Sign, Sign, Everywhere a Sign
Genesis 17: 9-13 (NLT)
Intro: Back in the seventies, there was a one hit wonder band called the five man electrical band. There one mega hit was called “Signs”.
. The chorus went like this:
. Signs, Signs, Everywhere there's signs. Blocking out the scenery. Breaking my mind. Do this! Don't do that! Can't you read the signs?
. That song was true then and it is true today. We have signs everywhere don’t we. Signs that tell us where we are, when to stop, when to go, when to be careful. When we can’t speak or people can’t hear us, we just use a sign to tell people what we want them to know.
. A Salvation Army woman was informed by a policeman that a local ordinance would prevent her from ringing her bells to invite contributions. She was contrite and apologetic that she had “broken” the law. But the next day she was back in front of the store… doing a brisker business than ever… as she waved one sign and then another in the air.
One sign said "ding" and the other said "dong."
. As the old saying goes, there is more than one way to skin something.
. Signs are one way we communicate and many times how we identify things.
. Signs are important in the lives of Gods people also. They may not be printed signs but we do portray who we are by the way we live. There are things that Christians are supposed to do to identify themselves as Christians. The Lords Supper and Baptism.
Doing these things say that we belong to God. People should be able to identify God’s people by looking at them, and what they do and how they act. Our lives are signs to the world.
. Our scripture this morning is telling us about a sign that identifies God’s people.
. We are back in Genesis, chapter 17.
. This chapter tells us many things.
. The first thing we see is this is where we are introduced to the name El Shaddi which means God almighty. The all powerful God.
. Many times we see that the names of God are introduced to us by the people who are speaking or writing.
. If you remember a few weeks ago we were introduced to the name EL-Roi by Hagar. She told God that from now on I will call you El-Roi, the God who sees me.
. Here in chapter 17, God tells Abram the name the He wants him to remember Him by.
. Verse 1 of chapter 17 tells us this:
. 1When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the LORD appeared to him and said, “I am El-Shaddai—‘God Almighty. Serve me faithfully and live a blameless life.
2I will make a covenant with you, by which I will guarantee to give you countless descendants.”
. We are introduced to the name for the powerful God of the universe. The almighty God.
. God tells Abram to serve Him faithfully and in return He will bless him.
. Also here in chapter 17, God changes Abram,s name to Abraham and Sari’s name to Sarah. He gives them these new names when He gives them the sign of the covenant.
. God has just told Abraham that He was making a contract, a covenant with him. He told him that Abraham and his descendants would be God’s chosen people and God promised him the entire land of Canaan forever. Then He told them this.
. 9Then God said to Abraham, “Your responsibility is to obey the terms of the covenant. You and all your descendants have this continual responsibility.
10This is the covenant that you and your descendants must keep: Each male among you must be circumcised.
11You must cut off the flesh of your foreskin as a sign of the covenant between me and you.
12From generation to generation, every male child must be circumcised on the eighth day after his birth. This applies not only to members of your family but also to the servants born in your household and the foreign-born servants whom you have purchased.
13All must be circumcised. Your bodies will bear the mark of my everlasting covenant.
. You will have a sign, a mark on you that will identify you as one of my chosen people.
. When you do this, you are acknowledging who I am and what I mean to you.
. This will set you apart from the rest of the world. Your old identity will be gone. No longer are you who you used to be, now you are one of my chosen people.
. This tells the world who you worship and serve.
. This sign of faith by circumcision is just the beginning of what God expected from Abraham and his descendants.
. After this act, you are supposed to be different than the other people in the world.
. This act was a spiritual sign that you were dedicated to God.
. This was the way that everybody started identifying the Jewish people. The people that God had chosen to reveal himself to the world through.
. As you read and study God’s word, you will see that the Jewish people became prideful of this.
. This sign became a national pride, not a submission to God and a promise to follow him.
. They started depending upon the sign for their relationship with God instead of what they had in their hearts.
. They were depending on an outward sign instead of an inward commitment to God.
. It got to the point where the Israelites thought that it was circumcision that made them right with God.
. The problem was that this was the sign, not the actual covenant.
. Remember verse 1?
. 1When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the LORD appeared to him and said, “I am El-Shaddai—‘God Almighty. Serve me faithfully and live a blameless life.
. Serve me faithfully, that was the covenant. Circumcision was the sign. Not the actual covenant.
. God had gotten tired of only a perfunctory commitment from his people.
