Circumcision - Part 2 with Bro. John "Ernie" Perez

Join us "Around the Table" with Bro. John "Ernie" Perez, Sis. Patti Perez and Sis. Audia as he takes us on the study of Circumcision in the Old and New Testament.

A sharp sign, a deeper cut: we follow the thread from Abraham’s covenant to the prophets’ plea to “circumcise your heart,” and discover why God cares more about inner allegiance than outward ritual. Our roundtable digs into Genesis, Exodus, Deuteronomy, Joshua, and Jeremiah to show how faith moves first, obedience follows, and together they shape identity. Abraham believes before the knife; Moses learns the cost of delay; Joshua pauses a nation to heal before crossing into promise. Each scene asks the same question: what part of your past still clings to you, and what needs to be cut away so a different future can grow?

We unpack how the law codifies but does not create God’s promises, and why symbols without surrender ring hollow. The prophets push past ceremony to the center of the will, calling for hearts that are soft, responsive, and ready for seed. That’s where Jesus’ parable of the sower lands with force: the word is living, but soil decides whether life matures. Shallow roots wither under heat, thorny desires choke growth, and only a well-prepared heart bears fruit that multiplies. Along the way we explore costly faith—David refusing cheap sacrifice, adult converts embracing a painful mark, and disciples who left nets for a greater call.

This conversation offers practical takeaways for modern disciples: let God plow hard ground, prioritize Jesus over every competing loyalty, and choose acts of obedience that confirm what you believe. If you’ve wrestled with empty ritual, spiritual apathy, or a divided heart, you’ll find language and Scripture to name the problem and a path toward renewal that actually bears fruit.

If this episode challenged or encouraged you, share it with a friend, subscribe for part three as we move into New Testament references, and leave a review with one step you’re taking to prepare your heart this week.  (*Recorded 11/24/25)

Ways to Give at www.m3mi.org...Thank you for your seed!  :)

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:40

Hey, welcome to Simple Discipleship Unfiltered. I'm Sister Diamond, and I'm so grateful to have you all joining us again today as we continue this study on the object lesson of circumcision. As we dive deep into this, and I know Brother Ernie says he's not the deep one, but he is. Glad to have Brother Ernie with us right now. Good to be back. Sister Patty. Good morning or afternoon. And Sister Audia. Back. All right. And we forgive Sister Ann because she is working, but the others, they know who they are. They're dogs. But nevertheless, we're grateful to be here today. We we just uh had recorded our part one of this on circumcision, and we were talking about, of course, God's covenant with Abraham and with God walking through that. Can you just kind of give us an overview, just a little snippet of what we talked about and as we continue into Leviticus?

Abraham’s Covenant And Faith Sign

SPEAKER_02 1:40

The fact that in order for Abraham to receive the promises that God was making him, he had to separate himself from his previous environment completely. So he left Ur of the Chaldees, he stopped in Haran, stayed there till his dad died, he finally makes it over. And when he gets into Canaan's land, God begins explaining to him more thoroughly about what's going to take place in his life. And he receives circumcision as a sign of the covenant that God gave him. It is a token of the covenant that cannot be overlooked. So we had ended up talking. We were at how serious was circumcision. And we we looked at Exodus chapter 4 and 24, when the Lord was going to kill Moses because one of his sons was not circumcised. And so evidently, in the past, Moses and his wife Sepporah had found this as a hot topic. And there was evidently division because when at last his son was circumcised, I guess she's the one that did it, and she was unhappy, and she threw the foreskin at his feet and said, You're just a husband who wants to spill blood and yada yada yada. But whatever anger she had, the encounter with the Lord made her know, well, we will comply with circumcision, whether I like it or not, is not the issue.

SPEAKER_01 3:29

Yeah, because part of her culture wasn't that, right? Right. So you kind of understand.

SPEAKER_02 3:35

Understand where she would be a little peevish. Yeah. But evidently Moses didn't do the best job of explaining why his sons needed to be circumcised. He couldn't convince her. But when the when the Lord showed up and said, I'll kill him, you know, there was a certain amount of enlightenment.

SPEAKER_01 3:55

So it may be good that she liked him on that day. So because she basically saved his life. Yes. So yeah, go ahead.

