Bless all that are pure-hearted, the good with good reward. Who's pure-hearted? This is Romans 2. And I want to consider tonight the 25th through the 29th verse of Romans 2 as we take up the issue tonight of circumcision and how the Jews had trusted in their circumcision. If you're visiting with us, we're working through the book of Romans. And this is a very important section. I'm taking these verses tonight. I believe this issue is so important that we're going to just focus on 25-29. And probably next week or the week after we'll conclude the section on sin, move into the wonderful section here on the imputation of the righteousness of Jesus. Verse 25. Let's give our attention to the Word of the Lord. For circumcision is indeed 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 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. May the Lord bless the hearing of His Word. In 2 Corinthians 3, the Apostle Paul makes a crucial distinction saying that we are ministers of the New Covenant. And it's a really important section. He says, not of the letter, but of the Spirit. For the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life. The contrast there is really important tonight for what we're considering in Romans 2. The contrast the Apostle Paul is making here is between New Covenant ministers that minister the righteousness of Jesus Christ and the particular, in contrast, ministry of the giving of the law on Sinai, which in this context, because he's looking at a certain context with the Jews and what they were doing, he calls it a ministry of condemnation. The differences are really vital to understand tonight for Romans 2. It's important because each kind of ministry produces its own kind of fruit in its recipients. And nothing exposes this stronger, as we have considered, than what Jesus came upon in the religious community of His day. Remember that. It was a fight. It was ugly. The ministry, the community, was under the ministry of condemnation. They were under it. And the bad tree was producing a whole lot of bad fruit. And the poor souls under that ministry. I mean, this is why Jesus was just concerned and moved with compassion when He looked at the multitudes and what the pastors, the shepherds, were doing to the people because He looked at them scattered and having no shepherd. He was looking at the ministry of condemnation and its fruit. The Jewish community was a legalistic, self-righteous club only for those who conformed to their pharisaical interpretations of the law and the superimposed tradition of the elders. We'll look at that a little bit. No one could enter the club until there was complete conformity. And if you didn't have it, you were cut off. Full of self-righteous pride, the Sanhedrin condemned everyone except themselves. This kind of ministry is concerned to bring people into conformity to the law of God with the heavy, fearful burden of its yoke, holding the people. It does nothing but kill. We'll look at the fruit. Now I say tonight that when that kind of ministry is the ministry being received, it does something terrible. And I've been reading a lot of Calvin lately, So let me give you one more Calvin quote about the ministry of righteousness. And I love this. I love what he says in his summary of Gospel ministry. Many other things undoubtedly are contained in the Gospel, but the principal object which God intends to accomplish by it is to receive men into favor by not imputing their sins. If, therefore, we wish to show that we are faithful ministers of the Gospel, we must give our most earnest attention to this subject. For the chief point of difference between the Gospel and heathen philosophy lies in this. The Gospel makes the salvation of men to consist in the forgiveness of sins through free grace. Beautiful. Beautiful statement. I wonder how common the Galatian era is today. And I wonder how common the Galatian era is in Reformed churches today. of reverting back to a message that says we're right by what we do. There's no antidote better to break that than Romans 2. Romans 2 bulldozes that whole thing. And that's why I love studying Romans 2. Romans 2 has one great goal tonight and it is to level everyone. Remember, we've been looking at this. It is to level not just the bad people of Romans 1, not just the homosexuals, but it is to level the religious people and put them now on the same field as guilty before God. And it's building to that. It's building to chapter 3, verse 20. And in chapter 3, verse 20 is the conclusion of the matter. Remember this conclusion because it's really important for what we're studying tonight. The conclusion of the matter, Paul says is, no one by the works of the law will be justified. Period. That's the end of the section on sin. Now that's the grand thing He's working toward. Well, when we look at Israel, God wants us to cover our mouths and go, oh, you mean them? Righteous Israel who had the law and had all the precepts and knew the will, And God tells us through Romans 2 tonight that He wants us to look at Israel as Gentiles that every mouth would be closed. They didn't make it. They didn't make it. Charles Hodge said something really interesting in light of Romans 2. 