I just don't know whether I'm
going to have the ability to get this message across
to you tonight like I want to without being offensive to some
and maybe be misunderstood, but we'll give it a try. It's such an essential, such
an essential, important truth, and yet If you're not careful,
it can be taken, like all truth, into error and into coldness
and carelessness and indifference. And I don't want that to happen
at all. There's got to be a proper balance. It's like Paul was talking
about in the text as some slanderously reported or accused him of preaching
antinomianism, let's do evil that good may come. His message
was so filled with grace. And such a message of salvation
by the gift of God and the grace of God alone, putting away all
manner of sin, and the grace of God being magnified in the
salvation of the chief of sinners, that some folks just took it
and ran wild with it, and led into lasciviousness and all manner
of evil. And they said, well, let's just
do good, that God's grace is magnified by saving the chief
of sinners, and we'll just give him some real sinners to save,
you know, and continue to be so. And that's not right. But
it still doesn't, if men abuse the truth, it doesn't destroy
the truth, it just destroys the men. And that's what we need
to see. And what I want you to see tonight,
Romans 2, let's read the text again and see if we can, like
Brother Mews used to say, make good on it. For he, and this
is very emphatically stated, he is not a Jew. He is not a
Jew, which is one outwardly, neither is that circumcision
which is outward in the flesh. It's not circumcision at all.
But he is a Jew. He is a Jew, which is one inwardly,
and circumcision is out of the heart, in the spirit, not in
the letter, whose praise is not of men, but of God. Now do you
know no better proof can be found of our depravity, of our sinfulness,
and of our ignorance of God's holiness, of our ignorance of
God, no better proof can be found of our ignorance of the nature
of salvation than the fact that most people today, I'm talking
about religious people and otherwise, think that God is impressed,
God is impressed and God is affected and God is pleased and satisfied
with our religious form and ceremonies and bodily prostrations. Now
there's no greater proof of our depravity than that. And don't be offended by this
now, but this is true. I saw deeply religious people,
I mean strictly high-principled people, moral people, religious
people, who wore certain kind of hats, black hats and black
suits, and rode in horse and buggy. They wouldn't ride in
a car. And they lived in houses with no electricity and no modern
conveniences, no washing machines, no vacuum cleaners. And they
couldn't have a tractor to plow their farm, they plowed, you
know, with a horse, like, years ago. And back to the simple way
of life, and they meet in little frame buildings, so many times
a month, and they won't have a musical instrument to sing
without an instrument, and they get on their faces, on their
knees, and pray long prayers, and they spend much time in the
Bible. And you say, well, surely God will take notice of that.
That's a mark of your utter depravity, that you think that God could
be impressed whether you were sitting on a tractor or a donkey.
Now, what kind of God do you got? That's what I'm saying.
He made the donkey and He made the tractor. Or whether you've
got on a black suit or a white suit, what difference does it
make to God who made you without any suit at all on? And he clothes
you in the righteousness of his Son, that he sees your beauty
in Christ, not in you. And what kind of God do we have
that is impressed with whether I'm on my feet or on my knees
or on my back when I pray? Or whether I say a long prayer
or a short prayer? Or whether I say eloquent words
or stumbling, faltering? He made the tone. He could give
me an eloquent tongue if he wanted to, Joe. How is God impressed
by this sort of thing? Your God may be, but this God's
not. He's not impressed with it. Whether
I'm waving my hands like this or whether I've got them folded
like this. What difference does it make to God? You see, if we
could just get it through our heads that God does not look
on the outward countenance. He looks on the heart. We're
not heard for our much speaking. We're not observed for our prostration
of God. Now, wait a minute. If a man
is burdened before God, and conscious of God's holiness and majesty
and greatness, and because of that consciousness of God's greatness
and majesty and his own unworthiness and sin, in conscience and heart
he is smitten to bend his knee and bow his head And being of
subdued passion before the awesome, majestic, sovereign God, that's
a different story. That's a different story. But
when we all get together, and I say, now it's all time to get
on our knees. It's all, or what difference, I see people sitting
around tables praying, holding hands. And I see people in these
services gathering around a church with candles, holding hands.