Moses, Zipporah, And The gravity Of Obedience

SPEAKER_02 4:07

So we're now at Leviticus chapter 12. So if you want to turn there, Leviticus 12. And I'm going to read verse 3. And here we have, well, I'll read the first three verses. And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, God is giving Moses the principles of Levitical law. Speak unto the children of Israel, saying, If a woman have conceived seed and born a man child, then she shall be unclean seven days, according to the days of the separation, for her infirmity shall she be unclean. And in the eighth day, the flesh of his foreskin shall be circumcised. Now this is incorporated in the law of Moses, included in the law of Moses, but established with Abraham, whose covenant was based on faith. So circumcision is a sign of faith. It's a sign of the covenant, but why are you willing to circumcise? Because you believe, if you circumcise the child on the eighth day, that God is going to honor him in the covenant. So the children weren't there when God passed through the mists of the sacrifice. The great-grandchildren, the great-great-great, the great-greats on down the line, they're not there. So when they are circumcised, they are affirming the faith of Abraham. So you do not get involved in what you don't believe in, right?

SPEAKER_01 5:45

Right.

SPEAKER_02 5:46

So this every parent who follows through with the covenant that God made with Abraham and the statement in the law of Moses. And remember, the law of Moses did not supersede or do away with the covenant God made with Abraham.

SPEAKER_01 6:07

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 6:09

It didn't do away with that. What the law did not institute, the law cannot abrogate. So the law did not institute circumcision. So it couldn't do away with circumcision. Just like the law is not the reason for tithing.

SPEAKER_01 6:26

Right.

Law Versus Covenant: What Endures

SPEAKER_02 6:27

Tithing came before the law. Right. So with the coming of the law or with the fulfillment of the law, tithing is not affected. Tithing is a faith principle. Circumcision is done by faith. Let's face it, the eight-day-old child cannot decide. I believe. Who decides that? The parents. I believe that my child is going to be a part of this covenant. And so the child is circumcised. Now, let's go to Deuteronomy chapter 10. So, Sister Diana, why don't you read for us verses 12 through 16? Oh no, wait, you're reading the amplified version.

SPEAKER_01 7:17

I know.

SPEAKER_02 7:18

Well, it's not that. It's just it takes twice as long to read it.

SPEAKER_01 7:21

I know. I know.

SPEAKER_02 7:22

So, Audia, can you read for us from Deuteronomy 10, verses 12 through 16?

SPEAKER_04 7:32

And now, Israel, what does the Lord your God require of you but to fear the Lord your God, to walk in all his ways, and to love him, to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, and keep his and keep the commandments of the Lord and his statutes, which I command you today for good. Indeed, heaven and the highest heavens belong to the Lord your God, also the earth with all that is in it. And the Lord delighted exactly only in your your fathers to love them, and he chose their descendants after them, you above all peoples, as it is this day. Therefore, circumcise the foreskin of your heart and be stiff-necked no longer.

Circumcision By Faith And Parental Responsibility

SPEAKER_02 8:24

So here we see the first time circumcision or circumcised used symbolically. And it says, circumcise the foreskin of your heart. And by the way, the prophet Micah will come along years later, and he will quote this only, not reading it from scripture, but as the word of the Lord, as a prophetic utterance, and he will tell the people, he has showed you, O man, what is good, and what does the Lord require of you, but to do justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with thy God. So the whole thing about circumcision, especially if you look at men who decide, you know what, I'm gonna worship the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and I want to partake of the feast of Passover, and I want to marry an Israelite woman, they had to be circumcised as adult males, as part of converting to the law of Moses. So the act of circumcision for them is really a statement of faith. You know, David, when he was about to offer up sacrifice to stop the plague that was sweeping the land. He went and was gonna buy Aruna's flesh threshing floor. And he said to Arona, Hey, I need this. And Arona says, No, no, I'll just give it to you. David said, No, no, you won't. I will not give the Lord that which cost me nothing. That's not a gift, that's not a sacrifice, that's not from the heart if it didn't cost me something. Those converting into the faith of Abraham, those embracing the law of Moses, they could come any any foreigner could do it. But the demonstration of their faith was in like, put your money where your mouth is. You say you believe this? Not only will you offer these sacrifices, not only will you renounce your past, you will be circumcised. You will cut away from yourself everything related to the past. You circumcise your heart. So circumcision in the flesh was a picture of something else God wanted to occur in the heart and the mind of those who said, I belong to you.