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. Tonight, the Lord tears down the last great badge of Jewish pride, circumcision. He tears it right down and there's nothing left now. There's nothing left for the Jews after the end of this. And remember, this is not just applying to the Jews. This is applying to the good, moral, upright people who are trusting in their own righteousness. And the Lord is saying to us tonight, to the Jews, He's saying, you've missed the whole intention of circumcision. You missed it. So I want to look at that tonight and see how important this is for us today in gospel ministry and how dangerous it is when we fall. What we're studying here is not just something the Jews struggled with. This is something we easily fall into and it kills Christian ministry. It kills the intention of the preaching of what we do every Sunday. And so that's why Romans 2 is so important to study tonight. So let's look at verse 25. For circumcision is indeed a value if you obey the law. But if you're a breaker of the law, your circumcision becomes uncircumcision. That's quite a statement, isn't it? That's a pretty loaded statement if you think about it. You really have to understand the mindset of the Jews when it came to the issue of circumcision. Circumcision was everything to the Jew and what it had become. The whole thing had been shrouded in superstition so that you had a bunch of creedal statements that began to be spoken by all of the rabbis. And their creedal statements went like this, and I quote, No circumcised Jewish man will see hell. I'll keep going. Circumcision saves us from hell. And then this one. 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 circumcised Israelite to enter. Wow, what a ticket, huh? What a ticket. You hear what happened in Israel? they took the outward signs as badges that secured their favor before God. This sacrament was, if you will, a ticket to heaven. Now Paul is giving a death blow to this tonight under the inspiration of the Spirit. He is attacking this as strong as he could possibly attack it. And it's really a powerful attack, isn't it? He tears down their confidence. And you'll notice it by two words that he uses here right at the beginning. he uses the words obey and break in connection. So in other words, Paul says, listen, circumcision would be really profitable to you if you keep all the law. Can you imagine tonight if he had said that in Christian language? Your baptism would be profitable to you if you keep the law. we would stand back in shock. What's going on here? What do you mean? Paul has been setting before them the terms of the law, hasn't he? And Romans 2 is not a suggestion. What makes Romans 2 so potent is that he just levels the full weight of the righteousness that comes by the law. Remember, Romans 10 is going to make a distinction between the righteousness that comes by faith and the righteousness that comes by the law. Romans 2 has nothing to do with the righteousness that comes by faith. You can't read Gospel back into this. That's where people get into serious error. This is about the righteousness that comes through the law. And he's saying, here's the standard. Here's the terms. Two kinds of righteousness. Here's the one, the first one. If you do good, if you do good. He says it twice, remember, in Romans 2. And he is saying here really powerfully, if you accomplish goodness, and you are in constancy fulfilling all righteousness, you will have eternal life. Now, he didn't say salvation, which is really important because that connected with the rich young ruler, remember, who had come to the Lord and asked for not salvation, but eternal life, and he got hit over the head with the law, didn't he? You want eternal life? Here it is. Constancy. Do it and you'll live. And if you don't do it, Wrath, indignation, tribulation on every single soul that does evil. Now the challenge is that Christians have tried to read that and say that he's just giving a hopeful sort of outline of the Christian life. That's not what this is. He is looking at the community under the law. Because he's going to say in Romans 6, you're not under that anymore. And under the law, It's scary. God doesn't say you can be just hearers of it. You know what God says in the biggest verse there in verse 14? God says you've got to be a doer to be justified. You can't just stand back and look at the law and dissect the law and memorize 613 commandments, O Pharisees. You can't just be a hearer. You've got to do it all. Then you'll be justified. So this is thick. And Paul's conclusion after he has said twice, If you do good, if you do good. In Romans 3, stability is saying, but no one does good. So we've got a big problem, don't we? So now he's applying this whole line of reasoning to the act of circumcision. It's the same kind of reasoning under the law. The act of circumcision would profit you if you are a complete doer of the law. If you fulfill all righteousness, this would help in that fulfilling of all righteousness for you. But, another big but, if you're a breaker of the law, your circumcision becomes uncircumcision. Now you have to ask for a moment and pause. Well, what is circumcision? Remember, God