if you will open your Bibles
to the third chapter of the book of Philippians. Gracious Father, bless us as
we Open your book and try to learn from it what would be good
for us. In Christ's name we pray, amen. Now this passage of scripture,
and we're only going to look at the first three verses this
morning, but this passage of scripture is one of my favorites. It's the first passage of scripture
I ever preached from cold. That is, one evening I had prepared
a message for our congregation. This is way back in probably
the early 90s. And it was one of those messages
more designed for believers. But in that particular service,
a fellow showed up whom we'd been hoping would show up for
a long time. And I thought, I can't preach
that message to him. I can't let him go out here without
a clearer declaration of the gospel. So I just switched to
Philippians 3. And to me, it's one of those
scriptures, if you can't preach from Philippians 3, you can't
preach. You know, you need to do something else. But we'll
call this lesson, false teachers and their false teaching. In
the first three verses of this chapter, Paul warns the believers
of another threat among them. He warns them of false teachers
whom he refers to as dogs, evil workers, and mutilators. Now each of these titles is very
descriptive and each is used to describe some aspect of the
enemies of the cross. Now, since this is the case,
that is, since Paul is describing enemies of
the cross, and since the phrase the cross is used in scripture
as a nickname for the declaration of Christ and his finished work
of redemption and atonement, which he accomplished on the
cross, the thread about which Paul warns them is the teaching,
the religious belief and teaching that human beings earn or merit
a verdict of righteous from God, which is in essence justification. Based on some good things they
do, or some evil things they don't do. In essence, it's legalism. Now those who propose that a
verdict of righteous from God is obtained by anything other
than Christ's work alone prove themselves to be enemies of the
cross. And verse three describes a true
believer. We get a description of the false
ones, and then we get a description of the true ones. And this description
describes them in terms that address the very error of the
enemies of the cross. Now, this passage begins with,
further, my brothers and sisters, rejoice in the Lord. The King
James says, finally, rejoice in the Lord. But he uses this
word twice, because it appears again over in chapter 4, verse
8, where he says, finally, brothers and sisters, and so forth. So
the word does not necessarily carry the word of finality. It also carries the sense of
from now on or henceforth. So these words actually refer
back to what he has taught in the previous two chapters, showing
that those things he taught are ample reason for a believer to
rejoice. In fact, knowing that it can
mean henceforth or from now on, it shows that he's building upon
what he just taught. He's giving them an exhortation
based on what he's just taught. I made a rather long paraphrase
of it, and I'll read it to you, and I think you'll get the sense
of it. It's as though he is saying, now that you understand these
things, that God is the one who works in us and will continue
to do so until the day of Christ, that there are still many men
who faithfully preach the pure gospel from pure motives of love
for God, Christ, and his gospel, and other ministers, and that
even the ministerial efforts of men who carry out their ministry
from false motives of self-advancement are still effective in the kingdom
of God, for despite their false motives, they tell the truth
of Christ, and it's the truth and not the preacher's motive
that is effective, that we are all equals as those who are in
Christ Jesus, as saints of God. And that we are not called upon
to dominate one another, but to love one another by submitting
to one another. That this submission to one another
was practiced by Christ in his submission to his father and
serves as an example to us. That when we live our lives together
as believers, practicing the principles of love and submission,
we become like stars in the night sky of this dark world. And that
this way of life is carried out by holding fast to the word of
life, that is the gospel. And that such an attitude and
way of life is proof of a fruitful ministry. And that even if a
faithful minister of the gospel is put to death as a result of
his ministry, and we are no longer able to benefit from his ministry
or enjoy his company, All things are still well, and neither the
preacher nor the church will suffer true harm by it. And that
there are always men who God has called to carry on his work
even as other servants die, and they have equal care and concern
as those who have gone before. Now, in consideration of all
those things, from now on, rejoice. And when you think on those things, yes, we have every reason to
rejoice. And we have no reason not to. There is nothing going on that
will prove harmful to the church of the Lord Jesus Christ. It
may be painful. It may be disappointing. It may be frustrating, but no harm ever
comes to the church of Christ. And why is that? Christ is her
savior. And that word savior also means
preserver. All these things that happen actually serve the benefit of
the church. Everything is as it should be,
and God is perfecting and protecting His work. Seeing that these things
are true, there's simply no reason not to rejoice. And you know,
as I prepared for this lesson and thought on those things,
I thought, how far short I fall of actually living out that principle. And yet in considering those
reasons for rejoicing from now on, my heart was made to rejoice. Now the last part of verse one
says, it is no trouble for me to write the same things to you
again, and it's a safeguard for you. Now, chapter divisions were
not inspired by God. They were added in the 1550s.
