WWUTT 1178 Circumcision is a Matter of the Heart?

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Everyone needs to be circumcised. Yeah, not the introduction you were expecting to today's lesson, was it?

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But the kind of circumcision I'm talking about is a spiritual circumcision of the heart when we understand the text.

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You're listening to When We Understand the Text, committed to sound teaching of the Word of God. For questions and comments, email whenweunderstandthetext at gmail .com.

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And don't forget our website, www .tt .com. Here's our host, Pastor Gabe.

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Thank you, Becky. We come back to our study of Romans chapter 2, and today we're looking at verses 25 through 29.

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Here is what the Apostle Paul wrote to the church in Rome. For circumcision indeed is of value if you obey the law.

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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?

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Then he who is physically uncircumcised but keeps the law will condemn you who have the written code and circumcision but break the law.

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For no one is a Jew who is merely one outwardly, nor is circumcision outward and physical.

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But a Jew is one inwardly, and circumcision is a matter of the heart, by the spirit, not by the letter.

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His praise is not from man, but from God. This is a fantastic illustration that the

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Apostle Paul is putting together here, going with what we have been reading this week in Romans chapter 2.

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If you'll remember back to Monday, Paul said in verse 13, for it is not the hearers of the law who are righteous before God, but the doers of the law will be justified.

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So just because you have the law, just because you possess it, does not make you better off than anybody else.

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You have to do what it says. The one who does the law will be the person who is justified.

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And then after making that argument, Paul starts going into examples. He starts getting real specific and says, if you teach others, do you not teach yourself?

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While you preach against stealing, do you steal? You who say that one must not commit adultery, do you commit adultery?

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You who abhor idols, do you rob temples? You who boast in the law, dishonor

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God by breaking the law. For as it is written, the name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you.

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So these Jews who would have been boasting about the fact that they had the law and the

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Gentiles didn't, well, that was actually to their greater condemnation. For they possess the law, but we're not keeping it.

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So how much greater the judgment of God would be upon you for having it and not doing what it says?

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And I think that that argument should also strike fear in the hearts of us as Christians, we who have the

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Bible, and especially in the Western world, how plentiful the

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Bible is, how easy it is to get one, and how many of those Bibles we possess even in our own homes.

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I think the statistic is, in the average American home, there are three Bibles and yet are we reading it?

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Are we following what it says? Do we have its words written upon our hearts? Do we believe the doctrine, the sound doctrine contained therein?

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There's an article that just came out from Nine Marks, and it's entitled Four Reflections After Listening to 18

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Hours of Sermons in America's Biggest Churches, written by Colton Corder. What Colton did is he went to the websites of nine of the biggest churches in America, the biggest evangelical churches, and listened to four sermons each, 18 hours of sermons.

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And here's what he, here's the conclusions that he drew from those 18 hours of listening.

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You're going to have to go to Nine Marks to find the article and read it for yourself, but I'm just summarizing the four main points.

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Number one, he said in all of these sermons, in all of these churches, biggest churches in America, the gospel is at best assumed.

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Most of the time it's entirely absent. You don't even hear the gospel of Jesus Christ in these sermons that are being preached in the largest churches in America.

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Number two, repentance rarely comes across as something urgent and necessary.

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Instead, it's either optional or it is not worth mentioning at all.

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Number three, while the prosperity gospel is absent from the sermons that he listened to, its shadow lurks in the background.

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Now what does that mean? Well, Christianity is basically about life improvement. It's about becoming a better you.

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That's the way that Christianity is being presented in these churches. So there's not some direct appeal like sow a seed, give this money and God will heap a heavy reward upon you, even though Stephen Furtick has preached exactly that.

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And Furtick was one of those pastors, Elevation Church, one of those churches that was being evaluated here.

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It just happened to be that Colton was listening during a period of time when maybe Stephen wasn't making that pitch.

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But nevertheless, the general theme coming from all of these churches whose sermons he listened to is that there's kind of this prosperity light going on.