had given circumcision to Abraham and it included his children. Paul is going to go on to define this for us and I don't want to get too far ahead tonight. But Paul is going to tell us in Romans 4 that circumcision is what? is a sign and a seal of the righteousness that comes by faith. That was its intention. That's what it was in the Abraham. For Abraham. And he makes this whole great, beautiful exposition in Romans 4 that the beautiful thing about this was Abraham believed God and it was accounted to him for righteousness and then he was circumcised and that was done to show everyone that it wasn't the act of circumcision that justified him. it confirmed. It's only a sign. It's only a seal. That's what Paul says there. Now the Jews aren't looking at it that way. The Jews are looking at circumcision under Moses. And it's a really important distinction because they didn't see, which is Paul's driving point here, as with Galatians, that the law was added for transgressions. They didn't see their sin. So chapter 3 is going to stop the mouth of everyone in their own righteousness. And the law declared curses everyone who does not continue to do everything written in the book of the law to do it and live. Paul is looking at what the Jews believed was the great work of the law fulfilled by them. Do you know what they thought was the greatest work of the law to be fulfilled and to fulfill righteousness? circumcision. That sealed the deal. And Paul says, okay, if you want to do that, I'll present a hypothetical. If you want to make circumcision, it's not what it is, but if you want to make it into something that you want to trust for to produce your own righteousness before God, then it will be a benefit to you if you keep everything. But if you're a covenant breaker and you break the law of Moses, you have no circumcision. Wow. Now, this comes down to a basic way of how we read the Bible, doesn't it, tonight? I skipped a few Psalms and one of you said to me this morning, well, Pastor, you've dodged about 10 Psalms. I agree. I feel bad about that. So you know what? Turn back to Psalm 14. That's after Psalm 13. If you see Psalm 14, I want you to notice what Paul does there. I've got Paul, excuse me. I've got Paul in my mind. Paul didn't exist at that point. In Psalm 14, Psalm 14 describes the Romans 1 people. And what are they saying about God? They're saying God doesn't even exist. And these are the people of Romans 1 who suppress the truth in unrighteousness because what they see with God should be manifest, but they suppress it. They deny the existence of God. And you know what happens in Psalm 14? Paul sees this. Paul sees this because what's now quoted in Psalm 14 is directly what we find in Romans 3. And Paul plasters it in Romans 3. Same thing we find in Romans 14. There's none, verse 3, who does good. No, not one. There's none. The Lord looks down from heaven on the children of man to see if there's any who understand who seek after God. They've all turned aside. They've together become corrupt. There's none who does good. No, not even one. Have they no knowledge? All the evildoers who eat up my people as they eat up bread and do not call upon the Lord. Now, imagine a Jew reading Psalm 14. He stands back from Psalm 14 and he says, Ah, those infidels. They don't even acknowledge God. Fools. They don't call out to the Lord. We do. We're of the circumcision. And you know what? We really fit Psalm 15. Don't you look at Psalm 15? O Lord, who shall sojourn in Your tent? Who shall dwell on Your holy hill? He who walks blamelessly and does what is right and speaks truth in his heart. Notice the emphasis on heart. I'll get there. Who does not slander with his tongue and does no evil to his neighbor, nor takes up reproach against his friend, in whose eyes a vile person is despised, but who honors those who fear the Lord, who swears to his own hurt and does not change, who does not put out his money at interest and does not take a bribe against the innocent. He who does these things shall never be moved. Now you have two choices with that psalm tonight. I could say, not those Psalm 14 people. They refuse to knowledge God. I'm of the circumcision. Psalm 15 describes me. So circumcision itself achieved it in their view. But what the Jews refuse to see in Psalm 14 is, and I'm just doing the same thing that Paul is doing between Romans 2 and 3 here. What the Jews refused to see in Psalm 14 was the little phrase, no one. No one does good. Now, I want you to read Psalm 15. Again, not a suggestion. If you walk blamelessly, speak truth, never slander, never do evil to your neighbor, fear the Lord, never swear, never hurt the innocent, you'll never be moved in your life. imagine God saying to them, Dear Jew, you've overlooked Psalm 14. You're in that mix. And you didn't see that what Psalm 14 declares is you need a Savior. So circumcision is not profiting you. You know why, dear Jew? because you don't see your sin. And you're breaking the law left and right. And because of that, you're in big trouble. Listen, do you know this is the single great message that got Jesus killed? He stripped them of their righteousness. And I don't know if you've ever thought about