In Jason Dohm's sermon titled 'The Pictures, the Realities, and the Incarnation,' the focus is on the connection between the spiritual realities depicted in Romans 2 and the narrative of Jesus' birth in Luke 2. Dohm explores how God provides physical symbols, such as circumcision and the genealogical identity of Jews, as pictures pointing to deeper spiritual truths like the circumcision of the heart and spiritual descent from Abraham. These symbols are not just external markers but represent inner spiritual realities initiated by the Holy Spirit. The speaker emphasizes that these spiritual realities were purchased at a great cost, through Jesus' incarnation, life, and sacrificial death. The sermon underlines the futility of relying on external signs for salvation, advocating instead for faith in Jesus Christ as the true path to becoming part of God's chosen people. The connection to Christmas is drawn by highlighting Jesus as God's ultimate gift, offering salvation and spiritual renewal.

Our sermon today is from Romans, but as mentioned in the weekly email, there will be a tie-in to the Incarnation, so today we'll be reading from Luke chapter 2, verses 1 through 20 for the sermon text. Luke 2. And it came to pass in those days that a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be registered. This census first took place while Corrinius was governing Syria, so all went to be registered, everyone to his own city. Joseph also went up from Galilee, out of the city of Nazareth, into Judea, to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and lineage of David, to be registered with Mary, his betrothed wife, who was with child.

So it was that while they were there, the days were completed for her to be delivered, and she brought forth her firstborn son and wrapped him in swaddling cloths and laid him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn. Now there were in the same country shepherds living out in the fields, keeping watch over their flock by night. And behold, an angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were greatly afraid. Then the angel said to them, Do not be afraid, for behold I bring you good tidings of great joy which will be to all people. For there is born to you this day in the city of David a Savior who is Christ the Lord.

And this will be the sign to you. You will find a babe wrapped in swaddling cloths, lying in a manger. And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying, Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, goodwill toward men. So it was when the angels had gone away from them into heaven that the shepherds said to one another, Let us now go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has come to pass, which the Lord has made known to us.' And they came with haste and found Mary and Joseph and the babe lying in a manger. And when they had seen him, they made widely known the saying which was told them concerning this child, and all those who heard it marveled at those things which were told them by the shepherds.

But Mary kept all these things and pondered them in her heart. Then the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things that they had heard and seen as it was told them. Please be seated. I had always assumed that the rapture would happen while we were singing, and can it be? But I think it might be the king in all his beauty.

I'm not sure. You will need to be in Romans chapter 2 eventually. The title of the sermon today is The Pictures, The Realities, and The Incarnation. And the incarnation. God has given us certain pictures to point to spiritual realities and these things come at a high price.

These invisible spiritual realities were purchased for us by the Lord Jesus Christ leaving His rightful glory in heaven and walking in this sin-sick world for 33 years and then laying down his life for sinners. That's the summary of the sermon. There you've heard it. Last week the title of the sermon was What to Make of advantages, where Paul rolls out the Jews' advantages that God had given them. They were God-given advantages.

So he attacks the Jews' sunny self-assessment that they made based on the fact that God and His goodness had given them these advantages. Like what? Like the revealed Word of God. The other nations didn't have this book, but God gave the Jews this book to teach them about Himself and about the things of God. Things that the other nations didn't know, but they knew because God gave them this book.

What else? The sign of circumcision, this physical mark that God had claimed this people as his own. Imagine how wonderful it would be to be given a physical mark that God had claimed you for his own. Well, many or most of the Jews had drawn the wrong conclusion from their advantaged status, from this position of advantage and privilege and blessing that God had given them. What was the wrong conclusion that they had drawn was that all was well.

No matter what they thought or said or did, all was well. They might experience some fatherly displeasure from God, but in the end they would all find themselves in His glory. And Paul is teaching that really nothing could be further from the truth. These external advantages, even though they are God given, can actually make you think wrong about things and make you assume things that you never had been given the right by God to assume and so not actually know your true status before God. That was the thrust of the sermon last week.