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So it may not be exactly the prosperity gospel, but there's certainly hints of it. And then the fourth thing that he realized listening to all of these sermons, the use of the

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Bible generally fell into two categories, misuse or abuse. So you consider how plentiful the

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Bible is, especially in the United States of America. And it's not rightly being read.

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It's not rightly being applied. It is, in fact, twisted and being used as like a self -help or motivational book rather than understanding the true words of God that we might understand, we might see and recognize our sin and need for a

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Savior. First and foremost, that's what we need to understand from the Scriptures. All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God and the forgiveness of sins and salvation from the judgment of God is found in Christ alone, preaching

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Christ and him crucified. That should be the absolute foundation of any kind of preaching is preaching

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Christ and him crucified. And the largest churches in America are not even doing that.

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The gospel almost entirely absent from the messages that you would hear in any of these churches that you would walk into.

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Now, I don't think small churches are any better. I think that some of these small churches desiring to emulate what the mega churches are doing, preach very much the same thing.

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I live in a small community. You heard Becky and I on the Friday podcast this past week talking about how even in our county, the population is only like 33 ,000 people in the county that we live in in Kansas.

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So I live in a rural area and there are even more rural areas than this in the state of Kansas.

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But anyway, with the small number of people that are here and the small churches that are around us, the doctrine is not much better.

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It's about that way. Even here in middle America, in a red state in Kansas, it's just as bad.

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So we have so much easy access to the Bible and a plethora of great teaching in the

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Western world. I've heard Votie Bachum say this like the hub in the world of some of the best reform teaching that you can hear comes from the

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United States of America. And it's through it's easily accessible through YouTube and podcasts and all of these other kinds of things.

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Guys like John MacArthur, R .C. Sproul have made their teaching completely free through the ministries that they founded.

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You can get free, sound Bible teaching. And yet, where is

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America in its theology? This evaluation that was done by Colton through Nine Marks gives you a pretty good idea, a pretty clear picture of exactly where our doctrine is as America.

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So even as Paul is making this condemnation of the Jews here, we're no better off.

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We've got the prophetic word more fully confirmed, the way Peter describes it, 2 Peter 1, with the complete

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Bible, 66 books canonized all put together, even given a number system that it's easy for us to study and follow along, chapter and verse.

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And yet how dumb are we about it? How ignorant are we about the scriptures?

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And speaking in a very general sense, there are some of us who are very committed to the teaching of the word and its application as well, a right application of what it is that we read.

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Teaching and studying and following along with sound doctrine, but so many more who are not.

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And in a culture where there's a lot of great teaching and it's easily accessible, there's no excuse for the ignorance that America has of the scriptures.

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So just as Paul is making this condemnation of the Jews, it's heaped up that much more upon us who have the completed scriptures and yet are not reading it, revering it, applying it.

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And where we could be reaching out to more people with a sound following of the word of God, instead the name of God is blasphemed among the nations.

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The Gentiles, I'm translating that from Gentiles, the name of God is blasphemed among the nations because of you.

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We dishonor God by breaking the law. We say we love the Bible, but we don't even read it and don't do what it says.

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So now as Paul has taken a very broad argument and he started to narrow it down with more specific examples, then we get to the section we're looking at today, verses 25 through 29, when he narrows it down even further to one law, one commandment, and that's the commandment to be circumcised, that all the

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Jews, the covenant sign that they keep that distinguishes a

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Jew from a Gentile is the covenant sign of circumcision. And what does

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Paul say about circumcision? Verse 25, circumcision indeed is of value if you obey the law, but if you break the law, your circumcision becomes uncircumcision.

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Now what does it mean to say that circumcision indeed is of value? Simply this, because God has commanded it, and those who are circumcised are demonstrating through their circumcision that they are in his covenant.

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If you were circumcised and you kept the whole law, you would be good.

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You would be justified. But of course we understand and the argument that Paul is making, and he's going to drive this home when we get to chapter 3, is that no one has kept the law.

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No one's done it. So therefore, the circumcision that you have that you claim is an advantage really is of no advantage to you.

