A circumcised heart (according
to John Wesley) is one which is beating within the breast of a person who has…
…the
distinguishing mark of a true follower of Christ, of one who is in a state of
acceptance with God, is not either outward circumcision, or baptism, or any
other outward form, but a right state of soul, a mind and spirit renewed after
the image of Him that created it….To be more particular: Circumcision of heart implies humility,
faith, hope, and charity.
Wesley did not come up with
that in a vacuum; he read Paul, who got it from God:
And true circumcision is not
merely obeying the letter of the law; rather, it is a change of heart produced
by the Spirit. Romans
2:29b(NLT)
For John Wesley,
the problem was not a matter of understanding what a circumcised heart was, or
looked like; his problem was how to preach it to a church that had for
generations been living so comfortably with their sins and false profession of
faith, that they couldn’t recognize their own condition if it was reported to
them live on CNN in living color!
Indeed, how do
you preach “salvation” to those who believe they’re already saved and without
sin? Scripture tells us:
But people who aren’t spiritual can’t receive
these truths from God’s Spirit. It all sounds foolish to them and they can’t
understand it, for only those who are spiritual can understand what the Spirit
means.
1 Corinthians 2:14(NLT)
All Mr. Wesley could do was
describe what a circumcised heart looked like, bathe the sermon in prayer that
God’s Spirit would pull-back the blinders on eyes and allow hearts to be
born-again.
Indeed, that is all that can be done,
ever by any preacher in the pulpit, or witness in the workplace, or
friend telling a friend or neighbor about the power of God to save – so that
hearts can be renewed, and culture changed, and the world transformed.
And that is what I intend
for our time together here. As Wesley,
Humility –
Faith – Hope – Charity (love)
Humility
In the Bible humility
refers to an understanding that all of us are without power to do anything
about our sinful condition.
John Wesley struggled with
that. He tried to be so good God would take
him on his merits alone; he got so tired of trying to be good, failing, and
being miserable, he fell into awful bouts of depression. Then one night Wesley attended a Moravian
meeting on Aldersgate Street; his journal tells the story of his profound life-
transformation:
In the evening I went unwillingly to a
society in Aldersgate Street, where one was reading Luther's preface to the
Epistle to the Romans. About a quarter to nine, while he was describing the
change which God works in the heart through faith in Christ, I felt my heart
strangely warmed. I felt I did trust in Christ, Christ alone for salvation, and an assurance was given me
that he had taken away my sins, even mine and saved me from the law of sin and
death.[12]
This is Biblical humility –
trusting Christ alone for saving us.
Faith
It’s hard to know which
comes first, humility or faith. I tend to think they are simultaneous. Faith is given to every person to believe;
humility is acting upon that faith, in the way that activates it (or makes it
effective).
In that way, this is what it
means to step towards God in faith in humility; this is that about which Jesus
said:
However,
those the Father has given me will come to me, and I will never reject
them. John 6:37(NLT)
And when Jesus accepts you,
all of what is possessed by Jesus, the Son of God, is what is offered to
everyone who becomes a child of God by faith through grace.
Too often I’ve heard the
mistaken idea that we are ALL children of God. That is a lie from the pit of Hell. We are born as children of Adam’s race,
imperfect and innocent, but bent towards sin.
We all choose to abandon our innocence. In order to become a child of God there must
be re-birth;
a second birth that is eternal life.
This, in turn, is where we
receive power to overcome sin in our lives.
Wesley pointed to faith strong enough to push down strongholds – things,
thoughts, trends which keep a person from serving God and only God.
I have observed (in many
others, but primarily in myself) a peculiar shortfall in faith that imagines –
as John Wesley did – that we alone are somehow responsible for absolutely
everything about remaining a Christian.
Part of what kept me from
making a decision to trust Christ alone was this thought that I am not good
enough or strong enough to keep holding on to Christ for my whole life. What I didn’t “get” for a long time was that
it was up to me to place my hand in His, but His promise was that it was His
power that held me from that moment on.
I submitted; He holds!
