Now I want you to turn back to
Philippians chapter three to begin with. Now I'm going to
be coming back to Matthew chapter three that I just read, but I
want to start with this. We've been the past few Sundays. I've been using Philippians chapter
three in verse three as a basis for this series of messages called
what is a Christian? What is a Christian? And we understand
that the Bible teaches us, and this is the fact of the matter,
that you really don't know what a Christian is until God makes
you one. Now, people think they know what
a Christian is. You hear people all the time
talking about, we live in a Christian nation. Well, we live in a religious
nation, for the most part, in a lot of areas anyway. And many
who live in that religious nation call themselves Christian, but
understand, for example, what the Apostle John wrote in 1 John
3, verse 1, when he said, the world knoweth us not. The world
does not know us. The world, by nature, man, in
his sin and his ignorance, doesn't even know what a Christian is.
I know I called myself a Christian long before I really knew what
one was. But here in Philippians chapter
three in verse three, Paul gives us one of the most concise and
complete definitions of what a Christian is. He says in verse
three, look at him for we are the circumcision. Now he's talking
about spiritual circumcision or what the Bible calls circumcision
of the heart. The heart is the mind, the affections,
the will. And as physical circumcision
under the old covenant to the Jewish male children was a type,
a picture, a metaphor, a symbol of something that takes place
within a center by the power of God, the Holy Spirit in the
new birth, which is called circumcision of the heart. Paul described
it in Romans chapter two, when he talked about, he is not a
Jew, which is one outwardly, but he is a Jew, which is one
inwardly and circumcision, not of the flesh, but of the heart.
not made with hands. When a sinner is brought to faith
in Jesus Christ and repentance of dead works and idolatry, that's
what we say is spiritual circumcision. That's the new birth. And so
when Paul says, for we are the circumcision, you could just
as well put it this way. We are the true children of God,
not those who engage in the physical act, but those who are spiritually
born again by the Spirit. That's what he's talking about.
So we are the circumcision. Now, how do we know that we've
been spiritually circumcised? How do we know that we've been
born again by the Spirit? Well, he gives three things here.
Number one, we worship God in the Spirit. And that means two
things, remember. We worship God, number one, as
God reveals himself in his word, not as we think him to be. You
know, there's a lot of people today who are met in churches,
and they worship God as they think God is, or as they imagine
him to be, rather than as he reveals himself in his word.
So what that means is this now. How does God reveal himself?
Well, he reveals himself in his word, Genesis to Revelation.
Ultimately, he reveals himself in Jesus Christ. to sinners,
because you can't know God apart from Jesus Christ. And he said,
I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man cometh unto
the Father but by me. So in other words, here's what
he's saying. Whatever God says of himself in this word, well,
that's how we worship him. If God says he's a sovereign
God, then we worship him as a sovereign God. If he's the God of election,
then we worship him that way, because that's what he says.
You say, well, I can't understand all that. That has nothing to
do with it. I've told you about the fellow
who told me one time. He said, I just can't wrap my mind around
God. And I said, well, no kidding.
