Understanding Circumcision in Christianity part 2

[Music] thank you [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] it's good to have you all on online uh if you would let us know where you're from we have people all over the world that watch our services and it's kind of neat here where they're from I've gotten so many emails and letters from Australia from Japan Germany all over and it's kind of neat I actually have one person in Greece who uh will write me every once in a while and he'll say I appreciate you using the Greek and uh he'll kind of let me know what it means in modern Greek and what it meant back then but it's really neat to hear all of these people around the world anyways last week we began a new series on the subject of circumcision and to be honest with you this is a this is a topic that most pastors avoid for several reasons first of all it's a sensitive subject in that it involves the male sex organ the phallus the penis secondly most pastors don't understand its purpose they have no idea why God chose circumcision to be the sign of the abrahamic Covenant look at Genesis chapter 17 verse number 11 and you'll see what I'm talking about you are to undergo circumcision and it will be the sign of the Covenant between me and you and if you want to get even more specific it's a sign that Abraham and his descendants had also accepted the abrahamic Covenant along with the stipulations within it and what are those stipulations we'll look at Genesis chapter 17 verses 1 and 2. and when Abram was 99 years old the Lord appeared to Abram and said unto him I am the almighty God walk before me and be thou perfect and I will make my Covenant between me and thee and will multiply thee exceedingly so those are the two stipulations number one to walk before God or in other words to walk in his presence and number two to be perfect now let me ask you a question what hinders us from doing those two things well obviously it's the flesh our flesh or sinful desires is what keeps us from being perfect and walking in the presence of God now let me ask you another question which part of a man's Anatomy represents the lust of the flesh more than any other well that's a no-brainer it's the male sex organ so to cut off the foreskin of a man's penis symbolized cutting off the flesh symbolically it's the cutting off of the one thing that keeps us from walking in the presence of God and being perfect so circumcision symbolized my man's obligation to do two things number one to walk in God's presence and number two to be perfect how by cutting off the flesh those fleshly desires that we have now from God's perspective circumcision was so important that he said any man who wasn't circumcised would be cut off from the Covenant family look at Genesis chapter 17 verse number 14 and you'll see what I'm talking about any uncircumcised male who has not been circumcised In the Flesh will be cut off from his people he has broken my Covenant now for this reason circumcision was one of the most important religious rights within Judaism if not the most important and it still is today for orthodox Jews or for any Jews for that matter in fact it was so important that in the first century a certain group of Jews called judaizers would follow the Apostle Paul on his missionary journey telling the Gentile converts that they had to be circumcised in order to be saved look at Acts chapter 15 verses 1 and 2. while Paul and Barnabas were at Antioch of Syria some men from Judea arrived and began to teach the Believers unless you are circumcised as required by the law of Moses you cannot be saved Paul and Barnabas disagreed with them arguing vehemently finally the church decided to send Paul and Barnabas to Jerusalem accompanied by some local Believers to talk to the apostles and Elders about this question that's exactly what happened Paul and Barnabas they traveled to Jerusalem to ask the apostles and Elders who was right do the Gentile converts need to be circumcised in order to be saved or not and the Jerusalem Council decided that the Gentile converts did not need to be circumcised in order to be saved they just needed to believe in Jesus as the Messiah and they needed to make him Lord of their life and as Lord of their life they needed to abstain from three things number one making any offerings to Idols in other words idol worship is off the table number two drinking or eating blood the life of the flesh is in the blood and God has given us to us upon the altar we're not to ingest blood and number three sexual immorality in other words if Jesus is truly Lord of your life then you're not going to live like the pagans now you would think that this would have settled the issue once and for all but it didn't you still had judaizers going around telling Gentile converts that they needed to be circumcised and they needed to keep the law of Moses in order to be saved so Paul had to continually address the issues of circumcision and the law but especially circumcision and that's what we're going to look at this morning we're going to look at why circumcision is not necessary for salvation so let's start in the book of Romans Chapter 2 verses 25-29 but before we read that passage of scripture let me explain the Pharisees mentality or perspective concerning circumcision and the entrance into the kingdom of heaven in first century Judaism the Pharisees had the erroneous belief that circumcision guaranteed the descendants of Abraham entrance into the Kingdom of Heaven in fact the Jerusalem talmud States an Israelite child is guaranteed Resurrection if he dies anytime after he is circumcised the midrash says does everyone know what the midrash is the midrash is is a ancient Hebrew or Jewish commentary on the Hebrew Bible that was written in the second century all right so probably about 30 40 years after Paul this ancient commentary is written here's what it says God swore to Abraham that no one who was circumcised would be sent to hell Abraham sits before the Gate of Hell and never allows any circumcised Israelite to enter rabbi minnickum he wrote in his commentary on the book of Moses our ancient rabbis have said that no circumcised man we'll see hell in fact the book of academ says in fact you can order that book today off Amazon Abraham sits before the Gate of Hell and never allows any circumcised Israelite to enter so as you can see the rabbis taught that circumcision guaranteed a Jew into heaven entrance into heaven but what about the Gentiles what guarantees us interest entrance into heaven now I don't mean from the Bible's perspective I mean from a Jewish perspective how did you see it well the Babylonian talmud States just as your forefathers entered the Covenant only with circumcision and immersion everyone knows what immersion is right it's a religious cleansing a ceremony cleaning cleansing in a Mikvah before you went to the Temple mount in fact if you ever traveled to Israel and you go to the Temple Mount when you're coming up the southern steps a little bit back from that they'll show you a Mikvah there were many mikvahs that was for them to take a ceremonial bath because you're not supposed to come in the presence of God filthy you're supposed to be clean all right so it says just as your forefathers entered the Covenant only with circumcision and immersion and sprinkling of blood through the sacrifices in other words you're keeping the levitical law so the prosolutes are the Gentiles us will enter the Covenant only through circumcision immersion and sprinkling of Blood on the altar so what this is saying is that Gentiles must be circumcised and keep the law of Moses in order to be saved and that's what was being taught at the time of Paul it also States this is the Babylonian talmud that a gentile is not deemed to proselyte in other words the son of Abraham until he is circumcised and immersed and if he has not been immersed he remains a gentile yeah and this is why the judaizers were telling the Gentile converts that they needed to be circumcised in order to be saved but it's also why Paul was continually teaching on the subjects of circumcision it's because the Pharisees were perverting the Gospel of Jesus Christ and that's why Paul writes that if any man preaches another gospel other than the gospel that I preached let that man be accursed because it's a perversion of the Gospel of Jesus Christ so now that you know that and how a Jew thinks let's turn to the Book of Romans Chapter 2 verses 25-29 this is a section of which Paul teaches on the issue of circumcision for indeed circumcision is a value if you practice the law but if you are transgressor of the law your circumcision has become uncircumcision if therefore the uncircumcised man keeps the requirements of the law will not his uncircumcision be regarded this circumcision it will not and will not he