Let's open our Bibles this morning
to the book of Romans, chapter 2. I'd like for you to get a
Bible and read these two verses. I'm going to speak to you on
the subject, He is a Jew. We're going to have just a little
controversy this morning, and this message is going to stir
up your thoughts a little bit. I want to set you to do a little
thinking. In Romans chapter 2 verse 28, now are you with me? Will
you let me preach to your heart? Will you lend me your ears for
just a few moments? Will you hear what I have to
say? In Romans chapter 2 verse 28 it says, For he is not a Jew,
he is not a Jew which is one outwardly. Neither is that circumcision
which is outward in the flesh. That's not circumcision. He's
not a Jew which is one outwardly. And circumcision is not cutting
the flesh. He is a Jew. Now this is Paul
writing on the inspiration of the Holy Spirit in the book of
Romans. He is a Jew which is one inwardly. And circumcision is that of the
heart. It's in the Spirit and not in
the letter, whose praise is not of men, but of God. Now you listen
to this. No better proof, no better proof
of our fallen condition, fallen in Adam, our spiritual darkness,
we're in spiritual darkness, and our ignorance of the living
God, no better proof can be found anywhere than in the fact that
we think God Almighty, the living God, is pleased with and satisfied
with and impressed with our outward programs and forms of religion.
That's the greatest proof of man's fallen condition you can
find anywhere. It's the greatest proof of his
spiritual darkness and of his ignorance of the living God to
think that God is impressed that God is pleased and God is satisfied
with our lip service. He said, these people call me
Lord with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. They
come and they sit as my people in the congregation, but their
hearts are somewhere else. They go after covetousness and
other gods and worship idols. Lip service doesn't please God,
and to think that it does, is to reveal spiritual darkness
and ignorance of the living God, and to think that our ceremonies,
and all of our outward morality, and all of our religious deeds,
to think that that pleases God. Listen to the Pharisee. He was a representative of religion
in his day. He stood in the temple, and he
prayed thus with himself, God, I thank you. I'm not like other
men. He said, I'm not an adulterer, I'm not an extortioner, I'm not
unjust. He said, I tithe all that I possess,
I give alms to the poor. Now for that man to think that
the eternal omnipotent God is pleased with or impressed with
His outward service and outward morality is for that man to show
pure ignorance of who God is and to reveal his total fallen
condition, to think that our duties and our works and our
tithes and our religious services and our cold doctrines and our
dead prayers impress the living God. That's to reveal our total
ignorance of God. Now, my friends, I wouldn't discourage
any man from devotions. I encourage devotions. I wouldn't
discourage any man from prayer, from worship, from a godly walk. I encourage those things. And
doing good works in the name of Christ. But listen to me.
A man can engage in all of these things, which the Pharisees did,
and the scribes, and the Sadducees, A man can engage in all of these
outward forms of religion, in morality, in deeds, in laws,
in ceremonies, in rituals, in holy days, in fastings and tithings,
even in proselyting, converts, he can engage in all of these
things and totally miss a right knowledge of God, and totally
miss a living union with the Lord. Two or three examples of
that. One, in Matthew 7, our Lord said,
in that great day of judgment, many, not just a few, but many,
many will say unto me, Lord, we prophesied in your name. That's
preaching. And we cast out devils in your
name. And we healed the sick in your
name. And we built schools and universities and colleges and
churches in your name. And we did many wonderful humanitarian
works in your name. And then will I profess unto
them, I never knew you, I never, never knew you. Depart from me,
ye that work iniquity. Another perfect example of this,
and what I'm saying is this, that one of the proofs of our
blindness and our spiritual darkness and our ignorance of God is that
we think that what we do outwardly in the form of religion and holy
days and morality and these things, impresses God. It doesn't impress
God. In the flesh, no man can please
God. In the flesh, well, it's no good
thing. And to even entertain the thought that anything you
can think, Paul said, we're not even capable of thinking anything
pure and holy of ourselves. To entertain the thought that
anything you do or say or think can impress an infinitely, unchangeably,
eternally holy God is to show you don't know yourself or God.
Saul of Tarsus was all religious, one of the greatest religious
leaders of his day. He said, I was born of the tribe
of Benjamin. I was a Hebrew of Hebrews. I
was circumcised the eighth day of the tribe of Benjamin. My
mama was a Hebrew and my daddy was a Hebrew. He said, I excelled
in religion. Concerning the law, I was blameless.
Zeal, enthusiasm persecuted the church. He said, but I was dead
in trespasses and sin. Did not know God, didn't even
know I was a sinner. And this is the very thought
that Paul is setting forth right here in Romans 2. Do you see
it? He is not a Jew which is one outwardly. He is a Jew which
is one inwardly. And circumcision is not in the
flesh, it's of the heart and in the spirit, not in the letter
of the law or the letter of religion or the doctrine of religion.
