Romans 2:25–29Scripture
We have made our way to the end of chapter 2. We're looking this morning at verses 25 through 29, and it is a exciting subject. My wife had the privilege of sharing to the students on a Wednesday evening. They got to learn a little bit about circumcision, and so today we're going to continue in that. Many of you have met in your small groups through the week and you have had discussion about this.
Really, this subject is quite extensive, and I thought quite a while about how I would go about talking about this, because there's much that could be said on this subject. Quite honestly, we could preach on this for a year. We could go all the way back to the Old Testament, we can look at the covenant that was made with Abraham, and we can have some serious discussion about different prophets that God has sent to the nation of Israel, the Jewish people, to try to correct some of their bad interpretation of that covenant, or the things that God had said to them about this covenant, and the sign of that covenant, which is circumcision. Circumcision. And I think that's fitting for us today, because many of us read the Scripture and we do not hear correctly what God is saying, and he has to make corrections to us, and we're thankful for those. This is why small groups are important, because we are able to sit with those who are seasoned in their faith, who have walked with the Lord for a long time, that there are those alongside of us who will bring us into correction. Because none of us want to interpret or hear God wrongly. Like, I don't think that those who are seeking God, their desire is to twist his words and use it for their personal
Introduction
Benefit. I don't think that's people's goal. However, that happens often. Entire nations have been formed of bad information or bad translation or false teaching, and so it is very important that when we open the word, we talk even about things like this, we understand that this was a covenant that established an entire nation, and they just got it wrong. The whole nation just got it wrong. And I believe today, in the midst of all of the New Age dialogue, how it's infiltrating and beginning to shape some of our theological positions even inside the church, we understand how easy it is to be shaped by culture and just get it wrong. And so I think we have a lot to learn in that regard today. It may not be the regard you might think I was going to talk about, but I think it is an important one to consider. I want to read this today, and I have four points I want to try to make really quickly, and there are some key words that are used in this particular text in Romans, and then other supporting texts that we will refer to that I want to pull out for our benefit today. Romans 2:25 starts off by saying, "For circumcision indeed is of value if you obey the law, but if you break the law, your circumcision becomes uncircumcision. So, if a man who is uncircumcised keeps the precepts of the law, will not his uncircumcision be regarded as circumcision? Then he who is physically uncircumcised but keeps the law will condemn you who have the written code and circumcision but break the law." He's speaking specifically of Gentiles condemning Jews. This would have been really offensive.
Paul, man, there's a reason Paul was almost killed over and over again, beaten, thrown in prisons. He would go into towns and he just had a way of just making people mad when he preached the gospel, right? This technique is really lost on us in America. It's really lost on us in a lot of ways.
The reason why it's lost on us is not that we should be offensive, but merely that the gospel, when it is preached, is offensive.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 4:34
Today we would rather preach an unoffensive gospel. Therefore we wash it down to such a degree that it is no longer truth anymore. It's convenient, it scratches ears, tickles our fancy, and everybody's excited and we go home, and it creates a movement that really rallies around the antichrist, not the Christ of the Bible. So then, in verse 28: "For no one is a Jew who is merely one outwardly." Much could be said today in regards to Christians here. You cannot merely be something outwardly. God has to grab you inwardly.
It is the inward transformation that proceeds and creates an outward transformation, not the reverse.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 5:26
And today we have outward movements or behaviors hoping that it will cover up our inward heart, and we are much like the Jews. Many Christians are much like the Jews in this regard. "Nor is circumcision outward and physical, but a Jew is one inwardly, and circumcision is a matter of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the letter." By the Spirit of the law, not by the letter of the law, that's what he's talking about. He is pulling in here a reference to another part in the Bible, which you can pursue in your own time. I'm not talking about that today, but it's interesting if you want to pursue it. "His praise is not from man but from God." Now, I think this is pertinent. He just tacked that on at the end as if that has something to do with circumcision. "His praise is not from man but from God." How do you live your life? We can check our heart. I think it's interesting that Brook said that we can, if you can today, check your heart. How do we check our heart? Do you pursue and chase after praise from men or praise from God? That's how you do a heart check. We can see our hearts by what it desires. We get a really good idea of that. First point today. I want to talk about, for all you note takers out there, I don't do this very often, but I'm going to do this today, I'm going to break this up into
Point 1Circumcision was a sign of the covenant
These kind of sections. The first point is this: I'll just simply say, a sign. Circumcision is a sign.