Join the club. If you could wrap your mind around
God, you'd be God. That's the long and the short
of it. What did Paul say? Job said that these things are
too high for me. I can't understand them. I'm
not God. We're limited. God's infinite,
you see. So, but whatever God said. And
then secondly, to worship God in spirit means that you worship
him from the heart, the regenerated heart. And that means you have
a desire to thank God, to worship God in truth and in spirit as
a child of God, a sinner saved by grace, realizing that everything
we have is a gift from God. Every good and perfect gift,
the scriptures say, that's a complete gift. It comes down from the
Father of lights with whom there's no shadow of turning. Even the
next breath we take is a gift from God. You have a good job. That's a gift from God. You say,
well, I earned that. Well, you go home and think about
that a long time. That's a gift from God. Even
the fact that you had the strength and the intelligence to earn
it is a gift from God. That's right. He could have left
you wallowing in your filth in that sense. This is a gift from
God. All right, so we worship God
in the Spirit. Secondly, he says, we rejoice
in Christ Jesus. The word rejoice means to glory,
means to boast. Our glory is not ourselves. It's not our families. It's not
anything in the world. It's in Christ Jesus. Christ
is our glory. He's my Savior. He is my salvation. He's the Lord, my righteousness. I have no righteousness to brag
about but Christ. Unlike Paul, later on here in
Philippians 3, he says, to be found in him, not having mine
own righteousness, which is of the law, that is, by my works,
but the righteousness which is by faith of Jesus Christ. So we rejoice. Our ground of
salvation is nothing in, through, or done by us. It's Christ and
him crucified and risen. He is my all and in all. And
I have nothing else to boast in. We glory in Christ, not in
the flesh. And then thirdly, and this is
what I want to deal with today, we have no confidence in the
flesh. No confidence, we don't glory in the flesh. Now what
about this word, the flesh? Well, the subject of Paul's whole
discourse here, Philippians 3, has to do with those who are
born again by the Spirit, Number one, they have faith in Christ
Jesus, and number two, they repent of dead works. This is talking
about repentance. This phrase, no confidence in
the flesh, is an equivalent to godly repentance, repentance. And the first thing, you know,
we talk about people having to repent. Repent of what? What do you need to repent of?
What do I need to repent of? Well, we'd say we need to repent
of sin. Well, that's right. But do you
know what sin really is? Do you have a proper understanding
of this issue of sin? For example, now everyone in
here today would agree that if you saw a drunk staggering down
the street of Albany somewhere, you would say, that fella needs
to repent of that. And you'd be right. You'd be
right. There's no argument here about
that. If you saw a drug pusher selling drugs to an addict somewhere
in the town, you'd say both of those guys need to repent, and
you'd be right. But how far does it go when we
talk about repentance? Let's look here. Now, Paul says
we have no confidence in the flesh. We've got to repent of
the flesh. Well, what is the flesh? Well
listen to how Paul defines the flesh. Look down here at Philippians
3. He says in verse 4, he says,
though I might also have confidence in the flesh. I would venture
to say, now let's go back to the drunk staggering down the
street. Now the drunk staggering down
the street, we'd all say he needs to repent, but I'd just about
venture to say that even the old drunk would say that too.
Now he may not repent, But he'd say, I need to. And if you ask
that drunk, do you have any confidence in your drunkenness as far as
making you right with God? How many drunks you think would
say yes to that question? Well, none, I know of. I've known
some drunks. And I don't think any of them
thought their drunkenness was gonna get them into heaven. Do
you? Now they may not, like I said,
they may not quit drinking. They may die drunk. I had an
uncle who died lying face down in three inches of water. He
passed out drunk. And I'll guarantee you my uncle
did not believe that drinking that whiskey was going to get
him into heaven. So he didn't have confidence in that, is what
I'm saying. Paul's talking about something we have confidence
in, as opposed to having confidence in Christ. So he says in verse
four, 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. Paul's saying he could beat him
as far as being confident in the flesh. Listen to what he
says, verse five, circumcise the eighth day. Now, how did Paul have confidence
in that? Well, he thought that proved
him to be a child of God. He thought that was part of his
righteousness before God. Of the stock of Israel, that's
a physical descendant of Abraham. The Jews boasted, had confidence
in the fact that they were physically connected with Abraham as far
as making them righteous before God, proving them to be children
of God. Of the tribe of Benjamin, that's
a matter of pride, that's an honored tribe in the history
of Israel. Hebrew of Hebrews, that means
there's no mixed blood in me. He's not a half-breed like a
Samaritan or something. Don't know how Paul knew that,
but that's what he thought anyway. As touching the law of Pharisee,
that means he went above and beyond the call of duty. We've
all known people that we say that he's really a Christian. He's real sincere. He doesn't
just show up on Sunday and then go out and live like hell on
Monday. He lives his religion. That's what Paul's saying here.
