Remove the Foreskin of your Heart

May 17, 2009

Text:  Jeremiah 4:4

Proposition:  How can I remove the foreskin of my heart?

Introduction

In the bible circumcision is mentioned frequently.  If you don’t know what the word means, much of the bible is meaningless to you.  Most adults who have male children know what the word means, but many young adults don’t know.  I was teaching a high school age class at a youth camp and no one in the class knew what circumcision meant.  I wasn’t sure what to do so I told the boys I would tell them after class and I told the girlsText:  Jeremiah 4:4

Proposition: How can I remove the foreskin of my heart?

Introduction

In the bible circumcision is mentioned frequently. If you don’t know what the word means, much of the bible is meaningless to you. Most adults who have male children know what the word means, but many young adults don’t know. I was teaching a high school age class at a youth camp and no one in the class knew what circumcision meant. I wasn’t sure what to do so I told the boys I would tell them after class and I told the girls to ask my wife or someone else. Circumcision is to remove the flesh of the foreskin from a male. If that doesn’t mean anything to you ask your mother or your father or someone you know well. Or look it up in the dictionary.

Circumcision was first mentioned in the bible with Abraham. Abraham was 99 years old at the time and Ishmael was 13 years old. God established the covenant of circumcision with Abraham. Abraham, Ishmael, and all of Abraham’s servants were circumcised. All of Abraham’s descendants were to be circumcised when they were eight days old. If any of Abraham’s descendants refused to be circumcised they were to be cut off from their people.

In our text in Jeremiah 4:4, “He says circumcise yourselves to the Lord, and remove the foreskin of your heart.” He is speaking figuratively. There is no foreskin on your heart. There is no way to cut flesh off of your heart and have it be any benefit to you. To understand what God is saying here we have to know some of the reason that God told Abraham to circumcise himself, those with him, and his descendants.

God didn’t tell Abraham to be circumcised just to put him in a lot of pain and discomfort for no reason. Circumcision is painful. Baby boys don’t like it. They cry in pain. If they were strong enough they would punch the doctor in the nose. It is even worse for a grown man. Simeon and Levi were able to kill every man in the city of Shechem because the men were in pain from being circumcised.

Circumcision has many benefits. A doctor told me that there are no benefits to circumcision. He said studies show there is no difference either way. I don’t know what studies he read, but I knew he was wrong. There are many benefits to circumcision.

• “The foreskin traps bacteria and other infectious agents, as well as accumulation malodorous smegma, its removal improves genital hygiene and reduces risk of diseases and other conditions over the lifetime for the boy and his future sexual partners.” (Morris, Brian, DSc Professor, School of Medical Sciences, University of Sydney, Circumcision: A guide for parents, 2006 Various Authors and Gilgal Society)
• A US Army report by General John Patton stated that in World War II 150,000 soldiers were hospitalized for foreskin problems due to inadequate hygiene, leading to the statements: “Time and money could have been saved had prophylactic circumcision been performed before the men were shipped overseas” and “Because keeping the foreskin clean was very difficult in the field, many soldiers with only a minimal tendency toward phimosis were likely to develop balanoposthitis [432]. Army urologists stated “Had these patients been circumcised before induction [into the Army] this total would have been close to zero”. In the Second World War Australia had to send urologists to circumcise all of its troops fighting in the North African campaign who were not already circumcised [529]. Similarly sand was a problem for uncircumcised men during the Gulf War in Iraq (‘Desert Storm’) in the early 1990s [195, 512]. (http://www.circinfo.net/what_caused_many_cultures_to_remove_it.html)

• There are more benefits of which are mentioned in a brochure Circumcision: A guide for parents.

• In our text the people of Judah had hearts full of the disease of sin. They needed to remove the foreskin of their hearts to clean their hearts and be rid of that sin for the rest of their lives.

In the New Testament circumcision is not a part of the covenant we have to keep in order to be a part of God’s people. Some Jews tried to make gentiles who became Christians be circumcised, but in Acts 15 it is made clear that circumcision has nothing to do with salvation, and to make circumcision a part of salvation is sin.

But circumcision of the heart is still required of us today.

Colossians 2:11-12

I. Return to the Lord (How can we return to the Lord?)

A. Put away detestable things. (What detestable things should we put away?)

1. Trooping to the harlots house

a. Jeremiah 5:7-8

b. The men of Judah were like stallions. They were always lusting after      their neighbors wife. They had no more morals than a stallion.

c. Matthew 5:27-28, your desire is to be only for your wife. No one else.     No pornography. No Sports Illustrated swimsuit issues. No     lusting after the women walking down the street.

