 The title of our sermon this morning is the Heart of the Matter, Heart of the Matter, Romans chapter two, specifically verses 25 through 29. And this is part three in this text and our ongoing verse by verse study of Paul's epistle to the Romans. And as we continue our progress now through chapter two this week and concluding really chapter two this week, we are rapidly approaching now closing statements as Paul wraps up a blistering, case against all mankind for their sin against God. The only reasonable verdict that can be reached at the end of Paul's statements here, at the end of Paul's case, on the basis of the evidence that is found is the verdict of chapter three, verse 10. There is none righteous, no, not one. There is none who understands. There is none who seeks after God. They have all turned aside. They have together become unprofitable. There is none who does good, no, not one. You can't say it any more clearly than that. It's unequivocal, inarguable. And that's the case that Paul is building here. It began in chapter one, has progressed through chapter two and we'll conclude in chapter three. God then is certainly absolutely unquestionably just then when God pours out His wrath in judgment against the sinner. God is absolutely righteous just in pouring out His wrath in judgment against hell-deserving sinners. We're all deserving of that justice. There's no one who could claim any different. No one escapes that fact. And that's the fact that we're building to in Paul's case. So as Paul then begins to wrap up his case as a good prosecuting attorney, Paul focuses his gaze now upon someone in the courtroom, so to speak, who is unmoved by these threats of judgment. The one who's unaffected, undisturbed by the real and impending imminent threats of judgment and torment. In fact, this person may sit in the back of the courtroom as it were and say amen when Paul speaks of the judgment that all those pagans deserve in Romans chapter one. Paul, he may have been praising God for his righteous judgment against all those wicked people. All the while, he himself sits there unaffected. All the while he sits there and believes that none of this has anything to do with him. He is unmoved as it were. Not at all being concerned about the judgment of God, not fearing God. This person is confident that they're going to escape the judgment of God. So then Paul concentrates on his attention, the thrust of his argument as it were upon this particular person that sits in the courtroom. We would define him as a formalist. Paul has in mind the Jewish formalist of his own day, but this case would certainly apply to the religious formalist in our own day. A formalist, to remind us, is someone who has placed their trust or confidence in religious observance for peace with God, for right standing with God. They believe themselves to be at peace with God. They are assured of heaven because they have done the right things and they have checked the right boxes. That's a religious formalist. They content themselves with the external forms of religion without the internal, the corresponding internal or spiritual realities. They have nothing on the inside, but the outside is wiped clean, right? They're like white washed tombs full of dead men's bones. As we saw in point one on your notes, it's a worthless confidence. They have a misplaced confidence, a misplaced trust in these things. They should have no confidence in those things without the corresponding inward spiritual realities. They are those who Paul describes as having a form of godliness, but denying its heart transforming, life transforming power, right? John Bunyan describes the formalist. He says, he is a man that has lost all but the shell of religion. He is hot indeed for his form, zealous and no marvel, for that is all he has to contend for. But his form being without the power and spirit of godliness, it will leave him in his sins. Nay, he stands now in them in the sight of God and is one of the many that will seek to enter in and shall not be able. In Bunyan's classic allegory, Pilgrim's Progress, I commend that to you highly, Christian main character meets up with formalist and his close companion hypocrisy. Listen to the dialogue between Christian and these two characters, these two scoundrels. Christian says, he has spied two men that came in tumbling over the wall on the left hand of the narrow way and they made up a pace to him. The name of one was formalist and the name of the other hypocrisy. So as I said, they drew up unto him who thus entered into discourse with him. Christian said, gentlemen, whence came you and wither go you? Love the old English, right? Where'd you come from, where are you going? Formalist in hypocrisy said, we are born in the land of vain glory. It's another word for pride, right? And are going for praise to Mount Zion. Christian said, why came you not in at the gate which stands at the beginning of the way? Know you not that it is written that he that comes in not by the door but climbs up some other way the same is a thief and a robber. Formalist in hypocrisy said that to go into the gate for entrance was by all their countrymen counted too far about and that therefore their usual way was to make a shortcut of it and to climb over the wall as they had done. Christian said, but will it not be counted a trespass against the Lord of the city whether we are bound thus to violate his revealed will in this way? Formalist in hypocrisy, they told him that as for that, he needed not to trouble his head thereabout. Don't trouble yourself about that, Christian. For what they did they had custom for. It's part of their tradition. Many have gone in that way and if need their testimony would witness to it for more than a thousand years of this custom coming in over the wall, right? Some other way. Christian said, will your practice stand at trial at law? Formalist in hypocrisy, they told him their custom being of so long a standing as above a thousand years would doubtless now be admitted as a thing legal by any impartial judge. And besides said they, if we were to get into the way what matter is it, which way we get in? If we are in, we're in. You are but in the way who as we perceive came in at the gate. We also are of the way that came tumbling over the wall. Where in now is your condition better than our condition? You see the point, right? Christian said, I walk by the rule of my master. You walk by the rude working of your own fancies. You are counted thieves already by the Lord of the way. Therefore I doubt you will not be found true men at the end