SPEAKER_01 11:04

Okay, got a question. So in the house of David, because you've watched it, right? And so remember where it says that Saul tells David to go and kill them. Does that happen in scriptural?

SPEAKER_02 11:19

Okay. In scrip House of David is not scriptural, is it?

SPEAKER_01 11:23

I know, that's why I wanted to address it.

SPEAKER_02 11:25

It's not, it's not, and they admit it in the beginning that they have taken license and they've changed things. But yes, David did go kill Philistines and bring the foreskins to Saul to show that he had done it. But but yes, Saul hoped he would die in the process.

SPEAKER_01 11:42

But doesn't it make it all that more despicable for uh for David to go and now we know what circumcision means, and you do that to a Philistine?

SPEAKER_02 11:58

The Philistine probably tried to kill you if you didn't kill him first.

SPEAKER_01 12:02

That's the point.

SPEAKER_02 12:02

That's it is it would be degrading to a culture that doesn't understand the value of the city.

SPEAKER_01 12:07

Well, because think of when they found the bodies.

SPEAKER_02 12:10

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 12:11

And if you say that's an identifying mark, right?

SPEAKER_02 12:14

Yes. So, Mama, let's jump, and and remember before we go, in this case, the heart is the center of your will, emotions, and mind. Yes, yes.

SPEAKER_04 12:25

Okay, I have a question here, or I have a comment. It says, Therefore, circumcise the foreskin of your heart, that it be stiff-necked no longer.

SPEAKER_02 12:36

Right.

SPEAKER_04 12:37

That is exactly what Stephen quoted to the Pharisees.

SPEAKER_02 12:41

Yes, it is.

SPEAKER_04 12:43

Calling them uncircumcised.

SPEAKER_02 12:45

One of the reasons they couldn't resist Stephen, besides all the miraculous signs that God did through his ministry, is when he began to handle the word of God, he handled it by revelation. And as he spoke the word of God, the Sanhedrin didn't have any rebuttal for him because he didn't misquote anything. Nothing was out of line, and he built a case. Finally, which of the prophets have your fathers not stoned? I'm not surprised you got me here. So you're gonna get me off. Okay.

SPEAKER_04 13:32

That just when I read that earlier when I was researching this, that jumped out at me.

SPEAKER_02 13:37

Okay, but uh that stiff necked is a is like an animal that you're trying to get go left or right. You're trying to pull the horse's reins left, right? You're trying to get the oxen to go left, right. You you got the muzzle on them, you got the bridle on them, but you can't move them.

SPEAKER_01 13:59

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 14:01

They refuse to be moved.

SPEAKER_03 14:03

Yeah.

Circumcise Your Heart: Deuteronomy’s Call

SPEAKER_02 14:03

So stiff neck is a great way of saying rebellious, hard-headed, mind made up. You won't move me. It's like the little kid, five-year-old boy, you tell him, sit down, and he sits down, but he looks at you and says, But I'm standing up in my mind. You really haven't accomplished anything.

SPEAKER_01 14:25

Yeah, I just had a few of those leap right now.

SPEAKER_02 14:29

So now Deuteronomy chapter 30, verse 6. Deuteronomy is a summary of the law, and Moses' final testimony before he dies, so it's like the second giving of the law. Go ahead, Mama.

SPEAKER_00 14:56

And the Lord thy God will circumcise thine heart and the heart of thy seed to love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, with all thy soul, and with that thou mayest live.

SPEAKER_02 15:10

Again, circumcision is here referred to the heart symbolically, which is the center of your will, your emotions, and your mind. The goal of God in circumcision is stated early on in scripture. It was more than the symbolic act, it was more than just cutting, it was a statement of faith. I'm gonna do this because God made me a promise. Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness before he was circumcised. When he was circumcised, he was only validating my faith. See, I'm showing you my faith. What did James say? You see, faith in works. It's not that works produces faith. Faith produces works, faith produced compliance in Abraham, and so he circumcised himself. I don't know where he found the courage, but he did. And he circumcised Ishmael, and he circumcised all his servants. You know, Isaac was lucky. He was eight days old. It was a memory he didn't have. I will have your will. Joshua chapter 5, verses 1 through 9. And in the future, Sister Ianna, for the purposes of these studies, break out your new King James, please. We can always use the Amplified.

