Well, I invite you to turn tonight to Romans chapter 2, Romans chapter 2 in correlation with what we considered of true faith. We're working toward that as we move to the end of chapter 2 and soon to be in chapter 3 where we come to Paul's turn in the book to then speak of justification by faith alone. we now look tonight at verses 25 through 29 of romans chapter 2 found on 11 17 in the bibles that are in front of you beginning at verse 25 to the end of the chapter let's hear the word of the lord for circumcision indeed is a value if you obey the law but if you break the law your circumcision becomes uncircumcision so if a man who is uncircumcised keeps the precepts of the law will not his uncircumcision be regarded as circumcision then he who is physically uncircumcised but keeps the law will condemn you who have the written code and circumcision but break the law for no one is a jew who is merely one outwardly nor is circumcision outward and physical but a jew is one inwardly and circumcision is a matter of the heart by the spirit not by the letter his praise is not from man but from god there will end tonight on the reading of god's word well i think one of the best statements that i came across uh this week that sort of captures what the apostle paul is doing is something that was said by charles hodge years ago that i think is really profound in the sense of precisely addressing paul's main point here in romans chapter 2 even though he wasn't engaging romans 2 i thought he captured it when he said whenever true religion declines the disposition to lay undue stress on external rights is stressed the jews when they lost their spirituality supposed that circumcision had the power to save them apostasy always moves the religious focus from the inward to the outward from humble obedience to empty formality that shouldn't be so unfamiliar to us as we've been working in the Sermon on the Mount. This is really helpful to sort of have the Sermon on the Mount in the background, because that's exactly what Jesus was dealing with in the Sermon on the Mount that kind of comes to a head here in Romans chapter 2, as Paul's been really dealing with the same thing, the same issue, but dressing it theologically for us to understand. What Hodge was saying is the decline of true religion is seen when it moves to excessive focus on external rights away from inward to outward religion this is what we've been studying jesus was turning everything back in the sermon on the mount to the internal dimension of the heart the need for true heart religion we've been looking at that with detail because what happened in israel what happened among the jews was that everything became external prayer was even done to be heard by people fasting was done and giving to be seen by others to achieve the praise of others and true religion from the heart is what jesus was after in the sermon on the mount which requires a work of the spirit doesn't it that's the new covenant ministry of the spirit paul alludes to that at the very end of this we see the new covenant aspect he's already anticipating at the end of chapter 2 so we're looking at what is true and what is false but there's a surprising statement tonight by the apostle paul he says being a true jew and think of all the emphasis we have on israel they're the apple of god's eye people say um future plans for israel dispensationalism building of a temple all those things think of what the shocking statement is at the end of romans 2 that tears all that down a true jew has nothing to do with being an external jew or circumcision is what he's saying or we might say blood of abraham bloodline or children of moses as they said it's an internal one a true israelite is internal this is why it's so important to understand who the Israel of God is who is the Israel of God who is the true Israel Paul's explaining that tonight he says one who is internally circumcised internally circumcised that's a true Jew that's a child of God that's his thesis tonight that's his main point tonight it's very simple it's important because it's pretty hard in 2024 to preach on the old covenant act of right of circumcision. This seems so out of place in our day. It's very important because I want to say something that I'll get to in a moment. Circumcision is not done. Circumcision is fulfilled in Christ. It's very important tonight. What we're studying would have been shocking to the Jews, though it shouldn't have been shocking to the Jews. It's an important development in the course of the book so far that Paul, what he has been doing is really working, and it's a pastoral letter, to tear down every bit of confidence that people have in themselves to achieve salvation, to find merit with God. Every last bit of confidence, anything that's outward that we do that secures the salvation in favor of god when we're talking about justification which he's aiming at he has to strip down every bit of the confidences of people it's tough business well tonight he tears down the last great badge of you might say jewish pride it's important for us you'll see for the new covenant church