Who are the true Jews? Look at
verse 17 of Romans chapter two. Paul writes, behold thou art
called a Jew and restest in the law and makest thy boast of God. Now obviously what the apostle
Paul is going to state in these last verses of chapter two really
open up a lot of the scripture for us. It's one of the main
keys of scriptural interpretation when we read and context is so
important in this issue. But obviously what he's talking
about is the difference between a physical ethnic Jew and what
we would call a spiritual Jew. It's the difference between physical
Israel those who are physical descendants of Abraham, and between
spiritual Israel, what the Bible calls spiritual Israel, the true
children of God. Now, so what's happened here
is, in these verses, you know, Paul had brought the Gentiles,
basically, but really, if you look at Romans 1.18 and up to
this point, or up to chapter two, Paul had brought mainly,
as people would see this, the Gentile world, the Gentiles,
under the condemnation of the law because of sin, the wrath
of God revealed from heaven against all unrighteousness, all those
who hold the truth in unrighteousness, showing that the essence of sin
is unbelief, unbelief, ignorance and unbelief. But really, if
you think about it, Romans 118, all the way up to chapter two,
it applies to all of us by nature as we fell in Adam and as we're
born spiritually dead in trespasses and sins, according to our nature,
our works, our sinful human nature. And then in chapter two, he focuses
in on the religious Jews who had the law of Moses. And what
he's showing here in verse 17, behold thou art called a Jew
and restest in the law. You make your boast, he says,
of God. You boast that you're a child
of God, that you're saved, that you're right with God, that you're
righteous before God, and you're resting in your law keeping.
That's what he's saying. So what he's doing here, he's
concerned with the religious Jew. who would agree with Paul
about what he'd been saying about the lost condition of the Gentiles.
These Jews, these religious Jews would agree, Paul, you're right.
Those uncircumcised Gentiles, they are idolaters, they're under
the wrath of God, they deserve damnation. So they would agree
with Paul on that. But where they messed up is they
failed to realize that they were in the same boat. even though
they had the law of Moses, even though they bragged that they
were the true children of God, even though that they claimed
to be righteous based upon their law keeping. And what Paul's
saying is that the law of God condemns you too based upon your
works. You're no better off than the
uncircumcised Gentiles. And so, what he's showing here
is who are the true Jews. Now, what does that mean? Well,
the word Jew, as you know, is a derivative of Judah, you know,
the tribe of Judah. I've got in your lesson here
how the first time the word Jew, the name Jew, was first recorded
in the Bible is 2 Kings 16 and verse 6. And as I said, it's a derivative
of those who came from Judah. And the whole population basically
became known as Jews because when the kingdom split after,
the kingdom of Israel split after Solomon, you know, there were
10 tribes that went to the north and camped around Samaria. And those were the northern tribes.
And in the Old Testament, they are commonly known as Israel.
And then in the southern kingdom, which camped around Jerusalem,
the main tribe there was the tribe of Judah. And there was
also the tribe of Benjamin, but the tribe of Judah was the main
tribe, and it became known as Judah. So the kingdom of Judah. Now obviously you understand
the providence of God and all that because it was through the
tribe of Judah that the Messiah was to come, that Christ was
to come. Remember he said back in Genesis 49 when Jacob was
pronouncing the blessings on his son, when he came to Judah
he said the scepter shall not depart from Judah until Shiloh
come, the peace. that God would bring through
Christ. And he would be born of that tribe, the royal tribe.
That's where the kings came from. David, Solomon, Hezekiah, and
you go on down. And so Christ was born of the
kingly tribe. He's the king of kings, all of
that. So that's where this term Judah
came from, and it became shortened to Jews. Well, what does the
name Judah mean? Well, it means praise. That's
what it means. So it became a name for those
who praise God. So when Paul writes here about
who is not a Jew and who is truly a Jew, here's what he's actually
saying. Who is really, who calls himself
a Jew, but who's not praising God, really praising God. The
God of the Bible. And then who is a true Jew? Who is truly praising God? Worshiping
God, believing God. Now that's the difference. So
we're talking about here are those who are physically Jews,
and Paul's not denying their physical ethnicity. He's not
saying you're not a Jew physically, all right? But he's making a
distinction here, and the context bears it out, of who's truly
praising God. Who's a true Jew, a spiritual
Jew, a spiritual Israelite? Now, he says here in verse 17,
thou art called a Jew, you rest in the law. and maketh thy boast
of the law." Well, what did they do? What was their boast of the
law? What was their rest in the law?
