Romans 2. Behold, thou art called
a Jew, and rest in the law, and make thy boast of God, and knowest
his will, and approveth the things that are more excellent being
instructed out of the law, and art confident that thou art thyself
a guide of the blind, a light of them that are in darkness,
an instructor of the foolish, a teacher of babe, which has
the form of knowledge and of the truth of the law. Thou, therefore,
which teacheth another, teachest thou thyself? Teachest thou not
thyself? Thou that preachest a man should
not steal, do you steal? Thou that sayest a man should
not commit adultery, dost thou commit adultery? Thou that abhorrest
idols, dost thou commit sacrilege? Thou that makest thy boast of
the law, through breaking the law dishonorest thou God? For the name of God is blasphemed
among the Gentiles through you as it is written. For circumcision
verily profiteth if thou keep the law. But if thou be a breaker
of the law, thy circumcision is made uncircumcision. Therefore, if the uncircumcision
keep the righteousness of the law, shall not his uncircumcision
be counted for circumcision? And shall not the uncircumcision,
which is by nature, if it fulfill the law, Judge thee who by the letter
and circumcision does transgress the law. For he is a Jew, he
is not a Jew which is one outwardly, neither is that circumcision
which is outward in the flesh. But he is a Jew, which is one
inwardly, and circumcision is that of the heart in the spirit
and not in the letter, whose praise is not of men, but of
God. I think that a lot of people
would say that the Roman epistle is one of their favorite of all
that Paul has given us by his pen. And the Roman epistle is
very easy to outline because the sections are very clear as
we move through it. And in it, Paul follows his usual
order. Doctrine first, and then practical,
and duty, and exhortation, and things of that nature. Now the
heart and theme of the epistle is found, I believe, with a lot
of others, in chapter 1, verse 16 and verse 17. that the gospel is the power
of God unto salvation because therein is revealed the righteousness
of God. In the gospel and the proclamation
of it, there is a revelation of that righteousness provided
and imputed by God that saves unto everlasting life. But before Paul speaks that he
breaks himself off as it were in chapter 1 and verse 18 and
the Apostle from chapter 1 and verse 18 down to chapter 3 and
verse 18 lays out the depraved state of of the human family,
of the whole world. He describes here, as Haldane
said, the ruined condition of the entire human family and the
universality of that depravity. And he does so for the Gentiles
first. in chapter 1 as he deals with
them and shows us the birth of paganism. And he does so with
the Jew in chapter 2 and following. And then in chapter 3, about
verse 9 to about verse 18, he lumps all humanity together Gentile
and the Jews as well. And in that passage, he quotes
numerous scripture testimony from the Old Testament that declare
the universality of sin. Almost every verse in that section
is a quotation from the Old Testament showing that both Jew and Gentile
are all under sin in the same guilt and the same condemnation. He says, none are righteous. All have gone astray. There is
none that seeketh after God, and that in this sin, the Jew,
with all of his advantages, were actually no better than the Gentile
when it comes to guilt, sin, and condemnation. Now, we read
this morning the last hack of chapter 2 of Roman, beginning
at verse 17, where the apostle now comes to directly address
his words unto the Jew. Watch him. Behold, thou art called
a Jew. In other words, you're named
Jew. You answer to the name Jew. You carry it proudly. This name,
we might say, describes them in three ways. It describes them
as a people. They are Jew. It describes them
as to their region from Judea. and it describes them according
to their religion, and that is Judaism. Now, their being called
Jews does not here refer to a divine call or a divine summons as we
believe in the call from God. But it refers to that name by
which they are called, or which they are known, or to which they
answer. And some use the word denominated. Thou art denominated as a Jew. Now this name they boasted in. It distinguished them from the
rest of the world and from the nation. And they took pride in
it. And it marked them, so they thought,
as the people of God. We'll come before that again
in verse 28 and verse 29. And with it came those things
mentioned in the next verses here in Romans 2. Being Jews,
they rested upon the law, they trusted in it, and they also
gloried in God. And they boasted that they knew
the will of God, that they were acquainted with the will of God,
and that they knew the will and the way of God. and that they
approved the things from knowing the law that were good and that
were right. All of these they boasted in. And they considered themselves
to be very competent guides to help and to correct and to lead
