Romans chapter 2, and we'll begin looking tonight,
beginning in verse 17. I call this a Jew or a Jew. And that in itself makes absolutely
no sense. But I hope that in these verses, the Spirit of God will enable
us through what He has brought Paul to write, to see what I'm
saying. That name, Jew, seems to have been taken from
the name Judah. And Judah was a part of those
tribes that did not fall, I suppose, to the degree that others enter
into the captivity that others did. But at some point in time,
This name became the name of the most of the people of Israel. And Paul addresses the Jew here,
the Jews. But when he does, he also speaks
to everyone who is like they were. Because the Jews were the
religious people of that day. But what he says concerning them fits the religionist in every
age, fits those who would be called church members in our
day, those who are generally called Christians today. You see, they were proud and
very self-righteous. As a matter of fact, the Scripture
says that they trusted in themselves that they were righteous and
despised others. This is how Paul describes them. Verse 17, Behold, thou art a
Jew. And what he's saying there basically
is, this is your claim to fame. You rest in the very fact that
you are a Jew. Behold, thou art called a Jew,
and rest in the law, and makest thy boast of God," that you are
the people of God, that you are the keepers and teachers of the
law, and that you know His will and approve the things that are
more excellent being instructed out of the law. As a matter of
fact, in another place, he talks about how this favored people
had been given all of the prophets and the Word and all the things
that God had entrusted to them. He'd done all that for this people. And he says, and you're confident
that you yourself are a guide of the blind, you are not in
ignorance, you think like all these other people, and a light
of them which are in darkness, an instructor of the foolish,
a teacher of babes, which has the form of knowledge and of
the truth in the law." They thought they were the people of God.
They thought they knew God. They thought they knew more about
God than any other person. They thought that they had the
favor of God. And they thought that they could
instruct and teach and correct everybody else around them. But, rather than glorify God. These people, by what they did,
brought men and women who were not of them to blaspheme God. They saw their hypocrisy. They saw how much difference
there was between what they said and what they did, between what
they taught and what was the tenor and experience of their
life. And when they saw these Jews
and their hypocrisy, they blasphemed God. They didn't see them and
glorify God. They blasphemed God. Look in
verse 21. 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 abhorrest
idols, dost thou commit sacrilege? Thou that makest thy boast of
the law through breaking the law, dishonest thou God? For the name of God is blasphemed
among the Gentiles through you, as it is written." They said
one thing. But they had a way of skirting
around that and doing the same thing. As a matter of fact, Christ
said that they even broke the law of God and disobeyed the
command of God, claiming at the same time to be doing the will
of God, glorifying God. For circumcision verily profited,
if thou keep the law. But if thou be a breaker of the
law, thy circumcision is made uncircumcision." In other words,
here is not only Jew and Gentile, But the Jews outwardly being
called the circumcision, and the Jews being called the uncircumcision. But he said, if you're called
the circumcision, and you don't keep the law if you don't obey
God, then you're no different than the uncircumcision who have
not the law of God. Therefore, if the uncircumcision
keep the righteousness of the law, shall not his uncircumcision
be counted for circumcision? And shall not uncircumcision,
which is by nature, if it fulfill the law, judge thee, who by the
letter and circumcision doth transgress the law? He said, what you say and who
you're supposed to be, you deny in everything you do and what
you claim to be if it be done by these Gentiles. He said, are they not more in
this outward sense the circumcision than you are? And this is so very true of what
passes in our day in modern so-called Christianity. This very same
thing, this very same principle of hypocrisy and disobedience
is in all of these preachers and professors of religion all
over this world. And then he comes to what I would
call maybe the bottom line. This is where the rubber meets
the road. Because he says in verse 28,
For 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. God has praise. That is, He recognizes that one
who is a Jew inwardly, but He rejects that person who
is simply a Jew outwardly. In other words, he receives and
blesses that one who is a Christian truly, and he rejects everyone
who is such only in name and form and outwardly. He says this is a real Jew. This is a real Christian, if
you will. This is how God's true people
are. This is what circumcision really
is. Because the things of God are spiritual, not external. Do you remember what the apostle