Really sincere, really dedicated. Just didn't dip his toes in and
he went head first. Verse six, concerning zeal, persecuting
the church. Paul, when he was a Pharisee,
he looked at the true church as being heresy and he meant
to stamp it out. That's how zealous he was. Touching
the righteousness which is in the law blameless. In other words,
nobody could accuse him justly of a crime. Now that's what he means when
he says no confidence in the flesh. Those things that he thought
recommended him to God. That's what he thought. But let
me show you some other scripture here. Turn over to John chapter
one. This word flesh, now the scripture
uses the term flesh in various ways. Sometimes the word flesh
just means these physical bodies. Your hands, your feet, your legs.
Christ, Jesus Christ, the Bible says in Romans 1, you turn to
John 1, Jesus Christ was made of the seed of David according
to the flesh. That simply means he had a physical
body. Now he was without sin. Christ,
Jesus Christ knew no sin, had no sin, he never was made or
became a sinner. Some are preaching today. Even
on the cross, he was not made a sinner. He was made sin according
to 2 Corinthians 5.21, but that simply means he was made a sin
offering. It means he had our sins, the sins of his people,
imputed, charged to him. He was accountable. He was made
guilty. When Christ was on the cross,
he got what he deserved, not because he was a sinner or made
a sinner, but because he took our sins upon himself and said,
I'll repay it. Put it on my account. So the
flesh, when it applies to Christ, doesn't mean anything sinful.
And then sometimes it just means our physical bodies. Other times
it means our works or what we can do. what we can achieve. Look at John chapter one, look
at verse 11, talking about Christ. It says, he came unto his own
and his own received him not. But as many as received him,
to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them
who believe on his name, which were born. Now he's talking about
the new birth. These who receive him and believe on his name,
they were born again by the spirit, but they were born not of blood.
That means not a physical heritage, Nor the will of the flesh, that
means the works of the flesh. Nor the will of man, that means
our wills. People say, well, if you of your
own free will will do this, no, it's not of the will, you don't
have a will. Listen, what is total depravity again? We don't
have righteousness, we can't work righteousness, and we don't
want righteousness God's way. That's total depravity. That's
spiritual death right there. We don't have it, we can't work
it, and we don't want it God's way. We want it our way. a way
that'll give us confidence in the flesh, but we don't want
it God's way because that causes us to have confidence in Christ
alone and none in the flesh. And man doesn't want that by
nature. So they're not born of the will of man, but they're
born of God. So the works, the will of the
flesh there means the works of the flesh. Let me show you another
one. Turn to Romans four. Look at Romans chapter four.
And this will help you if you keep this in the context now.
You understand what the Bible means by these things. It's not
just religious words. These things mean something.
But in Romans chapter 4, talking about Abraham, in verse 1 he
says, What shall we say then that Abraham our father as pertaining
to the flesh hath found? Now Abraham was blessed of God,
wasn't he? Abraham was chosen of God. Abraham was a sinner
saved by grace. Abraham was born again by the
Spirit. Abraham had faith in Christ,
who as the promised coming Messiah. Christ said that himself in John
8. He said, Abraham rejoice to see my day. Now, anything of
the blessings that Abraham have, were any of them due or owing
to anything in Abraham according to the flesh? That's what Paul's
asking. And he says in verse two, for
if Abraham were justified by works, now that's the flesh there,
see, he hath whereof the glory. That word glory is the same as
rejoice in Philippians three. In other words, Abraham, if anything
that Abraham had by way of blessedness from God were owing to his flesh
or his works, he'd have room to glory in the flesh. But he
says, but not before God. That's not the way it is with
a relationship with God, folks. That's not the way God works
with you or with me. He says, for what sayeth the
scripture? Now, what does the Bible say? Now, notice that Paul,
in verse three, he didn't say, now, well, let's go check with
my religious grandma. What does she say? Or my religious
grandpa. Or the Reverend Dr. So-and-so. He didn't say, let's check with
them. He says, what's God's word say? Now there's the issue. Here's how we're gonna settle
this issue about Abraham and his blessings before God, how
he got them. Was it anything to do with the
flesh, the works of Abraham? Well, let's see what God says.