And its praise is not of men. It's not done for the sake of
men. It's not done to be seen of men. That's what our Lord
said in Matthew in the Sermon on the Mount. He said, these
people pray on the street corners to be seen of men. They have
their reward. They give their 10% and their
large offerings to be seen of men. They have their reward.
They fast and they tell everybody in town about, look, I've fasted
this week. They have their reward. They
do it to be seen of men. He's a Jew which is one inwardly. True circumcision is of the heart. Now what are we saying? This
is what we're saying. This is what Paul is saying.
He is not a Christian. He is not a Christian. He is
not a child of God. He is not a believer who is only
an outward religionist. Good deeds, morality, church
membership, and religious ceremonies does not make a person a child
of God, does not make a person a child of Abraham, a Christian. He is a Christian who is one
inwardly, whose heart has been broken by the power of God and
by the Spirit of God because of sin, whose heart has looked
to embrace and receive the Lord Jesus Christ as Redeemer, Sanctifier,
Justifier, and His Righteousness. That's the man who is a Christian.
He is not one who is one outwardly. He is a Christian who is one
inwardly. Salvation is a heart work. It's
an inward work. It's not an outward profession.
It's not an outward religion. It's not an outward ceremony.
True circumcision, and we'll get to this in a few moments
and help you with it. True circumcision is not the
cutting of the flesh. It's not the cutting of the flesh.
It's not even the fasting of the flesh. It's not even to deprive
the flesh. But true circumcision is the
work of God in the heart. That's where it takes place.
A renting of the heart. A breaking of the heart. You
see, a smiting of the heart. A pricking of the heart by the
Holy Spirit. Luke 16, 15 says this, Our Lord said this to them.
He said, You are they which justify yourselves before men. And I
wonder just how much of our religious prayers and readings and giving
and serving is for the benefit of people around us. Just how
much. I wonder just how much. Our Lord
said, He said, You are they which justify yourselves before men,
to be seen of men, for the approval of men and women. But listen,
but He says, God knows your hearts. God knows your hearts. And that
which is highly esteemed among men, that which men command,
and of which they think highly, is an abomination in the sight
of God. Oh, I wonder how much of our
religion is an abomination in the sight of God. All of our
carryings on, all of our clapping and hand raising and carrying
on and bragging on the flesh and talking about how moral and
how good and how sanctified and how righteous and how we live
above sin and how we don't do this and don't do the other and
how we got delivered and how we gave this and how we built
that, all this bragging on the flesh, lust of the flesh and
the pride of life and the lust of the eyes. I wonder how much
of it which is highly esteemed among men, and credited by men,
and bragged on by men, and appreciated by men, is an abomination to
God Almighty. I'm afraid if we knew it, turn
our hair snow white. You are they which justify yourselves
before men, to the sin of men, But God looks on your heart.
God looks on your heart. God knows what nobody else knows.
God knows what you don't even know, because the heart is desperately
wicked and deceitful above all things. Who can know it? God
knows more than anybody knows. He knows more about you than
you know. And that's an abomination to him which is highly esteemed
among men. I'll tell you, Paul said in Romans
10, with a heart man believeth unto righteousness. We don't
walk with our feet to glory. We come through faith that's
born of God in the heart. Samuel said the Lord doesn't
see as man seeth. Man looks on the outward countenance
and approves of what we say and approves of what we do. But God
looks on the heart and God doesn't approve of what he sees. And
I'll tell you, we can read the Bible through. People say, I
know my Bible. Wish you knew the author. Wish
you knew the author. We can read the Bible through.
We can spend much time in religious works. We can listen to preachers
and learn doctrines and sit down at the ordinances and break the
bread and pour the wine and profess great holiness and make pretensions
and professions and join movements and support great causes. But
if we've never found Christ, If we've never found Christ in
all these things, as they speak of Him, as they reveal Him, as
they point to Him, if we've never been made new creatures in the
heart, born again of the Spirit of God, if we've never found
our acceptance for the Holy God only in His dear Son, If we've
never been brought like Mary to the feet of Christ, caring
not what men say or think or do, if we've never been brought
to love Him and find a saving interest in Him and lay hold
of Him in the heart, all we've ever done, thought, said, or
given is in vain and will only add to our condemnation when
we stand before a holy God. Martha stood before Him one day
after Lazarus had died. And she said, Lord, if you'd
been here, my brother wouldn't have died. And he said, well, he'll
rise again. He'll rise again. Oh, she said,
I know that. I believe in the resurrection.
I believe that they'll all rise in that great day. He said, Martha,
I am the resurrection and the life. He that believeth on me
shall never die. Do you believe this? You believe
a doctrine. The point is to believe a person.