says? He says, for the kingdom of God is not meat and drink. Not that. But it's everything that is spiritual. It is righteousness. It is peace. It is joy in the Holy Spirit. And Paul says that Jewish circumcision,
which was the mark of that nation's separation to God, was good only
if one were really separated to God. And if not, the Jew was really
an uncircumcised one, and that he was excelled more by those who were called the uncircumcised. if they feared and walked with
God. And Paul says, and this always
is so amazing to me, I don't know how people who look
for some latter-day, end-time activity by God toward this outward
nation of people. I don't know how they deal with
a verse like this. Because he says, For he is not
a Jew which is one outwardly, but he is one who is such inwardly. And God looks on the heart. And we're shown the difference
in these two people, or these two groups of people, and they
are distinguished not only by the fact that one is really a
Jew and one is really not, but also that one is really the circumcision
and one is really not the circumcision. Hold your place and turn over
to a verse, or a passage rather, that parallels this very thing,
and that is Philippians chapter 3. Philippians chapter 3. Look at what it says beginning
in verse 1. Finally, my brethren, rejoice
in the Lord, to write the same things to you. To me, indeed,
is not grievous, but for you it is safe. He said, it doesn't
bother me to preach the same gospel, set forth the same things
of God's grace to you again and again. As a matter of fact, it's
exactly what you need. And then the next thing he says
is this, beware of dogs. Beware of evil workers. Beware of the concision. Beware of the concision. For we are the circumcision which
worship God in the spirit and rejoice in Christ Jesus and have
no confidence in the flesh. As a matter of fact, in this
third chapter, this man Paul, who was Saul of Tarshish, Hebrew
of Hebrews, Pharisee, law keeper, he renounces, he repents of the
very thing that would have in the flesh What caused him to
say, for we are the circumcision? He repents of the very things
upon which he based that he and his kinsmen after the flesh were
the circumcision, were Jews, were the Israel of God. And rather than identifying with
these Jews after the flesh, rather than identifying with these people
who were religious and moral and depended on that and trusted
in that as they're standing before God, he identifies with another
group. And if we didn't know any other
way, we'd have to know by him saying, we rejoice in Christ
Jesus. No Jew after the flesh. Thankfully,
some do by the grace of God, but no Jew after the flesh rejoices
in Christ Jesus. But he says of this other group,
which is none other than believers, God's elect people, that he chose
in Christ and gave to Christ, that Christ came into this world
to redeem, he says, of those who are called out by the Spirit
of God, just such as he writes to at Philippi. And he says, we're the circumcision. As a Jew in the flesh, I once
claimed that, and so do all these others that persecute you to
this day. And not only them, but all these
religious people, whatever it is. But he said, we're the circumcision. Was he being real haughty there,
or proud, or arrogant? No, he was speaking led by the
Spirit of God. We are the circumcision. And if you notice, he doesn't
hesitate to call error what it is or those who spread it just
what they are. He calls them dogs, evil workers,
and then the concision. Now, what's he doing there? He's
setting these. who depended on all of these
things in the flesh, who promoted this religion of salvation and
favor from God by their works, whether they were really a natural
Jew or not. He is setting them in contrast
to the circumcision. The circumcision. And by concision,
he means all those who trust in all these outward rituals
and ceremonies and professions and fleshly obedience and experiences,
all these works done by man. But when he talks about the circumcision
here, He's talking about that circumcision
of the heart which is in Jesus Christ. He's talking about that circumcision
that is made without hands, that is in the Lord Jesus Christ. All right, hold your place right
here in Philippians, and turn over just a few pages to Colossians
chapter 2. He warns, just like he does in
Philippians, just like he does in Romans, in Colossians 2, Beginning
at verse 8, listen to what it says, Beware lest any man spoil
you through philosophy or vain deceit after the tradition of
men. One of the most difficult and
even more than difficult, impossible things for us to escape from
and not be under the sway of is the traditions of man. Sometimes I look back over these years of trying to
preach and I seek to weigh everything
that I believed by this. I asked myself this
question. If I came to the Word of God
and I read it, and I sought the Spirit of God
to be my teacher in it, Would I ever have arrived at this view,
at this position, as men say, at this doctrine? Would I ever
have? And what I have to do is I have
to go back and take what I already think I believe and see if there's a scriptural
basis to believe it. Thankfully, I've been blessed.