Is that impress God? Is your God really impressed
with that sort of behavior? Bodily prostrations and religious
form and ceremonies and outward prayers and services and so-called
duties and good work. Is God impressed with that? Let
me show you something over in the book of 1 Kings. Now, I know
it impresses us. A pretty prayer impresses us.
A real pious look impresses us. First, you see a nun on the street,
and then you see a girl dressed like girls dress today. Now,
what's the first thought? That nun is a pious, spiritual,
high principle, righteous woman, one of God's children, and that
girl is maybe something else. You may have that thing backwards.
That nun may be the meanest devil out of hell, and that girl just
might be somebody whom God knows. That's exactly it. But we're
impressed with that stuff, Mike. It impresses us. You'd be surprised
what a grip it has on us. And it seems like the folks that
are judged to be the most pious and the most righteous are those
that we observe outwardly. And poor creatures, we unfortunately
cannot see the heart. But here in chapter 18 of 1 Kings,
now you look at the prophets of Baal. And it says in verse
27, well, verse 26, these 400 and some odd prophets
of Baal, they made their altars, and it says in verse 26, and
they took the bullock which was given them, dressed it, and called
on the name of Baal from morning till noon, saying, O Baal, hear
us! O Baal, hear us! But there was
no voice, nor any that answered. And they leaped upon the altar.
Boy, they leaped around, you know, made all kind of contortions.
And it came to pass at noon, Elijah mocked them and said,
holler louder, he's a god, either he's talking or he's pursuing
or he's in a journey, maybe he's asleep. And they cried aloud
and cut themselves after their manner with knives and lancets
till the blood gushed out upon them. Here's all going through
all of these, crawling on broken glass and crawling up steps,
you know, and going through all these contortions. They're people
doing the same things today in the name of religion. But these
men were praying to a false god. This is the behavior of heathens
and pagans, worshiping a pagan god. That's not all. It came
to pass when midday was passed, they prophesied till the time
of the offering of the evening sacrifice all afternoon. They
had an all-day prayer meeting, but there was no voice. or any
to answer, any regarded. So then Elijah, see the prophets
of Baal got no response from their God, but that didn't discourage
them. They went right on through this sort of thing. It didn't
discourage them. And then Elijah, you know the
story, I'm not going to go through it all, but very, very emphatically
and very quietly, he gathered 12 stones, one for each tribe
of Israel. He built an altar. And he took
the bullock and put it on the altar, and then he had them just
pour water, pour water, pour water until it was filled up
all around the altar, on the altar and everywhere. And verse
36, now listen to this. And it came to pass at the time
of the offering of the evening sacrifice that Elijah the prophet
drew near and said, now no all-day screaming, carrying on, no contortions,
no bodily prostrations, no cutting himself with a knife. No special
behavior and all this sort of thing, no screaming to heaven
and waving of the hands and no holding of the hands and gathering
of the crowd together. Just the man who knew God and
whom God knew prayed a 63-word prayer that you could pray in
20 seconds. And listen to it. Lord God of
Abraham, Isaac, and of Israel, let it be known this day that
thou art God and Israel. and that I am thy servant, that
I have done all these things at thy word. Hear me, O Lord,
hear me, that this people may know that thou art the Lord God,
and that thou hast turned their heart back again. Then the fire
of the Lord fell." You see what I'm saying, Bill? And I'm just convinced that we
need to look into this carefully, and I'm using as my text Romans
2, 28 and 29. The woman at the well. Here are
several other scriptures that illustrate the woman at the well.
She talked to the Lord Jesus about where her fathers worshipped. Not whom they worshipped, but
where they worshipped. She said, they worshipped in
this mount. And then she talked about where the Jews worshipped. They worshipped in Jerusalem.
