The Word Made Plain

Guest (Male): Welcome to the word made plain with senior pastor Tony Clark of Calvary Chapel Newport News in Virginia. Currently, Pastor Tony is teaching through the book of Romans. Please open your Bible to Romans chapter 2 verses 25 through 29.

Tony Clark: So too, if someone who was never circumcised, but they lived in obedience to God's word, their uncircumcision will be counted as circumcision, or they will be looked at as a child of God. Why? Because of their obedience to God's word. Paul confirms this in verse 27. Look what it says there. And will not the physically uncircumcised, if he fulfills the law, judge you who even with your rich and cold and circumcision are a transgressor of the law. Paul really made it clear to the Jews in Rome. He told them if a Gentile, who is is referring to a non-Jew, if a Gentile were to be obedient to God's word, has every right to judge you who had the law of God for years, but are not living according to it nor keeping it.

See, the Jews felt that they were superior to the non-Jews because they and their ancestors were chosen by God and considered the special people of God. But Paul said that any non-Jew keeping God's law has every right to judge you who is not keeping it. Now, we always got to bring this up because of the misunderstanding of it. Please understand that we can judge people. Please understand that. This misunderstanding of judging is so unbiblical. The world has taken one verse, one verse. Matthew 7 verse 1, and then they gave that one verse a definition. And the church and the people of God have embraced it incorrectly.

Now, we have the world telling us what verses mean. Now, how sad is that? 1st Corinthians 2:15 says, he who is spiritual judges all things. Paul is saying if someone is calling themselves a believer and not living in obedience to God 's word, we can, as Paul says here, judge them or call them out about it. Now, there's a way to do that. Ephesians 4 verse 15 says, speak the truth in love. And then here it is. Galatians 6 verse 1 says, brethren, if a man is overtaken in a trespass, you that are spiritual restore such a one.

How? He tells us in a spirit of gentleness, considering yourself lest you also be tempted. Oh, let's take a deeper peek into this verse. In other words, you want to restore people. The Greek word for restored is katartizo. It's a great word. It means to bring to its original condition. It means to prepare. For example, doctors use katartizo to mean to set a broken bone, to bring that broken bone back to its original condition. How do you do that? How do you set a bone for those of you who have broken bones? How do you set a broken bone?

You set a broken bone as gently as you can. This is how we're told to restore or judge people. Why? Because you will want someone to gently set that which is broken back in your life again gently, as gently as they can. See, you have to remember, keep in mind when you get prideful about judging people, just understand that sort of energy that you given off, as the world says, it's coming back to you. So as you come off hard and pointing and you and then I can't believe it and you just know, because you going to have something broken in your life one day.

And you going to want everybody to be all gentle with you and just kind of just set it. But you just came up and yanked somebody arm and twisted it back with you just did it. But so now you want it done to you gently. Oh, no, no, no, no. Just know when you how you do it, it's coming back to you. Whatsoever a man sows, that shall he also reap. So you better do if you going to judge, if you going to restore people, the Bible tells us how to do it gently. You do it gently.

You gently set up a a broken bone back. You gently do it because you know that one day you going to have the broken bone. And you going to want people to set it back in your life gently, as you know how as well. So this is what Paul is telling them. Now, because of a misunderstanding of the next two verses, some theologians have come up with a false teaching saying that the church is now spiritual Israel, which means now all of the promises in the Bible to the Jewish nation, especially in the Old Testament, is now for the church.

They go on to say, God is done with the nation of Israel. When they rejected Jesus Christ and as we call in our New Testament, when they rejected Jesus Christ, God said, I'm done with y'all and he's finished. God is finished with the Jewish nation. Read my lips. Not true. False teaching, not true at all. Paul knew that someone would think this way. So he writes in Romans chapter 11 verses 1 and 2. Listen to what it says. Says, I say then, has God cast away his people, referring to the Jews? And then he said, certainly not.

For I am a a Israelite of the seed of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin. God has not cast away his people whom he foreknew. Paul is saying that God would never cast away his people, Israel, the Jews. He says, I'm proof of it. God saved me. So I'm proof that God is not done working in the nation of Israel. I'm proof of it. Now, with this background, let's dive into verses 28 and 29. Look what it says there. 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 man, but it's from God. Now, Paul said in verse 28, a true Jew. Now, Jew is used in these verses to describe the people of God or anyone who is living obediently to God's word, whether they are a natural Jewish person or a non-Jew. So the real Jew is not banking on the outward rituals of circumcision. The true Jew or the true person of God is making sure that he is circumcised in his or her heart internally in the spirit.