You believe in a resurrection. The point is to believe in a
living Lord, the God of life. Well, do you believe a doctrine,
or do you believe a person? Have you closed with a tradition,
or have you closed with a person? Oh, I'm a Catholic, or I'm a
Baptist, or I'm a Jew. That's your problem. You need
to know Christ. You need to forget all these names and come to know
Him. But look closely at the text again now. Listen, I told
you I was going to work this thing over. and say what needs
to be said. Somebody needs to say it. People
either can't say it or won't say it. But it needs to be said.
Look at our text. He said, He is not a Jew. He
is not a Jew which is one outwardly. He is a Jew which is one inwardly. Now listen to me. What is meant
by the word Jew here? Will you listen a moment? There
was a nation called Israel. A people called Jews. They were
called the people of God. God gave them the promises. God gave them the prophecies.
God gave them the law. God gave them the tabernacle.
God gave them the sacrifices. God gave them the priesthood.
God gave them the atonement. God gave them the ark and the
mercy seat. They were called Jews. But these
people did not all know God. They did not all believe God.
These people were filled with unbelief and idolatry. In fact,
most of them perished in the wilderness. Their carcasses fell
in the wilderness. Out of all the people who left
Egypt, three or four million of them, and journeyed toward
the promised land, only two entered the promised land, who were over
twenty years of age when they left Egypt. Out of all that crowd,
over twenty years of age when they left Egypt, only two entered
the promised land, Joshua and Caleb. And the scripture says
they could not enter in because of unbelief. So these people
were not the people of God. They were a typical people. They
were called the people of God. They were called Israel. They
were called Jews. And they were typical people
just like that tabernacle was a typical place. Just like that
priesthood was a typical priesthood. It didn't have the power to save.
Just like that blood offering did not have the power to put
away sin. The blood of bulls and goats
cannot take away sin. It represents the blood of Christ.
And those Jews in the wilderness and Israel in the wilderness
were not the people of God. They just represented the people
of God. They were called the church in
the wilderness. They were types of the church.
They were called the children of Abraham, but they were not
all the children of Abraham. They were called the Israel of
God, but only in picture, only in type, for their religion was
in outward form and not in the heart. And just as the types
are no more, that typical nation is no more. Christ is our sin
offering. Christ is our Savior. Christ
is the seed of Abraham. And all who are in Christ are
Jews. All who are in Christ are spiritual
Israel. And all Israel shall be saved.
Now I'm telling you the truth. Now you listen to me. I wouldn't
deceive you. Buy your Bible. He says here,
He is not a Jew which is one outwardly. He is a Jew which
is one inwardly. He is not true Israel which is
Israel outwardly. That's called by a name. or traces
his lineage back to Abraham. Ishmael traces his lineage back
to Abraham, but he's not the true Israel. He is not a son
of Abraham. He is not a son of God who is
only one by natural birth, by religious form or outward ceremony. He is a Jew which is one inwardly. He is a Jew which is one inwardly,
born of God, born of the Spirit, a true child of God. Israel in
the Old Testament, the Jews of the Old Testament, were a typical
people. Just as that tabernacle, priesthood,
and sacrifices were typical sacrifices that could not save. And these
people were typical people, most of whom were not saved. They
weren't children of Abraham. Let me show you something. Romans
9, 6. Listen. They are not all Israel which
are of Israel, or in the nation of Israel. Neither because they
are the seed of Abraham are they children of Abraham. But in Isaac,
that is, in Christ, shall thy seed be called. Listen to this,
Galatians 3, 7. Know ye therefore that they which
are of faith the same are the sons of Abraham. They which are
of faith are the children of Abraham, and they which are not
of faith who are in unbelief. I don't care what they're called.
They're not children of Abraham. They're not Jews. Galatians 3,
27. Listen. As many as have been
baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew
nor Gentile, bond nor free, male nor female, in Christ. You're
all one in Christ. And if you be Christ, then are
you Abraham's seed and heirs of the promise. He is a Jew. You want to know who a Jew is?
That's the title of this message. He is a Jew. You want to know
who a Jew is? You're looking at one right now.
You're looking at one. He is a Jew which has been brought
by the Spirit of God to true faith in Christ. He is a Jew,
he is true Israel of God, who is born of the true Isaac, the
Lord Jesus Christ. He is a Jew, he is Abraham's
seed, who is of the faith of Abraham. Now listen to me, and
there's no other distinction in the kingdom of God. He that
hath the Son of God hath life, and he that hath not the Son
of God hath not life, hath not God. Listen to this. No man knoweth
the Father save the Son. and he to whom the Son will reveal
him." A man doesn't even know God, love God, or worship God,
or have any relationship with God apart from Jesus Christ. Christ is God. He is the express
image of God. Jesus Christ is the express image
of God. He that hath seen me, Christ
said, hath seen the Father. Today's Jew, today's true Israel,
are the children of faith of all nations. That's what the
Word of God teaches. I hear a lot of people say, well,
you know, these people worship the one and only God, but they
don't believe in Jesus Christ. That's an impossibility. That
can't be so. Christ is God. Now listen, in
the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the
Word was God. And he said, No man knoweth the
Father save the Son, and he to whom the Son will reveal him.
