Imagine if you had a doctor's
appointment, and you went to the doctor, and as you got there,
you filled out the form that you fill out every time. They
don't know who you are, because you've been there forever. And
they sign you in, and they make you wait. And as you're waiting,
you're thinking you're going to get a checkup, or you're going
to have a follow-up, or a consultation with the doctor. And then they
call you back, and you walk to the back, and they put you in
the little room with the paper on top of the thing, and they
say, sit here and wait. And all of a sudden, the doctor comes
in with two more patients. And the doctor looks at you and
says, I need you to check these people out because I don't have
a clue what's wrong with them. Now, how many of you would be
prepared for such? Now, for me, I'd probably just wing it. I'd
just, well, okay, let's get this little hammer thing. I'd start
hitting them with, you know, whatever, stethoscopes in their ears, or
whatever. You know, just had a good time with it, but most
of us would be freaked out. Especially if we walked into an emergency
situation where the doctor came in and says, I'm clueless to
what to do, and now you, the patient, need to fix this person.
They're bleeding, or they're convulsing, or their heart rate's
too high, and I need you to take it. Would we be prepared for
that? Would we be able to do what was
given to us? Would we have the ability to
take the task that was presented before us? Most of us would say
absolutely not. And some of us may be trained
as first responders or EMTs or paramedics. You know, Ms. Smith,
she's a paramedic now or an EMT now, and she could probably handle
a trauma situation. But just to sit and all of a
sudden maybe you walked into the hospital and they said, hey,
there's a guy back here and he's open heart surgery and we're
stuck. Can you come help? And you'll just pass out. You
don't know what to do. You might think, well, this is an odd question
to ask at the beginning of a sermon. But I think that life is a lot
like that. I think life is a lot like that and that most days,
though we think we're prepared for everything that's going to
come, we're not prepared at all. And we play the what if game.
Most of us, if we would readily admit this to ourselves and to
each other, we really are crazy. We talk to ourselves constantly.
And I know that you're crazy because you just said, no, I
don't. So we know that we talk to ourselves. And then since
we have conversations with ourselves and inside our own minds, we
have conversations with each other and conversations with
people that we have yet to talk to about things that we have
yet to experience with circumstances that we've yet to really conclude.
And what's really crazy about my craziness in that regard is
that I have a tendency to walk through a conversation for an
hour. And I'll say this, and they'll say that, and they'll
say this, and then I'll say that, and I'll feel this way, and they'll
act this way, and then I'll be upset, and then, you know. And I remember
last week I talked about wanting to choke a guy, and a lot of
times I feel like choking people before I even talk with them,
because I've already made up my mind that's how they're going
to talk, that's how they're going to respond, that's how they're going to do.
And ultimately, I get into a circumstance thinking that I know exactly
what's going to take place, and then after it's all said and
done, I went, I never saw it going that way. or I wasn't prepared
as I thought I was going to be prepared. You know, I feel like
that every Sunday morning when I stand before you. I feel like
God's given me a brain to fix or opened up someone's chest
to me and said, OK, now fix that valve or given me an opportunity. I mean, do a spinal tap or something.
I don't know what I'm doing half the time. And I think to myself
as I was praying last night, Lord, you know, if it weren't
for your grace, I would fall away. from my faith and I would
fall away from my preaching and I would fall away from doing
that what you've called me to do. And if I didn't fall away,
I would I would transform it to what I believe would be better
than what you have commanded. And if we think about what we've
experienced in this 26 weeks of Philippians. I bet you Paul
could have confessed the exact same thing. Paul would have said,
this isn't how I saw it going. Paul would say, I'm not prepared
for this at all. And matter of fact, he does.
He even says that to the Corinthians when he says, I didn't come to
you in eloquence. That's why I heard a pastor say two years
ago in public that he waxed of eloquence when he preached. And
I thought to myself, Hmm. I don't know whether to cry or
to laugh out loud because I think you're joking. It wasn't joking.
Did you hear what I just said? That was incredible. I mean,
that's what the guy was saying. Oh, OK. Paul says, I did not
come to you with eloquence, but in fear and trembling, hardly
able to stand or speak. What does that look like? I mean,
if I stood up here and had to get this stool and wept over
this Bible and never looked up, most people in our culture would
say, that guy, he's a mess. We just can't attend that church
anymore because the pastor needs some help. But rather, the Word
of God be preached, be proclaimed. And I really think that a lot
of times, We put too much confidence in our abilities. We put too
much confidence in our understanding. When the Proverbs says to lean
not on our own understanding, but in all our ways, acknowledge
Him and who? He, who is He? God, Jesus the
Christ will direct our paths. And so if that is true, then
why is it so often that we find ourselves day in and day out
directing our own paths? We direct our own paths in life.
We direct our own paths in work. We direct our own paths at home.
I did a little video last night at 11.35. I thought, you know
what? I bet a lot of people would like to see what a pastor's thinking
and going through and trying to accomplish Saturday night
before Sunday. And so I did the little recording
on my phone and tried to upload it. Two and a half hours later,
still hadn't uploaded it. I said, well, this is obsolete
now. It has no bearing. So this coming Saturday, I might
do it again and I'll say, you know what I did last Saturday
night? I spent two and a half hours trying to get a video up to tell
you what I do on Saturday night. But one of the points that I
made in that little video that you'll never see is that it is
a constant battle. And we have this philosophy in
our home that worship begins on Saturday. Our time for preparing
to worship on the Lord's Day really begins Saturday afternoon.
So we have a hard philosophy that usually is massaged into
a lot of different ways, but it's never really effectively
administered like I want it to be because you can't control
life. And what it looks like is this. I want us to be quiet,
calm, seated, relaxed, with nothing on our minds but Jesus from about
3 p.m. on Saturday until Monday morning. You know, it's never happened,
but it's what I want. It's not even happened in my
own life. As I'm talking and thinking about this, I'm thinking
Saturdays are one of those, and Jesse can attest to this, are
one of those freak-out moments. You've been preparing all week
You've been looking at the word, you've been praying, you've been
laboring in the middle of everything else. From changing a tire, to
counseling somebody, to getting sick, or whatever you've been
doing all week. Real humanity, it doesn't stop because we're
preachers. And then all of a sudden you get there on Saturday, you
feel pretty confident going in on Thursday. Man, the Lord's
giving me a word, I see what the Bible's teaching. Then by
Saturday night, about midnight, you're sick. You're going, this
is a joke, this is a farce. This is just a waste of time,
I should just quit the ministry. This is this is crazy. There's
no way this is going to do that, Lord. And you know what you end
up doing? Oh, God, help me, please. God, help me, please. Which is
where we should start on Mondays rather than waiting till Saturday.