of the way. You come in by yourselves without his direction. You shall go out by yourselves without his mercy. To this they made him but little answer. They only bid him look to himself. The many that you witness to do the same, don't they? Give little heed to your points and you look to yourself, I look to myself. The formalist has nothing but the shell of his walk. Do you see the shell of religion? His walk along the way toward the celestial city. He may be zealous for those forms but he is zealous only for the forms of his worship, the forms of devotion, but there is no spirit wrought power that fuels his love for and devotion to the Lord Jesus Christ. He's content that as long as he's on the way so to speak, doing the right things, saying the right things, checking the right boxes that God has pleased with his efforts. And when it comes to that time, certainly God is going to acquit him at trial and allow him in. Look at all that he's done. When it comes to the celestial city, he will seek to enter and will not be able, finding that there is a way to hell even from the very gates of heaven. There's is certainly a worthless confidence, a worthless confidence. What avails a new heart? What avails a new creation? What avails circumcision of the heart? The Jewish formalist of Paul's day put his confidence in the external sign of his covenant with God, which was circumcision. For the Jewish formalist, circumcision stood for or represented his heritage as the seed of Abraham. His heritage as a Jew. Circumcision represented its participation in the covenant that God had made with Abraham. And circumcision represented the fact that he believed God was obligated, obligated to bestow upon him the promises that he made with Abraham because of his circumcision. But God is not concerned with external rituals that are devoid of internal heart realities. God is concerned with the obedience that flows from a changed heart. That, listen, that's a testimony how wicked you and I are. How total our depravity is, right? How depraved we are, that we need to be made anew, made over again for us to produce anything that is acceptable to God. We need a new heart. God is concerned with the obedience that flows from that kind of heart. The evangelical gospel obedience that flows from a heart that has been transformed, the fruit as it were of a circumcised heart. And so Paul makes this point by stating then a simple principle in Romans chapter two, beginning in verse 25. Circumcision is indeed profitable if you keep the law. The outward forms of your religion are profitable if they are performed from a true and living faith which produces real heart holiness. Take for example in our worship, right? If you came here this morning and you prayed with us and you sang hymns with us and you've worshiped with us and you've been listening to the word of God preached, if you're doing that from a cold, dead, ritualistic religion, a cold, dead, lifeless heart, then your supposed worship of God is an abomination to God. It is unacceptable to God. God accepts that worship that is from a living, transformed, renewed heart. That worship that flows from faith in his son, the Lord Jesus Christ, that is produced by a spirit work in your heart that is acceptable to God. You see, the difference between those two is the difference between the religions that we're talking about. The difference between heart religion and formalistic, ritualistic, cold, dead religion. God is about the heart. Living faith which produces real heart holiness. If you are a breaker of the law, Paul says, verse 25, then your circumcision has become uncircumcision. Your external forms are just as worthless as if you had never done them at all, right? To the circumcised Jew hearing this, his circumcision, his physical circumcision is good for nothing if it doesn't link up if it isn't matched up with an inward spiritual reality. And if he has no inward circumcision of heart then his external physical circumcision is as though he were never circumcised at all. Do you see? It matters, avails, nothing. It is of no consequence whatsoever to God. It's worthless. So Paul then carries that point out to its logical conclusion, verse 26. Therefore, if an uncircumcised man, a Gentile, keeps the righteous requirements of the law will not his uncircumcision then be counted as circumcision? In other words, a physically uncircumcised Gentile manifests the fruit of a true and living faith which is the fruit of a circumcised heart. He proves that he has been circumcised in heart and that heart circumcision counts with God, right? Whereas his physical circumcision is not existent, his heart circumcision counts with God. And verse 27, will not the physically uncircumcised if he fulfills the law, sit in judgment of you who even with your written code and circumcision are a transgressor of the law. That's a rhetorical question with an answer meaning yes. He will sit in judgment. Why? Galatians chapter five, verse six. For in Christ Jesus, neither circumcision nor uncircumcision avails anything but faith working through love, the fruit of a circumcised heart. Galatians chapter six, verse 15. For in Christ Jesus, neither circumcision nor uncircumcision avails anything but a new creation, a circumcised heart, right? It's not the external forms. That's Paul's point. It's not the external forms that avail anything. What avails with God is a new heart, a circumcised heart, a transformed heart. And we are so depraved, so ruined by sin, so wrecked by the fall that we need to be remade from the inside out. And Paul then makes a staggering point. The true people of God, I think with me, the true people of God are not those who merely manifest conformity with the external forms of religion, the sign of circumcision for example, but the true people of God, the true people of God are all of those who manifest inward conformity, a heart conformity with those spirit wrought fruits produced through a circumcision of the heart. The true people of God are those who have been inwardly transformed, not externally marked. That makes sense. Not those who are merely following the external forms of religion, but those who have been internally transformed by a work of God's spirit. Those are the true people of God. 28, verse 28, for he is not a Jew who is one outwardly, nor is circumcision that which is outward in the flesh, but he is a Jew who is one inwardly, and circumcision is that of the heart in the spirit, not in the letter whose praise is not from men, but from God. So what is the sign that you are of the people of God? What