who is physically uncircumcised if he keeps the law will he not judge you who though having the letter of the law and circumcision are a transgressor of the law for he is not a Jew who is one outwardly neither is circumcision that which is that word in the flesh but he is a Jew who is one inwardly and circumcision is that which is of the Heart by the spirit not by the letter and his praise is not for men but from God very understandable right how many of you just gloss over that when you're doing your Bible reading in the Book of Romans your eyes circumcision is not necessary I'm just going to gloss over this don't do that there's some good stuff in here and let me make it simple for you let's go through this verse by verse and I'll show you exactly what Paul is saying here's verse 25. for indeed circumcision is of value if you practice the law but if you are transgressor of the law your circumcision has become uncircumcision now in this verse Paul is going to argue that being circumcised does not guarantee you entrance into heaven in fact circumcision has no value unless you're able to keep the law perfectly if not it has no value or profit whatsoever and by value Paul means profit or benefit you see the word value is translated from the Greek word means to profit or to benefit so what Paul is saying is that circumcision does not profit a person or it doesn't benefit a person unless they're able to keep the law perfectly now to be honest with you this verse is a little easier to understand if you know Greek and I'm going to show you why I say that I'm going to keep it simple everyone will be able to understand it but I'll be honest with you when I read this in English it's not nearly as understandable as it is when I read it in Greek and let me show you why I say that look back at the first part of verse 25 and I want you to underline the word practice for indeed circumcision is a value if you practice the law now the word practice is translated from the Greek word praso and it means to actually do it if you practice something you act you're actually doing it how many of you have taken piano and you would practice the piano what were you doing you were playing the piano you were actually doing it if you practice what you preach it means you actually do what you're telling others to do but more importantly the word praso was written in the present tense active voice and subjunctive mood and I'm going to make that real simple for you the present tense tells us that it's continual action and it indicates an unbroken process in other words circumcision only benefits a person if he continually or always practices what the law teaches he always does what the law tells him to do that's what the present tense means it means always or continually now let me say that again because this is very important to Paul's argument by using the present tense Paul was saying that circumcision only benefits a person if he continually or always practices what the law teaches now the subjunctive mood tells us that Paul is using a hypothetical situation this is not a real situation this is a hypothetical situation and we'll find out why in just a second so what Paul is saying in the first part of verse 25 is that circumcision only benefits a person if he continually or always practices what the law see teaches but by using the subjunctive mood he's telling us that this is all hypothetical because no one can keep the law perfectly except for who Jesus Christ therefore there's no prophet in being circumcised there is no benefit whatsoever now look at the second part of verse 25 because he's going to look at this from the other side but if you are a transgressor of the law your circumcision has become uncircumcision now don't forget what circumcision is circumcision is the sign that you've accepted the abrahamic Covenant along with the obligation to be perfect and walk in the presence of God and from the Jews perspective the command to be perfect means perfect obedience to the law so Paul is arguing that if you don't keep the law perfectly or in other words if you're a transgressor of the law then what good is the sign of circumcision in essence you're just like the Gentiles who are known as the uncircumcised so from God's perspective your circumcision has become uncircumcision so here's what Paul is saying in a nutshell in verse 25. taking notes write this down he's saying the ritual of circumcision without perfect obedience to the law is of no value or benefit whatsoever yeah and can anyone keep the law perfectly no no but Paul's not finished look at verse 26 if therefore the uncircumcised man keeps the requirements of the law will not his uncircumcision be regarded as circumcision now I want you to underline the word keeps therefore if the uncircumcised man keeps the law now the word keeps is translated from the Greek word through lasso which in this cocktex means to obey or to do what it says but more importantly again it's written in the present tense active voice subjunctive mood the present tense tells us that it's continual action and it indicates an unbroken process so what Paul is saying is if an uncircumcised man continually or always obeys the law or if he always does what the law tells him to do that's what the present tense means now the subjunctive mood tells us that Paul again is using a hypothetical situation so what Paul is saying in verse 26 is this if an uncircumcised man keeps the law perfectly in other words if he always obeys the law if he always does what it says won't God regard the uncircumcised man as if he circumcised now this is a rhetorical question and it's written in a way that expects a positive response for those of you who love Greek it's an interrogative indicative so the answer to Paul's rhetorical question is yes if an uncircumcised man keeps the law perfectly God will regard his uncircumcision as circumcision now again Paul wrote this as a hypothetical situation because no one is able to keep the law perfectly with the exception of Jesus Christ that's why he wrote in the subjunctive mood it has to be hypothetical because no one can do that so as a recap verse 25 tells us that circumcision without perfect obedience to the law is of no value or benefit whatsoever why because you're unrighteous just like the uncircumcised verse 26 tells us that if an uncircumcised man keeps the law perfectly he's righteous therefore even though he's uncircumcised God considers him to be circumcised now again it's written in the subjunctive mood which means that this is a hypothetical situation because no one can keep the law perfectly no one except Jesus Christ but if a person could why wouldn't they need to be circumcised why would god consider their uncircumcision to be circumcision why here's why because they would be righteous perfect walking in the presence of God and not being ruled by their fleshly desires which is the ultimate goal in the first place you don't need the sign because you're doing it you are a living example of it you don't have to see a sign I am the sign when Jesus walked this Earth and he was perfect everyone saw it and when they tried to capture him they tried to trick him his answers his responses always shocked them and shamed them because he always did the law the spirit of the law yeah let's keep going look at verse 27. it will not he who is physically uncircumcised if he keeps the law will he not judge you who though having the letter of the law in other words the scriptures and circumcision are transgressor of the law now this is a continuation of the hypothetical situation in verse 26 and it's written in the form of a question if an uncircumcised man keeps the law perfectly won't he judge the transgressors of the law even though he's uncircumcised and the answer is of course he will the righteous will judge the unrighteous those who keep the law will judge those who break the law now again this is a hypothetical situation because no one can keep the law perfectly except of course Jesus Christ but the point is since we can't keep the law perfectly what value or benefit is circumcision so here's the bottom line up to up to now circumcision is a sign of your obligation to walk in the presence of God and to be perfect and we can't do that therefore we need a savior not a sign so circumcision becomes a sign of what God requires for what we can do therefore we need someone who could Jesus yeah now let's move on to verses 28 and 29. for he is not a Jew who is won outwardly neither a circumcision that which is outward in the flesh but he is a Jew who is one inwardly and circumcision is that which is of the Heart by the spirit not by the letter and his praise is not for men but from God so this is Paul's conclusion concerning circumcision and in his conclusion he's going to answer the question who is a true Jew and that's a good