Well, you notice now what happened.
"...and ye shall dwell with us, and the
land shall be before you.
Dwell and trade ye therein, and get you
possessions therein."
And all of this reveals that Jacob is
going to have to move on, that this
is no place for him, mixing with these
people in the land.
And Shechem said unto her father and unto
her brethren, "'Let me find grace in your
eyes, and what ye shall say unto me
I'll give.
Ask me never so much dowry and gift,
and I'll give according as ye shall say
unto me.
But give me the damsel to wife.' And
the sons of Jacob answered Shechem, and Hamor
his father, deceitfully, and said, because he had
defiled Dinah their sister."
Now, I feel like that Jacob here should
have had certainly a little bit more to
say to restrain these boys of what they're
going to do, because they're deceiving the man.
And they said unto them, we cannot do
this thing to give our sister to one
that is uncircumcised, for that were a reproach
unto us.
And the thing that disturbs me about the
incident is that the sin that's been committed
isn't a reproach, but the fact that he
was a foreigner made it difficult or impossible
to give her as a wife.
"'But in this will we consent unto you,
if ye will be as we be, that
every male of you be circumcised.
Then will we give our daughter unto you,
and we will take your daughters to us,
and we will dwell with you, and we
will become one people.' Now this is the
thing that they are to do.
Go through the ritual of circumcision.
And this ought to be a warning today
to a great many.
I know a fellow that he married a
girl.
He told her that he would accept the
Lord.
In fact, the matter is why they came
in for counseling and asked me to perform
the ceremony.
And I, of course, would not with him
not being a Christian.
And she claimed she would not marry him
unless he became a Christian.
Well, when he came in, I talked with
him.
He said he would accept Christ.
And then we had prayer, and then I
asked him, I said, "'Now what have you
really done?' And I never heard such humming
and hawing, beating around the bush, as this
boy did.
And I very frankly said right before him,
I said, "'Young lady, I'll not perform the
ceremony.
I don't think the young man is converted.'
Well, they felt like I was being very
harsh, and they went down the street and
got another preacher.
He performed the ceremony.
She told me later that he had come
to her and told her she tried to
get him to go to church.
And of course, he had a good reason
for not coming to hear me preach, because
I'd been so cruel to him.
Then she agreed to go to another church,
and they went two or three times.
And then finally, he just said to her
point-blank out, he said, "'Really, I'm not
a Christian.' Well, just to go through the
ceremony, even of saying you trust Christ, doesn't
mean you have, and joining the church.
I find a great many people today, they
think if they just nod the head, faith
doesn't seem to mean very much to them.
It's a tremendous experience, friends, to trust Christ
as your Savior.
There's nothing quite like it, nothing to compare
to it in this world.
When you trust Christ as Savior, He does
something for you.
Didn't do anything for that boy.
You know, Mark Twain had the same experience.
He was not a Christian, and he was
in love with a very beautiful, wonderful Christian
girl, and she would not marry him until
he became a Christian.
And he professed that he accepted Christ as
his Savior, and they started out that way.
Well, Mark Twain became very famous, as you
know, and he was entertained by all of
the famous people of the world, and he
moved in that society.
And one day when he came back to
his home in Missouri, he said to her
when she wanted to go to church, he
said, look, and calling her by the pet
name that he had for her, he said,
look, I can't keep up the front any
longer.
You go on to church.
I know now I'm not a Christian.
May I say that that made a very
unhappy home, and it absolutely spoiled the life
of this lovely Christian girl.
Now, here are these men saying, if you'll
go through the rite of circumcision, it'll make
everything all right.
And a great many people think, well, if
you join the church and nod your head
and be able to use the right vocabulary
and quote the right verse, that means you're
Christian.
My friend, that doesn't mean you're Christian.
If you've entrusted Christ, something's happened.
And things are different now if you've trusted
him.