others, and able to correct those that were out of the way. And by being instructed in the
principles of the law as they thought themselves to be, and
all truth that was contained in that law was at their disposal,
to be dispensed among others. Now the question is, is Paul
conceding that their privileges as Jews, as the covenant people,
are preparing themselves for the coming stinging rebuke that
Paul is advancing toward in their behalf? In verse 21 and verse
24. Now, of course, Paul grants them, being a Jew himself by
birth and nature, he grants them to have privileges. One of them
is in chapter 3 and verse 2 of Roman, in that under them were
committed the oracles of God, the words of God. And note it. chiefly or primarily were committed
unto them. First of all, what advantage
had the Jew? Paul asked after saying all these
things to their condemnation. What advantage, he said, in chapter
3 had they over the nation? Well, to them were given the
oracles of God. Stephen confirms that in Acts
chapter 7, verse 37 and 38. For there he reminds his accusers
how Moses and our fathers, quote, received the living, lively,
or living oracles to give unto us. They received that word from
God and passed it down. Then in Romans 9 and verse 4
and verse 5, other privileges, for example, they had the adoption,
the glory, the covenants, the law was given to them, the worship
of God was given under their father, and Messiah even came
through them or out of them. And yet these things did not
save them. And in spite of these great and
high privileges, many of them did not even believe. They did
not even believe and receive the Messiah when He came. But
this, says Paul, does not mean that the Word of God has failed
on this ground, since they are not All Israel, which are of
Israel, neither being a direct descendant of Abraham, makes
them the true children of God. And you have that in Romans chapter
9 and verse 7 and verse 8. But back now in Romans chapter
2 and verse 12 through verse 15, we notice there that there
are several mentions and there are several references unto the
law, or literally to law, without the article. And Paul makes a
couple of contrasts if we look back at verse 12. And verse 13,
for as many as have sinned without law shall also perish without
law, and as many as have sinned in the law shall be judged by
the law. And watch verse 13, for not the
hearers of the law are just before God, but the doers of the law. Now here are the contrasts that
are there. Those without law and those under
law. And secondly, Paul speaks in
the same light elsewhere. in 1 Corinthians chapter 9, 20
and 21. Again, them that are under law,
them that are without law. And in Romans 2 and 14, the Gentiles,
which had not the law. And so the conclusion in verse
12, as many as have sinned without law, shall also perish without
law, and as many as have sinned in the law shall be judged by
the law. Now the second contract is this,
between the hearers the doers of the law between those that
hear the law only and those that are obedient in verse 13 you
have this again in James chapter 1 verse 22 through 25 for it
is not the hearers of the law that are just
before God, but it is the doers of the law, says Paul, that shall
be justified in the sight of God. Now Paul is not speaking
here of legal justification. He will emphatically deny the
possibility of that in chapter 3, 20, 21, and 28. No justification
by law. Now, coming to Romans 2, 21, through 24, where the apostle
turns their claims of resting in the law in verse 17, knowing
the law in verse 18, of being competent teachers of the law
in verse 20, and to be observers and doers of the law against
them, he exposes their sin and hypocrisy by weighing them in
the scales of that very law that they boasted in. He does so,
as someone once wrote, by a series, quote, of pungent questions,
unquote. That brings out the flagrant
inconsistency of the Jew and of their claim between their
profession and their practice. And Christ did that stronger
than any other. Even the Lord said of the Jew,
of the teacher, the scribe, and such like, that they sit in Moses'
seat. That's in Matthew chapter 23
verse 2 and 3. They sit in Moses' seat, they
say and do not. They tell you what to do, but
they don't do it themselves. Their practice did not match
their profession, not by a long shot. So Paul uses here in Romans
chapter 2, three examples using three of the Ten Commandments
to display their hypocrisy. And the three commandments are
theft and adultery and sacrilege. And he prefaces it in verse 21. You who teach others, have you
taught yourself? Have you learned what you are
teaching others? Have you not learned what you
are binding and using to condemn others, particularly the Gentile? Verse 23, 24. Now, this requires
an answer in the Affirmative. There are three examples. Verse
21, you teach against stealing. and using the 9th commandment,
Exodus 20 15, thou shalt not steal. Verse 22 of Romans 2,