SPEAKER_01 17:01

Do I have a new King James?

SPEAKER_02 17:02

I don't think so. You do on your phone. Simply because the Amplified takes so long to read. I know, but I just on the podcast, we have limited time. So that that's my request. Nobody said you have to do it to go to heaven.

SPEAKER_01 17:17

Yeah. Because I want to mark this one because I like it.

SPEAKER_02 17:22

Well, go ahead and mark it.

SPEAKER_01 17:24

I have a new King James, but it's that big, huge Tom.

SPEAKER_02 17:26

Just read from the other. But keep this one for your study. This seems to bless you.

SPEAKER_01 17:31

It does bless me.

SPEAKER_02 17:32

Well, you never want to go against blessing. Joshua chapter 5, we're going to read the first nine verses. And it came to pass when all the kings of the Amorites, which were on the side of Jordan westward, and all the kings of the Canaanite, which were by the sea, excuse me, which were by the sea, heard that the Lord had dried up the waters of Jordan from before the children of Israel until they were passed over, and their heart melted, neither was their spirit in them any more because of the children of Israel. They all knew the story of the slaves who rose up to be a nation and crippled the premier nation of the world at that time. They knew that. Verse 2 At that time the Lord said unto Joshua, Make these sharp knives and circumcise again the children of Israel the second time. And Joshua made him sharp knives and circumcised the children of Israel at the hill of the foreskins skins. And this is the cause why Joshua did circumcise all the people that came out of Egypt that were males, even all the men of war, died in the wilderness by the way after they came out of Egypt. Now all the people that came out were circumcised, but all the people that were born in the wilderness by way, by the way, as they came forth out of Egypt, them had not they circumcised.

unknown 19:10

Why?

Converts, Costly Faith, And True Commitment

SPEAKER_02 19:11

For the children of Israel walked forty years in the wilderness till all the people that were men of war which came out of Egypt were consumed, because they obeyed not the voice of the Lord, unto whom the Lord swear that he would not show them the land which the Lord swear unto their fathers that he would give us a land that floweth with milk and honey. They had so much trouble in the wilderness while God was blessing them so much. A couple of times they went into idolatry. Remember, they were just on the other side of the Red Sea, made it to Mount Sinai while Moses was up there, they made a golden calf. And Aaron said, wasn't my idea. But he did it, and when Moses Asking what's going on here. Aaron said, I don't know. These people throw their gold into the pot, and this calf just jumped out of there. He was panicking.

SPEAKER_03 20:10

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 20:11

You know, but my point is, God rolled away the reproach of Egypt when Joshua circumcised the sons of Israel. Keep reading to verse 9. Verse 7 says, And their children whom he raised up in their stead, them Joshua circumcised, for they were uncircumcised because they had not circumcised them by the way they hadn't done it while they were traveling in the wilderness. And had they done it on the eighth day, like the promise that Abraham made God, this wouldn't have been a problem. But now they had to heal up before they could continue their journey. And it came to pass when they had done circumcising all the people that they abode in their places in camp till they were whole. And the Lord said unto Joshua, This day have I rolled away the reproach of Egypt from off you. Remember, I said, when Moses killed the Egyptian, not verbally, but with his life, he was making a statement. All that time they were traveling in the wilderness, just like the Egyptians. None of them were circumcised. God said, I'm going to roll away the reproach of Egypt. How? In getting you to comply with my instructions and circumcise all the men. So the reproach was that they were missing the sign or the token of the covenant of Abraham that we have previously read in Genesis chapter 17, verse 14. All the men shall be circumcised. At eight days old, every man, child shall be circumcised. All right, get the wife there. If you want to go, if you would, please, to Jeremiah chapter 4. Verses 1 through 4. Let me get there with you.

SPEAKER_00 22:25

Okay.

SPEAKER_04 22:32

Jeremiah 1.