circumcision so that we might be led to this all-important question that really the book of Romans is pressing us to ask, even though it's not explicitly said, what must we do then to be saved? As they asked in Acts. I want you to remember just for a minute the context of the book. His great goal is to show there's a summarizing statement that he's about to get to in chapter 3, all alike are under sin. What an important message today, especially in all of our day of racial tensions and issues like that. Paul is leveling the playing field. Everyone, everyone, Jew, Gentile, every tribe, tongue, people, and nation, every single one is all alike when it comes to the eternal justice of God because of sin. We're all alike under that condemnation. The wages of sin is death. And so he's explaining all this. What he did in chapter 1 was something we've seen play out in society. We looked at Romans 1 and we saw the development of some of the most perverse sins that we see celebrated in our society today. We've went through Romans 1. It was a challenging chapter. Hard because we see the reality that people are given over to great sins like that. The things that we're seeing in the world. Things that we're seeing normalized into law and culture. These are the things that Romans 1 exposes. But then he did something shocking in chapter 2. He turned the tables to religious people, or you might say good people. Upstanding people. You might say church-going people. Who put their confidence in all the externals. You might even say the externals of the covenant. You might say even having the law, the written code he mentions. Or in chapter 9, the law, the covenants, the giving of the law, the adoption, the glory, the ceremonial rites. You had all of that. And he said, you're missing something. Do you not know, Romans 2, 3 and 4, that the goodness of God in receiving all these things should lead you to repentance yourselves? For us, it would be baptism. Those things are not to be presumed upon. Those things are not to be presumed upon. But they should lead us somewhere. They're teaching us something. They're teaching us something as we are close to God of our very need. And that's what he's addressing tonight, particularly with the issue of circumcision. You'll notice in verse 25 in our text tonight, we read, For circumcision is indeed of value. Notice the statement. Circumcision is indeed of value if you keep the law. But if you break the law, your circumcision becomes uncircumcision. That's quite a statement. You have to understand the shock of that to the Jews. Remember what circumcision was. It was the external rite of the old covenant. It was the outward sign, the cutting away of the foreskin in the place of reproduction to teach Israel something. It taught Israel something when that happened. They were to do with their children eight days old. It was to teach the great need in the reproductive organ in procreation, the very place of procreation, that spiritual corruption is passed from generation to generation. So, the sign of circumcision represented the cutting away of the filth and sin of fallen human nature, one pastor said. That's absolutely right. What we're dealing with here in Romans 2 is the complete misunderstanding of this. The whole thing in Israel had become shrouded with superstition, the whole act, the whole right. So, for instance, the rabbis had constructed a key confessional statement of the day. Listen to this. No circumcised Jewish man will see hell. They ran around saying this. And circumcision, quote, saves us from hell, Sheol. The Judaizers, you know, in Acts chapter 15, this is what led to the Jerusalem council, were running around telling Gentile Christians, unless you are circumcised according to the law of Moses, the custom of Moses, you, now listen, cannot be saved. So this was a big issue that the apostles had to address. Now you hear what happened is that they took the outward signs as tokens and badges and they saw those as the very things that secured God's favor. Now Paul's giving a death blow to this, if you will, to the single great badge of their confidence. I think you'll notice in verse 25 that two words stand out very powerfully. It would have value to you, circumcision, notice this, if, we've been looking at the if formula here, if you obey. But, if you break, two important words, obey and break, are put in tandem and alongside of each other. If you break the law, it nullifies your circumcision. So, how does that work? What do you mean by that? If we ever, maybe this will help, if we ever move to a place where the meaning of baptism was lost, the spiritual meaning and we began to say baptism itself saves there are some people who look at the reformed tradition on baptism because we baptize infants and they they wrongly assume that's what we teach we always have to correct that there are some reformed bodies that have tried to do that in our day it's not it's it's entirely wrong but if we ever got to the point where we were running around saying baptism itself saves what we have done is something very dangerous what we have done is