What is Safe Preaching? (Part 1 of 2)

Q: What does the Bible say about safe preaching?

Safe preaching is the declaration of the finished work of Christ, ensuring the soul's safety by emphasizing righteousness through faith alone. The Bible emphasizes that safe preaching centers on the core truth of the finished work of Christ and our righteousness through Him alone. In Philippians 3:1-2, Paul asserts that it is safe to reiterate the gospel truths and warn against those who introduce legalism or promote works as part of salvation. Safe preaching does not always mean comfortable preaching; rather, it safeguards believers by affirming their standing before God solely based on Christ's redemptive work. It calls for discernment against those who distort the gospel through human merit or legalistic demands.

Q: How do we know that righteousness is through faith alone?

The Bible teaches that righteousness comes through faith in Christ alone, validating it through scriptures such as Ephesians 2:8-9. Righteousness through faith alone is a core tenet of the gospel, articulated in scriptures that emphasize grace as the means of salvation. Ephesians 2:8-9 clearly states, 'For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.' This teaching underscores the sufficiency of Christ's sacrifice and the futility of self-righteous works. When Paul warns against relying on human merit in Philippians 3, it serves to reinforce this truth, reminding us that any attempt to add to Christ's work undermines the gospel itself.

Q: Why is warning against false teachers important for Christians?

Warning against false teachers protects believers from distractions that can undermine their faith in Christ's sufficiency. Paul's exhortation in Philippians 3:2 to 'beware of dogs' and 'beware of evil workers' is vital for Christians because it serves as a protective measure against those who distort the gospel. These false teachers often add to Christ's finished work or promote legalism, which can lead believers away from the truth of salvation by grace alone. Recognizing and understanding these dangers help believers remain focused on Christ as their only source of righteousness and lead them to mature in their faith. By adhering to sound doctrine, Christians can safeguard their faith and ensure they are not swayed by teachings that diminish the gospel's power.

Q: What does the concision refer to in Philippians 3?

The concision refers to those who mutilate the gospel by insisting that works, like circumcision, are necessary for salvation. In Philippians 3:2, Paul warns against the 'concision,' which is a term used to describe those who promote legalism, particularly through the act of circumcision as a requirement for salvation. This group distorts the simplicity of the gospel by teaching that faith in Christ is not sufficient on its own. Their approach undermines the finished work of Christ by arguing that believers must also partake in certain religious rituals to gain favor with God. This warning highlights the importance of relying on Christ alone for salvation and reinforces the truth that adding any work to the gospel is a dangerous distortion that can lead believers astray.

We're going to be in the book of Philippians in the third chapter. Philippians chapter three. Philippians chapter three. I said this the first hour, but it's important that I say this again. The wording that Paul gives us to begin this particular chapter indicates that he has written to the church of Philippi at least on one other occasion, for he says, to write these things again unto you is not grievous unto me, but for you it is safe.

This portion of the letter, he gives us three particular warnings. And that's what I want to look at this morning, those three particular warnings. And I have, by the Lord's grace, he's given me two messages out of the first four verses. This morning, we're going to look at the first three verses. I'm sorry, this morning, we're going to look at the one and two primarily. And then next Sunday, we're going to look at three. So I've titled the message, What is Safe Preaching? He said, he said, For me to write the same things unto you is not grievous for me, but for you it is safe.

What is safe preaching? What is safe preaching? Since the work of the cross is a finished work and since our righteousness is completely through and by Christ alone, then all the definitions and warnings here are made to believe, make us to believe that there were some that were sowing discord in certain manners and they were going away from what is safe preaching. And you already know the answer, what safe preaching is, but my job to declare it anyways.

Paul saying that it's safe doesn't mean that it's easy. Saying that it's safe doesn't mean that it's not the best news ever. Saying that it's safe doesn't mean that it's something new or something that make you feel good. It just means that it's safe for the soul. Safe for the soul.

We are being warned about people here who are trying to get Philippi, to seek human merits as righteousness, which we know is utter foolishness, utter foolishness, to seek human merits as your righteousness, as my righteousness, that's utter foolishness.

And Paul's correcting that mentality, that ideology with these particular warnings. Let's read this together. Just the first two verses, Philippians chapter three, verse one and two. Finally, my brethren rejoice in the Lord to write the same things unto you. To me, it is not grievous, but for you, it is safe. Beware of dogs. Number one, beware of evil workers. Number two, and beware of the concision. Beware of dogs. Beware of evil workers, beware of the concision.

