Now we'll stay right there in
Philippians chapter three. This is a passage of scripture
that I've preached on many times and I'm sure that some of the
men here have preached on it over the last 11 years and you've
heard it preached on quite a few times. So you're very familiar
with it. Most of you are anyway. I have
the reason that I decided to use this, and I'm going to use
verse 3. My text is verse 3 of Philippians chapter 3. And I'm
going to use this sort of as a launching pad for a series
of messages. You know, one of the things that
was the Lord laid on my heart in my decision to come back to
Albany and to be your pastor was the opportunity that we have
here to get the gospel out through the print ministry as well as
our internet ministry. that I would have the opportunity
to write some things that the Lord has just laid upon me to
write. It's a burden actually. And my problem is I have so many
things that I want to do and I can't do them all at once,
and if I tried to do that it would end up being a mess. But
one of the things that I have on my mind to do a series of
messages, and this is kind of like laying the foundation for
that. the question, what is a Christian? Now, what is a Christian? You know the first one we've
got out now is what is salvation? And those programs are playing
now on WALB. Well, what is a Christian? And
I've been reading quite a bit on that, and it's amazing the
answers that you get. THAT COME FROM THE WORLD OF RELIGION
EVEN. WHAT IS A CHRISTIAN? AND ONE
OF THE THINGS IS I'M READING THROUGH THESE THINGS AND MOST
OF WHICH ARE VERY UNSCRIPTURAL. NOW IT'S EASY TO SAY A CHRISTIAN
IS A FOLLOWER OF JESUS CHRIST, AND THAT WOULD BE A CORRECT DEFINITION. BUT WHAT IS IT TO BE A FOLLOWER
OF JESUS CHRIST? WHAT DOES THAT MEAN? AND OF COURSE
WHEN YOU CONSIDER ALL OF THE CONFUSION IN RELIGION TODAY,
FIRST OF ALL THE FACT THAT THERE ARE FALSE If I'm a Christian,
I'm following the true Christ. If I'm a true Christian, I certainly
don't want to follow a false, a counterfeit Christ. And then
secondly, you can talk about being a disciple of Christ. The
word disciple, obviously we get our word discipline that comes
from that. It means to be a learner. I'm learning of him. And to learn
from him, you've got to follow his word. So it's not necessarily
to go away that man by nature and religion thinks he should
go, but are we following his word? That's what a Christian
is. Now, and as I'm reading all this
stuff that I read, and like I said, most of it's unscriptural, it's
just men's ideas, and mostly having to do with the outward
character and conduct, morality, great reformations, and all of
that. I'm reminded of what the Apostle
John wrote in 1 John chapter 3 when he said that we are children
of God, but the world knoweth us not. Remember he said that,
the world knoweth us not. The world does not know. The
world has its ideas. The world has its notions. But it really doesn't know what
a Christian really is. And then when you consider what
the Lord himself taught his disciples when he said, the world will
hate you. You know, you understand there
that a Christian is not somebody that everybody in the world likes
because they have such a great personality or they're pillars
of the community necessarily. And obviously you can see the
example of our Savior himself. I mean, he's love incarnate and
the world hated him. He said, the world hates me and
it'll hate you. And why is that? Well, it's because
of the message that we're committed to, the message that's written
upon our heart. Well, when I consider this thing
from the scripture of what is a Christian, There are certain
passages of Scripture that just kind of stick out to me, and
this is one of them. I think what you have here is
one of the most comprehensive definitions, or descriptions
rather, of what a Christian is in Philippians 3 and verse 3.
And he says in verse 3, for we are the circumcision. Now that's
the title of the message today is we are the circumcision. Now, what he's talking about
there is spiritual heart circumcision. That's what he's talking about.