But the ultimate reason I'm sharing all this with you is that it
is a war against our flesh, every single one of us, no matter what
our role and duties are in our lives. As Christians, we have
a role and a duty to honor Christ with everything that we are,
to love him in the greatest of affections and to put ourselves
in a place where he can be honored and we can be used at the cost
of ourselves, at the cost of our treasure, at the cost of
our of our lives, even just as we've seen Paul and Epaphroditus
and Timothy examined and exampled here. And friends, we can't do
it by ourselves. And that's why I continually
preach and push about the intimacy of the body of Christ so that
we are a people for God's own glory and not just a bunch of
individual persons for God's own glory. That together we actually
accomplish what God has willed for his church that we cannot
do individually and separately. There's never been an opportunity
for anyone to be singularly magnificent for the Lord. as part of the
body because it's the body that does the ministry and it's the
Lord that gets the credit. Rejoice in the Lord. I pray,
Paul says, that I may honor Christ whether I live or die, that I
may give Him honor in my body, whether it is living or whether
it is dead. And so, friends, everything we
are individually as Christians has everything to do with each
other as Christians, all for the glory of God. So see, we
can't separate ourselves and become little entities of our
own and we can't ignore the fact that we're important to the whole.
We cannot we cannot for the life of us accomplish this great command
by ourselves. Because there is too much at
war, there's too much fighting against us, our own flesh is
its own worst enemy. The world. the influence of others
in our lives. You want to know the hardest
morning of our week is Sunday. It's one of those things. How
long have I been preaching? Nearly two decades. And you know
what? Very few times have me and my family ever gone to church
together in the same vehicle. It's just one of those things
we want to, we'd love to, but I know that what's going to happen
at 1026, I'll be out there honking the horn, and some kid will be
coming out with their underwear down on their ankles or something.
It's going to happen. The enemy fights as hard as he
wants to against us, the Lord's people, and specifically on Sunday
mornings, for us, it's a very, very difficult time. It'd be
a lot. And you know what's crazy? You're the tiredest you've ever
been on Saturday nights, but you stay up late. And you think,
I just need rest. You know, you ever stayed up
till four and then got up at six and then came and went to
church and preached and done it all and then think, well,
I'm just going to go to bed after lunch. And then something happens. You don't
get to go to bed. And you know, what's crazy is that the Lord
sustains us in that. The Lord sustains us. We trust
in the faithfulness of God, and at the same time, if we just
look in the mirror of our own design, we would see that we
are actually trying too hard, and the reason it's such a battle
is because we put too much effort in the flesh. We put too much
confidence in the flesh. Now, you see where I'm going
if you know this text today. In the text here, chapter 3 of Philippians,
look at verses 1 through 3. As a matter of fact, I will read
down until I think I want to stop here. Look at this. It says,
finally, my brothers rejoice in the Lord. Remember, that's
a command. To write the same things to you is no trouble for
me, and it is safe for you. Look out for the dogs. Look out
for the evildoers. Look out for those who mutilate
the flesh. For we are the circumcision who
worship by the Spirit of God and glory in Christ Jesus and
put no confidence in the flesh. Though I myself have reason for
confidence in the flesh also, if anyone else thinks he has
reason for confidence in the flesh, I have more. I was circumcised
on the eighth day, I would add, according to the law, of the
people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews. As to the law, a Pharisee. As to zeal, a persecutor of the
church of Jesus. As to righteousness under the
law, blameless. But whatever gain I had in all
of that, he's saying, I count it as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as
loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus,
my Lord. For his sake, I have suffered
the loss of all things and count them as trash. in order that I may gain Christ
and be found in Him, not having a righteousness of our own that
comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in
Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith, that
I may know Him and know the power of His resurrection, and that
I may share in His sufferings, becoming like Him in His death,
that by any means possible, I may attain the resurrection from
the dead. Now, I'll just stop there. And we're not going to
go any past verse three. But it all relates together.
And here's where we are right now. Paul is warning twofold,
threefold, if you will, these Christians in Philippi about
people who are going to come in and try to thwart the work
of the gospel. There are people who Paul have
already suggested, those who preach because of personal ambition
or vain ambition or pride or trying to one him up and say,
look, I'm better than Paul. Look at my ministry, it's better
than Paul. There are those that we see from other parts of scripture
that persecuted Paul. There are people that we saw,
as Paul wrote to young Timothy, that actually made a shipwreck
of their faith. They turned away from the gospel. We hear Paul
talk about people who are embittered, who are just covered in sin,
sexual sin, greed, everything you could name. He mentions all
these people and he says they're enemies of the cross. And now
he comes to a place where we look. And last week I told you
I used the apostles writing to reestablish or to recapitulate
something that I felt was important. And I think the theme of chapter
two, verse 14, as we are to do all things without grumbling
and complaining that we may walk as light in the midst of a crooked
and twisted generation so that we would be blameless before
Christ in the day of his coming. If if that is the sort of the
center point, if that is the middle of the target for Paul,
and I think it is. everything else relates to that
and so now when he commands the church to rejoice and says I
write this I've already told you to rejoice but I'm writing
it to you because it's no trouble for me and it's safe for you
there's safety in that and then verse 2 look what he says he
says look out Look out, warning, beware. There's something to
watch out for. Now, I've already mentioned two
weeks in a row. This will be the third time that
some higher critics of the New Testament say because of the
language or the syntax, syntax is how you put words together
grammatically, that they make sense, that they actually become
language. Because you can take a thousand words and put them
in a bowl and pull them out, and they won't make any sense. So syntax is
how words go together to make understanding, or to make language,
to make a conscious thought or an argument. And a lot of times
in the Pauline epistles, in the syntax of how Paul writes, when
he says, finally, or he gives the command to rejoice, or he
talks about sending people to them, it's usually the close
of his letter. But see, in the context, the
context is what's inside the text. That means if this is what
we're talking about and all of this letter to the Philippians
is within its context, we don't want to take Philippians 4.13
and say it applies to softball because it doesn't apply to softball.