Now, how many of you know that if I drive from Pleasant Hill and I drive towards Harrisonville, as I enter into Harrisonville there will be a sign, and that sign says Harrisonville, or Welcome to Harrisonville. Or if I drive from here, Missouri, Kansas City, Missouri, into Kansas, or from the Missouri side into Kansas, there will be a sign: Welcome to Kansas. All right, you're not in Kansas, when you leave you're not in Kansas anymore, Toto, you know what I mean? And so, but if I were to take that sign and put it in the trunk of my car, and then I were to drive from Harrisonville back into Pleasant Hill, I didn't take Harrisonville back to Pleasant Hill.
I took the sign. The sign says something about where you're at. And how many of you know that it's easy to fake a sign? I mean, you can make a sign and you can say any sort of thing. In our life, we wear signs.
We say we're a part of something when in actuality we're not. It's easy to fake signs, but you can't fake what happens to the heart, for we know that in the Bible, out of the overflow of the heart all things proceed. So eventually what is in the heart comes out into our lives through speech, through conduct, through, etc. I want to talk real quick though, if we're going to see it as a sign, I want to talk about that a little bit. I'm going to talk about where circumcision originated, because we're going to talk about circumcision and why and how the Jews got it wrong and how they interpreted it wrong and how it was misused and abused to actually prevent people from coming to salvation in Jesus Christ. Then I think it is important that we talk about how it originated in Genesis chapter 17, verses 9 through 11. It says this: "God said further to Abraham, 'Now as for you shall keep my covenant, you and your offspring after you throughout their generations. This is my covenant, which you shall keep, between me and you and your offspring after you: Every male among you shall be circumcised. You shall be circumcised in the flesh of your foreskins, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and you.'" It was a sign of God's promise. It was a sign of God's blessing on that nation. It was a sign of God's protection and care and love, but it didn't mean anything if they didn't keep the law. The message is also repeated in the fifth chapter of Galatians. Galatians says, "I testify again to every man who accepts circumcision that he is obligated to keep the whole law." Do you feel the tension rising as we hear this? For all of us who are lawbreakers in the house, going to get her name in on that. Do you feel the tension that there is a covenant that God wants to keep with us, but it requires us to keep the law, which we have broken? That's the tension.
Paul is the master of creating tension in the hearts of men that they might respond to the gospel.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 11:05
It is the tension that moves people. We in our culture today say it is the love of God that moves people, and I'm not saying that's wrong entirely, but let's define love, shall we? Because sometimes the love chastens and creates tension in the hearts of people.
Love does not always make us happy. Love does not always give us what we want.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 11:44
Love is not always perfect in our definition of perfect. Love is only perfect as he defines it. And in Galatians, "I testify to every man that is circumcised that he is a debtor to the law." If you're circumcised, it doesn't mean you're free from the law. The tension builds. It just means you're in the covenant and you've got to keep it, and you can't keep it in part, you have to keep it all.
You want to know the truth of it, and this is an interesting thought but maybe one we wouldn't go to right away, I don't know if you ever thought of it this way: circumcision, in essence, was a symbol of the fact that men were condemned to hell because they could not keep the law.
That's really the message. That's the message. Not that they were saved, because if you were circumcised, it said you were in covenant, and the covenant was that you had to keep the law.
So it was a sign of your lostness, not your redemption.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 12:57
That's important.