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In fact, those who are uncircumcised can judge you because they keep the law, thus credited to them as circumcision, and they hold judgment over you who are circumcised and yet don't keep the law, because circumcision has always been a matter of the heart.

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And the Apostle Paul is not bringing any new doctrine forward. He is not even saying anything that has changed just because of the cross of Christ.

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Of course we're going to see different laws applied in different ways because of what Christ has accomplished.

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But when it comes to circumcision, this is not something new that he's saying here, since circumcision was always a matter of the heart.

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The outward sign of circumcision was supposed to be a demonstration of an inward sign of faith.

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We go all the way back to the book of Deuteronomy. And it's there, starting in chapter 10, verse 12, that Moses says,

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And now, Israel, what does the Lord your God require of you? But to fear the

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Lord your God, to walk in all his ways, to love him, to serve the

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Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, and to keep the commandments and statutes of the

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Lord, which I am commanding you today for your good. Verse 14,

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Behold, to the Lord your God belong heaven and the heaven of heavens, the earth and all that is in it.

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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.

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Circumcised therefore, the foreskin of your heart, and be no longer stubborn.

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For the Lord your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great, the mighty and awesome

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God, who is not partial and takes no bribe. He executes justice for the fatherless and the widow, and loves the sojourner, giving him food and clothing.

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Love the sojourner therefore, for you were sojourners in the land of Egypt. You shall fear the

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Lord your God, you shall serve him and hold fast to him, and by his name you shall swear.

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He is your praise, he is your God, who has done for you these great and terrifying things that your eyes have seen.

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Your fathers went down to Egypt seventy persons, and now the Lord your God has made you as numerous as the stars in the face of heaven.

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So once again, the point here Moses is making to a generation of Israel by the way, who had not yet been circumcised on the outside that's what was going to happen, which

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Joshua was going to do before they were going to enter the promised land. So you're talking about a second generation of Israelites since they had come out of Egypt after wandering around in the desert for 40 years, they're going to inherit the promised land and these sons had not yet been circumcised, not been circumcised on the outside Moses is saying to them that you need to be circumcised from the heart.

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Verse 16 again, circumcise therefore the foreskin of your heart and be no longer stubborn.

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Don't repeat the errors that your parents made and then perished in the wilderness be cut off from the world and be united to God for the

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Lord your God is God, the mighty, the awesome

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God who is not partial and takes no bribe, meaning it's not your doing that obligates

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God to therefore show you favor he is going to be God no matter what you do so there's no bribe that you can give

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God to therefore earn the favor of God. He is merciful and gracious and you praise him because he has shown you love.

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So circumcise your heart. Do not be united to the ways of this world, but be bonded to God, bond slave to God, a bond servant, a slave to the

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Lord and to his righteousness. And this is what it means to be circumcised from the heart, cut off from the world, united to Christ.

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This is exactly the point that Paul is making here that circumcision has always been a spiritual matter.

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It's never been an outward thing. The outward thing you do is simply an outward expression of what's going on in the inside of you, that your heart is united to Christ so you have to watch his use of circumcision here because sometimes he's talking about a spiritual circumcision, not a physical circumcision and likewise he's talking about a spiritual

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Jew, not a physical Jew, not an ethnic Jew. So these terms become interchangeable in this particular section with the doctrine that Paul is unfolding here.

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Verse 25, for circumcision is indeed a value if you obey the law, but if you break the law, your circumcision becomes uncircumcision.

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You had the law and you did not keep it. So therefore these commands that God has given you actually become to your condemnation.

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God will judge you because you had the law and did not keep it. Therefore your circumcision, your physical circumcision if you did not keep the law, your physical circumcision does not give you any favor.

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It will be a greater condemnation upon you. It will be a sign of your condemnation rather than a sign of the grace of God.

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So verse 26, so if a man who is uncircumcised keeps the precepts of the law will not his uncircumcision be regarded as circumcision?

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Now we're talking about a spiritual circumcision here. Same kind of circumcision that Moses talked about in Deuteronomy chapter 10.

