Again, open your Bibles to Philippians
chapter 3. We'll continue our journey through
this wonderful book written by Paul to the saints at Philippi
while he was imprisoned in Rome. And today the name of the message
is Enemies of Christ. Enemies of the cross or enemies
of Christ. So open your Bibles again to
Philippians chapter three. We'll continue our study again
in this wonderful epistle. Let's read verses 17 to 21 to
see the context of our verses for today. Our verses today will
be 18 and 19. Brethren, be followers together
of me and mark them which walk as you have us for an example. For many walk, of whom I have
told you often, and now tell you even weeping, that they are
the enemies of the cross of Christ." So we see here Paul's compassion
for souls, don't we? Now, these ones that he's talking
about are professing Christians. We're going to find out who they
are, though. And note the word, professing, not possessing. A.W. Pink said there's two kinds of
Christians. Possessing, those who possess salvation in and
through Christ, and those who just profess. Paul's now talking about professing
Christians, because how do we know that? Well, because he calls
them enemies of the cross. For many walk of whom I told
you, often, and tell you now, even weeping, that they are enemies
of the cross of Christ. How do you identify them? Whose
end is destruction, whose God is their belly, and whose glory
is in their shame, who mind earthly things. For our conversation,
that's our lifestyle in the Greek, a citizenship actually in the
Greek, citizenship. Our citizenship is in heaven.
For months also we look for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.
who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like
unto his glorious body, according to the working whereby he is
able even to subdue all things unto himself. Now, last week
in verse 17, we saw that the Holy Spirit had Paul exhort the
believers at Philippi, the born-again blood-washed saints, to follow
Paul's example of dying to self and following Christ. Paul's
not looking for a following. He's not saying, be a Paul. He's
saying, because we can't be, Chris, you can only be Chris
and I can only be Wayne. We were talking about that, right? And
Charlie, you can only be Charlie, you can't be Wayne. But we can
Follow an example of how they follow in Christ. Oh look, Paul,
we saw earlier, he's dying to self. Right? He says, everything
that was important to me, it's not important to me anymore. Right? And that's how we are.
Think of that. Brian, think of the things that
were really important to us. They're not important anymore. Some of
the things are just like, why was I all, why did I get all
worked up about those things all that time? They're just not
important. And think of that. There's so
many things in this world that have no eternal value, but yet
we get worked up about them. See, and Paul's just saying,
just leave all that behind. Just die to it. Don't let it
bother you. See, and I love, see, you guys
are citizens of America. I'm citizen of Canada, right,
still. I'm a permanent resident here, but I'm still a citizen
of Canada. That's our, the country of our birth, right? Paul's saying,
we're citizens of heaven. This is not our home. We've been
born again. Isn't that amazing? And he's writing to the Philippians,
right? They're Roman citizens. So citizenship to a Roman was
huge because it covered all these different privileges. So when
he's telling them, you're citizens of heaven, they understand what
that means. All the privileges that those
folks who are in glory, seeing Christ, worshiping him, they're
ours already. They're not something that we
can hold on to right now, right? But one day we'll be in the presence
of the Lord, worshiping Him. We have all the promises of God
right now, though. They're ours in Christ. Isn't
that wonderful? So He's pointing them away from
the world and pointing them to Christ. And we see the opposite
happening with these who are called the enemies of Christ.
They mind worldly things. They mind earthly things. who these folks are. Now, these
folks are antinomians. These are people who say, well,
since I'm saved, I can do whatever I want. They're, amen, brother. I saw
Travis is shaking his head. Amen, because that's how we are.
Nope, we can't. We don't want to either, do we,
brother Travis? No. We got freedom and liberty
like we don't even understand. But it's not a license for us
to sin, is it? No. And they're identified. Look
at this, we'll look at these verses, we'll break these down.
Look at this, whose end is destruction, verse 19. Whose God is their
belly. And whose glory is in their shame.
They glorify themselves. What did God say? He said he
won't share his glory with anyone, right? And have you ever noticed since
we're born again, we don't want the glory. We want to give it
all to the Lord, don't we? That's the opposite of how we
were, Brother Charlie. I used to like people thinking,
oh, he's a pretty good guy. Right? It just puffs us up. No,
he's the one we glorify. He's the one we magnify. We don't
need that anymore because we realize we're just a bunch of
worms. who he saved out of the dunghill, right? That's where
he got me. He got me out of the dunghill
of life. I was like a maggot rolling around, and he picked
me up and saved my soul. This one's mine. I bought him
with my blood. Hallelujah, right? Oh, what a
wonderful, wonderful Savior we have, the Lord Jesus Christ.