you teach against adultery using the 7th commandment, thou shalt
not commit adultery, Exodus 20 and 14. Do you commit adultery? Now we know that Jesus called
them a sinful and adulterous generation in Matthew chapter
16 and verse 4. Now most do not consider that
the thought or the desire is a sin or a transgression of the
law. It's the common opinion of most
to think it is not a sin, to be tempted if you don't yield,
is not a sin. But also, in verse 22, and the
last part, You who abhor idols. Or you come down hard on idolatry. Do you commit sacrilege? And some translate that robbing
of temples. They professed their hatred for
idolatry. They condemned the Gentile in
their idolatry. And yet, in some way, they themselves
had committed a sin inconsistent with their profession on that. And that's seen again in verse
23 and 24. By boasting in the law, yet breaking
the law, they dishonored God. you could turn back and read
in Malachi chapter 2 and chapter 3 where the apostle or the prophet
chastises them for that very thing. And Paul says this, your
action have led the Gentiles to blaspheme the name of God
as it is written. That might be a reference to
Isaiah chapter 52 and verse 5. I'd like to compare something
from David. 2 Samuel chapter 12 and verse
14. The prophet Samuel said to David,
by your deeds you have given great occasion to the enemies
of the Lord to blaspheme. What you have done has brought
blasphemy from the lips and mouths of they that are enemies of God. But in Ezekiel chapter 36, 17
through 20, there's another example. When the Jews were scattered
among the heathen, it is charged upon them, you have profaned
my holy name. For they were called the people
of God. They called themselves the people
of God. And the Apostle said, the sinful
behavior of the Jew in the presence of the heathen gave the Gentile
occasion to blaspheme the name of God. The Jews claimed him
as their God. and yet they walk not according
to their profession. Some commentators there are who
have made the connection that people are to some degree and
in a way a reflection of the God that they possess, that in
some way they are a reflection of their God. At least they are
perceived that way by people who are offended by their action. We read, for example, in Psalm
115 and verse 8, where David is describing the wickedness
and the stupidity of idols, of the gods of the heathen. And
he says, they that make them are like unto them. Now, if one
sees one bowing before an idol, they imagine that likeness. But moving along, let's take
up now verse 25 through verse 29 in the second of Roman. I would like to give you this
quote from Robert Haldane from these verses, 25 through 29,
and I quote, Paul here pursues the Jew into his last retreat,
in which he imagined himself secure, the subject of circumcision,
which the Jews viewed as their stronghold, unquote. That was their boast. We are
the circumcision. We are the circumcised. Their profession would be this. We are Jews. We are of the stock
of Israel, as Paul said, Philippians 3 verse 8. Of the seed of Abraham,
2nd Corinthians 11 verse 32. Paul once prided himself in being
a pure, bred, born, unmixed Jew. And you'll find that in Philippians
3 and verse 5, where she came to count as dung refuse for the
sake of Christ. All of that, Paul said, that
I once gloried in, I now count as dung for the sake of Christ. But their second claim, Not only
we are Jews, but we are the circumcision. We have Abraham's circumcision. We have Abraham's mark and Abraham's
right in our flesh, a right more ancient even than Moses and the
law. So Paul briefly deals with these
two issues, we're Jew and we are the circumcision in which
the Jew plays so much stock and boasted. Number one, what then
is a true Jew? And number two, What is the true
circumcision? Now, these will give us the chance
to consider some very interesting questions, such as, who are the
true spiritual children of Abraham? which is the real and true circumcision. And then perhaps an appendix
that I'd like to add today to our message, an expression that
we're hearing more and more in our society and culture, and
that is that we are Judeo-Christian religion in America. So let's read 2 and 25 as a lead-in
to the final verses of chapter 2. For circumcision verily profits,
if you keep the law, but if thou be a breaker of the law, then
circumcision is made uncircumcision. Now, what a puzzle for us to
solve. Now, concerning circumcision
and the law. Circumcision is profitable. It has value if you are a doer
of the law, if you keep the law. If you practice the law, then
it has value. And the Jews had not done that. And Paul makes it clear, even
as the Lord had done. transgress the law, if you break
the law, then circumcision is the same as uncircumcision and
puts you in the same class with the people that you despise. Likewise, in verse 26, if the
uncircumcision, the Gentile, keep the law, then will his uncircumcision
be counted or regarded as circumcision. I think I agree with Gil here.