This was done to make it easier to find particular portions of
scripture. And the chapter divisions were
made with the idea of separating the major themes of each book. Now, speaking of the first part
of verse one, like we did, it seems to me that really should
have been the tail end of chapter 2. He gives all those instructions
in chapter 1 and 2 and his exhortation is from now on rejoice
and now we pick up a new thing and this new thing is the presence
of false teachers among them and their false teachings Evidently,
he'd addressed this very subject before, either by spoken word
or by a letter we're unaware of, because he wrote about saying,
you know, it's not a trouble for me to write the same things
to you. He did not consider it a burden.
Now, as pastor in this congregation, I essentially preach the same
things to you every week. I find them from different scriptures,
different aspects of these things are emphasized in one sermon
as opposed to others. But really the business of a
preacher is to be repetitive. And it is no burden to me to
be that way. In all truth, it makes the job
much easier. I don't have to search for a
message. I study to come up with a sermon. But the message is always the
same. It's always Christ. And so he said, it's not a problem
to me to write it again to you, to remind you of these things.
And it's a safeguard for them. Because these people that he
speaks of were in their church. They're in all churches. And
therefore, we need to be aware of their presence and take cautionary
steps not to be infected by their false teaching. A faithful preacher once brought
a message on declaring the gospel using the text of 1 Corinthians
15, 1, where Paul says, brethrens, I declare again the gospel to
you. And this preacher worked over that word declare, showing
that it can be applied in two ways. First, it means to preach
the gospel as if it were the first time your hearers ever
heard it. You know, when I'm preaching,
in the back of my mind, there's almost always, I won't say always,
because I'm not perfect in this any more than I'm perfect in
anything else. But in general, I have this in my mind, I may
be preaching to a person that never really has heard the gospel. I don't want to ever preach a
message that if there were someone brand new showed up, they would
not know the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ when they left.
So we always preach it as though some of the hearers Maybe hearing
it for the first time. And then secondly, it means to
preach the gospel as a way to remind those who have heard it. Why? Because we need reminded
of them. Now look at verse two. He says,
watch out for those dogs, those evil doers, those mutilators
of the flesh. These are the false teachers
that he is referring to. who come into the church and
it would seem to me that there were preachers who traveled from
place to place claiming to be representatives of Christ. And
the churches were set up so that if one was like that, they were
given opportunity to speak. This went on in synagogues and
the church is basically the Christian version of a synagogue. The word
synagogue actually comes from two Greek words and simply means
to come together. And the word translated church strictly means called together. So you can see the similarity
between the two. And so these people would come
in claiming to be ministers of Christ, but actually being ministers
of Satan. And so Paul describes them under
these three names, dogs, evil workers, and mutilators. Now, he's very clear here. He
does not count these people to be among the brethren, saying
that despite their error, they still speak some truth. Nor does
he characterize their error as merely a different opinion about
some minor matters. And I mentioned that because
these arguments are sometimes made in defense of these enemies
of the cross, particularly these ones on television that people
like, you know, and they watch them and they may say to you,
Oh, I watched this in this guy and I really like him. And you
point out, well, you realize he denies the gospel. He says
that you have to do this in order to be saved. And they say, well,
yeah, he's got some minor differences of opinion, but he still says
some good things. So what? He's denying Christ. And that means he's not a brother. He's not been called of God to
preach. Paul does not hesitate to declare
what they are and what they are not. They're not brethren at all. They're not misguided brethren,
rather, they're not brethren at all. Even though our Lord
forbade us from judging others with regard to their spiritual
condition, when he said, do not judge, or you will be judged. He also said judge with the right
judgment. And what's the right judgment?
The truth. We should never be quick to count
someone outside the kingdom of God, but neither should we hesitate
to do so when the evidence is clear and based on the fact that
they are teaching that which is directly opposed to the gospel
of Jesus Christ. Now note that When Paul describes
these false teachers, he's describing their evil character in terms
of their religious activity. He's not describing people that
are found in bars and bordellos and other places of ill repute. He's not talking about thieves
and murderers. He's talking about religious
people. people that are found in the
church who seek to undermine the gospel of grace and bring
believers into bondage. First thing, he calls them as
dogs and he tells people to beware of them. John Gill, a pastor,
actually he was one of the pastors of the very same church that
Spurgeon eventually became the pastor of, But he said that the
Jews of old had a saying, the face of that generation in which
the Messiah shall come shall be as the face of a dog. And you know something that was
true? When our Lord Jesus Christ came,
that generation, for the most part, were like the dogs that
Paul is speaking of here. These false brethren are called
dogs because they are among those who have heard and seemingly
embraced the truth. But just like a dog returning
to its vomit or a sow returning to the mud, they have returned
to their former legalistic religion. They just put a veneer of Christianity
around it. Peter described them like this.