And then the rich young ruler talked about all the things that
he had done. The Lord talked to him about
the law. He said, I've kept thee. I've kept these things. And then
the Pharisee prayed thus with himself, Lord, I tithe, I fast,
I give alms, I do all these things. And then Saul of Tarsus talked
about he was circumcised the eighth day of the tribe of Benjamin,
a Hebrew. All of these things, men are
relating to God what they have done. And in Matthew 7, at the
judgment, they said, Lord, we preached in your name, prophesied,
cast out devils, and did these wonderful works. And he said,
I never knew you. I never knew you. Now, I wouldn't discourage any
man from devotions. We talked about this a little
bit last night, some of us. I encourage devotions. I discourage
ritualism. I discourage a man from thinking
that because his devotions are held at 5 a.m., that there's
any special consideration given to him by God. Now that's where
we go wrong. I question whether or not a man's
devotions are genuine and from the heart if he has it in such
a ritualistic fashion that if he misses it, if he misses that
particular devotion, that he feels specially condemned. He missed his devotion. I didn't
read my Bible today. We'll read it more tomorrow.
There are no days with God. There are no days with God. I
told my Sunday school class about a One of the old preachers, I
don't know whether it was Ebenezer Erskine or one of them, told
a story about a fellow that he'd get up every morning at 5 a.m.
and pray. He did that for months and months
and months, maybe years. 5 a.m. he'd get up and pray.
Well, one morning he overslept. And just a few minutes after
5, a voice seemed to say to him, arise and pray. And he woke up
and he said, oh, are you an angel to remind me of my devotions?
And the person said, never mind who I am. It's time for you to
rise and pray. Well, he said, if you're not
an angel who awakens me to remind me of my devotions, who are you?
He said, never mind. You must not miss your devotion.
Well, he said, who are you? And the person said, just get
up and pray. He said, I think you're the devil.
I think you're the devil." And then the devil, he said, of course
it wasn't the devil speaking, but he was thinking these things,
these thoughts, and it's a good point. If you are very careful
to follow your particular ritual and your ceremony, And these
things, you'll feel a righteousness, a self-righteousness, and feel
that God is obligated to bless you. If you miss this prayer
time, you're going to be convicted of your sin. You're going to
be convicted before God and realize what a failing creature you are
and cry to him for mercy instead of looking to yourself. Now, I wouldn't discourage devotions.
I do encourage devotions. I encourage prayer. I encourage
worship. I encourage worship. I encourage
a godly walk. I encourage doing good in the
name of Christ. I encourage obedience to the
holy laws and commandments of God. But my friend, you can engage
in all of these things in visual form and in outward duty and
totally miss a right relationship with God. And that's what Paul
is saying right here, totally miss it, totally miss it. He
says here in Romans 2, he is not a Jew which is one outwardly.
He is not a believer which is one outwardly in ritual, form,
and ceremony and duty. That is not a believer. J.C. Ryle says you can read the Bible
through many times faithfully. You may spend much time in prayer
and religious works faithfully. You may listen to preachers and
learn doctrine and sit down at the ordinances faithfully. You
may profess great holiness. You may make professions of religion
and join movements and denominations. You may support good causes with
your money and miss a relationship with the Son of God. And the
difference is right here, whether it is done outwardly or whether
these things are experienced inwardly. Now, here's what I'm
saying. If you do not find Christ in
the Bible, in the doctrine, in the preaching, the preaching
and the Bible reading is in vain. If you are not brought in your
heart to know and love and receive the Redeemer, All that you know
in religion is in vain. All that you do religiously is
in vain. If your prayers and worship and
service is not motivated by a love for Christ, it's all in vain.
If we cannot look upon all that we do as falling short of his
glory and look away from these things and look to the person
and work of Christ, then it all is in vain. Turn to Isaiah 1. Let me show you another Old Testament
illustration. Isaiah 1. Isaiah, the first chapter. Now, these very things that God
says he's disgusted with, God commanded. These very things
that God says that he will not receive and accept and will have
no part in, he commanded. That's the sacrifices, the offerings,
the holy days, the feast days, and so forth. But it was the
way in which they were done. And this is what I'm saying,
what I'm trying to get across. Devotions, secret devotions.