is the sign that you are a true descendant of Abraham? What is the sign that you are a true Jew? What's the sign? Circumcision of the heart. A true child of Abraham is one that is marked by genuine and spiritual circumcision that takes place in the heart and manifests itself in two ways. One, faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, two, evangelical obedience, the obedience that flows from that faith, right? The obedience that is the fruit of a genuine living, saving faith in Jesus Christ. Faith and obedience that are the fruits of a circumcised heart. Those marked by that circumcised heart are the true people of God. Those are true Israel, so to speak. Those are true Jews, so to speak. Galatians chapter three, verse six, just as in the same way that Abraham believed God, put his faith in God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness, therefore know this, that only those who are of faith are sons of Abraham. What about that country full of ethnic Jews living on the eastern side of the Mediterranean today? Only those who are of faith are sons of Abraham. You see the point that Paul's making. It's a significant point, it's a serious point, and it's a point that has far-reaching ramifications, far-reaching implications. The key to understanding our text is understanding the difference between a religion that is merely outward and a spirit-wrought religion that is from the heart. That spirit-wrought religion isn't determined by how hyped up you get when you sing, or by dancing in the aisles. It's not how many tears you cry over your sin. The test of heart religion is a circumcised heart that results in obedience from the heart. I don't know how many different ways I can say it. I'm looking for as many different possible ways of framing that statement so that we all come to the same conclusion, however you end up framing it, right? That's what Paul's talking about in this text, and it's critical for us to understand the difference. Now this concept, circumcision of the heart, is not original to Paul. Paul didn't come up with this himself. We find it commanded by God, beginning in the Old Testament. It's as it always has been. This is not something new to the New Testament. A circumcised heart is the way that religion was always to be. The worship of God was always to be from a circumcised heart. And let's take a look at a few texts in the Old Testament to help us with that. Turn with me to Leviticus chapter 26. Leviticus chapter 26. Love an opportunity in a worship service to turn to Leviticus. Leviticus 26. In Leviticus 26, God is laying out in terms of His covenant with the nation of Israel. This is a fascinating book, just exceedingly helpful. God is laying out the terms of His covenant with the nation and note, God is speaking to the nation who has been physically circumcised. You gotta keep that in mind, right? They bear the mark of physical circumcision and hear the way that God speaks to them. Verse three, I'm gonna summarize, verse three. If you walk in my statutes and keep my commandments and perform them, verse four, then I will give you reign in its seasons, the land shall yield its produce. What is God looking for? He's looking for obedience. Verse six, I will give peace in the land if you obey me. You shall lie down, none will make you afraid. Verse nine, I will look on you favorably, make you fruitful, multiply you and confirm my covenant with you. What is God looking for? He's looking for evangelical obedience, heart obedience, right? Verse 14, but if you do not obey me and do not observe all these commandments and if you despise my statutes or if your soul abhors my judgments so that you do not perform all my commandments but break my covenant, verse 16, I also will do this to you. I will even appoint terror over you, wasting disease and fever which shall consume the eyes and cause sorrow of heart and you shall sow your seed in vain for your enemies shall eat it. I will set my face against you, you shall be defeated by your enemies. Those who hate you shall reign over you and you shall flee when no one pursues you. The Lord goes on with just a scathing judgments against Israel for their disobedience. If you continue to disobey me, God says I'm gonna punish you seven times more for your sin. I'm gonna point over you seven times more terror to the point where they're going to be at war with their enemies, they're going to eat their own children under famine, pestilence is going to come, right? These are severe judgments on the Israelites because of their disobedience. And listen, all of that came to pass. All of that came to pass against Israel, counting the stories in the Old Testament, accounts of Israel, for example, eating their young, right, two women show up at the wall and one says we ate her son yesterday, now my son yesterday, we come now to eat her son and she won't give him up, right? And the prophet weeps. Listen, verse 40, verse 40, but the mercy of God, but if they confess their iniquity and the iniquity of their fathers with their unfaithfulness in which they were unfaithful to me and that they also have walked contrary to me and that I have also walked contrary to them and have brought them into the land of their enemies if their uncircumcised hearts, there it is, Leviticus chapter 26, if their uncircumcised hearts are humbled and they accept their guilt, in other words, if their uncircumcised hearts are circumcised, then verse 42, I will remember my covenant with Jacob, my covenant with Isaac and my covenant with Abraham, I will remember. The children of Israel bore the mark here of physical circumcision, but the sin of the people is rooted in an uncircumcised heart, do you see? They bear the physical mark, but their sin is rooted in an uncircumcised heart. Their disobedience is the evidence of an uncircumcised heart. They bore the physical mark without the inward spiritual reality, right? And God is requiring what? He's requiring a spiritual change, a spiritual heart transformation. If their verse 41, if their uncircumcised hearts are humbled and they accept their guilt, then I will remember my covenant. The worship and devotion that is acceptable to God is that worship and devotion that flows from a circumcised heart. That's the way it always has been and that's the way it is, that's the way it's going to be, do you see? In Leviticus 26, if you look at that text beginning in verse 40, a circumcised heart is associated with humility, if they humble themselves, right? If they accept their guilt, if they, verse 40, confess their iniquity, the text implies that