SPEAKER_02 22:33

Chapter 4.

unknown 22:35

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 22:36

Verses 1 through 4, Mama. If thou wilt return, O Israel, saith the Lord, return unto me, and if thou wilt put away thine abominations out of my sight, then shalt thou not remove, and thou shalt swear the Lord liveth in truth, in the judgment, in righteousness, and the nations shall bless themselves in him, and in him shall they glory. For thus saith the Lord to the men of Judah at Jerusalem, break up your follow ground, and sow not among thorns. Circumcise yourselves to the Lord and make a and take away the foreskins of your heart, ye men of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem, lest my fury come forth like fire and burn that none can quench it because of the evil of your doings.

Symbol, Culture, And Difficult Questions

SPEAKER_02 23:32

So they were practicing idolatry. They were in gross wickedness, but they were all circumcised eight day. So God said to them, The problem with you is you haven't circumcised your heart. You have cut away the ways of the world and embraced my way. You are descendants of Abraham. You have received the covenants. And if you men of Judah will circumcise your hearts, I will bless you. How do they circumcise their hearts? Verse one, repent of all their sinful ways. Verse two, commit all their ways to the Lord. Verse three, enter a new season in life. Break up the soil of your heart, break up the fallow ground, plow it up, get it ready to receive seed. That is prepare for a new season, prepare for a new harvest. How do I do that? I break up the fallow ground, I make the soil ready for the seed. The seed is the word of God. You're gonna plant it and it's gonna produce fruit. How do I do that? I first circumcise my heart. There is the parable of the sower and the seed in in Matthew chapter 13, verses 1 through 10, and the explanation in verses 18 through 23. And for those of you that are not familiar, Jesus taught with parables. A parable is a made-up story to illustrate a spiritual truth. So he taught the crowds with parables, with stories, held their attention. Later the disciples said to him, Can you help us understand this? He said, Yeah, I'm gonna tell you. And here's something wonderful. Jesus said to them, It is given to you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven. What a kind of promise is that that we would know that his disciples would be given the opportunity to know the mysteries of heaven. The world wasn't given it, they were taught by parables. He taught them the straight doctrine and said, You're gonna know it, and this is the mystery, the kingdom of heaven. I'm telling you, this is why you need to love reading the word of God.

SPEAKER_01 26:09

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 26:10

Because herein lie the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven on display. But in order for us to more thoroughly understand it, we do have to circumcise our hearts. We have to decide it's you and me, Jesus. We have to repent of our sins and say, I don't care what anybody else does. You know, I say often, we weren't married very long when my newlywed bride looked at me one day and she said, just off the cuff, you know if it ever comes to a choice between you and Jesus, you know it's Jesus, right?

SPEAKER_01 26:48

You say that, Mama. I did.

SPEAKER_02 26:50

And I said, What she said, you know it's Jesus. I said, Of course I know it's Jesus. Well, you don't got to put it quite, you know, like that. I'm suffering from honeymoon Idis. You but you're making me feel like, you know, what? I'm second place. I am.

SPEAKER_01 27:04

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 27:05

I have to be.

unknown 27:08

Yeah.

Stiff-Necked Hearts And Stephen’s Rebuke

SPEAKER_02 27:09

Jesus Christ has to be first. The thing that Abraham did when he submitted to the commandment of circumcision was he said, God, you have to be first. I'm not just saying it with my mouth, I'm demonstrating it in my life. You said this is the sign or the token of the covenant. I'm not going without having it etched in my body. What is etched in our hearts about our relationship with Jesus Christ is the the parable of the sower and the seed is so wonderful. Four different types of soil. The seed is thrown on. All four types of soil which represent the heart produce life. But in three, in three of those types of soil, three of those types of heart, life did not reproduce itself. It did not have fruit. And in the parable, the Lord looked at it as they never received the full benefit of the seed. The only heart that did is the one that said, Yes, Lord, grow in my life. So you you'll meet a lot of people in this world who say, you know, I've accepted the Lord. Scripture doesn't even teach it that way. But I get it. They're saying, I've determined I'm going to follow Jesus. Okay. Well, have you repented of your sins? What do you mean? Well, are you now pursuing Jesus? And, you know, we're trying to grow towards the Lord and grow away from sin, right? Well, I, you know, people are not worried about that. They'll say, oh no, I believed 30 years ago.