Spending time in prayer before God, spending time in the Word
of God, but motivated by a love for Christ, a desire to know
Christ, a desire to know the Word of God, a desire to be taught
by the Holy Spirit in the ways of holiness motivates that devotion
or it's in vain. I believe on the Lord's Day and
other special services we should assemble ourselves together and
forsake not the assembling of ourselves together. But coming
to church can be a sin. It can flat be a sin if it's
done ritualistically, if it's done out of a sense of duty,
if it's done hoping that God will grant you a favor. If you
do Him a favor, it's sin. Barnard wrote a book one time
on sin forgiving. This is the first time I ever
encountered this, way back in 1951. He had a little booklet
on sin forgiving. And I came to understand how
that even giving my offering can be a sin. It's the way I
get it. It's the motive. I hear parents
do this, and Brother Kendall made this statement, one of his
messages, that from the time that he was a child and had a
paper route, he went out and collected the first time and
brought it home and put it on the table, and he had, I don't
know how much money there, let's say he had $8.50. And his dad was standing over
him, and he took a fifty-cent piece and a quarter and a nickel
and put it aside, and he said, Now that's God's. And in that
little boy's heart, there was a little rebellion there, you
know. I mean, there's not a whole lot there anyway. And you mean
that's God's? That's God's. And from that time, he said he
was taught, and I went through this same thing with my parents.
And maybe you all encounter the same thing with yours. But that's
not the way to teach a child to give. You're forcing it. You're making it a duty. That
might be God's, but I wish it wasn't. I wish it was mine. Then
give it back to him. Really, I'm telling you. Give
it back to him. It'd be better if he gave a dime
willingly than 85 cents out of duty. You say, that's not being
taught today. Well, that's what's got us in
the mess we're in. We've got a bunch of obligated,
regimented, ceremonial conformists to a bunch of rules and regulations
who call themselves Christians. And when you lay down what God
has blessed you with, materially or whatever, don't you dare say,
now this is God's part and this is my part. It's all God's. It's everybody's. And whatever
you feel motivated and led by the Spirit of God out of a genuine
heart and a generous heart and a sincere heart to give, you
give. And if you can't give it that way, don't give it because
it's sin. It's reluctantly handing God
something that he'll deal with you in judgment over. We've got
to give with open palms, not this way. And that's just part
of it. Now, the same thing has to do
with reading the Bible. The same thing has to do with
prayer. I don't know if we're not careful. I see on bumper
stickers, kids ought to pray. Well, sure they should, but grown
folks should too. Grown folks should too. And personally,
I'll just tell you, I just assume they keep religion out of school.
with their readings and prayer and everything else, their salutes
to the flags and the Ten Commandments and all that stuff. You can't
keep a child from praying. That's one thing I can do. If
you cut my tongue out, I can pray. A man can pray while he
talks. He can pray while he sings. He
can pray when I speak a word. You can't prevent anybody from
praying. But we've got the idea that the
only way that we can pray is to have somebody stand up in
front of us and lead us in some type of saying of word. But prayer
is with groanings which cannot be uttered, the Spirit of God
making intercession for us. And that prayer which springs
from genuine thanksgiving and genuine concern and genuine need,
that's the prayer God honors. giving, praying, worshiping.
Listen to Isaiah 1, verse 11, "...to what purpose is a multitude
of your sacrifices to me, saith the Lord? I am full of your burnt
offerings of rams, and fat of fed beasts. I delight not in
the blood of bulls, and lambs, and eagles, he delights in Christ. And if he delighted in Abel's
offering, Because Abel's offering was offered not as a ritual and
a ceremony, but by faith. God was pleased with Abel's offering.
He was displeased with these offerings. Because these are
done ritualistically. These are done ceremonially.
