Turn with me over to Philippians 3. When you read this chapter, you'll notice that what Paul is doing is he's taking back the title of the Lord's people. He's denying those of the concision. those that are of the flesh, those who believe that by the law they were making themselves righteous with God. And they were claiming, we're the circumcision, we're the true people of God. And Paul says, no, you're not. We are the circumcision. And so he's denying them of their boast that they are something. But in reality, they're nothing.

And that's what the gospel does. When we preach and exalt the Lord Jesus Christ, when we preach Christ crucified, we're declaring that we're only saved by the grace and mercy of God. It's only by the hand of God that we have anything, and that we are God's people, and that his word is made effectual in our hearts. And so the gospel denies a self-righteous man of his boast. And that's why the self-righteous don't, why they hate the gospel, and why they persecute the people of God, and they persecute the gospel.

So Paul writes, and we're just gonna be looking at two verses, verse two and three. Paul writes, beware of dogs. Beware of evil workers. beware of the concision. For we are the circumcision, which worship God in the spirit, and rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh. So the one that denies that Jesus Christ is all their righteousness Paul calls them a cutter of the flesh. They are a cutter. This one is a fixer of the flesh. They are called in scripture a will worshiper.

And the problem is the self-righteous scoffs at Christ. And he mocks grace. He scoffs at Christ. He belittles the gospel, which is dear to the people of God, which is all our hope. Christ is the only hope for a sinner. Without Christ, we are nothing. We have no righteousness. We cannot approach unto the true and living God.

And so Paul calls these who scoff at Christ and belittle grace, he calls them dogs. He calls them evil workers. He calls them the concision. He doesn't even allow them to have this word. There are times when Paul calls them of the Jews, the circumcision. There are times when he refers to them as such, but here he's denying them even that title there. And he says, they're dogs, they're evil workers, they're cutters. They talk a good game. They put on a good show. They pretend to be holier than thou. And Paul says, hold up. They're evil. They're evil. And they're dogs. meaning they have no place in heaven. If you look over at Revelation 22, we see something of this. Look at Revelation 22, and I'm just gonna read two verses there, verse 14 and then 15. First, verse 14, he says, John writes, blessed are they that do his commandments. that they may have right to the tree of life, which is Christ, he's the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city.

Well, what are God's commandments? Because religion would have you believe he's talking about the 10 commandments. He's talking about you focusing on morality and making yourself fit for God and fit for heaven. And they turn you from the gospel to the flesh. So what are the commandments of God?

One, the commandment of God is that ye believe on him whom God hath sent. This is the work of God. This is what God works in the heart, that ye believe on him whom the Father hath sent. And the other commandment is what our Lord said. This is my commandment, that ye love one another as I have loved you.

Faith in Christ and love toward your brethren. And when that's your focus, your whole heart, your whole demeanor, everything about you is different from a man whose life is dead letter religion, following the law. The way he looks at you, the way he speaks about you, what he thinks of you is entirely different when your heart is set on Christ and love versus when your heart is set on law and getting it right. and be perfect in yourself by your flesh. Focusing on that for your righteousness, it changes everything about you.

And so God works what he commands in his people. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and love your brethren as Christ has loved you. Show kindness to others as Christ has shown kindness to you. Show grace to others as God has shown grace unto you. That's what he calls us to. And he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, apparent, and clear to all, that they are wrought in God.

God has done this. Not your hand, not your flesh, not your will. God has done this. Now, continuing Revelation 22, 15, for without, he says, are dogs. They're outside. The dogs are outside. and sorcerers, and whoremongers, and murderers, and idolaters, and whosoever loveth and maketh a lie." And so these dogs, this concision, they're cutters of the flesh.

Why? That they may glory in your flesh. Because that's all their life. That's their hope of salvation. They're looking for fruit. They're looking for evidences. And so they strive to cut up your flesh. And neither they themselves who are circumcised keep the law, but desire to have you circumcised, that they may glory in your flesh.

Galatians 6.13. They want to boast to God and to others how they've fixed you with their handiwork. They've made the difference. They got you to do what they told you to do. They straightened you out. They got it right. There is my fruit. Now pay me that thou owest, God. I've earned this. They got you to clean up yourselves.

And so that word concision, it's not a flattering word at all. It means to cut up, and it means to mutilate. It means to mutilate, and that's exactly what work mongers do. They transact in the business of law, and the result of their works isn't improved. It's a mutilated flesh.