So we're really continuing down that track with the last two verses in Romans chapter 2 today. Let's ask God to help us. God I thank you for the pictures, these physical external things that point to great invisible spiritual realities that teach us about those realities that in many ways make us long for those realities. And I thank you for the great cost that you paid yourself to bring those realities into being. They are not free, they cost you your son.

Thank you for all of it, and thank you especially for a Father willing to send his son and a son volunteering to go to save sinners. We praise you in Jesus name. Amen. Well there's no point in subdividing two verses. I guess we could, but I'm not going to.

I'll read Romans chapter 2 verses 28 and 29, these final two verses of the chapter and then talk about them and then talk about their relationship to Christmas Day and the incarnation. Romans chapter 2 verses 28 and 29, please follow along. Paul writes, For he is not a Jew who is one outwardly, Nor is circumcision that which is outward in the flesh. He is a Jew who is one inwardly. Circumcision is that of the heart in the spirit, not in the letter, whose praise is not from men, but from God.

In these two verses, Paul sets before us the pictures and the realities. So if you're taking notes on the handout, filling in blanks, realities, fills in the blank. The pictures and the realities that God gave to us to picture. In this chapter, Paul teaches that there are outer physical things that are meant by God, given by God, to be pictures of invisible spiritual realities. So outward things to teach us about invisible realities.

Because those realities are spiritual and invisible, it helps us to have outer physical things that we can touch and see, handle in order to help us understand and ultimately to make us long for the invisible spiritual realities. There are two of these outer physical pictures in our text. First, a Jew is a physical genealogical descendant of Abraham. A Jew can trace out the family tree to the root Abraham. So if you do a genealogy of a Jew you can track it back to father Abraham.

He had many sons and many sons had father Abraham. And as such, being a physical genealogical descendant of Abraham, that Jew is a part of God's people. Says who? Says God. God says, I'm claiming this family, multiplying a family into a nation, and they're my family and my nation.

So God said that. God laid claim to that. But that is just the outer physical picture. The physical genealogical family of Abraham that God multiplied into a nation is just the outer physical picture of what? Of Abraham's true spiritual children.

Who are those like Abraham have believed God and it is credited to them as righteousness. That's who Abraham is really the father of. He's most fundamentally, most truly the father of those who like Abraham trusted God and God credited that trust as if it were righteousness. So righteousness from the outside credited to the believer by faith. That's who Abraham is most fundamentally, most truly the father of.

God has a chosen generation of people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people that they may proclaim the praises of him who called them out of darkness into his marvelous light. That's not Old Testament written of Jews, that is New Testament written by Peter of believers, Gentile and Jews alike, calling them a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, his own special people. If you just saw that and you didn't know better, you'd say, that's in the Old Testament, that's God speaking of Jews. No, it's Peter in the New Testament speaking of all believers, whether Jew or Gentile, speaking of the true church, people who are really putting their trust in the person of Jesus Christ and his work on the cross. So the New Testament church doesn't replace Old Testament Israel.

They used to be the people of God, Old Testament Israel used to be the people of God, but now the New Testament church replaces them. No, no, no, that's not what is being taught by scripture. What's being taught by scripture is that the New Testament church is the invisible spiritual reality that the Old Testament Israel pictured. Israel is the picture, the church, the real church, the true church is the reality that the picture pointed to. Not replacement, but fulfillment of the picture, like Christ is the fulfillment of the Old Testament types.

So that is the first outer physical thing which pictures an invisible spiritual reality, the Jew and the Jewish people. Second, circumcision. The surgical removal of a piece of flesh from Jewish males is an outer physical picture, and only an outer physical picture. This surgery on the eighth day for Jewish males was never more than an outer physical picture of an invisible spiritual reality that God wanted to teach about and point to and give you a longing for. It was never more than that.

Picture of what? Of this invisible spiritual reality of what happens in the heart when God marks you out as separated to himself. God saying, you are mine and claiming you for himself, marking you out as belonging to him. So even physical genealogical descendants of Abraham weren't counted as such until the males had this outer physical sign that he had been marked out to belong to the Lord. Meaning that even if you really were a physical, genealogical family tree descendant of Abraham, the outer thing, it didn't count until you got this other outer sign of the removal of this piece of flesh from the male, always teaching that it's really not about bloodline.