they stop walking contrary to him and they start walking in harmony with him, that they begin to walk in obedience to his commandments, not in disobedience to his commandments. In other words, a circumcised heart produces the fruit of genuine repentance. A circumcised heart produces the fruit of genuine repentance. Flip over to Deuteronomy chapter 10. Deuteronomy chapter 10. We're back in the law again, Deuteronomy chapter 10 and look there beginning at verse 12. What is it that God requires? What is God looking for, right? In those who would presume to worship him. What does God want? Deuteronomy chapter 10 beginning in verse 12 and now Israel, listen. What does the Lord your God require of you but to fear the Lord your God to walk in all his ways, to love him, to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and to keep the commandments of the Lord and his statutes which I command you today for your good. There's somebody today who have no regard whatsoever for the obedience of God. Like they would be offended if I or anyone else would come to you and say, you need to obey the Lord. They'd be offended by that. What are you, a legalist? Listen, it's not legalism to obey God. It's legalism when you do that with no spirit-wrought power with no spiritual basis, with no heart toward the Lord but just a heart toward external forms. We can consider that legalism as if that somehow merits favor with God but God wants evangelical obedience. Paul is an apostle, Romans chapter one for the obedience of faith among all nations for his name. It's the purpose of Paul's apostleship. Here we're talking about the same thing. God is asking for obedience to keep verse 13 the commandments of the Lord, his statutes which I command you today for your good. Indeed, verse 14, heaven and the highest heavens belong to the Lord your God, also the earth with all that is in it and you too by the way. The Lord delighted only in your fathers to love them. He chose their descendants after them, you above all peoples as it is to this day. Therefore, right, this is the essence of true religion, true worship, true devotion to God. Therefore, in light of all these blessings, verse 16, therefore circumcise the foreskin of your heart, be stiff-necked no longer for the Lord your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great God, mighty and awesome who shows no partiality nor takes a bribe. You cannot, I would submit to you, you cannot fear the Lord your God, you cannot walk in his ways, you cannot love him, heart, soul, mind and strength, you cannot keep his commandments unless you circumcise the foreskin of your heart. Do you see? God is calling them to circumcise the foreskin of their heart. Look at the blessings that have been poured out on you. The Lord chose you above all peoples as it is this day therefore Moses tells them in the law, circumcise the foreskin of your heart. Don't be content with mere externals, do you see? Don't be content with religious ritualism. Don't be content with the mere forms of religion. You need a radical inward heart transformation. Notice here that the Lord commands that which the Lord himself alone can do. Isn't that interesting, right? The Lord is commanding that work, a circumcision of heart that the Lord himself alone can do. Look at Deuteronomy 29, few pages of the right. Deuteronomy 29, and remember, this is under the law. Given to the Israelites in the wilderness, before they've inherited the land, what is the Lord telling them to do? The Lord expects them to worship and serve him from a circumcised heart. Deuteronomy 29, look at verse two. Now Moses called all Israel and said to them, you've seen heaven, you all that the Lord did before your eyes in the land of Egypt to Pharaoh and to all his servants and to all his land. The great trials which your eyes have seen, the signs, those great wonders. And yet for all of that, verse four, the Lord has not given you a heart to perceive and eyes to see and ears to hear to this very day. It's almost as if Moses is lamenting that fact, right? Look at all that God has done before your eyes. He's rained down brimstone on Pharaoh. He's killed the firstborn. He led you out of Egypt. He split the Red Sea, led you by a cloud during the day, a pillar of fire at night. You heard his voice on the mountain. And yet to this day, you're still stubborn and stiff-necked, wallowing in your sin. The Lord to this day has not given you a heart to perceive and eyes to see and ears to hear to this very day. Here a circumcised heart is that which the Lord gives you. It's associated, that circumcised heart is associated with seeing, with perceiving, with gaining understanding, with hearing with understanding, right? Look at Deuteronomy 30, next chapter over. And look at verse four. Look at verse four. If any of you are driven out to the farthest parts under heaven, from there the Lord your God will gather you and from there he will bring you. Then the Lord your God will bring you to the land which your father has possessed and you shall possess it. He will prosper you and multiply you more than your fathers and the Lord your God will circumcise your heart, the heart of your descendants to love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul so that you may live. Verse, chapter 30, verse four. This is something the Lord is going to do. This is the essence of true religion, right? Circumcision of the heart. The religious formalist is under the righteous judgment of God. And God tells him, go out and get yourself a circumcised heart, right? I'm going to do it, God says, you do it. Although the Lord will circumcise the foreskin of your heart, he commands Israel to be engaged in the work. Look at Jeremiah chapter four. Jeremiah chapter four. We've heard from the law, let's hear from the prophets. This is in several places in the prophets, namely here Jeremiah chapter four. And look there beginning at verse three. God is the one that does the work where to be engaged. Jeremiah chapter four, verse three. Here it is, for thus says the Lord to the men of Judah and Jerusalem. He says to them, verse three, break up your fallow ground and do not sow among thorns. These are commands to the children of Israel. Verse four, circumcise yourselves to the Lord. Take away the foreskins of your hearts, you men of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem. Lest my fury come forth like fire and burn so that no one can quench it because of the evil of your doings. See God's command to the people, right? If you remember when Moses was sent to Pharaoh, Moses said to God, I can't go