the weight of John 7. But do you know what Jesus said right to the Jews? Did not Moses give you the law? None of you keeps it. That's a verse you could read right over. Not one of you keeps the law. Now do you see how important this is tonight? We just dealt with a whole movement in the reformed world called the Federal Vision Movement. And they essentially did this to baptism. That's why the concern was there. They did this to the act of baptism. They said, as we heard them, the sign of baptism itself washes away your sins. The act of it. And we said, you can't say that. If you say that, if you say that, what are you doing? You're putting people back under the law because you've turned baptism into a work of your hands. It's merely a sign, we said. Our confessions have always said, it's merely a sign of the washing of water that speaks to the washing away of our sins spiritually by Christ's blood and the Holy Spirit. We don't produce that. Only Christ's blood and the Spirit produce that. And that's only received, Heidelberg 21, by what? Faith. Baptism's not the instrument to receive that. Faith alone is the instrument to receive that. And if you say anything else, now you're obligating yourself to the whole law. So Paul's whole point tonight, you see how we can slip into this, Paul's whole point tonight is to say circumcision or uncircumcision has no bearing on somebody's right standing before God. Because if the Gentile had the ability to keep all of the law, His would be counted as circumcision. You see? Your baptism doesn't save. Now this is all very important tonight because of the consequences of this kind of religion. And that's where I want to go with this just in closing here for a minute. The consequences. The religion of the Pharisees. Self-righteousness. Self-made justification before God. It's in all of us. We'll slip back into it quicker than you would ever dream. Have you ever seen what that looks like? One of the things that shocked me up north in a town where there were 16 Reformed churches and a population of 13,000, the hatred that came out for the name Reformed in that town. Now some of that, you know, was because people had to take a stand on certain things on the truth and people just didn't want to be that anymore. But I have to confess, one of the things that I learned up there is that many people hated the name Reformed because they were tired. I'm not saying this is right or wrong. They were tired of the fighting. They were tired of the splits. they were tired of the abuses. That's wrong. They were tired of the hatreds. They were tired of the contentions. They were tired of the jealousies. Some of which was undergirded by a hard kind of use of the law to beat people into conformity. It was ugly. It was ugly. There wasn't joy. You know the best we can do under the law? We can create one of the most hypocritical situations ever. You realize that? We can create under the law one of the best hypocritical situations ever. And that's what Romans 2 is showing us. If we thought we could achieve righteousness merely through outward conformity, what would happen to us? what would it look like? Just what Hodge said. Whenever true religion declines, the disposition to lay undue stress on the externals comes about. It was this kind of stuff that made our Lord say to Israel, woe to you! I am sick of the multitude of your sacrifices. I have had enough burnt offerings of rams and the fat of well-fed beasts. I don't delight in the blood of bulls. You think about it. This is the Lord saying this. Of lambs or of goats, when you come to appear before Me, who's required of you this trampling of My courts? Bring no more vain offerings, incenses and abomination to Me, new moons and sabbaths and the calling of convocations. I can endure iniquity and solemn assembly. Your new moons and your appointed feasts My soul hates. They become a burden to Me. I'm weary of bearing them. Why would God say that? Because none of it came with a circumcised heart. Now, God was burdened because they were so concerned to get it all outwardly right. And they forgot about the heart. Now I'm saying tonight, I'm not saying that in a good way, by the way. I'm not saying, just look at the heart. Here's the shocking thing about Romans 2. You know what Paul says, the greatest problem is not external. This is what he's saying here. The greatest problem is not external under the law. The greatest problem is, God is looking at your hearts right now. That's the problem under the law. And that's what he says in verse 28. For one is a Jew who is merely... 