the physical descendants of up and invented, as men have invented philosophies and religions. We have God intervening in history, arbitrarily intervening, bringing in his son to be our saviour by the sovereign choice of that nation and of the Virgin Mother. But then circumcision, so the Bible tells us, was more than just a sign and covenant of the physical descendants of Abraham. It was meant to be an emblem. Walk before me and be thou perfect, says God to Noah. And then suggested that he should be circumcised. We can find out how the Jews regarded it, if we listen to their poets and their prophets. The Jewish prophets are to be heard complaining in this fashion. Yes, you men of Israel may be physically circumcised, but your hearts remain uncircumcised and your ears remain uncircumcised. What do they mean? They mean this, that many in Israel, being born of a Jewish father, had gone through the rites of the Jewish church, but instead of those rites being a symbol of spiritual reality, they had remained mere external things. And as to their hearts, they were still unregenerate, still fast closed to God. Their hearts were as worldly as ever, as fleshly as ever, as sinful as ever. Their ears were closed. They had no time for the word of God. Didn't love God's word, made no attempt to do it. Circumcised in their flesh. That's where it began and ended, a superficial and therefore meaningless rite. And Paul takes his fellow nationals to task, doesn't he? Putting his rapier underneath their skin and beginning to reach their heart and their conscience, and he says, look here, what use is your circumcision? You profess to be the special people of God, but some of the Gentiles behave better than you do. If a Gentile that is not circumcised keeps the law, and you who are uncircumcised, you don't keep the law? The Jo- Gentile, though he is uncircumcised, is a far better man than you. It seems to me that we Christians need to listen to it. Christianity has its symbols, doesn't it? Symbol of baptism. It has its symbol of the Lord's Supper. It has the symbols of wearing hats or not wearing hats in church. And good and right and helpful those symbols are, so long as they point us to spiritual realities. But it is all too possible, isn't it? To go through the symbols. And to forget all about the need for spiritual reality. Well, let's get this thing clear. You can be baptized um ten thousand times. If it doesn't answer to some spiritual reality, it is utterly, utterly useless. You can sit at the Lord's Supper and take those sacred emblems, the bread emblem of his body, the wine emblem of his blood. And if there is no spiritual reality in your heart, it is worse than useless. I try to get under your skin as well? We shall realize that when we talk of salvation, we are talking of something so important that we cannot afford to deceive ourselves. There are multitudes of people that have been baptized, that have never been regenerate, never personally trust. Do not know the Savior. He's solemn. The mere ceremony does nothing. Hear our Lord. He said that when at last the door is shut, there shall come people knocking on the door, and they shall say, but Lord, open to us. And why? Well, we ate and drank in thy presence. And he shall say, depart from me. I never knew. Allow me in God's name, would you? To ask you just to make sure and examine your heart. If you've been baptized, if you take the Lord's Supper, oh, let me ask you, friend. Are you sure it represents a spiritual reality? Have you been born again? Do you know Christ personally? For all the ceremonies in the world are useless if they do not represent spiritual reality. Which brings us to another point, doesn't it? When Paul comes to talk about Abram's experience, he has a very interesting thing to say. He is in course of telling us in Romans chapter four how Abraham was justified before God. Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him for righteousness. But then Paul had a north eye on some bearded rabbis and a south eye on some of his other Jewish co- uh, fellow nationals. Because they were constantly getting this thing wrong, they were saying to themselves, well, they've been circumcised, so they were the saved of the Lord. And if anybody wasn't circumcised, they couldn't possibly be saved. I do remember a student in the University of Newcastle who asked me to go and spend some time with him at a Sunday afternoon for several Sundays reading the Old Testament because he was a Jewish student. I suspect he was a highly unorthodox one, though officially he was very orthodox. Because he told me this, he said, you know, you Gentiles are hopeless. Oh, I said, he said so. That's nice to know. Yes, he said, you're utterly hopeless. But we Jews, we're all right. Oh, I said, he said so. Yes, he said, I'm an absolute rotter myself, personally, in my own moral life, an absolute rotter, but I'm all right. I said, is that so? Yes, he said, because the Bible says, who is like unto thee, O Israel, saved of the Lord? Wow. Because he was physically circumcised, he thought he was saved, even though on his own confession he was was a a lot rotter. of. Now How come. come? What about our Christian ceremonies? This business of being baptized, what does it do? But look, says Paul, talking of Abraham. Will you please notice? Notice very carefully. When was Abraham justified by faith? And when was he circumcised? Which came first? Well, there's no doubt about it. Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him for righteousness. It is recorded in Genesis chapter fifteen. And Abraham was circumcised. That is recorded in Genesis seventeen. It was faith and justification first, and then afterwards circumcision. So it must be with us. Why would we say it's no good getting baptized first, you know? That is utterly useless. It must be first personal trust in Christ, first being born again, and thereafter baptism as a seal of the righteousness which is by faith. Oh, says somebody, but, uh, Mr. Preacher, that is true of Abraham himself. He was personally justified first, and then he was circumcised. And the Bible tells us that his circumcision was a kind of a seal of the righteousness he had by faith. But, Mr. Preacher, doesn't your Bible say that his children had a right to the sign and seal, even though they had no personal faith. Yes, he does. For all Abram's children thereafter had to be circumcised on the eighth day, and they couldn't possibly have any personal faith on the eighth day, could they? You say, therefore, if Abram's children had a right to the sign of the covenant while they were still without personal faith, haven't we in our Christian day a right to the sign of the covenant even before we come personally to faith? So long as my father is a Christian and my mother is a Christian, hadn't I a right to be baptized as an infant even before I came to personal faith? And the answer is no, sir. No. With due respect. For the first reason that the Bible never says that baptism is the equivalent of circumcision, never. And secondly, listen to this. Circumcision was, in its basis, covenant between Abram and God and his physical posterity. So Abram was a believer. His little child, who was no, not yet a believer and couldn't be, had a right to be circumcised because he was physically descended from Abel. Past now a dozen generations, and here is a little wee thing born. His father and mother are believing Jewesses, but this little thing, he's circumcised. He grows up to be a horrible idolater. And he has no apostate. Now tell me, has his child the right to be circumcised? You say, yes, of course he has. This is a physical descendant of Abraham, and the Bible agrees, yes. Simply because he's a physical descendant of Abraham, even though his parents are utter unbelievers, his right to be circumcised. Would you like to claim that any child, even of an atheist, has a right to be baptized, simply because he's a physical descendant of some remote grandfather who was a believer. Wouldn't like to claim that, would you? I don't know of anybody who does. But then you see the two things are not square. I repeat, the New Testament never says that baptism is the equivalent of circumcision. For circumcision was primarily an indication of physical descent. It became a symbol only to those who had themselves exercised personal prayer. But come to a far deeper matter. Circumcision was meant to be an emblem, a cutting off of the flesh, the expression of a determination to walk before God and please him. Two mistakes were made about it. One was this, the one we've already seen, people content in Israel to be circumcised, and they couldn't care less how they lived. That was sad. Then there was the other mistake. Jews that were circumcised, endeavoring to keep the whole law, slowly, slowly, slowly. Instead of doing it as a result of personal faith in God and personal salvation, like Abram, they turned it round in their minds as a means of getting salvation. Oh, what proud men it made them. This was the root trouble with many a Pharisee whom our Lord met, was it not? The root trouble with Saul of Tarsus himself. Born in a religious atmosphere, he took to religion like some men take to swimming. He was good at it. And so from his youth upward, he set about being religious. He learned the Old Testament, he kept the rules, the laws, the rituals, the ceremonies. He knew them by heart and determined in his heart that he wouldn't be just an ordinary four-fifths Jew, he would be a real saint of a Jew. By his elaborate and careful determination, gradually built up his ego until he felt he had nearly arrived and touching the righteousness which is in the law claims. He wasn't saved, and he discovered. He circumcisioned and all the religious efforts it stood for had become, instead of a means of leading him to God, had become one great colossal means of independence of God. Trying to earn salvation, trying to improve himself. And it led him to the dangerous notion that he had nearly succeeded. When he