And he does the “holding-on”
so that he can change us:
….let God
transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will
learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect. Romans 12:2(NLT)
Christ changing us is what leads from faith to…
Hope
“Hope”
for a Christian is not a hand-wringing lottery ticket kind of wondering if it’s
all true; that Jesus really loves us and will save us.
Rather hope is an assurance of the promises of God
in Jesus Christ.
This hope is a
strong and trustworthy anchor for our souls.
Hebrews 6:19(NLT)
Wesley put it this way:
By
this anchor a Christian is kept steady in the midst of the waves of this
troublesome world, and preserved from striking upon either of those fatal
rocks, - presumption or despair.
Apostle Paul talked about running a race with
certainty; this is the assurance of hope, that we confidently serve Christ
every day, with a calm purpose that is not like muddy water – we see clearly,
with a cleansed conscience that Christ awaits us at the end of the day.
This is the certainty of Christian hope!
Humility and faith lead to hope, which ends in…
Charity
Charity,
or love, is what completes, or is the result of the process of a heart’s circumcision.
Wesley
wrote in his sermon that if you first take humility, faith and hope, If thou wilt be perfect, add to all these, charity; add love, and
thou hast the circumcision of the heart.
Of
course you cannot speak of “love” without two primary passages:
1.
Jesus was asked what the greatest commandment was; he replied that it
was to love God with all you’ve got…and the second was like it, love your
neighbor the same way.
2. The second primary passage is
Paul’s great “love chapter” which ends by saying the eternal realities which
endure forever are faith, hope, and love; love being the greatest of all.
So,
the holy (or circumcised) heart is one that:
· In humility discovers
only God can meet one’s deepest need
· In faith discovers
God is able to look beyond our sin
· In hope discovers it
is God who has been keeping me all along, and
·
In love we discover we can give ourselves to this God by
giving ourselves to others; I can live like he lived, die like he died, and
live eternally!
Circumcision
was (and still is) a special physical mark of covenant relationship between God
and Israel.
There
are always those who count more on the things that can be seen than that which
is beyond human vision. The first followers
of Christ were somewhat blind to that until God finally awakened them to how
foolish it was to count on the physical, outward marks (or lack of marks), when
there was a whole unseen bigger picture.
God
looks at the heart – never just what man sees.
There
were two men, who
· both had been physically
circumcised as the law of Moses commanded, ceremonially performed by a priest
at the temple on the eighth day following their birth.
· they were both Jews, loved
in the eyes of the Father in heaven.
· both loved Israel.
· both wanted to be there for
the salvation of God. And…
·
both wandered around with the other apostles before the crucifixion.
One
of these men was laid in a tomb, but the tomb couldn’t hold him; the other hung
himself out of despair; death still holds him.
Which
one of these men do YOU suppose had a circumcised heart?
And
past that – what do YOU say about having a circumcised heart of your own?
Would
you be willing to pray with others here that God might have every bit of you,
to do with as He sees fit?
Would
you be willing to surrender your life’s pathway to give God complete control?
This
morning we want to end our worship service by encouraging each other to do just
that – submit to the surrendered life of following Jesus without reservation;
we want to give him our hearts to circumcise and make whole.
We
want to come in humility, by faith placing our hand in His, and experiencing
hope and love as all that thrills our souls.
And here is our prayer, written by
John Wesley:
Speak
this out loud with me to be an encouragement to all:
Desire
not to live, but to praise his name:
Let
all your thoughts, words, and works, tend to his glory.
Set
your heart firm on him, and on other things only as they are in and from him.
Let
your soul be filled with so entire a love of him, that you may love nothing but
for his sake.
Have
a pure intention of heart, a steadfast regard to his glory in all your actions.
Fix
your eye upon the blessed hope of your calling, and make all the things of the
world minister unto it.
For
then, and not till then is that mind in us which was also in Christ Jesus;
when, in every motion of our heart, in every word of our tongue, in every work
of our hands, we pursue nothing but in relation to him, and in subordination to his
pleasure;
when
we, too, neither think, nor speak, nor act, to fulfil our own will, but the will of him
that sent us;
when,
whether
we eat, or drink, or whatever we do, we do all to the glory of God.
In the name
of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit!