The context in which Paul is writing Philippians 4.13, which
is, I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength,
is that he is able to stand with the strength of Christ in the
midst of persecution and imprisonment for two years without any outside
assistance. That's the point that he's making.
So to preach Philippians 4.13 in any other way is an error
and it's actually sinful according to what scripture teaches and
that we should not twist scripture or use it for our own personal
ideals or gains. And so that's why I think it's
safer to exposit scripture rather than for me and my aggravated
Saturday nights and Friday nights and Thursday nights and Wednesday
nights or whatever night it is. rather for me to decide what's
best to preach about what God has said. Let God decide. Let
the Word of God preach itself because it ultimately does. Honestly,
you don't really need a whole lot of preaching commentary.
And so here, at the end of this, at the middle of this letter,
it sounds like the end. Higher critics say he's done,
so what's happening after chapter 3 and 4, it must not be Paul,
but that's ridiculous. It sounds just like Paul. It's
in the same syntax as Paul. It's in the same grammatical
construct as Paul. It's in the same argument that Paul's been
making. Because the reason he says this,
and rejoice, The reason he says, I say this to you again, so that
they will realize he's not closing the letter. He's just reminding
them of something he's already said four times already to rejoice,
pray with joy, this with joy, that with joy. We went through
some of those last week. And so if we're looking at this letter,
we need to understand now that Paul is beginning to change his
focus a little bit because he's commanded them to rejoice, but
he knows that some people are going to come against them. People
always come against the church. And most of the time we see in
the New Testament, Paul really never talked about the Romans.
He never really talked about the persecution of the state.
We saw it in the letter to the Hebrews, which I can argue that
Paul wrote. And I can also argue that he
didn't. But it doesn't matter. It's scripture. Paul knew about
it. And whoever wrote Hebrews knew
Paul well. But he talks about the persecution.
He says that you had joy, though your property was seized. You
rejoiced because you knew you had an abiding future, an abiding
reward. You gave up this earthly, temporal,
transient thing for the eternal things. So now here, Paul is
warning the Christians to look out for the dogs. And I'll be
straight with you. This is one of those times where
in preaching, it'd be better just to mention this and move
on into the text. But I think if I do that, we'll
miss out on exactly what Paul is saying. Because when we in
our culture here look out for the dogs, we're looking for the
UGA guys. We really are. Or even worse, we're looking
for our neighbor's dog who's dug under our fence to drop a
plop on our grass, or dig up our flowerbed, or run after our
children, or to eat our chickens, or to kill our birds, or to terrorize
our neighborhood. You know, we're thinking that
way. We're thinking, okay, dogs are a nuisance. No, no, no, no. That's not the
point here. We're not even talking about wild dogs who are in who
are dangerous, though it would be more relative to what Paul
is saying. Paul is dealing with a very Semitic. And when I say
that means Jewish, he's dealing with a very Jewish cultural reference
that everybody in Asia Minor understood very well, especially
Gentiles. Why? Because the Jewish people called
Gentiles dogs. And in their heart and in their
mind, in John 3, you want to see the, oh my gosh, let me just
stop. Read John 3 today in light of what I'm saying and it will
open your eyes a little bit as to how Nicodemus looked at the
world. And why Jesus' words there in the whole of John 3 are so
important for us to understand as dogs. Because in the reality
of the first century, we would be dogs. We would be dogs, we
would be considered the ravenous, filthy, worthless pestilence. We would be considered people
who were not allowed to even be in conversation with a Jew,
much less be in cooperation with a Jew. To be a dog was the lowest
insult of first century Palestine. There was nothing worse than
to be called a dog. And it's interesting that we
see in the gospel accounts where Jesus is going and walking, his
disciples are with him, and a woman continues to cry out for healing
for her daughter. You remember this? And she cries out and the disciples
say, get away from him. Get away from Jesus. He's got,
you know, more important things to do than listen to you grovel
about healing. He's got to preach for crying
out loud. Look at the crowd. We've got
church to do here, folks. Well, we are the church and we
don't put the needs of anyone secondary to doing church. Ever. But we gather as the church
for the needs of all. And he tells. But the disciples
say, hey, master, tell her to leave you alone, and he turns
to the woman and she's like, please heal my daughter. And
he says to her, woman, Am I to take the bread of Israel and
feed it to the dogs? He calls her a dog because that's
what she is culturally. She is a wasted life of no meaning
according to the Jews. And the woman looks at Jesus,
I imagine, barely able to speak with tears, and she says, but
even the dogs get the crumbs from their masters. And he says, woman, great is
your faith. Your daughter is healed. Now, imagine the Jews
and the disciples going, what has he just done? It's just like
in John 4 when he goes to Sychar after being nearly stoned to
death in the temple. And he says, I will tear this
temple down and rebuild it in three days. And they're like,
you're out of your mind. It took us 48 years to build
this temple. You're not going to build it
up in three days. The temple he was discussing was his flesh.
Then the Jews of God, the people of God rejected the Messiah that
they had in their oracles for thousands of years, and they
threw him out of the temple. And he goes to Sychar, a Samaritan
city, where these inbred, and I'm saying this literally, this
is historical, inbred Assyrian slash Jewish slash Babylonian
slash whatever people began to worship Yahweh with Babylonian
influence and all this other kind of stuff, and they created
their own temple to worship God in on their own mountain. And Jesus goes to the water,
to the well of Jacob, and he meets with this woman. And he
speaks to her the gospel, and through hearing the gospel, she
believes before she even knew who he was. Because at the end
of her confession of faith, she says, she's sinful, she's living
in sin, she's living in rebellion, she's living a religious life,
trying to do what's best, trying to put provision in the flesh,
having confidence in all of her stuff that she's doing, and she
tries to get Jesus, who is a Jew, and she recognizes that too.
to agree with her and to explain away her religious beliefs as
just about equal. And Jesus says there's not going
to be a day, there's going to be a day, and it's today, where
no one will worship on that mountain or this mountain. And it's now. But all true worshipers will
worship the Father. in spirit and truth, not the
earthly father, not Jacob, not Isaac, not Abraham, not Moses,
not anybody who you may consider to be your father of your faith.
But the father will be worshipped only in spirit and in truth.
And she says to him, well, I guess I'm a paraphrase here, she says,
when Messiah comes, he will tell us all things. What she's saying
here is that my only hope is Messiah. I see that now. that all this stuff that I've
been doing, all this church going, all this studying, all this praying,
all this hiding, trying to look the part. I know I'm wicked.