speak to Pharaoh, right? The people of Israel, they won't listen to me. And you expect me to go to Pharaoh and you expect that Pharaoh is gonna listen to me and he says to God, I am a man of uncircumcised lips, right? It's another place where Moses is said to have heavy lips or heavy mouth. In other words, that idea of a foreskin laying over Moses' mouth, for example, or a foreskin laying over the human heart, for example, is a heaviness, a deadness and it represents an inability, can't cut through, so to speak. There is no sensitivity to the things of God. And that's what's going on here. What the Lord says to the Israelites in Jeremiah chapter four, verse three, break up your fallow ground. Fallow ground is dead soil. It's fruitless soil, it's a hopeless soil. The only way to break up that fallow ground is to plow it so that you can plant seed in it and expect to grow a harvest, grow a crop, right? Produce fruit. Apart from that, it's fallow. It's dead, it's worthless, it's unprofitable. Do not sow among thorns. This has reference, really, doesn't it, to the parable of the sower, the teaching of our Lord in the New Testament, Matthew chapter 13. Don't sow among thorns. Circumcise yourselves to the Lord. Take away the foreskins of your hearts, you men of Judah, you inhabitants of Jerusalem. There's no heart earnestness to your worship, God is saying. There's no heart earnestness to your devotion. You refuse to humble yourself. You refuse to accept your guilt. You refuse to humble yourselves. You're heart-hearted, you're stiff-necked, you remain stubborn, and God says, my judgment, my fury is gonna come forth like fire. And it's because of the evil of your doings. In other words, it's their disobedience that proves, gives evidence of, an uncircumcised heart, do you see? Everywhere, this comes back to their obedience, the obedience that flows from a transformed heart. God says, humble yourselves. Be earnest, consecrate yourselves to him. Heart-holiness will be the fruit, will be the evidence of a circumcised heart. Again, in Scripture too, as we consider these things, we're seeing, aren't we, the tension again between God's sovereignty, this is a work that God does, and man's responsibility. God commands men and women to do it, right? God commands the Israelites, circumcise the force kind of your hearts, and God says, I'm going to circumcise the force kind of your hearts. God commands the circumcision, and yet God commands that you circumcise your heart, and yet it will be God in the end who does the work. God commands men everywhere to repent, doesn't he? God commands all men everywhere to repent, and yet it is God who grants repentance, God who grants faith as a gift of His grace in the gospel. It is required, brothers and sisters, you who are here who've not turned from your sin to put your faith and trust in Jesus Christ, if you're not a Christian, if you're still living in your sin, then God commands you, break up the fallow ground of your heart, humble yourself, mourn over your sin, accept your guilt, and turn to the Lord your God with a circumcised heart. And you do that in faith, that God will be the one who does the work in you. Do you see? It's faith-filled obedience. God commands you to repent. So you turn back to God and say, God, I can't repent unless you grant me repentance. You grant me repentance and I'll repent. And God says to you, repent, turn from your sin. God, I can't turn from my sin unless you do a work in my heart. And God turns to you and says, turn from your sin. Otherwise you will die in your sins and you will perish eternally. What do you do? You step out in faith, trusting that God will do the work in your heart when you turn in faith to Jesus Christ. Right, it's a work of faith, faith, and God works through faith to do the work in your heart that is needed. Specifically, circumcision of the heart is directly associated with blessings that God gives under the new covenant. Circumcision of the heart is associated with the new covenant. Look at Ezekiel, chapter 36. Keep going to the right. Ezekiel 36, circumcision of the heart, directly associated with the blessings of the new covenant. Look in Ezekiel 36 at verse 26, verse 26. God says here, I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you. I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. What is that? That is heart circumcision. Do you see? This is a blessing of the new covenant. Verse 27, I will put my spirit within you and by virtue of my spirit within you, I will cause you to walk in my statutes and you will keep my judgments and do them. You will produce the fruit of evangelical obedience. If you produce no fruit of evangelical obedience, you have not the spirit of God and you are none of his. Do you see? But if the spirit of God indwells you, then you will produce the fruits of evangelical obedience. You will keep my judgments and do them. Then God says, I'm gonna bless you. Verse 28, you shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers. You shall be my people and I will be your God. I will deliver you from all your uncleanness. You see, circumcision of the heart has always been the true mark of the people of God. Always the true mark of the true people of God. That new or circumcised heart producing faith, that new or circumcised heart producing evangelical obedience. This wasn't a concept that was new to the apostle Paul. That was something that the apostle Paul invented or came up with. The law and the prophets testify of the very same reality. Romans chapter two, back in Romans chapter two, verse 28. He is not a Jew who is one outwardly nor is circumcision that which is outward in the flesh. But verse 29, he is a Jew who is one inwardly and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit, not in the letter whose praise is not from men but from God. So think with me now, from Adam to Noah, to Abraham and the patriarchs, from Moses and David to the 12 minus Judas. And to all those who would believe upon Jesus Christ through their word, God in grace has worked upon the hearts of his people to bring them to faith in Jesus Christ. God has always done that and it's happened the same way for everyone who is a part of the people of God. We Gentiles have been grafted into that glorious tree that began with Israel, ethnic Israel. We are wild olive branches, so to speak, we're grafted in, but we are Israel nonetheless, why? Because he is not a Jew who is one outwardly. He is a Jew who is one inwardly who has the faith of Abraham who's been circumcised of heart, do you see? We through the faith of Abraham are