It's about being marked out to belong to the Lord. God couldn't have been more clear. This part of our text is absolutely critical. If I get to choose the ten seconds of the sermon that you remember, please let this be the ten seconds that you remember. Whose work it is.

Whose work is the spiritual surgery of the heart that marks you out as separated to the Lord, that is the mark of God saying, you are mine, I have taken you for myself. Whose work is that? It's the Spirit's work. Look again at verse 29, the second phrase. Circumcision is that of the heart in the Spirit or by the Spirit.

Some translations render it one way, some translations render it the other, really means the same thing. Circumcision is that of the heart in the spirit, not the letter. You do not law keep your way into spiritual circumcision. Physical circumcision is actually an act of law keeping, meaning God did give them a law to do this, so they were keeping the law on the eighth day when males were taken to be circumcised, but the spiritual version of that, you cannot law keep your way into that. This is not self-surgery of the heart.

It is exclusively the work of the Holy Spirit. He doesn't need help, he doesn't get help, He does the heart surgery, or it's not done at all. Listen to Paul in 2 Corinthians chapter 3 verse 6. Paul writing to Gentiles, 2 Corinthians 3 verse 6. Paul writes, sufficient as ministers of the new covenant, not of the letter but of the spirit, for the letter kills but the spirit gives life." So here he's talking about himself as one of the ministers of the New Covenant.

And the New Covenant is not of the letter. Why not? Because the letter kills. You go to the law for life, forget it. The law wasn't given to us to give life.

It actually stands against us and condemns us and is designed to cause us to give up on hoping in ourselves and to send us to Christ. The law was never designed to give you life. It was designed to convince you that you needed mercy so that you would flee to Jesus Christ for mercy. The law is not given to give life, it actually is given to convince you that you are dead. How different from giving life can you get?

Not of the letter, but of the Spirit, for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life. The Spirit does the surgery, circumcises the heart, marks you out to God, and does what's necessary for you to be reconciled to God. This is not just a New Testament concept. The New Testament writers didn't just look back and say, well this is sort of like what was happening in the Old Testament. This is actually what is taught in the Old Testament too.

You can turn, if you like, to Deuteronomy chapter 30, or you can just listen to me read it. I'll be reading Deuteronomy 30 verses 4 through 6. Deuteronomy, as a book of the Bible, is given to the people right as God was bringing them into the promised land. So they've been wandering in the wilderness for 40 years, they're not in the promised land yet, but God is almost ready to bring them into the promised land. And in Deuteronomy chapter 30, God speaks fast forwarding past when he has brought them into the promised land they've completely settled it and centuries have gone by and they've fallen away from the Lord they're not serving the Lord anymore and God gives them visibility to win after he's taken them into captivity because of their rebellion and sins.

So God always knew that they were going to fall away and rebel against him and that he would take them into captivity for their rebellion. But then he says, this is what will happen after I've taken you into captivity. In Deuteronomy 30, I'll be reading 4 through 6. If any of you are driven out to the farthest parts under heaven, from there the Lord your God will gather you and from there he will bring you. Then the Lord your God will bring you to the land which your fathers possessed and you shall possess it.

He will prosper you and multiply you more than your fathers. And the Lord your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your descendants to love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul that you may live. I'm bringing you into the promised land. I know that you'll rebel against me and that centuries from now you won't even be worshiping me. I will respond to that by having you defeated by your enemies and taken into captivity but when you're there in the farthest corners of the earth, I will gather you again and I will circumcise your hearts to love me with all your heart." The Lord will do this.

He says, the Lord your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your descendants. So this is the spiritual reality. He's writing to people who will already be physically circumcised. They'll already have the physical mark, But he says to these people who will have the physical mark, I then will circumcise your hearts. It will be the work of the Lord.

And this work of the Lord, circumcision of the heart is always accompanied by something. What's it always accompanied by? Love for God. How do I know if the Lord has done the work of spiritual circumcision on my heart, this heart surgery? You love the Lord.

