I am speaking to you today from
the book of Philippians, chapter 3. Philippians, chapter 3. And as always, I encourage you
to open your Bible and look at it with me so you will know that
I am reading God's Word and not my thoughts or opinions. Now,
the subject today is marks of a true believer, or evidences
of a true believer. And the Apostle Paul gives three
things in this chapter which characterize a true believer. In Philippians 3, look at verse
3 with me. It says, 4. We are the circumcision
which worship God in the Spirit, and rejoice in Christ Jesus,
and have no confidence in the flesh. For, he says, he begins
with the word for. We are. Now, you've got to go
back to the verse before that to see why he begins with the
word for. All right, verse 2 reads this
way. Beware of dogs. Beware of evil workers. Beware of the concision. He gives three warnings. Beware,
beware, beware. The first thing he says to beware
of is dogs. Beware of dogs. Now, he's not
talking about pit bulls or Doberman pincers, but he's talking about
preachers. Does that shock you? I hope so. Over in Isaiah 56 is where this
is written. Isaiah chapter 56, if you want
to turn over there. I do hope someone is shocked. I hope someone hearing this will
be shocked enough to start taking a hard look at all of these so-called
preachers today and not trusting someone just because they have
reverend before their name or wear a clerical collar. Well,
over in Isaiah 56, it reads this way in verse 10. Isaiah 56, verse
10 says, His watchmen are blind, or those who are supposed to
be God's watchmen, or those who are supposed to watch over the
souls of men. It says they are blind. They are all ignorant. Now, someone
may say, you shouldn't say such things about preachers. Well,
I didn't say that. God's Word did. And the Lord
Jesus Christ Himself said of the religious leaders, or the
preachers in His day, He said they are blind leaders of the
blind. That's what Isaiah called them.
He says they are blind and they are ignorant. And Paul said the
same thing over in 1 Timothy 1, verse 7. He said those that
desire to be teachers of the law, or God's word, he says they
don't understand what they say, nor whereof they affirm, or where
they get what they believe. And Isaiah goes on to say here
in Isaiah 56 verse 10, he says this, he says they are blind,
they are ignorant, they are all dumb dogs, dogs that cannot bark. sleeping, lying down, that is,
lazy, loving to slumber, and verse 11 says they are greedy
dogs. Greedy dogs. You can't get enough. You have to get more church members,
you have to get more money. Well, Paul says in Philippians
3, beware. Beware of these dogs or preachers. Beware, he says next, of evil
workers. evil workers. Over in Matthew
7, Christ talks about evil workers in religion. That is who he is
talking about. Beware of evil workers in religion. Listen to this. The Lord Jesus
Christ is speaking in Matthew 7, verses 22 and 23, and he says,
Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied
in thy name, or preached and in thy name hath cast out devils,
and in thy name done many wonderful works, in the name of Jesus this,
in the name of Jesus that. Then will I profess unto them,
I never knew you, depart from me ye that work iniquity, or
evil worker." And he calls them that because they are after money,
after a name for themselves, trying to build the biggest church
or religious playhouse. And Paul says, beware of them. And the next thing he says to
beware of is, in verse 2 of Philippians 3, beware of the concision. The concision, or those who claim
to be God's people. All right? Verse 3, now this
is the mark. He says, we are the circumcision.
We are the true people of God. Now, this thing of circumcision,
circumcision was a mark which God Almighty gave to the Jews
to distinguish them as God's people. All right? And Paul says
in Romans chapter 2, he says this about circumcision or being
a Jew. He says this in Romans 2, verses
28 and 29, he says, He is not a Jew which is one outwardly. Neither is that circumcision
which is outward in the flesh, or a mark on your body. But he
is a Jew, and I'm still reading from Romans 2. In verse 29 it
says, he is a Jew, or the people of God, the chosen ones of God,
which is one inwardly. And circumcision is that of the
heart. circumcision is of the heart. And so Paul says over here in
Philippians 2, he says, beware of the concision, or beware of
those who claim to be the people of God. Now, he's not only telling
us to beware of preachers, but he says, beware of all who call
themselves God's people, or Christian. And he says it's not outward.
It's not an outward thing. It's not the way one dresses.
It's not wearing a cross around your neck, wearing a t-shirt
with Jesus on it, putting a bumper sticker on your car, telling
how much you love him. It's not being outwardly religious. All right, what is it, Paul?