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. I don't believe he's talking about the Holy Spirit here. He says His praise is not from man, but from God. Here's what I believe he's saying. God will acknowledge the true Jew. A true Jew is not determined by outward circumcision. A true Christian is not determined by outward baptism. A true Jew who has circumcision, that is a matter of the heart. So you circumcised Jews are confident in praise of men and outwardly keeping the law, but guess what? You don't even come close outwardly. But in reality, you've got to have an inward circumcision. And I mean a pure heart and a pure spirit. And if you have that, guess what? God will praise you. He hasn't gotten to the Gospel yet. He hasn't gotten to anything else good news yet. See, now you understand what Jesus was saying to the community when He said, look, don't give your prayers for everyone to see. Go in the closet, and when you close the door, you'll get praise from God. What was He saying is, God is really concerned about your hearts and your pure intentions. And if you demonstrate purity in your heart and going in your closet and closing the door so no one sees you, He'll praise you. He's looking under the law. Now, what's the problem? Well, if you flip over to Romans 3, the first thing He's going to say when He quotes Psalm 14 is, no one's righteous. And you know that throat? Not lips. It's deep here. It's a tomb. God's looking there. If we could achieve purity on the inside, we would be pure Jews. We'd be true Jews. What was Jesus' indictment about the heart, beloved? He looked at the community and said, You are those who justify you, yourselves, before men, but God knows your hearts. And people say this all the time. Oh, you know, God just looks at our hearts. That's all that matters. And I say, bad thing. Bad thing. Oh, God looks at our hearts and He doesn't see anything good there. And we are so good at desperately trying to achieve an outward righteousness. And that's the best we can do. And Paul just swung the bat and said, wait a minute, that's not your great problem. A true Jew has to have a pure spirit and heart. And God's looking. Now the Jews should have known this from the Scriptures, beloved. What does Psalm 24 say? Who may ascend into the hill of the Lord? Who may stand in His holy place? He who has clean hands and a pure heart. That's the backdrop to Matthew 15, by the way. Pharisees and scribes come to Jesus one day. Why don't your disciples, why do they transgress the tradition of elders? For they don't wash their hands when they eat bread. What did Jesus do? Two things. He attacked the outward hypocrisy. Why do you transgress the commandment of God? Because of your tradition. They were using their filthy hands to steal money, weren't they? And not help their parents. But then where did Jesus take it? He went right to the heart. And He said, when He called the multitude to Himself, He said to them, Cure and understand. Not what goes into the mouth defiles a man, but what comes out of the mouth, this defiles a man. That's Romans 3. Throat is an open tomb. But those things which proceed out of the mouth come from the heart, and they defile a man. For out of the heart proceeds 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. And to seal it up, you know why Jesus said, you are all like whitewashed tombs which indeed appear beautiful outwardly, but inside you are full of dead men's bones and all uncleanness. Now, you see what Paul just did? If your hands are pure and your hearts are pure, you'll be a true Jew. Problem? No one's a true Jew. And that's his point in Romans 3. Who may ascend in the hill of the Lord? He who has clean hands and a pure heart. Who's the true Jew? Only one. And His name is Jesus. And that's what Paul's ready to talk a whole lot about. Somebody who has not just outward, perfect law-keeping, but an inward, pure, righteous heart. And he says that is the righteousness God is revealing to the ends of the earth that is received by faith doesn't come from you. And this message was all over the Old Testament when the Lord would stand to Israel and say, listen, circumcise the foreskins of your hearts. Did Israel do that? You can't circumcise your hearts. And the Lord said in the Gospel promise, the Lord your God will circumcise your heart and the hearts of your descendants to love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, that you may live. You know how beautiful it was when Jesus one day looked at Nicodemus Pharisee, trusting in his own pure righteousness. Nicodemus, you've got to be born again. How do I go get in a womb? Where's one big enough I can go get in? No, no, no. You've got to be born of water and the Spirit. And you know what? You can't create that. The Holy Spirit does that. He creates a clean heart. He gives life to a black heart. And when you believe in the Son, whoever believes in Him, they're not going to perish. But they're going to have everlasting life. Because God supplies what they need. What an amazing Gospel tonight. Are you getting ready for what's to come? I mean, how wonderful this is going to be when we plow through the good news. We had to walk this, don't we? Never take your eyes off Jesus. He's the pure One with a pure life that God accepts. And all who receive that by faith will live. Amen. Oh Lord, our God, what do we say tonight in response, but thank You. That You would care to rip open our hearts and say, I see everything going on there. It's darkness and black. And how You would break us free from being under the law for condemnation, imputing the righteousness of Jesus so that we can live in the joy of this comfort, how free this is. Receive our thanksgiving tonight and let this be a place where the joy of Christ and the ministry of righteousness prevails. In Jesus' name, Amen.