Open your Bibles, if you would,
to Philippians chapter three. We're starting a new chapter
today. Paul, in chapter two, was exhorting the Philippians
to unity through Christ. Humility, again, leads to unity. So he was talking to them about
humility, having the mind of Christ. Now we're gonna see him
transition to warning about false teachers. The Judaizers had been
going around to the different churches, as we saw in Acts 15,
I believe, and they were saying, except you be circumcised according
to the law of Moses and believe on Christ, you're not saved.
So they're false teachers. They're going around mixing grace
with works, and today, In our text, we see that the church
at Philippi is commanded to rejoice in the Lord first. So Paul, what's
he doing first of all? Before he warns them of these
false teachers, he sets Christ right before them. Always note
that, too. Paul will do this. Whenever he's
going to bring forth a rebuke or a correction, he always sets
forth Christ. If you read before in the text,
he always sets Christ forth first, always. Before he says anything
to the Corinthian believers, read chapter one. It's just full
of Christ, just full of Christ. It's amazing. So here he tells,
before he says anything about these false teachers, he's gonna
tell them to rejoice in the Lord. And then he's going to caution
them to beware of evil teachers. And they're subtle. They're subtle. And they're enemies of the Church,
beloved. They're enemies of the true Church of God. Now, in the
heart of God's children, who are savingly regenerated by the
Holy Spirit of God, we have joy that's put in our hearts by the
Holy Spirit of God. We have, if we look at what Christ
has done for us, we really have unceasingly cause for rejoicing. But we're sinners. We struggle
with sin. But when we stop and think about
what Christ has done for us, so this is a command, again,
by God the Holy Spirit, and so for us to rejoice. And when can
we rejoice? In all circumstances. And rejoicing's
not just jumping around, you know, waving your hands and being
on a mountaintop. You can rejoice in your heart
without saying a word to anyone. You can rejoice through a tough
situation in Christ. Just focusing on him. Just, Lord,
thank you for taking care of me. Praise your mighty name.
Right? In your heart, we can say that.
So again, it's not putting a show on for people at all. It's within
us. It's within us, beloved. Think of this. How can we bring
ourselves to rejoice even in tough times? Well, I think we're
one of the elect of God, chosen in Christ before the foundation
of the world, justified before God. in and through the Lord
Jesus Christ and by his precious blood. That'll cause us to rejoice,
won't it? Because we're undeserving, unmeriting,
hell-deserving sinners, aren't we? And what mercy God's, boy,
that'll make our hearts rejoice. We might not be walking around
with a giant smile on our face, but inside we can be rejoicing,
can't we? Oh, absolutely. So Paul in this section from
verses one to 11 in chapter three, we're gonna read verses one to
11. He's gonna bring forth before the Philippian believers and
we who are born again, the vast difference between rejoicing
in the Lord and taking confidence in the flesh. This portion is
about righteousness versus confidence in the flesh. Righteousness which
only comes through Christ. True righteousness. Righteousness
God will accept, right? He won't accept our righteousness,
will he, Charles? It's like filthy rags in his eyes. But he accepts
the righteousness of Christ, doesn't he? And he accepts those
who are clothed in the righteousness of Christ. My, which is what
believers are. We're clothed in the righteousness
of Christ. So let's read verses 1 to 11, keeping in mind that
Paul's told us that unity comes through humility. And he says
this now, 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, that's in the heart, right? Which worship
God in the spirit and rejoice in Christ Jesus and have, look
at this, no confidence in the flesh. My. What a change God's wrought in
us. My, oh my. Though I might also have confidence
in the flesh, if any other man thinketh that he hath whereof
he might trust in the flesh, I more. So he's going to give
us a little bit of his pedigree from the Jewish history of his
family. Circumcised the eighth day of
the stock of Israel of the tribe of Benjamin, the favored tribe.
Hebrew of Hebrews is touching the law of Pharisee concerning
zeal persecuting the church touching the righteousness which is in
the law blameless but what things were gained to me those I counted
lost for Christ yea doubtless I count all things for loss,
but for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus, my
Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do
count them but dung, that I may win Christ. That there is manure,
counts it like manure. All those supposed things he
did, just waste, just waste. and be found in him, not having
mine own righteousness, look at that, which is of the law,
but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness
which is of God by faith. That's the righteousness of Christ,
isn't it, Brother Charlie? Yeah. That I may know him, praise
God if you know him, by the power of his resurrection and the fellowship
of his sufferings being made conformable unto his death, if
by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead.