I'm just running from man after man after man to try to find
the quenching of my thirst. I'm running into this area and
that area, and I'm so ostracized myself from the people of this
place that I have to come here to this well, walking further
at a hot time of the day to get water, and then I run into you.
I guess Messiah is my only hope. And Jesus says, I am he. And she runs back to Sycar, a
dog, and says, I met a man who told me everything I've ever
done. Why? Because she was born of God. And all her sin, even
her religious self-righteousness was exposed to her heart, and
she gave it up for Christ. And she says, could it be this
man is Messiah? And he stayed several days in
Sychar and many were saved just days before the Jewish people
threw him out of the temple. Do you see what's happening?
Nothing's different here in Philippi. In Acts 17, when we see the plan
of the church of Philippi, Paul and Silas and others are thrown
into prison. We understand what happens there. They're released.
The imperial guard comes to faith. Some of the imperial guard comes
to faith. The gospel is preached throughout the imperial guard
in Philippi. Now he's in a Roman prison once again. And he was
telling these Philippians, you got to have joy and I commanded
of you because it is yours in Christ. It is yours in Christ,
but look out for the dogs. Now, if these were Jewish people
he were talking to, they would think, yeah, those Gentiles really
can make a mess of things. But Paul is talking about Jews. He's talking about well meaning. Jewish. Now Christians. OK, we were Jews. Now we have
received Christ and we believe in Christ. So now we're Christians. We're also Jewish. So we're Jewish
Christians. And they have been infiltrating
all of these towns, going into the Gentile communities who receive
the gospel with power. And they're going in saying,
you know what, you've got Christ. But you're not truly a child
of God unless you're also Jewish. You've got to be a Jewish Christian.
You've got to give up your Gentiles. You've got to not be a dog anymore.
And you need to be circumcised. You need to follow the ceremonial
laws. You need to understand the covenant of God with the
nation of Israel. And Paul says, look out for these
people who say those things because they are the dogs, not you. You're
not the dogs. They're the dogs. And there's
sarcasm written in here. And that's an ugly thing to say.
And I think, why would Paul say that? Because it is an ugly thing
when people who confess to be in Christ go and do and live
and say and speak and hate and do the things that they do in
the name of Christ. Especially what we see in Galatia,
where they told them if they weren't circumcised, they didn't
have Christ. Paul said they were cut off from Christ. Well. Selected wording. Look out for the dogs. Look out
for the evil doers, all the same people look out for those who
mutilate the body. See, this insult ran deep and
it showed the heart that the Jewish people had toward people
who were not Jews. They hated. And so if we look
at now, Paul, the Jew of Jews, as we'll see in the next few
weeks to come, who used to say, look at you dogs. These are dogs,
don't eat with them, don't talk with them. But you know, when
a Samaritan walked down the street, a Jew was supposed to cross it.
So that it would be on the opposite side. That if a Jew was seen actually
conversing with a Samaritan or even with a Gentile in any particular
in certain particular ways, they would be considered unclean themselves
and have to go and be ceremonial, ceremonially washed. Bathed and presented to the priest
to be declared pure again. And so these dogs declared themselves
pure because of their obedience to the Mosaic law, the precepts
and the and the and the shadow of that true who is Christ. And
they begin to thwart the movement of the gospel. Paul was a hated
man, not just because he was in Christ, but because he was
no longer found himself in Judaism. He destroyed it, he threw it
away, he says, I count it as trash, garbage, it is garbage. To where John in chapter one,
chapter two, 15 through 17 of 1st John would be the world.
The pride of life. The pride of possessions that
would be inclusive of that is not of God, but of the world.
And if we love these things, we do not love God because the
love of God is not in us. So as we see this warning, we
need to get very clear picture of who Paul is talking about
so that then we can take the transcendent principle that was
true for the Philippians, which is also true for us. Who are
the dogs today? How do we know? Well, he gives
us these examples. He says the dogs. Are evildoers
and mutilators of the flesh, let me give you some thoughts
as I unpack this a little bit before moving on, the dogs put
provision in confidence in the flesh. How do I know that? Because
Paul gives a contrast, he says, for we are. See, Israel would
say we are the circumcision because of our physical circumcision
is a sign of the covenant with God for us. We follow the law
of God. Therefore, we are right with
God because we follow the law of God. Do you realize that God's
covenant with Israel was never intended for salvation? It wasn't a mistake and that
they just didn't work. God tried something else. God's covenant
was Israel with Israel. For those of you been here on
Tuesday nights in the last few weeks, we talked about the love
of God and the different ways in which God loved. God has a
conditional love. He has an unconditional love
too. And that unconditional love sometimes is in the concept of
blessing or reward for obedience. But there's never anywhere, we
see anywhere in Scripture ever, that salvation, eternal life
salvation is anywhere but in Christ. Nowhere. Because if it were there, Paul
says in his verses to come, he got it. But he says it's all
trash. So these Jewish people would
come along and say, great, Christ has come. He's Messiah, but we
cannot forsake these things. Circumcision being one of the
number one signs of being in the covenant. And so this reality
then began to invade the church to the point that Christians
were being confused. Paul says to the Galatian church,
who has bewitched you? Why have you believed these lies? He says, do you realize that
if an angel from heaven came and burned in front of you and
told you a gospel that was different than the one we preached, that
he would be forever cut off from Christ? If I, Paul, came and
told you a different gospel than the one I've already preached,
I would forever be cut off from Christ? You know what forever
cut off means? Forever cut off. It's not a temporary condition.
And the point is, is that these Judaizers, These Jewish, quote,
Christians were trying to invade the church and make them Jewish,
not Christian. When Christ makes us Christian.
Not our obedience to the to the mosaic ceremonial laws, not our
obedience to the law of God, period. Doesn't make us Christian.
Christ makes us Christian. And then when we are a Christian,
we are filled with Christ. We're empowered by the spirit.
We're in love with the Lord and his law is not a burden to us.
So therefore, we strive to obey Christ. as a life fitted for
glory. We glory in Christ, not ourselves,
not our own righteousness. The difference is now these Jewish
people were saying, you are not holy, you are not pure. Paul
says they are evildoers. That's a hard word. And I think
what happens here, they put confidence in the flesh. But we are the
true circumcision, Paul says, who worship by the spirit of
God and we glory in Christ Jesus and we put no confidence in the
flesh so that these evildoers put confidence in the flesh.