I was listening to something, after we talked, Chris, I listened
to a message called The Collected Ones by Henry Mahan. I'd recommend
you look it up. It's called The Collected Ones.
It is magnificent. He bought out, he says, you know,
some people like to study theology and all this. He said, I think
we should study Christology. Christology. And he blew that
up. I'm gonna make it into a short
sermon. He blew it up where he's the one we need to look to. He's
the one we need to study about. And you know, the more we study
about him, the less we glory in ourselves and glory in, and
the more we see how magnificent he is. Because he's the one we're
gonna see, right? Face to face. He's the one we're
going to worship, Brother Brian. My. So all things Paul once counted
dear to himself. Prestige, a name, right? He was a Pharisee of Pharisees.
He had prestige. He was in the upper echelons
of Pharisaism. My. Recognition. People say, that's solitarist. when they saw him. He was no
one. He was no one. He had power. He had money. He had influence. He had all these things. He had
a high position among the Jewish religion. As a matter of fact,
the Sanhedrin would send him out with letters to go and persecute
Christians. And he did it. He's like, I want
to wipe them off the face of the earth. That's solitaris. Here's Paul. Same man, but born
again. Saved by the blood of Christ.
And what's he doing? He's pointing us right to Christ,
isn't he, sister? He's pointing us right to Christ.
He's saying, follow, he says, be like me, be a follower of
Christ. Be a follower, just adore him, worship him. He's everything
to us now, isn't he? There was a time when he was
nothing to me. Now he's everything. I can't live without my king.
And I realize now I couldn't live without my king before,
and he was the one keeping me going. Just like this challenge come
this week with the church, we'll move on. It's just a bump in the road
in God's providence, isn't it? But it's a bump that he put there,
right? Let's watch what he does. It's
amazing. It's absolutely incredible. So he's looking to Christ for
his daily needs. He's actually pointing to Philippians
and saying, we need to look to Christ in everything we do. We
need to look to him. Some people say, well, that's
too small of a matter for me to take to Christ. Nothing's
too small to take to Christ. Nothing. Absolutely nothing is
too small to take to our King. He's our Lord and Savior. He's
our King. He's our Redeemer. He's our all-in-all,
just as He is for every single believer. He was that for Paul,
and He's that for us as born-again believers. Now we trust Christ
for the saving of our souls. Do we stop trusting him now that
he's saved us? Do we just say, well, now I can?
No, we trust him all the time, don't we? As a matter of fact,
we trust him more each day, don't we, Brother Brian? We're leaning
on him more each day. And we realize we need him more
each day, don't we? I saw that water. I was like,
oh, Lord. Well, start mopping. Right? And then Luke came, and Dan came,
and Josh was over there, and Ann was there. Next thing you
know, by six o'clock, all the water was pretty much mopped
up, and just starting to dry up. Out of the fellowship hall, at
least. And we gave them glory for it.
Praise the Lord for giving us the strength to do it. My. Now Paul's going to warn the
Philippian saints about the enemies of the cross here. These are
false professing Christians. Tears among the wheat. We're
not to tear the tears out, are we? Let them grow amongst the
wheat, right? But you know what will drive
a tear out of a church? Amen, Brother Brian. The gospel,
the gospel truth. We don't, you know, somebody
asked me one time, well, do you guys practice church discipline? And
I said, no. They said, how many times have you ever had to practice
church discipline? I went, no, zero. Because the gospel will
discipline. It's disciplined me as it disciplined
you. Oh my. The gospel disciplines
us. It does. Now, when false teaching
comes up, we deal with that, don't we? We say, well, I don't have none
of that. But you know what these fellas
do? These fellas go, they don't go
to the preacher and talk to him. They go behind the preacher's
back and talk to other people and start to build dissent. That's what they do. Backbiting,
whispering. That's what they do. It happens
every time. It's like a pattern that happens every time. I've
seen it not just what happened here, but I've seen it in other
places too. Donny's seen it. When I called
Donny and told him what was going on, he's like, I've seen that
a thousand times, man. It always starts with someone
whispering. My, oh my. My, oh my. Look at verse 18 and 19. For
many walk, of whom I have told you often, and now tell you,
weeping and weeping, that they are the enemies of the cross
of Christ. So they've made a profession, but look what Paul says, he says
they're enemies of the cross. Whose end is destruction, whose
God is their belly, and whose glory is in their shame, who
mind earthly things. Now, again, these are antinomians,
but you could put this on anyone who's preaching a works-based
salvation. Something you got to do to be
saved. Right? Catholics. Jehovah Witnesses. Those are the obvious ones, right?
