Hello, this is Pastor Steven Anderson from Faith Forward Baptist Church in Tempe, Arizona.
Today I want to talk about Jeremiah chapter 9 verses 25 and 26 where the Bible reads,
Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will punish all them which are circumcised
with the uncircumcised, Egypt and Judah, and Edom and the children of Ammon and Moab and
all that are in the utmost corners that dwell in the wilderness.
For all these nations are uncircumcised, and all the house of Israel are uncircumcised
in the heart.
So here the Bible is saying that the uncircumcised will be punished with the circumcised because
The fact that an Israelite is circumcised is meaningless to God since they are uncircumcised
of heart.
This is reiterated, of course, in Romans 2, 28 and 29 in the New Testament when the Bible
says, 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.
That's exactly what Jeremiah 9 meant when it said that the house of Israel were all
uncircumcised in their heart.
Here we have it again in Romans 2, 28 and 29.
You say, Well, if they're not really Jews, then why do you keep calling them Jews?
Well, it says a little bit earlier in the chapter, Behold, thou art called a Jew.
And it does say that they are Jews outwardly.
That's why we call them Jews because they're outwardly Jews.
But inwardly they're not, and therefore God does not recognize them as being the circumcision,
as being his people, as being true Jews.
Philippians 3, 3, of course, makes it clear when it says, For we are the circumcision
which worship God in the spirit and rejoice in Christ Jesus and have no confidence in
the flesh.
That's what circumcision of the heart means in the New Testament.
You have to rejoice in Christ Jesus.
You have to have no confidence in the flesh.
Jeremiah 9 made it clear that the house of Israel was uncircumcised in heart and would
suffer the same fate as those who were physically uncircumcised.
So the fact that today's so-called Jews are circumcised physically means nothing to God.
They're not his people.
In the old covenant, if you didn't have physical circumcision, you're not one of God's people.
But God takes it a step further and says, If your heart's not circumcised, you're not
one of my people.
Therefore, all of those Jews today who do not believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, 99%
of people who call themselves Jews, they're not God's people because they're uncircumcised
in heart.