Of them the proverbs are true, a dog returns to his vomit and
a sow that is washed goes back to her wallowing in the mud. They are like dogs in their understanding
of the gospel and in their interest in the gospel. Isaiah described
them like this in chapter 56 verse 10, Israel's watchmen are
blind, they all lack knowledge, They are all mute dogs. They cannot bark. They lie around
and dream. They love to sleep. These preachers,
and one thing I found about them is they are, well, they don't
bark. You know, one of the things dogs
are supposed to do is bark to warn you of danger. They don't
bark. They don't warn because they
are the danger. And generally speaking, these
people are lazy in the ministry. And they're lazy because they
can fall back on natural, fleshly wisdom. These are dogs because
they are outside the Lord's sheepfold. They're not sheep. Neither do
they belong to the family of God, and they are not welcome
in the family of God. Now, when we meet for worship,
anybody who wants to may come, so long as they are willing to
come and listen in peace. But the church must never tolerate
those who promote this false teaching within the church. They've
got to be told, you either be quiet or you be somewhere else. They are dogs because they have
no taste for what Isaiah calls fat things and wine on the leaves
well refined. Instead, they salivate over carrion. They're scavengers that prefer
that which is rotting. They are like maggots that cannot
survive on anything that is alive. They're not misguided brethren.
They are enemies of the cross. Secondly, Paul calls them evil
workers. Now this gives us a sense of
what the Bible means when it uses the word evil. It is primarily used to describe
the heart, attitude, and actions of those who in their religion
oppose the truth. even while they express a love
for it. Remember the writer of Hebrews
saying, be careful that there is not in you an evil heart of
unbelief. And the problem in the book of
Hebrews was those who were claiming to love the gospel but were going
back to old covenant ways in order to avoid persecution. These evil men are not irreligious. They're religiously evil in the
name of Christ. Note also that Paul calls them
workers of evil. They're not idle in their hatred
for the truth. They do work at it. Now they
may be lazy in their studies, But they're not lazy in trying
to convince other people of their error. They mean business, and they
are tireless in their efforts because they believe their own
eternal life depends on their personal merit, just like Saul
of Tarsus. They believe they are going about
doing good. So they're dogs, they're evil
workers, and then Paul calls them In the King James it says
the concision. The word is actually made of
two Greek words. One means down and the other
means cut. And down, that word normally
means down, can also be used as an intensifier. And so actually
what the word means is to spoil by cutting. The word means they're mutilators. They sought to bring the Gentiles
under the law by requiring circumcision as evidence that they were true
believers. Now that ritual of circumcision
which God had commanded the Jews and under the old covenant was
not considered a bad thing, but the moment that it is set forward
as a means to obtain God's favor, that action is called mutilation. Now their entire practice of
religion, these evil workers and these mutilators, consisted
of their efforts in the flesh. And circumcision was merely the
first step in such a legal religious existence. It was the first star
in their crown of personal righteousness. And we're going to see that at
one time that was one of the things Paul claimed as a reason
why God was pleased with him. True circumcision has to do with
the heart, the inward man, not something done in the outward
flesh. Now these three descriptions,
dogs, evil workers, and mutilators, they encompass that false notion
of human merit, and then lay the foundation for what Paul
says in the remainder of this chapter. Now in verse 3, Paul
describes true believers. He says, let's read it, for it
is, for it is we who are the circumcision,
we who serve God by His Spirit, who boast in Christ Jesus, and
who put no confidence in the flesh. Now, here's what these three distinctive
characteristics mean. They worship God in spirit. Do
you remember our Lord said, the Father desires those who worship
in spirit and truth. Now, seeing that the early manuscripts, Greek
manuscripts of the New Testament, Some of them were written in
all lowercase letters. Some of them were written in
all uppercase letters. So when we read this word like
spirit, we don't know for sure whether he's speaking of our
spirits or the spirit of God. But the fact is, both work. Because
worshiping God is a spiritual activity, not a fleshly one.
And likewise, it cannot be done without the work of the Spirit
in it. The practice of true worship is hearing the gospel, the record
of Christ's finished work. This worship is done in the Spirit,
in our spirits, under the guidance and power of the Spirit of God.
It involves the Spirit taking the things of Christ and revealing
them to the believer. Paul says that God's Spirit bears
witness with our spirits that we are the children of God. Now such worship results in rejoicing
and thanksgiving and praise for what God has done. Second thing
to note is that this rejoicing is singular. They're rejoicing Christ Jesus.
Now this word rejoice is a mixture of the concepts of boasting and
rejoicing. We have an English word for that,
it's called exult, E-X-U-L-T, but we almost never use it. But
I would think that the closest we can get to understanding what
this word means is the feeling that one has maybe when they
run a touchdown or accomplish something that they desperately
wanted to do and it's accomplished and so you feel this surge of
joy over the accomplishment and not necessarily a prideful boasting
but nonetheless an acknowledgement that it has been done. So we
rejoice slash boast, we exult in Christ Jesus. Now these other fellas, they
exulted in what they had done. We exult in what Christ has done. And then finally, Paul It says
they put no confidence in the flesh. Believers put no confidence
in their flesh. And if you've been a believer
for very long, you know why you don't put confidence in the flesh.
The flesh always fails. We realize, as Paul said, in
our flesh dwells no good thing. All right, we'll pick up with
verse four next week.