So we're going to title this, What is Preaching, Part One. Next Sunday, we're going to look at verse three, Lord willing, which is the exact opposite. But what I hope to do in looking at these negatives is actually discuss specifically the opposites of these negatives as well. And I pray that the Lord would allow us to see his gospel in all of this and rejoice in his finished work. That's my hope this morning.

Here's described what is not That might have been a better way of putting it. Today we're going to look at what is not safe preaching. Next Sunday we're going to look at what is safe preaching. So it's part one and two. Beware of dogs, beware of evil workers, and beware of the concision. Brethren, this is the original three sins. You say, I thought there were only one. Yeah, but they had three parts.

In the garden, if you remember carefully, when Eve was tempted of the serpent, what did she say in her heart? What does the scripture says that she felt and thought in her heart right before she took it? When she saw that the fruit was pleasing to the eye, that it was to make one wise, And I'll turn over there to Genesis chapter two. So I don't, should have wrote it down.

Chapter three, I'm sorry. This is Satan speaking to her, chapter three, verse five. let's read verse 4, And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die, for God doth know that the day that thou eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods. Now first thing I'm going to point out is that word God and that word gods are the exact same word in the Hebrew language. The translator just made it lower case just so you know.

Knowing good and evil. And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, that was the one I missed, the tree was good for food it was pleasant to the eyes and a tree to be desired to make one wise. She took the fruit thereof and did eat and gave to her husband with her and he did eat." That's the first sin that has three parts. What is the three parts? Power, popularity, and pleasure. Paul defines it as the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye, and the pride of life.

When Satan tempted our Lord upon after he was fasting 40 days and 40 nights, I would remind you, Lord came down, he was hungry. He was a man. Don't ever forget that. He was the God man, 100% man, 100% God, but he was actually hungry. And because he was hungry, Satan knew that. He said, if you be who you say you are, you be the son of God, command these stones that they be made bread.

Now, what temptation is that? Pleasure. Pleasure, something you could put in your mouth, pleasure. Well, that didn't work. The Lord said, get behind me, Satan. The Lord quoted to him, thou shalt not eat bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God. Well, the devil didn't like that, took him up on a mountaintop, didn't he? He said, all right, well, you see all, or took him up on a rooftop, rather, and said, okay, cast down yourself and command the angels to come get you. Now, what is that? Command. It's power. It's power. And you know, the Lord rebuked him as well. Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God. What was the last thing he did? Took him up on a mountain. And he said, if you bow down and worship me, I'll give you all that you see. All the people. What is that? That's popularity. And he said, thou shalt worship nor the God, but the Lord.

And so Satan left him. It's the three, every sin can be broken down to those three particular issues, power, popularity, and pleasure. And in our text, Beware of dogs, beware of evil workers, and beware of concision comes to those three things as well. And I hope the Lord will allow us to enter into it this morning.

And I don't take too long because that's a lot in this. We see that Paul doesn't say, They which do these things are brethren and have merely lost their way and pray for them and they need to be restored. No, he says, beware of them. Beware of them. count them as brethren because they are not looking to Christ as all their righteousness." Now that brings up an interesting topic because so many people say, well you're not supposed to judge people.

I didn't say that we did. I simply just said if the confession of an individual is not 100% the Gospel. If their confession is not Christ is all in salvation. That Christ only died for His people. The Lord only redeemed His people and regenerates His people. If they add to or take away from that they are We're not supposed to consider them a brother. They're not confused. They just haven't heard the truth.

You pray for them, sure. But beware, beware, because they're adding something to the finished work of Christ. And that's going to cause you to get distracted. That's going to cause me to get distracted. That's the message here. This is what he's warning them about. He's saying, beware. Beware of dogs. Beware of evil workers. Beware of the concision. And we don't stand over them and judge the look down upon them. And no, that's not our job, but we definitely don't go around saying, well, that's my brother.

You know, he goes over to there, that free will Baptist church down the street. He's just confused. You know, no, God has never left some, not one sheep in a goat barn, not one time. God will get his sheep out of the goat barns and bring them to a believing church that preaches the gospel.

So we don't look down on them, we just have compassion upon them, but beware, beware of them, that's the warning. So let's look at these three negatives this week and we'll look at the three positives next week, if the Lord be our helper. First, beware of dogs. The definition of dogs in this particular text is an insulting term for Judaizers, especially the legalistic. It's an insulting term for legalistic, legalism. What is legalism? It's works. It's works. The dog is the ones, the dogs here demanded physical circumcision. And I'm gonna just read this to as the metaphor of dog highlights those who are spiritually unclean, predatory, and outside the true faith.