Well, they rested in their works. We'll see that in just a moment.
They sought righteousness by the law, by their works of the
law, and not by faith in Christ. And so he says in verse 18, now
look here, he says, you claim to know God's will, you rest
in the law. You make your boast of God. This
is the physical Jews. Remember they had three things
they basically boasted of that they thought recommended them
unto God and proved that they were children of God. That was
their physical connection with Abraham. We be Abraham's seed. Their physical circumcision,
which is a real issue here because the reason that circumcision
was pointed out so much in the New Testament within the churches,
even the the churches outside of Israel, like in Galatia, for
example, and places like Ephesians, is because the professing, those
unbelieving Jews who professed to be Christian, they denied
the truth of the gospel, the truth of Christianity, when they
claimed that the believing Gentiles had to be physically circumcised
in order to be right with God. So he says, you make your boast
of that. We're circumcised, you're not. Therefore, we're either
more saved, or we're saved and you're not, or we're more saved
and you're less saved, or we're more righteous and you're less.
Whatever form it comes in, they interjected their physical circumcision
as in some way, to some degree, at some stage, making a sinner
right with God. And that's a denial of the gospel.
Paul called that a false gospel, another gospel in Galatians 1. And so they boasted in their
circumcision. And read Acts chapter 15 about
that. Do you remember? That's when
Paul went back to Jerusalem and entered into the church there
when certain of the Jews came and claimed that the Gentiles
had to be circumcised before they could be right with God.
And of course, Paul spoke, Peter spoke, and James spoke, and they
all agreed, not so. Salvation is not by the flesh. Salvation is a work of Christ
by God's grace from its beginning to its end and everything in
between. It's all of grace. And this grace
reigns through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ
our Lord. And don't add anything to it
or take anything away from it. That's all it is. Well, the third
thing they rested in was their law keeping. They rested in the
law. Now, look at verse 18. He says,
and you claim to know his will. We know the will of God, they
would say. We know the word of God. You don't. And he says,
and approve us the things that are more excellent, those are
the things that are more noble. In other words, we have a better
way than what the Gentiles have or than what others have, our
better way. And they claim to have this knowledge
of God's will and knowledge of the better things, the more excellent
things, because they claim to be instructed out of the law.
Verse 18, we have the law of God. Now you remember Christ
told them in John chapter 5, he said, search the scriptures.
Now what scriptures was he talking about? He was talking about the
Old Testament, what they had of the Old Testament, mainly
concerning the law of Moses. And he says, search the scriptures,
for in them you think you have eternal life. They are they which
testify of me. Well, you know what they would
claim. Well, we have Moses. Remember he told them in John
chapter five, he says, Moses, in whom you trust, that means
the law, you trust in the law, you rest in the law, Moses will
be your judge and he'll condemn you because The law condemns
any sinner to whom God imputes sin. The law condemns any sinner
who continually, without being brought to repentance, who continually
seeks righteousness by their works of the law. Salvation's
by grace, not by work. So he said Moses will condemn
you. He says, the very one in whom you trust, and here you
could say the very thing in whom you rest, will be your downfall. Moses wrote of me, Christ said.
Moses knew, Moses personally knew me. And the law was given
for what purpose? To show them their sin. and the
impossibility of salvation of righteousness based upon their
works of the law. So he says, now you rest in the
law, you boast in God, you claim to know God's will, you claim
to be in agreement with the more excellent things because you're
instructed of the law. Look at verse 19. He says, and
you're confident that thou thyself art a guide of the blind, a light
of them which are in darkness, verse 20. an instructor of the
foolish, a teacher of babes, which has the form of knowledge
and of the truth in the law. You claim to be the leaders of
the blind. You say, we have the light, we're
leading the blind. Remember what Christ called them?