So you want to know who a dog is today? People who put confidence
in the flesh. I want you to be careful. Careful. I wish I could hand
out some mirrors right now. We just all look at them. There are times when we act as
evildoers, doesn't mean we are. But when we start to share that,
when we start to preach that, when people come to us in the
body of Christ and they're broken and hurting and in despair and
they're struggling with sin and temptation, it seems to overwhelm
them and we give them the world's way. We give them the world's
wisdom. We're just like the evildoers
of this day. Because it is Christ alone. It's Christ alone. There is so much I could pour
out of my heart to help you see how this looks. I don't care what you are experiencing,
there is nothing in your flesh that can bring you out. And if
it does, it's just a Band-Aid on a very big wound. Christ is
your only hope. Christ is your only righteousness. This process of being a dog resulted
in rejecting grace, thus rejecting Christ. And Paul says that is
evil. They think that being holy, a
dog thinks that being holy is a result of being among the right
people. And Paul will show us, as he
says, it's garbage. Being amongst the Hebrew of Hebrews,
the tribe of Benjamin, had no bearing on his eternal life.
Matter of fact, it was that which condemned him. Can you hear that? Paul's saying that his perfect
adherence to Judaism was condemnation to his life. Now, it may have been moral,
it may have been right, but it only covered up a really sick
and dead heart. See how that applies. It applies
in our lives in so many ways, nationally. Corporately, it applies,
and we need to be very careful. We need to be very careful to
watch out for it in our own lives and in the lives of each other,
and when we start smelling a little doggish, we need to go to each
other and and correct it. We need to say, hey, you know,
I think you need a flea dip or something. We got to do something. Something's a miss here. I saw
you chasing your tail a minute ago. That's not going to cut
it. You can't get anywhere like that. Can you see that? If this
were a children's church, we could have the kids give us a
little example. But these evildoers, they put
hope in the law, specifically circumcision. And Paul says their
circumcision, I keep this in mind, they circumcised as an
act of worship. They circumcised because the
law of Moses commanded it as an outward sign. Some are thinking,
how do people know? Friends, they know. We'll keep
it from that. We'll keep it there. If you were
a Jew truly in the covenant of Israel, you were circumcised
and your community knew that you were circumcised. And so if we are if we understand
these Jews, they did it as an act of worship, they were like,
we have to do this. It is it is it is we are compelled
to do this. This is what is good for us.
This is what is grand and the scheme of glorifying God and
honoring with our lives. We must be circumcised. We must
do these things. Paul says that even with all
of that zeal and all of that passion and all of that heart
of worship, that it's just mutilation of the flesh. It's just mutilation
of the flesh. He says, all these people are
doing is they're trying to get you to mutilate your flesh. Why would you do
that? Why would you put a mark on your body? Why would you take
a part of your body off? Why would you do this? What does
he say to the Galatians? He says, if you want to get into the practice
of circumcision and you don't believe me, just go read it.
He says, emasculate yourselves. Don't do it partly. That's harsh. Let's go read it, it's right
there. He says, you want to deal with circumcision, then don't
be half hearted with it. Emasculate yourselves. What's
that mean? Cut everything you can off. Well, that's a little harsh.
That's just not Sunday morning material. Well, it's in the Bible,
and that's as far as we'll go with it. But these evildoers,
they subvert the need for salvation. Ultimately, you've got to do
this, you've got to do that, you've got to act this way, you've
got to live this way, you've got to dress this way, you've got to talk this
way, you've got to do all this kind of stuff, and then you'll be right with
God. Oh, we know it's about faith alone and Christ alone for the
glory of God alone by the word of God. All these. Yeah, we're we
got it. But you cannot let go of these
things. And that's a subversion for the
need of salvation. It subverts Christ. It puts him
away as though he's not needed. It dismisses grace. And in doing
so, they suggest that man has some central merit and some central
action other than faith that gives them righteousness. And
even then, I have to be careful how I word that. Because Christ
gives righteousness. We call it imputation. Every
Protestant denomination in the history of the world believes
in the imputation of righteousness through Christ. That there is
no such thing as a righteous person, never has been, never
will be, except Jesus Christ, the God-man, who lived on this
earth, lived holy and righteous before God in obedience, and
died as a holy human being to suffer the penalty of the death
of the sins of all who would believe on him. But yet, by the
way we live, by the way we teach, we can subvert Christ. We can
push him aside. We can push the cross away and
we can start telling people they've got to do this and they've got
to do that and they've got to do this. And on the other side
of that is a very harsh and ridiculous extreme that we call hyper grace.
That says that we never have to deal with obedience at all,
that just makes no sense. I said that for the first time
in those words eight weeks ago, and I lost about 40 people, friends
on Facebook. I went to talk to one, I'm like,
he's blocked me. So I went to talk to another
guy who knew the guy. He's blocked me. Come to find out they don't
want to hear that. They don't want to hear that
hyper grace is not biblical. They want to hear that they can
go to clubs, go to bars, sleep around, all that. God's got it
handled. Or they can hate their brothers and hate their sisters
and hate their neighbors and steal and lie. Don't worry about
it. God's got it handled. You're
saved by grace. Carpe diem. You'll grow up one
day. Kids will be kids. Not the Christians. Because Christ
is king over kids. Christ is king over men and women.
And when they are His, He rules. We fail, he wins. And in doing so, these dogs,
these Judaizers, they stand self-condemned because they rest in the assurance
of their own efforts, they rest in the assurance and the hope
of their own actions by putting faith in their faithfulness rather
than the gospel, rather than Jesus Christ. And what makes
them evil and mutilators is that they teach this stuff, they teach
this doctrine, they teach this gospel, and they refuse the joy
of Christ. Have you ever met anybody who
has faith in the flesh? You ever met anybody who has
such disdain for you and the one little thing in your life
that they think is not right? You shouldn't wear pointy shoes.
Oh, here's one I've always gotten. You know, if you were a true
man of God, you'd wear a suit. And I thought, hmm, I struggle
with it. I'd wear a suit if I was a true
man of God. And I'm thinking, wow, these people... And after
a while, somebody else would say that to me. You know what
they never had come out of their mouth? Joy. It's always complaints. Man, you know, real people, real
Christians wear suits. Real Christians part their hair on the left side.