SPEAKER_03 28:58

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 28:58

Yeah, but how are you living now? Well, I'm living for the devil, but it's okay because I believe. That's the seed that fell on the stony ground. That's the seed that fell in the thorny ground. That's the seed that fell in the ground that had no deepness of earth.

SPEAKER_03 29:16

Come on.

SPEAKER_02 29:17

And so, yes, life sprouted up, but it was not allowed to mature and become something truly alive, reproducing.

SPEAKER_01 29:29

See, no, that that's one of the scariest verses ever, and it should scare every one of us, is it says, and there'll be those on that day that say, But Lord, Lord, didn't I do this? And didn't I do this in your name? And didn't I do this in your name? And yet he will say, Depart from me.

SPEAKER_02 29:49

I never knew you. You are workers of iniquity. Why? It's not that the seed didn't come, because there is evidence of the seed in their life, but it didn't reach maturity because somewhere in their hearts and minds, they never made that commitment that says, There's nothing between you and me, Jesus. Remember, Jesus said, Luke 14 has been just ringing in my ear now for several years, where Jesus said, if you don't forsake everyone and make me the priority, you cannot be my disciple. And that meant so much to that crowd because we talked about the Talmudine before. The Talmudin were seeking to be the disciples of a rabbi. And they were dedicating their life to memorizing the law. But the rabbi didn't necessarily pick just all the Talmudin, just the cream of the crop. So Jesus is looking at a crowd that understands this culture. That means he reads in the crowd, there are people here who would like to be my disciple. You remember?

SPEAKER_01 31:02

Explain what the Talmudin are.

God’s Work In The Heart: Deuteronomy 30

SPEAKER_02 31:04

The Talmudin are are disciples who, or people who have aspired to be disciples, who have memorized the law, gone beyond Hebrew school and memorized the law. They are the intellectual elite of them that have studied the law of Moses, the prophets, the Psalms, the Talmud. Okay? And Jesus is making it plain to them, you cannot be my disciple. You've dedicated yourself to something, but not to me. And if I don't come first, you cannot be my disciple. See, I see in my mind, and you can say this is personal, I'll agree. I see people in the crowd, just like when they they pull the tiles off the roof of that house, they let the man down, the lay man down in the midst of the house where Jesus was teaching, and Jesus told him, Hey, thy sins are forgiven thee. The Pharisees they went crazy. But they didn't do it verbally. The scripture says Jesus looked at them and said, Why reason ye these things in your heart? Whether it is easier for me to say, Thy sins be forgiven thee, or take up your bed and walk. I have power to do either. He read their minds. See, this is happening again in Luke 14. He looks at the crowd and says, You cannot be my disciple. Because there's people in the crowd. I wish I was traveling with Jesus and watching demons get cast out. Watching blind eyes get open. I could be right there by his side like them fellas. I could be schooled, but I wish I could be schooled by Jesus. I could be one of his disciples. Here's the difference. Peter and Andrew, James and John left their livelihood.

SPEAKER_01 33:02

Left it.

SPEAKER_02 33:03

They were fishermen. It was their business. I don't know who took over it for them to make sure that he kept running, but they left it. Somebody else is gonna have to do this because Jesus has said to me, you follow me, and I will make you. So circumcision that we're seeing so far symbolically is the depth of commitment on display. Now, when we talk about New Testament references, remember the gospels are really a time of transition from one covenant to the next. Right? Okay, you remember like when Jesus healed somebody?

SPEAKER_01 33:47

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 33:48

He said, now you go show yourselves to the priest and offer up what you're supposed to and don't tell. But to another person, he says, Go your way and sin no more. To the maniac of Gatherens, he says, go back and tell all your friends and your family what I've done for you.

SPEAKER_01 34:03

So sometimes he says, say something, and then the next time he said, Don't say something.