Israel nonetheless, the fruit of that circumcision of the heart that is true of every true Jew. Now notice finally, verse 29, verse 29. Paul speaks of that circumcision of the heart as being a circumcision in the spirit and not in the letter whose praise is not from men but from God, do you see that, verse 29? Literally in spirit, not letter, in spirit, not letter. There's a contrast there, in there. The contrast is between those two ideas, spirit and letter, and this particularly pertains to a circumcision of the heart. Spirit, verse 29 refers to the Holy Spirit, right? It refers to the Holy Spirit. Letter is the same word used in verse 27, same word for written code, meaning scripture. So the contrast here that Paul sets up regarding circumcision of the heart, being in the spirit, not letter, is between a work of the Holy Spirit and a work of man in outward conformity or external conformity to the command of the law or the letter, right? Again, it's contrasting a work of the spirit from a work of man. In the spirit, not letter, right? Not just external obedience to the law, but it is, this circumcision of heart is a circumcision by the spirit. Dr. Murray refers to it as contrasting the life-giving work of the spirit of God in contrast to the lifeless or impotent work of man according to the letter of the law, right? That's the contrast that Paul means by that statement. Think of it this way. Abraham circumcised both Isaac and Ishmael in obedience to the letter of the law, but Abraham could not affect a change of heart in either one of them. The spirit of God did the work of changing the heart of Isaac because Isaac was the child of promise, do you see? Isaac, Isaac circumcised both Jacob and Esau, but Isaac could not affect a change in the heart of either one of them. Isaac couldn't change their heart. The spirit of God did the work of changing the heart of Jacob who was the child of promise, right? Circumcision is of the heart by the spirit not through the letter of the law. Does that make sense? And that is what is commendable in the sight of God. That's what will receive the praise of God is that work done by God's spirit. It's not a work that men, mere men praise one another for. And it's certainly not a work of men that God will praise men for. Are you kidding me? It's a work of God's spirit and that has the praise of God, right? That receives the praise of God. In other words, circumcision of the heart is a miraculous work of God upon the heart of man in keeping with his promise, given in the new covenant. It's a work whereby we are born again, whereby we are regenerated. All these are synonymous synonymous in scripture really. It's a work but whereby we are made a new creation from that circumcised heart then flows a changed perspective or a proper biblical perspective of our sin, the one with a circumcised heart accepts his guilt, acknowledges our waywardness, walking contrary to God and we turn from sin in true repentance. From that circumcised heart flows the natural and rational response then of faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Why? Because we see, we perceive, we hear of his goodness in redeeming us from sin and the grave. In our new sight, he becomes exceedingly precious and we turn to Christ in genuine and living faith. But if you've been genuinely converted, you came to a point where it seemed like to you that not before and yet now Jesus Christ is exceedingly precious. I would give anything to serve him with my whole heart, right? To serve him in love, to my death and then after in eternity. All I wanna do is serve Jesus Christ. And if Jesus, I used to think to myself when I was unconverted, you know, people would make the statement that I wanna go to heaven and but never really would talk about whether Jesus Christ was there or not when they got there. And I would think to myself, you know, I'm not really interested in him. I just, you know, wanna go to heaven because I don't wanna go to hell. Listen, I wanna be there because he's there, right? I wanna love the Lord Jesus Christ. I wanna serve the Lord Jesus Christ. That's the rational, natural response of one whose heart has been transformed, right? That's the natural response, the rational response of someone who sees Jesus Christ for who he is. From that circumcised heart flows the obedience then that is the fruit of faith, evangelical obedience from the heart, not like the cold, dead ritual of the formalist but the obedience that flows from gratitude, the obedience that flows from love. Circumcision of the heart is a priceless promise in keeping with the new covenant. What Paul is saying in Romans chapter two then, 28 and 29, let's talk about the implications a bit. It's not redemptively correct to think then in categories of Jew and Gentile. I think with me. Galatians chapter three, verse 28, there is neither Jew nor Greek. There is neither slave nor free. There is neither male nor female for you are all one in Christ Jesus. Now the physical distinctions are obviously still there. We can distinguish and are to distinguish between men and women. We can distinguish between ethnic Jews and true Jews. We can distinguish between men and right the distinctions are still there physically but redemptively, we're not to think in those categories in the same way any longer. Redemptively we are one in Christ Jesus. What does that say about the people of God? The people of God are one. It is not Israel and the church. The Jews, the church, who are the people of God? Who are the people of God? The Jews, the church, the answer is yes. They're the same thing in other words. They're the same thing. It's the implications of Paul's statements. Romans chapter two, verses 28 and 29. He is not a Jew who is one outwardly. Those circumcised in heart are the Israel of God. Do you see? One people of God, those circumcised in heart. The word for church, it's fascinating. Ecclesia, the called out ones. The word used for church, the Greek word for church in the New Testament is the word ecclesia, it means called out ones. That same word, ecclesia, used in the Greek translation of the Old Testament to refer to the assembly of Israel. The same word. They are the called out ones, those who have been circumcised in heart. So what about those eschatological promises then? Those end times promises where God promises to restore Israel to the land. What about those people right now today who are watching the news, the goings on in Israel, watching current events to see what Israel is doing. Have they bred that red heifer yet? I've heard they're talking about