Real Christians don't put so much makeup on, they look like
a clown. Real Christians don't listen to hip-hop. Though it
may be a direct quote from Romans, it doesn't matter, it's got a
drum. I'm not saying we're gonna worship with it, but I'm saying
kids can do that if they want to. It's a matter of conscience.
Real Christians, you see what I'm saying? You see where I'm
going? Real Christians don't wear lace-up shoes with lights
on them. Real Christians don't go to that kind of church. Real
Christians don't go to this kind of church. Real Christians don't
drive that kind of car. Real Christians, come on, guys. Real
Christians use this version of the Bible. Real Christians, real
Christians. Friends, if every one of us right
now took an inventory of why we even have the clothes on our
body that we're wearing, we would all suffer from the grief of
idolatry. Because I ain't a soul in here
that didn't look in the mirror before they left and went, I can live
with that. I can live with that. But my goodness, if we spent
all that, I mean, we'd walk around in sackcloth. And then if we
did that, look how bad I look. I look worse than they do. I'm
better than they are. Well, I call my hair in six months because
I don't want to be prideful. Yeah, you look terrible. Go comment.
Brush your teeth, I can smell you coming. I mean, but see,
there's no escaping. So even in the best of righteousness
in our own actions, it is worthless. It is worthless. It is only about
Christ. So these works of circumcision
is nothing more than mutilation and it's evil and it's vain.
These dogs mutilate not just their flesh, but they mutilate
the gospel of Jesus Christ and mutilate the word of God and
mutilate the apostles. They dog Paul's ministry. They
dog the church. They dog Christians. There's
a direct contrast. There never is any joy in people
who live in the faith of their own faithfulness. They're constantly
talking about how they're doing and how they're voting. There's
another one. Well, I voted this way, you know, true Christians
vote this way. So I voted for, I voted for this guy, you know,
and I can't believe you didn't vote for this guy. You know,
I'm not saying that there's not a good biblical way of arguing
how we ought to vote. We ought to vote according to
what the Bible teaches and how our conscience bears witness
to the spirit of God. But at the same time, if I get
it wrong and you get it right, it doesn't mean that you have
the right to dog me. How about you grow me? Why don't
you disciple me? Why don't you just listen and
see? Maybe you're wrong. Maybe we're
both wrong. Maybe we should have not voted
at all. But when it gets to the end of it, when we start to push
these dogmas that are not the gospel of grace, we are mutilating
the gospel. And in doing so, we're mutilating
the lives of individuals who are the church of Jesus for whom
he died. And that is no small problem. It is a big problem. We mutilate the truth in the
name of tradition. You mutilate the minds and the
consciousness is consciousness of others, consciousness of others. And we put them into the sense
of trying to do and be that which God has not commanded them to
be. And in a sense, we think that
we have a sign of our salvation. Oh, I'm in the church, so I'm
in the Lord. I'm a deacon, so I'm in the Lord.
I'm a pastor, so I'm in the Lord. You know, there's a lot of lost
pastors preaching right now. And there was a season in my
life that I stood in the pulpit for probably two months thinking,
I'm lost. So God used this lost man You
know why? Because I was trying to measure
my salvation based on the outcome and the fruit of it, rather than
Christ. And God let me do it for a little
bit. It was a dangerous place. And I'll never forget one woman
who was 73 years old. She goes, you mean to tell me
you don't know if you're saved and you're preaching to us? I said,
you better work out your own salvation too. Well, I know I'm
saved. Really great. Stand up and give
the testimony. I don't have to tell anybody what I... You see? The sign of the covenant is no
sign at all if it isn't Christ. That's the sign of the covenant.
The hands and feet of Christ who paid for our sins, who paid
for your sins. And if you aren't trusting fully, that's what faith
is. I'm trusting in Christ. How do I know I'm a child of
God? Christ paid for my sins. How am I going to overcome this
temptation? Because Christ died, and I died with Him. I'm a new
creation. I'm alive in Him. And we just keep going on and
on and on. And Paul says the point of all this is watch out.
Look out. Look out for people who do this. Look out for those
among you. He's not even talking about the
cults. That's obvious. You know, Jesus came in a box
of cereal and told me a new revelation is called the box of the book
of Crispi. What's it called? Captain Crunch.
We know that's crazy. Paul's not warning us against
people like that, who saw a flying saucer and a squirrel came down
and started talking about new revelation. Those are obvious
things. We don't... Paul's saying there are people
among you who look like you, act like you, talk like you,
worship with you, teach with you, read the letters that I've
sent to you, preaching among you, and they are evildoers.
They are people who manipulate you, and they don't know the
difference. They're dogs. They're blind.
Watch out for them. Beware of them. So how do we stand then? Because
it's out there, friends. It is out there. And it's interesting
that sometimes I sit down like this particular message and I
start thinking, who are some people who I would consider to
be dogs in the world today? And, you know, it's easy to come
up. You just turn on specific places on television or go to
specific websites and you go, oh, yeah, dog, dog, dog, dog,
dog, dog. And then by the end of the time
of that, you're thinking, OK, I probably should be put on this
list if I'm not careful. Don't forget that, the third time I've
said that today. We can be dogs very easily if we do not hold
fast to Christ. Hold fast to what? The Word of
Life. That's what we talked about last week, the whole hour. Holding
fast to the Word of Life. How do we stand? What do we do?
We beware. We watch out. We're careful.
We know that this type of people are real. They're alive and they're
active. And there's no real specific
point here with Paul. He's not saying watch out for
this particular group or that particular people. He's just
saying in general, there are dogs, evildoers, manipulators
and mutilators of the flesh. Watch out for them. The Judaizers
are everywhere and they may be there. They may not be there.
The Judaizers are everywhere. And they may be here and they
may be. Among us, and if they're not,
they will be. So we've got to be careful, but in contrast,
as the Judaizers, as the dogs would stand as holy because of
their standing, they would say we're pure before the Lord because
we are the people. We're pure before the Lord because
we are grace, truth. We're pure before the Lord because
we are Baptist. We're pure before the Lord. No,
we're pure before the Lord because Christ, the Holy One, is standing
in our place. So we then stand, look what he
says, for we are the circumcision. We are the ones who have truly
been circumcised. We are the ones who are truly
the sign of the covenant. You see what he's saying there?
