In his sermon titled 'Circumcision is that of the Heart,' Pastor Steve Hopkins addresses the congregation about the deeper spiritual meaning of circumcision as outlined in Romans 2:25-29. He emphasizes that true circumcision is not an outward physical act but an inward spiritual transformation of the heart. Drawing on Psalm 51 and the teachings of John the Baptist and Jeremiah, Pastor Hopkins warns against becoming 'sermon-hardened'—a state where individuals become indifferent to spiritual conviction despite regular church attendance. He critiques the Jewish brethren for their reliance on outward signs like circumcision while failing to uphold the law, thus blaspheming God's name among the Gentiles. Through rhetorical and hypothetical questions, Pastor Hopkins illustrates that the true people of God are those who have undergone a heart transformation, irrespective of outward rituals. He concludes by highlighting that salvation is through the grace of faith, not through mere adherence to religious rituals, urging believers to seek a genuine inward change that aligns with God's will.

Welcome back to Barnet Bible Church. Join us this week as Pastor Hopkins continues his sermon series through the book of Romans. Turn with me in your Bibles to Romans chapter 2. We're going to be working our way from verse 25 through 29, the Lord willing. Before we stand for the reading of the Word of the Lord, I was just thinking about this hymn.

It's a wonderful, wonderful hymn, wonderful psalm. Of course, this is David, right? It's just a humble, humble Psalm 51. I heard a pastor recently preaching on Psalm 51. He said every Christian should memorize Psalm 51, should have it memorized.

And I was just thinking about this verse 6, Sinners then shall learn from me and return, O God, to Thee." You know, we want to be where God wants us to be in our walk with Him, but we also want others, because of our life and our example to learn from us and return to God. I was thinking about earlier the Puritans talking about sermon-hardened churchgoers and how it's easy to become sermon-hardened. Been in church for years and years, maybe decades, maybe you grew up in the church, And you can remember a time when you were under conviction, but that time's gone. You can remember a time when the Word of God pierced your heart, but that time's gone. You can remember a time when it seems as though the Spirit of God would not let up and would not let you go, But that time's gone.

And now you're hardened, hardened to the Word of God, hardened to the Spirit of God. And that's a terrible place to be. That's a fearful place to be. You've heard me talk about Don and I, when Don was alive, praying for the young man on the back porch of the church meeting house we used to meet at, and how he was sermon-hardened, and he was not a member of the church, a visitor, and how he was even able to openly admit where he was at and it wasn't a good place. And kind of frustrated after a while sitting there and speaking with him, Don and I prayed for him that whatever it would take for God to wake him up and to shake him and wake him up, that God would do it.

And whatever it would take, even if it meant something catastrophic had to come into his life in order to shake him and to awaken him out of his slumber that God would would be so merciful as to bring that about in his life. And we know God by his grace can just change the hardest heart, the most hardened sinner, just like that, but sometimes he uses experiences. And we say we're gonna pray that whatever it takes, God will will awaken you and shake you and awake you. And a couple of weeks later, he had a accident in his truck, and he rolled his truck, and his dog was thrown from the vehicle and killed, and I think he was thrown from the vehicle, but he lived, but nothing changed. He was hardened, hardened.

And one day I was preaching on the street in Burnet, preaching the gospel, and all of a sudden the car pulls up in front of me and the windows down and a young man looks over right at me and he's at a red light and he's my captive audience and it was him and he just kind of looked down, hardened. Are you sermon hardened? Pain has a way maybe of making you think in ways that you would not normally or otherwise think. If you would, stand with me. I don't want to be bringing everything so down here today, but if you would stand with me for the reading of the Word of the Lord.

We're going to read verses 25 through 29, and we're going to be reading about a people who are hardened, hardened, not affected by the Word of God, who could do all of the outward things that the so-called people of God do, but have no inward change or movement whatsoever. Let's read beginning with verse 25 through verse 29. For circumcision verily profiteth if thou keep the law, but if thou be a breaker of the law, thy circumcision is made uncircumcision. Therefore, if the uncircumcision keep the righteousness of the law, shall not his uncircumcision be counted for circumcision? And shall not uncircumcision, which is by nature, if it fulfill the law, judge thee, who by the letter and circumcision dost transgress the law.