He's not talking about physical circumcision. As you know, in the New Testament,
the term circumcision, which basically and originally referred
to physical circumcision of the Jewish males, which was a token
of the covenant that God made with Abraham. You can read about
that back in the book of Genesis chapter 17. That's when God made
covenant with Abraham. And that physical circumcision
of the males in the Jewish nation connected them physically. Abraham. It was a sign, it was a physical
sign of being connected with Abraham. Genesis 17, 11 incidentally
says, God speaking to Abraham says, you shall circumcise the
flesh of your foreskin and it shall be a token of the covenant
betwixt or between me and you. And so, there was that physical
connection and the physical circumcision. But that's not what Paul is talking
about. He's talking about spiritual circumcision and And spiritual
circumcision is equivalent to the new birth. Christ said you
must be born again, born from above. Both prophets Jeremiah
and Ezekiel spoke of it in their prophecy concerning the new covenant
church when they talked about God will give you a new heart.
will put life within you, spiritual life. Now, that's what Paul is
talking about here. And then he says the evidences
of this spiritual circumcision are these, he says verse 3, which
worship God in the Spirit. Now, I'm going to do a whole
message on that, worshiping God in Spirit. And we'll, I'll do
it expository, you know, I'll go through verse by verse through
scriptures as we do it. But what that means, it's a twofold
meaning. It means number one, we worship God as God reveals
himself in his word, as God identifies himself in his word. In other
words, you know, a lot of people say they worship God, but they
only worship God as they think him to be, or as they imagine
him to be. And it's not the God of the Bible
at all. And the scripture is very clear
on how we are to worship God through his revelation, and it's
through sacrifice. Not our sacrifice, but through
the sacrifice of Christ. Justice has to be satisfied.
That goes to the issue of how God can be just and justify the
ungodly. Upon what ground will you come
to God for salvation, for blessing, for acceptance? You're coming
this morning to worship God. What is your right to be here?
You know, the Bible says that man in his sin cannot approach
God. You say, well, I want forgiveness. Well, on what ground do you want
forgiveness? You've got to worship God and
serve him the way he reveals himself. And upon what ground
does God forgive a sinner? Well, that ground is the blood
of Christ, the imputed righteousness of Christ, and no other ground.
You've got no other. Cain came to worship God. Abel
came to worship God. Cain worshiped God as he thought
God was and he brought the works of his hands. He was rejected.
Abel came worshiping God as God revealed himself as a just God
and a Savior through the blood of the Lamb, the righteousness
of God in Christ. You see the difference? Now to
worship him in spirit is to worship him as he reveals himself. The
second thing about worshiping him in spirit is to worship him
from the heart. In other words, in sincerity
and in truth. Don't ever separate worshiping
God, in worshiping God, don't ever separate sincerity from
truth. Paul said the Jews were sincere. They were dedicated, but not
according to knowledge, for they, being ignorant of God's righteousness,
have gone about to establish a righteousness of their own,
have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God,
which He defined in Romans 10, 4, for Christ is the end of the
law for righteousness to everyone that believeth. And so to worship
Him sincerely from the heart, that's a convicted heart, that's
that circumcised heart. And so if you're, I mean, you
know what I'm saying? You can be here this morning,
but you can be somewhere else too, can't you? You can have
your mind on something else, and you know that's wrong. And
believe it or not, a preacher can be standing behind this pulpit
and be preaching and still have his mind somewhere else too.
You might think that's impossible, but it's not. So, we worship
God in truth and in spirit. And then the next thing he says
here is we rejoice in Christ Jesus. Now, that word rejoice
means to glory. In fact it is translated in 1
Corinthians 129 and 131, let he that glorieth glory in this.
That's how it is translated, the same word in 1 Corinthians.
It is translated glory in Galatians 6.14, God forbid that I should
glory save in the cross. And so a true Christian is circumcised
in heart, who worships God in spirit, and who rejoices or glories
in Christ Jesus. Now, that word glory means to
have confidence in. I have confidence in Christ.
I have confidence. You could even say boast. I've
got someone to brag about today, but it's not me and it's not
you. It's Christ. You see, that's what we're talking
about. I have righteousness, but not in me and not in you,
in Christ. I have free access to God, and
I'm sure to be accepted because of Christ. You see the difference
there? Now, that word rejoice, you might
say, look up in verse 1 of chapter these, it's finally, my brethren,
rejoice in the Lord. Now, that word rejoice there
is a different word in the original language. That means to be happy. That means to joy. Joy in the
Lord. And that doesn't mean that a
Christian is one who goes around happy all the time because we're
not. But it means when we think upon
Him and our standing in Him and the fact that in Him my sins
are washed away and God does not charge me with sin. God does
not impute sin to me. He imputes righteousness to me.