Now, verse 12, when you come to appear before me, to be seen
of me, who hath required this at your hand, to tread my courts?
Bring no more vain oblations. Your incense is an abomination
to me. Brethren, this incense is a picture
of Christ's prayers. That incense burned all the time
in front of the veil in the tabernacle, and it was a picture of Christ's
intercessory prayers. And then the high priest who
went into the Holy of Holies took the incense and waved it
there as the smoke filled the Holy of Holies, but these people
were doing it not with faith in Christ and looking to Christ,
they were doing it, hoping to find some acceptance with God
because of doing these things. And God was, the Lord got displeased
with it. The calling of the New Moons
and Sabbaths, verse 13, the calling of your assemblies, I cannot
away with it, it's iniquity, it is sin. Your new moons and
your appointed feasts, my soul hates. They're trouble to me,
I'm weary to bear them. And when you spread forth your
hands, I'll hide my eyes from you. Yea, when you make many
prayers, I will not hear. Your hands are full of blood." Now let's look back here to Romans
2, and let's see if I can show you and make an application of
what all this, what I feel like this is about. Like I'm saying,
such a message must be handled delicately, it must be handled
carefully, it must be received prayerfully, because I don't
want people to be encouraged to say, well, I don't want to
act religious. You know, that's dangerous. I
do. I want to appear to glorify God. I want to adorn the doctrines
of God my Savior. I want to pray and worship and
assemble with God's people and have public prayer and public
singing and the lifting of our hearts, not just our eyes, but
our hearts to heaven. And the bowing of the knee and
the prostration of the body before God. Yes, sir. But now, here's
what we're looking at. Verse 28 of Romans 2. He's not
a Jew, which is one outwardly, and he is a Jew, which is one
inwardly. I read the poem Sunday. Somebody may not have been here,
but a lady wrote to me from Spring Hill, Tennessee, and she'd been
reading this verse, and she wrote this poem. And from the sound
of the poem, she's got a grasp on what I'm trying to preach.
I may not look very Jewish when you see my nose and hair. I may
not eat the right food. I may not sing my prayers. If
you could look into my heart, I'm sure that you would see that
I'm very, very Jewish, and that's all that counts for me. The Lord
never looks outward, for outward is only flesh. The Lord knows
what is inside. He knows those who love Him best.
And what is meant here by the word Jew? Verse 28, He is not
a Jew. What is meant by the word Jew?
There was a nation called Israel in the Old Testament. There were
a nation of people called Jews. They were a typical people. They
offered typical sacrifices. They had a typical tabernacle
and a typical priesthood, and they were distinct from other
nations. And they were called the people of God. They were
a typical people. And those people called Jews
and Israel, was typical of spiritual Jews and spiritual Israel, just
like those sacrifices were typical of Christ. But this scripture
here is not talking about that nation of Israel, not talking
about those Jewish people. When it says he's not a Jew,
he's not talking about those people back in the Old Testament,
because they were Jews. Whether they were believers or
unbelievers, they were Jews. Whether they were they were following
God or whether they were rebelling against God, they were still
Jews. They were Israelites. But what
he's saying here, he is not a Jew. Here's what this scripture is
talking about. He's not a true Jew of which
they were types. He's not true Israel. Now, let
me show you some scriptures on that. Turn to Luke 19, verse
10. What the writer Paul is saying
here is that man is not a true Jew and true Israel and the true
people of God just because he belongs to the nation Israel,
and just because he keeps the Sabbath day, and just because
he's circumcised, and just because he is a natural descendant of
Abraham. He's not a true Jew. In Luke
19.10, our Lord, talking about Nicodemus, said this, Luke 19.9,
He said, And Jesus said unto Zacchaeus, This day is salvation
come to this house, forasmuch as he also is a son of Abraham. What kind of son of Abraham is
He talking about? A spiritual son of Abraham. When God spoke
to Abraham and said, Your seed Your people, your nation, shall
be as the stars of the sky and the sands of the seashore." To
whom was he referring? Well, he wasn't talking about
those people over in Jerusalem and on the banks of that river
over there that call themselves Abraham's sons. He was talking
about spiritual Israel. He was talking about how to redeem
people. That's what he was talking about. And when he talked about
the seed of Abraham, he talked about the seed, singular, not
plural, which is Christ. Let me show you that. Turn now
to Galatians chapter 3. Galatians, the third chapter.