So we saw again in the last chapter a call for self-exhortation to
unity, unity through Christ, unity through Christ. And that's
the only place where we will have unity as believers, is through
Christ in him alone. And in these first three verses,
we see that Paul sets before us A distinct contrast between
false religion and true religion. There's only one true religion,
isn't there? All the other ones are false. Salvation through
Christ alone, everything else is man-made works. False religion. And Paul has been concerned so
far in the letter with the internal disagreements. They've been very
mild. He dealt with them very, very,
very lightly in the beginning of chapter two. They're mild,
they're just starting. But he knows those false teachers,
those Judaizers are all around. And they've been hitting Galatia
and other churches. Remember he wrote, when they
are studying Galatians, it was all about those Judaizers coming
in. and justification by faith alone
through Christ alone. Oh my. So he's concerned for their well-being. He's concerned that they're gonna
be endangered by these false teachers coming in. And that's why he gives them
a call for unity in chapter two. And now he warns them about the
false teachers. So he calls for unity so they
can be bound together. And when the false teachers do
come in, because they will, there's unity within the body to say,
no, that's wrong. That's wrong. Salvation's by
Christ alone, through Christ alone, by his precious blood
alone. And that's it. Nothing I can
do can gain me any kind of favor and merit with God. So he turns
his attention, note the Holy Spirit too, giving this to the
Philippians before it's even occurred. The Holy Spirit is
God, he knows what's gonna happen. He's as much God as the Father
and the Son. And he's the author of the scriptures,
isn't he? And so here, Paul writes this
warning turning their attention to a danger that would assail
the church from without. So first of all, he deals with
what's going on within, right? They're having little squabbles.
Nothing serious yet, but they're having little squabbles. He calls
them to unity. But now he's warning them, isn't
he, sister, about a greater danger now? Judaizers. False teachers. And you know how, you ever hear
of modern Christianity, churchianity? Oh, don't judge. Don't do this. Listen to the strong language
that the Holy Spirit has Paul penned about these false teachers. I'll warn people about certain
teachers, Joel Osteen and all that. Oh, they're so good. Don't
say that. No, they're wolves. They're false
teachers. That's what they are. My oh my. And I'm not trying to be mean
spirited either. They are. I was talking to a guy a couple
weeks ago, and I said, you still trusting that Jesus who supposedly
saves but can't keep? He's like, what? And I said,
well, that's not the Jesus of the Bible. The Jesus of the Bible
is God. He saves and he keeps. He won't
lose one. Well, a god of people's imagination,
you see, he supposedly saves them. But who's the master now? They are. They're the sovereign
because supposedly they can lose their salvation. Well, they never
had it in the first place. They never had it in the first
place. And it's a false Jesus. Oh my. So Paul turns their attention
to those who are without now of the church, the Judaizers.
And they're Jews who were false professors and mixed the work
of Christ, the perfect work of Christ, they mixed it with something
man does. And in doing that, they perverted
it. It's no longer the gospel. Because
now it's dependent on something man does. I'll tell you what,
Charlie, aren't we thankful that our salvation is 100% dependent
on the Lord Jesus Christ? Makes your heart sing, doesn't
it, Brother Steve? My, oh my, it's not dependent upon us. It's
all what he's done. He saves us and he keeps us and
he gonna take us home. Praise his mighty name. Oh, it's
wonderful. So we see this chapter here begins,
and remember too, there's nothing new under the sun. So the false
teachers of our day are still doing the same thing. They're
still mixing works with grace. There's nothing new under the
sun, nothing. But look at this exhortation
where, well, look at this. Finally, my brethren rejoice
in the Lord. So this is the first exhortation
here. And it's designed as a way of
not becoming entangled in false teachings. Steve, if you and I are rejoicing
in the Lord and thinking about what He's done for us, we're
not gonna get entangled with all that stuff, are we? We're
gonna be too busy praising His name, right, sister? Giving Him
glory. Somebody comes up just to, well,
you know, salvation's by this. No, praise God, it's all by Christ
in Him alone. Let me tell you about it. Oh, let me tell you about it.
It's wonderful. Oh, my. And in the Greek, this brings forth, go on to constantly
rejoice in the Lord. So if we're rejoicing in the
Lord, what false teachers say aren't even going to bother us.
We'll just blow it off. No, that's wrong. That's wrong. Turn, if you would, to Galatians
chapter 6. So this first exhortation is
a way to keep them from being entangled with these false teachers. Look at this in Galatians chapter
six here. Do you know what the Judaizers
were doing? They were rejoicing and boasting in the things that
they got man to do. The things that man, they were
like, well, let us tell you the real way to Christ. And when they got someone flipped
over, that wasn't really even a true believer. They were, man,
that just made them even more puffed up. When we hear of someone's
being saved, we rejoice, don't we? Look what the Lord's done. Look what the Lord's done. You
all know I have no power to save anyone. I can't even save myself.