It was a constant reminder that you had to keep God's law. You were in the covenant, you had to keep God's law, and you couldn't keep God's law, so you were lost. But to them, just being circumcised became their security. That alone became their security, just the circumcision. Notice here, pause for a second, just notice with me that when tension arises for people, when God has communicated something, we go one of two ways: we lean into the truth and we trust him, or we deny the truth and rewrite it in a way that makes us comfortable, and we live, listen, and base our whole life on a lie because it just makes us be able to sleep better at night. Listen to me, this happens every day. Just in case you didn't know, this isn't only the Jews who do this. This is people every Sunday who do this.
Listen, we build entire religious movements based on what makes me feel good rather than what God said.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 14:14
We cherry-pick Scriptures and we quote them out of context so we can feel good. "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me," but we deny the whole idea that this is the apostle Paul talking about how he can stay in prison and still evangelize the world in his trouble.
No one applies it to that. They only apply it to winning a basketball game. Now, I like who wears that shoe, I like him, I think he's the best three-point shooter in the entire world. I don't know if it's Stephen Curry or Steph Curry, but I call him Steph Curry and you call him what you want. Stop telling me what to call him. I'll call him what I want. And I'm not against it, and he's done wonderful things for Under Armour, and it's a great Scripture, it's not a bad Scripture. It is a Scripture. The problem is that people have attached that Scripture to proclaim over their life as a declaration to get what they want and to stay out of trouble. That is slanting and twisting God's word in a way that makes us no different than a Jew who wants to be justified by circumcision alone. It makes us no different today. Before we get on our high horse and we ride around the Jewish image and we talk about how horrible they are, let us understand that many of us are deniers of God in our life by the way we have interpreted Scripture.
We just got to be careful about it. It was a constant reminder that you had to keep God's law. You were in covenant, you had to keep God's law, and you couldn't keep God's law because you were lost. In fact, the rabbis of the day, rabbis even now, I'll quote some of the rabbis here. Here's what they said: "No circumcised man will see hell." Rabbi Joshua ben Levi said this: "Circumcision saves us from hell."
In the Midrash it actually says, and I quote, "God swore to Abraham that no one who was circumcised would be sent to hell." As a matter of fact, it didn't say "as a matter of fact," I added that in there. "Abraham sits before the gate of hell," and I'm Southern, I grew up in Tennessee, so sometimes it just comes out of there, I don't know what, hail, anyway, "and never allows any circumcised Israelite to enter." That's crazy. Now, they believed they were saved by that. All that was a constant reminder that they were responsible to the covenant. It was an outward sign of an inward responsibility. It was an outward sign of an inward obligation and duty before God, and obviously it was a big deal to the Jews, but it had become a false assurance of their faith. Now, this is important. Just stop here for a second, because we just kind of bumped out of First John and we're going into Romans. We talked about the assurance of a believer and the false assurance of a believer for a year. How easy it is to have false assurance and how easy it is to have true assurance. I mean, at the end of the day, when we take his yoke upon us, it's lighter than the burdens we carry on our own.
I would say, and I would propose to you today, that living under false assurance is more of a burden than the true assurance you find in Christ.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 18:09
Yet for some reason many of us turn and hope in what is false. We think it's easier. I've found that even in the world of addictions, I've found that people will turn to things that never satisfy, only burden and destroy, thinking that's their best option.
Christ is your best option. His burden's lighter, it's easier. What is wrong with us, man? Why do we keep doing it the hard way? It's like if you have a teen, if you were a teen, that's all of us, have at least been a teen, and if you remember the days, you're like telling your parents, "stop telling me what to do. I just want to make my own mistakes." I actually remember saying something stupid like that. I remember it. I remember, there are still days where that teenage spirit comes up in me and I say that even today. I'm stubborn like that. I just want to learn it the hard way. Listen, you can know the easy way. His way is easy, in his way it's light. What are we doing? What are we doing?
We choose the hard road. But they believed and had false assurance because they put their hope in their circumcision and not in their faith.
Man recognizes the sinfulness of the flesh and circumcises. Circumcision was symbolic of the need to remove the fleshly part of man, their desire to do carnal things.