While you're turning there, let me read a scripture in John.
Turn to Galatians chapter 3, but listen to this scripture
in John chapter 8. John 8, verse 39 and 40. Our
Lord is speaking here, and listen to what he said. I speak that
which I have seen with my father, and you do that which you have
seen with your father. And they said, Well, Abraham
is our father. Our Lord said, No, he isn't. If Abraham were
your father and you were the children of Abraham, you would
do the works of Abraham. All right, now Galatians 3. Watch
this, Galatians 3. This is the very thing our Lord
is saying. Here in John, now Galatians 3, listen to this,
Galatians 3, verse 6 and 7. Even as Abraham believed God,
and it was counted to him for righteousness, know ye therefore
that they which are of faith, they are the children of Abraham,
they are the Jews. They are the Jews. Children of
faith, they are the Jews. Now look at Galatians 3, 28 and
29. In Christ there's neither Jew nor Greek, there's neither
bond nor free, there's neither male nor female, you're all one
in Christ. If you be Christ, that's possessive,
if you belong to him, then you are Abraham's seed and heirs
according to promise. That's who the Jew is. He's not
a Jew which is one outwardly. He's not. He's not true Israel. Now one other scripture, Romans
9, 7, listen to this. Romans 9, verse 7, listen to this, "...neither
because they are the seed of Abraham are they all children."
Ishmael was the seed of Abraham. All of those people that proceeded
from his loins are called children of Abraham, but they're not,
he said, in Isaac, in the promised child. Born of the free woman
shalt thy seed be caught. Turn one more time to Galatians
6. Let me show you another verse. Galatians 6, verse 15 and 16. Galatians 6, verse 15 and 16. For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision
availeth anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new creature. And as many
as walk according to this rule, peace be on them and mercy and
upon the Israel of God." That's who we're talking about. That's
who we're talking about. He is not a Jew. And let me tell
you this, and I know there's a lot of preaching today and
there's a lot of arguments. This is what you were talking
about, Ron, the other day. There are a lot of arguments about
what's going on in the Middle East. Now, I don't claim to know
what's going on in the Middle East. I don't claim to know anything
about that. There's something there. I don't
know what it is, what God's doing, where the providence of God will
lead that situation. I don't know what the outcome
will have on the world and so forth. But I guarantee you this,
in the plan and purpose of God, there's not going to be any restoration
of the Jewish temple and a restoring of those sacrifices. I guarantee
you that. I promise you that. And to believe
that's foolishness. Our Lord God said, He taketh
away the first and establishes the second. God Almighty has
established the priesthood of Christ, the atonement of Christ,
the sacrifice of Christ, the mediatorial work of Christ, and
He's not bringing back Alan and his son. That would be blasphemy
and dishonoring to God Almighty, and He won't put him... The only
way God could deal with a situation like that is the same way Paul
dealt with it. Let him be anathema. Let him
be cursed of God. As Tim James says, let God damn
him. That's exactly what it is. Any
other gospel is condemnation. You can put that down. In Christ
there's neither Jew nor Gentile. And let me tell you this, when
the Bible said all Israel shall be saved, all Israel will be
saved. Every Jew is going to be saved. But he is not a Jew
which is one outwardly. He is not a Jew, which is why
he's not a Jew, because he's got a tribal ancestry. Paul said,
I count these things but dumb, that I may win Christ and be
found in him. He's not a Jew, which is one
outwardly. What about circumcision? What
turned to Genesis 17? Now listen to this, Genesis 17. I hope you're with me, because
honestly, if you can get hold of this, And if any Jew is saved,
let me tell you something, if any Jew is saved, he's not going
to be saved through a restoration of sacrifices, he's not going
to be saved through a restoration of that tabernacle and that veil
which has been ripped from top to bottom. He's going to be saved
by believing the same thing you believe, the preaching of the
gospel, the power of God and the salvation. You'll be saved
just exactly the same. That's what you read tonight
in the study. We believe we shall be saved even as they. The Jews
shall be saved as the Gentiles. There's not going to be any new
gospel for the millennium or for the tribulation. It's going
to be the same gospel that's preached right now. It's Christ
or hell. It's Christ or condemnation. It's Christ or eternal judgment.