And in most cases, that is true. But it's not always true. And
that's why I sincerely want all of you to open your Bibles and
be students of the Bible. Read what it says. Try everything
that I say by the Word of God. He says, after the tradition
of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ. For in him dwelleth all the fullness
of the Godhead bodily, and you are complete in him, which is
the head of all principality and power, in whom also ye are circumcised with the circumcision
made without hands in putting off the body of the sins of the
flesh by the circumcision of Christ." Now, whatever this might mean
in its connection to the work of God's Spirit in us, The emphasis here by the Apostle
is this. He says, Christ, in whom also ye are circumcised with
the circumcision made without hands, and putting off the body
of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ. In Christ, something is taken
from us, was taken from us. And here he lumps it all together,
that whole mass of sin. And he describes it as that putting
off of the body of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision
of Christ. Him. In His death, through His
sacrifice, by one offering, He has put away the sins of His
people by the sacrifice of Himself. And so the concision, delight
in and rest in and trust in and hope in, things all done by themselves
or experienced by themselves, but the circumcision rests in and delights in and
hopes in the things that are done by God, most particularly
by God as He is manifest in the flesh. And those things will still distinguish
in our day if we never live anywhere close to one who is a Jew in
the natural sense. But those things will distinguish
the people of God, the Jew inwardly. and these of the concision, these
who are simply Jews or religious or people of God outwardly. Now, turn back to Philippians
3. And very quickly, I've showed
you this probably a number of times, but this is something
that really ought to stick in our minds. Look back at Philippians 3 in
that third verse. He says, For we are the circumcision
which or who, he's about to describe, the circumcision of which he
himself was a part, the Jew that he was by the grace of God. For we are the circumcision who
worship God in the Spirit. How many Jews, do you suppose,
over the course of the history of Israel, or right up to this
very hour, go in form and ritual and ceremony, repeating habitually,
offering sacrifices, rituals, and call it worshipping God.
It would be an unknown number. But more likely, many more among
the Gentiles, with all the idols, with all the gods, with all the
false gods of every age, and now in our day most especially,
a false Jesus. How many times that they gather and do what they call worship. God's true people are known by
their worship, which is not in form or fashion, but in the Spirit. And that by the enablement of
God the Spirit. Can you remember what the Lord
Jesus said to that woman at the well who already thought she
was a worshipper? As a matter of fact, she did
like so many religious people do. She began immediately to
debate Him as to where the Jews worshipped and where her people
worshipped. But our Lord said, the hour comes,
and now is. When the true worshipers shall
worship the Father in spirit and in truth, for the Father
seeketh such to worship him, God is spirit. And they that
worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth. Now, there are some who say,
we worship Him in spirit, but they don't worship Him in truth.
And there are some who claim to worship Him in truth, but
they don't worship Him in spirit. Those who worship God worship
Him in spirit and truth. They worship Him in spirit in
that they worship Him spiritually in their spirit because of the
Holy Spirit. That's why so many times it's
hard for us to even pray out loud without it becoming an external
thing. I'm talking about me now, instead
of it being a spiritual thing from our heart. And if you think about what goes
on in our day in the name of God and passes for worship, a
building is called a house of worship simply because religious
activities go on there. Because religious rituals and
ceremonies and relics are there. When God says, the heavens can't
contain me. We'll build a higher building.
We'll put more stained glass windows. We'll make it bigger.
We'll make it more ornate. We'll fill it with gold. giving to God something that
He supposedly needs? Is that worship? It's all His, and He doesn't
need anything. Is worship what is said by the
tongues of fallen men? Is it to burn candles or carry
crosses or have a certain kind of music or to engage in a flashy
pageantry? Is that worship? God is Spirit and He can only
be worshipped by the Holy Spirit and through the truth in that
way which the Spirit reveals in the word of truth, the gospel. If you go back in the Old Testament, you'll find a few worshippers, true worshippers, such as Abraham
and Isaac and Jacob. And then you'll find the picture
of true worship. The Bible says that Abraham and
Isaac and all these men, Abraham, he was a nomadic man. He was a traveling man. But if you follow him everywhere
he stopped, the Bible says, and he built an altar. Why did he build an altar? To
worship God. He built an altar as God prescribed
it. He took the sacrifice that God
had ordained and appointed, slew that sacrifice, and offered that
blood on the altar. That's how God was worshipped.
Why? Because it's a picture of Christ.