nullify what baptism declares what does baptism declare baptism declares as a sacrament as the sacraments both lord's supper and baptism they declare something that god must do for us and our children his work sacraments are badges and signs and seals of god's grace but when we take that responsibility on ourselves that work itself and we take on the responsibility to do and think we are doing what they declare to us what does boys and girls of baptism declare well you know it declares the need for inward washing away of sins of the heart's impurity when we think and take on that responsibility by saying baptism itself does that then the whole burden of the law falls on us to fulfill it in every way this is essentially what paul's saying with circumcision baptism declares the need of christ to wash us if we trust in that because we have it the burden falls on ourselves to wash our own hearts we're not appropriating what baptism means now think of the think of the heidelberg tonight all of christ's benefits by faith faith in his work and his word but we're trusting in the act that's just what paul's saying here circumcision in the old covenant before christ declared sin needed to be cut away as a blood sign and the entire jewish religion at least in the day of jesus came to believe and trust in the act of circumcision itself rather than what it declared as a sign you think of the two signs of the old covenant just like we have two signs in the new covenant you think of you think of um circumcision and the passover we have baptism in the lord's supper so here's paul's conclusion if you're doing religious people good people what you're doing with circumcision and you're trusting in that it's profitable if you keep the whole law that follows the development we've been looking at in romans 2 paul's been setting up two kinds of righteousness there's two kinds of righteousness there's human righteousness and there's divine righteousness. In chapter 2, he's dealing with human righteousness. And he says there's two kinds. There's the righteousness that comes by the law and there's the righteousness that comes by faith. And if you look back at verse 6, you'll remember how he developed this thought when he said, if you do good. See, it's the same formula. If you are fulfilling righteousness constantly, is the word, then you will have eternal life, not salvation. But if not, wrath, indignation, and tribulation on every soul who sins. Now that's a pretty serious thing. Just because we're fallen, the standard hasn't changed. Then came that powerful statement, under the law, under the law. Paul will say, under grace in chapter 6. Under the law, God doesn't say you should just try to be good hearers of it. He doesn't say just try to do your best. If you want to be justified before God on the basis of your human obedience, the standard's really clear. The standard's really clear. You've got to keep the whole law. The whole law. Now we know Paul's almost ready for the conclusion in chapter 3. Here's the conclusion. No one does good. No, not one, in terms of justification before God. The Jews clung and said, well, you might break the law, but so long as you're circumcised, you're good. You see, that was the common teaching. The Midrash, a collection of Jewish laws and writings, said this, God swore to Abraham that no one who is circumcised would be sent to hell. Abraham sits before the gate of hell and never allows any, think about this, circumcised Israelite to enter. Okay then, says Paul. Okay, is that what you're setting up? Is that what you're doing? The act of circumcision would profit you if you were a complete doer of the law. because it would then add to you doing the work to fulfill all righteousness which has to be fulfilled but if you're a breaker your circumcision has become uncircumcision and and he makes the point securing this says look even pagans do better than you in this aren't there pagans who are not circumcised who do better than you you know so you really want to you really want to look to yourselves i can point to pagans who don't have the written code who are being better and more obedient than you so paul tells us in romans 4 as he will develop this thought he defines circumcision as what what was circumcision it's a sign assigning a seal of what here it is think of the catechism tonight to tie it all together a sign and a seal of the righteousness that comes by faith faith he made the whole case there abraham believed god and it was accounted to him for righteousness and he received the sign and the seal to prove this great point before he was circumcised he received it all by faith meaning he was justified before the act of circumcision so you see how he's taking down the whole last badge of confidence here in the book of romans it was an outward sign and seal of the need for christ to cut away and cleanse the sinful nature in the old covenant it was a bloody sign now the jews are looking at circumcision under the law they didn't see that the law was given because of sin paul's saying galatians so paul's looking at what the jews believed that the great work