I'm going to be in Philippians
chapter 3. I'm going to read the first three
verses. Philippians chapter 3, beginning
in verse 1. Finally, my brethren, rejoice
in the Lord. To write the same things to you
to me indeed is not grievous, but for you It is safe. Beware of dogs, beware of evil
workers, beware of the concision. For we are the circumcision which
worship God in the spirit and rejoice in Christ Jesus and have
no confidence in the flesh. I'm gonna stop right there. There's a fact I want to tell
you before I get started. Without Christ, man has no life. Period. That's a fact. Learn that fact, believe that
fact, and teach that fact. Without Christ, there is no life.
Now, my title for this sermon, I told Paul this yesterday on
the phone, is called the trifecta of believing. Now, it might sound
pompous, and I guess it kinda sorta is, but this is a trifecta. I'm not talking about a horse
bet at a race where you win three races. This is three wonderful
things about believing. Three wonderful things, three
glorious things, three truths which are one truth given to
us in verse three, which is where I'm going to be. But I do wanna
start with this. Finally, my brethren, this is
whom Paul is writing. This is to whom Paul is writing. He is writing to his brethren.
What does it say in chapter one? The saints in Christ Jesus who
are in Philippi. Well, I'm also here gonna tell
you this. He is also writing to all who right now believe
in Christ Jesus. Because there's a maxim I've
taken unto myself. I think it's true. Whatever, whatever Christ has
said to one believer is still true. And it's true to all believers. Whatever Paul has said, Whatever
the scripture says to one believer is true to all believers. Because
here's the thing, here's the maxim. There is only one truth. And that truth is Jesus Christ
the Lord. And the truth is always true. Now, the problem arises where
man gets involved. That's where the problem always
arises. But the truth is always true. But Paul starts out, verse
three, we are for, we are the circumcision. Now, very carefully,
pay attention to that second word there, for, we. You understand,
Paul is being inclusive here. He's included himself and every
believer together. He's inclusive in this great
statement. There is no difference between
the Apostle Paul and the saints that are at Philippi or the saints
that are gathered here. There's no difference. Because
here's the thing. Before you can be an apostle,
you gotta be a believer. And here's the thing. Once you
become an apostle, the Apostle Paul, Peter, others, they're
still believers. They're still believers. Now
trust me, there is a difference between being an apostle and
not being an apostle. Because the apostles were men
who had seen Jesus Christ and were taught directly by Jesus
Christ. And Paul qualifies there. Now
these apostles were sent to establish the church on earth after the
resurrection of Jesus Christ. And they did perform miracles.
They healed the sick, Paul raised the dead, it's recorded. but here's the thing they did
most of all. They preached Jesus Christ. They preached Jesus Christ. They traveled, they preached,
and they established assemblies, like this one at Philippi that
Paul's writing this letter to. Now, I am not an apostle, and
neither are you. Neither is anyone hearing the
sound of my voice, because there is no man or woman living today
that's an apostle. If they take that title to themselves,
mark it down, they're lying. They're lying. And I guarantee
you, they will speak contrary to this book. Because they already
are by taking that title. But here, and that's the glorious
thing here, there is a difference between an apostle and believers.
You know? But here, this is the glorious
thing. Paul says this is as true of me as it is of you. I'm with
you. This is for believers, and I'm
one of you. I am a believer. Here's the point. I used the
word believer. Paul used the word the circumcision. That's what he said. For we are
the Circumcision. Now Paul is not referring here
to the circumcision of the flesh. That's quite clear. Believers
are the circumcision. Now because in verse two, which
I kind of skipped over because of this, he actually mentions
the circumcision of the flesh, though he doesn't call it that,
because he's wanting to make a difference, show the difference.
It says in verse two, beware of dogs. Beware of evil workers. Beware of the concision. And those are those that are
circumcised of the flesh. Beware of dogs. The dog is turned
again into his own vomit. Beware of evil workers. I looked
that up. You know what that means? Worthless teachers. And by gollies,
I've had a few of those. And I've known a few. I'm not going to go into it.
That's something else. But the last thing it says, beware of
the concision. And literally, that word means
those that are cut, those that are the circumcision in the flesh.
Beware of them, those of a fleshly circumcision only, only. Because Paul certainly doesn't
mean a fleshly circumcision here. He means the fulfillment of that
Old Testament circumcision. The fulfillment of that type
and that shadow. I preached on this four or five
years ago. Romans 2 and 29, Paul put it
this way. Walter did it a few weeks ago.