They have no need of the feast of the lamb of God alone. So in other words, they're not even saying Christ is all in salvation. They're saying, yeah, that's part of it, but you have to be circumcised. Do you see that? They're discrediting the cross. They're discrediting the blood. They're discrediting the work of God. They're saying, yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, that's important, but you've got to be circumcised. That's the most important. And so they're just completely discrediting it. That's what he's saying. Beware of dogs. Those that say, yeah, that's important.

But what's really important is, are you living a good Christian life? Are you doing this? Because it doesn't come across anymore as circumcision. I mean, I'm sure there's some churches that probably still have that mentality that you have to be circumcised. But that's normally not the issue in this day and age. This day and age, most of the time, the issue is, is how are you living your life? Are you doing the same things that you used to do, or are you doing better? And what men do is they make that their righteousness, and it detracts, takes away from, and completely eliminates the finished work of the cross for them. They're saying, no, I did this, so I'm offering myself to God in the place of Christ.

That's a dog. That's a dog. Beware of dogs. Now, you've heard me say, the best way I can put this, forgot to mention this, they are the dogs that Peter talks about that return to their vomit. They're going back to works. They may have heard something, but they return back to their works. as part of their salvation. That's a dog. Now, you've heard me say dead dog sinners many times, that the Lord only saves dead dog sinners. There's a couple of verses where the Lord, we see in scripture, He uses the word dead dog.

One of them was Mephibosheth. When Mephibosheth came before David, David said, fear not for surely I will show thee kindness for Jonathan, thy father's sake. He said, what is that servant that thou shouldest look upon such a dead dog as I am? And we can relate to that as the Lord's people. We can relate that we're impotent, we're lame on both feet, that we had no hope of getting to the king because we were the enemy of the king, just like Mephibosheth, and our only hope is mercy, and yet the Lord shows us mercy, so we say, Lord, have mercy upon me, the dead dog sinner.

I'm not talking about that kind of dog. These dogs that I'm talking about are the kind that are adding to the finished work of Christ. No, the Lord saves dead dog sinners. Matter of fact, that's the only, the only dogs that he saves is dead dog sinners.

Remember whenever the Seraphim woman came to the Lord and said, Lord, help me, my daughter's gonna die. And he said to her, I come not but to the lost house of Israel. And she said, he said, it's not meat to take the children's bread and give it unto dogs. And she said, truth, Lord, but the dogs desire the crumbs that fall from the master's table. She said, "'Truth, Lord, I am a dead dog, but I need your crumbs.'" We can relate to that, can't we? That's not what he's talking about here. He's saying beware of those that add to the finished work of Christ.

These are they, these dogs are the ones found in Revelation 25, 15 where it says, "'For without are dogs and sorcerers and whoremongers and murderers and idolaters and whosoever loveth and maketh a lie.'" Boy, it's not a category I ever want to find myself in, is it you? That's a scary category. Simply put, they love the lie. They love the lie. You can be Cain and God will be accepted of you. That's what a dog is.

That's what he's warning them of right here. You can bring the works of your hands, that circumcision that you did, and God will be pleased with you because Christ did half of it and you did the other half. I mean, that's really what it comes down to. So basically Christ did nothing. That's what they're saying in their actions and deeds. And it's not true. Salvation's by grace alone. That's not by what we do. It's not by what we've done or what we don't do. These dogs would rather have the dead carcasses of false religion, and that's all false religion can produce, is dead carcasses.

Like a reminder of a buzzard. Boy, they'll eat anything, won't they? You remember in Noah's time, whenever Noah sent out the raven? The raven didn't come back. Do you know why? It was perfectly content eating the dead bodies floating around. Think about that. It was perfectly content. He sent the dove out, though, and what'd the dove do? Came right back. Said, nope, there's nothing out here for me. No, I've got to have the olive branch.

I've got to have, it's a picture of false religion versus needing the peace of God, needing the spirit of God, needing the rest of Christ. I mean, it's a perfect picture. And these dogs are they that would just eat the dead carcasses of work religion, then need the eternal life found only in the lamb of God, only found in the person work of Christ. If I look to my works and not the finished work of Christ, that means I'm a dog. A false religious dog.