You'll come the same way. No special way. It's Christ.
Now circumcision, watch this. When Abraham was 90 years old,
Genesis 17, God appeared to him and said, I'm Almighty God, walk
before me and be thou perfect or upright or sincere is the
word. Now verse 9, And God said to
Abraham, Thou shalt keep my covenant, therefore thou and thy seed after
thee and their generation. This is my covenant which you'll
keep. between me and you and your seed after you. Now see,
I'm not denying that God did choose Abraham and from him there
came twelve tribes, Jacob's sons. And they were called Israel and
they were called Jews. And God gave them the oracles,
the tabernacle, the priesthood, the sacrifices and all these
things till Shallow comes, till the Redeemer comes, till the
Fulfiller of those things comes. And they had protective custody
of it. They had the prophets, they had
the word, they had the ceremonies, they had all these things. This
Jewish, most of them were lost, most of them didn't know God,
most of them were rebels. Out of that whole gang of three
million that left Egypt, those over twenty years of age, only
two of them entered the Promised Land. Only two of them, a mere
two of them. Did you know that? Caleb and
Joshua. They weren't saved people. I
hear these preachers on the radio say, now here's the recipe for
revival. 2 Chronicles something. If my people, which are called
by my name, shall humble themselves and pray and seek my face and
turn from their wicked ways, I'll hear from heaven and heal
their land. You know who he said that to? He said that to a bunch
of unsaved, rebellious Jews, and he said, if you'll straighten
up, I'll bless your land. That's exactly who he said it
to. And it doesn't apply to believers. Let's say this. Let's say this
is what you're going to tell a believer. If my people, which
are called by my name, shall humble themselves, you mean God's
got a people called by his name that are proud? No, they've already
been humbled, or they wouldn't be his people. And seek my faith,
you mean God's got people who don't seek his faith, redeemed
people, regenerated, who are born again? Who know Christ,
who don't seek? No, sir. He hasn't got any people
who don't seek his faith. And turn from their wicked ways,
you mean God's people are walking in wickedness? No, they're walking
in righteousness. And pray, you mean God's got
people that don't pray? This is no recipe for it. This
was given, and what I'm showing you is this. This Old Testament
people called Jews and Israelites were a typical people. They were
national people, and God blessed them materially when they obeyed
him, and God blessed them physically when they obeyed him. They were
people most of whom did not know God. Did not know God. And so God gave to these people
a covenant. And he gave in that covenant
circumcision. Now listen to verse 10. This
is my covenant which you shall keep between me and you, and
thy seed after thee. Every man shall among you shall
be circumcised. Now let me tell you something.
People talk about the way a Jew looks, dark hair and a prominent
nose and so forth. That's not the mark of an Old
Testament Jew. Not at all. And they didn't go
around showing their badges what tribe they were from. You know
the mark of an Old Testament Jew? Talk meant nothing. They were circumcised. And I
don't care what their nose looked like or how dark their hair was
or what tribe they came from, they weren't circumcised, they
weren't a Jew. They were cast out. In fact, I'm going to show
you in a minute, God nearly killed Moses because he didn't circumcise
his son. He met him and nearly killed
him. And the only thing that saved Moses' life, and that was
between the time God called him and sent him to Egypt to deliver
Israel. The only thing that saved him is his wife took a knife
and circumcised that boy, and God made him well, just like
that. I'm going to show you that in a minute. But this mark here,
this is my covenant, which you shall keep. Every male child
shall be circumcised, verse 11, and you shall circumcise the
flesh of your foreskin, and it shall be a token of the covenant
between me and you. All right? He's not a Jew who's
circumcised in the flesh. That's not a true Israel. That's
not a true Jew. That's not a true believer. That's
not a true child of God. It's not literal in the flesh.