But a Jew is he who is one, or excuse me, who is so inwardly. And circumcision is of the heart. in spirit, not in letter, of
which the praise is not of men, but of God. We, brethren, believers,
are the circumcised of the heart. That's what Paul's saying here.
We are the circumcised of the heart. Believers are circumcised in
heart and ears. Now, I did, like I said, I preached
this four years ago, a little different message. Paul, I believe, never forgot
the message that Stephen preached when he was stoned to death.
Paul was there and he actually says it in his own words, I was
consenting unto his death. And at the end of that message,
Stephen, preached this phrase. He says, you guys are uncircumcised
in heart and ears. He said, you're stiff-necked
and uncircumcised in heart and ears. That's when they took up
stones to sue him. You do always resist the Holy
Ghost, as your fathers did, so do you. And that's when they
took up stones to stone him. That's when they killed him,
and Paul was standing right there watching their clothes. He heard
the message, and I don't think that ever left him. I really
don't. When I preached this four years ago, I told you this, and
I'm gonna repeat it. You know why? Because it's not grievous
to say this again. 35 times the word circumcision
is used in the New Testament, all right? 35 times. 30 of them are used
by the Apostle Paul. That's an overwhelming majority.
He used circumcision continually. And he used it correctly. And
that's what he's talking about here, the circumcision. We are
the circumcision. He's talking about those circumcised
in heart and in ears. Paul knew, believed, taught,
and wrote of the true circumcision, which is of the heart and not
of the flesh. And he says here, we, believers,
finally, my brethren, We are the circumcision. We are the
circumcision. But then it goes on. Which worship
God in the spirit. In the spirit. We believers worship
God. And I'm gonna put it this way. All believers worship God. And you can do it even when you
don't know you're doing it. You understand? That's kinda,
some people don't understand. They think worshiping God is
woo, yippee, yippee. Well, that fella tell you that
time, Walter, when he was upstairs in the tape room, said, boy,
I wish I'd been down there where the Holy Spirit was. The Holy
Spirit couldn't make it up to the balcony. I don't know why.
No, that's not worshiping God. We worship God how? How is it
possible that believers worship God? Paul wrote it down for us.
We worship God in the spirit. In the spirit. Here it is. John 4.23 put this in. But the
hour cometh and now is when the true worshipers shall worship
the Father in spirit and in truth. And in truth. For the Father
seeketh such to worship him. And verse 24. God is a spirit. and they that worship him must
worship him in spirit and in truth. Here's the thing, true
worship is in the spirit and nowhere else, nowhere else. The Holy Spirit of God. It's not your spirit, it's the
Holy Spirit. Here. True worship in the spirit
is in what? Faith. In faith. Believing the
true God in Christ. The writer of Hebrews put it
this way. But without faith it is impossible to please him. For he that cometh to God must
believe that he is and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently
seek him. Understand. Faith comes to the believer. I got scripture for it. This
is Galatians 3 and verse 22. But the scripture hath concluded
all under sin that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ might
be given to them that believe. So let's list this statement.
But before faith came. Before faith came. We were kept
under the law, shut up under the faith which should afterwards
be revealed. Faith comes to the believer.
Faith comes and makes you a believer. How? By the Holy Spirit of God.
Ye must be born again. But here, verse 24, wherefore
the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ that
we might be justified by faith. But, here it is, after that,
faith, what, is come. After faith is come, we are no
longer under a schoolmaster. For ye are all the children of
God by faith in Christ Jesus. And how's that possible? Faith
came. Faith came. We worship God in
spirit. Faith came. Faith comes to the
believer by the Holy Spirit, and here's the point. Without
the Holy Spirit, you can't worship God. You're under the schoolmaster. You're under the old schoolmaster.