Blind leaders of the blind. You're blind too, he says. You're
just as blind as the ones you're trying to teach. You're teaching
them wrong, you're teaching them a false gospel. And that's what
men are who preach a false gospel. They're blind leaders of the
blind. And remember what he said? They'll
all fall in the ditch together. You see, the gospel is the power
of God and the salvation. What is the gospel? I was preaching
out at Brother Wormack's church in Grace Baptist in Shreveport,
and I said, you know, I said, I get a little tired of all these
arguments of what they call Calvinism versus Arminianism. And most
of the time, or a lot of the times I'll say, People, even
when they debate those subjects, what they call Calvin, and you
may not know the ins and outs of Calvinists. People call me
a Calvinist. I'm not a Calvinist. There are
some things that Calvin believed that I agree with, but there
are a lot of things Calvin believed and did that I don't agree with.
I don't follow Calvin. I follow Christ. I follow the
Bible. My theology goes way back beyond
Calvin. And so there's a lot of things,
and then James Arminius, that's the free willism of today. That's the most popular, isn't
it? And Calvin, that's sovereign grace. That's getting more popular,
but it's not like the majority of professing Christians who
believe in conditional salvation, conditioned on the sinner. But
I get a little tired of all these debates between Calvinists and
Armenians because a lot of times they argue it as if it's just
two different branches of true Christianity, and it is not.
The argument is not between Calvinism and Armenians, it's between the
true gospel and a false gospel. What is the gospel, you say?
Here's these Pharisees and these Jews who are trying to teach
the Gentiles how to be saved, how to be right with God, how
to be justified, how to be righteous. But they're preaching and teaching
a false gospel because it's salvation conditioned on the sinner and
based upon his works of the law. But the true gospel doesn't state
that at all. The true gospel says that God
conditioned all of the salvation of his people on Christ. And
Christ came into this world assuming a sinless human nature as God-man,
went to the cross and fulfilled all the conditions that God requires
to save and secure his people from their sin. That's what the
gospel teaches. And that's what Christ did, that's
what he accomplished. We hear these Jews, he says,
you're confident that you're a guide, you're a teacher, you're
one who can show the right way to the blind. You say you're
a light of them which are in darkness. You're not a light,
you're not a guide, you're blind yourself, you're not a light,
you're darkness. He says, an instructor of the
foolish, you think you're wise. Well, my friend, wisdom in God's
world is only found in Christ. 1 Corinthians 1, Christ is the
wisdom of God, the power of God. Until you see Christ in the glory
of his person and in the power of his finished work, his righteousness
imputed, The life that comes from him in the new birth, until
you see the wisdom of God there, you don't have any wisdom in
salvation. You may be wise in other things. You may be wise
in finances. You may be wise in physical health. You may be wise in other, but
not in salvation. That's the foolish. A teacher
of babes, which has the form of knowledge. In verse 20, that
word form, you remember over in, where is it, in second, Timothy
3 and verse 5, where he talks about those that have a form
of godliness, but deny the power of, that's the same word form,
and what he's talking about is they have a semblance or an outward
appearance of godliness. But it's not true godliness because
they deny the power of God. They don't have the power, well
what is the power, who is the power of God? Christ is the power
of God. So without Christ and without
being submitted to his righteousness as the only ground of salvation,
without having life from him, it doesn't matter how we appear,
how good or how noble or how holy or how religious or how
sincere and how dedicated we appear, it's no more than a form
of godliness. Christ said the Pharisees appear
righteous unto men, but they're not. Who is righteous in God's
sight? Those who plead nothing but Christ. What can wash away my sin? Nothing
but the blood of Jesus. All right, so he says, he says,
you think you're an instructor of babes, which has the form
of knowledge and of truth. Verse 21, he says, look here
in verse 21, he says, Thou therefore, which teachest another, teachest
thou not thyself? Thou that preachest a man should
not steal, dost thou steal? Thou that sayest a man should
not commit adultery, dost thou commit adultery? Thou that have
poorest idols, dost thou commit sacrilege? Thou, verse 23, thou
that makest thy boast of the law through breaking the law
dishonorest thou God. Now what does he mean? You know, the religious Jew,
After hearing what Paul wrote about the Gentiles, well, they
would say, well, I'm not like that. You know, today, we look
at people, we see some of the most heinous sins on the newscast. People going in and shooting
up schools, killing children, and killing people who have done
nothing to them. The homosexuality that is rampant
today. And of course, I contend it always
has been, it just hadn't been published and publicized. Put
them in the closet, keep them in the closet, that kind of thing.