Well, let's look at these three things. In Philippians 3, verse
3, he gives us these three marks. And he says here, Philippians
3, verse 3, We are the circumcision, or the true people of God, which,
number one, Worship God in the Spirit. We worship God in the
Spirit, he said. Now, religion today is nothing
more than Hollywood or Nashville-style entertainment, with all of its
miracle crusades, all of its musical extravaganzas, all of
its dramas and talk shows and other things. And most of the
jumping and shouting and crying and the waving of hands is just
a show of the flesh. And it's no more spiritual, and
God's no more in that than He is at a ball game where they
do the exact same things. The Scripture says, I want you
to listen to what God's Word says. And you can be turning
to John chapter 4 with me. John chapter 4. But in Acts 17
verse 25, God's word says this, God is not worshipped with men's
hands. God is not worshipped with men's
hands. God is worshipped in spirit. That's what Paul says here, that
the true circumcision, the true people of God worship God in
the spirit. Small s. not talking about capital
S, although we do need the Holy Spirit to worship, but he's talking
about from the heart, from the heart, from the inner man. And
over in John chapter 4, listen to what the Lord Jesus Christ
said about worship, the worship of God. In John chapter 4, verses
23 and 24, he said, ìThe hour cometh, and now is, when the
true worshipers shall worship the Father in spirit, or from
the inside, the inner man, and in truth. Verse 24 says, God
is a Spirit, capital S. They that worship him must worship
him in spirit, or from their inner being, and in truth. And another place in Acts 17
says this. It says, God dwelleth not in
buildings made with hands. True worshippers don't need great,
elaborate, religious-looking buildings full of crosses and
pictures and statues and choirs and big bands. No, not at all. All they need is a Bible and
a man to preach it. Besides, a building is just a
place to meet in to keep the rain off your head. That's all
it's for. The building is not the church,
and God doesn't dwell in buildings. So, he says, true believers come
to worship God. They don't come to be entertained,
and they do it from the heart or in spirit. They don't need
a band or a building to help them worship God. They just need
a book, a Bible. Then Paul says, true believers,
over in Philippians 3 now, if you're with me, in verse 3 he
says this, true believers worship God in the spirit and rejoice
in Christ Jesus. they rejoice in Christ Jesus.
I believe if the truth were known that many, if not most, are rejoicing
in themselves and their religion rather than Christ Jesus. Out
of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaketh, Scripture
says. And people are more prone to talk about what they have
done for God and how they let go and let God and accepted Jesus
and quit their drinking and their and they're sinning and now they're
praying and talking in tongues and all that. Well, the true
child of God now, he rejoices in Jesus Christ. He rejoices
in who Christ is and what he's done. And this is what he says
out of the abundance of his heart. He says with John, he must increase,
I must decrease. The true believer says this,
Christ did all the saving. I did nothing but sinning. The
true believer says, He chose me. He called me. He saved me. I'm nothing. He's all. I'm unworthy. He's worthy. Worthy is the Lamb.
So true believers worship God in spirit or from the heart and
in truth, that is, from the Word of God, the Gospel of God concerning
Christ. And here's the last thing in
Philippians 3, verse 3. It says, They put no confidence. They have no confidence in the
flesh. No confidence in myself or anyone
else. No confidence in anything I am,
nothing I do, nothing I have done, nothing I don't do or quit
doing has anything to do with my salvation. No, no, I don't
trust myself. I'm not dependent on myself,
my works, my religion, my profession, my baptism, my anything, my decision. Oh, no. We don't put any confidence
in our flesh or anybody else's flesh, only in Jesus Christ,
who is God manifest in the flesh, and what he did for me as a man
in the flesh. You see, Paul went on in chapter
3 of Philippians to talk about when he was religious. Read it
for yourself sometime. He talked about all that he thought
he did for God, but he didn't know the true God, didn't know
Christ. And he said in verse 9 in this same chapter, he said,
I count all that religious stuff, my religious past, dung, dung. And he says, I don't have my
own righteousness, not having my own holiness, but depending
on Christ alone. So these are the three marks.
of a true believer, a true child of God. Are these the beliefs
of your heart? Do you worship God in the Spirit,
rejoice in Christ Jesus alone and put no confidence in your
flesh? If so, then perhaps you are one
of these true believers. I hope so. If you would like
this message on cassette tape, write to us and we'll send it
to you free of charge. Until next week, good day. All right. I'm going to go ahead and get
started.