question because if you would have asked the Pharisees at the time of Paul and Jesus Christ who is a true Jew how would they have answered do you know they would have all answered the Same by the way they would have said a true a true Jew is a biological descendant of Abraham who's been circumcised yeah heck you wouldn't have even had to ask the Pharisees you could have asked the Sadducees or the essenes you could have asked any Jew you could have said at the time of Paul and Jesus Christ who is a true Jew and they would have said a true Jew is a biological descendant of Abraham and a person who circumcised in fact if you ask a Jew today say who is a Jew a true Jew they will answer you a true Jew is a biological descendant of Abraham who's been circumcised not being cut off from the Covenant family not being cut off from the air Mary abrahamic Covenant if you come and ask me maybe I'm teaching one day and I'm talking about Jews and Gentiles and I say you know we as Gentiles well if you've never been in church no one's ever told you you come out after the service say uh Pastor I don't have a question who's a Jew what'd you mean by that I would say a Jew is a biological descendant of Abraham who's been circumcised not been cut off from the abrahamic Covenant but Paul says no that's not true yeah Paul says he is not a Jew who is one outwardly but he is a Jew who is one inwardly now the words outwardly and inwardly are very very important and we really don't get the full meaning without understanding the Greek that's why I bold faced these words and I've underlined it outwardly is translated from the Greek word feneros which literally means visible or recognizable but in this context it's used figuratively and it means physically so if you have your Bible I want you to cross out the word outwardly and I want you to write above it physically inwardly on the other hand is translated from the Greek word kryptos kryptos which literally means hidden or conceived concealed you can't see it in other words but in this context it's used figuratively not literally and it means spiritually so here's what I want you to do I want you to cross out the word inwardly and I want you to write above it the word spiritually so notice what Paul is saying he is not a Jew who is one physically but he is a Jew who is one spiritually in other words being a biological descendant of Abraham does not make you a true Jew because being a true Jew isn't something physical it's something spiritual it's not outward it's inward and being circumcised physically doesn't make you a true Jew a true Jew is someone who is circumcised spiritually that's why we've been grafted in us Gentiles who are saved yeah now let's read verses 28 and 29 again and you'll see what I'm saying for he is not a Jew who is one outwardly or physically neither is circumcision that which is outward In the Flesh physical but he is a Jew who is one inwardly spiritually and circumcision is that which is of the heart by the spirit so spiritual circumcision and circumcision of the heart are the same thing everyone with me now what Paul was teaching wasn't new sometimes we look at this and we go wow that's good what Paul taught was it wasn't in fact what Paul was teaching was also taught in the Old Testament yeah I'm going to give you two scriptures to prove it there's lots of scriptures we could go through the pentateuch we could go through the writings of Psalms of David we could go through the prophets and I could show you many scriptures I'm just going to give you two look at Deuteronomy chapter 30 verse number 6. moreover the Lord your God will circumcise your heart not your phallus not the male sex organ God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your descendants so that you can love the Lord your God with all your heart with all your soul in order that you may live you want to love God the way you're supposed to then you must have a circumcised heart the reason we say I can tell if a person is saved or not is because if you're truly saved you got a circumcised heart it gives you love for God no I don't need to check my hormones I know I cry from time to time and people read or they'll write me emails you gotta have your hormones checked I need my hormones checked I've got a circumcised heart but I love God I love Jesus you know my heart wasn't circumcised was it before I was 20. nothing touched me at least not that much now look at Jeremiah chapter 4 verse 4. circumcise yourselves to the Lord and take away the foreskins of your heart that's what Jeremiah is saying this was a new teaching by Paul he knew that circumcision of the flesh that's just a ritual and the heart's not circumcised you're in trouble so here's what Jeremiah's prophesying trying to keep them keep them in this he's prophesying during the time of the Babylonian captivity and what he's trying to do is get them to submit to the Babylonians because if they don't it's going to be bad they're going to destroy the whole city of Jerusalem and then they're going to take everyone into captivity so you need to get in line with what God wants you to do and they don't want to do that so he says circumcis yourself Lord and take away the foreskin of church amen and Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem now let me just ask you this what's a true Jew Someone who lived in Jude and Jerusalem yes but more importantly they were descendants of Abraham who'd been physically circumcised and so he's talking to people who are circumcised but they got a problem they're not circumcised in their heart so he says circumcise or take away the foreskin of your heart you men of Jude inhabitants Jerusalem lest my Fury come forth like fire and burn that none can quench it because the evil of your doings so Paul wasn't teaching something new people in the Old Testament a true Jew was someone who had a circumcised heart so what is spiritual circumcision what is circumcision of the heart well if you're taking notes write this down it's going to come on the screen spiritual circumcision takes place the moment a person trusts in Jesus Christ as his savior which results in him being regenerated by the Holy Spirit at which point he becomes a new creation I know that sounds theological so I want to break it down for you this isn't physical this is spiritual so let me show you the process from the scriptures these are the scriptures that Paul used to explain what spiritual circumcision is look at Galatians 6 15. neither circumcision nor uncircumcision means anything what counts is what a new creation if you're not a new creation you're not going to heaven because you're still the old man there's not a new man let's go further but what does he mean by the new creation we'll look at Second Corinthians 5 17. therefore If any man be in Christ that phrase means saved if you're saved you're in Christ if you're not saved you're not in Christ therefore If any man is saved he is a new creature or creation oh things are passed away I'm not the same as I used to be there's a BC for Alan Nolan and there's an A.D for Alan Nolan before Christ and after I accepted his death burial and Resurrection the old man's passed away behold all things are become new for this new creature now Paul you still say well you know that's all spiritual mumbo jumbo Paul gives us a better picture spiritual circumcision and how it happens in Colossians chapter 2 verses 11 and 12. so let's read this passage of scripture and you'll get it notice what it says when you came to Christ in other words you were saved when you put your faith in Jesus and you made him Lord of your life that's what that means when you came to Christ you were circumcised this is what Paul's writing but not by a physical procedure Paul didn't pull out his pocket knife wasn't like Bobby Christ performed a spiritual circumcision The Cutting away of your sinful nature now if you notice the word nature is italicized I did that it's not in the NLT I did that because this is a great translation of the original Greek except for that because it's the Greek word sarks and it actually means flesh so what it's saying is when you guys say there's a cutting away the flesh the atomic nature wasn't taken away but enough of the flesh was taken away that dang I wish I could walk in the presence of God and be perfect for you were buried with Christ when you were baptized and with him you were raised to New Life because you trusted the mighty power of God who raised Christ from the dead someday I'll I'll teach a series called the mechanics of salvation but basically what happens when you believe in Christ Jesus the Holy Spirit immerses you into the body of Christ we're not talking about water baptism we're talking about spiritual baptism the Holy Spirit who's on the present everywhere at all times baptizes your spirit not your body not