So it was symbolic, it was a sign. The problem was when people took upon themselves the sign, they did so without ever entering into the covenant. They took the sign of the covenant but never entered into the covenant. Talk with me now, this is what the Jews did, we do this in church: take the sign of something but never enter into the covenant. I'm going to do all the churchy stuff but never actually be saved. I'm gonna serve, I'm gonna be a Sunday school teacher, I'm going to teach Sunday school. We don't do Sunday school anymore necessarily here, we don't, I'm not against it, I love it, I grew up and I was a Sunday school teacher, I benefited from Sunday school teachers. Basically it's a glorified small group at church that has a lot of building, a lot of room space, right? So it is basically a small group at church, and what was I talking about anyway? So you could be a Sunday school teacher, you can do a lot of right stuff.
You can have a generous heart, you can give at the end of the year to bless nonprofits out there and people in churches, and you can be kind and you can help people and you can do all of these things, but you can never really enter into covenant. You can have the sign that you're in covenant with God, you can look like a Christian but never actually be in covenant. There are people in our churches across America, specifically across America, because in other parts of the world, when you sign up for God you might die. Here it doesn't cost us much, so we come in bearing a sign without actually being in covenant, because it didn't cost us anything.
It does, it costs you your life, but we don't talk about that much in here.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 21:48
Are you with me? And the nature of our culture gives us freedom to such a degree that we enter into covenant bearing the sign of a Christian, acting like a Christian, but never even being saved. Not even saved yet, doing all, it is amazing, because we love it, we love it, the staff loves it, they sit around and talk about how this person looks like they're maturing and this person, maybe, because a lot of people look mature on the outside, but in the inside of their heart they're like little children tossed to and fro by every wave. Paul talks about it, I want to give you meat but I can't, because you're children at heart.
You're 80 years old but you're a child in your heart. I got to keep giving you spiritual milk. I want to give you meat but I can't because your heart is immature. It talks about their heart, and today, much like the Jews, we are guilty. And listen, I understand it's talking about the Jew, and I understand I don't necessarily think we have to throw ourselves into everything, but just notice the similarities here. Striking, it's shocking actually. They missed the whole point because they
Point 2Abraham's faith came before the seal
Have, listen, they have the outward sign but they've never really entered into covenant. Number two: a seal.
Now, here's the thing. Now, all through the Scripture he talks about both. We get to Romans chapter 4, and I know this is cheating because we're not there yet, but let's just read it. Let's just read it, right? This is really cool. Romans chapter 4, verses 9 through 12 says this. Now listen to the words of this. Notice that sign is there but a seal is attached to the sign, because what good is a sign without a seal? It'll make sense in a minute. "Is this blessing then only for the circumcised, or also for the uncircumcised? For we say that faith was counted to Abraham as righteousness." There's the covenant was made on that.
"How then was it counted to him? Was it before or after he had been circumcised?
It was not after, but before he was circumcised. He received the sign of circumcision," people, I threw that in there, "as a seal of the righteousness that he had already obtained by faith while he was still uncircumcised." The covenant was established by his faith, and he was made righteous, and the circumcision was sealed of that covenant and a sign of evidence of what had already taken place.
That's the order it's supposed to go in.
At church, we enter into covenant through faith with Jesus Christ, and then, listen, the outward sign of that faith is good works.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 25:05
That's it. It is amazing to see the similarities here, because we do good works without the covenant, without faith in Christ, but notice the order here: faith first, sealed with righteousness, a sign of circumcision. "The purpose was to make him the father of all who believe without being circumcised," that's in the Bible, "so that righteousness would be counted to them as well, and to make him the father of the circumcised who are not merely circumcised but who also walk in the footsteps of the faith that our father Abraham had before he was circumcised."
He's going at him, man. We're gonna, you could do this later in chapter 4, he's going at him. Even Paul said so. He's setting up his argument in chapter 3, and he, on the chapter 2, at the end of chapter 2, and he comes back around in chapter 4 and he keeps hitting on this thing, because this is a massive issue, and it still is today, still a massive issue. Even Paul said that circumcision was a seal of the righteousness of the faith which he had while uncircumcised.