Mormons. Seventh-day Adventists. Church of Christ. It just goes
on and on and on. Something you got to do to either
Get salvation, and think of this, to keep salvation. That's works. That's not God-honoring,
is it? If there's something you and
I have to do for salvation, then it's not God's grace. And if
there's something you and I have to do to keep salvation, then
it's not God's grace either, is it? Salvation is of the Lord. He's the author
and what? And everything between, right?
Author and the finisher. That's what He is, of our salvation.
Now, are we active in living for Christ daily? Absolutely.
Absolutely. We live by His power, but we're
not robots, are we? When God made us willing, we
came to Christ. We ran to Christ. That's why
we preach the gospel to everyone, because we don't know who the
elect are, but God does. And here make the gospel effectual. I was talking to Jake yesterday
on the phone, young Jake, we were talking on the phone. And
he said, why do we feel like we have to qualify when we say,
come to Christ, come to Christ? Why do we feel like we have to
qualify that only the elect will come? Because we already know
that. We already know that, don't we? You know, I've had people, and
Donnie, Bruce Crafter, he told me this happened to him. He is
telling people, come to Christ, come to Christ, come to Christ.
And he said, somebody in the movement, Sovereign Christmas,
he said, man, you sound like an Armenian. He goes, I ain't
no Armenian. I'm just calling people to come to Christ. Right? Man, oh man, there we go. Come
to Christ. Flee to Christ. We already, as
grace believers, know if you come to Christ, it's because
God made you willing. But I'll tell you what, if you do come
to Him, you're willing to come to Him. We're not robots. No,
we're not. And so Paul, he's exhorting these
folks here, these enemies of the cross, right? They've made
a profession, but They put Christ to open shame. Whose end is destruction. Look
at that. So what does the path of antinomianism
or lawlessness lead to? Saying I can do whatever I want? It leads to destruction. And Paul's aware He's saying,
beware of these people and note the care, even, I love this,
note the care that he even has for them. He says, I'm telling
you this weeping, it breaks my heart. Paul had such concern and love
for the church. And he's saying, it makes me
weep when I see these folks. Look at, their end is destruction.
Look at verse 19. Whose end is destruction, whose
God is their belly, and whose glory is their shame, and who
mind earthly things. So he's saying, number one, he's
weeping for them, that their enemies are the cross of Christ.
And note also, their end is destruction. It's destruction. Note they glorify
themselves. And when I see their God is their
belly, They just want whatever they can get. You ever watch
those? Let's not watch them. Those televangelists,
right? They're never satisfied, are
they? They're always telling people, give me more, give me
more. Because they're worldly. And all they want is as much
as they can get. And you know what their end is?
Destruction. Destruction. You know, something I love about
grace preachers, as I've met them through the years, and when
we're not preaching, we're just wearing our normal clothes and
everything, and you can't tell if we're a preacher or not. Now,
if you sat beside us while we're having lunch with someone, you'd
find out we're believers, because we're talking about Christ and
stuff, but we're also talking about other things, too. But
you can't pinpoint us. We don't wear no collar. We're just normal folks who are
saved by the grace of God and wanting to tell other people
about, we're a bunch of, what did Scott used to say? We're
a bunch of nobodies telling other nobodies about somebody who can
save anybody. Isn't that good? Oh, I love that. And also, This is something that
Paul, if we notice in our study in Galatians, we'll see it a
little bit in Ephesians when we get there too. Colossians
we saw, 1 John, we saw it with John. These warnings by the Holy
Spirit of God are repetitious about these people, about false
teachers. Have you ever noticed that? That the epistles often
deal with But they're comforting for us as believers, but they
often deal with errors within the body. And it's a repetitious warning. You know why? Because I don't
always get things the first time. Do you? And I can forget. Can you? So
the gospel reminds us about Christ, keeps Christ in our forefront.