Now, I I love this statement internally in the spirit. Why? Because only the spirit of God can circumcise the things in our hearts. When we repent of our sins and accept Jesus Christ as our Lord and savior, the spirit of God comes and lives in us to empower us to overcome our fleshly desires and appetites. So as we yield our lives more and more to God, his spirit continues to circumcise or cut away those fleshly, ungodly things in our hearts that makes us more, that keeps us from being more like Jesus Christ, like bitterness, hatred, unforgiveness.

See, some of you some of you still got a lot of that stuff in your hearts. And and and and this is why we need to allow the spirit of God to circumcise those things in our hearts. Because see, those are things that no one else sees but but God. We can hide those, camouflage those real We can camouflage unforgiveness, bitterness, hatred. But see, it's the spirit of God. This is why the Bible says, it's not on the screen, 2nd Corinthians 7:1 says, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and of the spirit.

Little S, meaning our spirit on the inside. Cleanse ourselves from filthiness of the flesh and of the spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God. There are some things of the flesh that's outwardly that people can see us do. But then there's we're told to cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and of the spirit, those internal things that God wants to work, that God wants to do a work and cleanse those things, circumcise those things out of our lives. Many you are holding all kind of mess and bitterness, hatred towards folks, unforgiveness towards exes and it's just and and you wonder why you're struggling to become more like Jesus Christ.

You you you wonder why. Because those are things that God wants to get to as well. Maybe he has taken out those big things, those the filthiness of the flesh, those big things that you outwardly doing. But you still holding on to the filthiness of the spirit, those internal things that God wants to circumcise. And only his spirit can do that. Only his spirit can do that. I'm just here to tell you let it let it go, precious people. Give it to God. Allow the Lord to do that work in your heart. Allow the Lord to do that work in your It's It's It's just You know, I was doing good for for a long time.

I was doing good, you know. I was I was just I was doing good. I was, you know. I I I you know, any kind of stuff I wouldn't I wouldn't allow to get in my heart because I didn't want any um unforgiveness, any hatred, any malice. I didn't want any of that in my heart. So I always dealt with things and dealt with relationships. You know, I write people privately. Hey bro, are we good? Everything good? Man, if I did something to you, bro, to offend you in any way, I am sorry. And I did that for years and I was just good.

My heart was cleaned and why I was good. And I was doing good for years. And then the then the relative a close relative. You know, family, they're the ones. A close relative just kind of said some things to me. And um so I was so I was struggling. And I said, boy. So for a long time I just you know, so I went through my thing, you know, hey, you know, forgive me for upsetting you, forgive you know, hey, we we we we we good? We you know, we good. Then they double down on me.

And I said, okay. So I was struggling. And I said, oh, I let a little bit of that in my heart. And I said, this feels weird. I don't like that in my heart. So I had to I had to I had to deal with deal with that. I had to deal with that. I was struggling though. I was struggling because it was hard to deal with. But those are the type of things that only the spirit of God can circumcise out of our hearts. Because we we we go on like life is good. And then when that person's name is brought up or that person's how we respond, how we react, that shows that we're not over it.

That shows that we still holding on to it. We think out of sight, out of mind. That's not true. You know, it's out of sight, out of mind until their name is brought up or until you see them. And then all of a sudden, those are the things God wants to circumcise. He wants to circumcise those things out of our hearts. We can't do this. We can't do it in our own strength. Only God can watch this, internally in the spirit. This is why Paul said in verse 29, in the spirit, not in the letter.

This verse goes on to say, meaning that not just verbally, outwardly claiming to be keeping the letter of God's word, but internally, this is not true. This This This is not what the Lord wants. The last part of verse 29, this last phrase, whose praise is not from men, but from God. This was a play on words Paul was using because the Jews got their name from their ancestor Judah, whose name in Hebrew means praise, according to Genesis 29 verse 35 and Genesis 49 verse 8. So the person who is right with God will do things to get Watch this.

The praise from God and not from man. Who are you doing things for? Are you doing it for God? Looking for those of you who are serving, those of you who are doing something either in the church, outside the church, who are you doing it for? Are you doing it for God or for man? See, some of the religious leaders in Jesus's day believed in him. Not all the religious leaders hated Jesus. There were some who believed in him. But watch this. But they didn't confess him. Why? John 12:43 says, for they loved the praise of men more than the praise of God.

Now, don't get me wrong. There's nothing wrong with people appreciating us or thanking us. But this is about motive. This is about our motives. Are you doing things for the praise of people or for the praise of God? The person who is right with God internally is going to do things in such a way to one day hear God say, well done, my good and faithful servant. Like Matthew 25 and verse 23 says, Let me Let me conclude with this. In this message, we we saw how we can falsely rest in external religious rituals and not be right with God in our hearts, like I did.