heard those Nazarenes on the street corner preaching salvation through Jesus, it used to make his blood boil and his fresh to- flesh creep. What do they mean, salvation? Wasn't he as good as anybody could possibly be? What right had they to tell him that he needed to be saved? Had he not kept the law? Had he not kept the rituals? Hadn't he been circumcised? Wasn't he of the tribe of Benjamin? Ooh, he could have freely rubbed their necks for telling him he needed to be saved. And then when they dared to say they were saved. It's so enraged him that he persecuted them to prison and to death. Yes, it's a very clear and extreme example of how circumcision and the law and all the religious effort that is associated with it can so easily become an expression of independence of God. We can do the same thing with, with Christian things, can we not? I vividly remember talking to a friend. He had been and was an alcoholic. He was in such a desperate way that he realized that if something was not done, his whole life would be ruined. A medic himself, he sought the aid of medics, quite properly. But realizing that his trouble was not merely a physical and mental trouble, it was a spiritual trouble, he sought the help of a Christian minister, and he began to prayer and prayer and attend early morning church and read his Bible. I first met him when, after a lecture, he came up to me and he said, you know, I'm an alcoholic. He said, and I- I've been trying to improve myself, and I- I- I- by God's grace, he's helped me a lot. But what is this being saved you talk of? What is this eternal life? I haven't got that. But it's good I got it. So we met in a friend's house. As we sat down, he told me in great detail his story, the terrible fear of his life being absolutely and permanently ruined. How he pleaded with God as he went at last to London to, to take the last course of medicine that was open to him, that it would succeed. How he went to church that morning and prayed God's help and had constantly gone since. And he says, and yet, you know, he said, David, there's, there's still something I miss. I don't feel all I should do. I said, understandably, old chap. I said, would I put it right if I were saying that now you were seeing your life was so in danger that you've been your doing your utmost to get it right until you feel it would last, it would be good enough to please God? He said, that's it. I said, you never will, you know, will you? Never will, he said. What do you mean? I said, you'll never make it good enough for God. I saw his face drop. Why not? I said, it can't be done, can it? You're too much of a wreck. You'll never, by the best religion in the world, improve yourself to a state where then at last you are acceptable with God. It can't be done. How is to do, he said then, what is to do? I said, now that's the point, isn't it? What we cannot do because we are bankrupt, Christ can do. I quoted him the experience of Saul of Tarsus, that proud religious man, circumcised the eighth day and full of his religion, but independent of God, and how at length he came to his knees in his bankruptcy and realized that after the best religion could do, he was a sinner still. Says, I got that religion that I had worked with my own hands, and I threw it overboard. I might be found in Christ, not having a righteousness which is of my own, but that which is of faith of Jesus Christ. I said, friend, what you can't do, Christ can do. You're prepared to take him as a banker, as a wreck. You take. He receives you now, grants you forgiveness and acceptance, saves you, and by his spirit will begin to repair you. I thought he was going to be saved right then. And then he said, ah, just a minute, he said. You know the boys I play golf with? I said, no, I don't know. Well, he said, you know, they're not too bad chaps, but they were to receive Christ, like you say. I said, bother the boys you play golf with. You get this settled first, old fellow. No, no. Look, he said, turning to me and my other friend. He said, I can see you've got something, but you still sin, don't you? I said, we do indeed. He said, then at night you go by your bed and you get down and you confess your sins, don't you, and God forgives them. I said, that's right. He said, well, why can't I do that without receiving Christ? As far as I know, that's where he stands still, doing his level best to make himself accepted with God, but not prepared to receive Christ. Oh, how easily religion and its ritual and ceremonies can become a form like that of independence for God. We come therefore to our last lesson. In that ancient ceremony, there was something more, and it is one. For Paul the Apostle, talking to Christians, says like this in the Epistle to the Colossians, that whereas the Jews had a circumcision of the flesh, there is a deep spiritual reality that answers to it in Christianity. Hear what it is. It's not baptism. Please. The great spiritual reality that answers to circumcision is a spiritual circumcision not