He counts me righteous in his sight. Now I get happy over that.
I'm not happy with myself. And sometimes you're all not
happy with me. And just hold on to your hat. Maybe sometimes I'm not happy
with you too. But that's not the issue here.
I'm thankful for you. The issue here is when I think
upon Christ, my hope is built on nothing less than Jesus' blood
and righteousness. That makes me happy. Because
I know what I am by nature, and you know what you are if you've
been circumcised in the heart. And then he says we have no confidence
in the flesh. We don't glory in the flesh.
And in case you're wondering what that flesh refers to, Paul
describes it in verses 3 through 5. And what he's talking about
is anything that comes naturally from us or through us in seeking
to be accepted with God. I have no confidence in it. And
let me say it this way. I know, now we do things what
we say in the spirit. But see, even those things do
not give us confidence before God. We're thankful. I'm thankful that I can stand
here before you this morning and preach the glory of God in
Christ. I'm so thankful for that. And
I know that's not of me. I know it's of the Spirit, but
that is not my righteousness before God. Christ is. His blood. You see the difference? I thank God that we have a fellowship
here where the gospel is supported and gets out all over the world,
what, 85 countries and all 50 states? And people contact us
and we're able to put out books and literature and go on TV.
But that is not our righteousness before God. Christ is. You see the difference? We have
no confidence in the flesh. And so when we look at these
things, we see the reality of what a Christian really is. But look at this phrase, we are
the circumcision. Let's just give, I don't have
time to go into all these scriptures. But let me give you just a little
taste of it, a little bit of it. Now, first of all, we know
that Paul is not talking about the Jewish right of physical
circumcision here. Now, how do you know that? Well,
look at verse 1, he says, Finally, my brethren, rejoice in the Lord,
to write the same things to you. To me, indeed, is not grievous
or burdensome, but for you is safe. I'm going to tell you something
I've already told you, Paul is saying, but that's not grievous
to me. That's not a burden to me. I don't, you know, I know
sometimes with our children and grandchildren, we get tired of
repeating ourselves. But in this area, we don't get
tired of repeating ourselves. It's not grievous. And he says,
for you, it's safe. In other words, this is your
assurance. This is your safety net right here, to preach Christ
and Him crucified. You know, somebody said of me
years ago, said, all he preaches is the righteousness of Christ.
Well, that's okay. Amen. Put that on my tombstone,
how about it? Noah was a preacher of righteousness. Whose righteousness
do you think he preached? Not his own, Christ. But that's
okay with me, because for me, it's not a burden for me to do
it, and for you, it's safe. For me, it's safe. But then he
says in verse two, he says, beware of dogs. Now the dog here, now
he's not talking about a purebred dog with the papers and all that. He's not talking about a dog
you want, a dog you might. He's talking about an old cur
junkyard dog. That's the kind of dog he's talking
about. And that was a common way of the Jews to refer to Gentiles. So who's Paul talking about here?
Dogs. Well, he says, beware of evil workers. Now in our society,
we could talk about evil workers. We could talk about the drug
pushers, and they are evil workers. And I would tell any of our young
people, well, any of our adults, beware of them. We could talk
about the drunks. We could talk about the thieves. We could talk about all kinds
of stuff like that. We can look at ISIS. We can talk
about ISIS and beware that kind of thinking. Stay away from it. And that's included. But that's
not who Paul's talking about here. He said, how do you know? Well, he identifies them. Beware
of the concision. Now that word concision is an
interesting word. The closest thing that we can
get to in our English language is mutilators. Mutilation. Beware of the mutilation. And
who do you think Paul's talking about there? He's talking about
those who would promote circumcision, physical circumcision, as a way
of attaining or maintaining salvation and righteousness before God.