. They were being circumcised but they were not being the people of God the He wanted and intended them to be.
. Look at Deut. 10: 12-16 (NIV)
. 12 And now, Israel, what does the LORD your God ask of you but to fear the LORD your God, to walk in obedience to him, to love him, to serve the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul,
13 and to observe the LORD’s commands and decrees that I am giving you today for your own good?
14 To the LORD your God belong the heavens, even the highest heavens, the earth and everything in it.
15 Yet the LORD set his affection on your ancestors and loved them, and he chose you, their descendants, above all the nations—as it is today.
16 Circumcise your hearts, therefore, and do not be stiff-necked any longer.
. Circumcision is a separation from the world. A separation from sin.
. Cut away, circumcise the old person and, the old sinful heart and serve with a new heart.
. What does this mean to us today. We do have circumcision but it is just a health issue, not a religious issue for Christians today.
. While we don’t have circumcision as a sign of our commitment to God, we do have baptism.
. The Great commission found in Matthew 28 tells us that as we are going through life, we should tell people about Jesus and when they accept His death for their sin then we should baptize them.
. This is a sign that they have accepted what Jesus did for them.
. The Baptism doesn’t save them, the acceptance of Jesus Christ does that and along with that commitment comes a circumcision of the heart.
. A change of heart. A new creation in Christ Jesus.
. Paul gives us the best definition of Christian circumcision in his letter to the church at Colossi.
. Look with me at Colossians 2:11-12.
. 11When you came to Christ, you were “circumcised,” but not by a physical procedure. Christ performed a spiritual circumcision—the cutting away of your sinful nature.
12For you were buried with Christ when you were baptized. And with him you were raised to new life because you trusted the mighty power of God, who raised Christ from the dead.
. We are baptized because we have trusted in the mighty power of God.
. Our sin is cut away and we tell the world that we now are one of Gods children.
. I talk to many people today whose only testimony is that they were baptized.
. I hear things like, “well preacher I was baptized when I was 8 years old in a little country church over at …..”
. I walked the aisle at so and so’s church and was baptized.
. I met with a couple yesterday who want me to marry them. We met for some pre marital counseling. I had sent them a text on Friday asking them to be ready to tell me about their faith. I wanted to hear their testimony.
. Folks if you are here this morning and claim to be a Christian, you must have a testimony. There must be a time that you knew that you believed and accepted what Jesus did for you.
.Anyway, as we were talking, I asked them to share their faith with me.
. The first words out of both mouths was, “well I was baptized”
. Well me being the shy introvert that I am, I let that pass. Not.
. We talked about be baptized as the sign of salvation. The outward expression of a circumcised heart.
. The baptism was not the salvation experience. The faith that we place in God through Jesus Christ is how God makes a covenant with us and we solidify that, we show the world through baptism.
. Baptism is our circumcision.
. It symbolizes the removal of the old sin in our lives and it identifies us a child of God.
. It is not what saves us folks.
. My heart breaks for those that think that just because they were baptized that they are saved.
. They are just like the children of Israel who thought that just because they had the sign of circumcision that they were heirs to eternal life with God.
. God says no, your heart must be circumcised. There is a change if there is true salvation.
. We are not the same person we were before we met Jesus.
. There are other signs that Christians should be showing in their lives.
. God told Abraham that He must serve him faithfully.
. When we are bonded with Christ through our belief in him, we are to serve Him faithfully.
. Not occasionally. Always.
. Our lives should be an open book of service to God.
. Our lives should be dominated by our Love for God.
.The signs we should show are our love for God and for each other.
. Our testimony must always be that we were saved when we came to the realization that we were sinners and in need of forgiveness from God for those sins.
. Our testimony must always be that we were saved through the death of Jesus Christ for the punishment for our sin.
. The Israelites carried the sign of the covenant through circumcision but God told them that there was more. They must have a heart that has been circumcised.
. We carry the sign of salvation through baptism but there must be more.
. Just like Abraham and everybody else that is a true child of God, we must wear the sign of a heart that has been changed, the sin has been cut away and a life that is lived faithfully for God.
. Neither circumcision nor baptism can save you, only faith in God through what Jesus Christ did on the cross.
Invitation
*** To my Christian brothers and sisters, thank you for taking the time to read this sermon. I ask that you take another second and score this for me. I am always open to feedback so that I can continue to grow in the proclamation of God’s word.
May God bless you as you continue to strive to walk worthy of His calling.
Sources: The Holy Bible, NLT