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This guy would be closer to Moses than the Jew would be. The uncircumcised man who is obeying

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God and walking in his righteousness through the righteousness that is given in Christ, he is closer to everything that we have written down in the

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Old Testament than the Jew themselves would be even though it was to them that the oracles of God were given.

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So we go on, let's see, that was verse 26. Verse 27, then he who is physically uncircumcised but keeps the law will condemn you who have the written code and circumcision but break the law.

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It's in 1 Corinthians chapter 6 where the Apostle Paul says that we will judge even angels in the final judgment.

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In Revelation chapter 20 verse 4 it says, then I saw thrones and seated on them were those to whom the authority to judge was committed.

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We will reign with Christ forever and we will judge those who did not follow

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Christ in this life, even those fallen angels. Christ saying that I will give a place to you to sit with me on my throne.

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And so we will judge those who did not fear the

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Lord and keep his commandments. Hence the Apostle Paul making the statement here that he who is physically uncircumcised but keeps the law will condemn you who has the written code and circumcision but broke the law.

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So verse 28, but no one is a Jew who is merely one outwardly nor is circumcision outward and physical.

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But a Jew is one inwardly and circumcision is a matter of the heart by the spirit not by the letter.

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His praise is not from man but from God. How is it that we are made the people of God by being united to the father through Jesus Christ our

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Savior by faith in Jesus Christ. The Jews were considered to be the people of God, but the people of God is not an ethnic group of people.

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The people of God are a spiritual group of people. So we can be a

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Jew also by believing in Jesus Christ who kept the law who fulfilled the law and in him is all righteousness.

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The Holy Spirit of God poured into our hearts and God now dwells with us.

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We become a dwelling place for the Holy Spirit of God. We are united to the father through Jesus Christ and his spirit that has been poured into our hearts and we become the people of God this way.

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Paul is not merely being allegorical in this sense. He's not just being figurative.

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Well, you can be as a Jew. You can be like a Jew. That's not what

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Paul is saying. He's saying you can be a Jew. You can be of the people of God by faith in our

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Lord Jesus Christ who gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works.

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That's Titus 2 14. So united in Christ circumcised from the heart. Now the people of God in him we desire to do those things that he has commanded of us to do and so this and this is not by a written code.

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It is by the giving of the spirit of God. So by the spirit not by the letter as it says in verse 29, you could keep the letter and you wouldn't be righteous because even our best deeds are his filthy rags before a

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Holy God but through Christ the Holy Spirit has been poured into our hearts and then from the spirit.

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We are the people of God who keep the commands of God who desire to worship

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God and we do so with our whole heart soul mind and strength all that we are we commit unto the

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Lord and all our ways is worship unto him and then the praise that we get this is the conclusion here of chapter 2 the praise that we receive is not from man but from God Paul will say something similar in 2nd

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Corinthians chapter 10 verse 18 for it is not the one who commends himself who is approved but the one whom the

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Lord commends so a Jew can't commend himself for being a Jew and the commendation that we receive from God is not because we did anything great but because we have the righteousness of Christ by faith.

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Let's conclude with prayer Heavenly Father we thank you for the goodness and mercy that you show to us forgive us our sins help us to draw all the more near to Christ praising him for his sacrifice on the cross for our sins his resurrection from the grave that we may be raised to new life we have the life to come that is promised us in heaven but we've also been raised to a new life that we may walk in holiness before you a people for your possession who are zealous for good works so may we be convicted of heart may we put off our sinful ways not longing for anything in this world not even wanting to be like the world but to be like our

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Savior Christ and to walk according to his commandments and his precepts which you have written on our hearts by your

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Holy Spirit teach us to walk by the Spirit not by the letter and all to the praise of our great

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God who has demonstrated his love for us in that while we were sinners Christ died for us.

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We pray these things in your great name. Amen. You've been listening to When We Understand the

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Text with Pastor Gabe Hughes. Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday Gabe will be going through a New Testament study.

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Then on Thursday we look at an Old Testament book. On Friday we take questions from the listeners and viewers.