Joshua 5: Rolling Away Egypt’s Reproach

SPEAKER_02 34:07

It is a time of transition from John the Baptist until the day of Pentecost, moving from one covenant to the next. And to clarify that as we go forward, when Adam and Eve were in the garden, their relationship with God was based on their knowledge of God and their innocence. Their innocence of all sin. They didn't know what sin was, couldn't commit it. When they partook of the fruit, God said, In the day you do, you surely die. How long was it before God came in the cool of the evening in the garden? We don't know. Could have been six minutes, could have been eight days. So God comes in, he says, What are y'all doing? They say, Oh, we knew we had company and we were embarrassed. So we made some fig leaves for ourselves. God said, Who told you you were naked? Now God knew all along, but the questions were the opportunity for Adam and Eve to repent. Adam said, When God said, Did you eat? He said, The woman you gave me. You gave me that woman, Lord. Yeah, so he took responsibility in what capacity? He did it. So then he says to the woman, God says to the woman, is this so? You should she said, Well, I see the example the old man has set. So uh it was the serpent. The serpent said to me, This was their space for repentance. And their first inclination was not repentance, it was make an excuse and justify yourself. And we are still like that today. There's no sense in us saying, if I was in the Garden of Eden, I wouldn't have done that's a lie. Yeah, we are their DE. Yeah, we you know, yeah, we are. This is why we need God, and so there was a period of time from when they ate till when they were driven out of the garden. Yeah, that's transition. Once they stepped out of the garden, the transition is complete. Then it happens again when God says to Noah, build an ark. And then he was 120 years in preparing the ark. That's a time of transition. Until they come off the ark, Noah offers up the sacrifice, there's a rainbow, God says, here's going to be from now on. Yeah. Each time God moves his people forward in another covenant, there is a period of transition. The gospels mark for us the period of transition from the law of Moses into the covenant of Jesus Christ. And but it never negates any of the previous covenants. No, no, it's more like this. It's like you're reading a novel. Like time is a novel. It has a beginning and it has an ending, and it has so many chapters. When you finish with chapter 7, chapter 7 is not nullified. It's just completed. You open chapter 8. So that doesn't mean chapter 7 didn't happen. Because of what happened there, you understand what's in chapter 8. So even though we don't literally keep the law, we don't have literal physical circumcision, we don't literally keep the feast and offer up the sacrifices. It behooves us to understand them because they are pictures of our relationship with Christ and what Christ has done in our lives so that we can see the consistency of the plan of God from the beginning of the book to the end of the book. Yeah. So we can understand. We read Acts chapter 2, verses 22 and 23.

SPEAKER_03 38:17

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 38:18

And in the last podcast, God did all this according to his determinate counsel and foreknowledge. Yeah. It was all planned out. He sees time from beginning in the ending. Circumcision has its place. And what we're going to do is we're going to jump into the New Testament references, the Gospels on our next podcast. Okay? So that'll be part three. So you all have in your notes, you stop there and underline the Gospels, the time of transition from the old to the new covenant, and that's where we'll pick up for part three in our next podcast. Is there anything we need to address before we close?

SPEAKER_01 39:05

Any questions? Any comments?

SPEAKER_02 39:08

Anything that you noticed, Mama?

SPEAKER_01 39:10

Audio's got a microphone in front of her. I'm just okay. Audio. Audible audio. Normally she'll say something.

SPEAKER_04 39:18

I'm thinking.

SPEAKER_02 39:21

I've been accused of that, but no one's ever proved it.

SPEAKER_04 39:25

No, I mean, to me, God's word's very clear. I mean, it's it's it's clear. I, you know, when I first started reading this about this, I was like, that's a rough thing to have to do when you're 99 years old, you know, and gosh, God, can't you couldn't pick something up like shave your head or believe me?

SPEAKER_02 39:55

Um I'm agreeing Abraham probably thought the same thing. When he Said eight days old, Abe was thinking, why didn't you tell this to my dad? You know, when I was eight days old, you know.

SPEAKER_04 40:06

Yeah, and then I understood why, you know, he had to do it then, but but I'm I'm sure in his mind he was like, Don't you have a better idea here? Right.

SPEAKER_01 40:19

Right. Man, so good. Mama, you got anything?

SPEAKER_00 40:23

No. No, that was awesome.