We worship God. If you look in the temple, there
was a sacrifice, there was an altar, there was a priest. Christ
is all these things. And the Spirit of God reveals
this one true Lamb, this one sacrifice, this one High Priest
forever. He does so not by my subjective
reasoning or feeling, but through the Word of the truth of the
Gospel. We worship the true circumcision,
worship God in spirit. They don't need a certain kind
of building. They don't need a certain kind of music. They
don't need what is called these aids to worship. Their worship cannot be legislated
away. Their prayer cannot be kicked
out of a school or a public place. They worship God in spirit. Then not only that, it says that
they rejoice in Christ Jesus. Oh, they rejoice in the things
about Christ Jesus for sure. They rejoice in Him. I've always likened the truth
of the gospel, the doctrines of the gospel, they're like stepping
stones. that carry the child of God on
a certain path to Christ. If what we have been taught,
if what we have learned, if what we have found out about the Scriptures,
if it does not cause us to love Christ and to trust Him and believe
on Him and rejoice in Him, That's who we rejoice in. We
rejoice in Christ. We rejoice and we glory in Him
alone. There's no other name given among
men whereby we must be saved. We rejoice that He is that one
Mediator. We say with Paul, God forbid
that I should glory save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. I'm determined to know nothing
among you save Jesus Christ and Him crucified. We rejoice in
His glorious person and work. We rejoice that He knew no sin,
did no sin. We rejoice in His perfection
and His power and His wisdom. We rejoice in His precious blood
and in His perfect righteousness. And we rejoice that He alone
is the Savior of our soul, that He alone is the One who has redeemed
us by Himself to God, stood as our Mediator, suffered that He
might bring us to God. He is all our salvation. We rejoice that in Him God is
just and yet justifies us. We rejoice in Christ that He
is all. We rejoice that He's the Beloved
of the Father, and that God has loved us with an everlasting
love in Him. We rejoice in all the perfections. We rejoice that He died, that
He died in our place, that His death is that death that is the
death for sins forever. Then He says this, He says, And
we have no confidence in the flesh. Well, that's a hard one, isn't
it? Well, I remember back when... I remember that feeling I had.
I remember that I did this. The
flesh always wants to reach out and trust the flesh. and glorify
the flesh. The circumcision are not those
who say, we don't have much confidence in the flesh. We have no confidence in the
flesh. I was speaking to a preacher
brother on the phone today, and I told him, if nothing else,
I was learning that the older I get, the more we have to be
saved by grace. The more we cannot at any point
in anything trust the flesh one bit. No confidence in the flesh. No confidence in fleshly, material,
natural things of this world, such as wealth, or honors, or
possessions, or accomplishments, or strength? No confidence in
the outward duties, or works, or ceremonies, or professions,
or associations, or exercises of the flesh in religion? No
confidence in any imagined righteousness or good in ourselves? As a matter
of fact, in Philippians 3, Paul is repentant of all that, the
very thing that he once trusted in. No confidence in our own thoughts
or feelings or lack of feelings, but only in what God says, what
He promises, and what He gives. in Christ. I like what the prophet
says. When he recorded these words,
he says, Thus saith the Lord, Let not the wise man glory in
his wisdom, neither let the mighty man glory in his might. Let not
the rich man glory in his riches. But let him that glorieth glory
in this, that he understandeth and knoweth me, that I am the
Lord, which exercise lovingkindness, judgment, and righteousness in
the earth. For in these things I delight,
saith the Lord. We have no confidence in the
flesh. We can sing with that old hymn
writer. My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness. I dare not trust the sweetest
frame, but wholly lean on Jesus' name. That's who a Jew is, and that's
who the circumcision are. They are the people of God, loved
by Him, chosen in Christ, given to Christ, redeemed by Christ,
called by the Spirit of God to Christ, and in Him. They worship God in spirit, rejoice
in Christ, and have no confidence in the flesh. They are Jews inwardly, and they are the true circumcision. My prayer is that we might be
found among them. Father, tonight we thank you
so much for your precious Son. And we do pray that we might
be a Jew inwardly, that we might be accounted among
the circumcision with our brother Paul, that we might know that circumcision
of the heart rather than the flesh, that we might know that
which is in Christ Jesus, in whom this body of sin was put away. We thank you for your Word. Bless
these verses to our hearts, these warnings, these instructions. Use them as a means of grace
to keep us and bless us. Lead and direct us as we go out
into this week. And all the things that we find
appointed unto us to do, may we do all things with joy, gladness
of heart, peace of mind, resting, trusting, worshiping God our
Savior. Forgive us of our failures. Help
us. Help our families and friends
and co-workers and Lord be pleased to call them by your grace. We thank you and pray that you'd
watch over us and ask it in Christ. Amen.