He's talking about the same ones that he was talking about in
the book of Galatians who were trying to get the Gentile
believers to be circumcised and to keep the law of Moses in order
to have a real hope of salvation. And what Paul is essentially
saying here is that all they do when they accomplish their
work is mutilate you. It has no spiritual significance. It has no righteousness with
it. There's no salvation in it. It
is totally useless. That's what he's saying. Now, how do you know he's saying
that? Verse 3, we. Now, who's the we here? He's
talking to Jewish believers, but he's also talking to Gentile
believers in the city of Philippi, which was a Gentile city where
God had used Paul to raise up a gospel church. And these Gentile believers had
never undergone the right of physical Jewish circumcision,
but he still includes them and says, we are the circumcision.
Not talking about physically, talking about something spiritual.
Something that only God can do, man cannot do it. Beware of the
dogs, beware of the evil workers, beware of the concision, for
we are the circumcision. And as I said, this is equivalent
to so many identifications of a Christian. And there's so many
in the scripture. I mean, you know, when you think
about it, A Christian is one who is chosen of God, the chosen,
the elect, elect before the foundation of the world. That's what the
scripture teaches. Men don't like that, but that doesn't matter. That's what God says. Chosen in Christ, predestinated
to be conformed to his image. Men don't like that, but that's
what the Bible says. That's what God says. In fact,
everything that he says here about a Christian in verse 3
is founded upon two things. Number one, God's electing grace.
And number two, God's redeeming grace in Christ. Chosen in Christ. Bought for, bought and paid for
by Christ. The ground of this Christianity
is the righteousness of God in Christ. freely imputed. And that had already been established
back over in chapter 2 when the Apostle was talking, was promoting
humility among believers. And that humility is promoted
in the fact that we understand that what we have by way of blessing
in salvation and in this life is not earned by us and not deserved. I told folks up in Ashland all
the time, I said, take a breath. That's a gift from God. Have
you ever seen or watched anybody die from emphysema? I have. I had a good friend. In fact,
the church I pastored before I moved down here in 85, it was
up in a little town called Cottageville, West Virginia. And we had a man
up there who had emphysema. And after I came down here to
be your pastor, I went back up there and saw him on his deathbed,
and he just struggling to get that next breath. And it just
hit me just like a ton of bricks. That next breath is a gift from
God. We go around acting like we got
a right to it. We go around acting like we've
earned it or we deserve it. We don't. And especially in the
salvation of a sinner. It's by grace, it's a gift from
God. And there's nothing about you or nothing about me or nothing
from you or nothing from me that influenced God to give it to
you. We're talking about, Mark, God's no respecter of men's persons. You say, well, I'm an American,
big deal. In this matter, don't get me
wrong, I'm glad I'm an American and I love my country. And I
grieve to see it going in the direction it's going. But it
has nothing to do with my standing before God. That's all Jesus
Christ and his righteousness alone. And when Paul's promoting
humility, that's how he approaches it. Look at verse five of chapter
two. Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus,
who being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be
equal with God. but made himself of no reputation. We spend our
lives trying to build our reputation. Christ, in order to save us,
made himself of no reputation, and he's the only one in the
universe who deserves the reputation. Because of who he is, God in
human flesh, and because of what he accomplished, righteousness
established. Salvation accomplished. And took
upon himself the form of a servant. We don't want to be a servant.