That's why it's so important for us to just bathe ourselves
in sermons and in the word and just to fill our minds with that. Because then our minds aren't
in the world all the time. Right? And I'm not saying do,
do, do. I'm just saying it's a blessing
when we do that. I know. Oh my. So Paul emphasizes in
his epistles this repetition of warning against false teachings
and false teachers. And the importance of the message
of salvation is in and through the Lord Jesus Christ in him
alone. Like Henry said, putting Christology before us,
right, or Christocentric messages, where we're listening to Christ,
we're listening, learning about Christ, listening to his words. And this shows us Paul's pastoral
concern for the churches. He's not their pastor, but this
is the concern that preachers have, pastors have, over the
body too. We're concerned about the spiritual
growth of those who hear us. We know that it's only God who
can give the grace and give the increase. But when we see folks
wandering off into other stuff saying, well, that's not the
gospel, when it clearly is, that concerns us. That concerns us, beloved. Because
if someone say, someone say, Donnie's preaching the gospel,
and someone in his congregation says, Donnie's not preaching
the gospel. I'm concerned about that person
because Donnie's obviously preaching the gospel, right? Brother Donnie
Bell, obviously. It's so clear as day, but that
person's not hearing. That's a scary place to be. See,
the problem is not Donnie in the message. The problem is the
person popping off. And Paul here, he's warning about
these who are outrightly living a life of recklessness. But it shows us his pastoral
concern for the saints at Philippi and the saints in general. Remember
last week in our study in Acts, we saw that he went to all the
different churches in Galatia and all that? Because he's concerned
for them. He loves them. And this also shows us our need
for vigilance against false teachings. To be aware of them. Because
they're out there. They're out there. And this reputation
also suggests that the issue was ongoing at Philippi. It wasn't
something that just popped up. It was ongoing. If it had popped
up and was finished, then he wouldn't have addressed it. But
obviously, it's ongoing. The sinless perfection, and now
we see this. These enemies of the cross live
in however they want. And again, Paul's frequent warnings.
Turn if you would to, well actually, let's read verses 18 and 19 again. And take notes what's spoken
of again at the end of the cross. These are individuals too, remember
this. These are individual people. They're not the Judaizers, but
these are professed Christian Greeks who have Epicurean tendencies,
which is lawlessness. Look at this. For many walk,
of whom I have told you often, and tell you even weeping, that
they are the enemies of the cross of Christ, whose end is destruction,
whose God is their belly, and whose glory is in their shame,
who mind earthly things. Now the Epicureans represented
a Greek school of philosophy, because the Greeks were big on
philosophy. The Epicureans represented those which taught that the satisfaction
of the physical appetites, so the lust of the flesh, whether
it be food or sexual things or other things, right? They taught
that that was the highest aim of man. So these people probably
came out of an Epicurean background, or they professed that they did,
but they were still living that way. There was no change. They weren't born again. They professed Christ, but they
weren't born again. And they had, these folks spoken
of in these two verses had allowed their supposed Christian liberty
to denigrate into a license to sin. And we see that with what's
described. Whose end is destruction, whose
God is their belly, and whose glory is in their shame, who
mined earthly things. Look at that. They're all about the world.
They're all about what they can get. They're all about pleasure.
They're all about... That's what's being bought forth
here. Verse 19. is a description of antinomians.
They're antinomians. They think they can sin all they
want. And they actually teach those things. Thanks, sister.
They actually teach those things. Whose end is their destruction,
whose god is their valley, whose glory is in their shame, who
mind earthly things. Turn, if you would, to Galatians
chapter 5. This is brought up in Galatians 5. And then put
your finger in Romans 14. My gosh, I'm leaking. Every born-again blood-washed
believer is being called not only externally but internally
out of the bondage of sin, right? Out from under the law. out from
under the bondage of Satan and into the liberty of Christ in
the gospel. Christ has made us free from
days, ceremonies, sacrifices, circumcision, and external rituals. Look at this in Galatians 5.13.
For brethren, ye have been called into liberty, that's freedom
in the Greek, right? Emancipation. only use not liberty
for an occasion to the flesh, but by love serve one another."
See, these folks that Paul was speaking of, they were using
their supposed Christian liberty as a license to do whatever they
wanted to. And we know that's wrong. Turn
now, if you would, to Romans chapter 14. Remember this, we're
complete in Christ. Yet the doctrine of Christian
liberty may be abused, right? It's being abused in this text.