And then we see other problems. And we would say, well, we're
not like them, we're not like that. But here's what Paul is
saying. Sin begins in the heart. Somebody says, well, I've never
stolen a dime in my life. Well, my friend, have you ever
failed to give God glory? Have you ever done that? Do you
know why? That makes you a thief. You realize
that? You say, well, I've never committed
adultery. I've always been faithful to my husband and my wife. Well,
remember what Christ said in Matthew chapter five. Have you
ever looked upon a woman, you ladies, have you ever looked
upon a man and lusted after them in your heart? So here you are,
you're saying, well, now I'm gonna teach this Gentile not
to be a thief in order to be right with God. Well, wait a
minute, the law condemns you too. You're a thief, you're an
adulterer, you're a murderer. In heart, you may have not committed
the outward act, see? So what he's saying to the Jew
here, to the physical Jew who's resting in the law and making
their boast of God, he says, the law says you're a sinner
too. The law says you need a righteousness you cannot produce. The law says if you're going
to be saved, it's gotta be just the same way God saves a Gentile,
by sovereign grace and mercy. It's not of him that willeth,
it's not of him that runneth, it's of God who shows mercy.
And that's it. If God saves any of us, the best
of us, the worst of us, or anybody in between, it's of his mercies
that we're not consumed. And that's it. We don't have
anything to brag about in our heritage or in our works or in
our law keeping. And that's what he's saying here.
Verse 23. Well, verse 22, he says, you
claim to abhor idols and then you commit sacrilege. Now, what
is that sacrilege? Well, that's misrepresenting
God. Let me give you this. First of
all, they claim to be keepers of the law and teaching the law,
but they broke the law. Sacrilege is dishonoring God.
That's what it is. And secondly, whenever you fail
to submit to the Lord Jesus Christ as your only righteousness before
God, you know you're breaking the law. The Bible says Christ
is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believe. So
here's a person who's doing their best to try to keep, let's say,
the 10 Commandments in order to be saved, in order to be right
with God, in order to be righteous. That person's a lawbreaker because
everything that person does falls short of the perfect righteousness
required by the law. Where am I gonna find that kind
of righteousness? In Christ. Remember what Romans
9 says, how the Jews, they sought righteousness by the law, but
they didn't attain it. Why? Because they sought it not
by faith. What is it to seek righteousness
by faith? It's to seek it in Christ, believing
in him. And they would not submit to
the righteousness of God. Well, where are we going to see
the righteousness of God? In Christ. And that's the judgment
of this world. God's going to judge the world
in righteousness by Christ. Well, he says in verse 24, now
look here, he says, for the name of God is blasphemed. The name
of God, this blasphemy is a misrepresentation, it's speaking evil of God. Misrepresentation,
it's speaking evil of God. For example, if I were to stand
up here and tell you that God will save you if you do the best
you can. I've just blasphemed, did you
know that? Because the God of the Bible
won't do that. And of course you know why, because the best
we can do is not good enough. That's why God had to send his
son to fulfill all righteousness. So, you understand now, this
thing about standing up behind a pulpit and preaching a false
gospel, I want to tell you something, it's the worst thing a person
can do. Out of all the heinous crimes
that sicken us, That ought to sicken us the most. Leading people,
blind leaders of the blind. So he says, the name of God is
blasphemed among the Gentiles through you. Now remember what
Christ said in Matthew 23 verse 15? You encompass sea and land
to gain one convert. And when you get them, what happens?