God did not justify Abraham because he was circumcised. God justified Abraham because he had faith.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 26:51
And, ladies and gentlemen, that's how you're saved today, by faith, that no man can boast, by faith in Jesus Christ, who died, who rose again, who paid the price for your lawlessness, who was fully righteous and obeyed the law in every part, because that's required for covenant. Are you with me today? So because we are lawbreakers, the only way we can enter into this covenant is by trusting and putting our faith in one who obeyed it in every part, and we enter into the covenant of grace with a circumcised heart through Jesus Christ, not through our own working, because we've broken the law. So what he's doing is he's preaching the gospel in such a sense that we know we can never enter the covenant, because not only have we broken the law, but John says in First John that if you say even after salvation that you are without sin, you're a liar and the truth is not in you.
So we are hopeless because of who we were, and we feel hopeless because of what we will continue to do. Now listen to me, that's why we put our faith in Jesus. Now, does that mean that we're just going to be, you know, frivolous lawbreakers, you know, just doing everything we can and not caring, because I mean, why should we care if we break the law, because we have Jesus and we get our way there through Jesus? No, that's fatalism, that's taking advantage of the grace of God, and a true change, or circumcised heart, won't live like that. It won't live like that.
So Paul was very clear about this, and let me tell you, God knew the Jews had misunderstood this and began to put all of their hope in the circumcision alone but not the covenant that's made through faith. In other words, they had the outward sign but they had no inward heart change, and this is why God attached this Scripture to this context: God looks at the heart of a man, not the outward part of a man, but he looks at the heart of a man. Attach that to the circumcision, attach that to your Christian walk. Maybe it's real, it's not always, quotation mark, but for some it is. The Jews missed the point, sometimes we miss the point, and the point of this that Paul is trying to do is, please don't miss the point, come to faith in Christ. So God loved the Jews and so he sent many prophets. Some of you asked, what is the point of prophets? Just to clarify poor theology. He sends prophets to clarify poor theology constantly.
That's why, if we're going to have tons of prophets running around today, they need to be correcting false teachers. That's another whole side point, but I don't want to talk about that
Point 3God sent prophets calling for circumcised hearts
Right now. Here's the first one, Moses. God sent Moses to try to talk about this. Deuteronomy 10:15-17 says this: "Yet the Lord set his heart in love on your fathers and chose their offspring after them, you above all peoples, as you are this day. Circumcise therefore the foreskin of your heart, and be no longer stubborn. For the Lord your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great, the mighty, and the awesome God, who is not partial and takes no bribe." Here God is trying to bring a correction through Moses, and he says you need your heart circumcised.
Then Jeremiah. God sends Jeremiah. Jeremiah tried when he spoke, because he heard God speak and he spoke on behalf of what God wanted to say, and he said, "For thus says the Lord to the men of Judah and Jerusalem: Break up your fallow ground, and sow not among thorns. Circumcise yourselves to the Lord; remove the foreskin of your hearts, O men of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem; lest my wrath go forth like fire, and burn with none to quench it, because of the evil of your deeds." Notice that regardless of how other people classify your deeds, if your heart is wrong, God classifies it as evil, no matter how good it looks to the world, because it doesn't matter how man classifies your heart or your deeds, it matters how God classifies it. And there are a lot of people who will praise you for good deeds who God says are evil. Case in point: there will be some that stand before the Lord and say, "I prophesied, people celebrated me for my prophecies, I cast out devils in your name, people celebrated me, they came from all corners of the earth for me to cast out devils, I healed people in your name, people came from all corners of the earth to have me heal them, I was valued by men, I did many mighty works in your name," and God said, "You're evil, go to hell." That's a sub, that's a translation, I mean, that's a paraphrase, but he said, "Depart from me, I never knew you." They don't get into heaven.