That the Christians, the church of Jesus Christ, is the perfect
picture of the covenant of God. It's what Paul says to the Ephesian
church in chapter 3, verse 10, where he says that the manifold
wisdom of God is displayed by the church. My one central point in preaching
that text a couple of years ago was this, is that the devil and
all the enemies of God in all the heavenly places know that
Christ is victorious because the church exists. We are the
circumcision. We are the sign. We are the covenant.
And so, therefore, we stand. Others would say, I stand righteous.
Look at how I live my life. I'm not like them. I'm not like
that. I'm not like this. I'm not like that. I'm not supporting
that. I'm not supporting that. I'm
not standing for that. Do you know those people? Have
we ever been those people? Oh, yeah. Just rewind last week
and just pick out a couple of minutes maybe where we found
ourselves. Do you find it? Do you catch yourself midstream
sometimes going? Zip it up. Stop, Lord. And you actually have to throw
this odd interjection into the conversation. You know, for the
grace of God, I'd be just like him and everybody's like, what
in the world, where'd this come from? Is this is this a game? Who am I?
Are we playing charades? What's going on here? This is
just a fit. It doesn't fit because the gospel of Jesus doesn't fit
in the culture of the world. Christ does not fit in self-righteousness. And we stand in contrast as God's
people, as the visible image of the resurrection of Jesus,
who bought us and paid for us and set us right before God.
We are the proof of the gospel. We don't need any other sign.
We don't need any other sign of a covenant. In contrast, we
stand as holy as in Christ rather than in our place, our genealogy,
our heritage. That word has been thrown around
a lot lately. We're not right before God because of our heritage.
We're right before God because of Christ. And we are right and
righteous in God. We're not right because of our
traditions. There's a new sect of theology and soteriology.
Do you know that? There's a new soteriological,
what does that mean? The study of salvation. There's
a new salvific theology, and it's been labeled traditionalist.
Can you believe that? And it's rampant today. I first
heard of it about three years ago, now it's out there, and
there's a small subset of people who are like, we're traditionalists,
we're traditionalists, we're traditionalists. What does that mean when the
very thing that we see in regard to tradition in the New Testament
means that you're cut off from Christ? We hold to Christ. That doesn't mean we can't differ
on our views on how God works, but we better have unity in our
view on how God saves. And God saves because of the
great love with which He loved us, that we are born again with
Christ to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus from
the dead. We are saved because God, by grace, gave us faith
that we exercise so that we can be the righteousness of God.
We are saved because God put forth Christ as propitiation
to satisfy His judgment and wrath against us. And if we don't receive
Christ by faith, we are not saved. And if it's Christ by faith that
saves, it's Christ alone that secures. Period. So in contrast, we have joy versus
being the spiritual police. Look at all that. Look at that's
wrong. That's wrong. That's wrong. That's wrong. That's wrong. That's wrong.
I mean, it's like six shooters, and they never hit anything we're
talking about. But it's always the problem.
You know, that is the easiest sin we can fall into as Christians.
It's easy. I mean, some of us brothers,
right after service, sometimes it's easy for me to go, Hey,
did you read that article on so-and-so? He's such an idiot. And that's
prideful and sinful. But we all get a good laugh out
of it. And it may be. But is it worth laughing at people's
false teaching or should we weep? Should we spend our life as evangelist
against the false, against the darkness, or should we stand
as light in the darkness? We stand with joy that's not
our own. Rejoice in the Lord. My brothers,
rejoice. Rejoice. Rejoice. For we are the circumcision who
worship by the Spirit of God and glory in Christ Jesus and
put no confidence in the flesh. So how do we stand against all
these things? All this darkness? Well, repeat. We hold fast to the Word of Life
who is Jesus Christ. We have joy in Christ. We rejoice
when we're persecuted. We rejoice when we suffer. We
rejoice when we're ignorant. We rejoice when we're when we're
broken. We rejoice when the world comes
against us. We rejoice. What's going on in
your life? Well, I'm dying. My leg fell
off. Nobody loves me and I'm broke. Praise God. Well, that's just crazy. It is
crazy. That's what makes it so amazing.
I'm not saying, I love being broke, and I love being hungry,
I love my legs falling off, and I love dying. But that wouldn't
be a bad thing. That's not what we're saying.
We're saying, I love Christ. And my love for Christ far outweighs
all the suffering this world could dish up, all the hate this
world could dish up, all the broken friendships, all the broken
relationships. My love for Christ outweighs them all. So bring
it on, baby, because you're not taking my joy. Bring it on. It's not going anywhere.
Because Christ is bigger than it all. As a matter of fact,
he created all this. And Ephesians chapter 1 verse
10 says this, that God will put everything under the feet of
Jesus. We are the circumcision. And because of that, because
we are the true sign of the covenant of God with his people, Those
who have been born of Christ, we worship by the Spirit of God,
just like I quoted earlier with Jesus talking to the woman in
Sychar. He says that it will come a day and the day is now.
when no one will worship on Mount Gerizim, which is the Samaritan
temple, or Mount Jerusalem, which is where the Jews had their temple.
But all true worshipers, listen, true worshipers will worship
the Father in spirit and in truth. So that means that we who are
in Christ, we can have the joy of Christ with all the fullness
of Christ in the midst of any darkness because we belong to
Him and therefore we worship like Paul and Silas worshipped
in the prison after their backs were exposed. You know what it
means to be scorched? It means that from the front
of your ribcage to the center of your spine, the skin is torn
from your body. And they worshipped God. because they had no other joy
in the world at that moment. They worshipped God because the
Spirit of God was in them. Just as the Spirit prays for
us in our weakness, the Spirit revives our joy and our sorrow. It's how Jesus could, in the
Garden of Gethsemane, so anguished that His capillaries burst in
His face, that He sweated out blood, And he cried out to the
father, take this cup from me, but your will be done, not mine.