your soul your spirit into the body of Christ and Christ is God therefore he's omnipresent too he's everywhere at all times everywhere at all times so the Holy Spirit baptizes you in the body of Christ and you're now in Christ therefore you are crucified with Christ nevertheless you live according to Galatians you're buried with Christ according to Romans you descend into hell with Christ according to Ephesians and when all of your sins are paid for God looked into hell and saw so that it never stand according Leviticus 18 5 and Romans 10 4 and 5 is quoting that God legally raised Christ from the dead and the moment he raised Christ from the dead because you were in Christ you came alive you were resurrected with him not your soul not your body your spirit and you became a new creature that old Spirit was cut away and you're a new creature now one day if you die your soul is going to be released from your body and therefore you're going to go to heaven but even better one day Christ is going to return in your body is going to be resurrected without the oats in nature and you're going to have the physical body your soul and body will be reunited and the oh well I'm getting ahead that's next week anyways but here's the thing that Paul is telling you in Colossians 2 11 12 the moment you believe in Christ you are baptized in his body by the spirit the old man is cut off and you are regenerated and it makes you a new creation oh things are passed away behold All Things become new people that is spiritual circumcision now let's make some application because right now that's all good knowledge you go boy that's good Pastor Alan but how do you apply that well let's do that it's not the ritual of circumcision that matters that's what Paul is saying what matters is what happens inside of you when you get saved there should be a desire to walk in the presence of God and be perfect for him even if you're unable to because you're still in this body you see this is what Paul was saying in Romans he's saying what I want to do I don't do what does he mean by that what my spirit wants to do because I'm a new man I can't do because I'm in this stinking body and it's producing something called testosterone and other type of hormones and guess what it makes me do things that I don't want to do and the things I want to do I don't do the things I don't want to do I do but why don't I want to do what I'm doing why do I not want to do what I do because I'm still in this body but my spirit isn't and if there's not something inside of you that wants to walk in the presence of God and be perfect you probably only experienced a ritual of Christianity you've come to church you read your Bible maybe you say some token prayers there's not a change inside of you you want to know why you're not a new creation inside if you've not been circumcised spiritually by being saved you see something is wrong when a person claims to be a Christian but they act like a pagan in fact that's what the Jerusalem Council was saying tell them they don't need to be circumcised they don't have to obey the law of Moses tell them they only have to accept or believe in Jesus Christ accept him as the Lord but if he's truly lord they're not going to act like the pagan so tell them they're going to abstain from these three things because these are the three things at that time that the pagans were really doing and we're really doing one of those right now which is what sexual immorality but something's wrong when you claim to be a Christian and you're acting like a pagan maybe you're not saved maybe nothing inwardly has actually changed if you're a true Christian you should have a circumcised heart a desire to know God to walk in the presence of God a desire to be perfect now don't get me wrong sometimes we begin to harden our heart because we get into sin of incrementalism before we know it we're not acting like we know we ought to act but the good thing is you're probably convicted of that and even as I'm preaching this there ought to be something inside of you that says man I've gotten away from God and I know it's not right God I hate it if that's you that means you're probably saved if you just look at it and say well you know there never was a number change that's probably cause and you don't have to have an emotional experience I'm not saying that but you do have to believe in Jesus Christ as the Messiah and you do have to make him Lord of your life and put your trust in him and when you do that I promise you you're a new creation and there's going to be a desire to walk in the presence of God and to be perfect can you do it not yet next week we're going to look at that when will we finally be able to do that we're going to find that out next week let's stand so if you're here this morning and you know you've grown up in church all your life you've been baptized but you can't say there was a time you don't have to know the exact date don't give in to those evangelists tell you if you don't know the day or the hour no no no no but there ought to be a time that you can say you know what I put my faith in Jesus and I made him Lord Of My Life [Music] and let me tell you talk about this in the inward change if you really want Jesus to be Lord that's the change that's the change if you're being convicted that you've never made Jesus Lord of your life that's the change that's what means you want to walk in the presence of God and be perfect you want Jesus to be Lord I mean you're going to be perfect at it because still in this sinful body with the sin nature but you want Jesus to be Lord so if you're here this morning and you've never put your faith in Jesus and made him Lord of your life I'm going to give you the opportunity to do that this morning if you're online you knew the very same thing I'm telling these people to do that's here physically I'm going to say a prayer the prayer is not Magic but if you say this prayer and you mean it then there's going to be a change in your heart because in this prayer we're going to put our faith in Jesus and we're going to ask him to be Lord of our life and if you want Jesus to be Lord of your life I promise you you'll be a new creation before you walk out of here don't be looking for how do you feel [Music] so is the intellect will and emotions but if your will wants Jesus to be Lord you'll be a new creation so I want everyone to Bow their heads close their eyes if you want to receive Jesus as your lord and savior here's what you pray God I know I'm a sinner and I know that my sin has separated me from you I don't want to be separated from you God and God I know you've made a way that I can quit being separated I believe you love me and you sent Jesus he's the way and I believe that Jesus died on the cross for my sin but I also believe that when he died his soul went to hell to pay the penalty for my sin and I also believe that what all my sin was paid for God you raised Jesus from the dead Jesus I believe that I trust you did that for me and Jesus I want you to be Lord Of My Life there's parts of My Flesh that doesn't want that the god I want that I want to be able to walk in your presence and be perfect one day I want to go to heaven today I make the decision but to the best of my ability you're going to be Lord of my life thank you for saving me now with every head bowed every eye closed if you're here this morning and you've never said that prayer before the first time I'm not going to embarrass you and say anyone too you won't ask you to come forward but I do want you to confess that Jesus is your lord the Bible says we're to confess with our mouth that Jesus is Lord I'll have you confess with your mouth sometime later you can do it anytime you want after the service to anyone you want but for right now I want you to confess Jesus this Lord I want you to raise your hand real high if you said that prayer and you may Jesus Lord of your life anyone at all if you're online I see that hand there I want you to type in the word Jesus see that hand there anyone else that's two see the hand over there that's three anyone else best decision you'll ever make you want Jesus to be Lord lift your hand up anyone