You don't get into heaven because people think you're good.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 32:56
You get into heaven because God checks your heart and he sees if it's truly good. Now, this should be concerning for us. Then Jeremiah again, because he didn't feel like he made a breakthrough the first time, says, "Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will punish all who are circumcised merely in the flesh." How do they not get it? How did they, how did Jesus not get this? "Egypt, Judah, Edom, the sons of Ammon, Moab, and all who dwell in the desert who cut the corners of their hair on their temples. For all," he's getting very specific here, very specific, in case, you know, like, in case sometimes you might come to service and it might miss you that it was for you, I don't know that you can miss it here, like this is specific, "for all the nations are uncircumcised, and all the house of Israel is uncircumcised in heart." How do people hear a word from the Lord, from a prophet of the Lord, sent by the Lord, and still not understand the Scriptures as it was intended?
How? We could ask the same question for people sitting in churches every Sunday, because many of us are driven by our wants. That's why our heart needs to be circumcised, because our wants prevent us. The Bible says it, our wants and fleshly heart prevent us from even understanding what God means in his word. The only way that you can truly understand what he means by inspiration through the Holy Spirit is to come to God in faith,
Point 4The source of salvation is Christ, not ritual
And then you'll have understanding. Number three, I want to talk about the source. We've talked about the sign, the seal, I want to talk about the source now. This is, quite honestly, what I believe the Jews missed. They thought the source of their salvation was circumcision on the outside. They missed that the source of their salvation is Christ.
It's faith. It's faith ultimately. It's faith. Instead of seeing circumcision as a symbol of salvation, they saw it as a means of salvation and began to trust in their circumcision as their savior. Their circumcision became their savior, their outward practices became their savior, their outward practices became their inner savior. The heart determines the value. The value of circumcision is conditional, and it's conditional based upon the condition of the heart.
If the heart's not right, the circumcision doesn't matter and it is not of value. As a matter of fact, you're viewed as one who is not circumcised even though you are. That's the way Paul says it, and if you don't think that's important, specifically how he says that, it is, and we're going to talk about that in just a minute. So the source is faith. The fourth thing, I'm moving on quickly, I really can't see the time, so we'll just see what happens,
Point 5Good works are a sign of true faith
I forgot my contacts: the assurance. The last point, assurance. I think this is important because the Jews had false assurance, and there are many people in the church today who have false assurance because we put our hope in the wrong thing. The goal would be that we hear God's word and we have true assurance, because true assurance lightens the load and unburdens us. That's what its purpose is. So assurance: "If a person walks in obedience to the word of God, then circumcision is valuable, for it is a sign of faith." Notice here, obedience is attached to faith. Obedience does not produce faith produces obedience, right? So if, and this is the danger when we read Romans, and this is the dangerous world when we read any New Testament epistle, this is the danger, that you can go, oh, we're supposed to do good works, and so you go to do good works but you don't do it through faith. Listen, you know how easy it is to turn to good works and find your hope in that? Very easy, and even with the best intentions in the world. Notice this is why I constantly am saying, off and on through every single sermon, somewhere or another, at least in the month, your number one thing you can do to make sure you're doing this right is seek God. Wake up on Monday, seek God.
Well, how do I know if I'm trusting my works or trusting in God? Seek God, because everything else is birthed out of that pursuit. That's why the Bible says, "Seek me first and all these things will be added to you." So, all these things, "seek me first and all these things will be added to you." What? Faith, good works, love, joy, peace, and patience. Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, they have different translations so I'll just say them all, long-suffering, self-control, whatever. All of those things, depends on what translation you read, some of them are doubling up for certain words and they just say it different, so I've learned them in multiple translations so I'm bilingual, not really, but I just, so when I quote Scripture sometimes I do multiple translations in one. So that is what works are. Here's what works are. Here's what works are: a sign of faith. Some of you been asking, you've been saying, Shawn, you've been saying a lot, good works. The Bible says a lot, good works. We were created in Christ Jesus for good works. Ephesians says by faith that no man should boast, but then it goes on and says, not by works that any man should boast, but by faith alone, in Christ alone, through him alone. And then it goes on to the next verse, in chapter 10, Ephesians 2:10. After we read 9, it says, "You were then, through faith, made in Christ Jesus for
Good works." So tell me, what are good works? Good works are a sign of true faith.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 39:34
That's the best way to say it, because I began to name things off like, here's the good work, you're patient. Then we're going to have people who go out and try to be patient so they can treat that as a sign that they're saved when they may not be. That's important. And that's the trouble with the church today, is that instead of labeling good works as a sign of faith, we have labeled it with specific things people can do, and so people will substitute true faith for stuff to do. That's why, if you have a book that starts with "seven steps," it will be a bestseller.