It's of the heart. Now, I'll show you what I said
about Moses. Turn to Exodus 4. Now, Moses had two sons by this
wife, this particular woman. What was her name? Zipporah?
Exodus 4 is where the scripture is. Yeah, Zipporah. Zipporah was his name. Zipporah.
I changed the name to Zipporah. Zipporah is her name. He had
two sons, the first one. I think he circumcised, I'm not
sure, but I believe he did, and some other writers say they believe
he did, too, because there wasn't any problem over him. But for
some reason, to please his wife, or for some reason he didn't
circumcise, you know why he didn't? I don't know, but it seems to
me that it was displeasing in her eyes. And so God, nothing
was said about it. But this boy was left uncircumcised,
nothing was said about it. And God appeared to Moses the
burning bush, talked to Moses, said, you're going down there
and delivering my people and all these things. So Moses started
toward Egypt with his wife and sons. That's where he was going. And he stopped to spend the night
in an inn. Exodus 4, 24. And it came to pass by the way
in the inn, the Lord met him and sought to kill him. And sought
to kill him. Many writers believe that Moses
was stricken with some kind of disease of some sort, something
to do with respiratory or we don't know what it is, but he
was so helplessly stricken that he couldn't do that. Women didn't
do the circumcising, usually men did it. But when that happened,
his wife, Zipporah, took a sharp stone, some say a flint or a
knife, and cut off the foreskin of her son and cast it at his
feet and said, surely a bloody husband art thou to me. And so
God let him go. God turned Moses loose. Now,
you just sit all day, if you want to, and try to figure out,
you mean tell me God had already appeared to him, sent him to
eat and all this? That's how important circumcision was to
the Jew. And you see these Jews, these
Jews with their temple and tabernacle and priesthood and prophets and
law and all these things, They felt that that gave them a corner
on God. Did not God continue to talk
about Israel? And we're doing it today. Jerry Falwell is talking about
Judo-Christian principles. What in the world is he talking
about? I've got no Judo principles. Ours are the commandments of
Christ. I'm just saying that the folks have separated Jew
and Gentile. In Christ, there is no Jew or
Gentile. And this guy's own king is coming,
and all these are talking about Christ setting up a kingdom over
in Jerusalem. He's done with Jerusalem. There's
a heavenly Jerusalem. Christ is our king and priest,
and all these things. And this Jew here, in the New
Testament as well as the Old, this natural seed of Abraham,
this Jew, this Israelite, who had the prophets, and he had
the the writers, and David, and Solomon, and Elijah, and Elisha,
and Isaiah, and Jeremiah, and Ezekiel, and Moses. We have Moses. We have Abraham. These folks
are carried right over into the New Testament, and it's carried
right over into 1983. They feel like because they're
Jews, they have some special favor with God, some special
corner on God. Because they had these ceremonies,
they had some special favor with God. Did not God give them the
circumcision? And Paul is saying here, he's
striking that whole thing down. He's totally destroying that
whole tower of Babel. He's saying, he's not a Jew.
He's not a Jew. He's just not a Jew, which is
one outwardly. Circumcision is not of the flesh. It's not of the flesh. It has
no claim on God and no effect upon God. It's done away. It's
a type that's put away. It's a picture that's put away.
Nothing for it anymore. But verse 29, he is a Jew. He is a Jew. He is a Jew which
is one inwardly. Inwardly. And circumcision, listen,
is that of the heart in the spirit and not the letter. In the spirit
and not the letter.