By nature, we don't now. He made himself he took on himself
the form of a servant. He served his father. He served
his people And made in the likeness of men being found fashion as
a man He humbled himself and became obedient unto death even
the death of the cross Now there's the ground of our salvation That's
what makes a Christian right there redemption by the blood
of Christ righteousness before God In Christ Freely imputed charged
accounted to me so that I stand before God Not in righteousness
that I worked out but one that he worked out perfectly and for
that reason God exalted highly exalted him and gave him a name
which is above every name that at the name of Jesus every knee
would bow should bow and Things in heaven, things in earth,
things under the earth, and every tongue should confess that Jesus
Christ is Lord to the glory of the Father. A Christian is one
who's chosen of God. A Christian is one who's redeemed
by the blood of the Lord. The Christian is one who's justified
before God based on the righteousness of Christ freely imputed. A Christian
is one who is a sinner saved by grace. Christian is one and
we could go on and on with that. You know that he's a member of
the church. He's the called-out one He's one he's one of Christ's
sheep Called out of the sheepfold called
into the sheepfold He's sealed in in his place in
the Kingdom of God. He's a citizen in the Kingdom
of God and he's sealed in that Kingdom by the redemptive work
of the Lord Jesus Christ to put away sins by the sacrifice of
himself as a substitute and surety and to work out that perfect
righteousness whereby God justifies the ungodly. He's a justified
sinner. He's a not guilty sinner. He's
a righteous sinner. How can that be? That's by the
grace of God. You see, Paul's not talking about
physical circumcision here. You remember back in Acts chapter
15, you don't have to turn there, that when Paul came to Jerusalem
for the first council at Jerusalem, it was over the fact that there
were, there rose up certain of the sect of the Pharisees, which
believes saying that it was needful to circumcise these Gentiles
and to command them to keep the law of Moses. And Paul said,
absolutely not. That's a denial of Christ. That's
a denial of his righteousness. If righteousness come by the
law, Christ died in vain. If righteousness comes by the
law, you're denying grace. You're a debtor to do the whole
law. You're in trouble. You're under the curse. Cursed
is everyone that continues, not in all things which are written
in the book of the law to do. Christ was made a curse for us,
the scripture says. He came under the law. I was not talking about physical
circumcision. You remember Stephen when he
preached he mentioned that, he mentioned the circumcision that
was given to Abraham. And then he brought the whole
history of Israel down, read that message sometime. And then
when he came to the end of his message showing them that all
of this was about Christ who was to come and who would establish
the only righteousness whereby God could justify the ungodly.
He looked at that crowd of Jews and he said, you uncircumcised
in what? heart and ears." Now they've
been circumcised in the flesh but not in heart and ears. And
he's referring back to the Old Testament there where it was
said where God commanded Israel concerning this issue of circumcision
of the heart. Then Jeremiah he prophesied of
it. He said he's going to give us a new heart, a new mind. Ezekiel prophesied of it. So
when he says in verse 3, we are the circumcision, what he's saying
is this, we're the true Israel of God. And as I said, that's the equivalent
of Christ looking at Nicodemus, a circumcised Jew, and saying,
Nicodemus, except you be born again, you cannot see or enter
the kingdom of God. Now many of the denominations
today will tell you that physical circumcision in the Old Covenant
has been replaced with baptism in the New Covenant. That's not
true. That's not true. Physical circumcision
in the Old Covenant was a type, a picture of the new birth. Circumcision of the heart Christ
didn't look at Nicodemus and say Nicodemus except you be baptized
You cannot see the kingdom of God or enter the kingdom of God.
He said except you be born again Begotten from above Regeneration
and conversion Christians, the true Israel of
God are first identified in their experience as they are born again
by the Holy Spirit. Now, turn back to Romans chapter
2 with me. Now, let me give you a few scriptures. I've got a bunch, but I don't
have time to go into all of them. When I write this up they will
all be in the book. Now, Paul is talking about how
both Jew and Gentile are under the curse of the law, born spiritually
dead, and have absolutely nothing to recommend them unto God. They
have no righteousness. The conclusion of the whole thing
is found in Romans 3, 9. The Scripture, are we better
than they? No, in no way. The Scripture hath concluded
all under sin. There is none righteous. There
is none good. There is none to seek after God. By deeds of law
shall no flesh be justified. There is your definition of total
depravity. righteousness, no way to work one, and no desire
for one God's way. And he tells them over there
in the book of Romans chapter 2, he says in verse 25, look
at it. For circumcision verily profited if thou keep the law.
Physical circumcision, he says, will do you good if you keep
the whole law. Because if a sinner, if a person
keeps the whole law, they're not a sinner. If you can keep the law, you
don't need Christ. Remember what he said? If righteousness
come by law, then Christ died in vain. He didn't die for you.
I can tell you right now, if you're a person who can keep
the law without any sin, Christ didn't die for you. And I'll
tell you why I know that, because you didn't need his death. You
didn't need his righteousness. You got your own. You see that? But now if you're a sinner like
me, That puts you in a whole different
category, doesn't it? Now I need him. And that's what
he's saying. He says, but if thou be a breaker
of the law, thy circumcision is made uncircumcision. In other
words, you might be a circumcised Jew, but if you break the law,
you're no better off than the uncircumcised Gentile. verse
26, Therefore if the son's circumcision keepeth the righteousness of
the law, shall not his uncircumcision be counted for circumcision?