They make, Christ told us that the Jews were making a proselyte who was twice as fit for hell than before they got to him. He was worse off afterwards than when they found him. And so he says, beware of them, flee from them. They are dogs who have no part in the inheritance of Christ. Instead, the believer's boast is not in what I've done for the Lord, but what the Lord has done for me.

And in the bulletin, I think I saw it in Larry Chris's bulletin within the last couple of weeks it was there, but he speaks of an older man who's like 90 years old, I think it was, and the pastor asked him, do you love the Lord? And he was silent for a moment, and then he grabbed the hand of the pastor, his arm, and he said, I got something better, something better. He loves me. He said, the Lord loves me. And that's the hope of the believer. That's the hope of the sinner, that the Lord loves me. I mean, the love we have is all from him. We love him because he first loved us. And so that's why we love him. And we don't put it first that I loved him, and therefore he loves me. That's not the gospel. That's not the truth. That's a lie. That's the making of a lie and the speaking of a lie.

We love him because he first loved us. And so, flee from those lies because God the Father makes Christ all to his people. That's where we're brought to be. Christ is made all to his people. Let me quote for you 1 Corinthians 1, verse 30 and 31. We're told, but of him are ye in Christ Jesus, of God himself are ye in Christ Jesus, who has made unto us wisdom and righteousness and sanctification and redemption, that according as it's written, he that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord.

Christ is everything that you and I need. He's everything, and that accounts for everything. He's all of our thoughts. He's all our justification. Our walk is a walk in faith and holiness because we're sanctified by Christ. He set us apart. He gave us his spirit, and he's all our salvation. So Christ is all and in all, Paul told the Colossians, Colossians 311. He's all and in all. And then Paul proceeds to say these words in Colossians 3. if you want to turn there, Colossians 3, picking up in verse 12, Christ is all and in all.

Now, he does not say, therefore, study the Ten Commandments, and you better get down this morality right, and you better straighten yourself out, and you better get everybody else straightened out around you, or else you're going to have a tough time. You better fix this. No, he doesn't do that.

He says, Christ is all and in all, verse 12, put on therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, bowels of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind. It's not because I know anything. It's because the Lord is gracious and kind and merciful to me. Meekness and long suffering. forbearing one another, and forgiving one another. If any man have a quarrel against any, even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye." Do that. It doesn't say anything about if he comes to you. It just says, you just forgive him. Don't hold anything against him. Just forgive him. And if you look at men of the law, they behave very differently. It's not about kindness and humbleness unless it's showing you how humble they are and how proud you are, right? It's very different.

And above all these things, put on charity. Be very willing and abundant in your kindness and graciousness and love for others and your giving. Be very generous in your love to others to a fault, to a fault. even if you're deemed silly for being that kind to someone that others would say doesn't deserve it. To put on charity, which is the bond of perfectness, because really, it's not what the Lord does for us. It's not because I fixed myself. It's not because I got myself together and made myself better. No, God, in spite of me, was very gracious and very kind. very patient, very long-suffering, and drew me sweetly with cords of love."

And that's what he's done for every one of his people. He does that. If you did put down some sin and started to follow him, it's because he was gracious to you to begin with, and drew you down that path. And so then he says, and let the peace of God rule in your hearts.

Meaning, there's a lot that you and I just can't fix. But don't let that trouble you. Don't be troubled by it. Don't go around trying to fix others and change things. Rest in the Lord. Trust him to do what he says he will do. By all means, pray about it. By all means, groan in the spirit about things. Lot was troubled daily. He was vexed daily living in Sodom. But it didn't mean that he was trying to fix others by the works of the law, by that, but to show them the kindness of God as was shown to him. And the Lord says, that is to which ye are called in one body and be ye thankful.

And so a self-righteous dog is not going to do that. He's working, he's trying to purge out everything, clear out all his space to get only be surrounded by perfect people so that then he can be perfect too. Because right now you're tripping him up and messing him up. It's all your fault, right? And that's what what the self-righteous does. He's always blaming somebody else. And so, when he does that, though, he pulls out a self-righteous knife and he starts cutting up the flesh. And he mutilates it.

That's all. You just make things worse. It's like a person who keeps going back for, you know, facial surgery, right? To improve their nose or their cheeks or something like that. Eventually, It just gets wrecked. It just gets bigger and uglier and worse and worse. So leave it alone.

You're fine how the Lord created you. So now the reason Paul gives this warning is to inform you to encourage your hearts that you, that believe Christ, you are the circumcision. You're the circumcision. You're the children of God. He says, we, verse three, we are the circumcision.