Means I believe and have the power to save myself. I have the power. What was one of those three power popularity and pleasure. I have the power. But if Christ is my righteousness. If my righteousness is in Christ alone, if I have been made to see that there is nothing I can do to produce righteousness, nothing I can do that's good in the sight of God, nothing but sin that I can produce. And even if I try to produce something good, that's called iniquity. If I can see that by God's grace, I'm not a dog. I'm a dead dog sinner that needs a savior.

I said this briefly before, but I want just to make sure I clarify this abundantly. Don't be deceived about what they're saying about physical circumcision. As I said, that's not really what's the issue today. It's really not the issue. And I'm not picking on anybody in particular, but they say you have, I won't even say it. I'll just say this. You have to do this. You fill in the blank. You fill in the blank, whatever it is. You have to know, I had a guy message me, you have to know this first.

He said, you have to know all of the doctrines of grace before you can know Christ. And I thought, Christ is the doctrines of grace. You know him, he'll teach you. He's everything in salvation. No, we don't go to the law to please God. That's part of our salvation.

We've not, you know, I liked what he said in Ephesians chapter four, but you have not so learned Christ. You have not so learned Christ. God's elect have renounced all works for righteousness. We've been made to look to the righteousness of Christ alone, begging for his righteousness alone.

And you know why we do that? There's one word, grace. Grace, not by choice. Anybody wake up one morning and say, you know, I think today I'm going to seek the righteousness of Christ for the very first time. Didn't happen. No, no. The Lord said, seek you my face. And I said, and to my Lord, thy face shall I seek, O God. That's what David said.

Beware of dogs. Beware of those that would add to the finished work of Christ. Second of all, beware of evil workers. Look at verse two, beware of dogs, beware of evil You know who they are by definition? They that justify their sin. They that justify their, now this is a scary one. They that justify their sin. Have you ever heard someone say that believes or claims to believe the truth of the Lord and yet they justify their sin by saying, well, I'm just a sinner.

Remember that before? I realized that I did that, but I'm just a sinner. How about this one? Well, if I did that, it was God's will for me to do that. You ever heard that one before? Think about how scary that is. That's what he's referring to here. They're evil workers.

What they're saying is, okay, I've believed in the cross of Christ, I believe in the blood of Christ, and I've been circumcised, I've got a free pass. I can do what I want to, say what I want to, go where I want to go. You know what the believer says?

Boy, I wish I could do that. I wish I could look to Christ all the time and honor and reverence and never sin another day. I wish I could be just like him and keep my eyes upon the father at all times and never, never doubt, never have fear, never have worry, never have concern.

And yet we find ourself doing the exact opposite. Just like Paul said, no point where you hear a believer say, well, I'm just a sinner. That's what happens. If any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ, the righteous. Does that, that pricks my heart. It doesn't make me want to sin more. It doesn't give me a license to sin. It makes me want to not sin.

The evil worker is one that denies God indeed intentionally. They work evil and justify themselves by literally blaming God. Well, God made me do it. You ever heard someone say the devil made me do it? I've heard that one before. false religion people say, well you know if it is hyper-Calvinist in particular they will say that. Well if it is going to happen it is going to happen, you know nothing I can do about it.

No brethren that is not what we are taught of the Lord, we are taught to seek His face aren't we? We are taught to the lot falls in the lap but the whole disposing is of the Lord. Whatever thy hand finds to do, do it with all thy might unto the Lord. Whether therefore you eat or drink or whatsoever you do do all to the glory of God. We are taught We're not taught to sit idle like the Galatians did.

That was their problem. Like, well, the Lord's coming back. Let's quit our jobs and, well, let's all come together and have a good time until the Lord comes back. No. No, we have to work. We have to provide. You know these things. But the next step that's even worse, if we are to be anti-law, I mean, lawless, that's what that is.

I can do whatever I want to. I'm under grace. Well, the Lord said some things about that. Because these evil workers are saying, well, I've been circumcised, so I'm good. Yeah, Christ died. I believe I'm elect and I've been circumcised. I'm good. I can do what I want to. Christ had, Lord had some things to say about this.

Turn to Romans chapter six. I just wanna read the first four verses, just for the simplicity of it. Very simply put, what shall we say then? I'll tell you what, let's read verse 21. That as sin hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord. So, grace is now reigning, is what he's saying. What shall we say then, verse one? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? God forbid. God forbid. How shall we that are dead to sin live any longer therein?

Know ye not that as so many of us as were baptized unto Jesus Christ were baptized unto His death? Therefore we are buried with Him by baptism into death, that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in the newness of life."