My, if we use it, if we use Christian liberty as a excuse to fulfill
the lust of the flesh, if we forget the rules of moderation,
or if we make liberty a stumbling block to weaker Christians, that's
all wrong for us to do. You know, I may feel like I have
the liberty to do something, and Brian, you may not feel you
have the liberty to do that, and if I know you feel that way,
then I won't do it. That's Christian love. Because
I don't want it to be a stumbling block to you. Or if you feel
like you can do something, then I feel like I can, then you won't
do it when I'm there, but you can do it in your private. But
you won't do it when I'm there, because you don't want to be
a stumbling block. That's Christian love. That's just minding your
brothers and your sisters in Christ. We are directed in all that we
do by love for Christ and love for others, especially for those
who are babes in Christ. Look at this in Romans chapter
14, starting in verse 13. Look it, Paul wrote this by inspiration
of the Holy Spirit of God. Let us not therefore judge one
another anymore, but judge this rather, that no man put a stumbling
block or an occasion to fall in his brother's way. I know,
and am persuaded by the Lord, that there is nothing unclean
of itself. But to him that esteemeth anything
to be unclean, to him it is unclean." So Charlie, if there's something
that you feel like, say there was, let's use the meat offered
to idols that Paul did, right? Paul knew that he could eat meat
offered to idols, but if you just came out of idol worship,
And Paul and you and I were sitting eating, and I was eating the
steaks with him, and you felt like, oh my gosh, that's awful,
that we shouldn't be doing it around you. You see? So we always have to
be mindful of younger brethren. Or those who haven't yet had
revealed to them the liberty that we have in Christ. There's
nothing wrong with eating that meat. But if you came out of idol worship
and I'm sitting there eating a juicy steak, you might be going,
what in the world, what is Wayne doing, man? See, and it could
be a stumbling block for you. We don't do that kind of stuff.
We just don't do that kind of stuff. That no man put a stumbling
block or an occasion to fall in his brother's way, that can
hurt a young believer. My. I know and am persuaded by
the Lord Jesus that there is nothing unclean of itself, but
to him that esteemeth anything to be unclean, to him it's unclean. That's so clear, isn't it? But
if thy brother be greed with thy meat, now walkest thou not
charitably. We're not walking in love. If
I'm sitting there chewing on that steak and not even considering
you who came out, I don't worship Charlie. And I'm just not on
that stake of the very idol, I guess I'd say, that you worshiped
before. And you'd be like, oh my gosh,
what's he doing? That's not showing you love.
That's not showing you love. That's what Paul's saying. That's
not showing Christian love. Christian love always esteems
others better than themselves, right? Always puts the care and
need of others before themselves. And look what he says, but if
thy brother be grieved with thy meat, now walkest thou not charitably. Destroy him not with thy meat,
for whom Christ died. Don't destroy his faith or be
a stumbling block to him by eating that meat. It could be anything. By doing
something that he feels that he can't do, don't do it in front
of him. Even if you feel you got liberty,
do it. Look at this. Let not your good be evil spoken
of. Because Charlie could say later on, man, can you believe
what Wayne did? He was eating meat offered to,
let's just, I don't know, the cat. And I used to worship that
cat, and he's eating meat. You could put it in anything,
right? Well, in charity, it wouldn't do that.
And then your good would be evil spoken of, because you know you
had the liberty to do that, but it's going to be evil spoken
of now. For the kingdom of God, look
at this, is not meat and drink. It's not what goes in that defiles
a man, it's what comes out. Because what comes out comes
from the heart. You see? But righteousness and peace and
joy in the Holy Ghost. Man, I gotta finish this up,
and I'm still got a page and a half to go. Let's go back to
verse 18 and 19. We'll read that. I'm gonna read
you a couple verses from... Actually, you can turn there
quick. Romans chapter 6. We'll finish here. Romans chapter 6. Those enemies of the cross spoken
of in these verses, they don't understand God's grace. They
don't understand the grace of God. And thus, they actually
think lightly of it. They think very lightly of it.
They think, well, I can do whatever I want then. Which basically
is saying, oh well. Sin's not that bad. No, sin's
horrible. And look what Paul writes here
in chapter 6, verses 1 and then verse 15. What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that
grace may abound? So, instead of, he's saying,
should we just continue sinning and grace will abound? Should we just do whatever we
want, sister? No, we can't, can we? The love of Christ constrains
us now. He says, and then look at what
he says in verse 15. What then? Shall we sin because
we are not under the law, but under grace? Even though we know
we're under the law, we don't see that as a license for us
to sin, do we? And then what does he say? God
forbid. See, people accuse us of being
antinomians because of what we believe, because we believe we're
not under the law anymore. But they do not understand. And
I've never heard a grace preacher say, well, now you can go live
however you want. I've never heard, ever heard a grace preacher
say that. And Lord, well, I'll never say that. Because we can't. God forbid. We already know. Now think of this. I'm going
to close with this. We already know that grace already abounds
in the midst of sin because we're saved. Right? Grace of God's abounded. Look
at the sin worry we have. Look at the sin we do. But grace
has already abounded. And so does that make us want
to go and sin more? Nope. Hey, it doesn't, does it? No.
Praise be to God. Praise the mighty name of Jesus.
Oh, my gosh. Oh, my gosh. It's so wonderful,
isn't it? Brother Brian, can you close
us in prayer?