It always accompanies this work of the Spirit of God. Listen to Galatians chapter 6 verse 15. Paul writing to more Gentiles. Galatians chapter 6 verse 15. Paul writes, for in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision avails anything but a new creation.

What is Paul saying? It isn't the presence or absence of the outward physical sign that counts. In the end, the presence or absence of the outward physical sign doesn't mean a thing. It is the presence or absence of the invisible spiritual reality. If you have it, it's everything.

If you're missing it, it's nothing. And it's simply about what the picture points to. So there's no value in the picture without the reality that it is pointing to. The picture in the end means nothing. The invisible Spiritual reality means everything.

Now back to our text. Now we have this final phrase in our text whose praise is not from men, but from God. You can win people's speaking, with just the outward marks. Or bringing it closer to home, you can be counted a proper Christian with just the outward marks. The things that were said of the Jews in last week's, like you call yourself a Jew, you call yourself a Christian, you boast in God, you say, we have the book, you say, we have the mark, I have been baptized, I attend a church, I take the Lord's Supper.

You can win the praise of man with these outward marks, That's all you need. Because the realities that those outward marks are intended to picture are all spiritual and therefore invisible. I can't see them, you can't see them. And human beings become expert in fooling other human beings. Human beings even become expert at fooling themselves.

None of those counterfeits create the invisible spiritual reality. If everyone else is fooled, if even you're fooled by yourself, that does not create the inner spiritual reality. It is the work of the Spirit. It creates the inner spiritual reality. You remember what God said to Samuel when David was being chosen as a king instead of his older brother who looked the part more than David did.

You remember, God tells Samuel, it's the son of Jesse. So, the sons of Jesse are assembled except for the little brother who is keeping the sheep. No need to call him. There is one who just looks the part, an older brother who looks the part, Samuel says in his heart, Behold the anointed of the Lord. Surely the one who looks the part is the anointed of the Lord.

What does God say? 1 Samuel 16, 7. But the Lord said to Samuel, Do not look at his appearance or his physical stature because I have refused him. For the Lord does not see as man sees, for man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart. To our eyes the older brother looked the part, had the appearance of a great king, it's the one you didn't even bother to call, who's keeping the sheep today.

Now, this is really easily misunderstood, In what way? The point of that isn't that David had done such a good job of making his heart good while his older brother was a slacker. His older brother could have been king if only he had made his own heart good by just being more diligent. The point is that God marked out David to be king and raised him up to be king and God did the work in David's heart which was invisible to man, but God knew exactly what he had done in that heart. The one who looked the part could have had the part if only he hadn't been such a slacker.

That's not what that verse teaches. God was raising up a king, always raising up a king, it was always going to be David. It didn't come down to who does a better job of making his heart good. For clarity, Is Paul saying that God the Holy Spirit does a work in the heart and then That is the root of things that God then praises? Yes.

Think about that. You don't do the work in the heart, the Spirit of God does the work in the heart. It is not self-surgery. You don't share in the workload. The Spirit of God circumcises the heart.

And then that work in the heart becomes the root of things that God then praises and even rewards. Why would he praise and reward that? Because he's good. He delights in being good, to working in people and then praising and rewarding them for things that at the root of it is his own work. It's pretty astounding.

And by the way, perfectly consistent with Ephesians chapter 2, salvation by grace alone through faith alone, and then immediately you see that we are created in Christ Jesus for good works which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. Salvation totally by grace alone, through faith alone, and then God beforehand has good works and we walk in them and then he praises us and rewards us for them. Think about how good is God. Now the incarnation. What does Romans 2 have to do with Luke 2?

Well, obviously, we have a reason on the calendar to connect the two. It is December 25th. But I don't think this needs to be forced as if we had to find a way to get from Romans 2 to Luke chapter 2. So, how can we make this work? Hopefully it won't be too forced or forced at all.

The connection is below the surface, but just barely below the surface. Let me connect the two with a simple question. Why do I need heart surgery? Why do you need heart surgery? What's wrong with me?

What's wrong with you? Not physical heart surgery, spiritual heart surgery. Of course, Paul tells us elsewhere, but he tells us. Listen to Colossians 2, 11. Paul writing to another gentile church.