What does it mean to walk in the newness of life? Well it definitely doesn't mean live a frivolous, lawless life like these were saying. The newness of life is how God's elect live. It's looking to Christ in all things. That's walking in the newness of life.

Looking to Christ in all things as all of our righteousness. Looking to Christ in all things as all of our wisdom, sanctification, and redemption. Looking to Christ in all things. Pertaining to God and Godliness. Realizing I can't produce anything God required. That's walking in the newness of life. We look to him by faith bestowed.

We don't justify sin. We know full well that that's all we are, but we don't justify it. Have mercy on me, the sinner. Have mercy on me, the sinner. Oh, to grace, how great a debtor daily I'm constrained to be. Lord, if you don't have mercy and show me grace, I'm lost. I'm gonna remain lost.

We don't justify our sin, do we, brethren? We seek to honor our Lord. We seek to look to Christ, knowing our sin is why he had to die. Our sin is why he had to die. We are made to loathe ourself, not love ourself, not seek after pleasure, as the world does in that regard. Go back to Philippians 3. Finally, my brethren, rejoice in the Lord. To write the same thing to you, to me indeed, is not grievous, but for you it is safe. 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.

There you go. That's it right there, isn't it? I have no confidence in this flesh. Paul said, that which I would do, I do not, but that which I would do, that which I would not do, that's what I find myself doing every single time. I just keep doing it over and over and over. Oh, wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from this body of death? Did that sound like Paul was justifying himself? No, no. You won't read one of God's sheep in this scripture. Justifying themselves. But you know what you will read?

Every one of them will say, Lord, have mercy on me, the sinner. Lord, save me and I'll be saved. Lord, wash me, I'll be made clean. Lord, you're gonna have to do it all. You're gonna have to do it all. The Lord's given us repentance and faith. We don't justify ourself. We look to Christ who is our justification. We look to Christ who is our justification.

Lord, don't leave me to myself. Do you ever pray that prayer? That's more than once a day for me. Lord, don't leave me to myself. Keep me. Save me. Somebody said, well, I've already been saved. Yeah, I need to be saved again. Why? I need to be saved for myself right now. Lord, don't save me for myself. My mind's gonna wander. Do you feel that? That's right. I need to be saved for myself.

I need to be saved from the world. I need to be saved from Satan. Keep saving me, Lord, till the very last breath that I take. Save me. And then show me that I've always been saved in Christ whenever I awaken your likeness. Isn't that the prayer? Lord, keep me, cause me, make me. Can you say that?

First, safe preaching is not like the dogs who discredited the blood of Christ by saying, yeah, that's important, but you also have to be circumcised. And it's not the evil workers who say, yeah, yeah, the blood of Christ is important, circumcision is important, I've already marked both of them down so I can do whatever I want to. That's pleasure. So you got popularity and you got pleasure.

Well, that leaves one. Beware of the concision. That word concision means cutting away, or to mutilate, literally and figuratively, to cut away, to mutilate. These are the concision were mutilating the gospel by cutting the flesh. They were mutilating the gospel by cutting the flesh. They were the ones, uh, The first ones were making the work of Christ effectual because they had to have circumcision, so they had the power.

The second ones were doing whatever they want to, so they had the pleasure. These guys, they had a popularity contest going. They said, oh yeah, Christ is all. Christ is all. Christ is all. By the way, are you circumcised? Because if you're not, You're not one of the elect. And it was, it could be subtle. It wouldn't have been as in your face as some of the other ones would have been probably, but they were doing popularity. They were doing popularity, there's no doubt. And yeah, you, oh, you say you're a believer. Well, do you do this or do you do that? Oh, I don't do that. I don't do that. No, you're not in the club. That's how, you ever been around anybody like that before?

That's the concision, then that's the mutilating of the gospel. It's literally saying, you have to be circumcised to be saved, period. Christ is all in salvation, but you have to be circumcised to be saved. Well, Christ is not all in salvation then, that's not complicated. And yet some were trying to follow after that, or Paul would not have said, beware of this, beware of this. Much like the first two that's mentioned, they mutilated the simplicity of God's gospel, the salvation of the Lord, that's all in Christ and all by his grace. They were changing it. The difference was, is these individuals actually said they needed the gospel. We need the gospel. Oh yeah, we need it. Yeah, we need it. We need the truth. We need the blood. We need Christ.