Oh. What's that mean? It means this,
just like it says Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians. The natural
man cannot believe God. The natural man cannot believe
Christ, cannot believe the things of the Spirit of God, and the
natural man cannot worship in the Spirit. Oh, but the believer does. The
believer does. But my brethren, we do. We do,
in the Holy Spirit. Now, here's the point. Who do we worship in the Spirit? Well it says it here, we worship
God. Now, it's not really normally
done in most churches. But in this chapel, I will ask
you the question, which God are you worshiping? Are you worshiping
the God of this scripture? Most people are not, because the natural man can't. Worship in the spirit the true
God whom we know in the spirit by faith by faith through faith
the sovereign God of the scripture Paul The sovereign God of the
scripture We worship give praise to and extol. What is it the
great ancient of days? The true God who has all the
power and Understand we worship God in the spirit We are worshiping
the one who works all things together for good to them that
love God to them that are the called according to his purpose
We worship the one who works all things after the counsel
of his own perfect will And we worship God in the spirit who
makes men willing in the day of his power We work, the one who works his
sovereign will in heaven, on earth, and under the earth. Now
you understand what that means, right? That's everywhere, and
I'll tell you today, every win, right now. I am God, I am the
Lord, I change not. If he was working his sovereign
will in the Old Testament days, there's a lot of people will
postulate. They'll agree, oh yes, God was sovereign in the
Old Testament. He made him go out and made him
come in. He made him go in the wilderness, made him cross the
Red Sea, he held up Pharaoh and then he drowned him. God did
all this wonderful, he's the same God today. He's working
everything according to his own sovereign will. He has done whatsoever he hath
pleased. And that's the one we worship
in the spirit. Because I can tell you this, man don't like it. Man doesn't
like that God. Man doesn't want that God. And
man will not have this man to reign over him. But I can also
tell you this, whatever man likes, whatever man wants, Whatever
man believes doesn't change a thing. Not in this book. I heard Henry
say it on the way up this morning. He said, you know, I know there's
preachers around. He's talking back in the 70s. I think that's when this message
I was listening to was from. He says, I can tell you, preachers
don't believe this book. And you preach from this book,
they get mad at you. And they won't preach from that book.
But he says, you know what I figured out? He says, I figured out this
book's going to be around long after that preacher's dead. It
was here before they got here. It's going to be here after they're
gone. Because God takes care of his word. We worship God in the spirit
who changes not. The real God. Then Paul says
this statement. This is the second part of this
trifecta I was talking about. And, and, put these together. We worship God in the spirit
and rejoice in Christ Jesus Now listen That's more than just
being joyful in Christ Jesus although We are joyful in Christ
Jesus The rejoicing in Christ Jesus
here it is in rejoicing in rejoicing in Christ Jesus You know what
you're going to do You're going to speak of him. You're going
to talk about him. And you're going to talk about
him, what? Among ourselves and others if we get a chance. Because
you understand what this word means in rejoicing in Christ
Jesus. It means boasting. That's what the word is, boasting.
We glory in Christ Jesus. Understand? Believers are pleased
to know Christ Jesus and believers are pleased to speak of Christ
Jesus Aren't you happy to talk about
somebody you love If you're not there's something wrong with
you Now, maybe you're shy something. I understand that's that's okay.
But here's the thing even up here You can rejoice in Christ
Jesus up there and I'll tell you this Not only do you rejoice
in speaking of Jesus Christ and telling others of Jesus Christ,
we rejoice in Christ Jesus in hearing of Jesus Christ. Paul and I were talking on the
phone yesterday. I said, the gospel's good no matter who preaches
it. It's the gospel. It's not the man preaching it.
It's the gospel. It's the truth of Christ. But
understand, if you love someone, you should want to talk about
it. Because it is a joy for the child
of God to tell someone of Jesus Christ. I'll tell you something
else that's also a joy. If you tell somebody of Jesus
Christ and they listen to you, that's good too. That's good
too. It don't happen real often, some
days. You understand, we sing a song.
The Lord has been so good to me, I will on him depend. That's true. The Lord has been
good to his people. The Lord is being good to his
people. And we rejoice in Christ Jesus. We rejoice in him when we read
of him. We rejoice in him when we think
of him. We rejoice in him when we speak
of him. And we rejoice in him when we
hear him. You understand? We rejoice in
Christ Jesus, the brethren do, believers, the circumcision.
Rejoice in Christ Jesus, what? Always, always, what? We rejoice in him preached and
proclaimed. To rejoice in Christ Jesus is
to glory in his name, his person, and his work, and himself. because Christ Jesus is alpha
and omega. He's the beginning and the end.