We are in truth, in fact, what the wicked claim to be, falsely. Their boast is in the flesh. If that's your boast, then yeah, you are of the concision. If your boast is the flesh and what you're doing to fix yourself, you've put yourself in the camp of those Paul called dogs and evil workers and the concision. But if your boast is Christ, you are the circumcision.

And we did nothing to change our nature. Our nature didn't fix anything, it can't. Our pivoting to religion and doing religious things, that didn't fix anything. That oftentimes makes things a lot worse. It offends people, it hurts people, it severs people because when we're set on self-righteousness and trying to do the law, you can't help but be judgmental. You can't help but make people uncomfortable in that sense.

And so Paul told the Corinthians that circumcision That working of the hands by religion, circumcision is nothing. And for the Jews, it was a literal outward cutting of the flesh. That's what circumcision was. It was the removal of that extra skin, and it pictured the removal of the filth of the flesh. It pictured something good, because it pictures the removal of the flesh over the heart that keeps us in blindness. That's what it was picturing, but they took it as a work that made them righteous and the people of God. So they misused it and they abused it.

And so circumcision is nothing and uncircumcision is nothing. Meaning this old man in our nature, that's never going to get it together. And we're never gonna know and worship the true and living God, but the keeping of the commandments of God, right? There's the difference.

And again, we saw what the commandments of God is. To believe on him whom the Father hath sent, and to love your brethren as Christ has loved you. That's the commandments of God. If you set your heart on those commandments, all that kindness, that grace, that long-suffering, that patience, that mercifulness to others will come forth just in the new man.

It can't help but be present there. You don't even have to focus on it. Just focus on Christ and walking, showing love to others as Christ has loved you. And all these other things will follow. You trust Christ. He's your righteousness. That's the righteousness which we seek. And all these other things will be added unto you. They'll be put into place by the teaching of the Lord. He'll chasten you as needed. He'll correct you. He'll instruct you. He'll bless you. He'll keep you. He'll provide for you. All that is needed, trusting the Lord there.

And so that's the work of the Spirit of God. in the regeneration of his grace, when you are born again, regenerated by his grace, born of the seed of Christ. It's not done by the works of the flesh under the law. And so Paul says, we are the circumcision, loved of God, loved of God so that he would would save us by grace in the Lord Jesus Christ. Because of his love for us, he chose us and put us in Christ, sending the very best, the Lord Jesus Christ. He could send nothing greater, nothing better to save us and to do everything we needed. And it's by his grace that we are separated by the Spirit unto the gospel.

And you may sit there for years, and one day, He circumcises the heart, removes that blinding flesh, when all you heard was fleshly things, a dead letter religion, and he makes you to hear it in a blessed word, a comforting word, an understandable word, and you see Christ, and you see that Christ is all, and it comforts the heart, and it blesses the heart, unlike it's ever done. because he circumcised the heart, and he removes that veil of filthy flesh over the heart. And he reveals his people. They don't reveal themselves by their works. God reveals his people by giving them faith in the heart for the Lord Jesus Christ, and giving them a hearing ear. and rejoice to hear him, and rejoice to see him, and hunger and thirst for his righteousness. And he makes them new creatures in Christ, giving them his spirit.

And it's not that we live in sin or want to live in sin. But that rather than turn to the law to fix a thing, because all that does is provoke the flesh in us. As soon as the law said, thou shalt not covet, and I heard the law say, thou shalt not covet, I died. Sin revived, because then all I could think about is covetousness. Sin revived, and I died.

That's what Paul says, and it's true. In Christ, he gives you a groan, a sigh in the spirit. Abba, Father, save me. Have mercy upon me. Lord, forgive me of my sin. Remove these lusts from me, Lord. Take away the covetousness in my heart. He does, and he gives that cry, and he's the one that removes it. In grace, in his time, and when it comes back, You groan again, you cry again, Lord, have mercy on me. And he removes it. And he puts Christ sweetly in its place, that he becomes your all, that he becomes your desire, that he is made your need. He does that. I don't know how else to explain it, but he does it.

Trying to make it doesn't make it work. he gives it as it pleases him. Now, Paul, to this thing about circumcision, says in Romans 2, 28 and 29, he says, for he is not a Jew which is one outwardly. Neither is that circumcision which is outward in the flesh.