For he is not a Jew, which is one outwardly, neither is that circumcision, which is outward in the flesh. But he is a Jew, which is one inwardly, and circumcision is that of the heart, in the Spirit, and not in the letter, whose praise is not of men, but of God." Let's pray. Father, we praise you for your infinite greatness. Father, we thank you for your holy word, which is the very word of truth. And once again, oh God, we ask that by your spirit, the Spirit of truth, you would illuminate the Word of truth and give your people a clear understanding of these God-breathed words, for we ask it in the name of your Son, our Lord Jesus Christ.

Amen. Amen. You may be seated. As we pick up with verse 25 this morning, the apostle writes four, not the number four, but F-O-R, four, which means that he is connecting what he is about to say with what he has just said. He wants to connect what he's about to say with what he has just said.

He wants to connect what he's about to say with what he has just said. And what he has just said is this, the name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles through you. And you remember he's speaking in all of chapter 2, he's speaking to his Jewish brethren. He's speaking to his Jewish brethren according to the flesh. And he's telling them, look, or he has been telling them, look you make your boast of God, but you don't keep the law of God.

And so by your breaking of the law, you show your contempt for both God and His law. And so the effect is that the name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of your hypocritical lives. You present yourselves, he's been telling them, as guides to the blind. You present yourself as instructors of babes, but you don't keep the law you preach that others should keep. And the Gentiles have been watching.

And I said last week, you know, this can be applied to the church as well, And we need to remember that the world is watching. The world's watching us. But the Gentiles have been watching, he tells them, and they know the true manner of your lives. They know that you do not practice what you preach. And they blaspheme the name of God on account of you.

Why? Because you, the Jewish people, according to the flesh, are perceived to be the people of God. As far as the Gentiles are concerned, you are God's people, Paul's been telling them. I mean you present yourselves as such before them and you of all people should practice what you preach but you don't. And the Gentiles are witnesses to the fact and they say the Jews they say one thing and they do another.

And then the Gentiles reproach the name of God on account of you. The reproaches that should fall upon your heads alone as hypocrites fall upon God's name because you're seen as His people. As Calvin says, as if His name were written on your foreheads. That's the way they view you. That's the way they see you.

So when Paul says, for, there's profit in being circumcised. There is profit in outward obedience. If there's inward obedience, there is. But if you're a lawbreaker, your outward sign of circumcision is of no avail. It's of no avail.

Paul has already been driving home the fact that his Jewish brethren, according to the flesh, were in fact lawbreakers. But now he's revealing their greatest boast. The greatest boast of the Jews down through the ages has been that they kept the law of circumcision. Every male in our households has been circumcised. We're obedient to the law of God.

Their greatest boasting in the law is that they had kept God's requirement, which he gave to Abraham and to his descendants, to cut off the foreskin of every male in their households, be they children or full grown male servants residing under their roofs. So boast. We do it. Just like Abraham did. Paul is telling them the outward sign, the ritual, is without merit if you are lawbreakers and you are lawbreakers is what he's been telling them.

You say, which we looked at last week, don't steal but you steal. And we gave evidences of these in the Jewish community of the Apostles' Day. You say don't commit adultery, But you commit adultery. If you had kept the law as the law of God requires, if you'd kept it perfectly, your circumcision would have some value. But because you're breakers of the law, your circumcision is nothing but an empty sign.

Very much like the rituals in the church, isn't it? Well, you go to church and baptize, and share in the Lord's table. We do the Christian thing. We do all the stuff. We use the Christian lingo.

All of those outward signs are empty if there's no internal integrity. God desires integrity in the inward parts, the psalmist said. You Jews, revealed by your wicked lives, he tells them, that you're the people of God in appearance only. It's just an appearance thing. You're the people of God in appearance only, in outward signs only.

And in verse 26, the apostle goes on to present a hypothetical question, a hypothetical question which is also rhetorical to his Jewish brethren, the question predicated on the word if. If the Gentiles, if, if the Gentiles, just assume, who are not circumcised, let's say they were to be able to keep the righteousness of the law, that is the whole law in its entirety without violating it in a single point. Wouldn't the fact that they're uncircumcised, their uncircumcision be counted for circumcision? You know it would. And if that were the case, would it not stand to reason that those same Gentiles who are uncircumcised and living in the physical state in which all men are born, if they were hypothetically able to obey or fulfill the whole law, would they not be your judges?