Yeah, you've made them twofold more the child of hell than you
are. That's blaspheming his name among the Gentiles. You get Gentile
converts, but what do you convert them to? A false gospel. A form of godliness that denies
the power thereof. You can get them to quit smoking,
quit drinking, do this, be dedicated, give their money to the church,
help out, do this. But what have you made? You see,
all you've made is a two-fold more child of hell than you're
ensconced in a false profession of religion. Now, somebody said,
well, don't you want immoral people to stop being immoral
and become moral, responsible citizens? Well, I sure do. Don't
you? But that's not going to save
them. That's not gonna make them righteous. That's not gonna wash
away their sins. You see that? Nothing but the
blood of Jesus will do that. Well, he says in verse 25, now
listen, follow his logic here. He says, for circumcision verily
profit, if thou keep the law. If physical circumcision was
a commandment that God gave, and as far as salvation, as far
as righteousness is concerned, as far as being right with God,
Circumcision would profit you if you kept the law. He says, but if thou be a breaker
of the law, thy circumcision is main uncircumcision. If you
break the law, it doesn't matter whether you're circumcised or
uncircumcised. That's what he's saying. And verse 26, he says,
therefore, if the uncircumcision, Gentiles, if they kept the law,
the righteousness of the law, shall not his uncircumcision
be counted for circumcision? In other words, If he kept the
law, he's righteous in God's sight. In verse 27, and shall
not uncircumcision, which is by nature, that's how we're naturally
born as men, and he says, if it fulfill the law, judge thee
who by the letter and circumcision does transgress
the law. In other words, if a Gentile
who is uncircumcised could keep the law, He could rightfully
judge the Jew who did not, the circumcised Jew who kept the
law as being lost, as being under the wrath of God. And that's
what the Jews were doing to the Gentiles. They were judging the
Gentiles because of their uncircumcision. So what you have here, it's a
religious mess, isn't it? So here's the point. Here's the
precedent. This precedent has already been
set. But here it is, look at verse 28. For he is not a Jew,
He who claims to praise God, to worship God, to be right with
God, which is one outwardly. In other words, just because
you're a physical Jew, you can be just as much a wicked, unbelieving,
blind idolater as the uncircumcised Gentile. And he says, neither
is that circumcision which is outward in the flesh. In other
words, being circumcised physically in the flesh doesn't make you
a true child of God, a true worshiper of God, one who truly praises
God. But verse 29, but he is a Jew,
one who does truly praise God, one who does truly know and worship
and serve God. which is one inwardly." Now what's
he talking about? He says it, and circumcision
is that of the heart. You know, from the very beginning
in the law, even as given to Abraham before the law of circumcision,
God made it clear That physical circumcision was only a sign
that connected them and identified them physically with Abraham,
but it made no difference as far as a right relationship with
God. The only thing that made a difference
as to a right relationship with God was circumcision of the heart,
which only God can perform by His Spirit through the life of
Christ. So circumcision is that of the heart, the mind, the affections,
the will, the conscience. What is circumcision of the heart?
It's the new birth. It's regeneration and conversion. It's when God the Holy Spirit
brings the life of Christ, by whom a sinner is made righteous,
by God imputing that righteousness to him, and from that God the
Holy Spirit is sent forth by Christ to give us a new heart,
a circumcised heart, a heart of faith in Christ, but cutting
away the filth of the flesh, which is repentance of dead works
and idolatry. We no longer believe that anything
we do or that comes from us recommends us unto God. It's Christ alone,
his blood alone, his righteousness alone. And he says that's in
the spirit. Now, anytime you see that, there's
always a minor debate over whether the word spirit should be capitalized,
referring to the Holy Spirit, or should it be in small caps,
meaning the new life that the Holy Spirit imparts within us
under the preaching of the gospel. And you could take this one either
way. It's in the spirit, it's by the spirit. The Holy Spirit
is the sovereign agent who gives life to a dead sinner, and then
it could be the life within, that spiritual life where he
raises us from the dead spiritually, gives us a new heart, new eyes,
new mind, all of that. It's not in the letter, it's
not by the law. The law can't give life. The law can tell you
what righteousness is, but it can't make you righteous. The
law can show you your spiritual deadness, but it can't give you
life. Only Christ can do that. And it says, whose praise is
not of men. See, the unbelieving Jews are like religionists today.
They want the praise of men. The word Jew means praise. Well,
whose praise do you want? He says, well, this won't bring
you praise of men. This will bring you the hatred
of men, because they hate the light. but of God, the praise
of God. That means the honor that God
bestows upon his people because of his grace in Christ. Having made them righteous in
Christ, by Christ obedience unto death, having given them life,
a new heart which praises God for all salvation, which glories
in Christ. And remember Philippians 3.3,
Paul says, for we are the circumcision, Now he's talking about circumcision
of the heart. How do you know that your heart's been circumcised?
He says, we worship God in the spirit. That's as we're guided
by the spirit through the word, and we do it from the heart,
sincerely. And he says, which we worship
God in spirit and we rejoice in Christ Jesus. That word rejoice
there means we glory, we boast in Christ Jesus. We rest in Christ,
we boast of Christ. We don't rest in the law or boast
of our law. We rest in Christ and have no
confidence in the flesh. All right.