All right? And he says, Abraham believed
God and it was counted in him for righteousness. What did Abraham
believe? Abraham believed God. He believed
what God promised him. What did God promise him? Well,
there's a lot of promises in the Bible made to Abraham, but
the promise that Paul's talking about here is the promise of
salvation by God's grace through the coming Christ. And he says, it was accounted
to him for righteousness. What was counted to him? What
Christ would accomplish on the cross was imputed to Abraham. It's like we were talking about,
Walter, earlier. We know that righteousness was imputed to
us before the foundation, but Christ had to come in time and
work it out, didn't he? He had to work it out on the
cross and the proof that it was accounted before the foundation
was right here, one of the proofs is Abraham. It was imputed to
Abraham before it was actually established in time because it
was so sure and certain that Christ would come and do what
he promised to do. And as you said, when we believe,
we're made aware of that, aren't we? Verse four, now to him that
worketh is the reward not reckoned of grace but of debt. In other
words, any of the blessings that you have, that God has given
you, if you had to work for them, you cannot call it grace. You understand? It's debt. It's
what God owed you. Let me tell you something. You
read the Bible. There's no place in that Bible where God makes
himself indebted to us. based on our works. It doesn't
happen. Because if God ever gave any
of us, the best of us or the worst of us, what we worked for,
it would be eternal damnation. Always comes short. So he says
in verse five, now how much plainer can you get than this verse right
here? Now look at this. But to him that worketh not,
but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted
for righteousness. What was Abraham's faith? Faith
in Christ. Faith in Christ. So there's that
word flesh. Well, let me show you one more.
Turn to Romans chapter seven, just over another page. Look at verse four of Romans
chapter seven. This word, the flesh, Paul said,
we have no confidence in the flesh. Now he's talking about
something that men and women by nature have confidence in
as to saving themselves, keeping themselves saved, or recommending
themselves unto God. In other words, this is something
that makes up part of my righteousness before God. But look at Romans
7 and verse 4. He says, wherefore my brethren,
you also are become dead to the law by the body of Christ. To
be dead to the law means the law cannot condemn you. Now,
how is it that the law cannot condemn me, a sinner? It's by
the body of Christ, the death of Christ for my sins. And he says that you should be
married to another, even to him who's raised from the dead, that
we should bring forth fruit unto God. That fruit is the fruit
of praise and worship, faith in him. Now look at verse five,
for when we were in the flesh, now to be in the flesh here means
to be dead spiritually, means to be an unbeliever. When we
were in the flesh, the motions or the passions of sins which
were by the law did work in our members to bring forth fruit
unto death. Now that fruit unto death could express itself in
a million ways. It could be the drunk staggering
down the street, or it could be the preacher standing behind
the pulpit preaching a false gospel. You understand that? It could
be the person who's doing their best to work their way into God's
favor by their efforts to obey. That's fruit unto death, my friend.
Why? Because it's a denial of Christ.