[Music] thank you [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] it&#39;s good to have you all on online uh if you would let us know where you&#39;re from we have people all over the world that watch our services and it&#39;s kind of neat here where they&#39;re from I&#39;ve gotten so many emails and letters from Australia from Japan Germany all over and it&#39;s kind of neat I actually have one person in Greece who uh will write me every once in a while and he&#39;ll say I appreciate you using the Greek and uh he&#39;ll kind of let me know what it means in modern Greek and what it meant back then but it&#39;s really neat to hear all of these people around the world anyways last week we began a new series on the subject of circumcision and to be honest with you this is a this is a topic that most pastors avoid for several reasons first of all it&#39;s a sensitive subject in that it involves the male sex organ the phallus the penis secondly most pastors don&#39;t understand its purpose they have no idea why God chose circumcision to be the sign of the abrahamic Covenant look at Genesis chapter 17 verse number 11 and you&#39;ll see what I&#39;m talking about you are to undergo circumcision and it will be the sign of the Covenant between me and you and if you want to get even more specific it&#39;s a sign that Abraham and his descendants had also accepted the abrahamic Covenant along with the stipulations within it and what are those stipulations we&#39;ll look at Genesis chapter 17 verses 1 and 2. and when Abram was 99 years old the Lord appeared to Abram and said unto him I am the almighty God walk before me and be thou perfect and I will make my Covenant between me and thee and will multiply thee exceedingly so those are the two stipulations number one to walk before God or in other words to walk in his presence and number two to be perfect now let me ask you a question what hinders us from doing those two things well obviously it&#39;s the flesh our flesh or sinful desires is what keeps us from being perfect and walking in the presence of God now let me ask you another question which part of a man&#39;s Anatomy represents the lust of the flesh more than any other well that&#39;s a no-brainer it&#39;s the male sex organ so to cut off the foreskin of a man&#39;s penis symbolized cutting off the flesh symbolically it&#39;s the cutting off of the one thing that keeps us from walking in the presence of God and being perfect so circumcision symbolized my man&#39;s obligation to do two things number one to walk in God&#39;s presence and number two to be perfect how by cutting off the flesh those fleshly desires that we have now from God&#39;s perspective circumcision was so important that he said any man who wasn&#39;t circumcised would be cut off from the Covenant family look at Genesis chapter 17 verse number 14 and you&#39;ll see what I&#39;m talking about any uncircumcised male who has not been circumcised In the Flesh will be cut off from his people he has broken my Covenant now for this reason circumcision was one of the most important religious rights within Judaism if not the most important and it still is today for orthodox Jews or for any Jews for that matter in fact it was so important that in the first century a certain group of Jews called judaizers would follow the Apostle Paul on his missionary journey telling the Gentile converts that they had to be circumcised in order to be saved look at Acts chapter 15 verses 1 and 2. while Paul and Barnabas were at Antioch of Syria some men from Judea arrived and began to teach the Believers unless you are circumcised as required by the law of Moses you cannot be saved Paul and Barnabas disagreed with them arguing vehemently finally the church decided to send Paul and Barnabas to Jerusalem accompanied by some local Believers to talk to the apostles and Elders about this question that&#39;s exactly what happened Paul and Barnabas they traveled to Jerusalem to ask the apostles and Elders who was right do the Gentile converts need to be circumcised in order to be saved or not and the Jerusalem Council decided that the Gentile converts did not need to be circumcised in order to be saved they just needed to believe in Jesus as the Messiah and they needed to make him Lord of their life and as Lord of their life they needed to abstain from three things number one making any offerings to Idols in other words idol worship is off the table number two drinking or eating blood the life of the flesh is in the blood and God has given us to us upon the altar we&#39;re not to ingest blood and number three sexual immorality in other words if Jesus is truly Lord of your life then you&#39;re not going to live like the pagans now you would think that this would have settled the issue once and for all but it didn&#39;t you still had judaizers going around telling Gentile converts that they needed to be circumcised and they needed to keep the law of Moses in order to be saved so Paul had to continually address the issues of circumcision and the law but especially circumcision and that&#39;s what we&#39;re going to look at this morning we&#39;re going to look at why circumcision is not necessary for salvation so let&#39;s start in the book of Romans Chapter 2 verses 25-29 but before we read that passage of scripture let me explain the Pharisees mentality or perspective concerning circumcision and the entrance into the kingdom of heaven in first century Judaism the Pharisees had the erroneous belief that circumcision guaranteed the descendants of Abraham entrance into the Kingdom of Heaven in fact the Jerusalem talmud States an Israelite child is guaranteed Resurrection if he dies anytime after he is circumcised the midrash says does everyone know what the midrash is the midrash is is a ancient Hebrew or Jewish commentary on the Hebrew Bible that was written in the second century all right so probably about 30 40 years after Paul this ancient commentary is written here&#39;s what it says God swore to Abraham that no one who was circumcised would be sent to hell Abraham sits before the Gate of Hell and never allows any circumcised Israelite to enter rabbi minnickum he wrote in his commentary on the book of Moses our ancient rabbis have said that no circumcised man we&#39;ll see hell in fact the book of academ says in fact you can order that book today off Amazon Abraham sits before the Gate of Hell and never allows any circumcised Israelite to enter so as you can see the rabbis taught that circumcision guaranteed a Jew into heaven entrance into heaven but what about the Gentiles what guarantees us interest entrance into heaven now I don&#39;t mean from the Bible&#39;s perspective I mean from a Jewish perspective how did you see it well the Babylonian talmud States just as your forefathers entered the Covenant only with circumcision and immersion everyone knows what immersion is right it&#39;s a religious cleansing a ceremony cleaning cleansing in a Mikvah before you went to the Temple mount in fact if you ever traveled to Israel and you go to the Temple Mount when you&#39;re coming up the southern steps a little bit back from that they&#39;ll show you a Mikvah there were many mikvahs that was for them to take a ceremonial bath because you&#39;re not supposed to come in the presence of God filthy you&#39;re supposed to be clean all right so it says just as your forefathers entered the Covenant only with circumcision and immersion and sprinkling of blood through the sacrifices in other words you&#39;re keeping the levitical law so the prosolutes are the Gentiles us will enter the Covenant only through circumcision immersion and sprinkling of Blood on the altar so what this is saying is that Gentiles must be circumcised and keep the law of Moses in order to be saved and that&#39;s what was being taught at the time of Paul it also States this is the Babylonian talmud that a gentile is not deemed to proselyte in other words the son of Abraham until he is circumcised and immersed and if he has not been immersed he remains a gentile yeah and this is why the judaizers were telling the Gentile converts that they needed to be circumcised in order to be saved but it&#39;s also why Paul was continually teaching on the subjects of circumcision it&#39;s because the Pharisees were perverting the Gospel of Jesus Christ and that&#39;s why Paul writes that if any man preaches another gospel other than the gospel that I preached let that man be accursed because it&#39;s a perversion of the Gospel of Jesus Christ so now that you know that and how a Jew thinks let&#39;s turn to the Book of Romans Chapter 2 verses 25-29 this is a section of which Paul teaches on the issue of circumcision for indeed circumcision is a value if you practice the law but if you are transgressor of the law your circumcision has become uncircumcision if therefore the uncircumcised man keeps the requirements of the law will not his uncircumcision be regarded this circumcision it will not and will not he who is physically uncircumcised if he keeps the law will he not judge you who though having the letter of the law and circumcision are a transgressor of the law for he is not a Jew who is one outwardly neither is circumcision that which is that word in the flesh but he is a Jew who is one inwardly and circumcision is that which is of the Heart by the spirit not by the letter and his praise is not for men but from God very understandable right how many of you just gloss over that when you&#39;re doing your Bible