I found this. These words are hypothetical. If such should be the case, if
that should be the case with regard to the Jew or with regard
to the Gentile, then what would be the result of that? And it may serve us to remember
Paul is not yet speaking of life under the gospel. Hear that? It's important. Not yet in this
particular place is he speaking of life under the gospel, but
of man's life as guilt under the law, in relation under the
law, which he began in chapter 1 and verse 18, and has its conclusion
in verse 19 and 20. Let me jump and read that. Chapter
3, verse 19 and 20. Having begun in 118, the wrath
of God is revealed. He now concludes that, verse
19, chapter 3. Now we know that what thing soever
the law says, it says to them who are under the law that every
mouth may be stopped, all the world may become guilty before
God. Therefore, by the deeds of the
law, there shall no flesh be justified in his sight, for by
the law is the knowledge of sin. Now, on the other hand, the great
revelation of a justifying righteousness is revealed in the gospel, chapter
1, verse 16 and 17. And Paul resumed that in chapter
3 and verse 21. But now, The righteousness of God without
the law is manifest. And this righteousness of God
is by faith in Jesus Christ and not through the law. Now, look at verse 27. This continues
the issue between the circumcised breakers of the law and the uncircumcised
keepers of the law. Here's another result of such
a thing. Not only would the uncircumcised
be justified without it and apart from it, but it would actually
be as judgment on those who gloried and who boasted in their circumcision
while at the same time transgressing the law of God. This note in
Romans. and all the talk about law, it
is not the ceremonial and it's not the civil law that Paul has
in mind, since this is not the law that was written in the heart
of the Gentiles. not the ceremonial, not the civil
law of the Jew, were written in the heart of the Gentile.
And then in chapter 221, 22 and 23, Paul cites from the Ten Commandments,
the moral law, theft, adultery, and idolatry. And so does Paul
in his encounter with the law in Romans chapter 7. Not the
ceremonial law, but the moral law. It said, thou shalt not
covet. That killed him and revived sin
in him. Now, coming to verse 28. and
verse 29, where Paul declares what is true Jewishness and true
circumcision in verse 28. Notice, he is not a Jew, which
is one outwardly, neither is that circumcision, which was
outward in the flesh. Here's the negative aspect. This is declared in different
words, in different places, in the scripture. For example, in
Romans 9, verse 6 to verse 8, they're not all Israel, which
are of Israel, neither because they are the seed of Abraham,
or they children, the children of the flesh. Ishmael are not
the children of God but the children of the promise as Isaac are counted
for the seed now of course this is not to deny there were Jews
there were them that were Jews by nature what Paul calls nature
in Galatians chapter 2 and verse 15 this was true of both Paul
and Peter in that dissension in Galatians chapter 2. They
were Jews by nature, by birth, by nationality. We are not sinners
of the Gentile, but Jews by nature, Paul said. not even proselytes. He doesn't mean that they were
proselytes. They had all that that race could
give them. Paul's point being born and bred
Jews. What have we done? Galatians
chapter 2. You need to follow it. He's saying
to Peter, openly rebuking him before the congregation, we who
are Jews by nature, what have we done? This is what we've done,
knowing that none are justified by the works of the law, Galatians
2, 15 and 16. Back in Romans 2, 28 and 29,
Paul distinguishes between an outward Jew in verse 28 and an
inward Jew in verse 29. We know An outward Jew is a natural
born Jew, a fleshly Jew, if you will, though their bloodline
is greatly diluted from that time until now. inward Jew? Paul brings up that expression. What is this? Is this a regenerate
Jew? Is it a Gentile also? Is it one such as Nathanael in
John chapter 1 and verse 47 when Jesus met Nathanael and he said
this to him, Behold an Israelite indeed. in whom is no guile."
Look at it. An Israelite, indeed, in whom
is no guile. What was the spiritual state
of this man, Nathanael? George Hutcheson takes these
words as commending the sincerity in the heart of Nathanael, already
a sincere one about the things of God. John Gill wrote of the
Lord's description of Nathanael, an Israelite in whom is no God,
quote, a true son of Jacob's are Israel, an honest, plain-hearted
man like Jacob, one that was an Israelite at heart, inwardly
so, unquote. The words of Gill. Of course,
the Lord does not mean that Nathanael was sinless or had reached perfection,
but that his heart was toward the things of God, and he understood
spiritual matters as far as God had revealed them unto him. Now, the old Persiac and the
old Syriac version of the scripture, I noticed, rendered this a son
of Israel. Behold, a son of Israel, an Israelite
in whom is no God. And others have called him a
perfect Israelite Nathanael. He was not a hypocrite like most
of the Jews in his day and time, and he quickly grasped the truth
as it came from the lips of Christ, confessing to him immediately,
You are the Christ, the Son of the living God. Thou art the
King of Israel. Most Jews mistook the meaning
and the purpose of those things that were given unto them by
God, and they conceived them over into
something else, and brought in something else in the place of
the truth. Here's a point made some time
ago in one of our studies. that there were two sorts of
people in the family of Abraham, those that kept the externals
of religion, and those who, like Abraham and Nathan and others,
by faith looked beyond those things which were types and shadows,
and looked far and saw Christ and Messiah. Abraham looked beyond
them. One did not have, and I want
you to get this, one did not have to be regenerate and one
did not have to be spiritual to observe the sacrifices and
the feasts and the days and the Sabbaths and the rites in Israel. These are called, in fact, carnal
ordinances which stood only in meats and drinks and divers washing. Hebrews 9, verse 10, Hebrews
7 and 16. And these things could not purge
the conscience and they could not perfect the worshippers. Carnal, they're called by the
writer, meaning flesh. An outward Jew, gloried and trusted
in him being Abraham's seed and being circumcised. An inward
Jew worshipped God spiritually out of the depths of their heart.