SPEAKER_01 40:25

Good stuff. Good stuff. Thank you. What about you? I love it. I mean, I love it. I'm all into it. I'm I'm ready to go back into the to get back into the New Testament part of it. But we're about to have Thanksgiving. We're about to uh be gone on our trip. So I pray for everybody to pray for that group of ambassadors headed to Israel. There's a thousand pastors and ministerial leaders going. It's the biggest ever group to go to Israel of ministers and pastors. And so really excited. It was just a fluke. I mean, I mean, I guess it's a God ordained thing because I didn't know anything about it. Our buddy Matt uh Pastor Matthew. What's his last name? Hedgehog.

SPEAKER_02 41:10

Or Hitchcoff. I mean I believe it's Hetchkoff.

SPEAKER_01 41:13

Yeah, I want to thank him because he's the one that that kind of got me in that.

SPEAKER_02 41:18

And so plug for Pastor Matthew.

SPEAKER_01 41:21

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 41:21

He and and Pastor Kate, Pastor Risen Life Fellowship in Wills Point, Texas.

SPEAKER_01 41:27

Yes.

SPEAKER_02 41:28

It's a great little church where God is alive. So if you're in that area.

SPEAKER_01 41:35

They're fiery little things over there. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 41:37

And and they each have great gifts. But if you get a chance to sit under Sister Kate's teaching, you you you you might make Matthew feel awkward. Because she's every bit as skilled in the word as he is.

SPEAKER_01 41:55

Yeah. Yeah, she seems very knowledgeable. So uh so anyway, so prayers for that as we will be gone and so we'll be recording the uh after we get back. So uh again, if you have comments and suggestions, please go to the podcast to our website and comment on the podcast. You can go to YouTube and watch the videos that you have up right now of Acts, the book of Acts simple presentation that you've been doing on that. But then to share this, share this podcast. And your friends don't have to have Spotify. They can we are on 12 different platforms right now. So I Heart Radio, you can you can listen to it on YouTube as well, or you can listen to Amazon, Google, just wherever podcasts are, Podbeam, Podbeam, whatever, you can listen to it. So go share that. Go share this word because I think this is a a good word.

SPEAKER_02 42:50

So we will we will finish this in three or four lessons, whatever it takes, and then we will dive right back into Acts chapter eight. That's right, and we will pick up right there again.

SPEAKER_01 43:01

That's right, that's right. All right, so thank y'all for joining us today. Thank you, Brother Ernie. Thank you, sister. My pleasure. Good to have you with us, Molly.

SPEAKER_02 43:09

I'm having more fun than a person ought to be allowed.

SPEAKER_03 43:12

I know, so you are.

SPEAKER_01 43:15

And uh so thank you, Sasadia. Thank you for your home, thank you for the food today. Thank you for uh all the uh everything that you do for us uh for M3 Ministries International. Thank you very much. Well extra blessings.

Prophets On Heart Change: Jeremiah 4

SPEAKER_04 43:30

Let me just say that you go into Israel, you were chosen for such a time as this. Yeah, you know, this is when God wants you there.

SPEAKER_02 43:40

You you you you got to believe that.

SPEAKER_00 43:42

Yeah, yeah. And Matt's not even going to get to go.

SPEAKER_01 43:45

I know, that's what was so sad about it. Because I I was at least looking forward to knowing somebody.

SPEAKER_02 43:52

Whatever else, when you get there, you know Jesus. I do know Jesus. Amen. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 43:57

All right, so we're gonna say our motto because we didn't earlier.

SPEAKER_02 44:00

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 44:01

We're gonna go show some love, love, show some compassion, give, give, mercy, mercy, and go be Jesus today today. Hey STU family, if you have enjoyed this podcast today, would you please like, follow, and share our podcast link? And we would love to hear your feedback and your podcast topic suggestions. To do that, simply go to our website at www.m3mi.org, scroll to the more tab, and select contact us. Also, if STU has been a blessing to you, you can also go to our website and select sow a seed. There are several ways that you can give, whether it's Zel, Venmo, Cash App, or if there's an address to send a check or money order. All your gifts are tax deductible, and we thank you so much for sowing your seed with us. I want you to remember this. A wise person once said that a person has given you their time, they've given you their most precious gift because they can never ever get it back. Thank you for sharing this day with me. We love you, we'll see you soon.