reading in the Book of Romans your eyes circumcision is not necessary I&#39;m just going to gloss over this don&#39;t do that there&#39;s some good stuff in here and let me make it simple for you let&#39;s go through this verse by verse and I&#39;ll show you exactly what Paul is saying here&#39;s verse 25. for indeed circumcision is of value if you practice the law but if you are transgressor of the law your circumcision has become uncircumcision now in this verse Paul is going to argue that being circumcised does not guarantee you entrance into heaven in fact circumcision has no value unless you&#39;re able to keep the law perfectly if not it has no value or profit whatsoever and by value Paul means profit or benefit you see the word value is translated from the Greek word means to profit or to benefit so what Paul is saying is that circumcision does not profit a person or it doesn&#39;t benefit a person unless they&#39;re able to keep the law perfectly now to be honest with you this verse is a little easier to understand if you know Greek and I&#39;m going to show you why I say that I&#39;m going to keep it simple everyone will be able to understand it but I&#39;ll be honest with you when I read this in English it&#39;s not nearly as understandable as it is when I read it in Greek and let me show you why I say that look back at the first part of verse 25 and I want you to underline the word practice for indeed circumcision is a value if you practice the law now the word practice is translated from the Greek word praso and it means to actually do it if you practice something you act you&#39;re actually doing it how many of you have taken piano and you would practice the piano what were you doing you were playing the piano you were actually doing it if you practice what you preach it means you actually do what you&#39;re telling others to do but more importantly the word praso was written in the present tense active voice and subjunctive mood and I&#39;m going to make that real simple for you the present tense tells us that it&#39;s continual action and it indicates an unbroken process in other words circumcision only benefits a person if he continually or always practices what the law teaches he always does what the law tells him to do that&#39;s what the present tense means it means always or continually now let me say that again because this is very important to Paul&#39;s argument by using the present tense Paul was saying that circumcision only benefits a person if he continually or always practices what the law teaches now the subjunctive mood tells us that Paul is using a hypothetical situation this is not a real situation this is a hypothetical situation and we&#39;ll find out why in just a second so what Paul is saying in the first part of verse 25 is that circumcision only benefits a person if he continually or always practices what the law see teaches but by using the subjunctive mood he&#39;s telling us that this is all hypothetical because no one can keep the law perfectly except for who Jesus Christ therefore there&#39;s no prophet in being circumcised there is no benefit whatsoever now look at the second part of verse 25 because he&#39;s going to look at this from the other side but if you are a transgressor of the law your circumcision has become uncircumcision now don&#39;t forget what circumcision is circumcision is the sign that you&#39;ve accepted the abrahamic Covenant along with the obligation to be perfect and walk in the presence of God and from the Jews perspective the command to be perfect means perfect obedience to the law so Paul is arguing that if you don&#39;t keep the law perfectly or in other words if you&#39;re a transgressor of the law then what good is the sign of circumcision in essence you&#39;re just like the Gentiles who are known as the uncircumcised so from God&#39;s perspective your circumcision has become uncircumcision so here&#39;s what Paul is saying in a nutshell in verse 25. taking notes write this down he&#39;s saying the ritual of circumcision without perfect obedience to the law is of no value or benefit whatsoever yeah and can anyone keep the law perfectly no no but Paul&#39;s not finished look at verse 26 if therefore the uncircumcised man keeps the requirements of the law will not his uncircumcision be regarded as circumcision now I want you to underline the word keeps therefore if the uncircumcised man keeps the law now the word keeps is translated from the Greek word through lasso which in this cocktex means to obey or to do what it says but more importantly again it&#39;s written in the present tense active voice subjunctive mood the present tense tells us that it&#39;s continual action and it indicates an unbroken process so what Paul is saying is if an uncircumcised man continually or always obeys the law or if he always does what the law tells him to do that&#39;s what the present tense means now the subjunctive mood tells us that Paul again is using a hypothetical situation so what Paul is saying in verse 26 is this if an uncircumcised man keeps the law perfectly in other words if he always obeys the law if he always does what it says won&#39;t God regard the uncircumcised man as if he circumcised now this is a rhetorical question and it&#39;s written in a way that expects a positive response for those of you who love Greek it&#39;s an interrogative indicative so the answer to Paul&#39;s rhetorical question is yes if an uncircumcised man keeps the law perfectly God will regard his uncircumcision as circumcision now again Paul wrote this as a hypothetical situation because no one is able to keep the law perfectly with the exception of Jesus Christ that&#39;s why he wrote in the subjunctive mood it has to be hypothetical because no one can do that so as a recap verse 25 tells us that circumcision without perfect obedience to the law is of no value or benefit whatsoever why because you&#39;re unrighteous just like the uncircumcised verse 26 tells us that if an uncircumcised man keeps the law perfectly he&#39;s righteous therefore even though he&#39;s uncircumcised God considers him to be circumcised now again it&#39;s written in the subjunctive mood which means that this is a hypothetical situation because no one can keep the law perfectly no one except Jesus Christ but if a person could why wouldn&#39;t they need to be circumcised why would god consider their uncircumcision to be circumcision why here&#39;s why because they would be righteous perfect walking in the presence of God and not being ruled by their fleshly desires which is the ultimate goal in the first place you don&#39;t need the sign because you&#39;re doing it you are a living example of it you don&#39;t have to see a sign I am the sign when Jesus walked this Earth and he was perfect everyone saw it and when they tried to capture him they tried to trick him his answers his responses always shocked them and shamed them because he always did the law the spirit of the law yeah let&#39;s keep going look at verse 27. it will not he who is physically uncircumcised if he keeps the law will he not judge you who though having the letter of the law in other words the scriptures and circumcision are transgressor of the law now this is a continuation of the hypothetical situation in verse 26 and it&#39;s written in the form of a question if an uncircumcised man keeps the law perfectly won&#39;t he judge the transgressors of the law even though he&#39;s uncircumcised and the answer is of course he will the righteous will judge the unrighteous those who keep the law will judge those who break the law now again this is a hypothetical situation because no one can keep the law perfectly except of course Jesus Christ but the point is since we can&#39;t keep the law perfectly what value or benefit is circumcision so here&#39;s the bottom line up to up to now circumcision is a sign of your obligation to walk in the presence of God and to be perfect and we can&#39;t do that therefore we need a savior not a sign so circumcision becomes a sign of what God requires for what we can do therefore we need someone who could Jesus yeah now let&#39;s move on to verses 28 and 29. for he is not a Jew who is won outwardly neither a circumcision that which is outward in the flesh but he is a Jew who is one inwardly and circumcision is that which is of the Heart by the spirit not by the letter and his praise is not for men but from God so this is Paul&#39;s conclusion concerning circumcision and in his conclusion he&#39;s going to answer the question who is a true Jew and that&#39;s a good question because if you would have asked the Pharisees at the time of Paul and Jesus Christ who is a true Jew how would they have answered do you know they would have all answered the Same by the way they would have said a true a true Jew is a biological descendant