His joy was in what was after the cross. His joy was in the
fullness of God's glory and the holiness of the father and his
promise to always be there through it all. And so Jesus wasn't giddy
about the cross. He was giddy about the fruit
of it. As Paul would say in 2 Corinthians chapter 4, for this light momentary
affliction is preparing us for an eternal weight of glory beyond
all comparison. Here's the key. As we look to
the things that are unseen rather than the things that are seen
for the things that are unseen are transient. But the things
that are the things that are seen are transient. The things
that are unseen are eternal. So we worship by the spirit of
God and then we are those who glory in Christ Jesus. And put no confidence in the
flesh, I think those go together, though I could preach a sermon
or six on glory and in Christ. And probably five times that
many on not putting confidence in the flesh. Let's put them
together today and we'll pick it up next week and do it this
way. To glory in Christ. means that everything we long
for, everything we live for, everything we yearn and and just
plan and purpose in our lives and our hearts is for the sake
of the glory of Christ and that when everything else is taken
away, Christ is enough. So that our joy never wanes,
because let me tell you what the world's joy is, it's it's
Distraction. A big distraction, y'all don't
know what went through my mind last night. And well, Friday
and Saturday, as I really hit on this in my own heart. And the way to keep my mind off
of it Friday was to just be busy. And the wee hours of the morning
is when our minds don't stop talking. There is much that is
distracting to me in my walk with Christ. I want you to hear
that. And by the Lord's grace, as I pray that He would show
it to me, He has. It's a lot. Friends, there's
a lot. And I'll tell you where they can fall. Hobbies, interests. Nothing wrong with these things.
But when we see our time, and for me it's not about time, it's
just about anticipation. Oh, I look forward to the day
when I can do that six years from now. It can be a distraction
from my joy that's full in Christ. So if that's true of something
I want to accomplish years from now, it takes me out of the joy
and the satisfaction of Christ today. What else could be in
our lives that distract us from glory in Christ? But ultimately,
I think it looks like this. We glory in Christ by putting
no confidence in the flesh. And we can leave it there today.
But what does that mean, put no confidence in the flesh? Anything but Christ that gives
us confidence is the flesh. Anything. Me. If I give you confidence,
it's the flesh. If you give me confidence, it's
the flesh. I did not say if you preach Christ
and that Christ give me confidence that it's the flesh. That's true.
That's glorying in Christ. But anything else, it could be
financial, it could be a job, it could be relationships, it
could be your own personality, depression, suffering, health.
Oh, if this had just worked through, then I could, it's confidence.
Well, if I do this, if I do that, if I push this way, listen, we've
got to rest. Had a brother reach out last
night and say, hey, how you doing? See you're up late. I said, I'm
doing what you're doing. With every breath I'm fighting
and resting. Amen, me too. That's what it's
about. What are we fighting? We're fighting
the flesh. We're fighting to find sufficient joy and rest
in Jesus Christ. We rest in the sovereignty, the
supremacy of God, knowing that every moment of our lives is
never escaping the purview of God's reign. Never. So that no matter what shifts,
no matter how the plates move and what chasms may open up in
our lives, We are never going to fall away from Christ and
our joy, though it may wane in the evening, the morning comes. And his mercies are new every
day. So therefore, what we put no
cops in the flesh, we glory in Christ, we worship by the spirit
of God, therefore what we rejoice. It seems so simple. But ultimately, joy in the Lord
is a safe place. That's what Paul says. To write
the same things to you is no trouble for me and it's safe
for you. Rejoice in the Lord. And he's going to say it again
in just a little while. It is safe for you. It's safe
for you because when you rejoice in the Lord, you're not distracted
by the dogs. You're not distracted by the
evildoers. You're not distracted by the false teaching. You're
not distracted by the fodder and the argument and the conflict.
You're not distracted by politics. You're not distracted by the
weather. You're not distracted by finances. You're not distracted
by issues in your home or in your community or in the world
or wherever you are. You're not distracted like that. You are
you are fine. You're safe because you're rejoicing. So the mode that you live in
and the moment that you live in is never changing in Christ. You are solid. And it's safe
for you because joy is in the heart and it can't be taken away.
So therefore, the presence of Christ with his word holding
fast to the word of life. It's not through osmosis, folks.
It's through the word of God. It gives us we find the joy of
the Lord here. And it's safe for us. It's safe
for us because that joy is in Christ and nothing else. It's
safe for us because that joy is in the Spirit of God that
indwells us and seals us for all of eternity and no one else.
And friends, it ultimately results in having an absolute joy that
is inexpressible, what Peter would say, that you may suffer
for a little while and trials and all those things so that
it may, what, test your faith, But like gold, as it perishes,
tested by fire, may result in praise and glory and honor at
the presence of the face of Jesus Christ and the coming of Jesus
Christ. Though you what? Love Him? You don't see Him?
You love Him? You don't see Him now? You love
Him anyway? And you are, what does Peter
say, filled with a joy that is inexpressible. Joy sometimes is there when there's
no smile to be found. Joy is there sometimes when there's
no sentence to explain it. But you can literally say not
the way our wives say, I'm fine, but literally say, I'm OK. I'm OK. And I don't know why
I'm OK. Because Christ is at work. And that's a lot. It's a lot
to take in. It's a lot to stomach. It's a
lot to consider. But friends, the reason we preach
these things is so that your joy may be full. It is the litmus
test of a shepherd. No matter what happens, when
you come and you say and you pray and we pray for each other
in the midst of great darkness, we are We are burdened and broken,
but we are not in despair. We are not downtrodden to the
place of death. We rejoice. And that is the test
of true Christ likeness. of true Christ-centeredness,
of true Christ-glory, of true regeneration. And if you find
your joy waning today, one of two things is true. You've escaped
that center of joy because your heart and your discipline of
being in the Word of God and being with God's people has waned. Or you are not in Christ. Are you in Christ? Do you hear
the very as we hear often the clarion call of the gospel to
repent of your sin, which is inclusive of your faith, your
faith and your own faithfulness, your self-righteousness, your
morality and the sins that you commit that are heinous against
God and trust fully in the righteous one of God, who is Christ Jesus. The word Christ means anointed
one of God. Christ is the righteous one of
God. It's only by faith that you find
this joy. Will you believe in Jesus Christ
today? Let's pray. Oh, our great God. We thank you, we thank you, we
thank you, we love you with the love that is not of our own doing,
but is because you first loved us. Father, there is much to consider
in our own lives as we listen to the words of Paul today. As
we hear your voice ringing through the pages of Scripture, Lord,
we need your Holy Spirit to guide us and to give us discernment.
To teach us to apply these truths to our lives so that we would
be the people for your own glory. By the power of your own grace.
That we would be the circumcision that we would reflect the reality
of your covenant with us. In Christ alone. And father,
it is in his name we pray these things. It is in his name we
ask that you would save the lost. It is in his name we know that
our joy is to be found. It is in his name. That we pray
this day in Jesus name, amen.