of the law was fulfilled by this act and again you want that responsibility on yourself you want to do that then and you want to trust in that for righteousness before god it will be benefit if you keep notice he doesn't just say some but the whole law the whole bible is pushing us to think about this remember what james says if you if you keep the whole law and stumble at just one point you're guilty of how much the whole law now if you look at the ministry of jesus he was going after this constantly it was a single great message of jesus that got him really killed and hated because he spoke the truth on these matters he stripped them what made the pharisees so angry about the ministry of jesus was because it entirely exposed their sham and it exposed their self-righteousness remember uh what he said in matthew 23 woe to you scribes teachers of the law and pharisees you hypocrites you clean the outside of the cup and dish but inside you're full of all greed and indulgence and maybe the most striking statement by jesus in this regard that i don't think is given enough attention when we think of the ministry of jesus is something that jesus said in John 7 to the Jews. Has not Moses given you the law? Yet, none of you keeps it. Not one of you. You could just hear the rage in that. To the righteous. You understand what the Lord is teaching us tonight. If I could personalize it, You know, if I could look at this maybe through the lens to help you of my own life. I grew up thinking God must have favored me over everyone else. Parents were believers. They were well-known, respectable in the community. I was raised in the church. I went to Christian school for a while, both Christian and public. All this external blessing. The attitude would have been easy growing up to think, well, God's favor especially rests on me, does it? Yes, in some sense, some sense. But did I take the attitude of this is evidence that I'm okay? You see? I've got to be better than the public school kids. Because I had all this. When I taught at the Continuation High School at Visalia, it was fascinating. I went from the Continuation High School to the Christian School. I taught in both worlds. I had a kid try to stab me in the Continuation High School. um and i went to the christian school wonderful wonderful wonderful kids raised but do you think the danger in that was they thought and assumed they're all good apart from faith there's always a danger in that there's always a danger in that i remember you might even put it in these terms maybe you're a boy and a girl here tonight and you look at the pastor and you say, this is what I used to do when I looked at pastors growing up. Looked at the pastor and thought, that guy's definitely going to heaven because he's closest to God. He preaches the scriptures. If anyone's saved, it's that guy. Why? See how easy it would be to look at all the privilege. That's what I want to accent. All the good things of God in our lives, which are good gifts. All of it. And think at the end of the day, that is the basis on which God is going to let me into heaven. Paul would say to me, Chris, I've got to talk to you. These good things in your life, these really good things, this really good blessing, it tells you something. It tells you something you should understand. You need something. You need the ultimate goodness of God that He would save you from your sins, Chris. What He's after from you, Chris, is faith from the heart. Trust Him. Believe Him. That's true faith for question and answer 21. It's a wholehearted knowledge of the Word. I believe that Word. I trust that Word. I assent to those promises, and I believe them with my heart. That's what He wants from you, Chris. Do you not know that the goodness of God leads you to repentance? All that goodness in your life, that's the intention. you think it's easily easy for us to follow in this if we ever thought we could achieve right righteousness merely by external conformity to all this what would happen to us what would that look like hodge whenever true religion declines the disposition to lay undue stress on external rights is stressed now after all of that to close tonight notice verse 28 this is so beautiful for no one is a jew who is merely one outwardly nor circumcision outward and physical but a jew is one inwardly and circumcision is a matter of the heart by the spirit not by the letter his praise is not from man but from god here's what he's saying. God will only acknowledge a true Jew. And guess what? A true Jew is not determined by outward circumcision, not merely by the bloody sign or because you're a descendant of Abraham. A true Jew, notice this, what have we been looking at in the Sermon on the out is a matter of the heart. You understand what Jesus was saying to the community when in the Sermon on the Mount, he was saying, listen, I see what you're doing. Your prayers are all external for everyone to see. Go in your closet and close the door. Then you'll have praise from God. Remember he said that? Paul says that here. If you're pure in your intentions, then God will see your hearts and praise