of Abraham who&#39;s been circumcised yeah heck you wouldn&#39;t have even had to ask the Pharisees you could have asked the Sadducees or the essenes you could have asked any Jew you could have said at the time of Paul and Jesus Christ who is a true Jew and they would have said a true Jew is a biological descendant of Abraham and a person who circumcised in fact if you ask a Jew today say who is a Jew a true Jew they will answer you a true Jew is a biological descendant of Abraham who&#39;s been circumcised not being cut off from the Covenant family not being cut off from the air Mary abrahamic Covenant if you come and ask me maybe I&#39;m teaching one day and I&#39;m talking about Jews and Gentiles and I say you know we as Gentiles well if you&#39;ve never been in church no one&#39;s ever told you you come out after the service say uh Pastor I don&#39;t have a question who&#39;s a Jew what&#39;d you mean by that I would say a Jew is a biological descendant of Abraham who&#39;s been circumcised not been cut off from the abrahamic Covenant but Paul says no that&#39;s not true yeah Paul says he is not a Jew who is one outwardly but he is a Jew who is one inwardly now the words outwardly and inwardly are very very important and we really don&#39;t get the full meaning without understanding the Greek that&#39;s why I bold faced these words and I&#39;ve underlined it outwardly is translated from the Greek word feneros which literally means visible or recognizable but in this context it&#39;s used figuratively and it means physically so if you have your Bible I want you to cross out the word outwardly and I want you to write above it physically inwardly on the other hand is translated from the Greek word kryptos kryptos which literally means hidden or conceived concealed you can&#39;t see it in other words but in this context it&#39;s used figuratively not literally and it means spiritually so here&#39;s what I want you to do I want you to cross out the word inwardly and I want you to write above it the word spiritually so notice what Paul is saying he is not a Jew who is one physically but he is a Jew who is one spiritually in other words being a biological descendant of Abraham does not make you a true Jew because being a true Jew isn&#39;t something physical it&#39;s something spiritual it&#39;s not outward it&#39;s inward and being circumcised physically doesn&#39;t make you a true Jew a true Jew is someone who is circumcised spiritually that&#39;s why we&#39;ve been grafted in us Gentiles who are saved yeah now let&#39;s read verses 28 and 29 again and you&#39;ll see what I&#39;m saying for he is not a Jew who is one outwardly or physically neither is circumcision that which is outward In the Flesh physical but he is a Jew who is one inwardly spiritually and circumcision is that which is of the heart by the spirit so spiritual circumcision and circumcision of the heart are the same thing everyone with me now what Paul was teaching wasn&#39;t new sometimes we look at this and we go wow that&#39;s good what Paul taught was it wasn&#39;t in fact what Paul was teaching was also taught in the Old Testament yeah I&#39;m going to give you two scriptures to prove it there&#39;s lots of scriptures we could go through the pentateuch we could go through the writings of Psalms of David we could go through the prophets and I could show you many scriptures I&#39;m just going to give you two look at Deuteronomy chapter 30 verse number 6. moreover the Lord your God will circumcise your heart not your phallus not the male sex organ God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your descendants so that you can love the Lord your God with all your heart with all your soul in order that you may live you want to love God the way you&#39;re supposed to then you must have a circumcised heart the reason we say I can tell if a person is saved or not is because if you&#39;re truly saved you got a circumcised heart it gives you love for God no I don&#39;t need to check my hormones I know I cry from time to time and people read or they&#39;ll write me emails you gotta have your hormones checked I need my hormones checked I&#39;ve got a circumcised heart but I love God I love Jesus you know my heart wasn&#39;t circumcised was it before I was 20. nothing touched me at least not that much now look at Jeremiah chapter 4 verse 4. circumcise yourselves to the Lord and take away the foreskins of your heart that&#39;s what Jeremiah is saying this was a new teaching by Paul he knew that circumcision of the flesh that&#39;s just a ritual and the heart&#39;s not circumcised you&#39;re in trouble so here&#39;s what Jeremiah&#39;s prophesying trying to keep them keep them in this he&#39;s prophesying during the time of the Babylonian captivity and what he&#39;s trying to do is get them to submit to the Babylonians because if they don&#39;t it&#39;s going to be bad they&#39;re going to destroy the whole city of Jerusalem and then they&#39;re going to take everyone into captivity so you need to get in line with what God wants you to do and they don&#39;t want to do that so he says circumcis yourself Lord and take away the foreskin of church amen and Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem now let me just ask you this what&#39;s a true Jew Someone who lived in Jude and Jerusalem yes but more importantly they were descendants of Abraham who&#39;d been physically circumcised and so he&#39;s talking to people who are circumcised but they got a problem they&#39;re not circumcised in their heart so he says circumcise or take away the foreskin of your heart you men of Jude inhabitants Jerusalem lest my Fury come forth like fire and burn that none can quench it because the evil of your doings so Paul wasn&#39;t teaching something new people in the Old Testament a true Jew was someone who had a circumcised heart so what is spiritual circumcision what is circumcision of the heart well if you&#39;re taking notes write this down it&#39;s going to come on the screen spiritual circumcision takes place the moment a person trusts in Jesus Christ as his savior which results in him being regenerated by the Holy Spirit at which point he becomes a new creation I know that sounds theological so I want to break it down for you this isn&#39;t physical this is spiritual so let me show you the process from the scriptures these are the scriptures that Paul used to explain what spiritual circumcision is look at Galatians 6 15. neither circumcision nor uncircumcision means anything what counts is what a new creation if you&#39;re not a new creation you&#39;re not going to heaven because you&#39;re still the old man there&#39;s not a new man let&#39;s go further but what does he mean by the new creation we&#39;ll look at Second Corinthians 5 17. therefore If any man be in Christ that phrase means saved if you&#39;re saved you&#39;re in Christ if you&#39;re not saved you&#39;re not in Christ therefore If any man is saved he is a new creature or creation oh things are passed away I&#39;m not the same as I used to be there&#39;s a BC for Alan Nolan and there&#39;s an A.D for Alan Nolan before Christ and after I accepted his death burial and Resurrection the old man&#39;s passed away behold all things are become new for this new creature now Paul you still say well you know that&#39;s all spiritual mumbo jumbo Paul gives us a better picture spiritual circumcision and how it happens in Colossians chapter 2 verses 11 and 12. so let&#39;s read this passage of scripture and you&#39;ll get it notice what it says when you came to Christ in other words you were saved when you put your faith in Jesus and you made him Lord of your life that&#39;s what that means when you came to Christ you were circumcised this is what Paul&#39;s writing but not by a physical procedure Paul didn&#39;t pull out his pocket knife wasn&#39;t like Bobby Christ performed a spiritual circumcision The Cutting away of your sinful nature now if you notice the word nature is italicized I did that it&#39;s not in the NLT I did that because this is a great translation of the original Greek except for that because it&#39;s the Greek word sarks and it actually means flesh so what it&#39;s saying is when you guys say there&#39;s a cutting away the flesh the atomic nature wasn&#39;t taken away but enough of the flesh was taken away that dang I wish I could walk in the presence of God and be perfect for you were buried with Christ when you were baptized and with him you were raised to New Life because you trusted the mighty power of God who raised Christ from the dead someday I&#39;ll I&#39;ll teach a series called the mechanics of salvation but basically what happens when you believe in Christ Jesus the Holy Spirit immerses you into the body of Christ we&#39;re not talking about water baptism we&#39;re talking about spiritual baptism