What did Paul say in Galatians 2.21? If righteousness come by
the law, then what? Christ died in vain. Do you know
that person who's doing their best to work their way into God's
favor Their whole life is a denial of the Lord Jesus Christ. Paul said the Jews tried to establish
a righteousness of their own and would not submit to the righteousness
of God, which is Christ. Do you see that? Now, so when
we talk about we have no confidence in the flesh, what we're saying
is we don't have any confidence in anything we can do as to attaining
or maintaining salvation. I preached over in Australia
last week, the last message that I preached, wasn't it Jim, was
how evangelism is preaching aimed at repentance. God is not willing
that any should perish, but that all should come to repent. Talking
about the elect, that's what he's talking about there in 2
Peter 3, 9. The goal of biblical evangelism is that God, by his
power and grace, brings sinners to repentance. Now, here's the
problem. In modern day religion, what
I call false evangelism, repentance has been watered down to meaning
only somebody who feels sorry or ashamed over their sins to
the point of being willing to change. Now listen to me, don't
get me wrong. Should we feel sorry for our
sins? Yes. Should we be ashamed? Yes, more than we are. All of
us. We ought to be more ashamed than
we are. Should we want to change in these
areas where we repent? Yes. All those things are true. But
that's not biblical repentance that Paul's talking about here. When he says we have no confidence
in the flesh. Sorrow over sin and a shamaness
over sin and a willingness to change will accompany this repentance
that Paul's talking about. But repentance, think about in
the Old Testament, the word repent mean a change of direction. It'd
be like if you're walking north and you turn around 180 degrees
and walk south, you don't just veer a little here and veer a
little, you go the exact opposite. Repentance in the New Testament,
the word repent means a change of mind about something. It's a change of heart. The mind
and the heart are not separated in the New Testament, by the
way. They're the same. But it's a change of mind, a
change of heart. Repentance in the Bible, like
faith, is a gift from God. In fact, repentance, true repentance
here, is the first evidence that our faith is genuine, real faith. I'll give you an example. Let's go back to the old drunk.
I'm picking on him this morning, aren't I? Let's say the drunk
goes to AA. Now, what is it? Alcoholic substance.
And he reforms. And you say, well, that person
has made a 180 degree change, but tomorrow night you go past
a local bar and you see him in there laying on the floor drunk
again. Well, he hasn't repented, has he? You see, you can't have faith
in Christ and hold on to the flesh. That's what I'm saying.
That's hypocrisy. You can't believe in Christ and
hold on to former things you had confidence in, religion,
whatever it is. In other words, to come to Christ
means to leave all that behind and in fact, look back at Philippians
3. Look how far it goes. Look at
verse 7. Paul says, but what things were
gained to me, those I counted, what's the word there? Loss for
Christ. In other words, they didn't do
anything for me. That's what he's saying. I used to think
they made me righteous. I used to think they recommended
me to God. Now I believe in Christ and oh, I just thank God for
all those things that I used to do. No, they're loss, he says. Loss. Verse eight, he even goes
further than that. Look, yea, doubtless I count
all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus
my Lord, for whom I've suffered the loss of all things and do
count them but dung. You know what dung is, don't
you? that I may win Christ and be
found in Him, not having mine own righteousness which is of
the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness
of God, which is by faith." You see that? Leave it behind. Now with that
in mind, turn back to Matthew 3, and I want to just show you
a couple things here. I'm not going through the whole
chapter on this. Here's John the Baptist. John
the Baptist was an evangelist, wasn't he? He preached the gospel. He pointed sinners to Christ.
Not to themselves, not to their experiences, not to their works,
but to Christ. And that's what I want to do.
I often tell you, I love that passage. I think it's in John
3 where it says, they heard John speak and they followed Jesus.
That's what I want. If you're hearing me speak, I
don't want you to follow me. I want you to follow Jesus. Follow Christ. To me, those words speak of the
successfulness of the preacher. They hear you, but they follow
Christ. And that's the whole thing. So
here's John. Now he preached the baptism of repentance, it
says, and they would come confessing their sins. And I'm not going
to get into all that about John's baptism this morning, that's
another message. But listen, look at verse seven.
When he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees come to his baptism.