That's why, if you want to write a blog post, they say to put five steps or seven steps at the beginning of your title and it will go viral. There are specific things, Google algorithm and SEO, things to help your blog become popular, and if you just tell people steps, that will be the most read blog post, because people just tell me how to do it, just tell me how to do it. People would rather learn how to be wealthy than to seek God and have God tell them how to handle their finances, because there's all kinds of promises in the Bible about you being faithful with your finances, but we don't want that. Tell me the quickest way to get wealthy. Don't tell me how to better myself holistically, just tell me how I can get what I want quick. That's why people hate working out, me included, because we are people who want to see results, and if we don't see them in the time frame that we have set, then we will bail. We will bail. Let me tell you what this is. Some people in this regard, they say that this is true salvation: God, I'm going to test you, I'm gonna see how it goes, and if I see results quick then I'm in, if I don't, I'm gonna walk away from you. That's nowhere in the Bible. First of all, it's just not in there.
You don't get to test out God.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 42:10
You weigh the cost and you decide, and the Bible says once you decide that you're his, you're sealed with the Holy Spirit and it's guaranteed. It's a guarantee, it actually uses that word. It's a guarantee because when he changes your heart, he changed your heart. He doesn't change it halfsies. Like, there's this remnant of the heart, it's like a rejector of God, and the rest of us like, yes, but we have no more votes, so they're constantly voting, and then all of a sudden it begins, the rejectors begin to flip the other elements of your heart, and your heart decides after it has popularity, we reject you now. Doesn't work that way. It's not in the Bible. What happens when you decide that you want to walk away from God? What happens?
What needs to happen there is you need to question whether you ever came to him by faith anyway. You don't have to like it, there'll be people who disagree with that's all right. Great denominational debates over this. I just don't see it in the Bible. I just don't see it there. So there's definitely value, but there is value, there's value to being circumcised on the outside, and that's what Paul asks. So is there value here? Yes, but there's a flip side. There's always a flip side to the condition: "if you're a transgressor of the law, your circumcision has become uncircumcision." Now, that is a very insightful statement. Paul could have said this, listen to me, this is how I would have worded it, if I were Paul, it was why I'm not Paul: "If you were a transgressor of the law, your circumcision is worthless." Ladies and gentlemen, that's not what he says. He says this: your circumcision actually becomes uncircumcision. Now, this is bad.
This is bad, because if you're uncircumcised, you're not in covenant. That's bad.
Paul went further. He said this: your circumcision has become uncircumcision. Paul said your outward act has actually become the very thing that keeps you from getting your heart right before God, like good works, like works, not good works that come from God but good works that have come from you. Your physical circumcision prevents your heart circumcision. That's what we have with these religious leaders. Why, as long as they thought God accepted them with an outward circumcision only, then why would they ever want to have their heart circumcised? Like, this is important, this is why Paul words it this way. Based upon their physical circumcision, if that's how he judges them, then why would I ever need my heart circumcised? What was the need of circumcising their hearts before him? Listen to this, and God says this in chapter 1, God says it through the apostle Paul in chapter 1. He talks about people who slip into sin and rebellion and they begin to think that what is bad is actually good. Now notice the connection here between, now he's speaking, he was speaking about pagans who slip into all kinds of depravity until their mind actually thinks bad things are good things, and now look at the connection as he speaks to the Jews in regards to being uncircumcised even though they are circumcised. Listen to the connection: what they thought was making them pleasing was actually keeping them from being pleasing.