rebuilding the temple. Like people who are watching current events right now regarding an ethnic physical Jewish people inhabiting a piece of land on the eastern side of the Mediterranean. What about that? Listen, there is today only one covenant by which any of those people or any people, regardless, any people are in any kind of relationship to God. One covenant and one covenant alone. And that is the new covenant, faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. If you do not have faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, you are not in covenant with God. You are in no way God's people. You have no relationship to God other than as judge. He is your judge. Look at Ezekiel chapter 37. Let's look at one of these promises in its context and look at the promise with respect to Paul's teaching in Romans chapter two with respect to who the people of God are. Ezekiel 37, there's only one covenant. That is the new covenant. It's interesting to me that whenever the new covenant is related in Scripture. So Jeremiah 31, Ezekiel 19, Ezekiel 36 that in accompanying God's instruction with respect to the new covenant, there's also instruction or prophecy given with respect to the restoration of Israel. It's by virtue of the new covenant that God will draw all of Israel to himself. That God will, that he will be their God. They will be his people. That from the least of them to the greatest of them they shall all know the Lord. It's by virtue of the new covenant that God's people then are gathered in and immediately upon referencing the new covenant in Ezekiel 36, we then have a promise of God restoring Israel in Ezekiel chapter 37. Verse one there with me. Ezekiel chapter 37 verse one. The hand of the Lord came upon me. Came upon here, prophet Ezekiel brought me out in the spirit of the Lord set me down in the midst of the valley and it was full of bones. Then he caused me to pass by them all these bones all around and behold there were very many in an open valley and indeed they were very dry. These were dead bones. Now this is an example, an illustration of how dead someone is apart from the Lord Jesus Christ. When Paul says we are dead in trespasses and sins this is how dead we are. We are dry, dusty bones in a valley that have absolutely no life. Can't dead bones, these dry, dusty bones can't do anything for themselves can they? And Ezekiel's not gonna be the one who brings them to life is he? No. There were very many in this open valley indeed they were very dead. He said to me son of man can these bones live? So I answered oh Lord God you know and again he said to me prophesy to these bones and say to them oh dry bones hear the word of the Lord thus says the Lord God to these bones surely I will cause breath to enter you and everywhere in scripture breath is used as a picture of the spirit right? The Numa, the spirit of God. I will cause breath to enter you and you shall live I will put sin use on you and bring flesh upon you cover you with skin and put breath in you and you shall live and then you shall know that I am the Lord. What does that sound like? It sounds like a fulfilled promise of the new covenant. God says I will put my spirit within you I will cause you to walk in my statutes my judgments you will keep and do them and from the least of you to the greatest of you you'll know the Lord right? Verse seven so I prophesied as I was commanded and as I prophesied there was a noise suddenly a rattling the bones came together bone to bone indeed verse eight as I looked the sin use and the flesh came upon them and the skin covered them over but there was no breath in them also he said to me prophesy to the breath prophesy son of man say to the breath thus says the Lord God come from the four winds oh breath and breathe on these slain that they may live so I prophesied as he commanded me and breath came into them and they lived and stood on their feet and exceeding me great army this is a prophecy of the people of God living by virtue of the new covenant whereby God pours out his spirit upon a spiritually dead people do you see now listen on the heels of this listen to what the Lord says this is a promise look at verse 21 21 then say to them we're still prophesying to this great nation this great army say to them thus says the Lord God surely I will take the children of Israel from among the nations who are the children of Israel from among the nations it's these dry bones who have been made to live these who have been circumcised of heart these who have the spirit of God Paul says the children of Israel are those who have the faith of Abraham those who have been circumcised in heart that includes you and I who is this promise to then is to the Israel of God it includes you and I right it's not listen it's not some physically ethnic people on the eastern side of the Mediterranean today if this is a prophecy of a restoration or a God gathering to himself his people from the four corners of the earth that include you and I listen thus says the Lord God surely I will take the children of Israel from among the nations wherever they have gone and I will gather them from every side and bring them into their own land Abraham who has promised a little strip of land on the eastern side of the Mediterranean knew Romans chapter four that he was to inherit what the world we'll see that in chapter four right the world we inherit the world with him verse 22 and I will make them one nation in the land on the mountains of Israel one king shall be king over them all who is that the Lord Jesus Christ right they shall no longer be two nations nor shall they ever be divided into two kingdoms again they shall not defile themselves anymore with their idols nor with their detestable things nor with any of their transgressions this is a promise that will be fulfilled in eternity DC this hasn't been fulfilled Israel hasn't when Israel came back into the land in 1948 this hasn't been fulfilled are they still in their transgressions absolutely are they still in their idolatry absolutely that's not what this prophecy is speaking of I will deliver them from all their dwelling places in which they have sinned and I will cleanse them they shall be my people and I will be their God that prophecy is fulfilled in eternity it's fulfilled when Jesus Christ comes back gathers in his elect from the four corners of the earth verse 24 David my servant shall be king over them that's a reference to the Messiah to the Lord Jesus Christ they shall have one shepherd they shall also walk in my judgments and observe my statutes and do them that's