Now what he's saying there is this, here's an uncircumcised
Gentile, if he keeps the law, then he's okay. Now again, if you don't keep
the law, you don't need, in fact, what are you even doing here?
If you can keep the law, you don't need what I'm saying. This
is a hospital for sinners here. This is for people who need a
righteousness they can't produce. And if you keep the law, you
can produce one. You better be somewhere. In fact,
you'd probably stick out on us like a sore thumb. You'd have
some kind of glow about you or something, I don't know. But look at verse 28, he says,
For he is not a Jew, which is one outwardly, neither is that
circumcision, which is outward in the flesh. But he is a Jew,
which is one inwardly, and circumcision is that of the heart, in the
spirit, and not in the letter, whose praise is not of men, but
of God. That's what Paul's talking about.
We are the circumcision. And I could show you so many
other verses on this, but let me give you this. Galatians chapter 3. I want to
show you two more and then I'm going to quit today. Galatians chapter 3. Now physical circumcision identified
the physical nation Israel with Abraham physically. Alright. But now the promises that God
gave Abraham are both physical and spiritual. The physical promises that God
gave to Abraham, they pertain to the physical nation Israel,
didn't pertain to the Gentiles, didn't pertain to you or me,
but to that nation. But who do the spiritual promises
pertain to? Well look at Galatians 3 verse
26, he says, for you are all the children of God and by faith
in Christ Jesus. Now, who has faith in Christ
Jesus? Only those who are born again by the Spirit. those who
are justified by his righteousness. And he says, for as many as of
you have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ. Baptism there
is not referring to water baptism, that's not even Paul's subject
here. Baptism here is referring to union. The word baptized means
placed into, that's what it literally means. So, when we refer to water
baptism we're talking about somebody being placed into water, immersed. But here it's being placed into
Christ. Now, when will we be placed into
Christ? Well, before the foundation of the world. Christ at the cross
He was our substitute we died with him and Then when are we
placed into Christ spiritually in our own experience when we're
born again by the Spirit And you've been baptized into Christ.
You've put on Christ to put him on means to believe in him to
rest in him There's neither Jew nor Greek. Did you see that?
I There's neither bond nor free, there's neither male nor female,
for you're all one in Christ Jesus. And if you be Christ,
that literally means if you belong to Christ, then are you what? You see it there? Abraham's seed,
his child, his generation, and heirs according to the promise.
Now one more passage, and that's Galatians 6 and verse 14. Now, you know the issue in Galatia
was these Judaizers trying to get these Gentiles circumcised
in order to be righteous before God, in order to be saved. And
Paul says in Galatians 6, 13, he says, For neither they themselves
who are circumcised keep the law, but desire to have you circumcised,
that they may glory in your flesh. They don't keep the law, he says,
they're sinners. Verse 14, But God forbid, That
I should glory. There's that word glory. We rejoice
in Christ Jesus. God forbid that I should glory,
save, or accept in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. That's
His death. That's His righteousness established. I glory in Christ the Lord my
righteousness. By whom the world is crucified
unto me, and I unto the world. The world looks upon me as cursed,
I look upon the world as cursed. Verse 15, For in Christ Jesus
neither circumcision availeth anything, nor uncircumcision,
that is physical circumcision or uncircumcision doesn't mean
a thing, but a new creature, a new creation created by Christ. And as many as walk according
to this rule, this doctrine, what rule, what doctrine? God
forbid that I should glory save in the cross. Rejoice in Christ
Jesus, have no confidence in the faith, peace be on them,
mercy, and upon who? The Israel of God. You know what
the word Israel means? It means prevailing with God,
literally. Who prevails with God? The ones
who try to make themselves righteous by their works? Well, I don't
see anybody in the scripture who ever prevailed with God that
way. The ones who plead Christ and His righteousness alone prevail
with God. That's the ones who prevail with
God. What is a Christian? We are the
circumcision. We're the true Israel of God.
That's what Paul says.