you. That's a true Jew. You'll get praise from God if you can achieve that not just outwardly but inwardly. But what's the problem, beloved? There is none righteous. No, not one. Something must happen to the heart. What's wrong with the heart? Well, it's not what society tells you. tells you it's good look inward jesus told us called the multitude to himself and said here and understand this it's not what goes into the mouth that defiles a man what comes out of the mouth this defiles a man but if those things which proceed out of the mouth come from the heart and they defile a man for out of the heart proceeds out of the heart here's our problem evil thoughts murders adulteries fornications thefts false witness blasphemies these are the things which defile a man, but to eat with unwashed hands does not defile a man. Paul is about ready to say in the next chapter, there is a righteousness revealed. There is a righteousness that comes by what? Faith. That's what circumcision declares you need. What is needed is to the equivalent to what we studied a few weeks ago with Nicodemus. Nicodemus, you need to be born from above. You must have the heart. The spirit must sprinkle that heart, Ezekiel 36, and cleanse it. The signs of the Old Covenant, circumcision, the sign of the New Covenant, baptism. Here's the beauty of the gospel. Listen to me tonight. I think this is so important. the beauty of the Christian gospel is, we often say, let me start with this, we often say circumcision is replaced by baptism. The outward sign is, most certainly. That's not quite correct. Circumcision is not done away with. It meant the cutting away of our filth by a bloody sign. The promise of the new covenant is that Christ will be both for us our circumcision and our baptism. You do need to be circumcised. But what did Colossians say? It's done without hands. In Him, you were circumcised. You see? With a circumcision not performed by human hands. Your whole self ruled by the flesh was put off when you were circumcised by Christ. Having been buried with Him in baptism in which you were raised with Him through faith in the working of God who raised Him from the dead. that's what has to happen to you he has to circumcise your heart and he has to wash it that's what baptism signifies cuts away the sin and he washes you when you were dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh what did god do god made you alive with christ he forgave us our sins having canceled the charge of our legal indebtedness which stood against us and condemned us he's taking it away nailing it to the cross the message of the old covenant was israel you got a problem circumcise the four skins of your hearts remember deuteronomy who could who could this is the best you get i said servant on the mount the kind of religion you get with uncircumcised hearts and then here was the promise in the midst of deuteronomy but God the Lord your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your descendants to love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul so that you may live love begins to happen received by faith the spirit must do that that's what he says here at the ends of romans 2 a jew is one inwardly and circumcision is a matter of the heart circumcision is not done away with it has to happen by christ by the spirit not by the letter not by the law not by the written code you're not doing that his praise is not from man but from god that's his work and he gives you the righteousness that you need to cover your sins and to live by faith. God accounts that perfect life of the true Israel of God. Who is Jesus? The true Israelite. Pure hands and a clean heart. Here's the amazing truth tonight. These are the true Jews. Hear me. These are the true Jews. These are the Israel of God. Much confusion on this today. This is israel this is what it all anticipated of all nations brought together as one yes gentiles being grafted in we are one in faith one hope one baptism the israel of god galatians 6 he said to gentiles you are the israel of god a true jew is one inwardly by the spirit not by the letter being cleansed so good news when you believe the gospel when you in true faith as we study tonight embrace christ wholehearted faith wholehearted trust in everything he's declared in his gospel and word to you this is what happens baptism in the new covenant symbolizes the fullness of it all the complete washing purely by the work of the lord through the death of and the righteousness of his son for us and in our place. What an amazing gospel. What a good God. May we never take our eyes off of Christ and his life for us. Amen. Heavenly Father, thank you for helping us through this passage tonight. Thank you for instructing us and the great work by your spirit to circumcise the heart. To be washed in baptism through Christ's work. We praise you tonight. May it always be, O Lord, that what we express comes internally out of true faith from the heart. So that what we ever do externally is genuine and true. Bless us, O Lord, and thank you for your word to us as the Israel of God. In Jesus' name, amen. Thank you.