A man cannot know God apart from Christ because he is the revelation
of God and the only revelation of God. He is the expressed image
of God. I and my Father are one. How
can you know Christ, God, if you do not know Christ? Impossible. He is not a Jew which is one
outwardly. He is a Jew which is one inwardly.
That's what Scripture says. And America's destiny, now you
hold on, I'm going to tell you something here. I'm going to
cross the grain of most fundamentalism. America's destiny is not determined
by how she treats a nation of people over there in Palestine
or Jerusalem who call themselves Jew. That's not true Israel. Those aren't the true Jews. He
is not a Jew, which is one outwardly. He is a Jew which is one inwardly
by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. In Christ is neither Jew nor
Gentile, male nor female, bond nor free. And so many people
have got the idea that we're supposed to put up with everything
that that little nation does over there, right or wrong, because
they're God's chosen people. No such thing. Because they're
the Israel of God. No such thing. They are not.
A man who does not have Christ does not have God. There's only
one way to God, and that's in Christ. There's only one way
to know God, and that's in Christ. They say, well, inasmuch as you've
done it to the least of these my brethren, you've done it unto
me. That's every believer. That's true Israel of every nation,
tongue, tribe, and nation unto heaven. Look at the text again. True circumcision is not that
which is outward in the flesh, ordinances, Standing by a wailing
wall, or offering sacrifices, or going in a holy of holies,
or going through all these motions. True circumcision, not in the
letter, not outward in the flesh, it's of the heart. It's in the
spirit, which God sees and God recognizes. Now if you read Genesis
17 and Exodus 4, you'll see that God gave Abraham and the nation
of Israel a sign, or a token of his covenant with Abraham.
And that sign was every male child was to be circumcised.
And this circumcision was an undeniable sign that that person
was an Israelite. That circumcision was an undeniable
sign that that person was an Israelite. To be uncircumcised
was not to be of Israel. Now what is the token or the
sign that a person is a true Jew or true Israel, a true believer? Is it something he does in the
flesh? No, sir. It's something God's done in
his heart. That's where it is. It's not in the letter. It's
not in the form. It's not in the flesh. It's in
the heart. And circumcision, again, is a
typical ceremony. This outward circumcision could
no more make a man a child of God than the blood of an animal
could take away our sin. And even so, anything, you can
go down the baptismal waters, you can eat the bread and wine,
you can walk so many miles, you can crawl on spikes, you can
crawl on broken glass, you can do all these things in the flesh,
you can't justify yourself before God. You can't make yourself
a child of God. True circumcision is a hard work. It's an operation on the heart.
It's a true work of grace on the heart. And when that takes
place, when God rends the heart and breaks the heart, and smites
the heart and brings a man to true conviction and repentance
and true faith in Christ. It's an undeniable sign that
he is a child of God. He's not a Jew which is one outwardly,
who lives in a certain nation, who goes through certain forms.
He's a Jew who is one inwardly. Circumcision is not cutting the
flesh and doing all these things outwardly and making all these
crosses and signs and sprinkling water and throwing things. True
circumcision is to have the heart broken. For in Christ neither
circumcision nor uncircumcision abateth anything but a new creature.
And if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature. Circumcision
is not a work performed by men, but a work on the heart performed
by God. Circumcision not an outward work of religion, but an inward
work of grace. Circumcision not in the flesh,
it's in the heart. Circumcision not in the letters,
it's in the spirit. Circumcision as an outward sign
was done away with in Christ. Now in summary, he is not a Jew,
which is one outwardly. He is a Jew who is won inwardly
by grace and truth and faith, and he's a child of Abraham who
is won inwardly by the grace of God. And circumcision and
outward deeds and form is no sign whatsoever of spirituality. Just because a man can pray long
prayers and read the Bible and pronounce Shibboleth or some
other Greek or Hebrew word doesn't mean he knows God. It's a heart
work. It's a heart work. You make clean
the outside of the cup, Christ said, but the inside is full
of dead men's bones. You're like a whited sepulchre.
You appear beautiful to men, but God knows you're full of
dead men's bones. First, cleanse that which is
within. We are the true circumcision
who worship God in the Spirit, who rejoice in Jesus Christ,
and who have no confidence in this flesh. Our confidence is
in Christ. Now, you think on these things.
And you order this tape if you want it. Send $2 donation, we'll
mail you the tape. Two messages on the tape. He
is a Jew. He is a Jew. And the other message
is that a life and a look. A life and a look. I've never
preached two more important messages. I wish everybody could hear them
and give them some consideration. Until next week, the Lord willing,
I bid you a pleasant good day.