And what most people really don't wanna have is he's the middle
too. You can't get from the beginning
to the end without the middle. Oh my. From Genesis to Revelation
and beyond, it's all about the Lamb of God. It's all about the
Lamb of God. I love to tell his story, and
I love to hear his story. Like the song says, what, of
Jesus and his love. I said a couple weeks ago, he
is altogether lovely, lovely. Here's the point. We are those,
what, the circumcision, which worship God in the spirit and
rejoice in Christ Jesus. Walter, like he said, it's okay
to boast in Christ Jesus. It's okay, matter of fact, it's
good to glory in Christ Jesus. That's what believers do. That's
what believers do. David wrote, that he was glad
when they said unto him, let us go into the house of the Lord. To gather together is not to
be grievous. If it is, there might be something
wrong. And it might be with you. But there's the two things of
the trifecta. There's two of them. We worship
God in the spirit and rejoice in Christ Jesus, and here's the
third. And this is the third that concerns us personally. And have no confidence in the
flesh. This is where the believer fits
in. And this is, in this verse, this is just as true as worshiping
God in spirit. This is just as true as rejoicing
in Christ Jesus. The believer has no confidence
in the flesh. None, no confidence, none, not
even a little bit. This is where we fit in. We worship God in spirit and
have no confidence in the flesh. We rejoice in Christ Jesus and
have no confidence in the flesh. There's a very good reason we
are to have no confidence in the flesh. Because there shouldn't
be any confidence in the flesh. The true circumcision, the believer
knows this. And it's in Romans chapter seven,
verse 18. For I know that in me, what's
it say? That is in my flesh. dwelleth no good thing. For to will is present with me,
but how to perform that which is good I find not. And you understand, that doesn't
make you happy, but it's still true. I know in my flesh dwells
no good thing. Now the Spirit of God, the Holy
Spirit, dwells, resides, lives in the believer. But there's
no confidence in the flesh. No confidence in the flesh. Not
in my flesh. Paul continued in Romans seven.
O wretched man that I am. This is verse 24. Who shall deliver
me from the body of this death? What? My flesh, my flesh. I thank God through Jesus Christ
our Lord, so then with the mind I myself serve the law of God,
but with the flesh, the law of sin. Our flesh is not getting
any better. We are told to mortify the members
of our body. Your flesh is still not getting
any better. I need delivered from the body
of this death. He has delivered me in my mind and in the new
heart that he gives, in the new life that he gives, and the Holy
Spirit that indwells and enables us to worship God in the spirit
and to rejoice in Christ Jesus, but still, right now, Paul's
writing this to believers. Just as we are, we have no confidence
in the flesh, because in my flesh dwells no good thing. That's the trifecta of believing.
Start with God, worshiping God in the spirit, rejoicing in Christ
Jesus, and knowing you have no confidence in the flesh. God is good, God is great. Christ
is good, Christ is great. You have the Father, the Son,
and the Spirit in this one verse, and you have you, you have me,
any believer, every believer. You're not gonna have no confidence
in the flesh, that's bad English, until you have the Holy Spirit,
until he gives you life. You understand, we are surrounded
by people who think they can do something to help God, who
think they have done something to help themselves get saved.
Well, I believed. Well, if you believe, you believe
by the power of God. It's not you, it's not me, and
it never has been. Salvation is of the Lord. It's his work from beginning
to end, and you are to have no confidence in your flesh. Oh. We believers, the true circumcision,
are told of the triune God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and we
are told of ourselves. This is the trifecta of believing.
Start with worshiping God in the Holy Spirit, rejoice, boast,
extol, proclaim the Lord Jesus Christ, and no confidence in
the flesh. No confidence in the flesh. Now
here's the thing, we have every confidence in God. Every confidence
in our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. He came down, what does
it say? calling Emmanuel, not only God,
God with us, God with us. The child was born, but the son
was given. And he came down, and he perfectly
kept that law which we break every day, every hour of the
day. He loved the Lord God with all
his heart, mind, soul, and strength, and he loved his neighbor as
himself. Like Walter said, I could get
past the first one. I can't get past the second one either, but
you know. We worship God in spirit and
in truth. And if you don't have the spirit,
you don't know nothing about the truth. We have every confidence in the
Father, the Son, and the Spirit, and none in ourselves. And that's not the way it's supposed
to be. That's the way it is. Now, I'll
grant you, the world don't want it. The world don't like it.
Well, they don't have it. Don't worry about it. I can't
help them. But here's the question. Do you
know this God? Do you worship this God? Do you
rejoice in this Christ, the one who saved his people from their
sins, who has accomplished redemption, accepted by the Father, his sacrifice
and offering, his blood for the redemption of our sins? Do you know him? I want to. I think I do. But even if I don't,
I want to, because that's the God of this Bible. That's the
word. I believe all of his called out
people do this trifecta. And by his grace and his power
and in the Holy Spirit, We worship God in the spirit and rejoice
in Christ Jesus and have no confidence in our flesh. Question is, do you know that?
Do you know him? I hope you do. I hope you do. Heavenly Father, we're thankful
today. We are to be thankful every day
for all you've given to us. You've given us in the spirit to be
able to worship you in spirit and in truth. You've given it
to us, your son, our Lord Jesus Christ. You've given us, unto
us, life. when all we knew was death. Thank
you, Lord. Be with Paul and Walter as they
come to speak. Be with others as they preach
your gospel, wherever they may be. Bless those that are sick. Heal them if it's your will. And thank you, Lord. In Christ's
name, we pray.