Matter Of The Heart Series

Matter Of The Heart

Text: Rom. 2:25-29

Introduction

1. "Anyone who has ever taught or attempted to lead others knows the tendency in all of us toward exaggerating our depth of character while treating leniently our flaws. The Bible calls this tendency hypocrisy. We consciously or subconsciously put forward a better image of ourselves than really exists. The outward appearance of our character and the inner reality (that only God, we, and perhaps our family members know) do not match." (C.S. Lewis)

2. We've all heard the phrase, "Don't judge a book by its cover!" Well that is a double-sided saying. One can say, "Don't underestimate me by what you see on the outside," but the opposite is also true, "Don't overestimate me by what you see on the outside."

3. You can look all righteous on the outside and be a mess on the inside. What really matters is what is inside; in the heart.

4. In our text Paul talks about...

A. Outward Sign

B. Inward Sign

C. Heart Sign

5. Stand with me as we read Rom. 2:25-29.

Proposition: A true Christian is one who has been changed on the inside by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Transition: First, Paul talks about the...

I. Outward Sign (25).

A. Jewish Ceremony Of Circumcision

1. While the law was the sign of the covenant that God made with the Israelites at Mt. Sinai, circumcision was the sign of the covenant that God made with Abraham.

A. It signified that they were God's chosen people and that He was there God.

B. Genesis 17:9-10 (NLT2)

9 Then God said to Abraham, "Your responsibility is to obey the terms of the covenant. You and all your descendants have this continual responsibility.

10 This is the covenant that you and your descendants must keep: Each male among you must be circumcised.

C. In NT times it was the defining ceremony when a Gentile became a Jew.

D. You might remember back when we studied the Book Of Acts that this was a major problem in the NT Church because Jewish Christians insisted that when a Gentile became a Christian they had to be circumcised.

E. So, it was a big issue, and Paul it seems was always in the middle of it.

2. In v. 25 he says, "The Jewish ceremony of circumcision has value only if you obey God’s law. But if you don’t obey God’s law, you are no better off than an uncircumcised Gentile."

A. Paul begins here by saying, "The Jewish ceremony of circumcision has value only if you obey God's law."

B. The verb "value" means to "profit" in terms of their relationship with God.

C. In other words, Paul is saying that for a Jew being circumcised does you no good if you do not obey the law.

D. When we disobey God's law it breaks the relationship, we have with Him, and that's what the Jews did in not keeping the law.

E. That's why Paul tells them, "But if you don't obey God's law, you are no better than an uncircumcised Gentile."

F. Just like the Gentiles they stood condemned before God. In Galatians 5:2-3 Paul says,

G. Galatians 5:2-3 (NLT2)

2 Listen! I, Paul, tell you this: If you are counting on circumcision to make you right with God, then Christ will be of no benefit to you.

3 I’ll say it again. If you are trying to find favor with God by being circumcised, you must obey every regulation in the whole law of Moses.

H. Since they have failed to keep the whole law, which nobody could do, then circumcision does them no good.

B. New Creation

1. Illustration: You are not a Christian until you receive a new nature and if you receive a new nature there will be evidence.

You can educate a pig to stay out of the mud and eat differently but on a hot day with fellow pigs he will resort to his normal nature and dive happily into the mud. If you could give him a new nature, say, the nature of a cat, when the test of a hot day and welcome mud came, he would not be happy in the mudhole even if his friends persuade him to join them again, he has a new nature, new desires. He does not think he is better than them, he just does not enjoy those things anymore.

2. How someone appears on the outside is insignificant compared to how they actually are on the inside.

A. Galatians 6:15 (NLT2)

15 It doesn’t matter whether we have been circumcised or not. What counts is whether we have been transformed into a new creation.

B. It doesn't matter if you wear the right kind of clothes.