a new covenant promise a new covenant blessing is Israel doing that today no they aren't God's people do that by virtue of a circumcised heart that is the blessing of the new covenant verse 25 then they shall dwell in the land that I have given to Jacob my servant where your fathers dwell and they shall dwell there they and their children their children's children forever my servant David shall be their prince forever what is that that is the kingdom of God right the kingdom of God the everlasting kingdom that is produced by virtue of the everlasting covenant that is established under king Jesus forever and ever moreover verse 26 I will make a covenant of peace with them and it shall be an everlasting covenant with them I will establish them multiply them I will set my sanctuary in their midst forever in the midst of whom forever be Israel of God those of the faith of Abraham those who have a circumcised heart my tabernacle also shall be with them indeed I will be their God they shall be my people the nations also will know that I the Lord sanctify Israel when my sanctuary is in their midst forever more what a glorious promise that is do you see who does Paul say that that promise is to those who are Jews inwardly those who have a circumcised heart those who are given the spirit of God so much more that could be said and so many implications for how we understand our eschatology our end times and writing what eschatological position that you hold to so many implications with respect to that let me make this point incidentally the same assertions made by Paul here concerning circumcision as a sign of the covenant those same assertions could and would be made concerning baptism as a sign of the new covenant I wanna take just a moment flash that out hang in there with me for our Presbyterian brothers or for church of Christ or baptismal regeneration heretics the outward form baptism is worthless without the inward spiritual reality same point can be made the outward form is worthless worthless apart from the inward spiritual reality and the inward spiritual reality without the outward form counts in the eyes of God whether you have the outward form or not the same point that Paul is making in Romans chapter two with respect to the Jewish formalist and his circumcision as a sign of the covenant the same argument in its fullness could be made with respect to the baptism of infants or the baptismal regeneration of believers in the new okay you see the parallel between those two things let that sink in for a while you can think about that for a while right not only that Presbyterians but that physical baptism of a child is absolutely no guarantee whatsoever that God is obligated to save them in any way whatsoever it's the same you see the parallel between the two texts or between the two concepts right go there for Paul would say we would say and circumcise the foreskin of your heart and be stiff neck no longer that was what we would say to a child who's in sin who's been baptized outwardly but doesn't have an inward circumcision of the heart Presbyterians should be concerned that through an unbiblical practice of a ritual baptism upon infants not unlike the circumcision of infants that they are packing their churches with religious formalists it's the same error do you see the same error brothers and sisters relative to us listen may our outward acts of devotion may our outward acts of worship and praise be reflective of an inward work of God upon our hearts may we pray for it may we plead for it may we pour over his scriptures that he might work through them for our good may it be from the heart may it never be that our worship our praise our devotion our service our obedience would come from cold dead lifeless faithless hearts may that inward work of God upon our hearts produce such love such faith such joy such hope such obedience that it would forever be to the praise of the glory of his grace second Peter chapter one verse five I think this text does good in that context to exhort us listen for this very reason for this reason because of what God has done for us in Christ listen giving all diligence Peter says all diligence add to your faith virtue add to your virtue knowledge to knowledge add self control to self control add perseverance to perseverance godliness to godliness brotherly kindness and to brotherly kindness add love for if these things are yours and abound you will be neither barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ for he who lacks these things is shortsighted even to blindness and has forgotten that he was cleansed from his old sins therefore brethren be even more diligent to make your call and election sure for if you do these things you will never stumble and for so an entrance will be supplied to you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and savior Jesus Christ all praise honoring glory be to him pray with me father in heaven Lord we thank you for this truth that from your word by your spirit has now been impressed upon our hearts I pray Lord that we would seek to honor you to exult in you to exalt you to magnify you to worship you to praise you to serve you to obey you Lord from that heart that has been circumcised by the spirit of God sensitive to sin that sees Jesus Christ as precious that accepts our guilt that mourns over our own sin convicted over our own sin but rejoices in the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ your own son our righteousness I pray Lord that we would worship from that heart from the heart that our worship to you would be acceptable as flowing from faith that our obedience would be acceptable to you as that obedience that flows from faith that flows from love and gratitude and pray Lord that we would think on these things meditate on these things that we would Lord labor to strive in them to add to our faith virtue to virtue knowledge self control to self control perseverance and so forth Lord knowing that it is you that works in us to willing to do according to your good pleasure work in us by your spirit God conform us into the image of your son our Lord Jesus Christ make us more like him make us fit a fit bride for our heavenly bridegroom and may you be honored in it may be glorified in it may it testify to the nations our God saves we praise you we thank you for this time we'll be with us Lord now as we go and seek to apply these things let them not be words that merely fall on our ears and go in one ear and out the other Lord but may they find rich soil in our hearts and bear fruit for your glory in Jesus name we pray amen.