And as long as they thought God accepted them based on their physical circumcision, why do they need to be circumcised? This is the danger of works-based righteousness. Not only does it not please God, but when people trust in that for salvation, it keeps them from seeking the righteousness that can only come from God, and they trust in the righteousness that can only come from them, which is faulty and will never bring them into true covenant. All right.
It's just why the Pharisees refused to seek the salvation of Jesus. They thought they were acceptable to God based on their works. That was their stumbling block.
What God gave them as a sign became the stumbling block that keeps them from true covenant.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 47:11
Do you see it today?
It's crazy. Romans 9:30, and I'm almost done, 30 through 33 says this: "What shall we say, then? That Gentiles who did not pursue righteousness have attained it, that is, a righteousness that is by faith; but that Israel who pursued a law that would lead to righteousness did not succeed in reaching that law. Why? Because they did not pursue it by faith, but as if it were based on works. They have stumbled over the stumbling stone, as it is written, 'Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone of stumbling, and a rock of offense; and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame.'" Who would ever think that thing which was given as a sign would become the thing that we stumble over, that prevents us from getting to the one we long to get to? Oh, this is beautiful and it is wonderful, but it becomes a stumbling block for many and they won't enter in because of it. So for some this causes them to stumble and reject God, and for others in the house today, they will hear this and they will run to him. Who can make sense of that?
But which of these we become is dependent on our heart. Notice here that faith causes us to enter into the covenant, and notice that faith is a gift from God, that no man can boast. Who wants to make sense of that? That for some they'll reject and stumble because of God's word and some they'll come to faith in Jesus Christ, because it is the gospel that has the power to change hearts and minds, and faith is a gift that gets us access to covenant, and God gives it. Who can make sense of that? And I'm not going to try to today, because a lot of debates start with that right there. There's a lot of different ways you can view that, but here's why I'm saying it: this we can agree with, God is God all by himself and he doesn't need your approval to be God. He is sovereign completely and he can do what he wants to do, and let me tell you, in case you ever wonder if what God does is good, just know this: he is good, and if he does it's good.
Some of you have wrestled with this your whole life and it's prevented you from coming to him. Matter of fact, it's become a stone you've stumbled over.
I would compel you today, hear the gospel and come to him, come to faith in Christ through Jesus. Romans 10:3: "For being ignorant of the righteousness of God, and seeking to establish their own, they did not submit to God's righteousness." But rather trusted in their own righteousness, their righteousness actually became unrighteousness. If we were to substitute the word circumcision and uncircumcision, their righteousness actually became unrighteousness, their circumcision actually became uncircumcision, their righteousness actually became unrighteous. You know why? Because of their heart and because their righteous deeds were not done in faith but rather in their own strength. And this is Paul's point here, and let me tell you, I think we can extrapolate some things and take some things home that will help us walk through our life. Circumcision is valuable, it is valuable, as an indicator of our righteous heart, but if it is to cover up for our unrighteousness, it holds no value at all. Matter of fact, it becomes the thing that causes you to stumble into hell, and
If you don't feel the weight of that this morning, you have not heard the gospel rightly.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 51:52
And if you don't feel relieved because of that, you have not heard the gospel right, for the gospel, it's a double-edged sword that cuts both ways.
It burdens the heart that it might lift the burden. Our salvation, listen, is on the other side of death.
So somebody was like, I feel like I'm dying all day and I just don't know why I'm dying all day. Because he wants to save you from yourself and yourself is getting in the way, and so
He is trying daily to kill you so that you can truly live.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 52:43
That's the gospel. The point is simple, I'll classify this since we did the four points, we talked a lot about theology, the point is simple:
God wants righteousness of heart, not some outward display of religion that you've concocted.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 52:56
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