Like I did. We saw how we can fool people outwardly with our religious activities and our religious rituals, but not be right with God internally in our hearts. And if that's you today, then you need to repent. You need to get it right with God. And ask God to circumcise your heart and cut away those fleshly things that you are doing behind closed doors. See, we can fool each other sitting in a chair here or coming here or online or whatever. We can fool each other. And we can say, we can sing, we can stand, we can clap, we can wave a hand doing worship.

We can do We can shed tears and all those sorts of things. And we and and people around us can say, wow, you know, wow, they are they really love the Lord. They They're really into this. And then we can go behind closed doors and be a totally different person. That's what the Jews were doing. Outwardly, they were they were doing all of these sort of right things and saying how we hate idols and we all this sort of stuff. God said you shouldn't steal and and you shouldn't commit adultery. And then behind closed doors, they were doing all of those things.

And this is the kind of stuff that God is letting us know that he sees. You know, we want to do things in such a way as to hear the praises of God say, well done, my good and faithful servant. That's what I want to hear God say one day when I stand before him. Because I'm going to give an account of my life before him. You know, I I tell you, I had I had to come back. I had I had to come back to church. I had to come back to do what I do.

I was telling some of the staff some time ago. They say, man, won't you you know, a lot of pastors do it, won't you just take a sabbatical and take some time away and And you know what I told them? I said, I'm afraid if I take that much time away, I may not want to come back. It's easy to just look online, get my phone out, look online, going on about life, sit there Sunday after Sunday, Wednesday. And then pretty soon I said, oh, I'm feeling I'm feeling a little bit better. I said, but I like sitting here too.

And I say, I I'll come back in a in a in a week. And then all of a sudden I said, you know what, nah, I I'm not coming back to October. Because I I already know See, the enemy start playing with your mind. I already know, oh pastor, it's good to see you, but we you left us in good hands and we you know, some good people. I said, well they don't need me here. Well, I'm out. All right, you in good hands. All right, stay in good hands. I'm going to stay on the couch here maybe in my bed, take a nap.

Cuz that's what's going to be the thing. Yeah, we glad to see you, but you left us in good hands. Okay. God bless. Stay in those good hands and I stay in the bed. So I I had to come back. Because see, that's what the enemy the enemy wants. That's what the enemy He wants to keep us. And then stuff start getting in our hearts. This is why we we we got to circumcise our hearts. We We got to allow the Lord to to cut those things away because how I was responding to things were not the best.

And it was it was affecting my heart how because I was allowing some things to slip in, to slip in into my my heart. So meaning that I've been gone for so long. Yes, I was speaking all all over, you know, in August I was speaking all over Hawaii. It was It was Hawaii that we caught COVID. It was from there. But once I got and I had to be quarantined and then you know, then quarantined again and just crazy stuff. And so because I missed all of this, how I was responding to life's struggles was not in a a good way.

Because I was letting stuff slip in my heart, a little anger and bitterness and hate and you know, a little stuff them and them over there. Man, you too. Don't forget you Janice, you too. And I just I I just I got to get back. And then I saw something that today was back to church Sunday. I said, how can I said, I can today be back to church Sunday and I'm sitting at home. I think you better get your rear in to the church. Get on. I had to talk You know, David had to talk to himself sometime.

You know, just don't answer, but he had to talk to himself. I had to talk to myself. Get on. Get your clothes on, get out of the house. Get to that church. I started looking around the church and man, it's been a long time since I've been here. I said, okay. All right. All right, I'm back. I'm back. So you know, that's why it I see I see I see I see I see what people are doing at home. I see it. I experienced it. So so I can talk from experience. Listen to me all folks.

Get your rear in the church. Get it. I'm telling you, it's not going And on top of that, I caught COVID in Hawaii, not the church here. It's not where I caught it. Didn't catch it here. Caught it in Hawaii. Paradise. How about that? Father, we are so thankful for who you are. Thank you for your word. Thank you for your grace and mercy. And Lord, we just pray that your spirit will move upon us today. Lord, circumcise those fleshly things in our hearts. Circumcise our lives, Lord. We need to you to circumcise our eyes, our ears, circumcise our feet, the places we've been going lately.

Oh God, help us. We need you, Lord. We need you so desperately. And Lord, I just pray if anyone has not repented of their sin and accepted Christ as their Lord and savior, Lord, I pray that you move upon their hearts. If anyone's here or online, you know you haven't repented of your sin and accepted Christ as your Lord and savior. Just repeat this prayer after me. Just say, Lord Jesus, forgive me. I believe you died on the cross and was buried and rose again. Come into my heart. I make you my Lord and savior.

Help me to live for you by the power of your Holy Spirit from this moment forward in Jesus's name. Amen.

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