Now you know who the Pharisees were? They were religious men,
sincere, dedicated. Sometimes when we get the idea
that these Pharisees had horns and a tail or something, carried
around pitchforks. No, these were the religious
leaders of the day. Now, when Christ came, in their
politics and all, they had their problems, obviously. The Sadducees,
they were the political wing. They controlled the temple. But
they were religious men. And here's how he started. Here's
Operation Evangelism of John the Baptist. Here's how he starts
his message to them. Oh, you poisonous snakes. John the Baptist just failed
to read that book, How to Win Friends and Influence People,
didn't he? He didn't get that copy. You say, well, but that's
the Pharisees and saying, that's not me. You know, he ought to
talk nicer to me. Shoot. Come on now. Now let's
be real here. There's John the Baptist. And
he says, oh, you generation of vipers who have warned you to
flee from the wrath to come. That's when we preach the gospel,
we're telling people, flee from the wrath to come. There's a
wrath coming. It's the judgment of God against
sin. It's for all who stand before God at judgment without Christ.
It's for all who stand before God at judgment without a righteousness
that answers the demands of his law and justice. Flee from the
wrath to come. Verse eight, he says, bring forth
therefore fruits meat for repentance. the fruits of repentance. And
look at what he does in verse nine, something very interesting
here that I think we sometimes read over too quickly. He says,
and think not to say within yourselves, we have Abraham to our father.
Don't plead Abraham, your connection with Abraham as your confidence. You see, the Jews had basically
three things that they pled as their righteousness, their confidence,
their proof that their children are God. And the very first one
is we be Abraham's seed. Second one was circumcision.
We're circumcised. The third one was we have the
law of Moses. And what John the Baptist does,
he goes right to the heart of their ground of salvation. This
is where repentance comes forth. This is where we see if we really
have no confidence in the flesh, what is your ground of salvation? And he said, well, don't say
you're Abraham's seed, because that won't do any good. He says,
God's able to raise these stones to raise up children in Abraham.
If God's purpose was just to get people in heaven, he could
turn them stones into people. put him in heaven. That's not
God's purpose. God's purpose in salvation is
not just to populate the new heavens and the new earth. God's
purpose is to glorify himself in the salvation of sinners by
his grace through Christ. He says don't plead Abraham.
Don't plead anything. You say, well, I did this when
I was 12 years old, and I was baptized. Oh, don't plead that. You say, well, you weren't there.
You don't know. That's right. I wasn't there. Don't know. But
I do know something. I know what this word says. What
saith the scripture? I wasn't with Abraham. Listen,
when Abraham was caught, when he was in Ur of the Chaldees
and Gunkah, I wasn't there. But I know what the Word of God
says about Abraham. What did Abraham gain according
to the flesh? Nothing. I don't know. Abraham may have had a dream
that would knock the world upside down. I don't know. He may have
had an experience. He may have cried all night.
I don't know. I don't care. But I know what God's Word says.
You understand that? You weren't with me. But you
know how you can know my case? Read the Word of God. What does
God's Word say about old Bill Parker? My name's not even in
here, literally, as far as the spelling of it. Just written
in the Lamb's Book of Life. You see, what does God's Word
say? That's where we have to go. And he says, don't plead
Abraham. Because Abraham's not the right,
Abraham was just a sinner saved by grace. And you know, when John goes
through this, you know, he talks about one coming. Don't plead
Abraham. There's one coming who can baptize
with fire. That's the new birth. That's
the circumcised heart. That's the work of the Holy spirit.
And his name is Jesus of Nazareth. And here comes Jesus of Nazareth
and he's baptized signifying what, what did, what did the
baptism of Christ signify? Well, he says it down there.
Look at verse 15. Suffer it to be so now, for thus it becometh
us to do what? To fulfill all righteousness. Now what did it take for Christ
to fulfill righteousness? He had to die. What was the proof
that he fulfilled all righteousness? He had to be raised from the
dead. What was his baptism signifying? His death, his burial, his resurrection,
the fulfillment of all righteousness. There's the ground, right there. Not the flesh, not our works,
not our experience, but what Jesus Christ alone accomplished
in his death, burial, and resurrection. That's what we plead. And when
we plead him alone, then we can know we have no confidence in
the flesh and we've been brought to repentance by God.