Instead of the other way around, as you claim, you're their judges. That the Gentiles who are uncircumcised by nature would be your judges if they fulfilled the law? Doesn't it stand to reason? Isn't that what you would conclude? That they would judge you?

You who were entrusted with the written code, with the law of God? You who are circumcised in the flesh, flaunting the outward sign, we are of the circumcision, yet who are transgressors of the law? As I said, the question is both hypothetical and rhetorical. Hypothetical because the answer is obvious. Yes he would.

Yes, they would. They would be your judges. But the Gentile like you is unable to do so. No one is able to keep the law of God perfectly. No mere man.

Being circumcised will not save you. The outward signs of religion will not save you. Going to church will not save you. Being baptized will not save you. Sharing in the Lord's table will not save you.

Standing in church and praying will not save you. Being circumcised will not save you, and not being circumcised will not damn you. Paul is saying here you missed the point. You missed the point. You who are Jews according to the flesh, that is who are the physical descendants of Abraham, missed the point.

He is not a Jew who is one outwardly, but he is a Jew which is one inwardly. You've missed the point. Apparently the Jews didn't listen to John the Baptist when he told their leaders not to put their stock, no pun intended, in the fact that they were the physical descendants of Abraham. Remember what John told them? God could take these rocks right here and raise them up into children of Abraham.

God could turn these stones into children of Abraham if he wanted to. There are those who are outward Jews who are Jews in name or in title, who are Jews in nation, who are Jews in nature, descending from Abraham, and then there are inward Jews. You remember we applied that last week to Christians. He is not a Christian who was one outwardly, he is a Christian who was one inwardly. And we need to remember that.

All the outward signs mean nothing and on the Day of Judgment will mean nothing. There are inward Jews which is talking about a true believer in God who was looking forward to the coming of Messiah whose trust was in Him and God, and then there are, just as there are inward Christians, same thing, we're all saved the same way. There are those who have been changed on the inside by a work of the grace of God upon the heart. There are those who are outward Jews and outward Christians in name only, in sign only, and then there are inward Jews and inward Christians. Same thing.

He's saying everyone has always been saved the same way. There are those who have been changed on the inside by a work of the grace of God upon the heart." In the words of John Gill, there are those who have, quote, not the law of God merely in the hand, but who have the law of God written on their hearts. That's John Gill. If you ever want great commentary on the Scriptures, John Gill from the 1700s who held the pastorate of the same church as Charles Spurgeon 100 years before Charles Spurgeon. The only exposition of Scripture that I know of, the entire Bible.

He was an incredible man. There's many commentaries. This is a total exposition that he did of the Scriptures. He's Baptist. John Gill, There are those who have not the law of God merely in their hand, but who have the law of God written on their hearts.

He that is truly a Jew in God's sight possesses, again quote, not an external righteousness only, but an internal holiness, an internal set-apartedness unto God. And I'm going to ask you again today, is that you? Is your religion outward? You have an external righteousness only, or is there true internal holiness and set-apartedness, if I can create that word, to God? Are truly internally set apart unto God.

He is, Gill goes on, quote, not merely an outward court worshiper, but a worshiper of God in spirit and in truth. You're a churchgoer to apply to us or a worshiper of God in spirit and in truth. Just a churchgoer, I do all the outward stuff because I like to hang out with these people. These are the kind of people I like to be around, you know. I want to be thought of as being one of them, but there's no internal work upon the heart that's been done?

Is it just outward or is there an inward work of the Lord of God that has been done upon the heart? You know, most of the time you know. Paul is telling his Jewish brethren, according to the flesh, that is not circumcision. Isn't that interesting? Look at the text there.

It's not circumcision, which is outward in the flesh. You haven't been circumcised. You just think you have. Physical circumcision is of no avail before God. True circumcision is that of the heart.

That's the title of the sermon today. Circumcision is that of the heart. Circumcision is that of the heart in the spirit. Physical Circumcision is of no avail before God. True circumcision is that of the heart.

Circumcision of the heart in the Spirit. Look at the text, in the Spirit. It's an inward and spiritual transformation. It is a work of the Spirit of God by the grace of God, which Paul is going to really emphasize and drive home as we go forward in the book of Romans. And it's not.

Here's what it is and here's what it's not. He's just said what it is. It's circumcision of the heart and it's a spiritual thing that takes place. And not a thing you get from keeping the letter. It's what it's not.