2. Make yourself beautiful in vain

a. Jeremiah 4:30

b. The women of Judah made themselves beautiful in vain. They dressed      like a harlot. They painted their eyes and adorned themselves with                  gold, but it was useless. Their lovers killed them anyway.

c. II Kings 9:30-37

d. Jezebel made herself beautiful in vain. Jehu wasn’t impressed with idolatrous and murderous queen’s painted eyes. She had killed the prophets of God and had Naboth murdered so that Ahab could have his vineyard. Jehu had already shot her wicked son. She mocked Jehu when he rode into town she said, “Had Zimri peace, who slew his master?” Zimri had killed the king just as Jehu had killed the king, but Zimri’s reign was only seven days, I Kings 16:15. She was saying Jehu would reign only for a short time, but Jehu was commissioned by the Lord to execute judgment on the house of Ahab and he reigned 28 years, II Kings 10:36

e. I Peter 3:1-6, have a beautiful heart.

f. Proverbs 31:30

B. Seek refuge

1. Jeremiah 4:6

2. II Samuel 22:1-3, If we seek refuge in the Lord we will be secure and safe. A refuge is a safe place. In the Old Testament they had cities of refuge. If you accidentally killed a man you could flee to one of these cities and you would be safe from the relatives of the one you killed. If you killed him on purpose you would be tried and executed, but if it was an accident you would be safe inside the city. If you left the city the relatives of the one you killed could kill you and they would not be guilty of murder.

3. In Lexington we have refugees from Somalia. They fled their country to Kenya where they would be safe from all the fighting in Somalia.

4. We are to flee for refuge in Christ. Leave everything behind and run without looking back to Christ. A refugee doesn’t have time to take his possessions with him. He just has time to run to save his life.

5. God is our refuge. Armies, nuclear bombs, and shields to protect us from nuclear bombs are not our refuge. If God is not the refuge of a country then all these armies, bombs, and technology are just vain attempts at refuge.

6. Psalm 127:1

C. Don’t listen to false prophets

1. Jeremiah 5:30-31

2. Many people listen to false prophets and they like it. They don’t look into the word of God and compare what it says to what the false prophet says. What the false prophet says sounds nice and it appeals to their fleshly desire so they love it and come back for more.

3. It doesn’t matter if the false prophet lives at the Whitehouse or he preaches here in town. If he preaches what is false run from him

4. If he preaches murdering unborn children is not murder reject him

5. If he preaches homosexuals are just an alternate lifestyle and they deserve the same rights as a man and woman who are married run from him.

6. If he says you don’t need to be baptized to be saved run from him.

7. If he says Jesus isn’t the only way to heaven run from him.

II. Wash your heart (How can we wash our heart?) Jeremiah 4:14

A. Let Jesus clean your heart

1. Hebrews 10:19-22

2. He is the only one who can give us a clean heart

3. I Peter 3:21

B. Get rid of wicked thoughts

1. We are in control of our thoughts

2. II Corinthians 10:5

3. Satan can tempt us. He can put evil thoughts into our mind, but we are in control of what stays there.

4. Satan is the tempter

5. James 1:13-15

6. Sin starts in the thoughts. If we remove wicked thoughts sin cannot get started.

C. Watch over your heart with all diligence

1. Proverbs 4:23

2. Be careful what enters into your heart.

3. Be careful what you read. Read the bible. Many people read books about the bible and forget to read the bible itself.

4. Be careful what you watch and let your children watch. Don’t watch the filth on television. Don’t watch movies that have cussing, violence, murder and immorality

5. The heart is to be kept clean not polluted with the devil’s filth.

III. Don’t be a stupid child (How can we not be a stupid child?) Jeremiah 4:22

A. Know your father

1. The people of Israel had rejected God their father. God had provided for them and taken care of them, but they didn’t know Him.

2. They knew all about evil but they didn’t know about good.

3. We are to be the opposite of this.

4. Romans 16:19

5. We don’t need to know all about the things of witchcraft. We don’t need to know what is going on in the tabloids.   We don’t need to know what the latest movies are.

6. We do need to know the word of God and how to love and serve one another.

B. Don’t be stiffnecked or stubborn (Deuteronomy 10:16-22)

1. Love the orphan, the widow, and the alien.

2. Don’t take bribes

3. Be just

Conclusion

A heart that has its foreskin removed is a heart that has removed a hospitable environment for the disease and stench of sin. Sin can’t grow there because there is nothing to feed it. A heart with the foreskin removed is clean and it stays that way. Don’t go back to being uncircumcised. In the days of Antiochus Epiphanies some Jews wanted to look like the Greeks. They wanted to look like they were uncircumcised. Sometimes God’s people want to go back into sin and have their hearts uncircumcised.

We are to remove the foreskin or our heart and keep it that way.