But I preach the one who can save anyone who comes to him,
the Lord Jesus Christ. who shed his blood for her, sinners
such as we. Look at this, Galatians chapter
six, verses 12 to 16. As many as desire to have a fair
appearance in the flesh, see, they like the accolades of men.
They want the, oh, look what we've done. These compel you
to be circumcised, this is talking about the Judaizers, only that
they might not be persecuted for the cross of Christ. They
want nothing to do with persecution through the cross. They want,
they want, they want accolades from their converts. For not
even those being circumcised keep the law themselves. Look
at that. Jews can't keep the law. Gentiles
can't keep the law. That's everyone, right? No, we
can't keep the law. But they desire you to be circumcised
so that they might what? Boast in your flesh. Well, I
want 50,000 people to Christ. Do you ever hear people say stuff,
just foolishness? I went to a guy's website. 250,000 people through the years
have come to Christ through this man's preaching. Hogwash. My oh my. If I tell you something
about how many downloads we're getting, that's for you and me
to give glory to God for what he's doing and be amazed going,
oh my gosh, look what he's doing. Right? Look what God's doing
because it isn't me and it isn't you, right? It's God. He does that. My oh my. But for me, May it be never to boast, except
in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. We are to boast in Christ,
beloved, in Him alone. Through which the world has been
crucified to me, and I to the world. The world doesn't have
the appeal it once had to us. It is gone. For neither circumcision,
look at this, nor uncircumcision is anything, instead a new creation. And as many those who walk by
this rule, peace and mercy be upon them and upon the Israel
of God." Who's the Israel of God? The born-again, blood-washed
saints of God. Isn't that wonderful? How do
we know that? Well, Galatians tells us, if
you be Christ, then you're Abraham's seed and the heroes according
to the promise. The Israel of God, beloved. I'm looking at
members of the Israel of God. Isn't that amazing? Oh, it's
amazing. Listen to verse one in the Greek
literal Bible. What's he talking about there?
This is an exhortation, first of all, to the Philippian church. That again, no matter what our
circumstance is, providentially, we're to rejoice in the Lord.
That again, doesn't mean walking around with a smile on your face
all the time, because sometimes we get down, don't we? But we
have that joy in our hearts, don't we? And what can cause
us to rejoice? Thinking about what Christ has
done for us, right? We might have tears streaming
down our face, because the circumstances we're going through. And yet
we can still rejoice in the Lord, can't we? We can still rejoice
in what he's done for us. Oh my. What a blessed command. Rejoice
in the Lord always, and again I say rejoice. So let we who
are the redeemed of the Lord rejoice in the greatness of his
person, the Lord Jesus Christ. He's our all sufficient Savior.
Let us rejoice in the power of his blood. His blood washed away
all our sins, beloved. So much so that God says, I don't
remember him anymore, even if we do. He says, I don't remember
him anymore. Oh, my. That causes us to rejoice,
won't it? Yeah? that blood cleanses us
from all sin, and let us rejoice in the perfection of His righteousness
that's imputed to us, that's transferred to us. Our sins were
transferred to Him, and He bore them and paid the penalty for
them, sinless, and His perfect righteousness is transferred
to us. My! That'll cause us to rejoice,
won't it? My, and let we who are the born-again,
blood-washed saints of God rejoice in the abundance of his all-sufficient
grace. Think about God's grace. It's
all-sufficient. No matter what we go through,
it's sufficient for us. You know, Brother Steve, you
went through a lot, and so has Dan and Kathy, but we see the
Lord carrying you through it. His grace is sufficient, isn't
it? It's amazing. And each of us every day go through
different things. Some are perils of our minds,
some are perils of our heart. But the Lord's grace is sufficient. Paul three times asked the Lord
to take away the thorn in the flesh, which no one knows what
that is. People speculate. Speculation
leads to trouble. We know he had a thorn in the
flesh. I call my diabetes a thorn in flesh. I can't eat when I
want to, right? But that's okay, though. I eat
healthier now. But he asked three times for it to
be taken away, and the Lord said, my grace is sufficient for you.
God's grace is overabundant. It abounds, beloved. It's all
sufficient. No matter what we go through,
it's all sufficient for us. That'll cause us to rejoice.