It's not a letter of the law thing. It's not that you cut off your foreskins as if that merited anything before God. No, it's a spiritual work. It's a work upon the Spirit. It's a work upon the Spirit.

It's a work upon the heart of a man. And when that happens to a man, God gets the glory whose praise is not of men but of God. Whose praise is not of men but of God. The Jews, as I said earlier, they weren't listening to their prophets. Who was the last of the Old Testament prophets?

John the Baptist. Malachi said he's coming, he's gonna prepare the way for the Lord. The Jews weren't listening to their prophets. They don't listen to John the Baptist. They didn't listen to Jeremiah.

Jeremiah, if you want to turn to chapter 4 and look at verse 4, Jeremiah cried out to them the same thing Paul was saying here. Paul didn't come up with some new thing here. He needed to circumcise your hearts. No, it wasn't a novelty that came up with the Apostle Paul. Paul didn't say, hey, let me let me try to put this in a way you can kind of understand and come up with some sort of a new analogy or what have you.

No. Jeremiah cried out to them in Jeremiah 4 chapter 4 and verse 4, circumcise yourselves to the Lord and take away the four skins of your hearts." Know what Paul's telling them? Paul's telling them the same thing. Take away the four skins of your hearts, oh you men of Judah and inhabitants of Israel." Again, if you flip over to Jeremiah chapter 9, verses 25 and 26, same message. Behold the days come, saith the Lord, that I will punish all them which are circumcised with the uncircumcised.

What are we talking about? Egypt and Judah and Edom and the children of Ammon and Moab, all those Gentile nations that you despise. And all that are in the utmost corners that dwell in the wilderness, for all these nations are uncircumcised. And then the dagger of truth into the heart of unbelief. And all the house of Israel are uncircumcised in the heart.

Paul? It's Jeremiah. Paul's not coming up with something new. Are you circumcised in heart? Has God done the heart work within you?

Is there true conversion? He's saying the same thing the prophets of old were saying, circumcision of the heart is what matters. Circumcision is that of the heart and the spirit and not in the letter. Paul labors the point in the book of Romans because his brethren, according to the flesh, held that physical circumcision was necessary for one to be saved. You have to have this operation upon you, you can't be saved.

That's what the Jews believed. I don't have time to go through it but there there's all of this documents of the of the rabbis down to the edge. They really believed you've got to be circumcised in order to be saved. You cannot stand before God unless you've been physically circumcised. There used to be a home school leader that used to teach that.

Unbelievable. But yeah, you used to make circumcision such a huge thing. You couldn't be, A young man would not be holy unless he had been circumcised. That's what he said. He would be promiscuous if he hadn't been circumcised.

Circumcision and uncircumcision avails nothing without a work of God upon the heart. Without a work upon the heart. Circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit and not in the letter. They thought, but you've got to be circumcised to be saved. In fact, the leaders of the Jews held that view not only in antiquity but continued to hold that view in the early days of the church, right?

Look at Acts chapter 15 Turn over to Acts chapter 15 verse 1 This is the mindset of the Jews they try to infect the church with it they try to impose it upon Christians What does it say and certain men which came down from Judea Taught the brethren. Why are you letting these guys teach you my first question? And they said except you be circumcised after the manner of Moses you cannot be saved Can't be saved You can't be saved unless you do this outward sign in your flesh like us the text goes on to detail how the leaders of the church, they had to call together a council and they met together at Jerusalem and they deliberated. And Peter, going down to verse 9, in a matter of words says, God doesn't put any difference between the Jew and the Gentile. What matters is the purifying of the heart by faith.

That's what matters. That's what's going to be available for God, the purifying of the heart by faith which refers to circumcision of the heart in a verse 10 He says look don't don't tempt God by trying to lay the burden of Circumcision thus the whole weight of the law upon the necks of Jesus disciples as if that were necessary for salvation, a thing by the way we nor our fathers were able to bear. Verse 11, but we believe what? We believe that through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, we, that is, we who are Jews by birth, shall be saved even as they, the Gentiles, even as the Gentiles are saved by faith. Everyone is saved in the same way, by grace through faith, by the grace of faith.

Circumcision does not save. The outward signs do not save. Circumcision has never saved anyone. The outward signs have never saved anyone, not in the Jewish church and not in the Christian church. Circumcision is of the heart.

Say it with me. Circumcision is of the heart. Amen? Of the Spirit. I asked the question at the fellowship meal last Sunday.