By the way, are you circumcised? It's so subtle. It's so subtle. And there's churches everywhere doing the same thing. I don't know what examples to give you exactly, but you know it's true. You know it's true. Have you prayed your prayer? Did you shake the preacher's hand? Did you do this? It's subtle. Have you memorized this? The bylaws, the catechism? Have you done this? Have you done this? Christ is all in salvation. Rest, Christ is all in salvation and beware of the concision. Beware of those. Beware of those that would mutilate the gospel of Christ. for popularity, for popularity.

God's elect, brethren, we have been made to rest in the hope that God from the beginning chose us into eternal life. That Christ from the beginning chose to redeem us back to himself. That the spirit from the beginning was purposed to come in the fullness of time and resurrect us from this dead corpse that we are, give us life eternal that's only found in the Lord Jesus Christ with the preaching of the gospel. We are determined to know nothing save Jesus Christ and Him crucified. Christ is all in salvation and He completed the work given to Him by His Father. Everything required, as we said the first hour, He provided in His Son. He's not looking to you and I for anything else. Not one thing. Not one thing. Everything required.

Christ satisfied the Father. The Lord cannot lie, first I'll say that. And the Lord said, this is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased. He didn't say I'm going to be pleased. He says I am well pleased. He didn't say I was well pleased. He says I am pleased.

That's continual. He's always going to be pleased with the substitute surety of God's elect, always. When this man by himself had purged our sin, he sat down. If he purged them and they're gone, what else would I need to do to make that effectual? It's already effectual. It's already effective. It's already done what it's supposed to do.

There's nothing I can do to add to it. There's nothing to add to it. The only thing I'd be doing is taking away from it. The Lord calls that iniquity. took our place, gave us his righteousness. This is how salvation is accomplished, by God alone, not by what we do, not by a work that we work, a prayer that we pray. I said this first hour, and I wanna say this again, because the Lord gave me this before service, and what a blessing this is. If I'm in Christ, I gotta preface it this way, if I'm in Christ, Now maybe some of these thought, okay, well we have to do this because we want to make sure God recognizes us and we fix the rest of it. No, there's nothing else to be fixed, Christ is all. If I'm in Christ, the question is, how many sins of your own can you count? How many sins of your own can you count? Can you count every one of them?

He can't count any if I'm in Christ, they're gone. How many times have you failed him? How many times have you failed him? You say, I don't know. I can't count. I can't count them. Neither can he. But it's not the same, because it means he can't count them because they're gone.

All those failures are gone. How many times have I doubted him? All that doubt, he can't see doubt. All he sees is perfect obedience. Why? Because Christ is our substitute. Now, what are we gonna add to that? What is there to add to that? Christ is all in salvation. Christ is all in salvation. How many times have I been unfaithful? You know, all he sees his people as is perfectly faithful in everything, perfectly obedient, perfectly righteous.

In closing, Our summary is this, the dogs seek power. They didn't necessarily need the sacrifice of Christ alone. They had the power to make it effectual by their circumcision. Secondly, the evil workers seek pleasure. They said that they had Christ. They had been circumcised, so they can go do whatever they want to do, live however they want to live, whatever frivolous lifestyle they want to live because they're under grace. God forbid that's evil workers.

Lastly, the concision seat popularity. They said, we need Christ's work, but are you circumcised? It's important. If you're not circumcised, you're not one of the elect. Oh no, we need the work of Christ. Christ is all, but if you're not circumcised, there's no way you could be one of the elect. That's the concision. That's confusion, isn't it? It's concision. Ephesians chapter four says, but you have not so learned Christ, if be that Christ be in you.

God's people are taught that salvation is all of the Lord. Christ is all in salvation, and salvation's all by grace. For by grace are you saved through faith, and that not of yourself, it is the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. Not of works, not of works, not of works. Can you say amen to that? Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you for your gospel, your truth. Thank you for your warnings. Thank you for your protection, your keeping. Thank you for your saving. Cause us to ponder upon these things and bless your word to understanding for your glory in Christ's name, amen.

What is Safe Preaching? (Part 1 of 2)

Key Quotes

What does the Bible say about safe preaching?

How do we know that righteousness is through faith alone?

Why is warning against false teachers important for Christians?

What does the concision refer to in Philippians 3?

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What is Safe Preaching? (Part 1 of 2)

Key Quotes

What does the Bible say about safe preaching?

How do we know that righteousness is through faith alone?

Why is warning against false teachers important for Christians?

What does the concision refer to in Philippians 3?

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