And then think of the immutability of his unfailing love, this everlasting
love that God has for his people. That'll cause us to rejoice too,
won't it? Charlie, God's love has been
set upon us from eternity and has never changed. Praise his mighty name. It's
all through Christ. It's all through Christ. If you've ever had someone love
you and then say they don't love you anymore, you really appreciate
the everlasting love of God that never changes. Never changes. I mean, it's unfailing. and it's being set upon we who
are his people from eternity. That'll cause us to rejoice,
won't it? Oh my. Oh my. And then think of his
rule of providence. Steve, we were talking about
that this morning, his rule of providence and how he works all
things out for his elect. Even circumstances that we are
shocked at sometimes. Preserving his people. till the
time they hear the gospel and then taking them home when it's
their time to leave this earth. Oh my! And then let us rejoice
in the fact of his all-prevailing intercession. Christ is interceding
for us right now. Right now. The accuser of the
brethren comes and the Lord says, See the wounds? And the father
says, when I see the blood, I'll pass
over you. Oh my, thou causest rejoice,
won't it? Oh my. So may God give us grace
to rejoice, even no matter the circumstances we're going through.
And all that means is to set our mind upon Christ, think about
his greatness, think about his goodness. And beloved, I'm gonna
admit, it's not easy. It's not, because we're sinners. We get caught up in a circumstance
and I admit, I get caught up in the circumstance and all I'm
seeing is the tornado that's going on. but I have to remember
the one who's in control. Right? And that usually happens,
right? Down, Vicki and I had something happen, and Vicki's
like, why did you even worry? And I'm like, oh, I'm just such
a sinner. I was just getting all worked
up. And God took care of the whole thing. Like, I mean, so
amazingly, It was a trip I was supposed to go on at West. Didn't
think I was going to be able to go. And I got tickets that
are, what, cheaper than getting a hotel room for two nights. Amazing. But I got all worked
up, right? When am I going to learn? Probably
never till I get home to be with the Lord, right? I'm like Peter.
Lord, help my unbelief. Is that, is that you guys? Help
my unbelief, Lord! Help me! And then Steve, when
we, when we realize, we start rejoicing together, don't we? Oh my. Oh my goodness. God is so good to us. Oh. See the words the same thing
in our text here. It says finally my brother rejoice
the Lord to write the same things to you indeed is not troublesome
to me and is safe for you the words same things this refers
to the the former warnings and exhortations that he's given
them so far in the letter the exhortation to unity to rejoice
in the Lord to keep your eyes set upon Christ to consider Christ
all these things, talking about his imprisonment, being for the
furtherance of the gospel, trying to give them an understanding
of God's providence at work, and then giving them something
to rejoice about when he tells them about the Praetorian guards,
and that there's some of the Praetorian guards the Lord saved,
because they're stuck with Paul, providentially, what they would
think would be stuck. This guy didn't do anything.
And they're starting to realize that by, because the text brings
forth that they all knew why he was imprisoned. And the Lord
saved some of them. Oh my. My, oh my, oh my. It's just amazing. So these refer
to the former warnings and addresses that he's made against things
leading them astray. And Paul's not grieved to warn
them. Look what he says, look it. Paul's
not grieved to warn them about these things. And how does he
warn them? Well, he's gonna preach the gospel
to them, isn't he? And preaching the gospel for a gospel preacher
is not grievous, let me tell you. It's joy. And it's even
more of a joy when you have folks who want to hear it. Like what
we have here, it's wonderful. It's wonderful. Oh my. Donnie Bell, when he came up
here, he said, those folks aren't hard to preach to, Wayne. They
just love the gospel. And I'm like, amen, they do.
They do. Oh my. So he's not brave to warn
them about what he said before. And this is why we need to constantly
hear the true gospel of salvation through Christ alone. Right? Because it reminds us constantly
what the truth is. Because we do forget. We're humans. That's why we have to keep hearing
the gospel. Miles McGee bought that at one
time. He said the whole reason, and he's a missionary, the whole
reason we have to keep preaching the gospel is because we all
forget. And how do we know? Well, wait
for an event to come up and we... Right? Oh man, I forgot again,
Lord. You're in full control. You know? Oh my. I get a laugh out of these super
Christians that say that they don't ever have any problems
with any of this stuff. They're not super Christians. They're super prideful, is what
they are. Oh, nothing ever bothers me.
Well, something's going to come along that's going to bother
you, let me tell you. Vicki had a lady one time said to her,
well, I never get depressed. Remember that, huh? I never get
depressed. Well, it wasn't but a year later,
some stuff erupted in her family, and I bet you, I can almost guarantee
you she was depressed. Oh my, my oh my. We all go through it, beloved.