And we could say, just because the self-righteous puts on a good show, and looks perfect. He's got his black suit on or whatever it is. He's got the right clothes on. He's got the right look. That doesn't mean anything. That's not one who looks at the part outwardly. 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." Others may not see what God sees. They rarely ever do. But the Lord knows.

And you could see someone that you think is weak, if a brother at all, but if they're Christ's, they're near and dear and precious to the Father, precious to Him. And therefore, remember that. Don't despise them. Be gracious, be kind, and bless them because they're the Lord's. Then again from Colossians 2, 11, in whom also ye are circumcised with the circumcision made without hands in putting off the body of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ.

And so that's what we need. That's what we desire. Lord, I need you to do this. I would imagine every one of us, at some point, and probably many times we repeated it, have set our focus to fix something in ourselves, only to fail, repeatedly. But when the Lord breaks you, when you're worn down and humbled, that's when you're crying out, Lord, have mercy on me. Lord, save me. Lord, keep me. Lord, help me.

I can't do it. And you beat yourself up and you think yourself not a believer, not a Christian, because you're not seeing the fruit as you think that you should see it. But that's right where the Lord puts his people, needy and dependent on Jesus Christ. That's why he gave them, because you and I can't do it.

We mutilate the flesh. We wreck ourselves. We cut ourselves up and mutilate ourselves and mutilate others. All the while, the one who saves and blesses his people and heals his people and reaches to the heart is the Lord Jesus Christ. Because we can't do it ourselves. And so he circumcises the heart. How? He crucified this old man of flesh with him on the cross. and he shed his blood, and that blood is applied to the heart and to the conscience.

He removes the enmity that's in us by nature. He removes the sin, the pollution of sin, the filth of the flesh, so that we are made alive, that we are made to know our sin, made to know our need, and given that cry of faith, like a newborn child just born begins to cry, and we cry, Abba, Father, save me. And so he's the author and the finisher of this work in us. He's the beginning and the end. He's the first and the last. He's everything to the believer.

Now turn over to Ephesians 2. Ephesians 2, verse 11, sorry, verse 10, let's begin there. Paul writes, we are his workmanship. We're not workers on ourselves. We're his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works which God hath before ordained. He chose these things out. He predestinated these things that we should walk in them. so that he's the one making all the difference in his people. He's the one that conforms us to Christ. He's the one that gives us that obedience to the command, which is faith that looks to the Lord Jesus Christ and is taught to love your brethren as Christ has loved you.

Wherefore, remember, verse 11, that ye being in time past Gentiles in the flesh who are called uncircumcision, meaning that left to ourselves in nature, we are nothing but idolaters and false worshipers of God, every one of us by nature, that's what we are. That is the nature, it's uncircumcision, we are dead in trespasses and sins. And you're called that by that which is called the circumcision in the flesh made with hands, and that speaks to the Jews.

And to all those who trust in the flesh, they call you an unclean thing. You are uncircumcised. You're an unclean, filthy idolater who knows nothing of God. Nothing of God. You're polluted. You're ruined. Well, at that time, ye uncircumcised ones were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world.

But now. In Christ Jesus, ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ. Who did that? Who brought you near to God? You? Your works? Your pastor? No, we didn't do anything. We're the passive, happy recipients of God's grace. The blood of Christ is what brought you near. That's where your boast is, Christ. Christ is on everything for me. All the difference is found in the Lord Jesus Christ.

But so long as a man thinks of himself more highly than he ought to think, he never embraces Christ. He never needs the fullness of Christ, a part of him. Just to hear his name slapped on like a label is good enough, but that's not salvation. It's all of Christ, or you're none of his. Christ is all or is nothing at all to you.

So we are the circumcision, and Paul adds, which worship God in the spirit and rejoice in Christ Jesus. So, our Lord has saved us to worship God according to His salvation provided freely, abundantly, graciously in the Lord Jesus Christ so that we are born again, new creatures, old things, the old way of coming to God when we didn't know, with the things of religion, And the self-mourning and the self-harm and just beating ourselves and trying to work up a feeling or sense of salvation or the appearance of it, those things are gone.

They're old. It's not salvation. It's just a show. It's just a form. But when the Lord comes, all things are new. Now you're not trying. You're just coming as a needy sinner. needy sinner who rejoices in the grace of God in Christ. And you rejoice in what Christ has been made unto you. When our Lord, turn over to John 4, John chapter 4, when our Lord spake to the woman at the well, you could see she's a creature of flesh. She's looking to fleshly things. She's talking about the differences in the flesh.