Colossians 2, verse 11. In him, in Jesus, you were also circumcised with the circumcision made without hands. Circumcision no hands, it's circumcision of the heart. By putting off the body of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ. So circumcision is a marking out of belonging to the Lord, but Paul attributes something else to it here, the putting off the body of the sins of the flesh.

This corruption and then all that flows out of this corruption, meaning the things that we do and say that aren't right, think that aren't right, putting off of them, the carving out from the believer this. And that is not self-surgery, that is a work only of the Holy Spirit of God. That is why according to John chapter 1, the Word was with God in the beginning and was God in the beginning and all things were made through Him and nothing that was made was made without Him. And that is why we read this of the angel in Luke chapter 2. What does the angel say in Luke chapter 2?

We had it as a sermon text but I'll reread Luke 2, 10 and 11. Then the angel said to them, to the shepherds, do not be afraid, for behold I bring you good tidings of great joy which will be to all the people, For there is born to you this day in the city of David a Savior, a Savior who is Christ the Lord, who is the Messiah the Lord, who is the anointed of God to save sinners, the Lord Jesus. What does this mean? It means that God is paying his own ransom. There is a great price to ransom one sinner.

Who can pay it? God can pay it. Only God can pay it. And God is willing and able to pay it. And God has paid it in his son Jesus Christ.

It is God demonstrating his righteousness so that he can be both just, he must be just, he is God, he can't be anything but just, He can't do anything even to save sinners that would compromise his perfect goodness and justice. So he maintains being just, but he also does that which allows him to also at the same time be the justifier of sinners who believe in Jesus. We're coming to this in Romans chapter 3. We're almost there. January is Romans chapter 3.

We have four parts of Romans chapter 3. They're all in January. By the end of January we'll get to just and the justifier of those who believe in Jesus. How could a sinner ever be saved? God would have to compromise His justice.

And that's impossible, because he is the same yesterday and today and forever. He can only be good and perfectly just. There is a way. If he'll pay his own ransom, if he'll accept a perfect substitute, then the Spirit can come and do surgery on the heart of a sinner and make that sinner acceptable to this God. So my friends, Merry Christmas.

Jesus has come and lived and died and risen again to save sinners. This is the glad tidings and it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes. Two applications for your consideration. Number one. Matthew Henry, what would you have us know?

Here it is. This is not to drive us off from the observance of external institutions. They are good in their place. But from trusting to them and resting in them as sufficient to bring us to heaven, taking up with a name to live without being alive indeed." So he's saying, don't misunderstand So he's saying, don't misunderstand Paul as if Paul assigns no value at all to external things. No, no, no.

They're good in their place. Don't trust them to take you to heaven. None of these external things will take you to heaven. And Then Matthew Henry draws from one of the letters to the churches in Revelation 2 and 3. It says, Be careful that you don't have a name that you live while you're dead.

The external things are in place, so you have a name that you're alive. Oh yeah, he's a Christian. I bet on it. Hey, there are people in this room who had me fooled. And we know that because they came and said, I've never been born again.

I want to be baptized. Don't despise the external things, but don't trust them. Place all of your trust in the person and work of Jesus Christ. Two, Always keep top of mind, so there are things that rattle around back there in the back of your mind, and they hardly ever make an appearance. Every once in a while they make an appearance, like, nope, this can't be one of those things.

Always keep top of mind, front of mind, in your thoughts, who and what purchased these invisible realities. These invisible realities, a new heart, circumcision of the heart, don't come free. They only come free to you. Free to you is not the same thing as free. God in heaven had a son, a beloved son from eternity past that he sent to live and die for sinners.

It pleased him to do it. It pleased the son to be sent. But it was a tremendous cost and he paid his own ransom to purchase these invisible spiritual realities for us. All the glory to God. God, thank you for Romans 2 and thank you for Luke 2.

Thank you for warning us about trusting in externals. And thank you for teaching us the great cost which has been paid to purchase the invisible spiritual realities that you want us to long after. I pray that you would use all these things to your glory so that Jesus Christ would be known and loved in our own hearts and wherever among the people that you put us among. We pray in Jesus' name, Amen.