That's why we have an exhortation here is to rejoice in the Lord. My oh my. So we need to constantly
hear the gospel. And it's not gravious for Paul
to keep preaching the gospel. It's not at all. Now let's look
at verse 2. It says, beware of the dogs,
beware of the evil workers, beware of the false circumcision. Oh
my. See the word beware? The Greek
word translated has the idea of constantly observing with
a view to avoiding. So for us, Charlie, to be on
guard, because we want to avoid it. My, and it also has constantly
be looking at in the sense of bewaring. Again, how do we keep
from error? Look to Christ. Look to Christ. And you will know what error
is. You will. And see the word dogs there?
This was a term of reproach among the Greeks and the Jews. The
poet Homer used it of men and women implying recklessness in
men and shamelessness in women. Now, I found this very interesting.
You remember when the Lord's talking to the Syrophoenician
woman and she talks about the bread? Even the dogs eat the
crumbs? It's a different word for dogs. I had no idea until
I was looking. The word that the Lord uses is
for a puppy. That which would be a household
dog that you would love. This word. is for a mangy, flea-infested
street dog. There's a difference, isn't there?
And she was one of the Lords of Lack, wasn't she, sister? We're all dogs by nature. But
some are, some are different than the other ones. And it's not by anything we do.
A dog's a dog, right? Dog's a dog. One's a dog that is loved at
home, and one's a dog that's a Main Street dog. And back then,
there was dogs running everywhere. All over the place. And Gentiles
in the Christian era were called dogs by the Jews. Again, the word Paul here uses
this one, and the Greek brings forth a mangy, flee-bitten, vicious. Oh, how are we in our natural
state? We're vicious, aren't we? Starved scavengers of the
streets. And now think of modern Christianity.
Oh, don't judge. You can't tell those guys that
they're false. You can't tell people that they're false preachers.
What's Paul doing here? They're a bunch of-they're not
just a dog. They're a mangy street dog who's vicious and will turn
on you, rip your hand off. That's what he's-the Holy Spirit
is putting before us the fact that these false teachers are
vicious. They're vicious. All they want
is what they can gain. The gospel preacher's concerned
for your soul. These folks, these Judaizers,
the dogs, all they're concerned for is a reputation and a following,
and what comes with that? Money. Right? That's what they're all about.
That's what they're all about. Oh my. And Paul is not going
to mince words here. He tells them, beware of evil
workers. Then that's the next thing he says. So he compares
the Judaizers to these vicious street dogs. And then he tells
them, beware of evil workers, which is referring to those same
dogs, those false teachers. That's what they are. They teach
and they promote a system of man's works to gain salvation. And what does Paul call them?
They're evil workers. Boy, I wonder how that'd fly
with modern churchianity, eh? Tell you, tell someone that Olsteen's
like this. He's like a vicious dog. Wait
till you see the reaction you get. I've experienced it. It's not very good. Then do we
know what they do? They say, well, you're a false
preacher. That's their first thing comes
back to preachers, whether you're a false preacher. No, I actually
preach the truth. They say, well, how do you know
that? Because I preach Christ alone. What the Bible says. It's not my... Remember what
you and Denise used to say? We love it because you preach
what the Word says. You don't give us your opinion. Preach
what the Word says. And people don't like that, do
they? They want a God they can twist. They want a God they can
control. How do we know that? Because
these false teachers are telling them about a God that they can
control. It's not the true living God, is it? It's a false gospel.
It's a false Christ. And our Lord warned us that there'd
be false Christ. Do you know there's another spirit?
It's not the Holy Spirit. There's a false Jesus and there's
a false spirit. You know, the Bible says the
Holy Spirit will not speak of himself, will not draw attention
to himself. There's a whole movement out
there that's all based on that. And they say, they go as far
as to say, well, if you don't speak in tongues, you're not
saved. Some of the extreme ones do that.
And of course, they believe there's apostles and they self-name themselves
apostles. There's no more apostles. There's
gospel preachers. And there's teachers, but there
ain't no more apostles. Oh my, so you hear someone saying
that, it's false. Oh, I got to wrap it up here.
I was going to just keep on going. I got a whole nother page to
go. Man, oh my. Well, we'll have to continue
this next week. We'll have to continue this, because there's
a lot here. So isn't that interesting though, that the Lord gives a
difference between when he says dogs to that poor sinner lady
like us, and then when it comes to false teachers, just calls them what they are.
My oh my. Brother Charlie, can you close
us in prayer?