And then notice that Paul basically treats circumcision the same
way as he treated their Jewishness. That there are two sorts of circumcision
that are known in verse 28 and the last part. Neither is that
circumcision which is outward in the flesh. Verse 29, the last
part. And circumcision is that of the
heart in the spirit and not in the letter, whose praise is not
of men, but of God. Now, there is a physical circumcision,
which Paul called outward and in the flesh. Circumcised means
to cut away or to cut around, and pertained in the Old Testament
under the Abrahamic covenant to the foreskin. And in Genesis
17, Abraham and his house, including every slave and every proselyte,
whether born in his house or bought with money, were to be
circumcised. That was the command of God,
Genesis 17. But mere physical circumcision
did not make either one of them a true Jew in the flesh. A Shechemite, for example, a
partaker of the spiritual covenant with Abraham just because he
was circumcised. Ishmael was circumcised, we read
that in Genesis 17, 26, yet was cast out and had no part in the
covenant. And Abraham's slaves, whether
they wanted to or not, were forced to submit without any interest
in the covenant required of them or any faith whatsoever on their
part. Some teach that what they call
baptism, that is, sprinkling, has come now in the place of
circumcision. But we meet a dual circumcision
in the old economy. Number one, physical or fleshly. But does it surprise us, secondly,
that we meet heart circumcision also in the old economy. Here are some verses that emphasize
that right alongside of the physical. Deuteronomy chapter 10 and verse
16. Circumcise the foreskin of your
heart. Evidently an allegory. Deuteronomy
30 and verse 6. and the Lord your God will circumcise
your heart and thy seed to love the Lord with all your heart
and soul that you may live. In Jeremiah 4 and 4, circumcise
yourself to the Lord, take away the foreskin of your heart, ye
men of Judah, lest my fury come forth like fire. Now, the main
circumcision, even for a Jew, is the circumcision made without
hand, that is, the circumcision of the heart. When Paul says
in Philippians 3, we are the circumcision, And he says, which
worship God in spirit and in truth. And we have no confident
in the flesh. I believe this is commensurate
with regeneration. And therefore, do we read in
the scripture of the Israel of God, the Israel of God, God's
people, the Israel of God. Now very quickly, I promised
or threatened an appendix this morning. What about what we hear
all the time? Hardly a day goes by you don't
hear it in some context. Judeo-Christian. That ours is
a Judeo-Christian culture and nation. Some, I found out in
a little research, called Schofield the father of this in America. But I know it was in use long
before Schofield came along. But now it is enshrined in political
correctness. So we ask, what have they in
common? Judeo and Christian. How can two walk together except
they agree? Judaism died with Christ. Judaism died with Christ upon
the cross. Your house is left desolate,
the veil in the temple rent from top to bottom at the very moment
that Christ died. And I hope you don't think this
harsh, but Judaism for the most part is anti-Christ today as
it practices. Their Talmud I read this week
calls Jesus a false teacher, their Talmud. Jews have sued
to take down the Ten Commandments in schools and public places. Now, they sue to take them down. They claim the Old Testament
is their scripture. And the Ten Commandments are
found where? In the Old Testament. And yet, have they sued to take
them down? I read several rabbis' quotes. to this effect, and I'll just
use one. One said, and I'm quoting, there is no such thing as Judeo-Christian
religion. One excludes the other. Now, with that in mind, I might
ask, what is next? Will we start hearing Judeo-Islamic
Christian culture? Will we hear of Hindu, Christian
culture? Will they be mixed? You see,
Christianity doesn't mix with any other religion, and it can't
be. Now, my strongest point, I think,
and I didn't find it from any others, is this. Paul spent his
entire ministry suffering and fighting to keep Christianity
from being Judaized. Was that not his greatest battle
from his very own people? They wanted to mix it into Christianity. They wanted to impose it upon
the Christians, even in that day, both Jew and Gentile. So it's just a little something
to think about, consider, and to cogitate upon.