What came first? What came first? Not the chicken or the egg, but faith or circumcision. Was Abraham first circumcised or was he first justified by saving faith and then circumcised? What came first?

Which came first, the sign of the faith Abraham had or did the sign come after Abraham believed God and it was accounted to him for righteousness. Was Abraham first saved by faith and afterward received the sign of circumcision or was he circumcised and then believed? That's the question Paul asks further on in chapter 4, verse 10 and 11, when he asked if faith reckoned to Abraham for righteousness, did that take place when Abraham was in circumcision or uncircumcision? I'll read that passage. He gives the answer, not circumcision but uncircumcision, Okay?

And he received the sign of circumcision, the seal of the righteousness of the faith which he had, yet being uncircumcised, that he might be the father of all them that believe. That believe. That is, whether Jew or Gentile, though they are circumcised or not circumcised, though they be circumcised or not, He's the Father of all them that believe that the righteousness, that righteousness might be imputed unto them also. We've gone through the doctrine of imputation, the imputation of righteousness, probably once a year, for many years. We probably need to go through that again at some point in time.

The most important doctrine, I think, having to do with salvation, the imputation of the righteousness of Christ to the accounts of sinners like us. But that's for another day. Abraham is the father of all them that believe, of all who are circumcised in the heart. And we'll conclude with Colossians chapter two. Turn there with me.

Colossians chapter 2. I'm just going to read through this and have time to exposit the entire text, but beginning with verse 8. Beware, the apostle Paul again is speaking or writing this under inspiration of the Holy Spirit, speaking these God-breathed words or writing these God-breathed words to the church at Colossae. Beware, he says, lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit after the tradition of men. A thing by the way that takes place in the churches today just as it did in Judaism.

After the rudiments of the world and not after Christ. He's gonna put all of the emphasis upon Christ. For in Him that is in Christ dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. And you're complete in Him. You don't need anything outside of Jesus Christ.

And if you're looking to something or anything outside of Jesus Christ, you're looking in vain. You're complete in Him. Everything that you need is in Him. Yes, for your salvation and everything else. He, you're complete in Him who is the head of all principality and power, in whom also ye are circumcised.

You're circumcised. What? In whom, in Christ, you're circumcised. Somebody say, you're circumcised? Yeah, I'm circumcised.

Man, woman, child, I'm circumcised. In Christ, with the circumcision made without hands, That is the circumcision of the heart. In putting off the body of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ. Not by the physical circumcision of the cutting of your flesh performed by the hands of men, but that circumcision of the heart which is worked by God. Paul said in our opening text, in the Spirit, in the Spirit, in the Spirit.

It's a spiritual thing that God does. Buried with him in baptism, that's spiritual baptism, doesn't mean the day you were baptized you were buried with him. This is the spiritual baptism, this is circumcision of the heart. Buried with him in baptism, wherein also you are risen with him. Look at this, through the faith of the operation of God, which Paul says in Ephesians chapter 2 5 took place even when you were dead in sins.

You were raised when you were dead in sins. You're raised yourself, God raised you. What? Even when we were dead in sins, He quickened us, because He made us alive. Ephesians 2, 5.

Having forgiven you all trespasses. Amen. Aren't those wonderful words? Have them forgiving you all trespasses, not some, but all. Your trust is in Jesus.

All your trespasses are forgiven. Every one of them, all of them. And there's probably lots of things going through the minds of people here today, all forgiven in Him. All the requirements blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us. That is, blotting out the requirement that you keep all of the law of God perfectly all of the time in order to be saved.

It's blotted out, the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, who was going to be able to condemn us, he says later in Romans. All the requirements and demands of the law which were contrary to us that we were unable to perform and the Jews were unable to perform. He took out of the way who Christ Jesus, nailing it to his cross even when he was lifted up and crucified. He took it out of the way, nailing it through his cross, and having spoiled principalities and powers, he made a show of them openly, triumphing over them in it. And aren't you glad he did?

Spiritual circumcision is what matters, the circumcision of Christ through faith, which is the operation of the Spirit. Let's pray. Father, we thank you again, God, for your holy word. Again, your word is truth. And we thank you God for the work of your spirit in illuminating the word and giving your people understanding this morning.

And we trust you have. Now we ask God that you might be pleased to carry on that work in our hearts as we examine ourselves in obedience to your word and in preparation for the Lord's table. And as we thank you