the Holy Spirit who&#39;s on the present everywhere at all times baptizes your spirit not your body not your soul your spirit into the body of Christ and Christ is God therefore he&#39;s omnipresent too he&#39;s everywhere at all times everywhere at all times so the Holy Spirit baptizes you in the body of Christ and you&#39;re now in Christ therefore you are crucified with Christ nevertheless you live according to Galatians you&#39;re buried with Christ according to Romans you descend into hell with Christ according to Ephesians and when all of your sins are paid for God looked into hell and saw so that it never stand according Leviticus 18 5 and Romans 10 4 and 5 is quoting that God legally raised Christ from the dead and the moment he raised Christ from the dead because you were in Christ you came alive you were resurrected with him not your soul not your body your spirit and you became a new creature that old Spirit was cut away and you&#39;re a new creature now one day if you die your soul is going to be released from your body and therefore you&#39;re going to go to heaven but even better one day Christ is going to return in your body is going to be resurrected without the oats in nature and you&#39;re going to have the physical body your soul and body will be reunited and the oh well I&#39;m getting ahead that&#39;s next week anyways but here&#39;s the thing that Paul is telling you in Colossians 2 11 12 the moment you believe in Christ you are baptized in his body by the spirit the old man is cut off and you are regenerated and it makes you a new creation oh things are passed away behold All Things become new people that is spiritual circumcision now let&#39;s make some application because right now that&#39;s all good knowledge you go boy that&#39;s good Pastor Alan but how do you apply that well let&#39;s do that it&#39;s not the ritual of circumcision that matters that&#39;s what Paul is saying what matters is what happens inside of you when you get saved there should be a desire to walk in the presence of God and be perfect for him even if you&#39;re unable to because you&#39;re still in this body you see this is what Paul was saying in Romans he&#39;s saying what I want to do I don&#39;t do what does he mean by that what my spirit wants to do because I&#39;m a new man I can&#39;t do because I&#39;m in this stinking body and it&#39;s producing something called testosterone and other type of hormones and guess what it makes me do things that I don&#39;t want to do and the things I want to do I don&#39;t do the things I don&#39;t want to do I do but why don&#39;t I want to do what I&#39;m doing why do I not want to do what I do because I&#39;m still in this body but my spirit isn&#39;t and if there&#39;s not something inside of you that wants to walk in the presence of God and be perfect you probably only experienced a ritual of Christianity you&#39;ve come to church you read your Bible maybe you say some token prayers there&#39;s not a change inside of you you want to know why you&#39;re not a new creation inside if you&#39;ve not been circumcised spiritually by being saved you see something is wrong when a person claims to be a Christian but they act like a pagan in fact that&#39;s what the Jerusalem Council was saying tell them they don&#39;t need to be circumcised they don&#39;t have to obey the law of Moses tell them they only have to accept or believe in Jesus Christ accept him as the Lord but if he&#39;s truly lord they&#39;re not going to act like the pagan so tell them they&#39;re going to abstain from these three things because these are the three things at that time that the pagans were really doing and we&#39;re really doing one of those right now which is what sexual immorality but something&#39;s wrong when you claim to be a Christian and you&#39;re acting like a pagan maybe you&#39;re not saved maybe nothing inwardly has actually changed if you&#39;re a true Christian you should have a circumcised heart a desire to know God to walk in the presence of God a desire to be perfect now don&#39;t get me wrong sometimes we begin to harden our heart because we get into sin of incrementalism before we know it we&#39;re not acting like we know we ought to act but the good thing is you&#39;re probably convicted of that and even as I&#39;m preaching this there ought to be something inside of you that says man I&#39;ve gotten away from God and I know it&#39;s not right God I hate it if that&#39;s you that means you&#39;re probably saved if you just look at it and say well you know there never was a number change that&#39;s probably cause and you don&#39;t have to have an emotional experience I&#39;m not saying that but you do have to believe in Jesus Christ as the Messiah and you do have to make him Lord of your life and put your trust in him and when you do that I promise you you&#39;re a new creation and there&#39;s going to be a desire to walk in the presence of God and to be perfect can you do it not yet next week we&#39;re going to look at that when will we finally be able to do that we&#39;re going to find that out next week let&#39;s stand so if you&#39;re here this morning and you know you&#39;ve grown up in church all your life you&#39;ve been baptized but you can&#39;t say there was a time you don&#39;t have to know the exact date don&#39;t give in to those evangelists tell you if you don&#39;t know the day or the hour no no no no but there ought to be a time that you can say you know what I put my faith in Jesus and I made him Lord Of My Life [Music] and let me tell you talk about this in the inward change if you really want Jesus to be Lord that&#39;s the change that&#39;s the change if you&#39;re being convicted that you&#39;ve never made Jesus Lord of your life that&#39;s the change that&#39;s what means you want to walk in the presence of God and be perfect you want Jesus to be Lord I mean you&#39;re going to be perfect at it because still in this sinful body with the sin nature but you want Jesus to be Lord so if you&#39;re here this morning and you&#39;ve never put your faith in Jesus and made him Lord of your life I&#39;m going to give you the opportunity to do that this morning if you&#39;re online you knew the very same thing I&#39;m telling these people to do that&#39;s here physically I&#39;m going to say a prayer the prayer is not Magic but if you say this prayer and you mean it then there&#39;s going to be a change in your heart because in this prayer we&#39;re going to put our faith in Jesus and we&#39;re going to ask him to be Lord of our life and if you want Jesus to be Lord of your life I promise you you&#39;ll be a new creation before you walk out of here don&#39;t be looking for how do you feel [Music] so is the intellect will and emotions but if your will wants Jesus to be Lord you&#39;ll be a new creation so I want everyone to Bow their heads close their eyes if you want to receive Jesus as your lord and savior here&#39;s what you pray God I know I&#39;m a sinner and I know that my sin has separated me from you I don&#39;t want to be separated from you God and God I know you&#39;ve made a way that I can quit being separated I believe you love me and you sent Jesus he&#39;s the way and I believe that Jesus died on the cross for my sin but I also believe that when he died his soul went to hell to pay the penalty for my sin and I also believe that what all my sin was paid for God you raised Jesus from the dead Jesus I believe that I trust you did that for me and Jesus I want you to be Lord Of My Life there&#39;s parts of My Flesh that doesn&#39;t want that the god I want that I want to be able to walk in your presence and be perfect one day I want to go to heaven today I make the decision but to the best of my ability you&#39;re going to be Lord of my life thank you for saving me now with every head bowed every eye closed if you&#39;re here this morning and you&#39;ve never said that prayer before the first time I&#39;m not going to embarrass you and say anyone too you won&#39;t ask you to come forward but I do want you to confess that Jesus is your lord the Bible says we&#39;re to confess with our mouth that Jesus is Lord I&#39;ll have you confess with your mouth sometime later you can do it anytime you want after the service to anyone you want but for right now I want you to confess Jesus this Lord I want you to raise your hand real high if you said that prayer and you may Jesus Lord of your life anyone at all if you&#39;re online I see that hand there I want you to type in the word Jesus see that hand there anyone else that&#39;s two see the hand over there that&#39;s three anyone else best decision you&#39;ll ever make you want Jesus to be Lord lift your hand up anyone

Transcript for:Understanding Circumcision in Christianity part 2

Transcript for:
Understanding Circumcision in Christianity part 2