Well, we do it this way and you do it that way. She says in John 4, down in verse 20, our fathers worshiped in this mountain. And ye, you Jews, you of the circumcision, say that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship. She's just hearing a word only. She's just looking at the external things there, at the outward form of religion. She's saying, you do it that way, but our elders, our leaders, they tell us to do it this way. These are our customs, and these are our traditions. Well, it sounds just like modern day religion.

That's what people are fighting over, these little things that aren't even biblical, most of them. Most of the things aren't even biblical. Jesus saith unto her, Woman, believe me, the hour cometh when ye shall neither in this mountain nor yet at Jerusalem worship the Father. We're going to stop looking to traditions and customs and works of men in our own flesh, which is only focused on outward conformity to things. Ye worship, ye know not. You guys are clueless. You're just in the flesh. Sorry, the nature, natural flesh there. You're just in nature's light there, which is darkness. And we know what we worship for salvation is of the Jews, right? He's speaking of the law. The law was given to the Jews and the prophets and the oracles and that understanding there. They had the temple. and these things, which was to look to the coming of Christ, the promised seed.

But the hour cometh, he says, and now is, when the true worshipers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth. For the Father seeketh such to worship him. God is a spirit. and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth." And so, for one thing, it speaks to our regeneration by the Spirit of God, our being raised up from spiritual death, that circumcision of the heart that removes the veil of flesh, that stops looking to what I'm doing and not doing, and looks to Christ. That's a spiritual work that is brought in you. and you rejoice in the truth.

What is the truth? Christ. Christ is all. He is the very truth of God spoken into our hearts, dwelling in our hearts by faith, Through grace, it's a spiritual operation of God. It's a spiritual work that you and I cannot counterfeit, cannot produce, cannot make. If Christ is in your heart, if he's all your righteousness, if he's your hope, God has put him there. God has given you that. And he keeps you ever looking to him. That's how the scriptures speak of him, how we worship him in spirit, which worship God in the spirit and rejoice in Christ Jesus. What he's saying there is you worship God in spirit and in truth, because Jesus Christ is the very truth of God, by whom we live and have life and have fellowship with the true and living God.

John 1.14 says, and the word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth."

Christ is the truth of God. He is salvation. In spite of what the flesh thinks, in spite of what the flesh, your eyes tell you, Christ is the very truth of God. Apart from him, there is no life, there is no inheritance, there is no salvation. apart from Christ. For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ."

And so the spirit we need is given to us and truth is coming to God to worship God Christ that's truth. That's coming to God in truth. I'm a sinner Lord because you're confessing you believed in Christ and you're coming in Christ You're confessing to God Lord of a sinner Lord.

I'm not righteous Lord. I'm unclean Lord. I'm filthy Lord. I failed and I'm not gonna be able to fix it. I can't change it I'm a ruined leprous sinner Save me mercifully graciously by Christ And you that believe that, that's coming to God in truth. You're owning what you are. And you're saying, I need every bit of your salvation that you've provided, the Lord Jesus Christ. That's worshiping him right.

And then closing, he says, we have no confidence in our fleshly works. We have no confidence in this flesh. We see what we are. We see what liars we are, what despisers we are, how we're hypocrites by nature. We see it all. It's exposed there. The light's on it. I can't not see it. I have no hope in this flesh. I have no confidence in this flesh.

All our confidence is fixed in Christ, who promised, I'll never leave you. I'll never forsake you. You won't stand before my throne alone. You'll stand in my righteousness, covered in my blood. You'll be received of the Father in me, in me. And that's our hope. That's all our hope and all our confidence. If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature. Old things are passed away. Behold, all things are become new.

And so trust him. Let the peace of God rule in your hearts. You can't fix yourself. You can't fix your brethren. Keep looking to Christ, believe on Him whom the Father hath sent, and thou shalt be saved. And then go, as Christ has loved you, and showed you this, and been gracious to you, and kind to you, and compassionate to you, go and do the same to others. Trusting Him, that as He's revealed Christ in your heart, He'll reveal Christ in their heart too. And you walk in that truth.

Beware of dogs. Beware of evil workers. Beware of the concision. For we are the circumcision. Don't be turned from Christ. Don't look back to the law. It's gonna do you no good. It'll only mutilate your flesh. We are the circumcision which worship God in spirit, in the spirit, and rejoice in Christ Jesus, the truth of God, and have no confidence in the flesh. I pray that's a a help to us, but a rejoicing to us in Christ only. Amen.