made with hands. Now, baptism is done with hands, isn't it? As anybody will know who has seen a baptism done, you can't do it without hands. The equivalent of circumcision in the spiritual realm is a spiritual experience that isn't done with hands. It is the circumcision of Christ. So what does that mean? Well, simply, friend, the trouble with us is not our external flesh, is it, so much? That's bad enough. The trouble with us is that deeper thing, our whole nature gone wrong and fallen, always dragging us to sin, always pulling us away from God. An evil nature within us. Though if there had been made a knife that I could get it and plunge it into my heart and carve out that evil thing. But there's no knife been made that can reach there. Is there no deliverance? Indeed there is. The circumcision of Christ. Let me tell you what happens. When a man trusts Christ, when a man believes God and is justified, not only receives pardon, but there happens to something deep down in his very being. A basic, an exceedingly fundamental thing. I put it like this, that the very roots of his being are cut. And whereas before this man had the roots of his being in the flesh, when a man in his bankruptcy repents and trusts Christ, the very roots of his being are transferred, and they are put in God's Holy Spirit. So that Saint Paul can say to believers, you are not in the flesh, but you are in the spirit. It doesn't mean that a man, when he gets saved, ha- doesn't have the flesh with him anymore, it still remains with him. Ah, but so I quote you again the miracle. Whereas before that man or woman had the roots of her being in that flesh, when we repent and trust Christ, the very roots of our beings are put in the spirit. That's what being saved is. Friend, I ask you where the basis of your life is, where the roots of your personality are. As you were born, the real you had your roots in the flesh. It's fallen. It's corrupt. You may decorate it with religion and restrain it with ethics, but in the end it's still corrupt, and it is doomed to perish. So, are the roots of your being still in the flesh? And you're lost. And in spite of all your, you perished. But if tonight, in true repentance, you realize how bankrupt you are, you abandon faith in sin, learn to put your faith in Christ. In that very moment, the divine miracle is done, the circumcision of Christ, and your very personality has its roots removed from the flesh and put in the sea. Oh, what a transaction it is. Tonight, this great congregation stands in one place or the other, religious or irreligious, respectable or unrespectable, then your personality either tonight is rooted in your faith, or else the great change has come. You have received Christ, and you have been placed by God in his spirit. I wonder which it is. And don't suppose that death is going to change anything. It's not worms in the coffin that make the difference. When the Lord comes, the believer shall be raised and given a body like Christ, and the old corrupt thing shall have gone forever. Why? Because in this life, the great change over took place. They were transferred from being in the flesh to being in the spirit. Oh friend, but die as you were born, with the real you, your personality still rooted in the flesh without any other ground of existence save the flesh, die, but you will be raised, all the old things with you to haunt you. How important we get this thing clear. It goes to the very roots of our salvation and is, of course, the secret of our continuing Christian. My dear believer, you struggle to be holy. Don't expect big things of your flesh, will you? It is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be and never will be. Learn daily to own your bankruptcy. Learn daily not to trust yourself. Learn what is the fact that if you are a believer, the very roots of your being are in God's Holy Spirit. Learn to lay hold of the energies of that divine and almighty person that resides in you and in whom you reside, so that you might walk after the spirit and so fulfill the law of God. These are complicated things, yet they are vitally important. When you do not understand what I mean by this radical changeover. Or if you are uncertain that you have experienced this changeover, if you are not certain that you are in his spirit, but sit there wondering, am I in the flesh or am I in the spirit? I plead with you in God's name, give us here in this church a chance as friends to explain what is involved. Speak to the enemy. Speak to a Christian friend abroad. Speak to me if you can. It is important. Our eternity rests on this great change of life. Shall we pray? O God, we have lingered at thy word, and we pray now the strength of thy Holy Spirit, who inspired this word, that he may strengthen our minds so that we shall understand, that he may strengthen our will so that now in these moments we may dare to face realities in ourselves and outside. And Lord, if we are wanting, if we have not yet res- experienced this great change, I say.